Not. 2. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



381 



legible, though somewhat defaced. It is engraved 

 in lines of unequal length, but to save your space 

 I have not adhered to those divisions. 



" Let posterity know, and knowing, be astonished, 

 that on the filteenth day of Septemlicr, 1784, Vincent 

 Lunardi of Lucca, in Tuscany, the first a'eiial traveller 

 in Britain, mounting from the Artillery Ground in 

 London, traversing the regions of the air for two hours 

 and fifteen minutes, in this spot revisited the earth. On 

 this rude monument for ages be recorded, that won- 

 drous enterprise, successfully achieved by the powers 

 of chemistry and the fortitude of man, that improve- 

 ment in science, which the great Author of all know- 

 ledge, patronising by His providence the inventions of 

 mankind, hath graciously permitted to their benefit 

 and His own eternal glory." 



Coll. Rotai. Soc. 



Gwyns Loiidon and Weshninster (Vol. ii., p. 

 297.). — A reference to Mr. Croker's Bosivell (last 

 edit. 1847, p. 18L) may best satisfy §N. "Gwyn," 

 says Mr. Croker, " proposed the principle, and in 

 many instances the details, of the most im])ortant 

 improvements which have been made in the me- 

 tropolis in our day." Was this copied into the 

 Literari/ Gazette ? 



Mr. Sydney Smirke speaks favourably of Gwyn's 

 favourite project, " the formation of a permanent 

 Board or Commission for superintending and 

 controlling the architectural embellishments of 

 London." {Suggestions, &c., Svo. 1834, p. 23.) 



J. H. M. 



Bath. 



GuyvUs London and Westminster (YoX. ii , 

 p. 297.).— Under this head § N. inquires, "Will 

 you permit me, through your useful publication, 

 to solicit information of tlie number and date of 

 the Literary Gazette which recalled public atten- 

 tion to this very remarkable fact : " namely, that 

 stated by Mr. Thomas Hunt, in his Exemplars of 

 Tudor Architecture (Longmans, 1 830), to the effect 

 that the Literary Gazette had reierred to the work 

 entitled London and Westminster Itnproved, by 

 John Gwynn. London, 17G6, 4to., as having 

 "pointed out almost all the designs for the im- 

 provement of London which have been devised by 

 the civil and military architects of the present 

 day." 



In answer to the above, your correspondent will 

 6n(l two articles in the Literary Gazette on this 

 interesting subject; tlie first in No. 473., Feb. 11. 

 1820, in which it is mentioned that Mr. Gwynn, 

 founding himself in some degree upon the plan of 

 Sir C Wren, ])iof)osed 



" To carry a street from Piccadilly through Coventry 

 Street, Sydney's Alley, Leicester Fields, Cranbouru 

 Alley, and so to Long Acre, Queen .Street, and Lincolns 

 Inn Fields, and thus alford an easy access to Ilolborn ; 

 he also recommends Ike widtiiiiig ike SlranU in its 

 narrow parts," &c. 



I need hardly notice that by the removal of 

 Exeter Change, the alterations near Charing 

 Cross, and the more recent openings from Coventry 

 Street, along the line suggested by Mr. Gwynn, 

 his designs have been so far carried out. 



The second paper in the Literary Gazette was 

 rather a long one, No. 532., March 31. 1827. In 

 it Mr. Grwynn's publication is analysed, and all the 

 leading particulars bearing on the " old novelties 

 of our modern improvements " are brought to 

 light. 



Tiie whole is worth your reprinting, and at your 

 service, if you will send a copyist to the Literary 

 Gazette office to inspect the volume for 1827. 



W. J., Ed. 



" Regis ad Exemplnm totus componitur Orbis " 

 (Vol. ii., p. 267.). — This hexameter verse, which 

 occurs in collections of Latin apophthegms, is not to 

 be found in this form, in any classical author. It 

 has been converted into a single proverbial verse, 

 from the following passage of Claudian : 



" Componitur orbis 

 Regis ad exemplum ; nee sic inflictere sensus 

 Humanos edicta valent, ut vita regentis." 



De IF. Consul. Honor., 299. 



L. 



St. Uncumber (Vol. ii., pp. 286. 342.).— Sir 

 Thomas More details in his JDialoge, with his usual 

 quaintness, the attributes and merits of many 

 saints, male and female, highly esteemed in his 

 day, and, amongst others, makes special mention 

 of St. Uncumber, whose proper name, it appears, 

 was Wylgefoi'te. Of these saints he says — 



" Some serve for the eye onely, and some for a sore 

 breast. St. Germayne onely for children, and yet will 

 he not ones loke at them, but if the mother bring with 

 them a white lofe and a pot of good ale ; and yet is he 

 wiser than St. Wylgeforte, for she, good soule, is, as they 

 say, served and contented with otys. Whereof I can- 

 not perceive the reason, but if it be bycause she sholde 

 provyde an horse for an evil housebonde to ride to the 

 Devyll upon ; for that is the thing that she is so sought 

 for, as they say. In so much that women hath there- 

 fore chaunged her name, and in stede of St. Wylgeforte 

 call her St. Uncitmher, hycavse they reken that for a pec/te 

 of otys she will not ftnjle to uncvmher tlieym of they r kous- 

 bomlys." — (Quoted in Soulhcy's Colloquies, vol. i. 

 p. 414.) 



St. Wylgeforte is the female saint whom the 

 Jesuit Sautel has celebrated (in his Annus Sacer 

 Poetictis) lor her beard — a mark of Divine fiivour 

 bestowed upon her in answer to her prayers. Slie 

 was a beautiful girl, who wished to lead a single 

 life, and that she might be suflered to do so free 

 from importunity, she prayed earnestly to be ren- 

 dered disagreeable to look upon, eitlier by wrinkles, 

 a hump on the back, or in any other eflieaeious 

 way. Accordingly the beard was given her ; and 

 it is satisfactory to know that it had the desired 



