Nov. 16. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



407 



Thomas autem, capta occaslonc, oculos in monstrum 

 obfirraat, signumque crucis inagneticum in modum 

 indesinenter ducere aggiedltur. En portentiim in- 

 auditum ! geminis bellua^ luminibus illico palpebrse 

 obdueuntur ; titubat taurus, cadit, ac, signo magnetico 

 sopitus, prlmcj raucum stcrtens, niox infantiliter pla- 

 cidum trahens halitum, humi proiius recumbit. Nee 

 inoratus donee hostis iste cornutus somnum excuteret, 

 vir sanctus ad hospitiuni se propinquum l^etus inde 

 incolumisque recepit." 



EuSTlCUS. 



"Her Brow icasfairV — Can any of your many 

 readers inlbrni me of the author of the following 

 lines, which I copy as I found them quoted in 

 t)r. Armstrong's Lectures : 



" Her brow was fair, but very pale. 



And looked like stainless marble ; a touch inethought 



would soil 

 Its whiteness. On her temple, one blue vein 

 J-ian like a tendril ; one through her shadowy hand 

 Branched like the fibre of a leaf away." 



J. M. B. 



Hoods worn hi/ Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen. 

 — Will you allow me to inquire, through the pages 

 of your publication, of wiiat colour and material 

 the exterior and lining of hoods were composed 

 which Doctors in Divinity, who had graduated at 

 Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, prior to 

 the Reformation, were accustomed to wear ? I 

 imagine, the same as those worn by Doctors who 

 had graduated at Paris : but what hoods they wore 

 I know not. I trust that some of your corre- 

 spondents will enlighten me upon this subject. 



LL.D. 



Irish Brigade. — "Where can I find any account 

 of the institution and history of the Irish brigade, 

 a part of the army of France under the Bourbons? 



J.D. 



Bath. 



Doctrine of the Iimnaculate Conception. — In the 

 charge delivered by tiie Bishop of London to his 

 clergy, on the 2nd instant, the following passage 

 occurs : 



" It is not easy to say what the members of that 

 Church [the Church of Home] are required to believe 

 now; it is impossible for men to foresee what they 

 may be called u))on to admit as an article of faith next 

 year, or in any future year: for instance, till of late it 

 was open to a Roman Catholic to believe or not, as lie 

 might see reason, the fanciful notion of the immaculate 

 conception of the Blessed Virgin ; but the present 

 Bishop of Uomc lias seen fit to make it an article of 

 their faith ; and no ineinber of his cliurch c;in hence- 

 forth question it without denying the infallibility of his 

 spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding, as it is asserted, 

 his own salvation." 



Can any of your correspondents ' inform me 

 where the papal decision on this point is to be 

 found ? L. 



Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town. — Can you 

 inform me why an ancient oak tree, in a field at 

 Kentish Town, is called the " Gospel Oak Tree." 

 It is situated and grows in the field called the 

 " Gospel Oak Field," Kentish Town, St. Pancras, 

 Middlesex. Tradition says Saint Augustine, or 

 one of the ancient Fathers of the Church, preached 

 under its branches. Stephen. 



Arminian Nunnery in Huntingdonshire. — ^Vlicre 

 can I find an account of a religious academy called 

 the Ai'iniyiiati Nunneri/, founded by the family of 

 the Ferrars, at Little Gidding in Huntingdon- 

 shire ? I have seen some MS. collections of 

 Francis Peck on the subject, but they are formed 

 in a bad spirit. Has not Thomas Ilearne left us 

 something about this institution ? 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



Buding's Annotated Langhaine. — Can any of 

 your readers inform me who possesses the copy of 

 Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets 

 with JMS. additions, and copious continuations, by 

 the Rev. Rogers Ruding ? In one of his notes, 

 speaking of the Garrick collection of old plays, 

 that industrious antiquary observes ; 



" This noble collection has lately (1784) been muti- 

 lated by tearing out such single plays as were dupli- 

 cates to others in the Sloane Library. The folio 

 editions of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and 

 Jonson, have likewise been taken from it for the same 

 reason." 



This is a sad complaint against the Museum autho- 

 rities of former times. Edward F. Ruibault. 



Mrs. Tempest. — Can any of your correspondents 

 give me any account of Mrs. (or, in our present 

 style, IMiss) Tempest, a young lady who died the 

 day of the great storm in Nov., 1703, in honour of 

 whom Pope's early friend Walshe wrote an elegiac 

 pastoral, and invited Pope to give his "winter" 

 pastoral " a turn to her memory." In the note on 

 Pope's pastoral it is said that " she was of an 

 ancient family in yoi-kshire, and admired by 

 Walshe." I have elsewhere read of her as " the 

 celebrated Mrs. Tempest ;" but I know of no other 

 celebrity than tliat conferred by Walshe's pas- 

 toral ; for Pope's has no special allusion to her. 



C 



Sitting cross-legged. — In an alliterative poem on 

 Fortune (Beliquice Antiquce, ii. p. 9.), written early 

 in the fifteenth century, are the following lines : — 



" Sitte, I say, and setlie en a semeli setc, 

 Rygtii on the roundc, on the rennyng ryng; 

 Caste line over /ate, an a lii/'ir/e Itefe, 

 Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng." 



The tliird line seems to illustrate those early 

 illuminations in which kings and great personages 

 are represented as sitting cross-legged. There arc 

 numerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it 



