408 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 55. 



merely an assumption of dignity, or was it not 

 rather intended to ward oil' any evil influence 

 wliic;li miglit aS'ect the king whilst sitting in his 

 state ? That this was a consideration of weight 

 we learn I'rom the passage in Bede, in which 

 Ethelbert is described as receiving Augustine ia 

 the open air : 



" Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens 

 sub divo jussit Augustinum eum sociis ad suum ibidem 

 advenire colloquium ; caverat eiiim ne in aliquam 

 domum ad se lutroirent, vetere usus augurio, ne su- 

 perventu suo, si quid malelicce artis liabuissent, eum 

 superaudo dtciperent." — Hist. Eccles., L i. c. 25. 



It was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting 

 before the door of Alcraena when she was deceived 

 by Galantlies. In Devonshire there is still a say- 

 ing which recommends " sitting cross-legged to 

 help persons on a journey ; " and it is employed 

 as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punish- 

 ment. (Ellis's Brand, iii. 258.) Were not the 

 cross-legged effigies, formerly considered to be 

 those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of 

 the mysterious virtue of the position ? 



IliciL\RD J. King. 



Ttoickenham — Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there f 

 — I believe all the authors who within the last 

 sixty years have written on the history of Twick- 

 enham, Middlesex (and among the most known of 

 these I may mention Lysons, Ironside, and John 

 Noriis Brewer), have, when mentioning Twicken- 

 ham Park, formerly the seat of Lord Bacon, stated 

 that he there entertained Queen Elizabeth. Of 

 this circumstance I find no account in the works of 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His lord- 

 ship entertained her at Gorhauibury in one of her 

 progresses ; and I would ask if it be possible that 

 Twickenham may have been mistaken for his 

 other seat of Gorhandjury ? It is well known 

 Queen Elizabetli passed much of the latter part of 

 her lite at Richmond, and ended her days there; 

 and in ^Ir. Nares' Memoirs of Lord Burghley 

 tliere is an account of her visit to Barn-Elms; and 

 tliere is also a curious description of her visit to 

 Kew (in that neighbourhood) in the Sydney Pa- 

 pers, published by Arthur Collins, in two vols, 

 folio, vol. i. p. 37fi., in a letter from Kowland 



j Whyte, Esq. Had Lord Bacon received her ma- 



I jesty, it must most probably have been in 1595. 



; But perhaps some of your readers may be able to 

 supply me with information on this subject. 



I D.N. 



I Burial towards the West. — The usiial posture of 

 j the dead is with the feet eastward, and the head 

 towards the west : the fitting attitude of men who 

 look ibr their Lord, " whose name is The East," 

 and who will come to judgiiicnt in the regions of 

 the dawn suddenly. But it was the ancient usage 

 of the Church tiiat the martyr, the bishop, the 



saint, and even the priest, should occupy in their 

 sepulture a position the reverse of the secular 

 dead, and lie down with their feet westward, and 

 their heads to tbe rising sun. The position of the 

 crozier and the cross on ancient sepulchres of the 

 clergy record and reveal this fact. The doctrine 

 suggested by such a burial was, that these mighty 

 men wliich were of old would be honoured with a 

 first resurrection, and as their Master came on 

 from the east, they were to arise and to follow the 

 Lamb as He went ; insomuch that they, with Him, 

 would advance to tlie judgment of the general 

 multitudes, — the ancients and the saints which 

 were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my 

 purpose in this statement is to elicit, if I may, 

 from your learned I'eaders illustrations of this 

 distinctive interment. li. S. Hawker. 



Morwenstow. 



Medal struck by Charles XII. — Voltaire, in his 

 Ilistoire de Charles XII., liv. 4., states that a 

 medal was struck in commemoration of a victory 

 which Charles XII. gained over the Russians, at a 

 place named Hollosin, near the Boresthenes, in 

 the year 1708. He adds that on one side of this 

 medal was the epigraph, " Sylvae, paludes, aggeres, 

 hostes victi ; " on the other the verse of Lucan : — 



" Victrices copias alium laturus in orbem." 



The verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. 1.238. : 



" Victrices aiiuilas alium laturus in orbem." 



Query, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire 

 known to exist? and if so, is the substitution of 

 the unmetrical and prosaic word copias due to the 

 author of the medal, or to Voltaire himself? L. 



National Debt. — What volumes, pamphlets, or 

 paragraj)hs can be pointed out to the writer, in 

 poetry or prose, alluding to the briberj', corrup- 

 tion, and abuses connected wiih the formation 

 of the National Debt fixjm 1698 to 1«I5 ? 



F. H. B. 



Midwives licensed. — In the articles to be in- 

 quired into in the province of Canterbury, anno 

 1571 { Grindal Rem., Park. See. 174-58), inquiry is 

 to be made 



" Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or 

 invocations, in Latin or otherwise, and namely/, mid- 

 wives m the time of women's travail of child." 



In the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being 

 licensed by the Archbishop to be a midwife, a 

 similar clause occurs|; the words, " Also, I will not 

 use any kind of sorcery or incantations in the 

 time of the travail of any woman." Can any of 

 your readers inform me what charms or prayers 

 are here referred to, and at what ])eriod midwives 

 ceased to be licensed by the Archbishop, or if any 

 traces of such license are still found in Roman 

 Catholic countries ? S. P. H. T. 



