410 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 55. 



being large pictures of a yard or five quarters long, 

 and on every one of their heads a crown of pure beaten 

 gold," &c. 



I have one more (too brief) notice of this famous 

 rood. It occurs in the list of rL'li(iiies preserved 

 in the Feretory of St. Cuthbert, under the care of 

 the shrine-keeper, whicli was drawn up in 1383 

 by Richard de Sedgbrok, and is as follows : 



" A black crosse, called the Black Rode of Scothnid." 

 — MS. Bunelin., B. ii. 35. 



Strange to say, Mr. Ralne, in his St. Cuthhei-t, 



fi. 108., appears to confound the cross brouglit 

 i-om Holy Hood House, and in honour of which 

 it was founded, with the Black Rood of Scotland. 

 He was misled, no doubt, by the statement in the 

 passage above extracted from the Antient Monu- 

 ments^ that this cross was brought out of Holy 

 Rood House. 



I fear that the fiict that it was formed of silver 

 and gold, gives little reason to hope that this his- 

 torical relique escaped destruction when it came 

 into the hands of King Henry's churcli robbers. 

 Its sanctity may, indeed, have induced the monks 

 to send it with some otlier reliques to a place of 

 refuge on the Continent, until the tyranny should 

 be overpast ; but there is not any tradition at 

 Durham, that I am aware of, to throw light on the 

 concluding Query of j-our correspondent P. A. F., 

 as to " what became of the 'Holy Cross,' or ' Black 

 Rood,' at the dissolution of Durham Priory?" 



That the Black Rood of Scotland, and the Cross 

 of Holy Rood House were distinct, tliere can, I 

 think, be no doubt. The cross mentioned by Aelred 

 is not mentioned as the "Black Rood :" probably 

 it acquired tliis designation after his time. But 

 Fordoun, in the Scoti-Chronicon, Lord Hailes in 

 his Annals, and other historians, have taken Aelred's 

 account as referring to the BlackRood of Scotland. 

 Whether it had been brought from Dunfermline 

 to Edinburgh before Edward's campaign, and re- 

 mained thencefortli deposited in Holy Rood Abbey, 

 docs not appear : but it is probable that a relique 

 to which the sovereigns of Scotland attached so 

 much veneration was kept at the latter phice. 



AY. S. G. 



Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nov. 2. 1S50. 



lUpItc^ ta iH 11101- diucrtc^. 



Hamony (Vol. ii., p. 88.). — Mr. Basuam will 

 find some account of this plant under the slightly 

 different type of " HC'mionion " in Pliny, xxv. 20., 

 xxvi. 25., xxvii. 17. : 



" Invenit et Teucer eadem wfate Teucrion, quam 

 quidam ' Hemionion ' vocant, spargentem juncos te- 

 nues, folia parva, asperis iocis nascentem, austero sa- 



pore, nunquam florentem : neque semen gignit. Me- 

 detiir lienibus . . . Narrantque sues qui radicem ejus 

 ederint sine splene inveniri. 



" Singultus hemionium sedat. 



" ' Aspleuon' sunt qui /ie»i!OH('on vocant folils trien- 

 talibus niultis, radice limosa, cavernosa, sicut filicis, 

 Candida, hirsula : ncc caulein, nee florera, nee .semen 

 liabet. Nascitur in petris parietibusque opacis, hu- 

 midis." 



According to Hardouin's note, p. 3777., it is the 

 Ceterach of the shops, or rather Citrach ; a great 

 favourite of the mules, ^tuiovoi, witness Theophras- 

 tus. Hist, ix. 19. 



Ray found it " on the walls about Bristol, and 

 the stones at St. Vincent's rock." He calls it 

 " Spleenwort" and "Miltwaste." Catalog. Plant. 

 p. 31. Lond. 1G77. 



I have a copy of Henri du Puy's "original" 

 Coimis, but do not recollect his noticing the plant. 



G. M. 



Guernsey. 



Bijroris Birthplace. — Can any of j'our corre- 

 spondents give anv information relative to the 

 house in which Lord Byron was born ? His bio- 

 graphers state that it was in Holies Street, but do 

 not mention the number. C. B. W. 



Edgbaston, 



[Our corre<;pondeiit will find, on referring to Mr. 

 Cunningham's Handlionk of London, that " Byron was 

 born at No. 24. Holies Street, and cliristened in the 

 small parish church of St. Marylebone,"] 



Ancient Tiles (Vol. i., p. 173.).— The device of 

 two birds perclied back to back on the twigs of a 

 branch that rises between them, is found, not on 

 tiles only, but in wood carving ; as at Exeter 

 Cathedral, on two of the JMiserercs in the choir, 

 and on the gates which separate the choir from 

 the aisles, and these again froni the nave. 



J. W. II. 



Modena Fainili/ (A''ol. ii., p. 266.). — Viclor 

 Amadeus III., King of Sardinia, died in October, 

 1796. IMnry Beatrice, Ducliess of jModena, mother 

 of the present Duke of Modena, was the daughter 

 of Victor Emmanuel V., King of Sardinia, who 

 abdicated his throne in 1821, and died 10th Ja- 

 nuary, 1824. The present Duke of Modena is the 

 direct heir of the house of Stuart in the following 

 Ime : — 



All the legitimate issue of Charles II. and 

 James II, being extinct, we fall back upon Hen- 

 rietta JIaria, youngest child of Charles I. She 

 married her cousin Philip, Duke of Orleans, 

 brother of Louis XIV., and by him had three 

 children. Two died Avithout issue : the youngest, 

 Anna INIaria, b. Aug. 1669, mar. Victor Amadeus II., 

 Duke of Savoy, and had by him three children, 

 one son and two daughters. 



The son, Charles Emmanuel III^ Duke of 



