Nov. 23. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



421 



ster Abbey, now deceased, say, that when he was a 

 choir boy, some sixty-five or seventy years since, the 

 figure of Chaucer might be made out by rubbing a 

 wet finger over it.] 



Robert Herrick (Vol. i., p. 291 ) — There is a 

 little volume entitled Selections from the Hes- 

 perides and Works of the Rev. Robert Herrick. 

 (Autient) Vicar of Dean-Prior, Devon. By the 

 late Charles Short, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A., pub- 

 lished by Murray in 18;59. I believe it was re- 

 called or suppressed, and that copies are rare. 



J. W. H. 



Epitaph of a Wine Merchant— T\\q following is 

 very beautiful, and well deserves a Note. It is 

 copied from an inscription in All Saints Church, 

 Cambridge. 



" In Obitum Mri. Johannis Hammond Oenopolae 

 Epitaphium. 

 Spiritus ascendit generosi Nectaris astra, 



Juxta Altare Calix hie jacet ecce sacrum. 

 Corporu avaaTaaei c\x fit Communia magna 

 Unio tunc fuerit Nectaris et Calicis." 



J. W. H. 



Father Blackhal. — In the Brief Narration of 

 Services done to Three noble Ladies by Gilbert 

 Blackhal (Aberdeen, Spalding Club, 1844), the 

 autobiographer states (p. 43.) that, while at Brus- 

 sels, he "provided for his necessities by saying mass 

 " at Notre Dame de bonne successe, a chajiel of 

 great devotion, so called from a statue of Our 

 Lady, which was brought from Aberdeen to 

 Ostend," &c. It may be interesting to such of 

 your readers as are acquainted with this very 

 amusing volume, to know that the statue is still 

 held in honour. A friend of mine (who had never 

 heard of Blackhal) told me, that being at Brussels 

 on the eve of the Assumption (Aug. 14), 1847, 

 he saw announcements that the Aberdeen image 

 would be carried in procession on the approaching 

 festival. He was obliged, however, to leave 

 Brussels without witnessing the exhibition. 



As to Blackhal himself, The Catholic Annual 

 Register for the present year (p. 207.) supplies 

 two facts which were not known to his editor — 

 that lie was at last principal of the Scots College 

 at Paris, and that he died July 1. 1671. J. C. K. 



The Nonjurors (Vol. ii., p. 354.). — May I take 

 the liberty of suggesting to Mr. Yeowei.l that 

 his interesting pa[ier on "The Oi-atories of the 

 Nonjurors," would have been far more valuable if 

 be had ijiven the authorities for his statements. 



J. C. R. 



Booksellem' Cat(dngnes. — Allow me to suggest 

 tlie jiropriely and utility of stating the weij^ht or 

 <M)st of postage to secoml-hand and otlu'r books. 

 It would be a great convenience to many country 

 book-buyers to know tlie entire cost, carriage- free, 



of the volumes they require, but have never seen. 



EsTE. 



Bailie Nicol Jurvie. — Lockhart, in his Life of 

 Scott, speaking of the first representation of Rob 

 Roy on the Edinburgh boards, observes — 



" The great and unrivalled attraction was the per- 

 sonification of Bailie Jarvie by Charles Mackay, who, 

 being himself a native of Glasgow, entered into the 

 minutest peculiarities of the character with high gusto, 

 and crave the west country dialect in its most racy 

 perfection." 



But in the sweetest cup of praise, there is gene- 

 rally one small drop of bitterness. The drop, in 

 honest Mackay's case, is that by calling him a 

 " native of Glasgow," and, therefore, " to the 

 manner born," he is, by implication, deprived of 

 the credit of speaking the " foreign tongue " like 

 a native. So after wearing his laurels for a quarter 

 of a century with this one withered leaf in them, 

 he has plucked it off, and by a formal affidavit 

 sworn before an Edinburgh bailie, the Glasgow 

 bailie has put it on record that he is really by 

 birth " one of the same class whom King Jamie 

 denominated a real Edinburgh Gutter-Bluid." 

 If there is something droll iu the notion of such 

 an affidavit, there is, assuredly, something to move 

 our respect in the earnestness and love of truth 

 which led the bailie to make it, and to prove hiin 

 a good honest man, as we have no doubt, " his 

 father, the deacon, was before him." Effessa. 



Camels in Gaid. — The use of camels by the 

 Franks in Gaul is more than once referred to by 

 the chroniclers. In the year 5S5, the treasures of 

 Mummolus and the friends of Gondovald were 

 carried from Bordeaux to Convennes on camels. 

 The troops of Gontran who were pursuing them — 

 " invenerunt camelos cum ingenti pondere auri atque 

 argenti, sive equos quos fessos per vias reliquerat " — 

 Greg. Turon., 1. vii. c. 35. 



And after Brunlchlld had fallen into the hands of 

 Chlotair, she was, before her death, conducted 

 through the army on a camel : — 



" Jubetque eam camelnm per omnem exercitum 

 sedentem perducere." — Fredegurius, c. 42. 



By what people were camels first brought into 

 Gaul ? By the Romans ; by the Visigoths ; or 

 by the Franks themselves ? R. J. K. 



(jatirrt'cS. 



nmLIOGEAPHICAL QUERIES. 



( Continued from page :52.5. ) 



(13.) Is it not a grievous and calumnious charge 

 against the prliu'lpnl libraries of England, (icr- 

 many, and France, that not one of them contains 

 a copy of the Florentine Pandects, in three folio 



