Dec. 29. 1849.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
141 
The Germans have a curious legend connected 
with this talisman. It was framed by some of the 
magi in the train of the ambassadors of Aaroun-al- 
Raschid to the mighty Emperor of the West, at the 
instance of his spouse Fastrada, with the virtue 
that her husband should be always fascinated 
towards the person or thing on which it was. The 
constant love of Charles to this his spouse was 
the consequence; but, as it was not taken from 
her finger after death, the affection of the emperor 
was continued unchanging to the corpse, which he 
would on no account allow to be interred, even 
when it became offensive. His confessor, having 
some knowledge of the occult sciences, at last drew 
off the amulet from the inanimate body, which was 
then permitted to be buried ; but he retained pos- 
session of it himself, and thence became Charles's 
chief favourite and prime minister, till he had | 
been promoted to the highest ecclesiastical dignity, 
as Arehbishop of Mainz and Chancellor of the 
Empire. At this pitch of power, whether he 
thought he could rise no higher, or scruples of 
conscience were awakened by the hierarchical 
vows, he would hold the heathen charm no longer, 
and he threw it into a lake not far from his metro- 
politan seat, where the town of Ingethiim now 
stands. The regard and affection of the monarch 
were immediately diverted from the monk, and 
all men, to the country surrounding the lake; and 
he determined on building there a magnificent 
palace for his constant residence, and robbed all 
the ancient royal and imperial residences, even to 
the distance of Ravenna, in Italy, to adorn it. 
Here he subsequently resided and died: but it 
seems the charm had a passive as well as an active 
power ; his throes of death were long and violent ; 
and though dissolution seemed every moment im- 
pending, still he lingered in ceaseless agony, till 
the Archbishop, who was called to his bed-side to 
administer the last sacred rites, perceiving the 
cause, caused the lake to be dragged, and, silently 
restoring the talisman to the person of the dying 
monarch, his struggling soul parted quietly away. 
The grave was opened by the third Otto in 997, 
and possibly the town of Aachen may have been 
thought the proper depository of the powerful 
drug, to be by them surrendered to one who was 
believed by many, as he believed himself to be, a 
second Charlemagne. 
So much for the introduction to the following 
Queries :—1. Can any of your readers say whether 
this amulet is still in possession of the President 
of the French Republic? 2. If so, might not the 
believers in the doctrines of Sympathy attribute 
the votes of the six millions who, in Dee. 1848, 
voted in favour of his election, to the sympathetic 
influence of his “nut in gold filigree,” and be 
justified in looking upon those who voted for his 
rivals as no true 'ranks? It was originally con- 
cocted for a Frankish monarch of pure blood, and | 
may be supposed to exercise its potency only on 
those of genuine descent and untainted lineage. 
Wiuiu1am Bert, Phil. Dr. 
DICK SHORE—ISLE OF DOGS—KATHERINE PEGG. 
I entirely concur in the opinion of your able 
correspondent, Mr. P. Cunningham, that Pepys’s 
Diary is well deserving all the illustrative licht 
which may be reflected upon it from your useful 
pages. In submitting the following Query, how- 
ever, my object is to glean a scrap of information 
on a point connected with the neglected topo- 
graphy of the east end of London, taking Pepys 
for my text. In the Diary, the entry for January 
15th, 1660-61, contains this passage : — 
“ We took barge and went to Blackwall, and viewed 
the Dock and the new west Dock which is newly 
made there, and a brave new merchantman which is 
to be launched shortly, and they say to be called the 
Royal Oake. Hence we walked to Dick Shoare, and 
thence to the Towre, and so home.” — Vol, i p. 178 
new Ed. j 
I shall be glad to learn from any of your read- 
ers what part of the northern bank of the river 
between Blackwall and the Tower, was called 
Dick Shore. Tt is not marked on any of the old 
maps of London I have been able to consult ; but 
it was probably beyond the most easterly point 
generally shown within their limits. The modern 
maps present no trace of the locality in question. 
The dock-yard visited by Pepys was long one 
of the most considerable private ship-building 
establishments in England. For many years it 
was conducted by Mr. Perry, and subsequently. 
under the firm of Wigrams and Green, the pro- 
perty having been purchased by the late Sir 
Robert Wigram, Bart. The extensive premises 
are still applied to the same use; but they have 
been divided to form two distinct yards, conducted 
by separate firms. 
The origin of the name (Isle of Dogs), given to 
the marshy tract of land lying within the bold 
curve of the Thames between Blackwall and Lime- 
house, is still undetermined. The common story 
is, that it received its name from the kine’s hounds 
having been kept there during the residence of 
the royal family at Greenwich. This tradition is 
wholly unsupported; nor is it very probable that 
the king’s hounds would be kennelled in this un- 
genial and inconvenient place, while they could 
be kept on the Kentish side of the river, in the 
vicinity of Greenwich Castle, then oceupying the 
site of the present Observatory. i 
The denominations “isle” and “island” 
to have been bestowed on many pl 
graphically entitled to them. 
before the construction of the 
crosses its isthmus, was in fact 
appear 
aces not geo- 
Lhe Isle of Dogs, 
canal which now 
a peninsula, Pepys 
_ TT RO*#RONReReoo>_$«wnmwwvOw>«>swo0|(00wwewu».0oonanhnaoaopppaaaxeoo aay 
eer aaa a a ah ade emake ate a SO eee 
