Jan. 12. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
171 
QUERIES. 
CATACOMBS AND BONE-HOUSES. 
I should be very glad to have some distinct in- 
formation on the above subject, especially in ex- 
planation of any repositories of human bones in 
England? Was the ancient preservation of these 
skeleton remains always connected with embalming 
the body ?—or drying it, after the manner de- 
scribed by Captain Smythe, R.N., to be still prac- 
tised in Sicily ?—and, in cases in which dry bones 
only were preserved, by what process was the flesh 
removed from them? for, as Addison says, in re- 
ference to the catacombs at Naples, “ they must 
have been full of stench, if the dead bodies that 
lay in them were left to rot in open niches.” The 
catacombs at Paris seem to have been furnished 
with bones from the emptyings of the metropolitan 
churchyards. In some soils, however, the bones 
rot almost as soon as the flesh decays from them. 
There are, possibly, many bone-houses in Eng- 
land. I have seen two of considerable extent, 
one at Ripon Minster, the other at Rothwell 
Church, in Northamptonshire ; and at both places 
skulls and thigh bones were piled up, in mural 
recesses, with as much regularity as bottles in the 
bins of a wine-cellar. At Rothwell there was 
(twenty years ago) a great number of these relics. 
The sexton spoke of there being 10,000 skulls, 
but this, no doubt, was an exaggeration; and he 
gave, as the local tradition, that they had been 
gathered from the neighbouring field of Naseby. 
A similar story prevails at Ripon, viz. that the 
death-heads and cross-bones, which are arranged 
in the crypt under the Minster, are the grisly 
gleanings of some battle-field. 
Now, if these, and other like collections, were 
really made after battles which took place during 
any of the civil wars of England, some details 
would not be unworthy of the notice of the pic- 
turesque historian; e. g., was it the custom in 
those unhappy days to disinter, after a time, the 
slightly-buried corpses, and deposit the bones in 
the consecrated vault? —or was this the acci- 
dental work of some antiquarian sexton of the 
“ Old Mortality” species ?—or was the pious at- 
tention suggested by the ploughman’s later dis- 
coveries — 
“ Agricola, incurvo terram molitus aratro,” &c.? 
Any report from places where there happen to be 
bone-houses, together with the local tradition as- 
signing their origin, would, I think, throw light on 
an interesting and rather obscure subject. 
Ecclesfield, Dec. 31. 1849. Atrrep Garrr. 
CONTRADICTIONS IN DON QUIXOTE; 
AS TO THE BUSCAPIE. 
In answer to the question of “ Mexanton” (in 
No. 5. p.73.), it may be sufficient to refer him to the 
AND QUERY 
Spanish editions with notes, viz. that of Pellicer in 
1800 ; the 4th edition of the Spanish Academy in 
1819; and that of D. Diego Clemencin in 1833, 
where he will find the discrepancies he mentions 
pointed out. In the first edition of 1605 there was 
another instance in the same chapter, which Cer- 
vantes corrected in the edition of 1608, but over- 
looked the other two. It was one of those lapses, 
quas incuria fudit, which great writers as well as 
small are subjectto. Clemencin laughsat De los Rios 
for thinking it a characteristic of great geniuses so 
to mistake; and at the enthusiasm of some one else, 
who said that he preferred the Don Quixote with 
the defects to the Don Quixote without them. 
Having answered one query, I presume I may 
be permitted to propose one, in which I feel much 
interested. 
Is the recently published Buscarri the work of 
Cervantes? We have now been favoured with 
two translations, one by Thomasina Ross, the other 
by a member of the University of Cambridge, 
under the title of The Squib, or Searchfoot; the 
latter I have read with some attention, but not 
having been able to procure the Spanish original, 
I should be glad to have the opinion of some com- 
petent Spanish scholar who has read it, as to its 
genuineness. My own impression is that it will 
prove an ingenious (perhaps innocent?) imposture. 
The story of its discovery in a collection of books 
sold by auction at Cadiz, and its publication there 
by Don Adolfo de Castro, in the first place, rather 
excites suspicion. My impression, however, is 
formed from the evident artificial structure of the 
whole. Still, not having seen the original, I con- 
fess myself an imperfect judge, and hope that this 
may meet the eye of one competent to decide. 
S. W. Sinerr. 
ANCIENT ALMS-BASINS. 
I have read the various notices in Nos. 3. 5, 
and 6. on the subject of these dishes. I have an 
electrotype copy from such a dish, the original 
of which is in Manchester. The device is like 
No. 4. of those of Crmricus (No. 3. p. 44.); 
but two circles of inscription extend round the 
central device (the Grapes of Eshcol), in cha- 
racters which are supposed to be Saracenic. The 
inner inscription is five times, the outer seven 
times, repeated in the round. I see, by the 
Archeological Journal, No. 23., for Sept. 1849 
(pp. 295—6.), that at the meeting of the Archzo- 
logical Institute, on the Ist June last, Mr. Octavius 
Morgan, M.P., exhibited a collection of ancient 
salvers or chargers, supposed to be of latten; 
several ornamented with sacred devices and in- 
scriptions, including some remarkable examples 
of the curious florid letter, forming legends, which 
have so long perplexed antiquaries in all parts of 
Europe. Mr. Morgan arranged the devices in 
four classes, the first being chargers or large 
