350 
Death-bed Superstition.— See Guy Mannering, 
ch. xxvii. and note upon it :— 
“ The popular idea that the protracted struggle he- 
tween life and death is painfully prolonged by keening 
the door of the apartment shut, was received as certain 
by the superstitious eld of Scotland.” 
In my county (West Gloucestershire) they 
throw open the windows at the moment of death. 
The notion of the escape of the soul through an 
opening is probably only in part the origin of this 
superstition. It will not account for opening all 
the locks in the house. There is, I conceive, a 
notion of analogy and association. 
“ Nexosque et solveret artus,” says Virgil, at 
the death of Dido. They thought the soul, or the 
life, was tied up, and that the unloosing of any 
knot might help to get rid of the principle, as one 
may call it. For the same superstition prevailed 
in Scotland as to marriage (Dalyell, p. 302.). 
Witches cast knots on a cord; and in a parish in 
Perthshire both parties, just before marriage, had 
every knot or tie about them loosened, though 
they immediately proceeded, in private, severally 
to tie them up again. And as to the period of 
childbirth, see the grand and interesting ballad in 
Walter Scott’s Border Poems, vol. ii. p. 27., 
“ Wiliye’s Lady.” C. B. 
NOTE ON HERODOTUS BY DEAN SWIFT. 
The inclosed unpublished note of Dean Swift 
will, I hope, be deemed worthy of a place in your 
columns. It was written by him in his Herodotus, 
which is now in the library of Winchester College, 
having been presented to it in 1766, by John 
Smyth de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde. The ge- 
nuineness of the handwriting is attested by a cer- 
tificate of George Faulkner, who, it appears, was 
well qualified to decide upon it. The edition is 
Jungerman’s, folio, printed by Paul Stephens, in 
1718. W. H. Gunner. 
« Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relicto :— 
«“ Ctesias mendacissimus Herodetum mendaciorum 
arguit, exceptis paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) om- 
nimodo excusandum, Czterum diverticulis abundans, 
hie pater Historicorum, filum narrationis ad tedium 
abrumpit ; unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, 
et exinde oblivio. Quin et forsan ips narrationes cir- 
cumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cetera, 
hune scriptorem inter apprimé laudandvs censeo, neque 
Grecis, neque barbaris plus zquo faventem, aut ini- 
quum: in orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec 
nimis frequentem: Neque absunt dogmata, e quibus 
eruditus lector prudentiam, tam moralem, quam civi- 
lem, haurire poterit. 
«“ Julii 6: 1720. J. Swirt.” 
« I-do hereby certify, that the above is the hand- 
writing of the late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S. P. D., 
from whom I have had many letters, and printed several 
pieces from his original MS. 
“ Dublin, Aug. 21. 1762, Grorar FauLkner.” 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[No. 22. 
HERRICK’S HESPERIDES. 
There can be few among your subscribers who 
are unacquainted with the sweet lyric effusion of 
Herrick “ To the Virgins, to make much of Time,” 
beginning — 
“ Gather you rose-buds while ye may, 
Old Time is still a-flying ; 
And this same flower, that smiles to-day, 
To-morrow will be dying.” 
The following “Answer” appeared in a publica- 
tion not so well known as the Hesperides. I have 
therefore made a note of it from Cantos, Songs, 
and Stanzas, &c., 3rd ed. printed in Aberdeen, by 
John Forbes, 1682. 
“J eather, where I hope to gain, 
I know swift Time doth flie; 
Those fading buds methinks are vain, 
To-morrow that may die. 
“ The higher Phoebus goes on high, 
The lower is his fall ; 
But length of days gives me more light, 
Freedom to know my thrall. 
“ Then why do ye think I lose my time, 
Because I do not marrie ; 
Vain fantasies make not my prime, 
Nor can make me miscarrie.” 
J. M. Gurcu. 
Worcester. 
QUERIES. 
REV. DR. THOMLINSON, 
Mr. G. Bouchier Richardson, of Newcastle- 
upon-Tyne, who is at present engaged in compiling 
the life and correspondence of Robert Thomlinson, 
D.D., Rector of Whickham, co. Dur.; Lecturer of 
St. Nicholas, Neweastle-upon-Tyne, and founder 
of the Thomlinson Library there; Prebendary of 
St. Paul’s; and Vice-Principal of Edmund Hall, 
Oxon., is very anxious for the communication of 
any matter illustrative of the life of the Doctor, 
his family and ancestry; which, it is presumed, is 
derivable from the family of that name long seated 
at Howden, in Yorkshire. 
MINOR QUERIES. 
“ A” or “ An,” before Words beginning with a 
Vowel. — Your readers are much indebted to 
Dr. Kennedy for his late exposure of the er- 
roneous, though common, use of the phrase 
“ mutual friend,” and I am convinced that there 
are many similar solecisms which only require to 
be denounced to ensure their disuse. J am 
anxious to ask the opinion of Dr. K., and others 
of your subscribers, on another point in the 
English language, namely, the principles which 
should guide our use of “A” or “An” before a 
word beginning with a vowel, as the practice does 
not appear to be uniform in this respect. The 
