Mar. 29. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



241 



The letters are two inches Ion";, and a quarter 

 of nn inch liigli from ibe sunken face of the board, 

 which is four feet lonij by ten indies wide. It 

 has a raised rim or border round the inscription ; 

 which proves that it had not contained more lines 

 than as above. It was found at Hereford, in a 

 county which still abounds in timbered houses, 

 and it had been lately used as a weatIier-l)oard. 

 The legend was submitted to the late Sir Samuel 

 Meyrick of Goderich Court ; who was of opinion, 

 that it had formerly been over the cliimney-piece 

 or porch of some dwelling-house, and is a riddle 

 involving the builder's or founder's name. If any 

 of your readers can suggest the age and original 

 use of this board, or explain the name concealed 

 in the lines, it will oblige P. H. F. 



Expressions in Milton. — Allow me to ask some 

 correspondent to give the meaning of the follow- 

 ing e.xpressions from the prose works of Milton: — 



" A toothless satire is as improper as a toothed 

 sleek stone, and as bullish." 



" A toothed sleek stone," I take to mean a 

 " j*?g<^'^^ whetstone," very unfit for its purpose ; 

 but what is the force of the term " as bullish ?" 



Again : 



" I do not intend tliis hot season to hid t/ou the base, 

 through the wide and dusty champaign of the councils." 



The meaning I receive from this is, " I don't mean 

 to carry you through the maze of the ancient 

 councils of the church ; " but I wish to know the 

 exact force of the exjDression " to bid you the 

 base?" R. (a Reader). 



Saints' Days. — The chorea invita is not a very 

 satisfactory explanation of St. Vitus's dance; and 

 though St. Vitus is not in the Roman martyrology 

 of our day, yet he is in the almanacs of the fifteenth 

 century, and probably earlier. The martyr Vitus 

 makes the 15th of June a red letter-day in the 

 first almanac ever printed. Who was St. Vitus, 

 and how did he give his name to the play of the 

 features which is called his dance ? Again, the 

 day before St. Patrick is celebrated in Ireland, St. 

 Patricius is celebrated in Auvergne. Can any 

 identity be established ? M. 



Chepstow Castle. — In Carly le's Ziye of Crom- 

 well, vol. i. pp. 349, 350., there is a letter ft-om 

 Cromwell, dated before Pembroke, wherein he 

 directs a Major Saunders, then quartered at or 

 near Brecon, to go to Monmouthshire and seize 

 Sir Trevor \ViHiains of Llangcvie, and Mr. IMorgan, 

 High Sheriflfof iSIonmoiith, "as," he writes, "iliey 

 were very deep in the plot of betraying Chepstow 

 Castle." Carlyle has the following foot-note to 

 the letter : 



" Saunders by his manner of indorsing this letter seems 

 to iiitim.ile that he took his two men ; tliat lie keeps 

 tlie letter by way of voucher. Sir Trevor Williams by 



and bye compounds as a delinquent, retires then into 

 Llangevie House, and disappears from history. Of 

 Sheriff Morgan, except that a new sheriff is soon ap- 

 pointed, we have no farther notice whatever." 



Can any of your correspondents give me in- 

 formation in what work I can find a tolerably full 

 account of this "betraying of Chepstow Castle?" 

 and also of what place in the county was this 

 Morgan, Sheriff' of Monmouth ? Danydd Gam. 



The Wilkes 3ISS. and ''North Briton." ~1 in- 

 quired long since what had become of these MSS., 

 which Miss Wilkes bequeathed to Peter Elmsley, 

 of Sloane Street, " to whose judgment and deli- 

 cacy " she confided them, — meaning, I presume, 

 that she should be content to abide by his judg- 

 ment as to the ])ropriety of publishing them, or a 

 selection ; but certainly to be preserved for the 

 vindication of her father's memory ; otherwise she 

 would have destroyed them, or directed them to be 

 destroyed. In 1811 these IMSS. were, I presume, 

 in the possession of Peter Elmsley, Principal of 

 St. Alban's Hall, as he submitted the Junius Cor- 

 respondence, through Mr. Hallam, to Serjeant 

 Rough, who returned the letters to Mr. Hallam. 

 Where now arc the original Junius Letters, and 

 where the other MSS. ? T\\<i Athenceiim has an- 

 nounced that the Stowe MSS., including the 

 Diaries and Correspondence of George Grenville, 

 are about to be published, and will tin-ow a " new 

 light" on the character of John Wilkes. I suspect 

 any light obtained from George Grenville will be 

 very like the old light, and only help to blacken 

 what is already too dark. I therefore venture to 

 ask once again, Where are the Wilkes MSS. ? and 

 can they be consulted ? Further, are any of your 

 readers able and willing to inform us who wei'e the 

 writei's of the different papers in the North Briton., 

 either first or second series? Through "Notes 

 AND Queries " we got much curious information 

 on this point with reference to the RolUad. 



AV M. S. 



"■ O icearisnme Condition of Humanity !" — Can 

 any of your readers inform me in what " noble poet 

 of our own" the following ver.^es are to be found. 

 They are quoted by Tillotson in vol. ii. p. 255. of 

 his Works, in 3 vols. ib. 



" O wearisome condition of humanity ! 



I5orn under one law, to .iiiotlier bound ; 

 Vainly begot, and yet forbidden vanity; 

 Created sick, commanded to be sound. 

 If Nature did not take delight in blood, 

 She would have found more easy ways to good." 

 Bloomsl)ury. Q- 



Places culled " Purgatory:' —The Rev. Wm. 

 Thornber, in his HisUvy of Blackpool in the Fylde 

 District of Lancashire, gives the follow ino; ex- 

 I)lanation of the name as applied to particular 

 fields, houses, &c. : — 



" The last evening in October (or vigil of .Ml Souls) 



No. 74. 



