April 19. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



299 



who at tlie time read an account of what he had 

 seen at a meeting of the Plinian Sixiiely. He snys, 

 " I last evening read a paper upon, an extraordinary 

 appearance of letters, formed by the clouds, seen by a 

 Mr. T. and myself. We had also with us two little 

 boys, one nine, the other eleven years of age, who were 

 able to make out each letter equally with ourselves. 

 These children were at the time walking some distance 

 behind us : but, upon their coming up, and being 

 shown the letters, they read them without having 

 heard any observation of ours respecting them. We 

 saw them fot about two minutes, when they gradually 

 changed their form — each letter changing its perpen- 

 dicular for a horizontal position, and at length the 

 whole becoming converted into that form of cloud 

 denominated cirro-stratus. I will endeavour to give 

 you a faint idea of the appearance, by forming the 

 letters as well as my memory will enable me. I make 

 no comment upon the words themselves, as they are 

 too extraordinary for observation of any kind. It was 

 upon the 1 2th of last month : several showers had fallen 

 in the course of the day, but the afternoon was fine. 

 The time seven in the evening. The letters were 

 formed upon a fine blue surface, having no other clouds 

 near them, except very small ones, which tended much 

 to heighten the effect of the whole. 



L T E R N /\ L 



(etermai.) 



M 1 1 1 ( n n i n m 



(stlLLENNIUH) 



" You will observe several deficiencies in the letters 

 of the first word, viz. in the first ' E ; ' also in the ' N,' 

 the second part being short ; and a slight defect in the 

 letter ' A.' With respect to the second word, the first 

 six letters were very perfect : the others, with the ex- 

 ception of the ' M,' mere strokes ; but in number 

 sufficient to make up the word : and they had the ap- 

 pearance of having been perfect. I can assure you they 

 were anything but obscure, and required very little 

 stretch of the imagination. In the fiist word the 

 letters were equidistant and beautifully uniform. The 

 second word was not quite straight, being curved 

 towards its termination. This appeared to me toarise 

 from the change of position which the letters were 

 undergoing, as before stated." 



My other exti'act is from a letter written in 

 1851. The scene to which it refers is a sick 

 chamber occupied by an octogenarian grand- 

 mother, who is in extremis, ller daughter, who 

 writes the account, is present, together witlj a 

 grandchild, who is nearly eleven years old. The 

 nurse has left the room. 



" We afterwards stood liy poor grandmamma's fire, 

 and then we sat at her window to see the moon rise. 

 There were many clouds about it, and directly under 

 it was the most marked figure of our Saviour on the 

 cross. The head was concealed in light, hut the arms 

 were outstretched, and the body quite distinct. M. 

 saw it too, and said, ' How appropriate, aunt, for the 

 beginning of Lentl' She has never alluded to it 



since, nor, of course, have I ; nor do I think any more 

 of it, than that there it was : and there is something 

 happy in the fancy, at all events, for it shone on her 

 dying bed." 



As you admit folk lore into " Xotes and 

 Queries," also well-attested anecdotes, although 

 these may not absolutely conduce to the advance- 

 ment of learning or art, perhaps you will receive 

 this paper for the amusement of those who, like 

 myself, feel an interest in anything which takes 

 us a little out of the hardwai-e facts of " the age 

 we live in." Alfred Gatty. 



Ecclesfield. 



" after me TttE DELUGli. 



If stolen wisdom could be returned to its rightful 

 authors, great, indeed, would be the transfer of 

 property. Prince Metternich is said to be the 

 sayer of " After me the Deluge." And yet the 

 Prince took the saying from the mouth of Madame 

 Pompadour ; and she took it — from whom ? It 

 may be reasonably doubted that her brain origin- 

 ated it ; for it was not an order of brain that 

 packs wisdom in few syllables. 



" 'After me the Deluge,' said Prince Metternich ; a 

 fine saying, but a false prophecy we trust." 



I quote this from an admirable pap-er in The Times 

 of to-day (April 10.) on the Crystal Palace, and 

 quote the subscribed from an Essai sur la Mar- 

 quise de Pompadour, prefixed to the Memoires 

 de Madame du Hausset, Femme de Chawhre de 

 Afadame Pompadour, in Barriere's Bibliotheque des 

 Memoires. 



" Madame de Pompadour, dans I'ivresse de la pros- 

 perite, repondit a toutes les menaces de I'avenir par 

 ces trois [quatre] mots, " Ajres nous, le Deluge," 

 qu'elle repetait souvent." 



In this case, " Pompadour r. INIetternich," 

 surely a verdict" must be returned for the lady, 

 unless Volttiire puts in a future claim. 



DooGx-AS Jerkold, 



West Lodge, Putney Common. 



BJSHOP THORNBOROUGH S MONUMENT. 



[The writer of the following interesting communica- 

 tion does not appear to he aware that he is obliging us 

 and a correspondent D. Y., who had asked (Vol. iii., 

 p. 168.) for an explanation of the phrase Denarius 

 Pfiilosup/iorum, in the Bishop's IMonument.] 



Our local antiqviaries have long been puzzled by 

 an ii},scription in the Lady chapel of our cathedral. 

 It stands on the monument of Bishop Thorn- 

 borough, and was prepared by himself fourteen 

 years before his decease in 1641, at the age of 

 ninety-foul-. He was addicted to alchymy, and 

 published a book in 1G21, entitled Ai0o0ee>jpiKoy, 

 sive, Nihil aliqitid, omnia, cSr. In the course of 

 some recent studies in the Pythagorean philosophy, 

 my attention was accidentally engaged by this 



