336 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 78. 



writing) shut up in strong prisons ; and the letter 

 is dated 



"The third of the sixth month, 1661. Frnin the 



Common Gaol in Burkdoii.i/i Vvance, about tliirti/ leagues 



from Dover, ivhere I am a sufferer for speaking the 



Word of the Lord to two Priests, saying. All Idols, all 



Idolatries, and all Idol Priests must perish." 



John Perrot seems to have consiilered that his 

 mission extended over all the world. While in 

 Rome Prison of Madmen, he wrote an address 

 "To all people upon the face of tlie Earth," which 

 he "sent thence the 8th of the 10th month, 1660;" 

 and he was, no doubt, the author of the tract which 

 follows it (and precedes the narrative) in my 

 volume, entitled " Blessed openings of a day of 

 good things to the Turks. Written to the Heads, 

 liulers. Ancients, and Elders of their Land, and 

 whomsoever else it may concern," though it is 

 only signed " JOHN." To him also, I suppose, 

 we must ascribe another tract, Discoverifs of the 

 Day-dawning to the Jeices. Wherehj they may 

 know in what state they shall inherit the riches and 

 glory of Promise. " J. P." is all that is given for 

 the author's name on tlie title-pago, but the tract 

 is signed ]nV, that is, John. He too, I presume, 

 was the author of another of the tracts, An Epistle 

 to the Greeks, especially to those in and about 

 Corinth and Athens, §-c. Written in Egripo in the 

 Island of Negroponte, by a Servant of the Lord: 

 J. P. He seems to have been at Athens on the 

 27th day of the 7th month, in the year accounted 

 1657, being the first day of the week, the day of 

 Greek solemn worship, and to have been " con- 

 versant" with Carlo Dessio and Gumeno Stephaci, 

 " called Greek doctors." S. R. M. 



Gloucester. 



SNATL-EATING. 



(Vol. iii., p. 221.) 



Snail-eating is by no means uncommon. AVhen 

 I was a youth I took a dozen snails every morn- 

 ing to a lady who was of a delicate constitution, 

 and to whom they were recommended as whole- 

 some food. They were boiled, and mixed up with 

 milk. They were the common snail, usually found 

 about old garden walls. A friend of mine, in 

 walking round his garden, was in the habit of 

 picking the snails olf his fruit-trees and eatino- 

 them raw. He was somewhat fastidious, for I have 

 seen him take a snail, put it to his tongue, and 

 reject it as not of a good flavour, and select another 

 more agreeable to his taste. We are strange 

 creatures of habit, especially in our feedin<>-. I 

 am fond of oysters, muscles, and cockles ; but 

 I do not think anything could induce me to taste 

 a snail, a periwinkle, or a limpet. B. H. 



Snail-eating. — This practice is very general in 

 Italy. While residing near Florence, my atten- 



tion -was often attracted by a heap of fifty or one 

 hundred very clean, empty, snail-shells, in a ditch, 

 or under a bush ; and I indulged in many vain 

 speculations, before I could account for so strange 

 a phenomenon. 



One day, however, I happened to meet the 

 contadina coming out of my garden with a basket 

 on her arm ; and from her shy, conscious manner, 

 and an evident wish to avoid my seeing the con- 

 tents, I rather suspected she had been making 

 free with my peaches. To my surprise, however, 

 I found that she was laden with the delicious 

 frutla-di-terra (sometimes so called, as the Echi- 

 nus, so common along the Italian coast, is called 

 frutta-di-mare) ; and thinking that she had been 

 collecting them simply froni regard to my fruit 

 and vegetables, I thanked her for her kind ser- 

 vices. But she understood me ironically, and, 

 with a good deal of confusion, offered to carry 

 them to the kitchen, apologising most elaborately, 

 and assuring me that she would on no account 

 have taken them, had not our cook told her that 

 we despised them, and that she would no doubt 

 be welcome. I asked her what in the world she 

 intended to do with them ? and, with a look of 

 amazement at my rjuestion, even surpassing mine 

 at her reply, she informed me that her brother 

 and his wife had come to pay them a visit, and 

 that, with my kind permission, she would thus 

 treat them to " una belUssima cena." She had 

 collected about three quarts, during a seaixh of 

 two hours. Tiie large brown kind only are eaten. 

 Among the poor they are generally esteemed a 

 delicac)^ and are reputed to be marvellously 

 nutritious. Nocab. 



SIR JOHN DAVIES, DAVIS, OR DAVTS. 



(Vol. iii., p. 82.) 



The following additional particulars of this emi- 

 nent lawyer and poet may be deemed interesting. 

 In a letter from Mr. Pary to the Rev. Josiah 

 Mead, of the 26th November, 1626, it is stated : 



" Tomorrow, it is said Sergeant Richardson shall be 

 Lord Chief Justice of tlie Common Pleas, and Sir 

 John Davis nominated to the King's Bench, because 

 ho hath written a book in defence of the legality of this 

 new Loan." 



In another letter of the 9th December, 1626, it 



is stated : 



" I heard last night that Sergeant Davis, who it is 

 said looked to be Lord Chief Justice of the King's 

 Bench, in place of Sir Randal Crew, was found dead 

 in his bed." 



And, again, in a letter from the Rev. Josiah 

 Mead to Sir Martin Stuteville, of the IGth Dec, 

 1626 : 



" This of the death of Sir John Davis, for aught I 



