May 3. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



347 



accompanied by the delightful handle-organs and the 

 rustic triangle, their tributes are paid to I'erpsieliore ; 

 every where a similitude of tajents : the dancing out- 

 does aoi the musician." 



Deseriptiou of" the Assize Couxt : 



" Tlie forefron.t has a npble and sublime aspect, and 

 is particularly cliaraeteristical to what it ought to re- 

 present. It is bi^ilt in a division of three fronts in the 

 coriuthic order : each of them consists in four raizing 

 columns, resting upon a general basement, from the 

 one end of the forefiont to the other, and supporting a 

 cornish, equally running all over the face ; upon tliis 

 cornish rests a baluitrad, like the other pieces alto- 

 gether of Bremen-hardstone. Tlie middle front, serv- 

 ing for the chief entrarice, is adorned with the provincial 



arms, sculpted by Mr. Gabriel, &c Every 



where a sublime plan, and ex.act execution is exhibited 

 here, and the^ whole tends as much to the architects, 

 who are the undertakers of it, as they have earned 

 great praizes by b-uilding anew the burnt Lutlieran 

 church." 



I will not trespass on your space by any further 

 extracts ; but these will suffice to sbow tb^at my 

 book is sui g^eneris, and worth coiumemoratioii. 



C. AV. B. 



SEVJBN CKILDEEN AT A BIRTH THREE TIMES 

 FOllOWING. 



Your correspondent N. D.'s papers (Vol. ii.^ 

 p. 459., and Vol. iii., p. 64.) have reminded me of 

 another remarkable instance of fecumlity related 

 by the well-known civil engineer Jan Adriajjnsz. 

 Leeg-Water> in his Kleyne Chronyche, printed 

 at Amsterdam in 1G54 : 



" Soroie years since," says he, p. 31., "I was at 

 Wormer, at an inn near the town-hall :. the landlady, 

 whose name was Frankjen, told me of the Burgomaster 

 of Huorn, who in the siiring went over the (Zuvdcr?) 

 sea to buy oxen, and going into a certain house he 

 found seven little chiklren sittii;g by the fire, each with 

 a porringer in its hand, and eating rice-milk, or pap, 

 with a spoon ; on which the Burgomaster said, 

 ' Mother, you are very kind to your neiglibours, since 

 they leave their cliildren to your caae.' ' No,' said the 

 woman, ' they ajc all my own children, which I had at 

 one birth ; and if you will wait a moment, 1 will show 

 you more that will surprise you.' She then fetched 

 seven other children a hirlli oUler : so she had fourteen 

 cliildren at two births. Then the woman said to the 

 Burgomaster, ' I am now enceinte, and I think in the 

 same way as before : if yott come here next year, call 

 upon me again.' And so, the next year, whan tha 

 Burgomaster went over the sea, he called upon the 

 woman ; aiul the woman had again brought forth seven 

 children at a birth. Tims the woman h:ul at three 

 births twenty-one children.'^ 



I subjoin tlie original of which the above is a 

 literal translation. J. S. 



Woudetiberg, April, 1851. 



KAMASSHED, MEASING OF THE TERM. 



In the curious volume recently edited by Sir 

 Henry Ellis for the Camden Society, entitled The 

 Pilgrymuge of Syr It. Gitylforde, Knyght, a sin- 

 gular term occurs, which may claim a note of 

 explanation. It is found iu the following- passage : 



" Saterdaye to Susc, Noualassa, and to Lyungborugh; 

 and at the sayd Noualassa we toko movies to stey us 

 vp the mountayne, and toke also marones to kepe vs 

 frome fallynge. And from the hyght of the mounte 

 down to Lyuyn<jborugh I was raniasshed, whiche is a 

 right strauuge thynge." — P. 80. 



Sir Henry has not bestowed upon us here any 

 of those erudite annotations, which have custo- 

 marily enhanced the interest of works edited under 

 his care. 



Sir Richard Guylforde was on hi& homeward 

 course from the Holy Places by way of Pavia, 

 where he visited the convent and church which 

 contained the shrine and relics of St. Augustine, 

 as also the tomb of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, 

 second son of Edward III., whose monumental 

 inscription (not to be found in Sandford's Genea- 

 logical History) the worthy knight copied. 



On the 13th Feb. 1506, Sir Ilichard approached 

 the ascent of Mont Cenis by the way of S. Am- 

 brogio and Susa. At the village of Novalese, 

 now in ruins, the party took mules, to aid their 

 ascent, and iiiari-oni, long-liandled mattocks, or 

 pick-axes, to prevent tlieir fulling on the dan- 

 gerous declivities of the snow. The journey was 

 formerly made with frightful expedition by means 

 of a kind of sledge — an expedient termed la 

 tximasse — which euablcGl the traveller, previously 

 to the construction of that extraordinary road, 

 well known to most readers, to effect in a few 

 minutes a perilous descent of upwards of 6000 feet. 

 The ramasse, as Cotgrave informs us, was — 



" A kind of high sled, or wheelbarrow, whereon tra- 

 vellers are carried downe certaine steep and slippery 

 hils in Piemont." 



Its simplest form had probably been a kind of 

 fagot of brushwood, — ramazza, or a besom, not 

 much unlike the rapid locomotive of witches, who 

 were called in old times ramassih'es, from their 

 supposed practice of riding on a raiitee, ^-atnasse, 

 or besom. At the present time even, it occa- 

 sionally occurs that an adventurous traveller 

 crossing the jMont Cenis is tempted to glide 

 down the rapid descent, iu preference to the long 

 cwurse of the zigzag road ; and I remember to 

 have heard at Lauskbourg the tale, doubtless 

 often related, of an eccentric Rlilord who ascended 

 the heights thrice from tliat place, a journey of 

 some hours, for the giatilication of (he repeated 

 excitement caused by a descent on the ramasse 

 in about as many minutes. The cranium of a 

 horse, as it was stated, was the vehicle often pre- 

 ferred for this curious adventure : and the tra- 



