380 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 80. 



intention of making his escape another way, 

 which was to get over tlie Severn into Wales, 

 and so get either to Swansea, or some other 

 of the sea towns tliat he knew had commerce 

 with France ; besides that he " remembered 

 several honest gentlemen " that were of his ac- 

 quaintance. However, the scheme was abandoned, 

 and the king fled to the southward by Madeley, 

 Boscobel, &c., to Cirencester, Bristol, and into 

 Dorsetshire, and thence to Brighton, where he 

 embarked for France on the 15th Oct., 1031. 



Lancaiach is still in possession of the Prichard 

 family, descendants of Col. Prichard. 



There is a tradition tliat Ciiarles I. slept there 

 on his way from CardilF Castle to Brecon, in 1C4.3, 

 and the tester of the bed in which his Majesty 

 slept is stated to have been in the possession of a 

 Cardiff antiquary now deceased. The facts of the 

 case aj^pear in the Iter Carolinum, printed by 

 Peck {Desiderata Cnriosa). The king stayed at 

 Cardiil" from the SOth July to tlie 5th August, 

 1645, on which day he dined at Llaucaiaeh, and 

 supped at Brecon. J. M. T. 



" Ex Pedc Ilcrcidcm" (Vol. iii., p. 302.).— The 

 following allusion to the toot of Hercules occurs 

 in Herodotus, book iv. section 8'2. : 



""iXi'os 'HpaKAe'dS ^aluovai iv Trerp;; ivchv, rh o.'/cf fxev 

 ;8T7/xaTi afSphs, eaxi 8e rh fiiyaBos SiTr/jx", irapa rhv 

 Tvpriv ■Koraixbv." 



Alfred Gattt. 



Tlie origin of this phrase is connected with 

 the Ibllovving story: — A certain Greek (whose 

 name has lor the present escaped me, but who 

 niiist have been ready to contribute to the 

 "N'oTES AND Queries" of his time) was one day 

 observed carefully "stepping" over the avK6s or 

 footrace-course at Olympia; and he gave as a 

 reason for so doing, that when that race-course 

 was originally marked out, it was exactly six 

 hundred times as long as Hercules' foot (that 

 being the distance Hercules could run with- 

 out taking breath) : so that by ascertaining how 

 many times the length of his own foot it contained, 

 he would know how much Hercules' foot exceeded 

 his foot in length, and might therefrom calculate 

 how much Hercules' stature exceeded that of or- 

 dinary men of those degenerate days. 



J. Eastwood. 



EcclesficUl. 



This proverb docs not appear to be of classical 

 origin. Several proverbs of a similar meaning are 

 collected in Diogenian, v. 15. The most connnon 

 is, iic rSiv ovvyc'v rou Kiovra, cx niigue leoiiem. The 

 allusion to Hercules is probably borrowed fi-om 

 some fable. L. 



Bucaneers (Vol. i., p. 400.). — Your correspon- 

 dent C. will find an interesting account of the 



Bucaneers in a poem by M. Poirie St. Aurele, en- 

 titled Le FUhiistier, and published by Anibroise 

 Dupont & Co., Paris, 1827. The Introduction 

 and Notes furnish some curious particulars rela- 

 tive to the origin, progress, and dissolution of those 

 once celebrated pirates, and to the daring exploits 

 of their principal leaders, Montauban, Grammont, 

 Monbars, Vand-Horn, Laurent de Graff, and Sir 

 H. Morgan. The book contains many fiicts which 

 go far to support Bryan Edwards's favourable opi- 

 nion. I may add that the author derives the French 

 word flihustier from the English freebooter, and 

 the English word hucaneer from the French 

 houcanier ; which latter word is derived from 

 boncan, an expression used by the Caribs to de- 

 scribe the place where they assembled to make a 

 repast of their enemies taken in war. 



Henry H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia, March, 1851. 



284.).— By a Saxon 

 undoubtedly meant 



God's Acre (Vol. iii., p. 

 phrase, Mr. Longfellow 



German. In Germany Gottes-acher is a name for 

 churchyard ; and it is to be found in Wachter's 

 Glossarium Germaidcum, as well as in modern 

 dictionaries. It is true there is the other word 

 Kirchhof, perhaps of more modern date. 



" Gots-aker. CrBmeterlum. Quasi ager Dei, 

 quia corpora defunctorum fideliuin comparantur semini. 

 I Cor. XV. 36., nbservaiitc Keyslero in Antiq. Svptenti; 

 p. 109." — Wachter's Gloss. Germunictim. 



Very interesting are also the other allegorical 

 names which have been given to the burial-places 

 of the dead. They are enlarged upon in Min- 

 shew's Guide to Tongues, under the head " Church- 

 yard." 



" Ca^meterlum (from the Greek), signifying a dormi- 

 tory or place of sleep. And a Hebrew term (so I\Iin- 

 sliew says), Beth-chajim, i. e. domus viventium, ' The 

 house of tlie living,' in allusion to the resurrection." 



Our matter-of-fact " Chuvch-yard or inclosure" 

 falls dull on the ear and mind after any of the 

 above titles. Hermes. 



GocFs Acre. — The term God's Acre, as applied 

 to a church-garth, would seem to designate the 

 consecrated ground set apart as the resting-place 

 of His faithful departed, sown with immortal seed 

 (1 Cor. XV. 38.), which shall be raised in glory at 

 the great harvest (Matt. xiii. 39. ; Rev. xiv. 15.). 

 The church-yard is " dedicated wholly and only 

 for Christian burial," and " the bishop and ordi- 

 nary of the diocese, as God's minister, in God's stead 

 accepts it as a freewill offering, to be severed from 

 all former profane and common uses, to be held as 

 holy ground," and "to be God's storehouse for the 

 bodies of His saints there to be interred." See 

 " Bishop Andrewes' Form of Consecration of a 

 Churchyard," Miliar Works, pp. 328—333., Oxf., 

 184G. Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



