Sept. 6. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



173 



city Vineta was soon transplanted thitlier ; and it was 

 absurdly considered that a rock reef (whicli has lately 

 been used for the harbour of ISwinemiinde, and has dis- 

 ap|)eared) was the ruins of a city destroyed by the 

 waves a tliousand years ago : indeed, people are not 

 wanting at the present day, who hold fast to this fable, 

 caused by the error of a transcriber. In the mean time 

 it has become a folk tale, and as such retains its value. 

 A Wolliner booth-keeper recounted me the interesting 

 story, which may be read in Barthold's Ilistor;/ of 

 Pumerania (vol. i. p. 419.), — a rough sterling Pome- 

 ranian (achl-pommerscliis) fantastical picture of the 

 overbearing of the trade-enriclied inhabitants of Vineta, 

 whicli God had so punished by sending the waves of 

 the ocean over the city. The town of WolHn, to 

 which alone this legend was applicable, is certainly 

 not destroyed by tlie sea, nor wholly desert : but if 

 they deserved punishment for their pride in their 

 greatness, they had received it in that they had quite 

 fallen from their former glory." — Pp. 22 — 25. 



As I wish thoroughly to dispose of the question, 

 I shall divide my communication on Julin into 

 two parts, of which tlie above is the first. I re- 

 serve my own remarks till all the evidence has 

 been heard. Kennetu E. H. Mackenzie. 



Anecdote of Cur/'an. — During one of the cir- 

 cuits, Curran was dining with a brother advocate 

 at a small inn kept by a respectable woman, who, 

 to the well ordering of her establishment, added a 

 reputation for that species of apt and keen reply, 

 which sometimes supplies the place of wit. The 

 dinner had been well served, the wine was pro- 

 nounced excellent, and it was proposed that the 

 hostess should be summoned to receive their com- 

 pliments on her good fare. The Christian name 

 of this purveyor was Honoria, a name of common 

 occurrence in Ireland, but which is generally ab- 

 breviated to that of Honor. Her attendance was 

 prompt, and Curran, after a brief enlogium on the 

 dinner, but especially the wine, filled a bumper, 

 and, handing it, proposed as a toast, -" Honor and 

 Honesty." His auditor took the glass, and with 

 a peculiarly arch smile, said, " Our absent friends," 

 and having drank off her amended toast, she curt- 

 seyed and withdrew. M. W. B. 



Difficulty of getting rid oj" a Name. — The insti- 

 tution founded in Gower Street under the name 

 of the University of London, lived for ten years 

 under that name, and, since, for fifteen years, under 

 the name of University College, a new institution 

 receiving the name of the University of London. 

 A few years after the change of nauKj, a donor left 

 reversionary projjcrty to the London University in 

 Gower Street, which made it necessary to obtain 

 the assistance of the Court of Chancery in securing 

 llie reversion to its intended owners. A professor 

 of the C'uUcgc in Gower Street received a letter, 



dated from Somerset House (where the University 

 is), written by the Vice-Chancellor of the Uni- 

 versity himself, and addressed, not to the Univer- 

 sity College, but to the University of London. And 

 in a public decision, by the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, as Visitor of Dulwich College, which appears 

 in The Times of July 21, it is directed that certain 

 scholars are to proceed for instruction to some 

 such place as " King's College or the London Uni- 

 versity." This is all worthy of note, because we 

 often appeal to old changes of name in the settle- 

 ment of dates. When this decision becomes very 

 old, it may happen that its date will be brought 

 into doubt by appeal to the fact that the place of 

 instruction (what is now the University giving no 

 instruction but only granting degrees, and to 

 students of King's College among others) ceased to 

 have the title of University in 1837. What so 

 natural as to argue that the Archbishop, himself a 

 visitor of King's College, cannot have failed to re- 

 member this. A reflected doubt may be thrown 

 upon some arguments relating to dates in former 

 times. M. 



Home of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. — The Note 

 on his mother, in Vol. iii., p. 492., reminds me of 

 making the following one on himself, which may 

 be worth a place in your columns. When lately 

 passing through the village of Harold's Cross, near 

 Dublin, a friend pointed out to me a high anti- 

 cpiated-looking house in the village, which he said 

 had been occupied by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 

 and in which he had planned many of his designs. 

 The house appears to be in good preservation, and 

 is still occupied. E. H. 



Fairy Dances. — It might perhaps throw some 

 light on this fanciful subject, were we to view it 

 in Connexion with the operation of the phenome- 

 non termed the " odvlic light," emitted from mag- 

 netic substances. The Baron von Riechenbach, in 

 his Researches on Magnetism, Sfc, explains the 

 cause of somewhat similar extraordinary appear- 

 ances in the following manner : — 



" High on the Brocken there are rocky summits 

 which are strongly magnetic, and cause the needle 

 to deviate : these rocks contain disseminated magnetic 

 iron ore ; . . . . the necessary consequence is that 



they send up odyllc flames Who could 



blame persons imbued with the superstitious feelings of 

 their age, if they saw, under these circumstances, the 

 devil dancing with his whole train of ghosts, demons, 

 and witches? The revels of the Walpurgisnacht must 

 now, alas ! vanish, and give place to the sobrieties of 

 science — science, which with her touch dissipates one 

 by one all the beautifnl but dim forms evoked by 

 phantasy." 



Should such a thing as the odylic light satis- 

 factorily explain the ])henomenon of ghosts, fairies, 

 &c., we should happily be relieved from the 

 awkward necessity of continuing to treat their 



