Sept. 6. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



175 



1 1 8. Gloucester saved from the Kings Mines. — 

 In Sir Kenelni Digby's Treatise of Bodies, 

 ch. xxviii. sec. 4., is this passage : 



" The trampling of men and horses in a quiet night, 

 will be heard some miles off . ... JMost of all if one 

 set a drum smooth upon the ground, and lay one's ear 

 to the upper edge of it," &c. 



On which the copy in my possession (ed. 1669) 

 has the following marginal note in a cotemporary 

 hand : 



" Thus Gloucester was saved from the King's mines 

 by y^ drum of a drunken drui7ier." 



To what event does this refer, and where shall 

 I find an account of it ? It evidently h-.ippened 

 during the civil wars, but Clarendon has no men- 

 tion of it. T. H. KKRSLEr, A.B. 



119. Milesian. — What is the origin of tlie term 

 Milesian as applied to certain races among the 

 Irish ? AV. Frasek. 



120. Horologi/. — Can any of your numerous 

 correspondents kindly inform me what is the best 

 scientific work on Horology ? I do not v/ant one 

 containing mere mathematical work, but entering 

 into all the details of the various movements, es- 

 capements, &c. &c , of astronomical clocks, chro- 

 nometers, pocket watches, with the latest improve- 

 ments down to the present time. H. C. K. 



121. Laurentius Miiller. — Can any of your 

 readers mention a library which contains a copy 

 of the Historia Septeutrionalis, or History of 

 Poland, of Laurentius Miiller, published about 

 1580? A Tk. 



122. Lines on a Bed. — Can you tell me where 

 I can find the antecedents of the following 

 couplets ? They are a portion of some ex- 

 quisite poetical " Lines on a Bed : " 



" To-day thy bosom may contain 

 Exulting pleasure's fleeting train, 

 Desp inding grief to morrow !" 



I once thought they were Prior's, but I cannot 

 find them. Can you assist uie ? IL W. B. 



• 12.3. Pirng. — A custom, I believe, still exists 

 in Russia for the mistress of a family to distribute 

 on certain occasions breail or cake to lier guests. 

 Some particulars of tiiis custom ai)peared either 

 in the Globe or the Standard newspaper in 1837 or 

 18.'i8, during the months of October, November, 

 or December. Having lost the reference to the 

 precise date, and only recollecting that the cus- 

 tom is known by the name of Pirog, 1 shall feel 

 much obligijd to any correspondent of the "Notes 

 AND QuERiKs" if lie cau supply me with further 

 information on the subject. 11. ]\L AV. 



124. JAsts of Plants with their Provincial Names. 

 — In a biography tluit iipj)eared of Dr. P. Brown 

 in the Anlhologia Hihernica for Jan. 7, 1793, we 



are informed that he prepared for the press a 

 " Fasciculus Plantarum Hibernicarura," enume- 

 rating chiefly those grov/ing in the counties of 

 Mayo and Gnlwuy, written in Latin, with the 

 Englisli and Irish names of each plant. See also 

 Dublin Qnartci-hj Journal of Medical Science, i. — 

 XXX. Where is this MS. ? 



Can any of your readers refer me to similar 

 lists of jilants indigenous to either England or 

 Ireland, in wliich the provincial names are pre- 

 served, with any notes on their use in medicine, or 

 their connexion with the superstitions of the dis- 

 trict to which the list refers ? Any informntion on 

 this subject, however slight, will particularly 

 oblige S. P. H. T. 



P. S. I should not be much surprised if the 

 MS. of Dr. P. Brown existed in some of the col- 

 lectanea in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dub. 



125. Print cleaning. — How should prints be 

 cleaned, so as not to injure the paper ? A. G. 



126. Italian Writer on Political Economy — 

 Curli the Economist. — 'What was the first work 

 by an Italian writer on any element of political 

 economy? and in what year did Carli, the cele- 

 brated economist, die ? Alpha. 



127. Nightingale and TJiorn. — Where is the 

 earliest notice of the fiible of the nightingale and 

 the thorn ? that she sings because she has a thorn 

 in her breast? For obvious reasons, the fiction 

 caitnot be classical. 



It is noticed by Byron : 

 " The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn, 

 That fable places in her breast of wail. 

 Is lighter far of heart and voice than those 

 Whose headlong passions form their proper woes." 

 But an earlier mention is found in Browne's 

 poem on the death of Mr. Thomas Manwood : — 

 " Not for thee these briny tears are spent, 



But as the nightingale against the breere, 

 'Tis for myself I moan and do lament. 



Not that thou Icft'st the world, but left 'st mo here." 

 He seems to interpret the fable to the same 

 effect as Homer makes Achilles' women lament 

 Patroclus — naTpiKKov irpS^acriv, acpuu 5' avTwv idfie 

 eicao-TT). It has been suggested that it rather 

 implies that the spirit of music, like that of poetry 

 and pro))hecy, visits chiefly the afflicted, — a com- 

 fortable doctrine to prosaic and unmusical people. 



A. W. H. 



128. Coleridge's Essni/son Bcautij. — At pp. 300, 

 301, of this writer's Table Talk (3rd edition) 

 there is the following paragraph : — 



" I exceedingly regret the loss of those essays on 

 beauty, which I wrote in a Bristol newspaper. I 

 would give much to recover them." 



Can any of your readers afford information on 

 this point? The publication of tlie essays in 

 question (supposing that they have not yet been 



