Sept. 27. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



231 



ness's pleasure" touching one Isaac Higglns, then 

 in the custody of Sir Christopher Hatton. 



C. H. Cooper. 

 Cambridge, Sept. 19. 1851. 



Skull-cups. — There are so very few consecutive 

 and methodical readers left, that it is not sur- 

 prising that Mr. Blackwell, the editor of Bohn's 

 Mallet, should have adopted the groundless 

 charge of one Magnusen against Olaus Wormius, 

 who understood Ragnar's death-song much better 

 than certain ironical dilettanti of Cockneyland. 

 Charlemagne's secretary, Paul Warnefrid, the 

 Lombard deacon of Aquileia, swears that, about 

 200 years after the event, King Ratchis had shown 

 him the cup made out of Cunimund's shdl, in which 

 Queen Rosamund, his daughter, refused to drink, 

 in the year 574. * (Paul. JDiac. ii. 8.) Open the 

 Acta Sanctojtim for the 1st of May, and they will 

 tell you that the monks of Triers had enchased in 

 silver the skull of St. Theodulf, out of which they 

 administered fever-drink to the sick. Moreover, 

 when, in, the year 1465, Leo von Rozmital came 

 to Neuss, he saw a costly tomb wherein lay the 

 blessed Saint Quirinus, and he drank out of his 

 skull-cup. St. Sebastian's skull at Ebersberg, and 

 St. Ernhart's at Ratisbonne, had also been con- 

 verted into chalices. 



I refer the reader to Jacob Grimm's GeschicMe 

 der Deutschen Sprache, pp. 143. 146., for further 

 details : he shows that to drink ale out of buig- 

 vidum hausa, can only mean out of " hollow skulls," 

 literally " vacuitas curva." 



To prove the antiquity of the custom, Grimm 

 alleges likewise a passage of the Vilkinasaga, in 

 which Volundr, the smith, our Belengerf, or 

 Will o' the Wisp, enchases in silver the amputated 

 skulls of Nidads' two boys. 



Geoege Metivier. 



168. Elizabeth, Equestrian Figure of. — Doubt- 

 less many of your readers have seen in the Exhibi- 

 tion a large equestrian figure of Elizabeth ; it is in 

 the N.W. gallery, in one of the large plate cases. 

 Now the horse is described as pacing, which the 

 explanation states was a step taught the horses 

 belonging to the ladies of that period. Query, 

 where a description of pacing, or rules for teach- 

 ing horses to pace, amble, &c., may be found ? for 

 what appears so extraordinary in the figure is, 

 that the lore and hind legs of the same side of the 

 horse are extended together, or simultaneously. 

 I have in the Graphic Illustrator a picture of 



* Sfc Grotius's valuable Collection of Gothic and 

 Lombard Historians. 



t Foju JJelemjer, in one of tlie dialects of the Low- 

 Norman Isles. 



Elizabeth hawking (the figure in the Exhibition 

 may have been copied from the original), where 

 the horse is in the same attitude. I feel anxious 

 to know if that unnatural gait is possible, or whe- 

 ther it is a part or the whole of the pacing step. 



Thos. Lawrence. 

 Ashby de la Zouch. 



169. Indian Ants. — Is there any foundation for 

 Pliny's account of the Indian ants, which were, 

 according to Herodotus, " not so large as a dog, 

 but bigger than a fox ? " A. C. W. 



170. Passage in Geo. Herbert. — What is the 

 meaning of the following ? (Herbert's Poems, 

 " Charms and Knots," ver. 8.) : — 



" Take one from ten, and what remains ? 

 Ten still ; if sermons go for gains." 



H. T. G. 



171. ''The King's-way," Wilts.— Mention of 

 this road, in the neighbourhood of Malmsbury, 

 occurs in two charters of the Saxon kings Athel- 

 stan and Eadwig, Nos. 355. & 460. Cod. Dipl. Aevi. 

 Sax. The road is said to be known in Wiltshire 

 as King Athelstan's Way. Can any of your cor- 

 respondents oblige me by pointing out its course, 

 and the immediate purpose for which it was con- 

 structed? There is a King's-way Field (Cyng- 

 wey-fTeld) mentioned in the ancient terriers of 

 Bampton, Oxon, and still known there. B. W. 



172. Marriages within ruined Churches. — I 

 have heard of marriages solemnized within ruined 

 churches in Ireland within the last twenty years. 

 What is the origin of this custom ; was it general, 

 and is it still observed ? R. H. 



173. Fees for Inoculation. — In an old Account 

 Book of a Sussex county gentleman I find the fol- 

 lowinof items : — 



"1780. I paid for the inoculation of William and 

 Polly Parker, £5 1 5s. 6d." 

 and again in 1784 : 



" Paid towards R. Stephen's inoculation, £l lis. Od." 

 from which it would appear that the process was a 

 very expensive one in those days. I should feel 

 obliged to any of your correspondents to give me 

 some information on this point. R. W. B. 



174. "Born in the Eighth Climate." — Can any 

 of your readers explain the allusion contained in 

 the following extract from Sir Thomas Browne ? 



" / was horn in the eiphth climate., but seem for to be 

 framed and constellated unto all." — Reliyio Medici, 

 ii. I. 



AVill the notions of astrology throw any light 

 upon it ? N. H. 



175. Anhnj da Montdidier s Dog. — Who was 

 the King of France that subjected the Chevalier 

 Macaire to the ordeal by combat with this famous 



