314 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 104. 



at divorce without adequate grounds, and all the 

 other crimes connected with such proceedings; 

 and then, after fifteen months of such a desjierate 

 course, to have risen to lier former elevation, and 

 have passed the remainder of her life with dig- 

 nity, cahnness, resiijnation, and in the habitual 

 exercise of sincere piety, and to have met her 

 death with a degree of heroism -which has secured 

 the admiration of posterity, and strengthened the 

 doubts of her being guilty of the crimes imputed 

 to her. The whole controversy, from Buchanan 

 to Bell, is, I take for granted, known to your 

 readers. Your publication is not the place suited 

 to an examination of such mental operations, 

 which are without a historical prototype, and 

 without a known parallel. If any light can be 

 thrown on any part of this subject, it becomes an 

 act of historical justice, a work of Christian charity 

 to Mary, and an illustration of the workings of 

 the mind in a great emergency. 



The late Chevalier Bronsted, of whose learning 

 and accuracy his archffiological works bear record, 

 and whose straightforward simplicity of mind was 

 highly estimated by all who knew him, had read 

 in manuscri[)t the second part of the confession 

 of Bothwell, made previous to his death. I think 

 the manuscript was in the private cabinet of tlie 

 King of Denmark. In that confession he owned 

 to have violated the person of jNIary, and that she 

 became enceint;i ; that she miscarried, and imme- 

 diately took measures to rid herself of him. Con- 

 cluding that event to have transpired, there seems 

 to be some clue to her forwarding the discussion 

 of her council, and acquiescing in their request to 

 marry Bothwell. A young queen, surroundeil by 

 rulhans, barbarians, and seltish and unprincipled 

 leaders of fiiclions, placed in a situation in which 

 every feeling of the woman was outraged, e\eTy 

 sentiment lacerated, her honour, her station, her 

 life in jeopardy, her memory liable to degradation 

 and disgrace, in terror, having in snch extremity 

 no friend to whom she could apply for advice and 

 succour, she may have been induced to adopt 

 means for her safety which, if injudicious, were 

 excusable. My request is, to learn if any of yoiu' 

 correspondents have seen or are cognisant of this 

 very curious alid important document. iEoEOTUs. 



fHtnnr eUucit'csf. 



229. "'Tis Twopence now" S^-e. — Can ai y of 

 your correspondents tell me where the following 

 lines are to be found? — 



" At length in an unearthly tone I heard these accents 

 drop, 

 ' Sarvico is done, 'tis tujipence now for them as wants 

 to stop.' " 



I met with them in a newspaper (I think the 

 Morning Herald) between twenty and thirty years 



ago, but I believe they had been transferred to 

 tliat sheet from the pages of some periodical. The 

 lines above given are the concluding lines of the 

 piece ; the preceding lines were devoted to the de- 

 scri[)tion of the dying away of the tones of the 

 organ, and the musings of the poet amongst the 

 tombs in Westminster Abbey. Hemigics. 



230. Scythians blind their Slaves. — Can any of 

 your correspondents explain to me the reason why, 

 according to Herodotus, the Scythians used to 

 blind their slaves ? The passage is in chapter ii. 

 book iv. I believe the reasoning to be hopelessly 

 unreasonable, and have always been told that it 

 is so, though I have met with many who have 

 read the chapter again and again without even 

 noticing the difficulty. The question is this : — - 

 What are we to supply in thought in order to 

 connect the practice of blinding the slaves with 

 the process of milking the mares, and stirring the 

 milk to separate the cream or butter from it? Is 

 it thus? Tiie Scythians only feed cattle, and 

 have no other use tor slaves than to stir the milk, 

 which they can do when blinded, at tlie same time 

 that they are unable to escape, having been de- 

 prived of sight, and so their masters have not the 

 trouble of watching them. This does not satisfy 

 me ; nor will it, I think, satisfy any one else. 



Theophti.act. 

 Blacklieath. 



231. The ''Gododinr— In the Note on "The 

 Antiquity of Kilts," Mr. Stephens quotes the Go- 

 dodin, an ancient poem, or poems, on which there is 

 gi'eat diversity of opinion regarding its contents. 

 The Gododiu was written or composed by Aneurin, 

 in the dialect of the Northumbrian Britons, about 

 the year 510, .according to Llwyd. It is evident 

 that a work of this description, with the usual 

 accidents attending on transmission, must neces- 

 sarily be somewhat obscure at the present day. 

 Indeed, it appears to be so much so, that there 

 are two very diffi;rent versions ; one giving it as 

 the description of a battle, in which the intoxi- 

 cated Britons were easy victims to the swords of 

 the " stranger ; " the other version, by the Rev. 

 E. Davies, refers it to the " Brad y Cyllyll Hirion," 

 (or, Plot of the Long Knives), or massacre of the 

 British chiefs at Stonehenge, during a feast. Now 

 as this event is stated to have occurred in 472, the 

 Dinogat of Aneurin is not the Dinogat of 577. 

 Moreover Davies describes him as Octa, a son of 

 the Saxon Hcngist. As Mr. Stephens does not 

 follow this version, and as he has given consider- 

 able attention to those subjects, perhaps he is 

 enabled to decide this questio vexata. It should 

 be observed that Davies accompanies his version 

 with reasons that frive it much weisfht. Gomer. 



232. Frontispiece to Hohies's Leviathan. — 

 There are curiou scircumstances about this frontis- 



