332 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 104. 



. Plant in Texas (Vol. iv., p. 208.). — The fol- 

 lowing is an extract fi-om a jDcriodical of 1848 or 

 1849: 



" According to the Medical Times, Major Alvord has 

 discovered on the American prairies a plant possessing 

 the property of pointing nortli and south, and has given 

 it the name of Si/lphiuin Uiciniafitm." 



G-. p#*#. 



Copying Inscriptions (Vol. iv., p. 266). — M. 

 Loftin de Laval, "by a new process," lias pro- 

 duced the most accurate copies of cuneatic in- 

 scriptions that have yet been published. It is said 

 that he has copied by his process (which must, I 

 think, be some kind of heliography) 1200 in- 

 scriptions from the Sinaitio peninsula, the publi- 

 cation of which may be speedily expected, so that 

 Mr. Euckton's wishes on this point are anticijiated. 

 These inscriptions have been already deciphered. 



E. II. D. D. 



Chantreys Statue of Mrs. Jordan (Vol. iv., p. 

 58.). — Mr. Cornish will lind this statue at Ma- 

 pledurham in Oxon, the living of the lady's son. 

 It remains there, it is stated, until an appropriate 

 site can be obtained. ^V• A. 



Portraits of Burke (Vol.iv., p.271.). — Idoubt 

 that Sir Joshua Reynolds ever painted a miniature, 

 and I should say certainly not after IMr. Burke 

 " had passed the meridian of life." Ilis sister. 

 Miss lieynolds, was a professed miniature painter, 

 and I hiive little doubt must have jiainted ]Mr. 

 Burke, as she certainly did Johnson ; but the de- 

 scription given of this miniature is very unlike IMr. 

 Burke. The name of the possessor might, in some 

 degree, enable us to ascertain whether the portraits 

 mentioned are really of the great statesman. C. 



MariiaVs Distribution of Hours (Vol. iv., 

 p. 273.). — Blartial's distribution of hours and 

 employments seems to me to be as Ibllows : — 

 From 6 till 8 the visits of the "salutantes" are 

 received ; from 8 till 9 the law tribunals are at- 

 tended ; from 9 till 11 the " varii labores" occupy; 

 from 11 till 12 the "(piies." The expression "in 

 quintam" must bring us to the end of the 5th 

 hour; and the " sex ta hora" must be that which 

 concludes at 12. 



Your inquirer A.E. B. might have further asked 

 what is thedilferonce between the " quies" of the 

 "sexta,"and the " tinis" of the " septiraa." To 

 understand this is to understand the dilKculty 

 which he propounds. I apprehend the "quies" 

 not to mean the " siesta," but that gradual and 

 perhajjs irregular cessation or suspension of em- 

 plovments which precedes the close of business 

 for'the day. The "siesta" is the "finis" of Mar- 

 tial, which would thus fall between 12 and 1 ; 

 that time of the day at which A. E. B. fixes it 

 rightly. I think he errs in identifying the " siesta" 

 with the " sexta hora." 



To question 214 I may be allowed to reply, 

 tliat tlie effect of moonlight vqion the face of those 

 who sleep exposed to it in hot climates is very 

 severe indeed, producing an appearance not very 

 unlike that of a swollen and putrescent corpse. 

 The Psalmist refers to it Ps. cxxi. 6.; and all 

 who have lived in the East Indies are well ac- 

 quainted with the phenomenon. Theophylact. 



iHtsrcIlaiicouS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



Tlie Antiquarian Gleanings in the North of England, 

 being Examples of Anliqne Furniture, Plate, Church 

 Decoratiotis, Ohjccts of Historical Interest, Sfc, draivn and 

 etched hy William B. Scott, Government School of Design, 

 Newcastle, whicli has just been completed, is a valuable 

 addition to the numerous works which have been pub- 

 lished of late years illustrative of archaeology in its 

 most picturesque aspect. It will be seen from the title 

 that Mr. Scott has not confined himself to any one class 

 of ol)jects; in some cases historical associations having 

 determined his choice ; in others, tlie rarity of examples 

 of the object illustrated ; in others, their intrinsic beauty. 

 The Chair of the Venerable Bede, and the Swords of 

 Cromwell, Fairfax, and Lambert, belong to the first of 

 these divisions; as the Nautilus Cup set in gold, and 

 the Ivory Cup, both the property of JMr. Howard of 

 Corby, belong to the last : and so much taste and skill 

 has Mr. Scott shown in the whole of the tliirty-eight 

 plates, as ijuite to justify the liopc expressed by him, 

 that in all of them the connoisseur and the artist will 

 find something worthy attention. 



We have before us two books to which we desire to 

 direct the attention of our readers. The first is A 

 Manual of Ecclesiastical History, from the First to the 

 Twelfth Century, by the Rev. E. S. Foulkcs, M..A., the 

 main plan of which has been borrowed from Spariheim, 

 and the materials principally compiled from that writer, 

 S))ondanus, IMosheim and Fleury, Gieseler, Dollinger, 

 and others, respecting whom, however, Mr. Fonlkes 

 states, " 1 believe I have never once trusted to them 

 on a point involving controversy without examining 

 their aiUhorities." " Let nobody," he elsewhere ob- 

 serves, "think tliat lie can fairly know Church Histery 

 from reading a single modern liislorian, wliether Pro- 

 testant or Roman Catholic; tlie only way of getting a 

 correct view, unless a person should have time to con- 

 sult the originals, is to read two opposite writers, side 

 by side, and balance one set of facts against tlie other 

 Yet even so it is hopeless to get a true appreciation of 

 past times except through cotemporary writings ; I 

 have thererore appended to the catalogue of modern 

 historians a few of the principal cotemporary works, 

 disciplinary, doctrinal, and historical, from age to age 

 down to the end of the twell'th century, wliicli would 

 be a far more trustworthy clue to the real sentiments 

 of the times than could be gained from a more modern 

 source, and could not, I think, fail to be a corrective to 

 narrow misapjirehensions, and a great help to the 

 student whose wish it is to be fair and candid." These 

 extracts from Mr. Foidke's preface (which contains 

 brief notices of the principal modern writers on the 



