194 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 10., Mar. 8 °56, 
Bodies of the Excommunicated incapable of 
Corruption. —I had imagined the “ corpus carie 
carens” to be a distinctive attribute of those who 
had died in the odour of sanctity. It was there- 
fore with much surprise to this I found Hallam, 
in his chapter on the ‘ Ecclesiastical Power” 
(Middle Ages, c. yu. vol. ii. p. 243., 7th edit.), 
stating that, — : 
“Their carcasses were supposed to be incapable of cor- 
ruption, which seems to have been thought a privilege 
unfit for those who had died in so irregular a manner.” 
Mr. Hallam refers to Du Cange, sub voce *“ imblo- 
catus,” a word explained in the octavo abridg- 
ment, alone within my reach, as derived from 
* bloc, tumulus quidam altior,” because, instead of 
being laid below the surface, such bodies were 
rudely laid upon it and covered with rubbish and 
heaps of stones. A complete Du Cange would no 
doubt supply the authorities for the idea of incor- 
ruptibility ; and I should be obliged to any of 
your correspondents who would illustrate, either 
thence or from elsewhere, the peculiarity attri- 
buted in common to the outcast from the church 
and to her most favoured sons. Wi BENG es 
Deafness at Will. —I have a little study over a 
printing office, in which I often pass a pleasant 
hour in the pursuit of literature. The “ music of 
the presses,” and the noisy conversation of the 
“ devils” beneath, however, so often distract my 
attention when I am anxious to concentrate it, 
that I do not derive the advantage of the study I 
might. It has occurred to me, that some of your 
correspondents could suggest some mechanical 
appliance or other means which might render me 
perfectly deaf at my pleasure, and vastly augment 
my comfort. Koprnos. 
Groundolf Family. —Can you give me any par- 
ticulars of the Groundolf family, to which Agnes 
Groundolf, who married John Gower in 1397, 
belonged ? F. R. Daxpy. 
Minar Queries with Answers, 
Baskervile's Travels over England.—In the 
year 1678, Thomas Baskervile, Esq., of Sunning- 
well, Berkshire, travelled over a great part of 
England, and drew up a MS. account of his ob- 
servations. This MS. is referred to in Granger's 
Letters, p. 264., and I should be glad to know its 
whereabouts at the present time. 
Epwarp F. Riwpavtrr. 
[This MS. appears to have been at one time in the 
Harleian collection, for the Earl of Oxford communicated 
to Mr. Wise a curious extract from it respecting the 
“ White Horse” on Farringdon Hill. See Francis Wise’s 
Letter to Dr, Mead, concerning some Antiquities in Berhk- 
shire, 4to., 1738, p. 57. A portion of the MS., however, 
still remains in the Harleian collection, No. 4716, but not 
° 
that part giving an account of the “White Horse.” 
It is a thin, narrow folio, containing, 1. Baskervile’s de- 
scriptions of various places, rivers, &c., in prose and 
verse, interspersed with epitaphs, &c. in the counties of 
Wilts, Oxford, and Gloucester. 2. A list of people put 
to death in the Civil Wars in and about London from 
1641 to 1662. 3. An account of bridges over the Thames, 
beginning at Cricklade in Gloucestershire, with the num- 
ber of arches in each bridge, and their dimensions, &c. 
4. Taverns in London and Westminster, and ten miles 
round London. 700 stage-coaches allowed in London, 
and the bills of mortality, 1698. 5. Remarks in and 
about Bampton Church, 1698. Gough (British Topo- 
graphy, vol. i. p. 35.), copying Wise’s notice of the MS., 
evidently thought it was still, in its complete state, in 
the Harleian library; for he tells us, that “In the Har- 
leian library is ‘A Journal of Travels over a great Part 
of England in 1677, 1678, by Thomas Baskervile, Esq., 
of Sunningwell, in Berkshire, a gentleman of learning 
and curiosity, especially in his younger years, known at 
Oxford by the nickname of ‘The King of Jerusalem.’ 
He died about 1705, aged upwards of ninety, as appears 
from a print of him. His father was Hannibal Basker- 
vile, of Brazen-nose College, a melancholy, retired, cha- 
ritable man, so great a cherisher of wandering beggars 
that he was several times indicted at Abingdon for har- 
bouring them.” Consult also The Life of Anthony a 
Wood, by Dr. Bliss, edit. Eccles. Hist. Society, 1848, 
pp. 86, 87. note. ] 
St. Mungo and St. Machar.—I have not the 
pleasure of being so well acquainted as I should 
like to be with St. Mungo, who is said to have 
founded the bishopric of Glasgow; or with St. 
Machar, to whom the cathedral of Aberdeen is 
dedicated. Can any one furnish me with particu- 
lars relative to these illustrious individuals, or tell 
me where to find the best account of them ? 
R. W. Hacxwoop. 
[St. Mungo is better known by his alias St. Kentigern, 
respecting whom there is a long account in Alban Butler’s 
Lives of the Saints, Jan. 13. See also Britannia Sancta, 
vol. i. p.34.; and Chronicles of the Ancient British Church, 
pp. 122.125. Very little that is authentic seems to be 
known of St. Machar. An ancient Life of St. Columba 
informs us, that one of his Irish disciples, named Machar, 
received episcopal ordination, and undertook to preach 
the Gospel in the northern parts of the Pictish kingdom. 
The legend adds, that Columba admonished him to found 
his church, when he should arrive upon the bank of a 
river, where it formed, by its windings, the figure of a 
bishop’s crosier. Obeying the injunctions of his master, 
Machar advanced northwards, preaching Christianity, 
until he found, at the mouth of the Don, the situation 
indicated by St. Columba, and finally settled there his 
Christian colony, and founded the church which, from its 
situation, was called the Church of Aberdon. “Ubi 
flumen, prasulis instar baculi, intrat mare.” (Colgan, 
Trias Thau. ; Breviar. Aberdon., Noy. 12.) This Life of 
St. Columba does not give the precise era of St. Machar’s 
foundation ; but it may be conjectured to have been be- 
fore the death of his master, A.D. 597. The venerable 
Breviary of Aberdeen gives, as the ancient tradition of 
the church, that the founder of the future cathedral was 
not interred there; but, having died in France on his re- 
turn from a journey to Rome, he was buried in the church 
of St. Martin at Tours. Consult Registrum Episcopatus 
Aberdonensis, vol. i. p. X., published by the Spalding 
Club, 1845. ] 
