470 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[2nd §, No 24., June 14. 56, 
still more remarkable, she has been brought to bed twice 
within the space of one year last past, and had twins 
each time, being four children in twelve months.” 
Thoresby in his History of Leeds mentions, 
Jane, the wife of Doctor Phineas Hudson, Chan- 
cellor of York, as having died in the thirty-ninth 
year of her age, of her twenty-fourth child, and 
Dorothy, the wife of Mr. Joseph Cooper, of Leeds, 
of her twenty-sixth; also, that a Mr. William 
Greenhill, of Abbots-Langley, in Herts, had thirty- 
nine children by one wife. 
An inscription on a tomb in St. Martin’s church, 
Leicester, gives the information that Mrs. Hey- 
rick of that place lived to see springing from 
herself one hundred and forty-three descendants. 
R. W. Hacxwoop. 
A Blackbirds Note.—It is interesting at this 
season to listen to the varied notes of the thrush 
and blackbird. I was startled the other day ata 
performance of a very fine blackbird, who actually 
produced the following, which I will endeavour to 
render intelligible in default of musical characters. 
Key of C. Begin with G second lines GAB 
semiquavers, D crotchet ; descend to B quaver, and 
end, as begun, with G crotchet. This the bird 
whistled loudly and distinctly, but only once; I 
listened in vain for it a second time amid a great 
variety of other notes. CHE: 
National Defences.—The following aphorism 
from Cotton’s Lacon is worthy the attention of 
modern statesmen, who, purchasing wisdom from 
experience, would be willing to avoid the disasters 
which befel the British nation at the commence- 
ment of the late war: 
“A poor nation that relaxes not from her attitude of 
defence, is less likely to be attacked, though surrounded 
by powerful neighbours, than another nation which pos- 
sesses wealth, commerce, population, and all the sinews 
of war, in far greater abundance, but unprepared. For 
the more sleek the prey, the greater is the temptation, 
and no wolf will leave a sheep to dine upon a porcupine.” 
‘ Joun Pavin Purrirs. 
Haverfordwest. 
Comenius, John Amos; the Educational Re- 
formator of the Seventeenth Century.— This is one 
of the persons whose life is most faultily recorded 
even in the Biographie Universelle. It begins 
thus: “ He was a Bohemian by origin, and was 
born in 1592 in the village of Comna, near Bru- 
men (!) in Moravia.” After various fates, it was 
in Lissa, in Poland, where he published his Janua 
Linguarum, which, a rare %xample of literary 
success, had been, during the next twenty-six 
years, translated and printed in twelve different 
languages; besides Turkish, Arabian, Persian, 
and Mongolian translations, which circulated in 
MSS. In 1637, Comenius came to England ; and 
there has been printed in the same year an inter- 
esting tract at Oxford, entitled, Conatuum Come- 
nianorum Preludia. His fame and consideration 
must have been great here, as in 1648 an English 
work appeared in London, A Continua tion of M. 
John Amos Comenius’ School Endeavo urs. The 
British Museum Library possesses many of his 
works, printed in Holland and Germany, but 
none in the Czechian language printed in Lessna, 
Prague, &c. 
I think the Polish Historical Society of Paris, 
presided over by Prince Adam Czartoryski, in- 
tans to issue a memoir of this important, and 
erto little known, Slavian luminary. 
J. Lotsxy, Panslave. 
15. Gower Street, London. 
Queries. 
QUERIES ON A TOUR. 
During a tour through Central Europe last 
year, whenever I was at a loss for information on 
any subject, I determined to seek for it on my 
return in the pages of “ N. & Q.;” and though I 
have, by after research, been able to satisfy my- 
self on most points, I shall feel greatly obliged if 
some one of your many able correspondents would 
answer the following questions : 
1. Gatta Melata. —In the Campo adjoining 
Sant’ Antonio at Padua, a noble equestrian 
statue, inscribed “ Opus Donatelli Flor,” is said 
to represent a Gatta Melata, whose real name was 
Erasmo di Narni. Where is any account of him 
to be found? He is probably to be looked for in 
the first half of the fifteenth century, as Donatelli 
died in 1466. This was the earliest public eques- 
trian statue erected in Italy after the revival of 
the arts. In reply to inquiries concerning it made 
on the spot, I could only obtain such answers as 
** Non so,” and “ E cdésa d’ Antichita!” 
2. Serraglia. — How early was the word serra- 
glia, or serraglio, used in the sense of mura, walls, 
as the “ Seraglio di Mantoua.” 
3. St. Richard. —In the Silver Chapel at- 
tached to the Hof Kirche at Innsbruck, on a 
ledge against the wall, between the tombs of 
Ferdinand and his wife Philippina, are arranged 
some two dozen small bronze statues of saints, all 
of royal or noble lineage, and mostly allied to the 
House of Hapsburg, but including two English 
ones, St. Jodok and St. Richard: the latter, the 
guardian pertinaciously insisted, was our Ri- 
chard I. The lion-hearted king little dreamed 
of beatification, especially on Austrian territory. 
Query, When did St. Richard exist ? 
4. Turkish Inscription. — An inscription is said 
to be still visible at the entrance of the Turkish 
baths situated near the foot of the Blocksberg at 
Buda, but I looked for it in vain, and shall be 
glad of a copy, or of a reference where it is to be 
found, 
