2ad §. No 25., Junu 21. ’56.] 
Biography. —1. What is the best work to con- 
sult for the lives of the eminent characters of the 
] British islands ? ; 
2. Which is the best edition of Granger's Bio- 
graphical History of England? James GRAvEs. 
Kilkenny. 
[At present the most convenient works to consult for 
the lives of eminent British characters are Chalmers’s 
and Gorton’s Biographical Dictionaries, more especially as 
their articles contain references to other yerks for further 
particulars of each individual. The fourth edition of 
Granger’s Biographical Dictionary, 4 vols. 8vo. 1804, is 
perhaps the best, as Lowndes speaks of the fifth, in 
6 vols., 1824, as “in very little estimation.” Our corre- 
spondent must not forget Dr. Johnson’s characteristic 
notice of Granger: “The dog isa Whig. Ido not like 
much to see a Whig in any dress; but I hate to see a 
Whig in a parson’s gown.” A necessary accompaniment 
to Granger is, A Biographical History of England from the 
Revolution to the End of George I.’s Reign. By the Rey. 
Mark Noble, 8vo. 3 vols., 1806. ] 
Rubens’ “ Judgment of Solomon.” —In the Fitz- 
william Museum at Cambridge is a very good 
copy of “The Judgment of Solomon,” by P. P. 
Rubens, and I have met with several other copies, 
possessing one, of a larger size than any I have 
seen, myself. The curator at the Museum in- 
formed me that the original was, several years 
since, destroyed by fire, he believed somewhere in 
Lincolnshire. Will any of your readers be good 
enough to inform me if this be correct, to whom 
it belonged, and at what time and place it was so 
destroyed? also, what was the size of the original 
painting ? JOHN GARLAND. 
Dorchester. 
[“ The Judgment of Solomon” is described in Smith’s 
Catalogue Raisonné of Works of Painters, vol. ii. p. 279., 
where it is stated that its size was 12 in. by 15 in. ] 
Replies. 
WATCHFULNESS OF THE GOOSE. 
(Concluded from p. 475.) 
The vigilance of the goose, as compared with 
the dog, is favourably mentioned by Pliny (Hist. 
Nat., x. 26.), who adds that, in memory of the 
preservation of the Capitol, the censors gave out 
the tender for the food of the public geese before 
any other tender. The anniversary of the pre- 
servation of the Capitol was likewise celebrated, 
as late as the times of Plutarch and lian, and 
even at subsequent dates, by a slaughter of dogs, 
and an exhibition of a goose carried round in a 
richly ornamented litter. 
According to Suidas (in Maovuas), the festival 
at which the dogs were killed, in memory of their 
failure to bark when the Capitol was attacked by 
the Gauls, bore the name of Maiuma; it was 
celebrated in the month of August. The festival 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
495 
of Maiuma was not, however, confined to this sub- 
ject. See Cod., xi. 46. 
The account of Joannes Lydus, a writer who 
lived as late as the sixth century, in his work De 
Mensibus, iii. 40., is that, three days before the 
nones of August (Aug. 3.) a general slaughter of 
dogs took place in Rome, because they had be- 
trayed the Capitol, while the geese had saved it. 
Others (he remarks) said that this was done in 
order to prevent their being troublesome at night 
to the sick; and others again affirmed that it was 
in order to guard against the mischief arising 
from canine madness; for this was the time of the 
dog-star, which was believed to be the cause of 
madness in dogs. ‘The explanation derived from 
the desire of preventing annoyance to the sick is 
probably founded on the prevalence of fevers at 
Rome in the autumnal season. 
Augustine, in his Civitas Dei, ii. 22., remarks 
that the heathen gods forgot to protect Rome, 
when the city was burnt and taken by the Gauls, 
and the Capitol alone was defended. He adds 
that the Capitol itself would have been captured, 
if the geese had not remained awake, while the 
gods were slumbering. Owing to this circum- 
stance (he continues) Rome sank almost into an 
Egyptian superstition of animal worship, in offer- 
ing sacred rites to the goose. 
In the interesting article on the goose in 
Buffon’s Natural History (Oiseaux, tom. xvii., ed. 
Deux-Ponts, 1787, 12mo.), this great naturalist 
speaks of its “vigilance, tres anciennement cé- 
lébrée;” and he remarks of these birds in their 
wild state : 
“ Cette inconstance dans leur séjour, jointe 4 la finesse 
de Vouie de ces oiseaux et & leur défiante circonspection, 
font que leur chasse est difficile, et rendent méme inutiles 
la plupart des piéges qu’on leur tend.” 
Aristotle (Hist. An., i. 1.) likewise assigns to the 
goose the attributes of shyness and caution. It 
seems as if the acuteness of perception and habits 
of distrustful vigilance, which distinguish the 
goose in its wild state, are to some extent retained 
by the domesticated bird; in the same manner 
that the screams which Homer describes as cha- 
racterising a flock of wild geese remain to it in a 
tame state. (Iliad, ii. 463.) Perhaps some of 
your correspondents may possess a_ sufficient 
knowledge of the habits of the tame goose to be 
able to say whether it exhibits those vigilant and 
perceptive qualities for which the Romans gave it 
credit, and which are related to have saved the 
Capitol. 
Buffon says that the domesticity of the goose is 
less ancient and less complete than that of the 
common fowl, though anterior to that of the 
duck; and that there is more difference between 
the tame goose and the wild goose, than between 
the tame duck and the wild duck. The domes- 
tication of the goose is certuinly less complete than 
