518 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[224 §. No 26., June 28, 56, 
ventured, timidly it may be, to suggest, “ That 
Hengist and Horsa were myths: names of men, 
types possibly of qualities, but of men who had 
never existed!” I cannot describe the scene 
which ensued. There was an awful silence ; from 
amid the depths of which a deep, loud, rough 
voice exclaimed: ‘ Here is a young man present 
who doubts the existence of Hengist and Horsa.” 
Every word was duly poised and emphatised, and 
fell like drops of molten lead upon my soul. I 
attempted to maintain—it was useless. I felt as 
one living stretched upon the anatomist’s table ; 
resigned my spirit, and bore my martyrdom like 
the whole “ Book of Martyrs.” 
And now, Hengist and Horsa are declared 
myths! This brings me to the ‘point at issue,— 
the deficiency of the philosophical study of early 
historic periods. We accept as truths the details 
of periods which had no historians. The lettered 
knowledge of an ignorant and barbaric people is 
always imaginative or traditional. Incapable of 
abstract ideas, they conceive only, or realise only 
through the medium of symbols and types. ‘The 
next tendency is to exalt and deify tradition. 
Moral truths, religious ceremonies, great mental 
qualities, are in general personified ; and hence 
arise the fabulous stories of the deities, and the 
heroes who take unto themselves names, and be- 
come the assured chiefs and great men of a later 
generation. 
The “ banner and the arms” have, I submit, a 
ereatly similar origin. What is more delusive, 
even in our own day, than the origin of heraldic 
bearings ? It is not long since I received a letter, 
with a lion very rampant, clawing a banner very 
flowing. The grandfather of this was a valet. It 
is very probable the crest was drawn from the 
buttons which he bore or wore. In the same 
manner, what were probably the banner and the 
arms of the chief of a barbaric horde? The rudest 
symbol comprehensible to an ignorant tribe, 
around which to assemble,—the sign of power, the 
distinctive bearing of a clan. 
Associated with the acts and deeds, the very 
position of the chief or his followers, they retain 
force, as the heraldic bearing of a family, or of the 
county which formed his domain; and around 
them tradition soon weaves a halo of vapoury 
glory. Some well-ascertained event gives them 
a local habitation, and poetry a pleasing name. 
Then comes the sterner vigilance of a later age. 
The altar and the god sink from before it: the 
chief is resolved into his original Ossianic essence, 
and his name, if it were possible to submit it to 
any exact analysis, would be found to be rude 
symbol of some quality which had commanded 
and controlled the minds of an ignorant, imagina- 
tive, and superstitious people. Srmncur Hatt. 
Replies to Minor Querfes. 
Diana and Acteon (2° §, i. 290.) —I beg to 
say that the original picture of “Diana and 
Acton,” painted by Vandyck, nine feet by 
seven, in excellent preservation, is now in the 
possession of Mr. Saunders of the Castle Hotel, 
Lime Street, Liverpool. Freperick Hinpe. 
21. Rodney Street, Liverpool. 
The Bustard (2™ 8. i. 314.) —TI have shot a 
bustard (Otis tarda) on the frontiers of Russia. 
But we must well distinguish between a bird 
which hatches in a country, and which does not. 
Formerly the bustard was probably an indigenous 
bird in England, but has now become a mere 
straggler. Even birds indigenous in America are 
thus occasionally met with here and on the con- 
tinent. J. Lorsxy. 
15. Gower Street. 
The Rev. R. Lubbock, in his Fauna of Norfolk 
(Norwich, 1845), says of this bird : 
“The few which remain in Norfolk are said to be all 
females; at least in the case of one shot lately at Lexham, 
the person who shot it said there were several others in 
the vicinity, but all hens. One bustard three years back 
was observed in the parish of Bridgham, near Harling.” 
a 
This makes the bustard occur in Norfolk in 
1842. I myself saw a dead male bird at a poul- 
terer’s in Norwich in the winter of 1834-35. 
HOG. 
Samuel Johnson's Deformities” (279 §. i. 408.) 
— The author of that clever and severe pamphlet 
entitled, Deformities of Dr. Sumuel Johnson, se- 
lected from his Works, Edinburgh, 1782, 8vo., is 
generally understood to have been John Callandas, 
of Craigforth (near Stirling), editor and author 
of various works which display great scholarship. 
He died at a good old age, in 1789. T. G. 8. 
Edinburgh, 
Lord George Gordon's Riots (2° §. i. 287.) — 
In Barnard’s History of England, pp. 694, 695., 
there is an engraving representing “the devas- 
tation occasioned by the rioters of London, firing 
the New Gaol of Newgate, and burning Mr. 
Akerman’s furniture, &c., June 6, 1780.” 
The historian states that — 
“ Great numbers of these deluded people (rioters) were 
taken up, and afterwards by a special commission granted 
for that purpose, tried for their lives, a general view of 
which is as follows: 
“ In London and Middlesex. 
“Tried 84; found guilty 34; respited 14; executed 20; 
acquitted 50. Total 118. 
“ In Southwark. 
“Tried 50; found guilty 24; respited 17; executed 7; 
acquitted 26. ‘Total 74.” 
