2»« S. VI. 1D4., July 24. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



67 



The error of Solon, his reporter, or Herodotus, 

 or of the MSS., has caused Mr. Rawlinson to fall 

 into the error of rendering Sio rpiTou fT(os (every 

 third yehT (ii. 4.) "every other year;" and Sir 

 G. AVilkinson likewise (Herod, vol. ii. p. 286.), 

 " at the end of every second year" (see Matthias, 

 Gr. Gr. § 580.), thus reckoning thirty-five inter- 

 calary months In seventy years instead ai fifteen. 

 The Grecian year in use in the time of Herodotus, 

 subsequent to Solon's, and before Meton's, was 

 probably that of Cleostratus, the period being 8 

 years of 3.54 days, intercalating 3 months of 30 

 davs, together 2922, or 365^ days in the year. 

 {fiist. o/Astron. U. K. S. 21.) The Thebans did 

 not intercalate months, or strike out days like 

 the rest of the Greeks, but made their year con- 

 sist of 12 months (of 30 days each), and 5i days. 

 (Diod. Sic. i. 50.) 



A short method of settling a diflSculty, which has 

 perplexed so many scholars, is to treat the whole 

 story of Solon's interview with Croesus as a fic- 

 tion, — the right one, if Voemel is correct in his 

 chronology. {Penny Cyc. art. " Solon," p. 213.) 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Minax ^atzi. 



Dr. Johnson and the Odes of Horace. — In the 

 Literary Gazette of July 3, is a review of Lord 

 Ravensworth's Translation of Horace, which starts 

 by saying that Dr. Johnson said, " the lyrical part 

 of Horace can never be properly translated ;" and 

 according to the reviewer, it appears that his 

 saying still holds good. It seems, however, that 

 the Doctor had a mind to try his genius in that 

 way, for I happen to have his translation of the 

 14th Ode in Book II., which was sent to me by a 

 lady in Scotland, It appears probable that it 

 was translated for some friend, during his visit to 

 Scotland ; being written on a quarter of a sheet 

 of paper, on both sides, and has his autograph : 

 " Sam. Johnson." It has not been published, and 

 was found on looking over the papers of a lately 

 deceased nobleman. The last verse runs thus: 



" After jour death, the lavish heir 

 Will quickly drive awaj' his woe; 

 The wine you kept with so much care 

 Along the marble floor shall flow." 



T. G. LoMAx. 

 Lichfield. 



Materials for the History of French Protest- 

 antism. — A recent volume of the Bidletin de la 

 Societe de VHistoire du Protestantisme Francais 

 contains the account of a journey through Hol- 

 land, undertaken by an agent of the Society for 

 the purpose of discovering manuscripts or rare 



method of intercalation gives 3G5ij daj's for a j'ear, short 

 of Dclambre and Laplace only by5i hours and 49 minutes, 

 that of Cleostratus being in excess 11 minutes. 



books relating to French refugees who settled 

 in that home of civil and religious freedom. The 

 Bidletin itself, and M. Haag's biographical dic- 

 tionary. La France Protestante, abundantly prove 

 that the Society does not shrink from labour, and 

 deserves more general support than it has yet met 

 with in this country. In the hope of eliciting 

 other references to unexplored sources, I send an 

 extract from Mr. Cowie's Catalogue of MSS. and 

 Scarce Boohs in the Library of St. Johns Coll., 

 Cambridge (4to., Cambr. Ant. Soc, 1842) : — 



" T. 1 — 7. Memoires et Actes touchant ceu.v de la Re- 

 ligion pretendue Rtfnrmee en France. MS. folio, paper. 



" This volume, and all the following were given to the« 

 College bv William Grove, B.D., formerly Fellow of the 

 College, in 17G2. 



" The present volumes are a collection of all kinds of 

 papers relating to the French Protestants, both in the 

 way of laws against them, &c., and their own internal 

 arrangements." 



J. E. B. Mayok. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



Aytowis " Ballads of Scotland : " Hewysons 

 " Fables." — In the introduction to Professor Ay- 

 toun's Ballads of Scotland," which has just issued 

 from the press of Messrs. Blackwood (p. llx.), the 

 author, in alluding to the influence which the 

 poetry of James I. had on his successors, adduces 

 " the compositions of Robert Henryson, a writer 

 of the age of James II.," and gives a quotation 

 from the prologue to Henryson's Fables. He 

 afterwards says, " I am tempted to insert one 

 other composition by this remarkable poet, whose 

 Fables, which hitherto have existed only in manu- 

 script, are I understand to be shortly printed 

 under the superintendence of Mr. David Laing ; " 

 and then follows the poem of " The Abbay Walk." 

 The learned professor could not have furnished 

 a better proof than this note affords of the length 

 of time in which he has been engaged, as he 

 tells us, in the task of " collecting and restoring, 

 in so far as that was possible, the scattered frag- 

 ments of the Scottish Ballad Poetry." The note 

 for that part of his "Introduction" which I 

 have quoted regarding Henryson, must have been 

 written pricft- to 1832 ; for in that year I find that 

 The Moral Fables of Robert Henry-ton were, by 

 the Maitland Club, " reprinted from the Edition 

 of Andrew Hart." The professor's memory, how- 

 ever, has misled him. In recording the then in- 

 tended publication as from a MS. hitherto inedited, 

 because the Maitland Club edition was, as already 

 seen, reprinted from one by Andrew Hart, which, 

 however, as stated in the preface to the reprint, 

 was "not the first edition." D. J. 



Paislej-. 



Who was John Bunyan ? — John Bunyan was 

 simply a gipsy of mixed blood, who must have 

 spoken the gipsy language In great purity; for 

 considering the extent to which it is spoken to- 



