216 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [aa* s. vi. ui., Sept. ii. 'ss. 



" measured my right thumb, and desired no more ; 

 for by a mathematical computation that twice 

 round the thumb is once round the wrist, and so 

 on to the neck and waist, and by the help of my 

 old shirt, which I displayed on the ground before 

 them for a pattern, they fitted me exactly." 



In reply to Prof. De Morgan's challenge, I beg 

 to ask whether the story of Sir Isaac Newton, 

 with his two holes in the same door, — a large 

 hole for the cat, and a little hole for the kitten, — 

 is a fact or a fiction ? Also whether the several 

 anecdotes of the same philosopher's absence of 

 mind, narrated by Sir David Bresvster, do not 

 suggest the idea that a " flapper " was a most use- 

 ful companion ? Many more such might be cur- 

 rent in society when Swift wrote which may now 

 be lost, but would have still farther justified his 

 satire. Will Prof. De Morgan assert that men 

 who have been great in mathematics have often 

 been great in other things ? Hilton Henbuky. 



Remains of James II. (2'"' S. vi. 162.)— The 

 annexed information may be added to that given 

 in Rivington's Annual Register for 1824, quoted 

 by J. H. B. 



On July 12th, 182G, in excavating for the foun- 

 dation of the steeple of the new church at St. Ger- 

 main several leaden boxes were discovered, on 

 one of which was the following inscription : — 



" Ici est line portion dc la chair et des parties nobles dii 

 corps du trfes-haut, trfes-puissant et excellent prince Jacques 

 Stuart, Second du nora, roi de la Grande-Bret.agne, lie le 

 XXIII. Octobre mdcxx.\iii., de'ccde' en France il Saint- 

 Germain-eu-Laye, le xvi. Septembre mdcci." 



The arras of the Stuart family were engraved 

 on the base of the inscription. 



Some of your readers may be amused with the 

 subjoined lines written after the death of James 

 II. : — 



"C'est ici que Jacques Second, 

 Sans niinistres et sans maitresse, 

 Le matin allait h la messe, 

 Et le soir allait au sermon." 



Gallus. 



Nostradamus : Joachim (2"^' S. vi.',148.) — E. L. 

 inquires who was the Abbate Joachimo, and where 

 are his prophecies to be found ? He was a Cala- 

 brian, a Benedictine monk, and abbot of the mo- 

 nastery of his order at Florence in the twelfth 

 century, died 1202. A man who puzzled the Ro- 

 mish church, and of whom Moreri with justice 

 remarks : " il fait dans sa vie tant de bruit ians 

 le monde, et qui est encore aujourd'hui un grand 

 probl^me apres sa niort." Many miracles were 

 performed at his tomb, and an attempt was made 

 to canonise him. This was refused by the Pope 

 on account of the heresies that were found in his 

 works and prophecies. His life was so extr.aor- 

 dinary that, while many thought him the most 

 profound doctor, the most enlightened prophet, 

 and greatest saint the church had ever seen, 



others considered him as strongly tinctured with 

 heresy, an impostor, hypocrite, and heretic. He 

 considered himself to be the only person who had 

 found the true key to the Apocalypse. His pro- 

 phecies are to be found in my library, and I hope 

 in the British Museum. It is a small 4to of 151 

 pages, with twenty-nine very extraordinary wood- 

 cuts from drawings in the Vatican ; each Pro- 

 phecy is accompanied with notes by Paul Scaliger. 

 No place or date. Probably oflence was taken at 

 a reference to the Ursini family, that the first 

 Pope it furnished should shave the church, that he 

 might nourish the bears' feet (his nephews) ; and, 

 therefore, his den (the church) was to be fed with 

 the finest of the wheat. There is a thirtieth cut 

 added, representing Luther as a monk with an 

 ugly devil .astride upon his shoulders, followed by 

 Melancthon. 



"Watkins and Le Dictionnaire Unimrsel call 

 Joachim a Cistercian. His life was published by 

 Gervaise, 2 vols. 12mo. 1745. 



If E. L. cannot more readily find these strange 

 predictions which so shook the church, it will give 

 me great pleasure to show him my copy. 



George OrroR. 



Grove Street, South Hackney. 



The Great Historical Dictionary says Joachim — 



" A Calabrian by birth, and a monk of the order of the 

 Cistercians, afterwards abbot and founder of the congre- 

 gation of Flora, was iu great esteem towards the end of the 

 lltli centnr3'. He writ divers works, viz. Commentaries 

 upon Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Revelatimis, wherein he 

 shews, that Antichrist was already born at Eome, and 

 to be exalted there; as also, a Concordance of the Old J 

 and New Testament, and his famous Propliecies concern- I 

 ing the Popes of Rome. He died in 1202. This Abbot, ' 

 as well as Cardinal Cusanus, Johan. Lightenbergius, Hil- 

 degarda, and St. Bridget, in his writings fore-told a gene- 

 ral change of religion. In the Council of Lateran held 

 in 1215, a Treatise of his concerning the Trinity, writ 

 against the Master of the Sentences, was condemned as 

 heretical ; but Georg. Laudo, an abbot of his own Order, 

 undertook his defence : however, certain it is, that he 

 was very famous for his piety and learning ; and in the 

 time wherein he lived, esteemed as a prophet." 



Nostradamus, according to the same authority, 

 who was born "at Salon, or as others at St. i 

 Remy in Provence," published his Prophetical 

 Centuries in 1555, and died July 2, 1566, aged 

 sixty-two years, six months, and seventeen days. 

 Stcphanus Jodellus, who was no admirer of astro- 

 logy, gives this witty character of him : — 



" Nostradamus ciim falsa damns, nam fallere nostrum est, 

 Et ciun verba damus, nil nisi nostra damus." 



The authorities given are " Spond. Beuche." 



R. W. 



English and Welsh Languages in Pembrokeshire 

 (2"'' S. vi. 70.) — G. C. G. asks to what extent 

 the English has displaced the Welsh in the above 

 county. As no correspondent from the locality 

 has answered his Query, perhaps you will permit 



