316 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



t2«i S. VI. Ud., Oct. 16. '5?. 



THE SPIRIT BELATION: MESSES. SHERBROOKE AND 



WTNYARD. 



C2"d S. vi. 194.) 



Dv. Mayo, in his Letters on the Truths contained 

 in Popular Superstitions, thus relates the story of 

 these gentlemen : — 



" A late General W3'n3'ard, and the late Sir John Sher- 

 brooke, when young men, were serving in Canada. One 

 day — it was daylight — Mr. VV. and Mr. S. both saw 

 pass through the room where they sat a figure, which 

 Mr. W. recognised as a brother, then far away. One of 

 the two walked to the door, and looked out upon the 

 landing-place, but the stranger was not there, and a 

 servant who was on the stairs had seen nobody pass out. 

 In time news arrived that Mr. W.'s brother had died 

 about the time of the visit of the apparition." 



Dr. Mayo adds the following testimony of his 

 own as to this account : — 



" I have had opportunity of inquiring of two near rela- 

 tions of this General VVynyard, upon what evidence the 

 above story rests. They told me they had each heard it 

 from his own mouth. More recently, a gentleman whose 

 accuracy of recollection exceeds that of most people has 

 told me that he has heard the late Sir John Sherbrooke, 

 the other party in the ghost-story, tell it much in the 

 same way at a dinner- table." 



Dr. M. does, however, by no means admit, in 

 this or other similar cases, that any objective reality 

 is to be attributed to the apparition. Laying a 

 number of circumstances together, Dr. M. thus 

 expresses his final inferences : — 



"I shall assume it to be proved that 



the mind, or aoiil, of one human being, can be brought, in 

 the natural course of things, and under physical laws, 

 hereafter to be determined, into immediate relation with 

 the mind of another living person." — P. 71., 8rd edit. 

 1851. 



" Suppose our new principle brought 



into play ; the soul of the dying person is to be supposed 

 to have come into direct communication with the mind of 

 his friend, with the effect of suggesting his present con- 

 dition."— /6. 



To believe that the figure seen is the spirit, the 

 true man himself, freed from the flesh, is to incur 

 the charge of " vulgar superstition ; " yet such a be- 

 lief is in harmony with the appearances presented, 

 which are those of life and action. On the other 

 band, Dr. M.'s theory seems to require us to be- 

 lieve that a person who, as to the flesh, is prostrate 

 and dying, does, nevertheless, under physical laws, 

 create impressions the very opposite to those of 

 prostration and dying. A. B. 



Index Motto (2'^* S. iii. 100. 159.) — The follow- 

 ing appears very appropriate, and may be worth 

 adding to your list : — 



" Absente auxilio perquirimus undique frustra; 

 Sed nobis ingens Indicia auxilium est." 

 Query, Quo' auctore ? Tndagator. 



St?-)/pe's Diary and Correspondence (2"*^ S. vi. 

 268.) — Strype's papers still, I believe, remain in 

 Knight's house at Milton, which is now in the 

 occupation of Mr. Baumgartner. 



J. E. B. Matob. 



St. John's College, Cambridge. 



Sabitatioji and Cat (2"'* S. vi. 238. 278.)— 

 Albert Durer has introduced the figure of a cat 

 into a picture of the Salutation now in the Fitz- 

 william Museum, Cambridge. Thompson Cooper. 



Cambridge. 



Bissextile (2"'' S. vi. 263.) — There is a mistake 

 in the Prayer-Book of 1559, in stating that the 

 25th February " is counted for two dayes," it 

 should be the 24th ; for by the Digest (iv. tit. iii. 

 3.) in legal reckoning as to the birth of a child, 

 the 24th and following day in the bissextile year 

 were considered in the Roman law as one day. 

 The 24th February by our reckoning was the 

 Roman " sexto Calendas Martii," i. e. the sixth 

 day before the Calends, or first of March. When 

 the intercalary day was inserted, it was also called 

 " sexto Calendas Martii;" and as the name was 

 thus repeated, this day was called the hissextus 

 dies, or the sixth day twice over, for they did not 

 add another day at the end of the month of Fe- 

 bruary, as we now do ; although by 21 Henry III. 

 the Roman practice was then ordered, " Compu- 

 tetur dies ilie (that is, the second 24th) et dies 

 pr»xime precedens (the first 24th) pro uno die." 

 (Blackstone, ii. 9. ; Penny Cyc, art. Bissextile.) 

 Wheatly is .also in error (v. 28. § 5.) in saying 

 that the 23rd February is the sixth of the Calends 

 of March. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



Two Brothers of the same Christian Name (2"'* 

 S. V. 307. &c.) — The following instance may be 

 added to those already noted. John is again the 

 Christian name doubled ; and the recipients ap- 

 pear to have been twins. Throsby, in his Lei- 

 cestershire Excursions, under Beeby, gives the 

 following extracts from the register of that 

 parish : — 



" 1559. Item, 29 day of August was John and John 

 Picke, the children of Christopher and Anne, 

 baptized. 

 Item, the 31 day of August the same John and 

 John were buried." 



T. North. 

 Leicester. 



The Indian Princess Pocahontas (2"* S. vi. 267.) 

 Granger, in vol. i. 327., edit. 1824, states " Ma- 

 toaks or Matoaka, who, in Capt. Smith's curious 

 History of Virginia, is called Pocahontas, &c. . . The 

 next year (1617), upon her return home, she died 

 on shipboard at Gravesend," &c. No doubt Mrs. 

 Rogers would find something in the records at 

 Gravesend concerning her burial. 



Belateb-Adime. 



