470 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2-4 S. VI. 153., Dec. 4. '5?. 



I have many such valuable and curious documents 

 (and few have not, if brought to light), but I 

 could not afford to print tbem privately, and 

 otlierwise they would not bear sufficient public 

 interest, even with the Camden Society. Perhaps 

 some correspondent may devise the best and easiest 

 mode, say of exchanging. Simon Ward. 



ComeiofliOl (2"'' S vi.396.)— In the Illustrated 

 London News of the 13th idtimo, a correspondent 

 gives another extract from The Chronicle of Eng- 

 land respecting this comet, viz. : 



" A.D. 1401. In the nioneth of March appeared a biasing 

 starre, first betwixt the east and the north, and last of all 

 putting fierce beames toward the North ; forshewing, per- 

 aduenture, the effusion of blood about the partes of Wales 

 and Northumberland." 



Tiiis may be the comet of March, 1402 (New 

 Style), which, says Mr. Hind {The Comets, 1852, 

 p. 8.), " was visible day and night in the circum- 

 polar regions of the heavens in Germany and 

 Italy." Its tail was curved like a sabre; and 

 though there do not appear to be sufficient data 

 for the computation of the elements of the comet, 

 it is highly probable that it passed very near the 

 earth. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



" Poets, true Poets, are Prophets" (2"^ S. vi. 

 409.) — Your correspondent, E. H. K., will find 

 these prophetic anticipations of modern discovery 

 not unfrequent in our earlier poets. In illustra- 

 tion of this remark I forward for insertion two 

 passages which strongly prefigure the means 

 adopted by modern science to render surgical 

 operations painless. They are extracted from A 

 pleasant Conceited Comedy, wherein is shewed How 

 a 7nan may choose a Good Wife from a Bud, by an 

 uncertain author, and first published in 1602. 

 The play appears to have been very popular, for 

 five editions were issued within a brief period. 



" Fuller. I'll fit him finel}-; in this paper is 

 The juice of mandrake, by a doctor made, 

 To cast a man, whose leg should be cut oflf, 

 Into a deep, a cold, and senseless sleep ; 

 Of such approved operation 

 That whoso takes it, is for twice twelve hours 

 • Breathless, and to all men's judgements past all sense." 



Act III. Sc. 2. 

 " Fuller. That compound powder was of poppy made 

 and mandrakes, 

 Of purpose to cast one into a sleep, 

 To ease the deadlv paiu of him whose leg 

 Should be saw'd oflf." — Act V. Sc. 3. 



T. C. Smith, 



Connecticut Charter Oak (2°* S. ii. 226. 386.)— 

 This spot, so celebrated in the history of Connec- 

 ticut, is now being cut up and laid out for build- 

 ing purposes. Already the masons have com- 

 menced the foundations for new palaces — choice 

 fruit and ornamental trees have been trodden 

 under foot, and even the stump of the famous old 



Charter Oak has been dug up, and nothing now 

 remains to mark the spot where the tree that pro- 

 tected the Cbarter of Connecticut once stood, and 

 upon whose branches generations have gazed with 

 wonder and admiration. Ere long, the precise 

 spot upon which the tree stood may become a 

 question of dispute. When it was proposed in the 

 legislature of 1857 to purchase this place for the 

 site of the new Capitol, it was met with much 

 favour and enthusiasm among a majority of the 

 members ; but it has now fallen into the hands of 

 a private corporation. It may be considered some- 

 what singular, that a spot allied so closely with 

 the early history of our State should have been 

 neglected by the people. The land upon which 

 the tree stood, if nothing more, should have been 

 purchased ; and the old stump, with all its un- 

 sightly bunches and gnarled knots, held sacred. 

 But it has been otherwise. Surely, the ghost of 

 Capt. Wadsworth has a good reason to be after 

 some one. Time and the almighty dollar will soon 

 obliterate all objects associated with the old Oak, 

 and it will only be known in history. — Sunday 

 Herald, St. Louis, Ma., Sept. 12, 1858. J. Y. 



Suspended Animation (2"^ S. v. 453. 514. ; vi. 

 298.) — In the Gentleman s Magazine for April, 

 1801, appears the following obituary notice : — 



" Lately at Chester, aged 92, Christopher Lowe, many 

 years bill-distributor for the Theatre Royal of Chester. 

 This venerable patriarch was a native of Preston ; and, 

 when in his IGth year, was afflicted with a fever, of 

 which he apparently died. He was laid out, shrowded, 

 and coffined ; and nearly three days after his supposed 

 demise, while carrying on four men's shoulders to the 

 grave, he suddenly knocked at the lid of the coffin ; and 

 to the ineffable amazement of the carriers and attendants, 

 on opening it, they found honest Christopher in a com- 

 plete state of resuscitation. For many j-ears after he 

 used to amuse and astonish liis neighbours and friends 

 with the 'wonderful things he saw in his trance.'" 



T. N. Bbcshfield. 



Chester. 



Airish, Grattan, and other Names for Stuhhle 

 (2°* S. vi. 328.)— This word, which in Hampshire 

 and Sussex is pronounced earsh, is most probably 

 derived from the Anglo-Saxon erian (Lat. arare'), 

 to plough, with the ordinary affix -ish ; that is, 

 land from whence the crop has been taken, and is 

 ready for tillage or ploughable. In the Weald of 

 Kent and Sussex it is called grattan, which may 

 probably be from the French " gralter" to scratch, 

 because it has just been raked over. Can any of 

 your readers correct me, if wrong ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



'' Some," peculiar xise of (2"^ S. vi. 284.)— This 

 word is used in a similar manner in South Lan- 

 cashire. But instead of saying, as in Norfolk, 

 " That is some botness," the expression is, " It is 

 some and hot," '' some " being almost invariably 

 substituted for "very." G. (1.) 



