2n* S. VI. 1S6., Dec. 25. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



525 



I 



Christmas Beasts. — Considering the important 

 position which the rearing of prize beasts now 

 occupies in the public estimation, one is pained to 

 remember the ribaldry with which attempts to 

 produce fat cattle were assailed in the earlier 

 years of the present century. There was at that 

 period a resident member of the University of 

 Cambridge, who held a farm within an easy 

 distance of his College, and very commendably 

 devoted himself to the pleasing occupation of 

 fattening beasts for the market, and also for prize 

 competition. At that period the Duke of Sussex 

 visited the University, in order to take up his 

 doctorate ; and H. K. H., always a friend to pro- 

 gress, availed himself of the opportunity to visit 

 the farm in question, and to inspect the animals 

 then and there under the process of fattening. 

 This incident gave rise to the following epi- 

 gram : — 



" When Sussex's Duke took his doctor's degree. 

 And to Cambridge came down to be made L.L.D., 

 He first saw the lions, then, Bj'lsy's milch cows, 

 And was vastly delighted with Sam and his spouse ; 

 And declared, 'pon his honour, on leaving Goose- 

 Green, 

 Such BEASTS, in his life, he never had seen." 



Cantab. 



Singular Privilege ■■ Dukes of Altamira. — It was 

 the custom at the cathedral of Seville on the fes- 

 tival of Corpus Christi for some boys who were 

 educated by the chapter, and were known by the 

 name of seizes (query sizars), to dance before the 

 high altar in the presence of the capitular body, 

 and an extraordinary privilege was granted by 

 the Pope to these dancers, of wearing their hats 

 within sight of the consecrated host. The Dukes 

 of Altamira are mentioned as the only other per- 

 sons to whom this was allowed. On certain occa- 

 sions, at the elevation of the host, they were wont 

 to clap on their hats and draw their swords, as 

 if showing their reailiness to give a conclusive 

 answer to any argument against transubstantia- 

 tion. {Vide Doblado's Letters from Spain, p. 270.) 

 This reminds us of the nobles in Poland and Li- 

 thuania, who at the saying of the creed stood up 

 and drew their swords, in token that if need were 

 they were ready to defend and seal the truth of 

 it with their blood. (Wheatly, in loco.) E. H. A. 



Anne Boleyn punished in Etna. — Brydone, in 

 his Tour through Sicily and Malta, letter ix., in 

 describing his ascent of Mount Etna, was ques- 

 tioned by some of the natives of Nicolosi what 

 were his motives for making so fatiguing and 

 disagreeable a journey. One of his questioners 

 observed that he remembered several of the In- 

 glesi, who had at different times paid visits to 

 Mount Etna, and that he never yet could find 

 out their motive ; but he had heard many of the 

 old people say that the Inglesi had a queen who 

 had burnt in the mountain for many years past, 



and that they supposed these visits were made 

 from some devotion or respect for her memory. 

 In answer to Mr. Brydone's inquiries, they in- 

 formed him first that her name was Anna ; next, 

 that she was wife to a king who had been a Chris- 

 tian, but that she had made him a heretic, and 

 was in consequence condemned to burn for ever 

 in Mount Etna. This explanation showed Mr. 

 Brydone that Anne Boleyn was meant. On his 

 mentioning her name the man answered, " Si 

 signor, I' istessa, 1' istessa ; la conosce meglio che 

 noi." 



Query, is this belief respecting the punishment 

 of Anne Boleyn in the flames of Etna mentioned 

 by any other traveller in Sicily ? The idea in 

 question is purely modern. The ancients con- 

 ceived their hell as a gloomy subterranean vault ; 

 and therefore believed that caverns, not volcanos, 

 were its outlets. L. 



Two French Epigrams. — The French of for- 

 mer days took their revenge for the worst injury, 

 and their comfort in the deepest woe, in an epi- 

 gram. When the country was prostrated in the 

 bankruptcy of Law, and when Law himself had 

 fled from public indignation, they turned upon 

 the luckless Abbe Tengin, who had the honour of 

 converting the charlatan to the Catholic faith in 

 order to qualify him for undertaking the financial 

 plans of the pious Regent Orleans, and thus rated 

 him for the public misfortune : — 



" Foin de ton zfele serapbique 

 Malheureux Abbe de Ten^in, 

 Depuis que Law est Catholique, 

 Tout le Koyaume est Capucin." 



" Thou Priest of too seraphic zeal. 

 Plague on thy power to convince. 

 Who, teaching Law at mass to kneel. 

 Made France do penance ever since." 



Again, on hearing of Law's death in 1729, at 

 Venice, the public regret at his loss found utter- 

 ance in the following : — 



"Cy git cet Ecosse ce'lfebre, 

 Ce calculateur sans ^gal. 

 Qui par les regies de I'Algfebre 

 A mis La France k I'Hopital." 



" Here lies a Scot of reputation, 

 Adept unmatched in calculation ; 

 Whose algebraical equation 

 Has to the ' poor house ' brought the nation." 



A. B. R. 



Belmont. 



Old Style versus New : Protest of a British 

 Oak. — Our medieval annals supply us with 

 abundant records of trees that budded or bloomed 

 on Christmas Day ; and the last century fur- 

 nishes numerous instances of popular discontents 

 occasioned by the legislative act which altered 

 Old Style into New. But the case is not so 



