252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"d s. IX. Mar. 31. '60. 



Sir Bernard de Gomme (2 na * S. ix. 221.) — 

 In a communication recently received from a gen- 

 tleman at the Tower, whom I had asked for infor- 

 mation about Sir Bernard, are given extracts from 

 the Registry of Burials kept in the Tower chapel. 

 Under the year 1685 occur these entries : — 



"Lady Katherine de Gomme, Oct. 19th." 

 "Sir "Bernard de Gomme, Surveyor of Ordnance, Nov. 

 30th.", 



The words " Surveyor of Ordnance " seem to have 

 been written in different ink to the rest of the re- 

 cord, at a later date. I conclude Sir Bernard 

 must have been buried outside the walls of the 

 chapel, as his name does not appear among those 

 buried inside. No tombstone, tablet, or monu- 

 ment can be traced to his memory. 



D. W. S. and I have evidently the same object 

 in view, and I hope he may pursue his inquiries 

 to our mutual enlightenment. M. S. R. 



Brompton Barracks. 



Clerical Incumbents (1 st S. xi. 407. ; 2 nd S.ix. 8. 

 73.) — Mention has been made in " N. & Q." of in- 

 cumbents who have held their benefices for long 

 periods, and I have directed my attention particu- 

 larly to ascertain such cases : still I have not met 

 with any well-authenticated instance equalling 

 that of the Rev. Potter Cole, who died March 24, 

 1802, having been vicar of Hawkesbury seventy- 

 three years, as stated by your correspondent 

 Lambda, upon indubitable authority. Think- 

 ing it curious, and that it may interest your 

 readers, I annex a list of such clergymen holding 

 benefices prior to 1800, as are supposed to be now 

 living ; still it must be borne in mind that it may 

 be only approximating rather than perfectly ac- 

 curate, and that I may say in the words of Horace, 

 Lib. i. Od. xi., 



" . . dum loquimur, fugerit iuvida 

 iEtas." 



Names of " the Rev.," 

 the Incumbents Benefices. 



Joliffe, P. W. - - - -1791. Poole. 



Oakes, James 15. - - - 1792. Tostock. 



Lloyd, G. W. - - - - 1793. Gresley. 



Cory, Jas. ----- 1796. Shereford. 



Eyre, C. Wolff - - - 1796. Hootou -Roberts. 



Guerin, J. - - - - - 1797. Norton-Fitz warren. 



Brombv, J. H. - - - 1798. Hull. 



Allen, W. 1799. Narburgh. 



Holden, Jas. R. - - - 1799. Upminster. 



Richmond, Surrey. 



The Rev. Robert Pointer, who died in 1S3S, 

 and his father Rev. James Pointer, held the en- 

 dowed vicarage of Southoe near St. Neots for 

 ninety years. 



At the restoration of Southoe church last year, 

 a very fine stone to the memory of .John de Cly •• 

 peston, a former rector, was broken into fragments, 

 which were inserted in the walls near the roof. 

 The inscription, mentioned in the Heralds' Visita- 



tion of 1613 as "cut in stone, very ould," was as 

 legible as if recently executed. See Visitation of 

 Huntingdonshire published by the Camden Society, 

 Loud. 1848, 4to. p. 42. Joseph Rix. 



St. Neots. 



The late incumbent of Iledenham, Norfolk, 

 was presented to that living in 1812, and died 

 in December,' 1858 ; his immediate predeces- 

 sor was rector for nearly fifty years. To the 

 rectory of Denton, Norfolk, George Sandby, D.D. 

 was presented in 1750 ; he died in 1807, in which 

 year William Chester, M.A. was presented ; he 

 died in 1838 (November), and the present rector, 

 William Arundell Bouverie, B.D., was presented 

 in 1839. Seleach. 



Sympathetic Snails (2 nJ S. viii. 503. ; ix. 

 72.) — It was in the year 1850 that the question 

 of sympathy between snails was discussed at Paris. 

 Most people, of course, laughed at the whimsical 

 theory. There were, however, real believers in 

 the " telegraphe eseargotique." I myself when at 

 Paris heard a not undistinguished savant express 

 his full assent to its possibility. The theory and 

 modus operandi were, I believe, as follows. It was 

 maintained as a positive fact that the result of 

 juxta-location in some of the lower class of ani- 

 mals, such as snails, and of these that species 

 especially called by the French escargot, was a 

 complete sympathy, and a quasi identity of func- 

 tion and movement. If one, ex. g., protruded its 

 feelers, the other would immediately do the same. 

 This sympathy, moreover, after the two creatures 

 had been kept together for a certain time, would 

 not be' affected by separation or removal to any 

 distance, uven to the other side of the Atlantic ! 

 It would, therefore, only be requisite to arrange a 

 preconcerted set of signals, and thetelegraph would 

 be established. Touch, for instance, the creature's 

 head, thereby causing a movement or some kind 

 of commotion at that spot ; that might stand for A. 

 Touch the tail, and let that stand for B, and so 

 on. This being arranged, let any gentleman take 

 one of these escargots to New York, leaving the 

 other with his correspondent at Paris : the result 

 would be a communication with the Paris Bourse, 

 without troubling two great nations to employ 

 their Agamemnons and Niagaras, and expending 

 enormous wealth and appliances in laying down 

 Atlantic cables ! Risum teneatis f 



John Williams. 



Arno's Court. 



Your correspondent will find some account of 

 sympathetic snails in Letters on Animal Magnetism, 

 by the late Dr. Gregory, professor of chemistry in 

 the Edinburgh University. W. D. 



Falconer's "Voyages" f2" d S. ix. 66.)— I 

 would endorse the editor's assignment of this to 

 Chetwood by recording the authority : The British 

 Theatre, containing the Lives of the English Dra- 



