2° d S. IX. June 30. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



515 



but as one of curiosity, being extremely rare to 

 be found. 



Its use in dispersing the power of " glamour," 

 or of witchcraft, has been famous since the most 

 ancient times ; indeed nobody knows how long. A 

 curious illustration may be cited from the Last 

 Battell of the Soule in Death, by Mr. Zachary 

 Boyd, 1629 (p. 68. ; reprint, 1831, p. 24.), wherein 

 " The Pastour" says to " The Sicke Man" : — 



" Sir — it shall bee your farre best to suffer the loue of 

 Christ swallow vp the loue and all other considerations 

 of worldlie thinges, as Moses his serpent swat'owed vp the 

 serpent of the Magicians. Whateuer seemeth pleasant 

 into this world vnto the naturall eye, it is but by jug- 

 gling of the senses: If we haue the grace of God, this 

 grace shall be indeede like as a foure-nooked Clatter, is in 

 the opinion of some, viz. a most powerfull meanes against 

 the juggling of the sight: If wee could seeke this grace, 

 it would let vs see the vanitie of such thinges which be- 

 guile the natural senses." 



G.N". 



Title of the Ckoss (2 nd S. ix. 437.)— Corne- 

 lius k Lapide, who died in 1637, in his Com- 

 mentary on St. Mattheio, ii. 23. and xxvii. 37., 

 gives a description of this holy relic, which he 

 says he had often seen and venerated, in the 

 church of the Holy Cross in Rome. He testifies 

 that it is very imperfect, and that nothing re- 

 mains of the inscription but the word Nazarenus, 

 written in Greek and Roman characters, in the 

 Hebrew manner, from right to left. The Hebrew 

 letters, he says, are so much worn away that only 

 the tops or ends of them are discernible. An 

 engraving of the title was published by Bosius, 

 De Cruce Triumphanlc, lib. i. cap. 11. It ap- 

 pears that the letters were red, and that the board 

 was painted white. Alban Butler says it was so 

 when discovered in the leaden case in 1492, but 

 that these colours are since faded. He gives the 

 present length of the board as nine inches, but 

 says it must have been twelve. A friend who 

 inspected this sacred relic only a few years ago, 

 brought from Rome an engraving of the title in 

 its present state, which he showed me, and no 

 doubt such engravings are easily procured. 



F. C. H. 



Exetee Domesday (2 na S. ix. 386.) — May I 

 ask your learned correspondent M.A., Oxon., to 

 put on record the earliest date of possession of 

 property in Devon by the De Spineto family (De 

 Thorne) : by so doing he will much oblige 



D'ESPINE. 



Halfpenny of George II. (2 nd S. ix. 426.) — 

 With reference to a Query from J. Mn. about a 

 halfpenny of George II., 1731-2, I take leave to 

 say that I have a couple of them in my cabinet, 

 and that if J. Mn. had seen any that had not been 

 rubbed he would not in them perceive any trace 

 of the rat. I have heard that on a Jacobite re- 

 marking that the Hanoverian rat was running up 

 Britannia, a Whig replied, turning over the coin, 



" Here's the cat to catch him ! " and if the head be 

 rubbed, the likeness to a cat is as good as that to 

 the rat on the other side — the leaves of the laurel 

 forming the ears and a small hole beneath the 

 eye ; while the outline of the back of the head 

 makes a capital resemblance of a cat's back : both 

 cases being of course quite accidental. 



H. T. Humphreys. 



Hugh de Cressingham (2 nd S.ix. 388.)— Some 

 " trace " of Hugh de Cressingham, temp. Edward 

 I., is found in The Life and Acts of Sir William 

 Wallace, by Henry the Minstrel, 4to., Edin. 1820, 

 edited by Dr. Jamieson — Buke Sewyndu. 1171-2., 

 he appears in the command of a portion of the 

 English army at the battle of Stirling Bridge : — 



" Hew Kertyngayme the wantgard ledis he, 

 With twenty thousand of likly * men to se." 



Dr. Jamieson states in his Notes, " He is called 

 Kirkinghame in editions. But the person meant 

 was Cressingham, an ecclesiastic who was the 

 king's treasurer," " a pompous and haughty man," 

 says Hemingford, " who hurried on the battle in 

 opposition to the counsel of Lundie and others." 

 (Hist. pp. 118. 127. 129.) 



Of his fate in that conflict, v. 1194-1200 : — 



" Wallace on fute f a gret scharp sper J he bar ; 

 Amang the thikest off the press he gais, 

 On Kertyngayme a straik chosyn he hais 

 In the byrne 1- . §, that polyst was full brycht. 

 The punyeand hed the plattis persyt rvcht, 

 Throuch the body stekit || him but reskew, 

 Derffly ^f to dede ** that chyftane was adew." 



In the "Chronicle of Lanercost," a MS. some 

 particulars of which were communicated by Mr. 

 Ellis of the British Museum to Dr. Jamieson, is 

 the following passage, not inconsistent with simi- 

 lar instances of revenge which occurred when the 

 Scot was harassed and exasperated by a powerful 

 foe : — 



" Inter quos cedidit thesaurarius Anglia? Hugo de Kers- 

 yngham, de cujus corio ab occipite usque ad talum Wills 

 Waleis latam corrigiam sumi fecit, ut inde sibi faceret 

 cingulum ensis sui." (Preliminary Remarks, p. xiii.) 



G. N. 



Weather Glasses (2 nd S. ix. 343.) — I have 

 possessed one of what I suppose your correspon- 

 dent Exon refers to under this head for twenty 

 years or more, and I have seen many others. As 

 the indications are not very definite, I do not re- 

 gularly observe or record it as I do the barometer 

 and thermometer, rain gauge, &c, but it is de- 

 cidedly affected by weather. Here is the vendor's 

 printed account of it and its virtues : — 



" A New Curious Instrument. 

 Formed of different Compositions, which will exactly 

 shew the Weather; particularly high Wind, Storm, or 



* Having good appearance. 



t Foot. X s pear. § Corslets. 



II Stabbed. f Vigorously. ** Death. 



