, 1805.] Correfion of an Error.—Queries.—Chriftian Names. | 535 
to the firffof them by a great aftronomer, 
it was liable to objef&tion, as its analogies 
to the planets of our fyfem, notwith- 
ftanding its fmallnefs and eccentricity, 
were {till fuch as’ to correfpond far better 
with that denomination than with the de- 
nomination of ffars. But the relative 
" fituation of them, now three have been 
dif¢overed, to each other and to the fun, 
does make a difference. If the interfec- 
tion, therefore, of the Ceres and Pallas, 
and the non-afcertainment of a folid xz- 
cleus to any of the three, and the thin 
nebulofe ight which has been obferved to 
furround them, together with the circum- 
fiance of their being all of them fmall, 
and ‘pretty nearly equidiftant from the 
fon, fhould be thought fufficient to tak 
them out of the denomination of ordinary 
planets; and- if their eccentricity, fo 
vnuch lefs, I believe, than that cf any 
known comet, thorgh fo large compared 
with the ordinary planets, together with 
their being vifible during nearly the 
ewhole of their revolution, fo’ far as can 
yet be judged, fhould be thought a reafon 
again ftriétly claffing them with comets, 
would not the term cometezds corsefpond 
belt with the phenomexa, as they refemble 
comets in many more particulars than 
they do any other celeftial body, and dit- 
fer from them in fewer and lef material., 
Tam) Sir, 
Yeurs fincerely, 
Care. Lorrt. 
Ee ’ 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
ak 
A. 
Fuefday, 
Sune 4, 1805. 
Sa reader of your valuable Mifcel- 
lany, Iam happy to find you pro- 
pole to allot a portion of its pages tothe , 
Hluftration of our national antiquities.—- 
Will you allow me, through their medi- 
um, to notice a very fingular overfght in 
that excelient work the ‘Mur nimenta ‘Anti- 
qua. In the third volume, page 168, 
the learned author ftates, that, ** about the 
year 600, Pope Gregory the Great, in the 
Jatter end of his days, is affirmed to have 
had his moft ufual refidence in the cattle 
of Dunadeen, in Scotland, from whence, 
when he died, he was carried in pomp to 
be buried in the ifland of Iona,’? &c. &c. 
Mir. King continues and reafons from the 
faét, and quotes Boethius for his autho-— 
rity. Pope Gregory was the -grandfon of 
Felix ; his agent at Conttantinople ; fuc- 
ceeded to the pontificate 590 ; fent Au- 
guitine on his miffion to England about 
Goo ; and died in Italy in 604. IT have 
not a Latin edition of Hector Boece’s 
werk ; but the tranflation in the firft vo- 
lume of Holinthed ‘ays, that King Gre- 
gorie fucceeded Ethus on the throne of 
Senter in 876, and, after reigning with 
great glory, * fidlally died an happy olde 
man, in acaftell called Doundore, within 
the countrey of Garrioth, in the 18th 
yeare after his entering intohys efiate, and 
after the byrthe of our faviour 893. He 
was never maryed, but lyved in continuall 
chattitie,” &c. &c. ‘* His body was 
conveyed to the abbey of Colmkill, and 
there buryed with all folemne pompe and 
exequigs.’” ** In-the dayes of this Gre- 
gorie alfo there lived that famous clerke 
John Scott,” &c. &c. 
The only way I can account far the 
ee of thefe very different perfons, 
s,; by Mr. King’s having haftily caught 
“ the words “ Gregorius Magnus” in 
the margin of Boe: hius. 
Pi fibly fome of your Correfpondents 
may know if there be any authority for 
the word oriel as ufed by Mr. Walter 
Scott in the fecond Canto of the Lay of 
the Lat Minfrel. 
It is tated in Mr. Pennant’s Tour from 
London to Dover, that the Pharos in Do- 
ver Caftle was cafed when Sir Thomas 
Erpingham was Warden in the reign. of 
Henry 1V. his arms being {till on a ftone 
on the north fide. “The fame ftory is told 
by the. Warders who now thew the Caftle ; 
but the arms are two bars ; whereas thole 
of the Erpingham fami lye _were an inef- 
cautcheon within an orle of martletts, as 
indeed ts partly fhewn ta Mi fr, Ponies 
plate of him. 
Iam, Sir, &c. H. D.N. 
To the Editor of the Monthi ly Magaxine. 
SER . 
TY ARE caprice which has at every pe- 
JL riod atended the felines of furs 
names, adundantly accounts for the difii- « 
culty that ‘feems to arile in reducing them 
to fyRem. And, -no doubt, the remark 
will extend tio Deiitian: names. 
In the Regitter of Spalding Priory, t 
which the wrt en of your lat letter on fhe 
fubjeé&t has referred, are feveral inftances 
of two fons of a'man having ove name, 
both of them living at the fametinre. In 
one inftance they were both Williams ; in 
another thé. name was Lhbomas 3; and, io a 
third cafe, there is an inftance of a man’s 
having three of his (ons called Robert.— 
Many of your readers will alfo recolleé&, 
that the famous antiquary,, Joba Leland, 
had a brother fehawho took care o him 
in his lunacy. 
hig 4 Ae 
