light fame; but I, for one, should like to be made to shamefacedness, though the connexion of the passage shows it to have reference to the attire and not to the countenance. Query, has not Miss Strickland, in her life of Mary of Lorraine, fallen into the same error, in a quotation which states that while the court ladies were dressing gaily on one occasion, the princess (afterwards queen) Elizabeth preferred keeping to her own shamefacedness? This must surely be an alteration from shamefastness. Cap-à-pie, armed from head to foot: this has given rise to the homely term of apple-pie order. Folio-capo (Italian), first size sheet, suggestive of foolscap. Asparagus, popularised into sparrow-grass. La thom. Chateau-vert hill, near Oxford, well known as Shotover hill. Lathom. La Girasole artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke. thom. The notion of their con Furced-meat balls. "Let me tell you a story that I have heard from a reverend man out of the pulpit, a place where none should dare to tell a lye, of an old man above sixty, who lived and died in a parish where there had bin preaching almost all his time, and for the greatest part twice on the Lord's day, besides at extraordinary times. This man was a constant hearer as any might be, and seemed forward in the love of the word: on his death-taining essence artificially concentrated has occabed being questioned by a minister touching his faith sioned the spelling forced, whereas the meaning is and hope in God: you would wonder to hear what simply chopped. answer he made; being demanded what he thought of God, he answers that he was a good old man ; and what of Christ, that he was a towardly youth; and of his soule, that it was a greate bone in his body; and what should become of his soule after he was dead, that if he had done well he should be put into a pleasant green meadow.' The resemblance of the old heathen's heaven to the sacred fields "where souls do couch on flowers" of Hellenic mythology is curious. Had he derived his notions of futurity from a miracleplay, or is it a genuine relic of Saxon heathendom? T. STERNBERG. FALSE SPELLINGS ARISING OUT OF SOUND. A curious list might be compiled of English words conveying in their present form meanings totally in discordance with their derivatives. What I mean is this. The sound of such words has given birth to a new idea, and this new idea has become confirmed by a corresponding, but of course erroneous, mode of spelling. Such are the following, some of which have been already noticed by Dr. Lathom in his large grammar. Many of your readers could doubtless supply additional instances. Dent de lion has been corrupted to dandylion, from an idea of the bold and flaunting aspect of the flower, whereas its name has reference to the root. Contre-danse is spelled country-dance, as implying rural or common life pastime, instead of the position of the dancers. Shamefastness, altered by our modern printers of the authorised version of the New Testament| Spar-hawk (or rock-hawk), sparrow-hawk. Satyr and Bacchanals, a public-house sign, Satan and the Bag of Nails. Double-doré, double-gilt; from his bright yellow spot, the bee called in the west of England the dumbledoor, still further softened into humble-bee. Gut-cord, cat-gut. Engleford, or the Englishman's ford, modernised into Hungerford; but the corruption in the names of places is a very wide field. Laak (Ang.-Sax.), play, has been turned into lark, and even tortured into sky-lark. Lathom. Sambuca, altered (through a French medium), though certainly not euphonised, into sackbut, treated by Miss Strickland in the work above mentioned as a Scottish bagpipe. Her version is not positively disputed, but merely the doubt raised whether or not the original chronicler intended to suggest the mode of inflation. Furthermore, is it likely that, as Miss Strickland surmises, the bagpipe was used at church? meanings of ancient musical terms are doubtless very obscure. In some parts of England the sackbut is even identified with the trombone. CATHEDRALS IN NORWAY. The J. WAYLEN. Persons acquainted with Norway will remember the two towns of Stor Hammer and Lillehammer, both anciently bishoprics, which stand on the borders of the Miosen Lake. Stor and Lille are obviously great and small; but what is the meaning of Hammer? Has it the same derivation as the terminations of such names as Clapham, Twickenham, Wickham, &c.? Stor Hammer is often called simply Hammer, and there is manifestly some sort of relation between the two names, though I cannot make out what. I have full and curious accounts of the ancient cathedral of Stor Hammer, but should be glad to know whether there was ever a cathedral at Lillehammer? and, if so, where it stood, and whether any vestiges of it remain, and where any account of it can be met with? of Roundstone, Connamara, which overhangs Balard Lake,) by Messrs. M'Calla and Babington; and on Cahir Couree Mountain, near Tralee, by Mr. Andrews. Dr. Caleb Threlkeld, who wrote Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum . . . with their Latin-English and Irish Names... the First Essay of this kind in the Kingdom of Ireland, 1726, 12mo., does not mention this fern, but the Trichomanes only. I find it first noticed in the Botanologia Universalis Hibernica, authore Joh. K'Eogh, A.B., Corke, 1735, sm. 4to., where the writer says: The towers and spire of Hammer Cathedral in the days of its glory were profusely decorated with gilded vanes, a fact which may interest your correspondent B. B. (Vol. v., p. 490.), who inquires "The best in this kingdom is brought from the about the antiquity of vanes. This must have rocky mountains of Burrin, in the co. of Clare, where been many centuries ago, but I have not at this it grows plentifully; from thence it is brought in sacks moment access to the date. It was, at all events, to Dublin, and sold there: it is pulmonic, lithontriptie in Catholic times, when this fine old church was... and it wonderfully helps those afflicted with richly ornamented with all manner of costly aids to spiritual devotion; among the rest with a miraculous crucifix, which had in its head a cavity big enough to contain a quart of water, and conduits of porous wood from thence to the eyes. Was any similar contrivance ever known to exist elsewhere in the North, or was it that the pious constructiveness of the monks of Hammer was stimulated to such ingenuity by a more than commonly devotional turn of mind? The length of the cathedral at Drontheim is variously stated. Mr. Laing says, 346 feet; and the author of the Norge fremstillet i Tegninger says, 350 Norwegian feet, which is equal to 360 feet English within a fraction. Which of the two is right? And can any of your correspondents inform me whether any and what steps are being taken for the restoration of this beautiful cathedral, and how it is purposed to proceed in so doing? WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE. 28. Bryanston Street. THE TRUE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN. Of the sixty-three species contained under the genus Adiantum (åðíavros), perhaps the most beautiful is the Cupillus Veneris, or True Maiden-hair Fern, with its fan-shaped, serrated leaflets of deep green, and its long black stems, shining and wiry, from four to eighteen inches high. This plant has been found at Port Kerig, Glamorganshire (verified 1834); on the banks of the Carron, a rivulet in Kincardineshire (Professor Beattie); in a small cave on the east side of Carrach Gladden; a cove on the north coast of Cornwall, between Hayle and St. Ives (Prof. Henslow); in South Europe: Isles of Bourbon, Teneriffe, Jamaica, and Hispaniola; and, I have also heard, on the Andes. In Ireland it has been found, though not abundantly, on Erris-beg (one of the fine mountains* These are covered with beautiful mosses, ferns, and heaths; here Mr. Mackay found the Erica Mediterranea, not indigenous to the sister kingdoms, asthmas, shortness of breath, and coughs, occasioning a free expectoration; it is also good against the jaundice, dropsy, diarrhoea, hæmoptysis, and the bitings of mad dogs."—P. 74. Dr. Wade says "This is the plant which gave name to the syrup called capillaire; but I may venture to assert that it never has any of this plant in its composition, being usually made with sugar and water only, and sometimes with the addition of a little orange-flower water.* Planta Rariores in Hibernia inventæ. Dubl., 1804, 8vo. p. 92. I doubt that Dr. Wade has given the true receipt for capillaire, even though he be right as to the Adiantum's not being one of the ingredients. In the Transactions of the Medico-Philosophical Society of Dublin, in the middle of the last century, Dr. Rutty says, that this fern was exported in large quantities to London, whilst its use was unknown in Dublin. And Mr. Bride, a druggist, informed Dr. Smith (author of the Hist. of Waterford, Kerry, and Cork) that he had at that time shipped two hogsheads to London from Arran. The wild isles of Arran form a favourite habitat of this beautiful fern: they lie about forty miles from Galway Bay, and nine from the nearest mainland. Ara Mor, as the largest is called, abounds in flat table rocks, or fields of stone, which are intersected occasionally by deep fissures or rifts in these the Adiantum grows; the natives call it Dubh-chosach, or "Black-footed." These isles abound in botanical treasures: samphire (Crithmum maritimum), for instance, grows more abundantly there than I have ever seen it elsewhere, and may be gathered in most accessible places. It is called Grylig (Grioloigín, O'R.) in other places Geirgin, Greigin, Greineog, Greimric, Luo-na-canamh, &c. Dr. Threlkeld, who in his amusing little work indulges in religious and political gossip, often most irrelevant, praises the Herba S. Petri or S. Pierre, and adds: "That whoever gave it the name of sampire, seemed to have reason on his side if he believed one apostle 1 1 so have a primacy over the rest, and that he was Peter who had the pre-eminence." The Irish language is rich in names of plants, yet Threlkeld and K'Eogh alone make use of the native terms. The two latest works are deficient in this respect: The Irish Flora, comprising the Phanogamous Plants and Ferns, Dublin, 1833, 12mo., and the valuable Flora Hibernica, Dublin, 1836, 8vo.; the former, I believe, by Sir Robert Kane's lady (born Miss Baillie), the latter by Dr. Mackay. For a full technical description of the Maiden-hair, see Francis's Analysis of the British Ferns and their Allies, 3rd edit., 1847, to which I am indebted for its British and foreign EIRIONNACH. habitats. CRANES IN STORMS.-CREDIBILITY OF THE ANCIENT NATURALISTS. (Vol. v., p. 582.) dance (as it were), and run the round, with their long shankes stalking full untowardly. This is surely known, that when they mind to take a flight over the sea Pontus, they will fly directly at the first to the narrow streights of the sayd sea, lying between the two Capes Criu-Metopon and Carambis, and then presently they ballaise themselves with stones in their feet, and sand in their throats, that they flie more steadie and endure the wind. When they be halfe way over, down they fling these stones: but when they are come to the continent, the sand also they disgorge out of their craw." The historian Ammianus Marcellinus tells us, that in imitation of the ingenuity of this bird in accustomed to rest with a silver ball in his hand, ensuring its vigilance, Alexander the Great was suspended over a brass basin, which if he began to sleep might fall and awake him. The circumstance related by Nonnus, in your correspondent's communication, is without doubt taken from Pliny's account of the passage of these birds over the Pontus; but not having Elian's History of Animals at hand, nor the works of any other ancient naturalist, except Pliny, I am unable to trace the reference of Bishops Andrews and Jeremy Taylor. The Query of your correspondent RT. respecting the "Custom of Cranes in Storms" might have been better worded "The Custom attributed by the Ancients to Cranes in Storms." It cannot be necessary to inform your readers, that almost every It is only due to Aristotle, and the other ancient bird, beast, and fish mentioned by ancient natural-naturalists, to observe that most of their legends ists has some marvellous story appended to its history; and in this respect the crane is by no means deficient. To pass over its famous battles with the Pygmæi, so beautifully described by the Prince of Poets, who tells us "That when inclement winters vex the plain With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain, To warmer seas the cranes embodied fly, With noise, and order, through the mid-way sky: To Pygmy nations wounds and death they bring, And all the war descends upon the wing." Mliud, lib. iii. 6. Philemon Holland, in his translation of Pliny's Natural History, renders his author's account of the migrations of these birds in these words: “They put not themselves in their journey, nor set forward without a counsell called before, and a generall consent. They flie aloft, because they would have a better prospect to see before them: and for this purpose a captain they chuse to guide them, whom the rest follow. In the rereward behind these be certaine of them set and disposed to give signall by their manner of crie, for to range orderly in ranks, and keep close together in array: and this they doe by turnes, each one in his course. They maintaine a set watch all night long, and have their sentinels. These stand on one foot, and hold a little stone within the other, which falling from it, if they should chance to sleep might awaken them, and reprove them for their negligence. Whiles these watch all the rest sleep, couching their heads under their wings: and one while they rest on one foot, and otherwhiles they shift to the other. The captaine beareth up his head aloft, and giveth signall to the rest what is to be done. These cranes, if they be made tame and gentle, are very playful and wanton birds: and they will one by one respecting animals arose from the necessarily imperfect knowledge they possessed of the habits and faculties of the animal creation, and from their inability to distinguish one species from another: this led them frequently to attribute to one the properties which in reality belonged to another, as well as to mistake the motive of the particular action they were desirous of describing. A remarkable instance of this kind occurs in the mention of the hive-bee by Pliny (lib. xi. cap. x.): Some "If haply there do arise a tempest or a storm whiles they be abroad, they catch up some little stony greet to ballance and poise themselves against the wind. say that they take it and lay it upon their shoulders. And withall, they fle low by the ground, under the wind, when it is against them, and keep along the bushes, to breake the force thereof." This notion was first entertained by Aristotle, and repeated by Virgil, to whose poetic imagination such a trait in the habits of his favourite insects would be highly grateful: "sæpe lapillos, dissertations on the natural history of the bee, and This fable has also been frequently found in later adduced as a surprising instance of bee-instinct, notwithstanding the corrections of Swammerdam and Reaumur and later naturalists, all of whom have shown that the mason-bee has been mistaken for the honey-bee; the former being often seen hastening through the air, loaded with sand and gravel, the materials of its nest.-See Note in the Naturalist's Library. Still, notwithstanding the marvellous legends with which the ancients have loaded their accounts of the animals they have described, it is wonderful with what correctness and precision they have given us the history of many with which they were better acquainted. Dr. Kidd, at the end of his Bridgewater Treatise, has drawn up a very curious parallel between the writings of Aristotle and Cuvier, in which we see with astonishment the nearness with which these two great naturalists approached each other. An interesting series of papers might be written on the mistakes of Aristotle, and other ancient naturalists, and on the numerous instances which have hitherto been considered as mistakes, but which the light of modern science has shown to be perfectly correct. G. M. East-Winch. -as it is com QUEEN ELIZABETH'S PRAYER-BOOK. Queen Elizabeth's Prayer-book, monly called, or, as it runs in the title-page, A Booke of Christian Praiers, collected out of the ancien Writers, &c. (ed. of 1608), of which I have a very clean and good copy,- of course abounds with antiquated ideas and expressions. One idea I "make a Note of (according to Captain Cuttle's advice) when found." At p. 76. occurs "A Prayer vpon the minding of Christ's passion." The first paragraph contains an assertion of the force with which the crown of thorns, &c. was placed on the head of the great Redeemer, which, I presume, can have no warrant in fact, and only be regarded as used to round the period: "What man is this who I behold all bloody, with skin al to torn with knubs and wales of stripes, hanging downe his head for weaknesse towards his shoulders, crowned with a garland of thorns pricking through his skull to the hard braine, and nailed to a Crosse? What so hainous fault coulde he do to deserve it? What Judge could be so cruell as to put him to it? What hangman could haue so butcherly mind as to deale so outragiously with him? Now I bethink myselfe, I know him: it is Christ." It is true that the spikes of thorns in Syria are far stronger than anything we know of in the north of Europe. M'Cheyne calls them "gigantic." But the evident idea of the stubborn and cruel Jews was to insult the Lord of life and glory, mocking Him with royal insignia. Dr. Kitto says Herod suggested the mockery, which, after all, was more conformable to Oriental than Roman practice. This learned writer quotes a remarkable illustration from Philo occurring about that period. Caligula conferred on Hero's nephew the title of king, and permission to wear a diadem. On arriving at Alexandria, the inhabitants felt hatred and envy at the idea of a Jew's being called a king, and by way of insult and scorn, took hold of a poor idiot, who wandered about the streets, the laughing-stock of boys and idlers. They set him on a lofty seat in the theatre, put a paper crown on his head, covered his body with a mat, to represent the regal robe, and put a reed in his hand for a scentre. The crowd uttered loud exclamations of "Maris! Maris!" the Syriac word for "Lord." The same mockery was always common in Persia. I send this Note not by way of underrating the sufferings of "the holy, harmless Son of God," who "when He was reviled, reviled not again," but as a caution against adopting exaggerated statements; and not without a desire to be informed whether or not it is possible the spikes of these terrible thorns could penetrate so hard_a substance as a human skull. B. B. "A PLEADER TO THE NEEDER WHEN A READER. "As all, my friend, through wily knaves, full often suffer wrongs, Forget not, pray, when it you've read, to whom this book belongs. Than one CHARLES CLARK, of TOTHAM HALL, none to 't a right hath better, A wight, that same, more read than some in the lore of old black-letter! And as C. C. in Essex dwells-a shire at which all laugh His books must, sure, less fit seem drest, if they're not bound in calf! Care take, my friend, this book you ne'er with grease or dirt besmear it; While none but awkward puppies will continue to 'dog's-ear' it! And o'er my books when book-worms 'grub,' I'd have them understand, No marks the margins must de-face from any busy 'hand!' Minar Notes. BOOKWORM. Lord Goring.-The memory of his wild warfare still survives in Cornwall, where a rude rough roisterer is called to this day a Goring. BERG. MORWENSTOW. Banquo's Ghost.-It is said, I know not on what authority, that John Kemble attempted to play the banquet scene in Macbeth without the visible appearance of the ghost of Banquo; but the galleries took offence, and roared "Ghost! ghost!" till Banquo was obliged to come on, and take the chair. I have heard the late "Thomas Ingoldsby" praise Kemble highly for the improvement, and regret that he was not allowed to free the stage from Banquo's ghost, as Garrick did from those of Jaffier and Pierre. In his own tale of Hamilton Tighe "Ingoldsby" made the ghost a phantom of the mind, with good effect: No man was less disposed than Ingoldsby to borrow a thought without acknowledgment: but though the omission of the ghost might have been suggested by Kemble, I think the peculiar epithet mealy-faced traces it back to Lloyd: "When chilling horrors shake th' affrighted king, The Poetical Works of Robert Lloyd, A. M. Garrick Club. London, 1774. H. B. C. Reverence to the Altar.-The Huntingdonshire country-folks in this neighbourhood have the following custom. When they come into church, if the clergyman is already in the desk, they curtsey or bow, as they turn from the aisle into their places. They thus bow towards the east; and when I first saw this done, I imagined them to be keeping up the ancient ceremony of "reverence to the altar." I soon discovered, however, that' their obeisance was meant for the clergyman alone,.. and was made only by those that entered the church after the service had comn ence 1. But may not this mark of respect have been transferred paid to the altar? to the clergyman, and be a trace of that originally CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.. Woman executed by Burning at Dublin.— A gentleman is still alive, or was so very recently, who saw the last woman who was burned in Dublin at the place of public execution, which was where the handsome and fashionable street called with a gentleman whose kitchen fireplace was as Fitzwilliam Street now is; and I am acquainted nearly as possible on the spot. GINIETA. - This "The proper study of mankind is man."· sentiment is fairly due to Socrates, being his characteristic doctrine. Mr. Grote says (History of of mankind is man' Socrates was the first to proGreece, vol. ix. p. 573.), "That the proper study claim," referring especially to Xenophon, who in Memor. 1. 1. says, "Man, and what related to man, were the only subjects on which he chose to employ himself," as distinguished from the other philosophers of his day, who engaged in fruitless physical speculations. Queries. THE ROYAL NEW ENGLAND REGIMENT. J. P. The father of a neighbour of mine, who was an officer under General Winfield Scott, of the American army upon the Canadian frontier, during what we call in the United States "the last war with Great Britain." or "the war of 1812," assisted at the battle of Brandywine, or some other of the engagements of that contest, in capturing an English officer of rank. The latter had a considerable quantity of plate among his baggage, which was taken possession of by his captors. This spoil was not held long, for the American officer to whom I refer was himself taken prisoner, and the plate taken from him. One silver mustard spoon, however, escaped the search to which he was subjected, and remained in his possession, and is now preserved as a trophy. It is concerning heavy, the bowl gilt upon the inside. There is that spoon that I make this Query. It is rather engraved upon it a crown surmounting a garter, encircling a lion's head passant gardant; upon the garter is engraved "ROYAL N E (here the rim of the crown interferes with letters, as I suppose) LAND REGT.," being according to my notion an abbreviation of the words "Royal New England Regiment." The Goldsmiths' Hall marks upon the back are a lion passant, the letter I, a head, the hair in a bag-wig, and bust, which though small bears a resemblance to those of George II. or III., and the letters J. B. I have given these marks, |