Anguilles de Melun.

—"Les anguilles de Melun crient avant qu'on les écorche" is a well-known proverb in that town; and as some of your readers may be curious to learn the circumstances in which it originated, I send them to you for "NOTES AND QUERIES."

According to the traditions of the Church, Saint Bartholomew was flayed alive, and his skin rolled up and tied to his back. When the religious dramas, called Mysteries, came into vogue, this martyrdom was represented on the stage at Melun, and the character of the saint was personated by one Languille. In the course of the performance, the executioner, armed with a knife, made his appearance; and as he proceeded to counterfeit the operation of flaying, Languille became terrified and uttered the most piteous cries, to the great amusement of the spectators. The audience thereupon exclaimed, "Languille crie avant qu'on l'écorche;" and hence the "jeu de mots," and the proverb.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

Derivation of Mews.—

"Muette. C'est le nom qu'on donne à un Edifice élevé au bout d'un parc de maison royale ou seigneuriale, pour servir de logement aux officiers de la venerie, et dans lequel il y a aussi des Chenils, des cours, écuries, &c. Ce terme Muette, vient, dit-on, de Mue, parceque c'est dans ces maisons que les Gardes, et autres officiers de chasse, apportent les Mues ou bois que les Cerfs quittent et laissent dans les Forêts."—Lacombe, Dictionnaire portatif des Beaux Arts, &c. Nouvelle Edition: Paris, 1759.

Is this a better explanation of the English word mews than has generally been given by writers?

W. P.

Curious Monumental Inscriptions.

—In the south aisle of Martham Church, Norfolk, are two slabs, of which one, nearly defaced, bears the following inscription:

The following explanation is given of this enigmatical statement. Christopher Burraway was the fruit of an incestuous connexion between a father and daughter, and was early placed in the Foundling Hospital, from whence, when he came of age, he was apprenticed to a farmer. Coming in after years by chance to Martham, he was hired unwittingly by his own mother as farm steward, her father (or rather the father of both) being dead. His conduct proving satisfactory to his mistress she married him who thus became, successively, mother, sister, mistress, and wife, to this modern Œdipus. The episode remains to be told. Being discovered by his wife to be her son, by a peculiar mark on his shoulder, she was so horror-stricken that she soon after died, he surviving her scarcely four months. Of the other slab enough remains to show that it covered her remains; but the registers from 1729 to 1740 are unfortunately missing so that I cannot trace the family further.

E. S. T.

First Panorama (Vol. iii., p. 526.).

—I remember when a boy going to see that panorama. I was struck with "the baker knocking at the door, in Albion Place, and wondered the man did not move!" But this could not have been the first (though it might have been the first publicly exhibited), if what is told of Sir Joshua Reynolds be true, that, having held that the painting of a panorama was a "thing impossible," on the sight of it he exclaimed—"This is the triumph of perspective!" I have frequently met with this anecdote.

B. G.

Queries.

Minor Queries.

Vermuyden.

—I wish very much to obtain a portrait, painted or engraved, of Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, Knt., a celebrated Flemish engineer in the time of Charles I. Can any one kindly assist my object, and inform me where one is to be met with?

J.

Portrait of Whiston.

—Having an original and characteristic half-length portrait in oil, bearing to the left corner (below an oval, such as is found about portraits by Alex. Cooper) the name of William Whiston, which picture came from a farm-house named Westbrook, in Wiltshire, and was by my ancestors, who lived there, called a family portrait, I should be glad to know how such connexion arose, if any did exist.

In the possession of a member of my family, on the maternal side, is a large silver tobacco-box, bearing the initials W. W., and given as a legacy by Whiston to his friend Thomas White, Fellow and Librarian of Trinity College, Cambridge. They were members of the same club.

WILLIAM FENNELL.

Wakefield, June 12. 1851.

Charities for the Clergy and their Families.

—I am desirous of procuring a complete list of charities confined to, or primarily intended for, the benefit of clergymen, their wives and families. There are a good many such throughout the country, but I am not aware that any list has ever been published. Will your readers furnish me with the particulars of such as they may be acquainted with, together with the names of the secretaries?

J. WHITAKER.

377. Strand.

Principle of Notation by Coalwhippers, &c.

—I shall feel much obliged to any of your readers who can inform me whether the principle adopted by the coalwhippers on the river Thames, and by the seafaring class in general, is adopted by any other class in these islands, or particularly in the North of Europe.

This principle may be thus explained, viz.:

1. A set of four perpendicular, equal, and equidistant straight lines are cut by a diagonal line, which runs from right to left; that is to say, from the higher end of the fourth line to the lower extremity of the first line. This diagonal then represents number 5, and completes the scale or tally of 5.

2. A similar set of four lines are cut by another diagonal, which passes from left to right, or from the higher extremity of number one, to the lower extremity of number four. The diagonal thus completes the second score or tally for number 5.

The two fives are marked or scored separately, and the diagonals thus form a series of alternations, which, when repeated, form a scale of ten, the tally of the coalwhippers.

The "navvies" of the railroads carry this principle somewhat further. They form a cross with two diagonals on the perpendiculars, and count for ten; then, by repeating the process, they have a division into tens, and count by two tens, or a score.

I. J. C.

Kiss the Hare's Foot.

—This locution is