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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 119, February 7, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
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Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 119, February 7, 1852 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Columbus's church, about eight foot high and two broad. It is called by the natives the bowing stone; for when the inhabitants had the first sight of the church, they set up this stone, and then bowed, and said the Lord's Prayer."
But Borlase, who notices this passage in his Antiquities of Cornwall, gives a much more learned derivation of the name. He says:
"They call them bowing stones, as it seems to me, from the reverence shown them; for the Even Maschith, which the Jews were forbade to worship—(Leviticus xxvi. 1. 'neither shall ye set up any image of stone')—signifies really a bowing stone, and was doubtless so called because worshipped by the Canaanites."
I fancy the word which Martin rendered a bowing stone, is cromlech, or crom liagh.
As regards the ancient monuments of stone worship in Cornwall, the most learned and the most ample information is contained in Borlase's Antiquities of that county; but there their worship ceased, though not till several centuries after the introduction of Christianity. Borlase says:
"After Christianity took place, many continued to worship these stones; coming thither with lighted torches, and praying for safety and success: and this custom we can trace through the fifth and sixth centuries; and even into the seventh, as will appear from the prohibitions of several Councils."
In all parts of Ireland these stone pillars are to be found in comparative frequency. Accounts of them will be found in The Ancient and Present State of the County Down, A.D./sc> 1744; in Wakeman's Handbook of Irish Antiquities, and in various similar authorities. A writer in the Archæologia for A.D. 1800 says that many of the stone crosses which form so interesting and beautiful a feature in Irish antiquities were originally pagan pillar-stones, on which the cross was sculptured subsequent to the introduction of Christianity, in order that—
"The common people, who were not easily to be diverted from their superstitious reverence for these stones, might pay a kind of justifiable adoration to them when thus appropriated to the use of Christian memorials by the sign of the cross."
The tenacity of the Irish people to this ancient superstition is established by the fact of its continuance to the present day in the sequestered island of Inniskea. And it seems to me that it would be an object of curious inquiry, if your correspondents could ascertain whether this be the last remnant of pillar worship now remaining in Europe; and especially whether any further trace of it is to be found in any other portion of the British dominions.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
London.
THE INVASION OF BRITAIN.
(Not by Julius Cæsar.)
A great many correspondents of the daily press are directing the attention, I suppose, of the Government to what they call the "defenceless state of Great Britain." Will you allow me, on account, as I think, of its rarity, to submit to you the following extract from the Macaronéa, par Octave Delepierre (Gancia, Brighton, 1852), attributed to Porson. The lines were composed on occasion of the projected French invasion under Napoleon.
"LINGO DRAWN FOR THE MILITIA.
"Ego nunquam audivi such terrible news,
At this present tempus my sensus confuse;
I'm drawn for a miles,—I must go cum marte,
And, concinus ense,—engage Bonaparte.
"Such tempora nunquam videbant majores,
For then their opponents had different mores;
But we will soon prove to the Corsican vaunter,
Though Times may be changed,—Britons never mutantur.
"Mehercle! this Consul non potest be quiet,
His word must be lex, and where he says Fiat,
Quasi Deus, he thinks we must run at his nod,
But Britons were ne'er good at running, by ——!
"Per mare, I rather am led to opine,
To meet British naves he would not incline;
Lest he should in mare profundum be drown'd,
Et cum algâ, non laurâ, his caput be crown'd.
"But allow that this boaster in Britain could land,
Multis cum aliis at his command:
Here are lads who will meet, aye, and properly work 'em,
And speedily send 'em, ni fallor, in orcum.
"Nunc, let us, amici, join corda et manus,
And use well the vires Dî Boni afford us;
Then let nations combine, Britain never can fall,
She's, multum in parvo, a match for them all."
These verses are quoted by M. Delepierre, from Stephen Collet's Relics of Literature, 8vo. 1823.
S. H.
HERMITS, ORNAMENTAL AND EXPERIMENTAL.
Keeping a poet is a luxury enjoyed by many, from the Queen down to Messrs. Moses, Hyam and Co.; but the refinement of keeping an hermit would appear to be a more recherché and less ordinary appendage of wealth and taste.
I send you an advertisement for, and two actual instances of going a hermiting, from my scrapbook:
"A young man, who wishes to retire from the world and live as an hermit in some convenient spot in England, is willing to engage with any nobleman or gentleman who may be desirous of having one. Any letter directed to S. Lawrence (post paid) to be left at Mr. Otton's, No. 6. Colman's Lane, Plymouth, mentioning what gratuity will be given, and all other particulars, will be duly attended to."
Can any one tell me whether this retiring young man was engaged in the above capacity? I do not think so: for soon after an advertisement appeared in the papers which I have reasons for thinking was by the same hand.
"Wants a situation in a pious regular family, in a place where the Gospel is preached, a young man of serious mind, who can wait at table and milk a cow."
The immortal Dr. Busby asks—
"When energising objects men pursue,
What are the prodigies they cannot do?"
Whether it is because going a hermiting does not come under the Doctor's "energising objects" I know not; but this is clear, that the two following instances proved unsuccessful:
"M. Hamilton, once the proprietor of Payne's Hill, near Cobham, Surrey, advertised for a person who was willing to become a hermit in that beautiful retreat of his. The conditions were, that he was to continue in the hermitage seven years, where he should be provided with a Bible, optical glasses, a mat for his bed, a hassock for his pillow, an hour-glass for his timepiece, water for his beverage, food from the house, but never to exchange a syllable with the servant. He was to wear a camlet robe, never to cut his