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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853
A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Notes and Queries, Number 178, March 26, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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from the lower part of the fell, becoming first visible at a place called Knott; they then moved in regular order in a curvilinear path along the side of the fell, until they came opposite to Blakehills, when they went over the mountain and disappeared. The last, or last but one, in every troop, galloped to the front, and then took the swift walking pace of the rest. The spectators saw all alike these changes in relative position, and at the same time, as they found on questioning each other when any change took place. The phenomenon was also seen by every person at every cottage within a mile; and from the time that Stricket first observed it, the appearance lasted two hours and a half, viz. from half-past seven until night prevented any further view. Blakehills lay only half a mile from the place of this extraordinary appearance. Such are the circumstances as related in Clarke's Survey of the Lakes (fol. 1789), and he professes to give this account in the words of Mr. Lancaster, by whom it was related to him, and on whose testimony he fully relied; and he subjoins a declaration of its truth signed by the eye-witnesses, William Lancaster and Daniel Stricket (who then lived under Skiddaw, and followed the business of an auctioneer), dated 21st July, 1785. Mr. Clarke remarks that the country abounds in fables of apparitions, but that they are never said to have been seen by more than one or two persons at a time, and then only for moment; and remembering that Speed mentions some similar appearance to have preceded a civil war, he hazards the supposition that the vision might prefigure the tumults of the rebellion of the following year.

My Query is, Whether any subsequent appearance of the same kind is recorded to have been observed on this haunted mountain, and whether any attempt to account for it on principles of optical science, as applied to a supposed state of the atmosphere, has ever been published?

One is reminded of the apparition said to have been witnessed above Vallambrosa early in the fourteenth century. Rogers, after mentioning in the canto on "Florence and Pisa," in his Italy, that Petrarch, when an infant of seven months old (A.D. 1305), narrowly escaped drowning in a flood of the Arno, on the way from Florence to Ancisa, whither his mother was retiring with him, says:

"A most extraordinary deluge, accompanied by signs and prodigies, happened a few years afterwards. 'On that night,' says Giovanni Villani (xi. 2.), 'a hermit, being at prayer in his hermitage above Vallambrosa, heard a furious trampling as of many horses; and crossing himself and hurrying to the wicket, saw a multitude of infernal horsemen, all black and terrible, riding by at full speed. When, in the name of God, he demanded their purpose, one replied, We are going, if it be His pleasure, to drown the city of Florence for its wickedness. This account,' he adds, 'was given me by the Abbot of Vallambrosa, who had questioned the holy man himself.'"

This vision, however, without doubting the holy man's veracity, may, I presume, be considered wholly subjective.

W. S. G.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.


Minor Queries.

Passage in Bacon.—What is the meaning of this saying of Bacon "Poetry doth raise and erect the mind by submitting the shows of things to the desires of the mind?"

Recnac.

Lamech killing Cain.—In the church of St. Neot, Cornwall, are some very interesting ancient painted windows, representing various legendary and scriptural subjects. In one of them, descriptive of antediluvial history, is a painting of Lamech shooting Cain with a bow and arrow. Are any of your readers acquainted with a similar subject? Is there any tradition to this effect? and does it throw any light on that difficult passage, Gen. iv. 23, 24.?

"And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice: ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

"If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold."

J. W. M.

Hordley Ellesmere.

Lord Chief Justice Popham.C. Gonville says (Vol. vii., p. 259.) that Raleigh Gilbert "emigrated with Lord Chief Justice Popham in 1606" to Plymouth in Virginia. As this is a fact in the history of that learned judge with which I am unacquainted, I shall be obliged to your correspondent to favour me with some particulars. According to Anthony Wood he died on June 10, 1607, and was buried at Wellington in Somersetshire; and Sir Edward Coke (6 Reports, p. 75.) notices the last judgment he pronounced in the previous Easter Term.

Edward Foss.

"Her face was like the milky way," &c.—Where is the subjoined quotation taken from, and what is the context? I cannot be quite certain as to its verbal accuracy.

"Her face was like the milky way i' the sky,

A meeting of gentle lights without a name."

Via Lactea.

Nelson Rings.—I am in possession of a ring, which in place of a stone has a metal basso-relievo representation of Nelson (half-bust). The inscription inside the ring is as follows:

"A Gift to

T. Moon

from

G. L. Stoppleburg

1815."

The late Mr. Thomas Moon was an eminent merchant of Leeds, Yorkshire, and the writer has always understood that the ring referred to is one of three or half-a-dozen, which were made subsequently to Nelson's death, the metal (blackish in appearance) forming the basso-relievo set in them, being in reality portions of the ball which gave the late lamented and immortal admiral his fatal wound at Trafalgar.

Can any of your readers furnish me with the means of authenticating this supposition? likewise I should be glad to know if other similar rings are at present in existence, and by whom owned.

R. Nichols.

Pelsall, Staffordshire.

Books Wanted.

Life of Thomas Bonnell, Mayor of Norwich, published by Curl.

Samuel Hayne, Abstract of the Statutes relating to Aliens trading, 1690.[1]

Lalley's Churches and Chapels in London.

Can any of your readers tell me where I shall find these books? I do not see them in the British Museum.

J. S. B.

Footnote 1:(return)

[Hayne's Abstract, edit. 1685, will be found in the British Museum. See the new Catalogue s. v., Press-mark 8245. b.—Ed.]

Mr. Cromlin.—In Smith's History of Waterford (1746) are noticed "the thanks of the House of Commons given to Mr. Cromlin, a French gentleman naturalised in the kingdom, then actually sitting in the house," and the present to him of 10,000l. for establishing a linen manufactory at Waterford. Where shall I find the particulars of this grant recorded?

J. S. B.

Dr. Fletcher and Lady Baker.—Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of London, married a handsome widow, the Lady Baker, sister of George Gifford the

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