"Vicesimus secundus Rex Danorum, Ambletus, qui fuit vir astutissimus. regem Angliæ in bello occidit (at Ambleside?) et Angliam &c. in ditione sua tenuit. "Tricesimus rex Frichlen totam Britanniam Danis subjugavit et tributum dare coegit.

"Tricesimus primus R. D. dictus fuit Frothi Frichgote. Hujus Regis tempore Christus Jesus mundi salvator natus est. Iste sibi subjugavit Svveciam iterum Danis rebellantem, insuper subjecit sibi Britanniam, Hiberniam, Scotiam, Angliam, &c., quorum Reges et Principes omnes servierunt Danis." [What were the Romans about?]

Reiner, sixty-first King of Denmark, "subjugavit Angliam, Schotiam, Hiberniam, Ruciam,

&c."

Eric, sixty-sixth king, destroyed all the churches in Anglia, Britannia, &c., and in his time his general, Rollo, obtained possession of Normandy. The next invasion of England is that by Canute, and as the subsequent history is well known, I will here take my leave of the old Chronicler.

The first invasion of France by the Normans of which I can discover any account, is that mentioned in the old Chronicle known as Annalista Saxo, where, under the year VCCCLIII (853), it is reported that

"Nortmannorum Classis Ligeris fluminis primum adiit littora, qui Nortmanni Britannicum mare navigio girantes, ostia Ligeris occupaverunt et repentina irruptione civitatem Namnotis invadunt. . omnem circum quaque regionem devastantes, primum Andegavensem, deinde Turonicam occupant urbem: " [the church of St. Martin in which town they destroyed by fire."]

....

The Normans are, in this chapter, spoken of as strangers to France, for we read, "Hi siquidem a Scithia inferiori egressi Normanni lingua barbara, quasi homines septentrionales, dicti sunt," -an explanation that would not, I think, be given by the Chronicler if they had not been hitherto strangers. The next invasion, according to the same author, took place in 868, when the Normans, who appear, however to have established a sort of colony on the banks of the "Ligeris fluminis," again began to "crudeliter depopulari" Namnetensem, Andegavensem, Pictaviensem atque Turonicam provinciam." Having obtained a victory in a battle with Rodbert de la Marche and Rudolf, Duke of Aquitaine, in which both of these leaders were killed, "Nortmanni ovantes classem repetunt."

In 874, under Hasting, they again annoy the

Bretagne, which cost the latter 500 head of cattle. We next hear of them in 881, when, under Godefrid and Siegfrid, they burn Tungres and Utrecht, and lay waste Cologne and "Bunna;" and in 882 they invade Ardenne and burn Treves. The Chronica Regia S. Pantaleonis, which appears to have derived most of its information from the same source as the Annalista Saxo, states, that Treves was burned on Good Friday, 883. On this expedition the Normans got possession of Frisia, and Godfrey was baptised, and married to the daughter of Lothaire.

If these notes are of any interest to your correspondents, I am satisfied. CHESSBOROUGH. Harbertonford, Devon.

"Right well I wote, most mighty soveraine,
That all this famous antique history
Of some the aboundance of an ydle braine
Will judged be; and painted forgery,
Rather than matter of just memory.
Sith none that breatheth living air doth know
Where is that happy land of Faery

Which I so much doe vaunt, yet no where show;
But vouch antiquities which nobody can know.
"Of Faëry land yet if he more enquire

By certain sigues here set in sondrie place,
He may it find; no let him there admyre
But yield his sense to be too blunt and base
That no'te without an hound fine footing trace.
And thou, O fayrest princesse under sky,
In this fayre mirrhour maist behold thy face,
And thine owne realmes in land of Faery,
And in this antique image thy great ancestry."

If, therefore, the poem had been finished, we should have had an allegorical picture of Elizabeth and her court, instead of allusions to only a few of the poet's particular friends and their enemies.

Having had occasion to

"more enquire

By certain signes here set," for the purpose of painting a picture of the "Faerie Queene" at the desire of the late W. Pickering, I have been led to conclusions differing from Upton and from your correspondent C.

In that picture I have identified myself with the belief, that in Prince Arthur Spenser intended

to develope the character of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex. In support of which I refer to the letter to Raleigh, and the sonnet to Essex prefixed to the first edition of the first three books.

In the letter Prince Arthur is stated to be the personification of —

"Magnificence, which virtue, for that (according to Aristotle and the rest) it is the perfection of the rest, and containeth in it them all; therefore, in the whole course I mention the deeds of Arthur applyable to that virtue which I do write of in that book, but of twelve other

virtues I make twelve other knights patrons, for the more variety of the history."

Arthur's adventures would therefore have been carried through the whole poem, and by the sonnet to Essex is clearly identified with him

"Magnificke Lord, whose virtues excellent
Do merit a most famous poet's witt.

But when my muse, whose feathers nothing flitt
Do yet but flag and lowly learn to fly
With bolder wing shall dare aloft to sty
To the last praises of this fairy Queen,
Then shall it make most famous memory
Of thine heroick parts."

To whom can this apply except Prince Arthur? There are many corroborations of this view to be found in the poem. The character is enriched with many of the achievements of the British power as a state: the defeat of the Armada, in his contest with the Soldan; the rescue of the Netherlands from Spain in the destruction of Gerioneo and his seneschall, and the reinstatement of Belgè.

As a curious coincidence similar to some of those brought forward by C., I may refer to the description of Arthur's baldrick athwart his breast, in which he wore a precious stone-"shaped like a lady's head" (Gloriana's). Sir S. Meyrick appropriates to Essex a suit of armour in the Tower, which has the head of Elizabeth engraven on the breastplate. FRANK HOWARD.

THE "ARCADIA" UNVEILED.

(3rd S. iv. 150.)

I was not aware of MR. HOWARD's suggestion, that Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was intended by Prince Arthur; which, however, appears to me scarcely tenable, since in the spring of 1580 the Earl was only in his thirteenth year.

MR. HOWARD also says, "Sir Guyon unquestionably refers to Ratcliffe, Earl of Sussex." This question I must leave to others to decide; but the following lines appear to support the opinion, Sir Guyon is Walter, Earl of Essex:

"Now hath fair Phoebe, with her silver face,
Thrice seen the shadows of the nether world,
Sith last I left that honorable place,
In which her royal presence is entrold."
Bk. ii. can. 2, stanza 44.

This statement coincides historically with the arrival of the earl in Ireland in July, 1576, having just three months previously left the English court.

Further, I have a strong impression, or rather conviction, that at the end of his Treatise on Ireland, Spenser points at his friend Sir Walter Ralegh, and not at Robert, Earl of Essex; for he distinctly states the head of the Irish government should be one, who knew the country, and had seen service in Ireland, as well as in France and Belgium. C.

ST. PATRICK AND VENOMOUS REPTILES IN IRELAND (3rd S. iv. 82, 132.) — The late W. Thompson, Esq., in his Natural History of Ireland, published in 1856, vol. iv. p. 63, says that "Ireland has ever been free from the presence of Ophidian reptiles" (serpents). He mentions that about 1831, James Cleland, Esq., of Rathgael House, co. Down, bought some snakes in London, and turned out half a dozen in his garden. Of these, four were killed within a short time, and the remaining two probably met the same fate. He subsequently made inquiries "of persons about Downpatrick, who were best acquainted with these subjects, not one of whom had ever heard of snakes being in the neighbourhood."

Kilkea Castle, Mageney.

KILDARE.

"HE DIED AND SHE MARRIED THE BARBER." (3rd S. iv. 187.)- The following extract from Mr. John Forster's pleasant biography of Foote (Forster's Biographical Essays, 3rd ed. p. 386), will enlighten R. F. C., and perhaps many others, on the subject of the famous nonsense, so often falsely quoted, and so often ascribed to a wrong source. Mr. Forster is speaking of Macklin and his lectures on oratory, delivered at a Covent Garden tavern:

"His (Macklin's) topic on another evening was the employment of memory in connection with the oratorical art; in the course of which, as he enlarged on the importance of exercising memory as a habit, he took occasion to say that to such perfection he had brought his own, he could learn anything by rote on once hearing it. Foote waited till the conclusion of the lecture, and then, handing up the subjoined sentences, desired that Mr. Macklin would be good enough to read, and afterwards repeat them from memory. More amazing nonsense never was written:

"So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf, to make an apple-pie; and at the same time a great shebear, coming up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! no soap?" So he died and she very imprudently married the barber; and there were present the Picninnies, and the Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the Grand Panjandrum himself, with the little round button at top; and they all fell to playing the game of Catch-as-catchcan, till the gunpowder ran out at the heels of their

boots.'

"It is needless to say that the laugh turned against old Macklin, as it has turned against many younger and livelier people since who have read these droll sentences in Harry and Lucy, and who, like Miss Edgeworth's little hero and heroine, after mastering the great she-bear and the no soap, for want of knowing who died, have never arrived at the marriage with the barber, or perhaps, even after proceeding so far, have been tripped up by the Grand Panjandrum with the little round button at top." ALFRED AINGER.

Alrewas, Lichfield.

POMEROY FAMILY (3rd S. iv. 128.)-In answer to your Guildford correspondent who inquires as to the parentage of Thomas Pomeroy, gentleman, of Tredennick, in 1598, I venture to suggest that Thos. Pomeroy, Esq., of Engesdon, and of the Inner Temple, had a son Thomas, who might have been the gentleman named; his mother was a Hengscott. P. F.

SIR FERDINAND LEE (3rd S. iv. 167.)-Thoresby in his Duc. Leod., appends to the Pedigree of Leghe of Middleton, the following note:

"This Ferdinando Leghe was for several years Captain of the Isle of Man under the Earl of Derby, of the Privy Chamber to King Charles I., and colonel of a regiment of horse in his said Majesty's service. He died at Pontefract, Jan. 19, 1654, and lies buried in the Low Church there."

On looking at the text I find nothing to fix the paternity of Thomas Pilkington, Esq., whose daughter Mary, who died s. p., was the knight's second wife; but I have carefully looked over the titles Pilkington in Burke's Landed Gentry, and find that he was a son of Joseph, and grandson of Leonard, prebendary of Durham, who was a younger brother of James Pilkington, the first Protestant Bishop of Durham. The Leghes came into possession of the manor of Middleton, in the parish of Rothwell, temp. Edw. III., by marriage

with one of the co-heiresses of Mereworth. The other co-heiress married an ancestor of mine. The Leghes of Middleton, a branch of the great

Cheshire house of that name, ended in an heiress who married, in 1697, an ancestor of the Brandlings of this county. Their arms are, argent, a bend gules, over all 2 bars sable.

I take this opportunity to thank_two correspondents for replies to my Legacy Duty query. I am the more obliged because of the repulses I met with when I applied to the Legacy Duty Office a few years ago, to ascertain the amount of duty which had been paid upon the legacy in question. R. W. DIXON.

Seaton-Carew, co. Durham. COWTHORPE OAK (3rd S. iv. 69.) I cannot answer C. J. ASHFIELD's inquiry as to the present existence of the Cowthorpe oak. But it may interest him to read an extract from Hayman Rooke's description of some remarkable oaks in Welbeck Park, published in 1790, where he mentions the Cowthorpe oak :

"On the north side of the great riding is a most curious ancient oak, which before the depredations made by time on its venerable trunk, might almost have vied with the celebrated Cowthorpe oak for size [mentioned in Evelyn's Sylva]. It measures, near the ground, 34 feet 4 inches in circumference; at one yard, 27 feet 4 inches; at two yards, 31 feet 9 inches. The trunk, which is wonderfully distorted, plainly appears to have been much larger, and the parts from whence large pieces have fallen off are distinguishable; the inside is decayed and hollowed out by age, which, with the assistance of the axe, might be made wide enough to admit a carriage through it. I think no one can behold this majestic ruin without pronouncing it to be of very remote antiquity; and might venture to say, that it cannot be much less than a thousand old." years

A view of this oak is given in one of the plates. QUERCUS.

A LADY'S DRESS IN 1762 (3rd S. iv. 85.)

"the swelling hoop's capacious round," &c.

The ample capacity and circumference of female dress may be traced so far back as the poet Ovid, who cynically remarks of the Roman belle of the classic age

Dublin.

"Ipsa puella est minima pars sui.”

J. L. RANDOLPH CREWE (3rd S. iii. 164, 165, 197.) — There are allusions to him in a letter from his grandfather to Sir Richard Browne at Paris, dated April 10, 1644, and printed in the Fairfax Correspondence, iii. 98. The letter is interesting on several accounts, and it is therefore to be regretted that it is unindexed.

C. H. & THOMPSON COOPER.

MEVIUS (3rd S. iv. 168.)-Kirchner supposes that Horace intended Mævius in his 6th Carm. is meant; whilst Macleane urges the claims of Epod. Grotefend, however, contends that Bavius The 10th Cassius if any name is to be retained. which Horace lampoons the offensive poet with Carm. Epod. is a curse on Mævius's Voyage, in

the fury of an Archilochus

"Mala soluta navis exit alite,
Ferens olentem Mævium."

For further notices of this poet, cf. Mart. lib. x. epig. 76, "De Mævio".

Puranas which illustrate the cosmogony, the worship of the gods, history, astronomy, law, &c. peculiar to each priesthood, distinct in each Purana. It is not described by Max Müller, but is alluded to. (Sans. Lit. 5.)

Bang is used for the purpose of intoxication by those Hindoos who refrain from spirituous liquors (Hindoos, L. E. K. i. 361); but your correspondent may refer to the Lingam, generally inclosed in a little box of silver, which votaries of Siva wear about their necks. (Dubois, 438.) Montfaucon (L'Antiquité Expliquée, ii. 353, part 2, livre iii.) divides the gems called Abraxas into seven classes: 1. those with the head of a cock usually joined to a human trunk, with the legs ending in two serpents; 2. those with the head or body of a lion, having often the inscription Mithras; 3. those having the inscription or the figure Serapis; 4. those having Anubis, or scarabæi, serpents, or sphinxes; 5. those having human figures with or without wings; 6. those having inscriptions without figures; 7, those having unusual or monstrous figures. As these were intended for amulets or charms, there was abundant scope for the imagination, and they were not confined to heathens, but were adopted by believers, as the Hebrew name Adonai, Lord, and the letters IA UU (= a w) intended for "Jehovah," engraved on some of them, prove. The abraxas of your correspondent appears to belong to the seventh of the above classes, and may be designed to promote fecundity.

Whether my derivation of alcohol be the true one or not, it is certain that, cahala, mature age, is a word distinct from, kohhl (as Mr. Lane writes it), eye-powder, the black pigment applied to the eyes by Egyptian women, and even men now, and by Jezebel in ancient times. (Modern Egyptians, i. 51, ii. 255; 2 Kings, ix. 30.) It is also certain that neither word means the devil in Arabic. T. J. BUCKTON.

the following to their number, with the query, Is it true?

"At Asnieres, France, an actor fell ill, and apparently died. The day of the interment arrived, and when the persons who had to place the corpse in the coffin were about to perform that duty, they were astonished to hear a deep sigh proceed from the body, followed by the words, Ah! mon Dieu!' M. Clair-Benié had awakened from a lethargy, and is now getting better."-Stamford Mercury, Aug. 21, 1863. GRIME.

stated that the earliest printed description of the JACOB'S STAFF (3rd S. iv. 70, 113.)- I find it Jacob's staff" appears to be that in the notes to Werner's Latin Version of Ptolemy's Geography, said to be of 1514." In the Margarita Philosophica, ed. 1504, I find the following description. The book is in form of dialogue:

"Mag. Insuper altitudinem et latitudinem turris, valvæ aut fenestræ alteriusve rei alio investigare si placet valebis ingenio.

Dis. Quali?

Mag. Baculo quem Jacob dicunt.
Dis. Qualis is est baculus?

Mag. Accipiat baculus cujusvis longitudinis; quem mina fabrices; dehinc baculum parvu mensuræ unius in partes equales dividas; circa sectiones rimas aut forapartis divisionis prædictæ facias; et paratus est baculus. Per quem si altitudinem rei considerare placuerit: pone baculum parva in foramen unius divisionis ut placuerit, impositi sursum et deorsum tendant; quo facto, accedas et baculum verte; ut scilicet extremitates baculi parvi aut recedas donec per has extremitates rei conspiciendæ superiorem et inferiorm terminos videas, et signa locum stationis tuæ. Dehinc baculum parvû de foramine priore extrahas et in proximum retro (si accedere volueris) aut ante (si retrocedere intendas) pone; et iterum accedendo et retrocedendo per extremitates baculi parvi terminos rei visa conspicias, locumque stationis illius signes; quantum enim est inter istam et priore statione tanta est altitudo rei visa. Sic simili modo latitudine investigabis si baculu ita vertas ut extremitates baculi parvi dextrorsum et sinistrorsum ptendantur."

As the Margarita is not a common book, perhaps this extract may be interesting. There is a large woodcut, occupying an entire page, in which the use of the Jacob's staff is shown.

The Close, Salisbury.

A. B. MIDDLETON.

PATRICIAN FAMILIES OF LOUVAIN (3rd S. iv. 168.) In furtherance of your correspondent's cian families of Louvain, quoted from G. J. C. inquiries I forward the names of the seven patriPiot, Histoire de Louvaine, 1839, p. 121 :

"1. Utten-Lieminghen (nom d'une propriété). 2. Vanden Calster (encore un nom de propriété). 3. Van Redingen (nom de propriété). 4. Vanden Steene. 5. Ver'rusalem. 6. Gielis. 7. Van Rode (nom de propriété "). And in continuation of the extract —

"Les chroniqueurs ont donné à ces familles une origine fabuleuse: sous Lambert vécut à Louvain un Bostinus, surnommé le grand à cause de sa haute taille; il avait sept filles, pour lesquelles il choisit sept maris à condition qu'ils porteraient les blasons de leurs épouses, de