Minor Queries.
Rifles.
—"We make the best rifles, and you follow us," said the exhibitor of Colt's revolvers, in my hearing, with a most satisfied assurance, in a way "particularly communicative and easy," as The Times of the 9th of June says of his general manner. I am always desirous of information, but desire the highest authority and evidence before I believe. I would therefore ask the opinion of all experienced sportsmen, such as Mr. Gordon Cumming, or of travelled officers of our Rifle Brigade. I may say, that if the above unqualified remark came from the mouth of an English maker, I should be equally incredulous. Is there any use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English one?
A. C.
Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls.
—Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls, near Romsey, Hants? There are the remains of a palace of the Saxon kings still there, many parts of which are in good preservation, the chapel being now used as the kitchen of Stanbridge House?
I have also read that one of the kings was buried in this chapel, and afterwards removed to Winchester; but, having no note of the book, should be glad to be referred to it.
COLLY WOBBLES.
Montchesni, or Muncey Family.
—Can any of your correspondents inform us what has become of the Norman line of Montchesni, or Muncey, a family which, like those of Maldebauge and De Loges, held baronial rank in England for several generations after the Conquest, though it is now forgotten?
P.
Epitaph on Voltaire.
—The late Sir F. Jeffrey, in a review of the correspondence of Baron de Grimm, quotes an epitaph on Voltaire, which he states to have been made by a lady of Lausanne:
"Ci gît l'enfant gaté du monde qu'il gata."
Has the name of this lady been ascertained?
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, May, 1851.
Passage in Coleridge's Table Talk.
—In Specimens of Coleridge's Table Talk (p. 165., Murray, 1851) appears the following:—
"So little did the early bishops and preachers think their Christian faith wrapped up in, and solely to be learned from, the New Testament, that I remember a letter from ——[1] to a friend of his, a bishop in the East, in which he most evidently speaks of the Christian scriptures as of works of which the bishop knew little or nothing."
[1] "I have lost the name which Mr. Coleridge mentioned."—Editor's Note.
My object is to know how this blank is to be filled up—probably by the name of some well-known father of the Church.
GEORGE LEWES.
Oxford, May 28.
"Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die."
—These words are given in Young's Night Thoughts as a quotation. Can any of your correspondents inform me whence they are taken?
E. J. K.
Etymology of Bicêtre.
—In a work entitled Description routière et géographique de l'Empire Français, by R. V., Paris, 1813, the following notice of Bicêtre occurs in vol. i. p. 84.:—
"On voit bientôt, à peu de distance à droite, d'abord dans un bas-fond, arrosé par la petite rivière de Bièvre ou des Gobelins, le village de Gentilly, qui se vante de quelqu'ancienneté, et d'un Concile tenu en 767; ensuite, sur une éminence, au bout d'une jolie avenue en berceau, l'hôpital de Bicêtre, qui, fondé en 1290 par un Evêque de Paris, appartint depuis, dit-on, à un Evêque de Wincester ou Wincestre, d'où par corruption on a fait Bicêtre.
"C'est une chose assez piquante que cette étymologie anglaise. Les auteurs qui nous l'apprennent eussent bien dû nous en apprendre aussi les circonstances. J'ai consulté à cet égard tout ce qui était à consulter, sans faire d'autre découverte que quelques contradictions dans les dates, et sans pouvoir offrir aucun éclaircissement historique à mes lecteurs, aussi curieux que moi, sans doute, de savoir comment un prélat anglais est venu donner le nom de son évêché à un château de France."
Is there any warrant in English history for this derivation of Bicêtre; and if so, who was the Bishop of Winchester that gave the name of his diocese to that celebrated hospital?
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, June, 1851.
Theobald Anguilbert and Michael Scott.
—M. Barbier, in his Dictionnaire des Ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, says that Michael Scott is a pseudonyme for Theobald Anguilbert, and ascribes the Mensa philosophica to the latter as the real author. Can any one tell me who is Theobald Anguilbert, for I can find no account of him anywhere? and if there ever was such a person, whether all the writings bearing the name of Michael Scott, who, by all accounts, appears to have been a real person, are to be assigned to the said Anguilbert?
TYRO.
Dublin.
"Suum cuique tribuere," &c.
—Can any of your readers tell me where the following passage is to be found?
"Suum cuique tribuere, ea demum summa justitia est."
All persons of whom I have inquired, tell me it is from Cicero, but no one can inform me where it is to be found.
M. D.