Minor Queries Answered.

Thorns of Dauphine.

—What is the meaning of the proverb mentioned by Bishop Jeremy Taylor:

"The Thorns of Dauphine will never fetch blood, if they do not scratch the first day?"—Sermon XVI. "Of Growth in Sin," p. 319. Lond. 1678. fol.

RT.

Warmington.

[Montaigne, in his Essays, book i. chap. lvii., quotes this proverb, and gives a clue to its meaning. He says: "For my part I believe our souls are adult at twenty, as much as they are ever like to be, and as capable then as ever. A soul that has not by that time given evident earnest of its force and virtue will never after come to proof. Natural parts and excellences produce what they have of vigorous and fine within that term, or never:

'Si l'espine non picque quand nai,

A peue que picque jamai,'

as they say in Dauphiny.">[

Inscription at Lyons.

—In Bishop Burnet's Travels (1685), he mentions a monumental inscription which he saw at Lyons, of a certain lady, "Quæ nimia pia"—"Facta est Impia," whom he conjectures, and with some probability, to have been a Christian lady, declared impious because she refused to confess the "Gods many and Lords many" of the heathen. The conclusion of the epitaph is perplexing: it states that her husband dedicated it to her and her son's memory—under "the axe"—"Sub asciâ dedicavit." I have looked in vain for any explanation of this expression, in any account within my reach of Roman funerals: possibly some of your correspondents may help me to an explanation. Burnet, while he is acute in noting the contradictory expression above, wholly overlooks this. It may mean that her husband performed this act of piety in the face of danger and persecution,—as we should say, "with the axe hanging over his head;" but then the epitaph commences with the letters D. M., signifying "Diis Manibus," leading to the conclusion that the husband was not himself a Christian, though respecting Christianity in the person of his wife. I had not originally intended to copy the epitaph; but as it is not long, and may help the speculations of your readers who have not access to Burnet's Travels, p. 5., now a rare book, I subjoin it:—

"D. M.

Et memoriæ eternæ

Sutiæ Anthidis

Quæ vixit Annis XXV. M. XI. DV.

Quæ dum nimia pia fuit

Facta est Impia

Attio Probatiolo

Cecalius Callistio Conjux et Pater

et sibi vivo

Ponendum Curavit

Sub ascia dedicavit."

A. B. R.

[Our correspondent will find a more correct reading of this inscription, with some remarks on Bishop Burnet's account of it, in Reflexions on Dr. Gilbert Burnet's Travels into Switzerland, Italy, and certain Parts of Germany and France, &c., divided into five letters. Written originally in Latin, by Mons. ***, and now done into English. 1688, pp. 23-29.]

Turnpikes.

—What is the earliest instance and origin of this word, and when did the system of turnpikes commence? In the will of Walter Ildryzerd, of Bury, dated 1468, mention is made of two pastures without the town "j vocat' Turnepyke."

BURIENSIS.

[Turnpikes or barriers were erected as early as A.D. 1267, as we find a grant of a penny for each waggon passing through a manor. See Index or Catalogue of the Patent Rolls, Hen. III. 51., m. 21., "Quod I. de Ripariis capiat in feod. 1 denar. de qualibet carectâ transeunte per maneria sua de Thormerton et Littleton, co. Glouc." A toll was also imposed in the reign of Edward III. for repairing the road between St. Giles and Temple Bar.]