Minor Queries.

68. Heraldic Figures at Tonbridge Castle.

—In the court of the castle of this place, there stands a colossal figure of what I take to be an heraldic panther gorged with a ducal crown, supporting a shield of the royal arms of France and England quarterly, as borne before the accession of James I.

The corresponding supporter is gone, but the base and one claw remain, showing it to have been a beast of prey, and with it is a broken shield, thereon, "party per pale three lions rampant;" the arms, and probably the supporter of the Herberts, earls of Pembroke. The two figures have evidently capped the piers of a gateway.

Can any of your readers account for the presence of these figures here, where the Herberts are not recorded to have possessed any property?

ERMINES.

Tonbridge, July 29. 1851.

69. English Translation of Nonnus.

—I shall be obliged if any of your correspondents will inform me if any translation of the poet Nonnus, which contains, perhaps, most that is known about Bacchus, has ever been made into English; if so, by whom, and when?

ÆGROTUS.

70. Of Prayer in one Tongue.

—Bishop Jewel, in his celebrated sermon preached at Paul's Cross, quotes the following argument as used by Gerson, sometime Chancellor of Paris:

"There is but one only God; ergo, all nations throughout the world must pray to Him in one tongue."

The editor of the Parker Society's edition of Jewel cannot discover the argument in the works of Gerson; but if any of your readers can point out where it may be found, I shall be much obliged.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber).

71. Inscription in Ely Cathedral.

—M. D. (Great Yarmouth) is anxious to have the meaning of the following inscription explained. It is on a tombstone in Ely Cathedral.

Human
Redemption
590[X]590[X]590
Born[•]Sara[•]Watts
Died
600[X]600[X]600
30[X]00[X]33
Aged
Y 30[X]00[X]33
M 3[X]d 31-3
h 3[X]3[X]3[X]12
Nations make fun of his Commands.
———
S. M. E.
Judgements begun on Earth.
In memory of
JAMES FOUNTAIN.
Died August 21, 1767.
Aged 60 years.

72. Cervantes—what was the Date of his Death?

—In the Life prefixed to a corrected edition of Jarvis's translation, published by Miller, 1801, it is stated to be April 23, 1616; and it is added:

"It is a singular coincidence of circumstances, that the same day should deprive the world of two men of such transcendent abilities as Cervantes and Shakspeare, the latter of whom died in England on the very day that put an end to the life of the former in Spain."

Dr. Christopher Wordsworth, in his Life of his uncle, the poet, remarks on his decease on the anniversary of the death of Shakspeare, but makes no allusion to the double anniversary; and in the Life of Cervantes prefixed to Smollet's translation of Don Quixote, the day of Cervantes' death is somewhat differently stated.

GEO. E. FRERE.

73. "Agla," Meaning of.

—I have in my possession a silver ring, found some time since at a place called "Grungibane" in this neighbourhood. The hoop is flat both inside and out, about a quarter of an inch broad. On the outside, occupying about half the length, is the following inscription: "+ AGLA."

I should feel great obliged by some of your learned correspondents decyphering the above.

JOHN MARTIN.

Downpatrick.

74. Murderers buried in Cross Roads.

—Though the lines of Hood's,

"So they buried him where the cross roads met

With a stake in his inside."

occur in one of his comic poems, I have often heard it gravely stated that it was formerly the custom to bury murderers with a stake driven through the body, where cross roads meet. Was this ever a custom, and when was "formerly?" Are there many such tragic spots in England and can I find them enumerated anywhere?

P. M. M.

75. Wyle Cop.

—This is the name of a street, or rather bank in Shrewsbury, leading from the English Bridge to High Street. It has always struck me as being a curious name; and I should feel obliged to any of your readers who could inform me what is the origin of the place being so called, or if there is any meaning in the words beyond being the name of a place.

SALOPIAN.

76. The Devil's Knell.

—In the Collectanea Topographica, vol. i. p. 167., is the following note:

"At Dewsbury, Yorkshire, there is a bell called 'Black Tom of Sothill:' the tradition is, that it is as expiatory gift for a murder. One of the bells, perhaps this one, is tolled on Christmas-eve as at a funeral, or in the manner of a passing-bell: and any one asking whose bell it was, would be told that it was the devil's knell. The moral of it is, that the devil died when Christ was born. The custom was discontinued for many years, but was revived by the vicar in 1828."

Is the gift of a bell a common expiatory gift for crime? And does the custom of tolling the devil's knell on Christmas eve exist in any other place at the present time?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

77. Queries on Poems of Richard Rolle (Vol. iv., p. 49.).

—I should be glad to ask a question or two of your Cambridge correspondent, touching his very interesting contribution from the MS. remains of Richard Rolle of Hampole.

What language is meant by the deuenisch?

What is a guystroun?

How does the word chaunsemlees come to mean shoes?

An expression very strange to English verse occurs in the line,

"Hir cher was ay semand sori."

I can think of nothing to throw light upon this intensive adverb, except the Danish saamænd, which is generally used in that language (or rather was used, i.e. when Holberg wrote his comedies) as an affirmatory oath. Native authorities explain it to mean "so it is, by the holy men," or in other terms, "by the saints I swear."

I have no doubt that the same kindness which led your correspondent to communicate those delightful extracts, will also make him willing to assist the understanding of them.

J. E.

Oxford.

78. Did Bishop Gibson write a Life of Cromwell?

—Mr. Carlyle, in treating on the biographies of Oliver Cromwell, says that the Short Critical Review of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, by a gentleman of the Middle Temple, was written by a certain "Mr. Banks, a kind of a lawyer and playwright," and that the anonymous Life of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, impartially collected, &c., London, 1724, which Noble ascribes to Bishop Gibson, was by "one Kember, a dissenting minister of London."

On the other hand, Mr. Russell, in his Life of Oliver Cromwell, 2 vols. 12mo. 1829, says:

"There is an anonymous work deserving of some notice, entitled A Short Critical Review of the Political Life of Oliver Cromwell. The title professes that it was written by a gentleman of the Middle Temple, but there is reason to believe that it proceeded from the pen of the learned Bishop Gibson."

It would seem, therefore, by these statements, that two different lives of the Great Protector have been ascribed to Gibson. Query, Did Gibson ever write a life of Cromwell; and if so, which is it?

It is well worth knowing which Gibson did write, if he wrote one at all, for he was connected with the Cromwell family, and, what is of more consequence, a learned, liberal man, not given to lying, so that his book probably contains more truth than any of the other Cromwell biographies of that time.

DRYASDUST.

79. English Translation of Alcon.

—Is there any translation of Alcon by Baldisare Castiglione? The Lycidas of Milton is a splendid paraphrase of it. The parallel passages are to be found in (I think) No. 47. of the Classical Journal, published formerly by Valpy. The prototypes of L'Allegro and Il Penseroso are at the beginning of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy. Thus three of Milton's early poems cannot be termed wholly original.

ÆGROTUS.