The Koran by Sterne.—Can you or any of your readers inform me if the work entitled The Koran, printed in some editions of Sterne's writings, is a genuine composition of his, or not? If not, who was its author, and what is its literary history? My reason for asking is, that I have heard it asserted that it is not by Sterne.
E.L.N.
Devices on Standards of the Anglo-Saxons.—Can any of your readers inform me what devices were borne on the standards of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the so-called Heptarchy? The white horse is by many supposed to have been the standard of Wessex, and to have been borne by Alfred; but was not this really the ensign of the Jutish kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said to have been the white dragon; but Thierry supposes that this, like the contrasted red dragon of Cymbri, was merely a poetical designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a lion was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of the Raven, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard—the Landeyda, or ravager of the world—under which Harold Hardrada triumphed at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge, is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore? These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than I believe they have received.
O.
Burning the Dead.—Can any of your readers, who may have attended particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of or opposed to this view.
T.
Meaning of "Shipster."—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr Shipster."
JOHN R. FOX.
55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.
Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?—In the Penny Cyclopædia, art. DEE, JOHN, I find the following statement:—