Full of Rain in England.—”ROYDON” (No. 11. p. 73) will find the average quantity of rain fallen at Greenwich, for twenty-five years, 1815 to 1839, in a very useful and clever pamphlet, price 1s., by J.H. Belville, of the Royal Observatory, published by Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, called Manual of the Mercurial and Aneroid Barometers.
HENRY WILKINSON
Judas Bell—(No. 13, p. 195). In the “Flyting of Dunbar and Kennedie,” a singular Scotch Poem, composed in the former half of the 16th century, and printed in Ramsay’s Evergreen, the following passage occurs (Everg. vol. ii. p. 74.):—
“A Benefice quha wald give sic a Beist,
But gif it were to jingle Judas bells?
Tak thee a Fiddle or a Flute to jest,
Undocht thou art, ordained for naithing ells.”
The Judas bells may probably have been used in the Easter-eve ceremonies, in connexion with which we find Judas candles mentioned. See Brand’s Popular Antiq. by Sir H. Ellis, vol. i. p. 29.
C.W.G.
Boduc or Boduoc on British Coins.—The real name of the heroic queen of the Iceni is very uncertain. Walther (Tacitus, xiv. Ann. c. 31.), adopts Boudicea. It is probable enough that the syllables Boduo may have formed a part of it, as pronounced by the Britons. We are reminded of Boduognatus, leader of the Nervii, mentioned by Cæsar. But to come nearer home, the name Boduogenus is found upon a bronze vessel discovered in the Isle of Ely, described by Mr. Goddard Johnson, Archæologia, xxviii. p. 436.