Conway Family.—Is it true that Sir William Konias (founder of the Conway family) was Lord High Constable of England under William the Conqueror? The Welsh pedigrees in the British Museum assert as much, and that he married Isabel, daughter of Baldwin, Earl of Blois; but it does not appear that there was a Count of Blois of that name.
Ursula.
Salt.—Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, p. 294., speaking of the town of Leamington, says:
"All that is further observable touching this place is, that nigh to the east end of the church there is a spring of salt water (not above a stone's throw from the river Leame), whereof the inhabitants make much use for seasoning of meat."
Was salt a scarce article in the midland counties in those days?
When and where was the first salt-mine established in England?
Erica.
Geological Query.—Can any of your geological readers inform me what is the imagined reason that there is no increase of temperature in Scandinavia (as there is everywhere else) in descending into mines?
M—a L.
Wandering Jew.—I am anxious to learn the authority on which this celebrated myth rests. I am aware of the passage in John's Gospel (xxi. 21, 22, 23.), but I cannot think that there is no other foundation for such an extraordinary belief. Perhaps on the continent some legend may exist. My object in inquiring is to discover whether Eugène Sue's Wandering Jew is purely a fictitious character, or whether he had any, and, if any, what authority or tradition on which to found it.