[Replies.]
GRUB STREET JOURNAL.
(Vol. vii., pp. 108. 268.)
Reginensis has been referred by F. R. A. to Drake's Essays for an account of this journal. Drake's account is, however, very incorrect. The Grub Street Journal did not terminate, as he states, on the 24th August, 1732, but was continued in the original folio size to the 29th Dec., 1737; the last No. being 418., instead of 138., as he incorrectly gives it. He appears to have supposed that the 12mo. abridgment in two volumes contained all the essays in the paper; whereas it did not comprise more than a third of them. He mentions as the principal writers Dr. Richard Russel and Dr. John Martyn. Budgell, however, in The Bee (February, 1733) says, "The person thought to be at the head of the paper is Mr. R—l (Russel), a nonjuring clergyman, Mr. P—e (Pope), and some other gentlemen." Whether Pope wrote in it or not, it seems to have been used as a vehicle by his friends for their attacks upon his foes, and the war against the Dunces is carried on with great wit and spirit in its pages. It is by far the most entertaining of the old newspapers, and throws no small light upon the literary history of the time. I have a complete series of the journal in folio, as well as of the continuation, in a large 4to. form, under the title of The Literary Courier of Grub Street, which commenced January 5, 1738, and appears to have terminated at the 30th No., on the 27th July, 1738. I never saw another complete copy. The Grub Street Journal would afford materials for many curious and amusing extracts. One very entertaining part of it is the "Domestic News," under which head it gives the various and often contradictory accounts of the daily newspapers, with a most humorous running commentary.
James Crossley.
[STONE PILLAR WORSHIP.]
(Vol. v., p. 122.)
Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his learned and curious Note on stone worship in Ireland, desires information as to the present existence of worship of stone pillars in Orkney. When he says it continued till a late period, I suppose he must allude to the standing stone at Stenness, perforated by a hole, with the sanctity attached to promises confirmed by the junction of hands through the hole, called the promise of Odin. Dr. Daniel Wilson enters into this fully in Præhistoric Annals of Scotland, pp. 99, 100, 101. It has been told myself that if a lad and lass promised marriage with joined hands through the hole, the promise was held to be binding. Whence the sanctity attached to such a promise I could not ascertain to be known, and I did not hear of any other superstition connected with this stone, which was destroyed in 1814. In the remote island of North Ronaldshay is another standing stone, perforated by a hole, but there is no superstition of this nature attached to it. At the Yule time the inhabitants danced about it, and when there were yule dancings in neighbouring houses, they began the dancing at the stone, and danced from the stone all the road to what was called to me the dancing-house. The sword dance, with a great deal of intricate crossing, and its peculiar simple tune, still exists in Orkney, but is not danced with swords, though I heard of clubs or sticks having been substituted. There are found in these islands the two circles of stones at Stenness, and single standing stones. One of these, at Swannay in Birsay, is said by tradition to have been raised to mark the spot where the procession rested when carrying the body of St. Magnus after his murder in Egilshay in 1110, from that island to Christ's Kirk in Birsay, where it was first interred. Here is a date and a purpose. The single standing stones, in accordance with Sir James's opinion, and to use nearly his expressions, are said to mark the burial-places of distinguished men, to commemorate battles and great events, and to denote boundaries; and these, and still more the circles, are objects of respect as belonging to ages gone by, but principally with the educated classes, and there is no superstition remaining with any. Such a thing as the swathing stone of South Inchkea is not known to have existed. The stones in the two circles, and the single standing stones, are all plain; but there was found lately a stone of the sculptured symbolical class, inserted to form the base of a window in St. Peter's Kirk, South Ronaldshay, and another of the same class in the island of Bressay, in Zetland. The first is now in the Museum of Scottish Antiquaries in Edinburgh; and the Zetland stone, understood to be very curious, is either there or in Newcastle, and both are forming the subject of antiquarian inquiry.