"We have been informed that Professor Ranke has found out a passage in Ammianus Marcellinus by which it is unquestionably proved that table-turning was known in the east of the Roman Empire.
"The table-turners of those days were summoned as sorcerers before the Council, and the passage referred to appears to have been transcribed from the Protocol. The whole ceremony (modus movendi hic fuit) is very precisely described, and is similar to what we have so often witnessed within the last month; only that the table-turners, instead of sitting round the table, danced round it. The table-oracle likewise answered in verse, and showed a decided preference for hexameters. Being asked 'Who should be the next emperor?' the table answered 'Theod.' In consequence of this reply, the government caused a certain Theodorus to be put to death. Theodosius, however, became emperor.
"The table oracle, in common with other oracles, had a dangerous equivocal tendency."
I learn from my correspondent, that the passage in Ammianus Marcellinus, though brought into notice by Professor Ranke, was discovered by Professor August at this place (Cheltenham). I am unable to verify the following reference: see Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum, lib. xxix. (p. 177., Bipont. edit.), and Ib. lib. xxxi. (p. 285.)
John T. Graves.
Cheltenham.
The Bell Savage (Vol. vii., p. 523.).—Mr. James Edmeston is correct in rejecting the modern acceptation of the sign of the well-known inn on Ludgate Hill, as being La Belle Sauvage. Its proper name is "The Bell Savage," the bell being its sign, and Savage the name of its proprietor. But he is wrong in supposing that "Bell" in this case was the abbreviation of the name Isabella, and that the inn "was originally kept by one Isabella Savage." In a deed enrolled on the Close Roll of 1453, it is described as "Savage's Ynne, alias Le Belle on the Hope." The bell, as in many other ancient signs, was placed within a hoop. (See the Gentleman's Magazine for November last, p. 487.)
N.
Door-head Inscriptions (Vol. viii., p. 652.).—About the year 1825, I remember an old house known by the whimsical name of "Wise-in-Time," at Stoke-Bishop, near Bristol; over the front door of which there was the following inscription, carved on a stone tablet:
"Ut corpus animo,
Sic Domus corpori."