A drummer is stated to be heard in C—— Castle, the residence of the Earl and Countess of A., "going about the house playing his drum, whenever there is a death impending in the family." This warning is asserted to have been given shortly before the decease of the Earl's first wife, and preceded the death of the next Countess about five or six months. Mrs. Crowe, in her Night Side of Nature, observes hereupon:
"I have heard that a paper was found in her (the Countess's) desk after her death, declaring her conviction that the drum was for her."
Whenever a little old woman visits a lady of the family of G. of R., at the time of her confinement, when the nurse is absent, and strokes down the clothes, the patient (says Mrs. Crowe), "never does any good, and dies." Another legend is, that a single swan is always seen on a particular lake close to the mansion of another family before a death. Then, Lord Littleton's dove is a well-known incident. And the lady above quoted speaks of many curious warnings of death by the appearance of birds, as well as of a spectral black dog, which visited a particular family in Cornwall immediately before the death of any of its members. Having made this Note of a few more cases of death warnings, I will end with a Query in the words of Mrs. Crowe, who, after detailing the black dog apparition, asks: "if this phenomenon is the origin of the French phrase bête noire, to express an annoyance, or an augury of evil?"
Jas. J. Scott.
Hampstead.
"The Secunde Personne of the Trinitie" (Vol. ix., p. 56.).—I think it is Hobart Seymour who speaks of some Italians of the present day as considering the Three Persons of the Trinity to be the Father, the Virgin, and the Son.
J. P. O.