F. C. H.
Hour-glasses and Inscriptions on old Pulpits (Vol. ix., pp. 31. 64.).—In St. Edmund's Church, South Burlingham, stands an elegant pulpit of the fifteenth century, painted red and blue, and relieved with gilding. On it there still remains an old hour-glass, though such appendages were not introduced till some centuries probably after the erection of this pulpit. The following legend goes round the upper part of this pulpit, in the old English character:
"Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major Johanne Baptista."
F. C. H.
Table-turning (Vol. ix., pp. 39. 88.).—I have not Ammianus Marcellinus within reach, but, if I am not mistaken, after the table had been got into motion, the oracle was actually given by means of a ring. This being held over, suspended by a thread, oscillated or leaped from one to another of the letters of the alphabet which were engraved on the edge of the table, or that which covered it. The passage would not occupy many lines, and I think that many readers of "N. & Q." would be interested if some one of its learned correspondents would furnish a copy of it, with a close English translation.
N. B.
"Firm was their faith" (Vol. ix., p. 17.).—Grateful as I am to all who think well enough of my verses to discuss them in "N. & Q.," yet I cannot permit them to be incorrectly quoted or wrongly revised. If, as F. R. R. alleges, I had written in the third line of the stanza quoted—"with firm and trusting hands"—then I should have repeated the same epithet (firm) twice in three lines. Whereas I wrote, as a reference to Echoes from Old Cornwall, p. 58., will establish, stern.
R. S. Hawker.
The Wilbraham Cheshire MS. (Vol. viii., pp. 270. 303.).—With regard to this highly curious MS., I am enabled to state that it is still preserved at Delamere House, the seat of George Fortescue Wilbraham, Esq., by whom it has been continued down to the present time. Mr. Wilbraham has answered this Query himself, but from some accident his reply did not appear in the pages of "N. & Q." I therefore, having recently seen the MS., take this opportunity of assuring your querist of its existence.
W. J. Bernhard Smith.