The fire was that caused in York Minster on the 2nd of February, 1829, by Jonathan Martin, who, as the question says, was subsequently discovered to be out of his mind. Having taken it into his head that it was his duty to destroy the cathedral, he concealed himself after evening service on the 1st of February behind a monument in the north transept, and in the night collected inflammable material which he set fire to. The whole of the beautiful tabernacle work of carved oak, the stalls, the pulpit, the organ, the roof, and much of the stonework of the choir, were all destroyed, the east window which was in great danger, being saved with difficulty. The building was restored at a cost of about £65,000, which was raised by a national subscription. This question was well answered. A few girls gave instances of fires at the cathedrals of Carlisle and Salisbury, but the insane incendiary was left out of account. Four or five gave the burning of St. Paul’s in the Great Fire of 1666, as that well-known event is described in Mr. W. Harrison Ainsworth’s Old St. Paul’s, but they should have remembered that a novelist’s facts should be verified before quoting them as history.
41. What is the best diet for brain-workers?
There is no doubt that brain-workers—whether literary, professional or business people—need the best of food served in the most agreeable manner, and in variety and abundance. If it were possible to live by brain alone, without any exercise of the muscles, then the diet might be exclusively confined to those articles which contain the fat, salt and phosphorus of which the brain is composed. But this being out of the question, a wide variety of food is necessary for the brain-working classes, its quantity and quality being adapted to nourish the whole body with special reference to the nervous system. An important point is that the food be light and easily digested. Most girls answered this question, and many sensible replies were received.
42. What saint was so able a musician that, according to tradition, an angel descended to earth enraptured with her melodious strains?
Few queries were better or more fully answered than this one, the essence of most of the replies being that the saint was St. Cecilia, a young Roman lady of noble birth, who suffered martyrdom about 329—perhaps earlier. She “has long been regarded as the tutelary saint of music and musicians, but the period at which she was first so looked upon is involved in obscurity.” When the tradition mentioned in the question originated is equally unknown. It is an odd fact that early writers make no mention of her skill in music.
43. What is the origin of the three ostrich feathers as a badge of the Prince of Wales?
This has long been a matter of perplexity to antiquaries. The cherished and popular belief, however—quoted by almost all our competitors—is that the feathers were derived from the blind King of Bohemia, who lost his life at the battle of Crecy in 1346. The feathers do not appear in connection with our Princes of Wales till after that battle. The ostrich feather, it appears, was a distinction of Luxemburg, and John, Count of Luxemburg, was the original style and title of the King of Bohemia, who fell so bravely at Crecy. The first Prince of Wales to assume the feathers was of course Edward the Black Prince, the victor of Crecy.
44. When did ignorant people in this country imagine that they had been defrauded out of eleven days by those in authority?
It was in 1752 when the Act for the change of Style came into operation in this country. After the 2nd of September of that year, the following day was held to be not the 3rd, but the 14th, thus dropping out eleven days. The common people of England, we are told, “were violently inflamed against the statesmen who had carried through the bill for the change of style, and generally believed that they had been defrauded out of eleven days (as if eleven days of their destined lives) by the transaction. Accordingly for some time afterwards a favourite opprobrious cry to unpopular statesmen in the streets and on the hustings was, ‘Who stole the eleven days? Give us back the eleven days!’” A few girls failed to answer this question, but not so many as we expected.
45. Who was the hermit who lived for over thirty years on the top of a pillar?