taken up a secure position in the room from which we could observe all the movements of the combatants). The mongoose was let in, and the fight commenced.

"The Fight.-The mongoose approached the cobra with caution, but devoid of any appearance of fear. The cobra, with head erect and body vibrating, watched his opponent with evident signs of being aware of how deadly an enemy he had to contend with. The mongoose was soon within easy striking distance of the snake, who, suddenly throwing back his head, struck at the mon; goose with tremendous force. The mongoose, quick as thought, sprung back out of reach, uttering at the same time savage growls. Again the hooded reptile rose on the defensive; and the mongoose, nothing daunted by the distended jaws and glaring eyes of his antagonist, approached so near to the snake that he was forced, not relishing such close proximity, to draw his head back considerably; this lessened his distance from the ground. The mongoose at once, seizing the advantageous opportunity, sprung at the cobra's head, and appeared to inflict as well as to receive a wound. Again the combatants put themselves in a position to renew the encounter, again the snake struck at his wily opponent, and again the latter's agility saved him. It would be tedious to recount in further detail the particulars of about a dozen successive rounds, at the end of which time neither combatant seemed to suffer more than the other; we will limit ourselves to describe the final and most interesting

encounter.

"The last Round-The fight had lasted some three quarters of an hour, and both combatants seemed now to nerve themselves for the final encounter. The cobra, changing his position of defence for that of attack, ad

vanced, and seemed determined now to 'do or die.' Slowly on his watchful enemy the cobra advanced; with equal courage the mongoose awaited the advance of his still unvanquished foe. The cobra had now approached so close, that the mongoose (who, owing to want of space behind, was unable to spring out of reach by jumping backwards, as it had done in the previous encounters,) nimbly bounded straight up in the air. The cobra missed his object, and struck the ground under him. Immediately on the mongoose alighting, the cobra, quick as thought, struck again; and, to all appearances, fixed his fangs in the head of the mongoose. The mongoose, as the cobra was withdrawing his head after he had inflicted the bite, instantly retaliated by fixing his teeth in the head of the cobra. This seemed to convince the cobra that he was no match for his fierce and watchful antagonist; and now, no longer exhibiting a head erect and defiant eye, he unfolded his coils and ignominiously slunk Instantly the mongoose was on his retreating foe, and, burying his teeth in his brain, at once ended the contest. "The mongoose now set to work to devour his victim, and in a few minutes had eaten the head and two or

away.

three inches of the body, including the venom so dreaded by all.

"We should have mentioned before, that, previous to this encounter, the snake had struck a fowl, which died within half an hour of the infliction of the bite; showing, beyond doubt, its capability of inflicting a deadly wound. "After the mongoose had satisfied his appetite, we proceeded to examine with a pocket lens the wounds that he had received from the cobra; and on washing away the blood from one of these places, the lens disclosed the broken fang of the cobra deeply imbedded in the head of the mongoose. To discover whether there was any truth in the assertion, that the mongoose owes its impunity from the bite of the most venomous of serpents to its knowledge of a herb which is an antidote to the poison, or whether on the other hand a prophylactic exists in the blood of this extraordinary animal, rendering it in

nocuous to the bite of a reptile fatal to all other animals, we have had the mongoose confined ever since (now four days ago), and it is now as healthy and lively as ever; but should it in the course of a fortnight show the slight est indisposition, we, in the cause of truth, will not fail to inform you.

"We consider, therefore, that there no longer exists a doubt that in the blood of the mongoose there is a prophylactic; and that the idea that it derives its impunity from a herb, is one of many popular errors.

"We beg to subscribe ourselves as witnesses to the above narrated encounter between a mongoose and a cobra, and remain, dear Sir,

66

"Yours truly,

THE IRISH QUEEN VICTORIA.-Has any of your readers ever made a note of the fact, that your sovereign-second of her commanding name recorded as the great Ban Tierna of the old Westis in style and title truly Irish: as Irish as the Lia Faile, that "erratic boulder" of dominion lying, as we are told, under the coronation chair of Britain ?

"Queen Victoria" is only another way of writing Coinne Vochtara; which, in the old language, meant "chief woman," "sovereign, or conquering lady." Coinne, by itself, came to be "the woman, par eminence, and it passed with a slight change into our form of speech; just as king" did about the same time. Vochtara, or Uachtara ("conquering "), was the elder form of the Latin Victoria; having gone to Rome, doubtless, along with fasces, hernæ, embratur (all Irish), from the Sabellian or Etruscan districts. This word I may add, is curiously visible in some of the war mottoes of the Irish septs; and as curiously invisible in our English "above" and "aboon" - rather expressive words in this high theme, the latter especially, to any courtier looking up to the liberality of a great queen.

Her Majesty knows, of course, that she is a descendant of Kenneth Mac Alpine and some of the elder dynasts of the Scotic line of Ireland; but she would probably be surprised to know what an amount of Irishry she has been personally carrying about with her. She is, indeed, Irish island of her forefathers, among a people always enough to have a palace or two in that green disposed (as Thomas Moore used to sing and say) to be as loving and as loyal as the Scots or any others, if the Coinne Vochtara would only be somewhat more familiar and friendly with them. The Irish, by genius and etymological derivation, are Tories rather than rebels (there was always, in fact, a strong Tory party in every one of the

66

five courts of ancient Ireland). And the way they rushed down upon the rebels here in Americasinging, not the song of Roland, or of Riego, or of Rouget de Lisle, but of "John Brown's body," to a conventicle hymn tune!-was, as they say, a caution" to all the world and "the old country;" and, beyond doubt, a consolation as well as an astonishment to the injured and venerable shade of the late King George III.

To conclude, Her Majesty would surely be amused to read in the "N. & Q.," that the hereditary title of her maternal grandfather was as undeniably Irish as her own.

Nov. Ebor.

W. D.

REGISTER OF LORD CLYDE's Birth."A professional correspondent politely transmits the following: Having been professionally occupied recently in making a search in the old register of births and baptisms for the city of Glasgow, now deposited in the Register House, Edinburgh, I accidentally came upon that of our illustrious and gallant townsman, the late Lord Clyde, and having copied it from the register, I send it to you. The entry in the register establishes not only the name of his father, but is very strong evidence of his having been a citizen of Glasgow, if any further proof of these points were awanting. The entry is as follows:"Glasgow, October, 1792. "M'Liver.-John M'Liver, Wright, and Agnes Camp. bell; a L. Son, Colin, bo. 20th. Witn., Kenneth McCallum and Duncan Munro."-The Glasgow Herald, August 31,

1863.

"A splendid muse of fiction has Charles Dickens; But now and then, just as the interest thickens, He stilts his pathos, and the reader sickens.

"Who sees but ridicule in good, like Thackeray, And gloats on human stains in black array,

Of Heaven's light most sorely doth he lack a ray."

These are directed at the weak points of the two writers. I propose it as a problem to give six lines, with the same rhyme-words, addressed to the strong points of the two. M.

SIMON WADLOE: JOHN Wadloe. London Scenes and London People, by Aleph, contains (p. 202), a notice of Simon Wadloe, the landlord of the "Devil Tavern," in Ben Jonson's time; and the author states that this Wadloe, after the Great Fire, built the "Sun Tavern " behind the Royal Exchange. Simon Wadloe, landlord of the " Devil Tavern," whom Ben Jonson dubbed "King of Skinkers," was buried in March 1627. (Chappell's Popular Music of the Oiden Time, 263.) It is probable that John Wadloe, the landlord of the "Devil Tavern" at the Restoration, was the builder of the "Sun Tavern" behind the Royal Exchange. S. Y. R.

NICHOLAS HILLIARD.-The name of this eminent miniature painter is familiar to all lovers of English_art. From the following memorandum annexed to a particular for lease of the manor of Poyle, in the parish of Stanwell, co. Middlesex, dated 1587 (Augmentation Office Records) it appears that he was the engraver of the Great Seal employed at that period:

"Memorandum, &c.-The said Lease to be for 21 yeares to the said Hilliard, in consideration of his paines in engraving ye Great Seale of England. "FR. WALSINGHAM. W. BURLEIGH." H. G. H.

EPITAPH, CURIOUS, TO JOSEPH TAYLOR, 1732.I copy the following from a slab on the floor of the nave of Allhallows Barking for insertion in "N. & Q," both on account of the peculiar circumstances recorded, and also as a specimen of the fulsome style of memorial in the eighteenth century:—

"Hic jacet Joseph Taylor armiger

Una cum uxore sua Maria qui summo cum amore et mutua benevolentia post annos plus triginta quinq, exactos eodem morbo (scilicet Hydrope) absumpti, Eodem Die ex hac vita simul discesserunt, Spe non inani ad meliorem resurgendi Ubi, nuptiis licet nihil loci sit,

Illorum efflorescat amor plusquam nuptialis Cœlestis et in omnia secula duraturus. Erat ille Sandfordiæ juxta Tew Majorem in Com. Ox. natus, ejusdem comitatus per unum annum Vicecomes, Quo munere ornari

Satis gloriæ sibi duxit, Nam modestia haud vulgari affectus, Honores mereri maluit quam experiri. Erat in commercio probus, impiger, fortunatus; In notos et vicinos comis et benignus; Erga cognatos liberalis et munificens; Omnium denique amans et benefaciendi cupidus. Uxorem habuit sui quam simillimam prorsus dignam. Obierunt 23° die Januar. A.D. 1732.

Beyond an entry in the Register of Burials I can find nothing of this family in the parish books. JUXTA TURRIM.

THE DRUIDS. The current number of the Edinburgh Review (No. 241) contains a delightful Niebuhrian article on "Druids and Bards," which will fall like a bombshell on the fortress of Stonehenge. Let us hope soon to see the guardians of the Golden Sickle flashing that mythical weapon in the sun as they rush to the rescue. The following note should be preserved in your columns. It is appended to page 55:

"We offer as a free gift to any one who will accept of it, the following sources of information, to which we have not observed any reference in modern Druidical literature. In Martini Hamconii Frisia, seu de viris rebusque Frisia illustribus (1620), p. 106, et seq., it is set forth that Harco, Pontifex seu Præfectus Druidum, who lived in Holland in the fourth century, wrote on the immortality of the soul; and that another Dutchman, Poppo, the most

THE TERM GUN.-The following from Selden's Table Talk may be worth reproduction, if you can find a place for it in “ N. & Q." :

"We have more words than notions; half a dozen words for the same thing: sometimes, we put a new signification to an old word, as when we call a piece (of cannon) a gun. The word gun was in use in England for an engine to cast a thing from a man, long before there was any gunpowder found out."

Guildford.

MIZE OR MISE.

D. M. STEVENS.

"This word," says Cowel (Interpreter), "has divers significations, as first, it is a gift or customary_present which the people of Wales give to every new King or Prince of Wales at their entrance into that Principality."

It may not be generally known that the Mize was anciently paid not only by the tenants of the crown to the King or Prince as their feudal lord at his first coming, but also by the tenants of certain Lords Marchers on the occasion of the first entry of themselves or their heirs into their lordships. I have met with an instance of this feudal custom being perpetuated so late as the reign of James I. The following is a translation of an entry in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Treetower, co. Brecon:

"Manor of Treetowre, to wit.

The Court Baron of the Most noble Edward, Earl of Worcester, Lord of the Manor, aforesaid, there holden on Thursday, &c. the 8th day of June, in the 13th year of the Lord James, now King of England, &c. The Homage, &c. good and lawful men of the tenants of the said Earl of his Manor aforesaid, who, being solemnly demanded, appeared, and were sworn into the same Jury, &c. upon their oath say and present that 51. of lawful English money are due and payable to Henry Lord Herbert as son and heir apparent of the said Earl upon the tenants of the aforesaid Earl of his Manor aforesaid, according to the custom and usage of the said Manor from time wherof the memory of man is not to the contrary, used and approved, as their benevolence and gratuity to and upon the first coming of the Lord Herbert for the time being within the Manor aforesaid for their mizes."

Queries.

H. G. H.

ANCESTRY AND ARMS WANTED. - Any information relative to the ancestry and arms of the following families would be gladly received: Ford and Sowton, of South Brent, Devon; May and Gough, of London. CARILFORD.

Cape Town.

ANONYMOUS. Can inform me who is the you author of A Poem, written upon occasion of the late accidental death of a worthy venerable gentleman, very much lamented. By way of Dialogue, or Conference of the Friends, Neighbours, and Acquaintances of the Deceased. Edinburgh, 1742? The only copy of this book which I have seen was lettered on the back: "Dramatic Poem. on the Death of Mr. Spark." On the back of the title is "Names of the Persons speaking in the Dialogues or Conferences," viz. Strephon, Flora, Lesbia, &c. - representing the widow, mother, friends, &c., of the deceased. The Prologue or Introduction by a Friend. The Epilogue or Consolation by a Friend.

Mr. Spark appears to have been a clergyman, accidentally drowned in crossing a swollen rivulet. This curious dramatic poem is not mentioned in the Biographia Dramatica; nor, I rather think, in Watt or Lowndes. R. INGLIS.

"LES ANGLAIS S'AMUSENT TRISTEMENT."-Does this phrase, or anything like it, occur in Froissart ? And if so, where? English writers, fond of depreciating their own countrymen, sometimes quote it. Is it one of the many pretended quotations the genuineness of which no one takes the trouble to inquire into?

JAYDEE.

Ballsbridge, near Dublin. — Can any Irish reader of "N. & Q" oblige me with the derivation of the name of "Ballsbridge," which is a village in the neighbourhood of Dublin? I have searched for it in sundry publications, but with

out success.

In the latter part of the last century, the name was frequently given as "Baal's-bridge"; as, for example, in the Dublin Chronicle, 11th June, 1789; and in Sir Henry Cavendish's Statement of the Public Accounts of Ireland (London, 1791), p. 8, where reference is made to a parliamentary grant of 3,000l. in the year 1757, for "Baal's Bridge." But Dr. Caleb Threlkeld, in his Synopsis Stirpium Hibernicarum (Dublin, 1727), makes mention of "Ball's-bridge.” ABHBA. BALLAD. Where has the following effusion been published at length, and is there any authority for attributing the authorship to Canning, as stated in Chappell's work on Old English Songs?— "By the side of a murmuring stream An elderly gentleman sat," &c.

F. H.

BIS-SEXTILE YEAR.-Leap year is called "bissextile," because the sixth day that precedes the calends of March is on that year twice counted. But my question is, Why did those who rectified the Calendar fix upon that particular day as the day to be twice counted? It is the 24th of February. Now, why not have taken the 28th of February? Would not the last day of the month have been more natural? B. Y.

BRODIE OF LETHEN.-Dr. David Brodie married in 1723 Margaret Brodie, daughter of Alexander Brodie, of Lethen, and had issue three children, viz. Dr. Alexander, died s. p.; Anne, married the Rev. James Hay; and Elizabeth, born in 1735, who married William Grant, the then Laird of Auckinroath and Grant's Grove, now called Ashgrove. I am anxious to ascertain who was the elder of the two sisters.

William Brodie, Esq., of East Bourne, Sussex, in his valuable Pedigree of the Brodie Family, recently published, does not throw light on the question. Indeed, both in his publication and in the Landed Gentry, Elizabeth is omitted altogether. I know, however, from positive proof, that Mrs. Hay and Mrs. Grant were sisters; and any one who could inform me as to their respective ages would confer a favour. The Elgin registers of births were not, formerly, kept with regularity. J. W. C. CREST OF PRINCE OF WALES.-In the church of High Laver, Essex, the royal arms of Charles I. are displayed on a board of the usual dimensions, placed above the chancel screen, on the back of which is the crest of the Prince of Wales (the coronet with three plumes), with the initials Č.P. and the date 1636. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether this occurs in other churches? if not, whether they can afford me any clue for the reason of its adoption in the present instance? H. B. S.

PARODY ON CAMPBELL'S "HOHENLINDEN."—I

have a copy of a very clever parody on Campbell's noble lyric of Hohenlinden, consisting of eight stanzas, of which the following are the first three:

"At Snooks's, ere the fun was high,
The whisky lay neglected by,
And order' was the solemn cry
Thoughout the gay society.

"But Snooks beheld another sight,
When supper came at dead of night,
For then shone forth wit's purest light,
With spirits rising rapidly.

"In social phalanx long arrayed,
Each drew his good old supper-blade,
And brilliant were the things we said,
That night of college revelry."

Can any reader of “N. & Q." give me the author's name? I have heard it ascribed (as a

DAGNIA FAMILY.-I should feel greatly obliged if any of your correspondents can give me any information as to the origin of the name of Dagnia, and furnish me with copies of any inscriptions on tombstones &c. bearing the name. I should also be glad to know the county from which the name sprang. D. J. R.

FRENCH WINES IN 1749.-Why were these (now popular beverages) during the reign of George II. so frequently interdicted at public dinners? Thus, the Gent. Mag. for 1749, p. 184, giving an account of a dinner at Drapers' Hall of the Society for Promoting Protestant Schools in Ireland, on April 4 of that year, concludes with the words "No French wines were permitted to be drunk." I have met with this before. What was the reason? JUXTA TURRIM.

PORTRAITS OF JOHNSON.-Though Dr. S. John, son thought portrait-painting an improper employment for a woman, yet we are told, one of the last occupations of the great moralist's life was to sit for his picture to Miss Reynolds, sister of Sir Joshua. Can any of your correspondents inform me what has become of this portrait, and what other pictures this lady painted, and where they are to be found? One of the best likenesses of the Doctor by Sir J. R. was painted for his old friend and schoolfellow, Dr. Taylor, J. P. of Ashbourne; and, as I understood when visiting that place when a boy, was left as an heirloom to Mr. Webster, who inherited Taylor's property, and who lived in the same house after Taylor's decease, and who then had the portrait. Webster died some few years ago. In whose possession is this portrait at the present time?

Bromyard.

JOHN BOOTH.

"His memory is not forgotten in Lewes; and on the 5th of November in each year, a great torehlight procession, composed of men in fantastic garbs and with blackened visages, and dragging blazing tar-barrels after them, parades the High-street, while an enormous bonfire is lighted opposite the Star Inn, on the exact spot where Derrick Carver perished, into which, when at its highest, various effigies are cast. A more extraordinary spectacle than is presented by this commemoration of the Marian persecutions in Lewes it has never been our lot to witness."

The prima facie reason for the nocturnal festivity is evidently the happy escape of James I.

from death, and England from the clutches of Roman Catholicism. Is there any evidence of its having an earlier origin, as proposed in the extract?

The bonfire has been of late years lighted in front of the County Hall and White Hart Hotel. Was it formerly placed before the Star Hotel, or has that house changed its position? Perhaps MR. M. A. LOWER will kindly help me out of difmy ficulty. WYNNE E. BAxter.

ARMS OF MILAN.-Can you inform me what are the present, and what were the ancient arms J. B. M. and crest of the city of Milan?

Battle of NASEBY.-Is there any account of this battle published, in which the destruction of the village of Little Oxendon is referred to ?

M. C.

ORBIS CENTRUM. - So Jerusalem was designated in the earlier patristic literature. Delphi was pompously termed by the ancient Greeks, Oupards in Bermions. Homer (Odyssey, i. 50) calls the insignificant islet of Ogygia 'Oupands aλάσσης.

Self, the Ego, is essentially the central point, from which the whole world of thought and phenomena seems to radiate, and by a sort of mental prosopopeia one transfers the idea to some beloved and revered country or locality. I ask other instances of this disposing characteristic of the

human mind.

Ireland's Eye.

EGOMET.

SIR THOMAS REMINGTON. Can any of your readers give me any information respecting the descendants of Sir Thomas Remington, of Lund, in the East Riding of Yorkshire? He was born about the year 1611. Are any of that name now living at or near Lund?

SHARP'S "SORTIE FROM GIBRALTAR."

R. H.

Can

any reader of " N. & Q." who may possess Sharp's print, after Trumbull, of the "Sortie from Gibraltar in 1781," inform me as to the names of the officers represented? General Elliott is in the middle of the picture. At his right hand stands an officer in Highland uniform; and behind the General, arranged in three groups of four, two, and three, are nine other officers. How are they named, counting them from the spectator's left to his right? No doubt a key to the portraits was published at the time the print was first sold.

"The Stwons that built George Ridler's oven,

And thauy keum from the Bleakeney's Quaar;
And George he wur a Jolly old Mon,

And his Yead it graw'd above his Yare." The words are thus spelled in the copy now before me, which was printed by T. Bonnor in 1796; and there stated to be "corrected according to the fragments of a manuscript copy found in the Speech House, in the Forest of Dean, several centuries ago; and then revived to be sung at the Meetings of the Gloucestershire Society (a charitable institution), held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, London." A copy of this song is printed in Fosbrooke's Abstracts of Records, &c., respecting the County of Gloucester, vol. i. p. 134; where the author, in a note, says that "the orthography by no means conveys the idea of the ancient provincial dialect."

The other song is called "True Blue," and is often sung at elections among what is called the Tory, or Blue party; and is set to the tune of the "Grenadier's March," and is comparatively a modern song.

these

As I do not find any mention of songs in my music books, I shall feel much obliged to any of your contributors who can give me any information as to the date in which the first was composed, and where the latter can be E. B. E. procured?

ler's Oven," corrected according to the fragments of a [The famous old Gloucestershire ballad, "George Ridmanuscript found in the Speech House of Dean, is printed in our First Series, iv. 311. It is described in The Critic for Oct. 15, and Nov. 1, 1856, pp. 501, 524, as being a Royalist song, written probably at the time of the first There is a key to the "Death of Chatham."-ED. «N. & Q.]