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tube was regarded as a test of chastity, a belief which has not yet quite died out. On one of my visits to Ripon the old verger informed me that Mrs. Longley, the wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, then Bishop of Ripon, was subjected to the test, from which, it is needless to say, she emerged triumphant. EDMUND VENABLES.

Although not a Yorkshire reader of N. & Q.,' I

can direct MR. OLIVER to one corroboration of the St. Winifred test of virginity. But this may have been given before; I write away from my back numbers of N. & Q.' The quotation is from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,' very near its close : "Pan his cave (much like old St. Wilfred's Needle in Yorkshire), wherein they did use to try maids whether they were honest. This important position must not be confounded with St. Winifred's Well and St. Winifred's Chapel, "three miles from Flint," visited by Taylor the Water Poet in 1652, and mentioned in 'The Four Ps,' 1540. H. C. HART. For one of the latest notes on St. Winifred's needle see the Strand Magazine for February, 1893, at p. 24. Q. V.

What is the locality of St. George's Church? To a man of the Weald of Kent there could be only one St. George's Church in those days, and that is St. George's, Bennenden, the next parish to Tenterden, with its celebrated steeple; for this church was a sort of cathedral to the Weald, and, from its position on a brow of a hill overlooking the Sussex marshes, was a noted landmark. It would be possible to go from Bennenden to Calais and back in seventeen hours, wind and weather being very favourable. JAMES FRASER.

HEREFORD CATHEDRAL (8th S. iii. 208).-The works at Hereford Cathedral referred to by MR. HUMPHRIES were undertaken by Dean Merewether in 1841, and carried out by the late Mr. Cottingham during the subsequent years up to 1852, when the 66 restoration" was brought to a close. The cost is stated to have been 27,000l., which I have always understood was mainly raised by public subscription, the members of the cathedral body, especially the Dean, being large contributors. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners may have made a grant in aid, but the statement that "the House of Commons found the money in the first instance" is erroneous. The central tower was not "lifted," but, the four piers on which it stood being in a failing condition, they were taken down and rebuilt one by one, the tower being meanwhile shored up, as MR. HUMPHRIES states, with heavy baulks of timber.

EDMUND VENABLES.

EVAN (8th S. ii. 529; iii. 118).—May I ask in this connexion if the words "Ieuan "and" Ieuanc" would not be pronounced in Welsh as "Yevan,"

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ST. THOMAS'S DAY CUSTOM (8th S. iii. 29, 94, 158).-What MR. J. BAGNALL mentions about St. Clement's Day being called Bite-Apple Day in Staffordshire is interesting. It would be a favour to me, and doubtless to many others also, if he would give the name of the publishers of Mr. C. H. Poole's 'Customs, Legends, and Superstitions of the County of Stafford.' J. M. M. Glasgow.

CHESNEY FAMILY (8th S. ii. 387, 478; iii. 58, 135, 214, 296).—MR. MAYHEW is not very ac curate in his method of quotation. He says that I "derive Chesney from F. chênaie." I never "derive" Anglo-French words from modern French, as I have repeatedly informed all who care to read me. I said that "Chesney answers to F. chênaie"; by which I mean that the F. chênaie is the nearest modern F. equivalent which happens to be preserved. The suffixes and genders differ; but that is all.

Secondly, I was careful to say that "Diez and Scheler refer chêne to a Latin adj. quercinus." And so they do; as readers may see for themselves, by reference to their books.

MR. MAYHEW now tells us that Diez and Scheler are wrong. I am glad to know it, for I feared as much. And that is the reason why I worded the article as I did, well knowing that my friend was keenly on the watch, as usual.

Will he now tell us where to find any quotation whatever for the popular Latin type *caxanum, or any Latin trace of it? WALTER W. SKEAT.

OLDEST TREE IN THE WORLD (8th S. iii. 207, 311).-A strong claim for mention is presented by the late Dragon Tree of Orotava, the age of which at its decease was variously estimated at from 6,000 to 10,000 years. On the lowest estimate it surpassed not only Domesday Oaks and Soma Cypresses, but the Hedsor Yew, with its 3,200 years, and Alphonse Karr's Baobabs of Senegal. Balfour gives the ages, as ascertained by De Candolles, of the cyprus as 350 years, the oak 1,500,

the yew 2,820, and the baobab as probably the same as the yew. I do not remember that he mentions the dragon tree's age; but after assigning a girth of ninety feet to the baobab, he gives a girth of forty-five feet as that of the dragon tree. I began to write this note with the blood of a younger member of the family, upon whom, posted at Icod de los Vinos only 2,000 years ago, has devolved the duty of guarding the golden apples in the Gardens of the Hesperides. And hereby hangs a tale, the insertion of which it will be more proper to risk in the form of a fresh query. KILLIGREW.

Tenerife.

LEMGO (8th S. iii. 89).—The etymology of the name of Lemgo in Lippe Detmold is uncertain. The place is first mentioned in 1011 as Limga, the meaning of which is obscure. But as the three German towns now called Limburg all appear as Lindburg, i. e., "Linden Castle," in early documents, it is possible that Limga may represent an earlier Lindga (Lindgauwe or Lindgau), which would present no difficulty. ISAAC TAYLOR. FEAST OF THE WINDY SHEET (8th S. iii. 288). "De Sacra Sindone," one of the Lenten Feasts of the Passion, observed on the third Friday in Lent. The others are: The Prayer of our Lord in the Garden, The Passion, The Crown of Thorns, The Spear and Nails, The Five Wounds, The Precious Blood, and The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin. The Precious Blood has another feast on the first Sunday in July, and the Seven Dolours on the third Sunday in September. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

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MARTIN LISTER, M.D., F.R.S. (1638-1712), NATURALIST (8th S. iii. 286).—Susanna, daughter of Martin Lister, was the third wife of Gilbert Knowler, Esq., of Herne, Kent, being married at St. Albans, Wood Street, London, Jan. 2, 1706. She died March 8, 1737, at Bekesbourn, Kent, and was buried at Herne, March 12, 1737. Her only child, Susannab, married William Bedford, Vicar of Bekesbourn, and had fifteen children.' I do not know if this was Martin Lister's only child.

KNOWLER.

WIFE OF THIRD VISCOUNT BOURKE (8th S. iii. 307). The wife of Theobald, third Viscount Bourke, of Mayo, was Eleanor Talbot, daughter of Talbot, of York; and the wife of Sir John Browne, of the Neale, co. Mayo, was Mary,

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METRE OF 'IN MEMORIAM' (8th S. iii. 288).— If MR. JARRATT is by chance unacquainted with the poems of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, he will be glad to be referred to them in this connexion. In the introduction to his reprint of these poems (Chatto & Windus, 1881), Mr. Churton Collins claims for Lord Herbert, as his "greatest metrical ""that he was the first to discover the triumph," harmony of that stanza with which the most celeHe adds that Herbert "not only revealed its brated poet of our own day has familiarized us." sweetness and beauty," but "anticipated some of its most exquisite effects and variations." Some of the stanzas quoted in illustration could, as Mr. Collins says, scarcely by the nicest ear be distinguished from Tennyson's. I quote here two of the best stanzas from the finest of the poems, Ode upon a question moved whether Love should continue for ever":—

Let then no doubt, Celinda, touch,

Much less your fairest mind invade :
Were not our souls immortal made
Our equal loves can make them such.
So when from hence we shall be gone,
And be no more, nor you, nor I,
As one another's mystery,

66 An

Each shall be both, yet both but one.
C. C. B.

made by MR. TERRY (ante, p. 315) that the source I observe that, incidentally, the remark is of this metre is "well known." It is said to be derived from Lord Herbert of Cherbury's "Ode upon a question whether Love should continue for ever." I have always thought that it is derived from Geo. Sandys's Pharaphrase upon the Psalms of David,' 1636. Thus, in Ps. cxxx. we have the remarkably fine stanza :

What profit can my blood afford

When I shall to the grave descend? Can senseless dust thy praise extend? Can death thy living truth record? It is a question of chronology for one thing, and perhaps of record. Who can give us dates WALTER W. SKEAT. "LOOSESTRIFE" (8th S. iii. 220).—If, by chance, MR. BOUCHIER'S query refers to that verse in Matthew Arnold's 'Thyrsis,'

or facts?

Red loosestrife and blond meadow.sweet among, I could wish, for the sake of old associations, that the large red willow herb might prove to be the

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plant intended. Botanists now give it the name Epilobium, and do not class it with the Lysimachia, but Lyte calls it Lysimachium purpureum primum, and loosestrife and "willow herb" were formerly interchangeable terms. It is frequently found growing in wet places along with meadow sweet. It is difficult to say which plant bears the sweeter flower. Lythrum salicaria, our other loosestrife, I am not so familiar with, but I believe its flower is more purple; indeed, it is sometimes called “long purples" (a name formerly given to our common purple orchis), as, for instance, by Tennyson in 'A Dirge,'

Bramble Roses, faint and pale,
And Long Purples of the dale.

Can any one who knows the neighbourhood described in Arnold's poem say positively which flower is meant there? His characterization of flowers is always delicately accurate.

C. C. B. BURIAL BY TORCHLIGHT (8th S. iii. 226).— Under this heading it should be noted that the celebrated John Wesley was buried at an early hour in the morning on March 9, 1791. Owing to the darkness, artificial light, such as torches and lanterns, had to be called into requisition.

JOHN T. PAGE.

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"CORPORAL VIOLET" (8th S. iii, 165).-Since forwarding my note at the above reference, I have casually met with the following in the News of the World of July 10, 1892, which bears upon the subject and will doubtless interest your readers :

"Bismarck and the Shamrock."-That Bismarck's supporters should have adopted the shamrock for the floral emblem of their party need scarcely go to prove that the Iron Chancellor' is in sympathetic accord with the rebellious spirits of our Emerald Isle. Every political body, from time immemorial, has had a special flower, which has become synonymous with their special views and the leader they support. Thus the red and white roses of Lancaster and York, and the pale yellow primrose of the latter day Disraeli have had much effect upon the destinies of England. The white lilies of the Bourbons and the violets of the Bonapartes are always in the minds of French Royalists of either side, while in Japan the many-leaved chrysanthemum is on the Imperial banner, and in sunny Italy the white-petalled, goldenhearted marguerite, or daisy, is the symbol of its Queen. To return to home politics, I might mention the costly orchid, which is the sign manual of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain's Birmingham supremacy, while to Mr. Gladstone is awarded the heaven's blue cornflower, once the favourite bloom of the late Emperor of Germany, William I. To Lord Salisbury some one ascribes the crimsonhearted rose, while to the working-man's own Mr. John

Burns the goldenly-simple buttercup could be without offence prominently associated." W. I. R. V.

The "original" engraving of the violets with profiles of Napoleon, Marie Louise, and their child is inscribed "Canufecit Violettes du 20 Mars 1815. Deposée a la Direction generale. A Paris rue S. Jaques No. 49." The profiles of the emperor and empress are recognized at the upper part of the bouquet of violet flowers and leaves, and the young King of Rome in the centre portion lower down. I copy the description from an impression in my possession; and as the subject is mentioned in N. & Q.' it may be desirable to complete the account by describing the original engraving. W. F.

S. ii. 441; iii. 52, 171, 272).—If the REV. JOHN

Tennyson's Cambridge ContEMPORARIES (8th

PICKFORD will refer to the memoir of William Bodham Donne in the 'Dict. Nat. Biog.,' xv. 235, he will see that Donne went to Caius College, Cambridge, but that conscientious scruples against taking the tests prevented him from graduating. Donne was a schoolfellow at Bury St. Edmunds of James Spedding and John Mitchell Kemble, both of whom were in close association with the Hallam and Tennyson set at Cambridge.

W. F. PRIDEaux.

"COUSIN BETTY” (8th S. iii. 228).—See ‘Slang and its Analogues,' by John S. Farmer (Nutt, 1891), vol. ii. p. 191: "Cousin Betty, subs. (colloquial), a half-witted person. For synonyms see Buffle and Cabbage-Head." Then follows the quotation from Mrs. Gaskell, 'Sylvia's Lovers,' ch. xiv., given by your correspondent. Again quoting Mr. Farmer, vol. i. p. 356, "Buffle, subs. (old), columns of English, French, German, Italian, and a fool, a stupid person." Then follow three Spanish synonyms, and only three quotations; and at vol. ii. p. 4, "Cabbage-Head, subs. (popular), columns of English, French, Spanish, and Pora fool, a soft-head, a go-along," and again three tuguese synonyms, and only three quotations. The origin of the name "Cousin Betty" is still a query for the readers of N. & Q.' J. B. FLEMING.

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In 'The Adventures of Bampfylde Moore Carew' the term is applied to a woman of profligate habits, and will be found in p. 280 of William Tegg's new and revised edition," probably the latest account of the "king of the mendicants." The word is not given in the vocabulary at the end of the book, or in the 'Slang Dictionary.' W. J.

Davies, in his 'Supplementary English Glossary,' quoting the passage from Mrs. Gaskell's book, explains the term as meaning "a half-witted person." Halliwell: "Cousin Betty, or Cousin Tom, a bedlamite beggar; now applied to a mad woman or man." F. ADAMS.

TURNBRIGG IN YORKSHIRE (8th S. iii. 301).. Mentioned as "pons turnatus" in two early charters, not dated, relating to land in Snaith (Coucher Book of Selby,' Yks. Hist. Soc., ii. 120). It is called "Turnbridge" in the one-inch Ordnance Map, 1840, No. 87, N.E., but "Tunbridge" in W. H. Smith's reduced Ordnance. It is not marked in Bacon's map, nor in Philips's 'Cyclists' Map of Yorkshire.' I have been at the place, and have always known is as "Turnbridge."

J. T. F.

DAMASK ROSE (8th S. iii. 88, 149).-I find that the Italian horticultural tractate which I incuriously mentioned as by "Stefano" is a translation of Charles Estienne's (died 1564) 'De re hortensi libellus,' published in 1535. The passage in which the damask rose is referred to in the original (p. 27) is worth quoting :

"Quædam sunt rosa purpurea odoratissimæ, quas vulgus provinciales vocat: quædam rubræ admodum, minus odoratæ, quas vulgus rosas franchas appellat, pharmacopola incarnatas: quædam etiam parvulæ & subflava quas quidam damascenast nominant, præsertim in Italia: Galli autem moschatas, quòd odore moschum referant: atque id ab insitione potius quam à natura factum puto.'

This strengthens the opinion that Linacre brought damask roses from "Southern Europe," referred to by MR. BLOUNDELLE-BURTON. I would add also to my previous note what the Marquis de Laborde says in his Glossaire' (s.v. "Rose d'outremer") of "la rose de Damas "--that "il [en] est souvent fait mention dans les textes du xiii au xvie siècle." F. ADAMS.

105, Albany Road, Camberwell, S.E.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The History of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with a List of its Members. By Thomas Fowler, D.D. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.)

BUT a little time ago Oxford was a jest among the members of foreign universities because, although one of the oldest and most important in Europe, it had no history. This was not quite true, but there was little of exaggeration. Anthony Wood's name was unknown on the Continent, and there can be no doubt that the Oxford culture of the past discouraged the study of minute facts. There was probably no place in the world where the pestilent habit of disregarding small things was more rampant or continued longer. When good, laborious John Hodgson was at work on his great history of Northumberland he was refused access to the archives of one of the most important of the Oxford colleges, and he found it impossible to make the authorities understand how their mediæval records could be of any human interest except as title deeds of property. It is not very easy to explain this obfuscation of the intellect to those who have lived under happier conditions. That it

This adj. is rendered in the Italian "pendenti di rosso in bianco."

†The Italian version adds "e coroneole." The italics are mine.

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It has been affirmed that all facts are of equal value. We shall abstain from any rash generalization of this kind, but we may say advisedly that, so far as history in present state of knowledge to say what facts are of value its wide sense is concerned, it is not possible in the and what may be disregarded with impunity. Dr. Fowler evidently takes the only true view of the duties of an historian. He has carefully examined the papers preserved in his own college and such other documents, far and near, as throw light on the fortunes of the corporation over which he rules, and has produced a history of his college which is an important contribution to literaThe ordinary antiquary is commonly a dull person who does not know how to put life into his narrative. The graces of style are not bis-nay, sometimes he goes so far as to despise them in others and to blame those for wasting their time who try to make their pages pleasant reading. The President of Corpus is far away removed from this silly superstition. He has written on many subjects, and knows that, not to give more important reasons, it is necessary, if you would interest your readers, to put life into your pages.

ture.

Foxe, the founder of Corpus Christi, was not a hero. Dr. Fowler, though he reverences his memory as a muniof the Renaissance was being poured somewhat too ficent patron of learning in days when the new wine rapidly into the old bottles of medievalism, sees his shortcomings. The great bishops of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, though their vision was limited by a narrow horizon, were devoted men whose lives were spent in combating the monstrous evils which they saw around them. The more prominent members of the episcopate on the eve of the Reformation were of a different stamp. They were not vicious, but what, both in an evil and a good sense, we may designate as worldly. They could not conceive of any form of religion which differed from that which they had inherited, but their faith did not entail on them any grave duties to their flocks. Suffragans might well discharge these while they basked in the favour of the Court.

Foxe, the son of a Lincolnshire yeoman, is an interesting example of the courtier bishop. He held in succession four English sees, but does not appear to have been in residence in any one of them except Durham, where he probably lived more as a secular lord looking after the Borders than as a minister of God. Yet with all this devotion to the Court he seems to have been a man who was filled with zeal for the welfare of others as he understood it. Had he lived two or three centuries earlier we should have known of him as a great abbeybuilder. The days of the monasteries had passed by; now homes for the new learning were needed-places where men could learn Greek and the Latin of Cicero and Virgil, and forget, if it were possible, the language of the schoolmen. Foxe was neither behind nor before his time. The institution he founded was suited for a state of transition, but was, of course, changed in character when England became Protestant.

Prof. Fowler has described Bishop Foxe and his surroundings with admirable brevity, yet giving almost every fact in his career which long research has revealed to him. We, however, are still better satisfied with what he tells of the Presidents of the Elizabethan and Stuart times. Their lives have been for the most part utterly unknown; now they come before us something more than mere shadows. We must specially commend

the tact with which the shortcomings of two of these men have been dealt with.

66

Though the book grave throughout, as the subject demands, we have here and there what Sir Thomas More would have called a "merry jest." John Reynolds, one of the seventeenth century Presidents, was, we are told, in early life a 'Papist "; he had a zealous Protestant brother. The two met on a certain occasion, each in the hope of converting the other. The result was that the adherent of the old faith embraced the new, and the Protestant became a fervent Catholic. The author has doubts as to whether the story is anything more than a jest. He might be confirmed in his scepticism if he was aware that a similar story is told in the Netherlands of two brothers, one a professor at Leyden and the other filling a similar post in one of the

universities of Catholic Flanders.

We are grateful to Dr. Fowler for printing the beau tiful prayer which he has found in the handwriting of Dr. Reynolds. We do not think that it is his own composition. We have a vague memory of having met with it in some medieval book. The Latin, too, is hardly of a character which would have been produced in his time. The days of St. Bernard or St. Thomas of Acquin are recalled by the poise of the sentences.

Among the many books relating to the Oxford of former days we do not know one more carefully executed or more interesting than Prof. Fowler's Corpus Christi.' We wish, however, he had given in the index a reference to all the names occurring in the book. This is but a trivial matter, but it is irritating to any one engaged in research to have to hunt through many pages for a fact which the index should at once supply.

A Bower of Delights. Edited by Alexander B. Grosart, (Stock.)

FROM his goodly edition of Nicholas Breton, one of the most prized works we possess, Mr. Grosart has extracted some delightful verses and some interesting prose. This is comprised in a volume of the pretty "Elizabethan Library." Opportunities for the general public to scrape acquaintance with Breton are few, and the present volume will introduce to thousands some supremely fresh and dainty lyrics. For ourselves, though familiar with the larger work, we read this through "at a breath."

Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliotheca Bedleiana. Partis Quintæ Fasciculus Tertius. Confecit Guil. D. Macray. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) THIS is a catalogue of a portion of the manuscript collections of Dr. Richard Rawlinson. Those only which are marked "D" are to be found described in the present volume, which contains an account of 860 volumes.

Rawlinson was an all-devouring collector of manuscripts, and, like other men who lived before his time, he was laughed at by the witlings of his time for housing useless rubbish. Men's thoughts are wider in our time. There are, we imagine, very few of these manuscripts which the curators of the Bodleian would not be very sorry to lose. Relating as they do to such very various subjects, no notice such as we can give will furnish our readers with any true insight into the value of the collection. Rawlinson was a Nonjuror and a Jacobite, and he naturally brought together much on two subjects which had so deep an interest for him. If ever a really good history of the Nonjurors comes to be written, the man who undertakes it must make himself familiar with the contents of many of these grey old tomes. The late Mr. Lathbury's history of that interesting body was published many years ago. It is long since we read it, and our recollections may have become dim, but if our

memory does not play us false there are sundry facts chronicled here which were unknown to Lathbury.

There are eleven folio volumes (775-785) containing the pay-books of the surveyor of Henry VIII.'s manors between the years 1532 and 1543. We have, of course, in the catalogue but very brief references to each account, but the very names of the places suggest that much useful information would reward the explorer. No. 83 is a diary of continental travel between the years 1605 and 1623. We believe it has never been printed. It must, one would think, contain many facts of interest. Queen Joanna of Naples, Sicily, and Jerusalem, Countess of Provence, Forcalquier, and Piedmont. An Essay on her Times. By St. Clair Baddeley. (HeineQUEEN JOANNA has long been the subject of unmitigated mann.) evident to every one who has made a serious study of abuse. Whatever may have been her character, it is Italian history during the Middle Ages that she has been used as a peg on which to hang the unreasoning vituperation in which certain schools of Italian writers, ancient and modern, have taken unseemly delight. history of the times in which she flourished, and has Mr. Baddeley has made a careful study of the Italian found in the ordinary text-books. He writes modestly. arrived at conclusions widely differing from those to be It would not be safe to say that he has proved his case without having ourselves gone over all the authorities he has used and perhaps some others of which we do not find mention in his pages. To so prolonged a course of study we make no pretension, but thus much we may say, that the probabilities are, so far as Joanna's career is known, in favour of her having been on the whole an upright and energetic woman, not over scrupulous (who was in those days?), but one who cannot be convicted of any revolting crime.

Apart from the career of Joanna, Mr. Baddeley's work contains much information relating to the men and women of the fourteenth century which will be new to he has given of the family of Charles of Anjou is carethe greater part of his readers. The tabular pedigree fully compiled. We have found it very useful. There are ten illustrations, which add much to the interest of the book. Those who have never seen the originals will be pleased by the representation of the Gothic tombs in the Certosa, and the still more lovely one of King Robert in Sta. Chiara at Naples.

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate."

J. D. ("Funny").-A narrow clinker-built pleasureboat for a pair of sculls. See Smyth's 'Sailor's WordBook.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to" The Editor of 'Notes and Queries ""-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher "-at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.

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