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when Queen Anne refused her assent to a Scotch Militia Bill. During the agitation for Roman Catholic emancipation, towards the close of the reign of George III., that king threatened to withhold his consent from any alteration in the law, considering that his coronation oath forced him to do so; but the matter was not brought to the test. JOHN CHURCHILL SIKES.

13, Wolverton Gardens, Hammersmith, W.

The Law Times for April 15 has an article on the royal veto, in which it is stated (vol. xciv. p. 552):

"The latter phrase ["Le Roy s'avisera "] was used by William III, on several occasions, notably in the cases of the Place Bill and the Triennial Parliaments Bill. It was last used by a British Sovereign in 1707, when Queen Anne exercised her right of veto on a Scotch Militia Bill."

Q. V.

"CROW" AND "ROOK" (8th S. iii. 367, 396). -It may interest PROF. ATTWELL and others to know of a case of crows congregating. Some years back I had the shooting over Wanstead Park, and one day my keeper informed me that a flock of crows was in the habit of coming in of an evening to roost. Hardly crediting the statement, I arranged to lie up with him the next evening under the trees, and await their advent. Silently, and in the dusk of the evening, the wary contingent sought their accustomed places, and we were fortunate in bringing three to the ground, as undeniable evidence of the fact that this was a colony of crows-not rooks. How many such packs of wolves may be passing as sheep in other localities is open to conjecture; but certain it is that only a shrewd observer would be able to note the difference, unless assisted by some lucky accident.

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3. The French le or la foudre cannot refer merely to the violence or rapidity of a thunderbolt," but simply to thunder.

4. It seems a pity to perpetuate the old error of confusing an aerolite, which may fall from the blue, with a thunderbolt, which was a term invented before the nature of lightning was known, and which has no existence in modern science.

But the question remains whether the usual phenomena of a thunderstorm has ever been known to take place in the blue. Arago, in his famous treatise Sur le Tonnerre' (Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, 1837), discusses the subject, but leaves it pretty much as he found it.

According to Seneca, thunder sometimes growls in a cloudless sky. Anaximander makes a similar observation. Lucretius, on the contrary, denies that thunder is ever heard when the sky is serene. According to him, it is engendered only in the midst of dense, piled-up clouds; it is never formed in a clear sky, or a sky just veiled with cloud.

Among modern observers, Senebier, in the Journal de Physique, refers to thunder under a clear sky as an admitted fact. Volney, being at Pontchartrain, some distance from Versailles, July 13, 1788, at 6 A.M., heard thunder under a clear sky, and it was not till 7.15 P.M. that a cloud appeared in the south-west, soon after which the whole sky became covered, and was succeeded by a heavy shower of hail. In all such cases, from the difficulty of determining the direction of sound, the thunder most probably proceeded from a cloud which was out of sight or unnoticed.

Thunder without visible lightning may sometimes be heard, as happened to me in September, 1857, while residing in a small village in Rhenish Prussia. The weather had been remarkably warm, dry, and cloudless, the temperature ranging from 850 to 90° and even 95° F. in the shade. One day I walked into the woods that cover the low hills surrounding the village. While sitting at the foot of a tree reading, I heard what seemed to be the irregular firing of musketry, as if a line of soldiers had discharged their muskets in succession. The fact that soldiers were skirmishing in the neigh

Baines's History of the County of Lancaster,
vol. iii.; Earwaker's Local Gleanings,' vol. ii.;
Ashmole's Antiquities of Berkshire,' vol. iii. ;
Wotton's 'English Baronetage,' vol. iii.; Betham's
Baronetage,' vol. ii.; and Burke's 'Extinct
Baronetcies.'
H.

bourhood seemed to account for the phenomenon. Pedigrees'; Burke's Heraldic Illustrations
But presently the supposed firing was heard
exactly overhead, and on looking upwards a cloud
was observed, of no very great extent, in which a
series of rapid explosions was taking place; the
cloud seemed to float alone in the sky, which was
bright and clear everywhere else. This cloud was
evidently discharging into another cloud above it;
but the lightning was too faint to be seen, or was
extinguished by the bright sunshine. The ex-
plosions continued for about five minutes, then
ceased for a short time and began again.
cloud gradually disappeared, the afternoon was
bright, and the fine weather continued for some
days longer; but transient thunderstorms had
occurred in the neighbourhood.

The

In regions subject to earthquakes the subterranean rumblings are sometimes mistaken for thunder. Thus, in the last century, there was an earthquake at Santa Fe de Bogata, and a thunderstorm mass (la missa del ruido) was instituted at the cathedral on the anniversary of the earthquake, to commemorate the rumblings, which were mistaken for thunder. C. TOMLINSON, F.R.S.

Highgate, N.

In 7th S. iv. 333, MR. W. F. HOBSON has a reference to Homer's Od.,' v. 102 sqq., from which he omits the letter of the book, Y. A still closer reference is to Vergil,' Eo.,' ix. 630,—

Audiit et cæli genitor de parte serena
Intonuit lævum,

which is very similar to the Italian in DR. CHANCE'S
note.

ARABELLA FERMOR (8th S. iii. 128, 212, 271).—
MR. CORNELIUS HALLEN mentions at the last

reference that he has not seen Miss A. M. Sharp's
'History of Ufton Court,' published by Mr.
Elliot Stock. This lady states (p. 119) that the
fourth Francis Perkins married Arabella Fermor,
the daughter of Henry Fermor, of Tusmore,
Oxfordshire, in 1715. Their son Francis was born
in 1716, and their daughter Arabella died in 1723,
so that there must be an error in the statement
quoted by MR. HALLEN from two pedigrees that
Arabella's marriage took place in 1734.
Miss Sharp (pp. 210, 211) as stating that Francis
In the appendix the Ufton register is quoted by
Perkins was buried April 9, 1736, and his wife on

March 9, 1737. On p. 211 there is also the
following "extract from register and notes written
by F. Madew, priest at Ufton Court":"Mrs
Perkins, alias Arrabella Fermer, died Feby 19th,
1737." MR. HALLEN quotes the last entry with
the date 1736. This was no doubt Old Style.
JOHN RANDALL.
"CURATION (8th S. iii. 308). — Blackstone
writes:-

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"The guardian with us performs the office both of which had the charge of the maintenance and education the tutor and curator of the Roman laws, the former of of the minor, the latter the care of his fortune; or, according to the language of the Court of Chancery, the tutor was the committee of the person, the curator the committee of the estate. ED. MARSHALL. But this office was frequently

In the recent text of Homer MR. HOBSON'S reference gains a little in aptness, as there is an omission of the line which begins vólev k vedéwv, which is put in brackets, as not genuine.

united in the civil law, as it is always in our law with
regard to minors, although as to lunatics and idiots it is
commonly kept distinct."-(Book i. chap. xvii. § 1.)
It is a term which was in early use in this sense :
"Furiosæ matris curatio ad filium pertinet," Ulp.

While giving instances of this phrase from foreign languages, DR. CHANCE might have pointed out its utter absurdity. As a man of science he knows that a flash of lightning, vulgarly called a thunderbolt, cannot possibly proceed from a cloud-'Dig.' lib. xxvii. tit. x. l. 4; "Furiosi quoqe et less sky. Metaphors are very useful in their proper place, but they must have some basis of fact to start from. J. DIXON.

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prodigi, licet majores viginti quinque annis sint,
tamen in curatione sunt agnatorum ex lege duo-
decim tabulorum," Justin. Inst.,' lib. i. tit. xxiii.
"De Curatoribus," § 3. The remaining chapters of
the first book relate to various matters in reference
to the "Curatores."
ED. MARSHALL.

"Curator" is a legal term for a person appointed
to act as guardian, and "curation" is consequently
guardianship.
A. COLLINGWOOD LEE.

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The Mercurius Politicus, with other Civil War newspapers of the year 1659, contains a notice of an affray between the soldiers and the populace in Enfield Chase, to prevent the land from being taken from the public for the erection of houses. There was published in 1701 'The Case of the Earl of Stamford,' as to wood cut in Enfield Chase, fol., Lond., as also a subsequent 'Consideration of the Case 'in the same year, fol. There is a notice of a haunted house in Enfield in 'N. & Q.,' 4th S. xi. 74. Weever's Funeral Monuments,' Lond., 1631, has, at p. 534, a notice of Enfield and of EdmonED. MARSHALL.

ton.

There is no really good work dealing at all adequately with these interesting districts. Doubtless your correspondent is acquainted with the brief accounts in Camden, Lysons, Gough, Hughson, and Norris Brewer. The seat of the Cecils was at Elsinge Hall, or the Worcesters, as it was better known. Judge Jeffreys resided at Durants. CHAS. JAS. FERET.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Ivanhoe. By Sir Walter Scott, Bart. With Notes by Andrew Lang. (Nimmo.) THESE are, perhaps, the most wholly satisfactory volumes of this delightful edition of Scott. M. Lalauze has unparalleled grace, vivacity, and distinction as designer and etcher, and the twelve illustrations he supplies to this the most generally popular of Scott's novels, and that, moreover, in which he first laid the action wholly in England and introduced no Scottish character, are exquisite. It is hypercriticism to say that they are, perhaps, too sensuous, seductive-eighteenth century, in fact. The rude life of the nobleman, Norman or Saxon, is faithfully shown, and fair women such as M. Lalauze exhibits in Rebecca and Rowena were confined to no age. Mr. Lang, in his highly interesting introduction, defends Scott against the charge of falee heraldry_brought against him in connexion with this novel. He also quotes some whimsically ill-natured and incompetent strictures from "my grandmother's review -the British. Both preface and notes are excellent. Among the latter the account of Locksley's shooting feats and the defence of his cleaving the rush are worthy of special attention.

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns. Edited, with Memoir, by George A. Aitken. 3 vols. (Bell & Sons.) SINCE the first Aldine edition of Burns was issued, more than half a century ago, under the editorship of Sir

Harris Nicolas, great advance has been made in our knowledge of the poet's life, and many new poems have been brought to light. These things have been incorporated in the new and authoritative edition Mr. Aitken now supplies. A more desirable edition, so far as the Southern reader is concerned, needs not be desired. In addition to a biography which does "nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice," we have at the foot of each poem an explanation of the circum

stances in which it was written, and the terms strange to an Englishman are explained at the foot of the page, instead of compelling the reader to turn to a glossary, perhaps in another volume. A glossary is also supplied, as is an index of first lines. A few omissions, attributable to the altered taste of the times, are traceable. With these few will find fault.

St. Bartholomew's Hospital Reports. Edited by W. S. Church, M.D., and W. J. Walsham, F.R.C.S. Vol. XXVIII., 1892. (Smith, Elder & Co.)

"IT is possible that the vast magnitude of medical literature is an advantage for which we should be thankful, for it furnishes an unanswerable excuse for leaving it unread." Fortunately this sentence does not occur ou an early page, or the present volume of 'Hospital Reports' might be added to the vast magnitude, and the many useful suggestions scattered throughout its pages left unread. Many of the articles are both interesting and instructive, but none is more suggestive than that by Dr. T. Claye Shaw, on 'Surgery and Insanity,' which raises the hope that the near future will produce new and more successful measures of "ministering to the mind diseased."

Women Adventurers. Edited by Ménie Muriel Dowie. (Fisher Unwin.)

THIS new volume of the "Adventure Series" has the advantage of being edited by Miss Dowie, the author of the spirited 'A Girl in the Karpathians. In selecting the lives of Madame Velazquez, Hannah Snell (a name familiar to readers of N. & Q.,' see 8th S. ii. 88, 171, 455), Mary Anne Talbot, and Mrs. Christian Davies as examples of women adventurers (why not adventuresses?), she has furnished material for some amusement and

interest. We are not asked to take these narratives au grand sérieux. They are rather sketches of the past, illustrating what could have been done, and may be done again, by women who, from motives which we do not propose to analyze, choose to put off the woman and act the man. The preface is smart, and well worth reading. Louis Agassiz: his Life and Work. By Charles Frederick Holder, LL.D. (Putnam's Sons.)

THE biography before us forms the second of the "Leaders in Science" series, and the choice of the great Swiss naturalist as its subject appears to us to be very judicious. It is now nearly twenty years ago that Agassiz closed his earthly career, yet we feel more and more the appropriateness of the words spoken in the Californian Academy of Sciences when his death was announced, "Agassiz still lives." The memory of a noble life devoted to science and to humanity will never pass away, and Dr. Holder tells the story of that life in a way which sets forth its example in a very interesting and appreciative manner. It belongs to two continents, for while the first part of it was spent, and a high reputation acquired, in Europe, circumstances led to his adoption of America as a home in the latter part, and in that also his scientific expeditions and studies were of the highest value. Even to touch upon them in detail here would be impossible, relating as they do to all departments of natural history, whilst those of ichthyology

and glacial action were his specialities. Agassiz was not a believer in what is commonly called the Darwinian theory of evolution of species; to use his own words in speaking of the geological record," we have no right to infer the disappearance of types because their absence disproves some favourite theory; and......there is no evidence of a direct descent of later from earlier species in the geological succession of animals." Dr. Holder's book, which is elegantly printed and almost profusely illustrated, cannot fail to be considered one of the most interesting of a useful series, the next volume of which will be devoted to the life and work of the great scientific traveller Alexander von Humboldt.

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THE Journal of the Ex-Libris Society has a paper by Mr. William Bolton on The Heraldry and Book-plates of Some British Poets,' consisting of Sir Walter Scott, the Earl of Dorset, Robert Bloomfield, and Robert Burns. One is surprised to find Bloomfield with a book-plate. That of Lord Dorset is reproduced. Mr. Arthur Vicars (Ulster) continues his 'Book-Pile Ex-Libris.' The number is excellent.

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MESSRS. CASSELL'S reprint of Thornbury and Walford's Old and New London approaches completion, a portion of the general index being given in Part LXIX. The other portion remains in Chiswick and the neighbourhood, and gives pictures of Hogarth's house, Chiswick House in 1763, Chiswick Church in 1760, &c.-The Storeto "Horne," and gives a physical map of Asia, house of Information, Part XXIX., carries the alphabet

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of life in the camp. An Artist in Japan' contains some pleasing sketches. Amusing enough is his gossip, and his illustrations are delightful. The Birds that we see are familiar to few Englishmen.- A Discourse of Rare Books,' which appears in Macmillan's, deals interestingly, but not very comprehensively, with an inexhaustible subject. The writer speaks of the comedies and rhymes of Messer Partenio Etiro Pietro Aretino as running up in Gamba "the whole gamut " from "assai raro to rarissimo." Somewhat curiously, one of these very comedies, in a Trautz-Bauzonnet binding, appears in a this month's catalogue for a few shillings. A Historical Parallel;' though readable, is political. Ste. Anne des Deux Mondes' deals with a well-known object of Breton worship.-Lady Mary Wortley Montagu' is the subject of a sprightly paper in Temple Bar, in which are also The Eye of the Baltic' and an account of The Writings of Joseph Glanvill.'-In the Gentleman's we have a collection of Lullabies,' an interesting subject. Mr. Garnet Smith deals with The Letters of Gustave Flaubert.' Mr. Wills, writing on Our Pedigrees,' has little to say that will reward the herald or the genealogist.-Mr. Lang is THE most interesting article in the Fortnightly is that amusing and edifying, after his wont, in Longman's. of M. Ange Galdemar on The Comédie-Française in Mr. Rodway describes How Orchids climbed the Trees.' London. In contains records of conversations with M.-Under the title 'The Romance of Modern London' the Got and Mlle. Reichenberg, and numerous extracts from English Illustrated gives some pictures of railway stations. the somewhat matter-of-fact and official diary of the The Red Cross Hall' is a stimulating account. Bird Life former. One is surprised to see how little is said con- in Summer' is pleasing. Some High Notes,' in the Corncerning the banquet at the Crystal Palace, which, how. hill, describes mountain experiences. In the New ever oblivious the company may choose to be, is one of Forest' is pleasantly descriptive.-Belgravia, the Idler, the most conspicuous and important events in its annals. and All the Year Round have pleasantly varied contents. To the memory of John Addington Symonds Mr. A. R. Cluer pays a very warm tribute. Mr. D. S. MacColl scolds the Royal Academy, is exceedingly severe upon the older painters, would furnish the cheeks of Sir John Millais with a blush, and praises Mr. Whistler as one who is on the side of the old masters" and "practises his art with the breeding and restraint of an artist." Mr. Stanley's African Legends' will have deep interest for the folk-lorist. The legend concerning the Moon and the Toad gives a quaint account of the origin of man. In The Two Salons' Mrs. Pennell expresses views which have much in common with those of Mr. MacColl. Prof. Lodge supplies an excellent paper on The Interstellar Ether. Under the title of Rare Books and their Prices,' Mr. W. Roberts, editor of the Bookworm, analyzes, in the Nineteenth Century, the recent great book sales, and brings prominently forward some startling results. An Impossible Correspondence,' by R. F. Murray, is an amusing skit upon modern magazine editors. It consists of imaginary letters from the editor of the Whitechapel Magazine, declining proffered poems of Chaucer, Shakspeare, Milton, Dryden, Blake, Pope, Shelley, Keats, the Brownings, Coleridge, &c. Mr. Charles L. Eastlake sends a capital account of 'The Poldi-Pezzoli Collection at Milan.' Mr. Henniker Heaton arraigns somewhat strongly the Post Office, which he charges with plundering and blundering. Sir Herbert Maxwell sends a deeply interesting paper on The Craving for Fiction,' and Mr. A. P. Sinnett answers Prof. Max Müller on Esoteric Buddhism,'-The Century Magazine gives an illustrated account of 'The Juno of Argos' discovered last year. Caught on a Lee Shore' supplies an exciting account of adventure on the coast of Florida. The accompanying designs are very spirited. Under the head of Notable Women,' Mr. Edmund Gosse deals very sympathetically with Christina Rossetti. 'With Tolstoy in the Russian Famine' gives some striking reproductions of photographs. In Cowboy-Land' may also be read.-Scribner's opens with Life in a Logging Camp.' Many very striking pictures of felling and carrying logs are given. Even more striking are those

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A SELECTION of Irish book-plates, from the collection of the late Sir Bernard Burke, will be published by subscription_by_Mitchell & Hughes. It will be annotated by Mr. H. Farnham Burke (Somerset Herald), and Dr. Howard (Maltravers Herald Extraordinary).

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." H. WALLER.-Received,

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.

THE ATHENÆUM

JOURNAL OF ENGLISH AND FOREIGN LITERATURE, SCIENCE,
THE FINE ARTS, MUSIC, AND

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The ATHENÆUM for June 3 contains Articles on CHARLES SUMNER.

Q's VERSES.

EAST INDIAN STATE PAPERS, 1630-34.

HEATH on the ENGLISH PEASANT.

GAY'S POETICAL WORKS.

NEW NOVELS-The Forbidden Sacrifice; A Woman's Crusade; The
Great Peril; The Voice of a Flower; A Deformed Idol; Elton
Hazlewood; Pas Jalouse!

CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS.

GENEALOGICAL LITERATURE.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE-LIST of NEW BOOKS.

MR. GOSSE and the VOCAL MEMNON-BOOKSELLERS' BIBLIO-
GRAPHY; NOTES from DUBLIN.

LITERARY GOSSIP.

ALSO

SCIENCE-William Kitchen Parker; Prof. Pritchard; Societies; Meetings; Gossip.

FINE ARTS-The Royal Academy: The Salon of the Champ de Mars;
The Constables at Burlington House; A Greek Motto misread at
the National Gallery; Sales; Gossip.

MUSIC-The Week; Concerts and Recitals; Gossip; Performances
Next Week.

DRAMA-The Week; Gossip.

The ATHENÆUM for May 20 contains Articles on

WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET.
CANON BELL'S POEMS.

The LAW of LIBEL and SLANDER.
RECORDS of the CORPORATION of KENDAL.
ROBERT LOWE, VISCOUNT SHERBROOKE.

NEW NOVELS-Under the Great Seal; His Wife's Soul; Disinherited
Some Married Fellows; Strolling Players; The Return of the
O'Mahony Uncle Remus and his Friends; Squire Hellman; An
American Nobleman; Pierce Moran; Kinsman to Death; Captain
Enderis.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LITERATURE.

OUR LIBRARY TABLE-LIST of NEW BOOKS.
FROM "STRATFORD-ON-AVON," Sonnet by Theodore Watts-MR.
FREEMAN and the QUARTERLY REVIEW-The SKEPTICS
of the ITALIAN RENAISSANCE'-MR. GOSSE and the VOCAL
MEMNON-DAVID COLVILLE, the SCOT-The SONG of the
FLAG DONATUS MELIOR''The REAL REJECTED AD-
DRESSES'-WORDSWORTH'S ROOMS at CAMBRIDGE.

ALSO

LITERARY GOSSIP.
SCIENCE-The Iron and Steel Maker; Geographical Literature;
Societies; Meetings; Gossip.

FINE ARTS-The Fayum and Lake Maris; The Royal Academy; The
Salon of the Champ de Mars; New Prints; Gossip.
MUSIC-The Week; Concerts and Recitals; Gossip; Performances
Next Week.

DRAMA-Sir John Vanbrugh and Matthew Henry; Gossip.

The ATHENEUM, every SATURDAY, price THREEPENCE, of
JOHN C. FRANCIS, Athenæum Office, Bream's-buildings, Chancery-lane, E.C.

Or of all Newsagents.

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