Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io"> s. i. MARCH 12, 190*.

as the founders. See ' Our Oldest Public School' in the Fortnightly, November, 1892.

A. R. BAYLEY.

THACKERAY QUOTATION (10 th S. i. 189). Probably the printer has cut off a cipher of the sum mentioned by FitzGerald in the letter cited by HIPPOCLIDES. "'It isn't difficult to be a country gentleman's wife,' Rebecca thought. 'I think I could be a good woman if I had five thousand a year ' " ('Vanity Fair,' chap. xli.). R, E. B.

[Several correspondents are thanked for the reference.]

GLOWWORM OR FIREFLY (10 th S. i. 47, 112, 156, 193). Mea maxima culpa. Owing to my quoting from memory the stanza from the opera of ' Guy Mannering,' the errors occurred on p. 156. It is given just as cited by MR. JERRAM in the ' Waverley Dramas,' published in a collected form (eight in num- ber) by Alison &, Ross, Glasgow, 1872. ' Guy Mannering' is styled "an Operatic Drama in Three Acts," and was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre in 1816. The acting copy, however, differs widely from the novel, poor Godfrey Bertram being mentioned as Sir Godfrey Bertram. Of the " Gipsy Glee and Chorus" it is said : "Words by Joanna Bailhe. Music by Bishop."

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. .Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

ST DUNSTAN (10 th S. i. 149).- Walter Gale, bussex schoolmaster, records that in 1749 ''there was at Mayfield a pair of tongs, which ie inhabitants affirmed, and many believed, to be that with which bt. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canter- bury, who had his residence at a fine ancient dome this town pinched the devil by the nose when, lorm of a handsome maid, he tempted him." See Chamber's ' Book of Days ' (1864), vol i P- 33L A. R. BAYLEY.

It was i at Mayfield that the devil is supposed

to have had his nose pulled by St. Dunstan.

r VJ 1 hlS Llfe of St Dunstan/ who

ftp I n Jh r m8 *? JS^y thafc the P alac of

was built 1S h P ^ 0f f ^rtury at Mayfield

built by that prelate, who, he says,

erected a wooden church. The life of this

^ May-

j ~ ^. vj,n, ft UL, the accus- ., going m procession round the building observed that it was out of the lino of sanctity, or, in other words, that it did no?

stand due east or west ; on which he gently touched the edifice with his shoulder, and moved it into its proper bearings, to the great amazement and edification of all the spectators.

In connexion with Glastonbury there was a hundred years ago at the west end of the Tor, or the Tower of St. Michael, a carved figure of the archangel, holding in his hands a pair of scales, in one of which was a Bible, and in the other a devil, who was assisted by another bearing upon the scales ; both were represented, however, as much too light to poise against the holy volume.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D., F.R.Hist.S.

Baltimore House, Bradford.

The story of St. Dunstan seizing the devil by the nose occurs for the first time in Osbern's ' Life ' of the "father of monks," where it is, I think, mentioned in connexion with his life in his cell at Glastonbury. The story is not quite so ridiculous as it appears at first sight. Dunstan's dreams and " fairy tales " were generally turned to profitable account for the edification of children, rather than of "grown-ups," and it is thought possible that the saint actually did take some ribald intruder into his cell by the nose with some implement like the tongs. See the Rev. Wm. Stubbs's 'Memorials of Saint Dun- stan,' Introd., p. Ixv and note.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

The tongs are at Mayfield, and that should suffice. C. S. WARD.

St. Augustine's at Canterbury, I have always heard, claims the site of tlie tug.

HAROLD MALET, Colonel.

WILLIAM STEPHENS, PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA (10 th S. i. 144). The Rev. E. B. James, late of Carisbrook, Isle of Wight, in 'Letters Archaeological and Historical relating to the Isle of Wight,' 2 vols. 8vo, London, has many references to the Stephens family. There is a good index. The book was published in 1896 by Mr. Frowde, but is not often to be met with in book catalogues. Kirby's ' Win- chester Scholars' has one entry of Edwin Stephens, of Whippingham, scholar 1672; aged thirteen, but no other note of him. A second Edward, also of Whippingham, bap- tized 10 January, 1711/2, entered Winchester 1725, left 1730. If H. C. is not able to con- sult James's 'Letters,' I might be able to give him some information from it.

VICAR.

THE MIMES OF HERONDAS (10 th S. i. 68). Herondas must be a pre-Christian poet. Athenpeus, who was living not long after