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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JUKE n.

and sister is, of course, perfectly legal " ; anc so far he is quite right. He adds, "If two men, not related, marry two sisters, they do not thereby become brothers-in-law." Here again I think he is wrong. Two men otherwise not related, marrying two sisters become brothers-in-law. The late Cardina Manning and the late Bishop Wilberforce of Winchester, married two sisters, and wen always held to be brothers-in-law in con- sequence.

H. MURRAY LANE, Chester Herald. In the case of a widower with children marrying a widow with children, I should say that the children of both families would become step-brothers and step-sisters to one another. A child born of the marriage would be half-brother or half-sister to all the others. See 'N.E.D.' under 'Half-brother.'

ERNEST B. SAVAGE. St. Thomas s, Douglas.

THE SUN AND ITS ORBIT (10 th S. i. 329, 435). MR. PARKER may like to have Madler's own words. On p. 44 of his 'Die Central- sonne,' published in 1846, the following passage occurs :

" Ich bezeichne demnach die Plejadengruppe als die Centralgruppe des gesammten Fixsternsystems bis in seme aussersten, durch die Milchstrasse bezeichneten Grenzen bin; und Alcyone als den- jenigen einzeluen Stern dieser Gruppe, der unter alien ubrigen die meiste Wahrscheinlichkeit fiir sich hat, die eigentliche Centralsonne zu sein."

XT S. J. ALDRICH.

New Southgate.

The last paragraph at the latter reference requires a little modification, for the solar apex is now believed to be in the constellation Lyra, and not in Hercules. J. DORMER.

WOLVERHAMPTON PULPIT (10 th S. i. 407)

I here is nothing exceptional about this pulpit although its approach is particularly fine But even the latter is by no means u iq, u. e ' -J f*wpined an old stone one (of what in England we call Jacobean character) in the ancient parish church at Malmo, in

onntf en 'fV eW we ^ ks a S' Its sfc airs are constructed upon almost exactly the same

tX S n a *V Ve ^ at Wolverhampton; but ftnffit F a "' th ? Scan dinavian rostrum t P vlf a PP, ro ach alike) is far and awav the better and more ornate of the two.

seen in a ?h' SC reS ? f pU M ts > h wever, to be seen in this country of the same type, and of much about the same date (A.D .1480)

me ae A.D .1480)

Mea urtl 1 S -' Pete / s > WolveYhampton: found ? i ra, Wlng , 8 ? f the ] atter may be

Pulpfts 'ri84Q imn > ' Exam P ]es of Ancient (1849), and the same accomplished

architect also illustrates therein stone pulpits ot fifteenth-century date at Nailsea, Winch- combe, Glastonbury, Cheddar, and Ban well (all in bomerset), as well as at North Cerney (Gloucestershire) and at Totnes (Devon).

Miss Barr Brown's somewhat sensational note in the Antiquary for April, that the pulpit at Wolverhampton " is cut out of one entire stone," and that "a figure of a grotesque animal has guarded it for more than 800 years," has not the least foundation m 1 /act. HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

CASTING LOTS (10 th S. i. 366). The Man- chester _ Guardian of 10 May contained the following comment on this subject : "A striking instance, not mentioned by the riter m Notes and Queries, may be found in Ihomas May's translation of Barclay's 'loonAni- morum, a rare as well as a curious book. Speaking ot English courage, he states that during the war in the Netherlands S9me soldiers of the Spanish P ar py were taken prisoners by the Dutch, who- decided to make reprisals for the previous cruelty of their enemies. Out of four-and-twenty men eight were to be hanged. 'There were lots, therefore, thrown into a helmet,' says May, ' and the prisoners were commanded to draw their fortunes whoever u u i, draw a blank was to escape, but whosoever should draw a black lot was to be hanged presently. Ihey were all possessed with a great apprehension ol their present danger; especially one Spaniard, with pitiful wishes and tears, in some of the standers-by did move pity, in others laughter. Ihere was besides in that danger an Englishman, a common soldier, who, with a careless counten- ance, expressing no fear of death at all, carne boldly bo the helmet and drew his lot. Chance favoured him ; it was a safe lot. Being free himself from danger, he came to the Spaniard, who was yet timorous, and trembled to put his hand into the tatal helmet, and receiving from him ten crowns he entreated the judges oh, horrid audacity ! that, dismissing the Spaniard, they would suffer him again to try his fortune. The judges consented to the madman's request, who valued his life at so low a rate, and he again drew a safe lot.' May seems rather to regret the second escape of the foolhardy Englishman, whom he denounces as 'a wretch, unworthy not only of that double, but even of a single preservation, who so basely had undervalued his life.' "

J. K. NUTTALL.

EURIPIDES : DATE OP HIS BIRTH (10 th S. i. 447). Whether B.C. 485, given on p. 220 of the first edition (1886) of my ' Greek Literature,' was a slip of my own or a printer's error, I cannot say. It was corrected to B.C. 480 in he second edition (1889). F. B. JEVONS.

"THE GLORY OP THE METHODISTS " (10 th

3. i. 406). MR. CORFIELD'S Wesley letter

s evidently addressed to James Rogers,

well known as one of his preachers. "Dear

em my" was, at the date of the letter,