Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/281

 10 s. x. SEPT. 19,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

229

LOBD DE TABLEY. A friend of min has a portrait of him in oils, painted by Henry Thompson about ninety years ago The features resemble Lord Lyt ton's when a young man. It is known that prints oJ Thompson's portrait are in existence, but their whereabouts are unknown. Are any in the Print-Room of the B.M., or can they be procured from any publishing house 1 Perhaps some kind reader of * N. & Q " will give me the required information.

M. L. R. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney.

SAMUEL WINTER, PROVOST or TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. He had five sons by his first wife, viz., Samuel, Daniel, Christo- pher, Ebenezer, and Gonought [sic]. I should be glad to know the wives and issue of these five sons. C. M. TENISON.

West Byfleet, Surrey.

SKYLARKS IN ORKNEY. In chap. i. of ' The Pirate ' Scott makes Magnus Troil speak of " the skylark which I once heard in Caithness." Why should he need to go as far south as Caithness ? The skylark is very common in this part of Orkney. Was it not so in Scott's day ?

ALEX. RUSSELL. Stromness.

LIZZIE DOTEN'S POEM ' Is LIFE WORTH LIVING ? ' This is said to have appeared in a volume of Great Thoughts, p. 560, but the particular volume cannot at present be traced. Will some one give me the reference ? JOHN T. PAGE.

Lona: Itchington, Warwickshire.

MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, AT LEITH. I have before me a print, about 24 in. by 18 in., entitled ' The Landing of Mary, Queen of Scots, at Leith, 1561,' painted by William Allan, R.A., engraved by J. G. Murray, and published 1st June, 1836, by M. Parkes, 22, Golden Square.

I am told that there is a key to this print, giving the names of the principal people portrayed. Can anybody tell me if this is the case, and if so, where a copy of the key can be seen ?

GEORGE S. C. SWINTON. 2, Hyde Park Street, W.

FIRST CROSSING OF AFRICA : LEONE VIVALDI. Capt. E. A. d'Albertis, in his recent book * In Africa : Victoria Nyanza e Benadir,' published at Bergamo (reviewed in The Journal of the African Society, vi. 1907, pp. 439-40), " reminds us that Leone Vivaldi was probably the first European

to cross the African continent from west to east, reaching Makdishu about the close of the eleventh century." I do not re- member to have previously seen any mention of this important journey in the history of African exploration. Where can an account of his travels be found ? Mr. Raymond Beazley, in his ' Dawn of Modern Geography ,' 1906, iii. 414, tells us that Vivaldo, a Genoese, sailed beyond Cape Nun, on the west coast of Africa, in 1291, a couple of centuries after the time of his above-mentioned name- sake. FREDK. A. EDWARDS.

HIGH TREASON AND ITS PUNISHMENT. Is it known when the terrible punishment which was formerly inflicted on those guilty of high treason who were not peers of the realm first came into use in England ? Sir William Wallace is said to have been the first victim, but I have seen no satis- factory evidence of this. The last sufferers by this mode of torture were, I think, the prisoners put to death at York, Carlisle, and near London for having fought on the losing side in the civil war of 1745. Were there any other places in England or Scotland where similar executions took place ? and are lists of the sufferers to be found either in print or manuscript ?

Can any one furnish a reference to the Act of Parliament by which this method of torture was abolished ? I am anxious to find the exact words of the sentence, either in English or Latin preferably in both. They do not, so far as I can find, occur in my copy of Blackstone's ' Commen- baries.' I once came upon the sentence in the latter language in a book published soon after the Restoration, but cannot now call to mind either title or author.

K. P. D. E.

[The punishment for high treason has been dis cussed at great length in ' N. & Q.' by NEMO and others. See 6 S. i. 371, 431, 476 ; ii. 269, 523 ; iii. 237; iv. 173; v. 9, 156; 7 S. xi. 344, 502; xii. 129; 8 S. vii. 27, 97, 170. The second part of the query

nswered in anticipation in SIB HARRY POLAND'S reply, post, p. 236. We do not want descriptions n full of the unpleasant details of such punish- ments.!

" HORS D'CEUVRE." When passing a book

hrough the press lately, I found nay printer

orrecting my " an hors d?ozuvre " into " a

hors d'ceuvre" This set me making inquiries

as to the custom of others in the pronun-

dation of the word. One friend told me

hat he sounded the aspirate, because the

Trench aspirated it. Another, a professed

French scholar, denied that this was

he French habit, and therefore made the h