Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/327

 10 s. XL APRIL 3, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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take enough of ' Balaam ' to make out the rest of this column,' and it is done. .. .It is no dis- grace to The Edinburgh Review that it also should contain a whacking proportion of Balaam ; but it i> a disgrace to such a work that it should stoop to receive even its ' Balaam ' at the hands of such people as Mr. Macculloch of The Scotsman <the great corn-bill genius) Mr. Macvey of the Supplement (Lord Bacon's fly, as he is called now), or the illustrious Reviewer of my ' Jacobite Relics.' The whole of the first part of your article, sir, is clearly taken out of the old Balaam- box."

He also (p. 72) styles his reviewer " a Balaamite."

The Connecticut, Journal (see reprint in 'The Massachusetts Spy, 21 Feb., 1821), after quoting from Blackwood, says :

" We are not aware that the term ' Balaam ' is used in this sense by printers in this country ; and yet there is one class of readers who think that a paper is perfectly barren, if it is not filled to overflowing with ' Balaam,' while another class, of a higher order of readers, will hardly receive the absolute necessity of the case as an apology for a single scrap of him."

Many modern editors will say " Amen " to this remark. RICHARD H. THORNTON. 36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.

" SCAPE "=FREAEI OP NATURE. I hap- pened upon the subjoined in Lilly's ' Black- Letter Ballads and Broadsides ' (A.D. 1559- 1597), relating to a human monstrosity born 1562, and purporting to be written in that year. I am no Shakespeare scholar, but the extract appears to warrant a different view of the word in ' King John ' from that taken in Schmidt's ' Lexicon.' The concluding line almost hints at the recent birth of the word in the sense of a freak of nature ; but the ' N.E.D.' will let us know very shortly :

For nature iust enuyed

Her gyft to hym, and cropd wyth mayming knyfe His limmes, to wreake her spyte on parentes sinne; Which, if she spare unwares so many scapes As wycked world to breede will neuer linne [cease], Theyr Hues declare theyr maims saued from

their shapes Scorchd in theyr mindes. O cruel priuye mayme,

That festreth styll ! O vnrecured sore ! Where thothers quiting wyth theyr bodyes shame

Theyr parentes guilt, oft linger not their lyues In lothed shapes, but naked flye to skyes.

As this may do, whose forme tofore thine eyes Through want thou seest, a monstrous vglye

shape, Whom frendly world to sinne doth terme a scape.

H. P. L.

MATTHEW FLINDERS. The biography of this explorer in the ' D.N.B.' is based almost entirely on his own ' Voyage to the Terra Australis.' The text of some documents bearing upon his arrest and imprisonment

by Decaen, the last French Governor of Mauritius, from the Archives de la Marine in Paris, may be found in Albert Pitot's ' L'lle de France : Esquisses historiques (1715-1810),' published at Port Louis in 1899. L. L. K.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

SIR REGINALD BRAY, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Sir Reginald Bray is stated to have been elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1495 or 1496. No mention of his election is to be found in the Rolls of Parliament ; and the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' does not even mention his having been Speaker. Where can I find confirmation of his having been chosen to preside over the House of Com- mons ? ARTHUR IRWIN DASENT. The Dutch House, Hampton-on-Thames [For lists of Speakers of the House of Commons see the works mentioned ante, p. 31.]

STONEHENGE MONOLITH. I desire in- formation on the letters I recently saw on a monolith at Stonehenge which leans over and rests upon the so-called Altar Stone. King (' Gnostics and their Re- mains,' p. 387, 2nd ed.) thus refers to them :

"The mark is nine inches long and clearly defined, and may be described as a semicircle of which the diameter, being produced its own length, terminates in a second semicircle reversed and open, combined with the Roman letters LV : having in fact much the appearance of a ' sigla ' or ' nota scriptoria.' "

He adds in a foot-note, with reference to Dr. Thurman and his three credible wit- nesses who saw a stranger cut the sigil, that " it must be remembered the stone is so hardened by weathering as to turn the best chisel."

I saw the lettering about a month ago. The letters are nearly filled up with lichen, but the cutting is remarkably clear and deep.

F. G. MONTAGU POWELL. Foxlease, Southbourne, Christchurch.

" AISLE " : " ALLEY." How early was the term " aisle " applied to the passages of the nave, or to the parts of the church between the nave-arcades and the north and south walls, respectively ?

In Devonshire these were called the north and south " alleys " (Fr. oiler, to go) within quite recent times, while the word " aisle "