Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/430

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY i, im

stated. By P. Mathias, Surgeon and Apothecary, Mableton Place, London. Printed for the Author ; at the Free School, Gower's Walk, Whitechapel," published presumably in 1815. It contains a narra- tive of Mathias's medical attendance on Johanna (sic) Southcott at 17, Weston Place, Mrs. Jane Towneley's house, in April, 1814, and again on 19 August. Mathias was twice dismissed, apparently because he denied that the prophetess was pregnant.

He gives an account of the post-morten examination, which took place at No. 38, Manchester Street, Manchester Square, 31 Dec., 1814, at which he was present :

" There were present at the dissection of the body the under-named medical gentlemen, Drs. 'Sims, Adams, Reece, Messrs. Clarke, Taunton, Want, Wagstaff, Wetherall, Phillips, and some others, whose names I did not know. Add to these many of her friends and believers." P. 18.

Of the above Dr. Reece appears to have been a believer in the pregnancy of this woman, then in her sixty-fourth year. Dr Sims, having been reported a believer, -denied the report. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

JOANNA SOUTHCOTT AND THE BLACK PIG : JOHN WARD AND THE SHILOHITES (10 S. x. 509 ; xi. 137). On p. 9 of the pamphlet by " Honestus," from which I have quoted in the reply printed above, is the following :

" Her dreams are generally of satan once she thought she fought with him till she had skinned Ms face with her nails ; at another time, she bit off his fingers, ' and thought the blood sweet, as it was her revenge over him.' Then she dreamt of a pig dipped in a boiling furnace, tied up in the middle and brought in upon a pole, by two men : and this, she was informed, by revelation, was a type of the devil ' for by the pole of the .gospel he must come down ! ' In the ' Alarm,' p. 22, published in 1804, she blasphemously intro- duces the Almighty confirming this delicate and sublime dream ! ' In 1794 thou askedst satan's destruction in prayer, when I promised to give thee thy petition, which was satan's destruction. Soon after I shewed thee in a dream, of a pig, being dipped in the boiling furnace, tied up in the middle, and brought in upon a pole by two men, which I then told thee was a type of the devil, for by the pole of the gospel he must come down.' And immediately after, the other two instructive dreams are alluded to with a solemnity equally ludicrous and shocking ! ! "

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

The " Shiloh " expected by the followers of Joanna Southcott was announced, by way of a mental birth, in the person of John Ward (formerly a sailor), who, explaining her writings spiritually, gained a number of adherents to the belief in their fulfilment in him, and his followers consequently bore the name of Shilohites. His works, demon-

strating the error of taking Joanna's pro- phecies literally, as also the Bible in the letter of it, are published in 16 vols., and placed in many Free Libraries, under the title of ' Zion's Works, from the Coming of Shiloh, the Spirit of Truth.'

C. B. HOLINSWORTH. Birmingham.

SPANISH MONEY IN NUBIA AND THE SUDAN (10 S. xi. 109). The Spanish dollars of Charles IV. were certainly inscribed with the four I's, like the corresponding figure on our clocks and watches, before the French occupation of Egypt. The scarcity of silver was met by the issue by the Bank of England, in 1797, of Spanish dollars, countermarked by having George III.'s head, as used at Goldsmiths' Hall, for marking silver plate, stamped upon the neck of the Spanish king ; and these dollars were ordered to pass for 4.s. 9d. This ex- pedient gave rise to various witticisms, such as " Two kings' heads do not make a crown," and

The Bank, to make their Spanish dollars pass, Stamped the head of a fool on the head of an ass.

A. R. BAYLEY.

"LIVERPOOL": ITS ETYMOLOGY (10 S. xi. 261). Whatever kind of "rush" may have given the name to Livermore in Suffolk, it is unlikely that the yellow flag ever flourished in the marshes which lined the Mersey, especially near the sea, the region now occupied by Liverpool city ; for the Iris pseudacorus is a freshwater plant entirely. The ancient marshes of the plant which may have given the name must have been some growth of a kind which flourished in brackish water or on banks covered by the sea at high tide. JOHN WARD.

Savile Club.

PROF. SKEAT will be glad to be reminded that there is at Torquay a piece of ground called Livermead. W. C. B.

LORD MACAULAY AND WILLIAM JOHN THOMS (10 S. xi. 165, 215, 293). I am glad that MR. JOHN S. CRONE has " verified the references " in regard to ' The Dunciad ' and Dryden story. I believe I have a copy of the Dublin edition which was in the possession of Mr. Thorns, but I cannot ascertain this point at present.

The " F. G." who wrote to The Daily News on the subject was the late Col. Francis Grant, the author of a ' Life of Johnson ' in the " Great Writers " series, and an occa- sional contributor to ' N. & Q.' Col. Grant