Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/209

 10 s. XIL AUG. 28, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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DEVIL'S SAFFRON. Recently, while walk- ing over the wilds in the Ding Dong district of Cornwall (Pen with), I came across great quantities of the curious, leafless, parasite dodder (Cuscuta), growing over the furze- bushes and heather. I asked an old farmer the name of this pinky silken-thread-like vegetable growth. He said : " We always call it about here ' the Devil's saffron,' but why I don't know." Do any of your readers know why ? J. HARRIS STONE.

Oxford and Cambridge Club.

' DANIEL FOSQUE.' Is the authorship known of the following drama ?

" Daniel Fosque. We are so made that the crime of one man is but the malady of another. Not published. December, 1882. London, J. F. Howell & Co." 4to, pp. 23.

It is based on the story of a Parisian goldsmith who murders his customers in order to regain possession of his artistic triumphs. In effect it is a study of the psychology of madness.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

BISHOP KING OF ELPHIN. Can any one inform me as to the parentage and ancestry of Edward King, Bishop of Elphin (b. 1573, d. 1638) ? He was a native of Huntingdon- shire, and was uncle to Edward King, the " Lycidas " of Milton's famous poem. Strafford, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in a letter to Archbishop Laud, wrote of King as being " a truly royal bishop," punning upon his name.

KATHLEEN WARD.

Castle Ward, Downpatrick.

NELSON'S DEATH : T. HILL SWAIN. On the island of Tristan da Cunha are three daughters of a Thomas Hill Swain, who died there at the age of one hundred and eight. They agree in saying that their father fre- quently told them that he was the man who caught Nelson as he fell mortally wounded. I should feel greatly obliged if any of your readers could kindly inform me (1) whether Nelson, when he fell, was caught by a sailor ; and if so, (2) the name of the sailor who caught him.

(Rev.) J. G. BARROW.

RAGOZINE, A PIRATE. " One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate," is mentioned in ' Measure for Measure,' IV. iii. Did he ever exist ? It is the name of a well-known Russian family. L. L. K.

CEYLON BIBLIOGRAPHY. Can any one oblige me with a list of books on Ceylon ? Please reply direct. W. ROBERTS CROW.

Camelot, Wallington.

OREGON. Caleb Gushing of Massachusetts is reported as saying in the U.S. House of Representatives, 17 May, 1838, that "Hernando Cortez had made a discovery which was anterior to that of the English, and he gave the river the name of Oregon, which it still bears " ; also, that

"Hernan Cortes explored, in 1526, the north- western coast of America to the northern limits of California. The Spaniards also point to various other expeditions fitted out from Acapulco and San Bias in the 16th and 17th centuries ; and that of Gali in 1582 to latitude 57 north ; Juan de Fuca in 1592, who is said to have discovered, and certainly gave his name to, the bay and strait still bearing it ; Vizcaino, who is believed by some of the Spanish writers to have discovered the Oregon ; De Fonte, who is said to have reached the latitude 54 in 1640." Congressional Globe, p. 380, col. 3 ; id., Appendix, p. 566.

It would be interesting to know whether there is any foundation for these statements. Apart from them, the earliest mention of the Oregon river, now named the Columbia, appears to be in the travels of Jonathan Carver, 1766-8 ; and he heard of it from the Indians, in or near Minnesota. If any trace of early Spanish explorations to the north of California can be found, then Oregon may be a corruption of Aragon.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

GRAY FAMILY. Information is wanted as to the children and descendants of Charles Gray, Crosscrook, Lift, Dundee, who died in 1822, and Jean Archibald (Tullibody), his wife. They had a large family. Of their six sons, Andrew, who married a Miss- Nightingale, and James both died in Wales - Charles and Robert died in London. Robert, said to have been employed by a firm of brewers, married Sophia Sendon. Com- munications direct will be gratefully acknow- ledged. P. GRAY.

5, Blackness Avenue, Dundee.

SOUTHEY'S COLLECTIONS REGARDING POR- TUGAL. In a note in Southey's ' Common- place Book,' vol. ii. p. 368, the Rev. J. W. Warter tells the reader that Southey left behind him a MS. collection for a history of Portugal, which the editor had not then had time to examine accurately. Have these papers ever been published ? If it be so, we have failed to find any record thereof. We trust that, if they have not as yet assumed a printed form, they still exist either in public or private hands. It would be a great loss if the historical gatherings of one so studious and learned should have been destroyed either deliberately or by accident. N. M. & A.