Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/337

 10 s. XIL OCT. 2, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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' ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW ' (10 S. xii. 228). Being, like MBS. CLAY FINCH, one of the large number of persons who are ontitled to claim Gundrada as an ancestress, may I say that I had occasion some time ago to read the article in question at the British Museum ? It would not be worth while to have a copy made. In a lengthy statement of 21 pages Freeman withdraws all that he had previously proved as to the origin of Gundrada, and shows that she was not the daughter of William the Con- queror, and that he does not know whose daughter she was. In these circumstances Gundrada as an ancestress may be dis- regarded, and it will be better to begin the pedigree with her husband William de Warenne, first Earl of Surrey. As some compensation for the loss of William the Conqueror as an ancestor, it may be re- marked that Gundrada' s son William de Warenne, 2nd Earl of Surrey, married Elizabeth or Isobel, granddaughter of Henry I., King of France, through whom a descent from Charlemagne may be made out, if desired.

In conclusion, I may say that there is an article on Gundrada in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' which no doubt might be consulted at Shrewsbury or Chester.

M.

SNAKE COMMITTING SUICIDE (10 S. xii. 228). When in Florida some years ago, I was one day talking to a man at work in our garden, when a snake glided across the

frass in front of us and fiercely raised its ead. To make it do this again, the man poked it gently with his rake. The snake tried to slip out of sight, but the man kept following it. Suddenly it appeared to go into convulsions, contorting and looping its body in a horrible manner, and throwing the greater part of its length into the air. These struggles gradually became weaker, .and in a few moments, to my great astonish- ment, the snake was dead. " Yes," said the man, " it has bitten itself because I frightened it." I hardly believed him, but, on skinning the creature, found the bite near the backbone, and the skin perforated where the two fangs had pierced it.

W. M. E. F.

I have seen a shrimp commit suicide. In a circular glass table aquarium in Port- land Road, N.W., were a pair of hippocampi, or sea-horses, with a supply of live shrimps, which they killed by electricity. They tied their tails together, and one touched the shrimp's head and the other the shrimp's

tail with their snouts. A sound like a watch-tick, and a minute flash of light like striking a match, produced instant death. A shrimp who was being pursued Swam round and round the aquarium in terror, and at last jumped out on to the table, dead with fright. WALTER SCARGILL.

STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE BRITISH ISLES (10 S. xi. 441 ; xii. 51, 114, 234). The tower at Edge Hill to which your corre- spondent alludes was built by Sanderson Miller, Esq. (1716-80). His lineal descend- ant is the Rev. George Miller, Vicar of Radway, author of an important work on the parishes of Warwickshire and Worcester- shire. Much interesting information con- cerning Sanderson Miller and his buildings is found in an article on ' Edge Hill ' con- tributed to The Cornhill Magazine for October, 1907, by the Rev. W. H. Huttoii, B.D. JOHN T. PAGE.

The tower on Edgehill referred to by MR. WILMOT CORFIELD is still in situ. It was erected about 1750 by Mr. Miller of Radway Grange, to mark the place where the centre of the royalist army was posted. There are tea-gardens at its foot, and the place is a favourite resort for picnic parties.

In Radway Park is a graceful obelisk which likewise has no connexion with the battle of the Civil War. The latter monu- ment, I believe, was set up to commemorate the presence of a member of the Miller family at the battle of Waterloo.

The sham castle on Edgehill dates from a period when such counterfeit " triumphs of time " were in fashion. H. G. ARCHER.

CHINESE PROVERB IN BURTON'S ' ANA- TOMY ' (10 S. xi. 168). In Haiton's ' His- toire Orientale, ou des Tartares,' originally composed in 1307, we read :

"Les hommes de ce pais [China] sont tres vifs et tres penetrans, et pleines de finesse. C'est pourquoi ils meprisent dans tous les arts et dans toutes les sciences les autres nations, se disant les seuls capables, qui aient deux yeux : que les Latins ne voient que d'un seul ceil, et que toutes les autres sont aveugles " Chap i. col. 1 in Pierre Ber- geron's ' Voyages,' a la Haye, 1735.

In Josafa Barbaro's ' Travels to Tana and Persia during Sixteen Years from 1436 ' (in Ramusio, ' Navigation! e Viaggi,' Venetia, 1588, vol. i. fol. 103c) the saying is ascribed to the Celestials thus : " We Chinese have two eyes, you Franks one eye, but the Tartars none."

As far as my limited reading goes, not a single native authority I have met owns the thought to be indigenous. However, that