Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/129

 s. in. FEB. n, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LQXDOX, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11. 1SOS.

CONTENTS.-No. 59.

NOTES : St. Sepulchre, 101 William and John Talman, 103 Sufferings of Troops in Winter, 101 Proposed Temple Bridge and County Hall Recent Finds in Westminster, 105 Shap, Westmorland Francis Bacon : Singular Ad- dressChinook Jargon, 106.

QUERIES : "Maskyll" Queen of Duncan II., 107 Franciecus de Platea Mr. Fraser Rae and Junius Joseph Wilfred Parkins Local 'Notes and Queries '" Caren- tinilla" Gold v. Silver 'God save the King,' 108 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham William Symson Author of Quotation Wanted" Lamb " in Place-names Fitz Warine Family Middleton " When our dear old Catholic fathers "" Oh ! the pilgrims of Zion" "May virtue all thy paths attend," 109.

REPLIES : Holyrood Font, 109 Torpedoes, Submarines, and Rifled Cannon "The hungry forties "Heraldic Mottoes Sothern's London Residence Con- Contraction John Wesley and Gardens, 111 Royal Regiments of the Line "Phil Elia" " Wassail," 112 Besant British Merzotinters Anthony Brewer ' Hardyknute,' 113 The Chiltern Hundreds Dryden Portraits Epitaphs : their Bibliography Queen's Surname Kant's Descent- Blood used in Building, 114 Spirit Manifestations " God called up t'rom dreams " " The " as part of Title "Tourmaline" Verschoyle : Folden, 115 Baptist Con- fession of Faith, 1660 Nelson in Fiction" God rest you merry "Coliseums Old and New, 116.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Murray's ' Museums '' Cambridge Modern History" 'Guide to Historical Novels' 'At Shakespeare's Shrine ' 'Upper Norwood Atbenseum Record' 'The Burlington ' Reviews and Magazines.

Obituary : Mr. T. Blashill; Rev. W. K. R. Bedford.

Notices to Correspondents.

ST. SEPULCHRE.

MR. HOLDEX MAC-MICHAEL conjectures at 10 th S. ii. 192 that the "Saint" in "St. Sepul- chre" is redundant, and he states at the same time that "Sepulchre' 1 is in reality merely a contraction of " St. Pulchre."

This is an ingenious etymological effort. It sounds at first plausible enough and allur- ing, but on examination it would seem to lead into a cul-de-sac and to a mare's nest. MR. MAcMiCHAEL infers that the two words Pulcheria and Pulchre are synonymous ; but it would be interesting to learn on what authority he connects the two.

It is necessary toqueiy, first of all, whether there was ever any such a saint as " St. Pul- chre." Personally, till now, I have never come across such a one, either " at prayer " or elsewhere, and indeed it is a question whether "Pulchre" is really the French equivalent for the Latin " Pulcheria." De Mas Latrie in his ' Tresor de Chronologic, d'Histoire et de Geographic,' and the writer in Migne's ' Dictionnaire Hagiographique,' both give the word "Pulcherie," and make no reference at all to any saint " Pulchre/' Other authorities are equally reticent.

However, the point at issue really resolves itself into this, viz., To whom were the "Sepul-

chre" or "St. Sepulchre" churches dedicated? This conundrum once settled, we shall either have dissolved the new theory or given it a fresh lease of life.

From the Bollandists ('Acta Sanctorum,' 10 September) and from other sources we learn that many were the churches founded by St. Pulcheria ; but it would be interesting to discover even one church that was dedi- cated to the holy empress herself. On the other hand, it is well known that there have been, and are still, a number of churches in different lands that have borne the title of " Sancti Sepulchri" (we may note the gender of " Sepulchri," which is not masculine). In England we have many such, and amongst them several of great architectural interest, each of which is in its way all but unique. We may instance, for example, the so-called "round churches "of Cambridge, of North- ampton, of Little Maplestead in Essex, and the Temple Church in London. Moreover, it has been pretty well proved that the afore- said circular churches (though sometimes erroneously thought to have been Jewish synagogues) were originally the property of the Military Order of the Knights Templars, with whom it was a common practice to build round churches at the commanderies and priories of the Order in imitation and com- memoration of the great basilica of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem a church that it was the end and object of the Order to defend. In this connexion it may be well to quote the opinion of the great architectural authority Viollet-le-Duc, who in his 'Dictionnaire Raisonne de 1'Architecture Francaise,' under 'Sepulchre' writes as follows: "L'Ordre des Templiers elevait in chaque commanderie une chapelle qui devait etre la representation de la rotonde de Jerusalem." Nor was it unnatural that the knights, many of whom had, no doubt, been to Jerusalem, should endeavour to produce at home a replica of that far-off Sepulchre for which they were pledged to live and to die, and in which their hearts were already metaphorically buried.

These circular churches were often known either as Temple or Sepulchre churches, and there can be no doubt that they were replicas (more or less) of the prototype at Jerusalem. The knights built their first London (circular) church at Holborn ; but later they removed to the Temple. The site of the Holborn Templar church is now occupied by South- ampton Buildings.

In France there are the circular church famous in the annals of the Templars at Paris, which formed part of the most important commandery of the knights in Europe ; the