Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/302

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io<- s. 111. APRIL i, 1905.

the idea of a new birth is Chinese and Eleusinian ; belief in sacramental virtue is Pythagorean ; and honours to the dead are a polytheism."

In face of such declarations students of the human faculty and its development, whatever their belief, ought to be allowed to prosecute their researches without being abused. The words "pagan" and "heathen," curiously enough, are etyrnologically free from the suggestion of unbelief and patronage which the overwhelming force of Christianity has impressed upon them. They merely mean a dweller in the village and the heath. But their association with benighted ignorance may well be offensive to those who are ac- quainted with great minds like those of ./Eschylus, Socrates, Plato, Lucretius, espe- cially in a general state of culture which does not recognize their importance, though the world of to-day derives benefit from their imperishable legacy to human thought.

HIPPOCLIDES.

RUSSIAN BALTIC FLEET IN 1788. The Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser of Tuesday, 8 July, 1788, has the following under the head " Petersburg!], Extract of a Letter, June 10 " :

"Though everything has been hurry and con- fusion here for several weeks past, the fleet has not yet sailed, nor is it, indeed, as yet ready ; some of the large ships, from 70 to 80 guns, at Cronstadt, have not 500 men on board, and of those half at least are landsmen, wholly unacquainted with naval affairs. The vessels on the Gulf at Archangel, and other places, have been stript for sailors, who are arrived here ; but even these have by no means equalled the demand for the men-of-war fitting out, which amounts to twenty-three sail, of which seventeen are of the line, from 66 to 100 guns, of which last there are two, on board one of which, Le Catherine, Admiral (now Comte) Greig has his flag. Paul Jones, by which name the American officer is known here, has not resigned his com- mand ; the majority of the British officers refuse, however, to serve under him ; nor has any step yet been taken to accommodate the difference. This occasions no small difficulties, though the officers have not yet left their ships: their remonstrances to the Admiralty only are that they cannot serve rander the American ; and that they will lay down their commissions rather than serve."

There is so much of interest in this that I hope space may be found for it in ' N. & Q.' ERNEST B. SAVAGE. 5St. Thomas', Douglas.

WIRRAL HERMIT. The following extract from The Chester Chronicle of 24 December last seems to deserve record in 'N. & Q.' :

"The Hermit of Epping was a commonplace character compared with Frederick Kruger, the Hermit of Wallasey, who has been fined at Liscard for keeping nearly a score of dogs without a license in his ramshackle hut on the seashore. Kruger's

shelter is a corrugated iron shed, 12ft. in length and 6ft. broad. An apology for a chimney-pot peeps from the roof. There are two ' windows,' one without glass, the other stuffed with rag. An outer defence-work, intended for intrusive dogs and asses, is composed of a collection of broken bottles with protruding business ends. Kruger himself is a bent, ill-clad, garlic-flavoured old man of some sixty years. He wears a rubber collar, a buttonless waistcoat, and an irrepressible ' dickey.' He carries himself absent-mindedly, and vows that he has completely forgotten his age. But Kruger is not so ill-favoured as he looks. Until he was compelled to part with it, there was inside his hut a grand piano, on which he played the old masters to his audience of scarecrow dogs ; and being a scholar and a linguist, he occasionally treats them to readings from the Greek and Latin classics, varied with original discourses in English, French, and Italian. Kruger was a law graduate of Meck- lenburg. He studied at Munich, Rostock, Berlin, and Leipzig Universities for the German consular service. He could have joined the staff in Peking, but he wanted a European appointment, and, failing that, he preferred his present romantic existence, in which he is supported by a periodical allowance from Germany. The fact that he has not a friend in the world disturbs him not ; all he asks is to be left alone with his devoted dogs and his companionable books."

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A., F.S.A. Lancaster.

VADSTENA CHURCH, NORWAY. In the church at Vadstena is the following interest- ing inscription in Latin, running round the edges of an incised slab, which is translated by Du Chaillu in his ' Land of the Midnight Sun' (vol. ii. p. 338) accompanying a sketch of it :

" Here rests her Highness Queen Philippa, wife of Erik, formerly King of Sweden, Gotaland, Denmark, and Norway, and Duke of Pomerariia daughter of Henry IV., King of England, France, and Ireland who died on the 5th of January, 1430."

She was the youngest child of Henry IV., was born at Peterborough in 1394, and died at Vadstena 1430, aged thirty-six years. On the slab is incised the Crucifixion, the feet of the figure perforated by one nail. On the dexter side is the coat of arms of England impaled with that of France, surmounted with a helmet having on it the crest of England. The lady was, of course, the grand- daughter of the celebrated Queen Philippa, consort of Edward III.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory.Woodbridge.

SPENSER'S ' EPITHALAMION.' This famous poem has some curious small flaws in tech- nique, which I point out in the hope that a better text may be producible than any to which I have access.

It consists of twenty-three stanzas, elabo-