Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/40

 28 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. JULY s, won acenditur," a lectern elevated on steps, that the reader may be the better heard. This again leads us to the "reading-pew" of the Cominination Service in the Anglican Prayer- Book, and the " preaching-pew " or pulpit, and " praying - pew " of sixteenth - century writers. Once we have " pew " appropriated to a special place in church, we pass readily to the patron's pew, squire's pew, women's pew, and family pew of fifteenth and six- teenth century churches, and finally reach the fixed bench of sittings to which the name is now commonly applied. Most English churches have now "pews" of this kind for the worshippers; many country parish churches still have a horse-block by the wall. Is the horse-block anywhere else called a " horse - pew," thus bringing one of the earliest applications of the word into close proximity with the very latest? (I have passed over the fact that O.F. jmye, puie, I)u. jmyde, puye, and Eng. puwe, pewe, pue, formally represent the Latin plural podia, treated, as is frequent with Latin neuter plurals, as a feminine singular — compare biblia, bible—since this does not concern the sense-development.) J. A. H. MURRAY. FORESTS SET ON FIRE BY LIGHTNING.— Though it is not unusual to hear of forests being set on fire by trees which have been struck by lightning, I have been trying in vain to find unquestionable proof of such an occurrence taking place. If any of your readers have known of its happening by their own experience or a well-certified statement, may I ask them to send particulars to The Museum House, Oxford. PACKS OF SIXTY CARDS.—Packs of cards containing sixty cards are sometimes sold, the eight additional cards consisting of eleven and twelve spots. I should like to learn when such packs were first made. F. JKSSEL. CRY OF MACARIA.—Can any reader give the author of the following ?— Oh, that there may be uothing! If again, Beyond the sleep of death, we wake to pain, What hope will then remain to us ? To die Is of all ills the surest remedy. This is referred to as the cry of Macaria. T. C. ASHCROFT. LORD MOIRA AND THE UNITED IRISHMEN. —A collection of sworn informations relative to " free quarters," &c., was prepared by the United Irishmen for Lord Moira to use in his speeches in the House of Lords on the state of Ireland. These were privately printed in London in the winter of the same year 1797, and a copy was in the possession of the late Dr. Madden when preparing his well-known 'United Irishmen' in 1843. It was pre- sumably sold when his library was dispersed in November, 1865. Could any reader say what has been its ultimate fate, or where another copy could be seen ? JOHN S. CRONE. ' BATHILDA.'—Can any one tell me who is the author, and what is the meaning, of the little ballad called ' Bathilda' 1 It is the story of a noble Saxon maid, whom the fortunes of war had made a slave in Gaul, and who weds " King Clovis brave." The poeui opens with these lines:— There is a dim old tale of beauty Told in the land of Gaul, And the tender light of love and duty, It streameth over all. The poem concludes thus :— When widowhood and sorrow came, A cloistered cell she trod. To France she left a deathless name, Her soul she gave to God. Now, as I read French history, King Clovis married Clotilda, daughter of the King of Burgundy, and if Bathilda left a " deathless name," why can I not find it in any encyclo- paedia? FREDERIC ROWLAND MARVIN. 537, Western Avenue, Albany, N.Y. " VESCALION."—I should be much obliged if any of your readers could throw light on the word " vescalion," occurring in Bonn's foot-note to 'Cicero on Old Age.' The passage is :— " ' The other miseries which waylay our passage through the world, wisdom may escape, and forti- tude may conquer ; by caution and circumspection we may steal along with very little to obstruct or incommode us ; by spirit and vigour we may force a way, and reward the rexcalion Y>v conquest, by the pleasures of victory.'—Rambler, No. 69. I have sought the meaning of " ves- calion " in three dictionaries—the ' Century," Webster's, and that of Johnson published in 1799—but have failed to find the word. C. A. W. COTTRILL. CAPT. ROBERT HEHIOTT BARCLAY, R.N.— I wish to learn whether there is a portrait of this officer, who served with distinction in the American War of 1812, married Miss Agnes Cosser, and died in 1824, leaving several sons and daughters. I should be greatly obliged if one of his grandchildren would communi- cate with me on the subject. There is an interesting memoirof him in Marshall's 'Royal Naval Biography,' ix. 186. J. K. LAUGHTON. King's College, London, W.C.
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