Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/619

 io S.V.JUNE so,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

511

effeetus "). But, as a matter of fact, he had only hugged a sooty saucepan. Unconscious of his begrimed condition, next morning he solemnly took his seat in the judgment hall, and was greeted with convulsed laughter by the Court. The sisters were ultimately tried by Sisinnius, the result being that the two elder were burnt to death, whilst Irene was transfixed by an arrow. HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

The following is from the English transla- tion of Tournefort's 'Voyage into the Levant,' 1741, i. 279 :

" It is no easy Matter to find out when the Isle of Thera took the Name of Sant-Erini ; but in all Likelihood 'tis derived from that of St. Irene, the Patroness of the Isle, and from Sant-Erini 'tis become Santorin. This Saint was of Thessalonica, and suffered Martyrdom on the first of April in 304, under the ninth Consulate of Diocletian, and the eighth of Maximinian Hercules; the Latin Church observes it as a Holiday at Santorin."

I may add that there appears to be some doubt about the date of this saint. Instead of 1 April, the Bollandists describe the martyrdom of Irene under 3 April.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

Ste. Irene was martyred in the isle of Thera, one of the Cyclades, in 304. At the end of the third century the island became christianized, and then was called Ste. Irene, which name became corrupted into Santorin. The name Thera has since been officially revived. The fete-day of Ste. Irene is 1 April.

There was another Saint of the same name who was Empress of Constantinople, but she died a natural death at Lesbos.

Santarern, in Portugal, is also said to take its name from Ste. Irene.

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield Park, Reading.

In * Words and Places ' (p. 470) Isaac Taylor refers the name to the Empress St. Irene. She was a Hungarian princess who became the wife of John Comnenus, Emperor of the East, about the beginning of" the twelfth century, and who changed her name Pyrisca into Irene when she became a member of the Greek Church. She lived and died in the odour of sanctity, but was not martyred.

Another Irene is answerable for the name of Santarem, in Portugal, and probably for that of a place so called in Brazil.

ST. S WITHIN.

Santorin is usually reckoned among the Sporades, i.e, not one of the circle (Cyclades) around Delos. There are a good many saints named Irene, but it is difficult to connect any of them with Santorin. Perhaps the

explanation is different. In Charles Knight's 'Penny Cyclopaedia' (under Thera) we are told that "the modern name is Santa Thira, which is pronounced and usually written Santorini." C. S. WARD.

GRAY'S 'ELEGY' : ITS TRANSLATIONS (10 th S. v. 428, 477). The first part of the article on three Greek versions of Gray's 'Elegy' appeared in The British Critic for February,

1795 (pp. 132-42), and the second section in

March number (pp. versions were by Charles Coote, Stephen

234 - 44). These

Weston, and B. E. Sparke. A review of an earlier translation by John Norbury (1793) was in the same magazine's first volume (p. 181) ; and a later rendering, that of Edward Tew, was criticized in the number for June, 1795 (pp. 625-35). These articles are of much interest, and contain references to other versions, mainly in Italian.

Bowyer Edward Sparke became Bishop of Chester in 1809, and was translated in 1812 to the rich see of Ely, which he held until his death in April, 1836. No memoir of him is given in the 'D.N.B.,' but he is sufficiently noticed in The Gentleman's Magazine^or 1836, pt. i. 657-8. At the time of his death his sons and son-in-law held the chief prefer- ments in the diocese, which the wits of the day accounted for by the remark that
 * Sparks fly upwards."

A reference to my ' Register of National Bibliography ' shows that an article on the "literary history" of the 'Elegy' is in The Antiq. Mag. and Bibliog ', iv. 231-8, 281-8 (1883). Many other translations are specified in Prof. Henry Reed's life of Gray, and the list is copied in Allibpne's ' Diet, of English Literature.' The subject should be taken in hand and completed by some enthusiastic bibliographer. W. P. COURTNEY.

THE. HENRY BROUGHAM, STEAMER (10 th S. v. 269, 337) The information sent by your correspondents is interesting. For the answer to MR. DOUGLAS OWEN'S question I have looked again at Bos worth's 'Hochelaga ' : it does not say where the Henry Brougham came from, only that on arrival " it was taken possession of by the rebels, and all the passengers, twenty-one in number, secured." I assumed she came from London.

As regards MR. OWEN'S difficulty about my saying that I "never before heard of a ship so named/' he seems to want a point to my remark. I am not quite certain there was one in my mind. If there was a point, it was this : In 1873 a bibliography I had had in hand some years was published in Lord