Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/239

 ii s. i. MAR. 19, 1910.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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EASTER ON 27 MARCH (11 S. i. 185). Early tradition notwithstanding, this is an impossible date for Easter. The only real doubt about the year of our Lord's death and resurrection is whether it occurred in A.D. 29 or 30. In my ' Bible Chronology ' I have taken the latter, and still think it probable. Prof. Sanday, in the last edition of his ' Outlines of the Life of Christ,' tells us that he has lately altered his view, and thinks A.D. 29 was the true year. In either case the Jewish Passover fell in April, and Easter must have followed it, so that a date in March is impossible. Even if we take the old traditional date of A.D. 33, the Passover fell that year on 1 April. We are certainly not keeping Easter on the correct day this year, and let us hope that the rule for its observance will ere long be changed to the first or second Sunday in April.

W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

MOHAMMED AND THE MOUNTAIN (11 S. i. 89, 151). In the notes to his edition of Bacon's Essays in the "Golden Treasury Series " Dr. Aldis Wright says that he has been unable to trace any foundation for this story of Mahomet. " The saying," he adds,

" is a common Spanish proverb and appears in Bacon's ' Promus,' or Common-place book, fol. 20 b, as follows : Se no va el otero a Mahoma vaya Mahoma al otero.' But, singularly enough, in a letter from Antonio Perez to the Earl of Essex, it is quoted in exactly the converse form : ' Tu videris quo id modo net, an ego ad templum, an ut solebant loqui Hispani Mauri, si no puede yr Mahoma a Lotero (i.e. al otero), venga Lotero (i.e. el otero) a Mahoma, templum cum aliqua occasione hue se conferat.' ' Antonii Perezii ad Comitem Essexium. . . .epistolarum centuria una,' Norimb., 1683, ep. 14, p. 18."

Dr. Wright acknowledges his indebtedness for the last reference to Prof. J. E. B. Mayor.

Mr. A. S. West's note in his edition (1897) is simply " a Spanish proverb."

MR. BAYNE in his reply has not men- tioned the source of the details, including the name of the mountain, contained in the version of the story which he gives.

EDWARD BENSLY.

LADY CLAVERING (11 S. i. 148). Henry Swinburne in his ' Courts of Europe,' vol. ii. p. 103, in a letter dated 3 April, 1791, writes as follows :

" Tom Clavering has run away with and married a girl of Angers, Mademoiselle Galais. He was placed there to learn French, and she is daughter to the person who lets the lodgings. He is positively bent on fulfilling his engagement."

In an editorial note it is stated that " the young person of whom Mr. Clavering was enamoured, and had agreed to elope with, and who was the daughter of a wax-chandler, changed her mind, or at all events had not courage to leave her parents' abode at the hour specified. She had, however, a confidante in her cousin, to whom she communicated her embarrassment. This young lady, who it appears was secretly in love with Mr. Clavering, and who was not tor- mented with the same scruples, instantly made up her mind to supply her friend's place. She therefore muffled herself up, and, favoured by the darkness, safely joined the expecting and im- patient lover, who instantly placed her in his carriage, drove off, and did not discover his error until the following day. It is said that the beauty and grace of the confidante quickly consoled him for his disappointment, and that he further expressed himself perfectly satisfied with his conquest."

These statements may, or may not, be correct. J. C. HODGSON.

Alnwick.

Lady Clavering was Clare, or Clara, daughter of Jean de Gallais de la Bernardine, Comte de la Sable probably Sable of Anjou, by his wife, Petronella. Sir Thomas John Clavering was married on 21 Aug., 1791. MR. SHORTER will probably find the ancestry of Lady Clavering set out in Jullien de Courcelles' ' Dictionnaire universel de la Noblesse de France,' 1820-22, or in Saint- Allais, 'Nobiliaire de France,' 1872-7.

W. ROBERTS.

18, King's Avenue, Clapham Park.

Sir Thomas and Lady Clavering had issue a son and two daughters :

1. William Aloysius, born 21 Jan., 1800 ; succeeded as 9th Baronet, 1853 ; died 1872, when his cousin Sir Henry Augustus Claver- ing succeeded as 10th Baronet.

2. Clara Anna Martha, married 8 Feb., 1826, to General Baron de Kuyff of Brussels.

3. Agatha Catherine, married 12 Feb., 1821, to Baron de Montfaucon of Avignon.

The * Letters from the Cape of Good Hope ' were written to correct certain misstatements made by Warden in his ' Letters on board the Northumberland ' (conveying Napoleon to St. Helena). The Quarterly Review attri- buted the ' Letters from the Cape ' to Count de Las Casas. By way of solution, Allibone refers his readers to Olphar Hamst's ' Hand- book of Fictitious Names,' 1868.

W. SCOTT.

JOHN HUNTER'S CLUB (11 S. i. 110). The Society for the Improvement of Medical and Chirurgical Knowledge was founded by John Hunter, the great anatomist and surgeon, and George Fordyce, senior