Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/414

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. xu. NOV. z\ 1915.

THE VTBTUES OF ONIONS (11 S. xii. 101, 149, 167, 209, 245, 286, 367). More than fifty years ago I remember reading, in a book of which I have forgotten the name, that " families which do not eat onions become -extinct in the third generation." Whether the book was medical or lay I have no recol- lection, but in the course of a long life I have come across several cases, in different classes and among different nationalities, which support the theory. At the same time there have been others which are at variance with it, but they are few in com- parison.

The following lines, quoted in Folkard's printing :
 * Plant -Lore Legends,' may be worth re-

To dream of eating onions means Much strife in thy domestic scenes, Secrets found out or else betrayed, And many falsehoods made and said.

L. G. R.

Bournemouth.

JOSEPH STURGE (11 S. xii. 338, 370). The statue of Joseph Sturge at the Five Ways, Birmingham, is by John Evan Thomas, the sculptor also of the statue of Thomas Att- wood at Birmingham. It was inaugurated on 4 June, 1862, by William Middlemore, J.P., the borough members, Messrs. Schole- field and Bright, being present. The memo- rial, which is considered a very fine one, consists of a marble statue of Sturge, and of two life-size groups in Portland stone cf Peace and Charity. At the sides are two tazza-like basins which were intended, and at first used, as fountains, but are now usually filled with flowers. There is also a drinking-fountain attached to the pedestal. The total cost was 1,OOOZ. A singular acci- dent happened to the statue some years ago, when, owing, no doubt, to some flaw in the marble, one of the arms dropped off. It has been, of course, restored.

HOWARD S. PEARSON.

UNICORN'S HORN AT THE TOWER OF LONDON (US. xii. 302, 349). I am greatly obliged to MR. A. R. BAYLEY, to ST. SWITHIN, and to another reader who has communicated with me direct, for information on this sub- ject. But the question still remains un- answered Which horn did Peter Mundy see at the Tower in 1634, and what has become of it ?

Hentzner's horn of " eight spans and a half " might be identical with Mundy's of "about 1 yards long," and the value,

above 10,OOOJ.," might cover Mundy's 18,OOOZ. to 20,000?. Is th*re any evidence

that this horn (or narwhal's tusk), which was the one brought to England by Fro- bisher (see 11 S. viii. 16), was subsequently moved from Windsor and was in the Tower in 1634 ?

If the horn that Mundy saw had been the same as the one described by the Marquis de la Ferte Imbaut in 1641, there would probably have been some mention of the " plates of silver " covering it.

John Evelyn in December, 1660 (' Diary,' ed. Bray, i. 315), saw two small unicorns' horns at Whitehall. These were possibly iden- tical with those in the Lower Jewel House in the Tower in 1649 (ante, p. 302).

Fuller seems to imply that the horn, " lately in the Tower," was no longer there when he wrote in 1662 ; besides, his horn was yellow and Mundy's was white. The other references which have been noted to me deal principally with so-called unicorns' horns in general, and not with the history of any particular horn. R. C. TEMPLE.

DISRAELI: REFERENCE SOUGHT (11 S. xii. 360).

3. " That the last of the Stuarts had any other object in his impolitic manoeuvres than an imprac- ticable scheme to blend the two Churches, there is now authority to disbelieve."' Sybil,' chap. iii.

WM. H. PEET.

Bows AND ARROWS IN THE CRIMEAN WAR (11 S. xii. 342). During the campaign in the Jynteah Hills in 1863, a company of hillmen armed with bows and arrows, commanded by Lieut. Worsely, was attached to our brigade. C. J. DURAND, Colonel.

(j range Club, Guernsey.

THE TABLE OF AFFINITIES (US. xii. 360). In the first place I would observe that the term " great ' is not applicable to the boys and two elder schoolgirls in the hypothetical case cited by H. G. P. The word " great " in affinity signifies one degree more remote in the direct line of descent. For example, a>- man's grandfather's father is his great- grandfather. Therefore the youngest school- girl is not, as stated, the great-aunt of the other two, but the half -aunt, and they are her half-nieces, or, in more technical phraseology, they are, respectively, aunt and nieces by the " half blood " to each other.

Archbishop Parker's Table of Affinity, which is printed in the Book of Common Prayer, represents the English law, except in so fai as it has been since modified by statute, as it was, for example, in 1907 when the Act permitting marriage with a deceased