Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. JULY s, 1913. towards the extremity of St. George's Place." In 1848 it was used for a Free Exhibition of Modern Art. There is a woodcut of the interior, with description, in The Illustrated London News of 29 July of that year (p. 61). The building is spoken of as "the Hyde Park Gallery" in an account of the exhibition in The Art Journal for April, 1849 (p. 105), and a statement appears in the course of the article that the promoters had decided to remove the exhibition to premises in Regent Street, opposite the Polytechnic. Could this have been the building which we now know as St. George's Hall, and could the name have been brought from Hyde Park Corner?

In The Dickensian for June there is an article about St. George's Gallery with an illustration of the performance, which appeared in The Illustrated London News, 28 May, 1853. Is there an illustration of the building in existence?

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED (11 S. vii. 489). " There is a great deal of human nature in man." Is not this from Judge Haliburton's * Sam Slick ' ? C. L. S.

The late Roman Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, Dr. Ullathorne, was fond of saying, "There is a great deal of human nature in most of us/' but whether it was a quotation or an original remark I do not know. ARNOLD H. MATHEW.

Ethelbert Lodge, Bromley, Kent.

MAGIC RING (US. vii. 430). The refer- ence quoted in 5 S. iii. 194 is misleading. The ring discussed in the ninth volume of the Royal Society of Literature's Transactions is not the ring alluded to by George Eliot. That paper treats of the recognition of a long-absent husband or lover by the familiar device of a ring dropped into the cup from which his lady drank. The tale in ' The Adventurer ' is by Dr. John Hawkesworth, and occupies three numbers (1320 Jan., 1753). It agrees in all essential points with that told by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont in her ' Magasin des Enfans,' the date of which I cannot exactly determine ; the 4f Nouvelle Edition " in the B.M. has no date, and is marked in the Catalogue " ? 1760." According to a French biographical dic- tionary, the author came to England shortly after the publication of her first book, which appeared in 1748, and continued to live here for the greater part of her life. From

internal evidence it seems probable that her version of the story was the later one ; e.g., the monster into wiiich the prince was transformed in Hawkesworth is merely i confbination of a wolf and a goat ; in the French version he assumes far more fearful proportions, and is compounded of six animals. It is unlikely that any author or translator would diminish the terrifying attributes of a monster, though he might well add to them. The attempted violation of the heroine by the prince in the English version becomes a proposal of marriage in the French ; and though this watering down might well be made for the benefit of " les enfans," a converse fortifying for English adult readers seems less probable.

George Eliot, however, appears to have had Madame de Beaumont's version in her mind ? for there the ring pricks its wearer even, in cases of extreme turpitude, till the blood gushes out. In Hawkesworth's tale it merely contracts on the w r earer's finger, causing him considerable pain ; though in spite of this contraction the prince was able to pull it oft' and throw it on the ground. It may have been the knowledge that a painfully tight ring is not so easily removed which induced Madame de Beaumont to alter this detail. C. B. WHEELER.

On the fan-shaped amphora (pottery) from Camirus, Rhodes (Thetis and Peleus), ' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' ninth edition, is an illustration of a fable of a man being bitten by a dragon or serpent on following the path of desire. Is not the proverbially sharp serpent's tooth a more striking symbol than the magic ring ? Where may this legend be found ? H. BROTHERTON.

Burnley.

THE RED HAND OF ULSTER : CLASPED HANDS ON JEWISH TOMBSTONES (11 S. vii. 189, 275, 334, 373, 434). MAJOR BALDOCK at the last reference mentions " the clasped hands " in the Hackney Cemetery as " the crest or badge of the Cohen family." It may interest him to know that this symbol is borrowed from the ancient Temple ser- vices, still retained on holyclays when the " Cohanim " ascend the dais before the Ark, and, extending their hands under their " taleisim " (praying cloaks), "bless the people." I believe the practice of carving these emblems on tombstones has been abandoned altogether ; at least, I have not observed any in Plashet or Willesden cemeteries.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.