Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/477

 us. in. JUNE 17, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

471

homeless vagrants who infest the roads all over the country find in Scottish holy wells a convenient spot for the performance of much needed ablutions. Their linen, how- ever, such as it is, being of a frail and un- substantial character, is apt to leave frag- ments adhering to the bushes where it has been hung to dry. Hence the frequency with which rags may still be seen in the vicinity of Scottish holy walls. SCOTTJS.

Primitive man's idea of transferring his disease to an inanimate object through some thing, as hair or nails or fragments of clothing, is well known to folk-lorists. Sir Richard F. Burton suggested that rags, locks of hair, and whatnot hung on trees near sacred places by the supsrstitious from Mexico to India, and from Ethiopia to Ireland, were deposited there as actual receptacles for the transference of disease (see Tylor's * Primitive Culture,' ii. 137). W. B. GERISH.

See J. M. Mackinlay's ' Folk-lore of Scottish Lochs and Springs,' pp. 82, 189-93, 197, 200, 233. W. S.

MR. HARRIS STONE will find much valuable information on this subject in Mr. E. S. Hartland's ' Legend of Perseus,' 1895, vol. ii. p. 175 ff. W. CROOKE.

Ebers and Guthe, ' Palestina,' ii. 248 and 358, mention among " the poor offerings of the children of the desert " found at the tombs of Moslem saints such objects as " ostrich eggs, camel-halters, cloths, and coloured rags." W. A. C.

These rags are noticed at 1 S. x. 397 ; and the communications to ' N. & Q.' on the subject of 'Wells' give references to much literature which should be searched. There is a long section on this very point in Brand, ed. Ellis, published by Bohn, 1849, ii. 380 sq. W. C. B.

[The quotation from Brand sent by Miss G. DE CASSEL POLKABD has been forwarded to MR. HARRIS STONE.]

"GREAT GEORGE OUR KING" (11 S. iii. 387). According to Dr. Julian's ' Dictionary of Hymnology,' the words " Great George our King " were introduced into the National Anthem in 1745 during the reign of George II. They were the Hanoverian response to the enthusiasm evoked in many quarters by the Jacobite rebellion. The lines quoted in the query are probably considerably later than the time of George II., but are evidently based on versions current after 1745.

W. SCOTT.

CORONATION BIBLIOGRAPHY (US. iii. 345, 453). To the works already mentioned may be added William Prynne's ' Second Part of the Signal Loyalty and Devotion of God's True Saints and Pious Christians under the Gospel,' &c., 1660. Chap. viii. (pp. 148- 321) deals with the coronations of Christian emperors, kings, and queens, from that of the Emperor Justin and his Empress Sophia, anno 565, down to James and Charles II., with the order of proceedings, prayers, &c. G. J. GRAY.

Cambridge.

QUEEN VICTORIA'S MATERNAL GREAT- GRANDMOTHER (US. iii. 387, 438). I note that MR. WILLOUGHBY A. LITTLEDALE, on the authority of the ' Wappen-Almanach' of 1842, states that the marriage of Henry XXIV. of Reuss with Caroline Ernestine of Erbach-Schonberg took place on 28 June, 1754, whereas I gave the date as 28 July. The point is of minor importance, but, as accuracy in even the smallest matters is desirable, I bejg to append the following note as my authority :

" According to Luck, the ehepacten were dated 27 July, 1754, and he quotes a letter of 29 July from George Augustus to his brother George William, which states that the marriage took place "28 dieses.' Simon adopts this date, but the Reuss genealogies (by Cohn, Behr, &c.) give 28 June."

This note is extracted from the valuable papers by Mr. G. W. Watson on * The 4096 Quartiers of the Prince of Wales ' (King Edward VII.), which ran through The Genealogist from October, 1899, to April, 1904. These papers trace the descent of the late King back to the middle of the fif- teenth century, and are absolutely necessary to any one interested in royal genealogies. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

The replies at the second reference some- what perplex me. Queen Victoria's mother was the Princess Victoria Mary Louisa of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who was married to the Duke of Kent. She was the daughter of Francis Frederick Antony, Duke of Saxe-Saalfeld, who appears to have been the son of Ernest Frederick, Dnke of Saxe- Saalfeld. The latter accordingly must have been Queen Victoria's maternal great- grandfather, and his wife, whoever she was, the Queen's maternal great-grand- mother. How was the line of Saxe-Saalfeld connected with that of Reuss ? and what relationship, if any, was there between Henry XXIV. of Reuss and Henry XIV. of Reuss-Schleiz, born in 1832, or Henry XXII. of Reuss-Greiz, born in 1846 ? W. S. S.