Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/252

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. iv. SBPT. 23, mi.

Bell, whom he once knew as a great natural- ist, an eccentric, and an enthusiast, and who died recently at an advanced age. He told me also several anecdotes about him which I cannot repeat, but on consulting the British Museum Catalogue, I found a Richard Bell of Castle Oer entered as the author of a book called ' My Strange Pets and other Memories of a Country Life,' pub- lished in 1905. A casual glance sufficed to show the identity of the two men. Frank Buckland speaks of his museum and his kangaroo and pair of storks (p. 45), but at the end of Bell's fascinating volume, pp. 156-70, is a correction of Frank Buckland' s account of the visit. Mr. Bell says that Buckland has confounded a formal visit with Mr. Bartlett (? of the Zoological Gardens), which occurred on 19 September, 1874, with a casual meeting on 9 September, 1873, at Carlisle. A. RHODES.

HOLINSHED BIBLIOGRAPHY. In the article on Holinshed in the ' D.N.B.' (new edition, vol. ix. p. 1025, col. 1) it is stated in the description of the first edition of the the title-page are those of William Cecil, Lord Burghley. I find the same statement made in Hazlitt's ' Bibliographical Collec- tions,' First Series, p. 217.
 * Chronicles,' that the arms on the back of

The arms are surely those of Holinshed himself (see Burke' s ' General Armory,' 1884 ed., p. 499). Burghley's arms do not appear in either volume, but the error is possibly accounted for by the fact that at the beginning of the dedication of vol. i. part i. there is a large C enclosing the crest and motto of the Cecils.

The 'D.N.B.' also errs in stating that there are 1876 pages in vol. ii. There are, as a matter of fact, 1540 (erratically) numbered pages, the last being marked 1876, and 1648 pages in all. S. O. MOFFET.

Kendal.

FINCH FAMILY TRADITION. I have clipped the paragraphs reprinted below from a snippet column in a country paper :

" Viscount Maidstone, who is being congratulated on the birth of a heir, counts among his ancestry a Lord Chancellor, two Speakers, Lady Winchilsea, the poetess, and the Lord Winchilsea who went through a form ot duel with the Duke of Wellin"- ton, and eight years later married the Duke's great- niece. Viscount Maidstone is heir not only to the Winchilsea peerage, but also to the Earldom of Nottingham, the two peerages having been com- bined in 1729 on the death of the sixth Earl of \\ me hilsea, when his title passed to his kinsman Daniel 1 inch, who for forty-seven years had held the former earldom. It was this Lord Nottingham who sold Kensington House, now Kensingtoi

falace, to William III.," and built Burley-on-the- Hill, said to be the biggest commoner's 'house in England.

"A strange tradition is attached to the house. The story goes that in the long ago one of the Finches sold himself to the devil, who, later, when le came to claim his bargain, took his victim's heart. Only by the performance of a terrible penance or test can this bargain with the Evil One ae wiped out. The terms involve a sojourn of seven years in solitary confinement in a cell or cage at Burley-on-the-Hill. Food or drink of any kind is allowed, but the hermit must see or speak to no one, though he may emerge from his prison at night, and walk abroad within certain prescribed imits. More, it is stoutly asserted in the neigh- 3ourhood that within living memory one member of the family attempted to fulfil these conditions, and managed to hold out for two years, when he ost his reason. At any rate, it is a fact that there s at Burley to this day a Hermit's Cell and like- wise a Hermit's Wall within the grounds of the mansion."

ST. SWITHIN.

ALEX ANDRE DUMAS ON CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLES. Cleopatra's Needle on the Vic- toria Embankment has recently received a "coating" of baryta water in order to preserve it from the ravages of our sul- phurous climate. There were two Cleo- patra's Needles on the site at Alexandria whence Sir Erasmus Wilson brought the ancient and historic monolith which since 1878 has stood in our midst. Alexandre Dumas in his book entitled ' Quinze Jours au Sinai' (1841) refers to both obelisks, puring a visit to Alexandria in the spring of 1830 he made notes of their positions, which he thus described :

" Au milieu de mines presque sans formes, qu'on reconnalt cependant pour avoir et6 celles des bains, de la bibliotheque et des theatres, il n'est reste' deb out que la colonne de Pompee et 1'une des aiguilles de Cleopatre, car 1'autre est couchee et a moiti6 ensevelie dans le sable."

In an earlier part of the book Dumas describes the column of Pompee and the Needle of Cleopatra as the " seules ruines qui restent de la cite du Macedonien." His third and final reference to the Needles is as follows :

" Quant aux aiguilles de Cleopatre, dont 1'une, ainsi que nous 1'avons dit, est encore debout et dont 1'autre est couchee, ce sont des obelisques de granit rouge a trois colonnes de caracteres sur chaque face : ce fut le Pharaon Mceris qui, mille ans avant le Christ, les tira des carridres de la chaine libyque, ainsi que d'un ecrin, et les dressa de sa main puissante devant le temple du Soleil. Alexandrie les envia, dit- on, a Memphis, et Cleopatre, malgre les murmures de la vieille aieule, les lui enleva comme des bijoux qu'elle n'etait plus assez belle pour posse"der. Les des antiques qui servaient de base a ces obelisques existent encore et reposent sur un socle de trois marches : ils sont de construction