Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/334

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 B. v. A., 1912.

of course, that the family of La Tour d'Auvergne could have no possible shadow of right to assume the titles of Duke or Duchess of Bouillon. The romantic career -of Philip d'Auvergne has been utilized by Sir Gilbert Parker for Philip d'Avranches in ' The Battle of the Strong.'

R. S. PENGELLY. Clapham Park, S.W. I

The following entry occurs, under date 19 March, 1815, in the burial register of St. Peter's, or "the Fort," Church, Colombo, and throws some light on the questions asked by EL SOLTERO : " Philip, son of the Prince de Buillon D'Auvergne." The age of the boy is not given. The admiral's ship must have been calling at Colombo just at this time, but I do not know what the name of it was. Possibly one of your correspond- can give it. PENRY LEWIS.

WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAT (11 S. iv. 503, 522 ; v. 75). In reply to your correspondent H. I. B. I may mention that the shrew- mouse was sacred to Uazit, an ancient Egyptian goddess, who was called by the Greeks Buto, and her cult obtained in the city and Home of Bouto in Lower Egypt.

She is often associated with Nekhebit, who was equated with Eilithyia, " goddess of birth." Buto was an oracular deity, and was thought to be similar to the Greek Leto. Both Nekhebit and Buto were symbolized by the same forms : either as winged Ursei, Vultures, or as women. Buto was, according to legend, the guardian of Horus whilst Isis went in search of the body of Osiris. By gradual amalgamation -ancient deities became fused with others having similar attributes.

Bes was originally an African god, and Associated with the birth of the Sun-god, as Ahti, and appears in all the birth-houses of the Egyptian temples. Not only had he to provide food for the new-born infant, but he had to furnish amusement too, and is often represented laughing and dancing. He therefore became in time the god of merriment and joy. As an underworld god he became an avenger, and his counterpart, Taurt, is commonly figured as a female hippopotamus, later known as Bert, and dwelt in the " House of Suckling." At one time she became one with Isis, Hathor, and again with Bast of Bubastis, and Buto of Pelusium and Bouto.

One can easily see how, as warmth is associated with comfort, pleasure, and love, and is essential to birth, the mouse, also

fond of heat, became the symbol of the goddess of birth. In classic times the mouse was used to ornament lamps, and was pro- bably associated with Venus. It. was also an emblem of destruction.

The shrew-mouse was sacred to the Letopolitan god of the solar eclipse, Her- khent-an-ma (" Horus, Lord of Not Seeing "). Plutarch says this animal received divine honours because it was blind, and because darkness was older than light.

It may interest your readers to know that the descendants of the Whittington family are buried in the little picturesque Norman church of Pauntley, Gloucester- shire. SYDNEY HERBERT, F.R.G.S.

Carlton Lodge, Cheltenham.

QUEEN ANNE AND HER CHILDREN (11 S. v. 69, 116). Bishop Burnet would appear to be the prime authority for giving seventeen as the number of Queen Anne's children. In writing of the death of the young Duke of Gloucester he refers to him as " the only remaining child of seventeen that the Princess had borne." This total, if correct, was certainly largely made up of premature births. Burnet was favourably placed for getting information on the subject (possibly from Anne herself) during the period when he supervised her son's education. Smollett, in his ' History of England,' repeats Burnet's statement verbatim, but without indication that it is borrowed. In Dean Stanley's book the number of Anne's children buried in the Abbey is given as eight, but the official sixpenny guide has it eighteen.

DONALD GUNN.

The late Dean Stanley, in his ' Historical Memorials of Westminster Abbey,' third edition, 1869, in the Appendix, gives an " Account of the search for the grave of King James I." This search was made in 1869. When describing the interior and contents of the vault of Mary, Queen of Scots, he writes (p. 665) :

" Spread over the surface of these more solid structures [i.e., such as the coffins of Mary of Orange, Prince Rupei-t, Anna Hyde, and Elizabeth of Bohemia] lay the small coffins, often hardly more than cases, of the numerous progeny of that unhappy family, doomed, as this gloomy chamber impressed on all who saw it, with a more than ordinary doom infant after infant fading away which might else have preserved the race first the ten children of James IT., including one whose existence was unknown before ' James Darnley, natural son,' and then eighteen children of Queen Anne ; of whom one alone required the receptacle of a full-grown child William, Duke of Gloucester."