Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/375

 n s. v. APRIL 20, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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" THE FUNERAL BAK'D MEATS " : ' HAMLET,' 1. ii. A commentary on this expression is ^supplied by the charges incurred at the burial, in 1628/9, of William Warner, a "tenant dairy-farmer of Hutton, Essex :

" Paid for victualls and other necessaries spent at his funerall for such as did attend the corps to his buriall, xviiiZt. iiis. iiiidf.

" Paid to a Copke for his paynes, and for helpes at the tyme of his buriall, xxiii.s. id,"

ANDREW CLARK.

MANX HUT VILLAGES. On a conspicuous part of the Meayll Hill, in the Isle of Man, overlooking Port Erin Bay, and facing Bradda Head, are the remains of at least three prehistoric villages, or clusters of huts ; while near the summit stands one of the most remarkable monuments of anti- quity a circle of symmetrically arranged sets of stone cists, of the late Neolithic or arly Bronze Age, unique in the British Isles ; and probably only paralleled, scarcely equalled, by certain burial mounds in Scandinavia.

I visited the place a few years ago. The low rounded hills stand out prominently, separated from the remainder of the land by a narrow neck of low-lying country, well suited for a stronghold, surrounded as it is on three sides by lofty sea cliffs. On the fourth side is the low narrow neck of land, probably formerly submerged, and later a swamp, which may have been the last refuge in Manxland of the pre-Celtic race. Of the old hut villages of Meayll Hill, the foundations, of earthen banks and large unhewn stones, are overgrown with heather and gorse.

I believe that in Cregneash one of these ancient villages exists to-day, having been continuously inhabited from prehistoric times. An examination of the gardens, and bases of the cottages, may give much light. Sir George Head, writing in 1837 in his hamlet near Spanish Head, and between " Port-le-Murray " and " Port Irons " probably Cregneash as
 * Home Tour ' (ii. 23), speaks of a little

" composed of edifices so rude, that it is really hard to predicate of the houses at a little distance whether they are masses of rock, or human dwellings."

Neolithic man, of small stature, averaging, from the bones, about 5 ft. in height, and having a long narrow skull, is thought to be still recognizable among the small dark Manx people.

A handbook giving a full account of the excavation of the hut villages on the Meayll

Hill, written by Mr. P. M. C. Kermode, F.S.A. Scot., and Mr. W. A. Herdman, D.Sc., F.R.S., can be had at the Port Erin Biological Station near by, where a plan of the hill can be seen.

Cregneash, inhabited from Neolithic days to the present, is thus one of the most interesting villages in the British Isles.

WILLIAM MACARTHUB.

Dublin.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

KANT: QUOTATIONS FROM ENGLISH AUTHORS. The following quotations are taken from the correspondence of Immanuel Kant, edited by the Royal Academy of Berlin. As I am working at the critical apparatus, I should be indeed glad of exact references for them.

The first quotation is taken from Pope :

" Ihre Ideen sind wie die spielenden Farben eines j jiewasserten Seidenzeuges." ' Kants Brief wechsel,' Bd. I., Berlin, 1900, S. 13.

" Von einem englischen Autor : ' Ein jeder Mensch hat seine besondere Art gesund zu seyn, an der er, ohne Gefahr, nichts andern darf. ' " ' Kants Briefwechsel,' I., 1900, S. 322.

" Vermischte Gedanken von Swift : ' Niemand, der seyn inneres Bewusstsein aufrichtig fragt, wird seine Rolle auf der Welt wiederholen mogen."' Ebd., Bd. II., 1900, S. 393.

(Dr.) J. REICKE, Oberbibliothekar of the Royal Library.

Gottingen.

"!N POMARIO QUIDDAM." Will some one kindly interpret the words which I print in italics in the following quotation (circa 1340) ?

" Thomas de Stuche vendidit .Willielmo de Bromeleye totum boscum crescentem in dominio suo de Botterton, cum quadam sumo, f-ctmororum in pomario suo."

Do they mean " quantity of mulberries " ? Was the juice of mulberries ever used com- mercially as a dye ? C .SWYNNERTON.

CHILDREN BURNT AT A PASSION PLAY. In R. Bagot's ' My Italian Year,' p. 67, it is stated that in 1705 at Venice a Passion play was given,

" followed by a so-called ' Car of Purgatory,' in which, for the edification of the faithful, twenty living infants were thrown into the flames and burnt to death."

Can any one point to any authority for this statement ? LAWRENCE PHILLIPS.