Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/111

 ii s. vi. AUG. s. 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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life was that on which he freed himself irom political shackles? and was able to devote himself unreservedly to the pursuit -of letters. Both men were gifted with serene temperaments, but Lang's was the lighter in texture. It may be truly said lhat his death has eclipsed the gaiety of the English-speaking nations :

And one is borne on fairy breezes far To the bright harbours of a golden star,

Down fragrant fleeting waters rosy pale.

W. F. PEIDEAUX.

TOADS AND POISON. The toad has always liad a bad reputation, which is well known from references in Shakespeare to " venom toads " (' 3 Henry VI.,' II. ii. 128) and the " toad ugly and venomous " ('As You Like It,' II. i. 13). Commentators on the latter passage I take two of the most recent regard it as an " old superstition," or " rejected belief," that toads are poisonous. But it appears that there is some justifica- tion for this view after all. In the ' Science Gossip ' of The Athenaeum for 13 July (p. 44) is noted a lecture by Madame Marie Phisalix at the Paris Museum of Natural History concerning the toad and salamander. Both -are credited with poison of two kinds, and the frog with a substance similar to digitalis. Its milder secretions provoke sneezing, while the stronger, used in suffi- cient quantities, produce in animals diffi- culty of breathing and sickness.

The killing of the toad, according to J. G. Wood in his ' Natural History ' (1852) is universal in France. I hope that the enlightenment of the present age there and elsewhere has improved its chances of life, and lessened the desire to " larn it to be a twoad." But an animal which goes without food for so long can, apart from the handicap of its appearance, hardly expect to be popular.

HIPPOCIIDES.

DICKENS'S LAST READING AT LEEDS.- I was present at Dickens's last reading at the Leeds Town Hall in the spring of 1869, and shall never forget the ' Sikes and Nancy ' scene (see 11 S. v. 383). He was quite ex- hausted at the close. A friend of mine saw him, in his private room, throw himself upon a couch utterly overcome, and it was thought that he could not possibly revive ; but he suddenly jumped up, and in response to calls from the vast audience appeared upon the platform three times, and then went back to the couch and lay as one dead. We all felt the greatest sympathy for him. YOBKSHIBE LASS.

CURIOUS SUNSET EFFECT. I noticed at Llanfairfechan the other evening a phenomenon I do not remember to have seen before. The sun was near its setting over Anglesey, but was hidden by a broad band of black cloud extending to a point beyond Puffin Island. From behind this cloud, however, the sun sent a faint " lane " of light across the straits to the beach on which I stood. Turning round towards the Great Orme's Head, I was surprised to see another and a more distinct " lane : ' of light across the sea, caused by a strong reflection of the sun's rays caught on the point of a cloud just risen from the sea, apparently a few yards from the edge of the black cloud behind which the sun was hidden. There were thus two converging lanes across the water, as if from two suns, one in the north-west, the other in the north-east.

C. C. B.

A GRANDDAUGHTER OF SIR THOMAS MORE. The following will, from its incidental allusion to the illustrious author of ' Utopia, seems worth recording in ' N. & Q.' The testatrix, Mary Bassett, was second daughter of William Roper and Margaret More. She was twice married: first, to a Mr. Stephen Clarke, of whom I know nothing ; secondly, to James Bassett, Gentleman of the Chamber to Queen Mary, and third son of Sir Jolrn Bassett of Umberleigh, Devon (d. 1529), by his second wife Honora, daughter of bir Thomas Grenville. Mr. Bassett died 21 Nov., 1557. His widow survived him until 20 March, 1572. They left two sons, Philip and Charles, concerning whose after-history the Bassett pedigrees are silent.

"Marie Bassett, widowe," 20 Jan., 1566 Bequest of IQOl. for prayers. To Charles Bassett- my younger son, lands near Sandwich in pans of Wodnesborough, co. Kent, " which I pur- chased with that portion that his father gave him in his last will and a great deal more my own."

To Phillip Bassett, my elder son, my lands m Devonshire. To my brother Thomas Booper " my pomander enclosed in gold and^ white enamel" ; " my brother Anthony Booper ; my brother Dawtrey, a gold ring " ; "my godson and cousin, William Dawtrey, his son' ; to E*ynok Bray, my sister Bray's son, and my godson, a brooch of gold with a woman's head upon n enamelled blue and grene " ; my goddaughter Bridget Clement, Dr. Clement's daughter, 40s. ; "to Thomas Biding that is now my fathers steward, and to Alice, that is now his wife and was once my maid, a 10s. brooch.' Legacies t< servants. "To my son a ring that was my grandfather More's, and a great hoop of gold that Mr. Bassett gave me for a wedding ring, and a gold ring that King Phillip gave me set with a