Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/215

 ii s. vi. AUG. si, i9i2.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

175

Here dwelland and allegand are the present participle, doings and reading the gerund. But the distinction, though well preserved throughout the body of the work cited, was on the eve of disappearing ; for in the same Introduction may be found the participle assuming the modern form :

" Quhilk subtle craft and ambitious doings, Our Soveraine Lord King James the Sext.... -understanding and againstanding the samin, &c. Mairover, his Majestie, being one benevolent and loving king towards his subjects, willing them to knaw his lawes. . . .and to conforme their maner of living," &c.

(The italics in every case are mine.)

In the Statutes which follow the Introduc- tion the gerund invariably ends in -ing, the participle in -and. HERBERT MAXWELL.

VAN DYCK WITH THE SUNFLOWER (11 S. vi. 111). According to the catalogue of the Medici Society, who publish a reproduction of the picture, the original is in Grosvenor House. W. B.

The portrait of Vandyck, by himself, with a sunflower, is in the Duke of West- minster's collection ; but there are, I think, one or two other versions.

ERNEST LAW.

The Pavilion, Hampton Court Palace.

[MR. G. A. F. M. CHATWIX (Arosa, Switzerland) also thanked for reply.]

THOMAS PRETTY, VICAR OF HTJRSLEY (11 S. vi. 131). He resigned the living at Hursley, 1683-4, and accepted the Rectory of Winchfield, Hants (bishop, Peter Mews), the same year. This appointment was held by him until 1725, when he was succeeded by the Rev. Thomas Winder. In all probability l:n died at this time, and was buried at Winchfield. The Rev. A. W. Hopkinson, who is the present rector, might be able to give further information. F. PAUL.

Southsea.

POWDERED ALABASTER (US. vi. 129). The following extracts from Miss E. K. Prideaux's highly interesting lecture before the Royal Archaeological Institute meeting of 3 May, 1911, may help MR. GERISH in throwing some light on his query. Talking of the destruction of the statues on the west front of Exeter Cathedral, she said :

" Another potent factor in the destruction of tho lowest tier of sculptures, the supporting angels, which are far the most mutilated, was the superstitious belief that chips of a consecrated fabric held an infallible virtue as a remedy for many maladies, especially sore legs. This belief, once nearly universal among the uneducated

classes, was maintained by country-folk into such recent days that people living can recall the time when on market days in Exeter it was quite common for the country people, as they passed the unguarded west front, to pinch and knock off fragments of stone, which they took home and pounded into powder. Of this ointments were made, held to possess mysterious and unlimited efficacy for a variety of ailments."

HAROLD MALET, Col.

The superstition that powdered stone purloined from sacred sculptured statues possessed medical virtues certainly existed amongst the more ignorant classes in this city within the last half century. The firsi day I ever spent in Exeter (4 Dec., 1866) I was shown over its cathedral. The sadly mutilated lower row of statues in its west front (fourteenth-century work) particularly attracted my attention. They stand close to the ground, and, like much else of the fabric generally, are of Beer stone, a soft local limestone. The legs of these figures appeared to be in so decayed a condit'on that I remarked upon the fact to the then chief verger, the late Mr. Parsons. He explained that this was not altogether due to atmospheric changes and the ravages of time. Country people hereabouts, he said, some- times came with hammers after dark and knocked off small pieces. These fragments they took home, ground them up to powder, and made a sort of plaster by mixing the powder with olive oil. The compound was believed to be an infallible cure for bad legs !

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

I find in Mr. Henry S. Wellcome's ' Anglo- Saxon Leechcraft,' issued last year (for the B.M.A. meeting at Liverpool), a quota- tion from a letter from Helias, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to King Alfred : " The white stone (alabaster) is powerful against the stitch, and against the flying venom, and against all strange calamities " (p. 46). The " flying venom " is what we now call air-borne " germs."

On p. 47 we have " and the white stone lapis Alabastrites, for all strange griefs." This is from the ' Medicinale Anglicum ' or ' The Leech Book of Bald,' circa 900-950 A.D.

S. L. PETTY.

"AIRPLANE" (11 S. vi. 127). Therj are so many hybrids like " monorail " and " dictaphone," and monstrosities like " elec- trocute," invented nowadays, that one is glad to find PROF. SKEAT taking the field against them. But what is wrong with