Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/287

 us. vi, SEPT. 21, i9i] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Scrapes it into powder with a knife, and sells at about five shillings an ounce as an infallible remedy for the canine madness. He says this stone is only to be found on the mountains after a thunderstorm, and that every eye cannot see it. He showed me the stone, and when I assured him and a little crowd that had gathered about him, that the stone was only a piece of the Glamorgan alabaster, the poor fellow was confounded and seemed very angry ; but I was surprised to hear many positively assert that they had actually seen the Hydrophobia cured in dogs and man with this powder given in milk, and used as the 'only liquid to be taken for nine days, and the only food also."

JONATHAN CEBEDIG DAVIES.

Llanilar.

According to Salmon's ' Pharmacopoeia Londinensis,' powdered alabaster is discutient ; especially calcined, and made into a plaster with Pitch and Rosin. So it abates pains, softens hard Swellings, and becomes digestive : it is only used in Alabaster Ointment."
 * ' helps Heart-burnings, and applied plaster wise

W. E. WILSON. Hawick.

HANWELL : BREWERNE ABBEY (11 S. vi. 110, 177). Brewerne, now Bruerne, Abbey is in Oxfordshire, close to the borders of Gloucestershire. It was a Cistercian abbey connected with Osney Abbey. For a long time in the Cope family, who converted it into a dwelling-house, it now belongs to the Samuda family. SHERBORNE.


 * Sherborne House, Northleach;

CASANOVA AND CARLYLE (11 S. v. 428 ; vi. 16, 94, 172). I have followed MR. DUNCAN'S kind advice and perused Carlyle's essay on Diderot, with an interest not absolutely free from mortification, since I discover that Leland has palmed off on the public -a statement altogether erroneous. The phrase in question is, indeed, in Carlyle's essay. I may as well quote it in full, as " Hans Breitmann " does not give it ver- batim :

" If any mortal creature, even a Reviewer, be again compelled to glance into that Book [' the beastliest of all past, present, or future dull Novels,' put together ' in a shameful for- night '], let him bathe himself in running water, put on change of raiment, and be unclean until the even."

This, however, is said, not of Casanova (whom Carlyle does not mention one single time), but evidently of the 'Bijoux indiscrets,' the immorality of which has, to my mind, now become rather soporific. As it is, the question seems settled ; it is only in the paper on Cagliostro (ante, p. 16) that Carlyle has spoken of the ' Memoirs.' T. B.

Copenhagen.

A RELIC OF JOHN BUNYAN (11 S. vi. 162). William, Earl of Bedford, was a patron of Isaac Ambrose, and it is believed that, in 1633, he obtained for him the post of King's Preacher at Garstang in Lanca- shire. In the Epistle Dedicatory to Am- brose's ' Ultima,' dated 1658, occurs this passage :

"As the sun rejoiceth to run his race.... so year after year have you indefatigably expressed your great bounty, whereby myself and family have been exceedingly refreshed."

At this date Ambrose held the vicarage of Preston, from which he was ejected in 1662 ; he died the year following.

It is at least possible that Bunyan came to possess the works of Ambrose through the Earl of Bedford. HENRY FISHWICK.

ALMANACS IN DIALECT (11 S. v. 390, 494). A very important almanac of this kind was published in the latest seventies or earliest eighties, entitled ' The Cawkneigh Awlminek,' written entirely in the horrible pronunciation now affected by the " coster " class. It marks the first appearance of the modern slang intonation: y=^', e = u ; f=th, and so on. I have unfortunately lost my copy. EDWARD HERON- ALLEN.

HANDEL'S COMPOSITIONS AND THE TRI- ENNIAL FESTIVALS (11 S. vi. 61).^ The complete book of words issued at the festival in June last gives a history of the whole series of festivals and a record of all the solo singers engaged. The list given by J. S. S. is not quite complete, and it may be mentioned that Albani sang in 1883, not 1882. The name of Madame Rudersdorff is omitted; she sang 6 time, and wa; the best exponent of the. recitatives in ' Israel in Egypt ' ever heard. Cummings (tenor) also sang 5 times. Barton McGuckin (tenor) sang 5 times. Other notable singers of the festivals have been Belletti (bass), Parepa (soprano), Kellog (soprano), Agnesi (bass), Edith Wynne and Anna Williams (soprani). WILLIAM H. CUMMINGS.

"CHALK SUNDAY" (11 S. vi. 90, 158). At Bridlington, Chalk-back Night is, or was, on the eve of Whit Sunday, when boys and girls gathered on the green and tried to chalk backs a very objectionable practice, though it perhaps had reference to the white associated with the coming festival, which, it is suggested, may have been the northern " Dominica in Albis."

ST. SWITHIN.