Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/350

 346

NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. MAY 3, 1913

related to the boy by his uncle, Capt. Maurice Suckling, is said to have inspired the patriotism of Horatio Nelson.

Although the public are wont to speak of our " greatest admiral " as " Horatio," the name was pronounced Horace in all three families, when used at all ; but pet- names have always been in vogue among them. The second Baron Walpole was " Piggy Wiggin " to his intimates. Horace Walpole, the letter- writer, was "Horry"; and the great admiral and his Suckling cousins were always " Hor," as was his namesake and nephew, the first Viscount JMerton, who died early.

Horatia was a name adopted by the Admiral himself for his feminine relatives ^nd friends, and it is often still to be found .among the descendants of those who served under him at Trafalgar such as Juliana Horatia Scott Gatty, granddaughter of his chaplain, Dr. Scott.

FLORENCE HORATIA SUCKLING. [See also 10 S. iv. 365.]

SIMILARITY BETWEEN RELIGIOUS CELE- BRATIONS OF ANCIENT ENGLAND AND IRE- LAND, AND INDIA. Col. Pearse in a paper in * Asiatic Researches,' ii. 333, says :

"I beg to point out to the Society that the Sunday before last was the festival of Bhavani, which is annually celebrated by the Gopas, and all other Hindus who keep horned cattle for use or profit ; on this feast they visit gardens, erect a pole in the fields, and adorn it with pendants and gar- lands. The Sunday before last was our 1st of May, on which the same rites are performed by the same class of people in England, where it is well known to be a relique of ancient superstition in that country ; it would seem, therefore, that the religion of the East and the old religion of Britain had a strong affinity."

The link between the Druidical tenets of Britain and Ireland and the Hindu rites of the East is an interesting subject. It has been claimed that the Hindu triad Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, like Bael, Budh, and Grian of the Irish Druids, are nothing more, despite the compound mystification of their mythology, than one object, namely, the Sun.

The part taken by cows in Irish Mid- summer celebrations (mentioned in the In* troduction to ' Book of Rights '), which has is said to have been performed With the view of conciliating the moon, which these animals represented, in order that that deity > which Was also a type of the earth, like theRheaof ths Latins and Rae of the Irish anight grant a prosperous harvest.
 * in equivalent in ceremonies in Hmdostan,

Lakshmi, the earth, moon, or goddess of prosperity, is frequently invoked in India as a cow : " May the goddess who is Rud- rani, in a corporal form, and who is the beloved of Siva, assume the shape of a milch cow and procure me comfort." Bulls and cows figure largely in Irish mythology. Other affinities between the old Druidical tenets of Britain and Ireland and the belief of a large part of the East may occur to your readers.

WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

Dublin.

" MOLLIWIG." - In a recent obituary notice of the late Mr. James Tangye The Western Morning News says : " Leaving school in 1837, he went to the Copperhouse Foundry, Hayle, as molliwig, the boy at everybody's call." The word is quite a new one to me, and I thought it might be a novelty to others.

FRED. C. FROST, F.S.A. Teigiimouth.

MRS. SALMON'S WAXWORKS. The tenth (1805) edition of 'A Companion to all the Principal Places of Curiosity and Entertain- ment in and about London and West- minster ' provides the following description of " the objects of wonder and curiosity " then being exhibited at No. 17, Fleet Street .:

"Of Salmon's Wax- Work. [Near Temple-bar, Fleet-Street; 1-9. each Person.] Here are a great variety of figures moulded in wax to the amount of about '200. Among them are : The fair princess Andro- meda, who was chained to a rock, to be devoured by a sea-monster. The chaste Susanna, and the two Elders. The magnificent tent of King Darius, who was taken by Alexander the Great ; in it is seen his mother, queen, and children, &c. Margaret, Countess of Hannenburgh, said to have been de- livered of 365 children at a birth ; occasioned by a rash wish of a poor woman. The chaste nuns of Collingham, who slit up their noses and upper lips to preserve their virgin vow, when the danes in- vaded this land. The brave Caractacus, who, to redeem his country from the bondage of the Romans, withstood a mighty army; being over- come, he was led in triumph to Rome. King Henry VIII. introducing Anne Bullen to court, to the great dislike of queen Katherine and Cardinal Wolsey. The death of Werter, attended by Char- lotte and her family. The British giant or King Arthur of the Round Table, whose body was found entire at Glastonbury 600 years after he was buried. Also the figures of several eminent and remarkable persons; as kings, queens, princes, princesses, actors, actresses, &c."

It is possible the writer of this precious description preferred the marvellous to the merely authentic, but he provides a different version from that published in The Morn- ing Herald (28 Jan., 1795). This is quoted