Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/231

 ii s. ix. MAR. 21, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

225

INSCRIPTIONS AT NAPLES. My attention has recently been called to the series of articles published in ' N. & Q.' under the above heading between 1907 and 1909 (10 S. viii. 62, 161, 242, 362, 423 ; ix. 17 ; xi. 343 ; xii. 303, 362), giving particulars and items of interest in connexion with British and other tombstones in the British cemeteries at Naples.

With reference to the inscription on the first tombstone mentioned in the list com- piled by LIEUT. -CoL. G. S. PARRY (10 S. viii. 62), which reads as follows :

" Thos. Welch Hunt, Esq., of Wadenhoe, North- hants, ob. Friday, 3 Dec., 1824, a. 28. Caroline his w., eldest d. of the Rev. Chas. Euseby Isham, of the same co., ob. the following Sunday, a. 23. They had been married but 10 months when, in an ex- cursion to Psestum, a bullet fired by an assassin on 3 Dec., pierced at the same time husband and wife,"

it may be of interest to quote the follow- ing paragraph from ' Murray's Handbook to Southern Italy ' for the year 1862, under the heading of ' Paestum ' (4th ed., p. 292) :

" The spot where Mr. Hunt and his wife were murdered in 1824 is on the road to Eboli. They had slept at that town, and his servant had placed on a table near the window the contents of a dress- ing case, which were mounted in silver, and Mrs. Hunt's iewels. A girl belonging to the inn saw them, and spread the report that an Englishman, carrying with him enormous treasures, was going to Psestum, upon which 18 men set out from Eboli, to intercept the spoil. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt, after visiting the Temples, were returning in an open caleche, when they were stopped about 3 m. from Psestum. Mr. Hunt at first showed some resist- ance, but his wife having implored of him to surrender at once, he stooped to take the dressing case lying at the bottom of the carriage. One of the brigands, who was at the window of the carriage, fancying that Mr. Hunt was going to seize the pistols, instantly fired ; the ball mortally wounded Mr. Hunt and his wife. Another of the brigands exclaimed, ' What have you done?' and the murderer coolly answered, 'Cio ch'e fatto d fatto.' These facts were brought out by the judicial investigation, the result of which was that 17 out of the 18 robbers were identified by a shepherd boy, who witnessed the whole affair while con- cealed in a thicket. These men were executed, and the 18th confessed on his death-bed."

R. H. HOLME. 13, Piazzetta Mondragone, Naples.

" LOCI DULCEDO NOS ATTINET." With

reference to that Latin phrase which has been proposed as the motto for the coat of arms of the London County Council, the following appeared in The Times of 23 Feb. last :

" The motto Loci dulcedo nos attinet is taken from the earliest mention of London in history, relating to events in A.D. 61, when the

Roman general decided to leave London unpro- tected from the assaults of Queen Boadicea, and the citizens remained there, according to Tacitus, because of their love of the place. This reading has been adopted not only as an extremely happy motto, but in consequence of its significance as the earliest mention of London in history, which remains true to this day."

If the ipsissiina verba of Tacitus have not been given anywhere, your readers may be interested to have them from the c Annals,' xiv. 33.

Tacitus is referring to " Londinium," which, though not having the distinction of being a " colony," is, nevertheless, very famous for its multitude of traders and caravans; and when he comes to the destruc- tion of that town by Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, a, British tribe which inhabited chiefly Suffolk and Norfolk, he goes on to say :

" Si quos imbellis sexus, aut fessa setas, vel loci dulcedo attinuerat, ab hoste pppressi sunt." (Those whom the weakness of their sex, or their advanced age, or again the chasm of the place, had kept there, those were slaughtered by the enemy )

H. GOUDCHAUX.

" LEFT HIS CORPS." This curious expres- sion appears on a gravestone serving as the threshold of the south door of St. Augus- tine's Church, Norwich :

" This stone was laid to C/V honour and memory of Thomas Pierson. He left his corps April 29th, 1727.

" An Sarah Pierson his wife left her corps 1731."

Though I have copied many hundreds of inscriptions all over England, I never came upon this curious expression before. Has any reader of * N. & Q.' ever met with it ? FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

23, Unthank Road, Norwich.

THE TAYLOR SISTERS. (See ante, p. 109.) May I venture to make a few corrections and observations ? DR. COURTENAY DUNN alludes to them as Jane and Ann Taylor. Ann Taylor was born in 1782, and Jane in 1783, and until the imaginative Kate Green- away reversed the order of the names, these writers, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, were known by their many thousand readers as " Ann and Jane Taylor."

The poem ' Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,' appeared in the year 1806, in ' Rhymes for the Nursery.' It was written by Jane.

The two sisters wrote anonymously, in collaboration, the following :

Original Poems, 1804.

Rural Scenes, 1805.

City Scenes, 1806.

Rhymes for the Nursery, 1806.

Hymns for Infant Minds, 1810