Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/251

 12 S. I. MAR. 25, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

245

In the Bull of Pope Celestine III. (quoted inDugdale's 'Monasticon,' ed. 1846, ii. 498), dated May 29, 1193, the possessions of Tavistock Abbey include

" Infra insulas etiam de Sully Insulam sancti Nicolai [Tresco], Insulam sancti Sampsonis [Sampson], Insulam sancti Elidii [St. Helen's], Insulam sanctse Theonae Virginia [Tean] et Insulam quse Nutho vocatur, cum appendiciis suis, et omnes ecclesias & oratoria per omnes insulas de Sally constructa cum decimis & obventionibus & pertinentiis suis. Et duas bescatas terrse in insula de Aganas [St. Agnes] & tres bescatas terrae in insula de Ennor [? St. Mary's]."

What are the islands " Rentemen " and " Nurcho " or " Nutho " ?

A document dated July 8 in the first year of King John, i.e., 1199, speaks of "canonici de Silly " (Dugdale, iv. p. 342). This looks as if at that time the Tavistock monks had ceased to occupy their cell at Tresco, and it was in the occupation of the canons of St. Buryan on the mainland.

On May 28, 1345, the Abbot and Convent of Tavistock, lords of the "island of Scilly," obtained leave to substitute, during the war with France, two secular chaplains for the two monks who hitherto had said Mass " in the said island " for the souls of their Royal Founders and their heirs (Dugdale, iv. 341). Here it looks as if Tresco was the only inhabited island at the time, and was known as Scilly (cf. ' Cal. Patent Rolls,' vol. x. p. 207). Is it known whether the monks ever returned to Tresco ?

In a letter dated Sept. 21, 1351, John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter, writing to Richard de Esse, Abbot of Tavistock, and his monks, speaks of the plunder by pirates of the island of Sully, whence came no small part of their support ('Cal. Papal Letters,' v. p. 427).

In 1363 one Roger de Neweton petitioned Pope Urban V. for a benefice in the gift of the Bishop of Exeter, notwithstanding that he had the church of Silleys (Scilly) of the same diocese, of small value (' Cal. Papal Petitions,' i. p. 434). On the surrender of the Abbey of Tavistock, March 3, 1539, the cell of Scilly is not mentioned.

JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

SIB HUMPHRY DAVY'S * CONSOLATIONS IN TRAVEL ' : THE " UNKNOWN " IDENTIFIED. In ' Consolations in Travel, or the Last Days of a Philosopher,' by Sir Humphry Davy, Bart., late President of the Royal Society (John Murray, 1830 date of Preface), Dialogue the Third is between the author, three companions, and the Stranger or the Unknown whom they met outside the Temple

of Neptune when visiting the temples of Paestum in Italy. Sir Humphry Davy says of this event (p. 101 of the fourth edition) : " One excursion, the last we made in Southern Italy, the most important both from the extra- ordinary personage with whom it made me acquainted, and his influence upon my future life, merits a particular detail, which I shall now deliver to paper."

A copy of this book, with book-plate and armorial bearings, which I have acquired,,, identifies this " Stranger " or " The Un- known." The plate bears the name George William Septimus Piesse, and on the fly-leaf i. " Septimus Piesse the unknown, see page 211 1842." I know of no reason to doubt the genuineness of this, but perhaps some readers of ' N. & Q.' may have more to say on the subject. J. HARRIS STONE.

Oxford and Cambridge Club.

ENGLISH BOOKS PRINTED ON THE CON- TINENT. (Cf. ante, p. 164.) Appendix I> (p. 905) of 'The English Catalogue' 1835-63, is devoted to a "List of Books in the English Language first printed in- Continental Europe." With a few excep- tions the list does not include books before 1833- The number of books in the list is about 500. WM. H. PEET.

THE FIGURE OF BUDDHA IN THE EYE AND NECK. In my second communication on. ' Theological Disputations by Means of Signs ' (11 S. xii. 387), I have mentioned the old Japanese belief in every human eye containing a miniature of the Buddha Amitabha's triad. Such a fancy would appear not to have been restricted to the old Japanese from the following citation :

" When the Macusis of Guiana 'point out that the small human figure has disappeared from the pupil of a dead man's eye, they say that his spirit (or emmawarri) has gone ' (Sir Everard im Thurn,, ' Among the Indians of Guiana,' London, 1883,

L343)." Burne, ' The Handbook of Folk- re,' 1913, p. 76.

According to the Japanese historical: narrative ' Gempei Seisui Ki,' apparently written in the thirteenth century, torn, xlv.. ch. iv., Taira no Shigehira (killed in 1185), an effeminate general far more reputed for his amatory than military exploits, excused his indecision to kill himself on his defeat,, which brought about his very disgraceful, captivity, on the ground of the then pre- valent idea that every one's breast had in it the Buddha Amitabha's triad. Even now- adays there lingers among vulgar sort of men a belief in everybody's Adam's apple being the Buddha's image, which they seem to- conceive to recede after his death, for, when.