Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/307

 2 H. I. APRIL 15, 1916.] N OTES AND QUERIES.

301

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1916.

CONTENTS.-No. 16.

NOTES : Contributions to the History of European Travel, 801 The Witches of Warboys, 304 Lydia White, 305 Inscriptions in St. John's Church, St. John's Wood Road, 306 " Stateroom "=a Passenger's Cabin " To box the fox," 307- "Marking-Stone" in 1786 'The Man- chester Courier,' 308.

QUERIES : Sir Robert Mansel, 308 Eighteenth-Century Virginian Letters ' Game Preservers and Bird Pre- servers ' : Morant Hymn-Tune ' Lydia ' ' Memoirs of Felix Neff ' Spalding Priory : Angiers German Helmets : F. R. J. F. Smith, 809 ' Romola ' Mendelssohn's 1 Songs without Words ' : a Recent Article Portrait Wanted Anne Clifford, Countess of Cumberland Authors Wanted Hoby : Poulett, c. 1600, 310 Scottish Heraldry : Workman's ' Book of Arms,' 311.

REPLIES :-Employment of Wild Animals in Warfare, 311 Penge as a Place-Name, 312 Newcome's School, Hackney Johnnie Foster : St. Andrew's, 313 The King's Own Scottish Borderers : The 20th Regiment A Regi- mental Loving-Cup : 14th Hussars Shakespeare and Patriotism, 314' La B6te du Ge"vaudan ' " Marksman " Mid-Nineteenth-Century Literature for Boys Illustra- tions to Hotten's Edition of ' German Popular Stories ' Reference Wanted : "Plura mala nobis contingunt quam accidunt "Othello : Gabriel Chapuys's Translation Darwin and Mutation, 315 " Coat and Conduct Money" " Montabyn," 316" Parted brass-rags "British Herb : Herb Tobacco The Newspaper Placard The Rabbit in Britain, 317 Warren Hastings Rev. John Gaskin, 318 " Parapet "= Footpath, 319.

iNOTES ON BOOKS: The Oxford Dictionary ' The Burlington Magazine.'

Notices to Correspondents.

'CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN TRAVEL.

<See ante, pp. 61, 101, 141, 181, 221, 261.) VII.

JOHANN DAVID WUNDERER.

WUNDERER' s manuscript diary of his travels in Denmark, Russia, and Sweden in 1589- 1590 is still in the possession of a family at Frankfort, who received it from one of his descendants. It remained unpublished until 1812, when it was printed byFichard in the "* Frankfurtisches Archiv fiir altere deutsche Litteratur und Geschichte,' ii. 168-255. It is also noticed at length by Adelung in his 1700,' 1846, vol. i. pp. 427-50, and again more briefly in Hantzsch's ' Deutsche Reisende des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts,' 1895, pp. 110-14.
 * Uebersicht der Reisenden in Russland bis

Wunderer shows himself to have been an intrepid and curious traveller. He was not altogether free from the prejudices of his age, but on the whole he strikes one as a clear-headed and observant man recording what he saw rather than what he heard. His travels took him into countries little visited at this time, and his diary must be reckoned among the most interesting records of sixteenth-century travel which have come down to us.

He left his native town of Strassburg in the autumn of 1588, and travelled by way of Hamburg to Rostock. Here he spent the winter, studying law and history, and at Whitsuntide of the following year he reached Copenhagen, where he saw Chris- tian IV. in his Council Chamber, and travelled through Denmark. In the island of Hveen he found Tycho Brahe, and gives a curious and interesting description of the Castle of Vraniburg with its observatory, where the great astronomer was busy with his researches. Wunderer was interested in the astrolabes and other mathematical in- struments, and was also much pleased with a clock which played selections from the psalms. In one of the rooms was a printing- press, and below the castle was a spring from which water was conveyed to the apartments. The castle itself stood in spacious pleasure- gardens well supplied with fruit and flowers. Wunderer also visited the tombs of the Danish kings at Roeskilde, and then re- turned across the Sound to Rostock, where he spent the winter and completed his studies.

In the spring of 1590, in company with Konrad Dasypodius, also a native of Strass- burg, he set out on a lengthy journey to Russia. The travellers crossed Pomerania at some risk, the country being then overrun by bands of lawless Wends, and visited Dantzig, where they admired the Rathaus and the Artushof. On the coast of Samland Wun- derer found a quantity of amber thrown up by the sea, and gives an interesting and detailed account of the appearance of this resinous substance. He relates that in the autumn the sea throws up the amber in great quantities, at which time certain people were specially employed, at considerable risk to themselves, " propter accessum et recessum maris," to gather up the amber in nets and shovels and bring it to land.

" In many stones [he says] are found flies and snails and small sea creatures which prove that the amber is at first in fluid form like resin or rubber, and then solidifies until it becomes as hard as stone."