Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/343

 12 S. 1. APRIL 22, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

337

Tather in token of the grateful recollections of a revered pastor by his bereaved and mourning congregation, than as a tribute suitable to the worth of one the imperishable monuments of whose labours are the names written in Heaven, -of the multitudes led to God by his long and faithful ministry. His mortal remains were interred in Surrey Chapel on the 19th day of April, A.D. 1833.

He was born on the 23rd of August, 1744, and died on the llth of April, 1833.

Re-interred here April 14th, 1881.

The last line has, of course, been added to the original inscription.

JOHN T. PAGE. Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

GEORGE KNIGHT, ARTIST (12 S. i. 227). I should like to ask whether this is one of the three sons named George Knight of James Forster Knight, Esq., The Manor House, Blandford, co. Dorset : the dates of their birth were July 8, 1749, Feb. 10, 1753, -and April 1, 1756. As so many members of the family were painters of pictures, I think -the said George Knight may be one of these three, though I lack any confirmation of the conjecture, and should like to know what became of the three George Knights, and whether any of them married and left de- scendants. " FRANCIS KNIGHT.

I bought two unframed marine views by this painter from a picture - dealer in Southampton Row in 1890. I understood that he was then still busy with his brush. 'The shop, I believe, still exists.

L. L. K.

GUNFIRE AND RAIN (12 S. i. 10, 56, 96, 170). The following passage reveals early theorizing on the subject. It is derived from pp. 164-6 of

A Rational Account

of the Weather.

By John Pointer, M.A.

Rector of Slapton, in the

County of Northampton, and

Diocese of Peterborough.

London :

Printed for Aaron Ward, at the King'' 8 Arms in Little-Britain. MDCCXXXVIII.

" Whatever might be the Cause of Great Rains in former Ages I shall not pretend to determine, but since the Invention and Firing of so much Gun-powder, in Times of War, (of which we have had the Experience in this last Age more than ever) I cannot but think that the Elements are much alter'd, and that we have had Greater Rains of la te years than ever were known in former Ages ; and therefore I cannot but attribute these 'Great Rains to the vast Quantities of Sulphur and Nitre occasion'd by the continual explosions of -such prodigious Quantities of Gun-powder in "Time of War. For these great Quantities of

Sulphur and Nitre arising from the Explosion of Gun-powder (besides the ordinary Quantities of Sulphur and Nitre arising from the Exhalations out of the Pores of the Earth, together with the constant Vapours arising from the Seas and Rivers) do naturally produce great Rains of them- selves, or else Thunder a.nd Lightning continually attended with Great Rains, and that not only immediately but for several Da.ys and Weeks after. Which plainly shews there is a natural Disposition in Sxilphur and Nitre to produce Rain, and any one knows that Sulphur and Nitre are dissoluble in Water, and when they are embodied in a Watry Cloud ; or however, it is a Matter of Fact that Rain is the constant Concomi- tant of Thunder and Lightning which are caus'd by Sulphur and Nitre. We may call to mind (some of us) that Great Rains were in the Time of the late Civil Wars. We may easily remember the continual Wet Years we had during the late twelve Years Campaign in Flanders, besides those occasion'd by Wars likewise in several other Partn of the World at the same time. We may still more easily remember the Wet Summers during the late Wars in Poland and Italy, &c., when at one single Siege there were at least 5,000 Bombs fir'd off, many of them 500 Ib. Weight, and 10 Ib. of Powder generally used in firing off each single Bomb. The great Quantities of Powder exploded in the aforesaid Wars must needs surely alter the Elements and be the Occasion of more than ordinary Rains. For nothing can be the material Cause of Rain but Sulphur and Nitre, and the more the Clouds are supply'd with this Matter, the more the Earth will be supply'd with it. and consequently by a reciprocal Motion of Ascension and Descension we may (I think) reasonably account for the unusual Temperature of the .Air, and the Unseasonableness of the Weather."

ARDEA.

SARUM MISSAL : HYMN (12 S. i. 229, 296). The three lines quoted are taken from Adam of St. Victor's noble Sequence for Easter. They are translated by Dr. J. M. Neale :

David after madness feigned, Scapegoat, now no more detained, Ritual sparrow, all go free.

They are taken as types of the Resurrection (' Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences,' 3rd ed. p. 120).

Archbishop Trench, ' Sacred Latin Poetry,' 3rd ed., p. 170, annotates :

" Arreptiliusss Arreptvis furore. The word occurs in Augustine, ' De Civ. Dei,' ii. 4 The allusion is to 1 Sam. xxi. 14, where, instead of the ' Vidistis hominem insanum?' of the Vulgate, an older Latin version must have had arreptiiium, as IP plain from Augustine, ' Enarr. I a in Ps. xxxiii..' where he expounds at length the mystery of David's sup- posed madness, and of the prophecy which was herein of Christ, of whom the people said, ' He is mad, and hath a devil. \..E/t passer. The allusion is not to Psalm xi. 1, but to Lev. xiv. 49-53."

C. S. TAYLOR.

Banwell.