Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/245

 12 s. ii. SEW. io. i9i6.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

signatures of the two above-mentioned per- sonages, but for convenience' sake the Clerk uses the seal and signs the document, and the Mayor adds his signature at his leisure. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

ST. LUKE'S, OLD STREET : BIBLIOGRAPHY (12 S. i. 426; ii. 133, 176). The following work contains many references to the early history of the parish of St. Luke :

"An Account of the Almshouses of Mrs. Susan Amyas in George Yard, Old Street, from the foundation in 1650 to the present time. By John B. Moreland. London, 1905."

The book was privately printed, and therefore may have escaped the notice of MR. ABRAHAMS and others. There is a copy in the British Museum ; and I also have one which I shall be pleased to show any one. WALTER C. BROWN.

115 South Croxted Road, S.E.

FOLK-LORE : RED HAIR (12 S. ii. 128, 196). -I have always understood that red hair in children betokens good luck for them in the affairs of life. CECIL CLARKE.

As a further instance of associating red hair with evil I may mention that in H. P. Grat tan's lurid drama of ' Faust ; or. the Demon of the Drachenfels,' first produced at Sadler's Wells, Sept. 5, 1842, the stage directions regarding the make-up of Mephis- topheles (played by Henry Marston) included red hair, red beard, and red eyebrows.

A. J. GRAY.

PERPETUATION OF PRINTED ERRORS (12 S. ii. 87, 177). There used to be a tradition that, in one of the numerous Acts of Parlia- ment relating to the National Debt, the punishment of death for forgery was re- enacted after its abolition, and the then usual provision for awarding half the penalty to the informer was not omitted. I am sorry I have not the means at hand to verify or discredit this tradition.

E. BRABROOK.

CHINO : CORNISH OR CHINESE ? (12 S. ii. 127, 199.) Neither Mr. John Lionel Ching, in the advertisement quoted at the original re- ference, nor myself in reproducing it, intended to suggest, as MR. W. H. QUARRELI, seems to think, that this name had a Chinese origin. It was a bantering repudiation of an idea which, if it became seriously current in a Chinese-disliking district, might have caused harm ; and it was well known to both Mr. Ching and myself that his family was of long settlement at Launceston.

DUNHEVED.

0n

The Ancient Cros-s Shafts at, Bewcastle and Rufhwell*. By G. F. Browne, some time Bishop of Bristol.. (Cambridge, University Press, 7s. 6d.)

WE suppose it is not likely that any one will ever be able to say the absolutely final word about the date of those two majestic shafts which have made the names of Bewcastle and Ruthwell illustrious. But we do not think that, upon the evidence as it is now before us, anything can well be said which would avail to overturn the arguments and conclu- sions which Dr. Browne sets out in this volume, made by extending and illustrating the Rede Lec- ture delivered. by him in May of this year.

About two years ago were published two books which could claim careful consideration on the part of archaeologists, assigning these crosses to the twelfth century. Dr.TJrowne adds to the vigour and grip of his exposition by throwing it largely into the form of a refutation of this view, chiefly as put forward by Prof. Cook of Yale University. He himself we might say, of course adheres to his opinion that the crosses are seventh-century'work,. with a strength. of conviction increased by going over the discussions and > the discoveries of new material which have taken place since he first formed it.

We cannot ourselves see that the arguments against a seventh - century attribution have much weight apart from a pre-conception to the effect tha t such rich, refined, and beautiful work was beyond? any artists who could have been procured at that time in England to do it. The runes and the royal' Saxon names are, prima facie, very strong evi- dence in favour of the shafts having been carve* when they say they were carved. We think that a- disinclination to take prima facie evidence seriously is one of the most perilous temptations of very clever people : it sometimes reduces them to the level of quite stupid ones. And it surely is a little - unimaginative to think it likely that so laborious a "fake " as these two crosses must be if they are- really of the twelfth century should not only haver been undertaken at all and executed so well, but- also have proved so minutely correct, as we find* them, in points where invention would hardly serve.

Dr. Browne has no difficulty in showing that there existed, in the ecclesiastical art of the seventh century, in Italy and the East, traditions- - of decorationdesigns, subjects, methods off working amply sufficient to have made the Bewcastle and" Ruthwell carving possible ; while the link between Northumbria and the churches of Italy is the activity of Wilfred and Benedict Biscop so well known, but seldom perhaps, except by specialists, adequately realized and allowed for. The rapidity of our travelling ; the readiness with which things can be transported ; the easy spread of fashions, ideas, and ways of work from one end of the world to the other, tend to make many students greatly underrate the facilities of early times and the considerable results that could be obtained, when they were made use of by an enthusiastic and wealthy personage such as Wilfred. And, somewhat in the same way- except in regard to certain chosen periods it is probable that students underrate the range of inventive artistic capacity. It is astonishing