Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/61

 12 8. III. J A y. 20, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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feut it certainly is a tradition of sufficient credentials to demand some kind of attention. According to that tradition, in or about the year 581 Bath was (1) still a city, and (2) still in the hands of the Britons.

MB. MANN says, on the other side of the argument, that "the storm-swept debris brought down the slopes of the northern hills covered the streets of Aquae-sulis, and invaded the structures and baths." Of what ancient city can it be said that debris has not covered its streets and invaded its structures ? That is the exact truth with regard to Rome itself. But such a state of things is no evidence that a city was left uninhabited. t is presumptive proof at best that a place was not swept and garnished of just that want of care, in fact, that we should expect the Britons to have displayed after the departure of the Romans.

Again, why should the Britons have left Bath when the Romans went away ? I have searched Hollinshed carefully on this point, and cannot find that in that part of Britain any danger threatened which could have driven the Britons from the city.

R. J. WALKEB. Little Holland House, Kensington, W.

SEIZE- QUABTIERS (12 S. ii. 447 ; iii. 13). JUDGE UDAL seems to have missed the point of my note at the first reference. What I wished to draw attention to was that the author of " Omniana ' apparently thought b was sufficient to prove descent, but not annigerous descent, from sixteen great-great- grandparents in order to qualify for the Tight of " seize-quartiers." My own view on the subject is quite the same as his.

T. F. D.

ST. KILDA COLDS: TRISTAN DA CUNHA (12 S. ii. 468). I have been assured that the .itcaim Islanders always suffer from an ^attack of eolds after the arrival of a ship from England. J. p. STILWELL.

WILLIAM CUMBERLAND (12 S. ii. 409).

According to ' The Memorials of Richard Cumberland,' written by himself, with illus- trations and notes by Henry Hunders (1856), the dramatist's sons were: (1) Richard, who married a daughter of the Earl of Buckinghamshire, and died in Tobago ; (2) George, who was killed at the siege of 'harleston; (3) Charles, who entered the army, and married a daughter of General Alathews ; (4) William, who married Eliza Burt, and died in 1833. The two eldest predeceased their fat er, and the second and

fourth belonged to the navy, the youngest attaining the rank of admiral. The William Cumberland recorded in The Gentleman's Magazine as dying in 1792 could not have been one of this family. N. W. HILL.

BELLEFOREST (12 S. ii. 486). Perhaps MB. MAURICE JONAS, will kindly give the title of Belleforest's tales, and the dates of the volumes. Was Belleforest part author with Bandel (Bandello) and Boaistuau ? See Brunet's ' Manuel du Libraire.' I want the title of the book for a note to be inserted in my copy of 'The Decameron' of 1620, which is presumably the edition referred to by MR. JONAS at 12'S. i. 126.

ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

FlSHLNG-ROD IN THE BlBLE OB TALMUD (12 S. ii. 308, 450; iii. 14). In his inter- esting note MB. H. A. HABBIS seems to sug- gest that the use of the rod in fishing dates from the time when rods with rings, and smooth lines which will run evenly through the rings, were first used, say in Walton's time. But the illustrations in Egyptian temples and on the walls of Pompeii, and in the ancient art of the East, prove that the fishing-rod is one of the oldest implements of the chase. Smooth plaited lines of silk, flax, and other strong materials would seem to be also of great antiquity older than the art of weaving, doubtless. Penelope's web implies long, fine, and smooth thread, or she could not have unravelled it, and the twist ing and plaiting together of such thread was, doubtless, known to all the old civilized peoples. The most charming fishing picture I know is one of Venus fishing in the sea with rod and line, done by some unknown artist for some rich citizen of Pompeii. For casting a line with weight on the end and baited hooks attached to it doubtless the first plan was the simple one of swinging the weight like a pendulum and releasing it. This would suffice for short casts. Then some brave soul gripped the line tightly, swung the weight round in a circle, and so got out a greater length of the line coiled on the ground. Then a tab of leather was fastened to the line from two and a half feet to three feet from the weight to aid in the release after the swing ; then a metal ring was put in place of the tab, so that a little metal crook at the end of a stout stick could be inserted in the ring, and the line 'flung from the end by a strong swing of the stick grasped in both hands.

As a small boy I remember seeing clever carp anglers who fished in the Serpentine