Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/62

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. FEB ,

' BLACKWOOD ' AND THE CHALDEE MANU- SCRIPT (12 S. iv. 17). In Curwen's ' History of Booksellers ' (preface dated 1873), pp. 205-12, it is mentioned that in No. 1 of Blackwood appeared the ' Translation from an Ancient Caldee Manuscript,' and quota- tions and identifications of the men named are supplied; thus the "two beasts" the two late editors of The Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, the predecessor of Blackwood. But perhaps a fuller quotation is better :

" The two beasts, the lamb and the bear, came unto the man who was clothed in plain apparel, and stood in the door of his house ; and his name was as if it had been the colour of ebony (Black- tcood), and his number was the number of a maiden when the days of her virginity have expired (No. 17 Prince's Street). . . .and they said unto him, Give us of thy wealth, that we may eat and live," &c.

Curwen then goes on to discuss the authors.

S. L. PETTY. Ulverston.

I have a copy of Blackwood containing this, and if R. B. P. cares to come here and see it, I shall be happy to show it to him. JOHN MURRAY.

50 Albemarle Street, W.I.

If B. B. P. will be content to read the first edition of the first number of Black- wood, he will find it, illustrated with notes introductory and cursive, at pp. 291 to 318 in vol. iv. of ' Noctes Ambrosianae,' pub- lished in 1856 by Blackwood & Sons of Edinburgh. L. A. W.
 * Caldee Manuscript ' elsewhere than in the

Dublin.

The famous ' Translation from an Ancient Chaldee Manuscript ' appeared in Black- wood's Edinburgh Magazine of October, 1817. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, is credited with the first thirty-seven verses of chap. i. Prof. Wilson and Lockhart were responsible for the remainder.

F. G. B.

Mr. William Bates, in his edition of ' The Maclise Portrait Gallery,' 1883, thus wrote, sub now.. James Hogg, the Ettrick Shep- herd :

" In Blackwood's Magazine, in October, 1817, was published the thrice celebrated ' Chaldee Manuscript. 1 . .. .The appearance of this witty lampoon occasioned the greatest excitement ; the number of the magazine containing it went off like wildfire. A ' second edition ' was issued ; but, lo 1 the reprehensible jeu <T esprit was with- drawn, and its place supplied with inoffensive matter. Hence the rage for ' private copies,' as they were termed ; that is, those containing ^the libellous article, with MS. marginal explana-

tions. These have, of course, been carefully hoarded up, or destroyed in many cases, and are now rarely met - with. .. .1 must content myself with referring to. .. .articles in ' N. & Q.,' 3 S. v. 314, 317 ; and vii. 469."

W. B. H.

GERMANS AS " HUNS " (12 S. iii. 383, 427 ; iv. 25). Quite recently, in the Revue critique (1917, ii. 335), I quoted from Carlyle (1830) and Mrs. Humphry Ward (1910) some lines written by Hannah More in 1800, protesting against the invasion of " Huns and Vandals " in England because the ' Rauber ' of Schiller had been performed there by certain " persons of quality." See Mrs. Ward's Introduction to Emily Bronte's ' Wuthering Heights,' London, 1910, p. xix. S. REINAOH.

Boulogne-sur-Seine.

THE GREAT CHARTER AND THE TABLE

UPON WHICH IT WAS SlGNED (12 S. iv. 10).

Your correspondent's incredulity is well founded. Reference to the charter itself at once refutes the island myth. The last sentence reads : " Data per manum nostram in Prato quod vocatur Runimede, inter Windeleshoram et Staines."

There seems to have been a local tradition that the document was " signed " upon an island, and in 1834 Mr. G. S. Harcourt, then Lord of the Manor of Wraysbury, built a lodge upon the island with stones taken from Marlow Church. This lodge he furnished with carved panels, stained glass, and shields of arms, together with a table enclosing a stone slab, on which was en- graved the statement that the Charter was " signed " upon the island. No claim, how- ever, was made that the table was the one used on that occasion ; this seems to have been an aftergrowth.

As to the " signing," every student of old charters knows they were not signed, but sealed. Whether John could write is a moot point, for no writing or signature of his has come down to us.

What gave rise to the tradition and its careless adoption by Mr. Harcourt was the fact that, two years after the Great Charter was granted, the Barons, in order to get rid of Prince Lewis and his foreign mercenaries, concluded a treaty which was negotiated and executed on an island near Staines. There is, however, no authority for attach- ing this event to any particular island among the many in the district.

Among other traditions current in the neighbourhood, we find some half-dozen houses and several inns pointed out as the