Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[128. V. JAN., 1919.

rdld flowers, and the verse lays stress on the 4 i'edolent smell.' Shakespeare, in * Cymbeline,' (IV. ii. 223-4), follows with

The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander,

Out-sweetened not thy breath ; and in the couplet (' Midsummer Night's Dream,' II. i. 251-2)

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine, he brings the eglantine and woodbine or honey- suckle together, if, indeed, eglantine did not itself combine both sweetbriar and woodbine within the poetic meaning. Evidently the idea was that the stag should ' exalt,' or make an offering of ' sweet savour ' to the divine. That side of the story is patent, but what was the story ? Why was the stag, to say nothing of the ' stag current,' in each case, to make. the offering of the sweet-smelling herb ? I think that it was a story of the Elizabethan Court, and, not improbably, a poetic compliment to herself."

OLD EAST ANGLIAN.

"Go TO EXETER " : MURDER TRIAL. Can any one help me to trace a story which I read in The Guardian some years ago in connexion with a murder trial ? In this the words " Go to Exeter " are the key ; and the sheltering in a church porch fat midnight ?) during a thunderstorm, when the church clock struck thirteen, was another leading feature, t These points would stick in the memory of any one who had read the story. It appeared in the obituary notice of the gentleman who heard the voice in the night bidding him "go to Exeter," and whose evidence was the means of procuring the release of the person accused of the murder.

Some old subscriber to The Guardian who has kept his back numbers may be able to verify it. Variants of the story appeared in The Penny Post and in The Treasury, but it is The Guardian reference which I want if possible.

J. B. OLDROYD.

Brantingham Vicarage, Brough, E. Yorks.

[The story of the sentinel at Windsor, whose life was saved through his hearing the bell of St. Paul's Cathedral strike thirteen, dates back to The Public Advertiser of Jane 22, 1770. See 5 S. ix. 87, 114, 138, 156, 178, 198.]

'THE NEWCOMES.' In chap. viii. of ' The Newcomes ' Thackeray has an ex- quisite account of Mrs. Hobson Newcome at home. He satirizes all " lions " in- discriminately, and yet with a loving hand. Has any one written a key of the whole chapter, identifying Dr. McGuffog, Prof. Bodgers, Count Poski, &c. ? ' The Newcomes ' was published in 1854-5, and its ^dramatic date was about 1833, i.e.,

Thackeray seems to take in about 20 years. Miss Pinnifer must be a good-humoured caricature of his bewildering friend Charlotte Bronte; and Miss Rudge might be Miss Margaret Fuller, or more probably Mrs. Harriot Beecher Stowe. W. A. HIRST.

CROW-FIG. This old name for nux vomica does not occur under ' Crow ' in the ' N. E. D.,' but I find it in a quotation from Dr. Robert James (Dr. Johnson's friend) under ' Nux Vomica.' I met with it recently in an article on the jubilee of the Pharmacy Act, 1868, in The Chemist and Druggist, quoted from a Poison Bill intro- duced into parliament in 1757. The name is doubtless due to the fact that, as Gerard says, nux vomica was use*d as a poison for crows. I should like to know where it first appears and when it went out of UFO. Any other information bearing upon the subject will also be welcome. C. C. B.

PRUDENTIUS'S * PSYCHOMACHIA.' Can

any of your readers inform me if the ' Psychomachia ' of Prudentius has been translated into English verse ? If so, by whom ? This Latin poem is thought to bo the foundation of the plots of all " con- flict themes " in our old morality plays.

WILLIAM TAYLOR.

ANDREW B. WRIGHT, LOCAL HISTORIAN AND ACTOR. Information is sought re- garding the parentage, career, and death of Andrew B. Wright, who in 1823 published a useful * History of Hexham.' He is tradi- tionally said to have been a tragedian and the son of George Wright, also an actor.

J. C. HODGSON.

Alnwiok.

EGIOKE FAMILY OF EGIOKE, co. WOR- CESTER. I ehould be grateful if any one could tell me whether the -Egioke family is extinct in the male line. There is a monu- ment in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, with a Latin inscription to Francis Egioke of Egioke in the county of Worcester, who died in 1662. LEONARD C. PRICE.

Essex Lodge, Ewell, Surrey.

ORLINGBURY FAMILY. Information is de- sired as to the whereabouts of court rolls, &c., of manors in the hundreds of Ham- fordshoe, Higham Ferrars, Nobottle Grove, Orlingbury, and Spelhoe, Nbrthants. I shall also be glad to hear of stray wills, and to receive particulars of persons of the surname and its variants Orlyngbere, Orliber, Orlebar, between 1347 and 1560, especially the descendants of Sir Robert de Orlingbury,