Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/215

 12 s. vi. MAY i, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

175

glaze. To my mind, it is more probable that " Cypress " was the name of another -apple or pear, used for a different class of cider or perry.

MB BRADBURY suggests that these labels were intended to be hung round the necks of wine bottles or decanters. That, however, is impossible ; they are of thick earthenware, intended to hang above a wine bin, and indeed in some cases have a hole intended for the supporting nail. I should say they were supplied by the wine merchant from whom the cider or other drink was bought ; and "this is another reason why it is unlikely that '"Cypress " stands for "Cvprus."
 * are 5J ins. in length, and were obviously

E. T. BALDWIN. il Gloucester Place, Portman Square, W.

CANTRELL FAMILY (12 S. v. 291, 332 ; "vi. 95). " Scholaichse " on Thomas Cantrell's monument is obviously for Scholarchce, head master of (Derby) school, and the same -word is concealed in " Scholar : che " in the quotation from the Register of Burials at St. Peter's ; "Darb." at the latter reference ijeing equal to " Derbiensis " at the former.

JOHN R. MAGRATH. 'Queen's College, Oxford.

' ANNE OF GEIERSTEIN ' (12 S. vi. 90, 136). 10. The reference to Palemon is a bad slip. It is to that " pride of swains " the Palemon of Thomson's ' Seasons ' (see ' Autumn '), who plays the part of Boaz to Lavinia's 'Ruth.' He was not "old," for lie is *pokeii of as "the Youth," and there is no sueh line as Scott inserts in the poem. Obviously King Rene cannot have him in mind, and it is to be supposed that Scott in 'his reference mentally confused him with Boaz. C. C. B.

PETROGRAD : MONUMENT OF PETER THE GREAT (12 S. vi. 130). Reading the quota- tion by WESSEX of the weight of the granite block upon which the equestrian statue of Peter the Great was placed in Petrograd, one is 'temp ted to fear that the equivalent of a ton has gone (the way of the rouble and ^decreased almoafc sto extinction. The weight of the stone never -.was "over 15,000 tons," 'The measurements oniginally were 45 ft. long, 30 ft. high, 25 ft. wide. In shaping the mass it broke, the measurements are now 43 ft. long, 14 ft. high, and 20 ft. wide. 'This erratic block of granite originally lay at Lakhta, a village near to the mouth of the .Nevka, the most northern outlet of
 * but has been estimated! at about 1,500 tons.

the Neva, and on the north shore of the Gulf of Finland. The alluvial deposit on the site of St. Petersburg is 600 ft. deep. In the Academy of Arts, among a collection of drawings and engravings of the time of Catharine II., who erected the monument to Peter the Great in 1782, I remember seeing an illustration of how the stone was trans- ported. Windlasses and ropes laboriously dragged the great weight over cannon balls rolling on an iron tramway ; a drummer in the picturesque uniform of the Pavlovsky Regiment is depicted on the top of the block, beating time to unite the efforts of the five hundred men, who took five weeks to bring it to the south shore of the main stream of the Neva, where, opposite the north side of the cathedral of St. Isaac, but much nearer the river bank, the monument is' erected. Whatever route was taken a considerable expanse of water must have been crossed which in those days could only have been accomplished in the depth of winter.

The reason why so much trouble was taken to procure this particular piece of granite was because the Great Tsar was accustomed to stand on it when at Lakhta, and watched on one occasion the defeat of a Swedish fleet. It was at Lakhta, in 1724, at personal risk, he saved some fishermen from drown- ing, which episode is portrayed in another monument, erected on the Admiralty Quay on the occasion of the bi-centenary of the foundation of St. Petersburg. It was on the occasion of this rescxie that Peter contracted the illness which was the cause of his death in the following January.

Another fine piece of red granite and a wonderful monument is that erected in 1832 to Alexander I. The monolith itself is 84 ft. high and 14 ft. in diameter and weighs nearly 400 tons. The monument which stands in the centre of the great square opposite the Winter Palace, has a total height of 154 ft. 9 in., and rests on a mass of wooden piles driven into the alluvial sand.

HUGH R. WATKIN. Chelston Hall, Torquay.

The immense stone that was made to serve as a pedestal for the equestrian statue of Peter the Great was a well-known object at Lachta, a village on the Gulf of Cronstadt. More than once had the great Peter climbed it, when he wished to get a view of his surroundings, and this was the reason perhaps why Catherine II. determined to transport it to Petrograd, It lay fifteen feet