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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.vi. JUNE 5,1020.

A side altar would be 6 ft. 9 in., 3 ft. wide. These measurements, approved by the Holy See, were only a provincial regulation, but have since been adopted by most writers on liturgical subjects as a guide for the con- struction of an altar.

The above is a mere sketch of the salient ' points determining the change in shape of the Christian altar. For details of the altar ' in the first eight centuries I would refer ; any one interested in this subject to the j article ' Autel,' by H. Leclercq in ' Dic- tionnaire d'Archeologie chretienne et de i Liturgie ' (Paris, Letouzay), where he will find much valuable information and a very full bibliography. ROBY FLETCHER.

ST. JOHN'S HEAD ALTAR-SLABS (12 8. vi. 227). The following is taken from ' An j Account of Mediaeval Figure-Sculpture,' by ! E. S. Prior and Arthur Gardner (1912),' p. 505:

The chapman of cheap retables aspired to nothing beyond the manufacture of a religious token. A forcible illustration lies in those slabs of alabaster called ' St. John's Heads,' which represent the Saint's head, as if lying in a charger, at first simply rendered and with the vigorous if mannered technique of the ' Martyr- dom ' tables. Some supplementary figures appear in place of the ' Lamb,' as first shown. The nude ' Christ ' is exhibited as nakedly as the latest tables of the ' Coronation of the Virgin ' exhibit Him. Saints and angels are crowded in on all sides, and the execution becomes more and more careless and inexpert, until, as we think, some of these St. John's Heads may illus- trate the worst performance that sculpture reached in mediaeval practice. Sir W. H. St.-John Hope has shown that the late fifteenth-century accounts of Nottingham mention these heads, and gives other evidences of their being worked in that city. They were made up like a small retable with a framing of wood and folding doors painted in the fashion of that at La Celle, so we may think the latest tables also came from Nottingham.

Specimens may be seen in various museums such as the Ashmolean at Oxford. A. R. BAYLEY.

EMERSON'S 'ENGLISH TRAITS' (12 S. vi. 228, 257). 4. " He had a bearing which was appropriate to himself and his rank only, and would have been ridiculous in any other man," says Voltaire. Saint-Simon practi- cally says as much.

14. Evidently the Althrop Library. Ed- mund Spenser, the poet, claimed some relationship with the Spencers of Althorp.

21. The occasion for this remark reported by Southey is said to have been the boarding of the San Josef at the battle of Cape

St. Vincent. After Nelson's death, the Dean and Chapter af Westminster Abbey had a funeral effigy of the hero made which is now to be seen in the Islip Chapel.

A. R. BAYLEY.

8. This must be intended for Sir Edward Baytun of Spye Park, Chippenham. Sidney in his ' Treatise on Government,' says " in antiquity of possession and name, few of the nobility equal this family." There were several Sir Edward Bayntuns, Kts., but the first of that name seated at Spye Park was Henry VIII. 's favourite, and it is said that this Sir Edward " improved and con- verted the lodge into a mansion house " in 1652.

His descendant John Bayntun of Spye Park, who died in 1717 without issue, lift his estate to his nephew, Edward Bayntun Roltj of Secombe Park, Herts, M.P. for Chippen- ham, who was created a baronet in 1762. His only son, Sir Andrew Bayntun Rolt, of Spye Park, married Lady Mary Coventry, and at his death in 1816, the baronetcy became extinct and his estates devolved on his only daughter who married the Rev. John Starky, rector of Charlinch.

12. p. 106, 1. 20. Killas, one of the most important rocks in Cornwall.

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

23. Randolph Gallery. It may perhaps deserve to add to the full account given about Randolph Gallery that the cost of the completed stately building in Beaumont Street, Oxford, so worthily carried out for the University, according to Cockerell's architectural design, c. eighty years ago, has been due, besides the smaller sum owing to Francis Randolph, to the larger bequest of Sir Robert Taylor. This architect, who died in London towards the end of the eighteenth century, had left his property amounting- to 80.000Z. to the Uni- versity of Oxford to found an institution for promoting the study of modern European languages still preserving its benefactor's name, the building of which joined together with the University Gallery (and later with the Ashmolean Museum) has been the out- come of his munificent legacy. H. KREBS.

WEARING A CROSS ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY (12 S. vi. 209). The custom of wearing the shamrock as a badge dates from 1681. On its history see Adamnan's ' Life of St. Columba,' Clarendon Press, 1894, Introd. p. xxx. and further in a second edition, now in the press, pp. xxix, 246. J. T. F.