Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/327

 12 s. vii. OCT. 2, i92o.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

267

No. 4, September, 1900, at the Chiswick Press in the golden type, and published by Messrs. Longman.

The desirable completion of this list would necessitate a careful search of a file of The Times, The Builder and other periodicals likely to have been platforms for the publi- cation of criticisms and protests.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

'SANTO SEBASTIANO,' BY MBS. KITTY CUTHBERTSON. I am lucky enough to possess a copy of ' Santo Sebastiano, or the Young Protector,' a novel in five volumes, second edition, by the author of 'The Romance of the Pyrenees ' (Mrs. Kitty Cuthbertson), 1809.

Unfortunately, however, there is half a page torn out at pp. 383-4 of vol. iv. If there is any reader of ' N. & Q. ' who could supply the missing words on these pages I should be glad to receive a line direct, when, possibly, arrangements could be made.

This novel is specially referred to, as all readers of Macaulay's Biography will re- member, in Sir George Trevelyan's Life of his uncle (vol. i. chap. iii. p. 136, Cabinet Edition, 1880). We are there informed that when this book was sold by auction in India, Macaulay and Miss Eden bid against each other, till Macaulay secured it at a fabulous price, " and," Sir George quotes Lady Trevelyan, "I possess it still."

I may say that an inquiry (re Mrs. Cuthbertson) I made through the pages of interesting and instructive response (11 S. iii. 475) from a relative, as I understand, of the novelist, the Rev. Wm. Ball Wright, of Osbaldwick Vicarage, York.
 * N. & Q.,' (11 8. iii. 429) elicited a most

FREDERICK CHARLES WHITE.

14 Esplanade, Lowestoft.

" SCOLOPENDRA CETACEA " (11 S. vii. 347,

410, 517 : viii. 116, 214). The following passage shows that some Malaysians believe in a huge centipede living in the sea :

" Inter alia, there is, say the Amboynese, and likewise the Macassers, a monster that has its abode in these seas, which they describe as haying a thousand legs, all of them so large that if it lay but one of the thousand upon any vessel it must immediately founder ; and yet this monster is believed to be afraid of a common cock ; whence these poor superstitious mortals will never put to soa without having chanticleer for a guardian angel on board." 'Account of Celebes, Amboyna, &c., from the Voyages of Stavorinus,' in Pinkerton, 'A General Collection of Voyages and Travels,' vol. xi., p. 262 (London, 1312).

The Chinese hold the blood of a cock's comb as well as his dung to be a very effica- cious remedy for the bite of the centipede, because, they say he is exceedingly fond of devouring it" and possesses a virtue of des- troying its venom (Li Shi -Chin, * System of Materia Msdica,' 1578, torn, xlviii.).

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe Kii, Japan.

"BEATSTER." A notice-board at Lowe- stoft caught my attention the other day it read " 2 Beatsters wanted."

A beatster is a net-repairer, but the word is not tound in the 'N.E.D.' or Halliwell's Dialect Dictionary, although both mention the East Anglican use of " beat " in the sense of "mend." W. R. C.

A NOTE ON EDMUND BURKE. Edmund Burke in his 'Reflections on the French Revolution ' wrote the following passage : " Mr. Hume told me that he had from Bousseau himself the secret of his principles of composition. That acute observer had perceived, that to strike and interest the public, the marvellous must be produced ; that the marvellous of the heathen mythology had long since lost its effects ; that giants, magicians, fairies, and heroes of romance which succeeded, had exhausted the portion of credulity which belonged to their age ; that now nothing was left to the writer but that species of the marvellous which might still be produced, and with as great effect as ever, though in another way ; that is, the marvellous in life, in manners, in characters, and in extraordinary situations, giving rise to new and unlooked-for strokes in politics and morals."

It is interesting to compare with the above quotation the following lines from Voltaire, which connect in a subtle manner the prin- ciples of Voltaire with those of Rousseau, and which, judging from Burke's remark, are of high value in giving the secret of the principles of composition adopted by the author of the ' Contrat Social. ' : O 1'heureux temps que celui de ces fables Des bons demons, des esprits familiers, Des farfadets, aux mortels secourables ! On ecoutait tous ces faits admirables Dans son chateau, pres d'un large foyer : Le pere et 1'oncle, et la mere et la fille, Et les voisins, et toute la famille, Ouvraient 1'oreille a Monsieur I'aumdnier, Qui leur fesait des contes de sorcier. On a banni les demons et les fees ; Sous la raison les grdces etouffees, Livrent nous coeurs a 1'insipidite ; Le raisonner tristement s'accredite ; On court, helas ! apres la verite", Ah ! croyez-moi, 1'erreur a son merite. (See lines quoted in Martinengo-Cesaresco, 'Essavs in the Study of Folk-Songs.' p. 2).

J. MACS.