Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/474

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vn. NOV. is, 1020.

worth 400Z. It was evidently carved shortly after the Franco -Prussian War of 1870- 1871. It is called the Pipe of Peace. What incident does it represent ? It looks as if Gladstone and his colleagues were asking Queen Victoria to interfere on behalf of France in mitigating the severities of the terms of Peace.

Any information about its origin will be gratefully received. From its appearance I think the pipe must have been carved in Vienna. WILLIAM BULL.

House of Commons.

SNIPE IN BELGRAVE SQUARE. Sir Charles Lucas in his address to the British Associa- tion in 1914, said that he had heard a lady tell how her grandfather used to say that he had shot snipe where Belgrave Square now stands. Is the date of this occurrence available ? HUGH S. GLADSTONE.

GILBERT WAKEFIELD : JOHN WATSON. Gilbert Wakefield, scholar and radical, is stated in the 'D.N.B.', on the authority of Waken eld's own memoirs, to have married an Anne Watson, a niece of the Rev, John Watson of Halifax and Stockport. The latter 's only brother James Watson had eight daughters, but none named Anne nor married to a Wakefield, so far as is known. Who was this Anne Watson ?

Louisa Judith Watson, a great-niece of John Watson, and a grand-daughter of James Watson, married a Wakefield. Was he a son of Gilbert Wakefield ?

The above Rev. John Watson is stated in the 'D.N.B.' to have left on his death in 1783 a son by his first wife, and a son and daughter by his second wife. Is anything known about these or their descendants ?

O. HOLLAND.

81 Chatsworth Road, Bournemouth.

GREEK LETTERS ON " ADAM " CEILING. In my house in Ireland is a beautiful "Adam " ceiling over a staircase. On the cornice are represented swags suspended from the usual classical sacrificial skull of an ox, _ full-faced. At intervals round this cornice are representations of an earl's coronet and escutcheon bearing the Browne arms, bust of a woman in profile with hair pile-* up, and in a cartouche the Greek letters A0H2.

Can any one tell me what these letters signify or represent ?

I believe the ceiling to have been made in the time of the third Earl of Altamont. That would account for the earl's coronet

and might account for the "alpha." The wing in which the ceiling is was built in 1778 by the second Earl of Altamont, and as the third Earl became the Marquess of Sligo in 1800, presumably the ceiling was made between those two dates. SLIGO.

GREAT BALING SCHOOL. The late W. S. Gilbert is stated to have been educated at this school. He would have been there at some date 1848-54. I shall be greatly obliged for any particulars of the school at this period, and of the names of any of Gilbert's contemporaries who have risen to eminence. H. R. B.

MICHELANGELO AND DANTE It would be of interest to ascertain how many times Michelangelo's two sonnets on 'Dante' have been translated into English. Of the first sonnet beginning "Dal mondo scese," and its variant " Dal ciel discese . ..." I have noted in all eighteen translations : Anon. 1875, E Cheney, O. Elton, W. Everett, G Grinnel-Milne, S. E. Hall, J. S. Harford, A. A. Knox, H. C. Lea, C. Lyell, W. Pike, E H. Plumptre, H. D. Sedgewick, Southey, J Addington Symonds, J. E. Taylor, P. H. Wicksteed, and R. H. Wilde. Doubtless there are others.

The same remark applies to the second sonnet beginning " Quanto dime si dee. ..." of ' which I have noted ten translations : E. Cheney, G.. Grinnel-Milne, S. E. Hall, Longfellow, C. Lyell, E. H. Plumptre, Southey, J. Addington Symonds, J. E. Taylor and P. W. Wicksteed.

Has any other poem on Dante been translated into our language even half-a- dozen times ?

HUXLEY ST. JOHN BROOKS.

Baling Common.

PEWTER BASIN FOR BAPTISMS. In the Minutes of the Kirk-Session of the Parish Church of St. Leonard's, Fife, a record is made of the purchase of a pewter basin for baptism, in 1771. The basin is referred to in subsequent Minutes along with other articles.

The vessel now in the safe which is sup- posed to be this, is as follows : Diameter 9 in., depth 2^ in ; cut on the bottom inside a large circle 3f in. in diameter. The most curious feature, however, is that in the centre of this circle is a small square, about | of an inch across, and in the centre of this is stamped or engraved a three- 1 masted ship in full sail with a flag flying on