Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/645

 12 s. ix. DEC. 31, 192L] NOTES AND QUERIES. 531 it is a mistake to say that the flesh of the bodies was found intact as on the day of death. Only the hair and a part (I think) of the skeleton vas intact. When one or two of the coffins were ' opened there was seen what appeared to be a I body intact. Was that the epidermis which was preserved ? or less, even ? I cannot say. In any case there was no flesh. Afterwards, it is | easy to understand that the air, penetrating suddenly into the wooden chests, instantly caused such fragile remains of the bodies to fall to dust. But none the less there remains to my ! mind something very mysterious about the whole j matter. We possess a numerous series of objects ob- ] tained from these excavations, which are well ! preserved : heads of hair, clothes, footwear, a wicker basket, fruit, seeds, &c. ; thus if, as it is supposed, it is carbonic acid which has preserved them, why has it not had the same action on the bodies ? That is what puzzles me greatly. I j am not yet able to understand this anomaly ; and I submit it to you in the sincere hope that you will be able to arrive at a satisfactory solution, of which I should like to be informed by you. (Signed) AUG. AUDOLLENT. My surprise can be more readily under- : stood than described, especially seeing that the report which appeared in the daily Press [ led one to suppose that the discoveries had | been made a short while ago, whereas in fact one of them occurred 70 years ago and the other 28. The report and the facts as recorded in M. Audollent's letter could hardly be more < discrepant, and once more show, if it were i necessary, how difficult it is to get at the ' truth in this world. A. S. E. ACKERMANN. BUCKEEN (12 S. ix. 430, 474). Diminu- tive of " buck " in the sense of " a gay, dashing fellow." So "squireen " of " squire." See 'N.E.D.' J. T. F. Winterton, Lines. ANCIENT BRITISH DYE (12 S. ix. 491). " Cockles " is a mistranslation of cocleae, the word used by Bede, and meaning whelks, an Anglo-Saxon form of which word is used in Alfred's translation, and cocleae is so rendered in Anglo-Saxon glossaries. A small kind of whelk, Purpura lapillus, abounds on the coast of Northumberland, but no dye can be obtained from it, so far as I know. The shells were found in the excavations at Cambridge, where the little whelks were probably used by the Romans as food, though according to the ' N.E.D.' P. lapillus "secretes a small quantity j of the dye -liquid." See Purpura ' and ; quotations. The famous Tyrian purple ' would be obtained from the Murex, a Medi- terranean shell -fish that secreted the dye in greater quantity. There may perhaps have been some confusion in the minds of Bede and of his informants between the Purpura and the Murex. J. T. F. Winterton, Lines. P.S. Since sending a reply to G. W. R. on this subject, I have received the following important information from Mr. B. Storrow, an able naturalist engaged in connexion with the Dore Marine Laboratory at Cullercoats. Purpura lapillus is known as the dog- whelk, and sometimes, but rarely, as the white whelk, sometimes the dog -winkle. It is very abundant on the rocks about Tyne- mouth, and the sides -of the mouth of the shell are frequently stained purple. Mr. Storrow has made an attempt to obtain the dye in quantity by means of gentle and prolonged heat according to a method de- scribed by Pliny, but the experiment was not successful. The best purple was obtained by cutting out the dye -sac, smear- ing it on white blotting paper, and exposing it to the air. At any rate the statement of the Venerable Bede will not appear to be well founded. Mr. Storrow thinks that there is something about it in Forbes and Stanley on k British Mollusc?.' I should be glad of infonnatior as to the anatomy and physiology of the dye-sac. ' J. T. F. THE REV. J. DE KEWER WILLIAMS (12 S. ix. 490, 498). The Rev. J. de Kewer Williams, the Cromwellologist, was a Congre- gational Minister, the son of Mr. de Kewer Williams, a well-known Hackney resident, in which London suburb the 'subject of the query was born in the year 1817. He was baptized at the old parish church of St. John-at-Hackney, and in due course became a pupil at the then celebrated Madras House School, where he had for a school-fellow his life-long friend the late Sir Charles Reed, first M.P. for Hackney, and also first chairman of the London School Board. Mr. Williams was at first intended for the medical profession, but the original idea was given up, and he deter- mined to devote himself to the service of the Congregational body, so his studies were continued at Highbury College and also in France, and in due course he received his " call " to the ministry. He held pastorates at Hackney, Tottenham and at Edmonton, while a portion of his ministry