Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/100

 NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2 S. NO 5., FEB. 2. '56.

they arise f A. solution strikes me, which accounts for the phenomenon.

Suppose my notes to have been read aloud to the Doctor, he meanwhile paraphrasing such parts as suited his purpose. In this process, "the treachery of Judas" naturally becomes "Judas's treachery:" " his" used before of Judas, is, from sheer stupidity, made into " our Lord's : " and " the supper-room" sounding like " this upper room" becomes " that upper room."

HENRY ALFOHD.

Death among the Chinese. The Abbe Hue, in Lis book on The Chinese Empire, observes :

" The astonishing calmness with which the Chinese see the approach of death, does not fail when the last moment arrives. They expire with the most incom- parable tranquillity, without any of the emotions, the agitations, the agonies, that usually render the moment of death so terrific. Their life goes out gently, like a lamp that has no more oil. ... It appears to us that this is to be attributed, first, to their soft and lymphatic tem- perament ; and, secondly, to their entire want of religious feeling." Vol. ii. p. 38.

In a physiological aspect, this seems a subject worthy of being better elucidated, as indeed is the subject of euthanasia in individual cases ; such, for instance, as that of Sir Walter Scott's hench- man, Thomas Purdie, as recorded in Lockhart's Life of Scott (vol. vii. p. 200., 1st edit.). The case of Cornaro, who died " as a lamp which goes out for want of oil," would 6tly stand at the head of such a collection, as indicating the probable rationale of all similar ones. As regards the Chinese, it may be observed, that M. Hue says, that they are small eaters, drink at all hours of the day of warm liquids, consume much salt, and take little exercise, or none for exercise' sake (vol. i. pp. 335. 339. 103 ; vol. ii. p. 394., &c.)-

J. P.

The Reverend Mr. Mattinson. The following particulars, which I quote from a rather rare book, Edwards's Cork Remembrancer (\2rno., Cork, 1792), are worthy, I think, of a corner in "N. & Q." :

" 1766. Died, the Rev. Mr. Mattinson, curate of Patter- dale, in Westmorland, sixty years. The first infant he christened after he got holy orders, when she was nine- teen years old, agreed to marry him, and he asked her and himself in the church. By this wife he had one son, and three daughters ; and married them all in his own church himself. His stipend, till within these twenty years, was only 127. per annum, and never reached to 201. ; yet, out of this, by the help of a good wife, he brought up his children very well, died at the age of eighty-three, grandfather to seventeen children, and worth 10007. sterling."

I do not know on what authority the compiler relied for his information. ABHBA.

Anagram Extraordinary Looking the other

day over a curious and most rare volume of Ante Keformation pasquinades and anagrams, suppressed

by the Papacy, wherever its influence could reach, I found more than one anagram most wickedly witty, but quite unproducible, running the changes upon the words Roma and Amor, and giving a dreadful idea of the state of morals of the city at the time : this led me to take up the idea, which after some thought has resulted in an anagram of greater length, and at least not more nonsensical than many I have seen mentioned with approval : let it be supposed to be addressed to a young man detained at Rome by a love affair ; and I hope you will think four consecutive lines, reading back- wards and forwards the same, and neither violating grammar nor doing much violence to sense, a curiosity worth preserving in your columns :

" Roma, ibi tibi sedes ibi tibi Amor ; Roma etsi te terretet iste Amor, Ibi etsi vis te non esse sed es ibi, Roma te tenet et Amor."

Thus translated :

" At Rome you live at Rome you love ;

From Rome that love may you affright, Although you'd leave you never move, For love and Rome both bar your flight."

A. B. R,

Belmont.

uertaf. D'ENGAINE'S CHAPEL, UPMINSTER.

The windows, walls, and floor of D'Engaine's Chapel, in the church of Upminster, Essex, for- merly bore many memorials of the noble families of D'Engaine, Deyncourt, D'Ewes, Stanley, La- tham, &c., lords of the manor of Gaines, &c. The arms of D'En^raine still sparkle in the north window, and D'Ewes reposes upon the floor ; but iconoclasts, collectors, tinkers, and time, have sadly despoiled the chapel. The structure was taken down two centuries ago ; and the floor, which was forty years since covered with brasses, pewed over, with the exception of an aisle.

Some time since, two brasses were discovered beneath a pew, during the repair of the floor ; hid there probably as the nearest spot to the stone to which they had formerly been fixed. One bore the figure of Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Deyn- court, who died 1455; a very fine brass, 25J inches tall, closely resembling the figure of Joyce Tiptopt in Enfield Church, 1446, but without the canopy, &c. It is perfect, except the mantle ; which appears, by the sharpness of the edge of the plate, to have been inlaid, and has either corroded away, or been removed. Was precious metal ever used to represent a part of the dress ? Another well-cut brass represents, I believe, Ralph Latham, common serjeant of the city of London about 1636. There are neither names nor dates left below any of the figures, but occasionally arms. This La-