Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/151

 2" S. NO 7., FEB. 16. '56.]

NOTES AND QUEKIES.

143

In a dialogue of proverbs (a work yet to be written), the one under consideration would meet with this rejoinder : " If marriages are made in heaven, you had but few friends there" (Bohn's Proverbs, p. 416.). This is earth versus heaven ; the proverb against the verb. J. P.

Had not this saying an astrological foundation? Sir Kenelm Digby says of his own marriage :

" In the first place, it giveth me occasion to acknow- ledge and admire the high and transcendent operations of the celestial bodies, which, containing and moving about the universe, send their influence every way and to all things; and who, although they take not away the liberty of free agents, j'et do so strongly, though at the first secretly and insensibly, work upoii their spiritual part by means of the corporeal, that they get the mastery before they be perceived ; and then it is too late to make an} r resistance. For from what other cause could proceed this strong knot of affection, which, being tied in tender years, before any mutual obligations could help to con- firm it, could not be torn asunder by long absence, the austerity of parents, other pretenders, false rumours, and other the greatest difficulties and oppositions that could come to blast the budding blossoms of an infant love, that hath since brought forth so fair flowers and so mature fruit? Certainly the stars were at the least the first movers," &c. Private Memoir* of Sir K. Diyby, 1827, pp. 10, 11.

The stars have been said to be the cause, not only of matrimonial engagements, but also of their breach :

" When weak women go astray, The stars are more in fault than they."

Query, the author of these lines P

F.

Wine for Easter Communion (1 st S. xii. 363. 477. ; 2 nd S. i. 58-9.) I cannot bow to the cor- rection administered by WILLIAM DBNTON, in the following passage: "F. C. H., in his communica- tion, says, that ' the practice of receiving the Holy Communion under one kind only, did not begin till the twelfth century.' He should have said the thirteenth." No one denies the accuracy of Car- dinal Bona in all liturgical matters. These are his words :

" Semper enim et ubique ab Ecclesise primordiis usque ad saecnlum XII. sub specie panis et vini commu- nicarunt Fideles, ccepitqne paulatim ejus sacculi initio usus calicis obsolescere, plerisque Kpiscopiseum populoin- teniiccntibus ob periculum irrevirentice et eflusionis, quod inevitabile erat auctu fidelium multidudine, in qua dcesse non poterant minus cauti et attenti, ac parum religiosi."

F. C. H.

Book-Worms (1 st S. xii. 427. 474.) As a proof that book-worins are not of such extreme rarity as your correspondents appear to suppose, I may mention, that upon purchasing a few years since a fine copy of Erasmus' edition of <S. Au- gustine (Froben, 1529), in ten volumes, which had lain for some time on the floor of a damp and neg- lected garret, I found therein upwards of eighty fat and hearty maggots, which, having completely

! pulverized the oak boards, were commencing their


 * attack upon the more edible mass within. Fortu-

I nately their progress was thus arrested before, in

most of the volumes, much mischief had been

done ; but it may well be conceived that before

such a devastating army (which probably was

proved by the binder's subsequent search to

! number more nearly one hundred than eighty),'

j the ten ponderous tomes would speedily have dis-

! appeared. On other occasions I have met alto-

! gether with perhaps seven or eight living speci-


 * mens. \V. D. MACRAT.

New College.

"Gloria in Excclsis" (1 st S. xii. 496.) From Cathedral every Sunday, and on Christmas Day i and Ascension Day.
 * time immemorial this has been sung in Exeter

The ten chorister boys are arranged outside the

outermost altar-rail for there are two, one near

the table, the other at some distance, and within

j these the communicants are assembled. And the

sacred elements are administered to each by the

officiating priests going to them. After the ser-

i vice, the boys close the procession of clergymen,


 * each party filing off to their respective vestries.

j But when the bishop is present, the boys precede,

and arrange themselves in a line on their knees in

one of the side aisles where the bishop passes on

his way out of the cathedral, and each receives the

bishop's blessing.

Query, Does this custom prevail in any other cathedral ? H. T. ELLACOMBB.

Rectory, Clyst St. George.

Titular Bishop of Orkney (2 nd S. i. 76.) In the copious lists of episcopal sees by Barbosa and Graveson, with the additions of Ferraris, the see of Orkney (Orcadensis) is placed among the suf- fragans of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, while no other sees are under Drontheim but Bergen and Staffanger united, Hammer, Hola, and Skal- hot, the last two being in Iceland. F. C. H.

Etymology of Caterpillar (2 nd S. i. 65.) Please inform MR. KEIGHTLEV, that caterpillar is called by the common people in Devonshire, mascel, or mashel. W. COLLYNS, M.R.C.S.

Drewsteignton.

Lava (1 st S. xi. 426.) The following "note," made on reading the Marquis of Ormonde's Au- tumn in Sicily, 1850, may possibly be acceptable to BAGNA CAVALLO :

" Eruption of JEtna. Stream of lava 1000 paces broad advance gradual, slow, steady thirty to forty feet deep ; some notion of its aspect and progress may be formed by imagining a hill of loose stones of all sizes, the summit or brow of which is continually falling to the base, and as constantly renewed by unseen pressure from behind." P. 213.

PRIOR ROBERT or SALOP.