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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2a S. NO 22., MAT 31. '56.

At the bottom he gives a specimen of his writ- ing equalling the finest engraving, to the following effect :

" Edinburgh, Feb'r the 5 th, 1723. This was Written by Matthew Buchinger, born Without Hands or Feet, in Germany, June the 3 d , 1674."

I believe some accounts of him are extant, and one ingenious piece of penmanship he executed for the magistrates or city of Edinburgh may yet exist.

He is a singular instance of how much may be done to overcome the defects of nature. In mo- dern times we have seen Miss Benin, and others similar, but not apparently possessing half the dexterity of the German. G. N.

A Scottish Characteristic. The' following lines I have copied from an old newspaper. Those well acquainted with that characteristic of the working people of Scotland, which is ever ready with a plausible justification of error, will not fail to enjoy the sly satire which runs through every line. Elspa will insist that it is the twa moons she sees, and not the drappie she has had, that cause her auld head to rack in pains. Is any one acquainted with the literary history of Andrew Park ? HENRY STEPHENS.

Edinburgh.

"AULD ELSPA'S SOLILOQUY.

" Curious Effect of Multiplying Glasses.

" ' There's twa moons the night,

Quoth the aald wife to hersel', As she toddled hame fu' cautie, Wi her staraach like a still !

" ' There's twa moons the nicht, An' watery do they glower, As their wicks were burnin' darkly, An' the oil was rinnin' ower !

" ' An' they're aye spark, sparkin',

As my ain auld cruirie did, When it blinket by the ingle, When the vain drapt on its lid.

" ' but I'm unco late the nicht ; An' on the cauld hearthstane, Puir Tammie will be croonin', Wae an' wearie a' his lane.

" ' An' the wee bit spunk o' fire I left,

By this time's black and cauld ; I'll ne'er stay oot sae late again, For I'm growing frail an' auld.

" ' I never like to see twa moons, They speak o' storm an' rain ; An' aye, as sure's neist mornin' comes, My auld head's rack'd wi' pain ! '

" ANDREW PARK."

The Upas Tree. M. Kossuth, in a very ela- borate and eloquent speech at Birmingham on the 8th inst., upon the subject of the Austrian Con- cordat, uses the following metaphor :

" However, that the Vatican should not cease to aspire to political despotism, and by it to political supremacy,

Would as little astonish him as that the upas tree should poison the air, or the vulture should hover about its car- rion. Nature was nature. Who could wash white the Ethiopian ? " Birmingham Mercury, May 9.

Now it may be a common, but it is a certain error, that the upas tree poisons the air, as any one may satisfy himself about by a visit to Kew Gardens ; and many have passed close to this tree, about ten or twelve feet high, in one of the conservatories, where it flourishes, without tin; slightest indisposition. Those who desire to know more of the upas tree, and of the origin of the popular delusion on the subject, will find a draw- ing of it, and all that is worth knowing to the naturalist, in the Penny Magazine of 1833, vol. ii. pp. 321 323., and a brief account in the Penny Cyclo., art. " Antiaris." T. J. BUCKTON.

Licb. field.

Epitaph on a Polish Exile. The following re- markable description of a banished Polish patriot's activity was lately copied from a cemetery at Auxerre, where it is engraved on a cippus, sur- mounted by a whiskered bust :

D. 0. M.

Mauritius Mocenacki

Civis Polonus

Hostem Moscoviensem

Consiliis clandestinis

Libris in vulgus editis

Actionibus publicis

Vehementissimis armis

Obsidiabatur, circumrodebat,

Persequebatur.

Pro Patria Vincula, Vulnera, Exilium

Passus

Republica eversa Dum res gestas Polonorum

Conscribendas, novi

Belli materiem conflandatn

Rationem instituendam

Curat,

Corpore tantum

Animum deficients

E medio opere

abiit

Anno MDCCCXXXIV. Anno [sic] natus xxx.

Commilitones. JE. c. D. D. D."

J. C. R.

Anglo-Saxon Charters. The dispersion of the publications of the English Historical Society during the present week, including the exceedingly valuable collection of Saxon Charters, edited by- Mr. Kemble, suggests the appropriateness of thti columns of " N. & Q." for a collection of such as may still remain unpublished. I. M. K. (2 nd S. i. 401.) mentions the possession of an early un- published charter. Possibly some of these charters may still exist in the collections of our old no- bility and landed gentry, as well as in privates hands ; even a few may still lurk in our public