Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/224

 216

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MARCH u, 1903.

there are remarkable echoes of ideas and phrases which are to be found in ' Hamlet.' Aphorism xxvii. has, " Si homines etiam in- sanirent ad unum modum et conformiter, illi satis bene inter se congruere possent." And Aphorism xxviii. speaks of "opiniones duras et absonas."

What the Clown in * Hamlet ' says about Hamlet's supposed madness is irresistibly re- called by the first of these aphorisms j and Ophelia's lament by the second.

Now, in view of the inadequate and unfair comments of MR. CRAWFORD, I venture to request your readers to verify any criticism he makes before believing it.

R. M. THEOBALD.

32, Lee Terrace, S.E.

WATCHHOUSES FOR THE PREVENTION OF BODYSNATCHING (9 th S. x. 448 ; xi. 33,90). At Warblington, Hants, close to Havant, and only a few miles from Plymouth, there are in the churchyard two watchhouses, said to have been erected for this purpose. In the churchyard of Long Ashton, some two miles from Bristol, I was shown, some forty-five years ago, a ledger stone, 6 ft. by 2 ft. or there- abouts, and weighing several hundredweights, which I was informed had, within living memory, been habitually laid on all new graves to prevent their being rifled by body- snatchers from Bristol.

JAMES K. BRAMBLE, F.S.A.

Weston-super-Mare.

The ancient Round Tower of Abernethy, near Perth, was used for watching graves by night, its curious door some feet from the ground and having inclining jambs being greatly disfigured by the erection of iron bars encasing it, and leading by a passage o1 cage-like bars to the outside of the churchyard This for safety of watchers on going to give the alarm. At Crail (Fifeshire) is a church- yard watch-tower, I think built for the pur- pose at the Hare and Burke period, but I may be wrong as to its date. IBAGUE.

SANS PAREIL THEATRE (9 th S. xi. 110). L the editorial note correct in stating that thi theatre was first founded in 1802? I find no mention of it in 'The Picture of London for 1803,' and Peter Cunningham, in his ' London, certainly says that "it was built on speculation by Mr. John Scott ^ 10 A^, mak ? r ' and firfi t opened 27 November

Ub. Although not identical with Dibdin's theatre the bans Souci, it had something in common with it in that bcott obtained his licence from the Lord Chamberlain, for performances similar to those given to the public by the sea-song writer, with the addition of dancing and pantomime. The perform ances and compositions of Miss Scott at the Sans

5 areil were considered highly interesting and ngeuious." ' The Picture of London for 1818.' When 'Tom and Jerry,' by Pierce Egan, appeared for the first time (26 November, 1821), Wrench as Tom, and Reeve as Jerry, mown, became a favourite with the public. [ts fortunes varied under different manage- ments. In July, 1825, Terry and Yates aecame the joint lessees and managers. Terry was backed by Sir Walter Scott and riis friend Ballantyne the printer, but Scott in the sequel had to pay for both Ballantyne and himself to the amount of 1,750. See Uunningham's 'London,' 1850, for its other interesting associations.
 * he Adelphi, as it had since 1819 been

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

As supplementary to the editorial note upon the above subject, I would refer MR. W. BARCLAY SQUIRE to the ' Era Almanack ' for 1877, where in ' The Playgoers' Portfolio ' the late Mr. E. L. Blanchard occupies nearly ten pages with a his tor y of the Adelphi Theatre, starting from the small theatre erected by Mr. John Scott, who obtained the lease in 1802 of the property upon the site of which it was built, until November, 1876, when the publication in which it appears went to press. There is a rare fund of theatrical information literally crammed into the few pages devoted to it, and most useful to any one interested in such matters, and certainly not easily procurable elsewhere.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S.W.

CORNISH RIMES IN AN EPITAPH (9 th S. xi. 146). In an excellent little book on ' Corn- wall,' by Mr. Arthur L. Salmon, just pub- lished by Messrs. Methuen& Co., 1903, p. 203, these lines are said to have been thus trans- lated :

Eternal life be his whose loving care Gave Paul an almshouse and the church repair.

W. C. B.

RETARDED GERMINATION OF SEEDS (9 th S. x. 287, 358 xi. 53, 155). -The tale of the poppy of Laurium, exterminated by the slag from the silver mines, as told by a Roman natu- ralist (Pliny ?), does not seem to be familiar to MR. DORMER. The further assertion is that in the nineteenth century this expanse of slag was cleared away to be resmelted. anu that the yellow poppy of Laurium reappeared. There is a more wonderful story about dor- mant seeds. In a Dorset barrow among a man's bones (his diagnosis is evident) was found a lump of raspberry seeds. Some of these came up in a hotbed, under the care of Dr. Lindley the botanist. "Per contra,"