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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. II. Nov. 5, '98.

" In the year of our Lord's Incarnation 879, which was the thirty-first of King Alfred, the aforesaid army of pagans under Gothrun, leaving Chippen-

ham, as they had promised, went to Cirencester,

and there they remained for a year."

Asser, it will be seen, reckons from the king's birth.

It seems as if Geoffrey of Monmouth, who lived in the early part of the twelfth century, and with him Camden and Rudder, mixed up the taking of Cirencester by Ceawlin in A.D. 577 with Gothorn-^Ethelstan's occupation in A.D. 879. There is no difficulty arising from the variation of the name, because in describing the events of this year William of Malmesbury observes :

" Their [the Danes'] king Gothrun, whom our people call Gurnmnd, with thirty nobles and almost all the commonalty, was baptized, Alfred standing for him."

Alfred's treaty with Gothrun is inWilkins's 'Leges Anglo-Saxon.' The obscurity of the " king of the Africans " still remains.

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

" MR. W. H." : SHAKSPEARE'S SONNETS (9 th S. ii. 344). So many friendly criticisms have been passed during recent weeks, either in the newspapers or in letters addressed to me privately, on my article on Thomas Thorpe in the latest volume of the 'Dictionary of National Biography' that, in reply to the remarks of MR. UNDERBILL, I should like to repeat in your columns the request, already made by me elsewhere, that my critics should suspend their judgment on my explanation of Thomas Thorpe's dedication of Shakespeare's Sonnets to "Mr. W. H." until they have had an opportunity of examining the evi- dence on which I base my conclusions. On 22 November Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. will publish my ' Life of Shakespeare,' in which I set forth in detail the facts that seem to me to lead inevitably to the results which are summarized with all possible brevity in the 'Dictionary of National Biography.' The alphabetical exigencies which required the publication of my bare conclusions in the ' Dictionary ' under Thorpe, before the publi- cation of the evidence in the new ' Life of Shakespeare,' have caused some temporary embarrassment, which I regret. But I give the ' Life ' as one of the authorities for the article on Thorpe, and as soon as that work is in the hands of the public the temporary difficulty will, I hope, be finally removed. I may add that I have as yet seen no adverse criticism on my conclusions of which, in my belief, the new evidence I have collected fails to dispose. SIDNEY LEE.

PORTRAIT RINGS (9 th S. ii. 346). Not un- common. A good many of Charles I. were shown at the Stuart Exhibition. D.

ALCUIN CLUB (9 th S. ii. 265, 356). I see it stated at the latter reference that the Alcuin Club is simply the Society of St. Osmund reorganized. As this is quite in- correct, will you allow me to draw attention to the inaccuracy 1 Your correspondent states that the Society of St. Osmund was formed " for the purpose of introducing ceremonies based on the Sarum Missal into the Church of England," and that " this club [i. e., the Alcuin Club] has the same object." The object of the Alcuin Club, as stated in the original prospectus, is to elucidate the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer so far as they refer to ceremonial, and not in any way to encourage in the Church of England the ceremonial adjuncts of any other rite. To quote the actual words of the prospectus, " strict obedience to the Book of Common Prayer will be taken as the guiding principle of the work of the Club."

The list of members, which will be issued in the course of a week, will be sufficient evi- dence of the loyalty of the Club to the prin- ciples of the English Church ; but as many of your readers will have no opportunity of reading the annual report to which the list is attached, I beg you will be so kind as to correct the false impression created by the insertion of the reference to Mr. Walsh's imputation. I enclose a copy of the pro- spectus. A. E. MAIDLOW DAVIS.

SUN-DOG (8 th S. viii. 285, 456). The two latest replies, on p. 457, certainly give the better sense of this term, it being equivalent to mock-sun, an optical result of a very peculiar and rare state of the upper air, when microscopic crystals of ice are suspended, having all their axes kept vertical. If dispersed at random, they give the much commoner effect of a halo of 45 diameter, with the sun in its centre. But when some electrical action (probably) keeps all their axes vertical, they give several circles, white and coloured, but two vivid mock-suns or parhelia, distant 22^ right and left of the sun. I saw two fine displays of these, the same day, in March, 1848, ana described them in the Philosophical Magazine; but did not remark till many years later the perfect explanation they afford of a phenomenon three times alluded to in Scripture Isaiah xxxviii. 8 ; 4 Kings xx. 9-11 ; and 2 Chron. xxxii. 24, as miraculously foretold by Isaiah. He gave Hezekiah the choice of seeing the shadow on a sundial advance or recede ten