Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/100

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. FEB. 4,

of his notes to his translation of Sophocles, the Abbe Banier in a note to Ovid's * Meta- morphoses,' and the poet Gray in his prose refer to it. E. YARDLEY.

Two of our living poets have sung of the song of the swallow Prof. Dowden and Mr. Swinburne. Both speak of its wild, irre- pressible joyousness. The lark is its only rival for "clear, keen joyance." Dowden's verses (beginning "Wide fields of air left luminous ") I have not at hand ; they speak of the bird as singing chiefly in the evening and when on the wing which is, I believe, true to the facts. Swinburne contrasts the joyousness of the swallow with the melancholy of the nightingale :

sweet stray sister, shifting swallow, The heart's division divideth us.

Thy heart is light as a leaf of a tree ; But mine goes forth among sea-gulfs hollow To the place of the slaying of Itylus, The feast of Daulis, the Thracian sea.

But this lovely poem is well known.

C. C. B.

THE COLOUR GREEN AND THE GRAHAMS AND ST. GLAIRS (9 th S. ii. 465 ; iii. 37). MR. PEACOCK may like to add to his notes on the use of green the fact that ribbons of a vivid myrtle green are much used about shrines, and thence for cure of croup and probably other evils, at Poitiers. It is considered the special colour of St. Radegonde. The grille before an altar in the north aisle of Notre Dame la Grande is profusely entwined with it. Above is a window in which St. Rade- gonde and St. Hilary attend the Blessed Virgin, who has in keeping the keys of the city, which a traitor would fain have given up to the English in 1202. At St. Radegonde's more green ribbons are to be found, and the croup necklaces may be purchased.

ST. SWITHIN.

May I be permitted to mention, in con- nexion with this subject, that Charles Stewart Parnell entertained the greatest possible aversion to this colour ] His know- ledge of literature, not excepting the history of nis native land, it neea hardly be re- marked, was sparse in the extreme. Never- theless Parnell sometimes indulged in the luxury of quoting poetry ; but his quotation was invariably the sixth line of Moore's well-known melody 'Remember Me': Wert thou all that I wish thee, great, glorious, and

free,

First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea, I might hail thee with prouder, with happier brow, But oh ! could I love thee more deeply than now ?

Yet, though it is considered lucky to wear green, such as emeralds, on a Friday, "the

uncrowned king," I believe, was never known to wear the slightest sign of a shamrock on St. Patrick's day, not even to please his com- patriots. HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W.

"CHARME " (9 th S. i. 287 ; ii. 173). "As fuel, the wood of the hornbeam should be placed in the highest rank. In France it is pre- ferred to every other for apartments, as it lights easily and makes a bright flame, which burns equally, continues a long time, and gives out abund- ance of heat ; but though its value in this respect surpasses that of the beech in the proportion of 1655 to 1540, yet the shape of the logs of hornbeam is so irregular that a cord of it, measured as they measure willows (see p. 1470), is not worth more in Paris in proportion to a cord of beech than 1486 to 1540. In England the hornbeam is considered to make lasting firewood ; and, according to Boutcher, it burns as clear as a candle ('Treat.,' &c., p. 58). Evelyn also says : ' It makes good firewood, where it burns like a candle ; and was of old so employed : " Carpinus tsedas fissa facesque dabit." ' And Miller speaks of it as excellent fuel. Its charcoal is highly esteemed, and in France and Switzerland it is pre- ferred to most others, not only for forges and for cooking by, but for making gunpowder, the work- men at the great gunpowder manufactory at Berne rarely using any other (see ' Diet, des Eaux et Fore"ts,' art. 'Charme')." Loudon, 'Arboretum et. Fruticetum Britannicum,' p. 2009.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

JEWS AND BILLS OF EXCHANGE (9 th S. ii. 466). The following passage from Cicero's letters 'Ad Fam.' (lib. ii. 5) seems to show there was a sort of foreign exchange under the name of " permutatio " :

" Prope Gal. Sextiles puto me Laodicese fore : ibi perpaucos dies, dum pecunia accipitur, quse mihi ex publica permutatione debetur, commorabor."

The passage from Ovid will be found 'Art. Am.' (lib. i. 421) : Institor ad dominam veniet discinctus emacem,

Expediet merces teque sedente suas. Quas ilia inspicias, sapere ut videare, rogabit.

Oscula deinde dabit : deinde rogabit, emas. Hoc fore contentam multos jurabit in annos.

Nunc opus esse sibi, nunc bene dicet emi. Si non esse domi, quos des, causabere nummos ;

Liter a poscetur ; ne didicisse juvet.

I should say " litera " means an acknowledg- ment of the debt, as the lover pleads want of the " ready." The whole passage is thoroughly O vidian. " Oscula deinde dabit " is very fine. No doubt Corinna got her finery ; whether "hoc fore contentam," &c., is by no means so certain. GEO. T. SHERBORN.

Twickenham.

A CHURCH TRADITION (9 th S. i. 428 ; ii. 58, 150, 173, 256, 296, 393, 474 ; iii. 33). Although I was at Sees last October, and have a photo- graph of the cathedral before me now, I dare I not venture to say anything as to the relative