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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. MAK. *,

threatens, if it is not brought by a certain day, to attack Jerusalem with an army, and destroy the whole Synhedrion. They pro- claim a fast ; but while they are fasting two of them discover Judas feasting in his garden. They explain the whole distress to him, when he has the brook again diverted, and the body found. It is then dragged by horses before the queen, who is ashamed and pardons them. In thus dragging the corpse the hair is pulled off, which is the reason that monks are now shaven, "in memory of what hap- pened to Jeshua." E. L. GARBETT.

AUTHOR WANTED (9 th S. iii. 69). I find in the ' London Catalogue, 1816-1851,' "Legacy of an Etonian, Poems, edited by R. Nolands, 8vo., published at 10s. by G. Bell." The question is whether R. Nolands was the author. I should doubt it, inasmuch as you, sir, are the editor of ' N. & Q.,' but, I submit, not the author. ALFD. J. KING.

101, Sandmere Road, Clapham, S.W.

GORDON FAMILY (9 th S. ii. 128, 174, 235, 412). The information was taken from the ' Peer- age of Scotland,' 1813, by Douglas, vol. i. p. 262 ; vol. ii. p. 557. In the last volume he says, " Malise, E. of Strathern, is said to have married Lady Egidie Cumyng," &c. Not having the peerage by G. E. C., I cannot say how he decides who are the various wives ; but I find in the Genealogist, vol. v. p. 105 (N.S.), an article on the Earls of Strathern by Joseph Bain, in which he says the account given by Douglas of these earls is " a jumble of confusion." Well, it may be so (and probably ever will be), yet my dull intellect does not per- ceive that his article has made thematter any clearer. It is, if anything, more complicated. MR. C ALDER surely does not reject a statement because another writer has left it out. Of course it would be more satisfactory if authorities could be given ; but if such had to be the hard-and-fast line, the pedigrees in the peerages would show a large number of missing links. JOHN RADCLIFFE.

NoNJURORs(9 th S.ii. 408, 493; in. 56). Under this heading MR. A. J. KING asks for infor- mation about the French Prophets. He will find an account of this sect in Malcolm's 'Anecdotes of the Manners and Customs of London during the Eighteenth Century,' illustrated with a plate depicting one of the meetings of the Prophets. Malcolm's account of the pious orgies of these fanatics is very diverting. R. CLARK.

"AERIAL TOUR" (9 th S. ii. 423). I have examined ten editions, in my library, of Beattie's 'Minstrel,' and in nine of these,

which I subjoin, the word is "tour": Edin- burgh, Creech, 1776 ; London, Dilly, 1799 ; Edinburgh, Creech, &c., 1807 ; Alnwick, 1810 ; London, Sharpe, 1816; London, Bum pus, 1821 ; London, Sharpe, 1823 ; London, Sharpe, 1827; London, Pickering, 1831. It will be observed that the first two of these editions were printed in the lifetime of the poet, who died in 1803. The tenth of the editions I possess is that of Routledge, London, 1858 and it has " tower." A. T. GRANT.

The Rectory, Leven, Fife.

INSTRUMENTAL CHOIR (7 th S. xii. 347, 416, 469 ; 8 th S. i. 195, 336, 498 ; ii. 15 ; 9 th S. ii. 513). A mile from here is the little village of Win wick, comprising, probably, some hundred and fifty souls. The church contains an old barrel organ, which, as a boy, I well remember to have heard " played " by a man who still resides in the village. It has for many years now remained silent, having been superseded by a harmonium. It is, however, by no means an eyesore to the church, its outward appearance closely resembling that of an ordinary church organ. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century. By the Rev. Prof. G. Henslow, M.A. (Chapman & Hall.) THIS quaint and curious volume, ushered in by a valuable introduction by Prof. Skeat and accom- panied by notes from the same indefatigable and erudite writer, consists of a great portion of the contents of a MS. volume, concerning the history of which nothing is known except that it was in the collection of Mr. Johnstone, proprietor of the Standard newspaper, by whom it was presented to Prof. Henslow. The whole of the English portion of the volume, consisting principally of medical recipes, has been transcribed and printed. With it are given transcripts of selected portions from MSS. similar in nature in the British Museum, viz., Harl. 2378, Sloane 2584, and Sloane 521. There is also given a list of plants and vegetable products used in the drugs mentioned in the MSS. or in con- temporary vocabularies, with their identifications so far as these can be obtained. This portion of the work constitutes, accordingly, a guide to the plant- names of the fourteenth century. Those familiar with early medical literature know how gruesome and repulsive were most of the remedies in vogue. Not a few of them are practically unquotable. Yet of these even some, in altered forms, are in pre- sent, or were in recent use. How nearly associated with magic and other secret arts or reputed mys- teries was medicine is also known. Some of the receipts are avowedly charms, as when, to deliver a woman of a dead child, you are told, when you come to the house in which the woman is, to sit aright upon the " thraschfolde," make a sign of the cross, and say, " In nomine Patris," &c. For a cure for the bite of a " woud hund" (a mad dog) you are