Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/381

 9* s. m. MAY is, m] NOTES AND QUEEIES.

375

1 ive preserved the original foundations an si so plenty of the original materials. Like A ise, embedded in them I found severa ' selce," or lava paving -stones, taken ev r 3ntly from the ancient road (Via Prenestina v hich ran adjacent. The famous Temple o .1 uno stands two hundred yards westward o ii, a splendid example of uncemented Repub 3 can masonry, 82 B.C. (?).

The dimensions of the building are these \\idth of interior, 18 ft. ; length, 45ft. It pos scsses "cryptse," and on the vault of th "apsis "can be traced remains of Christian frescoes. An eleventh-century rectangula campanile stands a few yards away from it All the columns have unfortunately vanished aid what marble remains are embedded o loose thereabouts are small fragments o u hite (Luna), one of which proved to be a portion of a pagan statue. A brick-stamp of Sentidius Priscus was the only rewarc of a diligent search among the material and this belongs, like the reticulated apse, tc the second century. On my mentioning these measurements to a well-known authority o Romano-British remains who was out with me, but was occupied in examining another sei of remains a mile off, he at once remarked " Why, that is about the dimension of th< basilica at Silchester, which they miscall th( i church/' ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

GRAY'S 'ELEGY' (9 th S. iii. 229). Had fail Science frowned on the birth of this child o1 nature, he ne'er had become a melancholy man, brushing away with hasty and ap- Iparently aimless steps the dews of the morn- ing. Melpomene, however, was gracious, and the consequence was that this favoured son i was destined to know nothing of Isthmian toils, warlike deeds, or triumphal processions, but to give himself to the worship of the Pierian Muse, and to revel amid the beauties of fertile Tibur. He would murmur by the (running brooks a music sweeter than their own. Such is the lot of him whom Melan- pholy has chosen for her service. Horace, in the third ode of his fourth book, had already portrayed him :

Quern tu, Melpomene, semel Nascentem placido lumine videris, &c.

See editions of Gray's 'Poems' for notes Appended to ' The Epitaph.'

THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B.

The line

ne;ms that Science did not reject him or look down on him because he was born poor. ,
 * Fair Science frowned not on his humble birth

For instance, an Italian translation of the ' Elegy ' renders the line

Sofia non isdegn6 sua bassa cuna, and a German

Sein niedrig Wiegenbett verschmahten nicht die Musen.

T. P. ARMSTRONG. Putney.

I suppose " Science " is to be taken in the older and wider sense of " knowledge," not in the restricted sense of modern parlance. In the thirteenth stanza the poet has said that Knowledge did not unroll her page to the eyes of the rustics over whose graves he is musing ; he might have said, in other words, that fai^r Science frowned upon their humble birth. This youth, though lowly born, like them, was favoured with the smile, not the frown of Science- -i.e., was possessed of learn- ing. I venture to suggest this as Gray's meaning in the line referred to.

C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath.

THE AZRA (9 th S. iii. 268). The original source of this legend is an Arabic book called ' The Divan of Love,' by Ibn Abi Hajalah, also called Ahmed Ibn Yahya. There is a copy of this in the original language in the British Museum, but so far as Heine was con- cerned, he probably got his facts from the extracts translated into French and pub- lished by Stendhal (Marie Henri Beyle) in his book ' De F Amour.' The references to the Azra will be found in chap. liii.

JAMES PLATT, Jun.

' DEMON'S AVERSION " (9 th S. i. 387 ; iii. 298). In the list of British plant-names (supplied >y " Master Robert Dauyes of Guissaney in ^lint-Shire ") at the end of Gerard's ' Herbal,' Cas gangythrel is given as the Welsh name or vervain. This plant appears to have been leld sacred everywhere and in all times. Gerard describes two varieties as natives of Britain : but his editor Johnson adds a note hat he has never seen the second of these, ,nd does not think it grows wild with us. "his is the one Gerard calls the true Verbena icra. As a matter of fact only one variety, r erbena officinalis, is indigenous in England.

c. a B.

This is perhaps Scabiosa succisa, of which a ornmon English name is deviPs-bit. It is upposed to have the power of curing all iseases, and the great enemy of mankind, ho hates its beneficence, bites off the root ) prevent its flourishing. Another legend firms that the devil once worked so much vil with the plant, that the Blessed Virgin