Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/138

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. v. FEB. 17, 1000.

cover a fifteenth-century hand has written "hors sy dame salygora de Roays." This is not very explicit; but there is a town called Roays in La Vaucluse. On the inside of the cover a hand of about the same date has written in Gothic letters, " Get le lybre de eleyne mere saynt martyn et brysoun et du bonn roy anthoyne et danrye dangleterre de toute la regyon." Below this a purchaser in the eighteenth century recorded, "Ego lacobus Golabau consciliarius [sic] regius in suprema Lugduni monetarum aula hoc MSS. emi anno Domini millessimo septengentessimo [sic] tri- gessimo sexto : MDCCXXXVI : 1736." On the recto of the first page the title of the book has been indicated thus, about the year 1600, " Le grand chronique delaine ecrite par ordre de dame Loyse de Crequi dannaples [sic] etc par I. Alexandrij." Below the note of Gola- bau there is the name "Jaquelyne [1] de Crequy " in the writing of the fifteenth cen- tury.

The manuscript is eminently deserving of a careful edition. It appears to contain substantially the same story as the prose of Wauquelin. It is evident therefore that the tale of Helen, with reminiscences of the rape of the Trojan belle and of the mother of Constantino, was as popular in aristocratic families in Eastern France in the fifteenth century as it was among the Basques of La Soule in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte. M. Desvernay pointed out to me that Prof. Gaston Paris in * La Litterature Fran9aise au

~\/[ *~L* ** A n-v ' / ID*-* v.-C ^. 1 OOO\ t.^-C^v-..,, 4-.^. 4- K ^v t T> rt __.

Moyen Age ' (Paris, 1888) refers to the * Roman

la Belle Helene ' on rr over, in paragraph 151 ne refers to the idol of

de la Belle Helene ' on pp. 84 and 210. More-

Mahomet adored lay the Saracens. It is well known that in every Basque pastoral, a per- formance which gives one some idea of what the primitive drama of Greece and Rome was, one-half of the actors represent the Saracens, who do obeisance to the modern puppet representing Mahomet, which is fixed on the top of the screen at the back of the stage. For the ' Roman d'Alexandre,' which also found its way into Basque, see the " His- toire de la Langue et de la Litterature Fran

9aise publiee sous la direction de L. Petit

de Julleville," tome premier. Part of the text of the Basque pastoral of St. Helen was published in 7/a Revue de Linguistique some eight years ago. A literal translation of the whole in English has been written by myself Whence did the Basques get it at the end ol the eighteenth century 1 The librarian al Lyon and his assistant M. Jean Pierre Thillet whom 1 have to thank for their courteous furthering of my inquest, were unable to suggest an answer. PALAMEDES.

OAKHAM GASTLE AND ITS HORSESHOES (8 th o. xii. 226). The Sunday Magazine for January, in a collection of ' Curiosities of the Camera,' gives two illustrations bearing on }he above subject from photographs by John Burton & Sons, Leicester. From the letter- press I extract the following interesting in- rormation :

'The toll of a horseshoe from every peer of the realm who passes through Oakham was rigidly enforced and is still claimed. It now takes the
 * orm of gilded shoes with the name of the donor

printed thereon, surmounted by the proper coronets pertaining to the ranks of those paying toll. There are at the present time over 130 horseshoes hanging upon the walls of the chapel attached to Oakham 3astle, the names and dates on several of them being quite undecipherable. Queen Elizabeth pre- sented one of the shoes, and she was the first sovereign from whom the toll was claimed. George IV. presented a horseshoe in 1814, and Her Majesty the Queen when Princess Victoria presented one which bears the date September 21, 1835. The illustration shows the shoe given by the Princess of Wales. It is three feet high, and is made of cast iron richly gilt. A nobleman who was driving tandem through the town a short time ago was called upon for the customary tribute. When it arrived it was found to be of pure gold and beautifully chased."

The shoe sent by the Princess of Wales is surmounted by a crown, and bears the in- scription "Alexandra, Princess of Wales, January, 1881." The second picture depicts the interior of the chapel with its walls covered with horseshoes. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

" A FAR CRY TO LOCH AWE " (9 th S. v. 5, 67). This proverb is said to have originated in the attempts of the Calders of Cawdor to rescue their heiress Muriel from the Camp- bells. When the Campbells were attacked in the heights of Strathnairn, their leader ex- horted his men to resist to the death, for it was a far cry to their distant home in Argyle. See the story in the ' History of the Roses of Kilravock,' p. 195. I). M. R.

STOP-PRESS EDITIONS (9 th S. v. 8). The Star, No. 5619, dated Friday, 30 Jan., 1807, a news- paper of 4 pp., each of four columns (printed and published by Level Kent, of Canterbury Place, Lambeth, at the Star Office, No. 1, Carey Street ; published also at the Star Office, Temple Bar), contains, at the bottom of the second column of p. 3, the words " The Evening Star," followed by information con- cerning the war between Russia and France, including details of a Russian victory which appear to have been partly derived from " a Denmark Mail. Arrived this morning." In tin- middle of the fourth column (p. 3) I find the words "Second Edition," followed by twenty lines devoted to the war, the informa-