Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/239

 9* a vi. SMT. s, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 197 p. 113 of that delightful work "Ireland anti the Celtic Church. A History of Ireland from St. Patrick to the English Conquest in 1172 By G. T. Stokes, D.D., Vicar of All Saints', Blackrock ; Professor of Ecclesiastical His- tory, Trinity College, Dublin. Second Edi- tion. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1888 " :— " At the beginning of the sixth century, that ist about the time of St. Coluniba's birth, the Irish Dalriadani, urged on by the restless genius of the Celtic race, crossed the Channel, and founded a second Dalriada in Argyleshire, which in course of time became the dominant power in Scotland, and the germ out of which the mediaeval kingdom of Scotland was developed. It will be well for you to remember that the very name, the kingdom, and the royal family of Scotland, and, therefore, of England (through the Stuart line), drew their origin from this Irish colony. Its earliest fortunes in Scot- land, however, gave no indication of its brilliant future. Scotland was then groaning beneath the rule of the savage Picts. The Romans had subdued and civilised it as far as Edinburgh and Glasgow. Their departure left it for a century subject to the inroads of the northern pagans, till at last, about the year 500, the tribesmen of Antrim came to the rescue of their brethren, and established this Christian outpost." HENRY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W. THE " BLOOD OF HAILES " (9th S. iv. 377; v. 352, 431).—My attention having been drawn to a slip of the pen in ray last communication on this subject, I desire, with your kind permission, to correct it. I had fathered the destruction of this relic at Paul's Cross upon Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, when I should have written John Hilsey, bishop of the same diocese. This occurred on 24 Nov., 1538, nearly one month after the examination of the relic by the Commissioners. The calumnies as to its having been in reality the blood of a duck, constantly renewed by its custodians, were repeated by Fuller, Burnet, Herbert (' Life of Henry VIII.,' pp. 431-2), John Fox ('Acts and Monuments, li. 431), and others; but the bishop himself simply " affirmed it to be no blood, but honey clarified and coloured with saffron." Holinsned is probably correct in stating that it was given to Hayles by Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, in honour of his father's memory (cf. Hearne; Piotroburg, vol. ii. p. 71). Concerning the other chief relic at Hayles, mentioned in my last—namely, the fragment of the true cross—the ' Chronicle of Hayles' (Harleian MSS. 3,725, B.M.) makes mention, under the year 1298, " undecimo Kal. Nov. die saluti nobilis Vir Ed- mundus, Comes Cornubiie, crucem imream cum pede de Auinail apud Hayles d« domo sua transmisit, <jii:u nobilissimam porcipnem preciosissimaeCruciB Christi in se insertatn continuit. I am happy to add that the excavations now in progress have yielded several frag- ments of the effigy in chain armour of either Richard, Earl of Cornwall, or his son, with which were found five fragments of the shield bearing the bordure bezantee of Cornwall. This find includes also several pieces of the slab on which the figure rested and the heads of two diminutive lions which lay at the feet of the earl ; and, perhaps of more consequence, the two hands of Sancha of Provence, whose effigy rested beside his own. All the graves at Hayles have been ransacked in other times, and the skeletons are ]ying often face downwards, and coffinless in them. The monument to which the above fragments belonged stood in the centre of the presbytery. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY. THE BLESSING OF THE THROATS (9th S. v. 169, 273).—This ceremony was enacted a year or so ago at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, Mare Street, Hackney. I am given to understand it is not annually performed there, but the ceremony was gone through by a priest who was on a visit. In this connexion the following note from the City Press of 7 Jan. last may be interesting : " St. Etheldreda, Ely Place.—Saturday being the feast of St. Blaise, the ceremony of 'blessing the throats' of the worshippers was performed. The cus- tom was introduced into this country from Italy about fifty years ago, and consists of placing lighted candles crosswise under the worshipper's chin in such a position that the throat is surrounded. A short prayer is said whilst the candles are in posi- tion. About 40 of the congregation submitted to the custom on Saturday, and on the previous ' eve' upwards of 100 took part." CHAS. H. CROUCH. Nightingale Lane, Wanstead. INSCRIPTION ON MEDAL (9th S. vi. 106).—If TKNEBR^E will visit Bunhill Fields burial- ground in the City Road, he will see an obelisk on the north side of the entrance opposite Wesley's Chapel, and just within the enclosure, the biographical epitaph on which will go a long way towards answering lis question. I have transcribed the epitaph, and it will be found below, but out of regard 'or the limited space of ' N. & Q.' I have not Di-eserved the separate arrangement of the ines on the monument :— " Public Duty and Private Worth. "To the memory of THOMAS HARDY, born March 3rd, 1751, and died October llth, 1832, in he 82nd year of his age. He was a plain and up- right man, a steady and inflexible patriot—one of the celebrated London Corresponding Society, for the
 * he three who in 1792 commenced the formation of