Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/337

 9»s.VLOcT.6,i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 279 to the first or second Ralph de Berners, or to Hugh de Berners, who is mentioned in Domesday as holding land in Stepney. Ralph de Berners, who married Maud, daughter of Walter Barrow, of Fitzwalter. was the grandson of the second Ralph, and the manor belonged to his family long before this marriage, W. F. PKIDEAUX. THUFFLB-HUNTING PIGS (9th S. vi. 129, 196). —The Rev. W. B. Daniel in his 'Rural Sports' refers to the finding of truffles by pigs as follows :— "In Italy the usual method employed for the finding of Trufles, or subterraneous Mushrooms, called by the Italians Tartu/alt, and in Latin Tuberra Terra, is by tying a Cord to the hind leg of a Pig, and driving him, observing where he begins to root, which instantly discovers the Trufle."-III. 345. A. G. REID. LONGWOETH V. YELVERTON (9th S. VI. 148). —The trial of Thelwall v. Yelverton took place in the Court of Common Pleas, Ireland, before the Right Hon. J. H. Monahan, Lord Chief Justice, and a special jury, on 21 Feb- ruary, 1861. It was an action to recover a sum of 2591. 17s. 3d for board and lodging and necessaries supplied to the defendant's wife and her servant. The defendant pleaded that the goods and necessaries were not sup- plied to his wife, and this was the only issue raised by the pleading. The trial occupied the court for ten days, when the jury found that there had been a marriage both by the laws of Scotland and Ireland. In the Scotch Supreme Court Major Yel- verton, afterwards Viscount Avonmore, pre- vailed, and the Supreme Court cancelled the marriage in July, 1862; but he was unsuc- cessful in the Irish courts. The Scotch de- cision was affirmed by the House of Lords both on 28 July, 1864, and on 30 July, 1867, Major Yelvorton married the widow of Prof Edward Forbes, F.R.S. Miss Longworth's case attracted a good deal of attention, and she was the object of much sympathy. She was afterwards successful as a public reader and elocutionist, and travelled both at home and abroad. She died at Pietermaritzburg from dropsy in September, 1881. EVEKARD HOME COLEMAN. The trial took place in 1861. The follow ing book concerning it is in the Wigan Free Library : " The Yelverton Marriage Case Thelwall v. Yelverton, comprising an Au thentic and Unabridged Account of th< Most Extraordinary Trial of Modern Times. <fcc. Illustrated with portraits, views o ocalities, leading events, and important ituations." 8vo. Lond., n.d. (11863). With n original letter inserted signed Theresa Lvonmore. An account of the lady will be bund in the 'Dictionary of National Bio- graphy.' HENRY T. FOLKARD. [Other replies are acknowledged.] NOTES ON BOOKS, Ac. hdienPApostat. Par Paul Allard. Tome I. (Paris, Lecoffre.) ii. ALLARD, to whom are due many noteworthy tudies on the long strife between paganism and Christianity, supplies the first volume of a " com- ilete and impartial" biography of what he calls hat enigmatical personage Julian the Apostate, .he first that has as yet appeared in France. Com- pete the work bids fair to Toe, and it is as impartial is is to be expected from one who naturally contem- ilates the struggle from a Christian standpoint. It s, at least, a work of profound scholarship and a worthy pendant to the various histories of per- secutions during the first three centuries of the Christian era of the same author. The portion which now appears ends with the assumption by Julian, at the mdding of his troops, of the reins of empire, A.M. 360. More than half of the volume is occupied with the account of the relative aspects of Christianity and paganism, which to not a few readers will constitute the most interesting feature. A history of the wars in Gallia and elsewhere which prepared the way for Julian's accession to power has less general interest than the opening chapters descriptive of the Greco-Roman paganism of the fourth century. During the early years of its contact with Christianity official paganism pre- served ita form, but, so far as regards the cultivated classes, had lost its influence. In Rome and in the provincial centres the gods were worshipped with the same rites. The gods themselves had, however, been Hellenized. As M. Allard says, the Latin Jupiter had taken the traits and personality of the Greek Zeus, the Minerva of ancient Italy was iden- tified with Pallas, Juno with Hera. Mars with Ares, Venus with Aphrodite, and the Sabine Diana had become the Greek Artemis. The worship of some had disappeared, the temple of the goddess Dia had fallen in the third century into ruins, and there was at least one god whose name had been forgotten by the contemporaries of Ovid. Strange gods had meanwhile become the objects of worship. The cult of the Persian Mithras had been introduced into Rome and spread over the empire, as had that of the Phrygian Cybele. Oriental deities were everywhere adored. In the spread of these faiths it is easy to trace the desire for an ideal higher than was supplied by official paganism. In depicting the growth of pagan aspirations beside this, the birth of which originated in India, M. Allard is at his best. This part of the work prepares the way for the apostasy of Julian, which, so far as he has gone, is not formally announced. Its approach may, indeed, be traced in the writings of Julian, ana notably in his visits to the Troad and the reverence he there paid to the pagan shrines. With the conversion of Constantine came a period of tolerance for the two creeds which, in tfic nature