Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/474

 466

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL JUNE 15, 1901.

students in respect of this old and half -for- gotten piece of history. C. B. MOUNT.

ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON. Some time ago (9 th S. vi. 441) I gave reasons for believ- ing that the myth of Perseus and Andro- meda was a lunar eclipse myth, which had migrated from Babylonia to Hellas Perseus being Bel Merodach, the personification of light, and Andromeda the full moon about to be swallowed up by Tiamat, the black power which is approaching.

There has been another still more remark- able translation : from Greek myth to Chris- tian hagiology. Like Perseus, St. George comes through the air flying with his winged sandals, armed with a gold-hilted falchion, and slays the black dragon about to devour a white-skinned maiden who is bound to a rock on the seashore. The representation of the patron saint of England on the noblest of our coins varies from the ' Legenda Aurea' by omitting the virgin and by mounting St. George on horseback.

That the supreme sun - god of ancient Babylon should have developed into the patron saint of modern England is no less remarkable than that we should be able to trace the two-headed eagle of three Euro- pean empires to the two-headed symbol of the double Hittite empire, which we find sculptured on the rocks of Cappadocia ; or that we may trace the reason why we have twelve pence in the shilling and twelve figures on our watches to the duodecimal notation of the Babylonians, who reckoned in sari and sossi, instead of decimally by tens and hundreds. ISAAC TAYLOR.

VOLTAIRE'S CHURCH. The papers of the Convention in the French national archives contain the following curious letter, signed by Wagniere, the mayor, and other inhabit- ants of Ferney- Voltaire, and bearing date 17 frimaire, year 2 (7 December, 1793) :

"Citizen president, the commune of Ferney- Voltaire sends the widow's mite to the repre- sentatives of the French nation. We hope that you will not judge of our zeal by the meagreness of the plate which was in the ex-church of this place, which the late Voltaire, the founder of this colony, rebuilt and dedicated au Dieu seul, but which he did not choose to enrich. To supplement this meagreness, the citizens here have presented 1.269 livres in assignats, six silver medals of various sizes, two pairs of silver buckles, and a small gold coin, which we enclose. The curd of Ferney has voluntarily handed to us his ordination diploma, with a request to burn it, which we did two days ago in our brave sans cnfofte club. We have closed the ex-church and removed the crosses, &c. Love of country, submission to the decrees of the repre-

sentatives of the people and to morality behold the religion which will be preached in the colony founded by him who was one of the first to say, Nos pretres ne sont pas ce qu'un vain peuple pense ; Notre cre'dulite' fait leur seule puissance. Vive la nation ! Vive la re"publique ! Vive la mon- tagne ! "

What would Voltaire have thought could he have foreseen this desecration of the church in which he once preached?

J. G. ALGER.

Paris.

MICHAEL BRUCE AND BURNS. The oft- quoted lines of Burns in his 'Address to a Mouse,'

The best-laid schemes o' mice and men

Gang aft a-gley,

bear a resemblance to those of Michael Bruce in ' The Musiad,' a minor epic fragment :

But evil fortune had decreed (The foe of mice as well as men)

The royal mouse at last should bleed ; Should fall ne'er to arise again.

As the poems of Bruce, the author of the 'Ode to the Cuckoo 'and 'Elegy written in Spring' two of the finest lyrics in the English language were published after his death in 1770 (long before those of Burns), the latter may have taken the idea from reading them. A. G. REID.

Auchterarder.

A FEMALE WORKER IN IRON. It seems worth recording that in the Builder's Journal for 24 April is an advertisement by Mrs. Starkie Gardner, who, giving her address in London, informs the public that, assisted by a talented staff (male or female not mentioned), she is prepared to carry out all kinds of "hand-hammered" metal work. What will ladies fly at next 1 HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

SIMON BURTON, M.D., DIED 1744. The statement in the life of this physician in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. viii. p. 16, that he " was educated at Rugby and at New College, Oxford," is true, but incomplete. He went to Rugby School in 1696, but left in or before 1702, when he became a Winchester scholar, having been elected as founder's kin. Similarly, his brother John Burton, who was head master of Winchester 1724- 1766, went to school first at Rugby (1698) and then at Winchester (1705), where he also was scholar as founder's kin. The brothers claimed kinship with William of Wykeham through their mother Judith Bohun or Boun. Their uncle Ralph Bohun, author of 'A Discourse concerning the Origine and Proper-