Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/42

 34

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. JAN. n, 1902.

Mark or Badge as is herein mentioned, that is to say, a large Roman P together with the first letter of the name of the Parish, cut either in red or blue cloth." H. S. V.-W.

The "septem" is probably a transept, if the church has one. "Septum," a walled enclosure, unfurnished building, points that way. T. B. WILMSHURST.

Tunbridge Wells.

The Rev. Frederick George Lee, D.C.L , in his ' Glossary of Liturgical and Ecclesias- tical Terms,' London, 1877, explains that "septum " was a term used by certain seven- teenth-century Anglican writers for the fixed or movable rail, placed on each side of the entrance of the sanctuary, to support the communicants when they knelt to receive the Lord's Body and Blood.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

LEIGH HUNT (9 th S. viii. 64, 130). A news- paper cutting in my possession, unfortunately without date or recorded origin, states that the question of identity had been agitated in Chicago, and that the Dial of that city pub- lished, as evidence in support of Mr. Froude's denial of the reference being to Mrs. Car- lyle, a little poem which its editor found in the Monthly Chronicle for November, 1838. The " little poem " is the same in every re- spect as the well-known lines, except 'that for Jenny one reads "Nelly" : an important difference. This may be evidence per se, or it may be evidence of piracy only.

ARTHUR MAYALL.

VANCOUVER (9 th S. viii. 504). On my way back from Australia a few months ago, I spent a week in the remarkably progressive British Columbian city of Vancouver. At the entrance _to the Public Library I noticed an oil painting of the circumnavigator from whom the city derives its name. To the best of my recollection the inscription underneath this picture contains the information desired No doubt a letter to the librarian would elicit a copy. J. F. HOGAN.

.CURE BY THE HAND OF A CORPSE (9 th S. viii. 483). The severed human hand was fre- quently used in magic. The " hand of glory " as it is commonly called, is often mentioned in folk-lore books and elsewhere. The late Bishop Forbes, quoting the Aberdeen Bre- viary, tells how St. Ffllan used one of his hands as a source of light :

"He secretly constructed a cell not far from the cloister, m which, on a certain night, while the

ethren ot the monastery announced by a little servant that the supper was ready, the servant,

kneeling and peeping through a chink in that cell to see what was taking place, saw the blessed Faelanus writing in the dark, with his left hand affording a clear light to his right hand. . The servant, wondering at this occurrence, straightway returned to the brethren and told it." ' Kalendar of Scottish Saints,' p. 342.

Candles made of the fat of the dead were also often used in incantations.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

The Rev. R. H. Barham had been reading 'Secrets Merveilleux dela Magie Naturelle et Cabalistique du Petit Albert' (Lyons, 1776) when he wrote ' The Nurse's Stor} 7 .' He says himself in that poem :

For another receipt the same charm to prepare Consult Mr. Ains worth and Petit Albert.

The complete "specification " of this charm, with an illustration, is to be found on p. 104 of the ' Secrets Merveilleux.'

EDWARD HERON ALLEN.

" PROSPICIMUS MODO" (9 th S. viii. 445). This ingenious specimen of literary trifling in the shape of " retrograde verses," some- thing like the palindrome (for which see Brewer), is quoted in the Appendix to Dr. Morley's edition of 'Gulliver's Travels' (Routledge, 1890), p. 417, with the reading " nobis " for " patrire " in the second line, which, however, does not affect the charac- teristic form of the thing. The author is not mentioned, but the elegiac couplet is given as a specimen of the kind of knowledge that Cyrano de Bergerac (born 1020) got from his schoolmaster in Perigord, and of the literary taste in France about that time.

C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A.

Bath.

WEARING THE HAT IN THE ROYAL PRE- SENCE (9 th S. viii. 368, 452). The licence to Sir John Pakington is referred to in the 'Letters and Papers, temp. Henry VIII.,' iv. 3, No. 5510, 5. The reference there given is "S. B." [? Signet Bills], and "Patent Roll 20 Henry VIII., pars 2, m. 24." The date of the licence is 5 April, 20 Henry VIII., 1529. In Nash's 'Worcestershire,' i. 352, the refer- ence to the Patent Roll is (probably wrongly) given as " Patent 28 Henry VIII., pars 2."

As this licence apparently differs from the others hitherto printed, I venture to ask whether some London correspondent would kindly search the Patent Rolls arid see whe- ther it is in reality different from the ordinary form of licence. Was the licence given to Sir^John Pakington because of some disease or infirmity in his head ? And did it really extend beyond the reign of Henry VIII.?