ALLEGED CHANGE OF CLIMATE IN ICELAND (7th S. x. 6, 138, 192, 333, 429, 475).—In a former communication I brought to the notice of readers that the assertions relative to there having been no change of climate during an entire revolution of the equinoxes, and due to astronomical causes, was not in accordance with the facts. As there exists at the present time a total absence of knowledge on this subject in the mind of the general reader, I will endeavour to place before you the main facts of the problem. More than three hundred years ago, when it became admitted that it was true that the earth moved, the gradual and uniform change in position of the pole of the heavens was explained as due to a conical movement of the earth's axis. At that date it was imagined that no change whatever occurred, during thousands of years even, in the obliquity of the ecliptic, or extent of the arctic circles, or tropics. It being a rigid geometrical law that the distance between the pole of the heavens and the pole of the ecliptic must be of the same value as the obliquity, it was, on the assumption that the obliquity never varied, claimed as a fact that the circular course which the pole of the heavens traced must have for its centre the pole of the ecliptic, from which it was supposed it never varied its distance. Had the facts been as then imagined, the above statement would have been correct. During nearly a hundred and fifty years it was imagined that no change had occurred, or ever could occur, in the obliquity, consequently it was affirmed as an established fact that the pole of the heavens traced a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre. This movement having been accepted as infallible, theorists set to work to explain why the pole of the heavens always traced a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre, and the theory supposed to explain the movement was accepted and taught in all the schools. About a hundred and fifty years ago more accurate observations proved that a decrease in the obliquity of the ecliptic was occurring, and the examination of ancient records showed that this decrease had continued during two thousand years at least. This discovery was a very serious matter, as it interfered with the orthodox theories of the day, inasmuch as, if the obliquity decreased, it followed that the distance between the pole of the heavens and the pole of the ecliptic must decrease, consequently the one pole could not describe a circle round the other pole as a centre. During several years attempts were made to reject the fact of a decrease in the obliquity. Papers in the Philosophical Transactions of a hundred and fifty years ago will show how hard the old theorists fought in their endeavours to keep their theories" as they were." At length it was agreed that, even granting a decrease in the obliquity, the accepted theory need not be altered very much if the pole of the ecliptic were made to shift its position slightly, and thus to decrease the radius of the circle which the pole of the heavens was assumed to trace. The impossibility of the pole of the heavens tracing a circle round an imaginary centre, from which it continually decreased its distance, did not seem to be considered of much consequence. The difficulty was supposed to be overcome by assuming that this centre shifted its position less than one and a half degrees, and consequently prevented any great change of climate ever occurring on earth. This is the theory which is at present considered orthodox. At the date when this theory was invented the facts of geology were unknown. That these facts proved that an arctic climate had prevailed down to 54° latitude in both hemispheres, and comparatively quite recently, was not even dreamed of. When these facts were admitted, astronomers asserted that astronomy could give no explanation of the facts, and, strange as it may appear, it seems to be the great object of a certain class of astronomers in the present day to prove that astronomy is so feeble a science that it is quite unable to account for these facts. When, more than thirty years ago, I commenced investigating these facts, I found that the assertion of the earth's axis tracing a cone was obscure-that it must be the two half axes that traced cones. Since that date my contention has been admitted, but with the attempt to assert that all along it was meant that it was the two half axes that traced cones, and not, as had been stated, and shown by diagrams, the whole axis. After several years of investigation I found that the cause of the half axes tracing cones was due to a second rotation of the earth, and that the pole of the heavens, instead of tracing a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre, traced a circle (in consequence of the second rotation) round a point six degrees from the pole of the ecliptic, thus causing, during about 15,000 years, an extension of the arctic circle of twelve degrees, and explaining not only all the facts of the Great Ice Age, but giving its date and duration. As a proof that these conclusions were correct, I have demonstrated how the polar distance of a star can be calculated for each year for a hundred years or more from one observation only of this star-a calculation hitherto supposed to be impossible. I have put this, among others, as a test question. Theorists have hitherto treated this question in the same manner as MR. LYNN has done, viz., prudently avoiding it. MR. LYNN must really mean to attempt a joke when he states that we are not to accept what Sir J. Herschel and his numerous copyists asserted relative to the earth's axis tracing a cone, just as does a tee-totum, because every one should know that another tee-totum was under the floor and twisting. MR. LYNN has now only to advance another step, and to assert that when it was stated have heard that he wrote a poem, 'The English Vandal,' referring to the defacements of the monument of the Redan. Can any of your readers corroborate this statement, or give any facts about him beyond that he was a reporter on the Morning Herald, and published a collection of prose and verse entitled 'The Tribute,' Cork, 1833? It has been stated that he was one of the earliest contributors to Punch, and was allowed great license by the editor; but no reference is made to him in any work on journalism except as a reporter, nor is he mentioned in Joseph Hatton's 'True Story of Punch.' D. J. O. Belgravia. MUMMY (7th S. x. 147, 197). The phrase "beat to mummy "" occurs in John Dryden's 'Sir Martin Marr-all,' 1666, Act IV. sc. i.:— "Sir Martin. An' I had a mind to beat him to mummy, he's my own, I hope." F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. WINDSOR CHAIRS (7th S. ix. 487)."It was on the great northern road from York to London.....that four travellers were......driven for shelter into a little public-house on the side of the highway...... The kitchen, in which they assembled, was the only room for entertainment in the house, paved with red bricks, remarkably clean, furnished with three or four Windsor chairs, adorned with shining plates of pewter and copper saucepans, nicely scoured," &c. Smollett wrote this during his imprisonment in 1759. The quotation is taken from the first chapter of The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves,' which came out in the successive monthly numbers of the British Magazine in 1760 and 1761. Sir Launcelot Greaves' was published separately in 12mo. in 1762. There is nothing in the above excerpt which shows the description to be anything but that of an ordinary wayside inn of the period. The inference, therefore, may be drawn that Windsor chairs were in common use much before 1770, though they have not such a claim to antiquity as was once amusingly given to some of them by an imaginative auctioneer at Bruges. An English resident had died there, and his household furniture was put up for sale. Among other things were two of these Windsor chairs, which the bidders were assured had come from the palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and had originally belonged to Thomas Becket! This astonishing information was supplied with a view to enhance the value of the chairs in the eyes of a well-known local collector of old furniture who happened to be present at the sale. I have often heard the story from one of the executors of the deceased man. H. G. GRIFFINHOOFE. 34, St. Petersburg Place, W. A NOTE ON 'THE BRIDE OF LAMMERMOOR' (7th S. x. 462).—The novel of 'The Bride of Lammermoor' places the tragedy before the Union, as the Scottish Parliament was sitting. MR. PICKFORD puts the date 1709; the Union was 1707. The real dates of the tragedy may be interesting. The heroine was married Aug. 12, died Sept. 12, was buried Sept. 30, 1669. ONE OF THE FAMILY. DATE OF OLD WATCH (7th S. x. 409, 456).— Had watches any escapement before "the anchor escapement was invented by Clement, a London clockmaker, in 1680"? See Beckmann's 'Hist. of Inv.,' s.v. "Clocks and Watches." J. F. MANSERGH. Liverpool. HUNGARY WATER: BOUN TREE (7th S. x. 4, 115, 294, 452).—A man who was present at the rough ceremony of riding the stang at Skidby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in or about 1846, wrote down for me the verses used on that occasion. These verses tell of the series of punishments to be inflicted on the wife-beater. He is to be tied to a jackass's back. If the jackass he should happen run, We'll shoot him thro' with a bottery gun. I.e., a gun made of the elder-tree by extracting the pith. W. C. B. "TRUCKLE CHEESE":"MERLIN CHAIR" (7th S. x. 67, 158).-Room may be found for the following short account of the inventor of this chair. John of Liège. He came over to England in 1760, and Joseph Merlin was a native of Huy, in the bishopric soon afterwards obtained the situation of "principal mechanic at Cox's Museum in Spring Gardens." He was subsequently "engaged in the invention and sale of various ingenious machines for the use of valetudinarians and other purposes, improved musical instruments, &c." About the year 1783 he opened a mechanical exhibition in Prince's Street, Hanover Square, known Merlin's Museum, which was about Midsummer, 1808" (Lysons's Supp. to the "finally closed first edition of 'The Environs of London,' 1811, pp. 248-9). He died on May 4, 1803, aged sixtyseven, and was buried at Paddington. He is described in the obituary notice in the Gent. Mag. as "Rose's engine-maker, and mathematical instrument and watch and clock maker in general' (vol. lxxiii. pt. i. p. 485). G. F. R. B. as THE OLD CLOCK OF ST. DUNSTAN'S-IN-THEWEST (7th S. x. 366).—This clock was bought, as MR. HIPWELL says, by the third Marquess of Hertford, and gave name to the House from which I date this note. The late Lord Hertford (fourth marquess) never lived here, nor did the house belong to him, having been left by his father to the Countess Zichy. At her death, her heirs renouncing the inheritance, the remainder (sixtyseven years) of the Crown lease was bought, some thirty-five years ago, by HENRY H. GIBES. St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park. B GB I 7th 8. XI. JAN. 3. '91.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. ALLEGED CHANGE OF CLIMATE IN ICELAND (7th S. x. 6, 138, 192, 333, 429, 475).—In a former communication I brought to the notice of readers that 2 the assertions relative to there having been no change of climate during an entire revolution of As there the equinoxes, and due to astronomical causes, was not in accordance with the facts. exists at the present time a total absence of knowledge on this subject in the mind of the general reader, I will endeavour to place before you the main facts of the problem. 156 More than three hundred years ago, when it became admitted that it was true that the earth moved, the gradual and uniform change in position of the pole of the heavens was explained as due to a conical movement of the earth's axis. At that date it was imagined that no change whatever Doccurred, during thousands of years even, in the obliquity of the ecliptic, or extent of the arctic It being a rigid geometrical circles, or tropics. law that the distance between the pole of the heavens and the pole of the ecliptic must be of the same value as the obliquity, it was, on the assumption that the obliquity never varied, claimed as a fact that the circular course which the pole of the heavens traced must have for its centre the pole of the ecliptic, from which it was supposed it never varied its distance. Had the facts been as then imagined, the above statement would have been correct. During nearly a hundred and fifty years it was imagined that no change had occurred, or ever could occur, in the obliquity, consequently it was affirmed as an established fact that the pole of the heavens traced a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre. This movement having been accepted as infallible, theorists set to work to explain why the pole of the heavens always traced a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre, and the theory supposed to explain the movement was accepted and taught in all the schools. About a hundred and fifty years ago more accurate observations proved that a decrease in the obliquity of the ecliptic was occurring, and the examination of ancient records showed that this decrease had continued during two thousand years at least. This discovery was a very serious matter, as it interfered with the orthodox theories of the day, inasmuch as, if the obliquity decreased, it followed that the distance between the pole of the heavens and the pole of the ecliptic must decrease, consequently the one pole could not describe a circle round the other pole as a centre. During several years attempts were made to reject the fact of a decrease in the obliquity. Papers in the Philosophical Transactions of a hundred and fifty years as ago will show how hard the old theorists fought in their endeavours to keep their theories " they were." At length it was agreed that, even granting a decrease in the obliquity, the accepted theory need not be altered very much if the pole of the ecliptic were made to shift its position that the earth's axis traced a circle round the pole of the ecliptic as a centre, every person acquainted with astronomy must know that there were six degrees under the floor, and that the axis traced a circle round these six degrees in addition to the radius between the pole of the heavens and the pole of the ecliptic. Some three hundred and fifty years ago two learned authorities on astronomyviz., Libra of Pisa, and Sizzi-lived and died unconvinced that Jupiter possessed satellites. During the past ten years I have received several letters from a person who defies me to convince him that the earth is not a flat surface. MR. LYNN is afraid that unless I convince certain gentlemen, whose names he gives, I shall not convince him that the earth has any movement other than that invented by theorists three hundred years ago. I am afraid that Jupiter possesses satellites, in spite of Messrs. Libra and Sizzi being unconvinced. I am certain the earth is not a flat surface, although I cannot convince my correspondent. I am also satisfied that the earth has a second rotation, the pole of which is six degrees from the pole of the ecliptic, even though MR. LYNN and those gentlemen whose names he substitutes for proof and argument are unconvinced of the facts. I claim that such test questions as I have given are proofs. Not avoiding these questions, and copying the proceedings of the obstructionists of the past, who considered that when they stated that Ptolemy, Libra, Sizzi, and Co. were unconvinced that the earth had any movement whatever, they proved that it could not move, MR. LYNN claimed to instruct the readers of 'N. & Q.' that no change of climate from astronomical causes can occur during an entire revolution of the equinoxes. I claim to have proved that as a variation of twelve degrees in the arctic circle takes place during 15,000 years, astronomy can, and does, prove this change. It is not the first time in the history of astronomy that men have imagined the theories in which they believed were the laws of Nature. When a man can calculate the position of a star for a hundred years from one observation he may claim to know something. Can MR. LYNN do this? If he cannot, he has no claims to be a teacher as regards climatic changes from astronomical causes. Southsea. A. W. DRAYSON, Major-General. ROYAL POETS (7th S. x. 9, 132, 251, 355).-Some correspondents have stated doubts as to the authorship of the hymn "Veni Sancte Spiritus," which has usually been assigned to King Robert II. of France. It is, perhaps, not generally known that he has been credited with the authorship of another Pentecostal Sequence. Platina, in his Lives of the Popes' (under Gregory V.), says of him :— "Robert, the son and successor of the great Hugh, is much and deservedly praised for his courage, justice, modesty, and religion; for though he exercised hims very much in the art military, yet he found time so of to frequent the churches of God, and to celebrate Divine service, as if he had been in holy orders. He said to have made the hymn, 'Sancti Spíritus adsit no gratia'; and by these arts, not less powerful than arms, he gained the hearts of the people, and drew the honourable respects to his family which they had befo given to that of Charles the Great," Is there any sequence with this commenceme still in use in the Church of Rome? I find given at full length in the missal of Arbuthnot The first five lines are as follows: Sancti spiritus assit nobis gratia, Quæ corda nostra sibi faciat habitacula, R. M. SPENCE, M. A. Manse of Arbothnott, N.B. RICHARD OF CORNWALL (7th S. x. 467).-Hayla "is situated in the lower division of the hundre of Kiftsgate, at the foot of the range of hill which divides the Cotswold from the Vale part o the county, running from north-east to south-wes nearly the whole length of it. It stands two mile distant north-east from Winchcombe, ten eas from Tewkesbury, and seventeen north-east from Gloucester." Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in fulfilment of a vow, built a Cistercian monastery here in 1246 which was dedicated with much pomp on November 5, 1251. The arms of the founder were formerly in the hall window, and round them, "Ricard' Plantagenet semper augustus Fundator noster." He died at Berkhamsted, April 2, 1272. His heart was buried in the church of the Friars Minors in Oxford, and his body at Hayles. His wife, who died 1261, was buried here; and Edmund their son, Earl of Cornwall, was interred in this church in 1300 (Rudder's History of Gloucestershire,' pp. 487-8, Cirencester, 1779). ED. MARSHALL. The Earl is buried at Hales, or Hayles Abbey, which is near Winchcombe, in Gloucestershire, and is not Halesowen. His first wife, Isabel de Clare, lies at Beaulieu Abbey, her heart having been taken to the grave of her first husband (Gilbert, Earl of Pembroke) at Tewkesbury. The second wife, Sancha of Provence, was interred at Hales with her husband. The burial-place of the Her name and third wife, Beatrix, is not known. history are wholly uncertain. She was a German, and niece of the Archbishop of Cologne, but whose daughter she was seems never yet to have been satisfactorily ascertained. Some writers give her the name of Falkmont, some of Hohentetten. Her very marriage has been called in question; but this point is settled beyond doubt by the Close Rolls, which give her the titles of "Beatrix Regina Alemannia" and "Beatrix que fuit uxor Ricardi quondam Regis Alemannia" (Rot Claus. 56 Henry III., 4 Edward I.). She entered into litigation with her stepson, Earl Edmund, concerning the manor of Langeberg, in 1276; and the last mention of her in the English records is dated 1277. She probably either died or returned to Germany soon afterwards. There is another alternative possible-that she may have remarried in a lower station, so much to the displeasure of the king that her dower-lands were forfeited to the Crown; and the utter disappearance of her name so suddenly from the records seems to point either to this or death. The Chronicle of Hales Abbey (Harleian MS. 3725) has not a word to say of her after her marriage. HERMENTRUDE. [MR. THOS. H. BAKER refers to Sir Richard Colt Hoare's History of Modern Wiltshire,' "Hundred of Mere," p. 6. Other contributors are thanked for replies to the same effect as those which appear.] THE DROMEDARY (7th S. ix. 485; x. 36, 232). By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark when a query about the first camel in England is entered under the unnatural heading of The Dromedary'! Having stated that preliminary objection, let me say that the Emperor Frederick II., in the year 1235, as a token of his affection for Henry III., sent him unum camelum (see Matthew Paris, at very end of year cited). GEO. NEILSON. MANOR OF WYNG (7th S. x. 468).-There are two places bearing this name, one in Buckinghamshire, the other in Rutland. The former is no doubt meant, as the Penns were connected with the county of Bucks. The manor is well known from the saying (of which there are variations) :— Wing, Tring, and Ivinghoe, Hampden of Hampden did forego, For striking the Black Prince a blow, And glad was he to escape so. See' N. & Q.,' 4th S. vi. 277, 331, 428, 517. One story is that the person struck was Prince Henry, son of James I.; but this seems inconsistent with the grant of the manor by Henry VIII. to John W. E. BUCKLEY. Penne. John Newdigate, it having been part of the possessions belonging to the Abbey of St. Albans (Pat. 53 Henry VIII. p. 1). Sir Robert's grandson was created Baron Dormer of Wenge in 1615. CONSTANCE RUSSELL. Swallowfield. There is a manor and a parish of Wing in Rutland. At the time of the suppression of the monasteries the manor of Wing belonged to the monastery of Thorney, co. Camb.; the Marquis of Exeter is the present lord of the manor. Jos. PHILLIPS. Stamford. [Other replies are acknowledged.] CHURCH AT GREENSTEAD (7th S. x. 208, 297, 371, 476).-A doubt is expressed about the use of chestnut. The books generally say that the roof of the great schoolroom at Westminster School is made of chestnut, and is of the thirteenth century. The tables in the College Hall also are said to be of the same wood, taken from the wreck of a ship belonging to the Spanish Armada, and bearing marks of shot. W. C. B. "NO PENNY, NO PATERNOSTER" (7th S. x. 308, 434). This may possibly have arisen from the price charged for a prayer, or rather prayers, offered up by the parish parson or other cleric; but I think not. St. Peter's pence, gathered for the Pope of Rome, were not necessarily coppers. Both words in this saying seem to me to have been chosen for the alliteration dear to our ancestors, which, like a rhyme, made the phrase easy of remembrance. Hence, I think, this proverbial jingle was chosen to express what might otherwise have been expressed as no payment, no prayer." BR. NICHOLSON. DAVID ELGINBROD'S EPITAPH (7th S. x. 486).— I gave this epitaph, with a variant, in a collection of 'Canting Epitaphs,' 6th S. xi. 151, but I do not remember any discussion on the subject occurring in the columns of N. & Q.'; also I do not remember ever meeting it with the name of David; I have always seen John. The reason why it could not be traced in the Index is that it was buried under the heading of "Inscriptions." Any similarity, however, that there may be thought to be between the Elginbrod epitaph and the sublimely intentioned passage quoted by MR. CARMICHAEL from 'All for Jesus' can only be considered the similarity of a parody. R. H. BUSK. LEATHER AND ATHEISM (7th S. x. 385).-It may not be uninteresting or out of place to draw attention, in reference to the remark of MR. BIRCH that "Cobblers have always been a contemplative craft," to the utterances of one of the characters-a cobbler and an astrologer combined-in Edward, Lord Lytton's, ever interesting novel of English town |