but the solution is not there given; the passages seem to refer to an uncomfortable figure of Mercury, misnamed the Devil at one time I believe, over Lincoln College, Oxford; and a man out of sorts or in the "blues" was said to "look like the

Queries with Answers.

ST. DECUMAN.-Collinson, in his History of Somerset, under the parish of St. Decuman's, citing "Martyrolog. Capgrave, Cressy's Church History, Camden, and Regist. Abbat. Glaston., says that it

is

SALISBURY TRAIN. WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL. Is this cathedral specially sacred to SS. Peter and James? If not, what is the meaning of the device, two keys crossed by a sword, which occurs so frequently in its decorations? I also observed it was used as one of the masons' marks mentioned by MR. HUTCHINSON (3rd S. xii. 431.) R. F. W. S. WITNEY BLANKETS. On August 25, 1868, the members of the North Oxfordshire Archæological Society, who had a field day in the neighbourhood of Witney, Oxfordshire, were shown, by the politeness of Messrs. Early & Son, the blanket manufacturers of that place, a collection of relics of the dissolved corporation of blanket weavers of Witney, consisting of the charter granted to the corporation by Queen Anne, an oil-painting of the same queen, the corporate seal, a large pewter tankard, a pewter venison-dish, and several spoons (all marked with the corporate arms), and several account-books and minute-books, the latter containing many highly restrictive bye-laws as to size and weight of Witney blankets. The old blankethall, having been used as a temperance-hall, is now converted into a brewery, but retains externally its old features, and is still surmounted by a cupola, clock, and bell. Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." refer me to any existing corporation having the power to control or modify the staple manufacture of the place? I know of none.

WILLIAM WING.

THE YOUNGER PLINY'S EPISTLE TO TRAJAN. — Has the celebrated letter (the ninety-seventh of the tenth book) on the punishment of the Christians ever received the honour (to which from its great importance it is certainly entitled) of being separately edited with notes or illustrations? I imagine not. But as this letter is substantially a "Christian writing," it surely might not inappropriately be included in the Ante-Nicene Library now being issued by the enterprising publishers, Messrs. Clarke. If this hint be acted on, I would suggest that the entire original and English be printed in parallel columns." M. Y. L.

[For the various English translations of Pliny's Epistles and Panegyrics, see Bohn's Lowndes, p. 1885. ED.]

rods; that he was nourished by a cow, which of her own will followed him whithersoever he went; that his head, being cut off by a pagan inhabitant, who came behind him as he was at his devotions, was by the body conveyed away and washed in a spring wherein he used to bathe, and that his reliques were at length interred near the same spot with great sepulchral honours."

In Murray's Handbook to Somerset, the saint is said to have crossed over on a cow. I have no doubt but that your learned correspondent F. C. H. can give more exact information concerning him, and tell me with what emblem he is usually represented. I regret that I cannot consult for myself the authorities cited by Mr. Collinson.

G. W. M.

[Decumanus, or Degeman, a holy person, of whom Cressy says that he was "born of noble parents in the south-western parts of Wales, and forsaking his country the more freely to give himself to mortification and devotion, he passed the river Severn upon a hurdle of rods,

and retired into a vast mountainous solitude covered with shrubs and briars, where he spent his life in the repose of consolation, till in the end he was slain by a murderer." According to Camden (Britannia, i. 55, ed. 1789) he was murdered at a place called St. Decombe's in Somersetshire, where a church was afterwards raised to his memory. He is the patron saint of Rosecrowther, in Pembrokeshire, and of Llandegeman, a chapel which formerly existed in the parish of Llanvihangel Cwmdu,

Breconshire. He died A.D. 706, and was commemorated Aug. 27, or according to the Britannia Sancta, i. 145, on March 1.]

SIR DENNER STRUTT.-This gentleman was created a baronet on March 5, 1641, and is described as of Warley Hall, Essex. His first wife was Dorothy, daughter of Francis Stasmore, Esq. of Forlesworth, Leicestershire; his second, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Woodhouse of Kimberley; and his third, Mary, daughter and heir of Thomas Chapman, Esq. of London, who died Aug. 4, 1654, aged thirty-two. Sir Denner was one of the cavaliers present at the siege of Colchester, and one of the loyal gentlemen who signed the royal memorial at Chelmsford. His coat of arms had never been allowed by the college. Some authorities suppose that the family were originally merchants in Gracechurch Street,

but in his will he does not mention the name of a single relation, with the exception of his own immediate family. Could any one give me information about the ancestors of Sir Denner Strutt ? JOHN PIGGOT, JUN., F.S.A.

[The ancestry of Sir Denner Strutt is thus noticed in Burke's Extinct Baronetage, edition 1844, page 511 : "In 1240, when a charter of freedom was obtained by the Helvetic Confederacy, Godfried Strutz de Hinkelred, of Unter Walden, chief of the Swiss Auxiliaries, received the honour of knighthood, but in subsequent dissensions, being upon the less fortunate side, was obliged to seek an asylum in England, where it appears he took up his permanent abode, and from him descended Sir Denner Strutt, Bart. of Little Warley Hall. Sir Denner's sister, Amy, married William Dawtrey, Esq. of Moore House, whose joint representatives are John Fane, Esq. of Wormesley, and John Taylor Gordon, M.D."]

JOHN BILL.-Who was Bill, a London bookbinder employed by Bodley in searching for books, &c. in Italy ? R. F. W. S.

[This person was, no doubt, the celebrated John Bill, who commenced business as a bookbinder, stationer, and publisher, but became better known as the king's printer whilst in partnership with Bonham Norton, circa A.D. 1617-1627. Lady Raleigh, writing to Lady Carew in reference to Sir Walter's books, says, "I was promised them all again, but have not received one back. If there were any of these books, God forbid but Sir Thomas [Wilson] should have them for his Majesty, if they were rare, and not to be had elsewhere; but they tell me that Bill, the bookbinder or stationer, hath the very same." (Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series.) John Bill died on May 3, 1630, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was buried at St. Ann's, Blackfriars. His monumental inscription is printed in Strype's Stow, lib. iii. p. 181. He married Anne, the daughter of Dr. Thomas Mountford, famous for her skill in music, of whom some account is given in "N. & Q." 3rd S. x. 475.]

GOLD LOCKET.-I have recently obtained from the sale of Mr. Redfern's collection at Warwick a small gold locket, measuring about 1 inch long and 14 wide, of an irregular octagon shape. On the back is an inscription in raised Roman letters under a glass :

get any explanation of what it represents. Can you or any of your readers assist me? A. W.

[This is one of the many memorials of the jubilee held in honour of George the Third having reigned fifty years. Numerous medals were struck upon the occasion, and we have a strong impression that such medals were worn by many people on the day.]

"HOGEN MOGEN," OR "HOGAN MOGAN.". These words, I believe, are a corruption of some Dutch original, forming part of the title of the Dutch Parliament of old, and meaning "their high mightinesses." They occur once in Hudibras. Are they to be met with elsewhere? and am I right in my belief as to their meaning and origin? H. K.

[Butler (Hudibras, part iii. canto 1, lines 1439-40), speaking of Ralpho, says —

"But I have sent him for a token

To your low-country Hogen-Mogen." These words are a corruption of Hoogmógende, or high and mighty, the title of the States General of the United Provinces.]

BENTING-TIME.-Whence comes

"When the dove goes a benting

The farmer is lamenting"?

What is the meaning of "benting"? Bents, in the northern dialect, means coarse grass.

CORNUB. [The above lines read like a proverb, similar to another old one:

"The pigeon never knoweth woe,

Until she doth a benting go."

Different kinds of hard, dry, coarse grasses, reeds and rushes, are indiscriminately called by the name of bents ; and also the grounds, or pastures, on which they grow. Bent-grass is considered by Lightfoot to be the Agrostis, of which there are several species. Benting-time is when pigeons and doves feed on bents, before peas are ripe.]

NORTHUMBERLAND SHILLING.-Why is this name applied to a particular coin? In what year, and for what purpose, was the Northumberland shilling issued from the Mint? An early answer will much oblige Авива.

[In 1763 shillings to the amount of 1007. were struck for the purpose of being distributed amongst the populace, when the Earl of Northumberland made his first

In front, also under glass, is what purports to be the portrait in question. It appears to me, as far as I can make out without removing the glass, to be a line-engraving, chiefly in short touches, crossed at right angles, in which the profile is made out with the assistance of a little green and brown paint.

I imagine, from its general appearance, that this is one of a number of such lockets, but I cannot

land, from which circumstance they still go by the name of Northumberland shillings. They have the king's bust in profile to the right, hair long, laureate; in armour, with a slight drapery fastened on the shoulder by a brooch, GEORGIVS III. DEI GRATIA. Reverse in type and legend, exactly like the shillings of his grandfather. These pieces are dated 1763, and are rare. Pinkerton's Medals, ii. 72, 2nd edit.; Leake's Account of English Money, p. 4; Ruding's Coinage, ii. 84; and Hawkins's Silver Coins, p. 244.]

"It perhaps may have been found difficult or troublesome to watch the movement of a horse's legs; but a very little practice will enable any body to verify what we are about to state: by keeping near the side of a horse that is walking, it will be easily seen that, immediately after the raising of either of the hind legs from the ground, the fore leg of the corresponding side is also raised, so that the latter leaves the ground just before the former touches it. If the fore legs be then watched, it will be seen that, immediately after the movement of either of these, the hind leg upon the opposite side is put in action, so that the order of succession appears to be in walking as numbered in fig. 3. [Not needing the figure, I substitute the following diagram, showing the order of motion in each leg:

Tail

1

3

2

Head

4

1 & 3 representing the hind legs, and 2 & 4 the fore legs.] "If the horse be now examined from a short distance, it will be seen that, when he is walking freely, the successive movements of the legs are at equal intervals of time, and that the muscular force of one limb only is brought into action at the same moment.

"In trotting, the action is of course quicker, and a less resistance will, as might be expected, cause the horse to move his legs at two intervals instead of at four equal intervals of time: indeed, a horse accustomed to go in harness generally acquires the habit of that action. There is this striking difference between trotting and walking; in walking, we have seen that the interval between the movement of the legs on the same side was less than the other interval of time: in trotting, on the contrary, the legs, situated diagonally, or at opposite corners, move almost. simultaneously. Owing to the velocity and the momentum which the body acquires in consequence of that velocity, in trotting fast, the successive impulses are less distinctly perceptible, and the movement more continued and uniform than in a slow trot or in walking.

"In galloping the movement is totally different: the fore legs are thrown forward nearly simultaneously, and the hind legs brought up quickly and nearly together. It is, in fact, a succession of leaps, by far the greatest interval of time elapsing while the legs are extended after the leap is taken this is the position, therefore, which catches the eye, and which must be represented in a drawing to

produce the effect of a horse in a gallop, although it is the moment when the animal is making no exertion. The canter is to the gallop very much what the walk is to the trot, though probably a more artificial pace. The exertion is much less, the spring less distant, and the feet come to the ground in more regular succession: it is a pace of ease, quite inconsistent with any exertion of draught."

There is an omission here of the amble, a favourite action with the dignitaries of the Romish Church. This motion may be best seen in the giraffe, the two left legs moving at the same time, then the two right legs.

The quotation from Pollux (Onomasticon, I. xi. 8. 193) objects to the evaλλà motion that is, crosswise alternate, meaning the trot. I believe no example from Greek sculpture can be produced of this action; but we have abundant evidence therefrom of the walk, amble, canter and gallop. They had no stirups or spurs. See the frieze of the Parthenon at Athens, and the horses of Venice. He likes the longer and varying stride, διὰ πολλοῦ Tà σKÉλn Tibels, kal diapépwv-that is, the canter or gallop; the worst, he says, is that where the distance of the legs in standing is the maximum of their stride, κακὸς δέ, εἰ τὴν διάστασιν ἔχει τῶν σκελῶν is μeyiorny. We have this ugly motion in the cart or draught-horse when put into a trot: it is something like a four-legged table set in motion, without the power of bending and stretching the legs.

It must not be forgotten that there is a very fast trot, when the motion is easy, and when there is no time or need to rise in the stirrups. Butchers' boys, with a basket of meat, often force their horses into this action.

The trot is, in point of jolting, greatly aggravated in the camel. Here we have the motion évaλλát, alternately in the direction from the left. hind leg to the right fore leg, then from the right hind leg to the left fore leg, with a shake between each alternate shift of the line of direction. This motion would be characterised by a seaman as "pitching and tossing." Both motions of the ship at sea and "ship of the desert" soon become familiar by use. T. J. BUCKTON.

BRAT.

(4th S. ii. 143, 181.)

I observe several letters about brat, showing that it is still a common provincial word. Of this I was very well aware, having read many provincial glossaries through from end to end. also see the suggestion that the Polish brat is the English brother, which is so self-evident that it seemed to me hardly worth while to say so; it is also the Latin frater, which is still more like it, with the exception of the initial letter. A derivation from the root of brood is put forward; but this is the very one which the Edinburgh Review

ance, the head of the house was willing to increase his own consequence by adopting, so to speak, a promising branch. Changing of surnames is by no means a modern invention. If there is any truth in a curious story told by the late Sir Thomas Dick Lauder regarding a personage, "Gibbon More Cuming of Glencairnaig," and his mode of adopting would-be Cumings, by baptism in his hen-trough! then many soi-disant Cumings probably exist. (Sir T. D. Lauder's Scenes and Legends in the N. of Scotland.) This traditionary "Gibbon" is possibly the "Gilbertus de Glencharny" who, on Jan. 18, 1362, received from David Bruce a charter of the barony of Glencharny, in the shire of Inverness and earldom of Moray, which, failing heirs male of Gilbert's own body, was to descend to "Duncan Fraser and Cristian his spouse, sister of the foresaid Gilbert, and the longest liver of them and the lawful heirs male of their bodies, whom all failing, then to Gilbert's lineal heirs," &c. (Reg. Mag. Sig. p. 24, No. 20.)

I take leave to correct C. E. D., who falls into a very common error, in speaking of the Earl of Fife. There is no such title as this. The nobleman in question holds the Irish title of "Earl Fife," dating but from 1759, and conferred on his ancestor, the miserly Lord Braco, in consequence of an asserted descent from the old Macduffs, which is very problematical.

The Cummings of Culter were, as I imagined, a family of some antiquity. In the Special Retours for Aberdeenshire, the following entry oc

curs:

"Oct. 1, 1549.-Alexander Cumming hæres Joannis Cumming de Coulter-Cumming patris, in terris et baronia de Coulter-Cumming."

The arguments of HERMENTRUDE (p. 210) make out a strong prima facie case for the identity of "Margaret, widow of John Comyn of Badenoch," and Margaret Wake de Lydel, Countess of Kent." The wife of the elder John Comyn (Bruce's rival) was Johanna de Valence, younger coheiress of Pembroke, and no other John Comyn of Badenoch is known to record, in the fourteenth century, than himself and his son. But I regret I can at present refer to no authorities on the question. ANGLO-SCOTUS.

"L'HISTOIRE POÉTIQUE."

(4th S. i. 459, 564, 614.)

Your correspondents on the bibliography of this work appear not to be aware that all the works, both of Gautruche and Jouvancy, are enumerated in Bibliothèque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, par Augustin et Alois de Backer, 1853. Under the latter title, Jouvancy,

there is a paragraph furnishing one of the subjects on which

"Grammatici certant, et adhuc sub judice lis est." students, together with a few quotations from This will perhaps be acceptable to philological other writers, especially from one, edited by Scioppius, of whom it has been said:

his wonderful knowledge of the progress, proprieties, and "His great power was in the ferocity of his satire, and resources of the Latin language; in which he was, probably, not exceeded by any one since it ceased to be the living tongue of Italy."-Worthington's Diary and Correspondence, edited by James Crossley, Esq.

"L'abbé Valart dit que le P. Pomey, dans la traduc(il veut parler de son Pantheum mythicum), met: Detur tion qu'il a faite de l'Histoire poétique du P. Gautruche pulcherrimæ (à la plus belle, en parlant de la pomme d'or), et non detur pulchriori, comme le dit le P. Jouvancy, qui fait ici un solécisme selon M. Valart, lequel prétend qu'il faut pulcherrimæ, puisqu'il s'agit de trois personnes et non de deux. Il y a ici au moins deux erreurs. Le Pantheum mythicum n'est point une traduction de l'ouvrage de P. Gautruche. En second lieu, celui-ci [P. Pomey] a mis detur pulchriori, comme le P. Jouvancy; on pourrait même dire qu'il y a une troisième faute. Il est vrai que Laurent Valle trouve à redire à ces phrases de l'Écriture: Minor fratrum; Honordrait donc blâmer aussi Pline, qui dit: Animalium fortior; abilium omnium; Major horum est charitas; mais il fauomnium triumphorum majorem: et Cicéron, qui selon Saturnius, a dit; Cæterarum rerum præstantior, quoiqu'on se serve plus généralement du superlatif: aussi le P. Fabre a-t-il mis: Detur pulcherrimæ. (Note communiquée par M. Adry en 1808)," pp. 416, 417.

The passage here referred to is in the first book of Laurentius Valla, De Linguæ Latina Elegantiis,

c. xiii. :

"Ut charitas est major cæteris, ita cæterarum duarum (ut opinor) altera alteram superat; raroque reperitur numerus trium, ubi non potius superlatio cadat, quæ tres diversas exigit quantitates, quam comparatio. Ideoque Græci contenti fuerunt dicere comparationem ad unum, superlationem ad plura, quasi omnia inter se aliud ab alio distantia. Quin ipse Priscianus quanquam dissentit [lib. iii. p. 25] tamen paulo post quasi imprudens quod negaverat, confessus est, prior referri ad unum, primus ad plura. Quod antea Diomedes, Donatus et

Servius dixerant."

"Ex his tam multis hæc velim colligas: Primum Comparativum (prior) inter plura sui generis habere locum, atque adeo cum genitivo plurali inter plura sui, vel alieni generis; deinde errasse Priscianum, Diomedem, Donatum, Servium, et Laurentium, qui comparativum, Prior, de duobus dici tantum præceperunt: errasse etiam Laurentium, et eum sequutos, quum inculcant comparativum inter duo tantum regere genitivum pluralem."Minerva, sive de Causis Latina Linguæ Commentarius, cui accedunt animadversiones et nota Gasparis Scioppii, Amstelodami, 1664, cap. x.

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.