Richard Hale. Waltham Abbey. near this town before he embraced the Catholic "NON DEERIT ALTER AUREUS” (vol. i., p. 85). faith. The eminent Philip Doddridge, son of the -The pivot-words in this sentence, and on which Nonconformist rector of Shepperton, co. Midd., its whole force and meaning turns, are alter and received a great part of his education at a private aureus. Taking these, not in their literal, but in school in this town. Nathaniel Cotton, physician a sense somewhat remote from, but still akin to, and poet, kept a house for the reception of lunatics their primary signification, we shall easily come to in this town. The following list of persons were the true interpretation, for instance, alter as donors to the parish of St. Alban's :-Richard Ran-marking similarity of one object with another, aureus shaw, Thomas Lathbury, Thomas Hall, Richard as denoting physical and mental excellence. Examples Plat, Robert Skelton, Thomas Gawen, W. Smyth, of the usage are not rare. Thus of the former we Anna Goldsmith, Bray Norris, Jane Nicholas, and have alterego, my second-self, and "pater ipse, W. WINTERS. Amilcar, Mars alter" ("Livy" xxi., 10), my father Amilcar himself, another Mars; of the latter"et vires, animumque, moresque Aureos educit ad astra," Horace, "Carm.," iv. 2, 22, 23, extols his strength, his magnamity, and splendid virtues. With these words so rendered the English would come out, another, or a successor, as worthy as himself shall not be wanting to him. The motto, most likely, has a history, probably known to your correspondent. Of this I can say nothing beyond conjecture, which is that it may have been given, as a mark of honour to some member of the family for some signal act of bravery or service, but at the same time, so worded as to the encourage the conviction that there would not be wanting to him, and to his house, others equally distinguished with himself. The word governed by the verb, I take to be a dative pronoun, mihi, illi, or ipsi, as the case may require, that is, as to whether the person is saying it of himself, or another is saying it of him. I feel pretty sure that the above is the correct translation, and hope it may be satisfactory to A Collateral Don." EDMUND TEW, M.A. it. Patching Rectory, Arundel. 66 CÆSAR'S DEBARCATIONS ON THE ENGLISH COAST (vol. i., pp. 52, 81).—I may inform "E. J. K." that Professor (now Sir G. B.) Airy did not write a book on the matter. If he did, I never heard of He wrote an essay or paper in the Archalogia, vol. xxxiv., 1852, entitled, "On the place of Julius Cæsar's departure from Gaul for the Invasion of Britain, and the place of his landing in Britain, &c." On page 82, line 3, of LONG AGO, is an error. The name of the place is "Wissant" always, not "Wiessant or Ouessant." Mr. Harris has used my first edition of Cæsar, and not the second, in which there are remarks on Wissant, pp. 278, 285. I think that there are not "evidently the remains of a harbour" at Wissant; but I do not deny that there may have been some kind of harbour in Cæsar's time. I do not, however, admit that there was a harbour large enough to contain Cæsar's fleet. Everything is sanded up except a passage in the dunes, through which a small stream now runs into the sea. Also, Cæsar did not want a harbour. He drew up his ships on the shore of Britain where he landed, and he could do the THE WATCH AT SOMERSET HOUSE (vol. i., p. 52). same on the extensive sands of Wissant. Mr. -I frequently saw the watch dial at Somerset Harris further says "There is also (at Wissant) a House in the years 1829-33, in the situation deRoman encampment, to which I am surprised that scribed by your correspondent; namely, between Mr. Long has not alluded." I did not speak of two of the first floor windows, near the southern it in my first edition of Cæsar, because I had not end of the eastern side of the quadrangle. I must, seen it. I have seen it since and spoken of it in however, add that I can say nothing in confirmamy second edition of Cæsar, in a note (p. 285), tion of the romantic story which then used to be headed "Wissant." I do not believe that this place, told of how it got there, for I then learned from one which the people now name Mont Coupé, or the very likely to be well informed, Mr. Dent, the wellCut Mountain, or Fort César, is a Roman en- known chronometer maker, that the watch dial campment. I believe that it is a place of defence had been affixed when I saw it, as a test object for made by the Morini, and if it as old as Cæsar's telescopic purposes to be seen from the other time, Labienus, who had charge of Itius (Wissant) side of the quadrangle, I think by some departwhile Cæsar was in Britain on his second expedi- ment of the Navy Office. EDWARD SOLLY. tion, may have used it; but it is not large enough ANONYMOUS LATIN PROVERB (vol. i., pp. 51, 83). to have contained all his men. There is in-I will, as briefly as I can, say what I have to say Appendix i. to vol. iv. of my "Decline of the Ro- anent the misquotation of Euripides. I felt when man Republic," a discussion of Cæsar's two inva- I was copying the Greek line it was a most unsions of Britain. But I have said little of Wissant there; and nothing about Airy's opinion of Cæsar landing at Pevensey. It is impossible to reconcile Airy's opinion with Cæsar's narrative. GEORGE LONG. metrical one, but having no Thesaurus at hand, I was not aware that the word àñoppevoî has no existence in Greek. If Mr. Tew will refer to the edition of Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (or, other editions, I imagine) from which I quoted, he will find that from the words "Perhaps no scrap of Latin," &c., to "a Greek Iambic," is a quotation of a footnote by Malone, although not correctly marked as one in LONG AGO, probably, I omitted to place inverted commas after the word "Iambic." The Greek line, as quoted, must have horrified your classical correspondent, and I am greatly obliged to him for his mild criticism. I can scarcely feel that I am not to blame, although I only quoted the words of another. As regards demento, Mr. Tew cites an instance of its use by Lactantius; but am I wrong in saying it is not to be found in Ovid, Virgil, or Horace? Your correspondent, Mr. Wallis, says that the word "seems to be a coinage of very obvious derivation, but of no authority." FREDK. RULE. THE ANTIQUITY OF SMOKING (vol. i., p. 19).The answer to the original question overlooks the most complete and varied collection concerning smoking ever yet formed, viz., the museum of pipes, snuff-boxes, &c., &c., collected by Mr. William Bragge, F.S.A., of Sheffield, during the last twenty years. This includes at least six thousand pipes of all sorts, not merely costly or curious pipes, but pipes of every date and from all parts of the world where any form of smoking has been known. There are pipes from walrus-tooth from the Esquimaux, and of gourds from Central Africa, pipes from Norway and from the Falkland Isles, pipes from the grave-mounds of Ohio, and from China and Japan. Not only pipes, but rappes (graters) for snuff, snuff-boxes, hundreds of tobacco jars, and wrapping papers, scores of samples of tobacco, and ancient and modern means of getting fire, and some hundreds of rare and curious books about tobacco form this very wonderful collection. Not only to "lovers of the weed" is this great gathering of the "pipes of all peoples" interesting, but the specimens are valuable as examples of the industry and art of all ages and all lands. Mr. Bragge has, I believe, generously lent the larger part of his collection for exhibition at South Kensington this year, and thus "Tabac " will find that I have very much understated its interest and value. SAMUEL TIMMINS. Birmingham. counts of her execution, it is more probable that it was played to amuse the people who thronged the courts of the castle without; and it is a remarkable fact that this air, which, according to the slow time arranged, produces the most solemn and pathetic effect conceivable, is discovered, when played fast, to be the old popular tune called Jumping Joan,' invariably played in those days, and sung with appropriate words to brutalise the rabble at the burning of a witch. The adagio arrangement, however, proves that if this detestable exercise of malice were decreed by Mary Stuart's foes to embitter her last moments, it was defeated by the band performing it in the solemn style of church music, as a funeral march." The music was published, I believe, for the first time, in Once a Week, January 30, 1869, where the writer (the Editor, Mr. E. S. Dallas), stated that he had communicated this among other local traditions to Miss Strickland when she was publishing the volumes of her "Mary Stewart." SPARKS HENDERSON WILLIAMS, F.R.H.S. 18, Kensington-crescent. ROUND CHURCHES (vol. i., p. 85).-As the Knights Templars always built their churches after the model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, I feel no doubt that if they be unusually dark, they were made so by design, and would in this, as in every other feature, be close imitations of the original. Not having been at Jerusalem myself, I cannot speak personally as to whether the Church of the Sepulchre be more than commonly dark or not, but from the description of it in books of travel, I should certainly judge it to be so, and this from the number of lamps which are always spoken of as burning in various parts of the building. I would suggest to "Th. B." that he cannot do better that to consult Dean Stanley's book on "Palestine." EDMUND TEW, M.A. THE ELEANORE CROSSES (vol. i., p. 85).-Mr. John Abel's work on the Eleanore Crosses was published by Messrs. Abel and Sons, of Northampton, in large folio, illustrated by photographs, shortly after the death of the Prince Consort. J. TOM BURGESS. MARCH PLAYED AT THE EXECUTION OF MARY COWPER AT ST. ALBAN'S (vol. i., p. 85).—The QUEEN OF SCOтs (vol. i., p. 85).-Miss Agnes poet Cowper went to St. Alban's in the year 1763. Strickland has mentioned the tradition to which His friends had procured his appointment as Clerk your correspondent, "Avalonensis," refers in her of the Journals in the House of Lords, in the beMary Stewart," the seventh volume of "The lief that his personal attendance would not be Lives of the Queens of Scotland." A footnote to required-but a parliamentary dispute rendered it page 487 (the third edition, 1859), says :-" An necessary that he should appear at the bar of the adagio piece of old music, of a similar character to House. His terrors on this occasion arose to such "The Death March in Saul," has been lately dis- a height that they utterly overwhelmed his reason; covered in MS. at Oxford, with a statement that it his great diffidence made him conceive that whatwas performed on Queen Mary's entrance into the ever knowledge he might previously acquire, it hall at Fotheringhay; but as there is no mention would all forsake him at the bar of the of music in any of the minute contemporary ac-, House-his mind gave way, and he was Queries. LINES QUOTED BY TOM NASH.-Can any of your correspondents inform me of the original source of the following:"Go from my garden, go, under the cruel necessity of relinquishing the prospect of a station so severely formidable to a frame of such singular sensibility. Finding it impossible to restore tranqulity to his mind, his friends determined to place him under the care of Dr. Cotton, at St. Alban's; an eminent physician, and one who being also a scholar and a For there no flowers for thee do grow." poet, was eminently fitted for the charge. From Which I find introduced by Tom Nash into his December, 1763, to the following July, Cowper "Lenten Stuff, or the Description and first Prolaboured under the severest sufferings of mental creation and Increase of the town of Great Yardepression; the skilful care of Dr. Cotton then mouth. London: 1599." The context is—“ bidbegan to tell upon him, and the indescribable ding her (as it runs in the old song)—go," &c. load of religious despondency was gradually removed. In June, 1765, Cowper was sufficiently recovered to leave St. Alban's, and went to reside for a time at Huntingdon. For further details see "Hayley's Life of Cowper," 1803, i. EDWARD SOLLY. PERHAPS "Quid pro quo" does not recollect that the poet was placed under the care of Dr. Cotton, who kept a house for the reception of lunatic patients at St. Alban's, on the 7th of December, 1763. Cowper quitted St. Alban's for Huntingdon on the 17th of June, 1763. See life of Cowper in the Aldine edition of the Poets; probably other lives would give further particulars. HENRY W. HENFREY, F.R. H.S., &c. "BESSIE BELL AND MARY GRAY" (vol. i., pp. 49, 78). In my desire to closely follow the children's amusement, I did not deem it necessary to say that Derbyshire folks knew aught of the sad fate of Bessie Bell and Mary Gray. In the face, however, of the very interesting notes by our friends from over the border, I am glad that my former note said so little. I was taught to say the rhyme in the children's game thus:— "Betsy Bell and Mary Gray Were two bonnie lasses, And covered it o'er with rashes." The village children altered it (or had it altered for "I canna chose between ye twa, The ballad, as given by Thomas Ross, scarcely CHARLES HINDLEY. Rose Hill Terrace, Brighton. "TO HELL THE BUILDING."-Will any of your numerous readers tell me in what counties of England to land to cover in with a roof is "to hell the building;" and thatchers are styled "helliers?" FREDERICK RULE. SANENESS.-Is this word to be found in any sixteenth century dictionary? or can your readers supply me with an instance of the use of the word by one of our writers of that period? Ashford, Kent. FREDERICK RULE. SHEBEEN. In the North of England the word "shebeen" denotes a house, generally one of illrepute, where spirituous and other inebriating liquors can be obtained at any hour of the day or night in defiance of the licensing laws. I shall be glad to know the etymology of the word "shebeen." THOMAS RATCLIFFE. AN ANCIENT NEWSPAPER (vol. i., p. 92).—The Stamford Mercury, of February 14, 1873, noticing the re-issue of the Reading Mercury on its 150th birthday, says :-" Of the 1,500 newspapers published in Great Britain, ten only have been in existence more than a century and a-half, and of these the Stamford Mercury is the oldest." There is still a doubt as to the exact age of the "oldest" newspaper. Is it reserved for LONG AGO to solve the vexed question-the date of the first publication of the Stamford Mercury? THOMAS RATCLIFFE. DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.-"The Christian Sketch Book," by J. Burns, sixth edition, London, 1830, part ii., contains what purports to be the copy of a letter which the duke, in prospect of his approaching dissolution, addressed to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Isaac Barrow; and apart from its intrinsic value to the world, as the dying testimony of an eminent profligate to the powers of religion, it seems to have possessed at that time a special and peculiar interest as a "Sequel to a Manuscript "-words which from being italicised under Buckingham's signature, were probably written by the recipient, who was his particular friend. It is respecting this special feature that I am solicitous for information, and I shall feel grateful to any reader of LONG AGO who will be good enough to elucidate this MS. reference for me. Farnworth, Bolton. ROYLE ENTWISLE. formed of native arms collected in the colony, among which were some oblong shields with a succession of border lines in various colours. The late Mr. Christy (a great collector of native war implements, who had just presented a fine collection to the Museum of St. Petersburg), called my attention to an identically similar (corresponding in every particular of shape and ornamentation) set of shields in the African Court, the succession of colours in the borders being entirely to match, as if they were all made from one pattern? The obvious inference would be that they are made GREEK PATERÆ FROM INDIA.-In the Times of somewhere or other for export and "trafficker" March 18th, the Indian correspondent wrote from with native savages, but I am assured, so far as Calcutta, and stated a fact which I imagine worth Australia is concerned, that they are found in the a place in LONG AGO; viz., "The sons of the possession of "interior" tribes, who have had no ruler of Badakspan told Wood, when on his way to previous communication with outsiders, and that the source of the Oxus, that they were descendants the natives have a ready knack of making them of Alexander the Great, and they gave Dr. Lord, and "scooping" the inside to fit the arm, and that his companion, two Greek patera of silver, which the very nature of the pigments used for the colourare now in the India Office Library." I would ask, ing is a secret known only among themselves. have any of your readers seen these? and is there anything worth noting respecting them? H. M. WILKINSON. STEVENAGE, HERTS.- Driving into this moribund but pretty place, from Welwyn, I noticed on the off-side of the old turnpike-road, just before you come to the town, six large grassy mounds. The local tradition is that his Satanic Majesty brought the earth from a neighbouring wood, where, it is said, six corresponding pits may be seen, with a mound in a line with them, where he dropped his last load, which he had intended for a seventh mound. The story is of the same family as that of the "Devil's Dyke;" but I would like to know whether these road-side mounds have ever been opened or examined by intelligent inquirers? ROADSTER. STEPNEY CHURCH.-I have seen it stated more than once that in the parish church of St. Dunstan's, Stepney, there is a stone bearing an inscription, the first line of which is, "Of Carthage great I was a stone." I have, on two separate visits, carfully examined the ancient church, but can find no trace of such an inscription, nor anyone in the neighbourhood intelligent enough to afford me any assistance, although an official to whom I was directed said "There was something of the kind somewhere about the church." I should be glad to know, through the medium of LONG Aco, if there be any foundation for the statement. SPECIAL COMMISSIONER. Restorations. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. - Excepting the pavement, the restoration of the Lady Chapel of this Cathedral has at length been completed. The decorative painting on the roof of the choir has also been finished. The refitting of the choir and the restoration of the eastern transept and the choir aisles are next to be proceeded with—all of which work will be commenced forthwith, a sub-committee having been appointed during the past week to obtain information and report upon the character and arrangement of the ancient fittings. Lord Eldon has recently given a donation of £500. Of the Restoration Fund £558 11s. 9d. remains in hand, and of the Hamilton Memorial Fund £2,694 2s. 3d. Research and Discovery. DISCOVERY OF A SARCOPHAGUS.-The Rev. Robert B. Roe thus describes the recent discovery of a stone sarcophagus, or coffin, in the churchyard of Melbury Osmond :-"In digging a grave for one of our oldest and most respected inhabitants, for whom this particular spot had been for years reserved as being near her relatives, at a depth of about eighteen inches from the surface a large flat stone was discovered, to which my attenCIVITAS. tion was called, and, expecting from its appearance ABORIGINAL IMPLEMENTS OF WAR.-Can any of and position that it formed the cover of a stone the readers of LONG AGO account for the following coffin, I had the earth carefully excavated around, remarkable coincidence? As special Commissioner and the lid, with a cross (in relief) the whole length for an Australian Colony at the International of the cover was found. The lid itself was in Exhibition of 1862, I had in my court a "trophy," three pieces, and barely covered the coffin, which are Esculapius and Hygeia. The legs of Æsculapius were found broken off, also three fragments of the arm of Hygeia, holding a cup, into which the serpent descending from her left shoulder dips its head. Of this serpent five pieces also have been dug up. measures six feet nine inches in length, and is two feet five inches wide at the head, and one foot eight inches at the foot. The coffin is a massive one, of Hamhill stone, ten inches deep, a place for the head being formed in it, as is usual. The earth had found its way in at different places, but there was nothing else in the coffin with the excep- HORRIBLE DISCOVERY IN PARIS.-A singular tion of two small pieces of bone, and a piece of discovery has been made at the old Conciergerie lead, about as large as a shilling. The cover is in Paris. At the Court of Cassation fire had deformed of conglomerate stone, which, it is suggested, stroyed two out of the tree towers, and a few days came from Henstridge Ash. I think it probable ago the workmen engaged in repairing that named that this may have been lifted before, although the after St. Louis, came suddenly upon a mysteriously 'oldest inhabitant' cannot remember the ground deep well. This was contrived curiously in the ever having been disturbed. Until the last few wall facing the quay, and proves to be nothing less years this was a 'close' parish, no 'foreigners' than the fatal dungeon of the old palace of St. ever coming here to reside, and no family leaving Louis. Yet none of the historians of the Con-indeed the names Childs and Pitcher, in which ciergeries mention it, and chance and mischance half the inhabitants now delight, appear on our only have now made it known. An opening of registers for more than 300 years, and every family two square yards in one of the turrets reveals a had its own particular burial-ground, with which no horrid tunnel reaching the level of the Seine. There stranger intermeddled, and this piece has been set it forms a gallery sloping downwards to the bed of aside for the Palmer family from time immemorial. the river. The attempt to penetrate into this There is a story that a similar coffin was found here dreadful dungeon was fruitless, as the interior is many years ago, and, if so, it was covered up lined with sharp iron spears and points, which cross again, as no trace can be discovered of it. At each other in every direction. When this Tower Abbotsbury there is one, on the cover of which is St. Louis was used occasionally as the dwelling of the figure of a monk, and I believe another may be the kings of France, capitives of note were confined seen in the church at Cerne, whilst there is a third in its underground prisons, and when the powers at Coker, near Yeovil. The one to which my that were became anxious to get rid of any one of account refers will be lifted from its bed, and placed them, they led him through a passage formed in on a large stone in the churchyard, near the en- the interior of the wall towards this newly-discovered trance."-Dorchester Telegram, March 14. dungeon. A secret door was opened, and he was precipitated into the yawning chasm, and there, transfixed by spikes, he perished in slow torture. Of course, it may be easily imagined that it was only portions of skeletons that ever reached the bed of the Seine.-Globe. EGYPT." An archæologist, Dr. Ebers, residing in Egypt for some months, has just discovered," says the General German Gazette, "in the Abd-elAusuah, which forms part of the necropolis of Thebes, the tomb of a certain Amen-em-Heb, with an inscription of great historical interest. The writing contains the biography of the defunct for the use of generations to come, and declares that personage to have lived under the eighteenth dynasty (equivalent to the tenth century before Christ); he took part in the warlike expeditions of Pharaoh Toutmes III., with whom he passed the Euphrates, and from whose hands he received distinctions of every sort for his exploits. The text even mentions the nature of the decorations in question." ATHENS. A discovery of interest to antiquarians has just been made at Athens. Some years ago a rich Greek, by name Zeppa, died in Wallachia, bequeathing a large sum of money for the revival of the Olympian Games, which were to be adapted to the requirements of modern society and civilsation. After much controversy it was decided to erect an institution for this purpose in the large plot of land lying between the Palace Gardens and the Temple of Jupiter Olympus. About twelve years since several patches of mosaic of the Roman period, and some walls built of common stone and mortar, and of an apparently modern period, were accidently unearthed at this very spot: but their nature was not such as to incite further excavations. Lately, however, while levelling the land for the site of the Olympian Exhibition building, the workmen found more remains of ancient constructions; and, after a few cartloads of earth had been removed, the trunks of two statues larger than life were discovered. The statues were lying at a depth of only four feet at a spot where the ground RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE PYRAMIDS.—The rises gently into an almost imperceptible hillock- Pyramids of Egypt were constructed 4,000 years one is of a male, and the other of a female figure, ago. Mr. Dixon, of England, has for some time and both are evidently of the Roman epoch. Their been exploring the two remarkable chambers known hands and arms are missing, but enough remains of as the king's and queen's chamber, in the interior them to determine the deities represented. These of the great Pyramid. By means of a wire introduced |