Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/215

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ii. SEPT. 10,


NOTES AND QUERIES.


207


derer, his ghost is mounted on a black horse. In Horace's satire the approach of Hecate was heralded by infernal dogs. Cornelius Agrippa, the magician, used to be attended by a devil in the shape of a black dog. In Gazette's 'Diable Amoureux' the devil ap- pears in the form of a white spaniel. In Goethe's ' Faust ' Mephistopheles assumes the form of a black poodle. Walter Scott in ' The Lay of the Last Minstrel ' mentions the spectre hound in Man. And in a note to Scott's verse it is said that the hound is called in the Manx language the Mauthe Doog. E. YARDLEY.


WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

JOH. G. GE^VIUS. This eminent scholar died in 1703. Just twelve years after his death appeared a book entitled " J. G. Grsevii Cohors Musarum, sive Historia Rei Literarise ; necnon Historia Bibliothecalis,&c., accurante W. van Bueren" (8vo. Traj. ad Rhenum, 1715). In the Catalogue of the British Museum Library it appears among the works of Grsevius, without any indication of doubt about its genuineness ; but Peter Burman, who certainly knew more about Grsevius and his writings than any man living in the eighteenth century, has denounced it as an impudent forgery, by some ignorant school- master, " qui sub inepto et nihil significante indice Cohortis Musarum psedagogici ingenii foatum produxit et tarn inepto libro Grsevii nomen inscripsit" (pref. to ' Orationes Grsevi- anse,' 1717). Burman's remarks appear to be confined to the ' Cohors Musarum,' and not to extend to the second and much larger part of the book, viz., the ' Historia Biblio- thecalis,' which is followed by a shorter treatise (only about seventy pages) entitled 'Synopsis Rei Nummarise,' &c. ; but in the Bodleian Catalogue I find the following MS. note, apparently referring to the whole work : "Editum hoc opus fuit sub nomine Grsevii, sed revera auctor fuit Kusterus." This has led me to examine the whole book once more, and it now seems clear to me that whoever may have been the author of the ' Cohors,' no one but Kuster himself can have written the second part. Can it be that the writer of the Bodleian note had found what he thought, as I did, unmistakable indications of Kuster's hand in the ' Hist. Bibliothecalis,' and concluded that he was the author of the


whole 1 Can any of your readers solve the mystery? FRED. NORGATE.

P.S. If Kuster did not actually write the- ' Hist. Bibl.,' I can only say that the author,, whoever he was, made a most unwarrant- able use of an acknowledged work of Kuster; and what makes the whole business still more< mysterious is the fact that Kuster was still living when Van Bueren's book was published.

FIGURE-HEAD. I am acquainted with the model of a seventy -four-gun ship, the figure- head of which is a Grecian warrior with a Gorgon's head on his shield. I find the name of Perseus attached only to a twenty -gun cruiser, built in 1776 ; a twenty-two-gun vessel, laid down in 1805, which lay off the Tower as a receiving ship from 1818 to 1850 ; a seventeen-gun s.s. sloop, laid down in 1860 ;. and a third-class cruiser now in course of completion. If the figure-head is not Perseus who is it likely to be 1 KILLIGREW.

TINTERN ABBEY. What were the arms ofe Tintern Abbey 1 A. R. MALDEN.

Salisbury.

MESHAM MOOR : MESHAM WOOD. In the" Field of 7 February there is an account of a run with Mr. Bathurst's hounds. They met at Mesham Moor, and afterwards ran, through Mesham Wood to Kitcot, &c. Can any one inform me how these places got the name of Mesham Moor and Mesham Wood, as I am not aware of any one of that name having ever lived thereabouts ?

ARTHUR MESHAM, Col.

Pontryffydd, Trefnant, R.S.O., N. Wales.

WHYCHERLY. Will any reader of ' N. & Q.' who is interested in the family of JFAycherly or TFycherly inform the writer wnere a genealogy or other information concerning that family may be obtained ?

A DESCENDANT.

[Have you consulted the preface to Leigh Hunt'

dition of Wycherley's ' Works'?]

ST. IDA. Will you kindly inform me about the history of St. Ida 1 ? She was a saint, and a village in Devon is named after her. I can find no mention, however, in any book of reference. IGNORAMUS.

[For a St. Ida see Baring-Gould's ' Lives of the Saints,' vol. x. p. 50, last edition. She was a great- granddaughter of Charles Martel.]

PETER PUGET. -Wanted the dates of birth and death of Lieut. Puget, commander of the Chatham, whose name was given to Puget Sound. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

Portland, Oregon.