194
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. AUG. 31, 1001.
library for data concerning the forced re-
moval of the remains from England to France,
but have failed to gain much information
beyond the bare statement that such was the
case. By some writers this assertion is
evidently doubted, for under Bury St. Ed-
munds in 'Our Own Country' (v. 277) I find
the following sentence :
"The monastery was subsequently plundered by Prince Lewis of France, who is even asserted by a French chronicler to have carried off the body of the saint ; but this calumny was afterwards duly refuted by the abbot." sa > 7S : ~
If the abbot's denial was correct the remains of St. Edmund are presumably still reposing at Bury St. Edmunds. But what is the evidence ? Is the present casket their original receptacle ; and, if so, does it contain an inscription ? Any information concerning this absorbing subject would be very welcome.
JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
[Our first correspondent also suggests the pro- priety of an inquest ; but such a process, if legal, would be of little avail for identification xmless some peculiar physical conformation in the bones, adequately vouched for in history, could be dis- covered. It seems best to clear up first the story of the removal and the authority for the genuineness of the relic, as MR. PAGE suggests.]
CATHERINE STREET THEATRE (9 th S. vii. 268). The following extract from Mr. F. Kid- son's 'British Music Publishers' (pp. 141-2) appears to confirm my view (9 th S. vii. 286) of the modern character of the front of No. 22 (formerly 13), Catherine Street, Strand, recently demolished by the London County Council for the Hoi born to the Strand im- provement:
"The premises in Catherine Street were not numbered during their occupation by the Walsh family, but, as shown by several of Randall's imprints, they were afterwards numbered 13 in the street, and probably this number would hold good to-day for their site. It has been stated that the Echo office which is No. 22 is Walsh's old shop, but this opinion I do not share. No definite proof is offered except the fact that the frontage of the building shows certain musical emblems, which a vivid imagination has turned into a harp and a haut- boy. I think an impartial examination will show that these ornaments are of a more recent date than Walsh's time. They consist of a bas-relief, formec either of plasterer terra-cptta, repeated in duplicate over two windows. Their design is plainly a con ventional lyre, backed by Apollo's rays, and with f wreath or foliage of bay leaves at the foot of the lyre. The two lower windows are ornamented witl trophies of helmets, flags, &c. The whole frontage is Victorian stucco, and it is acknowledged that the
From the same work we learn that the elder
Walsh's imprint was
"John Welch [sic], musical instrument maker to his Majesty, at the Golden Harp and Hautboy, in Catherine Street, against Somerset House Water
JOHN HEBB.
Gate, in the Strand, 1697."
Canoubury Mansions, N.
SPIDER FOLK-LORE (8 th S. ix. 7, 195, 256, 437, 494; xi. 30). 'Vulgar Superstition,' Asiatic Journal, Aug., 1825, vol. xx. p. 170, art. 14,
" 14. It is related by most Mussulman women
that one of the sons of Ulee, either Hussun or
Hasyen, having lost a battle with Eezeed, in his
flight hid himself in a jar, which a spider imme-
diately covered with a very strong web. The
enemy coming up soon after had well-nigh been
balked in their pursuit ; but a lizard near the jar
immediately made a noise, intimating thereby that
the game was there, and a rat set about gnawing
the spider's web which concealed the refugee ; the
consequence of which was that he was discovered
and slain. Since this transaction the Mussulmans
venerate the spider, and will not suffer it to be
injured, but denounce with implacable hatred the
race of rats and lizards."
The fact is that all these stories are invented
o account for a veneration which has sur- T ived the prehistoric sun-cord cultus. (See
Folk-lore of Filatures,' 8 th S. ix. 324 )
THOMAS J. JEAKES.
Tower House, New Hampton.
building was first a dancin
1842 and later a theatre
and abou
here is every reasoi to suppose that the designs are of this period, am they would be just the ones considered appropriat for such an edifice."
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The History of the Part of West Somerset comprising the Parishes of Luccombe, Selworthy, Stoke Pero, Porlock, Culbone, and Oare. By Charles E. H. Chadwyck Healey, K.C., F.S.A. (Sotheran & Co.) Ix the preface to his admirably executed book Mr. Healey advances as an apology for the amount of space he has devoted to his subject a few lines from Sir Francis Palgrave's introduction to the second volume of his ' Parliamentary Writs.' These are as follows : " The general history of a state can never be -well understood without a complete and search- ing analysis of the component parts of the com- munity as well as of the country. Genealogical inquiries and local topography, so far from being unworthy of the attention of the philosophical inquirer, are amongst the best material he can use ; and the fortunes and changes of one family, or the events of one upland township, may explain the darkest and most dubious portions of the annals of a realm." This well-chosen extract explains exactly what Mr. Healey has attempted and accomplished. In supplying a history of a cantle of West Somerset he has cast a flood of light upon general and local affairs ; upon the conditions of the individual and the community ; upon genealogy, topography, folk superstitions, and all things, in short, in which the antiquary most delights. With the patient fidelity of a herald and the accurate observation of an
