Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/222

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214


NOTES AND QUERIES.


vm. SEPT. 7, 1001.


From his Papers and Materials, | By Walter, M.A. | Chaplain of His Majesty's Ship the Centurion, in that Expedition. I Illustrated with Forty-Two Copper-Plates. | The Twelfth Edition. London : | Printed for T. Osborne, H. Woodfall, W. Bowyer, A. Millar, I W. Strahan, J. Rjvington, R. Baldwin, L. Hawes and Co, | R. Horsfield, and S. Crowder MDCCLXVII."

The dedication to John, Duke of Bedford, is there: and the opening sentence of the introduction runs thus :

" Notwithstanding the great improvement of navigation within the last two Centuries, a Voyage round the World is still considered as an enterprise of so very singular a nature, that the Public have never failed to be extremely inquisitive about the various accidents and turns of fortune, with which this uncommon attempt is generally attended." F. E. MANLEY.

Stoke Newington.

It may interest H. G. K. to know that the readings given by him from the eighth edition (1754) of this interesting book agree exactly with the text in my third edition, published six years earlier. My title-page, however, differs but in a very slight degree from his, which concludes :

" The Eighth Edition. Illustrated with charts, views, &c. Dublin : Printed for G. and A. Ewing, at the Angel and Bible in Dame Street, MDCCLIV.

Mine concludes :

" The Third Edition, with Charts of the Southern Part of South America, a -part of the Pacific ocean, and of the Track of the Centurion round the World. Dublin : Printed for," &c.,

as in H. G. K.'s edition, excepting the date, which is MDCCXLVIII.

MICHAEL FERRAR, I.C.S. Little Gidding.

RELIQUARY AT ORVIETO (9 th S. viii. 123). In 1263 a Bohemian priest saying mass at the church of Santa Christina, at Bolsena, felt incredulous about the transubstantiation of the elements. As soon as he uttered the words of consecration the wafer host began to stream with blood , the corporal, the linen, and even the altar being completely coverec with it.

Pope Urban IV. was then residing at Orvieto, and the Bohemian priest at once proceeded there to obtain absolution for his doubts, and took with him the blood-stained relics. The Pope, attended by several car dinals, formed a procession and went out t meet him at the bridge of Rio Chiaro. The relics were then deposited in the church o Orvieto till a magnificent church was erectec for their reception, the first stone of the nev building being laid by Nicholas IV. in 1290 The chapel of the Santissima Corporale con tains the relic, which is kept in a reliquary


_>f solid silver enriched with enamel. The miracle of the mass of Bolsena forms the ubject of one of Raphael's magnificent series f frescoes in the Stanza d' Eliodore at the Vatican. There is a drawing at Oxford, a eproduction of one of Raphael's studies or this picture (Robinson, No. 87 ; Braun, s[o. 37). CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

Swallowfield.

Consult 'Clavis Calendaria,' by John Brady, jondon, 1812, ii. 13 ; ' Garland for the Year,' )y John Timbs, F.S.A., p. 84 ; but more par- icularly the Cornhill Magazine for February 865, xi. 156 - 64 ; also * N. & Q.,' 3 rd S. ix. 17, 285. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

ST. BARNABAS'S DAY, 11 JUNE (9 th S. vii. 145 ; viii. 111). Other folk-lore prognosti- ations e.g., St. Paul's Day, 25 January ; Candlemas Day, 2 February ; St. Swithin's 3ay, 15th July must have been current Before 1752. The first two are almost dentical :

If St. Paul's Day be clear and bright

Winter will wing another flight.

If St. Paul's Day bring snow and rain

Winter is gone and won't come again.

And the weather tradition referring to St. Swithin is well known. The REV. JOHN PICKFORD'S commentary would therefore also apply to these forecasts ; and we must take as bases for our estimates (this and following years in this century) 7 February, 15 Feb- ruary, and 28 July. I have been so un- fortunate in my supputatory calculations lately that it is with some diffidence I venture to suggest adding (now) thirteen days to each of the earlier dates. GNOMON.

"WENT" (9 th S. viii. 40). Your corre- spondent would have found the correct mean- ing in the first explanation given in Halliwell, viz., "a crossway, a passage." A "three-went way " is a very common expression on the down country in the South, signifying where three roads, or tracks, join. "Venta," Latin- ized from Celtic gwent, a plain, is a different word. A.-S. ivendan, to turn, to go, accounts for the word without difficulty. H. P. L.

I do not see how we can connect the Eng- lish substantive went with the well-known Celtic Derwents and Ventas (Welsh gwent}. We should, however, compare such a name as Prison Weint, an ancient passage off Water Street, Liverpool, of which a few interesting particulars are given in Stonehouse's ' Streets of Liverpool' (1869), weint, like went, appa- rently being referable to A.-S. (ge)wind, "wind- ing way." Hy. HARRISON.