Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/504

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416


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. MAY 26, im.


I presume that no old authority has ever been produced), invented by Diez in order to enable him to evolve the form chenaie by a violent surgical operation in which few can now be found to believe. The Latin for " oak-grove " is quercetum.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

There is a street here close to ray house called now China Street or China Lane. It was the coach road to the North, is shown on ancient maps as " Kelne" Lane, and is, in my opinion, the site of the old Roman road. This is confirmed by a paragraph in a paper by the late Henry Hatcher in the Winchester Congress volume of the British Archaeological Association, on ' Roman Roads and Stations in Hampshire.' The paragraph reads :

" The road to Old Sarum left the west gate of Winchester, passed over Pit Down by the name of Killen-Lane, crossed the Canal at Horsebridge,"&c.

T. CANN HUGHES, M.A. F.S.A.

Lancaster.

GOETHE : "BELLS, BUGS, AND CHRISTIANITY " (10 th S. v. 270). Goethe's authorship of the remark attributed to him by his French critic seems very improbable. It conflicts, at all events, with much that is said in the poet's * Autobiography ' (' Dichtung und Wahrheit'). The whole trend of Goethe's religious opinion, as set forth in the 'Auto- biography,' is far from suggestive of the statement referred to, and this may be looked upon as significant. But a few examples which are particularly pertinent may be given.

In disproof of the genuineness of the story about the bust of Jupiter, there may be mentioned Goethe's amusing account of Prof. Clodius's hostile criticism of his early enthu- siasm for classical mythology ('D. u. W.,' vii.). The subject of Clodius's criticism was an ode by the young poet in honour of his uncle's marriage ; for the personages of this piece, the author himself says, he had "con- vened all Olympus." The condemnation by Clodius of the peculiar artistic means em- ployed was very effectual. Goethe writes :

  • ' Yet since his critique, when I took his point o

view, seemed to be perfectly just, and those divini ties more nearly inspected were in fact only hollow shadow-forms, I cursed all Olympus, flung the whole mythic Pantheon away, and from that time Amor and Luna have been the only divinities which at all appear in my little poems."

This does not flatly contradict the story o_ the sun- gilded bust, but certainly invalidates its cogency.

That Goethe's actual religious attitud. was not such as is described in the sentence quoted by C. T. J. may be judged from two


passages of the * Autobiography.' In the ighth book of this narrative he writes thus : "I experienced a great influence from an im- portant work that fell into my hands ; it was Arnold's ' History of the Church and of Heretics.' This man is not merely a reflective historian, but at the same time pious and feeling. His sentiments

chimed in very well with mine "

Again, he speaks in the twelfth book of his study of the New Testament, and of the ' love and esteem " with which he carried on lis inquiries. W. B,

IRISH BOG BUTTER (10 th S. v. 308, 353). There is no need for any "hypothesis" in connexion with bog butter. It is not at all uncommon, nor is it really of any great interest. It is generally found in kegs or irkins of ancient manufacture, though in- some cases it has been found wrapped in a kind of coarse cloth, which quickly crumbles away when exposed to the air. Occasion- ally, as was apparently the case with some found recently in Kerry, the covering has entirely disappeared. Specimens of the butter, in the kegs in which it was found, may be seen in the National Museum in Dublin.

The following extract fromDineley's 'Tour in Ireland' (Journal of the Kilkenny and South- East of Ireland Archceological Society, 1856-7, p. 186) records the practice of bury- ing butter in Charles II.'s time :

"Dyet generally of the vulgar Irish are Butter

layd up in wicker basketts, mixed with store of [blank in original], a sort of garlick, and buried for some time in a bog, to make a provision of an high tast for Lent."

Sir William Petty, in his 'Political Anatomy of Ireland,' also makes mention of "butter made rancid by keeping in bogs."_

The kegs, however, in which it is generally found are of a very early date, and it may be a matter for conjecture whether the reasons for their burial were the same as in Dineley's time. We shall, at any rate, be safe in assuming that it certainly was not " lost on the way to market," as is suggested by MR. DORMER. H. J. B. CLEMENTS.

'Killadoon, Celbridge, co. Kildare.

AXHOLME PRIORY* (10 th S. v. 328, 373). There was no priory of this name ; but in the Isle of Axholme were Eppeworth (or Epworth) and Hyrst Priories, particulars of which I can supply to MR. MONTFORT.

JOHN A. RANDOLPH.

129, Alexandra Road, Wimbledon.

RAMSGATE CHRISTMAS PROCESSION (10 th S. v. 208, 374). A custom somewhat akin to the Ramsgate Hodening is the practice at