10 s. VIIL NOV. 23, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
409
TAVERN SIGN. There was a curious sign
on a public-house either between Orchard
Street and Duke Street or a little further
east, which has recently disappeared. It
was a cross surmounted by a housemaid's
cap, and underneath: " Quod petes [petis?],
hie est."
I thought that the explanation might be that this was the site of the historic inn where the prisoners on the way to Tyburn were given a drink, and that the sign signi- fied that the unfortunate could call for what he liked, and was at the same time a warn- ing to put his trust in the Cross. Of the cap I could give no interpretation.
I see in The Globe of 16 October that the drink was given at the " Black Bull " in Holborn. Can readers of ' N. & Q.' give any explanation ? F. H. VIGNE.
BRITTANY IDOLATROUS FOLK-LORE. I read in ' Guernsey Folk-lore,' from MSS. by the late Sir Edgar MacCulloch, edited by Edith F. Carey, 1903 :
"It is well known that up to the end of the seventeenth century the inhabitants of a district in the Departement du Morbihan, in Brittany, adored with superstitious and obscene rites a rude stone image commonly known as ' La Ve'nus de Quinipilly,' and which was certainly not a Christian image."
Rites of this type were formerly con- nected with many large stones in France, and traces of the same cult are to be dis- covered in English popular superstitions ; but how did one of the stones come to bear the name of Venus ? By what process was the Celtic or pre-Celtic folk-name of such an object of worship replaced by one adopted from the vocabulary of the upper ranks of society ? L. C. S.
ERRA PATER. Dr. Zachary Grey, com- menting on the lines in Butler's ' Hudibras,' In mathematics he was greater Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater, says of the latter :
"William Lilly, the famous astrologer of those times, so called by Mr. Butler, Memoirs of the year 1649 and 1650. The House of Commons had so great
Pater ' : see ' Younger Brother,' by Beaumont and
Fletcher, Act I. sc. ii. And the writer of ' A Letter
sent to London from a Spy at Oxford,' 1643, p. 13,
says, ' Surely the devil ow'd us a shame, that none
of us were skilled in the book of fortune, Erra
Pater, or Booker's Almanac.' Some are of opinion,
that by Erra Pater he meant the Wandering Jew,
named Joh. Buttadseus."
The lives of William Lilly and John Booker are given in the ' D.N.B.' The name Buttadseus is applied to the Wandering Jew, I believe, in Andreas Libavius's ' Praxis Alchimise,' published at Frankfort in 1605 and 1607 ; but I have not seen the book. From a ' Map of the Microcosme,' by H. Browne, 1642, Brand in his ' Popular Antiquities ' cites :
" Surely all astrologers are Erra Pater's dis- ciples, and the divel's professors, telling their opinions in spurious aenigmatical doubtful tearmes, like the oracle at Delphos."
Was there an old astrologer known as Erra Pater ? If not, what is the allusion in the above extracts ? Is the Wandering Jew ever stated to have taken interest in astro- logy ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.
' THE SHOTOVER PAPERS ; OR, ECHOES FROM OXFORD.' Can any one inform me of the names of the " five undergraduates " who are stated at 5 S. xii. 135 to have edited ' The Shotover Papers,' which came out in thirteen numbers from February, 1874, to February, 1875 ? I believe the publication is now not easily to be met with, and it would be interesting if its contents could be identified with members of the University who have since become well known. W. B. H.
THE CRUCIFIXION. Has the year of the Crucifixion, and if so, the day of the month, been finally settled by critics and
astronomers ?
T. WILSON.
a regard to his predictions, that the author of
Mercuriiis Pragmaticus [Marchamont NedhamJ
styles the members the sons of Erra Pater. Butler
probably named him so from an old astrologer of
whose predictions John Taylor the water-poet
makes mention in the Preface to his ' Cast over the
Water.' The elder Loveless (in Beaumont and
Fletcher's 'Scornful Lady') calls Abigail 'Dirty
December, with a face as old as Erra Pater, and
such a prognosticating nose ' ; and of Charles the
Scholar (in Beaumont and Fletcher's ' Elder
Brother') 'tis observ'd, 'That, after six hours'
conference with the stars, he sups with old Erra
Harpenden.
[The matter was discussed at 9 S. vi. 305, 412; vii. 35. The latest views will be found in the ' Encyclopaedia Biblica' (A. & C. Black, 1903). We do not desire to reopen the question.]
SIR GILBERT BEAUCHAMP : SIR RICHARD FRANCIS. Can any of your readers give me
information, or tell me of any work that
would help me, about a Gilbert Beauchamp
or Bewcham knighted at Leicester 19 May,
1426 ? I have been unable to find a Gilbert
at that date in the Beauchamp pedigrees,
or any item respecting him in any of the
books I have been able to obtain on the
subject.
I desire information also concerning Richard Francis, knighted 11 Oct., 1399
