146
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. xn. A. 21, 1915.
For the first of these the ' London Library
Subject-Index Catalogue ' refers to :
Arundell of Wardour, ' Secret of Plato's A.,' 1885.
Bailly(J. S.), 'Lett-res,' 1779.
Diderot (D.), ' Lettre,' 1762 [in 'CE.,' t.ix., 1875].
Donnelly (I.). ' Atlantis,' 1885.
Martin (T.H.), 'Diss.' [in ' Eb. s. le Timee de Platon,' t. i., 1841].
Moreau de Jonne"s, ' L'oce"an des anc.,' 1873.
Rosny(L. L. de), ' L'Atlantide Hist.,' 1902.
Scharff (R. ! F.), 'A. Problem' [in R.LA. Proc.< vol. xxiv., 1902-4.]
Scott-Elliott ( W.), ' Story,' 1896.
Unger (F.), ' Versunkene Insel ' [in 'Gesamm. naturwiss. Vortr.,' 1870].
Wilson (D.), 'Lost A.,' 1891.
A. R. BAYLEY.
Ignatius Donnelly, who expended so much ingenuity on the non-existent Shakespeare- Bacon cipher, produced ' Atlantis : the Antediluvian World,' which was published by Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington in 1886. One might find worse reading than this illustrated octavo of 490 pages.
ST. SWTTHIN.
MARGARET SCOTT, ^TAT. 125 (11 S. xii. 30). I have consulted several collections of epitaphs. Some state that she was buried at Dunkeld, and others at Dalkeith. Wm. Andrews (' Curious Epitaphs,' 1899) records it as the epitaph " on Margery Scott, who died February 26th, 1728, at Dunkeld, at the extreme age of one hundred years." From Chambers's ' Domestic Annals of Scotland ' he gathers that it was
" composed for her by Alexander Pennecuik' but never inscribed, and it has been preserved by the reverend statist of the parish as a whimsical statement of historical facts comprehended within the life of an individual."
Mr. Andrews further adds that a foot-note states :
" The minister's version is here corrected from one of The Gentleman s Magazine for January, 1733 ; but both are incorrect, there having been during 1728 and the one hundred preceding years no more than six kings of Scotland."
JOHN T. PAGE.
A SONNET BY WORDSWORTH (11 S. xii. 100). This sonnet, beginning
The vestal priestess of a sisterhood, recalls one of the poet's ' Ecclesiastical Sonnets,' which begins
The vested priest before the altar stands. As it appears to have been written in the year preceding the poet's death it may possibly have never been included amongst his published works. Will not MR. SPOONER give us the whole of the % sonnet ?
SAMUEL WADDINGTON. 15, Cambridge Street, Hyde Park, W.
"FIANCE" (11 S. xii. 49, 90). " Com-
munique " would seem to be good French,
and is to be found in Littre. It is certainly
not a synonym for " despatch," but is quite
useful if used in the proper connexion. The
meaning assigned to it in Littre is :
" Un avis, une information donne'e par 1'autorite superieure. ' Les journaux de ce Matin contiennent un communique.' "
See ' Dictionnaire de la Langue Frangaise,' par E. Littre (Libraire Hachette, Paris, 1877). T. F. D.
WAS ST. THOMAS or CANTERBURY A BENEDICTINE MONK ? (11 S. xii. 86.) I see in ' St. Thomas of Canterbury,' in the " English History by Contemporary "Writers " Series, edited by the Rev. W. H. Hutton, (London, David Nutt, 1889), at pp. 108- 109, that Alan of Tewkesbury is quoted as follows :
"Having received the papal benediction, the blessed Thomas entered the abbey at Pontigny with a few followers. Now he adjudged himself unworthy to have received the pastoral charge from the apostolic hand unless he received also the reli- gious habit ; since in the episcopal seat he had to rule monks as his first begotten . . . .The Pope there- fore sent him a monastic robe which he himself blessed, made of thick and rough woollen cloth .... The abbat of Pontigny invested the blessed Thomas with the habit privately, in the presence only of a few persons."
In ' St. Thomas a Becket,' by Mgr. Demimuid (London, Duckworth & Co., 1909), at p. 192 I read that after his death, when his body was being secretly buried in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral,
" when they had taken off his outer garments to replace them by the insignia of his office, these Religious saw with the rough hair-cloth, with which he was covered, the Cistercian habit which he had received at Pontigny from the hands of Pope Alex- ander, and which he had worn ever since under his Archbishop's robes."
This came as a surprise to his own monks, who were Black Benedictines.
In this year's Royal Academy there is a picture (No. 21) by Ernest Board depicting ' The Landing of Thomas Becket at Sandwich after his Exile.' In this picture St. Thomas is shown wearing a white habit and a black cowl, but without the black scapular of the Cistercians, and without any archiepiscopal insignia.
Mrs. Jameson, in her ' Legends of the Monastic Orders ' (London, Longmans, Green & Co., 1890), at p. 108, says:
""In the devotional figures St. Thomas is repre- sented wearing the chasuble over the black Bene- dictine habit, and carrying the crosier and Gospels in his hand. When represented as a martyr, he is
