358
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[2>as. N 18., MAYS. '56.
bige beliend hinein, und beisset und naget denn dieje-
nigen Orte, allwo er sich anleget : welches gar grosse
Ungelegenheit verursachet, und mehrmals gar dea kopf
recht wiiste machet."
I differ from MR. KETGHTLEY with great re- spect ; for I know no one who has given more valuable information on so great a variety of sub- jects in so concise and readable a form. E. C. H.
COUNT BORTJWLASKT.
(2 nd S. i. 154. 240.)
The French Birmingham edition of 1792 (penes) of the Memoirs of this celebrated mani- kin presents in an oval on the title-page a full- length representation of him (R. Hancock, SctJ in a court dress, with this motto :
" Mysterious Nature who thy works shall scan, Behold in size a Child, in sense a Man."
" I have seen (says Dr. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, London, 1840,) and entertained in my house, the famous Polish dwarf, Count Boruwlaski, who was about thirty-six inches high, every part of whose person was formed with the most perfect and delicate symmetry. The prodigious height and bulk of Charles Burns (born in Ireland in the same township as the doctor), eight feet six inches high, and the astonishing diminutiveness of the count could not be properly estimated but by com- paring both together. Each was a perfect man, and yet in quantum how disproportionate. Man is the only creature in whom the extremes of minuteness and mag- nitude are so apparent, and yet the proportion of the parts in each strictly correlative."
Seventy years ago, when the count visited Scot- land, he must have been beheld with a consider- able degree of curiosity, and during his sojourn of " some weeks " at Glasgow, where he was " par- faitemcnt bien regu," would be abundantly stared at by the cotton manufacturers, with many droll remarks, of which there is now no information.
To him the miseries of being short had equalled in another " the miseries of being tall."
" Si " (bewails the count, p. 130.) " j'avais e'te forme h 1'instar des autres mortels, j'aurais pu, ainsi que tant d'autres subsister par mon Industrie et par mon travail; mais ma taille m'a exclus irrevocablement du cercle ordi- naire de la societe; bien des gens meme paroissent ne me tenir aucun compte de ce que je suis homme, de ce que je suis honnete homme, de ce que je suis homme sensible. Que ces reflexions sont douloureuses ! "
It must ever be esteemed an honourable feature in the character of those "prebendaries of Dur- ham " who gratuitously afforded him such com- fortable shelter for the remainder of his long spun-out existence.
I have seen a number of individuals of both sexes, the period of whose life extended from ninety to upwards of one hundred years, and who were generally of a compact, thin, wiry structure, and in stature below the middle size. This spe- cies of formation seems that which confers the
greatest stability and consequent longevity : the
fact, so far as I am aware, has not been alluded to
by any writer on the history of man, G. N.
Boruwlaski is the correct spelling of the name,
and the following is a copy of the inscription on
the monument erected to his memory in Durham
Cathedral :
" Near this spot repose the remains of Count Joseph Boruwlaski, a native of Pokucia in the late kingdom of Poland. This extraordinary man measured no more than three feet three inches in height, but his form was well proportioned, and he possessed a more than common share of understanding and knowledge. After various changes of fortune, borne with cheerful resignation to the will of God, he closed his life in the vicinity of this cathedral, on the 5th of September, 1837, in the ninety-eighth year of his age."
WM. MATTHEWS.
Cowgill.
The particulars given in the Keply are very inter- esting, but is it true that the count was buried " near those of the late Mr. Stephen Kemble, in the nine altars in Durham Cathedral ? " There is, I know, a brass tablet to his memory let into the west wall of the church of S. Mary the Less, Durham. Perhaps the rector, the Rev. James Raine, the eminent antiquary, would favour your readers with a copy of the inscription on the tablet.
A. T. L.
SCRIPTURAL LEGENDS ON OUR ENGLISH COINS.
(2 lld S. i. 313.)
Tt strikes me that the adoption of the legend referred to on the coins of any monarch, English or foreign, is not difficult to account for. The text is, " Jesus autem transiens per medium il- lorum ibat But Jesus passing through the midst of them, went his way." (St. Luke, iv. 30.) ^ The circumstances in which this occurred sufficiently explain, to my mind, the rationale of the adoption. The enemies of our Divine Redeemer had sought to destroy him, to cast him down headlong ; but by his own divine power he escaped unhurt. The legend then implies a confidence in the divine power on the part of the monarch, to protect him against his enemies, who might seek to cast him down headlong from his throne and dominion.
It ill became the author of Humbles round Not- tingham to sneer at the Vulgate, or "monkish versions " of the Scriptures. If he had examined the Vulgate he would not have found the holy name at the beginning of the text, but the Greek faithfully rendered, Ipse autem. The holy name of Jesus was substituted for the word Ipse on the coin, simply to render the text and its application intelligible. F . C. H.
