260
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. SEPT. 27, 1902.
acquire a greater body of information, and that of a
more detailed kind. Thus we learn that the spirit
of destruction raged near London, if it were possible,
more savagely than it did in the West and North.
Had these wanton and unpatriotic deeds been the
work of revolution, religious or political, excuses
might be found, such as do.no t avail for the dullards
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. No
adequate explanation, except that of crass ignorance,
can be found, for example, tor the destruction of the
moated parsonage at Newington. The houses of
mediaeval clerics are now so rare that we cannot
but be indignant that this has been destroyed,
especially as it was a remarkably interesting one of
its kind a moated timber structure approached by
four bridges. Many old churches have been swept
away without reasonable cause since the time when
Sylvanus Urban endeavoured to direct attention to
the material forms in which so much of our history
was enshrined, and we do not doubt that but for
his labours the work of devastation would have
even been more thorough than it was. The ancient
church of Egham is a specimen. It was effaced
about the year 1817 to give place to something new.
Who was responsible for this we do not care to
inquire, but we do know sufficient to make us mourn
its loss, though the description given is not of a
very enlightening nature. The writer of those days
thought it was Saxon, but we may reasonably assume
that it was really a massive structure of Norman
date. Folk-lore has been amply recorded in pre-
vious volumes, but there are a few entries here not
unworthy of attention. The stories relating to the
cauldron in Frensham Church are interesting as
giving another proof of the fact, which ought to be
well known, that when an object occurs of which
simple people do not know the meaning, a web of
fable at once begins to grow up around it. We have
ourselves little doubt that this cauldron was used
in times gone by in brewing the church ales. The
ivoe waters of Croydon were intermittent ; when
they flowed they were said to presage sorrow to the
country. The paper communicated by the late
Mr. Cuthbert W. Johnson on the subject is well
worth reading. Little Wolford, in Warwickshire,
was the seat of the family of Ingram. In 1844 the
property changed hands and great alterations
were made in the hall by the new owner. This
led to the discovery, in a room near the kitchen,
of the buried body of an infant. Murder might be
suggested to account for this, but it seems an un-
likely solution, for a brick grave had been con-
structed and the remains were wrapped in what is
described as brocade or tapestry; they had, more-
over, been committed to an oak coffin. It may be
well to remark, however, that the writer derived
the facts on which his communication was based
from " a country girl of the place," who may not
have reported accurately what she was told, or even
what she herself saw.
AMONG the subjects of interest brought forward in the later numbers of the Intermediaire there may be mentioned the Cabinet of Hearts at St. Denis, which is generally said to contain the hearts and other remains of some of the French kings. Other notes describe the curfew as it used to be, and still is, rung in Normandy. "The curfew-law," says one correspondent, " is attributed to William the Conqueror; but it probably goes back to a more ancient epoch." The binding of books in human skin is also dealt with, a gruesome practice
which, when at its worst, seems to have sprung
from erotomaniac proclivities. Envoittement that
is, casting spells by pricking, lacerating, or burn-
ing a figure used as a substitute for the person
whom it is desired to injure comes under discus-
sion too ; while observations on the anaesthetics used
in the Middle Ages show that narcotics and sopo-
rifics were administered to deaden the sense of pain
or to induce sleep.
FYNES MOKYSON'S ' Itinerary ' is one of the best- known books of Tudor or Stuart times. The edition of 1617, the only one extant, is rare and costly. It is pleasant to know that Mr. Charles Hughes, B.A., is about to issue for the first time, in a limited edition, a fourth part or continuation, which is in existence in the library of C.C.C., Oxford. The entire work must some day be reprinted, but that will be an expensive and a laborious task.
THE next volume of "The Oxford History of Music" to be issued will be 'The Music of the Seventeenth Century,' by Sir C. Hubert H. Parry, and this may be expected immediately.
MESSRS. BELL & SONS promise a new and attrac- tive edition of Carlyle's ' French Revolution,' edited, with introduction, notes, &c., by Mr J. Holland Rose, the latest biographer of Napoleon. The illustrations will be a special feature.
MR. F. G. HILTON PRICE, the author of ' A His- tory of London Bankers, ' is now engaged in revising his book ' The Signs of Old Lombard Street,' a new edition of which will be published shortly by the Leadenhall Press. It will contain much additional matter, and will be issued at a popular price.
gotittz to
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R- V. Very humorous, but better suited to a comic periodical.
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