Lord Chatham.—I would suggest as a Query, whether Lord Chatham's famous comparison of the Fox and Newcastle ministry to the confluence of the Rhone and Saone at Lyons (Speech, Nov. 13, 1755), was not adapted from a passage in Lord Roscommon's Essay on translated Verse. Possibly Lord Chatham may have merely quoted the lines of Roscommon, and reporters may have converted his quotation into prose. Lord Chatham (then of course Mr. Pitt) is represented to have said:

"I remember at Lyons to have been carried to the conflux of the Rhone and the Soane: the one a gentle, feeble, languid stream, and, though languid, of no depth; the other, a boisterous and impetuous torrent."

Lord Roscommon says:

W. Ewart.

University Club.

Slow-worm Superstition.—Could any of your correspondents kindly inform me whether there is any foundation for the superstition, that if a slow-worm be divided into two or more parts, those parts will continue to live till sunset (life I suppose to mean that tremulous motion which the divided parts, for some time after the cruel operation, continue to have), and whether it exists in any other country or county besides Sussex, in which county I first heard of it?

Tower.

Tangiers (Vol. vii., p. 12.).—I have not seen any opinion as to these Queries.

A. C.

Snail Gardens.—What are the continental enclosures called snail gardens?

C. M. T.

Oare.

Naples and the Campagna Felice.—Who was the author of letters bearing this title, which originally appeared in Ackermann's Repository, and were published in a collected form in 1815?

In a catalogue of Jno. Miller's (April, 1853), I see them attributed to Combe.

Q.

Philadelphia.

"The Land of Green Ginger"—the name of a street in Hull. Can any of your correspondents inform me why so called?

R. H. B.

Mugger.—Why are the gipsies in the North of England called Muggers? Is it because they sell mugs, and other articles of crockery, that in fact being their general vocation? or may not the word be a corruption of Maghrabee, which is, I think, a foreign name given to this wandering race?

H. T. Riley.

Snail-eating.—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what part of Surrey a breed of large white snails is still to be found, the first of which were brought to this country from Italy, by a member, I think, of the Arundel family, to gratify the palate of his wife, an Italian lady? I have searched Britton and Brayley's History in vain.

H. T. Riley.

Mysterious Personage.—Who is the mysterious personage, what is his real or assumed lineage, who has, not unfrequently, been alluded to in recent newspaper articles as a legitimate Roman Catholic claimant of the English throne? Of course I do not allude to those pseudo-Stuarts, the brothers Hay Allan.

W. Pinkerton.

George Wood of Chester.—Of what family was George Wood, Esq., Justice of Chester in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558?

Cestriensis.

A Scale of Vowel Sounds.—Can any correspondent tell me if such scale has anywhere been agreed on for scientific purposes? Researches into the philosophy of philology are rendered excessively complex by the want of such a scale, every different inquirer adopting a peculiar notation, which is a study in itself, and which, after all, is unsatisfactory. I should feel obliged by any reference to what has been done in this matter.

E. C.

Seven Oaks and Nine Elms.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whether there is any old custom or superstition connected with Seven Oaks and Nine Elms, even to be traced as far back as the time of the Druids?

In some old grounds in Warwickshire there is a circle of nine old elm-trees; and, besides the well-known Nine Elms at Vauxhall, and Seven Oaks in Kent, there are several other places of the same names in England.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Murder of Monaldeschi.—I will thank any of your correspondents who can give me an account of the murder of Monaldeschi, equerry to Christina, Queen of Sweden.

In the 2nd volume of Miss Pardoe's Louis XIV. (p. 177.), Christina is stated to have visited the Court of France, and housed at Fontainebleau, where she had not long been an inmate ere the tragedy of Monaldeschi took place and in a letter to Mazarin she says, "Those who acquainted you with the details regarding Monaldeschi were very ill-informed."

T. C. T.

Governor Dameram.—I should be glad of any particulars respecting the above, who was Governor of Canada (I think) about the commencement of the present century. He had previously been the head of the commissariat department in the continental expeditions.

Tee Bee.

Ancient Arms of the See of York.—Can any correspondent enlighten me as to the period, and why, the present arms were substituted for the ancient bearings of York? The modern coat is, Gu. two keys in saltire arg., in chief an imperial crown proper. The ancient coat was blazoned, Az. an episcopal staff in pale or, and ensigned with a cross patÉe arg., surmounted by a pall of the last, edged and fringed of the second, charged with six crosses formÉe fitchÉe sa., and differed only from that of Canterbury in the number of crosses formÉe fitchÉe with which the pall was charged.

Tee Bee.

Hupfeld.—Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." tell me where I can see Hupfeld, Von der Natur und den Arten der Sprachlaute, which is quoted by several German authors? It appeared in Jahn's Jahrb. der Philol. und PÄd., 1829. If no correspondent can refer me to any place where the paper can be seen in London, perhaps they can direct me to some account of its substance in some English publication.

E. C.

Inscription on a Tomb in Finland.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." explain the meaning of the following inscription?

"IETATIS IN SUBDITOS
MARTYRI
.’IET:S CONIUGALIS
:: :::IV."

It appears on an old monument of considerable size in a Finnish burial-ground at Martishkin near Peterhoff on the Gulf of Finland. The letters are in brass on a stone slab. The dots before the IV., and in the other word, are holes in the stone wherein the missing characters had been fixed.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling.—Having been forcibly impressed by a paragraph in a popular periodical (The Leisure Hour, No. 72.), I am desirous of learning upon what authority the statements therein depend. As, perhaps, it may also prove interesting to some of the readers of "N. & Q." who may not already have seen it, and in the hope that some of your contributors may be able to throw a light upon so curious a subject, I herewith transcribe it:

"Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling.—Sir Isaac Newton wrote a work upon the prophet Daniel, and another upon the book of Revelation, in one of which he said that in order to fulfil certain prophecies before a certain date was terminated, namely, 1260 years, there would be a mode of travelling of which the men of his time had no conception; nay, that the knowledge of mankind would be so increased, that they would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Voltaire, who did not believe in the inspiration of the scriptures, got hold of this, and said 'Now look at that mighty mind of Newton, who discovered gravity, and told us such marvels for us all to admire. When he became an old man, and got into his dotage, he began to study that book called the Bible; and it seems, that in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, we must believe that the knowledge of mankind will be so increased that we shall be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. The poor dotard!' exclaimed the philosophic infidel Voltaire, in the self-complacency of his pity. But who is the dotard now?—Rev. J. Craig."

The Query I would more particularly ask is (presuming the accuracy of the assertions), What is the prophecy so wonderfully fulfilled?

R. W.

Tom Thumb's House at Gonerby, Lincolnshire.—On the south-west side of the tower of the church of Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire, is a curious cornice representing a house with a door in the centre, an oriel window, &c., which is popularly called "Tom Thumb's Castle." I have a small engraving of it ("W.T. del. 1820, R.R. sculpt."): and a pencil states that on the same tower are other "curious carvings."

I would ask, therefore, Why carved? From what event or occasion? For whom? Why called "Tom Thumb's House?" And what are the other curious carvings?

G. Creed.

Mr. Payne Collier's Monovolume Shakspeare.—I should be extremely obliged to Mr. Collier, if he would kindly give me a public reply to the following question.

The express terms of the publication of his monovolune edition of Shakspeare, as advertised, were—

"The text regulated by the old copies, and by the recently discovered folio of 1632."

These terms manifestly exclude corrections from any other source than those of collation of the old copies, and the MS. corrections of the folio of 1632.

Now the text of Mr. Collier's monovolume reprint contains many of the emendations of the commentators not referred to in Notes and Emendations. For example: in The Taming of the Shrew, where Biondello runs in to announce the coming down the hill of the "ancient angel" (changed by the corrector into ambler), two other alterations in the same sentence appear without explanation in the regulated text, namely, mercatante substituted by Steevens for "marcantant" of the folios; and surely in lieu of "surly," which latter is the word of the folio of 1632.

I now ask Mr. Collier, on what authority were these emendations adopted?

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.