and for crest, on a Helmet, a Griffin's Head erased. The same arms were borne by a family of that name so far back as the battle of Agincourt.

The time of the persecutions of the Duke of Alva, is the presumed date of the settlement of the Hoyles in Yorkshire, where they became possessed of considerable lands in the parish of Ripponden; among these were the Hollins, Swift Place, and Light Hazles, besides extensive estates in Barkisland, Soyland, and elsewhere.

An Elkanah Hoyle lived at Swift Place in 1618. One of his sons, another Elkanah, died about 1717, and by his will left forty shillings a year, charged on the estate called the Hollins, and sixty shillings a year from Swift Place, to the poor of Ripponden. He married Agnes, daughter of John Hanson, of Woodhouse, a lineal descendant of the De Rastricks; by his wife Agnes, daughter of Sir John Savile.

A copy of the will of this Elkanah Hoyle is in the Town's Box, at Ripponden. A branch of the Yorkshire Hoyles is now settled about Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Old Jewry, June 15. ALTERUM GENTIS.

IN the ante-church of St. Nicholas, in this town, is a flat stone placed over the grave of Richard Hoyle, and Cecilia, his wife. He is thereon described as late of Denton Hall, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Merchant, and formerly of Swift Place, in the County of York. They both died in 1819, and the stone bears the arms described in your May number of Current Notes, p. 40. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ALIQUIS.

GROTESQUE IN CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. THE Camden Society and other Critics have erroneously interpreted the hideous and obscene imagery which is often found within a church, on corbels and bosses, and elsewhere. In Morwenstow Church, in Cornwall, there are two faces, one on the curve, and the other on the shoulder of an arch. The era is early Norman in style and date. One of these is the distorted countenance of a man, and he lolls out his tongue at you, as you look up; the other is fixed in a fierce and horrible laugh. Both are called by the Forefathers "the Grin of Arius," and both were intended to depict the heretic mocking at the Mysteries of the Church. The name of this grimace of sculpture is derived from a painting of the Council of Nicæa, now, I think, in the Vatican; wherein Arius is shewn among the Doctors with a fearful laugh of mockery and malice on his baffled visage.

The climax of every baleful passion, whether of revenge, or hatred, or fear, is a convulsion of spasmodic laughter. There are corbels in the cathedral of St. Kentigern, at Glasgow, which represent the Fiends as they grasp the separate soul of the Lost, and their demoniac faces are shivering with "the Grin of Arius," into a stony laugh.

Morwenstow.

R. S. HAWKER.

OVER DOOR INSCRIPTIONS.

THE inscription over the entrance of Lord Brougham's country house at Cannes, in the South of France, is a Latin translation of a Greek epigram. The original may be seen in the first book of the Anthologia Græca of Planudes, or in the ninth book of the Palatine Anthology, and indeed in many of the minor collections.

Your correspondent has left out a word in the Pentameter line, and mis-spelled another. The true reading is Inveni portum; Spes et Fortuna, valete: Me sat lusistis; ludite nunc alios.

I know not who was the author of this metrical ver

sion, whether Grotius, or Bellicarius, or one of the Stevens, or some other person.

Upon a monument erected at Basle, to the memory the following parody of the Greek original. It reminds of a Protestant clergyman, who died in 1564, is or was us as much of the Apostle Paul as of the Greek epigrammatist.

ἐλπις και πίστις, μεγα χαίρετε; τον λιμεν' ένρον. όνρανιοισι θεοις μουνος ἐνεστιν έρως.

O faith, O hope, I bid you both farewell: For now with love among the Saints I dwell. Brechin, May 28.

A CORRESPONDENT in the last number of Current Notes enquires whence the couplet he quotes as inscribed over the door of Lord Brougham's country seat at Cannes, is derived, it must however have been mis-quoted, the noble Lord is too accurate a scholar to have allowed blunders in grammar and metre to be engraved on his walls, nor can I in charity believe that two Scotch Humanity Professors could have inscribed or restored a distich so worded. The true version is

Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete, Nil mihi vobiscum; ludite nunc alios. Sat me lusistis would be a fair various reading. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, Part II. Sect. 3, Mem. 6, ascribes it to Prudentius, with this reference - Distichon ejus in Militem Christianum, e Græcoengraven on the tomb of Fr. Puccius the Florentine, in Rome. Chytræus in Deliciis.

The only edition I have of Prudentius, in Maittaire's Corpus, does not contain it. Probably it will be found in the later and more ample edition, printed in 1788, by

Bodoni at Parma.

I might perhaps properly transcribe Mr. Galloway's

version

Inveni portam-Spes et fortuna valete,

Sat me ludistis-ludite alios.

Portam, a haven of rest after the storms of life, is a meagre substitute for Portum. Ludistis is an error for lusistis, and the omission of nunc destroys the metre. C. F. NEWMARCH.

Leverton Rectory, Boston, June 2.

I ENTER on the subject of your correspondent's enquiry more with a view of placing on record in your columns what I believe to be the more correct version of the 'pleasing melancholy' in that oft adopted quotation rather than to satisfy his query from what author it is borrowed-the latter I cannot do. I have never met with it but as a quotation, and very variously phrased.

Inveni portum, Spes et fortuna valete !

Sat me lusistis, ludite nunc alios.

I would suggest as more grammatically as well as more metrically perfect than his own version in your May number.

The lines I have heard assigned to Propertius or Tibullus in their Elegies, as well as to Claudian and some of the Italian poets of the era of Pope Leo the Tenth. These suggestions derived from others have not realised the discovery of the source whence the lines are taken, they may however serve as hints to Mr. Galloway in his future researches.

Fleet Street, June 6.

J. W. B.

THE correct reading of the Epigram, cited by your Correspondent, David Galloway, p. 36, of the last May number, is this

Inveni portum; Spes et Fortuna valete!

Me sat lusistis; ludite nunc alios.

It will be found in the Anthologia Græca, cum Versione Latina H. Grotii, edita ab H. De Bosch, Ultraj. 17951810, 4to,. Vol. IV., p. 219. It is neither "the invention of the versatile Baron," nor "borrowed from a French author," but the translation of an anonymous Greek Epigram in the said Anthologia, Vol. I. p. 318. Ελπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη μέγα χαίρετε τὸν λιμέν' εὗρον. Οὐδεν ἐμοὶ χ' ὑμῖν, παίζετε τοὺς μετ' ἐμέ.

The translation of Grotius is

Iam reperi portum: Spes et Fortuna valete!
Ludite, vobiscum nil mihi, nunc alios.

Here the second verse is faulty both with respect to the latinity and to the metre. The syntax is easily corrected by a simple transition:

Nil mihi vobiscum; ludite nunc alios. Another version may be seen in Burmann's Anthologia Latina, lib. iv. p. 213. It has also been translated by Sir Thomas More, and by Fred. Morell. The latter might possibly be the French author alluded to by the

Rev. James Anderton.

Another Epigram of eight verses, beginning nearly the same, and evidently an expanded imitation of the former occurs in De Bosch's edition, Vol. i. P. 102. Ελπὶς καὶ οὐ Τύχη μέγα χαίρετε. τὴν ὁδοὺ εὗρον, etc. Hawkshead, June 11. D. B. H.

LE SAGE is the French author from whom is taken the motto inscribed by Lord Brougham, over the princi

YOUR Correspondent, Current Notes, p. 36, will find these lines in Book ix. chap. 10. of Gil Blas, as having been inscribed by him in golden letters over the door of his house at Lirias near Valencia, the gift of the Lords of Leyva and should Mr. Galloway be disposed to read the delightful description of Gil Blas' journey after his release from the tower of Segovia to this charming retreat; the description of the place and the country, and the account of his marriage with the fair Antonia, will doubtless afford him much pleasure.

Lord Brougham in all probability found the inscription in Gil Blas, I dare say a favourite book with him. Putney, May 28. RICHARD TALLEMACH.

SMOLLETT'S translation of the ninth book of Le Sage's Gil Blas, has the passage thus

I think it my indispensable duty to share the sweets of my retirement with the authors of my being. Our journey will not be long. We shall soon see ourselves settled in our hamlet, where, when I arrive, I will write over the door of my house, these two Latin verses in letters of gold— Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete : Sat me lusistis, ludite nunc alios.

Mr. Galloway quotes it thus,

Inveni portam, spes et fortuna valete,
Me sat ludistis, ludite alios.

Kensington, May 28.

R. C. KIDD.

OVER One of the entrances of the castle at Stirling, was a basso-relievo, with the following lines:

ESSPY SPEIK FVRTH AND SPAIR NOTHT
CONSIDDER WEIL I CAIR NOTHT

THE MOIR I STAND ON OPPIN HIGHT
MY FAVLTIS MOIR SVBIECT AR TO SITHT
1584.

The stone bearing this inscription has been moved since 1800.

DOOR-HEAD verse graven in stone over the porch of Morwenstow Vicarage, in Cornwall, built by the present Vicar.

A HOUSE: A GLEBE: A POUND A DAY:*
A PLEASANT PLACE TO WATCH AND PRAY:
BE TRUE TO CHURCH: BE KIND TO POOR,
O MINISTER, FOR EVERMORE,

The annual value of the vicarage rentcharge.

CIRCULAR MODE OF SEPULTURE IN IRELAND.

IN the cemetery attached to the ancient Priory church of St. John, at St. John's Point, in the county of Down, the cists or graves, contrary to the usual mode of lying east and west, here form a circle, the feet converging to the centre. Similar dispositions of the dead in cists have been discovered in other localities in Ireland; and in the third volume of the Archæological Journal, the same has been noticed in Wales, at a place called Town of Chapel, where it is said, in or about the year 450, a great battle was fought, and many Irishmen were slain. Downpatrick, June 4. JAMES A. PILSON.

WELSH BURIAL CUSTOM.

A SINGULAR Custom is observed here of covering the graves of the young and the unmarried with lime thickly spread upon the top of the mound, the sides being of turf. On inquiry, the clerk of the parish informed me it was used to denote the age of the occupant, the graves of those of more mature years being either covered with cinders, or the common mould. Llangollen, June 5. G.

DORSETSHIRE ANTIQUITIES.

A LETTER dated Dorchester, Oct. 2, 1758, contains the following notice, which may possibly be of use to the antiquary.

Last week, as a farmer was ploughing up part of an inclosed field near Blandford, the ploughshare struck against an earthern vessel or urn, and being quite rotten, broke it in two. It was full of ashes and pieces of human bones, among which was the head of a javelin, or spear, of an uncommon fashion and size, much too heavy to be wielded easily by any common man, weighing thirteen pounds and a half, and measuring twenty-eight inches long, the socket being three inches and a quarter in diameter. In the same vessel was also a brass helmet, which seemed to have been curiously wrought, but much decayed by time, the rust having eaten holes through it. Its diameter was twelve inches and three-quarters, and weighed nearly eleven pounds. J. G. S.

ON Her Majesty's birthday, the 24th ult., the London letter-carriers appeared for the first time in their new costume, scarlet tunic or frock coats, and on the blue collar, in worked yellow letters, G. P. O., with the number of the individual so employed.

ROBERT BURNS' "Jessy Lewars," afterwards Mrs. Thomson, died at Dumfries, on Saturday 26th ult., at the advanced age of nearly eighty years.

ON Monday, June 11, the cattle market held for centuries in Smithfield ceased; the first held in Copenhagen fields was on Friday, June 15.

THE SYMBOLIC HAND.

WHENCE is the origin of the use of the Symbol of the Hand as implying power? A practice that appears to have been general in the earliest ages, and in most countries. Norwich. R. F.

The earliest era of this emblem ascends into the Ogygian depths of unrecorded Time. The Pentacle, or Sigillum Salomonis by which he ruled the demons, attests its solemn usage as a Mythic sign by that supernatural king. This gravure on his seal was a double triangle, so intersected as to give out five angular points, the Fingers of Omnipotence, or the Hand of God. The Scutum Davidis, or heraldic bearing of that king shewed six angles, to indicate by the added point, the human nature of the Messiah, the manhood taken into God the Trinity, as partaker of might. Each of these figures survives as the carvure of a boss in the chancel of Morwenstow church. The hieroglyphic of the Hand received also sanction and approval, as the Ensign of Almighty power, from those shadowy Fingers which came forth, and moved along the wall with the legendary doom of Belshazzar the king. Thus the Hand as the source of Power became the signal of the gift of Power from the oldest time till now. R. S. HAWKer.

Morwenstow, June 12.

FRENCH MYSTERIES AND STAGE PLAYS.

DE BEAUCHAMPS, in his Recherches sur les Theatres de France, notices among the writers of Mysteries before the time of Jodelle, Jean du Pont-Alais, who was not only the chief and manager of the players of Moralities and Farces in France, at the close of the fifteenth century, but according to Du Verdier, was also the author of many Mysteries, Moralities, Satires and Farces which were represented or recited publicly on stages in Paris. He appears to have been a most extraordinary humourist, his repartees and manner of delivering them procuring him admission to the first families, among whom he appears to have been tolerated as a Jester. Nor was this general freedom allowed him among the more distinguished personages, but he frequently had the honour of approaching the presence of Louis XII., and his successor Francis I. Some of his jocoseries are recorded. He was deformed, and one day saluting a Cardinal who had the same ill fortune, so placed himself that his back touched that of the prelate. Monseigneur," said he, "you see that in despite of the proverb-mountains may meet."

66

It was customary before the printing of play-bills, for a player to accompany a drummer* to squares, thoroughfares and public places, make an eulogium on the piece about to be represented, and invite the public to see it performed. Pont-Alais had once the audacity to cause his drum to be beaten on a Sunday morning in sermon

and Hogarth, in his print of the Fair, represents the So in Kemp's Jig, Sly accompanies him with his drum ; theatrical amazon beating the drum to excite an attraction among the crowd.

tion.

The persons of the troop appear to have played parts and performed other menial services. The barber of Pont-Alais complained the parts given to him to represent were too insignificant, on which the manager gave him that of one of the kings of the East, seated him on a high throne, and maliciously standing behind his shoulders, repeated :

Je suis des moindres le mineur

Et n'ai pas vaillant un-teston;
Mais le roi d'Inde le majeur,

M'a souvent rasè le menton.
I'm the least of the least,

Not a sixpence to save me;
But this king of the East
Very often has shav'd me.

LARGE Crosses of stone were in the Catholic ages erected by the monks on all the highways and places of public resort, as confirmations of faith in the death of the Saviour; and as if the spirit of devotion had penetrated into the recesses of forests, trees from their position and size were converted into similar emblems of the sufferings of Christ. The alder, however, to so sacred a distinction formed the only bar of exception, being by the faithful traditionally believed to retain the curse of the silver for which Judas Iscariot had sold his Lord and Master, a tree upon which they with horror averred the betrayer had expiated his last crime, when in despair he hanged himself.

Corpses in their way to interment were rested at the feet of these frail memorials of human redemption, and during these delays the attendants were variously employed. Keeners, the hired performers of sorrow, bewailed in strains of professional pathos, the decease of those whose lives had been marked by acts of beneficence and mercy. Others, of a more humble grade, kneeled about the coffin, and silently testified their grief by mechanically moving their lips and counting their beads, while a select few were appointed to recite dolorous offices, and pray for the repose of the soul of the departed. Priests also officiated at these halting places, and if the defunct had been of the sacerdotal order, sang laudatory hymns and chanted lugubrious litanies addressed to the Virgin and Saints, selected from the Garden of the

The solitude connected with the wild bye ways, through which frequently these solemn cortéges passed in their direction to some remote churchyard, generally produced a depressing sadness-an awful stillness like that of the grave to which they were proceeding, gloomily accorded with the silent discomfiting aspect of these melancholy regions, where the dreary expanses of withered heath, expressed the product of Nature as in a decayed and dying state, but, no sooner did the elevated position of the way side cross present itself to observation, like an object of "some patient and abiding grief," than the feelings of the mourners experienced an instantaneous change, the bewailing effusions of some were renewed, and the wilderness again became vocal.

The worshipping of Crosses is supposed to have originated with the anchorites of Thebais, and the other ascetics of the oriental deserts, but in the mediæval ages, they became with all orthodox Catholics, from the tilting Crusader to the itinerant beadsman, venerated objects of devotion.* Digby in his Mores Catholici, or Ages of Faith, asserts, they formed the whole Gospels in one sign and character contracted, and the whole science of Jesus Christ crucified," putrid trunks," as the followers of Wickliffe quaintly termed them, before which blind multitudes prostrated themselves with as much fervid zeal as if so many redeemers lay bleeding thereon. Such in truth was the idol worship of those vaunted ages, when the faith in Christ attested by the lives of

* Britton in his Architectural Antiquities, while noticing the introduction of fixed crosses, remarks that representations thereof "were first cut on the top of single upright stones; afterwards the shaft was ornamented and its sculpture varied in different localities, according to the skill or fancy of the person who raised it. In Scotland, Wales, Cumberland, Cornwall, and some other English counties, many of these relics of antiquity are still remaining, and serve to show the forms and shapes generally used, and the ornaments most commonly applied to them. They appear to have been erected for various purposes; but the greater part may be classed under the following heads-memorials of designation, or boundary objects of demarcation, for property, parishes, and sanctuary-sepulchral mementoesmemorials of battles, murder, and fatal events-places of public prayer and proclamation; some were also placed by the road side, in churchyards, in market places, at the junctions of three or four roads or streets, and on spots where the body of a deceased person had halted in the way to interment. It was a common practice for mendicants to station themselves by the side of these crosses and beg alms in the name of Jesus." Notices of all these descriptions of Crosses will be found in Holland's Cruciana; and in the Illustrations of Stone Crosses, now in course of publication the most interesting remains in England and Wales, which by J. H. Le Keux, containing one hundred engravings of will supply a great desideratum in archæology. Many of the plates are already engraved, and prospectuses, by which early copies will be secured, may be had on application to Mr. Willis.-ED.