336
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. XL APRIL M, im
Shirley, Earl Ferrers of Chartley, Staff.,
exec. Tyburn, 1760.'
Mr. Evelyn P. Shirley in ' Stemmata Shirleiana,' 1873, p. 197, says " there are several prints of this unfortunate noble- man," but he does not indicate where they are to be found.
T do not know whether W. B. H. has noticed that the ' D.N.B.' (article Laurence Shirley) states that " there is a large print of the execution of Ferrers in the Salt Library at Stafford." The same authority also refers to the engraved portrait (with hat and halter at his feet) which is prefixed to the ' Memoirs ' of his life by J. Coote (1760). A. L. HUMPHREYS.
187, Piccadilly, W.
[MB. A. S. LEWIS also refers to Caulfield.)
SNAKES DRINKING MILK (10 S. x. 265, 316, 335, 377, 418; xi. 157). The serpent is credited with a sweet tooth. This I gather from ' Monsieur le Principal,' by Jean Viollis :
" ' Ces pruneaux sont exquis,' dit au bout d'un moment M. Duprat-Lelong.
" ' Peut-etre pas assez Sucre's ? ' hasarda M. Le Flos.
"'Oh! toi,' riposta madame Le Flos, ' tu mettrais du sucre dans la morue ! Figurez- vous, messieurs, que mon mari prend son lait sucre !....!! n'y a que les negres et les serpents qui aiment le sucre dans le lait ! " Pp. 69, 70.
ST. SwiTHIN.
SILESIAN TOOTH (10 S. x. 188). The following extract from Stephen Collet's ' Relics of Literature,' 1823 (p. 207), will answer MB. HACQtrorL's question :
" The Golden Tooth. Fontenelle says, ' I the truth of a fact were always ascertained before its cause were inquired into, or its nature disputed, much ridicule might be avoided b} the learned.' In illustration of this remark, h relates the following whimsical anecdote :
' In 1593, a report prevailed, that a chile in Silesia, seven years old, having lost its firs teeth, in the new set a tooth of gold grew up ir place of one of the cheek teeth. Hortius,* Pro fessor of Medicine in the University of Helmstadt became so convinced of the truth of this story that he wrote a history of this tooth, in whicl he affirmed, that it was partly natural anc partly miraculous, and that it had been sent bj heaven to that child to console the poor Christians oppressed by the Turks. It is not, however very easy to conceive what consolation th Christians could draw from this tooth, nor wha relation it could bear to the Turks. Hortius however, was but one historian of the tooth for, in the same year that this work appeared Bullandus wrote another history of it. Tw years afterwards, Ingosterus, another learnet
- Jac. Horstius is meant. See his v De Aure
Dente Maxillari Pueri Silesii ' (Lips., 1595).
nan, wrote in opposition to Bullandus respecting
tie golden tooth, who failed not to make a very
laborate and scientific reply. Another great
man, Libavius, collected all that had been said
n the tooth, and added his own peculiar doctrine.
Nothing was wanting to so many fine works,
ut a proof that the tooth was really of gold ;
goldsmith at length was called to examine it,
vho discovered that it was only a bit of gold leaf
ipplied to the tooth with considerable address.
?heir books were first composed on an assumed
act, and then the goldsmith consulted.' "
According to Meyer's ' Conversations- Lexicon ' (1st ed.), Martin Ruland (1569- 611) was during the last few years of his if e physician in ordinary to the Emperor Rudolf II., and the title of his book ' Nova >t Inaudita Historia de Aureo Dente ' Frankfurt, 1595). EDWARD BENSLY.
Aberystwyth.
SEMAPHORE SIGNALLING (10 S. xi. 168,. 211, 271). I think your correspondent who states that there was a semaphore signal on One Tree Hill, near London, will be in- terested to learn that I well remember standing close beside it whilst it was in use. It could be approached, at that time, from the road going up Forest Hill. I think it must have been about 1843 or 1844 when I saw it.
WALTER W. SKEAT.
In the year 1841 or that immediately following I saw a semaphore near Spurn Point, on the Yorkshire side of the Humber. I think there was another at Cleethorpes, across the river in Lincolnshire, but of this I am not well assured, for I cannot call to mind ever having seen it.
EDWARD PEACOCK.
I am unable to give F. H. S. the informa- tion required, but the following may be of interest. On 17 Sept., 1892, the Semaphore at Farley Chamberlayne was visited by the Hampshire Field Club, when the late Rev. G. N. Godwin repeated the paper (with additions) read by him at a previous meeting of the club at Micheldever (Hampshire Antiquary and Naturalist, vol. ii. p. 86). Possibly these additions, not given in the above account, might be preserved in the Club's records and throw some light on the subject. F. K. P.
SEVENTH EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND : HIS DESCENDANTS (10 S. xi. 188). No person of the name of Woodroffe is mentioned in George Percy's account in Purchas's ' Pil- grimes,' nor in the late Alexander Brown's ' Genesis of the United States.' The latter work contains an enormous mass of details
