16
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. JULY s, 1913.
'Irish Popular Superstitions'). An odd mixture of merriment and malignity, under the name of Puck he will be recognized as the "merry wanderer of the night," who boasts that he can "put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes," and Shakspeare has conferred on him a kind of immortality he never expected. Dr. P. W. Joyce in his 'The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places' deals fully with places named after the sprite, to attest his former reign of terror in the minds of the old peasantry. William MacArthur.
Sackville Fox (11 S. vii. 470).—A
Sackville Fox was Blanc Coursier and
Genealogist of the Order of the Bath in the
reigns of Geo. II. and III. He died either
1 Dec. or 18 Dec., 1760. See Gentleman's
Magazine, ' Obituary,' 1760, p. 394, and
Xoble's ' College of Arms,' pp. 399 and 448.
G. R. Y. R.
UNICORN'S HORN (11 S. vii. 450). The horn referred to was, no doubt, the tusk of a narwhal. See Browne's ' Vulgar Errors,' bk. iii. chap, xxiii., where the whole question touching unicorn's horns is discussed very fully. It appears that another Pope (Julius III.) also spent a large sum on a unicorn's horn ; but, according to Sir Thos. Browne, the horn " he stuck not to give many thousand crowns " for was really the tusk of a narwhal, specimens of which were fre- quently brought home by travellers and retailed as unicorn's horns. The particular horn belonging to Pope Clement VII. is referred to by Aldrovandus, who saw it at Rome (see his treatise on * Quadrupeds,' bk. i. p. 223). The so-called unicorn's horn seen at Windsor in 1598 by the German traveller Heutzner (E. Phipson, ' Animal- Lore in Shakespeare's Time,' p. 456) was a narwhal's tusk. It was brought back by Frobisher, and was " reserved as a Jewel by the Queenes Majesties Commandment in her wardrope of Robes " (Hakluyt's ' Voyages ' [1904], vii. 297). Rhinoceros horn was also frequently passed off upon credulous people as unicorn's horn.
The horn was collected as a curiosity owing to the belief current in the sixteenth century that it was an effective remedy against poisons. The belief persisted in England down to the time of Charles II., but a horn cup sent at that time to the Royal Society to be tested appears to have successfully disproved the superstition (Ray Lankester, ' Science from an Easy Chair,' 1910, p. 127). Dr. Edward Browne, the
son of Sir Thomas Browne, inspected a-
number of specimens while he Was travelling
abroad, and records (' Travels,' 1685, p. 102)
that the King of Denmark had a Wonderful
collection. See Roscher's ' Lexicon ' under
' Monokeros,' where a full bibliography is-
given ; also W. Haughton, ' On the Uni-
corns of the Ancients,' Annals and Mag. of
Nat. Hist.. 1862, p. 363 ; Robert Brown,
jun., 'The Unicorn,' 1881; G. C. Kirch-
mayer, ' On the Unicorn,' 1661 (translated
in Goldsmid's ' Un-Natural History,' Edin-
burgh, 1886, vols. i. and ii.) ; ' Encyclo.
Brit.,' llth ed., article * Unicorn.'
MALCOLM LETTS.
'THE AMBULATOR' (US. vii. 430). The- first edition of this guide to London was published in 1774. Others appeared in 1782. 1787, 1793, 1794, 1796, 1800, 1807, and the eleventh edition, which is in this library, in 1811. It is a 12mo volume of 316+ viii pages, and contains a map of the country,. 'Twenty-five Miles round London.' An Advertisement requests that persons able to give information ".respecting the change of property that may occur from time to time, and the errors or omissions that may be noticed," should communicate with Scatcherd & Letterman, Ave-Maria Lane* The full title is :
" The | Ambulator ; | or, ] A Pocket Com- panion I for the tour of j London and Its En- virons, I within the circuit of twenty-five miles ^
| descriptive of | the Objects most Remarkable I for | Grandeur, Elegance, Taste, Local Beauty, | and Antiquity. | Illustrated by | Anecdotes, His- torical and Biographical ; | and embellished with,
| Fourteen Elegant Engravings, | and | A Correct Map. | The Eleventh Edition, | with considerable Additions and Improvements. | London : | Printed for Scatcherd and Letterman ; Wilkie and Robinson ; Long- | man, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown ; C. Law ; J. Harris ; John | Richardson ; J. Asperne ; T. Hughes ; J. Caw- thorne : T. Under- | wood ; and Gale and Curtis. | 1811."
The following lines from Cowper appear on the title-page before the number of the edition :
LONDON opulent, enlarged, and still Increasing LONDON Babylon of old Not more the glory of the earth than she. A more accomplish'd World's chief glory now t The villas with which LONDON stands begirt,. Like a swarth Indian, with his belt of beads, Prove it !
The tenth edition (1794) was dated Isling- ton, 27 Nov., 1806, but the eleventh is dated Chiswick, 4 Oct.. 1810. 'A Concise Account of the Metropolis ' occupies the first twenty- four pages, the remainder, the ' Ambulator ^ or, A Tour Round London/ being arranged
