270
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. VIL APRIL 5, 1913.
ADAM : A MEDIAEVAL CONCEIT. In the
'Cursor Mundi ' (E.E.T.S., 11. 589-98) we
read :
Here now the resun of his nam
Qui that he was eald Adam
In this nam er four letters laid
That q the four yates er said ;
Sua micul es Adam for to muth
Als est, and west, and north and south,
And thow mai ask, wit-oten blam,
Qui god him gave sua mikel a nam
Parfay that [es] hot eth to rede
It takens Adam and his sede.
What is here referred to is explained rather more fully in the following extract from a late thirteenth-century MS. now before me :
Quatre parties le eel ad
Le griu climaz les apellad
Lun ad nun oriental
Laltre est dist solsticial
La terce ad nun occidental
La quarte est apelle brunal
Ces eunctres sunt espuns
En eel grezeis par altres nuns
Anathole dist orient
E disis redist Occident
Aracon est septentriun
Messimbria le su ad nun
De ces quatre fu tresfurme
Le nun Adam e aurne
La premere lettre prenez
De chescun e puis ensemblez
Si bien espeuare le sauez
Le nun Adam i trouerez
Cest nun ke del mund est estret
Mustre ke il pur home est fet
E ico nun tresbien espunt
Ke home est droit le mendre mund.
. " Anatole " (the Greek " sunrise " or ^'eastern land") and "Messimbria" (Greek "midday") are plain enough. "Aracon" may, possibly, refer to the defile of the River Aragus in the great central pass of the Caucasus. See Smith's ' Diet, of Greek and Roman Geography.' Where, or what, is the other ? F. LAMBARDE.
[Is " Aracon " rightly transcribed ? Surely & P KTOS is what is meant, & P KTOS and /ie<n^j8/n'a being ordinary Greek terms for north and south. " Disis " plainly stands for fo is = sunset, the west, as opposed to ^07-0X77= the east. It seems unlikely that particular localities are intended.]
A REPUTED RELATION OF GEORGE WASH- iNGTON.--When I was a boy at Hampton - on-Thames, in the sixties of last century, an old woman named Steadman, or Stedman, kept a little shop and infant school, some- thing like the one described in ' Great Expectations.' My father always told me that she was a niece of George Washington, and that handsome offers had been made to her if she would go to the United States; but that she had refused, being by no means
proud of Washington, whom she styled " a
traitor." Can any correspondent inform me
if this was really the case ? It was, at any
rate, believed by all residents there.
S. P.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED. 1. RICHARD BISSET, admitted to West- minster School 19 July, 1775. Any informa- tion concerning him would be useful.
2. JOHN BLACKALL, M.D. When and whom did he marry ? The ' D.N.B.,' v. 117, does not mention his marriage.
3. RICHARD BLACOW, admitted to West- minster School 16 Sept., 1783. I should be glad to learn any particulars about him. He cannot be the Richard Blacow who was convicted of libelling Queen Caroline (see 11 S. i. 369, 438), as that Richard Blacow seems to have been educated at Kirkham, Lanes, and to have been admitted to Trin. Coll. Camb. 10 Sept., 1783, aged 18.
G. F. R. B.
" KILLING THE CALF IN HIGH STYLE." I remember being told some years ago that the incident of " killing the calf in high style," related by the " arch-gossip " John Aubrey of Shakespeare, referred actually to some game in which the winner had to make a speech. I should much value some authentic information upon this matter.
VERITAS.
MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON CROKER. Has the name of the author of the memoir of this writer that appeared in The Quarterly Review, No. 283, vol. cxlii., for July, 1876, ever been disclosed ? The first chapter of ' The Croker Papers,' edited by L. J. Jen- nings in 1884, of necessity perhaps, follows it very closely.
EDITOR ' IRISH BOOK LOVER.'
MIRACLES. -Is there any authority for the statement that " miracles continued for the first two centuries A.D." ?
C. W. B.
[If the evidence for miracles holds good at all we should imagine it difficult to regard them as having stopped abruptly with the second century.]
INTERIOR OF DURHAM HOUSE. Can any one inform me where I may find a descrip- tion of the interior of Durham House when occupied by Sir Walter Ralegh ? P.
Philadelphia.
" THE LOWING HERD WINDS SLOWLY O'ER
THE LEA." What were the cows doing ? Were they brought in for the night, or turned out ? C. B. MOUNT.
