i2s.3LAi.au. 1,1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 255
Latin Proverb: Origin sought (12 S. x. 150).—If the words patiatur and ieiunus are transposed in the quotation from St. Bernard, the latter part of the sentence will, like the earlier, have a metrical form. Thus arranged the Latin words
Nescit quid ieiunus patiatur
are suggestive of the line
Non vult scire satur, quid ieiunus patiatur.
This is given among the Latin proverbs in vol. i. of Miillenhoff and Scherer's 'Denkmäler deutscher Poesie und Prosa aus dem viii-xii Jahrhundert' (3rd ed., Berlin, 1892).
Something of the same thought is to be seen in "Plenus venter facile de ieiuniis disputat" (St. Jerome, Epistles, 58, 2).
There is an affinity, if not a direct connexion, between St. Bernard's
Nescit sanus quid sentiat aeger
and Terence, 'Andria,' 309 sq.,
Facile omnes quom valemus recta consilia aegrotis damus.
Tu si hie sis, aliter sentias.
There are similar sentiments in Greek drama. Edward Bensley.
DE KEMPELEN'S AUTOMATON CHESS-
PLAYER (12 S. x. 72, 113, 155, 170). An ar-
ticle reprinted from the New York Com-
mercial in Dwightfs American Penny Maga-
zine, vol. i., p. 333, June 28, 1845, gives
some information about the automaton
chess-player of Kempelen. The magazine
is not easy to find and a brief synopsis is as
follows : Maelzel, the owner, took the. chess-
player to pieces before starting on the sea
voyage on which he died, but the player was
put together again by Dr. S. K. Mitchell
of Philadelphia, and exhibited at Peale's
Museum in that city. An explanation of
how the trick was worked is given a con-
cealed player sat beneath the chessboard.
This concealed player was, in Europe, one
M. Mouret ; in America, a German named
Slomberger. A duplicate automaton was
made in America by an ingenious Yankee
and played by one Henry Coleman in New
York until Maelzel bought it out. Refer-
ences to American newspapers are given.
I may add that a chess-player, supposedly
the original, was formerly in the Eden Mus6e,
New York. When that institution broke
up it was sold, and in 1918 was at Steeple-
chase Park, Coney Island, New York, where
I believe it still is.
THOMAS OLLIVE MABBOTT.
Graduate School, Columbia University.
CHALK IN KENT AND ITS OWNERS : RYE,
CORNHILL, VlLERS, ST. CLAIR (12 S. X. 151,
195). With regard to the identity of
the Hamo, brother of Roger de Vilers, who
gave (to St. John's of Colchester) parts of
the tithes in Walcra, the mill and half the
tithe of Chalcre, with the Hamo St. Clair
who gave Algareslawe, R. S. B. will find
on p. 120 of the Chartulary of St. John
(Roxburghe Club) an acknowledgment by
Henry de Samfordia of the possession by
the Monastery of " medietatem omnium
decimarum de dominico quod fuit Hamonis
de Sancto Claro in villa de Cholera" This
particular charter does not appear
to have been impugned by the critics
who have questioned the authenticity of
some of the documents in the collection,,
and these critics are the first to maintain
that even in falsified charters the forgers
were, for obvious reasons, careful to be
correct in the " historical setting," i.e., the
genealogical details. As Eudo Dapifer held
Chalk, and the connexion between Eudo
and Hamo de St. Clair is evident from the
| latter succeeding the former in certain
offices and estates, there can, I think, be
no doubt as to identity of the two Hamos,
viz., the Hamo, brother of Roger de Vilers,
who gave the tithes of Chalk and the Hamo
i de St. Clair who gave Algareslawe. That
Walcra was identical with Chalcra seems, aa
R. S. B. states, to be a misapprehension.
PERCY HULBURD.
124, Inverness Terrace, W.
SURNAMES USED AS CHRISTIAN NAMES
j (12 S. ix. 370, 437, 474, 511 ; x. 115). The
| first instance of a surname being used as a
j Christian name in the Bonython family is
| that of Reskymer Bonython of Bonython,
who was born in 1565 and was sheriff of
Cornwall in 1619-20. Some years later there
was Gavrigan Bonython. The Christian
names in these cases are those of two very
old and well-known, but now extinct,
Cornish families one resident in Mawgan,
near Bonython, in the Lizard district, and
the other in St. Columb Major.
J. LANGDON BONYTHON.
Carclew, Adelaide, South Australia.
BLUE BEARD (12 S. x. 68, 113, 196). I
beg to draw attention to two other ballads
on this theme to be found (with pictures)
in Cassell's ' Illustrated British Ballads '
(1886). One is 'May Colvin,' taken from
Herd's collection (also in Motherwell's)
and said to resemble the ballad quoted at.