362 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 a ix. NOV. 5,1021. do with two novels of the same name. The title is a natural one for a Gothic novel, and by way of illustration it may be pointed out that there are two German terror novels with much the same name at much the same time. Christian Heinrich Spiess, ' Maria Clement, oder die Glocke um Mitternacht,' Olmiitz, 1800 (Goedeke, ' Grundruss zur Ge- schichte der deutschen Dichtung,' v.,p. 508), and Heinrich August Kerndoffer, ' Der Schreckensthurm am See oder die mitter- nachtliche Todtenglocke,' Chemnitz, 1807 (Goedeke, v., p. 400). The book of this title mentioned in Jane Austen's letter of Oct. 4, 1798, and in ' Northanger Abbey ' is no doubt ' The Midnight Bell ; a German Story Founded on Incidents in Real Life.' 3 vols. Symonds, 1798. Noted in The Critical Review, xxiii. (1798), p. 472. The reviewer judges that it is not a translation from the German, but an English original. 6. ' The Orphan of the Rhine : a Romance.' By Mrs. Sleath. 4 vols. Lane, 1798. Noticed and censured in The Critical
- ewew,xxvii.(1799),p.356. The 'Biographi-
cal Dictionary of Living Authors ' (London, 1816), gives this writer's name as Eleanor Sleath, and Attributes to her, besides ' The Orphan of the Rhine,' ' Who's the Murderer ; or The Mysteries of the Forest,' 4 vols., 12mo., 1802 ; ' The Bristol Heiress ; or The Errors of Education,' 5 vols., 12mo., 1808 ; and ' The Nocturnal Minstrel,' 2 vols. 12mo., 1809. Allibone gives the same titles. 7. ' Horrid Mysteries : A Story. From the German of the Marquis of Grosse.' London, 1796. By P. Will. The Critical Review, xxi. (1797), p. 473, points out that the book has the same general outline and is partly identical in detail with ' The Victim of Magical Delusion ; or The Mystery of the Revolution of P 1 ; a Magico -Political Tale founded on Historical Facts and translated from the German of Cajetan Tschink.' By P. Will. 3 vols. Robinson, 1795. Noticed in The Critical Review, xv. (1795), p. 63. This book evidently became well known for its account of the Illuminati. See Miss Lillie Deming Loshe, ' The Early American Novel,' New York, 1907, p. 42, who refers to Thomas Love Peacock's de- scription of Scythrop in ' Nightmare Abbey,' ch. ii. : He built many castles in the air and peopled them with secret tribunals and bands of illuminati, who were always the imaginary instruments of his projected regeneration of the human species. As he intended to institute a perfect republic, he in- vested himself with absolute sovereignty over ' these mystical dispensers of liberty. He slept | with ' Horrid Mysteries ' under his pillow, and | dreamed of venerable eleutherarchs and ghastly j confederates holding midnight conventions in I subterranean caves. It will be seen that all this "rubbish" falls within the six years from 1793 to 1798. i The passage in question was probably written | in 1798, and records strictly contemporary horrors. No doubt this amazing young lady of twenty-three had read all seven books j without rapture or terror, and then by a few | strokes of her pen gave them comic im- mortality. ALAN D. McKiLLOP. The Rice Institute, Houston, Texas, U.S.A. SARACEN OR SAXON ? A QUESTION OF ARMS. WHEN Messrs. Ward and Price, in May, 1921, advertised the sale of Gwydyr Castle it was described as " the home of the ancient Wynne family, lineal descendants from the Royal Welsh Princes for upwards of five centuries " ; and among its contents was " the renowned Wynne cabinet," of which the advertisement gave a sketch. Of the great armorial credence of Sir John Wynne, the builder of Gwydyr Castle in 1535, Mr. Percy McQuoid, in ' A History of English Furniture' (F., pp. 38-42), tells us that the lower portion is decorated with the armorial bearings and em- blems of the Wynne family. The upper right panel bears the arms of John Wynne, Quarterly 1st and 4th sable a chevron between three fleurs- de-lis argent (Tervan ap Howell, 1399) ; 2nd and 3rd vert, three eagles displayed in fesse, or (Owen Gwynedd, H69). The centre panel bears the two royal lions of England crowned passant above the York and Lancaster rose, the Wynnes being connected by marriage with the Royal House of Tudor. The third panel, to the left, bears a helm with an eagle rising as crest, with the leek flower and I. W. repeated. The right- hand drawer of the middle compartment bears the royal red dragon of Cadwaladr, the last King of Britain, and a head couped in profile, the other two heads being on the corresponding drawer, this being an allusion to the story that, during the reign of Llewelyn the Great, Vychan, in the year 1246, defeated the English army which invaded Wales, and having killed three of the principal English officers, brought their heads to the prince, who directed Vychan to bear the arms, three Englishmen's heads couped and proper, &c. Vychan, the hero of this legend, was, of course, the direct ancestor of the Williams family of Cochwillan and Penrhyn, who still bear those arms, and, like the Wynnes, with whom they intermarried, claim descent
