Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/514

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL JUNE 27, 1903.


called "Master Newton," but after 1694 "Doctor Newton," from which date also the place is called a "madhouse." In 1683 it is described as on Clerkenwell Green ; after 1695 (occasionally) in Wood's Close ; and once (1695) in Southampton Street. The father was buried 24 July, 1718. The son was buried 12 Nov., 1750, aged seventy-two. Each is described as " Dr. James Newton of Wood's Close." Unfortunately their baptisms are not recorded.

There is manifestly some almost hopeless confusion between thefatherand the son. The obituary notices (see Musgrave's ' Obituary,' iv. 287) and the engraved portrait state that the son was " cet. 78 " when he died in 1750. This may mean "in his 78th year." At all events, the 1670 of 'D.N.B.' should be 1672. But the parish register records seventy-two as his age, so that his birth must be put about 1678. The ' Herbal ' was begun in 1680, and the date of the ' Enchiridion ' is said to be 1689 (Jackson, 'Literature of Botany,' 1881, p. 29). If he were born in 1678, cer- tainly neither of these books can be his ; if in 1672, it is incredible that he began a 'Herbal' when he was eight, and printed an 'Enchiridion' at seventeen. Moreover, Dillenius writes of him in 1724 as already dead, and John Commelinus, of Amsterdam, who gave him plants, died in 1692, when Newton would be only fourteen. Is it possible that, after all, the father was the real author 1

The following entries may be added here. There are many others : Baptisms.

1694/5. March 6, James, son of James and Ellianor Newton.

1699/1700. January 1, James, son of James and Eleanor Newton.

1702'3. January 5, James, son of James and Esther Newton.

Marriage.

1685. April 20, James Newton and Ellin Locke (lie.).

Burials.

1685. A chrisom of James Newton, senior.

1697. James, son of James Newton (Green).

1703. April 28, Alice, wife of Dr. James Newton.

1703. October 3, James Newton, apothecary.

W. C. B.

AMERICAN DEGREES. (See 1 st S. v. 177 ; vi. 45.) I may call attention to a query put in 1852 by J. W. (Liverpool) regarding the manner in which collegiate honours in the United States are obtained, and the "cargo" of such which appeared just previously to have been exported by some inferior institu- tion to this country ; and to the reply of T. WESTCOTT (Philadelphia), the statements


in which latter have been most strikingly oorne out in evidence in the libel action Garnett v. Clarke and Others, tried in the King's Bench Division on 15 and 16 June of bhis present year, just over half a century later. ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

[See also the numerous articles under ' Tusculum University,' 8 th S. vi., vii., viii.]

LUTHER'S HYMNS. The Athenaeum, 23 Feb., 1901, wrote that " Janssen says, ' It is very doubtful if Luther composed a single one of the many hymns for which he gets credit.' He adds, however, no authority for this suggestion."

Dickinson, in his * Music in the History of the Western Church,' Scribner's, 1902, writes :

"Luther composed no [hymn] tunes. Under patient investigation of half a century, the melodies originally associated with Luther's hymns have all been traced to their sources." P. 259.

'Eine feste Burg,' seemingly, is from an old mass, adapted. W. F. P. S.

MEMORIAL TO LIVINGSTONE. The erection after thirty years of a permanent memorial to Livingstone, on the spot where he died and where his heart is buried, merits, I think, mention in ' N. & Q.' The memorial is an obelisk of stone, surmounted by a cross, and stands about twenty feet in height. It has been so designed that there are practically no flat surfaces on which water can collect, and every effort has been made to render it as permanent a monument as possible.

On the cross there are engraved the words "In Memoriam," and on each of the four sides of the obelisk a tablet has been placed bearing inscriptions as follows :

" Erected by his friends to the memory of Dr. David Livingstone, Missionary and Explorer. He died here May 4 th , 1873.

"This monument occupies the spot where for- merly stood the tree at the foot of which Living- stone's heart was buried by his faithful native followers. On the trunk was carved the following inscription : ' David Livingstone, Died May 4 th , 1873. Chuma, Souza, Mniasere, Uchopere.' "

The monument is enclosed in a square, at each corner of which is a dwarf obelisk, built in the same solid manner as the central structure. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

APPLE-BLOSSOMS. In Wales apple-blossoms are sometimes put into a coffin with a dead body just before burial. A lady wants to know why they should be put there. Apples have been supposed to restore youth. There were certain apples, belonging to the Scandi- navian gods, which had a power of restora- tion. Iduna, the wife of Bragi, had the charge of them. These the gods tasted when