xii. JULY is, IMS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
53
It is one of the many amusing and wonderful
stories of the "Middle" Ages. The work of
Josephus is a romance, or compilation of the
fourteenth or fifteenth century ; certainly
not authentic history: it surpasses history
in minuteness of detail and in impossibilities.
There never were any Jews in Palestine.
E. A. PETHERICK. Streatham.
This fabled river is called the Sambatyon. It is frequently mentioned in Jewish lore, and the following notice from the apocryphal travels of Eldad the Danite is abridged from one of Dr. Neubauer's articles on the question
- Where are the Ten Tribes'? ' which appeared
in the Jewish Quarterly Revieiv. The river
"is full of sand and stones and this river of
stone and sand rolls during the six working days, and rests on the Sabbath day. As soon as the Sabbath begins, fire surrounds the river, and the flames remain till the next evening, when the Sab- bath ends. Thus no human being can reach the river for a distance of half a mile on either side." W. D. MACRAY. [Many other replies received.]
ATKYNS (9 th S. xi. 448). Madam Charlotte Atkyns, nee Walpole, "the pretty Miss Wai- pole of Drury Lane Theatre," has been the subject of a previous inquiry in ' N. & Q.' (8 th S. iii. 47, 72). As your correspondent dates his communication from Switzerland, I will gladly send him a copy of the two articles if he will communicate with me,
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
In the burial-yard of Llandaff Cathedral, near the wall of the south aisle, is a slab flat on the ground, thus inscribed :
" This stone is placed here in Remembrance of departed Worth and to record the union of domestic and more extended Virtues with very distinguished Family connections in the Person of Mary Adkin second Daughter of the Rev. Robert Adkin Rector of Rainham in Norfolk England. She died 1st Oct r 1805. For the good that she did while living may her remains be undisturbed, until she is called to happiness, we hope in Heaven."
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Monmouth.
THE THREE RAVENS' (9 th S. xi. 485). The interesting version of this ballad which has been communicated by MR. EDWARD PEACOCK was printed in 'N. & Q.' between eleven and twelve years ago. It was sent for publication by a correspondent signing him- self E. L. K., in courteous response to an inquiry of my own upon the subject (8 th S. ii. 324, 437). Thence it crossed the Atlantic, and was duly entered by the late Prof. F. J. Child in his monumental work * The English
and Scottish Popular Ballads,' v. 212. There
is an interesting variant in the different ver-
sions of this ballad. In the earliest known
copy, which is found in Ravenscroft's ' Melis-
mata,' 1611, the slain knight's lady-love is
represented under the figure of a fallow doe :
She lift up his bloudy hed,
And kist his wounds that were so red.
She got him vp vpon her backe,
And carried him to earthen lake.
She buried him before the prime,
She was dead herself ere euen-song time.
But in the Northern version, printed in the ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border/ the lady is faithless :
His lady's ta'en another mate, So we may make our dinner sweet.
For the credit of human nature, it is pleasant to find that in MR. PEACOCK'S Lincolnshire version womanly love and devotion again revert to the normal type.
W. F. PRIDEAUX.
JOHNSON (9 th S. xi. 328). As my query at this reference has not elicited any reply, I may as well give the notes I possess which I believe relate to the above :
Aspley Guise Parish Register.
John Johnson and Elizabeth Skevington married together xxviii July 1587.
Farndish Parish Register.
1589, Nov. 16. Bapt. George, son of John Johnson, Rector.
1591, Dec. 16. Elizabeth, daughter of John John- son, bapt.
1594, May 2. Robert, son of John Johnson, bapt.
1596, Nov. 22. Phillis and Maria, daughters of John Johnson, bapt.
1600, June 29. Joseph, son of John Johnson, bapt.
1603, June 26. Thomas, son of John Johnson, bapt.
1607, Jan. 28. Susanna, filia Johannis Johnson, bapt.
1596, Dec. 8. Maria, daughter of John Johnson, buried.
1597, May 15. Robert, son of John Johnson, buried. 1625, Sept. 27. John Johnson, Rector, formerly
Fellow of Magdalen Coll., Oxon., buried.
1622, - . William Jackson and Elizabeth John- son married.
1622, Oct. 29. John Younger and Philis Johnson married.
Copy of Brass Plate in the Chancel of Farndish
Church, Beds.
HIC IACET IOANNES IOHNSONUS, GENEROSUS. DE ANTIQTJA FAMILIA IN NORT HCROWLEY IN COM BUCKING, AC QUONDAM RECTOR HUIUS ECL'I^E ; QUI CUM ANNOS FERE CENTUM CO'PLEVERAT IN D*NO OBDORMIVIT SEXTO DIE OCTOB : 1625.
The baptism of Tobias, the eldest son, has not been found (see ' Visit. Lon.,' vol. ii. p. 13, Harl. Soc.) ; neither has the will of John Johnson. THOS. WM. SKEVINGTON.
Ilkley.
