9 S. III. MAY 27, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
409
lit story of a witch who gained posses-
LOI of a " mask," and thereby worked its rig itful owner direst evil until a " wise ma i " was called in to checkmate her ma ;hinations. Under his directions the
uf'erer boiled certain things over a wicken- wp<>d fire, which had to be stirred with a wic ken-wood stick, and performed other rites
es ilting in the discomfiture of the sorceress.
G. W.
MILESTONES DIRECTING TO WENTWORTH IOCJSE. I have been informed that there were, forty or fifty years ago, in various parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire mile- stones informing the traveller how far it was Yoni the points where they stood to Went-
rorth House. Why were these stories erected ? \re they still in existence ? ASTARTE.
COL. C. GODFREY. Col. C. Godfrey, Keeper f the Crown Jewels (temp. James II.), named Arabella Churchill, sister to the irst Duke of Marlborough. Can any of
- our readers inform me as to his parents
Imd antecedents ? H. C. B. HOPKINSON.
13, Bryanston Square, W.
LORD BURLEIGH'S PRECEPTS. The 'Ten 5 recepts' of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh, vere addressed to his "son Robert" when he latter had not yet attained to "man's state." If we suppose him to have been at he time a lad of sixteen, that would make the iate of the 'Precepts' about 1566, as Robert Jecil was born in 1550. In 1566 Sir Walter laleigh was a boy of fourteen and Lord Issex was an infant ; yet in Precept No. 8 x)rd Burleigh is supposed to have written :
Seek not to be Essex : Shun to be Raleigh." j)id Robert Cecil tack on these modern in- Ibances to his father's wise saws for the benefit
f his own son ? The ' Precepts ' were not
ublished till 1637. C. J. I.
LEPROSY OF HOUSES.-- -The late Dr. Eders- im in his ' Life of the Messiah,' book iii. . xv., cites the ' Josephta Negaim ' to the feet that no case of leprosy of houses had r er occurred. Is it true that this disease is >nfined exclusively to persons ?
RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.
'THE JOURNAL OF THE COUNTESS KRA NSKA.' I should be greatly obliged if some ader of ' N. & O.' could inform me how this urnal came to be published. The English 'anslation (Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & o.) gives no details as to how the original lanuscript was allowed to become public -operty. The book is interesting not only
as a human document, but also historically
as the Countess Krasinska was the great-
great-grandmother of both the King and the
Queen of Italy. E. M. S.
ST. HELEN. Was St. Helen ever a weather saint of any importance in England? In Melusine, ix. 49-60, is an article on popular prayers and magic formulas collected in certain parishes of the Pyrenees. Among the invocations are two addressed to St. Barbara to protect from " mauvais tonnerre," while a third appeals to St. Helen, " Sainte Croix," and St. Mary Magdalen. G. W.
- ' PILLARS." In Malcolm's 'Anecdotes of
the Manners and Customs of London,' vol. i.
E. 160, is a description of Cardinal Wolsey's abitual attendants in public, and mention is made of "two crosses and two pillars carried by persons on horseback." What were these " pillars " ? F. J. P.
[You will find a full description of pillars, Lat. cohimnce, in Nares's ' Glossary. ]
THACKERAY'S LATIN.
(9 th S. ii. 27, 218 ; iii. 196.) HAS any one ever pointed out Thackeray's extraordinary fondness for the well-known stanza of Horace, ' Od.,' III. xxix. for this, and for Dry dens spirited paraphrase of it?
Laudo manentem [sc. Fortunam]. Si celeres quatit Pennas, resigno quse dedit, et mea Virtute me involve, probamque Pauperiem sine dote qusero.
I can enjoy her while she 's kind ;
But when she dances in the wind,
And shakes the wings and will not stay,
I puff the prostitute away.
The little or the much she gave, is quietly resigned ;
Content with poverty my soul I arm,
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm.
Thackeray is never done quoting Dryden's version, or else improvising a prose version of his own. The following are a few out of many instances :
'"Is it true,' thought Pendennis 'that I am
going to earn my bread at last and that I may
gain a name and reputation in the world, perhaps ?
These are welcome if they come If fortune
favours me, I laud her ; if she frowns, I resign her.' " ' Pendennis,' chap, xxxii. sub Jin.
" ' When I came out of Oxford into the world, my patrons promised me great things ; and you see where their promises have landed me, in a lodging up two pair of stairs, with a sixpenny dinner from the cook's shop. Well, I suppose this promise will go after the others, and fortune will jilt me, as the jade has been doing any time these seven years.
