352
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. MAY 3, 1902.
The "spurious letters" (between St. Paul
and Seneca), Lightfoot says, " betray clearly
the hand of a forger." C. S. WARD.
Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.
On the fictitious letters between St. Paul and Seneca see 1 st S. vii., viii., and Dean Farrar's 'Seekers after God,' under * Seneca,' chap. xiv. pp. 167-73. W. C. B.
SALT FOLK-LORE (9 th S. ix. 228). The old Germanic races considered salt-springs holy and worshipped around them (cp. Gummere, 'Germanic Origins,' New York, 1892, p. 69). Tacitus tells a story of a desperate war waged over the ownership of a salt -spring (cp. 'Annals,' xiii. 57). Salt was made by setting fire to logs which had been saturated with salt-wate"r from these sacred springs, and was held to be a product given to man by special favour of the gods. Homer calls salt divine. In the ceremony of baptism a small amount of salt was placed in the mouth of the one baptized (cp. Schultz, ' Das hofische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger,' Leipzig, 1889, vol. i. p. 148). Many other examples from Greek, Roman, and Oriental sources could be quoted to show that a peculiar religious significance has long been attached to salt. These facts may assist in explaining the custom of placing salt under a corpse.
CHARLES BUNDY WILSON.
State University of Iowa.
BROWN FAMILY (9 th S. ix. 228). There is a notice of Sir Samuel Brown in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' but his merits as an inventor will only become fully apparent after the perusal of the specifi- cations of his numerous patents. 11. B. P.
" BORE " OR " BOAR," AND OTHER FASHION- ABLE SLANG (9 th S. viii. 481 ; ix. 152). I am glad to be able to supply the omission of 11. B. The passage occurs in ' The Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox,' vol. i. pp. 179, 180, and is from a letter written by Lady Sarah to Lady Susan O'Brien, 9 January, 1766.
ST. SWITHIN.
METRICAL SERMONS (3 rd S. vii. 76, 143, 308 ; ix. 208). I read in Evelyn's 'Diary,' 1665, 24 February (Friday), that " Dr. Fell, Canon of Christ Church, preach'd before the King on 15 Romans 2, a very formal discourse, and in blank verse, according to his manner." One would like to know how many of such sermons he preached, and whether any of them are extant. RICHARD H. THORNTON.
Portland, Oregon.
ANTWERP CATHEDRAL (9 th S. ix. 289). Antwerp Cathedral's north-west spire is
reputed to be 402 feet high, and its southern
neighbour, so high as it goes i.e., some little
way . above the nave ridge is of similar
design, but neither is out of the perpen-
dicular. The northern towers and spires of
continental west fronts are often more
ornate than are their fellows. At Rouen we
find the northern tower (built 1485-1507)
exceedingly rich in detail, whilst its southern
companion is poor in comparison. The
former is known as the "Butter Tower,"
much of the cost of its erection having been
defrayed by market tolls put upon butter
brought into the city by the country folk.
AtChartres the north-western spire (375 feet)
is as beautiful as is Antwerp's, whilst the
southern one (350 feet), perfectly plain, is as
pure in outline as is Salisbury's central spire
(404 feet).
If proper precautions are taken, treacherous ground does not necessarily seriously affect ! oundations. Boston "Stump," the fairest and tallest of our church towers (300 feet), was built A.D. 1309 upon mud, close by the river Witham, and is still practically plumb ; further, all the " sky-scrapers " in Chicago (the tallest edifices in the world), and, indeed, the entire city itself, stand upon slob-land.
HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
" ROMANS DES DOUZE PAIRS " (9 th S. ix. 290). This series does not appear to have been distinguished throughout by the number of different volumes. One of the series, for instance, k La Mort de Garin, le Loherain : Poeme du XII e Siecle,' published by E. du Meril 1846 (which is the sequel of ' Li Romans de Garin le Loherain,' ed. P. Paris, in 2 vols., 1833-5), bears the general title " Romans des Douze Pairs de France" upon the leaf pre- ceding its title-page, but without indicating the volume of the series. H. KREBS.
Oxford.
FASHION IN LANGUAGE (9 th S. ix. 228). In reply to your correspondent I may say that I have collected a list of "pet words" in German, among which are leise, san/i, Ruhe, halde, and zieht. Some of these have brought themselves into favour on account of sound, others through associa- tion. At the last meeting of the Modern Language Association of America Prof. F. N. Scott, of the University of Michigan, read an interesting paper on ' Hated Words.' His list was compiled from the testimony of about two hundred and fifty trustworthy informants. The reports showed great diver- sity of taste. The principal cause of dislike was unpleasantness in sound, in appearance,
