NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. * * * * * "When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE. * * * * * No. 17.] Saturday, February 23. 1850. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. * * * * *{257} CONTENTS. NOTES:--Page Alfred's Orosius, by R.T. Hampson 257 Folk Lore--Omens from Cattle--Horse's Head--Rush-bearings 258 On Authors and Books, No. 5., by Bolton Corney 259 Plagiarisms, or Parallel Passages, No. 2. 260 St. Antholin's 260 QUERIES:-- College Salting, by Rev. Dr. Maitland 261 A few Dodo Queries, by H.E. Strictland 261 Coleridge's Christabel, Byron's Lara: Tablet to Napoleon 262 Minor Queries:--Howkey or Horkey--Lord Bacon's Psalms--Treatise of Equivocation 263 REPLIES:-- Etymology of Armagh, by Rev. Dr. Todd 264 William Hasse and his Poems, by E.F. Rimbault, LL.D. 265 Beaver Hats--Pisan, by T. Hudson Turner 266 Replies to Minor Queries:--Norman Pedigrees--Translation of Ælian--Ave Trici--Daysman--Saveguard--Calamity--Zero--Complutensian Polyglot--Sir W. Rider--Pokership--Havior, Heavier or Hever--Sir W. Hamilton--Dr. Johnson's Library 266 MISCELLANIES:-- Etymology of News--The Golden Age 270 MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 270 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 271 Notices to Correspondents 271 Advertisements 271 * * * * * KING ALFRED'S GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. The sketch of Europe, which our illustrious Alfred has inserted in his translation of _Orosius_, is justly considered, both here and on the Continent, as a valuable fragment of antiquity[1]; and I am sorry that I can commend little more than the pains taken by his translators, the celebrated Daines Barrington and Dr. Ingram, to make it available to ordinary readers. The learned judge had very good intentions, but his knowledge of Anglo-Saxon was not equal to the task. Dr. Ingram professedly applied himself to correct both Alfred's text and Barrington's version, so far as relates to the description of Europe; but in two instances, occurring in one passage, he has adopted the judge's mistake of proper names for common nouns. I do not call attention to the circumstance merely as a literary curiosity, but to preserve the royal geographer from liability to imputations of extraordinary ignorance of his subject, and also to show the accuracy of his delineation of Europe at that interesting epoch, whence the principal states of Europe must date their establishment. King Alfred, mentioning the seat of the Obotriti, or Obotritæ, as they are sometimes named, a Venedic nation, who, in the 9th century, occupied what is now the duchy of Mecklenburg, calls them _Apdrede_, and says--"Be nor than him is apdrede, and cast north wylte the man æfeldan hæt."[2]