Notes and Queries, Number 242, June 17, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 242, June 17, 1854: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
"Mr. De C----k, a most intelligent Danish gentleman, told me, that when
a proprietor near Drammen, was at Bjornholm Island, in the Baltic, he
was told there were stones which made a humming noise when pushed, and
on examination they proved to be rocking-stones; on his return, he
found on his own property several large stones, which, on removing the
earth around them, were so balanced as to be moveable. If this be an
accurate statement, it tends to strengthen the notion that stones, laid
upon each other by natural causes, have, by application of a little
labour, been made to move, as the stones at Brimham Craggs in
Yorkshire; and this seems more likely than that such immense masses
should have been ever raised by mechanical force and poised."
BALLIOLENSIS.
* * * * *
Queries.
A RUBENS QUERY.
There is a somewhat curious mystery with regard to certain works of the
immortal Rubens, which some of your readers, who are connoisseurs in art,
may possibly assist to dispel. Lommeline, who engraved the finest works of
Rubens, has left a print of "The Judgment of Paris," which {562} differs in
several points from the subject of "The Decision of Paris," now in the
National Gallery. For instance, in the one, Paris rests the apple upon his
knee, and in the other he is offering it to the fair goddess of Beauty.
This print has also _five_ more figures than there are in the Gallery
painting. Now, two questions arise hereon: first, what has become of the
original painting from which this print was taken? and secondly, where is
the line engraving of the picture now in the National Gallery?
J. J. S.
Downshire Hill, Hampstead.
* * * * *
THE PAXS PENNIES OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be able to satisfy me on a
subject which has for a long time troubled me.
All coin collectors are aware that there are many different reverses to the
pennies of William I. One is commonly called the _pax_-type: and _why_, is
the question.
On the obverse, it is "PILLM REX," or sometimes differently spelt; but "P"
always stands for "W," and pronounced so.
On the reverse, it is P [=A] X S (each letter being encircled), but the "P"
is here pronounced "P;" this is in the centre compartment: surrounding it
is the moneyer's name, with place where the coin was struck--"EDPI (Edwi)
ON LVND," "GODPINE (Godwine) ON LVND," &c. It is very inconsistent that
letters should be pronounced differently on the same coin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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