Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851 — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 64, January 18, 1851
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
know the correct blazonry.
C.R.M.
_Booty's Case._--Where can an authentic report be found of "Booty's case,"
and before what judge was it tried? The writer would also be obliged with
an account of the result of the case, and a note of the summing up, as far
as it is to be ascertained. The case is said to be well known in the navy.
DEMONOLOGIST.
[We have seen it stated that this case was tried in the Court of King's
Bench about the year 1687 or 1688.]
_Did St. Paul's Clock ever strike Thirteen._--There is a very popular
tradition that a soldier, who was taxed with having fallen asleep at
midnight, whilst on guard, managed to escape the severe punishment annexed
to so flagrant a dereliction of duty, by positively averring, as evidence
of his having been "wide awake," that he had heard the clock of St. Paul's
Cathedral strike _thirteen_ at the very time at which he was charged with
having indulged in forbidden slumbers. The tradition of course adds, indeed
this is its point, that, upon inquiry, it was found that the famous horary
monitor of London city had, "for that night only," actually treated those
whose ears were open, with the, till then, unheard of phenomenon of
"thirteen to the dozen." Can any of your readers state how this story
originated, or whether it really has any foundation in fact?
HENRY CAMPKIN.
Jan. 9. 1851.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
DRAGONS.
(Vol. ii., p. 517.)
The subject on which R.S. jun. writes in No. 61. is one of so much interest
in many points of view, that I hope that a few notices relating to it may
not be considered unworthy of insertion in "NOTES AND QUERIES."
In Murray's _Handbook of Northern Italy_, mention is made, in the account
of the church of St. Maria delle Grazie, near Mantua, of a stuffed lizard,
crocodile, or other reptile, which is preserved suspended in the church.
This is said to have been killed in the adjacent swamps, about the year
1406. It is stated to be six or seven feet long.
Eight or ten years ago, I saw an animal of the same order, and about the
same size, hanging from the roof of the cathedral of Abbeville, in Picardy.
I then took it for a small crocodile, but I cannot say positively that it
was one. I am not sure whether it still remains in the cathedral. I do not
know whether any legend exists respecting this specimen, or whether it owed
its distinguished post to its being deemed an appropriate ornament.
At the west door of the cathedral of Cracow are hanging some bones, said to
have belonged to the dragon which inhabited the cave at the foot of the
rock (the Wawel) on which the cathedral and the royal castle stand; and was
destroyed by Krak, the founder of the city. I regret that my want of
osteological science prevented me from ascertaining to what animal these
bones had belonged. I thought them the bones of some small species of
whale.
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