Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850

RICHARD BENTLEY, New Burlington-street.

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MEMORIALS OF THE CASTLE OF EDINBURGH.

By JAMES GRANT; author of "Memoirs of Kirkaldy of Grange," "The Romance of War," "The Scottish Cavalier," &c. With Twelve Illustrations, engraved on Wood by BRANSTON.

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THE FOLK-LORE Of ENGLAND.

By WILLIAM J. THOMS, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society, Editor of "Early Prose Romances," "Lays and Legends of all Nations," &c. One object of the present work is to furnish new contributions to the History of our National Folk-Lore; and especially some of the more striking Illustrations of the subject to be found in the Writings of Jacob Grimm and other Continental Antiquaries.

Communications of inedited Legends, Notices of remarkable Customs and Popular Observances, Rhyming Charms, &c. are earnestly solicited, and will be thankfully acknowledged by the Editor. They may be addressed to the care of Mr. BELL, Office of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

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THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND; from the TIME of the CONQUEST. By EDWARD FOSS, F.S.A.

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London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.

notes

1

For the assistance of the general reader, I have introduced hasty translations of the several passages quoted.

2

(And I moreover tell you, and do you meditate well upon it, that) you yourself are not destined to live long, for even now death is drawing nigh unto you, and a violent fate awaits you,—about to be slain in fight by the hands of Achilles, the irreproachable son of Oacus.

3

Consider now whether I may not be to you the cause of divine anger, in that day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay you, albeit so mighty, at the Scaean gate.

4

Wherefore I have an earnest desire to prophesy to you who have condemned me; for I am already arrived at that stage of my existence in which, especially, men utter prophetic sayings, that is, when they are about to die.

5

That time, indeed, the soul of man appears to be in a manner divine, for to a certain extent it foresees things which are about to happen.

6

Pythagoras the Samian, and some others of the ancient philosophers, showed that the souls of men were immortal, and that, when they were on the point of separating from the body, they possessed a knowledge of futurity.

7

The soul, says Aristotle, when on the point of taking its departure from the body, foretells and prophesies things about to happen.

8

"Ubi primum exissent Ep. Ob. V. miro Monachorum applausu exceptæ sunt apud Britannos a Franciscanis ac Dominicanis, qui sibi persuadebant, eas in Reuchlini contumeliam, et Monachorum favorem, serio proditus: quamque quidam egregie doctus, sed nasutissimus, fingeret se nonnihil offendi stylo, consulati sunt hominem."—Erasm. Epist. 979.