THE ANTIQUITY OF "KRIEGSSPIEL ,, (6th S. make use of the kneeling posture, which, together vi. 387; vii. 112).-The Rev. T. Wilson, in his with certain other forms, they have probably Archæological Dictionary, 1783, says this, s. v. :— borrowed from the Latins. At the Liturgy, how"Latrunculi, a game amongst the Romans, of much ever, or Mass they stand. In the Catholic churches the same nature with our chess. The latrunculi were of the Greek rite the priests and servers do not properly the chessmen, called also Latrones and Calculi. bend the knee during the Mass. Like the other They were made of glass, and distinguished by black Greeks, they make profound bows, bending the and white colours. Sometimes they were made of wax, body almost double. But though standing is the or other convenient substance. Some give the invention of this game to Palamedes when at the siege of Troy; more ancient custom at the ordinary services of Seneca attributes it to Chilon [sic], one of the seven the Church, kneeling also has come down to us Grecian sages; others honour Pyrrhus with the inven- from the time of Christ himself. He knelt during tion; and others again contend that it is of Persian His prayer in the garden (Luke xxii. 41). St. origin-but is not this Lis de land caprina? Frequent Paul also and his companions knelt (Acts xx. 36, allusions to this game are met with in the Roman classics, and xxi. 5). St. Jerome, writing of St. Paula, and a little poem was written upon it addressed to Piso, which some say was the work of Ovid, others of Lucan, says: "Prostrato ante crucem, quasi pendentem in the end of some editions of whose works it is to be Dominum cerneret, adorabat" (Epist. ad Eustoch.). found. This game expresses so well the chance and The Council of Nice orders the kneeling posture, order of war, that it is, with great appearance of pro- except on Sundays and during Paschal time; and bability, attributed to some military officer as the in- the genuflections that follow the reading of the ventor. One Canius Junius was so exceedingly fond of chess, that after he was sentenced to death by Caligula, Passion on Good Friday may be found in the he was found playing, but interrupted in his game by a ancient Sacramentary attributed to Pope St. call to execution; he obeyed the summons, but first Gelasius. C. W. S. desired the centurion who brought the fatal order to bear witness that he had one man upon the board more than his antagonist, that he might not falsely brag of victory when his adversary should be no more.' FREDK. RULE. Ashford, Kent. STANDING AT PRAYERS (6th S. vi. 367; vii. 32, 477). In the early ages of the Church it was doubtless the custom to stand during the celebration of the Liturgy. The bishop, the archpriests, and the officiating clergy had their appointed seats, but the rest of the clergy, as well as the laity, stood throughout the service. Guillois, in his Catéchisme Théologique, states that seats for the laity were not introduced into the churches before the twelfth century. The praying figures painted on the walls of the Roman catacombs are, if I recollect aright, always represented as standing. Even now in the Latin rite this posture is the ordinary one for the priest when officiating or assisting at the solemn offices of the Church. At Mass the celebrant stands all the time that he is reciting the prayers, though, as an external mark of adoration, he makes a genuflection in silence at certain parts of the service. The clergy who are officially present kneel only for the consecration. At the offices of Matins, Vespers, Compline, &c., they say all the prayers standing. In Catholic countries I have sometimes seen ordinary laymen retain the same posture during the most solemn parts of divine service-such, for instance, as the benediction given with the Holy Sacrament. These people merely bowed their heads. The clergy and laity of the Greek Church always stand at prayer, except once a year, at Vespers on the feast of Pentecost, when they kneel during the long prayers that are then recited. They also kneel at confession. Those of the Russian Church frequently It is the custom in Scotland, both in the Established Kirk and in the Free Kirk, for the worshippers to stand at prayers and to sit while singing. Has this been adopted to make the Scotch protest against the Church of Rome at the Reformation all the more emphatic ? Preston. WM. DOBSON. CROMWELL AND RUSSELL (6th S. vii. 368, 413, 457).-I can only refer O. C. to the edition of Burke's Landed Gentry published in 1880 for the genealogy of the family of Cromwell-Russell. The whole of the extract from Burke cannot have been printed in " N. & Q.," or it would have been seen that Elizabeth, Anne, and Dorothy, mentioned as cousins of the late Oliver Cromwell, were, in fact, the daughters of Richard Cromwell, the son of the Protector. They lived far on into the eighteenth century. Two of the sisters were married, but died childless; the third sister died a spinster. The London Library contains a work, in one volume, called The House of Cromwell, in which might probably be found some interesting information on this subject. There must be a copy of it in the Library of the British Museum. Wickham Market. E. BARCLAY. "DIVINE BREATHINGS" (5th S. xi. 240, 336, 418, 433, 478).-I have lately met with, in a cottage in this parish, a duodecimo copy of this very scarce little book. The title-page, unfortunately, is missing, but otherwise the book is perfect and in good condition. It consists of: an address "To the Christian Reader," signed "Thy Cordial Friend, Christopher Perin"; "The Contents of the Several Meditations," 4 pages; a hundred "Divine Breathings," 127 pages; and "Pious Reflections of a Devout Reader," 5 pages. I take the date of the edition to be about 1780. W. R. TATE. Walpole Vicarage, Halesworth. DUCKING A SCOLD (6th S. vii. 28, 335):— "In 1824 a woman was at Philadelphia, in America, sentenced to be placed in a certain instrument of correction called a cucking or ducking stool, and plunged three times into the water'; but the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania rescinded this order, and decided that the punishment was obsolete and contrary to the spirit of the age."" N. & Q.," 1 S. ix. 232; Old Yorkshire, i. p. 134. Cardiff. F. C. BIRKBECK TERRY. of argument has been used in a hundred forgotten books to show that the mythology of Greece was but a reflection of the history of the Old Testament; that Hercules was Samson, Bacchus Noah, and Goliath one or other of the Hellenic giants. This is now known to be mere dreaming, and it seemed to those who had no deep knowledge of northern lore that Prof. Bugge's speculations were but a higher type of the same class. It was not, however, clear to most of us until Prof. Stephens entered the field how very little there was to be said in favour of this new departure. It will be conceded at once by all persons who know anything of old northern literature that many of the tales have been to some degree affected by contact with Christian ideas; but this is very widely different from believing that the mythology as we know it is not a genuine relic of heathendom. Prof. Stephens is probably the greatest authority we have on heathen Scandinavia and its people. His great book on runic inscriptions is a monument of learning and industry which has few equals. Students naturally looked for an expression of opinion by him as to these new views. He has very decidedly condemned them, and has brought such an array of facts to bear on the subject that we question whether any persons in this country or in America will for the future have doubts as to the genuineness of that picturesque mythology which we have long believed enshrouded the religious faith and the scientific knowledge of our forefathers. His paper there is a certain likeness between it and the history of on the Balder myth seems to us quite conclusive. That our Redeemer must strike every one; but that Balder is a distorted reflection of Jesus Christ is, we hold, proved by Prof. Stephens to be utterly impossible. Whether the likeness can otherwise be accounted for believe that it can, without travelling into regions of we are not in a position to say. We do not ourselves thought which are outside the realm of history. Prof. Stephens holds "the great outlines of our northern godlore to be as relatively old and independent as that of BURRETH (6th S. vii. 168, 376).-The present Burgh-on-Bain (pronounced Bruff-on-Bain) is in early records Burreth. In Domesday Book it is indeed Burgrede and Burg, but in Inqu. Non. it is Burreth and Burgh-super-Bayn; in Taxatio Ecclesiastica Boreth, and in Testa de Neville Burret; in Cal. Rot. Chart. Burreth. There is a Roman camp close by, which accounts for the prefix of the older name, while the suffix rede (Domesday Book), and reth, in later records, may refer to some forest clearing (North of England rod, Dan. röd), which are still frequently known in Lincolnshire as redings (cf. Yorkshire ridding), probably from O.N. ryja, to clear land. Cf. Scotch red and redde. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (6th S. any other ancient race." This is undoubtedly true, and viii. 27).— "The eternal fitness of things." G. S. S. An expression frequently in the mouth of Square, the Miscellaneaus. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. THIS valuable paper is a portion of the Mémoires de la is in no conflict with the view that some details we find may have come from classic fables or from the teaching of the Church. The work, though mainly controversial, contains much that will interest those who have no call to take sides in the conflict. The account of the Gosforth cross occupies several pages, and the engravings by which it is illustrated are everything that could be wished for. A cast of this precious relic is, we believe, now in the South Kensington Museum. We trust that those of our readers who doubt the accuracy of Prof. Stephens's interpretation of its sculptures will, before making up their minds, take his book with them and study the details line by line. Sussex Folk-lore and Customs connected with the Seasons. By Frederick Ernest Sawyer. Reprinted from the "Sussex Archæological Collections." (Lewes, Wolff.) THIS book does not contain much that is new, but is, notwithstanding, a most useful compilation. In folk-lore, as in other studies, it is not only important to know what a thing is but where it has come from. A collection of fossils would have small value if we were not informed of the places whence they came. So if folk-lore is to be made of real service in the interpretation of the history of man it is of the utmost importance that local classification shall not be neglected. At the Red Lion Inn, Old Shoreham, a custom called "the bushel" is still kept up, which seems to us very ancient. A vessel holding a bushel is decorated with flowers, paper, &c., and on New Year's Day is filled with beer, from which all comers may drink free. It seems that on the Sunday in the middle of or preceding Brighton races a fair was held called White Hawk Fair. Its origin is said to be lost in antiquity. Mr. Sawyer says that it is hardly yet stamped out. Caxton's Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474. A verbatim reprint of the first edition. With an Introduction by W. E. A. Axon. (Stock.) the political events of last year we recommend him to read the nine chapters of English history with which the volume commences. As a book of reference the usefulness of such a chronicle is incontestable. The unbroken series of Annual Registers from 1752 forms a storehouse of facts to which every historical inquirer has at some time had occasion to refer. THIS is by far the most convenient reprint of the book which was long considered to be the first work printed in England. The supposition that it is the first book ing at present in the diplomatic world (at least as reINTERNATIONAL copyright, though somewhat languishfrom the press of Caxton may be a mistake, and gards Great Britain and the United States), is being we think it such, though there are persons, whose actively taken up by several societies which are interested judgment is worthy of respect, who hold fast the ancient in the promotion of conventions. A draft model of a opinion. Whether it be the first of English printed literary and artistic copyright convention has been prebooks or not is a matter of small consequence. It is pared by a committee of the International Literary Assocertainly one of Caxton's earlier efforts, and has an ciation, sitting in Paris under the presidency of the interest of its own apart from its position in biblio- Minister from San Salvador, M. Torres Caïcedo. This graphical science. As a treatise on chess its value is draft it is proposed to submit first to a conference of small; but as a work on ethics in the vulgar tongue, by a fervent believer in the medieval Church at a time when before the close of August, and subsequently to the representatives of literary and artistic societies at Berne the Reformation was not dreamt of, it possesses great International Literary Congress at Amsterdam in Sepvalue to students. Mr. Axon's introduction is well tember. In the meanwhile, the scheme initiated by written and useful. He does not repeat what has been M. Torres Caïcedo has been carefully considered by the told over and over again, but gives a clear compendium English Committee of the International Literary Assoof what is necessary to be known for a right under-ciation, under the presidency of Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, standing of the book. The account of the more remote and by the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, foreign sources from which Caxton's text is taken is both of which have devoted special meetings to the subremarkably well done. There is, moreover, a service- ject. It is also hoped that the Milan Conference of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law able index. New Facts relating to the Chatterton Family, gathered from Manuscript Entries in a History of the Bible" which once belonged to the Parents of Thomas Chatterton, the Poet, and from Parish Registers. (Bristol, George & Son.) THIS little pamphlet of fifteen pages has a title disproportionately long. It is almost a table of contents of what is to follow. We hope, however, the sample will not prejudice our readers against the bulk; for these few pages are well worth reading, if only as an example of how documentary evidence is sometimes set on one side because it clashes with foregone conclusions. An imperfect History of the Bible was discovered some time ago at Bristol, containing memoranda of the baptisms of Thomas Chatterton the poet, and of a brother and sister. There was also a cancelled entry of the marriage of the poet's father. These entries did not tally exactly with facts as before interpreted-they, indeed, contradicted the inscription on the Chatterton tombstone-and a correspondent in a contemporary, with too great haste, denounced them as a palpable fabrication. We have here a reprint of the correspondence on the subject. Without examining for ourselves the newly discovered memoranda, and comparing them with the parish registers and other documents, manuscript and printed, that ought to be called upon as evidence, we can give no positive opinion. It seems to us, however, judging only from the statements made in these pages, that the entries in the "Bible History" are genuine. We trust that the compiler will endeavour to identify "the Reverend Wm. Williams" and "the Rev. Mr. Giles," as well as the godfathers and godmothers who are mentioned, The Annual Register: a Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the Year 1882. New Series. (Rivingtons.) WE are glad to record the appearance of this annual volume. It contains, in addition to a full chronicle of the chief events, a retrospect of the literature, science, and art of the past year, and an exhaustive obituary of the eminent persons whom we have lost during that period. If any one wishes to revive his recollections of of Nations, in September, will discuss the proposals, so that the ground may be well prepared before any official action is sought to be taken in the matter. The original text of the draft will be printed as a special report to the Council by the Foreign Secretary in the forthcoming Report of the Royal Society of Literature. MR. SULMAN, of Upper Holloway, who is now occupied with photographing old bits of Highgate before they disappear, has sent us views of the residence, tablet, and tomb of Coleridge. Notices to Correspondents. We must call special attention to the following notices: address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. C. S. I. (Edinburgh). The initial you took was already in use by an old contributor. With regard to your remarks, we can only say to you, as to MR J. C. MOORE and others, that we have no control over the philology, or want of philology, of our contributors. No doubt the case in point would be described by some as "disheartening." J. F. B.-We have already, we believe, given such particulars as we can find concerning the engraver Simon François Ravenet (not Ravenat). Born 1706, he came to England circa 1750, and died in 1774. short list of his works is supplied in Stanley's edition of Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. A C. G. MOREN. We are sorry it is impossible to make the requisite inquiries in time to be of service. Every SATURDAY, of any Bookseller or News-agent, Price THREEPENCE. Each Half-yearly Volume complete in itself, with Title-Page and Index. REVIEWS of every important New Book, English and Foreign, and of every New English Novel. REPORTS of the LEARNED SOCIETIES. AUTHENTIC ACCOUNTS of Scientific Voyages and Expeditions. CRITICISMS on Art, Music, and the Drama. LETTERS from Foreign Correspondents on subjects relating to Literature, Science, and Art. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES of Distinguished Men. ORIGINAL POEMS and PAPERS. WEEKLY GOSSIP on Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama. 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