478
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m. JUNE 17, m
Westmoreland Antiquarian Society for 1878,
gives a long and well-illustrated paper upon
the subject. Also see 'Rites of Durham
Abbey,' in which their use by a writer who
had seen them used is described (Surtees
Society edition, pp. 19 and 73). There is an
excellent example of a cresset-stone at Stro
Church in Sweden, and descriptions of
others in the same country will be found in
Prof. Nilsson's ' Skandinaviska Nordens Ur-
invanare.' HARRY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
Dr. A. C. Fryer contributes a paper to the Journal of the British Archaeological Associa- tion for March on Wool Church, Dorset, wherein will be found an interesting descrip- tion, with illustration, of the cresset-stone preserved in that church :
" It is carved out of a block of Purbeck marble, and is rectangular in shape, being 9^ in. by7^in., and 5 in. deep. The cups are placed in each corner of the stone, and they are 3j in. deep, with a dia- meter of 83 in."
I. C. GOULD.
WIND INDICATOR AT PECKHAM (9 th S. iii. 347). In 'The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments,' trans- lated from the French of M. Bion by Edmund Stone (London, 1723), is a description of an instrument " showing on what point of the compass the wind blows, without going out of one's room." The dial-plate on which are marked the points of the compass is generally fixed to the wall of the room, and the pointer is attached to an axle connected by cog-wheels with the perpendicular rod carrying the wind vane. As the vane moves, the change of wind is indicated on the dial-plate. In the King's Gallery at Kensington Palace is one of these dials, and Macaulay, in describing a visit of Peter the Great to William III. at Kensington, mentions that the Czar
"took no notice of the fine pictures with which the palace was adorned. But over the chimney of the royal sitting-room was a plate which, by an in- genious machinery, indicated the direction of the wind ; and with this plate he was in raptures."
Possibly the automatic wind indicator at Peckham was a contrivance of a similar cha- racter. C. B. F.
In the Daily Graphic for 24 May, p. 4, there is, s.v. 'The Queen's Gift to the Nation : Ken- sington Palace Restored,' a view of "The king's gallery and wind-gauge." This appears to be a large dial like a clock-face, and presumably marked with the points of the compass in- stead of hours and minutes, and is referred to on p. 5, col. 2 :
" The mantelpiece contains the old deal hand or pointer, which, connected with a vane still existing
above the roof, enabled William III. to know in
which quarter the wind lay, so that his asthma should
run no risks. Peter the Great, when visiting the
king, was so delighted with this apparatus that, as
Macaulay relates, he took no notice of the pictures
adorning the palace."
About twenty-two years ago I saw a dial of this kind on the outside of a building, perhaps at Peckham. THOMAS J. JEAKES.
Doubtless this refers to a particular pattern of vane or weathercock erected at Peckham. For the history of vanes, &c., from the very earliest of days, see Beckmann's 'History of Inventions,' Bonn's edition, 1846, ii. 281-90, and 'K & Q.,' l gfc S. v. 490 ; vii. 534.
EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.
KING CHARLES I. (9 th S. iii. 25, 411). Is it not a pity to accord the honours of a serious discussion to a cock-and-bull story about the death of Charles being due to the machina- tions of the Jesuits 1 The universal and heroic support given by the Catholics (from con- scientious motives) to the tottering cause of monarchy throughout the seventeenth cen- tury is surely too settled a matter of history to permit of doubt, and in any case something more nearly resembling evidence of the Jesuit story should be produced than a French "libel published in Holland in 1691," the "true and perfect narratives " of crack-brained fanatics like Prynne, and the controversial tours de force of Baxter and Du Moulin. To call this an "obscure" subject, as M.A. does, is to do one's best to galvanize life into the ridiculous scarecrow by creating a supposition that there is real evidence of the statement that Catholics had a hand in the illegal doing to death of their rightful sovereign.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
Town Hall, Cardiff.
It is to be hoped that the columns of 'N. & Q.' are not going to be utilized for the purpose of investigating the truth of all the charges that have been made against the Jesuits in the course of the last three cen- turies. A newspaper exists and flourishes, I believe, among us to expose their evil deeds, and never does an earthquake occur, or a volcano display activity, or a cloud of locusts descend upon a smiling land, or a river mouth get silted up, but it is traced in some way or other to their machinations. Of course this invincible hostility is sometimes pardonable, as, for instance, in Michelet's ' Histoire de France,' where it adds an amusing element to a work that is already brilliant. But in some classes of society in England the attitude is so general as to be quite commonplace and
