Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850 | Page 9

were of old would be honoured with a first resurrection, and as their
Master came on from the east, they were to arise and to follow the
Lamb as He went; insomuch that they, with Him, would advance to the
Judgement of the general multitudes,--the ancients and the saints which

were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my purpose in this statement
is to elicit, if I may, from your learned readers illustrations of this
distinctive interment.
R.S. HAWKER.
Morwenstow.
_Medal struck by Charles II._--Voltaire, in his _Histoire de Charles
XII._, liv. 4., states that a medal was struck in commemoration of a
victory which Charles XII. gained over the Russians, at a place named
Hollosin, near the Boresthenes, in the year 1708. He adds that on one
side of this medal was the epigraph, "Sylvæ, paludes, aggeres, hostes
victi;" on the other the verse of Lucan:--
"Victrices copias alium laturus in orbem."
The verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. l.238.:
"Victrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem."
Query, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire known to exist? and if so, is
the substitution of the unmetrical and prosaic word copias due to the
author of the medal, or to Voltaire himself?
L.
_National Debt._--What volumes, pamphlets, or paragraphs can be
pointed out to the writer, in poetry or prose, alluding to the bribery,
corruption, and abuses connected with the formation of the National
Debt from 1698 to 1815?
F.H.B.
_Midwives licensed._--In the articles to be inquired into in the province
of Canterbury, anno 1571 (_Grindal Rem._, Park. Soc. 174-58), inquiry
to be made
"Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or invocations, in Latin

or otherwise, and _namely, midwives in the time of women's travail of
child_."
In the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being licensed by the
Archbishop to be a midwife a similar clause occurs; the words, "Also, I
will not use any kind of sorcery or incantations in the time of the travail
of any woman." Can any of your readers inform me what charms or
prayers are here referred to, and at what period midwives ceased to be
licensed by the Archbishop, or if any traces of such license are still
found in Roman Catholic countries?
S.P.H.T.
* * * * * {409}
REPLIES.
THE BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND.
(Vol. ii., p. 308.)
I am not aware of any record in which mention of this relique occurs
before the time of St. Margaret. It seems very probable that the
venerated crucifix which was so termed was one of the treasures which
descended with the crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings. When the
princess Margaret, with her brother Edgar, the lawful heir to the throne
of St. Edward the Confessor, fled into Scotland, after the victory of
William, she carried this cross with her amongst her other treasures.
Aelred of Rievaulx (ap. Twysd. 350.) gives a reason why it was so
highly valued, and some description of the rood itself:
"Est autem crux illa longitudinem habens palmæ de auro purissimo
mirabili opere fabricats, quæ in modum techæ clauditur et aperitur.
Cernitur in ea quædarn Dominicæ crucis portio, (sicut sæpe multorum
miraculorum argumento probatum est). Salvatoris nostri ymaginem
habens de ebore densissime sculptam et aureis distinctionibus
mirabiliter decoratam."

St. Margaret appears to have destined it for the abbey which she and
her royal husband, Malcolm III., founded at Dunfermline in honour of
the Holy Trinity: and this cross seems to have engaged her last thoughts
for her confessor relates that, when dying, she caused it to be brought to
her, and that she embraced, and gazed steadfastly upon it, until her soul
passed from time to eternity. Upon her death (16th Nov., 1093), the
Black Rood was deposited upon the altar of Dunfermline Abbey, where
St. Margaret was interred.
The next mention of it that I have been enabled to make note of, occurs
in 1292, in the Catalogue of Scottish Muniments which were received
within the Castle of Edinburgh, in the presence of the Abbots of
Dunfermline and Holy Rood, and the Commissioners of Edward I., on
the 23rd August in that year, and were conveyed to
Berwick-upon-Tweed. Under the head
"Omnia ista inventa fuerunt in quadam cista in Dormitorio S. Crucis, et
ibidem reposita prædictos Abbates et altos, sub ecrum sigillis."
we find
"Unum scrinium argenteum deauratum, in quo reponitur crux quo
vocatur la blake rode."--Robertson's _Index_, Introd. xiii.
It does not appear that any such fatality was ascribed to this relique as
that which the Scots attributed to the possession of the famous stone on
which their kings were crowned, or it might be conjectured that when
Edward I. brought "the fatal seat" from Scone to Westminster, he
brought the Black Rood of Scotland too. That amiable and pleasing
historian, Miss Strickland, has