Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851 | Page 6

of coins given by Mr. Wood to Kent: he had
objected against the word pio in Mr. Pope's father's epitaph."
If these lines are not already in print, perhaps you will insert them
amongst your "NOTES" as a contribution from
ROBERT HOTCHKIN.
Thimbleby Rectory, March 13. 1851.
Origin of St. Andrew's Cross in connexion with Scotland.--John Lesley,
bishop of Ross, reports, that in the night before the battle between
Athelstan, king of England, and Hungus, king of the Picts, a bright
cross, like that whereon St. Andrew suffered, appeared to Hungus, who,
having obtained the victory, ever after bore that figure. This happened
in 819. Vide Gent. Mag. for Nov. 1732.
E. S. T.
Snail-eating (Vol. iii., p. 207.).--Your correspondent C. W. B. does not
seem to be aware that "a ragout of boror (snails)" is a regular dish with
English gypsies. Vide Borrow's Zincali, part i. c. v.
He has clearly not read Mr. Borrow's remarks on the subject:
"Know then, O Gentile, whether thou be from the land of Gorgios
(England), or the Busné (Spain), that the very gypsies, who consider a
ragout of snails a delicious dish, will not touch an eel because it bears a
resemblance to a snake; and that those who will feast on a roasted
hedgehog could be induced by no money to taste a squirrel!"
Having tasted of roasted hotchiwitchu (hedgehog) myself among the
"gentle Rommanys," I can bear witness to its delicate fatness; and
though a ragout of snails was never offered for my acceptance, I do not
think that those who consider (as most "Gorgios" do) stewed eels a

delicacy ought to be too sever on "Limacotrophists!"
HERMES.
Snail-eating.--Perhaps you will permit me to remark, in reference to the
communication of C. W. B., that snails are taken medicinally
occasionally, and are supposed to be extremely strengthening. I have
known them eagerly sought after for the meal of a consumptive patient.
As a matter of taste, too, they are by {222} some considered quite
epicurean. A gentleman whom I used to know, was in the constant
habit as he passed through the fields, of picking up the white slugs that
lay in his way, and swallowing them with more relish than he would
have done had they been oysters.
That snails make a no inconsiderable item in the bill of fare of gypsies,
and other wanderers, I proved while at Oxford, some time ago; for
passing up Shotover Hill, in the parish of Headington, I unexpectedly
came upon a camp of gypsies who were seated round a wood fire
enjoying their Sunday's dinner: this consisted of a considerable number
of large snails roasted on the embers, and potatoes similarly cooked.
On inquiry, I was told by those who were enjoying their repast, that
they were extremely good, and were much liked by people of their class,
who made a constant practice of eating them. I need hardly say that I
received a most hospitable invitation to join in the feast, which I
certainly declined.
L. J.
* * * * *
Queries.
HENRY SMITH.
In Marsden's History of the Early Puritans (a work recently published,
which will well repay perusal) there occurs (pp. 178, 179.) the
following notice of Henry Smith:--

"Henry Smith was a person of good family, and well connected; but
having some scruples, he declined preferment, and aspired to nothing
higher than the weekly Lectureship of St. Clement Danes. On a
complaint made by Bishop Aylmer, Whitgift suspended him, and
silenced for a while probably the most eloquent preacher in Europe. His
contemporaries named him the Chrysostom of England. His church was
crowded to excess; and amongst his hearers, persons of the highest rank,
and those of the most cultivated and fastidious judgment, were content
to stand in the throng of citizens. His sermons and treatises were soon
to be found in the hands of every person of taste and piety: they passed
through numberless editions. Some of them were carried abroad, and
translated into Latin. They were still admired and read at the close of
nearly a century, when Fuller collected and republished them. Probably
the prose writing of this, the richest period of genuine English literature,
contains nothing finer than some of his sermons. They are free, to an
astonishing degree, from the besetting vices of his age--vulgarity, and
quaintness, and affected learning; and he was one of the first English
preachers who, without submitting to the trammels of a pedantic logic,
conveyed in language nervous, pure, and beautiful, the most convincing
arguments in the most lucid order, and made them the ground-work of
fervent and impassioned addresses to the conscience."
Would it not be desirable, as well in a literary as a theological point of
view, that any extant sermons of so renowned a divine should