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Please let me know "what connection was there between Roman and Anglo-Saxon History," and "what was the spot where Roman power began."
D.B.
(a).
Britain was first invaded by Julius Cæsar and held as a province of Rome.
The Angles, who were savage tribes dwelling in the lowlands of North Germany, with the Jutes and Saxons, invaded Britain about the year 450 and waged war on both Romans and Britons.
The country became known as Angleland from the Angles, and this name finally became the modern name—England.
The German invaders and the native Britons never coalesced.
The latter were gradually exterminated and driven into Wales and Scotland.
England still bears many remains of the Roman invasion, and the Anglo-Saxon tongue (outside of the Latin roots we have since adopted) contains hundreds of words derived directly or remotely from the language of the Romans.
(b).
The power of Rome began with the legendary foundation of that city by Romulus 753 B.C., and after she had lost the proud position of "Mistress of the World" she was the governing, controlling power untill her destruction by the Vandals in the year 455.
Under the rule of Constantine the Great (324-337) Constantinople, which name had been given to the ancient capital of Byzantium, was the city of splendor.
But when Rome fell the empire was at an end.
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
Answers to Correspondents.
Please inform me in your valuable journal the height of the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church, situated on the corner of Park avenue and Madison street.
NEANIE.
The three towers are respectively seventy-eight, one hundred and twenty-eight and two hundred and sixty-eight feet in height.
What is the rule for getting the exact weights of rope?
H. H. B. ABERDEEN, Md.
There can be no general rule owing to the great variety of ropes in size, strength, manner of weaving and material, such as hemp, grass, manila and cotton.
You can form a rule for any single kind, by simply weighing and seeing how many feet or inches it takes to form a pound.
Who was the wonderful Munchausen?
Did such a person really live?
What are some of his exploits?
G. BENSON.
Harrisburg. Pa.
Hieronymus Karl Friederick von Munchausen, Baron, was a German soldier, born in 1720, on his paternal estate of Bodenwerder, Hanover, and died there in 1797.
He served, in his youth, as a cavalry officer in the Russian army, and passed his latter days in Hanover.
He delighted in telling the most wonderful stories of his adventures in the campaign against the Turks in 1737-39, which gained for him, in Germany, the reputation of being one of th greatest liars living.
The stories themselves were soon repeated from one end of the country to the other, and created then, as now, universal merriment.
Here are two of his stories: Baron Munchausen owned a white horse.
He had been crossing a marsh in which his horse sank, and stuck fast.
How did he get him out.
He says that he took hold of his hair queue, and pulled it straight up till he dragged his horse's legs and body out of the marsh, and thus set it free.
At another time he "leaped" his horse through a chaise, which crossed his way.
He declared that as he did so he took off his hat, while his horse was flying over, and begged pardon of the ladies for disturbing them.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
Answers to Correspondents.
What is the history of medals and medallions?
What is the oldest one in existence?
Of what material were they made?
R. STEVENSON.
Medals or large coins not intended for circulation as money, but struck or cast on extraordinary occasions in commemoration of victories, treaties, coronations or other conspicuous events, or in honor of remarkable events, are of comparatively recent origin.
The Greeks struck no medals, and the Roman brass medallions differ considerably from modern medals, as they represent only political or religious ideas in an allegorical manner, not busts of historical personages.
The first medals of modern times were designed by painters and sculptors, made of lead and bronze, and cast in moulds of clay or fine sand taken from models of wax.
Subsequently, the art was adopted by the goldsmiths and medals were made in repousse work, or in chasing in the precious metals as done by Cellini.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century, medals were made in boxwood or soapstone, from which moulds were made, as evidenced in the workmanship of Albert Durer.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century Camelio began to cut steel dies; a master mould or model of raised steel was made and soft iron dies stamped from it.
The oldest medal known is that of David II., king of Scotland, of gold, and made between 1330 and 1370.
The oldest coin extant is considered by high authority to be a specimen of the gold "stater" of the Ionian city of Miletus ("a stater of Miletus"), now in the British Museum, and believed to be of the date (circa) 800 B.C.
It has a lion's head on the obverse and a rude indented punch-mark on the reverse.
From the fifteenth century there is a succession of medals down to the present in most European countries.
In England it begins in 1480, in Denmark in 1474, in Germany in 1453, in Rome in 1464, in Spain in 1503, etc.
The papal series, which is a remarkable fine collection, commenced with Paul V., who was born in Rome on September 17, 1552, died there on January 28, 1621, and succeeded to the Pontiff's chair in 1605.
The medals belonging to the reign of Napoleon I. are also very beautiful.
Will you please give me the pronunciation, meaning, and of what language is the word[...]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
Answers to Correspondents.
Please inform me the seating capacity of the Academy of Music.
DAILY SUBSCRIBER.
It will seat 1,700.
See supplement to American—for information of seating capacity of the various places of amusement—of July 2.
How must I make blackberry jam?
I SCREAM, Gaithersburg, Md.
Select the berries and carefully wash them.
After weighing, place them in a porcelain vessel, and bruise them well with a masher.
Put them over the fire, and after they have come to a boiling heat, to every pound of fruit add half a pound of the best sugar.
The jam should be boiled from one to three hours, according to the quantity, being well stirred during the meanwhile.
Spices may be added, if desired, and when done the jam may be placed in glass or stone jars.
After it is "cooled," it may be covered with branded paper, and later sealed, or tied up tightly.
How can I preserve morello cherries?
I SCREAM.
First making a choice of the fruit, seed them, and weigh the lot.
Mix one pound of sugar to every pound of the cherries.
Let them remain over night and in the morning place them over the fire, allowing them to boil slowly until the preserve becomes transparent.
Avoid stirring.
Place in glass jars, allowing them to remain uncovered for a day or two, when they are ready to be sealed.
How did Ireland get the name of the "Emerald Isle"?
G. E. WILSON.
The author of this epithet was Dr. William Drennan, of Belfast, who died in 1820.
It occurs in a poem, entitled "Erin," of which the fourth stanza is as follows:
"Arm of Erin! prove strong, but be gentle as brave.
And, uplifted to strike, still be ready to save;
Nor one feeling of vengeance presume to defile
The cause or the men of the Emerald Isle."
The origin of the expression naturally arises from the ever-green appearance of Ireland.
Do earthquakes and volcanoes' eruptions proceed from the igneous liquid condition which we are led to believe exists in the internal bowels of the globe, or are they caused by the combustion and motion of the various gases generated in the crust of the earth, seeking to escape, and igniting amid its numerous crevices?
What are the latest theories with regard to these phenomena?
INQUIRER, Washington, D.C.
The latest theory of the condition of the center of the earth, advanced by Professor Packer, and indorsed by leading physicists, is that it is not a vast molten reservoir, but rather a succession of small cells or globules filled with igneous matter, the whole arrangement more resembling the "coats" of an onion, with interstices of cells between each, than anything else.
There is no change in the currently-accpeted theory that this heated interior causes the gases you mention, and that the two combined are the source of the phenomena indicated.
(a) Will you please inform me how many penitentiaries there are in New York state, and where are they situated?
(b) In what prison did Tweed die?
JOHN.
(a) There are three state prisons in New York—at Auburn, Clinton, and Sing Sing.
Most of the populous counties have large penitentiaries, and in four or five of these convicts are also placed when the state prisons become too full.
One of the most noted of these is the penitentiary at Albany, opened in 1848, mostly for "short-term" prisoners, of which there have been over 1,000 incarcerated at a time.
In the Sing Sing prison, so-called—though, virtually, it is the Mount Pleasant prison, as it is outside the corporate limits of the village, and not included in the population of the former town—there have been 1,500 convicts confined.
The Auburn prison, which is a commodious stone building, is celebrated for its system of discipline.
The convicts, numbering from 1,000 to 1,200, are employed largely in various manufactures.
There are two systems of penitentiaries, known respectively as the "Pennsylvania plan" and the "New York plan."
According to the first system, the prisoners are kept in separate cells, where they work during stated hours, receive visits from their moral instructors, but are absolutely excluded from any communication with their fellow-prisoners.
According to the second system, the prisoners work and eat together, but sleep in separate cells, and are absolutely forbidden to speak to each other.
Under the first, punishment is administered by deprivation of food, light, and work for a certain time; under the second, by whipping.
(b) In New York city there are twenty-seven institutions, including prisons, hospitals, asylums, almshouses, etc., and mong these is the noted Ludlow Street jail, where "Boss" William Tweed died.
Seventy Years Wedded to Nine.
CINCINNATI, O., July[...]
necessary to its successful investigation.
What is the meaning of "Jungfrau," and give a description of the mountain.
CONSTANT READER.
It means the "Maiden" or "Virgin," and is a picturesque mountain or, rather, a group of mountains, in Switzerland, forming one of the ridges of the Bernese Alps, and separating the cantons of Valois and Bern.
It is 13,671 feet high (according to some others, 13,718), and derives its name either from the pure mantle of snow which covers its crest or from the fact that until the present century it was deemed inaccessible.
In 1811, however, the brothers Meyer, of Aarau, claimed to have ascended it.
I understand that Quebec is the only walled city in North America.
If so, please give short account of the walls, etc.
D. L. F., Finksburg, Md.
Quebec is crowned with the vast fortifications of the citadel, which occupy about forty acres.
These, with the outliving works, obtained for this city the application of the "Gibraltar of America."
From the citadel, a line of wall built between 1690 and 1700, runs westward towards the cliffs, overbanging the valley of St. Charles, and is thence continued around the brow of the promontory till it connects once more with Cape Diamond.
This circuit is about two and three-quarter miles in extent, and is pierced by five gates which are now dismantled.
The walls and ramparts outside of the citadel proper, though still mounted with cannon, are no longer kept in repair.
The modern changes in artillery have necessitated the construction at an enormous cost of a vast system of defensive works on the heights beyond Point Levi, and others are contemplated.
The city is divided into the upper and the lower town.
The former comprises the walled city with the two suburbs of St. Louis and St. John between the walls and the plains of Abraham.
The latter is the portion which encircles the base of the promontory, from beneath Cape Diamond to the mouth of the St. Charles, together with three suburban towns.
Louisburg, on the island of Breton, was also called the "Gibraltar of America," but it is now a ruined town, with dismantled walls.
Its fortifications were thirty years in process of building (from 1713) and cost $5,000,000. [...]
Proverbs About Snow.
[From the Boston Herald.]
Of these there are many.
Some have relation to signs by which the number of snowstorms during the season are to be calculated, and others to the number of storms in the following winter, while still others claim a connection between the moon and the snow.
Passing by these, it may be interesting at the beginning of the snow season to have a selection of the proverbs which seem to have a foundation in fact.
Snow is generally preceded by a general animation of man and beast, which continues until after the snowfall ends.
When the first snow remains on the ground some time in places not exposed to the sun, expect a hard winter.
"When the snow falls dry it means to lie;
But flakes light and soft bring rain oft."
Burning wood in winter pops more before snow.
When dry leaves rattle on the trees, expect snow.
"When in the ditch the snow doth lie,
'Tis waiting for more by and by."
It takes three cloudy days to bring a heavy snow.
If the snowflakes increase in size a thaw will follow.
If there is no snow before January, there will be the more snow in March and April.
"In March much snow,
To plants and trees much woe."
— German.
The more snow, the more healthy the season.
Heavy snow in winter favor the crops of the following summer.
A snow year, a rich year.
Snow is the poor man's fertilizer, for good crops will follow a winter of heavy snowfall.
If much snow be spread on the mountains in winter, the season of planting will be made blue with verdure.
—Indian.
A heavy fall of snow indicates a good year for crops, and a light fall the reverse.
Much sleet in winter will be followed by a good fruit year.
[...]
private pupils.
495.—Who was the author of the "Swiss Family Robinson" and its sequel, "Willis the Pilot"?
W. A.
"The Swiss Family Robinson" was written by John Rudolph Wyss (1781-1830), who was professor of philosophy at Bern, Switzerland, and published the book in 1813.
We believe there are several sequels, but he had nothing to do with any of them.
496.—A writer in the current number of a popular magazine twice uses the expression.[...]
EN