WHY IS IT?

Evening Star, Issue 21890, 29 November 1934, Page 1

WHY IS IT?

QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK EACH OTHER That a very accomplished man is sometimes called an “Admirable Crichton?’’—-The man to whom the name was originally applied was James Crichton, a Scotsman, who, from an early ago, became noted for his talents and cleverness. At fifteen he took his M.A. degree with honours, and later in Paris lie challenged all men oil all subjects, to be discussed in twelve languages. He was an easy winnpr, and in Venice won a similar challenge. In addition, to ‘ his accomplishments in learning he was a lino swordsman, and slew a renowned duellist at Mantua. Appointed tutor to the young son or the Duke of Mantua at the age of twenty-live, he was stabbed to death by his jealous pupil. That to speak of William I. as “ the Conqueror ” is inaccurate.—When William, Duke of Nonnanby, overcame Harold 11. at' the Battle of Hastings, he obtained the crown of England, which he asserted had been bequeathed to him by Edward the Confessor (Edgar being the rightful heir). To style him the Conqueror, . therefore, is erroneous, for he succeeded to the crown by compact. He defeated Harold, who was himself a usurper, but a large portion of the kingdom held out against him; and he, unlike a conqueror, took an oath to observe the laws and customs .of . the realm in order to induce the submission of the people. , That 'the Dunmow Elitch wa“s .instituted P—A clause in the tenure of the Manor of Dunmow, made in 1244, read “ that whatever married couple will go to the priory and kneeling on two sharp-pointed stones will swear that they have not quarrelled nor repented of their marriage within a year and a clay after its celebration shall receive a Hitch of bacon.” The earliest recorded claim for the bacon was in 1445. That Venice is called the “ Bride of the Sea”?—This poetic surname arose from the medieval ceremony by which the City of Venice was wedded to the Adriatic. The Doge, in the presence of his courtiers and in a scene of pomp and splendour, threw a ring into the sea. at the same time saying a-Latin sentence which may be translated as “ We wed thee, O sea, in sign of- a true and perpetual dominion.” 'That “ Brown, Jones, and Robinson ” are generally classed together?— These three names, which were used during last century to typify British snobbery, especially as shown when travelling. abroad, were given to three Englishmen travelling together, whose adventures illustrated by Richard Dovle, were published in ‘ Punch.’ that the Hibbert Lectures were instituted?—Robert Hibbert, a West Indian merchant, who died in 1849, left a sum of money, the income from which was applied for many years by his trustees mainly to the higher culture of students for the Unitarian ministry, but in 1878 they resolved to institute Hibbert Lecture's, with a view to capable and really honest treatment of unsettled problems in theology apart from the interest of any particular church'or system.