"_Hic locus odit, amat._"--In Vol. v. of "N. & Q.," at p. 8., "PROCURATOR"
gives the two quaintly linked lines--
"Hic locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat
Nequitiam, leges, crimina, jura probos."
as "carved in a beam over the Town Hall of Much Wenlock, in Shropshire."
They are to be found also in the ancient hall of judicature of the "Palazzo
del Podesta," at Pistoja, in Tuscany. The ancient stone seats, with their
stone table in front of them, where the magistrates of the republic
administered justice in the days of the city's independence, are still
remaining, and these lines are cut in the stone just over the benches. This
simple and primitive tribunal was built as it now stands in 1307, and there
can be no doubt that the verses in question existed there before they found
their way to Much Wenlock. But as it is hardly likely that they travelled
direct from Tuscany into Shropshire, the probability is that they may be
found in some other, or perhaps in many other places. I have not been able
to light on any clue to the authorship or history of the lines. Perhaps
some of your correspondents, who have the means of wider researches than
this city commands, might be more fortunate.