I send you a few Notes on Queries scattered through some of the later
numbers of your very valuable publication:
_Anonymous Ravennas_.--In the library of the Royal Geographical
Society, I believe there is a copy of an 8vo. edition of that
cosmography.
_Selago_.--This plant, I should think it probable, is the _Lycopodium
clavatum_ of modern botanists; the seeds of which, when ripe, and when
the plant is struck, rise like smoke ("fumum" of Pliny), and may have
been supposed, from their remarkable inflammability when dashed into
a flame, igniting with a sudden flash, to have possessed wonderful
virtues. The species known as _Lycopodium selago_ is rare in
comparison to the other.
_Portugal_.--In the library of the Geographical Society are some of
the more recent works published in Lisbon on the topography of that
country, but they are generally very meagre and unsatisfactory. In a
periodical published in Lisbon in numbers, on the plan of the _Penny
Magazine_, there is a good deal of information, with engravings,
regarding many places of interest in Portugal. I think it is called
_The Album_, but I am sorry I have not at present the power of sending
you more correct particulars concerning it. It is in 4to.
Portugal is a country that is so little travelled in either by natives
or foreigners, that information regarding places in the interior
is not easily obtained; and facilities for travelling, as well as
accommodation for travellers, is of a very limited description.
_Sir Roger de Coverley_.--In one of your early numbers was a query on
this subject, which I do not think has been yet answered. I have a MS.
{369} account of the family of Calverley, of Calverley, in Yorkshire,
an autograph of Ralph Thoresby in the year 1717, in which occurs the
following passage:--
"_Roger_, so named from the Archbishop" (of York), "was
a person of renowned hospitality, since, at this day, the
obsolete known tune of _Roger a Calverley_ is referred to
him, who, according to the custom of those times, kept his
_minstrells_, from that their office named _harpers_, which
became a family and possessed lands till late years in and
about _Calverley_, called to this day _Harpersroids_ and
_Harper's Spring_.... He was a knight, and lived in the time
of K. Richard 1st. His seal, appended to one of his charters,
is large, with a chevalier on horseback."