"Towards this end there lies a large slab of blue marble, which
is called 'Long Meg' of Westminster. Though it is inscribed to
Gervasius de Blois, abbot, 1160 natural son of King Stephen, he
is said to have been buried under a small stone, and tradition
assigns 'Long Meg' as the gravestone of twenty-six monks, who
were carried off by the plague in 1349, and buried together in
one grave."

The tradition here recorded may be correct. At any rate, it carries with
it more plausibility than that recorded by Mr. Cunningham.

EDWARD F. RIMIBAULT.

[Some additional and curious allusions to this probably mythic
virago are recorded in Mr. Halliwell's _Descriptive Notices of
Popular English Histories_, printed for the Percy Society.]

* * * * *

A NOTE ON SPELLING.--"SANATORY," "CONNECTION."

I trust that "NOTES AND QUERIES" may, among many other benefits, improve
spelling by example as well as precept. Let me make a note on two words
that I find in No. 37.: _sanatory_, p. 99., and _connection_, p. 98.

Why "_sanatory_ laws?" _Sanare_ is _to cure_, and a curing-place is, if
you like, properly called _sanatorium_. But the Latin for _health_ is
_sanitas_, and the laws which relate to health should be called
_sanitary_.

Analogy leads us to _connexion_, not _connection_; _plecto_, _plexus_,
_complexion_; _flecto_, _flexus_, _inflexion_; _necto_, _nexus_,
_connexion_, &c.; while the termination _ction_ belongs to words derived
from Latin verbs whose passive participles end in _ctus_ as _lego_,
_lectus_, _collection_; _injecio_, _injectus_, _injection_; _seco_,
_sectus_, _section_, &c.

CH.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Pasquinade on Leo XII._--The Query put to a Pope (Vol. ii., p. 104.),
which it is difficult to believe could be put orally, reminds me of Pope
Leo XII., who was reported, whether truly or not, to have been the
reverse of scrupulous in the earlier part of his life, but was
remarkably strict after he became Pope, and was much disliked at Rome,
perhaps because, by his maintenance of strict discipline, he abridged
the amusements and questionable indulgences of the people. On account of
his death, {132} which took place just before the time of the carnival
in 1829, the usual festivities were omitted, which gave occasion to the
following pasquinade, which was much, though privately, circulated--

"Tre cose mat