The Question Book

The author’s own “Appendix of Questions for Future Classes” — each question linked, where an answer exists among the three volumes, to its curious story. Questions set in italics await an answer.

1.Who were the Camisards?
2.How long did the Latin language continue to be the language of literature after the dissolution of the Roman Empire?
3.What is the history of the pictures called "Raphael's Hours"?
4.What were the "Ireland forgeries"?
5.Why were the followers of Zeno called "Stoics"?
6.What is the literature of the Magyars?
7.What is the legend of the picture, "St. Francis preaching to the Birds"?
8.What does "Easy is the descent to Avernus" mean, and who said it?
9.The passing of what law insured the destruction of Polish nationality?
10.What are "Lettres de cachet"?
11.How is the color in shells accounted for?
12.What code of ancient laws, a copy of which was discovered in 1137, forms the basis of the European codes?
13.From what celebrated poem do we get the quotation, "The cups that cheer, but not inebriate"?
14.By whom was the purple dye of Tyre, which was discovered in the fifteenth century B.C., and lost in the eleventh century A.D., rediscovered?
15.What was an Auto-da-fe?
16.Upon what great man's tomb is it inscribed, "If you wish to see his monument, look around"?
17.What were the Biblia Pauperum?
18.What was the origin of Caryatides?
19.What is the origin of drinking healths?
20.What monarch persecuted the Protestants in France, and protected them in Germany?
21.Who was the real "Mary Ashburton" of Longfellow's "Hyperion"?
22.Who built the leaning tower of Pisa, and for what purpose?
23.What were "Noyades"?
24.What German emperor married a French princess, and yet never saw his bride?
25.What were the Delphin classics?
26.What are accounted the seven wonders of modern times?
27.What were the Dragonades?
28.What was the "Battle of the Brothers"?
29.Why is the "Rosetta stone" of such great importance?
30.Who were the Lake Poets, and why so called?
31.Why is the bishop of the Isle of Man called "Bishop of Sodor and Man"?
32.What battle was called the "Tearless Battle"?
33.What Pope prohibited the marriage of priests?
34.When was the "Golden Number" invented?
35.What was the "Year of Corbie"?
36.How many medals have been awarded to foreigners by the United States for meritorious service?
37.What was the "benefit of clergy"?
38.What is the origin of our national motto, "E Pluribus Unum"?
39.Where and what is "Neptune's Staircase"?
40.What is the origin of the horseshoe as a charm or ornament?
41.What was the Pythium?
42.What are the Manx Laws?
43.To the top of what tower did Napoleon ride on horseback, and upon what occasion?
44.In what country are there no prisons, and no officers answering to our body of police?
45.What is the origin of brides wearing orange-blossoms?
46.Who was Cagliostro?
47.What is the origin of "Sub-Rosa"?
48.Who is called the "Last of the Greeks"?
49.What was Ptolemy's Mirror?
50.What is the oldest Christian hymn?
51.What was the Renaissance?
52.What king sent his own sons to prison, in order to release himself?
53.What became of Napoleon the First's son?
54.What was the "Ninth Thermidor"?
55.What were the four principal heresies of the ancient church?
56.What is the origin of the term "Cabal"?
57.Where is the Palace of Palenque?
58.Why was Charing Cross, London, so named?
59.What were the perpetual lamps of the ancients?
60.Upon what battle-field was one king slain, and his successor crowned?
61.How long has the first day of January been celebrated as the first of the year?
62.What was the "Good news" sent from "Ghent to Aix," about which Browning wrote a poem?
63.What king is said to have died from adhering too closely to the rules of etiquette?
64.What was the "Truce of God"?
65.What was the "Day of the Dupes"?
66.What was the origin of the "Tri-color" of France?
67.Who was called the "Walter Scott of the Middle Ages"?
68.For what eminent good, and what great evil, is the world indebted to the Medici family?
69.What woman was called the "Mother of her country"
70.What are the ten great religions?
71.What is the Mons Meg?
72.What was the Meal-Tub Plot?
73.What is the origin of "A remark more biting than Zeno"?
74.Who was King Lear?
75.What woman was accused of murdering ten kings?
76.Did Guido paint a portrait of Beatrice Cenci?
77.Who was called the "Mother of the beautiful child"?
78.Who was styled the "Great Unknown"?
79.Who is the god of the gypsies?
80.What was the Arundel Society?
81.Who invented the present characters used in music?
82.Who were the Sybarites?
83.What is the legend of the Erl King?
84.What are called the lost arts?
85.Who was the first Poet Laureate of England?
86.Of whom was it said, "He came in like a fox, ruled like a lion, and died like a dog"?
87.What monarch's life was saved by a cobweb?
88.How is the hatred of the Jews for the Samaritans accounted for?
89.What is the Moabite stone?
90.By whom was the Pantheon built, and when was it converted into a Christian temple?
91.Why are the horses above the doors of St. Mark's, Venice, called the "travelled horses"?
92.What is the famous London stone?
93.What and where is the Conciergerie?
94.When, and from what place, were the bones of St. Mark conveyed to Venice?
95.What is the origin of "news" as applied to newspaper?
96.What is meant by the assertion that "American independence was achieved by a lie"?
97.What was the Salic law?
98.What was the "Book of Hours," and where is it preserved?
99.Who are "The Men of Grutli"?
100.What is the Holy Grail, and to what feats of knighthood did it give rise?
101.What queen refused a dose of opium when dying, saying, "I want to meet my God awake"?
102.How many years did it take to write the Bible, and how long a period of history does it cover?
103.Which of the saints is said to have been the child that Jesus blessed?
104.Who wrote the "Battle of the Frogs and Mice"?
105.What is the meaning of "The Chian hath bought himself a master"?
106.Has America an epic poem?
107.Who was called the "White Prince"?
108.What is the origin of the names applied to the several States of the Union?
109.What strange phenomenon attended the great fire of Hamburg?
110.According to Hiram Powers, what is the history of the "Greek slave"?
111.Who was Margery Fleming?
112.Why are certain publications called the "Aldine editions"?
113.What inscriptions do the famous bells of the world bear?
114.What and where is the "Star Chamber," and why is it so called?
115.What is the legend connected with the founding of the city of Mexico?
116.Who were the Modkas?
117.What are the seven cartoons of Raphael, preserved in Hampton Court?
118.Why did Queen Victoria accept the title of "Empress of India"?
119.What works of note were written while their authors were in captivity or exile?
120.What is meant by "Black Friday"?
121.Why is Japan called the "Land of the great peace"?
122.What is important about the arch of Titus in Rome?
123.What monarch besides Richard of England bore the title "Coeur de Lion"?
124.What king was assassinated at a masked ball?
125.Where is the Palace of Forty Pillars?
126.What is the classical origin of "He's a Brick"?
127.What are the facts upon which Owen Meredith founded his story, "The Ring of Amasis"?
128.In what battle did the hungry soldiers throw away their food for the sake of fighting?
129.When was it said, "The French language has only five words"
130.What was the "Tennis-court Oath"?
131.Where are the keys of the Bastile?
132.Who suppressed the order of Knights Templars?
133.What queen of England also bore the title of King of France?
134.What Greek author was so thin that he had to wear lead in his shoes, to keep from being blown away?
135.What Pope was called the "Protestant Pope"?
136.What hymn now sung in Christian churches was composed by a heathen?
137.What is the oldest ruin in Rome?
138.Where is the smallest church in the world?
139.In what city are there three churches, one built over the other?
140.How old is the game of chess?
141.What French king never wore the crown except at his coronation?
142.What two men saved their lives by reversing the shoes on their horses' hoofs?
143.What ten animals did Mohammed say would enter heaven?
144.Why are three gilt balls used as a sign by pawnbrokers?
145.What trial is the most celebrated in the annals of English jurisprudence?
146.What city is called the "city of kings," and why?
147.What is the "Cup of Tantalus"?
148.At the gate of what castle did the Emperor Henry IV. perform his famous penance?
149.What was the Iron Crown of Lombardy?
150.What three great generals were never defeated?
151.What are the Round Towers of Ireland?
152.How many women have been legal rulers of France?
153.In what battle was a "bucket" the only prize?
154.Who was "the prisoner of Ham"?
155.What were the "Three Fatal Disclosures"?