{517} NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 187.] Saturday, May 28, 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page On Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian 517 The Rebellion of '45: unpublished Letter 519 Oliver St. John, by James Crossley 520 Notes on several misunderstood Words, by the Rev. W. R. Arrowsmith 520 FOLK LORE:—Weather Rules—Drills presaging Death —Superstition in Devonshire; Valentine's Day 522 A Note on Gulliver's Travels, by C. Forbes 522 Shakspeare Correspondence 523 The Coenaculum of Lionardo da Vinci, by E. Smirke 524 MINOR NOTES:—Scotter Register (County Lincoln)— "All my Eye:" "Over the Left"—Curious Marriages —Child-mother 525

QUERIES:— Further Queries respecting Bishop Ken 526 The Rev. John Larson and his Mathematical Manuscripts, by T. T. Wilkinson 526 MINOR QUERIES:—"Wanderings of Memory"— "Wandering Willie's Tale"—Chapel Sunday—Proud Salopians—George Miller, D.D.—Members of Parliament —Taret—Jeroboam of Claret, &c.—William Williams of Geneva—The First of April and "The Cap awry"—Sir G. Browne, Bart.—Bishop Butler—Oaken Tombs—Alleged Bastardy of Elizabeth—"Pugna Porcorum"—Parviso—Mr. Justice Newton—Mufti —Ryming and Cuculling—Custom at the Savoy Church 527 MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Faithful Teate— Kelway Family—Regatta—Coket and Cler-mantyn 529

REPLIES:— Curfew 530 The "Salt-Peter-Man," by C. H. Cooper 530 Forms of Judicial Oaths, by John Thrupp, &c. 532 PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Washing Collodion Pictures—Test for Lenses—Improvement in Positives—Cheap Portable Tent—Rev. Mr. Sisson's New Developing Fluid 533 REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Vanes—Loselerius Villerius—Westminster Parishes—Hevristic—Creole —General Monk and the University of Cambridge— Ecclesia Anglicana—Gibbon's Library—Golden Bees —Passage in Orosius—Names first given to Parishes —Grafts and the Parent Tree—Lord Cliff and Howell's Letters—The Bouillon Bible—Rhymes on Places— Serpents' Tongues—Consecrated Roses, &c. 534

MISCELLANEOUS:— Notes on Books, &c. 537 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 538 Notices to Correspondents 538 Advertisements 538

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Notes.

ON CHAUCER'S KNOWLEDGE OF ITALIAN.

In the Memoir prefixed to the Aldine edition of the Poetical Works of Chaucer, London, 1845, Sir Harris Nicolas expresses an opinion that Dan Geoffrey was not acquainted with the Italian language, and therefore not versed in Italian literature.

"Though Chaucer undoubtedly knew Latin and French, it is by no means certain, notwithstanding his supposed obligations to the Decameron, that he was as well acquainted with Italian. There may have been a common Latin original of the main incidents of many, if not of all the tales, for which Chaucer is supposed to have been wholly indebted to Boccaccio, and from which originals Boccaccio himself may have taken them. That Chaucer was not acquainted with Italian may be inferred from his not having introduced any Italian quotation into his works, redundant as they are with Latin and French words and phrases."—Life of Chaucer, pp. 24, 25.

To which the following note is subjoined:

"Though Chaucer's writings have not been examined for the purpose, the remark in the text is not made altogether from recollection, for at the end of Speght's edition of Chaucer's Works, translations are given of the Latin and French words in the poems, but not a single Italian word is mentioned."

If Sir Harris Nicolas had examined the writings of Chaucer with any care, he would scarcely have formed or expressed so strange an opinion, for he must necessarily have discovered that Chaucer was not only well acquainted with the language, but thoroughly well versed in Italian literature, and that he paraphrased and translated freely from the works of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio. Chaucer would naturally quote Latin and French, as being familiar to his cotemporaries, and would abstain from introducing Italian, as a knowledge of that language must have been confined to a few individuals in his day; and he wrote for the many, and not for the minority.

The circumstances of Chaucer's life, his missions to Italy, during which he resided several months in that country, when sent on the king's business to Genoa, and Florence, and Lombardy, afforded {518} him ample opportunities of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the language and literature of Italy; the acquisition of which must have been of easy accomplishment to Chaucer, already familiar with Latin and French. So that it is not necessary to endow Chaucer "with all human attainments as proof of his having spoken Italian."

Chaucer's own writings, however, afford the strongest evidence against the opinion entertained by Sir Harris Nicolas, and such evidence as cannot be controverted.

Chaucer loves to refer to Dante, and often translates passages from the Divine Comedy. The following lines are very closely rendered from the Paradiso, xiv. 28.:—

"Thou one, two, and thre, eterne on live, That raignest aie in thre, two, and one, Uncircumscript, and all maist circumscrive." Last stanza of Troilus and Creseide.

"Quell' uno e due e tre che sempre vive, E regna sempre in tre e due ed uno, Non circonscritto, e tutto circonscrive." Dante, Il Paradiso, xiv. 28.

"Wel can the wise poet of Florence, That highte Dant, speken of this sentence: Lo, in swiche maner rime is Dantes tale. Ful selde up riseth by his branches smale Prowesse of man, for God of his goodnesse Wol that we claime of him our gentillesse." Wif of Bathes Tale, 6707.

"Rade volte risurge per li rami L' umana probita: e questo vuole Quei che la da, perche da lui si chiami." Purgatorio, vii. 121.

After relating the dread story of the Conte Ugolino, Chaucer refers to Dante, from whom perhaps he derived it. (Conf. Inferno, xxxiii.)

"Who so wol here it in a longer wise, Redeth the grete poete of Itaille, That highte Dante, for he can it devise Fro point to point, not o word wol he faille." The Monkes Tale, 14,769.

"Bet than Vergile, while he was on live, Or Dant also."—The Freres Tale, 7101.

The following lines refer to the Inferno, xiii. 64.:

"Envie is lavender of the court alway, For she ne parteth neither night ne day, Out of the house of Cesar, thus saith Dant." Prologue to the Legend of Good Women, 359.

"Dant that it tellen can" is mentioned in the House of Fame, book i.; and Chaucer is indebted to him for some lines in that fine poem, as in the description of the "egle, that with feathers shone all of gold" = un' aquila nel ciel con penne d'oro; and the following line:

"O thought, that wrote all that I met." House of Fame, ii. 18.

"O mente, che scrivesti cio ch' io vidi." Inferno, ii. 8.

The Knightes Tale exhibits numerous passages, lines, and expressions verbally translated from the Teseide of Boccaccio, upon which it is founded; such as Idio armipotente = Mars armipotent; Eterno admante = Athamant eterne; Paura palida = pale drede; Le ire rosse come focho = the cruel ire red as any glede. Boccaccio describes the wood in which "Mars hath his sovereine mansion" as—

"Una selva sterile de robusti Cerri, Nodosi aspri e rigidi e vetusti. Vi si sentia grandissimo romore, Ne vera bestia anchora ne pastore." Teseide, book vii.

There is a purposed grisly ruggedness in the corresponding passage of the Knightes Tale, which heightens the horrors of "thilke colde and frosty region:"

"First on the wall was peinted a forest, In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best, With knotty knarry barrein trees old Of stubbes sharpe and hidous to behold; In which ther ran a romble and a swough, As though a storme shuld bresten every bough." The Knightes Tale, 1977.

The death of Arcite is thus related by Boccaccio:

"La morte in ciascun membro era venuta Da piedi in su, venendo verso il petto, Ed ancor nelle braccia era perduta La vital forza; sol nello intelletto E nel cuore era ancora sostenuta La poca vita, ma gia si ristretto Eragli 'l tristo cor del mortal gelo Che agli occhi fe' subitamente velo.

"Ma po' ch' egli ebbe perduto il vedere, Con seco comincio a mormorare, Ognor mancando piu del suo podere: Ne troppo fece in cio lungo durare; Ma il mormorare trasportato in vere Parole, con assai basso parlare Addio Emilia; e piu oltre non disse, Che l' anima convenne si partisse." Teseide, book x. 112.

Chaucer loses nothing of this description in his condensed translation:

"For from his feet up to his brest was come The cold of deth, that had him overnome. And yet moreover in his armes two The vital strength is lost, and all ago. Only the intellect, withouten more, That dwelled in his herte sike and sore, Gan feillen, when the herte felte deth; Dusked his eyen two, and failled his breth. But on his ladie yet cast he his eye; His laste word was; Mercy, Emelie!" The Knightes Tale, 2301.

Troilus and Creseide seems to have been translated from the Filostrato of Boccaccio, when {519} Chaucer was a young man, as we are informed by Dan John Lydgate in the Prologue to his Translation of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, where he speaks of his "Maister Chaucer" as the "chefe poete of Bretayne," and tells us that—

"In youthe he made a translacion Of a boke which called is Trophe, In Lumbard tongue, as men may rede and se, And in our vulgar, long or that he deyde Gave it the name of Troylous and Cresseyde."

Chaucer's translation is sometimes very close, sometimes rather free and paraphrastic, as may be seen in the following examples:

"But right as floures through the cold of night Yclosed, stoupen in hir stalkes lowe, Redressen hem ayen the Sunne bright, And spreaden in hir kinde course by rowe." Troilus and Creseide, b. ii.

"Come fioretto dal notturno gelo Chinato e chiuso, poi che il Sol l' imbianca, S'apre, e si leva dritto sopra il stelo." Boccaccio, Il Filostrato, iii. st. 13.

"She was right soche to sene in her visage As is that wight that men on bere ybinde." Troilus and Creseide, b. iv.

"Essa era tale, a guardarla nel viso, Qual donna morta alla fossa portata." Il Filostrato, v. st. 83.

"As fresh as faucon coming out of mew." Troilus and Creseide, b. iii.

"Come falcon ch' uscisse dal cappello." Il Filostrato, iv. st. 83.

"The Song of Troilus," in the first book of Troilus and Creseide, is a paraphrase from one of the Sonnets of Petrarca:

"S' Amor non e, che dunque e quel ch' i' sento? Ma s' egli e Amor, per Dio che cosa, e quale? Se buona, ond' e l' effetto aspro mortale?" Petrarca, Rime in Vita di Laura, Son. cii.

"If no love is, O God, what feele I so? And if love is, what thing and which is he? If love be good, from whence cometh my wo?" Troilus and Creseide, b. i.

Chaucer evidently had the following lines of the Paradiso in view when writing the invocation to the Virgin in The Second Nonnes Tale:

"Vergine Madre, figlia del tuo Figlio, Umile e alta piu che creatura, Termine fisso d' eterno consiglio, Tu se' colei, che l' umana Natura, Nobilitasti si, che il suo Fattore Non disdegno di farsi sua fattura." Paradiso, xxxiii, I.

"Thou maide and mother, doughter of thy Son, Thou well of mercy, sinful soules cure, In whom that God of bountee chees to won; Thou humble and high over every creature, Thou nobledest so fer forth our nature, That no desdaine the maker had of kinde His Son in blood and flesh to clothe and winde." The Second Nonnes Tale, 15,504.

Traces of Chaucer's proficiency in Italian are discoverable in almost all his poems; but I shall conclude with two citations from The Assembly of Foules:

"The day gan failen, and the darke night, That reveth beastes from hir businesse, Berafte me my booke for lacke of light." The Assembly of Foules, I. 85.

"Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno Toglieva gli animai che sono in terra Dalle fatiche loro."—Inf. ii. 1.

"With that my hand in his he toke anon, Of which I comfort caught, and went in fast." The Assembly of Foules, I. 169.

"E poiche la sua mano alla mia pose Con lieto volto, ond' io mi confortai." Inf. iii. 19.

By the way, Chaucer commences The Assembly of Foules with part of the first aphorism of Hippocrates, "[Greek: Ho bios brachus he de techne makre]" (but this, I suppose, had been noticed before):

"The lyfe so short, the craft so long to lerne."

Chaucer was forty years old, or upwards, in 1372, when he was sent as an envoy to treat with the duke, citizens, and merchants of Genoa; and if, as is probable, he had translated Troilus and Creseide out of the "Lombarde tonge" in his youth (according to the testimony of Lydgate), it is not unreasonable to infer that his knowledge of Italian may have led to his being chosen to fill that office. But, however this may be, abundant proof has been adduced that Chaucer was familiarly acquainted with Italian.

I may briefly remark, in conclusion, that the dates and other circumstances favour the supposed interview at Padua, between Fraunceis Petrark the laureate poet, and Dan Chaucer,

"Floure of poets throughout all Bretaine."

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

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THE REBELLION OF '45.—UNPUBLISHED LETTER.

Inverness, 16th Aprile, 1746.

Dear Sirs,

This day about twelve our army came up with the rebels, about a mile above Lord President's house, in a muir called Drumrossie. They began the engagement first, by firing from a battery of six guns they had erected upon their right; but our cannon played so hott upon them, that they were obliged soon to fly, by which means we gote possession of their artillery, and so drove them before us for three miles of way. The cavalry gave them closs chase to the town of Inverness: {520} upon which the French ambassador (who is not well) sent out an officer, and a drum with him, offering to surrender at discretion; to which the duke made answer, that the French officers should be allowed to go about on their parole, and nothing taken from them. Brigadier Stapleton is among them, and God knows how many more officers; for we have not gote home to count them yet. Its thought the rebels have between four and five hundred killed, and as many taken prisoners already: many more we expect this night, parties having been sent out after them. Lord Kilmarnock I saw prisoner, and Major Stewart, with many more. Secretary Murray is very bad: a party is just now sent for him, intelligence being brought where he is. I don't think we have lost thirty men, and not above five officers killed, amongst which are Lord Robert Ker, Captain Grosset: the rest their names I have forgote. We are now in full possession of this place. Some say the Pretender was in the battle, and wounded; but others say he was not. Such of them as are left are gone to Fort Augustus. The duke, God be praised, is in good health, and all the generalls. His Royal Highness behaved as if he had been inspired, riding up and down giveing orders himself.

I am, Gentlemen, Your most obedt. servant, DAVID BRUCE.

After writing y^e above, y^e lists of y^e killed and wounded are as follows, so far as is yet known:—

We have of y^e prisoners 700 Killed and wounded on y^e field 1800

Of y^e duke's army:—

Killed, wounded, and amissing 220

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Gentlemen,

I hope you'l pardon y^e confusedness of y^e foregoing line, as I have been in y^e utmost confusion since I came here. 'Tis said, but not quite certain, y^t y^e following rebells are killed, viz.:—Lochiel, Capuch (Keppach), Lord Nairn, Lord Lewis Drummond, D. of Perth, Glengarry, &c. The French have all surrendered prisoners of war.

DAVID BRUCE.

Addressed to The Governors of The Town of Aberdeen.

X. Y. Z.

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OLIVER ST. JOHN.

In giving the lives of the Commonwealth chief justices, Lord Campbell observes (Lives of Chief Justices, vol. i. p. 447.), "in completing the list with the name of Oliver St. John, I am well pleased with an opportunity of tracing his career and pourtraying his character." Then follows a biography of thirty pages. The subject seems to be a favourite one with his lordship, and he accordingly produces a striking picture, laying on his colours in the approved historical style of the day, so as to make the painting an effective one, whether the resemblance be faithful or not. But how is it that the noble biographer appears to be quite unaware of what really is the only document we have relating to Oliver St. John of his own composition, which does give us much light as to his career or character? I refer to The Case of Oliver St. John, Esq, concerning his Actions during the late Troubles, pp. 14., 4to., n.d. It is a privately printed tract, emanating from St. John himself, and was no doubt circulated amongst persons in power at the Restoration, with a view to obtaining indemnity and pardon. My copy is signed by himself, and has some corrections in his autograph. His Defence is full of interesting particulars, some of which are very inconsistent with Lord Campbell's speculations and statements. It would, however, occupy too much of your space were I to go through the various articles objected to by him, and to which he gives his replies and explanations. My object in noticing this tract at present, is to prevent any future biographer of this Commonwealth worthy, whose life may well be an historical study, from neglecting an important source of information. I observe Lord Campbell (p. 473.) doubts whether he favoured the measure of making Cromwell king. But if we are to believe the title-page of Monarchy asserted, 1660, 12mo., he was one of the speakers at the conference with Cromwell on the 11th April, 1657, in favour of his assuming the title of king. On the list of the committee which follows, the "Lord Chief Justice" only is mentioned, but in the speeches a difference seems to be made between "Lord Chief Justice" (pp. 6. 7. 15.) and "Lord Chief Justice Glynne" (p. 44.), and they would seem to be two different speakers. The title-page states distinctly, "the arguments of Oliver St. John, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chief Justice Glyn, &c., members of that committee."

JAS. CROSSLEY.

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NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS.

(Continued from p. 402.)

No did, no will, no had, &c.—

"K. John. . . . I had a mighty cause To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.

Hubert. No had (my Lord), why, did you not provoke me?" King John, Act IV. Sc. 2.

So the first folio edition of Shakspeare. A palpable error, as the commentators of the present would pleasantly observe, and all the world would echo the opinion; but here, as in most other {521} instances, commentators and all the world may be wrong, and the folios right. The passage has accordingly been corrupted by the editors of Shakspeare into what was more familiar to their modern ears: "Had none, my Lord!" Though the mode of speech be very common, yet, to deprive future editors of all excuse for ever again depraving the genuine text of our national Bible, I shall make no apology for accumulating a string of examples:

"Fort. Oh, had I such a hat, then were I brave! Where's he that made it?

Sol. Dead: and the whole world Yields not a workman that can frame the like.

Fort. No does?" "Old Fortunatus," Old English Plays, vol. iii. p. 140., by Dilke:

who alters "No does?" into None does? thinking, I presume, that he had thereby simplified the sentence:

"John. I am an elde fellowe of fifty wynter and more, And yet in all my lyfe I knewe not this before.

Parson. No dyd, why sayest thou so, upon thyselfe thou lyest, Thou haste euer knowen the sacramente to be the body of Christ." John Bon and Mast Person.

"Chedsey. Christ said 'Take, eat, this is my body;' and not 'Take ye, eat ye.'

Philpot. No did, master doctor? Be not these the words of Christ, 'Accipite, manducate?' And do not these words, in the plural number, signify 'Take ye, eat ye;' and not 'Take thou, eat thou,' as you would suppose?"—Foxe's Acts and Monuments, vol. vii. p. 637., Cattley's edition.

"Philpot. Master Cosins, I have told my lord already, that I will answer to none of these articles he hath objected against me: but if you will with learning answer to that which is in question between my lord and me, I will gladly hear and commune with you.

Cosins. No will you? Why what is that then, that is in question between my lord and you?"—Id., p. 651.

"Philpot. And as I remember, it is even the saying of St. Bernard [viz. The Holy Ghost is Christ's vicar on earth (vic-arius), and a saying that I need not to be ashamed of, neither you to be offended at; as my Lord of Durham and my Lord of Chichester by their learning can discern, and will not reckon it evil said.

London. No will? Why, take away the first syllable, and it soundeth Arius."—Id. p. 658.

"Philpot. These words of Cyprian do nothing prove your pretensed assertion; which is, that to the Church of Rome there could come no misbelief.

Christopherson. Good lord, no doth? What can be said more plainly?"—Id., p. 661.

Again, at p. 663. there occur no less than three more instances and at p. 665. another.

"Careless. No, forsooth: I do not know any such, nor have I heard of him that I wot of.

Martin. No have, forsooth: and it is even he that hath written against thy faith."

Then Martin said:

"Dost thou not know one Master Chamberlain?

Careless. No forsooth; I know him not.

Martin. No dost! and he hath written a book against thy faith also."—Id., vol. iii. p. 164.

"Lichfield and Coventry. We heard of no such order.

Lord Keeper. No did? Yes, and on the first question ye began willingly. How cometh it to pass that ye will not now do so?"—Id., p. 690.

"Then said Sir Thomas Moyle: 'Ah! Bland, thou art a stiff-hearted fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when thou art called.' 'Nor will,' quoth Sir John Baker. 'Master Sheriff, take him to your ward.'"—Id., vol. vii. p. 295.

Is it needful to state, that the original editions have, as they ought to have, a note of interrogation at "Baker?" I will not tax the reader's patience with more than two other examples, and they shall be fetched from the writings of that admirable papist—the gentle, the merry-hearted More:

"Well, quod Caius, thou wylt graunte me thys fyrste, that euery thynge that hath two erys is an asse.—Nay, mary mayster, wyll I not, quod the boy.—No wylt thou? quod Caius. Ah, wyly boy, there thou wentest beyond me."—The Thyrde Boke, the first chapter, fol. 84. of Sir Thomas More's Dialogues.

"Why, quod he, what coulde I answere ellys, but clerely graunt hym that I believe that thyng for none other cause but only bycause the Scripture so sheweth me?—No could ye? quod I. What yf neuer Scripture had ben wryten in thys world, should there neuer haue bene eny chyrch or congregacyon of faythfull and ryght beyleuyng people?—That wote I nere, quod he. No do ye? quod I."—Id., fol. 85.

In taking leave of this idiom, it would not perhaps be amiss to remark, that "ye can," in Duke Humphey's rejoinder to the "blyson begger of St. Albonys," is not, as usually understood, "you can?" but "yea can?"

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To be at point = to be at a stay or stop, i.e. settled, determined, nothing farther being to be said or done: a very common phrase. Half a dozen examples shall suffice:

" . . . . . What I am truly Is thine, and my poore countries to command: Whither indeed before they (thy) heere-approach, Old Seyward with ten thousand warlike men Already at a point, was setting forth." Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. 3. 1st Fol.

No profit to give the commentators' various guesses at the import of the phrase in the above passage, which will be best gathered from the following instances of its use elsewhere. But, before passing further, I beg permission to inform MR. KNIGHT that the original suggester of "sell" for "self," in an earlier part of this play, whose name {522} he is at a loss for, was W. S. Landor, whose footnote to vol. ii. p. 273., Moxon's edit. of his works, is as follows:

"And here it may be permitted the editor to profit also by the manuscript, correcting in Shakespeare what is absolute nonsense as now printed:

'Vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other side.'

Other side of what? It should be its sell. Sell is saddle in Spenser and elsewhere, from the Latin and Italian."

A correspondent of "N. & Q."., Vol. vii., p. 404., will be delighted to find his very ingenious discovery brought home, and corroborated by Landor's valuable manuscript: but it is an old said saw—"Great wits jump." Now to our examples:

"Pasquin. Saint Luke also affirmeth the same, saying flatly that he shall not be forgiuen. Beholde, therefore, how well they interprete the Scriptures.

Marforius. I am alreadie at a poynt with them, but thou shalt doo me great pleasure to expounde also vnto me certayne other places, vppon the which they ground this deceit."—Pasquine in a Traunce, turned but lately out of the Italian into this tongue by W. P.: London, 1584.

"But look, where malice reigneth in men, there reason can take no place: and, therefore, I see by it, that you are all at a point with me, that no reason or authority can persuade you to favour my name, who never meant evil to you, but both your commodity and profit."—Foxe's Acts and Monuments, vol. viii. p. 18.

"Not so, my lord," said I, "for I am at a full point with myself in that matter; and am right well able to prove both your transubstantiation with the real presence to be against the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers of the primitive Church."—Id., p. 587.

"Winchester. No, surely, I am fully determined, and fully at a point therein, howsoever my brethren do."—Id., p. 691.

"Brad. Sir, so that you will define me your church, that under it you bring not in a false church, you shall not see but that we shall soon be at a point."—Id., vol. vii. p. 190.

"Latimer. Truly, my lord, as for my part I require no respite, for I am at a point. You shall give me respite in vain; therefore, I pray you let me not trouble you to-morrow."—Id., p. 534.

"Unto whom he (Lord Cobham) gave this answer: 'Do as ye shall think best, for I am at a point.' Whatsoever he (Archbishop Arundel) or the other bishops did ask him after that, he bade them resort to his bill: for thereby would he stand to the very death."—Id., vol. iii. pp. 327-8.

"'Et illa et ista vera esse credantur et nulla inter nos contentio remanebit, quia nec illis veris ista, nec istis veris illa impediuntur.' Let bothe those truthes and these truthes be beleued, and we shall be at appoinct. For neither these truthes are impaired by the other, neither the other by these."—A Fortresse of the Faith, p. 50., by Thomas Stapleton: Antwerp, 1565.

"A poore man that shall haue liued at home in the countrie, and neuer tasted of honoure and pompe, is alwayes at a poynt with himselfe, when menne scorne and disdayne him, or shewe any token of contempt towardes his person."—John Calvin's CVIII. Sermon on the Thirtieth Chap. of Job, p. 554., translated by Golding: London, 1574.

"As for peace, I am at a point."—Leycester Correspondence, Camd. Soc., p. 261.

W. R. ARROWSMITH.

(To be continued.)

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

Weather Rules.—The interesting article on "The Shepherd of Banbury's Weather Rules" (Vol. vii., p. 373.) has reminded me of two sayings I heard in Worcestershire a few months back, and upon which my informant placed the greatest reliance. The first is, "If the moon changes on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the month is out." My authority asserted that through a number of years he has never known this fail. The month in which the change on a Sunday has occurred has been fine until the last day, when the flood came. The other saying is, "Look at the weathercock on St. Thomas's day at twelve o'clock, and see which way the wind is, and there it will stick for the next quarter," that is, three months. Can any of your readers confirm the above, and add any similar "weather rules?"

J. A., JUN.

Birmingham.

Drills presaging Death (Vol. vii., p. 353.).—Your correspondent asks if the superstition he here alludes to in Norfolk is believed in other parts. I can give him a case in point in Berkshire:—Some twenty years ago an old gentleman died there, a near relative of my own; and on going down to his place, I was told by a farm overseer of his, that he was certain some of his lordship's family would die that season, as, in the last sowing, he had missed putting the seed in one row, which he showed me! "Who could disbelieve it now?" quoth the old man. I was then taken to the bee-hives, and at the door of every one this man knocked with his knuckles, and informed the occupants that they must now work for a new master, as their old one was gone to heaven. This, I believe, has been queried in your invaluable paper some time since. I only send it by the way. I know the same superstition is still extant in Cheshire, North Wales, and in some parts of Scotland.

T. W. N.

Malta.

A friend supplies me with the information that before drills were invented, the labourers {523} considered it unlucky to miss a "bout" in corn or seed sowing, will sometimes happened when "broadcast" was the only method. The ill-luck did not relate alone to a death in the family of the farmer or his dependents, but to losses of cattle or accidents. It is singular, however, that the superstition should have transferred itself to the drill; but it will be satisfactory to E. G. R. to learn that the process of tradition and superstition-manufacturing is not going on in the nineteenth century.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Superstition in Devonshire; Valentine's Day (Vol. v., pp. 55. 148.).—This, according to Forby, vol. ii. p. 403., once formed in Norfolk a part of the superstitious practices on St. Mark's Eve, not St. Valentine's, as mentioned by J. S. A., when the sheeted ghosts of those who should die that year (Mrs. Crowe would call them, I suppose, Doppelgaengers) march in grisly array to the parish church.

The rhyme varies from J. S. A.'s:—

"Hempseed I sow: Hempseed grow; He that is my true love Come after me, and mow."

and the Norfolk spectre is seen with a scythe, instead of a rake like his Devonshire compeer.

E. S. TAYLOR.

* * * * *

A NOTE ON GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

If I may argue from the silence of the latest edition of Gulliver's Travels, with Notes, with which I am acquainted, viz. that by W. C. Taylor, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin, the Preface to which is dated May 1st, 1840, I may say that all the commentators on Swift—all, at least, down to that late date—have omitted to refer to a work containing incidents closely resembling some of those recorded in the "Voyage to Lilliput."

The work to which I allude is a little dramatical composition, the Bambocciata, or puppet-show, by Martelli, entitled The Sneezing of Hercules. Goldoni, in his Memoirs, has given us the following account of the manner in which he brought it out on the stage:

"Count Lantieri was very well satisfied with my father, for he was greatly recovered, and almost completely cured: his kindness was also extended to me, and to procure amusement for me he caused a puppet-show, which was almost abandoned, and which was very rich in figures and decorations, to be refitted.

"I profited by this, and amused the company by giving them a piece of a great man, expressly composed for wooden comedians. This was the Sneezing of Hercules, by Peter James Martelli, a Bolognese.

. . . . . . . . . .

"The imagination of the author sent Hercules into the country of the pigmies. Those poor little creatures, frightened at the aspect of an animated mountain with legs and arms, ran and concealed themselves in holes. One day as Hercules had stretched himself out in the open field, and was sleeping tranquilly, the timid inhabitants issued out of their retreats, and, armed with prickles and rushes, mounted on the monstrous man, and covered him from head to foot, like flies when they fall on a piece of rotten meat. Hercules waked, and felt something in his nose, which made him sneeze; on which, his enemies tumbled down in all directions. This ends the piece.

"There is a plan, a progression, an intrigue, a catastrophe, and winding up; the style is good and well-supported; the thoughts and sentiments are all proportionate to the size of the personages. The verses even are short, and everything indicates pigmies.

"A gigantic puppet was requisite for Hercules; everything was well executed. The entertainment was productive of much pleasure; and I could lay a bet, that I am the only person who ever thought of executing the Bambocciata of Martelli."—Memoirs of Goldoni, translated by John Black, 2 vols., duod. vol. i. chap. 6.

It is certainly not necessary to point out here in what respects the adventures of Hercules, the animated mountain, and those of Quinbus Flestrin, the man mountain, differ from, or coincide with, each other, as the only question I wish to raise is, whether a careful analysis of Martelli's puppet-show ought, or ought not, to have been placed among the notes on Gulliver's Travels.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires for a MS. volume of English poetry containing some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and which is described in Thorpe's Catalog of MSS. for 1831, I can supply some particulars which may assist him in the research. The MS., which at one period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was purchased from Thorpe by the late Lord Viscount Kingsborough; after whose decease it was sold, in November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary sale room, Anglesea Street, Dublin. It is No. 574. in the auction catalogue of that part of his lordship's library which was then brought to auction.

The volume has been noticed by Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, Edinburgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.), where, citing the passage from Collier, which is referred to by J. M. G., he asserts that the lines are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he does not appear to me to have established his case beyond doubt; as the lines, though found among Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the production of some other writer: and why not of Shakspeare, to whom they are ascribed in the MS.? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse originally appeared as Lord Byron's: and there are {524} numerous instances, both ancient and modern, of a similar attribution of works to other than their actual authors.

ARTERUS.

Dublin.

The Island of Prospero.—We cannot assert that Shakspeare, in the Tempest, had any particular island in view as the scene of his immortal drama, though by some this has been stoutly maintained. Chalmers prefers one of the Bermudas. The Rev. J. Hunter, in his Disquisition on the Scene, &c. of the Tempest, endeavours to confer the honour on the Island of Lampedosa. In reference to this question, a statement of the pseudo-Aristotle is remarkable. In his work "[Greek: peri thaumasion akousmaton]," he mentions Lipara, one of the AEolian Islands, lying to the north of Sicily, and nearly in the course of Shakspeare's Neapolitan fleet from Tunis to Naples. Among the [Greek: polla teratode] found there, he tells us:

"[Greek: Exakouesthai gar tumpanon kai kumbalon echon gelota te meta thorubou kai krotalon enargos. legousi de ti teratodesteron gegonenai peri to spelaion.]"

If we compare this with the aerial music heard by Ferdinand (Tempest, I. 2.), especially as the orchestra is represented by the genial burin of M. Retsch in the fifth plate of his well-known sketches (Umrisze), it will appear probable that Shakspeare was acquainted with the Greek writer either in the original or through a translation. As far as I am aware, this has not been observed by any of the commentators.—From The Navorscher.

J. M.

Coincident Criticisms.—I shall be obliged if you will allow me through your pages to anticipate and rebut two charges of plagiarism. When I wrote my Note on a passage in The Winter's Tale ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 378.), I had not seen the Dublin University Magazine for March last, containing some remarks on the same passage in some respects much resembling mine. I must also declare that my Note on a passage in All's Well that ends Well ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 426.) was posted for you some time before the appearance of A. E. B.'s Note on the same passage ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 403.). The latter coincidence is more remarkable than the former, as the integrity of the amended text was in both notes discussed by means of the same parallel passage. Apropos of A. E. B.'s clever Note, permit me to say, that though at first it appeared to me conclusive, I now incline to think that Shakspeare intended Helen to address the leaden messengers by means of a very hyperbolic figure: "wound the still-piecing air that sings with piercing" is a consistent whole. If, as A. E. B. rightly says, to wound the air is an impossibility, it is equally impossible that the air should utter any sound expressive of sensibility. The fact of course is, that the cannon-balls cleave the air, and that by so cleaving it a shrill noise is produced. The cause and effect may, however, be metaphorically described, by comparing air to Bertram. I believe it is a known fact that every man who is struck with a cannon-ball cries out instinctively. Shakspeare therefore might, I think, have very poetically described the action and effect of a cannon-ball passing through the air by the strong figure of wounding the air that sings with the piercing which it is enduring.

In concluding this Note, I beg to express what is not merely my own, but a very general feeling of disappointment in respect of MR. COLLIER'S new edition of Shakspeare. To it, with a new force, may be applied the words of A. E. B. in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 296.:

"But the evil of these emendations is not in this instance confined to the mere suggestion of doubt; the text has absolutely been altered in all accessible editions, in many cases silently, so that the ordinary reader has no opportunity of judging between Shakspeare and his improvers."

That MR. COLLIER should be the greatest of such offenders, is no very cheering sign of the times.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

Dogberry's Losses (Vol. vii., p. 377.).—I do not know whether it has ever been suggested, but I feel inclined to read "lawsuits." He has just boasted of himself as "one that knows the law;" and it seems natural enough that he should go on to brag of being a rich fellow enough, "and a fellow that hath had lawsuits" of his own, and actually figured as plaintiff or defendant. Suppose the words taken down from the mouth of an actor, and the mistake would be easy.

JOHN DOE.

* * * * *

THE COENACULUM OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

I have in my possession a manuscript critique on the celebrated picture of The Last Supper by Lionardo da Vinci, written many years ago by a deceased academician; in which the writer has called in question the point of time usually supposed to have been selected by the celebrated Italian painter. The criticisms are chiefly founded on the copy by Marco Oggioni, now in the possession of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Uniform tradition has assumed that the moment of action is that in which the Saviour announces the treachery of one of his disciples "Dico vobis quia unus vestrum me traditurus est." Matth. xxvi. 21., Joan. xiii. 21., Vulgate edit.; and most of the admirers of this great work have not failed to find in it decisive proofs of the intention of the painter to represent that exact point of time. {525}

The author of the manuscript enters into a very detailed examination of the several groups of figures which compose the picture, and of the expression of the heads; and he confesses his inability to find in them anything decisively indicating the period supposed to be chosen. He remarks that nine at least of the persons, including the principal one, are evidently engaged in animated conversation; that instead of that concentrated attention which the announcement might be supposed to generate, there appears to be great variety of expressions and of action; and that neither surprise nor indignation are so generally prominent, as might have been expected. He inclines to think that the studied diversity of expression, and the varied attitudes and gestures of the assembled party, are to be regarded as proofs of the artist's efforts to produce a powerful and harmonious composition, rather than a natural and truthful representation of any particular moment of the transaction depicted by him.

The work in question is now so generally accessible through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter, and decide for himself whether the criticism be well founded.

It must be borne in mind that the subject had long been a familiar decoration of conventual refectories before the time when Lionardo brought his profound knowledge of external human nature, and his unsurpassed powers of executive art, to bear on a subject which had before been treated in the dry, conventional, inanimate manner of the Middle Ages. The leading features of the traditional picture are retained: the long table, the linen cloth, the one-sided arrangement of the figures, the classic drapery, and the general form and design of the apartment, are all to be found in the earlier works; and must have been considered, by observers in general, far more essential to the correct delineation of the scene than any adherence to the exact description of it in any one of the Evangelists. But as the subject was usually introduced into refectories for the edification of the brethren assembled with their superior at their own meals, it does not seem likely that the treachery of Judas should have been intended to be the prominent action of the picture. It was a memorial of the institution of the Eucharist, although the Christ was not represented as dispensing either bread or wine. In such a case, if any particular point of time was ever contemplated by the artist, he might judiciously and appropriately select the moment when the Saviour was announcing, in mysterious words, the close of his mission—as in St. Matthew and St. Mark; or was teaching them a lesson of humility when the spirit of rivalry and strife had disclosed itself among them—as we find in St. Luke and St. John.

It is not perhaps generally known that the statutes of Queen's College, Oxford, prescribe the order of sitting at the common table in manner which evidently refers to the coenaculum of the old church painters.

E. SMIRKE.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

Scotter Register (County Lincoln).—The following extracts from the register of the parish of Scotter, in the county of Lincoln, are perhaps sufficiently interesting to be worth printing in "N. & Q.":

1. "Eccelesia parochialis de Scotter comitatu Lincolniae dedicata est Beatis Apostolis Sancto Petro et Sancto Paulo ut apparet in Antiquo Scripto viduae Loddington de Scotter, viz. in testamento vltimo Thomae Dalyson, Gen. de Scotter, qui obiit Junii 19^o, anno Domini 1495.

"GUL. CARRINGTON, "Rector eclīa ibid."

2. "Memorandum, That on Septuagesima Sunday, being the 19^{th} day of January, 1667, one Francis Drury, an excommunicate person, came into the church in time of divine service in y^e morning, and being admonisht by mee to begon, hee obstinately refused, whereuppon y^e whole congregation departed; and after the same manner in the afternoon, the same day, he came again, and refusing againe to go out, the whole congregation againe went home, soe y^t little or no service pformed. They prevented his further coming in y^t manner, as hee threatned, by order from the Justice, uppon the statute of Queene Elizabeth concerning the molestation and disturbance of publiq preachers.

WM. CARRINGTON, Rec."

"O tempora, O mores."

3. "Michael Skinner Senex centum et trium annorum sepultus fuit die sancti Johannis, viz. Dec. 27, 1673."

EDWARD PEACOCK, Jun.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.

"All my Eye."—"Over the Left."

"What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion, he may put in his eye: and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the service of a Popish successor, will be over the left shoulder."—Preface to Julian the Apostate: London, printed for Langley Curtis, on Ludgate Hill. 1682.

Is this passage the origin of the above cant phrases?

GEORGE DANIEL.

Canonbury.

Curious Marriages.—In Harl. MSS. 1550, p. 180., is the pedigree of Irby, where Anthony Irby has two daughters: Margaret, who married Henry Death, and Dorothy, who married John Domesday.

E. G. BALLARD. {526}

Child-mother.—Four months ago, on board the Brazil packet, the royal mail steam-vessel Severn, there was an instance of a "child-wife," which might be worthy of a place among your curiosities of that description.

She was the wedded wife of a Brazilian travelling from the Brazils to Lisbon, and her husband applied for permission to pay the "reduced passage money" for her as being "under twelve years of age!"

As the regulation on that head speaks of "children under twelve years of age," this conscientious Brazilian's demand could not be countenanced.

His wife's age was under eleven years and a half, and (credat Judaeus) she was a mother!

A. L.

* * * * *

Queries.

FURTHER QUERIES RESPECTING BISHOP KEN.

(Continued from Vol. vii., p. 380.)

In a Collection of Poems, in six volumes, by several Hands (Dodsley, 5th edition, 1758), and in vol. iii. p. 75., is found "An Epistle from Florence to T. A., Esq., Tutor to the Earl of P——. Written in the year 1740. By the Honourable ——." Can any one explain an allusion contained in these three lines of the epistle?

"Or with wise Ken judiciously define, When Pius marks the honorary coin Of Caracalla, or of Antonine."

It is hardly to be supposed that the Ken here named could mean the bishop, who died so far back as 1711. Was there a coin-collector of that name living about 1740?

We learn (from Ken's Prose Works, ed. Round, pp. 93, 94.) that the Bishop's sister, "my poor sister Ken," most probably then a widow, lost her only son, who died at Cyprus, in 1707. Was this Mrs. Ken the Rose Vernon, sister of Sir Thomas Vernon, of Coleman Street, London, and the wife of Jon Ken, the bishop's eldest brother, and treasurer of the East India Company? This Jon and Rose Ken are represented, in Mr. Markland's Pedigree of the Ken family, as still living in 1683. Is there no monumental memorial of this Treasurer Ken, or his family, in any of the London churches?

In Mr. Macaulay's History of England, 5th ed., vol. ii. p. 365., he states that "it was well known that one of the most opulent dissenters of the City had begged that he might have the honour of giving security for Ken," when the seven bishops were bailed, previous to their trial. On what authority (for none is cited) does this statement rest?

Can any one give a clue to this passage from a letter written to Mr. Harbin, Lord Weymouth's chaplain, by Bishop Ken, and dated "Winton, Jan 22." [1701]:

"I came to Winchester yesterday, where I stay one post more, and then go either to Sir R. U. or L. Newton, where you shall hear from me."—Ken's Prose Works, by Round, p. 53.

Can "Sir R. U." (the U perhaps being a mistake for W.) designate Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., of Chilton, in the county of Southampton, married to Lord Weymouth's daughter? and can "L. Newton" be a mistake for Long Sutton, in Hants? or may it be Long Newton, in the hundred of Malmesbury?

J. J. J.

Temple.

* * * * *

THE REV. JOHN LAWSON AND HIS MATHEMATICAL MANUSCRIPTS.

In the year 1774 the Rev. John Lawson, B.D., Rector of Swanscombe in Kent, published A Dissertation on the Geometrical Analysis of the Antients, with a Collection of Theorems and Problems without solutions for the Exercise of young Students. This work was printed anonymously at Canterbury, but the merits of the essay did not permit the author to remain long in obscurity; the real writer was immediately known to most of the geometers of the day, and the elegant character of many of the theorems and problems, led to a general desire that their solutions should be published in a separate work. In accordance with this intention, it was announced on a fly-sheet attached to some copies of the work, that—

"The author of this publication being a man of leisure, and living in a retired situation, remote from any opportunity of conversation with mathematicians, would be extremely glad of a correspondence with any such, who are willing to be at the expense of the same; or if this be thought too much, will pay the postage of his answers to their letters. But no letters, except post-paid, can be received by him; otherwise a door would be opened for frolic, imposition, and impertinence. Any new geometrical propositions, either theorems or problems, would be received with gratitude, and if sent without solutions, he would use his best endeavours to return such as might be satisfactory. Any new solutions of propositions already in print, especially of those included in the present collection, would also be very agreeable. If a variety of such demonstrations essentially different from those of the original authors should be communicated, he proposes at some future time to publish them all, with a fresh collection for further exercise; and then each author's name shall be affixt to his own solution, or any other signature which he shall please to direct. Any person who shall favor the publisher with his correspondence shall have speedily conveyed to him the solutions of any propositions contained in this collection, which he may be desirous of seeing. Letters (post-paid) directed for P. Q., to be left at Mr. Nourse's, Bookseller, in the {527} Strand, London, will be carefully transmitted on the first day of each month, and all correspondents may expect answers during the course of that month."

In consequence of this appeal, Mr. Lawson was speedily in correspondence with several of the most able geometers then living, and amongst the rest, Messrs. Ainsworth, Clarke, Merrit, Power, &c., appear to have furnished him with original solutions to his collection of theorems and problems. The manuscript containing these solutions must have been of considerable size, since a portion of it was sent down to Manchester about July, 1777, for the purpose of obtaining Mr. Ainsworth's remarks and corrections; and Mr. Lawson is requested, in a letter bearing date "August 22, 1777," to "send the next portion when convenient." Whether Mr. Lawson did so or not, I have not yet been able to ascertain; but this much is certain, the manuscript was never printed, and would most probably either be disposed of at the death of its compiler, or previously transferred to the possession of some geometer of Mr. Lawson's acquaintance. Several of the original letters which passed between the respective parties relating to this manuscript are at present in the hands of two or three of the Lancashire geometers, but no one seems to know anything of the manuscript itself. May I then request that the fortunate holder of this yet valuable collection will make himself known through the medium of the widely circulated pages of "N. & Q."

T. T. WILKINSON.

Burnley, Lancashire.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

"Wanderings of Memory."—In Brayley's Graphic and Historical Illustrator, p. 293., is a quotation from the Wanderings of Memory, as a motto to an account of the ancient castle of the Peverils at Castleton, in Derbyshire: can any of your readers tell me who was the author of the poem in question?

W. R.

Camden Town.

"Wandering Willie's Tale."—Has the scene that presented itself to the view of Piper Steenie Steenson, when he was ushered by the phantom of his old friend Dougal M^cCallum into the presence of the ghastly revellers carousing in the auld oak parlour of the visionary Redgauntlet Castle, ever been painted? (See Redgauntlet, Letter xi.) If it has, is there any engraving of the picture extant or on sale?

C. FORBES.

Temple.

Chapel Sunday.—I had the pleasure of spending a Sunday in the course of the last summer in the neighbourhood of Keswick, among the delightful lake scenery of England. I there learned that in the village of Thornthwaite it was Chapel Sunday, and on inquiry I was told that there were a few other villages in the neighbourhood where there was also a Chapel Sunday. Upon this day it is the custom of young people to come from neighbouring places to attend worship at the village church or chapel, and the afternoon partakes of a merry-making character at the village inn. There appeared, as far as I could see, no excesses attending the anniversary, all being respectable in their conduct. Can any of your Cambrian readers inform me the origin of this anniversary?

PRESTONIENSIS.

Proud Salopians.—I have never heard a satisfactory account of the origin of this title, given to persons belonging to my native county.

In the neighbourhood the following story is frequently related, but with what authority I cannot tell, viz. "That upon the king (Query which?) offering to make Shrewsbury a city, the inhabitants replied that they preferred its remaining the largest borough in England, rather than it should be the smallest city; their pride not allowing them to be small among the great."

If this history of the term be true, it would appear that the name should only be applied to burgesses of Shrewsbury.

SALOPIAN.

George Miller, D.D.—In the year 1796, George Miller, subsequently the author of Modern History Philosophically Illustrated, and many other well-known works (of which a list appears in a recent Memoir), was appointed Donnelan Lecturer in Trinity College, Dublin; and delivered a course of sermons or lectures on "An Inquiry into the Causes that have impeded the further Progress of Christianity." I should be very glad indeed to know whether these Sermons have appeared in print; and if so, when and where published? I have not been able to procure a copy.

With regard to the Donnelan Lectureship, I may add, that a legacy of 1243l. was bequeathed to the College of Dublin by Mrs. Anne Donnelan, of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, in the county of Middlesex, spinster, "for the encouragement of religion, learning, and good manners." The particular mode of application was entrusted to the Provost and Senior Fellows; and accordingly, amongst other resolutions of the Board, passed Feb. 22, 1794, are to be found the following: "That a Divinity Lecture, to which shall be annexed a salary arising from the interest of 1200l., shall be established for ever, to be called Donnelan's Lecture;" and "That one moiety of the interest of the said 1200l. shall be paid to the Lecturer as soon as he shall have delivered the whole number [six] of the lectures; and the other moiety as soon as he shall have published four of the said Lectures."

ABHBA. {528}

Members of Parliament.—Pennant, in The Journey from Chester to London, p. 94., says:

"The ancient owners of Rudgley were of the same name with the town: some of the family had the honour of being sheriffs of the county in the reign of Edward III. Another was knight of the shire in the same period."

Can any reader of "N. & Q." verify the last portion of Pennant's statement?

J. W. S. R.

St. Ives, Hunts.

Taret.—I have lately met with mention of a "small insect called the Taret." What may this be?

TYRO.

Jeroboam of Claret, &c.—Could any of your correspondents inform me what a Jeroboam of Claret is, and from what it is derived: also a Magnum of Port?

WINEBIBBER.

William Williams of Geneva.—In Livre des Anglois, a Geneve, with a few biographical notes by J. S. Burn, Esq., pages 5, 6. 12, 13., mention is made of Guillaume—Willm Willms, and Jane his wife,—Willm Willms, a senior of the church there in 1555, 1556, 1557, 1558; and some of the years he was a godfather. I shall be glad to have some further account of such William Williams, or references to where to find such?

GLWYSIG.

The First of April and "The Cap awry."—Tom Moore, in his Diary, 1819, says:

"April 1st. Made Bessy turn her cap awry in honour of the day."

What was the origin of this custom? Was this the way a fool was supposed to show that his head was turned?

C. R.

Paternoster Row.

Sir G. Browne, Bart.—Sir George Browne, Bart., of West Stafford, Berks, and Wickham, is said to have had nineteen children by his wife Eleanor Blount; and that three of those children were sons, killed in the service of Charles I.

Was either of those sons named Richard; and was any of them, and which, married? If so, where, and to whom?

NEWBURY.

Bishop Butler.—Will any of our Roman Catholic friends tell us on what authority they assert that Bishop Butler, the author of The Analogy, died in their communion? That he was suspected of a tendency that way during his life is acknowledged by all, though the grounds, that of setting up a cross in his chapel, are confessedly unsatisfactory. But, besides this, it is alleged that he died with a Roman Catholic book of devotion in his hand, and that the last person in whose company he was seen was a priest of that persuasion. One would be glad to have this question sifted.

X. Y. Z.

Oaken Tombs.—In Dr. Whitaker's noble history of Loidis and Elmete, p. 322., is the following passage:

"Next in point of time is a very singular memorial, which has evidently been removed from its original position, between the chapel and the high altar, to a situation at the south side and west end of the chapel.... The tomb is a messy frame-work of oak, with quarter-foils and arms on three sides, and on the table above three statues of the same material, namely, of a knight bare-headed, with rather youthful countenance and sharp features, and his two wives. On the filleting is this rude inscription in Old English:

'Bonys emong Stonys, lyes here ful styl, Quilst the sawle wanders wher God wyl. Anno D^{ni} MCCCCCXXIX.'

This commemorates Sir John Savile, who married, &c.

"Over all has been a canopy, or rather tester, for the whole must have originally resembled an antique and massy bedstead, exhibiting the very incongruous appearance of a husband in bed with two wives at once."

The Doctor adds:

"Oaken tombs are very rare; that of Aymer de Valence in Westminster Abbey has been and still is in part coated over with copper, gilt, and enamelled, and I have seen another in the church of Tickencote in Rutlandshire. I do not recollect a third specimen."

Query, How many have been discovered since the great historian's day?

ST. BEES.

Alleged Bastardy of Elizabeth.—In the State Paper Office (Dom. Pap., temp. Jac. I.), there is, under date of 1608, a letter from Mr. Chamberlaine to Sir Dudley Carleton, of October 28, in which Chamberlaine says:

"I heare of a Bill put into the Exchequer, concerninge much lande that sh^d be alienated on account of the alleged bastardy of Queen Elizabeth."

P. C. S. S. is desirous to know whether there be any record in the Court of Exchequer which bears out this singular statement.

P. C. S. S.

"Pugna Porcorum."—Where may be found some account of the author, object, &c. of this facetious production?

P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.

Parviso.—Can any of your readers inform me as to the meaning of the word parviso; it occurs in the usual form of the "Testamur" for Responsions. On reference to Webster's Dictionary, I find that parvis is a small porch or gateway; perhaps this may throw some light upon the question.

OXONIENSIS.

Mr. Justice Newton.—There is a very stiff Indian-ink copy of a portrait in the Sutherland Illustrated Clarendon, in the Bodleian Library, the original of which I should be glad to trace. It is described in the Catalogue to be "by Bulfinch," {529} which is probably a mistake. It bears the following inscription:

"This is drawn from the painting in the hands of Mr. Justice Newton of the Middle Temple."

Can any one inform me when this learned justice lived; or rather, for it concerns me more, when he died? And farther, if it be not too hopeless an inquiry to make, who his existing representatives (if any) may be?

F. KYFFIN LENTHALL.

36. Mount Street, Grosvenor Square.

Mufti.—I hear military men employ this term, "we went in mufti:" meaning, out of uniform. Whence is it derived?

MARIA.

Ryming and Cuculling.—In that very curious volume of extracts from The Presbytery Book of Strathbogie, A.D. 1631-54, which was printed for the Spalding Club in 1843, occurs the following passage:

"George Jinkin and John Christie referred from the Session of Abercherder, for ryming and cuculling, called, compeird not. Ordained to be summonded pro 2^o."—P. 242.

Accordingly, on—

"The said day, George Jinkin in Abercherder, being summonded for his ryming and cuculling, being called, compeired; and being accused of the foresaid fault, confessed he only spoke three words of that ryme. Being sharpely rebuked, and instructed of the grosnes of that sin, was ordained to satisfie in sackcloth, which he promised to do."—P. 245.

What was the "fault" here alluded to, and visited with a species of discipline with which the presbytery, and those under its jurisdiction, appear to have been very familiar?

D.

Custom at the Savoy Church.—At the Savoy Church (London), the Sunday following Christmas Day, there was a chair placed near the door, covered with a cloth: on the chair was an orange, in a plate.

Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." inform me the meaning of this?

CERIDWEN.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

Faithfull Teate.—I lately fell in with a small work by this divine, entitled Ter Tria, and on the fly-leaf is a MS. note, stating that some years ago a copy of the same book was priced, in a bookseller's catalogue in London, at 1l. 7s. 6d. I wish to learn some particulars relative to the author, and if the work is valuable, or scarce, or both.

J. S.

[Neither Calamy nor Brook has furnished any biographical notices of Dr. Faithfull Teate. When he wrote Ter Tria, in 1658, he was a "Preacher of the Word at Sudbury in Suffolk." A second edition of it was published in 1669. In 1665 appeared his Scripture Map of the Wildernesse of Sin," 4to. In a discourse on Right Thoughts, the Righteous Man's Evidence, he has the following passage, accommodated to his own destitute state after his ejectment: "The righteous man, in thinking of his present condition of life, thinks it his relief, that the less money he has he may go the more upon trust; the less he finds in his purse, seeks the more in the promise of Him that has said, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee;' so that he thinks no man can take away his livelihood, unless he can first take away God's truth." Lowndes has given the following prices of Ter Tria: Sir M. M. Sykes, part iii. 626., 5s.; Nassau, part ii. 682., 8s.; White Knights, 4068., 1l.; Bibl. Ang. Poet., 764., 1l. 11s. 6d.]

Kelway Family.—Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." guide me to anything like a pedigree of the family of Kelloway, Kaloway, or Kelway; which I find from Lysons' Devonshire possessed the manor of Mokesbean in that county from the time of Henry II.?

In the first year of Edward III., when the property of those who suffered after the battle of Boroughbridge was restored, John de Keilewaye was found "haeres de integro sanguine" to Lord Gifford of Brimesfield.

The last of the family appears to have been John Kelloway of Collampton in Devon, who married Joan Tregarthian; and dying in 1530, left co-heiresses married to Greville of Penheale, Codrington of Codrington, Harwood, and Cooke.

The arms of the family are singular, being, Argent within a bordure engrailed sable, two groving irons in saltire sable, between four pears Or.

R. H. C.

[The pedigree of this family will be found in two copies by Munday of the "Visitation of Devonshire," A.D. 1564, in the Harleian MSS. 1091. p. 90., and 1538, p. 2166. The only difference in the arms is, in both copies, that there is no bordure engrailed; but this has probably been added since as a difference, as was often done to distinguish families. The name is here spelt Kelloway, and the pedigree begins with "Thomas Kelloway of Stowford in County Devon, who married Anne, daughter of —— Copleston, of ——, in county Somerset," and ends with "John Kelloway, who married Margery, daughter of John Arscott of Dunsland, and left issue Robert, who married ——, and Richard."]

Regatta.—What is the etymology of the word regatta? From whence is it derived, and when was it first used in English to mean a boat-race?

C. B. N. C. J. S.

[Baretti says, "Regatta, palio che si corre sull' acqua; a race run on water in boats. The word I take to be corrupted from Remigata, the art of rowing." Florio, in his Worlde of Wordes, has "Regattare, Ital. to wrangle, to cope or fight for the mastery." The term, as denoting a showy species of boat-race, was first used in this {530} country towards the close of the last century; for the papers of that time inform us, that on June 23, 1775, a regatta, a novel entertainment, and the first of the kind, was exhibited in the river Thames, in imitation of some of those splendid shows exhibited at Venice on their grand festivals. The whole river, from London Bridge to the Ship Tavern, Millbank, was covered with boats. About 1200 flags were flying before four o'clock in the afternoon, and vessels were moored in the river for the sale of liquors and other refreshments. Before six o'clock it was a perfect fair on both sides the water, and bad liquor, with short measure, was plentifully retailed. Plans of the regatta were sold from a shilling to a penny each, and songs on the occasion sung, in which "regatta" was the rhyme for "Ranelagh," and "royal family" echoed to "liberty."]

Coket and Cler-mantyn.—Piers Plowman says that when new corn began to be sold—

"Waulde no beggar eat bread that in it beanes were, But of coket and cler-mantyn, or else of cleane wheate."

What are coket and cler-mantyn? Also, what are coronation flowers, and sops in wine?

CERIDWEN.

[Both coket and cler-mantyn mean a kind of fine bread. Coronation is the name given by some of our old writers to a species of flower, the modern appellation of which is not clear. Sops-in-wine were a species of flowers among the smaller kind of single gilliflowers or pinks. Both these flowers are noticed by Spenser, in his Shepherd's Calendar for April, as follows:

"Bring coronations and sops-in-wine Worn of paramours."]

* * * * *

Replies.

CURFEW.

(Vol. vi., pp. 53. 112.)

It will be remembered that when Mr. Webster, one of the greatest of American statesmen, was on his death-bed, in October last, he requested his son to read to him that far-famed "Elegy" of Gray:

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

The editor of the Boston Journal, after referring to this circumstance, which he says has caused an unexampled demand for the works of Gray in the United States, goes on to give the result of his researches in many old English works, respecting the origin and meaning of the word curfew, which I trust will interest not only your correspondents who have written on the subject, but also many of your readers. I glean from the clever article now before me the following brief notices, which I have not yet met with in "N. & Q."

In King Alfred's time the curfew was rung at eight o'clock, and called the "cover fire bell," because the inhabitants, on hearing its peals, were obliged to cover their fires, and go to bed. Thomson evidently refers, in the following lines, to this tyrannical law, which was abolished in England about the year 1100:

"The shiv'ring wretches at the curfew sound, Dejected sunk into their sordid beds, And through the mournful gloom of ancient time, Mused sad, or dreamt of better."

On the people finding that they could put out their fires and go to bed when they pleased, it would appear, from being recorded in many places, that the time of ringing the curfew bell was first changed from eight to nine o'clock, then from nine to ten, and afterwards to the early hours of the morning. Thus we find in Romeo and Juliet:

"The curfew bell hath rung: 'Tis three o'clock."

In Shakspeare's works frequent mention is made of the curfew. In the Tempest he gives the following:

"You whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms—that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew."

In Measure for Measure:

"Duke. Who call'd here of late? Provost. None since the curfew rung."

In King Lear:

"This is the foul fiend Flibertigibbet; He begins at curfew, and walks to the first cock."

This old English custom of ringing the curfew bell was carried by the Puritan fathers to New England; and where is the Bostonian of middle age who does not well recollect the ringing of the church bell at nine o'clock, which was the willing signal for labourers to retire to bed, and for shopmen to close their shops?

Before closing this Note, may I be allowed to inform MR. SANSOM, that Charlestown is in Massachusetts, and only separated from Boston by Charles River, which runs between the two cities. The place to which he refers is Charleston, and in South Carolina.

W. W.

Malta.

* * * * *

THE "SALT-PETER-MAN."

(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460.)

The statute against monopolies (21 Jac. I. c. 3.) contains a clause (sec. 10.) that its provisions should not extend to any commission grant or letters patent theretofore made, or thereafter to be made, of, for, or concerning the digging, making, or compounding of saltpetre or gunpowder, which were to be of the like force and effect, and no other, as if that act had never been made.

In the famous "Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom" agreed upon by the House of Commons in November, 1641, there is special allusion to the vexation and oppression of the {531} subject by purveyors, clerks of the market, and saltpetre men. (Parliamentary History, x. 67.)

Shortly afterwards was passed an act (which obtained the royal assent) giving liberty for importing gunpowder and saltpetre, and for making of gunpowder. The preamble asserts that the importation of gunpowder from foreign parts had of late times been against law prohibited, and the making thereof within this realm ingrossed; whereby the price of gunpowder had been excessively raised, many powder works decayed, this kingdom very much weakened and endangered, the merchants thereof much damnified, many mariners and others taken prisoners and brought into miserable captivity and slavery, many ships taken by Turkish and other pirates, and many other inconveniences had from thence ensued, and more were likely to ensue, if not timely prevented. (17 Car. I. c. 21.)

Lord Clarendon, in reviewing the various "important laws" of the Long Parliament to which the king assented, makes the following observations with reference to this particular act:

"'An Act for the free making Saltpetre and Gunpowder within the Kingdom:' which was a part of the prerogative; and not only considerable, as it restrained that precious and dangerous commodity from vulgar hands; but, as in truth it brought a considerable revenue to the crown, and more to those whom the crown gratified and obliged by that license. The pretence for this exemption was, 'the unjustifiable proceeding of those (or of inferior persons qualified by them) who had been trusted in that employment,' by whom, it cannot be denied, many men suffered: but the true reason was, that thereby they might be sure to have in readiness a good stock in that commodity, against the time their occasions should call upon them."—History of Rebellion, book iii.

On the 3rd April, 1644, the Lords and Commons passed an ordinance for the making of saltpetre, &c. This was grounded on the following allegations:

"1. The great expence of gunpowder, occasioned by the then war within his Majesty's dominions, had well near consumed the old store, and did exhaust the magazines so fast, that without a larger supply, the navy forts and the land armies could not be furnished.

"2. Foreign saltpetre was not in equal goodness with that of our own country, and the foreign gunpowder far worse conditioned and less forcible than that which is made in England.

"3. Divers foreign estates had of date prohibited the exportation of salt-peter and gunpowder out of their own dominions and countries, so that there could be but little hope or future expectation of any peter or powder to be brought into this kingdom, as in former times, which would enforce us to make use of our own materials."

From these circumstances, it was held most necessary that the digging of saltpetre and making of gunpowder should by all fit means be encouraged, at that time when it so much concerned the public safety; nevertheless, to prevent the reviving of those oppressions and exactions exercised upon the people, under the colourable authority of commissions granted to salt-peter-men; which burden had been eased since the sitting of that Parliament. To the end there might not be any pretence to interrupt the work, it was ordained that the committee of safety, their factors, workmen, and servants, should have power and authority, (within prescribed hours) to search and dig for saltpetre in all pigeon-houses, stables, cellars, vaults, empty warehouses, and other outhouses, yards, and places likely to afford that earth.

The salt-peter-men were to level the ground and repair damage done by them; or might be compelled to do so by the deputy-lieutenants, justices of the peace, or committees of parliament.

The salt-peter-men were also empowered to take carts, by the known officers, for carriage of the liquor, vessels, and other utensils, from place to place, at specified prices, and under limitations as to weight and distance; and they were freed from taxes and tolls for carriages used about their works, and empowered to take outhouses, &c., for their workhouses, making satisfaction to the owners.

This ordinance was to continue for two years, from 25th March, 1644.

An ordinance of a similar character was passed 9th February, 1652, to be in force till 25th March, 1656 (Scobell, 231.).

By an act of the Lord Protector and Parliament, made in 1656, it was enacted that no person or persons should dig within the houses or lands of any person or persons of the commonwealth for the finding of saltpetre, nor take the carriages of any person or persons for the carrying of their materials or vessels, without their leave first obtained or had. (Scobell, 377.) This is the act referred to by BROCTUNA ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 434.), and by my friend MR. ISAIAH DECK ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 460.), though I am not certain that MR. DECK'S inference be correct, that this act was passed in consequence of the new and uncertain process for obtaining the constituents of nitre having failed; and it is quite clear that Lord Coke could not have referred to this act. The enactment referred to is introduced by way of proviso in an act allowing the exportation of goods of English manufacture (inter alia, of gunpowder, when the price did not exceed 5l. per cwt.).

Allow me, in connexion, with this subject, to refer to Cullum's History of Hawsted, 1st edition, pp. 150. and 151., also to the statute 1 Jac. II. c. 8. s. 3., by which persons obtaining any letters patent for the sole making or importing gunpowder are subjected to the pains and penalties of praemunire.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge. {532}

* * * * *

FORMS OF JUDICIAL OATHS.

(Vol. vii., p. 458.)

Will you permit me to make a few observations in reply to the Queries of MR. H. H. BREEN on this subject?

There is hardly any custom more ancient than for a person imposing a promise on another to call on him to bind himself by an oath to the due performance of it. In this oath the person swearing calls on God, the king, his father, or some person or thing to whom he attaches authority or value, to inflict on him punishment or loss in case he breaks his oath. The mode of swearing is, in one particular, almost everywhere and in every age the same.

When a father, a friend, a sword, or any corporeal object is sworn by, the swearer places his hand upon it, and then swears. When a man, however, swore by the Deity, on whom he cannot place his hand, he raised his hand to heaven towards the God by whom he swore.

When Abraham made Abimelech swear to obey him, he caused him to place his hand under his thigh, and then imposed the oath; and when Jacob, by his authority as a father, compelled his son Joseph to swear to perform his promise, he ordered him to go through a similar ceremony. (Genesis, ch. xxiv. v. 5., and ch. xlvii. v. 29.)

In the prophet Daniel we read that—

"The man clothed in linen which was upon the waters, held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever," &c.—Daniel, ch. xii. v. 7.

In the Revelation we also find—

"And the angel, which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven and sware by Him that liveth for ever and ever," &c.—Revelation, ch. x. v. 5, 6.

Your correspondent inquires how oaths were taken prior to their being taken on the Gospel.

Among the nations who overthrew the Roman empire, the most common mode of swearing was on the relics of the saints. In England, I think, the most common mode was to swear on the corporalia or eucharistic elements, whence we still have the common phrase "upon your corporal oath." In each case the hand was placed on the thing sworn by.

The laws of the Alamanni as to conjurators, direct that the sacrament shall be so arranged that all the conjurators shall place their hands upon the coffer (containing the relics), and that the principal party shall place his hand on all theirs, and then they are to swear on the relics. (Ll. Alam. cap. 657.)

The custom of swearing on the Gospels is repeatedly mentioned in the laws of the Lombards. (Ll. Longo. 1 tit. 21. c. 25.; Ll. Longo. 2. tit. 55. c. 2., and c. 2. tit. 34. et al.)

In the Formularies of Marculphus, two forms of oaths are given, one says that—

"In palatio nostro super capella domini Martini ubi reliqua sacramenta percurrunt debeat conjurare."

In the other we read—

"Posita manu supra sacrosanctium altare sancti ... sic juratus dixit. Juro per hunc locum sanctum et Deum altissimum et virtutis sancti ... quod," &c.

In the laws of Cnut of England, two forms of oath are given. They both begin with "By the Lord before whom this relic is holy." (Ancient Laws and Justice of England, p. 179.)

Your correspondent asks "what form of Judicial oath was first sanctioned by Christians as a body?"

In the history of the Council of Constantinople, it is stated that—

"George, the well beloved of God, a deacon and keeper of the records, having touched the Holy Gospels of God, swore in this manner, 'By these Holy Scriptures, and by the God who by them has spoken,'" &c.

At the Council of Nice it is said that—

"Prayer having been offered up, every one saluted the Holy Gospels, the venerated cross and image of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and of our Lady the mother of God, and placed his hands upon them in confirmation of what he had said."

From these I infer that the custom of swearing on the Gospels received the sanction of the church at a very early period.

In reply to the question as to other modes of swearing, it may be said briefly, that men swore by anything to which they attached any importance, and generally by that to which they attached most importance.

By the laws of the Alamanni, a wife could claim her Morgen-gabe (or the gift of the morning after the wedding night) by swearing to its amount on her breast; and by the Droits d'Augsbourg, by swearing to it on her two breasts and two tresses.

Nothing was more common than for a man to swear by his beard. This custom is alluded to by one of Shakspeare's fools, who suggests that if a certain knight swore by his honour, and his mistress by her beard, neither of them could be forsworn.

In the canons of the Fourth Council of Orleans, we read—

"Le Roi lui-meme, ou le plus renomme des chevaliers presents, ayant decoupe le paon, se leva, et mettant la main sur l'oiseau, fit un voeu hardi; Ensuite il passa le plat, et chacun de ceux qui le recurent fit un voeu semblable."

In the year 1306, Edward I. of England swore an oath on two swans.

It was also very common from an early period, both in England and abroad, to swear by one, two, seven, or twelve churches. The deponent went {533} to the appointed number of churches, and at each, taking the ring of the church door in his hand, repeated the oath.

One of the most curious specimens of the practice of swearing men by that to which they attached most importance, is to be found in an Hindoo law. It says, let a judge swear a Brahmin by his veracity; a soldier by his horses, his elephants, or his arms; an agriculturist by his cows, his grain, or his money; and a Soudra by all his crimes.

JOHN THRUPP.

Surbiton.

I know nothing about judicial oaths: but the origin of the form MR. BREEN states to be used by the Roman Catholics of the Continent, and the Scotch Presbyterians, may be seen in Dan. xii. 7.: "When he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever." And in Revelation x. 5, 6.: "And the angel ... lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him," &c. See also Genesis xiv. 22.

MARIA.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Washing Collodion Pictures—Test for Lens.—As I was indebted to the kindness of DR. DIAMOND, amongst other friends, for my original initiation into the mysteries of photography, it may appear somewhat presumptuous in me to differ from one who has had so much more experience in a point of practice. I allude to that of washing the collodion negative after developing, previously to fixing with the hyposulphite of soda; but, probably, the reasons I urge may have some weight. As the hyposulphite solution is intended to be used repeatedly, it appears to me not advisable to introduce into it any free acid (which must occur if the negative be not washed, although the quantity at each operation may be small), because it causes a decomposition of the salt, setting free sulphurous acid, and also sulphur; which last is slightly soluble in the hyposulphite of soda, and thus the sulphur is brought in contact with the reduced silver, and forms a sulphuret of that metal. But the change does not stop here: for, by the lapse of time, oxygen is absorbed, and thus a sulphate of silver is formed, and the colour changed from black to white. That sulphur is set free by the addition of an acid to the solution of hyposulphite of soda, is fact so easily demonstrable both to the eyes and nose of the operator, that no one need remain long in doubt who is desirous of trying the experiment.

A correspondent desires to know how to test the coincidence or otherwise of the visual and actinic foci of a combination: this is very readily accomplished by the aid of a focimeter, which can be easily made thus:

Procure a piece of stout card-board, or thin wood covered with white paper, on which draw a considerable number of fine black lines, or cover it with some fine black net (what I believe the ladies call blond), which may be pasted on. Cut up the whole into a dozen good-sized pieces of any convenient form, so that about four square inches of surface at least be allowed to each piece. Paste over the net a circular or square label about the size of a shilling, bearing a distinctly printed number one on each piece, from 1 upwards; and arrange the pieces in any convenient manner by means of wires inserted into a slip of wood; but they must be so placed that the whole can be seen from one point of view, although each piece must be placed so that it is one inch farther from the operator than the next lowest number. Having placed the camera eight or ten feet from the cards, carefully focus to any one of the numbers, 4 or 5 for instance and observe, not that the number is distinct, but that the minute lines or threads of the net are visible: then take a picture, exposing it a very short time, and the threads of the card bearing the number that was most perfectly in focus visually ought to be most distinct; but, if otherwise, that which is most distinct will not only show whether the lens is over or under corrected, but will indicate the amount of error. If under corrected, a lower number will be most distinct; if over corrected, a higher.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

Test for Lenses.—I beg to submit to a COUNTRY PRACTITIONER the following very simple test for the coincidence of the chemical and visual foci of an achromatic lens:

Take a common hand-bill or other sheet of printed paper, and having stretched it on a board, place it before the lens in an oblique position, so that the plane of the board may make an angle with a vertical plane of about thirty or forty degrees. Bring any line of type about the middle of the sheet into the true visual focus, and take a copy of the sheet by collodion or otherwise. Then, if the line of type focussed upon be reproduced clearly and sharply on the plate, the lens is correct; but if any other line be found sharper than the test one, the foci disagree; and the amount of error will depend on the distance of the two lines of type one from the other on the hand-bill.

J. A. MILES.

Fakenham, Norfolk.

Improvement in Positives.—I have great pleasure in communicating to you an improvement in the process of taking positives, which may not be uninteresting to some of your readers, and which ensures by far the most beautiful tints I have yet seen. I take three ounces of the hyposulphite of soda, and dissolve it in one pint of distilled or rain water; and to this I add about one or one and a half grains of pyrogallic acid, and seventy grains {534} of chloride of silver; which must be squeezed up between the finders facilitate its solution and separate the lumps, which, in their dry state, are tough, and not easily pulverised. The whole is then to be set aside for a week or two in a warm place. The solution, at first colourless, becomes brown, and ultimately quite opaque; in this state it is fit for use, and the longer kept the better it becomes. I generally use French paper for this process, and, according to the time of immersion, obtain fine sepia or black tints; the latter requiring long over-exposure to the light, and proportionately long exposure to the action of the liquid; which however will be found, particularly when old, to have a more rapid action than most other setting liquids, and has the merit of always affording fine tints, whatever the paper used. I imagine the pyrogallic acid to possess a reducing influence on the salts of silver employed; but this effect is only produced by its combination with the hyposulphite of soda and chloride of silver. I may add, that in any case the pictures should be much overdone before immersion, as the liquid exerts a rapid bleaching action on them; and when the liquid becomes saturated, a few crystals of fresh hyposulphite will renew its action.

F. MAXWELL LYTE.

Florian, Torquay.

P. S.—In answer to a COUNTRY PRACTITIONER, he will find great assistance in choosing his lens by laying it on a sheet of blue wove post paper, when he will immediately perceive the slightest yellow tinge in the glass, this being the fault which frequently affects many well-ground and well-made lenses. Of course, for sharpness of outline he must be guided entirely by experiment in the camera; but where weakness of action exists, it most frequently arises from this yellow colouration, and which the manufacturers say is very difficult to avoid.

[MR. LYTE having sent with his communication a positive prepared in the manner described, we are enabled to corroborate all he says as to the richness and beauty of its tints.]

Cheap Portable Tent.—M. F. M. inquires for a cheap and portable tent for working collodion out of doors. I have been using one lately constructed on the principle of Francis's camera stand. It has a good size table, made like the rolling patent shutters; and it is not necessary to stoop, or sit down at your work, which is a great consideration on a hot day: you may get them of any respectable dealer in photographic apparatus; it is called Francis's Collodion Tent.

H. D. FRANCIS.

Rev. Mr. Sisson's New Developing Fluid (Vol. vii., p. 462.).—The REV. MR. SISSON's developing fluid for collodion positives, the formula for which was published in the last Number of "N. & Q.," is merely a weak solution of the protonitrate and protosulphate of iron. It does not, as he seems to think, contain any lead; for the whole of the latter is precipitated as sulphate, which the acetic acid does not dissolve even to the smallest extent: and MR. SISSON will find that an equivalent proportion of the nitrate of baryta will answer equally as well as the nitrate of lead.

I have myself for a long time been in the habit of using a weak solution of the protonitrate of iron in conjunction with acetic acid for positive pictures; for, although I do not consider it so good a developer as that made according to the formula of DR. DIAMOND, it produces very good pictures; occupies very little time in preparing, and will moreover keep good for a much longer time than a more concentrated solution would.

J. LEACHMAN.

20. Compton Terrace, Islington.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

Vanes (Vol. v., p. 490.).—Taking up by accident the other day your fifth volume, I saw what I believe is a still unanswered Query respecting the earliest notice of vanes as indicators of the wind; and turning to my notes I found the following extract from Beckman's Inventions, &c.:

"In Ughelli Italia Sacra, Romae 1652, fol. iv., p 735., we find the following inscription on a weathercock then existing at Brixen; 'Dominus Rampertus Episc. gallum hunc fieri praecepit an. 820.'"

L. A. M.

Loselerius Villerius (Vol. vii., p. 454.).—I beg to inform S. A. S. that his copy of the New Testament, which wants the title-page, was printed by Henry Stephens the second, at Geneva, in the year 1580. As to it being "valuable," I should not consider him unfortunate if he could exchange it for a shilling.

Loselerius Villerius was Pierre l'Oyseleur de Villiers, a professor of Genevan divinity, who came over to London, and there published Beza's Latin version of the New Testament, in 1574. He was not, however, as your correspondent supposed him to be, the editor of the decapitated volume in question; but Beza transferred his notes to an impression completed by himself.

S. A. S. has, in the next place, inquired for any satisfactory "list of editions of the Bible." It appears that, so far as he is concerned, Le Long, Boerner, Masch, and Cotton have lived and laboured in vain.

The folio Bible lastly described by your correspondent is not "so great a curiosity" as family tradition maintained. The annotations "placed in due order" are merely the Genevan notes.—See {535} the Archdeacon of Cashel's very accurate and excellent work, Editions of the Bible, and Parts thereof, in English, p. 75.: Oxford, 1852.

R. G.

Westminster Parishes (Vol. vii., p. 454.).—In 1630 the City and Liberties of Westminster contained the churches of St. Margaret, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, St. Clement Danes, and St. John Baptist Savoy.

The registers of burials, marriages, and christenings, of St. Margaret's Church, began January 1, 1538.

The Fire of London did not destroy any church in Westminster.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Hevristic (Vol. vii., p. 237.).—The term hevristisch, in the first edition of the translation of Kant's Critik, is not given in the vocabulary appended to the translation; but under the word ostensiv it is stated that in its meaning it stands opposed to the word euristic (hevristisch in German). But in the second edition, published in 1818, it is remarked, under the words evristic, euristic, hevristisch, that the term should, in Sir Wm. Hamilton's opinion, be euretic or heuretic; the word hevristisch being an error of long standing in German philosophy. The derivation of euretic would be from [Greek: heuretikos].

In Tissot's translation, hevristisch is rendered by heuristique; in Mantovani's, by evristico; in Born's, by heuristicus. In Krug's Lexicon, hevristik is given as derived from [Greek: heurisko, heurein]. The hevristic method, Krug remarks, is also called the analytical. It may be added, that in the first edition of the Critik (Riga, 1781), the word is hevristisch. In the fourth edition (Riga, 1794), published also in Kant's lifetime, it is hevristisch. In Rosenkranz's edition (Leipzig, 1838), the word is changed into heuristisch; and also, in another edition of the same year, published also at Leipzig, it is written heuristisch, and not hevristisch.

In respect to the Leipzig edition of 1818, which is that now before me, the term hevristisch, in speaking of hevristich principles, is particularly alluded to. (See page 512. line 10.) I do not find, after a hasty inspection, this word changed, in any of the editions I possess, to empirisch.

FRANCIS HAYWOOD.

Liverpool.

Creole (Vol. vii., p. 381.).—The word appears to be a French form of the Spanish criollo, which in the dictionary of Nunez de Taboada is defined, "El hijo de padres Europeos nacido en America;" whilst in the old dictionary of Stevens (1726) it is translated, "Son of a Spaniard and a West India woman." In Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c. Creole is said to mean the descendants of whites born in Mexico, South America, or the West Indies, the blood remaining unmixed with that of other races, &c.

Von Tschudi says, that in South America the Spaniards apply the term Creole not only to the human race, but also to horses, bullocks, and even to poultry.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

General Monk and the University of Cambridge (Vol. vii., pp. 427. 486.).—LEICESTRIENSIS begs to thank MR. C. H. COOPER and MR. J. P. ORD for their replies to his Query on this subject. He avails himself of this, the earliest opportunity, of assuring MR. ORD of his readiness to afford him what slight information is in his power respecting the MS. in question (which only came into his possession within the last two or three months), if he will communicate with him as below.

WILLIAM KELLY.

Town Hall, Leicester.

Ecclesia Anglicana (Vol. ii., pp. 12. 440.).—I am much obliged to your correspondent W. FRASER for his answer to my Query, and the references with which he supplies me. I shall be glad to ask a still more extensive question, which will probably explain the object of the former more limited one. Is it usual, in any of the unreformed branches of the church on the continent, to find a similar appellation (implying distinct nationality) employed in authoritative documents, e.g. would it be possible to find in the title-pages of any Missal, &c., such words as "in usum Ecclesiae Hispanicae, Lusitanae, Gallicanae?" If not now, was it more customary in mediaeval times, and when did it cease?

Should we be justified in saying, that at every period of her existence, with rare exceptions, the Anglican church, consciously or unconsciously, maintained the theory of her nationality with greater distinctness than any of the continental churches? I fancy I have heard, though I cannot state on what authority, that this assertion might be made most truly of the Portuguese church, and should be very glad to have any light thrown on the subject by your able correspondent. Certain it is, that amongst the various complaints made against Cardinal Wiseman and the Papal aggressors, it has never been laid to their charge, that they arrogated to themselves the title of members of the Anglican church.