Flemish Account.—T.B.M. (Vol. i., p. 8.) requests references to early instances of the use of this expression. In the History of Edward II., by E.F., written A.D. 1627 (see "NOTES AND QUERIES" Vol. i., pp. 91. 220.), folio edition, p. 113., I find "The Queen (Isabella) who had already a French and an Italian trick, was jealous lest she should here taste a Flemish one;" because she feared lest the Earl of Henault should abandon her cause. This instance is, I think, earlier than any yet referred to.

S.G.

Use of Monosyllables.—The most remarkable instance of the use of monosyllables that I remember to have met with in our poets, occurs in the Fire-worshippers in Lalla Rookh. It is as follows:—

This passage contains 126 words, 110 of which are monosyllables, and the remainder words of only two syllables. The sentiment embodied throughout is that of violent mental emotion; and it affords a further illustration of the correctness of MR. C. FORBES'S theory (Vol. i., p. 228.) that "the language of passion is almost invariably broken and abrupt."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, W.I., Nov. 1850.

Specimen of Foreign English.—

That hotel open since a very few days, is renowned for the cleanness of the apartments and linen; for the exactness of the service, and for the eccelence of the true french cookery. Being situated at proximity of that regeneration, it will be propitius to receive families, whatever, which will desire to reside alternatively into that town, to visit the monuments new found, and to breathe thither the salubrity of the air.

That establishment will avoid to all the travellers, visitors, of that sepult city, and to the artists, (willing draw the antiquities) a great disorder, occasioned by the tardy and expensive contour of the iron-whay. People will find equally thither, a complete sortment of stranger wines, and of the kingdom, hot and cold baths, stables and coach houses, the whole with very moderated prices. Now, all the applications and endeavours of the hoste, will tend always to correspond to the tastes and desires, of their customers, which will acquire without doubt, to him, in to that town, the reputation whome, he is ambitious."

The above is a literal copy of a card in the possession of a friend of mine, who visited Pompeii, 1847.

W.L.

Epitaph.—While engaged in some enquiries after family documents in the British Museum lately, I lighted on a little poem, which, though not connected with my immediate object, I copied, and here subjoin, hoping your readers will be as much attracted as I was by the simplicity and elegance of the lines and thoughts; and that some one of them, with leisure and opportunity, will do what I had not time to do, namely,—decypher in the MSS. the name of the "Worthie Knight" on whom this epitaph was composed, and give any particulars which can be ascertained concerning him.

A.B.R.

QUERIES.

THE TALE OF THE WARDSTAFF.

Can any of your antiquarian correspondents furnish further elucidation of the strange ceremony of the gathering of the Wardstaff (which was in old time one of the customs of the hundred of Ongar, in Essex) than are to be found in Morant's History of Essex, vol. i. p. 126.? from whence it was incorrectly copied in Blount's Jocular Tenures by Beckwith, 4to. ed. It has been also more correctly given by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, Part II. p. clvii., who justly styles it—

"a strange and uncouth fragment of the earliest customs of the Teutons; in which we can still recognise the tone and the phraseology of the Courts of the Eresburg. The Irminsule itself having been described as a trunk of a tree, Thor was worshipped under the same rude symbol; and it may be suspected that the singular respect and reverence shown to the ward-staff of the East Saxons is not without its relation to the rites and ceremonies of the heathen time, though innocently and unconsciously retained."

At the time of publication of his learned and interesting work, Sir Francis did me the honour to adopt some conjectural corrections of Morant's very corrupt transcript of the rhyme, which I furnished at his request, in common with others suggested by the late Mr. Price. Since that time, a more mature examination of it has enabled me, I think, to put it into a form much more nearly resembling what it must have originally been; many of the corrections being obviously required by the prose details which accompany it in the MS. from which Morant gave it. It may not, therefore, be unacceptable to some of your readers, to subjoin this corrected copy. It may be proper to premise, that "The Tale of the Wardstaff" is the tallying or cutting of it, and that it was evidently originally spoken in parts, assigned as under; although it should seem that there is no indication of this arrangement in the MS.

It will be at once apparent that this is a corrupt transcript of a semi-Saxon original of much earlier date; and by comparing it with Morant's very blundering copy, the conjectural corrections I have essayed will be perceived to be numerous. Many of then will, however, be found not only warranted, but absolutely necessary, from the accompanying prose account of the ceremony. The MS. from which it was taken by Morant, was an account of the Rents of the hundred of Ongar, in the time of John Stonar of Loughton, who had a grant of it for his life in the 34th year of King Henry VIII. He seems to have died 12th June, 1566, holding of the Queen, by the twentieth part of a knight's fee, and the yearly rent of 13l. 16s. 4d., the manor, park, chase, &c., of Hatfield Broad Oak, with the hundreds of Ongar and Harlow; and the Wardstaff of the same hundreds, then valued at 101l. 15s. 10d. As the Wardstaff is said by Morant to make a considerable figure in old records, it is reasonable to hope that a more satisfactory account of it may still lie amongst unsunned ancient muniments. All the old Teutonic judicial assemblies were, as Sir F. Palgrave remarks, held in the open air, beneath the sky and by the light of the sun. The following is a part of the ancient rhyme by which the proceedings of the famous Vehm-Gerichte were opened, which were first printed by Schottelius, and the whole of which may be found in Beck's Geschichte der Westphalischen Fehm-Gerichte, and in Sir F. Palgrave's work. The similarity of expression is remarkable.

I must refer to Morant, to Beckwith or Sir F. Palgrave, for the details of the ceremony of the Wardstaff, which it should appear was observed at least as late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, but in Morant's time it had long been neglected. In the hope that some of your antiquarian correspondents may be enabled to throw more light on this very curious custom, I will merely add, that Morant suggests that it is possible some elucidation of it might be found "in the Evidence House in Hatfield Church, where (he says) are a great number of writings relating to the priory and lordship."

S.W. SINGER.

Jan 11. 1851.

BALLAD ASCRIBED TO SIR C. HANBURY WILLIAMS.

Being engaged on a collection of fugitive pieces by wits of the last century, yet unprinted, I wish to take the opinion of your valuable correspondents as to the authorship of the enclosed piece. It has been pointed out to me in an album, dated at the beginning Feb. 14th, 1743; it occurs towards the end of the volume (which is nearly filled), without date, and signed C.H. Williams.

It is evidently not autograph, being in the hand which mainly pervades the book. Had Sir C.H. Williams been a baronet at the time, his title would doubtless have been attached to his name. I wish to know, first, at what date Sir C.H. Williams was born, became a baronet, and died? Secondly, is there any internal evidence of style that the ballad is by his hand? Thirdly, is there any clue as to who the fair and cruel Lucy may have been? And lastly, whether any of your correspondents have seen the thing in print before?

G.H. BARKER.

Whitwell, Yorkshire.

MINOR QUERIES.

Book called Tartuare.—William Wallace in London.—1. Is there any one of your correspondents, learned or unlearned, who can oblige me with any account of a printed book called Tartuare? Its date would be early in the sixteenth century, if not before this.

2. After William Wallace had been surprised and taken, he was brought to London, and lodged, it is said, in a part of what is now known as Fenchurch Street. There is a reader and correspondent of yours, who, I am assured, can point out the site of this house, or whatever it was. Will he kindly assist archæological inquirers, by informing us whereabouts it stood?

W.(I.)

Obeism.—Can any of your readers give me some information about obeism? I am anxious to know whether it is in itself a religion, or merely a rite practised in some religion in Africa, and imported thence to the West Indies (where, I am told, it is rapidly gaining ground again); and whether the obeist obtains the immense power he is said to possess over his brother negroes by any acquired art, or simply by working upon the more superstitious minds of his companions. Any information, however, on the subject will be acceptable.

T.H.

Mincing Lane, Jan. 10. 1851.

Aged Monks.—Ingulphus (apud Wharton, Anglia Sacra, 613.) speaks of five monks of Croyland Abbey, who lived in the tenth century, the oldest of whom, he says, attained the age of one hundred and sixty-eight years: his name was Clarembaldus. The youngest, named Thurgar, died at the premature age of one hundred and fifteen. Can any of your correspondents inform me of any similar instance of longevity being recorded in monkish chronicles? I remember reading of some old English monks who died at a greater age than brother Thurgar, but omitted to "make a note of it" at the time, and should now be glad to find it.

F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.

Gloucester Place, Kentish Town.

Lady Alice Carmichael, daughter of John first Earl of Hyndford.—John second Lord Carmichael succeeded his grandfather in 1672. He was born 28th February, 1638, and married, 9th October, 1669, Beatrice Drummond, second daughter of David third Lord Maderty, by whom he had seven sons and four daughters. He was created Earl of Hyndford in 1701, and died in 1710.

I wish to be informed (if any of the obliging readers of your valuable publication can refer me to the authority) what became of Alice, who is named among the daughters of this earl in one of the early Scottish Peerages (anterior probably to that of Crawfurd, in 1716), but which the writer of this is unable to indicate. Archibald, the youngest son, was born 15th April, 1693. The Lady Beatrice, the eldest daughter, married, in 1700, Cockburn; Mary married Montgomery; and Anne married Maxwell. It is traditionally reported that the Lady Alice, in consequence of her marriage with one of her father's tenants, named Biset or Bisset, gave offence to the family, who upon that contrived to have her name omitted in all subsequent peerages. The late Alexander Cassy, of Pentonville, who bequeathed by will several thousand pounds to found a charity at Banff, was son of Alexander Cassy of that place, and —— Biset, one of the daughters, sprung from the above-named marriage.

SCOTUS.

"A Verse may find Him."—In the first stanza of Herbert's poem entitled the Church Porch, in the Temple, the following lines occur:—

Which contain, evidently, the same idea as the one enunciated in the subsequent ones quoted by Wordsworth (I believe) as a motto prefixed to his ecclesiastical sonnets, without an author assigned:—

Query, Who was the author of them?

R.W.E.

Hull.

Daresbury, the White Chapel of England.—Sometime ago I copied the following from a local print:—

"'Nixon's Prophecy.—When a fox without cubs shall sit in the White Chapel of England, then men shall travel to Paris without horses, and kings shall run away and leave their crowns.'

"The present incumbent of Daresbury, Cheshire (the White Chapel of England), is the Rev. Mr. Fawkes, who (1849) is unmarried. The striking accomplishment—railway travelling and the revolutions of the present year—must be obvious to every one."

My Query to the above is this: Why is the church of Daresbury called the White Chapel of England, and how did the name originate? The people in the neighbourhood, I understand, know nothing on the subject.

An answer to the above from one of your learned correspondents would greatly oblige.

J.G.

Ulm Manuscript.—Can you inform me where the Ulm manuscript is, which was in the possession of Archdeacon Butler, at Shrewsbury, in the year 1832. It is a document of great interest, and some critical value, and ought to be, if it is not already, in public keeping. It is a Latin MS. of the Acts and Epistles, probably of the ninth century, and contains the Pseudo-Hieronymian Prologue to the "Canonical" Epistles.

It renders the classical passage, 1 John v. 7, 8., in this wise:—

"Quia tres sunt qui testimonium dant, spiritus, et aqua, et sanguis, et tres unum sunt. Sicut in cœlo tres sunt, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus, et tres unum sunt."

You will remember that it is quoted by Porson in his Letters to Travis, p. 148., and again referred to by him, pp. 394. 400.

Was it sold on the death of the Bishop of Lichfield, or bequeathed to any public institution? or did it find its way into the possession of the Duke of Sussex, who was curious in biblical matters, and was a correspondent of Dr. Butler? Some of your learned readers will perhaps enable you to trace it.

O.T. DOBBIN, LL.D. T.C.D.

Hull, Yorkshire, Jan. 1851.

Merrick and Tattersall.—Will any of your correspondents be so obliging as to give the years of birth of Merrick, the poet and versifier of the Psalms, and of his biographer, Tattersall. The years of their deaths are given respectively 1769 and 1829: but I can nowhere find when they were born.

M.

Dr. Trusler's Memoirs.—I have the First Part of the Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Dr. Trusler, with his Opinions and Remarks through a Long Life on Men and Manners, written by himself. Bath. Printed and published by John Browne, George Street, 1806. This Part is a 4to. of 200 pages, and is full of curious anecdotes of the time. It was intended to form three or more Parts. Was it ever completed: and if so, where to be procured? In all my searches after books, I never met but with this copy.

At the end of the First Part there is a prospectus of a work Trusler intended to publish in the form of a Dictionary (and of which he gives a specimen sheet), entitled Sententiæ Variorum. Can any of your Bath friends say if the manuscript is still in existence, as he states that it is ready for the press; or that he would treat with any party disposed to buy the copyright?

T.

Life of Bishop Frampton.—I have in my possession a manuscript life of Bishop Frampton, who was ejected for not taking the oaths to William and Mary. It is of sufficient detail and interest to deserve publication. But before I give it to the world, that I may do what justice I can to the memory of so excellent a man, I should be happy to receive the contributions of any of your readers who may happen to possess any thing of interest relating to him. I have reason to believe that several of his sermons, the texts of which are given in his life, are still in existence. Will you be kind enough to allow your periodical to be the vehicle of this invitation?

T. SIMPSON EVANS.

Shoreditch.

Probabilism.—Will any one inform me by whom the doctrine of Probabilism was first propounded as a system? And whether, when fairly stated, it is any thing more than the enunciation of a deep moral principle?

R.P.

Sir Henry Chauncy's Observations on Wilfred Entwysel.—After recording the inscription on the brass plate in St. Peter's Church, St. Alban's, to the memory of Sir Bertin Entwysel, Knt., Viscount and Baron of Brykbeke in Normandy, who fell at the first battle of St. Alban's, in 1455, Chauncy proceeds to state:—

"These Entwysels were gentlemen of good account in Lancashire, whose mansion-house retains the name of Entwysel, and the last heir of that house was one Wilfred Entwysel, who sold his estate, and served as a lance at Musselborrow Field, Anno 2 Edw. VI. After that he served the Guyes in defence of Meth, and he was one of the four captains of the fort of Newhaven, who being infected with the plague and shipped for England, landed at Portsmouth, and uncertain of any house, in September, 1549, died under a hedge."—Historical Antiq. of Hertfordshire, by Sir Henry Chauncy, Knt., Serj. at Law, p. 472. fol. 1700.

On what authority is this latter statement made, and if it was traditional when Chauncy wrote, was the foundation of the tradition good? Did Sir Bertin Entwysel leave issue male, and is the precise link ascertained which connects him with the family of Entwisle of Entwisle, in the parish of Bolton-en-le-Moors, in Lancashire? Wilfred Entwysel was not "the last heir of that house," as the post mortem inq. of Edmund Entwisle, of Entwisle, Esq., was taken 14 Sept. 1544, and his son and heir was George Entwisle, then aged twenty-two years and upwards. Amongst his large estates was "the manor of Entwissell."

F.R.R.

Theological Tracts.—Can any of your correspondents inform me where the following tracts are to be found?—

I am sorry not to be able to give a more minute description of them; they were all published, I think, before the middle of the seventeenth century.

The Bodleian and our own University Libraries have been searched, but to no purpose.

S.G.

Lady Bingham.—In Blackwood's Magazine, vol. lxviii. p. 141. there is a paper, bearing every mark of authenticity, which details the unsuccessful courtship of Sir Symonds D'Ewes with Jemima, afterwards Baroness Crewe, and daughter of Edward Waldgrave, Esq., of Lawford House in Essex, and Sarah his wife. It is stated that the latter bore the name of Lady Bingham, as being the widow of a knight, and that his monument may still be seen in Lawford church. On referring to the Suckling Papers, published by Weale, I find no account of this monument, though an inscription of that of Edward Waldgrave, Esq., apparently his father-in-law, is given. Can any of your readers give me any information as to this lady? I should, if possible, be glad to have her maiden name and origin, as well as that of her first husband. She might have been the widow of Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught, &c., whose MS. account of the Irish wars is now publishing by the Celtic Society, and who died A.D. 1598. In that case, I leave a conjecture before me, that she was a Kingsmill of Sidmanton, in Hampshire. I mention this to aid enquiry, if any one will be so good as to make it. If there is such a monument in existence, his arms may be quartered on it, for which I should be also thankful.

C.W.B.

Gregory the Great.—Lady Morgan, in her letter to Cardinal Wiseman, speaks of "the pious and magnificent Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, the ally of Gregory the Great, and the foundress of his power through her wealth and munificence." By Gregory the Great it is evident that Lady Morgan means Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. May ask, through the medium of your pages, whether any authority can be found for terming Gregory VII. the Great, an epithet which I had previously considered to be confined to Gregory I.?

EGENHART.

John Hill's Penny Post, in 1659.—I noted a few years back, from a bookseller's catalogue, the title of a work—

"Hill (John), a Penny-Post; or a vindication of the liberty of every Englishman in carrying Merchants' and other Men's letters against any restraints of farmers of such employments. 4to. 1659."

Can any of your correspondents give an account of this work?

E.M.B.

Andrea Ferrara.—Will any kind friend inform me where any history is to be found of "Andrea Ferrara," the sword cutler?

V.E.L.

Imputed Letters of Sallustius.—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether a MS. of the Epistles of Sallustius to Cæsar on Statesmanship is deposited in any one of our public libraries?

KENNETH R.H. MACKENZIE.

January 18. 1851.

Thomas Rogers of Horninger (Vol. ii., pp. 424. 521.).—I am obliged to Mr. Kersley for his reference to Rose's Biographical Dictionary; but he might have supposed that all such ordinary sources of information would naturally be consulted before your valuable journal be troubled with a query. Having reason to believe that Rogers took an active part in the stirring events of his time, I shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents who will refer me to any incidental notices of him in cotemporary or other writers: to diffuse which kind of information your paper seems to me to have been instituted.

S.G.

Tandem D.O.M.—In an ancient mansion, which stands secluded in the distant recesses of Cornwall, there reposes a library nearly as ancient as the edifice itself, in the long gallery of which it has been almost the sole furniture for a space of full two centuries. What is still remarkable, the collection remains sole and entire in all its pristine originality, as well as simple but substantial bindings, uncontaminated by any additions of more modern literature, dressed up in gayer suits of calfskin or morocco. It is even said that few of the pages of these venerable volumes have even seen the light since the day they were deposited there by their first most careful owner, till the present proprietor took the liberty of giving them a dusting. How far he has advanced in examining their contents is uncertain; but, as he seldom can summon courage to withdraw himself from their company, even for his parliamentary duties, these literary treasures stand a chance, at last, not only of being dusted externally, but of being thoroughly sifted and explored internally. A note of the existence of such a collection of books is at least worth recording as unique of its kind. I have now a query to put in relations to it.

The collector seems to have been one Hannibal Gamon, whose name appears written in fine bold characters,—as beseems so distinguished an appellation,—on the title-page of each volume; but, besides, there is frequently appended this addition—"tandem D.O.M." The writer has his own solution on the meaning of this bit of Latin, but would be glad to know what interpretation any of your readers would be inclined to put thereon.

FABER MARINUS.

The Episcopal Mitre.—When first was the episcopal mitre used? And what was the origin of its peculiar form?

AN ENQUIRER.

REPLIES.

THE PASSAGE IN TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

(Vol. ii., p. 386.)

The oldest edition of this play is the quarto of 1609, in which the passage referred to stands thus:—

This reading, by stopping the sense at "holy," renders less likely to be correct the emendation of Tyrwhitt, adopted by Malone:—

Dr. Johnson observes, "This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness:—

With reference to these particulars, I should be glad if you would allow me to propose a reading which has not yet been suggested:—

The meaning being, it is as unlawful to do hurt by being just, as it would be to give to a robbery, or to rob for a charity; to assist a bad cause by a good deed, or a good cause by a bad deed.

The word "count," in its second occurrence, was inserted by the printer in the wrong line; when it is restored to its proper place, the passage presents but little difficulty.

JOHN TAYLOR.

BLACK IMAGES OF THE VIRGIN.

(Vol. ii., p. 510.)

Your correspondent, MR. HOLT WHITE, throws cut a suggestion relative to the origin of the black doll as a sign at old store shops, which is ingenious, but not very probable. The images of black virgins are confined, I believe, to the south of Europe, with the exception of the celebrated shrine of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. The origin of the colour appears to be oriental, as MR. W. surmises. I send the following extract, in answer to his query on the subject. It is a quotation from Grimm, in M. Michelet's Introduction to Universal History; and, as your readers must be all familiar with the language of the gifted historian, I will not make the attempt to convey his brilliant style into another tongue.

"Une des idées qui reviennent le plus dans nos meistersinger, dit Grimm, c'est la comparaison de l'incarnation de Jésus Christ avec l'aurore d'un nouveau soleil. Toute religion avait eu son soleil-dieu, et dès le quatrième siècle l'église occidentale célèbre la naissance du Christ au jour où le soleil remonte, au 25 Décembre, c'est-à-dire, au jour où l'on célébrait la naissance du soleil invincible. C'est un rapport évident avec le soleil-dieu Mithra. On lit encore, dans nos poètes, que Jésus à sa naissance reposait sur le sein de Marie, comme un oiseau, qui, le soir, se réfugie dans une fleur de nuit éclose au milieu de la mer. Quel rapport rémarquable avec le mythe de la naissance de Brama, enfermé dans le lis des eaux, le lotus, jusqu'au jour où la fleur fut ouverte par les rayons du soleil, c'est-à-dire, par Vischnou lui-même, qui avait produit cette fleur. Le Christ, le Nouveau-jour, est né de la nuit, c'est-à-dire de Marie la Noire, dont les pied reposent sur la lune, et dont la tête est couronnée de planètes comme d'un brillant diadême. (Voyez les tableaux d'Albert Dürer.) Ainsi reparaît, comme dans l'ancien culte, cette grande divinité, appelée tour-à-tour Maïa, Bhawani, Isis, Cérès, Proserpine, Perséphone. Reine du ciel, elle est la nuit d'où sort la vie, et où toute vie se replonge; mystérieuse réunion de la vie et de la mort. Elle s'appelle aussi la rosée, et dans les mythes allemands, la rosée est considérée comme le principe qui reproduit et redonne la vie. Elle n'est pas seulement la nuit, mais comme mère du soleil, elle est aussi l'aurore devant qui les planètes brillent et s'empressent, comme pour Perséphone. Lorsqu'elle signifie la terre, comme Cérès, elle est représentée avec la gerbe de blé; elle est Perséphone, la graine de semence; comme cette déesse, elle a sa faucille: c'est la demi-lune qui repose sous ses pieds. Enfin, comme la déesse d'Ephèse, la triste Cérès et Proserpine, elle est belle et brillante, et cependant sombre et noire, selon l'expression du Cantique des Cantiques: 'Je suis noir, mais pleine de charmes, le soleil m'a brûlée' (le Christ). Encore aujourd'hui, l'image de la mère de Dieu est noire à Naples, comme à Einsiedeln en Suisse. Elle unit ainsi le jour et la nuit, la joie avec la tristesse, le soleil et la lune (chaleur, humidité), le terrestre et le céleste."

This fragment is, perhaps, rather too long; but I think your readers will consider it too beautiful to abridge. The late G. Higgins, in his Anacalepsis (ii. 100.), has some observations to the same purport, and points out the resemblance of some of the old Italian paintings of the Virgin and Child to Egyptian representations of Isis and the infant Horus.

Many of these ideas have been taken up by the free-masons, and are typified and symbolised in their initiatory ceremonies.

J.B. DITCHFIELD.

OUTLINE IN PAINTING.

A correspondent (J.O.W.H.) at p. 318. of Vol. i. asks a question on the subject of outline in painting; instancing the works of Albert Durer and Raffaelle as examples of defined, and those of Titian, Murillo, &c., of indefined outline. He wishes to know whether there is "a right and a wrong in the matter, apart from anything which men call taste?"

The subject generally is a curious one, and has interested me for some time; as experiments exhibit several singular phenomena resulting from the interference and diffraction of rays of light in passing by the outline of a material body. As a matter of fact, I believe I may say, that there is no such thing in nature as a perfectly defined outline; since the diffraction of the rays, in passing it, causes them to be projected upon it more or less, according to the nature of the particular body, and the intensity of the light. And I may remark, by the way, that I believe this circumstance of the projection of a star upon the moon's disc at the time of an occultation, is to be accounted for on this principle (though with all due deference to higher authority); a phenomenon which is to this day unexplained.

Of course every outline is rendered less defined by any motion of the eye of the observer, however slight. Hence, perhaps, the comparative indistinctness of outline commonly seen in pictures, compared with those in nature; as the artist would be apt to take advantage of this circumstance, and give to his painting the same kind of effect the reality would have to an eye wandering over it; thereby taking away the attention from individual parts, and, as it were, forcing it to judge of the general effect, which general effect is, perhaps, the main object in painting.

Hence it follows that wherever, in any design, separate portions are intended to arrest attention, the outline should be more defined and, accordingly, we may remark that Albert Durer, and others like him, who were very careful of minutiæ, are also distinct and hard in their outlines, which is also the case, for the most part, in the Dutch school, and in architectural paintings, fruit-pieces, &c.; and we find that in proportion as the artist discards the comparatively unworthy minute accompaniments of his subject, and aims at unity of effect, so does he neglect sharpness of outline. Which is the correct practice—distinctness, or indistinctness of outline—will be differently judged by those who hold different opinions on painting in general. While one person will maintain that a picture, to be perfect, must be an exact copy of nature, in short an artistic daguerreotype; another will hold almost the contrary; so that the subject of outline must be matter of opinion still. However, the lover of general effect has this rational ground of argument on his side, viz., there is no such thing as a strictly defined outline in nature, even to an eye at rest; while to one in motion, which is perhaps the normal state, that outline is rendered still more indistinct.

H.C.K.

—— Rectory, Hereford, Dec. 28. 1850.

TEN CHILDREN AT A BIRTH.

(Vol. ii., p. 459.)

The curiosity excited by the perusal of my previous communication under the foregoing head, and the interesting editorial note appended in "NOTES AND QUERIES," induce me to continue the attempt to verify one of the most remarkable instances of abnormal fecundity in an individual of the human species recorded in modern times. The reader must judge of the following "circumstantial evidence:"—

1. I have just seen widow Platts (formerly Sarah Birch), a poor, fat, decent woman, who keeps a small greengrocer's shop, in West Bar, Sheffield. She says she was born in Spring Street in the same town, on the 29th Sept. 1781; well remembers wondering why she was so much looked at when a girl: and her surprise, when afterwards told by her mother, that she was one of ten children born at the same time. Had often been told that she was so small at birth, that she was readily put into a quart measure; and for some time, lay in a basket before the fire "wrapped in a flannel like a newly hatched chicken."

2. The improbability of finding any living gossip who was present at the birth, must be obvious: but I have conversed with old women who had heard their mothers describe the occurrence from personal knowledge.

3. One ancient dame had no more doubt of the fact than the cause of it. Having apparently heard and believed a monstrous tradition of a multitudinous gestation extant in common "folklore." "It was," said she, with all gravity, "the effect of a wish," intended to spite the father; who, having had two children by his wife, and an interval of nine years elapsing before the portentous pregnancy in question, did not desire, it seems, any further increase to his family.

4. The parents died, the daughter married, and the "story of her birth" was forgotten: until the publication of White's Sheffield Directory in 1833, when, among other local memorabilia, the strange announcement of "ten children at birth," was reproduced on the contemporary authority of the Leeds Mercury. From that time Mrs. Platts has been more or less an object of curiosity.

5. The Directory paragraph is as follows:—

"An instance of extraordinary fecundity is recorded in the Leeds Mercury of 1781, which says that Ann [Sarah] Birch, of Sheffield, was, in that year, delivered of ten children!!! We, in our time, have heard of Sheffield ladies having three children at birth; but we know no other case, but that of the aforesaid Mrs. Birch, which countenances the fructiferous fame which they have obtained in some circles."

I have been unsuccessful in an effort to collate the foregoing with the original newspaper paragraph: but Mr. White, while he personally assured me of the veracity of the transcript, also pointed out to me an earlier version of the same fact from the same source in the Annals of the Clothing Districts, published about thirty years since.

6. In conformity with the suggestion (NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. ii., p. 459), I have examined the Parish Register of Baptisms, but the entry is as curt and formal as possible, viz.:—

"Sarah, Dr. of Thos. and Sarah Birch, Cutler,"

under the date, Dec. 12.1781.

Taking all the foregoing circumstances into account, there seems to me little ground for the erection of any strong objection to the alleged fact—extraordinary as it is—of ten children having been brought forth at one time; or, to the hardly less interesting coincidence, that one of them is still living. I cannot but add, that if the contemporary notice of this extraordinary birth in the Leeds Mercury of 1781 should not be admitted as good evidence for the fact, it does, at least, negative the presumptive value of any objection derived from the silence of the writer in the Philosophical Transactions six years afterwards; strange as such silence assuredly appears. After all, the question occurs: What has become of the bodies said to have been preserved? As all parties concur in naming "old Mr. Staniforth" as the accoucheur in attendance on Mrs. Birch; and as that gentleman has been dead many years, I called upon his eldest surviving pupil, Mr. Nicholson, surgeon, to ask him whether, in conversation, or among the preparations in the surgery of his worthy master, he had ever met with any illustration of the parturition in question? He replied that he had not. It may not, perhaps, be out of place here to mention that the above-named Mr. Nicholson, surgeon, himself delivered a poor woman of five children, on the 10th of February, 1829, at Handsworth Woodhouse, near Sheffield. This case was even more remarkable than that which gave occasion to the paper which was read before the Royal Society in 1787, inasmuch as not only were four of the children born alive, but three of them lived to be baptized.

N.D.

Sheffield, Jan. 13. 1851.

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF "CAPTIOUS."

(Vol. ii., p. 354.)

In All's Well that Ends Well, Act I. Sc. 3., Helena says to the Countess, speaking of her love for Bertram,—