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NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

"When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.

No. 193. | Saturday, July 9. 1853. | Price Fourpence Stamped Edition 5d.

CONTENTS.

Notes:— | Page
The Eye: its primary Idea | 25
Gossiping History—De Quincey's Account of Hatfield | 26
Notes upon the Names of some of the Early Inhabitants of Hellas | 27
Shakspeare Readings, No. IX. | 28
Göthe's Author-Remuneration | 29
Minor Notes:—Parallel Passages—Unpublished Epitaphs—The Colour of Ink in Writings—Literary Parallels—Latin Verses prefixed to Parish Registers—Napoleon's Bees | 30
Queries:—
Was Thomas Lord Lyttelton the Author of Junius's Letters? by Sir F. Madden | 31

Minor Queries:—Lord Chatham—Slow-worm Superstition—Tangiers—Snail Gardens—Naples and the Campagna Felice—"The Land of Green Ginger"—Mugger—Snail-eating—Mysterious Personage—George Wood of Chester—A Scale of Vowel Sounds—Seven Oaks and Nine Elms—Murder of Monaldeschi—Governor Dameram—Ancient Arms of the See of York—Hupfeld—Inscription on a Tomb in Finland—Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling—Tom Thumb's House at Gonerby, Lincolnshire—Mr. Payne Collier's Monovolume Shakspeare

33

Replies:—
Wild Plants and their Names | 35
Jacob Bobart, by H. T. Bobart | 37
Heraldic Queries | 37
Door-head Inscriptions | 38
Consecrated Roses | 38
Notes on Serpents | 39
Photographic Correspondence:—Early Notice of the Camera Obscura—Queries on Dr. Diamond's Collodion Process—Baths for the Collodion Process | 41

Replies to Minor Queries:—Mitigation of Capital Punishment to a Forger—Chronograms and Anagrams—Abigail—Burial in unconsecrated Ground—"Cob" and "Conners"—Coleridge's Unpublished MSS.—Selling a Wife—Life—Passage of Thucydides on the Greek Factions—Archbishop King—Devonianisms—Perseverant, Perseverance—"The Good Old Cause"—Saying of Pascal—Paint taken off of old Oak—Passage in the "Tempest"

42

Miscellaneous:—
Notes on Books, &c. | 45
Books and Odd Volumes wanted | 45
Notices to Correspondents | 46
Advertisements | 46

Notes.

THE EYE: ITS PRIMARY IDEA.

I do not remember to have remarked that any writer notices how uniformly, in almost all languages, the same primary idea has been attached to the eye. This universal consent is the more remarkable, inasmuch as the connexion in question, though of course most appropriate and significant in itself, hardly seems to indicate the most prominent characteristic, or what we should deem to be par excellence the obvious qualities of the eye; in a word, we should scarcely expect a term derived from a physical attribute or property.

The eye is suggestive of life, of divinity, of intellect, piercing acuteness (acies); and again, of truth, of joy, of love: but these seem to have been disregarded, as being mere indistinctive accidents, and the primary idea which, by the common consent of almost all nations, has been thought most properly to symbolise this organ is a spring—fons, πηγή.

Thus, from עִין, manare, scatere, a word not in use, according to Fuerst, we have the Hebrew עַיִן, fons aquarum et lacrimarum, h. e. oculus. This word however, in its simple form, seems to have almost lost its primary signification, being used most generally in its secondary—oculus. (Old Testament Hebrew version, passim.) In the sense of fons, its derivative מַעְיָן is usually substituted.

Precisely the same connexion of ideas is to be found in the Syriac, the Ethiopic, and the Arabic.

Again, in the Greek we find the rarely-used word ὀπή, a fountain, or more properly the eye, whence it wells out,—the same form as ὀπή, oculus; ὢψ, ὄψις, ὄπτομαι. Thus, in St. James his Epistle, cap. iii. 11.: μήτι ἡ πηγὴ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς ὀπῆς βρύει τὸ γλυκὺ καὶ τὸ πικρόν.

In the Welsh, likewise, a parallel case occurs: Llygad, an eye, signifies also the spring from which water flows, as in the same passage of St. James: a ydyw ffynnon o'r un llygad (from one spring or eye) yn rhoi dwfr melus a chwerw?

On arriving at the Teutonic or old German tongue, we find the same connexion still existing: Avg, auga,—oculus; whence ougen ostendere—Gothis augo; and awe, auge, ave, campus ad amnem. (Vid. Schilteri, Thes., vol. iii. ad voc.) And here we cannot help noticing the similarity between these words and the Hebrew יְאֹר, which (as well as the Coptic iaro) means primarily a river or stream from a spring; but, according to Professor Lee, is allied to אוֹר, light, the enlightenment of the mind, the opening of the eyes; and he adds, "the application of the term to water, as running, translucid, &c., is easy." Here, then, is a similar connexion of ideas with a change in the metaphor.

In the dialects which descended from the Teutonic in the Saxon branch, the connexion between these two distinct objects is also singularly preserved. It is to be found in the Low German, the Friesic, and the Anglo-Saxon. In the latter we have eá, eah, eagor, a welling, flowing stream; eah, ægh, eage, an eye, which might be abundantly illustrated.

We could hardly fail to find in Shakspeare some allusion to these connected images in the old tongue; no speck of beauty could exist and escape his ken. Thus:

"In that respect, too, like a loving child,

Shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring,

Because kind Nature doth require it so."

Tit. And., Act V. Sc. 3.

"Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;

Your tributary drops belong to woe,

Which you, mistaking, offer up for joy."

Rom. and Jul., Act III. Sc. 2.

Many of the phrases of the ancient tongues, in which the eye bears a part, have been handed down to us, and are still preserved in our own. My space, however, forbids me to do more than allude to them; but there is one very forcible expression in the Hebrew עַיִן בְּעַיִן, literally, eye in eye, which we render much less forcibly—face to face. The Welsh have preserved it exactly in their llygad yn llygad. Indeed, this is not the only instance in which they are proud of having handed down the Hebrew idiom in all its purity. Shakspeare twice uses the old phrase:

"Since then my office hath so far prevailed,

That face to face, and royal eye to eye,

You have congreeted."—Hen. V., Act V. Sc. 2.

And in Tro. and Cres., Act III. Sc. 3; but it appears now to be obsolete.

Before concluding, I cannot help noticing, in connexion with this subject, the Old English term "the apple of the eye." I am unable to trace it beyond the Anglo-Saxon. The Teutonic sehandes ougen, pupilla oculi, is totally distinct; seha being merely medius punctus oculi, whence sehan, videre. In the Semitic languages, as well as in the Greek and Latin, the origin of the term is the same, and gives no clue to the meaning of the Saxon term. Thus, in the Hebrew אִישׁוֹן, dim. of אִישׁ, homunculus, the small image of a person seen in the eye. In Arabic it is the man or daughter of the eye. In Greek we have κόρη, κοράσιον, κορασίδον; and in Latin, pupa, pupula, pupilla.

Has any light been thrown on the Anglo-Saxon term? Can it be that iris, not the pupil, is taken to represent an apple? The pupil itself would then be the eye of the apple of the eye.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

GOSSIPING HISTORY—DE QUINCEY'S ACCOUNT OF HATFIELD.

In proof of the severity with which the laws against forgery were enforced, I have been referred to the case of Hatfield, hanged in 1803 for forging franks. It is given very fully in Mr. De Quincey's "Literary Recollections of Coleridge" in the first volume of the Boston edition of his Works.

The story has some romance in it, and excited great interest fifty years ago. Hatfield had lived by swindling; and, though he underwent an imprisonment for debt, had, upon the whole, a long career of success. The last scene of his depredations was the Lakes, where he married a barmaid, who was called "The Beauty of Buttermere." Shortly after the marriage he was arrested, tried, and executed. Mr. De Quincey afterwards lived in the neighbourhood, dined at the public-house kept by Mary's father, and was waited upon by her. He had the fullest opportunities of getting correct information: and his version of the story is so truthlike, that I should have accepted it without hesitation but for the hanging for forging a frank. As that offence never was capital, and was made a felony punishable with transportation for seven years by 42 Geo. III. c. 63., I was impelled to compare the statement founded on gossip with more formal accounts; and I send the result in illustration of the small reliance which is to be placed on tradition in such matters. The arrival of Hatfield in a carriage is graphically described. He called himself the Hon. Augustus Hope, brother of the Earl of Hopetoun. Some doubts were felt at first, but—

"To remove suspicion, he not only received letters addressed to him under this assumed name, but he continually franked letters by that name. Now, that being a capital offence, being not only a forgery, but (as a forgery on the Post-office) sure to be prosecuted, nobody presumed to question his pretensions any longer; and henceforward he went to all places with the consideration due to an earl's brother."—P. 196.

The marriage with Mary Robinson, and the way in which they passed the honeymoon, are described:

"They continued to move backwards and forwards, until at length, with the startling of a thunderclap to the affrighted mountaineers, the bubble burst; officers of justice appeared, the stranger was easily intercepted from flight, and, upon a capital charge, he was borne away to Carlisle. At the ensuing assizes he was tried for forgery on the prosecution of the Post-office, found guilty, left for execution, and executed accordingly."—P. 199.

"One common scaffold confounds the most flinty hearts and the tenderest. However, it was in some measure the heartless part of Hatfield's conduct which drew upon him his ruin; for the Cumberland jury, as I have been told, declared their unwillingness to hang him for having forged a frank; and both they, and those who refused to aid his escape when first apprehended, were reconciled to this harshness entirely by what they heard of his conduct to their injured young fellow-countrywoman."—P. 201.

Hatfield was not "easily intercepted from flight." Sir Frederick Vane granted a warrant to apprehend him on the charge of forcing franks. Hatfield ordered dinner at the Queen's Head, Keswick, to be ready at three; took a boat, and did not return. This was on October 6: he was married to Mary on the 2nd. In November he was apprehended near Brecknock, in Wales: so those who refused to aid his escape, if such there were, were not "reconciled to the hardship by what they heard of his conduct to their young fellow-countrywoman." The "startling of the thunderclap" was preceded by an ordinary proclamation, describing the offender, and offering a reward of 50l. for his apprehension. He was not "hurried away to Carlisle," but deliberately taken to London on December 12; examined at Bow Street, remanded three times, and finally committed; and sent to Carlisle, where he was tried on August 15, 1803.

Three indictments were preferred against him: the first for forging a bill of exchange for 20l., drawn by Alexander Augustus Hope on John Crump, payable to George Wood; the second for a similar bill for 30l.; and the third for counterfeiting Colonel Hope's handwriting to defraud the Post-office.

The Cumberland jury did not "declare their unwillingness to hang him for forging a frank," that not being a capital offence. I infer, also, that it was one for which he was not tried. He was convicted on the first indictment; the court rose immediately after the jury had given their verdict; and the prisoner was called up for judgment at eight the next morning. Trying a man under sentence of death for a transportable felony, is contrary to all practice. Hatfield was executed at Carlisle on September 3, 1803.

Mary's misfortunes induced the sympathising public to convert her into a minor heroine. She seems to have been a common-place person, with small claims to the title of "The Beauty of Buttermere." A cotemporary account says, "she is rather gap-toothed and somewhat pock-marked." And Mr. De Quincey, after noticing her good figure, says, "the expression of her countenance was often disagreeable."

"A lady, not very scrupulous in her embellishment of facts, used to tell an anecdote of her which I hope was exaggerated. Some friend of hers, as she affirmed, in company with a large party, visited Buttermere a day or two after that on which Hatfield suffered; and she protested that Mary threw on the table, with an emphatic gesture, the Carlisle paper containing an elaborate account of the execution."—P. 204.

Considering the treatment she had received, it is not unlikely that her love, if she ever had any for a fat man of forty-five, was turned into hatred; and it was not to be expected that her taste would keep down the manifestation of such feeling. When Hatfield was examined at Bow Street, Sir Richard Ford, the chief magistrate, ordered the clerk to read aloud a letter which he received from her. It was:

"Sir,—The man whom I had the misfortune to marry, and who has ruined me and my aged and unhappy parents, always told me that he was the Hon. Colonel Hope, the next brother to the Earl of Hopetoun.

"Your grateful and unfortunate servant,
"Mary Robinson."

I do not blame Mr. De Quincey, having no doubt that he believed what he was told; but I have put together these facts and discrepancies, to show how careful we should be in accepting traditions, when a man of very high ability, with the best opportunities of getting at the truth, was so egregiously misled.

My authorities are, The Annual Register, 1803, pp. 421. and 428.; The Gentleman's Magazine, 1803, pp. 779. 876. and 983.; Kirby's Wonderful Magazine, vol. i. pp. 309. and 336. The Newgate Calendar gives a similar account but not having it at hand, I cannot vouch it.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

NOTES UPON THE NAMES OF SOME OF THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF HELLAS.

I. I have never seen it yet noticed, that the names Pyrrha, Æolus, Xuthus, Ion, are all names of colours. Is there anything in this, or is it fortuitous?

II. In accordance with the above, I think we may refer most of the names of the early inhabitants of Greece to words denoting light or colour, or the like.

(1.) Pelas-gi. The first part of this word is, by Mr. Donaldson, connected with μέλ-ας, which is also, probably, the root of Mol-ossi.

(2.) Hellenes, connected with Helli, Selli, σέλας, εὕλη, ἥλιος. This derivation is made more probable by the fact, that the neighbouring Pelasgic tribes have a similar meaning; e.g.,

Perrhæbi, alike to Pyrrha and πῦρ; Æthices, αἴθω, Tymphæi, τύφω; Hestiæi, ἑστία. Add to this, that the name Phthiotis seems indubitably to derive its name from Phthah, the Egyptian Hephæstus, and to be a translation of the word Hellas.

N.B.—The existence of an Egyptian colony in that part is attested by the existence of a Phthiotic Thebæ.

(3.) On the other hand, the word Achæus seems to be connected with ἄχος, ἀχνύμαι, and ἄχλυς in the sense of gloom (of οὐράνιον ἄχος). So the Homeric Cimmerians are derived from כִּמְרִירִי (Job), denoting darkness.

(4.) Lastly, I submit with great diffidence the following examination of the words Dorus and the Æolian Minyæ, which I shall attempt to derive from words denoting sun and moon respectively.

The word Dorus I assume to be connected with the first part of the names Dry-opes and Dol-opes. The metathesis in the first case seems sanctioned by the analogy of the Sanscrit drî and Greek δείρω, and the mutation of l and r in the second is too common in Greek and Latin to admit of any doubt, e.g. ἀρ-γαλέος and ἀλγαλέτος; Sol and Soracte. With this premised, I think we may be justified in connecting the following words with one another.

Dores, Dryopes with Σείριος (of Σιός and Δῖος) Θέρος, the Scythian sun-god Οἰτό-συρυς, the Egyptian O-siris, and perhaps the Hebrew דוֹר and Greek δηρὸς (the course of the sun being the emblem of eternity).—Dol-opes with Sol, εἵλη, Selli, &c.

On the other hand, the neighbouring Minyæ seem connected with μινύθω, μίνυνθα, minus,—all with the sense of decreasing or waning; hence referable, both in sense and (I fancy) in derivation, to Greek μὴν, and Latin men-sis.

J. H. J.

SHAKSPEARE READINGS, NO. IX.

"It lies as sightly on the back of him

As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass."—King John, Act II. Sc. 1.

"The ass was to wear the shoes, and not to bear them on his back, as Theobald supposed, and therefore would read shows. The 'shoes of Hercules' were as commonly alluded to by our old poets, as the ex pede Herculem was a familiar allusion of the learned." (Mr. Knight in 1839.)

Fourteen years' additional consideration has not altered Mr. Knight's view of this passage. In 1853 we find him putting forth a prospectus for a new edition of Shakspeare, to be called "The Stratford Edition," various portions from which he sets before the public by way of sample. Here we have over again the same note as above, a little diversified, and placed parallel to Theobald's edition in this way:

"It lies as sightly on the back of him

As great Alcides' shows upon an ass."

"The folio reads 'Great Alcides' shoes.' Theobald says, 'But why shoes, in the name of propriety? For let Hercules and his shoes have been really as big as they were ever supposed to be, yet they (I mean the shoes) would not have been an overload for an ass.'" | "The 'shoes of Hercules' were as commonly alluded to in our old poets, as the ex pede Herculem was a familiar allusion of the learned. It was not necessary that the ass should be overloaded with the shoes—he might be shod (shoed) with them."

Now who, in reading these parallel notes, but would suppose that it is Mr. Knight who restores shoes to the text, and that it is Mr. Knight who points out the common allusion by our old poets to the shoes of Hercules? Who would imagine that the substance of this correction of Theobald was written by Steevens a couple of generations back, and that, consequently, Theobald's proposed alteration had never been adopted?

I should not think of pointing out this, but that Mr. Knight himself, in this same prospectus, has taken Mr. Collier to task for the very same thing; that is, for taking credit, in his Notes and Emendations, for all the folio MS. corrections, whether known or unknown, necessary or unnecessary.

Indeed, the very words of Mr. Knight's complaint against Mr. Collier are curiously applicable to himself:

"It requires the most fixed attention to the nice distinctions of such constantly-recurring 'notes and emendations,' to disembarrass the cursory reader from the notion that these are bonâ fide corrections of the common text....

"Who cares to know what errors are corrected in" (the forthcoming Stratford edition), "that exist in no other, and which have never been introduced into the modern text?"—Specimen, &c., p. xxiv.

The impression one would receive from Mr. Knight's note upon Theobald is, that Shakspeare had his notion of the shoes from "our old poets," while the learned had theirs from ex pede Herculem; but where the analogy lies, wherein the point, or what the application, is not explained. Steevens' original note was superior to this, in so much that he quoted the words of these old poets, thereby giving his readers an opportunity of considering the justness of the deduction. The only set-off to this omission by Mr. Knight is the introduction of "ex pede Herculem," the merit of which is doubtless his own.

But it so happens that the size of the foot of Hercules has no more to do with the real point of the allusion than the length of Prester John's; therefore ex pede Herculem is a most unfortunate illustration,—particularly awkward in a specimen sample, the excellence of which may be questioned.

It is singular enough, and it says a great deal for Theobald's common sense, that he saw what the true intention of the allusion must be, although he did not know how to reconcile it with the existing letter of the text. He wished to preserve the spirit by the sacrifice of the letter, while Mr. Knight preserves the letter but misinterprets the spirit.

Theobald's word "shows," in the sense of externals, is very nearly what Shakspeare meant by shoes, except that shoes implies a great deal more than shows,—it implies the assumption of the character as well as the externals of Hercules.

Out of five quotations from our old poets, given by Steevens in the first edition of his note, there is not one in which the shoes are not provided with feet. But Malone, to his immortal honour, was the first to furnish them with hoofs:

"Upon an ass; i.e. upon the hoofs of an ass."—Malone.

But Shakspeare nowhere alludes to feet! His ass most probably had feet, and so had Juvenal's verse (when he talks of his "satyrâ sumente cothurnum"); but neither Shakspeare nor Juvenal dreamed of any necessary connexion between the feet and the shoes.

Therein lies the difference between Shakspeare and "our old poets;" a difference that ought to be sufficient, of itself, to put down the common cry,—that Shakspeare borrowed his allusions from them. If so, how is it that his expositors, with these old poets before their eyes all this time, together with their own scholarship to boot, have so widely mistaken the true point of his allusion? It is precisely because they have confined their researches to these old poets, and have not followed Shakspeare to the fountain head.

There is a passage in Quintilian which, very probably, has been the common source of both Shakspeare's version, and that of the old poets; with this difference, that he understood the original and they did not.

Quintilian is cautioning against the introduction of solemn bombast in trifling affairs:

"To get up," says he, "this sort of pompous tragedy about mean matters, is as though you would dress up children with the mask and buskins of Hercules."

["Nam in parvis quidem litibus has tragœdias movere tale est quale si personam Herculis et cothurnos aptare infantibus velis."]

Here the addition of the mask proves that the allusion is purely theatrical. The mask and buskins are put for the stage trappings, or properties, of the part of Hercules: of these, one of the items was the lion's skin; and hence the extreme aptitude of the allusion, as applied by the Bastard, in King John, to Austria, who was assuming the importance of Cœur de Lion!

It is interesting to observe how nearly Theobald's plain, homely sense, led him to the necessity of the context. The real points of the allusion can scarcely be expressed in better words than his own:

"Faulconbridge, in his resentment, would say this to Austria, 'That lion's skin which my great father, King Richard, once wore, looks as uncouthly on thy back, as that other noble hide, which was borne by Hercules, would look on the back of an ass!' A double allusion was intended: first, to the fable of the ass in the lion's skin; then Richard I. is finely set in competition with Alcides, as Austria is satirically coupled with the ass."

One step farther, and Theobald would have discovered the true solution: he only required to know that the shoes, by a figure of rhetoric called synecdoche, may stand for the whole character and attributes of Hercules, to have saved himself the trouble of conjecturing an ingenious, though infinitely worse word, as a substitute.

As for subsequent annotators, it must be from the mental preoccupation of this unlucky "ex pede Herculem," that they have so often put their foot in it. They have worked up Alcides' shoe into a sort of antithesis to Cinderella's; and, like Procrustes, they are resolved to stretch everything to fit.

A. E. B.

Leeds.

GÖTHE'S AUTHOR-REMUNERATION.

The Note in your valuable Journal (Vol. vii., p. 591.) requires, I think, so far as it relates to Göthe, several corrections which I am in the position of making. The amount which that great man is said to have received for his "works (aggregate)" is "30,000 crowns." The person who originally printed this statement must have been completely ignorant of Göthe's affairs, and even biography. Göthe had (unlike Byron) several publishers in his younger years. Subsequently he became closer connected with M. J. G. Cotta of Stuttgardt, who, in succession, published almost all Göthe's works. Amongst them were several editions of his complete works: for instance, that published conjointly at Vienna and Stuttgardt. Then came, in 1829, what was called the edition of the last hand (Ausgabe letzter Hand), as Göthe was then more than eighty years of age. During all the time these two editions were published, other detached new works of Göthe were also printed; as well as new editions of former books, &c. Who can now say that it was 20,000 crowns (thalers?) which the great poet received for each various performance?—No one. And this for many reasons. Göthe always remained with M. Cotta on terms of polite acquaintanceship, no more: there was no "My dear Murray" in their strictly business-like connexion. Göthe also never wrote on such things, even in his biography or diary. But some talk was going around in Germany, that for one of the editions of his complete works (there appeared still many volumes of posthumous), he received the above sum. I can assert on good authority, that Göthe, foreseeing his increasing popularity even long after his death, stipulated with M. Cotta to pay his heirs a certain sum for every new edition of either his complete or single works. One of the recipients of these yet current accounts is Baron Wolfgang von Göthe, Attaché of the Prussian Legation at Rome.

A Foreign Surgeon.

Charlotte Street, Bloomsbury Square.

Minor Notes.

Parallel Passages.—

"The Father of the gods his glory shrouds,

Involved in tempests and a night of clouds."—Dryden's Virgil.

"Mars, hovering o'er his Troy, his terror shrouds

In gloomy tempests and a night of clouds."—Pope's Homer's Iliad, book xx. lines 69, 70.

Uneda.

Unpublished Epitaphs.—I copied the following two epitaphs from monuments in the churchyard of Llangerrig, Montgomeryshire, last autumn. They perhaps deserve printing from the slight resemblance they bear to that in Melrose Churchyard, quoted in Vol. vii., pp. 676, 677.:

"O earth, O earth! observe this well—

That earth to earth shall come to dwell:

Then earth in earth shall close remain

Till earth from earth shall rise again."

"From earth my body first arose;

But here to earth again it goes.

I never desire to have it more,

To plague me as it did before."

P. H. Fisher.

The Colour of Ink in Writings.—My attention was called to this subject some years ago by an attempt made in a judicial proceeding to prove that part of a paper produced was written at a different time than the rest, because part differed from the rest in the shade of the ink. The following conclusions have been the result of my observations upon the subject:

1. That if the ink of part of a writing is of a different shade, though of the same colour, from that of the other parts, we cannot infer from that circumstance alone that the writing was done at different times. Ink taken from the top of an inkstand will be lighter than that from the bottom, where the dregs are; the deeper the pen is dipped into the ink, the darker the writing will be.

2. Writing performed with a pen that has been used before, will be darker than that with a new pen; for the dry residuum of the old ink that is encrusted on the used pen will mix with the new ink, and make it darker. And for the same reason—

3. Writing with a pen previously used will be darker at first than it is after the old deposit, having been mixed up with the new ink, is used up.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

Literary Parallels.—Has it ever been noticed that the well-known epitaph, sometimes assigned to Robin of Doncaster, sometimes to Edward Courtenay, third Earl of Devon, and I believe to others besides: "What I gave, that I have," &c., has been anticipated by, if not imitated from, Martial, book v. epigr. 42., of which the last two lines are:

"Extra fortunam est, quicquid donatur amicis;

Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes."

The English is so much more terse and sententious, besides involving a much higher moral signification, that it may well be an original itself; but in that case, the verbal coincidence is striking enough.

J. S. Warden.

Latin Verses prefixed to Parish Registers.—On a fly-leaf in one of the registers of the parish of Hawsted, Suffolk, is the following note in the handwriting of the Rev. Sir John Cullum, the rector and historian of the parish:

"Many old register books begin with some Latin lines, expressive of their design. The two following, in that of St. Saviour's at Norwich, are as good as any I have met with:

'Janua, Baptismus; medio stat Tæda jugalis

Utroque es felix, mors pia si sequitur.'"

Can any of your correspondents contribute other examples?

Buriensis.

Napoleon's Bees (Vol. vii., p. 535.).—No one, I believe, having addressed you farther on the subject of the Napoleon Bees, the models of which are stated to have been found in the tomb of Childeric when opened in 1653, "of the purest gold, their wings being inlaid with a red stone, like a cornelian," I beg to mention that the small ornaments resembling bees found in the tomb of Childeric, were only what in French are called fleurons (supposed to have been attached to the harness of his war-horse). Handfuls of them were found when the tomb was opened at Tournay, and sent to Louis XIV. They were deposited on a green ground at Versailles.

Napoleon wishing to have some regal emblem more ancient than the fleur-de-lys, adopted the fleurons as bees, and the green ground as the original Merovingian colour.

This fact was related to me as unquestionable by Augustin Thierry, the celebrated historian, when I was last in Paris.

Wm. Ewart.

University Club.

Queries.

WAS THOMAS LORD LYTTELTON THE AUTHOR OF JUNIUS'S LETTERS?

In the Quarterly Review for 1852 (vol. xc. No. 179.) appeared a clever and speciously written article on the long debated question of the identity of Junius, in which the writer labours at great length to prove that Thomas, second Lord Lyttelton, who died in 1779, was the real substance of the shadow of Junius, hitherto sought in vain. That this Lord Lyttelton was fully competent to the task, I do not doubt; and that there are many points in his character which may well be reconciled with the knowledge we possess of the imaginary Junius, I also admit—but this is all. The author of the review has wholly failed, in my opinion, to prove his case and the remark he makes on Mr. Britton's theory (as to Col. Barré) may equally well apply to his own, namely, that it affords "a [another] curious instance of the delusion to which ingenious men may resign themselves, when they have a favourite opinion to uphold!" The reviewer, indeed, admits that he has "traced the parallel from the scantiest materials;" and in another passage repeats, that but "few materials exist for a sketch of Thomas Lyttelton's life." Of these materials used by the reviewer, the principal portion has been derived from the two volumes of letters published in 1780 and 1782, attributed to Lord Lyttelton, but the authorship of which has since been claimed for William Coombe. The reviewer argues, that they are "substantially genuine;" but evidence, it is believed, exists to the contrary.[1] According to Chalmers, these letters were "publicly disowned" by the executors of Lord Lyttelton; and this is confirmed by the notice in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1780, p. 138., shortly after the publication of the first volume. Putting aside, however, this moot-point (which, I trust, will be taken up by abler hands, as it bears greatly on the theory advanced by the author of the Review), I proceed to another and more conclusive line of argument. In the Preliminary Essay, prefixed to Woodfall's edition of Junius, 1812 (vol. i. p. *46.), the following statement is made in regard to that writer, the accuracy of which will scarcely be doubted:

"There is another point in the history of his life, during his appearance as a public writer, which must not be suffered to pass by without observation: and that is, that during a great part of this time, from January 1769 to January 1772, he uniformly resided in London, or its immediate vicinity, and that he never quitted his stated habitation for a longer period than a few weeks."

Now, do the known facts of Thomas Lyttelton's life correspond with this statement or not? The reviewer says, p. 115.:

"For a period of three years after Mr. Lyttelton lost his seat[2]—that period during which Junius wrote his acknowledged compositions—we hardly find a trace of him in any of the contemporaneous letters or memoirs that have fallen under our observation."

But how is it, let me ask, that the author of the review has so studiously avoided all mention of one work, which would at once have furnished traces of Thomas Lyttelton at this very period? I allude to the volume of Poems by a Young Nobleman of distinguished Abilities, lately deceased, published by G. Kearsley: London, 1780, 4to. Does not this look much like the suppressio veri which follows close on the footsteps of the assertio falsi? It is hardly credible that the reviewer should not be acquainted with this book, for he refers to the lines spoken in 1765, at Stowe, in the character of Queen Mab, which form part of its contents; and the existence of the work is expressly pointed out by Chalmers, and noticed by Lowndes, Watt, and other bibliographers. Among the poems here published, are some which ought to have received a prominent notice from the author of the review, if he had fairly stated the case. These are:

1. Lines "to G——e Ed——d Ays——gh, Esq., [George Edward Ayscough, cousin to Thomas Lyttelton] from Venice, the 20th July, 1770."—P. 22.

2. "An Irregular Ode, wrote at Vicenza, in Italy, the 20th of August, 1770."—P. 29.

3. "On Mr. ——, at Venice, in J——, 1770."

4. "An Invitation to Mrs. A——a D——, wrote at Ghent in Flanders, the 23rd of March, 1769."—P. 41.

5. "An Extempore, by Lord Lyttelton, in Italy, anno 1770."—P. 48.

Admitting that these poems are genuine, it is evident that their author, Thomas Lyttelton, was abroad in Flanders and Italy during the years 1769 and 1770; and consequently could not have been the mysterious Junius, who in those years (particularly in 1769) was writing constantly in or near London to Woodfall and the Public Advertiser. Of what value then is the assertion so confidently made by the reviewer (p. 133.):

"The position of Thomas Lyttelton in the five years from 1767 to 1772, is exactly such a one as it is reasonable to suppose that Junius held during the period of his writings;"

or how can it be made to agree with the fact of his residence on the Continent during the greater part of the time?

The reviewer, indeed, tells us that "just as Junius concluded his great work, Thomas Lyttelton returned to his father's house, and Chatham was one of the first to congratulate Lord Lyttelton on the event." This was in February 1772; and in the Chatham Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 195., is Lord Lyttelton's letter of thanks in reply. The reviewer would evidently have it inferred, that Thomas Lyttelton had returned home like a prodigal son, after a temporary estrangement, and from a comparatively short distance; but surely, had the volume of Poems been referred to, it might or rather must have occurred to a candid inquirer, that in February 1772 Thomas Lyttelton returned from his travels on the Continent, after an absence of nearly three years! But, perhaps, the authenticity of the Poems may at once be boldly denied? Is this the case? Chalmers certainly includes them with the Letters, as having been "disowned" by Lord L.'s executors; but says, "as to the Poems, they added, 'great part whereof are undoubtedly spurious.'" It is certain, therefore, that some of the Poems are genuine; and it is a pity that the exceptions were not specified, as the discussion might then have been confined within narrower limits. The editor of the Poems, in his address "To the Reader," writes thus in vindication of them:

"There is scarcely a line in the collection which does not bear testimony of its origin; the places and dates are also strong corroborations to such of his friends as he corresponded with on his last journey across the Alps. His style was elegant, and his ideas so animated, that spurious productions would be immediately detected."

This is the testimony of one who "had the honour of his friendship, which terminated only with his death," and is not to be lightly rejected.[3] My own conviction is in favour of the authenticity of the whole; but, at all events, I shall be able to offer undoubted evidence as to the genuineness of part of the volume, and additional proof that the author was abroad at the precise time when, if he were Junius, he must have resided in this country. By Thomas Lord Lyttelton's will (dated Oct. 30, 1777), he appointed as his executors his brother-in-law Arthur Viscount Valentia, his uncle William Henry Lord Westcote, and Wilson Aylesbury Roberts of Bewdley. To the latter he left all his "letters, verses, speeches, and writings," with directions that, if published, it should be for his sole emolument. The important Query therefore at once arises, what became of these manuscripts, and were they destroyed or preserved?

The above Mr. Roberts was an intimate personal friend; and from his local influence as bailiff and deputy-recorder of Bewdley, had no doubt contributed towards Thomas Lyttelton's return for that borough in 1768. His son continued to keep up a close connexion with the Valentia family at Arley Hall[4]; and this fact, coupled with the close proximity of Bewdley, Arley, and Hagley, and the circumstance of the co-executorship of Lord Valentia and Mr. Roberts, would make us naturally look to the library at Arley as a not unlikely place of deposit for Thomas Lyttelton's papers. This is not mere conjecture, and brings me immediately to the point at issue: for, at the sale of the Valentia Library at Arley Castle, in December last, a manuscript volume made its appearance in a lot with others thus designated:

"Original Diary of Travels [of Lord Valentia] 4 vols.; Five Memorandum Books of Journeys and Travels; also Two Old Folio Volumes of Original Poetic Pieces."

One of the folio volumes thus catalogued subsequently came into my hands, and is evidently one of the manuscripts left by Thomas Lord Lyttelton's will to the care of Mr. Roberts, since it consists wholly of pieces in verse and prose of his composition, written either in his own hand, as rough draughts, or copied (apparently by a female scribe) and afterwards corrected by himself. Among the poetry in this MS. I find the greater part of the long poem printed in the edition of 1780, p. 1., entitled "The State of England in the year 2199," which is without date in the MS., but in the edition bears date March 21, 1771; as likewise the "Invitation to Miss Warb[u]rt[o]n," edit. p. 35., which appears in the MS. without any name; and the "Extempore Rhapsody, March 21, 1771," edit. p. 37., also undated in the MS., but which supplies the name of "Yates," expressed in the edition by asterisks; and also six lines at the end, which were omitted in the edition on account of their indecency. There are several variations in the manuscript, which prove that some other copy was followed by the printer; and many typographical errors in the edition may hence be corrected. Besides these poems, the following pieces constitute the chief contents of this manuscript volume:

Draughts of four letters written by Thomas Lyttelton from Lyons, the first of which is dated September 10, 1769.

Heads of a series of Dialogues, in imitation of "Dialogues of the Dead," by his father George, first Lord Lyttelton.

Poetical Fragments, imitated from Lucretius.

Two letters addressed by Thomas Lyttelton to his father; and a third to "Dear George," probably his cousin George Edward Ayscough.

Some Latin lines, not remarkable for their delicacy.

Political letter, written from Milan, by Thomas Lyttelton; in which indignant notice is taken of the commital of Brass Crossby, Lord Mayor, which took place in March, 1771.

Fragment of a poem on Superstition, and various other unfinished poetical scraps.

Private memoranda of expenses.

A page of writing in a fictitious or short-hand character, of which I can make nothing.

Remarks, in prose, on the polypus, priestcraft, &c.

Poem in French, of an amatory character.

Portion of a remarkable political letter, containing some bitter remarks by Thomas Lyttelton on the "first minister." He ends thus: "The play now draws to a conclusion. I am guilty of a breach of trust in telling him so, but I shall [not] suffer by my indiscretion, for it is an absolute impossibility any man should divine who is the author of the letter signed Aruspex."

It would appear from the water-mark in the paper of which this MS. is composed, that it was procured in Italy; and there can be little or no doubt it was used by Thomas Lyttelton as a draught-book, during his travels there in 1769-1771; during which period, nearly the whole of the contents seem to have been written. The evidence afforded therefore by this volume, comes peculiarly in support of the dates and other circumstances put forth in the printed volume of Poems; and leads us inevitably to the conclusion, that it was utterly impossible for Thomas Lyttelton to have had any share in the Letters of Junius. He has enough to answer for on the score of his early profligacy and scepticism, without being dragged from the grave to be arraigned for the crime of deceit. His heart need not, according to the reviewer, be "stripped bare" by the scalpel of any literary anatomist; but he may be left to that quiet and oblivion which a sepulchre in general bestows. Before I conclude these remarks (which I fear are too diffuse), I will venture to add a few words in regard to the signature of Thomas Lord Lyttelton. In the Chatham Correspondence, a letter from him to Earl Temple is printed, vol. iv. p. 348., the signature to which is printed Lyttleton, and the editors point out in a note the "alteration adopted" in the spelling of the name; but it is altogether an error, for the fac-simile of this signature in vol. iv. p. 29., as well as his will in the Prerogative Court, prove that he wrote his name Lyttelton, in the same manner as his father and uncle. As to the resemblance pointed out by the author of the Review between the handwriting of Thomas Lyttelton and that of Junius, it exists only in imagination, since there is really no similitude whatever between them.

Some Queries are now annexed, in reference to what has been above discussed:

1. In what publication or in what form did the executors of Thomas Lord Lyttelton disown the Letters and Poems?

2. Is it known who was the editor of the Poems published in 1780?

3. Can the present representative of the family of Roberts give any farther information respecting Thomas Lord Lyttelton's manuscripts?

4. Lastly, Is any letter known to exist in the public journals of the years 1770, 1771, under the signature of Aruspex?

F. Madden.

British Museum.

Footnote 1:(return)

I have been unable to refer to these letters, as no copy exists in the British Museum library.

Footnote 2:(return)

As M.P. for Bewdley. He was returned in 1768, and unseated in January, 1769.

Footnote 3:(return)

In the Public Advertiser for January 1, 1779 [1780], appeared a notice of the Poems, said to have been "published yesterday;" and although two pieces are extracted at length, not a syllable of doubt is expressed as to their genuineness.

Footnote 4:(return)

The estate at Arley was left to the Hon. George Annesley (afterwards Earl of Mountnorris), son of Lord Valentia, by the will of Thomas Lord Lyttelton, and Mr. Roberts was one of the trustees appointed.

Minor Queries.

Lord Chatham.—I would suggest as a Query, whether Lord Chatham's famous comparison of the Fox and Newcastle ministry to the confluence of the Rhone and Saone at Lyons (Speech, Nov. 13, 1755), was not adapted from a passage in Lord Roscommon's Essay on translated Verse. Possibly Lord Chatham may have merely quoted the lines of Roscommon, and reporters may have converted his quotation into prose. Lord Chatham (then of course Mr. Pitt) is represented to have said:

"I remember at Lyons to have been carried to the conflux of the Rhone and the Soane: the one a gentle, feeble, languid stream, and, though languid, of no depth; the other, a boisterous and impetuous torrent."

Lord Roscommon says:

"Thus have I seen a rapid headlong tide,

With foaming waves the passive Saone divide,

Whose lazy waters without motion lay,

While he, with eager force, urg'd his impetuous way."

W. Ewart.

University Club.

Slow-worm Superstition.—Could any of your correspondents kindly inform me whether there is any foundation for the superstition, that if a slow-worm be divided into two or more parts, those parts will continue to live till sunset (life I suppose to mean that tremulous motion which the divided parts, for some time after the cruel operation, continue to have), and whether it exists in any other country or county besides Sussex, in which county I first heard of it?

Tower.

Tangiers (Vol. vii., p. 12.).—I have not seen any opinion as to these Queries.

A. C.

Snail Gardens.—What are the continental enclosures called snail gardens?

C. M. T.

Oare.

Naples and the Campagna Felice.—Who was the author of letters bearing this title, which originally appeared in Ackermann's Repository, and were published in a collected form in 1815?

In a catalogue of Jno. Miller's (April, 1853), I see them attributed to Combe.

Q.

Philadelphia.

"The Land of Green Ginger"—the name of a street in Hull. Can any of your correspondents inform me why so called?

R. H. B.

Mugger.—Why are the gipsies in the North of England called Muggers? Is it because they sell mugs, and other articles of crockery, that in fact being their general vocation? or may not the word be a corruption of Maghrabee, which is, I think, a foreign name given to this wandering race?

H. T. Riley.

Snail-eating.—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what part of Surrey a breed of large white snails is still to be found, the first of which were brought to this country from Italy, by a member, I think, of the Arundel family, to gratify the palate of his wife, an Italian lady? I have searched Britton and Brayley's History in vain.

H. T. Riley.

Mysterious Personage.—Who is the mysterious personage, what is his real or assumed lineage, who has, not unfrequently, been alluded to in recent newspaper articles as a legitimate Roman Catholic claimant of the English throne? Of course I do not allude to those pseudo-Stuarts, the brothers Hay Allan.

W. Pinkerton.

George Wood of Chester.—Of what family was George Wood, Esq., Justice of Chester in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1558?

Cestriensis.

A Scale of Vowel Sounds.—Can any correspondent tell me if such scale has anywhere been agreed on for scientific purposes? Researches into the philosophy of philology are rendered excessively complex by the want of such a scale, every different inquirer adopting a peculiar notation, which is a study in itself, and which, after all, is unsatisfactory. I should feel obliged by any reference to what has been done in this matter.

E. C.

Seven Oaks and Nine Elms.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whether there is any old custom or superstition connected with Seven Oaks and Nine Elms, even to be traced as far back as the time of the Druids?

In some old grounds in Warwickshire there is a circle of nine old elm-trees; and, besides the well-known Nine Elms at Vauxhall, and Seven Oaks in Kent, there are several other places of the same names in England.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Murder of Monaldeschi.—I will thank any of your correspondents who can give me an account of the murder of Monaldeschi, equerry to Christina, Queen of Sweden.

In the 2nd volume of Miss Pardoe's Louis XIV. (p. 177.), Christina is stated to have visited the Court of France, and housed at Fontainebleau, where she had not long been an inmate ere the tragedy of Monaldeschi took place and in a letter to Mazarin she says, "Those who acquainted you with the details regarding Monaldeschi were very ill-informed."

T. C. T.

Governor Dameram.—I should be glad of any particulars respecting the above, who was Governor of Canada (I think) about the commencement of the present century. He had previously been the head of the commissariat department in the continental expeditions.

Tee Bee.

Ancient Arms of the See of York.—Can any correspondent enlighten me as to the period, and why, the present arms were substituted for the ancient bearings of York? The modern coat is, Gu. two keys in saltire arg., in chief an imperial crown proper. The ancient coat was blazoned, Az. an episcopal staff in pale or, and ensigned with a cross patée arg., surmounted by a pall of the last, edged and fringed of the second, charged with six crosses formée fitchée sa., and differed only from that of Canterbury in the number of crosses formée fitchée with which the pall was charged.

Tee Bee.

Hupfeld.—Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." tell me where I can see Hupfeld, Von der Natur und den Arten der Sprachlaute, which is quoted by several German authors? It appeared in Jahn's Jahrb. der Philol. und Päd., 1829. If no correspondent can refer me to any place where the paper can be seen in London, perhaps they can direct me to some account of its substance in some English publication.

E. C.

Inscription on a Tomb in Finland.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." explain the meaning of the following inscription?

"IETATIS IN SUBDITOS
MARTYRI
.’IET:S CONIUGALIS
:: :::IV."

It appears on an old monument of considerable size in a Finnish burial-ground at Martishkin near Peterhoff on the Gulf of Finland. The letters are in brass on a stone slab. The dots before the IV., and in the other word, are holes in the stone wherein the missing characters had been fixed.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling.—Having been forcibly impressed by a paragraph in a popular periodical (The Leisure Hour, No. 72.), I am desirous of learning upon what authority the statements therein depend. As, perhaps, it may also prove interesting to some of the readers of "N. & Q." who may not already have seen it, and in the hope that some of your contributors may be able to throw a light upon so curious a subject, I herewith transcribe it:

"Sir Isaac Newton and Voltaire on Railway Travelling.—Sir Isaac Newton wrote a work upon the prophet Daniel, and another upon the book of Revelation, in one of which he said that in order to fulfil certain prophecies before a certain date was terminated, namely, 1260 years, there would be a mode of travelling of which the men of his time had no conception; nay, that the knowledge of mankind would be so increased, that they would be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. Voltaire, who did not believe in the inspiration of the scriptures, got hold of this, and said 'Now look at that mighty mind of Newton, who discovered gravity, and told us such marvels for us all to admire. When he became an old man, and got into his dotage, he began to study that book called the Bible; and it seems, that in order to credit its fabulous nonsense, we must believe that the knowledge of mankind will be so increased that we shall be able to travel at the rate of fifty miles an hour. The poor dotard!' exclaimed the philosophic infidel Voltaire, in the self-complacency of his pity. But who is the dotard now?—Rev. J. Craig."

The Query I would more particularly ask is (presuming the accuracy of the assertions), What is the prophecy so wonderfully fulfilled?

R. W.

Tom Thumb's House at Gonerby, Lincolnshire.—On the south-west side of the tower of the church of Great Gonerby, Lincolnshire, is a curious cornice representing a house with a door in the centre, an oriel window, &c., which is popularly called "Tom Thumb's Castle." I have a small engraving of it ("W. T. del. 1820, R. R. sculpt."): and a pencil states that on the same tower are other "curious carvings."

I would ask, therefore, Why carved? From what event or occasion? For whom? Why called "Tom Thumb's House?" And what are the other curious carvings?

G. Creed.

Mr. Payne Collier's Monovolume Shakspeare.—I should be extremely obliged to Mr. Collier, if he would kindly give me a public reply to the following question.

The express terms of the publication of his monovolune edition of Shakspeare, as advertised, were—

"The text regulated by the old copies, and by the recently discovered folio of 1632."

These terms manifestly exclude corrections from any other source than those of collation of the old copies, and the MS. corrections of the folio of 1632.

Now the text of Mr. Collier's monovolume reprint contains many of the emendations of the commentators not referred to in Notes and Emendations. For example: in The Taming of the Shrew, where Biondello runs in to announce the coming down the hill of the "ancient angel" (changed by the corrector into ambler), two other alterations in the same sentence appear without explanation in the regulated text, namely, mercatante substituted by Steevens for "marcantant" of the folios; and surely in lieu of "surly," which latter is the word of the folio of 1632.

I now ask Mr. Collier, on what authority were these emendations adopted?

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

Replies.

WILD PLANTS AND THEIR NAMES.

(Vol. vii., pp. 175. 233.)

Perhaps the following may prove of some use to Enivri, in reply to his Query respecting the names of certain wild flowers.

1. Shepherd's Purse (Bursa pastoris). "Sic dict. a folliculis seminum, qui crumenulam referre videntur." Also called Poor Man's Parmacitty, "Quia ad contusos et casu afflictos instar spermatis ceti utile est." Also St. James's Wort, "Quia circa ejus festum florescit," July 28th. Also called Pick-purse.

2. Eye-bright, according to Skinner (Euphrasia), Teut. Augentrost; "Oculorum solamen, quia visum eximiè acuit." Fluellin (Veronica femina), "Forte a Leolino aliquo Cambro-Brit. ejus inventore."

3. Pass Wort, or Palsy Wort (Primula veris). "Herba paralyseos."

4. Guelder Rose (Sambucus rosea). "Quia ex Gueldriâ huc translata est." Gueldria is, or rather was, a colony, founded by the Hollanders, on the coast of Coromandel.

5. Ladies' Tresses, a corruption of traces. A kind of orchis, and used, with its various appellations, "sensu obsc."

6. The Kentish term Gazel is not improbably the same as Gale, which, Skinner says, is from the A.-S. Gagel (Myrtus brabantica).

7. Stitch Wort (Gramen leucanthemum, alias Holostium pumilum). "Sic dict. quia ad dolores laterum punctorios multum prodesse creditur."

8. The term Knappert, for Bitter Vetch, is probably a corruption of Knap Wort, the first syllable of which, as in Knap Weed and Knap Bottle, is derived from the sound or snap emitted by it when struck in the hollow of the hand.

9. Charlock (Rapum sylvestre); Anglo-Saxon Cerlice.

10. London Pride or Tufts (Armeria prolifera). "Sic dict. quia flores propter pulchritudinem Londini valdè expetuntur." (?)

11. Avens; also Herb Bennet (Caryophyllata). Skinner says, "Herba Benedicta ab insigni radicis vulnerariâ vi." (?)

12. Mill Mountain, or Purge Flax (Linum sylvestre catharticum, or Chamælinum). "Montibus gaudet."

13. Jack of the Buttery. "Sedi species sic dict. quia in tecto galacterii crescit." Pricket: "a sapore acri."

14. Cudweed or Cotton Weed; Live-long. "Quia planta perennis est."

15. Sun Spurge. "Quia flores ad ortum solis se aperiunt." Churn Staff, from its similarity.

16. Welcome to our House (Tithymalus Cyparissias). "Ob pulchritudinem suam omnibus expetitus."

17. Ruddes (Fl. Calendulæ). "A colore aureo." Wild or Corn Marigold. "Q. d. aurum Mariæ, a colore sc. floris luteo." Gouls or Goulans, with a half-suppressed d, may very well be supposed to indicate its natural name—Gold. Another name of this plant is Lockron, or Locker Goulans.

18. Spurry (Spergula). "Sic dict. quia folia ejus octo, angusta, stelliformia, radios calcaris satis exactè referunt."

19. Mercury Goose-foot. Probably a goose-foot resembling Mercury (Mercurialis), a herb concerning which Skinner doubts, but suggests, "Quia Mercurio, ut ceteræ omnes plantæ planetis, appropriata sit." Another name is Good Henry,—I find not Good King Henry—(Lapathum unctuosum), "A commodo ejus usu in enematis." It is also called All-good, forasmuch as it is useful, not only for its medicinal qualities, but also in supplying the table with a substitute for other vegetables, such as asparagus.

A plant termed in this country Gang Flower is the same as Rogation Flower, recalling the perambulation of parishes on one of those days. There is a vast fund of interesting matter in these old names of wild flowers (mixed up, of course, with much that is trifling); and I cordially agree with your correspondent, that it is well worth a steady effort to rescue the fast-fading traditions relating to them. It must be confessed, however, that the obstacles in the way of tracing the original meaning and supposed virtues, will in many instances be found very great, arising principally from the fanciful translations and corruptions which our ancestors made of the old names. Take, for instance, the following:

Loose Strife or Herb Willow, from Lysimachia, the original being undoubtedly a man's name, Lysimachus.

Ale-hoof (Hedera terrestris). Anglo-Saxon Al behófian. "Herba πάγχρηστος, ad multos usus efficacissima."

Herb Ambrose has a Greek origin, ἄμβροτος, and is not indebted to the saint of that name.

Comfrey or Cumfrey. "Herba vulnera conferruminans;" good for joining the edges of a wound.

Calathian Violets. Simply cupped violets, from κάλαθος.

Brank Ursin (Acanthus). "It. brancha, unguis ursinus."

Blood Strange; properly, String. To stanch.

Bertram. A corruption of πύρεθρον (Pyrethrum).

Spreusidany, Hair-strong, Sulphur Wort. Corrupted from Peucedanum.

Pell-a-mountain, Wild Thyme. From Serpyllum montanum.

Faceless. From Phaseolus, dim. of Phaselus; so called from its shallop shape.

Stick-a-dove, French Lavender. From στοιχὰς, στοιχάδος, Stœchas; so called from the regularity of the petals.

Such instances might be multiplied to almost any extent.

There is, doubtless, a good deal of scattered information respecting old English wild flowers to be met with, not only in books, but also among our rural population, stored up by village sages. Contributions of this description would surely be welcome in "N. & Q."

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

Herbs of all kinds were, some two hundred years ago, esteemed of much value as medicine; for in a curious, and I believe rather scarce, pharmacopœia by Wm. Salmon, date 1693, I find some 414 pages devoted to their uses. This pharmacopœia, or Compleat English Physician, was dedicated to Mary, second Queen of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, &c., and appears to have been the first. The preface says "it was the first of that kind extant in the world, a subject for which we have no precedent."

"I have not trusted," he says, "to the reports of authors, but have wrote as an eye-witness in describing most things therein; and it is nothing but what I know and have learnt by daily experience for thirty years together, so that my prescriptions may in some measure plead a privilege above the performances of other men."

1. Capsella (Bursa pastoris) he describes as cold 1o, and dry in 2o, binding and astringent. Good against spitting of blood or hæmorrhage of the nose, and other fluxes of the bowels. The leaves, of which ʒj. in powder may be given. The juice inspissate, drunk with wine, helps ague. A cataplasm applied in inflammations, Anthony's fire, &c., represses them.

2. Veronica Chamædrys he calls Euphrasia, Euphrosunee, and says it is much commended by Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who asserts that it not only helps dimness of the sight, but the use of it makes old men to read small letters without spectacles, who could scarcely read great letters with spectacles before; but that it did restore their sight who had been a long time blind. Truly a most wonderful plant; and, if he freely used it, must have been a great drawback to spectacle-makers.

3. Primula veris, he says, more properly belongs to the primrose than cowslip. The root is haumatic, and helps pains in the back. The herb is cephalic, neurotic, and arthritic. The juice or essence, with spirits of wine, stops all manner of fluxes, is excellent against palsy, gout, and pains, and distempers of the nerves and joints. A cataplasm of the juice, with rye meal, is good against luxations and ruptures. The flowers are good against palsy, numbness, convulsions, and cramps, being given in a sulphurous or a saline tincture, or an oily tincture, or an essence of the juice with spirits of wine. The juice of the flowers, or an ointment of the flower or its juice, cleanses the skin from spots, though the worthy old physician only gives a receipt for making essence as follows: Beat the whole plant well in a mortar; add to it an equal quantity of brandy or spirits of wine; close up tight in a large bolt-head, and set it to digest in a very gentle sand-heat for three months. Strain out all the liquor, which close up in a bolt-head again, and digest in a gentle sand-heat for two months more. Rather a troublesome and slow process this.

4. Geum urbanum he calls Caryophyllata, Herba benedicta, and Geum Plinii, and should be gathered, he says, in the middle of March, for then it smells sweetest, and is most aromatic. Hot and dry in the 2o, binding, strengthening, discussive, cephalic, neurotic, and cardiac. Is a good preservative against epidemic and contagious disease; helps digestion. The powder of the root, dose ʒj. The decoction, in wine, stops spitting of blood, dose ʒss to ʒjss. The saline tincture opens all obstructions of the viscera, dose ʒj to ʒiij.

Should Enivri wish to know the medical virtues of our wild plants, I have no doubt but that this worthy old physician will tell him what virtues they were considered to possess in his day, at least by himself; and I can assure him that 1195 of the English Physician's pages ascribe marvellous properties, not only to plants, but to animals, fish, and even the bones of a stag's heart.

R. J. Shaw.

JACOB BOBART.

(Vol. vii., pp. 428. 578.)

I am exceedingly obliged for the information afforded by Dr. E. F. Rimbault concerning the Bobarts. Can he give me any more communication concerning them? I am anxious to learn all I can. I have old Jacob Bobart's signature, bearing date 1659, in which he spells his name with an e instead of a, which seems to have been altered to an a by his son Jacob.

In Vertumnus it says Bobart's Hortes Siccus was in twenty volumes; but the Oxford Botanic Garden Guide only mentions twelve quarto volumes: which is correct, and where is it? In one of my copies of Vertumnus, a scrap of paper is fixed to p. 29., and the following is written upon it:

"The Hortus Siccus here alluded to was sold at the Rev. Mr. Hodgkinson's sale at Sarsden, to Mrs. De Salis, wife of Dr. De Salis."

Is there any pedigree of the family?

In a letter of Jno. Ray's to Mr. Aubrey is the following:

"I am glad that Mr. Bobart hath been so diligent in observing and making a collection of insects."

Is there any collection extant?

"He may give me much assistance in my intended Synopsis of our English Animals, and contribute much to the perfecting of it."

Did he do so?

Is the print of old Jacob Bobart, by W. Richardson, valuable?

Where can I pick up a print of him by Loggan del., Burghers sculp.? There is a portrait of Jacob Bobart the younger in Oxford Almanack for 1719; can I procure it?

H. T. Bobart.

HERALDIC QUERIES.

(Vol. vii., p. 571.)

Ceyrep is informed, 1st, That a shield in the form of a lozenge was appropriated exclusively to females, both spinsters and widows, in order to distinguish the sex of the bearer of a coat of arms. It is of doubtful origin, though supposed, from the form, to symbolise the spindle with yarn wound round it; of good authority, and not of very modern date. Many instances may be seen in Fuller, in the coats of arms appended to the dedications of the various chapters of his Church History. In sect. ii. book vi. p. 282. ed. 1655, he has separated the coats of man and wife, and placed them side by side; that of the latter upon a lozenge-shaped shield—Party per pale arg. and gules, two eagles displayed, counterchanged.

2ndly, No one has a right to inscribe a motto upon a garter or riband, except those dignified with one of the various orders of knighthood. For any other person to do so, is a silly assumption. The motto should be upon a scroll, either over the crest, or beneath the shield.

3rdly, I cannot find that it was ever the custom in this country for ecclesiastics to bear their paternal coat on an oval or circular shield. Forbidden, as they were, by the first council of Mascon, Bingham, vi. 421., in the Excerptions of Ecgbright, A.D. 740, Item 154., and the Constitutions of Othobon, A.D. 1268, can. 4., to bear arms for the purposes of warfare, it is a question whether any below the episcopal order ought, in strict right, to display any armorial ensigns at all. Archbishops and bishops bear the arms of their sees impaled (as of their spouse) with their own paternal coats; the latter probably only in right of their baronies. It is worthy of remark that, since the Reformation, and consequent marriage of bishops, there has been no official decision as to the bearing the arms of their wives, nor has any precedence been granted to the latter.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

DOOR-HEAD INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. vii., pp. 23. 190. 585.)

A few years ago I copied the following inscription from over the door of the residence of a parish priest at Cologne:

"Protege Deus parochiam hanc propter

Te et S.S. tuum, sicut protexisti

Jerusalem propter Te et David servum

tuum. IV Reg. xx. 6.

A.D. 1787."

From the gateway leading into the Villa Borghese, just outside of the "Porta del Popolo," at Rome, I copied the following:

"Villæ Burghesiæ Pincianæ
Custos hæc edico.
Quisquis es, si liber
legum compedes ne hic timeas.
Ite quo voles, carpite quæ voles,
Abite quando voles.
Exteris magis hæc parantur
quam hero.
In aureo sæculo ubi cuncta aurea
temporum securitas fecit
bene morato:
Hospiti ferreas leges præfigere
herus velat.
Sit hic pro amico, pro lege
honesta voluntas.
Verum si quis dolo malo, lubens, sciens
aureas urbanitatis leges fregerit,
Caveat ne sibi
Tesseram amicitiæ subiratus villicus
advorsum frangat."

On the entrance into the Villa Medici are the two following:

"Aditurus hortos hospes, in
summo ut vides
colle hortulorum consitos,
si forte quid
audes probare, scire debes
hos hero
herique amicis esse apertos
omnibus."

"Ingressurus hospes hosce quos
ingentibus
instruxit hortos sumptibus
suis Medices
Fernandus expleare visendo
licet:
atque his fruendo plura
Velle nondecet."

The following I copied from a gateway leading into a vineyard near the church of San Eusebio, at Rome:

"Tria sunt mirabilia;
Trinus et unus,
Deus et homo,
Virgo et mater."

Ceyrep.

CONSECRATED ROSES.

(Vol. vii., pp. 407. 480.)

I forward the accompanying observations on the origin of the Rosa d'Oro, in compliance with the request contained at page 480. of the 185th No. of "N. & Q.," in case they should not have come under your observation. They are to be found in Histoire de Lorraine, par R. P. Dom. Calmet: Nancy, 1745.

"Le troisième monastère fondé par les parens de St. Leon est l'Abbaye de Volfenheim, à deux lieues de Colmar, vers le Midi, et à deux lieues environs d'Egesheim, château des Comtes de Dasbourg, aujourd'hui (1745) inhabité, mais bien remarquable par ces vastes ruines, sur le sommet des montagnes qui dominent sur l'Alsace.

"Volfenheim étoit un village considérable, à une lieue et demi de Colmar. On voie encore aujourd'hui à une demi lieue de Sainte Croix dans les champs, l'église qui lui servoit autrefois de paroisse. L'abbaye étoit à quelque distance de là, au lieu où est aujourd'hui le bourg de Sainte Croix.

"Volfenheim ayant étoit [Quære, été] ruiné par les guerres, les habitans se sont insensiblement établis autour de l'abbaye, ce qui a formé un bon bourg, connu sous le nom de Sainte Croix; parceque l'abbaye étoit consacrée sous cette invocation. Le Pape Leon IX., dans la Bulle qu'il donna à ce monastère la première année de son pontificat, de J. C. 1049, nous apprend qu'il avoit été fondé par son père Hughes et sa mère Heilioilgdis, et ses frères Gerard et Hugues, qui étoient déjà décédés; il ajoûte que ce lieu lui étoit tombé par droit de succession; il le met sous la protection spéciale du Saint Siége, en sorte que nulle personne, de quelque qualité qu'elle soit, n'y exerce aucune autorité, mais qu'il jouisse d'une pleine liberté, et que l'abbesse et les religieuses puissent employer quelque evêque ils jugeroient apropos pour les bénédictions d'autels, et autres fonctions qui regardent le ministère épiscopal: que son neveu, le Comte Henri Seigneur d'Egesheim, en soit la voue, et après lui, l'aîné des Seigneurs d'Egesheim à perpétuité.

"Que si cette race vient à manquer, l'abbesse et le couvent choisiront quelque autre de la parenté de ces seigneurs, afin que l'avocatie ne soit pas de leur race, et qu'après la mort de Kuentza, qui en étoit abbesse, et à qui le Pape avoit donné la bénédiction abbatiale, les religieuses choisissent de leur communauté, ou d'ailleurs, celle qui leur paroîtra la plus propre, reservant toujours au Pape le droit de la bénir. Et en reconnaissance d'un privilège si singulier, l'abbesse donnera tous les ans au Saint Siége une Rose d'Or du poids de deux onces Romaines. Elle l'envoyera toute faite, ou en envoyera la matière préparée, de telle sorte qu'elle soit rendue au Pape huit jours auparavant qu'il la porte, c'est-à-dire, le Dimanche de Carême, où l'on chante à l'Introite, 'Oculi mei semper ad Dominum;' afin qu'il puisse bénir au Dimanche 'Lætare,' qui est le quatrième du Carême. Telle est l'origine de la Rose d'Or, que le Pape bénit encore aujourd'hui le quatrième Dimanche de Carême, nommé 'Lætare,' et qu'il envoye à quelque prince pour marque d'estime et de bienveillance. Ce jour-là, la station se fait à Sainte Croix de Jérusalem. Le Pape, accompagné des cardinaux, vetûs de couleur de rose, marche en cavalcade à l'eglise, tenant la Rose d'Or à la main. Il la porte, allant à l'autel, chargé de baume et de mare. Il la quitte au 'Confiteor,' et la reprend après 'l'Introite.' Il en fait la Bénédiction, et après l'Evangile, il monte en chaise et explique les propriétés de la rose. Après la Messe il retourne en cavalcade à son palais, ayant toujours la Rose en main et la couronne sur la tête. On appelle ce Dimanche 'Pascha rosata,' ou 'Lætare.'

"Nous avons encore un sermon du Pape Innocent III., composé en cette occasion, an commencement du treizième siècle. Le Pape Nicholas IV., en 1290, dans le dénombrement qu'il fait des églises qui doivent des redevances à l'église de Rome, met le monastère de Sainte Croix, diocèse de Basle, qui doit deux onces d'or pour la Rose d'Or, qui se bénit au Dimanche Lætere, Jérusalem."

P. P. P.

NOTES ON SERPENTS.

(Vol. ii., p. 130.; Vol. vi., p. 177.—Vol. iii., p. 490.; Vol. vi., pp. 42. 147.)

Loskiel, in his account of the Moravian missions to the North American Indians[5], tells us that,—

"The Indians are remarkably skilled in curing the bite of venomous serpents, and have found a medicine peculiarly adapted to the bite of each species. For example, the leaf of the Rattlesnake-root (Polygala senega) is the most efficacious remedy against the bite of this dreadful animal. God has mercifully granted it to grow in the greatest plenty in all parts most infested by the rattlesnake. It is very remarkable that this herb acquires its greatest perfection just at the time when the bite of these serpents is the most dangerous.... Virginian Snake-root (Aristolochia serpentaria) chewed, makes also an excellent poultice for wounds of this sort.... The fat of the serpent itself, rubbed into the wound, is thought to be efficacious. The flesh of the rattlesnake, dried and boiled to a broth, is said to be more nourishing than that of the viper, and of service in consumptions. Their gall is likewise used as medicine."—P. 146.

Pigs are excepted from the dreadful effects of their bite; they will even attack and eat them. It is said that, if a rattlesnake is irritated and cannot be revenged, it bites itself, and dies in a few hours:

"Wird dieses Thier zornig gemacht, und es kann sich nicht rächen, so beiszt es sich selbst, und in wenig Stunden ist es todt."—P. 113.[6]

"I have seen some of our Canadians eat these rattlesnakes repeatedly. The flesh is very white, and they assured me had a delicious taste. Their manner of dressing them is very simple.... Great caution, however, is required in killing a snake for eating; for if the first blow fails, or only partially stuns him, he instantly bites himself in different parts of the body, which thereby become poisoned, and would prove fatal to any person who should partake of it."—Cox's Adv. on the Columbia River: Lond. 1832, p. 74.

"Dr. Fordyce knew the black servant of an Indian merchant in America, who was fond of soup made of rattlesnakes, in which he always boiled the head along with the rest of the animal, without any regard to the poisons."—Rees's Cyclopædia.

"There is a religious sect in Africa, not far from Algiers, which eat the most venomous serpents alive; and certainly, it is said, without extracting their fangs. They declare they enjoy the privilege from their founder. The creatures writhe and struggle between their teeth; but possibly, if they do bite them, the bite is innocuous."

Mrs. Crowe, in the concluding chapter of her Night-side of Nature, gives the testimony of an eye-witness to "the singular phenomenon to be observed by placing a scorpion and a mouse together under a glass."

"It is known that stags renew their age by eating serpents; so the phœnix is restored by the nest of spices she makes to burn in. The pelican hath the same virtue, whose right foot, if it be put under hot dung, after three months a pelican will be bred from it. Wherefore some physicians, with some confections made of a viper and hellebore, and of some of the flesh of these creatures, do promise to restore youth, and sometimes they do it."[7]

On reading any of our old herbalists, one would imagine that serpents (and those of the worst kind) abounded in "Merrie Englande," and that they were the greatest bane of our lives. It is hard to stumble on a plant that is not an antidote to the bite of serpents. Our old herbals were compiled, however, almost entirely from the writings of the ancients, and from foreign sources. The ancients had a curious notion relative to the plant Basil (Oscimum basilicum), viz., "That there is a property in Basil to propagate scorpions, and that the smell thereof they are bred in the brains of men." Others deny this wonderful property, and make Basil a simple antidote.

"According unto Oribasius, physician unto Julian, the Africans, men best experienced in poisons, affirm, whosoever hath eaten Basil, although he be stung with a scorpion, shall feel no pain thereby, which is a very different effect, and rather antidotally destroying than seminally promoting its production."—Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors.

An old writer gives the following anecdote in point:

"Francis Marcio, an eminent statesman of Genoa, having sent an ambassador from that republic to the Duke of Milan, when he could neither procure an audience of leave from that prince, nor yet prevail with him to ratify his promises made to the Genoese, taking a fit opportunity, presented a handful of the herb Basil to the duke. The duke, somewhat surprised, asked what that meant? 'Sir,' replied the ambassador, 'this herb is of that nature, that if you handle it gently without squeezing, it will emit a pleasant and grateful scent; but if you squeeze and gripe it, 'twill not only lose its colour, but it will become productive of scorpions in a little time."—The Entertainer: London, 1717, p. 23.

Pliny tells us that a decoction from the leaves of the ash tree, given as a drink, is such a remedy that "nothing so soveraigne can be found against the poison of serpents;" and farther:

"That a serpent dare not come neare the shaddow of that tree. The serpent will chuse rather to goe into the fire than to flie from it to the leaves of the ash. A wonderful goodnesse of Dame Nature, that the ash doth bloome and flourish alwaies before that serpents come abroad, and never sheddeth leaves, but continueth green untill they be retired into their holes, and hidden within the ground."

The ancient opinion respecting the rooted antipathy between the ash and the serpent is not to be explained merely by the fact in natural history of its being an antidote, but it has a deeply mythical meaning. See, in the Prose Edda, the account of the ash Yggdrasill, and the serpents gnawing its roots. Loskiel corroborates Pliny as to the ash being an antidote:

"A decoction of the buds or bark of the white ash (Fraxinus carolina) taken inwardly is said to be a certain remedy against the effects of poison," i.e. of the rattlesnake.

Serpents afford Pliny a theme for inexhaustible wonders. The strangest of his relations perhaps is where he tells us that serpents, "when they have stung or bitten a man, die for very greefe and sorrow that they have done such a mischeefe." He makes a special exception, however, of the murderous salamander, who has no such "pricke and remorse of conscience," but would "destroy whole nations at one time," if not prevented. In this same book (xxix.) he gives a receipt for making the famous theriacum, or treacle, of vipers' flesh. Another strange notion of the ancients was "that the marrow of a man's backe bone will breed to a snake" (Hist. Nat., x. 66.). This perhaps, originally, had a mystic meaning; for a great proportion of the innumerable serpent stories have a deeper foundation than a credulous fancy or lively imagination.

Take, for instance, the wide-spread legend of the sea-serpent. Mr. Deane says,—

"The superstition of 'the serpent in the sea' was known to the Chinese, as we observed in the chapter on the 'Serpent-worship of China.' But it was doubtless, at one time, a very general superstition among the heathens, for we find it mentioned by Isaiah, ch. xxvii. 1., 'In that day the Lord, with his sore and great and strong sword, shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent, even Leviathan that crooked serpent: and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.'"

In Blackwood's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 645., vol. iv. pp. 33. 205., may be found some interesting papers on the "Scrakin, or Great Sea Serpent."

Mr. Deane's Worship of the Serpent (London, 1830); and The Cross and the Serpent, by the Rev. Wm. Haslam (London, 1849), are noble works both of them, and ought to be in the hands of every Christian scholar. In these two words, "Cross" and "Serpent," we have an epitome of the history of the world and the human race, as well as the ground-work for all our hopes and fears. In them are bound up the highest mysteries, the truest symbolism, the deepest realities, and our nearest and dearest interests.

Lord Bacon thus narrates the classical fable which accounts for the serpent's being gifted with the power of restoring youth:

"The gods, in a merry mood, granted unto men not only the use of fire, but perpetual youth also, a boon most acceptable and desirable. They being as it were overjoyed, did foolishly lay this gift of the gods upon the back of an ass, who, being wonderfully oppressed with thirst and near a fountain, was told by a serpent (which had the custody thereof) that he should not drink unless he would promise to give him the burthen that was on his back. The silly ass accepted the condition, and so the restoration of youth (sold for a draught of water) passed from men to serpents."—The Wisdom of the Ancients (Prometheus, xxvi.).

That this, as well as the whole of the legend relating to Prometheus, is a confused account of an early tradition relative to the Fall of Man, and his forfeiture of immortality, is obvious to any unprejudiced mind. Lord Bacon's explanation shows that he has been overreached by his fancy and ingenuity.

In all the ancient mysteries, the serpent was more or less conspicuously introduced, and always as a symbol of the invigorating or active power of nature. The serpent was an emblem of the sun. Solar, Phallic, and Serpent worship, are all forms of a single worship.[8] The Hindu Boodh, Chinese Fo, Egyptian Osiris, Northern Woden, Mexican Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent), are one and the same. (See the American Archæological Researches, No. 1.; The Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America, by E. G. Squier: New York, 1851.)

In Hindostan, to this day, we have the Chaudravanasas and the Snaryavanasas, worshippers of the moon, the aqueous or female; and of the sun, the igneous or male principle. The Saivas conjoin the two. Clemens Alexandrinus has a curious remark, referring to the calling on Evoe or Eva in the orgies of Bacchus; he says:

"The symbol in the orgies of Bacchus is a consecrated serpent; and, indeed, if we pay attention to the strict sense of the Hebrew, the name Evia, aspirated, signifies female serpent."

In my list of saints who are represented with a dragon or serpent beneath their feet, I omitted St. Hilary:

"He is usually represented with three books. In Callot's Images he is treading on serpents, and accompanied by the text Numb. xxi. 7. Both these emblems allude to his opposition to Arianism; the books signifying the treatises he wrote against it, and the serpents the false doctrines and heresies which he overthrew." Calendar of the Anglican Church Illustrated: London, 1851, p. 37.

In Didron's splendid work (the Iconographie) we have several references to ancient representations of our blessed Lord treading the dragon under foot; and sometimes the lion, the asp, and the basilisk are added. (See Ps. xci. 13.)

The Conception is usually represented in Christian art by a figure of Mary setting her foot, as second Eve, on the head of the prostrate serpent (in allusion to Gen. iii. 15.), and thus we find it in Callot's Images.

"Not seldom, in a series of subjects from the Old Testament, the pendant to Eve holding the apple is Mary crushing the head of the fiend: and thus the bane and antidote are both before us." (See Mrs. Jameson's Legends of the Madonna.)

Eirionnach.

Footnote 5:(return)

The title of this curious book is, Geschichte der Mission der evangelischen Brüder unter den Indianern in Nordamerika, durch Georg H. Loskiel: Barby, 1789, 8vo., pp. 783. Latrobe's translation of this book was published Lond. 1794.

Footnote 6:(return)

This reminds one of the notion respecting

"The scorpion girt with fire,"

immortalised by Lord Byron's famous simile.

Footnote 7:(return)

Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art and Nature; being the Summe and Substance of Naturall Philosophy methodically digested: London, 1661.

Footnote 8:(return)

In O'Brien's work on The Round Towers of Ireland, London, 1834, may be found much curious matter on this subject; and a good deal of light is thrown on the horrors of Serpent or Boodhist worship. It is, however, a wild and irreverent book, and by no means to be recommended to the general reader, independently of the nature of its details. Mr. Payne Knight's book is too well known to need mention here.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Early Notice of the Camera Obscura.—I send you an early notice of the camera obscura, which is to be found in vol. vi. of the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres for September, 1686, p. 1016. It is taken from a letter of Mons. Laurenti, médecin, of Boulogne, "Sur l'érection des espèces dans une chambre optique."

"C'est ainsi qu'on nomme one chambre exactement fermée partout, si ce n'est dans un endroit par où on laisse entrer la lumière, afin de voir peints, et situés à rebours, sur un morceau de papier blanc, les objets de dehors qui respondent à ce trou, auquel il faut mettre un verre convexe. On a souhaité, pour donner plus d'agrément à ce spectacle, que les objets se peignissent sur ce papier selon leur véritable situation; et pour cet effet on a cherché des expédiens qui redressassent les espèces avant qu'elles parvinssent au foier du verre, c'est-à-dire, sur le papier. L'auteur raporte '10' de ces expédiens, et trouve dans chacun d'eux quelque chose d'incommode, mais enfin il en raporte un autre, qui est exempt de toutes ces incommoditéz, et qui, par le moien d'un prisme, au travers duquel il faut regarder les images peints sur le papier, les montre dans leur situation droite, et augmente même la vivacité de leurs couleurs. C'est le hazard qui a découvert ce phénomène."

This letter is to be found at length in the Miscellanea Curiosa, sive Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum Germanicarum Academiæ Naturæ curiosorum decuria II. annus quartus, anni 1685 continens celeberrimorum Virorum observationes medicas: Norimbergæ, 1686, in 4to. It may perhaps be worth consulting, if it were only to know what the ten rejected expedients are.

Anon.

Queries on Dr. Diamond's Collodion Process.—Will you oblige me by informing Dr. Diamond through your valuable publication, that I am, in common with many others, extremely indebted to him for his collodion, and would esteem it a favour if he would answer the following Queries, viz.:

1st. He says, in answer to a previous Query, that "nitrate of potassa" is not formed in his process. Now I wish to ask if (as the iodide of silver is redissolved in iodide of potassium) it is not formed when the plate is plunged into the nitrate silver bath, as the nitrate decomposes the iodide of potassium?

2nd. How long will the collodion, according to his formulæ, keep, as collodion made with iodide of silver generally decomposes quickly.

3rdly. Why does he prohibit washed ether?

4thly. Does he think cyanide of potassium would do as well as the iodide, to redissolve the iodide of silver, iodide of potassium being at present so dear?

5thly. In his paper process, does not the soaking in water after iodizing merely take away a portion of iodides of silver and potassium from the paper; or, if not, what end is answered by it?

W. F. E.

Baths for the Collodion Process.—Having lately been assured, by a gentleman of scientific attainments, that the sensitiveness of the prepared collodion plate depends rather upon the strength of the nitrate of silver bath than on the collodion, I am desirous of asking how far the experience of your correspondents confirms this statement. My informant assured me, that if, instead of using a solution of thirty grains of nitrate of silver to the ounce of water for the bath, which is the proportion recommended by Messrs. Archer, Horne, Delamotte, Diamond, &c., a sixty grain solution be substituted, the formation of the image would be the work of the fraction of a second. This seems to me so important as to deserve being brought under the notice of photographers—especially at this busy season—without a moment's delay; and I therefore record the statement at once, as, from circumstances with which I need not encumber your pages, I shall not have an opportunity of trying any experiment upon the point for a week or two.

Upon referring to the authorities on the subject of the best solution for baths, I have been struck with their uniformity. One exception only has presented itself, which is in a valuable paper by Mr. Thomas in the 6th Number of the Journal of the Photographic Society. That gentleman directs the bath to be prepared in the following manner:

Into a 20 oz. stoppered bottle, put—

Nitrate of silver 1 oz.

Distilled water 10 oz.

Dissolve.

Iodide of potassium 5 grs.

Distilled water 1 dr.

Dissolve.

On mixing these two solutions, a precipitate of iodide of silver is formed. Place the bottle containing this mixture in a saucepan of hot water, keep it on the hob for about twelve hours, shake it occasionally, now and then removing the stopper. The bath is now perfectly saturated with iodide of silver; when cold, filter through white filtering paper, and add—

Alcohol 2 drs.

Sulphuric ether 1 dr.

The prepared glass is to remain in the bath about eight or ten minutes. Now, is this bath applicable to all collodion, or only to that prepared by Mr. Thomas; and if the former, what is the rationale of its beneficial action?

A Beginner.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Mitigation of Capital Punishment to a Forger (Vol. vii., p. 573.).—If your correspondent H. B. C. really wishes to be released from his hard work in hunting up the truth of my and other narratives of the mitigation of capital punishment to forgers, I shall be happy to receive a note from him with his name and address, when I will give him the name and address of my informant in return. By this means I may be able to relieve his shoulder from a portion of its burden, and myself from any farther imputations of "mythic accompaniments," &c., which are unpalatable phrases even when coming from a gentleman who only discloses his initials.

Alfred Gatty.

Ecclesfield.

Chronograms (Vol. v., p. 585.) and Anagrams (Vol. iv., p. 226).—Though we have ceased to practise these "literary follies," they are not without interest; and you will perhaps think it worth while to add the following to your list:

"Hugo Grotius, his Sophompaneas.

By FranCIs GoLDsMIth."

has no date on the title-page, the real date of 1652 being supplied by the chronogram, which is a better one than most of those quoted in "N. & Q.," inasmuch as all the numerical letters are employed, and it is consequently not dependent on the typography.

James Howell concludes his Parly of Beasts as follows:

"Gloria lausque Deo sæCLorVM in sæcVla sunto.

A chronogrammaticall verse which includes not onely this year, 1660, but hath numericall letters enow [an illustration, by the way, of enow as expressive of number] to reach above a thousand years farther, untill the year 2867."

Query, How is this made out? And are there any other letters employed as numerical than the M, D, C, L, V, and I? If not, I can only make Howell's chronogram equivalent to 1927.

The author, in his German Diet, after narrating the death of Charles, son of Philip II. of Spain, says:

"If you desire to know the yeer, this chronogram will tell you:

fILIVs ante DIeM patrIos InqVIrIt In annos,"

which would represent the date of 1568.

The same work contains an anagram on "Frere Jacques Clement," the murderer of Henry III. of France: "C'est l'enfer qui m'a créé."

J. F. M.

Abigail (Vol. iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94. 450.).—Can it be shown that this word was in general use, as meaning a "lady's maid," before the time of Queen Anne. It probably was so used; but I have always thought it likely that it became much more extensively employed, after Abigail Hill, Lady Masham, became the favourite of that queen. She was, I believe, a poor cousin of Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, and early in life was employed by her in the humble capacity of lady's maid. After she had supplanted the haughty duchess, it is not unlikely that the Whigs would take a malicious pleasure in keeping alive the recollection of the early fortunes of the Tory favourite, and that they would be unwilling to lose the opportunity of speaking of a lady's maid as anything else but an "Abigail." Swift, however, in his use of the word, could have no such design, as he was on the best of terms with the Mashams, of whose party he was the very life and soul.

H. T. Riley.

Burial in unconsecrated Ground (Vol. vi., p. 448.).—Susanna, the wife of Philip Carteret Webb, Esq., of Busbridge, in Surrey, died at Bath in March, 1756, and was, at her own desire, buried with two of her children in a cave in the grounds at Busbridge; it being excavated by a company of soldiers then quartered at Guildford. Their remains were afterwards disinterred and buried in Godalming Church.

H. T. Riley.

"Cob" and "Conners" (Vol. vii., pp. 234. 321.).—These names are not synonymous, nor are they Irish words. It is the pier at Lyme Regis, and not the harbour, which bears the name of the Cob. In the "Y Gododin" of Aneurin, a British poem supposed to have been written in the sixth century, the now obsolete word chynnwr occurs in the seventy-sixth stanza. In a recent translation of this poem, by the Rev. John Williams Ab Ithel, M.A., this word is rendered, apparently for the sake of the metre, "shore of the sea." The explanation given in a foot-note is, "Harbour cynwr from cyn dwfr." On the shore of the estuary of the Dee, between Chester and Flint, on the Welsh side of the river, there is a place called "Connah's Quay." It is probable that the ancient orthography of the name was Conner.

Cob, I think, is also a British word,—cop, a mound. All the ancient earth-works which bear this name, of which I have knowledge, are of a circular form, except a lone embankment called The Cop, which has been raised on the race-course at Chester, to protect it from the land-floods and spring-tides of the river Dee.

N. W. S. (2.)

Coleridge's Unpublished MSS. (Vol. iv., p. 411.; Vol. vi., p. 533.).—Theophylact, at the first reference, inquired whether we are "ever likely to receive from any member of Coleridge's family, or from his friend Mr. J. H. Green, the fragments, if not the entire work, of his Logosophia." Agreeing with your correspondent, that "we can ill afford to lose a work the conception of which engrossed much of his thoughts," I repeated the Query in another form, at the second reference (supra), grounding it upon an assurance of Sara Coleridge, in her introduction to the Biographia Literaria, that the fragment on Ideas would hereafter appear, as a sequel to the Aids to Reflection. Whether this fragment be identical with the Logosophia, or, as I suspect, a distinct essay, certain it is that nothing of the kind has ever been published.

From an interesting conversation I had with Dr. Green in a railway carriage, on our return from the Commemoration at Oxford, I learned that he has in his possession, (1.) A complete section of a work on The Philosophy of Nature which he took down from the mouth of Coleridge, filling a large volume; (2.) A complete treatise on Logic; and (3.) If I did not mistake, a fragment on Ideas. The reason Dr. Green assigns for their not having been published, is, that they contain nothing but what has already seen the light in the Aids to Reflection, The Theory of Life, and the Treatise on Method. This appears to me a very inadequate reason for withholding them from the press. That the works would pay, there can be no doubt. Besides the editing of these MSS., who is so well qualified as Dr. Green to give us a good biography of Coleridge?

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

Selling a Wife (Vol. vii., p. 602.).—A case of selling a wife actually and bonâ fide happened in the provincial town in which I reside, about eighteen years ago. A man publicly sold his wife at the market cross for 15l.: the buyer carried her away with him some seven miles off, and she lived with him till his death. The seller and the buyer are both now dead, but the woman is alive, and is married to a third (or a second) husband. The legality of the transaction has, I believe, some chance of being tried, as she now claims some property belonging to her first husband (the seller), her right to which is questioned in consequence of her supposed alienation by sale; and I am informed that a lawyer has been applied to in the case. Of course there can be little doubt as to the result.

Sc.

Life (Vol. vii., pp. 429. 608.).—Compare with the lines quoted by your correspondents those of Moore, entitled "My Birthday," the four following especially:

"Vain was the man, and false as vain,

Who said[9], 'Were he ordain'd to run

His long career of life again,

He would do all that he had done.'"

Many a man would gladly live his life over again, were he allowed to bring to bear on his second life the experience he had acquired in that past. For in the grave there is no room, either for ambition or repentance; and the degree of our happiness or misery for eternity is proportioned to the state of preparation or unpreparation in which we leave this world. Instead of many a man, I might have said most good men; and of the others, all who have not passed the rubicon of hope and grace. The vista of the past, however, appears a long and dreary retrospect, and any future is hailed as a relief: yet on second and deeper thought, we would mount again the rugged hill of life, and try for a brighter prospect, a higher eminence.

Jarltzberg.

Footnote 9:(return)

Fontenelle.

"Immo Deus mihi si dederit renovare juventam,

Utve iterum in cunis possim vagire; recusem."

Isaac Hawkins Browne, De Animi Immortalitate, lib. i., near the end.

(See Selecta Poemata Anglorum Latina, iii. 251.)

F. W. J.

Passage of Thucydides on the Greek Factions (Vol. vii., p. 594.).—The passage alluded to by Sir A. Alison appears to be the celebrated description of the moral effects produced by the conflicts of the Greek factions, which is subjoined to the account of the Corcyræan sedition, iii. 82. The quotation must, however, have been made from memory, and it is amplified and expanded from the original. The words adverted to seem to be:

"μέλλησις δὲ προμηθὴς δειλία εὐπρεπὴς, τὸ δὲ σῶφρον τοῦ ἀνάνδρου πρόσχημα, καὶ τὸ πρὸς ἅπαν ξυνετὸν ἐπὶ πᾶν ἀργόν."

Thucydides, however, proceeds to say that the cunning which enabled a man to plot with success against an enemy, or still more to discover his hostile purposes, was highly esteemed.

L.

Archbishop King (Vol. vii., p. 430.).—A few days since I met with the following passage in a brief sketch of Kane O'Hara, in the last number of the Irish Quarterly Review:

"In the extremely meagre published notices of O'Hara (the celebrated burletta writer), no reference has been made to his skill as an artist, of which we have a specimen in his etching of Dr. William King, archbishop of Dublin, in a wig and cap, of which portrait a copy has been made by Richardson."

This extract is taken from one of a very interesting series of papers upon "The Streets of Dublin."

Abhba.

Devonianisms (Vol. vii., p. 544.).—Pilm, Forrell.—Pillom is the full word, of which pilm is a contraction. It appears to have been derived from the British word pylor, dust. Forell is an archaic name for the cover of a book. The Welsh appear to have adopted it from the English, as their name for a bookbinder is fforelwr, literally, one who covers books. I may mention another Devonianism. The cover of a book is called its healing. A man who lays slates on the roof of a house is, in Devonshire, called a hellier.

N. W. S. (2.)

Perseverant, Perseverance (Vol. vii., p. 400.).—Can Mr. Arrowsmith supply any instances of the verb persever (or perceyuer, as it is spelt in the 1555 edition of Hawes, M. i. col. 2.), from any other author? and will he inform us when this "abortive hog" and his litter became extinct.

In explaining speare (so strangely misunderstood by the editor of Dodsley), he should, I think, have added, that it was an old way of writing spar. In Shakspeare's Prologue to Troilus and Cressida, it is written sperr. Sparred, quoted by Richardson from the Romance of the Rose, and Troilus and Creseide, is in the edition of Chaucer referred to by Tyrwhitt, written in the Romance "spered," and in Troilus "sperred."

Q.

Bloomsbury.

"The Good Old Cause" (Vol. vi., passim).—Mrs. Behn, who gained some notoriety for her licentious writings even in Charles II.'s days, was the author of a play called The Roundheads, or the Good Old Cause: London, 1682. In the Epilogue she puts into the mouth of the Puritans the following lines respecting the Royalists:

"Yet then they rail'd against The Good Old Cause;

Rail'd foolishly for loyalty and laws:

But when the Saints had put them to a stand,

We left them loyalty, and took their land:

Yea, and the pious work of Reformation

Rewarded was with plunder and sequestration."

The following lines are quoted by Mr. Teale in his Life of Viscount Falkland, p. 131.:

"The wealthiest man among us is the best:

No grandeur now in Nature or in book

Delights us—repose, avarice, expense,

This is the idolatry; and these we adore:

Plain living and high thinking are no more;

The homely beauty of The Good Old Cause

Is gone: our peace and fearful innocence,

And pure religion breathing household laws."

Whence did Mr. Teale get these lines? Either The Good Old Cause is here used in a peculiar sense, or Mr. Teale makes an unhappy use of the quotation.

Jarltzberg.

Saying of Pascal (Vol. vii., p. 596.).—In reply to the question of W. Fraser, I would refer him to Pascal's sixteenth Provincial Letter, where, in the last paragraph but one, we read,—

"Mes révérends pères, mes lettres n'avaient pas accoutumé de se suivre de si près, ni d'être si étendues. Le peu de temps que j'ai eu a été cause de l'un et de l'autre. Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parceque je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. La raison qui m'a obligé de hâter vous est mieux connue qu'à moi."

R. E. T.

Paint taken off of old Oak (Vol. vii., p. 620.).—About twenty-six years ago, by the adoption of a very simple process recommended by Dr. Wollaston, the paint was entirely removed from the screen of carved oak which fills the north end of the great hall at Audley End, and the wood reassumed its original colour and brilliancy. The result was brought about by the application of soft-soap, laid on of the thickness of a shilling over the whole surface of the oak, and allowed to remain there two or three days; at the end of which it was washed off with plenty of cold water. I am aware that potash has been often tried with success for the same purpose; but, in many instances, unless it is used with due caution, the wood becomes of a darker hue, and has the appearance of having been charred. It is worthy of remark, that Dr. Wollaston made the suggestion with great diffidence, not having, as he said, had any practical experience of the effect of such an application.

Braybrooke.

Passage in the "Tempest" (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337. 429.).—As a parallel to the expression "most busy least" (meaning "least busy" emphatically), I would suggest the common expression of the Northumbrians, "Far over near" (signifying "much too near").

H. T. Riley.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The Committee appointed by the Society of Antiquaries to consider what improvements could be introduced into its management, has at length issued a Report; and we are glad to find that the alterations suggested by them have been frankly adopted by the Council. The principal changes proposed refer to the election of the Council; the having but one Secretary, who is not to be a member of that body; the appointment of Local Secretaries; the retirement annually of the Senior Vice-President; and lastly, that which more than anything else must operate for the future benefit of the Society, the appointment of a third Standing Committee, to be called The Executive Committee, whose duty shall be "to superintend the correspondence of the Society on all subjects relating to literature and antiquities, to direct any antiquarian operations or excavations carried on by the Society, to examine all papers sent for reading, all objects sent for exhibition, and to assist the Director generally in taking care that the publications of the Society are consistent with its position and importance." It is easy to see that if a proper selection be made of the Fellows to serve on this Committee, their activity, and the renewed interest which will be thereby awakened in the proceedings of the Society, will ensure for the Thursday Evening Meetings a regular supply of objects for exhibition, and papers for reading, worthy of the body—and therefore unlike many which we have too frequently heard, and to which, but for the undeserved imputation which we should seem to cast upon our good friend Sir Henry Ellis, might be applied, with a slight alteration, that couplet of Mathias which tells—

"How o'er the bulk of these transacted deeds

Sir Henry pants, and d——ns 'em as he reads."

We have now little doubt that better days are in store for the Society of Antiquaries.

The Annual Meeting of the Archæological Institute commences at Chichester on Tuesday next, under the patronage of the Dukes of Norfolk and Richmond, and the Bishop of Chichester, and the Presidentship of Lord Talbot de Malahide. There is a good bill of fare provided in the shape of Lectures on the Cathedral, by Professor Willis; excursions to Boxgrove Priory, Halnaker, Godwood, Cowdray, Petworth, Pevensey, Amberley, Shoreham, Lewes, and Arundel; excavations on Bow Hill; Meetings of the Sections of History, Antiquities, and Architecture; and, what we think will be one of the pleasantest features of the programme, the Annual Meeting of the Sussex Archæological Society, in the proceedings of which the Members of the Institute are invited to participate.

Books Received.—A Glossary of Provincialisms in Use in the County of Sussex, by W. Durrant Cooper, second edition: a small but very valuable addition to our provincial glossaries, with an introduction well worth the reading. We shall be surprised if the meeting of the Institute this year in Sussex does not furnish Mr. Cooper with materials for a third and enlarged edition.—The Traveller's Library, No. 44., A Tour on the Continent by Rail and Road, by John Barrow: a brief itinerary of dates and distances, showing what may be done in a two months' visit to the Continent.—No. 45. Swiss Men and Swiss Mountains, by Robert Ferguson: a very graphic and well-written narrative of a tour in Switzerland, which deserves a corner in the knapsack of the "intending" traveller.—The Essays, or Counsels Civil and Moral, by Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Alban, edited by Thomas Markby: a cheap edition of this valuable "handbook for thinking men," produced by the ready sale which has attended The Advancement of Learning by the same editor.—Reynard the Fox, after the German Version of Göthe, with Illustrations by J. Wolf, Part VII., in which the translator carries on the story to The Outlawry in well-tuned verse.—Cyclopædia Bibliographica, Part X. This tenth Part concludes the first half of the volume of authors and their works; and the punctuality with which the Parts have succeeded each other is a sufficient pledge that we shall see this most useful library companion completed in a satisfactory manner.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

Moore's Melodies. 15th Edition.

Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses (ed. Bliss). 4 vols. 4to. 1813-20.

The Complaynts of Scotland. 8vo. Edited by Leyden. 1804.

Shakspeare's Plays. Vol. V. of Johnson and Steevens's edition, in 15 vols. 8vo. 1739.

Circle of the Seasons. 12mo. London, 1828. (Two Copies.)

Jones' Account of Aberystwith. Trevecka, 8vo. 1779.

M. C. H. Broemel's Fest-Tanzen der Ersten Christen. Jena, 1705.

Cooper's Account of Public Records. 8vo. 1832. Vol. I.

Passionael efte dat Levent der Heiligen. Basil, 1522.

Lord Lansdowne's Works. Vol. I. Tonson, 1736.

James Baker's Picturesque Guide to the Local Beauties of Wales. Vol. I. 4to. 1794.

Sanders' History of Shenstone in Staffordshire. J. Nichols, London, 1794. Two Copies.

Herbert's Carolina Threnodia. 8vo. 1702.

Theobold's Shakspeare Restored. 4to. 1726.

*** Correspondents sending Lists of Books Wanted are requested to send their names.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to Mr. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

J. M. G., who writes respecting the Leigh Peerage, is informed that we have a private letter for him. How can it be addressed to him?

W. W. (Malta) has our best thanks for his letter of the 25th of June. His suggestion will be adopted; but we shall shortly have the pleasure of addressing a private communication to him.

Shakspeare Criticism. We have to apologise to many friends and Correspondents for the postponement of their communications. As Soon as the Index to Vol. vii. is published, we shall take steps to get out of these arrears.

C. P. F. The Ch in the name of Chobham is soft. There is a Cobham within a few miles of the Camp.

Iodide (June 24th). There is much care required in iodizing paper; we have no hesitation in saying at present the subject has not met with sufficient attention. When the iodized paper is immersed in water, it is some time before it assumes a yellow colour. This may be accelerated by often changing the water. The brightness of the colour is by no means an index of its degree of sensitiveness—on the contrary, paper of a bright yellow colour is more apt to brown than one of a pale primrose. Too bright a yellow would also indicate an insufficient soaking; and suffering the paper to remain longer than is needful not only lessens its sensitive powers, but does much damage by removing all the size.

H. N. (Kingston). Violet-coloured glass, ground on one side, may be obtained at 11d. per square foot of Messrs. Forest and Brownley, Lime Street, Liverpool. It may also be had in London, but the price charged is much higher. This glass obstructs just a sufficient degree of light, and is most agreeable to the sitter; not much advantage accrues from the use of large sheets, and it is objectionable for price. No doubt such an application as you mention would be useful; but, from the difficulty there is in keeping out the wet from a glass roof, it would be very objectionable. Beyond a reference to our advertising columns, we cannot enter upon the subject of the prices of chemicals and their purity. In making gun cotton, the time of immersion in the acids must be the same for twenty grains as for any large quantity: when good, there is a peculiar crispness in the cotton, and it is quite soluble in the ether. If our Correspondent (who expresses so much earnestness of success) will forward his address, he shall receive a small portion made according to Dr. Diamond's formulary, which we find extremely soluble; and he can compare it with that of his own production.

F. M. (Malta). 1st. We are informed by Dr. Diamond that however beautiful the results obtained by others in the use of Canson's paper, in his hands he has found no certainty in its action, and, for iodized paper for negatives, far inferior to the best English papers. If the salts of gold are to be used, deep tints are very readily obtained by the French papers. The propriety of using gold is very questionable, not only as affecting the after permanence of the picture, but from the strong contrasts generally produced being very offensive to an artist's eye. 2ndly. Xyloidine may be iodized precisely the same as collodion, but no advantage whatever is gained from its use. A collodion for the taking of positives on glass should be differently made to one for negative pictures. There should be less of the iodides contained in it, and it should be more fluid. When this is the case, the image is never washed out by the hypo., and the delineation is equal in minuteness to any Daguerreotype on metal plates, as has been shown by the specimens of the reduction of printing exhibited by Mr. Rosling at the Society of Arts' Exhibition, where the letters were reduced to 1-750th of an inch, or less than half the diameter of a human hair. If the protonitrate of iron properly prepared be used in the development, the deposit assumes the beautiful appearance of dead white silver, having none of the reflecting qualities of the metal plates.

C. E. F. (June 13th). The spots in the specimen sent depend upon minute substances in your collodion not receiving the action of the nitrate of silver bath; and you will find this upon looking through a prepared plate after it has been in the nitrate bath, and previously to its ever having been in the camera. They may be iodide or iodate of silver, or small crystals of nitrate of potash. If the former, add a little piece of iodide of potassium, say ten grains to two ounces of collodion; or if the latter, it would depend upon a defective washing of the gun cotton by which all the soluble salts have not been removed: thus more care must be used. We would recommend you to use an entirely new bath and stronger, four ounces of hypo. to a pint: it is evident that your very nice specimens have been spoiled by the stains of the bath. Allow us again to draw your attention to the process given by Mr. Pollock; we have seen most satisfactory pictures produced by it.

R. H. Chattock (Solihull). The "freckled" appearance which you mention in your positives in all probability depends upon the action of the light upon the silver, which still remains in your proof. We have often found it to be the case when old hyposulphite of soda is used, and when the strength of the bath is becoming weak and doubtful. It is certainly a safe process to soak the picture in clean water for an hour or two, the light being excluded previous to the immersion into the hypo.; and the water extracting a large portion of the solutions remaining on the paper, the after application of the hypo. need not be so long continued, whereby the tone of the picture is not so much lowered. Your own observation, that a piece of Whatman's paper being merely divided, and one point exhibiting the defects and the other not, at once negatives the idea that the size in the paper has been affected.

The Index to our Seventh Volume will be ready on Saturday next, the 16th.

A few complete sets of "Notes and Queries," Vols. i. to vi., price Three Guineas, may now be had; for which early application is desirable.

"Notes and Queries" is published at noon on Friday, so that the Country Booksellers may receive Copies in that night's parcels, and deliver them to their Subscribers on the Saturday.

The Twenty-eighth Edition.

NEUROTONICS, or the Art of Strengthening the Nerves, containing Remarks on the influence of the Nerves upon the Health of Body and Mind, and the means of Cure for Nervousness, Debility, Melancholy, and all Chronic Diseases, by DR. NAPIER, M.D. London: HOULSTON & STONEMAN. Price 4d., or Post Free from the Author for Five Penny Stamps.

"We can conscientiously recommend 'Neurotonics,' by Dr. Napier, to the careful perusal of our invalid readers."—John Bull Newspaper, June 5, 1852.

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CLERICAL, MEDICAL, AND GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY.

Established 1824.

FIVE BONUSES have been declared: at the last in January, 1852, the sum of 131,125l. was added to the Policies, producing a Bonus varying with the different ages from 24½ to 55 per cent. on the Premiums paid during the five years, or from 5l. to 12l. 10s. per cent. on the Sum Assured.

The small share of Profit divisible in future among the Shareholders being now provided for, the ASSURED will hereafter derive all the benefits obtainable from a Mutual Office, WITHOUT ANY LIABILITY OR RISK OF PARTNERSHIP.

POLICIES effected before the 30th June next, will be entitled, at the next Division, to one year's additional share of Profits over later Assurers.

On Assurances for the whole of Life only one half of the Premiums need be paid for the first five years.

INVALID LIVES may be Assured at rates proportioned to the risk.

Claims paid thirty days after proof of death, and all Policies are Indisputable except in cases of fraud.

Tables of Rates and forms of Proposal can be obtained of any of the Society's Agents, or of

GEORGE H. PINCKARD, Resident Secretary.

99. Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London.

UNITED KINGDOM LIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY: established by Act of Parliament in 1834.—8. Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, London.

HONORARY PRESIDENTS.

Earl of Courtown
Earl Leven and Melville
Earl of Norbury
Earl of Stair
Viscount Falkland
Lord Elphinstone
Lord Belhaven and Stenton
Wm. Campbell, Esq.,
of Tillichewan

LONDON BOARD.

Chairman.—Charles Graham, Esq.
Deputy-Chairman.—Charles Downes, Esq.

H. Blair Avarne, Esq.
E. Lennox Boyd, Esq.,
F.S.A., Resident.
C. Berwick Curtis, Esq.
William Fairlie, Esq.
D. Q. Henriques, Esq.
J. G. Henriques, Esq.
F. C. Maitland, Esq.
William Railton, Esq.
F. H. Thomson, Esq.
Thomas Thorby, Esq.

MEDICAL OFFICERS.

Physician.—Arthur H. Hassall, Esq., M.D., 8. Bennett Street, St. James's.
Surgeon.—F. H. Tomson, Esq., 48. Berners Street.

The Bonus added to Policies from March, 1834, to December 31, 1847, is as follows:—

Sum Assured | Time Assured. | Sum added to Policy | Sum Payable at Death.
In 1841. | In 1848.
£    |  | £   s. d. | £   s. d. | £   s. d.
5000 | 14 years | 683   6  8  | 787 10  0  | 6470 16  8 
* 1000 |   7 years | — | 157 10  0  | 1157 10  0 
500 |   1 year | — | 11   5  0  | 511   5  0 

* Example.—At the commencement of the year 1841, a person aged thirty took out a Policy for 1000l., the annual payment for which is 24l. 1s. 8d.; in 1847 he had paid in premiums 168l. 11s. 8d.; but the profits being 2¼ per cent. per annum on the sum insured (which is 22l. 10s. per annum for each 1000l.) he had 157l. 10s. added to the Policy, almost as much as the premiums paid.

The Premiums, nevertheless, are on the most moderate scale, and only one-half need be paid for the first five years, when the Insurance is for Life. Every information will be afforded on application to the Resident Director.

PURE NERVOUS or MIND COMPLAINTS.—If the readers of Notes and Queries, who suffer from depression of spirits, confusion, headache, blushing, groundless fears, unfitness for business or society, blood to the head, failure of memory, delusions, suicidal thoughts, fear of insanity, &c., will call on, or correspond with, REV. DR. WILLIS MOSELEY, who, out of above 22,000 applicants, knows not fifty uncured who have followed his advice, he will instruct them how to get well, without a fee, and will render the same service to the friends of the insane.—At home from 11 to 3.

18. BLOOMSBURY STREET, BEDFORD SQUARE.

WESTERN LIFE ASSURANCE AND ANNUITY SOCIETY.

3. PARLIAMENT STREET, LONDON.

Founded A.D. 1842.

Directors.

H. E. Bicknell, Esq.
T. S. Cocks, Jun. Esq., M.P.
G. H. Drew, Esq.
W. Evans, Esq.
W. Freeman, Esq.
F. Fuller, Esq.
J. H. Goodhart, Esq.

T. Grissell, Esq.
J. Hunt, Esq.
J. A. Lethbridge, Esq.
E. Lucas, Esq.
J. Lys Seager, Esq.
J. B. White, Esq.
J. Carter Wood, Esq.

Trustees.—W. Whateley, Esq., Q.C.; George Drew, Esq., T. Grissell, Esq.
Physician.—William Rich. Basham, M.D.
Bankers.—Messrs. Cocks, Biddulph, and Co., Charing Cross.

VALUABLE PRIVILEGE.

POLICIES effected in this Office do not become void through temporary difficulty in paying a Premium, as permission is given upon application to suspend the payment at interest, according to the conditions detailed in the Prospectus.

Specimens of Rates of Premium for Assuring 100l., with a Share in three-fourths of the Profits:—

Age | £ | s. | d. | Age | £ | s. | d.
  17 | 1 | 14 | 4 |   32 | 2 | 10 | 8
  22 | 1 | 18 | 8 |   37 | 2 | 18 | 6
  27 | 2 | 4 | 5 |   42 | 3 | 8 | 2

ARTHUR SCRATCHLEY, M.A., F.R.A.S., Actuary.

Now ready, price 10s. 6d., Second Edition, with material additions, INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENT and EMIGRATION: being a TREATISE ON BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETIES, and on the General Principles of Land Investment, exemplified in the Cases of Freehold Land Societies, Building Companies, &c. With a Mathematical Appendix on Compound Interest and Life Assurance. By ARTHUR SCRATCHLEY, M.A., Actuary to the Western Life Assurance Society, 3. Parliament Street, London.

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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE AND AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE,

(The Horticultural Part edited by PROF. LINDLEY)

Of Saturday, July 2, contains Articles on

Aloes, to water, by Mr. Burgess
Analyses of roots
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Begonia Prestoniensis
Books noticed
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—— agricultural
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—— at Chiswick
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OF

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ANNUAL MEETING, CHICHESTER, 1853.

Patrons.
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His Grace the Duke of Richmond, K.G., Lord Lieutenant of Sussex, and Custos Rotulorum.
The Lord Bishop of Chichester, D.D.

President.
The Lord Talbot de Malahide, M.R.I.A.

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Antiquities.—The Hon. Robert Curzon, Jun.
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