Replies.

BISHOP BUTLER.

(Vol. vii., p. 528.)

"Charity thinketh no evil;" but we must feel both surprise and regret that any one should, in 1853, consider it a doubtful question whether Bishop Butler died in the communion of the Church of England. The bishop has now been in his grave more than a hundred years; but Warburton says truly, "How light a matter very often subjects the best-established characters to the suspicions of posterity—how ready is a remote age to catch at a low revived slander, which the times that brought it forth saw despised and forgotten almost in its birth."

J. H. Markland.

Bath.

In reference to the Query by X. Y. Z., as to whether Bishop Butler died in the Roman Catholic communion, allow me to refer your correspondent to the contents of the letters from Dr. Forster and Bishop Benson to Secker, then Bishop of Oxford, concerning the last illness and death of the prelate in question, deposited at Lambeth amongst the private MSS. of Archbishop Seeker, "as negative arguments against the calumny of his dying a Papist."

Than the allegations that Butler died with a Roman Catholic book of devotion in his hand, and that the last person in whose company he was seen was a priest of that persuasion, nothing can be more unreasonable, if at least it be meant to deduce from these unproved statements that the bishop agreed with the one and held communion with the other. Dr. Forster, his chaplain, was with him at his death, which happened about 11 a.m., June 16; and this witness observes (in a letter to the Bishop of Oxford, June 18) that "the last four-and-twenty hours preceding which [i. e. his death] were divided between short broken slumbers, and intervals of a calm but disordered talk when awake." Again (letter to Ditto, June 17), Forster says that Bishop Butler, "when, for a day or two before his death, he had in a great measure lost the use of his faculties, was perpetually talking of writing to your lordship, though without seeming to have anything which, at least, he was at all capable of communicating to you." Bishop Benson writes to the Bishop of Oxford (June 12) that Butler's "attention to any one or anything is immediately lost and gone;" and, "my lord is incapable, not only of reading, but attending to anything read or said." And again, "his attention to anything is very little or none."

There was certainly an interval between this time (June 12) and "the last four-and-twenty hours" preceding his death, during which, writes Bishop Benson (June 17), Butler "said kind and affecting things more than I could bear." Yet, on the whole, I submit that these extracts, if fully weighed and considered with all the attending circumstances, contain enough of even positive evidence to refute conclusively the injurious suspicions alluded to by X. Y. Z., if such are still current.

J. R. C.

MITIGATION OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TO FORGERS.

(Vol. iv., p. 434., &c.)

I have asked many questions, and turned over many volumes and files of newspapers, to get at the real facts of the cases of mitigation stated in "N. & Q." Having winnowed the chaff as thoroughly as I could, I send the very few grains I have found. Those only who have searched annual registers, magazines, and journals for the foundation of stories defective in names and dates, will appreciate my difficulties.

I have not found any printed account of the "Jeannie Deans" case, "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 434.; Vol. v., p. 444.; Vol. vi., p. 153. I have inquired of the older members of the Northern Circuit, and they never heard of it. Still a young man may have been convicted of forgery "about thirty-five years ago:" his sister may have presented a well-signed petition to the judges, and the sentence may have been commuted without the tradition surviving on the circuit. All however agree, that no man who ever sat on the bench deserved the imputation of "obduracy" less than Baron Graham. I should not have noticed the anecdote but for its mythic accompaniments, which I disposed of in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 444.

In Vol. vi., p. 496., W. W. cites from Wade's British History:

"July 22, 1814. Admiral William B——y found guilty of forging letters to defraud the revenue. He was sentenced to death, which was commuted to banishment."

The case is reported in The Sun, July 25, 1814; and the subsequent facts are in The Times, July 30, and August 16 and 20. It was tried before Mr. Justice Dampier at the Winchester Summer Assizes. There were five bills against the prisoner for forgery, and one for a fraud. That on which he was convicted, was for defrauding the post-master of Gosport of 3l. 8s. 6d. He took to the post-office a packet of 114 letters, which he said were "ship letters," from the "Mary and Jane." He received the postage, and signed the receipt "W. Johnstone." The letters were fictitious. The case was fully proved, and he received sentence of death. He was respited for a fortnight, and afterwards during the pleasure of the Prince Regent. He was struck off the list of retired rear-admirals. It was proved at the trial, that, in 1809, he commanded "The Plantagenet;" but, from the unsettled state of his mind, the command had been given up to the first lieutenant, and that he was shortly after superseded. This, and the good character he received, were probably held to excuse the pardon.

I now come to the great case of George III. and Mr. Fawcett. I much regret that Whunside has not replied in your pages to my question (Vol. vii., p. 163.), as I could then have commented upon the facts, and his means of knowing them, with more freedom. I have a private communication from him, which is ample and candid. He objects to bring his name before the public, and I have no right to press that point. He is not quite certain as to the convict's name, but can procure it for me. He would rather that it should not be published, as it might give pain to a respectable family. Appreciating the objection, and having no use for it except to publish, I have declined to ask it of him.

The case occurred in 1802 or 1803, when Whunside was a pupil of Mr. Fawcett. He says:

"Occasionally Mr. Fawcett used to allow certain portions of a weekly newspaper to be read to the boys on a Saturday evening. This case was read to us, I think from the Leeds Mercury; and though Mr. Fawcett's name was not mentioned, we were all aware who the minister was."

Thus we have no direct evidence of the amount of Mr. Fawcett's communications with George III. How much of the story as it is now told was read to the boys, we do not know; but that it came to them first through a weekly paper, is rather against than for it.

We all know the tendency of good stories to pick up additions as they go. I have read that the first edition of the Life of Loyola was without miracles. This anecdote seems to have reached its full growth in 1823, in Pearson's Life of W. Hey, Esq., and probably in the two lives of George III., published after his death, and mentioned by Whunside. Pearson, as cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 276., says, that by some means the Essay on Anger had been recommended to the notice of George III., who would have made the author a bishop had he not been a dissenter; that he signified his wish to serve Mr. Fawcett, &c. That on the conviction of H——, Mr. Fawcett wrote to the king; and a letter soon arrived, conveying the welcome intelligence, "You may rest assured that his life is safe," &c.

It is not stated that this was "private and confidential:" if it was, Mr. Fawcett had no right to mention it; if it was not, he had no reason for concealing what was so much to his honour, and so extraordinary as the king's personal interference in a matter invariably left to the Secretary of State for the Home Department. If, however, Mr. Fawcett was silent from modesty, his biographers had no inducement to be so; yet, let us see how they state the case. The Account of the Life, Writings, and Ministry of the late Rev. John Fawcett: London, 1818, cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 229., says:

"He was induced, in conjunction with others, to solicit the exercise of royal clemency in mitigating the severity of that punishment which the law denounces: and it gladdened the sympathetic feelings of his heart to know that these petitions were not unavailing; but the modesty of his character made him regret the publicity which had been given to this subject."

The fifth edition of the Essay on Anger, printed for the Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge, London, no date, has a memoir of the author. The "incident" is said not to have been circulated in any publication by the family; but "it was one of the secrets which obtain a wider circulation from the reserve with which one relator invariably retails it to another." That is exactly my view. Secrecy contributes to diffusion, but not to accuracy. At the risk of being thought tedious, I must copy the rest of this statement:

"Soon after the publication of this treatise, the author took an opportunity of presenting a copy to our late much revered sovereign; whose ear was always accessible to merit, however obscure the individual in whom it was found. Contrary to the fate of most publications laid at the feet of royalty, it was diligently perused and admired; and a communication of this approbation was afterwards made known to the author. It happened some time afterwards, a relative of one of his friends was convicted of a capital crime, for which he was left for execution. Application was instantly made for an extension of royal favour in his behalf; and, among others, one was made by Mr. Fawcett: and his majesty, no doubt recollecting the pleasure he had derived from the perusal of his Essay on Anger, and believing that he would not recommend an improper person to royal favour, was most graciously pleased to answer the prayer of the petition; but as to precisely how far the name of Mr. Fawcett might have contributed to this successful application must await the great disclosures of a future judgment."

The reader will sift this jumble of inferences and facts, and perhaps will not go so far as to have "no doubt."

Whunside tells me, that about 1807 he employed a bookbinder from Halifax; who, on hearing that he had been a pupil of Mr. Fawcett, said he had seen two copies of the Essay on Anger, most beautifully bound, to be sent to the king.

The conclusion to which I come is, that Mr. Fawcett sent a copy of the Essay on Anger to the king; that the receipt of it was acknowledged, possibly in some way more complimentary than the ordinary circular; that a young man was convicted of forgery; that Mr. Fawcett and others petitioned for his pardon, and that he was pardoned. All the rest I hold to be mere rumours, not countenanced by Mr. Fawcett or his family, and not asserted by his biographers.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

MYTHE VERSUS MYTH.

(Vol. vii., p. 326.)

Mr. Keightley's rule is only partially true, and in the part which is true is not fully stated. The following rules, qualified by the accompanying remarks, will I trust be found substantially correct.

English monosyllables, formed from Greek or Latin monosyllabic roots,

(1.) When the root ends in a single consonant preceded by a vowel, require the lengthening e.

(2.) When the root ends in a single consonant preceded by a diphthong, or in more than one consonant preceded by a vowel, reject the e.

1. Examples from the Greek:—σχῆμ-α, scheme; λύρ-α (lyr-a), lyre; ζών-η (zon-a), zon-e; βάσ-ις, base; φράσ-ις, phras-e; τρόπ-ος, trop-e. From Latin, ros-a, ros-e; fin-is, fin-e; fum-us, fum-e; pur-us, pur-e; grad-us, grad-e. Compare, in verbs, ced-o, ced-e.

Remarks.—This rule admits of a modification; e.g. we form from ζῆλ-ος zeal (the sound hardly perceptibly differing from zel-e); from ὥρ-α (hor-a), hour; from flos (flor-is), flower and flour (the long sound communicated to the vowel in the other words by the added e, being in these already contained in the diphthong). Add ven-a, vein; van-us, vain; sol-um, soil, &c.; and compare -ceed in proceed, succeed, formed from compounds of ced-o. Some, but not all, of these words have come to us through the French.

2. Examples from the Greek:—ῥεῦμ-α, rheum; χάσμ-α, chasm; μύρρ-α, myrrh; γλῶσσ-α, gloss; νύμφ-η (nymph-a), nymph; δίσκ-ος, (disc-us), disk; πλίνθ-ος, plinth; ψαλμ-ός, psalm. From Latin, fraus (fraud-is), fraud; laus (laud-is), laud; plant-a, plant; orb-is, orb; plumb-um, plumb; long-us, long, flux-us, flux; port-us, port. Compare, in verbs, damn-o, damn; err-o, err; add-o, add; vex-o, vex.

Remarks.—From roots ending in the same consonant doubled, our derived words ordinarily drop one of them; e.g. στέμμ-α, stem; gemm-a, gem; summ-a, sum; penn-a, pen; carr-us, car. (Note this tendency of our language, by comparing our man with the German mann.)

From roots ending in a mute +a liquid, our derived words also end in e, and are then in fact dissyllables; e.g. βίβλ-ος, bible; κύκλ-ος, cycl-e; μίτρ-α, mitr-e; νίτρ-ον, nitr-e; πέτρ-ος, petr-e. In this class of words the final letters (after the analogy of Latin) have sometimes become transposed; e.g. λεπρ-ός, lep-er. So now-a-days, cent-er as well as centr-e. Compare metr-e, diamet-er.

To apply our rules to the words required to be formed in an English shape from μῦθ-ος.

Very few words in our language end in th which are not of purely native growth. Frith is questionable exception. Besides the monosyllable plinth, we have imported from the Greek colocynth, hyacinth, labyrinth, with the proper names Corinth, Erymanth, all terminating in nth.

In the ending the our language does not rejoice. Most of such words are verbs, so distinguished from their cognate substantives, as wreathe from wreath. We have, as substantives, lathe (A.-S. leð), hythe (hyð), scythe (more properly sithe, sıðe), tythe (tyðe); as adjectives, blithe (blıðe), lithe (lıð). There may be one or two more.

In all these the sounds is ð (th in this) not þ (th in thick). This appears worth notice.

On the whole, I should venture to say that so uncouth a slip as mythe, when set in our soil, was unlikely to thrive. Still myth is objectionable, though we at Cambridge might quote gyp. However I may seem to be a breaker of my own laws, I suggest, if we must have an English form of the word, that we should write and pronounce myth. Several words ending in th have the preceding vowel lengthened, e.g. both, sloth, ruth, truth (though with the inconsistency attributed to us, one, by the way, generally of orthography rather than pronunciation, we shorten the diphthong in breath, death). Compare also the sound of the endings ild and ind.

I have already troubled you with a very long Note; but, before I close, allow me to add that in what I have advanced I have had in view only our modern mode of spelling, without binding myself to an opinion of its inferiority or superiority to that of our forefathers. I beg also to protest against Mr. Keightley's wish to banish mythical from our vocabulary. It may be hybrid, but equally so are critical, grammatical, musical, physical, poetical, with a long string of et ceteras.

Charles Thiriold.

"INQUIRY INTO THE STATE OF THE UNION, BY THE WEDNESDAY CLUB IN FRIDAY STREET."

(Vol. vii., pp. 261. 409.)

This very able and valuable work, as to which your correspondent inquires, was written by Wm. Paterson, the projector of the Bank of England and the Darien scheme; a great and memorable name, but which, to the discredit of British biography, will be sought for in vain in Chalmers's or our other biographical dictionaries. The book above noticed appears to be a continuation of another tract by the same author, entitled An Inquiry into the Reasonableness and Consequences of an Union with Scotland, containing a brief Deduction of what hath been done, designed, or proposed in the Matter of the Union during the last Age, a Scheme of an Union as accommodated to the present Circumstances of the two Nations, also States of the respective Revenues, Debts, Weights, Measures, Taxes, and Impositions, and of other Facts of moment: with Observations thereupon, as communicated to Laurence Philips, Esq., near York: London, printed and sold by R. Bragg, 1706, 8vo., 160 pages. This was preceded by an earlier tract by the same author: Conferences on the Public Debts, by the Wednesday's Club in Friday Street: London, 1695, 4to. The last is noticed, with a short account of the author, by Mr. M^cCulloch (Lib. of Political Economy, p. 159.), but he has not mentioned the two other works previously adverted to. In all of them the author adopts the form of a report of the proceedings of a club; but, without attempting to deny the actual existence of a Wednesday's club in Friday Street (the designation he assumes for it), nothing can be more clear to any one who reads the three tracts than that the conversations, proceedings, and personages mentioned are all the creatures of his own fertile invention, and made use of, more conveniently to bring out his facts, arguments, and statements. The dramatic form he gives them makes even the dry details of finance amusing; and abounding, as they do, in information and thought, these works may always be consulted with profit and pleasure. The Inquiry into the State of the Union, 1717, 8vo., for which Walpole is said to have furnished some of the materials, was answered, but rather feebly, in an anonymous pamphlet entitled Wednesday Club Law; or the Injustice, Dishonour, and Ill Policy of breaking into Parliamentary Contracts for public Debts: London, printed for E. Smith, 1717, 8vo., pp. 38. The author of this pamphlet appears to have been a Mr. Broome. Those who would wish see one of the financial questions discussed in the Inquiry treated with equal force and ability, and with similar views, by a great cotemporary of Paterson, whose pamphlet came out simultaneously, may read Fair Payment no Spunge; or some Considerations on the Unreasonableness of refusing to receive back Money lent on public Securities, and the Necessity of setting the Nation free from the unsupportable Burthen of Debt and Taxes, with a View of the great Advantage and Benefit which will arise to Trade and to the Landed Interest, as well as to the Poor, by having these heavy Grievances taken off: London, printed and sold by Brotherton: Meadows and Roberts, 1717, 8vo., pp. 79. This is one of the pamphlets which, though it has been sometimes erroneously assigned to Paterson, both on external and internal evidence may be confidently attributed to Defoe, but which has unaccountably escaped the notice of all his biographers.

James Crossley.

UNPUBLISHED EPIGRAM BY SIR W. SCOTT (?).

(Vol. vii., p. 498.)

The lines which your correspondent R. Vincent attributes to Sir Walter Scott are part of an old English inscription which Longfellow quotes in Outremer, p. 66., and thus describes in a note:

"I subjoin this relic of old English verse entire.... It is copied from a book whose title I have forgotten, and of which I have but a single leaf, containing the poem. In describing the antiquities of the church of Stratford-upon-Avon, the writer gives the following account of a very old painting upon the wall, and of the poem which served as its motto. The painting is no longer visible, having been effaced in repairing the church:

"'Against the west wall of the nave, on the south side of the arch, was painted the martyrdom of Thomas à Becket, while kneeling at the altar of St. Benedict, in Canterbury Cathedral. Below this was the figure of an angel, probably St. Michael, supporting a long scroll, upon which were seven stanzas in old English, being an allegory of mortality.'"

The lines given at p. 498. of "N. & Q." seem to be taken from the two following stanzas, which stand third and fourth in the old inscription:

Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire, p. 517., tells us that John de Stratford, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Edward III., built a chapel on the south side of the church, "to the honour of God and of St. Thomas the Martyr;" and as at p. 521. he describes it as "in the south ile of the said church," the west wall of this chapel answers very well the description of the position of the painting, and inscription. But in The Beauties of England and Wales, vol. xv. p. 238., the chapel of the gild of the Holy Cross, in the centre of the town, is mentioned as the place in which the pictures were discovered, during some repairs which it underwent in the year 1804.

I have since ascertained that the work to which Longfellow refers is Weaver's Account of Stratford-upon-Avon.

Erica.

As a companion to the unpublished epigram in No. 186. of "N. & Q.," I beg to hand you the following epitaph, copied by myself about thirty years since, and referring, as I believe, to an old brass in the church of St. Helen's, London:

William Williams.

CHURCH CATECHISM.

(Vol. vii., pp. 190. 463.)

In accordance with the request of Z. E. R., I have pleasure in forwarding the extracts from the Catechismus brevis et Catholicus, referred to at pp. 190. 463. of the present volume. It is needful to premise, 1. That the pages of the catechism are not numbered. This will account for the absence of precise references. 2. That only so much is quoted as may exhibit the parallelism; and, 3. That the citations are not consecutive in the original, but arranged in the order of the questions and answers of the Church Catechism, beginning with the fourteenth question, "How many sacraments hath Christ ordained in His Church?"

Q. 14. How many, &c.

"Quot sunt Ecclesiæ Catholicæ Sacramenta?

Septem sunt in universum," &c.

"Quis instituit Baptismum?

Ipse Servator ac Dominus noster Jesus Christus."

[Similarly of the Eucharist.]

Q. 15. What meanest thou, &c.

"Ecquur hæc ipsa—et dicantur et sint Sacramenta?

Sacramenta sunt et dicuntur quia sacra atque efficacia sunt signa divinæ erga nos voluntatis."

Q. 16. How many parts, &c.

"Habetque unumquodque horum (quod sacramentis peculiare est verbum) Elementum, et Gratiam invisibilem. Quod verbum nos docet, et promittit nobis, hoc Elementum seu visibile signum similitudine quâdam demonstrat, hoc idem Gratia quoque (nisi tamen obicem objiciat homo) in anima invisibiliter operatur.

Da paucis singulorum Sacramentorum signa et invisibilem gratiam?"

Q. 17. What is the outward, &c.

"In Baptismo signum externum Aqua est."

Q. 18. What is the inward, &c.

"Quid efficit seu prodest Baptismus?

"Res seu gratia est renovatio et sanctificatio animæ, ablutio omnium peccatorum, adoptio baptizati in filium Dei.

'Baptizatus sum in Nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.'

"Tinctione illa aquæ, operationeque Spiritus Sancti, eripitur baptizatus à regno et tyrannide diaboli, donatur remissione peccatorum ac innocentia, addicitur perpetuò uni veroque Deo Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, hujus denique filius atque hæres instituitur."

Q. 19. What is required, &c.

"Requiritur in eo (adulto), et verus fidei usus, et vita professione Christiana, Baptismique voto digna: hoc est ut corde credat, et ore fidem confiteatur, utque peccatis mortificatis in vitæ ambulet novitate.

Proba sacræ Scripturæ testimoniis, quod Fides in Baptizato requiratur."

Q. 20. Why then are infants, &c.

"Sed quomodo infantes possunt credere, ut qui nondum usum habeant rationis?

His fides Ecclesiæ et susceptorum suffragatur, donec idonei fiant suo illam assensu percipere, adhæc et fidei gratiam in Baptismo ii consequuntur."

Q. 21. Why was the Sacrament, &c.

"Quur vero sacram Eucharistiam Christus instituit?

... Ut suæ passionis ac mortis recordemur, eamque annuntiemus perpetuò."

Q. 22. What is the outward, &c.

Q. 23. What is the inward, &c.

"Da paucis ... signa et invisibilem gratiam.

In Eucharistia, Elementum est panis ac vini species: res autem, verum corpus, et verus Christi sanguis est, fructusque dignam sumptionem sequentes."

Q. 24. What are the benefits, &c.

"Jam recense paucis quinam fructus dignam Eucharistæ sumptionem sequantur?

Principio quidem virtute escæ hujus confirmamur in fide, munimur adversus peccata, ad bonorum operum studium excitamur, et ad charitatem inflammamur. Hinc vero per eam incorporamur adjungimurque capiti nostro Christo, ut unum cum ipso constituamus corpus," &c.

Q. 25. What is required, &c.

"Quonam pacto dignè sumitur Eucharistia?

Digna sumptio, omnium primum requirit, ut homo peccata sua agnoscat ex animo ob ea verè doleat—ac firmum etiam animo concipiat amplius non peccandi propositum. Deinde exigit etiam digna sumptio, ut communicaturus simultatem omnem odiumque animo eximat: reconcilietur læso, et charitatis contra viscera induat. Postremo vero et fides cum primis in sumente requiritur ... ut credat corpus Christi pro se esse traditum mortem, et sanguinem ejus in remissionem peccatorum suorum vere effusum," &c.

I fear the unavoidable length of the previous extracts will be against the insertion of the full title of the book, and one remark. The title is,—

"Catechismus brevis et Catholicus in gratiam Juventutis conscriptus, Autore Iacobo Schœppero, Ecclesiasta Tremoniano. Cui accessit Pium diurnarum precum Enchiridion, ex quo pueri toto die cum Deo colloqui discant. Antverpiæ, apud Ioan. Bellerum ad insigne Falconis, 1555."

My remark is, that some of the coincidences above enumerated are at least singular, though they do not perhaps prove that the compiler of the Church Catechism, in the places referred to, had them before him.

B. H. C.

JACOB BOBART, ETC.

(Vol. vii., p. 428.)

Of old Jacob Bobart, who originally came from Brunswick, Granger (Biog. Hist., vol. v. p. 287., edit. 1824) gives us the following account:

"Jacob Bobart, a German, whom Plot styles 'an excellent gardener and botanist,' was, by the Earl of Danby, founder of the physic-garden at Oxford, appointed the first keeper of it. He was author of Catalogus Plantarum Horti Medici Oxoniensis, scil. Latino-Anglicus et Anglico-Latinus: Oxon. 1648, 8vo. One singularity I have heard of him from a gentleman of unquestionable veracity, that on rejoicing days he used to have his beard tagged with silver. The same gentleman informed me, that there is a portrait of him in the possession of one of the corporation at Woodstock. He died the 4th of February, 1679, in the eighty-first year of his age. He had two sons, Tillemant and Jacob, who both belonged to the physic-garden. It appears that the latter succeeded him in his office."

There is a very fine print of the elder Bobart, now extremely scarce, "D. Loggan del., M. Burghers, sculp." It is a quarto of the largest size. Beneath the head, which is dated 1675, is this distich:

In John Evelyn's Diary, under the date Oct. 24, 1664, is the following entry:

"Next to Wadham, and the physic garden, where were two large locust-trees, and as many platani (plane-trees), and some rare plants under the culture of old Bobart."

The editor of the last edition, after repeating part of Granger's note, and mentioning the portrait, adds:

"There is a small whole-length in the frontispiece of Vertumnus, a poem on that garden. In this he is dressed in a long vest, with a beard. One of his family was bred up at college in Oxford; but quitted his studies for the profession of the whip, driving one of the Oxford coaches (his own property) for many years with great credit. In 1813 he broke his leg by an accident; and in 1814, from the respect he had acquired by his good conduct, he was appointed by the University to the place of one of the Esquire Beadles."

Vertumnus, the poem mentioned in the above note, was addressed to Mr. Jacob Bobart, in 1713, by Dr. Evans. It is a laudatory epistle on the botanical knowledge of the Bobarts; and we learn from it that Jacob, the younger, collected a Hortus Siccus (a collection of plants pasted upon paper, and kept dry in a book) in twenty volumes.

The broadsides about which H. T. Bobart inquires are of the greatest possible rarity. They were the production of Edmund Gayton, the author of Festivious Notes on Don Quixote, &c. Copies may be seen in the Ashmolean Library, under the press-marks Nos. 423. and 438., but I think not in any other repository of a like nature.

Among the Ashmolean MSS. (No. 36, art. 296.) is a poem of 110 lines "Upon the most hopeful and ever-flourishing Sprouts of Valour, the indefatigable Centrys of the Physick-Garden." This, I apprehend, is a MS. copy of the first broadside mentioned by your correspondent.

I shall merely add, the Bobarts, father and son, were personal friends of Ashmole and Ray, and that, in all probability, among their correspondence much curious and minute information might be obtained.

Edward F. Rimbault.

"ITS."

(Vol. vii., p. 510.)

I was somewhat surprised to find, in No. 186. of "N. & Q.," two instances quoted of the use of the word "its" in the version of the Bible. It has long been an established opinion that this word did not exist in it; and the fact has been recently referred to by two different authorities, Mr. Keightley in "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 160., and Mr. Watts of the British Museum, in a paper "On some philological peculiarities in the English authorised Version of the Bible," read before the Philological Society on December 10, 1852.

Feeling curious on the subject, I have taken the trouble of referring to several different versions of the Bible in the British Museum, and the following variorum readings of the verses quoted by your correspondent B. H. C. are the result:

1. The Wickliffite version, before 1390 (edit. Forshall and Wadden):

"And he shal ben as a tree, that is plauntid beside the doun rennyngis of watris; that his frut shal ȝive in his time."—Ps. i. 3.

"Duke of the weie thou were in his (sc. the vine) siȝt; and thou plauntidist his rootis, and it fulfilde the erthe."—Ps. lxxx. 10.

2. Coverdale's Bible, 1536:

"Y^t brīgeth forth his frute in due season."

"Thou maydest rowme for it, and caused it to take rote, so y^t it fylled the lōde."

3. Matthews, 1537:

"That bryngeth forth his frute in due season."

"Thou madest rowme for it, and caused it to take rote, so that it fylled the lande."

4. Cranmer, 1539:

"Y^t wyll brynge forth hys frute in due season."

"Thou madest rowme for it, and whan it had taken rote it fylled y^e lande."

5. The Bishops' Bible, 1568:

"That bryngeth foorth her fruite in due season."

"Thou madst roome before it, thou causedst it to take roote, and it hath filled the lande."

6. Geneva Bible, 1578. In this there are two translations, one "according to the Ebrewe," the other "used in the Common Prayer":

i. "That wil bring forth her fruite in due season."

ii. "That will bring forth his fruite in due season."

i. "Thou madest roome for it, and when it had taken roote, it filled the lande."

ii. "Thou madest roume for it, and didest cause it to take roote, and it filled the land."

7. The Douay Bible (Roman Catholic version), 1609-10:

"Which shal geue his fruite in his time."

"Thou wast the guide of the way in the sight thereof; thou didst plant the rootes thereof, and it filled the earth."

8. Authorised version, 1611:

"That bringeth forth his fruit in his season."

"Thou preparedst roome before it, and didst cause it to take deepe roote, and it filled the land."

It will thus be perceived that "its" is wanting in all the above passages, and that "his," "her," and "thereof" invariably supply its place. I have been equally unsuccessful in detecting the word in the Common Prayer-Book version of the Psalms, which is well known to be that of the "Great Bible," or Cranmer's edition of 1539, and which has remained in use without alteration ever since. May I therefore ask B. H. C. to be so good as to point out the particular "Old version of the Psalms" from which he has derived his quotation?

W. B. Rye.

BOHN'S EDITION OF HOVEDEN.

(Vol. vii., p. 495.)

In reply to your correspondent's remarks (May 21) on my translation of Hoveden, I beg to state that, in suggesting Cork, I did not allude to the city of Cork, but the territory of Desmond or Cork, which probably extended to within a short distance of Waterford. Hoveden more than once, in his foreign geography, confounds places with territories or kingdoms; this fact, and the similarity of the names, Croch and Corch, as the kingdom of Cork is elsewhere called by him, led me to believe that a landing in the territory of Cork was meant. "Crook," "Hook Point," or "The Crook," is only supposed to have been the place of landing on this occasion. I confess that I was not aware that "Erupolis" was an alias of the diocese of Ossory: I cannot find it mentioned as such in the dictionaries at my command. My Note, however, was worded in such a way as to give offence to no reasonable person: and, among the many hundreds, perhaps thousands of suggestions, made in the notes (in a proper spirit, I hope,) I should be greatly surprised to find that I had miscarried in none. For your correspondent's information, I beg to state, that I am not an Irishman either by birth or descent; and that I have never had the good fortune to pay a visit to that country. Were I inclined to follow his example in making remarks upon the "ominousness" of names, I might perhaps retaliate upon him with interest.

Why I have forfeited all claim to be treated by this gentleman with courtesy or common politeness, I am quite at a loss to conceive; but I beg to remind him that vituperation does not carry conviction, and that criticism is enfeebled by an alliance with abuse.

Henry T. Riley.

BOOKS OF EMBLEMS.

(Vol. vii., p. 469.)

In your 185th Number, two or three Queries are proposed by the Rev. Mr. Corser in connexion with that interesting branch of literature called Books of Emblems. To these it shall be my endeavour to reply.

First. Some years ago I made particular inquiry from the surviving relatives of the late Rev. William Beloe, whether among his manuscripts there had been found any "Treatise on Emblems," or any notices which had a bearing on the subject? They informed me that they had made search, but without success.

Second. Of Thomas Combe, mentioned by Meres in his Palladis Tamia, I have been unable to learn anything.

Third. It appears certain that Bunyan never published any Book of Emblems, whatever may have been hawked under his name; nor can I find, in the Account of his Life and Writings just published in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London, or in any preceding edition of his works, that such a production was ever contemplated by him.

Fourth. In the extensive and valuable "English Books of Emblems" furnished (chiefly from his own library) by Mr. Corser, he mentions R. Burton's Choice Emblems, Divine and Moral; or Delights for the Ingenious, &c., 12mo. 1721. Perhaps my learned and accomplished friend may not be aware that Burton is an assumed name, placed in the title-pages of several cheap books which appeared at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries, but which were thought to have been written by a Mr. Nathaniel Crouch, a bookseller, who sold them. I have a sixth edition of these "choice emblems," dated 1732, which was then sold for "two shillings bound." The work is merely a collection of fifty emblems, taken, without acknowledgment, from George Wither, the copper-plate engravings being poor copies from those of Depasse. To this sixth edition there is prefixed a portrait of K. Charles I., with eight pages of sympathising verses.

Mr. Corser's list of English works is very complete. I possess, however, an unpublished manuscript translation of Alciato into English verse. It is of the time of James I., and possesses much merit; but it has unfortunately been mutilated.

I also possess the following:

"Amorum Emblemata figuris æneis incisa studio Othonis Væni, Batavo-Lugdunensis. Emblemes of Love, with verses in Latin, English, and Italian, obl. 4to.: Antverpiæ, 1608."

Prefixed is an English dedication "to the most Honourable and Worthy Brothers William, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip, Earl of Montgomerie, Patrons of Learning and Chevalrie," whose coat of arms also is given.

"The Doctrine of Morality, or a View of Human Life according to the Stoic Philosophy, &c. A translation, by T. M. Gibbs, from the French of M. De Gomberville, with 103 copper plates by Daret, folio: London, 1721."

To each engraving are appended quotations from Horace, &c., with English translations: but both engravings and quotations have been pirated (without the least acknowledgment) from Van Veen's Horatia Emblemata.

It must be admitted that a comprehensive work on European Books of Emblems, illustrated with fac-similes of the various engravings, &c., is a great desideratum in modern literature. I feel highly flattered by the kind commendations which Mr. Corser has bestowed upon my two small attempts towards such a work, and by his encouraging me to proceed "to enlarge and complete" the same. Now, I do not altogether despair of enlarging it. But when my excellent friend puts forward a proposal to complete it, he should be informed that my library alone contains nearly 250 volumes strictly emblematical, and published during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By far the greater part of these are in Latin. To carry forward a work of such magnitude to anything like completion must therefore be rather wished for than expected.

Jos. B. Yates.

West Dingle, near Liverpool.

Allow me to add the following to Mr. Corser's list:

"The Christian's Divine Amusement, consisting of Emblems and Hieroglyphicks on a great Variety of Subjects, Moral and Divine, in four books. By the late Rev. Mr. J. Jones. Embellished with near 100 beautiful emblematical cuts, 12mo. pp. 191.: London, 1764."

I know not who the Rev. Mr. J. was, but his book is the old one of Francis Quarles. The author, or rather adapter, attacks and demolishes the fable as a method of instruction, and would substitute the emblems. In remodelling Quarles, Mr. Jones makes the following alterations, or improvements:—Instead of the Latin motto under each cut, he presents us with four lines of English verse, which contain a general explanation of the emblem. The page facing the cut he divides into two parts or sections of odes and hymns suited to common psalmody, and the moral, or application, also in a poetical dress.

A prose work belonging to the class under notice is an

"Emblematical Representation of the Paradise of God; showing the Nature of Spiritual Industry, in the similitude of a Garden well ordered, dressed, and kept. London, 1779."

The author of this was a visionary Scots gardener named Alexander Clark, who had been favoured with a special manifestation of divine glory, "by which," he says, "(to my own astonishment) I was enabled to see through every profound passage of Scripture, and to spiritualise every material thing;" but he belongs to my fanatical rather than to my emblematical shelf, and may be worth a separate Note hereafter.

Under the name of Farlie, or Fairlie, Mr. Corser mixes up the titles of two distinct books; they are now before me, and divide themselves thus:

1. "Lychnocavsia, sive Moralia Facvm Emblemata. Light's Moral Emblems. Authore Roberto Farlæo, Scoto-Britanno. 12mo.: London, Th. Cotes for M. Sparke, 1638."

Containing fifty-eight emblems in Latin and English, each with a cut, with a dedication in Latin to the Earl of Ancrum, and one in English to his Countess. There are also complimentary verses by J. Hooper, Christ. Drayton, Mr. Povey, Thos. Beedome, and Edm. Coleman.

2. "Kalendarium Humanæ Vitæ. The Kalendar of Man's Life. Authore R. F., S.-B. 12mo. London, for W. Hope, 1638."

With a Latin dedication to his patron the Earl of Ancrum. The book contains verses upon the various stages of man's life, under the heads of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; again subdivided into moralisations upon the months, as corresponding with the periods of life, as "August, or Man's Youth," &c. This has also a variety of curious cuts, and both have engraved emblematical titles, the latter bearing on its face "G. Glover fecit."

When book-rarities were in more request, these were costly little volumes; and I shall be glad if any of your correspondents can direct me where to find any notice of Robert Fairlie, the author of two of the most interesting of the emblematical series.

J. O.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

[The following paper, which has been kindly communicated to us by Mr. Pollock at the request of Dr. Diamond, describes a process which deserves the especial attention of our photographic friends, for the beauty and uniformity of its results.]

MR. POLLOCK'S DIRECTIONS FOR OBTAINING POSITIVE PHOTOGRAPHS UPON ALBUMENISED PAPER.

The paper should be carefully chosen, by holding up every sheet to the light, and only those sheets which are homogeneous in appearance and free from spots should be kept for use.

The albumen should be obtained from new-laid hens' eggs; twenty-four is a convenient number to use at a time: these will yield twenty-four ounces of albumen, to which should be added six ounces of distilled writer (making thirty ounces in all) and four per cent. of chloride of ammonium, viz. one ounce and a quarter.

The albumen water and chloride should be whipped with a silver fork for several minutes, and then put into a narrow tall jar, and allowed to stand for not less than two days (forty-eight hours). In cool weather it will keep well for eight days, at the end of which time the upper half of the albumen is to be poured off into a shallow vessel, rather larger than the sheets of paper intended to be albumenised.

To put the Albumen on the Paper.—Take a sheet by two opposite corners; turn one up; place the sheet boldly on the albumen, the centre first coming in contact with the albumen; lower the corners of the paper, gradually carefully excluding, the air. Let the sheet so placed remain four minutes: then take it by the turned up corner, and rip it from the albumen quickly, so as to carry up a quantity of the albumen with it. Let it drain for a minute or two, moving it so as not to allow the albumen to run in streaks; pin it to a piece of tape; and, when dry, pass a very hot iron over the back. This ends the albumenising process.

To make the Paper sensitive.—Place the albumenised side downwards, for four minutes, on the surface of a solution of nitrate of silver, of the strength of ninety grains to the ounce of distilled water; pin it up by one corner to dry, and keep it between pieces of blotting-paper. This must be done by yellow light, or the light of a candle.

To print from the Negative.—The simplest apparatus to have is a number of pieces of plate-glass a quarter of an inch thick, colourless, about twelve inches by ten in size.

The sensitive paper is to be placed on one of the plates of glass, sensitive side upwards, and the negative is to be placed firmly upon it, collodion side downwards; and a second glass plate is then to be placed on the negative, and the whole arrangement exposed to the light. The time for exposure is from three minutes to an hour. With a little practice the negative can be lifted up, and the positive viewed front time to time, without any risk of displacement.

The best rule is to print the lightest shade on the positive very decidedly darker than it would be wished that it should remain permanently.

To fix the Positive.—On removing it from the pressure frame, place it in a bath made as follows:

Water 6 oz.

Hyposulphite of soda 1 oz.

Nitrate of silver solution, 50 grs. to oz. 15 minims.

Iodide of silver, dissolved in a saturated solution of hypo. 10 minims.

Chloride of gold 2 grains.

Chloride of silver (blackened by light) 5 grains.

Acetic acid 2 drops.

Mix these: let them stand some hours; and filter before use. If the chloride of silver is omitted, the bath will do very well, but will very much improve with age, as it will acquire chloride of silver from the positives placed in it.

The time to leave the positive in the fixing bath varies from one hour to twelve. To get good black and white tints, the average time is five or six hours. When the desired tint is obtained, remove it into a bath composed of

Leave in this for half an hour, and then keep it in running water for several hours. If the water is hot, the time of soaking may be lessened: boiling water is objectionable. Nearly dry the positive between sheets of clean blotting-paper, and finish it by passing a very hot iron over it.

General Remarks.—The albumenised paper will keep any length of time in a dry place.

When made sensitive, as directed, it will keep three days, always supposing that it is both prepared and kept most carefully excluded from white light. If, instead of a solution of nitrate of silver of ninety grains to the ounce, a weaker one be used, to make the paper sensitive, it will keep when sensitive a much longer time,—with a thirty-grain solution, a fortnight, or sometimes even a month; but then it does not give a positive of the same force and tone as that obtained with the stronger solution.

After the fixing bath has done its day's work, it should be poured back into the bottle from which it came, and the bottle be filled up from the finishing bath; and so the bath is kept always of the same quantity; and by adding from time to time chloride of gold, it is kept of the same quality.

The nitrate of silver and chloride of silver will never have to be renewed. The iodide of silver should be added as at first, viz. ten drops for about every two hundred positives fixed; and the acetic acid, viz. two drops for about every four hundred.

In a bath of twenty-four ounces, as many as thirty positives, five inches by four, may be placed at one time: but the dark tints will then appear very slowly and gradually.

To insure a good positive, next to having a good negative, it is most important to print of the right depth, neither too much nor too little. Great attention should be paid to this: for the finest tints are only to be obtained in positives exposed exactly the right time.

Positives printed in a bright sun quickly are always better than those obtained by longer exposure without sun.

H. P.

21. Maddox Street, Regent Street.

Test for Lenses.—In applying the methods recommended in your last Number for the purpose of testing lenses, there is one precaution absolutely necessary to be taken, but which all your correspondents have omitted to point out. The operator must take care that his focussing-glass is placed at precisely the same distance from the lens as the collodionised glass is. To insure this, my practice is to place a piece of ground glass in the dark frame, which is afterwards to receive the collodionised glass, and to obtain the focus of the lens on that; then to put in the proposed plate, and obtain an impression as described by Mr. Shadbolt. In this way I secure myself from what I believe is often a source of fallacy in these experiments, and am sure that I give the lens a fair trial.

E. S.

Washing Collodion Pictures.—I have never offered to your readers an opinion in photography without having bonâ fide tested it, to the best of my ability; and however correct my friend Mr. Shadbolt may be, chemically and theoretically, I am convinced that in practice so good a tone is never obtained in a positive collodion picture which has been washed, as in one which has been instantly fixed with the old saturated solution of hyposulphite of soda. The unpleasant tints obtained upon positive collodion pictures, I believe to be much dependent upon the frequent washings in the proofs. When a collodion picture is properly treated, it surpasses in pleasing effect every other photograph.

H. W. Diamond.