Replies.

INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS.

(Vol. vii. passim.)

Under this head the following translation of part of the inscription at Behistun may be classed. It is, I apprehend, the earliest of this sort of inscription:

"Darius rex dicit: si hanc tabulam, hasque effigies spectas, et iis injuriam facias, et quamdiu tibi proles sit non eas conserves, Oromasdes hostis fiat tibi, et tibi proles non sit, et quod facias id tibi Oromasdes frustretur."

See Rawlinson's "Translation of the Great Persian Inscription at Behistun," par. 17. Asiatic Society's Transactions.

The following is an extract from Maitland's Dark Ages, p. 270., notes 3 and 4:

"Terrible imprecations were occasionally annexed by the donors or possessors of books; as in a sacramentary which Mastene found at St. Benoit sur Loire, and which he supposed to belong to the ninth century. 'Ut si quis eum de Monasterio aliquo ingenio non redditurus abstraxerit cum Juda proditore, Anna et Caipha, portionem æternæ damnationis accipiat. Amen, Amen, Fiat, Fiat.'"

There is a curious instance of this in a manuscript of some of the works of Augustine and Ambrose in the Bodleian Library:

"Liber S. Mariæ de Ponte Roberti, qui eum abstulerit, aut vendiderit, vel quolibet modo ab hâc domo absciderit, sit anathema maranatha. Amen."

In another hand (alienâ manu),—

"Ego Johannes Exōn Epūs, nescio ubi est domus predicta, nec hunc librum abstuli, sed modo legitimo adquisivi."

Also page 283.:

"Liber B. Mariæ de Camberone: si quis eum abstulerit, anathema esto."

In the preface to a late publication (1853), Fragments of the Iliad of Homer from a Syrian Palimpsest, edited by William Cureton, the editor tells us:

"The Palimpsest Manuscript, in which I discovered these fragments of a very ancient copy of the Iliad of Homer, formed a part of the library of the Syrian convent of St. Mary Deipara, in the Valley of the Ascetics, or the Deserts of Nigritia. On the first page of the last leaf the following notice occurs: 'This volume of my Lord Severus belongs to the reverend and holy my Lord Daniel, Bishop of the province of Orrhoa (Edessa), who acquired it from the armour of God, when he was down in the province of the city of Amida, for his own benefit, and that of every one that readeth it. But under the curse of God is he whosoever steals it, or hides or removes it ... or tears, or erases, or cuts off this memorial from it, for ever. And through our Lord Jesus Christ may he who readeth it pray for the same Daniel, that he may find mercy in the day of judgment! Yea, and Amen, and Amen. And upon the sinner who wrote it, may there be mercy in the day of judgment! Amen. But at the end of his life he bequeathed it to this sacred convent of my Lord Silas, which is in Tarug (a city of Mesopotamia), for the sake of the remembrance of himself and of the dead belonging to him. May the Lord have mercy upon him in the day of judgment! Amen. Whosoever removeth this volume from this same convent, may the anger of the Lord overtake him in both worlds to all eternity! Amen.'"

Anon.

In some of Dugdale's MS. volumes in this College is the following, written by himself:

Thomas W. King, York Herald.

College of Arms.

THE DRUMMER'S LETTER.

(Vol. vii., p. 431.)

Mr. Forbes rightly describes the Drummer's Letter in the Sentimental Journey as "not only correctly but elegantly written." There is, moreover, in two or three places, a play upon words, which indicates an intimate acquaintance with the idiomatic turns of the language. But all these circumstances are, to my mind, only so many grounds for the belief that the French of the letter is not Sterne's.

If we are to judge of Sterne's French from the samples to be met with in Tristram Shandy and the Sentimental Journal, there is ample evidence that his knowledge of that language was somewhat superficial. I shall give a few examples.

Your readers are familiar with the incident in Tristram Shandy, where the Abbess and Margarita, having occasion to make use of two very coarse and indecent expressions, resort to the ludicrous expedient of splitting them in two, each pronouncing a separate syllable. Those words are scandalously common in the mouths of Frenchmen; and yet Sterne seems so little aware of the correct spelling of them, that he makes the poor nuns give utterance to two words, one of which, "bouger," means "to move," and the other, "fouter," is unknown to the French language.

Farther on, in chapter xxxiv., the commissary employs the expression "C'est tout égal;" but this is merely the translation of our English phrase "'Tis all one." The French say "C'est égal," but never "C'est tout égal."

In the Sentimental Journey, under the head of "The Bidet," La Fleur is made to say "C'est un cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde." Now, the man who could write the Drummer's Letter would not have applied the epithet "opiniâtre" to a horse; and, at any rate, he would have said "C'est le cheval le plus opiniâtre du monde."

In the chapter headed "The Passport," and also in another place, we have the phrase "Ces Messieurs Anglais sont des gens très extraordinaires." This should be "Messieurs les Anglais," &c.

Again, under the head of "Characters," Count de B. says, "But if you do support it, M. Anglais, you must do it with all your powers." This "M. Anglais" is our "Mr. Englishman." The correct expression is "M. l'Anglais"—Mr. the Englishman.

I might add other instances; but these, I trust, are sufficient to warrant the opinion that the Drummer's Letter, in its present shape, was not written by Sterne.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

OLD FOGIES.

(Vol. vii., p. 632.)

At the place above referred to, Mr. Keightley puts to me several Queries; but being resident in the country, I had not an opportunity of seeing them till the 15th instant, and it took some days to get the information that would enable me to answer them.

I have now obtained the most ample evidence of the existence, in the latter part of the last, and the beginning of the present, centuries, of the existence of a peculiar body of men called the Fogies, in Edinburgh Castle. My informants agree in describing them as old men, dressed in red coats with apple-green facings, and cocked hats. One says that they fired the Castle guns; another says that he understood them to be the keepers, or, as we might say, the warders of the Castle, and that they were sometimes brought into the town to assist in quelling riots; and this gentleman's recollection of them goes back to 1784 at least. But the oldest date I have been able to get is from a much respected friend, the retired Town Clerk of Edinburgh, who writes to me thus: "I have a most vivid recollection of the Castle Foggies. They were an invalid company, and my recollection of them goes as far back at least as 1780, when I was at Stalker's English school in the Lawnmarket."

To the testimony of these still living witnesses, I have to add that of Dr. Jamieson, who gives the word in his Dictionary as one of common and well-known use in Scotland in his time, 1759-1808; though he may have mistaken in supposing it to be exclusively Scottish. It was for his testimony to this fact that I referred to Dr. Jamieson's Dictionary, and not for his etymology, for I am not so much of a "true Scot" as to consider him infallible in that department. I have not leisure at present to search any farther for the word in books, but in the meantime I presume to think the evidence I have procured of its use in Scotland, will carry us nearly as far back as Mr. Keightley's for its use in Ireland.

I cannot pretend to much acquaintance with the Swedish language, but I was quite well aware that that "is what is meant by the mysterious Su.-G." I was also aware that in the kindred Teutonic tongues the word runs through the various forms of vogt, fogat, phogat, voget, voogd, fogde, foged, fogeti, with the meaning of bailiff, steward, preses, watchman, guard or protector, tutor, overseer, judge, mayor, policeman; and I doubt not that fogie belongs to the same family, though it has lost its tail. Mr. Keightley does not need to be told that words frequently degenerate in meaning, falling from the noblest to the basest, from the purest to the most obscene. Is there then anything improbable in supposing that a word once applied to the governor or chief keeper of a castle, came at last to be applied to all, even the meanest, of his subordinates? Dr. Jamieson asserts that the word fogde in the Su.-G. has actually had that fate; can Mr. Keightley controvert him?

As a proof, quantum valeat, that the Castle fogies were so called for some other reason than merely because of their being "old folks," I may mention that there was in Edinburgh, for more than a century, another body of veterans, called the Town Guard, or City Guard, maintained by the magistrates as a sort of military police, or gendarmerie, and finally disbanded in 1817. This corps was generally recruited from old soldiers; and during the period of my acquaintance with them (9½ years) they were all aged, and some of them very old men; yet I never heard the word fogies applied to them. On the contrary, they were always distinguished from the fogies by the elegant appellation of the "Toon Rottens," or Town Rats, as well as by their facings, which were dark blue. Some, indeed, of my younger friends, who remember the "Rats" very well, say they never heard of the "Fogies" at all; only one of them, who lived when a boy at the Castle Hill, perhaps about forty years ago, recollects of the word "fogie" as being then applied to the soldiers of the ordinary veteran or garrison battalions, with blue facings, that had superseded the fogies in the keeping of the Castle; but of the veritable apple-green fogies of the older establishment, he has no remembrance. As my own recollections of Edinburgh go back to 1808, the fogies, I presume, must have been by that time extinct, for I never saw any of them, though I frequently heard them spoken of by those who had seen them.

I may mention also that while "fogie" was in use, and of well understood application in Scotland, the phrase "old folks," or, to write it according to our vernacular pronunciation, "auld fo'k," was also, and continues to be, in general and familiar use; but nobody in Scotland, I dare say, ever imagined that "the auld fo'k" of his ordinary acquaintance were just "old fogies," or had anything whatever to do with that peculiar class of men, properly so called, the keepers of the royal castles. It is most remarkable, also, that while the corrupt derivative, as Mr. Keightley says "old fogie" is, has been almost quite forgotten among us, having disappeared with the men that bore the name of fogies, the parent form, as he would have "old folks" or "auld fo'k" to be, should remain in full vigour and common use, as part of our living speech. In a word, from all I can learn it would appear that the word "fogie," in its most general acceptation, means by itself, without the "old," an old soldier; and that "old fogie" is only a tautological form, arising from ignorance of its meaning. Be its origin, however, what it may, I have no hesitation now in expressing my conviction that Mr. Keightley's etymology of the word is utterly groundless.

J. L.

City Chambers, Edinburgh.

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN OF GAUNT.

(Vol. vii., p. 628.)

All persons will, I think, agree with Mr. Warden in his very just complaint of the carelessness with which many of the English Peerages are compiled. It would be a task, little short of a new compilation, to correct the errors and inaccuracies with which many of these productions abound, the less pardonable now, because of the facilities afforded for consulting the Public Records, should even our older genealogists, without such aids, be in some degree excused; but as Mr. Warden invites, by a personal appeal, the rectification of a chronological error which has crept into all the Peerages, founded upon the authority of Dugdale, respecting the period of the death of Thomas, sixth Lord Fauconberge, I am induced to send you a few Notes, which a recent examination of the Records in the Tower of London has supplied.

When the facts are made patent, there will be no need to dwell upon the inconsistencies pointed out by Mr. Warden, and the alleged incompatibility in regard to age for an union between two persons of some note in family history, the son of the first Earl of Westmoreland and his Countess Joan and the daughter and heir of the Lord Fauconberge, who formed an alliance from which the co-heirs are, it is believed, represented at this day.

The birth of William Nevill, Lord Fauconberge, afterwards created Earl of Kent, second son of a marriage which took place early in, or just before, the year 1397, may be assigned to in or about the year 1400; and we shall presently see that his future wife was born on the 18th of October, 1406, and married to him before the 1st of May, 1422.

Walter, fifth Lord Fauconberge, died on the 29th of September, 1362 (Esc. 36 Edw. III., 1st part, No. 77.), leaving a son Thomas (issue of his first marriage with Matilda, sister and co-heir of Sir William de Pateshull, Kt., Esc. 33 Edw. III., 1st part, No. 40., and Rot. Orig., 34 Edw. III., Ro. 2.), then a minor, under eighteen years of age.

Thomas, who was born circa 1345, was already in 1362 married to his first wife Constancia, by whom he does not appear to have left any issue surviving. His was rather an eventful life; some incidents not noticed by Dugdale will be briefly cited. On the 10th of August, 1372, being then a knight or chivaler, he had letters of protection on going abroad in the king's service, in the company of Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (Rot. Franc., 46 Edw. III.). Here it seems he forgot his allegiance, and having gone over to the French side was branded "tanquam proditor domini Regis Angliæ" (Esc. 5 Ric. II., No. 67., 6 Ric. II., No. 180., and 11 Ric. II., No. 59.). Can this have been the origin of the error in assigning his death to the year 1376? He was, however, yet living in 1401, as in that year he succeeded to the reversion of the estates which his step-mother Isabella (a sister of Sir John Bygot, Chivaler), the widow of Walter Lord Fauconberge, held in dower (Esc. 2 Hen. IV., No. 47.). Not long after this, and apparently a few years only before his death, and when somewhat advanced in years, he married a second time. I have not been able to ascertain to what family his wife Joan, or Johanna, belonged, but she survived her husband only a short time. About the period of his marriage, too (9th August, 1405), an occurrence of some importance to his descendants is recorded, namely, a grant by the king to Sir Thomas Bromflete and Sir Robert Hilton, of the custody and governance of all his estates in England, which had come into the king's hands "ratione ideociæ Thomæ Fauconberge, Chivaler," to hold during the life of the said Thomas. This grant, however, was in the following year, on 24th December, 1406, revoked and annulled, because the said Thomas had proved before the king and his council in Chancery, "quod ipse sanæ discretionis hactenus fuerit et ad tunc existat," and he was thereupon re-admitted to his estates which had descended to him "jure hæreditario post mortem Walteri Fauconberge patris sui, cujus hæres ipse est" (Rot. Pat., p. 1., 8 Hen. IV., m. 16.). He had only a few months before (15th February, 1406) obtained from the king livery of an estate which had come to him in 1375 as one of the co-heirs, on his mother's side, of his grandmother Mabilia, a sister of Otho de Graunson, upon the death without issue of Thomas de Graunson, son of the said Otho. (Rot. Pat., p. 1., 7 Hen. IV., m. 6.)

Was there in fact any real ground for the suggestion of Lord Fauconberge's idiocy? This is one of the gravest imputations that can be cast upon a family, and it is a most unpardonable presumption to make it lightly and without justice; but it is somewhat singular that nearly fifty years afterwards, his only daughter and heir, born at the very period when this charge was being refuted, and when he himself was upwards of sixty years of age, became the subject of a commission issued to inquire of her alleged imbecility and idiocy. The commissioners sat at Gisburn in Cleveland in the county of York, on the 28th of March, 1463, and it was then found by the inquest that "Johanna Fauconberge nuper comitissa de Kent, fatua et ydeota est, et a nativitate sua semper fuit, ita quod se terras et tenementa sua neque alia bona sua regere scit, aut aliquo tempore scivit:" the jury also returned that she had not alienated any lands or tenements since the death of William, late Earl of Kent, her late husband. That Joan, the wife of Sir Edward Bethom, Kt., thirty years old and upwards, Elizabeth, the wife of Richard Strangeways, Esq., twenty-eight years old and upwards, and Alice, wife of John Conyers, Esq., twenty-six years old and upwards, were the daughters and heirs, as well of the said William the late earl, as of the said Joan the late countess. (Esc. 3 Edw. IV., No. 33.)

Thomas Lord Fauconberge died on the 9th of September, 1407, leaving the above-mentioned Joan, or Johanna, his daughter and heir, an infant of one year old. (Esc. 9 Hen. IV., No. 19.; see also Esc. 9 Hen. V., No. 42.) His widow Joan had assignment of dower after her husband's death on 20th October, 1408, and she herself died in the following year, on the 4th of March, 1409. (Esc. 10 Hen. IV., No. 15.) A later inquisition, however, taken on 1st of April, 1422 (Esc. 10 Hen. V., No. 22ᵃ.), states that the said Joan, widow of Sir Thomas Fauconberge, Chivaler, died on the 23rd of June, 1411. The first date is most probably the correct one, as a fact would be more likely to be accurately stated by a jury impanneled a few months only after the event recorded, than by an inquest taken after an interval of twelve or thirteen years.

On the formal proof of age (Esc. 10 Hen. V., No. 22ᵇ.) of Joan Fauconberge, daughter and heir of Thomas Lord Fauconberge and Joan his wife, taken at Northallerton, in the county of York, on the 1st of May, 10 Henry V., 1422, she was described as the wife of William Neville. She appears to have been born at Skelton in the said county, and baptized in the church there on the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist (18th of October), 1406; and on the same feast in 1421, being the 9th of Henry V., she had accomplished her fifteenth year. Dugdale (tom. ii. p. 4.) has fallen into a singular mistake in alluding to this event, not to speak of the obvious inconsistency which those writers who follow his account have introduced in assigning the year of Lord Fauconberge's decease to 1372, thus making the daughter's birth to have occurred more than thirty years after her father's death. It is this:—One of the witnesses, who speaks to the period of the baptism of Joan, was named Thomas Blawefrount the elder, fifty years of age and upwards, and the reason assigned by him for his remembrance of the event is as follows: "Et hoc scit eo quod Isabella filia prædicti Thomæ desponsata fuit cuidam Johanni Wilton, et idem Thomas fuit ad sponsalia eodem die quo præfata Johanna baptizata fuit, propter quod bene recolit quod præfata Johanna fuit ætatis prædictæ." Dugdale has by a strange oversight made the Isabella here described to be the daughter of Thomas Fauconberge, and sister of Joan, instead of the witness' own daughter.

It is not quite evident, from the language of the document which records the imbecility of the Countess of Kent in March 1463, whether she was then actually dead. It appears, however, clear that she survived her husband, who lived but a few months to enjoy his newly acquired dignity.

The account given by Dugdale of John, son of Thomas Lord Fauconberge, is scarcely intelligible. He says this lord "left issue John, his son and heir," and subsequently adds, "which John died without issue in the lifetime of his father."

Lord Fauconberge may have had a son by his former wife, but I have seen nothing to confirm this supposition. By an inquisition taken after the death of Sir Walter Fauconberge, Chivaler, at Bedford, on the 18th of November, 1415, it was found that Joan, widow of one Sir John Fauconberge, Chivaler, deceased, whom Thomas Brounflete, junior, afterwards married, was then living, and that she granted to the said Sir Walter all the estate which she had in certain rents payable by Matilda Wake, formerly the wife of Sir Thomas Wake, Chivaler; that the said Sir Walter died on the 1st of September, 1415, but the jurors knew not who was his heir. (Esc. 3 Hen. V., No. 15.) Dugdale (vol. ii. p. 234.) cites a feoffment dated 9 Hen. IV., 1407-8, which shows that Thomas Brounflete, Esq., was then married to the said Joan, and consequently that Sir John Fauconberge was dead at that time.

I must close this, for I fear I have now exceeded the limits which your valuable paper may, with justice to others, spare to subjects of this nature.

William Hardy.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Lining of Cameras.—I find nothing so good to line a camera with as black velvet; for, black the inside of a camera as you will, if it is hard wood or any size used, there will be reflection from the bottom, which, with very sensitive plates, gives a dulness which, I think I may say, is caused by this reflection. I think even the inside of the lens tube might advantageously be lined with black velvet.

W. M. F.

Cyanuret of Potassium.—I have been using lately 12 grs. of cyanuret of potassium in 1 oz. of water for clearing the collodion plates, instead of hypo. There is one advantage, that there are no crystals formed if imperfectly washed, which is too common with hypo. You must take care to well wash off the developing fluid, whether pyrogallic, protonitrate, or protosulphite: if you use the latter 40-grains strong, the whitest pictures can be obtained, nearly as white as after bichloride of mercury. A good formula to make it is—

Distilled water 11 drachms.

Alcohol 1 drachm.

Nitric acid 20 minims.

Protosulphate of iron 60 grains.

This I know to act well with care, and it will keep a long time.

I find protonitrate solution—

Water 1½ ounce.

Barytes 150 grains.

Protosulph. 150 "

mixed in a proportion of 8 to 4, with a 3-grain solution of pyrogallic—a very nice developing mixture; and, if poured back again after being used, will suffice 6 or 8 times over; but it is best new.

W. M. F.

Minuteness of Detail on Paper.—Being fond of antiquarian studies, and having learned from "N. & Q." the value of photography to the archæologist, I have serious thoughts of taking up the practice of the art. Before doing so, however, I am anxious to learn how far that minuteness of detail which I so much prize, and which is of such value to the antiquary, is to be obtained by any of the processes on paper. I have seen some specimens produced by collodion which certainly exhibit that quality in an eminent degree. Is anything approaching to such minuteness attainable by any of the Talbotype processes?

F. S. A.

[Had this Query reached us last week, we should then, as now, have replied in the affirmative. We should then have referred, for evidence in support of our statement, to Mr. Fenton's Well Walk, Cheltenham, published in the Photographic Album, and to Mr. Buckle's View of Peterborough. But we may now adduce a work almost more remarkable for this quality, namely, a view of Salisbury, by Mr. Russell Sedgefield, a young wood engraver, which is about to appear in the forthcoming part of the Photographic Album.

To this beautiful specimen of the art we may certainly refer as a proof that it is quite possible to obtain upon paper the greatest nicety of detail; in short, every minuteness that can be desired, or ought to be attempted.]

Stereoscopic Angles.—I think there can be little doubt that Mr. T. L. Merritt (Vol. viii., p. 110.) has solved the problem as to stereoscopic angles: there can be no reason why one angle should be used for near objects, and another for distant. A true representation of nature is required: and, as we cannot view any object with one of our eyes eighteen or twenty feet separate from the other, so it appears to me a true picture cannot be obtained by taking two views so far apart. The result must be to dwarf the objects; and, in confirmation of this, I may state that I was not convinced that the stereoscopic views were taken from nature till I understood the cause of their reduction. All views that I have been able to purchase, of out-door nature, appear to me to be taken from models, and not from the objects themselves.

A view of a tower conveys the idea, not of a tower of stone and lime, but of a very careful model in cardboard; and this is exactly what might be expected from taking the views at so wide an angle. A church is seen, as it would be seen by a giant whose eyes were twenty feet apart, or as we would see a small model of it near at hand.

I hope that some of your photographic correspondents will settle this question, by taking views of the same object both by the wide and close angle, and, by comparing them, ascertain which conveys to the mind the truest representation of nature.

T. B. Johnston.

Edinburgh.

Sisson's developing Solution (Vol. vii., p. 462.).—Will you be so good as to ask Mr. Sisson if he finds the above to answer as a bath to plunge the plate into, instead of pouring on, as in the case of pyrogallic?

He is entitled to the warm thanks of all photographers for the discovery of a solution which produces such pleasing tints with so much ease; and it needs but the qualification I inquire after to render it perfect. I have used it when at least three weeks made, and am not sure that it is not even better than when fresh.

S. B.

P.S.—Why not devote a little more space to this fascinating art in "N. & Q."? I think, if anything, it grows less latterly.

Multiplying Photographs.—In Vol. viii., p. 60., you reprint a communication from Sir W. Herschel which has appeared in The Athenæum.

It describes a method of printing from glass negatives, but there being no cut renders the meaning somewhat obscure.

In the last number of the Photographic Journal (21st ult.), some mention is made of this letter. They say it proves to be one already long in use, Mr. Kilburn having practised it for four years. I am very desirous of obtaining more information about it. I want to know the length of the box or camera required; and also the focus of the lens, and the best size. Probably Mr. Kilburn or Sir W. Herschel would one of them be so kind as to say.

W. M. F.

What kind of lens should be used for taking enlarged copies of glass negatives according to Mr. Stewart's plan? and will the same lens also diminish the picture? Will not the usual camera lens act?

Ply.

[The usual compound lens is all that is required.]

Would you have the goodness to explain, in some detail, the two methods by which Mr. Stewart and Mr. Kilburn multiply photographs in a reduced or magnified size; the one by reflected light, the other by transmitted. Mr. Stewart's experiments are upon glass, Mr. Kilburn's on cameras and daguerreotypes. I have never seen any description of this latter process, or of the method of preparing the stereoscope objects: vide Athenæum, July 30, 1853.

I observe with great pleasure that the cost of apparatus is becoming less, &c.

Amateur.

[However much we may agree in the views expressed in the latter part of An Amateur's letter, we have been obliged to omit it, as it violates our rule of not opening the columns of "N. & Q." to the recommendation of any particular manufacturer.]

Is it dangerous to use the Ammonio-Nitrate of Silver? (Vol. viii., p. 134.).—No: it is now generally used as the best of marking inks, without preparation; and we have never yet heard of an explosion from its use. Mr. Delamotte has evidently confounded this preparation with the chloride of silver precipitated with strong ammonia, which, when dried, forms the article known as fulminating silver; or by adding to the oxide of silver lime-water, and afterwards a strong solution of ammonia, a black powder is thrown down, which, when dried, is known as Berthollet's fulminating silver. There is also one other, formed by adding chloric acid to oxide of silver; after drying this, and then adding potassa to a solution of it, the precipitate, by again being dried, becomes an explosive compound.

The photographer forms a weak solution for his purpose with one of the least soluble and weakest of the ammoniacal preparations, and which, by drying around the stopper of the bottle, is very unlikely to become explosive, from its wanting the addition of another element as necessary to the formation of an explosive compound. For my own part, I must say, that I have found, from experience, all the compound solutions of silver keep much better, and the photogenic effect more satisfactory, by mixing only so much as I may require for immediate use, at this time of the year especially.

J. H.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Burke's Marriage.—I am obliged to Mr. Gantillon (Vol. viii., p. 134.), but the authority referred to does not answer my questions (Vol. vii., p. 382.): When and where was Burke married? There is no doubt as to who he married. But some biographers say the ceremony took place in 1766, others in 1767. Some leave it to be inferred that he was married at Bath, others in London.

B. E. B.

Stars and Flowers (Vol. iv., p. 22.; Vol. vii., pp. 151. 341. 513.).—To the passages quoted from Cowley, Longfellow, Hood, Moir, and Darwin, may be added the following ingenious application of this metaphorical language:—

Bibliothecar. Chetham.

Odour from the Rainbow (Vol. iii. pp. 224. 310.).—This idea has been traced to Bacon's Sylva, Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, Snow's Miscellaneous Poems, and to a Greek writer referred to by Coleridge. Georgius de Rhodes, in his Peripatetic Philosophy, mentions the same effect of the rainbow, and quotes Pliny:

"Dico sexto, iridis effectus duos præcipue numerari. Primus est, quod plantas, arbores, frutices, quibus incubuerit, efficit odorationes. Tradunt, inquit Plinius lib. xii. c. 24., in quocunque frutice incurvetur cœlestis arcus, eandem quæ sit aspalato suavitatem odoris existere; aspalato autem inenarrabilem quandam. Terra etiam ipsa suavius halare dicitur."

In the annotations on Pliny, in loco, Aristotle is referred to in Problem. Quæst. xii.

Bibliothecar. Chetham.

Judges styled Reverend (Vol. iv., pp. 151. 198).—The following is an extract from the title of a small octavo volume, printed for the assignees of John More, Esq., London, 1635, which lately came into my hands:—La novel Natura Brevium du Juge Tresreverend Monsieur Anthony Fitzherbert; with a new table by William Rastall. The preface is headed as follows:—"La Preface sur cest lieuz compose per le Reverend Justice Anthony Fitzherbert."

Anthony Fitzherbert was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1523, and died in 30 Hen. VIII. William Rastall was appointed Serjeant-at-law in 1554, and one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in 1558: it would seem, therefore, that as Rastall is not styled "Serjeant-at-law" in the title-page of the book when he made a new table to its contents, that the complimentary style of Reverend, as applicable to the judges, was used at least as late as the middle of the sixteenth century.

Thomas W. King, York Herald.

College of Arms.

Jacob Bobart (Vol. viii., p. 37.).—I beg to supply the following additional particulars relating to the Bobart family. In the Correspondence of Dr. Richardson, edited by Mr. Dawson Turner, will be found a letter from Bobart junior to the Doctor, with a reference to two other letters. In pages 9, 10, and 11, a copious note respecting the Bobart family, by the editor, is given. A short notice of Bobart jun. also appears in the Memoirs of John Martyn, Professor of Botany at Cambridge. The following epitaph on Bobart jun. is in Amherst's Terræ Filius, 1726:

In the preface to Mr. Nichols' work on Autographs, among other albums noticed by him as being in the British Museum, is that of David Krieg, with Jacob Bobart's autograph, and the following verses:

"VIRTUS SUA GLORIA.

Your success and happyness

Is sincerely wished by

Ja. Bobart, Oxford."

Mr. Richardson's engraved portrait of Bobart the Elder is only a copy of Burghers' engraving, so highly spoken of by Granger, and cannot, therefore, be nearly so valuable as the latter.

Garlichithe.

"Putting your foot into it" (Vol. viii., p. 77.).—W. W. is certainly "Will o' the Wisp" himself. We must not allow him to lead us into Asia, hunting for the origin of a saying which is nothing more than a coarse allusion to an accident that happens day after day to every heedless or benighted pedestrian in England; but if a foreign origin must be found for this saying, let us travel to Greece rather than to Hindostan, and we shall see in the writings of Æschylus:

C. Forbes.

Temple.

Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic Needle (Vol. vi., pp. 127. 207. 280. 368. 566.; Vol. vii., p. 508.).—We have all overlooked the following use of this simile in Thomas Hood's poem, addressed to Rae Wilson:

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

The Tragedy of Polidus (Vol. vii., p. 499.).—This tragedy, printed at London 1723, 12mo., has a farce appended to it called All Bedevil'd, or the House in a Hurry. Browne was patronised by Hervey, the author of the Meditations. The scene of the drama is in Cyprus. The lover of Polidus, "the banished general," and Rosetta, daughter to Orlont, chief favourite to the king, form the groundwork of the plot. My copy was formerly in the collection of plays which belonged to Stephen Jones, author of the Biographia Dramatica.

J. Mt.

Robert Fairlie (Vol. vii., p. 581.).—In answer to the Query as to Robert Fairley, or more properly Fairlie, I may mention that there is in my possession a presentation by the Faculty of Advocates, dated July 27, 1622, to "Robert Fairlie, son lawfull to Umquhill Robert Fairlie, goldsmith, Burgh of Edinburgh, to the said bursar place and haill immunities quhill he pass his course of Philosophie," in the College of Edinburgh. This undoubtedly was the author of the two very rare little poetical volumes referred to; and it proves, from the use of the word "Umquhill," that his father was then dead.

There is an error in stating that the Kalendarium is dedicated to the Earl of Ancrum. In the copy before me it is inscribed "Illustrissimo et Nobilissimo Domino, Domino Roberto Karo Comiti a Summerset," &c. The other work is the one dedicated to Lord Ancrum. I have both works, and they certainly were costly, as I gave five guineas for them. They had originally been priced at ten guineas.

A Bursary, according to Jamieson, is "the endowment given to a student in a university, an exhibition." It is believed that Fairlie was of the Ayrshire family of that name.

J. Mt.

"Mater ait natæ," &c. (Vol. vii., pp. 247, 248.).—When calling attention to these lines in "N. & Q." (Vol. vii., p. 155.), I at the same time asked if such a relationship as that mentioned in them was ever known to exist? This Query was very kindly and satisfactorily answered by your correspondents Anon and Tye. But, remarkable as were the instances mentioned by them of the two old ladies in Cheshire and Limington, who could speak to their descendants in a female line to the fifth generation, still that I am now to record of an old man in Montenegro is much more singular, as he could converse with his lineal descendants in an uninterrupted male line one generation farther from him, (i. e.) to the sixth. The case is too well authenticated to admit of a doubt, and until some one of your correspondents shall favour me with another equally to be credited, it will remain in the columns of "N. & Q." as the only one known to its readers:—

"Colonel Vialla de Sommières, a Frenchman, who was for a long time governor of the province of Catano, mentions a family he saw in a village of Montenegro, which reckoned six generations. The venerable head of the family was 117 years old, his son 100, his grandson 82, great-grandson 60, and the son of this last, who was 43, had a son aged 21, whose child was 2 years old!"

W. W.

Malta.

Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., p. 65.).—Anon. points at Chester as the probable birthplace of the above knight, named in Mr. Hughes's Query. Now, Mr. Davenport, in his Biog. Dict., p. 546. (wherein is a wood-engraved portrait of Sir John), states that he was born in London, about 1672; but, supposing his place of nativity was, as your correspondent suggests, Chester, it might very easily be ascertained by searching the parochial register of that city in or about the above year.

Garlichithe.

Fête des Chaudrons (Vol. viii., p. 57.).—Some account of this fête will probably be found in Ducange's Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis. I have not a copy of the work at hand for reference.

John Macray.

Oxford.

Murder of Monaldeschi (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—The following account of this event is taken from the Biographie Universelle, article "Christine, reine de Suède:"

"Cet Italien avait joui de toute la confiance de la reine, qui lui avait révélé ses pensées les plus secrètes. Arrivée à Fontainebleau, elle l'accusa de trahison, et résolut de le faire mourir. Un religieux de l'ordre de la Trinité, le P. Lebel, fut appelé pour le préparer à la mort. Monaldeschi se jeta aux pieds de la reine et fondit en larmes. Le religieux, qui a publié lui-même un récit de l'événement, fit à Christine les plus fortes représentations sur cet acte de vengeance qu'elle voulait exercer arbitrairement dans une terre étrangère et dans le palais d'un grand souverain; mais elle resta inflexible, et ordonna à Sentinelli, capitaine de ses gardes, de faire exécuter l'arrêt qu'elle avait prononcé. Monaldeschi, soupçonnant le danger qu'il courait, s'était cuirassé: il fallut le frapper de plusieurs coups avant qu'il expirât, et la galerie des Cerfs, où se passa cette scène révoltante, fut teinte de son sang. Pendant ce temps, Christine, au rapport de plusieurs historiens, était dans une pièce attenante, s'entretenant avec beaucoup de calme de choses indifférentes; selon d'autres rapports, elle fut présente à l'exécution, accabla Monaldeschi de reproches amers, et contempla ensuite son cadavre sanglant avec une satisfaction qu'elle ne chercha point à dissimuler. Que ces détails soient fondés ou non, la mort de Monaldeschi est une tache ineffaçable à la mémoire de Christine, et c'est à regret qu'on voit sur la liste de ses apologistes le nom du fameux Leibnitz."

In the answer which Queen Christina sent to the objections made in Poland to her election as their sovereign, occurs the following passage:

"Le Père dira en témoignage de la vérité, que cet homme me força de le faire mourir par la trahison la plus noire qu'un serviteur puisse faire à son maître; que je n'ordonnai sa mort, qu'après l'avoir convaincu de son crime par les lettres en original écrites de sa propre main, et après de lui avoir fait avouer à lui-même, en présence de trois témoins, et du Père prieur de Fontainebleau: qu'ils savent qu'il dit lui-même: 'Je suis digne de mille morts,' et que je lui fis donner les sacremens dont il était capable avant que de le faire mourir."—Mémoires concernant Christine, Amst. et Leipzig, 1759, tom. iii. pp. 386-7.

Ἁλιέυς.

Dublin.

Your correspondent will find an account of this affair in the Appendix to Ranke's History of the Popes.

T. K. H.

Land of Green Ginger (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times. As far as I can recollect, none of the local histories gives any derivation of the name; those of Gent and Frost certainly do not, and this is the one generally received by the inhabitants. Salthouse Lane and Blanket Row are other streets, which may be referred to as having obtained their names in a similar way.

R. W. Elliot.

Clifton.

An inhabitant of Hull has informed me that this street was so named by a house-proprietor whose fortune had been made in the West Indies, and I think by the sweetmeat trade.

T. K. H.

Unneath (Vol. vii., p. 631.).—It strikes me that your correspondents Mr. C. H. Cooper and E. G. R., in reply to Mr. Wright's inquiry respecting the use of the word "unneath," used in Parnell's Fairy Tale, have fallen into a slight mistake in supposing that the seemingly old words used in this poem are really so. I make no doubt that Mr. Halliwell is correct in noting the word "unneath" as signifying "beneath," in the patois of Somerset; but I gravely suspect that Parnell had picked up the word out of our older poets, and used it in the passage quoted without consideration.

The true meaning of "unneath" (which is of Saxon origin, and variously written "unnethe, unnethes") is scarcely, not easily.

Thus Chaucer says:

And again:

"Unneath," signifying difficult, scarcely, with difficulty, occurs so frequently in Spenser, that it is unnecessary to burden your pages with references. It may be remarked, however, that this latter author occasionally employs this word in the sense of almost.

T. H. de H.

Snail Gardens (Vol. viii., p. 33.).—In very many places on the Continent snails are regularly bred for the table: this is the case at Ulm, Wirtemberg, and various other places. A very lively description of the sale of snails in the Roman market is given by Sir Francis Head. I have collected much interesting information on this point, and shall feel grateful for any farther "Notes" on the subject.

Seleucus.

Parvise (Vol. vii., p. 624.).—Perhaps the following quotation may throw light on your correspondent D. P.'s inquiry respecting this word, in French Parvis. It is taken from a Dictionnaire Universel, contenant généralement tous les mots françois, tant vieux que modernes, &c., par feu Messire Antoine Furetière, Abbé de Chalivoi, three vols. folio, La Haye et la Rotterdam, 1701:

"Parvis, s. m.—Place publique qui est ordinairement devant la principale face des grandes Eglises. Le parvis de Nôtre Dame, de Saint Généviève. On le disoit autrefois de toutes les places qui étoient devant les palais, et grandes maisons. Les auteurs Chrétiens appellent le Parvis des Gentiles, ce que les Juifs appelloient le premier Temple. Il y avoit deux Parvis dans le Temple de Jérusalem; l'un intérieur, qui étoit celui des Prêtres; et l'autre extérieur, qu'on appelloit aussi le Parvis d'Israël, ou le Grand Parvis.—Le Cl.

"Quelques-uns disent que ce mot vient de Paradisus; d'autres de parvisium, qui est un lieu au bas de la nef où l'on tenoit autrefois les petites Ecoles, à docendo parvis pueris. Voyez Menage, qui rapporte plusieurs titres curieux en faveur de l'une et de l'autre opinion. D'autres le dérivent de pervius, disant qu'on appelloit autrefois pervis, une place publique devant un batiment."

T. H. de H.

Humbug (Vol. vii., p. 631.).—Allow me to add the following to the list of explanations as to the origin of this word. There appeared in the Berwick Advertiser the following origin of the word humbug, and it assuredly is a very feasible one. It may be proper to premise, that the name of bogue is commonly pronounced bug in that district of Scotland formerly called the "Mearns."

"It is not generally known that this word, presently so much in vogue, is of Scottish origin. There was in olden time a race called Bogue, or Boag of that ilk, in Berwickshire. A daughter of the family married a son of Hume of Hume. In process of time, by default of male issue, the Bogue estate devolved on one Geordie Hume, who was called popularly 'Hume o' the Bogue,' or rather 'Aum o' the Bug.' This worthy was inclined to the marvellous, and had a vast inclination to exalt himself, his wife, family, brother, and all his ancestors on both sides. His tales however did not pass current; and at last, when any one made an extraordinary statement in the Mearns, the hearer would shrug up his shoulders, and style it just 'a hum o' the bug.' This was shortened into hum-bug, and the word soon spread like wildfire over the whole kingdom."

How far this is, or is not true, cannot be known; but it is certain that the Lands of Bogue, commonly called by country folk "Bug," passed by marriage into the Hume family; and that the male representatives of this ancient family are still in existence. This much may be fairly asserted, that the Berwickshire legend has more apparent probability about it than any of the other ones.

J. Mt.

P. S.—"That ilk," in old Scotch, means "the same:" in other words, Hume of that ilk is just Hume of Hume; and Brodie of that ilk, Brodie of Brodie.

Table-moving (Vol. vii., p. 596.).—I imagine that the great object in table-moving is to produce the desired effect without pressure. During experiments I have often heard the would-be "table-movers" cry "Don't press: it must be done without any pressure."

J. A. T.

Scotch Newspapers (Vol. viii., p. 57.).—In Ruddiman's Life, by G. Chalmers (8vo. Lond. 1794), it is stated that Cromwell was the first who communicated the benefit of a newspaper to Scotland. In 1652, Christopher Higgins, a printer, whom Cromwell had conveyed with his army to Leith, reprinted there what had been already published at London, A Diurnal of some passages and affairs for the information of the English Soldiers. A newspaper of Scottish manufacture appeared at Edinburgh, the same authority relates, on the 31st of December, 1660, under the title of Mercurius Caledonius; comprising the affairs in agitation in Scotland, with a survey of foreign intelligence. It was published once a week, in a small 4to. form of eight pages. Chalmers adds, that—

"It was a son of the Bishop of Orkney, Thomas Lydserfe, who now thought he had the wit to amuse, the knowledge to instruct, and the address to captivate the lovers of news in Scotland. But he was only able, with all his powers, to extend his publication to ten numbers, which were very loyal, very illiterate, and very affected."

John Macray.

Oxford.

Door-head Inscriptions (Vol. vii., pp. 23. 190. 588.; Vol. viii., p. 38.).—Over the door of the house at Salvington, Sussex, in which Selden was born, is this inscription:

It has been thus paraphrased:

1. By the late William Hamper, Esq., Gent. Mag., 1824, vol. ii. p. 601.:

2. By Dr. Evans:

3. In Evans's Picture of Worthing, p. 129.:

4. In Shearsmith's Worthing, p. 71.:

Anon.

Honorary Degrees (Vol. viii., pp. 8. 86.).—The short note of C. does not elucidate—if, indeed, it touches upon—the matter propounded. It was stated, whether correctly I know not, that honorary doctors created by diploma (reference being made to the Duke of Cambridge, and one or two other royal personages) would have the distinctive privilege of voting in Convocation. It then occurred to me that Johnson—whose Oxford dignity was conferred in 1776, by special requisition of the Chancellor, Lord North (his M.A. degree had been, I judge, likewise by diploma)—is not mentioned by Boswell or Croker, as having on any occasion exercised the right referred to. Did he possess that right? and, if so, was it ever exercised? The frequency of his visits to Oxford, and the alleged rigid adherence to academical costume, make the question one of some interest: besides, in regard to a person so entirely sui generis, and upon whose character and career so much minuteness of biographical detail has been bestowed, it is not a little remarkable how many points are almost barren of illustration.

M. A.

"Never ending, still beginning" (Vol. viii., p. 103.).—See Dryden's Alexander's Feast, l. 101.

F. B—w.