Queries.

WILLIAM COOKWORTHY, THE INVENTOR OF BRITISH PORCELAIN.

In endeavouring to revive the neglected memory of this good and great man, I have carefully looked over the chief periodicals of his day (1730 to 1780) with very little success; perhaps because those I have at command, the Gentleman's Magazine, Universal Magazine, and Universal Museum, were not those selected for his correspondence.

If any of your readers can refer me to any papers or essays of his, or any details of the internal management of his China works, or of his public or private life, it will be doing me a great favour.

What I have hitherto collected are chiefly fragmentary accounts of his life and character; general notices of his discovery of the China clay and stone, of the progress of his manufactory, and of his treatment of British cobalt ores; details of his experiments on the distillation of sea-water for use on ship-board; a treatise in detail on the divining rod; and several of his private letters, chiefly religious.

Most of these I have thrown out in print, under the title of Relics of William Cookworthy, &c., which I am desirous of making much more complete.

J. Prideaux.

CATHOLIC FLORAL DIRECTORIES, ETC.

More than a year ago (Vol. vi., p. 503.) I made a Query respecting Catholic Floral Directories, and two works in particular which were largely quoted in Mr. Oakley's Catholic Florist, Lond. 1851; and I again alluded to them in Vol. vii., p. 402., but have not got any reply. The two works referred to, viz. the Anthologia Borealis et Australis, and the Florilegium Sanctorum Aspirationum, are not to be heard of anywhere (so far as I can see) save in Mr. Oakley's book. During the last year I have ransacked all the bibliographical authorities I could lay hold of, and made every inquiry after these mysterious volumes, but all in vain.

The orthography and style of the passages cited are of a motley kind, and most of them read like modern compositions, though here and there we have a quaint simile and a piece of antique spelling. In fact they seem more like imitations than anything else; and I cannot resist the temptation of placing them on the same shelf with M‘Pherson's Ossian and the poems of Rowley. In some places a French version of the Florilegium is quoted: even if that escaped one's researches, is it likely that two old English books (which these purport to be), of such a remarkable kind, should be unknown to all our bibliographers, and to the readers of "N. & Q.," among whom may be found the chief librarians and bibliographers in the three kingdoms. Is it not strange also that Mr. Oakley and his "compiler" decline giving any information respecting these books?

I shall feel extremely obliged to any correspondent who will clear up this matter, and who will furnish me with a list of Catholic Floral Directories.

Eirionnach.

GEORGE ALSOP.

George Alsop was ordained deacon 1666-67, priest 1669, by Henry King, Bishop of Chichester. He printed in 1669—

"An Orthodox Plea for the Sanctuary of God, Common Service, and White Robe of the House. Printed for the Author, and sold by R. Reynolds, at the Sun and Bible in the Postern."

It is a small 8vo. of eighty-six pages, exclusive of the dedication to the Bishop of Chichester, and an Epistle to the Reader, and has a portrait of the author by W. Sherwin.

Can any of your readers give me any account of this George Alsop, his preferment, if any, and the time of his death?

He is, I feel persuaded, a different person from the author of A Character of Maryland, 12mo., 1666.

P. B.