Minor Notes.
Reading edition
Alpha.
Inscriptions on old Pulpits.—"N. & Q." has given many kinds of inscriptions, from those on Fonts and Door-heads down to those on Watch-papers; perhaps, therefore, it may not be without its use or interest to make a beginning for a list of inscriptions on old pulpits. The first inscription I quote is from Richard Baxter's pulpit, of which I have given a full description in Vol. v., p. 363.:
1. Kidderminster. Baxter's pulpit (now preserved in the vestry of the Unitarian Chapel). On the panels of the pulpit:
"ALICE . DAWKX . WIDOW . GAVE . THIS."
On the front of the preacher's desk:
"PRAISE . THE . LORD."
Round the sounding-board:
"O . GIVE . THANKS . UNTO . THE . LORD . AND . CALL UPON . HIS . NAME . DECLARE . HIS . WORSHIP AMONG . THE . PEOPLE."
At the back of the pulpit:
"ANNO . 1621."
2. Suckley, Worcestershire; round the sounding-board (apparently of very old date):
"BLESSED . ARE . THEY . THAT . HEAR . THE . WORDE . OF GOD . AND . KEEPE . IT."
3. Broadwas, Worcestershire; on the panels:
"WILLIAM . NOXON . AND . ROGER . PRINCE . C . W . 1632."
Round the sounding-board, the same text as at Suckley.
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
Recent Curiosities of Literature.—Thackeray, in the second number of The Newcomes, describes an old lady's death as being caused from her head having been cut with a bed-room candle. N. P. Willis, in his Health Trip to the Tropics, speaks of being waited on by a Carib, who had "no beard except a long moustache." Professor Spalding, of St. Andrew's in his History of English Literature, says that the sonnets of Wordsworth "have perfection hardly to be surpassed." And J. Stanyan Bigg (the "new poet"), in the December number of Hogg's Instructor, exclaims:
"The winter storms come rushing round the wall, Like him who at Jerusalem shriek'd out 'Wo!'"
Cuthbert Bede, B.A.
Assuming Names.—Last Term, in the Court of Exchequer, application was made by counsel to add a surname to the name of an attorney on the roll; he having been left property with a wish expressed that he should take the surname in addition to his own, which he had done, but not by royal license. The court granted the application. (Law Times, vol. xxii. p. 123.)
Anon.
False Dates in Water-marks of Papers.—Lately, in cutting up some paper for photographic purposes, I found in one and the same quire two sheets without any mark, two of the date 1851, nine bearing the date 1853, and the remaining eleven were 1854. I can imagine a case might occur in which the authenticity of a document might be much questioned were it dated 1853, when the paper would be presumed not to have been made until a year afterwards. I think this is worth making a note of not only by lawyers, but those interested in historical documents.
H. W. D.
Jan. 2, 1854.