Notes.

AN ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF VENTILATION.

"The House [of Commons] met to-day [27th April] after the Easter holidays—and honourable members, on entering, seemed highly to appreciate the unusual luxury of a little fresh air."—The Times, 28th April.

The failure of some late attempts to ventilate public buildings invites me to set forth an Encyclopædia of ventilation—at a cheap rate, and in a compendious form.

Aware of the abilities and celebrity of many of the writers on this subject—from Whitehurst and Franklin to Reid and Gurney—I must ward off the imputation of self-conceit by expressing my belief that the errors of those who have failed should be chiefly ascribed to excessive cleverness; to unadvised attempts at outwitting nature! I hope to escape that snare. In the execution of my humble task, I shall entirely rely on common sense and common experience.

Air is essential to human life, and as respiration destroys its vital qualities, the ventilation of rooms which are intended for habitation should be a primary object in all architectural plans.

Architects, however, seldom provide for the ventilation of rooms otherwise than as they provide for the admission of light. Now the properties of light and air, with reference to our domestic requirements, differ in some important particulars—of which it may not be amiss to give a brief enumeration.

Light moves with uniform velocity: air is sometimes quiescent, and sometimes moves at the rate of thirty miles an hour. Light diffuses itself with much uniformity: air passes in a current from the point of its entrance to that of its exit. Light, whatever be its velocity, has no sensible effect on the human frame: air, in the shape of a partial current, is both offensive to the feelings and productive of serious diseases. Light, once admitted, supplies our wants till nightfall: air requires to be replaced at very short intervals. Light may be conveniently admitted from above: air requires to be admitted on the level of the sitter. Light, by the aid of ground glass, may be modified permanently: air requires to be variously adjusted according to its direction, its velocity, the seasons, the time of the day, the number of persons assembled, &c.

An attentive consideration of the above circumstances leads me to certain conclusions which I shall now state aphoristically, and proceed to describe in more detail.

A room designed for a numerous assemblage of persons—as a reading-room, a lecture-room, or a school-room—should be provided with apertures, adapted to admit spontaneous supplies of fresh air, in such variable quantities as may be required, on at least two of its opposite sides, and within three feet from the floor; also, with apertures in the ceiling, or on a level therewith, to promote the exit of the vitiated air. The apertures of both descriptions may be quite distinct from those which admit light.

Suppose a room to be twenty-four feet square, and sixteen feet in height, with two apertures for light on each side, each aperture being three feet wide by eight feet in height, and rising from the floor. There are not many rooms constructed on a plan so favourable to the admission of fresh air—but it has some serious defects. 1. The air would enter in broad and partial currents. 2. It would not reach the angular portions of the room. 3. The vitiated air might rise above the apertures, and so accumulate without the means of escape.

Now, suppose the same room to have its apertures at eight feet from the floor, and so to reach the ceiling. The escape of the vitiated air might then take place—if not prevented by a counter-current. But whence comes the fresh air for the occupants? There is no direct provision for its admission. The elevated apertures are utterly insufficient for that purpose; and the perpetual requisite is no otherwise afforded than by the occasional opening of a door!

It being thus established that the same apertures can never effectually serve for light and ventilation, I propose with regard to reading-rooms, lecture-rooms, and school-rooms, which require accommodation for books, maps, charts, and drawings, rather than a view of external objects, that the windows should be placed in the upper part of the room—that the admission of fresh air should be provided for by ducts near the floor—and the escape of the vitiated air by openings in, or on a level with, the ceiling.

The number of windows, and their size, must depend on the size of the room. If windows are to admit light only, a smaller number may be sufficient, and they may not be required on more than one side; a circumstance which recommends the plan proposal, as we can seldom have windows on each side of a room, or even on two of its opposite sides, but may devise a method of so admitting air.

Rejecting the use of windows as a means of ventilation, and rejecting artificial currents of every description, I propose the substitution of air-ducts of incorrodible iron, to be inserted horizontally in the walls of at least two opposite sides of the room, within three feet from the floor, and at intervals of about four feet. The ducts to be six or eight inches in diameter, according to the size of the room. The external orifice of each duct to be formed of perforated zinc, and the internal orifice, which may be trumpet-shaped, of perforated zinc or wire-gauze, with a device which would serve to adjust the quantum of air according to circumstances, and to exclude it at night. By such contrivances, while the offensive and noxious currents which proceed from wide openings would be obviated, the supplies of fresh air would always be equal to the demand. The purest air may not be accessible—but, as Franklin says, "no common air from without is so unwholesome as the air within a close room."

The escape of the vitiated air requires less consideration. If the ceiling of the room be flat, with another room above it, the upper part of each window, in the shape of a narrow slip, might be made to act as a sort of safety-valve; but if the windows are on one side only, corresponding openings should be made on the opposite side, so that there would almost always be, more or less, a leeward opening. A vaulted ceiling, without any other room over it, seems to be the most desirable form, as the vitiated air would rise and collect towards its centre, where there could be no counter-current to impede its egress.

It is the union of those two objects, the admission of fresh air and the riddance of the vitiated air, skilfully and economically effected, which forms the circle of the science of ventilation.

I have restricted myself to the means of ventilation, which is requisite at all seasons of the year, but am quite aware that warmth, or a temperature above that of the external air, is sometimes indispensable to health and comfort, and therefore to the free exercise of the faculties. I believe, however, that the means proposed for the admission of fresh air might also be made available for the admission of heated air, and that either description of air might be admitted independently of the other, or both descriptions simultaneously.

A vast increase of reading-rooms, lecture-rooms, and school-rooms, may be safely predicted, and as the due ventilation of such rooms is a project of undeniable importance, I hope this note, eccentric in form, but earnest as to its purpose, may invite the remarks of others more conversant with architecture and physics—either in correction, or confirmation, or extension, of its general principles and details.

Bolton Corney.

The Terrace, Barnes, 28th April, 1854.

THE HOUSE OF RUSSELL, OR DU ROZEL.

At a time when the readers of "N. & Q.," and the world at large, have been hearing of the gift of a bell to a village church in Normandy, so pleasantly and readily made by the princely house of Russell, far exceeding the modest solicitation of the curé for assistance by way of a subscription, in remembrance of the Du Rozels having left their native patrimony in France to share the fortunes of the Conqueror in Old England, the following particulars may not be uninteresting.

Mr. Wiffen, when compiling his elaborate Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, from the Time of the Norman Conquest, had occasion to make some inquiries respecting a statement put forth by a M. Richard Seguin, a rich dealer in merceries and wooden shoes at Vire, in the department of Calvados; who, it appears, had a mania for appropriating the literary labours of others as his own, and, in fact, is stigmatised as a voleur littéraire by M. Quérard, in his curious work entitled Les Supercheries Littéraires Dévoilées. Mr. Wiffen wished to ascertain M. Seguin's authority for affirming in some work, the name of which is not given by M. Quérard, but which is probably the Histoire du Pays d'Auge et des Evêques Comtes de Lisieux, Vire, 1832, that the Du Rozels were descended from Bertrand de Briquebec. M. Seguin's reply is contained in the following letter from M. Le Normand of Vire, to whom Mr. Wiffen had written, requesting him to obtain M. Seguin's authority for his statement:

"J'ai vu M. Séguin, et je lui ai demandé d'où provenaient les renseignements dont il s'était servi pour dire dans son ouvrage que les Du Rozel descendaient des Bertrand de Bricquebec. Il m'a répondu qu'il l'ignorait; qu'il avait eu en sa possession une grande quantité de Copies de Chartres et d'anciens titres qui lui avaient fourni les matériaux de son histoire, mais qu'il ne savait nullement d'où elles provenaient."—Historical Memoirs, &c., vol. i. p. 5. n. 1.

The fact appears to be, that M. Seguin had obtained possession, through marriage, of a quantity of MSS., and was in the habit of printing them as his own works. Some of them had belonged to an Abbé Lefranc, one of the priests who were murdered in the diabolical massacre of the clergy in the prisons of Paris in September, 1792; and others of the MSS. had been the property of a M. Noël Deshayes, Curé de Compigni, whose Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Evêques de Lisieux, were published by Seguin as his own, but altered and disfigured under the title of—

"Histoire du Pays d'Auge et des Evêques Comtes de Lisieux, contenant des Notions sur l'Archéologie, les Droits, Coutumes, Franchises et Libertés du Bocage et de la Normandie; Vire, Adam, 1832."

The MS., however, from which Seguin printed his forgery, turns out to have been but a copy; the original having since been discovered by M. Formeville in the library of the Séminaire of Evreux, and is now about to be published by that gentleman (see Supercheries, tom. iv., Paris, 1852). By a just retribution, M. Formeville is one of the literary men to whom Sequin refused to point out his original authorities. M. Quérard quotes some passages, in juxtaposition, from Seguin's pretended work and from the original MS., to show how the latter had been altered and corrupted in the printed copy. M. Seguin was quite illiterate, and has committed the most egregious blunders in his chef d'œuvre de plagiat, as his Histoire du Pays d'Auge is termed by Quérard. Many other authors, besides Mr. Wiffen and M. Formeville, wrote to Seguin for his authorities on various subjects, but he never pointed out a single one. Full details are given of his literary thefts by M. Quérard and his coadjutors. When the original work of M. Deshayes appears, in its genuine state, as promised by M. Formeville, the world will then learn what was really stated respecting the descent of the Du Rozels from Bertrand de Briquebec; although the amiable and accomplished Mr. Wiffen is no longer living to avail himself of the information. Seguin died in 1847.

John Macray.

Oxford.

FERDINAND CHARLES III., DUKE OF PARMA.

Englishmen might, perhaps, feel even more horror than they will do at the assassination, on Mar. 26, of the Duke of Parma, if they were reminded that he was the representative and lineal descendant of Charles I., and as such possessed a claim, by hereditary descent, on our Crown, superior to that of our gracious Queen, who is only lineally descended from James I.

I subjoin his pedigree:

It is rather a singular circumstance, that the Duchess of Parma should have been the wife of the hereditary heir to the throne of England, and the sister of the hereditary heir to the throne of France,—her husband, the Duke of Parma, having been the representative of the House of Stuart,—and her brother, the Count de Chambord, being the representative of the House of Bourbon.

E. S. S. W.

ORIGINAL ENGLISH ROYAL LETTERS TO THE GRAND MASTERS OF MALTA.

(Continued from Vol. ix., p. 267.)

Through the great kindness of my old friend at this island, Frederick Sedley, Esq., and the continued and constant assistance of Dr. Vella, I am now enabled to forward correct translations of the seven remaining letters bearing the autograph of Charles II. Mindful of the space which will be required for their insertion in "N. & Q.," I shall confine myself to a few preliminary remarks.

The first letter in the following list is the earliest in date, as it is of the greatest interest. In it we have, for the first time, found a curious statement recorded by an English monarch, making known that he not only built his galleys for the protection of trade in this sea in different ports of the Mediterranean, and purchased the slaves to man them of the Order of Malta, but also complaining to the Grand Master for permitting the collector of customs to charge an export toll of "five pieces of gold per head," which he considered an unjust tax on this kind of commerce, and the more especially so, because it was not demanded from his neighbours and allies, the Kings of France and Spain. That the Knights of St. John made their prisoners slaves, disposing of some to the wealthy residents or natives of the island, and employing others in the erection of their dwellings, palaces, and fortifications, is well known.

Historians have stated that when Dragut landed at Malta, in July, 1551, with Sinam, his admiral, who was in joint command, they went to the summit of Mount Sceberras to reconnoitre before an attack should be made on the convent. When employed on this service, Sinam, who was opposed to any hostile movement, pointing to the castle, thus remarked, "Surely no eagle could have chosen a more craggy and difficult place to make his nest in. Dost thou not see that men must have wings to get up to it, and that all the artillery and troops of the universe would not be able to take it by force?" An old Turkish officer of his suite, addressing Dragut, thus continued,—"See'st thou that bulwark which juts out in the sea, and on which the Maltese have planted the great standard of their order? I can assure thee that whilst I was a prisoner with them, I have helped to carry the large stones of which it is built, and am pretty sure that before thou canst make thyself master of it, thou wilt be overtaken by the winter season; and probably likewise prevented from succeeding by some powerful succours from Europe." There can be little doubt that this remark was feelingly made, and that the aged Turk who uttered it had experienced, during his residence as a prisoner at Malta, all the horrors of slavery. That no consideration was given to the comfort of a slave, and little value set on his life, will be briefly shown by the following anecdote:—On the 13th of April, 1534, an accusation was made against an English knight of the name of Massimberg, to the effect that he had unwarrantably drawn his sword and killed four galley slaves; and being convicted of the crime on the 18th of May of the same year, he was asked why judgment should not be given against him. Massimberg thus replied, "In killing the four slaves I did well, but in not having at the same time killed our old and imbecile Grand Master I did badly." This plea not being considered satisfactory, he was deprived of his habit; but two days afterwards, that is, on the 20th May, 1534, he was reinstated in the Order, though for a time not permitted to enjoy his former dignity of a commander. This knight was also accused of having stolen a slave from a Maltese; but this accusation he stoutly denied, giving, in proof of his innocence, that the man bore on his shoulder a brand, or mark, by which he could be easily known as belonging to him. (Vide Manuscript Records of the Order.)

The next letter in the following list to which I would briefly call attention is that under date of June 21st, 1675, in which His Majesty Charles II. refers to a misunderstanding which had taken place between his admiral, Sir John Narbrough, and the Order of Malta. The nature of this difficulty is well explained by giving a correct copy of the admiral's letter to the Grand Master, which I have taken from the original now on file in the Record Office of this island. It reads as follows:—

To the most eminent Prince, the Lord Nicholas Cotoner, Grand Master of the Order of Malta.

Most eminent Sir,

After the tender of my humble service, with my hearty thanks for the manifold favours vouchsafed unto my Master, the King of Great Britain, &c., and for your highness' extraordinary kindness manifested to myself—and, most eminent sir, since your favour of product, I have sent on shore one of my captains to wait upon your highness with the presentment of this my grateful letter, and withal to certify to your eminence that I did, and do expect, a salute to be given by your highness to my Master's flag which I carry, correspondent to the salutes which you give to the flags of the King of Spain and the King of France, which are carried in the same place, it being the expectation of the King my Master.

Formerly your eminence was pleased to make some scruple of my command as admiral, which I humbly conceive your highness is fully satisfied in, since you received the last letter from the King of Great Britain.

Sir, I have, since my arrival at your eminence's port, often employed the Consul Desclaous to wait upon your highness concerning the salutes, but have not received any satisfactory answer thereto, which I now humbly desire may be returned unto me by my officer; and withal, that your eminence will be pleased to honour me with your commands wherein I may serve you, which shall be most cheerfully embraced, and readily performed by,

That the complaints of Sir John Narbrough, with reference to the Grand Master's refusal to salute the English flag, were, in the end, satisfactorily explained and removed, will be seen by the following extracts taken from the Diary of Henry Teonge, published in London in 1825. The reverend writer was serving as chaplain on board H. M. S. "Assistance" at the time (1675-76) his notes were written.

"August 1, 1675.—This morn wee com near Malta; before wee com to the cytty, a boate with the Malteese flagg in it coms to us to know whence wee cam. Wee told them from England; they asked if wee had a bill of health for prattick, viz., entertaynment; our captain told them he had no bill but what was in his guns' mouths. Wee cam on and anchored in the harbour betweene the old towne and the new, about nine of the clock; but must waite the governour's leasure to have leave to com on shoare, which was detarded because our captain would not salute the cytty, except they would retaliate. At last cam the Consull with his attendants to our ship (but would not com on board till our captain had been on shoare) to tell us that we had leave to com on shoare six, or eight, or ten, at a time, and might have anything that was there to be had; with a promise to accept our salute kindly. Wherupon our captain tooke a glasse of sack, and drank a health to King Charles, and fyred seven gunns: the cytty gave us five againe, which was more than they had don to all our men of warr that cam thither before."

"August 2.—This cytty is compassed almost cleane round with the sea, which makes severall safe harbours for hundreds of shipps. The people are generally extreamly courteouse, but especially to the English. A man cannot demonstrate all their excellencys and ingenuitys. Let it suffice to say thus much of this place: viz. Had a man no other business to invite him, yet it were sufficiently worth a man's cost and paines to make a voyage out of England on purpose to see that noble cytty of Malta, and their works and fortifications about it. Several of their knights and cavaliers cam on board us, six at one time, men of sufficient courage and friendly carriage, wishing us good successe in our voyage, with whom I had much discourse, I being the only entertainer, because I could speak Latine; for which I was highly esteemed, and much invited on shoare again."

"August 3.—This morning a boate of ladys with their musick to our ship syd, and bottels of wine with them. They went severall times about our ship, and sang several songs very sweetly; very rich in habitt, and very courteous in behaviour; but would not com on board, though invited; but having taken their friscs, returned as they cam. After them cam, in a boate, four fryars, and cam round about our ship, puld off their hatts and capps, saluted us with congjes, and departed. After them cam a boat of musitians, playd severall lessons as they rowed gently round about us, and went their way."

"August 4.—This morning our captain was invited to dine with the Grand Master, which hindered our departure. In the mean time wee have severall of the Malteese com to visit us, all extreamly courteous. And now wee are preparing to sail for Tripoly. Deus vortat bene.

The Rev. Mr. Teonge, having returned to Malta on the 11th of January, 1675-6, thus continues:—

"This morning wee see the famous island of Malta; coming under Goza, a small island adjoyning to Malta, wee discover a sayle creeping closse to the shoare; we hayle her with a shott—she would not budge; we sent a second, and then a third, falling very neare her; then the leiuetenant cam aboard us, and payd for the shott; it proved a pittifull Frenchman."

"January 12.—A little after one a clock wee are at anchor in Malta harbour, and have many salutes. But we have no prattick by reason of the plague, which is begun heare."

"January 15.—This morning wee warp out of the harbour with six merchantmen and a doggar, which wee are to convoy towards the strait's mouth. Here also wee took in two mounths' provisions and fresh water. And as wee goe out wee meete six gallys of Malta coming in in all their pompe, and they salute us, and wee them, and part. And heare at Malta (which was very strainge to mee), at this time of the year, wee have radishes, cabbiges, and excellent colly flowers, and large ones for a penny a-piece."

On the 29th January, 1675-6, the reverend writer again returned to Malta, and made under this date the following note:—

"This day David Thomas and Marlin, the coock, and our master's boy, had their hands stretched out, and with their backs to the rayles, and the master's boy with his back to the maine mast, all looking one upon the other, and in each of their mouths a mandler spike, viz., an iron pinn clapt closse into their mouths, and tyd behind their heads; and there they stood a whole houre, till their mouths were very bloody, an excellent cure for swearers."

"February 4.—This day dined with us Sir Roger Strickland, Captaine Temple, Captaine Harrice, and one gentleman more. Wee had a gallant baked pudding, an excellent legg of porke, and colliflowers, an excellent dish made of piggs' petti-toes, two roasted piggs, one turkey cock, a rosted hogg's head, three ducks, a dish of Cyprus burds, and pistachoes and dates together, and store of good wines."

"February 5.—God blesse those that are at sea! The weather is very bad."

"February 11.—Sir John Narbrough cam in from Trypoly, and four more ships with him. The noble Malteese salute him with forty-five gunns; he answers them with so many that I could not count them. And what with our salutes, and his answers, there was nothing but fyre and smoake for almost two hours."

The great length of this communication prevents my taking other extracts from a "Diary" which contains much interesting information, and is written in a quaint and humorous style.

William Winthrop.

La Valetta, Malta.