Vol. IV.—No. 108. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

VOL. IV.—No. 108.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4d.

CONTENTS.

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Notes.

AGE OF TREES.

Alexander von Humboldt, in his work entitled Views of Nature (pp. 220. 268-276. ed. Bohn), has some interesting remarks on the age of trees.

"In vegetable forms (he says) massive size is indicative of age; and in the vegetable kingdom alone are age and the manifestation of an ever-renewed vigour linked together."

Following up this remark, he refers to specimens of the Baobab (Adansonia digitata), with trunks measuring more than thirty feet in diameter, the age of which is estimated by Adanson at 5150 years. All calculations of the age of a tree, founded merely on the size of its trunk, are, however, uncertain, unless the law of its growth, and the limits of the variation producible by peculiar circumstances, are ascertained, which, in the case of the Adansonia, have not been determined. For the same reason, the calculation of 2,500 years for a gigantic cypress in Persia, mentioned by Evelyn in his Silva, is of no value.

Humboldt afterwards refers to "the more certain estimations yielded by annular rings, and by the relation found to exist between the thickness of the layer of wood and the duration of growth;" which, he adds, give us shorter periods for our temperate northern zone. The calculation of the age of a tree, founded on its successive rings, appears to be quite certain; and whenever these can be counted, the age of a tree can be determined without risk of error. Humboldt quotes a statement from Endlicher, that "in Lithuania linden (or lime) trees have been felled which measured 87 feet round, and in which 815 annular rings have been counted." The section of a trunk of a silver fir, which grew near Barr, is preserved in the Museum at Strasburg: its diameter was eight feet close to the ground, and the number of rings is said to amount to several hundreds.

Unfortunately this mode of determining a tree's age cannot be applied to a living tree; and it is only certain where the tree is sound at the heart. Where a tree has become hollow from old age, the rings near the centre, which constitute a part of the evidence of its duration, no longer exist. Hence the age of the great oak of Saintes, in the department of the Charente Inférieure, which measures twenty-three feet in diameter five feet from the ground, and is large enough to contain a small chamber, can only be estimated; and the antiquity of 1800 or 2000 years, which is assigned to it, must rest on an uncertain conjecture.

Decandolle lays it down that, of all European trees, the yew attains the greatest age; and he assigns an antiquity of thirty centuries to the Taxus baccata of Braburn in Kent; from twenty-five to thirty centuries to the Scotch yew of Fortingal; and fourteen and a half and twelve centuries respectively to those of Crowhurst in Surrey and Ripon (Fountains Abbey) in Yorkshire. These [402] ages are fixed by a conjecture founded on the size, which can lead to no certain result.

Can any of your correspondents state what is the greatest number of rings which have been actually counted in any yew, or other tree, which has grown in the British Isles, or elsewhere? It Is only by actual enumeration that vegetable chronology can be satisfactorily determined: but if the rings in many trees were counted, some relation between the number of rings and the diameter of the trunk, for each species, might probably be laid down within certain limits. These rings, being annually deposited, form a natural chronicle of time, by which the age of a tree is determined with as much precision as the lapse of human events is determined by the cotemporaneous registration of annalists. Hence Milton speaks of "monumental oak." Evelyn, who has devoted a long chapter of his Silva to an investigation of the age of trees (b. iii. c. iii.), founds his inferences chiefly on their size; but he cites the following remark from Dr. Goddard:

"It is commonly and very probably asserted, that a tree gains a new ring every year. In the body of a great oak in the New Forest, cut transversely even, (where many of the trees are accounted to be some hundreds of years old) three and four hundred have been distinguished."—Vol. ii. p. 202. ed. Hunter.

A delineation and description of the largest and most celebrated trees of Great Britain may be seen in the interesting work of Jacob George Strutt, entitled Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees, distinguished for their Antiquity, Magnitude, or Beauty: London, 1822, folio.

The age of some trees is determined by historical records, in the same manner that we know the age of an ancient building, as the Parthenon, the Colosseum, or the Tower of London. It is, however, important that such historical evidence should be carefully scrutinised; for trees which are known to be of great antiquity sometimes give rise to fabulous legends, destitute of any foundation in fact. Such, for example, was the plane-tree near Caphyæ, in Arcadia, seen by Pausanias in the second century after Christ, which was reported by the inhabitants to have been planted by Menelaus when he was collecting the army for the expedition against Troy. (Paus. VIII. 23.) Such too, doubtless, was the oak of Mamre, where the angels were said to have appeared to Abraham. (Sozomen, ii. 3.) A rose-tree growing in the crypt of the cathedral of Hildesheim is referred, by a church-legend, to a date anterior to 1061; which would imply an age of more than 800 years, but the evidence adduced seems scarcely sufficient to identify the existing rose-tree with the rose-tree of 1061. (See Humboldt, p. 275.)

In other cases, however, the historical evidence extant, if not altogether free from doubt, is sufficient to carry the age of a tree back to a remote date. The Swilcar Lawn oak, in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, is stated by Strutt, p. 2., "to be known by historical documents to be at this time [1822] six hundred years old; and it is still far from being in the last stage of decay." Of a great elm growing at Chipstead Place in Kent, he says: "Its appearance altogether savours enough of antiquity to bear out the tradition annexed to it, that in the time of Henry V. a fair was held annually under its branches; the high road from Rye in Sussex to London then passing close by it." (P. 5.) If this tradition be authentic, the elm in question must have been a large and wide-spreading tree in the years 1413-22. A yew-tree at Ankerwyke House, near Staines, is supposed to be of great antiquity. There is a tradition that Henry VIII. occasionally met Anne Boleyn under its branches: but it is not stated how high this tradition ascends. (Ib., p. 8.) The Abbot's Oak, near Woburn Abbey, is stated to derive its name from the fact that the abbot of the monastery was, by order of Henry VIII., hung from its branches in 1537. (Ib., p. 10.) But Query, is this an authentic fact?

There is a tradition respecting the Shelton Oak near Shrewsbury, that before the battle of Shrewsbury between Henry IV. and Hotspur, in 1403, Owen Glendower reconnoitred the field from its branches, and afterwards drew off his men. Positive documentary evidence, in the possession of Richard Hill Waring, Esq., is likewise cited, which shows that this tree was called "the Great Oak" in the year 1543 (Ib. p. 17.). There is a traditional account that the old yew-trees at Fountains Abbey existed at the foundation of the abbey, in the year 1132; but the authority for this tradition, and the time at which it was first recorded, is not stated. (P. 21.) The Abbot's Willow, near Bury St. Edmund's, stands on a part of the ancient demesne of the Abbot of Bury, and is hence conjectured to be anterior to the dissolution of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. (P. 23.) The Queen's Oak at Huntingfield, in Suffolk, was situated in a park belonging to Lord Hunsdon, where he had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth. The queen is reported to have shot a buck with her own hand from this oak. (P. 26.) Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, near Penshurst, is said to have been planted at his birth, in 1554: it has been celebrated by Ben Jonson and Waller. This oak is above twenty-two feet in girth; it is hollow, and stag-headed; and, so far as can be judged from the engraving, has an appearance of great antiquity, though its age only reaches back to the sixteenth century. (P. 27.) The Tortworth Chestnut is described as being not only the largest, but the oldest tree in England: Evelyn alleges that "it continued a signal boundary to that manor in King Stephen's time, as it stands [403] upon record;" but the date of the record is not mentioned. We can hardly suppose that it was cotemporaneous. (Ib. p. 29.) An elm at Chequers in Buckinghamshire is reported, by a tradition handed down in the families of the successive owners, to have been planted in the reign of Stephen. (Ib. p. 38.) Respecting the Wallace Oak, at Ellerslie near Paisley, it is reported that Sir William Wallace, and three hundred of his men, hid themselves among its branches from the English. This legend is probably fabulous; if it were true, it would imply that the tree was in its full vigour at the end of the thirteenth century. (Ib. p. 5.) The ash at Carnock, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the largest in Scotland, and still a luxuriant tree, was planted about the year 1596, by Sir Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, Lord Advocate of Scotland in the reign of James VI. (Ib. p. 8.)

Marshall, in his Work on Planting and Rural Ornament (2 vols. 1796) refers to a paper on the age of trees, by Mr. Marsham, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Bath Agriculture Society, in which the Tortworth Chestnut is calculated to be not less than 1100 years old. Marshall, who appears to have examined this tree with great care, corrects the account given by Mr. Marsham, and states that it is not one, but two trees. Sir Robert Atkins, in his History of Gloucestershire, says: "By tradition this tree was growing in King John's reign." Evelyn, however, as we have already seen, speaks of a record that it served as a manor boundary in the reign of Stephen. Query, on what authority do these statements rest? Marshall thinks that a duration of nearly a thousand years may be fairly assigned to the Tortworth tree; and he adds:

"If we consider the quick growth of the chestnut, compared with that of the oak, and at the same time the inferior bulk of the Tortworth Chestnut to the Cowthorp, the Bentley, and the Boddington oaks, may we not venture to infer that the existence of these truly venerable trees commenced some centuries prior to the era of Christianity?"

The oaks here alluded to by Marshall are of immense size. The Cowthorp Oak is near Wetherby; the Bentley Oak, in Holt Forest, near Bentley; the Boddington Oak, between Cheltenham and Tewksbury (vol. ii. pp. 127. 298.).

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to point out authentic evidence respecting the true dates of ancient trees. A large tree is a subject of interest to the entire neighbourhood: it receives an individual name, like a river, a mountain, or a building; and by its permanence it affords a fixed point for a faithful local tradition to rest upon. On the other hand, the infidelity of oral tradition is well known; and the mere interest which attaches to a tree of unusual size is likely to give birth to a romantic legend, when its true history has been forgotten. The antiquary and the botanist may assist one another in determining the age of trees. By the authentic evidence of their duration which the former is able to furnish, the latter may establish tests by which their longevity may be calculated.

L.

LINES ATTRIBUTED TO ADMIRAL BYNG.

The following lines are copied, verbatim et literatim, from a window pane in an upstairs room of the Talbot Inn, Ripley. The tradition is that they were written by Admiral Byng, who was confined in the room as a prisoner when on his way to Portsmouth; that sentinels were placed on the staircase outside; that during the night the admiral walked past the sleeping guard, gathered some flowers from the inn garden, and returned to his room; and that on leaving the following morning, he told the Inn Lady he should see her on his way back to London, when he was acquitted.

Is there any reason to doubt the truth of this tradition, or that the verses were written by the unfortunate admiral?

A. C. G.

Ripley, Nov. 10, 1851.

A CHAPTER ON EMBLEMS.

"An history of emblems in all languages, with specimens of the poetry and engravings, accompanied by some account of the authors, would be a very interesting contribution to our literature." Thus speaks the author of a work remarkable for interest, information, and elegance of taste, viz., Lives of Sacred Poets, by Robert Willmott, Esq.; and truly such a work would be a great desideratum were the idea here suggested efficiently carried out.

In our own, and in other languages, many beautiful poems—some of them very gems—exist, [404] attached to, and written on some of "the most ridiculous prints that ever excited merriment." A tasteful collection of the more beautiful poems, with some spirited woodcuts, or engravings to accompany them, would form a beautiful volume. This, however, is a suggestion different from, and secondary to, Mr. Willmott's.

Emblems, figures, symbols, &c., constitute a vast ocean of associations which all enter on, all understand, all sympathise with more or less. They enrich our language, enter into our commonest thoughts and conversation, as well as our compositions in poetry and prose.

Often the clearest ideas we have on abstruse points are derived from them, e.g. the shamrock or trefoil is an emblem of the Blessed Trinity. Nothing perhaps helps us to comprehend the resurrection of the body, and in a glorified state through preserving its identity, as the apostle's illustration and emblem of the growth of corn.

In a work on the subject it would be desirable to keep the classical, artistic, political, and other emblems apart from the sacred and moral, &c.

I must now say a few words on a book of emblems, entitled Schola Cordis, sive Aversi a Deo Cordis, ad eumdem reductio et instructio, Authore Benedicto Haefteno, Antv. 1635. (This Benedict Haeften was also the author of Regia Via Crucis, published at Antwerp the same year as the above, in 2 vols. 8vo., I think, and afterwards translated into French.) This work suggested Schola Cordis, or the Heart of itself gone away from God, brought back again to Him and instructed by Him, in XLVII emblems: London, printed for M. Blunder at the Castle in Cornhill, 1647, 12mo. pp. 196. The authorship of this English Schola Cordis is generally attributed to Christopher Harvie, the author of The Synagogue. (Vide Lowndes, and a note in Pickering's edition of George Herbert.) The second edition was printed in 1674, third in 1675, fourth in 1676.

Now, Mr. Tegg in 1845 printed an edition of this Schola Cordis as the production of Francis Quarles; what was his authority I know not, he certainly did not attempt to give any.

The last three books of Quarles's Emblems contain forty-five prints, all from Herman Hugo's Pia Desideria, which has that number of emblems. Quarles sometimes translates, sometimes paraphrases Hugo, and has a good deal of original matter. His first two books are not in Hugo's work, and I do not know whence they are derived; nearly all the cuts contain a globe and cross.

Herman Hugo had the talents and versatility which characterise his order (the Order of Jesus), "he was a philosopher, a linguist, a theologian, a poet, and a soldier, and under the command of Spinola is said to have performed prodigies of valour." He was the author of De prima Scribendi Origine et Universa Rei Literariæ Antiquitate, an excellent work; and of De Militia Equestri antiqua et nova amongst others. His Book of Emblems was first published at Antwerp, 1624. It is divided into three books, viz.,

Each book contains fifteen emblems. The principal editions are, Antv. 1624, ed. princeps; Antv. 1628, 1632; Græcii, 1651; Lond. 1677, sumptibus Roberti Pawlet, Chancery Lane. This London edition contains only verse, whereas all the other editions contain metre and prose before each picture, the prose being far the better of the two. The only prose that Pawlet's edition has is a motto from one of the Fathers at the back of each picture.

There are two or three English translations. I have seen but one, a miserable translation of the verse part, I suppose from Pawlet's edition. There are short notices of emblems in the Retrospective Review, ix. 123-140.; Critical Review, Sept. 1801 (attributed to Southey); see also Willmott's Lives of Sacred Poets (Wither and Quarles); Cæsar Ripa's Iconologia, Padua, 1627; and Alciati Emblemata, Lugd. 1614. The Fagel Library, Trinity College, Dublin, has a fine copy of the first edition of the Pia Desideria, and upwards of sixty books of emblems, principally Dutch.

P.S.—When I penned the above I was not aware that any mention of the School of the Heart had been made in "NOTES AND QUERIES." I find in Southey's fourth Common-place Book that he quotes from the School of the Heart as Quarles's. He has the following note on Quarles's Emblems: "Philips erroneously says that the emblems are a copy from Hermannus Hugo." I know not what Philips exactly intended by the word "copy;" but if any one doubts what I have before said respecting these Emblems, let him compare Hugo and Quarles together. I forgot to give the title of the first edition of Hugo: Pia Desideria Emblematis, Elegiis et Affectibus, SS. Patrum Illustrata, vulgavit Boetius a Bolswert, Antv. 1624. Also the title of our English translation: Pia Desideria; or, Divine Addresses, in three books, written in Latin by Herm. Hugo, Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A., Lond. 1686, 8vo., pp. 282., dedicated to the Princess Anne of Denmark, with forty-seven plates by Sturt.

MARICONDA.

FOLK LORE.

Music at Funerals.

—Pennant, in his MS. relating to North Wales, says, "there is a custom of singing psalms on the way as the corpse is carried to church" (Brand's Pop. Ant., ed. Ellis, vol. ii. p. 268.). In North Devon the custom of singing [405] is similar; but it is not a psalm it is a dirge. I send you a copy of one in use at Lynton, sent to me by my sister.

[1] Sister or brother, as the case may be.

Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral, but the rhyme is not so well kept.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition.

—There is in this town a little girl, about thirteen years old, in great request among the poor as a charmer in cases of burns or scalds. Immediately on the accident the girl is fetched from her work in the mill; on her arrival she kneels down by the side of the sufferer, mutters a few words, and touches the individual, and the people believe and affirm that the sufferings immediately cease, as she has charmed the fire out of the parts injured. The surgeon's aid is then called in to heal the sores. The girl affirms that she found it out herself by reading her Bible, of which the wonder-working charm is a verse. She will take no reward, nor may any of her relatives; if she or they were, her power would be at an end. She is an ordinary, merry, playful girl; as a surgeon I often come across her in such accidents.

I know some other such charmers in Cheshire, but none so young. One, an old man, stops bleedings of all kinds by a similar charm, viz. a verse from the Bible. But he does not require to be at the patient's side, his power being equally efficacious at the distance of one hundred miles, as close by.

E. W. L.

Congleton.

Minor Notes.

Talented.

—Sterling, in a letter to Carlyle, objects to the use of this word by his biographer in his Sartor Resartus, calling it a hustings and newspaper word, brought in, as he had heard, by O'Connell.

J. O'G.

Anagram.

—Sir J. Stephen, in his essay on The French Benedictines, gives an anagram of Father Finavdis of the Latinized name of that great bibliophagist Magliabechi:—Antonius Magliabechius—Is unus bibliotheca magna.

In the same essay he says that Mabillon called Magliabechi "Museum inambulans, et viva quædam bibliotheca." Possibly this is the origin of our expression "a walking dictionary."

J. O'G.

Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations.

—I beg to inform your correspondent who suggested such a publication as a Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations, that I commenced such a work some time ago, and hope before long to have it ready for the press.

Every common quotation or familiar proverb from the poets will be ranged with the context under its respective author, while an alphabetical index will facilitate reference to any particular passage. I doubt not the readers of your valuable periodical will assist me whenever I am at fault as to the authorship of any line or "household word;" and I should feel at the present time much obliged if any one could tell me where

may be found?

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

Queries.

MASTERS AND MARSHALS OF THE CEREMONIES?

How are these offices now held? By letters patent of the crown, or by the lord chamberlain's nomination?

Where can any list of these offices be found? The office of Master of the Ceremonies, whose duty it is to arrange the reception of all foreign ministers, and their departures, was formerly an office of considerable importance. In the reign of King Charles I. it was held seemingly by grants from [406]] the crown. In 1627, Sir John Finett says he received news of the death of Sir Lewis Lewknor, by which, in right of his Majesty's grant of reversion by letters patent, he became sole Master of the Ceremonies—an office which he before held jointly with Sir Lewis Lewknor.

S. E. G.

Minor Queries.

286. Cause of Transparency.

—Seeing through the glass of my window a landscape, and not knowing why I see through the glass, and not through the shutters, I will thank one of your philosophical correspondents to tell me the cause of transparency.

ÆGROTUS.

287. Gold Medal of late Duke of York.

—I have a small gold medal, three-quarter inch in diameter, a head with inscription—

and Rev.:

Were many such struck at the duke's death, or what is the history of it?

A. A. D.

288. Composition's during the Protectorate.

—Where is there any account or list of these? In Oldfield's History of Wainfleet, p. 12. Appendix, is a "List of Residents in the County of Lincoln who compounded for their Estates during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell;" but he gives no authority or reference. Where can this list be checked, as I suspect an error?

W. H. L.

Fulham.

289. Bristol Tables.

—Upon the pavement in front of the Exchange, Bristol, there are four very handsome bronze tables standing, upon a single pedestal each; the tops circular, about two feet in diameter, with a slightly raised edge round them. It is said that they were presented to the Bristol merchants for them to pay their money upon; but when, or by whom, they were so given, I have not been able to learn. A friend of mine who was lately examining them was told that they were formerly called "Nails," and gave rise to the saying, "Pay down upon the nail:" this I should think must be an error. "Solvere ad unguem" would be found to be older than they are. If any of your correspondents can give me any information respecting them, I shall be obliged.

E. N. W.

Southwark.

290. Macfarlane's Geographical Collection.

—In almost every work treating of the history and topographical antiquities of Scotland, we are referred to Macfarlane's Geographical Collection, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. This MS., and its author, are very little known, except by name, benorth the Tay, notwithstanding they are so often quoted. I should be glad if any of your correspondents would give me any information regarding the extent of country embraced, i.e. parishes, counties, &c., and if any part of it has been published per se, and when, and where.

ANTIQUARIENSIS.

Inverness.

291. "Acu tinali meridi."

—At the head of an English metrical discourse upon the administration of justice, in a MS. of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, in the Public Library, Cambridge, is placed the following obscure motto, upon which, perhaps, some correspondent can throw light:—

I have not seen the MS., but am told that the correctness of the reading may be depended upon.

C. W. G.

292. Sir Joshua Reynolds.

—Having the early catalogues of the Royal Academy before me, I see that in 1773 and following years, Sir Joshua exhibited twelve or thirteen works. You will find they stand as current Nos. in the list. Can you inform me whether they hung on the line, that is, in the space of privilege, or took their chance with the many? Had they, under his own eye, been grouped together, what a treat it must have been to see them! What an evidence of the industry of the man! Though too late in the day to obtain these details from actual observation, enough may be recorded or remembered through others, to assist in throwing light on the rules and customs of past days, which never can be deficient in interest while they tend to illustrate the habits and character of great men.

You could touch no topic more interesting than this must prove to the increasing curiosity seekers in your useful and amusing repertorium, and your attention to it will be valued by

A LAYMAN.

Athenæum Club.

293. Great Plough at Castor Church.

—Can any of your correspondents give me the history of, or afford me any intelligence about, the large plough which Dibdin, in his Northern Tour, vol. i. p. 44., tells us is about twenty feet in length, and suspended in Castor Church, extending from one transept to the other? In a foot-note on the same church, he speaks of a curious ceremony, as practised there every Palm Sunday, respecting a peculiar tenure. I do not find it referred to in any other account of Castor Church. Bourne, in his Antiquities, vol. i. p. 130., gives the history of it, but says it is practised at Caistor Church in Lincolnshire. Is the doctor right in his statement? I would also be glad to know whether it is still continued at Caistor Church, as some years ago an act was tried for in the House to abolish it.

R. W. ELLIOT.

Hull. [407]

294. Church of St. Bene't Fink.

—Is there any copy in existence of the inscriptions on the gravestones and monuments of St. Bene't Fink in the City, adjoining the Exchange, and which is now pulled down? If any of your correspondents can direct me to any transcript of them, I shall be much obliged by the communication.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

295. Spectacles, Inscription on a Pair of.

—Will you oblige me by inserting, as soon as possible, the following curious inscription round the rim of a pair of spectacles found in a stone coffin in Ombersley Church, Worcestershire, some years since, when the old church was being pulled down. It is as follows:—

This occurs on each rim, and I should be glad of an explanation of the words.

J. N. B. (A Subscriber.)

296 Campbell.

—Can any of your readers tell me what he supposes Campbell to mean when he makes the sister, in delivering her curse on her brother, say—

Does havoc float? Does mountain fern float? What is the effect of either floating high? The lines are in "The Flower of Love lies Bleeding."

Also can any one say who or what this is?

The lines are near the end of The Pleasures of Hope.

W. W.

Cambridge.

297. Family of Cordeux.

—What is the origin of the name? When was it introduced into England? What are the armorial bearings of the family? What family or families bear gu. three stags' heads, on a chief arg. two griffins' heads erased: Crest, a griffin's head erased? Any information of the Cordeux family more than fifty years ago will confer an obligation on the querist.

W. H. K.

298. Panelling Inscription.

—I have recently discovered, in my investigations for the History and Antiquities of South Lynn, an old building in this town which bears the date 1605 on one of its gables; and in the course of my peregrinations through, I find some old panelling with the date 1676, and the following inscription in old English (large) characters:

It has been suggested to me that these lines form a quotation from some of our English poets; if so, of whom? for it is of great importance to me to know, as it will tend considerably to connect the date with the building; and if the lines can be traced to a writer of the period, it will establish what I require very much, and assist me in my researches.

J. N. C.

299. Infantry Firing.

—Can any of your correspondents refer me to authentic instances of the comparative numbers of rounds of cartridges fired in action, with the number of men killed? I think I have read it in Sir W. Napier's History of the Peninsular War, and also in The Times, but omitted to make a note. I have some recollection of 60,000 rounds beings fired, and only one man killed! and another instance of 80,000, and twenty-five killed! Any remarkable instances of the inefficiency of musketry fire will be acceptable.

H. Y. W. N.

Replies.

THE REVEREND RICHARD FARMER.
(Vol. iv., p. 379.)

Assuming that the principal ATROCITIES of the reverend Richard Farmer are his Essay on the learning of Shakespeare, and the substance of a note on Hamlet, Act V. Sc. 2., I shall transcribe, as a hint to the lovers of manly criticism, a general character of that writer, a character of his Essay, and the note in question:—

1. "His knowledge is various, extensive, and recondite. With much seeming negligence, and perhaps in later years some real relaxation, he understands more and remembers more about common and uncommon subjects of literature, than many of those who would be thought to read all the day and meditate half the night. In quickness of apprehension and acuteness of discrimination I have not often seen his equal."—Samuel PARR.

2. "It [the Essay on the learning of Shakespeare] may in truth be pointed out as a master-piece, whether considered with a view to the sprightliness and vivacity with which it is written, the clearness of the arrangement, the force and variety of the evidence, or the compression of scattered materials into a narrow compass; materials which inferior writers would have expanded into a large volume."—Isaac REED.

3. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew [them how we will.] Dr. Farmer informs me, that these words are merely technical. A wool-man, butcher, and dealer in skewers, lately observed to him, that his nephew (an idle lad), could only assist him in making them;"—'he could rough-hew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends.' [To shape the ends of wool-skewers, i.e. to point them, requires a degree of skill; any one can rough-hew them.] Whoever recollects the profession of Shakespeare's father, will admit that his son might be no stranger to such a term [such terms]. I have [frequently] seen packages of wool pinn'd up with skewers.—STEEVENS.

This note was first printed by Malone in 1780, [408] and was reprinted by him in 1790; the portions within brackets having been added in 1793? It is clear, from this statement, that it received the deliberate revision of its author. Now, I cannot deny that Farmer related the anecdote of the wool-man—suspicious as is the character of the witness, but I contend that the observations on it should be ascribed to Steevens alone; and so I shall leave your critic A. E. B. to his own reflections.

BOLTON CORNEY.

ANGLO-CATHOLIC LIBRARY.
(Vol. iv., p. 365.)

A SUBSCRIBER TO THE ANGLO-CATHOLIC LIBRARY has discovered one fault in one volume (published in 1844) of a series which now extends to sixty-three volumes; and on this one fault he builds a representation which implies, in general, incompetency in the editors, and neglect of proper supervision on the part of the committee of the Anglo-Catholic Library. I believe the character of the editions of most of the volumes sent out in this series is sufficiently known to theologians to render such a charge as this of little importance as respects their judgment. But it may not be so with many of the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES."

The gravamen of the charge rests on the importance of a certain passage of St. Jerome bearing on the Presbyterian controversy,—on the necessity for a familiarity with that controversy in an editor of Overall's Convocation Book,—and the consequent incompetency of a person not thus familiar with it to edit that work without, not the assistance merely, but the immediate supervision of the committee.

Now the subject of episcopacy is not, as the Subscriber alleges, "the principal subject" of this Book; it occupies 30 pages out of 272: nor is a familiarity with that controversy in any special way necessary for an editor of the volume. The subjects of which the Convocation Book treats are wide and varied, and such omnigenous knowledge as a familiar acquaintance with them implies, is not, nor could be, required in any editor, nor be expected by subscribers.

The committee of the Anglo-Catholic Library undertook to publish careful reprints of the works of our old divines; and had they simply reprinted with accuracy the Convocation Book, as published in 1690, they would have fulfilled their covenant with the subscribers. They did, however, much more.

It was known that the original MS. copy of this Book was preserved at Durham. The edition of 1690 had been printed from a transcript made by Archbishop Sancroft. The committee therefore engaged the services of a gentleman whose name is well known as an accurate editor of works existing in MS.

This gentlemen obtained access to all the known MSS. of the Convocation Book; viz. 1. The original copy, and papers of alterations suggested as it passed through the Upper House, preserved at Durham. 2. A cotemporary MS. of part of the first book, also preserved at Durham. 3. Archbishop Sancroft's Transcript, preserved at Emanuel College, Cambridge and 4. A MS. of the first book belonging to Bishop Barlow, preserved at Queen's College, Oxford. These MSS. were carefully collated, and the variations, in many respects curious and interesting, were printed at the bottom of the pages, and, as regards the 4th MS., at the end of the volume. The result is a correct edition of the text of this book, with all that can be learned of its variations—the book so highly extolled by your correspondent. And I hear no objection alleged against the care and faithfulness with which this part of the work has been executed: your correspondent does not appear to be aware of anything of the kind having been done.

But the editor went still further—he not only gave the subscribers so much more than they had bargained for, he added full references to the authorities quoted in the book; and when the passages were important, he printed them in full, and even added references to works in which the arguments were more largely handled. Now these references appear to me to amount to many hundreds. They begin with Josephus, and run through Fathers, councils, schoolmen, Roman Catholic controversialists, ecclesiastical historians, and the chroniclers of the Middle Ages: and, as far as I can judge in looking over the notes, not more than three or four of these passages have been undiscovered by the editor, and he honestly says he has not found them; one of these is the unlucky place of St. Jerome, which your correspondent happens to know something about.

The remarks of your correspondent have led me to examine the book, and I refer any one who has the least regard for candour or fairness, to do the same. I would ask them to judge it as a whole, to see the number and variety of the references, and the care which has been bestowed upon them; and to say whether—because he missed one passage, and knew not its importance—the editor can be fairly charged with incompetency; or the committee of the Anglo-Catholic Library accused of neglect, in leaving the work in his hands without exercising over him such supervision as implies the reading every sheet as it passed through the press; for assistance the editor had, and amply acknowledges that he received, at the hand of the superintending editor.

ANOTHER SUBSCRIBER TO THE
ANGLO-CATHOLIC LIBRARY. [409]

GENERAL JAMES WOLFE.
(Vol. iv., pp. 271. 322.)

Many letters of Wolfe's will be found published in the Naval and Military Gazette of the latter part of last and early part of this year.

By the statement of your correspondent MR. COLE, Wolfe was promoted as captain in Burrell's regiment (at present the 4th, or king's own) in 1744. Now Burrell's regiment took the left of the first line at Culloden, so that James Wolfe, unless absent on leave, or employed on particular duty, must have been in that action. The left of the second line was occupied by "Colonel Wolfe's" regiment (now the 8th or "king's"). See the "Rebellion of 1745," by Robert Chambers, in Constable's Miscellany, vol. xvi. p. 86. Captains of nineteen were common enough at that period, but Wolfe is the only one whose name has excited attention.

As to Wolfe's having been "the youngest general ever intrusted with such a responsible command" as that at Quebec, your correspondent surely forgets Napoleon in modern, and the Black Prince in more remote times.

I have seen at Mr. Scott's, of Cahircon, in the co. Clare, an engraving of Wolfe: he is designated as the "Hero of Louisburgh," and is represented with his right to the spectator, the right hand and arm raised as if enforcing an order. The features are small, the nose rather "cocked," and the face conveys the idea of spirit and determination; he wears a very small three-cocked hat, with a plain black cockade, a sort of frock coat reaching to the knees, where it is met by long boots; there are no epaulets, a twist belt confines the coat, and supports a cartouche-box in front, and a bayonet at the right side, and he carries a fusil slung from his right shoulder "en bandouillière."

It is said that the father of Wolfe was an Irishman, and I have been shown in the co. Wicklow the farm on which it is said that James Wolfe was born. It lies near Newtown-Mount-Kennedy. Be that as it may, the name has been made celebrated in Ireland within the last half century by three individuals: first, the Lord Kilwarden, who was murdered during Emmett's rising in 1803; secondly, the late Chief Baron, who spelt his name "with a difference;" and last, not least, the author of the celebrated lines on the "Burial of Sir John Moore."

KERRIENSIS.

PUNISHMENT OF EDWARD OF CAERNARVON BY HIS FATHER.—CHARACTER OF EDWARD I.
(Vol. iv., p. 338.)

I think considerable light is thrown upon this very remarkable incident by a letter of the prince himself to the Earl of Lincoln, dated Midhurst, June 14, which appears upon the Roll of that prince's letters lately discovered at the Chapter House, Westminster. (See Ninth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, App. II., No. 5.) This letter has been printed in one of the volumes of the Sussex Archæological Society, having been written from that county. For such of your readers as may not have either of these books at command, I will give the material part of the letter, translated:

"On Sunday, the 13th of June, we came to Midhurst, where we found the lord the king, our father; the Monday following, on account of certain words which, it had been reported to the king, had taken place between us and the Bishop of Chester, he was so enraged with us that he has forbidden us, or any of our retinue, to dare to enter his house; and he has forbidden all the people of his household and of the exchequer to give or lend us anything for the support of our household. We are staying at Midhurst to wait his pleasure and favour, and we shall follow after him as well as we are able, at a distance of ten or twelve miles from his house, until we have been able to recover his good will, which we very much desire."

The roll contains several letters which show how seriously the prince was affected by his father's displeasure, and how the king was appeased.

By the letter above quoted, the "minister" appears to have been the Bishop of Chester, then treasurer of the royal household. But the connexion between the prince's case and that of William de Brewosa does not appear, unless they were on intimate terms, as is not improbable: and the punishment of the prince himself is, in my opinion, referred to as a precedent or justification of the punishment imposed upon Brewes. That the severe punishment so imposed was richly deserved none can doubt who has read the report on the Roll: but an unfortunate error in the press[2] makes it appear that the prince, and not De Brewes, was the culprit, and performed the penance.

[2] Page 339. col. 1. line 46., where "Edward" is printed instead of "William de Brewes."

To return to the prince's offence and punishment. He appears to have been nearly starved into submission, as the royal prohibition against supplying him with articles or money was obliged to be removed by a Letter Close directed to all the sheriffs, dated Ospring, 22nd July.

The whole transaction is highly characteristic of the firmness of the king. Whether the prince's letters which I have referred to make out a case of harshness, as regards some other circumstances, I will not now trouble you with. But while examining cotemporary documents illustrative of the prince and his correspondents, I met with an entry upon the Close Roll (33 Edw. I.) too strikingly illustrative of the determination and [410] caution of Edward I. to be allowed to remain in its present obscurity.

On the 27th November the prince addressed a letter to Master Gerard de Pecoraria, earnestly begging him to favour and forward the affairs of Ralph de Baldok, then Bishop Elect of London. The "affairs" in question were the removal of certain scruples instilled into the Papal ear against the approval of the bishop elect; a matter generally involving some diplomacy and much money. Master Gerard was employed by the Pope to collect various dues in England; and so his good will was worth obtaining. But the following Letter Close will show how he received his "quietus," as far as the King of England was concerned:

"The King to Ralph de Sandwich.—By reason of the excessive and indecent presumption with which Gerard de Pecoraria is making oppressive levies and collections of money in various places; by whose authority we know not, for he will not show it; and inasmuch as the same is highly derogatory to our crown, and injurious to our people, and many complaints have been made against him on that account; We command you to take the said Gerard before the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, and there warn him to cease from making the said levies, and to quit the kingdom in six days, provided that at such warning no public notary be present, so that the warning be given to the said Gerard alone, no one else hearing. And be you careful that no one but yourself see this letter, or get a copy thereof."

Who can doubt that such a mandate was strictly carried out?

I regret that my memoranda do not preserve the original language.

JOSEPH BURTT.

MR. GIBSON will find that this story, as well as that relative to Sir William Gascoigne, is also told by MR. FOSS (Judges of England, vol. iii. pp. 43. 261.), who suggests that the offence committed by Prince Edward was an insult to Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, occasioned probably by the boldness with which that prelate, while treasurer, corrected the insolence of Peter de Gaveston, and restrained the Prince's extravagance. (Ibid. p. 114.)

R. S. V. P.

ELIZABETH JOCELINE'S LEGACY TO AN UNBORNE CHILD.
(Vol. iv., p. 367.)

Your correspondent J. M. G., whose letter is inserted in your 106th Number, labours under various mistakes relating to this small volume. The first edition was not printed in 1684, but more than sixty years earlier. Moreover, that edition, or at least what the Rev. C. H. Craufurd appended to his Sermons in 1840 as a reprint, is not a genuine or faithful republication of the original work. I have for several years possessed a copy of the third impression, Printed at "London, by Iohn Hauiland, for Hanna Barres, 1625;" and of this third impression a fac-simile reprint has passed through the press of Messrs. Blackwood in Edinburgh, which new edition corresponds literatim et verbatim (line for line and page for page) with the earliest impression known to exist, which differs materially in several passages from the reprint published by Mr. Craufurd. This new edition is accompanied by a long preface or dissertation containing many particulars relating to the authoress and her relatives, and to a number of ladies of high station and polished education, who during the period intervening between the Reformation in England and the Revolution in 1688, distinguished themselves by publishing works characterized by exalted piety and refined taste. With regard to Mrs. Joceline, no printed work appears to have preserved correct information. Genealogists seem to have conspired to change her Christian name from Elizabeth to Mary or Jane. The husband is supposed to have sprung from an old Cambridgeshire family, the Joscelyns of Hogington, now called Oakington, the name of a parish adjoining to Cottenham. The writer of the preface seems rather disposed to trace his parentage to John Joscelyn (Archbishop Parker's chaplain), who, according to Strype, was an Essex man.

But I have probably exceeded the bounds allotted to an answer to a Query.

J. L.

Edinburgh.

The Mother's Legacy to her unborne Child is reprinted for the benefit of the Troubridge National Schools, and can be procured at Hatchard's, Piccadilly.

J. S.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Coleridge's "Christabel" (Vol. iv., p. 316.).

—I am not familiar with the Coleridge Papers, under that title, nor indeed am I quite sure that I know at all to what papers MR. MORTIMER COLLINS refers in his question. On this account I am not qualified, as he will perhaps think, to give an opinion upon the genuineness of the lines quoted as a continuation of "Christabel." If I may be allowed, however, to hazard a judgment, as one to whom most of the great poet-philosopher's works have long and affectionately been known, I would venture to express an opinion against the right of these lines to admission as one of his productions. I do it with diffidence; but with the hope that I may aid in eliciting the truth concerning them.

I presume "brookless plash" is a misprint for "brooklet's plash."

The expressions "the sorrow of human years," "wild despair," "the years of life below," of a person who is not yet dead and in heaven, do not seem to me, as they stand in the lines, to be in [411] Coleridge's manner; but especially I do not think the couplet—

is one which Coleridge would have penned, reading as I do in the Aids to Reflection, vol. i. p. 255. (edit. Pickering, 1843) his protest against the doctrine

"holden by more than one of these divines, that the agonies suffered by Christ were equal in amount to the sum total of the torments of all mankind here and hereafter, or to the infinite debt which in an endless succession of instalments we should have been paying to the divine justice, had it not been paid in full by the Son of God incarnate!"

There are one or two other expressions of which I entertain doubt, but not in sufficient degree to make it worth while to dwell upon them.

Are we ever likely to receive from any member of Coleridge's family, or from his friend Mr. J. H. Green, the fragments, if not the entire work, of his Logosophia? We can ill afford to lose a work the conception of which engrossed much of his thoughts, if I am rightly informed, towards the close of his life.

THEOPHYLACT.

Dryden—Illustrations by T. Holt White (Vol. iv., p. 294.).

—My father's notes on Dryden are in my possession. Sir Walter Scott never saw them. The words ÆGROTUS attributes to Sir Walter were used by another commentator on Dryden some thirty years since.

ALGERNON HOLT WHITE.

Lofcop, Meaning of (Vol. i., p. 319.).

—Lofcop, not loscop, is clearly the true reading of the word about which I inquired. Lovecope is the form in which it is written in the Lynn town-books, as well as in the Cinque-port charters, for a reference to which I have to thank your correspondent L. B. L. (Vol. i., p. 371.). I am now satisfied that it is an altered form of the word lahcop, which occurs in the laws of Ethelred, and is explained in Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, vol. i., p. 294., note. The word loveday, which is found in English Middle-Age writers, meaning "a day appointed for settling differences by arbitration," is an instance of a similar change. This must originally have been lah-dæg, though I am not aware that the word is met with in any Anglo-Saxon documents. But in Old-Norse is found Lögdagr, altered in modern Danish into Lavdag or Lovdag.

C. W. G.

Middleton's Epigrams and Satyres, 1608 (Vol. iv., p. 272.).

—These Epigrams, about which QUÆSO inquires, are not the production of Thomas Middleton the dramatist, but of "Richard Middleton of Yorke, gentleman." The only copy known to exist is among the curious collection of books presented by the poet Drummond to the University of Edinburgh. A careful reprint, limited to forty copies, was published at Edinburgh in 1840. It is said to have been done under the superintendance of James Maidment, Esq.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Lord Edward Fitzgerald (Vol. iv., p. 173.).

—Your correspondent R. H. was misinformed as to the house of Lord Edward Fitzgerald at Harold's Cross, from the fact of his friend confounding that nobleman with another of the United Irishmen leaders; namely, Robert Emmett, who was arrested in the house alluded to. Lord Edward never lived at Harold's Cross, either in avowed residence or concealment.

R. H.'s note above referred to, provoked the communication of L. M. M. at Vol. iv., p. 230., who seems to cast a slur upon the Leinster family for neglecting the decent burial of their chivalric relative. This is not merited. The family was kept in complete ignorance as to how the body was disposed of, it being the wish of the government of the day to conceal the place of its sepulture; as is evident from their not interring it at St. Michan's, where they interred Oliver Bond and all the others whom they put to death at Newgate; and from the notoriety of their having five years later adopted a similar course with regard to the remains of Robert Emmett. (See Madden's Life of Emmett.) But is he buried at St. Werburgh's? Several, and among others his daughter, Lady Campbell, as appears from L. M. M.'s note, think that he is. I doubt it. Some years since I conversed with an old man named Hammet, the superannuated gravedigger of St. Catherine's, Dublin, and he told me that he officiated at Lord Edward's obsequies in St. Catherine's church, and that they were performed at night in silence, secrecy, and mystery.

E. J. W.

Earwig (Vol. iv., p. 274.).

—I do not know what the derivations of this word may be, which are referred to by ΑΞΩΝ as being in vogue. It is a curious fact that Johnson, Richardson, and Webster do not notice the word at all; although I am not aware that it is of limited or provincial use. In Bailey's Scottish Dictionary, and in Skinner's Etymologicon, it is traced to the Anglo-Saxon ear-wicga, i.e. ear-beetle. In Bosworth's Dictionary we find wicga, a kind of insect, a shorn-bug, a beetle.

C. W. G.

Sanderson and Taylor (Vol. iv., p. 293.).

—In No. 103 of "NOTES AND QUERIES," under the head of "Sanderson and Taylor," a question is put by W. W. as to the common source of the sentence, "Conscience is the brightness and splendour of the eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine majesty, and the image of the goodness of God." Without at all saying that it is the common source, I would beg to refer W. W. to "The Wisdom of Solomon," c. vii. v. 26., where "wisdom" [412] is described as "the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness." The coincidence is curious, though the Latin expressions are dissimilar, the verse in "The Wisdom of Solomon" being as follows: "Nam splendor est à luce æterna et speculum efficacitatis Dei expers maculæ, ac imago bonitatis ejus."

R. M. M.
(A Subscriber).

Taunton.

Island of Ægina and the Temple of Jupiter Panhellinius (Vol. iv., p. 255.).

—In Lemprière's Classical Dict., by the Rev. J. A. Giles, 1843, is the subjoined:—

"The most remarkable remnant of antiquity at the present day is the temple of 'Jupiter Panhellinius' on a mount of the same name about four hours' distance from the port, supposed to be one of the most ancient temples in Greece, and the oldest specimen of Doric architecture; Dodwell pronounces it to be the most picturesque ruin in Greece."

And in Arrowsmith's Compendium of Ancient and Modern Geography, 1839, p. 414.:

"In the southern part of the island is Panhellinius Mons, so called from a temple of Jupiter Panhellinius, erected on its summit by Æacus."

C. W. MARKHAM.

The Broad Arrow (Vol. iv., p. 315.).

—I forget where it is, but remember something about a place held by the tenure of presenting the king with

I would however suggest, that the use of an arrow-head as a government mark may have a Celtic origin; and that the so-called arrow may be the ↑ or â, the broad a of the Druids. This letter was typical of superiority either in rank and authority, intellect or holiness; and I believe stood also for king or prince.

A. C. M.

Exeter, Nov. 4. 1851.

Consecration of Bishops in Sweden (Vol. iv., p. 345.).

—E. H. A. asks whether any record exists of the consecration of Bethvid, Bishop of Strengnäs in the time of Gustavus I., King of Sweden? I cannot reply from this place with the certainty I might be able to do, if I had access to my books and papers. But I may venture to state, that the "consecration" (if by that term be meant the canonical and apostolical ordination) of Bethvidus Sermonis, in common with that of all the Lutheran Bishops of Sweden, is involved in much doubt and obscurity; the fact being, that they all derive their orders from Petrus Magni, Bishop of Westeras, who is said to have been "consecrated" bishop of that see at Rome by a cardinal in A.D. 1524, the then Pontiff having acceded to the request of Gustavus Vasa to this effect. It is, however, uncertain whether Petrus Magni ever received proper episcopal consecration, although it appears probable he did. I endeavoured at one time to ascertain the fact by reference to Rome; but though promised by my correspondent (a British Romanist resident there) that he would procure the examination of the Roll of Bishops in communion with the Holy See, and consecrated by Papal license, for the purpose of discovering whether Bishop Petrus Magni's name occurred therein or not, I never heard more of the subject. I could not help judging, that this silence on the part of my correspondent (to whom I was personally unknown), after his having replied immediately and most civilly to my first communication, was very eloquent and significant. But still the doubt remains uncleared, as to whether the Swedish episcopacy possess or not, as they maintain they do, the blessing of an apostolical and canonical succession.

G. J. R. G.

Pen-y-lau, Ruabon.

Meaning of Spon (Vol. iv., p. 39.).

—Is the word spooney derived from the Anglo-Saxon spanan, spón, asponen, to allure, entice, and therefore equivalent to one allured, trapped, &c., a gowk or simpleton? If C. H. B. could discover whether those specified places were ever at any time tenanted by objectionable characters, this verb and its derivatives might assist his inquiries. He will, however, see that Spondon (pronounced spoondon) in Derbyshire is another instance of the word he inquires after.

THOS. LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Quaker Expurgated Bible (Vol. iv., p. 87.).

—I can inform the correspondent who inquires whether such a publication of a Bible, which a committee of Friends were intending to publish, ever took place, that no committee was ever appointed by the Society of Friends, who adopt the English authorised version only, as may be seen by their yearly epistle and other authorised publications. I have inquired of many Friends who were likely to know, and not one ever heard of what the authoress of Quakerism states.

A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

Cozens the Painter (Vol. iv., p. 368.).

—In Rose's Biographical Dictionary it is stated that Alexander Cozens was a landscape painter, born in Russia, but attaining his celebrity in London, where he taught drawing. In 1778 he published a theoretical work called The Principle of Beauty relative to the Human Face, with illustrations, engraved by Bartolozzi. He died in 1786.

J. O'G.

Authors of the Homilies (Vol. iv., p. 346.).

—Allow me to say that in the reply to the inquiry of G. R. C. one work is omitted which will afford at once all that is wanted: for the Preface to Professor Corrie's recent edition of the Homilies, [413] printed at the Pitt Press, contains the most circumstantial account of their authors.

W. K. C.

College, Ely.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

We had occasion, some short time since, to speak in terms of deserved commendation of the excellent Handbook to the Antiquities of the British Museum which had been prepared by Mr. Vaux. Another and most important department of our great national collection has just found in Dr. Mantell an able scientific, yet popular expositor of its treasures. His Petrifactions and their Teachings, or a Handbook to the Gallery of Organic Remains in the British Museum, forms the new volume of Bohn's Scientific Library; and, thanks to the acquirements of Dr. Mantell, his good sense in divesting his descriptions, as much as possible, of technical language, and the numerous well-executed woodcuts by which it is illustrated, the work is admirably calculated to accomplish the purpose for which it has been prepared; namely, to serve as a handbook to the general visitor to the Gallery of Organic Remains, and as an explanatory Catalogue for the more scientific observer.

To satisfy the deep interest taken by many persons, who are unable to study the phenomena themselves, in the numerous new and remarkable facts relating to the formation and temperature of the globe, and to the movements of the ocean and of the atmosphere, as well as to the influence of both on climate, and on the adaptation of the earth for the dwelling of man, which the exertions of scientific men have of late years revealed, was the motive which led Professor Buff to write his Familiar Letters on the Physics of the Earth; treating of the chief Movements of the Land, the Waters, and the Air, and the Forces that give rise to them: and Dr. Hoffman has been induced to undertake an English edition of them from a desire of rendering accessible to the public a source of information from which he has derived no less of profit than of pleasure: which profit and which pleasure will, we have no doubt, be shared by a large number of readers of this unpretending but very instructive little volume.

Welsh Sketches, chiefly Ecclesiastical, to the close of the Twelfth Century. These sketches, which treat of Bardism, the Kings of Wales, the Welsh Church, Monastic Institutions, and Giraldus Cambrensis, are from the pen of the amiable author of the Essays on Church Union, and are written in the same attractive and popular style.

About five-and-thirty years ago the Treatment of the Insane formed the subject of a Parliamentary inquiry, and the public mind was shocked by the appalling scenes revealed before a Committee of the House of Commons. But the publication of them did its work; for that such scenes are now but matters of history, we owe to that inquiry. The condition of the London Poor, in like manner, is now in the course of investigation; not indeed by an official commission, but by a private individual, Mr. Henry Mayhew, who is gathering by personal visits to the lowest haunts of poverty and its attendant vices, and from personal communication with the people he is describing, an amount of fact illustrative of the social conditions of the poorest classes in this metropolis, which deserves, and must receive, the earnest attention of the statesman, the moralist, and the philanthropist. His work is entitled London Labour and the London Poor, a Cyclopædia of the Condition and Earnings of those that WILL work, those that CANNOT work, and those that WILL NOT work. Vol. I. The London Street Folk, is just completed. It is of most painful interest, for it paints in vivid colours the misery, ignorance, and demoralisation in which thousands are living at our very doors; and its perusal must awaken in every right-minded man an earnest desire to do his part towards assisting the endeavours of the honest poor to earn their bread—towards instructing the ignorant, and towards reforming the vicious.

CATALOGUES RECEIVED.—Williams and Norgate's (14. Henrietta Street) German Book Circular No. 28.; J. Lilly's (19. King Street) very Cheap Clearance Catalogue No. 2.; J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue No. 31. of Books Old and New; W. Brown's (130. Old Street) Register of Literature, Ancient, Modern, English, Foreign, No. 1.; T. Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Catalogue of Geological and Scientific Library of the late Rev. T. Williams.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

HUNTER'S DEANERY OF DONCASTER. Vol. I. Large or small paper.

CLARE'S RURAL MUSE.

CHRISTIAN PIETY FREED FROM THE DELUSIONS OF MODERN ENTHUSIASTS. A.D. 1756 or 1757.

AN ANSWER TO FATHER HUDDLESTONE'S SHORT AND PLAIN WAY TO THE FAITH AND CHURCH. By Samuel Grascombe. London, 1703. 8vo.

REASONS FOR ABROGATING THE TEST IMPOSED UPON ALL MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT. By Samuel Parker, Lord Bishop of Oxon. 1688. 4to.

LEWIS'S LIFE OF CAXTON. 8vo. 1737.

CATALOGUE OF JOSEPH AMES'S LIBRARY. 8vo. 1760.

TRAPP'S COMMENTARY. Folio. Vol. I.

WHITLAY'S PARAPHRASE ON THE NEW TESTAMENT. Folio. Vol. I. 1706.

LONG'S ASTRONOMY. 4to. 1742.

MAD. D'ARBLAY'S DIARY. Vol. II. 1842.

ADAMS' MORAL TALES.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR. JOHNSON. 1805.

WILLIS'S ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. (10s. 6d. will be paid for a copy in good condition.)

CARPENTER'S DEPUTY DIVINITY; a Discourse of Conscience. 12mo. 1657.

A TRUE AND LIVELY REPRESENTATION OF POPERY, SHEWING THAT POPERY IS ONLY NEW MODELLED PAGANISM, &c., 1679. 4to.

ERSKINE'S SPEECHES. Vol. II. London, 1810.

HARE'S MISSION OF THE COMFORTER. Vol. I. London, 1846.

HOPE'S ESSAY ON ARCHITECTURE. Vol. I. London, 1835. 2nd Edition.

MULLER'S HISTORY OF GREECE. Vol. II. (Library of Useful Knowledge. Vol. XVII.)

ROMILLY'S (SIR SAMUEL) MEMOIRS. Vol. II. London, 1840.

SCOTT'S (SIR W.) LIFE OF NAPOLEON. Vol. I. Edinburgh, 1837. 9 Vol. Edition.

ROBERT WILSON'S SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF HAWICK. Small 8vo. Printed in 1825.

JAMES WILSON'S ANNALS OF HAWICK. Small 8vo. Printed in 1850.

BARRINGTON'S SKETCHES OF HIS OWN TIME. Vol. III. London, 1830.

BRITISH POETS (Chalmers', Vol. X.) London, 1810.

CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON. Vol. III. London, 1774.

CONSTABLE'S MISCELLANY. Vol. LXXV.

SCOTT'S NOVELS. Vol. XXXVI (Redgauntlet, II.); Vols. XLIV. XLV. (Ann of Grerstein, I. & II.) 48 Vol. Edition.

SMOLLETT'S WORKS. Vols. II. & IV. Edinburgh, 1800. 2nd Edition. [414]

SOUTHEY'S POETICAL WORKS. Vol. III. London, 1837.

CRABBE'S WORKS. Vol. V. London, 1831.

Four letters on several subjects to persons of quality, the fourth being an answer to the Bishop of Lincoln's book, entitled POPERY, &c., by Peter Walsh. 1686. 8vo.

A CONFUTATION OF THE CHIEF DOCTRINES OF POPERY. A Sermon preached before the King, 1678, by William Lloyd, D.D. 1679. 4to.

A SERMON PREACHED AT ST. MARGARET'S, WESTMINSTER, BEFORE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, MAY 29, 1685, by W. Sherlock, D.D. 4to. London, 1685.

POPE'S LITERARY CORRESPONDENCE. Vol. III. Curll. 1735.

ALMANACS, any for the year 1752.

MATTHIAS' OBSERVATIONS ON GRAY. 8vo. 1815.

SHAKSPEARE, JOHNSON, AND STEVENS, WITH REED'S ADDITIONS. 3rd Edition, 1785. Vol. V.

SWIFT'S WORKS, Faulkner's Edition. 8 Vols. 12mo. Dublin, 1747. Vol. III.

SOUTHEY'S PENINSULAR WAR. Vols V. VI. 8vo.

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Notices to Correspondents.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE. We are very much obliged to our correspondent for his kind suggestion, but his proposal a little shocks our modesty. The subject, he will remember, has been taken up by several of our most influential contemporaries. It would scarcely become us to suggest that they should now abandon it to us. We are anxious to help it forward, but it would be better that we should do so in conjunction with all others who are willing to labor in the same cause.

N. H. (Liverpool) will find in Vol. IV., p. 301. two replies to his Query; so we hope we shall still number him among our well-wishers.

A. J. H., who inquires respecting "The Bar of Michael Angelo," is referred to our 2nd Vol., p. 166.

MR. HOLDEN of Exeter's Catalogue has not been received by us.

ABERDONIENSIS is thanked for his suggestion. Its adoption, however, does not seem to us advisable for several reasons: one, and that not the least influential, being, that the course proposed would be an interference with our valued contemporary The Gentleman's Magazine, and with that particular department of which it is so valuable—the "Obituary."

R. H. (Dublin) shall receive our best attention. We will re-examine the communications he refers to, and insert such of them as we possibly can.

J. B. C. Has our correspondent a copy of the article on "Death by Boiling?"

DR. HENRY'S "Notes on Virgil," and articles on the "Treatise of Equivocation," "Damasked Linen," "Thomas More and John Fisher," "Convocation of York," &c., are unavoidably postponed until our next Number.

REPLIES RECEIVED.—We are this week under the necessity of postponing our usual list.

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