Various

“ To ask for general information on a particular subject, may be a less successful experiment. Who undertakes extensive research except for an especial purpose? Who can so far confide in his memory as to append his name to a list of authorities without seeming to prove his own superficiality? I throw out these ideas for consideration, just as they arise; but neither wish to repress the curiosity of querists, nor to prescribe bounds to the communicative disposition of respondents.
Did Madoc, son of Owen Gwynedd, prince of Wales, discover America? ”

“ Only those who have meddled in historical research can be aware of the extreme difficulty, the all but impossibility, of ascertaining the exact or the whole truth, amidst the numerous minute and often apparently contradictory facts which present themselves to the notice of all inquirers. ”

“ He is convinced that the want of specific acknowledgment will only be felt by those who have no idea of the labour and difficulty attendant on the hurried management of such a work, and of the impossibility of sometimes giving an explanation when there really is one which would quite satisfy the writer, for the delay or non-insertion of his communication. Correspondents in such cases have no reason, and if they understood an editor's position they would feel that they have no right, to consider themselves undervalued ”

“ Literary men are constantly meeting with such in the course of their reading, and how much better would it be if, instead of transferring them to a MS. book to be seen only by themselves, or perhaps a friend or two, they would forward them to a periodical, in which they might be enshrined in imperishable pica; to say nothing of the benefits such a course of proceeding would confer on those who might not have had the same facilities of gaining the information thus made public. ”

“ It has been suggested to us that in inviting Notes, Comments, and Emendations upon the works of Macaulay, Hallam, and other living authors, we may possibly run a risk of offending those eminent men. We hope not. We are sure that this outght not to be the case. Had we not recognised the merits of such works, and the influence they were destined to exercise over men's minds, we should not have opened our pages for the purpose of receiving, much less have invited, corrections of the mistakes into which the most honest and the most able of literary inquirers must sometimes fall. ”

“ The food of the people must always be regarded as an important element in estimating the degree of civilization of a nation, and its position in the social scale. Mr. Macaulay, in his masterly picture of the state of England at the period of the accession of James II., has not failed to notice this subject as illustrative of the condition of the working classes of that day. ”

“ The matter is so generally understood with regard to the management of periodical works, that it is hardly necessary for the Editor to say that HE CANNOT UNDERTAKE TO RETURN MANUSCRIPTS; but on one point he wishes to offer a few words of explanation to his correspondents in general, and particularly to those who do not enable him to communicate with them except in print. They will see, on a very little reflection, that it is plainly his interest to take all he can get, and make the most, and the best of everything ”

“ Every one longed to secure a copy. The enormous edition—for the whole 24,000 was but one impression—was published contemporaneously with the report. It was a cheap and elegant book, and sold as fast as it could be handed over the booksellers counter. As poor Erasmus had no pecuniary benefit {51} from the edition, he ought to have the credit which arises from this proof of his extraordinary popularity. ”

“ The learned writer who pours out a store of curious learning in the pages of Gentleman's Magazine is more likely than any body that I know to tell you something about him.
Mons. Duthilloeul quotes another epigram from the same book upon the Encomium Moriæ, but it is too long and too pointless for your pages. He adds another thing which is more in your way, namely, that a former possessor of the copy of the work then before him had expressed his sense of the value of these "epigrammes dévotes" in the following NOTE:—
"Nollem carere hoe libello auro nequidem contra pensitato." ”

“ Act III. sc. 1., in the line,
"With deafening clamours in the slippery clouds,"
the word shrouds is not substituted by editors of Shakespeare for "clouds," the answer is, that not a single old copy warrants the merely fanciful emendation, and that it is not at all required by the sense of the passage. In the 4to of 1600, and in the folio of 1623, the word is "clouds;" and he must be a very bold editor (in my opinion little capable of doing justice to any author) , who would substitute his own imaginary improvement, for what we have every reason to believe is the genuine text. ”

“ ORIGIN OF WORD "GROG"—ANCIENT ALMS-BASINS.
Mr. Editor,—As a sailor's son I beg to answer your correspondent LEGOUR'S query concerning the origin of the word "grog," so famous in the lips of our gallant tars. Jack loves to give a pet nickname to his favourite officers. ”

“ Hallam from a passage in Mabillon. In inserting such a communication we show the respect we feel for Mr. Hallam, and our {50} sense of the services which he has rendered to historical knowledge. Had we believed that if he has fallen into a mistake in this instance, it had been not merely a mistake, but a deliberate perversion of the truth, we should have regarded both book and writer with indifference, not to say with contempt. ”

“ Surely MELANION is too hard upon our correspondents and too exigeant towards ourselves. He would place us in a singular position. He should consider that we have not opened lists for all comers to tilt against each other. ”

“ The Barberini Library at Rome contains a vast number of books covered with marginal notes by celebrated writers, such as Scaliger, Allatius, Holstentius, David Haeschel, Barbadori, and above all, Tasso, who has annotated with his own hand more than fifty volumes. Valery, in his Voyages en Italie, states that a Latin version of Plato is not only annotated by the hand of Tasso, but also by his father, Bernardo; a fact which sufficiently proves how deeply the language and philosophy of the Greek writers were studied in the family. ”

“ Nothing but a weekly publication would meet what we believed to be the requirements of literary men. We determined, therefore, to publish a Number every Saturday; and the result has so far justified our decision, that the object of our now addressing our readers is to apologise to the many friends whose communications we are again unavoidably compelled to postpone; and to explain that we are preparing to carry out such further improvements in our arrangements as will enable us to find earlier admission for all the communications with which we are favoured. ”

“ Shrouds instead of "clouds" is a merely imaginary improvement, supported by no authority, and (as, indeed, your correspondent shows) without the merit of originality. I am for the text of Shakespeare as he left it, and as we find it in the most authentic representations of his mind and meaning.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
MEDAL OF THE PRETENDER.
Sir,—Possibly some one of your literary correspondents, who may be versed in the, what D'Israeli would call Secret History of the Jacobite Court, will endeavour to answer a "Query" relative to the following rare medal:—
Obv. ”

“ He tells us that meat, viewed relatively with wages, was "so dear that hundreds of thousands of families scarcely knew the taste of it.... The great majority of the nation lived almost entirely on rye, barley, and oats." ”

“ Mr. Editor,—Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the "streict laced" gaoler of the records, alluded to in the following passage in the Collection of Chancellors of England, by Francis Thynne, inserted in Holinshed (ed. 1808) iv. 351.
"John, Chancellor of England in the time of king Henrie the second, but what he was or in what yeare of king Henrie he lived I doo not know, and therefore leave it to him that both can and ought to give life to these persons whom he imprisoneth in the east castell of London; not doubting but in time he will doo his countrie good, and correct other men ”

“ Typhon, Plinio, Vortex, aliis Turbo, et vibratus Ecnephias, de nube gelida (ut dictum est) abruptum aliquid sæpe numero secum voluit, ruinamque suam illo pondere aggravat: quem repentinum flatum à nube prope terram et mare depulsum, definuerunt quidam, ubi in gyros rotatur, et proxima (ut monuimus) verrit, suáque vi sursum raptat."—MIZALDUS, Ephemeridis Æris Perpetuus: seu Rustica tempestatum Astrologia, 12o Lutet. 1584.
I have sometimes thought that Shakspeare may have written:—
"As flaws congested in the spring of day." ”

“ It cannot prove much, as the particulars were not committed to writing till about half-a-century after the voyage.]
"There is also another kinde of foule in that countrey [between the Gulf of Mexico and Cape Breton] ... they have white heads, and therefore the country men call them penguins (which seemeth to be a Welsh nanme) . ”

“ Dason. Licensed unto him the praise of follie; to print not above xv° of any impression, with this condition, that any of the Company may laie on with him, reasonablie at every impression, as they think good, and that he shall gyve reasonable knowledge before to them as often as he shall print it."
This is both curious and important information as being, in all probability, the earliest recorded instance of a custom still kept up amongst booksellers, and which now passes under the designation of a "Trade edition;" ”

“ The collectors of British portraits—and there are doubtless many such among our readers—will shortly have such an opportunity of enriching their portfolios as rarely presents itself. Messrs. Sotheby and Co. commence, on the 3rd of December, the sale of the second portion of the important and valuable stock of prints belonging to the well-known and eminent printsellers, Messrs. ”

“ One has the inscription, "Live well, die never; die well and live ever. A.D. 1644 W.G." The other has the appropriate legend, "Hee that gives too the poore lends unto thee LORD." A third bears the Tudor rose in the centre. ”