Various

“ And from blaguer comes the substantive blagueur, which is, I apprehend, the original of our English word blackguard. It is described by Bescherelles as a "diseur de sornettes et de faussetées; hâbleur, fanfaron. Un blagueur est un menteur, mais un menteur qui a moins pour but de tromper que de se faire valoir." ”

“ At p. 48. he says: "Twenty grains of nitrate of silver in half an ounce of water is to have half an ounce of solution of iodide of potassium of fifty grains to the ounce added." Now this is unnecessarily mystifying. Why not say: "Take equal quantities of a forty-grain solution of nitrate of silver, and of a fifty-grain solution of iodide of potassium;" though, in fact, an equal strength would do as well, and be quite as, if not more, economical. ”

“ It will chase men out of their houses, as if there was some fierce enemy pursuing them, and shut up shop doors, as if execution after judgment was served upon the merchants; there will then be no other music to be heard but doleful knells, nor no other wares to be born up and down but dead corpses; it will change mansion houses into pest-houses, and gather congregations rather into churchyards than churches.... ”

“ Simplification of the Wax-paper Process.—At a late meeting of the Chemical Discussion Society, Mr. J. How read the following paper on this subject:—
"The easiest way of waxing the paper is to take an iron (those termed 'box-irons' are the cleanest and best for the purpose) moderately hot, in the one hand, and to pass it over the paper from side to side, following closely after it with a piece of white wax, held in the other hand, until the whole surface has been covered. By thus heating the paper, it readily imbibes the wax, and becomes rapidly saturated with it. ”

“ Recent discoveries in biological science have given to the subject of popular prophecies a philosophical importance beyond the mere curiosity or strangeness of the details. Whether or not the human mind, under certain conditions, becomes endowed with the prescient faculty, is a question I do not wish to discuss in your pages: I merely wish to direct attention to a neglected and not uninteresting chapter in the curiosities of literature. ”

“ In all the works on photography, the directions given run generally as follow:—'Put an excess of gallic acid into distilled water, shake the mixture for about five minutes, allow it to deposit, and then pour off the supernatant fluid, which is found to be a saturated solution of the acid.'
"Now I have found by constant experiment, that by keeping an excess of acid in water for several days, the strength of the solution is greatly increased, and its action as a developing agent materially improved. ”

“ Were the facts as stated by your correspondent, it would deprive Mr. Archer undoubtedly of the merit which he claims; but from all I have been able to learn, Le Gray mentioned collodion as a mere agent for obtaining a smooth surface to paper, or other substance, having no idea of making it the sole sensitive substance to be employed. I have been informed that in Vienna, early in 1850, collodion was tried upon glass by being first immersed in a bath of iodide of potassium; and it was afterwards placed in a second bath of nitrate of silver. ”

“ Originator of the Collodion Process.—All those who take any interest in photography must agree with your correspondent G. C. that M. Le Gray is a talented man, and has done much for photography. G. C. has given a very good translation of M. Le Gray's last published work, p. 89., which work I have: but I must take leave to observe, that it is no contradiction whatever to my statement. The translations to which M. Le Gray alludes, of 1850, appeared in Willat's publication, from which I gave him the credit of having first suggested the use of collodion in photography. ”

“ Gerald was a suitor in the Court of Claims in 1703: he left two sons; William the eldest died s. p., and was succeeded by Garrett, his next brother, who died also without issue in 1728, having bequeathed all the family estates to Richard Colley, second son of the aforesaid Sir Dudley Colley, and testator's uncle, enjoining upon said Richard and his heirs male to bear thenceforth, as they succeeded to the estates, the name and arms of Wellesley. ”

“ At this time of year, an exposure in the camera of from ten to twenty minutes is requisite.
"The picture may be developed with gallic acid, immediately after its removal from the camera; or, if more convenient, that part of the process may be delayed for several days. Whilst at this section of my paper, I may, perhaps, be allowed to describe a method of preparing the solution of gallic acid, whereby it may be kept, in a good state of preservation, for several months. ”

“ As the early indications of so great an artist, these drawings are very curious and interesting; but no person that knows anything of the state of water-colour painting at that period, and previous to the era when Turner, Girtin, and others began to shine out in that new and glorious style, that has since brought water-colour works to their present style of splendour, excellence, and value, will expect anything approaching the perfection of latter days. ”

“ Of course any other acid would precipitate the caseine; still I give the preference to the acetic from the fact that it does not affect the after-process of rendering the paper sensitive, that acid entering into the composition of the sensitive solution.
"After boiling for five or ten minutes, the liquid should be allowed to cool, and then be strained through a hair sieve or a piece of muslin, to collect the caseine: when quite cold, the chemicals are to be added. ”

“ William Wellesley, son and heir of Valerian, married Margaret Kempe (Peerage Books) , and by her had Gerald Wellesley, who on the Restoration petitioned to be restored to his estates, and a Decree of Innocence issued, which states the rights of himself, his father, and his grandfather in "Dingen." This Gerald married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir Dudley Colley, and their first daughter was baptized in 1663 by the name of Margaret, some evidence, in the courtesy of christenings, of Gerald's mother being Margaret. ”

“ We might also make mention, more at length, of a tomb which was found at the point Beni Isa in 1761, having on its face a Phœnician inscription, which Sir William Drummond thus translates:
"The interior room of the tomb of Ænnibal, illustrious in the consummation of calamity. He was beloved. The people, when they are drawn up in order of battle, weep for Ænnibal the son of Bar Malek."
Sir Grenville Temple remarks, that the great Carthaginian general is supposed, by the Maltese, to have been a native of their island, and one of the Barchina family, once known to have been established in Malta ”

“ William Wellesley of Dangan was the son and heir of Christopher. An (unprinted) act of Edward IV. was passed in 1472 in favour of this William; and his two marriages are stated by Lynch (Feud. Dig.) : the first was to {88}Ismay Plunkett; the second, to Maud O'Toole, was contracted under peculiar circumstances. The law of Ireland at the time prohibited the intermarriages of the English with the natives without royal licence therefor being previously obtained, and not even did the licence so obtained wash out the original sin of Irish birth ”

“ He had a son Edward (not mentioned in the peerage books) , who joined in a family conveyance of 1599, and soon after died, leaving a son, Valerian Wellesley. Gerald himself died in 1603, leaving said Valerian, his grandson and heir, then aged ten (Inquis. 5 Jac. I. in Rolls Office) , and married, adds the Inquisition; and Lynch, in his Feudal Dignities, gives interesting particulars of the betrothal of this boy, and his public repudiation of the intended match on his coming to age. This Valerian is traced through Irish records to the time of the Restoration ”

“ It will thus be seen, that of the six authors quoted in "N. & Q." no one makes use of the term black guard in an opprobrious sense such as attaches to the more modern word "blackguard;" and that they all wrote within the first fifty years of the seventeenth century. It must therefore be subsequent not only to that date, but to the reign of Queen Anne, that we are to look for its general acceptance in its present contumelious sense. ”

“ It is then taken out and hung up to dry, when it should be of a light brown colour. All these operations may be carried on in a light room, taking care only that, during the latter part of the process, {94}the paper be not exposed to the direct rays of the sun.
"The 'iodized paper,' which will keep for almost any length of time, should be placed in a portfolio, great care being taken to lay it perfectly flat, otherwise the wax is liable to crack, and thus spoil the beauty of the negative. ”

“ In 1798 an act was passed allowing gold articles to be made of a lower or worse standard, viz., of 18 carats of fine gold out of 24; such articles were to be stamped with a crown and the figures 18, instead of the lion passant.
The standard of silver has always (with the exception of about twenty years) been 11 oz. 2 dwts., and 18 dwts. alloy, in the pound: this was termed sterling, but very much debased from the latter end of Henry VIII. to the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. ”

“ Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, and I have experienced the ceremony myself.
H.
Charm for Warts.—I remember in Leicestershire seeing the following charm employed for removal of a number of warts on my brother, then a child about five years old. In the month of April or May he was taken to an ash-tree by a lady, who carried also a paper of fresh pins; one of these was first struck through the bark, and then pressed through the wart until it produced pain: it was then taken out and stuck into the tree. Each wart was thus treated, a separate pin being used for each. ”

“ Instead of being at the trouble of boiling rice, preparing isinglass, adding sugar of milk and the whites of eggs, &c., I simply take some milk quite fresh, say that milked the same day, and add to it, drop by drop, glacial acetic acid, in about the proportion of one, or one and a half drachm, fluid measure, to the quart, which will separate the caseine, keeping the mixture well stirred with a glass rod all the time ”

“ A curious remnant or corruption of the use of cramp rings is given by Mr. G. Rokewode, who says that in Suffolk "the use of cramp rings, as a preservative against fits, is not entirely abandoned. Instances occur where nine young men of a parish each subscribe a crooked sixpence, to be moulded into a ring, for a young woman afflicted with this malady." ”

“ In the famous collection of pamphlets in the British Museum (113, 69.) is contained Lord Poulett's speech at Wells, Somerset:
"His lordship, with many imprecations, oaths, and execrations (in the height of fury) , said that it was not fit for any yeoman to have allowed him from his own labours any more than the poor moiety of ten pounds a-year; and when the power shall be totally on their side, they shall be compelled to live on that low allowance, notwithstanding their estates are gotten with a great deal of labour and industry. ”

“ An antiquary, being at Malta, cannot pass a portion of an idle day more agreeably than in visiting some singular sepulchral chambers not far from Notabile, which are built in a rocky eminence, and with entrances several feet from the ground. ”

“ Habbe or Nabbe, with much greater reason, shows that hob or nob, now only used convivially, to ask a person whether he will have a glass of wine or not, is most evidently a corruption of the old hab-nab, from the Saxon habban, to have, and nabban, not to have; in proof of which, as Nares remarks, Shakspeare has used it to mark an alternative of another kind:
"And his incensement at this moment is so implacable, that satisfaction can be none but by pangs of death and sepulchre: hob, nob is his word; give't or take't."—Twelfth Night, Act III. Sc. 4. ”

“ Wo unto us, our sins have pulled down our houses, shaken down our city; we are the most harbourlesse featlesse people in the world.... Foxes have holes, and the fowls of the air nests, but we have neither; our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert. What inventions shall ye then be put to, to secure yourselves, when your sins shall have shut up all the conduits of the city, and suffer only the Liver conduit to run [3] ”

“ Anthony Marshall preached a Visitation Sermon at Melton in 1667, Aug. 11. I do not find that any Bishop of Exeter bore the name of Marshall except Henry Marshall in 1191, of course too far back to suppose that the Query could refer to him; but I have not introduced this Note to quarrel with Mr. Nichols, but to ask if this is all that is known of a man who must, in his day, have attained to considerable eminence. ”

“ This belief in the visits of domestic spirits, who busy themselves at night in sweeping and arranging the lower apartments, has prevailed in the North of Ireland and in Scotland from time immemorial: and it is explained in Sir Walter Scott's notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, as his justification for introducing the goblin page Gilpin Horner amongst the domestics of Branksome Hall. ”

“ Do we not clearly learn from the above, that the Civil War was due to more than a mere choosing between king and parliament among the humbler classes of the remote country districts?
George Roberts.
Literary Frauds of Modern Times.—In a work by Bishop (now Cardinal) Wiseman, entitled The Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion, 3rd edition, vol. ii. p. 270., occurs the following remark:
"The most celebrated literary frauds of modern times, the History of Formosa, or, still more, the Sicilian Code of Vella, for a time perplexed the world, but were in the end discovered." ”

“ It is backed like a weasel.
Hamlet. Or like a whale?
Polonius. Very like a whale."
Since Shakspeare's time, it has been used as a proverb in reply to any remark partaking of the marvellous.]
Wednesday a Litany Day.—Why is Wednesday made a Litany day by the Church? We all know why Friday was made a fast; but why should Wednesday be sacred?
Anon.
[Wednesdays and Fridays were kept as fasts in the primitive Church: because on the one our Lord was betrayed, on the other crucified. See Mant and Wheatley.] ”