Various

“ Can any of your correspondents inform me how much two such books may possibly have been worth to a publisher in the year 1625; being works of low price and popular character, proceeding from an author of great name? How much is it reasonable to suppose that a publisher may have given for the copyright? or how far may it have gone towards the payment of a bookseller's bill? ”

“ Now the author, though very capable of writing with propriety on his chosen theme, might be unequal to the courtly style which dedicators were wont to display, and as the complement was to be returned substantially, he might be tempted to employ a superior artist on the occasion. It was chiefly under such circumstances that the powers of Johnson were called into action. By what arguments the stern moralist would have endeavoured to justify the deception, for it deserves no better name, is more than I can undertake to decide, and I submit the query to his enthusiastic admirers. ”

“ It seems to me that a preferable etymology may be found to that given by Nares and Jacob. The arbiter or judge might formerly have occupied a dais or lit de justice, or he might have been selected from those entitled to sit on the raised parts of the courts of law, i.e. jurisconsulti, or barristers as we call them. I have heard another etymology, which however I do not favour, that the arbiter, chosen from men of the same rank as the disputants, should be paid for loss of his day's work. ”

“ There are women who have had no intrigue, but few who have had but one only; so there are millions of men who have never written a book, but few who have written only one."—Observations upon an Article in Blackwood's Magazine ”

“ This is the best antiquarian handbook we have ever met with—so clear is its arrangement, and so well and so plainly is each subject illustrated by well-executed engravings, that confusion for the future is impossible upon a variety of points on which the most grievous mistakes have hitherto been made by anxious and zealous antiquarians. * * * It is the joint production of two men who have already distinguished themselves as authors and antiquarians. ”

“ Basse's Poems were evidently intended for the press, but we may conjecture that the confusion of the times prevented them from appearing. Thomas Warton, in his Life and Literary Remains of Ralph Bathurst, M.D., has a copy of verses by the Dr. "To Mr. W. Basse, upon the intended publication of his Poems, January 13, 1651;" to which the learned editor adds, "I find no account of this writer or his poems." The whole consists of forty-four verses, from which I extract the beginning and the end:—
Basse, whose rich mine of wit we here behold
As porcelain earth, more precious, 'cause more old ”

“ To the north of Horiti, says Alfred, is Mægtha Land.—A Finnic tribe, called Magyar, were settled in the 9th century in Mazovia, whence a part of them descended into Hungary. According to Mr. Forster, Mazovia has been called Magan Land; but I can find no trace of that name. I can easily conceive, however, that Magyar and Land might become, in Saxon copying, Mægtha Land, for the country of the Magyar. Elsewhere, Alfred uses Mægtha Land, the land of the Medes, for Persia.
Is there any other printed copy of the Saxon Orosius than Barrington's? ”

“ Bolton Corney (pace cl. viri dixerim) is very deficient in probability. If the above authorities had not fallen under my notice, I should have confidently adopted the conjecture of the noble Querist, who first drew attention to the word, and, so far from considering the substitution of "poker" for "parker" an improbable blunder of the copyist, I should have pronounced it fortunate for the house of Harley that their founder had not been converted into a porcarius or pig-driver. ”

“ The article, in Irish, is An, not ar; and mag does not signify a town. He adopts, your readers will perceive, the modern English spelling, which could not lead to a correct result, even if M. Bullet had been acquainted with the Celtic languages. The same remark applies to the explanation given by the author of Circles of Gomer. Ard, not Ar, is the word to be explained; and therefore, even though Ar and Ararat meant, as he tells us, "earth, country, or upon and on the earth," this would throw no light on the etymology of ARDmacha.
"HIBERNICUS" (No. 14. p. 217.) is partly right and partly wrong ”

“ Payne and Foss are retiring from business, and that the first portion of their extensive and valuable Stock of Books will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby and Co.; the first division in a ten days' sale, commencing on the 18th and terminating on the 28th March; which will be followed by the second division, which will also occupy ten days, and commence on Monday the 8th April. The lovers of choice copies of fine editions of first-class books will have, on this occasion, such an opportunity of enriching their collections as rarely presents itself. ”

“ To the dedications enumerated by the faithful Boswell, and by his sharp-sighted editors, Malone and Croker, I have to announce on internal evidence, a gorgeous addition! It is the dedication to Edward Augustus, Duke of York, of An Introduction to Geometry, by William Payne, London: T. Payne, at the Mews Gate, 1767. 4o., 1768. 8o. I transcribe it literatim. It wants no comment:—
"TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK.
"SIR,
"They who are permitted to prefix the names of princes to treatises of science generally enjoy the protection of a patron, without fearing the censure of a judge. ”

“ This must, at any rate, be allowed as ingenious etymology.
J.U.G. GUTCH.
THE GOLDEN AGE. (From the Latin.)
Why "golden," when that age alone, we're told,
Was blest with happy ignorance of gold—
More justly we our venal times might call
"The Golden Age," for gold is all in all. ”

“ Patrick.
Whoever the Mach or Macha was from whom Ardmacha has its name (whether the queen called Macha-mong-ruadh, whose reign is assigned by O'Flaherty to A.M. 3603, or the older Macha, who is said to be the wife of Nemedius) , it should be borne in mind, that the word whose etymology is required is ARDMACHA16, and not Armagh. What would be thought of the critic who would now attempt to investigate the etymology of the English word bishop, by dividing it into two syllables, and seeking analogies in sound for each syllable. ”

“ Helmold says that they inhabited the part of the coast opposite to the island of Rugen; and hereabouts Adam of Bremen places the Heveldi, and many other Slavonic tribes.6 I am not aware that any other author than Alfred says, that the Wilti and Heveldi were the same people; but the fact is probable. The Heveldi are of rare occurrence, but not so the Wilti.7 Ptolemy calls them Βελται—Veltæ or Weltæ—and places them in Prussian Pomerania, between the Vistula and Niemen. ”

“ Very well; the promised note is to justify the metamorphosis of the warlike tribe, known in the annals and chronicles of the 9th century as the Wilti, Wilzi, Weleti, and Welatibi, into heaths and wolds. Thirty pages further on there is a note by J. Reinhold Forster, the naturalist and navigator, who wrote it for Barrington in full confidence that the translation was correct:—"The Æfeldan," he says, "are, as king Alfred calls them, wolds; there are at present in the middle part of Jutland, large tracts of high moors, covered with heath only." ”

“ In the parish of Lynn it is customary, for a week or ten days before the 5th {259} of November, for the skeleton of a horse's head, dressed up with ribbons, &c., having glass eyes inserted in the sockets, and mounted on a short pole by way of handle, to be carried by a man underneath, covered with a horse-cloth. There is generally a chain attached to the nose, which is held by a second man, and they are attended by several others. In houses to which they can gain access, they go through some kind of performance, the man with the chain telling the horse to rear, open its mouth, &c. ”

“ Mr. Botfield might have informed us. In fact, where is any effectual intelligence of the fugitive to be found?
J.M.
Feb. 8. 1850.
REPLIES. ETYMOLOGY OF "ARMAGH."
Some of your correspondents have taken up the not unnatural idea, that the last syllable of the word "Armagh" is identical with the Celtic word magh, a plain. But there are two objections to this. In the first place, the name is never spelt in Irish Armagh, nor even Ardmagh, but always ARDMACHA. Ardmagh or Armagh is only the anglicised spelling, adapted to English tongues and ears. ”

“ The cart is drawn round the parish by three or four spirited horses, decked out with ribbons,—the collars being surrounded with small bells. It is attended by morris-dancers, dressed in strange style,—men in women's clothes, &c. One big man in woman's clothes, with his face blacked, has a belt round his waist, to which is attached a large bell, and carries a ladle, in which he collects money from the spectators. The company stop and dance at the principal public-houses in their route, and then proceed to the parish church (!) ”

“ The horse will sometimes seize persons, and hold them fast till they pay for being set free; but he is generally very peaceable,—for in case of resistance being offered, his companions frequently take flight, and leave the poor horse to fight it out. ”

“ A poem by William Basse is inserted in the Annalia Dubrensia, 1636, in praise of Robert Dover and his revival of the Cotswold Games; but it is not clear to which of these poets we may ascribe it. Malone attributes two rare volumes to one or other of these poets. The first, a translation or paraphrase of Juvenal's tenth satire, entitled That which seems Best is Worst, 12mo., 1617 ”

“ Lord Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms.—The answer in No. 15. p. 235. to A CORNISHMAN'S Query (No. 13. p. 202) respecting "Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms," suggests another query. The work in question was a mere "exercise of sickness;" it contains only seven psalms (the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th) , and is, without pretension of any kind, a very proper diversion for a mind that could not be inactive and yet required rest; and very good verses for a man unpractised in metrical composition. ”

“ At any rate, the translation of the passage in the inventory to which "GASTROS" refers should be, "three Pisan collerets of steel mail," not that given by Meyrick. Here we have clearly a fabric of Pisa: whereas the pisan, of which I desire to know the meaning, invariable occurs as an independent term, e.g. "item, unum pisanum," or "unum par pisanorum." Of course I have my own conjecture on the subject, but should be glad to hear other opinions; so I again put the question to your correspondents. ”

“ Owen was at Oxford not many years after Whitgift had been Master of Trinity at Cambridge, if (as Wood states) he took his bachelor's degree in 1590. The epigram is as follows:—
"Oxoniæ salsus (juvenis tum) more vetusto;
Wintoniæque (puer tum) piperatus eram.
Si quid inest nostro piperisve salisve libello,
Oxoniense sal est, Wintoniense piper."
It is No. 64 in that book of epigrams which Owen inscribed "Ad Carolum Eboracensem, fratrem Principis, filium Regis," p. 205, edit. Elz, 1628. 12mo. ”

“ I should be greatly obliged if any of your readers can tell me the title, date, and place of publication of this book, and where a copy of it is to be seen or procured.
Query III.—Are there in existence any original oil-paintings of the Dodo by Savery or any other artist, besides the five described in the Dodo and its Kindred—viz., the one at the Hague, at Berlin, at Vienna, at the British Museum, and at Oxford? ”

“ The dais, or raised part of the upper end of the hall, was so called, from the administration of justice. A dais-man is still a popular term for an arbitrator in the North, and Domesday-Book (with the name of which I suppose every one to be familiar) is known to be a list of manor-houses."
C.D. LAMONT.
Greenock.
[Our correspondents will probably find some confirmation of their ingenious suggestion in the following passage from The Vision of Piers Ploughman:—
"And at the day of dome
At the heighe deys sitte."
Ll. 4898-9. ed. Wright.]
Saveguard.—"BURIENSIS" (No. 13. p. 202.) ”

“ At the annual Wakes a large quantity of rushes are collected together, and loaded on a cart, almost to the height of a load of hay. They are bound on the cart, and cut evenly at each end. On the Saturday evening a number of men sit on the top of the rushes, holding garlands of artificial flowers, tinsel, &c. ”

“ Messrs. Puttick and Simpson will sell by auction on Friday, March the 8th, and seven following days, the extensive and very important Stock of Books of Mr. James Carpenter, of Bond Street, who is retiring from business. The characteristics of this fine collection are the numerous books of prints and illustrated works which it contains, such as the matchless Series of Piranesi's Works, being the dedication copy to the king of Sweden: a copy of Boswell's Life of Johnson, in 8 vols. ”

“ The Catalogue is very rare; there is not a copy in the British Museum, and Messrs. Christie and Manson are without one. I may add, as your correspondent is curious about Johnson's Library, that I have the presentation copy to the Doctor of Twiss's Travels in Spain, with "the gift of the Author" in Johnson's handwriting, immediately beneath Twiss's MS. presentation. ”

“ The terrific hail-storm of the summer of 1843, which destroyed the crops of corn through several of the eastern and midland counties of this kingdom, was a calamity in the original sense of the word.
"W.P.P." has also kindly replied to this query by furnishing a part of the Article on Calamitas in Vossius; and "J.F.M." adds, Calamitas means—
"The spindling of the corn, which with us is rare, but in hotter countries common: insomuch as the word calamitas was first derived from calamus, when the corn could not get out of the stalk."—Bacon, Nat. Hist. sect. ”

“ With regard to the ballad itself, there is an early copy (of the latter part of the sixteenth century) {266} preserved in the Harleian MSS., No. 7332, fol. 41. It purports to have been
"Written (i.e. transcribed) be Feargod Barebone, who being at many times idle and wanting employment, wrote out certain songs and epigrams, with the idea of mending his hand in writing."
There is another copy among Malone's MSS. in the Bodleian (No. 16. p. 55.) , where it is entitled A new Tom of Bedlam. But I contend there is no evidence to show that this is the ballad alluded to by Walton ”