Various

“ I appended my letter, for want of a better opportunity, and at the request of several members, to a paper on the doctrine of the Myth, read at the time; observing, that if the account is credible, perhaps Niebuhr may have been precipitate in treating the nurture of the founders of Rome as fabulous, and consigning to the Myth facts of infrequent occurrence. There is both danger and the want of philosophy in rejecting the marvellous, merely as such. ”

“ Though you are a little villain for never sending me a word of news from Sir Lucius Pery, Flood, Lucas, and the rest of the friends to your enslaved country, yet I will inform you that yesterday, in the House of Commons, upon a question of no moment, only for fixing a day for the hearing a contested election, the ministry were run within 11: the numbers 137 and 148. Twenty rats in the Speaker's chamber, and in all the cupboards in the neighbourhood. Monday next is the day for deciding the American question; and do not be surprised if there is an end of the present ministry in less than a week. ”

“ The collodion of some makers always acts in the manner you describe; and we have known it remedied by the addition of about one drachm of spirits of wine to the ounce of collodion. Spirits of wine also added to the nitrate bath—two drachms of spirits of wine to six ounces of the aqueous solution—is sometimes very beneficial. When collodion is inert, and the colour remains a pale milk and water blue after the immersion, a few drops of saturated solution of iodide of silver may be added, as it indicates a deficiency of the iodide. ”

“ Now, although I do not mean to say that A Skater propounds for elucidation what he knows to be a fallacy, yet I do assert that he is mistaken as to the fact alleged. He recommends any one who is "incredulous" to make the trial—in which case, the experimenter would undoubtedly find himself in the water! I advise an appeal to common sense and philosophy: the former will show that a person in skates is not lighter than another ”

“ Conway said, inter alia, that Lord Chatham's health was too bad to have any communication of business. The world seems to agree that he is mad, and his resignation is talked of,—God knows with what truth. The American business is next Tuesday. I do not see much prospect of a junction taking place where I have been labouring for it. We remain upon civil terms with each other, and no more....
My heart's love to all friends in Dublin: tell them it is every day more and more my opinion that this Lieutenant never means to set his foot in that kingdom, and I have good reasons for what I say. ”

“ The following note upon the name of Lamech may perhaps serve to throw a little light upon the difficult passage in Genesis iv. 23, 24.—Lamech, in Celtic Lamaich, or Laimaig, means a slinger of stones; and Lamech being dextrous in the use of that weapon the sling, wantonly slew two young men, and boasted of the bloody deed to his two wives, Adah and Zillah, blasphemously maintaining that as Cain for one murder should be avenged sevenfold, so he, for his wanton act, would be avenged seventy and seven fold upon whoever should slay him. ”

“ In the eastern arch is an altar-tomb, once adorned with shields, which are now torn off. This chantry stood within the memory of "the oldest inhabitant;" but it was pulled down by the owner of the land appertaining to the chantry, and of its materials was built the church tower. One of its windows forms the tower window, and its battlements and pinnacles serve their old purpose in their new position. A modern vestry occupies part of the site of the chantry, and shows one side the altar-tomb I have last mentioned. ”

“ Drills presaging Death.—In Norfolk, agricultural labourers generally believe that if a drill go from one end of a field to the other without depositing any seed—an accident which may result from the tubes and coulters clogging with earth—some person connected with the farm will die before the year expires, or before the crop then sown is reaped. It is a useful superstition, as it causes much attention to be paid to make the drill perform its work correctly. Still it is remarkable that such a superstition should have arisen, considering the recent introduction of that machine into general use. ”

“ Now, if any one examines the Hebrew ל he will perceive that it is by no means a rude representation of a human arm, holding a sling with a stone in it. The word Lamech is derived from lam, the hand; and the termination signifies dexterity in shooting or discharging missiles therewith.
It is curious to notice that the remaining names in the passage of Scripture are Celtic: thus Cain is compounded of cend, first, and gein, offspring,—pronounced Kayean, i. e. first begotten. Adah means a fair complexioned, red-haired woman ”

“ The parliament meets on Tuesday: the ministers of the House of Commons, who are to be rechose, can get nobody who is in Parliament to read the king's speech for them at the Cockpit the night before. They, I believe, are in a damned dilemma: how much that makes for us time must show. Cooper is bribed to be Secretary of the Treasury, by 500l. a-year for his life, upon the 4-1/2 per cents, in the Leeward Islands, the same that Pitt's pension is upon. He remains for the present, however, at Bath. ”

“ P.S.—Since the above was written, I find that Elizabeth's christening gift from the Duchess of Norfolk was a cup of gold, fretted with pearls; that noble lady being (says Miss Strickland) "completely unconscious of the chemical antipathy between the acidity of wine and the misplaced pearls." Elizabeth seems thus to have been rich in those gems from her infancy upwards, and to have retained a passionate taste for them long after their appropriateness as ornaments for her had ceased. ”

“ We have generally succeeded in obtaining portraits in an ordinary room, the sitter being placed opposite and near the window: of course, a glass-house is much better, the roof of which should be of violet glass, ground on the inner side. This glass can be bought, made especially for the purpose, at 11d. the square foot. It obstructs no chemical rays of light, and is most pleasant to the eyes, causing no fatigue from the great body of light admitted.
A few compete sets of "Notes and Queries," Vols. i. to vi., price Three Guineas, may now be had; for which early application is desirable. ”

“ A greater intensity in negatives will be produced without the nitric acid, but with an addition of more acetic acid the picture is more brown and never so agreeable as a positive. 3rd. The protonitrate of iron used pure produces a picture as delicate, and having all the brilliancy of a Daguerreotype, without its unpleasant metallic reflexion—the fine metal being deposited of a dead white; and combined with the pyrogallic acid solution in the proportion of one part to six or ten, produces pictures of a most agreeable ivory-like colour.—4th. ”

“ The motion spirit and nature both imparts,
And still with those alive so sympathize,
As nourish'd with their powers, enjoy their parts."
C. W. G.
Skating Problem (Vol. vii., p. 284.) .—The Query of your correspondent recalls the one said to have been put by King James to the members of the Royal Society: "How is it," said the British Solomon, "that if two buckets of water be equipoised in a balance, and a couple of live bream be put into one of them, the bucket containing the fish does not overweigh the other?" ”

“ The East India business is in a way of being settled,—400,000l. to be paid by the company for three years, and no addition of term to be given for their charter. It remains for the General Court of Proprietors to consent to this next Wednesday, which, if they do, the Parliament will confirm it on Friday. We had some good warm talk upon it yesterday in the House. Conway and Beckford and I sparred a good deal, and I am vain enough to think I did not come off with the worst of it. ”

“ To which I may add that Spenser's own direct descendants are living in the city of Cork, and, I regret to say, in reduced circumstances. This should not be. A pension might well be bestowed on the descendants of Spenser, the only one of our four great poets whose posterity is not extinct. ”

“ At all events there are no vestiges of any building on the Coniger except the tower aforesaid, which was erected by the present Mr. Luttrell's grandfather.
Balliolensis.
In the Irish language, Cuinicear, pronounced "Keenèkar," is a rabbit-warren. Cuinin is the diminutive of cu, a dog of any sort; and from the Celtic cu, the Greeks took their word κυων, a dog. I am of opinion that the origin of rabbit is in the Celtic word rap, i. e. a creature that digs and burrows in the ground. ”

“ I have never found any benefit, but much the contrary, from re-dipping the plate in the bath; and I may observe the same of mixing a drop or two of silver solution with the developing fluid.
I think with G. H. P. that the developing solution should be weak for positives.
I omitted, in my description of a new head-rest, to say that it is better to have all the parts in metal; and that the hole, through which the arm runs, should be a square mortice instead of a round one, as is usual. A screw at the side sets it fast ”

“ On old guns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, we find the rose and crown, but no broad arrow; more frequently Elizabeth's bear her cipher. A few articles I have seen of William III. are stamped with WR (with a crown above) : no broad arrow. Nor do I remember having ever seen it upon anything older than George III. This, however, is a question which may interest some gentleman of the Ordnance Department, and induce him to make research where success is most likely to reward his trouble, viz. in the Tower, in the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, or amongst the ancient records in the Ordnance Office ”

“ Sir Thomas Powell became a Baron of the Exchequer on April 22, 1687, and was transferred into the King's Bench in June, 1688, to take the seat there left vacant by the removal of the above Sir John Powell. He himself was removed in May, 1689.
3. Sir John Powell, or, as he was then called, John Powell, junior, was made a Baron of the Exchequer on November 10, 1691, removed into the Common Pleas on October 29, 1695, and into the King's Bench in June, 1702, where he sat till his death in 1713. ”

“ On the request to the magistrates of the English comedians to be allowed to perform, was decided: The magistrates of this city of Leyden, having seen in their assembly in the Town-House of the aforesaid city, the favourable letters of recommendation and testimonial of the Prince of Brandenberg of the 10th Aug., 1604, as well as the consent granted by his Excellence of Nassau, the 22nd of Dec. last, have permitted the English comedians and musicians, according to their request, to perform and exercise and exhibit their arts in the accustomed place, namely, in the great court under the library ”

“ So, in Essex, nig signifies a piece; a snag is a well-known word across the Atlantic; nogs are ninepins in the north of England; a noggin of bread is equivalent to a hunch in the midland counties; and in the neighbourhood of the Parret and Exe the word becomes nug, bearing (besides its usual acceptation) the meaning of knot, lump.
This supposed derivation is by no means weakened by the fact, that miners and others have gone to the "diggins" from parts at no great distance from the last-mentioned district ”

“ Beltane in Devonshire.—Seeing that the ancient superstition of the Beltane fire is still preserved in Scotland, and is lighted on the 1st of May, the origin of which is supposed to be an annual sacrifice to Baal, I am induced to state that a custom, evidently derived from the same source, is, or was a few years since, annually observed in the wild parts of Devonshire. At the village of Holne, situated on one of the Spurs of Dartmoor, is a field of about two acres, the property of the parish, and called the Ploy (Play) Field. ”

“ Among serving men also, above all other, what wicked and detestable oaths are there heard! If there be any of that sort which fear God, and love his word, and therefore abstain from vain oaths, how doth his company lout him! ”

“ Why does the caustic condition of the solution require a larger dose of nitrate of silver, and does not this larger quantity of nitrate of silver more than outbalance the difference between the new process and the old, as regards price? I pay 1s. 3d. for an ounce of iodide of potassium of purest quality; the commoner commercial quality is cheaper. ”

“ The protonitrate of iron, when mixed with the pyrogallic acid solution, becomes of a fine violet blue; but after some minutes it darkens. It should only be mixed immediately before using. The colour of the protonitrate of iron will vary, even using the same chemicals. The cheap nitrate of barytes of commerce answers exceedingly well in most cases ”

“ One of the frescos of the Campo Santo at Pisa gives the whole subject, from the offering of Abel's and Cain's sacrifice, to the death of the young man{363} by the hand of Lamech, painted by Pietre da Orvieto about 1390. In one corner of the fresco, Cain is depicted as a wild and shaggy figure, crouched in a thicket, at which Lamech, at the suggestion of his guide, shoots an arrow. Below, the homicide is represented as murdering the cause of his error by blows on the head inflicted with his bow. ”

“ This leads me to the simple origin of a word which seems to have posed all our etymologists—it has done so to Richardson at least—namely, "Pettifogger, a low, tricky attorney." According to my view, pettifogger is neither more nor less than pettifolker, i. e. one whose practice lies among the petty folk, small tradesmen, day-labourers, and such like. This derivation, too, has simplicity in its favour. ”