Various

“ An apparently indifferent lens should be tried with several kinds of apertures, till it will take sharp pictures; but if no size of aperture can make it, or a small aperture takes a very long time, it is a bad lens. M. Claudet, whose long experience in the art has given him the requisite judgment, changes the diameter of his lenses often during the day; and tries occasionally, in his excellent plan, the places of the chemical focus: by this his time is always nearly the same, and the results steady. ”

“ I cannot help thinking that this substitution will prove of some service; for, in the first place, the power of the condenser is generally equal to that of a quarter of an inch object-glass, which is perhaps the most generally useful of all the powers; and again, its aperture is, I think, not usually so great as that which an object-glass of the same power would have; and, moreover, as to correction, though it is slightly spherically under-corrected to accommodate the plate-glass under the object, yet the chromatic correction is perfect. ”

“ And this method will also prove better than any other way at present known of ascertaining whether a lens will take a sharp picture or not. If, however, any plan could be devised for making the solar spectrum visible upon a sheet of paper inside the camera, it would reduce the question of taking sharp pictures at once into a matter of certainty.
All lenses, however, should be tried by the opticians who sell them; and if they presented a specimen of their powers to a buyer, he could see in a moment what their capabilities were. ”

“ What knowledge, what meaning is conveyed in the word rarities? Are not some drawings, some statues, some coins, all monkish manuscripts, and some books, rarities? Could'st thou not find a trisyllable to express some parts of nature for a collection of which that learned and worthy physician is eminent? ”

“ Again, another peculiarity of the object-glasses of the achromatic microscope gives rise to a farther difficulty; they are over-corrected for colour, the spectrum is reversed, or the violet rays are projected beyond the red: this is in order to meet the requirements of the eye-piece. But with the photographic apparatus the eye-piece is not used, so that, after the object has been brought visually into focus in the camera, a farther adjustment is necessary, in order to focus for the actinic rays, which reside in the violet end of the spectrum. ”

“ It is much to be feared, however, that as to the MSS. this good fortune awaits no man; for Sir Peter Young seems to have given them to his fifth son, Patrick Young, the eminent Greek scholar, who was librarian to Prince Henry, and, after his death, to the king, and to Charles I. Patrick Young's house was unfortunately burned, and in it perished many MSS. belonging to himself and to others. If Scrymgeour's MSS. escaped the fire, they are to be sought for in the remnant of Patrick Young's collection, wherever that went, or in the King's Library, of which a considerable part was preserved. ”

“ The amber should be pounded in a mortar, and, to an ounce by measure of chloroform, add a drachm and a half of amber (only about one-fourth of it will be dissolved) , and this requires two days' maceration. It should be filtered through fine blotting-paper. Being so very fluid, it runs most freely over the collodion, and, when well prepared and applied, renders the surface so hard, and so much like the glass, that it is difficult to know on which side of the glass the positive really is. The varnish is to be obtained properly made at from 2s. ”

“ Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, defines the word "foggie or fogie," to be first, "an invalid, or garrison soldier," secondly, "a person advanced in life" and derives it from "Su. G. fogde, formerly one who had the charge of a garrison."
This seems to me a more satisfactory derivation than Mr. Keightley's, who considers it a corruption or diminutive of old folks.
J. L.
City Chambers, Edinburgh.
Errata corrigenda.—Vol. ii., p. 356. col. 2., near the bottom, for Sir William Jardine, read Sir Henry Jardine. ”

“ The inexperienced photographer is often too prone to blame his lens when the failure proceeds more from the above causes. The variation of the chemical focus during a day's work is often the cause of disappointment: though it does not affect the landscape so much as the portrait operator. ”

“ The figure of the knight, in this drawing, differs considerably from that on Dr. Barrett's seal. He is here represented on foot, dressed in the chain mail and tunic of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, with a close-barred helmet, with a broad flat crown, such as was worn in France in the time of Louis IX., called St. Louis. The lion is in the act of springing upon him, and he is aiming a deadly blow at him with a ragged staff, as his sword lies broken at his feet. ”

“ Old Fogie (Vol. vii., p. 354.) .—Mr. Keightley supposes the term of old fogie, as applied to "mature old warriors," to be "of pure Irish origin," or "rather of Dublin birth." In this he is certainly mistaken, for the word fogie, as applied to old soldiers, is as well known, and was once as familiarly used in Scotland, as it ever was or could have been in Ireland. The race was extinct before my day, but I understand that formerly the permanent garrisons of Edinburgh, and I believe also of Stirling, Castles, consisted of veteran companies ”

“ I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to the Query as to Pylades and Corinna before Dr. Maitland's communication was printed; but as it now appears more distinctly what was the object of the Query, I can address myself more directly to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, I cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do with Pylades and Corinna, or the History of Formosa. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least some trace of the master workman, but in neither of these works is there any putting forth of his power, or any similitude to his manner or style. ”

“ The object of having two pictures is to present to each eye an image of what it sees in nature; but as the angle subtended by a line, of which the pupils of the eyes form the extremities, must differ for every distance, and for objects of varying sizes, it follows there is no absolute rule that can be laid down as the only correct one. For distant views there is in nature scarcely any stereoscopic effect ”

“ Pope himself has it in the Essay on Man, in this form,—
"The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life."
It occurs in one of Pascal's Pensées:
"J'écrirai ici mes pensées sans ordre, et non pas peut-être dans une confusion sans dessein: C'est le véritable ordre, et qui marquera toujours mon objet par le désordre même."
Butler has it in the line,—
"For discords make the sweetest airs."
Bernardin de St. Pierre, in his Etudes de la Nature:
"C'est des contraires que résulte l'harmonie du monde." ”

“ John Thomas, Esq., Bishop's Stortford.
This Society embraces every advantage of existing Life Offices, viz. the Mutual System without its risks of liabilities: the Proprietary, with its security, simplicity, and economy: the Accumulative System, introduced by this Society, uniting life with the convenience of a deposit bank: Self-Protecting Policies, also introduced by this Society, embracing by one policy and one rate of premium a Life Assurance, an Endowment, and a Deferred Annuity. ”

“ Or possibly the eyes may have been confused by gazing on the revolving blades, just as the tongue is frequently influenced in its accentuation by pronouncing a word of two syllables in rapid articulations.
F. F. S.
Oxford.
Cross and Pile (Vol. vii., p.487.) .—Here is another explanation at least as satisfactory as some of the previous ones:
"The word coin itself is money struck on the coin or head of the flattened metal, by which word coin or head is to be understood the obverse, the only side which in the infancy of coining bore the stamp. ”

“ Peter Young, and his brother Alexander, were pupils of Theodore Beza, having been educated chiefly at the expense of their maternal uncle Henry Scrymgeour, to whose valuable library Peter succeeded. It was brought to Scotland by Alexander about the year 1573 or 1574, and was landed at Dundee. ”

“ Thence the Latin cuneus, from cune or kyn, the head.
"This side was also called pile, in corruption from poll, a head, not only from the side itself being the coin or head, but from its being impressed most commonly with some head in contradistinction to the reverse, which, in latter times, was oftenest a cross. Thence the vulgarism, cross or pile, poll, head."—Cleland's Specimen of an Etymological Vocabulary, p. 157.
A. Holt White.
{561}
Capital Punishments (Vol. vii., pp. 52. 321.) ”

“ Again, what more frequent blunder than to confound a secondary and derivative sense of a word with its radical and primary—indeed, sometimes to allow the former to usurp the precedence, and at length altogether oust the latter: hence it comes to pass, that we find dare is one while said to imply peeping and prying, another while trembling or crouching; moods and actions merely consequent or attendant upon the elementary signification of the word:
"I haue an hoby can make larkys to dare."
Skelton's Magnifycence, vol. i. p.269. l. 1358., Dyce's edition ”

“ Enough is from the same root as the German genug, where the first g has been lost, and the latter softened and almost lost in its old English pronunciation, enow. The modern pronunciation is founded, as that of many other words is, upon an affected style of speech, ridiculed by Holofernes. [4] The word bread, for example, is almost universally called bred; but in Chaucer's poetry and indeed now in Yorkshire, it is pronounced bré-äd, a dissyllable. ”

“ There is perhaps reason to believe that Sir Peter's library did not descend in his family beyond his eldest son, Sir James Young, who made an attempt to deprive the sons of his first marriage (the elder of whom died in infancy) of their right of succession to their grandfather's estates, secured to them under their father's marriage contract, and which attempt was defeated by their uncle, Dr. John Young, Dean of Winchester (sixth son of Sir Peter) , who acquired from Lord Ramsay, eldest son of the Earl of Dalhousie, part of the barony of Baledmouth in Fife. Dean Young founded a school at St. ”

“ Miserable.—Miserable is very commonly used in Devonshire in the signification of miserly, with strange effect until one becomes used to it. Hooker the Judicious, a Devonshire man, uses the word in this sense in the Eccl. Polity, book v. ch. lxv. p. 21.:
"By means whereof it cometh also to pass that the mean which is virtue seemeth in the eyes of each extreme an extremity; the liberal-hearted man is by the opinion of the prodigal miserable, and by the judgment of the miserable lavish."
Few.—Speaking of broth, people in Devon say a few broth in place of a little, or some broth. ”

“ The figure is represented as fighting on the green sward. From a cloud over the lion proceeds an arm clothed in chain mail, and holding in the hand, suspended by a baldrick, a shield bearing the arms of France (modern [3] ) —Azure, three fleurs-de-lis or. On a scutcheon of pretence in the centre, Argent, a lion ramp. gules, debruised with ragged staff, proper. This device forms the 1st quarter of the quarterings of the Stuart family.
In this device there is no figure of a lizard, dragon, or chimera, whichever it is, under the horse's feet, as represented in the seal of D'Albini. ”

“ I see by an advertisement that the Messrs. Highley supply everything that is necessary for the application of photography to the microscope.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
In reply to your correspondent J., I would ask if he has any photographic apparatus? if so, the answer to his question "What extra apparatus is required to a first-rate microscope in order to obtain photographic microscopic pictures?" would be None; but if not, he would require a camera, or else a wooden conical body, with plate-holder, &c., besides the ordinary photographic outfit. ”

“ The Euphuists are probably chargeable with this corruption.
In Vol. vii., p. 455. there is an inquiry respecting the change in the pronunciation of the word enough, and quotations are given from Waller, where the word is used, rhyming with bow and plough. But though spelt enough, is not the word, in both places, really enow? and is there not, in fact, a distinction between the two words? Does not enough always refer to quantity, and enow to number: the former, to what may be measured; the latter, to that which may be counted? In both quotations the word enough refers to numbers? ”

“ The knight is holding his shield in front, and holding his sword in his left hand. This seal is that of Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester, and appended to a deed "m.cc. Quadrigresimo Quinto." It occurs in Harl. MSS. 6079. p. 127.
E. G. Ballard.
Footnote 3: (return)
I say modern, for the ancient arms of France were Azure, semée of fleurs-de-lis, as they are represented in old glass, when quartered with those of England by our Henries and Edwards.
Pray request Senex to withdraw every word he has said about me. ”

“ Le peuple dit encore de nos jours en Bretagne, qu'il faut neuf tailleurs pour faire un homme, et jamais il ne prononce leur nom, sans ôter son chapeau, et sans dire: 'Sauf votre respect.'"
The saying is current also in Normandy, at least in those parts which border on Britany. ”

“ Here follows a long interesting description. It is an exterior view; size of drawing 71⁄4 wide × 97⁄8 high, "W. H. 1640."
The fourth shows the stage, on which are two actors: this drawing, 77⁄8 × 61⁄2, was done by J. Eyre, 1629, and on which he gives a curious description of his accompanying Prince Charles, &c.; at this time he belonged to the Court, as he also accompanied that prince to Spain.
The fifth, done by the same hand in a most masterly manner, pen and ink portrait of Shakspeare, copied, as he writes, from a portrait belonging to the Earl of Essex, with interesting manuscript notice. ”

“ Collodion made exactly as described by Dr. Diamond in "N. & Q.," entirely answers our expectations, and we prefer it, for our own use, to any we have ever been able to procure.
J. M. S. (Manchester) shall receive a private communication upon his Photographic troubles. We must, however, refer him to our advertising columns for pure chemicals. Ether ought not to exceed 5s. 6d. the pint of twenty ounces.
A few complete sets of "Notes and Queries," Vols. i. to vi., price Three Guineas, may now be had; for which early application is desirable. ”