Various

“ The Nimbus is the Cumulus shedding its vapour in rain; and the Stratus is the partially exhausted and fading Nimbus.
Poets in all ages have watched the clouds with interest; and Shakspeare has not only correctly described them, but has, in metaphor, used them in some of his sublimest passages. Ariel will "ride on the curled clouds" to Prospero's "strong bidding task" that is, ride on the highest Cirrus cloud, in regions impassable to man. How admirably the raining Cumulus (Nimbus cloud) is described in the same play ”

“ It heeds the reverses to which a nation is subjected, and turns them to good account. It does not abuse its power, and is never menaced. It is unshackled, and therefore has a native growth. It looks on the movements of the wide world calmly, deliberately, and intelligently. We believe the independency of the daily press can never be bribed, or its patronage won by unlawful means. Its mission is noble, and the presiding sentiment of the varied intellect employed upon it is "the greatest good to the greatest number." ”

“ Hence the yew-tree was planted in churchyards, not to indicate death, despair, but life, hope and assurance. It is one of our few evergreens, and is the most enduring of all, and clearly points out the Christian's hope in the immortality of the soul: Resurgam.
Whilst on the word yew, I may perhaps observe that I am hardly inclined now (though I once was so) to derive from it, as the author of the Etymological Compendium does, the name yeoman: I think that yeoman is not yew-man, "a man using the yew-bow," but yoke-man, a man owning as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a certain time. ”

“ Its vast influence is felt throughout the civilised world; and we believe that influence, generally speaking, is on the side of right, and for the promotion of the common weal. It is strange that such an organ of public sentiment should have been charged with the moral turpitude of receiving bribes. That it should destroy its reputation, darken its fair fame, and undermine the very foundation of its prosperity, by a course so degrading, we find it impossible to believe. ”

“ The tops of the clouds must not be more than five or ten degrees above the apparent horizon. There must also be a clear space upwards, and the sun fairly set to the last stages of twilight. It will then be comprehended as to what is meant by "black vesper's pageants," and Warton and Knight will no more mislead by their note. It is only at "black vespers" that such a pageant can be seen, when the liberated heat of the Cumulus cloud is forcing the vapour into the grand or fantastic shapes indicated to the poet's eye and mind. ”

“ I am the grandson of Isaac Levi, for many years dead, reader of a congregation of Jews in London; my father, Benjamin Levi, is still alive, and is with me. I keep a school at Landour, in the Hymmalayas, in the north-western provinces of India. I have been led to write to you after reading your Pilgrimage to the Land of My Fathers, and seeing in it that you are the author of a work entitled The Jews in Great Britain, which I have not seen, and concluding from this that if any one can obtain information you can. ”

“ In G. W.'s communication, a derivation of the name from barat-anac, "the land of tin," is suggested. He does not say by whom, but he seems to disclaim it as his own. I do not recollect to have met with it before; but it appears to me, even as it stands, a far more plausible one than bruit-tan, "the land of tin:" the former term being supposed to be Celtic for tin, and the latter a termination with the sense of land: or than brit-daoine, "the painted (or separated) people." ”

“ A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. "When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle. CONTENTS. Notes. NOTES ON NEWSPAPERS: "THE TIMES," DAILY PRESS, ETC.
A newspaper, rightly conducted, is a potent power in promoting the well-being of universal man. It is also a highly moral power—for it quickens mind everywhere, and puts in force those principles which tend to lessen human woe, and to exalt and dignify our common humanity. The daily press, for the most part, aims to correct error—whether senatorial, theological, or legal. ”

“ Having already trespassed most unconscionably, I forbear farther remark on these coincidences, except that such ideas of futurity being found amongst nations so widely separated, cannot but induce the belief of a common origin, or at least of intimate communication at a former period, and that so remote as to have allowed time for diverging dialects to have become, as it were, distinct languages. ”

“ It throws us back on the past, and makes forgotten times live again. Some of the early volumes of The Times newspaper, for instance, would be a curiosity in their {335}way. We should read them with special interest, as reflecting the character of the age in which they appeared, and as belonging to a series exercising a mighty influence in moulding and guiding the commercial and political opinions of this great nation. The preservation of a newspaper, if it be but a weekly one, will become a source of instruction and amusement to our descendants in generations to come. ”

“ The Meteorology of Shakspeare.—A treatise might be written on meteorology, and might be illustrated entirely by passages taken from the writings of "the world's greatest poet." "N. & Q." may not be the fitting medium for a lengthened treatise, but it is the most proper depository of a few loose Notes on the subject. {337}Those who study Shakspeare should, to understand him, thoroughly study Nature at the same time: but to our meteorology. Recent observers have classified clouds as under:
There are composite forms of cloud, varieties of the above, which need not be noticed here. ”

“ The Celtæ of the European continent believed that their souls were transported to England, or some islands adjacent. (See Encyclopédié Méthodique, art. "Antiquités," vol. i. p. 704.) The Celtic elysium, "Flath-Innis," a remote island of the West, is mentioned by Logan in his Celtic Gaël, vol. ii. p. 342., who no doubt drew his information from the same source as Professor Rafinesque, whose observations on this subject I transcribe, viz.:
"It is strange but true, that, throughout the earth, the place of departed souls, the land of spirits, was supposed to be in the West, or at the setting sun. ”

“ Poor Shakspeare! how I have pitied him, and you too, Mr. Editor, as I have seen him for so many months undergoing the operation of the teazle in "N. & Q.!" I hope there will be soon an end of this "skimble stuff," "signifying nothing."
But my observation upon the Drury Lane play-bill reminded me of one I have in my common-place book; and, as a correspondent and reader of "N. & Q.," I think it my duty to send it:
A Spanish Play-bill, exhibited at Seville, 1762. ”

“ The Cumulus is the parent cloud, and produces every other form of cloud known, or which can exist. Mountain ranges and currents of air of unequal temperatures may produce visible vapour, but not true cloud. ”

“ Now, this bridge for gaining Paradise is just the Alsirat of the Mahomedans; I think it will be found in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D'Herbelot; at all events it is mentioned in the preliminary discourse to Sale's Koran. Sale thinks Mahomet borrowed the idea from the Magians, who teach, that on the last day all mankind must pass over the "Pûl Chînavad" or "Chînavar," i.e. "The Straight Bridge." Farther, the Jews speak of the "Bridge of Hell," which is no broader than a thread. ”

“ The tops of the Cumulus, carried away by the upper equatorial currents, form the Cirrus clouds, which clouds must be frozen vapour, as they are generally from twenty to thirty thousand feet above the level of the sea. The base of the Cumulus is probably never more, in England, than five thousand feet high, rarely this. ”

“ Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., pp. 65. 160. 232.) .—Are not your correspondents on the wrong scent as regards the birthplace of Sir John Vanbrugh? In the memoir prefixed to the collection of his Plays, 2 vols. 12mo., 1759, it is said:
"Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramatic writer, son of Mr. Giles Vanbrugh of London, merchant, was born in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1666. The family of Vanbrugh were for many years merchants of great credit and reputation at Antwerp, and came into England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on account of the persecution for religion." ”

“ Eton Barrett, a great many years ago, published a little volume of poems, of which "Woman" was one. I do not remember that I ever met him since our school-days. I have heard that he adopted Tory politics in Ireland, and that his brother attached himself to O'Connell, and conducted some newspaper; but this is mere report. Allow me to take this opportunity for observing, that many of the communications to "N. & Q.," such as those in which matters of fact are stated, ought, it may justly be urged, to be authenticated by the signature of the contributor. ”

“ Referring to a collection of notes on the ancient commerce and manufactures of Ireland, which I have lately made, I find—cited as an instance of the general use of Irish cloth in England at an early period—that Henry IV., in 1410, gave a royal grant of tolls, for the purpose of paving the town of Cambridge; in which, among other articles, Irish cloth is taxed at the rate of twopence per hundred. ”

“ What a field, therefore, was here for the display of the bibliopegistic art! Harley usually preferred red morocco, with a broad border of gold, and the fore-edges of the leaves without colour or gilt. Generally speaking, the Harleian volumes are most respectably bound; but they have little variety, and the style of art which they generally exhibit rather belongs to works of devotion."
In a note on the above passage, Dibdin adds:
"I have often consulted my bibliomaniacal friends respecting the name of the binder or binders of the Harleian Library. ”

“ It would be curious if the true derivation of the world-renowned name of Britain should be ascertained for the first time through an Assyrian medium.
Edw. Hincks.
Killyleagh, Down.
As there are several Queries in the Note of G. W. which the Celtic language is capable of elucidating, I beg to offer a few derivations from that language.
Britain is derived from briot, painted, and tan, a country—i. e. "the country of the painted people." It is a matter of history, that the people of Britain dyed their bodies with various colours.
Tin is from the Celtic tin, to melt readily, to dissolve. ”

“ It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French, "Avoir des rats dans la tête;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation.
H. W.
Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages (Vol. viii., p. 174.) ”

“ But all these notions have earlier foundations, since the English Druids put their paradise in a remote island in the west, called {344}'Flath-Innis,' the flat island", &c.—American Nations, vol. ii. p. 245. et infra.
The coincidence then is this. The same veneration for the West prevails among many of our Indian tribes, who place their Paradise in an island beyond the Great Lake (Pacific) , and far toward the setting sun. There, good Indians enjoy a fine country abounding in game, are always clad in new skins, and live in warm new lodges. Thither they are wafted by prosperous gales ”

“ And as to the supposition connected with the boy, the ass, and the drum, a camera that would produce the effect of showing both sides of the ass, both legs of the boy, and both heads of the drum, with a movement of only 21⁄2 inches, whether radially or parallel, would indeed be a curiosity. But if the motion of the camera extended over a space sufficiently large to exhibit the phenomena alluded to, then it would confirm what I have before advanced, viz. present the idea of a small model of the objects, which could be so placed as to show naturally these very effects. ”

“ It is, however, a matter of interest to trace the mention of this metal in the ancient inscriptions, Egyptian and Assyrian, which have of late years been so successfully interpreted. Mistakes have been made from time to time, which subsequent researches have rectified. It was thought for a long time that a substance, mentioned in the hieroglyphical inscriptions very frequently, and in one instance said to have been procured from Babylon, was tin. ”

“ That the axes of the eyes are inclined when viewing objects, is readily proved thus:—Let a person look across the road at any object—say a shop-window; but stand so that a lamp-post near him shall intervene, and be in a direct line between the observer's nose and the object viewed. ”

“ The Troy and apothecaries' ounce are the same, and contain forty grains more than the Avoirdupois ounce. In making collodion, take any quantity of ether, and dissolve the gun cotton in it; if too thick, it may always be reduced by the addition of more ether. Uniodized collodion may be bought quite as cheap as it may be made; and it generally has the advantage of having been made in a large body, and allowed time to settle, whereby the clear portion only is more easily decanted off for sale. ”

“ In making searches in registers of parishes within the bills of mortality, a facility is afforded by the company of parish clerks; by paying a fee of about two guineas, a circular is sent to all the parish clerks, with the particulars of information required: the registers are accordingly searched, and the result communicated to the clerk of the company. ”