Various

“ The Mousehunt.—I should feel much obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who would refer me to any mention of in print, or give me any information from his own personal experience, respecting a small animal of the weasel tribe called the mousehunt, an animal apparently but little known; it is scarcely half the size of the common weasel, and of a pale mouse-colour. It is said to be well known in Suffolk, whence, however, after some trouble, I have been unsuccessful in obtaining a specimen; young stoats or weasels having been sent me instead of it. I could not find a specimen in the British Museum. ”

“ There is one species of weasel so small that it can easily follow mice into their holes; and one of these, not a month ago, I watched go into a mouse's hole in an open grass field. Seeing something hopping along in the grass, which I took for a large long-tailed field mouse, I stood still as it was approaching my position, and when within a foot or two of the spot on which I was standing, so that I could have a full view of the animal, a very small weasel appeared, and quickly disappeared again in a tuft of grass. ”

“ But so many illustrious persons are known to have been confined in the Beauchamp Tower, and its walls preserve so many curious inscriptions—the undoubted autographs of many of its unfortunate tenants—that it must always possess great interest. ”

“ A little thought will soon convince any person accustomed to these subjects that conjunctions always connect words, not propositions. The only work in which I leave seen Dr. Latham's fundamental error exposed, is in Boole's Mathematical Analysis of Logic; the learned author, though he seems unsettled on many matters of logic and metaphysics, has clearly made up his mind on the point now under discussion. He says:
"The proposition, every animal is either rational or irrational, cannot be resolved into, Either every animal is rational, or every animal is irrational. ”

“ The claymore of modern times is a broadsword, double or single-edged, and provided with a basket hilt of form peculiar to Scotland, though the idea was probably derived from Spain. Swords with basket hilts were commonly used by the English cavalry in the reigns of Charles I. and II., but they are always of a different type from the Scotch, though affording as complete a protection to the hand. ”

“ I lately transcribed several very interesting original manuscripts, chiefly of the seventeenth century, but some of an earlier date, and now send you a literal specimen of one evidently belonging to the sixteenth century; although, notwithstanding the day of the month is given, the year is not. If you think it worthy of a place in your very excellent publication, you are quite at liberty to make use of it, and I shall be happy to send you some of the others, if you choose to accept them. ”

“ Latham (Outlines of Logic, p. 21., 1847, and English Language, p. 510., 2nd edition) defines the conjunction to be a part of speech that connects propositions, not words. His doctrine is so palpably and demonstrably false, that I am somewhat at a loss to understand how a man of his penetration can be so far deceived by a crotchet as to be blind to the host of examples which point to the direct converse of his doctrine. Let the learned Doctor try to resolve the sentence, All men are either two-legged, one-legged, or no-legged, into three constituent propositions. It cannot be done ”

“ The English peasantry assert that there are two kinds of weasel, one very small, called a 'cane,' or 'the mousekiller.' This idea, I have no doubt, is erroneous, and the 'mousekillers' are only the young ones of the year, numbers of these half-grown weasels appearing in summer and autumn. ”

“ Bailey, too, in his Dictionary, applies the epithet exclusively to Cambridge, Alma mater Cantabrigia: so that it seems to have originated with that university. It is now popularly applied to Oxford, and other universities, by those who have imbibed the milk of learning from these places. ”

“ Cambridge.
RAPPING NO NOVELTY.
It may be interesting to the believers in modern miracles to learn that at all events "rapping" is no new thing. I now send you the account of an incident in the sixteenth century, which bears a strong resemblance to some of those veracious narrations which have enlightened mankind in the nineteenth century.
Rushton Hall, near Kettering in Northamptonshire, was long the residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic ”

“ Sir Robert Coke was son and heir to Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench. The Cokes had been settled for many generations in the county of Norfolk. Camden has traced the pedigree of the family to William Coke of Doddington in Norfolk, in the reign of King John. They had risen to considerable distinction under Edward III., when Sir Thomas Coke was made Seneschal of Gascoigne. From him, in the right male line, was descended Robert Coke, the father of Sir Edward. See Campbell's Lives of Chief Justices, vol. ”

“ The Beauchamp Tower seems to have been named only because it was the ordinary state prison at the time. The narrative quoted by Speed shows, however, that the place of her imprisonment was the queen's lodging, where the fading honours of royalty still surrounded Anne Boleyn. ”

“ The work was undertaken with the very popular object of supplying the means of acquiring a competent knowledge of the methods and results of the physical sciences, without any unusual acquaintance with mathematics; and in the methods of demonstration and illustration of this series of treatises, that principle has as far as possible, been adopted so that by means of the present volumes, persons who have not even a superficial knowledge of geometry and algebra may yet acquire with great facility a considerable acquaintance with the sciences of which they treat. ”

“ The hexameter "Sacrum pingue," &c. given by Ω. Φ. (Vol. vi., p. 36.) , is to be found in Misson's Voyage to Italy, copied from an old cloister wall of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. These ingenious verses are Leoline [2] , and it is noted that "the sacrifice of Cain was not a living victim."
I have seen it stated that the English language affords but one specimen of the palindrome, while the Latin and Greek have many. The late Dr. Winter Hamilton, the author of Nugæ Literariæ, gives this solitary line, which at the best is awkwardly fashioned:
"Lewd did I live & evil did I dwel." ”

“ The second son, Ralph Keate of Whaddon, in Wiltshire, married Anne, daughter of John Clarke, Esq., of Ardington, in Berkshire, and had with other issue Gilbert Keate, Esq., of London, who married, first, John, daughter of Niclolas Turbervile, Esq. of Crediton, in Devon, and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of William Armstrong, Esq., of Remston, Notts, and by her had another son, Jonathan Keate, Esq., of the Hoo, in the county of Hertford, which estate he acquired with his first wife, Susannah daughter of William, and sister and heir of Thomas Hoo, of the Hoo and Kimpton, both in Hertfordshire. ”

“ After the death of Charles Amcotts, we find Wharton Emerson at Kettlethorpe, having assumed the name of Amcotts: he was created a baronet in 1796, the title being limited in remainder to the eldest son of his daughter Elizabeth. Sir Wharton Amcotts married a second wife, Amelia Campbell, by whom he had a daughter, but what became of her does not appear. Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Sir Wharton Amcotts by his first wife Anna Maria Amcotts, married in 1780 John Ingilby, Esq., of Ripley, who in the next year was created a baronet: and they appear to have had eleven children, viz. ”

“ I have lately met with a somewhat different account, namely, that the Turks consider red-haired persons who are fat as "first-rate" people, but those who are lean as the very reverse.
M. E.
Philadelphia.
"Land of Green Ginger" (Vol. viii., p. 227.) .—The authority which I am able to afford Mr. Richardson is simply the tradition of the place, which I had so frequently heard that I could scarcely doubt the truth of it; this I intended to be deduced, when I said I did not recollect that the local histories gave any derivation, and that it was the one "generally received by the inhabitants." ”

“ I do not believe that it is often the case that persons are at a loss for want of such a guide, but it might be done," etc.
Now, the suggestion of a short printed guide to the reading-room was evidently considered as of some importance. The principle of SUUM CUIQUE is also of some importance. We observe that lord Seymour the examiner ascribes the suggestion to some witnesses—but lord Seymour the reporter claims the credit of it for himself! ”

“ He married Elizabeth, widow of the Rev. Mr. Fiddes, rector of Bridewell, in Oxford, who was the only surviving child of John Machen, Esq., of ——, in the county of Oxford, by whom he left son, John Waugh, afterwards chancellor of the diocese of Carlisle.
Karleolensis.
Marriage Service (Vol. viii., p. 150.) .—I have been many years in holy orders, and have always received the fee together with the ring on the Prayer Book, as directed in the Rubric. The ring I return to the bridegroom to place upon the bride's finger ”

“ Of his family we have not farther knowledge than that he had a son, Thos. Bermingham Heath Sewell, who was a cornet in the 32nd Light Dragoons, and lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards during the war of the French Revolution. The History and Antiquities of Surrey, by the Rev. Owen Manning and Wm. Bray, in three vols. folio, 1804, has in the third volume much concerning the Sewell family.
D. N.
Pharaoh's Ring (Vol. viii., p. 416.) .—The mention of the ring conferred on, or confided to, Joseph by the Pharaoh of Egypt, as stated in Genesis xli. ”

“ Replies. ALEXANDER CLARK. (Vol. viii., p. 18.)
In communicating a few particulars about Alexander Clark, I must disappoint your correspondent Perthensis; my subject answering in no respect to Peter Buchan's "drucken dominie," the author of the Buttery College. Alexander Clark, who has fallen in my way, belongs to the class of "amiable enthusiasts;" a character I am somewhat fond of, believing that in any pursuit a dash of the latter quality is essential to success. ”

“ Frost's valuable work on the town, which by the way proves it to have been "a place of opulence and note at a period long anterior to the date assigned to its existence by historians," he differs materially from Mr. Richardson, in considering that Hollar's plate was "engraved about the year 1630," not in 1640 as he states. There is also another which appeared between the time of Hollar and Gent, in Meisner's Libellus novus politicus emblematicus Civitatum, published in 1638, which though not "remarkable for accuracy of design," is well worthy of notice. ”

“ Cure, No. 180:—"Twenty-five years' nervousness, constipation, indigestion, and debility, from which I had suffered great misery, and which no medicine could remove or relieve, have been effectually cured by Du Barry's food in a very short time.—W. R. Reeves, Pool Anthony, Tiverton."
Cure, No. 4,208:—"Eight years' dyspepsia, nervousness, debility, with cramps, spasms, and nausea, for which my servant had consulted the advice of many, have been effectually removed by Du Barry's delicious food in a very short time. ”

“ There is no want of precedents for a work of this class, either abroad or at home. As to the public library at Paris—I observe, in my own small collection, an Essai historique sur la bibliothèque du roi, par M. le Prince; a Histoire du cabinet des médailles, par M. Marion du Mersan; a Notice des estampes, par M. Duchesne, &c.
For a precedent at home, I shall refer to the Synopsis of the contents of the British Museum. The first edition of that interesting work, with the {512}valued autograph of G. Shaw, is now before me. ”

“ Jews in China.—A colony of Jews is known to exist in the centre of China, who worship God according to the belief of their forefathers; and the aborigines of the northern portion of Australia exercise the rite of circumcision. Can these colonists and aborigines be traced to any of the nations of the lost tribes?
Historicus.
Derivation of "Mammet."—The Rev. B. Chenevix Trench, in his book on the Study of Words, 4th edition, p. 79., gives the derivation of the old English word mammet from "Mammetry or Mahometry," and cites, in proof of this, Capulet calling his daughter "a whining mammet." ”

“ A dictionary of the Zincali will be found in the first three editions of the following work: The Zincali; or, an Account of the Gypsies of Spain; with an original Collection of their Songs and Poetry, and a copious Dictionary of their Language. By George Borrow, 2 vols., 1841. This dictionary is omitted in the fourth edition of 1846; but some "Specimens of Gypsy dialects" are added. Our correspondent may also be referred to the two following works, which appear in the current number of Quarritch's Catalogue: "Pott, Die Zigeuner in Europa und Asien, vol. i. ”

“ Aristotle regards the safety of the citizens as the great end of law (see his Ethics, b. I. ch. 4.) ; and Cicero (de Finibus, lib. ii. c. 5.) lays down a similar principle.
B. H. C.
Theodoro Paleologus (Vol. viii., p. 408.) .—The inscription referred to was printed in Archæologia, vol. xviii., and with some account of the Paleologi to which a Querist was referred in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 280. (see also pp. 173. 357.) . It is astonishing how much will be found in that "Californian mine," if the most excellent indices of the several volumes are only consulted. ”

“ If E. M. B. will refer to Hengstenberg's Commentary on the Psalms, he will find that Mr. Trench is not without authority for his translation of Ps. cxxvii. 2. I quote the passage from Thompson and Fairbairn's translation, in Clark's Theological Library, vol. iii. p. 449.:
"שנא for שנה is not the accusative, but the preposition is omitted, as is frequently the case with words that are in constant use. ”

“ With Numerous Illustrative Engravings on Wood.
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