Various

“ Charge of Plagiarism against Paley (Vol. viii., p. 589.) .—As a personal friend of the gentleman who, under the name of Veritas, brought, about five years ago, a charge of plagiarism against Paley, I feel called upon to say few words to Fiat Just.
Truth cannot be refuted, and F. J. may look at the translation of the old Dutch book of Nieuwentyt's, which he will find in the British Museum library, the same place where Veritas made the discovery while examining the works of some continental metaphysicians: and Fiat Just. ”

“ In the coinage of King George I., the representation of the armorial bearings in four separate shields, as upon the milled money of King Charles II., was continued. In the uppermost escocheon, England impaling Scotland; the dexter the arms of his Majesty's electoral dominions; sinister France; and in the bottom one Ireland, all crowned with the imperial crown of Great Britain. ”

“ The Poetical Works of John Dryden, edited by Robert Bell, Vol. I., is the first of what is proposed to be a revised and carefully annotated edition of the English Poets, which is intended to supply what the publisher believes to be an existing want, namely, "a Complete Body of English Poetry, edited throughout with judgment and integrity, and combining those features of research, typographical elegance, and economy of price, which the present age demands." ”

“ Was The Nightingale published with a frontispiece? My copy is mutilated, but has belonged to some person who valued it much more highly than I do, as he has neatly repaired and replaced torn leaves and noted deficiencies. Prefixed is a mounted engraving of a bird in the act of singing, which, if intended for a nightingale, is really curious; as it is of the size and shape of a pheasant, with corvine legs and beak, and a wattle round the eye like that of a barb pigeon. ”

“ The locale of the Minories was nearly as unknown to us as the aforesaid flourishing colony. On entering the church (which will not repay an architectural zealot) , while our friend was extracting a burial register, our eye fell on an old monument or two. There was a goodly Sir John Pelham, who had been cruelly cut down by the hand of death in 1580, looking gravely at his sweet spouse, a dame of the noble house of Bletsoe. Behind him is kneeling his little son and heir Oliver, whom, as the inscription informs us, "Death enforced to follow fast" his papa, as he died in 1584. ”

“ The character of Veritas as man, moralist, and scholar, does not deserve so unjust and rash a remark.
The Dutch book, as well as the translation, are very scarce. Five and six copies of the latter could only be found at the time of the discovery in London.
C. B. d'O.
Tin (Vol. viii., p. 593.) .—The suggestions of your correspondent S. G. C. are ingenious respecting the etymology of Cassiteros, but a slight examination will show they are erroneous. ”

“ I marvel much that none of your contributors in this line have touched upon a very interesting branch of legendary family folk lore, namely, the supernatural appearances, and other circumstances of a ghostly nature, that are said to invariably precede a death in many time-honoured families of the united kingdoms. ”

“ The four escocheons in cross had hitherto been marshalled in their circular order from the left, whereby the dexter escocheon was the fourth; according to which order the united arms, being quartered first and fourth, would have fallen together; therefore they were placed at the top and bottom, {60}which indeed was right: but then France by the same rule was then in the third place, and Ireland in the second; unless to reconcile it we make a rule contrary to all rule, to take sinister first and dexter second. ”

“ That this was owing to the ignorance of the workman, and not with any design to alter the disposition of the arms, is evident from the arms upon the great seal, where France is borne quarterly with England, in the first and fourth quarters, as it was likewise used upon all other occasions, until the alteration occasioned by the union with Scotland in 1707.
In reference to the arrangement consequent upon the union with Scotland, he observes that, how proper soever the impaling the arms of the two kingdoms was in other respects, it appeared with great impropriety upon the money. ”

“ Longfellow's long residence in Germany has indeed rendered him very susceptible to the form and spirit of German poetry, and hence there exist in his poems frequently affinities as to general forms and ideas: still, affinities arising from such causes cannot justly be termed plagiarism, much less the accidental choice of a very widely existent, natural thought. When Byron wrote his opening line to The Bride of Abydos, he did not probably think of Göthe's
"Könnst du das Land wo die Citronen blühen?" ”

“ A very curious whipping custom prevails at Leicester, known by the name of "Whipping Toms," on the afternoon of Shrove Tuesday. It is thus described in Hone's Year Book, p. 539.:
"In this space (the Newark) several (I think three) men called 'Whipping Toms,' each being armed with a large waggon whip, and attended by another man carrying a bell, claim the right of flogging every person whom they can catch while their attendant bell-man can keep ringing his bell."
Perhaps some one of your correspondents will be able to afford an origin for this odd usage. ”

“ As I am the only person in the British Museum bearing the surname of Jones, the article has been attributed to me, in very courteous terms, by a correspondent of the "N. & Q." As I cannot claim the merit of being the writer, I beg to place this correction of Mr. Macray's very natural mistake in your hands, to be used in such manner as you may think proper.
"I have the honour to be, Sir,
"Your very obedient servant,
"J. Winter Jones."
F. G. S. (Colchester) . We have forwarded to Dr. Diamond your request, and as soon as "light and leisure" permit, you shall receive some copies of the portrait. ”

“ THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART. A Miscellany of instructive and amusing Tracts on the Physical Sciences, and on their application to the uses of Life. Edited by DR. LARDNER.
This work will be published at One Penny, in weekly numbers of sixteen pages, large 12mo., printed on good paper, in a clear type, and illustrated, when necessary, by engravings on wood; also in Monthly Parts, price 5d. in a wrapper; and in Quarterly Volumes, neatly bound, price 1s. 6d.
The following Subjects will form Early Numbers of the Work:
The Planets: are they Inhabited Globes? ”

“ Testimonials from the best Photographers and principal scientific men of the day, warrant the assertion, that hitherto no preparation has been discovered which produces uniformly such perfect pictures, combined with the greatest rapidity of action. ”

“ When Paddy tells us of wooden panes of glass and mile-stones; of dividing a thing into three halves; of backing a carriage straight forwards, or of a dismal solitude where nothing could be heard but silence, we all perfectly understand what he means, while we laugh at his unconscious union of sheer impossibilities.
Clarus.
Footnote 1: (return)
The following arrangement, which only slightly alters the text, corrects the main defects: "The church of this parish, which stood on the present site, was destroyed by fire on [date] and, having been rebuilt, was opened for divine service on [date] ." ”

“ Longfellow's Reaper and the Flowers (Vol. viii., p. 583.) .—This charge of plagiarism, I think, is not a substantial one. To compare Death to a reaper, and children to flowers, is a very general idea, and may be thought by thousands, and {64}expressed in nearly the same words which Longfellow, and before him Luisa Reichardt, have used. The first line of the two respective poems are certainly word for word the same, but that is all; although the tendency of both poems is the same. Longfellow's poem is much superior to that of L. Reichardt ”

“ Lardner, is intended to supply a collection of instructive tracts and essays, composed in a popular and amusing style, and in easy language, on the leading discoveries in the Physical Sciences: so that persons, whose occupations exclude the possibility of systematic study, may in their short hours of leisure obtain a considerable amount of information on subjects of the highest interest. ”

“ Whether it is a fact that the Bourbons turned out the imperial furniture from Fontainebleau and other palaces after their return?
The date, "cinq d'Avril," is wrong; the abdication was signed on the 4th. This error, however, leads one to suspect that the table is genuine: as any one preparing a sham table should have been careful in referring to printed documents. From the tenor of the inscription, we may infer that it is the work of a Royalist. ”

“ An old man with wings, and a younger wearing a crown and sword. They are on the top of a mountain overlooking the sea. The sun is in the left corner, and the moon and stars on the right. The perspective is very good. Inscription obliterated. ”

“ Boston.
"Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre."—Some years ago, at a book-stall in Paris, I met with a work in one volume, being a dissertation in French on the origin and early history of the once popular song, "Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre." It seemed to contain much information of a curious and interesting character; and the author's name, if I remember rightly, is Blanchard. I have since made several attempts to discover the title of the book, with the view of procuring a copy of it, but without success. Can any of your readers assist me in this matter? ”

“ The operator, having ready in a small measure about thirty drops of the exciting fluid, takes the glass rod in his right hand, moves it steadily over the paper from the right hand to the left, where he keeps it, while with the left hand he pours the exciting fluid over the side of the glass rod, and moving this to and fro once or twice to secure an equal portion of the exciting fluid along the whole length of the rod ”

“ Garrick Club.
[Our correspondent seems to have the veritable original engraving; the nightingale or pheasant, or whatever it may he, is mounted on a branch over a stream near to three houses, and a village on its banks is seen in the distance.]
Sneezing (Vol. viii., pp. 366. 624.) .—To the very interesting illustrations given by Mr. Francis Scott of the ancient superstitions associated with sternutation, I should like to add one not less curious than any which he has given. It is recorded in Xenophon's Anabasis, lib. iii. cap. 2. ”

“ Drake considers the origin of it uncertain and though he is of opinion that it is a very old custom, he does not {65}agree with those who date it as far back as the Romans.
In the History of York, vol. i. p. 306., respecting the author of which a Query has appeared in "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 125., the traditional account of its origin is given:
"That in times of Popery, a priest celebrating mass at the festival in some church in York, unfortunately dropped the pix after consecration, which was snatched up suddenly and swallowed by a dog that lay under the table. ”

“ Even when the Gospels were used, it was not uncommon to introduce some other object to render the oath doubly binding. Thus in a monition directed by Primate Prene to O'Neill, he requires him to be sworn 'tactis sacrosanctis Dei evangeliis ad ea, et super Baculum Jesu in ecclesia cathedrali Sanctæ Trinitatis Dublin.' (Reg. Prene, fol. 117.) "
The following lines upon the subject in question will be found in the Red Book of the Irish Exchequer:
"Qui jurat super librum tria tacit. ”

“ X., contains, in addition to its notes, correspondence, &c., no less than twelve papers of varied interest to the peculiar class of readers to whom this periodical expressly addresses itself.—Mr. Bohn has just added to his Standard Library a collection of the Novels and Tales of Göthe, comprising his Elective Affinities; The Sorrows of Werther; German Emigrants; Good Women; and a Nouvelette: and in his Classical Library he has commenced a revised edition of the Oxford translation of Tacitus. ”

“ Lit., vol. ii. p. 420.) . As the book is so common, I do not think it worth while to copy out the account. Zeus has by this time, I hope, had a Christmas Yggdrasil in his Olympus.
Eryx.
Derivation of the Word "Cash" (Vol. viii., p. 386.) .—May not the word cash be connected with the Chinese coin bearing that name, which Mr. Martin, in his work on China (vol. i. p. 176.) , describes as being—
"The smallest coin in the world, there being about 1000 to 1500 (cash) in a dollar, i. e. one-fifth to one-seventh of a farthing." ”

“ Dublin.
Barrels Regiment (Vol. viii., p. 620.) .—If the song referring to Barrel's regiment was written about 1747, it was not original, but a parody or adaptation of one in The Devil to Pay, performed as a ballad opera in 1731; and which still maintains its place, if not on the stage, in recent editions of the "acting drama." I have not an old edition of the play, but quote from a collection of songs called The Nightingale, London, 1738, p. 232.:
"He that has the best wife,
She's the plague of his life ”

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