Various

“ Will any correspondent favour me with specific references to the numbers or months in which they were published? I may add, that I shall esteem it as a very great favour to receive authentic reference to any articles contributed to Blackwood, Fraser, &c., &c., by Dr. Maginn. The difficulty of determining authorship from internal evidence alone is well-known, and is aptly illustrated by the fact, that an article on Miss Austen's novels, by Archbishop Whately, was included in the collection of Sir Walter Scott's prose works. ”

“ As an answer to my assertion that the Irish editor attempted to unite the two fragments, C. proceeds to prove that he did not unite them. The procedure is rather defective in point of logical exactness. It proves only what was not denied. Malone refers to the will of John Shakspere, found by Joseph Moseley, with sufficient clearness; and it is charitable to assume that the Irish editor intended to observe the instructions of his precursor. He failed, it seems—but why? It would be useless to go in search of the rationale of a blunder. ”

“ However, to return to the Query: the term pale is applied to the yellow-tinted skin; fair, to the red or pink; brown, to the mixture of red and yellow, with either blue or such darkness as above described; sallow, to yellow and darkness; and the only close approach to whiteness that we ever see, is in the sick room of the long-suffering fair complexion. In death, this changes to a "blackish grey," a mixture of white and darkness.
The pale complexion indicates a thick, hard, dry skin; the fair, a thin and soft one ”

“ To argue fairly, we must use the same words in the same sense. Now C. (No. 24. p. 386.) asserts the Malone had never seen the introductory fragment; and asks, who forged it? He uses the word fabrication in the sense of forgery.—The facts are produced (No. 25. p. 404.) . He is informed that the audacious fabrication, which took place before 1770, was first published by Malone himself, in 1790—yet he expects me to apply the same terms to the blunder committed by another editor in 1794. ”

“ John Hand was a feoffee for many years, and during his time executed, as was usual, the office of collector or treasurer. It may be gathered from the documents preserved that Cromwell never executed that office. ”

“ Ranelaugh, in the same parts, is doubtless also of Irish origin.
C.H.
[Pimlico in Dublin still exists, as will be seen by reference to Thom's Irish Almanac, where we find "Pimlico, from Coombe to Tripoli."]
Bive and Chute Lambs (No. 6. p. 93.) .—I do not know whether my answer to your correspondent's inquiry about bive and chute lambs will be satisfactory, inasmuch as the price he gives of "bive" lambs "apeece" is larger than the price of the "chute." Twin lambs are still called bive lambs on the borders of Sussex and Kent; and chute lambs are fat lambs. ”

“ Carlyle for the second or third edition of his work, contains all the references to the great Protector which are to be found in the papers now in the possession of the trustees. The appointment of Oliver Cromwell as a feoffee does not appear in any of the documents now remaining with the governors of the charity. The records of the proceedings if the feoffees of his time consist only of the collector's yearly accounts of monies received and expended, and do not show the appointments of the feoffees. ”

“ In the Biographie Universelle, it is affirmed that the rhapsodies known under the name of Secrets du Petit Albert are not by Albertus Magnus; a statement which favours the belief that the work mentioned by your correspondent "JARLZBERG" is one of that vulgar class (like our old Moore's Almanack, &c.) got up for sale among the superstitious and the ignorant, and palmed on the world under the mask of a celebrated name. ”

“ Life of W. Godwin.—"N.'s" inquiry (No. 26. p. 415.) for an account of the life of W. Godwin, and more particularly of his last hours, leads me to express hope in your columns that the memoirs of Godwin, which were announced for publication shortly after his death, but which family disputes, as I have understood, prevented from appearing, may not much longer be denied to the public. I am not aware of any better account of Godwin's life, to which "N." can now be referred, than the sketch in the Penny Cyclopædia. ”

“ And perhaps it may be remarked here, since we commonly say of a man in difficulties that he is "exchequered" or in "chancery," that so we probably intend to express the same, when we say a man is hanapered, or hampered. ”

“ The negro skin is black; that is, it does not separate the sun's light into the elementary colours. When, by the admixture of the coloured races with the negro, we find coloured skins, they always tend to the yellow, as in the various mulatto shades of the West Indies, and especially in the Southern States of America ”

“ Charles II. and Lord R.'s Daughter.—Earl of Ranelagh.—Since I inquired in your columns (No. 25. p. 399.) who was the lady mentioned in a passage of Henry Sidney's Diary, edited by Mr. Blencowe, as Lord R.'s daughter, and a new mistress of Charles II., who in March 1680 brought Monmouth to the King for reconciliation, I have, by Mr. Blencowe's kindness, seen the original Diary, which is in the possession of the Earl of Chichester. The name of the nobleman is there abbreviated: the letters appear to be Rane., and it is probably Lord Ranelagh who is intended. ”

“ Etymology of Totnes.—Can any of your readers suggest a probable etymology for Totnes, the "prime town of Great Britain," as it is called by Westcote1, who supposes it to have been built by Brutus, 1108 years before the Christian era. Mr. Polwhele, who supposed the numerous Hams in Devon to have owed their names to the worship of Jupiter Hammon, would, I imagine, have derived Totnes from the Egyptian god Thoth or Taut; or, perhaps, directly from King Thothmes. Westcote observes that some would have the name from,—
"The French word tout-à-l'aise, which is in English, all at ease ”

“ About the year 1639 a petition was filed in the Court of Chancery by one Thomas Fowler, on behalf of himself and others, inhabitants of Ely, against the feoffees of Parson's Charity, and a commission for charitable uses was issued. ”

“ We certainly anticipate, from the known character of the minds now engaged in this work, that some conclusive evidence as to the state of geometry anterior to the time of Euclid will be elicited by Messrs. Potts and Davies. The analysis of the writings of all the authors who have treated on the Porism, will form a subject of interest not only for its assigning to every author his fair share of credit for his contributions towards perfecting the poristic method ”

“ But I instantly suspected an error: for it was my belief that those two notices were designed for two distinct scholars. Accordingly, I revised both passages, and found that I was right in my conjecture. The facts are these:—In the former of the references, "The Rev. John Taylor, D.D.," is pointed out. The other individual, of the same name, was John Taylor, LL.D., a native of Shrewsbury, and a pupil of Shrewsbury School: HIS latinity it is which Dr. Samuel Parr [ut supr.] characterises as FAULTY: and for the defects of which he endeavours, successfully or otherwise, to account. ”

“ Emancipation of the Jews (No. 25. p. 401.) .—"MR. AUSTEN," who inquires (p. 401.) about the Jews during the Commonwealth will do well to refer to a chapter on the Jews in Godwin's History of the Commonwealth, and to Sir Henry Ellis's notes on a remarkable letter describing a Jewish synagogue in London immediately after the Restoration, in the second series of his Letters; and in these two places he will, I think, find references to all known passages on the subject of Cromwell's proceedings as regards the Jews. ”

“ REPLIES. DR. PERCY AND THE POEMS OF THE EARL OF SURREY.
I have the means of showing what Dr. Percy did with the poems of the Earl of Surrey, because I have a copy of the work now before me.
It can hardly be said that he "prepared an edition" of those poems, as supposed by your correspondent "G." on the authority of Watts's Bibliotheca Britannica, but he made an exact reprint of the Songes and Sonnettes written by the Right Honorable Lorde Henry Haward, late Earle of Surrey, and other, which was printed Apud Richardum Tottell. Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum. 1557. ”

“ To this we may add, that about 1767, when Bishop Percy printed these twenty-five sheets of poems of Lord Surrey and the Duke of Buckingham, it appears by a letter of the Bishop to Horace Walpole, that he presented a copy of them to Walpole, with a request for information about Lord Surrey. The Bishop never wrote the Life of Surrey ”

“ Hanap.—Among the specimens of ancient and mediæval art now exhibiting in John Street, Adelphi, I was struck with the number of gilt cups, called in the catalogue hanaps. The word was new to me; but I have since met with it (as frequently happens after one's interest has been excited with respect to a word) in Walter Scott's Quentin Durward, in vol. i. chap. 3.; or rather, vol. xxxi. p. 60. of the edition in 48 vols., Cadell, {478} 1831 ”

“ It is in towns where there are traces of Danish occupation that a "Finkle Street" is found; at least many of the northern towns which have a street so designated were inhabited by the Danish people, and some of those streets are winding or angular. ”

“ Jebb. I never quoted the Irish edition. If C. can prove that Malone superintended it, he may fairly tax me with a violation of my new canon of criticism—not otherwise. What says Mr. James Boswell on that point? I must borrow his precise words: "The only edition for which Mr. Malone can be considered as responsible [is] his own in 1790." [Plays and poems of W.S. 1821, i. xxxiii.]
2. I am said to have "repeated what C. had already stated."—I consulted the Shakspere of Malone, and verified my recollections, when the query of "Mr. ”

“ Turn to Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 2d edition, and there is this explanation:—
"SNECK, that part of the iron fastening of a door which is raised by moving the latch. To sneck a door, is to latch it."
See also Burn's Poems: The Vision, Duan First, 7th verse, which is as follows:—
"When dick! ”

“ An original summons to the feoffees, signed by the commissioners, is preserved. It requires them to appear before the commissioners at the Dolphin Inn, in Ely, on the 25th of the then instant January, to produce before the commissioners a true account "of the monies, fines, rents, and profits by you and every of you and your predecessors feoffees receaved out of the lands given by one Parsons for the benefitt of the inhabitants of Ely for 16 years past," &c. The summons is dated at Cambridge, the 13th of January, 1641, and is signed by the three commissioners,
"Tho. ”

“ BURKE'S HISTORY of the LANDED GENTRY for 1850, corrected to the Present Time: a Genealogical Dictionary of the whole of the Untitled Aristocracy of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and comprising particulars of 100,000 persons connected with them. 2 vols. royal 8vo., including the SUPPLEMENT (equal to 30 ordinary volumes) , bound, 2l. 2s.
III.
EVELYN'S DIARY and CORRESPONDENCE. New and cheaper Edition, revised, with numerous additional Notes, 4 vols. post 8vo., with Illustrations (Vols. I. and II., comprising the Diary, are now ready) . Price of each volume, 10s. 6d. ”

“ Amongst them is "Gookin, the Author and Case of Transplanting the Irish in Connaught Vindicated, from Col. R. Lawrence, 1655." Messrs. Leigh Sotheby will {474} probably be able to inform the Querist into whose hands these two vols. passed. The lot sold for the large sum of 4l. 18s.
Pimlico (No. 24. p. 383.) .—The derivation of this word is explained from the following passage in a rare (if not unique) tract now before me, entitled Newes from Hogsdon, 1598:—
"Have at thee, then, my merrie boyes, and hey for old Ben Pimlico's nut-browne." ”

“ Military Execution (No. 16. p. 246.) .—Your correspondent "MELANION" is informed that the anecdote refers to Murat, and the author of the sentiment is Lord Byron. See Byron's Poems, Murray's edit. 1 vol. 8vo. p. ”

“ He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind."
Hind and Panther, part 3.
G.S. FABER.
Dayrolles (No. 23. p. 373) .—The following information is appended to a description of the Dayrolles Correspondence, in 21 folio vols. in the Catalogue of Mr. Upcott's Collection, sold by Messrs. Evans a few years ago:—
Note copied from the Catalogue of Manuscripts, &c., belonging to the late Mr. Upcott. ”