Various

“ There is a remarkable feature about these ancient "debentures" which I may perhaps be permitted to notice here, viz., the very beautiful seals of the officers of the royal household and wardrobe which are impressed upon them. They are of the somewhat rare description known as "appliqué;" and at a time when personal seals were at the highest state of artistic developement, those few seals of the clerks of the household which have escaped injury (to which they are particularly exposed) are unrivalled for their clearness of outline, design, delicacy, and beauty of execution. ”

“ Edward Dubois, the ingenious author of 'Junius Identified'" Mr. Dubois was then, and Mr. Taylor is now living, and both remained silent. Sir Fortunatus Dwarris, the intimate friend of Dubois, states that he was "a connection of Sir Philip Francis", and that the pamphlet is "said, I know not with what truth, to have been prepared under the eye of Sir Philip Francis, it may be, through the agency of Dubois." ”

“ The old chapel of St. Anne stood in the New-way, near the back of the workhouse, at the bottom of the almonry leading to what is now called Stratton Ground. It was pulled down, I believe, about the middle of the seventeenth century. The new chapel of St. Anne, erected in 1631, near the site of the old one, was destroyed about fifty years since.
Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook for London (vol. i. p. 17.) , says,—
"The first printing-press ever seen in England was set up in this almonry under the patronage of Esteney, Abbot of Westminster, by William Caxton, citizen and mercer (d. 1483) ." ”

“ Mr. Singer has extracted from the eighth printed letter one or two sentences on Locke's denial of innate ideas. A discussion of Locke's views on this subject, or of Lord Shaftesbury's contrary doctrine of a "moral sense," is not suited to your columns; and I only wish to say that I think Mr. Singer has not made it sufficiently clear that Lord Shaftesbury's remarks apply only to the speculative consequences, according to his own view, of a denial of innate ideas ”

“ The place wherein this chapel and alms-house standeth was called the Elemosinary, or almonry, now corruptly the ambry, for that the alms of the Abbey were there distributed to the poor; and therein Islip, abbot of Westminster, erected the first press of book-printing that ever was in England, about the year of Christ 1471. William Caxton, citizen of London, mercer, brought it into England, and was the first that practised it in the said abbey ”

“ This view will no doubt be contested on the authority of Stow, who describes the tonne as a "prison for night-walkers," so called from the form in which it was built. (Cunningham, p. 141., 2nd ed.) Yet, as Mr. Cunningham elsewhere states (p. xxxix.) , "the Tun upon Corn-hill [was] converted into a conduit" in 1401, it would hardly be called a "prison" a century later. The probability is, that the especial building called the tonne never was a prison at all; but that the prison, from standing near or adjoining the tonne, took its name, the tonne prison, in conformity with universal usage. ”

“ Derivation of News.—P.C.S.S. has read with great interest the various observations on the derivation of the word "News" which have appeared in the "NOTES AND QUERIES," and especially those of the learned and ingenious Mr. Hickson. He ventures, however, with all respect, to differ from the opinion expressed by that gentleman in Vol. i., p. 81., to the effect that—
"In English, there is no process known by which a noun plural can be formed from an adjective, without the previous formation of the singular in the same sense." ”

“ The similarity which has been observed to exist between the manners of several American nations, and those of some of the oldest nations on our continent, which seems to demonstrate that this country was not unknown in ancient times, has been traced by Nicholls, in the first part of his Conference with a Theist, in several particulars, viz. burning of the victim in sacrifices, numbering by tens, fighting with bows and arrows, their arts of spinning, weaving, &c. ”

“ Skene justly observes that the triumph itself cannot be the point; but the word might get associated with the problem, either considered before its solution, puzzling to Pythagoras, or the demonstration, still difficult to us,—a Pons Asinorum, like the 5th proposition.
Mr. Selden, in his preface to Drayton's Polyolbion, says,—
"I cannot but digresse to admonition of abuse which this learned allusion, in his Troilus, by ignorance hath indured. ”

“ Sarum and Barum (Vol. ii., p. 21.) .—As a conjecture, I would suggest the derivation of Sarum may have been this. Salisbury was as frequently written Sarisbury. The contracted form of this was Sap., the ordinary import of which is the termination of the Latin genitive plural rum. Thus an imperfectly educated clerk would be apt to read Sarum instead of Sarisburia; and the error would pass current, until one reading was accepted for right as much as the other. In other instances we adopt the Law Latin or Law French of mediæval times ”

“ I am not aware of any contemporary authority for the names of the three dukes; and a difficulty in the way of assigning them by conjecture is, that in the poem they are called "three bastard dukes." Your correspondent C. has rightly said (p. 46.) that none of Charles II.'s bastard sons besides Monmouth would have been old enough in 1671 to be actors in such a fray. Sir Walter Scott, in his notes on Absalom and Achitophel, referring to the poem, gives the assault to Monmouth and some of his brothers ”

“ I am not aware of any blue book on the subject; blue books were not so much in vogue at the time of their erection, or perhaps a little less would have been spent in these erections, and a little more pains would have been taken to see that they were properly built. Some have been undermined by the sea and washed down already; in others, the facing of brick has crumbled away; and in all the fancied security which the original tower taught us to expect would be probably lessened were the English towers subjected to an attack.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.
"A Frog he would a-wooing go" (Vol. ii., p. 75.) ”

“ This volume contains also Lord Shaftesbury's letters to Lord Molesworth, originally published by Toland, with an introduction which is not reprinted; a "Letter sent from Italy, with the notion of the Judgment of Hercules, &c., to my Lord ——"; and three letters reprinted from Lord Shaftesbury's life in the General Dicionary, which was prepared by Dr. Kippis, under the superintendence of Lord Shaftesbury's son, the fourth earl.
In my copy of the original edition of the Letters to a young Man at the University, two letters have been transcribed by an unknown previous possessor. ”

“ The Three Dukes (Vol. ii., pp. 9, 46, 91.) .—Andrew Marvel thus makes mention of the outrage on the beadle in his letter to the Mayor of Hull, Feb. 28, 1671 (Works, i. 195.) :—
"On Saturday night last, or rather Sunday morning, at two o'clock, some persons reported to be of great quality, together with other gentlemen, set upon the watch and killed a poor beadle, praying for his life upon his knees, with many wounds; warrants are out for apprehending some of them, but they are fled." ”

“ The question is not in itself of much importance; but I can suggest a mode in which it may possibly be settled. Let the royal pardons of 1671 be searched in the Rolls' Chapel, Chancery Lane. If the malefactors were pardoned by name, the three dukes may there turn up. Or if any of your readers is able to look through the Domestic Papers for February and March, 1671, in the State Paper Office, he would be likely to find there come information upon the subject.
Query. Is the doggerel poem in the State Poems Marvel's? ”

“ The Answer.
"The King to Oxford sent his troop of horse,
For Tories hold no argument but force:
With equal care to Cambridge books he sent,
For Whigs allow no force but argument.
"The books were received Nov. 19, 20, &c., 1715."
G.A.S.
[J.J. DREDGE, V. (Belgravia) , and many other correspondents, have also kindly replied to this Query.]
Dulcarnon (Vol. i., p. 254.) —Urry says nothing, but quotes Speght, and Skene, and Selden.
"Dulcarnon," says Speght, "is a proposition in Euclid (lib. i. theor. 33. prop. 47.) ”

“ I come now to the passages relating to the clergy.
"Also, where as the curatis of the cyte have used often tyme herebefore to selle their offring (at mariag) , whereby the pisshês where such sales be made comenly be lettid fro messe or matyns, and otherwhiles from both, by so moch as the frendis of the pties maryed vsen to goo abowte vij. or viij. dayes before, and desiryg men to offryg at such tymes as more conuenyent it were to be at diunyne seruice. Plese it my Lord Mair, Aldirmê, and Comê Coûseile, to puide remedy, so that the sayd custume be fordone and leid aparte."—p. 86. ”

“ Henry and the Nut-brown Maid.—SEARCH would be obliged for any information as to the authorship of this beautiful ballad.
[Mr. Wright, in his handsome black-letter reprint, published by Pickering in 1836, states, that "it is impossible to fix the date of this ballad," and has not attempted to trace the authorship. We shall be very glad if SEARCH's Query should produce information upon either of these points.]
REPLIES. FRENCH POEM BY MALHERBE.
The two stanzas your correspondent E.R.C.B. has cited (Vol. ii., p. 71.) ”

“ Taylor will think it right to favour you with a statement of the facts, that future "Note"-makers may not perplex future editors with endless "Queries" on the subject.
R.J.
Mildew in Books.—Can you, or any of your readers, suggest a preventive for mildew in books?
In a valuable public library in this town (Liverpool) , much injury has been occasioned by mildew, the operations of which appear very capricious; in some cases attacking the printed part of an engraving, leaving the margin unaffected; in others attacking the inside of the backs only ”

“ The Lass of Richmond Hill.—I should be much obliged by being informed who wrote the words of the above song, and when, if it was produced originally at some place of public entertainment. The Rev. Thomas Maurice, in his elegant poem on Richmond Hill, has considered it to have been written upon a Miss Crop, who committed suicide on that spot, April 23rd, 1782 ”

“ Amstelodami: apud Fredericum Muller, 1843."
Two letters of Locke are among the MSS. Now it is mentioned by Mr. Martyn, the biographer of the first Earl of Shaftesbury, in a MS. letter in the British Museum, that some of this earl's papers were sent by the family to Le Clerc, and were supposed not to have been returned. I mention this, as I perceive you have readers and correspondents in Holland, in the hope that I may possibly learn whether any papers relating to the first Earl of Shaftesbury have been found among the lately discovered Le Clerc MSS. ”

“ Also that in anoyding the corupte savours and lothsom innoyaunc (caused by slaughter of best) w'tin the cyte, wherby moche people is corupte and infecte, it may plese my Lord Mayr, Aldirmen, and Comen Counsaile, to put in execucion a certaine acte of parlement, by whiche it is ordeigned y't no such slaughter of best shuld be vsed or had within this cite, and that suche penaltees be leuyed vpo the contrary doers as in the said acte of parlement ben expressed. ”

“ The higher the flame, the more daring the act is considered: hence there is a sort of emulation amongst the unwitting perpetrators of this Pagan rite. In many places cattle are driven through the fire; and this ceremony is firmly believed to have a powerful effect in preserving them from various harms. I need not say, that amongst the peasantry the fires are now lighted in honour of St John.
X.Y.A.
Kilkenny.
MINOR NOTES.
Borrowed Thoughts.—Mr. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 482.) points out the French original from which Goldsmith borrowed his epigram beginning—
"Here lies poor Ned Purdon." ”

“ Emendare jocos: una litura potest."
Martial, Book iv. 10.
NABOC.
Miscellaneous NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, &C.
Mr. Bohn has just published the second volume of his very useful and complete edition of Junius' Letters. It contains, in addition to a new essay on their authorship, entitled The History and Discovery of Junius, by the editor, Mr. Wade, the Private Letters of Junius addressed to Woodfall; the Letters of Junius to Wilkes; and the Miscellaneous Letters which have been attributed to the same powerful pen. Mr. Wade is satisfied that Sir Philip Francis was Junius ”

“ Speght gives it in English letters, but Selden in Arabic.
Footnote 6: (return)
Christman, Comment. in Alfragan, cap. ii. Lysimachi Cornuum apud Cael. Rhodigin. Antiq. lect. 10. cap. xii., hic genuina interpretatio.
Dr. Maginn.—The best account of this most talented but unfortunate man, is given in the Dublin University Mag., vol. xxiii. p. 72. A reprint of this article, with such additional particulars of his numerous and dispersed productions as might be supplied, would form a most acceptable volume. ”