Various

“ There is a great deal of good answering to tolerably rational questions, mixed with some attempts at humour, and other eccentricities, and occasionally a freedom, both of question and answer, by which we might, were it advisable, confirm the fact, that the decorums of 1736 and of 1850 are two different things. ”

“ A philosopher "able to give the true reason of all things, from the composition of watches, to the raising of minced pies ... and who, if he is closely questioned about the planner of squaring the circle, or by what means the perpetual motion, or longitude, may be discovered, we believe has honesty, and we are sure that he has skill enough to say that he knows—nothing of the matter." A moral philosopher who has "discovered a perpetuum mobile of government." ”

“ The advertiser would beg respectfully to call special attention to the above most important collection of the Acts of the Church of Scotland, as being the only authentic records of the proceedings of the church, and which must be both interesting and invaluable to the ecclesiastical historian and antiquary. No library, public or private, which lays claim to the possession to any extent of works of an analogous kind, can be said to be complete without a set of the Church of Scotland Acts. ”

“ REPLIES. SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED." (Vol. ii., pp. 113. 139.)
Although Mr. Hickson's notion of the meaning of delight, in the three passages of Shakspeare he has cited, is somewhat startling, it was not to be summarily rejected without due examination; and yet, from a tolerably extensive acquaintance with old English phraseology, I fear I cannot flatter him with the expectation of having it confirmed by instances from other writers.
I believe that lighted is rather an unusual form to express lightened, disencumbered, but that it was sometimes used is apparent ”

“ I have, however, met with a passage in Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia (ed. 1598, p. 294.) which might lead to a different interpretation of delighted in these passages, and which would not, perhaps, be less startling than that of Mr. Hickson.
"All this night (in despite of darknesse) he held his eyes open; and in the morning, when the delight began to restore to each body his colour, then with curtains bar'd he himselfe from the enjoying of it; neither willing to feele the comfort of the day, nor the ease of the night." ”

“ The passage also illustrates the Hook or Crook privilege, which has been already satisfactorily explained. The date is A.D. 1525:
"We say, and for truth testify that the wood called Dynmure Wood, was ever open and common to all burgesses and inhabitants of Bodmin till now of late, as well for all manner kind of their beasts to common therein, as to have their burden wood, to bear and carry away upon their backs, of lop, crop, hook, crook, and bag wood; ... always reserving to the Prior the stems of the trees for their fuel and building." ”

“ An interesting ceremony takes place at Ambleside once every year, which the stranger may think himself fortunate in seeing, not so much for the mere sight itself, though that is pretty enough, as for its being the vestige of a very ancient observance. ”

“ In Cymbeline, I must confess it is not quite so clear: "to make my gifts, by the dark uncertainty attendant upon delay, more lustrous (delighted) , more radiant when given," is not more satisfactory than Mr. {201} HICKSON'S interpretation of this passage. ”

“ The privilege of wearing a Collar of SS., so far as the various persons enumerated are concerned, is a mere official privilege, and can scarcely be cited in reply to [Greek: Ph] .'s interrogative, except upon the principle, "Exceptio probat regulam." The persons now privileged to wear the ancient golden Collar of SS. are the equites aurati, or knights (chevaliers) in the British monarchy, a body which includes all the hereditary order of baronets in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with such of their eldest sons, being of age, as choose to claim inauguration as knights. ”

“ After referring to the papers on the Collar of SS., and other collars of livery, published a few years ago in the Gentleman's Magazine, and his intention to arrange them, and other additional collections on the same subject, in the shape of a small volume, MR. J.G. NICHOLS proceeds to say:
"As a direct answer to B.'s question, 'Is there any list of persons who were honoured with that badge, (viz., the Collar of SS.?) ', I may reply, No. Persons were not, in fact, 'honoured with the badge,' in the sense that persons are now decorated with stars, crosses, or medals ”

“ Richard Baxter's Descendants (Vol. ii, p. 89.) .—Your correspondent W.H.B., who wishes for information respecting the descendants of the celebrated Richard Baxter, describes him to have been a Northamptonshire man; now this (supposing the Nonconformist divine of that name is meant) is a mistake, for he was, according to his own account, a Shropshire man. ”

“ That the golden Collar of SS. was the undoubted badge or mark of a knight (chevalier, eques auratus seu ordo equestris, for these words respectively indicate the same grade or dignity of knighthood) all our ancient heraldic writers allow. ”

“ And supposing Fletcher to have improved his part, might there not originally have been a stronger analogy than now appears between this play and the Two Noble Kinsmen?
The more it is tested the brighter shines out the character of Shakspeare. The flatteries of James and Elizabeth may now go packing together. ”

“ Fox.—Your correspondent F.L., who has related the story of Sir Richard, surnamed Bloody, Baker, is, doubtless, aware of a similar tale with which Mr. Blakeway furnished my late friend James Boswell, and which the latter observed "is perhaps one of the most happy illustrations of Shakspeare that has appeared."— (Malone's Shakspeare, vol. vii. pp. 20. 163.)
The two narratives of Bloody Baker and Mr. Fox are substantially the same. Variations will naturally creep in when a story is related by word of mouth; for instance, the admonition over the chamber in Mr. Fox's house—
"Be bold, be bold! ”

“ Turner (History of England during the Middle Ages, vol. iv. chap. iv. p. 209.) gives part of a Latin version of it from the "Physiologus" of a certain Theobald. The "Physiologus," which is in substance the same as the "Bestiary" of Philippe de Thaun, occurs, according to Mr. Turner's account of it, in MSS. of the eighth or ninth century. Anglo-Saxon versions of "The Whale and the Panther" are in the Codex Exoniensis. ”

“ A gentleman of Devonshire is preparing for publication a Catalogue of the numerous published works which relate to the History, Antiquities, Biography, Natural History, and Local Occurrences of that county, and has already sufficient matter to occupy upwards of seventy octavo pages in print, and would be glad to receive notices of any rare books and tracts on those subjects on the shelves of private libraries. A similar work is in contemplation as to existing manuscripts, ancient and modern, relating to the same county ”

“ It is presumable too that the Collar of SS. is also an incident of the minor degree of knight bachelor (bas-chevalier seu miles-bachillarus) ; whilst the silver Collar of SS. belongs to every head of a family of ancient esquirage quality, bearing arms. It is true, the fashion of wearing the collar, whether gold or silver, may be said to have been in desuetude for centuries. But rights of blood never prescribe ”

“ John Wallis, of Bodmin, and printed at Bodmin, 1827-1838, p. 303.)
I presume that bag wood is such wood as can be cut with a hook or crook, and bunched. In another nearly contemporary petition (Ibid. p. 306.) , the same identical privilege is described by the townsmen as a right to lop and crop with a hook and crook, and to carry away on their backs, and "none other ways." This explains the former passage, and shows that the wood was probably carried away on the back in a bag. ”

“ Query, What is the origin of this practice?
[Hebrew: T.A.]
Roasting Mice for Hooping-cough is also very common in Norfolk; but I am sorry to say that a more cruel superstitious practice is sometimes inflicted on the little animal; for it is not many years since I accidentally entered the kitchen in time to save a poor little mouse from being hung up by the tail and roasted alive, as the means of expelling the others of its race from the house. I trust that this barbarous practice will soon be forgotten. ”

“ An English version of this famous treatise by Richard, not Robert Aungerville (see, for the surname, Pits, p. 467.) de Bury, Bishop of Durham in 1333, was published by Mr. Rodd in the year 1832. The translator has not given his name, but he was Mr. John Bellingham Inglis, formerly a partner in the house of Inglis, Ellis, and Co. It is greatly to be desired that there should be a careful reprint of this most interesting work, and that the first edition of 1473 should be collated with MSS. The translation by Mr. Inglis might be revised, and made to accompany the Latin text. ”

“ A physician who "knows, to a mathematical point, the just tone and harmony of the risings pulses...." A lawyer who "what he this day has proved to be a contingent remainder, to-morrow he will with equal learning show must operate as an executory devise or as a springing use." ”

“ When it is said of a century there is no difficulty; it means that the writer was born and died in that century. But when we are told that a writer flourished about the year 1328 (such limitation of florescence is not uncommon) , what is then meant? ”

“ Respecting their morals we are told, that although for their loosenesse of life, they are from the toppe to the toe nothing but blottes, yet bragge they of all perfection, euen vnto a verie deifying of themselues."
Some further light is thrown upon this point by a letter sent to Knewstub from a "godly learned man, W.C." He says,—
"Howsoeuer, they seduce some goodly and zealous men and women of honest and godly conuersation, placing them at the porch of their synagogue to make a shewe of holinesse, and to stand there as baites and stalles to deceiue others ”

“ L——, an honest sailor not far from Stepney, who has but one arm, and who cannot walk himself without the assistance of a wooden leg, and yet has a son, born some years after the amputation of is own limbs, whom he has bred both a fiddler and a dancing master. ”

“ The history of books and periodicals of a similar character ought to be the object of interest to the readers of this work. The number of works in which answers have been given to proposed questions is not small. ”

“ Ryves is described by Watt as "a loyal divine," who was "born in Dorsetshire," and "died 1677." His Querela was first printed at Oxford in 1646. There was a second edition in 1647.
In case J.M.B. do not himself intend to send out a new edition of this tract, it is to be hoped that his Query may induce some one else to do so. Indeed, a reprint of several similar pamphlets and short treatises, belonging to the same period, might be brought out with great advantage at this crisis. ”

“ The hero is attired in the costume of the latter part of the seventeenth century (?) , with it cocked hat and plume, open sleeves and breeches, heavy shoes and spurs: with this motto in German characters over him,
[German: Ben Gott ist Rath und That,]
"With God is counsel and deed."
At each corner of the cloth and napkins is a representation of a female figure kneeling on a rock, with clasped hands, with a lamb by her side (Query, St. Agnes?) On the border, at the top and bottom, St. George is figured in armour stabbing with a spear an alligator ”

“ The Family of Love.—In addition to the work of John Rogers, referred to by DR. RIMBAULT (Vol. ii., p. 49.) , the two following treatises, which were also published in the year 1579, will present your readers with much curious information respecting the "Family of Love." The first is entitled,—
"A Confutation of certaine Articles delivered unto the Familye of Loue, with the exposition of Theophilus, a supposed elder in the sayd Familye, upon the same Articles, by William Wilkinson, Maister of Artes, and student of Divinitye, &c. ”

“ Baxter; his habitation and estate at a village called Eaton Constantine, a mile from the Wrekin Hill, and above half a mile from Severn River, and five miles from Shrewsbury in Shropshire. A village most pleasantly and healthfully situate. My mother's name was Beatrice, the daughter of Richard Adeney of Rowton, a village near High Encall, the Lord Newport's seat, in the same county. ”

“ Dr. James, the first Bodleian librarian, fell into a strange mistake when he imagined that his inaccurate reprint at Oxford, in 1599, was the second edition of this treatise. It was in reality the fourth, having been preceded by the impressions, Colon. 1473; Spiræ, 1483; and Paris, 1500. So far as I remember, the editio princeps has not been specified by Gough. (Brit. Topog. ii. 121.)
R.G.
I find I can answer the Query of L.S. (Vol. ii., p. l53.) , who asks, "Where can I procure a translation of Robert de Bury's Philobiblon?"
A translation was published by Mr. ”

“ So far as can be ascertained, these were either knights attached to the royal household or service, who wore gold or gilt collars, or esquires in the like position who wore silver collars."
From the statute for the regulation of apparel, passed in the 2nd year of the reign of Henry IV., it is ordained that—
"All the sons of the king, dukes, earls, barons, and baronettes, might use the livery of our Lord the King of his collar as well in his absence as in his presence ”

“ In the sixth edition of the Book of the Church (I believe references are also given in all editions since the first) , Southey gives us his authority for this, "Strype's Cranmer, p. 266. (edition of 1694.) " The passage occurs in book ii. chap. 26.: "The Duke of Somerset's death." I quote it from the reprint by the Ecclesiastical History Society (vol. ii. p. 345.) :
"He (Somerset) is generally charged for the great spoil of churches and chapels ”