Various

“ Still, as we earnestly desire to close the year in peace with all the world, or, which is much the same thing, with all the readers of Notes and Queries, we propose, on Saturday next, treating them to a Christmas Number, rich in articles on Folk Lore, Popular Literature, &c., and to use as ballast for our barque, which will at such occasion be of unwonted lightness, a number of Replies which we have by us imploring for admittance into our columns. ”

“ If this principle is proved, then, to be of such extraordinary utility, why should it not be made serviceable in other matters besides the "beaver-like" propensity of amassing wealth and satisfying our material desires? Why should not your periodical be instrumental in transferring this invaluable principle to the labours of the intellectual world? ”

“ THE GREEK CHURCH. A Sketch by the Author of "Proposals for Christian Union."
"Like its predecessors, the volume is amiable and interesting."—Notes and Queries.
"Anything written by the Author of 'Proposals for Christian Union' is sure to be distinguished by an excellent spirit. The 'Greek Church,' a Sketch, is well put together; and, though slight, will be found to contain as much real information as many a book of greater size and more pretension."—The Guardian.
This Essay concludes the Series. The four preceding numbers on sale, Second Edition, 1s. each. ”

“ Better etymologists than Katie have made far worse guesses than our youngest correspondent. But in Brand's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, vol. i. p. 294. ed. 1841 (the passage is not in the last edition) , is the following curious illustration of the phrase Ge-ho.
"A learned friend, whose communications I have frequently had occasion to acknowledge in the course of this work, says, the exclamation 'Geho, Geho,' which carmen use to their horses, is probably of great antiquity. It is not peculiar to this country, as I have heard it used in France. ”

“ A.R. speaks of having referred to Purcell's Tempest. I must beg to correct him in this statement, as no complete copy of that work (my own excepted) is known to exist. Goodeson's (printed at the end of the last century) is the only copy approaching to anything like completeness, and that is very unlike Purcell's Tempest. Did A.R. find in Purcell's Tempest the music of the beautiful lyric, "Where the Bee sucks?" No. Yet Purcell composed music to it. The absence, then, of "The Owl is abroad," is no proof that Purcell did not write music for that song also. ”

“ A man and his wife who stopped short when on the verge of a quarrel might be said to have "just saved their bacon;" and in course of time the phrase would be applied to any one who barely escaped any loss or danger.
X.Z.
"The Times" Newspaper and the Coptic Language (Vol. ii., p. 377.) .—J.E. quotes a passage from The Times newspaper respecting the Coptic language, and asks if any correspondent can furnish a clearer account of its structure than the writer of that article has given. ”

“ A more remarkable instance of merciless distortion of an {492} author's labours is not to be found in the records of literature. Iota may take it as a fact—and that a remarkable one—that since 1740 there had appeared no edition of Rollin having any claim to integrity, until the one edited by Bell, and published by Blackie, in 1826, and reissued in 1837. ”

“ By this publication, Oxford has done her part towards wiping away the disgrace which has so long attached to this country—which boasts, and justly and proudly boasts, of being the country of Bibles—for its long-continued neglect of these early versions of the vernacular Scriptures. ”

“ Passage in Hamlet.—In Mr. C. Knight's "Library," "Pictorial," and "Cabinet" editions of Shakspeare, the following novel reading is given without note or comment to say why the universally received text has been altered. It occurs in Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 7.
Ham. "Staid it long?
Hor. "While one with modern haste might tell a hundred."
As Mr. Knight is now publishing a "National" edition of Shakspeare, perhaps you will allow me through your pages to ask for his authority for this change of "moderate" to "modern," in order that his new reading may either be justified or abandoned. ”

“ Pococke asserts that the monks have planted in their garden a bush similar to those which grow in Europe, and that by the most ridiculous imposture, they hesitate not to affirm that it is the same which Moses saw—the miraculous bush. ”

“ With regard to the Indices Expurgatorii of Spain, the earliest of them was prepared by the command of Cardinal Quiroga, and issued by Gomez, typographer-royal at Madrid, in 1584. The copy in my hand, which belonged to Michiels, is impressed with his book-mark "première édition." Will the writer in the Quarterly Review henceforth remember that an Expurgatory Index is essentially different from one of the Prohibitory class? But even though he should faithfully promise to bear this fact in mind, his misreport as to the year "1546" must not remain uncensured ”

“ A division of intellectual labour; so that the amount of knowledge available to each person is multiplied in an increasing ratio.
2. Knowledge is thus presented in so condensed a form as to be more easily comprehended at a glance; so that your readers can with greater facility construct or understand the theories deducible from the whole circle of human knowledge.
3. Authors and inquiring men could tell, before expending days on the perusal of large volumes, whether the particulars which these books contain would be suitable to the object they have in view. ”

“ I cannot help thinking, that by the designation mercenary was implied something more disreputable than that merely of "one who, having no settled cure, was at liberty to be 'hired;'" and in this I am borne out by Chaucer, no mean authority, who, in his well-known picture of the parson, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, amongst the various items of piety and virtuousness with which, in that inimitable piece of character-painting, he credits the "pore persoun of a toun," distinctly states (I quote Mr. Wright's Percy Society edition) ,—
"He was a Schepperde and no mercenarie." ”

“ It is to be hoped that any of the readers of "Notes and Queries" resident among this mining population (who are said to retain many other ancient and remarkable customs) , and possessing any information in illustration of it, will record it in your columns. ”

“ In that work it is said (vol. i. p. 100.) :
"The roots of the Coptic language appear to have been generally monosyllabic, and the derivatives have been formed by a very simple system of prefixing, inserting, and affixing certain letters, which have usually undergone but little change, not having been incorporated with the root, nor melted down by crasis, nor softened by any euphonic rules."
Again (vol. i. p. 107.) , speaking of the supposed connexion between India and Egypt:
"The Sanscrit is the most polished and copious language ever spoken by man ”

“ Can any of your readers inform me who is the present possessor of the document referred to, or whether it has ever been reprinted, or referred to by any writer? Antony Wood, I am aware, refers to the document, but it is plain that he never saw it.
H.P.
Bolton's Ace (Vol. ii., p. 413.) .—Ray's anecdote concerning the proverb, "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," is perhaps more correctly told in the Witty Aunsweres and Saiengs of Englishmen (Cotton MS. Jul. F. x.) ”

“ Those who desire copies on the days of publication, are requested to give their orders immediately to their respective Booksellers.
"We unhesitatingly characterize this journal as the most remarkable production of its kind which has ever been given to the world. Pepys paints the Court, the Monarchs, and the times, in more vivid colours than any one else. ”

“ Another objection is, that the length of such précis would not permit them to come within the limits of your work. But they should not be long. And even if one of them should take up four or five pages, you could divide it between two or three successive numbers of your periodical. ”

“ There can be no doubt about the sense of the word after, when we find it in the rubrics of the Post Communion and Commination translated post. Some of your readers may be able to give an account of the Latin versions, and explain by what influence the alteration {499} was made, and how it came to be sanctioned, while the English remained unchanged. ”

“ Also now ready, in 2 vols. 8vo., uniform with "The Curiosities of Literature." 28s. bound. THE LIFE AND REIGN OF CHARLES I.
BY J. DISRAELI.
A New and Revised Edition, edited, with a Preface, by B. DISRAELI, M.P.
The appearance of this New Edition at the present moment will doubtless be considered remarkably opportune, for the subjects of which the work treats not only attract, but absorb the mind of the nation.
"By far the most important work upon the important age of Charles I. that modern times have produced."—Quarterly Review. ”

“ The bishopric of Osnaburg was founded by Charlemagne, and was filled by various princes until 1625, when Cardinal Francis William, Count of Wartemburg, was elected by the chapter.
By the Treaty of Osnaburg, 1642, which was ratified at the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, the House of Brunswick resigned all claims to the archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen, and to the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Ratzburg; and received the alternate nomination of the bishopric of Osnaburg, which was declared to belong jointly to the Catholic and the Protestant branch of Brunswick. ”

“ To feel only looking on fairest of fair."
This speech is a remarkable specimen of the affected style of compliment prevalent in the time of Elizabeth. The third couplet, at first sight, appears to have a signification exactly opposed to that which the context requires. We should expect, instead of "the tongue all impatient to speak," to find "the tongue all impatient to see."
No one of the editors of Shakspeare appears to me to have given a satisfactory explanation of this passage. ”

“ S.P.
"He that runs may read" (Vol. ii., pp. 374. 439.) .—It is idle to prolong this controversy. I think it is no interpretation of part of ver. 2., chap. ii, Habakkuk. Nor do I believe that it has any reference to it. But it is obviously a favourite poetic quotation, and your readers will find it at line 80, in Cowper's Tirocinium, or A Review of Schools.
J.G.H.
Pimlico.
Sir George Downing (Vol. ii., p. 464.) .—Particulars respecting the first Sir George Downing may be found in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, ii. 27. 758, 759.; Wotton's English Baronetage, iv. 415. ”

“ Clarke's Beauties of Purcell, as Purcell's. This is a mistake, which, in justice to Smith, should be rectified."
Your correspondent also refers to Mr. G. Hogarth's Memoirs of the Musical Drama, as an authority for attributing the song in question to Purcell. Mr. Hogarth's work, I am sorry to say, can never be depended upon as to facts. It is almost entirely made up from second-hand authorities; consequently blunders of the greatest magnitude occur in every chapter. It has the merit of being a well-written and an entertaining book ”

“ Fossil Elk of Ireland.—Can any of your learned readers give me information on the fossil elk of Ireland—Cervus Megaceros, Cervus Giganteus of Goldsmith? It is stated to be found in various countries, as France, Germany, and Italy, besides England and Ireland. In the Royal Dublin Society museum there is, I am told, a rib of this animal which has the appearance of having been wounded by some sharp instrument, which remained long fixed in the bone, but not so deeply as to affect the creature's life. ”

“ But our limited space will not admit of our detailing all the claims which this editio princeps of the Wycliffite Scriptures has upon the attention of our readers, or of pointing out all the great services which its editors have rendered to the literary, no less than to the religious world. When we state briefly that in the work before us we have the two versions, the earlier and later versions, printed side by side ”

“ London. 1659.
*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to Mr. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.
{502}
Notices to Correspondents.
Our Christmas Number. This week our able contemporary, Household Words, treats his readers to a Christmas Number. It is one of the many good things in which our popular friend has anticipated us. Thanks, however, to the Peace Congress, we are content to be thus anticipated without giving utterance to the time-honoured "Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerunt." ”

“ Second Edition, with an Appendix.
London: George Bell, 186. Fleet Street; Messrs. Rivington's, St. Paul's Church-yard, and Waterloo Place; and Thomas Hatchard, 187. Piccadilly and by Order, of all Booksellers.
MR. MURRAY'S LIST OF BOOKS JUST READY.
I.
LAVENGRO. By George Borrow, Author of "The Bible in Spain." Portrait. 3 vols. Post 8vo. ”

“ Een kraekling, is ons winst, maet tliedtkenmoet eerst wt."
I have a small oil painting on oak panel which bears the above inscription. The subject of the painting is a boy, who holds in his hands a song, which he appears to be committing to memory, whilst another boy is looking at the song over his shoulder. ”