Various

“ By a remarkable species of democratic liberality, a man or a family might be emancipated from this position and rendered fit for office, born again as it were into a new political life, by renouncing their connections (consorteria) and changing their arms and surnames. They were then said to be made plebeian or popular (fatti di popolo) . Niebuhr has noticed the analogy of such voluntary resignation of nobility to the 'transitio ad plebem' of the Romans. ”

“ In my opinion, it is more than a coincidence that Doctor Montgomery, who, in 1843, received the gold medal of the Society of Arts for bringing gutta percha and its useful properties under the notice of that body, describes it in almost the same words that Tradescant uses when speaking of the pliable Mazer wood: the Doctor says, "it could be moulded into any form by merely dipping it into boiling water." ”

“ From erian we may pass on to arare, and from that to arista: in the long pedigree of language they are scarcely unconnected: but the Anglo-Saxon is not derived from the Latin; they are, each in its own language, genuine and independent forms. But it is curious to see what an attraction these distant cousins have for one another, let them only come within each other's sphere of gravitation.
In, Yorkshire the verb to earland is still a living expression; and a Yorkshireman, who has more Saxon than Latin in him, will not write "arable land," but "earable land." ”

“ Though much would remain to be done, a great deal of information is to be gleaned from printed works, and doubtless lists of portraits might be in many instances procured from the persons who are fortunate enough to possess them. It should also be remembered that amongst the MSS. of Sir William Musgrave in the British Museum, there are many inventories of English portraits, affording a strong presumption that he may once have meditated such a publication as I have pointed out. ”

“ The Tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer in Westminster Abbey is fast mouldering into irretrievable decay. A sum of One Hundred Pounds will effect a perfect repair. The Committee have not thought it right to fix any limit to the contribution; they themselves have opened the list with a subscription from each of them of Five Shillings; but they will be ready to receive any amount, more or less, which those who value poetry and honour Chaucer may be kind enough to remit to them. ”

“ It is true that the portraits, as well as the other objects of attraction in our royal palaces, have been described in print with tolerable accuracy, and some good accounts are to be met with of the pictures at Woburn, and Blenheim, and Althorpe, and many of the residences of the nobility which can boast their local historian. We are, however, in most cases obliged to content ourselves with the meagre information afforded by county topography, or such works as the Beauties of England, Neale's Country Seats, and unsatisfactory guide-books. ”

“ The peal here alluded to does not of course mean what Mr. Ellacombe has so clearly described to be a modern peal, in Vol. i., p. 154., of "Notes and Queries;" but it would at least amount, I suppose, to consonantia campanarum, a ringing together of bells, as distinguished from the toll or single stroke on a bell. Horne Tooke says:
"The toll of a bell is its being lifted up (tollere, to raise) , which causes that sound we call its toll."
The poet does not clear the ambiguity and confusion of terms, when he sings—
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime!" ”

“ If there are still any remains of Tradescant's collection in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the question, whether the Mazer wood was gutta percha or not, might be soon set at rest; but it is highly probable that the men who ordered the relics of the Dodo to be thrown out, showed but little ceremony to the Mazer wood or dishes. ”

“ In the history of Florentine families, a singular feature presents itself; by a practice peculiar to Italy, nay, it is believed to Florence, families, under certain circumstances, were compelled to change their arms and their surnames, the origin of which was as follows. After having long suffered the insolent factions of the great families to convulse the state, the middle classes, headed indeed by one of the nobles, by a determined movement, obtained the mastery. ”

“ The portrait in my possession is not unlike an old man; but old ladies, like old hen pheasants, are apt to put on the semblance of the male.
A Borderer.
Aristophanes on the Modern Stage (Vol. iii., p. 105.) .—In reply to a Query of our correspondent C. J. R., I beg leave to state, that, after having made inquiry on the subject, I cannot find that any of the Comedies of Aristophanes have ever been introduced upon the English stage, although I agree with him in thinking that some of them might be advantageously adapted to the modern theatre ”

“ But chiming the bells is an art that is not recognised in the older rules respecting their use. For instance, the Fifteenth Canon orders that on Wednesdays and Fridays weekly, warning shall be given to the people that litany will be said, by tolling of a bell. And, on the other hand, though we toll at a funeral, the Sixty-seventh Canon enjoins that—
"After the party's death, there shall be rung no {239}more but one short peal, and one other before the burial, and one other after the burial. ”

“ Nonsuch Palace.—Our antiquarian friends may not be aware that traces of this old residence of Elizabeth are still to be seen near Ewell. Traditions of it exist in the neighbourhood and Hansetown, and Elizabethan coins are frequently dug up near the foundations of the "Banquetting House," now inclosed in a cherry orchard not far from the avenue that joins Ewell to Cheam. In a field at some distance is an old elm, which the villagers say once stood in the court-yard of the kitchen. ”

“ My father, who is only sixty-eight years old, is connected in a similar mode with a person who had the plague during the prevalence of that awful scourge in the metropolis in the year 1665, with the intervention of one life only. ”

“ The distinction seems to be this, that a prebendary is one who possesses a prebend, which formerly a canon might or might not hold. Subsequently, when canons received prebends for their support, the two classes became confounded; the one, however, is a name of office (canon) , the other of emolument (prebendary) . ”

“ The terms chiming, tolling, and peal-ringing, though now generally understood, do not intelligibly apply to the few regulations about bells which occur in the canons.
I believe that chiming is the proper method of summoning the congregation to the services of the church: and tolling certainly appears to be the most appropriate use of the bell at funerals. ”

“ IOVANNI VOLPE. (Vol. iii., p. 188.)
The Volpes were an ancient, noble Florentine family of the second class, some branches of which according to the usage of Florence, changed their name, and adopted that of Bigliotti. The object of the change was to remove the disqualification which attached to them, as nobles, of holding offices under the republic. In illustration of this singular practice, the following extracts may be cited:
"Le peuple nomma une commission pour corriger les statuts de la république, et réprimer par les lois l'insolence des nobles. ”

“ Meaning of "Harrisers" (Vol. ii., p. 376.) .—I am told that the practice which Clericus Rusticus {252}speaks of, holds in Yorkshire, but not the name.
In Devon a corn-field, which has been cut and cleared, is called an "arrish." A vacant stubblefield is so called during the whole of the autumn months.
Your correspondent suggests "arista;" can he support this historically? If not, it is surely far-fetched. Let me draw attention to a word in our English Bible, which has been misunderstood before now by readers who were quite at home in the original languages: "earing nor harvest" (Genesis) . ”

“ That it is almost as necessary that the representations of men should perish and quit the scene to their successors, as it is that the human race should give place to rising generations; and, indeed, the mortality is almost as rapid. Portraits that cost twenty, thirty, sixty guineas, and that proudly take possession of the drawing-room, give way in the next generation to the new married couple, descending into the parlour, where they are slightly mentioned as my father and mother's pictures. ”

“ The derivation of the word must be left to a better provinial philologist than
W. H. W.
Chaucer's "Fifty Wekes" (Vol. iii., p. 202.) .—A. E. B.'s natural and ingeniously-argued conjecture, that Chaucer, by the "fifty wekes" of the Knightes Tale, "meant to imply the interval of a solar year,"—whether we shall rest in accepting the poet's measure of time loosely and poetically, or (which I would gladly feel myself authorised to do) find in it, with your correspondent, an astronomical and historical reason,—is fully secured by the comparison with Chaucer's original. ”

“ Notes on Newspapers (vol. iii., p. 164.) .—John Houghton, the editor of the periodical noticed by your correspondent, A Collection for the Improvement of Husbandry and Trade, was one of those meritorious men who well deserve commemoration, though his name is not to be found in any biography that I am acquainted with. He was an apothecary, and became a dealer in tea, coffee, and chocolate. He was in politics a loyalist, or Tory, and was admitted a member of the Royal Society in 1679-80. He began to publish his Letters on Husbandry and Trade in 1681. No. 1. ”

“ The Baccelli, who were a branch of the Mazzinghi, replaced the three perpendicular clubs, the ancient ensigns of the family, by two placed in the form of a cross.
"As the object of these provisions was to discriminate for the future those of the ancient families who had acceded to the principles of the popular institutions from their more haughty kindred, who remained true to the defence of their feudal and aristocratical pretensions, the change either of arms or surname was not required if the whole family became converts to the new doctrines ”

“ The rooms and the furniture in them remain exactly as in the lifetime of the late occupant. The lady's husband, who farms the land attached to the house, is put to great inconvenience by living at a distance from it, but nothing will induce her to alter her determination. ”

“ The digger's opinion, that the two combined are not more than the case requires, is conveyed in the legend,—
"Je cherche du courage pour mon maistre."
The finding was curious. On cutting down an ash-tree in the neighbourhood of Linton, Cambridgeshire, in 1818, a knob on its trunk was lopped off, and this medal discovered in its core! It was probably the cause of the excrescence, having been, perhaps, thrust under the bark to escape the danger of its apparently political allusion. ”

“ A curious instance of a word, not very dissimilar to Mazer, may be found in Eric Red's Saga, part of the Flatö Annals, supposed to be written in the tenth century, and one of the authorities for the pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Icelanders. ”

“ No one, then, can doubt that such a compilation as I am advocating would prove a most welcome addition to our increasing stock of historical lore, and greatly assist the biographer in those researches upon which, from no sufficient materials being at hand, too much time is frequently expended without any adequate result. A catalogue would also tend to the preservation of ancient portraits, which, by being brought into notice, would acquire more importance in the estimation of the possessors ”

“ He who shall contribute to the improvement of the author, either by a prudent detection of an errour, or a sober communication of an irrefragable truth, deserves the venerable esteem and welcome of a good Angel. ”

“ I shall be much obliged to any of your readers who will favour me with the date and particulars of this case.
Arun.
"Just Notions," &c.—At the end of the Introduction of The Christian Instructed in the Principles of Religion, by W. Reading, Lond. 1717, occur the following lines: (Query, whether original, or, if not, from whence quoted?) —
"Just notions will into good actions grow,
And to our reason we our virtues owe;
False judgments are the unhappy source of ill,
And blinded error draws the passive will.
To know our God, and know ourselves, is all
We can true happiness or wisdom call." ”

“ The losses of works of art and interest by the lamentable fires that have occurred so frequently within the memory of man, may furnish a further motive for using every endeavour to preserve those pictures that remain to us ”

“ In the year 1829, when making a tour in Ireland, I saw an engraving at Lansdowne Lodge, in the county of Kerry, the residence of Mr. Hickson, on which the following record was inscribed:—
"Catherine Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond (from the original in the possession of the Knight of Kerry on Panell) .
"She was born in 1464; married in the reign of Edw. IV.; lived during the reigns of Edw. V., Rich. III., Hen. VII., Hen. VIII., Edw. VI., Mary, and Elizabeth; and died in the latter end of James' or the beginning of Charles I.'s reign, at the great age of 162 years." ”

“ The count immediately informed the bishop of the arrival of this treasure, and invited him to witness the opening of the casket, and to attend for the purpose of verifying its contents. Accordingly the bishop came, and on opening the casket, there proceeded from it such an abominable stench, that no man could endure it, infecting, as it did, the whole of the chapel. ”

“ The bishop instantly gave orders to burn this abominable rag of the great heresiarch, and forthwith, not only the stench ceased, but there proceeded from the true relics such a delicious and heavenly odour as perfumed the entire building."
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. II. Complaint of Mars and Venus.
I am not aware that the obvious astronomical allegory, which lurks in Chaucer's "Complaint of Mars and Venus," has been pointed out, or that any attempt has been made to explain it. ”

“ The only particulars of Iovanni Volpe furnished by the Gwerclas MSS. are given in the annexed pedigree. The marriage of his daughter Frances with my ancestor, Richard Hughes of Gwerclas, arose from the latter (before his accession to the family estates and representation, consequent on the decease without issue—February 6, 18 James I., 1620-1—of his elder brother, Humffrey Hughes, Esq., of Gwerclas, Baron of Cymmer-yn-Edeirnion, High Sheriff of Merionethshire in 1618) having been secretary of the princely Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland, to whom Iovanni Volpe had been physician. ”

“ W. L.
[No fixed amount of property is a qualification for the title or rank of Esquire. For the description of persons so entitled to be designated, see Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i.; and the later the edition, the greater advantage W. L. will have in the notes and remarks of the latest law writers.]
Cromwell Family.—Will some of your correspondents be so good as to inform me, to whom the children (sons and daughters) of Oliver Cromwell's daughter Bridget were married, those by her first marriage with Ireton as well as those by her second marriage with Fleetwood. ”