Various

“ We have striven, and shall ever continue to strive, to unite them together into one goodly band, feeling assured that by that union we bring into the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES" the learning, kindliness, aptitude, and diversity of talent and subject, which are necessary to ensure its usefulness, and therefore its success. ”

“ I can recollect, when I was a boy, to have been much surprised and horrified with the accounts that old people gave me, that it was the practice in decided cases of rabies canina to suffocate the unfortunate patient between feather beds. The disease being so suddenly and so invariably fatal, where it appeared unequivocally to attack the sufferer, might dispose the world to ascribe the death to what surely may be termed foul play ”

“ How many hundreds, and other larger divisions of counties, are named after ancient trees. How many of the old Saxon names of our towns and hamlets indicate that they grew up around a well-known oak, or ash, or thorn, or yew; in like manner as, in later periods, when strength rather than law was the ruler, the people crowded together their hovels under the protective shadow of the castle of some powerful chieftain, or within the privileged precincts of some consecrated fane. ”

“ I believe that a likeness always exists in members of the same family, though it may not always be seen, and, even then, not by everybody. I have seen at times a striking likeness in a pretty face to that of a plain one in the same family. ”

“ We heartily and earnestly express our thanks to all our friends, whether Contributors or Readers, for the favour they have shown us, and the encouragement and support which have rendered the enlargement of our paper necessary. We entered upon our course with the support of many distinguished friends, whose varied acquirements stamped an immediate value on "NOTES AND QUERIES," and gave it a character which raised it to its present position among the periodicals of the country. ”

“ Can any of your antiquarian readers favour me with the armorial ensigns of Sir Roger Wilcock, knight, whose daughter and heiress, Agnes, was wife to Sir Richard Turberville, of Coyty Castle, in Glamorganshire, and by him mother of two sons, Sir Payn, afterwards Lord of Coyty, and Wilcock Turberville, who by his wife Maud, heiress of Tythegstone, in the same county, was ancestor of the Turbervilles of that place, and of Penlline Castle. ”

“ A book printed at Edinburgh in 1594 has not the semicolon; the use of it had not, apparently, arrived in Scotland.
That an earlier use of the semicolon had been made upon the Continent is probable. It occurs in the Sermone di Beato Leone Papa, 4to., Flor. 1485, the last point in the book.
The interrogative point, or note of interrogation, probably derived from the Greek, occurs frequently in Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique, 4to., 1553.
Some reader of your "NOTES AND QUERIES," better informed than myself, may possibly throw further light upon the English adoption of stops in literature. ”

“ Such evidence exists in a great variety of quarters, and if your correspondents could be persuaded to adopt L.'s suggestion, and take up the matter in a really serious spirit, the nature of your publication, and the wide extent of your circulation, render your pages singularly well adapted for doing really effective service in a cause which is equally interesting to the naturalist and the antiquary. ”

“ All authorities are agreed in fixing on "Margret O'Bryen, wife of James, 9th Earl of Desmond," as the long-lived individual in question. Sir Walter Raleigh, by calling her "The old Countess of Desmond, of Inchiquin," determines the fact of her being of the O'Bryen race,—Inchiquin being the feudal territory of the O'Bryens. There was more than one intermarriage between the Desmond earls and the O'Bryen family ”

“ The Greeks of the Lower Empire followed the example in speaking of Constantinople; and the Turks, on their conquest in the fifteenth century, adopting the provincialism, wrote εἰς τὴν πόλιν, Istampoli, and thence followed Istambol and Stamboul. The same theory will explain the modern word Santorin, about which your correspondent Σ requests information. The ancient name was Thera, and by this the island is described both by Herodotus and Strabo, and later still by Pliny. Thera, submitted to the usual process, became, from εἰς τὴν Θήραν, Stantheran, Santeran, and finally Santorin. ”

“ I shall conclude by committing myself to your printer's mercy, trusting that he will be too magnanimous to take notice of my remarks on the "slip-slop" printing of figures, which will sometimes occur in the best offices; if he should misprint my figures, all my facts will fall to the ground. ”

“ But even if we are always right in these and similar cases, still we cannot deny that there often lies in these old poems what we, notwithstanding we are in the possession of the most exquisite skill, cannot at all reach,—an infinite naïveté, a touching simplicity. ”

“ One of the most popular branches of botanical study at the present day is that of our British Ferns, from the very obvious causes—that they are objects of exquisite elegance—not very numerous, nor difficult to be procured—and, lastly, which may well account for their popularity with the dwellers in towns, who yet love to "babble of green fields" and be reminded of them—they are for the most part easily cultivated, and of all others are perhaps best adapted to parlour or window culture. ”

“ This, pronounced by the Greeks, Evripos, the Venetians, on their arrival in the thirteenth century, first changed into Egripo and Negripo, and next into Negro-ponte, after they had built a bridge across the Euripus. This last name, the island retains to the present time. Another familiar example is the modern name of Byzantium, Stamboul, by which both Greeks and Turks now speak of Constantinople. The Romans called their capital par excellence "the city" (in which, by the way, we ourselves imitate them when speaking of London) . ”

“ I think both these gentlemen confound the murder of James, the ninth Earl of Desmond, with the execution of his father, Thomas, the eighth Earl, who, according to all annals and authorities, was beheaded at Drogheda in the year 1467. Of this fact there can be no question. Ware gives it in his Annals, stating that "John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, called a parliament at Drogheda, and passed a certain enactment, in virtue of which "the great Earl of Desmond was beheaded, 15th of February, 1467." We find the very act itself (in the Cotton MSS. Titus, B. xi. 373.) ”

“ What is wanted is, that antiquarian students should bring forward the facts respecting historical trees which are to be found in ancient evidences of all kinds, and that local knowledge should be applied to the identification of such trees wherever it is possible. If this were done—done, that is, thoroughly and carefully—I cannot doubt that an antiquity would be satisfactorily established in reference to many trees and clumps of trees still existing throughout the kingdom, which it would now be thought supremely wild and fanciful even to imagine. ”

“ In conclusion, let me express a wish, that the essays which I have pointed out could be perused by some of your correspondents, because I am convinced that we should in future have fewer discussions on parallel passages, which seldom possess much real interest, and frequently have a tendency to injure the fair fame of our most gifted writers, by calling in question their literary honesty without establishing the charge brought against them. ”

“ Both Bale and Pits ascribe to Caxton the translation of a work entitled Historia Lumbardica. Ames, as we have seen, states the fact with regard to Pits, but had met with no such work; Herbert, by way of explanation, assumes the existence of a publication of which no one had before heard; and Dibdin, who had far superior means of information, repeats the observations of Herbert without the addition of one word expressive of assent or dissent. May we not infer their inability to solve the problem? ”

“ In company with the Lords Mortimer, D'Awney, and Bloyhon (probably an ancestor of your correspondent BLOWEN) , and a large staff of archdeacons, chancellors, canons, chaplains, and familiars, the Bishop visited the church of St. Burian, and obtained from the parishioners a solemn promise of future obedience to his spiritual authority. The promise was made by the greater parishioners in English and French, and by the rest in Cornish, which the rector of St. Just (a parish which has lately obtained some celebrity by the Gorham controversy) interpreted to his lordship. ”

“ Lord Byron has explained this origin of the alteration in one of the notes to Childe Harold, I think; but I apprehend that the barbarism is to be charged less upon the modern Greeks themselves, than upon the European races, Sclavonians, Normans, and Venetians, and later still the Turks, who seized upon their country on the dismemberment of the Lower Empire. The Greeks themselves no doubt continued to spell their proper names correctly ”

“ We learn in Pepys, [3] that in his time, in the forest of Dean, there were still standing the old "Vorbid" or "forbid" trees of the time of Edward III.; that is (I presume) , the trees which were left standing as marks or boundaries when there was a great felling of timber in the reign of Edward III. Perhaps some of your correspondents can tell us whether there are any such trees known in the forest of Dean now. ”

“ This tract, most curious as the first publication of this extraordinary man, seems to have eluded hitherto every search. In Jared Sparks's elaborate edition of Dr. Franklin's Works in 10 vols., it is of course not to be found. In a note (vol. viii., p. 405.) , the editor observes, "No copy of this tract is now known to be in existence." Nor do I find that any writer on the subject of Franklin, or the history of metaphysics, or moral philosophy, appears to have seen it. ”

“ It is true that we look upon these descriptions with modern eyes, not taking into consideration that our manners and customs, that our general views, in short, are not at all times in unison with those of the fifteenth century. ”

“ I am witness of a strong likeness in a young man, born in 1832, to the portrait of his great-great-uncle, born in 1736,—which carries back the inherited likeness to the latter's father, who was born in 1707, and married 1730. ”

“ Our humble duties unto your good L. premised. May it please the same to be advertised, that one Thomas Woodcock, an honest young man, and one of our Company, hathe bin imprisoned in Newgate by the L. Bishopp of London theis six dayes, for sellinge of certaine bookes called the Admonition to the Parliament. Dyvers of the poore mans frendes have bin earnest suitors unto the Bishopp of London for his libertie: his L. aunswere unto them is, that he neither can nor will do any thinge without your L. consent, signified by your letters or warrant. ”

“ I wish to ascertain from some competent statistician what, under the most favourable circumstances, would be the increase of seventy people in 430 years? I am aware that Professor Lee, in his invaluable translation of the Book of Job, is of opinion that 215 years is the time the Israelites actually remained in Egypt; and the remainder must be considered the previous time they were in Canaan. If the Professor's calculation be adopted, the statistician could easily show the difference at 215 and 430 years.
ÆGROTUS.
Computatio Eccles. Anglic.
—In Bishop Burnet's "Hist. of the Reform.," vol. ”

“ In the Birch Collections at the British Museum there is a transcript of a Table-Book of Robert Sydney, second Earl of Leicester, made by Birch (Add. MSS. 4161.) , the following extract from which, P. C. S. S. believes will not be unacceptable to the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES:"
"The olde Countess of Desmond was a marryed woman in Edward IV.'s time, of England, and lived till towards the end of Queen Elizabeth, soe as she needes must be 140 yeares old: shee had a newe sett of teeth not long before her death, and might have lived much longer, had shee not mett with a kind of violent death ”

“ I may mention that the penitent parishioners very prudently reserved the king's rights. As the king claimed the deanery of St. Burian as a royal peculiar exempt from ordinary jurisdiction, and eventually made good his claim, it is plain that neither the promises of the parishioners nor the polyglot sermon of the Bishop, could have had any lasting effect. ”

“ THE FAMILY ALMANACK and EDUCATIONAL REGISTER for 1852, besides the usual Contents of an Almanac, contains full and complete accounts of all the Universities, Colleges, and Grammar Schools in the Kingdom, including Masters' Names, Number and Value of Scholarships, Amount of Endowment, and a great variety of particulars respecting Education at Home and Abroad. ”

“ Meaning of Barnacles.
—Can any of your readers throw any light on the term "barnacles," which is constantly used for "spectacles"? I need not say that the word in the singular number is the name of a shell-fish. ”

“ I am happy to inform those who may take an interest in Dr. Franklin's first performance—and what is there in literary history more attractive than to compare the earliest works of great men with their maturer efforts?—that I fortunately possess a copy of this tract. It is bound up in a volume of tracts, and came from the library of the Rev. S. Harper. The title is, "A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, in a Letter to a Friend:
'Whatever is, is in its causes just,
Since all things are by fate ”