Replies.

[The halcyon, or king's fisher, a bird said to breed in the sea, and that there is always a calm during her incubation; hence the adjective figuratively signifies placid, quiet, still, peaceful: as Dryden says,—"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be,As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea.""The halcyon," says Willsford, in hisNature's Secrets, p. 134., "at the time of breeding, which is about fourteen days before the winter solstice, foreshews a quiet and tranquil time, as it is observed about the coast of Sicily, from whence the proverb is transported, the halcyon days."]

"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be,As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea."

"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be,

As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea."

"The halcyon," says Willsford, in hisNature's Secrets, p. 134., "at the time of breeding, which is about fourteen days before the winter solstice, foreshews a quiet and tranquil time, as it is observed about the coast of Sicily, from whence the proverb is transported, the halcyon days."]

(Vol. ix., p. 126.)

I may referMr. B. H. Alfordto the OxfordManual of Monumental Brasses, p. 56., for an answer to his Query:

"Knights have no peculiar devices besides their arms, unless we are to consider the lions and dogs beneath their feet as emblematical of the virtues of courage, generosity, and fidelity, indispensable to their profession. One or two dogs are often at the feet of the lady. They are probably intended for some favourite animal, as the name is occasionally inscribed," &c.

Neither dog nor lion occurs at the feet of the following knights represented on brasses prior to 1460:

"c. 1450. Sir John Peryent, Jun., Digswell, Herts. (engd. Boutell.)1455. John Daundelyon, Esq., Margate. (ditto.)c. 1360. William de Aldeburgh, Aldborough, Yorkshire. (engd.Manual.)c. 1380. Sir Edward Cerue, Draycot Cerue, Wiltshire. (engd. Boutell.)1413. c. 1420. John Cressy, Esq., Dodford, Northants. (ditto.)1445. Thomas de St. Quintin, Esq., Harpham, Yorkshire. (ditto.)"

"c. 1450. Sir John Peryent, Jun., Digswell, Herts. (engd. Boutell.)

1455. John Daundelyon, Esq., Margate. (ditto.)

c. 1360. William de Aldeburgh, Aldborough, Yorkshire. (engd.Manual.)

c. 1380. Sir Edward Cerue, Draycot Cerue, Wiltshire. (engd. Boutell.)

1413. c. 1420. John Cressy, Esq., Dodford, Northants. (ditto.)

1445. Thomas de St. Quintin, Esq., Harpham, Yorkshire. (ditto.)"

Whilst a dog is seen in the following:

"1462. Sir Thomas Grene, Green's Norton, Northants. (ditto.)1510. John Leventhorpe, Esq., St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. (Manual.)1471. Wife of Thomas Colte, Esq., Roydon, Essex.c. 1480. Brass at Grendon, Northants.c. 1485. Brass, Latton, Essex.1501. Robert Baynard, Esq., Laycock, Wilts."

"1462. Sir Thomas Grene, Green's Norton, Northants. (ditto.)

1510. John Leventhorpe, Esq., St. Helen's, Bishopsgate. (Manual.)

1471. Wife of Thomas Colte, Esq., Roydon, Essex.

c. 1480. Brass at Grendon, Northants.

c. 1485. Brass, Latton, Essex.

1501. Robert Baynard, Esq., Laycock, Wilts."

These examples are described or engraved in the works of the Rev. C. Boutell, or in the OxfordManual, and I have little doubt that my own collection of rubbings (if I had leisure to examine it) would supply other examples under both of these sections.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

It is usually asserted that the dog appears at the feet of the lady in monumental brasses as a symbol of fidelity; while the lion accompanies her lord as the emblem of strength and courage. These distinctions, however, do not appear to have been much attended to. The dog, in most cases a greyhound, very frequently appears at the feet of a knight or civilian, as on the brasses of the Earl of Warwick, 1401, Sir John Falstolf at Oulton, 1445, Sir John Leventhorpe at Sawbridgeworth, 1433, Sir Reginald de Cobham at Lingfield, 1403, Richard Purdaunce, Mayor of Norwich, 1436, and Peter Halle, Esquire, at Herne, Kent, 1420. Sir John Botiler, at St. Bride's, Glamorganshire, 1285, has a dragon; and on the brass of Alan Fleming, at Newark, 1361, appears a lion with a human face seizing a smaller lion. On a very late brass of Sir Edward Warner, at Little Plumstead, Norfolk, 1565, appears a greyhound, a full century after the date assigned byB. H. Alfordfor the cessation of these symbolical figures.

Sometimes the lady has two little dogs, as Lady Bagot, at Baginton, Warwickshire, 1407; and in one instance, that of Lady Peryent, at Digswell, Herts, 1415, there is a hedgehog, the meaning of which is sufficiently obvious.B. H. Alford, in noticing the omission of the dog in the brass of Lady Camoys at Trotton, 1424, has not mentioned a singular substitute which is found for it, namely, the figure of a boy or young man, standing by the lady's right foot: but what this means I cannot attempt to determine; perhaps her only son.

It may be interesting to add that some brasses of ecclesiastics exhibit strange figures, not easy to interpret, if meant as symbolical. The brass atOulton, of the priest —— de Bacon, 1310, has a lion; that of the Abbot Delamere, at St. Albans, 1375, two dragons; that of a priest at North Mimms, about 1360, a stag; and, still more extraordinary, that of Laurence Seymour, a priest, at Higham Ferrers, 1337, two dogs contending for a bone.

F. C. H.

(Vol. viii., pp. 366. 624.; Vol. ix., p. 63.)

I can add another item of the folk lore to those already quoted. One of the salutations, by which a sneezer is greeted amongst the lower class of Romans at the present day, isFigli maschi, "May you have male children!"

The best essay onsneezing, that I am acquainted with, is to be found in Strada'sProlusions, book iii. Prol. 4., in which he replies at some length, and not unamusingly, to the Query, "Why are sneezers saluted?" It seems to have arisen out of an occurrence which had recently taken place at Rome, that a certainPistor Suburranus, after having sneezed twenty-three times consecutively, had expired at the twenty-fourth sneeze: and his object is to prove that Sigonius was mistaken in supposing that the custom of saluting a sneezer had only dated from the days of Gregory the Great, when many had died of the plague in the act of sneezing. In opposition to this notion, he adduces passages from Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter, besides those from Ammianus, Athenæus, Aristotle, and Homer, already quoted in your pages byMr. F. J. Scott. He then proceeds to give five causes from which the custom may have sprung, and classifies them as religious, medical, facetious, poetical, and augural.

Under the first head, he argues that the salutation given to sneezers is not a mere expression of good wishes, but a kind of veneration: "for," says he, "we rise to a person sneezing, and humbly uncover our heads, and deal reverently with him." In proof of this position, he tells us that in Ethiopia, when the emperor sneezed, the salutations of his adoring gentlemen of the privy chamber were so loudly uttered as to be heard and re-echoed by the whole of his court; and thence repeated in the streets, so that the whole city was in simultaneous commotion.

The other heads are then pursued with considerable learning, and some humour; and, under the last, he refers us to St. Augustin,De Doctr. Christ.ii. 20., as recording that—

"When the ancients were getting up in the morning, if they chanced to sneeze whilst putting on their shoes, they immediately went back to bed again, in order that they might get up more auspiciously, and escape the misfortunes which were likely to occur on that day."

One almost wishes that people now-a-days would sometimes consent to follow their example, when they have "got out of bed the wrong way."

C. W. Bingham.

(Vol. ix., p. 56.)

In answer to the Query of H. H. M., I beg to state that the Sir John de Morant chronicled by Froissart was Jean de Morant, Chevalier, Seigneur d'Escours, and other lordships in Normandy. He was fourth in descent from Etienne de Morant, Chevalier, livingA.D.1245, and son of Etienne de Morant and his wife Marie de Pottier. His posterity branched off into many noble Houses; as the Marquis de Morant, and Mesnil-Garnier, the Count de Panzès, the Barons of Fontenay, Rupierre, Biéville, Coulonces, the Seigneurs de Courseulles, Brequigny, &c.

The Sire Jean de Morant, bornA.D.1346, was the hero of the following adventure, quoted from an ancient chronicle of Brittany, by Chesnaye-Desbois. It appears that the Sire de Morant was one of five French knights, who fought a combatà l'outranceagainst an equal number of English challengers, with the sanction, and in the presence, of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, A.D. 1381-2. The result was in favour of the French. The chronicle proceeds:

"Le Sire de Morant s'étant principalement distingué dans cette action, un Chevalier Anglois lui propose de venger, tête-à-tête, la défaite de ses compatriotes, et qu'ils en vinrent aux mains; mais que l'Anglois, qu'une indisposition aux genouils avoit forcé de combattre sans bottes garnies, avoit engagé son adversaire de quitter les siennes, en promettant, parole d'honneur, de ne point abuser de cette condescendance, à quoi le Sire de Morant consentit: le perfide Anglois ne lui tint pas parole, et lui porta trois coups d'épée dans la jambe. Le Duc de Lancastre, qui en fut témoin, fit arrêter ce lâche, et le fit mettre entre les mains du Sire de Morant, pour tirer telle vengeance qu'il jugeroit à propos, ou du moins le contraindre à lui payer une forte rançon. Le Seigneur de Morant remercia ce Prince, en lui disant 'qu'il étoit venu de Bretagne non pour de l'or, mais pour l'honneur' et le supplia de recevoir en grace l'Anglois, attribuant à son peu d'adresse ce qui n'étoit que l'effet de sa trahison. Le Duc de Lancastre, charmé d'une si belle réponse, lui envoya une coupe d'or et une somme considérable. Morant refusa la somme, et se contenta de la coupe d'or, par respect pour le Prince."

There is a short account of the branch of Morant de Mesnil-Garnier in theGénéalogie de France, by Le Père Anselme, vol. ix.; but a very full and complete pedigree is contained in the eighth volume of theDict. de la Noblesse Française, by M. de la Chesnaye-Desbois.

As the Rev. Philip Morant was a native of Jersey, it is more than probable that he was an offset of the ancient Norman stock, though their armorial bearings are widely different. The latter bore, Azure, three cormorants argent; but the family of Astle, of Colne Park in Essex, are said to quarter for Morant, Gules, on a chevron argent, three talbots passant sable.

Having only a daughter and heiress, married to Thomas Astle, Keeper of the Records in the Tower of London, the reverend historian of Essex could hardly have been the ancestor of the Morants of Brockenhurst.

There was also another family in Normandy, named Morant de Bois-ricard, in no way connected with the first, who bore Gules, a bend ermine.

John o' the Ford.

Malta.

(Vol. ix., p. 148.)

Alphegewill find a good paper on the origin of signs in theMirror, vol. ii. p. 387.; also an article on the present specimens of country ale-house signs, in the first volume of the same interesting periodical, p. 101. In Hone'sEvery-Day Book, vol. i., are notices of curious signs at pp. 1262. and 1385. In vol. ii. some very amusing specimens are given at p. 789. Others occur in Hone'sTable-Book, at pp. 448. 504. and 756.

F. C. H.

I can answerAlphege's Query, having some notes by me on the subject. He will pardon my throwing them, in a shapeless heap, jolting out as you unload stones.

The Romans had signs; and at Pompeii a pig over the door represents a wine-shop within. The Middle Ages adopted a bush. "Good wine needs no bush," &c., answering to the gilded grapes at a modern vintner's. The bush is still a common sign. At Charles I.'s death, a cavalier landlord painted his bush black. Then came the modern square sign, formerly common to all trades. Old signs are generally heraldic, and represent royal bearings, or the blazonings of great families. The White Hart was peculiar to Richard II; the White Swan of Henry IV. and Edward III.; the Blue Boar of Richard III.; the Red Dragon came in with the Tudors. Then we have the Bear and Ragged Staff of Leicester, &c. Monograms are common; as Bolt and Tun forBolton; Hare and Tun forHarrington. The Three Suns is the favourite bearing of Edward IV.; and all Roses, white or red (as at Tewkesbury), are indications of political predilection. Other signs commemorate historical events; as the Bull and Mouth, Bull and Gate (the Boulogne engagement in Henry VIII.'s time, and alluded to by Shakspeare). The Pilgrim, Cross Keys, Salutation, Catherine Wheel, Angel, Three Kings, Seven Stars, St. Francis, &c., are medieval signs. Many are curiously corrupted; as the Cœur Doré (Golden Heart) to the Queer Door; Bacchanals (the Bag of Nails); Pig and Whistle (Peg and Wassail Bowl); the Swan and Two Necks (literally TwoNicks); Goat and Compasses (God encompasseth us); The Bell Savage (La Belle Sauvage, or Isabel Savage); the Goat in the Golden Boots (from the Dutch, Goed in der Gooden Boote), Mercury, or the God in the Golden Boots. The Puritans altered many of the monastic signs; as the Angel and Lady, to the Soldier and Citizen. In signs we may read every phase of ministerial popularity, and all the ebbs and flows of war in the Sir Home Popham, Rodney, Shovel, Duke of York, Wellington's Head, &c. At Chelsea, a sign called the "Snow Shoes," I believe, still indicates the excitement of the American war.

I shall be happy to sendAlphegemore instances, or to answer any conjectures.

G. W. Thornbury.

A century ago, when the houses in streets were unnumbered, they were distinguished by sign-boards. The chemist had the dragon (some astrological device); the pawnbroker the three golden pills, the arms of the Medici and Lombardy, as the descendant of the ancient bankers of England; the barber-chirurgeon the pole for the wig, and the parti-coloured ribands to bind up the patient's wounds after blood-letting; the haberdasher and wool-draper the golden fleece; the tobacconist the snuff-taking Highlander; the vintner the bunch of grapes and ivy-bush; and the Church and State bookseller the Bible and crown. The Crusaders brought in the signs of the Saracen's Head, the Turk's Head, and the Golden Cross. Near the church were found the Lamb and Flag, The Bell, the Cock of St. Peter, the Maiden's Head, and the Salutation of St. Mary. The Chequers commemorated the licence granted by the Earls of Arundel, or Lords Warrenne. The Blue Boar was the cognizance of the House of Oxford (and so The Talbots, The Bears, White Lions, &c. may usually be reasonably referred to the supporters of the arms of noble families, whose tenants the tavern landlords were). The Bull and Mouth, the hostelry of the voyager to Boulogne Harbour. The Castle, The Spread Eagle, and The Globe (Alphonso's), were probably adopted from the arms of Spain, Germany, and Portugal, by inns which were the resort of merchants from those countries. The Belle Sauvage recalled some show of the day; the St. George and Dragon commemorated the badge of the Garter, the Rose and Fleur-de-Lys, the Tudors; The Bull, The Falcon,and Plume of Feathers, Edward IV.; the Swan and Antelope were the arms of Henry V.; the chained or White Hart of Richard II.; the Sun and Boar of King Richard III.; the Greyhound and Green Dragon of Henry VII. The Bag o' Nails disguised the former Bacchanals; the Cat and Fiddle the Caton Fidele; the Goat and Compasses was the rebus of the Puritan motto "God encompasseth us." The Swan with Two Nicks represented the Thames swans, so marked on their bills under the "conservatory" of the Goldsmiths' Company. The Cocoa Tree and Thatched House tell their own tale; so the Coach and Horses, reminding us of the times when the superior inns were the only posting-houses, in distinction to such as bore the sign of the Pack-Horse. The Fox and Goose denoted the games played within; the country inn, the Hare and Hounds, the vicinity of a sporting squire.

Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.

Alphegewill find some information on this subject in Lower'sCuriosities of Heraldry,The Beaufoy Tokens(printed by the Corporation of London), and theJournal of the Archæological Associationfor April, 1853.

William Kelly.

Leicester.

There are a series of articles on this subject in theGentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxviii., parts i. and ii., and vol. lxxxix. parts i. and ii. Taylor the Water-poet wroteA Catalogue of Memorable Places and Taverns within Ten Shires of England, London, 1636, 8vo. Much information will also be found in Akerman'sTokens, and Burn'sCatalogue of the Beaufoy Cabinet.

Zeus.

(Vol. viii., p. 54. Vol. ix., pp. 127-29.)

Novus did not require correction; butMr. B. B. Woodwardhas elaborately confounded the genuineConsiliumof 1537 with Vergerio's spurious Letter of Advice, written in 1549.Fourcardinals, and notnine(asMr. Woodwardsupposes), subscribed the authentic document; but perhapsnovemmay have been a corruption ofnovum, applied to the later BologneseConsilium; or else the word was intended to denote the number ofallthe dignitaries who addressed Pope Paul III.

R. G.

"This Consilium was the result of an assembly of four cardinals, among whom was our Pole, and five prelates, by Paul III. in 1537, charged to give him their best advice relative to a reformation of the church. The corruptions of that community were detailed and denounced with more freedom than might have been expected, or was probably desired; so much so, that when one of the body, Cardinal Caraffa, assumed the tiara as Paul IV., he transferred his ownadviceinto his own list of prohibited books. The Consilium became the subject of an animated controversy. M‘Crie in hisHistory of the Reformation in Italy, has given a satisfactory account of the whole, pp. 83, &c. The candid Quirini could maintain neither the spuriousness of this important document, nor its non-identity with the one condemned in the Index. (See Schelborn's Two Epistles on the subject, Tiguri, 1748.) And now observe, gentle reader, the pontifical artifice which this discussion has produced. Not in the Index following the year 1748, namely, that of 1750 (that was too soon), but in the next, that of 1758, the article appears thus: 'Consilium de emendanda Ecclesia.Cum Notis vel Præfationibus Hæreticorum. Ind. Trid.' The whole, particularly the Ind. Trid., is an implied and real falsehood."— Mendham'sLiterary Policy of the Church of Rome, pp. 48, 49.

M. Barbier, in hisDictionnaire des Pseudoynmes, has given his opinion of the genuineness of the Consilium in the following note, in reply to some queries on the subject:

"Monsieur.—LeConsilium quorundam Episcoporum, &c., me paraît une pièce bien authentique, puisque Brown déclare l'avoir trouvé non-seulement dans les œuvres de Vergerio, mais encore dans lesLectiones Memorabiles, en 2 vol. in fol. par Wolphius.Je ne connais rien contrecette pièce.

"J'ai l'honneur, &c."Barbier."

"J'ai l'honneur, &c.

"Barbier."

The learned Lorente has reprinted the "Concilium" also in his work entitledMonumens Historiques concernant les deux Pragmatiques Sanctions. There can, therefore, be no just grounds for doubting the character of this precious article.

Bibliothecar. Chetham.

(Vol. viii., pp. 82. 209. 279. 328. 454. 525.)

I should be glad to see some more information in your pages relative to theearlyuse of the pulpit hour-glass. It is said that the ancient fathers preached, as the old Greek and Roman orators declaimed, by this instrument; but were the sermons of the ancient fathers an hour long? Many of those in St. Augustine's ten volumes might be delivered with distinctness in seven or eight minutes; and some of those of Latimer and his contemporaries, in about the same time. But, Query, are not theprintedsermons of these divines merely outlines, to be filled up by the preacherextempore? Dyos, in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, in 1570, speaking of the walking and profane talking in the church at sermon time, also laments how they grudged the preacher hiscustomary hour. So that an hour seems to have been the practice at the Reformation.

The hour-glass was used equally by the Catholics and Protestants. In an account of the fall of the house in Blackfriars, where a party of Romanists were assembled to hear one of their preachers, in 1623, the preacher is described as—

"Having on a surplice, girt about his middle with a linnen girdle, and a tippet of scarlet on both his shoulders. He was attended by a man that brought after him his book andhour-glass."—SeeThe Fatal Vespers, by Samuel Clark, London, 1657.

In the Preface to the Bishops'Bible, printed by John Day in 1569, Archbishop Parker is represented with anhour-glassat his right hand. And in a work by Franchinus Gaffurius, entitledAngelicum ac Divinum opus Musice, printed at Milan in 1508, is a curious representation of the author seated in a pulpit, with a book in his hand; anhour-glasson one side, and a bottle on the other; lecturing to an audience of twelve persons. This woodcut is engraved in the second volume of Hawkins'History of Music, p. 333.

Hour-glasses were often very elegantly formed, and of rich materials. Shaw, in hisDresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, has given an engraving of one in the cabinet of M. Debruge at Paris. It is richly enamelled, and set with jewels. In the churchwardens' accounts of Lambeth Church are two entries respecting the hour-glass: the first is in 1579, when 1s.4d.was "payd to Yorke for the frame in which thehowerstandeth;" and the second in 1615, when 6s.8d.was "payd for an iron for thehour-glasse." In an inventory of the goods and implements belonging to the church of All Saints, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, taken about 1632, mention is made of "onewholehour-glasse," and of "onehalfehour-glasse." (See Brand'sNewcastle, vol. i. p. 370.).

Fosbroke says, "Preaching by thehour-glasswas put an end to by the Puritans" (Ency. of Antiq., vol. i. pp. 273. 307.). But the account given by a correspondent of theGentleman's Magazine(1804, p. 201.) is probably more correct:

"Hour-glasses, in the puritanical days of Cromwell, were made use of by the preachers; who, on first getting into the pulpit, and naming the text, turned up the glass; and if the sermon did not hold till the glass was out, it was said by the congregation that the preacher was lazy: and if he continued to preach much longer, they would yawn and stretch, and by these signs signify to the preacher that they began to be weary of his discourse, and wanted to be dismissed."

Butler speaks of "gifted brethren preaching by a carnalhour-glass" (Hudibras, Part I., canto III., v. 1061.). And in the frontispiece of Dr. Young's book, entitledEngland's Shame, or a Relation of the Life and Death of Hugh Peters, London, 1663, Peters is represented preaching, and holding anhour-glassin his left hand, in the act of saying: "I know you are good fellows, so let's have anotherglass." The same words, or something very similar, are attributed to the Nonconformist minister, Daniel Burgess. Mr. Maidment, in a note to "The New Litany," printed in hisThird Book of Scottish Pasquils(Edin., 1828, p. 49.), also gives the following version of the same:

"A humorous story has been preserved of one of the Earls of Airly, who entertained at his table a clergyman, who was to preach before the Commissioner next day. The glass circulated, perhaps too freely; and whenever the divine attempted to rise, his Lordship prevented him, saying, 'Another glass, and then.' After 'flooring' (if the expression may be allowed) his Lordship, the guest went home. He next day selected a text: 'The wicked shall be punished, and thatRIGHT EARLY.' Inspired by the subject, he was by no means sparing of his oratory, and the hour-glass was disregarded, although repeatedly warned by the precentor; who, in common with Lord Airly, thought the discourse rather lengthy. The latter soon knew why he was thus punished by the reverend gentleman, when reminded, always exclaiming,notsotto voce, 'Another glass, and then.'"

Hogarth, in his "Sleeping Congregation," has introduced an hour-glass on the left side of the preacher; and Mr. Ireland observes, in his description of this plate, that they are "still placed on some of the pulpits in the provinces." At Waltham, in Leicestershire, by the side of the pulpit was (or is) an hour-glass in an iron frame, mounted on three high wooden brackets. (See Nichols'Leicestershire, vol. ii p. 382.) A bracket for the support of an hour-glass is still preserved, affixed to the pulpit of Hurst Church, in Berkshire: it is of iron, painted and gilt. An interesting notice, accompanied by woodcuts, of a number of existing specimens of hour-glass frames, was contributed to theJournal of the British Archæological Association, vol. iii., 1848, by Mr. Fairholt, to which I refer the reader for farther information.

Edward F. Rimbault.

I remember to have seen it stated in some antiquarian journal, that there are only three hour-glass stands in England where any portion of the glass is remaining. In Cowden Church, in Kent, the glass is nearly entire. Perhaps some of your readers will be able to mention the two other places.

W. D. H.

In Salhouse Church, near Norwich, an iron hour-glass stand still remains fixed to the pulpit; and a bell on the screen, between the nave and the chancel.

C—s. T. P.

At Berne, in the autumn of last year, I saw an hour-glass standstillattached to the pulpit in the minster.

W. Sparrow Simpson.

A Prize for the best Collodion.—Your "Hint to the Photographic Society" (Feb. 25) I much approve of, but I have always found more promptness from individuals than from associated bodies; and all photographers I deem to be under great obligations toyouin affording us a medium of communication before a Photographic Society was in existence. During the past month your valuable articles, from some of our most esteemed photographists, show that your pages are the agreeable medium of publishing their researches. I would therefore respectfully suggest that you should yourself offer a prize for the best mode of making a good useful collodion, and that that prize should be a complete set of your valuable journal, which now, I believe, is progressing with its ninth volume. You might associate two independent names with your own, in testing the merits of any sample supplied to you, and a condition should be that the formula should be published in "N. & Q." Your observations upon the manufacturers of paper, respecting the intrinsic value of a premium, are equally applicable to this proposition, because, should the collodion prepared by any of the various dealers who at present advertise in your columns be deemed to be the most satisfactory, your sanction and that of your friends alone would be an ample recompense. I would also suggest that samples sent to you should be labelled with a motto, and a corresponding motto,sealed, should contain the name and address, the name and address of the successful samplealoneto be opened: this would effectually preclude all preconceived notions entertained by the testing manipulators who are to decide on the merits of what is submitted to them.

A Reader of "N. & Q." and a Photographer.

[We are obliged to our correspondent not only for the compliment he has paid to our services to photography, but also for his suggestion. There are many reasons, and some sufficiently obvious, whyweshould not undertake the task proposed; and there are as obvious reasons why it should be undertaken by the Photographic Society. That body has not only the means of securing the best judges of such matters, but an invitation from such a body would probably call into the field of competition all the best photographers, whether professional or amateur.]

Double Iodide of Silver and Potassium.—I shall feel greatly indebted to you, or to any correspondent of "N. & Q.," for information as to the proportion of iodide of silver to the ounce of water, to be afterwards taken up by asaturated solutionof iodide of potassium, and converted into the double iodide of silver and potassium.

I generally pour all waste solution of silver into a jar of iodide of potassium solution; and last year, having washed some of the precipitated iodide of silver, I redissolved it in a solution of iodide of potassium of an unknown strength. Paper prepared with this solution answered very satisfactorily, kept well after excitation, and was very clear and intense; but this was purely accidental: and if you can tell me how to insure like success this summer, without a series of experiments, for which I have but little time just now, the information will be very acceptable to me, and probably to many others.

I excite my paper with equal proportions of saturated solution of gallic acid and aceto-nitrate of silver, one or two drops of each to the drachm of distilled water. I always plunge the bottle of gallic acid solution into hot water when first made, which enables it to take up more of the acid; on cooling, the excess crystallises at the bottom. This ensures an even strength of solution: it will keep any length of time, if a small piece of camphor be allowed to float in it.

J. W. Walrond.

Wellington.

[The resultant iodide from fifteen grains of nitrate of silver, precipitated by means of the iodide of potassium, will give the requisite quantity of iodide for every ounce of water; or about twenty-seven grains of the dried iodide will produce the same effect. It is however far preferable, and more economical, to convert all waste into chloride of silver, from which the pure metal may be again so readily obtained. Iodide of silver, collected in the manner described by our correspondent, is very likely to lead to disappointment.]

Albumenized Paper.—I have by careful observation found that the cause of the albumen settling and drying in waving lines and blotches on my paper, arose from some parts of the paper being more absorbent than others, the gelatinous-like nature of the albumen assisting to retard its ready ingress into the unequal parts, and, consequently, that those places becoming the first dried, prevented the albumen, still slowly dripping over the now more wetted parts, from running down equally and smoothly, thereby causing a check to its progress; and as at last these become also dry, thicker and irregular patches of albumen were deposited, forming the mischief in question.

The discovery of the cause suggested to me the propriety of either giving each sheet a prolonged floating of from ten to fifteen minutes on the salted albumen, or until every part had become fully and equally saturated; or, as a preliminary to the floating and hanging up by one corner on a line, of putting overnight between each sheet a damped piece of bibulous paper, and placing the whole between two smooth plates of stone, or other non-absorbent material.

Either method produces equally good results; but I now always use the latter, thereby avoiding the necessity of otherwise having several dishes of albumen at work at once.

Henry H. Hele.

Cyanide of Potassium(Vol. ix., p. 230.).—I have for a long time been in the habit of using a solution of the above-named substance for fixing collodionpositives, because the reduced silver has a muchwhiterappearance when thus fixed, than when the hyposulphite of soda is used for the same purpose; but I cannot quite agree withMr. Hockinthat it isequallyapplicable to negatives, though in many cases it will do very well. I find the reduced metal is more pervious to light when fixed with the cyanide solution, particularly in weak negatives. Lastly, I find that a small quantity of thesilver salts being added to the solution before using, produces less injury to the half-tones, and this not by merely weakening the solution, as one of double the strength with the silver is better than one without it, though only half as powerful.

Your correspondent C. E. F. (ibid.) will find his positives will not stand a saturated solution of hyposulphite of soda, unless he prints them so intensely dark that all traces of a picture by reflected light are obliterated; but I have sometimes accidentally exposed my positives awhole day, and retained a fair proof by soaking the apparently useless impressions in such a solution.

Geo. Shadbolt.

Saw-dust Recipe(Vol. ix., p. 148.).—See Herschel'sDiscourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, published in Lardner'sCyclopædia, p. 64., where he says:

"That sawdust itself is susceptible of conversion into a substance bearing no remote analogy to bread; and though certainly less palatable than that of flour, yet no way disagreeable, and both wholesome and digestible, as well as highly nutritive."

To which passage the following note is appended:

"See Dr. Prout's account of the experiments of Professor Autenrieth of Tubingen,Phil. Trans., 1827, p. 331. This discovery, which renders famine next toimpossible, deserves a higher degree of celebrity than it has obtained."

J. M. W.

Though not exactly the recipe forsaw-dust biscuitswhich I have heard of, there is an account of the process of making bread from bark in Laing's "Norway" (Longman'sTraveller's Lib.), part ii. p. 219., where, on the subject of pine-trees, it is stated:

"Many were standing with all their branches dead, stripped of the bark to make bread, and blanched by the weather, resembling white marble,—mere ghosts of trees. The bread is made of the inner rind next the wood, taken off in flakes like a sheet of foolscap paper, and is steeped or washed in warm water, to clear off its astringent principle. It is then hung across a rope to dry in the sun, and looks exactly like sheets of parchment. When dry it is pounded into small pieces mixed with corn, and ground into meal on the hand-mill or quern. It is much more generally used than I supposed. There are districts in which the forests suffered very considerable damage in the years 1812 and 1814, when bad crops and the war, then raging, reduced many to bark bread. The Fjelde bonder use it, more or less, every year. It is not very unpalatable; nor is there any good reason for supposing it unwholesome, if well prepared; but it is very costly. The value of the tree, which is left to perish on its root, would buy a sack of flour, if the English market were open."

Now, if G. D., or any enterprising individual, could succeed in converting saw-dust into wholesome food, or fit for admixture with flour, somewhat after the above manner, it would indeed be a "happy discovery," considering the present high price of "the staff of life." Bread has also been made from the horse-chesnut; but the expense of preparation, removing the strong bitter flavour, is no doubt the obstacle to its success. What could be done with the Spanish chesnut?

Willo.

The saw-dust recipe is to be found in theSaturday Magazine, Jan. 3, 1835, taken from No. 104. of theQuarterly Review. It is entitled, "How to make a Quartern Loaf out of a Deal Board."

J. C.

Your correspondent G. D. may find something to his purpose in a little German work, entitledWie kann man, bey grosser Theuerung und Hungersnoth, ohne Getreid, gesundes Brod verschaffen?Von Dr. Oberlechner: Xav. Duyle, Salzburg, 1817.

W. T.

Brydone the Tourist(Vol. ix., p. 138.).—The literary world would feel obliged toJ. Macrayto tell us the name of the writer of the criticism who says, "Brydone never was on the Summit of Etna." Did the scholars of Italy know more of what was done by Englishmen in Sicily in Brydone's day than they do at present? How are the dates reconciled? Brydone would be 113 years old. Mr. Beckford, I think, must have been some thirteen or fourteen years younger. Brydone was always considered to be in his relations in life a man of probity and honour. I used to hear much of him from one nearly related to me, whose father was first cousin to Brydone's wife.

H. R., née F.

Etymology of "Page"(Vol. ix., p. 106.).—PaggioItalian,pageFrench and Spanish,pagiProvençal, is derived by Diez,Etymologisches Wörterbuch der Romanischen Sprachen(Bonn, 1853), p. 249., from the Greekπαιδίον. This derivation is evidently the true one. I may take this opportunity of recommending the above-cited work to all persons who feel an interest in the etymology of the Romance languages. It is not only more scientific and learned, but more comprehensive, than any other work of the kind.

Longfellow(Vol. ix., p. 174.).—There was a family of the name of Longfellow resident in Brecon, South Wales, about fifty or sixty years ago, who were large landowners in the county; and one of them (Tom Longfellow, alluded to in the lines below) kept the principal inn, "The Golden Lion," in that town. His son occupied a farm a few miles from Brecon, about thirty years ago; and two of his sisters resided in the town. The family was frequently engaged in law suits (perhaps from theproverbiallylitigious dispositionof their Welsh neighbours), and was ultimately ruined. Many of the old inhabitants of that part of the Principality could, no doubt, give a better and fuller account of them.

The following lines (not very flattering to the landlord, certainly), said to have been written by a commercial traveller on an inside-window shutter of "The Golden Lion," when Mr. Longfellow was the proprietor, may not be out of place in "N. & Q.:"

"Tom Longfellow's name is most justly his due,Long his neck, long his bill, which is very long too;Long the time ere your horse to the stable is led,Long before he's rubbed down, and much longer till fed;Long indeed may you sit in a comfortless room,Till from kitchen, long dirty, your dinner shall come;Long the often-told tale that your host will relate,Long his face whilst complaining how long people eat;Long may Longfellow long ere he see me again,—Long 'twill be ere I long for Tom Longfellow's inn."

"Tom Longfellow's name is most justly his due,

Long his neck, long his bill, which is very long too;

Long the time ere your horse to the stable is led,

Long before he's rubbed down, and much longer till fed;

Long indeed may you sit in a comfortless room,

Till from kitchen, long dirty, your dinner shall come;

Long the often-told tale that your host will relate,

Long his face whilst complaining how long people eat;

Long may Longfellow long ere he see me again,—

Long 'twill be ere I long for Tom Longfellow's inn."

C. H. (2)

Yesterday I happened to be looking over an old Bristol paper (Sarah Farley'sBristol Journal, Saturday, June 11, 1791), and the name of Longfellow, which I had before only known as borne by the poet, caught my eye. At the end of the paper there is a notice in these words:

"Advertisements are taken in for this paper by agents in various places, and by Mr. Longfellow, Brecon," &c.

Henry Geo. Tomkins.

Park Lodge, Weston-super-Mare.

There is now living at Beaufort Iron Works, Breconshire, a respectable tradesman, bearing the name of Longfellow. He himself is a native of the town of Brecon, as was his father also. But his grandfather was a settler; though from what part of the country this last-named relative originally came, he is unfortunately unable to say. He has the impression, however, that it was from Cornwall or Devonshire. Perhaps this information will partly answer the question ofOxoniensis.

E. W. I.

It is by no means improbable that the name is a corruption ofLongvillers, found in Northamptonshire as early as the reign of Edward I., and derived, I imagine, from the town of Longueville in Normandy. There is a Newton Longville in this county.

W. P. Storer.

Olney, Bucks.

Canting Arms(Vol. ix., p. 146.).—The introduction to the collection of arms alluded to wasnotwritten by Sir George Naylor, but by the Rev. James Dallaway, who had previously published hisHistorical Enquiries, a work well known.

Holy Loaf Money(Vol. ix., p. 150.).—At some time before the date of present rubrics, it was the custom for every house in the parish to provide in rotation bread (and wine) for the Holy Communion. By the first book of King Edward VI., this duty was devolved upon those who had the cure of souls, with a provision "that the parishioners of every parish should offer every Sunday, at the time of the offertory,the just value and price of the holy loaf... to the use of the pastors and curates" who had provided it; "and that in such order and course as they were wont to find, and pay the said holy loaf." This is, I think, the correct answer to the Query of T. J. W.

J. H. B.

"Could we with ink,"&c.(Vol. viii., pp. 127. 180.).—The idea embodied in these lines was well known in the seventeenth century. The following "rhyme," extracted from a rare miscellany entitledWits Recreations, 12mo., 1640, has reference to the subject.

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