SONGS of DEGREES (ASCENTS).

"O'i wiw ŵy i weu ê â a'i weauO'i wyau e weua;E' weua ei ŵe aia'.A'i weau yw ieuau iâ."

"O'i wiw ŵy i weu ê â a'i weau

O'i wyau e weua;

E' weua ei ŵe aia'.

A'i weau yw ieuau iâ."

"I perish by my art; dig my own grave;I spin my thread of life; my death I weave."

"I perish by my art; dig my own grave;

I spin my thread of life; my death I weave."

Thomas O'Coffey.

Footnote 3:(return)TheDouto be pronounced as inDouglass.

TheDouto be pronounced as inDouglass.

(Vol. ix., pp. 121. 376.)

The analysis of the wordהַמַּעֲלוֹת‎ (the steps), confining ourselves to sensible objects, shows, first, the prepositionעַל‎,over(=up+on); and, secondly,מַעֲלָה‎, thechamber-over. (Neh. ix. 4., xii. 37.; Jos. x. 10.; 1 Sam. ix. 11.; Am. ix. 6.; Ps. civ. 13.) The translators of the authorised version, in using the word "degrees," intended probably to convey the notion ofrank; but the modern mixed-mathematical ideas lead us of this day rather to think of geographical, barometrical, &c. degrees. Thatstepsis the word most accordant with the ancient notions is evident from the concurrence of the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, as also from the Chaldee Targum, alluded to by J. R. G., which has the inscriptionשירא דאתאמר עַל מַסוקִין דְּתְחוֹמָא‎, "a song called 'over thestepsof the deep'" (Deut. viii. 7.; Ex. xv. 8.). The root of this moral isעלח‎, in the Hebrew and its cognates, and the primitive notion isto ascend; from which is formed in Arabic(ARABIC),adscendit in tectum; in Syriac(SYRIAC),contignatio superior, cœnaculum(Jud. iii. 23-25.; Luc. xxii. 12.); and the Chaldeeעַלִּית‎,pars domus superior, cubiculum, sive cœnaculum superius, Græc.ὑπερῶον(Dan. vi. 11.). See Shaw'sItinerary, pp. 360-365.

Theמ‎ prefixed is theparticipialform of the verb, equivalent to the terminationingin English; and converts the verb also into a verbal noun, conveying the generalised idea of a class ofactions; and thereby the steps,המעלות‎,the steppings upward, literally, which means "the ascents," or "the ascendings."

The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is probably equally apocryphal with the quotations from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for the same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the ascending the altar by steps, would apply still more strongly to the supposed "fifteen steps leading from the Atrium Israelis to the court of thewomen."[4]Although the ground-plans of the temples are well known, their elevations are involved in doubt.

Your journal would not afford me sufficient space for anexcursusto establish the suggestion,notassertion, that I have adventured as to thedomesticuse of the Alphabetic and Degree Psalms, but there is negative evidence that these Psalms werenotused in the Jewish liturgy. I will only refer you to Lightfoot's ninth volume (Pitman's edition), where the Psalms used, and indeed the whole service of the Jews, is as clearly set forth as the Greek service is in the liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom.

T. J. Buckton.

Lichfield.

Footnote 4:(return)"Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepererat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pictore,Noct. Attic., lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, nisi quæ Græcæ adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius adÆneid, iv. 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, nisi Græcas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur; eoque nec pluribus gradibus, sed tribus ut adscensu duplices nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura; nam ideo et scalæ Græcæ dicuntur, quia ita fabricantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausæ sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admittant."—Rosenmüller on Exod. x. 26. The ascent to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway,כבש‎.

"Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepererat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pictore,Noct. Attic., lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, nisi quæ Græcæ adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius adÆneid, iv. 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, nisi Græcas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur; eoque nec pluribus gradibus, sed tribus ut adscensu duplices nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura; nam ideo et scalæ Græcæ dicuntur, quia ita fabricantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausæ sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admittant."—Rosenmüller on Exod. x. 26. The ascent to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway,כבש‎.

(Vol. ix., p. 394.)

Anon.is clearly mistaken in thinking that, when Darwin says that "theundulatingmotion of the tail of fishes might be applied behind a boat with greater effect than common oars," he had any idea of a screw propeller. He meant not arotatory, but, as he says, an "undulating" motion, like that of the fish's tail: such as we see every day employed by the boys in all our rivers and harbours, calledsculling—that is, driving a boat forward by the rapid lateral right and left impulsion of a single oar, worked from the stern of the boat. It was the application of steam to some such machinery as this that Darwin seems to have meant; and not to the special action of arevolving cut-water screw.

I avail myself of this occasion to record, that about the date of Darwin's publication, or very soon after, the very ingenious Earl Stanhope not only thought of, but actually employed, the identical screw propeller now in use in a vessel which he had fitted up for the purpose; and in which, by his invitation, I, and several other gentlemen, accompanied him in various trips backwards and forwards between Blackfriars and Westminster bridges. The instrument was a long iron axle,working on the stern port of the vessel, having at the end in the water a wheel of inclined planes, exactly like the flyer of a smoke-jack; while, inboard, the axle was turned by a crank worked by the men. The velocity attained was, I think, said to be four miles an hour. I am sorry that I am not able to specify the exact date of this experiment, but it must have been between 1802 and 1805. What Lord Stanhope said about employing steam to work his machine, I do not clearly recollect. He entered into a great many details about it, but I remember nothing distinctly but the machine itself.

(Vol. ix., pp. 222. 336.)

The wines of Xérès consist of two kinds, viz. sweet and dry, each of which is again subdivided into two other varieties. Amontillado sherry, or simply Amontillado, belongs to the latter class, the other description produced from the dry wine being sherry, properly so called, that which passes in this country generally by that name. These two wines, although differing from each other in the peculiarities of colour, smell, and flavour, are produced from the same grape, and in precisely a similar manner; indeed, it frequently happens that of two or morebotas, or large casks, filled with the samemoùt(wort or sweet wine), and subjected to the same manipulation, the one becomes Amontillado, and the other natural sherry. This mysterious transformation takes place ordinarily during the first, but sometimes even during the second year, and in a manner that has hitherto baffled the attempts of the most attentive observer to discover. Natural sherry has a peculiar aromatic flavour, somewhat richer than that of its brother, the Amontillado, and partakes of three different colours, viz. pale or straw, golden, and deep golden, the latter being the description denominated by us brown sherry. The Amontillado is of a straw colour only, more or less shaded according to the age it possesses. Its flavour is drier and more delicate than that of natural sherry, recalling in a slight degree the taste of nuts and almonds. This wine, beings produced by a phenomenon which takes place it is imagined during the fermentation, is naturally less abundant than the other description of sherry, and there are years in which it is produced in very small quantities, and sometimes even not at all; for the same reason it is age for age dearer also. The word "Amontillado" signifies like or similar to Montilla,i. e.the wine manufactured at that place. Montilla is situated in Upper Andalusia, in the neighbourhood of Cordouc, and produces an excellent description of wine, but which, from the want of roads and communication with the principal commercial towns of Spain, is almost entirely unknown.

The two sweet wines of Xérès are the "Paxarite," or "Pedro Ximenès," and the "Muscatel." The first-named is made from a species of grape called "Pedro Ximenès," sweeter in quality than that which produces the dry sherry, and which, moreover, is exposed much longer to the action of the sun previous to the process of manufacture; its condition when subjected to the action of the pressers resembling very nearly that of a raisin. Fermentation is in this case much more rapid on account of the saccharine nature of themoùtor wort. In flavour it is similar to the fruit called "Pedro Ximenès," the colour being the same as that of natural sherry. Muscate wine is made from the grape of that name, and in a manner precisely similar to the Paxarite. The wine produced from this grape is still sweeter than the Pedro Ximenès, its taste being absolutely that of the Muscat grape. In colour also it is deeper; but the colour of both, like that of the two dry wines, increases in proportion to their age, a circumstance exactly the reverse of that which takes place in French wines. German sherry wines are capable of preservation both in bottles and casks for an indefinite period. In one of thebodegasor cellars belonging to the firm of M. P. Domecq, at Xérès, are to be seen five or six casks of immense size and antiquity (some of them, it is said, exceeding a century). Each of them bears the name of some distinguished hero of the age in which it was produced, Wellington and Napoleon figuring conspicuously amongst others: the former is preserved exclusively for the taste of Englishmen.

The history of sherry dates, in a commercial point of view, from about the year 1720 only. Before this period it is uncertain whether it possessed any existence at all; at all events it appears to have been unknown beyond the immediate neighbourhood in which it was produced. It would be difficult, perhaps, to say by whom it was first imported: all that can be affirmed with any degree of certainty is, that a Frenchman, by name Pierre Domecq, the founder of the house before mentioned, was among the earliest to recognise its capabilities, and to bring it to the high state of perfection which it has since attained. In appreciation of the good service thus rendered to his country, Ferdinand VII. conferred upon this house the right exclusively to bear upon their casks the royal arms of Spain. This wine, from being at first cultivated only in small quantities, has long since grown into one of the staple productions of the country. In the neighbourhood of Xérès there are at present under cultivation from 10,000 to 12,000arpentsof vines; these produce annually from 30,000 to 35,000botas, equal to 70,000 or 75,000 hogsheads. In gathering thefruit, the ripest is invariably selected for wines of the best quality. The wines of Xérès, like all those of the peninsula, require the necessary body or strength to enable them to sustain the fatigue of exportation. Previous, therefore, to shipment (none being sold under four to five years of age), a littleeau de vie(between the fiftieth and sixtieth part) is added, a quantity in itself so small, that few would imagine it to be the cause of the slight alcoholic taste which nearly all sherries possess.

In consequence of the high price of the delicious wines, numerous imitations, or inferior sherries, are manufactured, and sold in immense quantities. Of these the best are to be met with at the following places: San Lucar, Porto, Santa Maria, and even Malaga itself. The spurious sherry of the first-named place is consumed in larger quantities, especially in France, than the genuine wine itself. One reason for this may be, that few vessels go to take cargoes at Cadiz; whilst many are in the habit of doing so to Malaga for dry fruits, and to Seville for the fine wool of Estremadura. San Lucar is situated at the mouth of the Guadalquiver.

W. C.

(Vol. ix., p. 136.)

Mr. Thackeray's work,The Newcomes, would, if consulted by your correspondent, furnish him with farther examples. For instance, Colonel Newcome's Christian name is stated (pp. 27. 57.) to be Thomas: at p. 49. he is designated Col. J. Newcome. The letter addressed to him (p. 27.) is superscribed "Major Newcome," although at p. 25. he is styled "Colonel." At p. 71. mention is made of "Mr. Shaloo, the great Irish patriot," who at p. 74. becomes "Mr. Shaloony," and at p. 180. relapses into the dissyllabic "Shaloo." Clive Newcome is represented (p. 184.) as admiring his youthful mustachios, and Mr. Doyle has depicted him without whiskers: at p. 188. Ethel, "after Mr. Clive's famous mustachios made their appearance, rallied him," and "asked him if he was (were?) going into the army? She could not understand how any but military men could wear mustachios." On this the author remarks, three lines farther on: "If Clive had been in love with her, no doubt he would have sacrificed even those belovedwhiskersfor the charmer."

At p. 111. the Rev. C. Honeyman is designated "A.M.," although previously described a Master of Arts of Oxford, where the Masters are styled "M.A." in contradistinction to the Masters of Arts in every other university. Cambridge Masters frequently affix M.A. to their names, but I never heard of an instance of an Oxonian signing the initials of his degree as A.M.

Apropos of Oxford, I recently met the following sentence at p. 3. ofVerdant Green:

"Although pronounced by Mrs. Toosypegs, his nurse, to be 'a perfect progidye,' yet we are not aware that hisdébuton the stage of life, although thus applauded by such aclacqueuras the indiscriminating Toosypegs, was announced to the world at large by any other means than the notices in the county papers."

If the author ever watched the hired applauders in a Parisian theatre, he would have discerned among themclacqueusesas well asclacqueurs.

Juverna, M.A.

(Vol. ix., p. 372.)

In justification of Dr. Forbes' identifying Roland the Brave with the hero of Schiller's ballad, Ritter Toggenburg, I beg to refer your correspondent X. Y. Z. toDeutsches Sagenbuch, von L. Bechstein, Leipzig, 1853, where (p. 95.) the same tale is related which forms the subject of Mrs. Hemans' beautiful ballad, only with this difference, that there the account of Roland's death entirely agrees with Schiller's version of the story, whereas the English poet has adopted the general tradition of Roland's fall at Roncesvalles.

Most of the epic poems of the middle ages in which Roland's death is recorded, especially the different old FrenchChansons de Roland ou de Roncevaux, an Icelandic poem on the subject, and Stricker's middle-high German lay of Roland, all of them written between A.D. 1100 and 1230—agree in this, that after Roland's fall at Roncesvalles, and the complete rout of the heathen by Charlemagne, the latter returns home and is met—some say at Aix-la-Chapelle, others at Blavie, others at Paris—by Alda or Alite, Olivier's sister, who inquires of him where Roland, her betrothed, is. On learning his fate she dies on the spot of grief. According to monk Conrad (aboutA.D.1175), Alda was Roland's wife. SeeRuolandes Liet, von W. Grimm, Göttingen, 1838, pp. 295—297.

The legend of Rolandseck, as told by Bechstein from Rhenish folk lore, begins thus:

"Es sasz auf hoher Burg am Rhein hoch über dem Stromthal ein junger Rittersmann, Roland geheiszen, (manche sagen Roland von Angers, Neffe Karls des Groszen), der liebte ein Burgfräulein, Hildegunde, die Tochter des Burggrafen Heribert, der auf dem nahen Schlosz Drachenfels sasz," &c.

Here the question is left open whether the hero of the story was Roland the Brave, or some other knight of that name. The latter seems the more probable, as Roland's fall at Roncesvalles is one of the chief subjects of mediæval poetry, whereas the death of knight Roland in sight ofNonnenwerth on the Rhine, forms the very pith of the German local legend. From certain coincidences, however, it was easy to blend the two stories together into one, as was done by Mrs. Hemans. As to Schiller, we may suppose that he either followed altogether a different legend, or, perhaps to avoid misconception, substituted another name for that of knight Roland, similar to what he has done in other instances.

R. R.

Canterbury.

I think your correspondent X. Y. Z. is mistaken in attributing to Mrs. Hemans the lines on the "Brave Roland." In Mr. Campbell'sPoemshe will find some stanzas which bear a striking resemblance to those he has quoted. I subjoin those stanzas to which X. Y. Z. has referred:

"The brave Roland! the brave Roland!False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strandThat he had fall'n in fight;And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,O loveliest maiden of Allemayne!For the loss of thine own true knight."But why so rash has she ta'en the veil,In yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale,For her vow had scarce been sworn,And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung,'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!. . . . . ."She died! he sought the battle plain;Her image fill'd his dying brain,When he fell and wish'd to fall:And her name was in his latest sigh,When Roland, the flower of chivalry,Expired at Roncevall."

"The brave Roland! the brave Roland!

False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand

That he had fall'n in fight;

And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,

O loveliest maiden of Allemayne!

For the loss of thine own true knight.

"But why so rash has she ta'en the veil,In yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale,For her vow had scarce been sworn,And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung,'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!

"But why so rash has she ta'en the veil,

In yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale,

For her vow had scarce been sworn,

And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,

When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung,

'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!

. . . . . .

"She died! he sought the battle plain;Her image fill'd his dying brain,When he fell and wish'd to fall:And her name was in his latest sigh,When Roland, the flower of chivalry,Expired at Roncevall."

"She died! he sought the battle plain;

Her image fill'd his dying brain,

When he fell and wish'd to fall:

And her name was in his latest sigh,

When Roland, the flower of chivalry,

Expired at Roncevall."

X. Y. Z. seems also to have forgotten what Mr. Campbell duly records, viz. that Roland used to station himself at a window overlooking "the nun's green isle;" it being after her decease that he met his death at Roncevall, which event, by the way, is alluded to by Sir W. Scott inMarmion, canto vi.:

"Oh, for a blast of that dread horn,On Fontarabian echoes borne,That to King Charles did come;When Roland brave, and Olivier,And every paladin and peer,At Roncesvalles died!"

"Oh, for a blast of that dread horn,

On Fontarabian echoes borne,

That to King Charles did come;

When Roland brave, and Olivier,

And every paladin and peer,

At Roncesvalles died!"

H. B. F.

The legends of Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, are very numerous and vary much from each other. The Orlando of Pulci has a very different history from the Orlando of Bojardo and Ariosto.

The legend of "Rolandseck and the Nonnenwerth," which has been adopted by Campbell, not Mrs. Hemans, and charmingly set to music by Mrs. Arkwright, is well known on the Rhine. There are two poems on the legend in Simrock'sRheinsagen(12mo., Bonn, 1841), one by the editor, and another by August Kopisch. They exactly accord with Campbell's poem.

The legend of Ritter Toggenburg resembles that of Roland in many particulars, but it is not the same, and it belongs to another locality, to Kloster Fischingen, and not to Nonnenwerth. "Roland the Brave" appears in all the later editions of Campbell'sPoems. Simrock'sRheinsagenis one of the most delightful handbooks that any one can take through the romantic region which the poems (partly well selected by the editor, and partly as well written by himself) describe.

E. C. H.

The author of the beautiful lines which are quoted by your correspondent X. Y. Z., is Campbell, not Mrs. Hemans. The poet, in the fifth stanza of his ballad, tells how the unfortunate Roland, on finding that Hildegund had taken the veil, was accustomed to sit at his window, and "sad and oft" to look "on the mansion of his love below."

"There's yet one window of that pile,Which he built above the nun's green isle;Thence sad and oft look'd he(When the chant and organ sounded slow)On the mansion of his love below,For herself he might not see."She died! He sought the battle plain,Her image fill'd his dying brain,When he fell and wish'd to fall;And her name was in his latest sigh,When Roland, the flower of chivalry,Expired at Roncevall."

"There's yet one window of that pile,

Which he built above the nun's green isle;

Thence sad and oft look'd he

(When the chant and organ sounded slow)

On the mansion of his love below,

For herself he might not see.

"She died! He sought the battle plain,Her image fill'd his dying brain,When he fell and wish'd to fall;And her name was in his latest sigh,When Roland, the flower of chivalry,Expired at Roncevall."

"She died! He sought the battle plain,

Her image fill'd his dying brain,

When he fell and wish'd to fall;

And her name was in his latest sigh,

When Roland, the flower of chivalry,

Expired at Roncevall."

F. M. Middleton.

Scott has, inMarmion,—

"When Roland brave, and Olivier,And every paladin and peer,At Roncesvalles died!"

"When Roland brave, and Olivier,

And every paladin and peer,

At Roncesvalles died!"

I quote from memory, and have not the poem.

F. C. B.

Recovery of Silver.—As many correspondents of "N. & Q." have asked how to recover the silver from their nitrate baths when deteriorated or spoiled, perhaps the following hints may be acceptable to them. Let them first precipitate the silver in the form of a chloride by adding common salt to the nitrate solution. Let them then filter it, and it may be reduced to its metallic state by either of the three following methods.

1. By adding to the wet chloride at least double its volume of water, containing one-tenth part of sulphuric acid; plunge into this a thick piece of zinc, and leave it here for four-and-twenty hours. The chloride of silver will be reduced by the formation ofchloride and sulphate of zinc, and of pure silver, which will remain under the form of a blackish powder, which is then to be washed, filtered, and preserved for the purpose of making nitrate of silver.

2. The chloride of silver which is to be reduced is put into a flask with about twice its volume of a solution of caustic potash (of one part of caustic potash to nine of water), in which a small portion of sugar has been dissolved. Let it boil gently. The operation is complete when the blackish powder which results from this process, having been washed in several waters, is entirely soluble in nitric acid, which is easily ascertained by experimenting on a small quantity. This powder is to be preserved in the same way as the former for the purpose of converting it into nitrate of silver.

3. The metallic silver is obtained in the form of a button, by mixing thoroughly 100 parts of dried chloride of silver, 70 parts of chalk or whitening, and 4 parts of charcoal. This mixture is to be exposed in a crucible to a fierce red heat for at least half an hour. When completely cold the crucible is broken, and a button of pure silver is the result. The first two processes are those which I should most strongly recommend to your correspondents.

N. C.

Ashes of "Lignites"(Vol. ix., p. 422.).—Rusticusis obliged to the Editor for so soon giving a reply to his Query; but seems convicted of being a bad penman, like many other rustics. For the strange word, respecting which he asked for information, having seen it used in a newspaper, was notlignitesbutliquites.Rusticuscould have guessed that the ashes ofligniteswere but wood-ashes under a pedantic name; but a term which looks, to a rustic, as if chemists meant to persuade him to burn his beer for a valuable residuum, is more perplexing.

Rusticus.

Old Rowley(Vol. ix., p. 457., &c.).—The late Sir Charles Bunbury, who was long the father of the Jury, and considered as an oracle in all matters relating to it, told me, many years ago, that Charles II. was nicknamed "Old Rowley" after a favourite stallion in the royal stud so called; and he added, that the same horse's appellation had been ever since preserved in the "Rowley Mile," a portion of the race-course still much used, and well-known to all frequenters of Newmarket.

Braybrooke.

"Bachelors of every Station" (Vol. ix., p. 301.) is the beginning of theBerkshire Lady, an old ballad nearly extinct, and republished by me some years ago in the form of a small pamphlet, which sold rapidly. If I can procure one, it shall be forwarded to Mr. Bell.

The story is a true one, and related to a daughter of Sir William Kendrick's, who succeeded him, and was possessor of Calcot Place in the parish of Tylehurst, and to Benjamin Child, Esq., whom she met at a marriage feast in the neighbourhood. A wood near Calcot is where the party met to fight the duel in case Mr. Child rejected the proposals of marriage made to him by Miss Kendrick.

I had the account from an old man between eighty and ninety years of age, clerk of the parish; and my friend Miss Mitford agreed with me in the accuracy of the story: she had it from the late Countess Dowager of Macclesfield, an old lady celebrated for her extensive and accurate knowledge of legendary lore.

In opening a vault in St. Mary's, Reading, last year, her coffin was found entire, with this inscription:

"Frances Child, wife of Benjamin Child. Esq., of Calcot, and first daughter of Sir Benjamin Kendrick, Bart. Died Feb. 27, 1722, aged 35. The Lady of Berks."

Another coffin,—

"Benjamin Child, Esq., died 2nd May, 1767, aged 84 years."

Julia R. Bockett.

Southcote Lodge.

Mousehunt(Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.; Vol. ix., pp. 65. 136. 385.).—In Vol. ix., p. 65., theNatural History of Quadrupeds, by James H. Fennell, is quoted; where, speaking of the Beech Marten (aliasMousehunt), he says:

"In Selkirkshire it has been observed to descend tothe shoreat night time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large Basket Mussel (Mytilus modiolus)."

In p. 136, I ventured to state that Mr. Fennell must have been a better naturalist than geographer, as Selkirkshire was well known to be an inland county nowhere approaching the sea by many miles. I added, that I hoped, for Mr. Fennell's sake, thatSelkirkshirewas either a misprint or a misquotation.

In p. 385.Mr. Archibald Fraser, Woodford, not choosing to exonerate Mr. Fennell by either of my suggestions, prefers, as a staunch, but I think rather an inconsiderate friend and champion, tovindicatethe paragraph as it stands, by candidly admitting that if the wordbeachhad been used, it would certainly have referred to the sea; but that the wordshoreapplies to rivers as well as seas. And he goes back as far as Spenser to find an instance of its use, as applied to the banks of the river Nile.

I will not agree that this use is nearly obsolete, but give him the full value of his quotation from Spenser. But what does he say to thehabitatof theMytilus modiolus, which the Mousehunt goesto theshoreto feed upon. I quote fromRees' Cyclopædia, voce "Mytilus:"

"Modiolus.Shell smooth and blackish, obtuse at the smaller end, and rounded at the other; one side near the beaks is angular. Two varieties are noticed by Lister. Itinhabitsthe European, American, and Indianseas, adhering to fuci and zoophytes; is six or seven inches long, and about half as broad: the fish is red or orange, and eatable."

J. S.s.

Value of Money in the Seventeenth Century(Vol. ix. p. 375.).—Say, in hisPolitical Economy(Prinsep's translation, i. 413.), has furnished a comparative statement, the result of which is, that thesetierof wheat, whose relative value to other commodities has varied little from 1520 down to the present time, has undergone great fluctuations, being worth—

Whence it may be inferred that 1000l.in 1640, 1660, and 1680 did not vary much from its value at the present time,such value being measured in silver. But as the value of all commodities resolves itself ultimately into the cost of labour, the rate of wages at these dates, in the particular country or part of a country, must be taken as the only safe criterion.

Thus, if labour were 20d.per diem in 1640, and is 40d.at this time, 1000l. in 1640 is equivalent to 500l.(only half as much) now. But, on the contrary, as the cost of production of numerous articles by machinery, &c. has beenby so muchreduced, the power of purchase now, as compared with 1640, of 1000l., isby so muchincreased. The article itself must determine by how much. The question put by C. H. is too general to admit of a positive solution; but should he specify the commodity and place of investment in the seventeenth century and to-day of the 1000l., our statistics might still be at fault, and deny us even a proximate determination of his inquiry. Even his 1000l., which he may consider a fixed measure of value, orpunctum comparationis, is varying in value (=power of purchase) daily, even hourly, as regards almost every exchangeable product. TookeOn Pricesis a first-rate authority on this subject.

T. J. Buckton.

Lichfield.

Grammars for Public Schools(Vol. ix., pp. 8. 209.).—Pray add this little gem to your list, now scarce:

"The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened, or else A Seminarie or Seed Plot of all Tongues and Sciences, that is, a short way of teaching and thorowly learning, within a yeare and a half at the farthest, the Latin, English, French, and any other tongue, together with the ground and foundation of Arts and Sciences, comprised under an hundred Titles and 1058 Periods. In Latine first, and now as a token of thankfulnesse brought to light in Latine, English, and French, in the behalfe of the most illustrious Prince Charles, and of British, French, and Irish Youths. By the labour and industry of John Anchoran, Licentiate of Divinity, London, 1633."

Our British youths of those days seem to have beenapt scholars.

I. T. Abbott.

Darlington.

Classic Authors and the Jews(Vol. ix., pp. 221. 384.).—Any edition of theHistoriæ Augustæ Scriptores Sex, containing an index, ought to supply B. H. C. with a few additional references. See, for instance, the Index to the Bipont Edition, 2 vols. 8vo.,MDCCLXXXVII, under the words "Judæi," "Judaicus," "Moses."

C. Forbes.

Temple.

Hand-bells at Funerals(Vol. ii., p. 478.; Vol. vii., p. 297.).—A few years ago I happened to arrive at the small sea-port of Roscoff, near the ancient cathedral town of St. Pol de Léon in Britanny, on the day appointed for the funeral of one of the members of a family of very old standing in that neighbourhood. My attention was attracted by a number of boys running about the streets with small hand-bells, with which they kept up a perpetual tinkling. On inquiring of a friend of mine, a native of the place, what this meant, he informed me that it was an old custom in Britanny—but one which in the present day had almost fallen into disuse—to send boys round from door to door with bells to announce when a death had occurred, and to give notice of the day and the hour at which the funeral was to take place, begging at the same time the prayers of the faithful for the soul of the deceased. The boys selected for this office are taken from the most indigent classes, and, on the day of the funeral, receive cloaks of coarse black cloth as an alms: thus attired, they attend the funeral procession, tinkling their bells as they go along.

Edgar MacCulloch.

Guernsey.

"Warple-way" (Vol. ix., p. 125.).—The communications of your correspondents (Vol. ix., p. 232.) can scarcely be called answers to the questions put.

I find, in Holloway'sDictionary of Provincialisms, 8vo., 1838, that a ridge of land is called, in husbandry, awarp. It is defined to be a quantity of land consisting of ten, twelve, or more ridges; on each side of which a furrow is left, to carry off the water.

Again, in Halliwell'sDictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, two volumes, 1847, it will befound thatwarpsare distinct pieces of ploughed land, separated by furrows. I think I here give the derivation and meaning, and refer to the authority. If the derivation be not here given, then I would refer to the Saxon wordwerpen, meaning "to cast."

Across marshy grounds, to this day, are seen ridges forming foot-paths, with a furrow on each side. A ridge of this sort would formerly be, perhaps, awarple-way. Or perhaps a path across an open common field, cast off or divided, as Halliwell mentions, by warps, would be awarple-way.

Viator.

Wapple-way, or, as on the borders of Surrey and Sussex it is called,waffel-way: and the gate itself,waffel-gate. If it should appear, as in the cases familiar to me, these waffel-ways run along the borders of shires and divisions of shires, such ashundreds, I would suggest that they were military roads,—the derivationwaffe(Ger.), weapon.

H. F. B.

Medal of Chevalier St. George(Vol. ix., pp. 105. 311.).—With reference to the observations of your correspondents A. S. and H., I would beg to observe that, some time ago, I gave to the Museum at Winchester a medal struck on the occasion of the marriage of Prince James F. E. Stuart and M. Clementina Sobieski: on the obverse is a very striking head and bust of Clementina, with this inscription:

"Clementina, M. Britan., Fr., et Hib. Regina."

On the reverse is Clementina, driving an ancient chariot towards the Colosseum, with this inscription: on the top—

"Fortunam causamque sequor."

at the bottom—

"Deceptis Custodibus.MDCCXIX."

This latter inscription refers to her escape from Innspruck, where the princess and her suite had been detained by the emperor's orders.

This marriage, to prevent which so many efforts were made, prolonged for eighty-eight years the unfortunate House of Stuart.

E. S. S. W.

Shakspeare's Inheritance(Vol. ix., pp. 75. 154.).—Probably the following extracts from Littleton'sTenures in English, lately perused and amended(1656), may tend to a right understanding of the meaning ofinheritanceandpurchase—if so, you may print them:

"Tenant in fee simple is he which hath lands or tenement to hold to him and his heires for ever: and it is called in Latinefeodum simplex; forfeodumis called inheritance, andsimplexas much to say as lawful or pure, and sofeodum simplexis as much to say as lawfull or pure inheritance. For if a man will purchase lands or tenements in fee simple, it behoveth him to have these words in his purchase, To have and to hold unto him and to his heires: for these words (his heires) make the estate of inheritance,Anno10Henrici6. fol. 38.; for if any man purchase lands in these words, To have and to hold to him for ever, or by such words, To have and to hold to him and to his assigns for ever; in these two cases he hath none estate but for terme of life; for that, that he lacketh these words (his heires), which words only make the estate of inheritance in all feoffements and grants.""And it is to be understood that this word (inheritance) is not only understood where a man hath lands or tenements by descent of heritage, but also every fee simple or fee taile that a man hath by his purchase, may be said inheritance; for that, thus his heires may inherite them. For in a Writ of Right that a man bringeth of land that was of his own purchase, the writ shall say,Quam clamat esse jus et hæreditatem suam, this is to say, which he claimeth to be his right and his inheritance.""Alsopurchaseis called the possession of lands or tenements that a man hath by his deed or by his agreement, unto which possession he commeth, not by descent of any of his ancestors or of his cosins, but by his own deed."

"And it is to be understood that this word (inheritance) is not only understood where a man hath lands or tenements by descent of heritage, but also every fee simple or fee taile that a man hath by his purchase, may be said inheritance; for that, thus his heires may inherite them. For in a Writ of Right that a man bringeth of land that was of his own purchase, the writ shall say,Quam clamat esse jus et hæreditatem suam, this is to say, which he claimeth to be his right and his inheritance."

"Alsopurchaseis called the possession of lands or tenements that a man hath by his deed or by his agreement, unto which possession he commeth, not by descent of any of his ancestors or of his cosins, but by his own deed."

J. Bell.

Cranbroke, Kent.

Cassock(Vol. ix., pp. 101. 337.).—A note in Whalley's edition ofBen Jonsonhas the following remark on this word:

"Cassock, in the sense it is here used, is not to be met with in our common dictionaries: it signifies a soldier's loose outward coat, and is taken in that acceptation by the writers of Jonson's times. Thus Shakspeare, inAll's Well that Ends Well:

'Half of the which dare not shake the snow from theircassocks.'"

This is confirmed in the passage ofJonson, on which the above is a note.

"This small service will bring him clean out of love with the soldier. He will never come within the sign of it, the sight of acassock."—Every Man in his Humour, Act II. Sc. 5.

The cassock, as well as the gown and band, seem to have been the usual attire of the clergy on all occasions in the last century, as we find from the paintings of Hogarth and the writings of Fielding, &c. When did this custom cease? Can any reader of "N. & Q." supply traditional proof of clergymen appearing thus apparelled in ordinary life?

E. H. M. L.

Tailless Cats(Vol. ix., p. 10.).—On the day on which this Query met my eye, a friend informed me that she had just received a letter from an American clergyman travelling in Europe, in which he mentioned having seen a tailless cat in Scotland, called a Manx cat, from having comefrom the Isle of Man. This isnot"a Jonathan." Perhaps the Isle of Man is too small to swing long-tailed cats in.

Uneda.

Philadelphia.

Mr. T. D. Stephens, of Trull Green, near this town, has for some years had and bred the Manx tailless cat; and, I have no doubt, would have pleasure in showing them to your correspondentShirley Hibberd, should he ever be in this neighbourhood.

K. Y.

Taunton.

A friend of mine, who resided in the Park Farm, Kimberley, had a breed of tailless cats, arising from the tail of one of the cats in thefirst instancehaving been cut off; many of the kittens came tailless, some with half length; and, occasionally, one of a litter with a tail of the usual length, and this breed continued through several generations.

G. J.

Names of Slaves(Vol. viii., p. 339.).—I can answer the first of J. F. M.'s Queries in the affirmative; it being common to see in Virginia slaves, or free people who have been slaves, with names acquired in the manner suggested:e. g."Philip Washington," better known in Jefferson county as "Uncle Phil.," formerly a slave of the Washingtons. A large family, liberated and sent to Cape Palmas, bore the surname of "Davenport," from the circumstance that their progenitor had been owned by the Davenports. In fact, the practice is almost universal. But fancy names are generally used as first names:e. g.John Randolph, Peyton, Jefferson, Fairfax, Carter, &c. A fine old body-servant of Col. Willis was called "Burgundy,"shortenedinto "Uncle Gundy." So that "Milton," in the case mentioned, may have been merely the homage paid to genius by some enthusiastic admirer of that poet.

J. Balch.

Philadelphia.

Heraldic(Vol. ix., p. 271.).—On the brass of Robert Arthur, St. Mary's, Chartham, Kent, are two shields bearing a fess engrailed between three trefoils slipped: which may probably be the same as that about whichLoccaninquires, though I am unable to tell the colours. There are two other shields bearing, Two bars with a bordure. The inscription is as follows:

"Hic iacet dns Robertus Arthur quondam Rector isti' Eccliē qui obiit xxviiiodie marcii Aodni Millō CCCCoLIIIIo. Cui' aīe ppiciet' de' Amē."

F. G.

Solar Annual Eclipse of 1263(Vol. viii., p. 441.).—Mr. Tytler, in the first volume of hisHistory of Scotland, mentions that this eclipse, which occurred about 2P.M.on Sunday, August 5, 1263, has been found by calculation to have been actually central and annular to Ronaldsvoe, in the Orkneys, where the Norwegian fleet was then lying: a fine example, as he justly adds, "of the clear and certain light reflected by the exact sciences on history." S. asks, is this eclipse mentioned by any other writer? As connected with the Norwegian expedition, it would seem not; but Matthew of Westminster (vol. ii. p. 408., Bohn's edit.) mentions it having been seen in England, although he places it erroneously on the 6th of the month.

J. S. Warden.

Brissot de Warville(Vol. ix., p. 335.).—Brissot'sMémoiresis a very common book in the original, and has gone through several editions. The passage quoted by N. J. A. was only an impudent excuse for an impudent assumption. Brissot, in his early ambition, wished to pass himself off as a gentleman, and called himselfBrissot de Warville, as Danton did D'Anton, and Robespierre de Robespierre; but when these worthies were endeavouring to sendM. de Warvilleto the scaffold as an aristocrat, he invented this fable of his father's having some landed property atOuarville en Beauce(not Beance), and that he was called, according to the custom of the country, from this place, where, it seems, he was put out to nurse. When the dread of the guillotine madeM. de Warvilleanxious to get rid of his aristocratic pretensions, he confessed (in those sameMémoires) that his father kept a cook's shop in the town of Chartres, and was so ignorant that he could neither read nor write. I need not add, that his having had a landed property to justify, in any way, the son's territorial appellation, was a gross fiction.

"Le Compère Mathieu" (Vol. vi., pp. 11. 111. 181.).—On the fly-leaf of my copy (three vols. 12mo., Londres, 1766) of this amusing work, variously attributed by your correspondents to Mathurin Laurent and the Abbé du Laurens, is written the following note, in the hand of its former possessor, Joseph Whateley:

"Ecrit par Diderot, fils d'un Coutelier: un homme très licentieux, qui écrit encore plusieurs autres Ouvrages, comme La Religieuse, Les Bijoux méchant (sic), &c. Il jouit un grand rôle après dans la Révolution.

"J. W."

By the way, A. N. styles it "a not altogether undull work." May I ask him to elucidate this phrase, as I am totally at a loss to comprehend its meaning. "Not undull" must surely meandull, if anything. The work, however, is the reverse of dull.

William Bates.

Birmingham.

Etymology of "Awkward"(Vol. viii., p. 310.—H. C. K. has probably given the true derivation of this word, but he might have noticed thesingularity of one Anglo-Saxon word branching off into two forms, signifying different ways of acting wrong; one,awkward, implying ignorance and clumsiness; the other,wayward, perverseness and obstinacy. That the latter word is derived from the source from which he deducesawkward, can, as I conceive, admit of no doubt.

J. S. Warden.

Life and Death(Vol. ix., p. 296.).—What is death but a sleep? We shall awake refreshed in the morning. Thus Psalm xvii. 15.; Rom. vi. 5. For the full meanings, see these passages in the original tongues. Sir Thomas Browne, whoseHydriotaphiaabounds with quaint and beautiful allusions to this subject, says, in one place, "Sleep is so like death, that I dare not trust him without my prayers:" and he closes his learned treatise with the following sentence:

"To live indeed is to be again ourselves; which being not only a hope, but an evidence in noble believers, it is all one to lie in St. Innocent's churchyard as in the sands of Egypt; ready to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever, and as content with six feet as the moles of Adrianus.""Tabesne cadavera solvat,An rogus, haud refert."—Lucan.

"Tabesne cadavera solvat,An rogus, haud refert."—Lucan.

"Tabesne cadavera solvat,

An rogus, haud refert."—Lucan.

How fine also is that philosophical sentiment of Lucan:

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