Mr. Merritt's Camera with Roller. -I trouble you with this, merely to assure you that I, last year, invented a means almost precisely similar to that explained in "N. & Q.," No. 286., by Captain Barr, but, as I believe, somewhat more simple, inasmuch as I use a roller which by one turn winds off the entire picture, and brings another into its place. By this you will see that the work is more simply performed, and the strip of calico not needed. I send this, believing that should any one desire this

form, mine might save some trouble, as it is certainly more convenient, and, by less rolling, less likely to injure the picture. T. E. MERRITT. Maidstone.

Photographic Exhibition. Such of our readers as are admirers of photography, and who might, owing to the early period at which it closed, not have had an opportunity of viewing the collection exhibited by the Photographic Society at the beginning of the year, will do well to devote a few hours to an examination of the specimens now on view at the Photographic Institution in New Bond Street. Specimens of the masterpieces of the best Epglish and Foreign Photographers are there collected; and a very cursory inspection will satisfy the visitor of the progress which this interesting and valuable Art is still making.

Solution to preserve Positive Impressions (From "La Lumière," April 7th, 1855). An English amateur who has lately arrived from Italy, Mr. Gotch Hepburn, a member of the Photographic Society of London, has been kind enough to give us the following process, which has been communicated to him, as producing excellent results, by Mr. Anderson, to whom we owe a series of admirable views of Rome. Although this process is without doubt already known to some of our readers, we think it useful to publish it, to induce photographers to make use of it.

66

Make, with the aid of heat, a saturated solution with white wax in spirits of turpentine; let it cool, when a certain quantity of wax will be precipitated, and pour off the clear part for use.

"After the picture has been fixed by the ordinary means, dry it perfectly at the fire, otherwise it will not absorb equally; then spread the solution on it with a large paint-brush, using plenty of the liquid. When the paper is well impregnated (that is to say, at the end of one or two minutes), remove the excess of the liquid with a dry brush, and let the picture dry, laid flat for several hours. When the picture is dry, suspend it, to get rid of the smell of turpentine. Mr. Anderson, of Rome, who practised this process with success, thinks that alcohol does not dissolve enough wax; but all other liquids which will dissolve a great quantity of wax may be substituted for turpentine. The only disadvantage of this method is, that it is obliged to be kept several days that the odour may completely disperse."

Replies to Minor Queries. Book-plates (Vol. xi., p. 265.).—The Queries of your correspondent BOOK-PLATE escaped my attention till a fortnight and more after their publication. I now reply, that I hope soon to make public the little that I have to relate about your correspondent and his family. Also, that in one of the book-plates of the oldest ascertained date in England, namely, of the year 1698, the wife's coat is given with the husband's. The book-plate gives this legend, "Francis Gwyn of Lansanor, in the county of Glamorgan, and of Ford-Abby, in the -county of Devon, Esq., 1698." The coat is, Per pale az. and gules, three lions rampant arg.; and over all, on an esc. of pretence, Quarterly one and four, arg. a chevron sab., in chief a label of three points gules; two and three, arg. a chevron between three mullets gules; the escutcheon of pretence being for the Lady Margaret, daughter, and at length sole heiress of Edmund Prideaux, son of Prideaux, Attorney-General under the Long Parliament.

If I understand the last Queries of your correspondent, they are answered by the instance of the book-plate which I have recited. It is scarcely necessary to add, that the marshalling the wife's coat with her husband's is the universal practice of all heralds in all countries. I hope, if I live to publish my humble attempt at systematising bookplates, that I shall satisfy your correspondent, and have the reward of adding him to my collection. DANIEL PARSONS.

Inchle (Vol. x., p. 398.). Inckle, or beggar's inckle, is a kind of coarse tape used by cooks to secure meat previous to being spitted, and farriers to tie round horses' feet, &c. I have found it said of persons very friendly, "They are as thick as inckleweavers." J. S. (3)

Epigram on Sir John Leach (Vol. xi., p. 300.). -Sir John Leach was at one time, by the quizzers of that day, called "Lady Leach." Upon his accepting the judicial office to which this epigram refers, Sir William Scott (Lord Howell), making that peculiar up and down motion of the head with which he prefaced and accompanied his mots, quoted from Virgil, "Varium et mutabile semper

Fœmina."

Canning, referring to this peculiar motion, and his portly person, said, "Sir William Scott was like a turtle in a martingale." F. W. J.

"Strain at a gnat" (St.Matt. xxiii. 24.) (Vol. xi., p. 298.).—I cannot pretend to determine when the word at was substituted for out in the Protestant version of the New Testament. I find at in the authorised edition of 1628. But what I wish to observe is, that the English Catholic Testament has "strain out;" which is not only con

formable to the Greek, but conveys most naturally the image which our divine Saviour seems to have intended.

The verse in Ecclesiasticus xvii. appears as the sixth in the Protestant translation. I find it placed between brackets in the Bible of 1628, as if it were considered an interpolation. It comes from the Greek Complutensian or Alcala edition of Cardinal Ximenes; and is there literally thus: "But he gave, dividing to them a sixth mind, and a seventh word, the interpretation of his works." The words occur differently in the Latin translation of Leo Juda, first printed at Zurich in 1543. They are added to the next verse, which reads

“Judicium, linguam, oculos, aures et cor dedit eis ad cogitandum, sexto quoque loco mentem donavit, impertiens, et septimo sermonem operibus suis explicandis." But the passage is evidently an interpolated explanation of the previous words. F. C. H.

Commemoration of Saints (Vol. xi., p. 301.). I beg to inform A.O. H. that in those cases to which he refers, where, in the office of any Saint, a commemoration is made of one or more saints of more ancient date, no office has been displaced; but the more ancient saint was either kept as a simple, with one or two lessons, or had no lesson, and was merely commemorated. The mass, however, has in many such cases been superseded.

F. C. HUSENBETH, D.D. Kirkstall Abbey (Vol. xi., p. 186.).—In a small History of Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire, republished by Henry Washbourne, New Bridge Street, Blackfriars, 1847 (author's name or date of original publication not stated), the following passage occurs (p. 151.):

"The site of the monastery, together with some of its circumjacent estates, were granted by 34 of Henry VIII. and 1st & 4th of Edward VI. in exchange to Archbp. Cranmer and his heirs; and were by that prelate settled upon a person named Peter Hammond, in trust for his grace's younger son. It is not supposed that the Archbishop himself, in the midst of his arduous occupations, ever visited this part of his acquisitions; nor is it recorded how the whole, so soon afterwards, passed out of his family. That this did happen, however, is certain; for in the 26th of Elizabeth we find the property granted by her Majesty to Edmund Downynge and Peter Asheton and their heirs for ever. At a later period, but at what precise time neither Dr. Whitaker nor others have ascertained, the site and demesnes of Kirkstall, together with the adjoining manor of Bramley, were purchased by the Savilles of Howley; and since then they have passed, by marriage, with the other estates of that family, through the Duke of Montague, to the Brudenels, Earls of Cardigan; in whose immediate possession the ruins, and part of the annexed grounds, now continue." T. C. S.

The Schoolboy Formula (Vol. xi., p. 113.). As I see that a Philadelphian correspondent has given you his local version, I am emboldened to offer mine, of what it was forty years ago in New York. The practice was precisely what UNEDA describes. Of the formula I have heard but one version: "Hana, mana, mona, mike; Barcelona, bona, strike; Hare, ware, frown, venac;

Harrico, warrico, we, wo, wac!"

I remember too, with some surprise now, the use of terms in boy's play, obviously of French origin, for the occurrence of which among natives of the United States, of English, Dutch, or New England parentage, as were all my playmates, I can only account on the supposition that they were parts of old English schoolboy traditions.

At this moment I can only recall to mind two: 1. Of a top, staggering and beginning the spiral motion preceding its fall: "She wizes," "She wized out of the ring;" evidently from viser. 2. In playing marbles-seizing the moment of making a shot, to regulate the next shot by claiming or forbidding a certain indulgence if needed-the formula was 66 rowance," evidently "allowance," for claiming; for forbidding, "fen rowance ;" and so of another forbiddal, "fen man in the play!" "Fen" being evidently a corruption of "je défends."

W.

Alpe (Vol. xi., p. 213.).—In Norfolk, and in Surrey, the bullfinch is called blood-olp or bloodolph: the greenfinch, green olph. The Promptorium Parvulorum has " Alp bryde Ficedula.” Bailey's Dictionary, and many other dictionaries and glossaries, have Sheldaple, a chaffinch. Now spotted, whence Sheldrake, I think this ought to "shelled," means variegated or be Sheld-alpe—a metathesis of a letter having taken place. I have heard "sheld" applied to a piebald horse.

as

"sheld," or

E. G. R.

Names of Illegitimate Children (Vol. xi., p.313.). - In "N. & Q." for April 21 is a communication from MR. SANSOM, in which he says he has seen an entry in a parish register of the father's name to an illegitimate child; in many cases this is wanted, and would be useful, but how the entry can be made is the difficulty. If your correspondent would give the form of entry, it would be useful to myself, and no doubt to many others, for it seems to me there is no column in which it could be entered. I assume that all would agree that the father's name could not be entered as that of the parent, for clearly such entry would be illegal. A. B. CLERK.

Timothy Bright (Vol. vii., p. 407.). gree of him will be found in Hunter's South Yorkshire.

A pediHistory of J. S. (3)

Door-head Inscription (Vol. x., p. 253.). The Barnard Castle parsonage inscription, methinks, would have run as well in honest English: "God's ward is good ward." W. Baltimore.

Heraldry the Line Dancettée (Vol. xi., p. 308.). I send a very rough sketch of a specimen of "faces danchees," with the blazon accompanying it. As the earliest quotation made by BROCTUNA, in your 286th Number, is from "Bossewell," dated 1572, this, dated 1555, may interest some of your heraldic readers and correspondents :

"Messire Charles de Cosse, seigneur de Brissac, Mareschal de France, mil cinq cens cinquante, au lieu du Prince de Melphe, Chevalier de l'ordre Sainct Michel, Lieutenant-general pour le Roy de France en Italie, du temps du magnanime Henry Roy de France, que Vrassebourg dict avoir pris origine de Jean de Crosse, Seneschal de Provence, grand Conseillier du Roy René de Sicile, natif du Royaume de Naples. Et porte de sable à trois faces DANCHEES d'or en poincte, par aucuns appellées feuilles de syes." Catalogue des Illustres Mareschaulx de France, à Paris, folio, 1555. H. B.

Warwick.

This

Mothering Sunday (Vol. xi., p. 284.). is so called from its being celebrated with unusual joy and festivity in the middle of Lent; and from the custom, in consequence, of children going home to their mothers for a holiday. There was extra feasting on that Sunday, and motheringcakes are still kept up in many parts of England. The Church rejoiced, because on that Sunday the catechumens preparing for baptism on Holy Saturday were assembled and enregistered; and the Church, as a pious mother, rejoiced at the near approach of the time when so many new children would be spiritually born to her. Hence the whole office of the Sunday is joyful; and the altars are decorated, and the ministers vested in white, distinguishing this from all the other Sundays in Lent. It was called Lætare, from the first word of the Introit, which is all joyful. The Epistle, from Gal. iv. 22-31., sets forth the peculiar privileges of Christians, as sons of the free-woman, and claiming for their mother that free Jerusalem which is above. The Gospel, from St. John vi. 1-15., relates the miraculous feeding of five thousand in the desert. So that all concurs to mark this Sunday as one of gladness and brief repose in the midst of the austerities of Lent. Moreover, at Rome, the Pope blesses on this Sunday a golden rose; that flower being an apt symbol of charity, joy, and delight. F. C. H.

This festival is still observed in many parts of South Wales, particularly in Monmouthshire;

* "Feuilles de syes,' in blason, a fesse indented.". Cotgrave's Dictionary.

and during the previous week, the pastrycooks' shops are gay with mothering-cakes, which resemble those used on Twelfth Day.

The custom is for the children of the family to meet at their parents' house, and each of the married children bring a cake for the mother. Amongst the poorer classes, I have known instances of servants sending or taking home presents of tea, sugar, &c. to their parents.

Many other old customs are still kept up in Monmouthshire. It would be considered quite unlucky if there were no pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, or hot-cross-buns on Good Friday.

Flowering-Sunday is, I believe, almost universally observed throughout South Wales; and the graves are cleaned and decked on that day with the choicest flowers that can be procured; where flowers are not numerous, the deficiency is supplied by evergreens, and the laurel leaves are often ornamented with gilt leaf.

At Usk there is an early morning service (Plygain), when the Holy Communion is administered at six o'clock on Easter Sunday morning, as well as on Christmas Day. The Plygain on Christmas morning is, I believe, almost universal throughout the Principality; but I have not known any other instance of its being held on Easter Day. ISCA.

Grafts and the Parent Tree (Vol. xi., p. 272.).— The supposition that grafts decay with the parent tree, which must mean the original seedling, cannot be true; for the origin of many of our best apples is lost in antiquity, and the parent trees must have long since perished, and yet the fruits themselves are commonly to be had in high perfection. In my communication on this subject (Vol. vii., p. 536.) I stated, "that to ensure the success of grafts, care must be taken that they be inserted on congenial stocks;" and this being attended to, I see no reason why any kind of apple or pear may not be continued indefinitely. The statement by Mr. Ferguson

"That a cutting can only be a multiplier; and being of the same age, and same chemical property, must perform the same functions over the same changing circle of life, and die with the stalk as if it had never been separated"

is very questionable.

The cutting is probably the formation and growth of the preceding year, and if left on the tree would have made a small shoot or formed blossom buds; but being cut off, and grafted on a new stock, and thereby supplied with fresh sap, it grows more luxuriantly, and forms a new tree, the foundation and supply of which is the new stock. The sap from the stock is in fact the multiplier, and communicates a new chemical property, or rather a new life to the graft. If all grafted trees were to die when the original seedling from which they were descended died, some instance would have

cept they could make a feoffment, or levy a fine, or suffer a recovery, which lack of time would not permit; and for men to do it by these means when they could not undo it again, was hard; besides, even to the last hour of death men's minds might alter, upon further proofs of their children or kindred, or increase of children, or debt, or defect of servants or friends. For which cause it was reason that the law should permit him to reserve to the last instant the disposing of his land, and to give him the means to dispose of it."

But convenient as the testamentary power may be, it is not without counterbalancing disadvantages. For example, the late case of the Earl of Sefton v. Hopwood shows what mischief may be occasioned by a law which allows men to alter their minds as to the disposition of their property to the hour of their death, "upon further proofs of their children."

F.

Number Thirteen unlucky (Vol. vii., p. 571.). This superstition seems to prevail in Russia and Italy.

"Mentioned that at Catalani's one day, perceiving there was that number at dinner, she sent a French countess, who lived with her, upstairs, to remedy the grievance; but soon after La Cainea coming in, the poor moveable countess was brought down again.

"Lord L. said he had dined once abroad with Count Orloff, and perceived he did not sit down at dinner, but kept walking from chair to chair; he found afterwards it was because the Narishken were at table, who, he knew, would rise instantly if they perceived the number thirteen, which Orloff would have made by sitting down himself." - Moore's Diary, vol. ii. p. 206.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

It is highly creditable to the literature of the provinces that to the provinces we are indebted for the first attempt to recall attention to the poetical merits of Samuel Daniel -the "gentle Daniel," as Southey happily designated him. We have now before us a beautifully-printed and carefully-edited volume, entitled Selections from the Poetical Works of Samuel Daniel, with Biographical Introduction, Notes, &c., by John Morris; and those of our readers who may remember what Coleridge said of him to Charles Lamb (see "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 118.),—that "thousands even of educated men would become more sensible, fitter to become Members of Parliament or Ministers, by reading Daniel," will, we are sure, be glad to avail themselves of Mr. Morris's judicious labours. They will find many a passage full of deep thought, and expressed in noble numbers, among the selections here made from the writings of this thoroughly English-minded poet.

The British Museum. The annual Parliamentary papers relative to the British Museum, show that the receipts in the year ended the 31st of March, 1855, amounted to 74,6897., and the expenditure to 59,0477., leaving a balance of 15,6427. The items of expenditure include 25,2811. for salaries, 2,5251. for house expenses, 15,8611. for purchases and acquisitions, 11,0917. for bookbinding, cabinets, &c., 1,5291. for printing catalogues, making casts, &c., and 2,4517. for excavations in Assyria

and the transport of marbles. The net amount of the estimate of the sum required for the year 1855-56 is 56,1807. In the Printed Book department of the Museum the number of volumes added to the library in 1854 amounted to 13,055 (including music, maps, and newspapers), of which 976 were presented, 6,182 purchased, and 5,897 acquired by copyright. The number of readers was, on the average, 194 per diem, the reading-room having been kept open 289 days; and each reader consulted, on the average, seven volumes a-day. The enforcement of the delivery of books under the Copyright Act has been steadily carried out, and the result has been the acquisition of 19,578 books, whereas in 1851 only 9,871 were received. In the Manuscript department 906 MSS., 695 charters. and rolls, and 18 seals and impressions, had been added to the general collection; and 20 MSS. to the Egerton Collection. Among the acquisitions more worthy of notice may be mentioned-the Official and Private Correspondence and Papers, originals or copies, of the late Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe, from 1799 to 1828, embracing the whole of the transactions during the period he was governor of St. Helena, 1816-1821; a large Collection of Papers purchased of the Marquis Gualterio of Florence, estimated to form about 400 volumes; a Collection of 60 original Court Rolls, and above 350 Charters, relating to the counties of Sussex, Surrey, Suffolk, and Norfolk, extending from the reign of Henry III. to the seventeenth century, presented by C. W. Dilke, Esq.; an interesting Collection of Drawings and Sketches, illustrative of New Zealand, the Loyalty Islands, &c., presented by Sir George Grey, the late governor; the Cartulary of the Priory of St. Nicholas, Exeter, on vellum, of the thirteenth century, with a short Chronicle prefixed, to the year 1328: this is the Cottonian MS. marked Vitellius D. IX., which was missing from the Collection when Dr. Smith published his Catalogue in 1696, and it is now at length restored to its place in the Cottonian Library; a very fine copy of the Historia Miscella, comprising Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus, and Landulphus; together with the Historia Ecclesiastica of Cassiodorus; on vellum, of the twelfth century, folio; an extremely fine copy of the French translation of Crescentius, executed for Charles V. of France in 1373, with thirteen miniatures; on vellum, fifteenth century, large folio, from the MacCarthy and De Bure Libraries; some early Greek MSS., on vellum, eight Armenian MSS. on cotton paper, including a copy of the Gospels, and several scarce works in Hebrew, Samaritan, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hindostani; a beautiful copy of the Persian poem Khawar Nama, composed by Ibn Hassam, at the commencement of the fifteenth century, in praise of the exploits of Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed (written at Mooltan in 1686); five folio volumes of the valuable Collections for the History of Essex, made by Thomas Jekyll, Secondary of the King's Bench, in the reign of Charles I.; a considerable number of volumes relating to the History and Literature of Ireland, from the library of the late Sir William Betham, including the original Entry-Books of Recognizances in Chancery and Statutes Staple, from the reign of Elizabeth to 1678; the original Account Book of the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry VIII. from Nov. 1529, to Dec. 1532, signed throughout with his own hand; the Autograph Deed of Agreement of Edmund Spenser, the poet, of Kilcolman, county Cork, with a person named McHenry, signed and sealed; seventeen autograph Poems and Letters of Robert Burns; and fifteen original Letters of Fénélon, Archbishop of Cambray, 1703-1714; an original Charter of Eudes, King of France, executed in the year 888 or 889, with the seal en plucard, finely preserved; also another original Charter of Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, granted in 1123,