Part 6
The wax-paper process has been extolled by many, and very successful results have been obtained: the paper has the undoubted advantage of keeping after being excited much longer than any other; but, from my own experience, just so much the weaker it is made, and so as to safely rely upon its long remaining useful, so it is proportionally slower in its action. And I have rarely seen from {22} wax negatives positives so satisfactory in depth of tone, as from those which have been waxed after being taken on ordinary paper. It is all very well for gentlemen to advocate a sort of photographic tour, upon which you are to go on taking views day after day, and when you return home at leisure to develop your past proceedings: I never yet knew one so lukewarm in this pursuit as not to desire to know, at his _earliest possible_ opportunity, the result of his labours; indeed, were not this the case, I fear disappointment would more often result than at present, for I scarcely think any one can exactly decide upon the power of the light of any given day, without having made some little trial to guide him. I have myself, especially with collodion, found the action very rapid upon some _apparently_ dull day; whilst, from an unexplained cause, a comparatively brighter day has been less active in its photographic results. As in the previous process, I would strongly advise Turner's paper to be used, and not the thin French papers generally adopted, because I find all the high lights so much better preserved in the English paper. It may be purchased ready waxed nearly as cheap as it may be done by one's self; but as many operators like to possess that which is entirely their own production, the following mode will be found a ready way of waxing:--Procure a piece of thick smooth slate, a trifle larger than the paper to be used; waste pieces of this description are always occurring at the slate works, and are of a trifling value. This should be made very hot by laying it close before a fire; then, covered with one layer of thick blotting-paper, it will form a most admirable surface upon which to use the iron. Taking a piece of wax in the left hand, an iron well heated being pressed against it, it may rapidly be made to flow over the whole surface with much evenness, the surplus wax being afterwards removed by ironing between blotting-paper. When good, it should be colourless, free from gloss, and having the beautiful semi-transparent appearance of the Chinese rice-paper. To iodize the paper completely, immerse it in the following solution:
Iodide of potash 200 grains. Mannite 6 drachms. Cyanide of potash 5 grains. Distilled water 20 ounces.
Allow it to remain three hours, taking care that air-particles are perfectly excluded, and once during the time turning over each sheet of paper, as many being inserted as the fluid will conveniently cover, as it is not injured by after keeping. It should be then removed from the iodide bath, pinned up, and dried, ready for use. When required to be excited, the paper should, by the light of a candle, be immersed in the following solution, where it should remain for five minutes:
Nitrate of silver 4 drachms. Glacial acetic acid 4 drachms. Distilled water 8 ounces.
Being removed from the aceto-nitrate bath, immerse it into a pan of distilled water, where let it remain about a quarter of an hour. In order to make this paper keep a week or two, it must be immersed in a second water, which in point of fact is a mere reduction of the strength of the solutions already used; but for ordinary purposes, and when the paper is to be used within three or four days, one immersion is quite sufficient, especially as it does not reduce its sensitiveness in a needless way. It may now be preserved between blotting-paper, free from light, for future use. The time of exposure requisite for this paper will exceed that of the ordinary unwaxed, given in the previous directions. The picture may be developed by a complete immersion also in a saturated solution of gallic acid; but should it not have been exposed a sufficient time in the camera, a few drops of the aceto-nitrate solution added to the gallic acid greatly accelerates it. An excess of aceto-nitrate often produces an unpleasant red tint, which is to be avoided. Instead of complete immersion, the paper may be laid upon some waste blotting-paper, and the surface only wetted by means of the glass rod or brush. The picture may now be fixed by the use of the hyposulphite of soda, as in the preceding process.
It is not actually necessary that this should be a wax-paper process, because ordinary paper treated in this way acts very beautifully, although it does not allow of so long keeping for use after excitement; yet it has then the advantage, that a negative may either be waxed or not, as shall be deemed advisable by its apparent depth of action.
HUGH W. DIAMOND.
[Footnote 3: the gallic acid was omitted in Issue 166, but inserted by an erratum in Issue 168. Also "a saturated solution of gallic acid" was printed as "a solvent solution ...", "hyposulphate" appeared for "hyposulphite" throughout, and "solari_s_e" for "solari_z_e"--Transcriber.]
_Exhibition of recent Specimens of Photography at the Society of Arts._--This exhibition, to which all interested in the art have been invited to contribute, was inaugurated by a conversazione at the Society's rooms, on the evening of Wednesday, the 22nd of December: the public have since been admitted at a charge of sixpence each, and it will continue open until the 8th of January.
We strongly recommend all our friends to pay a visit to this most delightful collection. By our visit at the crowded conversazione, and another hasty view since, we do not feel justified to enter into a review and criticism of the specimens so fully as the subject requires; but in the mean time we can assure our archæological readers that they will find there such interesting records of architectural detail, together with views of antiquities from Egypt and Nubia, as will perfectly convince them of the value of this art with reference to their own immediate pursuits. Those who feel less delight in mere antiquity will be gratified {23} to see, for the first time, that there are here shown photographs which aim at more than the bare copying of any particular spot; for many of the pictures here exhibited may rank as fine works of art. We feel much delicacy and hesitation in mentioning any particular artist, where so many are entitled to praise, especially in some particular departments. We could point out pictures having all the minute truthfulness of nature, combined with the beautiful effects of some of the greatest painters. We must, however, direct especial attention to the landscapes of Mr. Turner, the views in the Pyrenees by Mr. Stewart, and one splendid one of the same locality by Le Gray. Mr. Buckle's views in paper also exhibit a sharpness and detail almost equal to collodion; as do the various productions of Mr. Fenton in wax paper. The effects obtained also by Mr. Owen of Bristol appear to be very satisfactory: why they are, with so much excellence, called _experimental_, we cannot tell. In collodion Mr. Berger has exhibited some effective portraits; and we think the success of Mr. De la Motte has been so great, that in some of his productions little remains to be desired. We cannot conclude this brief notice without directing attention to the minuteness and pleasing effect of the views in Rome by M. Eugène Constant, which are also from collodion; as also the specimens from albumen negatives of M. Ferrier; and, lastly, to the pleasant fact that lady amateurs are now practising this art,--very nice specimens being here exhibited by the Ladies Nevill, whose example we shall hope to see followed.
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Quotation in Locke_ (Vol. vi., p. 386.).--The words "Si non vis intelligi non debes legi" were, I believe, the exclamation of St. Jerome, as he threw his copy of Persius into the fire in a fit of testiness at being unable to construe some tough lines of that tough author. I set down this reply from memory, and am unable to give the authority for it.
W. FRASER.
_Pic-nic_ (Vol. vi., pp. 152. 518.).--The Query of A. F. S. (p. 152.) as to the etymology of _pic-nic_ still remains unanswered. The Note of W. W. (p. 518.) merely refers to the time (1802) when pic-nic suppers first became fashionable in England. Under a French form, the word appears in a speech of Robespierre's, quoted in the _British and Foreign Review_ for July, 1844, p. 620.: "C'est ici qu'il doit m'accuser, et non dans les _piques-niques_, dans les sociétés particulières." An earlier instance occurs in one of Lord Chesterfield's letters (No. 167.), dated October 1748.
JAYDEE.
_Discovery at Nuneham Regis_ (Vol. vi., pp. 386. 488. 558.).--Nuneham Regis was granted to John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, in the seventh year of King Edward VI.; but as it was forfeited on his attainder, in the first year of Queen Mary, and immediately granted by her to Sir Rowland Hill, knight, and citizen of London, from whom Sir Thomas Leigh, knight, and alderman of London, almost immediately acquired it; and as he exercised the right of presentation to the vicarage in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, there is no probability of the body of John, Duke of Northumberland, being removed from the Tower of London to Newnham.
The letters T. B. on the clothes on the body at Nuneham are distinctly worked in Roman capitals, like those on a common sampler. I have seen them.
J. S.S.
_Door-head Inscriptions_ (Vol. vi., p. 543.).--
"Sit mihi nec glis servus nec hospes hirudo."
"From servant lazy as dormouse, Or leeching guest, God keep my house."
MR. WOODWARD tells us that he quotes this inscription "from memory:" it is so very pertinent that it seems a pity even to hint a correction, but, as I read it, it seemed partly familiar to me, and I find something so like the latter part of it in two ancient authors, that I am tempted to inquire whether he may not have omitted _one letter_, which alters the sense as given above, and yet gives a sense as good.
Among the Symbols of Pythagoras, I read the following:
"[Greek: Omôrophious chelidônas mê echein]."
"Domesticas hiru_n_dines ne habeto."
To the same effect (but, strange to say, without any reference to Pythagoras' dictum), we find it in the _proverbia_ of Polydore Virgil (A.D. 1498):
"Hiru_n_do suscipienda non est."
and the exposition is the same in both:
"Hirundo garrula semper, _i.e._ garruli et tumigeri homines recipiendi non sunt."
I find no original for the former part of the inscription. Probably MR. WOODWARD will agree with me, that it is difficult to decide whether a greedy or a gossipping guest would be the worst household infliction; but as a careful householder might well deprecate either, as matter of curiosity perhaps he would refer to the original inscription again, and decide whether he has or has not omitted an "n."
A. B. R.
Belmont.
Stratford Parsonage, Wilts:
"Parva sed apta Domino. 1675."
Montacute House, Somerset:
"Through this wide opening gate None come too soon, none go too late. And yours."
{24}
Sudbury House, Derbyshire:
"Omne Bonum Dei Donum."
At Verona:
"Patet Janua, Cor magis."
The next I have seen somewhere:
"Detur digniori."
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George.
_Cross and Pile_ (Vol. vi., pp. 386. 513.).--The _pile_ is invariably on the obverse or _head_ side of a coin; and _pile_ or _poll_ both mean the head, from whence the "poll tax" and "poll groat"--a tax paid by the head, or a personal tax, of which we have an historical example of its collector in the case of Wat Tyler.
Ruding, in _Annals of the Coinage_, vol. ii. p. 119., 8vo., edit. 1819, states that Ed. I. A.D. 1304, in the delivering out the stamps for the coinage, orders that three _piles_ and six _crosses_ shall be given. It is well known to all numismatists that all, or most early coins, both Saxon and English, had a head on the obverse and a cross on the reverse--the latter being placed on the coins as symbolical of Christianity.
_Pile_ also means the hair, or any filament: as the "pile of velvet, the nap of woollen cloth," &c. And Jamieson, in his _Scotch Dictionary_, says:
"PILE. The soft hair which first appears on the chins of young men."
Coles, Ashe, Webster, and others give the same meaning.
The superstitious effect of the cross as a charm or amulet is well known; from whence the saying:
"I have never a cross in my purse to keep the Devil away."
Again:
"Priests were coin-proof against the Devil, they never being without money; of course, always had a cross in their pocket."--Gilpin's _Beehive of the Romish Church_, 1636, p. 251.
And Nash, in the Supplication of Pierce Penniless to the Devil, makes Pierce to say:
"Whereas your impious excellence hath had the poore tenement of my purse anytime this half year for your dancing schole, and he, notwithstanding, hath received no penye nor crosse for farme," &c.
And the poet Skelton says:
". . . . . . . . and in his pouche, The Devil might dance therein for any crouche." P. 71.
Trusting the above will be satisfactory to D. W. S., I beg to conclude, thinking, you will say I have already made "much ado about nothing."
GODDARD JOHNSON.
_Rhymes upon Places_ (Vol. vi. p. 281.).--Perhaps you will think the following rhymes upon places worth insertion:
"I stood upon Eyemouth Fort, And guess ye what I saw? Fairmiside and Furmintong, Neuhouses and Cocklaw, The fairy fouk o' Fosterland, The witches o' Edincran, The bly-rigs o' Reston; But Dunse dings a'."
Near the seaside village of Eyemouth, in Berwickshire, is a promontory marked with a succession of grassy mounds, the remains of a fort built there in the regency of Mary of Lorraine. A number of places are represented as visible from the fort: but here fact is not strictly adhered to.
Fosterland once existed in the parish of Bunkle as a small village; but even its vestiges are not now visible on the brown moor where it once stood. Edincran, properly Auchinchran, is an estate in the vicinity of Fosterland, as is Reston also. There is a variation as follows:
"The fairy fouk o' Fosterland, The witches o' Edincran, And the rye-kail o' Reston Gar'd a' the dogs die."
The rye-kail alluded to must have been a broth chiefly made from rye, which grain, it is well known, is sometimes so much tainted as to be poisonous.
C. BENSON.
Birmingham.
[Greek: Arnion] (Vol. vi., p. 509.).--Probably your correspondent is aware of the explanation given by Dr. Wordsworth in his book on the Apocalypse, but does not think it satisfactory. Still, as he does not allude to it, I venture to transcribe it:
"The Apocalypse abounds in contrasts. For example, the LAMB, who is always called [Greek: Amnos], never [Greek: Arnion], in St. John's _Gospel_, is called [Greek: Arnion], never [Greek: Amnos], in St. John's _Apocalypse_, in which [Greek: Arnion] occurs twenty-nine times. And why does [Greek: ho Amnos] here become [Greek: to Arnion]? To _contrast_ Him more strongly with [Greek: to Thêrion], that is, to mark the _opposition_ between the LAMB and the Beast."
To this a note is appended:
"This contrast is even more striking in the original, where it is aided by an exact correspondence of syllables and accents. On one side are--
'[Greek: Hê pornê kai to Thêrion]:'
On the other--
'[Greek: Hê Numphê kai to Arnion].'
See Rev. xxi. 2. 9., xxii. 17."--_Is the Church of Rome Babylon?_ p. 58.: London, 1851.
A. A. D.
[Greek: Arnion] and [Greek: amnos] both denote a lamb. In John i. 29. 36., the latter is applied to Jesus by John the {25} Baptist. In Acts viii. 32., and 1 Pet. i. 19., the term is manifestly derived from Isa. liii. 7., the Septuagint translation. But, in the Revelation, the word selected by the apostle is simply to be viewed as characteristic of his style. Taken in connexion with John i. 29. 36., the difference presents one of those points which so strikingly attest the authenticity of the Scripture. If the writer had drawn upon his imagination, in all likelihood he would have used the word [Greek: arnion] in the Gospel; but he employed another, because the Baptist actually made use of a different one, _i. e._ one different from that which he was in the habit of employing.
B. H. COWPER.
_Who was the greatest General_ (Vol. vi., p. 509.).--In reply to the following Query, "Who was the greatest general, and why and wherefore did the Duke of Wellington give the palm to Hannibal?" I think the following note appended to the eloquent sermon of Dr. Croly, preached on the death of the Duke, Sept. 19th, not only shows the humility of the Duke in giving preference to Hannibal over himself, but it contains so just a comparison between the two generals, that it deserves recording in the valuable and useful pages of the "N. & Q." as well as being a perfect and true answer to C. T.:
"It has been usual," the note says, "to compare Wellington with Hannibal. But those who make the comparison seem to forget the facts:--
"Hannibal, descending from the Alps with a disciplined force of 26,000 men, met the brave Roman Militia, commanded by brave blockheads, and beat them accordingly. But, as soon as he was met by a man of common sense, Fabius, he could do nothing with him; when he met a manoeuvring officer, the Consul Nero, he was outmanoeuvred, and lost his brother Asdrubal's army, which was equivalent to his losing Italy; and when he met an active officer, Scipio, he was beaten on his own ground. Finally, forced to take refuge with a foreign power, he was there a prisoner, and there he died."
"His administrative qualities seem to have been of the humblest, or of the most indolent, order. For fourteen years he was in possession of, or in influence with, all the powers of southern Italy, then the richest portion of the peninsula. Yet this possession was wrested from him without an effort; and where he might have been a monarch, he was only a pensioner. His _punic_ faith, his flight, his refuge, and his death in captivity, might find a more complete resemblance in the history of Napoleon."
The following, concluding sentence of Dr. Croly's note conveys a truer and far more just comparison with another great general:
"The life of the first Cæsar forms a much fairer comparison with that of Wellington. Both nobly born; both forcing their way up through the gradations of service, outstripping all their age; forming their characters by warfare in foreign countries; always commanding small armies, yet always invincible (Cæsar won the World at Pharsalia with only 25,000 men): both alike courageous and clement, unfailing in resources, and indefatigable in their objects; receiving the highest rewards, and arising to the highest rank of their times; never beaten: both of first-rate ability in council. The difference being in their objects; one to serve himself, the other to serve his country; one impelled by ambition, the other by duty; one destroying the constitution of his country, the other sustaining it. Wellington, too, has given the soldier and statesman his 'Commentaries,' one of the noblest transcripts of a great administrative mind."
J. M. G.
Worcester.
_Beech-trees struck by Lightning_ (Vol. vi., p. 129.).--On Thinnigrove Common, near Nettlebed, Oxon, a beech-tree, one of three or four growing round a pit, was shattered by lightning about thirteen or fourteen years ago. A gentleman who has lived sixty years in the neighbourhood of the beech woods near Henly, tells me that he remembers three or four similar cases. Single beech-trees, which are very ornamental, generally grow very low and wide-spreading, which may be the reason why they often escape. On the other hand, in the woods where they run up close and very high, they present so many points of attraction to the electric fluid, that probably for that cause it is not often the case that one tree in particular is struck.
CORYLUS.
Portsmouth.
_Passage in Tennyson_ (Vol. vi., p. 272.).--It appears to me that Tennyson has fallen into the error of a Latin construction. I call it an error, because in that language the varied terminations of the cases and numbers make that plain which we have no means of evidencing in English. I should translate it "Numenii strepitus volantis"--"The call of the curlew dreary (drearily) gleams about the moorland, _as he flies_ o'er Locksley Hall." The summer note of the curlew is a shrill clear whistle, but in winter they sometimes indulge in a wild melancholy scream.
CORYLUS.
Portsmouth.
_Inscriptions in Churches_ (Vol. vi., p. 510.).--I differ from your reply to NORWOOD'S Query, in which you refer to the colloquy between Queen Elizabeth and Dean Nowell as the origin of these inscriptions. No doubt they were derived from the custom of our ante-Reformation ancestors, of painting figures and legends of saints upon the walls of churches; but the following instance will suffice to prove that they originated in the reign of Edward VI., and not in Queen Elizabeth's.
In the interesting paper by the Rev. E. Venables in the _Transactions of the Cambridge Camden Society_, on "The Church of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge," he gives, under the year {26} 1550, the following extracts from the churchwardens' accounts:
"For makyng of the wall where Saynt George stood in the chyrche vj^d It. payd for wythynge y^e chyrch xx^s iiij^d It. payd for _wryghtynge of y^e chyrch walls with Scriptures_ iiij^{lib} iij^s iiij^d."
Shortly after the accession of Queen Mary in 1553, the following entry occurs:
"Payd to Barnes for mendyng over the rode and over the altar in the chapell, and _for washing oute the Scriptures_ 4^s 4^d."
They do not appear to have been restored after this, for in the year 1840 some of the plaister between two of the windows of the south aisle peeling off, discovered traces of "wryghtynge" beneath; and I and another member of the Cambridge Camden Society spent some time in laying it bare, and after much difficulty made out that it was the Lord's Prayer in English, headed, "The Lord's Prayer, called the Paternoster," and written in the church text of the period, the whole enclosed in a sort of arabesque border; it was not merely whited over, but had evidently been partially effaced, or partly "washed oute," before being "concealed under its dreary shroud of whitewash." On examination there were traces of more of this writing between the other windows, but we had not time to make any further investigation, for the church was then being cleaned, and in a few days all that we had laid bare was again concealed under a veil of whitewash.
Thus, I think, we may assign to the reign of Edward VI., not merely the obliteration of the numerous frescoes of St. Christopher, the great dome, &c., which are now so constantly coming to light, but also the origin of "wryghtynge of y^e chyrch walls with scriptures" in their stead, some ten or twelve years _earlier_ than the remarkable colloquy between Queen Elizabeth and the worthy Dean of St. Paul's.
NORRIS DECK.
Cambridge.
_Dutensiana_ (Vol. vi., p. 376.).--Lowndes gives a list of Dutens' works, which does not include "Correspondence interceptée," of which he _was_ the author; and I have seen a presentation copy of it proving this.
W. C. TREVELYAN.