Notes and Queries, Number 171, February 5, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.

Part 4

Chapter 44,093 wordsPublic domain

The following account of the whole of the proceedings at the inquest which was held at the Three Crows, Brook Street, Holborn, on Friday, Aug. 27, 1770, before Swinson Carter, Esq., and ten jurymen, whose names are mentioned, is from a MS. copy in my possession.

I am not acquainted with any printed work which contains a report of the inquest. It is not in the large collection of Chatterton's _Works_ and _Lives_, and the innumerable newspaper and magazine cuttings, which fill several volumes, and which belonged to Mr. Haslewood; nor is it in Barrett's _Bristol_, or Herbert Croft's _Love and Madness_.

"Account of the Inquest held on the body of THOMAS CHATTERTON, deceased, at the Three Crows, Brook Street, Holborn, on Friday, the 27th August, 1770, before Swinson Carter, Esq., and the following jury:--Charles Skinner, ---- Meres, John Hollier, John Park, S. G. Doran, Henry Dugdale, G. J. Hillsley, C. Sheen, E. Manley, C. Moore, ---- Nevett.

"MARY ANGELL, sack maker, of No. 17. Brook Street, Holborn, deposed, that the deceased came to lodge at her house about nine or ten weeks ago; he took the room below the garret; he always slept in the same room; he was always very exact in his payments to her; and at one time, when she knew that he had paid her all the money he had in the world, she offered him sixpence back, which he refused to take, saying: 'I have that here (pointing to his forehead) which will get me more.' He used to sit up nearly all night, and she frequently found his bed untouched in the morning, when she went to make it. She knew that he always bought his loaves--one of which lasted him for a week--as stale as possible, that they might last the longer: and, two days before his death, he came home in a great passion with the baker's wife, who had refused to let him have another loaf until he paid her 3s. 6d. which he owed her previously. He, the deceased, appeared unusually grave on the 28th of August; and, on her asking him what ailed him, he answered pettishly: 'Nothing, nothing--why do you ask?' On the morning of the 24th August, he lay in bed longer than usual; got up about ten o'clock, and went out with a bundle of paper under his arm, which he said 'was a treasure to any one, but there were so many fools in the world that he would put them in a place of safety, lest they should meet with accident.' He returned about seven in the evening, looking very pale and dejected; and would not eat anything, but sat moping by the fire with his chin on his knees, and muttering rhymes in some old language to her. Witness saw him for the last time when {139} he got up to go to bed; he then kissed her (a thing he had never done in his life before), and then went upstairs, stamping on every stair as he went slowly up, as if he would break it. Witness stated that he did not come down next morning, but she was not alarmed, as he had lain longer than usual on the day before; but at eleven o'clock, Mrs. Wolfe, a neighbour's wife, coming in, they went and listened at the door, and tried to open it, but it was locked. At last, they got a man who was near to break it open; and they found him lying on the bed with his legs hanging over, quite dead: the bed had not been lain on. The floor was covered all over with little bits of paper; and on one piece the man read, in deceased's handwriting, 'I leave my soul to its Maker, my body to my mother and sister, and my curse to Bristol. If Mr. Ca....' The rest was torn off. The man then said he must have killed himself, which we did not think till then, not having seen the poison till an hour after. Deceased was very proud, but never unkind to any one. I do not think he was quite right in his mind lately. The man took away the paper, and I have not been able to find him out.

"FREDERICK ANGELL deposed to the fact of deceased lodging at their house; was from home when deceased was found. Always considered him something wonderful, and was sometimes afraid he would go out of his mind. Deceased often came home very melancholy; and, on his once asking him the reason, he said, 'Hamilton has deceived me;' but could get no more from him. Deceased was always writing to his mother or sister, of whom he appeared to be very fond. I never knew him in liquor, and never saw him drink anything but water.

"EDWIN CROSS, apothecary, Brook Street, Holborn. Knew the deceased well, from the time he came to live with Mrs. Angell in the same street. Deceased used generally to call on him every time he went by his door, which was usually two or three times in a day. Deceased used to talk a great deal about physic, and was very inquisitive about the nature of different poisons. I often asked him to take a meal with us, but he was so proud that I could never but once prevail on him, though I knew he was half-starving. One evening he did stay, when I unusually pressed him. He talked a great deal, but all at once became silent, and looked quite vacant. He used to go very often to Falcon Court, Fleet Street, to a Mr. Hamilton, who printed a magazine; but who, he said, was using him very badly. I once recommended him to return to Bristol, but he only heaved a deep sigh; and begged me, with tears in his eyes, never to mention the hated name again. He called on me on the 24th August about half-past eleven in the morning, and bought some arsenic, which he said was for an experiment. About the same time next day, Mrs. Wolfe ran in for me, saying deceased had killed himself. I went to his room, and found him quite dead. On his window was a bottle containing arsenic and water; some of the little bits of arsenic were between his teeth. I believe if he had not killed himself, he would soon have died of starvation; for he was too proud to ask of any one. Witness always considered deceased as an astonishing genius.

"ANNE WOLFE, of Brook Street. Witness lived three doors from Mrs. Angell's; knew the deceased well; always thought him very proud and haughty. She sometimes thought him crazed. She saw him one night walking up and down the street at twelve o'clock, talking loud, and occasionally stopping, as if to think on something. One day he came in to buy some curls, which he said he wanted to send to his sister; but he could not pay the price, and went away seemingly much mortified. On the 25th August, Mrs. Angell asked her to go upstairs with her to Thomas's room: they could make no one hear. And, at last, being frightened, they got a man who was going by to break open the door, when they found him dead on the bed. The floor was covered with little bits of paper, and the man who was with them picked up several and took away with him.

"_Verdict._--Felo de se."

J. M. G.

Worcester.

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LITERARY FRAUDS OF MODERN TIMES.

(Vol. vii., p. 86.)

It is not for P. C. S. S. to explain the grounds on which Cardinal Wiseman considers the _History of Formosa_, and the _Sicilian Code of Vella_, as the most celebrated literary frauds of modern times. But he thinks that before he penned the Query, MR. BREEN might have recollected the well-known name of _George Psalmanazar_, and the extraordinary imposture so successfully practised in 1704 by that good and learned person; a fraud scarcely redeemed by the virtue and merits of a man of whom Dr. Johnson said, that "he had never seen the close of the life of any one that he so much wished his own to resemble, as that of Psalmanazar, for its purity and devotion."

With respect to the _Sicilian Code of Vella_, MR. BREEN will find, on a very little inquiry, that the work to which the Cardinal adverts (entitled _Libro del Consiglio di Egitto, tradotto da Giuseppe Vella_) was printed at Palermo in 1793; that the book, from beginning to end, is an entire fiction of the learned canon; that the forgery was detected before the publication of the second part--which, consequently, never saw the light; that the detection was due to the celebrated orientalist Hager, whose account thereof (a masterpiece of {140} analytical reasoning) was published in 1799 by Palm, the bookseller of Erlang (murdered in 1806 by order of the uncle of the present French emperor). But this was not the only imposture of the kind of which Vella was the author, and which his profound knowledge of Arabic enabled him to execute in a way which it would scarcely have been possible for any other European to have accomplished. He had published, 1791, at the Royal Press at Palermo, under the name of Alfonso Airoldi, a fictitious _Codex Diplomaticus Siciliæ, sub Saracenorum Imperio_, to the discovery of which ingenious fraud we are also indebted to the acute Pyrrhonism of M. Hager.

P. C. S. S.

* * * * *

SIR H. WOTTON'S LETTER TO MILTON.

(Vol. vi., p. 5.; Vol. vii., pp. 7. 111.)

I am obliged to apologise for having made Sir Henry Wotton use the words "some long time before," instead of "some good while before," and therefore take the opportunity of saying that I think Sir Henry's allusion to "the art of stationers," in binding a good and a bad book up together, almost proves "our common friend Mr. R." to have been a bookseller. Notwithstanding the very high authorities against me, I will then venture to insinuate, that instead of John Rouse, or Robert Randolph, plain Humphrey _Robinson_ is meant, by whom _Comus_ was printed in 1637, "at the signe of the Three Pidgeons, in Paul's Church-yard."

Once grant the probability of this being the case, and we have no further difficulty in understanding why _Comus_ should be stitched up "with the late Rd. poems," or Wotton be left in ignorance of the author's name. Lawes tells us in the dedication to _Comus_, that it was "not openly acknowledged by the author;" and the publisher would naturally keep the secret: but why Rouse or Robert Randolph should do so, appears to me inexplicable. I hope soon to have access to some public libraries, and also to return to this very interesting question again. Meanwhile, may I beg the forbearance of your more learned correspondents?

RT.

Warmington.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.

_Sir W. Newton's Process._--Having been requested by several friends to give them a statement of my mode of proceeding with reference to the calotypic art, and as I am of opinion that we ought to assist each other as much as possible in the pursuit of this important branch of photography, I beg therefore to offer the following for insertion in your "N. & Q.," if you should deem them worth your acceptance.

_To iodize the Paper._--1st. Brush your paper over with muriate of barytes (half an ounce, dissolved in nearly a wine-bottle of distilled water): lay it flat to dry. 2nd. Dissolve sixty grains of nitrate of silver in about an ounce of distilled water. Ditto sixty grains of iodide of potassium in another bottle with the like quantity of water. Mix them together and shake well: let it subside: pour off the water, and then add _hot_ water: shake it well: let subside: pour off the water, and then add three ounces of distilled water, and afterwards as much iodide of potassium as will redissolve the iodide of silver.

Brush your previously prepared paper well with this, and let dry; then place them in water, one by one, for about one hour and a half or two hours, _constantly agitating the water_. As many as a dozen pieces may be put into the water, one after the other, taking care that there are no air-bubbles: take them out, and pin to the edge of a board at one corner.

When dry they will be ready for exciting for the camera by the following process:

(These are supposed to be in six 1-ounce bottles with glass stoppers.)

_To excite for the Camera._--Mix equal parts of Nos. 1. and 2., and with a glass rod excite the iodized paper and blot off; and it may be put in the slide at once, or the number you require may be excited, and put into a blotting paper book, one between each leaf, and allowed to remain until required to be placed in the slide.

_Time of Exposure._--The time varies from three minutes to a quarter of an hour, according to the nature of the subject and the power of the sun; but five minutes is _generally_ the proper time.

_To bring out._--Bring out with No. 3., and when the subject begins to appear, add No. 5.; and when sufficiently developed hold it up, and pour water upon it; and then put it into hyposulphite of soda to fix it, for about half an hour {141} or more, and then into water: this is merely to fix it for the after process at your leisure.

_To clean the Negative._--Get a zinc tray about three or four inches deep, with another tray to fit in at the top, about one inch deep; fill the lower tray with boiling water, so that the upper tray may touch the water; put your solution of hyposulphite of soda, not strong, in the upper tray, and then your negatives one by one, watching them with care until the iodine is removed; then put them in hot water, containing a small piece of common soda (the size of a nutmeg to about two quarts of water), for about ten minutes; pour off the dirty water, and then add more hot water, shaking them gently for a short time; pour off the water again, and then add fresh hot water, and let it remain until it is cold, after which take them out CAREFULLY, one by one, and put them in clean cold water for an hour or two; then take them _all out together_, and hold up to drain for a short time, and then put them between three or four thicknesses of linen, and press as much of the water out as you can; then _carefully_ (_for now all the size is removed_) lay them out flat upon linen to dry.

_Mode of Waxing the Negatives._--Melt the pure white wax over a lamp of moderate heat, just merely to keep it in a liquid state; then fill the same deep tray as above described with boiling water, and with _another_ similar to the upper one before described (_which must be kept for this purpose only_); put a clean piece of blotting-paper in this tray, and lay your negative _face downwards_, and with a soft _flat_ hog's hair-brush, about an inch wide, dip it into the liquid wax, and brush the negative over, when it will be immediately transparent, and it can be done so that there is very little redundant wax, after which it may be put between two or three thicknesses of blotting-paper and ironed, if necessary, which, however, should not be _very_ hot, when it is ready to take positives from.

_Positives on Negative Paper._--Take one part of the iodide of silver before described, and add two parts of water; then add as much iodide of potassium as will redissolve it. Brush your paper with the foregoing, let dry, put into water, and proceed, in all respects, as above described for the negatives.

_Excite for Positives._--Excite with No. 1.; blot off: lay it in your press, place the negative face downwards: expose to the light from ten seconds to half a minute, or more, according to the light (_not in the sun_), and bring out with No. 3.; and when it is nearly developed add No. 1.; then take it up and pour water upon it, and then place it in hyposulphite of soda (cold) until the iodine is removed; after which put it into allum water, about half a teaspoonful of powdered allum in two quarts of water; this will readily remove the hyposulphite, and also fix the positive more particularly; it will also take away any impurities which there may be in the paper, after which put it into clean cold water, and change two or three times.

I have been thus particular in describing the process which I have adopted, more especially for beginners; and with great cleanliness and care in each process, and especially in keeping all the bottles with the chemicals free from dirt of every kind, the foregoing will lead to favourable results.

W. J. NEWTON.

I have been making some experiments in preparing the iodized paper in the following manner, more especially in consideration of the present price of iodide of potassium:--60 grains of nitrate of silver; 60 ditto of iodide of potassium, cleaned and prepared as before described, by the addition of three ounces of water,--that is 3 oz. altogether; 60 grains of cyanide of potassium; add a little of this at a time, and shake it up; and I generally find that this quantity is sufficient to redissolve the 60 grains of iodide of silver. Brush the paper over with the above, and when the wet surface disappears, dip it into cold water containing one drachm of dilute sulphuric acid to one quart of water; and then into water for half an hour, changing the water once: pin up to dry. I have not had an opportunity of trying this for negatives, but I have taken some good positives with the paper so prepared.

N.B.--I find that if the paper is allowed to dry with the cyanide of potassium, or that it is allowed to remain in the dilute sulphuric acid water too long, it weakens the paper so much as to be very absorbent. I would therefore wish to know from any of your correspondents whether this arises from taking away the size, or injuring the fibres of the paper? and, if so, whether a paper prepared with starch, instead of size, would be better? as it appears to me that this mode of iodizing might be an improvement. At all events, it is an enormous saving of iodide of potassium; as, for instance, to redissolve the 60 grains, it would take 1½ oz. of iodide of potassium (about four shillings); whereas 60 grains of cyanide would not cost more than one penny or twopence.

W. J. N.

_Collodion Film on Copper Plates._--Would any of your correspondents kindly describe the manner in which the collodion film may be transferred to prepared copper plates?

It was noticed by your correspondent H. W. D. in Vol. vi., p. 470.

J. M. S.

_Treatment of the Paper Positive after fixing._--1. Is it absolutely necessary for the preservation of the picture, that the size should be wholly removed from the paper? It seems to me that the hot-water treatment materially injures the tone. {142}

2. In re-sizing, what is the kind of size and degree of strength generally made use of, and mode of application? I have tried gelatine and isinglass size, of various degrees of strength, without satisfactory results.

3. Should the hot iron, used for improvement of tone, be applied previous to the picture being re-sized, or as a finishing operation? I find much difficulty from the liability of the paper to shrivel under it.

4. Is the glossy appearance, observed in finished photographs, attained solely by use of the burnisher?

5. What is albumenized paper? used, I believe, by some in printing; and the mode of its preparation?

H. B. B.

P.S.--If I am not presuming too much upon your kindness, I should feel greatly indebted for information upon the above points, either privately or through the medium of "N. & Q.," according to the importance you may attach to them.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Essay for a New Translation of the Bible_ (Vol. vii., p. 40.).--This work was written by Charles Le Cene, a French Protestant minister, who, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, sought refuge in England, and died at London in 1703. The translation was made by Hugh Ross, a Scotchman and sea-chaplain, but who was not sufficiently ingenuous to tell his readers that it was a translation. Orme says: "The essay contains a good deal of valuable information; points out many erroneous renderings of passages of Scripture; and suggests better meanings, and the means of correcting the modern translations generally."--_Bibliothecha Biblica_, p. 94. A short account of Le Cene will be found in Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._ See also Lewis's _Translations of the Bible_, 8vo. 1818, p. 338.

JOHN I. DREDGE.

I have a copy of the _Essay for a New Translation of the Bible_, second edition, 1727 (not 1717), which your correspondent W. W. T. inquires about (Vol. vii., p. 40.). It is the translation of a work of the Huguenot refugee, Charles Le Cene, _Projet d'une nouvelle version françoise de la Bible_. H. R., who signs the dedication, was Hugh Ross, according to a note in my copy, which my father made on the authority of one of the clergy of Norwich about twenty years ago, I believe of Dr. Charles Sutton. I have been unable to ascertain anything about him, his name not appearing in any biographical dictionary I have seen, and the book not being in the Museum library. The _Biog. Universelle_ charges Le Cene with a tendency to Pelagian or Socinian errors, both in his _Projet_, and in the _Version_ he actually made, and which was printed at Amsterdam. This was a great curiosity in its way, the ancient Oriental titles, &c. being rendered in their corresponding modern analogues.

B. B. WOODWARD.

_Touchstone_ (Vol. vii., p. 82.).--I think your correspondent ALPHAGE is mistaken in alleging that the word _touchstone_ is so called because it "gives a musical sound when touched with a stick."

The _touchstone_ is the dark-coloured flinty slate or schistus (the _Lapis Lydius_ of the ancients), which has been used from the remotest ages, down even to our own days, for testing gold. By touching the black stone with the metal, it leaves behind a clear mark, the colour of which indicates the distinction between the pure and alloyed. Pliny describes it (lib. xxxiii. cap. 43.):

"Auri argentique mentionem comitatur lapis quem coticulam appellant, quondam non solitus inveniri, nisi in flumine Tmolo, ut auctor est Theophrastus: nunc vero passim; quem alii Heraclium, alii Lydium vocant. His coticulis periti, cum e vena ut lima rapuerint experimentum, protinus dicunt quantum auri sit in ea, quantum argenti vel æris, scripulari differentia, mirabili ratione, non fallente."

This is the substance referred to in the apothegms of Lord Bacon, that "gold is tried by the _touchstone_, and men by gold."

The French, from the same practice, know the same substance by the name of _Pierre de touche_. The use of the touchstone, at the present day, is thus described by Ure in his _Dictionary of Arts and Mines_, under the head of "Assay:"

"In such small work as cannot be assayed, by scraping off a part and cupelling it, the assayers endeavor to ascertain its fineness or quality by the touch. This is a method of comparing the colour and other properties of a minute portion of the metal, with those of small bars, the composition of which is known. These bars are called _touch needles_, and they are rubbed upon a smooth piece of black basaltes, or pottery, which _for this reason is called the touchstone_."

W. W. E. T.

66. Warwick Square, Belgravia.

_Early Edition of Solinus_ (Vol. vi., p. 435.).--"Solinus _de Situ et Memor. Orbis_, editio princeps, folio, Venet. 1473." My copy was described as above in the catalogue of the bookseller of whom I purchased it. It contains a very fine illuminated initial letter, red, blue, and gold. It has no pagination. At the end, in capitals: