Part 4

_Sealing-wax for Baths._--I notice in your answers to correspondents (No. 176., p. 274.), that you inform H. HENDERSON that glass may be cemented for baths with sealing-wax. May I recommend to H. HENDERSON the use of gutta percha, instead of glass, for that purpose? Sheet gutta percha is now very cheap, and the baths are most easily made. I have had one of my own making in constant use since last July, having never emptied it but twice, to filter the nitrate of silver solution. It is not liable to breakage. The joinings are much less liable to leakage. And when it is necessary to heat slightly the silver solution (as it has been during the late cold weather), I have adopted the following simple plan: Heat moderately a stout piece of plate glass; plunge it into the bath; repeat the operation according to the size of bath. It is very useful to make a gutta percha cap to cover over the bath when not in use; it protects it from dust and evaporation, and saves the continual loss of materials arising from pouring the solution backwards and forwards. For home-work I have reduced {315} the whole operation to a very simple system. My bath, hypo-soda, developing fluid (of which, as it keeps so long, I make ten ounces at a time), are always ready in a small closet in my study. These I arrange on my study-table: a gutta percha tray, a brass levelling-stand upon it, a jug of soft water, and half-a-dozen small plates to place my pictures on, after treating them with the hypo-solution (for, to save time, I do not finish washing them until I have done all the pictures I require). All these things I can prepare and arrange in less than ten minutes, and can as easily return them to their places afterwards.

With regard to MR. MABLEY'S process, described in "N. & Q.," No. 176., p. 267., as I am but a beginner myself, and have much to learn, I should be sorry to condemn it; but I should fear that his pictures would not exhibit sufficient contrast in the tints. Nor do I see the advantage the pictures would possess, if they did, over positives taken by our process. We amateurs in the country labour at present under great disadvantages, some of which I think the Photographic Society will remove. I am myself quite unable to form an idea what the collodion pictures done by first-rate photographers are like. All the positives done by amateurs in this part of the world, and developed by pyrogallic acid, which I have seen, present a dirty brown hue, by no means pleasing or artistic; and I have seen but very few, either developed by pyrogallic acid or protosulphate of iron, free from blemishes. I think if we were to act upon the suggestion made in "N. & Q." some time back, and send the editor a specimen of our performances, it would be a slight return for his endeavours in our behalf; and he would, I doubt not, honestly tell us whether our pictures were tolerable or not. I, for one, shall be very happy to do so.

J. L. SISSON.

Edingthorpe Rectory.

_Developing Chamber._--I think MR. SISSON will find some difficulty in applying his very excellent idea of a sheet India rubber lighting medium to his portable laboratory, as the vapour of the ether will act upon it and render it sticky and useless after one or two usings. Allow me to suggest what I am in the habit of using, viz. a double layer of yellow glazed calico, stuck together with a little common drying oil, and allowed to dry for a few days: this causes a perfect exclusion of the actinic rays, and is very durable.

F. MAXWELL LYTE.

Falkland, Torquay.

_The Black Tints on Photographic Positives._--A correspondent having inquired how these were obtained, and another replying that it was caused by starch, I beg to offer a process to your readers as to how they may obtain those carbonic tints; though I must premise that the process requires some skill, and is not always successful, though always sure to make them black: but on occasions of failure the lights sink, and the brilliancy of the picture is lost. That it is not starch in the French process, unless that vehicle contains some preparation, I am tolerably certain; the chloride of barium will often produce black images, though very uncertain; and the black process as given by Le Gray is uncertain also. For myself, I generally prefer the colour given by ammoniac salt; it is artistical and sufficient for any purpose. The present process, which I use myself when I require a black colour, with its imperfections, I offer to the photographic readers of "N. & Q.," and here it is.

Take a two-ounce vial, and have some powdered litharge of lead, by some called gold or scale litharge; pound it fine in a Wedgewood mortar, and put in the vial about one scruple; pour on it about half an ounce of Beaufoy's acetic acid, but do not replace the cork or stopper, as the gas evolved is very active, and will burst the vial, placing the operator's eyes in jeopardy; agitate and allow it to stand some hours to settle, or leave it till next day, when it will be better for the purpose: then decant the clear part and throw the fæces away, return the solution into the bottle, and fill up with distilled water. The positive paper being now prepared with the ammonio-nitrate of silver, and placed as usual in the sun, the artist must remove it when a tolerably distinct image is visible, but not altogether up: this is _one_ of the niceties of the process; if it is too much done the blacks will be too black, and if not enough they will be feeble and want richness; it is when a visible image of the whole is developed: at this point put the positive into cold water; this will remove a great deal of the silver that has not been acted upon by the light: let it soak three or four minutes; take it out and blot off the water, laying a clean piece of paper below. Now pour a small quantity of the solution of lead on one end, and with a glass rod pass it carefully over every part; blot it off, and giving the paper a little time to dry partially, pass over a solution of newly made gallic acid; the shadows will rapidly become perfectly blank, and the picture will come up. But _another_ nicety in the process is the point at which it must be plunged into hyposulphite of soda solution; if plunged in too soon the black will be mingled with the sepia tints, and if too late the whole tint will be too black. I offer it, however, because I know its capabilities of improvement, and the intensity of the black is sometimes beautiful: it is better suited for architectural subjects, where there is but little sky, as it will lay a faint tint over it; but if a sky is attempted, it must be kept under by a brush with a little hyposulphite of soda solution, touching it {316} carefully. The time it will take in becoming black will not exceed one minute; but as the eyesight is the guide, the moment the tints have changed from red to black is the proper time to arrest its further progress: the combination thus obtained will not change, nor, I believe, become faint by time; but I repeat it may be much improved, and if any abler hand, or one with better means at his disposal, will take the trouble to examine its capabilities, I shall be very thankful for his notes on the subject.

N.B. The solution of lead must contain acid; and if by keeping it does not change litmus-paper, acid must be added till it does.

WELD TAYLOR.

7. Conduit Street West.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Contested Elections_ (Vol. vii., p.208.).--There is a very fair history of the boroughs of Great Britain, by Edwards, in 3 Vols. 8vo., printed by Debrett in 1792.

J. B.

X. Y. Z. is informed that a compilation on the subject to which his Query relates was published a few years since in Leeds by Henry Stooks Smith. Speaking from recollection, it appears to be a work of some research; but I cannot say how far it is to be relied on. It may, perhaps, be one of the unfortunate works which have already fallen under his censure.

J. B.

Prestwich.

_Suicide at Marseilles_ (Vol. vii., p. 180.).--In Montaigne's _Essays_ I find,--

"In former times there was kept, in our city of Marseilles, a poison prepared out of hemlock, at the public charge, for those who had a mind to hasten their end, having first, before the Six Hundred, which were their Senate, given an account of the reasons and motives of their design; and it was not otherwise lawful than by leave from the magistrate, and upon just occasion, to do violence to themselves. The same law was also in use in other places."--Book ii. chap. iii., at end.

This, however, is not the original authority required by your correspondent.

In the earlier part of the same chapter, "Plutarch, _On the Virtuous Deeds of Women_," is referred to as the authority for the statement which Montaigne makes of

"The Milesian virgins, that by an insane compact hanged themselves, one after another, until the magistrate took order in it, enacting, that the bodies of such as should be found so hanged should be drawn by the same halter, stark naked, through the city."

J. P.

Birmingham.

_Acts_, xv. 23. (Vol. vii., p. 204.).--From the notes to Tischendorf's _Greek Testament_, it appears that [Greek: kai hoi] is omitted by Griesbach ed. II. anno 1806, as well as by Lachman, on the authority of the four most ancient Greek MSS. distinguished as A, B, C, and D, confirmed by the versio Armenica, and so quoted by Athanasius, Irenæus, Pacian, and Vigilius. The MS. A is referred by Tischendorf to the latter half of the fifth century, and is the Alexandrian MS. in the British Museum. B is the Vatican codex of about the middle of the fourth century. C the codex Ephraemi Syri rescriptus at Paris, and is of the first half of the fifth century; and D is Beza's MS. at Cambridge, of about the middle of the sixth century. MR. SANSOM may find a very interesting letter upon this subject from Dr. Tregelles to Dr. Charles Wordsworth, the present Bishop of St. Andrew's, which was published _very recently_ in the _Scottish Ecclesiastical Journal_, and in which that learned critic defends the omission of the [Greek: kai hoi]. I regret that I cannot furnish him with the number of that Journal, but it was not more than three or four back.

I hope that MR. SANSOM will inform your readers of the ultimate result of his inquiries on this interesting subject.

P. H.

_Serpent's Tongue_ (Vol. vi., p. 340.).--The _Lingua Serpentina_ of old MSS., and the fossil now commonly termed a Shark's-tooth. In former days, few pilgrims returned from the East without bringing at least one of those curious stones. Being principally found in Malta, it was said they were the tongues of the vipers, which once infested that island, and which St. Paul had turned into stone. Considered to be antidotes, and possessed of talismanic qualities, they were set in cups, dishes, knife-handles, and other requisites for the table.

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Croxton or Crostin of Lancashire_ (Vol. vii., p. 108.).--A full account of the parish of Croston (not Crostin), which was formerly very extensive, but is now divided into the six parishes of Croston, Chorley, Hesketh, Hoole, Rumford, and Tarleton, may be found in Baines's _Lancashire_, vol. iii. pp. 395. to 440. There does not appear to have been a family of Croston of any note, though the name is common in the county. In Burke's _Heraldic Dictionary_, I find three families named Croxton; the principal one being of Croxton in Cheshire, since temp. Hen. III. Their arms are--Sable, a lion rampant arg. debruised by a bend componée or and gu.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

_Robert Dodsley_ (Vol. vii., p. 237.).--In the _Biographia Dramatica_ it is stated that "this author was born _near_ Mansfield, in Nottinghamshire, _as it is supposed_;" and this supposition was, {317} not improbably, founded on the following lines, which occur in one of his poems, as Mansfield is situated in the forest of Sherwood:

"O native Sherwood! happy were thy Bard, Might these, his rural notes, to future time, Boast of tall groves, that nodding o'er thy plain, Rose to their tuneful melody."

TYRO.

Dublin.

_Lord Goring_ (Vol. ii., pp. 22. 65.; Vol. vii., p. 143.).--In the order-books of the council of state, I find that William Killegrew was, on the 1st Oct., 1642, appointed lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Colonel Goringh, _vice_ Thomas Hollis, deceased; and that, on the 26th March, 1647, he was named colonel of the same regiment, vice Colonel Goringh, resigned. That the last-mentioned colonel is _George_ Goringh we learn from the war-budget (Staat van Oorlog) of 1644, where the salaries of

Colonel George Goringh iij^c£ William Killegre, Lieutenant-Colonel lxxx£

are charged on the province of Holland. It nowhere appears from official reports that Lord Goring held a higher military rank than that of colonel in the Netherlands army. That he left England previous to 1645 is proved not only by the above, but also by his presence, as colonel in the service of Spain, at the siege of Breda in 1637. If he afterwards served in the Spanish army as lieutenant-general, what could have induced him at a later period to accept the rank of colonel in the army of the States?

--t.

In the _Irish Compendium, or Rudiments of Honour_, vol. iii. pp. 64, 65., 2nd ed.: London, 1727, we read that Lord Richard Boyle, born in 1566, married as second wife "Catharine, only daughter to Sir Jeffry Fenton; by her had five sons and seven daughters, of which the Lady Lettice was married to _George Lord Goring_."--V. D. N. _From the Navorscher._

_Chaplains to Noblemen_ (Vol. vii., p. 163.).--There is, in the Faculty Office in Doctors' Commons, an entry kept of the appointments of chaplains when brought to be registered. Under what authority the entry is made does not seem very clear. The register does not extend beyond the year 1730, though there may be amongst the records of the office in St. Paul's some earlier notices of similar appointments.

G.

_The Duke of Wellington Maréchal de France_ (Vol. vii., p. 283.).--The Duke of Wellington is indebted to the writer in the _Revue Britannique_ for his dukedom and bâton of France, and not to Garter King-at-Arms. No such titles were attributed to his Grace or proclaimed by Garter, as a reference to the official accounts in the _London Gazette_ will show. The Order of St. Esprit was the only French honour ascribed to him; that Order he received and frequently wore, the insignia of which were displayed, with his numerous other foreign honours, at the lying-in-state. Such being the case, Garter will not perhaps be expected to produce the diploma for either the title of _Duc de Brunoy_ or the rank of _Maréchal de France_.

C. G. Y.

_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 207.).--MR. FORSTER has, it seems, blundered a piece of old scandal into an insinuation at once absurd and treasonable. The scandal was _not_ of Lord Guilford and the Princess Dowager, but of Frederick Prince of Wales and Lady Guilford. On this I will say no more than that the supposed resemblance between King George III. and Lord North is very inaccurately described by MR. FORSTER in almost every point except the _fair complexion_. The king's figure was not clumsy--quite the reverse, nor his face homely, nor his lips thick, nor his eyebrows bushy, nor his eyes protruding like Lord North's; but there was certainly something of a general look which might be called resemblance, and there was above all (which is not alluded to) the curious coincidence of the _failure of sight_ in the latter years of both. Lord North was the only son of Lord Guilford's _first_ marriage: I know not whether the children of the _second_ bed inherited defective sight; if they did, it would remove one of the strongest grounds of the old suspicion.

C.

_Mediæval Parchment_ (Vol. vii., p. 155.).--The method of preparing parchment for illumination will be found in the _Birch and Sloane MSS._, under "Painting and Drawing," &c., where are a number of curious MS. instructions on the subject, written chiefly in the sixteenth century, in English, French, and Italian.

Sir Frederic Madden, in the Introduction to _Illuminated Ornaments_, fol. 1833, and Mr. Ottley, in _Archæologia_, vol. xxiv. art. 1., have both written very minutely on the subject of illuminating, but their observations are too long for quotation.

E. G. B.

I remember reading in an old French work the process used in illuminating parchments, and remember that the gilding was laid upon garlic juice; it might very possibly be diluted with proof spirits of wine; at all events, no parchments can bear water at whatever time they may have been prepared: the process of making them wear out with water would turn them into leather. The work I allude to was brought out, I recollect, under the auspices of the French Academy.

W. T.

{318}

_"I hear a lion," &c._ (Vol. vii., p. 205.).--These lines (corrupted by your correspondent SAGITTA into _five_) are two couplets in Bramstone's lively poem of the _Art of Politics_. They are a versification of a shrewd question put by Colonel Titus in the debate on the celebrated bill for _excluding_ James Duke of York.

C.

The _Art of Politics_, by the Rev. Mr. Bramston, contains the following lines, which will, I apprehend, give your correspondent the required information:

"With art and modesty your part maintain; And talk like Col'nel Titus, not like Lane. The trading knight with rants his speech begins, Sun, moon, and stars, and dragons, saints, and kings: But Titus said, with his uncommon sense, When the exclusion-bill was in suspense, I hear a lion in the lobby roar; Say, Mr. Speaker, shall we shut the door And keep him there, or shall we let him in To try if we can turn him out again?"

Mr. Bramston's poem is in the first volume of Dodsley's _Collection_.

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to refer to a cotemporary account of Colonel Titus's speech on the Exclusion Bill.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

_Fercett_ (Vol. vi., p. 292.).--The term _Fercett_ is probably intended as the _designation_ of some collection in MS. of family evidences and pedigrees. It was usual among our ancestors thus to inscribe such collections either with the name of the collector, or that of the particular family to whom the book related. Thus the curious MS. in the library of the City of London, called _Dunthorne_, and containing ancient municipal records, is so called from its collector, whose name was Dunthorne. Instances of such titles are to be found in the collections of Gervase Holles in the _Lansdowne MSS._, where one of such books is referred to as _Trusbutt_.

E. G. B.

_Old Satchells_ (Vol. vi., p. 160.; Vol. vii., p.209.).--Your correspondent J. O. seems not to be aware that another and a fourth edition of _Old Satchells' True History_ ("with copious additions, notes, and emendations," under the editorial superintendence of William Turnbull, Esq., F.S.A.) is in course of preparation 'neath the fostering care of Mr. John Gray Bell, the _pro amore_ publisher of so many historical and antiquarian tracts of interest. Mr. Bell has already given to the world a _Pedigree of the Ancient Family of Scott of Stokoe_, edited, with notes, by William Robson Scott, Ph. D., of St. Leonard's, Exeter, from the original work compiled by his grandfather, Dr. William Scott, of Stamfordham, Northumberland, then (1783) representative of the family. The latter gentleman left behind him a large and valuable collection of MSS. relative to the family, which, as I learn from the prospectus, will be called into requisition in the forthcoming reprint of the _Old Souldier of Satchell_. Possibly the publishers of the second and third editions may have been assisted in their labours by the learned doctor in question, whose already quoted _Pedigree of the Scotts of Stokoe_ was issued only a few years prior to the appearance of the Hawick edition of 1786, not 1784, as accidentally misprinted in J. O.'s interesting communication.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

_Curtseys and Bows_ (Vol. vii., p. 156).--In the interlude of _The Trial of Treasure_, by Purfoote, 1567 (page 14. of reprint), Inclination says to Gredy-gutte:

"Ise teach you to speake, I hold you a pounde! Curchy, lob, curchy downe to the grounde.

_Gre._ Che can make curchy well enowe.

_Inc._ Lower, old knave, or yle make ye to bowe!"

For _rationale_ of bows and curtseys, see "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 157., though I fancy the _bob_ curtseys are the ones referred to.

THOS. LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_The Rev. Joshua Marsden_ (Vol. vii., p. 181.).--This gentleman was born at Warrington in the year 1777. In the year 1800 he offered himself, and was accepted by the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, as a missionary to British North America, where he laboured for several years. He removed thence to Bermuda. In 1814 he returned to England with a constitution greatly impaired, but continued to occupy regular stations under the direction of the Conference until 1836, when, worn out by affliction, he became a supernumerary, and resided in London, where he occasionally preached as his health permitted. He died August 11, 1837, aged sixty.

JOHN I. DREDGE.

A memoir and portrait of the Rev. Joshua Marsden will be found in the _Imperial Magazine_, July, 1830. He was at that period a preacher among the Wesleyan Methodists, having been for many years previously a missionary in connexion with that people. He was an amiable, ingenious, and worthy man, and although not a powerful, a pleasing poet. Among other things, he published _Amusements of a Mission_, _Forest Musings_, and _The Evangelical Minstrel_.

J. H.

_Sidney as a Christian Name_ (Vol. vii., p. 39.).--Your correspondent R. D. B., of Baltimore, is informed that the name of Sidney is extremely common in North Wales as a Christian name of either sex, but more particularly of the female.

There seems to be no tradition connected with its use. In this part of the principality, the name {319} has generally been assumed more from its euphonistic character than from any family connexion.

E. L. B.

Ruthin.

_The Whetstone_ (Vol. vii., p. 208.).--In your No. 174. of "N. & Q.," E. G. R. alludes to the _Game of the Whetstone_. The following quotation, as bearing on that subject, may not be uninteresting to your readers:

"In the fourth year of this king's (Edward VI.) reign, in the month of September, one Grig, a poulterer of Surrey (taken among the people for a prophet, in curing of divers diseases by words and prayers, and saying he would take no money), was, by command of the Earl of Warwick, and others of the Council, set on a scaffold in the town of Croidon, in Surrey, with a paper on his breast, wherein was written his deceitful and hypocritical dealings: and after that, on the eighth of September, set on a pillory in Southwark, being then Our Lady Fair there kept; and the Mayor of London, with his brethren the aldermen, riding through the fair, the said Grig asked them and all the citizens forgiveness.

"'Of the like counterfeit physicians,' saith Stow, 'I have noted, in the summary of my _Chronicles_ (anno 1382), to be set on horseback, his face to the horse-tail, the same tail in his hand as a bridle, a collar of jordans about his neck, a _whetstone_ on his breast; and so led through the city of London, with ringing of basons, and banished.'