Part 6

_A Stereoscopic Note._--I possess a small volume entitled _A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things_, by T. H., B.B., Fellow of the Royal Society, 1688. "To which are subjoined, by way of Appendix, some uncommon observations about vitiated sight." In this strange appendix, one of the uncommon observations is worth the notice of your correspondents who write on stereoscopic subjects. I give you an extract from it:

"It has been of late the opinion of very learned men, that though both our eyes are open, and turned towards an object, yet 'tis but one of them at a time that is effectually employed in giving us the representation of it: which opinion, in this place where I am writing but observations, it were not proper to discuss, especially because what is suppos'd to be observed will not always uniformly happen, but may vary in particular persons according to their several customs, and the constitution of their eyes: for I have, by an experiment purposely made, several times found, that my two eyes together see an object in another situation than either of them apart would do." And in giving instances for and against binocular vision, the author says: "A yet more considerable instance of such mistakes I afterwards had from a noble person, who, having in a fight, where he play'd the _hero_, had one of his eyes strangely shot out by a musquet bullet, that came out at his mouth, answered me, that not only he could not well pour drink out of one vessel into another, but had broken many glasses by letting them fall out of his hand, when he thought he had put them into another's, or set them down upon a table." The whole book is a very curious one, and I should be obliged if the Editor of "N. & Q." could tell me who T. H. was?[5]

J. LAWSON SISSON.

Edingthorpe.

[Footnote 5: The Hon. Robert Boyle.]

_Photographic Query._--I think many amateur photographers would be thankful for plain and simple directions how to mount their positives on cardboard. Would the Editor of "N. & Q." assist us in this?

J. L. S.

_Deepening Collodion Negatives._--I have lately been trying a method of deepening collodion negatives, so as to render instantaneous impressions capable of being printed from, which I have found to answer admirably; {283} and although it is but a slight modification of MR. LYTE'S process described in "N. & Q.," it is a very important one, and will be found to produce far better results. The picture having been developed in the usual way, with a solution of pyrogallic acid, is whitened by means of MR. ARCHER'S solution of bichloride of mercury. The plate is then washed with water and a solution of _iodide of cadmium_ poured on. This converts the white chloride of mercury, which constitutes the picture, into the yellow iodide, in the same manner as the solution of iodide of potassium recommended by MR. LYTE; but is much to be preferred, as it produces a more uniform deposit. The solution of iodide of potassium dissolves the iodide of mercury as soon as it is formed, and therefore cannot be left on the plate until the decomposition of the chloride is complete, without injury resulting to the picture, as the half-tones are thereby lost, and those parts over which the solution first flows become bleached before the other parts have attained their highest tone; whereas the solution of iodide of cadmium may be allowed to remain for any length of time on the plate, without any fear of its injuring the negative.

J. LEACHMAN.

_Caution to Photographers._--About six months since, I procured some gun cotton from a chemist which appeared very good, being quite soluble, and the collodion produced by it was excellent. That which I did not use I placed in what I believed to be a clean dry-stopped bottle, and put the bottle in a dark cupboard. I was much surprised the other day, upon going to the cupboard, to find the stopper blown out, and the cotton giving out dense red fumes of nitrous acid. It appears to me to be almost upon the point of combustion, and I have, accordingly, placed it under a bell-glass in a porcelain dish to watch the result. I feel satisfied, however, that there is some risk, and, as it may often be near ether, spirits of wine, or other inflammable chemicals, that caution is necessary not only in preserving it at home, but especially in its transmission abroad, which is now done to some extent.

AN AMATEUR.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Artesian Wells_ (Vol. ix., p.222.).--Wells are often so called without just pretence to a similarity with those in Artois, whence this name is derived. There are some natural springs in the northern slope of the chalk in Lincolnshire, near the Humber, called _blow-wells_, which may be considered naturally Artesian. The particular character by which an Artesian well may be known is, that the water, if admitted into a tube, will rise above the level of the ground in its immediate vicinity up to the level of its sources in the basin of the district; this basin being usually gravel, lying betwixt two strata impervious to water, formed the surrounding hills, and extending often over many miles of the earth's surface. If we conceive the figure of a large bowl, inclosing a somewhat smaller one, the interstice being filled with gravel, and the rain falling on the earth being collected within such interstice, then this interstice being tapped by boring a well, the water will rise up from the well to the same height as it stands in the interstice, or rim of the natural basin. Such is an Artesian well. Supposing this huge mineral double bowl to be broken by a geological _fault_, the same hydrostatic principle will act similarly.

The question of _preferable_ put by STYLITES must be governed by the _cui bono_. Universal adoption is forbidden, first, by the absence of a gravelly stratum betwixt two strata impervious to water; and secondly, by the excessive expense of boring to such great depths. Where expense is not in excess of the object to be attained, and where the district is geologically favourable, the Artesian wells are preferable to common ones derived from natural tanks or water caverns, first, for the superabundant supply; secondly, for the height to which the water naturally rises above the ground; and thirdly, because boring Artesian wells, properly so called, does not rob a neighbour's well for your own benefit, afterwards to be lost when any neighbour chooses to dig a little deeper than you. This is a matter with which London brewers are familiar.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

_Prior's Epitaph on Himself_ (Vol. i., p. 482.).--MR. SINGER quotes an epitaph on "John Carnegie," and says it is the prototype of Prior's epitaph on himself. I have looked among Prior's poems for this epitaph, and have not been able to discover anything that can be said to answer MR. SINGER'S description of it. Would your correspondent oblige me with a copy of the epitaph to which he alludes? My edition of Prior is a very old one; and this may account for the omission, if such it be.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

[The following is a copy of the epitaph:

"Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior, The son of Adam and of Eve; Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?"]

_Handwriting_ (Vol. viii., p. 639.).--In your concluding Number of last year, E. B. requested information as to any work in English, French, German, or Spanish, giving a standard alphabet for the various kinds of writing now in use, with directions for teaching the same. I fear I shall not satisfy all your correspondent's inquiries; but the following may be of some service. I have in my possession a German work, nearly of the kind he requires. The title is, _Gründliche Anweisung zum Schönschreiben_, by Martin Schüssler, Wiesbaden, 1820. It is of an oblong shape, and consists entirely of engraved plates, in number thirty-two. It begins with some directions for the form {284} and inclination of letters; then follows an explanation of five rules for writing, which are given in the German handwriting. After exhausting the German, the author proceeds to English letters and handwriting, followed by engrossing hand. Then he gives the _fractur_, or black-letter characters, with some elaborate and beautiful capitals. He next gives specimens of French handwriting, and ends with Greek current hand, and plates of large capitals of ornamental patterns; all different.

If this work would at all answer the purpose of E. B., and he would wish to see it, it shall be sent to him by post on his giving his address to the writer, whose card is enclosed.

F. C. H.

I have in my possession for sale, a scarce old work, folio, a good clean copy of Geo. Bickman's _Universal Penman_, 1733; with numerous engravings.

D. H. STRAHAN.

10. Winsly Street, Oxford Street.

"_Begging the Question_" (Vol. viii., p. 640.; Vol. ix., p. 136.).--It may interest your logical readers to be informed of the fact that this fallacy was called the _petition of the principle_, this being, of course, a literal rendering of the Latin phrase. The earliest English work on logic in which I have found this Latinism is, _The Arte of Logike, plainelie set foorth in our English Tongue, easie both to be understoode and practised_, 1584. Here occurs the following passage:

"Now of the default of Logike, called Sophisme. It is eyther { Generall. } / { Speciall. } The generall are those which cannot be referred to any part of Logike. They are eyther { Begging of the question, called the petition of the principle. } / { Bragging of no proof. } Begging of the question is when nothing is brought to prooue, but the question, or that which is as doubtfull."

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_When and where does Sunday begin or end?_ (Vol. ix., p. 198.).--The Christian festival, commonly called Sunday, named by the ancient church "The Lord's Day," because that thereon the resurrection was accomplished, and the new creation, the work of Messias, commenced, this feast, I say, begins at six o'clock in the evening of Saturday, the last day of the week, at the close of that Hebrew fast; and the end of Sunday arrives at six o'clock in the evening of that first day of the week. When time was measured out, the count began with "the evening," which was created first; and which, with the succeeding morning, reckoned as the first day.

H. OF MORWENSTOW.

This question has been, to a certain extent, before debated by Mr. Johnson in his addenda to his _Clergyman's Vade Mecum_, pp. 106, 107., and _Ecclesiastical Law_, as quoted by Wheatly, who combated his reasoning of Sunday beginning at six o'clock on the Saturday evening. Johnson rests his argument upon Deuteronomy xvi. 6., where the sacrifice of the passover is ordered "at even, on the going down of the sun;" upon Exodus xii. 6., where the whole "congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening;" and I think he might have also taken Genesis i. 5., "And the evening and the morning were the first day." Johnson says that

"The Church of England has divided her nights and days according to the Scriptural, not the civil account: and that though our civil day begins from midnight, yet our ecclesiastical day begins at six in the evening.... The proper time for vesper, or evening song, is six of the clock, and from that time the religious day begins."

Wheatly admits that "the festival is not past till evensong is ended," but does not agree to its commencing on the preceding evensong; for if it does, he cannot reconcile the rubric at the end of the Table of Vigils.

On the whole, I think Johnson has the best of the argument: and that Sunday begins ecclesiastically at six in the evening on Saturday; civilly, at midnight.

R. J. S.

_Precious Stones_ (Vol. viii., p. 539.; Vol. ix., pp. 37. 88.).--Respecting precious stones, some information may be gleaned from the notes to Sir John Hill's translation of Theophrastus' _History of Stones_ (8vo., 2nd edit., London, 1774).

J. M.

Oxford.

_Scotch Grievance_ (Vol. ix., p. 160.).--Your correspondents refer to coins of a period when the Scotch do not complain. Their grievance, as alleged, is as to the mode of bearing the lion _since_ the Union in 1707; to which the instances quoted, between the time of James I. and William III., have no reference.

G.

_"Corporations have no Souls," &c._ (Vol. viii, p. 587.).--The following, which I extract from Hone's _Table-Book_, is probably the remark to which your correspondent B. alludes:

"Mr. Howel Walsh, in a corporation case tried at the Tralee assizes, observed that a corporation cannot blush. It was a body, it was true; had certainly a head--a new one every year--an annual acquisition of intelligence in every new lord mayor. Arms he supposed it had, and long ones too, for it could reach at anything. Legs, of course, when it made such long strides. A throat to swallow the rights of the community, and a stomach to digest them! But who ever yet discovered, in the anatomy of any corporation, either bowels or a heart?"

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

{285}

_Devereux Bowly_ (Vol. ix., p. 173.).--In reply to UNEDA'S inquiry, Devereux Bowly, watchmaker, of Lombard Street, London, died Mar. 15, 1773, in his seventy-eighth year.

He was a member of the Society of Friends, and being at the time of his decease a widower, and without family, he left a large portion of his property to their school, then at Clerkenwell, in the neighbourhood of which he resided.

T. S. N.

_Reversible Names_ (Vol. viii., pp. 244. 655.).--There is a gentleman in this island who bears the name and surname of _Xuaved Devaux_, which are mutually reversible.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

Your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS, in speaking of reversible or palindromic English names, seems to have overlooked the names of _Hannah_ and _Anna_.

X.

_Duval Family_ (Vol. viii., pp. 318. 423.).--A grant was made by the crown in Ireland on the 4th July, 1 James II., to Garret Wall, _alias_ Duvall, sen., Esq.; Garret Wall, _alias_ Duvall, jun.; Jas. Wall, _alias_ Duvall; and Michael Wall of the manor, town, and lands of Culenemucky, co. Waterford.

J. F. FERGUSON.

_Member of Parliament electing Himself_ (Vol. viii., p. 536.).--In the article forwarded by H. M. are many gross errors. William McLeod Bannatyne, Esq., was Sheriff of Buteshire from Dec. 22, 1775, till May 28, 1799; during which period there were only two county elections in Buteshire, viz. April 22, 1784, and June 27, 1796 (the counties of Bute and Caithness being represented only in alternate parliaments), and on _neither_ of those occasions was he the _sole_ freeholder present. The statement in question can therefore only refer to the election on Nov. 13, 1806, when, owing to some accidental circumstances, he was the only freeholder present. In 1799 he was raised to the Bench of the Court of Session by the title of Lord Bannatyne; and consequently he neither _did_ nor _could_ act as sheriff seven years after he ceased to hold that office. It is true that, as a technical formality, he nominated himself chairman of the meeting to enable him to sign the minute of the election in that capacity; but it is _not true_ that he either administered the oaths to himself, or signed the return of the election as sheriff. I was then a lad, and was present as a spectator on that occasion, when I saw Mr. Blain the sheriff-substitute administer the oaths to Lord Bannatyne; and, of course, Mr. Blain also made the election return, certifying that "the Honorable James Stuart Wortley Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, &c. (a relation of the family of Bute) had been duly elected." Thus you see that the title of the article is quite erroneous, and is not even borne out by the original account, as the freeholder did not elect _himself_, but another person; and he did not act in any other capacity than that of a freeholder: the case being extraordinary enough of only _one_ freeholder attending at a county election, without the addition of those marvellous circumstances.

J. McK.

_Gresebrok, in Yorkshire_ (Vol. viii., p. 389.).--To assist your correspondent [Greek: Hêraldikos], I may tell him that the family he inquires about now resides at Horton Castle and Audenham in Staffordshire. Many years ago, when I took some interest in genealogy, I had the pleasure of being a guest of this family; and I then heard it said, that they could trace a very ancient and brilliant line from one Osbert, who married a great heiress at the Conquest, and that they were direct descendants of the ancient kings of England. Some of Mr. Burke's publications I think would assist [Greek: Hêraldikos]; not having them by me, I cannot give the exact reference; but some months ago I saw, either in the _Landed Gentry_, or in the _Visitations_, a note of the family.[6] But I think, if your correspondent could by any means see Mr. Grazebrook's papers (as above noted), he would obtain all the particulars he may require.

HOSPES.

Charlotte Street, London.

[Footnote 6: Ferdinando Smith, Esq., of Halesowen, born March 26, 1779, a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant, and Lieut.-Colonel of the Worcester Militia, married first, in July, 1802, Eloisa Knudson, who died _s. p._ Sept. 14, 1805; and, secondly, Oct. 5, 1830, Elizabeth, fourth daughter of Michael Grazebrook, Esq., of Audnam, co. Stafford, by whom he left two surviving sons, Ferdinando Dudley Lea, now of Halesowen, and William Lea, born Feb. 27, 1836. Colonel Smith died July 20, 1841.--Burke's _Landed Gentry_, p. 1248.--ED.]

_Sir Anthony Fitzherbert not Chief Justice_ (Vol. viii., pp. 576. 631.).--The accompanying extract will resolve the difficulty which M. W. R. proposes:

"But here our author objects against himself: That once upon a time the archbishop called a synod by his own authority, without the king's licence; and was thereupon prohibited by Fitzherbert, Lord Chief Justice; but the archbishop regarded not his prohibition. What this is to his purpose I cannot tell, nor do I see wherefore he brought it in, unless it were to blame Rolle for quoting Speed for it. And therefore, in behalf of both, I shall take the liberty to say thus much. That I know not what harm it is for a man in his own private collections--for such Rolle's _Abridgment_ was, though afterwards thought worthy of a public view--to note a memorable passage of history, and make a remark of his own upon it, out of one of the most faithful and judicious of all our modern historians.

"I have before taken notice of this passage, and that not from Speed, but from Roger Hoveden; from {286} whom I suppose Speed may also have taken the relation. I shall therefore only beg to set this gentleman, to whom all our historians are I doubt equally unknown, right in two particulars; by telling him, that _neither was Fitzherbert the man who prohibited the archbishop, neither was he Chief Justice when he did it. His name was Geoffrey Fitz-Peter._ He was Earl of Essex, and a very eminent man in those days; and his place was much greater than this author represents it; even Lord Justice of England, which he was first made by King Richard, anno 1198; and held in the King's absence to his death, anno 1213; in which year King John, going over into France, constituted Peter, Bishop of Winchester, Lord Justice in his place."--Wake's _Authority of Christian Princes asserted_, pp. 284-6.

WM. FRASER, B.C.L.

Tor-Mohun.

_The Privileges of the See of Canterbury_ (Vol. viii., p. 56.).--As no one has yet volunteered to solve MR. FRASER'S question, How the letter of Pope Boniface ordaining that, _however human circumstances might be changed_, the city of Canterbury should ever thereafter be esteemed the metropolitan see, can be reconciled with the creation of the archiepiscopal see of Westminster,--I may suggest as a solution this maxim:

"Nihil tam conveniens est naturali æquitati, unumquodque dissolvi eo ligamine quo ligatum est."

It is possible, too, that Pope Pius IX. may have considered that a case had arisen for applying this principle,--

"Necessitas publica major est quam privata."

But be this as it may (and you will excuse me in observing, by the way, that I do not concur in the correctness of this hypothetical view if taken by his holiness), I hope we shall hear from MR. FRASER whether the former of the above maxims has been effectual to remove his difficulties, which, as I presume from their insertion in "N. & Q.," are not of a purely theological nature.

RESPONDENS.

_Chauncy or Chancy_ (Vol. ix., p. 126.).--Your correspondent J. Y. will find an account of Charles Chauncey, B.D., and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, born in 1589, and died in 1671, in vol. iii. p. 451. of Brook's _Lives of the Puritans_. See also Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_.

[Greek: Halieus]

Dublin.

_"Three cats," &c._ (Vol. ix., P. 173.).-MISS BOCKETT wishes for the remainder of the "old ballad" beginning with "Three cats;" and I beg to inform her, that there never was any more than what she mentions. The object of the singer was, to cause fun by an elaborately modulated cadenza on the word _coal-dust_, and then to call on the company to join in chorus. He next continued with some significant word, as "notwithstanding;" and, after a pause of some bars rest, he went on with "Three cats," as before, _ad infinitum_, changing the initial word each time. It required some tact to give it effect; but, if sung by a clever humorist, was sure to keep the room in a roar of laughter. But its day is gone by.

GRIMALKIN.

Halliwell, in his _Collection of Nursery Rhymes_, does not mention "Three cats by the fire-side," &c.; but I have in my possession several not named by him, and "Three cats," &c. amongst the number, which I have much pleasure in transcribing for the benefit of JULIA R. BOCKETT'S ancient friend:

"Three cats sat by the fire-side, In a basket full of coal-dust, One cat said to the other In fun, pell mell, 'Queen Anne's dead.' 'Is she,' said Grimalkin, 'then I'll reign queen in her stead,' Then up, up, up, they flew up the chimney."

ANON.

Probably this is the song of "The Turnspits:"

"Two little dogs sat by the fire-side, In a basket full of coal-dust; Says one little dog to the other little dog, 'If you don't go in, I must.'"

N.B.--Into the wheel.

SMOKEJACK.

_Officers of Charles I._ (Vol. ix., p. 74.).--SIR T. METCALFE mentions, as among the "curious stray sheets" in his possession, "a list of all the gentlemen and officers who fell in the cause of Charles I." As I have long wished to see a list of King Charles's officers, but have never, as yet, met with anything like a complete catalogue of those who fell, or of those who survived, it would be interesting to me, as I doubt not it would be interesting to many of your readers, to see this "curious stray sheet" transferred to the pages of "N. & Q."

Can you refer me to any published, or otherwise accessible, list of the officers who fought _against_ Charles I., whether by sea or land?

Is there any printed list of officers at the time of the Restoration?

* *

_D. O. M._ (Vol. iii., p. 173.; Vol. ix., p. 137.).--Would R. W. D. state his reasons for rendering these letters "Datur omnibus mori?" Such an inscription would of course be _à propos_ in the case of a tombstone; but the ordinary interpretation, "Deo Optimo Maximo," would likewise be fitting, and it is not probable that the same initials should have two distinct meanings.

W. M. N.