Part 5

2. The chloride of silver which is to be reduced is put into a flask with about twice its volume of a solution of caustic potash (of one part of caustic potash to nine of water), in which a small portion of sugar has been dissolved. Let it boil gently. The operation is complete when the blackish powder which results from this process, having been washed in several waters, is entirely soluble in nitric acid, which is easily ascertained by experimenting on a small quantity. This powder is to be preserved in the same way as the former for the purpose of converting it into nitrate of silver.

3. The metallic silver is obtained in the form of a button, by mixing thoroughly 100 parts of dried chloride of silver, 70 parts of chalk or whitening, and 4 parts of charcoal. This mixture is to be exposed in a crucible to a fierce red heat for at least half an hour. When completely cold the crucible is broken, and a button of pure silver is the result. The first two processes are those which I should most strongly recommend to your correspondents.

N. C.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Ashes of "Lignites"_ (Vol. ix., p. 422.).--RUSTICUS is obliged to the Editor for so soon giving a reply to his Query; but seems convicted of being a bad penman, like many other rustics. For the strange word, respecting which he asked for information, having seen it used in a newspaper, was not _lignites_ but _liquites_. RUSTICUS could have guessed that the ashes of _lignites_ were but wood-ashes under a pedantic name; but a term which looks, to a rustic, as if chemists meant to persuade him to burn his beer for a valuable residuum, is more perplexing.

RUSTICUS.

_Old Rowley_ (Vol. ix., p. 457., &c.).--The late Sir Charles Bunbury, who was long the father of the Jury, and considered as an oracle in all matters relating to it, told me, many years ago, that Charles II. was nicknamed "Old Rowley" after a favourite stallion in the royal stud so called; and he added, that the same horse's appellation had been ever since preserved in the "Rowley Mile," a portion of the race-course still much used, and well-known to all frequenters of Newmarket.

BRAYBROOKE.

"_Bachelors of every Station_" (Vol. ix., p. 301.) is the beginning of the _Berkshire Lady_, an old ballad nearly extinct, and republished by me some years ago in the form of a small pamphlet, which sold rapidly. If I can procure one, it shall be forwarded to Mr. Bell.

The story is a true one, and related to a daughter of Sir William Kendrick's, who succeeded him, and was possessor of Calcot Place in the parish of Tylehurst, and to Benjamin Child, Esq., whom she met at a marriage feast in the neighbourhood. A wood near Calcot is where the party met to fight the duel in case Mr. Child rejected the proposals of marriage made to him by Miss Kendrick.

I had the account from an old man between eighty and ninety years of age, clerk of the parish; and my friend Miss Mitford agreed with me in the accuracy of the story: she had it from the late Countess Dowager of Macclesfield, an old lady celebrated for her extensive and accurate knowledge of legendary lore.

In opening a vault in St. Mary's, Reading, last year, her coffin was found entire, with this inscription:

"Frances Child, wife of Benjamin Child. Esq., of Calcot, and first daughter of Sir Benjamin Kendrick, Bart. Died Feb. 27, 1722, aged 35. The Lady of Berks."

Another coffin,--

"Benjamin Child, Esq., died 2nd May, 1767, aged 84 years."

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge.

_Mousehunt_ (Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.; Vol. ix., pp. 65. 136. 385.).--In Vol. ix., p. 65., the _Natural History of Quadrupeds_, by James H. Fennell, is quoted; where, speaking of the Beech Marten (_alias_ Mousehunt), he says:

"In Selkirkshire it has been observed to descend to _the shore_ at night time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large Basket Mussel (_Mytilus modiolus_)."

In p. 136, I ventured to state that Mr. Fennell must have been a better naturalist than geographer, as Selkirkshire was well known to be an inland county nowhere approaching the sea by many miles. I added, that I hoped, for Mr. Fennell's sake, that _Selkirkshire_ was either a misprint or a misquotation.

In p. 385. MR. ARCHIBALD FRASER, Woodford, not choosing to exonerate Mr. Fennell by either of my suggestions, prefers, as a staunch, but I think rather an inconsiderate friend and champion, to _vindicate_ the paragraph as it stands, by candidly admitting that if the word _beach_ had been used, it would certainly have referred to the sea; but that the word _shore_ applies to rivers as well as seas. And he goes back as far as Spenser to find an instance of its use, as applied to the banks of the river Nile.

I will not agree that this use is nearly obsolete, but give him the full value of his quotation from Spenser. But what does he say to the _habitat_ of the _Mytilus modiolus_, which the Mousehunt goes {478} to the _shore_ to feed upon. I quote from _Rees' Cyclopædia_, voce "MYTILUS:"

"MODIOLUS. Shell smooth and blackish, obtuse at the smaller end, and rounded at the other; one side near the beaks is angular. Two varieties are noticed by Lister. It _inhabits_ the European, American, and Indian _seas_, adhering to fuci and zoophytes; is six or seven inches long, and about half as broad: the fish is red or orange, and eatable."

J. S.S.

_Value of Money in the Seventeenth Century_ (Vol. ix. p. 375.).--Say, in his _Political Economy_ (Prinsep's translation, i. 413.), has furnished a comparative statement, the result of which is, that the _setier_ of wheat, whose relative value to other commodities has varied little from 1520 down to the present time, has undergone great fluctuations, being worth--

A. D. 1520 512 gr. of pure silver. A. D. 1536 1063 ditto. A. D. 1602 2060 ditto. A. D. 1789 2012 ditto.

Whence it may be inferred that 1000l. in 1640, 1660, and 1680 did not vary much from its value at the present time, _such value being measured in silver_. But as the value of all commodities resolves itself ultimately into the cost of labour, the rate of wages at these dates, in the particular country or part of a country, must be taken as the only safe criterion.

Thus, if labour were 20d. per diem in 1640, and is 40d. at this time, 1000_l_. in 1640 is equivalent to 500l. (only half as much) now. But, on the contrary, as the cost of production of numerous articles by machinery, &c. has been _by so much_ reduced, the power of purchase now, as compared with 1640, of 1000l., is _by so much_ increased. The article itself must determine by how much. The question put by C. H. is too general to admit of a positive solution; but should he specify the commodity and place of investment in the seventeenth century and to-day of the 1000l., our statistics might still be at fault, and deny us even a proximate determination of his inquiry. Even his 1000l., which he may consider a fixed measure of value, or _punctum comparationis_, is varying in value (=power of purchase) daily, even hourly, as regards almost every exchangeable product. Tooke _On Prices_ is a first-rate authority on this subject.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

_Grammars for Public Schools_ (Vol. ix., pp. 8. 209.).--Pray add this little gem to your list, now scarce:

"The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened, or else A Seminarie or Seed Plot of all Tongues and Sciences, that is, a short way of teaching and thorowly learning, within a yeare and a half at the farthest, the Latin, English, French, and any other tongue, together with the ground and foundation of Arts and Sciences, comprised under an hundred Titles and 1058 Periods. In Latine first, and now as a token of thankfulnesse brought to light in Latine, English, and French, in the behalfe of the most illustrious Prince Charles, and of British, French, and Irish Youths. By the labour and industry of John Anchoran, Licentiate of Divinity, London, 1633."

Our British youths of those days seem to have been _apt scholars_.

I. T. ABBOTT.

Darlington.

_Classic Authors and the Jews_ (Vol. ix., pp. 221. 384.).--Any edition of the _Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores Sex_, containing an index, ought to supply B. H. C. with a few additional references. See, for instance, the Index to the Bipont Edition, 2 vols. 8vo., [MDCCLXXXVII], under the words "Judæi," "Judaicus," "Moses."

C. FORBES.

Temple.

_Hand-bells at Funerals_ (Vol. ii., p. 478.; Vol. vii., p. 297.).--A few years ago I happened to arrive at the small sea-port of Roscoff, near the ancient cathedral town of St. Pol de Léon in Britanny, on the day appointed for the funeral of one of the members of a family of very old standing in that neighbourhood. My attention was attracted by a number of boys running about the streets with small hand-bells, with which they kept up a perpetual tinkling. On inquiring of a friend of mine, a native of the place, what this meant, he informed me that it was an old custom in Britanny--but one which in the present day had almost fallen into disuse--to send boys round from door to door with bells to announce when a death had occurred, and to give notice of the day and the hour at which the funeral was to take place, begging at the same time the prayers of the faithful for the soul of the deceased. The boys selected for this office are taken from the most indigent classes, and, on the day of the funeral, receive cloaks of coarse black cloth as an alms: thus attired, they attend the funeral procession, tinkling their bells as they go along.

EDGAR MACCULLOCH.

Guernsey.

"_Warple-way_" (Vol. ix., p. 125.).--The communications of your correspondents (Vol. ix., p. 232.) can scarcely be called answers to the questions put.

I find, in Holloway's _Dictionary of Provincialisms_, 8vo., 1838, that a ridge of land is called, in husbandry, a _warp_. It is defined to be a quantity of land consisting of ten, twelve, or more ridges; on each side of which a furrow is left, to carry off the water.

Again, in Halliwell's _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, two volumes, 1847, it will be {479} found that _warps_ are distinct pieces of ploughed land, separated by furrows. I think I here give the derivation and meaning, and refer to the authority. If the derivation be not here given, then I would refer to the Saxon word _werpen_, meaning "to cast."

Across marshy grounds, to this day, are seen ridges forming foot-paths, with a furrow on each side. A ridge of this sort would formerly be, perhaps, a _warple-way_. Or perhaps a path across an open common field, cast off or divided, as Halliwell mentions, by warps, would be a _warple-way_.

VIATOR.

_Wapple-way_, or, as on the borders of Surrey and Sussex it is called, _waffel-way_: and the gate itself, _waffel-gate_. If it should appear, as in the cases familiar to me, these waffel-ways run along the borders of shires and divisions of shires, such as _hundreds_, I would suggest that they were military roads,--the derivation _waffe_ (Ger.), weapon.

H. F. B.

_Medal of Chevalier St. George_ (Vol. ix., pp. 105. 311.).--With reference to the observations of your correspondents A. S. and H., I would beg to observe that, some time ago, I gave to the Museum at Winchester a medal struck on the occasion of the marriage of Prince James F. E. Stuart and M. Clementina Sobieski: on the obverse is a very striking head and bust of Clementina, with this inscription:

"Clementina, M. Britan., Fr., et Hib. Regina."

On the reverse is Clementina, driving an ancient chariot towards the Colosseum, with this inscription: on the top--

"Fortunam causamque sequor."

at the bottom--

"Deceptis Custodibus. MDCCXIX."

This latter inscription refers to her escape from Innspruck, where the princess and her suite had been detained by the emperor's orders.

This marriage, to prevent which so many efforts were made, prolonged for eighty-eight years the unfortunate House of Stuart.

E. S. S. W.

_Shakspeare's Inheritance_ (Vol. ix., pp. 75. 154.).--Probably the following extracts from Littleton's _Tenures in English, lately perused and amended_ (1656), may tend to a right understanding of the meaning of _inheritance_ and _purchase_--if so, you may print them:

"Tenant in fee simple is he which hath lands or tenement to hold to him and his heires for ever: and it is called in Latine _feodum simplex_; for _feodum_ is called inheritance, and _simplex_ as much to say as lawful or pure, and so _feodum simplex_ is as much to say as lawfull or pure inheritance. For if a man will purchase lands or tenements in fee simple, it behoveth him to have these words in his purchase, To have and to hold unto him and to his heires: for these words (his heires) make the estate of inheritance, _Anno_ 10 _Henrici_ 6. fol. 38.; for if any man purchase lands in these words, To have and to hold to him for ever, or by such words, To have and to hold to him and to his assigns for ever; in these two cases he hath none estate but for terme of life; for that, that he lacketh these words (his heires), which words only make the estate of inheritance in all feoffements and grants."

"And it is to be understood that this word (_inheritance_) is not only understood where a man hath lands or tenements by descent of heritage, but also every fee simple or fee taile that a man hath by his purchase, may be said inheritance; for that, thus his heires may inherite them. For in a Writ of Right that a man bringeth of land that was of his own purchase, the writ shall say, _Quam clamat esse jus et hæreditatem suam_, this is to say, which he claimeth to be his right and his inheritance."

"Also _purchase_ is called the possession of lands or tenements that a man hath by his deed or by his agreement, unto which possession he commeth, not by descent of any of his ancestors or of his cosins, but by his own deed."

J. BELL.

Cranbroke, Kent.

_Cassock_ (Vol. ix., pp. 101. 337.).--A note in Whalley's edition of _Ben Jonson_ has the following remark on this word:

"_Cassock_, in the sense it is here used, is not to be met with in our common dictionaries: it signifies a soldier's loose outward coat, and is taken in that acceptation by the writers of Jonson's times. Thus Shakspeare, in _All's Well that Ends Well:_

'Half of the which dare not shake the snow from their _cassocks_.'"

This is confirmed in the passage of _Jonson_, on which the above is a note.

"This small service will bring him clean out of love with the soldier. He will never come within the sign of it, the sight of a _cassock_."--_Every Man in his Humour_, Act II. Sc. 5.

The cassock, as well as the gown and band, seem to have been the usual attire of the clergy on all occasions in the last century, as we find from the paintings of Hogarth and the writings of Fielding, &c. When did this custom cease? Can any reader of "N. & Q." supply traditional proof of clergymen appearing thus apparelled in ordinary life?

E. H. M. L.

_Tailless Cats_ (Vol. ix., p. 10.).--On the day on which this Query met my eye, a friend informed me that she had just received a letter from an American clergyman travelling in Europe, in which he mentioned having seen a tailless cat in Scotland, called a Manx cat, from having come {480} from the Isle of Man. This is _not_ "a Jonathan." Perhaps the Isle of Man is too small to swing long-tailed cats in.

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

Mr. T. D. Stephens, of Trull Green, near this town, has for some years had and bred the Manx tailless cat; and, I have no doubt, would have pleasure in showing them to your correspondent SHIRLEY HIBBERD, should he ever be in this neighbourhood.

K. Y.

Taunton.

A friend of mine, who resided in the Park Farm, Kimberley, had a breed of tailless cats, arising from the tail of one of the cats in the _first instance_ having been cut off; many of the kittens came tailless, some with half length; and, occasionally, one of a litter with a tail of the usual length, and this breed continued through several generations.

G. J.

_Names of Slaves_ (Vol. viii., p. 339.).--I can answer the first of J. F. M.'s Queries in the affirmative; it being common to see in Virginia slaves, or free people who have been slaves, with names acquired in the manner suggested: _e. g._ "Philip Washington," better known in Jefferson county as "Uncle Phil.," formerly a slave of the Washingtons. A large family, liberated and sent to Cape Palmas, bore the surname of "Davenport," from the circumstance that their progenitor had been owned by the Davenports. In fact, the practice is almost universal. But fancy names are generally used as first names: _e. g._ John Randolph, Peyton, Jefferson, Fairfax, Carter, &c. A fine old body-servant of Col. Willis was called "Burgundy," _shortened_ into "Uncle Gundy." So that "Milton," in the case mentioned, may have been merely the homage paid to genius by some enthusiastic admirer of that poet.

J. BALCH.

Philadelphia.

_Heraldic_ (Vol. ix., p. 271.).--On the brass of Robert Arthur, St. Mary's, Chartham, Kent, are two shields bearing a fess engrailed between three trefoils slipped: which may probably be the same as that about which LOCCAN inquires, though I am unable to tell the colours. There are two other shields bearing, Two bars with a bordure. The inscription is as follows:

"Hic iacet d[=n]s Robertus Arthur quondam Rector isti' Eccli[=e] qui obiit xxviii^o die marcii A^o d[=n]i Mill[=o] CCCC^oLIIII^o. Cui' a[=i]e ppiciet' de' Am[=e]."

F. G.

_Solar Annual Eclipse of 1263_ (Vol. viii., p. 441.).--Mr. Tytler, in the first volume of his _History of Scotland_, mentions that this eclipse, which occurred about 2 P.M. on Sunday, August 5, 1263, has been found by calculation to have been actually central and annular to Ronaldsvoe, in the Orkneys, where the Norwegian fleet was then lying: a fine example, as he justly adds, "of the clear and certain light reflected by the exact sciences on history." S. asks, is this eclipse mentioned by any other writer? As connected with the Norwegian expedition, it would seem not; but Matthew of Westminster (vol. ii. p. 408., Bohn's edit.) mentions it having been seen in England, although he places it erroneously on the 6th of the month.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Brissot de Warville_ (Vol. ix., p. 335.).--Brissot's _Mémoires_ is a very common book in the original, and has gone through several editions. The passage quoted by N. J. A. was only an impudent excuse for an impudent assumption. Brissot, in his early ambition, wished to pass himself off as a gentleman, and called himself _Brissot de Warville_, as Danton did D'Anton, and Robespierre de Robespierre; but when these worthies were endeavouring to send _M. de Warville_ to the scaffold as an aristocrat, he invented this fable of his father's having some landed property at _Ouarville en Beauce_ (not Beance), and that he was called, according to the custom of the country, from this place, where, it seems, he was put out to nurse. When the dread of the guillotine made _M. de Warville_ anxious to get rid of his aristocratic pretensions, he confessed (in those same _Mémoires_) that his father kept a cook's shop in the town of Chartres, and was so ignorant that he could neither read nor write. I need not add, that his having had a landed property to justify, in any way, the son's territorial appellation, was a gross fiction.

C.

"_Le Compère Mathieu_" (Vol. vi., pp. 11. 111. 181.).--On the fly-leaf of my copy (three vols. 12mo., Londres, 1766) of this amusing work, variously attributed by your correspondents to Mathurin Laurent and the Abbé du Laurens, is written the following note, in the hand of its former possessor, Joseph Whateley:

"Ecrit par Diderot, fils d'un Coutelier: un homme très licentieux, qui écrit encore plusieurs autres Ouvrages, comme La Religieuse, Les Bijoux méchant (_sic_), &c. Il jouit un grand rôle après dans la Révolution.

"J. W."

By the way, A. N. styles it "a not altogether undull work." May I ask him to elucidate this phrase, as I am totally at a loss to comprehend its meaning. "Not undull" must surely mean _dull_, if anything. The work, however, is the reverse of dull.

WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham.

_Etymology of "Awkward"_ (Vol. viii., p. 310.--H. C. K. has probably given the true derivation of this word, but he might have noticed the {481} singularity of one Anglo-Saxon word branching off into two forms, signifying different ways of acting wrong; one, _awkward_, implying ignorance and clumsiness; the other, _wayward_, perverseness and obstinacy. That the latter word is derived from the source from which he deduces _awkward_, can, as I conceive, admit of no doubt.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Life and Death_ (Vol. ix., p. 296.).--What is death but a sleep? We shall awake refreshed in the morning. Thus Psalm xvii. 15.; Rom. vi. 5. For the full meanings, see these passages in the original tongues. Sir Thomas Browne, whose _Hydriotaphia_ abounds with quaint and beautiful allusions to this subject, says, in one place, "Sleep is so like death, that I dare not trust him without my prayers:" and he closes his learned treatise with the following sentence:

"To live indeed is to be again ourselves; which being not only a hope, but an evidence in noble believers, it is all one to lie in St. Innocent's churchyard as in the sands of Egypt; ready to be anything in the ecstasy of being ever, and as content with six feet as the moles of Adrianus."

"Tabesne cadavera solvat, An rogus, haud refert."--_Lucan._

How fine also is that philosophical sentiment of Lucan:

"Victurosque Dei celant, ut vivere durent, Felix esse mori."

Can any of your correspondents say in what work the following analogous passage occurs, and who is the author of it? The stamp of thought is rather of the philosophic pagan than the Christian, though the latinity is more monkish than classic:

"Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum, nihil curo."

J. L.

Dublin.

These notes remind my parishioners of an epitaph on a child in Morwenstow churchyard:

"Those whom God loves die young! They see no evil days; No falsehood taints their tongue, No wickedness their ways!

"Baptized, and so made sure To win their blest abode; What could we pray for more? They die, and are with God!"

R. H. MORWENSTOW.

_Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound"_ (Vol. ix., p. 351.).--I offer a conjecture on the meaning of the obscure passage adduced by J. S. WARDEN. It seems that Shelley intended to speak of that peculiar feeling, or sense, which affects us so much in circumstances which he describes. With the slight alterations indicated by Italics, his meaning I think will be apparent; though in his hurry, or inadvertence, he has left his lines very confused and ungrammatical.

"Who made that sense which, when the winds of spring _Make_ rarest visitation, or the voice Of one beloved _is_ heard in youth alone, Fills the faint eyes with falling tears," &c.

F. C. H.

"_Three Crowns and a Sugar-loaf_" (Vol. ix., p. 350.).--The latter was perhaps originally a mitre badly drawn, and worse copied, till it received a new name from that it most resembled. The proper sign would be "The Three Crowns and a Mitre," equivalent to "The Bishop's Arms:" if Franche was in the diocese of Ely, or Bristol, the reference would be clearer. Similar changes are known to have happened.

G. R. YORK.

To the inquiry of CID, as to the meaning of the above sign of an inn, I answer that there can be little doubt that its original meaning was the Pope's tiara.

F. C. H.