Part 4

Since I last wrote, I have not succeeded in unravelling the mystery which envelops these two works; but I have gotten some clue to it, for which I am indebted to the extreme courtesy and kindness of two correspondents.

One of these gentlemen informs me that the _Anthologia_ is quoted at p. 280. of Dr. Forster's work on the Atmosphere: London, 1823. My {569} second correspondent writes to say, "If you can procure the _Circle of the Seasons_, by Dr. Forster, published in 1830, you will there find very copious extracts from the books in question." Before we go any farther I would ask, _is_ Dr. Forster the author of this book? The copy I have met with in a public library is anonymous, and is thus entitled: _The Circle of the Seasons, and Perpetual Key to the Calendar and Almanac_: London, Thomas Hookham, 1828, pp. 432. 12mo. It is a valuable book, and forms a complete Catholic Floral Directory. Though the _Anthologia_ and the _Florilegium_ are lavishly quoted, no references are given save the bare names.

It is easy to see why Mr. Weale, the "compiler" of the _Catholic Florist_, declined giving the information requested. The quotations in question are all _second-hand_ from the _Circle of the Seasons_. The very preface of the _Florist_ is not original; the most valuable part of it (commencing at p. 11.) I have discovered to be a verbatim reprint from _The Truthteller_, or, rather, from Hone's _Every-Day Book_, vol. i. pp. 103. 303., where some extracts are given from the contributions to this periodical from a correspondent with the signature _Crito_. These quotations in Hone first drew my attention to _The Truthteller_, and I advertised for it, but without success. It was edited, I believe, by Thomas Andrews. I have met with the second series of this periodical, published in London in 1825, and I should be glad to get the whole of it.[1]

In Forster's _Perennial Calendar_, London, 1824, the _Anthologia_ is quoted at pp. 101. 108. 173. 211. 265. 295.: one of these passages is requoted in Hone, vol. i. p. 383. I may here remark that this work of Hone's is furnished with a _Floral Directory_.

I feel rather piqued, both on my own account and for the honour of "N. & Q.," at being baffled by two English books, and I am somewhat surprised that thirty years should have elapsed without any inquiry having been made respecting the remarkable quotations adduced by Dr. Forster. The Queries I now propose are: Who was the compiler of the _Circle of the Seasons_? Are the _Anthologia_ and the _Florilegium_ quoted in any works previous to Forster's time?

EIRIONNACH.

P.S.--Can I get a copy of the _Catholic Friend_, which is referred to in the preface of the _Catholic Florist_ as a scarce and valuable work; and also a copy of the _Catholic Instructor_: London, 1844?

March, 1854.

[Footnote 1: [_The Truthteller_ was discontinued at the end of vol. i. The first number was published Sept. 25, 1824, and the last on Sept. 17, 1825. The publisher and editor, W. A. Andrews, closes his labours with the following remarks: "Having given _The Truthteller_ a year's trial, we feel ourselves called upon, as a matter of justice to our family, to discontinue it as a newspaper. The negligence of too many of our subscribers, in not discharging their engagements to us, and the indifference of others of the Catholic body, to support the vindicator of their civil and religious principles, leave us no alternative but that of dropping it as a newspaper, or carrying it on at a loss." Only two of Crito's papers on Botany were given in _The Truthteller_, viz. in No. 15., p. 115., and No. 16., p. 123. He probably continued them in _The Catholic Friend_, also published by W. A. Andrews.

The following extract from a letter signed F., and dated Jan. 4, 1825, given in _The Truthteller_, vol. i. No. 16. p. 126., recommends the publication, among other works, of a "CATHOLIC CALENDAR. There should also be a Catholic Calendar, something like _The Perennial Calendar_, but more portable, and fuller of religious information, in which, under each saint, his or her particular virtues, intelligence, good works, or martyrdom, should be succinctly set forth, so as to form a sort of calendar of human triumphs, such as is recommended by Mr. Counsellor Basil Montagu in his Essays." In a note the writer adds, "This I believe will soon be undertaken." This letter seems to have been written by Dr. Forster.--ED.]]

Thanks to MR. PINKERTON, I am enabled to turn my surmise into certainty, and have the pleasure of clearing up a literary _hoax_, which has, it seems, passed without challenge till my note of interrogation appeared in these pages. The _Anthologia_ and the _Florilegium_ are purely imaginary titles for certain pieces in prose and verse, the production of Dr. Forster, and have no existence save in the _Circle of the Seasons_.

In the Autobiography of the eccentric Doctor--which is entitled _Recueil de ma Vie, mes Ouvrages et mes Pensées: Opuscule Philosophique_, par Thomas Ignace Marie Forster: Bruxelles, 1836--at p. 55. he enumerates the _Anthologia_ and _Florilegium_ among his "Pièces Fugitives," and ends the list in the following words:

"Encore je me confesse d'avoir écrit toutes ces essais détachés dans le _Perennial Calendar_, auxquels j'ai attaché quelques signatures, ou plus proprement des lettres, comme A. B. S. R. etc."

In the solitude of his garden at Hartwell he conceived the idea of making a Floral Directory, which he eventually carried out, and published under the title of the _Circle of the Seasons_. See p. 21.

MR. PINKERTON has most kindly lent me a rare and privately-printed book of Forster's, entitled _Harmonia Musarum, containing Nugæ Cantabrigenses, Florilegium Sanctæ Aspirationis, and Anthologia Borealis et Australis_, chiefly from a College Album, edited by Alumnus Cantabrigensis (N.B. Not published): 1843, pp. 144, 8vo.

The preface is signed T. F., and is dated "Bruges, Sept. 15, 1843." In it he says:

"The harmony of the Muses has been divided into three parts--the first being the _Nugæ Cantab_. The {570} second contains the sacred subjects, hymns, &c., written chiefly by a relation, and formerly collected under the title of _Florilegium Sanctæ Aspirationis_. The third consists merely of a small collection of Latin verses selected by some student, with occasional notes from the rest, and called _Fragments from North and South_: they have, many at least, been printed before."

It is impossible to give an idea of this extraordinary Olla; we have in it pieces of Porson, Gray, and Byron, &c., Cowper's _John Gilpin_, and Coleridge's _Devil's Walk_; at p. 19. we have "Spring Impromptu, found among some old papers," with the signature "N." attached, which turns out to be Gray on the "Pleasures of Vicissitude." I regret to say that this volume contains much that is coarse and offensive, which is the less excusable, and the more surprising, as coming from the author of the very beautiful and devotional pieces published in the _Circle of the Seasons_.

The _Florilegium_ and the _Anthologia_ of the _Circle_ have little in common with their namesakes in the _Harmonia_, which latter contain poems by Southwell, Byron, Gray, Hogg, Porson, Jortin, &c., but none of Forster's prose pieces, which form so large a portion of the other _Florilegium_ and _Anthologia_. Dr. Forster's life would make a very entertaining biography, and I should be glad to know more about him, whether he be yet alive, what books he printed at Bruges, &c.[2]

In concluding this matter, I beg to return my best thanks to MR. PINKERTON for the valuable information he so freely imparted to me, and the handsome manner in which he placed it at my disposal.

[Footnote 2: Dr. Forster was born in London in 1789, of an ancient Catholic family; he was himself a Protestant until the year 1835, when it appears that he became a convert to the Church of Rome: at the same time he received the additional names of Ignatius Maria. It is most probable that he is yet alive and in Belgium, where he has resided for many years. The Editor of "N. & Q." has kindly sent me a list from the Catalogue of the British Museum, of some four and thirty works by Dr. Forster. There is, however, another book by Dr. Forster not contained in the Museum list, _Onthophilos, ou Les Derniers Entretiens d'un Philosophe Catholique_ (Brussels?), 1836.]

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Mr. Lyte's New Instantaneous Process._--I beg to communicate to you a new process in photography, which is by far the most rapid I believe yet discovered, and combines at the same time great stability. It has been the result of a great many experiments on my part, and even now I am hardly prepared to say that it is brought to its fullest perfection; but it suffices to say that it is sufficiently rapid to give pictures of the waves of the sea in motion with perfect sharpness, and ships sailing at ten knots an hour, and puttling up and down at the same time, and all with a landscape lens. By it also, and by the same lens, we may take instantaneous portraits. The process is as follows:--After the plate, prepared with the collodion and sensitised with the nitrate bath, as I have described in one of your former Numbers, is taken from the bath, I pour over it a solution composed as follows:

1. Take-- Nitrate of silver 200 grains. Distilled water 6 ounces. Iodide of silver, as much as will dissolve. Mix and filter.

2. Take-- Grape sugar or honey 8 ounces. Water 6 ounces. Alcohol 1 ounce. Mix, dissolve, and filter.

And when required for use, mix equal parts of these solutions, and pour them over the plate. The plate is to be allowed to drain; and then, when placed in the frame, is ready for the camera, and is easily impressed as a deep negative by a Ross's landscape lens instantaneously. To develop, I use always the same agents as I have before specified. One or two cautions are to be observed in this process. First, the grape-sugar or honey must be quite pure, and free from any _strong_ acid re-action; and, secondly, these substances are much improved by a long exposure to the air, by which the oxidation of them is commenced, and the result made much more certain and effective. However, I find that the addition of the least possible quantity of nitric acid has the same effect; but nothing is so good as long exposure of the sugar or honey, so as to become completely candied before mixing. The sugar may as conveniently of course be mixed in the collodion as in the bath, but in that case the keeping properties are lost, as the plate is not thus kept longer moist than usual. If, however, the former process be used and well conducted, the plate when sensitised may be kept for four hours at least without injury.

The grape sugar should be made with oxalic, and the acid removed by lime as usual, and not with sulphuric acid, as is often done; as in the latter case sulpho-saccharic acid is formed, which much injures the result.

I have been trying numerous experiments in this line, and I think I have almost hit upon another and quite new and instantaneous process; but as it is only in embryo, I will not give it to you till perfect. There are of course many other substances to be yet mixed in the bath or the collodion, _e. g._ all the alkaloids, or indeed any of the deoxidating agents known, and probably with good results. I am still continuing my experiments on this head, and if I make any farther improvements I will lose no time in communicating them to you. Some negatives taken by this means were exhibited on Friday evening at the Royal Institution, and were much admired.

F. MAXWELL LYTE.

[By MR. LYTE'S kindness, who has shown us a number of the pictures taken by this new process, we {571} are enabled to hear our testimony to its beautiful results. We are glad to learn also, that there is a probability that the admirers of photography may soon be enabled to purchase specimens of the productions of this accomplished amateur, who is about to return to the Pyrenees for the purpose of securing photographic views of the splendid scenery and various objects of interest which are to be found there.--ED. "N. & Q."]

_Photographs, &c. of the Crystal Palace._--All who have visited the Photographic Institution, in New Bond Street, must have admired the large photographic views of the Crystal Palace, from collodion negatives taken by MR. DELAMOTTE, who, combining the taste of the artist with the skill of the photographer, has succeeded in producing some most effective views of this new Temple of Education. At Lord Rosse's soirée on Saturday last, the closing one unfortunately of those most agreeable reunions, Mr. Williams exhibited three daguerreotypes, taken that morning, of the ceremony of opening the Crystal Palace, which, although only about three inches by five, contained some hundreds of figures. The portraits of the Queen and the brilliant cortege which surrounded her at the moment were strikingly effective.

_Soluble Cotton._--In answer to the observations of H. U. (Vol. ix., p. 548.), I should imagine that the nitrate of potash used was not thoroughly dried; and consequently, the amount of water used was in excess of that directed. The temperature should be from 120° to 130° Fahr. And thermometers of a proper construction (with the lower part of the scale to bend up from the bulb) can be obtained in abundance at from 1s. to 2s. 6d. at several of the makers in Hatton Garden or elsewhere.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Cameras._--At one of the earliest meetings of the Photographic Society, I suggested the use of papier maché as a material for the construction of cameras, as possessing _nearly_ all the requisite qualities; but there is one serious objection to its application to this purpose, its _brittleness_, as a smart blow is apt to snap it like a biscuit. I think, however, upon the whole, that if a peculiar kind of _Honduras_ mahogany, such as is used for coach panels, is adopted, the possessor would never desire a change. It should be as plain as a piece of deal, without the slightest beauty of grain, which is positive detriment to a camera, from the accompanying liability to warping.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Shakspeare Portrait_ (Vol. viii., p. 438.).--J. S. Smith, in his _Nollekins and his Times_ (vol. i. p. 26.), has a passage referring to the portrait mentioned by your correspondent:

"Clarkson, the portrait painter, was originally a coach-panel and sign painter; and he executed that most elaborate one of Shakspeare, which formerly hung across the street at the north-east corner of Little Russell Street, in Drury Lane. The late Mr. Thomas Grignon informed me, that he had often heard his father say, that this sign cost _five hundred pounds!_ In my boyish days it was for many years exposed for sale for a very trifling sum, at a broker's shop in Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. The late Mr. Crace, of Great Queen Street, assured me that it was in his early days a thing that country people would stand and gaze at, and that that corner of the street was hardly passable."

Edwards, in his _Anecdotes of Painters_ (p. 117.), assigns the portrait to a different painter, Samuel Wale, R.A. His account, however, being more minute than Smith's, is worth transcribing:

"Mr. Wale painted some signs; the principal one was a whole-length of Shakspeare, about five feet high, which was executed for, and displayed before the door of a public-house, the north-west corner of Little Russell Street, in Drury Lane. It was enclosed in a most sumptuous carved gilt frame, and suspended by rich iron work; but this splendid object of attraction did not hang long before it was taken down, in consequence of the act of parliament which passed for paving, and also for removing the signs and other obstructions in the streets of London. Such was the total change of fashion, and the consequent disuse of signs, that the above representation of our great dramatic poet was sold for a trifle to Mason the broker, in Lower Grosvenor Street; where it stood at his door for several years, until it was totally destroyed by the weather and other accidents."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

"_Aches_" (Vol. ix., pp. 351. 409.).--_Aches_, as a dissyllable, may be heard any day in Shropshire: "My yead _eaches_" (my head aches) is no uncommon complaint in reply to an inquiry about health.

WM. FRASER, B.C.L.

"_Waestart_" (Vol. ix., p. 349.).--The querist, I humbly presume, is not a Yorkshireman himself; or, probably, he would have at once resolved _waestart_ into the ungrammatical but natural inquiry, "Where ist' 'art"--_ist'_ meaning _are you_, _thou_ being vulgarly used for you; the _h_ is elided in _hurt_, the _u_ in _'urt_ being pronounced as _a_, changing the vowel, as is very common among the illiterate. For instance, church is often called _ch_a_rch_ by those who live a little to the north-west; and person, where the _e_ is almost equivalent to the soft _u_ in sound, is made into _p_a_rson_!

L. J.

_Willow Bark in Ague_ (Vol. ix., p. 452.).--In the _Philosophical Transactions_ (1835?) is a memoir by the Rev. E. Stone, of Chipping Norton, of the salutary effects of the bark of the Duck Willow in agues and intermittent fevers. The author states, that being dried in an oven, and pounded, and administered in doses of one drachm every four hours in the intervals of the paroxysms, it soon reduces the distemper; and, except in very severe cases, removes it entirely. With the addition of one fifth part of Peruvian bark, it {572} becomes a specific against these disorders, and never fails to remove them. One advantage it possesses of influencing the patient beneficially immediately it is adopted, without the necessity of preparation previously. It is a safe medicine, and may be taken in water or tea.

I copy the above from an entry in an old notebook. I imagine the Duck Willow to be the Common White Willow (_Salix albæ vulgaris_) of Ray.

SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

See Pereira's _Materia Medica_: SALIX. He refers to a paper by the Rev. Mr. Stone in the _Phil. Trans._ vol. liii. p. 195., on the efficacy of the bark of the _Salix alba_ as a remedy for agues. See also A. T. Thomson's _London Dispensatory_, in which is given an account of Mr. Stone's mode of administration.

H. J.

_Lord Fairfax_ (Vol. ix., p. 380.).--I apprehend that there is nothing in the reply of A FAIRFAX KINSMAN at all calculated to shake the opinion which I expressed touching the barony of Fairfax of Cameron. The case of the earldom of Newburgh, which your correspondent does not even mention, is, I submit, of greater weight than all the "Peerages," and even than the Roll of Scottish Peers. As to the Irish case--that of the Earl of Athlone--I can but repeat my Query. Whether right or wrong, it is not binding on the British House of Lords. The cases of the King of Hanover, the Duke of Wellington, and Earl Nelson, are not in point. His Hanoverian Majesty is not an alien; and though some British subjects may be recognised as peers by foreign states, it does not follow that a foreigner can be a peer of Britain.

H. G.

_The Young Pretender_ (Vol. ix., pp. 177. 231.)--The wife of the Young Pretender was Louisa Maximiliene, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Prince of Scholberg, who was born in 1752, and married in 1772. As a widow, she lived in Paris as the Countess of Albany, but in her drawing-room called herself Queen of Great Britain. She was alive at the time of the death of the Princess Charlotte (Nov. 1817). See Fisher's _Companion and Key to History of England_, p. 333.

O. S.

_Dobney's Bowling-green; Wildman; Sampson_, (Vol. ix., p. 375.).--Dobney's, or, more correctly, _D'Aubigney's_ Bowling-green, ceased to be a place of public amusement about the year 1810. It is now occupied by a group of houses called _Dobney's Place_, near the bottom of Penton Street. The late Mr. Upcott had a drawing of Prospect House (as the building was called), taken about 1780. A hand-bill of the year 1772 (in a volume formerly belonging to Lysons) thus describes the nature of Wildman's performance:

"_The Bees on Horseback._--Daniel Wildman rides, standing upright, one foot on the saddle, and the other on the horse's neck, with a curious mask of bees on his face. He also rides standing upright on the saddle, with the bridle in his mouth, and, by firing a pistol, makes one part of the bees march over a table, and the other part swarm in the air, and return to their proper places again."

Sampson, Price, Johnson, and Coningham were celebrated equestrian performers towards the close of the last century. Astley was the pupil of Sampson, and his successor in agility. Bromley, in his _Catalogue of Engraved Portraits_, mentions a folio engraving of Sampson, without date or engraver's name. It is hardly likely that any life of him was published.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Palæologus_ (Vol. ix., p. 312.).--Your readers will find, in Oldmixon's _West Indies_, a later notice of the strange descent and fortunes of this once illustrious family. From Cornwall they appear to have settled in Barbadoes, where it is very possible that with mutilated name the family may yet be found among the "poor whites" (many among them of ancient lineage) of that island.

B.

_Children by one Mother._--In Vol. ix., p. 186., I. R. R., in reply to a Query in Vol. v., p. 126.--"If there be any well-authenticated instance of a woman having had more than twenty-five children?"--sends an account of a case, which he "firmly believes" to be authenticated, of a farmer's wife who had thirty. I now send you a much better authenticated case of _polyprogenitiveness_, which utterly throws the farmer's wife into the shade.

In Palazzo Frescobaldi, in this city, the ancient residence of the old Florentine family of that name, there is, among many other family portraits, one full-length picture of a tall and good-looking lady with this inscription beneath it: "Dianora Salviati, moglie di Bartolomeo Frescobaldi, fece cinquantadue figli, mai meno che tre per parto" (Dianora Salviati, wife of Bartolomeo Frescobaldi, gave birth to fifty-two sons, and never had less than three at a birth). The case is referred to by Gio. Schenchio, in his work _Del Parto_, at p. 144.

The Essex lady, as well as I should suppose all other ladies whatsoever, must hide their diminished heads in presence of this noble dame of Florence.

T. A. T.

Florence.

_Robert Brown the Separatist_ (Vol. ix., p. 494.).--MR. CORNER will probably find an answer to his question in the _History of Stamford_, by W. Harrod (1785), and in Blore's _History of the County of Rutland_, 1813, fol.; Bawden's _Survey_, 1809, 4to.; Wright's _History of Rutlandshire_, 1687 and 1714. The last descendant of Robert Brown died on Sept. 17, 1839, æt. sixty-nine, widow of George, third Earl of Pomfret; and as she had no issue, her house and estate at Toltrop {573} (_i. e._ Tolthorp), in Rutlandshire, about two miles from Stamford in Lincolnshire, probably passed to his heir and brother Thomas William, the fourth earl.