Letter XV. vol. i. p. 428. 4th edit. 1833) says:

"The beaver, otter, and _badger_ are _amphibious_ creatures, but not oviparous."

Surely this is a mistake, and worthy of a Note? I cannot find the badger mentioned as an _amphibious_ animal in any modern zoology. I certainly have not by me Kerr's _Linnaeus_ to refer to, as a verification of Sharon Turner's note on this passage.

CHARLES PASLAM.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Royal Registers._--I have nine volumes of a work published by Bew, Paternoster Row, and which appeared from 1778 to 1784, pretending to give sketches of the characters of public men by his Majesty. Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the writer, and what number of volumes were published?

B.

[This literary curiosity was completed in nine volumes, which are sometimes bound in three. In 1841 Mr. H. G. Bohn advertised a copy with all the names filled up in manuscript, the initials being no doubt sufficiently intelligible at that time. For a notion of the work on its first appearance, see the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xlviii. p. 130.]

_Paul Hoste._--Paul Hoste, a Jesuit, published early in the seventeenth century a small quarto with diagrams on "Breaking the Line," so much discussed, as being first done in Rodney's action. If any one can give me some account of Paul Hoste and his _scientific_ views on naval architecture, the information will be acceptable to

AEGROTUS.

[See Chalmers' and Gorton's _Biographical Dictionaries_; Moreri, _Le Grand Dictionnaire_, and _Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique, s.v._]

"_Liber Mirabilis._"--Can any of your readers inform me if there be a copy of the _Liber Mirabilis_ in any library in the United Kingdom? It contains a remarkable prediction of St. Caesario, Bishop of Arles, in the year 542. The work is printed in Gothic characters, and there is a copy in the Royal Library, Paris.

CLERICUS.

Dublin.

[A copy is in the library of the British Museum, consisting of two parts. Part I. is in Latin, and Part II. in French, 4to., 1523.]

_Saint Richard, King of England._--In the Romish Calendar we find, on the 7th February, amongst other saints, "Saint Richard, King of England." Which of our Richards does this refer to? I have never read in history of any of them having been canonized, nor should I have thought any of them at all a likely candidate for that honour; but if such was really the case, I presume that Coeur de Lion must be the man, and that his valour in the Crusades was suffered to outweigh his many other unsaintly qualities.

J. S. WARDEN.

Balica.

[St. Richard was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West Saxons, which it is probable he renounced that he might dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection. About the year 722, on his way to Rome, he died suddenly at Lucca in Italy. See Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, Feb. 7.]

_Saint Irene or St. Erini._--Can any of your correspondents direct me to where information may be found regarding the Saint Irene or St. Erini, from whom the Grecian island of Santorin takes its name?

[Greek: S.]

Bristol Dec. 1. 1851.

[Irene, Empress of Constantinople, A.D. 797-802, was one of the most extraordinary women in Byzantine history. The Greeks have placed her among their saints, and celebrate her memory on the 15th of August. Consult Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology_, and Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chap. xlviii.]

Replies.

COCKNEY.

(Vol. iv., pp. 273. 318.)

The following passages collected from various sources, will perhaps help to illustrate the origin and the several meanings of this word _Cockney_:--

Fuller's first sense is--

"One coaks'd or cockered, made a wanton or nestle-cock of, delicately bred and brought up, so that when grown men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport with pains taking."

"'Tis not their fault, but our mothers', our cockering mothers, who for their labour make us to be called _Cockneys_."--Dekker, _A Knight's Conjuring_, 1607.

"And when this jape is told another day I shall be halden a daffe or a _Cokenay_."

Chaucer, _The Reve's Tale_.

The following extracts will show that to this first sense Fuller might have added, _one abundantly and daintily fed:_--

"Unlesse it be shortly considered, and that faukons be broughte to _a more homelye diete_, it is ryght likely, that within a shorte space of yeares, our familiar pultry shall be as scarse, as be now partriche and fesaunte. I speake not this in disprayse of the faukons, but of them whiche keepeth them lyke _Cokeneys_."--Elyot, _The Governour_, 1557.

"Some again are in the other extreme, and draw this mischief on their heads by too ceremonious and strict diet, being over precise _cockney-like_, and curious in their observation of meats."--Burton. _Anatomy of Melancholy_.

Fuller's second sense is--

"One utterly ignorant of husbandry and huswifery such as is practised in the country, so that he may be easily persuaded anything about rural commodities, and the original thereof."

He relates the old _cock-neigh_ story, and adds another jest of a similar kind:

"One merrily persuaded a she-citizen, that seeing _malt_ did not grow, the good huswives in the country did spin it; 'I knew as much,' said the _Cockney_, 'for one may see the threads hang out at the ends thereof."

Shakspeare uses the word _Cockney_ in this latter sense in _King Lear_,