the first step to rank as an officer of the British Navy." The artist, Charles Grignion, was born in 1754, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, and was the son of a watchmaker of some celebrity. In 1776 he won the Academy gold medal. He was sent to Rome with the Academy pension. He painted 'The Death of Capt. Cook.' Lord Nelson sat to him in 1798. He died at Leghorn in 1804. I notice that his name is in the list of those to be described shortly in the new Dictionary of National Biography.' His paintings have of late been in request. A copy of the engraving of this portrait will be found in the Print Room at the British Museum, the authorities of which have a note from me that I possess the original, as have also the officials at the National Portrait Gallery. Curzon Park, Chester. HENRY TAYLOR. RECENT DISCOVERIES IN THE MUSEUM IN SOHO SQUARE (7th S. iv. 383).—On the walls of the staircase leading up to the museum, Trinity College, Dublin, was a very large collection of clubs, paddles, battle-axes, and other implements from the South Sea Islands, most beautiful specimens of carvings and tyings with cocoa-nut husk cord; also several of the semicircular feather mantles and the Grecian shaped helmets from the Sandwich Islands, which must have taken generations to make, and were perfectly invaluable. They were stated to have been collected by Capt. Cook on his various voyages of discovery; but how they got to Dublin was not stated. Little or no care was taken of them, the wonderful feather dresses being left to the mercies of the moths. Can any one say where what may be left of them is now? F. R. DAVIES. MINT (7th S. iv. 387).-A complete list of the masters and other officers of the Mint is in R. Ruding's 'Annals of the Coinage,' London, 1817, quarto, vol. i. pp. 47-122. The list of the masters, occupying pp. 61-70, extends from Henry_I. to 47 George III., that is, 1807. No name of Butler occurs. Beatson also (Political Index, 1806, London, 8vo.) has a list, but it extends only from 1760 to 1806. See vol. ii. p. 351. W. E. BUCKLEY. MR. WARD will find a list of "the Masters of the Mint from the earliest time" to 1852 in Haydn's 'Book of Dignities,' pp. 200-2. The allusion seems to me to a character in human nature. "My lady's eldest son" is the spoiled brat of the family, and therefore pert and talkative. To such a one Beatrice likens Benedick. J. CARRICK MOORE. WRINKLE (7th S. iv. 328, 377).—Wrynklynges occurs in Higden's 'Polycronicon': "I hede that this mater as Laborinthus Dedalus house hath many halkes and hurnes wonderfull wayes wyndynge and wrynklynges that wyll not lyghtely be opened and shewed" (Liber Primus, cap. i.). Boston, Lincolnshire. R. R. CERAMIC (7th S. iv. 309).—It may be useful to point out that though Prince Rupert may have had SHORT SIGHT AND SPECTACLES (7th S. iv. 345). factured translucent porcelain from English clay, in his employ a potter who about 1680 manu-It may interest your correspondent PENE CECUS it is not likely that it was sold in London at that to know that an engraving of the heads of two date. The potter would have infringed the patent apostles, one of whom is using glasses, was pub-dated April, 1671, "granted for the tearme of lished by Martin Schöngauer about 1460. A copy of this print is now before me. W. H. BURNS. Clayton Hall, Manchester. CROMWELL'S GENERAL LAMBERT (7th S. iv. 47, 157). From the 'Journals of the House of Commons,' August 23, 1649, it appears that the House resolved that the sum of one thousand pounds be conferred on the Lord Lambert, to buy him a jewel, as a mark of the favour of the Parliament for his signal service in capturing Chester; and it was at the same time referred to the Council of State to see the said sum forthwith paid to him. Was the jewel ever purchased by General Lambert; and, if so, what became of it ? M. O. foureteene years" to John Dwight, who had in- extract is from chap. iii. of 'The Voiage and : that departeth Macedonye and Trachye and it is so "And there is a gret Hille, that Men clepen Olympus, highe, that it passeth the Cloudes. And there is another Hille, that is clept Athos, that is so highe, that the Schadewe of hym rechethe to Lempne, that is an Ile; and it is 76 Myle betwene. And aboven at the cop of the Hille is the Eir so cleer, that Men may fynde no Wynd there. And therefore may no Best lyve there; and so is the Eyr drye. And Men seye in theise Contrees, that Philosophres som tyme wenten upon theise Hilles, and helden to here Nose a Spounge moysted with Watre, for to have Eyr; for the Eyr above was so drye. And aboven, in the Dust and in the Powder of tho Hilles, thei wroot Lettres and Figures with hire Fingres: and at the 3eres end thei comen agen, and founden the same Lettres and Figures, the whiche thei hadde writen the zeer before, withouten ony defaute. And therefore it semethe wel, that theise Hilles passen the Clowdes and joynen to the pure Eyr." Langstone, Erdington. BEN. WALKER. "STEW IN THEIR OWN GREASE" (7th S. iv. 366, 397).-K. P. D. E. is right. This phrase "existed in English before," not only fifty years before, but five hundred. It has often been used. But certeynly I made folk such chere, Chaucer, W. of Bath's Prologue.' Cotton's 'Virgil Travestie,' 1771, p. 104. BLACKBERRIES (7th S. iv. 408).-My belief is that brummel-kite is a mistaken form, due to confusion of brummel with bummel-kite. Blackberries at Whitby are brummels or bummel-kites (Whitby Glossary). Ray, in 1691, has bumble-kites. Brummels are brambles. The best guess at the sense of bumble-kite is that in Atkinson's Cleveland Glossary,' from bummel or bumble, to rumble, and kite, the belly; from their effects. CELER. The word, as I have heard it pronounced by the children of Cumberland and Westmoreland, is bumblietikes, HERBERT RIX, B.A. Burlington House, [Innumerable replies, mostly to the same effect, have been received. Some of these have much interest, and we regret that they are too numerous for insertion. In these no explanation of kite is supplied.] SOVEREIGN AND HALF-SOVEREIGN (7th S. iv. 268).-Coins of these denominations are first heard of in the records of Henry VII. (1485), but the smaller coin was not then actually struck. The term sovereign was in use from that time until the reign of Charles I., when it disappeared for about two hundred years, only to be reintroduced by George III., in 1817. H. S. Sovereigns were first coined by Henry VII. In Edward VI.'s time and onward for some time the names sovereign and half-sovereign were both applied to coins of the same value, viz., ten shillings. In the Middlesex County Records' there are frequent references to "a piece of coined gold called a sufferen [variously spelt], value ten shillings" (vol. i. pp. 37, 70, 83, 114, 141, 157, 241, 258; vol. ii. p. 28). But there are also references to a "di-soueraign" and a "half-soueraigne," also worth 2 James I. we read of "a piece of coined gold called ten shillings (vol. i. pp. 8, 90, 162); and in the an Elizabeth double soueraine worth twenty shillings" (vol. ii. p. 10). B. W. S. ["In 1542 sovereigns were coined in value twenty shillings, which afterwards, in 1550 and 1552, passed for twenty-four shillings and thirty shillings" (G. 8. B.). MR. R. F. GARDINER quotes from Phillips's New World of Words' to a similar effect.] WHY BETROTHAL AND MARRIAGE RINGS ARE WORN ON THE FOURTH FINGER (7th S. iv. 285).— To the passage quoted by your correspondent may be added the following remarks from the 'Noctes Attica' of Aulus Gellius, x. 10: sinistræ manus, qui minimo est proximus. Romanos "Veteres Græcos anulum habuisse in digito accepimus quoque homines aiunt sic plerumque anulis usitatos. Causam esse huius rei Apion in libris Ægyptiacis hanc mos in Ægypto fuit, quas Græci 'ávaroμàs appellant, dicit, quod insectis apertisque humanis corporibus, ut repertum est, neruum quendam tenuissimam ab eo uno digito, de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac peruenire; propterea non inscitum uisum esse, eum potissimum digitum tali honore decorandum, qui contiet quasi conexus esse cum principatu cordis nens But I have understood that in practice the old method is still retained, and it doubtless affords ring finger. What is said about the vein is just the the true explanation of the fourth finger being the sort of thing that would be invented later on. Of course all the fingers have veins proceeding to the heart more or less directly, the fourth not more so than the rest; but there may have been some misunderstanding arising out of the fourth finger having nerves continuous with two of the main lines of nerve in the arm, and so seeming to have a double connexion with the nervous centres. J. T. F. Bp. Hatfield's Hall, Durham. LEONARD TOWNE (7th S. iv. 308).-Towne also wrote 'A Treatise on the Rot in Sheep, illustrative of the Symptons and the Exciting and Approximate Causes.' He is described on the title-page as "Leonard Towne, Chymist, Newark; Author of "The Farmer's Directory,' 'The Farmer and Grazier's Guide,' &c." The pamphlet was "printed and sold by M. Hage, Stodman Street," Newark, 1823, price sixpence. The dedication is dated Newark, July, 1823." At the end of the pamphlet, on p. 12, is an advertisement of "The Author's medicine for the Rot in Sheep." G. F. R. B. ALTAR FLOWERS (7th S. iv. 387).--MR. EVERARD GREEN has put a very ingenious question, but before any one can take it up as a theory the fact must be met that in the Middle Ages flower-pots were unknown as decorations to altars in the West. I have lately, for another purpose, looked over a large number of representations of medieval altars, and I do not remember one in which flowers are shown as a decoration. Mr. Micklethwaite, in his valuable paper on 'English Parish Churches in the Sixteenth Century,' says that the altars were not adorned with flowers, but that the clergy sometimes wore wreaths. Schwarz and Laib say that flowers were first put on the altar in the time of Clement VIII. (1592-1605), that is, long after the Reformation. If the modern altar flowers be the representatives of the early Christian fans, one would have expected the flower-pots to appear much earlier in history. T. WICKHAM LEGG. the procession, and therefore used in winter as well as summer. In many churches there are two of them; and in the procession two boys richly habited carrying them, one on each side of the cup, though it is then covered, waving them as they go along." W. E. BUCKLEY. PROVERBS ON NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS (7th S. iv. 202).-Count R. Paolucci de' Calboli writes me: "The proverb that England is the paradise of women, the purgatory of men, and the hell of horses, is, for all the Illustrazione Populare may say, a thoroughly Italian proverb (è italianissimo). It appears in the hitherto unpublished collection of the erudite Tuscan writer Francesco Serdonati, born at Florence about 1550, and supposed to have died 1615. In this voluminous collection, one copy of which exists in the Barberini Library, Rome, and one in the Laurentian Library, Florence, and which Gino Capponi calls a vast and ill-digested mass, are many the English. As I know you are interested in such matters, other jokes in the form of proverbs about England and I transcribe two or three of them, and first of all one tante di attualità): which is most appropriate at the present moment (palpi"1. Who would conquer England should begin with Ireland."* "2. Next I put one most flattering to you: Fight all the world if you will, but take care to keep peace with England.' 3. Hunger in England begins in the horse's manger.' "4. In colonizing a new country the first building erected by a Spaniard would be a church, by a Frenchman a fortress, by an Englishman a beershop.' "5. An Italianized Englishman is a devil incarnate.' Giusti has quoted this from Serdonati in his collection without any comment. It certainly does not hold good now, when Italianized English people are the most cultivated of all. I am inclined to think it may have originated in allusion to the English captain Sir John Hawkwood (whom we call Acuto), whose predatory bands wrought such desolation in Tuscany, and whom the contemporary chronicler Gulvano Flamma calls a son of Belial. I may also remark that [just as "French" and "Frenchy" with a certain class of English people] 'English' held with us, and to some extent still holds a place almost synonymous with straniero, forestiero, and in this sense the proverb might be intended to make allusion to any roving and expatriated people." R. H. BUSK. MISTAKE CONCERNING THE EUCHARIST (7th S. iv. 226, 312).—H. DE B. H. is probably right when he says it was "unusual to consecrate churches under the invocation of the third Person in the Chapel," on the north side of the town of Basingstoke, Holy Trinity." The ruins of the “Holy Ghost will serve to show that there is no rule without an exception. E. WALFORD, M.A. Hyde Park Mansions, N.W. SOURCE OF PHRASE SOUGHT (7th S. iv. 188, 395).-It may help to trace the original if I mention that some fifty-three years ago I first heard * This affords by coincidence a much earlier instance of this proverb than that supplied 7th S. iii. 480, in answer to the inquiry for it 7th S. iii, 247. the full phrase on the occasion of a Mrs. Martineau, Some things the Lady's said are new, My last nail's drove, and I am done. It wants no more explanation than a royal salute. Life is full of" sound and fury signifying nothing," and the life of a soldier most of all. He seeks "the bubble reputation e'en in the cannon's mouth," and it is highly appropriate that he should get his epitaph from a musket barrel. His empty celebrity is con I remember my old master, Dr. Bernard, of Cam-ferred out of the mouth of that instrument with bridge, telling me that Lessing wrote of Voltaire, oblivion. What can be more just? It might be a which he would have sent other men to grim "Herr von Voltaire, schrieb viel Gutes; er schrieb viel Neues; nur Schade dasz das Gute nicht neu, point of curiosity to know how soon after the disund das Neue nicht gut ist." Voltaire retorted, he use of bows and arrows the practice was introduced. said, with far inferior wit, by calling his antagonist Monsieur le Singe. EDMUND RANDOLPH. Ryde, Walthamstow. C. A. WARD. POOLE FAMILY (7th S. iv. 349,452).—Your correSTILLINGFLEET FAMILY (7th S. iv. 388).-The spondent can find the pedigrees he seeks in the following evidences relating to this family, extracted Harleian MSS. in the British Museum:-Poole, of from the bishop's transcripts of the registers of Sapperton, fr. co. Chesh. MSS. 1041, ff. 41, 64b; Sutton, co. Beds., of which parish Edward Stilling- 1191, fo. 37b; 1543, ff. 33, 74b. Marriages, 1543, fleet was sometime rector, may be of service toff. 50, 54b. Poole, co. Wilts. MSS. 1181, fo. 19b; MR. WADE:1443, fo. 32b; 5184, p. 13. 1659, April 5. Mr. John Stillingfleet and Mrs. Elizabeth Ludford [Linford ?], mar. 1660, Feb. 24. Edward, son of Mr. Edward Stillingfleet and Andrea, bapt. 1662, June 10. Andrea, daughter of Mr. Edw. and Andrea Stillingfleet, bapt. 1663, Nov. 3. Margaret, daughter of Mr. Edw. and Andrea Stillingfleet, bapt. Bur. 25 Nov. 1663, Jan. 11. M'ris Andrea Stillingfleet, bur. The registers do not commence till 1690. In the "Genealogist's Guide,' second edition, I find the following pedigrees referred to: "Stillingfleet, Burke's Landed Gentry,' 2; Hutchins's 'Dorset,' iii. 404." F. A. BLAYDES. Bedford. S. J. A. S. THE HALSEWELL, EAST INDIAMAN (7th S. iv. 189, 296).—I have "A Sermon preached at Kingston-upon Thames, on Sunday, February 19, 1786, upon the Death of Captain Richard Peirce, Commander of the Halse well, East-India-Man; which was lost off the island of Purbeck, on Friday, January 6, 1786. By the Rev. Matthew Raine, A.M., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. London, printed by C. Macray, Orange Street, and published by C. Kearsley, Fleet Street, 1786." WM. FREELOVE. Bury St. Edmunds, PONTEFRACT=BROKEN BRIDGE (7th S. i. 268; VOLLEY FIRING OVER A SOLDIER'S GRAVE 377; ii. 74, 236, 350, 510; iii. 58, 90, 130, 177). (7th S. iv. 367).—This firing is a salute and mark-Probably this is a blunder of the original transof respect and honour. In his Military Dic- lator. Some four miles to the south-east of Pomtionary' (London, 1810) Major James, under the fret, between Wentbridge and Kirk Smeaton, there heading "Burials," enumerates the several degrees, is a Broken Dale (thus spelt on the Ordnance which vary according to the rank of the soldier. maps), which is generally believed to derive its At the funeral of any general officer, from a field-name from brock (Anglo-Saxon broc), another marshal to a brigadier, a proportionate number of English word for badger. cannon are discharged. At the funeral of regi- Hull. mental officers, and all men down to a private, drummer, and fifer, small arms are fired, the amount varying according to their rank in the regiment. For further particulars the author refers to Reid's 'Military Discipline.' When the practice originated he does not state, L. L. K. POISONING BY MEANS OF THE EUCHARISTIC Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &o. The Henry Irving Shakespeare. Edited by Henry Irving and Frank A. Marshall. Vol. I. (Blackie & Sons.) AMONG the innumerable editions of Shakspeare which appeal to the bookbuyer, the handsome and scholarly edition of which the first volume, edited by Messrs. Henry Irving and Frank Marshall, is now issued will hold a prominent place. In what constitutes its raison d'être it appeals less directly to the lover of dramatic literature than to the student of the stage. The judgment and experience of Mr. Irving have been called into play to decide on the passages which may be omitted in stage representation or in oral recitation. These are indicated by brackets and a slight rippling line down the side of the text, which in no way interferes with perusal. The pleasure, accordingly, of the reader to whom such matters are of no special importance is unbroken, while to those to whom the play presents itself from an acting point of view the gain is all-important. No passage whatever is, it is needless to say, expurgated or Bowdlerized. Adopting so near as may be ascertained the order of writing, Mr. Marshall includes in his first volume Love's Labour's Lost," The Comedy of Errors,' The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Romeo and Juliet,' and 'King Henry VI.,' part i. In favour of this classification, as against the more familiar plan of arranging the plays under comedies, histories, tragedies, something may be said, while something also may be urged against it. The opportunity of tracing the intellectual progress of the dramatist is the chief recommendation. Supposing the dates to be trustworthy, it would at least be gain to follow the marvellous development of that mighty art, and see the change from poetical prettiness and fancy to the ultimate unequalled analysis of human nature. The introductions and notes are in every instance by Mr. Marshall. In the earlier the literary history and the stage history-the latter in many cases very scanty, as Mr. Marshall says are given, and are followed by critical remarks, which are wholly Mr. Marshall's own, he having purposely abstained from quoting the opinion of others. A very few explanatory notes on the meanings of words are given at the foot of the page. At the close of the play are the general notes, which are admirably useful. The information for these is, of course, selected from all quarters, the arrangement being Mr. Marshall's own. Special features are a list of words occurring only in each separate play, and a map to illustrate the scene of the action. These are welcome. The latter in many plays is of great interest and value. Add to these things Mr. Gordon Browne's illustrations, which are spirited, and Mr. Irving's all too brief essay on Shakespeare as a Playwright," and the fact that the new edition has strong claims on attention is established. Mr. Marshall's general preface is postponed until all the volumes are issued. Transactions of the Institute of Architects. Vol. III., New Series. (9, Conduit Street, W.) THIS member of a series of publications of high technical value attests the continued improvement of the whole. It begins with an Étude sur la Renaissance de la Polychromie Monumentale en France,' by M. P. Sédille, and a translation of the same. It is an historical sketch, and not a criticism, unless the selection of five examples be sufficiently critical. An account of the Ca' d'Oro, Venice, and its polychromatic decorations, by Signor G. Boni, has peculiar value, because the author, having before him the original memoranda of Contarini, for whom G. Bon, the architect of the Ca', worked, together with contract notes and other documents, has been able step by step to follow the construction and decoration of the building in a very curious and valuable manner. The decorations of gold, ultramarine, carvings, oil painting, and marbles are described in a similar way, so that the whole is one of the most interesting Contarini documents of its kind and age, i.e., 1430. built for himself. Some capital sketches made in France and Italy by Mr. A. B. Mitchell, showing works at Reims, Amiens, and Florence, follow the above, and are welcome on account of their firm and sound draughtsmanship. Mr. W. Brindley has supplied good notes on Marble, its Uses as suggested by the Past,' which deserve attention, and are enriched with plates showing marble incrustation as employed by the Greeks, Romans, including those who remember W. Burges's muchand Byzantines, which have attractions for most of us, abused proposal to incrust the interior of St. Paul's with coloured marble as the sole means of ensuring a permanent and splendid polychromatic scheme of decoration. with remains of that nature in Persia and other counMr. W. Simpson's notice of Mud-Architecture,' as he met tries, ought to be read by all who care for the ancient practice of Chaldea, where mud or sun-dried brick formed the staple of vast buildings, which survived so long as their coatings of glazed tiles were maintained. Boundary Commission in 1884-5, and met with some The author accompanied Sir P. Lumsden and the Afghan wonderful buildings of mud, a material which is analogous to Devonshire cob, and of immemorial use. Prof. Hayter Lewis's Notes made during Tours in Greece' shows, among other things, that he made inquiries for Epidaurus (the nearest perfect building of its kind) and the so-called acoustic pottery in the amphitheatre at found none. The vase he sketehed on p. 93, taken out of Justinian's dome of the Church of the Chora, Constantinople, was probably used for lightness, not for sounding. Mr. Conder continues his account of Domestic Architecture in Japan,' with illustrations, and, among other curiosities, mentions the enormous revolving turntables of the Japanese theatres, which permit the preparation of one scene while another is going on. Prof. T. G. Jackson's sketch of Dalmatian architecture will be read with interest by all who have studied the subject at large in his recent volume. Historically speaking, perhaps the capital paper in this volume is Mr. Wyatt Papworth's supplementary Notes on the Superintendbesides a great mass of curious and well-digested matter, ents of English Buildings in the Middle Ages,' which, of Wykeham as an architect, a position Mr. Papworth casts powerful and fresh light on the position of William puts in peril. IN the Fortnightly the author of Greater Britain' continues his edifying comments on 'The British Army.' Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson, under the head The Thames,' deals with the double subject of water supply and drainage. Mr. Edmund Gosse writes upon Mdile. Aïssé,' and Mr. J. A. Symonds on 'The Model.' Letters from Mr. W. H. Mallock and Canon Leigh are also included.-A very controversial number of the Nineteenth Century opens with a new anti-Darwinian article by the Duke of Argyll. Dr. T. Dunbar Ingram next replies to Mr. Gladstone. Catholicity and Reason' and Belief and Doubt' follow; and Mr. Arnold Foster, under the head Irish Land Purchase,' answers his critics. Dr. Jessopp's 'Doris' has a pleasant literary flavour. 'The Time it takes to Think' is a valuable paper. - The Century has a series of admirable views of Durham Cathedral, taken from many points, and accompanied by pleasant letterpress; and an illustrated paper on The Sea of Galilee.' Mr. Brander Matthews sends Notes on Parisian Newspapers.' 'Pictorial Successes of Mr. Irving's "Faust" will be accepted with pleasure by ་ |