spelling opposite; to be in octavo, about 450 pages; price to subscribers, 12s. 6d. About this time Mr. Macgibbon died, and the plan was not carried out. For some time the volume could not be found. (See Reid's Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtica, and Blackwood's Magazine, June, 1820, vol. vii. p. 333.) In 1873 a reprint was issued at Edinburgh, edited by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Maclauchlan, one volume, small quarto. The proper way to publish the work is to givo an exact copy of the original; opposite this, a copy in modern spelling; and thirdly, a translation. In 1567 the spelling of Gaelic was a little unsettled, but the Gaelic of 1567 and of 1884 are the same. In p. 19 of his work Bishop Carsewell finds fault with the Highlanders for spending too much time in listening to recitations of the poems of Ossian. The evidence of one living in 1567 is of value when one is arguing the point with those who do not believe in the authenticity of Ossian's poems. There is not room here to enter on the subject, but let me say that I am one of those who believe that the poems are authentic and the genuine productions of the son of Fingal.

Devonport, Devon.

THOMAS STRATTON, M.D.

the churches of St. George, Hanover Square, St.
Luke, Middlesex, and others (Walpole's Anec-
dotes of Painting, 8vo., 1782, iv. 98). The part-
ners seem to have worked each one
"for his own
hand," and a rupture occurred (which is chro-
nicled in Ged's Memoirs), one pregnant cause of
complaint on Ged's part being that Thomas James
had supplied the firm with types that were "al-
together unfit for their purpose.' In proof of this
person's incompetence, Ged also states that Thomas
James "had been formerly employed by the King's
Printers, but was rejected by them, because one
Caslon had eclipsed him in his business." This
reference to "one Caslon" is certainly worthy of
notice. What became of Thomas James after his
severance from Ged I do not know; but in or
before the year 1735 Fenner died insolvent; Ged
himself died at the latter end of 1749. The
"obituary notice " quoted by MR. ATTWOOD seems
to be founded upon a misconception of Thomas
James's actual position in relation to the invention
of stereotype printing; but for further informa-
tion see Thomas Hodgson's Essay on Stereotype
Printing, 1820. In this rather scarce and ex-
ceedingly interesting work, an example of Ged's
Sallust is given, pulled from an original plate which
impression from the same plate will be found in
has, unfortunately, received some injury; a better
the Phil. Trans., x. 272. This Sallust is printed
in 18mo., in brevier type, and consists of 150 pages
exclusive of the title, the imprint being thus:
"Edinburgi: Gulielmus Ged, Aurifaber Edinen-
sis, non Typis mobilibus, ut vulgo fieri solet, sed
Tabellis seu Laminis fusis, excudebat. 1739." The
generality of copies, however, bear date in 1744;
two were in the Caxton Exhibition. Another
book, printed in 1742, The Life of God in the Soul
of Man, has this imprint: Newcastle: Printed
by J. White from Plates made by W. Ged, Gold-
smith, in Edinburgh."

66

James Ged, the son of the inventor, tried to carry out his father's work, and issued a prospectus in 1751; but his appeal was unsuccessful, and the art may be said to have died with him, or, rather, to have become dormant until the time of Dr. Alexander Tilloch, editor of the Philosophical Magazine, who may be said to have rediscovered it, circa 1779. See also Horne's Introduction to the Study of Bibliography, i. 213 et seq; Johnson's Typographia, i. 657-8; Catalogue of Caxton Exhibition, 1877 (large paper), pp. 463-5, &c.

THOMAS JAMES, AN EARLY STEREOTYPER (6th S. ix. 209). The subject of MR. ATTWOOD's query was intimately associated in business with the Edinburgh goldsmith William Ged, to whom unquestionably belongs the honour of having produced the first complete works printed solely with stereotype plates. Thomas James was, in fact, the letter-founder with whom Ged entered first into a contract to supply him with type-from which the plates were prepared for several books" (Memoirs of William Ged, Nichols, 1781, p. 7), including an octavo Prayer-Book, of which, it is stated, plates for five or six sheets were finishedand afterwards entered into partnership with him. Camus (Histoire et Procédés du Polytypage et du Stéréotypage, Renouard, 1802) mixes up the brothers, John James and Thomas James, with Fenner, the London stationer who supplied Ged with funds in the beginning of his career, and subsequently became also a partner in the concern: "Pour exécuter son projet, il [Ged] se transporta à So early as 1698 J. van der Mey had printed Londres, où il contracta une société avec les frères in Holland a quarto Bible and other books from Feuner [sic], dont l'un étoit fondeur de caractères, pages of type soldered together at the back. The l'autre libraire" (Histoire, &c., p. 18). The part-plaster process (substantially the same as used at nership consisted of Ged the inventor, Fenner the the present day) was invented by William Ged, a stationer, Thomas James the letter-founder, and goldsmith of Edinburgh. He was employed by John James, his brother, an architect who built the University of Oxford in 1731 to manufacture

Elm Grove House, Exeter.

ALFRED WAllis,

object in the communication was chiefly to identify
the donor of the prize, Isaac Valckenaer, described
as Rector of the Academy at the Hague, I appear
to have headed my query "Valckenaer Family, of
the Hague," so that its connexion with T. G.'s
subject would not be obvious. T. G. must be
wrong in thinking that "Traiecti ad R." does not
stand for Utrecht in the imprint. The "Semi,"
abbreviation of "Seminarium." Í may, possibly,
which, seemingly, caused his error, is clearly the
through some Utrecht friends, learn something
about the seminary where Jacobus Steen was so
diligent, and found that there were prizes for those
who overcame their fellows in the race for learning.
I shall still be glad to hear anything about the
præstantissimus puer" of my own query, and the
rector, his namesake. C. H. E. CARMICHAEL.
New University Club, S. W.

plates for Bibles and Prayer-Books. See Knight's
Practical Dictionary of Mechanics, iii. 2379. It
is, therefore, not impossible that the obituary
notice of Thomas James may be correct.
G. F. R. B.
[We are obliged to MR. E. MACKAY YOUNG for infor-
mation received later, much of it similar in character.]
"OH, BOLD AND TRUE" (6th S. ix. 133).
There is an old ballad with the refrain of "Blew-
cap for me," given in Thomas Evans's Collection of
Old Ballads, 1784, of which I have a copy in four
volumes. The ballad is No. xxvi. vol. iv., and is in
two parts, and ten rather long verses. I give the
second, fourth, and last as specimens; the others
relate how a Welshman, an Irishman, a Spaniard,"
a German, and a Netherland mariner all came as
suitors to the same "lasse," and received the same

answer:

Blew-cap for Me; or,

A Scottish lasse her resolute chusing,

Shee 'I have bonny Blew-cap, all other refusing. There liues a blithe lasse in Faukeland towne,

And shee bad some suitors, I wot not how many;
But her resolution she had set downe,

That shee'd haue a Blew cap, gif ere she had any.
An English man,

When our good king was there,

Came often unto her

And loued her deare:

But still she replide, "Sir,

I pray let me be;

Gif ever I haue a man,

Blew-cap for me."

A Frenchman, that largely was booted and spurd,
Long lock't with a ribbon, long points and breeches,
Hee's ready to kisse her at every word;

And for further exercise his fingers itches

"You be pritty wench,

Mitris, par ma foy;

Begar me do loue you,

Then be not so coy:

But still she replide, "Sir,

I pray let me be;

Gif ever I haue a man,

Blew-cap for me."

At last came a Scottish man (with a blew cap),
And he was the party for whom she had tarry'd,
To get this blithe bonny lasse 'twas his gude hap,
They ganged to the kirk, and were presently marry'd.

I ken not weel whether

It were lord or leard,
They caude him some sike
A like name as I heard,

To chuse him from all

She did gladly agree,

And still she cry'd" Blew-cap
Th' art welcome to mee."

I shall be happy to give the other verses if re-
quired. They are very quaint.
H. P.

INSCRIPTIONS IN SCHOOL PRIZES (6th S. ix. 148). -The instance given by T. G., under date 1635, is certainly very early. I communicated one, also from Holland, dated 1727, in 3rd S. i. 210, more than twenty years ago. But as my

GOLD POURED INTO THE MOUTH OF A TRAITOR
(6th S. ix. 150).-There are at least two stories
bearing upon this. When Crassus was taken by
the Parthians his head was cut off and sent to their
king Orodes, upon which, "Ludibrio fuit neque
indigno. Aurum enim liquidum in rictum oris
infusum est ut cujus animus arserat auri capidi-
tate, ejus etiam mortuum et exangue corpus auro
ureretur" (Florus, III. xi. 11). When upon the
defeat of M'. Aquillius, one of the consular legates
in the Mithridatic war, he was given up by the
inhabitants of Mitylene to Mithridates, he was
put to death by molten gold being poured down
his throat. Tarpeia, who coveted, as the reward
of her treachery, the golden bracelets upon the
left arms of the Sabines, was killed by the shields,
which were worn upon the same arm, being thrown
upon her (Liv. I. xi.). There may be some con-
fusion.
ED. MARSHALL.

KONNBOUM TREE (6th S. ix. 169). — I would suggest that there is no real deception in regard to this tree, but that the abbé was merely drawing rather a marvellous picture of an acacia. Looking upon some species of this tree for the first time he would naturally give the reins to his fancy. In Burmah one of the acacias is known as the kinbwom, a word which I take to be closely related to konnboum. In the non-Aryan languages of Asia this name is familiar enough. In Canton, where I formerly resided for some years, we spoke of the acacia as kumfung. The etymology and history of the word cannot here be discussed, but it may be remarked that the syllable fung, meaning a bird or phoenix, carries us back to the Acacia ornithophora, so called on account of the phyllodia bearing a strong outline resemblance to the figure of a bird, which the Tibetans would naturally compare with their characters. Tree of ten thousand images would be an expressive epithet.

Brackley, Northants,

HILDERIC FRIEND, F.L.S.

i

PLAYING FOR THE SOUL (6th S. ix. 208).-There is a story in the Gesta Romanorum in which St. Bernard is represented as playing at dice with a gambler for his soul :

་

THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM BEHEADED 1483 (6th S. ix. 149).-The article referred to by R. is in the Saturday Magazine, vol. xiv. p. 129, and states that Buckingham, after the dispersion of "Quidam lusor occurrit beato Bernhardo equitanti, his army owing to the floods in the Severn, took dicens ei: Pater ludo tecum et animam meam pono refuge with an old servant of his named Bannister, contra equum tuum.' Sanctus Bernhardus statim de who lived near Shrewsbury; a reward of 1,000l. equo descendens dixit: Si plura puncta me jeceris, for the duke's apprehension was too strong a test mcus equus tuus erit; si ego plura projecero, anima for his faithfulness, and he betrayed his former tua mea erit.' Lusor concessit; statim taxillos tres arripiens, xvii puncta projecit; quo facto frænum equi master to the sheriff of Shropshire, who took him tanquam suum tenuit. Ait sanctus Bernhardus: Fili, first to Shrewsbury, and from thence to Salisbury, adhuc plus restat in tribus taxillis, quam istud.' Et where Richard had arrived with his army. The accipiens projecit xviii puncta, uno puncto plus quam duke was condemned and executed without much lusor. Quo viso lusor sub obedientia patris sui Bernhardi se dedit et post vitam sanctam fine felici ad domi- ceremony; as stated by some authorities in the nium [sic] migravit."-Cap. 170, p. 560, von Hermann market place, but according to tradition in the Osterley, Berl., 1872. courtyard of the Blue Boar. During some alterations in progress in 1838 at the Saracen's Head (which occupies part of the site of the former inn), a skeleton was found (minus the head and right arm), which Mr. Hatcher, a local historian, supposed to be the mutilated remains of Buckingham, interred near the spot where he suffered.

This is an early instance of the soul being made a stake to be played for; but it is different from Sir Thomas Browne's incident.

ED. MARSHALL.

"THE RINGING ISLAND" (6th S. ix. 228).-This is taken from Rabelais, bk. v.:—

"Some who pretended to explain these books, as Motteux says in his Introduction to that book, only by printing at the end of some French editions twenty or thirty names which (without the least reason) they call a key, either never read them, or had a design to impose on the reader more than our author; else they would never have said that the ringing island was England." Those who so applied the name were influenced, as Motteux says, by the fact "that there is much ringing there, and that the English are famous for making that a recreation." But "the ringing island can mean nothing but the clergy of the Church of Rome, whose mysteries are all performed at the sound of large, middle-sized, little, and very little bells." W. E. BUCKLEY.

I have a note that in Denison's Lectures on Church Building, second edition, p. 130, he states

that this country

"has been called the ringing island, because we are the
only people who ring our bells at full swing, the only
way in which the full sound can be got out of them."
In Hotten's History of Signboards, p. 477, it is
said that

Coventry.

WM. GEO. FRETTON, F.S.A.

UNUSUAL WORDS AND PHRASES IN 1618 (6th S. ix. 147). For another and earlier instance of the proverbial expression relating to "bare buckle and thong," I would refer to the Proverbs of John Heywood, printed 1546, wherein occurs the following couplet, at p. 151 of the edition of 1874 :"That little and little he delayed so long, Till he at length came to buckle and bare thong." JULIAN SHARMAN. Hedge-betrothing.-I find the following in Elisha Coles's Latin Dictionary, ed. 1749: "A hedgemarriage, nuptiæ clandestine." W. R. TATE.

Walpole Vicarage, Halesworth.

LORDS DANGANMORE (6th S. ix. 29, 195).George Hennessy, of Ballymacmoy, married his cousin Anastasia, daughter of John Comerford, of

City of Cork, the descendant of the ancient family
of Comerford. Edward Comerford was M.P. for
Callan in 1634. The beginning of this century,
April 16, 1803, one of my name married Mary,
daughter of Patrick Comerford, of Sumnerville, co.
Cork, and a sister of hers married a Mr. Law, of
Bally Valley, co. Clare, of the family of Law of
Lauristoun, who went to Ireland with Strongbow.
REGINALD STEWART BODDINGTON.

Beaconsfield Club, Pall Mall, S.W.

B. F. SCARLETT might do well to apply to Mr. F. Langton, 12, Onslow Square, S.W.

E. WALFORD, M.A.

Hyde Park Mansions, N.W. ADDITIONS TO MR. H. B. WHEATLEY'S "DICTIONARY OF REDUPLICATED WORDS," 1866 (6th S. ii. 163; vi. 183, 202, 465).-At the last reference I mentioned that I was ignorant of the derivation of the common Indian word tumtum, which is employed to denote a two-wheeled vehicle of the dog-cart class. A correspondent, D. C., writing from Bahraich, suggests that it originates with tandem, which is pronounced by natives tamdem, thence tumdum or tumtum. This seems to me a plausible explanation of the word. W. F. P.

SOMERSET PLACE-NAMES (6th S. vii. 462; viii. 23, 123, 143, 261, 342, 403, 461; ix. 43, 101, 161). -Thorne Falcon, "2. Wm. le Falcon" (Bardsley's Surnames, index). There are two fatal objections to this explanation of the suffix "Falcon." First, the lords of the manor from 1084 to 1884 are well known, and the name "Falcon " never occurs. Second, the family "de Thorne" held the manor from 1084 to 1286 (Eyton, Som., i. 173), and then the suffix was "Fagon." In Pope Nicholas's Taxation (1291) it was Faguex," and so continued to 1371, when Sir Richard presents to the church as "of Thornfaucon," and so it has continued unto this day. Can any of your readers explain Fagon"? Can it be a Somerset form of "Facon," Blacdon" has become "Blagdon"?

E. C. B.

have added, "to whom the translation is dedicated, having been a friend and benefactor to the writer, who applies to him the words addressed to Augustus by Virgil, Eclog., i., 'Namque erit ille mihi,' &c." In another oval in the same print there is a portrait of Nostradamus, with the motto, "Ex antiquitate renascor." Both these ovals are introduced hanging on the wall of the room in which Garencieres is seated writing. Below the engraving are these lines, applied to the translator:

66

"Gallica quem genuit retinetque Britannica tellus Calluit Hermetis quicquid in arte fuit." With reference to the "bottle on the table containing faces of the sun and moon, and REBIS on the neck of the bottle," I find this passage in the Preface of Nostradamus to his Prophecies, on e 3 verso: Now we are governed by the Moon, under the power of Almighty God; which Moon before she hath finished her Circuit, the Sun shall come, and then Saturn, for according to the Coelestial Signs, the Reign of Saturn shall come again." It may be noted that the moon, as engraved, is in the "Sun will come," as said above," before she her first quarter, or thereabouts, to indicate that hath finished her circuit." May REBIS have reference to Virgil's "redeunt Saturnia regna" (Ecl., iv. 6), for Ducange gives "Rêbire-redire," and the prophet may be imagined to be addressing Saturn, "Rebis, thou art on thy way back again"? This is offered only as a conjecture, "Si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus imperti."

W. E. BUCKLEY.

ENEID," BK. IX. LL. 296-299 (6th S. viii. 446). -The received reading and interpretation of these lines are, I think, correct, and consequently the conjecture of your correspondent is inadmissible. The force of the passage turns on "Genetrix," the mother that bare him, who will be for the future the adopted mother of Ascanius-Creusa, his real parent, in all but name—and, indeed, for the very fact of her having given birth to such a son as Euryalus no light acknowledgment is due: "Avoir mis au monde un tel fils" (Tissot, Etudes sur Virgile, Paris, 1830, iv. 51), "Tis merit sure to bear a son like thee" (Pitt). Even if the word neigh-partum could bear the meaning suggested, it would A. B. be post-Virgilian, as it occurs only in Petronius, so far as I am aware, in the sense of a mental conception : "Cæterum neque generosior spiritus vanitatem amat, neque concipere aut edere partum data" (c. 118). There is some error in the refermens potest, nisi ingenti flumine literarum inunence to Propertius, for though the word occurs four times in his poems it is always in the usual refer to? Facciolati and Smith both correctly cite acceptation. What dictionary does MR. HAWLEY Petronius, and him only, for the figurative application of the word.

MR. WEAVER (ante, p. 163) speaks of Wrekin as a Saxon name. Is it not connected with Uriconium, the name of a Roman town in the bourhood?

Leyland. NOSTRADAMUS (6th S. ix. 107).—There is a mistake in this query. The portrait is not that of Nostradamus, but that of "Theophilus de Garencieres, Doctor in Physick, Colleg. Lond.," who translated and published the Prophecies of Nostradamus, in folio, London, 1672, to which this portrait forms the frontispiece. It is assigned by Bromley, in his Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits, 1792, p. 143, to W. Dolle. Bromley says that "the oval in the same print is the portrait of Nathaniel Parker of Gray's Inn," and might

W. E. BUCKLEY.

I cannot see any objection to the received

pointing and interpretation of this passage: "Your
mother shall be also mine, in everything but the
name Creusa, nor slight the acknowledgment that
awaits [the mother of] such a son." That is to
say, "We owe her no small debt of gratitude for
having produced so generous an offspring."
Partum, according to Forbiger, TÒ TETOKÉval
viov TOLOÛTOV, and the sense is thus complete.
What authority has MR. HAWLEY for the use of
partus absolutely in the sense of conception in the
mind? I think the reference to Propertius must
be an error, or perhaps a misprint in the dic-
tionary; but Petronius, § 118, has the words,
"neque concipere aut edere partum mens potest,
nisi ingenti flumine litterarum inundata," where,
of course, the context makes all the difference.
C. S. JERRAM.

HERALDIC (6th S. ix. 207).-The following are the nearest coats that I can see in Papworth's Ordinary to those which form the subject of MR. JOSSELYN'S query: "Gu., three fishes naiant in pale arg., Lord Rorke, Harl. MS. 1603." "Gu., three fishes hauriant arg." is a coat ascribed by Papworth to the houses of Cahane or O'Cahane, and Keane, in Ireland, and Weye, or Waye, of Bickliford, Devon, as well as to Antony, Lord Lucy. The nearest to the impaled coat seems to be "Or, a griffin segreant sa.," borne by Ivor Cadifor Vawr, Collins, Morgan of Penllyne, and

other families.

NOMAD.

ap

obiter, that the first title under which the marquis
was summoned, in 1460, was that of Nevill of
Montague, not Montacute of Montacute, which,
I apprehend, is a designation more properly be-
longing to the original Montacute barony of
28 Edw. I.
C. H. E. CARMICHAEL.

New University Club, S.W.

CHATEAU YQUEM (6th S. ix. 228).-The late Rev. W. G. Clark, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator of the University, best known by his edition of Shakespeare, informed me that this word Yquem was a corruption of the English name Higham. Perhaps but he had travelled much in France, and was too Montaigne meant this. Mr.Clark gave no authority,

sound a scholar to have made such a statement without having good grounds for it. How great a loss his early death was to literature! "Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit"! W. E. BUCKLEY.

WEST AFRICAN PROVERB (6th S. ix. 188). The point in the proverb is that the hand is tied; but there is no recondite deduction to be drawn from it, simply because it requires a hand to hold a vessel. Capt. Burton's simple explanation is the C. F. S. WARRen, M.A.

best.

"THE SOLITARY MONK," &c.: "STREAMS MEANDERING" (6th S. ix. 75, 139, 157, 179).— Robert Montgomery may have had some faint recollection of Pope's lines in The Dunciad, iii. 55:— "As man's meanders to the vital spring Roll all their tides, then back their circles bring." R. R. DEES. Wallsend.

BP. BARLOW'S CONSECRATION (6th S. ix. 89, 131, 194).-May I respectfully ask AN ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC how Canon Estcourt proves between the 12th and 30th of June exclusive; that that Bishop Barlow must have been consecrated is, how it is proved the consecration must have been on or after the 13th, and cannot have been on the 11th, as Mr. Haddan says? It is much disregarded that Barlow's words, to the effect that any layman nominated by the king should be as good a bishop as he himself, have no meaning if he himself were unconsecrated. Also that consecration was legally required by the Act of 1534, often spoken of as if it might have led him to omit only two years old; so that Cranmer's Erastianism, consecration, would, in fact, have led him the other C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. Treneglos, Kenwyn, Truro.

way.

LORD MONTACUTE (6th S. ix. 207, 235).-In his query concerning the possible issue of "John Thomas Nevill, Lord Montacute," MR. CLOTHIER appears to have rolled two distinct individuals into one, viz., Sir Thomas Neville, slain at Wakefield, who is recorded to have died s.p., and his THE TUPPER FAMILY (6th S. viii. 447; ix. 212). brother Sir John Neville, cr. 1470 Marquis of Mon--I am tempted by this correspondence to add tagu, whose male line became extinct in the next generation, in his sons George, Duke of Bedford, degraded for poverty, 1477, and John Neville, buried at Salston. It may be worth while to note,

another theory (?) of the origin of the name, which came from a young lady engaged as a kitchenmaid, and is one of the most original accounts of the speaker's pedigree ever heard, Her mother's