plate x., which, as is well known, has for years been an enigma to connoisseurs. choose, and we are bound to obey." This wicked shaykh gives the four genii of his lamp many tasks to perform, most of them such as were repugnant It may be well first to observe that the famous to them (for it appears these were very scru- original, purchased by the British Museum in 1872 pulous" genii, such as would not have suited Alad- for upwards of 1,000l., is a block-book, executed, din's pretended uncle, the Maghrabí), and one of in the opinion of the Keeper of the Printed Books, the tasks at once recalls Aladdin and the Princess"in the best style of art prevalent at the time of Badr-ul-Badúr. He caused them to convey the king's its production," and consists of but twelve separate daughter to him," and she was his unwilling com- sheets, of two leaves each, printed on the inner panion" in his retreat. But there was soon to be side only. There are eleven illustrations, each an end of his wickedness; for when the genii, by occupying a whole page, opposite each of which is his order, were beginning to raise a remarkable given an explanatory letterpress. The Holbein mosque, situated at a considerable distance, in Society's reproduction of this small and unique order to carry it to the place where the shaykh volume has the great advantage of an introduction, dwelt, the devotee who had his abode therein in which the writer, Mr. George Bullen, F.S.A., a man of undoubted sanctity-sent them off" with besides giving much interesting bibliographical ina flea in their ear," in this wise: "Begone," said formation, describes the various plates, and exthe pious man, in a tone of authority that deprived plains their often recondite meaning. them of their strength. "A moment's delay, and I will pray that you be consumed with fire. Would Shaykh Saddú add to his crimes by forcing the house of God from its foundation? Away this moment! else fire shall consume you on the spot." They fled in haste to their profane master, whose rage was unbounded at their disobedience, as he termed their return without the mosque. He raved, stormed, and reviled them in bitter language, while they, heartily tired of their servitude, caught up the copper vessel, and in his struggle to resist them he was thrown with violence on the ground, and his wicked soul was suddenly separated from his impure body. Here we have the lamp of Aladdin, but put to its proper use-lighted-in order to summon the genii; we have also the princess being conveyed to Aladdin, as I have before remarked, and a reflection of Maghrabi's causing the palace to be removed to a far distant place. It would be interesting to ascertain the source whence Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali derived this singular story, which bears out, I think, my opinion that the author of the tale of Aladdin has greatly blundered in representing the Jamp as requiring to be rubbed, and not lighted. The appearance of one or more of the four attendant genii of the wicked shaykh's lamp, according to the number of wicks that were lighted, has its parallel in another Asiatic story; but this note is already too long. W. A. CLOUSTON. 233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow. THE 'ARS MORIENDI' BLOCK-BOOK (1450), While examining not long ago a reproduction of Caxton's 'Trayttye abredged of the Arte to Lerne well to Dye' (1490), for comparison with it I took down the Holbein Society's marvellous facsimile, by Mr. F. C. Price, of the Ars Moriendi' named at the head of this paper. I was thus led to consider again this fine work, pausing especially at Having myself examined a good deal of this literature in preparing my 'Christian Care of the Dying and the Dead,' I hope I may say, without presumption, that the introduction seems to me to be admirable, one explanation only, that of plate x., being excepted. It begins on p. 15 thus : angel who comes to support and console the dying man, "Following this is an engraving [No. 10] of the good while thus tempted to endanger his salvation through indulging in the sin of avarice; the accompanying letterpress being headed' Bona inspiracio ang'li contra avaricia"." In this engraving the guardian angel stands, as before, in front of the dying man, with his right hand raised in exhortation, and with a scroll on the right of the picture bearing the words, 'Non sis auarus.' Above the canopy of the bedstead, on the right, is a representation of†) the Blessed Virgin, and next to this, on the left, is a fulllength figure of the Holy Jesus stretched on the cross (g). Next to this on the left, somewhat lower down, are three figures of sheep, shown principally by their heads. Next to these, on the left, are three figures, namely, of a man and two women (c); just below the second woman is the figure of a maiden (6), and above her, on the extreme left, is the head of a man (d). What this group of figures. is intended to symbolize it would be difficult to conjecture. The man (e), standing as he does next to the sheep, and with a staff in his hand, is perhaps a representation of a good shepherd. They all of them, however, appear to look towards the dying man with feelings of compassion. Below this group is the figure of an angel, with a scroll bearing the words, Ne intendas amicis (Do not concern thyself for thy friends). This angel holds with both hands an outspread curtain, intended to conceal from the dying man's view (a) two full-length figures, one of a woman on the right and the other of a man on. the left; both possibly being disappointed expectants of sharing in the dying man's wealth; or else the female figure representing his wife and the male figure that of his physician. The latter appears to be exhorting his female companion to depart from the scene, At the foot of the picture, on the right, is the figure of an ugly demon with a scroll bearing the words Quid faciam. I beg to offer the following as a new interpretation of the plate above described by Mr. Bullen. On reference to the work itself it will be found that the preceding letterpress contains Satan's temptation to avarice, with a plate (ix.) represent ing various forms of self-seeking. Plate x. is a all transitory things wholly away like poison, and turn his heart's affection to voluntary poverty, &c. From this part of the angel's address the artist completes his plate with a picture of the Eternal Son giving up (ƒ) the ever-blessed mother that bare Him-that Son of Man who for us men fathomed the greatest depths of poverty, voluntarily renouncing upon the cross (g) all things that were His own, not retaining even dear life. As illustrating the foregoing view it is interesting to read in Caxton's 'Arte to Lerne well to The artist illustrates this principle by selecting "And again, 'Si quis venit ad Me et non odit patrem suum et matrem, et uxorem, et filios, et fratres, et sorores, adhuc non potest meus esse discipulus' (St. Luke xiv. 26)." The artist places in the forefront of his picture an angel saying, "Do not concern thyself for thy friends," and holding up, with both hands, a curtain (a) between the dying man and an elderly couple-his father and mother-to whom the sick man, to their own sorrow, has already bidden, it seems, a glad farewell. I see no medical emblems with or near the man that would lead me to sup pose him to be intended for the physician. Next (b), above the foreground, is represented his wife, like himself young, who looks at him with piteous gaze, her hair being dishevelled—the usual sign of female mourning-anticipating the near approach of widowhood. I do not think that dishevelled hair is a form of mourning ever exclusively used by a maiden." Besides (as the angel continues), the Lord saith to them who have renounced those things : "the fyfthe temptacyon that most troubleth the with the Ars Moriendi' can, I should think, have used. Yaxley Vicarage, Suffolk, DID CHARLES DICKENS CONTRIBUTE TO 'FIGARO IN LONDON'?-In the elaborate and exhaustive 'Dickens Catalogue' (pp. 38), compiled and published by Messrs. J. W. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William Street, Strand, 1884, is a notice of Figaro in London, with this remark :— "Et omnis qui relinquiret domum vel fratres, vel "This was the precursor of Punch, and is full of sorores, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxorem, aut álios, chatty, racy anecdotes and jokes, said to be written by aut agros, propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet, et Charles Dickens and Gilbert à Beckett."-P. 23. vitam eternam possidebit" (St. Matthew xix. 29). No mention of this is made in the list of "PublicaFrom this verse the masterly engraver enriches his tions to which Dickens contributed only a portion" plate with fresh instances of self-renunciation, (pp. 32-3), in Mr. James Cook's very valuable namely, (c) two sisters, with braided hair, stand- Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Dickens' ing a little behind the wife; and yet further back (London, Frank Kerslake, 22, Coventry Street, (d) the dying man's brother, the expression of Haymarket, 1879, pp. 88). I may remark, in passwhose countenance is very beautiful, of all of ing, that the excellent woodcut on Mr. Cook's whom the sufferer has to take his leave. Children title-page, giving a most spirited likeness-bust of are not supposed to be born of so young a wife; Dickens, was drawn by M. Faustin, and originnone are represented. But the dying man has to ally appeared in Figaro (Mr. James Mortimer's take leave of his lands, "aut agros." And these (e) London Figaro, on the staff of which I remained are represented by their occupants-sheep that for upwards of five years) on Sept. 27, 1873. The graze them and a bailiff who, staff in hand, shep-mention of this is suggested by the coincidence of herds the flock-perhaps so placed by the artist not without a mystic allusion to the shepherd who in the deserts of the East has sometimes to give his life for his sheep (St. John x. 11). Dickens and the two London Figaros. I possess an original copy of "Figaro in London. Vol. I. For the Year 1832" (William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row). It consists of fifty-six Remember also (adds the angel) the poverty of weekly issues, commencing with that for Dec. 10, Christ hanging for thee upon the cross, most freely 1831. There was a second volume, which, from giving up for thy salvation His most dearly loved Aug. 16, 1834, to the close, was illustrated by mother and His best beloved disciples. The angel Isaac Robert Cruikshank in place of Robert Seybegs the dying man to imprint on his mind these mour, whose remarkably clever political caricatures things and the examples of the saints, and to put-coarsely engraved, and often at Seymour's own expense-had been the mainstay of à Beckett's serial. It was continued under the editorship of H. Mayhew, with Seymour once again as its artist; and I believe (query) that two volumes were thus published If such is the case, Figaro in London had an existence of four years, which included the period of the 'Sketches by Boz' and the wondrous rise of 'Pickwick,' with Seymour as its artist. On Jan. 1, 1833, Gilbert à Beckett started Figaro's Monthly Newspaper, price threepence, and also edited the Comic Magazine (1832-4), to the earlier numbers of which Seymour contributed numerous designs. It seems quite possible that Charles Dickens may have been a contributor to Figaro in London. Is there any proof of this? If such was the case, it would be not a little interesting to find that he and Seymour were engaged on the same publication while as yet Mr. Pickwick was unborn. CUTHBERT BEDE. NOTES ON EPICTETUS. Mr. T. W. Rolleston, in his admirable introduction to the recent volume of the "Camelot Series," entitled 'The Teaching of Epictetus,' has enumerated two previous English renderings of the Helot sage, the " one [he says] by Mrs. Carter, published in the last century, the other by the late George Long, M.A (Bohn Series)." It may not be amiss to add that the translation of Mrs. Carter was first published in 1758, and that many years anterior to this Dr. George Stanhope, Dean of Canterbury, born 1660, died 1728, a voluminous author and translator, a prominent member of the Established Church, distinguished alike for the strength of his intellect and the refinement of his imagination, published a work bearing the following title: "Epictetus his Morals, with Simplicius his Comment. Made English from the Greek by George Stanhope, 1694." Another edition of this, with a 'Life of Epictetus,' followed in 1700, 8vo. The translation of Stanhope is clearly the work of a purist, but of a purist who, with all his elegance of phrase and delicate turn of expression, does not lose sight of the real end of literature. Anent the doctrines of the Pyrrhonists, which in the introduction of Mr. Rolleston are stated with clearness, brevity, and precision, we shall make no apology for inserting the excellent remark of Plato : "When you say all things are incomprehensible, do you comprehend or conceive that they are thus incomprehensible, or do you not? If you do, then something is comprehensible; if you do not, there is no reason we should believe you, since you do not comprehend your own assertions." Armley. C. C. DOVE. is not new, however, for in a book of dialogues (in Italian and English) between an Italian master and his English young lady pupil, written by Joseph Baretti (London, 1775), I find, in p. 168, the young lady, whose real Christian name is supposed to be Esther, called "Queeney" (sic) by her master, who says to her, "Reginuccia mia, a che state voi pensando?" "My dear Queeney, what are you thinking about!" It will be observed that the book is written by an Italian, and that the Italian in this case precedes the English which is intended to be a translation of it. The question arises, therefore, Did Mr. Baretti use "Queeney" because he had heard it used in England, or did he use it because in similar cases "Reginuccia" was then used in Italy? I have some ground for supposing that he did find Queeney" in use in England, for I once met with it in an English book of somewhere about the same besides which, it is scarcely probable that an Italian time, but, unfortunately, I did not take a note of it; writer should have introduced the use of an English word into England. But "Reginuccia" may, for all that, have been used similarly in Italy. Sydenham Hill. F. CHANCE. COLT, COLTES.-A recently published 'History of Walsall' gives obscure details of some local colts, by which it appears that a shilelagh, or club, is personified as a warrior. This seems to suggest a reference to a good thrashing," which I have heard termed "a colting," but do not see it so defined in Bailey, Halliwell, Skeat, or Stormonth. We read that the excesses of the above colts became a Star Chamber matter; that at one time their number amounted to a thousand; but they became extinct in 1870. A. HALL. QUEENIE AS A PET NAME.-Of late years the"; fashion has been somewhat prevalent of giving to little or young girls, instead of their own Christian name, the pet name of "Queenie." This practice informs us that in the northern dialects the mean- O bury me by the bracken bush, That ere a kindly Scot lies here. Scott, 'Border Min.,' ed. 1861, vol. i. p. 360. I have, however, come recently upon a very good instance of it in reading Prof. Knight's 'Principal Shairp and his Friends.' Shairp and some friends of his were in the woods near Loudoun Castle, and he said to them : "Now, friends, this is the last time we shall all meet together; I know that well. Let us have a memorial of our meeting. Yonder are a number of primrose bushes. Each of you take up one root with his own hands; I will do the same; and we shall plant them at the manse in remembrance of this day. So we each did, and carried home each his own primrose bush."-P. 27. It would be interesting to know whether these primrose bushes are growing still in the manse garden. If they are, they form a pathetic living memorial of a man of whom all Scotchmen have reason to be proud. EDWARD PEACOCK. Bottesford Manor, Brigg. LONDONSHIRE.-The City of London, with its liberties, is, or was, a county in itself, located in Middlesex. Our new jurisdiction creates a county of London, it being the great metropolis minus the City, extending into Essex, Kent, and Surrey. Upon the precedent of Yorkshire, Leicestershire, &c., this new jurisdiction should be named London shire. "The reason of Edmond of Langley impress of the Falcon in a Fetterlock was an intimac'on that he was shutt up from all hope of this Kingdom when his brother John began to prtend to it: Whereupon observing his sons to be looking upon this device sett up in a window, Asked them what was Latin for such an Horselock, whereat y young Gentlemen considering: The ffather sayd, Well if you cannot tell me I will tell you, Hic ha'c hoc Taceatis, as advizeing them to be silent and quiet, and therewith all sayd, Yétt Gód knoweth what may come to pass hereafter. (Thence perhaps may proceed the usual caution to keep a secret, which I have often heard in Worcestershire and elsewhere attended with these words, Tace is Latin for an Horselock)." If my memory serves me, an explanation of the caution, Why is tace said to be Latin for a candle?" has been more than once demanded in your columns. BOILEAU. [See 7th S. v. 85, 235, 260, 393.] CASANOVIANA.—' Mémoires,' vol. vi. pp. 46–47. Scene, a court of justice : "Au fond j'aperçus, assis dans un fauteuil, un vieillard qui portait un bandeau sur la vue et qui écoutait les explications de plusieurs inculpés. C'etait le juge; on me dit qu'il était aveugle et qu'il s'appelait Fielding. J'etais Casanova was in London in 1763. The author of en présence du célèbre auteur de Tom Jones." A. H. "Tom Jones' died at Lisbon in 1754. The judge FLIES AND WOLVES.-When visiting a friend here mentioned was probably Sir John Fielding, last summer he called my attention to a curious half-brother of the novelist and his successor as a plan for preventing the plague of flies in his house. justice for Middlesex. Though blind from his The upper sash of one of the windows in his sitting-childhood, he is said to have discharged his office room being open for ventilation, there was suspended with great credit, and died 1780. An error on the outside a piece of common fishing-net. My friend part of a foreigner easily accounted for. told me that not a fly would venture to pass through it. He has watched for an hour at a time, and seen swarms fly to within a few inches of the net, and then, after buzzing about for a little, depart. He told me the flies would pass through the net if there was a thorough light-that is, another window in the opposite wall. Though the day was very warm, I did not see a single fly in the room during my visit, though elsewhere in the town they were to be seen in abundance. I suppose they imagine the net to be a spider's web, or some other trap intended for their destruction. My friend mentioned the curious fact that in Russia no wolves will pass under telegraph wires, and that the Government are utilizing this valuable discovery, and already clearing districts of the country from these brutes. If this information be 33, Tedworth Square, S. W. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. A CURIOUS ETYMOLOGY.-If ever an 66 etymology" deserved to be "gibbeted," certainly the following deserves it richly. It is from the Gentleman's Magazine, Dec., 1888, p. 605 :— "One word in conclusion on the word gallows. The old word for the gibbet is galg, and gallow is the low or place for the gibbet." It follows that gallows are "the places for the gibbet," which is highly satisfactory. In what language the old word" galg occurs in a monosyllabic form we are not told. Such is "etymology" in the nineteenth century. CELER. HAMPOLE'S VERSION OF THE PSALMS.-I have said in 'Specimens of English,' part ii. p. 107, that Hampole was "the author of a metrical version of the Psalms," &c. I took this statement from Prof. Morley's English Writers' without suspicion. Since then Mr. Bramley has edited Hampole's version, and lo! it is in prose! How, then, did the error arise? Perhaps thus. The copy of the work in MS. Laud 286 begins with sixty lines of verse, which may easily have induced the consulter of the MS. to suppose it was wholly in verse. However, these sixty lines are a mere prologue; they are not by Hampole, but by another hand; and they do not appear in any other of the rather numerous copies. I conclude that a verse translation of the Psalms by Hampole does not exist. If it does, let its existence be proved. WALTER W. SKEAT. POPE'S PROPHETIC VISION OF QUEEN VICTORIA. -It seems worth noting the curious prophecy which in Pope's 'Windsor Forest' is put into the mouth of Father Thames : I see, I see, where two fair cities bend Their ample bow, a new Whitehall ascend! There mighty nations shall enquire their doom, The world's great oracle in times to come. There kings shall sue, and suppliant states be seen Once more to bend before a British Queen. If one could substitute the Houses of Parliament for Whitehall it might be taken as a poet's vision of the Jubilee. Much in the same strain follows which no stretch of imagination could suppose to be applicable to Queen Anne or her reign, illustrious as it was. C. G. BOGER. St. Saviour's. MEDIEVAL NAMES.-In the various charters and conveyances relating to the parish of Hendon I have found several names which may interest HERMENTRUDE. In a charter dated in 1258 the name Marsilla occurs, being that of the wife of Robert, son of Benedict de Hamstede, and among the witnesses to the same document is Robert le Engyniur, which I presume is equivalent to Robert the Engineer; but I should like to know what an engineer's calling really was in those days-if, indeed, there was any civil occupation which was so designated. The very curious names of Burlerd and Giteburst appear among the witnesses to a charter dated 18 Edward II. I also, in the time of Richard II., find the names Pymberd, Chalkhill, Philbow, and Rippon. 63, Fellows Road, N.W. E. T. EVANS. EUROPEAN WOMEN AMONG SAVAGES.-Besides those noted below, there may be other instances known of European women having fallen among savages and been compelled to live with them like their own women. In the Rev. John Campbell's 'Travels in South Africa' it is recorded that two ladies who were wrecked in the Grosvenor Indiaman on that coast were discovered years afterwards among the Caffres by the Landdrost of Graaf Reynet, who went into Caffraria in search of survivors. They were dressed in the small apron and little else of the Caffre women, and having been married to Caffres, by whom they had families, preferred to stay where they were. In Macgillivray's 'Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake' is recorded the rescue of a young Scotchwoman, who had lived nearly five years with the blacks on an island off Cape York, they having rescued her from a wreck in which her husband, the owner of a small cutter, and his crew had perished. She was compelled to become the wife of one of her preservers, and was in appearance hardly distinguishable from the black gins, being as dirty and as nearly naked as they. But she eagerly returned to civilization, and was restored to her friends at This was in Sydney "in excellent condition." 1849. Another girl seems to have met the same horrible fate about the same time; for in a letter written early in 1850 (No. lxxv. in his 'Life and Letters'), Robertson, of Brighton, mentions reading the melancholy story of a young English lady, returning from school in England to her parents in Australia, but wrecked, and all the party slain but herself. She was taken by the blacks, and had been forced to live with them ever since. I shall be grateful for any information about this last case, and any others that have occurred, though I sincerely trust that none has occurred. CHEGOCRA. SHEFFIELD PLATE.-It is well known that there is a considerable difference in value between articles manufactured by the electro-plating process and those by the older method of overlaying base metals with silver, known as "Sheffield plate." The following extract from the Derby Mercury of September, 17, 1788, is interesting in this connexion: Sheffield, Mr. Thomas Bolsover, aged 84. This Gentle"On Thursday se'nnight died at Whitely Wood, near man was the first Inventor of Plated Metal: which like many other curious Arts, was discovered by Accident. About the Year 1750 (at which Time he kept a Cutler's repair a Knife Haft which was composed of Silver and retail Shop at Sheffield) Mr. Bolsover was employed to Copper; and having effected the Job, the cementing of the two Metals immediately struck him with the practicability of manufacturing Plated Articles, and he presently commenced a Manufacturer of plated Snuff Boxes and Buttons. Consequently from Mr. Bolsover's_accidental Acquirement, the beneficial and extensive Trade of plated Goods had its origin. He has been justly escan boast." teemed one of the most ingenious Mechanics that Sheffield The name Bolsover indicates a Derbyshire origin. ALFRED WALLIS. MARRIAGE ONLY ALLOWED AT CERTAIN TIMES OF THE YEAR. The last paragraph in a pocket almanac (Gallen's) for 1678 runs thus : |