meaning of the "acquittance for the distressed 2. The book entitled God and the King was very probably a sermon entitled The Charge of God and the King, Lond., 1619, 8vo. or 12mo., on Deut. i. 16-17, by William Pemberton, M.A. of Cambridge (incorporated at Oxford, July 11, 1581), who was second son of Henry Pemberton, of Moreton, Cheshire, gent., afterwards rector of High Ongar, Essex. Cf. Watt, 7438; à Wood's Fasti, i. 219-20; Newcourt, Repert., ii. 453. The discourse, bought for the churchwardens or the incumbent, may have relation to the then recent recovery of James I. from sickness. The "books for the fasts against the wars" in 1626 would relate to the appointed forms of prayer, following upon the declaration of war with France in that year. The Book of Articles were the usual episcopal inquiries with which the churchwardens needed to provide themselves for the visitations of Bishop Wright. A reference to these articles would show whether they concerned the recusants also mentioned in these accounts. The Ordinance of Thanksgiving on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1641, was for the recently concluded pacification with the Scotch, an order for which ordinance_passed both Houses of Parliament on Aug. 30. The payment was for a copy, or copies, of the ordinance itself, not for a form of prayer. As usual the Bishop of Lincoln issued a form, but the House of Commons declared that he had no power to do so, and that no minister ought to be ingaged to read it (Nalson's Coll., ii. 466-7, 476-7). The fourpence for the acquittance for the distressed Protestants, i.e. for the sufferers through the massacre of the Piedmontese, April 24, 1655, relates to the formal receipt for the money collected in the parish. There was a general house-to-house collection of money for this purpose throughout the kingdom, the proceeds, aggregating 38,000l. (=137,000l.), being remitted to London (cf. Masson's Milton, v. 39 seq., 183 seq). JOHN E. BAILEY. Stretford, Manchester. THE SUNFLOWER (5th S. viii. 348, 375, 431, 497; x. 14, 156.)- Errors which find their way into print are proverbially difficult to kill-they recur, and crop up again and again in most unexpected quarters; but when a fallacy is enshrined "in golden verse" it seems fixed for all time, and comes to be worshipped as an everlasting truth. The question as to the movement of the sunflower is simply one of fact, which every observer may determine for himself. At this moment, as I sit, I can see from my window many plants of "the golden flower of Peru," with their disks facing all the points of the compass, and, as I have stated in a previous note, from careful watching I can aver that the supposed movement of the flowers of the Helianthus following the course of the sun is a poetic fiction. Your correspondent SPAL evidently clings to the belief that the moveoffers can scarcely be thought of much value. “In ment does take place, though such evidence as he the Himalayas it [the sunflower] faced the south or west, but I was not a sufficiently early riser to remark whether it commenced to make its obeisance towards the east in the early morning"; and he does not fear to add, "I daresay it did, however." SPAL must excuse me for preferring to accept the authority of trained botanists rather than such incomplete observation. John Gerarde, in his Herbal, or General History of Plants, says of "the flower of the sunne" "that it took its with the sunne, the which I coulde never observe, name from those that have reported it to turne although I have endeavored to find out the truth of 1597, Martyn, the Regius Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, failed to discover in 1807, for he states, in his edition of Miller's Gardeners' and Botanists' Dictionary, "He has seen cardinal points." The charming idea of a flower four flowers on the same stem pointing to the four he turns," and adoring its god to the close, has bowing down to the rising sun, "turning where proved too tempting an image to be questioned by the poets. it." That which Gerarde could never observe in Jos. J. J. PROVERBS WHICH HAVE CHANGED THEIR MEANthe rule will be a just one only to recognize as INGS (5th S. ix. 345, 470; x. 193.)-I do not think proverbs or proverbial sayings those which are in print. Proverbial sayings, which are terse expressions of facts or opinions, or of local or personal peculiarities, may originate at any period; but they can hardly be recognized till they are adopted by a second generation. After a time some of these sayings die out altogether, whilst of others the original meaning is forgotten, and the sayings may be repeated with a new or false meaning. I cannot at present give any reference in print to the common saying, "Do not spoil [or lose] the ship for a haperth of tar"; but I may mention as evidence of its existence that I have in the past week, on eight separate occasions, said in the course of conversation, "There is, I think, an old saying, Do not spoil the ship," and then, hesitating for a moment, have in each case heard, "for a haperth of tar." Those who have observed the minute care with which seamen apply tar very often think that the work is finished, and are surprised to see yet a little more laid on. More than half a century ago I have heard seamen, when thus at work, say, "Aye, aye, but I won't spoil the ship," &c. I therefore cannot admit that the last haporth of tar is of no service to a ship. The precise wording of these sayings is not of very great importance; the interest lies in tracing them to their origins; and in this case, whether we be the meaning of it: That when things have take the sayings as applied to hog, sheep, or ship-reached their height there will be a change and I believe the two latter are quite independentthey are no doubt illustrations of the simpler form of "Penny wise and pound foolish." "To put a spoke in his wheel" is merely a phrase which may either be used directly or allegorically. If a man is making a wheel, or if sailors are manning a capstan, he who puts in another spoke or spike assists; but in the case of a carter or charioteer, he who inserts a spoke or spike through the spokes or side of the wheel locks it and retards progress. The phrase may be used either way, like many other phrases, such as "To give a man a lift," which may mean to help him by taking him up in your gig, and be just the reverse if you hoist him with a petard. In the allegorical use of the phrase, the " spoke" has, I think, certainly been long since used both as assisting and as retarding, and on the assumption that it is a familiar phrase it is often used in a very vague manner; thus it is presumed to be referred to if we are told that "when G. had finished speaking D. put in his spoke." I have heard the same thing at a public meeting, where one has said, "If he rises again I will put a spoke in his wheel"; and this was effectually done by greeting the would-be speaker with loud shouts of "Spoke! spoke!" I hope before very long we may have a carefully prepared handbook of proverbial sayings, arranged so as to show how the same ideas have had their expression at different times and in different EDWARD SOLLY. countries. MR. BLENKINSOPP is hardly correct, I think, when he says that the proverb "The schoolmaster is abroad" is now used to denote the presence of that useful person everywhere, and the universal diffusion of knowledge consequent thereon. I beg to refer him to "N. & Q.," 5th S. ix. 506, where the expression is used in its primary and proverbial sense; and certainly whenever a paragraph is similarly headed in a newspaper it refers, not to the schoolmaster's presence, but by implication to his absence, and consequently to some glaring instance of educational poverty, such as, for example, the following, "The bridge do not run on Sundays," which I saw in 1876 on a large public signboard about a mile out of Kingswear, Devon, on the main road from Torquay. The notice referred to the floating bridge between Kingswear and Dartmouth. R. P. HAMPTON ROBERTS. The "When things come to the worst they 'Il mend." Another reading of the proverb is, "The darkest hour is that before the dawn." Proverbs are things of wayside growth; they can give no account of themselves, are often incoherent, and even contradictory. The meaning of this proverb does not depend on the physical side of it-indeed, it is very likely to be physically untrue. meaning is subjective: that the last portion of time before the change from dark to light (be that change gradual or not) seems, for instance, to one in pain or suspense, the most trying, the darkest. The contrast, in thought, then becomes most intense. Paley says somewhere that the quiet intervals between the raging pain of toothache are moments of exquisite pleasure. Many proverbs will not stand much strain upon them when critically examined. Will MR. BLENKINSOPP pardon me for observing that the last lines of his communication, ante, p. 67 (written hastily no doubt), are incorrect? they exhibit a confusion of cause and effect. Logic demands a transposition, so that instead of reading, “Hoar frosts take place in the early morning; consequently that is the coldest hour," we should correctly read, "In the early morning is the coldest hour; consequently hoar frosts then take place.” Churchdown. F. S. BLOOMING OF VARNISHED PICTURES (5th S. viii. 268, 353, 511.)-As I have, at one time or another, tried everything recommended that offered a reasonable chance of cleaning and restoring pictures in a satisfactory manner, I may venture to write a few lines upon this subject. MR. BRIDGMAN's advice is excellent. He should, however, have had his remark as to the danger of water printed in italics, for it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the minds of all those who have the care of pictures. The advice of J. R. is also good; but as to the application of Florence or any other olive oil to pictures, it is well known that until it is removed the surface will always be liable to become dull with every change of weather, and the canvas rotten. Much of the oil that is sold as olive oil is, however, adulterated with nut oil, which is of a more drying nature, and this may perhaps have led to the mistaken idea that olive oil would keep the surface of a picture bright. As to rubbing with the thumb, all I can say is that I have seen the rigging of a ship removed by simply rubbing it too hard with a piece of soft cotton wool damped with linseed oil. The best means of cleaning pictures that have been varnished are so well understood that it would be wasting space to speak of them. Yet there is one way of removing the oil which has risen to the surface of a picture and hardened on it that I have found answer, and which is not so generally known. In that case lay the picture flat and brush it over lightly with linseed oil, taking care not to use so much oil as to saturate the canvas. Allow the picture to remain unmoved for an hour or two, and then wipe off the oil with cotton damped with weak sal volatile and water. Mind you do not rub hard, and if any part is not so clean as you wish, be careful that it is dry before you repeat the process. I have cleaned pictures of marine subjects which were much obscured in this manner, and not one of the finest parts of the rigging has given way. RALPH N. JAMES. Ashford. the following transactions which have taken place in the said parish, in which East Looe is in some degree concerned." Amongst these transactions there is the following, which will show that the custom mentioned by MR. E. WALFORD not peculiar to Kingston : was "The 30th day of April in the year of our Lord 1666. "Hereafter followeth a Note of such anchant Customs as hath bin used within the Parish of St. Martin's, as well in time past as this present and time out of minde observed and kept. "Art. 1. The Parishioners of the said Parish ought to have, by thare custom, of thare Parson or his Proctor under him, a Bull alwaie remaining upon the Gleab of the Parsonage of St. Martin's aforesaid, for the necessary use at all times when occasion shall sarve." After describing in arts. 2 to 11 the tithes and other dues to which the parson was entitled, the note concludes thus : Then follow the names of the rector and six "Be it known to all men, by these presents, that I, LYLY'S "CUPID AND MY CAMPASPE PLAYED " Stephen Medhopp, Parson of the Parish of St. Martin's, (5th S. x. 327.)-This song is sung by Apelles in and we, the Parishioners of the said Parish, whose names are under written, doe acknowledge that this award with Lyly's "tragicall comedie" of Campaspe. It does us written was done with the consent and good liking, not appear (as MR. LOCKER says) in (1) Alexander, made by Richard Carew and John Wrey, Esquirse, and Campaspe, and Diogenes, 4to., 1584, or in (2) Cam-was don with the consent and good liking of us all. In paspe, 4to., 1584, or (in spite of Gilfillan) in witness whereof we have subscribed our names." (3) Campaspe, 4to., 1591. It was apparently first printed, long after Lyly's death, in "Sice Court Comedies. W[r]itten By... The Witie, Comicall, Facetiously-Quicke and vnparalelld Iohn Lilly, Master of Arts. Decies Repetita placebunt. London, Printed by William Stansby for Edward Blount [the stationer]. 1632." It is to be found at the end of the third act of Campaspe in this collection. In the quartos, at the same place, there is only a stage direction, "The Song." AUSTIN DOBSON. 10, Redcliffe Street, S.W. 66 Prof. Henry Morley informs us (First Sketch of English Literature, p. 414) that this well-known song appears first in Lyly's play of Campaspe," printed in 1584. The fact of the song not being found in MR. LOCKER's exemplar does not disprove this. It is known that the copies of Elizabethan first editions often differ among themselves. It is quite possible, therefore, that MR. LOCKER possesses one of the earliest copies, and that the song was inserted in the later impressions of the first edition. TREGEAGLE. THE PARISH BULL (5th S. x. 248.)-The Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, in the County of Cornwall, by Thomas Bond, 1823, has an appendix, in which the author has preserved copies of several documents of considerable interest to the antiquary. One of these he introduces with the following prefatory remark: "As the Borough of East Looe is in the Parish of St. Martin's, it may not be improper to insert in this work I have the following note referring to this custom : find it set out in an old tithe case of 1597. By custom "A curious custom prevailed at Quarley (Hants) as we of the parish, the parson was bound to keep a public boar and bull ["the parish bull "] for the use of the parish. This he had neglected to do, whereupon his parishioners refused to give him the tithe of milk." SAMUEL SHAW. Andover. The inclosure award of the parish of Lower Heyford, Oxfordshire, dated in 1802, expressly acquits the rector of that parish and his successors from the pre-existing liability to keep a bull and a boar for the parishioners. In remote times the principal landowner in Middle Aston in the same County was liable to find for his neighbours "a free bull." "Unum liberum taurum" is the not very Ciceronian Latin of the record of his liability. WILLIAM WING. Steeple Aston, Oxford. THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF EUROPE (5th S. x. 249.)-Nothing like a complete list of these institutions has yet appeared, but your correspondent will find an "Essai d'une Statisque des Bibliothèques Etrangères" in the Bibliothéconomie, par L. A. Constantin (Hesse), Paris, 1841. This, of course, would now be very imperfect, if only by the changes wrought by time. A later attempt is, "A List of the Principal Libraries in Europe and ANON. will find what he asks for in the wellknown and meritorious Memoirs of Libraries, by E. Edwards, 2 vols. (Lond., 1859), and in Libraries and Founders of Libraries (1864), by the same author. A second improved edition of the former work is about to appear, and will answer a real want. There is also a new work in Spanish on the public libraries of Europe by "Quesada," the first volume of which was published last year at Buenos Ayres (see a review of it in the Revue Critique of Aug. 10, 1878). Oxford. H. KREBS. ANON. will find at the conclusion of the article "Libraries," in the eighth ed. of the Encyclopædia Britannica (vol. xiii. p. 432), a statistical view of the principal libraries in the civilized world, and the conditions of public accessibility." WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK. 1, Alfred Terrace, Hillhead, Glasgow. DERIVATION OF "DITTY" (5th S. x. 308.)-In the sense of ditty-bag or ditty-box, it is derived from a nearly obsolete form of deft or dight; the former meaning efficient, proper, decent, and the latter (v.a.) to arrange, adorn, dress. Thomson says in his Etymons of English Words, 1826:— "Deft=Swed. dægt, S. dæft, B. deft. Dight S. dihten, from G. and Swed. duga, to prepare, set in order." And in Willan's List of Ancient Words at present used in the Mountainous District of the West Riding of Yorkshire, originally published in the Archæologia, 1814, vol. xvii. pp. 138 et seq., and recently enlarged and published by the E. Dialect Society, the word deet or dight is defined "to winnow corn," and deft "neat, active, handy." So that a ditty box or bag is a handy box or bag, and from the diminutive suffix I should say a small bag or box that may be carried J. JEREMIAH. with ease. were held at night in Boston to talk over the ways and means of helping to drive out the English troops in the decade made famous for America by the Declaration of 1776. The word is therefore at least three generations old. X. P. D. FLOGGING AT CHRIST'S HOSPITAL (5th S. x. 309.) APIS will find a whole chapter on the above subject, containing extracts both from Coleridge and Ch. Lamb, in The Blue Coat Boys, by W. H. Blanch (London, E. W. Allen, 1877). ALPHONSE ESTOCLET. See Coleridge's Table Talk, p. 83, 1870, at May 27, 1830. Nothing is said there about 'reading Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary." ED. MARSHALL. 66 The reminiscences of Charles Lamb upon this subject are to be found in Elia, in an essay headed "Christ's Hospital Five-and-thirty Years ago." For Coleridge's experiences of Christ's Hospital reference may be made to chapter i. of the Biographia Literaria. EDWARD H. MARSHALL. The Temple. In vol. vii. Dr. GENERAL VALLANCEY (2nd S. vii. 457; 5th S. X. 309.)-For a memoir, the materials for which had probably been supplied by himself, see Public Characters of 1803-4, pp. 446-82, and European Magazine, 1805, vol. xlvii. pp. 31-36, 99-110. For an obituary notice see Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxii., pt. ii. pp. 289-91. Some interesting notes about him are also to be found in Nichols's Illustrations of Literature. Ledwick, writing to Gough, says of him: “In short, all his profound investigations are equally ridiculous, and at some future time will be ridiculed." There is an amusing little anecdote in E. L. SWIFTE, in "N. & Q.," 3rd S. vii. 26, which relation to him, recorded, I presume, by the late shows that his speculations were held by the writer in but little respect. EDWARD SOLLY. to a member of that family, holding in his hand a sapling, and undertook to show him a spot where he might build mills which should never lack water to turn them. The arms of the Bille family enshrine this tradition by having as the crest or on the shield (I do not know which) a dwarf or wild man. in my own hands as readily as in his, and that an almost imperceptible alteration in the position of the hands was all that was necessary to make the rod rise as gently or as violently as I chose. Wells, Somerset. Let any one try it thus: hold the two branches of the fork as loosely as possible about six inches from the angle. At first, one points over each I live in a part of the county of Lincoln where shoulder; then, without clenching the fist, turn Mr. Mullins has inspired some degree of faith. the hands till the backs are towards the ground, I venture to give no opinion of my own upon the keeping them about six inches apart. It will be matter, but certainly feel with Sir W. E. Welby-seen that however loosely the twigs are held they Gregory that Mr. Mullins should be proved to have become slightly twisted, and that the slightest failed before he is laughed to scorn. But may movement of the hands will make the fork fly up not the tradition to which I have alluded point and down again at pleasure. Does not Sir Walter to the fact that some such apparently magical Scott somewhere mention the practice? power was recognized by our forefathers? I do H. M. BERNARD. not know whether the dwarf spoken of is to be identified with the dwarf Billingr mentioned in the Edda; but perhaps in the far future Mr. Mullins may figure as Mullingr, the magician, sent from the moon or where not to enrich the enlightened Lincolnshire farmers of the nineteenth century. At all events, Mr. Mullins makes one hesitate before relegating the elfish benefactor of the Bille family so entirely to the land of myths as one has hitherto done. The tradition will be found in Thorpe's Northern Mythology, but as I have not the book at hand I cannot give the chapter, &c. G. S. STREATFEILD. Holy Trinity Vicarage, Louth. As it has been my good fortune to have paid a visit to an expert in the use of the willow rod, the results of my visit may be interesting. The man was an intelligent and well-to-do foreman at some gas-works. He proceeded to cut a forked branch of willow about an inch below the fork. Holding very loosely the slender branches, one in each hand, he so placed his hands that the apex of the fork pointed towards the ground. He then walked slowly about his garden, and whenever the angle of the fork flew up he declared that a spring of water would be found under that spot. He could not tell how deep one would have to go, and admitted that sometimes they had not been able to go down deep enough to find it. He told me that a piece of metal would act on the rod in the same way as a spring did, and that he had sometimes come across an old piece of iron instead of a spring. A penny or halfpenny would also affect the rod. So I put a penny under one of three hats, and asked him to find out by the rod under which hat the penny was. He was as often wrong as he was right, but he always maintained whenever the rod flew up over the wrong hat that there must be some metal under the surface of the ground or else a spring. After half-an-hour's careful investigation I came to the conclusion that self-deception was at the bottom of the affair. I found that the rod flew up PRIVATE PROPERTY IN LAND IN ENGLAND (5th S. ix. 347, 389; x. 149, 172, 269.)—I would claim space to say a few words anent MR. PICTON'S reply to my answer on this subject. If the word "Teuton" is used in the sense given by MR. PICTON, it might be applied to the Hottentots or the Chinese. It is usually applied to the Goths, the bases of the Germanic race, to distinguish them from the Celts, the Scandinavians, and the Sclavonians. I think each of these races can be traced back to sons or grandsons of Noah. I think there is a want of distinctness of idea or thought in applying the term "our Teutonic ancestors" to nationalities, whose idioms and customs are distwo races which I regard as distinct and separate similar in most respects, though there may, as in all human institutions, be a certain affinity. I do not think MR. PICTON is very happy in quoting documents of the thirteenth century to prove the state of things which existed in the sixth century, and he has apparently overlooked the effects of the Norman conquest, and its devastation of many villages to make way for the forest of be as pertinent to assert that railways existed in William of Normandy. It would seem to me to the time of Henry III. because they were found seven hundred years afterwards, as to say that "a large portion of the country was dense forest when the Anglo-Saxons invaded England" in the sixth century because there were forest laws in 1224. JOSEPH FISHER, Waterford. CLERICAL WIGS (5th S. ix. 481; x. 123.)-The allusion to Absalom (ante, p. 123) brings to my mind a curious old sign that I remember to have seen about fifty years ago over a barber's shop in the town of Lewes. It was Absalom suspended by his hair, and underneath was this couplet :"Oh Absalom, unlucky prig, Why didst not wear a periwig?" I should like to know whether there are other instances on record of this sign. Z. Z. |