Chapter M: N. S

_Photographic Copies of Ancient Manuscripts._--Might not photography be well employed in making facsimiles of valuable, rare, and especially of unique ancient manuscripts? If copies of such manuscripts could be multiplied at a moderate price, there are many proprietors of libraries would be glad to enrich them by what, for all purposes of reference, would answer equally well with the originals.

A.

[This subject, which has already been touched upon in our columns, has
not yet received the attention it deserves. We have now before us a
photographic copy of a folio page of a MS. of the fourteenth or
fifteenth century, on which are inscribed a number of charters; and,
although the copy is reduced so as to be but about 2 inches high and 1½
broad, it is perfectly legible; and the whole of the contractions are
as distinct as if the original vellum was before us.]

_Fox Talbot's Patents._--Would the Editor of "N. & Q." have the kindness to inform A. B. whether a photograph (portrait), taken from a _black cutting_ made by an amateur, and inserted in a published work, would infringe on Mr. F. Talbot's patent? Also, whether collodion portraits come within his patent, as it was understood it could only apply to the _paper process_? (The cutting would be taken on albumenised paper.)

A. B. would also be glad to know _where_ Towgood of St. Neot's _positive_ paper can be procured, and the price?

A. B.

Mr. Fox Talbot having thrown open the whole of his patents,--with the exception of the taking of portraits for sale, on which it is understood that gentleman claims a royalty which may, in some cases, be considered a prohibition,--I should be glad to know under which of Mr. Talbot's patents such royalty can be enforced, and when the patent in question expires?

H. H.

_Antiquarian Photographic Society._--We believe that most of the difficulties which have stood in the way of the organisation of this Society have at length been got over; and that we shall, in the course of a week or two, be enabled to state full particulars of its rules, arrangements, &c. Our readers are aware that its main object is the interchange of photographs among the members; each contributing as many copies of his own work as there are members of the Society, and receiving in exchange as many different photographs, Thus, if the Society is limited to twenty-five or fifty members, each member will have to furnish twenty-five or fifty copies, as the case may be, of the photograph he presents to the Society; and, in return, will receive one photograph from each of his fellow members. The difficulty, or rather trouble of printing, must necessarily limit the number of members; and as a consequence will, we doubt not, lead to the formation of many similar associations.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_"Firm was their faith," &c._ (Vol. viii., p. 564.; Vol. ix., p. 17.).--I am utterly unable to account for the reserve shown by SAXA in withholding the name of Robert Stephen Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, author of the beautiful volume of poems entitled _Echoes from Old Cornwall_: especially as the author's name appears on the title-page, and SAXA appears so desirous that his merits should be better known to the world.

[Greek: Halieus].

Dublin.

_Attainment of Majority_ (Vol. ix., p. 18.).--I cannot, in courtesy, omit to notice MR. RUSSELL GOLE'S obliging efforts to assist the investigation of this subject. I must, however, refer him to the first paragraph of my last communication (Vol. viii., p. 541.), on the reperusal of which he will find {84} that what he states to be "the question" has not been at any time questioned. He has apparently mistaken my meaning, and imagines that "about the beginning of the seventeenth century" means 1704 (that being the date of the case cited by him).

I beg to assure him that I intended the expression, "beginning of the seventeenth century," to be understood in the ordinary acceptation.

A. E. B.

Leeds.

_Three Fleurs-de-Lis_ (Vol. ix., p. 35.).--I have by me a MS. Biographical History of the English Episcopate, complete from the foundation of every See, with the armorial bearings of the several bishops: the whole I have collected from the best sources. I find among these, in the arms of Trilleck of Hereford, three fleurs-de-lis in chief; Stillingfleet of Worcester, Coverdale of Exeter, North of Winchester, three fleurs-de-lis, two in chief and one in base; Stretton of Lichfield, three fleurs-de-lis in bend.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Sir John _Egles_, who was knighted by King James II. in the last year of his reign, and was Lord Mayor of London in 1688, bore: Argent, a fess engrailed, and in chief three fleurs-de-lis sable.

The family of _France_, now represented by James France, Esq., of Bostock Hall, co. Cheshire, bear: Argent, on a mount in base a hurst proper, a chief wavy azure, charged with the three fleurs-de-lis or. (The last are probably _armes parlantes_.)

_Halford_ of Wistow bears: Argent, a greyhound passant sable, on a chief azure, three fleurs-de-lis or.

LEWIS EVANS.

DEVONIENSIS is informed, that the family of Saunders bear the following coat of arms: viz. Argent, three fleurs-de-lis sable, on a chief of the second three fleurs-de-lis of the first. Also, that the families of Chesterfield, Warwyke, Kempton, &c., bear: Three fleurs-de-lis in a line (horizontal) in the upper part of the shield. See Glovers' _Ordinary_, augmented and improved in Berry's _Encyclopædia Heraldica_, vol. i.

H. C. C.

_Newspaper Folk Lore_ (Vol. ix., p. 29.).--Although (apparently unknown to LONDONER) the correspondent of _The Times_, under "Naval Intelligence," in December last, with his usual accuracy, glanced at the "snake lore" merely to laugh at the fable, I have written to a gallant cousin of mine, now serving as a naval officer at Portsmouth, and subjoin his reply to my letter; it will, I think, amply suffice to disabuse a LONDONER'S, or his friend's, mind of any impression of credence to be attached to it, as regards the snake:

"H.M.S. Excellent.--Jonathan Smith, gunner's mate of the Hastings,
joined this ship from the Hastings in July; went on two months' leave,
but came back in August very ill, and was immediately sent to the
hospital for general dropsy, of which he shortly after died, and he was
buried in Kingston churchyard, being followed to the grave by a part of
the ship's company of the Excellent.

"Shortly before his death a worm, not a snake, came from him. It was
nine inches in length; but though of such formidable dimensions, such
things are common enough in the East Indies, where this man must have
swallowed it, when very small, in water. They seldom are the cause of
death, and, in the present instance, had nothing whatever to do with
it. The story of the snake got into some of the papers, but was
afterwards contradicted in several."

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

_Nattochiis and Calchanti_ (Vol. ix., p. 36.).--Your correspondent F.S.A. asks what "cum g^anis et nattochiis" means, in a charter of the date of Edward II. At that time _nattes_ signified reeds, and possibly _withies_: and the words quoted I believe to mean, "with all grass and reeds (or reed-beds)." He also inquires what is meant, in a deed of grant of the time of Queen Elizabeth, by a grant of "decimas calchanti," &c.? It signifies "tithes ways," &c. The original law Latin for the modern phrase "all ways," &c., was _calceata_, signifying "raised ways."

This word has (at different periods) been written, _calceata_, _calcata_, _calcea_, _calchia_, _chaucée_, and _chaussé_; all of them, however, meaning the same thing.

JOHN THRUPP.

11. York Gate.

_Marriage Ceremony in the Fourteenth Century_ (Vol. ix., p. 33.).--If R. C. will refer to Palmer's _Origines Liturgicæ_ (Rivington, 1845, vol. ii. p. 214.), he will find that the first part of the matrimonial office was "anciently termed the _espousals_, which took place some time _before_ the actual celebration of marriage." Palmer explains:

"The espousals consisted in a mutual _promise_ of marriage, which was
made by the man and woman before the bishop or presbyter, and several
witnesses. After which, the articles of agreement of marriage (called
_tabulæ matrimoniales_), which are mentioned by Augustin, were signed
by both persons. After this, _the man delivered to the woman the ring
and other gifts_; an action which was termed _subarrhation_. In the
latter ages the espousals have always been performed at the same time
as the office of matrimony, both in the western and eastern churches;
and _it has long been customary_ for the ring to be delivered to the
woman _after the contract has been made_, which has always been in the
actual office of matrimony."

Wheatly also speaks of the _ring_ as a "token of _spousage_." He tell us that--

"In the old manual for the use of Salisbury, before the minister
proceeds to the marriage, he is directed _to {85} ask the woman's
dowry_, viz. _the tokens of spousage: and by these tokens of spousage
are to be understood rings, or money, or some other things to be given
to the woman by the man; which said giving is called subarration_ (i.
e. wedding or covenanting), _especially when it is done by the giving
of a ring._"--_A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer,
&c._ (Tegg, 1845), p. 408.

Perhaps the word _subarration_ may suggest to R. C. a clue, by which he can mend his extract?

J. SANSOM.

_Clarence_ (Vol. viii., p. 565.).--I made no note of it at the time, but I remember to have read, I think in some newspaper biography of William IV., that the title of Clarence belonged to the Plantagenets in right of some of their foreign alliances, and that it was derived from the town of Chiarenza, or Clarence, in the Morea. As many of the crusaders acquired titles of honour from places in the Byzantine empire, this account may be correct. Lionel Plantagenet's acquisition of the honour of _Clare_ by his marriage with Elizabeth de Burgh, may have induced his father Edward III. to revive the dormant title of _Clarence_ in his favour.

HONORÉ DE MAREVILLE.

Guernsey.

_"The spire whose silent finger," &c._ (Vo1. ix., p. 9.).--

"And O! ye swelling hills and spacious plains!
Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-tow'rs,
And spires _whose silent finger points to heav'n_."
Wordsworth, _Excursion_, vi. 17.

Coleridge uses the same idea in his _Friend_, No. xiv. p. 223.:

"An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat
countries with spire-steeples; which, as they cannot be referred to any
other object, _point as with silent finger to the sky_ and stars; and
sometimes, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich though rainy
sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heavenward."

F. R. M., M.A.

The following lines conclude a pretty little poem of Rogers's, entitled _A Wish_. They furnish at any rate a parallel passage to, if not the correct version of, the above:

"The village church, among the trees,
Where first our marriage vows were given,
With merry peals shall shell the breeze,
And _point with taper spire to heaven_."