Chapter M

_Latin Line_.--I should be very much obliged to anybody who can tell where this line comes from:--

"Exiguum hoc magni pignus amoris habe,"

which was engraved on a present from a distinguished person to a relation of mine, who tried in several quarters to learn where it came from.

C.B.

_Milton, New Edition of_.--I observe in Mr. Mayor's communication (Vol. i. p. 427.), that some one is engaged in editing Milton. May I ask who, and whether the contemplated edition includes prose and poetry?

CH.

_Barum and Sarum_.--By what theory, rule, or analogy, if any, can the contractions be accounted for of two names so dissimilar, into words terminating so much alike, as those of Salisbury into Sarum--Barnstaple into Barum?

S.S.S.

_Roman Roads_.--Can you inform me in whose possession is the MS. essay on "Roman Roads," written by the late Dr. Charles Mason, to which I find allusion in a MS. letter of Mr. North's?

BURIENSIS.

_John Dutton, of Dutton_.--In the Vagrant Act, 17 George II., c. 5., the heir and assigns of John Dutton, of Dutton, co. Chester, deceased, Esq., are exempt from the pains and penalties of vagrancy. Query--Who was the said John Dutton, and why was such a boon conferred on his heirs for ever?

B.

_Rome, Ancient and Modern_.--I observed, in a shop in Rome, in 1847, a large plan of that city, in which, on the same surface, both ancient and modern Rome were represented; the shading of the streets and buildings being such as to distinguish the one from the other. Thus, in looking at the modern Forum, you saw, as it were _underneath_ it, the ancient Forum; and so in the other parts of the city. Can any of your readers inform me as to the name of the designer, and where, if at all, in England, a copy of this plan may be obtained?

If I remember rightly, the border to the plan was composed of the Pianta Capitolina, or fragments of the ancient plan preserved in the Capitol. In the event of the map above referred to not being accessible, can I obtain a copy of this latter plan by itself, and how?

A.B.M.

_Prolocutor of Convocation_.--W.D.M. inquires who was Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation during its session in 1717-18?

_Language of Queen Mary's Days_.--In the first vol. of Evelyn's _Diary_ (the last edition) I find the following notice:--

"18th, Went to Beverley, a large town with two churches, St.
John's and St. Mary's, not much inferior to the best of our
cathedrals. Here a very old woman showed us the monuments,
and being above 100 years of age, spake _the language of Queen
Mary's days_, in whose time she was born; she was widow of a
sexton, who had belonged to the church a hundred years."

Will any of your readers inform me what was the language spoken in _Queen Mary's_ days, and what peculiarity distinguished it from the language used in _Evelyn's_ days?

A learned author has suggested, that the difference arose from the slow progress in social improvement in the North of England, caused by the difficulty of communication with the court and its refinements. I am still anxious to ascertain what the difference was.

FRA. MEWBURN.

Darlington.

_Vault Interments_.--I shall be very glad of any information as to the origin and date of the practice of depositing coffins in vaults, and whether this custom obtains in any other country than our own.

WALTER LEWIS.

Edward Street, Portman Square.

_Archbishop Williams' Persecutor, R.K._--Any information will be thankfully received of the ancestors, collaterals, or descendants, of the notorious R.K.--the unprincipled persecutor of Archbp. Williams, mentioned in Fuller's _Church Hist._, B. xi. cent. 17.; and in Hacket's Life of the Archbishop (abridgment), p. 190.

F.K.

_The Sun feminine in English_.--It has been often remarked, that the northern nations made the sun to be feminine.[3] Do any of your readers know any instances of the _English_ using this gender of the sun? I have found the following:--

"So it will be at that time with the sun; for though _she_ be the brightest and clearest creature, above all others, yet, for all that Christ with His glory and majesty will obscure _her."--Latimer's Works_, Parker Soc. edit. vol. ii. p. 54.

"Not that the sun itself, of _her_ substance, shall be darkened; no, not so; for _she_ shall give _her_ light, but it shall not be seen for this great light and clearness wherein our Saviour shall appear."--(Ib. p. 98.)

THOS. COX.

[Footnote 3: See Latham's _English Language_, 2nd edition, p. 211]

_Construe and translate_.--In my school-days, verbal rendering from Latin or Greek into English was _construing_; the same on paper was _translating_. Whence this difference of phrase?