Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber's note: Original spelling variations have not been standardized. Underscores have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts. A list of volumes and pages in "Notes and Queries" has been added at the end.]

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

VOL. IV.--No. 108. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4_d._

CONTENTS.

Page

NOTES:--

Age of Trees 401

Lines attributed to Admiral Byng 403

A Chapter on Emblems 403

Folk Lore:--Music at Funerals--Cheshire Folk Lore
and Superstition 404

Minor Notes:--Talented--Anagram--Dictionary of
Hackneyed Quotations 405

QUERIES:--

Masters and Marshals of the Ceremonies 405

Minor Queries:--Cause of Transparency--Gold Medal
of the Late Duke of York--Compositions during the
Protectorate--Bristol Tables--Macfarlane's Geographical
Collection--"Acu tinali meridi"--Sir Joshua
Reynolds--Great Plough at Castor Church--Church
of St. Bene't Fink--Inscription on a Pair of
Spectacles--Campbell--Family of Cordeux--Panelling
Inscription--Infantry Firing 406

REPLIES:--

The Reverend Richard Farmer, by Bolton Corney 407

Anglo-Catholic Library 408

General James Wolfe 409

Punishment of Edward of Caernarvon by his Father--Character
of Edward I. 409

Elizabeth Joceline's Legacy to an Unborne Child 410

Replies to Minor Queries:--Coleridge's
"Christabel"--Dryden; Illustrations by T. Holt
White--Lofcop, Meaning of--Middleton's Epigrams
and Satyres--Lord Edward Fitzgerald--Earwig--Sanderson
and Taylor--Island of AEgina and the Temple of Jupiter
Panhellinius--The Broad Arrow--Consecration of Bishops
in Sweden--Meaning of Spon--Quaker Expurgated
Bible--Cozens the Painter--Authors of the Homilies 410

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 413

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 413

Notices to Correspondents 414

Advertisements 414

Notes.

AGE OF TREES.

Alexander von Humboldt, in his work entitled _Views of Nature_ (pp. 220. 268-276. ed. Bohn), has some interesting remarks on the age of trees.

"In vegetable forms (he says) _massive size_ is indicative of age;
and in the vegetable kingdom alone are age and the manifestation
of an ever-renewed vigour linked together."

Following up this remark, he refers to specimens of the Baobab (_Adansonia digitata_), with trunks measuring more than thirty feet in diameter, the age of which is estimated by Adanson at 5150 years. All calculations of the age of a tree, founded merely on the _size of its trunk_, are, however, uncertain, unless the law of its growth, and the limits of the variation producible by peculiar circumstances, are ascertained, which, in the case of the Adansonia, have not been determined. For the same reason, the calculation of 2,500 years for a gigantic cypress in Persia, mentioned by Evelyn in his _Silva_, is of no value.

Humboldt afterwards refers to "the more certain estimations yielded by _annular rings_, and by the relation found to exist between the thickness of the layer of wood and the duration of growth;" which, he adds, give us shorter periods for our temperate northern zone. The calculation of the age of a tree, founded on its successive rings, appears to be quite certain; and whenever these can be counted, the age of a tree can be determined without risk of error. Humboldt quotes a statement from Endlicher, that "in Lithuania linden (or lime) trees have been felled which measured 87 feet round, and in which 815 annular rings have been counted." The section of a trunk of a silver fir, which grew near Barr, is preserved in the Museum at Strasburg: its diameter was eight feet close to the ground, and the number of rings is said to amount to several hundreds.

Unfortunately this mode of determining a tree's age cannot be applied to a living tree; and it is only certain where the tree is sound at the heart. Where a tree has become hollow from old age, the rings near the centre, which constitute a part of the evidence of its duration, no longer exist. Hence the age of the great oak of Saintes, in the department of the Charente Inferieure, which measures twenty-three feet in diameter five feet from the ground, and is large enough to contain a small chamber, can only be estimated; and the antiquity of 1800 or 2000 years, which is assigned to it, must rest on an uncertain conjecture.

Decandolle lays it down that, of all European trees, the _yew_ attains the greatest age; and he assigns an antiquity of thirty centuries to the _Taxus baccata_ of Braburn in Kent; from twenty-five to thirty centuries to the Scotch yew of Fortingal; and fourteen and a half and twelve centuries respectively to those of Crowhurst in Surrey and Ripon (Fountains Abbey) in Yorkshire. These ages are fixed by a conjecture founded on the _size_, which can lead to no certain result.

Can any of your correspondents state what is the greatest number of rings which have been actually counted in any yew, or other tree, which has grown in the British Isles, or elsewhere? It Is only by actual enumeration that vegetable chronology can be satisfactorily determined: but if the rings in many trees were counted, some relation between the number of rings and the diameter of the trunk, for each species, might probably be laid down within certain limits. These rings, being annually deposited, form a natural chronicle of time, by which the age of a tree is determined with as much precision as the lapse of human events is determined by the cotemporaneous registration of annalists. Hence Milton speaks of "monumental oak." Evelyn, who has devoted a long chapter of his _Silva_ to an investigation of the age of trees (b. iii. c. iii.), founds his inferences chiefly on their _size_; but he cites the following remark from Dr. Goddard:

"It is commonly and very probably asserted, that a tree gains a
new ring every year. In the body of a great oak in the New Forest,
cut transversely even, (where many of the trees are accounted to
be some hundreds of years old) three and four hundred have been
distinguished."--Vol. ii. p. 202. ed. Hunter.

A delineation and description of the largest and most celebrated trees of Great Britain may be seen in the interesting work of Jacob George Strutt, entitled _Sylva Britannica, or Portraits of Forest Trees, distinguished for their Antiquity, Magnitude, or Beauty_: London, 1822, folio.

The age of some trees is determined by historical records, in the same manner that we know the age of an ancient building, as the Parthenon, the Colosseum, or the Tower of London. It is, however, important that such historical evidence should be carefully scrutinised; for trees which are known to be of great antiquity sometimes give rise to fabulous legends, destitute of any foundation in fact. Such, for example, was the plane-tree near Caphyae, in Arcadia, seen by Pausanias in the second century after Christ, which was reported by the inhabitants to have been planted by Menelaus when he was collecting the army for the expedition against Troy. (_Paus._ VIII. 23.) Such too, doubtless, was the oak of Mamre, where the angels were said to have appeared to Abraham. (_Sozomen_, ii. 3.) A rose-tree growing in the crypt of the cathedral of Hildesheim is referred, by a church-legend, to a date anterior to 1061; which would imply an age of more than 800 years, but the evidence adduced seems scarcely sufficient to identify the existing rose-tree with the rose-tree of 1061. (See _Humboldt_, p. 275.)

In other cases, however, the historical evidence extant, if not altogether free from doubt, is sufficient to carry the age of a tree back to a remote date. The Swilcar Lawn oak, in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, is stated by Strutt, p. 2., "to be known by historical documents to be at this time [1822] six hundred years old; and it is still far from being in the last stage of decay." Of a great elm growing at Chipstead Place in Kent, he says: "Its appearance altogether savours enough of antiquity to bear out the tradition annexed to it, that in the time of Henry V. a fair was held annually under its branches; the high road from Rye in Sussex to London then passing close by it." (P. 5.) If this tradition be authentic, the elm in question must have been a large and wide-spreading tree in the years 1413-22. A yew-tree at Ankerwyke House, near Staines, is supposed to be of great antiquity. There is a tradition that Henry VIII. occasionally met Anne Boleyn under its branches: but it is not stated how high this tradition ascends. (_Ib._, p. 8.) The Abbot's Oak, near Woburn Abbey, is stated to derive its name from the fact that the abbot of the monastery was, by order of Henry VIII., hung from its branches in 1537. (_Ib._, p. 10.) But Query, is this an authentic fact?

There is a tradition respecting the Shelton Oak near Shrewsbury, that before the battle of Shrewsbury between Henry IV. and Hotspur, in 1403, Owen Glendower reconnoitred the field from its branches, and afterwards drew off his men. Positive documentary evidence, in the possession of Richard Hill Waring, Esq., is likewise cited, which shows that this tree was called "the Great Oak" in the year 1543 (_Ib._ p. 17.). There is a traditional account that the old yew-trees at Fountains Abbey existed at the foundation of the abbey, in the year 1132; but the authority for this tradition, and the time at which it was first recorded, is not stated. (P. 21.) The Abbot's Willow, near Bury St. Edmund's, stands on a part of the ancient demesne of the Abbot of Bury, and is hence conjectured to be anterior to the dissolution of the monastery in the reign of Henry VIII. (P. 23.) The Queen's Oak at Huntingfield, in Suffolk, was situated in a park belonging to Lord Hunsdon, where he had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth. The queen is reported to have shot a buck with her own hand from this oak. (P. 26.) Sir Philip Sidney's Oak, near Penshurst, is said to have been planted at his birth, in 1554: it has been celebrated by Ben Jonson and Waller. This oak is above twenty-two feet in girth; it is hollow, and stag-headed; and, so far as can be judged from the engraving, has an appearance of great antiquity, though its age only reaches back to the sixteenth century. (P. 27.) The Tortworth Chestnut is described as being not only the largest, but the oldest tree in England: Evelyn alleges that "it continued a signal boundary to that manor in King Stephen's time, as it stands upon record;" but the date of the record is not mentioned. We can hardly suppose that it was cotemporaneous. (_Ib._ p. 29.) An elm at Chequers in Buckinghamshire is reported, by a tradition handed down in the families of the successive owners, to have been planted in the reign of Stephen. (_Ib._ p. 38.) Respecting the Wallace Oak, at Ellerslie near Paisley, it is reported that Sir William Wallace, and three hundred of his men, hid themselves among its branches from the English. This legend is probably fabulous; if it were true, it would imply that the tree was in its full vigour at the end of the thirteenth century. (_Ib._ p. 5.) The ash at Carnock, in Stirlingshire, supposed to be the largest in Scotland, and still a luxuriant tree, was planted about the year 1596, by Sir Thomas Nicholson of Carnock, Lord Advocate of Scotland in the reign of James VI. (_Ib._ p. 8.)

Marshall, in his Work on _Planting and Rural Ornament_ (2 vols. 1796) refers to a paper on the age of trees, by Mr. Marsham, in the first volume of the _Transactions of the Bath Agriculture Society_, in which the Tortworth Chestnut is calculated to be not less than 1100 years old. Marshall, who appears to have examined this tree with great care, corrects the account given by Mr. Marsham, and states that it is not one, but two trees. Sir Robert Atkins, in his _History of Gloucestershire_, says: "By tradition this tree was growing in King John's reign." Evelyn, however, as we have already seen, speaks of a record that it served as a manor boundary in the reign of Stephen. Query, on what authority do these statements rest? Marshall thinks that a duration of nearly a thousand years may be fairly assigned to the Tortworth tree; and he adds:

"If we consider the quick growth of the chestnut, compared with
that of the oak, and at the same time the inferior bulk of the
Tortworth Chestnut to the Cowthorp, the Bentley, and the
Boddington oaks, may we not venture to infer that the existence of
these truly venerable trees commenced some centuries prior to the
era of Christianity?"

The oaks here alluded to by Marshall are of immense size. The Cowthorp Oak is near Wetherby; the Bentley Oak, in Holt Forest, near Bentley; the Boddington Oak, between Cheltenham and Tewksbury (vol. ii. pp. 127. 298.).

Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to point out authentic evidence respecting the true dates of ancient trees. A large tree is a subject of interest to the entire neighbourhood: it receives an individual name, like a river, a mountain, or a building; and by its permanence it affords a fixed point for a faithful local tradition to rest upon. On the other hand, the infidelity of oral tradition is well known; and the mere interest which attaches to a tree of unusual size is likely to give birth to a romantic legend, when its true history has been forgotten. The antiquary and the botanist may assist one another in determining the age of trees. By the authentic evidence of their duration which the former is able to furnish, the latter may establish tests by which their longevity may be calculated.

L.

LINES ATTRIBUTED TO ADMIRAL BYNG.

The following lines are copied, _verbatim et literatim_, from a window pane in an upstairs room of the Talbot Inn, Ripley. The tradition is that they were written by Admiral Byng, who was confined in the room as a prisoner when on his way to Portsmouth; that sentinels were placed on the staircase outside; that during the night the admiral walked past the sleeping guard, gathered some flowers from the inn garden, and returned to his room; and that on leaving the following morning, he told the Inn Lady he should see her on his way back to London, when he was acquitted.

"Come all you true Britons, and listen to me;
I'll tell you the truth, you'll then plainly see
How Minorca was lost, why the kingdom doth ring,
And lay the whole blame on Admiral Byng.
Sing tantararara, rogues all, rogues all.

"Newcastle, and Hardwick, and Anson did now
Preside at the helm, and to whom all must bow;
Minorca besieged, who protection will bring;
They know 'tis too late, let the victim be Byng.
Sing tantararara, rogues all.

"With force insufficient he's ordered away;
He obeys, and he sails without any delay;
But alas! 'tis too late: who shall say to the king
Minorca must fall, why, accuse Mr. Byng.
Sing tantararara, rogues all.

"Minorca now falls, and the nation enraged;
With justice they cry, let all who engaged
In traterous deeds, with curst infamy swing:
What! none to be found but poor Admiral Byng.
Sing tantararara, rogues all."

Is there any reason to doubt the truth of this tradition, or that the verses were written by the unfortunate admiral?

A. C. G.

Ripley, Nov. 10, 1851.

A CHAPTER ON EMBLEMS.

"An history of emblems in all languages, with specimens of the poetry and engravings, accompanied by some account of the authors, would be a very interesting contribution to our literature." Thus speaks the author of a work remarkable for interest, information, and elegance of taste, viz., _Lives of Sacred Poets_, by Robert Willmott, Esq.; and truly such a work would be a great _desideratum_ were the idea here suggested efficiently carried out.

In our own, and in other languages, many beautiful poems--some of them very gems--exist, attached to, and written on some of "the most ridiculous prints that ever excited merriment." A tasteful collection of the more beautiful poems, with some spirited woodcuts, or engravings to accompany them, would form a beautiful volume. This, however, is a suggestion different from, and secondary to, Mr. Willmott's.

Emblems, figures, symbols, &c., constitute a vast ocean of associations which all enter on, all understand, all sympathise with more or less. They enrich our language, enter into our commonest thoughts and conversation, as well as our compositions in poetry and prose.

Often the clearest ideas we have on abstruse points are derived from them, _e.g._ the _shamrock_ or _trefoil_ is an emblem of _the Blessed Trinity_. Nothing perhaps helps us to comprehend the resurrection of the body, and in a glorified state through preserving its identity, as the apostle's illustration and emblem of the _growth of corn_.

In a work on the subject it would be desirable to keep the classical, artistic, political, and other emblems apart from the sacred and moral, &c.

I must now say a few words on a book of emblems, entitled _Schola Cordis, sive Aversi a Deo Cordis, ad eumdem reductio et instructio, Authore Benedicto Haefteno, Antv._ 1635. (This Benedict Haeften was also the author of _Regia Via Crucis_, published at Antwerp the same year as the above, in 2 vols. 8vo., I think, and afterwards translated into French.) This work suggested _Schola Cordis, or the Heart of itself gone away from God, brought back again to Him and instructed by Him, in XLVII emblems_: London, printed for M. Blunder at the Castle in Cornhill, 1647, 12mo. pp. 196. The authorship of this English _Schola Cordis_ is generally attributed to Christopher Harvie, the author of _The Synagogue_. (Vide Lowndes, and a note in Pickering's edition of George Herbert.) The second edition was printed in 1674, third in 1675, fourth in 1676.

Now, Mr. Tegg in 1845 printed an edition of this _Schola Cordis_ as the production of Francis Quarles; what was his authority I know not, he certainly did not attempt to give any.

The last three books of Quarles's _Emblems_ contain forty-five prints, all from Herman Hugo's _Pia Desideria_, which has that number of emblems. Quarles sometimes translates, sometimes paraphrases Hugo, and has a good deal of original matter. His first two books are not in Hugo's work, and I do not know whence they are derived; nearly all the cuts contain a globe and cross.

Herman Hugo had the talents and versatility which characterise his order (the Order of Jesus), "he was a philosopher, a linguist, a theologian, a poet, and a soldier, and under the command of Spinola is said to have performed prodigies of valour." He was the author of _De prima Scribendi Origine et Universa Rei Literariae Antiquitate_, an excellent work; and of _De Militia Equestri antiqua et nova_ amongst others. His _Book of Emblems_ was first published at Antwerp, 1624. It is divided into _three_ books, viz.,

Pia Desideria.

1. Gemitus {A } Poenitentis.
2. Vota {n } Sanctae.
3. Suspiria {imae} Amantis.

Each book contains fifteen emblems. The principal editions are, Antv. 1624, ed. princeps; Antv. 1628, 1632; Graecii, 1651; Lond. 1677, sumptibus Roberti Pawlet, Chancery Lane. This London edition contains only verse, whereas all the other editions contain metre and prose before each picture, the prose being far the better of the two. The only prose that Pawlet's edition has is a motto from one of the Fathers at the back of each picture.

There are two or three English translations. I have seen but one, a miserable translation of the verse part, I suppose from Pawlet's edition. There are short notices of emblems in the _Retrospective Review_, ix. 123-140.; _Critical Review_, Sept. 1801 (attributed to Southey); see also Willmott's _Lives of Sacred Poets_ (Wither and Quarles); Caesar Ripa's _Iconologia_, Padua, 1627; and _Alciati Emblemata_, Lugd. 1614. The Fagel Library, Trinity College, Dublin, has a fine copy of the first edition of the _Pia Desideria_, and upwards of sixty books of emblems, principally Dutch.

P.S.--When I penned the above I was not aware that any mention of the _School of the Heart_ had been made in "NOTES AND QUERIES." I find in Southey's fourth _Common-place Book_ that he quotes from the _School of the Heart_ as Quarles's. He has the following note on Quarles's Emblems: "Philips erroneously says that the emblems are a copy from Hermannus Hugo." I know not what Philips exactly intended by the word "copy;" but if any one doubts what I have before said respecting these Emblems, let him compare Hugo and Quarles together. I forgot to give the title of the first edition of Hugo: _Pia Desideria Emblematis, Elegiis et Affectibus, SS. Patrum Illustrata, vulgavit Boetius a Bolswert_, Antv. 1624. Also the title of our English translation: _Pia Desideria; or, Divine Addresses_, in three books, written in Latin by Herm. Hugo, Englished by Edm. Arwaker, M.A., Lond. 1686, 8vo., pp. 282., dedicated to the Princess Anne of Denmark, with forty-seven plates by Sturt.

MARICONDA.

FOLK LORE.

_Music at Funerals._--Pennant, in his MS. relating to North Wales, says, "there is a custom of singing psalms on the way as the corpse is carried to church" (Brand's _Pop. Ant._, ed. Ellis, vol. ii. p. 268.). In North Devon the custom of singing is similar; but it is not a psalm it is a dirge. I send you a copy of one in use at Lynton, sent to me by my sister.

Farewell all, my parents[1] dear,
And all my friends, farewell!
I hope I'm going to that place
Where Christ and saints do dwell.

Oppress'd with grief long time I've been,
My bones cleave to my skin,
My flesh is wasted quite away
With pain that I was in,

Till Christ his messenger did send,
And took my life away,
To mingle with my mother earth,
And sleep with fellow clay.

Into thy hands I give my soul,
Oh! cast it not aside,
But favor me and hear my prayer,
And be my rest and guide.

Affliction hath me sore oppress'd,
Brought me to death in time;
O Lord! as thou hast promised,
Let me to life return.

For when that Christ to judgment comes,
He unto us will say,
If we His laws observe and keep,
"Ye blessed, come away."

How blest is he who is prepar'd,
He fears not at his death;
Love fills his heart, and hope his breast,
With joy he yields his breath.

Vain world, farewell! I must be gone,
I cannot longer stay;
My time is spent, my glass is run,
God's will I must obey.

[Footnote 1: Sister or brother, as the case may be.]

Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral, but the rhyme is not so well kept.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

_Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition._--There is in this town a little girl, about thirteen years old, in great request among the poor as a charmer in cases of burns or scalds. Immediately on the accident the girl is fetched from her work in the mill; on her arrival she kneels down by the side of the sufferer, mutters a few words, and touches the individual, and the people believe and affirm that the sufferings immediately cease, as she has charmed the fire out of the parts injured. The surgeon's aid is then called in to heal the sores. The girl affirms that she found it out herself by reading her Bible, of which the wonder-working charm is a verse. She will take no reward, nor may any of her relatives; if she or they were, her power would be at an end. She is an ordinary, merry, playful girl; as a surgeon I often come across her in such accidents.

I know some other such charmers in Cheshire, but none so young. One, an old man, stops bleedings of all kinds by a similar charm, viz. a verse from the Bible. But he does not require to be at the patient's side, his power being equally efficacious at the distance of one hundred miles, as close by.

E. W. L.

Congleton.

Minor Notes.

_Talented._--Sterling, in a letter to Carlyle, objects to the use of this word by his biographer in his _Sartor Resartus_, calling it a hustings and newspaper word, brought in, as he had heard, by O'Connell.

J. O'G.

_Anagram._--Sir J. Stephen, in his essay on _The French Benedictines_, gives an anagram of Father Finavdis of the Latinized name of that great bibliophagist Magliabechi:--Antonius Magliabechius--Is unus bibliotheca magna.

In the same essay he says that Mabillon called Magliabechi "Museum inambulans, et viva quaedam bibliotheca." Possibly this is the origin of our expression "a walking dictionary."

J. O'G.

_Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations._--I beg to inform your correspondent who suggested such a publication as a _Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations_, that I commenced such a work some time ago, and hope before long to have it ready for the press.

Every common quotation or familiar proverb from the poets will be ranged with the _context_ under its respective author, while an alphabetical index will facilitate reference to any particular passage. I doubt not the readers of your valuable periodical will assist me whenever I am at fault as to the authorship of any line or "household word;" and I should feel at the present time much obliged if any one could tell me where

"Though lost to sight, to memory dear," may be found?

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

Queries.

MASTERS AND MARSHALS OF THE CEREMONIES?

How are these offices now held? By letters patent of the crown, or by the lord chamberlain's nomination?

Where can any list of these offices be found? The office of Master of the Ceremonies, whose duty it is to arrange the reception of all foreign ministers, and their departures, was formerly an office of considerable importance. In the reign of King Charles I. it was held seemingly by grants from the crown. In 1627, Sir John Finett says he received news of the death of Sir Lewis Lewknor, by which, in right of his Majesty's grant of reversion by letters patent, he became sole Master of the Ceremonies--an office which he before held jointly with Sir Lewis Lewknor.

S. E. G.

Minor Queries.

286. _Cause of Transparency._--Seeing through the glass of my window a landscape, and not knowing _why_ I see through the glass, and not through the shutters, I will thank one of your philosophical correspondents to tell me the _cause of transparency_.

AEGROTUS.

287. _Gold Medal of late Duke of York._--I have a small gold medal, three-quarter inch in diameter, a head with inscription--

"Fredericus dux Eborac."

and Rev.:

"Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit. Non. Ian. 1827."

Were many such struck at the duke's death, or what is the history of it?

A. A. D.

288. _Composition's during the Protectorate._--Where is there any account or list of these? In Oldfield's _History of Wainfleet_, p. 12. Appendix, is a "List of Residents in the County of Lincoln who compounded for their Estates during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell;" but he gives no authority or reference. Where can this list be checked, as I suspect an error?

W. H. L.

Fulham.

289. _Bristol Tables._--Upon the pavement in front of the Exchange, Bristol, there are four very handsome bronze tables standing, upon a single pedestal each; the tops circular, about two feet in diameter, with a slightly raised edge round them. It is said that they were presented to the Bristol merchants for them to pay their money upon; but when, or by whom, they were so given, I have not been able to learn. A friend of mine who was lately examining them was told that they were formerly called "Nails," and gave rise to the saying, "Pay down upon the nail:" this I should think must be an error. "Solvere ad unguem" would be found to be older than they are. If any of your correspondents can give me any information respecting them, I shall be obliged.

E. N. W.

Southwark.

290. _Macfarlane's Geographical Collection._--In almost every work treating of the history and topographical antiquities of Scotland, we are referred to _Macfarlane's Geographical Collection_, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. This MS., and its author, are very little known, except by name, _benorth the Tay_, notwithstanding they are so often quoted. I should be glad if any of your correspondents would give me any information regarding the extent of country embraced, _i.e._ parishes, counties, &c., and if any part of it has been published _per se_, and when, and where.

ANTIQUARIENSIS.

Inverness.

291. "_Acu tinali meridi._"--At the head of an English metrical discourse upon the administration of justice, in a MS. of the fourteenth or fifteenth century, in the Public Library, Cambridge, is placed the following obscure motto, upon which, perhaps, some correspondent can throw light:--

"O judex vi fervida hanc servabis artem,
Acu tinali merida .i. audi alteram partem."

I have not seen the MS., but am told that the correctness of the reading may be depended upon.