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which formed the pantoufle de vair. D. P. Stuarts Lodge, Malvern Wells.

Wells was first heard. He seems to have pre- shapes which composed it; between vair and verre judged the case from the first, and, not satisfied (not the material, but) a drinking glass. And in with that, actually wrote a pamphlet on the side of England we allowed pronunciation to mislead us Canning. This production is no better than might so far that we have long translated, not only vair have been expected, and it does not appear in his into verre, but verre into the material of glass published works. Neither does it elevate his re-instead of the small glass-shaped figures of the fur putation for acuteness. He would appear, however, to have realized the possibility that he had been made a dupe, for he says (and this is the only extract I shall make): "In solemn truth, the only error I can be charged with in this case is an error in sagacity. If E. Canning be guilty of a false accusation, I own she hath been capable of imposing on me." So much for a contest of wits between an artful servant girl and the great English

novelist. Bath.

G. H. W.

CINDERELLA And her Slipper.-In the Times of December 23 and 24, 1878, appeared two excellent letters on this subject. The pantomime of Cinderella, then announced, gave occasion for them. The first writer, signing himself X., said :—"As thousands of the new generation will receive lasting impressions of that famous tale, it may not be inopportune to protest against the vulgar error which persistently gives to Cinderella a glass slipper. The fairy gave her pantoufles de vuir (a costly fur) and not de verre, as repeated by ignorant story-tellers." The second writer, E. de B., of course agrees to all this, and adds one of the two forms of the story of the person whom he in error calls "Signor de Coucies," with whom the use of vair originated. The designation "Signor" would make him Italian; but he was, De la Colombière tells us (Science Heroique, Paris, 1669), "un Seigneur de l'ancienne et illustre Maison de Coucy en Picardie," a family so well satisfied "de sa condition" that their saying was, "Je ne suis Roy ne Prince aussi. Je suis le Sieur de Coucy." I should like to give both stories, but I am afraid to encroach upon the space of "N. & Q." However, neither of these writers explained how so absurd a mistake came to be made. The history of the fur itself, vair, will make this plain. I will translate from De la Colombière's chapter (p. 59), “Dv Vair":

"And with regard to vair......it was composed of pieces brought together, made in the shape of little vessels of glass (petits pots de verre), which the furriers joined with

white furs."

He then mentions the two kinds :

"That which has the least number of rows, and is of three rows, is called Belfry of Vair (Beffroi de Vair); and that which has the most, and is of five or six rows, is called Menu Vair; the Belfry also making itself known by this, namely, that the first figure which is on the dexter side of the chief is always metal and is made in the shape of a bell. Instead of which pure Vair is in the shape of a glass (en forme de verre)."

A drinking glass without a foot being thus the pattern of the fur vair, a confusion sooner or later arose from the pronunciation of the fur and of the

A FEW IDLE WORDS.-I think it is Mark Tapley who says to his master how curious it is to look at a newspaper, for you always see in one column persons advertising for that which every one in the next is anxious to supply. The supply and the instance in "N. & Q." of the 7th inst. MR. STavendemand, however, do not always fit. There is an HAGEN JONES (ante, p. 449) asks, From whom did the racehorse Sir Bevys derive his name? At p. 451 MR. JOHN E. BAILEY says there is a Sir Bevis Thelwall mentioned in Howell's Familiar

Letters.

I was once travelling with Crabb Robinson, and a lady in the same carriage said, "O, Mr. Robinson, you are an antiquarian." "Madani," he replied, "I am a noun, and not an adjective. An antiquary, if you please." I have often told the story when I have been addressed as an antiquarian, and I suppose I shall have to do so again and again, for I see that even in "N. & Q." (ante, p. 453) the late Mr. Albert Way is spoken of [in a quoted paragraph-ED.] as the well-known antiquarian." In Kent this week I inquired of a labourer my road through a wood, and he told me I was to go on till I came to "four went ways," and then I was to take the left. I see Halliwell gives "Went, a cross way"; but until I consulted him I did not know whether my country friend was guilty of using, as some of the Kentish people do, or used to do, the w-the digamma of our friend Cooteinstead of the v.

In this trip I noticed how abbreviations and corruptions of the names of places may creep in. Numerous trucks were chalked "GEnd" meaning Gravesend. When the New Zealander goes there to spend a happy day, he will not perhaps be able to recognize it by its original name. On my return, by another route, I found that the porters at Shoreham and St. Mary Cray announced that we had arrived at "Shram" and "Emcray." CLARRY.

POST DAYS.-A curious old observance in the city of London has this year been broken through. Before penny postage Tuesdays and Fridays had been the foreign post days, and further, the days for negotiating foreign bills on the Royal Exchange, even after there were daily mails. In the old times of residence in the City the merchant and his clerks remained at work till ten or eleven at night. On those nights he was safe to be at home, and a supper was a certain finish. On the

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THE COMMA AS A NOTE OF ELISION.-Abp. Trench, in his English Past and Present, says "The comma, an apparent note of elision, being a mere modern expedient, a late refinement,' as Ash calls it, to distinguish the genitive singular from the plural cases." What can be said of the following?

"This wretchid world'is transmutacion

As wele and wo, now pore, and now honour,
Without ordir or due discrecion,
Govirnid is by fortun'is errour."

Balade of the Village without Paintyng,
MEDWEIG.

"TU DOCES."-This is known as an inscription on a tea-chest. I have lately noticed the following account of its being so used ;

"A correspondent observing this paragraph in a newspaper, Harry Erskine, the Selwyn of Edinburgh, puzzled the wits of his acquaintance by inscribing on a tea chest the words tu doces,-observes that this pun was on the tea-chest of the Rev. John Coulson, F.R.S., above fifty years ago, when he was master of the mathe Sidney Coll., and Lucasian professor of mathematics, Cambridge," Gentleman's Magazine, vol. Ixi., pt. i., p. 259, March, 1791,

matical school at Rochester. He was after that at

ED. MARSHALL.

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2. Sir Alpha Beta, a baronet, predeceased wife, who thereupon, in her widowhood, wrote br name in books, &c., as "Aleph, Lady Beta."

3. Sir Gamma Delta, baronet, survived his wi and caused her name to be inserted in the me tuary column of the Times as Ghimel, Lady Delta, wife of Sir Gamma Delta," &c.

These instances are personally known to me Are the last two correct? I always thought th the legal designation of the widow of a baronet knight is Dame. Was Sir Gamma Delta corret Now let me ask another question respecting a point in styling his late wife "Ghimel, Lady Delta" for which I find no provision in the authentic list of precedence drawn up by the late Sir Charles G. Young, Garter. Foreigners and foreign titles are entitled to no legal precedence in England. Aleph a British subject, marries Beta, a foreign marqu count, viscount, baron, n'importe quoi." All Bet children are counts and countesses, or the like, the case may be. In the course of time Beta dia, and his widow returns to British territory with a family of counts and countesses. This lady, I take it, occupies in Great Britain the same degree to her marriage, and neither more nor less. Am of precedence to which she was entitled previously

I correct?

Athenæum Club.

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HANNAH MORE'S LIFE.-Amongst several attacks which were made upon this lady one of the most violent was the Life of Hannah More, with a Critical Review of her Writings, by the Rev. Sir Archibald Mac Sarcasm, Bart., ST., printed at Bristol 1802, pp. viii and 208. A MS. note in my copy asserts that the writer was "W. Shaw," I presume meaning the Rev. Dr. William Shaw, mentioned in Shoberl's Dictionary of Living Authors, 1816, as the writer of Suggestions on a Plan of National Education, 1801; 4 Setmon preached before the Grateful Society at Bristol, 1809; and a Visitation Sermon preached at Bedminster, 1810; and Rector of Chelvy, Somerset. Can any information be given to prove or disprove this? And is it known when Dr. W. Shaw died? I have failed to find any obituary notice of him. EDWARD SOLLY. THEODORE HOOK.-I have among my autographs the rough proof of a prospectus of a "His tory of Hanover," to be published by subscription, by Theodore Edward Hook, Esq. The correction: in the margin are in Hook's handwriting, and the proof itself was probably printed in or about 183 or 1831. "Subscriptions," it is stated, " will be received at Messrs. Herries, Farquhar & Ca Bankers, St. James's Street"; and the price the two volumes was fixed at three guineas, or f large-paper copies at five guiness. Was thi ever actually published? or was it ever complet in MS.? I do not see it mentioned in the full de197 a gino saw

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THE CASTLE OF CHILLON AND BYRON.-In Murray's handbook, Switzerland, Savoy, &c., p. 191, 1874, it is stated that "Byron's name on one of the pillars (in the castle) is a forgery: those of Shelley, Dickens, H. B. Stowe, &c., are genuine." In the Memoirs of Rev. Francis Hodgson (vol. ii. p. 116) the Rev. Henry Drury (Byron's friend) states in a letter to Hodgson, bearing date August 22, 1820, "Visited Voltaire at Ferney, Gibbon at Lausanne, and Byron at Chillon, where he has cut his name on the pillar." Now Drury visited Chillon exactly three years and eleven months after Byron, and I am inclined to think that he would have, at that time, been in a position to judge, from inquiries on the spot and internal evidences, as to the authenticity or forgery of the carving in question. Will Mr. Murray's editor be so kind as to give tourists his reasons for branding Byron's signature as a forgery? I need scarcely say that the interest (already great) of that particular pillar would be heightened by whatever evidence could be produced in favour of authenticity.

Auteuil, Paris.

RICHARD EDGCUMBE.

that the arms, Azure, a lion rampant argent, have
some reference to him. ED. GAMBIER-HOWE.
51, Earl's Court Square, S. W.

"LEGO HENRICO FILIO MEO UNAM IUPÂM DE BLÁKALYR, CUM FURRURA DE FFYCHOVS."-In the will of Roger Tremayle, of Sidbury, co. Devon, A.D. 1428, is the item, "Lego Henrico filio meo unam iupam de blakalyr, cum furrura de ffychovs." Query, the meaning of "blakalyr." G. F. W.

A MS. LIST OF IRISH SAINTS.-In a long MS. list of early Irish saints I have encountered the following names, and shall be much obliged to any of your readers who can assist me in their identification: Cerbani, Catheri, Nissæ, Muchti. F. E. WARREN.

St. John's College, Oxford.

EARLY PRINTING.-I have in my possession a copy of Peraldus de Fide et Legibus, printed at Augsburg by Ginther Zainer in the year 1469. The book is in its original binding (oak boards), and (with the exception of four leaves, which I propose to have replaced in fac-simile) is in the most excellent state of preservation. The Meditationes Vito Jesu Christi, printed by Zainer in the preceding year, is shown at the British Museum as one of the earliest productions of the printing press in Germany. Am I right in supposing that I possess a very rare work?

CHARLES STEWart, M.A.

THE "KALEIDOSCOPE," A LIVERPOOL MAGAZINE. -Some years ago I possessed, though they have now been lost, two volumes of a weekly magazine in quarto form, issued in Liverpool, styled the Kaleidoscope, taking its name presumably from COTTON OF OXENHOATH, CO. KENT.-Where the optical toy invented by Sir David Brewster in can I find an account of the descendants of William 1817. To the best of my remembrance it was Cotton, son of Thomas Cotton, of Lanwade, co. published about 1820 or 1822, and, as I have Cambridge, who married Margaret, eldest daughter heard, under the editorship of Egerton Smith, the of Sir Richard Culpepper, Sheriff of Kent, A.D. well-known founder of the Liverpool Mercury, and 1472, and who settled in Kent on the lands inlong connected with the Liberal press in that town. herited by his wife? Was there any marriage or There were in its pages many interesting miscel-connexion between the Cottons of Oxenhoath and laneous articles by different writers, and its pub- the Hornes of Horne's Place and Kenardington, lication must certainly have been one of the earliest co. Kent? experiments made of issuing a cheap popular periodical. Liverpool at that time possessed quite a coterie of literary men, as the Roscoes, Dr. Shepherd, and Dr. Currie, who perhaps might have been amongst its contributors. Egerton Smith was an active man in founding mechanics' institutes, and as an instance of his physical powers is said to have swam across the estuary of the Mersey from Liverpool to the opposite shore. How many volumes of the Kaleidoscope were issued, and how long a career did it run?

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

ARMS OF HARROW SCHOOL.-When were the arms now borne by this school first assumed? It is very improbable that they were the founder's, as John Lyon was only a yeoman; but I suppose

G. H.

"COKER" FOR "COCOA."-I have met with the spelling "coker" for "cocoa." Is there any authority for this orthography, or, I should surmise, violation of orthography?

Grammar School, Great Grimsby.

W. T. LUNDIE.

JOHN TAYLOR, THE WATER POET, was buried in the churchyard of St. Paul, Covent Garden, according to other authorities in that of St. Maraccording to the Biographia Dramatica, but

tin. Which is correct?

R. INGLIS.

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SCOTCH TERRITORIAL NAMES.-One occasionally sees in the papers the imposing names of Mackintosh of Mackintosh, Mackinnon of Mackinnon, Macgregor of Macgregor, Macleod of Macleod, MacDougall of MacDougall, &c., and these families appear so designated in The Landed Gentry. Shall I be displaying crass ignorance in asking to be enlightened as to the exact localities in which severally lie the estates of Mackintosh, Mackinnon, Macgregor, Macleod, and MacDougall, which their chieftains are "of"? I confess to having the The gravest doubts regarding their existence. origin of the surnames I have enumerated is in most cases pretty clear, although the intervening descents are not in every case evident. Macleod, of course, distinguished the son of Leod, just as, further south, the son of Jack became Jackson, but we never hear of Jackson of Jackson. Why not? ARGENT.

THE REV. JOHN STANDERWICK, RECTOR OF CATTFIELD, NORFOLK, OB. 1801.-Can you furnish me with particulars of his ancestry, and of the descent claimed by him from the family of Standerwick of Broadway, Somerset ?

Canonbury Square.

JOHN W. STANDERWICK.

SLINGSBY FAMILY.-(1) Who was the Sir Charles Slingsby, kinsman of Sir Henry, the first baronet, who was killed at the battle of Marston Moor? (2) I find the following entry among the marriages chronicled in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1735: "May 2. Edward Slingsby, Esq., of Yorkshire, to Miss Sarah Sandys Berkley, with 10,000l., and 2001. per ann." Who was this Edward? I can find neither his name nor that of the abovementioned Sir Charles in any of the printed pedigrees of the family. RUSTICUS.

TRENCHMORE. This old dance is mentioned in Barry's Ram Alley (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. 1780, vol. v. p. 454) and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Pilgrim, Act iv. sc. 3. Mr. Weber, in a note to the latter passage, refers to Selden's Table Talk under the title King of England," but on turning to the original I find the word spelt with an F, thus, "French-more." My edition of the Table Talk is the reprint of 1858 by Mr. Arber. Can any one explain?

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H. CROMIE.

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LEIGHTON FAMILY.-Did the two daughtend Sir Elias Leighton, brother of the archbish marry and leave issue? I lose sight of them? the early part of last century. Also, who was th father of Marjory Bernard, or Barnard, mother of Sir E. Leighton's wife, Mary Leslie? This Sr Elias is buried at Horsted Keynes, in Sussex, beside his brother the archbishop, and was s colonel and secretary to Prince Henry, brother SCOTUE James II. "SOLANDER" BOXES.-What is the origin this name? Is it that of the maker?

W. STAVENHAGEN JONES.

HENRY BUTLER, OF HANDLEY, Dorset.—Whe are his descendants? According to the Visitation of 1623 he was four years old at that time.

J. W. S

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MILTON AND VALLOMBROSA. (5th S. xi. 463.)

W. C.

I can undertake to answer the statement (quoted at the above reference) that Milton's passage on Vallombrosa "is founded upon a complete mistake, inasmuch as the trees at Vallombrosa are pines, which are not deciduous." I was at Vallombrosa some years ago in September. The ascent to the convent is through vast forests of chestnut trees; and inasmuch as the whole mountain is furrowed with streams, which gave to the place its original name of Bellacqua, the leaves constantly falling on these streams, and almost choking their currents, give the exact picture of the "autumnal leaves that strow the brooks." And this pheno menon was intensified by the fact that at that time of the year the peasants were engaged in beating the trees to bring down the chestnuts, and there fore "the deciduous leaves" fell in still greate abundance. I have more than once stated this public lectures as an instance of the tenacity Milton's memory in retaining, through all the vie situdes of civil war, age, and blindness, the precise recollection of what he had seen in his early youth This account of my experience of Vallombrosa wat also sent to the Guardian, in answer to the present

Dean of Chichester, who (probably from having made the ascent by a different route) had fallen into the same error as Dr. Brewer. A. P. STANLEY.

The statement that "Milton was wrong" in this most beautiful simile, because an English traveller in 1789 found only pine trees (Todd's Milton, 1801, ii. 40), is one of those stupid criticisms which may well be allowed to die away. Pine trees, as Mrs. Piozzi observed (Loudon's Arboretum, iii. 1968), do shed their leaves, and their leaves, when they fall on water, mat together and cover it in a wonderful manner. In Lauder's Gilpin (i. 101) there is a description of the fine chestnut and beech trees of the Vallombrosan Apennines, which have clearly flourished there for centuries. But

even if it could be shown that the country now is wholly devoid of trees, surely that would not prove Milton to be wrong two centuries ago. The entire vegetation of a district is often changed in a shorter period; and the criticism has hardly any more force than there would be in an attempt to prove "Shakspeare wrong" in writing,

"My Lord of Ely, when I was a lad in Holborn
I saw good strawberries in your garden there,”

for there are certainly now no strawberries to be found growing in Ely Place or Hatton Garden.

EDWARD SOLLY.

I visited Vallombrosa in the spring of 1867, in company with a son of the poet Wordsworth, and can testify to the fir, beech, and chestnut trees, and to the truth of Beckford's description of the convent as "sheltered by firs and chestnuts towering one above another." H. W.

New Univ. Club.

LONGFELLOW'S TRANSLATION OF DANTE (5th S. x. 144, 313.)- I am much obliged to S. R. for the compliment he pays me in assuming that I am capable of writing a "comparative review" of the various translations of the Divina Commedia, but I doubt my ability for the task. In the first place, I have very little acquaintance with Dante translations other than the four chief ones. There are between twenty and thirty English versions of the Divina Commedia twelve of the entire poem, and about fifteen of the Inferno alone. I have not felt it necessary, in order to read the poema sacro, to make myself acquainted with all, or nearly all, these. A translation, unless it is something so out of the common as to resemble an original work of genius, is only a help to a right understanding of one's author, and if one finds the version of that most learned professor Runkh sufficient for this purpose, there is little or no necessity to trouble oneself about the version of that more learned professor Runkhen, if I may so apply the words of Porson's rather reprehensible epigram. By the

four chief translations of the Divina Commedia I mean those by Cary, Dr. J. A. Carlyle, Pollock, and Longfellow. Without speaking dogmatically, which I have neither the wish nor the right to do, these four are the best translations of the poem I fancy most Dante students would agree that that have as yet appeared in our language. I do not mean that other versions have not merits of their own, but I do not think a reader of Dante need feel it absolutely necessary to make himself clined to think that Cary's is the first in literary acquainted with them. Of these four I am inmerit, but the least valuable for a student who wishes to rightly understand the poet. As this may seem to be a paradox, it is necessary that I should explain my meaning. Cary would be exceedingly good if one could read him simply as that Cary does not give us Dante's meaning, Cary and forget Dante. I do not mean to say but this is not enough. Cary, unfortunately as I think, evidently modelled his verse on Milton's. Now Milton in composing his great epic produced the grandest volume of harmonious sound that has been produced by any poet from Homer to Tennyson. Every critic of Milton (except Johnson, whose rhythmical ear was defective) has dwelt upon the grand music of his verse-"the majesty of melodies unsurpassed from all time," as a living writer terms it but Milton's style is quite unlike Dante's. No two things can be more dissimilar than the stately march of Milton's magnificent blank verse and the somewhat rapid movement of Dante's terza rima, which, as Mr. Carlyle says, in his Lectures on Heroes, one reads with a sort of lilt. As an instance of this let any one compare the passage in the Inferno, xiv. 28, et seq., with Cary's version of the same. The latter is very fine, not to say Miltonic, but it does not strike me as particularly Dantesque. As examples of the great literary excellence of Cary's version I may mention his renderings of Inferno, xxiv. 46-54, and Purgatorio, viii. 1-6. I do not know of two more beautiful pieces of translation in our literature than these.

I should recommend a person who was beginning the study of Dante to read the Inferno by the aid of Dr. Carlyle's prose version, and, when he has mastered this, to proceed with the Purgatorio and Paradiso by means of Longfellow's version. It is a subject of great regret with Dante students that Dr. Carlyle has never concluded his translation-perhaps I ought to say published his conclusion, because in the preface to his second edition, published in 1867, he leads his readers to suppose that the last two cantiche were at that time nearly ready for publication; but although twelve years have elapsed since then there is no sign of either the Purgatorio or the Paradiso making its appearance. It is true that Longfellow's excellent version makes the loss

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