A sexton and a grave physician Probably, as a modern equivalent, undertaker is best. Another paraphrase of the epigram may be allowable : A doctor and an undertaker made A treaty firm of friendship and of trade. What linen Damon from the dead could lift Krateas had, for bandages, as gift, And recommended, as each patient died, That Damon should the funeral provide. Their friendship grew from more to more, Since every death increased their double store. In none of the varying forms to be found in Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta' is there any hint of a distinctive circumstance mentioned by the Opium-Eater, namely, that the doctor was only to receive half of the stolen linen. It might not be a bad exercise for the ingenuity of a casuist to determine how far this modern variation of the form of contract is either commendable or permissible. The patients in the condition in which Krateas transmitted them to Damon were of no further professional avail, and there was thus no extra generosity on his side in parting with them in totality, whereas Damon sent linen which he could easily have sold to some member of the general public, or perhaps even have made the basis of a second bargain with one of the medical rivals of Krateas, and thus have paved the way for greater professional gains on his own part. Perhaps no one but De Quincey could have adequately discussed and moderated the contending claims of friendship and self-interest in an ethical problem so intricate as this. WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Moss Side, Manchester. "RANDOM OF A SHOT."-In 'N. & Q.,' 3rd S. iv. 183; vi. 57, the late PROF. A. DE MORGAN drew attention to the curious change that the word random has undergone since its first introduction into English, "to fire at a random" (or, rather, randon) having the opposite meaning to the modern "to fire at random.") (See also Skeat's 'Etym. Dict.' s.v. 'Random.') Again, in 'N. & Q.,' 4th S. iv. 435 a correspondent asks the etymology of random, and adds : : "Webster and others maintain that it is derived from the Norman-French randun. I should rather imagine the origin of the word to be the Dutch and Flemish rond om, round about." Now, whatever be the origin of random in its modern sense, and of the older randon, An earlier example of the phrase is given in Pringle's 'Diary and Consultation Book of the President Governor and Council at Fort St. George, 1685,' p. 170, where, in articles of agreement entered into by the East India Company with certain Sumatran princes, and signed 20 January, 1684, we read: "That we doe hereby give and grant unto the Honble East India Comp and their Successours for every [sic] y° Quella or Sea Port Townes of Priaman and Ticou and two myles of ground or ye Randome of a Shott from a p of Ornance [sic] next about and Round ye Towne, for their sole and propper use and Possession." I have found no other instances of this phrase, and I cannot quote any direct equivalent for it in Dutch; but the following bear on the subject. In 1640, having taken the fort of Galle, in Ceylon, from the Portuguese, the Dutch addressed to the King of Kandy & letter in which they made various requests, among others for some villages or gardens lying around the fortress, in order to obtain of war allows us to enjoy the aforesaid priviprovisions for the garrison, "since the rule lege as far as our cannon-balls can reach" ("sooverre onse canoncogels connen affreycken "). In the king's reply (as translated into Dutch) the expressions are used, "sooverre een groff canonschoot can reycken," and "sooverre een canonschoot conde toedragen." It will be seen that there is no use in any of these cases of the word rondom; but perhaps some reader of N. & Q.' who is a better Dutch scholar than I am can quote an example of its use in this connexion. Croydon. DONALD FERGUSON. other side of the river, nearly opposite the Shelley Tradusse in versi immortali L'elegia in morte di John Keats The misspelling of the poet's name is curious, and Giorgio Gordon Noel Byron I do not give the whole, as the above shows what I want to discuss. MR. PICKFORD says that the book is not one of any great rarity or value. Then, if so, what are those ugly lines for? If, however, it is necessary to show each line of a title, why cannot it be done without this disfigurement? Why will not this do? "Oxford and Cambridge, Nuts to Crack: or, Quips, Quirks, Anecdotes, and Facetiæ, of, Oxford and Cam-" I have copied all the capital letters, though I a comma reversed would answer all At present it seems quite impossible for bibliographers (here meant for people who make lists of books) to adopt a more simple style of printing. It is all left to the printer, who takes the bookseller's catalogue for his sample. In The Encyclopædia of Sport,' now publishing, the paragraphs entitled Byron occupied the piano nobile, or first floor, of the Palazzo Lanfranchi, and Leigh Hunt occupied the ground floor with his wife and family of "intractable children," as Byron called them, in 1822, and wrote there the 'Legend of Florence.' Leigh Hunt complained of being relegated to the ground" Bibliography" are, to my eye, printed in the floor, which in Italian palaces was usually occupied by servants, forgetting that he paid no rent and that Byron had defrayed the cost of the furniture of the rooms reserved for him, besides advancing him 400l. to defray the cost of transferring himself and family to Italy (Corr. of Leigh Hunt,' i. 188). The practice by the Pisan municipality of specifying the date when the house was occupied by the person commemorated is worthy of imitation by the South Kensington authorities, in preference to the blunt announcement that So-and-so, born such a year, died such a year, lived there, which we see inscribed on some London house fronts. JOHN HEBB. BIBLIOGRAPHY.-I shall be glad to know about what time the very ugly style of dividing title-page information was first used, and what technical book mentions it, and what is the object of showing on what lines the words of a title come. These questions occur to me from reading a note of MR. JOHN PICKFORD at 8th S. xii. 226, where he gives this title: "Oxford and Cambridge | Nuts to Crack: or, Quips, Quirks, Anecdotes, and Facetiæ of | Oxford and Cam-" most detestable manner, and so are all the so-called bibliographies I have lately seen, though I admit they look better than MR. PICKFORD'S copy of the title, which is hopelessly ruined. The only thing I can compare this style of printing to is broken glass bottles on the top of a brick wall. RALPH THOMAS. It THEATRICAL OBSERVANCE OF THE ANGELUS IN SPAIN.-The following passage is quoted from an article entitled Observations made in a Journey through Spain, by a Private English Gentleman," to be found in the Hibernian Magazine for August, 1778. seems to me worthy of preservation in the columns of 'N. & Q.,' as I have never remarked the old stage custom dealt with. Apropos work on the theatre any allusion to of the performance of the new tragedy 'The Death of Alexis; or, the Pattern of Chastity,' the writer says: in any Everything in this country must have the air the representation of the piece just mentioned I of devotion, or rather superstition; even during heard a bell ring, and immediately all the spectators fell upon their knees. The comedians set the example, and the two actors who were upon the stage in the middle of the scene stopped, moved their lips, and muttered some words in a whisper with the rest of the people. This ceremony over, they all got up, and the play went on. On inquiring I was told that this was an office of devotion called the Angelus, which I believe none but the Spaniards would have thought of performing at such a time and in such a place. But the mystery of the farce is that a certain convent enjoys the privilege of this transitory devotion, and a deputation of the friars, who receive money for it at the door (under pretext of relieving the poor), by this method share part of the profits of the theatre. This deduction from their revenue excepted, the comedians enjoy the same rights as the rest of the citizens. They do not live excommunicated, as in France, nor are they denied the funeral service at their death; but they do not erect monuments to their memory, as in England." The italics are mine. W. J. LAWRENCE. "SYBRIT" AND BANNS IN LATIN.-In Thomas Haywood's English History and Merlin's Prophecies occurs the following passage, describing the ceremonies at the coronation of Queen Mary : "Then six Bishops went to the place prepared for the Nuptiall Ceremony, the King standing on the left hand and she on the right. Then the Lord Chancellour asked the Bands [sic] betwixt them, first in Latin and then in English.' "There [i. e., at Nottingham] Mortimer was seized going to bed to Queen Isabel [wife to Edw. II.), by the King and his friends who were brought into the Castle by torchlight thrô a secret way under ground, beginning far of [off] from the said Castle till they came even to the Queens Bedchamber; by these words of Stow it is plain that the hollow Entrance on the top of the Rock on the South side of the Castle is very ignorantly called by some, Mortimer's Hole; The place always show'd for Mortimer's Hole when I was a boy [i. e., between 1692 and 1700] was on the left side of the way to Lenton in a narrow bottom between two hilly Rocks upon one of which (almost over against opposite to] the great Yard of the Castle to the North) there stands a poor Cottage sometime an Alehouse, it is a little way before the Entrance into the Park along the foot way to Lenton. Mortimer was carried to London and hang'd on ye Com'on Gallows at the Elmes [Tyburn], where he hung by the Kings [Edw. III.] Order 2 days and 2 nights [in 1330]. = "As to Mortimers hole My Friend Mr Athorpe Counsell at Law in Nott: is of another Opinion he is very positive, that the hollow passage on the South side of the Rock, which goes down to a Spring-Well in Brewhouse Yard now com❜only called Mortimer's hole, is the Real one; and that it always was called so. me I have not seen Haywood's book, but give the reference and quotation from the letter of a friend, who had been discussing with the etymology of the East Anglian word sybrit, or sibbit, the local word, still in use, for banns. It has more than once been contended that this word is derived from some old Latin formula, si quis sciet, or the like. I shall be very glad if any reader of 'N. & Q' can supply a Latin form of banns. Nall has a long note on the word sybrit, and scoffs at Moor's derivation "from the beginning of the banns, as they used to be published in Latin, si quis sciverit." Nall, commenting on this, says : "Later on, in his appendix [to 'Suffolk Words and Phrases,' 1823], Moor admits, with compunctious visitings, the sad downfall of his exultation over this happy etymology. On consulting the Latin liturgies no such passage could be found." Norwich. JAMES HOOPER. [Is not the correct title of this work of Thomas Heywood The Life of Merlin, surnamed Ambrosius: his Prophecies and Predictions interpreted and their Truth made good by our English Annals'?] MORTIMER'S HOLE, NOTTINGHAM.-As the extract below, which refers to an interesting matter of English history, elucidates some doubts on the subject, I have deemed it worthy to be enshrined in N. & Q.' The Rev. John Lambe, M.A., of Clare Hall, Cambridge, rector of Ridly, co. Kent, and schoolmaster of Southwell, co. Nottingham, There are large Remains in Nott. Park near the Lene River, of a Religious house cut all out of the Rock underground so that Cattle feed upon it, and now and then are in danger of Slipping their feet It was as appears by into the Chimney Tops. several Rooms still remaining, certainly a large place, but Dugdale and Thoroton say nothing of it and I can find no account of it, but I Suppose it to have been a Cell to the Great Priory of Lenton." W. I. R. V. A PSEUDO-DICKENS ITEM.-In the excellently compiled 'Dictionary of Authors' (recently published by Mr. George Redway) the author has inserted in the bibliography under 'Dickens, Charles,' the following entry among the introductions, prefaces, &c., for which the novelist was responsible: "Methods of Employment, 1852." To one who, like myself, has a special acquaintance with the subject of Dickens's writings, this seems a strange theme to be associated with the author of 'Pickwick,' and, desiring to ascertain upon what foundation the alleged authorship is based, I examined the Catalogue in the British Museum Reading - Room, with the result that I there discovered the work in question duly recorded (press-mark 787 a. 43). This little production is a 12mo. pamphlet of thirty-seven pages, the full title of which reads as follows: Methods of Employment. Being an Exposure of the unprincipled schemers, who, through the means ! of Advertisements, profess to give Receipts by which industrious persons of either sex may realize from 1. to 5., and even 107. per week. With Remarks by Charles Dickens, Esq. London: Printed and Published for the Author, by H. Elliot, 475, New Oxford Street. 1852. Price Fourpence. The "Remarks" consist of a lengthy quotation (extending from pp. 7 to 10 inclusive) from an anonymously-written article in No. 104 of Household Words (20 March, 1852), entitled 'Post-Office Money Orders.' That this was not written by Dickens is conclusively proved by the fact that it is reprinted in a collection of papers entitled 'Old Leaves: gathered from Household Words' (1860), the author of these being Mr. W. H. Wills. It is, perhaps, worthy of remark that the preface to 'Methods of Employment' bristles with errors in orthography. I conjecture that Dickens's name was "writ large upon the title-page in order that public attention might be directed to this curious production, as was the case with regard to other pamphlets, referred to in my article published in the Athenæum, 11 September, 1897. F. G. KITTON. "COLLEY THUMPER."--In Mr. A. P. Hillier's recently published 'Raid and Reform' the following passage introduces and explains the curious term "Colley Thumper,' perhaps it deserves a corner in our everbeloved N. & Q.' : show his ignorance, and reluctantly relinquished the stakes. The game then proceeded, until at length the Englishman found himself in possession of a pair of deuces, a four, a seven, and a nine. Betting went on freely until the stakes were raised to 5007. The Englishman again called, and the Englishman, mine is a "Colley Thumper." True," Yankee put down a straight. 'Ah,' said the joyful said the American, but you forget the rules. It only counts once in an evening.' JAMES HOOPER. "MOULDY."-Walking on the Finchley Road a few years ago, I was pestered by a lot of ragged urchins with the not more tempting than musical invitation, "Throw out your mouldy coppers." In Mr. Farmer's 'Slang and its Analogues' a "mouldy 'un" is said to be a penny; similar information is given in the Dictionary of Slang' of Messrs. Barrère and Leland. In Douglas Jerrold's Rent Day,' however, Toby Heywood says: "If my uncle had made me a ploughman instead of a mongrel scholar, I might have had a mouldy guinea or two" (Act I. sc. i.). This looks as hoarded. It seems worthy of the attention if mouldy had been in use in the sense of of the editor of the 'Dialect Dictionary' over whose new honours I rejoice. 66 99 66 the sense of "completely," "DOWN TO THE GROUND."-This phrase, in utterly," seems and to be now regarded as slang; but it was once classical English. It is to be found in our Authorized Version, Judges xx. 21, 25, and one is glad to see that the Revisers have not been frightened from retaining it. He [Mr. Barnato] took the keenest interest in our welfare, and undoubtedly used every influence he possessed to expedite our release. But when once inside the gates of the prison the lifelong habit of banter almost invariably came over him, and many were the little jokes he scored at our expense, and many the stories he told. On one occasion, when making somewhat caustic reference to the whole movement which had placed us there, and including Rhodes, Jameson, Reform Committee, and every one else connected with the movement in his strictures, he remarked that we had all tried to play a game of poker with the Transvaal Government on a 'Colley Thumper' hand. The term was a new one, and we asked him what he meant by a *Colley Thumper.' In explanation he told the following story: An English traveller with a not very extensive knowledge of poker found himself on one occasion engaged in a game with an astute old Yankee on board an American steamer. Playing cautiously, the Englishman did pretty well, until he suddenly found himself, to his great satisfaction, in possession of a full hand. The players alternately doubled the stakes until they were raised to 100. The Englishman then called the American's hand, and the American deliberately put down a pair of deuces, a four, a seven, and a nine. The Englishman, with a triumphant smile, put down his full hand, and proceeded to gather up the stakes. Stop,' said the Yankee, the stakes are mine; yours is only a full hand, mine is a " Colley Thumper"; it beats everything. The Englishman had never heard of such a hand before, but he determined not to HAPHAZARD. IRISH TROOPS at the FIRST Crusade, 1097. I see that Tasso, in his 'Jerusalem Delivered,' bk. i. st. 44, after saying that William (Rufus, I suppose), "the younger son of the monarch," conducted a body of English archers to the Crusade, mentions a number of Irish troops who also went to Jerusalem. I will insert the whole passage from Hoole's translation :- More numerous was the British squadron shown be excused for writing that William went to Can this be an historical fact? Tasso may the Crusade when we know that he stayed at home, but how could he make the mistake when he enumerates the different nations who went to capture Jerusalem? In st. 38 the poet had already alluded to Robert of Normandy and his followers. I have never read that in the time of our four Norman kings there was any communication between Richard Cromwell, once Lord Protector, England and Ireland except, as Freeman given in the English Historical Review for tells us, the consecration of some Irish bishops January, the following lines occur in the by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This is a fifth letter:-subject that ought to have some interest for your readers. I will not insert William of Malmesbury's reference to the Scotch who also went to the Crusade; it is rather too DOMINICK BROWNE. coarse. "CULAMITE."-This is said to be a term used for a Wesleyan in Lincolnshire. In Thompson's Hist. of Boston' (1856), p. 703, the term is said to have been specially applied to a Methodist of the New Connexion, and to have been originally "Kilhamite," from Mr. Alexander Kilham, one of the founders of that sect. Can any one who knows tell me whether the above explanation is correct? THE EDITOR OF THE 'ENGLISH DIALECT DICTIONARY.' The Clarendon Press, Oxford. "DEWARK." - This word is used in the neighbourhood of Keighley (Yorkshire) to express two-thirds of an acre, an exact measure of land. Is the word common in other localities? I suggest "day's work as a probable source. The ground is hilly and stony, so that the "dewark" represents fairly accurately the amount of land that a man could plough in a day. Keighley. FRED. G. ACKERLEY. RIFLED FIREARMS.-If my memory is not deceptive there is an old rifled cannon in the fine collection of arms preserved in the Arsenal at Bern, and I believe that weapons of similar make exist in other museums. What was the term used to describe them before "rifled" came into vogue? Was it "wreathed"? In the correspondence of "Your brother wrote for the little gun, he may have it, but I thinck it is not so propper for shott it being a wreathed barrell as for a single bullet, wth wch he will not venture to shoote at a Pheasant." Could this "wreathed barrell" have been anything but "rifled"? G. W. "THE LITTLE MAN OF KENT."-Who was "the Little Man of Kent"? I have an engraving, rather larger than a cabinet photograph, of a half-length figure of a very curly; headed boy, in white shirt, thrown open and turned over at the neck, his hands folded in front of him; a stormy sky and landscape in the background. It bears the above inscription, and was "published March 17th, 1795, by Joseph Singleton, No. 1, Harvey's Buildings, Strand." No artist's name is mentioned. I should be grateful for information as to the history of this portrait. EVELYN M. WOOLWARD. Belton, Grantham. ELIZABETHAN DIALOGUES ON THE GOVERNMENT OF WALES.-In a 'Dialogue of the Present Government of Wales,' written in 1594 by George Owen, the historian of Pembrokeshire, reference is made by one of the a "little written speakers, Demetus, to pamphelett," which he is represented as reading at the time, and which is further and Phylomatheus touching the government described as a little dialogue between Bryto and reformation of Wales, but chiefly it noteth the disorders and abuses thereof." Though Demetus makes no quotations from the "pamphelett," the foregoing description of it should be amply sufficient for its identification, if either the original MS. or a transcript of it has been preserved to the present day. Is it still extant? Is it referred to or quoted by any other writer than George Owen ? D. LLEUFER THOMAS. Swansea. ་ HAMMERSLEY'S BANK.-I believe it is stated in Ward's History of the Borough of Stokeupon-Trent' that William Spode assumed the name of Hammersley. Your readers are probably acquainted with the curious financial history of Hammersley's Bank, Pall Mall, as narrated in Daniel Hardcastle's 'Banks and Bankers,' 1842-how it was started by Thomas Hammersley, a clerk in the house of Herries & Co., who prevailed upon Messrs. Morland & Ramsbottom to set up a new bank with him, afterwards dissolving partnership, only |