Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES. ins. XL JAN. 9, 191 5.


glass or bezil, and long trunk cases." They were nearly always fitted with pendulums of seconds' length. The cases were usually lacquered in gold on a black or dark-green ground.

In ' N. & Q.,' 1 S. xi. 145, is a record of a, receipt, dated 10 April, 1798, for a half- year's taxes due from a farmer in Essex, in which occurred : " For clocks and watches,


.5s.


ROLAND AUSTIN.


FARTHING VICTORIAN STAMPS (11 S. x. 489). I would suggest that MB. CECIL OWEN'S memory is at fault in this matter, and that the stamps which he used to buy " in the eighties " were the first issue of the halfpenny variety. I remember these very well as being half the size of the ordinary penny stamp, and as being primarily intended for the postage of newspapers, the rate on which had recently been reduced to one halfpenny. The issue of these small and inconveniently sized stamps soon came to an end. WM. H. PEET.

[L. L. K. thanked for reply.]

SCHAW OF SAUCHIE (11 S. x. 488). If MB. W. D. KEB will turn up Nisbet's ' Heraldry,' vol. i. p. 422 (edition 1816), he will see the pedigree of this family set forth till it merged into that of Sir John Shaw of Greenock. This line also merged by marriage into that of Stewart of Blackball, whereof the present representative is Sir Hugh Shaw Stewart of Greenock and Blackball, eighth baronet. HEBBEBT MAXWELL.

MOUBNING LETTEB-PAPEB AND BLACK-

BOBDEBED TlTLE-PAGES (4 S. iv. 390 ; 11 S.

x. 371, 412, 454, 496). I can cite a much earlier example of the use of printed black borders in memorial pamphlets than any of those already quoted. This is a funeral elegy upon the death of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales and son of James I. The title as given below is in white characters on a black ground, and the verso of each of the sixteen leaves bears a cut of the Boyal arms (in the case of the last leaf a cut of the arms of the Prince of Wales) on a similar black ground. The text is printed on the recto of the leaves, and at the head and foot of each page of text are broad fclack bands measuring about 1 in. and in. respectively, with cuts of skeletons at each side as supporters :

[Royal arms] Lachrimaj Lachrimarvm | or | The Distillation | of Teares | Shede | For the

vntymely Death | of 1 The incomparable Prince | Panaretvs [i.e., Henry Frederick, Prince of

Wales]. | by loshua Syluester. | (The | Princes


Epitaph, | Written By His Highn. | seruant, Walter Qvin. | Idem in obitum eiusdem Sere- | nissimi Principis. | Stances du mesme Autheur sur | le mesme sujet. I Del medesimo sopra il me- | dsimo Suggetto | Sonetto.)

[Colophon] London, \ Printed by Humfrey Lownes. \ 1612. 4to, ff. [16].

The copy from which the above descrip- tion is taken, and a copy of a third edition (1613) printed in the same way, are in the John Rylands Library. HENBY GUPPY.

The John Rylands Library, Manchester.

I have an octavo pamphlet of sixteen pages which, though not a funeral sermon jn the literal eense, has the title-page en- closed in a deep black border :

A Layman's Lamentation on the Thirtieth of January ; For the Horrid, Barbarous, and Never to be Forgotten Murder of King Charles the First, of Ever Blessed Memory London, 1710."

The following sentence is placed textwise at the head of p. 1 :

" To Murder Charles the Martyr is a Crime not to be named without Horrour, nor thought on without a Tear."

W. B. H.

" MAGNA EST VEBITAS ET (?) " (11 S. x. 389, 494). Apropos of this discussion, and more especially of PBOF. BENSLY'S note as to the effective ditrochaeus of " praevalebit," I recall a story which I heard told by Dr. Mansel, Dean of St. Paul's, many years ago in Oxford, when he was Fellow of St. John's. It was at one of the early meetings of the Canning Club, and some reference had been made to the adage in question. Mansel recalled how, at a meeting of town councillors (I think) in some provincial town, one of them had wound up and enforced his remarks with " Magna est veritas et prseva- 16bit." The next speaker was not to be outdone, and expressed hi- hope that Veritas would not only " prevail a bit," but prevail always and altogether. S. R. C.

Precincts, Canterbury.

THE PBINCESS AND THE CBUMPLED ROSE- LEAF (11 S. x. 489). EMEBITUS is confusing the gibe against the Sybarites, who were so luxurious that a crumpled rose-leaf in heir couches disturbed their rest, with the story of a maiden in the pleasant land of fairy-tale who proved herself to be a proper princess by being painfully conscious of a parched pea which had been put in her bed under twenty mattresses and twenty-four eider- down coverings, to test her royal sensitive- ness. The tale is told by Hans Christian


Andersen.


ST. SWITHIN.