326
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. xn. OCT. 23, 1915.
.metal exhibits from Pompeii at the National
Museum, Naples, could not be improved
upon in these times ; and many neat little
contrivances which one had thought were
the subject-matter of modern patents
(perhaps they are !), were seen there in age-
marked bronze dating from the first cen-
tury. I remember especially a collapsible
stand for a large circular tray, which could
l^e instantly adjusted to take any sized
circular tray, and I defy any modern
inventor or maker to improve upon
this simple and convenient design.
Equally well do I remember the neat little
sets of surgical instruments in metal cases
with slip-on covers, the instruments having
metal handles. For the most part they
seemed to be scalpels and probes, and of
their kind looked as if they were as good as
they could be ; but I do net remember any-
thing like the variety that one sees at a
surgical instrument maker's nowadays, nor
were there instruments so complex as some
of the modern ones.
Door - fittings, locks, bolts, lamps, and many other such metal articles oi exquisite design and workmanship were also to be seen in profusion.
ALFBED S. E. ACKEBMANN.
HEBALDBY OF LICHFIELD CATHEDBAL <11 S. x. 467 ; xi. 12). Do the following suggest anything ?
Gu., a cinquefoil erm. Roger, Bishop of St. Andrew 1188.
Or, a lion ramp. gu. John, Bishop of Dunkeld 1203 ; Cherlton, Bishop of Here- ford 1327 ; Blethin, Bishop of Llanaffd 1575.
See the ' Blazon of Episcopacy.'
LEO C.
CAPT. JAMES KING (US. xii. 160, 288). In a small collection cf short biographies of 'Lancashire Worthies,* garnered by the late Francis Espinasse, is an account cf Capt. James King, the companion of Capt. Cook in the third and last of his voyages. King was born in Clitheroe in 1750, at which place his father was the curate. James King had four brothers. One of them, Thomas, became a prebendary of Canterbury, and Walker King, another brother, was a friend and executor of Edmund Burke, and died Bishop of Rochester; his other brothers filled offices of distinction. The father removed to Ireland on his becoming Dean of Raphoe, but sent his sons to schools in England, and the frequent crossings to and from
I Ireland appear to have stimulated and
j developed a taste for a seafaring life in
I James. He entered the Navy as a midship-
I man, leaving it after twelve years' service
with the rank of lieutenant. He then pro-
ceeded to Paris to perfect himself in the
French language and to study science ; he
next appears at Oxford (Corpus Christi),
working energetically at mathematics and
astronomy, and earning the commendations
of his professors.
For Capt. Cook's expedition of 1776 some one was required who was qualified and competent to superintend the astronomical section of it, and for this post the Professor of Astronomy at Oxford (Dr. Hornsby) recommended his industrious pupil James King. The appointment gave mutual satis- faction, and to King the opportunity to distinguish himself, which he aid. His early death was hastened by his intense zeal and laborious exertions in the pursuit of his duties. He died in the 34th year of his age, in October, 1784, at Nice, and was buried there.
In the same expedition John Webber was appointed official draughtsman ; he was a Royal Academician, and considered a talented artist. He was employed by the Admiralty to superintend the production of the engravings, by Bartolozzi and other artists, of the drawings he had made of the various scenes and events that had occurred in the course of the voyage, and in this way would come about the portrait of King.
RlCHABD LAWS ON. Urmston.
[See also the 'D.N.B.']
BISSEXTUS (11 S. xii. 281). Evidence that the intercalated day in leap year was thought unlucky by the Romans is supplied by Gibbon. He*is speaking of Valentinian I., chosen emperor February, 364 A.D. :
" The invitation of the ministers and generals at Nice was of little moment, unless it were con- firmed by the voice of the army. . . .Yet such was the prevalence of ancient superstition, that a whole day was voluntarily added to this dangerous interval because it happened to be the intercala- tion of the Bissextile."' Decline and Fall,' chap. xxv.
The words of Gibbon's authority, Am- mianus Marcellinus, are :
" Qui cum venisset accitus,. . . .nee videri die secundo, nee prodire in medium yoluit, bis- sextum vitans Februarii mensis tune illucescens, quod aliquoties rei Romance fuisse dignorat infaustum." xxvi. 1, 7.
Samuel Pitiscus, in his ' Lexicon Anti- quitatum Romanarum,' 2 vols. folio, Leeu- warden, 1713, s.v. ' Bissextilis,' after
