106
NOTES AND QUERIES. cu s. i. FEB. 5, 1910.
chronicling in ' N. & Q.' It may be. re-
membered that in ' Death and Dr. Horn
book ' a midnight reveller, tortuously wending
his homeward way, suddenly meets at a
lonely corner a strange figure, who announces
in appalling tones that his name is Death
This prompts a valiant retort in these terms
Quoth I, "Guid faith, Ye 're maybe come to stap my breath ;
But tent me, billie I rede ye weel, tak' care o' skaith,
See, there 's a gully."
The meaning of this is, " It may be that you are come to stop my breath ; " but observe me, lad, I counsel you to beware of harm ; see, there 's a clasp-knife.'* The roistering inebriate, brimful of Dutch courage, indicates his readiness to act in self-defence, and to use for his purpose the one lethal weapon immediately at command. His grim inter- locutor meets his threat with contemptuous indifference, bidding him put up his "whittle," or knife, as its appearance has absolutely no weight with him :
"Guidman," quo' he, "put up your whittle, I 'm no designed to try its mettle ;
I wadna mind it, no, that spittle
Out-owre my beard."
It would appear that the " transatlantic anthologist," unravelling this passage, in- timates that the gully to which the spectral intruder is referred is not a knife at all, but a feature of the landscape. In his own words, as reported by his disciple, it represents " an adjacent ravine down which the Poet intended to hurl the Enemy of Mankind." As an example in the art of extravagant commentary this, certainly, would be hard to surpass. It would be interesting to hear from its author or his Scottish representative what he makes of the "whittle," and how he supposes " a ravine " could be disposed of by " the Poet n within the recesses of his raiment. THOMAS BAYNE.
OLDEST POSTMASTER IN ENGLAND. The death of Mr. William Kenward, of Wivels- field, near Hayward's Heath, removes the oldest postmaster in the country. He was in his eighty-ninth year, and was postmaster for sixty-three years. In his early years he used to collect and deliver letters in a cart drawn by dogs. The villagers having letters to post were in the habit of placing them in their windows, and Mr. Kenward notified his arrival by sounding a horn. His wife, who is the recognized assistant at the post office, is in her ninety-first year. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.
JOHN MURRAY AND MEDICAL BOOKS.
I do not find in the index of Smiles' s * A
Publisher and his Friends J any reference
to the fact that the first John Murray pub-
lished a good many medical books. The
fifth edition (and probably earlier ones) of
Robert Hooper's ' Anatomist's Vade-Mecum/
1804, bore the imprint of John Murray, 32,
Fleet Street. Bell & Bradfute of Edinburgh,
and Gilbert & Hodges of Dublin, were
associated with him on the title-page, but
probably only as his agents. This little
book contains a list of eight other books
more or less relating to medical science,
" printed for John Murray.' 1 There is also
the following curious notice :
"Gentlemen residing in the country or abroad, surgeons in the navy and army, &c., may be imme- diately supplied with any work relating to medical science, upon addressing a line to J. Murray, No. 32, Fleet Street, London, where students, &c., may receive every information respecting the various lectures which are delivered at different seasons in the metropolis."
W. ROBERTS.
FLYING MAN : EARLY INSTANCE AT FLORENCE. One of the highly artistic bas-reliefs on the exterior of the exquisite Campanile by Giotto, near the Duomo at Florence, illustrates this subject. In the sunk hexagonal panel is the figure of a man flying, to the right. His head is like a camel's, with the straps across it to hold the bit. His body is naked, but covered with scales. Attached to his back are two large eagle wings, reaching as far as his ankles. At the top of the inside of each wing is a sort of handle, which he grasps, 'and so is able to flap them. Below his feet is a small object which looks like a parachute. It is curious as giving the thirteenth-century idea of a flying man.
I saw a copy of it, apparently from a photograph, in a recent United States news- paper. D. J.
" SAKE,'* ? TO KILL. So says Halliwell, and such seems the meaning in the sub- joined quotation, c. 1300-25, ' Kyng Alis- aunder (Weber), 1. 1884 :
Heom to sakyn heo gon calle, So bocher the hog in stalle.
Apparently this peculiar use has, with the quotation, escaped the notice of the readers for the ' N.E.D.* H. P. L.
PRINTERS OF THE STATUTES IN THE SIX- TEENTH CENTURY. A number of interesting patents granting monopolies of printing are
- iven by Dugdale in his ' Origines Juri-
diciales, 1 p. 59 et seq.
