376
NOTES AND QUERIES. [IIB.X. NOV. 7,101*.
SHERLOCK HOLMES: HIS METHODS AND
LITERARY PEDIGREE (11 S. x. 309). The
nearest approach in early literature to the
inductive method employed by Sherlock
Holmes in unravelling a mystery is, so far
as I am aware, the process which was called
by Horace Walpole " Serendipity," the
meaning of which he explains not quite
accurately to Sir Horace Mann in a
letter dated 28 Jan., 1754 :
" I once read a silly fairy-tale called ' The Three Princes of Serendip ' : as their Highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of : for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right now do you understand Serendipity 1 "
Under the heading ' Serendipity ' (9 S. xii. 430) I gave, eleven years ago, a descrip- tion of the book mentioned by Walpole, of which I have a copy in my possession. It is exceedingly scarce, and the late MR. EDWARD SOLLY (5 S. x. 98) said he had not been able to find one after a five years' search, and that he only knew of it from a contemporary bookseller's advertisement. By an inductive process the eldest prince discovered that the camel not a mule, as stated by Walpole had but one eye, the second found out that it was lame, and the third that it was deficient in a tooth. That the story has an Oriental origin I have little doubt, though I have not yet met with it in Eastern literature. On the title-page of the little volume, which was published in 1722, it is stated that it was translated from the Persian into French, and thence into English.
Since I wrote my former paper I have come into possession of a book which is, I should think, even rarer than the English one. It is entitled :
" Peregrinnagio | di Tre Giovani | Figlivoli del Re | di Serendippo. | Per Opra di M. Christofpro | Anneno dalla Persiana nelT Italiana | lingua trappostato."
The rest of the title-page is taken up with the printer's device and motto and the " privilegio." On f. 83 is the colophon : " In Venetia per Michele Tramezzino.
M D LXXXim."
Ths book, it will be seen, was printed in 1584, but the " privilege " of Pope Julius III. is dated 1555, and the permission to print 25 June, 1557. The dedication to Marc' Antonio Giustiniano, Procurator of St. Mark, is dated 1 Aug., 1557, and on referring to Brunet, sub voce ' Armeno,' I find that the first edition was printed in that year. My
copy belongs to the second edition, while
succeeding ones appeared in 1611, 1622, and
1628, and an edition was printed in Turin
so recently as 1828.
A French translation appeared in 1719 under the following title : " Le Voyage et les Aventures des trois Princes de Serendip, traduit du persan, par le Chevalier de Mailly . ' Paris, Prault.
According to Brunet the book was trans- lated into German, Dutch, English, and Danish. The English translation was, at any rate, probably translated from the French, while the French was taken from the Italian. The whole structure of the story, however, is Oriental, and the period of two centuries by which, as I remarked in my former paper, "the feats of Mr. Sherlock Holmes were anticipated may certainly be extended by a century and a half.
W. F. PRIDEAUX.
PERIODICALS PUBLISHED BY RELIGIOUS HOUSES (11 S. x. 250, 317). In reply to PEREGRINUS, I beg to say that the following periodicals are issued from Ampleforth Abbey :
The Ampleforlh Journal, a record of events connected with Ampleforth College and alumni, preceded by literary articles and reviews on subjects religious, classical, historical, poetical, &c., with pen illustrations. First published 1
The Benedictine Almanac and Guide to the Abbeys, Schools, Missions, and Monks of the English Benedictine Congregation, with photographs, his- torical notes, and calendar.
THE REV. SEC. FOR PUBLICATIONS, O.S.B. Ampleforth Abbey, Malton, Yorkshire.
BAKER OF ASHCOMBE (11 S. x. 270, 333). If reference is made to The London Gazette for 1802, it will be seen that in the notification of his creation as baronet, 2 Sept., 1802, Edward Baker Littlehales is described as "of Ashcombe, co. Sussex, and Wembley, co. Middlesex."
He was the eldest son of Baker John Littlehales, and grandson of Joseph Little- hales, by his wife Elizabeth Baker; and inheriting the estate of Ranston, co. Dorset, on the death in 1815-16 of his father's first cousin, Peter William Baker, M.P. for Corfe Castle, he assumed by royal licence (dated 6 Jan., 1817) the surname of Baker in lieu of his patronymic. He was in the Army, and it was for military and civil service that he was created a baronet. He was not a proprietor of any extensive acreage until he inherited Ranston. r &.
F. DE H. L.
