Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/132

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [u s. in. FEB. is, 1911.


Their Mechanism surpasses everything that has ever appeared, insomuch that it may be strictly said that they will speak for themselves

2. Friday, 12 April :

Mr. Jaquet Droz's Mechanical Exhibition is to be seen daily, Saturdays and Sundays excepted, between the hours of Twelve and Three in the Day, and between Seven and Ten in the Evening, at his Room, No. 6, in King Street, Co vent Garden. It con- sists of a Variety of Automatons, particularly one Figure that Draws with Accuracy and Correctness clivers Subjects, particularly the Portrait of the King and Queen, esteemed a very strong Likeness ; another writes any words dictated by the Company. There is also a Pastoral piece, consisting of a great

Variety of Figures

Admittance Five Shillings.

3. Monday, 25 November :

Mr. Jaconet Droz's Mechanical Exhibition is now

opened at No. 6, in King Street, Covent Garden

It consists of various Automatic Figures, resembling Nature in all their Attitudes, Motions, and Opera- tions in a surprising Manner. Many pieces are added this Season which were never exhibited before

If one or two persons should chuse an Exhibition for themselves, they may have it for a Guinea.

N.B. Mr. Jaquet Droz has constructed Hands for a Person born with Stumps only. They are con- trived in such a Manner, that, from the Strength as well as the Flexibility of the various joints, he can use the Knife or Fork or manage the Reins in riding or driving, and even write with great Free- dom. Mr. Jaquet Droz natters himself that he can very materially assist many Persons who have lost any of their Limbs or are lame from Weakness in their Joints.

HORACE BLEACKLEY.

SIR JOHN MUNDY. MB. P. D. MUNDY

states at 11 S. i. 403 that Sir John Mundy, Mayor of London, was knighted in 1529. The true date is 1523, as given in my ' Alder- men of London,' p. 47. He is described as "Miles" in the lists of Aldermen present 21 Sept., 1523, 21 Sept., 1524, and 5 Oct., 1526. Like other Mayors of that period, he was knighted during his year of office. There is an earlier date than any of the above in which he appears as a knight in the City records, viz., 12 March, 1522/3 (Letter-Book 1ST, fo. 225). ALFRED B.'BEAVEN.

Leamington.

" TOO MANY TURNPIKES TO PAY.?' This

phrase, meaning too many bribes to pay, too many "guinea-pigs" to pay, or ex- actions in the way of fees, occurs and perhaps it is a noteworthy early instance in The WhiteTiall Evening Post, 7 October, 1756 :

" Our Enemies have hitherto got the Start of us notwithstanding the large Sums that have been chearfully given for our Defence. A serious Quaker has said with a Sneer, that a round Sum was voted


last Year for the publick Good ; but that the Cash being handed from Timothy to Titus, and there being many Turnpikes to pay, he despairs to see a fair mercantile account how, when, and where the Money was issued, and a just Balance settled. The Audience were all struck dumb, except a noted Stockjobber, who immediately ask'd, When shall we have another Lottery ? "

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. " GOD MADE THE COUNTRY, AND MAN MADE

THE TOWN." An exact equivalent of this line of Cowper's (' Task,' i. 749) occurs in Varro (' R. R.,' iii. 1, 3). from whom Cowper may have derived the thought : " Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana, aedificavit urbes." ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

COUTANCES, WINCHESTER, AND THE CHAN- NEL ISLANDS. It may perhaps be permissible to add to the facts collected at 10 S. ii. 68, 154, 231 ; iii. 154, that Dr. Gairdner on p. 306 of vol. i. of his ' Lollardy and the Re- formation in England ' has shown that in 1542 the Bishop of Coutances was attempting to exercise spiritual jurisdiction in the Channel Islands in the name of the " Bishop of Rome," and that Henry VIII. acknow- ledged his jurisdiction, though not that of the " Bishop of Rome."

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

HAIR FOLK-LORE IN MEXICO. The Tara- humare folk have many superstitions. One of them is illustrated by Carl Lumholtz in his ' Unknown Mexico ' (vol. i. p. 235). He relates that

" A shaman once cut his hair short to get new thoughts with the new hair, and while it was growing he kept his head tied up in a piece of cotton cloth to keep his thoughts from escaping."

L. S. M.

TRADE - MARK GRANTED BY LETTERS PATENT. Those of your readers who take an interest in the history of trade and manu- factures will perhaps be glad to have their attention directed to a case where a patent for an invention contained in addition the grant of a trade-mark to protect the goods made under the patent.

On 17 December, 1631, a patent was granted to Sir William Russell, Sir Basil Brooke, Sir Richard Weston, and many others for making soap, and the patentees were allowed the exclusive use of a device consisting of a rose and crown, which w r as to be stamped on the hard soap made by them, and used for marking the receptacles in which soft soap was packed. This is the