Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/278

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. APRIL 5, 1913.


W. CABR, ARTIST (11 S. vii. 228). In the Manor Office, Folkestone, there is a plan of land belonging to the Manor of Folkestone, at Sandgate, undated, but apparently about 1780. It is very neatly drawn, and dedi- cated to the Earl of Radnor by William Carr. In addition to the arms of Lord Radnor there is a neat etching of Sandgate Castle. R. J. FYNMORE.

The Rev. William Holwell Carr, who died in 1830, was a distinguished patron of the fine arts, and bequeathed a considerable number of his pictures to the National Gallery. It is possible that W. Carr was his father or a family connexion.

WM. H. PEET.

AN UNCORRECTED ERROR IN EVELYN'S 'DiARY' (11 S. vii. 206). The error has been corrected in Mr. Austin Dobson's edition, but his note is hardly satisfactory. He writes : " There is some confusion of entries here. Evelyn has apparently mixed up an account of Frejus in Var with Peri- gueux in Dordogne."

The note is unsatisfactory, because it is evident that Evelyn could never have visited Perigueux. Geography and the dates render it impossible. It is also evident that he did stay at Frejus on his way to Cannes. He makes this quite clear when he says that the place was by the seaside, and that it was called by the Romans " Forum Julii." Frejus also has its ruined amphi- theatre, just outside the town, and its curious tower.

How, then, comes the confusion ? I imagine Evelyn wrote in his real diary Feregeux (Frejus), and when he came to compose his memoirs fifty years later, he misread his writing. He then consulted some book, and from an account of Peri- gueux inserted " Rolsies " and " the Visone " as names for the amphitheatre and tower. It will be noted both look like additions to the original text : "They call it now 1 the Rolsies," and " called the Visone."

There are many passages in Evelyn's travel-record which show his dependence on books not published when he visited the places described. For instance, a page or two before, when describing Avignon, he writes of " a very fair stone bridge (which has been broken)." Evelyn visited Avignon in 1644, and the bridge was broken in 1669. All through his account of his Italian tour he is often even verbally indebted to John Raymond, who visited Italy in 1646 and 1647, and whose ' Itinerary ' was published in 1648. H. MAYNARD SMITH.


Evidently Evelyn's pen made a glissade. He must have meant Frejus, and not Perigueux, for he says there Were divers noblemen's houses in sight of the sea now further away from the town than it used to be and that " the place was formerly call'd Forum Julij." This fits Frejus, for that was its Roman name, and Perigueux is very far inland, with no sea- view whatever. The aqueduct Evelyn mentions was not that of the Gard, but of the Siagnole. The amphi- theatre, the Cathedral of St. ^tienne, and various Roman remains may still be visited. There is an octagonal tower called " La Lanterne d'Auguste."

When Frejus is substituted for Perigueux, Evelyn's itinerary becomes quite credible, When one travels much and rapidly it is easy to get " mixed." ST. SWITHIN.

DOLLS BURIED IN A SCOTTISH CAVE (11 S. vii. 89, 158). I am much obliged to J. B. P. for the information given at the second reference. I hope some Scottish archae- ologist will discuss this curious discovery. If it proves not to be a modern hoax, I may suggest that it is a case of a primitive cenotaph, intended to symbolize the funeral rites in cases where the bodies were irre- coverable. Many parallels might be quoted from the customs of modern savages ; and the question has been discussed in Ireland by Mr. G. Coffey in his article on ' Prehistoric Cenotaphs' (Journal, of the Royal Irish Academy, 1896).

I was right in supposing that the question had been discussed in an early volume of ' N. & Q.,' and I have, since sending my query, found the references (3 S. iii. 263, 352, 414). EMERITUS.

"Or SORTS" (11 S. vii. 10, 56, 117, 136, 197). At the last reference instances of this phrase in commercial use are given. It is, perhaps, worth noting that " sorts " in the drug-trade means unsorted. " Gum. acaciae, sorts," for instance, is gum arabic just as it is received in original packages or serons, and containing, as a matter of course, a large percentage of impurities. This may possibly throw some light on the meaning of the phrase. C. C. B.

" TOUCH " (11 S. vii. 188). Another com- pound word in which touch connotes ready ignition is touch-paper, used in pyrotechny. I remember making it frequently when I was a boy, by applying a weak solution of nitre to paper of suitable thinness, my brother and I being addicted to making