328
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vii. APRIL 26, 1913.
CLEANING AND RESTORATION OF PARCH-
MENT. I should like to invite the opinions
of collectors of illuminated, manuscripts or
of manuscript cuttings as to the best way
in which parchment can be cleaned without
injuring the illumination or handwriting,
and without puckering the skin. Probably
there is no method, but it seems to me that
there should be. I have endeavoured, and
to some extent succeeded, in cleaning the
margins of manuscripts by using stale
bread, or a scraper such as the mezzotint
engraver employs, or smooth india-rubbers
to remove surface spots, or, indeed, some of
the more sandy makes of rubbers where the
spots are thick or heavy ; but none of these
methods is successful where the skin is
actually stained i.e., where the soiling
material has gone into the skin from side
to side. The application of water seems to
make it impossible to get the skin ever
to lie flat again thereafter, and I have not
been successful in the use of any cleaning
substance. I have Wondered whether any
of my fellow-collectors have used bleaching
salts or powders, or any oxygen preparations
which Would act as cleansers. Acid pre-
parations seem to remove the fatty oils in
the parchment, and destroy its texture and
make it brittle ; but probably this brittle -
ness might be removed by gently rubbing
with a cake of paraffin, which can be success-
fully employed to smooth the skin when it
has been roughened by rubbing.
Another question, of similar interest to the collectors of manuscripts, is whether there is any method of taking out of a page the puckerings which former dampness or Wet- ting may have occasioned. Such pucker- ings greatly detract from a book, and ought to be removed if there is any way of doing so.
JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS. 1914, Spruce Street, Philadelphia.
THE DIARY OF JAMES DAWSON, 1692- 1765. This benefactor of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, by his will, bearing date 14 Oct., 1763, gave to the Vicar and his successors for ever a library of 870 volumes, all bound uniform, which he had collected between 1710 and 1763 at a cost of 3001. 16s. Sir Henry Ellis in 1794, when compiling his ' History and Antiquities, &c., of Saint Leonard, Shoreditch ' (1798), saw in this library Dawson's Diary; and many years later, when it came into the possession of Evans, the printseller of Little Queen Street, he had the loan of it for a few days. Several pages of excerpts he then made are now at the Shoreditch Public Library, but
the Diary has not since been heard of. I
shall be glad to learn if its present where-
abouts is known ; in addition to its
record of important current events, it con-
tains notices of local events and changes of
great interest to me. ALECK ABRAHAMS.
THE WORKS OF JOHN PECHEY, PHYSICIAN (1654-1718). In compiling a bibliography of John Pechey's works I have as yet been unable to find copies of the following :
Promptuarium Praxeos Medicse, &c., 12mo, Am- sterdam, 1694.
Storehouse of Physical Practice, &c., 8 vo, London (? 1697), 2nd edition.
Diseases of Maids and Women, &c., 12mo, Lon- don (? 1706), 2nd edition.
The Works of Dr. Sydenham, 8vo, London (? 1705), 4th edition.
The Works of Dr. Sydenham, 8vo, London (? 1711), 5th edition.
The Works of Dr. Sydenham, 8vo, London (? 1715), 6th edition.
Can any one provide me with details of these, or, better still, give me a sight of them ? GEORGE C. PEACHEY.
11, Oxford and Cambridge Mansions, N.W.
THE AUTHORSHIP OP * PAX VOBIS.' The ' D.N.B.,' quoting all too literally from a letter signed " Llewellyn," which was re- printed from a Glasgow newspaper in The Tablet of 2 April, 1853, states that John Gordon, Bishop of Galloway (1644-1726), Wrote ' Pax Vobis, or Gospel Liberty ' (really " Gospel and Liberty 2 '), published in 1685. The British Museum Catalogue says the author was S. J. Brown. Which is right ? " Llewellyn " is quite wrong in suggesting, as he does, that Gordon wrote the pamphlet after he abjured Protestantism, which he did in 1704. J. M. BULLOCH.
COCKS' HEADS. In Dickens's ' The Chimes ' Toby, in attempting to guess what Meg has brought him for dinner, says : " Pettitoes ? No. It ain't faint enough for pettitoes. It wants the stringiness of cocks' heads." What are cocks' heads ?
A. Z.
' THE FLY-FISHER'S ENTOMOLOGY ' was first published by Longmans in 1836. When did Alfred Ronalds, the author, die ? Who was " Piscator," the editor of the fifth edition, published in 1856 ?
GENERAL ELLIOT. (See ante, pp. 150, 216.) I should like to learn more about Granville Elliot. Who were his parents ? Did he have any brothers ? Did he ever marry ? When was he created Count von Morgen ? G. F. K. B.
