Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/96

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. FEB. i, 1913.


A SILKWORM'S THREAD. In one of his ' Rambler ' papers Johnson says that, if hampered by timidity, " the mechanist will be afraid to assert, before hardy contradic- tion, the possibility of tearing down bulwarks with a silkworm's thread." I can under- stand the hesitation more than the fact (if it be one), and should be grateful if some " mechanist " would give me a little light. C. B. WHEELER.

CHOLERA MONUMENT, SHEFFIELD. I shall be obliged if any one can tell me if there are any particulars extant of those who are buried under this monument.

H. E. H. 34, Pier Road, Erith, Kent.

" EDITION " AND " IMPRESSION." Why, and how far, do publishers distinguish between these two words ? In themselves they surely bear the same meaning. I am led to put the query by the following, printed on the verso of a leaflet advertising a volume of poems by William Ernest Henley, New York, 1909 :

" First edition, printed January, 1898 ; second edition, printed March, 1898 ; third edition, printed September, 189? ; fourth edition, printed January, 1900 ; fifth edition, printed December, 1901 ; sixth impression, printed August, 1903" ; and so on, to the " eleventh impression, printed January, 1909." Why the change after the " fifth edition " ? Every edition is an impression, and every impression an edition. It seems to me a simple case of literary pedantry. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

[The use of these two words was recommended in the Report of the Committee of the Publishers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, 1898, as will be seen by the following extract :

"(3) Impression, Edition, Reissue That for bibliographical purposes definite meanings should be attached to these words when used on a title page, and the following are recomniended :

" Impression. A number of copies printed at any one time. When a book is reprinted without change it should be called a new impression, to distinguish it from an edition as defined below.

"Edition.- An impression in which the matter has undergone some change, or for which the type has been reset.

" Reissue. A republication at a different price, or in a different form, of part of an impression which has already been placed on the market

"Fifteenth Impression (Third Edition). This would indicate that the book had been printed fifteen times, and that in the course of those fifteen impressions it had been revised or altered twice."

Further particulars will be found, s.v. "title pages," in Howard Collins's ' Authors' and Printers' Dictionary,' "Fourth Edition (Fifth Impression) Revised by Horace Hart, Controller of the Oxford University Press " (Frowde, 1912).]


YONGE OF CAYNTON, co. SALOP. I am engaged in preparing for publication a full pedigree of the above family, and am anxious to be put into communication

(1) With the descendants, if any, of William Yonge of Shifnal, Salop, surgeon, living in 1816.

(2) With the relations of General Gus- tavus Nigel Kingscote Yonge, who died in 1894.

(3) With the descendants in America of Francis Yonge of Carolina, some of whom corresponded with the English members of the family some few years back.

G. R. Y. RADCLIFFE. 1, Mitre Court Buildings, Temple, E.G.

REFERENCES OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. 1. "I hate the French, because they are all slaves, and wear wooden shoes."

2. The saying attributed to the great Earl of Chatham, that " the wind might blow through an Englishman's house, but the King of England could not enter it without consent" (see 6 S. viii. 448). It was ludi- crously perverted in 1880 by Senator John J. Ingalls of Kansas as follows :

"Mr. President, there is an old saying that an Englishman's house is his castle, and I think some

orator said that, though the winds of heaven

might whistle around an Englishman's cottage, the King of England could not." Congressional Record, p. 3170/1.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

SCHOPENHAUER AND WIMBLEDON. In his monograph on Schopenhauer Mr. Wallace states :

" In 1800, after spending six weeks in sightseeing in London, his parents started for a tour in England and Scotland, leaving Arthur for three months in charge of a Rev. Mr. Lancaster at Wimbledon."

In this boarding-school, at the same time, were two nephews of Lord Nelson. Can any one tell us whereabouts this school was situated, whether any famous men were educated there subsequently, and at what date it was discontinued ?

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

AUTHOR WANTED. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell me the author of the following couplet ? The speakers are evidently a dying wife and her husband :

Immatura peris. Tu, fortunatior, annos Vive tuos, conjux optime, vive meos.

BRASIDAS'S MOUSE. In vol. i. of his ' Life of Carlyle ' Froude writes : "He made his enemies fear him, if only like Brasidas's mouse." What is the allusion here ? ARTHUR GAYE.