ii s. ix. APRIL ii, i9i4.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
295
- ' Picture " here does not mean a painting
but the " Table of literary works." Anc this extract also proves that " Apelles Table " does not refer in any way to the great Greek artist. As I have already stated, Sidney died in 1586, and in the 1 Register ' of 1588 the ' Arcadia ' is enterec in Sidney's name, as is also a translation of Du Bartas. This teaches us that origin ally it was intended to bring out the trans- lation of Du Bartas under the pseudonym of Sidney, just as the ' Arcadia,' which was wholly Bacon's work, was likewise produced under the pseudonym of Sidney, who in fact did not write anything.
EDWIN DUBNING-LAWBENCE.
PBINTS TBANSFEBBED TO GLASS (US. ix. 250). MB. GBAY might read what MB. CHABLES DBUBY quotes in reference to ' Painting on Glass ' at 10 S. ii. 284.
The following, taken from 'The Hand- maid to the Arts,' 2nd ed., 1764, chap. xiv f p. 381, explains more clearly the method o " taking of mezzotinto prints on glass, and painting upon them with oil, water, or varnish colours" :
" Procure a piece of the best' crown glass, as near as possible in size to the print to be taken off; and varnish it thinly over with turpentine, rendered a little more fluid by the addition of oil of tur- pentine, i [Or Canada balsam and turpentine.] Lay the print then on the glass : beginning at one end, and pressing it down in every part in proceeding to the other. This is requisite to prevent any vehicles of air being formed, in the laying it on, by the paper touching the cement unequally in different parts; and to settle the whole more closely to the glass, it is well to pass over it a wooden roller. Dry then the glass with the print thus laid upon it, at the first, till the turpentine be perfectly hard, arid afterwards moisten the paper well with water till it be thoroughly soaked. After this rub off the paper intirely from the cement by gently rolling it under the finger : and let it dry without any heat : the impression of the print will be found perfect on the glass ; and may be painted over with either oil or varnish colours."
This process being taken from a somewhat rare book, and the subject being one still " to the front," I am replying through ' N. & Q.' rather than directly.
HABOLD MALET, Col.
PASSES TO THE LONDON PARKS (US. ix. 229, 278). The passes MB. JEBNINGHAM has a,re probably carriage passes, usually oval, drilled, and worn by the privileged * coach- man tied to a lapel or button of his coat. I have seen several examples admitting the owners to Constitution Hill, but I am not familiar with any for Hyde Park.
The leaden pass for Cromwell Gardens is
not, as its name suggests, of the seventeenth
century, but at least a hundred years later.
Vide Wroth's ' London Pleasure Gardens,'
infra Cromwell's Gardens, Brompton.
ALECK ABBAHAMS.
SAFFBON WALDEN (11 S. ix. 87, 177 217). There does not appear to be any very definite account of the introduction of saffron into England. Hakluyt said :
" It is reported at Saffron Walden that a pilgrim, proposing to do good to his country, stole a bulb of saffron and hid the same in his palmer's staff, which he had made hollow before on purpose, and so he brought this root into this realm with venture of his life ; for if he had been taken, by the law of the country from whence it came, he had died for the fact." Hakluyt, vol. ii. p. 164.
In a Compositio de Decenis entered into by the Abbot and Vicar of WaMen in 1444 saffron is mentioned as a titheable com- modity, and it is reasonable to assume the saffron culture was well established by this date. It appears that hogs had wandered on to the saffron beds and damaged them in 1518, for the owners of the hogs were prosecuted at a court held for the manor in that year.
Holinshed in the Third Book of his ' Chronicles,' chap, xiv., gives an account of English saffron. After describing its culture, uses, &c., he says :
" There groweth some Saffron in many places of Almaine, and also about Vienna in Austria, whych later is taken for ye best that springeth in other quarter. In steade of thys also some doe use the Carthamus (called amongst us bastarde Saffron) but neyther this is of any value, nor the other in any wise comparable unto ours, whereof let this suffice as of a commoditye brought into this Ilande not long before the time of Edward the third, and not commonly planted until Richard ye second did raign. It would grow very well as I take it about
hiltern hilles, and in all the vale of the whyte horse."
Hakluyt's account was the basis of a pretty scene in the Saffron Walden Pageant held in May, 1910.
THOMAS WM. HTJCK.
38 King's Road, Willesden Green, N.W.
COMMUNION TABLE BY GBINLING GIBBONS IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDBAL (US. ix. 248). The altar about which MB. HIBGAME inquires stands at the east end of the south aisle of
- he crypt. I have never known any other
ar so nearly a square as this is. In the days when it stood under the east window the celebrant who was the Dean or a canon stood at the north side, facing south, tnd two minor canons stood on the south ide, facing north. One stepped out to
