Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/474

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. JUNE 10,


erected in 1779. It is the first that was ever made of Cast Iron only. The abutments are stone and cover'd with plates of Iron. The Road over the Bridge is 24 feet wide, the span of the Arch is 100 feet and 6 Inches, and the height from the Base line to the Center is 40 feet, the weight of the Iron employed in the whole Bridge is 378 Ton and a half. All the principle [sic] parts were erected in the course of three Months, without the least obstruction in the navigation of the River."

2. "A View of Lincoln Hill, with the Iron Bridge in the Distance. Taken from the side of the River Severn."

3. " An Iron Work for Casting of Cannon, and a Boreing Mill. Taken from the Madeley side of the River Severn, Shropshire."

4. " The Inside of a Smelting House, at Brose- ley, Shropshire."

5. "A View of the Mouth of a Coal Pit near Broseley, in Shropshire."

Can any of your correspondents kindly inform me in whose possession the original pictures now are ?

ERNEST H. H. SHORTING.

Broseley, Shropshire.

BANDELLO IN SPANISH, 1584. I should be extremely grateful if any of your readers could give me any information respecting an edition of Bandello in Spanish printed in Madrid, and dated on the first leaf 1584. English bibliographers ignore this book, although it is of great Shakespearian interest, containing as it does the story of Romeo and Juliet. This 1584 edition seems unknown even to Spanish bibliographers, only a later edition (1589) being chronicled in Salvo's bibliography of Spanish books. Bandello 's version served Lope de Vega for his play of

  • Castelvines and Monteses,' no doubt adapted

from the Spanish translation. I should like to know if a copy of this book can be seen in any public library, and am desirous of ob- taining a list of early editions of it.

MAURICE JONAS.

PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE DOWNING. As is well known, the elder Sir George Downing was a member of the first class (1642) that graduated at Harvard College. Is there in existence a portrait of him ? And if there is, where is it, and in whose possession ?

ALBERT MATTHEWS.

Boston, U.S.

PIN-PRICKED LACE PATTERNS. I am told that old pillow-lace makers worked from designs pricked on skin or parchment with pins in several degrees of fineness, made specially for the purpose. Is this so ? and are such old patterns or prickings preserved in districts where pillow-lace is made ? The lace-makers worked, no doubt, from designs ; but were the designs headwork, or from


cleverly arranged pinpricks ? One old lady seen at work with the lace pins or bobbins was understood to imply that she worked rom what she had in her head, and varied

he patterns from fancy.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

PLAYING CARDS SIXTY YEARS AGO. In Buckle's ' Life of Disraeli,' vol. iv. p. 87, is a letter dated July 13, 1857, to Mrs. Brydges Williams. In it, referring to the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, Disraeli recalls the iact that General Anson, the Commander-in-

hief in India, had long been considered the finest whist-player in Europe. He proceeds thus :

" Some were doubting whether Anson had suffi- ient experience: the native army in revolt, the ancient capital of Hindostan in the possession of the rebels, and the Great Mogul declared Sovereign t I said that for my part I had confidence in George Anson because he had seen the Great Mogul so- often on the ace of spades that he would know how to deal with him. All the world laughed very much, and Mrs. Anson sent off the joke to the General."

What was it that he had seen on the ace of spades ? H. D. ELLIS.

Conservative Club.

' A WORKING-MAN'S WAY IN THE WORLD/

-I should be deeply obliged to any of my fellow-readers who could enlighten me concerning the author of this work. It was published anonymously in London some- where about 1870. "PAUL STANISLAUS.

Leeds.

[The late MR. W. E. A. AXON stated in N. & Q/ for Feb. 20, 1869, that the book was published in 1854, and that the author was Charles Manby Smith.]

LATIN CONTRACTIONS. In some Admiralty accounts of 1627 I find the following : Sma tot lis expoitoru.

Sma Onens ut supra et remanet clare.

What are the two words "expoitoru" and " Onens " ? The first is expenditure the second receipts.

In a certificate of the names, qualities,. &c., of residents in a Cornish parish charge- able to the Poll Bill (no date, but apparently late seventeenth or early eighteenth century),, following the name of the head of the family ,. his wife and children, frequently come such entries as " P 11 one maideservant 20s. wages," or " P u his mother and sister." The writing is very clear, and there seems no- likelihood of misreading. I shall be grateful for an extension of " P 11 ." YGREC.