38
NOTES AND QUERIES.
[2nd S. N 2., JAN. 12. >oG.
" First, Mr. Lyte finds the grand obstacle to obtaining
these fac-similes to be, ' that the size of old paper be-
comes yellow by age, whereas the ink becomes lighter.'
Now, in photography it is necessary to be very precise
when speaking of colours ; thus, by yellow is understood
the yellow of the spectrum, of which gamboge may be
taken as the representative. Surely, Mr. Lyte will
hardly venture to assert that old documents ever assume
that colour, or even any tone of it. By the agencies of
smoke and damp, old documents frequently become brown,
acquiring various tones of umber or sepia, from which
the ink differs but very little in colour or tone ; but yet
this difference, slight as it is, is generally sufficient" to
insure a good photographic copy. Experience and tact
are, it is true, important elements in success, and pro-
bably all first attempts will be failures. Yet, as is well
known to most practitioners of the art, wherever any
difference exists between the colour of the paper and the
ink, that difference will be repeated in the photographic
copy.
" Mr. Lyte considers these browns of old documents', theoretically, as if they Arere yellow and black, and hastily concludes that, as these latter have the same actinic action, ergo the browns, which he regards as yel- lows, must produce the same photographic results, which, as is well known, is not the case. Mr. Lyte's want of .success must,, I fear, be ascribed to this perverse theory ; if not, to his want of perseverance in mastering the diffi- culties that attend the practice of this branch of photo- graphic art.
" The portfolios of most amateurs generally contain specimens of fac-similes of old documents ; proving that the difficult}' of obtaining them is not so great as Mr. Lyte's letter would lead us to suppose. I enclose one copied from a MS. in the Royal Irish Academy, taken in the summer of 1852, during the Dublin Exhibition, which probably presented as many difficulties as are usually met with in documents of this kind ; and yet no great effort is required to make out every letter remaining in the manuscript. Photography does not pretend to re- store what is effaced or illegible in the original, but there are few things it cannot furnish a faithful copy of. I have learnt recently that it is contemplated to make a catalogue of the MS. in the Bibliotheque Impe'riale at Paris, by taking photographic copies of the title-pages, &c. ; if the obstacles to taking photographic fac-similes were as great as Mr. Lyte represents, such a task would scarcely be undertaken.
" It is too much the practice of photographers to pro- claim the abortive results of their individual attempts as impossibilities of the art they cultivate; whereas they ought to consider that the same experiment which in the hands of one person is a failure, is often a brilliant suc- cess in those of another.
" As no one among your numerous readers has thought it worth while to reply to Mr. Lyte's letter, I have taken upon myself to do so ; for, as an old practitioner-in the art, I feel its character of universality in application should not be inconsiderately impugned. Photographic fac-similes of old documents are, I feel assured, not easily over-valued. Let no photographer be discouraged from attempting to produce them.
" PHILIP H. DELAMOTTE.
" King's College, Jan. 4."
to Minat
Sedgemoor (l !t S. xii. 405.) The information respecting Sedgemoor, which a NATIVE OF SOMER-
SETSHIRE requires, may be found in a paper on
" Langport, the Llongborth of Lly warch Hen's
Elegy," &c., by the Rev. W. Arthur Jones (one
of the secretaries), in the Proceedings of the So-
mersetshire Archaeological and Natural History
Society for 1853. That the ^Estuary of the Par-
rett once extended over the plain west of the
Poldon range, is proved by the banks of sea-sand
containing the recent marine shells which surround
the red-marl prominences occurring in varioiis
places in the midst of the alluvial deposit. The
trunks and branches of trees, the horns of the
forest-deer, the bones of the ox and the horse
have been found at considerable depths in the
clay-pits at Bridgwater, and in one place even
pottery at the depth of about thirty feet. In the
Proceedings of the same Society for 1854, there is
a paper by the same writer, on the " Application
of Philology to Archaeological Investigation," in
which it is shown that the names of Weston-zoy-
land, Middle-zoy, Ched-zoy (pronounced Ched-
zee), describe the physical characteristics of the
locality in the olden time. A.
Burial ruithout Coffins (1 st S. xii. 380.) J. H. M. desires to know of any other instances of this practice on record. It was a custom in the family of the St. Glairs of Roslin till the latter part of the seventeenth century, when Sir James St. Clair of Roslin was buried in a coffin, with great pomp, in the chapel of Roslin by his wife, Jean Spottis- wood (of the family of Spottiswood, of Spottis- wood), Lady Roslin, against the sentiments of King James VII. ; and the great expense she was at in burying her husband occasioned the sump- tuary acts which were made in the following par- liaments. When they opened the vault for the interment of Sir James, the body of his prede- cessor, Sir William, was seen entire, laying in armour, with a red velvet cap on the head, and the head reclined on a stone. Nothing was spoiled but part of the white furring that went round the cap. All his predecessors were buried after the same manner, in their armour. L. M. M. R.
Retributive Justice (I 5t S. xii. 317.) About thirty years ago, a new city jail was built at Norwich. A gallows was made by a man of the name of Stratford, to be used when required over the gateway. Within a few years this Stratford was hung on it for poisoning, and there has never been any occasion to use it since. He thus be- came his own first and last victim. J. S. M. M.
Norwich.
Curious Ceremony at Queen's College, Oxford (1 II S. x. 306.) MR. MEWBURN will, I think, on inquiry, find that the scholars of Queen's Col- lege, Oxford, were never subject to the perform- ance of the ceremony he speaks of. I remember, many years ago, to have read somewhere, that the
