Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/421

 10 s. XL MAY i, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

345

I860. Cromwell always styled Worcester Fight his " crowning mercy," and gave Sir Thomas Fairfax (then only thirty-three) the chief credit for the victory of Naseby. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

" I SIT ox A BOCK," &c. (See ante, p. 280.) The answer is plainly a play on " alone " and " a loan."

" I alone sit on a rock while I'm raising the wind," slang for raising money (a loan).

" That I (alone) have trod."

" I alone am oft seen by the world, but known to few in comparison."

The Gentile detests asking for a loan, and the Jew detests granting one. He would rather lend one at high interest.

With Noah " alone " in the Ark.

Three pounds (a loan) of gold or silver, being so ductile, could easily be made a mile in length.

My first, A, and last, " lone," are " the best of our isle," alone, because, being so with " the silver streak," we are best pro- tected from attack from without.

W. FOWLER.

AUTOMATA. CANON ELLACOMBE has kindly sent me for inspection an undated old poster of Philipsthal & Maillaredt's " Royal Mechanical Museum from Spring Gardens, London," which offered " rational recreation at the Star Inn, Oxford," where it was opened for public inspection " under the sanction of his Majesty's [George III.'s] royal letters patent, and by the permission of the Rev. the Vice-Chancellor, and the Worshipful the Mayor." The " whole ap- paratus " consisted

' of a variety of automatical figures, as large as Life, almost endued with Human Faculties, and many other amazing Pieces of Art, as Singing Birds, Musical Boxes, &c., &c."

All could be seen for what Mr. Montague Tigg would have called the " ridiculously low sum " of half-a-crown.

A reduced facsimile of a similar poster, used on 22 March, 1811, for adveitising the same collection at the Assembly Room, Bridgwater, is given in Harry Houdini's ' Unmasking of Robert Houdin ' (New York, 1908, p. 104) ; but the latter contains an additional item, the Tarantula Spider, no doubt Maillaredt's, mentioned by Sir David Brewster in his ' Letters on Natural Magic ' (London, 1833).

What makes the poster still more in- teresting is that the father of CANON ELLA- COMBE, then, I suppose, a young under- graduate at Oxfoid, has covered the back and nearly every available blank space of

the sheet with his MS. notes describing the- automata, and recording how he discovered the secret of the " Old Necromancer," who- "by his elaborate mechanical combinations,, resolved enigmas, and with his apparent magical poweis, answered the most com- plex questions put to him " according to the poster. The questions and answers were pre-arranged, and written on small disks. This automaton, " Maillaredt's Magician," is fully described by Sir David Brewster, his secret explained, and also how it was discovered by a " Mr. Brockedon."

Another of the automata, " the Mechanical Drawing and Writing Master," is fully dealt with in Houdini's book (pp. 105, &c.).

The " Superb Musical Automaton, repre- senting the Belle Roxlane," was seen in or before 1885, by Mr. J. N. Maskelyne, of Egyptian Hall fame, according to whom it was simply a barrel organ, the pins upon th& barrel giving motion to the fingers and arms of the figure.

The other " amazing pieces of art " ad- vertised on the poster were a bird of paradise which " at command darted from its box and warbled the most melodious notes ever heard ; " then a little Spaniard who danced and played on his instruments ; a " beau- tifu souried'or," and "an Ethiopean Chenille d'or." The mouse was evidently something more ingenious than the usual toy that is wound up and runs straight till it collides with a wall or a table-leg, as, according to our MS. notes, the little animal was some- times very fast, then stopped, turned about, and thus I think it justified somewhat the description on the poster that it " surprised every beholder by its apparent natural sagacity and motion." According to the MS. notes, there were two wheels projecting a little below its body and two levers, which occasionally lifted one or both wheels off the table.

The author of the notes saw the collection in May, 1809, in London, in December, 1810, in Exeter, and in November, 1811, in Oxford^

L. L. K.

NEW CATTSES OF DISEASE. Things modern are becoming more and more bewilder- ing to an Early Victorian. Of a lady who is now giving a perform- ance in dream-dancing at the Palace Theatre The Morning Post of 9 April remarks : " Brought up as a Calvinist, she early suffered from headaches, and developed a very poor and polysyllabic state of health.'*

I did not know that any connexion had been traced between headaches and Cal-