Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/458

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY g,

French, written presumably by Dom le Noir. I think that I may say that all or nearly all of the charters concern places in France. Some date from before William the Con- queror.

As this visit to the Bibliotheque Nationale was my first, I should like to note the great courtesy offered to me by the officials. I may mention that the process of being admitted for one visit is made very easy, and needs only a few minutes, while a pro- longed privilege of entrance for a foreigner requires an application through his ambassador. ROBERT PIERPOINT.

RICHARD STEWARD, DEAN DESIGNATE or WESTMINSTER (10 S. xi. 289). ' D.N.B.' refers to Welch's ' Alumni Westmon.,' pp. 20, 21. A. R. BAYLEY.

WOMEN AND PIPES (10 S. xi. 328). It is surely conceivable that, even in the early years of the seventeenth century the " deli- cate, wholesome, and clear-complexioned wives " of the tobacco-" drinking " lords of creation did from time to time take a whiff , for their consolation, from the husband's pipe ; but it would perhaps be hard to find, even in the scurrilous pamphlets of the time, any records of such infractions of the royal ' Counterblast.' But a century later we get a hint of the recognition of the practice.

There lies before me a line engraving (measuring lOf in. by 7J in.) published about 1690-1700 ("Jean Batiste HBonnart ex rue S. Jaques au Coq auec privil."). It represents, within a very decorative border, a handsome young woman, rather dicolletee, seated, and grasping in her left hand a glass flask half full of liquor. In her right hand, which is extended, she holds very delicately, between thumb and forefinger, a lighted pipe with small bowl and long thin stem. On a cartouche forming a part of the decoration of the border is this in- scription :

Dans ses moments de resverie, Cette Belle cherche en fumant,

A Tromper la melancolie, Que luy cause un perfide Amant.

A far-away look in her beautiful eyes accords with the frame of mind suggested by the inscription. The graceful pose of the smoker and the careful execution of the print seem to prohibit the idea that any- thing in the nature of caricature was in- tended by the artist. Robert and Nicholas Bonnard (born in Paris about 1646) were engravers of some consideration, and Jean

Bonnard the younger, who was engraving in 1690, was probably a relation of theirs. J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

The use of pipes by women appears to have been known in Stuart times, though probably it was not common, at least in polite society. Sylvester, in ' Tobacco Bat- tered,' says that " Fooles of all Sexes haunt it."

I remember well seeing respectable old women smoking " churchwardens " here and there in country places, but that was fifty years since, or more. C. C. B.

"BLOW THE COBWEBS AWAY" (10 S. XU

189, 253). The allusion to this saying in ' Hudibras,' published originally in 1663, ought not to be forgotten :

Quoth Ralpho, " Nothing but th' abuse Of human learning you produce ; Learning, that cobweb of the brain, Profane, erroneous, and vain."

Part I. Canto 1. ia37.

A note in my copy, a small 12mo in 2 vols., says :

"'Twas the opinion of those tinkers, tailors, &c. r that governed Chelmst'ord at the beginning of the Rebellion ' That learning had always been an enemy to the Gospel, and that it were a happy thing if there were no universities, and that all books were burnt except the Bible.' "

Though there is no date on the title-page,, yet appended to some of the illustrations is " Printed for C. Cooke, Sep. 2, 1803." It is,. I imagine, one of a pocket series called " Cooke's Modern Novelists," which included many of the works of Fielding and Smollett. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

MR. RATCLIFFE'S reference to the use of cobwebs as a cure for flesh-cuts is men- tioned by Shakespeare :

Bottom. Master Cobweb, if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you.

'Mid. N. Dream,' III. i. 186.

TOM JONES.

" LA PIERRE QUI RAGE " (10 S. xi. 309).

The Provencal name of this street is " Car- riero de la peiro que rajo " (Gushing-Stone Street), it is so named from a small fountain in it. Rajo, properly pronounced rddz, becomes rddj in Marseilles speech, and an ignorant or malicious official has made this into rage. Sad havoc is thus made with the names of streets and railway stations, besides hills and valleys, by French or French- aping officials. The people of the South of France have not that energy which has enabled the Flemings of Belgium to resist attempts at destroying their language, and