Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/168

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. n. AUG. is, im

unto the Diameters of the Needles, divide them into twenty-four equal parts, according unto the number of Letters in the Alphabet, then place the Letters in order round each Circle. Now when you desire to make known each others Mind, the day and hour being first concluded on before- hand ; you must upon a table or some convenient place, 'tix your boxes with the Needles fitted therein, then having in readiness, Pen, Ink, and Paper, and with each party a Loadstone, he that intends first to begin, must with his Loadstone gently cause the Needle to move from one Letter unto another, until a word is perfected, accord- ing unto which motion the other needle will answer : And then after some small stay, they must begin another Word, and so forward until his Mind is known, which being done, the other Friend with his Load-stone must do as before, moving gently from Letter to Letter, until he hath returned answer accordingly: This will hold true if rightly managed/'

I also find that Addison in the Guardian, No. 119, 28 July, 1713, notices, as below, a similar matter mentioned in a much earlier work (in Latii^, viz., Famianus Strada's Poeticce,' Colonise Agrippinse, 1617 :
 * Prolusiones Academics Oratorise, Historicse,

" Strada, in the person of Lucretius, gives an account of a chimerical correspondence bet\veen two friends by the help of a certain load-stone, which had such a virtue in it, that if it touched two several needles, when one of the needles so touched began to move, the other, though at never so great a distance, moved at the same time, and in the same manner. He tells us, that the two friends, being each of them possest of one of these needles, made a kind of dial-plate, inscribing it with the four and twenty letters, in the same manner as the hours of the day are marked upon the ordinary dial-plate. They then fixed one of the needles on each of these plates in such a manner that it could move round without impediment so as to touch any of the four and twenty letters. Upon their separating from one another into distant countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves punctually into their closets at a certain hour of the day, and to converse with one another by means of this their inven- tion. Accordingly when they were some hundred miles asunder, each of them shut himself up in his closet at the time appointed, and imme- diately cast his eye upon his dial-plate. If he had a mind to write any thing to his Friend, he directed his needle to every letter that formed the words which he had occasion for, making a little pause at the end of every word or sentence, to avoid confusion. The friend, in the meanwhile, saw his own sympathetick needle moving of it self to every tetter which that of his Correspondent pointed at: -By this means they talk'd together a-cross a whole continent, and conveyed their thoughts to one another m an instant over cities or mountains, seas or desarts."

W. I. E. V.

IRRESPONSIBLE SCRIBBLERS (10 th S. ii. 86). A public service is performed by MR. PAGE m drawing attention to the mania for scrib- bling on objects of interest. Truly the evil is bad enough; but worse exists.

In public places, especially railway car- riages, remarks, often of a disgusting and obscene nature, interlarded with vapid bet- ting news, are forced under notice. The- authors would appear to be foul - minded youths, and the remedy is to abolish the horsebox contrivance we term a railway carriage, thus conferring more air, light, com- fort, and publicity.

Your correspondent errs if he thinks no one is ever prosecuted. Some years ago the Earl of Warwick's agent successfully prose- cuted certain day-trippers for scratching their names, in defiance of printed warnings, upon the battlements of Guy's Tower ; and the Duke of Westminster's agent frequently has occasion to prosecute vandals for damage upon the Eaton estate; in fact, so many that the Duke has threatened to withdraw all public privileges, in which case the innocent and grateful many, would suffer for the guilty few. Stringent warnings boldly printed are- necessary in all historic or beauty spots (and apparently autograph albums for 'Arry and 'Arriet).

We must not lose sight of the fact that to- this same habit of scribbling we are indebted for many ancient and modern mementoes of a valuable and highly interesting character.. The walls of Shakespeare's birthplace bear many signatures which I am sure the trustees- would like to transfer to the volume which holds the autograph of His Majesty King Edward VII. Then there is the famous couplet which Raleigh is reputed to have scratched with his diamond ring upon the window pane :

Fain would I climb, But that I fear to fall,

and Queen Elizabeth's reputed answer be- neath :

If thy heart fail thee, Climb not at all ;

and innumerable other instances, none of which we should like to term " irresponsible."

WM. JAGGARD. 159, Canning Street, Liverpool.

When at Canterbury, some years ago, I ascended the Westgate, where were abundant examples of what MR. PAGE complains of. Among the mass of pencil scribblings I was surprised like Rosalind to find my own name, presumably the work of a namesake. No doubt other readers could record similar instances (Sam Weller was very wroth about "Moses Pickwick"). This tendency is not confined to British holiday-makers. When visiting the Trappist monastery near Ant- werp with a friend, we fell into conversation with a priest from Brussels, a visitor like-