Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/27

 ii. JULY 2,i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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PASTE (10 th S. i. 447, 477, 510). As some of your correspondents suggest that DR. MURRAY should communicate with Crosse & Black- well, I may say that I wrote to that firm, and they suggested my writing to MESSRS. BURGESS & SON, whose reply, which would seem to be final, appears at the last reference.

J. 0. F.

MAYOR'S SEAL FOR CONFIRMATION (10 ch S. i. 447). The use of another's seal was fairly common. Perhaps the most notable instance is found in the * Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1399-1401,' p. 326, where no less important a person than John de Bokyngham, Bishop of Lincoln, used the seal of the Prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, in addition to his own, because the latter was unknown to many.

R. C. F.

TYNTE BOOK-PLATE (10 th S. i. 449). The arms on the shield of pretence are those of the Bulkeley family, and the crest and the motto are those of the Worth family.

The owner of the book-plate, James Tynte, who was for many years a member of the Irish Parliament, and who was appointed a Privy Councillor, was a younger son of the Hon. William Worth, a baron of the Irish Exchequer from 1681 to 1689, by his second wife, Mabella, daughter of Sir Henry Tynte, of Ballycrenan, in the county Cork, and took the name of Tynte on succeeding to property belonging to his mother's family. He married Hester, daughter of John Bulkeley, and granddaughter of Sir Richard Bulkeley, the first baronet of the Irish creation, and through the death of his wife's uncle the second baronet, who bore the same Christian name as his father without issue, succeeded to the property derived from Archbishop Lancelot Bulkeley, the first of his name to settle in Ireland. Through his father Mr. Tynte was also connected with the Bulkeleys, for Baron Worth, who was married no less than four times, married, as his third wife, the widow of the first Sir Richard Bulkeley, and as his fourth the widow of the second Sir Richard Bulkeley.

The house in the county Dublin in which Mr. Tynte resided is still to be seen. It is called Old Bawn, and is situated near the village of Tallaght. It was built by the father of the first Sir Richard Bulkeley, Archdeacon William Bulkeley, who was a son of the archbishop, and is interesting as the only remaining example of several stately man- sions which were built in the vicinity of Dublin while the Earl of Strafford held the position of Lord Deputy. A curious plaster chimney-piece (supposed to represent the

building of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah) in the dining-room has attracted much attention, and the staircase and carved woodwork have been greatly admired.

F. ELRINGTON BALL. Dublin.

NOTES ON BOOKS, Ac.

Swimming. By Ralph Thomas. (Sampson Low &

Co.)

So far as regards bibliography, at least, the present, as students of our columns are aware, are days of arduous labour and scientific research. Few books in that favoured class can be, however, so con- scientious and thorough as this of our contributor Mr. Ralph Thomas upon swimming. In its original form it appeared in a pseudo-anonymous shape in 1868 under the title " Swimming : a Bibliographical List of Works on Swimming. By the Author of the * Handbook of Fictitious Names.' " What the author describes as a pamphlet has now expanded into a volume of close on fave hundred pages, sup- plying a full list of books published on the subject in English, German, French, and other European- languages. The work is, however, far more than a bibliography. It is an exhaustive treatise by aiv expert. Mr. Thomas is an honorary member of the executive committee of the Life-Saving Society, In addition to a history of swimming from Assyrian times until the present day, he supplies practica) instructions in swimming, the value of which is not easily to be overrated. In his prefatory matter he offers an apology for the length of his criticisms and citations, urging, with perfect propriety, that " one man cannot judge for another what is trash." In the case of * N. & Q.' nothing of th& kind is necessary, since herein, at least, the value of thoroughness is acknowledged. Everything con- nected with the theory and practice of swimming and resuscitation is told, and notes are supplied on the progress of swimming during four centuries, upon the breast-stroke and side-stroke, the ancients- as swimmers, the different forms of swimming in various countries, the method of Bernard, swim- ming on horseback, &c.; and such things as costume, cleanliness, and the like are not neglected. Almost the only matter of current interest of which we fail to find a complete account is the question, recently brought into notice, of bathing-machines and the difference between the French cahant and the abomination so long in fashion in England. Tent bathing is a thing of recent growth, and bids fair to revolutionize public bathing. Mr. Thomas doubtless remembers, as do we ourselves, the period when not only in remote Welsh or Scottish dis- tricts, but in such English watering-places as the Isle of Thandt and the great Yorkshire and Lanca- shire resorts, the process of bathing was primitive enough for the South Sea islands or for the inha- bitants of unsophisticated Japan. One hundred and twenty-six illustrations add greatly to the value and attractions of the book. The earliest of these are of Assyrian origin, some of them bein^ taken from the sculptures in the Bodleian. On p. 139 is a representation of a coin of Abydos,. A.D. 19.3, showing Hero, alone and naked in a bower that will not hold a second denizen, stretching out a light to the struggling Leander. A second, on the