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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. n. DEC. 17, wo*.

Court. I presume that the records of this Court up to 1883 were transferred from their then resting-place (where was that?) to the Supreme Court. I would ask :

1. With what date do the existing old records begin 1

2. Are they continuous from that date (what- ever it may be) to the present time ?

3. What condition are they in now ?

4. Are they consultable by the public 1

5. If so, where?

I am told, but can hardly credit it (hence this query), that these records do not exist prior to 1710, and that, from that time up to a comparatively recent date, they are all in utter chaos at the Supreme Court of Judi- cature. If this should prove true, the sooner arrangements are made for their transfer to the Public Record Office (if they will take them) the better.

There must be many solicitors, antiquaries, and record searchers who can reply to my five queries, and I should be very grateful if they would do so, either through '1ST. & Q.' or direct to me. C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

KANT'S DESCENT. Biographers of Kant are practically unanimous in the opinion that he was of Scotch descent, apparently for no better reason than that the name is fairly common in certain parts of Scotland. But are these biographers right? It may perhaps be of interest to note in this connexion that many families of the name of Cant have, for generations, been settled in Colchester, Ipswich, Manningtree, and other towns in Essex and Suffolk. JNO. RIVERS.

SCHOOL SLATES. When and by whom were slates first used for writing in English schools? There is no doubt that they were first popularized by Joseph Lancaster, and that they formed a feature of his system of education of which he was exceedingly proud. (See 'Improvements in Education,' 1805, pp. 48, 52, 54, &c. They may be mentioned in the 1803 edition of the 'Improvements,' but 1 have not a copy of it.) That Lancaster only introduced slates is obvious from the fact that he does not claim the honour of inventing them. That they were little known is also obvious from his giving particulars about kind and cost, and also from his manufac- turing them at his school in Borough Road.

It is, of course, well known that Pestalozzi used slates, but Lancaster could not have imitated him. Pestalozzi appears to have tirst used them in his Burgdorf school, which he did not open till after Lancaster was at work in the Borough, and the earliest refer-

ence to them by Pestalozzi which I can find is in ' How Gertrude teaches her Children/ published in 1801. If we assume (which is very doubtful) that Lancaster did not use slates till 1801, we may be certain that neither he nor any other Englishman had heard of Pestalozzi at that date. Wilderspin almost boasted that he had not heard of him in 1820 (' Infant Schools,' p. viii).

Since writing the above I have come across in Walpole's ' Letters ' (ed. Toynbee, xii. 94) a reference to their use out of school. Walpole (on 15 November, 1781) explains the illegi- bility of his writing by the gout in his hand, and adds : " Soon, mayhap, I must write upon a slate ; it will only be scraping my fingers to a point, and they will serve for a chalk pencil." DAVID SALMON.

Swansea.

PARODY OF BURNS. I should be much obliged for the date of the appearance in Punch of a parody on " Scots wha hae," begin- ning :

Dull men in the country bred, Dolts whom Diz. has often led, If you lose your daring head, Farewell victory.

The second stanza refers to " Pam " : Pam himself could strongly jaw.

J. C. S.

"HE SAW A WORLD." Where can I find this quotation :

He saw a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in an opening flower,

or words to that effect ? CHR. WATSON.

CHAPLIN. Can any correspondent give me information concerning three Westminster boys of this name? Edward was admitted to the school in 1786 ; Francis in 1772 ; and Robert, admitted in 1811, became a B.A. ol Trin. Coll., Camb., in 1822. G. F. R. B.

COPYING PRESS. When was this usefwl piece of office furniture first introduced ? Count Sze'chenyi in October, 1832, paid a visit to Messrs. Boultoii & Watt's well-known foundry at Soho, Birmingham, and made a rough entry in his diary that they had " an excellent method of copying letters" there, but unfortunately the method is not de- scribed. L. L. K.

[Watt patented a copying machine in 1780. A quotation from the specification is in the ' N.E.D.']

HAMLET WATLING. This gentleman (for- merly a schoolmaster in Suffolk, I believe at Earl Stonham) made a large collection of Facsimile drawings of stained-glass windows in East Anglia. Where are these preserved ?