Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/547

 ID"-s. iv. DEC. a, isos.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 453 by his arguments and, greatly daring, wrote Vergilius. The example was followed by the Cambridge University Press (see " Pitt Press Series ") in its edition of the poet by Mr. A. Sidgwick. In the catalogue appended to ' Bacon's Essays' in that series we find Vergil as the English form, while it is given as Virgil in the 'Index of Proper Xaroes.' In that charming book F. St. John Thackeray's 'Anthologia Latina' (editio altera, 1869), I have never liked his heading ' Vergilius' to his specimens of that poet. It has always been considered by me to be " affectations," to use Sir Hugh Evans's word. But when I found hiemps in Horace's ode beginning Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni, I devo_utly hoped he would not undertake a recension of the Vulgate, and especially that part of it entitled 'Canticum Canticorum,' where it is written : "Jam enim hiems trans- iifc; imber abiit, et recessit. Flores appa- ruerunt in terra nostra, tempus putationis advenit; vox turturis audita est in terra nostra," and the rest of that beautiful poem, which only the cynicism of a Voltaire could vilely interpret. So far as I gather, no fresh evidence has been discovered which adds strength to Politian's argument of four hundred years ago when he tried to change what was the usual spelling of the poet's name. It is pleasant to learn that the great scholar who so often contributes to these pages, and adorns them with his ripe learning, is now convinced that the spelling of the poet's name as he finds it in the works of our old writers, whose study has been the chief object of his laborious life, is the correct one in English. But those venerable founders of our literature took the name from the MSS. and books to which they had access, so I regard their testimony as a proof that Vir- gifius in Latin was the only spelling which they knew. If it could be shown that Politian was right in his contention, then, I think, we should spell the word as we pro- nounce it. It is not, however, such a serious matter as that which Uamdeu mentions in his ' Kemaines,' where, in his chapter on ' Wise Speeches,' he says :— "The same Kin* Henry [VIII.], finding fault with the disagreement of Preachers, would often say: ' Some are too stifle in their old Mumpsimus, and other too busie and curious in their new Sump- simus.' Happely borrowing these phrases from that which Master Pace his Secretarie reporteth in his booke ' De Fructu Doctrinae,' of an olde Priest in that age, which alwaies read in his Portaeae, Mumpsimwi Domine, for Sumpsimus: whereof when he was admonished, he said that hee now had! vsed Mumpsimm thirtie yeares, and would not leaue- his olde Mumpsimus for their new Sumpsimus."— Ed. 1614, p. 286. For more than fifty years I have known the poet as Virgilius in Latin and Virgil in English, and so shall I continue to name him while body and soul are in conjunction. " Vergilius " I look upon as pedantic, and if there be any stronger epithet to apply to it» English equivalent I would use it. JOHN T. CURRY. HAIR-POWDERING CLOSETS (10111 S. iv. 349, 417).—I have seen a hair-powdering closet at 43, Kensington Square, W., and I am told that many others of the old houses in that square contain a similar closet. C. MASON. 29, Emperor's Gate, S.W. I also have two of the powder closets in my house, which was built during Anne's or George I.'s reign, and which remains almost in its original condition, with very fine oak staircase and panelled hall. GEORGE UNWIN. Town House, Haslemere. " THOLSELS " (10th S. iv. 387).—This is from the Old English compound toll-setl, which is used in the Anglo-Saxon version of Matthew ix. 9, and may be defined as mean- ing a custom-house. The first element is, of course, our word toll. Compare the Scotch term " Tolbooth," which originally meant a, custom-house, though later employed in the sense of prison. JAS. PLATT, Jun. This query must remind many readers of the quaint old "Tolsey" which adorns the wide and picturesque High Street of the ancient town of Burford, Oxfordshire. Would not "Tholsel," like the English "Tolsey" and the Scottish "Tolbooth," be simply a place where dues and tolls—market and manorial—were paid, a toll-booth ? G. L. APPERSON. Wimbledon. Sir John Gilbert says (' History of Dublin, vol. i. p. 162) that these buildings are styled in ancient records " tolcetum, le tholseys," but more generally " theolonium," and that the latter name was, in the case of the King against the city of Waterford, in 1608, declared to mean a toll or petty duty payable by purchasers in markets and fairs. F. ELRINGTON BALL. Dublin. CIVIL WAR EARTHWORKS (10th S. iv. 328, 394).—Remains of earthworks exist both at Donnington Castle and Basing House. In