Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/280

 22S

NOTES AND QUERIES, uo- B. v. MARCH at, im.

interesting relic of a remarkable woman and of the strange incident of George IV. 's first wife being present as a spectator at the coronation of her husband. I hope some of your correspondents may be able to elucidate this rather interesting question.

JNO. M. CUBED, M.LC. Sydney.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS AT LE PORTEL. Dans 'Merridew's Illustrated Guide to Bou- logne-sur-Mer and its Environs' je trouve cette allusion :

" ......the Mussel beds attracted the notice

oi Bur Joshua Reynolds, as he went to Le Portel to study the costumes and features of the gyneco- cratic race who occupy that fish town, and rigidly preserve the customs observed by the fishing popu-

Ce passage fait allusion a un voyage fait par Sir Joshua Reynolds au Portel, pres de Boulogne. Ce voyage a du etre raconte par lui memo dans le livre de ses voyages dans les Fl and res et en Italic ; ou au moins il doit en etre question dansquelque ouvrage.

Je vous serais bien reconnaissant si vous vouhez me donner quelques renseignements sur ce point, me copier en anglais et me traduire en fran9ais le recit en question J'en ai besoin pour un ouvrage que je pre- pare sur Le Portel, et il me serait agreable de citer le grand peintre anglais.

Je voudrais savoir e'galement si, dans les tableaux de Joshua Reynolds, il y a quelque chose concernant Le Portel.

(Abbe) L. LEPR^TRE. Le Portel, Pas de Calais.

GREEK AND ROMAN TABLETS. I have read in a German book that the ancient Greeks or Romans used, for memoranda or visiting cards, small tablets of wood with a coatin^ of wax, and that a spoonlike tool was carried for obliterating inscriptions. Will some one kindly oblige me with contem- porary authority for this ?

H. J. O. WALKER, Lieut, Col.

" WAR " : ITS OLD PRONUNCIATION. In reading Pope's 'Homer' with my children

. have had my attention called to the extreme frequency with which he rimes "war" with "care, 1 ' "despair,' " spare,"

'bear," "dare," &c., which to us are not even a pretence to rime either to ear or eye and with "car," " far," <fe c ., only such to the eye ; while to my recollection he never once uses the perfect rime "abhor," the easiest term imaginable to work into his scheme of ideas in such a poem (he does use "abhorred " riming with "lord"); nor "for," easy to use as "fighting for," &c. ; nor any of the

vast number ending in "ore" or " oar" ; nor "door," &c., though they would be much nearer rimes to the present pronunciation than the ones he does use. In a word, he rimes it with absolutely nothing a modern poet would, and with all manner of things the modern poet would not. Does not this indicate a totally different pronunciation in his time from ours? As he often rimes <l car " with " bear," &c., I infer that probably "war" was pronounced as in "car."

FORREST MORGAN. Hartford, Conn.

DR. WILLIAM MEAD, OF WARE. In St. Mary's Churchyard at Ware is the tomb of Dr. William Mead, bearing the following inscription :

"In memory of William Mead, M.D., who departed this Life the 28th of October, 1652, aged 148 Years and 9 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days."

The parish register records the burial on 4 Nov., 1652, of "George Mead, doctor of Physick," evidently one and the same person. The register of baptisms does not go further back than 1558, hence no proof of the state- ment is obtainable from this source. Is it possible to verify the age of this worthy in any other way 1 If accurate, would not such an extraordinary instance of longevity have received some contemporary notice ?

W. B. GERISH. Bishop's Stortford.

4 THE LUSTFUL FRYAR.' I seek the name of the author, and the date of publication, of 4 The Lustful Fryar; or, the Tragical History of the Founder of Lincolnshire revived. A Poem by way of Burlesque,' London, printed by George Groom, sm. 8vo. I shall be grateful for any information which your correspondents may be good enough to give me. A. R. C.

Lincoln. .

WRITING ON IVORINE. Will any kind reader tell me what to use for writing pur- poses on ivorine 1 ? What is a quick drying process? L. V.

FORMAN, ESSEX CRICKETER. I should be obliged if any of the readers of *N. & Q. 7 who are interested in the annals of cricket could supply me direct with the Christian name, and any details of the subsequent career, of the gentleman named Forman who played cricket for Essex in the late fifties or early sixties. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. 9, Tavistock Place, W.C.

UNREGISTERED ARMS. I have seen it some- where stated (I think in The Ancestor) that