Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/261

 10 s. VIIL SEPT. 14, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

215

DR. GOOD OF BAI/LIOL (10 S. viii. 128). See Mr. H. W. Carless Davis's ' Balliol College ' (1899) passim; and ' D.N.B.,' xxii. 112, whence it would appear he was a native of Worcestershire, for he published a folio sheet addressed to the " Lords, Gentlemen, and Clergy of the Diocese and County of Worcester," " the humble pro- posal of a native of that county in behalf of ingenious young scholars." This states that Worcestershire has no " considerable encouragement " for such scholars, and suggests the endowment of two or more Fellowships in Balliol College, which (it is said) is " commonly known by the name of the Worcester College." Dr. Good was an inveterate beggar on behalf of his college.

A. R. BAYLEY.

COFFINS AND SHROUDS (10 S. viii. 90, 137). Several notes on burial with the face uncovered have lately appeared in L'lnter- mediaire. Among the instances quoted are the following, most of which are French. Evidence is, however, given to show that the custom is known in several countries of Europe.

" Marat was carried to the Pantheon on a triumphal car designed by David. The body of the tribune was so decomposed that it was necessary to paint him ; and to make the getting-up of the piece perfect, the corpse was covered with mood-stained linen, the arm was hanging bare, and the fingers still held a steel pen." Vol. Iv. col. 380.

" The custom of burying with the face uncovered exists still, or at least existed not long ago in the

villages of our midi I was present when quite

young at several enterrements d visage ddcouvert

I still see the coffins of children going uncovered through the streets of the village, towards the little graveyard of the parish. It was there that the lid

was screwed on to the coffin It seems to me that

this custom was only followed in the case of girls, little girls rather than grandes jeunes filles, and perhaps also very young boys. I have never seen it at the burial of men or women." Vol. Iv. col. 206.

Another correspondent of I? Intermediate quotes authority to show that in certain cases in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- turies a corpse to be buried was carried on planks, which were put into the grave with it. More frequently a wooden coffin was used, sometimes without a lid. The writer adds :

"I have beneath my eyes the number for the -3rd of January, 1907, of the illustrated Spanish journal Nuovo Mundo, which contains a plate en- titled : ' Aspecto de la plaza de Santa Maria de Jaen, al paso del entierro del arzobispo de Sevila, sr.Castellote, quefallecio repentinamente en aquella ciudad el dia 23 del pasado.' Priests surrounded by the crowd carry on a bier the body of the prelate, who is mitred, and has his hat lying at his feet." Vol. Iv. col. 207.

"Until 1880 the priests in Brittany were buried in this fashion [with the face bare]. The last

interment of this kind was in 1878, that of Cardinal Saint-Marc, Archbishop of Rennes. The enbalming had not been very successful, and it was distressing to see.

" In 1863, in Switzerland, I saw, in the mortuary chapel of the cemetery at Lucerne or Zurich, an open coffin ; the corpse, arrayed in a long black blouse, awaited burial." Vol. Iv. cols. 323-4.

M. P,

EXETER HALL (10 S. viii. 127). About the time that Exeter Hall was first opened there appeared in The Mirror (18 June, 1831) an account of the building, apparently taken from The Ballot Newspaper. An engraving of the main entrance from the Strand accompanied the letterpress.

Perhaps the most important items in the musical history of Exeter Hall are the conducting of their own works there by Spohr and Mendelssohn, and the first pro- duction of * St. Paul ' in England in 1837.

Valuable articles on Exeter Hall appeared in The Echo of 28 March, 1881, and in The Dailii Graphic (illustrated) of 2 April last. JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

Two OLD PROVERBS (10 S. vii. 407, 457 ; viii. 55, 136). It is true that the same idea as is conveyed by the phrase " toujours perdrix " (which some say should be " tou- jours des perdrix ") is to be found in La Fontaine's conte ' Le Pate d' Anguille ^ ; but this is scarcely the case with Boccaccio's story referred to. The origin of the expres- sion " toujours (des) perdrix " is not, I submit, to be found in either of these stories, and still, therefore, remains a mystery.

EDWARD LATHAM.

"TWOPENNY TUBE " (10 S. viii. 3). The earliest use of the word tube in connexion with railway transit appears, according to The Glasgow News, which I have seen since writing at the above reference, to have been in the following passage in The Northern Looking Glass, printed and published at Glasgow in October, 1825 :

" A vacuum tube company is about to be formed to convey passengers from Edinburgh to London, which it is supposed will be effected in about five hours. This scheme is, of course, much laughed at ; but thus argue the prelectors produce a species of vacuum, or tube, with the general force oi the common air excluded, and a body say a coach, sledge, or wooden horse may be propelled, not merely fifty-two, but about three hundred miles in one hour ! 'Now it is ascertained that human beings may exist in such a vacuity, as they would not have to cut against the air, when going at the rate of more than fifty-two miles an hour. Indeed, it is said the air would be with them when being thus whisked along, and in that case there can b. doubt." A p R