Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/447

 io s. VIIL NOV. 9, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

369

EARLIEST BRITISH Music PUBLISHER. The Daily Telegraph, in an interesting article on the 26th of October, contained the following :

" Who was the earliest British music publisher ? If memory serves, Wynkyn de VVorde, the printer and stationer, who, hailing from Alsace, is enshrined in the sacrist's rolls of Westminster Abbey in 1491 and a year or two following, has earned the credit by the eight-note musical illustration printed in the ' Polychronicon ' of Ranulf Higden, Benedictine monk of St. Werburg's, Chester, somewhere about 1490. Even so reliable an authority as Mr. Frank Kidson has, it seems, never settled finally in his mind which is absolutely the first secular musical work printed in England, and he candidly acknow- ledges the fact. Publishers once were also musi- cians. Certainly the important Playford family were music publishers as well as thorough musicians in the seventeenth century. So, later, was Charles Dibdin, though he was, of course, far better known as the composer of hundreds of songs, written, com- posed, published in King Street, Co vent Garden, and sung by himself."

Can readers of ' N. & Q.' settle the ques- tion ? A. N. Q.

MEDIEVAL GAMES OF CHILDREN. I should be indebted for any information regarding children's games of the Middle Ages, as also for any references to the sub- ject. Many modern games are no doubt of ancient lineage. I should also be obliged for any help in the matter of rimes used in children's games, e.g., " London Bridge is falling down" and "How many miles to Babylon" ? Also, where can I find the story of James VI. of Scotland at play, under the eye of his tutor George Buchanan ?

WYCKHAM.

[We have not space for descriptions, only for bookish authorities or references. Have you con- sulted Mrs. Gomme's two volumes on ' Traditional Games,' with tunes, &o. ?]

FRENCH AND ENGLISH PIRATES, c. 1520. On a stained-glass window in the church of Villequier, between Lillebonne and Caude- bec, we have the curious representation of a hard fight at sea between armed men on small low ships and the crews of very big Spanish or Flemish caravels. The inscrip- tion alludes to an erection after the fight, which took place in 1521 or 1522.

Now, on the small boats are seen joined the French national fleurs-de-lis and the English St. George's cross ; on the caravel is the imperial eagle of Charles Quint. I suppose this is the battle in which the Em- peror lost the treasures of Quatimozin, related in the correspondence of Fernando Cortez, who complains of the loss, which he attributes to French privateers. But why the English bearings ? Did French and

English pirates associate at that time ? Is there in England any record of this fighting ? and in that case who took his part in it ? CHARLES RCESSLER. 30, Rue le Marois, Auteuil.

ARMOREL AS A CHRISTIAN NAME. Can any of your readers tell me the origin and significance of the name Armorel for a girl (of. ' Armorel of Lyonesse ') 1

EDWARD HERON- ALLEN.

EARLY EIGHTEENTH - CENTURY QUERIES. These queries refer to the date 1710 or earlier.

1. Where does Locke say " a man in great misery may so far lose his measure as to think a minute an hour, or in joy make an hour a minute" ?

2. Where does Bruyere, as if speaking of a people not yet discovered, describe the French in the air and style of a Frenchman ?

" I have heard talk of a country where the old men are gallant, polite, and civil ; the young men, on the contrary, stubborn, wild, without either manners or civility, &c. The inhabitants of this

region call it. It is 48 degrees of latitude, and

more than 1,100 leagues by sea, from the Iroquois and Huroiis."

3. What is the source of the story that Alexander the Great had a wry neck and gave a courtier who imitated it a box on the ear ?

4. What member of the Government in 1709 wrote that " men were no better than brutes " ?

5. What freethinker of that age wrote against fairies ?

6. What French author tells a story of a hero finding his mistress in the arms of a man, who turns out to be her brother, sup- posed to be dead ?

7. A work published in 1709 mentions a pig whipped to death as a special delicacy. Was this so regarded ? Please quote autho- rities.

8. Steele refers to " a common dull story, that gives an account why the heathens first of all supposed a ferryman in hell and his name to be Charon." To what does this refer ?

9. Who published The English Post, a newspaper, and how long did it exist ?

10. A ' Lancashire Hornpipe ' and ' A Walking Statue' are mentioned in 1710; was the former a favourite tune in Lan- cashire ? To what does the latter refer ?

11. Where was an American or Canadian fort called Cadaroque ?

12. What were meant by " the green and red dragon " in alchemy ?