Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/253

 n s. x. SEPT. 26, 1914 ] NOTES AND QUERIES.

247

And then I have seen two volumes of a three-volume French edition, as follows :

I. " Caroline de Lichtfield. par Madame de Monto- lieu. avec la musique des Romances par d'auteur. A Londres. de I'imprimerie de R. Juigne, 17, Margaret-street, Cavendish Square. 1809." Octavo, 2 + 4-188 pp.

II. " Caroline de Lichtfield. par Madame de Monto- lieu. avec la musique des Romances par d'auteur. A Londres. De I'imprimerie de P. Da Pontc, 15, Poland Street, pour R. Dulau et Co. Soho- Square. 1809." Octavo, 2 + 1- 183 pp.

ELBRIDGE COLBY. Columbia University, New York City.

(To be continued.)

SIEGE OF NAMUR, 1695. In the Church- wardens' Accounts of the Church of St. Mary Magdalen, Tetbury, Gloucestershire, pub- lished in Lee'p ' History of Tetbury,' there is an entry under 1695 of the payment of 5s. " to the ringers when Namur was surrendered." This was when King William III. of England took the town on 23 July from Marshal Boufflers, the French general.

Bristol.
 * fe IDA M. ROPER.

MONS : BIBLIOGRAPHICAL HOAX. Mons, now for ever memorable for its gallant defence y the British, was once made notorious by a cveat bibliographical hoax. In ' John Francis, Publisher of " The Athenaeum " ' (Bentley, 1888, now Macmillan), it is stated that The Athencrnm of the 26th of February, 1848, gives an account of the hoax which had een perpetrated in 1840 by M. Chalons, President of the Society of Bibliographers at Morjs, who had caused to be sent to all the most eminent book-collectors in Belgium .a catalogue announcing the sale by auction on the 10th of August, at Binche, near Mons, of " the very extraordinary and unique library belonging to the old Count de Fortsas." The Catalogue stated that

to admit a single volume into his collection of %poks which had been mentioned by any other bibliographer ; and that whenever he learned that a work which he possessed had been so mentioned, such work was doomed for sale at any price."
 * ' the peculiar mania of the deceased was, never

Full details were given of the Count, his lust illness, and the day of his death. t The books were admirably hit off in the way of <l -cription by bibliographical notes.

The hoax was only discovered when the bookworms arrived at Binche, and found the notary whose name had been given in

complete ignorance of the matter. The mortification of those who had been tricked was so great that they resolved that the affair should be kept secret, but unfortu- nately the librarian of the Royal Library of Brussels, Baron de Reiffenberg a book- connoisseur of the first order had obtained a grant for the purpose of purchasing for the royal collection, and when he returned the money the hoax was revealed. The British Museum has a copy of the jeu d esprit.

A. N. Q.

THK JEWS AND THE WAR. To the many notes which have appeared in ' N. & Q.' on the Jews should be added a note of the patriotic appeal made by the Chief Rabbi to rally to the flag :

" Once more will we prove that the old Macca- bean spirit is still alive among us. We will offer our lives to defend Great Britain's ideals of justice and humanity 1 In ever-larger numbers will we continue to join the army of our King."

The message to the Navy is : " We have every confidence in the bravery, loyalty, and efficiency of our sailors. The nation's cause is a just one, and justice will prevail."

X. Y. Z.

COLONISTS IN BERMUDA, 1620. It may interest some of your readers to know that old Speed's Map of Bermuda (B.M. refer- ence, " Maps, 95 d. 12") gives the names and holdings of each colonist in the island in c. 1620. F. VINE RAINSFORD.

" PERISHER " : " CORDWAINER." - The following interesting additions to modern English are abstracted from The Daily Herald " What is a Perisher ? A Perisher is one who, knowing there is a Socialist Tailor, buys liis clothes from a Capitalist Clothes Seller."

A "cordwainer" is "a worker in goatskin leathers " : probably the old heavy cordovan is meant, a leather originally dressed in Morocco by the Moors, and brought into Europe about the eighth century, when the huge tanneries of Cordova gave it its modern name. There is hardly any market to-day for " cordovans " at all.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

"As COOL AS A CLOCK." I find this com- parison in Thomas Lodge's ' Euphues Sha- dow,' 1592, sig. G 2. As the dictionaries do not notice it, the example is perhaps unique : "A little kindnes maks him who was as hote as a tost, as coole as a clock." RICHARD H. THORNTON.