Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/223

 us. xi. MAR. is, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

a " dumb serpent," which is curious, since the poet makes it hiss. Milton follows Sir Thomas Herbert and other writers in making the scorpion a serpent. C. C. B.

Mr. Robert W. Chambers in a story called ' Ole Hawg ' in The Red Magazine for 15 Feb., at p. 365, speaks of a black, crimson, and yellow snake called elaps, and says: "The fangs of the elaps are almost microscopic, which accounts for the chewing habit of the venomous little thing." The scene of the story is laid in Florida. What is an elaps ? No such word occurs in Chambers's
 * Twentieth Century Dictionary.'

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

PACKET - BOAT CHARGES, SENTEEEVNTH CENTURY (11 S. xi. 110). In 'Anglais et Fran$ais du XVII 6 Siecle,' by Ch. Bastide (Alcan, 1912), a quotation is given from ' Les Voyages de M. Payen,' 1663, who calculated the expenses stage by stage :

" De Paris en Angleterre.

Dieppe : 30 lieues.

Logez a la Place Royale et payez par repas, 20 sols.

Rie : 30 lieues.

Payez pour le passage de la mer, 3 livres. Logez a I']cu de France et payez par repas, 15 sols.

Gravesend : 30 lieues. Payez en poste, 9 liyres.

Logez a Saint-Christophe et payez par repas, 20_sols.

Londres : 10 lieues. Payez en bateau sur la Tamise, 10 sols. Logez a la Ville-de-Paris, au Commun-Jardin, et payez par repas, 12 sols."

M. Bastide adds :

" M. Payen tait un sage : il eVitait toute ostentation, aussi le voyage lui a-t-il covit6 seule- ment 26 francs de notre monnaie. A Londres, une chambre garnie se paie, au rapport de Sor- biere, autre voyageur, un 4cu par semaine. On pouvait done visiter 1' Angleterre au XVII 6 siecle sans etre pourvu d'une grosse prebende."

James Howell's ' Instructions for Forreine Travel' (1642) might be worth consulting, and so too Miss Clare Howard's ' English Travellers of the Renaissance ' (John Lane, 1012). MARGARET LAVINGTON.

ELBEE FAMILY (11 S.xi. 108). This family belonged to the Duchy of Orleans, and has a tradition that it was originally Scottish. It has established several proofs of nobility, and furnished members of the " Garde du Corps de la Compagnie ^cossaise," also a Captain of Marine commanding " 1'expedi- tion au Royaume d'Ardrah " in 1670. The head of the family in 1914 was the Marquis

Charles Maurice Elbee, retired Lieutenant ~ Colonel of Infantry. Arms : Argent, three- bars gules. Supporters : two greyhounds.. Motto: "Intacta semper sanguine nostro.' 5

LEO C.

"COLE" OR "CooLE" (11 S. xi. 48, 92,. 175). Some statements have been made at the above references about which I should like to offer a few remarks.

1. " Neither glue nor size is used for white- washing or starching." Any whitewashes uses size in that way now in order to make the particles of chalk" or lime adhere. With- out something of the kind, all the whitewash would come off as soon as it was dry. Glovers' shreds, called " speckes," were boiled to- make size for whitewash in 1496, 1611,. and 1606 ('N.E.D.,' under 'Speck,' sb. 2 ;

' Durham Parish Books,' Surtees Soc., 161,. 286).

2. " No one would prepare wood for paint- ing by limewashing it." Before paper came- into general use the designers of painted glass made their full-sized drawings on whitewashed tables, which designs were afterwards washed off to make way for new ones (Winston, 'Inquiry,' &c., and 'Hints on Glass Painting,' 2nd ed., 1867, 368, 377, note ; see also, for this work c. 1350,. Hope's ' Windsor Castle/ 141, 163, and Glossary under ' Cervisia ' ). In the same- way outlines would be drawn on boards or walls prepared by a very thin coat of white- wash for permanent paintings.

3. "A cursory inspection of Du Cange does-- not show a quotation in which dealbare connotes anything about lime." But if Du Cange had been acquainted with Eddius's- ' Life of St. Wilfrid,' he might have quoted a passage referring to the whitewashing of the church of York : " Parietes qupque lavans, secundum prophetam, super nivenx dealbavit " (Eddii ' Vita Wilfridi,' Rolls Ser., 71, p. 24). For whitewash of pre-Conquest date still existing, see Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond.,. 2nd Series, xx. 20-24.

4. Lime or whiting was always mixed, for whitewashing purposes, not with pure water- (see above), but with something that had a " body " in it, of a glutinous or adhesive- nature, such as ale, wort, or even urine, as well as size or a solution of glue, which is the same thing. I know nothing about early starching, but I think that size added to starch would make it all the stiffer when dry, or might have been expected so to do.

5. Can there be any doubt whatever that " cole " denotes glue or size ? J. T. F.

Durham.