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NOTES AND QUERIES. LIIS.XI. APRIL 21,

Barrett, trading in Aleppo at a time when no English Consul as yet existed (for the Levant Company had only just come into being), had placed himself under the protection of the Venetian representative, and, on his death, the latter dealt with his goods as he would have dealt with those of a Venetian subject, when the newly .arrived English Consul protested. G. F. ABBOTT.

Royal Societies Club.

WAREHOUSE, 1855 (11 S. xi. 169, 216, 238). I am very much obliged to MR. WM. DOUGLAS for his informative reply to my query. Except as accountant or financier, I cannot explain George Daniel's business connexion with " Walker's D'Oy- le;v 's Ware hou;;e. ' "

On the recommendation of his brother-in- law he established himself as an accountant, and was much employed in investigating the affairs of persons in the bonk- and print-selling trades when in difficulties."

This excerpt is from an unpublished bio- graphy by his contemporary Major Holborn ; but except a brass plate on his residence, 18, Canonbury Square, there was no indica- tion that he had offices solely for this purpose. A further reference in this biography to the effect that he discounted bills not at the lowest rate of interest, and was never known to make a bad debt, support, however, his identification as the G. Daniel, bill discounter of Thanet Place, who was virulently attacked in The Satirist, 15 and 29 Sept. and 13 Oct., 1833, for extortionate practices.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

REVERSED ENGRAVINGS (11 S. ix. 189, 253, 298, ; xi. 217 258). In ' London Topo- graphical Prints ' there is an engraving of the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields with the text reversed. It reads " Will Wrench Steeple Keeper to St. Giles's in ye Field's Isic] Rich' 1 Chapell Rob 1 Landall Churchwardens 1774."

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

BLACK WOOL AS A CURE FOR DEAFNESS (11 S. xi. 247). The use of black wool sheep's, not cotton wool as a popular remedy for ear-ailments is worthy of in- vestigation by folk-lorists. It may still be extant in rural parts of England and Wales ; it is almost certainly so in Ireland. Sir W. Wilde, father of Oscar Wilde, and a dis- tinguished Dublin surgeon and aurist, when extracting a plug of black wool from the ear of a hospital patient, would gleefully inform his pupils that it was from the left hind -foot of a three-year-old black ram,

and the patient would look up with admira- tion at the surgeon's wisdom. I am not quite certain as to the age of the black ram, or the exact foot which yields the magie wool, but the indication will be sufficient. Caution will, of course, be needful in ques- tioning the user of the remedy or the ancient dame who prescribed it.

EDWARD NICHOLSON. Les'Cycas, Cannes.

I believe that Hester, Lady Newdigate, in one of her letters quoted in ' The Cheverels of Cheverel Manor,' by Lady Newdigate- Newdegate, refers to this belief, arid records that the black " wool " recommended for the purpose was to be obtained from the head of a negro servant. P. D. M.

" To Cure a Deafness which is caused by the stoppage of the Ears by Wax. If it hath been. long, then drop into the Ear a little of Bitter- Almonds warmed, for a week together every Night ; when the Party is in Bed, then take a little warmed Sack, with as much of the best white Aniseed-water, and seringe the Ears with it once a day for three days together, and keep thent stopped with black Wooll. If they have been, deaf but a little while, then the Wine with the Aniseed- Water will be sufficient, without the Oyl of Almonds." ' The Queen-like Closet ; or, Rich Cabinet, Stored with all manner of Rare Receipts,'" by Hannah Woolley, 5th ed., 1684 ; the ' Supple- ment,' 1684, p. 20.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

JOSHUA WEBSTER, M.D., 1777 (3 S. vi. 10 ; 11 S. ix. 8; x. 156). The incident men- tioned by the late F. G. Kitton, of the meet- ing, by Dr. Joshua Webster's arrangement,, which took place between Hogarth and Simon, Lord Lovat, at "The WHiite Hart Inri," St. Albans, appeared first in Samuel Ireland's ' Graphic Illustrations of Hogarth,* 1794, arid has been repeated in Austin Dobson's ' Hogarth.' The original account is worth reproducing, since it contains quaint details omitted by Mr. Kitton :

" In August, 1746, the notoiious Simon Fraser,. Lord Lovat, was brought in a litter to St. Albans on his way to London, where he was tried and subsequently executed on Tower Hill. At the invitation of a local physician (Samuel Ireland's friend Dr. J. Webster), Hogarth went to St. Albans to meet and sketch him. He found him. on the 14th at 'The White Hart Inn' under the hands of a barber. The old lord (he was over 70)i rose at his approach, and, 'bussing ' him demon- stratively after the French fashion on the cheek,, contrived to transfer no small portion of the soap- suds on his own face to that of the painter."

By 1768 Webster had apparently left St. Albans. On 5 May of that year he wrote a letter from Crown Street, Westminster, to Bishop Lyttelton on the subject of ' The*