Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/59

 us. XL JAN. 16, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

49

of oil to their bodies was probably du to desire to prevent the chance of bein " pinched " painfully. In later times th anointing with oil was followed by a sprink ling with sand, which neutralized to a larg extent the effects of the oil, and made th hold with the fingers more painful to th skin than if nothing had been applied to it.

J. LANDFEAB LUCAS. Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

JONATHAN FORBES AND WHITERILL SHAKESPEARIAN CRITICS. Who was th Forbes mentioned by Victor Hugo in hi ' William Shakespeare ' as a critic anc possibly biographer of Shakespeare ? I car trace no reference to him in any othe author. Hugo says of him :

1. That Forbes declares that Shakespeare had New Place built, whereas Whiteril says that he bought it.

2. That Mile. Violetti, Garrick's wife, sayi that her husband lost the manuscript o Forbes.

^3. That Forbes, in the manuscript whicl Warburton saw, and which Garrick lost says that Shakespeare used magic, and thai the small portion that is of value in his works was dictated to him by a spirit.

4. That Forbes declares that " Shake speare has talent for neither tragedy nor comedy. His tragedy is artificial, and his comedy simply instinctive."

5. That Forbes, the seventeenth -century critic, says : "As for the witches in 'Mac- beth,' nothing equals the foolishness of such a scene."

6. That Jonathan Forbes says : " Totus in antithesi."

I can likewise find no trace of Whiteril], whom Hugo mentions once only, in this connexion with Forbes regarding New Place.

G. D.

PUNCTUATION: ITS IMPORTANCE. In The Grand Magazine for September, 1906, p. 82, it was stated :

" The misplacement of a full-stop was the cause, it is said, of the Jameson Raid : It is under these circumstances that we feel constrained to call upon you to come to our aid should disturbance arise here,' where the full-stop was placed after ' aid ' instead of after ' here.'

Is this a fact ? Are there other instances in modern history of careless punctuation causing mistakes or misunderstanding, or of intentional ambiguity, such as the " Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est," said to have been the message of Isa- bella to the gaolers of Edward II. ?

G. H. JOHNSON.

VICARS OF WOMBOURNE. Can any one give me information concerning the parent- age or history of the following Vicars of Wombourne, co. Staffs ?

William Lynde, Vicar 1555. Will proved P.C.C. May, 1555.

Anthony Hammett, Vicar 1603. Died 1632 at Wombourne.

Thomas Willesly, M. A., of Emanuel College, Cambridge. Instituted 1652. Ejected by the Act of Uniformity, 1662.

W. E. GIBBONS. Wombourne, Staffs.

BIOGRAPHICAL, INFORMATION WANTED. I should be much obliged for a few bio- graphical details of (1) Francesco Maria, Cardinal de Medici, circa 1700. (2) Theophil Christian Unger, a German clergyman and bibliographer, d. 1719. (3) James Dover and (4) Thomas Hive, London printers, circa 1705. (5) Lewis Way, interested in the conversion of the Jews, circa 1815.

ISRAEL SOLOMONS.

74, Sutherland Avenue, W.

HENRY GREGORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE Is anything known of the above Henry Gregory ? I possess a very old portrait of him (line engraving), without date, standing up, smoking his pipe, with table to the right, upon which is a china mug with the following inscription beneath : " Henry Gregory of Glocesier."

LEONARD C. PRICE. Essex Lodge, Ewell.

DARTMOOR : WHEN WERE THE TREES

UT DOWN ? I suppose the author of

Science from an Easy Chair' (Second

Series) must have a knowledge of some

'acts that will support his assertions. I

lave not read the bulk of the book, either

in the original articles or in their reprinted

orm, but to a Devonshire man it is very

curious, not to say amazing, to read on

p. 370 :

" It is, however, in cutting down and burning orests of large trees that man has done the most larm to himself and the other living occupants f many regions of the earth's surface. We can race these evil results from more recent examples ack into the remote past. The water supply of he town of Plymouth was assured by Drake, s r ho brought water in a channel from Dartmoor. But the cutting down of the trees [the italics are iy own] has now rendered the great wet sponge f the Dartmoor region, from which the water was rawn all the year, no longer a sponge. It no mger 'holds ' the water of the rainfall, but, in onsequence of the removal of the forest and the igging of ditches, the water quickly runs off the Moor, and subsequently the whole country-side uffers from drought."