Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/115

 n s. xii. AUG. 7, i9i5.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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In the neighbourhood of the pits it is largoly used for domestic purposes, although very dirty.

The price varies with the quality of the coal and the district from which it is mined.

W. J. M.

THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON (11 S. xi. 455; xii. 18, 55). This decision is considered in an old German work entitled :

" Metamorphosis telse judiciaroe, das ist, seltzame Oerichts-Handel samt denen hierauf gleichfalls seltzam erfolgten Gerichts-Ausspriichen zusammen getragen mit lustigen Anmerkungen erlautert (Linz, 1651-2),"

a collection of odd lawsuits and singular decisions made by Matthias Abele von Lilienburg 1, J.U.D., Count Palatine and Chief Secretary of Mines in Styria. The cases are taken from a great variety of sources the Bible, history, travels, and mis- cellaneous literature and the first case is devoted to the judgment of Solomon. From this report it appears that judgment was given for the plaintiff. The complaint is sot out in the words of 1 Kings iii., and the woman first speaking is called the plaintiff. The defendant replies, denying the truth of the complaint, and alleging that she, the defendant, being in possession of the living child, must be presumed to be the mother of it. Then follows a rejoinder by the plaintiff, who swears by life and death that the living child is hers. Plaintiff and defendant reply again, and judgment is pronounced that the child shall be cut in half. The plaintiff then appeals to the king to spare the child and deliver it alive to the defendant ; but the defendant takes the point that the king cannot review his own decision, and presses to have the judgment enforced. Then follows the final decision (super- Bescheid), to the effect that the child be delivered up to the plaintiff as the natural and lawful mother, and that the defendant be repelled from the court with disfavour. There appears to have been no application for costs.

The book is referred in * Lawyers' Merri- ments ' (1912), by Dr. David Murray, F.S.A., p. 96. There were editions in 1655, 1684, and 1712. My notes are from the 1712 edition. MALCOLM LETTS.

Personally, I am quite convinced of the justice of King Solomon's judgment. What I wish to elicit is an opinion as to which of the two women said : " Give her the living child, in no wise kill it." Who spake, the plaintiff or, as your learned correspondent prefers, the complainant or the defendant ?

The glib mother who stated the case must have slept with one eye open if she could speak as circumstantially as she did, with truth. I agree with MB. PINCHBECK.

ST. SWITHIN.

LIEUT. JOHN DESCHAMPS, R.A. (11 S. xii. 50). This officer was the second son of Wm. Deschamps of London, merchant, who died 7 Dec., 1830, aged 54. He was born Septem- ber, 1800; became second captain in the R.A., 11 Sept., 1839; and was cashiered 21 Aug., 1843. FREDERIC BOASE.

' THE SCOURGE ' (11 S. xii. 28). The first epitaph, " As carefull Nurses," &c., is given, with a few verbal differences, in Southey's ' Commonplace Book,' iv. 48, as occurring " in some part of Yorkshire."

The two lines,

The Grammar School a long time taught I have, Yet all my Skill could not decline the Grave,

are a translation of

Grammaticam scivi multos docuique per annos,

Declinare tamen non potui tumulum. See the collection of ' Epitaphia Joco-seria,' edited by F. Swertius, 1645, p. 114, where the heading runs : " Cornell Curti mei quondam Praeceptoris Lyrae. Grammaticam docuit L. annos."

J. Masenius in his ' Ars Nova Argutiarum Epigrammatica et Epigraphica,' 1660, p. 206, makes the first line read :

Grammaticam didici multos docuique per annos. EDWARD BENSLY.

HOSE, 1560-1620 (11 S. xi. 340). (2) " Canions (of hose)." The earliest instance known to the ' O.E.D. 'that in Stubbes, ' Anatomic of Abuses,' 1583 must give way to one in " Mr. Wrighte's bill of particulars procured for his pupil, the Erie of Essex, at Cambridge, since Midsummer, 1577," printed in Cooper's ' Annals of Cambridge,' vol. ii. pp. 354-5, and taken from Wright and Jones's ' Memorials of Cambridge ' : " Item, for Taffetta and makinge of can ions for his Lordships hose, vj s viij d ."

EDWARD BENSLY.

WATERLOO (US. xii. 1,21,71). I have been deeply interested in MR. ALAN STEWART'S extracts from his uncle's letters, as my father (who was the Duke of Wellington's godson) was the youngest of the Duke of Richmond's seven sons to whom he alludes.

A propos of the Duke of Wellington's kind thoughtfulness in forbidding my uncle Lord William Lennox to remain on the battle-field because of his recent severe acci- dent, the following item seems appropriate