Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/277

 us. xii. OCT. 2, i9i5.i NOTES AND QUERIES.

269

West Indies. To my excited imagination on Wednesday night (8 Sept.), it seemed a very diminutive type of that equally des- tructive and foul worker in the dark known as a Zeppelin !

I, too, have suffered trom the ravages of these little wretches, and I think I -may say of all three kinds, and have captured and killed them in large numbers during my long residence in tropical regions. With the Editor's permission, I would like to state what measures I have taken to try to combat them.

In having books bound for use abroad I have frequently given instructions to mix corrosive sublimate in the paste used by the binders, for I find that these creatures seem to be much attracted to the paste used in the backs, and I think I may say that I have had some success". When this cannot be done I have brushed the insides of the covers from time to time with a solution of corrosive sublimate, or, more recently, have use 1 a strong (but not unpleasant) liquid of a tarry consistency and smell which Zaehns- dorf, the well-known London bookbinder, had prepared and sent out to me, ani which I smeared over cotton -wool and placed in bowls. This should be renewed from time to time, as the pungent odour seemed to weaken. I think that this also had a considerable measure of success. In addition, I tried naph- thaline balls and camphor ; but this latter I do not think was quite strong or pungent enough. I think that both of these articles are better preservers of clothes than of books.

As a preventive against damage by cock- roaches, which are a cause of great dis- figurement to cloth -bound books, particu- larly in red or green colours, wherever exposed, I used (externally, of course) a book - varnish prepared by Zaehnsdorf , which I found very efficacious. The differ- ence between volumes brushed over with this varnish and those not so treated was very apparent.

In my experience bookworms do not seem to attack books in leather binding of any decent quality. I found also that frequently going through my books, and airing, shaking, and dusting them, was very beneficial. It was on occasions such as these that I made my best " bags " of the " enemies."

All these kinds of bookworms are said to prefer the paper of which our older books are composed to the modern so often cheap and rubbishy material that we use at the present day. But a glance at a copy (first edition) which I possess of Stephen

Phillips's ' Sin of David ' (only published in 1904, and issued in a light-blue linen covering) when 72 out of the 77 pages were damaged before I discovered what was going on, and the inside of the front cover looked as if it had been through a mangle would show your correspondents, I think, that when hungry the bookworm makes no special choice of older literature. It may afford, however, some relief to its publishers, Messrs. Macmillan, to th ink that this on- slaught may be due to the high quality of the paper used. This is the only solace left to me ! J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

Worms in books are the result of either dirt or decay, or perhaps both, hence the immunity of new books from the trouble. The leaves of MR. MASSINGHAM'S books are probably " woolly " in appearance evidence of that anaemia which makes them easy victims both to the bookworm and to atmospheric damp, the latter causing those stains often attributed to direct contact with water.

Formalin may, indeed, destroy microbes, but it also destroys the properties of the paper, and is therefore a remedy more harmful than the evil itself. The only remedy is to reconstitute the health of the books, and the evils, I think, will not be recurrent, if an experience of books whose health was reconstituted over twenty-five years ago, and which are still in sound condition, is any criterion.

As a description of the remedial processes would probably encroach too much on your valuable space, I can only add that I shall be happy to assist your correspondent in any way in his perplexity. C. I. HUTCHINS.

87, Kingsley Avenue, West Baling, W.

THE WHITE ROSE OF YORK (11 S. xii. 201). Mr. Planche, who collected as much information as most heralds on the question broached by MR. T. BEWLAY, does not dis- pute a record which asserts that, before the great strife between the houses of York and Lancaster, the former bore as a badge

" by the Castle of Clifford a white rose."

He remarks :

" Brooke House, Langsett, in the parish of Penistone, co. York, is said by Beckwith, in his edition of Blount's ' Ancient Tenures,' to havo been held even in his day (he died in 1799) by the unseasonable payment of a snowball at midsummer and a rose at Christmas, or, as he presumes, a sum of money in default. We have no evidence of the tenure of Clifford Castle by this sort of service ; but it may have been held by the annual payment of a white rose, although the fact has not transpired." ' The Pursuivant of Arms,' pp. 269, 270.