Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/85

 us. xii. JULY 24, i9io.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

77

formed by moulding or modifying quotations from classical authors.

A similar thought to that of the present say-ing, besides occurring, as SLEUTH-HOUND says, in Dion Chrysostom, is found in Livy, vi. 18, 7, " Ostendite modo bellum pacem habebitis," and in Publilius Syrus, 465, Prospicere in pacem oportet, quod bellum iuvet.

2. " Veni, vidi, vici." Suetonius, ' Divus lulius,' 37, says that an inscription with these words was carried in Caesar's Pontic triumph. But the earliest passage in litera- ture where the Latin words occur appears to be in the elder Seneca's ' Suasoriae,' ii. 22, "" ne insolens barbarus dicat : ' ueni, uidi,

Biichmann, who quotes the above, suggests that Caesar's remark may be an adaptation of a proverb given by Apostolius, xii. 58 : vO Kocrpos cr/o/v?/, 6 ftios Trdpo&os' ?}X^e

EDWARD BENSLY.

' EXCERPTA LEGATIONUM ' (11 S. xii. 30). An encyclopaedic series of extracts from Greek historians was compiled in the tenth -century by order of the Emperor Constan- tine VII., Porphyrogenitus. The collection consisted of fifty-three volumes ; four of these have come down to us in a more or less imperfect state, and depending in each case on a single MS. The codex that contained the ' De Legationibus ' (Hepi Hpeo-ySewi/) perished by fire at the Escurial in 1671. A new edition of the He/oi Hp&r/S&ov (part i., ' Excerpt a de legationibus Romanorum ad gentes ' ; part ii., ' Excerpta de legationibus gentium ad Romanes') appeared at Berlin .in 1903 as vol. i. of ' Excerpta Historica iussu Imp. Constantini Porphyrogeniti confecta,' under the editorship of Prof. C. de Boor, the Librarian of the University of Breslau, who had been engaged over twenty years in the design of this complete edition of the ' Ex- cerpta.' EDWARD BENSLY.

OLD CITY RATE- BOOKS (11 S. ix. 68). The bulk of the old City rate - books passed into the possession of the Corporation under the provisions of the City of London (Union of Parishes) Act, 1907, and are preserved in the Valuation and Rating Department of the Guildhall. Some of the books had been sent in to the Library prior to the passing of the Act, consequently search has at present to be made in the two departments, some- what inconveniently.

Several parishes possessed rate -books dating from the latter part of the seventeenth

century, though it does not appear that St. Giles, Cripplegate, is included among these. From the extreme lateness of such books as pertain to this parish in the custody of the Corporation, however, the suspicion arises that the earlier books have not been sent in. And it may not unreasonably be supposed that other records of this class still remain in parochial custodv, notwithstanding the Act.

A really complete gathering together of these and other old parish records of the City, already possessed in considerable number by the Guildhall Library, and the issue of a printed catalogue, would be a useful work.

It may be worth noting in connexion with St. Giles's that the Churchwardens' Accounts, 1570-80, and 1596-1608, are to be found in the British Museum (Add. MS. 12,222).

WILLIAM MCMURRAY.

HOLCROFT OF VALE ROYAL (4 S. vi. 472 ;

11 S. x. 130, 175). The first Sir Thomas Holcroft had a house in the City c. 1547, as appears from an entry in the record of an assessment cf the second portion of the sub- sidy of 37 Hen. VIII. In the parish of SS. Anne and Agnes is mention of " Sir Thomas Holcroft, assessed in landys & ffees at C 11, to pay x 11 ." (See my * Chronicle,' paragraph 67, p. 16.)

WILLIAM MCMURRAY.

St. Anne and St. Agnes with St. John Zachary, Gresham Street, E.C.

' REVELATIONS OF PETER BROWN '(US. xii. 30).

" The Revelations I of I Peter Brown | Poet and Peripatetic | found in his black box | by j Jonathan Freke Slingsby | (John Francis Waller) London | Cassell, Fetter, &. Galpin | Ludgate hill, and 596, Broadway, New York I Dublin, M'Glashan & Gill, 50, Up. Sackville S fc ."

The above is an exact transcript of the title- page of the work which is the subject of MR. ROBERT RAYNER'S inquiry. There is no date on the title-page, but the preface is dated June, 1870.

The contents of the little book are as follows :

1. Magdalena.

2. Isabel Clare.

3. Win and Wear.

4. The Knight of the darter.

5. St. John's of Shottesbrooke.

I knew John Francis Waller well in my youth ; he was Registrar to the Rolls Court in Ireland, and connected with numerous literary societies in Dublin. He died in London in 1894, and there is a full account of his life and works in the ' JD.N.B.' vol. lix.