Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/323

 ii s. VIIL OCT. is, 1913,] NOTES AN D QUERIES.

317

CHAINED BOOKS (11 S. vi. 69, 136, 177, 215, 274, 373, 473 ; vii. 37). The will of William Fitch, Esq., of High Hall, near Wimborne, dated 24 Feb., 1740, and proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (Boycott 359), contains the following bequest to " Wimborne Church " :

" I desire a long reading desk may be fix! over the Vault in Wombcmrne [stc], and that the Bible, the whole duty of man, m r Nelson's ffeasts and Fasts, and Doctor Sherlock's Book concern- ing Death and the immortality of the Soul, be all chained to ly on the said desk."

Earlier in the will he had expressed his wish to be buried in the (family) vault in Wim- borne Minster.

The desk, with some books chained to it, can still be remembered as having been fixed near the north w^all of the South Choir aisle. It was taken aw^y at the restoration of the church in 18557, and two of the books, the Bible and ' The Whole Duty of Man,' to which the chains are still attached, were placed in what is commonly called " the Chained Library " at the Minster. They will be found in the glass case which stands in the centre of the room. The books bear the date 1702 (nearly twenty years later than the foundation of the library); and the chains are of a different pattern, and have much larger links than those have by which the volumes in the library proper are chained. JAS. M. J. FLETCHER.

\Vimborne Minster Vicarage.

THE "ALEPPO MERCHANT" INN (11 S. iii. 289, 396) fit Carno, co. Montgom. Perhaps the name may be explained thus : In 1655 Dorothy Pryse (youngest dan. of Thomas, of Llanvraed, and niece of Sir Richard Pryse of Gogerthan, co. Cardigan) was " of Machynlleth," in the neighbourhood of Carno. She married (where ? banns published at Ness Strange, co. Salop. July, 1655) James Betton of Wilcot, near Shrews- bury. He was third son of Robert Betton, Mayor of Shrewsbury 1643, and his elder brother Thomas was a merchant of Aleppo and London. In 1658 he was in " Aleppo, in the Dominion of the Turke," and in 1659 is mentioned as " being suddenly to take a voyage to Aleppo "). James died 1663, and Thomas was executor of the will, wherein are mentioned Dorothy, his beloved wife, " and all the stock of sheep and other cattle which she hath in Wales." If, as is likely, her property lay near Machynlleth, the Aleppo merchant would have been per- sonally well known there. Two of his sons were also " Turkey merchants " ; one of whom, Thomas, is said to have been a

captive in Barbary, and left his fortune to the Ironmongers' Company, London, chiefly for the redemption of slaves in Turkey and Barbary.

There may be a simpler explanation of the name of the inn, but I think the above may, perhaps, be of interest.

C. STETJART BETTON.

Pendover, Lansdowne Road, Tunbridge Wells.

THE SECOND FOLIO SHAKESPEARE : " STAR- YPOINTING" (11 S. viii. 141, 196, 232, 294). The epitaph was reprinted on three occasions in Milton's lifetime. In "Poems: Written by Wil. Shake-speare, Gent., London (Tho. Cotes), 1640," the poem is headed ' An Epitaph on the Admirable Dramaticke Poet, William Shakespeare,' and the line referred to appears as

Vnder a starre-ypointing Pyramid ? In " Poems of John Milton, London (Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Moseley), 1645," and again in " Poems, &c., upon Several Occasions, by Mr. John Milton, London (Tho. Dring), 1673," the title given is ' On Shakespear, 1630,' and the line in question appears as

Under a Star-ypointing Pyramid ? In the eighth line of the poem the word " lasting " occurs in the Second Folio Shakespeare of 1632, but in Milton's poems of 1645 and 1673 this has been altered to " live-long."

I conclude from these facts that Milton revised the poem for the 1640 edition of Shakespeare's poems, if not also for the two editions of his own poems, and that he deliberately wrote " ypointing," and not "ypointed." WYNNE E. BAXTER.

SMUGGLING QUERIES (11 S. viii. 231, 274). The following extract relating to the bowsprits of cutters is from ' King's Cutters and Smugglers,' by E. K. Chatterton, p. 123 :

" In 1822 the Attm-ney and Solicitor Gen< -r.-.I. after a difficult case had boon raised, gave the !- 1 decision as follows, the matter having arisen in connection with the licensing of a craft : ' A cutter may have a standing bowsprit of a cert;; in length without a licence, but the distinction between a sloop and a cutter should not be looked for in t he rigging, but in the build and form of the hull, and then-fore when a carvel-built vessel corresponds as to her hull with the usual form of a sloop, she will not merely by having a running bowsprit become a cutter within the meaning of the Act of 21 (ieo. III. cap. 47, and consequently v. ill not be liable to forfeiture for want of a licence.' From this it will be seen that whereas Falconer .ind other nautical authorities relied on the fixing of the bowsprit to determine the difference, the leg.-il authorities relied on a difference in

hull!"