Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/413

 ii s. VIIL NOV. 22, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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helpful in the identification of the books. Besides the general interest belonging to such a list, some additional importance may attach to it owing to the circumstance that the then head master of Sedbergh, Post- humus Wliarton, did not wish information as to the books in use at Sedbergh to get abroad and so reach his rivals in his profes- sion. There are over eighty items in the list. Those in the identification of which I desire assistance are :

1. ' Greek Winchister Epigrams.'

2. ' DemiGods.'

3. ' Vestibulum Feenicum.'

4. ' The Young Secretary's Guide.'

5. ' Posion of Parts.'

6. ' A Consaring Grammar.'

7. ' Catichism of Ques. and Ans '

In one of the versions, 1 appears as ' Winchisters Epigrams Greek,' and in another ' 2 Winchisters Epigrams,' the latter showing it was a book in common use.

The variations of 2 are ' DemiGod's ' and ' Demigods.'

No. 3 appears in one version as ' Vesti- bulum Feenicum,' and in another as ' Vesti- bulum Tecnicum,' which may afford a key to the solution of the problem.

4. The only variations are " Secretary " in two versions and " Guide " in one.

5. " Posion" in one version is " posure." There is no variation in 6 nor in 7. The

latter is omitted in one version.

I have included 7 in the list, in spite of the difficulty of identifying a book with apparently so common a title, because, in over thirty Catechisms of the period which have more or less come before me in Cata- logues or otherwise, I have not found any in which " in Question and Answer " appears in the title-page, so far as information as to this has reached me.

The period of Wharton's head-master- ship was the palmy period of Sedbergh's early history. It w*as at that time probably the most successful and deserving school in the North of England. The list will appear, I hope, in the third volume of ' The Flemings in Oxford,' now in course of publication by the Oxford Historical Society. I am anxious to make the identification of the books it contains as complete as possible.

JOHN R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.

REFERENCE WANTED. " Convictions can build cathedrals ; opinions cannot " (Heine, as he gazed on Amiens Cathedral).

G. H. J.

WILLIAM SCOTT AND "A. L. M." The first book on the French language to be published in this country was Thomas Blair's ' Some Short and Easy Rules Teach- ing the True Pronunciation of the French Language, 5 Boston, 1720. The second was ' Some Observations upon the French Tongue,' Boston, 1724. The only clue to the authorship of the latter lies in the Dedica- tion, which reads in part as follows : To my Dear Brother Mr. William Scott, Professor in the Greek Tongue, in the University

of Edinburgh.

DEAR BROTHER, I received last Fall the Latin, English and French Grammar that you have composed, and sent to me ....

I send you as a return of Love, this short- Treatise, which contains, as well as yours,, sevei'al things relating to the French Language': And I Dedicate it to you as to a Person near related to me, whom [ do greatly esteem ; and who is a very competent Judge, as well as a great Admirer of the French Tongue ....

That Almighty God be pleased to pour down his most precious Blessings upon your self, .your Spouse and Children ; That you may bring them up for his Glory, and the Service and Ornament of his Church, is the Wish and Prayer of, Dear Brother,

Your humble Servant,

and Affectionate Brother,

A. L. M.

It occurs to me that the author may well have been the Rev. Andrew Le Mercier, the Dedication to whose 'Church History of Geneva ' (Boston, 1732) is signed " A. L. M.," and the Dedication to whose ' Treatise against Detraction ' (Boston, 1733) is signed " A. Le Mercier," though his name appears in full on the title-page of each of those volumes. Born in or about 1693, his name appears in the year 1712, under the heading ' Theologise Candidati.' as " Andreas Le Mercier Cadomensis in Neustria 2 Junii " in ' Le Livre dv Rectevr : Catalogve des tudiantes de 1'Academie de Geneve de 1559 a 1859,' Geneva, 1860, p. 208. Other than this nothing seems to be known about Le Mercier until his arrival in Boston in 1715 to become pastor of the French Protestant Church here, where he died in his seventy- second year on 31 March, 1764.

The " William Scott " to whom the pamphlet is dedicated was Regent of the University of Edinburgh in 1695; was made Professor of Greek on 16 June, 170S ; became Professor of Moral Philosophy on 26 Feb., 1729 ; and died in August, 1735. His son, called William Scott Secundus, became Professor of Greek on 26 Feb., 1729, and died the following December. Curiously enough, in the ' Catalogue of the Graduates