Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/256

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. m. APH.L i, mi.

The tables of letters given in Chambers* s, though closely resembling those of John. Peter (not Peters, as in the magazine), are not absolutely identical in detail. The writer does not fully indicate the nature of the " clue " which he obtained from the ' Arithmetic.' I have examined Solomon Lowe's book (' Arithmetic in Two Parts,' Lond., 1749). On p. 39 he gives this pro- blem : " What number of hexameter and pentameter verses, may be made out of the following lines [i.e., groups of words] ? " Then follow six groups of nine words each for the hexameter, and five other groups of nine words each for the pentameter. To construct an hexameter any one word is taken from the first of the six groups. Five other words are then added, one from each of the following groups. The result is a line that will scan, and that contains sense of a sort. The pentameters are formed by a similar method from th.e words in the other set of groups. The answer to the problem, to quote Solomon Lowe, is :

" In the Hexameter there being 6 lines [= groups of words] and 9 words in each line, the square cube of 9 gives 531441. In the Pentameter there being 5 lines and 9 words in each line, the sursolid or 5 th power of nine gives 59049. In all 590490."

As the author of the article in Chambers' s points out, this does not include all the varieties which might possibly be constructed with these words. Solomon LoM'e continues :

" N.B. To give this feat an air of mystery the

author, John Peter (Sept. 29, 1677), distributed

the letters of these words into tables And to

strengthen the paradox he called the piece Artificial Versifying," fcc.

The work of John Peter bears the follow- ing title :

" Artificial Versifying | A New Way | To Make | Latin Verses. | Whereby | Any one of Ordinary Capacity, | that only knows the A. B.C. And can count 9 I (though he understands not One Word of Latin, | or what a Verse means) may be plainly taught | (and in as little time as this is reading over) how to make Thousands of Hexameter and Pen- tameter Verses which shall be True Latine, True Wherein the Old Structure of Hexameters is quite Pen- | tameters | By the same Hand of John
 * Verse and Good Sense. | The Second Edition. |
 * taken do\vn, and in its place a more Compact One
 * raised ; to which is adjoyned a New Model of

Peter^~ o j^r W s." (London, printed by T. J. fur John Sims, 1678.)

The licence is dated October 15th, 1677. At the end cf the booklet is an advertise- ment of the author's almanac for 1678. The ' D.N.B.' ignores John Peter. The B. M. Catalogue describes him as " physician."

It will be seen that this verse-making by machinery resolves itself into ringing changes

on a limited number of words. Each lino is complete in itself. Verses in any tongue could be constructed on the same principle. Those who gird at the practice of verse - writing in a " dead language " have no occasion here to blaspheme. It is difficult to see what connexion there can be between a machine to illustrate a mathematical problem such as the above and an automaton chess-player. With regard to the latter, is not one alleged automaton known to have concealed a living person ?

EDWARD BENSLY.

There are some pretty full accounts of the process of making Latin hexameters by machinery at 1 S. xii. 470 ; 2 S. i. 57 viii 5H. W. C. B.

On p. 37 of vol. vii. of The Illustrated London News (19 July, 1845) is an account, with an illustration, of " The Eureka," a machine " for composing Hexameter Latin Verses," then being exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. The account is too long to quote, as it would take about three columns of ' N. & Q.' DIEGO.

[MB. ALECK ABRAHAMS and U. also thanked for replies.]

WARWICK LANE AND ITS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS (11 S. iii. 121, 193). MR. WILLIAM MERCER'S interesting reply does not convict me of error. In stating that after Warwick's death on Barnet Field "all the honours and possessions of the NeviJls fell into the hands of the ill-fated Clarence," I referred to the hereditary estates of the Nevills. It is not clear from MR. MERCER'S reply .whether the manors mentioned by him were comprised in the Tibetot or Montacute estates. The latter formed the inheritance of Alice, sole daughter and heiress of Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the siege of Orleans in 1428. Alice Montacute inherited from her father the baronies of Montagu and Mon- thermer, and married Richard Nevill, third son of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland, who w&s created Earl of Salisbury by patent in 1442 and was beheaded in 1460. His eldest son, the Earl of Warwick, possessed, jure matris, the baronies of Montagu and Monthermer, which on his death fell into abeyance between his two daughters Anne, who married firstly Edward, Prince of Wales, and secondly King Richard III., and died, leaving no descendant ; and Isabel, the wife of George, Duke of Clarence, whose issue inherited the right to the baronies. Most,