Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/299

 ii s. iv. OCT. 7, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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are in fact by Buss. Browne having suc- ceeded Buss during the publication of the fourth part, most, I think, of the issue of the first edition contained no Buss plates, and so the title-page ignored the rejected artist, whose plates appear in the earliest issue.

The ' Pickwick ' " Errata " appear on the verso of the leaf which contains " Direc- tions to the Binder " :

"The under - mentioned Plates, which have no annexed references, are to be placed in the following order."

The first mentioned is " Mr. Winkle entering the Sedan Chair," to face p. 391. In none of my three copies can I find any " Directions to the Binder " concerning the preceding plates, although only some of them have " annexed references."

It is curious that in the 1838 issue, or edition, whereas two out of the six errata the first and the last are corrected in the text though remaining in the list, the other four are left untouched. I have, however, almost ceased to be surprised at the vagaries of " Errata." I have seldom corrected a book according to its " Errata " without finding one or more mistakes in the " errata " themselves. ROBERT PIEBPOINT.

At the time ' Pickwick ' was being pub- lished in parts, these would be printed on hand presses, giving but a few hundred impressions per hour, and there are at least three explanations of the erratum in C. C. B.'s copy being unnecessary.

1. The circulation may have been such as to require every sheet to be duplicated in composition, to expedite the presswork, one " forme " (the technical term for the type in its iron frame) having the correct date, and the other a wrong one.

2. Even with a single forme, part of the issue may have been worked, and the mis- take then noticed and corrected.

3. The forme may have been lifted, and again sent to press, in consequence of the demand exceeding the number originally provided for. In this case, a proof-reader would probably run over a "press proof" before the further supply was printed off, and thus detect the " literal."

Some of the incorrect sheets may have gone out, but, if not, the publisher would hardly reprint for a trifling mistake, trusting to the " Errata " issued when the work was completed to set matters right, although this would not be needed by some of the copies. Bearing in mind the unnoticed slip mentioned by C. C. B., I favour the second suggestion as the most likely solution.

I have an edition dated 1863, which has errata for four errors, two of these being a date : " 1827 " to be read for " 1830 " on pp. 185 (1. 25) and 202 (1. 30), both referring to the writ issued in Bardell v. Pickwick. It would be interesting to know which date was given in the paper parts.

Glancing through the book (which I have not opened for many years), I noticed other mistakes which are unquestionably printers' errors : P. 98, 1. 20, " control " is spelt " controul " ; p. 182 has the fig. 1 dropped from the folio ; p. 253, 1. 26, the I has gone from " unsuccessful " ; and p. 341, 1. 5, the o and n in " inscription " have been transposed. CHARLES S. BUBDON.

THEOPHILE GATJTIEB (11 S. iv. 241). The delightful paper by COL. PBIDEAUX which I have just read leads me to mention that Gautier's ' Tra los Montes ' was trans- lated into English in the sixties. I believe the book is now out of print. I have it somewhere among my hoards, but cannot place it. M. L. R. BBESLAB.

Percy House, South Hackney.

PABIS BABBIEBS (11 S. iv. 230). The "barriere" still exists in Paris, the term being applied to the gates of the fortifica- tions where the octroi is levied. Napoleon III. enlarged the " enceinte " of Paris just half a century ago ; but a line of boulevards plainly marks the original boundaries. To cite a spot familiar to all tourists, the Arc de Triomphe represents (roughly) the site of the Barriere de 1'Etoile. The Etoile- Villette tramway follows the old line of fortifications. On the Boulevard de Cour- celles may still be seen one of the old gate- houses (now known as the "Rotonde") at the entrance to the Pare Monceau. At La Villette tramway terminus, masked by an overhead-railway girder-construction, may be seen a second gatehouse the one that figures in Detaille's painting of the reception of Napoleon's victorious " Grande Armee," by the Municipality of Paris. Halfway between these surviving gatehouses is the site now ultra-modernized of the Bar- riere St. Denis, where travellers from London entered Paris in the younger days of Thacke- ray (refer to ' Invasion of France ' : ' Paris Sketchbook'), and even of Dickens, who sketched D'Evremond's route ('Tale of Two Cities ' ) from memory. The Beauvais road was preferred to the present railway route by Amiens as being a few "posts'" shorter in coaching days. The octroi-man met the diligence at the "barriere," and accompanied it to the hotels to see trunks