Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/385

 ii s. iv. NOV. 4, MIL] NOTES AND QU ERIES.

379

In L'Intermediaire, 10 Septembre, 1911, is to be found a reproduction of a portrait of Jean Causeur, with a brief account of his life. He was born in 1638, at the village of Ploumoguer, in Lower Brittany, and died on 10 July, 1775, at the village of Saint- Mathieu, near Brest ! In his latest years his beard became replaced by a slight down, but at the age of 120 he still shaved himself and knelt down to hear mass.

As members of the white race reach their prime about 30, it is scarcely credible that any of them, even if of very placid tempera- ment, resist the wear and tear of life for four or five times that period. Negro slaves in America have been credited with reaching an immense age. To what years do African blacks attain ? They mature earlier than whites, but having less highly developed brains, they do not suffer from the mental anxiety which, according to doctors, saps the strength of many whites.

M. P.

DR. WILLIAM MEAD, CENTENARIAN (11 S. iv. 310). The inscription to this person is to be found on an altar -tomb in Ware churchyard, close to the south-east corner of the church. It reads :

In memory of William Mead, M.D.,

Who departed this life the 28th of October,

1652, aged 148 Years and 9 Months

3 Weeks and 4 Days.

In the parish register, under burials, we find:

" 1652. Nov. 4. George Mead, doctor of Physick."

No age is specified, and the Christian name is not the same ; but the entry doubtless refers to William Mead, who died at Tun- bridge Wells, and was brought to Ware for burial.

Local tradition states that Mead's age was but 48, the *' 1 " being added by a mason when the inscription was recut on a new slab some sixty years ago. Perhaps the same humorist altered George to William.

W. B. GERISH. [MR. C. HALL CROUCH also thanked for reply.]

TWINS AND SECOND SIGHT (11 S. iii. 469 ; iv. 54, 156, 259, 299). I am sorry we have lost sight of the curious statement made by your original correspondent : that a certain twin could detect another twin, though unrelated to her and a stranger. This differs from the sympathy, physio- logical and psychological, between twins of one bearing which has of late been dis- cussed in ' N. & Q.' ST. SWITHIN.

on

Frederick James Furnivall : a Volume of Personal Record. (Oxford University Press.)

FURNIVALL'S seventy-fifth birthday was cele- brated by a miscellany to which scholars from many quarters contributed. It was felt that his great services to English letters deserved some special recognition. Now, again, when his long life is ended, a host of friends have joined together in giving some idea of the man, his splendid enthusiasm, his many lovable qualities, and his extravagances. Mr. John Munro, wlio has been associated With him in Shakespearian work, leads off with a memoir which gives an excellent idea of the Doctor and no fewer than forty-nine friends follow.

From all these appreciations one who did not know Furnivall can get an idea of the vividness of his personality, his lack of reserve, and the boyishness which he retained to the end. His vigour was, no doubt, in part due to his ascetic habits ; and the fact that he received his friends in an A. B.C. shop rather than in an opulent, London Club is characteristic of him.

He was always pugnacious and " loved a row," and on occasions of this sort one might say of him what Ben Jonson said of Shakespeare : " Some- times it was necessary he should be stop'd : Sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius." Most of these outbursts are now wisely forgotten,, but his friends ought to have kept him in better order. As late as 1909 ' The Shakspere Allusion- Book ' prints a note of his concerning a woodcut of some old drunkards with beasts' heads at table ; who are said to represent " certain swinish Shakspereans." To allow such vulgar abuse to appear was to do no service to the wonderful old enthusiast.

This is Furnivall at his worst, which his best far outweighs. The reader who sees in these pages the many enterprises which he initiated, and the success which was due to his untiring effort, will be amazed. From all points of view come tributes to his vivacity, his great kindliness, and his invaluable powers of encouragement. There are many amusing touches, and even those who had no personal acquaintance with Furnivall will be able to recognize that he was truly a remarkable man. The savant has a way of being largely useless to the world, because he does not radiate,. if we may use the expression, any of his learning. Furnivall, alike in sport and scholarship, was alive every inch of him, and he made the best use of his powers.

' THE COMBAT OF THE THIRTY ' is among the many historical subjects lately mentioned in L'Intermediaire. An inquirer who asked whether the story may not be mere legend is referred by one correspondent to the Revise de Bretagne, de Vendee et d'Anjou, 1896, t. ii. pp. 164- 192, for the most complete account of the cele- brated feat of arms, while another writer gives a list of the men who fought. The St. John's-tide bonfires, which were lighted in Paris itself in the middle of the eighteenth century, receive attention ; and the coinage issued by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem comes under notice, reference also being made to the position of the