Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/501

 ii s. iv. DEC. 16, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

495

1581, which has lately been well edited and annotated by Mr. Moore Smith, Gilbert, a draper, produces his book to show Pedantius, a schoolmaster whom he is dunning, that he has himself paid two crowns and a half per ell in London for some silk, that amount being represented by SSP, which Pedantius cannot understand. In a note Mr. Moore Smith refers us to W. Rowley's ' A New Wonder,' Act I. sc. i. :

Rich. Read the gross sum of your broad cloths. George. 68 pieces at B,ss, and 1.: 57 at L.ss, -and o.

F. NEWMAN.

KING'S THEATRE (OPERA-HOUSE), HAY-
 * MARKET (US. iv. 405). Probably a history

exists in MS., as several attempts at compiling one have been made. James Winston, for many years manager at Drury Lane, formed large historical collections on the metropolitan and provincial theatres, and at the sale of his library, May, 1849, lots 477-84 were all excellent material for a history of the house. The principal item (lot 477, 121. 10s., Johnson) was Vice- Chamberlain Coke's papers relative to the Italian opera in the Haymarket, 1706-15; and lot 479 (Lacey, II. 2s.) was historical collections in 2 vols., 4to, of the Queen's Theatre, Haymarket, and Lincoln's Inn and Drury Lane Theatres, showing the per- formances nightly, 1710-29.

Some interesting lots of pamphlets also occurred in the sale^of John Field's library, 22 January, 1827. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

I agree with MR. HORACE BLEACKLEY that something more is wanted than John Ebers's meagre ' Seven Years of the King's 'Theatre ' (which he doubtless knows), pub- lished in 1828 by William Harrison Ains- worth, with six very interesting lithograph portraits. A. FORBES SIEVEKING.

SELDEN'S ' TABLE TALK ' : " FORCE " <11 S. iv. 229, 278). I doubt if "force" here be a form of farce, as suggested at the latter reference. To me it looks as if the ninth meaning of the word given in the tion of a document, statement, or the like," were sufficient : " the preface, and the force, and the conclusion, which are not part of the Creed." The preface I take to be the first paragraph : " Whosoever will be saved .... hold the Catholic Faith"; the force, the second paragraph : " Which Faith except every one .... shall perish everlastingly " ; and the conclusion, follow- ing at the end of the Creed : " This is the
 * N.E.D.,' viz., " the real import or significa-

Catholic Faith : which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." The Clarendon Press edition of ' Table Talk,' by S. H. Reynolds (1892), makes no comment on the passage whatever. N. W. HILL. New York.

" SWALE," ITS ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MEANINGS (11 S. iv. 67, 114, 175, 351, 438). In the answers to this question I do not recollect any one alluding to the hollow, with a stream intersecting it, called East and West Swale, which separates the Isle of Sheppey from the mainland of Kent. The entrance to the East Swale is near Whitstable, alongside Whitstable Flats ; it winds westward on the south of the island, and at the other end is called the West Swale, which finds its exit into the Medway at Queensborough. I observe that it is spelt " Swealwe " in a map issued by the Oxford Geographical Institute to explain Alfred the Great's campaigns. This hollow, with the river running through, illustrates the meaning of the term as used in England.

W. W. GLENNY. Barking, Essex.

" Swale " is a term commonly applied in the central part of the State of New York to a low, damp spot in meadows or woodland, not so wet as a swamp.

H. L. FAIRCHILD.

Cazenovia, New York.

DRY WEATHER IN NINETEENTH CENTURY (US. iv. 409). MR. KENNEDY might find contemporary accounts in old magazines, such as The Literary Panorama or The Monthly. However, even these reports fail at times. For the editor of The Monthly on 1 March, 1810, regrets that, "owing to an accident which has occurred by the frost to our rain-gauge, we are unable to give an accurate account of ., . ."

If MR. KENNEDY cannot find what he wants, and cares to drop me a line, I will look the subject up. I am convinced that neither 1805 nor 1815 equalled this last summer in dryness. Mr. C. Harding read a paper on 15 November before the Royal Meteorological Society on ' The Astonishing Records of the late Summer.' It was unique. The records of Greenwich reach back to 1841. J. W. SCOTT.

20, Paradise Place, Leeds.

TAILOR AND POET (11 S. iv. 206). This form of self-advertisement is uncommon, but the instance given by MR. BITLLOCH is not altogether unique. There is one men- tioned by Mr. Ralph Thomas in his amusing work on 'Swimming,' p. 260 (Lond., 1904).