Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/526

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vi. NOV. 30, 1012.

added to the mug ?), no doubt this or that general name came to be attached to a par- ticular use ; and the process is still in pro- gress. But though we may still get our soup (or broth) in a basin, a bowl, or a cup, we prefer, remarkably enough, to have it in a plate. Probably our great-grand- parents, to whom a " dish of tea " was a natural or obvious expression, would have gulped in drinking it if some lunatic had, at the moment, mentioned a plate of soup. And one of these days some alteration in the shape of the soup-plate may give the vessel a new name, and the soup-plate will become as much an anachronism as the tea-dish. DOUGLAS OWEN,

TAVERN SIGNS (US. vi. 328). There is an inn bearing the sign of the " Why Not ? " in close proximity to the eighth milestone beside the road leading from Northampton to Rugby. This inn was established some sixty years ago by a Mr. Edmund Garrett of West Haddon, who, I have been led to understand, was the author and inventor of the suggestive sign. I am interested to find that it is now used elsewhere.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

' THE ECCENTRIC BIOGRAPHY ' (11 S. vi. 369). James Caulfield (1764-1826) issued in 1814, among other books, ' The Eccentric Magazine,' with " Lives and Portraits of misers, dwarfs, murderers, idiots, and similar personages." Caulfield was publisher, print- seller, and compiler of book-catalogues. He published numerous biographies, with en- graved portraits, of historical personages and criminals (1790-1824). He is described in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1826, part i. p. 378, as " a truly and highly gifted man."

Mr. H. R. Tedder, in the ' D.N.B.,' says that his knowledge of English history and biography was minute and extensive, and adds that he always worked hard, and was a good son and generous friend. With advancing years he unfortunately took to drink, and in June, 1826, broke his knee-pan, dying in St. Bartholomew's Hospital 22 April, 1826.

The two following books I have taken from Messrs. Hatchard's ' Catalogue of Old and Rare Books ' : ' The Eccentric Mirror,' 4 vols., post 8vo, London, 1806, " of male and female characters, ancient and modern," &c., collected by G. H. Wilson ; and ' The Terrific Register,' London, circa 1820, " a record of crimes, judgments," &c.

F. C. WHITE.

Cardiff.

The above query probably refers to ' The Eccentric Mirror,' published 1807 by James Cundee, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row, in four 12mo volumes, aggregating over 1,400 pages. The title-page says that it was " Collected and re-collected from the most authentic Sources, by G. H. Wilson " ; whilst the numerous plates of portraits and incidents are interesting, and some of them not obtainable elsewhere. All the copies I have seen have the plates uncoloured, but not long ago a copy was catalogued as coloured. I presume by this was meant hand-coloured, as it is hardly likely any were printed in colours. W. B. H.

PLAY FOUNDED ON THE EXPLOITS OF TEKELI (11 S. vi. 210, 258). I may add to the information given by MR. WM. DOUGLAS that among the ' Juvenile Theatre Prints,' vol. v. p. 69, in the Print - Room, British Museum, there is a plate of juvenile or toy theatre characters in the play of 'Tekeli.' It is entitled ' Hodgson's New Characters in Tekeli, No. 9,' and represents ' The Ambassador before Alexina.' It is in the original colouring, and not improbably may unfortunately be the only survivor of a series of twenty penny sheets of * Cha- racters and Scenes.' Though I have a large collection of Hodgson's plays, I have no print in a copy of ' Tekeli.' RALPH THOMAS.

REFERENCES WANTED (11 S. vi. 309). 1. Ancestral Masks. Polybius, vi. 53, in describing the Roman custom, says that these were placed in the most conspicuous part of the house, enclosed in wooden shrines (vatSn). The elder Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.,' xxxv. 2(2), 6, while '-lamenting the change in fashion that had made this practice obsolete in his day, describes how waxen masks used formerly to be exhibited in the atrium, arranged in separate cabinets ("expressi cera vultus singulis dispone- bantur armariis "). The ancients had a great belief in the properties of cedar. Vitruvius, ' De Architectura,' ii. 9, 12, 13, speaks of it as lasting for ever, since its aromatic nature preserved it from decay and made it impervious to insects. For the distance of the masks from the floor see Vitruvius, vi. 4, 6.

2. Glazed Windows. See Smith's 'Dic- tionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,' 3rd ed., i. 686, s.v. ' Domus.' The words of the passage from Lactantius there referred to are " quasi per fenestras perlucente vitro aut speculari lapide obductas."