Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/293

 ii s. ix. APRIL 11, i9ii] NOTES AND QUERIES.

289

' THE ETHICS OF THE DUST.' May I ask the help of ' N. & Q.' to solve a few riddles in this book ?

1. Ruskin speaks of " bronze, or copper, or some of their foul patent metals " ( 34). What are " patent metals " ?

2. In 71 he says : " Were you not read- ing about that group of words beginning with V, vital, virtuous, vigorous, and so on, in Max Miiller ? " I cannot find any such passage in the ' Lectures ' or in ' Chips.'

3. He gives ( 109) as

"Moliere's great sentence, 'II s'erisuit de Ik, que tout ce qu'il y a de beau est dans les dictionnaires ; il n'y a que les mots qui sont transpose's.' " It is quite worthy of Moliere, but I cannot find it.

4. What are " Richter's lovely illustrations of the Lord's Prayer" ( 115) ? and what Richter was this ?

5. Where is the " Lac de Chede " which has been, or is being, filled up " by land- slips from the Rochers des Fiz " ( 119)?

C. B. WHEELER.

AUTHOR OF QUOTATION WANTED. I shall be glad to know whence come the following lines, which I recently found in a parish magazine as a gentle reproof to gossip - mongers :

As long as idle dogs will bark, And idle asses bray,

As long as hens will cackle

Over every egg they lay, So long will folk be chattering And idle tongues go clattering,

For the less there is to talk about

The more there is to say.

B. C.

ARMS OF THE SEE OF LICHFIELD. Is there any exact authoritative blazon of this ? and can any one refer me to an account, legendary or otherwise, of the origin of the coat ?

I have heard the cross potent, quadrate in the centre, called the " Cross of St. Chad," but why ? S. A. GRUNDY-NEWMAN.

Walsall.

SILK-WEAVING, As a child I remember being told that silk-weaving was started in or near Bangor, and that one of the pro- moters had come from France (although not a Frenchman). Last summer an old fisher- man told me he had heard from his grand- parents that a silk factory stood approxi- mately on the spot from which the Menai Bridge springs from the mainland. I am anxious to find corroboration of this and to discover the promoters' names. Can some reader kindly suggest ? L. V.

BEWICKIANA. 1. In the 'Treatise on Wood Engraving,' 1839, p. 609, the asser- tion is made that Bewick's pupil Robert Johnson " made the drawings for most of the woodcuts in Bewick's ' Fables.' ' In a note on p. 610 it is stated that "Johnson's water-colour drawings for most of the cuts in Bewick's 'Fables' are extremely beautiful- They are the size of the cuts ; and as a set are perhaps the finest small drawings of the kind that were ever made. Their finish and accuracy of drawing are admirable they look like miniature Paul Potters. It is known to only a few persons that they were drawn by Johnson during his apprenticeship. Most of them were copied on the block by William Harvey, and the rest chiefly by- Bewick himself."

Mr. Austin Dobson says in his ' Thomas Bewick and his Pupils,' 1884, p. 136, that he has reason to believe " this note was written by or for Mr. Jackson."

Robert Johnson (who died on 29 Oct., 1796, aged 26 years) completed his apprenticeship in 1791, more than twenty years before Bewick commenced his labours on his * Fables of ^Esop ' in 1812 ; and the latter tells us repeatedly during the next five years that he was engaged drawing the designs for the ' Fable ' cuts and vignettes on the wood.

From the drawings that have been pre- served (in the Hornby Library, Liverpool, and Public Library, Newcastle-upon-Tyne) we know that Bewick did make some of them, and it is scarcely likely that he would copy Johnson's drawings. But it would be interesting to know where Robert Johnson's drawings for the ' Fables ' now are, and if the cuts in Bewick's ' Fables of ^Esop,' 1818 edition, are copies of them.

2. Who was the engraver of a steel en- graving entitled 'The Master Engraver Thomas Bewick,' by J. Eyre ? end when was the engraving done ?

3. What are the full title and imprint of the novel ' Such is the World,' published by Whitaker in 1821, and mentioned by Atkin- son in his ' Sketch of Thomas Bewick ' ?

WHITE LINE.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION WANTED. I should be glad to obtain any information concerning the following Old Westminsters : (1) William Cowley, admitted 1750, aged 12 ; (2) Samuel Cox, son of Samuel Cox of London, left 1737.. aged 17 ; (3) Richmond Coxeter, admitted on the foundation 1682 ;

(4) Isaac Crab, admitted 1715, aged 14 ;

(5) Christopher Craddock, admitted 1717, aged 7 ; (6) Thales Cradock, admitted 1743, aged 11 ; and (7) Walter S. Craycroft, left 1810. G. F. R. B.