Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/449

 ii s. ix. JUNE 6, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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from thence to Salisbury. Otherwise it ought to have been in the old library at Sherborne monas- tery, to which Leland had access about twenty years before Parker became Archbishop. I wonder that Leland did not notice it if it was here when he looked at our Cathedral. However, he does not seem to have found time for anything literary here beyond making many interesting extracts from our Martyrology, now lost, and an account of ' Philobiblon,' which he erroneously ascribed to Holkot. I am inclined to think that he never penetrated to our library."

I accept this verdict as approximately definite on the wanderings from Sherborne or Worcester to Lambeth via Salisbury of the volume sent by Jewel to Parker ; how its replica came into Parker's hands I am ignorant, nor is it to my purpose to trace its vicissitudes. The points I am striving to settle are, Which of those two MSS. went from Salisbury ? and in which of the three Cambridge libraries does it lie Corpus, the University, or Trinity ? What I gleaned forms a rich harvest of research.

J. B. Me GOVERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

(To be continued.)

" RUMFOKD " CHIMNEY.

IN her article on Jane Austen in The Church Quarterly Revieiv for last October (p. 104), Miss Elizabeth Wordsworth raises the ques- tion as to the exact nature of a " Rumford," referred to as the substitute for a more ancient fireplace in the " common drawing- room " at Northanger Abbey. The passage is as follows :

" An abbey ! Yes, it was delightful to be really in an abbey ! But she [Catherine Mor- land] doubted, as she looked round the room, whether any thing within her observation would have given her the consciousness. The furniture was in all the profusion and elegance of modern taste. The fire-place, where she had expected the ample width and ponderous carving of former times, was contracted to a Rumford, with slabs of plain, though handsome, marble, and orna- ments over it of the prettiest English china."

The term is derived from the name of Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford (1753-1814), whose life is given in the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' The word " Rumfordize " appears in the ' N.E.D.' with the meaning " to improve (a chimney) on Count Rumford's system." The worthy Count gave much attention to the questions of heating and fuel consumption, and is said to have made his first experiment at Lord Palmerston's house in Hanover Square.

The principles advocated by him may be- briefly summarized from his essay on

" Chimney Fireplaces, with proposals for improving them to save fuel ; to render dwelling- houses more comfortable and salubrious, and effectually to prevent chimneys from smoking."

(1) The shape of the fireplace :

" The backs of fireplaces, as they are now commonly constructed, are as wide as the open- ing of the fireplace in front, and the sides of it are of course perpendicular to it and parallel to- each other. . . .in the fireplaces I recommend, the- back is only about one-third of the width of the opening of the fireplace in front, and con- sequently the two sides or covings of the fireplace, instead of being perpendicular to the back, are inclined to it at an angle of about 135 degrees."

(2) The material : iron fire-backs are con- demned :

" Iron, and, in general, metals of all kinds. . . r are to be reckoned among the very worst mate- rials that it is possible to employ in the construc- tion of fireplaces. The best materials I have- hitherto been able to discover are fire-stone, and common bricks and mortar."

(3) The bringing forward of the fire.. This

" may be attained by bringing forward the back of the chimney. . . .as far as possible without- diminishing too much the passage which must be left for the smoke .... When the back of a* fireplace is of a proper width, the best width) for the throat of a chimney, when the chimney and 1 the fireplace are at the usual form and size, is four inches."

It will be quite clear from these extracts in what way General Tilney rendered hi* drawing-room snug and comfortable by " contracting " the huge Gothic fireplace " to a Rumford," and it only remains to add" that all efficient modern fireplaces are con- structed on the same principles.

W. R. B. PBIDEAUX.

WEBSTER: A QUESTION OF AUTHORSHIP.

(See ante, pp. 382, 404.)

STILL stronger evidence is afforded by the- use made in this play of verbal mystifica- tions of a kind that seem to have had a par- ticular attraction for Webster not mere punning speeches or jocular quibbles of the type common to the dramatic writers of the period, but utterances deliberately calcu- lated to puzzle or deceive the persons to whom they are addressed by the use of words in a sense other than that which they would naturally convey. These " cheap deceptive tricks with words " have already been noticed by Dr. Stoll. They may be