Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/379

 12 s.x. APRIL 22, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 309 " TTJILEURS," A FRENCH MASONIC TERM. It appears from the official report of the quarterly communication of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons of England on March 1 that there has just been added to the Grand Lodge Library a book pub- lished in Paris in 1846 entitled ' Tuileur portatif des 33 degres.' The noun here used is so unusual that it invites investiga- tion. According to F. E. A. G. Gasc's Languages' (1897), tuileur is a masculine substantive meaning " (in freemasonry) tiler " a word not included, by the way, in the same compiler's ' Concise Dictionary ' (4th ed., 1905). The verb tuiler is given as "to tile,"' but this is akin to tuilier, meaning " tile-maker," and tuiler ie, mean- ing a " tile-works." H. Hamilton and E. Legros, in their ' Dictionnaire Francais et Anglais ' (edition of 1901), do not include tuileur, though they do tuilier, but the latter only in its trade sense of " tiler, tile- maker." I am informed by a French Mason working under the English jurisdiction that in the French Lodges in London owning obedience to the Grand Lodge of England, the title applied to the tyler or tiler is " Gardien du Temple " ; and he adds, word in the Lodges in France." That, however, is just the point on which I should like information, which can be given without the revelation of any Mason's secret. A GRAND OFFICER OF ENGLAND. ELIZABETH CLEGHORN GASKELL. I should be grateful if any reader possessing, or knowing of the existence of, unpublished letters or documents relating to Mrs. Gaskell would communicate with me. A. STANTON WHITFIELD. Exeter College, Oxford. r VINCENZO MARTINELLI. Martinelli, about whom Casanova has a great deal to say, was a well-known man of letters in London in the middle of the eighteenth century. I have given a short account of him at 11 S. v. 123. Dr. Johnson met him on April 15, 1773, at General Paoli's, when he told the doctor that " for several years he had lived much with Charles Townsend and that he ventured to tell him he was a bad joker " (Boswell's ' Johnson,' Birkbeck Hill, ii. 222). Martinelli also was a friend of Dr. Burney ('Memoirs of Dr. Burney,' Fanny Burney, i. 294). Boswell says that he came from Florence and was the author of a History of England in Italian, printed in London. Where and when did he die ? HORACE BLEACKLEY. PALAVICINI ARMS. Can anybody blazon the arms of this family, which came from Genoa and was naturalized in England in 1586 and settled at Babraham, Cambs ? I think there is a charge of three oak twigs fructed. Does naturalization result, de jure, in recognition by the College of Heralds of the arms legally borne by the family in their native country ? A. G. KEALY. STONE SIGN : LOWER THAMES STREET. Let into the front of No. 6, Lower Thames Street, is a stone sign, apparently a bear or a sheep with a device above. What is the meaning of it ? WALTER E. GAWTHORP. ROPE OF SAND. Mr. W. Gurney Benham, in ' Cassell's Book of Quotations,' at p. 532, gives us a proverb, " Ex arena funiculum nectis." Columella, who wrote about A.D. 50, says (10, praef. 4), " Arenae funis effici non potest." In a copy-book which was in common use about 1880 the proverb took the form, " You cannot make a rope of the sand of the sea." To the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel, ' canto ii., stanza 13, the poet gives this footnote : Michael Scott was, once upon a time, much embarrassed by a spirit, for whom he was under the necessity of finding constant employment. . . . At length the enchanter conquered this indefati- gable demon, by employing him in the hopeless and endless task of making ropes out of sea-sand. Is the proverb current in other countries ? JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT. WINES. Is there such a thing as a book dealing with what ought to be known about wines : the best vintages, where and how to keep them, and so forth ? If there is such a book I shall be glad to hear of it. H. P. H. SPRY FAMILY. Can any reader say if the j Sprai mentioned in the following extract is connected with the Spry (Sprai) family which had already settled in Cornwall and Devon before the reign of Henry IV. ? Extract from ' A History of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight,' vol. iv., edited by W. Page : In 1167 Great Bramshill was held by Herbert de Sprai or Esprai, who was succeeded by his son and heir, Geoffrey de Sprai. Henry II.) (Pipe R., 13 C. H. S.
 * Dictionary of the French and English
 * ' So far as I know, they use the same