Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. n. JCLV 8, 1016.

threw a real pearl into the cup. pretended that it had dissolved, and swallowed it whole. In Bostock and Riley's translation of Pliny a foot-note suggests that Cleopatra threw the pearl into the vinegar, and immediately swallowed it, taking it for granted that it had melted.

If we are to believe that Cleopatra drank p, cup of acid capable of dissolving a real pearl, we may ask ourselves whether she could have done so without disastrous effect on herself.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

GUNFIRE AND RAIN (12 S. i. 10, 56, 96, 170, 337)'. The following appeared in The Daily Express of June 17, 1916 :

CLOUDS' SHELL-SHOCK.

HEAVY FIRING THE CAT'SE OF ABNORMAL RAINFALL ? Petrograd, Friday, June 16.

Reports from the front agree that the remarkable change in the weather which has been experienced during the past week must be the result of the terrific Russian artillery fire, which has been far beyond anything previously known. Something like a small whirlwind raged for a time. Centred News.

Mr. D. W. Horner, Fellow of the Royal Meteoro- logical Society, writes to the Daily Express :

" The best evidence in favour of the theory that the abnormal gunfire in Western Europe has caused excessive rainfall is the fact that at Greenwich the rainfall for the twelve months ending April 30 last was 32'17 inches, more than eight inches above the average for the period 1841-1905."

Mr. Horner shows about 33 per cent above the given average, but does any one of the years 1841-1913 show a rainfall of or above 32'17 inches ? ROBERT PIERPOINT.

THE ACTION OF VINEGAR ON ROCKS (11 S. x. 11, 96, 152, 197). Southey, in his ' Common- place Book,' 2nd Series, p. 330, says :

" When Jayme besieged Valencia, salt and vinegar were used in making a breach. Some soldiers of Lerida got to the wall under cover of the manias (a machine like the tortoise of the ancients), el qual fue luego con picas y con sal y rinapre en (res paries agvjerado, hasfa que pudo haver entrada para im cuerpo de soldado por eada agvjero. Miedes, 1. 11, c. 11."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" AVIATIK " (12 S. i. 370, 435). According to The Scientific American, the 1914-15 type of Aviatik is a German tractor biplane (i.e., one with the screw in front) driven by a rotary engine of 114 h. p.

As regards the word ' aviation," this has been in use in France for more than half a century, and is now so firmly established in the English language that it would be impossible to eradicate it. L. L. K.

CORRECT DESIGNATION OF WAR MINISTER (12 S. i. 510). -There has been no " Secretary at War " (the correct title) since 1863, when, 26-7 Viet. <. 12 expressly abolished the office.. He never was a " Secretary of State for the War Department " (same Act), but "was concerned with the passing of the Mutiny Bill and was responsible for all that related to the finance of the Army. He directed the movements of troops, subject to the sanction of the Secretary of State." Anson, ' Constitution,' Vol. II. Part I. cap. iii. s. iii. 3, p. 166 (1907).

H. C N.

FlELDINGIANA : I. MlSS H AND (12 S,

i.483 ; ii. 16). Husband 'of Ipsley, Warwick- shire, should be, I think, Hubaud (sometimes Hubot) of Ipsley (vide Dugdale).

G. H. R.

" M. A. E." : WHO WAS SHE ? (A.D. 1864> (12 S. i. 410). By the kindness of the Rev, T. W. Gilbert, Rector of St. Clements Parish, Oxford, I found Mr. Thomas Henry Evans, at 79 Cowley Road, Oxford, who told me that the book in question was the work of his first cousin once removed, Mis& Mary Anne Evans, who lived at 8 London Place, St. Clements, which house she- inherited from her father, who was the porter of the Queen's College, while his brother Richard, who lived at No. 9, was the butler of that Society. He led me to her grave, about 10 yards to the south-west of the principal door of the church, where one* finds this epitaph:

To the memory of

Ann

relict of the late Edward Evans

of London Place S' Clements who died 28 June 1880

aged 70 also of Frederick

their son who died 25 Oct. 1861

aged 26

also of Marv Anne Evans

who died Jan. 27, 1877

aged 56.

He showed me the sketch of a man's head done by her brother Frederick, a chemist, and introduced me to her friend Miss Gunstone, at 18 Jeune Street. St. Clements, who showed us a copy of the Poems, almost as good as new, and a photograph of Miss M. A. Evans, who was of Welsh descent. Mr. C. J. Parker, of 27 Broad Street, Oxford, finds in the ledgers of his father and grand- father that the firm received on March 9, 1864, 11. 10s. for the printing of 150 copies of these 'Short Poems.' I am also indebted for information about this authoress to Miss E,