Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/466

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. 11. DEC. 2, UNA.

Account of William Clachar, chief proprietor of The Chelmsford Chronicle, and the only token issuer of that town, at which over 100,000 pieces were struck. He died in 1813, aged 80, but had retired twenty years previously in favour of his partners, Messrs. Meggy <t Chalk. Circulating libraries at fashionable places at the seaside provided, in those days, not only books, but also reading lounges -with all the London newspapers, music, and billiard tables. One of the most noted of these was Fisher's, situated on the western side of the old Steyne at Brighton, of which an illustration is given. "William Gye. printer of Bath, issued tokens to further his charitable aims on behalf of the debtors lodged in Ilchester Gaol, whom he visited weekly. He is referred to in The Printers' Register of Jan. 6, 1879. The token represents a female seated, in- structing a boy with a key to unlock the prison doors, and bears the inscription : " Go forth. Remember tho debtors in Ilchester Gaol." It is good to know that the name is still retained, and "that the business is carried on by the Dawson family on the same spot in the Market-Place. The illustration given of the shop shows that subscriptions were received for the .State lottery.

It is unfortunate that it is not definitely known who were the issuers of the Franklin tokens, but Mr. Longman does not think it " unreasonable to assign the piece to the firm of Watts in Wylde Court, where Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer."

Among many other notable tokens, that of the famous Lackington must be mentioned. It bears his bust, a figure of Fame blowing a trumpet, and the words : " Halfpenny of J. Lackington & Co., cheapest booksellers in the world. Payable at Lackington & Co.'s, Finsbury Square, London."

Nor must we omit the Miller halfpenny, of which only a few copies were struck. It is very finely engraved, and bears a strong profile likeness of Thomas Miller. His own business was at Bungay, but his son William came to London and became an eminent bookseller in Albemarle Street, and on Tiia retiring in 1812, John Murray, as is well known, became his successor. A fine portrait of "Thomas Miller is given.

In the second section of his book Mr. Long- man describes tokens which were struck by people not connected with the book trade, but which refer to authors, and frequently bear their like- ness ; and in the third he enumerates a few mis- cellaneous tokens of interest from the subjects depicted on them.

Some of the illustrations have already been Incidentally named. There are in addition several portraits, a good view of Lackington's Temple of the Muses, and three excellent plates of reproduc- tions of tokens.

The Greek Manuscripts in the Old Seraglio at Con- stantinople. By Stephen Gaselee. (Cambridge, University' Press, Is. net.)

THE writer of this lively brochure was at Constanti- nople in 1909, from Monday, April 13, to the following Saturday, his stay covering a considerable and. for the time being, successful mutiny of the soldiers as&inst the Committee of Union and Progress. These pages give us his notes as they were taken immediately after witnessing the scenes he describes. His experiences were sufficiently stormy, and not without some peril to his own

life and limb. His main object in going to Con- stantinople was the inspection of the collection of Greek MSS. in the Old Seraglio. It was supposed that important treasures would be revealed when the expected Catalogue was published. The like- lihood that this publication will now be long delayed has caused Mr. Gaselee to give us his own list, of what he found in the library ; and though this is very brief, and bare of detail, it is sufficient to show that, except perhaps for the Critobulus, the collection contains nothing belong- ing to the first rank of its kind.

More than two -thirds of the MSS., which number thirty - three, would seem to be work of the fifteenth century or later. Of the early ones, a twelfth - century leetionary, in a fine Byzantine hand .with headings in gold, appears the most attractive. There is a Euclid which Mr. Gaselee also assigns to the twelfth centurv ; an Iliad with scholia and a ' Catena patrum de_ Veteri Testamento ' are assigned by him to the thirteenth centurv. A great proportion of the works are scientific as science was understood in the latter Middle Age ; and since two or three MSS. seem to have been written out in the sixteenth century, it seems reasonable to connect the collection, as Mr. Gaselee suggests, with some doctor or professional man living in Constantinople in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. It would perhaps form no bad working library for a person who could supplement it by consulting other books not in his own possession. We are grateful to Mr. Gaselee for giving us the particulars of it, and at any rate setting doubts and some unwarranted assumptions at rest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WAR. MR. PEDDIE informs us, with reference to our not* to MR. ARDAOH on p. 420, that he contributes only the preface to ' Books on the Great War,' which is being compiled by Mr. F. W. T. Lange and Mr. W. T. Berry, of the St. Bride Foundation Libraries. Vols. I.-IIL, containing the titles of about 1,500 books, and covering the first year of the War, have been issued by Messrs. Graftpn & Co. bound together with a general index, price Is. 6d. net. Vol. IV., containing about the same number of titles, will be published in a few days at the same price. It is provided with both Subject and Author Indexes, and includes many foreign works.

The AthenfEum now appearing monthly, arrange- ments have been made whereby advertisements of posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to publish weekly, may appear in the intervening weeks in ' N. & Q.'

to <&0msp0tt>*ntfi.

PROF. MOORE SMITH. Forwarded.

Mn. F. T. HIBOAME. ' The Tapestried Chamber ' is not included in any novel. It was published in ' The Keepsake,' 1828, and will be found with the short stories ' The Two Drovers ' and ' My Aunt Margaret's Mirror,' which begin the first series of ' Chronicles of the Canongate.' It is indeed a horrifying story.

CoRRKiEDNtJM. Ante, p. 354, col. 2, 1. 2 sub ' Henry Vachell,' for " captain " read baptized.