Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/408

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s. HI. AUG.. 1917.

Farrar, 'Christ in Art ' (1901), at p. 83 says :

" A head of Christ was said to have been carved on an emerald, now lost, known as ' the Emerald Verniele of the Vatican.' Bajazet II. gave it to Pope Innocent VIII. about 1488. It is said to have been made by order of the Emperor Tiberius, but is probably a plaque of the Byzantine school. The engraving is, in fact, a mere reproduction of the Saviour's head in Raphael's ' Miraculous Draught of Fishes.' This, however, may have been influenced by older paintings which were common in the sixteenth century."

Farrar's meaning is not very clear.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

" MALBROOK S'EN VA-T-EN GUEERE " (12 S. iii. 358). In ' Father Front's Reliques,' vol. ii. p. 33 (Fraser, 1836), there is a free translation by the author, Francis S. Mahony (see '' D.N.B.'). T. C. H.

THE "HOUSE" or (12 S. iii. 331). I believe I am correct in stating that the first publishing firm to assume the style of " The

House of " was that of Messrs. Cassell,

shortly after Mr. Spurgeon became manager. Publishers' businesses have for long been spoken of as publishing houses.

F. A. RUSSELL.

116 Arran Road, Catford, S.E.

"THE LADIES or CASTELLMABCH " (11 S. xii. 360,- 407, 487 ; 12 S. i. 53, 155). After numerous inquiries in the district of Aber- soch and Nevin, I have at last unearthed the tale which was written around these people and their ancestral home. It is en- titled ' The Shrouded Face, a Welsh story of the time of Elizabeth,' and was written by Owen Rhoscomyl, i.e., Owen Vaughan, and published by Pearson in 1898.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

WARDEN PIES (12 S. iii. 273). The variety of pear called Warden, which, it is supposed, took its name from Warden in Bedfordshire, is described in Holme's ' Armory,' II. iii. 47, as being " like a Quince, but brown and spotted ; of them there are several sorts." This quotation I get from 4 Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books ' (E.E.T.S.), to which I turned in quest of a recipe for making warden pies. Those dainties, as far as I can see, the collection ignores, though it mentions several ways of dealing with the main ingredient. I also fail to get help from ' A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye,' which is strange, as its methods were contemporary with the kitchen of Shakespeare. I can only suppose that no recipe for warden pies was needed. Cooks

werts instructed how to make pastry that served for the " coffin " or enclosure of any fruit, and wardens took their chance, as did apples and the rest, though, as appears from the errand of the Clown in ' The Winter's Tale,' they needed a little ?afrron to give charm to their complexion. Does anybody eat warden pie in these days ? Likewise, what has become of Norfolk biffins ? British cioks are not inventive, but I have generally found them to be fairly conservative.

ST. S WITHIN.

Warden pies do not seem to have long survived Shakespeare. In ' The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby, Knight, Opened,' there are receipts for stewing and preserving wardens, but there is none for the pies. The following I take from Anne Macdonell's edition of 1910:

" To STEW WARDENS OB" PEABS.

" Pare them, put them into a Pipkin, with so much Bed or Claret wine and water, ana, as will near reach to the top of the Pears. Stew or boil it gently, till they grow tender, which may be in two hours. After a while, put in some sticks of Cinnamon bruised and a few Cloves. When they are almost done, put in Sugar enough to season them well and their Syrup, which you pour out upon them in a deep Plate."

C. C. B.

" LOSING LOADUM," A GAME (12 S. iii, 332). This is probably the old game of " reversis," where the object is to lose tricks, not to make them. F. JESSEL.

AUTHORS OP QUOTATIONS WANTED (12 S. iii. 301, 372).

1. Gigantic daughter of the West. Tennyson's ' Hands all Round,' reprinted from

The Examiner of Feb. 7, 1852, will be found in ' The Oxford Tennyson ' (1910) on p. 410. H. M.

3. On a lone moor all wild and bleak.

The thirty-seven verses named at the latter reference are in George Colman the Younger's ' My Night-Gown and Slippers,' 1797, republished under the name of ' Broad Grins,' 1802. In Colman 's ' Poetical Works,' 1840, which includes the above, the piece is headed ' The Maid of the Moor, or the Water Fiends,' and the first line run? On a wild moor, all brown and bleak.

W. B. H.

(12 S. iii. 360.)

2. Help me to need no aid from men.

This is the la<*t two lines of the last versf (' L'Envoi ') in Kipling's ' Life's Handicap.' Th poem begins,

My new-cut ashlar takes the light, and may also be found in the ' Songs from Books of Kipling collected in a volume in 1913.

V. E. [L. I. G. also thanked for reply.]