Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/216

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

(.12 S. V. AUG., 1919.

The German translation of the fable, ' Bernhard von Mandeville's Fabel von, den Bienen.'

' The Planter's Charity ' : a poem [1704 ?].

I am also in search of portraits of, and letters or manuscripts by Bernard cle Mancleville outside the British Museum and the Bodleian Library. F. B. KAYE.

North Western University.

SCUM OF DEMOCRACY. Who is the author of the saying, "In a democracy it is the scum that comes to the top ? " Voltaire said, " Pure democracy is the rule of rascaldom," but the metaphor in the English proverb suggests that it is not a translation of the saying of the sage of Ferney. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.

SEVEN KINGS. Can any of your readers tell me the origin of the name Seven Kings, borne by a station on the G.E. Railway, and also by a hotel on the neighbouring road from London to Romford. R. M.

CHARLES COOKE, BOOKSELLER. I shall be glad to have references to his life and career generally, his ancestry, and so forth. He carried on business at 17 Paternoster Row, and published a large number of books, of which a list would be useful. He died at the house from which I write in 1816 and was buried in the churchyard at Walthamstow under an altar tomb with a long epitaph. There is a short obituary notice of him in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1816. Please reply direct.

F. SYDNEY EDEN. ,

Belle Vue House, Cooke's Folly, Walthamstow.

TOBACCO PIPES. Years ago in Hexham, Northumberland, were to be seen exposed for sale in Giles-gate, clay tobacco pipes with three bowls and three stems : the three stems were brought into a common mouth- piece looped and interlaced with stems. An old townsman told me that they were used by pitmen on Trinity Sunday, and that there was religious significance. Beyond this he knew nothing they have not been seen for years. An inquiry in the columns of a local paper was without result, and the writer has made many personal inquiries round Newcastle and Durham, Carlisle and Scotland towards the south ; among friends a-> well.

V Giles-gate is the Catholic part of Hexham even now and is or was the wealthy part once.

These pipes and the custom mav have been of local origin or imported from France

or Holland. Can any correspondent say ? Usually the pipes were of white clay with a brown glaze and bowls and stems rather smaller than ordinary pipes. Their value and price were small. HENRY T. DAVIS.

POPULAR FALLACIES. The number and character of my questions which the editor of ' N. & Q.' kindly inserted in 11 S. xii., 12 S. i., ii., iii., and the current volume, most of which have been answered by many correspondents, to whom I am greatly indebted and hereby wish to thank, have probably led some readers to think that a third edition of * Popular Fallacies ' is in preparation. This is so, for the second (or " enlarged ") edition was published by Cassell's in 1909 and contained about 460 fallacies. The third edition will, it is hoped, deal with 1,200 (including the 460). The MS. is nearly completed and I should be much indebted to any readers who have the 1909 edition who will be good enough to point out any mistakes in it of any kind, however serious or insignificant, so that the next edition may be as free from errors as possible, though I fear with so much new matter (which cannot be checked in this way), additional slips will inevitably be made.

Kindly send such matter (unless of general interest) direct to me at 25 Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W.I.

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

AMBASSADOR. Was Dr. Samuel Johnson the first to define an ambassador as "an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country " ? Mr. R. B. Marston, writ- ing in The Daily Mail of June 24, 1916, said Izaak Walton was the author, but apparently did not give the reference.

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

BATS : HAIR. I have heard it said that bats have a particular tendency to get into a person's hair. Is this true, and if not, what has given rise to the idea ?

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

BIRDS POISONING CAPTIVES. It was stated, in The Daily Mail of Jan. 8, 1914, that wild birds sometimes give poison to captive birds. Is there any truth in this ? If not, how has the error arisen ?

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN.

(.' N. & Q.' cannot insert half the queries which MR. AOKERMAN wishes answered, but we will forward those not inserted to anyone who will promise to return them, and send us a stamped addressed envelope.!