Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/169

 12 S. VI. APRIL 17, 1923.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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-wood. Slate pencils can hardly have come iinto use until the period of modern lead pencils, viz., early in the nineteenth century. Leads (not cased in wood) were used as early perhaps as the twelfth century. Examples have been dredged from river-beds, notably the Seine. J. HARVEY BLOOM.
 * in the writer's memory, had no frames of

Chaucer mentions the use of slates for writing, and their use (with chalk) for keeping -tavern scores is mentioned by later authors. {Being away from home I cannot give the references.) Their use for school purposes was one of the devices invented or adapted by Joseph Lancaster in the Borough Road about 1803. For the success of his plans it was essential that education should be -cheapened, and a slate which could serve for ever was cheaper than paper which could serve only once. As there were few slates on the market he set up a factory to supply them and the ancillary pencils to his own school and the other monitorial schools which he established. Thence they spread to all elementary and many secondary schools. In spite of the serious educational and sanitary objections to them they continued "in use so long as cheapness was a primary consideration. They were generally dis- carded in the early years of this century, but I believe that they were reintroduced into some schools during the war when paper became scarce and dear.

DAVID SALMON.

ELIZABETHAN GUESSES Q2 S. vi. 32). If .Sheppard wrote of Drayton as another Ovid he had good reason. In the preface to ' England's Heroical Epistles ' Drayton wrote : " Ovid, whose imitator I partly profess to be." William Alexander's pre- fatory sonnet says :

That Ovid's soul revives in Drayton now, almost Sheppard's words. Francis Meeres divides Ovid between Drayton and Shake- speare. Sylvester, near the beginning of his second ' Divine Week,' appeals to Spenser, Daniel,

And our new Naso that so passionates Th' heroike sighes of love-sick potentates.

' Arcadie ' is more difficult to attach to Drayton ; ' The Shepherd's Sirena ' is too short for mention : but the monstrous 4 Poly-olbion ' cries for it. The description - of England there given might well be called Arcadian, with its profusion of nymphs, shepherds, and local deities. As to " Bayes," poor Drayton was only snubbed by James I.

and given an annuity of 101. by Charles I. ; but in two of his portraits he is decorated with a wreath, which may have deceived Sheppard. G. G. L.

COLLINGWOOD AND LAWSON (12 S. V. 320).

Dorothy, wife of Alexander Collingwood of Little Ryle, is stated to have been a daughter of Wilfred Lawson of Brayton, Cumberland. By articles before marriage, dated Feb. 4, 1691, her jointure was secured on Hedgley in the parish of Eglingham. Of the marriage there was issue an only son Alexander, baptized Sept. 3, 1701, and also five daughters, viz. : Jane, wife of Robert Wilkie of Cheswick ; Sarah, wife of George Reed of Heathpool ; Elizabeth, wife of Benjamin Adams of Acton, all in North- umberland ; Dorothy, wife of Andrew Bennet of Grubbet, near Jedburgh ; and Isabella, who is believed to have died unmarried. The date of Mrs. Collingwood's death has not been ascertained, but her husband died Jan. 3, 1745/6, aged 80. His will is dated Oct. 16, 1744. J v C. HODGSON.

Alnwick Castle.

" CELLARITJS " (12 S. v. 319). Towards 1844 waltzing showed signs of abatement, says Vuillier in his ' History of Dancing,' and the introduction of the polka brought about an extraordinary revolution in danc- ing. It was introduced into Paris by M. Cellarius, the famous dancing master, and his school became the sanctuary of this new dance, which owed something of its success to the gold spurs which were looked upon as indispensable for a brilliant polkaist of the male gender. For about four years the Cellarius Polka reigned supreme, but with the coming of the schottische and mazurka it commenced to wane.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE. [ST. S WITHIN -also thanked for reply.]

HAMPSHIRE CHURCH BELLS AND THEIR FOUNDERS (12 S. iv. 188, 341; v. 44, 109, 304). Certain particulars mentioned in E. A. Downman's fascinating work on ' Ancient Church Bells in England ' (issued privately by the author in 1898) may throw some light on the mystery of the unknown founder, " R. B." Richard Baxter, " the Brasyer," established a famous foundry at Norwich about 1440, and his firm is known to have been in existence in the late sixteenth century. His bells were initialled R. B. ; and I. B. may well have been his direct successor, working as late as 1629.

A very large number of bells cast by Richard Baxter still exist, but chiefly