Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/253

 12 8. VI. MAY 15, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

205"'

Ralph died before 1346-47, for in that year Theobald Russel was sued by Elizabeth, widow of Ralph de Gorges "the younger," for the manor of Knighton. Judgment was given in her favour, but since she had no issue by Ralph, the manor reverted to Theobald, who was in possession in 1362 (Gal. 01. R., 36 Edw. III., m. 9, no. 14).

JOHN L. WHITEHEAD. Ventnor.

IZAAK WALTON'S NIGHTINGALE. The al- lusion made to Izaak Walton's strawberry (ante, p. 107) recalls the case of a beautiful passage on the song of the nightingale which, like that on the strawberry, is generally supposed to be original, but is not so. Walton's words are :

" He that at midnight, when the very labourer sleeps securely, should hear, as I have very often, the clear airs, the sweet descants, the natural rising and falling, the doubling and redoubling of her voice, might well be lifted above earth and say " Lord, ichat music hast Thou provided for the saints in heaven ichen Thou affordest bad men such music on earth."

The originality of this remarkable passage, which has been frequently quoted, had, so far as I know, never been questioned until 1893. In that year, when I had occasion to criticize it in my edition of ' The Complete Angler ' (considered from the naturalist's point of view), I made the following com- ment :

" Some time since on reading the works of the French falconer Charles d'Arcussia (1598-1644) we were struck with a very similar expression which occurs in the twenty-fourth ' Lettre de Philohierax a Philofalco ' (ed. 1627, p. 383). It is as follows :

" ' A la verite c'est un grand plaisir d'estre aux champs & telle heure (au lever du soleil) pour admirer les merveilles des oauvres de Dieu, lesquelles nous sont manifestoes par ses creatures. J'ay este tellement ravy d'entendre le gazouil des oyseaux, que mon esprit s'est esleve en haut, et j'ay diet en moy-mesme O quel doit estre le concert des Anges du Ciel puisqiie ces Anges terrestres nous extasient par leurs chants ! ' '

One can scarcely doubt that Walton had read this passage, or met with a translation of it, though he nowhere quotes the author.

I may add that I know of no English translation of Arcussia's ' Fauconnerie,' though I am acquainted with a German edition published at Frankfort in 1617. It is therefore probable that the passage I have quoted may have been imparted to Walton by one of the eminent divines who were his contemporaries and who translated it for him, but omitted to give a reference to the author from whom he quoted. J. E. HARTING. j

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BOOKSELLER'S- LABEL. In a book called :

" The Lives and Characters of the English; Dramatick Poets, also an exact account of all the- Plays that were ever yet Printed in the English?. Tongue, their Double Titles, the Places where- Acted, the Dates when Printed, and the Persons- to whom Dedicated ; with Bemarks and Observa- tions on most of the said Plays, first begun by Mr. Langbain, improv'd and continued down to this Time, by a Careful Hand,"

I found a contemporary bookseller's label-i pasted into the cover, which I quote (on p. 1 is a short title stating that the book includes all the plays printed to the year 1698) :

" By Thomas Durston Printer and Bookseller, . at the Sign of the Printing Press on Mardol head in Shrewsbury, you may be furnished with alii sorts of Books in Divinity, History, Law, Phisick,.. Poetry, Mathematicks, &c. Bibles and Common Prayers of all sorts and sizes ; all sorts of School! Books, Pocket Books ; Ink horns, fountain Pens,. Wax Wafers, Sandboxes, Standishesy Maps,. Pictures, Spectacles, Shagareen Cases f . Readingr r Glasses for all ages, Burning Glasses, Red and' black led [sic] Pencils, Letter cases, Prospectives, . the best sort of Holman's Ink powder, Paper- Hanging for Rooms, good Writing paper of all' prizes [sic], Bateman's true spirit of Scurvy Grass - Both golden and plain ; and old Books you may- have well Bound at very Reasonable Rates.

" Likewise he sells Super fine Bassett Cards fifci for Gentlemen and Ladies at 12 pence a Pack ; and all other sorts such as 6 penny 8 penny andJ 10 penny packs, &c."

Johnson's 'Dictionary' defines "basset" as a game of cards invented at Venice, and) " standish " as a case for pen and ink. But I should be very glad to know the meaning of "prospective," and what was "Bateman's. true spirit of scurvy grass." It seems sui> prising, too, to learn that fountain pens were- in vogue at the end of the seventeenth or- beginning of the eighteenth century. Could! any reader elucidate ? J. R. H.

MANDRILL. In the course of a brief controversy about gorillas in The Field early in the present year I propounded an* etymology for the word "gorilla" in answer to a suggestion that the root was the same as that of "mandrill." In following up the- question I consulted the ' N.E.D.,' which gives a quotation from William Smith's ' Voyage to Sierra Leone ' of 1726 as the- earliest for the last-named word ; but on looking up the original work I find that the , animal to which the term was then applied is unmistakably a chimpanzee ; the writer says that he does not know whence the wordl came nor what it means.

North-west of Sierra Leone, from an un- specified tribe, probably Nalu or Baga, wass