Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/555

 12 8. vii. DEC. 4, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

459

PLACE-NAME : HYDE (CHESHIRE) (12 S. vii. 409). This place takes its name fro/n the "one hide " assessment of the town or hamlet of Hofinchel which the Earl of Chester held in 1086. The older name is still preserved in Hoviley Brow in Hyde. The spelling should probably have been Hofinchelei, but there is no mark of con- traction on the final I in Domesday Book.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

(12 S. vii. 111).

The seventeenth -century poet is Cowley. In his ' Pindarique Ode,' entitled ' The Extasie, stanza 2 is this :

Where shall I find the noble Brittish Land ? Lo, I at last a Northern Spec espie, Which in the Sea does lie, And seems a Grain o'th' Sand ! For this will any sin, or Bleed ? Of Civil Wars is this the Meed ? And is it this, alas, which we (Oh Irony of Words !) we call Great Britainie : and stanza 9 :

The Horses were of temper'd Lightning made, Of all that in Heaven's beauteous Pastures feed, The noblest, sprightfulst breed, And flaming Mains their Necks array'd. They were all shod with Diamond, Not such as here are found,

But such light solid ones as shine On the Transparent RocJcs o' th' Heaven Chrystal-

line. Pp. 41, 42, of ' PincL. ique Odes ' in the 1656

p., ,.

edition of Cowley's ' Poems.' The 1668 edition reads " do call " instead of "we call," and a note of interrogation at the end of line 8 of the first stanza quoted. EDWARD BENSLY.

(12 S. vii. 410.)

1. The lines in question appear to be founded on the old English proverbs :

" One false move may lose the game " " One wrong step may bring a great fall,"

and also perhaps the well-known quotation from

the London speech of Senator E. J. Phelps of

the U.S. : " The man who makes no mistakes does not

usually make anything." W. JAGGARD, Capt.

"The man who never makes a mistake never makes anything " is a judgment which has been attributed to Bishop Magee of Peterborough, who was for a short time Archbishop of York.

ST. S WITHIN.

2. These lines illustrate the famous Greek proverb Time brings truth to light

which was paraphrased in verse by Sir Walter Raleigh on the prefatory leaf to his Historic of the World, 1614' 4-

Time's witnesse, herald of antiquitie, The light of truth, and life of memorie.

W. JAGGARD, Capt.

?hats on Old Sheffield Plate. By A. Hay den,

(Fisher Unwin & Co., II. Is. net.) WE are glad to welcome an addition to the ' Chats ' Series, more particularly when the volume is from the pen of Mr. Arthur Hayden. He has oeen our guide in too many pleasant highways and Oyways of collecting for us not to know him as at once an experienced connoisseur and a good' companion. His method, we know, is discursive rather than didactic, and he has the rare gift of knowing when and where to temper instruction with gossip. So we lay down the book after the leisurely perusal which it should be the aim of every author to induce, with the pleasing conviction that bhere is really very little we do not know about Sheffield plate, and with the chivalrous determina- tion to rescue such pieces as we still may from th dealer or the housemaid. In this connection the fine series of illustrations will be especially wel- come, though it was really rather thoughtless of our author to insert among them the pages from trade catalogues with the original prices marked thereon.

Aftsr a brief introductory essay upon the imita- tiveness of all arts, in particular of decorative arts, and of the propitious epoch in which Sheffield plate rose to fame, we are introduced to Bolsover, the button-maker of Sheffield, who in 1743 discovered, by a lucky accident, that copper and silver were capable of perfect fusion, and of subsequent mould- ing and stamping. At first the discovery was applied merely to buttons, snuff- and pouncet- boxes, and similar knick-knacks, the silver being applied to the base metal after it had been fashioned to the desired form ; and ib was not till some years later that Hancock, an apprentice of Bolsover, began to roll put sheets of the composite material, and to apply it to the manufacture of larger and more important wares, such as salvers, candlesticks, teapots, and the like. Once established the industry spread rapidly both in Sheffield and in Birmingham ; and in 1773 a Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the manner of conducting assay offices, found that "artificers are now arrived at so great a perfection in plating with silver goods made of baser metal, that they much resemble solid silver. " Assay offices to prevent possible impostures were ordered to be established both at Sheffield and at Birmingham. The unconscious compliment paid to the rising art was considerable, when the excellence of contemporary silversmiths is recalled, excellence not only of design but of craftsmanship ; when, too, it is considered that the base metal (usually copper) had an unfortunate habit of showing itself at edges and corners. These had to be concealed with fillets of fine wire and die-work patiently attached with silver solder, a task that called for the highest skill in plater and die-sinker alike.

In subsequent chapters Mr. Hayden guides us through the varied realm of Sheffield plate, and he is, as we have said, a most pleasant companion. The chapter on candlesticks is especially Rood, and 1 there is an entertaining disquisition on snoebuckles.

The trade was a source of great prosperity to its birthplace. Sheffield, a " foul place " when Horace Walpole visited it in 1740, numbering some ten thousand inhabitants, doubled its population in a