Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/138

 130

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2"< S. NO 7., FKB. 1C. '06.

four years I have been engaged in preparing a new Catalogue of the Advocates' Library, which is now nearly ready for the press ; and in the course of the inquiries which it has been my duty to make, I have largely increased the stock of materials which I had previously collected. In these circumstances, should no one better qualified than myself undertake the task, I feel strongly disposed to continue the researches in which I have been engaged, and to arrange the results with a view to publication. ,

But though willing, I am by no means anxious that the duty should devolve upon myself. My object in making the present announcement is simply to hasten, if I can, the completion of a work which is confessedly a great desideratum. On the one hand I shall be glad to afford to any one better .prepared than I am, all the assistance in my power ; and on the other, should the under- taking be left in my hands, I shall look with con- fidence for the advice and co-operation of all who take an interest in it. SAML. HALKETT.

Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

Testimonial to Peter the Great. As all matters connected with the history of the founder of the Russian dynasty are now particularly acceptable to most readers, I have " made a Note of" the following Dutch testimonial, given to Peter the Great by the foreman of the ship-building-yard at Amsterdam, in which the Czar of Russia studied and worked at the craft of ship-carpenter. The original has but recently been discovered in the archives of the Kremlin at Moscow ; and a copy, hereunder, was sent to a friend in Holland, in a letter dated January 11, 1856, by the Rev. W. L. Welter, Chaplain to the Netherlands Embassy at St. Petersburg. The text is not so obsolete, but it can be easily read by all acquainted with modern German or Dutch.

" Ick onderschreven Gerrit Claese. Pool, Mr. Scheep- stimmerman van de geoetroyeerde Oost-IndisseCompagnie ter Kamer van Amsterdam certifieere en getuijge voor de waarheijt, dat Pieter Migaylof -(zynde ondert Gevolg vant Groot Moscovis Gesandtschap, en daer uyt onder die Gene, die alhiertot Amsterdam op de Oost-Indissescheep- stimmerwerf van den SOsten Augustus, 1697, tot op dato dezes gelogieert en onder ons bestier getimmerd heeft) hem de tyt van zyn edele verblyf alhier als een neerstig en kloeck timmerman heeft gedragen, zoointsloeven, stoothouten toeleggen, afcrabben, voegen, hacken, slegten, braeuwen, schaven, boren, zagen, planken en stoethouten branden, en tgeen een goet en heel deftig timmerman behoort te doen en heeft 1 fregat Pieter en Paul lang over 100 voet vant begin af (aen de voorsteven aen stierboert) tot dat het bijna klaer was helpen maken en dat niet alleen maer is,doer Mijn even daerenboven in de scheeps- architecture en tekenkunst volkomen onder wezen, zoodat zijn Edele dezelve tot in de gront verstaet, en dat zoo verre als ons oerdeels tzelve kan werden gepractizeert.

In teken cler waerheijt heb ik dit mit myn eigen hant ondertekent.

" Actum in Amsterdam in onze ordinaire woonplaatse by de Oost-Iiidisse werf den 15 January, int jaer ouzos Heeren 1G98. (L. S.) " GERRIT CLAESZ POOL,

" Mr. Scheepstimmerman der E. E. geoetroyeerde Oost-Indisse Compagnie tot Amsterdam."

C. H. GUNN. Rotterdam.

Foreigners' English. There are some very choice specimens of bad English in a very pretty book, containing 300 views in the Netherlands, by Abraham Rademaker, published at Amsterdam in 1725. The Preface tells us that

" The singular and different manner of Ingraving those Pla-tes, and that so Comformably to their subjects ; The exactnefl'as have Observed in Conforming our Draughts to the Originals ; This Collection, so Numerous, and What is Un-commom, begun And ended by the same hand, Cannot tail to goin us the General applause."

The descriptions, in the body of the work, are scarcely ever much more correct than the fol- lowing :

" That Village was renowned by the abondance of Saulmons that were fiched there. . . . That Village in situated in a Territory that afford abundance of fruits and Corns. . . . The FortrefT of Buren, in the year 1719, seen here in front and on the left side ; att the going out of the gate here represented, the-re is basse Court, that they most CrofT before they arrive att the Building's Body."

In return for these precious morsels, can any of your readers direct me to the name of any noble predecessor in the possession of the volumes by the arms which they bear on their covers, and which I presume to be foreign ? As far as I can make them out, they are as follows : An eagle displayed, impaling, on a fess three crabs, 2 and 1, between an estoile of eight points, and a grey- hound courant : over all, on an escutcheon of pretence, a wild boar. Coronet, like our own marquises ; and supporters, two sagittarii.

C. W. BlNGHAM.

General Wolfe. There is now lying in Messrs. Wilmott's dry docks, Newport (to undergo a few slight repairs), that fine old ship the "William Fame," which, nearly a hundred years ago, bore the celebrated Wolfe from England to Quebec. Your correspondent, JNO. S. BURN (2 nd S. i. 16.), very properly corrects the typographical error of 1731 for 1781 (1 st S. xii. 312.). The " Deverells," in Nailsworth, is now the property and residence of Anthony Fewster, a respectable and respected member of the Society of Friends ; and near to it is the ancient meeting-house of that Society, in which the celebrated George Fox attended in 1669, as mentioned in this journal, 2nd Part, p. 132. (2nd vol., edit. 1709, 8vo.). The conjec- ture that the initials E. D. were those of the elder sister, Elizabeth Deverell, who resided at Bath,