Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/208

 of potash; dries it again, and exposes it to the light, with either a print or a positive or negative photograph over it, or else he places it in the camera. It is then immersed in water, all those parts which the light has not touched rise up in relief, whilst those on which it has acted form hollows. From this a cast in metal can be obtained by first taking a mould in plaster of Paris; or it can be reproduced in metal by means of the electrotype. By this means negatives furnish metal plates in relief, from which impressions can be printed like woodcuts; while positives give plates in which the design is sunk in, and from which copies can be printed as from engraved copper-plates.

By using a coating of gelatine of some thickness, and impressing it by means of a photographic picture, a portrait for example, a surface in relief like a medal may be obtained.

The second process of M. Poitevin consists in applying one or two coatings of albumeu, gelatine, or gum arabic, mixed with an equal quantity of a saturated solution of bichromate of potash, to the surface of a lithographic stone; and after drying, impressing it by the light passing through the design to be reproduced; on applying the lithographic ink by means of a dibber or roller, it is absorbed by the stone, only in those parts where the light has impinged.

Robinson's "Annotations on the New Testament" (2nd S. i. 150.)-It may perhaps interest your correspondent MR. MAYOR to know, that the Annotations on the New Testament, by Matthew Robinson, was formerly in the possession of the Rev. N. J. Hollingsworth, rector of Boldon. It was purchased at the sale of his library by Mr. Charnley, bookseller, in this town. There were only the two volumes on the New Testament.

Newcastle.

Gainsborough the Artist (1" S. xii. 347.)—I believe Fulcher the bookseller, at Sudbury, is advertising for materials for a life of Gainsborough. I happen to possess a small pamphlet professing to be A Sketch of the Life and Paintings of Thomas Gainsborough, Esq., by Philip Thicknesse, 1788. I do not know whether there is any value attached to it, either for its rarity, or for the fidelity of the facts it relates, but it appears to me to contain many curious particulars respecting that eminent artist and his family, and if Mr. Fulcher should deem it of any use to him it is quite at his service.

Philip Thicknesse (or Governor Thicknesse I think he was called) was a general in the army, and was father to the George Lord Audley, having married Lady Elizabeth Tuchet. He writes in a very splenetic vein, but speaks generally in the highest terms of Gainsborough. He assumes the distinction of being his first patron, having, while Governor of Landguard Fort, by accident dis- covered his merit as an artist, and was thereby induced to bring him forth from his obscurity.

J. S.

Cromwell (2nd S. i. 162.)—It is many years since I read the Life of Mr. Cleveland, natural Son of Oliver Cromwell, written by himself, which, from the extraordinary nature of the adventures related in it, I have always considered as a fictitious narrative. I possess a copy of it in French, printed at Utrecht in 1741, in 6 vols. 12mo. It professes to be translated from the English, and to be a new edition. It has a long preface, which labours to reconcile the improbabilities of the work with the truth of history.

"Veni Creator Spiritus" (2nd S. i. 148.)—I fear the claim of Stephen Langton to the authorship of this glorious hymn cannot be admitted, though so positively asserted by, on a new authority. It is unhesitatingly attributed to St. Ambrose by Gavantus, Merati, and others. Some have supposed Rabanus Maurus to be the author, because it is found among his writings, and in none earlier; but he lived in the middle of the ninth century, and of course the fact of the Veni Creator being found in his works is fatal to the claim of Stephen Langton of the thirteenth century.

Becket Pedigree (1st S. x. 486.; xii. 146.)—The following descent of the archbishop, which I extract from Westcote's Pedigrees of Devonshire Families, may interest your correspondents G. and L. M. M. It begins with Garlois, Duke of Corn- wall, and the fair Igerne, the mother of King Arthur; but as the whole of it would probably be too much for your columns, I commence with Edgar, Lord of Liskeard, who married Maud, daughter of Allard Becket, and by her had Wil- liam, Lord of Liskeard, who withstood the Conqueror a long time; but in fine, seeing force would not prevail, he privately changed both his name and arms, and took those of his mother, which were arg. three sea crows, sa. membred gu. He had issue Edmund, the father of Gilbert Becket, who married Maud, daughter of the Earl of Chylye, and had issue (besides others) Thomas Becket, made Archbishop and Lord Chancellor by King Henry II. J. T-T.

Etymology (2nd S. i. 73. 122.)—E. C. H. says that erysipelas is derived “ from ερυθρός and πέλλα, the root of the Latin pellis." But in this E. C. H. confounds together ερυθρόπελας and ερυσίπελας, the former being a word of very doubtful authority, and the latter of the very highest, having been used by Hippocrates. E. C. H. moreover supplies a new word to the Greek language, for which I cannot discover by other authority than his own. There is, it is true, the word wéxxa in Athenæus, and wels in Nicander, but they signify not a skin but a milk-pail, and do not at all support E. C. H.'s etymology.

Henry Stephens had indeed, among the medi-