Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/399

 2*a S. N 20., MAY 17. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

pects a profit upon it. The wine was bottled in 1820. The lot consisted of fourteen dozens.

H. S. Edinburgh.

The great Comet (cometh) (2 nd S. i. 272.) The work of P. Fabricius on the comet of 1556, hitherto sought for in vain, has been at last discovered by M. Littnow, at Vienna. M. L. has not only found the German edition hitherto known to exist, but a Latin edition more detailed than the former. At the same time the important observations by Heller, the Niirnberg astronomer, have been disinterred, which make the reappear- ance of the mysterious aster this year, 1856, rather probable ! J. LOTSKT, Panslave.

15. Gower Street.

John Liston. Has an Address to this cele- brated actor been published, commencing : " Liston farewell ! for once the comic muse

Looks sad and doleful, griev'd with thee to part," &c. And if it has, who was its author ?

Liston deserves a biographer ; and, I have been told, capital materials exist for a life. I have at " times seen specimens of his correspondence, and it indicates a very superior mind. Where are his stores now ? All his effects were sold off on his son's death, in 1854. Of course, private docu- ments were not dispersed ; but, among other items in the catalogue, were (238.) a bust of J. Kemble, a most accurate likeness ; (314.) a Malacca cane, amber top, gold mounted. Liston's favourite, "portrait, horse and dog ;" an oil painting ditto. "Six figures, Liston in as many characters;" (113.) china cups, &c. ; (106.) presents from Mrs. Mathews. The books, numbering 400, were many of them of a religious kind, and especially on Biblical criticism. PI. G. D.

Black Sea, why so called, 8fc. ?

" Mare hoc, Gratis ob sui profunditatem Nigrum vo- catur, et Latinis mare Majus; cujus aqua semper extra in Propontidem confluit, neque in Pontum introrsum re- fluit; ejus quoque superficies dulcedinem quodammodo habet ob perpetuum quamplurium amnium ingentium confluxum, introrsum vero salsum est, ac magna piscium copia prasstat." GeographilPCl. Ptolemni, etc., Jo. Ant. Maginus, Patavinus, 1608, pt. ii. fol. 232., retro.

Is the Black Sea so called on account of its depth?* B. H. C.

" Apices and Pices." " Si superest aliquid, hoc forte tributa redundant, Qui modo mitto apices, te rogo mitte pices."

Venantius Fortunatus, pars i. lib. vii. c. 31. The above are the concluding lines of one of his poetical epistles addressed " Ad Galactorium Co- mitem Burdegalensem." The MSS. warrant the

[* See N. & Q." 1 st S. xi. 102. 283. 393.]

reading of quod for hoc, and redundent for redun- dant ; but even so, what can be the meaning of " pices " in this place ? J.

" Good boys" fyc. Whence is the following ?

" Good boys generally die in their fifth year, not be- cause they are good, but because their quiet habits make them strangers to mud puddles and oxygen, dirt pies, and out-door exercise."

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Scottish Episcopal Church. Can any of the readers of " N. & Q." inform me if there are any lists preserved, published or unpublished, of the Scotch episcopal clergy from 1700 downwards, which furnish the dates after which the different clergymen took orders, and the colleges at which they were educated. Or can any one inform me how I can discover the place of education of a Scotch episcopal clergyman who was appointed to a chaise about 1700. SIGMA THETA.

Dr. Stubbins. In England and Wales De- lineated, article " Ewell," mentioned as the birth- place of Richard Corbet, an English poet and di- vine of the seventeenth century, who was chaplain to James I., and afterwards raised to the bishop- ric of Norwich, we find it narrated that the said bishop riding out one day with a Dr. Stubbins, who was extremely fat, the coach overturned, and both fell into a ditch. The bishop, on giving an account of the accident, observed that Dr. Stub- bins was up to his elbows in mud, and he was up to his elbows in Dr. Stubbins. Can any of your correspondents say who was Dr. Stubbins ?

J. A. L. Birmingham.

"Discourse on Emigration of British Birds." Who is the author of A Discourse on the Emi- gration of British Birds ; or, the Question at last solvd : Whence come the Storh and the Turtle, the Crane and the Swallow f Sfc. By a Naturalist. Lond. 1795, pp. 64. The introduction is dated " Market-Lavington, Wilts ; " and at p. 29., in a note, he announces that he has a work finished by him, entitled A new and complete Natural History of British Birds, to be comprised in two large volumes octavo, and speedily to appear. Of any such work, however, I find no trace. W. H. C. Edinburgh.

Manzy of Barnstable. Can any of your cor- respondents give me any information respecting a French Protestant refugee family, Manzy, which settled at Barnstable about 1700; or respecting any French refugees who settled at Exeter about the same time ? G. G.

French Horns. When did the old French born (cor de chasse) cease to be used in hunting ? I met with one lately in a gentleman's library in the country ? JONES.