Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/447

 2nd s N 22., MAT 31. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

439

is better, distilled water. Another sheet is then placed in the acetonitrate, and the first sheet strongly agitated in the water, and placed in another dish of distilled water. After taking the second sheet out of the aceto- nitrate, the first is removed from the water, passed between two sheets of blotting-paper, and placed upon the plate of the frame ; the plate is then put into the frame, the edge of the paper being folded back so as to stretch it as much as possible. In a few seconds the paper has become very much stretched, and the surface very even. This method insures a high degree of finish, and prevents the paper contracting by the heat.

" The paper thus prepared and placed in the frame can be kept for three days at least even in hot weather. I have obtained very beautiful pictures with paper that has been prepared fifteen days, and with a constant heat of from 86 to 95 degrees of Fahrenheit.

" The solution of acetonitrate having been returned to the bottle, it is necessary to add ten grammes of animal charcoal, shake the bottle well, and allow it to rest^ntil it is required again.

" With a single lens of seven centimetres diameter, thirty-five centimetres of focal length, and a diaphragm of fifteen millimetres, I have obtained negatives in four minutes, under the conditions of the light in the east.

" I develope with a solution of gallic acid, prepared immediately before using. I filter it, and add a few drops of fresh acetoiiitrate. As soon as the .picture has ap- peared I wash the paper, and then plunge it into a solution of hyposulphite of soda, of the following strength :

Hyposulphite of soda Eain water -

- 100 grammes.

- 600 do.

Half an hour's immersion is sufficient : the picture is then taken out and. left for twelve hours at least in water, which should be frequently changed."

ta

Horse Talk (2 nd S. i. 335.) It would be a very curious inquiry, in a philological spirit, to extend this inquiry. A native of the West of England myself, I was struck by hearing the identical word of wog or ivoag, there used for the word of command to go to the right, prevailing in the same sense in several parts of Southern Germany.

Our Come hether, Come hether ho, is also nearly identical with Kum hum hier ; our Wo, or rather Who, Whoa, has scarcely any difference in in- tonation, none in meaning. The Southern German urges his horse to greater speed by the phrase Hip-Hep, with the usual accompaniment, and fre- quently adds the French word allez.

I wonder whether your Scottish correspondent MR. STEPHENS ever heard in the west of Scotland a refractory steed called a d d Tory ? as I very well remember to have done more than once in Galloway (Jf%tonshire). A. MT.

Has not HENRY STEPHENS confounded the terms addressed to horses with those addressed to oxen ? In some of the western counties, "haup up" is only applied to the latter, meaning to keep to the right. " Wag along," " chope up," and some

others which have escaped my recollection, are used exclusively to oxen : " gee up" and " com- eather," to horses. J- P. O.

Stublins (2 nd S. i. 391.) The incident oc- curred in Lob Lane, Oxford. John Stubbins, of Christ Church, proceeded D.D. June 22, 1630. Corbet had been dean of that college, and there probably became intimate with him.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT.

Hengistand Horsa (2 nd S. i. 375.) There is not the slightest ground for supposing that the " sign on the banner of Hengist and Horsa was a white horse ; " and as far as this goes, cadit quast'io. Hors- ley is no doubt whatever a territorial name, de- rived from a place, Horseley, A.-S. horsleat or horsa leat, the pasture-ground where the horses were kept. Of these there are still many, and in the Anglo-Saxon times, there must have been one attached to every village, and every manor. We really must have done with Hengist (the stallion) and Hors (the horse). And still more we must have done with the fantastic heraldry of the school of Randal Holmes. There is no reason to believe the Frisian heroes Hengist and Horsa to be a bit more genuine than Cadmus or Romulus ; they merely adumbrate in the usual way the historical fact that Kent was peopled by Frisian tribes. The banner and arms of Kent are a mere fiction de- rived at a very late period from the names them- selves. J M. K.

Running Footmen (2 nd S. i. 9., &c.) Beckford, in his Letters from Italy (vol. i. p. 109.), writes from Piacenza :

" It was from hence, in the spring of the year 17C6, that I sent my running footman with a letter to Mantua : he could not have set out before six o'clock in the morn- ing, for till that time the gates were not open. The answer was dated Mantua, two o'clock at noon. I re- ceived it early the next morning before I was up, and he made many excuses for not returning the same day. It is wonderful what these fellows are capable of doing, but it is cruel to put it unnecessarily to the trial."

The distance between Piacenza and Mantua appears from the map to be exactly sixty miles as the crow flies, and the road by no means direct.

J. F. M.

Strachan of Crafgcrook (2 nd S. i. 272.) I regret that at present I am unable to give R. S. any great or full information "as to the family or pedigree of John Strachan of Craig- crook."

In Wood's History of Cramond will be found "Deeds of his Mortifications," in which mention is made of the names and residences of various of his relations. These deeds are dated 1710 and 1712, and duly recorded in 1719 and 1721. He was, by profession, a " writer to his Majesty's signet," and possessed of large real and personal