Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/470

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2dS. N 23., JUNE?. '56.

original of that confessedly corrupt reading in Shakspeare's Timon of Athens, Act IV. Sc. 3. : " Raise me that beggar, and denyt that lord."

Deject is certainly a great improvement on Warbur ton's denude, and Steevens's devest. But another word occurs to me it may have oc- curred to others, for aught I know viz. demit, i. e. depress, degrade. This word answers all the requisites ; it preserves the antithesis, has the same number of letters as deny't, the initial and final are the same in both, and the sound of the two words is so nearly identical, that an amanuensis might easily have mistaken the one for the other.

OBELUS.

Longevity in the United States in 1855 (1 st S. passim.) It is seen by official returns that during the past year seventy-three soldiers of the Revolu- tion have died, and forty-three persons who were over 100 years of age. The oldest white man was 110; the oldest white woman, 109; oldest male, coloured, 130 ; oldest female, coloured, 120. It may be remarked that the two last were slaves.

W. W.

Malta.

Grammar Schools, their Usages and Traditions (2 nd S. i. 145.) The following extract from Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 322. may not be uninteresting to such of your readers as are curious on this subject :

" Till within the last twenty or thirty years, it had been a custom, time out of mind, for the scholars of the free school of Bromfield, about the beginning of Lent, or, in the more expressive phraseology of the country, at Fastings Even, to bar out the master, i. e. to depose and exclude him from his school, and keep him out for three days. During the period of this expulsion, the doors of the citadel, the school, were strongly barricadoed within, and the boys, who defended it like a besieged city, were armed in general with bore-tree or elder pop-guns. The master meanwhile made various efforts, both by force and stratagem, to regain his lost authority. If he succeeded, heavy tasks were imposed, and the business of the school was resumed and submitted to ; but it more commonly happened that he was repulsed and defeated. After three days' siege, terms of capitulation were proposed by the master, and accepted by the boys. These terms were summed up in an old formula of Latin Leonine verses, stipulating what hours and times should for the year ensuing be allotted to study, and what to relaxation and play. Securities were provided on each side for the due performance of these stipulations, and the paper was then solemnly signed both by master and scholars.

" One of the articles always stipulated for and granted was the privilege of immediately celebrating certain games of long standing ; viz. a football match and a cock fight."

Mr. Hutchinson then gives an account of the manner in which these games were celebrated.

AN OLD PAULINE.

Cobalt Mines, Sfc. (2 nd S. i. 94.) As somewhat in connexion with the subject of his Query, though not as a reply to it, perhaps M. P. M. may like to be reminded that, in 1754, the Society for the

Encouragement of Arts and Commerce offered a premium of thirty guineas for the discovery of a cobalt mine in South Britain, which premium was claimed by, and awarded in December of the same year, to Francis Beauchamp, Esq., in whose lands at Gwennap, Cornwall, the discovery was made.

R. W. HACKWOOD.

Old Deeds (2 nd S. i. 423.) I would not recom- mend any one to make use of the " liquor to wash old deeds," mentioned by MR. HACKWOOD. All those who have been in the habit of consulting the documents at the Tower, cannot have failed to perceive the irreparable injury done to many of the Records (particularly to some of the Inqui- sitiones post mortem), by the injudicious and un- sparing use of this vile infusion of galls ; which, although it brings up the writing for the moment, yet eventually renders the parchment perfectly black. Mr. Holmes, the Keeper of the Records, has much to answer for on this head ; and it is to be feared, that from his example similar injuries were inflicted on many valuable deeds and manu- scripts in the Cottonian and Old Royal libraries, long before they were deposited in the British Museum. Even the precious Codex Alexandri- nus has not escaped this wanton work of destruc- tion, and the gall-wash has often been applied to passages which must have been perfectly legible without it. Experto crede. CHARTOPHYLAX.

I think your correspondent MB. HACKWOOD must have misunderstood KARL'S meaning when he inquires the mode of " cleaning and restoring old pamphlets." I apprehend his meaning to be repairing, for decayed paper can never be restored. However, if I am wrong in my supposition, I would, from experience, advise KARL not to adopt MR. HOLMES'S recipe. Let him look at the Cot- tonian charters in the British Museum, many of which have been washed with galls, and mark the lamentable condition to which they are reduced. An infusion of galls may render obscure writing legible for a time, but it eventually discolours and obliterates all it touches, so that the remedy is worse than the disease. If KARL has faint or illegible writing to contend with, let him dilute that not very odoriferous compound, sulphate of ammonium, in water, and damp the parts affected with a soft brush : this will be found innocuous, as far as my experience goes, and fully efficacious.

2.

Roper and Curzon Families (2 nd S. i. 294.) In reply to the Query as to the descent of the Curzon property at Waterperry, in the county of Oxford, to Henry Francis, fourteenth Lord Teynham, I beg to state that it devolved upon his lordship from his great aunt, Winifred, daughter of Ed- mund Powell of Sandford, and second wife of Sir Francis Curson of Waterperry, Baronet, who,