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NOTES AND QUERIES.

. i. MAB. 26, m

Owing to the death of Hugh Hammersley, the sole partner, the business was absorbed by Messrs. Coutts & Co., who took on all the clerks, to whom they behaved very generously, pensioning off some of the old ones. The affairs were placed in Chancery, and the estate only yielded ten shillings in the pound. I cannot trace the name of Spode amongst the partners. F. G. HILTON PRICE.

SHORT A v. ITALIAN A (9 th S. i. 127, 214). At the last reference it is said that I pro- nounce Ralph as Raff. I seldom pronounce it at all, as I do not use it. But I have usually heard it called Rafe, rhyming with safe, and that is how I should pronounce it if I was on my guard. If off my guard I should perhaps say Ralf, with alf as in Alfred. But I have heard Raff, rhyming with chaff, also. It is not a word that I profess to know much about, i. e., for practical purposes. The ques- tion of the an in grant is discussed in my 'Principles of Etymology,' Second Series, p. 40. The Norman an differs from the A.-S. an. WALTER W. SKEAT.

When, as a small boy, I first read Dickens, I spoke, and heard other people in Scot- land speak, of Ralf Nickleby. But when, as a bigger boy, I came to England, I heard people speak of Rafe Nickleby. Some years ago I said to a friend, a Scotsman, whose Christian name is Ralph, " Do you call your- self Ralf or Rafe ? " He replied " Rafe. n

GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B.

' SOCIAL LIFE IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ANNE ' (8 th S. xii. 428, 516). I have to thank two correspondents who set me right as to Mr. Ashton's work with this title. My query must take a new form. I was misled by the 'Century Dictionary,' which apparently quotes, as Ashton's own, words taken by him from some writer of Queen Anne's time, speaking of Tregonwell Frampton. Mr. Ashton (i. 306) gives no reference. The same writer is quoted at much greater length in the Badminton ' Racing ' volume, p. 29, there described as " a gentleman who visited New- market in the reign of Queen Anne." Who was this gentleman, and in what book is the passage originally to be found ? " Mr. Framp- ton, the oldest, and, as they say, the cunning- est jockey in England." C. B. MOUNT.

OLD ENGLISH LETTERS (9 th S. i. 169, 211). The Scottish use of z for the M.E. g (=gh) is pointed out in my ' Principles of Etymology,' First Series, p. 317. I give the examples Dalziel, Menzies, and capercailzie. The name of the M.E. letter was yee (pronounced yea).

It is so named in the Trinity College MS. which contains ' The Proverbs of Alfred.' WALTER W. SKEAT.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

An Enquiry into the Art of the Illuminated Manu- scripts of the Middle Ages. By Johan Adolf Bruun. Parti. (Edinburgh, Douglas.) WE have here the first instalment of an ambitious and admirably conceived scheme. This is nothing less than a series of volumes illustrative of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages. The idea springs from the Edinburgh Museum of Anti- quities, and the series when perfect is intended to embody the results of what is called " a comparative study of the dialects of the art of illumination during the Middle Ages." Beginning with the Celtic illuminated MSS. which constitute the earliest, most interesting, and most precious relics connected with the early Christian civilization of the British Islands as well as of other European

stages of the Spanish, French, German, English, and Flemish schools, "from their first appearance down to the epoch of their decline and extinction." Much has been done of late in the way of repro- duction and description of the more notable remains of early Celtic art : witness Sir J. Gilbert's ' Fac- similes of Irish National Manuscripts,' issued under the direction of the Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and other important works on Irish ecclesiastical antiquities. This is, however, the first serious attempt to deal thoroughly with the subject, and by means of a careful investigation of existing documents to supply materials for a history of this fascinating branch of mediaeval art. To the task of examining the Celtic illuminated MSS. in the British Museum, the Bodleian, the library at Lam- beth Palace, the library of Trinity College, that of the Royal Irish Academy, and that of the Fran- ciscan Library, Dublin, Mr. Bruun has devoted a considerable portion of the last three years. Ex- ceptional facilities have everywhere been placed at his disposal, and permission to reproduce illustra- tions has been liberally accorded him by those having chief control of national treasures. The result is shown in the handsome and eminently scholarly volume before us.

No attempt is as yet made to trace the historical connexion of Celtic design with that of other countries, the task being reserved until the survey of other mediaeval schools of illumination has been accomplished. What is accomplished is the ac- ceptable, if somewhat arbitrary classification under four heads of the multitudinous designs of the decorated MSS. These four classes consist of de- signs, geometrical, zoomorphic, phyllomorphic, and figure representations. Among the first are classed the spiral designs which, it is held, descend directly from the spiral patterns of pagan origin the geo- metrical interlacements, the elaborate development of fretwork and diaper -work, the last, which is seen in the ' Book of Kells,' being scarcely a Celtic detail of ornament. As regards the dates of the various MSS. much is left to conjecture. The frag- mentary copy of the Gospels known as the Donmach