Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/293

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S. I. APRIL 9, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

285

lich extend from two pounds one ounce to ihree pounds five ounces. I have within reach but one of the books he mentions, and

do not find it inconveniently heavy. I will not say that the complaint is unreasonable, Imt would ask whether it would not bethought 10 savour of effeminacy in those who had to ]-ead their Bible in the 1669 edition of the Elzevirs, their Beaumont and Fletcher in the 1679 folio, and their Sully in the ' Memoires des sages et royal (Economies d'Estat de Henry le Grand.' There is, of course, a difference between books to be laid on the desk or the table, like the folios of our ancestors, and those to be held in the hand.

REGISTERS OF APPRENTICES AND FREEMEN OF THE LONDON CITY LIVERY COMPANIES. These records might be made of the utmost possible use to the large and ever-increasing number of literary men, genealogists, anti- quaries, &c., but they are stored away in the strong rooms of the companies, and are, as a rule, most difficult of access by the public. Though they are the private property of the companies, I would ask, Is that a real and valia reason why, in these days, they should not be made as easy to consult as, say, the admission books of the colleges of the universities'? Surely the register of bare names, parentage, &c., of the apprentices, and the names, trades, and addresses of the freemen, if allowed to be consulted or, better still, if printed and published cannot be con- sidered as divulging any of the private concerns of the companies which might be detrimental to them.

It would not occupy much labour for each of the seventy-seven companies to have its registers copied, nor much expense to have them printed. Will not the members of each company who are antiquaries, genealogists, &c., bring this matter before their courts, and use all their influence to haye the printing and publishing of these registers taken in hand and completed, and so follow the splendid example set by the Corporation of the City of London in the publication of the Wills, &c., in their Court of Hustings, and by the several publications of the Lists of Marriages, Wills, and Administrations of the various Diocesan Registries in the country *?

C. MASON.

29, Emperor's Gate, S.W.

ADMIRAL BLAKE'S SISTERS. About 1684 Admiral Blake's second brother Benjamin emigrated with his family from Bridgwater to Carolina, and his only son in time became a Lord Proprietor. In the 'Biographia

Britannica,' ed. 1780, vol. ii. p. 358, under the article ' Blake,' it is observed that, " however strange, every one of the General's [Admiral Blake's] nephews and nieces by his sister Susannah, who had married a gentleman at Mine- head, in Somersetshire, were totally unacquainted with this circumstance"

of Benjamin's emigration. The writer bases his remark on a citation from ' General Diet.,' vol. iii. p. 371.

In the various biographies of the admiral there is scant description of his brothers and the barest reference to his sisters. These, I believe, though not without some slight doubt, I have discovered, directly or indirectly, from books, to have borne the married names of Bowdich, Smythes, Chappel, Gorges, Quarrel, exclusive of Susannah of Minehead.

I beg to suggest that it would redound to the credit of Somerset, and be to the benefit of those interested in its genealogies, if Bridg- water would undertake the task of collecting and publishing from the registers of St. Mary's Church a list of every entry concerning the male and female members of Admiral Blake's family. KANTIUS.

Madeira.

"To DIE STILLBORN." A few years ago 1 met with this phrase in the manuscript of an article published in the Nineteenth Century, and now an example is actually printed in the March number at p. 357, where Mr Arnold-Forster writes :

" This plan of perpetually changing men from regiment to regiment is mischievous in its effects

and unpopular with both officers and men The

plan was introduced exactly twenty-seven years

ago, and its introduction involved the rooting up of sentiments and traditions of inestimable value to

the army The plan, as conceived by its authors,

died stillborn; the makeshift which took its place

has never worked without adventitious aid and

violent methods from the day when it was first inflicted upon the service down to the present moment, when its abject failure stands confessed."

The expression is tautological and non- sensical ; for " stillborn " means born dead, and as a stillborn child is dead before it is born, it cannot be said to " die born " at all. Then how is " stillborn " applicable to a " plan introduced" to the public, criticized ad- versely, and left to perish ] Such a plan dies after it is born. Was it a kinsman of Boyle Roche who invented the phrase 1

F. ADAMS. 106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.

LORD SOMERS. In the dedication to the Right Honourable John, Lord Somers, of vol. i. of the Spectator, occurs the sentence :

"I would, therefore, rather choose to speak

of the surprising influence which is peculiar to you