Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/94

 86

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 s. x. A. 2, 1902.

it unfortunate that the Coronation number was the last of a volume, but there is no explicit correction in the issue for 5 July of the wrongly anticipated past tense : only two vague allusions, one in a review.

The sumptuous Coronation number of the Illustrated London News not only gives pic- tures of what did not take place on 26 June, but does not in all cases correctly represent what should have happened e.g., the Coro- nation robes. I will not go into detail, lest its editor deal with ' me as with another correspondent ; but I may point out that Drs. Ingram and Moule are represented as sitting in the House of Lords on 14 Feb., 1901, on which day the see of London was vacant and that of Durham filled by Dr. Westcott, who died on 27 July, 1901. The present bishops of those sees became such in April and October, 1901, respectively.

W. E. B.

CRIES OF ANIMALS. The following lines are tucked away in an obscure corner of Du Cange, who gives as his reference "Ebrardus Betun. in Grsecismo, c. 19":

Drensat olor, clingit anaer, crocitat quoque corvus, Ac pardus fellit, vultur pulpat, leo rngit, Ac onager mugilat, bos mugit, rana coaxat, Vociferans barrit elephas, grillusque minurrit, Blatterat ac vespertilio, strictinnit hirundo, Balat pvis, vehyat capra, sed gallina gracillat, Frendit aper, vulpes quoque gannit, rudit asellus, Hinnit equus, grunnit porcus, pipilat quoque nisus, Sed catulus latrat, hinc murilegubusque [?] catillat, Est hominumque loqui, quod dicto prsevalet omni.

See Du Cange, sub voce ' Vehyare.'

RICHARD H. THORNTON. Portland, Oregon.

FEMALE STENOGRAPHERS IN ANCIENT TIMES. In my little note ' Shorthand in the Third Century ' (9 th S.ix. 446) I had written, "Puellas notarias (stenograph girls) I cannot find in ancient times." Now Dr. Heraeus (Offen- bach o/M.) publishes in the scholarly Archiv fur Stenographie the epitaph of a Greek female stenographer, and I see that the old culture knew already this branch of female activity. The epitaph cannot be dated with certainty ; it seems to belong to the first Christian century. It has been published before in the Notizie deqli Scavi di Antichita of the Accademia dei Lincei, 1890, p. 15, and was found in 1889 in the old Via Tiburtina (Tivoli) : " Dis manibus sacrum. Hapateni notarise grsece, que vix. ann. xxv., Pittosus fecit conjugi dulcissime." (H)Apateni is a vulgar dative ; e for ce is also vulgar writing. Apate is a name not unusual for slaves and freed women. Apate may have been a stenographer in Greek, as her name

indicates already her Greek birth. This is the only evidence for a stenograph girl in ancient times. Fulgentius, 'Mythologiarum,' iii. 10, must be read, " ut in puerilibus litteris prima abecedaria, secunda nota," not "notaria." DR. MAX MAAS.

Munich, Bavaria.

DICKENS AND TIBULLUS.

"'I mean this here, Sammy,' replied the old gentleman, ' that wot they drink, don't seem no nourishment to 'em ; it all turns to warm water, and comes a' pourin' out o' their eyes. 'Pend upon it, Sammy, it s a constitootional infirmity.'"- -' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club,' chap. xlv.

With this "scientific opinion" of the elder Mr. Weller we may aptly compare the follow- ing distich from Tibullus (i. v. 37, 38) : Stepe ego temptavi curas depellere vino : At dolor in lacrimas verterat omne merum.

On the second line Jan van Broekhuyzen, the celebrated Dutch Latinist, commented thus :

" Elegans inventio, et venustatis poeticse plenis- sima. Quam quo crebrius verses atque excutias, eo suavius iucundiusque adridet."

As we may safely presume that Dickens was not indebted to the Latin elegist, the passage in 'Pickwick,' which has "arrided" many a reader, has an equal claim to the liberal praise of the Batavian editor.

EDWARD BENSLY. The University, Adelaide, South Australia.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

BOLTON ABBEY COMPOTUS. T. D. Whitaker ('History of Craven,' second edition, 1812, p. 369) says : " The Compotus of Bolton begins in 1290, and ends in 1325." He further says: "I chuse to exhibit the accounts of the first year at large, and afterwards to extract a few particulars only from each year." This promise is followed by a docu- ment entitled "Compotus Monasterii beate Marie de Boulton in Craven a festo sancti Martini in hieme A.D. M CC nonagesimo octavo usque ad idem festum A.D. M CC nonagesimo nono, per unum annum inte- grum." On the completion of this account he begins, at p. 384, a series of extracts from accounts, presumably later in date (see the second quotation above), but actually dated 1294-6-7, &c.

I shall be glad if some Yorkshire corre- spondent will explain this chronological