Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/153

 9"- s. xn. AUG. 22, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Sir James Crich ton-Browne's reply to Froude), in a paper on the * Etiology and Treatment of Muco-Membranous Colitis,' by Dr. Botten- tuit, consulting physician at Plombieres, who gravely states, "I recommend my patients to eat the tables (!) with their meal and to be careful not to swallow their food too quickly" (Brit, Med. Jour., p. 1490). What does he mean ? JNO. HEBB.

[The advice is, at any rate, Virgilian : "Heus! etiam mensas consumimus? inquit lulus" ('^Eneid,' vii. 116), and may refer to the food indicated there.]

" WISEN "= TO GROW WISE. This would seem to be rather a useful word ; I heard it at Haxey, near here, some days since. A stranger in the village was said to have not yet got " climatized " to the place, *' but," it was added, " he '11 wisen i' time." C. C. B.

Epworth.

PRIMITIVE COLOURING. (See 9 th S. xi. 499.) A short time ago I observed a house decora- tor at work colouring the outside walls of a building in this village. In order to im- part the necessary hue to his colour-wash he mixed with it a quantity of cow-dung. The result is a delicate yellowish-brown tint which no ordinary person would be tempted to quarrel with any more than he would be to ask curious questions concerning its compo- nent parts. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

RICHARD HEAD'S 'FLOATING ISLAND.' Attention does not seem to have been called to an error in date of a work recorded in Watt's * Bibliotheca Britannica.' The follow- ing is the entry as it stands in Watt :

" Careless (Franck). The Floating Island, or a new discovery relating to a strange adventure in a late voyage from Lambethland to Villa Franco, alias Ranallio on the eastward of Terra del Templo. 4to. 1473."

It needs but slight knowledge of English literary history to tell from its title that this is not a fifteenth-century book. After a little search it will be discovered that "Franck Careless" is the pseudonym, or one of the pseudonyms, of Richard Head, the author of 'The English Rogue/ 'The Canting Academy

with the cpmpleat Canting Dictionary,'

also 'Alman-sir or Rhodomontados.' The correct date of the work is 1673. Watt's transcript of the title is far from being accurate ; the following, which is taken from Mr. Sidney Lee's article on Richard Head in the 'Dictionary of National Biography,' seems the right entry so far as it goes :

" The Floating Island ; or, a New Discovery, relating the Strange Adventure on a late Voyage from Lambethana to Villa Franca, alias Ramallia

to the Eastward of Terra del Templo by Francis

Careless, one of the Discoverers. London, 1673, 4to."

It will be seen that Watt substituted "Lambethland" for Lambethana, ''Franco" for Franca, "Ranallio" for Ramallia. This shows how dependent' Watt and his sons were on second-hand sources for producing and completing the 'Bibliotheca Britannica ' ; but the fact that it is still so generally useful proves that it was possible, even at a distance from London or Oxford, in days when means of communication were slow and difficult, to compile a bibliographi- cal work of comparatively high value. 'The Floating Island' is not in the British Museum Library, but the Bodleian possesses a copy, of which the following is the title- entry as printed in the catalogue of the Bodleian Library of 1843 :

"Head (Richard). The floating island, or, a new discovery, relating the strange adventure on a late voyage, from Lambethana to Villa Franca, alias Ramallia to the eastward of Terra del Templo ; by three ships viz. the Paynaught, the Excuse, the Least-in-Sight. (Anon.) 4 n.p. 1673."

There is also an explanatory cross-reference : " Careless (Frank), i.e., Richard Head, q.v." The entry in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' omits the names of the three ships given in the Bodleian entry, but inserts the pseudonym "Careless." But the book is described in the Bodleian catalogue as anonymous." No book can be anonymous if a name of an author be given, whether real or fictitious. Then, again, is the fore- name to Careless spelt "Francis," "Franck," or "Frank"? And lastly, with regard to place of printing and publication, the 'Dictionary' entry gives London, the Bodleian catalogue " n.p." (no place). As will be gathered, I should be glad to see a full transcript of the title of what must be a work both curious and interesting. ARCHIBALD L. CLARKE.

Mico FAMILY. In Le Neve's 'Knights/ Harl. Soc., p. 190, is a short pedigree of Sir Samuel Mico (Micault), alderman and mercer of London, who was knighted 18 March, 1664/5. P. Fisher's 'Catalogue of Tombes,' 1668 (ed. 1885, p. 60), mentions his hatchment without naming the church. He occurs also in Cromwell's 'State Letters,' 1676, p. 106. In 1640 he lived in Wai brook Ward, Misc. Gen. t Her., Second Series, ii. 116. The death of Aaron Mico, of London, merchant, on 18 January, 1652, is entered in Musgrave's ' Obituary,' iv. 192. Another Aaron Mico, of London, merchant, who married Joanna, daughter of William Methold, of Kensington, made his will 3 January, 1658/9, for which see l sfc S. vi. 360. A nautical .person of this