Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/275

 XIL OCT. a, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

267

A careful search made for me through the index (of vendors), Middlesex Land Kegistry, for the years 1726-70, failed to discover the name of Halley. " The parish of Shoreditch being outside the City of London, one would expecfc to find a record of the Haggerston property," once belonging to Edmund Halley, sen. (ob. 1684). The latter is said to have been drowned.

It has not been my good fortune yet to obtain personal access to the 'Defence of Dr. Halley against the Charge of Religious Infidelity,' by the Rev. S. J. Rigaud. There is other evidence, however, sufficient clearly to disprove the assertion that Halley was an atheist. I venture to think that there is a slight similarity of character between Ed- mond Halley and Abraham Lincoln, at least in so far as concerns their mutual love of demonstration and their religious belief. Cp. ' Six Months at the White House,' F. B. Carpenter, New York, 1867, pp. 190, 314. Both Halley and Lincoln were men of cheerful, kind, and sympathetic temperament, inclined always to accommodate others, though it might be at their own personal inconvenience. Even Thomas Hearne, who appears not to have hesitated to record any rumours he could find about Halley, does not undertake to deny statements made by others that Halley believed in the Deity. Cp. 'Remarks and Collections of Thomas Hearne/ iii. 472, 473 (Oxford, 1889). I have previously referred to Sir David Brewster's opinion of this matter (see 9 th S. xi. 85).

EUGENE F AIRFIELD McPiKE.

Chicago.

The following small addition may be made to this collection. When the Rev. Arthur Ashley Sykes, D.D., was engaged in the "Phlegon" controversy against William Winston and others, he obtained the calcula- tion of an eclipse from " the great Dr. Halley, whose consummate knowledge in geometry and astronomy the whole world acknow- ledges," " who is never to be named without particular honour " (' Defence of the Disser- tation on the Eclipse mentioned by Phlegon,' 1733, pp. 4, 63). W. C. B.

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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.

" PANTAGRUELISM." This word, used by Southey, Coleridge, T. Wright, Lowell, and others, for the philosophy or practice attri-

buted to Pantagruel, one of the characters of Rabelais, which has been defined as "the practice of dealing with serious matters in a spirit of broad and somewhat cynical good humour," is defined in Webster's ' Dictionary ' of 1864 as " the theory or practice of the medical profession ; used in burlesque or ridicule." This alleged meaning is repeated in Ogilvie's 'Imperial,' Cassell's 'Encyclo- paedic,' and recent American dictionaries, these, however, making it a second sense, following the literal one. No quotation for the word in this alleged sense has reached us, and I should be glad to be informed if any one has met with it so used, outside the dictionaries. Webster's editors name as their authority Southey, which raises the suspicion that their definition may have arisen from a misunderstanding of Southey's use of the word in * The Doctor.' At the same time I can quite imagine that some later punster may have seen in " Pantagruelism " an " all gruel " practice. I await further light.

J. A. H. MURRAY.

A HISTORY OF BOOKSELLING.

" The late Mr. Triibner had collected an enormous amount of material for a work on the History of Bookselling, and from time to time spoke to his friends of publishing it as soon as he could finish it to his satisfaction. We should be glad to hear that something was to be done with these interesting collections." Bibliographer, October, 1884, p. 147.

Can any one tell me if Mr. Triibner's material is still in existence, and if it is available 1

WM. H. PEET.

ix. 168.) I shall be extremely obliged if MR. JONATHAN BOUCHIER would let me have a copy of this piece, or tell me where I could obtain one. S. J. ADAIR FITZ-GERALD.
 * BABY-LAND ' : POEM. (See 7 th S. vii. 368 ;

9, Brunswick Square, W.C.

" NOTHING." Can any of your readers remind me in what journal (daily or weekly), in August, I think, I read some clever lines on this word 1 The only ones I can remember ran

What the poor man has, What the rich man requires.

E. P. W.

[The subject has been recently discussed at length in 'N. & Q.' See 9 th S. xi. 166, 333, 395, 452, 517; xii. 93.]

MONARCHS TRAVELLING INCOGNITO. Could you supply me with the names and dates of visits of any foreign Crown Princes who have travelled (say between thirty and sixty or seventy years ago) incognito in this country, learning its customs, politics, &c., so that they might the better be fitted for the high