Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/170

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. in. MAK. 4,

" Sic enini Julius Caesar, quando voluit Angliam expugnare refertur maxima specula erexisse, ut a Gallicano littore dispositionem civitatum et castro- rum Anglian praevideret."

How Bacon got hold of this strange report, which would, if true, have made the despatch of Volusenus quite unnecessary, it is impos- sible even to conjecture ; but it would almost seem that, entranced by the thought of what magnification by refraction through lenses might produce, he set no bounds to its prac- tical possibilities, and accepted some strange stories as to the accomplishment of this by the ancients. Nearly three hundred years after his time, Thomas Digges (died 1594) states that his father Leonard Digges (author of the ' Pantometria ') had succeeded in view- ing distant objects by perspective glasses, and that his success was founded on reading a manuscript work by Roger Bacon ; but the telescope was certainly not brought into practical scientific use until some years later, when the first would seem to have been made by Hans Lippersheim at Middelburg in 1608. It is well known how soon afterwards the instrument was applied to astronomical dis- coveries by Galileo and others.

With regard to Roger Bacon, I may fitly close by quoting Mr. Bridges again in a note on part v. cap. iv. of the ' Opus Majus,' where he says (vol. ii. p. 166) :

" The exaggerated claims set up for Bacon as an inventor must not blind us to the thoroughly scientific spirit which inspired these forecasts. It is enough for his fame that he conceived the pos- sibility of the telescope, and gave solid grounds for his belief, more than three centuries before the conception was realized."

W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

ANCIENT WHARF IN WESTMINSTER. The Daily Telegraph for 4 February contained an article on the new building which has been erected for the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at Storey's Gate, St. James's Park, from which I have extracted the follosving cutting :

" A curious fact worth mentioning in connexion with the building is that it stands on the site of an ancient wharf. When the workmen dug down for the foundations, they came upon the piles and brickwork of an extensive quay. The structure was wonderfully well preserved, and had been most substantially constructed. Conjecture places the erection of the wharf away back in the days when Thorney Island was still an eyot in the Thames, and Westminster was a city to which the fishermen of the neighbouring waterside hamlet of London brought their wares for sale. At all events, the unearthing of a wharf in St. James's Park, so far from the river, is a very curious and interesting discovery, and carries one to the remote past, when the site of Buckingham Palace, Belgrave Square, and much of

the surrounding district was a wildfowl-haunted marsh."

I trust that some further light may be thrown on this interesting discovery, and that it may not be difficult approximately to fix the date and character of the brickwork. I presume the writer of the paragraph con- siders the position of the quay as a datum point in tracing the course of the stream which is supposed to have surrounded Thorney Island. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

45, Pall Mall, S.W.

SIRDAR. --The following cutting from the January number of the Boy's Own Paper may be worth preserving in these columns. I should like to preface it by remarking that the pronunciation ascribed to Lord Kitchener is at best an Anglicized one, the word being of Persian origin, and invariably accented by Persians, Turks, and Orientals generally upon the last syllable :

"Sirdar or Sirdar, which is correct? The nation is divided on the point at present. The man in the street says Sirdar ; in the clubs and elsewhere you more often hear Sirdar the notion being, doubtless, that the less obvious is likely to be the more cor- rect. It may be of interest, therefore, to state, for the benefit of all whom it may concern, that the pronunciation adopted by Lord Kitchener himself is Sirdar the accent, that is, on the first syllable." JAS. PLATT, Jun.

JOHN GERARD, THE HERBALIST. It is strange that he should be cited as "Gerarde" in the 'H.E.D.' See the notice of him in the ' D.N.B.' for proof that his name ought not to have the final e. C. C. B.

MAIDSERVANTS THROWING DICE. The fol- lowing paragraph from the South Wales Daily News, Cardiff, for 28 Jan., I thought worthy of being recorded in your columns, if it has not already appeared :

" A curious old custom was observed on Thursday at Guildford. By a gift made in the seventeenth century it was stipulated that a sum of money should be invested in Consols, calculated to pro- duce 121. 12s. net for a maidservant who should have lived for two years or upwards in one service in the old borough of Guildford, and who ' should throw the highest number with two dice, or cast lots with another maidservant.' The unsuccessful

marry.

that no maid who was a servant in a licensed inn or alehouse should be selected as a candidate. The proceedings on Thursday took place in the Council Chamber. Ten names were submitted for selection. The successful two were Louisa Remnant, in the employ of Mr. Matthew Kleiser, of North Street, for the past ten and a half years, and Sarah Ann Frogley, in the service of Mr. Richard Sparkes for fifteen years. As soon as the trustees had taken