Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/438

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. in. JUNE 3, m

extended so far. There may, however, have been an earlier house upon the site, erected subsequently to the destruction of the Roman villa, of which a few fragments, such as tessel- lated pavements, were discovered in 1871 and 1873. It may be hoped that before these in- teresting relics are again concealed, careful measured drawings may be made of them, and placed within the reach of antiquaries. Such a work would seem to lie within the scope of the London Topographical Society. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

IDENTIFICATION OF PORTRAIT WANTED (9 th S. iii. 389). This must be the portrait of Richard Baxter. I have not an impression ; but it would be easy to make sure by a visit to the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. The commercial value of a print of this kind, signed by no artist, is very small ; nor would the price recorded in an old sale-catalogue be at all a sure guide, for such portraits as this have "gone down" enormously since they were collected for "grangerizing."

JULIAN MARSHALL.

MR. SAINTHILL AND HIS BASQUE STUDIES (9 th S. iii. 109, 201, 254). In the very showy, but in many places misprinted and disap- pointingly incomplete 'Catalpgo de Obras Euskaras,' by G. de Sorarrain (Barcelona, 1898), it is stated on p. 414 :

" Acerca de la vida des presbitero Dr. D. Rafael de Micoleta solo se sabe que nacio en Bilbao el afio 1611, que en varios documentos y papeles de aquella epoca existentes en Ips archives de la referida villa y de su cabildo eclesiastico aparece sonando con fre- cuencia el nombre del Dr. D. Rafael de Micoleta, y que fue" varios veces fiscal mayor y menor y prior del referido Cabildo. Se ignora la epoca' de su muerte y las circunstancias que dieron lugar a que f uera d parar al Museo Britanico el manuscrito de su gramatica."

Those who feel any interest in the subject will probably be able to translate these words for themselves. At last we know something about the author of the earliest known and surviving Basque grammar.

I am grateful to MR. E. J. L. SCOTT for his correction. In the transcript of Sainthill'f letter forwarded to me I find the name of the Basque author is Nicoleta. But having been accustomed to think of him as Micoleta for many years, I mechanically reproduced the error of all those who have hitherto written about his ' Modo Breue.' When, however, 1 first saw the manuscript of this, in 1897, ii did occur to me that the initial M of his name might be an N with a flourish. I be lieve the family name Nicoleta still exists in Biscaya. Yet it will be seen that Sorarrain

i Basque himself, refers to the mention of his lame in the archives at Bilbao, without re- narking that this was not Micoleta. Can it be that the mistake is that of Sainthill 1 I will endeavour myself to find out how the name was written in the documents at Bilbao n the author's lifetime. Will MR. SCOTT be so good as to let us know if the handwriting of Sainthill and that of the ' Modo Breue ' are the same ? Are the appendices at the end of the latter in that of Sir T. Browne ?

PALAMEDES.

I think if PALAMEDES will consult Vivian's ' Visitations of Devon,' p. 664, and Mrs. Rose Troup's ' Sainthills of Bradninch, Devon,' and ' A Cavalier's Note-Book,' also by Mrs. Troup, both papers in vol. xxi. of the Transactions of the Devonshire Association, 1889, pp. 383, 395, he will be satisfied that Dr. Garnet t is correct in his surmise that Samuel Sainthill belonged to a Devonshire family. J. B. R,

BOOK TERMS (8 th S. ix. 341 ; x. 400 ; 9 th S. ii. 322, 521; iii. 53, 172, 217). In reply to COL. PRIDEAUX and MR. JULIAN MARSHALL, I can point out that our language teems with words whose origin is of doubtful authority, and words spelt exactly the same and yet meaning different things, as roiv (i. e.j uproar), row (a boat), and row (of houses). Other words have endless varieties of meanings. Moreover, every attempt to introduce a new worcl is met by objections to its improper formation ; take telegram, for example, which was said to be so bad that we could not possibly use it. But ananym is no new word ; it was introduced in France over forty years ago, and used in ' The Hand- book of Fictitious Names,' 1868, for example, to show the reader what kind of a pseudonym "Werdna Retnyw" was. Few, I think, would suspect it to be an ananym of Andrew Wynter.

However, COL. PRIDEAUX and MR. JULIAS MARSHALL, when they are pursuing the science of books, can have an alternative, as they object to ananym (which, by-the-by, Dr. Murray does not condemn, as stated by MR. MARSHALL) ; they can use the frightful word boustrophedon until they find that simple English word. I entirely agree that it would be best to use English words, and so I said to Mr. H. S. Ashbee when he told me he was going to call his list of engrav- ings, &c., relating to Don Quixote an "Icono- graphy." He also agreed, and asked me for a simple English word.

My difference with MR. JULIAN MARSHALL, it seems to me, can only be settled in the old form, by "trial by battle." Next time we