Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/503

 III. JUNE 24, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

497

folk-speech is similar in many respects I am well aware; but surely the "gradeley' 'N. & Q.' readers of Lancashire do nol begrudge me the pleasure of telling 'N. & Q.' that this thing or the other belongs to Derby- shiremy county. THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

LEPROSY OF HOUSES (9 th S. iii. 409). For much information on the subject of Eastern leprosy see Sir Risdon Bennett's * Diseases oi the Bible,' under 'Leprosy.' But is not this rather a question for a medical journal ? Dr. Thornton, of the Madras Leper Hospital, one of the highest authorities on Eastern leprosy, stated that the disease is contagious, but could rarely, if ever, be communicated to a healthy person save by an abraded skin coming in personal contact with a leper. The science of disinfection, save by washing, was apparently unknown in Biblical times, and the gerrn or bacillus of leprosy would not obtain much lodgment in an ordinary Eastern dwelling, assuming that it was kept fairly clean. W. B. GERISH.

Hoddesdon, Herts.

In the Sunday Magazine, some thirty years ago, there was 'an article by the .Rev. Hugh Macmillan, the gist of which was that house- leprosy was dry-rot. I have not the volume at hand. C. S. WARD.

In reply to MR. R. H. THORNTON, I find in Leviticus xiv. 54, 55, "This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy, and scall, and for the leprosy of a garment and of a house." ALFD. J. KING.

101, Sanclmere Road, Clapham, S.W.

OLD REGISTERS : How TO READ THEM (9 th S. iii. 447). CONAN will find that Wright's ' Court Hand Restored,' of which the eighth edition was published in 1867 by Mr. Hotten, will give him the aid required.

ISAAC TAYLOR.

CONAN will find much of what he wants in Wright's ' Court Hand Restored ' and in Thoyts's 'How to Decipher and Study Old Documents.' There is, however, an important difference between old documents and parish registers, if, as I presume, it is parish registers that CONAN desires to interpret. Documents such as charters, wills, conveyances, &c., were written in a set style_ by trained engrossing clerks. Entries in parish registers were made by parsons and their assistant clerks, whose calligraphic eccentricities had full scope, and whose phonetical gymnastics were uncon- trolled. Deciphering parish registers is, in some cases, a special gift, like ventriloquism ; but if CONAN will devote sufficient time to

the task, and remember that one family name may appear in six different forms upon as many successive pages, he will in the end be successful. RICHARD WELFORD.

A knowledge of ancient methods of writing and spelling can only be obtained by reading less ancient records, and going gradually backward to the time of the particular registers you wish to read, which you will find have then become intelligible.

A. T. W.

DR. JAMES ERASER, OF ABERDEEN AND CHELSEA (6 th S. vi. Ill; 9 th S. iii. 301). It may be of interest to note that a portrait of Dr. James Fraser hangs in the students' reading-room attached to Aberdeen L T niver- sity Library. The painting, " by one of the best artists in London," was presented by Dr. Fraser to the Principal and Regents of King's College in November, 1726, together with a sum of money towards the support of the "library keeper." Dr. Fraser is repre- sented seated, and on his right shoulder is a curious white mark. " A story which I had from my father," writes Emeritus Professor Norman Macpherson (son of Hugh Macpher- son, Professor and Sub-Principal, 1793-1854; and grandson of Roderick Macleod, Professor, Sub-Principal, and Principal, 1748-1815),

"was that Dr. Fraser, of Chelsea, one day, on his way to the studio of the artist who was painting his portrait, encountered an old woman carrying a heavy bag of flour on her back ; that he took the bag from her, threw it over his own shoulder, and carried it home for her, and then hastened to the studio of the artist, who, on hearing of the explana- tion of his lateness, refused to let the coat be brushed, and gave M'hat permanence he could to the evidence of the kindliness of character of his subject."

The " walnut tree escritoire and chest of drawers," bequeathed in his will "to be in the library," I use daily; though the "MSS. and valuable papers that belong to the said College," which it was intended to hold, have long since outgrown its capacity.

Another, and different, portrait has been in possession of the Kirk Session of Inverness since 1720. In 1712, Dr. Fraser mortified 1,000 merks to the Session, the " annual rent " be laid out in purchasing "usefull books
 * or the benefite and encrease of the Library of

[nverness,' Inverness, 1893, p. 62). A cata- ogue of the Session Library, containing 2,894 terns, many curious, was printed in 1897.
 * he said burgh" (Wimberley's 'Hospital of

Dr. Fraser's armorial bearings (the usual Fraser arms inverted thus : Quarterly, 1 and 4, three crowns ; 2 and 3, three f raises) are shown on the south wall of King's College