Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/498

 526 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. iv. dec. 23, m action, on the death of Cant. Cooke. This may be the same annotated account of the battle which has recently appeared in the Nineteenth Century. The "Letter" occupies more than seven columns of small type in ' N. & Q.,' and is addressed by Capt. Cumby to his son Anthony. John Pickford, M.A. A Flaming Beryl (9th S. iv. 288, 428).—I do not understand Mr. Mayall as defending the expression of " flaming" as applied to the beryl, which is defined as "a lapidary's term for the less brilliant and colourless varieties of the emerald." This I take to be final and exact. The chrysoberyl is not really a beryl, the latter being a silicate, the former an oxide, and its suffix a mere expletive of supposititious connexion with the Heb. barak, Sansk. bharga, bright, brilliant. One might just as well postulate "a pure and perfect chrysolite." So the question remains, What stone did Dr. Conan Doyle really mean 1 A. H. First Halfpenny Newspaper (9th S. ii. 504; iv. 270, 357, 425).—A cutting from your issue of 18 November has just come into my possession, in which the question of the oldest halfpenny daily paper is raised. The Shields Daily Gazette, until a few months ago, claimed to be the oldest living provincial daily paper. The stamp duty on newspapers ceasea on Saturday, 30 June, 1855. The Gazette commenced publishing as a daily on 2 July, its original price being a penny. On 2 January, 1864, it was converted into a four - page daily costing a halfpenny, at which price it has since continued to be published daily. Until the jubilee of the establishment of the Gazette was cele- brated in February this year, we were in the belief that it was actually the oldest daily, but Mr. Dunbar, the editor of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph, himself a former member of the Gazette staff, drew our atten- tion to the fact that the first issue of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph took place on 8 June, 1855, which makes it our senior by three weeks. The Shields Gazette, however, still holds the honour of being the oldest pro- vincial evening paper. Geo. B. Hodgson. "Soy" (9th S. iv. 475).—In Java called Soya. Query, from Soya, in Java 1 D. King of Bantam (9th S. iv. 419, 488).—As Bantam has been discussed lately in ' N. cfe Q.,' perhaps some reader may be able to explain the following passage from Horace Walpole's 'Letters' (Cunningham's edition, vol. iv. 373). Writing to Montagu in 1765, he says : "But Mr. Pitt, where is he? In the clouds, for aught I know, in one of which he may descend like the Kings of Bantam, and take quiet possession of the throne again." Helen Toynbee. Pewter and its Marks (9th S. iv. 458, 506).—I have for many years been engaged collecting materials for a work on the above. 1 have over a thousand makers' names and their marks. I hope to print my ' Old English Pewter : its Makers and their Marks,' early in the coming year. I shall be very grateful for any impressions of marks, however worn, and also photographs or drawings of interesting pieces. R. C. Hope, F.S.A. 70, Esplanade, Scarborough. George and Mary Boole (9th S. iv. 398).—George Boole was born at Lincoln, 2 November, 1815. He was chiefly self- educated, and became a celebrated mathe- matician and logician. Eeceived a medal from the Koyal Society. Appointed Pro- fessor of Mathematics at the Queen's Uni- versity, Ireland, in 1849; created LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin, 1852. Married Mary, daughter of the Bev. Thomas Everest, an authoress, in 1855. Created D.C.L., 6 July, 1859. Mr. Boole published several mathe- matical works, and died near Cork, 8 Decem- ber, 1864. Sir George Everest was born at Gwern- vale, Brecknock, 4 July, 1790. Surveyor- General of India in 1830. Died at Greenwich, 1 December, 1866. John Radcliffe. Birthplace of Lord Beaconsfield (9th S. iy. 395).—This seems to be one of those ques- tions which, though always being discussed, never yield anything like a settlement. It promises to be another "Junius" inquiry. Mr. Hebb brings before us again three or four of the places which are clamour- ing, it would seem, to be credited with the honour of having served as place of birth to perhaps the most curious of all old Isaac Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature," and a week or two back I met again with two others of these birthplaces: the one at Upper Street, Islington (opposite Compton Terrace), and that at Hart Street, Bloomsbury. I do not now propose to make any addition to the list of claimants—at least, not directly—but having the other day come across some notes on " Beaconsfield's early life," which notes, I think, are not very generally known, it occurs to me that I may mention my find as likely, perhaps, to furnish some suggestions