Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/350

 288 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9«"s.vi. OCT. 13,1900. any further part of Mr. Danvers's report." How is the student to obtain information as to papers not included in part i. 1 Q. V. QUOTATION FROM CAELYLE.—The following sentence appears on the title-page of ' A History of Booksellers,' by Henry Curwen (John Caraden Hotten, 1873). It is there attributed to Thomas Carlyle, but 1 have failed to identify it. I am well aware of Mr. Hotten's aptitude in inventing authors' names to books published by him, and half suspect that he invented the quotation in question also. Was not Henry Curwen also mythical ? " In these days, ten ordinary histories of kings and courtiers were well exchanged against the tenth part of one good History of Booksellers." W. H. PEBT. FLAX SPINNING AND PROTECTION.—In the textile department, French section, of the Exposition is a semi-official notice, printed in large type, stating that in the year 1834 the English Government passed a law prohibiting, under pain of death—"la peine de mort"— the exportation of machinery suitable for the spinning of flax. Can any reader say to what Act of Parliament this notice refers ? Was the penalty ever enforced, and has this law been repealed ? J. P. S. Paris. ROADS IN ENGLAND.—What county maps are there of dates prior to 1700 which show accurately the roads which then existed, similar to the maps by E. Bo wen and by Thos. Kitchin (1700) which Mr. Kidler states in his catalogue of second-hand books are "the first road maps published"? I know there are books of road maps prior to 1700, but they contain only the roads engraved it sections, and do not include, except in rare instances, and then on a diminutive scale, either a map of England or maps of the counties showing the course of these roads There are also old maps which contain roadf shown thereon by single lines, drawn from say, London to Bath and Exeter or London to Peterborough, Newark, Doncaster, York, &c. but the intermediate towns, villages, &c. through which these roads pass are noi given. These maps for road purposes are nearly worthless. In this respect the French nation is far ahead of ours, there being beautiful maps of France, with all the post roads and many side roads shown thereon dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century and even earlier; also post books for similar periods which furnish all the requisite information as to the lengths o: roads, names of the post stages and their distance the one from the other, rates of charges, rules, regulations, &c. Is there any modern work upon the old roads of England stating when they were constructed, under what private Act or other authority, &c. 1 "f not, it would be a most useful book of reference for, say, the " Badminton Library o compile and publish. C. MASON. 29, Emperor's Gate, S.W. ANCIENT AND MODERN NAMES OF CITIES, TOWNS, &.C., IN ENGLAND.—Which is the best and most comprehensive book showing the ancient names of cities, towns, villages, and lamlets in England, and their modern equiva- unts? I have several charters, &c., of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but am unable to locate the towns, villages, etc., mentioned therein for the want of such a book. Are we once again behind our French neighbours, who have a " Diet. Topog. con- tenant les noms anciens et modernes de lieux " 'of each department of France, pub- lished by the Imp. Nat. 1862-1891? Why cannot we have similar books ? C. MASON. 29, Emperor's Gate, S.W. " DOING THE DANCERS." — The following paragraph appeared in the Birmingham Daily Post of 29 September :— A trick known as ' doing the dancers' was played yesterday morning on the landlord of the •Victoria' Inn, Steelhouse Lane, with the result that he is the poorer by 51. Two men, it appears, entered the taproom, and, calling for drinks, ten- dered a coin which necessitated the attendant going upstairs to the cashbox for change. The position of the latter was thus discovered, and a short time only had passed before the box and the money it contained were stolen." "Ringing the changes" is a familiar term for a trick commonly attempted upon pub- licans, but "doing the dancers" is not in Hotten's 'Slang Dictionary.' Is it local to the Midlands? . A. F. R. LOSSES IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.— Can you kindly inform me how many lives were lost by the North American civil war on both sides ? HERRMANN COHN. MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE.—How is it that in his charming ' History of India' he turns Oriental names upside down so fre- quently ? Take, e.g., the first line in his book, "India is bounded by the Himalaya, the Indus, and the sea." He should have written Himalaya; himti, " snow," prefixed to dlai/a, " house. As to Hema, there is no such word ; and if there were it would be illiterate to mark the e as long, seeing that in Sanskrit