Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/490

 406 NOTES AND QUERIES. tes- s. VI. Nov. 24, 1900. roosted, or across which saddles, armour, clothinga &ci, were suspiended. ;I‘his (iitigk was evi enty sup orte at eaci en notches in or on the roof principals, which wopld givef it the)fix<id lengfgi elf 16fft. (o{ ratier 16 t. 6in.. t wou t ere ore, should think, have afforded a convenient mealns andl standhardhof meiasurlementhand mig t exp ain w y t e roo, oe, perc , or “land-yarél ” (siéill so callerrhin Devon) shguld consist o 16 t. 6in. e correspon ing intervals between the_house principals (or forks) having been decided, as I understand, by the space required for standing four oxen, it would seem as thouguh the buildmg measure must have preceded tEe landLmeas%I;e. THEL EGA- EEKES. THE DARK AGES.-When Coleridge was asked, What are the dark ages? his answer was, “Those concerning which we are our- selves in the dark.” His words had double plungency and piguancy before 1811, when allam’s ‘Middle es’ appeared, and before Gibbon had reacheg his present popularity. The phrase “dark ages,” m the earliest cita- tion y Dr. Murray, appears in the following setting : “A Theatre ...... called so in the dark Ages, when such Names were iven at ran- dom.” The author is A. Gordon, and the date is 1730. It seems possible that an earlier usage-and, perhaps, one more signi- iicant-may be known to those readers of ‘ N. & Q.’ who have so frequently discovered a lower deep in the lowest dee of the Ox- fordians. 1 would, therefore, lieg them to turn their searchlights on the chronology of “dark ages.” The birth of the term must synchronize with some special su eriiux of self-conceit. JAMES D. HUTLER. Madison, Wis., U.S. WILLIAM IWORRIS AS A MIAN or BUsINEss. --I am more than a little uzzled by a sen- tence in Mr. Mackail’s ‘gifs of William Morris.’ Speaking of Morris as a man of business, Mr. Mackail says (vol. i. p. 221): “That neglect of detail which is one of the secrets of success came to him naturally.” A little further on he varies the phrase, and calls this neglect “detachment from routine.” Surely this is mere confusion of terms. It is possible to be exact and systematic without eing a slave of the machine ; and is it not a fact that the most successful men-nay, the greatest men-in every walk of life have, as a rule, been careful of detail? To be so is obviously necessary to the scholar, the artist, the scientist, the writer 4; is it less so to the man of affairs-politician. soldier, lawyer, merchant, tradesman, or whatever he is? It may be said that the director of great affairs may be careless of detail if he employs care- ful subordinates; but this is begging the question, and apparently is not what Mr. Mackail means, or he quotes in illustration of his remark this curious speech of Morris : “ I keep fifteen clerks doing my accounts, and 'et I cannot find out how much money I have got.” His accounts cannot have been in very careful hands. And we are to under- stand that this was one of the secrets of his success. It is worth while to ask how far this indifference to detail affected Morris’s art work. We ma ' attribute to it, I suppose, at least in part the level, monotonous cha- racter of so much of his verse. He is said to have written 700 lines of ‘ The Earthly Para- dise’ in one day. One may marvel at such fertility, but cannot help regretting that his habit of “ letting things slice” in business should have invaded his literary wtgkslhog. Rou'rEs BETWEEN LONDON AND PARIS IN 1843.-It is rare that any book (save a rayer book) is seen upon this island, but I) have curiously just come across a French guide- book, printed in Paris in 1841, wherein the various routes between the two capitals are given as follows :- V iii Shoreham and Dieppe (London to Shore- ham by rail, to Diqppe y steamer, Dieppe to Rouen by diligence, ouen to Paris by rai ), 242% miles, time ta en 202 hours, cost 21. 18s. 6d. This aippears to be the shortest, quickest, though not t me cheapest way. Via Shoreham and Havre (London to Shoreham by rail, and Shoreham to Havre per steamer, hence to Paris by diligence and rail), 28l§ miles, time taken 241 hours, cost 31. (is. 6d. Via Havre from London by steamer (hence by diligence and rail), 39 hours, cost 31. 13s. Via Dover and Calais (London to Dover per railway [when finished], Dover to Calais tier steamer, Calais to Paris .Ear diligence), 289 mi es, time taken 32 hours, cost ‘. 6-1. (id. Via Southampton and Havre (London to South- ampton per railway, Southampton to Havre per steamer, and hence per diligence to Rouen, and by rail on from there to Paris), 332 miles, 28§ hours’ travel, cost 31. 168. Via London to Boulogne by steamer (hence to Paris by diligence), 266 miles, time taken 33_ hours, cost 21. 8s. This latter route, it states, is very economical, and the least fatiguing, the sea part of the voya e in general not exceeding 5 hours. Via Londgon to Dover (by rail, hence to Boulofne by steamer, and on to Paris by diligence), 270 mi es, time taken 30 hours, cost 21. 164. 611. It will be seen by the above that, in the early forties, there were seven distinct routes between Paris and London and mee versd. HARRY HEMS, Ile l'Ouessant, Fiuistére, Q-_