Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/118

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NOTES AND QUERIES. C"- s. vin. AUG. 3, 1901.

opinions of believers, among whom was a North- amptonshire clergyman, who, like many other re- spectable folk, had almost deluded himself into the belief that he had * the mystic art.'"

Water divining was, according to Dr. Cox, a sham and a delusion, and "nine-tenths of it was more or less humbug." However this may be, the subject is certainly most interesting, and I have carefully col- lected cuttings relating thereto for some years. I well remember the correspondence in the Fifth and Sixth Series (et seq.) of 4 N. & Q.,' to which valuable notes were sent by several well - known contributors, now, alas ! departed from our ranks. I shall be glad of additions to the following list of novels in which "dowsing" in some form or other is introduced : ' The Antiquary,' Sir W. Scott; 'This Son of Vulcan,' Sir W. Besant ; 'A Strange Story,' Lord Lytton ; 'Arminell.' S. Baring-Gould ; 'The Water Finder,' Lucas Cleeve : ' The Birthright,' Joseph Hocking ; 'The Dagger and the Sword,' Joseph Hatton.

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

TRIALS OF ANIMALS (8 th S. xii. 48, 115, 174, 334). Most of these appear to have occurred in the Middle Ages, so that the following story of a Russian lady of high rank who lived not so many years ago might seem to be illustrative only of some individual eccen- tricity. There are people, however, who are fond of pointing out that Russia is now only where England was in mediaeval times, in which case the anecdote would perhaps serve as a proof of their theory :

" Elle possedait un petit King-Charles qu'elle traitait comme un prince. Elle le couchait dans une niche aux rideaux de sole, sur un coussin brod6 et armorfe", et il etait de"fendu aux domestiques de le tutoyer. Un jour, un chat sauta sur le petit tresor et 1'egratigna. La vieille demoiselle fit appeler son cousin, le marechal de la noblesse, pour juger le chat audacieux, qu'elle avait fait emprisonner dans une cage. On decida qu'il serait pendu. L'execu- tion eut lieu solennellement au fond du jardin, et Ton apporta la peau du coupable a la comtesse." Victor lissot, ' La Russie et les Russes,' chap. xiii. p. 201.

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

HAND-RULING IN OLD TITLE-PAGES (9 th S vii. 169, 331, 396, 515). I have a most remark- able specimen of this in a two-volume Bible "Printed by Charles Bill and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd, Printers to the Queen's most Excel 1 Majesty," 1707. In the first volume (Old Testament) the archi- tectural title-page is elaborately ruled in red, all the lines of the columns, capitals, and pediments being thus decorated. The back of the title-page, though blank, is also ruled.

The volume is ruled throughout. The second volume contains the New Testament (same printers and date) and the metrical Psalms of Sternhold and Hopkins, "Printed by William Pearson for the Company of Stationers," 1707. Both the Testament and the Psalrns are ruled throughout, the title- pages most elaborately so with double, triple, and quadruple lines. An interesting feature of the volumes lies in the mounts (corners, panels, and clasps), of which there are four- teen on each volume, all of the Queen Anne period and engraved with the outlined arabesques of the latter part of the seven- teenth century. EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

I have a curious old family Bible ot 1671, copiously illustrated with full-page copper- plates, and including Sternhold and Hop- kins's metrical version of the Psalms, in which the recto and verso of every page, including illustrations, are ruled and double- ruled by a pen in red ink, some 1,500 pages. The book was probably in Little Gidding after Nicholas's time, and was also for a time in possession of descendants of Nicholas's friend the great Dr. Donne, of St. Paul's.

I have also another red-lined religious book, the Communion Service, or Office, used in St. Lawrence Jewry by its rector, Dr. John Mapletoft, Nicholas's grand-nephew and god- son a curious little book, consisting of the office (removed from a Prayer Book) and a large number of prayers, about 120 pages. The office is in 16 pages, in the middle of the prayers, these being all in the rector's own handwriting. He was born in 1630, seven years before the death of Nicholas, and he died in 1720, still rector. The pages are, like the Bible, hand-ruled throughout, excepting the 16 printed pages, with red ink. Both books are bound in the Little Gidding manner, and are quaint links in an invisible chain connect- ing a City church with the remote religious community in Huntingdonshire.

MICHAEL FERRAR.

Little Gidding, in Baling.

One of the best examples of hand -ruling is the register or roll of the gild of Knowle This book is in the Birmingham Free Library, and the bold, bright red lines throughout some not written on are as clear as the day on which they were ruled.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

Shrewsbury.

"FALL BELOW PAR" (9 th S. yii. 488). I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the story. How wary one must be in this matter of sayings is, for instance, shown by the fact that neither the famous " Ich habe keine Zeit,