Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/154

 146

NOTE8 AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vm. AUG. 17, 1901.

(' H. N.,' xxxvii. 64) where Nero is said to have used an emerald to help his weak sight 1 ? Surely Pliny means his readers to under- stand that the emperor used a mirror of smaragdus. If the use of lenses as aids to vision was known so far back as the first century of our era, it is incredible that the invention of glass spectacles should have been so comparatively recent. I should like to elicit the opinions of scholars upon this point. KOM OMBO.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED.

If you your life would keep from strife,

These things observe with care : Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,

And how, and when, and where.

H. S. MITIR, Surgeon-General.

Three cups of wine a man may safely take : One for his stomach, one for his love's sake, &c.

M. G. D.

Go not halfe way to mete a cumming sorrow, But thankfulle bee for blessinges of to-daye ; And pray that thou mayst blessed bee to-morrow ; 80 shalt thou goe with joie upon thy waye.

H. HELDMAN.

JOHN STOWS PORTRAIT, 1603. (9 th S. vii. 401, 513 ; viii. 86.)

I AM afraid MR. HENDRIKS'S arguments are not very convincing. The late Mr. J. G. Nichols was a distinguished antiquary and genealogist, but MR. HENDRIKS has himself convicted him of error in the latter part of his note, and the fact that he failed to detect a slip of Dr. Dalton, of whose qualifications as a bibliographer I must confess my ignor- ance, does not count for much. It is all very well to depreciate poor Lowndes, who is not here to defend himself, but it would be more to the point if MR. HENDRIKS would indicate the whereabouts of a copy of the sup- posed 1603 edition of the book loosely called by Dr. Dalton 'Stow's Chronicle' whether be a copy of the 'Annals' or of 'The Summary of Chronicles.' In default of this evidence I must decline to acknowledge the existence of such an edition, and I feel no doubt that Mr. Sidney Lee, whose acquaint- ance with Elizabethan literature does not admit of dispute, was perfectly correct in the statement quoted by MR. HENDRIKS from the Diet. Nat. Biog.' But as regards Stow's monumental effigy, MR. HENDRIKS is un- doubtedly right. The material of which the monument is composed is stated, in the words ot an unimpeachable authority, Mr. H. W Prewer, to be for the most part

" veined English alabaster, with black marble intro- duced in the freize, and a white marble plinth. The use of English alabaster seems to prove it to be native workmanship, and it bears such a strong resemblance in the treatment of the heraldic design of the upper portion of the composition to the tomb of Humble in St. Saviour's, Southwark, that we are inclined to think that both monuments were the work of the same architect or sculptor."

But on this point I think a valued corre- spondent of ' N. & Q./ MR. JOHN T. PAGE, is in a position to give further information.* W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Ramsgate.

I am glad to see that MR. FREDERICK HEN- DRIKS has at the last reference raised the question as to the material of which John Stow's monument in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft is composed. I am already aware that nearly every writer on the subject states that its composition is terra-cotta. This shows that they must copy each other most religiously, for I can hardly imagine any man in his senses who has seen the original setting down such a statement as his deliberate belief. I have several times examined the monument, and I unhesitatingly affirm that it is for the most part composed of veined alabaster. The terra-cotta theory finds due place on p. 193, vol. ii., of ' Old and New London,' and on the previous page is an engraving of Stow's monument incorrectly showing on the frieze the legends

STAT SCRIBENDA AGERE STAT LEGENDA SCRIBERE.

Substitute AVT for STAT in each case, as on the original, and we have sense at once. It is a thousand pities that such glaring errors should be propagated ad libitum by writers when a little trouble on their part would ensure accuracy. May I add that a series of letters on John Stow's memorial, mainly relating to the material of which it is composed, appeared in the City Press in September, 1891, and April, 1892 ? Reference is there made to the statement in 'Old and New London 3 that the effigy of Stow was formerly painted to represent life. Is there any authentic in- formation concerning this theory extant? My own belief, gained from a personal ex- amination of the statue, is that there is no more foundation in this statement than in the one to which I have previously referred.

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

are all prone to mistakes even the usually im- maculate printers of ' N. & Q.' The name of J. G. Nichols is twice printed in MR, HENDRIKS'S note as J. S. Nichojs,
 * It is too true that, as MR. HENDRIKS says, we