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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.ix. APRIL 5, 1902.

BLACK BOTTLES FOR WINE (9 th S. ix. 7, 175) Some years ago my brother, the late* Mr Clement Southam, was given a dark green squat bottle, which is now in the possession of his son. It is said to have been taken ou of the lake at Ellesmere. In shape it is lik some old liqueur or wine bottles that I hav< seen in Holland, but with a deep hollow butt the total height being 6f in., of which 2| in are neck ; the circumference is about 18j in On the shoulder the letters "E. A." are deeply scratched, and a little lower down, in another part, the following name and date in the characters of the period, " John Joyce 1714." My brother always thought that the bottle had contained ale, and had been dropped by some excited angler into the lake, probably by one of the family of Joyce who have been noted clockmakers at Whit church (Salop) for some generations.

HEKBEKT SOUTHAM.

Shrewsbury.

I have a black glass bottle of a rather unusual shape. It stands 7 in. high, with a long neck, and a squat body 4 in. in diameter. It has a date impressed upon it in the shape of a seal the size of a crown piece, with "E. C. 1731 " on it. It came from the village of Wark worth, Northumberland. This is no great distance from Seaton Delaval in the same county, and may probably have been manufactured there, according to the state- ment in the Times that making black glass bottles was commenced there. May not the initials refer to the Clutterbuck family, which has for a very long time been connected with Warkworth ? G. H. THOMPSON.

A LINE OF BROWNING (9 th S. ix. 47, 173).

The fact that MR. EAMES and ST. SWITHIN

take diametrically opposite views about the

meaning of this line is proof that Browning

does not make his meaning clear to all

readers. Yet I cannot think it doubtful

which interpretation is correct. Browning

never would set himself down as a "driveller "

Ine words are governed by the interrogation

point at the end of the line, and form a

second question, succeeding that in the

previous line. Browning's punctuation may

not show this to a casual reader. But is

K ^ ME A S J usfcified in cal ling it simply

bad 1 A writer in the Edinburgh Review

lately asserted that Browning had 'no idea of

punctuation. We know, on the contrary

that he had a very great care for punctuation,

and attended to this himself in his proofs (Mrs

? rr u 8 J Llf ?'' P- 381) ' Onl y> as in oth er matters' he had views of his own, and was a law to himself. An observant reader, I think, will

find a very careful punctuation running through all Browning's poems, and it is worth trying to grasp its principle. For one thing which bears on the line in ques- tion he clearly used the dash, not disjunc- tively, as I have just done, but connect! vely. He employs it to link two ideas, not to separate them. Any one accustomed to Browning's usage would see at once that "did I drivel Being who?" is meant to run together, not to be parted.

Whether any writer is justified in thus inventing a system of his own may be open to question. Yet our present system has neither age nor authority behind it, and is in many ways defective. It takes note solely of grammatical construction, and practically compels a reader to punctuate mentally for himself. Older writers were quite different. They punctuated for rhetorical pause instead of grammar. They would say, for instance, "To err, is human" which we should now write "To err is human." Browning read deeply in old English poets, and probably drew some of his notions from their usage. At all events, his punctuation seems an attempt to supply that rhetorical arrange- ment of clauses which modern stopping altogether ignores. If MR. EAMES will study it in this way, he may find it a help rather than a hindrance in obscurely worded passages. That such help should be so often required is a misfortune, and I personally think MR. EAMES has rightly stated one great cause of the necessity. But at least we can use the stepping-stones which the poet him- self laboured to place at our disposal.

T. S. OMOND.

TINTAGEL (8 th S. i. 434 ; 9 th S. ix. 194). Borlase, 'Antiquities of Cornwall/ 1754, p. 320, spells this "Tindagel alias Tindogel," and adds in a foot-note "Rectius f. Tintughel, viz., the high fortify'd hill." Polwhele,

' f In-rnieVi-TTncrliol-i ~\Tr\nn Knlo WIT ' 1 Qf\Q n f

corresponds ranslation " castle of guile," mentioned by MR. LEWIS at the last reference, and is also confirmed by Williams, 'Lexicon Cornu- Britannicum/ 1865, where I find "Tin, a ! ortified place, a castle; another form of din ; ience Tintagel in Cornwall."

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

LADY MARY TUDOR (9 th S. viii. 484 ; ix. 72, 94). In vol. ii., facing p. 256 of the 'History >f English Dress/ by Georgiana Hill, is a ull- length engraved portrait of this lady, epresenting a very beautiful woman. Underneath is inscribed "Lady Mary Tudor,