Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/395

 9- s. ix. MAY IT, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

387

silver. Rosenberg's ' Der Goldschmiede Merk- zeichen,' published at Frankfort in 1890, treats exhaustively of German assay offices and the heraldic marks used by the respective municipalities in stamping plate, but in the chapter on Holland omits all mention of the town marks formerly used at Leyden, Dordrecht, and several other places in the Low Countries where the silversmith's art long flourished. ARTHUR DASENT.

REGINALD SCOTT'S * DISCOVERIE OF WITCH- CRAFT.' Is there an accessible edition of Reginald Scott's ' Discoverie of Witchcraft,' and, if so, who published it 1 C. W.

[A limited reprint of the first edition of this work was published in 1886 by Elliot Stock, of Pater- noster Row, edited by our late friend Dr. Brinsley Nicholson. It is an admirably executed work, for which application may be made to the publisher, though we fear it is out of print.]

BOSWELL'S 'JOHNSON' AS A TOUCHSTONE OF TASTE. It is told of some one that when he met a new acquaintance he would ask him his opinion of Boswell'a * Johnson,' and framed his estimate of his new friend according to the answer. Of whom is this related ?

DEBONNAIRE.

JACK-IN- TEE-PULPIT. A friend is anxious to know what wild flower is called we believe locally somewhere" Jack-in-the-Pulpit." (Miss) L. M. KNOCKER.

[Many different flowers bear this name, e.g., Arum macidatum in the Midlands.]

'OLIVER AND ARTHUR.' Can any con- tributor oblige me with information as to an ancient romance, 'Oliver and Arthur,' originally in French, translated into German, Basel, 1521, and, again, Frankfurt. 1568? Is there any entire translation into English, or abstract of it, and, if so, where could I find it? If not separately published, there might be one in some collection of romances, or an abstract used illustratively in the intro- duction, or in the notes, to a work of similar character. W. T. S.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN SHAKESPEARE'S TIME. What book besides Harrison's ' Eliza- bethan England ' gives the best account of English manners and customs in Shake- speare's time? C. W.

[Among others, see M. Jules Jusserand's ' English Novel in the Time of Shakespeare' and 'English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages.']

GYE FAMILY. Who was Gye of the Cellar, who, according to Papworth, bore Az., on a chev. arg., between three leopards' heads or, as many fleurs-de-lis gu. ? rapworth quotes

Glover's 'Ordinary ' as his source of inforraa- tlon - LEO CULLETON.

AMERICAN EDITION OF DICKENS. - Where can I get full particulars of the 130-volume edition of Dickens on parchment now pre- paring in America ? c. W.

BUILDING IN GOTHIC PERIOD. Can any reader give references to books or MSS. containing the actual rules of appreticeship and guild rules of masons, carpenters, <fec., during the Gothic period, or any informa- tion as to the organization of labour and purchase of materials for mediaeval build- A. T. GRIFFITH.

"'TWAS APRIL, ON THE VERGE OF MAY." Can any of your readers tell me where the above line appears ? I remember learning it sixty or seventy years ago. I fancy it was in an ' Ode to the Cuckoo.' G. C. W.

ANNUNCIATION. Being near a Roman Catholic church in my own neighbourhood on 11 April I looked at the week's notices in the porch, and was surprised to see 7 April marked as "Annunciation B.V.M." It at once occurred to me that our 7 April is, in the Julian reckoning observed in the Eastern Church, 25 March, which is the feast of the Annunciation. But as the style was altered by the authority of the Pope, 'it is not likely that any part of the old reckoning is observed in the Western Church. Hook, in his ' Church Dictionary,' says that the Council of Toledo (A.D. 656) changed the date of the festival to 18 December, so that it might never fall during Lent (surely a less drastic change would have secured that), but that the Council in Trullo (A.D. 692) restored it to 25 March, allowing it to be the only festival, except Sunday, observed during Lent. Can one of your readers explain my difficulty ?

W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

MIDDLETON FAMILY OF DERBYSHIRE. In- formation is desired respecting the ancestry of Bishop Middleton of Calcutta, who was the son of the Rev. John Middleton, vicar of Kedleston, Derbyshire. Did he spring from a family of that name in Derbyshire who bore for arms Fretty sable, and for crest a garb or, banded vert, between two wings? One Richard Middleton, vicar of a Derby- shire parish, had three sons and a daughter viz., (1) Samuel, who died in 1758, leaving a son Nathaniel, who held important posts in India under Warren Hastings, and became High Sheriff of Hants in 1800; (2) Richard ; (3) a son, name unknown, in holy orders j