Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/487

 9*8. IX. JUNK 14, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

479

surgical appliances. Any " mohel " who should revert to the Mosaical mode would be sent to Coventry or Jericho.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

GWYNETH (9 th S. ix. 109, 319, 372). Gwyn- nedd is equated by the Breton Guened, whence Vannes, if I am not mistaken. If this is so, it may be a question whether Gwynnedd and Gwent are not, after all, related to each other, and perhaps also whether Venetia is not a distant kinswoman. A clerical error crept into the reply of 0. G. B. He meant to say that Gwent is the south- eastern portion of South Wales.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

OLD SPOONS (9 th S. ix. 348, 416).- MR. COLE- MAN does not appear to have stated correctly the hall-marks of the York and Chester Assay Offices. The modern York mark was, until the closing of the office, about 1856, the city arms viz., Five lions passant on a cross. The Chester mark is a sword erect between three garbs or wheatsheaves. T. SEYMOUR.

9, Newton Road, Oxford.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A Foreign View of England in the Reigns of George I.

and George II. Translated and edited by Madame

van Muyden. (Murray.)

CESAR DE SAUSSURE, whose view of English life, as contained in a series of letters written from this country to some friend presumably a relative in Switzerland, where his family haa taken refuge during the persecutions of the Protestants under Louis XIV., Madame van Muyden, a descendant by marriage, has translated, belonged, apparently, to a family many of whose members were authors. He appears himself to have been a tolerably volu- minous writer ; but whether any of his works attained to the dignity of print we know not. His name appears in no biographical dictionary across which we have come, and no w^rk of his 'is men- tioned in the authoritative compilations of Qu^rard and Brunet. Whether the letters now published are translated from the original MSS. or a printed volume we are not informed. When first written they circulated largely in Switzerland in MS. They were then sorted by the author and bound into two volumes, and were read, at his own request, by Voltaire, who pronounced them amusing and useful. Such, indeed, they are, and their present publication is a boon, since we know no work from a foreign source which throws so strong and, in the main, trust- worthy a light upon the time of the first Georges. Totally ignorant of our language when, after a dangerous sea voyage, he landed in England so ignorant, indeed, that when he lost his way in London he could acquaint no one with his wants M. de Saussure, at the close of a long resi- dence, became familiar with our speech and our institutions. He was admitted to the intimacy of

men of position, was fairly versed in Court secrets supplies an animated sketch of the relations between George I. and his son, describes the coronation of the latter monarch, makes eminently intelligent observations upon matters with which foreign visitors are little apt to trouble themselves, and gives a highly edifying picture of social life and popular practices in the first half of the eighteenth century. He accompanied Lord Kinnoull when that nobleman went as ambassador to Constanti- nople, was first secretary to the British Embassy in that city, and was for a time secretary to Lord C/athcart, commanding a portion of the British fleet sent against the Spanish Settlements in Ame- rica. Ample as were his sources of information, he is betrayed into some mistakes, and there are points at which his letters are misleading. This is inevitable in a work written under similar con- ditions ; but the whole carries with it, as is said " a conviction of veracity," and is eminently arrree- able, readable, and instructive. We look back with a sigh to the London described.

M. de Saussure reached us by way of the Rhine and Holland, speaks of the Hague as a " village,"

charming country houses and many pretty towns and villages, the principal being Sheerness, Graves-

ladies were then presented to His Majesty; he kissed them all affectionately on the lips, and I remarked that he seemed to take the most pleasure in kissing the prettiest of the three." His corre- spondent is not to be scandalized. " This form of salutation is common in England, and though some who have travelled much offer the cheek instead of the lips, many ladies would be displeased should you fail to salute them after the custom of the country." He says that the suburbs of South- wark are " habitually known as Sodrick," a name which conveys nothing to us ; states that Queen Anne was often called "Boutique d'Eau-de-vie," because of her well-known liking for the bottle and spirituous liquors, a piece of scandal with which we were not familiar ; and dwells upon the general use, even at that time, by the bargemen of *' quite extraordinary terms, and generally very coarse and dirty ones," which he is unable to explain to his correspondent. A characteristic sight which he witnessed was the hanging of thirteen criminals at the same time, one of them being Jonathan Wild. With some astonishment he comments on the in- conceivable amount of water used by the English for external purposes, though he states that " absolutely [stc] none is drunk." Of our proneness to fight, of our appearance, character, and amuse- ments, he has mucn to say. He praises the beauty of complexion of our women, dwells upon the drunkenness generally prevalent, and says that maidservants go out on Sundav almost as well dressed as their mistresses. Of theatrical enter- tainments, and especially of the pantomimic per- formances of Rich, he has much to say ; and ho describes gladiatorial combats given in public, in which sharp swords were used by men and some- times by women. Of these sanguinary entertain- ments he disapproves, determining never to witness any of them again; but he regards cockfights as much more diverting. The book, which is hand-