The key consists in the absurd sentence"Doctor John Quack, being extremely in want of patients, resolved to make some by turning prize-fighter"; which, if we take only the initial letters, may be abbreviated in a form useful for reference, as in the last case.

DJ QBE IWO PRTMS BT PF a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Another plan of cipher, which, if too elaborate for ordinary purposes, might, I think, sometimes be employed with advantage for short messages of great importance, consists in representing letters by numbers. The number signifying a certain letter is not, however, a constant quantity, but one depending on others, some of which vary. It may depend, for instance: (1) on the position the letter holds in a word; (2) on that of the word in a sentence, as well as (3) on its own alphabetical value, i.e. the number it occupies in the alphabet counted from the beginning; the relationship these several quantities have to one another being defined by a simple equation.

To make the system perfectly intelligible, suppose P to denote the alphabetical value of a letter whose symbol is X; a the number of the letter in a word, and b that of the word in the sentenceeach sentence being worked out independently of those which precede it. The values of P for the whole alphabet are here shown:—

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Almost any simple equation of some such form as the following will do:

(1) x=P+11−a or P=x+a-11 (2) x=P+7 + b − a or P= x+a-(7+b) (3) x=P+2(b + 10) − 2a or P=x+2a−2(b+10) &c., &c.

The message to be ciphered is first written out, and in calculating the values of r we count those of a and b for each letter as we proceed, and place them in the equation. Solved for P (as shown on the left), the equation gives us the key to be employed in the evolution. In designing an equation some moderately easy form is best, as the multiplication of high numbers involves a needless waste of time. Forms producing fractional values of the symbol ought also to be avoided, and it were as well to choose one not likely to give negative ones. This may be managed by remembering that P varies from 1 to 26; a is rarely more than 12, and b than 20-a sentence being taken as the collection of words between two periods. In this kind of cryptograph the symbols must be separated by commas to prevent possible confusion, and a dash or cross inserted between every word.

As an example, we will apply equation (1) to

the dispatch

"Attack at four to-morrow morning." The cipher is

11,29,28,8,9,16-11,29-16,24,29,25-30,24,21,

22,24,23,19,26-23,24,26,21,15,19,11.

ANOTHER SONG OF THE WAR.

The following song, which has a wide circulation in Paris, chiefly in Belleville, the Whitechapel of the capital of France, is exceedingly clever, and illustrates what was stated in the political papers relating to the present feelings of the French people towards England. Besides that, such poetry is always interesting, and must be preserved as a part of general history. As a modern author has justly remarked:

"These witty and popular effusions lighten for the hour the pressure of tyrannical power, and soothe the feelings of the people when under the influence of public excitement."-The History of Political Literature from the Earliest Times, vol. 11, ch. iii. By Robert Blackey. London, 1855. 2 vols. 8vo.

Deux cotillons sont à Potsdam,

L'un dit: "Mein Gott!" l'autre "G-!
Appelez le roi de Bavière;

Il est en bas qui boit la bière."
-"Anne, mon frère, c'est ton tour.
Grimpe au sommet de cette tour,
Et dis-nous, sous peine de schlague,
Tout ce que tu verras, sans blague."
Le bavard-oie a répondu:1
"On sait que je me suis fendu
Tellement pour le roi Guillaume,
Que j'ai compromis mon royaume.
"Je vous le dis sans calembourg,
Pour la turne3 de Brandebourg,
Il n'est chose que je ne fasse
Afin de mériter ma grâce."

-"Eh, de la tour!

Ohé, Lambert !5 Que vois-tu?"-"Je vois Würtemberg Et le Saxon ivres de rage,

Qui se repaissent de carnage.

"Dans le sang ils vont trébuchant,

Et, ce qui n'est pas moins touchant,
Je vois les anciens à Versaille,
Le verre en main, qui font ripaille.
"C'est le grand-duc de Mecklenbourg,
Avec ce comte d'Eulenbourg,
Qui, s'étant rempli la besace,
Saigna, pour rire, un coq d'Alsace.7

6

"Reine-impératrice Augusta, Ton vieux pochard de mari t'aT-il fait savoir par télégraphe Combien il a sifflé d'eau d'affe?8 "Il s'abreuve de raisiné,9 Et n'a jamais moins lésiné; Pour le mitonner davantage, Il fait brûler ville et village. "Mein Herr le comte de Bismarck, Qui savoure le même marc, Jure qu'il n'est rien qui l'égale, Et soir et matin s'en régale. "Quand, sans peur d'être bafoué, Guillaume dit: Dieu soit loué!' John Bull, écuyer, de peur blême, Répond: Nos boutiques de même!'" FRANCISQUE-MICHEL Athenæum Club, Pall Mall, Feb. 20, 1871.

P. A. L. OF “N. & Q."-If your valued correspondent should see this, allow me to express a hope that the capitulation of Paris will enable us again to profit by his ever-ready store of information. His last communication to your pages bears the date of September 24, 1870; and his delight on seeing "N. & Q." again, after so long an interval, can only be equalled by ours when we again recognise his pleasant answers to our multifarious inquiries. M. D.

"CHÂTEAUX EN ESPAGNE."-Among the "Lettres spirituelles" of S. François de Sales occurs, I fancy, the first mention of this familiar phrase, which, as an equivalent for our own idiom of "castles in the air," has since then become proverbial. The subjoined passage I take from the 1843 Paris edition of the Cuvres choisies de S. François de Sales, tom. premier, p. 285. In this particular epistle, the Bishop of Geneva (who flourished in the later half of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the seventeenth century, 15671622), addressing himself “à une dame," in regard to the preparation for meditation and the perfecting oneself in one's own vocation, writes as follows:

"Persévérez à bien vous vaincre vous-mesme en ces menues contradictions journalières que vous ressentez: faites le gros de vos désirs pour cela; sçachez que Dieu ne veut rien de vous, sinon cela, pour maintenant. Ne vous amusez doncques pas à faire autre chose; ne semez point vos désirs sur le jardin d'autruy; cultivez seulement bien le vostre ne désirez point de n'estre pas ce que vous estes, mais désirez d'estre fort bien ce que vous estes : amusez vos pensées à vous perfectionner en cela, et à porter les croix ou petites ou grandes que vous y rencontrerez et croyez-moy, c'est icy le grand mot et le moins entendu de la conduite spirituelle: chacun ayme selon son goust; peu de gens ayment selon leur devoir et le goust de Nostre-Seigneur. De quoy sert-il de bastir des chasteaux en Espagne, puisqu'il nous faut habiter en France? C'est Sifflé d'eau d'affe, tossed off brandy. 9 Raisine, blood, gore.

:

She had borne twelve children, and she had at her death twenty grandchildren, sixty great-grandchildren, and thirteen great-great-grandchildren. But, singular to relate,

out of all these there are only two males to perpetuate the name of Dunn.

"On Thursday the 12th died at Sandwich Mrs. Mary Butler, who was born at Worth, near Sandwich, March 25, 1770, thus having attained the patriarchal age of 100 years and nine months. Mrs. Butler, who was christened and married at her native village, had been a widow upwards of forty years. She was a sharp-speaking woman, had a quick ear and a good memory, but had for some years been quite blind."

K. P. D. E.

This common street exhibition is well known by us under the name of the "Chinese shades and the "Fantoccini "-an Italian name which means (according to some Italian lexicographers) Chinese phantoms or shades.* The French say that the amusement is of Italian origin, so far at least, I presume, as they are concerned. The Italians say that it came to them from China. I have never witnessed the Broken Bridge in France, but I know that it is a common show in Paris, Lyons, and other cities, and that it is sometimes acted a la Guignol,† and sometimes with the shades. I have met with a French version of the dialogue, which is word for word with ours; and I have heard the tune sung by a French gentleman, and find that it is the same as the English one. In Italy I have seen two exhibitions of the Broken Bridge. The first was a Marionette one, and it occurred at Arona on Lago Maggiore; the other was at Bologna in an archway in the street that leads from the Cathedral to the Great Square. A visitor to Bologna will find that the above archway is used almost every night throughout the year for Marionettes and Chinese Shades. The Bologna show was a "Fantoccini" one. In both cities the dialogue and song were the same as we have them, and so were the scenes. There were the broken bridge, the swan that "swam

over," and the traveller who "couldn't"; the cobbler and the mischievous woman, and the cobbler's impertinent reply to the traveller's asking the hour. Indeed there was not the slightest deviation, either in the music, song, dialogue, and accessories, from the same as we have them in our exhibition. In Italy the Marquis of Ponte Cassato is equivalent to the Marquis of Carabas in France. I should like to know more about the history of the Chinese shades and the play. What allusions are found in any old works? I have no doubt that some of the learned correspondents of "N. & Q." can throw light even on these shades! There are few of us who have not laughed at the Broken Bridge, and I shall be most happy to know when and by whom that immortal structure was planned. STEPHEN JACKSON..

Canon Oakeley, in his Catholic Florist (p. 1), gives a poem of nearly forty lines from the same source, and makes other frequent quotations from it, sometimes (as p. 104) with chapter and verse appended-"Anthologia Bor. et Aus., viii. 4." The work is also quoted by the author of Wild Flowers and their Teachings (Bath, 1845), p. 48, and by other writers.

I have ascertained that the book does not occur in the catalogue of the Museum Library, London, nor in that of the Bodleian at Oxford. Canon Oakeley, I am told, can give no information about it, except that the quotations were sent him by a friend. Among those of my own friends who are best acquainted with English literature, not one has ever met with this mysterious volume.

Can the quotations, like the "Old Play" of Sir Walter Scott's novels, have been invented for the nonce by some person, and copied without inquiry by subsequent writers? Dr. Forster's is the earliest mention of it I can find. He was not a little eccentric in his literary productions. Can it be a caprice of his ? W. L. N.

Woodlands, Bridgewater.

[Seventeen years ago it was discovered by our valued correspondent WILLIAM PINKERTON, F.S.A., that the Anthologia Borealis et Australis is a purely imaginary title for certain pieces of prose and verse, the production of Dr. Forster, and has no existence save in his Circle of the Seasons and Pocket Encyclopædia. Sec "N. & Q.,** 1st S. ix. 569.]

AVERY PEDIGREE. - John Avery, of Bodmin, co. Cornwall, married Isoult Barry, of Wynscote, co. Devon. A clue to the date is furnished by the fact that Isoult's father, John Barry, died in 1538. Had they any children? and were they the ancestors of Every of Wycroft Castle, co. Devon? I may add that Henry Barry, eldest brother of Isoult, was born in 1514. I cannot discover, though I have spared no pains, to what family of Averys this John Avery belonged. Your correspondent E. W. seems to be versed in the Avery pedigrees. Can he kindly give me any clue to the decision of a question for which I have exhausted all the Heralds' Visitations in the British Museum, HERMENTRUDE.

in vain?

ARTIFICIAL FLY-FISHING.-Who invented this practice? Where can I find any early notices of it? It is earlier than Dame Juliana Berners, who tells us how to dub "xii flyes wyth whiche ye shall angle to ye trought and gray llyng." PELAGIUS.

CARLO CRIVELLI.-Wanted, particulars of the life and works of Carlo Crivelli. His pictures bear date from 1468 to 1495, and he is said to have been the scholar of Jacobello del Fiore. He is a rare master in England, though our National Gallery possesses four of his works, and four are ROW exhibited at Burlington House, three of which are lent by Earl Dudley.

JOHN PIGGOT, Jun. [Crivelli is believed to have been a native of Venice, and to have flourished from about 1450 till 1476. Two pictures by this artist are in the church of S. Sebastiano at Venice, representing S. Fabbiano and the Marriage of S. Catherine; and one, the " Annunciation," was bought at the sale of Edward Solly's collection by the late Lord Taunton. The latter bears the inscription "Libertas Ecclesiastica Opus Caroli Crivilli Veneti, 1486." Consult Michael Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. by Stanley, 1849.]

"THE CONCILIAD."-I have recently met with a quarto pamphlet bearing the following title: "The Conciliad; or the Triumph of Patriotism. A Poem. Translated from the Latin of Tertius Quartus

Quintus. The Third Edition. London: Printed for T. Pridden, at the Feathers in Flect Street, near Fleet Bridge. MDCCLXII."

It contains twenty-eight pages of print, but there are only sixteen lines in each page. The satire appears to have been published on the occasion of the elder Pitt receiving his pension of 3000 per annum soon after the accession of George III. I think I can detect Louis of France and Madame Pompadour under the guise of Land P, and Pitt is very plainly alluded to under the same contracted form; but I cannot add names to the following: Fauks-, CG——,* N—, B—‚† × , and H.

The letter N may mean the Duke of Newcastle, and H may be Lord Hardwicke; but the verse requires B to mean two syllables, and consequently cannot stand for the Marquis of Bute. Can any reader of "N. & Q." assign names to the above initials, and give the author of the poem? T. T. W.

it on the authority of a distinguished prelate that, among the fees exacted from an Irish bishop on appointment to his see, was one of twenty or The disestablishment of the Irish church has consetwenty-five guineas to the Lord-Lieutenant's cook. quently rendered less valuable pro tanto the situation of the Viceroy's cordon bleu. Can any one mention the origin of this strange perquisite ? H.A. KENNEDY. Eldon House, Reading.

STRANGE FEE PAID BY IRISH BISHOPS.-I have

FIRE USED IN BURNING THE DEAD.-In a description of the burning of the body of a prince on the banks of the Arno, near Florence (which took place some time last year, with the usual rites of Hindoo observance), it is mentioned that the fire to light the funeral pile was carried in a vessel alongside the body. Can any of your readers tell me if such is the usual practice? And if so, whence the fire in the vessel is obtained? CREMATION.

SAMUEL FOOTE.-The following is the title of a MS. formerly in the possession of Richard Heber, and sold at his death. It will be found in the printed Catalogue (Pt. xI. MSS. No. 429):

66

:

[* Granville. † Bedford. Anson. § Hardwicke.]