=

C. P. I.

BEAUTY SLEEP (4th S. vii. 143.)-This is a very common term in Scotland, where also I have heard it said very often that "The two hours before midnight are worth all that come after it." EDWARD RIMBAULT DIBDIN.

EPITHETS OF THE MONTHS (4th S. vii. 343.)-I forward to you the following titles of the months taken from my copy of―

"Five Hundred Points of good Husbandry newly set foorth by Thomas Tusser, Gentleman. London, 1610." "A kindly good Janiueere Freezth pot by the feere. February fill the dike With what thou dost like. March dust to be sold, Worth ransom of gold. Sweet April showers Do spring May flowers. Cold May and windy, Barne filleth vp finely. Calme weather in June Corne sets in tune. No tempest, good July, Least corne looke ruely. Drie August and warme Doth haruest no harme. September blow soft Till fruit be in loft. October good blast To blow the hog mast. November take flaile, Let skep no more faile.

O dirty December

For Christmas remember."

I have frequently heard those for the first eight months, with but little variation, from agricultural labourers on the east coast of Lincolnshire, and occasionally that for November. The word skep is in constant use for a peck measure. Rhymes for the first seven months are also quoted in the Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Weather, by J. Claridge (London, 1748), and run as follows:

"Janiver freeze the pot by the fire. If the grass grow in Janiveer,

It grows the worse for't all the year.

The Welchman 'ud rather see his dam on the beir
Than to see a fair Februeer.

March wind and May sun

Makes clothes white and maids dun.

VOYAGEUR PIGEONS: PIGEON POST (4th S. vii. 185, 284, 291.)-Looking over some old numbers of the Revue britannique, I find with regard to these (vol. x. serie 7, Ao 1852)—

"De tous les êtres de la création il est le quatrième nommé dans la Genèse, qui en fait mention avant la fin du Déluge.

"Noé envoya une colombe sept jours après le corbeau, pour voir si les eaux avaient cessé de couvrir la terre. "Mais la colombe n'ayant pu trouver où mettre le pied, parceque la terre était toute couverte d'eau, elle revint

à lui.

"Il attendit encore sept jours et il envoya, de nouveau, la colombe hors de l'arche.

"Elle revint à lui le soir, portant dans son bec un rameau d'olivier dont les feuilles étaient toutes vertes.

"Cette colombe était probablement le pigeon bleu des roches-notre biset sauvage. Quoi qu'il en soit, les Arabes ont composé sur le messager de Noé une charmante légende. La première fois,' disent-ils, 'la colombe retourna à l'arche avec une branche d'olivier, mais rien qui indiquât l'état de la terre; la seconde fois le limon rougeâtre qui couvrait ses pattes indiquait que les eaux s'étaient retirées de dessus terre; et pour rappeler cet évènement, Noé demanda au seigneur que les pieds de ces oiseaux conservassent la couleur rouge qui les distingue encore aujourd'hui.' L'analogie des mots hébreux adoum, rouge, admeh, terre, avec Adm, Adam, est remarquable; notre mot homme se dit aussi en turc a'dam.”

From this earliest example of the pigeon-traveller, it seems pretty evident that the faculty they have of returning home could not be "by landmark," as the whole land was under water; nor "by the stars," as the sky only cleared up with the rainbow when "Noé was out of the ark": it must then have been "by instinct," like the bird MR. R. W. ALLDRIDGE mentions, which returned, when only nine weeks old, from a distance of seventy miles. P. A. L. HOW PRO

"ARBUTHNOT": "RUTHVEN": NOUNCED? (4th S. vii. 342.)-I once knew a lady, one of the daughters of Graham of Morphie, who, as it so happened, was the maternal aunt of Viscount Arbuthnot. This lady pronounced the

name Arbuthnot with the accent on the second syllable. She was a woman of good education, somewhat of the best, and her husband had been a man of letters. I have never heard this name "Riven" for Ruthven pronounced otherwise. is a conventional departure or fashionable corruption for which it is difficult to account, just

SAINTS' EMBLEMS (4th S. vii. 305.)-I think if readers of "N. & Q." had each a copy of Dr. F. C. Husenbeth's Emblems of Saints, published by Longmans & Co., price five shillings, they would there very often find the information sought for in these pages. According to the author of this work SS. Mathias, Matthew, Wolfgang, Adjustus, have for their emblems hatchets. W. MARSH.

THE NILE AND THE BIBLE (4th S. vii. 186, 314.) Under this heading there are some references to a passage in Eccles. xi. 1 —

"Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days,"—

the drift of which I cannot with any certainty make out, in consequence of the writer not having translated the Greek and Latin quotations. What I wish to direct attention to, is the variety in the translation of the above and some other passages from the Hebrew. In a version now before me

"The Holy Bible.... with Twenty Thousand Emendations." London: Longmans, Brown, & Co., 1843,*the verse in question is thus given :

"Cast thy bread-corn upon the watered ground, and thou shalt find it after many days.”

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The Handwriting of Junius, professionally Investigated by Mr. Charles Chabot (Expert). With Preface and Collateral Evidence by the Hon. Edward Twisleton. (Murray.)

This handsome quarto volume, with nearly three hundred fac-similes, has a double interest. The first from the influence which it is destined henceforth to exercise upon all questions where identity of handwriting is concerned, and it will be esteemed a text-book upon that subject; and the second from its bearing on the great

Cast thy bread upon the running waters; for after a long time thou shalt find it again."

There is perhaps not much dissimilarity in meaning here, although one might well desire to have a more exact agreement in translation. But what is an ordinary reader to make of the following? Job v. 7:

"Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward."-Common Version.

"For man is not born to trouble, as the sparks fly upwards."-Version 1843.

"Man is born to labour, and the bird to fly."-Douay

Version.

Job vi. 6-7:

"Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?"

"The things that my soul refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat."-Common Version.

"Can an unsavoury thing be eaten that is not seasoned with salt? or can a man taste that which when tasted bringeth death?"-Douay Version.

These form a very small sample of the discrepancies in translation I have met with. Am I right in supposing that, in some cases, the exact meaning of the Hebrew cannot be ascertained? Inverness.

F.

Though the overflowing of the Nile, which in itself would be no novelty to the Israelites, is not expressly mentioned by Moses, it seems distinctly referred to in Deut. xi. 10, 11: where the Israelites are told the promised land was not like

[* By J. T. Conquest, M.D., the well-known physician, who died on Oct. 24, 1866.-ED.]

that it will at this time be more especially considered. On the publication of Woodfall's edition of Junius in three volumes, the late ingenious Mr. John Taylor, struck it is said by Junius' advocacy of the cause of young Francis, then a clerk in the War Office, was led to investigate the origin of this feeling; and the result was his conviction that Dr. Francis, the father of the injured clerk, was Junius. This opinion he advanced in a pamphlet entitled A Discovery of the Author of the Letters of Junius, which was published in 1813. It is believed that, shortly after the pamphlet appeared, Mr. Taylor received a hint from Mr. Dubois, the secretary or amanuensis of Sir Philip Francis, that he was not quite right in his guess, but very near it; and that, consequently, the pamphlet was suppressed (for its almost total disappearance is hardly otherwise to be accounted for), and another, entitled Junius Identified, with Sir Philip Francis for its hero, made its appearance. If this theory has met with many able and vigorous opponents, it has on the other hand been supported by many well qualified to form an opinion on this authorship, one of the most eminent among them being the late Lord Macaulay. Though less confident upon the subject of late years, Lord Brougham in 1817, reviewed the latter pamphlet in the Edinburgh Review; and in a note to the article, the whole tenor of which was to prove the identity of Francis and Junius, he remarked :—

"We understand that it is confidently stated in London that still more precise evidence exists of the similarity of hands, drawn from Sir P. Francis's earlier penmanship."

We have great reason to believe that Lord Brougham here referred to the documents now published for the first time by Mr. Twisleton, and which form the basis and origin of the large and elaborate work now before us. These documents consist of a copy of verses, and the anonymous covering letter sent to a Miss Giles, at a time when Francis was at Bath on a visit to his father. Soon of Junius with its fac-similes, Miss Giles, then Mrs. King, after the publication of Woodfall's three-volume edition

who had always believed the letter and enclosure came from Francis, recognised the identity of the two hands, and in consequence the documents were fac-similed. This proceeding, it is said, gave offence to Sir Philip Francis, consequently but few of the fac-similes were distributed. We have not space to detail how these papers came under the notice of Mr. Twisleton; how he submitted the verses to Mr. Netherclift, who decided that they were not handwritten by Francis; how they eventually proved, in the judgment of Mr. Chabot, to have been written by Tilghman, Francis's cousin and companion at Bath; how the covering letter was eventually identified as Francis's; nor to enter at length upon the minute and searching investigation subsequently undertaken by Mr. Chabot to establish that the Junian letters were handwritten by Francis.

For all these, and much more curious matter that bears upon the question, we must refer our readers to the book itself. They must recognise, as we have done, the earnest desire of Mr. Twisleton to present his case fairly and impartially, and the careful manner in which Mr. Chabot gives the reasons on which his judgment is founded; and the result will be, we doubt not, a verdict from the majority, affirmative of the identity of Francis and Junius. In our mind there have always existed so many difficulties in the way of believing that Francis could have been the writer of the Letters of Junius, that if those difficulties have been at all removed by Mr. Twisleton, we must record our admission of that fact in the well-known declaration of Tertullian, "Credo, quia impossibile."

BOOKS RECEIVED.-Here and There in England, including a Pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon, by a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. (J. R. Smith.) A pleasant little volume of papers, which ought to have been noticed before. There is perhaps not much to be said for George the Fourth; but Huish's book is a very poor authority on which to stigmatise him as the F.S.A. has done.-Selections from the Correspondence of Robert Bloomfield, the Suffolk Poet. Edited by W. H. Hart, F.S.A. A selection of interesting illustrations of the life and writings of Bloomfield, which will be very acceptable to all the admirers of this simple, thoroughly English poet.-Lord-Lieutenant and High-Sheriff. Correspondence upon the Question of Precedence. Collated by J. M. Davenport, F.S.A. (Stevens & Haynes.) A very useful summary of the question.

THE collection of early printed books at the Archæological Institute is of the most interesting character. Most of the specimens exhibited are what bibliomaniacs call "fifteeners." The Rev. J. Fuller Russell is the largest contributor, and volumes have also come from the libraries of Sir William Tite, Mr. Addington, Mr. Quaritch, Messrs. Ellis and Green, and many others. The most interesting of all the books is the "Mentz Psalter" graciously lent by her Majesty, who also exhibits several other curious and valuable specimens of the earliest typography.

MESSRS. LONGMAN announce among their forthcoming books a volume of "Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects," by Professor Helmholtz of Heidelberg.

CIRCULATION OF THE EXHIBITION CATALOGUES.-On the two first shilling days at the Exhibition, the sale of the Official Catalogues was 2,300 and 2,080 copies respectively.

THE NEWSPAPER PRESS FUND.-The Annual Dinner of the friends of this useful and thriving Institution will take place to-day (Saturday), under the Presidency of the Earl of Carnarvon.

THE LITERARY FUND.-The Bishop of Winchester is to take the chair at the Anniversary Dinner on Tuesday next, on which occasion he will be supported by a large and influential body of stewards.

ST. PATRICK'S AND CHRIST CHURCH CATHEDRALS.— A bill has been introduced into the Irish Church Synod constituting Christ Church, as the older of the two, the cathedral of the diocese of Dublin; and St. Patrick's an exempt jurisdiction as the national church or Minster, having a common relation to all the dioceses.

Notices to Correspondents.

There is a growing tendency on the part of several of our Correspondents to extend their communications, more suited to a quarterly journal than a weekly paper. We would remind them that brevity is a great virtue in our eyes.

F. M. S.-Has our Correspondent consulted The Common Prayer and Ordinals of Edward VI., edited by Rer. H. B. Walton, and published by Rivingtons?

W. T. MALDEN.-On Egyptian Antiquities, see the various publications of Sir S. Gardner Wilkinson.

W. A. B. C.-1. Dr. Ginsburg; 2. Lightfoot was ena recommended very strongly.

COMPLETION OF ST. PAUL'S.-Mr. Street's letter in our

next.

PELAGIUS.-The edition of The Canterbury Tales of 1561 appears to be rare, and is not in the British Museum. In the Bibliotheca Anglo-Poetica, published in 1815, it w priced at five guineas.

DEXTER. No other articles on "Hedges" appeared in "N. & Q." after those quoted.

ERRATA.-4th S. vii. p. 384, col. i. line 6 from bottom, for "irksome acts" read" nearly unknown arts." In the Errata noticed on p. 228 of this volume, the reference should have been to" vol. vii.” not “ vol. vi.”