"Woolfel, skin not stripped of the wool. "Wool and woolfels were ever of little value in this kingdom' (Davies)." I do not know if this was Sir John Davies (temp. James I.) who wrote a work on the state of Ireland, or Thomas Davies (the friend of Dr. Johnson) who died in 1783. In an old English-Latin dictionary I possess, printed in 1677 (unfortunately mutifated by the boys at Winchester College), I read: A fell or skin, Pellis. A pelt-man or pelt-monger, Pellio Subactarius. 66 Pellio, a skinner or fell-monger. From this it would seem almost that in 1677 a pelt man or "pelt-monger" was the term for a dealer in "woolfels" or "woolpelts." If W. P. M. turns to the under-mentioned words in N. Bailey's 'English Dictionary, 1742, he will see more on this subject: "Fell monger," one who deals in sheepskins and parts the wool from the pelts; Murrain," the rot; Pelt-monger" and Pelt-wool "Shorling," a sheepskin after the fleece is shorn off. A more modern writer, Hyde Clarke, in his 'Dictionary of the English Language, as Spoken and Written,' gives the words "fell," a skin; "pelt," undressed skin; "pelt-monger" and "pelt-wool"; "shorling," "shoreling," or "shearling"; "woolfel." W. B. WYNNE. Allington Rectory, Grantham. Skins of sheep and other animals that have died "in morina" are frequently mentioned in the Account Rolls of Durham Abbey, now being edited by me for the Surtees Society. "Woolfelts or woolfells are the skins of sheep with the wool on. J. T. F. 66 Bp. Hatfield's Hall, Durham. Woolfels (not "woolfelts") are mentioned in the statutes 25 Edw. III. stat. 4, c. 3; 3 Edw. IV. c. 1; see also Frost's Notices of Hull.' "Mortlings" and "shorlings" also occur, 3 Edw. IV. c. 1; 12 Car. II. c. 32. PRAYER FOR "ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF MEN" (9th S. i. 307).—There is no reasonable doubt that this prayer was composed by Dr. Peter Gunning, who was at the head of the Committee appointed to revise the Liturgy in the reign of Charles II. It was originally much longer, the "finally" being, in its present form, somewhat abrupt and unnecessary. Peter Gunning was born in 1613, at Hoo, in Kent, of which place his father was vicar. He was educated at the King's School, Canterbury, and Clare College, Cambridge, where he became fellow and tutor compelled to leave the University in 1646. in 1633. He was an ardent Royalist, and was At the Restoration he was reinstated in his and Doctor of Divinity, and became rector fellowship, made Prebendary of Canterbury of Cottesmore, in Rutland, and Stoke Bruen, Master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in Northamptonshire. In 1661 he became and Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and Master of St. John's. In the Convocaand subsequently Regius Professor of Divinity tion, 1661, he was chosen Proctor for the Chapter of Canterbury and for the clergy of the diocese of Peterborough. He was made Bishop of Chichester in 1670, and of Ely 1674. He died 1684. 8, Royal Avenue, S. W. J. FOSTER PALMER. The prayer was added at the last revision. The authority, or, at any rate, an authority for attributing the authorship to Bishop Gunning, is : the college whereof he was Head, suffered it not to "Bishop Gunning, the supposed author of it, in be read in the afternoons, because the Litany was never read then, the place of which it was supposed to supply."-"The Beauty of Holiness in the Common Prayer, as set forth in Four Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel,' by T. Bisse (Lon., 1717), p. 97, note. Wheatley, 'On the Common Prayer,'Oxford, 1794, p. 168, states that "it has been generally ascribed to Bishop Sanderson"; but he refers to a tradition at St. John's College, Cambridge, in favour of Bishop Gunning's authorship as well as to Dr. Bisse, u.s. ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A. W. C. B. FAITHORNE'S MAP OF LONDON (9th S. i. 409, The Oxford 'Helps,' accepting the tra491). I am grateful to MR. COLEMAN for his ditional Gunning authorship, dates the note on this subject. I have lent my impres- prayer 1661. For more details see Blunt's sion (unquestionably an original one) to Mr.Annotated Prayer Book.' Stanford, of Cockspur Street, in whose shop it can now be seen by any one interested. The date on the map is 1658 (not 1618), though certain details prove that the survey was made between the years 1643 and 1647. 97, Cadogan Gardens. C. L. LINDSAY. Hastings. EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A. PEKIN, PEKING: NANKIN, NANKING (9th S. i. 448). INQUIRER is right in supposing that Peking, Nanking, are the Chinese forms, and that Pekin, Nankin, have crept into English hardly be supposed that the mere mixing of vinegar and water could by itself have formed a distinct branch of trade' (Henderson, p. 78).”—'Roman C. C. B. ST. KEVIN and the Goose (9th S. i. 467).— If GLENDALOUGH will forward me his address I shall be glad to send him the words of the A. R. MALDEN. song he asks for. The Close, Salisbury. AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (9th S. 129).— from some one or other of the Romance JAMES PLATT, Jun. THE ROMAN "POSCA" (9th S. i. 369).Although there is a little overlapping in the meanings of posca and acetum, there is no doubt that posca was a wine. The etymology of the word, poto and esca=food, shows that. There is no feeding quality about acetum, or vinegar in the ordinary sense. Pesca is another form of the word. See Cruden's 'Concordance,' s.v.; also 'The Bible Handbook,' by Dr. Angus, 1855, p. 244, where he says, "A common acid wine diluted in this way [with water] was the common drink of labourers and [Roman] soldiers." ARTHUR MAYALL. "Posca, vinegar mixed with water, was the common drink of the lower orders among the Romans, as of soldiers when on service" (Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities'). See authorities referred to; also Smith's 'LatinEnglish Dictionary.' ROBERT WALTERS. Ware Priory. Rich has the following, s.v. :— "An ordinary drink amongst the lower classes of the Roman people, slaves, and soldiers on service; consisting of water and sour wine or vinegar, with eggs beat up in it. Plaut., Mil.,' iii. 2, 23; Suet., 'Vit.,' 12; Spart., Hadr.,' 10." Adam says, "The ordinary drink of soldiers, as of slaves, was water mixed with vinegar, called posca," and refers to Plautus, as above, but adds this note : "It would appear that the name was sometimes applied to other sorts of liquor; for we are told by Suetonius that Asiaticus, the favourite freedman of Vitellius, after he first quitted the emperor, had become a vender [sic] of posca at Puteoli; and it can i. Heathcote himself and such large-acred men, (9th S. i. 129, 198.) Suspirat, gemit, incutitque dentes: Sudat frigidus intuens quod odit. In an anthology entitled 'Illustrium Poetarum Flores per Octavianum Mirandulam collecti' (Antinvidia werp, 1588), these verses form part of an descriptio" attributed to Virgil. This means that they are of unknown authorship, for it is certain that Virgil did not write the poem. Twenty-five verses are printed in the above-named Flores, which I will copy in full for your correspondent if he wishes. F. ADAMS. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. The Church Towers of Somersetshire. Etched by E. Piper, R.P.E. With Introduction and De scriptive Articles by John Lloyd Warden Page. We have received from the enterprising Bristol Parts I., II., III. (Bristol, Frost & Reed.) publishers, Messrs. Frost & Reed, the first three numbers of a fine-art work, the interest and value of which will extend far beyond that Somersetshire public to which it makes most direct appeal. It will consist of a series of fifty-one etchings, signed artist's proofs, by Mr. E. Piper, of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, mentioned that of Long Ashton looks almost squat. representing the most famous of the Somersetshire It is seen from the churchyard. Next in order comes church towers, drawn and etched especially for the St. Luke's, Brislington, near Bristol, which again work, with descriptive articles upon each edifice rises to a height of ninety feet and is particularly by Mr. Warden Page, a well-known and able Somer- graceful and symmetrical. It is noteworthy for setshire author and archæologist. The work is its canopied niches sheltering dilapidated figures. limited to one hundred and seventy-five copies, The tower of St. Mary the Virgin, Portbury, a church issued to subscribers only, in twenty-five parts, each the interior of which is more remarkable than the part containing two etchings, the plates to be exterior, possessing arcades with Norman bases, destroyed on the completion of the work. To add is of very mixed architecture, and has in recent times to the value of the production, the late Prof. Free- been more than once restored. Last, so far as the man's papers on 'The Perpendicular Architecture work has at present gone, comes the church of SS. as exhibited in the Churches of Somersetshire, Quiricus and Julietta, Tickenham, with its figures, delivered before the Somersetshire Archæological placed on canopies in each face, high up in the Society in Bath, in 1851-2, will, by permission, be very battlements," telling the story of the martyrs reprinted in the work. In early ecclesiastical to whom the edifice is dedicated. Most styles of edifices Somersetshire is deficient. In spite of the architecture, from the Roman to the Perpendicular, early foundation of Glastonbury and its traditional are here illustrated. The chancel has a Norman associations, Somersetshire can claim no British arch plain to rudeness, while the arch to the and no Saxon ecclesiastical edifices. A few ribs porch is Early English. The work is in all respects and arches, a fragment of stone let into a porch an édition de luxe, and will be dear to all interested and containing an alleged Saxon carving, are all to in our church architecture. Its production reflects which the antiquary can point. In Norman work, great credit upon the publishers, and the book will, even, it is not specially rich. The Norman work on its completion, occupy a conspicuous place among in the beautiful so-called Chapel of St. Joseph is of illustrations of ecclesiastical archæology. late execution, and partakes, as Mr. Warden Page says, "of the Transitional character." Christon The Lives of the Saints. By the Rev. S. BaringChurch, near Axbridge, has fine Norman arches in Gould, M.A. Vols. XIII. and XIV. (Nimmo.) the chancel and porch. St. Andrew's Church, MR. NIMMO's new and illustrated edition of the Clevedon, with its memorials of the Hallams, valuable Lives of the Saints' of the Rev. S. Baringis an interesting building. The church of St. Gould is rapidly approaching completion, and one George, Dunster, has Roman, and even, it more important instalment of two volumes will is said, Early English remains; and the restored finish his task. To reap the full advantage of the church of St. Catherine, Montacute, has one work the student is compelled to wait for the last or more Roman arches. Other churches may be volume, which will contain a full index, and so mentioned. To make amends for shortcomings greatly facilitate reference. The saints celebrated in this respect, Somersetshire is very rich in churches under November are numerous-it may, indeed, be of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and it said all-inclusive, since the first day of the month can point, in the Cathedral of Wells, to perhaps the is assigned to the festival of All Saints, and it may most dreamlike and inspired edifice among all our be permitted to say that an unedifying criminal, lovely English cathedrals, a building which, with who escaped from a dungeon on that day, declared the unequalled beauty and repose of its surround- the prediction to be true which fixed his evasion on ings, rests in the memory with a supremacy all the day of his patron saint, since, if he had one, the but unchallenged. With an admirably executed saint in question must have been commemorated etching of this cathedral the work opens. It is on this day. The following day is the commemorawhen we come to the Perpendicular style that we tion of All Souls, a festival of which a grotesque find the architectural glory of Somersetshire. To medieval illustration is supplied from the Vienna the noble towers-not seldom in Somersetshire so Missal. A second design from the same source desuperior to the rest of the church as almost to picts the raising of the dead. St. Hubert, the patron convey a sense of want of proportion-the work is of huntsmen, is shown, after Cahier, with the stag specially devoted. That the towers in the northern bearing between its horns the crucifix which was portion of the county are better than those in the the means of effecting his conversion. A long life of southern, and that the fine towers of St. Mary St. Charles Borromeo deals, of course, to a great exMagdalene and St. James's, Taunton, may not in tent with facts instead of legends, as does, to a less general effect compare with those of churches about extent, the life of St. Martin of Tours, to which no the skirts of the Mendips, is ascribed to the higher fewer than six illustrations are affixed, including quality of the stone in the north. To the general an engraving of the saint dividing his cloak with quality of the Somersetshire stone, the most beau- the beggar, from the picture by Rubens in the tiful that can be found in the country, is attributed possession of Her Majesty. St. Edmund, Archthe general superiority of the church towers. To bishop of Canterbury, is shown in the act of prayer the exquisite natural setting of many of them a in a design by A. Welby Pugin. The frontispiece portion of their influence over the spectator is to vol. xiv. consists of a procession of saints, justly ascribed. In the first part are also given etch- from a fresco. A second similar procession, from a ings of St. John the Baptist, Axbridge, and St. kindred piece, is given subsequently. St. Hugh of James's, Winscombe, the tower of the former with Lincoln is after Cahier. Among the illustrations its pierced parapet, as seen over the surrounding to St. Elizabeth of Hungary is one after the famous buildings, constituting a very beautiful object. Wins- painting by the elder Hans Holbein. The careers combe tower, which is but three miles from that of of St. Cecilia and St. Catherine are fully illustrated, Axbridge, situated like it among the Mendips, bears a a design presenting the wholly imaginary martyrstrong resemblance to its neighbour. It is visible in dom of the latter. Mr. Baring-Gould speaks of the the etching in all its fine proportions, being ninety-records of her acts as a "wonderful rigmarole." five feet in height. By the side of the towers before One of the longest and most important lives is that 66 of St. Francis Xavier, S.J. This saint is com- knowledge, and his narrations are thin and inmemorated in the Roman martyrology on 3 Decem-effective. You had not riled me" is a very ber, but is included in the present volume for the modern colloquialism to be employed, though it is, sake of convenience. perhaps, just defensible; "roiled" would have been better. We trace few slips of importance. Weather Lore. By Richard Inwards, F.R.A.S. (Stock.) SHORT as has been the period since this comprehensive and carefully edited collection of proverbs, sayings, and rules concerning the weather saw the light, it has sufficed to bring us three editions. Proof more convincing how useful and trustworthy the book has been found is not to be desired. Drawing attention previously to its merits (8th S. v. 179), we dwelt on the fact that the weather-lore of our ancestors, nonsensical and contradictory as much of it is, yields in few respects of sanity to the pseudoscientific guessing by which it is being replaced. It must be remembered, moreover, that the observations chronicled are drawn from very different latitudes, and that what is said, for instance, concerning weather in a given month in Spain may not necessarily hold true concerning Norway, or even England. Since its first appearance Weather-Lore' has been much enlarged, and in some respects modified. Slight blemishes we ourselves pointed out have been removed, and fresh information of importance has been added. Most important, perhaps, is the list of the average flowering times of well-known plants, contributed by Mr. Mawley, one time president of the Meteorological Society. This is said to be the result of many thousands of observations in Central England. Large as is the list thus obtained, it might with advantage be extended. Another addition is a useful bibliography of weather-lore, comprising books in Italian, French, German, and other languages. A frontispiece, with representations of cloudland, taken direct from nature by Col. H. M. Saunders, of Cheltenham, constitutes a noteworthy and an artistic feature. To our previous notice we have only to add that in its amended form the work is even more worthy of the support of the folk-lorist, the meteorologist, and the antiquary. The Heart of Midlothian. By Sir Walter Scott. With Introductory Essay and Notes by Andrew Lang. (Nimmo.) WE have here another volume, the sixth, of the large-type "Border Edition" of the Waverley Novels, with Mr. Lang's preliminary dissertation and his useful notes, and with the ten illustrations of the earlier issue, by Sir John Millais, Mr. Wal Paget, and other artists. With what Mr. Lang says concerning the weakness and lack of reality of the conclusion we are in accord. Anxious to enforce an exemplary moral, Scott slays the father at the hands of the son, and is unwise in so doing. In proportion as we love the central interest do we dislike not only the closing scenes, but the passages in which Scott dwells on the married felicity of the Butlers. The praise that is bestowed on Madge Wildfire is merited, and the comparison betwixt Effie Deans and Hetty in 'Adam Bede' is capital. In the Days of King James. By Sidney Herbert Burchell. (Gay & Bird.) MR. BURCHELL knows a good deal concerning literature and life in the epoch with which he deals, and has more command of language in Stuart times than many of those who employ antiquated phraseology. His invention, however, is not on a par with his The Spectator. With Introduction and Notes by George A. Aitken. Vol. VII. (Nimmo.) ONE more volume will complete Mr. Nimmo's admirably artistic edition of the Spectator. The seventh volume has a portrait of Henry Grove and a charming vignette of York Gate. Mr. Aitken's notes remain, as heretofore, few and helpful, and the edition is all the student can desire. of Bedford Street, Covent Garden, contains a THE new catalogue of Messrs. A. Maurice & Co., remarkable assortment of French illustrated works in fine bindings. Notices to Correspondents. We must call special attention to the following notices: and address of the sender, not necessarily for pubON all communications must be written the name lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. We cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate." P. J. F. GANTILLON ("Ninth Volume of the Spectator").-No. 1 of a ninth volume, extending to sixty numbers, dedicated to the Viscountess of Falconberg, appeared 3 Jan., 1715, and the last in 1721. It was published in 12mo. by J. Roberts, and written by William Bond with the assistance of a few friends - presumably the same William Dramatica' and the Dict. Nat. Biog. A fifth Bond whose name appears in the Biographia edition and a sixth of what appears to be the same and Watts. This ran from 3 Jan., 1715, to 3 Aug. of book were issued by W. Mears, 1726, and by Tonson the same year, and was dedicated to Lord Gage, who is said to have been a relative of Bond. J. S. MCTEAR (Bangor, co. Down).-The method of playing beggar-my-neighbour you describe con forms exactly with that with which we were familiar very many years ago. CERTAIN CALLINGS which HELP MEN to SOME RICH ECCENTRICS THAT I HAVE WIVES. CHINESE ETIQUETTE. CURIOSITIES of the CALENDAR. EXTRAORDINARY DUELS. FASHIONS. HOUSEHOLD GARDENING. KISSING the BOOK. PICOTINA WORK. POETS' OWN EPITAPHS. KNOWN. SQUARE-GARDENS. The FAMILY DOCTOR: Ptomaine Poisoning. The IRONY of SUCCESS. "The LITTLE MAN ISLAND." The TABLE: the Fragments that Remain. The WARS of the PLANTS. The WORLD-RENOWNED, VENETIAN JOTTINGS. PUNNING ON NAMES. SOME BOOK-BUYERS' WHIMS. London: JOSEPH SMITH & SON, 12, St. Bride Street, E.O. |