almost destroyed this pious effort, and yet nearly all of it can be read. Unhappily, the enemy has devoured the more important portion of the author's name: "Can. Jacopo -nt-." I should be gratified to ascertain this author's name. The first line of the sixth psalm is 66 Signor' che uedi i miei pensieri aperti." "TERZETTA D'UN PECCATOR CONUERTITO.” E di molti peccati ho colmo il petto, Mà sol per tua bontà Signor ti pregho, "Dhe fa ch' io scampi quelle pene horrendé, B. H. C. STAMP DUTY ON PAINTERS' CANVASS.-Various conflicting statements have been volunteered as to the exact date at which a stamp duty was imposed by the government of the day on the canvasses used by artists. The Excise mark is to be often found upon the backs of pictures of the period; and upon some said, by competent judges, to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds † about the years 1780, 1781, 1782. G. R. (double cypher, reversed.) J. J. O. 68 It is important to establish the above fact beyond controversy, as the genuineness and originality, and thus the great money value, or otherwise, of various pictures said to be by Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds, depend upon fixing of the date (by official refer ence) on which this duty mark was first stamped on canvasses: as well as when the same mark ceased to be impressed thereon on the repeal of the duty. It is by some alleged to have been first imposed during the American war, which began in 1775, and terminated during the Pitt Administration in 1783; but the Excise duty is The spelling is carefully copied. Sir Joshua Reynolds died Feb. 23, 1792. T. COLONEL ROBERT VENABLES. This officer, Parliamentary army, and was Governor of Chester author of The Experienced Angler, served in the in 1644. In 1649, he was Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ulster, and Governor of Belfast, miral Penn, was joint commander of the expediAntrim, and Lisnegarvey. In 1654 he, with Adtion sent by Cromwell against Hispaniola; and on their return, in the following year, both commanders were committed to the Tower. Here I lose sight of Venables. Any other information respecting him will be thankfully received. In the Harleian MSS. there is a paper, partly in the handwriting of Cclonel Venables, detailing the time he served in Cheshire, and the amount of pay due to him from 1643 to 1646. A similar record of his services in Ireland, if it could be obtained, would be of great value and interest. The notices of Venables in the Civil War tracts, Nickolls's State Papers, and the reprint of his Experienced Angler, are known to the inquirer. In the last work, there is a curious typographical error. Speaking of fish rising to the artificial fly, the author is represented to say: "and they will bite also near Tom Shane's Castle, Mountjoy, Who was Antrim, &c., even to admiration." Tom Shane, or where was his castle? one, who knew the district referred to, would be inclined to inquire if he did not at once see that the words should be-"near Toome, Shane's Castle, Mountjoy, Antrim, &c." *The information might possibly be obtained by a reference to some of the Stamp Acts. Venables must have left much curious documentary matter behind him; and it is with the hopes of discovering some of it, if still in existence, that this query is penned. What was the connexion between Venables and Isaac Walton? The latter says that he never saw the face of the former, and yet he wrote a commendatory address for the Experienced Angler. W. PINKERTON. MR. WISE.-Warton, in a letter written in 1790, mentions “Mr. Wise, the librarian." I should be glad if any of your readers could kindly tell me who this Mr. Wise was, and what was the destination of his papers? J. O. HALLIWELL. West Brompton. ROYAL ARMS.-1. Do princesses, daughters of the sovereign, wear coronets similar to those worn by the younger sons of the sovereign? and is that of the Princess Royal different from those of her sisters ? 2. When is the label of 5 points used to difference the royal arms? Should it be used in the case of the present Duke of Cambridge and his sisters ? 3. Should the arms of a Royal Duke be impaled with those of his wife? and if so, the Duke being a Knight of the Garter, should the Garter encircle the escutcheon? 4. In emblazoning the arms of her Majesty and the late Prince Consort, would it be right to make use of two shields, one with the Queen's arms, and the other with the Prince's? and should each shield have separate supporters, and be in fact in every way separate from the other? H. F. [Answers to such professional and technical queries can hardly be expected from the general readers of this work. Its pages would be outrun speedily by such questions. We have endeavoured to procure a satisfactory answer in this case. 1. The coronets of the Princesses, including the Princess Royal, are exactly similar to those of the brothers. 2. The label of 5 points has been used to difference the arms in the cases of grandchildren and nephews of the Sovereign; but it does not follow as a rule that the label of 5 points should be used. The Duke of Cambridge uses the label of 3 points granted to his father. 3. If the Royal Duke be a Knight of the Garter, the arms of himself and wife should be on separate shields, his own being surrounded by the Garter. 4. In emblazoning the arms of the Queen and her late Consort, two shields with separate supporters, crowns, &c., must be used under the same mantle (if mantle be included). In the case of a Princess of Wales, her arms would only be put in a separate shield by the side of her husband's; her coronet would be that of her husband. See answer 3.] BACON QUERIES.- Lord Bacon heads the legacies to his friends by one of "my books of orisons Fiat, late Lord Ambassador of France. or psalms curiously rhymed," to the Marquis Was this a MS. or some early copy in English or French? Was it Marot's? The great chancellor also orders the sale of his chambers in Gray's Inn, calculating the produce of the ground floor, with the third and fourth floors, at 300l. as a small relief to twenty-five poor scholars of the two universities. Is the situation of those chambers now known, and is the tree that went by the name of this great philosopher and lawyer still standing? If so, at what part of the gardens? J. A. G. [The book of "orisons or psalms" was doubtless his own production, entitled Certaine Psalmes in Verse, by Francis Lord Verulam. Lond. 1625, 4to. Dr. Cotton mentions two editions of this work, one for "Street and Whitaker," the other for "Hannah Barrett and R. Whitaker." The Psalms are, i. xii. xc. civ. cxxvi. cxxxvii. cxlix. Walton, in his Life of George Herbert, informs us, that "Sir Francis Bacon put such a value on Mr. Herbert's judgment, that he usually desired his approbation, before he would expose any of his books to be printed; and thought him so worthy of his friendship, that having translated many of the prophet David's Psalms into English verse, he made George Herbert his patron, by a public Dedication of them to him, as the best judge of Divine poetry." Lord Bacon's chambers were in Coney Court, looking over the gardens towards St. Pancras church and Highgate Hill; the site is that of No. 1, Gray's Inn Square, first floor. The house was burnt Feb. 17, 1679, with sixty other chambers. (Historian's Guide, 3rd edit. 1688.) The trees said to have been planted by Lord Bacon in Gray's Inn Gardens are probably destroyed; at any rate, now exist coeval with his time." Cunningham's HandBook of London, ed. 1850, p. 209.] 66 none “HERMIPPUS REDIVIVUS; OR, THE SAGE'S TRIUMPH OVER Old Age AND THE GRAVE."- In Bohn's edition of Lowndes, this book appears under the heading of Cohausen, John Henry. In brackets is added ("translated by Dr. John Campbell"). A quotation from Dr. Johnson is appended, and a reference to the Retrospective Review. The writer in the Retrospective Review (vii. 76) begins his account of the book thus: "The author of Hermippus Redivivus was John Henry Cohausen, a German physician, who did not quite make good his own theory, but died in a sort of nonage, when he was only eighty-five years of age. His book was translated into English by Dr. John Campbell, and has always been considered curious, as giving a summary of the many facts and opinions which have been published respecting this very interesting subject," &c. D'Israeli, in his Curiosities of Literature, under the head of "Literary Blunders," writes of this book as follows: "But the most singular blunder was produced by the ingenious Hermippus Redivivus of Dr. Campbell, a curious banter on the hermetic philosophy, and the universal medicine; but the grave irony is so closely kept up, that it deceived for a length of time the most learned. His notion of the art of prolonging life, by inhaling the breath of young women, was eagerly credited. A physician, who himself had composed a treatise on health, was so influenced by it, that he actually took lodgings at a female boarding school, that he might never be without a constant supply of the breath of young ladies. Mr. Thicknesse seriously adopted the project. Dr. Kippis acknowledged that, after he had read the work in his youth, the reasonings and the facts left him several days in a kind of fairy-land. I have a copy, with manuscript notes by a learned physician, who seems to have had no doubts of its veracity. After all, the intention of the work was long doubtful; till Dr. Campbell assured a friend it was a mere jeu d'esprit," &c., &c. JOHN ADDIS. Rustington. [The person whom Dr. Campbell meant to represent under the character of Hermippus Redivivus was Mr. Calverley, a celebrated dancing-master, whose sister for many years kept a school in Queen's Square, London, where likewise he himself lived. A picture of him in the dancing-school was formerly there, drawn at the great age of ninety-one, May 28, 1784. Vide" N. & Q." 1st S. xii. 255; 2nd S. ix. 180.] MAIDEN CASTLE. I wish to know the derivation of the name Maiden Castle, which is applied to an ancient earthwork situated on an elevated plain between Dorchester and the sea-coast, and which appellation I believe attaches to several other similar camps or fortresses in England. Midān is a word belonging to the Indo-European, or Aryan, class of languages, and means a plain. It is possible that the same word with the same meaning may have been employed by the early inhabitants of that part of Britain whose ancestors were Aryans. Were such the case, Maiden Castle, or Midan Castle, would be synonymous with the Castle on the Plain. H. C. [Maiden Castle is one of the largest and most complete Roman camps in the west of England. Some derive the word Maiden from the British Mad, fair or beautiful (whence the Saxon word Maid or Maiden), and thence conclude that fortifications so called were deemed impregnable. Mr. Baxter's derivation (Gloss. voce Dunium) is more probable, who deduced it from the British Mai Dun, the Castle of the great hill: in his opinion, it is the Dunium of Ptolemy, the capital of the Durotriges. Camden changes this into Durnium to make it correspond with Durnovaria. Baxter calls Dunium "Arx in excelso monte posita ad mille fere passuum a Durnovaria," now Maiden Castle, q. d. Mai dun, or the great hill, or hill of the citadel or burgh. Vide Hutchins's Dorsetshire, ii. 171.] HORSES FIRST SHOD WITH IRON. - Can any of your readers inform me when horses were first shod with iron? I have just had brought me a stone about five inches over, on which is plainly impressed the mark of a pony's or mule's shoe. It was found near the scythe-stone pits on the Blackborough Hills, between Honiton and Cullompton. HENRY MATTHEWS. [Beckmann (History of Inventions, i. 442-454, ed. 1846) has a valuable article on the history of horse-shoes from the most remote period. Their early use in England is thus noticed by him: "Daniel, the historian, seems to give us to understand that in the ninth century horses were not shod always, but only in the time of frost, and on other particular occasions. The practice of shoeing appears to have been introduced into England by William the Conqueror. We are informed that this sovereign gave the city of Northampton as a fief to a certain person, in consideration of his paying a stated sum yearly for the shoeing of horses; and it is believed that Henry de Ferres or De Ferrers, who came over with William, and whose descendants still bear in their arms six horseshoes, received that surname because he was entrusted with the inspection of the farriers. I shall here observe, that horse-shoes have been found, with other riding furniture, in the graves of some of the old Germans and Vandals in the northern countries; but the antiquity of them cannot be ascertained."] attention of all who are engaged either in the enlargement, or restoration of our churches; for it is while carrying on these works, that the destruction of ancient memorials is generally perpetrated; but it is extremely difficult to know what is to be done in some cases where really, if monumental absurdities are to be left untouched, there must be an end either to the enlargement of churches to meet the spiritual wants of an increasing population, or of such improvements as good taste would dictate in the restoration of fine architectural features wantonly cut away to make room for ridiculous and costly monuments encumbered with weeping cupids, heathen urns, lamps, festoons, and other inappropriate devicesmostly ill chosen, and badly executed. As far, therefore, as these mistaken designs are concerned, I can see no reason why they may not be removed (with proper sanction), when they interfere with church extension; but whenever this becomes necessary, the utmost care should be taken to preserve the inscriptions. Frequently it happens that the obituary occupies a very small part of a gigantic monument; surely the refixing of these small tablets, without their offensive framework, would be sufficient. In regard to brasses upon the floor, incised inscriptions and effigies on stone slabs, &c., it would really be well that these should neither be hid or materially altered in their positions, excepting under the most cogent circumstances; and then a regular entry of the fact should be made in the parish book. It frequently happens that, from excessive dampness, there is a necessity for raising the church floor, and sometimes in the re-arrangement of seating, parts of the floor formerly seen become concealed; and others, hitherto hid, are brought to view. Whenever this occurs, the altered state of things should be duly noted, and more careful when meddling with monumental inscriptions. And here I may add, that feeling the importance of this and kindred subjects, a standing Committee has been appointed by the Royal Institute of British Architects "for the conservation of ancient buildings and monuments;" and that the members will always be ready to aid those who are altering or adding to old structures, in resisting wanton and unnecessary spoliation. BENJ. FERREY, F.S.A. PSALM XC. 9. (3rd S. y. 57.) "We bring our years to an end like a tale [that is told]" is not quite correct as to the last word, tale; and the Greek and Latin versions are decidedly wrong in translating (=éye in pronunciation), spider. According to Calasius, this word occurs thirty-eight times in the O. T. The errors of Wycliffe and De Sacy arise from copying the Septuagint and Vulgate. This is remarkable in De Sacy, who was a Jew, or of Jewish extraction, and who altered his name, Isaac, by anagram, to De Sacy. The word (hege) has the same meaning as (hego) in Syriac, and هجو (haju) in Arabic, namely, meditation, and the result of meditation. This meaning is very clear from Psalm i. 2: "And in thy law will I meditate day and night"; also from Psalm ii. 1: “The people imagine vain things." The word was used tateuch, although the ninetieth Psalm is attributed first by Joshua (i. 8), and is not found in the Pen to Moses. See Gesenius. Mendelssohn has ein geschwätz, a chattering; De Wette, ein laut, a See this seems all that can be done under the circumstances. Few will deny that there is much more beauty in well arranged encaustic tiles than in damp and broken grave slabs; but if this advantage is to be only gained by destroying memorials of well-known ancient families, it is certainly better to forego artistic feeling than to annihilate the records. Colour appears to be one of the inducements for substituting tiles for stone; and, no doubt, the flooring of a church may be as much an object of design and skill as any other part, but colour is not essential. Perhaps no floor is more beautiful than that of the Cathedral of Sienna, wholly devoid of colour, yet rendered, (hagogo), a phantom, or an imagination ; exquisite by its numerous incised effigies and other devices. It is rarely, however, that such, hagga, being also a phantasm in Hebrew, floors are to be met with. However, whether plain or enriched, I feel the force of your correspondent's observations; and hope that his remonstrance will induce those who are the authorised guardians of our churches to be a little which is the sense given by J. D. Michaelis to Ps. xc. 9. (See Eichhorn's Heb. Lex., i. 415.) The inference may be drawn that the interpreter, mistaking the Hebrew word for the Syriac one signifying spider, gave that as the meaning to the Greek amanuensis of the LXX. Similar errors of hearing occur in this Greek version. In Eichhorn's Repert. (xviii. 137), Köhler quotes Schultens on this word (Prov. xxv. 4), "ut vaporem exæstuantem," but attributes to Kimchi a better sense, who says, "the word in denotes speech, which comes from the mouth; as this passes swiftly, so swiftly fly our years." In such way also do Rashi and Aben Ezra explain the word, and so Jerome translates "ut sermonem." T. J. BUCKTON. Lichfield. I venture to send you some further remarks in addition to your own respecting the meaning of the latter portion of Psalm xc. 9; Vulgate, Psalm lxxxix. הֶגֶה the Hebrew word The only difficulty arises from the obscurity of Professor Lee, in his Hebrew, Chaldee, and English Lexicon (sub voce), translates it as meaning a murmur, which gradually declines and fails. Winer renders it by cogitatio: so also does Gesenius (Lexicon Manuale Heb. et Chaldaicum). Castell (sub voce) gives several meanings, as, sermo, loquela, gemitus, murmur, and refers to this Psalm. Hengstenberg (Commentary on the Psalms, vol. xii. in Clark's Foreign Theological Library, Edinburgh, 1848), will not admit that the word can mean a conversation, or tale; but prefers the translation soliloquy, because it generally bears the character of something transitory. a In examining the ancient Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic Versions, such as we find them in Walton's Biblia Polyglotta (Londini, 1656, tom. iii.), it is remarkable to see how closely they agree with the rendering of the Septuagint Version, and with the Vulgate. Thus, in the Syriac we have to quote the Latin translation: "Nam cuncti dies nostri confecti sunt indignatione tuâ; et defecerunt anni nostri sicut aranea." In the Arabic we have: "Nam cuncti dies nostri finierunt, et in irâ tuâ consumpti sumus: anni nostri ceu textura araneæ sunt labentes." In the Ethiopic version, the translation runs thus: "Quoniam omnes dies nostri defecerunt; et in irâ tuâ defecimus. Anni nostri sicut araneæ meditati sunt." The Chaldee Paraphrase (Targum) gives, however, a different meaning to the Hebrew word π, as if it originally signified the breath of the mouth: " Consumpsimus dies vitæ nostræ ut halitum oris in hyeme." Rosenmüller (Scholia in Vetus Testamentum, Pars Psalmos continens, tom. iii. Lipsiæ, 1804, p. 2298) remarks, that this meaning is by no means to be rejected. It seems to me, that all the various renderings of the Hebrew word can easily be reconciled one with another, and be made to express the meaning of the Psalmist which is, to show us with what rapidity our years pass away. The translators of the Bible Version may have intended the words, a tale that is told, to correspond with the Latin words sermo or loquela. Rosenmüller (ut supra) appears to give the meaning of the expression: "Evanescunt vitæ nostræ dies, sicut verbum emissum in aërem statim dissolvitur, neque revocari amplius potest." But I am inclined to consider the woei apáxvn of the Septuagint version, and the sicut aranea of the Vulgate, the most correct rendering of the Hebrew, particularly as the Syriac agrees with them.* iii. p. 501, ed. Lips.) supposes that in the Hebrew Bochart, in his Hierozoicon (Cap. XXII. tom. Codices which were used by the LXX., another word, ip, was then found, with the meaning sicut aranea, which is almost the same in Arabic. (See Rosenmüller's Scholia in Vetus Testamentum, Pars Psalmos continens, tom. iii. p. 2300, ed. Lipsia.) J. DALTON. Norwich. SHERIDAN'S GREEK (3rd S. iii. 209.)-Another version of the story of Lord Belgrave's quotation from Demosthenes in the House of Commons, is given by Mr. De Quincey in his "Selections Grave and Gay. Autobiographic Sketches. Edinburgh, 1854." Vol. ii. p. 40. HERUS FRATER. QUOTATION WANTED (3rd S. iv. 288.)"Stand still, my steed, Let me review the scene". shine." is from Longfellow's poem, "A Gleam of Sun E. V. Enigma (3rd S. v. 55.) — Is the answer to the E. V. Earl of Surrey's enigma" A refusal "? If we suppose the recipient of the gift to be an illegitimate child, and the lady its mother, I think the word Name will answer all the requirements of this enigma. F. C. H. CRUEL KING PHILIP (2nd S. xii. 393; 3rd S. i. 158.) The lines are a paraphrase of Lucian : Φιλίππον γοῦν τὸν Μακεδόνα ἐγὼ θεασάμενος οὐδὲ κρατεῖν ἐμαυτοῦ δυνατὸς ἦν· ἐδείχθη δέ μοι ἐν γωνιδίῳ τινί μισθοῦ ἀκούμενος τὰ σαθρὰ τῶν ὑποδημάτων. πολλούς δε καὶ ἄλλους ἢ ἰδεῖν ἐν ταῖς τριόδοις μεταιτοῦντες, Ξέρξας λέγω καὶ Δαρείους, καὶ Πολύκρατες. Philonides. ̓́Ατοπα διηγῆ τὰ περὶ τῶν βασιλείων, καὶ * This remark of course implies, that as the word does not mean a spider, some other word was originally used, as Bochart supposes. Cappell, however, in his Critica Sacra (tom. ii. pp. 559-607), tries to reconcile the Septuagint rendering with the Hebrew, thus: "Anni nostri similes sunt telis aranearum, quas meditantur, id Hebrew noun is meditatio, which you seem to prefer. est, quas texunt." One of the meanings given to the |