LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 21, 1881. CONTENTS. - N° 73. NOTES:-Unpublished Letters of Dr. Johnson-Jacques REPLIES:-John Reading: The "Adeste Fideles," 410 Horrocks the "Soothest" in "Comus," 411-Sir S. Poyntz-Acoustic Jars, 412-"Tram." 413-The Lords Wentworth-Clergymen hunting in Scarlet, 414-" Miser "-Old Parr, 415Izard Peacock: Pocock -"Boggins". Astronomer, 416-Dr. Andrew Bell T. Daniell, R. A.-Panmure-The 43rd Foot-A Sloping Church Floor-Norborne Berkeley-" Clere," 417-Moreto and Molière-"As true as the Deil's," &c. -"Zʊedone"-A Hell Fire Club-Superstitions about Feathers-The Female "Worthies"-"Cheese it," 418-Early English Dictionaries, 419. NOTES ON BOOKS:-Freeman's "Historical Geography of Europe"-Warren's "Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church"-Hunt's" Popular Romances of the West of Eng land," &c. Notices to Correspondents, &c. Notes. UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON. No. VII. To Mr. Hector, in Birmingham (address). Dear Sir,-On Tuesday I returned from a ramble about France, and about a month's stay at Paris. I have seen nothing that much delighted or surprised me. Their palaces are splendid, and their churches magnificent in their structure, and gorgeous in their ornaments, but the city in general makes a very mean appearance. When I opened my letters, I found that you had very kindly complied with all my requests. The Bar (?) may be sent in a box directed to me at Henry Thrale Esq., in Southwark. The whole company that you saw went to France together, and the Queen was so pleased with our little girl, that she sent to enquire who she was. We are all well, but I find, my dear Sir, that you are ill. I hope it does not continue true that you are almost a cripple. Would not a warm bath have helped you? Take care of yourself for my sake as well as that of your other friends. I have the first claim on your attention, if priority be allowed any advantages. Dear Mrs. Careless, I know, will be careful of you. I can only wish you well, and of my good wishes you may be always certain, for I am, Dear Sir, your most affectionate Fleet Street Nov. 16, 1775. No. VIII. March 7, 1776. Dear Sir,-Some time ago you told me that you had unhappily hurt yourself; and were confined, and you have never since let me hear of your recovery. I hope however that you are grown, at least are growing well. We must be content now to mend very gradually, and cannot make such quick transitions from sickness to health, as we did forty years ago. Let me know how you do, and do not imagine that I forgot you. I forget whether I told you that at the latter end of the summer I rambled over part of France. I saw something of the vintage, which is all I think that they have to boast above our country, at least, it is their great natural advantage. Their air, I think is good, and my health mended in it very perceptibly. Our schoolfellow Charles Congreve is still in town, but very dull, very valetudinary, and very recluse, willing, I am afraid, to forget the world, and content to be forgotten by it, to repose in that sullen sensuality, into which men naturally sink, who think disease a justification of indulgence, and converse only with those who hope to prosper by indulging them. This is a species of Beings with which your profession must have made you much acquainted, and to which I hope acquaintance has made you no friend. Infirmity will come but let us not invite it; indulgence will allure us, but let us turn resolutely away. Time cannot always be defeated, but let us not yield till we are conquered. I had the other day a letter from Harry Jackson who says nothing, and yet seems to have something which he wishes to say. He is very poor. I wish something could be done for him. I hope dear Mrs. Careless is well, and now and then does not disdain to mention my name. It is happy when a Brother and Sister live to pass their time at our age together. I have nobody to whom I can talk of my first years-when I go to Lichfield I see the old places, but find nobody that enjoyed then with me. May she and you live long togethe. I am, Dear Sir, your affectionate humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON. JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT. I happened the other day to come across the word "Casanova" in Beeton's Dictionary of Universal Information. I may as well say that I stumbled across the paragraph relating to that extraordinary character by accident, for I imagined myself tolerably conversant with the history of what is generally supposed to have been his career. Finding Beeton's account to be somewhat at variance with my preconceived notions, I venture to quote the said paragraph in extenso :— "A famous adventurer, of Venetian extraction, who visited different countries of Europe in various capacities. He was at once a schoolmaster, soldier, musician, chemist, alchemist, writer, and politician; and displayed, in these various callings, a great amount of talent, accompanied, necessarily, by equal chicanery. He was imprisoned at Vienna. and ultimately died there, 1803; born at Venice 1725. He left, besides other books, a History of his Captivity and his Memoirs, which have been translated into French. His brother Francis was a painter of battle-pieces." celebrated painter, only one year, and to have preserved a firm affection for him to the last. And now I would ask permission to add a few words relative to these Memoirs, a subject rekindled in my memory by Beeton's paragraph above quoted. The Prince de Ligne, a friend of Casanova, once said of this autobiography that its greatest merit consists in the cynicism which pervades it; a circumstance which, in his opinion, would be a deterrent to its publicity. De Ligne thus summed up his criticism,-"IL y a du dramatique, de la rapidité, du comique, de la philosophie, des choses neuves, sublimes et inimitables." Casanova's other great narrative, La Fuite des Plombs, is both vivacious and of absorbing interest, while at the same time its authenticity has been attested by contemporary Venetians. But what a theme have I not opened! I should like to resume the subject at a future time, when I may enter more fully into the character and genius of him of whom the Prince de Ligne said: "C'est un esprit sans pareil, dont chaque mot est un trait, et chaque pensée un livre." RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Chelsea, S.W. We prseume our correspondent is aware that the Rivista Europea for March 16 contained an article on "Casanova and the Venetian Republic," by Ettore Mola.] on the subject of the collection of book-plates (exlibris), or, as I should like to call them, for the avoidance of confusion, book-labels. [See "N. & Q.,” 6th S. ii. 445, 491; iii. 31.] Now, the fact is that Jacques Casanova was a Venetian, pur et simple. I think I can prove this satisfactorily. He was never a schoolmaster, in the usual acceptation of that term. He occasionally gave lessons in private families, I believe, but never at either a school or a college. Casanova could scarcely have claimed the title of musician; though evidently fond of music, and frequently a patron of struggling artistes, he was rather more of a spectator than a performer. As chemist and alchemist he was simply an amateur; and as a politician, nothing. In his capacity as writer he was almost unequalled for a certain riotous vivacity and a worldly knowledge of the baser parts of the human character. He was the Hogarth of the pen ; SHALL WE COLLECT EX-LIBRIS? and what was once, not inaptly, said of the latter might, with equal justice, have been said of Casa- The columns of "N & Q." have within the last nova. His autobiography, which, for reasons given few months afforded opportunities for the expresin its preface, was originally written in French,sion of views diametrically opposed to each other forms an example of the depth to which unrestrained licentiousness may be carried, and also betrays a knowledge of the personal characteristics and foibles of the most celebrated personages of his time. Deeply interesting to students of the manners and customs relating to the last century, these memoirs, on account of their penetrativeness and descriptiveness, cannot be ignored; but a profusion of impassioned blots too often obscures their otherwise unquestionable merit. That Casanova was at one time imprisoned at Vienna it would be somewhat rash to deny-though I cannot at this moment recall the circumstance-but that he ended his career in the capital of the dual No one, so far as I am aware, bas endeavoured to kingdom I am quite unaware. The last years of come at the right and wrong of the proceeding, this celebrated adventurer were passed at the and to weigh the arguments on either side. As Château of Dux, not far from Toeplitz, in the the process of removing these marks of ownership capacity of librarian to Count de Waldstein, a descendant of the great German general who was assassinated on the field of battle in 1634. That Casanova died at Dux is generally admitted; and that he led a wretched life while there is evident from the extant letters which he addressed to a house-steward, Monsieur de Faulkinher, at whose hands he imagined himself aggrieved. Jacques appears to have survived his brother François, the Enthusiastic collectors have described with all the ardour of a Dibdin the gems of their gatherings, and have without doubt stimulated the energies of many a possessor, and enhanced in his eyes by their praises the merits of the specimens he had acquired. On the other hand, there have not been wanting correspondents who denounced as Vandalesque the removal of a single label from the boards on which they found it. is still going on, and it will, in a few years at the farthest, be difficult to find a book, except in some long untouched library, to which its original label still adheres, it would seem worth while to invite in your columns a freer interchange of opinion. Most of us collectors of a longer or shorter standing have followed the quarry without remorse or misgiving, and would fain persuade ourselves that there is more to be said for than against the practice. For these reasons. (1) If the history of book-labels was worth writing, if any general knowledge of them was desirable, it could have been rendered possible only by their investigation as collected in large numbers, the labour of searching in libraries through the needful number of volumes into which they were pasted being quite prohibitory of such an undertaking. (2) In many cases the books out of which these labels were taken had but little value, and the label would probably have been destroyed with the cover or the book. (3) One cannot always cherish the belief that the label affords evidence of ownership. Some time ago my inquiries at a respectable second-hand bookseller's for these little engravings were met by the reply, "We don't sell them; if we get any we put them in other books, as we find all books sell better by auction with a bookplate in." There are many instances in which the most ardent book-plate hunter, if also, as he ought to be, a bibliophile, would consider the removal of the label a desecration, especially when both book and label are old, and one has no reasonable doubt about their having long been companions, or when, as in some delightful instances, there is the impress of the owner's arms or device on the binding as confirmation sure. To compare great things with small, Does the national conscience, of which we often hear, approve or condemn the rape of the Elgin marbles? Most of the arguments pro and con in that business would apply, mutatis mutandis, to the one in hand. Many possessors of libraries have desired that their names should be for all time associated with their books. Few have more successfully assured the accomplishment of their desire than such men as Grolier, Maioli, and De Thou. But there is another, not much less legitimate, and less costly, method, hitherto almost or quite undescribed, viz., that of having the impression of the book-plate (this is, I think, the correct use of the latter word) in ink upon the back of the title. I have before me, unfortunately, only the merest fragment of a 12mo., entitled "Bona Fidei adversus præcipuas Heriberti Rosvveydi_ Jesuita Strophas, Sedani, excudebat Joannes Jaunon. MDC.XXxx." (with his device). On the back of the title is an impression of the elaborate and busy book-plate of "Godefridus Jac. F. Thomas, R.P. Nov. Medicus," engraved by J. B. Homaun. The date 1695 occurs on a pilaster in the background which bears the escutcheon of the owner. It seems clear that when Dr. Thomas was having the volume rebound he took the precaution to send the title and his copper book-plate to the printers, instead of trusting to the ordinary practice of pasting in. Some of your readers may be able to supply notices of similar cases. I have never seen or heard of any book-label with a stenographic or cryptographic inscription with the exception of the following. A Chippendale book-label (in a book owned by Robert Pope) exhibits a shield, with these bearings: Argent, two chevrons gules; on a canton gules an escallop argent; Crest, a lion (?) statant, gorged with a collar, a chain affixed thereto passing between the fore-legs and reflexed over the back. In the lower portion of the frame of the shield is a book, under this a label, bearing the inscription I annex :— Well knowing the falsetto voice and noli me tangere manner which often meet the outsider who is accidentally thrown into the company of his faroff superiors, I was prepared to be a quiet listener when I had the gratification of staying, for a couple of days, in a country house with Mr. Disraeli, then Premier, where the dinner party consisted of eight persons. I was the only stranger to the great man, and our charming hostess suggested that I should tell him "some of those funny stories about your friend Mr. Malaprop." I rather deprecated introducing such nonsense, but proceeded to say that I had recently met this gentleman, who at once observed, with reference to a cardinal and an archbishop having been lecturing the night before on education, "It's not often, sir, that we have two such consternations in one hemisphere." The Asian mystery passed from the face of the Premier, and, catching the mistake, he remarked, "Literally and perfectly true. No doubt they astonished their hearers." Having told him also how my friend spoke of a concave of cardinals," of some event "forming a nuncleus," the “ spesaucious occasion," the new "Town Hall being inebriated," &c., he said, "Well, I have no doubt he is a sensible man, for his thoughts are clear, though his words are curious." I spoke of a gentleman having subscribed towards a mission to the caves of Borneo in search of the "missing link," when he answered with a smile, "He need not have sent so far, for we find it at home!" The doctrine of evolution being named, he said, "The philosophers had gone back 500 years B.C. for their cellular and atomic theories, to Thales and Epicurus." I ventured to say, "There was a teacher about atoms before Epicurus," and he replied, "I know there was-who was it?" Next morning at breakfast I said, "The name of Democritus had struck me before I went to sleep." "How did you manage to remember it-demos, people?" I watched anxiously for one word about the renewal of Russia's designs against Turkey, for the war had not begun, but the only allusion he made was, "Austria will save us in our Eastern difficulty." When I asked him about the old House of Commons, and mentioned the treat I used to have as a boy, when half-a-crown got me into the strangers' gallery to hear a debate, he spoke with perfect simplicity of his own friendlessness when he first became a member. These trifling incidents are only worth recording as illustrative of the late earl's genial and unspoilt nature. When our noble host proposed a saloon carriage for his onward journey, he said, 'Spare me; I should feel like a fly in a cathedral." What most struck me in the man was the patient and imperturbable demeanour, which no amount of responsibility could distress, "Of Atlantean shoulders fit to bear The weight of mightiest monarchies." And I don't think wild horses could have torn a secret from him. His eyes had a worn and weary look, such as I have seen in those of our greatest poet. There was all the composure of one whom nothing could daunt or surprise. A. G. LONDON PUBLISHERS, 1623-1834. In the following list of London publishers, dating from 1623 to 1834, I have given short obituary notices and references to accounts of all those of whom I have been able to find any particulars; but of those given with the dates in brackets (which refer to the time when they lived) I have not been able to ascertain anything, and shall be glad if any reader of "N. & Q." can give me any information regarding them, so that I may make the list more complete on some future occasion: Austin, Robert, Old Bailey (1645). Baker, Samuel, York Street.-Born in 1712, was an eminent bookseller, and published several catalogues between 1757 and 1777; was also famous as an auctioneer of books. Retired a few years before his death to Woodford Bridge, near Chigwell, Essex. Died April 24, 1778, aged sixty-six, and was buried in St. Paul's Churchyard. Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 161; Dibdin's Biblio. Decum., vol. iii. p. 445. Banks, Hammond, Golden Key, over against St. Dunstan's (1714). Banks, John.-Born at Sunning, Berkshire, in 1709. Having had 107. left him, he set up a bookstall in Spitalfields, which he afterwards gave up and went to live with a Mr. Montague, bookseller and bookbinder. Mr. Banks was the author of The Weaver's Miscellany, Critical Review of the Life of Oliver Cromwell, &c. Died at Islington, April 19, 1751, aged forty-two. Chalmers's Dict., vol. iii. p. 422; Allibone's Brit. and Amer. Authors. Barber, John, upon Lambeth Hill.-The son of a barber in London, was bred a printer; he afterwards became a bookseller on Lambeth Hill; was elected an alderman 1722, Sheriff 1730, Lord Mayor of London 1732-3, and was President of St. Bartholomew's Hospital in 1737. Bateman, Christopher, Paternoster Row (1710). Beecroft, John, Paternoster Row.-Master of the Stationers' Company in 1773. Died at Walthamstow, Essex, Nov. 12, 1779. Bennet, Thomas, Half Moon, St. Paul's Churchyard.— Born in 1664. Died Aug. 26, 1706, in his forty-second year. In the church of St Faith is, or was, the following epitaph to his memory: "Here lyeth the body of Thomas Bennet, Citizen and Stationer of London, who married Whitewrong, of Rothamstead, in the County of HertMiss Elizabeth Whitewrong, eldest daughter of James ford, esq.; by whom he had one son and two daughters, and departed this life in the 42nd year of his age." Bentley, Richard, Covent Garden (1691). Boler, James, at the Signe of the Marigold, St. Paul's Churchyard (1630). Bonwick, Henry, The Red Lion, St. Paul's Churchyard (1698). Bonwicke, Richard (1709).-Dunton, in his Life and Errors, vol. i. p. 216, says: "He served his time with Mr. Benjamin Tooke, and we find all the wit and loyalty of his ingenious master exemplified in his life and practice." Bowles, John, printseller at the Black Horse, Cornhill. Bowyer, Jonah, The Rose, Ludgate Street (1710).— Bishop Smalridge says: "Since Mr. [Thos.] Bennet's death I have dealt with Mr. Bowyer, who was a servant of his, and whom I take to be a very honest man," Brome, Charles, The Gun, at the west end of St. Paul's Churchyard (1680-97). Brome, Henry, The Gun, St. Paul's Churchyard (1676). Brooks, Nathanael. The Angel, Cornhill, near the Royal Exchange (1672). Brown, William, corner of Essex Street, Strand.Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. pp. 634-5, says: "He served his apprenticeship with, and was afterwards ting business, about 1765, he opened the shop in which many years journeyman to, Mr. Sandby, on whose quithe died. He married the only sister of Mr. Harrison, surgeon and apothecary, of Enfield, and of the Rev. Mr. Harrison, Dissenting minister at Warrington, by whom he had one son, who died an infant, and she died in 1795. Mr. Brown died of a fever, after a week's illness, Feb. 14, 1797, aged sixty-three, and was buried at Enfield, near the remains of his wife, on the 24th. He was succeeded in business by Robert Bickerstaff." Buck, William, Cullum Street, Fenchurch Street (1824). Butterworth, Henry, 43, Fleet Street.-He afterwards removed to 7, Fleet Street, the house known as the "Hande and Starre," in which Richard Tottel lived. Born in Coventry, Feb. 28, 1786. Died Nov. 2. 1860, in his seventy-fifth year. Messrs. Butterworth, law booksellers and publishers, the present occupiers of the above house, are his successors. W. G. B. PAGE. 91, Porter Street, Hull. (To be continued.) [For "Booksellers in St. Paul's Churchyard," see "N. & Q.," 5th S. viii. 461, 489; ix. 9, 97; xi. 93; xii. 358.] WILLISON FAMILY.-A copy of Edward Topsell's Times Lamentation, 4to., 1613, now in my library, has been used as a family record for nearly two centuries; the MS. notes on the fly-first instance to have belonged to a Fawcett, and leaves are probably worth preserving : John Willison, son of John and Mary, was born 15th Feb., 1691. Eliner Willison, his wife, died 17th March, 1720, being about 32 years old. Mary Willison, daughter of John and Eliner, was born 28th April, 1719. Elizabeth Willison, daughter of John and Sara, was born Setterday, 2nd March, 1722. John Willison, son of John and Sara, was born on Setterday, 18th March, 1726. John Willison died the 19th of April, 1749, being about 20-2 years of age. Robert Dickenson, Father to John Willison Dickinson, was born the 30th April, 1716, and baptized the 8th of May. 1716. Richard Dickinson, brother to the above Robert, was born on the 8th of December, 1726. John Willison Dickeson was born on Wedensda, the 27th of October, 1756, new stile, being the son of Robert and Elizabeth. John Willison, grandfather to the above John Willi son Dickinson, died 12th of May, 1757, aged 66. Eliner Dickinson, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth, was born on Sunday, the 2nd of July, 1758. Sara Willison, wife of the above John, died on Saterday, the 4th of April, 1778, aged 87. Eliner Dickinson married to John Atkinson 4th of June, 1787. Robert Dickinson Atkinson was born the 5th of April, 1788, and baptized the 4th of May, 1788. Elizabeth Atkinson was born the 5th of November, 1790, and baptized the 12th of December, 1790. Elizabeth, wife of Robert Dickinson, died the 12th of July, 1797, aged 74. Robert Dickinson died the 30th of April, 1802, aged 87, and interred at Heversham, May the 4th. Robert Dickinson Atkinson died May the 26th, 1809, being the grandson of the above Robert Dickinson. Elizabeth Atkinson married to Joseph Robinson Dec. the 14 h. 1814. Died an infant of the above, Nov. 1815. John Atkinson died the last day of January, 1816. Robert Atkinson Robinson, son of Joseph and Elizabeth, was born the 5th of Nov., 1816, at Sedgwick, in the parish of Heversham, Westmoreland. Joseph Robinson, Father to the above named Robert Atkinson Robinson, died the 15th of April, 1820, aged 39 years; interred at Preston Patrick Chapel on the 18th inst. Eliner Atkinson, wife of John Atkinson, died Sunday, the 19th of August, 1821, and was interred at Hever sham on the 22nd inst., aged 63 years. Robert Atkinson Robinson, son of Joseph, died Monday, the 18th of November, 1822, and was interred at Preston Patrick on the 20th inst., aged 6 years. Elizabeth Robinson, widow of Joseph, married to Chr. Johnson the 3rd of May, 1823. Christopher Johnson died the 27th of April, 1841, and was interred at Lancaster Church the 1st of May, 1841. It is right to add that the above entries are here given rather condensed. The book appears in the by marriage to have passed in succession to the Willisons, Dickinsons, Atkinsons, and Johnsons. EDWARD SOLLY. CHAPMAN'S " "TRAGEDIE OF CHARLES, DUKE OF BYRON."-The last words of the fourth act of this play are, in all the editions I have seen :— And rather to aduerse affaires, betray; Chapman's Works, vol. ii. p. 292, ed. 1873. The passage stands thus both in the quarto of 1608 and in that of 1625, from which the edition quoted above is printed. It is also the same in the edition of Richard Herne Shepherd (London, Chatto & Windus, 1874). In its present form it seems impossible to obtain any satisfactory sense from the passage, but it seems to me that a very slight change will set matters right. We have only to suppose that Chapman wrote "yt" as a contraction for "that," which being taken by the printed by them. We then get (punctuating printers for an obsolescent spelling of "it," was so more carefully):"All popular gifts Are coullors, that will beare no vineger, And rather to aduerse affaires betray," &c. The reading suggested receives confirmation from a passage in Act V.: "Pot. For coulours that will staine when they are tryed, The cloth is euer cast aside." Chapman's Works, vol. ii. p. 302. MISPRONUNCIATION OF WIND."-Is anything known as to when the affectation of pronouncing the in this word long was first introduced? What is the rationale of it? In music it has become de rigueur; so that you shall not enter the smallest cathedral in England without hearing the choir, as they occur in the Psalms, chanting of "wind and storm," "walking upon the wings of the wind," "the stubble before the wind," &c. Even the "rushing mighty wind" or the whirlwind itself would share the same fate if their courses crossed the musician's path. But what a perversion this is of one of the happiest unions of sound and sense. For the gentle gliding motion which wind expresses is an attribute of water and not of air, and by the change of sound the mind is dragged down from a soaring lofty flight to the idea of a serpentine indirect movement, entirely of the earth, earthy. Doubtless there is a difficulty in holding a sustained singing note on the open when it occurs; but my complaint is that not an exceptional but an invariable liberty is taken by |