2"* S. VII. Mar. 12. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



227 



Rapid— " a rapid pain " (2""^ S. vii. 146.)— We 

 find something similar to this expression in the 

 German language. The verb reissen, in German, 

 means properly to rend, to tear : but " ein reis- 

 sender Strom," is a rapid stream, "reissend laufen" 

 is to run rapidly, and " ein reissender Schmerz," if 

 we are to translate uniformly, is literally a rapid 

 pain. But all these expressions seem to derive 

 their force from the primary meaning of the verb 

 reissen, to rend ; as when, with regard to fast tra- 

 velling, we speak of " tearing along," or " splitting 

 along ; " or when the French, with reference to a 

 pain that is very sharp and severe, say " une dou- 

 leur decMrante." Do the inhabitants of Glouces- 

 tershire, when they speak of a " rapid pain," mean 

 what we are accustomed to call a shooting pain ? 



Or may not a " rapid pain " have been origi- 

 nally a rabid pain ? Thus in Latin we find " ra- 

 bida podagra " — oh ! how fitly so termed ; while 

 lago speaks of his '■'■raging tooth," and Bacon, as 

 cited by Johnson, of " a great rage of pain." 



It is worthy of observation, in connexion with 

 the present subject, that"rapido" seems to be 

 sometimes used in Italian for rapace ; " rapide 

 lupe," ravening wolves ; and there are occasional 

 traces of the same change of meaning in the L. 

 rapidus, "Velocitatem simul et rapacitatem seu 

 voracitatem significat." Forcell. — "Feras rapidte," 

 Ov. Thomas Boys. 



" God save the King'' (2"'^ S. vii. .180.) —The 

 ballad discovered by Mr. W. Douglas Hamilton 

 in the State Paper Office, — 



" God save Charles our King, 

 Our royal Roy," 



only adds one more to the long list of songs and 

 ballads on the same subject, which can neither be 

 sung to the known tune of " God save the King," 

 nor to Dr. Bull's " ayre." All that have hitherto 

 been traced to a period earlier than the reign of 

 George II. are of this class. Wm. Chappell. 



Calais Sand (2"'^ S. vii. 106.) — Calais sand was 

 used by silversmiths and other metal-workers for 

 their first coarse polishing processes. In a book I 

 have there is a note giving an account of the 

 manner of polishing metallic mirrors. After tell- 

 ing how they are cast and hammered into shape, 

 &c., the writer adds : "the reflector is next plunged 

 into a pickle, composed of one quart of vitriol in 

 five or six gallons of water ; and, lastly, washed 

 with clean water and scoured with Calais sand.''' 



Charles be Cosson. 



52. Chalcot Villas, Haverstock Hill. 



Gai/ton's Translation of Roxas (2"* S. vii. 147.) 

 — Whether the specimen given in the Letter to Mr. 

 Bayes be an extract from a genuine translation 

 of Roxas by Gaytou I cannot tell ; but from what 

 I can ascertain respecting the two men I should 

 think it not improbable. C. E. will find an ac- 



count of Don Francisco de Roxas, or rather Rojas, 

 in vol. Ixxx. p. 99. of the Supplement to the Bio' 

 graphic Universelle, and of Edmond Gayton in 

 Wood's Fasti and Chalmers's Biographical Dic- 

 tionary. ■ 'AAtevs. 

 Dublin. 



Composition during Sleep (2°"* S. vii. 85. 136.) — 

 Lord Thurlow told his nephew that " when young 

 he read much at night, and that once, while at 

 College, having been unable to complete a parti- 

 cular line in a Latin poem he was composing, it 

 rested so on his mind that he dreamed of it, com- 

 pleted it in his sleep, wrote it out next morning, 

 and received many compliments on its classical 

 and felicitous turn." — Lord Campbell's Lives of 

 the Lord Chancellors (18^6), v. 486. n. 



Tee Bee. 



There is a chapter on this subject in an excellent 

 little work On Dreams, in their Mental and Moral 

 Aspects, by John Sheppard (Jackson & Walford, 

 1847). 



In my own experience, I have imagined myself, 

 during sleep, to be listening to instrumental music 

 quite new to me, and have been able to repro- 

 duce the melody next day ; and I have now in 

 my possession a MS. copy of a Dea(J March com- 

 posed by the author, from whom I had it, in a 

 dream. John Scribe. 



Rev. James Bean (2°'^ S. vii. 148.) — A touching 

 notice of his death, and a graceful tribute to his 

 memory, occur in Forster's Life of Bp. Jehh, 2nd 

 edit., pp. 225—228. J. K. 



Ilighdere. 



[We are informed that the Rev, James Bean died in 

 182G, and was interred in the burial ground of St. 

 George's, BU)omsbury.] 



NOTES ON BOOK8, ETC. 



Munimenta Gildhallce Londoniensis ; Liber Alius, Liber 

 Cvstuinarum, et Liber Home, edited by H. T. Riky, M.A. 

 Vol. I. containing Liber Albus, compiled A.D. 1419. 

 (Longman & Co.) 



This is another of the valuable contributions to our 

 National History published by the authority of the Trea- 

 sury, under the direction of thef Master of the Rolls; and 

 we "will venture to predict that it will be hereafter re- 

 garded as far from the least important volume in the 

 series. M. Delpit, the distinguished French antiquary, 

 has pronounced that there is no city in the world that pos- 

 sesses a Collectioa of Archives so ancient and so complete 

 as the collection at Guildhall. What the French anti- 

 quary has asserted, Mr. Kiley has gone far to prove in this 

 the first of the three volumes which the Master of the 

 Rolls has entrusted to his editorial care. It contains the 

 well-known Liber Albus, which was compiled in the year 

 1419, under the auspices of John Carpenter, the renowned 

 Town Clerk, whose biography Avas lately so well related 

 by Mr. Brewer. Though there is no doubt that much 



