324 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«'<i S. VII. April 1G. '59. 



xli. f. 114.) to St. Mark, on the ground, as it ap- 

 pears from an entry in another volume, of the fes- 

 tival of that saint, 25th April, being observed as 

 the village fair-day. W. D. Macbat. 



Bull and Bear on the Stock Exchange (2"'^ S. 

 vii. 172. 264.) — Surely these phrases could not 

 have been very common in the South Sea time 

 (1720), for Horace Walpole, writing to Mann, 

 Dec. 28, 1761, says : — 



" It makes a strange confusion now that brokers are so 

 much concerned in the events of war. How Scipio would 

 have stared if he had been told that he must not demo- 

 lish Carthage, as it would ruin several aldermen who 

 had Punic actions. Apropos, do you know what a Bull, 

 and a Bear, and a Lame Duck are? Nay, nor I either: 

 I am only certain they are neither animals nor fowl, but 

 are extremely interested in the new subscription." 



Would your correspondent J. Y. favour us with 

 his authority for ascribing the epigram he quotes 

 to Pope ? There is a great resemblance in some 

 of the thoughts in this letter of Walpole's to those 

 in the celebrated article on William Pitt written 

 by Lord Macaulay for the Encyclopmdia Bi-itan- 

 nica. A. A. 



Poets' Comer. 



Mr. Wtlie has had the kindness, but without 

 stating his authority, to answer my inquiry as to 

 the time when these expressions originated, viz. 

 " at the time of the South Sea scheme : " adding, 

 however, that how the words were first used is 

 unknown. On this point I have always thought 

 that there was no doubt ; but that the Bulls are 

 those who are constantly endeavouring to toss up 

 the prices of stock, and the Bears those who are 

 equally sedulous in their efforts to Jeor them down. 

 In this case, however, " the fable of a huntsman 

 selling the skin of the bear before the animal was 

 caught," is not to the purpose. J. G. N. 



John Rutty, M.D. (2"^ S. vii. 147. 264.) — The 

 writer of the biographical memoir of Dr. Rutty, 

 which appeared in the Dublin Quarterly Journal 

 of Medical Science for May, 1847, concludes with 

 these words : — 



" Dr. Rutty having been a Member of the Society of 

 Friends, accounts for our not being able to present our 

 readers with a Portrait this time." 



Was the foregoing a satisfactory excuse ? or, is 

 there any portrait extant of Dr. Rutty ? 



I shall be happy to lend Q. the volume he wishes 

 to see, if he will leave his name and address with 

 Mr. Charles Hedgelong, Bookseller, 20. Grafton 

 Street, Dublin. Abhba. 



The Abingdon Inscription (2"^ S. vii. 130. 

 226.)-^ 



« V. A. B. I. N. D. 0. N. R. F. I." 



Mb. Bots, no doubt, very correctly explains 

 this to mean (all but the V.) Abin[g]don, 

 R[ichard] F[annande], I[ronmonger], he being 



the person who set it up, 26 Hen. VI. May not 

 the V. mean Villa ? 



The governing charter of the " Hospital of 

 Christ" at Abingdon, was granted by Edward VI., 

 and is dated May 18, 1553 ; but the original 

 foundation was I believe of the reign of Henry 

 VI., by Sir John Mason, who was buried in old 

 St. Paul's in London, and whose monument is 

 engraved in Sir William Dugdale's History of St. 

 Paul's, with many other most interesting monu- 

 ments destroyed by the great fire of London in 

 1666. F. A. Careington. 



Ogbourne St. George, Wilts. 



Hydropathy: Wet Sheets (2"^ S. vii. 171.)— I 

 can refer A. A. to something like the practice of 

 wrapping the patient in wet sheets, half a century 

 earlier than Horace Walpole's letter in 1756. 

 Thus, Sir John Floyer, M.D., of Lichfield, who 

 wrote an "Essay on Cold Bathing" in 1702, tells 

 us, that in Staffordshire, at Willowbridge, the 

 people "go into the water in their shirts; and 

 when they come out, they dress themselves in 

 their wet linen, which they wear all day, and 

 much commend for closing the pores and keeping 

 themselves cool ; and (adds Sir John) that they 

 do not commonly receive any injury, or catch any 

 cold thereby, I am fully convinced from the ex- 

 periments I have seen made with it." Sir John's 

 Essay was "printed for Sam. Smith and Benj. 

 Walford, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's 

 Church Yard, 1702." It is a very curious and 

 interesting book. John Timbs. 



Sloane Street. 



" The Conspiracy of Gowrie" (2"^ S. vi. 288.) 

 — The Conspiracy of Gowrie, a tragedy, 8vo., 

 1800. This play appears to have been written by 

 W. Rough, author of Lorenzino de Medici, and 

 other Poems, 1797. See one or two letters ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Rough in Henry Kirke White's 

 Remains. R. Inglis. 



Hearing with the Teeth (2"^ S. vii. 258.) — Lay 

 a watch upon a table, glass side downwards, then 

 stand so far from it that you cannot in the ordi- 

 nary way hear the ticking. Now place one end 

 of a small stick, say about six feet long, upon the 

 back of the watch, and grip the teeth to the other ; 

 with the fingers close each ear to exclude all ex- 

 ternal noise, the beat of the watch will then be as 

 audible as if placed against the ear. All other 

 sounds can be conveyed in the same manner, no 

 matter how long the stick be; for instance, if one 

 end be put upon a pianoforte in a sitting-room 

 fronting a garden, and the stick be thirty feet 

 long, extending outside the window on to a 

 lawn, if the instrument be ever so lightly played, 

 "the tune" will be instantly distinguished by any 

 person applying the teeth to the opposite end of 

 the stick. 



Again, if a light bar of iron or any other metal 



