2"-! S. VII. April 9. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



303 



vowels perfectly ; as also those consonants that require 

 most the help of the tongue, d, I, t, r, n. She read to 

 us in a book very distinctly, and sung very prettily. 

 ^Vhat is still more wonderful, notwithstanding her loss 

 of tlie organ, she distinguishes all tastes very nicely.' 

 To this certificate may be added the attestation of Mr. 

 Dennis, tobacconist, in Aldersgate Street, who has known 

 her many years, and upon frequent inspections had found 

 the case before recited true. Some few instances of the 

 like nature have occurred, particularly one related by 

 Tulpius, of a man himself examined, who, having had 

 his tongue cut out by the Turks, after three years could 

 speak distinctlv." 



G.N. 



CULVEBKEYS AND GANDERGR.\S8. 

 (2"" S. vii. 184.) 



I fully agree with Mr. Boys, that, although we 

 have arrived at a certain stage in this inquirj', we 

 have by no means come to a complete and satis- 

 factory solution of the question. 



Although the evidence would seem, at first sight, 

 to be all on the side of the columbine, I think 

 that flower was not the culverkey, for these rea- 

 sons : 1. None of the herbals of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries call the columbine by that 

 name ; and 2., it is a rare flower ; which when 

 found (either wild or semi- wild), grows in dry 

 sheltered situations, and not in moist river-side 

 meadows. 



But although I have not found the name cul- 

 verkey, I think I have, in my researches, hit on 

 the clue to its explanation. The cowslip seems, 

 in High German, to have been called Schliissel- 

 hlumeii, or hey flowers ; and, in a similar way, the 

 hazel catkins are known as "keys," from their re- 

 semblance to a bunch of keys — a similar allusion 

 is, I believe, intended in the culverkey ; not to a 

 bird's claw, as suggested by Mr. Boys. The 

 columbine would rather give the idea of the 

 "necke of a culver," or "a neste of culvers," — 

 none of the old books speak of a claw. 



Now, when Walton describes the children " in 

 a meadow gathering culverkeys and cowslips," he 

 must mean flowers that were noticeable and plen- 

 tiful in such a situation. What flower (flowering 

 at the same time as the cowslip) answers this de- 

 scription, at the same time giving an explanation 

 of the two component parts " culver" and " keys" ? 

 I think the common hyacinth (^Hyacinthus non- 

 scriptus), which covers every shady moist bank 

 in May with its culver (coloured) key (shaped) 

 bunches of flowers, must be what is sought, and 

 the flower which Walton understood by the cul- 

 verkey. 



Master Jo. Davors, I should fancy, must have 

 used a little poetic licence with his " red hyacinth " 

 and "purple narcissus;" at any rate they do not 

 grow in these parts. 



The " pale gandergrass," I find was the moist 

 succulent flower of the purple orchis (^Orchis mas- 



cula), which flowers in the same localities, and at 

 the same time as the hyacinth and cowslip. It 

 had an old appellation oi stander grass ^ which is no 

 doubt either the original or a corruption of gan- 

 dergrass. Edward King. 

 Lymington, Hants. 



SRcplic^ ta :9Stitor caucrt^iS. 



Early Use of Coal (2"-^ S. vii. 24.) — iS. is, I 

 think, mistaken when he says Dudley's Metallum 

 Mortis was published in 1619 ; it is true his pa- 

 tent for making iron with pit-coal, sea-coal, &c., 

 was granted in that year ; but the book does not 

 appear to have been printed until 1665 (see p. 6. 

 of the Metallum Martis). I should imagine that 

 Dudley was the first person who met Avith any 

 success in the application of pit-coal to smelting 

 iron stones, but he was not the first who tried the 

 experiment ; he himself tells us (pp. 2, 3.) that in 

 1612 a patent was granted to Simon Sturtevant, 

 and in 1613 to John Rovenzon, for smelting iron 

 with pit-coal ; they failed, as did also one Gam- 

 bleton and a Dr. Jordans, who, not daunted by 

 the previous failures of Sturtevant and Rovenzon, 

 renewed the attempt. Sturtevant's Metallica was 

 published in 1612, and Rovenzon's Metallica in 

 1613. If pit-coal had not been used in the smelt- 

 ing of iron ores before the time of Dud Dudley, 

 no doubt it had been extensively used in the 

 forging of malleable iron by smiths for many 

 years before his time. 



Would /3. kindly let me know where I can ob- 

 tain a description of the blast furnace lately dis- 

 covered on Lanchester Common.* 



John N. Bagnall, 



Charlemont Hall, near Wednesburj'. 



Bellum Grammaticale (2°'* S. vii. 218.) — This 

 seems to have been a favourite title with the scho- 

 lastic or grammatical wits of the last age. I have 

 two such brochures before me : one in English, 

 and the other in Latin, but neither of them in a 

 dramatic form. The title of the first is 



"Bellum Grammaticale: or the Grammatical Battel 

 Royal, in Reflections on the Three English Grammars, 

 Publish'd in about a Year last past. In a letter to the 

 learned and ingenious Whilom Assistant to the learned 

 Mr. Benjamin Morland of Hacknej'. With a Postscript 

 to Heterologus, Usher to the learned Dr. Busby. London, 

 Printed for J. & M. Jerund, at the sign of the Priscian's 

 Head, and are sold bv J. Morphew, near Stationers' Hall, 

 1712. Price 6d." 



The title of the second is as follows : 



" Bellum Grammaticale : sive, de Bello Nominum et 

 Verborum Fabula ; ex R. D. Andreae Salernitani Patricii 

 Cremonensis Fabula ejusdem Argumenti parti m excerpta, 

 partim Imitatione ejus concinnata. A G. T. (Gulielmus 

 Turner) Scholae Stamfordiensis Magistro ; Ibidemque re- 



[* In Bruce's Roman Wall, 4to. Lond. 1851, pp. 442, 

 443.— En.] 



