2°'> S. VII. June 18. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



trouble of transferring to these pages bis answer 

 to tbe entire question, he would confer an obliga- 

 tion upon many of your readers : — 



" What are the latest reigns in which the following 

 punishments respectively have been in force in Elngland ? 

 Boiling alive, burning alive, disembowelling alive, press- 

 ing to death, taking out the eyes, cutting out the tongue, 

 dragging to the scaffold by a horse's tail, burning the 

 heart, slitting the nose, cutting off the ears, burning 

 through them with a hot iron the compass of an inch, 

 branding the cheek with ignominious letters, searing the 

 thumb, the Avorst bread to be found and stagnant water 

 on alternate days, corruption of blood, incompetency to 

 give evidence, hanging in chains, anatomising, the pil- 

 lory, the ducking stool. What is the present law and 

 practice with regard to the stocks ? 



" What is the clause in the Bill of Rights respecting 

 punishments? What were the cruel sentences passed on 

 Prj'une, on Tutchin, and on Gates? What literary no- 

 tices are there respecting the penal sufferings of De Foe, 

 or descriptive of any of the above modes of punishment ? " 



Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



Designation of Works under Review (P' S. xi. 

 111.) — I am not aware that an answer has yet 

 been given to the question, " Under what tech- 

 nical term should a reviewer refer to the group 

 of works forming the heading of the article ? " 

 Allow me to suggest that the appropriate word is 

 rubric. The restricted use of this term to the 

 portions of the Prayer Book printed in Italics, is 

 modern and unauthorised. The Latin rubrica is 

 of extensive use : Micraelius thus defines it : 



" 1. Terra rubri caloris : 2. Tituli et Capita librorum, ob 

 id rubricse dicta, quia vel rubris literis, vel stylo in cera 

 rubra scribi solebant, sicuti textus vel nigris literis, vel 

 in nigra cera." — Lex Phil. 1661. 



The word rubric was very much used by the 

 lawyers, and is still current in French, German, 

 and other modern languages in a much wider 

 sense than among us. I know of none so appro- 

 priate as this for the purpose in question, and I 

 am aware that several gentlemen have already 

 availed themselves of it, not only in conversation, 

 but in their printed productions. 



This Note may be considered very needless by 

 some, but at the same time it will not be thrown 

 away, if it serve to promote the wider circulation 

 of a word which many must feel the want of. I 

 will therefore conclude with a quotation to show 

 that rubric is classical : — 



" Quid Masuri rubrica vetavit ? " — Pers. Sat. v. 90. 



B. H. C. 



The Union, 1707 (2"'i S. vii. 455.) — The 

 cavaliers and country party used to meet every 

 day at Pat Steel's in Edinburgh to concert their 

 measures before the Parliament met. ( Vide Lock- 

 hart of Carnwath's Memoirs, p. 198.) Sigma 

 Theta will find much information in this work, 

 and also in Colonel Hooke's Secret Negociations, a 

 MS. copy of which work is in the British Museum, 

 having been purchased at Lord Stuart de Roth- 



say's sale. It would be interesting to know 

 whence his lordship obtained the MS. The Nego- 

 ciations were originally published in France, and 

 subsequently translated and published in Lon- 

 don in 1760 ; but the MS. copy I refer to gives 

 a great deal more information, so that it is 

 difficult to understand why the whole MS. was not 

 published originally. It appears, according to 

 Lockhart, that a great number of peers were 

 subsidised. He gives a list of the names, with the 

 sum each received, the total being 8,225^ 17*. 7rf. 



N. H. R. 



The Virgil of Christianity (2°^ S. vi. 231.) — 



" Nee meritis istud poteris aptare parentum, 

 Ceu pia profuerit redimendis cura bonorum, 

 Abstuleritque aliis aliena ignavia vitam : 

 Cum videas multos, Sanctis genitoribus ortos, 

 Nullo salvari studio potuisse suorum : 

 Expositisque aliis ob turpia crimina matrum, 

 Missam externorum curam, qufe stercore raptos 

 Per fontem vitse cselesti traderet aulas." 



Divi Prosper! Carmen de Ingratis, 1. iii. 



Y. 64. 

 Poetce Ecclesiastiei, t. iii. p. 254. Came- 

 raci, 1826. 



I came upon the above while looking for some- 

 thing else. I doubt whether the Virgil of Chris- 

 tianity would have directed any one to St. Prosper. 



H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



Punic Passage in Plautus (2°'' S. vii. 393.) — 

 See some critical observations in An Elementary 

 Course of Lectures on the Criticism, Interpretation, 

 and Leading Doctrines of the Bible, delivered at 

 Bristol College, in the years 1832, 1833, &c. by 

 W. D. Conybeare, M.A., Rector of Sully, Visitor 

 of the College," p. 95. note. Query, has this 

 valuable little volume been reprinted ? * R. C. 



Cork. 



Inscription on the Countess of Pembroke's Por- 

 trait (2"" S. vii. 311.) — Did not the painter, Mark 

 Garrard, take advantage of the melting of the ice 

 and snow to pay a well-turned compliment to 

 "Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother"? There 

 had been only gloom until she appeared — no 

 spring till then : " Who is she that looketh forth 

 as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the 

 sun?" G. (1.) 



International Communication two hundred Years 

 Ago (2°* S. vii. 453.) — That Spain was not so 

 far off in the seventeenth century as Secretary 

 Nicholas would lead us to believe, when such an 

 important letter as that from Charles II. to Philip 

 IV. was " not sent for want of a conveyance," 

 appears from the Report of De Questor, Super- 

 intendant of all the Posts, preserved in the State 

 Paper Office (1628), who certifies that the days 

 for departure of the ordinary posts for the several 



[* It has not been reprinted. — Ed.] 



