2na s. N« 63., Mar. 14. 'S?.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



219 



Mistletoe, how produced (2""^ S. Hi. 47. 153.) — 

 About seven years since, as nearly as I can 

 remember, I was induced by an article in the 

 Cottage Gardener, to insert some seeds of the mis- 

 tletoe, according to Mb. Holt White's recipe, 

 under the bark of three or four apple-trees in my 

 (Tarden. I looked in vain for their germination 

 jfroia time to time, and had almost forgotten the 

 circumstance, till your pages gave me a reminder, 

 and I now find a vigorous young plant, some eight 

 inches in breadth, on one of the trees, as the re- 

 sult of my proceeding. 



It is by no means a common plant in this im- 

 mediate neighbourhood, and I suspect there is no 

 other specimen of it growing in my parish. 



C. W. Bingham. 



Bingham's Melcombe, Dorchester. 



Almshouses recenthj founded (2"'^ S. ii. 189. 300. 

 439. ; iii. 39.) — There are some almshouses on 

 Enfield Highway, Middlesex, which were "erected 

 and endowed," as the inscription on a stone tablet 

 tells the passer-by, " by Mr. Charles Wright, for 

 the support of six poor women, a.d. 1847." 



Mekcatok, A.B. 



Door Inscription (2"*^ S. ii. 238.) — Over the 

 gate of the Duke of Argyle's house, — 



" Dux Cumbriffi nobis hisc otia fecit." 



King's Anecd., 84. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



Tailor's Gravestone (2""i S. iii. 66.) — We have 

 now got to the real solution of the mystery. 

 x''Ieur-de-lis is, in books of fifty years old and 

 more, very generally written, flower-de-ZMce. In 

 Scotland, louse is pronounced loose, — thence the 

 pun. P. P. 



St. Germain Lords (2""^ S. iii. 112.) — I am not 

 aware of any published or MS. list of these crea- 

 tions; but in Mr. Riddell's work on Peerage and 

 Consistorial Law I see reference made to the dis- 

 covery by Mr. Turnbull (an eminent genealogical 

 barrister of Lincoln's Inn) of an original patent of 

 the English barony of Cleworth by James, in 

 favour of his favourite counsellor, John Earl of 

 Melfort, dated August 7, 1689. Along with this 

 grant, never heard of previously, Mr. Turnbull it 

 i-eems had found an original pardon by James to 

 the same earl, dated at St. Germain, June 23, 

 1694. See Pviddell, ii. 963. H. 



Temple. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Lord Stanhope and Mr. Cardwell, the Trustees of the 

 Papers left by the late Sir Robert Peel, have just com- 

 pleted the more immediate object of their appointment 

 by the publication of the second volume of the 3Iemoirs 

 by the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel, Bart, M,P., §-c. 



Part II. The New Government, 1834-5. Part III. Repeal 

 of the Corn Latvs, 1845-6. As may be supposed the 

 greater interes't will be found in the latter portion of this 

 volume; treating, as it does, of the second occasion on 

 which Sir Robert Peel felt himself in the position of being 

 compelled to a course of conduct at direct variance with 

 the opinions "adopted at an early period of his public 

 life" — "opinions generally prevalent at the time among 

 men of all parties, as to the justice and necessity of pro- 

 tection to domestic agriculture," — but which opinions he 

 was now to renounce, and treat as nought. One thing is 

 clear, however, from these papers, that, although uncon- 

 sciously perhaps to Sir Robert Peel himself, those views 

 and opinions were gradually undergoing great modifica- 

 tions ; and when the failure of the potato crop, in 1845, 

 forced him as the First Minister of the Crown to cast 

 about for the means of averting as far as possible the 

 impending calamity, it is not difficult to trace the course 

 of reasoning by which his mind was converted to the 

 doctrines of another school. But we have nothing to do 

 with politics. The volume presents the vindication of a 

 great man for his conduct at a great crisis. It will of 

 course be regarded as more or less satisfactory, as the 

 reader considers more or less important the then condi- 

 tion of the country, or the consequences of the breaking 

 up of the great Conservative party. One thing, how- 

 ever, it will do, and that very effectualh'. It will show, 

 not only on the part of Sir Robert Peel, but on the part 

 of all the eminent men who figure in the volume, the high 

 principles which govern the conduct and mark the cha- 

 racter of English statesmen. The public will, we have 

 no doubt, receive the work with great satisfaction, and will 

 look forward with anxiety to the promised selection from 

 his Correspondence, " written with all the unreserve of 

 personal regard or official connexion." 



From politics to poetry is a wide step, yet one we must 

 take, that we may call the attention of our readers to a new 

 reprint, by Messrs. Washbourne, of Percy's Reliqucs of 

 Ancient English Poetry. We believe these three volumes, 

 edited by the learned Bishop of Dromore, have done far 

 more than any other book that was ever produced to create 

 a love for our English ballad poetry : and that as long as 

 such a taste remains, this publication will retain a fore- 

 most place in every library. In the present edition, 

 "The Wanton Wife of Bath," the subject of some recent 

 communications to this journal, has been restored. 



From one reprint to another. Mr. Russell Smith has 

 just added to the valuable series of reprints which he is 

 producing in a neat form, and at a very modei'ate price, 

 under the title of Library of Old Authors, a reprint of 

 Aubrey's Miscellanies. This little volume, with the por- 

 trait and memoir of Aubrey and useful index, will be 

 prized by all who know how valuable are the jottings of 

 " John Aubrey " on the matter of old English Folk Lore. 

 Dear old Westminster — by which we mean West- 

 minster proper, the united parishes of St. Margaret's and 

 St. John's, where Caxton set up the first printing press 

 erected in England, — has signalised itself by being the first 

 of the metropolitan districts to establish a Free Librarj'. 

 Tuesday evening saw it opened by a meeting presided 

 over bj' Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood, and which 

 was addressed by the President, by Mr. Ewart, the ori- 

 ginator of these Free Libraries, INlr. Helps, the Rev. W. 

 Cureton, and by many of the ratepayers ; but bj' none 

 more effectively than by the Rector of St. John's, the 

 Rev. J. Jennings, who declared that many as were the 

 sermons preached in the two parishes, none were so good 

 or so effective as the consistent Christian life of their ex- 

 cellent chairman. The meeting passed off admirably, and 

 we trust that the invitation for donations of books J4pd 

 money to the Westminster Free Library will be liberally 

 answered. 



