298 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2««i S. N" 07., Aprh- li. '6?. 



his fellow, the King's professor of Oxford, that a man in 

 those days of great fame, and learning, and virtue, who 

 was acquainted with them both, called them 'that golden 

 couple of fathers.' " 



Here the word clearly has its modern meaning. 

 On the other hand, Dr. Littleton, in the 4th edi- 

 tion of his Latin and English Dictionary (1715), 

 renders conversation by the Latin " Conversatio, 

 commerciun?., consuetudo, usus." Under the word 

 consuetude, he observes : — 



" ' Sumitur etiam pro commercio viri cum muliere.' — 

 SmV 



The passage from Suetonius here referred to is 

 no doubt that quoted in Carey and Morell's ylms- 

 worth (1841) : " Cum sororibus stupri consuetu- 

 dinem fecit." 



Of earlier uses of the word Dr. Richardson 

 supplies several instances from Wiclif, Chaucer, 

 Hackluyt, and Shakspeare. The only citation of 

 its employment in an opprobrious sense is from 

 Rich. III., Act III. Sc. 5. : " His conversation with 

 Shore's wife." H. G. H. 



Cocker's Arithmetic (2"^ S. iii. 95.) — The com- 

 mon publication known as Cocker s Arithmetick 

 " suitable to the meanest capacity," was certainly 

 first published at the latter end of the year 1677. 

 On the title-page of the edition of that date, 

 " Printed for T. Passenger on London Bridge," 

 are these words, " Licensed Sept. 3, 1677. Roger 

 L'Estrange." It is also entered in A Catalogue 

 of Books Continued, [by Richard Clavel] Printed 

 and Published at London in Michaelmas Term, 

 1677, in the following manner : 

 "Mathema ticks, 

 Cocker's Arithmetick, being a plain and familiar me- 

 thod sutable to the meanest capacity for the full under- 

 standing of that incomparable Art, as it is now taught by 

 the ablest School- Masters in City and Country ; com- 

 posed by Edward Cocker, late Practitioner in the Arts of 

 Writing, Arithmetick, and Engraving ; in Twelves; 

 price bound Is. 6d. Printed for T. Passenger on London 

 Bridge." 



Clavel's Catalogues appeared each term, and 

 were expressly devoted to new publications, ar- 

 ranged in classes. He has a division of " Books 

 Reprinted," in which Cockers Arithmetic would 

 certainly have appeared had it been merely a re- 

 issue of a former publication. Cocker's Compleat 

 Arithmetician, advertised by Vincent Wing in 

 1669, I take to be his Decimal Arithmetick, "to 

 which is added his Artificial Arithmetick, shewing 

 the genesis or fabric of logarithms ; and his Alge- 

 braical Arithmetick, containing the doctrine of 

 composing and resolving an equation." An edition 

 of this work was printed in 1695 ; and another, 

 which professes to have been the fourth, in 1713. 



I possess two editions of Cocker's " vulgar " 

 Arithmetic ; viz. one " printed by J. R. for T. P. 

 and are to be sold by John Back, at the Black- 

 Boy on London Bridge, 1694 ; " and the 44th 



edition, without date, but also printed on London 

 Bridge. 



I may add that the 52nd edition, improved by 

 George Fisher, and printed in 1748 is in the 

 library of the Philosophical Society at Newcastle- 

 upOn-Tyne. Edward F. Rimbault. 



Manual of Godly Prayers (2°* S. iii. 229.) —It 

 is impossible now to make out the author of this 

 Manual. It probably arose out of the primers 

 and books of hours previously in use among Ca- 

 tholics ; and it undoubtedly was the basis of the 

 Manual of later use, the chief editions of which 

 were edited by the Venerable Bishop Challoner. 

 The Prayers and Litanies in these books were 

 chiefly taken from the Paradisus Animce, Cceleste 

 Palmetum, Enchiridion Precum, and other col- 

 lections of devout prayers in common use on the 

 Continent. F. C. H. 



Sacrilege : Brasses Stolen (2"^ S. iii. 244.) — 

 As a notice of the brasses stolen from Oulton, 

 Suffolk, has appeared in " N & Q.," it may be 

 well to publish also, that in the same month two 

 very perfect brasses were stolen from Kentisbeare, 

 near Cullompton, Devon, They seem to have 

 been removed by practised hands, as there are no 

 marks of violent wrenchings; they were firmly 

 fixed, and the rivets and inscription remain. 



One is a man in armour turning his head to- 

 wards his wife ; her head-dress and whole costume 

 is that of the date 1529. They represent John 

 Whyting and Anne his wife, and are engraved in 

 the third part, vol. v., of the Exeter Architectural 

 Society's periodical, just published. The figures 

 are in height 2 feet 5 inches. H. T. Ellacombe. 



Drake Morris (2""* S. iii. 151.) — Your corre- 

 spondent Editionarius inquires about The Travels 

 of Drake Morris, Merchant in London, ^^c. I 

 have a copy of the first edition which I will be 

 happy to show him. Can any of your numerous 

 correspondents give me any account of the author 

 of the work ? Is any information about the 

 author given in the second edition to which you 

 refer ? Alex. Ireland. 



Manchester. 



Stamp Duty on Baptisms, §c. (2"'» S. iii. 206.) 

 — An act was passed in the 23rd Geo. III., which 

 provided that a duty of three pence should be 

 paid to the king upon the entry of every baptism, 

 marriage, and burial in the register of every 

 parish, &c. in the kingdom. The penalty of re- 

 fusal to pay this duty was 51. The churchwardens 

 were to provide books with stamped forms for 

 such entries, and the registrar, whether clergyman 

 or other person, was to receive two shillings in 

 the pound for the trouble of collecting the duty. 

 Under these provisions I cannot account for the 

 following heading to a Register of Baptisms and 



