306 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"d S. No G^., Ai'iilL 18. '67. 



like happened in our daj's, in the person of a player 

 buried at Cambridge. I have heard also of a physician 

 yet living, who recovered a man to life which had hanged 

 nimself, and had hanged half an hour, by frications and hot 

 baths ; and the same physician did profess that he made 

 no doubt to recover any man that had hanged so long, 

 80 his neck were not broken with the first swing." — Bacon, 

 Jnstaur. 3rd Pt. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



Shuttlecock, an Aristocratic Game. — 



" The play at shuttlecock is become so much in request 

 at Court, that the making shuttlecockes is almost growne 

 a trade in London — praestat otiosu esse qua nihil agere." 

 — MS. Diary, 1601-2. 



Cii. Hopper. 



Derivation of the Word " Cotton" — Webster 

 thinks it probable that this word is derived from 

 an Arabic word Kotun, signifying thin or fine. 



It seems, however, not improbable that the 

 word cotton, as used in the west of Europe, may 

 be derived from the Latin word cotoneum, a 

 quince ; to which, in respect of size, the elder 

 Pliny (xii. 21.) compares the fruit or gourds (cm- 

 curbita) of the cotton tree. After his day coto- 

 neum may possibly have become the current name 

 for the calyx ; and, in lapse of time, for the sub- 

 stance which it contained. Henry T. Riley. 



Wood^s ^'■History of Oxford." — In the library 

 of the Philosophical Society of Newcastle-on-Tyne 

 is a copy of Wood's Historia et Antiquitates Uni- 

 versitatis Oxoniensis, foL, Oxonii, 1674, on the 

 title-page of which are the following MS. notes : 

 " E libris Thoraae Robinson, A.M., Rectoris de 

 WiclifFe, 1736 ;" and in the same handwriting — 



" Cum notulis manuscriptis Viri Reverendi Guil. 

 Smithii, A.M., aliquandiu Collegii Universitatis Oxon. 

 Senioris Socii, et posted Ecclesiaj de Melsonby in Agro 

 Eboracensi Rectoris." 



The above volume is filled with notes, correc- 

 tions, and additions, written on the wide margins 

 and on inserted leaves, which might be very use- 

 ful and interesting to some of your Oxford corre- 

 spondents. W. C. Trevelyan. 



Wallington. 



P.S. At the end of the above volume is in- 

 serted a broad sheet, probably seldom to be met 

 with, containing — 



" A Description of the Painting of the Theater in Ox- 

 ford. Printed by Leon Lichfield, a.d. 1674." 



Marriage Certificate of the Period of the Com- 

 monwealth. — I lately found among the papers of 

 a deceased baronet, the following certificate of 

 marriage ; and as I am informed by an eminent 

 antiquary that it is very curious, he never having 

 seen a similar one, it may be worthy of preserva- 

 tion in the pages of " N. & Q. : " 



" Fforasmuch as I, having receiued a Certificatt of 

 the date of the xiij"* of this moonth, under the hand and 

 seale of Owen Perkin, Gent, Register of the consohdated 



churches of Mathrj', that Publicacon was made of an in- 

 tencon of marriage three lord's days thenbefore in the 

 said parish church between Phillip Harry and Ann Harry, 

 if not any thing objected to the contrary'. These are there- 

 fore at the desire of the said parties to certify all whome 

 it may concern, that according to the Act of Parliament 

 for marriages, the said Phillip and Anne this present day 

 came before me, and taking each other by the hand did 

 plainly and distinctly pronounce the words in the said 

 Act? mencoed to be pronounced by them, And thereupon, 

 according to the said Acte, I pronounced them to be 

 husband and wife. Given under my hand and seale the 

 ifourteenth day of July, 1655. 



« Thomas Davis." 



This form could not have differed much from 

 that in use among Dissenters in the present day. 

 John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



A Novel Game of Chess. — A letter from 

 Hanover in a recent number of ie Nord describes 

 a grand fancy dress ball given in the Theatre 

 Royal by Count Platen, Minister of Foreign 

 Aflairs. The proceedings commenced by a pro- 

 cession of living chessmen, the whole of the pieces 

 magnificently dressed. After the procession the 

 pieces took up a position on a gigantic chess-board 

 prepared for the occasion, and two magicians then 

 played a game which excited great interest and 

 amusement. After the match dances illustrative 

 of all countries and classes of population ensued. 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Rubbings of Monumental Brasses. — I shall be 

 very happy to rub any of the brasses in this 

 county, or in Norfolk or Suffolk, for any of the 

 correspondents of " N. & Q." 



My own collection is confined to Cambridgeshire, 

 Norfolk, and Suffolk ; and, therefore, I shall be 

 only too glad to rub any of the brasses in this 

 neighbourhood in exchange for others which I 

 have not the chance of getting at. K. K. K. 



St. John's Coll., Cambridge. 



Weathercocks. — I shall feel greatly obliged if 

 some of your correspondents will inform me, 1. 

 When weathercocks first began to be used ? 2. 

 Under what circumstances, and for what purpose ? 

 3. What was the original shape ? and 4. Why the 

 figure of the cock, hare, greyhound, and arrow, so 

 generally prevail ? 



Any other information tending to throw light 

 on the various shapes and representations adopted 

 in the vanes of the present day, will be very ac- 

 ceptable and interesting. L. A. 



Hull. 



The Old Court Suburb. — I am not aware that 

 any of the various authors who have written about 

 Kensington notice the residence of royalty there 



