458 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 75., June 6. '57. 



corn in Egypt called doora by the natives, which 

 grows in the form of a pine cone on a strong foot- 

 stalk from 10 to 14 feet high, which yields about 

 1400 to 1500 fold; such being the number of 

 grains in each ear. Might it not be cultivated in 

 this country ? The grain resembles hulled barley 

 as prepared for culinary purposes. It is the grain 

 generally used by the natives for bread. R. G. 



IfOTES ON BOOKS, RECENT BOOK SALES, ETC. 



Messrs. Washbourne have just issued a new and nicely 

 got-up edition of that beautiful piece of biography for 

 which we are indebted to Izaak Walton. It is accom- 

 panied by a Memoir of Walton by William Dowling, Esq., 

 of the Inner Temple. To this, of course, we looked with 

 some anxiety; and although Mr. Dowling has made the 

 best use of the labours of preceding biographers, especially 

 of those of that pains- taking editor, Sir Harris Nicolas, 

 we are somewhat disappointed in finding that nothing 

 more has been discovered of the worthy Piscator before 

 he settled in Fleet Street in 1624; or during the time he 

 resided in Clerkenwell, between 1650 and 1661, where he 

 was living on the first appearance of The Complete Angler. 

 We are left, also, as much as ever in the dark respect- 

 ing the identity of John Chalkhill, the author of 

 Thealma [not Thealina, p. xxxix.] and Clearchus. The 

 book is so popular, and deservedly so, that we notice the 

 following omissions for the benefit of the next editor. 

 The paragraph relating to Bishop Morton, in the Life of 

 Dr. Donne, p. 18., was added by Walton in the second 

 edition ; consequently, the date should be 1658 (not 1648). 

 At p. 61. Walton states that the anchor seal was adopted 

 by Donne, " not long before his death ; " whereas it was 

 first used by him at his ordination, as shown by Mr. 

 Kempe in The Loseley Manuscripts. At pp. 178. 181. the 

 father and uncle of Richard Hooker should have had a 

 note : they have both been identified. The same may be 

 said of the second husband of George Herbert's mother. 

 Sir John Danvers (p. 284.), whose name is not even men- 

 tioned. As the place Walton calls Minal (p. 315.), where 

 Curie had a better parsonage, is not to be found in any 

 topographical work, it would be as well to add a note to 

 inform the reader that it is Mildenhall, near Marlborough. 

 Nothing shows more clearly how strong is the love of 

 nature and natural objects implanted in the heart of every 

 one, than the advantage which has everywhere been taken 

 of Mr. Ward's discovery of the Wardean case, and Mr. 

 Warrington's carrying out the same principle in The 

 Aquarium. What house however lordly, what home 

 however lowly, does not exhibit now some evidence of 

 this good taste. Mr. Lovell Reeve has done something, 

 too, to foster it, by the publication of his carefully pre- 

 pared and nicely illustrated series of popular Treatises. 

 Two of these have just been issued. One, Popular Green- 

 house Botany, containing a familiar and technical De- 

 scription of a Selection of the Exotic Plants introduced into 

 the Greenhouse, is from the practised pen of Miss Catlow. 

 The second, which just now is probably destined to be 

 the more popular of the two, is Popular History of the 

 Aquarium of Marine and Freshwater Animals and Plants, 

 by G. B. Sowerby, F.L.S. Mr. Sowerby's work is sci- 

 entific as well as popular, and will be of especial value to 

 those who possess marine aquaria in guiding them to 

 accurate observations of the functions and habits of their 

 inhabitants. 



On Tuesday, the 26th ultuno, the sale of the valuable 



copyrights of the late Henry Colburn, the eminent pub- 

 lisher, was concluded by Messrs. Southgate & Barrett, of 

 Fleet Street. There were only seven, but these formed the 

 most valuable of the copyrights. 1. The Crescent and the 

 Cross : Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel, by Eliot 

 Warburton, 1 vol. post 8vo., 13th edition. The copyright 

 with the stereotype-plates, and the remaining stock of 

 780 copies. 420 guineas for the copyright and 58/. 10s. 

 for the stock. This was bought by Messrs. Hurst & 

 Blackett. 2. The Diary and Correspondence of John 

 Evelyn, edited, with additions from the original MSS., 

 new notes, and preface, by John Forster, Esq., 4 vols, 

 post 8vo. Portraits and ample index, 1857. The copy- 

 right and entire remaining stock of 750 copies. Vol. I. and 

 II., now in the press, 57 copies in quires and cloth, and 

 500 copies, Vols. III. and IV. This celebrated diary was 

 originally published in 1818; but when the edition pre- 

 ceding the present appeared in 1849, the additional term 

 of extension under the New Copyright Act was secured, 

 and so many insertions of new matter from the original 

 manuscripts have been made that these last two editions 

 may be considered as substantially a new copyright. 

 110/. for the copyright (having only 2^ years to run), 

 and 350/. for the stock. Bought by Bohn. 3. The Diary 

 and Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Ad- 

 miralty in the Reigns of Charles II. and James II., with 

 Life and Notes by Lord Braybrooke, 5th edition, 4 vols. ; 

 the copyright and remaining stock, viz. 344 copies demy 

 8vo., and 402 copies post 8vo. In this edition numerous 

 passages, the most characteristic of the writer, which 

 were suppressed in the original edition, have been re- 

 stored. These amount in quantity to not less than one- 

 fourth of the entire work; portraits and illustrations, 

 1854. The date of the original publication of Pepys was 

 1825; but when the fourth edition was brought out, in 

 1848, additional terms of extension under the New Copy- 

 right Act. were obtained; but independently of this the 

 large access of perfectly new and unpublished matter in 

 this edition (a fourth of the whole work) constituted sub- 

 stantially an entirely new copyright. '310/. for the copy- 

 right (which originally cost Mr. Colburn 2,200/.), and 

 500/. for the stock. This was also bought by Mr. Bohn. 

 4. Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England from 

 the Norman Conquest. 4th edition, embellished with por- 

 traits of every Queen; 8 vols., 1854. The copyright, 

 with the stereotvpe and steel plates, and remaining stock 

 of 96 complete sets, and 1,050 of the later volumes. This 

 valuable copyright is secured by agreements. The pur- 

 chaser to have the option, to be exercised within seven 

 days, of taking, or not, the benefit of the clause in the 

 agreements providing for an abridgment of the work to 

 be executed by Miss Strickland for the use of schools, &c. 

 This abridgment has been made, and is now ready for 

 press; the price to be settled by reference, Mr. Charles 

 Dickens having been named as umpire. Put up at 

 1,000/., and, after a spirited competition, finally knocked 

 down for the sum of 6,900/. for the copyright and 

 227/. 5s. for the stock. The original copyright cost Mr. 

 Colburn 2,000. (This lot is said to have been bought 

 in.) 5, 6, and 7. Sir Bernard Burke's Genealogical and 

 Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of 

 the British Empire ; nineteenth edition, 1857. The copy- 

 right, with the stereotype plates, and the remaining 

 stock of 125 copies. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dic- 

 tionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ire- 

 land (Companion to the Peerage), by Sir Bernard Burke, 

 Ulster King of Arms. Parts I. II. and III. ; Part IV. 

 (completing the work) to be published in June, 18o7. 

 The copyright, with the stereotype plates and remaining 

 stock. The copyright in these works is secured by several 

 deeds'. These provide for the future editions, subject to 

 the payment of 400/. a-year, so long as the editions are 



