May 8. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



441 



reason to think the size of man was always the 

 same from the Creation ; and in a note at page 330., 

 after quoting Dr. Hakewill's Apolog. and other 

 authorities, concludes with these words : — 



" Nay, besides all this probable, we have some more 

 csrtain evidence. Augustus was five foot nine inches 

 high, which was the just measure of our famous Queen 

 Elizabeth, who exceeded his height two inches, if 

 proper allowance be made for the difference between 

 the Roman and our foot." — Vide Hake will, Apolog., 

 p. 215. 



Probably some of your learned correspondents 

 may give additional information on this interesting 

 subject. J. F. AxLEN. 



Macclesfield. 



Portrait of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peter- 

 horough. — Can any of your readers inform me if 

 there exists an original picture of Charles Mor- 

 daunt, the famous Earl of Peterborough, and 

 where such can be seen ? A Tkavelleb. 



Inscription hj Luther. — In looking at some of 

 the old books in the library of the British Museum, 

 I observed, on the fly-leaf of an old Bible, an in- 

 scription by Martin Luther, the meaning of which 

 was the following : — 



" Elijah the prophet said, the world had existed 

 2000 years before the law (from Adam to Moses) ; 

 would exist 2000 years under the Mosaic dispensation 

 (from Moses to Christ), and 2000 years under the 

 Christian dispensation; and then the world would be 

 burnt." 



The manuscript was in German and very much 

 effaced, so that I am not able to remember the 

 words, though I very well remember the meaning. 



Could any reader inform me in what part of the 

 Bible this prophecy of Elijah's is to be found ? for 

 I have searched for it in vain. C. H. M. 



" O Juvenis frustra" ^c. — I should be glad to 

 be informed, through your publication, where I 

 may find this line, — 



" O Juvenis frustra est tua Doctrina Plebs amat 

 Remedia." 



J. W. V. 



All-fours. — In Macaulay's essay on Southey's 

 edition of The PilgrinCs Progress (Longman & 

 Co., p. 184.) occurs a curious use of this expres- 

 sion : 



" The types are often inconsistent with each other ; 

 and sometimes the allegorical disguise is altogether 

 thrown off. . ... It is not easy to make a simile go 

 on all-fours. But we believe that no human ingenuity 

 could produce such a centipede as a long allegory in 

 which the correspondence between the outward sign 

 and the thing signified should be exactly preserved. 

 Certainly no writer ancient or modern has achieved the 

 adventure." 



This meaning I cannot find in Bailey's Dic- 

 tionary, and it has escaped the curious vigilance 

 of Biakie's compilers. The saying, however, is a 



very old one. Sir Edward Coke employs it {Coke 

 upon Littleton, lib. i. c. 1. sect. 1, p. 3. a.) : 



" But no simile holds in everything ; according to tlie 

 ancient saying, Nullum simile quatuor pedibus currit." ' 



There is a marginal reference here to 1 Hen. VII. 

 16. 



Perhaps some of your philological correspon- 

 dents can throw some light on the origin of the 

 phrase, or at least give me some other examples of 

 its use. Is the expression "To be on all-fours 

 with" good English ? C. Mansfield Inglebt. 



Richard, second Son of the Conqueror, is said 

 by Hume, and by some minor writers after him, to 

 have been killed by a stag in the New Forest ; but 

 William of Malmesbury and Roger of Wendover 

 both say that he died of fever, consequent on ma- 

 laria, which struck him while hunting there. This 

 is well known to be of frequent occurrence in the 

 neighbourhood of desolated human dwellings ; and 

 thus seems to involve even a more striking instance 

 of retributive justice than the fate which Hume 

 assigns to him. The fatality attending most of 

 this name in our history is singular. Of nine 

 princes (three of them kings) who have borne the 

 name of Richard, seven, or, if Hume is right, eight, 

 have died violent deaths, including four successive 

 generations of the House of York. J. S. Wakden. 



Francis Walkinghame. — Y our correspondent's 

 mention of my Arithmetical Books (Vol. v., p. 392.) 

 reminds me of a Query which I made in it, and 

 which has never obtained the slightest answer — 

 Who was Francis AValkinghame, and when was 

 his work on arithmetic first published ? The ear- 

 liest edition I know of is the twenty- third, in 1787 ; 

 but I am told, on good authority, that Mr. Douce 

 had the sixteenth edition of 1779. 



A. De IfoRGAN. 



Optical Phenomenon. — I shall be much obliged 

 to anybody who will explain a phenomenon which 

 I have observed. 



Suppose 1. A street from twenty to thirty feet 

 broad. 



2. At the open window of a house on one side 

 stands a man looking at the corresponding window 

 of the house on the opposite side ; that is, he looks 

 at what was a window, but is now filled up with a 

 large board that is covered with an inscription of 

 short lines, black on white; in short, just such a 

 board as one sees at a turnplice gate. 



3. From shortness, or defect, of sight (I cannot 

 say which), the man is unable to read the Inscrip- 

 tion as he stands at his window. 



4. He sits down on a low seat, so as to bring his 

 eye almost close to, and just on a level with, the 

 sill of his own window. He then slowly raises and 

 depi'esses his head. As he does this, it of course 

 appears to him as if his own window-sill travelled 

 up and down the board opposite. 



