58 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. X. July 21. '60. 



on the manner of writing among the Romans, and 

 on their vai'ious materials ; it may be, however, 

 permitted to refer to Suetonius, Nero, 17., where 

 Cera evidently means a waxed page of a tabula. 

 I can find no mention or allusion to graphite or 

 plumbago in Pliny or any other classic author. 

 It is in fact a very rare mineral, and chiefly found 

 in England. As S. B.'s question is very in- 

 teresting, I will cite a passage which will prove 

 it to have been in use at any rate about the time 

 of James I. It is in Ben Jonson's JSpicoene, v. 1. 

 Mavis asks for pen and ink to write ; Sir John 

 Daw offers his box of instruments. Clerimont, 

 who through the play sneers at his pedantic fop- 



Eing, asks if they are surgeojis instruments ; and 

 la Foole answers, — " No, for the mathematicks, 

 his square, his compasses, his brass pens, and 

 black lead to draw maps^ Can any of your 

 readers direct me to an earlier mention, or inform 

 me why a lead pencil is ^^called in Scotland a 

 Kylevine pen ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



To CALL A Spade a Spade (P' S. iv. 274. 

 456. ; 2"^ S. ii. 26. 120. ; iii. 474.)— To the illus- 

 trations of this phrase which have already been 

 collected, the following may be added. Erasmus, 

 in his Adagia (ed. Elzevir, p. 369.), citing the 

 Latin saying, 



" Ficus ficus, ligonem ligoneni vocat " 

 and its Greek equivalent 



" To. (TVKa crvKa, 1!r\v (rKa<^i)f crKa^ifv kiyuiv " 



refers to Aristophanes for the original idea, and 

 adds 



" Nam ego, queraadmodum ait Comicus, rusticanus 

 sum, et ligonem ligonem appello." 



These passages were doubtless in the mind of 

 Rabelais when he wrote 



" Nous sommes simples gents, puisqu'il plaist h, Dieu ; 

 et (appellons les figues figues, les prunes prunes, et les 

 poires poires." — Pantagruel, liv. iv. chap, liv., 



and suggested to Boileau the formula by means 

 of which, employed in a distich, the simplicity and 

 tei'seness of which has rendered it proverbial, he 

 has conferred on the name of Charles Rolet, — the 

 ume damnee of the palace, the Vollichon of the 

 Roman Bourgeois of Furetiere, — an unenviable 

 immortality : — 



" Je ne puis rien nommer, si ce n'est par son nom ; 

 J'appelle un chat un chat, et Rolet un fripon." 



Sat. i. 

 William Bates. 

 Edgbaston. 



College Salting (2"* S. x. 10.) — As an 

 addendum to the interesting communications you 

 have at various times inserted on this subject, I 

 send you an extract from a " Fragment of Auto- 

 biography, 1637 — 9," recently published in the 

 Shaftesbury Papers by Mr. Christie (Murray), 



showing how the famous Earl put an end to the 

 practice of " tucking a freshman " at Exeter Col- 

 lege, Oxford. It had been 



" a foolish custom of great antiquity that one of the 

 seniors in the evening called the freshmen (which are 

 such as came since that time tv.'elvemonth) to the fire, 

 and made them hold out their chin, and they with the 

 nail of their right thumb, left long for that purpose, 

 grate off all the skin from the lip to the chin, and then 

 cause them to drink a beer glass of water and salt. The 

 time approaching when I should be thus used, I con- 

 sidered that it had happened in that year more and 

 lustier young gentlemen had come to the college than 

 had done in several years before, so that the freshmen 

 were a very strong body. Upon this I consulted my 

 two cousin-germans, my aunt's sons, both freshmen, both 

 stout and very strong, and several others, and at last the 

 whole party were cheerfully engaged to stand stoutly in 

 defence of their chins. .We all appeared at the fires in 

 the hall, and my Lord Pembroke's son, calling me first, 

 as we knew by custom it would begin with me, I ac- 

 cording to agreement gave the signal, striking him a 

 box on the ear, and immediately the freshmen fell on, 

 and we easily cleared the buttery and the hall, but 

 bachelors and young masters coming in to assist the 

 seniors, we were compelled to xetreat to a ground floor 

 chamber in the quadrangle." 



I will not proceed with the battle, which re- 

 sulted in the triumph of the freshmen, and the 

 " utter abolition in that college of that foolish 

 custom." D. S. 



Westminster Hall (2"^ S, ix. 463. 513.) — 

 About five-and-thirty years ago, some very care- 

 ful admeasurements of this noble building were 

 made under the able direction of the elder Pugin, 

 the results of which were these following : — 



Internal Dimensions. 



Extreme length .... 238 ft. 8 in. 



Breadth at the south end - - - 68 



Breadth at the north end - - - 67 1 



Height of walls to the wall plate - 42 



External Dimensions. 



(The walls are 10 ft. 4 in. thick.) 



Length of the hall - - - - 259 ft. 4 in. 



The towers at the north end project bej'ond the north 



wall, 20 ft. 4 in., making the extreme length, 279 ft. 8 in. 



The breadth of the hall varies from 87 ft. 9 in. to 88 ft. 



8 in. 



The flying buttresses on the east and west sides 

 are not placed at regular distances from the walls, 

 nor are they themselves of equal dimensions. The 

 six on the west are placed, on an average, 18 ft. 

 3 in, from the wall, and are 13 ft. long, more or 

 less ; making the whole projection on the west 

 side about 31 ft. 3 in. 



Only three buttresses remain on the east side : 

 these are set closer to the wall, being about 10 ft. 



9 in. therefrom, but are of the same average length 

 as those on the west side. 



The whole building, therefore, extends in breadth 

 about 144 ft. (The buttresses are, for the most 

 part, concealed by the law courts and other build- 

 ings abutting upon them.) 



