2»4 S. X. Sbp*. 29. '60.], 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



249 



quiry. Paracelsus has zinetum : but whence comes 

 Wie hard c ? When was the name introduced into 

 England ? Horace Walpole, in his correspond- 

 ence, inquires after a metal called ziiico. Is it 

 possible that the name was given by those who 

 first saw the metal in the hands of gipsies (Zin- 

 gari) ? These people were notable as tinkers, 

 and may have used it as solder. A. De Morgan. 



Parry's " Parliaments and Councils of Eng- 

 land." — In the Preface to this valuable work, 

 published in 1839, the author promised a second 

 volume, from the Revolution to the passing of the 

 Reform Bill. Can any of your readers inform me 

 whether such a work has been published? or 

 whether any use has been made of the materials 

 which the late Mr. C. H. Parry had collected ? 



Querist. 



The Connoisieur. — "Who is author of 



" The Connoisieur, or Modern Fashions, a Comedy in 

 Three Acts. By a Gentleman. Acted at Elgin, 27 Feb. 

 1818. Printed by W. Ettles, Inverness, 1818"? 



The play is dedicated to Miss Dunbar of North- 

 field. R. Inglis. 



Going up Johnson's End. — I have frequently 

 heard it said, in Worcestershire, when a man has 

 become very poor : " He is gone up Johnson's 

 end." Can anyone give a clue to the origin of 

 this proverbial saying ? Cuthbert Bede. 



Village Greens. — There is one thing about 

 village greens that has often puzzled me. One 

 remarks in many secluded villages and hamlets 

 that the bulk of the cottages occupied by the 

 labouring population of the parish stand at in- 

 tervals round a "green," whether of less or of 

 greater extent, and that on this " green " there is 

 almost invariably a growth of rushes, even if no 

 rushes besides are visible in the neighbourhood. 

 How are we to explain the so frequent selection of 

 this peculiar kind of site ? Have the rushes any- 

 thing to do with it ? Paul Pry. 



Minories, Sept. 15, 1860. 



[Our observing correspondent may perhaps have also 

 remarked, in his country peregrinations, that the rush- 

 bearing " green " is generlUy a poor, cold soil, yielding 

 but scanty herbage. And it might be deemed, ou a 

 superficial view, a sufficient reply to his Query, if we 

 were to suggest that probably the locality in question, 

 not being considered likely to pay for cultivation, was in 

 former days left unappropriated, and so, becoming com- 

 mon land', furnished to the labouring poor a convenient 

 site, where they were free not only to erect their humble 

 dwellings, but to graze their donkeys, turn out their pigs, 

 and feed their geese. 



But our correspondent may have also observed that the 

 rushes indicate not merely poverty of soil, but the pre- 

 sence of moisture, which moisture, the locality remaining 

 imdrained, may be detected by a shallow pond, almost 



always discoverable somewhere on the surface of the 

 village green. This pond yields the needful supply of 

 water, which, except to those who have pumps or draw- 

 wells of their own, is in many parishes no very accessible 

 commodity. This supply of water— at least so we have 

 been led to conclude after some observation — is probably 

 07ie of the determining causes which have clustered the 

 poor upon such spots; even though pond-water is not 

 such as one would drink by preference, and though the 

 site is not always the most salubrious. 



Not long since, crossing the village green in a morning 

 ramble with the excellent pastor of a rural parish, we 

 cast our eyes around in search of the " inevitable " pond; 

 and, having discovered it as we expected, we ventured to 

 promulgate our aquatic theory. " But," said the worthy 

 rector, "in most summers the pond dries up;" — a fact 

 which certainly seemed damaging to our hj'pothesis. It 

 came out, however, in the course of conversation, that a 

 few summers previously, when the population of the 

 green had suiFered more than the usual inconvenience 

 from the exhaustion of the pond, it was determined to 

 try the experiment of digging a well, when excellent 

 water was reached at the depth of only a few feet, and 

 proved a great blessing. (The rector left us to find out 

 afterwards from others that it was he himself who sunk 

 the well.) Whether the result favours our theory or not, 

 perhaps it may induce some good Christian to try the 

 same experiment for the benefit of some other village 

 green, where the surface-water is scant or bad.] 



Photozincographed Records, etc. — Through 

 the courtesy of Col. Sir H. James, R.E., under 

 whose superintendence it was executed, I have a 

 copy, taken by photozincography, of a record re- 

 lating to Chedgrave and Langley (Chetagraue 

 and Lengel'), Norfolk. It seems a very valuable 

 process for making facsimiles of ancient deeds, &c., 

 but I have not seen any account of the process. 

 Have any other documents been copied in this 

 way for sale? and if so, where are they to be 

 purchased ? E. G. R. 



[Col. Sir H. James has published the result of his ex- 

 perience in photozincography in a small pamphlet, which 

 will be sent by Forbes and Bennett, Booksellers, of 

 Southampton, in return for seveti penny stamps. 



In the early daj's of photography — before the Art had 

 a Journal of its own — we did not hesitate to devote con- 

 siderable attention to it in these columns, in opposition, 

 unfortunately, to the wishes of many of our readers, be- 

 cause we felt that it was destined to be of the greatest 

 service to Archaeology, Art, and Literature. That we 

 were justified in the course we adopted and in the results 

 which we anticipated, one sentence from Col. James's last 

 Report of the Progress of the Ordnance Survey and Topo- 

 graphical Depot will clearly prove. Speaking of the 

 practice alluded to by our correspondent. Sir Henry says, 

 " From the perfect manner in which we are able to trans- 

 fer the impressions to zinc, we can, if required, print any 

 number of faithful copies of the ancient records of the 

 kingdom, such as Doomsday Book, the Pipe Rolls, Sec, at 

 a comparatively speaking trifling cost." The importance 

 of this discovery, and the influence which it is destined to 

 exercise hereafter in every department of historical and 

 antiquarian learning, it is impossible to overrate.] 



GOUGH AND PaTON CORRESPONDENCE. — AmOng 



a collection of prospectuses of intended publi- 

 cations, I find one issued some twenty years ago 

 by a gentleman of the name of TurnbuU, in Edin- 



