278 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'»'i S. X. Oct. 6. '&0. 



Kent ARCHiEOLOGicAL and Naturalist So- 

 ciety (2°* S. X. 154. 189.) — The only member, I 

 believe, now alive of this society is Wm. Grafter, 

 Esq;, who for many years was chief clerk of Til- 

 bury and Gravesend forts. He is very aged and 

 very infirm. I believe the society was founded 

 about 1790. I know that its meetings were held 

 at the Leather Bottle, Northfleet, for the founder 

 told me so. One of the publications was the 

 Charter of the Gravesend Corporation, which I 

 have — that is to say, the members subscribed 

 together for its printing. The printing of this 

 Charter gave great offence to Mr. Cruden and 

 the close corporation of that epoch ; and Pocock 

 told me, that the corporation took all their busi- 

 ness from him, and ruined him for this heinous 

 offence ! The society embraced geology, and par- 

 ticularly turned their attention to the collection of 

 fossils from the chalk in the adjoining chalk-pits, 

 where then dwelt a peculiar race of men, whose 

 trade was knapping flints, i. e. making gun-flints. 

 As Mr. Pocock was a contributor to the Oentle- 

 man's Magazine, I think it not improbable that 

 notices of the society will be found in that peri- 

 odical. I know that I have seen notices of its 

 meetings in some publication. 



AlTBED J. DUNKIN. 



Bullokar's Bbef Grammar (S""* S. ix. 223.) — 

 This BuUocar — so Watt spells his name — was 

 not so much a grammarian as a phonetic ; one of 

 those who think with Bishop AVilkins that our 

 spelling is an appendix to the curse of Babel. 

 Watt gives the titles of his works ; and it should 

 seem that his "Abbreviation of Grammar," as 

 Watt calls it, is only an abridgment of his " Book 

 at Large for the amendment of orthography," I 

 cite the following from a communication of mine 

 to the Athenceum eleven years since : — 



« A little more than two hundred years ago a phonetic 

 alphabet was contrived, types were cut, and books were 

 printed. Of these I have seen only one: 'The Princi- 

 ples of Musik' by Charls Butler, M.A. 1636, 4to. This 

 book tells one thing which it might be difficult to esta- 

 blish by perfectly direct evidence otherwise: viz., that 

 ch (hard), ph, gh, and wh (for which single symbols 

 appear) were existent as separate sounds. The phonetics 

 of our day throw fisic to the dogs as long as they can : 

 but Charles Butler would have been more effective ; he 

 would have pronounced phisik with such an utterance of 

 the ph as would have combined wind and thunder. Per- 

 haps Butler was a follower of Alex. Gill, whose ' Logono- 

 mia Anglica,' an attempt at reformation, was published in 

 1621. There had been a previous attempt by Wm. Bul- 

 lokar, in 1580, of which the author found it necessary 

 to say in his title-page, ' the speech not changed, as some 

 untruly and maliciously, or at the least, ignorantly blowe 

 abroad.' Watt gives one of his works as follows: — 

 « Aesop's fables in tru Ortographj', with Grammar Notz. 

 Herunto ar also cojoined the shorte sentencez of the 

 wyz Cato, imprinted with lyke form and order : both of 

 which authorz are translated out of Latin intoo English. 

 1585.' Here it may be observed that ph is distinguished 

 from f and wh from w. 



" Peter Kamus attempted a new orthography for the 



French language ; which even in his day was described 

 as full of idle letters, and yet in some respects poor to 

 beggary, never consistent with itself, and rarely with 

 reason. But he had no success. No more had Chilperic 

 before him, if it be true that he attempted by an edict 

 and penalties to introduce the sounds of the Greek letters 

 ^, X. <^, f. >A into writing." 



A. De Morgan. 

 Marsh Gate (2°^ S. x. 247.) — Marsh Gate, as 

 stated by A. P. M., was situated at the entrance 

 to Richmond from East Sheen, and was the limit 

 in the above direction of the " Southwark Penny 

 Post'-' from the metropolis. See the Court Ca- 

 lendar for 1792, p. 197. A large house, which, 

 afterwards became the property of Wm. John, 

 Marquis of Lothian, one of the sixteen Scots 

 peers, had been the rendezvous of noblemen and 

 gentlemen for the purpose of play in the time 

 of Pope, Thomson, and Horace Walpole : and 

 Thomson, in one of his letters, laments the vicious 

 practices of the persons assembled there. The 

 widow of Knapton the bookseller had a house, No. 

 3. Maid of Honour Row, Richmond Green, and 

 died there at the close of the last century. 2. 2. 



Toby Song ('2'>d S. x. 235.) — The historian of 

 our time will have to notice that in the years fol- 

 lowing 1 820 this song usually followed the toast of 

 " The Church." This was in the time of strong 

 party feeling, when the leading Whig peers, the 

 most aristocratic of mankind, used to attend din- 

 ners at which \hQ first toast was "The People, the 

 only true source of legitimate power." The pre- 

 cedence here given to the People over the King 

 furnished the real point of play on words, which 

 was admirable of its kind, the reading given by 

 the John Bull newspaper of Lord Brougham's 

 motto, " Pro rege, lege, grege." I remember that 

 there were sarcastic remarks from the other side 

 about the bottle song being coupled with the 

 church. M. 



Is a stanza from the good old loyal song " With 

 a jolly full battle let each man," &c., which at Tory 

 gatherings is often sung after the toast "The 

 Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese." The Editor 

 will have no difficulty in finding it any general 

 collection of songs. The correct words are 



" Here's a health to the King, 

 The Church, and the State, 

 May," &c. 



C.P.J. 



Transfer of Land (2"^^ S. x. 190.)-- 1 am 

 unacquainted with the nature of the Register of 

 Sasines in Scotland, mentioned by your corre- 

 spondent ; but I may say that there is no register 

 known to the English law'showing the transfer of 

 land with the exception of the register of wills at 

 the present Court of Probate, representing the 

 testamentary jurisdiction of the old ecclesiastical 

 courts, and of the Court rolls' of manors, which 

 contain a notice of every transmission of copyhold 



