34ff 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. X. N"ov. 3. '60. 



ME. REUTER AND HIS TELEGRAMS. 

 I have often asked, who is this mysterious per- 

 son ? Where is the office in which he carries 

 on his correspondence? How are his messages 

 conveyed therefi-ora to the different London 

 newspapers in the same brief words every 

 morning? Revolutions, battles, sieges, surrenders, 

 capitulations, annexations, proclamations, and so 

 forth, so that in the brief space of twenty-four 

 hours to every state in Europe events are com- 

 municated that heighten each morning's expec- 

 tation for the latest astounding intelligence, and to 

 increase our appetite for breakfast. The only 

 account I have been able to obtain (though others 

 may be more fortunate than myself) is in a letter 

 from the London correspondent of the Birming- 

 ham Jovrnal of Saturday the 6th inst. This 

 news-collector is a very entertaining original let- 

 ter-writer ; has an anecdote to tell of almost every 

 eminent native or foreigner. While Parliament is 

 sitting he is to be found in the gallery or lobby of 

 both Houses. He reports speeches at public meet- 

 ings; sometimes foretells events that are about to 

 come, as well as accurately depicting every day's 

 occurrences. 



Read what he says of Jlr. Reuter. There is no- 

 thing political in the following paragraph to ex- 

 clude it, I think, from the columns of " N. & Q.," 

 in which politics and party are very properly dis- I 

 allowed : — 



" Seeing what the truth is, perhaps one oughtn't to be | 

 quite so much astonished at the falsehood. Nor is it the \ 

 falsehood that astonishes so much as the deliberation of i 

 its concoction beforehand, the systematic order of its pre- \ 

 ])aration in readiness for long foreseen contingencies. It 

 Avould seem as if nothing can happen, or fail to happen, 

 that the suitable lie is not duly devised in anticipation, 

 docketed, and put awaj' ready for instantaneous use, just ; 

 as the late Mr. Dod, the Parliamentary' Plutarch, took 

 the lives of half the contemporary celebrities so as to be 

 in at their death. The moment that happened, he had 

 simply to prefix the date and place of demise, and to 

 the amazement of the obfuscated public, ever ' wondering ' 

 ■with a foolish face of praise,' out comes, the following 

 morning, two or three columns of necrological minutiae, 

 apparently impromptu, but, in realit}-, elaborated many i 

 months, and, in some cases, many years anteriorly. Reu- \ 

 ter has many Dods, and doubtless 'many dodgers, more or | 

 less artful, in his employ; and artful be^vond all dodgers j 

 is he who chiefly employs him, supplying him with the I 

 wherewithal for dodging all questions to an unanswerable ' 

 solution, and gagging enquirers who press their interroga- | 

 tories inconveniently close. All things are open to Reu- 

 ter, but no one asks who has supplied the key. He 

 appears to have a whole brigade of Boy Joneses always 

 Avith their ears to all royal and sacred closets, and always 

 coming down imperial and serene chimneys just in the 

 niclv of time to overhear what is going on, and what 

 isn't, the latter being the more surprising intelligence of 

 the two. He knows on the instant that a consistory of 

 cardinals has been held, and what thev did and said, and 

 what they didn't. Who told him? Who cares, as long 

 as lie tells us, and as little care our gobemouches whe- 

 ther the tidings be true or false, real or imaginary, as 



long as we have news, the one condition to its acceptabi- 

 lity being its freshness, so fresh that if the end of it con- 

 tradicts the beginning, so much the better, as proof of the 



j hot haste in which it is struck off, speed and excellence 

 being synonymous in these days. He knew, or at least 



; told us he did know, the other day, that Thouve^el, the 

 French Foreign Minister, sent his resignation to the Em- 



I peror, at Ajaccio, because of the unrebuked highwayman's 



I foray of the Sardinians into the Papal States ; but that 

 on his majesty's return to Paris the resignation was with- 

 drawn because of Imperial assurances that Nono's nobles 

 should not come to ninepence. Only the two individuals,, 

 of course, could have been aware of this delicate business. 

 Yet Reuter told it to all the world, and nobody asked 

 whence he derived the intelligence. Who pulls the 

 strings of Renter's wires ? A definite rejoinder to that 

 query would let in a tlood of sunshine on many an ophthal- 

 mic vision at this moment, and show how and why 



I feathers are drawn over the general eye for particuia'r 

 purposes, the drift whereof is the reverse of benevo- 

 lent." 



May I again inquire if any correspondent of 

 "N. & Q.," or could Mr. Editor, from his know- 

 ledge of passing events, inform me who Mr. Reu- 

 ter is, and where he can be addressed. Living in 

 retirement, with very limited social intercourse, I 

 have hitherto met with no friend who could satisfy 

 the curiosity of 



An Octogenarian Journalist. 



Worcester. 



COLLEGE POTS AND MAUDLEN CUPS. 



I am not aware of any authority that defines or 

 explains the ancient names of silver plate. At 

 the present time I am desirous to ascertain the 

 origin and meaning of the terms College Pot and 

 Maudlen Cup. 



The College Pot, I imagine, — but I beg for 

 correction if I am wrong, — was the vessel usually 

 used for drinking at the tables of our universities. 

 In the seventeenth century (and probably before,, 

 as well as after,) it was customary foi- Fellow- 

 Commoners, or Master-Commonei's as they were 

 also called, on their admission to the upper table, 

 to present a silver pot. Sir William Heyricke, in 

 1613, on sending his son to St. John's College at 

 Oxford, furnished such a cup, engraved with t!ie 

 Holy Lamb as the college badge, and an inscrip- 

 tion recording the donor's name, accompanied by 

 his shield of arms; and shortly after Williain 

 Taylor, the favoui'ite companion of William Hey- 

 ricke, the young collegian, was admitted to tho 

 same privileges on making a like offering. 



Sir William Heyricke afterwards paid, " To Mr. 

 Miller for a College Pot, 20 oz. less 3 dwt. at 

 5s. 8d. the oz. 5^. 4s. 3d." and " to Mr. Dicher 

 for graving 2 pottes 10s.;" the former payment 

 being the cost of William Taylor's pot, and the 

 latter the cost of engraving the arms and inscrl^i- 

 tion both upon that and his own son's. 



From an entry in the books of the Stationers' 

 Company, it would appear that College Pols usually 



