13S 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»"i S. YIII. Aug. 13. '59. 



was water, small beer, and cider. Living mostly 

 on bread and milk for forty years before his death, 

 he did not eat any animal food. Such was his 

 uniform health, that before 1801 he had never 

 consulted a physician, and it is not known that 

 he consulted one afterwards. (Cf. Wm. Allen's 

 American Biographical and Historical Dictionary, 

 2nd edit. Boston (U. S.), 1832, p. 656, 7.) D. B. 

 18. Regent Square. 



Encaustic Paintings at Pompeii (2"'* S. viii. 89.) 

 — A. A. (Poets' Corner), after some excellent ob- 

 servations on the encaustic and pseudo- encaustic 

 paintings at Pompeii, as he conceives, and with 

 great probability, inquires, " Can any of your 

 readers afford information on this curious sub- 

 ject?" If he has not already seen it, and will 

 refer to " N. & Q." (2'^'^ S. vii. 254.), he will find 

 an article " On Encaustic Painting," with the re- 

 sults of many experiments both ancient and 

 modern. Philotechnon Londinensis. 



Irish Scutch Mills (2"'' S. viii. 88.) — Your cor- 

 respondent Abhba may feel an interest in the 

 following account of the MS. of" Front Views of 

 Mills," &c., now in his possession. The author, 

 Peter Besnard, was descended from a Huguenot 

 family who settled in Cork about the commence- 

 ment of the last century. Shortly after they ap- 

 pear to have established a hemp manufactory at 

 Doughlas in the south liberties of the city, to 

 which, before the close of the century, was added 

 a linen factory, at that time the most extensive in 

 this part of Ireland. Mr. Besnard's intimate 

 knowledge of this branch of trade procured for 

 him the appointment of Inspector General to the 

 Linen Board of Ireland for the provinces of Mun- 

 ster, Leinster, and Connaught : the duties of this 

 office caused his absence from home for at least 

 ten months of the year. Some lime before the 

 date of the MS. in question, Mr. Besnard's notice 

 was called to a lad named John Harty, who was 

 educated in the Foundling Hospital at Cork, and 

 who exhibited a remarkable skill in drawing, 

 though he never received any instruction in the 

 art. This lad Mr. Besnard employed in the capa- 

 city of a clerk to accompany him on his yearly 

 tour of inspection, during which the materials 

 were c6llected and subsequently embodied in the 

 MS., which is altogether the work of John Harty. 

 In 1820 Mr. Besnard was appointed by the same 

 Board to proceed on a deputation to Holland, for 

 the purpose of inducing some Dutchmen to visit 

 Ireland, with a view to instruct the inhabitants 

 how to save the seed of hemp, &c. For heretofore 

 it was customary to deposit the seed with the stalk 

 during the process of decomposition, so that the 

 seed had to be imported. Mr. Besnard's mission 

 was attended with success ; he returned with two 

 intelligent Dutch agriculturists named Booz and 

 Lindoch : the former returned to his native coun- 



try, the latter died in the co. Tipperary, and was 

 buried at the abbey of the Holy Cross, where a 

 neat monument marks the stranger's grave. Peter 

 Besnard was sheriff of Cork in 1804, and filled the 

 office of mayor in 1835. The above narrative I 

 had from his son John Besnard, Jun., J. P., who 

 was well acquainted with both the MS. and its 

 writer. To this intelligent magistrate's zeal and 

 energy the city of Cork is indebted fcr a Police 

 Court, which, for architectural beauty and inter- 

 nal arrangements, is not to be equalled in the 

 kingdom. I may also mention that Mr. John 

 Besnard has in his possession many books con- 

 nected with the linen trade in the south of Ireland, 

 and I am quite certain that he will feel great 

 pleasure in giving any information in his power. 



li. C. 

 Cork. 



Bull and Bear of the Stock Exchange (2"^ S. 

 vii. passim, viii. 79.) — Invited by your corre- 

 spondent A. A. to continue this subject, I beg to 

 offer a few remarks in reply to his last communi- 

 cation. 



The question is now " when were these terms 

 generally current beyond the precincts of the 

 Stock Exchange ? " 



On this head I am not prepared to offer an 

 opinion, but I can show that your correspondent 

 is mistaken in supposing they were unknown to 

 Foote, — an inference he rather hastily, I think, 

 draws from the fact that the quibble he suggests 

 is not to be found in the Mayor of Garratt. 



In the prologue to the Maid of Bath, written 

 by Garrick, and spoken by Foote, are these lines : — 



"Nay even 'Change Alley, where no bard repairs, 

 Deals much in fiction to pass off their wares, 

 For whence the roaring there ? — from Bulls and 



Bears. 

 The gaming fools are doves, the knaves are rooks*, 

 'Change Alley bankrupts waddle out lame ducks. 

 But ladies blame not you your gaming spouses, 

 For you, as well as they, have pigeon houses." 



The words, I apprehend, made their way gradu- 

 ally into use : but, to have furnished matter for a 

 prologue, addressed to so miscellaneous an as- 

 sembly as the audience of a theatre, the allusion 

 must have been perfectly familiar in 1771, when 

 the Maid of Bath was produced. 



Charles Wylib. 



Smoking Anecdote (2"'^ S. viii. 107.) — The 

 anecdote furnished by your correspondent, ex- 

 tracted from the French Anas, Chevrceana (ii. 

 p. 51.), is similar to one related of the celebrated 

 Bishop Burnet by the Kev. Mark Noble, in his 

 Biographical History of England (i. 84.) : — 



" Dr. Burnet was extravagantly fond of tobacco and 

 writing; to enjoy both at the same time he perforated 



* Variation. " The gambling fools are /jjj'eons, knaves 

 are rooks." — Foote's Works, 1830, vol. iii. 



