118 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nds. N0 32.J Aug. 9. '56. 



Aristotle's Logic (2"'» S. ii. 81, 82.) — Tliere is 

 an edition of Aristotle's Organon in two volumes 

 bj Theod. Waitz, Ph. Dr., Lipsise, Hahnii, 1844 

 — 46. It contains the Greek Testament, with 

 various readings at the foot of the page ; and at 

 the end of each treatise are some Latin notes. 



H. A. C. 



Aristotle's Proverbs (2"'^ S. ii. 48.) — Diogenes 

 Laertius, in his Catalogue of Aristotle's writings, 

 mentions a Book of Proverbs. Zeus. 



Benjamin Franklin (2"'' S. ii. 76.) — For the 

 sake of accuracy I may be permitted through the 

 editor's indulgence to correct an error into which 

 I have fallen by trusting too much to memory, in 

 stating Franklin to have been " the minister pleni- 

 potentiary from the American Congress to the 

 court of London," in 1779, instead of to the 

 court of France ; and to atone for this mistake I 

 shall give an amusing extract from the French 

 Louse (formerly quoted), depicting the philosopher 

 at this important time of his political career : 



"In order better to observe him (says the Louse, p. 19.) 

 I fastened upon a flower which adorned my mistress's 

 hair. By good fortune I found myself placed directly 

 opposite to monsieur ambassador, and here I must ac- 

 knowledge that I was not able to forbear laughing heartily 

 when I contemplated the grotesque figure of this original, 

 who with a vulgar person and a mean appearance affected 

 the air and gestures of a fop. A sun burnt complexion, 

 a wrinkled forehead, warts in many places which might 

 be said to be as graceful in him as the moles that dis- 

 tinguished the sweet face of the Countess of Barry. With 

 these he had the advantage of a double chin, to which 

 was added a great bulk of nose, and teeth which might 

 have been taken for cloves had they not been set fast in a 

 thick jaw. This, or something very like this, is the true 

 picture of his excellency. As for his eyes I could not 

 distinguish them because of the situation I was in, and 

 besides a large pair of spectacles hid two-thirds of his 

 face." 



A portrait of Franklin (said to be an original) 

 which may be seen in the Glasgow Athenceum 

 Reading Room corroborates in several of its details 

 the above description. G. N. 



Parish Registers (2"'^ S. ii. 66.) — It will be 

 very necessary for any Member who brings before 

 Parliament a project for printing parish registers 

 to be able to give some idea of the expense. I 

 suggest, therefore, that only registers prior to 

 1700 should be printed, and that they should be 

 printed verbatim. If one of your correspondents 

 would have the register of a small parish printed, 

 and keep an account of the expense, it would 

 assist the object very much ; he might dispose of 

 copies to many of your subscribers to reimburse 

 himself. 



I possess several printed pamphlets containing 

 " extracts " from registers, but I believe that the 

 only entire register printed verbatim is that printed 

 by me in 1831 (the Livre des Anglois a. Geneve^ 



pp. 18.), from a copy examined with the original 

 by the late Sir Egerton Brydges. 



The greatest difficulty in effecting this im- 

 portant object will be the copy for the printer, as 

 many of the early registers are only legible by 

 those accustomed to the character and abbrevia- 

 tions of the sixteenth century. It was only last 

 month that I was requested by a rural dean to 

 pay him a visit and decipher some early registers 

 in his deanery. As the parishes must have a 

 period of two or three years to carry out the 

 measure, should it pass into a law, it will afford 

 time for the incumbents, where necessary, to pro- 

 cure the assistance of some antiquarian friend to 

 collate the obscure portions of their register. 



J. S. Burn. 



Grove House, Henley. 



"Pence a piece" (2°'^ S. ii. 66.) — I can in- 

 form your correspondent W. (1.) that this form 

 of expression is not confined to Herefordshire, 

 but is in constant use here, as in other parts of 

 Ireland, to the entire exclusion of the legitimate 

 " penny a piece." As to its etymology I cannot 

 give him any certain information, but it seems to 

 me probable that it is a modification of two, three, 

 four, pence, &c., the numeral being omitted in the 

 case of a single penny. H. Draper. 



Dublin. 



In answer to the Query of W., as to the an- 

 tiquity and locality of this mode of expression, I 

 have to observe that it prevails in Staffordshire, 

 where fifty years ago I remember a familiar ex- 

 pression of a woman who sold gingerbread, fruit, 

 &c., and being asked the price of some of her com- 

 modities, used to answer, " They are halfpence a 

 piece." F. C. H. 



In answer to the Query as to the locality of the 

 phrase "Pence-a-piece," I can give my mite of 

 information, that a similar expression, " Pennies- 

 a-piece," is common in Scotland. E. E. Btng. 



Plunkett's ''Light to the Blind" (1" S. vi. 341.) 



This MS. is in the possession of the Earl of 



Fingall, and is the work of a zealous Roman 

 Catholic and a mortal enemy of England. The 

 date on the title-page is 1711. Large extracts 

 from it are among the Mackintosh MSS. ; and 

 it is frequently referred to by Mr. Macaulay. 



Abhba. 



Rubrical Query (P' S. x. 127.) — Looking over 

 the past numbers of " N. & Q.," I met with the 

 following Query by the Rev. Wm. Fraser : 



" The rubric to the versicles that precede the three 

 collects at Morning and Evening Prayer states, ' Then 

 the priest standing up, shall say,' &c. After this rubric, 

 on what authority does the priest kneel down again ? " 



This question is at once disposed of by refer- 

 ence to the following rubric which intervenes be- 



J 



