26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°^ S. No 28., July 12. '56. 



of France, England, &c., would form an interest- 

 ing series, illustrating the history of those builders 

 and artists, whose works all our boasted hut Jejune 

 and formal skill has not yet surpassed. 



P. S. The name of the sculptor under Goethe's 

 jouth-hust in the Crystal Palace ought to be Trip- 

 pel and not Frippel. J. Lotskt, Panslave. 



Inscription. — In the Harl. MS. 6894. (p. 91.), 

 occurs the following ungallant couplet : 



" On the atchievement of a married Lady deceased at 

 Stanmore Magna, Middlesex : 



" Satis mihi propitius est Deus, 

 Quod ego adlmc superstes sum." 



" God has to me sufficiently been kind, 

 To take mv wife, and leave me here behind." 



J. Y. 

 Concert for Horses. — 



" The eccentric Lord Holland of the reign of William 

 in. used to give his horses a weekly concert in a covered 

 gallery specially erected for the purpose. He maintained 

 that it cheered their hearts, and improved their temper, 

 and an eye-witness says that 'the}' seemed to be greatly 

 delighted therewith.' " — Stray Leaves from the Book of 

 Mature. 



R. W. Hackwood. 



Funeral Expenses. — Funeral expenses, 100 

 years ago, were, very different from what they are 

 now. I give you two accounts of some Quaker 

 ancestors of mine, buried at that time : — 



The funeral expenses of Edward Halsey, June 

 9, 1751, his wife executrix, as per bill, cost 37/. 

 He died in London, and buried at Wandsworth. 

 Twelve glass-coaches and six hackney coaches 

 followed. 



The funeral expenses of John Smith, Esq., of 

 Stockwell House, Surrey, July 23, 1757, cost 

 171. lis. Five glass-coaches followed, his son, 

 Daniel Smith, executor. 



Mourning coaches were not allowed by Quakers, 

 neither black habiliments, but everything new was 

 put on at that time. Julia R. Bockbtt. 



Southcote Lodge. 



*' To call a spade a spade." — Some of your cor- 

 respondents are doubtless able to trace this ex- 

 pression, if not to its origin, to a much earlier 

 period than I am in the following writers.* Baxter, 

 in his Narrative of the most Memorable Passages 

 of his Life and Times, 1696, thus introduces it: 



" I have a strong natural inclination to speak of every 

 subject just as it is, and to call a spade a spade, and verba 

 rebus optare, so as that the thing spoken of may be fulliest 

 known by the words, which methinks is part of our 

 speaking truly. But I unfeignedly confess that it is 

 faulty, because imprudent." 



This is the passage referred to by Mr. Blunt in 

 his posthumous work, Duties of the Parish Priest. 



[* See our !'*■ S. iv. 274. 456., for some earlier instances 

 of the use of this saying.] 



A later writer of a very different school to 

 Baxter — Dr. Arbuthnot — in his Dissertations 

 upon the Art of Selling Bargains, says : 



" In the native region of our itinerant salesman, there 

 is an immemorial prescriptitn/or calling a spade a spade ; 

 they are not over curious in using circumlocutions or 

 other fgurative modes of speech, but choose rather to ex- 

 press themselves in the most plain and proper words of 

 their Mother-Tongue." 



Swift is quoted as using this expression, but I 

 have no reference to the particular passage in his 

 writings where it may be found. 



Ray has given this amongst his Proverbial 

 Phrases, but without a comment. J. H. M. 



Inscriptions on Houses. — In the village of Ax- 

 mouth, Devon, the houses are for the most part 

 built of small stone or of cob ; but the chimney- 

 stacks are carefully constructed of cut stone, and 

 form the most elaborate and ornamented portion 

 of the edifice. 



A few minutes' leisure enabled me to copy the 

 following inscriptions carved on the chimney tops, 

 and from a glance at the character of the farm- 

 houses visible from the road, I have no doubt 

 but that such records are characteristic of the dis- 

 trict. Any of your correspondents who may love 

 the secluded nooks where beauty nestles and an- 

 tiquity lingers, may find occupation here. 



On a house whose windows are deeply embayed 

 in flourishing myrtle, is the following : 

 "Anno Britannico 



ILLO 

 MiRABILIS, 



164L" 

 On another at the entrance of the village : 



« 1570. 

 God qiveth all." 



S. R. Pattison. 

 1. Lincoln's Inn Fields. 



Toledo Blades. — I send the marks and inscrip- 

 tions upon the few examples I possess of these 

 blades. On a flamboyant dagger of the seven- 

 teenth century : 



+ + + + EN TOLEDO • + + 



On faulchion of the sixteenth century : 



• \ • IVAN • ; • MARTINES • | • EN • TOLEDO | • 

 • [ IN TE DOMINE [ • ESPERAVI [ •- 



On flamboyant rapier : 



X EN TOLEDO X 



and the figure of a heart. 

 On rapier : on one side 



EE »N»T»0»L»E#D»0»«» 



on the other 



T*V*N»0«D»E •*• » • 



* 



I have used Roman capitals, as it is not to be 



