2^8 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. No S8., Sbpt. 20. '56. 



tributed to Euclid. Halley (1710) published the 

 ApoUonius and Serenus, and this is still the only 

 Greek text. In 1792 appeared the Archimedes 

 and Eutocius, purchased from the executor of 

 Joseph Torelli. This is by far the best edition 

 extant. 



I have, I dare say in a dozen places, reminded 

 the University that it is quite time the edition of 

 Pappus should be thought of. The three folios 

 above-mentioned have placed Oxford at the head 

 of all learned corporations, as publishers of the 

 Greek geometers. Thanks to Halma and Pey- 

 rard, Paris runs nearer to Oxford than it ought to 

 do : and it is time to make the balance decidedly 

 in favour of the University by a good fourth vo- 

 lume. I never knew till now that some attempt 

 at the Pappus had been made. Horsley (Nichols's 

 Anecdotes, iv. 675.), speaking of the woodcuts for 

 his edition of Newton, writes thus (July 6, 1776) : 



" I shall find out the person who cuts the figures for 

 the Oxford Pappus. As that is to be a splendid work, I 

 dare say the curators of the press have some able work- 

 men in this way." 



I have never seen nor heard of this splendid work, 

 and am afraid it never was published. Why it 

 failed, is clear enough : it was taken out of order. 

 What is the history of the plan ? Who was the 

 editor ? Are any of his collections in existence ? 

 And when does the University intend to resume 

 the undertaking ? A. De Morgan. 



CHARLES COTTON. 



It is curious how little we know of this volu- 

 minous writer and translator. That he was of a 

 gentleman's family, well allied, heir to a landed 

 estate, Beresford Hall in Derbyshire, educated at 

 Cambridge, and travelled on the Continent, are 

 known : that he was a man of genius is beyond 

 question ; his translation of Montaigne has all the 

 ease and fluency of an original work ; and so far 

 as I know he was as free from vice and profligacy 

 as might be expected in the friend of Izaac 

 Walton. Clarendon, I think, mentions that his 

 father was engaged in some law proceedings, 

 which probably hurt his fortune ; but the estate, 

 whether encumbered or not, descended to the son, 

 who was twice well married, — the first time to the 

 daughter of Sir Thomas Hutchinson of Owthorpe, 

 sister to Colonel Hutchinson, a man of fortune 

 and influence in his time, though now remembered 

 only by the Memoir written by his admirable 

 wife ; secondly, to the Countess-Dowager of Ard- 

 glass, who, we are told, had a jointure of 1500/. 

 a-year. Cotton, it is true, lived in ticklish times, 

 but I am not aware that he suffered from either 

 party, and it is certain that he had powerful 

 friends in both. Yet Cotton would appear to 

 have worked almost as a literary drudge, to have 



done the hurried bidding of the booksellers, after 

 the established hack fashion, or to have adven- 

 tured on like speculations of his own. I re- 

 member, indeed, one amusing proof of haste, 

 where he translates so literally that he calls 

 Buckingham ^' Bouquinquam, the English general." 

 Cotton appears to have been always involved, — 

 sometimes in gaol, — not unfrequently indebted for 

 his liberty to the wild inaccessible hills in the 

 neighbourhood of Beresford Hall. How was this ? 

 I throw out the question in the hope that we may 

 gain some information from the many well- 

 informed correspondents of " N. & Q." * C. H. C. 



The Mincio. — The Lago di Garda, the Benacus 

 of classical writers, is described in Murray's 

 Handbook for Northern Italy, as " formed by the 

 river Mincio descending the Alps of the Italian 

 Tyrol," and this is in accordance with Pliny's ac- 

 count; the Mincio, however, is no longer the 

 source, but only the outlet, of the Lake of Garda. 

 Its principal feeder is now called the Sarca, which 

 is crossed as you wind round the head of the lake 

 from Riva to Torbole. A small town of the same 

 name is found some ten miles to the north, about 

 equidistant between Riva and Trent, and is sup- 

 posed to be the ancient Sarraca, which is only 

 recorded by Ptolemy. Cramer does not mention 

 the Sarca, and I should feel obliged if one of your 

 many learned correspondents could inform me 

 when the Upper Mincio lost its name, and as- 

 sumed that by which it is now alone known. 



John J. A. Boase. 

 Alverton Vean. 



How do Oysters make their Shells ? — Shak- 

 speare makes the fool ask King Lear this query, 

 and the king does not answer it. Will some one 

 inform me whence is the lime derived of which 

 the oyster shell is composed ? Can it be obtained 

 from the sea w^ter only ? A, Holt White. 



Fact or Allegory ? — Dr. Castell, the learned 

 Orientalist, got into trouble with his diocesan 

 (Lincoln), and was extricated by the good offices 

 of the Bishop of London, whom he writes to 

 thank, inter alia, as follows, in 1 684 : 



" By your Lordship's signal and singular favour, I 

 waded out of that trouble, though with no small difficulty. 

 It cost me little less than 300 miles' riding, in which 1 

 saw not the least foot of land all the while I was upon my 

 horse. . . ." 



As the Doctor waded out of his trouble, it may be 



[* Much of Cotton's literary history is told in Kippis's 

 Biographia Britannica, &c., but the curious points how 

 he came to be a bookseller's hack, in debt and in gaol, 

 raised by our correspondent, are well deserving of inves- 

 tigation. — Ed. *' N. & Q."] 



