90 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'! S. N» 31., Aug. 2. '56. 



trutU' of it. Can any correspondent tell me the 

 real place of her birth ? C. J. Douglas. 



' [Thomas Campbell has furriished the following account 

 of Mrs. Siddons's birth-place in his interesting Life of 

 that lady (vol. i. p, 27.): — "Our great actress's birth- 

 place was Brecon, or Brecknon, in South Wales. A friend 

 has obligingly written to me as follows, respecting the 

 house in'whic'h Mrs. Siddons was born : — ' It is a public- 

 house in the high street of this town, which still retains 

 its appellation, "The Shoulder of Mutton," though now 

 entirely altered from its pristine appearance. I send you 

 a drawing of the house [this is a wood engraving], not 

 as it is at present, but as I perfectly well remember seeing 

 it stand, with its gable front, projecting upper floors, and 

 a rich well-fed shoulder of mutton painted over the door, 

 offering an irresistible temptation to the sharpened appe- 

 tites of the Welsh farmers, who frequented the adjoining 

 market-place; especially as within doors the same, or 

 some similar object in a more substantial shape, was 

 always, at the accustomed hour, seen roasting at the 

 kitchen fire, on a spit turned by a dog in a wheel, the 

 invariable mode in all the Breconian kitchens. In addi- 

 tion to which noontide entertainment for country guests, 

 there was abundance of Welsh ale of the rarest quality ; 

 and, as the "Shoulder of Mutton" was situated in the 

 centre of Brecon, it was much resorted to by the neigh- 

 bouring inhabitants of the borough. If I am rightly in- 

 formed, old Kemble [Mrs. Siddons's father] was neither 

 an unwilling nor an unwelcome member of their jolly 

 associations.' "] 



" Book of KnowledgeJ'* — I have a small book in 

 three parts, of which the title-page is wanting. 

 The pages of the first part are headed, " The Book 

 of Knowledge ;" the second part is the " Husband- 

 man's Practise, or Prognostication for ever;" the 

 third part, " The Shepherd's Prognostication for 

 the Weather." The book is black-letter, and 

 printed for W. Thackeray at "The Angel" in 

 Duck Lane, 1691. A small picture "by which 

 this book may be distinguished from some coun- 

 terfeit ' copies,' has the letters ' 1. S.' " The con- 

 tents, as the title signifies, are most miscellaneous, 

 and extend from a notice of " good days for blood- 

 letting," an A. B. C. to know what planet every 

 man is born under, his fortunes and time of death, 

 to " ' Pithagoras' Wheele,' by which ye may know 

 most things that you can demand," and much 

 other useful information. 



What is the title of the book, and who was the 

 author ? Charles Wylib. 



[The first edition of this work, without date, was 

 printed by Robert Wj^er, about 1 540. It is entitled " The 

 Boke of Knowledge of Thynges Vnknowen apperteynynge 

 to Astronomye, with certaj'ne necessarye Rules, and cer- 

 tayne Sphere contaynyng herein. Compyled by God- 

 fridus super Palladium de Agricultura Anglicatum." 

 Colophon, "Imprynted by me Robert Wyer in S. Mar- 

 Ij'ns Parysshe, besyde Charynge*'Cros8e." Prefixed is a 

 cut of an astronomer, half length, with four stars. On 

 the back of the title a cut of Ptholomeus and his wife, 

 and under it : " ^ This is vnknowen to many men, though 

 they be knowen to some men." Another edition appeared 

 in 1585, "Imprinted at London, in Fleete-streete, be- 

 neath the Conduite, at the Signe of S. John Euangelist, 

 by M. lackson," This only extends (is far as chap, xv., 



"The Change of Man twelve times, according to the 

 Months." Another edition enlarged appeared in 1688, 

 with the following title: "The Knowledge of Things 

 Unknown. Shewing the Effects of the Planets, and 

 other Astronomical Constellations. With the strange 

 Events that befal Men, Women, and Children born under 

 them. Compiled by Godfridus super Palladium de Agri- 

 cuTtura Anglicatum. Together with the Husband-Man's 

 Practice: or Prognostication forever: asteacheth Albert, 

 Alkind, Haly, and Ptolomy. With the Shepherd's Prog- 

 nostication for the Weather, and Pythagoras his Wheel 

 of Fortune. Printed by J. M. for W. Thackeray, at the 

 Angel in Duck Lane." The cuts are the same as in 

 Wyer's edition. Our correspondent's copy of 1G91 seems 

 to be a reprint of that of 1688.] 



MUSICAL NOTATION. 



On Music ; and suggestions for improvement in its symbols, 

 or nomenclature of sounds : to the end that there may he a 

 clearer demonstration of the ratios of sounds, and, by con- 

 sequence, a more extended knowledge of the fundus of this 

 art, that is the poetry or measured relation of its forms. 



(^Continued from p. 73.} 



Mr. Frank Howard, in his Treatise on the Art 

 of Making a Picture, declares " there is no work, 

 elementary or scientific, which teaches the praxis 

 of pictorial eflfect, or that of making a picture." 

 As with painting, so it is with music : indeed, 

 Dr. Marx, the latest writer on the theory, assures 

 his readers there exists " no work on harmony or 

 thorough base that can possibly fulfil the promises 

 held out to the student in musical composition." 

 In this remark, Dr. Marx may include his own 

 work. There is at present no written law for the 

 composition of music, and composers have care- 

 fully eschewed talking or writing upon the sub- 

 ject. Haydn, who taught when in this country, 

 after giving a certain number of lessons, was in 

 the habit of dismissing the student in these 

 words : — " I have taught you all the known rules : 

 there are others, but these I do not teach." 

 Mozart, when applied to by W^elgl, a well-known 

 composer, to teach his mode of composing, replied 

 in the brief and decided sentence : " No : find 

 out, as I had to find out." On a recent occasion, 

 when visiting a musical friend, he produced rather 

 a long and ambitious composition, which, after 

 listening to, I remarked : " The first eight bars 

 are right, and the remainder all wrong." After 

 some pause, he said : " What makes you say the 

 first eight bars are right, and the others wrong ? 

 for I am certain there Is not an error according 

 to Cherubinl." " That may be," was my reply, 

 " but no man can write music from studying 

 Cherubinl." After some time, he confessed the 

 first eight bars were borrowed from Beethoven ; 

 but he had so mystified the passage as to escape 

 recognition of the plagiary. I am certain no one 

 will ever write music by the aid of any work now 



