2nd s. jjo 49., Pec. 6. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



457 



architect (I hope I am right in the name), ex- 

 amined the tower, and offered to set it straight and 

 safe for 200/. His offer was accepted, and in the 

 course of a few months, and at an outlay of not 

 more, perhaps, than 40/. or 50/., by a most in- 

 genious and yet most simple process (which I wit- 

 nessed in operation) the tower was restored to its 

 perpendicular ; and so safely, that I believe not a 

 single stone of the fabric was displaced even 

 slightly or injured. The tower, a pinnacled, and 

 an unusually lofty one for a village church, is still 

 standing erect, an abiding monument of the ar- 

 chitect's skill. I saw it a few years since, and 

 could not detect in it the slightest deviation from 

 the perpendicular. W. T. 



Contributors' Names (2"^ S. ii. 382.) — Mr. Ca»- 

 eington's proposition that contributors to " N. & 

 Q." should affix their names to their articles, though 

 plausible enough, would, I believe, be eventually 

 the ruin of the undertaking. Those who please 

 may, and many do sign, and others who give no 

 name are as well known as if they did ; but as a 

 general rule the absence of the name is, I am 

 satisfied, best. It tends to brevity — it obviates 

 personalities — it allows a freer intercommunica- 

 tion of opinion and criticism. Contributors under 

 the initials of B. J. or R. would be less touchy 

 and less obstinate — less unwilling to ask or re- 

 ceive instruction or correction — than if they had 

 to maintain a public discussion in their proper 

 names and characters as Mr. Brown, Mr. Jones, 

 and Mr. Robinson. It is the same principle of 

 maintaining order and goo^i humour in debate 

 that prohibits in Parliament the use of " Honour- 

 able Members' " proper names. If we were all 

 to give our names "N. & Q." would, in three 

 ■weeks, be a cock-pit! C. 



Interchange of " a " and " i " (2"'* S. i. 236. ; ii. 

 437.) — Your correspondent Mr. De la Pbtme 

 has very justly blamed the wording of my remark 

 on the interchange of a and t. I had in my mind 

 only the change of i where it is a long, and there- 

 fore a radical vowel. I am well aware how freely 

 short vowels are interchanged. Your correspond- 

 ent might have added to the instances which he 

 has quoted, all the compounds of facio, salio, and 

 capio. But I believe it will not be easy to find a 

 long i converted into a. E. C. H. 



Organ Tuning (2"^ S. ii. 1.90.) — Peopessor de 

 Morgan's questions not having been answered, I 

 have much pleasure in informing him that the 

 late Col. Peyronnet Thompson wrote most ably, 

 though I forget where, on the mathematical theory 

 of the musical scale ; and that it is upon his theory 

 that organs, pianos, &c., are tuned by " equal 

 temperament," as it is called. 



If a keyed instrument be tuned by perfect fifths, 



beginning say on c, its octave c will be in excess 

 of truth twenty-two or twenty-four beats, which 

 error, resulting from an imperfection of the scale, 

 if distributed among the intervening semitones, 

 will give a scale for adoption throughout the in- 

 strument, which will make all diatonic scales 

 alike as to distance between each note of the scale 

 and the tonic, and as little short of absolute truth 

 as possible. 



If the worthy Professor will try his " prentice 

 hand " at tuning, and will make all his fifths two 

 beats short of truth, he will succeed in doing all 

 for his instrument which can be attained. I will 

 only add that, independently of my wish to oblige 

 that gentleman, this information may be of some 

 service to country readers who, like myself, live 

 without the pale of ready professional assistance. 



R. W. Dixon. 



Seaton Carew, co. Durham. 



Epitaph (2"'* S. ii. 408.) — The epitaph copied 

 by N. L. T. from a tombstone in St. Thomas's 

 Church at Ryde, is also placed on a tablet in St. 

 Anne's Church, Dublin, where the remains of 

 Felicia Hemans repose. The lines themselves are 

 taken from a dirge by that gifted woman, which 

 will be found in Miscellaneous Lyrics, where the 

 two stanzas are followed by another : 



" Lone are the paths, and sad the bowers. 

 Where thy meek smile is gone, 

 But oh ! a brighter home than ours 

 In Heaven, is now thine own." 



Poems by Felicia Heipans, vol. ii. p. 164. 

 1854. 



CM. 

 Bath. 



These lines are to be found in the Siege of 

 Valencia, by Mrs. Hemans (vol. in. p. 379. of 

 Blackwood's edition, published In 1839), and form 

 the " death hymn " chanted over the bier of 

 Ximena, the daughter of the Governor of Va- 

 lencia. W. T. 



The Lord of Burleigh (P' S. xii. 280. 355.; 

 2°'* S. i. 437.) — In addition to the interesting 

 particulars which my Note on the above subject 

 has drawn from your correspondents G. L. S. and 

 C. M. Ingleby, I have received from a valued 

 friend an authentic statement of the Burleigh ro^ 

 mance, from which I will quote such passages as 

 will fill up gaps in the narrative, or correct any 

 errors that may have crept into previous accounts. 



In the first place, the young lady to whom the 

 incognito Mr. Cecil paid his addresses was not a 

 Miss Masefield, but a Miss Taylor, who was after- 

 wards married to a Mr. Masefield. They lived 

 and died in Wolverhampton, the husband within 

 these two years. My informant was very intimate 

 with them and their married daughter, from whom 

 a portion of the present information is derived. 

 Miss Taylor was exceedingly beautiful: she de- 



