126 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 18. 1855. 



years ago, I met the poet Charles Sillery (since 

 dead) at a dinner party. He wore the Maltese 

 Cross, and signed himself Knight of Malta. Does 

 -this Order still exist, and where ? Caqadoke. 



Palindromon. — In a Minor Note by Dr. Mi- 

 CHELSEN, Vol. X., p. 204., that gentleman states : 



" The palindromon changes the sense in the backward 

 reading; the versus cancrinus retains the sense in both in- 

 stances unchanged." 



I have always considered the follovVing beautiful 

 font inscription to be a palindromon ; will your 

 correspondent give his opinion, or state how his 

 distinctive rule applies ? 



" vn^Of avo/xi);aaTa jaij iJ.ovav oi|(iv." 



S. Marttn. 



A Booh-post Query. — Some one orders a book 

 ■Tyhich is to be posted to him. It does not arrive, 

 but it can be proved that the book was posted 

 -bearing the address and the requisite stamps. 

 Who is to suffer, if the packet cannot be found ? 

 While the new Post Office regulations last, this 

 sort of thing will probably often occur. 



Bookseller. 



William Booth, of Witton, near Birmingham 

 (of whom honourable mention is made in Dugdale's 

 Warwickshire, and also in Hamper's Life of Dug- 

 dale), was a barrister, much consulted by his 

 Birmingham neighbours. Many of the letters sent 

 to him were preserved in a book, which was saved 

 from destruction by the late Prebendary Bucke- 

 ridge, who found it at a butter-stall. It after- 

 wards came into the possession of Canon Newland, 

 a Shropshire collector, whose papers are supposed 

 to have been dispersed. Can any of your readers 

 fiay where this book now is ? or where a volume 

 by the same author, entitled Descents of some 

 ' Gentlemen and others, our Neighbours, in and about 

 ' ^Birmingham, A.j>. 1641, which Shaw the historian 

 of Staffordshire found in the possession of Mr. 

 .Darwin of Derby, in 1791, may be found ? A. D. 



[' ffarington;' '\folliott," ^c. — On what 

 principle is it that some persons whose names 

 begin with /prefer two small letters to one large 

 one by way of initial ? Is any other letter of the 

 -alphabet ever treated in the same way ? 



jj. cc. rr. 



*^ Philosophy of Societies." — I have been en- 

 deavouring for some time past to procure a little 

 treatise which I saw advertised two or three years 

 ago, and which I believe to have been entitled 

 2%e Philosophy of Societies, and which entered 

 upon the general theory of associations and social 

 aggregations. Perhaps some of the correspon- 

 dents to " N. & Q.," several of whom must have 

 .met with the book in question, would kindly in- 

 form me if I am correct in the title, and where I 



No. 303.] 



can procure it ; or, indeed, any other work upon 

 the same subject. Socius. 



St. Jerome. — 



" Jerome abhorred a woman as much as Mrs. Astel did 

 a man; and detested and blackened matrimony and a 

 wife, to extol and exalt that whim of his brain, virginity." 

 — Memoirs of Buncle, vol. ii. p. 252. 



The quotation then goes on to describe the de- 

 testation with which St. Jerome owned he viewed 

 every woman about to become a mother " but as 

 he reflected that she carried a virgin." 



I have two copies of Jerome's epistles, and 

 wish for an exact reference for the above matter. 



Who was Mrs. Astel ? A character in some 

 comedy, or a real personage ? J. K. L. 



Piazzetta and Cattini. — I have four engi-avings 

 of heads by the hands of Piazzetta and Cattini ; ifc 

 would appear there had been more, as one of mine 

 is No. 6. I have — 



No. 1. A youth listening to something in his 

 hand. 



No. 3. A man resting his head on his right hand. 



No. 5. A man reading, having a key in his right 

 hand, and a cap on. 



No. 6. A man with his left arm through the 

 handle of a basket of fruit, and apparently 

 thinking. 



They have been in my family very many years. 

 Will some of your readers kindly inform me when 

 the artists above flourished, and whether the prints 

 are of any note, and the subjects ? Of course, 

 after so long, 1 could not complete the set. 



Ormond. 



" Coney Gore^ — A peculiar topographical term 

 to be found in most of the shires south of the 

 Trent, is Coney gore ; sometimes Coneygre, Cone- 

 gar, Conegare, Conegarth. I know of above fifty. 

 In situation, they seem generally to denote a 

 Roman origin. In frequency, they are nearest to 

 Cold Harbour. I am unable at present to assign 

 a meaning to the term. Htde Clarke. 



i$ltn0r ^uerteS iotft aitiSfioerS. 



Mrs. P. Llewelyns Hymns. — Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me where I can obtain Mrs. 

 Penderel Llewelyn's Hymns, translated from the 

 Welsh of Williams of Pant-y-celyn ? B, 



[These Hymns were published by the late William 

 Pickering, and may probably be obtained at Mr. Toovey's, 

 177. Piccadilly.] 



Octagonal Fonts. — There is said to be a font 

 of Tecla, bearing verses by Ambrose, allusive to 

 the early Christians' preference for octagonal fonts, 

 because six is the number of anti-Christ, and eight 

 the number of true Christianity. Where, or who, 

 is Tecla ? What is the authority for this state- 



