132 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 18. 1855. 



name from the registers of that parish, may be 

 found in Sir R. C. Hoare's Modern Wilts, " Hun- 

 dred of Amesbury," p. 1 15. J. E. Jackson, 

 Leigh-Delamere, Chippenham. 



'^^Simile of a Woman to the Moon (Vol. xii., 

 p. 87.)' — The lines here quoted remind me of 

 the foUowinnr epigram written by Richard Lyne, 

 who was a Fellow of Eton. They have not, I 

 believe, been printed. 

 , " Femina ad Lunam comparata." 



*| Ltina nibet, pallet, variat, nocte ambulat, errat, 

 Haec quoque Foemineo propria sunt (Jeneri. 

 Cornua Luna facit : facit hsec quoque Foemina : mutant 

 Quolibet haec tantum mense, sed Ilia die." 



Bratbbooke. 



Audley End. 



^!' After the first twelve lines, as set out by your 

 (Sorrespondent, the lines run thus : 



" Say, are not these a modish pair, 



Where each for other feels no care? 



Whole days in separate coaches driving. 



Whole nights to keep asunder striving. 



Both in the dumps in gloomy weather. 



And lying once a month together. 



From him her beauties close confining. 



And only in his absence shining ; 



Or else she looks like sullen tapers; 



Or else she's fairly in the vapours ; 



Or owns at once a wife's ambition, 



And fully glares in opposition. 



In one sole point unlike the case is — 



On her own head the horn she places." 

 tv H. E. N. 



Bells of Cast Steel (Vol. xii., p. 87.) Bells of 



cast iron have been made at Dundyvan Iron 

 Works, near Glasgow, of a very large size. The 

 iron is mixed with a very small proportion of tin 

 (I believe) as an alloy, and the result is a very 

 sonorous metal ; but so extremely brittle, that a 

 very large one, cast at Dundyvan for the Hyde 

 Park Exhibition, was cracked accidentally by a 

 workman who gave it a knock with a small ham- 

 mer. The sound was said to be equal to that of 

 most bells of its size. R. G. 



Glasgow. 



^ Wines of the Ancients (Vol. xii., p. 79.). — The 

 wines of the ancients were not always largely 

 diluted with water, as your correspondent F. 

 imagines. Pliny, Nonnlus, Athenseus, Varro, and 

 other classical writers who treat on the subject of 

 wines, Inform us that the wine required for im- 

 mediate use and the ordinary consumption of the 

 family was the simple juice of the grape, clarified 

 with vinegar, and drawn from the barrel as 

 wanted. A strong and sweet wine was obtained 

 from the juice of the grape, crushed by the naked 

 feet instead of the press. This was put to boll, 

 and continually stirred until one-third of the 

 liquor was evaporated, when it was called ca- 



No. 303.] 



renum ; when only half remained It was termed 

 defrutum ; and lastly, when it was reduced to one- 

 third in quantity, and of a consistence similar to 

 honey. It took the name of sapa. This substance 

 was still farther desiccated by exposure to the 

 sun and to smoke, and by long keeping. Some 

 of the gastronomes of antiquity produced on their 

 tables certain wines which had so far dried up in 

 the leather bottles, that they were taken out in 

 lumps (^Aristotle) ; others placed in the chimney 

 corner became in time as hard as salt (Galen). 

 Petronius speaks of wine of a hundred leaves 

 (Petro7i., c. 34.) ; and Pliny tells us that guests 

 were served with wine more than two hundred 

 years old, which was as thick as honey and ex- 

 ceedingly bitter. Wine of this description must 

 necessarily have been diluted, not only to reduce 

 its strength, but to render potable. It was used 

 to give body to weak wines, and it served as the 

 basis of several beverages in great repute amongst 

 the ancients. The Falernian wine was not drunk 

 until It had attained its tenth year ; then it was 

 possible to drink it undiluted. At twenty years 

 old it could only be mastered by being mixed 

 with water.. If older It was intolerable ; it at- 

 tacked the nerves and caused excruciating head- 

 ache. (AthencBus, i. 48.) It does not appear that 

 the art of distlUatlng alcohol was known to the 

 classical disciples of Bacchus. J. S. Coyne. 



A Sermon on Noses : Shakspeare's Autograph 

 (Vol. X., p. 443). — Annibal Caro Is the supposed 

 author of that "Sermon on Noses," " La Diceria 

 de' Nasi," which, in the edition of the infamous 

 Ragionamenti delV Aretino, published in 1584, Is 

 subjoined to that chef-d'oeuvre of Impudence, 

 lewdness, and depravity. La Diceria is a drol- 

 lery not of the nicest kind, written in the Rabe- 

 laisian strain, and quite worthy to be printed 

 " nella citta di Bengodi." I am ignorant whether 

 the author of Tristram Shandy, when he wrote his 

 celebrated Chapter on Noses, had in his eye An- 

 nibal Caro's lucubration ; he certainly had perused 

 with great care Taglicozzi's (1597) or Taglia- 

 cozzo's chlrurgical encomiums on the dignity, 

 gravity, and authority of noses. I think he could 

 have made good use too of Kornmann's chapter 

 (De Virginitate, § 77.), " Num ex longo et acuto 

 naso praesumatur vIrgo iracunda?" and of the 

 devout speculations of Mademoiselle Bourignon 

 about the noses of Adam and of Eve. There are 

 some Pious Meditations of J. Petit (no date, in 

 8vo., black-letter) on the Nose and the Two Nos- 

 trils of the Holy Virgin, which are worth noticing, 

 as well as Theophile Raynaud's (the Jesuit) great 

 review of noses, contained in his Laus Brevitatis. 



As to the real or pretended autograph of Shak- 

 speare, I leave it of course to the sentence of the 

 connoisseurs ; this I must only add, as a fact 

 rather worth submitting to their acumen, that in 



