304 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[Oct. 20. 1855. 



Gloucester Cathedral : curious Fruit-tree. — 

 Having recently had occasion to visit Gloucester, 

 after an absence of upwards of twenty years, I 

 was induced to take a stroll into the precincts 

 of the cathedral, accompanied by a friend, who 

 called my attention to a small fruit-tree, then 

 bearing an excellent crop, called, I believe, from 

 time immemorial, the " forbidden fruit," the exist- 

 ence of which, till that moment, had quite escaped 

 my memory, although well known to me in my 

 former visits. My friend, long an inhabitant of 

 the old city, could give me no information on the 

 subject ; and I pen these few observations in the 

 hope that some of your numerous correspondents 

 may be able to furnish a history of this curious 

 tree, its origin, the circumstance which called 

 forth its peculiar name, the horticultural name of 

 the fruit it bears, and whether there is another 

 tree of the kind in existence. J. B. Whitborne. 



Passage in sceptical Greek Poet. — In an Hum- 

 ble Epistle to His Grace the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury on the Ways of ProvidencCy London, 1764, is 

 the following : 



" The sceptical Greek poet says that he has heard how 

 the wicked and presumptuous are punished in Hades, but 

 is careful to add that he knows such things by report 

 only, while the most grievous sufferings he ever saw were 

 borne by a iiian who had never done wrong, or omitted 

 to do right."— P. 61. 



I presume Euripides is "the sceptical Greek 

 poet;" possibly Aristophanes, but I do not know 

 the passage in either, and shall be obliged by any 

 of your readers who will direct me to it. E,. B. 



Ardington. 



Woodcut of Nebuchadnezzar. — I recollect to 

 have seen, some years ago, a woodcut representing 

 Nebuchadnezzar on his hands and knees, in the 

 act of raising a handful of grass to his mouth. 

 The scene was a landscape, with one large tree ; 

 and his face was directed upwards towards a ray 

 of light streaming from the sky. 



Can any of your correspondents inform me to 

 what book this woodcut formed an illustration ? 



W. E. 



Octaiw System of Notation. — I shall be obliged 

 if you will inform me, through your publication, 

 of the titles of two or three works (if so many 

 have been published) on an octave (or, to coin an 

 English formative, eightari) system of notation, 

 with the names of their publishers. 



I am informed by a friend that he once saw an 

 octavo treatise on the subject, the scheme being 

 illustrated by examples. 



I have compiled an Octave System of Numer- 

 ation, with tables and examples in all the rules, 

 together with a complete octonary system of coins, 

 weights, measures, time, &c., taking as the integer 

 the English penny, pound-weight, pint, and yard. 



No. 312.] 



It will appear in the Phonetic Journal in a week 

 or two. 



The principal good which the agitation for a 

 new decimal currency will produce will be the 

 change in our mode of counting, from tens to 

 eights. _ It is impossible to construct a natural 

 and easily-worked money-scale on a number that 

 is not divisible by halves down to 1 ; and it is be- 

 cause 10 is not so divisible that so many schemes 

 are presented for approval, each seeking how best 

 to evade the difficulty. Better dismiss the difficulty 

 and re-adjust numbering on 8 as the repeating 

 figure, the half of which is 4, then 2, then 1. 



I hope this subject too, as well as phonetic 

 spelling, will find a place in "N. & Q." 



Isaac Pitman. 



Bishop Ridley and the Parish of Heme. — On 

 this day, precisely three hundred years ago, Ni- 

 cholas Kidley, Bishop of London, suffered mar- 

 tyrdom at Oxford. It is well known that, previous 

 to his elevation to the episcopate, he was for 

 several years Vicar of Heme, in Kent, to which 

 parish he is said to have bequeathed a sum of 

 money for the Te Deum to be sung there in 

 English at morning service. I have frequently 

 attended Divine worship at the above church, but 

 never was a witness of his wish having been ob- 

 served. Is there a fund still in existence for the 

 purpose intended ? If so, hoAV is it now appro- 

 priated ? N. L. T. 



Oct. 16, 1855, 



BosweWs " Johnson.^'' — Is there much differ- 

 ence in the editions of BosweWs Life of Johnson, 

 published under the immediate superintendence 

 of Boswell himself? If so, which is the best of 

 them ? L.N. 



Godzerium, Goddard, — In Mr. Ferguson's 

 interesting notice of " Ancient Chattel Property 

 in Ireland " in Vol. xii., p. 259., he mentions 

 " unum mazerium quod dicitur godzerium^ Is 

 this a mazer bowl, and if so, what is the interpre- 

 ation of godzerium ? Stow, in his Survey of 

 London, speaking of Mountgodard Street, says 

 (p. 128. ed. Thorns) that it is so called "of the 

 tippling houses and the goddards mounting from 

 the tap to the table, from the table to the mouth, 

 and sometimes over the head ; " and in the first 

 edition, as we learn from an editorial note, he 

 calls them " goddards or pots." The words god- 

 zerium and goddard seem therefore cognate. 

 Whence are they derived ? M. D. 



" XdicV or "ydictJ" — In a list of persons pos- 

 sessing landed property in England, about the 

 beginning of the last century, which I have in 

 manuscript, I find, after several names, both male 

 and female, the word, or abbreviation of a word, 

 xdict or ydict. I presume that it expresses some 



