Dec. 22. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



495 



cannot doubt that this "unknown language" is 

 the Iberic. It would not therefore be, perhaps, 

 very difficult to explain the inscriptions through 

 the medium of the still-spoken Basque. Anon. 



Bears Liver. — In the Hakluyt Society Col- 

 lection of Documents on Spitzbergen and Green- 

 land, p. 279., there is the following passage : 



" And upon this beare we fed some twenty daj'es, for 

 shee was very good flesh, and better than our venison. 

 This onely mischance we had with her, that upon the 

 eating of her liver our very skinnes peeled off; for mine 

 owne part, I being sicke before, by eating of that liver, 

 though I lost my skinne, vet recovered I my health upon 

 it." 



Is this detrimental or medicinal property of the 

 bear's liver an established fact ? Or was this an 

 exceptional case ? J. H. A. Bone. 



Cleveland, U. S. 



Oxy-hydrogen Microscope, ^'c. — I am desirous 

 of adding, to an oxy-hydrogen microscope, the 

 arrangements for exhibiting opaque objects and 

 the physiosoope. Will any of your readers, who 

 are acquainted with the subject, kindly inform 

 me the best means of so doing ? C. S. J. 



Translator of Madame Dunois's " Court of 

 England." — In 1707, there appeared Memoirs of 

 the Court of England, in two parts, by the Countess 

 of Dunois, "now made English." The dedication 

 to Thomas Boucher, Esq., is signed J. C. Who 

 may this be ? As Mr. Boucher is a real personage, 

 it is to be presumed that these initials are those 

 of the translator. There is an appendix, called 

 "The Lady's Pacquet broke open," being a collec- 

 tion of letters said to be taken from an English 

 lady. One of these contains a singular account 

 of Beau Wilson, who was killed by Law, after- 

 wards so famous ; from which it would seem that 

 Wilson's riches were derived from a lady of high 

 rank at court; probably this is just one of the 

 speculations of the time on the subject, resting on 

 no solid foundation. If the letters published under 

 his name are genuine, his money came from a very 

 different source. J. M. (2.) 



Incense. — What are the particulars of the com- 

 position of the incense now used in the Church of 

 Rome ? Is it necessary that it should be entirely 

 composed of vegetable substances ? R. H. S. 



Copyright in privately jmntad Books. — What 

 is the law on this point ? Are all works unpub- 

 lished entitled to perpetual copyright, or may they 

 be safely reprinted after the ordinary term has 

 transpired ? Can any printed work, however 

 limited the Impression, be strictly said to be un- 

 published ? It frequently happens that a suc- 

 cessor or executor sells the copies that may be 

 left to a bookseller. Would tliis constitute pub- 

 lication ? V. S. 



No. 321.] 



Inscription in Soham Churchyard, Cambridge- 

 shire. — At the east end of the nave of this church, 

 and on the south side of the chancel, is an upright 

 gravestone with this inscription : 



« Anno Domini, 1643. 

 ^tatis su£e, 125. 



Here lieth Doctor Ward, whom 



you knew well before ; 

 he was kind to his neighbour, 



and good to the poor." 



It is inscribed as I have written it, the second, 

 third, and fourth lines do not begin with capital 

 letters. On the other side of the stone Is a more 

 recent inscription to a different person. Is any- 

 thing known of Dr. Ward and his Immense age, 

 or Is there anything concerning him in the re- 

 gisters of Soham? The stone has a most sus- 

 piciously modern look, which may perhaps be 

 partly accounted for if, as the parish clerk assured 

 me, the inscriptions have been recently renewed. 



E. G. R. 



[It is stated in The Beauties of England and Wales, 

 vol. ii. p. 150., that the entry in the register concerning 

 this remarkable instance of longevity, being nearly obli- 

 terated from age, was re-written by the late vicar, and 

 now stands thus : " March 26, 1640, Doc. John Ward, 

 aged 125. Thomas Wilson, Contestor, Vicar, 1795." But, 

 according to Cole's MS. Cambridge Collections, vol. ix. 

 p. 99. h, part of the inscription is obliterated. He says, 

 " When I was at Soham, I overlooked a curious old monu- 

 ment in the churchyard, which Mr. Cockaine was so kind 

 to send me : 



« ' Anno Dofn, 1643, 

 ^tatis suae 125. 



Here lies Dr. Ward, whom you knew well before ; 

 He was kind to his neighbours, good to the poor. 



1 2 3 4 5 6 



To God, to Prince, Wife, kindred, friend, the poor, 



1 2 3 4 5 6 



Religious, loyal, true, kind, steadfast, dear, 



1 2 3 4 s 6 



In zeal, faith, love, blood, araitj', and store. 

 He hath so liv'd, and so deceas'd lies here.' 



This Dr. Ward, as tradition says, was a quack doctor, 

 and, as the people conceited, a conjuror. However, it is 

 a curious epitaph, both on account of the whimsicalness 

 of the verses, and the great age of the subject ; which 

 puts me in mind of a curious anecdote in relation to this 

 parish, which is, that in 1644 there lived at Soham a 

 man of the age of 150 years, who had been married six 

 times, had had thirty-two children, and very lately car- 

 ried two combs of peas two furlongs, and eight bushels a 

 quarter of a mile. This particular I had from an old MS. 

 Diary of one Ralph Josceline, vicar of Earls Colne, in 

 Essex. Dr. Ward's monument was repaired in 1764, as 

 Mr. Tyson observed to me."] 



Fragment of Solon. — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents favour me with the fragment of Solon, 

 of which Dodd gives an Enrjlish trnnslation in his 

 note on the famous passage in As You Like It, be- 

 ginning, " All the world's a stage ? " I should 

 also be glad to see Archbishop Markham's imi- 

 tation of this passage in Latin verse, of which I 



