Nov. 17. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



389 



saved for extended temporal advantages ; not so 

 Mr. Hodges, who thus spiritually applies the time 

 gained : 



" To al such as deal in Accounts, who desire to improov 

 their short time to the best advantage, the autor wislieth 

 al furtherance. Considering (Christian reader) how short 

 our time is, what great caus have we to spare as much 

 thereof as possibly we may from our worldly imploiments, 

 to tlie end we may more free!}' imploy our selvs in the use 

 of al hoh' means for the examining our deceitful hearts, 

 and the casting up of our spiritual accounts (so as thereby 

 we ma}' gain the peace of a good conscience, and the as- 

 surance of eternal life), and the rather becaus there is 

 not only a necessity ly's upon us for tlie doing of it ; but 

 also the work is so great, and the hinderances thereof are 

 so many, that when we have don our best, we are but 

 unprofitable servants, &c. Thine in the Lord, RichAkd 



HOOGES." 



J. o. 



" COCK AND PTE. 



(Vol. xii., pp. 104, 105. 152.) 



Although, to my mind, Mr. Foss's Note from 

 Knight's Shahspeare, as to the origin of the pro- 

 verb, and (probably) of the inn sign also, is 

 sufficiently satisfactory, yet I think the author of 

 the original Query will thank nie for a corro- 

 borative Note from Washington Irving (no mean 

 authority "in this branch of literature, so de- 

 servedly popular at the present day " *). It occurs 

 in that charming description of the Christmas 

 dinner (which no native English pen has ever 

 surpassed) presided over by that " worthy old 

 humourist," Squire Bracebridge, — 



" The strenuous advocate for the. revival of all old rural 

 games and holiday observances, and deeply read in the 

 writers, ancient and modern, who have treated on the 

 subject." 



On the table — 



" Were several dishes quaintly decorated, and which had 

 evidently something traditional in their embellishments, 

 but about which, as I did not like to appear over ciu-ious, 

 I asked no questions. I could not, however, but notice a 

 pie, magnificently decorated with peacock's feathers, in 

 imitation of the tail of that bird, which overshadowed a 

 considerable tract of the table. This, the squire con- 

 fessed, with some little hesitation, was a pheasant pie, 

 though a peacock pie was certainly the most authentical ; 

 but there had been such a mortality among the peacocks 

 this season, that he could not prevail upon himself to 

 have one killed." t 



* Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap, Sketch Booh, Bohn's 

 ed., p. 167. 



t The peacock was anciently in great demand for 

 stately entertainments. Sometimes it was made into a 

 pie, at one end of which the head appeared above the 

 crust in all its plumage, with the beak richly gilt; at 

 the other end the tail was displayed. Such pies were 

 served up at the solemn banquets of chivalry, when 

 knights-errant pledged themselves to take any perilous 

 enterprise, whence came the ancient oath used by Justice 

 Shalloiv, " hi/ cock and pie.'' 



No. 316.] 



Then, in a foot-note of the author's : 



"The peacock was also an important dish for the 

 Christmas feast, and Massinger, in his City Madam, gives 

 some idea of the extravagance]with Avhich this, as well as 

 other dishes, was prepared for the gorgeous revels of the 

 olden times : 



' Men may talk of country Christmasses, 

 Their thirty-pound butter'd eggs, their pies of carps' 



tongues, 

 Their pheasants drench'd with ambergris ; 

 The carcases of three fat wethers bruised for gravy to 

 make sauce for a single peacock ! ' " 



Why should not these savoury viands, in 

 common with other creature comforts, have sug- 

 gested alluring signs to those "hostelries" which 

 might have been, perchance, once renowned for 

 that particular dish ? The " Pheasant " may 

 probably be suggestive of simply sporting asso- 

 ciations, and the " Goose and (j^ridiron " ques- 

 tionable, perhaps, in its symbolism; but the 

 " Punchbowl," and the " Rummer," the " Ox- 

 body " (a still existing sign in Gloucester), and 

 the classic old " Boar's Head " in Eastcheap 

 itself, most certainly smack of the good cheer 

 within. Brookthorpe. 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Positive Printing. — As several facts of some interest 

 upon this subject have presented themselves to me some- 

 what prominently, during a rather extensive series of ex- 

 periments, I beg to offer a few observations, in the hope 

 that they may be of use to some of my photographic con- 

 freres. I do not find that proofs produced by development 

 of a latent impression are one whit more stable than those 

 printed by the ordinary chloride process, provided they 

 have both been submitted to a colouring bath, and with- 

 out it both are of little or no value. With pi-oper pre- 

 cautions, I believe that both are perfectly stable. The 

 more a proof is kept to the surface of the pajier, the more 

 brilliant is the result, while saturating the paper with 

 the salting solution tends to produce a deadness and flat- 

 ness of effect extremely unpleasant ; hence the superior 

 brilliancy of albumenized proofs. The gloss produced by 

 albumen is a drawback to its use in many cases, but the 

 advantages in other respects compel us to submit to this 

 defect generally. I believe, however, that a substitute 

 may be found in gum tragacanth (gum dragon), which 

 will give the necessary body without the gloss. 



The almost total removal of the free nitrate of silver, by 

 washing the proof ie/()re coloring, as recommended by Mu. 

 Sutton, is a feature of such importance, that it cannot be 

 too strongly insisted upon, and the bath of sel d'or for 

 colouring, also suggested by that gentleman, is so infi- 

 nitely superior to all other methods, as to insure its uni- 

 versal adoption. Moreover, by its use we are enabled 

 entirely to dispense with the abomination oi over -printing, 

 and I have also discovered that, after this bath, we can 

 send hyposulphite of soda to the " right about " as a 

 fixing agent, and use instead liquid ammonia, thus re- 

 moving the source of over-sulphurization, and at the same 

 time the principal one, of the loss of some good pictures. 

 Bromide and chloride of silver are both soluble in am- 

 monia, but the iodide is not, hence it is necessary to ex- 

 clude iodine and its compounds from the preparation of 

 any paper to be fixed by ammonia. This material has 

 been before suggested for removing the chloride of silver 



