136 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"i S. N" 85., Aug. 15. '57. 



on when a compositor empties his stjck. The 

 German word for this is, and I presume always 

 was, schiffe, as the word galley was in the fifteenth 

 century a literal translation of it. 



To set (setzen). — This is used in the same 

 sense as " to compose," but we never use the noun 

 (ein setzer) as they do in Germany, the word com- 

 positor being its only equivalent. The whole 

 subject, I feel, if properly elucidated, would be to 

 the philolo^^ist one of great interest ; but, such as 

 they are, I trust these Notes will be deemed not 

 altogether unworthy a place in the valuable co- 

 lumns of " N. & Q." Ew QuAB. 



PARISH REGISTERS, 

 (2"'» S. iii.321.) 



The laudable attempt of your correspondent W. 

 H.W.T. to suggest some means for the preservation 

 from further mutilation of the inestimable records 

 usually known as the "Parish registers," merits the 

 hearty thanks of all. To rescue them from their 

 present perilous depositories, often more whimsical 

 than secure, deserves thanks and encourage- 

 ment from every grade. It is certainly unneces- 

 sary to swell the catalogue of wanton and even 

 mischievous means that have been taken to lead 

 to their destruction, but it is certain unscrupulous 

 and often successful efforts have been made to 

 thwart their important evidence. 



The following singular example falling under 

 my own observation is too important to suppress, 

 while attempting to prove the carelessness, to 

 use no harsher term, of those to whose custody they 

 have been confided. On visiting the village school 

 of Colton it was discovered that the " Psalters " 

 of the children were covered with the leaves of 

 the parish register ; some of these were recovered 

 and replaced in the church chest, but many were 

 totally obliterated and put away. This discovery 

 led to further investigation, which brought to 

 light a practice of the parish clerk and school- 

 master of the day, who to certain favoured 

 " goodies " of the village gave the parchment 

 leaves for hutkins for their knitting pins, being 

 more convenient and durable than those of brown 

 paper. 



Your correspondent, K. (2"^ S. iii. p. 366.), has 

 enlarged upon this subject by his remarks on 

 the mutilations, or to say the least of it, the 

 misapplication of the grave and tombstones to 

 purposes perfectly irrelevant to the design con- 

 templated by those who in pious grief raised them 

 at considerable cost to the memories of their de- 

 parted friends or relations, thus furthering the 

 common destiny of all things. To your corre- 

 spondent's suggestions let me ask, why are not the 

 children in the parish schools employed to collect 

 the inscriptions in every depository of the dead ? 



Sure such exercises would instruct at once morally 

 and religiously, and be the means of guiding the 

 youthful mind to veneration for things and per- 

 sons that are passed away, and a most lamentable 

 vacuum in the peasant's mind would be filled with 

 a patriot's ardour. The rector or his curate 

 could not deem the time mis-spent he might devote 

 to correct the juvenile efibrts to decipher those 

 moss-eaten and time-worn inscriptions by the- 

 common process : to record those in the dead 

 language would certainly be congenial to his taste. 

 The figuring of the floors in Tuscan borders 

 with encaustic tiles is undoubtedly pretty, but the 

 old gray tombstone, even with the denuded ma- 

 trix, are the " mute and awful heralds of a future 

 state," very far more befitting the sacred edifice, 

 and convey a moral the Tuscans never knew. 

 Such things have been done. Your readers will 

 find in the Library of Great Yarmouth some in- 

 estimable volumes collected by a private indi- 

 vidual, and more recently auguiented with later 

 inscriptions ; these were collected at some cost, 

 but by the plan proposed priceless volumes would 

 be obtained free from every charge. 



Henry D'Avenet. 



Enigmatical Pictures (2""* S. iv. 106.) — ■ An 

 enigmatical picture, similar to the second men- 

 tioned by Mb. William Bates, is preserved at 

 the Grove, near Watford, and is described in Lady 

 Theresa hewla' 8 Lives from the Clarendon Oallery, 

 vol. iii. p. 286. The two inscriptions, of which 

 modernised versions are given by Mr. Bates, 

 appear in this picture in the following form : 

 Above the standing Figure, 

 "My fair lady, I pray you tell me, 

 What and of whence be yonder three, 

 That Cometh out of the castle in such degree, 

 And of their descent and nativity." 

 Beneath the sitting Lady. 

 " Sir, the one is my brother, of my father's side, the 

 truth you to show, 

 The other by my mother's side is my brother also ; 

 Tlie third is my own son lawfully begot, 

 And all be sous to my husband that sleeps here iu my 



lap. 

 Without hurt of lineage in any degree, 

 Show me by reason how that may be." 



Lady Theresa subjoins these remarks : 



" The lady's two half brothers must have married the 

 daugtiters of her husband by a former marriage, which 

 made them sons (i. e. sons-in-law) to her husband, and 

 brothers to the son of their sister. 



" A picture on the same subject was formerly at an inn 

 at Epping Place. The tradition there was that the 

 strange relationship described in the riddle had occurred 

 in the house of Copt Hall, situated in that neighbour- 

 hood." 



Mr. Bates does not mention the place where 



