56 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2''<« S. N» 81., JuLT 18. '57. 



being. By that act, which was limited in its 

 operation to a circuit of ten miles from the Royal 

 Exchange, it was enacted that bread, with the 

 exception of French rolls and fancy bread, should 

 be sold by weight only, but might be of any 

 weight and size. There is, however, another re- 

 markable exception. Sec. 6. enacts, that the peck 

 loaf, or its subdivisions, shall not be made or sold 

 for two years from the commencement of the act 

 (Sept. 29, 1822), a provision which seems very 

 fully to have effected the object of its framers ; or 

 we should not, at the end of so brief a period as 

 five-and-thirty years, have seen in your columns 

 the query which has led to this reply. 



The assize of bread, however, was not done 

 away with till 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 37., which came 

 in force on Oct. 1, 1836. By this act the prin- 

 cipal provisions of the former act were extended 

 to Great Britain generally. I have not immediate 

 access to the several acts connected with this sub- 

 ject, passed since the 13 Geo. III. c. 62., and can- 

 not therefore say whether any alteration in the 

 rate of assize was made between that, date and its 

 abolition ; but a brief extract from a table framed 

 in conformity with that act, which now lies before 

 me, may serve to give an idea to those of your 

 readers who have entered on mature life within 

 the last twenty years, and perhaps can scarcely 

 imagine that up to so recent a period such things 

 were, what this assize was. The price of a bushel 

 of wheat being five shillings, the weight of the 

 penny loaf of standard wheaten bread was 6xed 

 at 12 oz. 1 dr. ; and the price at which the peck 

 loaf was to be sold, at I*, lid., varying in propor- 

 tion with every variation of Sd, in the bushel. 

 Household bread, which I presume to have been 

 of undressed wheaten meal, was to be one-third 

 heavier in the former case, and three-fourths of 

 the price in the latter. T. B. B. H. 



^tplit^ ta Minav HhutvitS, 



Judge Bingham (2"-^ S. iv. 5.)— Is there any 

 means of ascertaining the lineage, &c., of the 

 Judge Bingham, mentioned in the Year Booh, 

 4 Edw. IV. ? I find Richard Bingham among 

 the Puisne Justices of the King's Bench, in Beat- 

 son's Index, under the date May 9, 1457 ; and 

 again. Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., Oct. 9, 1471. 

 This would probably be the same person ; and 

 might he not be identical with the representative 

 of the Binghams of Bingham's Melcombe, Richard 

 Bingham, who appears, by their pedigree, in 

 Hutchins's Dorset, to have died a.d. 1480 ? 



I should also be glad of any information respect- 

 ing a certain Capt. John Bingham, translator and 

 annotator of -SiJlian's 2'actics, two editions of which 

 I now have before me. The first is dated " from 

 my Garrison at Woudrichem in Holland, the 20th of 



September, 1616 ;" and is dedicated "to the High 

 and Mighty Charles, only Sonne of his'JMajesty," 

 &c. The second is printed a.d. 1629, with fur- 

 ther notes, and an additional dedication " to the 

 Right Worshipful! Sir Hugh Hamersley, Knight, 

 one of the Aldermen and Colonels of the Honora- 

 ble City of London," and others, " worthy Cap- 

 taines and Gentlemen" of the Artillery Company. 

 He here speaks of being about to " depart I'rom 

 them, and to journey into a farre Countrey." 



C. W. B. 



Quotation wanted : " Second thoughts not always 

 best" (2"'^ S. iv. 8.) — The passage in Bishop But- 

 ler's Works to which Ache alludes appears to be 

 the following. It occurs in the Sermon upon the 

 Character of Balaam : 



" In all common, ordinarj' cases we see intuitively at 

 first viev/ what is our duty, what is the honest part. This 

 is the ground of the observation that the first thought is 

 often the best. In these cases doubt and deliberation is 

 itself dishonesty ; as it was in Balaam upon the second 

 message. That which is called considering what is our 

 duty in a particular case is very often nothing but en- 

 deavouring to explain it away. Thus those courses which, 

 if men Avould fairly attend to the dictates of their own 

 consciences, they would see to be corruption, excess, op- 

 pression, nncharitableness ; these are refined upon — 

 things were so and so circumstanced — great difficulties 

 are raised about fixing bounds and degrees: and thus 

 every moral obligation whatever may be evaded." — Se- 

 venth Sermon at the Rolls, 



J. W. Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



I think it will be found that this dictum was by 

 Shenstone, not by his great contemporary Bishop 

 Butler ; at all events your correspondent may see 

 that it occurs twice in the poet's Detached Thoughts 

 on Men and Manners : 



"Third thoughts often coincide with the first, and are 

 generally the best grounded. We first relish nature and 

 the country; then artificial amusements and the city; 

 then become impatient to retire to the country again." 



" Second thoughts oftentimes are the very worst of all 

 thoughts. First and third very often coincide. Second 

 thoughts are too frequently formed by the love of novelt}', 

 and have consequently less of simplicity, and more of af- 

 fectation. This, however, regards principally objects of 

 taste and fancj^ Third thoughts, at least, are here very 

 proper mediators." — See Shenstone's Essays on 3Ien and 

 Manners, with Aphorisms, S^c., Cooke's edition, London, 

 1802, pp. 151. 167. 



Was it a defective memory, or what was it, that 

 made Shenstone, in sundry instances, repeat his 

 aphorisms ? C. Foebes. 



Temple. 



Seeing that the origin of this saying is wanted, 

 I would suggest that it is wrongly quoted, and 

 that the true saying is, " Second thoughts are 

 somehow best;" and in support of my view I 

 would adduce from the Hippolytus of Euripides, 



1.438.: 



" At SivrepaC nias <j>povtCS€S <ro^wT«pai," 



