2n<i S. No 83., Aug. 1. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



99 



'\Worth a plum" (2"" S. iii. 389. ; iv. 13.) — In 

 tracing the expression, "he has got a plum," to 

 the Spanish phrase, "tiene pluma" (he has got 

 plumage, or, he has got a plume, spoken of a man 

 who had " feathered his nest," or acquired wealth), 

 an attempt was made (2""^ S. iv. 13.) to assign 

 some specific reason why the expression more par- 

 ticularly applied to the person who had gained in 

 trade the sura of 100,000^. 



Perhaps you will now permit me to mention a 

 fact which throws additional light upon this ques- 

 tion, and tends to confirm the conclusion already 

 suggested. 



A favourite expression amongst the merchants 

 of the Continent in former days was "a ton of 

 gold." 



Now this expression, " a ton of gold," was in- 

 definite. But it always meant 100,000 pieces of 

 coin, ivhateve?- their value. 



Thus, in French, the " tonne d'or " was a " cer- 

 taine somme d' argent, dont la valeur varie suivant 

 les pays. La tonne d'or est de 100,000 florins en 

 HoUande, et de cent mille thalers en Allemagne." 

 Hence the expression, " donner une tonne d'or en 

 mariage a sa fille." 



Hence also it is stated in Multz's Curieuses 

 Muntz-Lexicon (one of the most curious little 

 books I ever set eyes on), that a " tonne goldes," 

 or "tonne d'or," was a sum of 100,000 dollars, 

 gilders, marks, pounds sterling, 8fc., according to 

 the currency of the respective countries. Thus a 

 ton of gold was in German currency 100,000 rix- 

 doUars ; in English, 100,000 pounds sterling; in 

 Dutch, 100,000 Dutch gilders ; in Polish, 100,000 

 Polish gilders, &c. 



This expression then, " a ton of gold," having, 

 so far as we are concerned, been connected by 

 foreign merchants with the sum of 100,000 

 pounds sterling, may it not serve further to ex- 

 plain why, in saying of a successful merchant that 

 he was worth a plum, the particular amount 

 selected by our forefathers was this " ton of gold," 

 or 10O,OO0Z. ? Thomas Boys. 



Gravestones and Church Repairs (2""* S. iii. 366.) 

 — A curious confirmation of the sanction some- 

 times given by church authorities to the desecra- 

 tion of memorials of the dead, is brought to light 

 in Mr. Beal's recently published work on " tSt. 

 Thomas's Church, Newport, and the Princess 

 Elizabeth," where, speaking of the discovery of 

 her remains in 1793, and the placing a fresh tablet 

 over the vault, he says : 



" Perhaps to save expense, perhaps to get rid of a dis- 

 .'igreeable protest, the tablet was supplied by one taken 

 tiom the churchyard wall, and reading thus: 'Here 

 lyeth the body of Master G'^orge {sic') Shergold, late 

 minister of New Port, who, during sixteen years in dis- 

 charge of his office strictlj- observed the true discipline of 

 the Church of England, and disliking y* dead bodies should 

 he buried in God's House, appointed to be interred in this 

 place. He died imiversally lamented and esteemed, 



January xxiii, 1707.' Tliis being reversed with the inscrip' 

 tion downwards afforded surface whereon to memorialise 

 a more illustrious decease." 



Both cofl5n-plate and tablet are now in posses- 

 sion of the churchwardens of St. Thomas' Church 

 there, to which the statue of the princess by 

 Marochetti, the gift of the Queen, forms no in- 

 considerable addition to the attractions of the 

 place. Henry W. S. Taylor. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



The third volume of Mr. Peter Cunningham's edition of 

 The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Or ford, now first 

 chronologically arranged, has just been issued. As Wal- 

 pole was a letter-writer — who, great as was his gifts, 

 improved by practice — so the present volume exceeds in 

 interest and amusement its predecessors. The letters in- 

 cluded in it extend from 1756 to 1762, and as that period 

 embraces the death of George II., and the accession, mar- 

 riage, and coronation of George III., and all the political 

 intrigues so rii'e at those periods, our readers may well 

 judge what an amusing volume it is. It contains more- 

 over a good many letters not hitherto included in any Col- 

 lection of Wal pole's Letters, and besides these Portraits of 

 Lady Mary VVortley Montagu, George Montagu, Esq., 

 Maria Countess of VValdegrave, and of George Selwyn, 

 Dicky Edgecumbe, and Gilly Williams, from Sir Joshua's 

 well-known picture, noAv in the possession of Mr. La- 

 bouchere. 



The new number of The Quarterly partakes somewhat 

 of the serious nature of the present times. It is, contrary 

 to its wont, rather more grave than gay. The articles on 

 The French Constittitionalists ; Ireland Past and Present ; 

 The Internal Decoration of Churches; and The Divorce 

 Bill, form the solid part of the feast. The lighter dishes 

 are, an article which will, we think, be much relished by 

 classical students, Homeric Characters in and out of 

 Homer; a capital article on Recent Travels in China, 

 founded chieflj'' on Mr. Fortune's Residence among the 

 Chinese; a very amusing chapter on Electioneering ; and 

 an agreeable critical paper on The Manchester Exhibition. 



The mention of the Manchester Exhibition reminds us 

 to hint to intending visitors, (and the reports of competent 

 judges who have visited it are such as to tempt all those 

 who have not, to take the first opportunity of doing so,) 

 that Dr. Waagen has just issued an indispensable little 

 guide to it. It is entitled. The Manchester Exhibition : 

 What to Observe; a Walkthrough the Art- Treasures Exhi- 

 bition under the Guidance of Dr. Waagen. It is issued as 

 a companion to the Official Catalogue, and will be found 

 an amusing and instructive one. 



Our readers will be glad to hear that the Second Divi- 

 sion of Mr. Darling's Cyclopcedia Bibliographica is about 

 to appear. It will be entirely uniform with the Cyclo- 

 pcedia Bibliographica — Authors, recently published, and of 

 which we made so frequent mention in well-deserved 

 terms of praise, and to which work it will form a neces- 

 sary sequel. "Both volumes will be mutually connected 

 and illustrative of each other: the one, under an alpha- 

 betical List of Authors, exhibiting the Subjects on which, 

 they have written by an analytical List of their Works, 

 with some Account of their Lives ; and the other (that 

 now about to be published), under a scientific arrange- 

 ment of heads or common-places, pointing out the Authors 

 who have written on each Subject. By this method, and 

 also by a distinct alphabetical Arrangement of Subjects, 



