252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



C2''4 S. NO 91., Sept. 26. '57. 



Midwifes Opuscidum, or Vade Mecum, by Perci- 

 val Willoughby, Gent., wishes me to inquire, 

 through the medium of your pages, whether it 

 has ever been published. Dr. Willoughby died in 

 1685, and is buried at Derby. The book relates 

 mostly to cases in North Derbyshire, and is the 

 production of a well-bred sensible writer. 



J. Eastwood. 

 [This work does not appear to have been published.] 



Black Money. — In the reign of Edward III. a 

 statute was passed (9 Ed. III. c. 4.) that black 

 money shoulinot be current in the realm after 

 that " cry." What was black money ? 



Pkestonieksis. 



[The black money was a base coin brought into Eng- 

 land by foreigners, and severely prohibited by Edward III. 

 Martin Leake, in his Historical Account of English Money, 

 p. 89., says, " It was still the practice of foreigners to 

 bring in counterfeit sterling, and base money, as maile 

 (Camden's Remains, art. Money), and Black-maile, sup- 

 posed to be of copper. To prevent this, it was enacted 

 that no counterfeit money should be brought into the 

 realm, upon forfeiture of such money; and that black 

 money should not be current." Consult also Ending's 

 Annals of Coinage, 1. 210 — 213.] 



Gaily Halfpence. — ThQ Act 11 Hen. IV. c. 5. 

 declares that gaily halfpence shall not be current 

 in this realm. What were gaily halfpence ? 



Prestoniensis. 



[These galley-halfpence were a coin of Genoa, brought 

 in by the galley-men, or men that came up in the galleys 

 with wine and merchandise, and thence called galley-half- 

 pence, broader than the English halfpenny, but not so 

 thick, and probably base metal, because two years after- 

 wards a statute (13 Hen. IV. cap. 6.) was made to con- 

 firm the former law, considering the great deceit, as Avell 

 of the said galley halfpence as other foreign money. — 

 Martin Leake's Historical Account of English Money, 

 p. 129. Consult also Ruding's Annals of Coinage, i, 250 — 

 270.; and Stow's Survey, edit. 1842, p. 50.] 



Junius and Tremellius. — I possess a copy of the 

 Holy Scriptures (with the Apocrypha), bearing on 

 an elaborately-illustrated title-page — 



"Biblia Sacra sive Testamentvm Vetvs, ab Im. Tre- 

 mellio et Fr. Ivnio ex Hebraao Latinfe redditum. Et Tes- 

 tamentvm Novvm, si Theod. Bfea e Greeco in Latinum 

 versum. Amsterdami, apud Guiljel. lanssonium csesum, 

 clo loc xxviii." 



Has this book any value among antiquaries ? 



R. S. P. 



[This work was first published in 1575, and frequently 

 reprinted. It is of some repute among students, and usu- 

 ally sells for about I2s.] 



CHANNEL STEAMER. 



(2°* S. iv. 106. 155. 214.) 



A number of curious details relating to the 

 early history of steam navigation will be found in 



Annals of Glasgow, by James Cleland, two vols. 

 8vo., Glasgow, 1816. Tracing the invention 

 (vol. ii. p. 39a.) from 1785 till the first Comet of 

 Henry Bell in 1812, the postea Doctor at p. 396. 

 gives a table of its progress on the Clyde from 

 1812 to 1816, in which table it appears that 

 twenty steam vessels of various dimensions and 

 horse power during the four years (to the date of 

 the Doctor's publication) had been built at Port 

 Glasgow, Greenock, and Dumbarton, with engines 

 of Glasgow manufacture. It lies without our 

 question farther than to notice that, according to 

 the enumeration of the Doctor's table — 



" No. 2. Elizabeth, launched Nov. 1812, 10 horse power, 

 went to Liverpool in 1814. 



No. 9. Argyle, launched June, 1814, 14 horse power, 

 went to London in May, 1816. 



No. 10. Margery, launched June, 1814, 10 horse power, 

 went to London in November, 1814. 



No. 13. Caledonia, launched April, 1815, 2 engines, each 

 18 horse power, went to London in May, 1816. 



No. 14. Greenock, launched May, 1815, 32 horse power, 

 went to Ireland, and then to London in May, 1816." 



Such, — and I recollect of similar in the primitive 

 times of steam navigation, all strongly put to- 

 gether, and in dimensions, e.g. No. 14., length 

 of keel 80 feet, beam 16 ft. 8 in., — were surely ca- 

 pable of undertaking voyages in deep-sea sailing, 

 though their speed might not quite cope with that 

 of those leviathan ships of now-a-days. Their 

 success on the Clyde induced — 

 " some gentlemen {ante, p. 400-1.) in Dublin to order two 

 vessels to be constructed at Greenock to ply as packets in 

 the Channel between Dublin and Holyhead, with a view 

 of ultimately carrying the mail . . . and on 4th Oc- 

 tober, 1816, the Britannia steamboat started from Howth 

 Harbour in Dublin Bay at a quarter past 12 o'clock, and 

 arrived at Holyhead, a distance of 60 miles, at a quarter 

 past 7 P.M., performing the voyage in seven hours. On 

 the following day she left Holyhead at a quarter past 

 5 P.M., and reached Howth Harbour at one o'clock on the 

 following morning, running the distance in seven hours 

 and fifteen minutes." 



The advances in the art on the Clyde from 

 1816 to 1822 were great, so that, although Lieut. 

 Phillips may deserve much praise, his course in 

 1822 was comparatively an easy one. 

 A very beautiful 4to. volume, pp. 262, entitled 

 " Memorials of the Lineage, Early Life, Education, and 

 Development of the Genius of James Watt, by George 

 Williamson, Esq., late perpetual President of the Watt 

 Club of Greenock. Printed for the Watt Club by Thomas 

 Constable, Printer to Her Majesty, mdccclvi." 



has been privately printed for the members of that 

 club, and lately issued to them. It besides con- 

 tains fifteen illustrations, in portraits of Watt, 

 T^\&ns, facsimile letters of his handwriting, &c. It 

 may be mentioned, by the way, that the gentle- 

 man who collected the materials for this work was 

 Mr. Williamson, late Procurator-Fiscal in Green- 

 ock ; and his son (a minister), who published 

 them for the club, died two or three months 

 afterwards. As this volume may not readily fall 



