2nd S. N« 92., Oct. 3. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



279 



provided in every parish, and that some able and 

 honest person should " be elected, approved, and 

 sworn, should be called the Parish Register^ should 

 continue three years in the said place of register 

 and longer, until some other should be chosen." 



He was to have the keeping of the said book, 

 and fairly enter in writing all such publications, 

 marriages, &c., as aforesaid ; and he was also to 

 receive certain fees, fixed by the act. E. M. 



Oxford. 



Envelope (2"" S. iv. 170. 195.) — Without at- 

 tempting to trace the origin or etymology of 

 envelopes, it may perhaps be interesting to your 

 correspondents to know that they were used by 

 the great Frederic, King of Prussia.^ 



I have a private letter of his addressed to an 

 English general in ' his service, dated July 28^ 

 1766, at Potsdam, which is enclosed in an en- 

 velope, just like in form to those we use now, 

 with the only difference that it opens on the side, 

 like that used by lawyers for deeds, instead of on 

 the top as those for our letters do. It is com- 

 posed of very coarse German paper. 



Edwahd Foss. 



" Unwisdom'' (2"^ S. iv. 207.) — The following 

 examples of the use of this word are the earliest I 

 can find. Wycliffe's New I'estament, 1380 (Pick- 

 ering, 1848), 2 Cor. 11. : 



" I wolde yee schulden susteyne a litil thing of myn 

 unwisdom," 



Again, 2 Tim. 3. : 



" Sothely the unwisdom of them schal be knowen to alle 

 men." 



Other examples from the same source may be 

 found for the looking for. 



Modern instances may be found in American 

 literature. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Thomas Anglicus (2"'' S. iv. 207.) — This name 

 frequently occurs in the Rotuli Litlcrarum Clau- 

 sarum in Turri Londinensi Asservati, etiited by Mr. 

 T. D. Hardy. By referring to the admirable In- 

 dex of this work ready access may be had to all 

 the passages where the name is mentioned, trans- 

 lated Engleys or L'Engleys. E. C. 



Cork. 



Thumb-brewed (2°^ S. iv. 14'7.) — One lives and 

 learns ; but for your correspondent's information 

 on the above phrase, I (a Yorkshireman) should 

 have gone on thinking that it merely meant " th' 

 home brewed." j. Eastwood. 



Swallowing live Frogs (2"'' S. iv. 145.) — Me- 

 NTANTiiES tells us that more than forty years ago 

 he saw a female reaper swallow several live frogs, 

 and inquires if this practice was used as a remedy 

 in former times. I remember more than fifty 

 years ago that the practice was common with 



schoolboys, and I have seen it done often. It was 

 alleged by those who did it, that it was good to 

 cleanse the stomach, which seems to have been the 

 notion of Mary Inglis. But how far it was a 

 practice seriously adopted as a remedy for any 

 maladies, I cannot say. F. C. H. 



Swallowing live frogs appears to have been no 

 uncommon medicine in the North Riding of York- 

 shire for weakness and consumption. Several 

 old people, dead years ago, have spoken of taking 

 them when young, and have even added they were 

 delicious. C. J. D. J. 



MiiteUaneaxtg, 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Friends as we are to the establishment of Free Li- 

 braries, we thinlc the Corporation of Norwich should 

 pause before they take the step announced in the follow- 

 ing communication: "The Corporation of Norwich are 

 the trustees of a library of 2000 volumes — a library ve- 

 nerable from its age, its nature, its condition, and its 

 donors. Consisting chiefly of the works of the Fathers, 

 of Protestant controversial divinity, and of Hebrew, 

 Greek, Latin, and some Dutch authors, the gilts of 

 learned and illustrious men connected with the city (such 

 as Archbishops Parker, Tanner, and others, Burghley, 

 the Howards, &c.), it contains some matchless trea- 

 sures, a MS. folio of WicklifFe's Bible, magnificently il- 

 luminated, originally belonging to Wickliffe himself, and 

 by Archbishop Parker presented to the city : other illu- 

 minated MSS. specimens of Pj'nson and Wynkin de 

 VVorde in original boards and clasps. It is a library of 

 reference for the learned, and interesting to the learned 

 only. Hitherto it has been well preserved, and there has 

 never been any difficulty in obtaining access to it at any 

 time during daylight; nor have there been any losses 

 during the last thirty years. There is, however, in the 

 city of Norwich, of late erection, a building called ' The 

 Free Library,' open to all, at present very bare of books, 

 but well supplied with newspapers and fugitive literature, 

 suited to the taste of their readers, and frequented prin- 

 cipally by artizans and young men of that class, to whom 

 the books of the City Library would be as carrion to the 

 multitude. Will it'be believed that the Corporation of 

 Norwich are about to transfer this venerable collection 

 from the safe custod3'- of the shelves where they now 

 repose, to the dust, the gas, the clogged atmosphere, and 

 casualties, of a crowded room ; to the disregard, the ne- 

 glect, the contempt of a promiscuous assemblage, who 

 cannot reverence what they cannot appreciate, and who, 

 however decorous and respectable, cannot appreciate Ba- 

 ronius, Eusebius, or Salisbury Missals. I appeal to the 

 lovers of learning in England to protest against this de- 

 secration." It is obvious that books of the character 

 referred to are not calculated for the classes for whom 

 Free Libraries are instituted. The few of those classes 

 who could ever use them, would then gladly use them — 

 out of the Free Library, its crowds and bustle. 



We understand that the first distribution of the Na- 

 tional Medals for Drawing among the Students of the. 

 Schools of Art of the United Kingdom, will take place at 

 Manchester in the Town Hall, on the 9th October. The 

 distribution will be made by the Lord President of the 

 Council, the Rt. Hon. the Earl Granville, and the Vice- 

 President of the Education Committee, the Rt. Hon. W. 

 Cowper. 



