434 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 100., Nov. 28. '57. 



•which I might name) I have now before me a 

 copy of Eachard's Exact Description of Ireland, 

 which appeared in 1691. What is the earliest 

 work upon the subject ? Abhba. 



The First English Grammar. — At what time, 

 by whom, and in what language, was written the 

 first English Grammar, or the one first mentioned 

 in literary history ?* Philologist. 



Words in the Eyes. — A long time ago a French 

 child (a little girl, I think of four or five years 

 old,) was exhibited in London, having the words 

 "Empereur Napoleon" and "Napoleon Empe- 

 reur," distinctly visible in the iris of each eye : a 

 physiological reason was given at the time in ex- 

 planation of this curious fact. Can you inform 

 me whether the individual is still alive ? and also, 

 if the letters remain visible ? Centubion. 



Patabolle. — What was the origin of the order 

 of distinction termed Patabolle ? As far as I can 

 trace it, it appears to have first been instituted in 

 France towards the end of the last century. It 

 then signified a horseman ; but whether a jockey 

 or a cavalier, I cannot discover. Victor Hughes 

 was one of the Order. I shall feel obliged for any 

 light that can be thrown on this interesting sub- 

 ject. R. G. 



" The Present State of France, 1691." — Inform- 

 ation is requested as to the author of a work en- 

 titled Six Weeks Observations on the Present State 

 of the Court and Country of France ; in the Savoy : 

 printed by E. Jones, and sold by Randal Taylor, 

 near Stationers' Hall, 1691. The book is a bit- 

 ter attack on Louis XIV., and contains a graphic 

 description of the miserable state of the country. 

 The style is pungent, and reminds one of Defoe. 



W. M. N. 



'■'•The Book of Common-Prayer,''' Sfc. — To 

 whom are we to attribute a 12mo. volume, enti- 

 tled The Book of Common- Prayer of the Church 

 of England adapted for General Use in other 

 Protestant Churches f It was published by the 

 late Mr. Pickering in 1852. Abhba. 



[Two editions of this work appeared in 1852 : the first 

 published by William Pickering, and the second by E. T. 

 Whitfield, 178. Strand. In the Preface the Editor says, 

 " As there is no reasonable hope that a revision, long im- 

 peratively called for, will come from the quarter whence, 

 but for the Iflfng silence amidst complaints and wishes so 

 freely and widely expressed, it might be expected to 

 proceed, the following attempt to render this Book of 

 Common Prayer suitable for general use, issues from a 

 more humble quarter, where there is nothing to be 

 dreaded, from a sincere effort to do justice to the cause of 

 truth and righteousness." In the Preface to the second 



[* Two early English Grammars are noticed in our !•* 

 S. ix. 478.; xi. 107. — Ed.] 



edition occurs the following passage : " The work has 

 been described as appearing to be designed for the use of 

 Unitarians ; and if Unitarian Churches can or do adopt 

 it, the wishes of its author will be gratified ; because this 

 will show that a Liturgy, constructed with a strict regard 

 to Scripture phraseology, is not inconsistent with their 

 views and feelings." In the Catalogue of the British 

 Museum, the editorship is attributed to Mr. H. H. Piper.] 



MedicBval Maps. — Sir John Mandeville, in his 

 Travels (p. 315. of the reprint of 1839), says that 

 his book was submitted to the Pope's council, and 

 examined by a book in their possession, " be the 

 whiche the Mappa Mundi was made after." 



Mr. Halliwell in a note says, " according to 

 Herbert, the English edition of 1503, printed by 

 Wynken de Worde, possesses a map of the world." 



Can any of your readers help me to answers to 

 the following questions, suggested by these pas- 

 sages : — 



1 . Is the Mappa Mundi extant, and where can 

 it, or a copy of it, be seen ? 



2. Who was Herbert ? 



3. Where can Wynken de Worde's 1503 edition 

 of Mandeville be seen ? 



4. Who were the principal map-makers of the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries ? 



5. Are there any fac-similes of maps, delineated 

 by geographers of the fourteenth and fifteenth 

 centuries, published in an accessible form ? 



M. A. 



[William Herbert is the editor of Ames's Typographical 

 Antiquitih. Wynken de Worde's edition of Mandeville, 

 1503, is not in the British Museum or the Bodleian, nor 

 even in the Grenville library, which is peculiarlj' rich in 

 the earlier editions of this remarkable work. The edition 

 of 1503 is entitled " Here begynneth a lytell treatyse, or 

 booke, named Johan Maundeuylle, knyght, born in Eng- 

 lond, in the towne of saynt Albone, and speketh of the 

 wayes of the holy loude towarde Jerusalem, and of mar- 

 ueylles of Inde, and of other dyuerse Countres." With a 

 map. It is a small quarto, and hath 75 wooden cuts in 

 it, and 108 leaves. The colophon ; " Here endeth the 

 boke of Johan Mandeuyll, knyght, of the waj's towarde 

 Jerusalem, and of the Maruayles of Inde, and of other 

 countrees, &c. Enprynted in the cyte of London, in the 

 Flete-strete, in the synge of sonne, anno domini mccccciii.' 

 In the possession of Wm. Bayntun, Esq." (Herbert's 

 Ames, i. 139.) There is an exceedingly curious map 

 preserved in the Cathedral of Hereford, constructed pro- 

 bably before the thirteenth century ..and completed in the 

 fourteenth. It is a rich record of errors upon various 

 topics — in geography, in natural history, and, above all, 

 in ethnology. The three quarters of the world to which 

 the map is limited are marked by illuminated names. 

 Asia is correct ; but Africa stands in the place of Europa ; 

 Europa in the place of Africa. It presents us with the 

 mermaid in the Mediterranean, the unicorn in Africa, 

 flj'ing dragons everywhere ; and all exact prototypes of 

 what now exist only in coat armour ; whilst real animals 

 — bears and monkeys — little known to our ancestors, 

 are distributed about the earth with as little regard to 

 truth as was felt in forming those creations of fancy. In 

 ethnology, it carefully registers the headless men with 

 eyes in their breasts, and the four-eyed, ever-waking 

 Ethiopians. Consult A Brief Description of the Map of 

 the Ancient World, found in the Cathedral Church of Her^- 



