2n'» S. No 93., Oct. 10. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



295 



show that they are not the joke of a protestant 

 against a papist, but of a papist against a pro- 

 testant, who eats by faith. These lines show that 

 the memorial verses were collected at a time when 

 arguments were to be remembered against the 

 oppugners of transubstantiation, so that probably 

 its date is in the time of Henry VIII., instead of 

 Henry VII. as supposed by Mr. Halliwell. Un- 

 less indeed, which is likely enough, coming events 

 were throwing their shadows before. M. 



"STAe Country Midwifes Opusculum, or Vade 

 Mecum" (2"'« S. iv. 251.)— The MS. to which Me. 

 Eastwood refers, and the title of which I have 

 transcribed above, has not I believe been printed. 

 Its author, Percival Willoughby, enjoyed a de- 

 servedly high reputation in Derbyshire. He was 

 the son of Sir Percival Willoughby of Wollaton, 

 and was educated at Oxford, where he took the 

 degree of Bachelor of Arts. Settling at Derby, 

 he soon obtained the respect and esteem of all 

 classes ; and on February 20, 1640-1, being then 

 in full practice "in villa et comitatu Derbiensi 

 et alibi in Medicina bene et multum exercitatus," 

 he was, after the usual examinations, admitted an 

 Extra Licentiate of the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians of London. Dying in 1685, he was buried, 

 as Mr. Eastwood informs us, at Derby. If that 

 gentleman would courteously supply me with a 

 copy of the inscription to Willoughby's memory, 

 I shall consider myself his debtor. 



W. Mdnk, M.D. 

 Finsbury Place, London, Sept. 26, 1857. 



" Solidus" (2""^ S. iv. 250.) — This word in old 

 charters, and modern Latin generally, means 

 shilling.^ Librce, solidi, denarii, obolus, quadrans, 

 (abbreviated into li, or £, s, d, ob, q) denoting 

 pounds, shillings, pence, halfpenny, and farthing, 

 respectively. The word seems originally to have 

 been applied to any coin which represented in one 

 solid lump, so to speak, a given number of denarii. 

 After Alexander Severus coined gold pieces of 

 one-half and one-third of the aureus, which was 

 the standard gold coin under the emperors, worth 

 about II. Is. l^d., the whole aureus was called 

 solidus. Spelman gives several quotations in which 

 mention is made of solidi of 12 and 40 denarii ; 

 of 4 Parisian solidi, not exceeding 8 English de- 

 narii ; of 6 solidi being equivalent to 2 ounces of 

 silver ; of 30 denarii in the time of 2EA?t\q making 

 6 solidi, &c. See also Smith's Diet, of Antiq., v. 

 AuRUM. J, Eastwood. 



" Walkingame's Arithmetic" (1" S. v. 441. ; xi. 

 57. ; xii. 66.) — Prof de Morgan {Arithmetical 

 Books, 1847), says : 



" I should be thankful to any one who would tell me 

 who Walkingame was, and when his first edition was 

 published, for this book is by far the most used of all the 

 school books, and deserves to stand high among them." 



I have seen it stated in an educational periodi- 

 cal, on the authority of an extensive publisher, 

 that during the year 1856 more copies of Walk- 

 ingame issued from the press than of any other 

 arithmetical work. The oldest edition mentioned 

 by De Morgan is the 24th, 1798. I have two 

 older ones by me. The 4th, 1760 ; and the 20tb, 

 1784. The 4th edition contains the following 

 advertisement : 



" Writing in all its various hands now in use ; Arith- 

 metic through all its different Rules ; Vulgar and Decimal 

 Fractions, with the Extraction of Square and Cube Root ; 

 also Duodecimals are taught abroad. Bj' F. Walkingame, 

 At the Water Office in St. Martin's Lane, near Charing 

 Cross. Where may be had the Tutor's Assistant.'" 



The advertisement is repeated in the 20th 

 edition, but the residence is changed to Kensing- 

 ton : " Where may be had the Tutor's Assistant, 

 and all the other works of the Author." 



Could any of your correspondents answer the 

 Professor's Queries ? and also say, what were 

 Walkingame's "other works ?" C. D. H. 



Keighley. 



Macistus (2"^ S. iv. 189.) — This is not here the 

 name of a place, but of a person. Schiitz, on the 

 passage in the Agamemnon of JSschylus (v. 299.) 

 says : 



" MokiVtov plane nomen est non montis, sed hominis, 

 cujus munus hoc faces accendendi alicubi inter Athon et 

 Euripum commiserat Agamemnon. Hoc manifestum est 

 ex proxime sequentibus o fiepos." 



There is an error in the Oxford translation, 

 which renders Mcucfo-Tou ffKoirais, " to the watchman 

 of Macistus," instead of "to the beacons of Ma- 

 cistus. " And he," ^schylus continues, meaning 

 Macistus, "not delaying his duty," &c. The 

 Greek scholiast, generally particular as to geo- 

 graphical points, passes this verse in silence. He- 

 rodotus mentions a city of this name as founded 

 (B.C. 637) by Theras of Lacedemon, in the island 

 of Callista, afterwards Thera (iv. 148.). The Per- 

 sian name Maa-ia-nos was pronounced by the Greeks 

 McutiffTios (Herod, ix. 20.), n.c. 479. 



Macistus had to watch probably from some 

 mountain of Euboea, near the Eurlpus, say Dir- 

 phossus, for the lighting of the beacon on Mount 

 Athos, the height of which latter is 6349 feet, which 

 gives an horizon of 104 miles (^/6349 ( = 80) X 

 1-3=^104). The direct distance of the tops of 

 these mountains is about 108 miles, so that a 

 slight elevation of the observer above the sea 

 level near Eubcea would suffice to make the light 

 visible from Athos. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. 



''Esquire," ''Mister" (2°'* S. iv. 238.) — Mr. 

 Dixon's friend, the solicitor, requested his book- 

 seller to " strike out Esquire, and put Mister in- 

 stead." If my question is not a foolish one, I 

 should like to ask, whether the solicitor had really 



