500 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[-2"* S. X° 103., Dec. 19. '5V. 



in all the Dutch Calvinist places of worship, but 

 in none of the Roman Catholic churches ; and 

 that the same tradition obtains, which Mr. Ash- 

 pitel heard in Lombardy and Switzerland, that it 

 was an innovation of the Genevans. I have also 

 heard, when Whitfield first built the Tabernacle, 

 that he attempted to enforce the same separation, 

 and in fact did so for some little time. Can any 

 of the readers of "N. & Q.," who are students of 

 Calvinistic Divinity, throw any light on the sub- 

 ject ? That it was usual in the Eastern Church 

 we know, but this arose from their domestic cus- 

 toms, from the habitual seclusion of women in the 

 gynecaeum or harem. But there is not a tittle of 

 evidence that such a practice ever obtained in the 

 Western Churches ; in fact, the silence of Du- 

 randus and the other ritualists seems to prove 

 the contrary. It would be very curious if it 

 should turn out that a custom lately brought to 

 our notice, as one taken up by a section of the 

 High Church party, should after all be of Puritan 

 origin. F. S. A. 



Collecting Postage Stamps (2°"» S. iv. 329.)— The 

 readers of " N. & Q." may remember, at the first 

 introduction of the adhesive postage heads, the 

 obliteration was effected by stamping over them 

 with some red colour. At the same time it was 

 customary, in all the stationers' shops, to see small 

 boxes of postage stamps ready cut for use, which 

 were sold for a trifle beyond the usual shilling a 

 dozen. Shortly after this the obliterating mark 

 was changed to a conspicuous black stamp. I 

 heard at the time that some person had found out 

 a way to clear the red from the old stamps, and 

 to put some fresh adhesive gum on their backs, 

 and sell them as new, by which of course a very 

 large profit was made. Being unable to get 

 enough in any ordinary way, he hit on the plan of 

 circulating a story that a young man of inferior 

 fortune had fallen in love with a lady whose 

 father would not consent to the match unless she 

 collected a million of old postage heads. Many 

 sympathisers were found to save all they could, 

 and to forward them : but the ruse was suspected, 

 the obliterating stamp changed, and the robbery 

 on the revenue at once put a stop to. It certainly 

 was true the boxes of cut stamps disappeared 

 about that time. A. A. 



Poet's Comer. 



" Thumb-brewed" (2°'» S. iv. 147.) ; » Thumb- 

 grog:" ''*■ A Nor-roester." — Old sailors often talk 

 of " Thumb-grog," or " Thumb-brewed grog," 

 which they explain thus : — Of a cold wet night, 

 at the striking the bell, when the watch came 

 down wet, and everything was very dark, some of 

 them used to mix or brew their grog by dipping 

 their thumb into the glass or can, and ascertain by 

 feeling (as they could not see well) when they had 

 put enough rum into it, before adding the water. 



The joke used to be, that the night was so cold 

 they had no sensation in the tips of their thumbs, 

 and, consequently, the rum came up to the mid- 

 dle, and half-filled the glass before they felt it ; 

 and the grog, thus " thumb-brewed," was un- 

 usually strong. May not this phrase have been 

 applied to ale brewed of extra strength ? I once 

 heard an old Salt give a receipt for " a Nor- 

 wester:" Fill half the glass with rum, and the 

 other with strong rum-and- water. Natjticus. 



Sir James Hayes (l** S. v. 226.)— This Sir 

 James Hayes was Secretary to Prince Rupert ; he 

 died at Kensington, Feb. 4, 169f . (See Evelyn's 

 Diary, Aug. 18, 1672, and Luttrell's, vol. iii. 

 p. 28.). He is also alluded to in Gent's Mag., 

 1792, p. 130. ; ditto, 1793, pp. 607. 816. Hasted 

 barely mentions him. 



Query, Is he the same Sir James Hayes who, 

 in 1678, married Grace Clavering, or was there 

 another of the same name ? Information on these 

 points will oblige H. G. Davis. 



Knightsbridge, Nov. 23. 



Epigram quoted by Gibbon. (2°« S. iv. 367. 420.) 

 — Feeble jokes have often strong vitality. That 

 of the snake biting tlie venomous man is very poor 

 and old, but from its easy application, nothing 

 more than shifting a name being required, it is 

 not likely to wear out. Here is an early, but, I 

 believe, not the first version of it : 



" 'O nkv 7ap KaKKTTOS ayyjp T<p /3iw {TwyyijpaflrKet 

 Kol fj7 ixaxpovi kvKdpaVTai iiai Tpt^bs noKefi.ov, 

 Kal BdvaTOS ov ^vvarat tovtov irepiyevecrflai" 

 MaAAoi' ixiv oiv Kal ire<(>pi.Kei' 6 6avaT<K koX rpcjuei 

 M») SaKiov toCtov 6 KaK09 Koi fiaWov 8ava7<i>crei,' 

 'EyiSva yap rot, Ae'^ouo'i, nori <j>apfii.aicotiriTO>p 

 Evi/oCxoi' 4>^d(Tacra. SaKelv, eppdyr) TTopaxp^/na' 

 AuittTos yap ipdcaro ttoAAoJ ^apixaKuiTipov, 

 KaKetVi)! Tov 6avd(Tip.ov ibv viTepviKS>vr<K." 



Manasis Fragmenta, ed. Boissonade, Lugduni 

 Bat. 1819, i. 323. 

 " Non intempestive memini epigrammatis Martinerii (?) 

 hue omnino conferendi : 



" Un gros serpent mordit Aurele. 

 Que croyez-vous qu'il airiva? 

 Qu' Aurele en mourut. — Bagatelle ! 

 Ce fut le serpent qui creva." 



Not. adloc. ii. 421. 



One so rich in wit as Peter Pindar ought to 

 have been ashamed to borrow ; but he writes, on 

 a stone thrown at George III., which missed him : 



" Talk no more of the lucky escape of the head 

 From a flint so unhappily thrown ; 

 I think verj' different from thousands ; indeed 

 'Twas a lucky escape for the stone." 



H. B. C. 

 U. U. Club. 



This epigram has often been printed with the 

 poetry of Voltaire, and quoted in other works. 

 The version of A. B. is, however, not exact. The 

 patient is not the witty and wicked Piron, but 

 Freron, a pupil of the Jesuits, and author of many 



