106 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 249. 



Singed Vellum. — Can any of your readers 

 assist me in the following case ? _ A few years ago 

 the vicarage house of an adjoining parish was 

 burnt down. The parish register, consisting of 

 several old volumes in vellum, received consider- 

 able injury. At the first glance they have the 

 appearance of masses of charred wood. The 

 edges of the leaves, for half an inch to an inch 

 inwards, have been burnt away; and the re- 

 mainder of each volume, although not destroyed, 

 has been rendered useless by the action of the 

 heat. These leaves, instead of being flat and 

 smooth, as heretofore, are now curled, twisted, 

 contracted, contorted, involuted, convoluted, and 

 crumpled together so densely and so rigidly, 

 that they resist all attempts, except violence, to 

 separate them. But violence is destruction, be- 

 cause the heat and the dryness have rendered 

 them brittle. Any attempt to unfold them from 

 their present involutions only cracks them. The 

 ■writing is brown from age, as in other MSS. of 

 equal date, but has received no manifest injury 

 from the fire. 



My Query is this : Can any of your readers 

 inform me whether there is a process by which 

 vellum, in such a state, may be softened and un- 

 folded, without injury to the writing ? 



Peter Hutchinson. 



Sidmouth. 



[If our correspondent refers to Sims' Handbook to the 

 Library of the British Museum, p. 26., he will find that, 

 since 1842, no less than one hundred volumes written 

 upon vellum, and ninety-seven upon paper, which were 

 among the burnt fragments of the Cottonian MSS., have 

 been restored under the directions of Sir Frederick Madden, 

 the present keeper of the MSS. Having had occasion 

 recently to consult one of these, namely, the MS. of the 

 French version of the Ancren Rewle, described in our 

 Ninth Volume, p. 6., we can speak to the great skill with 

 which that unique volume has been flattened and ren- 

 dered fit for use. — Ed. « N. & Q."] 



LOBD BACON AND SHAKSPEABE. ] 



(Vol. viii., p. 438.) 



The suggestion of Theta for an inquiry why 

 these two great cotemporaries make no mention 

 of each other, has not, I believe, produced any 

 result. It might, I think, be very reasonably ac- 

 counted for by several circumstances of dissimi- 

 larity of condition and pursuits, and especially the 

 fact that Shakspeare died before Bacon had pub- 

 lished, or perhaps written, any of his celebrated 

 works, or was otherwise known than as a success- 

 ful lawyer. There can be little doubt that Bacon 

 must have seen some of Shakspeare's plays acted, 

 and may even have read some of them in the im- 

 perfect quartos ; but the first collection of them in 

 the folio of 1623 was but three years prior to 



Bacon's death, who could not, till then, have been 

 acquainted with the full extent of Shakspeare's 

 genius ; and at that late period, or even earlier, it 

 is not likely that the great legist and philosopher 

 should have any occasion to allude to the great 

 dramatist and poet. These reasons might, I think, 

 reasonably account for the mutual silence of their 

 works ; but I suspect that Bacon and Shakspeare 

 knew much more of each other than either had 

 any ambition to record. We know but too well 

 how little satisfaction Bacon could have had in 

 recalling to notice the proceedings against Essex 

 and Southampton, in which a tragedy of Richard 

 II. formed a prominent feature. This tragedy, 

 altered for the occasion, the actors were bribed to 

 play the night before Essex's insurrection, to in- 

 flame the public mind ; and I cannot but suspect 

 that Shakspeare himself was employed by South- 

 ampton on this occasion, and that Southampton'* 

 long friendship and munificent patronage of Shak- 

 speare date from this event ; and if so, there was 

 good reason why Bacon and Shakspeare should 



gether. 



C. 



COUEEIDGES LECTTJEES ON SHAKSPEAEB. 



(Vol. X., p. 1.) 



Every friend and admirer of the genius and 

 superior talents with which Samuel Taylor Cole- 

 ridge was gifted, and of the eloquent and exube- 

 rant manner in which he poured forth his thoughts, 

 must be delighted with the announcement Mr. 

 Collier has made of the discovery of his missing 

 short-hand notes of Coleridge's lectures on Shak- 

 speare. The quotations he promises * will be anx- 

 iously looked for by the public generally, more 

 particularly by his relatives, friends, and school- 

 fellows. I am one of the few of his cotemporaries 

 at Christ's Hospital that now remain. 



Mb. Collier, in his communication to "N. & 

 Q.," states, that "for Coleridge's third lecture, 

 and indeed for the remainder of the series, he 

 made no preparation, and was liked better than 

 ever, and vociferously and heartily cheered. The 

 reason was obvious, for what came from the heart 

 of the speaker went warm to the heart of the 

 hearer ; and though the Illustrations might not be 

 so good, yet being extemporaneous, and often 

 from objects immediately before his eyes, they 

 made more impression, and seemed to have more 

 aptitude." 



In the first edition of Coleridge's Literary Be- 

 mam«t, vol. 11. p. 4., is a letter from him to Mr. 



[ * We shall have the pleasure of printing a farther com- 

 munication from Mr. Collier on this interesting subject 

 in our next Number. — Ed. "N. & Q."] 



f In this volume are many extracts, taken from a MS. 

 common-place book in my possession. 



