,0CT. 21. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



317 



LONDON, SATUJtDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1854. 



NOTES ON KEEPING NOTES. 



In a former Number of your valuable repertory, 

 which I have been unable to find by searching 

 the indexes, an inquiry was made as to the best 

 form of keeping notes. I have carefully watched 

 for a reply, but not perceiving one, have ad- 

 dressed these remarks for the purpose of again 

 bringing forward the subject. 



Locke was, I believe, the first to treat on the 

 matter in his New Method for a Common-place 

 JBook, a tract doubtless too well known to your 

 readers to need describing. A great advance was 

 made on this by Dr. Guy, in " Communication to 

 the Statistical Society," printed, if I mistake not, 

 in the seventh volume of the Statistical Journal. 

 His system consisted in arranging his notes in 

 separate covers, having a letter on the edge of 

 ■each, like the index to a ledger, so as readily to 

 turn to the particular cover in which a " note" is 

 to be found ; of course an index is attached, 

 showing what subjects are contained in each 

 <50ver. 



I have found it more convenient to have a stiflT 

 label to each cover, bearing the title of the sub- 

 ject contained. Thus, my portfolio 

 of archaeological notes would contain 

 •as many stiff" covers (foolscap size) as 

 I might require, each bearing on the 

 right-hand edge a stiff label, with 

 the words British, &c. As the re- 

 spective collections become more nu- 

 merous, each would occupy a portfolio to itself. 

 Thus, British has the four divi- 

 sions in the margin, and in the 

 Roman each [consists ?] of as many 

 subdivisions. 



The advantage of this method is 

 that each subject of collection is 

 classed at once ; a note, however rough or brief, is 

 instantly put in its proper place, requires no fair 

 copying or indexing, and is as readily referred to. 

 Any note, of whatever size, is also admitted with- 

 out destroying the uniformity or neatness of the 

 collection. A friend's letter, a cutting from a 

 newspaper, a page of an old book or catalogue, 

 prints, sketches, everything may be at once re- 

 duced to order and symmetry. 



As I have found great convenience in its use, 

 permit me to make a note of a simple file for 

 papers, consisting of a flat board of the size of the 



f)aper, 8vo., 4to., folio, -with two elastic bands, one 

 ongitudinal, the other transverse, not of the 

 Indian rubber, which are always breaking, but of 

 the material well known to ladies as " elastic," 

 about half an inch broad. The transverse one is 



ORNAMENT. 



put on first, so that by slipping off the other the 

 papers may be readily turned over without dis- 

 placement. 



These things appear mere trifles, but they 

 derive value from their economising time, a com- 

 modity not to be acquired, but which may be 

 saved. Young Cuttle. 



HENBr OF HUNTINGDON A WELSHMAN. 



^ A passage in our Cambrian annals has recently 

 piqued my curiosity ; and as it appears to add 

 information on an interesting point in literary 

 history, I forward it to " N. & Q." It is this : 



"a. D. 1162. Ac yna y bu uarw Henri ab Arthen go- 

 ruchel athro ar holl s^yfredin yr hoU yscolheigion." — 

 " Brut y Tywysogion," 3Ii/v. Arch., ii. 431. 



which in English is, — 



"A.D. 1162. And then died Henri the son of Arthen, 

 the most learned of the generality of scholars." — The 

 Chronicle of the Princes. 



So learned a man in that day could have been 

 no other than Henry of Huntingdon, and if so, 

 we have here, what has hitherto been unknown, 

 the date of his death ; but it is somewhat sin- 

 gular that the record should only exist in the 

 Cambrian chronicles, and the fact is suggestive of 

 some connexion with the Principality. 



Another of our chronicles, called the Chronicle 

 of the Saxons, Brut y Saeson, contains a similar 

 entry, viz. : 



" MCLXii. Ac y bu varw Henri vab Arthen yr ysgol- 

 heic gorev or kymre or a oed yn un oes ac ef." — 

 Myvyrian Archaiology, ii. 570. 



"MCLXII. Then died Henri, son of Arthen, the best 

 scholar of the Kymry who were in the same age with 

 him." 



Here it is intimated plainly that this distin- 

 guished scholar was a Cambro-Briton, and the son 

 of a person named Arthen : and hence the record 

 becomes interesting ; for it fixes the date of his 

 death, and clears up some of the obscurity which 

 hangs over his early history. 



It is quite true that this paternity differs from 

 that usually accepted ; but it remains to be 

 shown that " the married priest Nicholas " w^as 

 really his father. Some farther information will 

 probably be found in the Annales Cambrics, of 

 which the Welsh chronicles are translations ; and 

 it will be a favour to me, as well as a subject of 

 interest to the readers of " N. & Q.," if the 

 corresponding entries in the two MSS., IB. and C, 

 named in the preface to the Monumenta Historica, 

 p. 93., could be supplied. T. Stephens. 



