316 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 259. 



Napoleons Spelling (Vol. jx., p. 203. ; Vol. x., 

 p. 94.). — Mk. Warden says : 



" It -would be more to Napoleon's advantage to suppose 

 that the haste and agitation, in -which he frequently 

 -wrote, caused him now and then to put in a letter too 

 many or too fe-w, or to substitute a -wrong one." 



This, no doubt, is the correct -way of accounting 

 for ordinary cases of bad spelling ; but, in the in- 

 stance under consideration, your correspondent 

 seems to forget that we have to deal with the fact, 

 given on the authority of Bourrienne, that Napo- 

 leon's spelling is " extraordinairement estropiee." 

 Of this fact, 1 have ventured to offer what seemed 

 to me to be the probable explanation, namely, 

 that Napoleon may have affected to treat the 

 rules of spelling as unworthy of attention for a 

 man of his exalted station. Nor is there anything 

 new in such a supposition. It is well known that 

 the "noblesse" of the "ancien regime" were in 

 general unable to write, or affected so to be ; and 

 the anecdote related of a Duke of Montmorency 

 (who, when required to affix his signature to a 

 marriage contract, drew his sword, and cut his 

 cross on the parchment ; alleging that, attendu sa 

 Mute noblesse, he was unable to write his name), 

 is but one of many proofs that might be adduced 

 of that circumstance. Henky IL Bkeen, 



St. Lucia. 



Churches erected (Vol. x., pp. 126. 253.). — 

 The following remarkable statement is made by 

 the Rev. Canon Raines in his introduction to 

 IBishop Gastrell's Notitia Cestriensis, printed by 

 the Chetham Society in 1850: 



"When the See of Chester -was founded in 1541, there 

 were in the diocese, exclusive of the portion lately as- 

 signed to Eipon, 327 churches; and from that time to 

 1828, 186 additional churches -were built. Bishop (now 

 Archbishop) Sumner consecrated 233 churches, averaging 

 one new church in each month during his Episcopate. . 

 ... In the Diocese of Chester this great and good 

 prelate occasioned and witnessed the expenditure of 

 1,284,229/. raised from local subscriptions and grants of 

 public societies, exclusive of a very considerable amount 

 expended by private individuals, who sought no foreign 

 aid." — Yof. ii. part ii. p. lix. 



Canon Raines has added a tabulated list of all 

 the churches in the diocese of Manchester, with 

 the names of the bishops by whom they were con- 

 secrated (from 1725 to 1850), the date of conse- 

 cration, and the names of the patrons, the whole 

 being arranged under their respective deaneries 

 and mother churches, and forming a succinct and 

 useful mass of evidence on church progress. 



J. G. 

 West Kirby. 



"2<|>i5^" (Vol. ix., p. 541.). — For the inform- 

 ation of your correspondent T. J. Buckton, I 

 give you the meaning of SffuS??, on the authority 

 of some of the principal lexicons. 

 ' "Wie xop^, der Darm. dah. 2, die Darmsaite, wovon 



das La.t. Jides" — J. G. Schneider's Ilandworterbuch der 

 Gr. Sprache, 1826. 



" As x°P^Vt a gut ; hence catgut ; from this Jides in 

 Latiu." — Donnegan's Gr. Lexicon, 1842. 



" Like xop^'y, a gut, intestine ; hence, 2, catgut : cf. the 

 l.at. fides." — Liddell and Scott's Gr. Lexicon, 1843. 



•' A gut, of which the strings of musical instruments 

 were made. Hence, probably, the Lat.^&s." — Dunbar's 

 Gr. Lexicon, 1850. 



'AA.iei5y» 



Dublin, 



iafttiSfcnancoii^. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Whatever may be the faults committed by the great 

 lexicographer in his biographies of our poets — and 

 numerous as are the errors into -(vhich he has fallen — 

 the work is so rich in the peculiar excellences of the 

 writer, that it will retain unimpaired, as long as our 

 language lasts, the popularity which attended its original 

 publication. "The secret of Johnson's excellence," Mr. 

 Cunningham well observes, " will be found in the know- 

 ledge of human life which his 'Lives' exhibit; in the 

 many admirable reflections they contain, varying and 

 illustrating the nan-ative without overlaying it ; in the 

 virtue tliey hold up to admiration, and the religion they 

 inculcate. He possessed the rare art of teaching what is 

 not familiar, of lending interest to a twice-told tale, and 

 of recommending known truths bj' his manner of adorning 

 them. He seized at once the leading features ; and 

 though he may have omitted a pimple or a freckle, his 

 likeness is unmistakeable — defined yet general, summary 

 yet exact." That such a work should find a place in 

 Murray's British Classics is obvious ; and that Mr. Murray 

 has done wisely in selecting Mr. Peter Cunningham for 

 its editor, is equally obvious to all who know for how 

 many years that gentleman has made literary biography 

 the subject of his special researches. The fruits of these 

 labours are scattered over every page; and though we 

 shall not be surprised to hear that, with all his care, he may 

 have stumbled in some of his many dates or facts, we are 

 convinced that this edition of Lives of the most Eminent 

 English Poets, with Critical Observations on their Works, 

 by Samuel Johnson, with Notes Corrective and Explana- 

 tory, by Peter Cunningham, is not only the best edition 

 of this charming book which has yet appeared, but that 

 it will long remain so. 



As we have many microscopists among our readers, we 

 have to call attention to a work of great interest to them, 

 namely, Lectures on Polarized Light, together with a Lec- 

 tiire on the Microscope, §-c., by the late Jonathan Pereira, 

 Esq., M.D., &c., illustrated by numerous Woodcuts. Se- 

 cond Edition, greatly enlarged from Materials left by the 

 author, edited by the liev. liaden Po-well. The names of 

 the lamented author, and of his editor the Savilian Pro- 

 fessor, afford a sufficient guarantee for the value and utility 

 of this little volume. 



Neither included in any generiil collection of the British 

 poets, nor even admitted into any of our anthologies, the 

 Poetical Works of John Oldham have hitherto remained 

 far less known than they deserve. For, despite their oc- 

 casional coarsenesses, the writings of one of whom Hallam 

 says he is " far superior in his satires to Marvell, and 

 ranks perhaps next to Drydcn," merited a better fate ; 

 and Mr. Bell has not only done justice to Oldham, but 

 good service to the series of the Annotated Edition of the 

 English Poets, by including iu it the writings of this vi- 

 gorous satirist. 



