Nov. 11. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



38». 



Statutes of William of Wykeham. — I should be 

 glad of an elucidation of the three words in Italics 

 in the following extract from one of William of 

 Wykeham's New College statutes, which, I sup- 

 pose, it will soon be treasonable to quote : 



" Inhibentes nihilominus ipsis omnibus et singulis, — ne 

 clocas, seu armilaiisas, aut bellas infra Universitatem et 

 spatium preedicta gerere, vel iis uti quovismodo praesu- 

 mant." — Rubrica xxiii. 



C. W. B. 



[ Clocas is merely the English word cloaks Latinised : 

 " Vestis species," says Du Cange. The same glossarist 

 interprets armilausa to be a military cloak : " Sagum mili- 

 tare, quod thoraci superinduitur." The third word, hella, 

 is doubtless a similar garment, an over-coat or mantle, 

 the English word belle being so explained in Halliwell's 

 Archaic Dictionary. '\ 



English Proverbs. — Is there any work in our 

 language which professes to give parallels of En- 

 glish proverbs from other European languages ? 



H. E. W. 



[The only work of the kind known to us is the follow- 

 ing : " Bland's Proverbs ; chiefly taken from the Adagia 

 of Erasmus, and illustrated by corresponding Examples 

 from the Spanish, Italian, and English Languages," 

 2 vols. 12mo., 1814. The two following are of a similar 

 character, but extremely scarce : "JProverbs, English, 

 French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish : all Englished and 

 Alphabetically Digested, by K R., 12mo., 1659." " Se- 

 lect Proverbs, Italian, Spanish, French, English, Scottish, 

 British, &c. Chiefly moral. The foreign languages done 

 into English, 8vo., 1707."] 



NO TIDES IN THE BALTIC. 



(Vol. X., p. 288.) 



The great tidal wave south of Australia takes a 

 north-westerly direction, and the same tide that 

 reaches Madras extends to Madagascar and the 

 Cape of Good Hope, from which last-mentioned 

 place fifteen hours are required to bring the same 

 tidal wave into the British Channel, which in the 

 North Atlantic takes a north-easterly direction. 

 The rise and fall of the tide are greater on the 

 coast of Ireland, and west of England, Germany, 

 and Jutland, than on England's east coast; the 

 German Ocean, of 32,000 square leagues, is al- 

 most closed at the straits of Dover, and shoals up 

 in the direction of the east coast of England to 

 the Thames. The tides rise little in the Pacific, 

 which is an immense basin nearly closed at its 

 northern extremity ; whilst the Atlantic, open to 

 and beyond the north pole, has great and varying 

 tides. Generally, where the space for the action of 

 the tide waves is greatest, i. e. where such action 

 is least impeded by continents and shoals, there 

 the rise and fall of the tides are the greatest. The 

 minimum is found in the inclosed lakes and seas, 

 from which the great ocean tide-wave is excluded, 



and where the action of the moon and sun is con- . 

 fined to a comparatively limited surface and depth. 

 At Copenhagen the tide averages only one foot. It 

 is true that the Mediterranean, poetically a "tide- 

 less sea," experiences betwixt Venice and the 

 Lesser Syrtis a rise and fall of from five to seven 

 feet; but such rise and fall seem to have been 

 little noticed by the Greeks in the time of Alex- 

 ander, who were struck with astonishment at the 

 tides of the Indian Ocean (Arrian xix. 4.). The^ 

 Mediterranean tides, however, do not extend over 

 all its surface, notwithstanding its being in most 

 parts unfathomable ; as there are many places in 

 it where tides are imperceptible. But since no 

 tides are discerned in the Baltic, we can only 

 attribute their absence to the like causes of limited 

 surface and shallowness. Reckoning with Malte- 

 Brun (vi. 7 — 11.) 25 square leagues to the de- 

 gree, the Baltic has a surface of 17,680 square 

 leagues, and the Mediterranean, Archipelago, &c.^ 

 of 131,980 square leagues ; and if we add to the 

 former the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, 7,400 

 square leagues, the Mediterranean is still more 

 than five times the size of the Baltic, which latter, 

 by comparison, is reduced to a lake, the surface of 

 which is too inconsiderable to be acted on by the 

 moon's attraction so as to produce a tide sus- , 

 ceptible of measurement.* For full details Mr. 

 West may have recourse to La Place, and to Airy, 

 Whewell, Lubbock, Russell, and others in the 

 Encyc. Metrop., R. S. Trans., and other scientific 

 journals. (See Penny Cyclop., art. Waves and 

 Tides.) Whilst on this subject, it may be interest- 

 ing to observe, that a flow of water constantly 

 issues from the Baltic into the North Sea, except 

 after a prevalence of north-west winds ; but the 

 flow of the Atlantic is, on the contrary, con- 

 stantly directed into the Mediterranean, the enor- . 

 mous accession of water from such rivers as the 

 Nile, Danube, &c., not being equal to the quantity 

 converted into clouds by evaporation from its 

 surface. T. J. Buckton. 



Lichfield. - 



It has long been popularly believed that the. 

 reason of there being no tides in the Baltic arises 

 from the narrowness of the entrance, so that the , 

 waters having once rushed in cannot flow out 

 again before the next tide comes on, and hence- 

 the waters kept at a uniform state. There is a.- 

 common phrase which has been founded upon this ; 

 belief, when a person has taken in an over-compli- . 

 ment of liquor : " As full as the Baltic." 



The same has been assigned for the uniformity 



* There is an occasional rise of about three feet in the 

 Baltic, maintained sometimes for a few days, at other 

 times for weeks together ; but its connexion with lunar or 

 solar attraction is still undetermined. The west bed of 

 the Baltic is thought to be rising. 



