NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICAnON 



roK 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** 'Wlieii found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. VL— No. 144.] Sa^turday, July 31. 1852. 



f Price Fonrp"nce. 

 Stamped Eilicion, i^d. 



Page 

 !)3 



94 

 95 



95 

 96 



96 

 97 



CONTENTS. 



NoTBS : .— 



-The Electric Telegraph anticipated !- - " 



Notes on Rooks and Bindings .... 

 Meteorological Observations in Greece . . - 



A Note upon some recent Corruptions of the English 



Language ....•-- 

 Inscription on the Shrine of Edward the Confessor 

 Folk Lore: — Superstitions of the Higlier Classes — 



Springs and Wells ..... 



Surnames assumed - - .... 



Minor Notes : — Chronrgram at Winchester Cathedral 



— Cardinals in England — Robin Hood 



Queries : — 



A Riddle 



Was Dante ever at Oxford ? - - 



Coaches ....-.- 



Minor Queries : — Rev. Thomas Watson, of St. Ste- 



Jihen's, Walbrook, London — 'Vas West the first pre- 

 Japhaeliie ? — Dirtionary of Proper Name* — Inscrip- 

 tion on a Bell — Benjamin Lincoln of Massachusetts- 

 Gregorian Chants — Dress of the Clergv — Arrange- 

 ment of Shakspeare's Plaj-s — " Sic transit Gloria 

 Mundi " — " Jack " — Celelirated Trees — Wickliffe 

 MSS. — Moroni's Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots — 

 Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester. lOTO—UOl — English 

 Bishops deprived bv Queen Elizabeth in June, 1550 — 

 English Bishops deprived, Feb. I. 1691 — William 

 Stafford — Sinking Fund .... 



Minor Queries Answered: — "The Boil'd Pig" — 

 Stone CoHins — "Conspicit urbein " — Old English 

 Names of Flowers— Meaning of Slype — Hunchback 

 styled " My Lord " — Boscovich ... 



Heplies : — 



" Ballad of the Three Sisters " - 



Lambert the " Arch-Rebell," by J. Lewelyn Curtis 



Early Manuscript Emendations of the Text of Shak- 



speare, hy J, Payne Collier . . . - 



Etymology of the Word " Devil " - . - 



Numerous Families, by Philip S. King - - _ 



Surnames - ...... 



On a Passage in '■ The Merchant of Venice," Act HI. 



Sc. 2., by Samuel Hickson .... joc 

 Replies to Minor Queries : — Experto crede Roberto" 



Phelps's Gloucestershire Collect ons — Andrew Marvel 



— Mexican Grammar — Burial without Service — Tlie 

 True Maiden-hair Fern— Royal Arms in Churches — 

 Governor of .St. Christopher in 1G62— Reverence to 

 the Altar — Docking Horses' Tails — Apple-pie Order 



— Seth's Pillars— Paget Family— Dictionnaire Bib- 

 liogiapliique— Blind an's H.lidav- "De Landibus 

 SaiictJB Crucis"— The Woodruff — Hydrophobia — 

 Battle of Alfred the Great with the Danes, &c. - 107 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. ..... 1)3 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted • . . . 113 



Notices to Correspondents - - _ - 114 



Advertisements . . . . . - 114 



102 

 103 



104 

 105 

 106 

 106 



Vol. VI. — No. 144. 



THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ANTICIPATED. 



On looking over the other day some early num- 

 bers of The Spectator^ my eye rested on a paper 

 by Addison, in which he introduces, in his excel- 

 lent and playful mannei', a quotation from Strada, 

 a learned Italian Jesuit, in one of his Prolxisiones 

 AcndemiccB ; and though, it is true, the story aims at 

 nothing farther than a chimerical supposition of 

 the instantaneous transmission of thoughts and words 

 between two individuals, over an indefinite spacSy 

 and which, when Strada wrote and Addison quoted, 

 never entered into the minds of either as to its 

 almost ultimate realisation; yet, as perhaps there 

 may be some persons who may not have particu- 

 larly noticed this ap-parenlly prophetic forewarning^ 

 I cannot help thinking that the story is worth re- 

 cording in " N. & Q." for the benefit of those who 

 have never seen or thought on the subject. It 

 should be observed that Strada tells this story 

 about 250 years ago, and Addison relates it 140 

 years afterwards. 



Addison tells us, in the 241st number of The 

 Spectator, that 



" Strada, in one of his Prolusions, gives an account of 

 a chimerical correspondence between two friends by the 

 Iielp of a certain loadstone, which had such virtue in it, 

 that if it touched two several needles, when one of the 

 needles so touched began to move, the other, though at 

 never so great a distance, moved at- the same time and. 

 in the same manner. He tulls us that the two friends 

 being each of them possessed of one of these needles, 

 made a kind of dial plate, inscribing it with the four- 

 and-twenty letters, in tlie same manner as the hours of 

 the day are marked upon the ordinary dial plate. They 

 then fixed one of the needles on each of these plates in 

 such a manner that it could move round without im- 

 pediment, so as to touch any of the four-and-twenty 

 letters. Upon their separating from one another into 

 distant countries, they agreed to withdraw themselves 

 punctually into their closets at a certain hour of the 

 day, and to converse with one another by means of this 

 their invention. Accordingly, when they were some 

 hundred miles asunder, eacli of them shut himself up in 

 his closet at the time appointed, and immediately cast 

 his eye upon his dial plate ; if he had a mind to write 

 anything to his friend, he directed his needle to every 

 letter that formed the words which he had occasion for. 



