Sept. 4. 1852.] 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



233 



scarcely ever be got to make herself useful with 

 the needlework of the flmilly, on the plea that her 

 eyesight ivas had, though it was noticed that on 

 ))articular occasions she could see keenly enough. 

 The children, thei*efore, used to say that aunty 

 ])retended blindness that she might always keep 

 holiday, and do no work. Now the blind from 

 their infirmity are of course in general exempted 

 from labour, and in this view ahvays keep holiday ; 

 and when the twilight hour comes, when those that 

 can work, or read, &c., can no longer see to do so, 

 it is Bund/nail's Holiday to tliem, and they of ne- 

 cessity rest accordingly. Ambrose Fi.orence. 



Travelling Expenses at the Close of the Seventeenth 

 Century. — Coaches (Vol. vi., pp. 51. 98.). — The 

 statement given under the former title is mani- 

 festly absurd ; it is either some egregious blunder, 

 or a hoax on your contributor. Tiie following 

 extract from Chamberlayne's State of England for 

 1G92 (and I believe the same account is given in 

 earlier editions, but 1692 is the earliest I have at 

 hand) gives an official statement of the expense 

 and mode of travelling in those day.-^, by those 

 who did not ti*avel with their own horses, and will 

 show that stage coaches were of a much earlier 

 date than is assigned to them in W. H. C.'s article 

 on " Coaches," in your No. 144., p. 98. : 



" Moreover, if any gentleman desire to ride post to 

 any principal town in England, post-horses are always 

 in readiness (taking no horse without the consent 

 of his owner), which in other kings' reigns was not 

 duly observed ; and only 3d. is demanded for every 

 English mile, and for every stage to the post-boy 4d. 

 for conducting. Besides this excellent convenience of 

 conveying letters and men on horse-back, there is of 

 late such an admirable commodiousness, both for men 

 and women of better rank, to travel from London to 

 almost any town of England, and to almost all the 

 villages near this great city, that the like has not been 

 known in the world, and that is by stage coaches, 

 wherein one may be transported to any place, sheltered 

 from foul weather and foul ways, free from endamaging 

 one's health or body by hard jogging or over-violent 

 motion ; and this not only at a low price, as about a 

 shilling for every five miles, but with velocity and 

 speed, as that the posts in some foreign countries make 

 not more miles in a day ; for the stage-coaches called 

 ' Flying-coaches ' make forty or fifty miles in a day ; as 

 from London to Oxford or Cambridge, and that in the 

 space of twelve hours, not counting the time for dining, 

 setting forth not too early nor coming in too late." — 

 Chamberlayne's Present State, 1692, Part ii. p. 206. 

 And I find this same notice continued in all the edi- 

 tions of the work down to 1748, the last I happen to 

 have. The later editions add, that these coaches 

 " now perform sometimes 70, 80, or 100 miles, to 

 Southampton, Bury, Cirencester, and Norwich." 



C. 



" Balnea, vina, Venus " (Vol. vi., p. 74.). — In 

 reply to R. F. L. I beg to say that Martial is the 



author ; but the second line begins " Sed vitam 

 faciunt." The lines have been thus translated by 

 Darwin : 

 " Wine, women, warmth against our lives combine ; 

 But what is life without warmth, women, wine? " 



A. B. M. 



Wootton. 



Snike (Vol. vi., p. 36.). — Manifestly a typo- 

 graphical error for sinhe. A parallel may be 

 found in "N. & Q." (Vol. vi., p. 55.), in the Minor 

 Query " Cambridge Disputations," where ist is 

 printed instead of sit : " Sed igitur e ist f ; ergo 

 valeat consequentia, et argumentum." 



Fabee Fereaeius. 



Dublin, 



Venice Glasses (Vol. vi., p. 76.). — 



" Gazul and Suhit, two Egyptian weeds (growing In 

 the sands where the Nile arrives not), being burnt to 

 ashes and sent to Venice, make the finest chrystal 

 glasses." — An English Dictionary hy E. Coles, School- 

 master and Teacher of the Tongue to Foreigners, London, 

 printed, &c., 1717. 



Metoauo. 



Fell Family (Vol. iil., p. 142. ; Vol. iv., p. 256.). 

 — The only known descendant of Judge Fell of 

 Swarthmore Hall, is, I am informed, a Mr. Abra- 

 hams, druggist. Bold Street, Liverpool. My in- 

 formant also states that Fell of BrycliiFwas no 

 relation of the Chancellor. J. R. Relton. 



Bitter Beer (Vol. vi., p. 72.). — I find in Park- 

 hurst's Heb. Lex., sub voce "1^^, St. Jerome, Epist. 

 ad Nepotianum, quoted as saying, that in Hebrew 

 " any intoxicating liquor is called sicera, whether 

 made of corn, the juice of apples, honey, dates, or 

 any other fruit." It is clear, therefore, that sicera 

 does occasionally mean beer, and it is in Scripture 

 set generally in opposition to wine. Can it be 

 shown ever to mean alcohol ? In my former Note 

 these references were not given : 



" Lupo salictario Germani." 



Pllnii Hist. Nat., xxl. 15. 



And the quotation from Herodotus, Euterpe, 77. 

 Also, for confectum read confectam. W. Fraser. 



Salt Box (Vol.vi., p. 54.). — J. Wn, will find 

 the dissertation he alludes to in the Museum, p. 26., 

 published March 31, 1838, under the head " Meta- 

 physics." Porson has the credit of the produc- 

 tion as a specimen of college examination. 



J. Ebff. 



Bolt Court, Fleet Street. 



Author of the "Gradus" (Vol. vi., p. 128.).— Allow 

 me to suggest to your con-espondent that most pro- 

 bably the Gradus ad Parnassum was a compilation 

 undertaken by many, possibly with one superinten- 

 dent, by order of the Jesuits. The earlier editions 



