Sept. 25. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



291 



inst to the Hollanders. ' Is there any other notice 

 of this to be met with? Certain Icelanders are 

 now said to possess the same faculty. E. N. W. 

 Soulhwark. 



Portraits. — Are there any well authenticated 

 portraits in existence of William Collins, the poet; 

 of Ezekiel Hopkins, Bishop of LojidondeiTy ; and 

 of Thomas Yalden, the poet ? Magdalensis. 



Inscription on an old Press. — In the old Hall at 

 Moseley, near Wolverhampton, stands a large and 

 curiously carved press, along the cornice of which 

 runs the following imperfect inscription : " Slepe . 

 not .without .repentance ./or . repentance . . . ." 

 After a blank of about half the length of the in- 

 scription is the date " 1579." Tlie old press is 

 about to be repaired, and we shall feel much 

 obliged to any of your readers who can supply tlie 

 last portion of the inscription. 



Francis Whitgreave. 



Radford, near Staffbrd. 



Freeman, a Gun Mulier. — A neighbour of mine 

 has a curious old fowling-piece, that was loaded, by 

 a very ingenious contrivance, at the breach, and 

 was made by " James Freeman, London." 



Can any of your readers tell me whether any- 

 thing is known of such a gun maker, or when he 

 ■was in business ? W. B. D. 



Printed Music. — What is the date of the in- 

 vention of printing music by moveable type ? In 

 Hone's Every Day Book (vol. i. col. 185.) we read 

 that John Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf, " a cele- 

 brated printer, letter founder, and bookseller of 

 Leipsic," who died in 1794, "represented, by ty- 

 pography, all the marks and lines which occur in 

 the modern music, with all the accuracy of en- 

 graving." I am at a loss to know which part of 

 this sentence is emphatic ; whether Hone claims 

 for Breitkopf greater accuracy than any of his pre- 

 decessors attained, or the invention of printing 

 music after the modern notation.* 



The Whole Booke of Ps(dmes, collected info En- 

 glish Meter, by T. Sternhold, I. llopkins, and others, 

 has " apt notes to sing them wiihail" prefixed to 

 many of the Psalms. I possess a somewhat mu- 

 tilated copy, printed by John Daye in 1582, who 

 informs the " gentle Reader " in a brief prefatory 

 address, that he has " caused a new print of Note 

 to be made, with letters to be ioyned to euery 

 Note : Whereby thou mayest know how to call 

 euery Note by his right name." The letters 

 V, R, M, &c. are prefixed to the notes, for Vt, 

 Re, " ^ly," &c. These notes are of the lozenge 

 form. When did this form supersede the black 



[* Clearly the latter, as Breitko])f was the first who 

 cast musical types, now so common, as well as in 

 printing Chinese with moveable characters. — Ed.] 



solid note of rectangular outline? and when did if, 

 in turn, itself give way to the modern musical no- 

 tation ? I shall be glad to be referred to the first 

 printed examples of each of these three methods 

 of notation. W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A. 



Early Cast-iron Grave Slabs. — Have any of 

 your readers seen an earlier instance of the use of 

 iron -for slabs to cover graves than the year 1690 ? 

 There is one of that date at llimbleton Church, 

 Worcestershire. J. N. 



Worcester. 



The Gage Family. — The older titles of Lord 

 Gage are " Viscount Gage of Castle Island, co. 

 Kerry," and "Baron Gage of Castlebarr, co. 

 Mayo," in the peerage of Ireland. Would any 

 one be pleased to inform me of the connexion of 

 this noble and ancient fixmily with either of these 

 places ? for with some local knowledge I cannot 

 ascertain that the Gage family ever had land, or 

 possession, or martial service, to warrant the taking 

 title from either locality. Lord Herbert of Cher- 

 bury was Lord Herbert of Castle Island, as having 

 by marriage with his wife, an Herbert heiress, 

 large territorial possessions there ; but whence the 

 Gage title? 



In reference to the Gage fiimily I would also 

 ask if any contributor to " X. & Q." could give a 

 clue to'the descendants of Thomas Gage, minister 

 of the gospel at Deal in Kent, and author of a 

 rare and curious work entitled New Survey of the 

 West Indies, publ'shed first a.d. 1648, and fre- 

 quently republished afterwards. He was the son 

 of John Gage of Ilayling, co. Surrey, and brother 

 to Colonel Sir Henry Gage, Governor of Oxford 

 for Charles I. lie married after having left tha 

 Romish Church. If his descendants could be 

 traced it would be a favour. A. B. R. 



Heywoods " Spider and the Flie." — Pray allow 

 me to follow the good example of your corre- 

 spondent Archdeacon Cotto.v, from Thurles in 

 Ireland, and ask you whether you can assist n^e 

 in making perfect an imperfect copy'of a some- 

 what scarce and valuable book ? I have a very 

 fine large copy, with rough leaves, of Heywood's 

 poem, The Spider and the Flie ; but, alas ! it wants 

 the title-page, and the first leaf of the table. If 

 you, or any of your readers, could put me in tho 

 way of procuring them, I should feel very grateful, 

 and would willingly pay libei'ally for them. 



C S. T. P. 



\V Rectory. 



" O . Hen . Fon . Ned." — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents inform me what is the meaning of the 

 motto " o . HEX . TON . NED?" It is the inscrip- 

 tion upon the tomb of one of the Dyer family in 

 the churchyard at Ovington in Hampshire. 



F. M. M. 



