258 



XOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 150. 



Judges^ Robes : Official Costume of the Judges 

 (Vol.vi., p.223.). — Allow me to refer J. 11. to 

 Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, pp. 98 — 102. ; and 

 in reply to the Query of A. B. I beg to observe, that 

 at the Assizes the judge who presides in the Crown 

 Court usually wears scarlet cloth, whilst the judge 

 ■who sits at Nisi Prius usually wears a black silk 

 robe. If my memory does not deceive me, the 

 Lite Sir James Alan Park, when on circuit, always 

 wore a scarlet cloth robe at Nisi Prius ; and in 

 so doing he conformed to " the solemn decree and 

 rule made by all the judges of the Courts at West- 

 minster, bearing date the 4th day of June, an. 

 3633," which is set forth at p. 101. of Dugdale's 

 ■work above mentioned. C. H. Coopeb. 



Cambridge. 



Your correspondent A. B. inquires why the 

 judges in the criminal courts wear scarlet and 

 ermine robes, and those in the civil courts black 

 gowns ? The reason is this, that in the criminal 

 covirt, which takes cognizance of the pleas of the 

 crown, the judge sits as the representative of the 

 sovereign, and therefore wears his full judicial 

 robes ; whereas in the Nisi Prius court, the judge 

 presides over civil suits to which subjects are 

 parties, and therefore he wears a judicial undress. 



J. A. C. 



Birmingham. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



Pictures from St. Petersburg, by Edward Jerrmann, 

 Translated from the original German, by Frederick 

 Hardman, wliich form the new volume of Longman's 

 IVaveller's Library, is a translation of a series of 

 sketches originally contributed to one of the German 

 periodicals by their author, and which were received 

 with so much favour by the reading public of that 

 reading country, as to lead to their republication in a 

 collective form, and with considerable augmentations. 

 The book is a most amusing one, and the work will not 

 be read with the less interest because, as the translator 

 observes, " its political bias, if bias there be, is in a 

 contrary direction to that traceable in most English, 

 French, and German works published of late years, 

 and relating to Russia." Indeed, the author, who is 

 obviously a shrewd observer and intelligent man, con- 

 siders Russia to be in a transition state of steady, al- 

 though slow, improvement ; and as he only claims 

 from his readers credit for his facts, and not agreement 

 with his opinions, while his pages show that his veracity 

 may be depended upon, his work cannot but be read 

 with interest, and may well be referred to by the tra- 

 veller long after he has sought in its pages the means 

 of passing pleasantly a few hours on the rail. 



It is now some sixteen years since musical literature 

 was enriched by the publication of a little volume from 

 the pen of an accomplished amateur, entitled The 

 Violin, some Account of that leading Instrument, and its 

 more eminent Professors, from its earliest date to the 



present time, with Hints to Amateurs, Anecdotes, ^-c, by 

 George Dubourg ; and we have now before us its 

 Fourth Edition, revised and considerably enlarged. And 

 the reason why it has reached this fourth edition is 

 sufficiently obvious. The world is divided into two 

 classes, those who play the fiddle, and those who do 

 not: the former have properly encouraged this book 

 from a love of their favourite instrument, and a desire 

 to become acquainted with the history of its origin, and 

 of its more eminent professors ; the second class have 

 seen in its pages evidences of the refined mind and 

 quaint humour of the author, and have thought half 

 an hour well passed in the company of one who has 

 recorded so pleasantly the origin and development of 

 an instrument on which he loves to play. 



We have received from a kind correspondent, whose 

 " Roman hand " we recognised, a copy of the Man- 

 chester Courier of Saturday last, containing a very long 

 and most interesting account of the proceedings on the 

 occasion of the opening of The Manchester Free Li- 

 brary. It is most creditable to that great commercial 

 city that it should have been the first in the empire to 

 provide on so munificent a scale for the intellectual 

 wants of the masses ; and we trust that the example 

 thus set will be speedily followed. We shall take an 

 early opportunity of calling attention to that part of 

 the report of the committee which point? out some of 

 the wants of the library, in the possibility that our 

 doing so may in some small degree contribute to their 

 supply. 



BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES 



WANTED TO PURCHASE. 



Theobald's Shakspeare Restored. 4to. 



Sayvvell's (Db. William, Archdeacon of Ely, and Master of 

 Jesus College, Cambridge), Serious Enquiry into the Means 

 OF a Happy Union, or what Kekormation is necessary to 

 PREVENT Popery. Small 4to. Tract of about 50 Pages. 

 London, 1681. - 



Hill's (Aaron) Plain Dealer. Last Hdit'on. 



Mahon's (Lord) History of England, Vol. IV., 8vo. 



The Annual Register, WSJ to 1849. 



ARCH.EOLOGIA, Vols. VI. and VII. 



Batt's Gleanings in Poetry. 



Mason's Life of Whitehead. 8vo. 1778. 



*»* The loan of this volume is requested, in the event of 

 failure in purchasing it. 



Milton's Paradise Lost, First Edition, may be had on applica- 

 tion to the Publisher, 18G. Fleet Street, 



*»* Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, 

 to be sent to >Ih. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND 

 QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street. . 



^aiitti la (S^axxti^awtitviii, 



Burial of Sir John Moore. We are unfortunatchj unable 

 to insert unlit next u-eek ttie very interesting communication tvliicti 

 we liave received on Vie sul)jectfrom the llev. H.J. St/mons, wlio 

 ojjiciatcd on that inctancholy occasion. 



We are also unavoidably conipelled to postpone until next week 

 several other interesting eommunications, and an aclinowlcdgmcnt 

 of many more Replies which have reached than those enumerated 

 in the following briitf list. 



Replies Received. — S<. Veronica — Reverence to the Altar — 

 Jlotna tibi subito — Uncovering the Head, S[c. — Errors in Prayer 

 Bool,s — Smothering Hydrophobic Patients — Fell Family — 

 Wilton Castle and the Bridges Family — i'cnice Glasses, Ijfc. 



" Notes and Queries " is published at noon on Friday, so that 

 the Country Booksellers may receive Copies in that night's parcels, 

 and deliver them to their Subscribers on the Saturday. 



