Sept. 25. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



289 



of their respective neighbourhoods. 

 Ramble in Worcestershire.) 

 Worcester. 



Minax ^atti. 



Notes on Books and Binding, Sfc. (Vol. vi., 

 p. 94.). — I am reminded by the words of a sin- 

 guhir blunder of the late Dr. Dibdin the biblio- 

 grapher, who, in his Introduction to the Classics, 

 edition of 1808, curiously mistranslating the dis- 

 tinctive binding of books " relies a la GrosHer," 

 metamorphosed one of the earliest collectors, 

 John Groslier (born in 1479, deceased in 1556), 

 treasurer of France, when that title was not in- 

 discriminately lavished, — in fact a person of high 

 distinction, and whose volumes, always the best 

 eliosen, were at once recognised by a peculiar 

 binding, with the liberal inscription of " J. Grol- 

 lerii et amicorum,^' — into a bookbinder ! We simi- 

 larly recognise, and accordingly appreciate, a 

 Harleian volume, while it would be rather dis- 

 paraging to the collector, the second Earl of 

 Oxford of the present family, to make him a 

 bookbinder, respectable though the profession 

 truly be. I indicated the error above thirty 

 years ago to the reverend Doctor, and tendered 

 him the same service on various other occasions, 

 for which he was profuse in acknowledgments 

 to myself, but of them very economical ia his 

 writings. Several other mistakes of his were not 

 less ludicrous. Thus, in directing the collector's 

 choice of editions in his Library Companion 

 (1824), p. 544., he recommends the edition by 

 Pierre de Marleau of Bassompierre's Memoires, 

 but not the copy by Jauxte, not aware that Mar- 

 leau should be Marteau, a mere nom-de-guerre, as 

 Elzevir was the printer, and that Jauxte was an 

 adverb, like the original Latin juxta, meaning ac- 

 cording to (a prior edition), and not a printer's 

 name. Then, in his Introduction to the Classics 

 (1804), he transformed the play of Aristophanes, 

 &e(rij.o<j>opia^ovffat, or Festival of Ceres, into a com- 

 mentator of that poet ! Always sure to please, 

 he by no means equally inspired confidence, as the 

 continental bibliographers distinctly proved in their 

 animadversions on his works. J. R. 



Cork. 



Singular Misnomer. — In looking over Mr. John 

 Brewster's Court and Times of King James I., 

 P. C. S. S. was greatly amazed by a singular mis- 

 7iomer in the first volume of that work. At 

 p. 326. et seq., edit. 1839, there is a letter from 

 Sir Balthazar Gerbier to the Duke of Buckinw- 

 liam, in which reference is frequently made to a 

 Sir James Arthur Long, under which name is dis- 

 guised that of Sir James Auchterlony, a person 

 well known at the court of King James, and who 

 was one of the bearers of the canopy at the funeral 



- (See The of Queen Anne in 1619. P. C. S. S. is in posses- 

 J. NoAK_E. sion of some curious original letters from Sir 

 James, to his ancestor, Endymion Porter, Groom 

 of the Chamber to Charles I. P. C. S. S. 



The Caxton Coffer.— In a copy of The life of 

 mayster Wyllyam Caxton by the reverend John 

 Lewis, a work which I recently obtained after 

 much inquiry, is inserted a printed slip, mea- 

 suring about eight inches by seven, which contains 

 the following inscription in a compartment of 

 flowers : 



The Noble Art and Mystery of PRINTING was first Invented 



^\ *U^ \i 



\i ^.J^\ (.: 



Ly* 



U**^j^ 



C-^bjjc^ 



cr* 



Printed at The Theatre in Oxford, 

 Sept. 27. An. Dom. Vlin. 



in the Year 1430. And brought into England in the Year 1447. 



The year 1430 is the date for which the Harlem- 

 ites contend as that of the invention of printing ; 

 and the year 1447, in which the art is said to have 

 been brought into England, may have no surer 

 basis than a misinterpretation of the device of 

 William Caxton. On those points I shall give no 

 opinions, but shall thankfully accept a translation 

 of the Arabic part of the inscription, and any in- 

 formation as to the occasion on which the slip 

 was printed. The verso has, in manuscript, 

 " Oxon : July 7. 78, Mrs. Swinton." 



Bolton Cornet. 



Shakspeare Family. — It appears by an order of 

 the Revenue side of the Exchequer in Ireland (the 

 date of which I do not recollect, but believe it to 

 be since the Restoration in 1660), that Ellen, "the 

 daughter and heiress of Mary Shakespeare of y° 

 Strand," widow, was married to one John Mil- 

 borne. J. F. F. 



Dublin. 



malone's shakspeakian collections. 



Any reader of the "N. & Q." would confer a 

 great favour by giving a clue to the whereabouts 

 of the collections made by Malone for his Life of 

 Shakspeare. It is hinted by the Rev. J. Hunter, 

 and I think the same suggestion would occur to 

 any careful reader of the poet's life as printed in 

 Boswell's edition of 1821, that the latter part of 



