Dec. 11. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



561 



devant le Gibet ; ce qui fut execute.'''— Melanges d'His- 

 toire et de Litterature, vol. iii. p. 277. 



In these cases, the patient, I presume, was en- 

 tirely covered by earth, and must have died imme- 

 diately from suffocation ; in the modification of 

 the punishment recorded by John H. A., where 

 the criminal was immersed to the neck only, the 

 death from starvation and exposure must be far 

 more lingering and terrible. So also with the 

 somewhat similar punishment suggestive of Roman 

 Catholic times and countries, — bricking up the 

 peccant nun, or other sinning person, in a hollow 

 wall, — so touchingly illustrated by the pen and 

 pencil in Rogers's Italy, and introduced by Mrs. 

 Trollope to heighten the interest of her powerful 

 novel The Abbess. 



The case mentioned by John H. A. reminds me 

 of a passage in Holinshed (Chron., vol. vi. p. 331.) : 



" Subtle and crafty he was (the Irish rebel, Shane 

 O'Neil), especially in the morning ; but in the residue 

 of the day, very uncertain and unstable, and much 

 given to excessive gulping and surfeiting ; and albeit 

 he had most commonly two hundred tuns of wines in 

 his cellar at Dundrum, and had his full fill thereof; 

 yet was he never satisfied till he had swallowed up 

 marvellous great quantities of Usquebaugh or aqua- 

 vitae of that country ; whereof so unmeasurably he 

 would drink, and brase, that, for the quenching of the 

 heat of the body, which by that means was most ex- 

 tremely inflamed and distempered, he was eftsoones 

 conveyed (as the common report was) into a deep pit ; 

 and standing upright in the same, the earth was cast 

 round about him up to the hard chin, and there he did 

 remain until such time as his body was recovered to 

 some temperature." 



We learn from this that the Elizabethan tippler 

 anticipated the panacea of the notorious Dr. 

 Graham, and that the grand idea of the earth-bath 

 did not originate with that illustrious practitioner. 



William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



SMOCK MABBXAGES. 



(Vol. vi., p. 485.) 

 Me. Eastwood ought, I respectfully submit, to 

 have given the name of the "small village in Wilts," 

 from the register of which he gives an extract 

 which illustrates " a vulgar error " mentioned in 

 Brand's Popular Antiquities, ed. Ellis (1842), 

 vol. iii. p. 205., in these terms: "When a man 

 designs to marry a woman who is in debt, if he 

 take her from the hands of the priest, clothed only 

 in her shift, it is supposed that he will not be 

 liable to her engagements." This " vulgar error" 

 is still prevalent at Cottenham, in this county. 



C. H. COOPEB. 

 Cambridge. 



Miss Anne Sellwood was married in her smock, 

 because the prudent JMr. John Bridmore shared 



the vulgar belief (by no means extinct), that a 

 bridegroom taking a bride so little indebted to the 

 milliner, did not become liable to any of her other 

 debts. I first heard of this combined exemption 

 from drapery and debt, when residing in Shrop- 

 shire ; but I dare say your correspondent Mr. 

 Eastwood will obtain corroboration of my view 

 of the case from other parts of the country. I 

 suppose that the original notion arose from some 

 ingenious rustic special-pleader's interpretation of 

 the character of certain portions of our conveyance- 

 like marriage service ; " want of consideration" on 

 the part of the lady-purchasers of marital protec- 

 tion being perhaps the plea relied on. A husband 

 long supposed he could sell the article which he 

 was " to have and to hold ;" and some similar con- 

 fusion of ideas may have led a wife who brought 

 her husband nulla bona to believe that she came 

 " free and clear of and from all claims and demands 

 whatsoever." This is scarcely a place to express 

 one's hope that some day the marriage contract 

 will be made a little more explicit. The police 

 magistrate will thereby be saved some trouble in 

 expounding its meaning. Shibley Bbooks. 



New Inn. 



[We believe there is also a similar " vulgar error " 

 as to all children under the girdle at the time of marriage 

 being legitimate.] 



PHOTOGEAPHIC COBBESPONDENCE. 



As it seems to be a settled thing that the 

 "N. & Q." is to be considered as the hitherto 

 much wanted medium of communication on all 

 matters photographic, I would suggest that your 

 object would be greatly promoted if you were to 

 give notice, once for all, that no communications 

 professing to describe processes, new or old, would 

 be printed in which the precise quantities and pro- 

 portions of every chemical named were not given. 

 The omission of these particulars gives rise to a 

 world of unnecessary trouble by provoking in- 

 quiries, answers, and explanations, where none 

 need have been required. Thus, had your corre- 

 spondent Mr. Cbookes told all he knew, I need 

 not have troubled you with the following inquiries. 



1. Is the iodizing solution to be brought to the 

 colour of brown sherry or of pale ? Had he not 

 better state how many grains of the iodine should 

 be added to his pint of water ? And, after all, is 

 he quite sure that the Iodine will eradicate the iron 

 and brass spots from the paper ? 



2. If a washing of the excited paper for a few 

 minutes (how many ?) will make It keep for six 

 days, how long must it be washed in order to keep 

 it three weeks ? 



3. He speaks of a nearly saturated solution of 

 gallic acid, and of a tolerably strong solution of 

 hypo. : both terms having no definite meaning 

 whatever. 



