u 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. NO 105., Jan. 2. '68, 



by with a large folio MS. deficient of its front 

 cover, and torn. In the few moments that I 

 could leave my companions, I observed it was 

 written in the old engrossing hand in use about 

 1680 or 1700, and purported to be a survey of 

 the county of West Meath, Ireland. Tlie bearer 

 assured me that it was not to be destroyed : be- 

 yond this assurance I learned nothing, except that 

 he was conveying it to " some gentleman." Some 

 of your antiquarian friends in Brighton may pro- 

 bably be able to elicit more information as to this 

 interesting MS. volume than my hurried inspec- 

 tion allowed ; and it will be desirable to ascertain 

 where it is now deposited, and if in the possession 

 of a party knowing its value. E.D. 



Lord BacoiCs Studies. — The passage quoted in 

 2°'^ S. iii. 64. (at bottom of the page) from an 

 old Hermetic treatise, The Secret of Secrets, 

 forcibly reminds one of some passages in Bacon's 

 Novum Organon about inducing the " forms " of 

 things. What books are supposed to have been. 

 Bacon's favourites ? J. P. 



Satan and the Rope of Sand. — In the Doctrine 

 and Discipline of Divoixe, 4to., 1644, p. 75., 

 Milton says : — 



" Hate is of all things the mightiest divider, nay is 

 division itself. To couple hatred, therefore, though 

 wedlock try all her golden links, and borrow to her aid 

 all the iron manacles and fetters of Law, it does but seek 

 to twist a rope of sand, which was a task, they say, that 

 pos'd the devil." 



Where is this failure of Satan recorded ? J. P. 



Reflexions, Morales, ^c. — Can you favour me with 

 the name of the author of a thoughtful little book, 

 Reflexions, Morales, Satiriques et Comiques sur les 

 Mceurs de ?iotre Siecle, Cologne, 1711?* Almost 

 one- third of the work consists of remarks on the 

 manners and religion of Europeans, purporting to 

 be fragments of letters from a Persian philosopher 

 to a friend at home. Except in the introductory 

 explanation that some Oriental modes of expres- 

 sion have been altered or omitted, there is no 

 similarity between these letters and the celebrated 

 Persian Letters by Montesquieu. Writing how- 

 ever only ten years afterwards, he may indeed, 

 from having seen them, have chosen the character 

 of a Persian ; but the great success of the Letters of 

 a Turkish Spy probably induced him to write. It 

 would be interesting could you furnish a list of 

 those works whose authors have assumed the 

 guise of a foreigner in order to criticise with more 



[*Barbier, Diet, des OuvragesAnonym.es, has the fol- 

 lowing note on this work : " Masson, auteur de VHistoire 

 critique de la Republique des Lettres, ayant pr^sente David 

 Durand comme auteur de ces Reflexions, celui-ci assura 

 n'en avoir jamais pu achever la lecture. L'abb^ Desfon- 

 taines, dans ses Observations sur les ecrits modemes, re- 

 garde J. Fred. Bernard comme le veritable auteur de cet 

 ouvrage."3 



freedom and piquancy the phases of modern Euro- 

 pean society. 



Two instances only of such works as I mean 

 occur to me at present : the youthful imitation of 

 Montesquieu by Lord Lyttelton, and the lively 

 picture presented by Goldsmith of a Chinese phi- 

 losopher's visit to London. It would, I presume, 

 be somewhat wide of the mark, and look too much 

 like a joke, to refer to Le Sage's Diable Boiteux 

 as a work giving a foreigners view of Spanish 

 society. 



I doubt whether Southey's EsprieUds Letters 

 or Morier's amusing Hajji Baha in England could 

 be admitted into the list I propose. The too close 

 resemblance in the habits of Europeans, and the 

 thin veil which conceals the writer, would exclude 

 Southey's work ; whilst the object of Morier was 

 rather to paint the Asiatic than to quiz his own 

 countrymen. H. P. 



Masters of Honiton Grammar School. — Can 

 any of your West of England readers favour me 

 with a list of the schoolmasters of the Honiton 

 Grammar School, back from the present time to 

 the time when the mastership was held by the 

 Rev. Philip Prince, as mentioned by Davidson at 

 p. 218. of his History of Newenham Abbey? 



B. S. J. 



John Hadley. — In a memoir in the Nautical 

 Magazine it is stated that a bust of Hadley, the 

 inventor of the Reflecting Quadrant by Rysbrack, 

 came into the possession of John Hadley the 

 younger, and was by him sold with other family 

 relics. Is anything more known respecting this 

 bust, or does any portrait, orisinal or engraved, 

 exist of Hadley ? ^ W. G. A. 



Bronze Medal of Henry IV. of France : — 

 Obverse. — Bust, right, draped, and laureated. 

 Legend. — heneicvs iiii. j>. g. fkan. et. na. 



REX. 



Reverse. — In the centre a sword erect, bearing 

 a crown on the point, above which a wreath or 

 crown of laurel or olive. On each side of the 

 sword branches of laurel or olive with spears, 

 shields, escutcheons, &c. 



Inscription. — victoria yvriaca. Size fourteen 

 mionnel. 



I should feel obliged by information on what 

 occasion this medal was struck, who is the me- 

 dallist, and if rare. The execution is very beau- 

 tiful. R. H. B. 



Bath. 



Barentine Family. — As early an answer as may 

 be to the two following queries will oblige me : — 

 1. Does there at present exist any representative 

 of the old Norman family of Barentine or De Ba- 

 rentine? It first settled in England in the 15th 

 century, and in the Heralds' Visitation of 1663 is 



