^■"i S. N" 105., Jan. 2. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



17 



Duke Street, in which, and in the Treasury gallery, they 

 remained until 1833, when they were removed into the 

 present office in St. James's Park, built expressly for their 

 reception." 



It is to be regretted that Mr. Jabdinb and Mb. 

 Hopper had not referred to this lleport of the 

 Commissioners, before publishing their observa- 

 tions respecting a public office. E. 



Meplteif to Minav iButviti, 



MedicBval Condemnation of Trade (2°** S. iv. 

 489.) — In consequence of a misunderstanding of 

 certain marks, my communication on this sub- 

 ject has been strangely dislocated. If any reader 

 should be disposed to do me the honour of looking 

 at it again, I beg him to consider the two para- 

 graphs which are printed as notes to be really 

 part of the text, and to read them as such after 

 the extract from the Council of Melfi. These 

 paragraphs were in the MS. marked (a) and (&) 

 respectively, by way of pointing out their con- 

 nexion with the two authorities cited by Black- 

 stone. J. C. R. 



Spence's Anecdotes (2°^ S. iv. 452.) — Your cor- 

 respondent is quite right ; there is and ever has 

 been a mystery about these Spence MSS. All 

 that Mr. Singer told us was, that on Spence's 

 death they were " consigned to a chest." This 

 chest, said the Quarterly Review (No. 46. p. 401.) 

 was in the possession of the late Bishop Lowth, 

 one of Spence's executors, from which " a late 

 speculator in fine editions had the dexterity to 

 extract it. . . . What means he used we have not 

 heard, and cannot pretend to guess. . . . How it 

 travelled down to the present publisher might 

 perhaps form an amusing incident in the story." 

 This only made the original mystery more m3's- 

 terious. 



I can understand that there may have been ob- 

 jections, at the time, to tell the story plainly — 

 "the late speculator" may have extracted the 

 MSS. by payment in hard cash, a simple fact 

 which the sellers might be anxious not to have 

 known — but now that a third of a century has 

 passed, surely there can be no objection to au- 

 thenticate by telling the whole truth, and letting 

 us know, not only whence these MSS. came, but 

 where they are. S. A. 



Milton's Blindness (2°'^ S. iv, 459.) — If your 

 readers who are interested in this subject (and 

 what Englishman is not ?) will turn t^o the Latin 

 edition of Milton's Works, published at Amster- 

 dam in 1698 (p. 330.), they will find a painfully- 

 interesting letter written by him, detailing the 

 symptoms which attended his gradual loss of 

 sight. The account was to be submitted to 

 Thevenot, a famous French physician. I give 



the passages only which bear upon the subject 

 under discussion, suppressing the medical details : 



" Decennium, opinor, plus minus est, ex quo debilitari 



atque hebescere visum sensi Deficiente per hoc 



fere triennium, sensim atque paulatim, altero quoque 

 lumine, aliquot ante mensibus quam visus omnis abole- 



retur Sed neque illud omiserim, dum adhuc visus 



aliquantulum supererat. [Here he describes the subjec- 

 tive appearance of colours and flashes of light ; and the 

 letter ends thus — ] Caligo tamen qua; perpetuo obser- 

 vatur, tarn hoctu quam interdiu, albenti semper quam 

 nigricanti propior videtur ; et volvente se oculo aliquan- 

 tulum lucis quasi per rimulam admittit." — September 28, 

 1664. Leonardo Philarse, Atheniensi. 



Thus, in 1654 he had lost all power of distin- 

 guishing objects, mere perception of light remain- 

 ing. Jaydejb. 



Births' Extraordinary (2°'^ S. ii. p. 226. 307.).— 

 " On Wednesday, Mrs. Gray, of 19. Oakfield- 

 terrace, was safely delivered of four daughters. 

 The mother and family are doing well. — Glasgow 

 Paper.'' — Morning Star, Dec. 7, '57. 



If any one will take the trouble of testing the 

 truth of this extraordinary story, it will probably 

 turn out to be true, in all but its extraordinary 

 details, as did the case of Mrs. E. Phinn of Bir- 

 mingham. See Mr. C. Mansfield Ingleby in 

 " N. & Q.," 2°" S. ii. 226. K. P. D. E. 



An Account of the Quarrel between the K. of 

 P— and M. de F— . (2"'^ S. iv. 491.) — 



" Monsieur etant I'autre jour avec le Roi, Mesdames 

 de Vaujour, de Montespan, et Deudicour, il sentit qu'ofl 

 lui tiroit son habit par derrifere, et comme il crilt que 

 c'^toit quelqu'une de ces Dames il leur demanda, mais 

 elles I'assurant que ce n'etoit pas elles, il demande au Roi 

 si ce n'etoit pas lui. Le Roi lui repondit (Jue non. Ma- 

 dame de Vaujour dit en riant; 'Vous verrez que c'est 

 Madame de Choisy de Camp qui vient de mourir.' On 

 s'informa de I'heure, et I'on trouva que c'^toit h. la meme 

 que Monsieur avoit ete tird. On veut que cette Dame, 

 qui ^toit fort de la cour [cceur?] de Monsieur, lui soit 

 venir dire adieu." — Madame de Montmorency au Comte 

 de Bussy. Paris, 1 Juin, 1669. 



" L'avanture de Monsieur ne me fera pas croire aux 

 esprits. C'est tout ce que je pourrois faire, s'il avoit bien 

 vu Madame de Choisy aprfes sa mort, encore voudrois-je 

 que c'est fut en plein jour, et c'est ce qui n'arrive jamais; 

 car les gens de I'autre monde ne raarchent que la nuit, si 

 I'on en croit les gens a vision ; pour moi je ferois bien du 

 chemin pour en avoir une dont je puisse douter." — Du 

 Comte de Bussy a Madame de Montmorencv. Bussy, 

 Juin 12, 1669." — ieftres de Bussy -Rabutin, i. 220. 222. 

 Paris, 1711. 



Hopkins, Jun. 



Garrick Club. 



Visit of a Beer-drinking Angel (2"'^ S. iv. 384. 

 481.) — Mb. Boweb has amused us with this re- 

 markable story from Clarke's Mirrour, and Mb. 

 Davies confirms the account from Turner's Re- 

 markable Providences, — two singular books which 

 it is said furnished Whitefield, and many other 

 popular preachers, with those striking and vivid 

 illustrations that fixed the earnest attention of 



