292 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2^^ S. v. 119., April 10. '68. 



Note on the late Eclipse. — The late pretended 

 eclipse of the sun, as a lady called it in writing to 

 me, appears to have disappointed " the public," 

 by being less impressive than the descriptions of 

 astronomers had led the public to expect ; a lesson 

 to teach astronomers to measure their expressions 

 as well as their phenomena, and not to make it 

 their object to impress the public. But the object 

 of my Note is not to moralise, but to show that 

 such disappointment is not a new occurrence. In 

 the Remains of John Byrom, lately printed by the 

 Chetham Society of Manchester, vol. ii. p. 450., is 

 the following passage, in a letter dated July 14, 

 1748 : — 



"This day the eclipse took up the attention of the 

 public : but I fancy the common people, having been so 

 much alarmed about its darkness and birds falling to the 

 ground, and will think the learned were out in their cal- 

 culations, for it was so light at the very height of it as 

 not to be thought on without being told." 



w. 



Watchmaker of the Court of Spain. — In the 

 Ceremonial d'Espagne the watchmaker of the 

 Court is enumerated as an officer of the house- 

 hold. His pay was eight placas daily, or 29,200 

 maravedis yearly, and separate charge for all 

 work done for His Majesty and the household. 

 This was in the latter part of the seventeenth and 

 beginning of the eighteenth century. 



Hyde CiiArke. 



St. Neofs Church. — At the restoration of St. 

 Neot's church in 1847, a seriously worm-eaten ap- 

 pearance of its roof was found to arise from in- 

 numerable holes, each containing a leaden shot. 

 After the defeat of the Earl of Holland, July 10, 

 1648, the royalist " prisoners were marched into 

 the church, and well guarded till the following 

 day." The guards had evidently an ample supply 

 of powder and shot, and occupied themselves with 

 firing at the carved oaken roof. Joseph Rix. 



St. Neot's. 



Fly-leaf Scribblings. — In vol. ii. of Tracts on 

 the Bower Controversy, collected by J. Bowie : — 



" Mem. I was Informed by D"". Arnold of Wells y' the 

 true name of Arnold was Arnee, y' it was notorious to 

 every one where he lived y' it was so, and y' he was a 

 man of a very bad character in oth§r respects. This he 

 told me at Wells, May 11. 1761. J. Bowie." 



Joseph Rix. 



St Neots. 



Bookbinder's Charges in 1480. — In the Ward- 

 robe Accounts of King Edward IV, the following 

 interesting entries relating to the binding of some 

 of that king's books appear : — 



*' Piers Bauduyn stacioner for bynding, gilding, and 

 dressing of a booke called Titus Livius, xxs. ; for binding, 

 gilding, and dressing of a booke of the Holy Trinite, 

 xvjs. ; for binding, gilding, and dressing of a booke called 

 Frossard, xvjs. ; for binding, gilding, and dressing of a 

 booke called the Bible, xvjs. ; for binding, gilding, and 



dressing of a booke called Le Gouvernement of Kinges 

 and Princes, xvjs.; for binding and dressing of thre 

 small bookes of 'Franche, price in grete, vjs. viijrf. ; for 

 the dressing of ij bookes whereof oon is called La For- 

 teresse de Foy, and the other called the Book of Josephus, 

 iijs. iiijd ; and for binding, gilding, and dressing of a 

 booke called the Bible Historial, xxs." 



These charges did not cover the whole expence 

 of the binding, as we find in another part of the 

 same accounts the following entry of materials de- 

 livered out of the Wardrobe : — 



" Delyvered for the coverjmg and garnj'sshing vj of 

 the Bookes of oure saide Souverain Lorde the Kinges, 

 that is to say, oon of the Holy Trinite, oon of Titus 

 Lyvius, oon of the Gouvernal of Kinges and Princes, a 

 Bible, a Bible Historialle, and the vj'he called Frossard, 



" Velvet, vj yerdes cremysy figured ; corse of silk ij 

 yerdes di' and a naille, blue silk weying an unce iij q' di' ; 

 iiij yerdes di' di' quarter blac silk weying iiij unces ; laces 

 and tassels of silk, xvj laces; xvj tassels, weying togider 

 vj unces and iij q' ; botons, xvj of blue silk and gold ; 

 claspes off coper and gilt, iij paire smalle with roses uppon 

 them; a paire myddelle, ij paire grete with the Kinges 

 armes uppon them ; bolions coper and gilt Ixx ; nayles 

 gilt, ccc." 



W. H. Husk. 



Punishment for a Lewd Woman. — I find re- 

 corded in one of the Sessions Books for the city of 

 Wells the trial of a woman named Ann Morgan, 

 charged with being a person of " very lewed life 

 and conversacon," to prove which some curious 

 (and not very delicate) evidence was adduced. 

 Being convicted, an order was made — 



" That the said An Morgan shalbe imprison'd vntill sa- 

 terday morn'g, market day, and then to be set in the 

 Stocks neer the place wher the Woodden Horse is to stand, 

 w'ch is apoynted to bee at the vpp'r end of the Market, 

 duringe the tyme that one * * * * Hut, a soldier, shal ride 

 the Woodden Horse ; and after that tyme to bee washed 

 in the Pallace Moote, and then to bee br't downe to the 

 Prison, and ther to remayne duringe the pleasur of the 

 Mayor and Justice. 



" Barthew. Cox, Maior. 

 Thomas Salmon. 

 " Dated 22" Junij, 1649." 



Ina. 

 Wells, Somerset. 



CHANCES OF KECOVEHINtt ANY OF THE liOST 

 CLASSICS. 



" By the way, it should be borne in mind that over 

 and above the translations, which yet survive, into the 

 Arabic (a resource obviously of little hope, except in the 

 case of scientific books,) there are, first and last, four 

 avenues by which we may have a chance of recovering 

 any of the lost classics : — 



" 1. The Palimpsests, as in repeated instances of late 

 in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. 



" 2. The Pompeii MSS. (for the sensible way of dealing 

 with which see a letter of Lord Holland to Dr. Pau). 



" 3. The great chests of Greek MSS. in the Sultan's Li- 

 brary at Constantinople, packed up ever since the triumph 

 of the Crescent in 1453 ; and, finally, the MSS. lurking 



