36 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 167. 



" I should like to know how I am to lay the 

 landscape straight before me, and put my oiled 

 paper on the top of it, and trace its outlines in 

 true perspective? I should like also to know, 

 since Mr. A. B. C. recommends a portrait for the 

 first attempt, how I am to lay the transparent paper 

 over my wife's face, without her nose making a hole 

 in the middle of it ? It is all very well for Mr. 

 A. B. C. to say that he ' continues to receive very 

 satisfactory testimonials respecting the besult of 

 his instructions, which are remarkable for sim- 

 plicity (I allow that), and invaluable for correct- 

 ness' (I deny that). But, although he prints 

 ' result ' in capital letters, all the testimonial that 

 I can give him will be to testify to the (on his 

 part) satisfactory result attending his ' art of draw- 

 ing ' twelve postage-stamps out of my pocket." 



Thus, can I imagine, would the gentle reader 

 soliloquise, on finding he had received two worth- 

 less bits of paper in return for his investment of 

 postage- stamps. My thoughts were somewhat the 

 same ; for I, alas ! sent " twelve postage-stamps," 

 which are now lost to view in the dim perspective, 

 and I shall only be too happy to sell Mr. A. B. C. 

 his instructions, &c. at half-price. In the mean 

 time, however, I forward them for Mr. Editor's 

 inspection. Cdthbeet Bede, B.A. 



Minav ^attS, 



Cremona Violins. — As many of your readers 

 are no doubt curious about the prices given, in 

 former times, for musical instruments, I transcribe 

 an order of the time of Charles II. for the purchase 

 of two Cremona violins. 



" [Audit Office Enrolments, vi. 359.] 

 " These are to pray and require you to pay, or 

 cause to be paid, to John Bannester, one of his 

 Ma"^' Musicians in Ordinary, the some of fourty 

 pounds for two Cremona Violins by him bought 

 and delivered for his Ma*' Service, as may appeare 

 by the Bill annexed, and also tenn pounds for 

 stringes for two yeares ending June 24, 1662. 

 And this shall be your warrant. Given under my 

 hand, this 24th day of October, 1662, in the four- 

 teenth year of his Majesty's reign. 



"E. Manchester. 

 "To S' Edward Griffin, Kn*, 

 Treasurer of his Ma"'' Chamber." 



Peter Cunningham. 



Prices of Tea. — From Read's Weekly Journal 

 or British Gazetteer, Saturday, April 27, 1734 : 

 " Green Tea - - - 9s. to 1 2s. per lb. 

 Congou - - - 10s. to 12s. „ 



Bohea - - - . lOs. to 12s. „ 

 Pekoe - - - - 14s. to 16s. „ 

 Imperial - . - 9s. to 12». „ 

 Hyson ... - 20s. to 25s. „ 



E. 



Coleridge a Prophet. — Among the political 

 writers of the nineteenth century, who has shown 

 such prophetic insight into the sad destinies of 

 France as Coleridge ? It is the fashion with lite- 

 rary sciolists to Ignore the genius of this great man. 

 Let the following extracts stand as evidences of 

 his profound penetration. 



Friend, vol. i. p. 244. (1844) : 



" That man has reflected little on human nature who 

 does not perceive that the detestable maxims and cor- 

 respondent crimes of the existing French despotism, 

 have already dimmed the recollections of democratic 

 phrenzy in the minds of men ; by little and little have 

 drawn off to other objects the electric force of the feel- 

 ings which had massed and upholden those recollec- 

 tions ; and that a favourable concurrence of occasions 

 is alone wanting to awaken the thunder and precipitate 

 the lightning from the opposite quarter of the political 

 heaven." 



Let the events of 1830 and 1848 speak for them- 

 selves as to the fulfilment of this forecast. 



Biographia Literaria, vol. i. p. 30. (1847), [after 

 a'most masterly analysis of practical genius] : 



" These, in tranquil times, are formed to exhibit a 

 perfect poem in palace, or temple, or landscape-garden, 

 &c. . . . But alas ! in times of tumult they are 

 the men destined to come forth as the shaping spirit of 

 ruin, to destroy the wisdom of ages in order to substi- 

 tute the fancies of a day, and to change kings and king- 

 doms, as the wind shifts and shapes the clouds." 



Let the present and the future witness the truth 

 of this insight. We have (in Coleridge's words) 

 "lights of admonition and warning;" and we may 

 live to repent of our Indifierence, if they are 

 thrown away upon us. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingham. 



Lord Bacon's Advice peculiarly applicable to the 

 Correspondents of "iV. Sf Q." — Lord Bacon has 

 written that — 



" A man would do well to carry a pencil in his 

 pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. 

 Those that come unsought for are generally the most 

 valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom 

 return." 



w.w. 



Malta. 



Etymology of Molasses. — The affinity between 

 the orthography of this word in Italian (melassa), 

 Spanish (melaza), and French (melasse), and our 

 pronunciation of It (melasses), would seem to sug- 

 gest a common origin. How comes it, then, that 

 we write it with an o Instead of an e ? Walker 

 says it Is derived from the Italian "mellazzo" 

 (sic) ; and some French lexicographers trace their 

 " melasse " from /xeKas, with reference to the co- 

 lour ; others from fieAi, In allusion to the taste. 

 But these Greek derivations are too recondite for 

 our early sugar manufacturers ; and the likelihood 



