Jan. 13. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



25 



the two words, " through, crosswise." Sheridan 

 gives the same definition. Webster, as if to make 

 the blunder more apparent, substitutes a semi- 

 colon for the comma, and defines " Traverse, 

 prep, through ; crosswise," citing Milton's lines, 

 pointed as in Johnson. 



The earliest edition of the Paradise Lost which 

 I have at hand (1688), has a comma after " views," 

 in the line cited. So has Newton's edition (1749). 

 Bentley, Todd, and nearly all recent editors of 

 Milton, place a semi- colon there : 



" And soon traverse 

 The whole battalion views ; their order due, 

 Their visages and statures as of gods." 



This pointing, which is obviously the more correct, 

 restores traverse to its proper place among the 

 adverbs, and takes away the only authority on 

 which its occasional use as a preposition rests. 

 Dr. Johnson, it will be observed, made but one 

 blunder, where subsequent lexicographers have 

 contrived to make two ; for " traverse," if a pre- 

 position, would be correctly defined by " through 

 crosswise." But Webster, by separating the two 

 words of this definition, has fallen into the ab- 

 surdity of defining a supposed preposition by an 

 adverb, "crosswise." Vertaur. 



Hartford, Connecticut. 



Milton's Description of Rome. — Would it not 

 be well that Mr. Murray, in his Guide to Central 

 Italy., on introducing the English traveller into 

 Rome, should open the scene with the general 

 description of an English poet, who himself wrote 

 from recollection of the spot ; I mean, of course, 

 Milton : 



" A river of whose banks 

 On each side an imperial city stood, 

 With tow'rs and temples proudly elevate 

 On seven small hills, with palaces adorn'd, 

 Porches, and theatres, baths, aqueducts. 

 Statues, and trophies, and triumphal arcs : 



. There the Capitol thou see'st 

 Above the rest lifting his stately head 

 On the Tarpeian rock, her citadel 

 Impregnable ; and there Mount Palatine, 

 The imperial palace, compass huge and high 

 The structure, skill of noblest architects, 

 With gilded battlements conspicuous far, 



Turrets, and terraces, and glittering spires 



Thence to the gates cast round thine eye, and see 

 What conflux issuing forth, or entering in ; 

 Prffitors, pro-consuls to their provinces 



Hasting or on return 



Or embassies from regions far remote, 

 In various habits, on the Appian road, 

 Or on the Emilian. " 



Paradise Regained, book iv. 



There are few Englishmen of taste who will 



not have read or repeated these lines, as they 



gazed on the scene described from the campanile 



of the Capitol. Wm. Ewart. 



Custom observed in drinking at public Feasts. — 

 In " N. & Q," Vol. X., p. 307., is mentioned the 



custom at Queen's College, of placing the thumbs 

 on the table while the superiors drink. The fol- 

 lowing custom has been observed from time im- 

 memorial, and still is, at dinners given by the 

 mayor, or at any public feast of the corporation of 

 Lichfield. The first two toasts given by the 

 mayor are " The Queen," and " Weale and Wor- 

 ship," both which are drunk out of a massive em- 

 bossed silver cup, which holds three or four 

 quarts, and was presented to the corporation in 

 1666 by Ellas Ashmole, a native of the city. 

 The ceremony is as follows : — The mayor drinks 

 first, and on his rising the persons on his right and 

 left also rise ; he then hands the cup to the person 

 on his right side, when the one next to him rises, 

 the one on the left of the mayor still standing ; 

 then the cup is passed across the table to him, 

 when his left-hand neighbour rises ; so that there 

 are always three standing at the same time, one 

 next to the person who drinks, and one opposite 

 to him. I presume that though the ceremony is 

 different, the object was the same as that observed 

 at Queen's College, that is, to prevent injury to 

 the person who drinks. T. G. L. " 



Lichfield. 



Female Rank. — Few, save private friends and 

 their friends, know the heroic conduct of Miss 

 Nightingale in the hospital at Scutari, which is 

 certainly beyond all praise. Not only has she, 

 since her arrival, attended all the death-beds of 

 the soldiers under her charge, but she has had the 

 most dangerous cases placed in a room next to 

 her own, that she may be near, and thus enabled 

 to render them greater attention. Certainly this 

 nobleness will be repaid by the praise of this and 

 succeeding generations, but more especially by 

 the blessing of God. Nevertheless, may we not 

 ask, why great women should not be rewarded 

 from henceforth as great men, excepting, as we 

 feel bound to do, great authors ? Commissions 

 are given away at present to non-commissioned 

 ofiicers, and Canrobert is made a C.B. What 

 would seem more appropriate, than that this lady, 

 who has willingly given up the luxuries of private 

 life for public good, should be henceforth known 

 as Lady Florence Nightingale ? E. W. J. 



The first Dublin Newspaper. — The following 

 paragraph from Gilbert's History of the City of 

 Dublin (p. 178.), of which the first volume has 

 lately appeared, may deserve a corner in " N. & 



" Thornton issued the first newspaper published in 

 Dublin, which was styled The Dublin News Letter, printed 

 in 1685, by ' Joseph Ray in College Green, for Eobert 

 Thornton, at the Leather Bottle in Skinner Row;' it 

 consisted of a single leaf of small folio size, printed on 

 both sides, and written in the form of a letter; each 

 number being dated, and commencing with the word Sir. 

 The existence of this publication was totally unknown to 



