Mar. 24. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



223 



this remarkable production, where the great Car- 

 dinal Richelieu introduces a Benedictine Friar to 

 the French ambassador at Rome in the following 

 Jesuitical fashion, thus Englished : 



MASTER Compy, a SAVOYARD Friar of the Order of St. BENNET, 

 is to be a BEAKER to jou of N E WS from me by .Means of 

 this Letter. He is one of the most DISCREET, WISE, and Least 

 Vicious Persons lliat I ever jet amonu all I have CONVERST witii 

 ItnevF, and has earnestly desired me to write to j'ou in his PWVOUFv, 

 to give him a L ji T T E R of CREDENCE with some prcssins 

 Rc<oinmendation,whichIgrantedtohis MERIT 1 assure you rather than 

 iniporiuniiy. For, believe me. Sir, he deserves infinitely your Esteem, and 

 I would be sorrv you should be wantine to oblige him by your being 

 mistaken in not "KNOWING him, I should be afflicted if you were so, 

 as many () T HERS have been, on that Account who now esteem him 

 •whoare of my best FRIENDS. Hence and from no other MOTIVE 

 it is. That I desire to advertise vou that you are obliged more than anv 

 to talte special NOTICE of him, to afford him all imaginable Kesucct 

 and say NOTHING in his Presence that may ofkrnd or dispi.kask him 

 in any SORT. For I may and do truly say I love him as my self, and 

 assure you, there cannot be a more convincing ARGUMENT of an 

 Unworthy PERSON in the World, than to be capable of doinj; him injury. 

 I KNOW that as soon as you cease to be a stranger to his Vertues, and 

 shall be ACQUAINTED with him you will I>OVE him as well as I, and 

 ■will thank me for this ADVICE. The assurance I have of your great 

 CIVILITY doth hinder me to write further of him to you, or to 

 8<ty more upon tliis subject. 



I am, Sir, 



Your affect. Friend, 



John Akmand de Plbssis. 

 Paris, 23 Not. 1(538. 

 For the Ambassa<lor of France at Rome. 



The letter is, your readers will see, to be read 

 as the friar understood it, in the two columns to- 

 gether ; but, as the cardinal meant it, we are to 

 read the first column only. J. O. 



To extinguish Fire. — I find in an old memo- 

 randum-book (1783, or thereabouts) in my pos- 

 session, the following recipe for extinguishing 

 fire : 



" Ad ignem cito restinguendum. 

 R Burnt alum - - - - 30 lb. 



Green vitriol pulv. - - - 40 



Cinabresi, or red ochre - - 20 



Clav (potter's, &c.) - - - 200 



Water - - . - - 630." 



J. F. Ferguson. 

 Dublin. 



Curious Address. — 



" Theatre [here the King's arms] Royal, 

 Cheltenham. 

 " Their Majesties, the Princess Royal, the Princess Au- 

 gusta, and the Princess Elizabeth, having thrice honoured 

 Mr. Watson, the proprietor and manager, with their 

 presence, and having signified their royal intention of 

 returning to Windsor and London 'till next season, 

 the following dutiful and loj'al farewel Address was 

 spoken by Mr. Charlton (Mr. Watson being deprived of 

 that honour by illness), on Friday, the 15th August, 1788, 

 before the above Great Personages, and a very numerous 

 tiain of nobility and gentry. Written by Air. Stuart, 

 author of Gretna Green, &c. : 



" When the majestic spirit of the law 

 Feels a relief from Chelt'nani's humble Spa : 

 When George, our Constitution's sacred shield. 

 Here aids his own, the sceptre long to wield ; 

 All hearts must worship this dear, hallow'd ground. 

 Health, at whose/o?«/« the King of Freemen found ! 

 Long may this stream preserve Great Britain free. 

 By cheering iiim, who guards our liberty ! 

 Here may his virt'ous Consort often dwell, 

 Th' adored Hygeia of our royal well I 

 And oh ! may these, high Windsor's charming graces, 

 Li this low vale show oft their blooming faces ! 



Where the meek eye unfolds the modest mind — 



Tho' young — examples to all womankind ! 



But — we intrude — our homage now is due 



To sacred Majesty '. — to yoii! and you ! 



[Bowing to their Majesties, then to the Princesses, 

 and lastly to the audience.] 



Deigning to visit our small rustic scene, 



Proves that you think no subject's calling mean ! — 

 Our humble Manager still hopes, each yaar. 



Of duteous loyalty to shed the tear ! 



And thank again his royal, patrons here! 



Long may your future _/oys excel the past. 



And CheiVnam, honour'd thus, for ages last ! " 



I. R. R. 



A local Proverb falsified. — This town is over- 

 looked on the east by an eminence called " Beacon 

 Hill," and an old print of the Halifax gibbet has a 

 beacon on fire on its summit. Formerly,, when 

 the inhabitants wished to express the impossi- 

 bility of any proposal, their reply was, " You 

 might as well try to bore a hole through Beacon 

 Hill." The supposed impossibility has, however, 

 been accomplished. A tunnel passes through 

 Beacon Hill, and every day some of the in- 

 habitants of the " good old town," as they are 

 fond of calling it, pass through Beacon Hill on 

 their way to Bradford. H. Martin. 



Halifax. 



A Man of Family. — At a late trial in Detroit, 

 a negro witness stated, that by his five wives he 

 had had forty-eight children, of whom twenty- 

 eisht were living, all sons with one exception. 



M.E. 



Philadelphia. 



Curious Errata. — One of the most curious ex- 

 cuses for " faults escaped in the printing " occurs 

 in Dr. Daniel Featley's reply to one of Fisher's 

 controversial works, entitled The Romish Fisher 

 caught in his own Net: London, 1624: 



" I entreat the courteous reader to understand that the 

 greater part of the book was printed in the time of the 

 great frost ; when by reason that the Thames was shut 

 up, I could not conveniently procure the proofs to be 

 brought unto mee, before tliey were wrought off; where- 

 upon it fell out that very many grosse escapes passed the 

 press, and (which was the worst fault of all) the third 

 part is left unpaged." 



In the Penitent Pilgrim, London, 1641, the fol- 

 lowing distich precedes the list : 



" No place but is of errors rife. 

 In labours, lectures, leases, lines, life." 



V. T. Sternberg. 



Charles Lamb's Farce. — It may interest somt; 

 of Lamb's readers to know that his farce of Mr. 



H , which was damned in England, had a very 



excellent run in America. For this I am in- 

 debted to Wood's Personal Recollections of the 

 Stage (Philadelphia, 1854). Serviens. 



