May 5. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



355 



cept they could make a feoffment, or levy a fine, or suffer 

 a recovery, which lack of time would not permit ; and for 

 men to do it by these means when they could not undo it 

 again, was hard ; besides, even to the last hour of death 

 men's minds might alter, upon further proofs of their 

 children or kindred, or increase of children, or debt, or 

 defect of servants or friends. For which cause it was 

 reason that the law should permit him to reserve to the 

 last instant the disposing of his land, and to give him the 

 means to dispose of it." 



But convenient as the testamentary power may 

 be, it is not without counterbalancing disadvan- 

 tages. For example, the late case of the Earl of 

 Sefton V. Hopwood shows what mischief may be 

 occasioned by a law which allows men to alter 

 their minds as to the disposition of their property 

 to the hour of their death, " upon further proofs 

 of their children." F. 



Number Thirteen unlucky (Vol. vii., p. 571. )• — 

 This superstition seems to prevail in Russia and 

 Italy. 



" Mentioned that atCatalani's one day, perceiving there 

 was that number at dinner, she sent a French countess, 

 who lived with her, upstairs, to remedy the grievance ; 

 but soon after La Cainea coming in, the poor moveable 

 countess was brought down again. 



" Lord L. said he had dined once abroad with Count 

 Orloff, and perceived he did not sit down at dinner, but 

 kept walking from chair to chair; he found afterwards it 

 was because the Narishken were at table, who, lie knew, 

 would rise instantly if they perceived the number thirteen, 

 which Orloff would have made by sitting down himself." 

 — Moore's Diary, vol. ii. p. 206. 



Mackenzie Walcott, M.A. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC. 



It is highly creditable to the literature of the provinces 

 that to the provinces we are indebted for the first attempt 

 to recall attention to the poetical merits of Samuel Daniel 

 — the "gentle Daniel," as Southey happily designated 

 him. We have now before us a beautifully-printed and 

 carefully-edited volume, entitled Selections from the Poet- 

 ical yVorks of Samuel Daniel, with Biographical Introduc- 

 tion, Notes, ifc, by John Morris ; and those of our readers 

 who may remember what Coleridge said of him to Charles 

 Lamb (see " N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 1 18.),— that " thousands 

 even of educated men would become more sensible, fitter 

 to become Members of Parliament or Ministers, by reading 

 Daniel," — will, we are sure, be glad to avail themselves 

 of Mr. Morris's judicious labours. Thej' will find many 

 a passage full of deep thought, and expressed in noble 

 numbers, among the selections here made from the writ- 

 ings of this thoroughly English-minded poet. 



27ie British Museum. — The annual Parliamentaiy 

 papers relative to the British Museum, show that the 

 receipts in the year ended the 31st of March, 1855, 

 amounted to 74,689/., and the expenditure to 59,047Z., 

 leaving a balance of 15,642/. The items of expenditure 

 mclude 25,281/. for salaries, 2,525/. for house expenses, 

 15,861/. for purchases and acquisitions, 11,091/. for book- 

 binding, cabinets, &c., 1,529/. for printing catalogues, 

 making casts, &c., and 2,451/. for excavations in Assyria 



and the transport of marbles. The net amount of the 

 estimate of the sum required for the year 1855-56 is 

 56,180/. In the Printed Book department of the Museum 

 the number of volumes added to the library in 1854 

 amounted to 13,055 (including music, maps, and news- 

 papers), of which 976 were presented, 6,182 purchased, 

 and 5,897 acquired by copyright. The number of readers 

 was, on the average, 194 per diem, the reading-room having 

 been kept open 289 days; and each reader consulted, 

 on the average, seven volumes a-daj'. The enforcement 

 of the delivery of books under the Copj'right Act has 

 been steadily carried out, and the result has been the 

 acquisition of 19,578 books, whereas in 1851 only 9,871 

 were received. In the Manuscript department 906 MSS., 

 695 charters and rolls, and 18 seals and impressions, had 

 been added to the general collection; and 20 MSS. to 

 the Egerton Collection. Among the acquisitions more 

 worthy of notice may be mentioned — the Official and 

 Private Correspondence and Papers, originals or copies, of 

 the late Lieutenant-General Sir Hudson Lowe, from 1799 

 to 1828, embracing the whole of the transactions dui-ing 

 the period he was governor of St. Helena, 1816 — 1821; 

 a large Collection of Papers purchased of the Marquis 

 Gualterio of Florence, estimated to form about 400 

 volumes; a Collection of 60 original Court Rolls, and 

 above 350 Charters, relating to the counties of Sussex, 

 Surrey, Suffolk, and Norfolk, extending from the reign of 

 Henry III. to the seventeenth century, presented by C. 

 W. Dilke, Esq. ; an interesting Collection of Drawings and 

 Sketches, illustrative of New Zealand, the Loyalty Islands, 

 &c., presented by Sir George Grey, the late governor; 

 the Cartulary of the Priory of St. Nicliolas, Exeter, on 

 vellum, of the thirteenth century, with a short Chronicle 

 prefixed, to the year 1328 : this is the Cottonian MS. 

 marked Vitellius' D. IX., which was missing from the 

 Collection when Dr. Smith published his Catalogue in 

 1696, and it is now at length restored to its place in the 

 Cottonian Library; a ver}' fine copy of the Historia 

 Miscella, comprising Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus, and 

 Landulphus; together with the Historia Ecclesiastica of 

 Cassiodorus; on vellum, of the twelfth century, folio; 

 an extremely fine copy of the French translation of 

 Crescentius, executed for Charles V. of France in 1373, 

 with thirteen miniatures; on vellum, fifteenth cenftiry, 

 large folio, from the MacCarthj' and De Bure Libraries ; 

 some early Greek MSS., on vellum, eight Armenian MSS. 

 on cotton paper, including a copy of the Gospels, and 

 several scarce works in Hebrew, Samaritan, Arabic, 

 Persian, Turkish, and Hindostani ; a beautiful copy of the 

 Persian poem Khawar Nama, composed by Ibn Hassam, 

 at the commencement of the fifteenth centurj', in praise 

 of the exploits of Ali, son-in-law of Mohammed (written 

 at Mooltan in 1686) ; five folio volumes of the valuable 

 Collections for the History of Essex, made by Thomas 

 Jekyll, Secondary of the King's Bench, in the reign of 

 Charles I. ; a considerable number of volumes relating to 

 the History and Literature of Ireland, from the library of 

 the late Sir William Betham, including the original 

 Entry-Books of Recognizances in Chancery and Statutes 

 Staple, from the reign of Elizabeth to 1678 ; the original 

 Account Book of the Privy Purse Expenses of King 

 Henry "VIII. from Nov. 1529, to Dec. 1532, signed 

 throughout with his own hand ; the Autograph Deed of 

 Agreement of Edmund Spenser, the poet, of Kilcolman, 

 county Cork, with a person named M'=Henrj-, signed and 

 sealed ; seventeen autograph Poems and Letters of Robert 

 Burns ; and fifteen original Letters of Pension, Archbishop 

 of Cambray, 1703 — 1714; an original Charter of Eudes, 

 King of France, executed in the year 888 or 889, with the 

 seal en placard, finely preserved; also another original 

 Charter of Peter, Bishop of Beauvais, granted in 1123, 



