June 9. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



441 



plain the word " to crop out," used by geologists 

 of strata which, after lying beneath, suddenly 

 make their appearance above ground. 



Page 134. Carriages.'] So Bacon, quoting 

 1 Sam. XXX. 22., speaks of those " who staid with 

 the carriages ;" for which the authorised version 

 has stuff. 



Page 139. Treacle.'] Compare the word manrui, 

 once used of any sweet crumbling substance ; now 

 applied only to food miraculously given to the 

 Israelites in the desert. The '■''manna of St. 

 Nicholas" (Scott) was a poison. 



Page 144. Ac>-e.] A story is told somewhere 

 (by Lord Campbell ?) of Coke, who had bought 

 so much land that the king forbad his buying any 

 more. He asked leave to buy one acre more ; and 

 on this being granted, bought the fine estate of 

 Castle Acre. This of course approached to a joke, 

 but no doubt the word was frequently applied to 

 a field of any size, long after it had begun to be 

 restricted to an exact measure. At Cromhall, in 

 Gloucestershire, there is a field called "Bloody 

 Acre;" which name records a skirmish between 

 Cromwell and the Royalists. 



Page 144. Yard.] In the Betrothed, Father 

 Aldrovand is made to say : " Sir cook, let me 

 have half a yard or so of broiled beef presently." 

 Sir Walter, in loco, refers to the reminiscences of 

 Henry Jenkins. Is there not an old list of sises 

 hung up in the entry to the public library at 

 Cambridge ? and does not the sise, " a yard of 

 beef," occur there ? A yard of butter, familiar to 

 all Cambridge men, is an exact measure. 



Page 176. Great.] In the Christian Year 

 (" Hymn for Easter Sunday") we read : 



" Sundays by thee more glorious break. 

 An Easter-day in every week." 



And this pronunciation is often heard in the West 

 of England. 



Page 195. iVbse.] Otherwise nese : 



" I bear a pye, picking at a piece ; 

 Whoso picks at her, I shall pick at his nese." 



The form ness survives in Sheerness, Bowness, and 

 other names which indicate its original meaning. 

 On the Severn, the traveller will meet with Sharp- 

 ness Point. Ness being no longer understood, is 

 repeated in point. 



Page 196. {Note.) It is marvellous how care- 

 lessly English books are commonly edited with 

 respect to the text, especially when we see how 

 verbal criticism, applied to Greek and Latin, 

 has flourished In England. But ought not men, 

 capable of the task, to undertake the revision of 

 the works of our great English writers as a labour 

 of love ? If some few of the scholars yearly sent 

 out from our Universities would each see one 

 work through the press, this disgrace to our 

 literature would soon be wiped out. 



Will Mr. Trench, or any one else who can do 



so, explain the origin of the word barratry ? It 

 is used of a man who brings a vexatious action, or 

 of the captain of a ship who fraudulently detains 

 a vessel from her owners. Baraterie, in French, 

 means cheating at cards ; and barato, I believe, in 

 Spanish, cheap. Y. 



ALMANACS AND THEIR MAKERS. 



A considerable quantity of old mathematical 

 papers in MS., consisting of letters, computations, 

 almanacs, &c., has lately come into my hands. 

 The dates range over about sixty years before 

 1777. Among the letters are a number from 

 Robert Heath of Upnor Castle. From these I 

 select the following scraps, which will be interest- 

 ing to some of your readers : 



" I thought you had known the Company of Stationers' 

 reason for suppressing the Palladium and Almanac Royal; 

 being their mercenary views to themselves, who would 

 have nobody else get an3'-thing by what they do. They 

 are apprehensive the Palladium is dangerous to Xh^ Diary, 

 as the French Almanac is to their Sheet, and other 

 almanacs — and so would suppress them. But I rise 

 another almanac upon them this year, viz. Le Petit Al- 

 manac, a small book almanac of size, fit for gentlemen 

 and ladies, and all persons conversant in French. 



" I would have soon let the Company see the odds of 

 writing almanacs, if I could have published in English ; 

 but they have a charter of the sole property of all al- 

 manacs and prognostications (granted in Phil, and 

 Mary) in the English tongue ; so that none can tell for- 

 tunes in English about the weather, but themselves. I 

 have their charter, and all grants besides from the crown 

 to them. I hope to be able to deal with them. 



" The sheet almanac of theirs sells 175,000, and they 

 give three guineas for the copy: Moore's sells 75,000, 

 and they give five guineas for the copv : the Lady sells 

 above 30,000 (and sold but 17,000 when I first took it) ; 

 and they give ten guineas for the copy to Mrs. Beightou, 

 the most copy-money of any other. The Gentleman's 

 copy is three guineas, sells 7,000. These are a fine Com- 

 pany to write for .... You must take care White don't 

 copy from j'ou, or get anybody to do it, for then he'll 

 charge us with copying from him," &c. 



The date of this letter is about 1753. He ap- 

 pears to have been troubled by White, for in 

 Oct. 1751 he wrote : 



" Do you know anything of one White, who computes 

 an Ephemeris for the Stationers' Company ? He lives at 



Grantham, in Lincolnshire. My friend, Granville, 



Esq., gives me but an odd account of him. Can't we 

 excel him in our Ephemeris, by detecting his errors, and 

 showing our truth? Let me have your opinion of his 

 performances." 



Mrs. Beighton, above named, furnishes several 

 letters ; others are from Isaac Tarrant, Robert 

 Langley, &c. Thomas Williams, of MIddleton 

 Stoney, contributes an account of the weather 

 observed at that place; commencing March 1, 

 1715, and ending June 30, 1733. This Is written 

 in a peculiar character, to which a key Is given. 

 There Is also an elaborate letter or essay of 



