208 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 281. 



year of George II., in the second volume of Sir 

 John Strange's Reports, p. 822. ? 



" Bowington v. Parry. — In trover for a laced head. 

 Strange moved to bring it into court, but was denied." 



A Barrister. 



[May not this be the lady's head-dress in fashion from 

 William III. to George II., sometimes called a " tower," 

 or a commode ; consisting of rows of lace, stuck bolt up- 

 right over the forehead, and shooting upwards, one over 

 the other, in a succession of plaits, diminishing in width 

 as they rise ; while long streaming lappets hang over the 

 shoulders from the head, the hair on which is combed 

 upward as a sort of support to this structure. It is alluded 

 to in D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth : 



" My high commode, my damask gown, 

 My laced shoes of Spanish leather ; 

 A silver bodkin in my head, 

 And a dainty plume of feather." 



See an engraving of it in Fairholt's Costume in England, 

 p. 348. Strutt calls the ancient a^Trvl a head-lace.] 



Humboldt's '■'■ Asie Centrale." — Has this work 

 been translated ? F. C. B. 



Diss. 



\_Asie Centrale, published in 1843, in 3 vols., was soon 

 afterwards enlarged and translated into German by W. 

 Mahlmann; but we never met with an English transla- 

 tion.] 



Arms of the St. Aubyn Family. — What are the 

 arms of this family ? At what period did they 

 settle in Cornwall ? and were they formerly in the 

 habit of varying the spelling of their name ? 



Seletjcus. 



[St. Albyn, St. Albin, and St Aubyn. This ancient 

 family deduces its pedigree from Gwyder St. Aubyn, a 

 younger brother of St. Albyn (as the name was anciently 

 spelt) of Alfoxton, co. Somerset. The family came over 

 with William the Conqueror, and had their chief resi- 

 dence and estates in Somersetshire and Devonshire. They 

 acquired Clowance, in Cornwall, in the latter part of the 

 fourteenth century, by the marriage of Sir Geffrej' St. 

 Aubyn (son of Sir Guy, who had married one of the co- 

 heiresses of Serjeaux of Colquite) with the heiress of 

 Kimiell, who had married the coheiress of Helligan of 

 Clowance. Arms: Ermine, on across, gules, five bezants.] 



Schiller's " Die Piccolomini.'" — Perhaps some 

 of your readers of German literature may be able 

 to explain me the following, from Schiller's Die 

 Piccolomini, Act II. Sc. I. : 



" Seni. . . . Wie der Mensch aus Gutera 

 Und Bosem ist gemischt, so ist die Filnfe 

 Die erste Zahl aus Grad' und Ungerade." 



Why Fiinfe? Is not Vier "die erste Zahl 

 aus Grad' und Ungerade ? " Anon. 



[Our correspondent should have given the introduc- 

 tory lines spoken by Seni : 



«. . . . Fiinfist 

 Des Menschen Seele." 



Seni is an astrologer at the court of the Duke of Fried- 

 land, and has just been counting the chairs in the grand 

 hall of the palace, upon which he observes : " Eleven ! 

 A bad number. Twelve chairs should be set. Twelve 



signs hath the Zodiac — five and seven; holy numbers 

 include themselves in twelve." A servant inquires : 

 " What have you to say against eleven ? I should like 

 to know that." — Seni : " Eleven is sin. Eleven over- 

 steps the ten commandments." — " Indeed ! " observes the 

 servant ; " and why then should you call five a holy 

 number ? " Then comes the passage in questioia : " Five 

 is the soul of man ; as man of good and evil is com- 

 pounded, so five is the first number composed of even and 

 odd." That is to saj', of two and three ; even numbers 

 being good, odd bad.] 



dSitpUtS. 



PHII-LIPS'S "new world OF WORDS." 



(Vol. xi., pp. 122. 167.) 



Although the Query put forth on the subject of 

 the Dictionarium Anglicum, 1658, by my friend 

 Mr. Way, with a reference to myself, may seem 

 (and perhaps truly) to imply a laborious research 

 in the dark for an article which was lying on the 

 surface ; yet, at the same time, I am bound to ex- 

 press my obligations to Mr. Singer and Mr. 

 Arrowsmith for their prompt solution of the 

 seeming difficulty. It is now nearly twenty years 

 ago that I felt more immediately interested in 

 English lexicography, and at that time I certainly 

 took some pains (without success) to disinter 

 Skinner's often-quoted authority. I satisfied my- 

 self that it was neither Cockeram nor Blount ; but, 

 with regard to Phillips, I was deceived by the 

 following circumstances. Lowndes and Watt 

 both give the date of the first edition of Phillips 

 as 1657, and mention no edition of the following 

 year, the date I was in search of. In my owa 

 library I had only the seventh edition, " revised, 

 corrected, and improved, by J. K. [John Kersey] 

 Philobibl.," 1720, fol., and on consulting this, I 

 could not find in it several of the words referred 

 to by Skinner, such as Barter (with the deriv- 

 ation from Vertere), Aharstick, Gowts, Mustriche, 

 Wreedt, &c. Many other words I did find, but of 

 course it was and must be an assumed condition, 

 that the work quoted by Skinner should contain 

 not only some, but aU of the words instanced by 

 him from it. I therefore, as I now find, too 

 hastily concluded that the World of Words was 

 not the work in question. Had I, however, wished 

 to consult the edition of 1658, it was not then, 

 nor is it now, in my power to do so, for the only 

 editions of Phillips in the Museum library (as 

 far as I can ascertain) are i\i% fourth of 1678, and 

 the sixth of 1706. With the latter part of Mr, 

 Singer's communication to " N. & Q.," I most 

 cordially agree, namely, that a work containing a 

 complete account of English lexicography (from 

 actual inspection and comparison) would be a very 

 valuable contribution to literature, and I would 

 fain see in your periodical some aid towards such 

 a publication. In respect to Blount, I possess the 



