May 20. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



467 



interesting as showing the enlightened sentiments 

 of an eminent scholar a hundred years ago when 

 addressing a minister of the crown : 



" Human nature lias ever been the same in all ages 

 and nations, and owes the difference of its improve- 

 ments to a difference only of culture, and of the re- 

 wards proposed to its industry ; where these are the 

 most amply provided, there we shall always find the 

 most numerous and shining examples of human per- 

 fection. In old Rome, the public honours were laid 

 open to the virtue of every citizen ; which, by raising 

 them in their turns to the command of that mighty 

 empire, produced a race of nobles superior even to 

 kings. This was a prospect that filled the soul of the 

 ambitious, and roused every faculty of mind and body 

 to exert its utmost force ; whereas, in modern states, 

 men's views being usually confined to narrow bounds, 

 beyond which they cannot pass, and a partial culture 

 of their talents being sufficient to procure everything 

 that their ambition can aspire to, a great genius has 

 seldom either room or invitation to stretch itself to its 

 full size." 



Alpha. 



Oxford. 



$fi,inav (Siuzxicg. 



" One New Years Day." — An old lady used 

 to amuse my childhood by singing a song com- 

 mencing — 



" One New Year's day, as I've heard say, 

 Dick mounted on his dappled grey," &c. 



The rest I forget, but I should be glad to know if 

 it is extant, and what is known of its origin, &c. 

 G. William Skyking. 

 Somerset House. 



Greek denounced by the Monks. — 



"Almost the time (a.d. 1530) when the monks 

 preached in their sermons to the people to beware of 

 a new tongue of late discovered, called the Greek, and 

 the mother of all heresies." — Foreign Quarterly for 

 October, 1842, No. 59. p. 137. 



Can any of your readers give references to such 

 passages in Monkish sermons ? Cpl. 



Pliny s Dentistry. — As your journal has be- 

 come the repository of so many novel and in- 

 teresting/acte, I trust that the following data will 

 be found acceptable to the readers of " N". & Q." 

 Having had occasion, of late, to look over the 

 works of Pliny, I was struck with the extent to 

 which this ancient naturalist and philosopher has 

 carried his researches on the above subject ; as, in 

 some editions, the Index of the article Dentes 

 occupies several closely-printed columns. He 

 recommends tooth-powder (dentifricia) of harts- 

 horn, pumice-stone, burnt nitre, Lapis Arabus, 

 the ashes of" shells, as well as several ludicrous 

 substances, in accordance with the mystic preju- 



dices of the age. Amongst the remedies for fixing 

 (Jirmare) teeth, he mentions Inula, Acetum Scil- 

 linum, Radix Lapathi sativi, vinegar ; and loose 

 teeth are to be fixed by Philidonia, Veratrum 

 nigrum, and a variety of other remedies, amongst 

 which some are most rational, and tend to prove 

 that more attention was paid to the physiological 

 (hygeistic) department relating to that portion of 

 the human body than we have been hitherto aware 

 of, as even the most recent works on Dentistry do 

 not mention these facts. Geobge Hates. 



Conduit Street. 



J. Farrington, R.A. — Having recently met with 

 some views by J. Farrington, R.A., without a 

 description of the locality, I shall be obliged by 

 your insertion of a Query respecting information 

 of what views were executed by this painter, with 

 their localities, in or about the year 1789. As I 

 am informed that those above referred to belong 

 to this neighbourhood, and therefore would be 

 invested with interest to me, I could ascertain 

 their locality with precision. 



John Nukse Chadwick. 



King's Lynn. 



Henry Crewkerne, of Exeter, " Captain of 

 Dragoons, descended from Crewkerne, of Crew- 

 kerne, in Devonshire," died at Carlow in Feb. 

 1664-5. Was he descended from Crewkerne of 

 Chilhay, Dorset ? His pedigree would be very 

 acceptable. Y. S. M . 



Dr. Joknson. — Johnson says somewhere that 

 he never was in a tight place but once, and that 

 was when he had a mad bull by the tail. Had he 

 held on, he said he would have been dragged to 

 death over a stubble field ; while if had not held on, 

 the bull would have gored him to death. Now 

 my Query is, what did Dr. Johnson do, hold on 

 or let go ? G. M. B. 



Latin " Dante" — Is there not a literal Latin 

 prose translation of Dante, somewhat rhythmical ? 

 Has not Stillingfleet cited it in the Origines ? 

 If so, where is its corpus ? And in what form, 

 MS. or printed ? Of metrical Latin versions 

 there are several beside those of the Jesuit Carlo 

 d' Aquino and Piazza. The Query is as to the 



prose 



Philip Aske. 



Ralph Bosvill, of Bradbourn, Kent, Clerk of the 

 Court of Wards, married first, Anne, daughter of 

 Sir Richard Clement, and widow of John Cas- 

 tillon, by whom he had five children. He married 

 secondly, Benedicta Skinner, by whom he had six 

 children. This I have taken from the Visitations 

 of Kent. In Harl. MS. 5532.152, he is said to 

 have had another son Ralph, "slain in Ireland." 

 This Ralph was his son, and I wish to discover by 

 which wife, as the entry above-mentioned in the 



