NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 31. 



Why am I charm'd by Friendship's fond essays, 

 And, tho' unbodied, conscious of thy praise? 

 Has pride a portion in the parted soul ? 

 Does passion still the formless mind controul? 

 Can gratitude out-pant the silent breath. 

 Or a friend's sorrow pierce the glooms of death? 

 No ; 'tis a spirit's nobler taste of bliss. 

 That feels the worth it left, in proofs like tliis ; 

 That not its own applause but thine approves, 

 Whose practice praises, and whose virtue loves ; 

 Who lov'st to crown departed friends with fame, 

 Then dying late, shalt all thou gav'st reclaim." 



It is my own impression, as well as that of an 

 eminent critic to whom I communicated these lines, 

 that they have been printed. If any contributor 

 to "Notes and Queries" can tell where they are 

 to be fijund, or can throw any light on their 

 authorship, it will gratify 



The Editor of Bp. Warburton's 

 Literary IIemains. 

 Bath, May 18. 1850. 



CULTIVATION OF GEOMETRY IN LANCASHIRE. 



It has been a frequent subject of remark, that 

 geometry in its purest form has been cultivated in 

 the northern counties, but more especially in Lan- 

 cashire, with extraordinary ardour and success ; 

 and this by a cLiss of men placed in a position 

 the most unpropitious that can be conceived for 

 the study — by operatives of the humblest class, 

 and these chiefly weavers. The geometrical la- 

 bours of these men woidd have ghtddened the 

 hearts of Euclid, ApoUonius, and Archimedes, 

 and would have been chronicled by Pappus with 

 his usual truthfulness and judicious commenda- 

 tion ; had they only but so laboured in Greece, 

 antecedently to, or contemporarily with, those 

 " fathers of geometry," instead of in modern 

 England, cotemporarily with the Hargreaves, the 

 Peels, and the Arkwrights. Yet not one in a 

 thousand of your rea<lers, perliaps, has ever heard 

 of these men ; and the visible traces of their ex- 

 istence and labours are very few, scarce, and 

 scattered. A vague general statement respecting 

 the prevalence of geometrical studies amongst the 

 "middle-classes" of England was made by Plaj'- 

 fair in the JEdinhurgh Review many years ago, 

 which is quite calcidutcd to mislead the reader , 

 and the subject was dwelt upon at some length, 

 and eloquently, by Harvey, at the British Associ- 

 ation in 1831. Attention has been more recently 

 directed to this subject by two living geometers — 

 one in the Philosophical Magazine^ and the other 

 in the Mechanics' ; but they both have wholly 

 untouched a question of primary importance — 

 even almost unmentioned: — it is, hoiv^ when, where, 

 and by whom, was this most unlikely direction 

 given to the minds of these men ? 



An answer to this question would form an im- 



portant chapter in the history of human develop- 

 ment, and throw much light upon the great edu- 

 cational questions of the present day. It may 

 furnish useful hints for legislation, and would be 

 of singular aid to those who were appointed to 

 work out legislative objects in a true spirit. It 

 cannot be doubted that a succinct account of the 

 origin of this taste, and of the influences by which 

 it has been maintained even to the present hour, 

 would be a subject of interest to most of your 

 readers, quite irrespective the greater or less 

 importance and difficulty of the studies them- 

 selves, as the result would show how knowledge 

 cannot only be efltjctively diSused but successfully 

 extended under circumstances apparently the most 

 hopeless. 



Nor does Manchester stand as the only instance, 

 for the iveavers of Spitalfields display precisely the 

 same singular phenomenon. What is still more 

 singular is, that the same class in both localities 

 have shown the same ardent devotion to natural 

 history, and especially to Botany ; although it is 

 to be remarked that, whilst the botanists of Spital- 

 fields have been horticulturists, those of Manchester 

 have confined themselves more to English field 

 flowers, the far more worthy and intellectual of the 

 two. 



AVe could add a "Note" here and there on 

 some points arising out of this question ; but our 

 want of definite and complete information, and of 

 the means of gaining it (except through you), 

 compels us to leave the subject to others, better 

 qualified for its discussion. Pray, sir, open your 

 pages to the question, and oblige, your ever obe- 

 dient servants, Pen-and-Ink. 



Hill Top, May Si 7. 1850. 



asinorum sepultcra. 



In former times it was the practice, upon the 

 demise of those who died under sentence of ex- 

 communication, not merely to refuse interment to 

 their bodies in consecrated ground, but to decline 

 giving them any species of interment at all. The 

 corpse was placed upon the surface of the earth, 

 and there surrounded and covered over with stones. 

 It was blocked up, " imblocatus," and this mode of 

 disposing of dead bodies was designated '''■ Asinorum 

 Sepultura." Ducange gives more than one instance, 

 viz., " Sepultura asini sepeliantur " — "ejusque 

 corpus exiinime asinorum accipiat sepidturam." 



Wherefore was this mode of disposing of the 

 dead bodies called " an ass's sepulture ?" It is not 

 sulBcient to say that the body of a liuman being 

 was buried like that of a beast, for then the term 

 would be general and not particular; neither can I 

 imagine that Christian writers used the phrase for 

 the purpose of repudiating the accusation preferred 

 against them by Pagans, of worshipping an ass. 

 (See Baronius, ad an. 201. § 21.) The dead car- 



