374 



NOTES AND QUEKIE8. 



[No. 63. 



Lord Shelburne was but twenty." In 1765 Lord 

 Slielburnc was twenty-eight. He was born in 

 1737; was in Parliament in 1761; and a Privy 

 Councillor in 1763. L. G. P. 



Misquotatinn — "7/e who runs may read." — No 

 such passage exists in the Scriptures, though it is 

 constantly quoted as from them. It is usually the 

 accompaniment of expressions relative to the 

 clearness of meaning or direction, the supposititious 

 allusion being to an inscription written in very 

 large characters. The text in the prophet Ilabak- 

 kuk is the following : " Write the vision and make 

 it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth 

 it." (Ch. ii. 2.) Here, plainly, the meaning is, 

 that every one reading the vision shoidd be ahirmed 

 by it, and should tly from the impending calamity : 

 and although this involves the notion of legibility 

 and clearness, that notion is the secondary, and 

 not the primary one, as those persons make it who 

 misquote in the manner stated above. Manleius. 



TindaVs New Testament. — The following Biblio- 

 graphical Note, by the late Mr. Thomas Rodd, 

 taken from a volume of curious early Latin and 

 German Tracts, which will be sold by Messrs. 

 Sotheby and Wilkinson on Friday next, deserves 

 a more permanent record than the Sale Catalogue. 



" I consider the second tract of jiarticular interest 

 and curiosity, as it elucidates an important point in 

 English literature, viz., the place (Worms) where 

 Tindal printed the edition of the New Testament com- 

 monly called the first, and generally ascribed to the 

 Antwerp Press. 



" This book is printed in a Gothic letter, with 

 woodcuts and Initial Letters (in tlie year 151S). 



" I have carefully examined every book printed at 

 Antwerp, at the period, that lias fallen in my way ; 

 but in no one of them have I found the same type or 

 initial letters as are used therein. 



" In the present tract 1 find the same form of type 

 and woodcuts, from the same school ; and also, what 

 is more remarkable, an initial ( U) letter, one of the 

 same alphabet as a P used in the Testament. These 

 initial letters were always cut in alphabets, and in no 

 other books than these two have I discovered any of 

 the letters of this alphabet. 



'■ The mistake b;is arisen from the circumstance of 

 there liaving been a piratical rejjrint of the book at 

 Antwerp in 1525, but of wliiub no copy is known to 

 exist." 



The following is the title of the tract referred 

 to by Mr. Rodd: — 



" E;jii icolgeordent und niitzUch biwhlin, wie man 

 Bergu-crck .tnchen tin Jiuden sol, von allcrlcy Metall, 

 mit .seinen Jigurcn, nuch gelcgenhei/t dess gehirgs 

 artlich aiigezeygf, mit ardiangendcn Bercknamen 

 den aii/ahandcn hergleuten vast dinstUcli ;" and the 

 coloplion describes it as " Oetrucht zu Wo7-mhs 

 bei Peter Schiifern nn volendct am fnnfften tag 



Aprdl, M;D.XVIIi." 



The Term ^^ Organ-blower." — In an old docu- 

 ment preserved among the archives of the Dean 

 and Chapter of Westminster, is an entry relative 

 to the celebrated composer and organist Henrt 

 PuBCELi,, in which he is styled " our organ- 

 blower." What is the meaning of this term ? It 

 certainly docs not, in the present case, apply to the 

 person whose office it was to fill the organ with 

 v/ind. Piuxell, at the time the entry was made, 

 was in the zenith of his fame, and "organist to 

 the king." Possibly it may be the old term fur an 

 organist, as it will be remembered that in the 

 fifteenth century the organ was performed upon 

 by bloivs from the fist. 



At the coronation of James IL, and also at that 

 of George I., two of the king's nuisicians walked 

 in the procession, clad in scarlet mantles, playing 

 each on a sackbut, and another, drest in a similar 

 manner, plaving on a double curtal, or bassoon. 

 The " organ-blower" had also a place in these 

 two processions, having on him a short red coat, 

 with a badge on his left breast, viz. a nightingale 

 of silver, gilt, sitting on a sprig. 



In a weekly paper, entitled the Westminster 

 Journal, Dec. 4. 1742, is a letter subscribed 

 " Ralph Courtevil, Organ-Motver, Essayist, and 

 Historiographer." This person was the organist 

 of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, and the author 

 of the Gazetteer, a paper written in defence of Sir 

 Robert Walpole's administration. By the writers 

 on the opposite side he was stigmatized with the 

 name of " Court-evil." 



At the present time, as I am given to under- 

 stand, the organist of St. Andrew's Church, Hol- 

 born, is styled in the vestry-books, the '■'■ oigun- 

 bloiver." Edward F. Rimbaiilt. 



" Singidar" and " Uliiqne." — The word singu- 

 lar, originally applied to that of which there is no 

 other, gradually came to mean extraordinary only, 

 and "rather singular," "very singular indeed," 

 and such like phrases, ceased to shock the ear. 

 To supply the vacancy occasioned by this corrup- 

 tion, the word unique was introduced ; which, I 

 am horror-struck to see, is beginning to follow its 

 predecesscu'. The Vauxhall bills lately declared 

 Vauxhall to be the " most unique place of amuse- 

 ment in the world." Can anything be done to 

 check this ill-fated word in its career? and, if not, 

 what must we look to for a successor? M. 



caitcrttS. 



EARLT POETKT, ETC., FIVE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 

 QUERIES RESPECTING. 



1. Who was the author of — 



" A Poeme on the King's most excellent maiesties 

 liappy progress into Scotland and much desired re- 

 turne. May, 16S5. Imprinted at London, Mncxxxiii." 



