NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



FOE 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTiaUARIES, GENEALGGISTS, ETC. 



" Vrben found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 81.] 



Saturday, May 17. 1851. 



f Price, Thrpfpencp. 

 t Stamped Edition, DIS- 



CONTENTS. 

 NoTF.s ; — Page 



ninstratinns of Chancer, No. VI- - - - - :tS5 



Dutch Folli.lore - _ - - - - - 387 



Minor Notes : — Verses in Pope : " Bnp" or *' Bee'* — 

 R'lh-a-dub— Quotations — Minnis — Brighton — Vol- 

 taire's Henr ade ----.- 3S7 



Queries : — 



The Blake Faniilj-, hv Hepworth Dixon - - - 389 



Minor Queries: —John llolywood the Matheinatician — 

 Essay on the Irony of Sophocles — Meaning of Mosaic 



— St.inedge Pole — Names of the Ferret — Colfabias — 

 School oi the Heart, — Milton and the Calves-head 

 Clul) — David Rizzio's Signatnre — Limbert Simnet : 

 Was tliis Ills real Na f e? — Hoitor of Ciare, Norfolk — 

 .SpD.ige — BabiPiTtoirs Co-ispiracy— Family of Sir John 

 Banks — Meaning of St-well — Abel represented wiih 

 Horns ....... 389 



Mlnor QuEniEs Answered; — The Fifteen O's — Mean- 

 ing of I'ightle — Inscription on a Guinea of George III. 



— Meaning of Ciainbo ----- 391 



Replies : — 



John Tradpscant probably an Englishman! and I is Voy- 

 age to Rnssia in IG1S> by S. W. Suigcr -. 

 The Family of the Tradescants, by W. Pinkerton 

 Pope Joan ------- 



Replies to. Minor Queries : — Robert Burton's B'rthplace 



— Bailaam and Josaphat — Witte van Haemstede — 

 The Dutch Church in Norwich — Fest Sittini-s — 

 Qjiaker.'s Attempt to convert thp Pojie — The Anti- 

 Jacobin — Mistletoe — V. rbum (JrEecum — " A|)res Moi 

 le Dt'Inge " — Eisell — " To-day we purpose " — Mo- 

 dern Paper — .St. Pancras — Joseph Nii-olsi^n's Family 



— Demosthe es and New Testament —Crossing Rivers 

 on Skins — Curious F;ict5"in Natural History — Pri- 

 deaux .-.-.- 



391 

 :93 

 39-5 



MlSCEI.HNEOUS ; — 



Notes on B >oks. Sales, Catalogues, &c. 

 Hooks anil Oihl Vcduines wanted 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertiseinjents . . - 



- 395 



- 398 



- 399 



- 39.^ 



- 399 



liate^. 



ILI.USTRATrONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI. 



Unless Chaucer h.ad intended to mark with par- 

 ticular (ixactnes.s the clay of the journ.'y to Can- 

 terljiiry, ho would not have taketi such unusual 

 precautions to piotect his text from ifjnorant or 

 careless transcribers. We find him not only re- 

 cording the altitudes of the sun, atdilFerent hours, 

 in words; hut also corroborating lliose words by 

 associating theni with physical facts incapable of 

 being peiv(,Ttcd or misunderstood. 



Had Ciiaucei' done this in one instariec only, we 

 might ima^iuc that it was but another of those 



occasions, so frequently seized upon by him, for 

 the display of a little scientific knowledge ;. but 

 when he repeats the very same precautionary ex- 

 pedient again, in the afternoon of the same day, 

 we begin to perceive that he must have had some 

 fixed purjiose ; because, as I shall presently show, 

 it is the repetition alone that renders the record 

 imperishable. 



But whether Chaucer really devised this method 

 for the express purpose of preserving his text, or 

 not, it has at least had that effect, — for while there 

 are scarcely two -\ISS. extant which agree in the 

 verbal record of the day and hours, the physical 

 circumstances remain, anfl afford at all times inde- 

 pendent data for the recovery or correctioa of the 

 true reading. 



The day of the month maybe deduced from the 

 declination of the sun; and, to obtain the latter, 

 all the data required are, 



1. The latitude of the place. 



2. Two altitudes of the sun at different sides of 

 noon. 



It is not absiilutely necessary to have any pre- 

 vious knowledge of the hours at v/hich these alti- 

 tudes were respectively obtained, because these 

 may be discovered' by the trial method of seeking 

 two such hours as shall most nearly agree in re- 

 quiring a declination common to botii at the 

 known altitudes. Of course it will greatly simplify 

 the process if we furthermore know tiiat the ob- 

 servations must have been obtained at some deter- 

 minate intervals of time, such^ for example, as 

 complete hours. 



Now, in the Prologue tothe "Canterbury Tales'" 

 we know that the observations could not have been 

 recorded except at contplete hours, because the 

 construction of the metre will not admit the 

 supposition of any parts of hours having been 

 exjjiessed. 



We are also satisfied that there can be no mis- 

 take in the altitu<lcs, because nothing can alter 

 the facts, that an equality between the length of 

 the shadow and the height of the substance can 

 only subsist at an altitude of 45 degrees; or that 

 an altitude of 2!) degrees (more or less) is the 

 nearest tiiat will give the ratio of 11 to G between 

 the shadow and its o-nomoa. 



Vol. in.— No. 81. 



