406 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 82. 



modern books, and way seriously mislead the biblio- 

 maniacs of the next generation ; but what can be ex- 

 pected from an author who, in giving directions for the 

 selection of Hebrew Bibles, forgets the beautiful and 

 correct editions of Vanderhooght and Jabi.onski; 

 who tells us that Frey republished Jahn's* edition of 

 the Hebrew Bible in 1812; and who calls Boothroyd's 

 incorrect and ugly double-coluraned 4to. ' admirable.' ■[ 

 " The Rev. gentleman fully pi^oves, in the compi- 

 lation of his volume, that he can dip his pen in gall, as 

 well as allow it to be guided by gold. Dr. Warton's 

 History of English Poetry, a very beautiful and correct 

 edition, greatly enlarged from most interesting mate- 

 rials at a very considerable expense, has just issued 

 from the press in 3 vols. 8vo. But ' Can any good 

 thing come out of Nazareth?' It was not published 

 by any of the favoured houses; hence the following 

 ominous notice of it : ' Clouds and darkness rest upon 

 it ! ' f Gentle reader, they are the clouds and darkness 

 of Cheapside. It may be possible that some propi- 

 tious golden breeze had driven all the clouds and dark- 

 ness Irom Cornhill, Paternoster Row, tlie Strand, 

 Pall-Mali, and Bedford Street," 



J. Y. 



Hoxton. 



iHtitor flatsi. 



A Note on Dress. — Dress is mutable, who denies 

 it ? but still old fashions are retained to a far irreater 

 extent than one would at first imagine. The Thames 

 watermen rejoice in the dress of Elizabeth : while 

 the royal beefeaters (buffetiers) wear that of private 

 soldiers of the time of Henry VII. ; the blue-coat 

 boy, the costume of a Londoit citizen of the reign 

 of Edward VI. ; the London cliarity-school girls, 

 the plain mob cap and long gloves of the time of 

 Queen Anne. In the brass badge of the cabmen, 

 we see a retention of the dress of Elizabethan 

 retainers : while the shoulder-knots that onc^ 

 decked an officer now adorn a footman. The 

 attire of the sailor of William III.'s era is now seen 

 amongst our fishermen. The university dress is 

 as old as the age of the Smitlifield martyrs. The 

 linen bands of tiie pulpit and ihe bar are abridg- 

 ments of the falling collar. 



Other costumes are found lurking in provinces, 

 and amongst some trades. The butchers' blue is the 

 uniform of a guild. The quaint little head-dress 

 of the market women of Ivingswood, Gloucester- 

 shire, is in fact the gipsy hat of George II. 

 Scarlet has been the colour of soldiers' uniform 

 from the time of the Lacedemonians. The blue 

 of the army we derived from the Puritans ; of the 

 navy from the colours of a mistress of George I. 



TOKRO. 



* Frey republished Vanderhooght's Hebrew Bible 

 in 1811. 



I Note on page 24. 

 \ Note on page 667. 



Cimtms Omen at Marriage. — In IMiss Benger's 

 Memoirs of Elizabeth., Queen of Bohemia, it is 

 mentioned that, — 



" It is by several writers observed that, towards the 

 close of the ceremony, certain coruscations of joy ap- 

 peared in Elizabeth's face, which were afterwards sup- 

 posed to be sinister presages of her misfortunes." 



In a note, Echard is alluded to as the authority for 

 this singular circumstance. 



Can any of your readers explain lohy such a 

 coruscation of joy upon a wedding day should 

 forebode evil? or whether any other instances are 

 on record of its so doing? H. A. B. 



Ventriloquist Hoax (Vol. ii., p. 101.). — The 

 following is extracted from Admirable Curiosities, 

 Rarities, and Wonders in England, 'Scotland, and 

 Ireland, hi) R. B., Author of (lie History of the 

 Wars of England, Sfc, Remarks of London, &c., 

 12mo., 1684, p. 137. It may serve as a pendant 

 to the ventriloquist hoax mentioned by C. H., 

 Vol. ii., p. 101.: — 



" I have a letter by me, saith Mr. Clark, dated July 7, 

 1606, written by one INIr. Bovy to a minister in London, 

 where he thus writes : ' Touching news, you shall un- 

 derstand that INlr. Sherwood hath received a letter 

 from ]\Ir. Arthur Hildersham, which containeth this 

 following narrative: that at Brampton, in the parish of 

 Torksey, near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire, an ash- 

 tree bhakcth both in the body and boughs thereof, and 

 there proceed from thence sighs and groans, like those 

 of a man troubled in his sleep, as if it felt some sensible 

 torment. Many have climbed to the top thereof, where 

 they heard the groans more pLiinly than they could 

 below. One among the rest being a-top, spoke to the 

 tree ; but presLntly came down much astonished, and 

 lay grovelling on the earth speechless for three hours, 

 and then reviving said, Brampton, Brampton, thou art 

 much bound to pray.' 'J"he author of this news is one 

 Mr. Vaughan, a minister who was there present and 

 heard and saw these passages, and told Mr, Hildersham 

 of it. The Earl of Lincoln caused one of the arms of 

 the ash to be lopped off, and a hole to be bored into 

 the body, and then was the sound or hollow voice heard 

 more audibly than before ; but in a kind of speech 

 which they could not comprehend nor understand." 



K. P. D. E. 



Barker, the original Panorama Painter. — Mr. 

 Cunningham, at p. 376. of his iydrravAhXti Handbook 

 of London, says that Robert Barker, who originated 

 the Panorama in Leicester Square^ died in 1806. 

 'Sow, Barker, who preceded Burford, and eventu- 

 ally, I think, entered into partnership with him, 

 married a friend of my family, a daughter of the 

 Admiral Bligh against whom had been the mutiny 

 in the Bounty. I remember Mr. Barker, and his 

 house in Surrey Square, or some small square on 

 the Surrey side of London Bridge ; also its wooden 

 rotunda for painting in ; and this, too, at the time 

 when the picture of Spitzbergen was in progress 



