526 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 87. 



Coins of Canute, King of Denmark and England ; 

 with Specimens. London : Printed by W. Bowyer 

 and J. Nichols. 4to. 1777. It consists of twenty- 

 four pa^es, and was compiled by Kichard Gough, 

 Esq. J. Y. 



Pontoppidans Natural History of Norway 

 (Vol. iii., p. 326.). — An interesting notice of this 

 work occurs in the Retrospective Revieio, vol. xiii. 

 pp. 181 — 213. ; but neither in that article nor in 

 any bibliographical or biographical dictionary is 

 the name of the translator given. J. Y. 



The First Panorama (Vol. iii., p. 406.). — I liave 

 often heard my fiither say, that the first panorama 

 exhibited was painted by Thomas Girtin, and was 

 a semicircular view of London, from the top of the 

 Albion Mills, near Blackfriars Bridge. It was ex- 

 hibited in St. Martin's Lane, where, not many years 

 back, I saw it, it having been found rolled up in 

 a loft over a carpenter's shop. It was painted 

 about 1793 or 1794, and my father has some of 

 the original sketches. E. N. AV. 



Southwark, June 2. 



Written Sermons (Vol. iii., p. 478.).— If M. C. L. 

 asks, when and why written sermons took the 

 place of extemporaneous discourses, I believe it 

 may be said that written sermons were first in 

 vogue. Certainly, the inability of most men to 

 preach "without book," would be sufficient to en- 

 sure their early introduction. According to Bing- 

 ham (see Ant. of the Christian Church., book xiv. 

 chap. 4.), Origen was the first who preached ex- 

 temporaneously, and not until after he was sixty 

 years old. The great divines of the time of the 

 English Reformation preached both written and 

 oral sermons : many of these, especially of the 

 former, are included in their printed works. The 

 same remark also applies to the early Fathers of 

 the Church. The use of the homilies, which were 

 drawn up for the ignorant clergy at the Reforma- 

 tion, at once gave a sanction to the practice of 

 ivriting sermons. The story of the preacher turn- 

 ing over his hour-glass at Paul's Cross, and starting 

 afresh, must of course refer to an unwritten dis- 

 course. Sermons, being explications of scripture, 

 used to follow the reading of the psalms and les- 

 sons : now, for the same reason, they come after 

 the epistle and gospel. In olden time, the bishop 

 was the only preacher, going from church to 

 church, as now-a-days*, with the same sermon or 

 charge ; and he addressed the people from the 

 altar steps : afterwards the priest, as his deputy, 

 preached in the pulpit, but the deacons were not 

 allowed to preach at all. Alfred Gatty. 



Bogatshj (Vol. iii., p. 478.). — The little work,_ 

 so justly popular in England, under the title of 



• One of the highest dignitaries in our Church re- 

 cently declined to print a sermon, as requested ; because, 

 he frankly said, he sliould want to preach it again. 



Bogatsky's Golden Treasury, is by no means a 

 literal translation of the original ; but was almost 

 entirely re-written by Venn, the author of the 

 Complete Duty of Mem. This I state on good 

 authority, as I believe ; but I have never seen the 

 original. R. D. H. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



Under the title of a Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy 

 and Astronomy : First Course — Mechanics, Hydrostatics, 

 Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound, Optics, Dr. Lardner has 

 just issued a small closely printed volume with the 

 object of supplying that " information relating to 

 physical and mechanical science, which is required by 

 the medical and law studtnt, the engineer and arti- 

 san, by those who are preparing for the universities, 

 and, in short, by those who, having already entered 

 upon the active pursuits of business, are still desirous 

 to sustain and improve their knowledge of the general 

 truths of physics, and of those laws by which the order 

 and stability of the material world are maintained." 

 The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four 

 hundred woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the 

 object in question; and will, we have no doubt, obtain, 

 as it deserves, a very extensive circulation among the 

 various classes of readers for whose use it has been 

 composed ; and, in short, among all readers who desire 

 to obtain a knowledge of the elements of physics with- 

 out pursuing them through their mathematical conse- 

 quences and details. The illustrations are generally 

 of a popular character, and therefore the better calcu- 

 lated to impress upon the mind of the student the 

 principles they are intended to explain. 



The new volume of Mr. Bohn's Standard Library 

 consists of the third of Mr. Torrey's translation of 

 Dr. Neander's General History of the Christian Religion 

 and Church. The period included in the present 

 division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical 

 history extends from the end of the Diocletian perse- 

 cution to the time of Gregory the Great, or from the 

 year 312 to 590. A translation of The Fasti, Tristia, 

 Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid, with co- 

 pious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last ad- 

 dition made by Mr. Bohn to his Classical Library. 

 Though these translations furnish very imperfect pic- 

 tures of the manner and style of the original writers, 

 they supply the mere English reader with a good 

 general notion of their matter, especially when they 

 are as copiously annotated as the work before us. 



We are informed that, in consequence of the great 

 care and delicacy which is found to be required in the 

 presswork of the Lansdowne Shakspeare, a beautiful 

 volume, unique as a specimen of the art of typography, 

 the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a 

 few weeks. 



Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, 

 Strand) will commence, on Wednesday next, a seven 

 days' sale of the valuable Library of the late Rev. 

 Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illus- 

 trated with engravings. 



