July 5. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



11 



Ballymena, to print a complete index to Ussher's 

 Works, which will be compiled by Dr. Reeves, 

 and is now in active preparation. The references 

 to the more important works, such as the Pri- 

 mordia, and Annals, will be so contrived as to be 

 applicable to the old editions, as well as to Dr. 

 Elrington's edition. This Index will form the 

 seventeenth volume of the Works. 



James II. Todd. 

 Trinitv Coll., Dublin, June 21. 1851. 



Mind your P's and Q's (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 357. 

 463. 523.). — I have always thought that the 

 phrase "Mind your P's and Q's" was derived 

 from the school-room or the printing-office. The 

 forms of the small " p " and " q," in the Roman 

 type, have always been puzzling to the child and 

 the printer's apprentice. In the one, the down- 

 ward stroke is on the left of the oval ; in the 

 other, on the right. Now, when the types are 

 reversed, as they are when in the process of dis- 

 tribution they are returned by the compositor to 

 his case, the mind of the young printer is puz- 

 zled to distinguish the "p" from the " q." In 

 sorting pie, or a mixed heap of letters, where 

 the " p" and the " q" are not in connexion with 

 any other letters forming a word, I think it would 

 be almost impossible for an inexperienced per- 

 son to say which is which upon the instant. " Mind 

 your p's and r/s" — I write it thus, and not 

 "Mind your P's and Q's" — has a higher philo- 

 sophy than mind your toupees and your queues, 

 which are things essentially different, and impos- 

 sible to be mistaken. It means, have regard to 

 <inall differences ; do not be deceived by apparent 

 resemblances ; learn to discriminate between things 

 essentially distinct, but which look the same; be 

 observant; be cautious. Charles Knight. 



Serius Seriadesque (Vol. iii., p. 494.). — II Serio, 

 a tributary to the Adda, which falls into the Po. 

 II Serio is, like the Po, remarkable for the C|uan- 

 tity of foam floating upon it, and also for disap- 

 pearing under ground, through part of its course. 



De Cameka. 



Catharine Barton (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.). — A 

 correspondent has asked what was the maiden name 

 of this lady, the widow, as he calls her, of Colonel 

 Barton. I have a note of Charles Montagu, 

 writing of her as "the beautiful, witty, and ac- 

 conipFLshed Catharine Barton," and have marked 

 her as the daughter of Major Barton, but cannot 

 find my autiiority. What follows is hardly likely 

 to be of use to your correspondent, though jt may, 

 possibly, suggest to him a channel of incjuiry. 

 The Rev. Alexander Chalmers married Catharine 

 Ekins, a niece of Mr. Conduitt, to whose daughter 

 he was guardian after her father's death. Mrs. 



Chalmers had a brother who was rector or vicar of 

 Barton, Northamptonshire. Alexander Chalmers 

 was rector of St. Katharine- Coleman, London, 

 and of Burstow, Surrey ; clerk of St. Andrew's, 

 Holborn ; chaplain to tlie forces at Gibraltar and 

 Port Malion : he died in 1745, and was buried in 

 St. Katharine's : his wife was of the family of 

 Ekin.s, of Rushden, in Northamptonshire. On 

 August 12, 1743, Alexander Chalmers writes, 

 " This will be delivered you by my cousin Lieut. 

 Mathew Barton," probably his wife's cousin: in 

 another letter he speaks of Miss Conduitt as his 

 wife's cousin. ]\lr. Conduitt died 23rd of May, 

 1737, and his widow's " unexpected death" seems 

 to be alluded to in a letter in 1740. 



De Camera. 



Altei-iiis Orbis Papa (Vol. iii., p. 497.). — This 

 was not, as A. B.'s informant thinks, a title of 

 honour bestowed by any Supreme Pontiff upon 

 any Archbishop of Canterbury, but a mere verbal 

 compliment passed by Pope Urban II. upon St. 

 Anselm, when the latter went to consult the 

 former at Rome. The words are those of Gervase, 

 the monk of Canterbury, who tells us : 



" Tantam ejus gratiam habuit, ut eum (Anselmum) 

 alterius orbis papam vocaret (Urbanus papa)." — Ed. 

 Tivysden, ii. 1327. 



Eadmer, who was with the archbishop when he 

 went to Italy, gives the following as the Pope's 

 expressions : 



" Cunujue ilium, utpote hominem cunctis liberalium 

 artiuiii disciplinis iniiutritum, pro magistro teneamus; 

 et quasi comparem, veUit alteiius orbis Apostolicum et 

 Patriarcham jure venerandum censeamus." — AA. SS. 

 Apritis, t. ii. 8S6. 



D. Rock. 



You have not told us the origin of this title. I 

 have just been reminded of the omission by the 

 dedication of Ludovici Cappelli Commentarii, 

 Amstel., 1689, which is — 



" VVilbelmo Archlepiscopo Cantuaricnsi .... alte- 

 rlus orbis, sed melioris, Papae." 



J. W. H. 



Charles Dodd (Vol. iii., p. 496.). — Ttro will 

 find an account of this writer in Biographical Il- 

 lustrations of Worcestershire : by John Chambers, 

 Esq.: Worcester, 1820, 8vo., p. 591., from which 

 we learn that his true name was Hugh Toote/, a 

 Lancashire mau born in 1672, in the neighbour- 

 hood of Preston. The name of Hugh Tootle is 

 recognised in the prospectus or announcement of 

 Mr. Tierney's new edition of Dodd's Church His- 

 torji of England, of which the first and second 

 volumes appeared so long ago as 1839; but I 

 regret to say that the work is yet far from being 

 completed. F. R. A. 



" Premie" (Vol. iii., p. 522.). — We seem now to 

 have got to the true reading, " primzie." The 



