NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



""WTien found, make a note of." — Captain Cottle. 



Vol. 17. — No. 95.] Saturday, August 23. 1851. 



r Price Threepence. 

 ( Stamped Edition, ^d. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — 



Page 

 129 



Tlie Pendulum Demonstration of tlie Earth's Rotation 

 Minor Notes : — The Day of the Month — Foreign En- 

 glish — Birds' Care for the Dead — Snake's Antipathy 

 to Fire — Aldgate, London — Erroneous Scripture 

 Quotations - - - - • - lao 



Queries : — 



The Lady Elizabeth Horner or Montgomery - . 131 



Pope and Flatman, by W. Barton - . . - 132 



Minor Queries: — Southampton Brasses — Borough- 

 English — Passage in St. Bernard — Spenser's Faerie 

 Queene — Broad Halfpenny Down — Roll Pedigree of 

 Howard — Rev. John Paget, of ,\msterdam — Visiting 

 Cards — Duke de Berwick and Ah'a — The Earl of 

 Derwentwater — " But very few have seen the Devil" 

 — Aulus Gellins' Description of a Dimple — Forgotten 

 Authors of the 17th Century - - - - 132 



Minor Queries Answered: — Sundays, on what Days 

 of the Month? — John Lilburne - - - 134 



Replies :— K^-"^ 



" Lay of the I^ast Minstrel " - - - - 134 



Meaning of " Prenzie," by Samuel Hickson - - 135 



House of Yvery __---- 136 



Queen Brunt-haut ------ 13fi 



Lord Mayor not a Privy Councilhjr - - ^137 



Cowper or Cooper ------ 137 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Voce Pnpuli Halfpenny — 

 Dog's Head in the Pot — " O wearisome Condition of 

 Humanity" — liunyan and the *' Visions of Heaven 

 and Hell" — Pope's Translations or Imitations of 

 Horace — Prophecies of Nostradamus — Thread the 

 Needle — Salinon Fishery in the Thames — Entomo- 

 logical Query — School of the Heart — Fortune, Infor- 

 tune, Forr, une — Ackey Trade — Curious Omen at 

 Marriage ....--- 138 



MlSCELUNEOUS : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, S:c. - 

 Books and Odd Volumes wanted - 



Notices to Correspondents . - - 



Advertisements - - . - 



- 142 



- 143 



- 143 



- 144 



THE PENDULUM DEMONSTRATION OF THE EARTh's 

 KOTATIOX. 



If the propounders of this theory had from the 

 first e.x[)laiiiud that they do not chiim, for the 

 plane of one illation, an exemption from the general 

 rotation of the earth, but only the difference of 

 rotation due to the excess of velocity with which 

 one extremity of the line of oscillation may bo 

 affected more than the other, it would have saved 

 a world of fruitless conjecture and misunder- 

 standins. 



For myself I can say that it is only recently I 

 have become satisfied that this is the real extent 

 of the claim ; and I confess that had I been aware 

 of it sooner, I should have regarded the theory 

 with greater respect than I have hitherto been 

 disposed to do. Perhaps this avowal m.ay render 

 more acceptable the present note, in which I shall 

 endeavour to make plain to others that which so 

 long remained obscure to myself. 



It is well known that the more we advance 

 from the poles of the earth towards the equator, 

 so much greater becomes the velocity with which 

 the surface of the earth revolves — ^just as any spot 

 neai- the circumference of a revolving wheel travels 

 farther in a given time, and conserpently swifter, 

 than a spot near the centre of the same wheel : 

 hence, London being nearer to the equator than 

 Edinburgh, the former must rotate with greater 

 velocity than the latter. Now if we imagine a 

 pendulum suspended from such an altitude, and 

 in such a position, that one extremity of its line of 

 oscillation shall be supposed to reach to London 

 and the other to Edinburgh ; and if we imagine 

 the ball of such pendulum to be drawn towards, 

 and retained over London, it is clear that, so lono' 

 as it remains in that situation, it will share the 

 velocity of London, and rotate with it. Eut if it 

 be set at liberty it will immediately begin to oscil- 

 late between London and Edinburgh, retainin"-, 

 it is asso'ted, the velocity of the former place. 

 Therefore during its first excursion towards Edin- 

 burgh, it will be impressed with a velocity 

 greater than that of the several points of the 

 earth over which it has to traverse; so that when 

 it arrives at Edinburgh it will be in advance of 

 the rotation of that place ; and consequently its 

 actual line of oscillation, instead of falling directly 

 upon Edinburgh, will diverge, and fall somewhere 

 to the east of it. 



Now it is clear that if the pendulum ball be 

 supposed to retain the same velocity of rotation, 

 undiiniuis/ied, which was originally impressed upon 

 it at London, it must, in its return from Edin- 

 burgh, retrace the ellects just described, and again 

 return to coincidence with London, having all the 

 time retained a velocity equal to that of London. 

 If this were truly the case, the deviation in one 



Voju IV.— No. 95. 



