Aug. 30, 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



149 



covered by a very singular experiment, which was as 

 follows : — After diligent search had been made in the 

 river for the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, 

 with a quantity of quicksilver put into it, was set 

 floating from the place where the child it was supposed 

 had fallen in, which steered its course down the river 

 upwards of half a mile, before a great number of spec- 

 tators, when the body happening to lay on the contrary 

 side of the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, and 

 swam across the river, and gradually sunk near the 

 child, when both the child and loaf were immediately 

 brought up, with grablers ready for that purpose." 



Is this experiment ever tried at the present 

 time, and do there exist any authentic accounts of 

 such trials and their results ? * & ? 



Manpadt House. 



Somersetshire Rhyme. — In Vol. iii., p. 206., there 

 is mention of a traditional rhyme on Lynn and 

 Rising. At Taunton, in Somersetshire, there is a 

 similar tradition current : 



" Nertown was a market town 

 When Taunton was a furzy down." 



This Nertown is a village adjoining Taunton, 

 and lying on the north side of it. Its name is 

 variously regarded as a corruption of Northtown, 

 Near-town, and Nethertown, of which the last is 

 doubtless the right derivation. II. D. H. 



DICTIONARY OF HACKNEYED QUOTATIONS. 



Allow me to suggest the publication of a small 

 work, which might be entitled "The Book of 

 Hackneyed Quotations." Manifold would be its 

 usefulness. Here information would be imparted 

 to enquirers anxious to discover the source of such 

 passaijes ; and the labours of other oracles, as well 

 as of the editor of "Notes and Queries," would 

 be thus in this department diminished. Reporters 

 would by this means be enabled to correct mis- 

 takes; for, owing either to blunders in the delivery, 

 or errors in the short-hand notes, rarely are quo- 

 tations faithfully printed. The gentleman " totally 

 unaccustomed to public speaking," and the orator 

 of " unadorned elo(iuence," might from hence 

 cull some flowers wherewith to embellish their 

 speeches ; while to the practised author and the 

 accomplished speaker such a collection might 

 serve as an index expurgatorius, teaching them 

 what to avoid as common-place, and so the re- 

 currence of old fi-iends, " familiar in our mouths 

 as household words," would be more " like angels' 

 visits, few and far between." 



An index referring to the rhyming or important 

 words should be appended, and it would be ad- 

 visable to subjoin a translation of the few Latin 

 and French citations. 



Surely it is "devoutly to be wished" that the 

 proposed little work may find " a local habitation 

 and a name," and that the idea may not vanish 



into thin air "like the baseless fabric of a vision." 

 No doubt several of your correspondents who do 

 not think that " ignorance is bliss," and that it is 

 "folly to be wise," would gladly lend their aid, 

 and the constant " cry " would be " they come." 

 As to the title, " a rose by ary other name would 

 smell as sweet:" but " somewhat too much of this." 



Tt. 



fHinor §.aXsi. 



Cockers Arithmetic. — -I have a copy of Cocker's 

 Arithmetic, the 37th edition, 1720, with an en- 

 graved portrait of the author; respecting which 

 there is the following manuscript note on the fly- 

 leaf:— 



" Mr. Douce, of Bath, the literary antiquary and 

 book-collector, showed me a copy of Cocker's Arith' 

 melic, with the frontispiece cut of the author, which he 

 said was very scarce. J. P., April, 1823." 



Mr. Douce's copy (the first edition, 1678) is 

 now in the possession of Mr. Rainy, an upholsterer 

 in Bath, and is for sale. He asks 8Z. 10s. for it. 



Ck AN MORE. 



The Diihe of Normandy .—The. question relative 

 to the late Duke of Normandy being the individual 

 who was Dauphin of France, the son of Louis XVI. 

 and Marie Antoinette, and who was said to have 

 died in the Temple, has never been as publicly 

 and satisfactorily settled as it deserves. The high 

 station and unquestionable integrity of the indivi- 

 duals of the Perceval family who instituted the in- 

 quiry, and in the most open manner laid the results 

 of that inquiry before the public, constitute an 

 unexceptionable gu;a-antee for its genuineness and 

 authenticity. The acute perception and accurate 

 memory of Madame Tussaud carry great weight 

 witn them. She was asked by the writer of this 

 paragraph, if she thought the person calling him- 

 self tlie Duke of Normandy was the same indivi- 

 dual she had modelled when a child. Madame 

 Tussaud replied with great emphasis, '_' I would 

 take my oath of it ; for he had a peculiar form- 

 ation on the neck which still remains. Besides 

 something transpired between us, which he referred 

 to, which was never likely to be mentioned to any 

 one." The late Mr. Jeremy, the active and highly 

 intelligent magistrate who presided in the court of 

 Greenwich, and whose long experience adds value 

 to his judgment, was of opinion that there were no 

 traces of the impostor discovered by him during 

 several scrutinising examinations which were held 

 in his office, and that the members of the old 

 French nobility who were present treated him 

 with profound respect. He was supported through 

 unknown channels, was twice shot at, ami refused 

 permission by the French government, though it 

 was applied for by legal advocates of the highest 

 standing, to bring the question before the legal 



