234 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 100. 



An early Printer. — I have seen an old black- 

 letter book of homilies in Latin, with the following 

 imprint: — 



" Sermones Michaelis de Ungaria pr»dicabiles per 

 totu annum licet breves. Et sic est finis sit laus et 

 gloria trinis Impressii suburbiis sacti germani de praetis 

 per Petrfi Leuet, anno diii millesimo quadringete sino 

 nonagesirao septimo prirao die vero. xiij. Novembris." 



I should be glad if any of your correspon- 

 dents could furnish any information regarding the 

 printer. Aberdoniensis. 



[Petrus Levet was one of the early Paris printers, 

 and several of the works printed by him are noticed in 

 Gresswell's Annals of Parisian Typngraplvj, pp. 96. 100. 

 104. At p. 178. will be found his device, copied from 

 the Destructorium Vitiorum, anno 1497.] 



Nimble Ninepence. — What is the origin of this 

 expression ? P. S. Kg. 



[" A nimble ninepence is better than a slow shilling." 

 — Old Proverb.} 



Prince Rupert's Balls. — Why are the glass 

 balls filled with floating bubbles called Rupert 

 balls ? AVas the prince a glass-blower ? t 



[The earliest experiments upon glass tears were 

 made in 1656, both in London and Paris; but it is not 

 certain in what country they were invented. They 

 were first brought to England by Prince Rupert, and 

 experiments were made upon them by the Right Hon. 

 Sir Robert Moray, in 1661, by the command of his 

 Majesty. An account of these experiments is to be 

 found in the Registers of the Royal Society, of which 

 he was one of the founders. See Edinburgh Encyclo- 

 pcsdia, vol. x. p. 319.] 



Knock under. — To knock under, in the sense of 

 succumb, yield : unde derivatur ? J^gcab. 



[" From the submission expressed among good fel- 

 lows by knocking under the table." — Johnson.'\ 



Freemasons. — Where can be found a good ac- 

 count of the origin of freemasons ? And is there 

 any truth in the story that Lord Doneraile made 

 his daughter, the Honorable Miss E. St. Leger, a 

 freemason ? f 



[ For a circumstantial account of the origin of Free- 

 masons, see a curious pamphlet published in 1812, en- 

 titled JacJiiii and Boaz ; or an authentic Key to the Dotr 

 of Freemasonry, both Ancient and Modern, &c. ; also, 

 Oliver's Antiquities of Freemasonry. A very interesting 

 historico-critical inquiry into the origin of the Rosi- 

 crucians and Freemasons, from the pen of the English 

 Opium-eater, who in it has abstracted, arranged, 

 and in some respects re-arranged the German work 

 of J. G. Buhle, Ueber den Ursprung und die vornehm- 

 sten Schicksale der Orden der liose/ihreuzer und Frey- 

 maurer, will be found in the London Magazine for Janu- 

 ary and February, 1824. 



We believe it is perfectly true that the Hon. Miss 



E. St. Leger was made a mason, and that she always 

 accompanied her lodge in its processions.] 



licjjItciS. 



CONQUEST OF SCOTLAND. 



(Vol. iv., p. 163.) 



In an article of A. C. in " N'otes and Queries " 

 for 30th August last, under the head " Plowden of 

 Plowden" from Burke's Landed Gentry, I find 

 this paragraph : 



" The names of the followers of William the Con- 

 queror are often alluded to ; but the ' comers over ' 

 at the Conquest of Wales, Scotland, and Ireland are 

 but seldom thought of, though they lend to their 

 descendants' pedigree a degree of historical interest." 



I do not read this paragraph without pain, 

 mingled with indignation. Who ever before heard 

 of the conquest of Scotland ? It is true, that, on 

 repeated occasions, the English made successful 

 inroads into that kingdom, sometimes of a larger, 

 sometimes of a less extensive character ; but the 

 Scottish nation never did " lie at the proud foot 

 of a conqueror." 



Though Edward I., by means of intrigues un- 

 worthy of his high character, did for a short 

 period, during the interregnum consequent on the 

 death of the Maid of Norway, assume the govern- 

 ment of the Scottish realm, and put to death some 

 of the most distinguished of her defenders, yet 

 his successor paid the penalty of this unjust as- 

 sumption in the battle of Bannockburn ; a battle 

 having justice on the side of the victorious party, 

 and regarded by all Scotsmen as to be ranked in 

 military prowess with those of Cressy, Poictiers, 

 and Agincourt. 



It is not generally known, that upon the mar- 

 riage of Mary to the Dauphin in 1558, Scotsmen 

 were naturalised in France by an ordonnance of 

 Henry II. ; and that, in like manner, by an act of 

 the parliament of Scotland, all Frenchmen were 

 naturalised in that country. The ordonnance 

 granting these privileges to Scotsmen within the 

 realm of France, is printed in the Scottish statute- 

 book along with the Scottish act granting similar ! 

 privileges to Frenchmen within Scotland. 



One of the most distinguished writers on the 

 law of Scotland, when dedicating his work to 

 King Charles II., reminds him of the inscription 

 on the palace of Holyrood : " Nobis haec invicta 

 miserunt centum sex Prouvi." 



AVhen, in 1707, Scotland treated of an incor- 

 porating union with the realm of England, she 

 treated as an independent and sovereign power, 

 and the Treaty of Union was concluded with her 

 in that character : a treaty which was at least 

 as beneficial to England as it was to Scotland, 

 by precluding in all time to come the intrigues of 

 France with the Scottish sovereign and nation. 



