Dec. 13. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



477 



phers, allow me to allude to an anecdote respecting 

 Dr. Adam Lyttleton, who, when compiling his 

 Latin Dictionary, announced the verb "concurro" 

 to his amanuensis ; the latter, imagining, from an 

 affinity of sound, that the first two syllables gave 

 the English meaning of the verb, said, " Concur, 

 I suppose, sir." To which the Doctor peevishly 

 replied, " Concur, condog." The scribe wrote 

 down what he supposed his employer dictated, 

 and the word '• condog" was inserted, and stands 

 as one interpretation of "concun-o" in the first 

 edition of the Dictionary; it is, of course, ex- 

 punged from subsequent ones. I give this state- 

 ment as I find it in print. I do not vouch for its 

 correctness, not having the first edition of the 

 Dictionary to refer to. Strange to say, however, 

 " condog" was regarded as a synonym, or rather as 

 an equivalent to "concur," long before the date of 

 the first edition of Dr. hyixXaUms Dictionary. In 

 Cockeram's Dictionarie, before referred to, sixth 

 edition, 1639, I find in the second alphabet, among 

 the words which the author calls vulgar, the verb 

 "to agree" defined "Concurre, cohere, condog, 

 condiscend." Cockeram's Dictionary was evidently 

 a work of some authority in its day; it was dedi- 

 cated to Sir Richard Boyle, and reached to, at 

 least, a. sixth edition, v/hich edition is announced in 

 the title-page as "revised and enlarged," and there- 

 fore "contlog" did not owe its place in it to the error 

 of an amanuensis or transcriber. The book, al- 

 though small, contains much curious matter, to 

 wliicii I may, perhaps, hereafter refer. In his 

 "premonition to the reader," he says, "where 

 thou meetest with a word marked thus *, know 

 you that it is now out of use, and only used of 

 some ancient writers." Among these words thus 

 marked as obsolete in 1639, I find, on casually 

 opening the book, the following, " abandon, abate, 

 bardes, insanity." He also defines Troy iveighi as 

 "a pound weight of twelve ounces, wherewith 

 i?'««/,})recious stones, gold and silver are weighed." 

 Blount also (1670), and Cole (1685), say bread 

 was sold by Troy weight ; the latter a<lds meili- 

 cines to the articles sold by that standard. Cowell, 

 in his Law Dictionary (1708), says, " Electuaries, 

 and medicinal thini's, and brede, are to be weished 

 by Troy weight ;" Bayley, in 1753, says, "Gold, 

 silver, drugs," &c., are weighed by Troy weight, 

 but does not enumerate bread. Can any of your 

 readers inform me wlien bread was first directed 

 to be sold by Troy weight, and when it ceased to 

 be so ? P. T. 



Stoke Newington. 



Foreign Ambassadors (Vol. iv., p. 442.). — - 

 There is a list of French ambassadors, envoys, 

 ministers, and other ])olitical agents at the court 

 of lOngland, in the Annunirc of the Sociele de 

 riiistoire de Erance for 1848, which is the twelfth 

 volume of the series. The list commences in 

 139G, and is continued to 1830. 



I believe there is a copy of this most useful 

 publication in the British Museum. If so, it 

 should appear in the experimental catalogue of 

 1841, under the head of ACADEMIES — Eu- 

 rope — France — Paris — Suciete de I'histoire 

 de France ! Bolton Corney. 



Petition for the Recall from Spain of the Duke of 

 Wellington (Vol. iv., p. 233.). — ^grotus asked 

 if a copy of the petition to the above effect from 

 the Corporation of London to the Crown can be 

 found, as it is a droll historical document, which 

 should not sink into oblivion; he jumps at the 

 conclusion that it does exist, but I think is mis- 

 taken. Through the kindness of a friend who is 

 in the Corporation, I have had the journals 

 searched, and have not been successful in finding 

 any address to the above tenor. There are abun- 

 dance congratulating the Prince Regent on the 

 successes of the Didce, but none of censure. I 

 have likewise ascertained that some of the oldest 

 servants of the City feel quite sure that no such 

 address was ever carried. If-3}GROT0s can give 

 me any grounds for his belief, or anything likely 

 to aid my inquiry, I will renew the search. 



E. 2^. W. 



Southwaik, 



iHi^rcnaiicotiS. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



If any doubt could exist as to the value of the Ger- 

 mania of Tacitus, as an invaluable contribution to the 

 history of all the Teutonic ruces, a glance at the Ap- 

 pendix to Klemin's Germanische Allhertiiumskunde, in 

 which that author lias enumerated not only the best 

 editions and translations of the Gennanid, but also the 

 most important dissertations to which it has given rise, 

 would at once dispel it. The scliolar and the anti- 

 quary of this country may therefore be congratulated 

 on the fact of Dr. Latham having prepared an edition 

 of it, which has been issued under the title of The 

 Germ'inia of Tacitus, with Etlinoloyical Dissertations 

 and Notes. Although "the work," to use Dr. Latham's 

 own words, " is rather a commentary upon the geo- 

 graphical part of the Germania, than on the Germania 

 itself — the jjurely descriptive part relating to the cus- 

 toms of the early Germans being passed over almost 

 sicca pede," — yet our readers will have no difficultv in 

 estimating its importance, when we inform them that 

 the Ethnological Dissertations and Notes which ac- 

 company the text may be said to embody the views, 

 (ofttimes indeed dissented from by Dr. Latham,) of 

 Grimm and Zeuss, and the learning with which those 

 distinguished men have illustrated the subject. In- 

 deed, Dr. Latham, who sets an example of openly 

 acknowledging his obligations to other scholars which 

 we should be glad to see more generally followed, ex- 

 pressly states, tliat whether the work before us took its 

 present form, or that of a translation with an elaborate 

 commentary of Zeiiss's learned and mdispensable work, 

 J)ic Deutscheit mid Die Nachburstdmme, was a mere 

 question of convenience. 



