130 NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[224 S. No 7., Fs, 16. °56. 
four years I have been engaged in preparing a 
new Catalogue of the Advocates’ Library, which 
is now nearly ready for the press; and in the 
course of the inquiries which it has been my duty 
to make, I have largely increased the stock of 
materials which I had previously collected. In 
these circumstances, should no one better qualified 
than myself undertake the task, I feel strongly 
disposed to continue the researches in which I 
hdve been engaged, and to arrange the results 
with a view to publication. 
But though willing, I am by no means anxious 
that the duty should devolve upon myself. My 
object in making the present announcement is 
simply to hasten, if I can, the completion of a 
work which is confessedly a great desideratum. 
On the one hand [ shall be glad to afford to any 
one better prepared than I am, all the assistance 
in my power; and on the other, should the under- 
taking be left in my hands, I shall look with con- 
fidence for the advice and co-operation of all who 
take an interest in it. Samu. Harxert. 
Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh. 
Minor Potes, 
Testimonial to Peter the Great.— As all matters 
connected with the history of the founder of the 
Russian dynasty are now particularly acceptable 
to most readers, I have “‘made a Note of” the 
following Dutch testimonial, given to Peter the 
Great by the foreman of the ship-building-yard at 
Amsterdam, in which the Czar of Russia studied 
and worked at the craft of ship-carpenter. The 
original has but recently been discovered in the 
archives of the Kremlin at Moscow ; and a copy, 
hereunder, was sent to a friend in Holland, in a 
letter dated January 11, 1856, by the Rev. W. L. 
Welter, Chaplain to the Netherlands Embassy at 
St. Petersburg. The text is not so obsolete, but 
it can be easily read by all acquainted with 
modern German or Dutch. 
“Jck onderschreven Gerrit Claesz. Pool, Mr. Scheep- 
stimmerman van de geoctroyeerde Oost-Indisse Compagnie 
ter Kamer van Amsterdam certifieere en getuijge voor de 
waarheijt, dat Pieter Migaylof (zynde ondert Gevolg 
vant Groot Moscovis Gesandtschap, en daer uyt ouder die 
Gene, die alhier tot Amsterdam op de Oost-Indisse scheep- 
stimmerwerf van den 30sten Augustus, 1697, tot op dato 
dezes gelogieert en onder ons bestier getimmerd heeft) 
hem de tyt van zyn edele verblyf alhier als een neerstig 
en kloeck timmerman heeft gedragen, zoointsloeven, 
stoothouten toeleggen, afcrabben, voegen, hacken, slegten, 
braeuwen, schaven, boren, zagen, planken en stoethouten 
branden, en tgeen een goet en heel deftig timmerman 
behoort te doen en heeft I fregat Pieter en Paul lang over 
100 voet vant begin af (aen de voorsteven aen stierboert) 
tot dat het bijna klaer was helpen maken en dat niet 
alleen maer is doer Mijn even daerenboven in de scheeps- 
architecture en tekenkunst volkomen onder wezen, zoodat 
zijn Edele dezelve tot in de gront verstaet, en dat zoo 
verre als ons oerdeels tzelve kan werden gepractizeert. 
In teken der waerheijt heb ik dit mit myn eigen hant 
ondertekent. 
“ Actum in Amsterdam in onze ordinaire woonplaatse 
by de Oost-Indisse werf den 15 January, int jaer onzes 
Heeren 1698. 
(1. 8.) “ Gerrit CLAEsz Poot, : 
“Mr. Scheepstimmerman der E. E. geoctroyeerd 
Oost-Indisse Compagnie tot Amsterdam.” 
C. H. Gunn. 
Rotterdam. 
Foreigners’ English. — There are some very 
choice specimens of bad English ‘in a very pretty 
book, containing 300 views in the Netherlands, by 
Abraham Rademaker, published at Amsterdam in 
1725. The Preface tells us that — 
“ The singular and different manner of Ingraving those 
Pla-tes, and that so Comformably to their subjects; The 
exactneff as have Observed in Conforming our Draughts 
to the Originals ; This Collection, so Numerous, and 
What is Un-commom, begun And ended by the same 
hand, Cannot tail to goin us the General applause.” 
The descriptions, in the body of the work, are 
scarcely ever much more correct than the fol- 
lowing : 
“That Village was renowned by the abondance of 
Saulmons that were fiched there... . That Village in 
situated in a Territory that afford abundance of fruits 
and Corns. . . . The Fortreff of Buren, in the year 1719, 
seen here in front and on the left side; att the going out 
of the gate here represented, the-re is basse Court, that 
they most Croff before they arrive att the Building’s 
Body.” 
In return for these precious morsels, can any 
of your readers direct me to the name of any 
noble predecessor in the possession of the volumes 
by the arms which they bear on their covers, and 
which I presume to be foreign? As far as I can 
make them out, they are as follows: An eagle 
displayed, impaling, on a fess three crabs, 2 and 1, 
between an estoile of eight points, and a grey- 
hound courant: over all, on an escutcheon of 
pretence, a wild boar. Coronet, like our own 
marquises ; and supporters, two sagittarii. 
C. W. Brnewam. 
General Wolfe.—There is now lying in Messrs. 
Wilmott’s dry docks, Newport (to undergo a few 
slight repairs), that fine old ship the “ William 
Fame,” which, nearly a hundred years ago, bore 
the celebrated Wolfe from England to Quebec. 
Your correspondent, Jno. S. Burn (2"9 S. i. 16.), 
very properly corrects the typographical error of 
1731 for 1781 (1S. xii. 312.). The “ Deverells,” 
in Nailsworth, is now the property and residence 
of Anthony Fewster, a respectable and respected 
member of the Society of Friends ; and near to it 
is the ancient meeting-house of that Society, in 
which the celebrated George Fox attended in 
1669, as mentioned in this journal, 2nd Part, 
p- 182. (2nd vol., edit. 1709, 8vo.). The conjec- 
ture that the initials E. D. were those of the elder 
sister, Elizabeth Deverell, who resided at Bath, 
