462 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[254 8. Ne23., Jung 7. 56. 
original of that confessedly corrupt reading in 
Shakspeare’s Timon of Athens, Act IV. Sc. 3.: 
“ Raise me that beggar, and deny’t that lord.” 
Deject is certainly a great improvement on 
Warburton’s denude, and Steevens’s devest. But 
another word occurs to me —it may have oc- 
curred to others, for aught I know — viz. demit, 
i.e. depress, degrade. This word answers all the 
requisites ; it preserves the antithesis, has the same 
number of letters as deny’t, the initial and final 
are the same in both, and the sound of the two 
words is so nearly identical, that an amanuensis 
might easily have mistaken the one for the other. 
OBELUS. 
Longevity in the United States in 1855 (1* S. 
passim.) — It is seen by official returns that during 
the past year seventy-three soldiers of the Revolu- 
tion have died, and forty-three persons who were 
over 100 years of age. The oldest white man was 
110; the oldest white woman, 109; oldest male, 
coloured, 130; oldest female, coloured, 120. It 
may be remarked that the two last were slaves. 
W. W. 
Malta. 
Grammar Schools, their Usages and Traditions 
(2 §S. i, 145.) — The following extract from 
Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. ii. 
p- 322. may not be uninteresting to such of your 
readers as are curious on this subject : 
“Till within the last twenty or thirty years, it had 
been a custom, time out of mind, for the scholars of the 
free school of Bromfield, about the beginning of Lent, or, 
in the more expressive phraseology of the country, at 
Fastings Even, to bar out the master, i.e. to depose and 
exclude him from his school, and keep him out for three 
days. During the period of this expulsion, the doors of 
the citadel, the school, were strongly barricadoed within, 
and the boys, who defended it like a besieged city, were 
armed in general with bore-tree or elder pop-guns. The 
master meanwhile made various efforts, both by force and 
stratagem, to regain his lost authority. If he succeeded, 
heavy tasks were imposed, and the business of the school 
was resumed and submitted to; but it more commonly 
happened that he was repulsed and defeated. After three 
days’ siege, terms of capitulation were proposed by the 
master, and accepted by the boys. These terms were 
summed up in an old formula of Latin Leonine verses, 
stipulating what hours and times should for the year 
ensuing be allotted to study, and what to relaxation and 
play. Securities were provided on each side for the due 
performance of these stipulations, and the paper was then 
solemnly signed both by master and scholars. 
“ One of the articles always stipulated for and granted 
was the privilege ofimmediately celebrating certain games 
of long standing ; viz. a football match and a cock fight.” 
Mr. Hutchinson then gives an account of the 
manner in which these games were celebrated. 
Aw Op Pautine. 
Cobalt Mines, §c. (2°78. i. 94.) —As somewhat 
in connexion with the subject of his Query, though 
not as a reply to it, perhaps M. P. M. may like 
to be reminded that, in 1754, the Society for the 
Encouragement of Arts and Commerce offered a 
premium of thirty guineas for the discovery of a 
cobalt mine in South Britain, which premium was 
claimed by, and awarded in December of the same 
year, to Francis Beauchamp, Esq., in whose lands 
at Gwennap, Cornwall, the discovery was made. 
R. W. Hackwoop. 
Old Deeds (2™ §. i. 423.)—I would not recom- 
mend any one to make use of the “ liquor to wash 
old deeds,” mentioned by Mr. Hacxwoop. All 
those who have been in the habit of consulting 
the documents at the Tower, cannot have failed 
to perceive the irreparable injury done to many 
of the Records (particularly to some of the Inqui- 
sitiones post mortem), by the injudicious and un- 
sparing use of this vile infusion of galls; which, 
although it brings up the writing for the moment, 
yet eventually renders the parchment perfectly 
black. Mr. Holmes, the Keeper of the Records, 
has much to answer for on this head ; and it is to 
be feared, that from his example similar injuries 
were inflicted on many valuable deeds and manu- 
scripts in the Cottonian and Old Royal libraries, 
long before they were deposited in the British 
Museum. Even the precious Codex Alerandri- 
nus has not escaped this wanton work of destruc- 
tion, and the gall-wash has often been applied to 
passages which must have been perfectly legible 
without it. Experto crede. CHARTOPHYLAX. 
I think your correspondent Mr. Hackwoop 
must have misunderstood Karr’s meaning when 
he inquires the mode of “cleaning and restoring 
old pamphlets.” I apprehend his meaning to be 
repairing, for decayed paper can never be restored. 
However, if I am wrong in my supposition, I 
would, from experience, advise Karu not to adopt 
Mr. Hormes’s recipe. Let him look at the Cot- 
tonian charters in the British Museum, many of 
which have been washed with galls, and mark the 
lamentable condition to which they are reduced. 
An infusion of galls may render obscure writing 
legible for a time, but it eventually discolours and 
obliterates all it touches, so that the remedy is 
worse than the disease. If Karu has faint or 
illegible writing to contend with, let him dilute 
that not very odoriferous compound, sulphate of 
ammonium, in water, and damp the parts affected 
with a soft brush: this will be found innocuous, as 
far as my experience goes, and fully efficacious. 
: 2. 
Roper and Curzon Families (2"* 8. i. 294.) —In 
reply to the Query as to the descent of the Curzon 
property at Waterperry, in the county of Oxford, 
to Henry Francis, fourteenth Lord Teynham, I 
beg to state that it devolved upon his lordship 
from his great aunt, Winifred, daughter of Kd- 
mund Powell of Sandford, and second wife of Sir 
Francis Curson of Waterperry, Baronet, who, 
