38 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2na s. vi. 132., July 10. -ss. 



impression. The paper should then be laid on 

 the table, and the seal pressed down. The paper 

 should be kept on the stretch till all is quite cool, 

 and the impression may then be neatly trimmed 

 with a scissors. 



The seal should be thus prepared : — Grease its 

 surface very slightly with candle-grease, using a 

 hard brush to get into the cuttings. Sprinkle 

 with powdered vermilion. Shake off excess of 

 powder, so as to leave only a film. It is then 

 ready for use. H. M. 



Dublin. 



Antique Porcelain (2°* S. v. 515.) — In answer 

 to J. W., as to " old family china so often seen in 

 cabinets," and more particularly as " to the cups 

 and plates said to have belonged to Oliver Crom- 

 well," if they are really porcelain, and existed 

 previously to the year 1695, the period of the 

 earliest porcelain manufacture in Europe, I have 

 no doubt of their being Oriental. But, from the 

 character of the paintings, it is possible that the 

 ware is not porcelain, but Delft earthenware, as 

 this latter ware was common in England in 1660, 

 the manufacture dating from about 1600. The 

 Oriental porcelain is generally a blue pattern 

 upon a white ground, and this the Dutch so well 

 copied in Delft, that without close inspection it is 

 often difficult to distinguish the one ware from 

 the other. So the question of Oliver Cromwell's 

 cups must remain undecided till further parti- 

 culars are obtained. In this I have presumed 

 that the ware is blue and white. The date of 

 Oriental porcelain is difficult to determine, unless 

 the piece bears the Chinese characters which de- 

 note the dynasty of the emperor in whose reign it 

 was manufactured, and which are given in the 

 work upon Pottery and Porcelain mentioned in 

 the note of the editor. J. M. 



Monumental Brasses (2"* S. v. 478.) — The col- 

 lection of Printings of Monumental Brasses al- 

 luded to by J. M. G. was purchased at rather a 

 high rate for the British Museum, and is now in 

 the Print Room of that institution. The collec- 

 tion is valuable only as containing impressions of 

 brasses now lost from Marlow, Ingham, Oxford, 

 and a few other places. Of these, notices will ap- 

 pear in a work on Monumental Brasses which I 

 have nearly ready for the press. Can any corre- 

 spondent kindly furnish me with information 

 respecting brasses not generally known to the 

 collectors of rubbings, or which have recently suf- 

 fered spoliation or mutilation ? I am in want of 

 information more especially from the northern 

 and south-western counties of England. 



H. Haines. 



Paddock House, Gloucester. 



The collection sold at Craven Ord's sale to 

 Thorpe was purchased afterwards by the late 



Francis Douce, and by him was bequeathed to 

 the British Museum, where it is now preserved, 

 with many otiier rubbings from monumental 

 brasses, in the Print-Room of that establishment. 



F. Madden. 



Whipultre (2°'' S. v. 24.) — In the original 

 communication on the meaning of this word by 

 Thomas Bovs, several guesses were made, and 

 others have been hazarded since. It often hap- 

 pens that we wander far away, and seek far- 

 fetched derivations when the true meaning is close 

 at hand. If I mistake not, the meaning of whip- 

 ultre is easily found, and even supplied by Chau- 

 cer himself. He has " oke, fir, birch, aspe, alder, 

 holm, poplere, wilow, elm, plane, ash, box, ches- 

 tein, lind, laurere, maple, thorn, beche, hasel, ew, 

 whipultre." Surely this must be the holly, the 

 only English tree not previously named. Is not 

 holly the very tree for ivhip-handles or whip-poles, 

 and therefore called the whip-pole tree ? F. C. H. 



Mr. Thomas Carey, a Poet of Note (2°'> S. vi. 

 12.) — He is doubtless the " Tom Carew " (still in 

 some places if not in all pronounced Carey) men- 

 tioned by Suckling in his Sessions of the Poets. 



" Tom Carew came next, but he had a fault. 

 That did not well stand with a Laureat," &c. 



Wood's Athena Oxon., Bliss ed. ii. 657., Cla- 

 rendon, Lloyd's Worthies, Phillips, and Lang- 

 baine, all contain notices of him. We know him 

 best from his beautiful song : — 



" He that loves a rosie cheek 

 Qr a coral lip admires, 

 Or from starlight ej'es doth seek 

 Fuel to maintain his fires; 

 As old Time makes these decay. 

 So his flames must waste away." 



Should Mb. Yeowell be disinclined to hunt 

 up his authorities for himself, I shall be happy to 

 send him what I know in return for this new and 

 interesting notice of a very charming old song- 

 writer. G. H. KlNGSLEY. 



Dust on Boohi (2"* S. v. 515.) — Perhaps the 

 cheapest method of defending books from dust, is, 

 the affixing small falls of leather above the backs 

 of volumes on the shelves. When the works fit 

 the cases, this old method is found to answer 

 pretty well. Another way is to have silken or 

 other blinds (silk is best, being closest in fabric,) 

 to draw down in front of the tomes during dust- 

 ing, or such times as the library is not in use ; it 

 also tends to keep colour in bindings, and for pri- 

 vate libraries is, I think, the best, glass alone ex- 

 cepted. 



It is found that uncut books suffer the greatest 

 discolouration, from dust resting upon the tops ; 

 and the marks are often observable after binding, 

 clearly showing at the top of every sheet fold. 

 Books cut by the paper-knife are less affected, 



