2ni S. VI. 112., Sept. 18. '58.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 



229 



■would acquire a deeper significance were 'coil ' used in 

 the sense conveyed by cochul — to which, if spelt as pro- 

 nounced, it much resembles — and certainly the construc- 

 tion is not so forced as many which have been put upon 

 other wor(%used by Shakspeare. If it were not ' to con- 

 sider it too curiously to consider so,' it might be added 

 that, as the nut when dead ripe is quietly shuffled out of 

 its husk, so the immortal portion of man, when, his 



' Few short years of evil past,' 



he takes his peaceful departure, is not violently cracked 

 out, but he quietly ' shuffles off this mortal cochul.' " 



Shakspeare, you are aware, uses many Welsh 

 words ; perhaps some learned reader of" S". & Q.," 

 familiar with the language of the Principality, 

 may tell us if he has met, in the course of his stu- 

 dies, with a word resembling " cochul." A. M. 

 Greenock. 



On the Genders of Diplomatic Statesmen. — 

 After the decisive battle of Layback, the king of 

 Naples proclaimed to his loving subjects, that a 

 long reign of sixty years had given him experi- 

 ence and ability to become acquainted with the 

 character and the real wants of his people. It 

 appears, however, that his majesty's loving sub- 

 jects did not place much confidence either in his 

 experience or ability to appreciate their character 

 and real wants ; and that more than a quarter of 

 a century before his Nestorian I'eign, they con- 

 sidered him to be no better than an old woman, 

 as the following anecdote will show. 



When Sir Joseph Acton, the friend and col- 

 league of Sir William and Lady Hamilton and 

 Nelson at the court of Naples, was taken into the 

 king's service in the premiership of the Marquess 

 Sambuco, he obtained great influence over the 

 queen, who possessed unlimited power over the 

 king. One morning the following lines were 

 found written on the gates of the palace : — 

 " Hie Kegina, 



Heec Res, 



Hoc Sambuco, 



Hie, Ha8c, Hoc, Acton." 



This three-gendered statesman was the brother 

 of the mild and tolerant Cardinal Acton ; was 

 born at Besancjon in 1757, of Irish parents. His 

 father, an eminent physician, settled in that town 

 in 173.J, where he practised with great success. 

 He placed his son Joseph in the French navy, 

 where he soon acquired honourable distinction. 

 He subsequently entered the service of Leopold, 

 Grand Duke of Tuscany. A bold exploit which 

 he performed, in rescuing 4000 Spaniards from 

 the liarbary corsairs, made him honourably known 

 at the court of Naples. 



Through the patronage of tlie queen, he became 

 Minister of Marine, and afterwards of Finance. 

 He was clonely connected with tiio British Em- 

 bassy at Naples, and ably supported the British 



government in its protection of the Kingdom of 

 the Two Sicilies. 



On the ascendancy of the French in Naples, the 

 minister, Acton, was dismissed from all his em- 

 ployments in 1803, when he retired into private 

 life in Sicily, where he died in 1808. 



James Elmes. 



Piccadilly. — The following notices of the Pic- 

 cadilly mansion during the Civil Wars may be 

 interesting to our London topographers : — 



1650, Aug. 1. "That the house comonly called Pick a 

 dillie bee assigned unto Coll. Birkstead for the quartering 

 of soe manie of his souldiers as hee shall thinke fitt." — 

 Interregnum Order Booh. 



30 Nov. 1650. " That the house of the Lord of Thanef tin 

 Aldergate Street, and likewise the house Pickadilly, bee 

 both made use of for the quartering of 200 souldiers in 

 each, for which houses a reasonable rent is to be paid, and 

 especiall care is to be taken that noe spoil bee done to the 

 said houses by the souldiers quartered in them." — Idem. 



Cl. Hopper. 



Massinger's Descendants. — In the obituary of 

 the London Magazine for 1762, I find the follow- 

 ing entry : — 



" August 4'i>. 

 " IMiss Henrietta Massinger, a descendant of Massinger, 

 the dramatic poet." 



This may be worth recording. 



John Pavin Phillips. 

 Haverfordwest. 



Fruit Stolen ; how to recover it. — While the 

 fruit, peach, nectarine, or apricot is yet in a green 

 state, aflix au adhesive label, your initial or any 

 other private mark, to the side exposed to the sun. 

 The ripe fruit thus labelled will carry its unobli- 

 terated green stamp into any market. This sim- 

 ple operation, if it should fail to jjresei've the fruit, 

 will, unless it shall have been subjected to any 

 colouring process, at least enable the owner to 

 identify it. F. Phillott. 



"27ie Vision of Pierce Plowman." — The follow- 

 ing annotations are copied from the fly- leaf of a 

 copy of The Vision of Pierce Plowman, printed in 

 1561. 



The writing, as will be seen, bears date 1577, 

 and as it may contain additional particulars re- 

 specting the individual therein named, it seemed 

 to me worthy of preservation in the pages of "N. 

 &Q.": — 



"Roberlus Langland, sacerdos (vt apparet) nafus in 

 comitatu Salopian, in villa vulgb dicta Mortymers Cliberj-, 

 in terra lutea, octavo h, Malvernis montibus milliario fuit, 

 etc. lllud liquido constat, eum fuisse ex primis Jo. Wi- 

 clevi discipulis vnuni atqiife in spiritus fervore, contra 

 apertas Papistarum blaspha^mias adversus Denm et eius 

 Xp"'", sub amopnis coloribus et typis edidisse in sermone 

 Anglico pium opus, ac bonorum vivorum lectione dignum 

 quod vocabat. 



" Visionem f otri Aratoris. Lib. i. 



" 1. Nihil aliud ab ipso cditura novi. I'rophetice pluia 



