308 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'"' S. VI. 146., Oct. 16. '58. 



themselves, and to obtain incontestible and osten- 

 sible proofs. We know how many are deterred 

 making investigations, their occupations, and fre- 

 quently their circiimpcribed means, preventing 

 their taking long journeys, or devoting much tijne 

 to research. We know, also, how very expensive 

 these investigations are (whether into wills or 

 parish register books) when performed even by 

 the most liberal of the clergy or registrars ; and 

 also how very difficult it sometimes is to obtain 

 extracts at all. 



I would suggest, then, tbat you devote one 

 sheet, an additional sheet, to proposals of gentle- 

 men to search for one another, on mutual terms. 

 Thus, a gentleman living at or near a cathedral 

 town, say Chester, requires extracts from records 

 in Carlisle. If this was stated : X. Y. Z., address, 

 wishes extracts from wills in Carlisle, the proba- 

 bility is, some one in Carlisle might desire ex- 

 tracts from evidences in Chester, or probably, 

 some person who pursues the study for pleasure 

 might volunteer his assistance. Or, a gentleman 

 residing in one parish might require extracts 

 from the registers of the very parish in which 

 another resides, who may want extracts out of 

 his parish ; or, a person occupied in researches in 

 the British Museum, Tower, and other record- 

 offices, may require extracts from sources, in 

 other places, which others would gladly afford, in 

 return for searches in the places they are engaged 

 in prosecuting researches. They would commu- 

 nicate with one another by letter. 



It might be worth while to consider whether 

 this sheet should be closed to all but contributors 

 or known subscribers. 



If you consider this scheme at all practicable, 

 perhaps you would publish it in your next num- 

 ber, in order that the public may give its opinion 

 upon it. C^Do Illud. 



Minav iJ0teS. 



Horace Walpole's " Letters^ — In Mr. Cunning- 

 ham's recent edition of Walpole's Letters, there 

 are two in the 7th volume which are misplaced ; 

 and, as so good a work will probably reach a 

 second edition, it may be well to note them. Let- 

 ter 1766, without date, but placed among the 

 letters of October 1778, speaks of ihQillness of che 

 Bishop of Exeter. His death is mentioned in 

 Letter 1700 dated January 4, 1778. Letter 1859, 

 November 3 (no year) is placed among the letters 

 of 1779. In it are mentioned the defeat of Wash- 

 ington and the capture of Philadelphia, events 

 ■which occurred in 1777. 



In vol. viii. p. 37. in the last line the word his 

 is printed for vis, in a passage referring to a paper 

 in The World upon the subject of visiting. That 

 paper is No. 62. (for March 7, 1774), and divides 

 visits into vises, visits and visitations. Uneda. 



Old and New Sarum. — Among a quantity of 

 old papers which I saved from destruction is the 

 following, which may interest New Sarum : — 



" In antient times The IMayor's proper seal is the Salu- 

 tation. The Corporation seal, the Virgin and Child (vide 

 seal to the old deed). This Inclosed Deed is of the old 

 city of Sarum in 1306. Reginald de Tidworth Mayor. 

 The first Mayor of New Sarum was Rich"', de Tidworth, 

 l.^iSy (1"2''' Edw'''!. S'''^.) I suppose he was son or Kins- 

 man of Reginald, Mayor of the old city, 33 years before." 



The "old deed" mentioned is one of about 

 forty similar small parchment documents (a little 

 more than half the size of a page of " N. & Q.") 

 in good preservation, beautifully written in con- 

 tracted Latin, in old English letters, with one or 

 more seals to each. They extend from the reign 

 of Edward II. to Richard HI., and, as far as I can 

 learn, relate to property in Salisbury and its 

 neighbourhood. As soon as I can decipher the 

 names, &c. of the parties in each, I shall send a 

 list, with the dates, to " N. & Q." Simon Wakd. 



On Dr. Johnson's Derivation of " Surcingle." — 

 Our great lexicographer derives surcingle from sur 

 and cingidum, Lat., and describes it to be " 1 . a girth 

 -with which the burthen is bound upon a horse. 

 2. The girdle of a cassock." I take leave to in- 

 quire of your philological readers whether the 

 most obvious derivation would not be from the 

 classical word, " Suceingulum, a sword-girdle or 

 belt, a truss ? " James Elmes. 



" Style is the man himself." — In the recent re- 

 view of the History of Herodotus, the Times'" cri- 

 tic says: "his style, as the French say, is 'the 

 man himself.' " Perhaps it is worth while to cor- 

 rect this common misquotation, or rather absurd 

 French perversion, of a just perception originally 

 expressed hy^ Buffon. The true phrase occurs in 

 BufFon's admirable Dissertation sur le Style. His 

 words are : le style est de I'homme, and not le 

 style, c'est I'homme, which has, of course, a very 

 different meaning, and is, besides, absurdly false. 

 How can a writer's style be himself? Inconse- 

 quence of certain admired peculiarities, certain 

 turns and contrivances of diction, we say — that's 

 Dichens — that's Blacaulay — that^s Bidioer: but 

 we merely mean the peculiar treatment of a sub- 

 ject by these distinguished writers. Sad indeed 

 would be the extenuation of these great men if 

 their entire representative is to be found in their 

 " style " — le style, c'est Vhomme ! Those who can 

 tell a man's character by his handwriting possess 

 far better data for their judgments. This phrase, 

 le style, c'est I'homme, is but a clap-trap French 

 perversion of Buffon's simple antithesis. After 

 stating that " la quantite des connaissances, la 

 singularite des faits, la nouveaute meme d€s de- 

 couvertes ne sont pas de surs garants de Viminor- 

 talite," S)-c., he says : " ces choses sont hors de 

 Vhomme" — that is, "are already made for the 



