120 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»«« S. IX. Feb. 18. '60. 



citizens of London, but also for the general good, 

 that he would come and use the same diligence ill 

 j uilding their bridge." The king therefore grants 

 that the profits of the edifices which Isenbert in- 

 tended to erect on the bridge should be for ever 

 applied to its repair and sustentation ; and con- 

 cludes by exhorting the mayor and citizens " for 

 their own honour, graciously to receive and be 

 courteous as they ought to the renowned Isenbert 

 and his assistants; for indeed," adds the king, 

 " every kindness and respect exhibited by you 

 towards him must be reflected back upon your- 

 selves." Mr. Hardy has extracted another docu- 

 ment relating to the bridge of Saintes, for the 

 building of which Isenbert seems to have gained so 

 much credit. In it he is spoken of by King John 

 as " our most dear and faithful Isenbert, master of 

 the schools at Saintes," aud mention is made in 

 the document of the houses built on the bridge, 

 which had been given to the inhabitants of Ro- 

 chelle by Isenbert, apparently at an annual quit- 

 rent of 5s. for the repair of the bridge, and which 

 the king confirms to them, directing the quit-rent 

 to be applied to needful repairs, and " to lighting 

 the bridge by night according to the plan of the 

 same master of the schools." 



King John's desire for the completion of Lon- 

 don Bridge, and his recommendation of Isenbert 

 for that purpose during the lifetime of Peter of 

 Colechurch, are facts probably little known to 

 general readers : they are not mentioned in the 

 notice of London Bridge in Mr. limbs' Curiosities 

 of London, and seem to deserve a niche in "N. & 

 Q." Wm. Sidney Gibson. 



TABLETS FOR WRITING : WAX AND MALTHA. 



Tablets used both for painting and writing 

 were in antiquity sometimes made of box-wood : 

 hence, iru£iov was equivalent to [ii(l\loi>. See Ari- 

 stoph. ap. Poll., iv. 18. x. 59. (Fragm. 671., Din- 

 dorf.), and Exod. xxiv. 12. ; Isaiah xxx. 8. ; and 

 Habakkuk ii. 2., in the Septuagint version ; itvtlov 

 is a tablet, kept by the author for original compo- 

 sition, in Lucian adv. Indoct., 15. iEneas Polior- 

 ceticus (c. 31. § 9.), in describing different modes 

 of conveying secret intelligence in writing, states 

 that words may be written with good ink upon a 

 tablet of box-wood, and afterwards obliterated 

 with whitewash ; but that if the person who 

 receives the (ablet washes off the white cove ■- 

 ing, the writing will be legible. The word 

 ■Kvt,oypa<pa) is used by Artemidor. (i. 51.) ap- 

 parently in the sense of painting, as a fine art. A 

 similar application of the word irvtf.ov to the art 

 of painting, occurs in a fragment of the comic 

 poet Anaxandrides (Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gr., 

 vol. iii. p. 167.). 



A full account of the ancient custom of writing 

 on folding tablets covered with wax, is given in 



Dr. Smith's Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Ant., art. 

 Tabulae. (See Ovid, Met., ix. 521. 528. 564.) 

 The contrivance of Demaratus, for sending a se- 

 cret communication from Susa to Lacedasmon, 

 illustrates the use of waxed tablets. He removed 

 the wax from the diptych or folding tablet, cut 

 the message upon the wood, and then covered the 

 tablet with wax. The Lacedaemonians, finding 

 that there was no writing upon the wax, guessed 

 the contrivance ; they melted the wax, and read 

 the words upon the wood underneath (Herod, vii. 

 239.). The same contrivance is described by 

 ^neas Poliorcetic, c. 31. § 8. 



Aristophanes (Thesm. 778-80.) likewise de- 

 scribes letters cut in wood : — 



Ae'£a<r0e 0711X77? oAkovs, 

 Kyjpvieas €fj.uv fj.6\&u}y. 



Where <r/tiA.?)y 6\koI means the furrows chiselled 

 on the smooth surface of the wood with a cutting 

 instrument. 



Besides Kiipbs, or wax, the Greeks used a sub- 

 stance called /j.a.\6t) for smearing upon tablets. 

 See Pollux, x. 58. ; Demosth. adv. Steph., ii. 

 p. 1132.: " yuaA.071, 6 /j.(fj.a\ay/j.(yus K>/pos." Harpo- 

 cration, referring to Demosth., ado. Steph., and 

 citing a verse of Hipponax, " eimra fx.d\0ri rty 

 rpdiriv TToriaxpicos," where the word would natu- 

 rally mean pitch. According to Festus (p. 135.) 

 maltu was used by the Greeks to denote a mix- 

 ture of pitch and wax. The Greek glossaries give 

 as its synonyms Kr)p6iri<r<rov and Tno<jl>KT)pov. Pliny, 

 {N. H. ii. 108.), describes maltha as a species of 

 bitumen, or mineral pitch, found in a pool at Sa- 

 mosata in Commagene (see Trad, de Pline, by 

 Grandsagne, torn. xx. p. 294.). According to 

 another passage of Pliny, maltha is a cement 

 made of lime slacked with wine, together with 

 hog's lard and fig juice. Its hardness exceeds 

 that of stone (xxxvi. 58.). In Palladius de Be 

 Rust, i. 17., maltha is a cement which repairs 

 holes in the walls of cisterns. The same writer 

 gives the receipts for the composition of two sorts 

 of maltha for repairing holes in the walls of hot- 

 baths, or of cisterns of cold water. Ducange ex- 

 plains the word malta by cement or mortar. See 

 Salinas, ad Solin. (vol. ii. p. 771.), who compares 

 the Italian smalto. L. 



ARCHERS AND RIFLEMEN. 



Should the result of the pi'esent organisation 

 of volunteer rifle corps be a general and per- 

 manent institution, nothing, assuredly, will tend 

 more to prevent panics and preserve peace. The 

 danger is in its being allowed to languish, from 

 a sense of security and the peaceful aspect of 

 the times. This was a danger, even at a time 

 when the English nation was renowned for feats 

 of war, and victories gained through skill in 



