2»i S. IX. Jose 23. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



483 



ent postage stamps, English and foreign, and at 

 the same time stated that Sir Rowland Hill told 

 him that at that time there might be about 500 

 varieties on the whole. This seems a cheap, in- 

 structive, and portable museum for young per- 

 sons to arrange ; and yet I have seen no notices 

 of catalogues or specimens for sale, such as there 

 are of coins, eggs, prints, plants, &c, and no 

 articles in periodicals. A cheap facsimile cata- 

 logue, with nothing but names of respective states, 

 periods of use, value, &c, would meet with atten- 

 tion. If there be a London shop where stamps or 

 lists of them could be procured, its address would 

 be acceptable to me, and to a score young friends. 



S. F. Cresweul. 

 The School, Tonbridge. 



«auert«J. 



FULL-BOTTOMED WIGS. 

 (2 ai S. ix. 441.) 



Mr. Carhington's Note upon full-bottomed 

 wigs suggests a Query. How does it happen 

 that the use of it is now confined to the Judges 

 and certain persons of professional rank ? and 

 that its assumption by an ordinary barrister would 

 be deemed an impertinence which would subject 

 him to the ridicule of his compeers, and probably 

 to the censure of ihe Bench? When did this 

 limitation commence ? And what was the cause 

 of its adoption ? 



Another question arises : How comes it to pass 

 that, as the judges gradually assumed the wig, 

 following the fashion of the time, they did not 

 discard the encumbrance, when that fashion ceased 

 to prevail, and have not discarded it since, though 

 Ihe fashion is among things that have been ? 



In the reign of Charles II. the forensic head- 

 dress of lawyers which had up to that period 

 prevailed, suffered a great change. The portraits 

 of the judges that have come down to us of pre- 

 vious reigns, and indeed through the greater part 

 of Charles's, exhibit the judicial head covered 

 with a coif, a velvet cap, or a three-cornered hat, 

 over their own natural hair ; and the upper lip 

 ornamented with a moustache, and sometimes the 

 chin graced with a beard. The latter superfluity 

 had been long discarded ; the moustache had 

 gradually disappeared (how soon to be resumed 

 who can tell!') ; and instead of the coif or cap, 

 the periwig, just imported from France into this 

 country, began to be adopted by the Bench, with 

 the pretence of a coif attached to the back of it. 



The wig, however, was not then universally 

 adopted ; for though the portrait of Sir Creswell 

 Levinz, who was superseded in 1686, displays this 

 appendage full-bottomed, that of Sir Thomas 

 Street, who continued to sit on the bench during 

 the whole of the reign of James II., is depicted 

 in official costume with his own hair and coif cap. 



The wigs of Charles's judges, as far as we can 

 judge from the engravings of their pictures, were 

 innocent of powder. The same may be said of 

 most of the portraits of judges under James II. 

 and William and Mary. 



Let it not be thought by these inquiries that 

 I have lost my habitual reverence for the judicial 

 wig, which I doubt not is regarded with awe 

 when it is exhibited in the criminal courts, if it 

 does not inspire any additional respect when used 

 in banco. 



I should like to close this article with an in- 

 quiry, when barristers first used this appendage, 

 and how soon it attained its present formal cut ? 

 Also, what is the meaning of the two tails that 

 are attached to it ? Edward Foss. 



Law Officers. — Any of your legal readers 

 will oblige by giving a reference to any report 

 which may exist of the arguments at the bar of 

 the House of Lords some years ago in the claim 

 of precedence between the Attorney-General of 

 England and Lord Advocate of Scotland. J. R. 



Lines on a Pigeon. — Dr. Win. Lort Mansell, 

 afterwards Bishop of Bristol, in a letter to T. J. 

 Mathias, author of The Pursuits of Literature, 

 dated August 9, 1782, sends to him the following 

 lines, most probably his own composition. He 

 says : — 



" By the bye, Shaver Hodson swears these six lines 

 are an incomparable parody : — ] 



" ' If 'tis joy to wound a pigeoD, 



How much more to eat him broil'd? 

 Sweetest bird in all the kitchen; 

 Sweetest, if he is not spoil'd. 

 I swear, my transports, when I've got him, 

 Are ten times more than when I shot him.' 

 " He says, there is not a word hooked iu, and that it is 

 a model for parodying." 



Whose lines are here parodied ? J. Y. 



"Investigator." — Who was the editor of the 

 Investigator, a periodical which was published 

 about 1823-24? A. Z. 



" Most Reverend," and " Right Reverend." 

 — In the Preface to O'Brennan's Ancient Ireland, 

 SfC. (p. xlv.), the following words occur : — 



" As we believe the prefix 'Right Rev.' was a Protest- 

 ant introduction, for the purpose of giving bishops the 

 rank of Right Hon.,' and as it is not in accordance with 

 pure philosophy (it is opposed to it), we reject it, and 

 use the words ' Most Rev.' for all Prelates ; the prefix 

 ' Arch ' being sufficient to mark the difference between a 

 Metropolitan and a Suffragan. We have taken this 

 course, though we find the superscription on Bishop Mol- 

 lony's letter of 1689 thus given : — 



""'The Right Rev. Father in God, Peter Tyrrell, Lord 

 Bishop of Clogher.' 

 Dr. Tyrrell was at that time a member of the ' House of 

 Lords."' " 



Can you tell me whether Mr. O'Brennan, whose 



