Notes and Queries, Number 03, November 17, 1849 · Chapter 13Notes on Authors and Books, No. 1
This chapter is not translated yet. You are reading the original.
A lover of literature, and aspiring to promote its extension and improvement, I sometimes form projects for the adoption of others—sensible, be it also said, of the extent of my own engagements with certain learned societies.
One of these projects has been a tabular view of the literary biography of the British Islands. In the midst of my reflections on the plans of Blair, Priestly, Playfair, Oberlin, Tytler, Jarry de Mancy, &c. I received a specimen of a Bibliographie biographique, by Edouard-Marie Oettinger, now in the press at Leipzic.
As books multiply, the inexpediency of attempting general bibliography becomes more and more apparent. Meritorious as are the works of Brunet and Ebert, and useful as they may be to collectors, they are inadequate to the wants of men of letters. Henceforth, the bibliographer who aims at completeness and accuracy must restrict himself to one class of books.
M. Oettinger appears to have acted on this principle, and has been happy in the choice of his subject—
"The proper study of mankind is man."
The work is comprehensive in its object, judicious in its plan, accurate in its details, as far as the specimen proceeds, and an unquestionable desideratum in literature.
Ainsi, vive M. Edouard-Marie Oettinger! Vive la Bibliographie biographique!
BOLTON CORNEY.
When a Petition ends with "Your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c." what form of words does the "&c." represent?
B.
Mr. Editor,—I congratulate you on your happy motto, but will you give your readers the results of your own experience and practice, and tell them the simplest mode of making Notes, and when made, how to arrange them so as to find them when required?
I have been in the habit of using slips of paper—the blank turn-overs of old-fashioned letters before note paper came into fashion—and arranging in subjects as well as I could; but many a note so made has often caused me a long hour's looking after: this ought not so to be; pigeon-holes or portfolios, numbered or lettered, seem to be indispensable.
Has any reader a Note whereby to tell who are the present representatives of Greenes of "Green's Norton?" or who was "Richard Greene, Apothecary," who was living 1770, and bore the arms of that family?
H.T.E.
[Our answer to our correspondent's first Query is, send your Notes to us, who will print and index them.—ED.]
1. Where is now the bust of Charles I., formerly in Westminster Hall, and engraved by Peter Mazell, for Pennant's London, in which engraving the bust is attributed to Bernini, though Vertue thought differently? (See Dallaway's Walpole, 1826, ii. 109.)
2. Also, where is the correspondent bust of James I., formerly at Whitehall, of which there is an engraving by N. Smith?
3. What has become of the tapestry of the reign of Henry VI. which formerly adorned the Painted Chamber in the ancient Palace of Westminster? It appears that it remained in one of the lower apartments from the time when it was taken down in 1800 until the year 1810; that it was then sold to Charles Yarnold, Esq., of Great Helen's, Bishopsgate Street, for 10l. After his death in 1825, in the auction of his collection at Southgate's (June 11. that year, lot 238), it was sold as "Seven pieces representing the Siege of Troy, for 7l. to Mr. Matheman." Who was Mr. Matheman? and what has now become of his acquisition?
Another piece of tapestry in Mr. Yarnold's possession, but it may be presumed in far better condition, was bought by Mr. Teschmaker, his executor, for 63l. This was described as "The Plantagenet Tapestry, in fine preservation, containing 23 full-sized portraits of the different branches of the Houses of York and Lancaster: among the most prominent are Margaret of Anjou; Cicely, Duchess of York; the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III.; Edward of Lancaster, Henry VI.; Earl of March, son of Richard (Duke of York and) afterwards Edward IV.; Henry VII.; Clarence [?] Duke of York," &c. This description raises one's curiosity greatly, and query, has this tapestry been elsewhere described? At the meeting of the Archæological Association at Warwick in 1847, it was supposed to have come from St. Mary's Hall, Coventry; but that idea seems to have arisen merely from its similarity of design to the tapestry which is now there.
N.
Sir,—The following expression in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey, p. 42.—"He was Dominus fac totum with the king"—seems to point us to some ecclesiastical origin for the derivation of our familiar word "factotum." Does any one know the precise whereabouts of such a phrase in the Ancient Service books?
C.F.S.
Mr. Editor,—In the parish church in which I officiate are preserved four ancient and curious alms-basins, of latten; They appear to be of Flemish workmanship, and, from inventories of the church goods, made at different times, we may gather that they were given for their present use during the seventeenth century. They represent:—1. The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian; 2. The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin; 3. The Temptation in Eden; and 4. The Spies bearing the Grapes. Around each of these subjects is a legend in foreign characters, "DER. INFRID. GEHWART." I have submitted this inscription to antiquaries and German scholars in vain; it still remains a puzzle. It has been suggested that it may have been only an arbitrary mark of the maker. Is this probable? If not, will you, or one of your readers, give the interpretation to
CLERICUS?
Nov. 8, 1849.
[We have much pleasure in inserting the foregoing QUERY, and trust that many of our correspondents will follow the example of Clericus, by furnishing us with copies of the inscriptions on any ancient church plate in their possession, or which may come under their notice. A comparison of examples will often serve to remove such difficulties as the present, which perhaps may be read DERIN FRID GEHWART, "Therein Peace approved;" Gewären being used in the sense of Bewähren, authority for which may be found in Wackernagel.]