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THE LATE MR. JAMES BROWN, OF BOSTON.

IT is with no ordinary feelings of regret that we announce the death of Mr. James Brown, of the wellknown publishing house of Little, Brown and Co. Boston, United States; which took place on March 10th, after a brief and painful illness, in his fifty-fifth year.

Few booksellers were better known on both sides of the Atlantic than Mr. Brown. His business both as a bookseller and publisher, was very extensive, and his purchases in this country were annually, for many years, at the rate of some thousands of pounds. Many valuable and expensive publications which would not otherwise have been ventured upon in this country were undertaken in consequence of his guaranteeing to purchase for the American market a considerable portion of the impression. Among other works, Mr. Murray's series of" British Classics," and Mr. Pickering's edition of Milton's Works, edited by Mitford, were published at his suggestion, and with his co-operation. The death of such a man will be severely felt, for he was not only energetic and intelligent in his business, but strictly upright and conscientious in all his transactions, and kind-hearted and courteous in his manners.

We cannot do better than quote the following tribute to his memory, written by a friend who had known him long and intimately.

"Mr. Brown was possessed of large natural abilities, and was eminently a self-made man. Like almost all of those who in America have arrived at any desirable distinction in any department of life, or exercised any considerable influence, he was born in humble circumstances, and by his own industry, perseverance, and enterprise, worked his way up to that high social position which he had attained at his death, and to that eminence which he occupied in the pursuit he had chosen, as its acknowledged head and most able representative in this country.

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Brother to the preceding Sep 25 1779 aged 58 years.
When terrestrial all in Chaos shall exhibit effervescence

Then Celestial virtu's in their most Refulgent Brilliant
Essence,

Shall with beaming Beauteous Radiance thro' the Ebullition
shine,

Transcending to glorious regions, Beatifical Sublime; Human power, absorbed, deficient,to delineate such effulgent lasting sparks,

Where honest plebeians Ever, will have presidence over ambiguous great monarchs.

Ante spous uxorious doubtless implies, "formerly the loving husband." I consider these lines as the best specimen of pompously unmeaning words, I have yet seen. On a headstone at LudlowSacred to the Memory of

*

* * * *

Town and London.
A good Servant,

*

A careful driver,
And an honest man.
His journey o'er, no more to town,
His onward course he bends,

"Energy, firmness, and promptitude were among his most distinguishing characteristics, and these united with sterling good sense and a judgment that rarely erred, contributed largely to that success which continually marked his progress in life. In the finer quality of good taste he who for forty years drove the stage waggon between this was not lacking, and the books issued by the house of which he was a member, bear ample testimony to the exercise of his nice discrimination in their production. He understood his business well, and was familiar with all its details; and this may be said of him not only in a mechanical, but in a much higher sense, for he not only had a knowledge of the market value and fitness of the wares in which he dealt, but also an intellectual appreciation of their worth. He was well read in general literature, and the scholars of America, and those who endeavour to encourage and promote a taste for healthy reading, are greatly indebted to him for the publication and wide distribution of numberless works of real excellence; in which manner he has done a service to our literature and education which it would not be easy to estimate."

Shortly after his death a large meeting of the book trade of Boston was held, at which resolutions were passed expressive of their regret, and of their wish to attend his funeral. They also determined to close their places of business on the day of his obsequies.

His team unshut, his whip laid up,
And he his journey ends.

Death lock'd the wheel, and gave him rest,
And never more to move

Till Christ shall call him with the blest

To heavenly realms above.

The name and dates were inadvertently not taken when copying the inscription. To unshut the team is to detach the horses from the waggon.

SALOPIENSIS.

Errata.-P. 22, col. 2, line 14 from bottom, for nurch, read never k. Line 6 from bottom, for Szcerbiec, read Szczerbiec.

No. LIII.]

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

RUSSIAN EASTER CEREMONIES IN ENGLAND.

WE have had great doings during Passion Week and Easter among the prisoners. I suppose it has seldom occurred to any one to be so completely in the midst of so many religious sects, at their greatest fast or festival of the whole year, not excepting Christmas. The Jews for the last ten days, have been supplied entirely from the wealthy Jews in Plymouth, with every thing to eat, drink, or use; keeping strictly to the letter of the Levitical law. They even went the length of foregoing their tobacco, soap and vinegar, which happened to be served out twice during the time, because they would not take anything previously touched by Gentile hands; and they have only to-day commenced again taking the prison fare. The whole of the prisoners abstained from meat from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, and the Russian priest, through the Governor, supplied them with what they wanted, by order of the Emperor. There were, independently of what each man bought for himself, upwards of two thousand boiled eggs, hard in logwood to colour them red; eighteen hundred crossed buns varying in size from a penny to sixpence ; two shillings, and two shillings and sixpence; and twenty-five pounds of butter for Easter day.

[MAY, 1855.

cloth, not touching it with his hands. We did not follow them, but heard them singing in various places, and in about ten minutes they re-entered at the further end of the ward, the congregation dividing for the procession to pass through. I imagine this was to represent searching for our Saviour, when he had risen from the tomb. The priest several times during the service, turned to them, and said that Christ was risen, when they each time answered him with one voice. At last the great ceremony commenced, viz., the cross which the priest first kissed, and then presented it to each member of the congregation, who kissed it, and then kissed the priest on both cheeks, he at the same time kissing them on the other cheek. This lasted a considerable time, as may be supposed by there being five hundred or more persons, every one undergoing the same ceremony, and when they had finished kissing the priest, they began kissing each other; the officers and their wives went down the room, right and left, kissing the soldiers.

We did not leave the church until eight o'clock, and as they neither kneel or sit, but stand the whole time, we found it very fatiguing. After the priest had blessed the hot cross buns and hard boiled eggs, and sprinkled them with holy water, we left them to break their fast, and enjoy their feast.

It is their custom to paint eggs with curious devices representing our Saviour rising from the grave, ascending into heaven, the Virgin's heart pierced by the sword, the The next day we went to the Polish ward, to see the Holy Ghost, etc., and on Easter-day and some days after-prisoners' dancing. They dance and waltz most gracewards, they give you the salutation, "Jesus Christ is fully, nor would you see in an English ball room better risen," accompanied by a kiss, and a present of an egg. waltzing than I have seen here amongst the common These eggs as before stated, are all boiled hard, and men, who dance with each other, one of themselves The Countess of some of the cadets paint them most beautifully, others playing the violin and tamborine. gild them with gold leaf. In Russia, they begin their Morley visited the cadets on Tuesday, when they all admass at one o'clock, and remain there till eight or nine; vanced in a body and sang, each afterwards presenting but as it was thought the warders would require some her with a painted egg; they then retired, and again sleep, it was arranged with the priest that the service commenced singing, and to a lady who attended the should begin at five in the morning; accordingly at Countess, they each presented an egg; and to a third five we went to their church in the upper prison, and lady performed the same ceremony, each also presenting saw their rites performed. On Good Friday they buried her with an egg. our Saviour, that is, a large picture representing his death was borne out by four of the officers, by one door through the court, and with chanting brought in again at the opposite door.

Prayers having continued about half an hour, each of the congregation bearing a lighted taper, the light of which it appeared to be their great object to maintain, the priest made a sign, on which the choristers and principal members followed him out of the room, followed by the oldest officer, upon whom the priest placed an embroidered cloth across his breast, and then laid on it the sacred book, which as it has all the pictures which they worship framed in the binding, he must hold with the

VOL. V.

They certainly have very peculiar customs, yet amuse themselves most rationally. One of our Poles obtained all been placed by themselves in the lower prison, where his release about six weeks agone, since then they have the governor and interpreter have had many consultations with them. To-day the little Pole, having been tɔ France, has re-appeared, so we expect every day some movement to take place, such as losing them. All are willing to go, except a few, whose wives are in Russia, and who fear they would never see them again. Mill-bay War Prison, April 11.*

* Delayed too late for April number.

F

H. C.

BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

THERE are few books in our language more interesting or illustrative than Granger's Biographical History to the period of the Revolution, in 1688; and we have a Continuation by the Rev. Mark Noble, to the end of the reign of King George the First.

Is it not high time the series should be continued to the beginning of the present reign? There is no lack of literary men well calculated for such a work, and

the materials would be most abundant.

In the present state of the Arts, and the improved facilities of graphic embellishments, etchings in outline or wood engravings might accompany almost every page, and it is easy to conceive that under the auspices of some spirited and wealthy publishers, a most desirable and delightful work might be issued to the public.

The admirable condensation of anecdote and matter, with the lively and terse style so conspicuous in Granger, should be the model. Noble might be compressed into smaller compass, and yet the number of lives increased, and by a judicious arrangement, the whole might be brought within six octavo volumes. Stradbrooke, May 11.

COINAGE OF EDWARD I. AND II.

J. T. A.

IT has often occurred to me to propose that a complete list, so far as your contributors would or could make it so, should be published of all the varieties of pennies of Edward the First and Second. I know of no printed Catalogue which purports to give the gleanings of even a few Cabinets, and yet, from those of many of your readers, there might be brought to light possibly some nearly unique coins of those kings. My proposal is to reprint in the Notes, if it be allowable, the list of coins found at Tutbury, in Staffordshire, published by the Society of Antiquaries many years since, and to make this the basis of operations. Any coins of these monarchs differing in the slightest particular from those which your readers possess, may be from time to time recorded in your Current Notes, and in a short time a tolerably complete list would be the result.

Should this proposal meet with your approbation, perhaps you would notice it in your next Current Notes, and next month I will send you particulars of a few coins in my possession, which differ from the Tutbury list. Nottingham, May 10. F. R. N. HASWELL.

** Willis's Current Notes are open for all such communications thus kindly proffered by our correspondent, but as regards the reprinting of Mr. Hawkins's list, printed in the Archeologia, in 1832, courtesy would require that permission for that purpose should be asked. That list was materially increased by the discovery of another great mass of coins of these monarchs in February, 1836, at Wyke, near Leeds, in Yorkshire, of which full particulars were printed in the Archæologia, in 1839. This sequel to Mr. Hawkins's account of the Tutbury Coins has possibly escaped Mr. Haswell's notice. -ED.

EARLY ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS.

IN Current Notes, 1854, p. 74, reference is made to the first papers of news which, according to Chalmers, were produced at Venice, in 1536, and were long after circulated in manuscript, as appears from a collection of these gazettes in the Magliabechian library at Florence. In England, there were evidently printed "Newes bookes" of a contemporary date, as at the close of 1544 king Henry the Eighth issued a proclamation for calling in and prohibiting of "certain bookes printed of newes of the prosperous successes of the Kings Ma'ties arms in Scotland," directing the same to be brought in and burned within twenty-four hours after proclamation made, on pain of imprisonment. This carries back the issue of English newspapers to a much earlier date than is generally supposed.

The proclamation states, "the kings most excellent Majestie understanding that certain light persones, not regarding what they reported, wrote or sett forthe, had caused to be imprinted and divulged certaine newes of the prosperous successes of the Kings Majestie's army in Scotland, whereas, although the effect of the victory was indeed true, yet the circumstances in divers points were in some past over slenderly, in some parte untruly and amisse reported; his Highness, therefore, not content to have anie such matters of so greate importance sett forth to the slaunder of his captaines and ministers, not to be otherwise reported than the truth was, straightlie chargeth and commandeth all manner of persones into whose handes any of the said printed books should come, ymediately after they should hear of this Proclamation, to bring the same bookes to the lord maior of London, or to the Recorder, or some of the aldermen of the same, to thintent they might suppresse and burn them, upon pain that every person keeping any of the said bookes twenty-four hours after the making of this Proclamation should suffer ymprisonment of his bodye, and be further punished at the Kings Majestie's will and pleasure."

The earliest printed Venetian Gazette, in the British Museum, was printed in 1570, and is descriptive of the far-famed naval conflict off Lepanto.

SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY.

To the Editor of Willis's Current Notes.

F. P.

Is your February number, you stated with reference to the above, that you were enabled to state on good authority, that the affairs of the Shakespeare Society would be publicly wound up at the usual Anniversary Meeting, on the 27th of April last, when the audited Accounts would be laid before the Members, and the final Report of the Council be read. As a member of the Society I recently addressed you on the subject of its position before the public; my letter, was, however, not printed, but the paragraph was inserted by way of palliative; still the Council have not kept faith with the

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The letter of January 30 is now printed in deference to the request of the writer.

JEWISH FESTIVAL AT JERUSALEM.

DOUBTLESS Some of your correspondents will be able to inform me which of the great feasts it was Jesus is related to have been at, at Jerusalem, John vii. 37. If it was the Feast of Tabernacles, I presume in a design for a picture, the apartment should be represented decorated with palm trees and green boughs, or would it be held in the open air? PICTOR.

I AM glad that your attention has been directed to the (late) Shakespeare Society; I say late, I presume, not unadvisedly, for I have your sanction that it ceased at the close of 1853, although as a Subscriber for some years, and Auditor during two several years, I have as yet received no official announcement of the termination of its existence. It is true, having received no volume since that issued in 1853, viz., Lodge's Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stage Plays, I began to suspect something untoward had befallen the Society, but as I have not since then been applied to for any subscription, I could perhaps have palliated the disappointment occasioned by the consequent indefinite postponement of Mr. Collier's promised concluding volume of Extracts from the Registers of the Stationers' Company, and Mr. Peter Cun-in ningham's long expected Selection from Oldys' Manuscript Notes to Langbaine's Dramatic Poets, had not I found at every bookstall, the Shakespeare Society publications offered for as many shillings as perhaps in the capacity of "One of the Shakespeare Society" I had paid pounds. This, I presume, results from the stock of the Society's publications having been sold off in March, 1854, as stated by you; without the sanction or even knowledge of the Members of the Society, I think I may fairly add. I must say I do not think the Council or the Treasurer acquit themselves with the Members of the Society on the score of either candour or even courtesy, without presenting a final Report and balance sheet. This hint may perhaps induce its preparation.

Finally, I am entirely surprised at your statement that Mr. Skeffington purchased the remaining impressions of the engraving by Mr. Cousins from the Ellesmere Chandos portrait of Shakespeare. I had always been given to understand that enough copies had been worked off merely to supply the Members of the Shakespeare Society; and that the plate was subsequently defaced I am well aware, as I have in my possession an impression from the defaced plate; if, however, an unlimited number of impressions from the fair plate were, contrary to guarantee, privately taken off, any value I might have assigned to my fair copy of the plate from its supposed rarity is at once removed.

Hoping yet to hear from head-quarters something more definite respecting the Society, I am,

A MEMBER OF THE (late) SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. January 30, 1855.

At the time of this verse the Lord Messiah stood in the cloister of Israel, which was the second court of the Temple. A colonnade of stately pillars surrounding an open quadrangle. It was the octave of the Festival of Tents, which was held in Tisri, or September, after harvest, and it began on the fifteenth day. There then stood Jesu, around him the twelve men, the bearded Bishops of his future church. The columns and the court were wreathed with bowers of green branches, from the patient palm tree with its turbaned brow, and the willows of the water courses, which in those days grew upright, but which after their rods had been taken to scourge the Lord withal, drooped evermore memorial grief, the citron bough, heavy with fruit, and the myrtle tree. All at once there was the shout of the trumpet, and a loud and lifted Psalm; it is that Ode which is now read as the twelfth chapter of the book of Isaiah. The Levites drew near, and a procession enters in solemn array. They have drawn water from the brook of Siloam, which flows fast by the Oracle of God. A priest bears it in a golden vase, and they pass on to pour it as their usage was on the altar of the holocaust. πрштоv μεv vôwp, i.e. the men, and as their voices fade into the inner sanctuary, water was first. They have passed through the cloister of a deep and solemn tone proclaims in thrilling words-" If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink!"

Were I a painter, I should pourtray the scene, at the right foreground Messiah with the traditionary features of Nicephorus ; behind him, Simon, Andrew, James and John. A pillar here and there enwreathed; Hebrew children bearing boughs. A willow drooping nigh with prophetic leaves. On the left the Levite troop disappearing with the golden pitcher in their hands. The finger of the Lord pointing towards them, as in the act of uttering the

above summons.

Morwenstow, May 17.

R. S. HAWKER.

BAYLE'S Dictionary is more interesting as a depository of opinions, than for its facts, though even in this last respect it is doubtless of great value.

Great controversy exists about Pre and Post-Raphaelitism, and great ignorance. The truth is this, until Raphael Every feature, grew corrupt he painted from legend. every look was and is well known in the delivery of the church, as the names of Jesus, or St. John. To desecrate from this traditionary type was to sin. Nevertheless, in later life Raphael and his school painted Christs from models chosen in Italian streets, and such guilty words. came in as "Titian's Christ," etc. Moreover, the early painters depicted the second body of the saint, the glorified or etherealized frame of the arisen dead. They shewed their theme not gross or thick with Adam's flesh or blood of Eve, but such as the dead will be who arise in the perIn Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words fect stature of Christ. That which men call thin, or anis noticed-"FINKEL. Fennel. North. Fynkylside, feni-gular, or monotonous, or gaunt, was the second body of the culum." Nominale Manuscript.

FINKLE STREET.-In many cities and towns near to old religious houses, are streets of this name. What is its derivation?

Whitehaven, May 15.

JOHN DIXON.

Resurrection.

R. S. H.

On the wall facing the belfry of Maidstone Church, are some lines, part of the memento there raised as an epitaphial admonition

Stop! Ringers all, and cast an eye;
You in your glory, so once was I.
What I have been, as you may see
Which now is in the Belfree.

An absurd rendering of the customary exhortation-
As you are, so were we :
As we be, so shall ye.

Something like this is found in the monkish rhymes indited as an epitaph on the detested Richard de Marisco, Bishop of Durham, who died at the monastery of Peterborough, on his way to London, in 1226. The line Quod sum vos eritis,

presents possibly the earliest known use of the phrase. W. H. L.

LANSALLOS BELL MARKS.

them, fleurs-de-lys, are a little different from your woodcut. The rubbing well represents them; they will hardly pass for hawthorns; nor can I discover that the families of Treffry and Decling had ever any connection with the parish. I add a tracing which will give you a correct representation of the crosslet, and its octagonal border, which I think should have been represented. The letters H. K., which you have detected, and which I cannot help fancying to be an accidental resemblance, are as plainly seen in this as in the sketch you have given.

We may hope to hear more respecting the character of these remarkably shaped vessels, and I expect some of your readers will be able to furnish other instances of the occurrence of these arms. Polperro, Cornwall. THOMAS Q. COUCH.

PAPER.-A new material is stated to have been discovered in Australia, in the coating of the roots of the native palm, or wild pine apple, Zamia Spiralis. It is said to resemble cotton-wool, but is short in staple.

OVER-DOOR INSCRIPTIONS.

MOST of the readers of your "Current Notes" may have observed a notice in the newspapers to the effect that Lord Brougham had inscribed the following motto over the principal entrance to his country-house at Cannes, in the south of France:

Inveni portam, spes et fortuna valete,
Me sat ludistis, ludite alios.

WHILST I, for one, acknowledge the service you have done to Campanology, by inserting the curious devices on the Lansallos bell, in Current Notes, page 29, I would respectfully offer an observation or two on the remarks appended to the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe's note. When writing the description of the bell, I held the opinion which you advocate, that the arms were those of local landowners, donors of the bell, though after a diligent search among the families who have held possession of the manors in the parish, I failed to identify them. The discussion which my queries occasioned has, however, changed that opinion, and I think Mr. Ella- This inscription may be the invention of the versatile combe has clearly made out that the names are not Baron, but it is also one which a late occupant of the those of local gentry, but the devices of a fraternity of Chair of Humanity in the University of St. Andrews inbell founders; in proof of which, he remarks, the pots scribed upon the lintel of the garden entrance to the Manse as represented with covers, handles and spouts, are not of Cults, Fifeshire, which he inhabited as a parish minister heraldic ewers, and their occurrence through such a previous to his appointment as Professor. I had occabreadth of country from Northumberland to Cornwall," sion to call upon his successor, the Rev. James Anderis conclusive against their being local.* ton, who took a pride in pointing it out, and stating that he had caused it to be lately re-engraved in rei memoriam. He besides informed me that he had ascertained that it was not original, but borrowed from a French author; he had, however, never been able to discover the work in which it appeared. Probably some of the erudite readers of "Current Notes" may be able to cast some light on the matter by their investigations, and to them I look for assistance. Strathmiglo, Fife.

66

In the case of the bell at Compton Basset, Wilts, the identical shields and crosslet occur in the same order as on the Lansallos bell, and so similar were the rubbings from all these bells on which the pot arms are found, that it is not improbable they all issued from the same foundry.

I have great pleasure in forwarding to you rubbings taken this afternoon from the bell at Lansallos, and having generally found that rubbings from figures in relief are unsatisfactory, I made at the same time a truthful sketch of the two shields, which reveals a peculiarity in the pots not hitherto remarked, namely, a slight bar connecting the spout and neck. The handles, I find, are joined both above and below to the neck and body of the ewers.

I think you will see that the trefoils,† or, as I call

Notes and Queries, vol. xi. p. 293.

The Editor thankfully acknowledges Mr. Couch's communication, and freely admits the devices are clearly slipped trefoils, and not hawthorns, as at first supposed.

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DAVID GALLOWAY.

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