THE SONS OF NOAH.

Dec. 22nd.

SIR,-I have examined Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon with reference to O. S.- your correspondent's query, (see "Current Notes" for November, p. 85), concerning Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and cannot discover the names to have any such primary meaning as was there ascribed to them; though perhaps by a little straining, and a few far-fetched ideas, such an interpretation might be given --but it is so wholly unworthy of any one to torture his imagination to suppose that the original signification of words should have been framed to suit a climate, that nothing more need be said.

Mr. Willis.

I remain, Sir,

Your obedient servant,

TURKISH COIN.

C. M. J.

Southwick, near Oundle, Jan. 1st. 1852.

SIR,-In Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, vol. 2. p. 379, there is a coin illustrated thus: "5. supposed ancient Jewish coin, representing drums." gives his authorities at the end of the article on Musical Instruments.

E

Kitto

Allow me to give the figure of the coin, and its interpretation: Read from left to right, the letters, or rather words, are: SF TR Ch N in Turkish it reads, The Boundary of the Turks; and the two drum sticks! are the pillars of Hercules, or the Calpe columna, and the Abyla columna.-N.B. The S (for sh) is a Cuneiform letter. T. R. BROWN. Mr. Willis.

THE DEVONSHIRE COLLECTION.-In reply to the inquiry of Mr. Willis's correspondent, "A Young Numismatist," ("Current Notes" for December, p. 95), he is informed that the Duke of Devonshire's Collection of Coins was sold by auction a few years ago, and produced a very inconsiderable sum, to the surprise of everybody. This was accounted for by the manner in which the Coins were catalogued. It was well known as "The Devonshire Collection."

S. H. H.

DISCOVERY OF THE TOMB OF ST. BERICHERT, or, BERECHTUNE.-Mr. Windele the local historian of Cork, has circulated among his friends a Lithographic drawing of this very interesting monument, which he found at Tullilease, a small hamlet on the border of the Counties of Cork and Limerick, within a mile of Dromcolleher. The tomb is a much more highly ornate specimen of an ancient cross than any of those engraved in Dr. Petrie's work on the Round Towers of Ireland. At Tullilease there are the ruins of an old Romanesque church, which was dedicated to St. Berichert or Berihert, a Saxon,

whose name is now Anglicised into Benjamin, and whose death is recorded at A.D. 839, in the Four Masters. The Legend on the stone is in Latin, (but very sorry Latin), and in the Irish character. It reads, "QUICUNQUE (for æ) HUNC TITULUM LEGERIT ORAT (for orate or oret) PRO BERECHTUNE. On the upper part of the stone, in one corner, are the letters Fps or pps.

RICHARD III.

January 10th, 1852. SIR,-All our historians assert that Richard, Duke of Glo'ster paved his way to the crown by bastardizing, imprisoning, and assassinating his two nephews, Edward Prince of Wales and Richard Duke of York. How then are we to account for the provision made in the Wardrobe Roll for the Coronation of Richard III., July 3rd, 1483, (published in the Antiquarian ReperStuff delivered for the use of Lorde Edwarde, son of tory, Vol. I. p. 29, 1807;) "The deliveree of divers late Kyng Edward the Fourthe, and of his Henxemen?" Then follows a particular account of the materials for the "appuraill and array" of "Prince Edward" and his "Henxemen." Was he really present at his uncle's coronation? There is no mention of the Duke of York. The Declaration of Tyrrell and Dighton, published in the ensuing reign by Henry VII., says, the young princes were murdered in July, 1483. If the words did not expressly state" Edwarde, son of late Kyng Edwarde the Fourthe," I should have concluded that it meant Richard III.'s own son Edward, by Lady Ann Nivelle, at that time about nine years of age.

Yours, &c.

O. S.

AMERICAN TESTIMONIAL TO MRS. COWDEN Clarke. New York, 13th December, 1851.

About the time you receive this, you will probably hear of an American testimonial to that amiable woman, Mrs. Cowden Clarke, to be presented to her by the American Minister, Mr. Abbot Lawrence, in the name of the subscribers, at the head of whom stands America's greatest and best statesman, Daniel Webster.

This testimonial is in the shape of a magnificent Rosewood Library Chair, richly carved, and covered with the finest French Satin Brocade. It is at this moment on the Atlantic, in the "Atlantic," and insured by the Atlantic Insurance Company, for three hundred dollars.

AS THE FAME OF SHAKSPERE is world-wide, subscriptions of five dollars each came in from all parts of the American Union-from the most northerly of all, Maine,-to Mexico. From Wisconsin, in the far-farFAR West, to the shores of the Pacific, at San Francisco they are thousands of miles apart from each other. Why have you left it to us poor Yankees" to take the wind out of your sails," in presenting a testimonial to the authoress of the Concordance to Shakspere?

Mr. Payne Collier, and such like dear fellows, who know so many eminent wealthy literati, ought, now that we have set you the example, to get up a subscription, and present Mrs. Clarke with some better Shaksperean testimonial than a Chair! What say you to a FIRST' Best Bed? But if the hangings of it beat our satin brocade cover, why I'll hang myself in despair-no I won't, but I'll eat it-bed-feathers and all. The Chair was to have been covered with the richest silk Genoa velvet, of a regal scarlet or crimson, but the lady of our Secretary of State, Mrs. Daniel Webster, would have it, that velvet covers were quite old-fashioned; and as ladies best know what will suit ladies, she was asked the favour to select the cover, and I guess you will admire it.

Now for the freedom of America. Collins gave the Chair free passage. Edwards, Sandford and Co. conveyed the case to the ship, and will convey it from Liverpool to London, free. They are Express men, and thus do we “go a-head.”

CATHERINE HAYES AND FATHER MATHEW. G. W.'s Correspondent adds:

66

6

I receive yourNotes' regularly. The story about Katy Hayes in your November Number, p. 88, is somewhat embellished by your New York Special Reporter. I regret to tell you that she, poor girl, has quite put her foot in it here, and I am afraid will return poorer than when she came. She or her agent or agents, pursued a silly course by, it is said, keeping almost open house to her countrymen at the Astor house, a very expensive hotel, where she ran up an enormous bill, and being unable to pay, the sheriff's officers carried off the receipts at some of her concerts- particularly that which she gave for that humbug hypocrite Father Mathew. There has been a great deal about it in our papers. Doctor Joy returned to England some time ago in disgust. Mathew absolutely had the temerity to make it appear that he could work miracles, publicly, in the face of a large Catholic congregation, by restoring

the sick and lame to health!"

ETHNOLOGY.-G.W.'s New York Special Reporter," whose embellished style has been questioned in the preceding paragraph, states, that he has forwarded a pamphlet, for which he will be duly thanked when it is received, "giving an account of a pretended journey to the city of Eximaya, in Central America, by an Englishman and two Spaniards, who are all' gone dead. Observing that," It is a good Arabian Night's hoax. You will see," he remarks, "the pamphlet is dated 1850, but the children have only been exhibited here this week. There is no mistake about them, they are evidently children of a distinct and unknown race, come from whence they will. The recession of their foreheads is extraordinary. Their heads are wonderfully small, and in exact proportion to their bodies and limbs. They are not dwarfs but pigmies; about twelve years of age, lively and playful. They are not at Barnum's Museum, but at the rooms of the Society Library, and are exciting very great attention."

THE JARVIS LIBRARY SALE. This Sale, which has so long attracted the attention of American Bibliopoles, commenced on Tuesday, Nov. 4th. It was the means of drawing together agents for the most prominent Libraries in the United States. Among others, the following Colleges and Institutions were represented :--Smithsonian Institution, Harvard College, Yale College, General Theological Seminary of New York, College of New Jersey, Brown University, Rochester University, Andover Theological Seminary, New York State Library, New York Society Library, and the Historical Society of New York.

The sale being the largest that ever took place in America, of any private library, the books brought fair prices. A volume of Tracts, containing the American Whig, &c. sold for 22 dollars 75 cents, to Bancroft, the historian. Byzantine Historiæ Scriptores, a unique set, containing a beautiful MS. translation of the third volume of Nicephorus Gregoras, sold for 475 dollars, to Prof. Ticknor, of Boston. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, being the celebrated COMPLUTENSIAN POLYGLOTT, 130 dollars, to the Rochester University. The Paris Polyglott, 100 dollars, to Geo. Livermore, Esq. Boston. Vetus Testamentum Græcum, 40 dollars, Harvard College. Muratori, 37 vols. folio, 207 dollars, to the Theological Seminary, New York. Cranmer's Bible, 26 dollars, to Rochester University. Tyndale's Translation of the Pentateuch, 41 dollars, to John Wiley. Duchesne's Historical Collections, 24 dollars 50 cents, to Brown University, &c. &c.

THE PERIODICAL PRESS OF THE METHODISTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The Christian Advocate and Journal has a circulation of from 25 to 29,000 copies. The Missionary Advocate circulates 20,000 copies, and the Sunday School Advocate no less than 65,000 copies, with a yearly sale of Sunday School Books amounting to upwards of £1000, or 5000 dollars.

"WOODMAN, SPARE THAT TREE."

GENERAL Morris, who is associated with Mr. N. P. Willis as Editor, and publisher of the "Home Journal," in New York, was, as all the world knows—or at least, as the United States ought to know, for it is something to be proud of to be possessed of a real living poet in these days-was the author of the words of a charming ballad, entitled, "Woodman, spare that Tree," which of Russell. The parentage of this lyric having been was sung effectively by an illustrious scion of the house claimed by a respectable Boston paper, (The Sunday News), on behalf of a deceased literary gentleman named Woodward, who is said, in an unguarded moment, to have pawned his reputation upon the WoodGeneral indignantly repudiates the whole statement; man, to the gallant General, for a glass of grog; the repeating that, "a slander well hoed grows like the devil;" and labours to establish the fact, that the American General Morris is not to be by posterity identified with the English Captain of the same name-as a song writer.

FUSBOS.

THE BAWDRICK OR BALDROCK. (Illustrated.)

The Rectory, Clyst St. George, Topsham,
Jan. 2, 1852.

SIR,-You are publishing, in your "Current Notes," some nice little cuts of interesting relics of antiquity, for which all who delight in such things must feel

thankful to you.

May I ask you to put into your cutter's hands the rough sketch which I send with this; and will you allow it to be introduced to the notice of your readers, as an illustration of the Bawdrick, or Baldrock, which is the leather gear, with its appurtenances of the upper part of the clapper in old black-letter bells, and about which your readers may have seen a discussion, with extracts from old Churchwarden's accounts, in another valuable periodical of like character to your own, but in which at present no illustrations of any kind are admitted. You will oblige one of your subscribers.

Mr. Willis.

H. T. E.

TURNBUCKLE AND LATCH.-The figure you have engraved on p. 91 of your December Notes," as a Turnbuckle, is the common casement latch of the 17th frame of casement windows in many old farm houses. century; which may be found attached to the iron

A latch is not a turnbuckle, and no ironmonger's A latch is a bar

apprentice would confound the two.

moving up and down in a limited space-or, if backwards and forwards, as in some locks-it is called the latch-bolt. A turnbuckle, as its name implies, turns round, and is only limited by the notch, &c. by which it holds. They are chiefly of two kinds: one is a spindle, with a knob or ring at one end, and a tongue or buckle at the other; another is a handle with a tongue attached, moving together freely round, upon a pin or rivets. This latter kind has taken the place of the casement latch represented in your "Current Notes" in present use.

ONE WHO HAS BEEN AN IRONMONGER'S APPRENTICE.

ARCHITECTURAL RESTORATIONS IN IRELAND.

A small subscription, which was raised for the purpose of sustaining the failing walls of Buttevant Abbey, in the County of Cork, is about to be followed by Mr. Thomas Tobin, of Ballincollig, taking measures to uphold the Castle of Buttevant.

The same good spirit animates Mr. Odell, the proprietor of Ardmore, in the County of Waterford, who has determined to preserve the west gable of the Old Church, which is covered over with figures that, according to Ryland's History of Waterford, "with a good imagination, and some knowledge of the ancient Scriptures, may be made to exhibit an epitome of the history of the Old Testament."

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.

16th January, 1852. "Current Notes" for

SIR,-If your refer to your April last, you will find engraved, at p. 27, a tobacco pipe, found when the Golden Lion Inn at Fulham was pulled down in April, 1836. Now, Sir, it appears to me that this drawing of mine has been copied, without acknowledgment, from your Notes, in the Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, Session iii. 1850-51, to illustrate a paper by Andrew James Lamb, Esq. Plate IV. No. 14. If not, I humbly conceive that Mr. Lamb, or the Rev. Dr. Hume, the Secretary, on behalf of the Society, is bound to state where the original pipe which figures in their Transactions exists, and how and when Mr. Lamb obtained his drawing or knowledge of it. This alone can disprove the charge which I make against the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, of copying without acknowledgment, my sketch from Willis's Notes.

T. M.