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Visitors to London are invited to The Piccadilly Auction Rooms (Calder House) to inspect the display of ancient Silver, Jewels and Antiques collected from the Ancestral Homes of England. To obtain the full value of your treasures, employ the Auctioneer with expert. knowledge of values, and one who studies the customer's interest before his own personal gain. Although it may seem paradoxical, it is nevertheless a fact, that if you wished to buy you could not do better than attend my rooms or instruct me to purchase on your behalf. It is simply a case of one person buying what another wishes to sell that enables me to perform a double service to the advantage of both buyer and seller.

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I have a fleet of motor cars and staff of experts constantly touring the country visiting the homes of the hard-pressed fixed income classes, who are compelled to part with their treasures in order to meet the everincreasing demands of the tax collector. For 21s. two of my representa

tives-one with a knowledge of Plate and Jewels, and the other Pictures, Porcelain, Old Furniture, Objects of Art, etc.-will call and impart all the information they can, and, if necessary, bring the jewels and silver away in the car. If desired, a third will also call to confer with those who wish to sell their landed property by auction or by private treaty, to talk about valuations for mortgages, dilapidations, and all such matters undertaken by a surveyor.

Valuations for Probate, Insurance, etc., at moderate fees. Weekly Auction Sales of Pearls, Diamonds, Old Silver, Sheffield Plate. No buyingin charges. Stamps purchased for cash to any amount. Parcels safe registered post.

W. E. HURCOMB, Calder House (Entrance: 1, Dover Street),

Piccadilly, London, W. 1. 'Phone Regent 6878-9.

HURCOMB

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NOTES AND QUERIES is published every Friday, at 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks (Telephone: Wycombe 306). Subscriptions (£2 2s. a year, U.S.A. $10.50, including postage, two half-yearly indexes and two cloth binding cases, or £1 15s. 4d. a year, U.S.A. $9, without binding cases) should be sent to the

Manager. The London Office is at 22, Essex Street, W.C.2 (Telephone: Central 396), where the current issue is on sale. Orders for back numbers, indexes and bound volumes should be sent either to London or to Wycombe; letters

for the Editor to the London Office.

LAST

Memorabilia.

Monday The Times published another account of the excavations at Ur sent by Mr. C. Leonard Woolley. Work is going on at an early cemetery, the graves of which in their richness have well fulfilled expectation. Its date can now be fixed definitely at from 3500 to 3200 B.C. The high state of civilization revealed is specially interesting in the contrast it presents with contemporary Egypt: the writing is as advanced as that on the Nile, and the technique of arts and crafts definitely superior, and whereas foreign influences played their part in the development of Egypt this Mesopotamian civilization was the outcome of steady internal evolution, demonstrably very slow and therefore indicating that its origins lie in an immemorial antiquity. The graves are simple. In most cases the body, fully dressed, is wrapped in matting and laid on a mat at the bottom of the tomb shaft. Personal belongings are placed with it, and a clay cup, or a copper one, is put between the hands or against the mouth. No doubt it contained drink, and other clay or metal vases containing food or drink were set beside the roll of matting. For this at higher levels wicker-work is sometimes substituted; and in some cases a fire, lighted against the head of the dead man, had partially consumed the body and the offerings. A square limestone plaque is the most remarkable find of another kind. It is carved in very fine relief to represent a chariot drawn by four lions, with a man walking ahead. The chariot is empty but

has a leopard's skin flung over it, and tied to the front of it two spears, a quiverful of arrows and a battle-axe. Is it part of the funeral procession of a king? The wealth of beautiful objects in admirably wrought gold is surprising. Mr. Woolley concludes by remarking that it is "hardly back in time our excavations carry us in an exaggeration to say that the farther Mesopotamia the higher is the civilization which they illustrate.'

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ON Monday of this week the Representative Committee for the Preservation of St. Paul's Cathedral met at the Deanery, and received the fourth report of the Works Sub-Committee. This is re-assuring both in regard to the progress of operations and to their good effect. The cementation is perfectly fulfilling its object, and the reinforcing bars, on being tested in the National Physical Laboratory have given satisfactory results. Moreover, the architects and engineers of the Works Committee profess themselves now well satisfied from experience that the alarming statements made during the past few months were unfounded. There is no evidence of recent subsidence or movement of the dome structure as a whole, though a few cases of flaking have recently been observed in the masonry of the piers. Micrometer readings between plugs embedded on both sides of some of the cracks, which are taken monthly give no evidence of permanent increase in the width of cracks. An interesting series of observations on the wall temperatures of the inner and outer drums has been continued since July, 1925. The difference between summer and winter temperatures is so great that the stresses thereby set up need to be taken into account.

THE Provost of Eton, lecturing last_Monday at Eton College to the Eton, Slough and Windsor Workers' Educational Association on the evolution of books and the identification of old MSS., gave two interesting examples of clues which had led him to the right discovery of origin. The other day, he said, he was asked where a certain MS. book of prayers came from and was able to tell from the circumstance that Saint Melovius appeared in the calendar written in red-a saint who was venerated nowhere in England but at Amesbury. Cataloguing the MSS. of one of Cambridge libraries he found the first clue for the identification of a fine twelfth century Bible on a slip of parchment which had been used

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LAST

period, the main theme of which is the story
of how Athens acquired, maintained and
lost her Empire, is dealt with by Professor
Adcock, Dr. W. S. Ferguson, Mr. R. Hack-
forth, and Mr. E. M. Walker. Professor
Bury writes on Socrates and the Sophists,
Mr. J. T. Sheppard on Attic Drama in the
W. Macan on
Fifth Century, Dr. R.
Herodotus and Thucydides, and Professor
J. D. Beazley and Mr. D. S. Robertson on
Greek Art and Architecture.

Two Hundred Years Ago.

From

of the Devil's Dyke estate near Brigh-AT ton having been acquired by a private purchaser. As our readers know, the early British earthworks encircling the Dyke Hill have been scheduled for protection under the Ancient Monuments Act, and the Giant's, or Poor Man's, Grave, another earthwork lying across the trough of the Dyke, has been placed under the like safeguard. Efforts to buy the Dyke estate for the public came to nothing, the price asked being more than double its value as estimated by competent valuers. The new owner, whose name is yet to be divulged, is said to be a well-known public man. There is every reason for confidence that his handling of the property will be enlightened and public-spirited.

THE Naples correspondent of The Times announces official confirmation of the decision to begin the new excavations at Herculaneum on April 21. Preliminary examinations have been made by the High Commissioner, Signor Castelli, and Professor Majuri, Superintendent of the Museums and Excavations in Campania, and they have settled what land is to be expropriated for the purpose and where the first shafts are to be sunk. They are also contriving easier approach to the existing excavations. THE Cambridge University Press an

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nounces that Volume V. of The Cambridge Ancient History will be ready in the first half of March. This volume, which is entitled Athens, 478-401 B. C.,' opens with a chapter on The Economic Background of the Fifth Century, by Mr. Marcus N. Tod. The political history of the

The Daily Journal.
MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1727.
For the Benefit of Mr. RYAN.
By the Company of Comedians.

The

the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's-InnFields, This prefent Monday, being the 13th Day of March, will be prefented, The Tragedy of HAMLET, Prince of Denmark. Written by Shakespear. The Part of Hamlet by Mr. Ryan, King Mr. Quin, Ghoft Mr. Boheme, Laertes Mr. Walker, Horatio Mr. Diggs, Queen Mrs. Berriman, Ophelia Mrs. Rice. Polonius by Mr. Hippifley. Grave-makers by Mr. Bulluck, sen. and Mr. Spiller. To which will be added, feveral Entertainments of Singing and Dancing; particularly, a Scottifh Song by Mrs. Warren, beginning, The Lafs of Patie's Mill The French Sailor and his Wife by Monf and Mademoifelle Salle. A Dialogue betwixt a Rake and a Widow, the Rake by Mr. Leveridge, the Widow by Mr. Salway. And the Two Pierots by Monf. Poftier and Monf. Nivelon.

None to be admitted into the Boxes but by printed Tickets, which will be delivered at the Theatre at 5s. each. Pit 3s. Gallery 28.

Loft or miflaid, a Tortoife-fhell Tobacco Box, with King Charles the Firft's Head on the Lid, very much worn; if the Perfon who has it, or fhall find it, will fend it to Mrs. Wylde's, at the Rainbow-Coffeehoufe in Ironmonger Lane, fhall have Ten Shillings Reward, and no Queftions afk'd.

To be SOLD a Pennyworth.

A very good fecond-hand Chariot, fit for Town or Country. Inquire at John Hide's in Two-Swan-Yard without Bishopfgate.

Literary and Historical with their customers. It is a flagrant copy

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a mezzotint which was published by Robert Sayers of Fleet Street in 1792, the engraver being unnamed though skilled in his art. The creator of this mythical group around an anvil (for it is nothing less) might have been highly flattered by the number of times his creation was copied by the draughtsmen employed by different potters, but I doubt whether his pocket was made any heavier by their enterprise. This group of figures-identical in all details-is to be found on Staffordshire ware plaques, and

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to pounds so is their original price to what they will now fetch, and for that there may be several reasons of which fashion is one; then one can visualise the possibility of when a marriage turned out to be a failure the souvenir might have the shortest of shrifts or even become an offensive missile.

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Writers Staffordshire pottery rarely mention-generally they omit all reference to the Gretna subjects, possibly because they know little worth the telling and are timorous on thin ice. In no instance have I come on a potter's mark, but some items can be identified with little doubt by comparison with known pieces. I have seen one jug which is characteristically by Wedgwood and another which was labelled "Pratt's ware " which had a tint or colour that that potter never used. Hence these tears, and my appeal to readers of N. & Q.' to tell me what pieces they know of with Gretna subjects.

FRED. LEE CARTER.

Christ Church House, Shroton Street, N.W.1.

TEXTUAL NOTES ON
SHAKESPEARE.
THE TEMPEST.
I., i., 68.

Long heath, Browne firrs, anything;

HA

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(Folio).

ANMER'S correction, adopted by Dyce, viz: "ling, heath, broom, furze,' 1s undoubtedly the true reading. An enumeration of the different kinds of barrenground," covered by the plants mentioned, is essential; and more items give point to the enumeration," as the Arden Shakespeare (1902) editor expresses it. Hence, any epithets are quite unnecessary and inappropriate. Further, in Harrison's Description of Britain,' prefixed to Holinshed, p. 91, quoted by Farmer (see the Variorum of 1821 ad loc.), we find Brome, heth, firze, brakes, whinnes, ling, etc." One is at a loss to understand such comments as are found in Vol. i. of Shakespeare's England,' p. 510 (presumably by Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, F.R.S., etc.), Long heath,' (for which ling, heath,' is an unnecessary emendation of Hanmer's) makes another point of contact with Lyte, who gives two species, long heath and small heath, the first of which bears its flowers along the stems, &c." The short answer to this is that

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Shakespeare was not writing a botanical treatise. It is equally difficult to understand the "long heath, brown firs" of the recent Cambridge Pitt Press edition by Quiller-Couch and Dover Wilson.

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And since that time it is eleven years. It may be suspected that the Folio printers. were unable to include all the words in one line and consequently omitted the initial word. Further, the Folio spelling yere would seem to show that the word was. monosyllabic, and not dissyllabic, as some editors make out, although in the Romeo passages the the spelling is yeare and yeares, and they are printed as prose. Yere in the Folio text may well be the old neuter plural; but it is a suspicious circumstance that the succeeding words in the line begin with s; and this letter shows more misprints in the way of addition and omission than any other consonant; many such examples of careless printing being found in the plays. After all, we must give Shakespearo credit for a reasonably good ear in the writing of blank verse! I., ii., 327.

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