labour. It may be familiar to others, but I would ask whether, if inoperosus is a Latin word at all, the translation would not be "unlaborious or "easy," instead of "unproductive," thus giving a meaning the reverse of that intended. E. S. G. "OTHER-WORLDLINESS."-With whom did this phrase originate? Curiously enough, it is used by two writers in the same number of the Contemporary Review (June, 1872), where it is spoken of by one as "Coleridge's happy phrase" (p. 5); by the other as "Leigh Hunt's phrase" (p. 28). WM. PENGELLY.

Torquay.

THEODORE PARKER.--Wanted, any biographical sketches, magazine articles, or other books and information regarding Theodore Parker, an American literate of reputation. Address, H. BRIDGE, 136, Gower Street, Euston Square.

PRESERVATION OF SEALS.-I have a good collection of the conventual, municipal, and other seals of my native county. Can any of your correspondents tell me how to preserve them in a safer form than that of sealing-wax? I should prefer electrotype. Is there any one who does this well and cheaply; or is there a simple method of doing it myself? T. Q. COUCH. Bodmin.

QUOTATIONS WANTED.-Who is the author of the paradoxical remark, that the best way to become well acquainted with a subject is to write a .book about it? JAMES T. PRESLEY.

"Anser, apis, vitulus, regna gubernant." Pen, wax, and parchment govern the world.

These words, quoted a week ago by the wise Punch, are apparently the beginning and ending of an hexameter verse. What are the words which should be supplied between vitulus and regna? and where are they to be found? H. K.

"My father gave high towers three,

To Lilias, Christobel, and me.
In the space between the towers
He set for us the fairest flowers:
For them white rose and eglantine,
The myrtle and red rose were mine."

SENGA.

SYMBOLISM OF THE HUMAN EAR."Romans, countrymen, and lovers, lend me your ears." A considerable time ago the idea occurred to me that the human ear resembles in form the head to which it is attached, and that it no less than the cranium or face is indicative of character. Since then, observation has tended much to confirm this idea; and I have only met with one instance that appeared to point in a different way. My hypothesis, if it deserves to be so called, is simply this:-As the configuration of a leaf resembles in outline the mass of foliage from which it has been plucked, so the ear of man or woman

is of the same pattern as the head to which it belongs: the ear being large above the external opening when (in phrenological language) the moral and intellectual regions in the cranium are well developed, and small in the lower lobe when the converse of all this occurring when those parts the animal propensities are correspondingly small: of the brain above the opening of the ear are small, and the lower part is large. If there be anything beyond mere fancy in this notion of ear-symbolism, the model human ear must be, not a small one, such as Greek art has assumed, but one that is delicately small below the opening, and well rounded and fully developed above; and there is this to be said in favour of the idea, that the form of ear which, according to it, indicates high moral worth and mental power, has more of physical beauty than any other. The ventilation of this subject may perhaps be not unworthy of "N. & Q."; at all events, I would be thankful to ascertain through your columns the opinions of any one competent to speak W. M'D. regarding it.

Dumfries.

GREAT WARRIOR.—

"One soldier we have heard of who gave up the post of honour, and the chance of high distinction, to cover an early failure of that great warrior whom England has lately lost, and to give him a fresh chance of retrieving honour. He did what Eli did, assisted his rival to rise above him."- Robertson's Sermons, 4th series, Serm. I. What is the allusion? The sermon was preached in January, 1848. T. LEWIS O. DAVIES. Pear Tree Vicarage, Southampton.

I

WHITE AND GREEN AS THE ROYAL COLOURS.—

have long known that our Tudor sovereigns gave white and green for their livery, and that those colours were considered emblematic of loyalty during their time. But I have never hitherto noticed that the same were maintained under the Stuarts. I have just met with the account of the Petition in favour of Church and King which was brought to London by the men of Surrey in May 1648. It is said they came to Whitehall, shouting "High for King Charles!" being furnished with white and green ribbands. I should be glad to have any other contemporary notices of these colours pointed out. J. G. N.

WORLEY, OR WYRLEY FAMILY.-Can any of your correspondents give information in regard to the family of Worley, or Wyrley, or Werley, other than is contained in Erdeswick's History of Staffordshire and Burke's Landed Gentry? The family came over with the Normans, settled at Sandon in Staffordshire, and removed thence to Dodford in Northamptonshire. Their names are given in the authentic Roll of Battle Abbey. The direct male line is now extinct. origin of the name?

New York.

What is the A. WORLEY.

is totally thrown aside in the system of which I complain, as the servants cut alike for all indiscriminately.

The bill of fare, or the menu, as it is now affectedly called, is, as P. P. hints, often but scantily distributed; and it also often happens that some of the dishes are served out of their due order, and that others never appear at all. Then compare, even at the best, the trouble of perpetually consulting this culinary "Bradshaw," and striving to bear the order of dishes in mind, with the comfort, in the true English system, of seeing every thing at each course displayed before you on the table, and inviting your choice, which has not either to wait to be gratified.

P. P. assumes quite gratuitously that I am unduly fond of the smell of fish, game, &c. under my nose. I think one cannot object to the smell of what one is actually eating, and really not much more reaches our olfactories than what is on the plate before us. But if we are to analyse dinner odours, I must own to liking far more the smell of meats which are not long together on the table, than of fruits, apples, strawberries, melons, &c., which are sending forth their odours the whole time of the repast. I see no objection in the attention shown to the lady of the house by gentlemen_relieving her of the small trouble of carving. I doubt if Russian dinners are more economical, when one sees so many portions carved and taken away because no one chooses them; and nothing, in my opinion, can compensate for the much longer time taken up by these dinners, and the tedious waiting between each serving. In our good old system you could keep going on; and when one dish was despatched, send for something else that you liked, instead of sitting listlessly staring at the fruits and flowers before you, if, as it will happen, your neighbours do not invite conversation, till it pleases the servers to offer you something else; and if that was not acceptable, being in for another five or ten minutes of tantalizing vacancy. I once asked a lady next to me if she liked these dinners: she answered yes, but that they would not suit if you were hungry. The ladies with their lunch-a real dinner-at two, and their tea at five, have of course no chance of sitting down hungry at seven; but this is not doing justice to the principal meal. Though I never witnessed such a mishap as an old lady's head-gear being hooked off by a footman's sleeve button, I have had my full share of disasters, such as the butler tottering under a heavy surloin, and spilling the hot gravy over my best habiliments. Still I cordially say to our old dinners:—

"English! with all your faults, I love you still."
F. C. H.

THE TONTINE OF 1789. (4th S. ix. 480.)

I have some little knowledge of the subject referred to, having had two near relatives in the tontine above-mentioned, and having in fact (some forty-five years ago) received for them their interest on stock in the tontine; for which purpose I had to grope my way along some dark passages to the office of the Clerk of the Pell (whatever that may be), somewhere in the purlieus of Westminster Hall.

The plan of this tontine was somewhat after this fashion: -Government issued 1,000,000l. of stock, which was taken up by individuals: 1007. only being allotted to each, and the interest being payable to each holder only for life. The interest (say at 3 per cent.) on the million tontine stock would be 30,000.; and the number of tontine holders would be at the outset one thousand, who for the first year would, of course, only receive 31. interest each. But the principle of the tontine is, that the total interest on the original million continues to be divided amongst the surviving tontine holders, who necessarily diminish in number yearly. So that the last survivor would take the whole interest (30,000l.) during the remainder of his life. This is the tontine theory, supposed to be honestly carried out. I will now simply state the facts as regarded my two female relatives. They were respectively aged about seventeen and twenty when their names were put into the tontine. The younger one received the interest on her 100l. tontine for about fifty-two years, and then died. At the time of her death she received some 71. or 81. only! The elder one lived about sixty-two years, that is, to the age of eighty-two. At the time of her death, I believe her interest had not risen to more than 14.!! Any actuary can calculate how many persons out of one thousand would be living after the lapse of sixty-two Your readers may draw their own conM. H. R.

years. clusions.

Halifax.

certain interest. The lenders are distributed into classes by their ages: all of thirty in one class, all of thirty-one in another, and so on. The whole annual fund of each class is divided among its members. As they die out, the survivors continue to receive the same equally divided among them, so that their gains keep increasing, till at last the whole annual fund falls to one survivor; and upon his death, it reverts to the originators of the tontine. So that the scheme is merely an annuity to a number of persons instead of one, constantly diminishing till the whole is payable to a single one. F. C. H.

DEFECTS IN MARRIAGE REGISTERS.

(4th S. ix. 277, 345, 434.) Only yesterday, on my return to town, had I an opportunity of reading the Act referred to by E. V. and the one as amended, 1 Vict. c. 22, 1837; and I find nothing there which makes a clergyman liable for entering the age in years; on the contrary, a clause specially exonerates him from blame for making all the inquiries required by the Act. The Registrar-General's circular probably not one clergyman in a hundred has seen; and "not required to enter the precise age," i. e. date of birth, is a different matter from saying that registering the years is a breach of the law. A great number of marriages take place just about the time when minors are verging on full age,' and yet are ignorant of the fact, or what "full age" legally means; and thus there is reason to fear that through the careless entering of "full age " in doubtful cases, to save trouble, many false entries have been made in large parishes. The same inquiry, as to age, has to be made, very pointedly, at every census, and a penalty attaches to anyone returning a false answer; and on other occasions women as well as men have to state their ages; and it is for their own interest to do so correctly at marriage, as the register, even if one statement only be correct, the other approximate, will serve as moral, if not as collateral legal evidence, of identity, relationship, and other points of interest and moment to their families, friends, or descendants. In large parishes, couples of the same name are sometimes married nearly at the same time,-two or three John Smiths to as many Mary Browns, all of "full age"; and the ages in years, even approximate, would afterwards serve to determine who's who. In the interests of the public I trust more clergymen than ever will, as the majority probably already do, enter the ages in years whenever no reluctance is shown by the persons concerned.

difference of pronunciation between parishioners and their clergyman, which the latter sometimes forgets to allow for; e. g. Shaw, in Yorkshire or Derby, is pronounced "Show"; but Moule, in parts of Somerset, is called "Maule." So in many other cases there is a difference of pronunciation in Norfolk, in Cheshire, in Cornwall, and Somerset; and I remember seeing surnames of the same family spelt in different ways from this cause. FRANCIS J. LEACHMAN, M.A.

Compton Terrace, Highbury.

SIR JOHN DENHAM'S DEATH.
(4th S. ix. 504.)

There is not the slightest doubt as to the date of the death of Sir John Denham. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, March 23, 1668-9. His will, dated on the 13th of the same month, was not (from some unknown cause) proved until May 9, 1670. Pepys, therefore, was correct in this instance. I wish, however, to take advantage of the question thus raised by referring to another matter in which Pepys's accuracy has been lauded unduly, to the discredit of another diarist of still greater eminence.

Pepys, under date of August 10, 1667, stated that he was that day informed by the bookseller at the New Exchange that Cowley was dead. To this paragraph Lord Braybrooke appended the following foot note :

"We have here a striking instance of the slow communication of intelligence. Cowley died on the 28th of July, at Chertsey; and Pepys, though in London, and at all times a great newsmonger, did not learn till the 10th of August that so distinguished a person was dead. Evelyn says that he attended Cowley's funeral on the 3rd of August, which shows that he did not keep his diary entered up as regularly as our journalist, for the interment is thus recorded in the register of Westminster Abbey-On the 17th of August, Mr. Cowley, a famous poet, was buried at the foot of the steps to Henry VII.'s chapel.""

Although Lord Braybrooke appears to hav quoted the Abbey register, it is clear that he really quoted from the version of it printed in the Collectanea Top. et Gen. vii. 374. In order to comprehend fully my further remarks, I give two consecutive entries from the burial register of the Abbey, under the year 1667 :

Aug. 3. Mr. Cowly, a famous Poet, was buried neere Mr. Chaucer's monument.

"Aug. 17. The Countess of Clarendon was buried at the foot of the steps ascending to K. H. 7ths Chapel."

Pepys into making a charge of inaccuracy against Evelyn, who, it now appears, was strictly correct. On the other hand, however, Pepys only learned on August 10 that Cowley was dead, and for this information he had to make.a pilgrimage into the City, although he had been buried, almost before his own eyes, and in great state, a full week before! JOSEPH LEMUEL CHESTER.

CHRISTIAN NAMES.

(4th S. ix. 423, 510.)

There is no reason why Clare or Clara should not have been a woman's Christian name in this coun

try from the thirteenth century downwards. Saint Clare, the friend of Saint Francis and foundress of the Poor Clares, was a popular saint in England. Her name occurs in many of our medieval kalendars, and is to be found under her feast-day (August 12) in Queen Elizabeth's Latin Prayer was introduced here by Blanch of Navarre, the wife of Edmund, Earl of Lancaster, about 1293. They had houses at Aldgate, Waterbeache, Denny, and Brusyard (Monast. Anglic., 1846, vi. 1548). According to August Potthast's Bibliotheca Medii Evi, two other Člares are commemorated in the Acta Sanctorum. His references are August, iii. 676; April, ii. 507. FLORENCE.

Book. The monastic order that bears her name

Allow me to thank MR. PEACOCK and P. P. for their kind response to my suggestion, and to say that to " go on and on producing still earlier instances," is precisely the state of affairs which I desired to evoke. I never meant arrogantly to assert that the instances which I gave were the earliest which could be found, but merely that they were the earliest I had found-two very different statements; and I also intended to intimate-" if any one else should find earlier ones, please make a note of'."

Within the last few weeks I have met with evidence that Clare is earlier than I previously knew. I beg to assure MR. PEACOCK that I had not forgotten "Clara de Clare, of Gloster's blood," and that I did not doubt that Scott had authority for his use of the name, i. e. for Clare: for be it remembered that his use of Clare or Clara depends on his metre. But I have now the pleasure of adding that two Clares, of the Reformation period, appear in the Post-mortem Inquisitions:1. P. M. Clara Nevyll, 21 Hen. VIII.; and I. P. M. Clare North, viduæ, 1553. I say advisedly, Clares; for they are only Claras because their names are in Latin.

Avice is the same as Avis, or Hawise, all being derived from Hadewisa, and related to the German Hedwiga. I am glad to hear that Avice, Idonia, and Muriel, are not obsolete. I should

date the disuse of a name from the period when it ceased to be employed previous to the modern revival. HERMENTRUDE.

The name of Muriel has certainly not become obsolete; there is a very respectable surgeon in Norwich of that name, who is well known; but I am unable to furnish any particulars of his family, or to give any idea of the extent of his connexions. F. C. H.

"Ere while he honoured Bertha with his flame, And now he chants no less Louisa's name," are lines occurring in "A Familiar Epistle to Mr. Julian, Secretary to the Muses," one of the list of satirical poems in the MS. volume which I have ascribed in a former communication to Dr. Donne, chaplain to Charles II. HERMENTRUDE'S prima facie an evidence in favour of any suppofirst public record (1694) of Louisa, therefore, is sition that the work referred to was never published, while on the other hand the MS. proves a pre-existence for Louisa, inasmuch as the first line later in the volume, runs thus:— of "The Sham Prophecy," which is 121 pages

"In sixteen hundred seventy-eight." But possibly the register of St. James's, Piccadilly, may refer to the marriage, though rather late in life, of the same Louisa, and indeed to Julian, whose very amorous feelings towards her may be judged from the following additional reference to have merited such a consummation:

"For when his passion has been bubling long, The scum att last boyls up into a song; And sure no mortall creature at one tyme, Was ne're so farr or'e gone in love and rhime. To his dear self of poetry he talkes; His hands and feet are scanning as he walks, His squinting looks, his pangs of witt accuse The verry simtoms of a breeding muse, And all to gain the great Louisa's grace, But never pen did pimp for such a face." A hasty glance through the volume also reveals these Christian and nicknames:-Lory, Ephelia, Franck, Julia, Betty, Lucy, Cary, Harriatt, Nancy, Patty, Nan, Nelly, Mall, Nanny, Ned, Dick, Tom (Thumb).

"Can two such pigmies such a weight support, Two such Tom Thumbs of Satyr in a Court." Proverbs. Some "Select Sentences," gathered from the best English writers, and included in The Speaker (Enfield's, Warrington Academy, Oct. 1774) have since passed into proverbs, as for instance:

"Prosperity gains friends and adversity tries them."