Minor Notes.

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Cremona Violins.—As many of your readers are no doubt curious about the prices given, in former times, for musical instruments, I transcribe an order of the time of Charles II. for the purchase of two Cremona violins.

"[Audit Office Enrolments, vi. 359.]

"These are to pray and require you to pay, or cause to be paid, to John Bannester, one of his Maties Musicians in Ordinary, the some of fourty pounds for two Cremona Violins by him bought and delivered for his Mats Service, as may appeare by the Bill annexed, and also tenn pounds for stringes for two yeares ending June 24, 1662. And this shall be your warrant. Given under my hand, this 24th day of October, 1662, in the fourteenth year of his Majesty's reign.

"E. Manchester.

"To Sr Edward Griffin, Knt,

Treasurer of his Maties Chamber."

Peter Cunningham.

Prices of Tea.—From Read's Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, Saturday, April 27, 1734:

" Green Tea 9s. to 12s. per lb.
Congou 10s. to 12s. "
Bohea 10s. to 12s. "
Pekoe 14s. to 16s. "
Imperial 9s. to 12s. "
Hyson 20s. to 25s. "

E.

Coleridge a Prophet.—Among the political writers of the nineteenth century, who has shown such prophetic insight into the sad destinies of France as Coleridge? It is the fashion with literary sciolists to ignore the genius of this great man. Let the following extracts stand as evidences of his profound penetration.

Friend, vol. i. p. 244. (1844):

"That man has reflected little on human nature who does not perceive that the detestable maxims and correspondent crimes of the existing French despotism, have already dimmed the recollections of democratic phrenzy in the minds of men; by little and little have drawn off to other objects the electric force of the feelings which had massed and upholden those recollections; and that a favourable concurrence of occasions is alone wanting to awaken the thunder and precipitate the lightning from the opposite quarter of the political heaven."

Let the events of 1830 and 1848 speak for themselves as to the fulfilment of this forecast.

Biographia Literaria, vol. i. p. 30. (1847), [after a most masterly analysis of practical genius]:

"These, in tranquil times, are formed to exhibit a perfect poem in palace, or temple, or landscape-garden, &c.... But alas! in times of tumult they are the men destined to come forth as the shaping spirit of ruin, to destroy the wisdom of ages in order to substitute the fancies of a day, and to change kings and kingdoms, as the wind shifts and shapes the clouds."

Let the present and the future witness the truth of this insight. We have (in Coleridge's words) "lights of admonition and warning;" and we may live to repent of our indifference, if they are thrown away upon us.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

Lord Bacon's Advice peculiarly applicable to the Correspondents of "N. & Q."—Lord Bacon has written that—

"A man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket, and write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are generally the most valuable, and should be secured, because they seldom return."

W. W.

Malta.

Etymology of Molasses.—The affinity between the orthography of this word in Italian (melÁssa), Spanish (melaza), and French (mÉlasse), and our pronunciation of it (melasses), would seem to suggest a common origin. How comes it, then, that we write it with an o instead of an e? Walker says it is derived frown the Italian "mellazzo" (sic); and some French lexicographers trace their "mÉlasse" from ??a?, with reference to the colour; others from ???, in allusion to the taste. But these Greek derivations are too recondite for our early sugar manufacturers; and the likelihood is, that they found the word nearer home, in some circumstance which had less to do with literary refinement than with the refining of sugar.

There is an expression in French which is identical in spelling with this word, namely, "molasse" (softish—so to speak); and which describes the liquidity of molasses, as distinguished from the granulous substance of which they are the residue. As our first sugar establishment was formed in 1643, in an island (St. Christopher) one half of which was then occupied by the French, it is possible that we may have adopted the word from them; and this conjecture is supported by the following passage in PÈre Labat (vol. iii. p. 93.), where he uses the word "molasse" in the sense of soft, to describe a species of sugar that had not received, or had lost, the proper degree of consistency.

"Je vis leur sucre qui me parut trÈs beau et bien grÉnÉ, surtout lorsqu'il est nouvellement fait; mais on m'assura qu'il devenait cendreux ou molasse, et qu'il se dÉcuisait quand il Était gardÉ quelques jours."

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

A Sounding Name.—At the church of Elmley Castle, Worcestershire, is a record of one John Chapman, whose name, it is alleged, "sounds in (or throughout) the world," but for my own part I have never been privileged to hear either the original blast or the echo. Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." can inform me who and what was the owner of this high-sounding name. Was he related to Geo. Chapman, the translator of Homer? The inscription is as follows:

"MemoriÆ defunctorum Sacrum

?a? t?f???a

Siste gradum, Viator, ac leges. In spe beatÆ Resurrectionis hic requiescunt exuviÆ Johannis Chapmanni et IsabellÆ uxoris, filiÆ Gulielmi Allen de Wightford, in Comitat. War. ab antiquo Proavorum stemmate deduxerunt genus. Variis miseriarum agitati procellis ab strenue succumbentis in arrescenti juventutis Æstate, piÈ ac peccatorum poenitentia expirabant animas.

Maij 10 Die Anno Domini 1677.

Sistite Pierides Chapmannum plangere, cujus

Spiritus in coelis, nomen in orbe sonat."

J. Noake.

Worcester.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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