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." Prices of Tea.—From Read's Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, Saturday, April 27, 1734:
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):
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]:
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. Birmingham. Lord Bacon's Advice peculiarly applicable to the Correspondents of "N. & Q."—Lord Bacon has written that—
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 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.
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:
Worcester. |