the thousand years which have elapsed since the event no considerable change has taken place in the general conformation of the country round. Hill and dale have remained unaltered, and the Gold-brook then, as now, flowed along its valley in the lower ground overlooked by the bank in which the implements were found. Mr. Frere probably knew the local tradition of the Red Bridge; but whether he did or not, he saw distinctly, first, that the weapons had been deposited where they were found by the action of water, and, second, that it was absolutely impossible for them to have been so deposited had not the general contour of the country round been widely different at the time. The inference he drew from what he saw was strictly scientific. "The situation," he writes, "in which these weapons were found may tempt us to refer them to a very remote period indeed, even beyond that of the present world." The surmise has since been proved to be as accurate as it was sagacious; but if it commended itself to any archæologists of the day they were too wise to say

80.

On the whole, it was well for Mr. Frere's peace of mind that his paper attracted no public attention at the time. That gentle religionist William Cowper had some years before (1782) launched his little thunderbolt against those who Drill and boro

The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn That He who made it and revealed its date To Moses was mistaken in its age. But in 1797 scientific controversy itself had adopted the barbaric weapons of political and theological warfare, and the Armageddon of geology was being fought out to the bitter end by the rival hosts of the Neptunian Werner and the Plutonic Hutton. The waters of the great deep had burst into the crater of a volcano, and the earth was reeling under a sky black with vapour. Orthodoxy espoused the cause of Werner and water, apparently taking it for granted that the Saxon philosopher's speculations about the "chaotic fluid" somehow supported the "sublime tradition" of the Deluge. Heterodoxy sided with Hutton and fire, and comforted itself with the evidence afforded by the granite veins of Glen Tilt in favour of the general conflagration. Hutton himself died in this very year, but the warfare was carried on as bitterly as before. How, indeed, was scientific equanimity possible with a mutiny at Spithead and the Nore, cash payments suspended, Consols at 47, and a Lepaux announcing to the Directory that "the Army of England" under Bonaparte was about to dictate peace in London ?

Clearly, it was not a time when speculations like Mr. Frere's were likely to meet with welcome or appreciation. They fell on evil days, and if not on evil tongues, it is probably only because the

discovery on which they were founded told as much on one side of the controversy as the other. The Wernerian might have rejoiced over the new confirmation of the Mosaic account of the Flood, but the Huttonian would at once have retorted that the weapons were part of the ruins of an older world, which his master taught were visible in the present structure of our planet. As it was, neither faction cared to patronize Mr. Frere, who consequently passed quietly into oblivion without being denounced as an atheist or even as a jacobin.

But even then the better day had dawned. William Smith had been for years already busy with his geological map of England, though the work was not to be complete till the year of Waterloo. Cuvier, too, had by this time begun those researches in the neighbourhood of Paris, the publication of which during the early years of the present century dates a revelation at once and a revolution in natural science. When Frere wrote, few geologists knew of the former existence of any extinct animals, and fewer were aware that more than two or three species of mammals were extinct, and for many years later none ventured to suggest that man was a contemporary of any but the now existing fauna. Pallas, indeed, had lately announced his discovery of the celebrated Wiljui rhinoceros, with its skin and flesh still preserved entire, embedded in Siberian ice; but what sensible Briton in 1797 would for a moment believe Pallas ? John Bull stoutly denounced Bruce's Abyssinian marvels as a pack of lies-was it likely he was going to be taken in by a Frenchman? So palæolithic discovery dozed drowsily off again, not, however, this time for a hundred years, but barely for a generation. It was a fitful and troublous slumber, moreover, much broken towards the close by the whinny of careering nightmares and the clatter of rival hobby-horses rampant in pursuit. BROTHER FABIAN.

(To be continued.)

SHAKSPEARIANA.

'CYMBELINE,' V. i. 16: "BUT IMOGEN IS YOUR own" (6th S. xii. 342).—At this reference MR. W. WATKISS LLOYD assigns to Pisanio a soliloquy which is in all editions given to Posthumus, to whom only can it belong. He further asserts that "the phrase 'But Imogen is your own,' if not nousense, at least will bear no interpretation which blends happily with the tenor of Pisanio's reflections." On the contrary, I maintain that the phrase is right in itself and in its surroundings, and-what is most important-forms an integral part of Posthumus's argument. But the intrusion (in no bad sense) of the four lines in which Posthumus attempts to explain to himself the apparent anomaly of Imogen having been appropriated by the gods, and his own life having been spared,

'HAMLET' (6th S. xii. 423).—MR. WILMSHURST states, in reference to the proverb, "The mills of the gods grind to powder," that "it has probably come down from antiquity." The limitation "probably" may be displaced by "certainly" on referring to Gaisford's Paromiogr. Græc., Ox., 1836, p. 134, where there is :-'Ovè fewv aλéovoi púdo, ἀλέουσι δὲ λεπτά : Ἐπὶ τῶν ὀψιάιτατα καὶ βραδέως παρεχόντων δίκην, ὧν ἐπλημμέλησαν

('Prov. e Cod. Coislan,' 396). ED. MARSHALL.

REMARKABLE HOMILY ON THE PLAY-BILL OF A PERFORMANCE OF ONE OF SHAKSPEARE's PLAYS.-In looking over some old play-bills I was forcibly struck by the following remarkable bit of moralizing upon 'The Merchant of Venice,' announced to be performed at the Blackburn New Theatre:

"Monday evening, June the 11th, 1787, I will be preented Shakespeares Celebrated Comedy of | The Merchant of Venice, or the Cruel Jew.'

"This inimitable play is founded on a fact and recorded in an Italian Novel, among many beautiful, interesting and amusing incidents. We are gladly led to the trial, of the Merchant Antonio, by the Jew, Shylock, who demands the forfeiture of his bond which carries with it, the penalty of a pound of the Merchant's flesh, with a force and conduct of dramatic action which so strongly marks the genius of Shakespeare. The Audience feels united, the various distinct passions of pity, horror, detestation and joy. In the Catastrophe of this singular scene, even the merciless, obdurate, and bloodthirsty jew, meets with commiseration. As every play must be justly deemed useless that leaves us no lesson for our moral conduct, Shakespeare (as in every play he has left us an useful moral) has here pointed out, the danger of suffering severe passions to become habitual, as by indulging resentment, we naturally imbibe revenge, and decline, stage by stage, to a pitch of savage cruelty that must end in scenes of misery, shocking to humanity, and

fatal to ourselves.

Shylock

...

Mr. Caulfield."

J. W. JARVIS.

Without entering further into the cast, it is amusing to read that at the end of the first act a song is announced to be sung called 'Ye Cheerful Virgins,' followed with songs between the succeeding acts. This is the only example of the kind of comment I have seen. Avon House, Manor Road, N. "BOTTOM" THE WEAVER (MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM'). As it is to be presumed that Shakespeare selected this curious name with some reason, it may be worth noting that the term bottom was then-and is, I believe, still-applied by weavers to a ball of thread. The fusil, apart from its ordinary lozenge shape, is variously represented in old arms, and is sometimes blazoned as a

"spindle." It is also called a bottom in the quaint blazon of the coat of Badland (formerly quartered by Hoby, but now used as their paternal coat), i. e., "Argent, three bottoms in fess gu., the thread or" (Clark's ' Heraldry '). ERNEST A. EBBLEWHITE.

74, King Edward Road, Hackney.

JONAS HORROX, OF LIVERPOOL. Any notices of this person are worth recording. He was one of the very few in England who, November 24, 1639, eagerly scanned the heavens to observe the passage of Venus across the sun. He was brother of the accomplished astronomer, the Rev.

κατ. Jeremiah Horror, then a young clergyman at Hoole, Lancashire, who there succesfully observed that striking phenomenon, and whose memory in connexion with it has been perpetuated by an inscription in Westminster Abbey from the pen of the late Dean Stanley. I have, in the Palatine Note-book for December, 1882, given reasons for supposing that these young men were the sons of William Horrocks, of Toxteth Park, near Liverpool. This branch of the family was connected with the well-known Puritan John Cotton, minister of Boston, co. Lincoln. According to Cotton Mather (Magnalia Christi Americana,' ed. 1702, bk. iii. p. 17), as soon as John Cotton had settled at Boston, about 1613, "his dear friend, holy Mr. Bayne, recommended unto him a pious gentlewoman, one Mrs. Elizabeth Horrocks, the sister of Mr. James Horrocks, a famous minister in Lancashire, to become his consort in a married estate." This Mr. Horrocks, who is not (as I once supposed) the Rev. Alexander Horrocks, minister of Dean, near Bolton-le-Moors, is also as precisely and distinctly noticed by Oliver Heywood as "that auncient and eminent servant of God," well known to his mother before her marriage in 1615, viz., in the neighboorhood of Bolton. Other members of the Horrocks family had the acquaintance of Mr. Cotton, particularly one who was, perhaps, a pupil, viz., Thomas Horafterwards the ejected minister of Malden, Essex. rocks, M.A., of St. John's College, Camb., 1631, He belonged, says Calamy, to the Horrockses of Horrocks Hall, in Bolton-le-Moors, being the only who for greater religious liberty went with his son of Mr. Christopher Horrocks of that place, family (excepting Thomas) into New England with Mr. Cotton. The latter was so important an immigrant that in his honour the name of the town of Trimontain was changed to that of Boston. He was the ancestor of some remarkable men.

Connected with these clues a trace of Jonas Horrox has turned up in an unexpected quarter. Some friend in America has been good enough to send me a most excellent compilation, entitled Genealogical Gleanings in England,' by Henry F.

Waters, A.B., for which please allow me here to express my best thanks. This work contains an abstract of the will of Frances Hanham, of Boston, co. Lincoln, widow, dated April 4, and proved June 13, 1631. After making bequests to her relatives, she gives "to Jonas Horrax, nephew to Mr. Cotton, 10s., to be presently paid after my decease." This entry seems to show that Elizabeth Horrocks and the Rev. James Horrocks were sister and brother of William Horrocks, of Toxteth, father to the astronomer.

volume of poems ("The Wreck," st. vii. 1. 3) to make the word rhyme with "sinn'd." I believe this is the first time that Tennyson has assimilated the poetic use of the word with social custom; at least I find fourteen cases in his earlier poems in which it is made to rhyme with "mind," "blind," &c.; thus following the example of Shakespere, Swift, Pope, and Dryden, and, so far as I know, all poets of eminence. Poole's English Parnassus (1637) also thus tabulates the word. This pronunciation by the Laureate in mature years may probably prove an epoch in the word, especially as it is contrary to his own previous usage. The authorities have for some years anticipated this result, for although Walker, Sheridan, Scott, Knowles, and Cooley give the long as alternative, Webster, Kenrick, Barclay, Perry, Smart, Worcester, and Cull allow only the short pronunciation. Perry, however, admits the long in dramatic its use on other occasions as pedantry. It may be observed that, with the doubtful exception of windpipe, all its compounds (such as windmill, windfall, windbound, and windy) are short; but the effect of this similarity is weakened by the prevailing rule that the long vowel of the simple is usually changed into a short one of the compound. Although Smith describes the short pronunciation as against analogy, and Walker the long one as the true sound, surely its Saxon origin is more definitely displayed by present usage.

"De hac conjunctione admonui & fratrem natu minorem, qui tum Liverpoliæ degebat, ut ille pro suis viribus aliquid præstaret, quod quidem conatus est: sed incassum die enim 24, nubibus interclusus, observare non potuit, et si diligenter attenderit, sequenti autem sereniori die, sæpe intromissa solis specie per telescopium, nihil vidit, scilicet quia Venus jam solem peragrasset. Alios quod non admonuerim, veniam mereor; paucos enim novi hujusmodi nugas non derieuros, utpote canibus suis & avibus, ne graviora dicam, post habitas: et quamvis habeat Anglia nostra Syderum etiam venatores, & mihi notos; invitare tamen ad hujus spectaculi jucunditatem non potui, quippe sero nimis à me ipso animadversi."-Ed. folio, Hevelius, p. 118.

The name of Jonas Horrox appears upon the list of those who took the national Protestation in Liverpool in February, 1641-2, along with his relatives James and William. He seems to have had some occupation in Ireland, or a family tie with that country. One of his relatives, James Horrocks, of Toxteth Park, was a watchmaker in 1631; and Jonas himself must have developed the mechanical instinct of the family, for he practised as a land-surveyor. In some proceedings relating to leases of the common lands of Liverpool, or "The Common," then being enclosed, there was an order, November 2, 1653, that James Chorleton and Jonas Horrox should have payment and satisfaction for their pains for surveying the new enclosures upon the town's common, at the discretion of the mayor (Sir J. A. Picton's 'Municipal Records,' p. 173). Horrox seems to have died in Ireland ('Opera Posthuma Horroccii,' 4to., 1672, p. x).

JOHN E. BAILEY.

PRONUNCIATION OF WIND.-All who have felt the inconvenince of the substantive wind being pronounced long for the special purpose of rhyme will rejoice to notice that the Poet Laureate has had sufficient courage in his recently published

'DICTIONARY OF VOL. IV., ERRATA.

WYNNE E. BAXTER. NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY,

P. 58, col. 2, 1. 16, for "1547" read 1597.
P. 83, col. 1, 1. 6 from end, for "Al Ravni" read Al
Raoui.

P. 120, col. 1, 1. 17, for "1732" read 1632.
P. 190, col. 1, 1. 9, for "Sept." read Aug.
P. 245, col. 1, 1. 26, for "polyclinic" read policlinic.
P. 245, col. 1, 1. 3 from end, for "Institute" read insti-

tutes.

P. 245, col. 2, 1. 34, for " at the Institute" read of the

institutes.

P. 278, col. 2, 1. 3, for "genus" read genius. P. 279, col. 2, 1. 17, for "Wolesely" read Wolsely. P. 340, col. 1, 1. 1, for "probably a Norman castle had been built at Berkeley; for Henry spent Easter there," read, A small castle built at Berkeley by William Fitzosbern (Domesday,' 163) had probably given place to one of greater size, when Henry spent......

P. 363, col. 1, 1. 28, for "earl" read baron. P. 408, col. 1, 1. 12, and p. 409, col. 1, 1. 26, for "lord high admiral " read admiral of the shipmoney fleet. P. 409, col. 2, 1. 15, for " Hanover" read Honor.

L.

DEVIL'S CAUSEWAY OR CAUSEY.-Having had occasion to consult the useful map at the end of Dr. Collingwood Bruce's new edition of 'The Roman Wall,' I was struck by the mention of the Devil's Causeway at the point where it branches off from Watling Street. I recollect