Part 4

The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is probably equally apocryphal with the quotations from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for the same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the ascending the altar by steps, would apply still more strongly to the supposed "fifteen steps leading from the Atrium Israelis to the court of the _women_."[4] Although the ground-plans of the temples are well known, their elevations are involved in doubt.

Your journal would not afford me sufficient space for an _excursus_ to establish the suggestion, _not_ assertion, that I have adventured as to the _domestic_ use of the Alphabetic and Degree Psalms, but there is negative evidence that these Psalms were _not_ used in the Jewish liturgy. I will only refer you to Lightfoot's ninth volume (Pitman's edition), where the Psalms used, and indeed the whole service of the Jews, is as clearly set forth as the Greek service is in the liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

[Footnote 4: "Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepererat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pictore, _Noct. Attic._, lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, nisi quæ Græcæ adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius ad _Æneid_, iv. 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, nisi Græcas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur; eoque nec pluribus gradibus, sed tribus ut adscensu duplices nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura; nam ideo et scalæ Græcæ dicuntur, quia ita fabricantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausæ sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admittant."--Rosenmüller on Exod. x. 26. The ascent to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway, [Hebrew: KBSH].]

* * * * *

THE SCREW PROPELLER.

(Vol. ix., p. 394.)

ANON. is clearly mistaken in thinking that, when Darwin says that "the _undulating_ motion of the tail of fishes might be applied behind a boat with greater effect than common oars," he had any idea of a screw propeller. He meant not a _rotatory_, but, as he says, an "undulating" motion, like that of the fish's tail: such as we see every day employed by the boys in all our rivers and harbours, called _sculling_--that is, driving a boat forward by the rapid lateral right and left impulsion of a single oar, worked from the stern of the boat. It was the application of steam to some such machinery as this that Darwin seems to have meant; and not to the special action of a _revolving cut-water screw_.

I avail myself of this occasion to record, that about the date of Darwin's publication, or very soon after, the very ingenious Earl Stanhope not only thought of, but actually employed, the identical screw propeller now in use in a vessel which he had fitted up for the purpose; and in which, by his invitation, I, and several other gentlemen, accompanied him in various trips backwards and forwards between Blackfriars and Westminster bridges. The instrument was a long iron axle, {474} working on the stern port of the vessel, having at the end in the water a wheel of inclined planes, exactly like the flyer of a smoke-jack; while, inboard, the axle was turned by a crank worked by the men. The velocity attained was, I think, said to be four miles an hour. I am sorry that I am not able to specify the exact date of this experiment, but it must have been between 1802 and 1805. What Lord Stanhope said about employing steam to work his machine, I do not clearly recollect. He entered into a great many details about it, but I remember nothing distinctly but the machine itself.

C.

* * * * *

AMONTILLADO SHERRY.

(Vol. ix., pp. 222. 336.)

The wines of Xérès consist of two kinds, viz. sweet and dry, each of which is again subdivided into two other varieties. Amontillado sherry, or simply Amontillado, belongs to the latter class, the other description produced from the dry wine being sherry, properly so called, that which passes in this country generally by that name. These two wines, although differing from each other in the peculiarities of colour, smell, and flavour, are produced from the same grape, and in precisely a similar manner; indeed, it frequently happens that of two or more _botas_, or large casks, filled with the same _moùt_ (wort or sweet wine), and subjected to the same manipulation, the one becomes Amontillado, and the other natural sherry. This mysterious transformation takes place ordinarily during the first, but sometimes even during the second year, and in a manner that has hitherto baffled the attempts of the most attentive observer to discover. Natural sherry has a peculiar aromatic flavour, somewhat richer than that of its brother, the Amontillado, and partakes of three different colours, viz. pale or straw, golden, and deep golden, the latter being the description denominated by us brown sherry. The Amontillado is of a straw colour only, more or less shaded according to the age it possesses. Its flavour is drier and more delicate than that of natural sherry, recalling in a slight degree the taste of nuts and almonds. This wine, beings produced by a phenomenon which takes place it is imagined during the fermentation, is naturally less abundant than the other description of sherry, and there are years in which it is produced in very small quantities, and sometimes even not at all; for the same reason it is age for age dearer also. The word "Amontillado" signifies like or similar to Montilla, _i. e._ the wine manufactured at that place. Montilla is situated in Upper Andalusia, in the neighbourhood of Cordouc, and produces an excellent description of wine, but which, from the want of roads and communication with the principal commercial towns of Spain, is almost entirely unknown.

The two sweet wines of Xérès are the "Paxarite," or "Pedro Ximenès," and the "Muscatel." The first-named is made from a species of grape called "Pedro Ximenès," sweeter in quality than that which produces the dry sherry, and which, moreover, is exposed much longer to the action of the sun previous to the process of manufacture; its condition when subjected to the action of the pressers resembling very nearly that of a raisin. Fermentation is in this case much more rapid on account of the saccharine nature of the _moùt_ or wort. In flavour it is similar to the fruit called "Pedro Ximenès," the colour being the same as that of natural sherry. Muscate wine is made from the grape of that name, and in a manner precisely similar to the Paxarite. The wine produced from this grape is still sweeter than the Pedro Ximenès, its taste being absolutely that of the Muscat grape. In colour also it is deeper; but the colour of both, like that of the two dry wines, increases in proportion to their age, a circumstance exactly the reverse of that which takes place in French wines. German sherry wines are capable of preservation both in bottles and casks for an indefinite period. In one of the _bodegas_ or cellars belonging to the firm of M. P. Domecq, at Xérès, are to be seen five or six casks of immense size and antiquity (some of them, it is said, exceeding a century). Each of them bears the name of some distinguished hero of the age in which it was produced, Wellington and Napoleon figuring conspicuously amongst others: the former is preserved exclusively for the taste of Englishmen.

The history of sherry dates, in a commercial point of view, from about the year 1720 only. Before this period it is uncertain whether it possessed any existence at all; at all events it appears to have been unknown beyond the immediate neighbourhood in which it was produced. It would be difficult, perhaps, to say by whom it was first imported: all that can be affirmed with any degree of certainty is, that a Frenchman, by name Pierre Domecq, the founder of the house before mentioned, was among the earliest to recognise its capabilities, and to bring it to the high state of perfection which it has since attained. In appreciation of the good service thus rendered to his country, Ferdinand VII. conferred upon this house the right exclusively to bear upon their casks the royal arms of Spain. This wine, from being at first cultivated only in small quantities, has long since grown into one of the staple productions of the country. In the neighbourhood of Xérès there are at present under cultivation from 10,000 to 12,000 _arpents_ of vines; these produce annually from 30,000 to 35,000 _botas_, equal to 70,000 or 75,000 hogsheads. In gathering the {475} fruit, the ripest is invariably selected for wines of the best quality. The wines of Xérès, like all those of the peninsula, require the necessary body or strength to enable them to sustain the fatigue of exportation. Previous, therefore, to shipment (none being sold under four to five years of age), a little _eau de vie_ (between the fiftieth and sixtieth part) is added, a quantity in itself so small, that few would imagine it to be the cause of the slight alcoholic taste which nearly all sherries possess.

In consequence of the high price of the delicious wines, numerous imitations, or inferior sherries, are manufactured, and sold in immense quantities. Of these the best are to be met with at the following places: San Lucar, Porto, Santa Maria, and even Malaga itself. The spurious sherry of the first-named place is consumed in larger quantities, especially in France, than the genuine wine itself. One reason for this may be, that few vessels go to take cargoes at Cadiz; whilst many are in the habit of doing so to Malaga for dry fruits, and to Seville for the fine wool of Estremadura. San Lucar is situated at the mouth of the Guadalquiver.

W. C.

* * * * *

RECENT CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

(Vol. ix., p. 136.)

Mr. Thackeray's work, _The Newcomes_, would, if consulted by your correspondent, furnish him with farther examples. For instance, Colonel Newcome's Christian name is stated (pp. 27. 57.) to be Thomas: at p. 49. he is designated Col. J. Newcome. The letter addressed to him (p. 27.) is superscribed "Major Newcome," although at p. 25. he is styled "Colonel." At p. 71. mention is made of "Mr. Shaloo, the great Irish patriot," who at p. 74. becomes "Mr. Shaloony," and at p. 180. relapses into the dissyllabic "Shaloo." Clive Newcome is represented (p. 184.) as admiring his youthful mustachios, and Mr. Doyle has depicted him without whiskers: at p. 188. Ethel, "after Mr. Clive's famous mustachios made their appearance, rallied him," and "asked him if he was (were?) going into the army? She could not understand how any but military men could wear mustachios." On this the author remarks, three lines farther on: "If Clive had been in love with her, no doubt he would have sacrificed even those beloved _whiskers_ for the charmer."

At p. 111. the Rev. C. Honeyman is designated "A.M.," although previously described a Master of Arts of Oxford, where the Masters are styled "M.A." in contradistinction to the Masters of Arts in every other university. Cambridge Masters frequently affix M.A. to their names, but I never heard of an instance of an Oxonian signing the initials of his degree as A.M.

Apropos of Oxford, I recently met the following sentence at p. 3. of _Verdant Green_:

"Although pronounced by Mrs. Toosypegs, his nurse, to be 'a perfect progidye,' yet we are not aware that his _début_ on the stage of life, although thus applauded by such a _clacqueur_ as the indiscriminating Toosypegs, was announced to the world at large by any other means than the notices in the county papers."

If the author ever watched the hired applauders in a Parisian theatre, he would have discerned among them _clacqueuses_ as well as _clacqueurs_.

JUVERNA, M.A.

* * * * *

ROLAND THE BRAVE.

(Vol. ix., p. 372.)

In justification of Dr. Forbes' identifying Roland the Brave with the hero of Schiller's ballad, Ritter Toggenburg, I beg to refer your correspondent X. Y. Z. to _Deutsches Sagenbuch, von L. Bechstein_, Leipzig, 1853, where (p. 95.) the same tale is related which forms the subject of Mrs. Hemans' beautiful ballad, only with this difference, that there the account of Roland's death entirely agrees with Schiller's version of the story, whereas the English poet has adopted the general tradition of Roland's fall at Roncesvalles.

Most of the epic poems of the middle ages in which Roland's death is recorded, especially the different old French _Chansons de Roland ou de Roncevaux_, an Icelandic poem on the subject, and Stricker's middle-high German lay of Roland, all of them written between A.D. 1100 and 1230--agree in this, that after Roland's fall at Roncesvalles, and the complete rout of the heathen by Charlemagne, the latter returns home and is met--some say at Aix-la-Chapelle, others at Blavie, others at Paris--by Alda or Alite, Olivier's sister, who inquires of him where Roland, her betrothed, is. On learning his fate she dies on the spot of grief. According to monk Conrad (about A.D. 1175), Alda was Roland's wife. See _Ruolandes Liet, von W. Grimm_, Göttingen, 1838, pp. 295--297.

The legend of Rolandseck, as told by Bechstein from Rhenish folk lore, begins thus:

"Es sasz auf hoher Burg am Rhein hoch über dem Stromthal ein junger Rittersmann, Roland geheiszen, (manche sagen Roland von Angers, Neffe Karls des Groszen), der liebte ein Burgfräulein, Hildegunde, die Tochter des Burggrafen Heribert, der auf dem nahen Schlosz Drachenfels sasz," &c.

Here the question is left open whether the hero of the story was Roland the Brave, or some other knight of that name. The latter seems the more probable, as Roland's fall at Roncesvalles is one of the chief subjects of mediæval poetry, whereas the death of knight Roland in sight of {476} Nonnenwerth on the Rhine, forms the very pith of the German local legend. From certain coincidences, however, it was easy to blend the two stories together into one, as was done by Mrs. Hemans. As to Schiller, we may suppose that he either followed altogether a different legend, or, perhaps to avoid misconception, substituted another name for that of knight Roland, similar to what he has done in other instances.

R. R.

Canterbury.

I think your correspondent X. Y. Z. is mistaken in attributing to Mrs. Hemans the lines on the "Brave Roland." In Mr. Campbell's _Poems_ he will find some stanzas which bear a striking resemblance to those he has quoted. I subjoin those stanzas to which X. Y. Z. has referred:

"The brave Roland! the brave Roland! False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand That he had fall'n in fight; And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain, O loveliest maiden of Allemayne! For the loss of thine own true knight.

"But why so rash has she ta'en the veil, In yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale, For her vow had scarce been sworn, And the fatal mantle o'er her flung, When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung, 'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!

. . . . . .

"She died! he sought the battle plain; Her image fill'd his dying brain, When he fell and wish'd to fall: And her name was in his latest sigh, When Roland, the flower of chivalry, Expired at Roncevall."

X. Y. Z. seems also to have forgotten what Mr. Campbell duly records, viz. that Roland used to station himself at a window overlooking "the nun's green isle;" it being after her decease that he met his death at Roncevall, which event, by the way, is alluded to by Sir W. Scott in _Marmion_, canto vi.:

"Oh, for a blast of that dread horn, On Fontarabian echoes borne, That to King Charles did come; When Roland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer, At Roncesvalles died!"

H. B. F.

The legends of Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, are very numerous and vary much from each other. The Orlando of Pulci has a very different history from the Orlando of Bojardo and Ariosto.

The legend of "Rolandseck and the Nonnenwerth," which has been adopted by Campbell, not Mrs. Hemans, and charmingly set to music by Mrs. Arkwright, is well known on the Rhine. There are two poems on the legend in Simrock's _Rheinsagen_ (12mo., Bonn, 1841), one by the editor, and another by August Kopisch. They exactly accord with Campbell's poem.

The legend of Ritter Toggenburg resembles that of Roland in many

## particulars, but it is not the same, and it belongs to another locality, to

Kloster Fischingen, and not to Nonnenwerth. "Roland the Brave" appears in all the later editions of Campbell's _Poems_. Simrock's _Rheinsagen_ is one of the most delightful handbooks that any one can take through the romantic region which the poems (partly well selected by the editor, and partly as well written by himself) describe.

E. C. H.

The author of the beautiful lines which are quoted by your correspondent X. Y. Z., is Campbell, not Mrs. Hemans. The poet, in the fifth stanza of his ballad, tells how the unfortunate Roland, on finding that Hildegund had taken the veil, was accustomed to sit at his window, and "sad and oft" to look "on the mansion of his love below."

"There's yet one window of that pile, Which he built above the nun's green isle; Thence sad and oft look'd he (When the chant and organ sounded slow) On the mansion of his love below, For herself he might not see.

"She died! He sought the battle plain, Her image fill'd his dying brain, When he fell and wish'd to fall; And her name was in his latest sigh, When Roland, the flower of chivalry, Expired at Roncevall."

F. M. MIDDLETON.

Scott has, in _Marmion_,--

"When Roland brave, and Olivier, And every paladin and peer, At Roncesvalles died!"

I quote from memory, and have not the poem.

F. C. B.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Recovery of Silver._--As many correspondents of "N. & Q." have asked how to recover the silver from their nitrate baths when deteriorated or spoiled, perhaps the following hints may be acceptable to them. Let them first precipitate the silver in the form of a chloride by adding common salt to the nitrate solution. Let them then filter it, and it may be reduced to its metallic state by either of the three following methods.

1. By adding to the wet chloride at least double its volume of water, containing one-tenth part of sulphuric acid; plunge into this a thick piece of zinc, and leave it here for four-and-twenty hours. The chloride of silver will be reduced by the formation of {477} chloride and sulphate of zinc, and of pure silver, which will remain under the form of a blackish powder, which is then to be washed, filtered, and preserved for the purpose of making nitrate of silver.

2. The chloride of silver which is to be reduced is put into a flask with about twice its volume of a solution of caustic potash (of one part of caustic potash to nine of water), in which a small portion of sugar has been dissolved. Let it boil gently. The operation is complete when the blackish powder which results from this process, having been washed in several waters, is entirely soluble in nitric acid, which is easily ascertained by experimenting on a small quantity. This powder is to be preserved in the same way as the former for the purpose of converting it into nitrate of silver.

3. The metallic silver is obtained in the form of a button, by mixing thoroughly 100 parts of dried chloride of silver, 70 parts of chalk or whitening, and 4 parts of charcoal. This mixture is to be exposed in a crucible to a fierce red heat for at least half an hour. When completely cold the crucible is broken, and a button of pure silver is the result. The first two processes are those which I should most strongly recommend to your correspondents.

N. C.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Ashes of "Lignites"_ (Vol. ix., p. 422.).--RUSTICUS is obliged to the Editor for so soon giving a reply to his Query; but seems convicted of being a bad penman, like many other rustics. For the strange word, respecting which he asked for information, having seen it used in a newspaper, was not _lignites_ but _liquites_. RUSTICUS could have guessed that the ashes of _lignites_ were but wood-ashes under a pedantic name; but a term which looks, to a rustic, as if chemists meant to persuade him to burn his beer for a valuable residuum, is more perplexing.

RUSTICUS.

_Old Rowley_ (Vol. ix., p. 457., &c.).--The late Sir Charles Bunbury, who was long the father of the Jury, and considered as an oracle in all matters relating to it, told me, many years ago, that Charles II. was nicknamed "Old Rowley" after a favourite stallion in the royal stud so called; and he added, that the same horse's appellation had been ever since preserved in the "Rowley Mile," a portion of the race-course still much used, and well-known to all frequenters of Newmarket.

BRAYBROOKE.

"_Bachelors of every Station_" (Vol. ix., p. 301.) is the beginning of the _Berkshire Lady_, an old ballad nearly extinct, and republished by me some years ago in the form of a small pamphlet, which sold rapidly. If I can procure one, it shall be forwarded to Mr. Bell.

The story is a true one, and related to a daughter of Sir William Kendrick's, who succeeded him, and was possessor of Calcot Place in the parish of Tylehurst, and to Benjamin Child, Esq., whom she met at a marriage feast in the neighbourhood. A wood near Calcot is where the party met to fight the duel in case Mr. Child rejected the proposals of marriage made to him by Miss Kendrick.

I had the account from an old man between eighty and ninety years of age, clerk of the parish; and my friend Miss Mitford agreed with me in the accuracy of the story: she had it from the late Countess Dowager of Macclesfield, an old lady celebrated for her extensive and accurate knowledge of legendary lore.

In opening a vault in St. Mary's, Reading, last year, her coffin was found entire, with this inscription:

"Frances Child, wife of Benjamin Child. Esq., of Calcot, and first daughter of Sir Benjamin Kendrick, Bart. Died Feb. 27, 1722, aged 35. The Lady of Berks."

Another coffin,--

"Benjamin Child, Esq., died 2nd May, 1767, aged 84 years."

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge.

_Mousehunt_ (Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.; Vol. ix., pp. 65. 136. 385.).--In Vol. ix., p. 65., the _Natural History of Quadrupeds_, by James H. Fennell, is quoted; where, speaking of the Beech Marten (_alias_ Mousehunt), he says:

"In Selkirkshire it has been observed to descend to _the shore_ at night time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large Basket Mussel (_Mytilus modiolus_)."

In p. 136, I ventured to state that Mr. Fennell must have been a better naturalist than geographer, as Selkirkshire was well known to be an inland county nowhere approaching the sea by many miles. I added, that I hoped, for Mr. Fennell's sake, that _Selkirkshire_ was either a misprint or a misquotation.