The Pulteney Guinea. WILLIAM PULTENEY, afterward Earl of Bath, was remarkable alike for his oratorical talents and his long and consistent opposition to the measures of Sir Robert Walpole, the great Whig Minister. On the 11th of February, 1741, a time when party feeling was at its height, Walpole received an intimation in the House of Commons that it was the intention of the Opposition to impeach him. To this menace he replied with his usual composure and self-complacence, merely requesting a fair and candid hearing, and winding up his speech with the quotation Nil conscire sibi, nulli pallescere culpæ. With his usual tact, Pulteney immediately rose, and observed, "that the right honorable gentleman's logic and Latin were alike inaccurate, and that Horace, whom he had just misquoted, had written nulla pallescere culpa. Walpole maintained that his quotation was correct, and a bet was offered. The matter was thereupon referred to Nicholas Hardinge, Clerk of the House, an excellent classical scholar, who decided against Walpole. The Minister accordingly took a guinea from his pocket, and flung it across the house to Pulteney. The latter caught it, and holding it up, exclaimed, "It's the only money I have received from the Treasury for many years, and it shall be the last." This guinea having been carefully preserved, finally came into the hands of Sir John Murray, by whom it was presented, in 1828, to the British Museum. The following memorandum, in the handwriting of Pulteney, is attached to it :-" This guinea I desire may be kept as an heirloom. It was won of Sir Robert Walpole, in the House of Commons; he asserting the verse in Horace to be nulli pallescere culpa, whereas I laid the wager of a guinea that it was nullâ pallescere eulpä. He sent for the book, and, being convinced that he had lost, gave me this guinea. I told him I could take the money without any blush on my side, but believed it was the on y money he ever gave in the House, where the giver and the receiver ought not equally to blush. This guinea, I hope, will prove to my posterity the use of knowing Latin, and encourage them in their learning." The Dandy and the Dude. The introduction of the modern slang word dandy as applied, half in admiration and half in derision, to a fop dates from 1816. John Bee ("Slang Dictionary," 1823) says that Lord Petersham was the founder of the sect, and gives the peculiarities as "French gait, lispings, wrinkled foreheads, killing King's English, wearing immense plaited pantaloons, coat cut away, small waistcoat, cravat and chitter ings immense, hat small, hair frizzled and protruding." There is a good picture of the "Fashionable Fop" in the Busy Body for March, 1816, but the word dandy is not used. Pierce Egan, in his edition of Grose, 1823, says the dandy in 1820 was a fashionable nondescriptmen who wore stays to give them a fine shape and were more than ridiculous in their apparel: "Now a Dandy's a thing, describe him who can? He'd be more like an Ape if he had but a tail." The dandy of 1816-24 was, in fact, the old macaroni depicted in the London Magazine for April, 1772. The dandy of 1816 led to several other applications of the word, such as dandizette and dandy-horse, or velocipede. Of this latter, Bee says (1823): Hundreds of such might be seen in a day. The rage ceased in about three years, and the word is become obsolete." The word dandy has certainly not become obsolete, but after 1825 its meaning gradually changed. It ceased to mean a man ridiculous and contemptible by his effeminate eccentricities, and came to be applied to those who were trim, neat, and careful in dressing according to the fashion of the day. The dude of to-day has taken the place of the dandy aforetime. The dude wears tight trousers and "toothpick" shoes, and a cane is indispensible.-Notes and Queries. JACK O'THE CLOCK. This was an automation that struck the hours Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke The Coxcomb, (i. 5.) The Jacke of a clock-house goes upon screws, and his office is to do nothing but strike.-Dekker, Lanthorn and Candlelight. He scrapes you just such a leg, in answering you, as jack o'th' clockhouse agoing about to strike.-Flecknoe, Enigmatical Characters. A fellow that turns upon his toe in a steeple, and strikes quarters.— Mayne, The City Match, (ii. 3.) Strike like Jack o'the clock-house, never but in season.— - Strode, The Floating Island. Jack of the clock-house, where's master Post-hast?-Histrio Mas tix, 1610, (act. iv.) CAXTON VARIETIES OF KISSES. Eight variety of kisses are mentioned in the Bible, namely: ACROSTICS. The following conundrum was sent to a Boston man during the recent acrostic contest: If you stick a stick across a stick Or stick a cross across a stick Or stick a cross across a cross Or cross a cross across a stick Or cross a cross across a cross Or stick a crossed stick across a stick Or stick a crossed stick across a crossed stick Or cross a crossed stick across a cross Or cross a crossed stick across a stick Or cross a crossed stick across a crossed stick Would that be an acrostic? Early mention of Freemasons. Thomas Norton of Bristol, who was called the most learned alchimist of his time, composed a poem which is commonly called the "Ordinall of Alchemy," as he himself writes: "this Boke Named of Alkimy the Ordinall The Crede mibi, the Standard perpetuall." The date of the work is given in the last four lines :— All that hath pleasure in this Boke to reade Pray for my Soule, and for all both Quick and dedde. In this yeare of Christ, One thousand foure hundred seaventy seaven, This Warke was begun, Honour to God in Heaven. In this curious poem Norton undertakes "To teech by Alkimy great ryches to winn." Enumerating the great personages who have worked in the mysteries of Hermes, he names Popes, Cardinalls, Byshopes, Preests, Kings, Lords, Merchaunts, and then adds: "As Goldsmithes whome we should lest repreve For sights in their Craft moveth them to beleeve : Will some readers of NOTES AND QUERIES, learned in the History of Masonry, inform me if the occurrence of the word Free Masons at the date of 1477 may be regarded as a rarity. CHITTY-FACED. i. e. effeminate, baby-faced. DSAFAR. The fairies have exchanged him; and look what a chitty-face they have left in's room! a thing of nothing!-Cox, The Humorer of John Swabber, 1656. CAXTON. PERRY. What is the beverage called "perry" made from? REMBRANDT ROBINSON. Perry is a liquor made from pears very much as cider is made. is an agreeable drink, and when well made sparkles like champagne. DEXTER. It The World's Oldest Rose Bush. The oldest rose bush in the world is at Hildersheim. It was planted more than 1.000 years ago by Charlemagne in commemoration of a visit made by him by the ambassador of the Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, of "Arabian Nights" fame. A few years afterward when Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne, was hunting in the neighborhood, mass was said in the open air. On returning to his home, the officiating priest found that the holy image was missing. Returning to the spot where mass had been said, he discovered the missing image in the branches of a wild rose tree. As it miraculously evaded his grasp he went back to Louis and his suite and told them of the wonder. They all rushed to the spot and fell upon their knees before the miraculous bush. A cathedral was built above it, its roots being inclosed in a sort of coffin-shaped vault, under the middle altar of the crypt. This crypt was built in the year 818, and with the rose tree it survived a fire which destroyed all the rest of the cathedral in 1146. The roots are over 1,000 years old. The rose plant was, when described a few years ago, still living and blooming profusely, and was twenty-six feet high, covering thirty-two feet of wall, though the stem was only two inches in diameter.-Sophie B. Herrick in The Cosmopolitan. Discovery of Rubber. Most writers have credited the discovery of caoutchouc by Europeans to the year 1700. This is altogether a mistaken idea, for it is mentioned by Herrera, when speaking of the amusements of the inhabitants of Hayti, in his account of Columbus's second voyage in 1493, and he says: "Balls made of the gum of a tree, lighter and bouncing better than the wind balls of Castile, are used by the natives-" The next mention of this remarkable product is in a book published in Madrid in 1615, wherein Juan de Torquemada mentions the tree which yields it in Mexico, describes the mode of collecting the gum, and states that it is made into shoes; also that the Spaniards use it for waxing their canvas cloaks to make them resist water M. de la Candamine, who visited South America in 1735, procured more exact information in regard to India Rubber. It is curious to note that some of the purposes for which india rubber is most extensively need at the present time as those for which it is employed by the natives in the countries in which it is found centuries ago. Since the time that Condamine visited South America, in 1735, india rubber has come into extensive use, and it may be said that, although he was not the discoverer, yet he was the father of the school of Europeans who brought it into practical use. |