If Mr. Hazlitt had claimed supremacy as the chronicler of broadsides, ballads, jest-books, drolleries, and projected publications, I should have read his remarks without a word of dissent. But the three works which he specifies are of another class. The Ars adulandi of Ulpian Fulwell is pronounced by Mr. Collier to be most clever and amusing; of Heliodorus it is confidently assertedcastitate superat reliquos eroticos Gr. auctores; and of Thomas Howell-that he was Apolloes impe.

I shall now produce my counter-illustrations, but shall give precedence to Heliodorus, as one of the ancients.

The Greek text of Heliodorus, who flourished in the fourth century, was first printed at Bâle in 1534, and a French version of the romance, by the celebrated Amyot, appeared at Paris in 1547 (Clavier+Brunet). As to the first English trans

In the preface to the Hand-book of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt, now in the course of publicationa work which argues an extensive acquaintance with early English literature, and promises the results of much toilsome research-I observe some remarks on adventurers in the same path which neither indicate candour nor taste. On those nice points it would be useless to comment; but the author advances a statement in illustration of the beneficial tendency of his own doings, as corrective of the history of literature, which comes within the scope of critical inquiry. To expose visionary claims, when such instances arise, is an act of justice to others, and I shall repeat the statement in question with the addition of a counter-illustration: ·

"I have been enabled to expunge impressions of volumes which certainly never had being, and to incorporate, on the contrary, a large number of impressions of which our elder antiquaries had no knowledge. The gain has been double.

"For example's or illustration's sake, I may refer to Fulwell's Ars adulandi, 1576, the Ethiopian history of Heliodorus, 1569, and Howell's New sonnets and pretty pamphlets (hitherto supposed to be lost books).". W. C. H.

An exact enumeration of the early editions of an estimable work is an object of much importance. It is by the collation of such editions that we ascertain which of the series exhibits the best text, and any addition to lists of that nature is a real acquisition. So far, I commend the plan of Mr. Hazlitt. But the expunction of an edition reported by authors of repute is a process of an opposite character. Its non-existence may be possible, or even probable-but how can it be proced? To omit the item is to smother inquiry, and may deprive such lists of the very circumstance on which their value chiefly depends. I should be disposed to retain it, but with some mark to denote its questionable authority.

been patent more than four-score years that it was licensed for the press in 1568 (Herbert, p. 921). It was printed forthwith; is briefly recorded in the third part of the Bibliotheca Heberiana; and the volume is thus described in the Bodleian catalogue of 1843 —

"HELIODORUS.-An Ethiopian historie, very wittie and pleasaunt, Englished by Thomas Underdoune. 4o. Lond. by Henrie Wykes, n. d."

The absence of its date is out of the question. As Henry Wykes printed no work after 1569, it is obvious that this volume is one of the three hitherto-supposed-to-be-lost books.

The same article furnishes me with an instance of bibliographic expunction. Mr. Hazlitt omits, no doubt purposely, the Heliodorus of 1577. I shall call up, as witnesses on the other side, bishop Tanner, Samuel Paterson, George Steevens, and the rev. Philip Bliss:

"UNDERDOWN (Thomas) filius Stephani Oxoniensis, transtulit in linguam Anglic.-Heliodori historiam Aethiopicam, lib. x. ad ed. com. Oxon. As they somewhat be more.' Lond. . . . et MDLXXVII. 4to."-Tho. TANNER, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 1748.

"An Ethiopian historie, written in Greeke by Heliodorus, englished by Tho. Underdown, black letter, imprinted by Hen. Middleton 1577 [40]."-Sam. PATERSON, Cat. J. Hutton, 1764, No. 773.

Tanner and Paterson are explicit and unanswerable. Steevens, in his Ancient translations of classic authors, and Bliss, in his additions to Ant. Wood, give the same testimony.

And what is the result? Mr. Hazlitt is sure of the undivided enjoyment of his attempt at novelty. No one can in future assert, himself excepted, that the Heliodorus of 1577 never had being.

I shall pass over the remainder of the article on Heliodorus, with all its errors, and proceed to salute the moderns.

Ulpian Fulwell and Thomas Howell seem to have been men of note in their own time, but

they are now seldom named, and their works have ceased to be procurable-nor are they very accessible to metropolitan students.

After a further illustration of the contested statement, which is the chief object of this note, it was my wish to record some bibliographic particulars of the above-named Elizabethan authors, but now propose to reserve them for a non-controversial occasion, and shall avoid a deviation from my text.

ULPIAN FULWELL.-The existence of the Ars adulandi of Fulwell, as published in 1576, was proved by the catalogue of the Shakesperiana of Mr. Edward Capell, printed in 1779; which catalogue was re-printed in the Book rarities of the rev. C. H. Hartshorne in 1829. Moreover, the volume was thus described, the words within brackets excepted, by Mr. Edward Cranwell, under librarian of T. C. C., in an Index of early English books, published in 1847: —

"Fulwell (Ulpian). The first part of the eight liberall science [entituled, Ars adulandi]. William Hoskins, 1576, 4to."

THOMAS HOWELL.—The circumstances of the New sonets and pretie pamphlets of Howell are the same as in above instance with regard to the information given in 1779, and repeated in 1829; and the volume was thus described by Mr. Cranwell in 1847:

"Howell (Thomas). Newe sonets, and pretie pamphlets. Thomas Colwell, n. d. 4to."

So ends my comment. As I neither like harsh words nor superfluous words, it shall be left to the reader to compare the statement of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt with the above facts, and to form his own conclusions. BOLTON CORNEY.

HERNE'S OAK: SINGULAR PHENOMENON PRESENTED BY THE WOOD.

While working up a portion of this memorable tree into covers for the book I have written on its identity, looking on the end I observed a great peculiarity. The annular rings accumulated in a healthy vigorous manner up to a certain point, when they suddenly ceased, became almost imperceptible, then increased again in size till they attained nearly their former width, afterwards gradually diminished towards the outer edge of the tree, when they finally became undistinguishable. Upon mentioning this phenomenon to an intelligent gardener of fifty years' experience, without informing him in what wood I had observed it, he said the tree must have been struck by lightning, or blighted in some way so as to have stopped its growth, otherwise such an appearance would not have been presented. It was in the nature of trees as it was with us: when they arrived at maturity, they began to decline the

same as we did; but it was generally a gradual process,-the rings in the trunk would become smaller and smaller by degrees as the sap flowed less and less up the tree.

I have since examined the wood more closely, and, from the healthy part of the tree to the outside of the piece, have counted 164 annular rings; if to these are added twenty for the sap which was wasted away from it, and forty-four yearswhich time, at least, it is known to have been dead-we are carried back as far as 1639, as the latest time when the tree could have been seared or blighted. How much earlier than this it may have been, I am not in a position at present to prove; but considering that the rings are so small as to be scarcely discernible, and that some of the outer portion of the tree has been wasted away, I submit that it is not a very preposterous idea to assume it not improbable that it happened during Shakspeare's time.

Referring to the first edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, published 1602, we find no mention of Herne's Oak; neither do we in the reprint of 1619. The first mention of it is in the first folio edition, 1623: so that the probability is that the story of "Herne the Hunter" existed before the tree was attached to it, which, subsequent to 1602, being blasted, the superstition of the age imputed to the evil power of the spirit of Herne, who, according to the previous tradition, "walked in shape of a great stag, with huge horns on his head." We are therefore led to suppose that, between 1602 and the date of Shakspeare's death, 1616, he perfected the first sketch of the play by adding to it such information as he could gather, and such improvements as his matured judgment suggested; and, if we take the period of his retirement at New Place as the probable date when he calmly set himself to revise and improve his plays, collecting them together in the form in which they were given to the world in 1623-say 1610 or 1612-we are thus brought to within twenty-seven or twenty-nine years of the date to which we can satisfactorily trace the blasting of Herne's Oak to have taken place; evidence which, if not sufficient in itself to identify this tree with the play of Shakspeare, yet, when taken in connection with all the other points in favour of the tree which I have previously advanced, it forms a powerful collateral evidence which the most sceptical cannot deny. W. PERRY.

5, North Audley Street.

FOLK LORE.

The following has lately come to my knowledge, and perhaps may be worthy of enrolment with their kindred in "N. & Q.":

Baptismal Superstition.-While standing at the

font last Sunday (tenth after Trinity), and preparing to baptize two children, the nurse attendant on one of the parties abruptly demanded of the other nurse if the child she presented was a boy. The reply seemed to satisfy her. I took an early opportunity to question her on the subject, and she replied that she "wondered at my not knowing that a boy was always christened before a girl." On my assuring her that such was not the custom here, she said: "In Scarborough, where I came from, it is always the custom to baptize and bury a boy before a girl." And she added, when I pressed for a reason: "Doesn't it look reasonable?"

Further

"de

ponent sayeth not.' This is the reverse of the custom named in 2nd S. i. 226, but accords with that named by your earlier correspondent in 1st S. ii. 197.

An Infant Palm.-On examining an infant's hand, the mother excused the dirt of its palm by saying: "You know we never wash the palm of an infant's hand: my other child was eighteen months old before I ever washed his palm." expressing my surprise at such a dirty excuse, she replied: "They say, if an infant's palm is washed, it will make it light fingered.'

On

Dressing an Infant.-When an infant is first dressed, its clothes should never be put on over its head (which is very unlucky), but drawn over its feet.

Darlington.

Somnambulism.

GEORGE LLOYD.

A Norfolk Vulgar Error.— "At Norwich, on Saturday, a woman was summoned

from Horsted for throwing water over another woman. The evidence showed that the defendant fetched two pails of clean water from some little distance for the purpose mentioned; but before ducking the complainant she washed her hands in it, and on inquiry as to her motive for doing so, it was found that it was done in the belief that if a person throws dirty water over another the law is powerless, and can have no hold upon the individual committing such an assault. The magistrates showed her the fallacy of such a belief by fining her 6d. and costs, or the alternative of a month's imprisonment."-Stamford Mercury, July 26.

A. O. V. P.

A NEW CLOCK DIAL.-Having occasion to call at a dram shop, to inquire the locus in quo of a person of whom I was in search, I observed a clock which recorded the hour and minute of the day in the same way as the office almanacs do, by shifting the day of the week, the day of the month, and the name of the month. This clock I read as follows:

27 MINUTES PAST 1.

In a minute's time the figure 7 slided down, and 8 appeared; in another minute's time the 8 slided down, and 9 appeared. The figure in the ten's place, 2, would, in like manner (for I did not wait to see it), slide down to show 3, as 9, in the unit's place, slid down to admit of the appearance of 0. The figure representing the hour changes after the lapse of 60 minutes. The words 66 minutes and "past" are fixtures. This clock cost 451. T. J. BUCKTON.

A NAVAL YARN ON "DRAWING THE LONG Bow."-The following affair was honourable to the parties, according to the Code of Honour of the day. It so happened that a naval officer in conversation after dinner inquired of Lieutenant Cecil if he knew the gallant Captain Stackpole of the Statira frigate. Lieut. Cecil replied he did, and had the best opinion of him as a brave officer, but inadvertently added, that he believed him capable occasionally of "drawing the long bow." This answer became a topic of conversation in the gun-room of the Statira, and at length reached the ears of Capt. Stackpole. Four years however elapsed before the two officers met; but the opportunity at last offered, when the Statira was lying in the harbour of Port Royal, and the Argo, of which Cecil was senior lieutenant, happened to enter that port. Capt. Stackpole immediately wrote to Cecil to inquire whether he had

made use of the offensive words. Cecil answered that he had no recollection of having used the phrase; but as a brother officer and a man of honour had quoted his words, he could not act otherwise than avow them. The result was a duel, in which Capt. Stackpole, receiving a shot on the shoulder which shattered his epaulet, fell dead on the spot, and His Majesty's navy was thus deprived of the service of a brave and meritorious officer. "To draw the long bow" is, or rather was, to exercise the gift of narrating à la Munchausen. J. S.

Stratford, Essex.

DEATH OF THE OLDEST ENGLISH RESIDENT IN SMYRNA.

"The journals of the Levant announce the somewhat sudden decease, at an advanced age, of the senior and highly-respected member of the English community at Smyrna, Charlton Merrittall, Esq., established there for