Notes and Queries, Number 32, June 8, 1850

"Anche la durezza di alcuni cognomi ha più volte consigliato un raddolcimento, che li rendesse più facili a pronunziarsi. Percio Macloughlin divenne Macklin; Machloch, Mallet; ed Elkana Settle fu poi – John Dryden!"

—a metamorphose greater, I suspect, than any to be found in Ovid, and a transmigration of soul far beyond those imagined by the philosophers of the East.

    S.H.

Athenæum.

Minor Queries

Wood Paper.—The reprint of the Works of Bishop Wilkins, London, 1802, 2 vols. 8vo., is said to be on paper made from wood pulp. It has all the appearance of it in roughness, thickness, and very unequal opacity. Any sheet looked at with a candle behind it is like a firmament scattered with luminous nebulæ. I can find mention of straw paper, as patented about the time; but I should think it almost impossible (knowing how light the Indian rice paper is) that the heavy fabric above mentioned should be of straw. Is it from wood? If so, what is the history of the invention, and what other works were printed in it?

    M.

Latin Line.—I should be very much obliged to anybody who can tell where this line comes from:—

"Exiguum hoc magni pignus amoris habe,"

which was engraved on a present from a distinguished person to a relation of mine, who tried in several quarters to learn where it came from.

    C.B.

Milton, New Edition of.—I observe in Mr. Mayor's communication (Vol. i. p. 427.), that some one is engaged in editing Milton. May I ask who, and whether the contemplated edition includes prose and poetry?

    CH.

Barum and Sarum.—By what theory, rule, or analogy, if any, can the contractions be accounted for of two names so dissimilar, into words terminating so much alike, as those of Salisbury into Sarum—Barnstaple into Barum?

    S.S.S.

Roman Roads.—Can you inform me in whose possession is the MS. essay on "Roman Roads," written by the late Dr. Charles Mason, to which I find allusion in a MS. letter of Mr. North's?

    Buriensis.

John Dutton, of Dutton.—In the Vagrant Act, 17 George II., c. 5., the heir and assigns of John Dutton, of Dutton, co. Chester, deceased, Esq., are exempt from the pains and penalties of vagrancy. Query—Who was the said John Dutton, and why was such a boon conferred on his heirs for ever?

    B.

Rome, Ancient and Modern.—I observed, in a shop in Rome, in 1847, a large plan of that city, in which, on the same surface, both ancient and modern Rome were represented; the shading of the streets and buildings being such as to distinguish the one from the other. Thus, in looking at the modern Forum, you saw, as it were underneath it, the ancient Forum; and so in the other parts of the city. Can any of your readers inform me as to the name of the designer, and where, if at all, in England, a copy of this plan may be obtained?

If I remember rightly, the border to the plan was composed of the Pianta Capitolina, or fragments of the ancient plan preserved in the Capitol. In the event of the map above referred to not being accessible, can I obtain a copy of this latter plan by itself, and how?

    A.B.M.

Prolocutor of Convocation.—W.D.M. inquires who was Prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation during its session in 1717-18?

Language of Queen Mary's Days.—In the first vol. of Evelyn's Diary (the last edition) I find the following notice:—