508
NOTES AND QUERIES.
. n. DEC. M, 190*.
SIR HENRY WOTTON. In a letter of
13 November, 1611, John Chamberlain writes
that Sir Henry Wotton had recommended a
painter named Bilford to Henry, Prince of
Wales, with a wager of three of Wotton's
pictures against three of the prince's horses
that Bilford would make a better portrait of
the prince than " Isaac, the French painter
in the Blackfriars." "Isaac" was, no doubt,
Isaac Olivier, the miniaturist. Is anything
known of Bilford 1
Can any reader supply information about a book, ' Johannes Britannicus de Re Metal- lica,' mentioned in the * Reliquiae Wottonianse,' fourth edition, p. 364 1 L. P. S.
WEDDING-RING FINGER. Whence comes the idea that the wedding ring is placed on the third finger of the left hand because a nerve in that finger is specially connected with the heart? In ^The Garden of Allah,' recently published, it is alluded to as a remark of St. Isidore's on the fact ; and in a recent number of the Academy and Literature a correspondent, in replying to a query, states that it can be traced to remote Egyptian antiquity. What do doctors say 1
E. M. W.
[Many articles on the wedding ring appear 4 th S. i. 510, 561 ; ii. 14, 47, 333, 427. At the second reference it is said: "The fourth finger of the left hand is that on which the ring has been generally worn. Aulus Gellius says, on the authority of Appian, that a small nerve runs from this finger to the heart. This theory, of course, has been exploded by modern anatomists, but in many counties of England it is called the healing finger, and wounds are stroked with it."]
AMYOT'S ANONYMITY. Under Heliodorus in the bibliographies of Brunet and Graesse (the latter appears to have built upon the former's foundation) one finds that the ' Histoire ^Ethiopiqve ' of Heliodorus was translated " de Grec en Francois " by Jacques Amyot, the first edition having been printed in Paris in 1546, and others being mentioned. On turning to 'Jacques Amyot' in those valuable Tresors one learns that this author's name is to be seen under ' Longus et Plutar- chus.' Why was his translation of Heliodo- rus omitted there 1 Neither of these catalogs, however (and I beg the printer to eschew the barbarous orthography which imposes cata- logue upon our sufficiently illogical English writing !), indicates the edition published "A Roven," 1596. There are copies of this in the B.M. and the Bodleian. The name of Jacques Amyot does not appear on the "frontispice" (as the word was correctly written by English authors of the Caroline period ; for it has nothing to do with piece), or elsewhere in the
volume. But does he not covertly insinuate-
t on p. 12, between 'Proesme dv Translatevr r
and the beginning of * Le Premier Livre ' 1
One finds there : "Au Lecteur. Amy Lecteur ?
ne blasme de ce liure L'autheur premier, ni
a spllicitude Du translateur, qui Fra^ois le
te liure," &c. Does not the play upon livre
suggest that Amyot wished to be amy au
Lecteur ? This is the free end of my query.
E. S. DODGSON.
QUEEN ANNE'S LAST YEARS. In a letter dated 12 November, 1745, part of an old family correspondence in my possession, the writer, a barrister or student of the Middle Temple, says, "A book of 4 shillings price appeared about fourteen months ago, regard- ing the four last years of Queen Ann, which I shall send." What book can this be 1 It is generally understood (see ' Diet. Nat. Biog.') that Swift's book on the same subject was- published for the first time in 1758.
C. L. S.
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR'S CHAIR. In the- Tatler of 16 November there is a short paragraph, * A Historic Pageant,' which,, referring to Mrs. Arthur Paget's accident, states :
'No one has been kinder or more attentive than. King Edward, who never fails when he is in town to pay a visit to his old friend, on which occasions it is interesting to hear that his Majesty always- sits in the chair of Edward the Confessor, which has long been one of Mrs. Paget's most cherished possessions."
Is anything known of the history of the- chair in question? I have no idea of its shape which might be some guide to its- age b u t I cannot believe that it is authentic. HERBERT SOUTHAM.
MAZE AT SEVILLE. On the pavement of a pavilion in the garden of the Alcazar, at Seville, is the delineation of a maze. Could and would some correspondent of ' N. & Q/ kindly send me a plan of this, through the Editor, or refer me to any not inaccessible book which contains a print of it ?
ST. SWITHIN.
LETHIEULLIER'S MSS.-What has become of the MSS. of Smart Lethieullier, of Aldersbrook, in the county of Essex 1 They included, amongst many other interesting papers, * A Compleat History of the Abbey of Barking.' The author died about the middle of the eighteenth century.
RUPERT WONTNER.
Inner Temple.
" CAT IN THE WHEEL." In the St. James's- Gazette of Friday, 9 December, in ' The Life
