RARE, and CURIOUS BOOKS, including an extensive Collection of Works on the Aboriginal Languages of America, among which THE FIRST VOLUME of the NEW SERIES, are copies of Bernado de Lugo Gramatica en la Lengua Mosca. the FIFTH of NOTES AND QUERIES, with Title and Index. Cloth, price 108. 6d. THE Now ready, Madrid. 1619," probably unique, 4; "Nagera Tanguas Doctrina Ensenorança en la Lengua Macahua, Mexico, 1637," little less rare, and various others which but seldom occur for sale. The Catalogue contains some rare books relating to America, and among them the three Works in which "Edward Melton's, a Noble Englishman's" description of his travels in America and the Countries he visited, will be found-Books relating to Asia and the East Indies, Pageauts, Emblems, and Miscellaneous Literature. HE GENERAL INDEX to FOURTH SERIES Australia, and Africa-Facetie, Curiosities of Literature, Belgian of NOTES AND QUERIES. Cloth, price 68. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for SALE, from the commencement in 1731 to 1837 (wanting the years 1777 and 18:2), 159 volumes; also the two very scarce Index Volumes issued in 1789. In good condition, and believed to be perfect, although not collated by advertiser. Price 161.-E. ASHLEY, 12, Askew Crescent, Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, W. WORKS on TOBACCO, SNUFF, &c.-Book sellers having Books on Tobacco, Snuff, &c., or Magazines, Journals, or Newspapers containing articles on the subject, are invited to report such to the Office of COPE'S TOBACCO PLANT, 10, Lord Nelson Street, Liverpool. The Monthly Numbers of this Catalogue will be sent by post on receipt of one penny stamp for each Number. London: TRÜBNER & CO. 57 and 59, Ludgate Hill. Just published, 84 pages, price 18. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, SPELLED AS PRONOUNCED, With Enlarged Alphabet of Forty Letters, a letter for each Distinct By GEORGE WITHERS. London: TRÜBNER & CO., 57 and 59 Ludgate Hill. NOTICE TO ADVERTISERS. ADAMS & FRANCIS insert ADVERTISE MENTS in all Newspapers, Magazines, and Periodicals. **Terms for transacting business, and List of London Papers, to ADAMS & FRANCIS, 59, Fleet Street, E.C. be had on application to MONEY, TIME, AND LIFE Are Lost in the Event of ACCIDENTAL INJURY OR DEATH. Apply to the Clerks at the Railway Stations, the Local Agents, or CHUBB'S FIRE and THIEF-RESISTING SAFES, Steel-Plated, and with their Patent Diagonal Bolts, are the most secure. Chubb's Patent Latches and Locks for all purposes. Cash and Deed Boxes. Price List sent free. CHUBB & SON, 57. St. Paul's Churchyard, E.C.; GENTLEMEN'S HIDEBOO ENTLEMEN'S PORPOISE HIDE BOOTS, 36s.; THOMAS D. MARSHALL, 192, Oxford Street, W. Spain, by Dr. Charnock, F.S.A., with Maps, Town Plans, &c. 78. 6d. Switzerland, &c. 38. 6d. HUMAN LONGEVITY. "Physiologists owe a debt of gratitude to the perseverance, perspicacity, and devotion to the cause of scientific truth which Mr. Thoms has manifested in the determination of the precise age of centenarians, and of individuals loosely alleged to have passed the period of 110 years."-Professor Owen. Now ready, post 8vo. 10s. 6d. THE LONGEVITY OF MAN: ITS FACTS AND ITS FICTIONS. Including an Inquiry into some of the more Remarkable Instances, and Suggestions for Testing Reputed Cases. Illustrated by Examples. By WILLIAM J. THOMS, F.S.A., Deputy-Librarian, House of Lords. "Mr. Thoms was admirably qualified to perform the task which he has undertaken, and he has performed it with signal with Maps, Town Plans, success....... His remarks upon the evidence which is generally adduced to prove the extreme age of individuals are perspicuous and sound......This portion of the work is carefully executed, Switzerland.-Pedestrian's Route Book for and will have interest to those whose vocation calls them to deal Do., CHAMOUNI, and the ITALIAN LAKES, with numerous Pass, Road, and Local Maps, &c.; Hotel and Pension Guide, including the best centres for Excursions. 58. The Tyrol, or Notes for Travellers in the Tyrol and Vorarlberg, with Illustrations from Original Sketches, Maps, &c. 28. 6d. Normandy and the Channel Islands. 1s. 6d. Brittany, with Notices of the Physical Features, Agriculture, Language, Customs, History, Antiquities, and Sporting, with a complete Itinerary and Guide to all the Objects of Interest, with Maps. Cloth, 28. 6d. New and Improved Edition, cloth, 58.; post, 58. 4d. BRADSHAW'S THROUGH ROUTES. -Overland Guide and Handbook to India, Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, the Cape, and Mauritius. A Complete Traveller's Manual. How to Reach and how to Live in the Three Presidencies of India, and the Australian Settlements. This indispensable little Handbook contains Twenty-five Outward and Homeward Through Routes between Great Britain and her Indian and Australian Dependencies, with Practical and Interesting Descriptive Guides to each Route. The Railway Time Tables of India; Steam Navigation, Coasting, Coach, and other Conveyances; Telegraph Cominunications; Tables of Distances; Tabular Forms of Expenses; Time of Journey, &c. Advice to the Eastern Traveller-Hints as to the Purchase of Outfit-LuggageCurrency, &c.; with a most useful Vocabulary of Hindoostanee. Illustrated with Maps of India, the various Routes to India, &c. Panorama of the Nile. Plans of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Constantinople; and other Illustrations. London: W. J. ADAMS, 59, Fleet Street, E.C. with evidence.......No one but Sir George C. Lewis could have undertaken such a work with such advantages, and even he could not have produced a more practical and intelligent book. Law Magazine and Review, July, 1873. "A vast deal of methodized information and light is thrown upon a deeply interesting subject by this volume on Human Longevity. Few but Mr. Thoms could have persevered against so many difficulties in the form of prejudice and defective information; and whatever may come of it or after it, his book must remain a valuable contribution to the history and litera ture of his subject."-Saturday Review. "Mr. Thoms might be open to a charge of partiality were his book anything more than a most entertaining and valuable account of his own personal researches into the credibility of alleged cases of centenarianism. As such it must be understood; and he is entitled to all praise and gratitude for his courageous demeanour in scotching a whole series of lies."Athenæum. "In the interesting volume before us, Mr. Thoms examines the nature of the evidence commonly relied upon in support of alleged centenarianism, points out the defects to which it is liable, and the tests to which it should be submitted. It is very likely that his readers will think him a little too incredulous; but scepticism on the subject he has taken in hand is a fault on the right side, and his method of investigation leaves little to be desired. The inquiry he prosecutes, it is true, is curious rather than important. But he has illustrated his mode of procedure, and embodied the results in a book which is at once amusing and suggestive."-Pall Mall Gazette. "We do not know that Mr. Thoms's labour can lead to any very tangible result, but the inquiry has a certain interest of its own, and it has never been more thoroughly or scientifically treated than in the present volume."-Globe. "Mr. Thoms's painstaking researches into alleged cases of centenarianism form an interesting volume, in which some are completely disproved, others shown to be doubtful, and a few of them established. Mr. Thoms has not gone into the inquiry with a predetermination to disprove every such case, so that his results are all the more just and valuable."—Builder. "The book is full of interest, and has considerable scientific value. Many of the comments on evidence will apply not merely to questions of centenarianism, but to others of a scarcely less important character."-Scotsman. JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street. LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1874. CONTENTS. - N° 31. NOTES:-Books written by Mrs. Olivia Serres: "The Book," Literature-Col. Valentine Wauton-"Les Provinciales Lord Chatham and Bailey's "Dictionary "-" Every man is the architect," &c., 156-English Surnames-"That beats Akebo"-The Acacia-Privy Council Judgment: Liddell v. Westerton-Duplicates in the British Museum - Woolston Well, West Felton - Wordsworth and Hogg, 157 - Faröe Isles-Hanging and Resuscitation-Byron: Wycherley, &c., Notes on Books, &c. 158. Notes. BOOKS WRITTEN BY MRS. OLIVIA SERRES: "THE BOOK." 5. Loved Night. 6. Sweet Love, the Moon appears. 7. Adieu, Adieu, ye haunts, Adieu. Three volumes of a History of England, in verse (a full Three volumes of Memoirs of Olive, Princess of Cum- Three volumes of Religious and Moral Poems. A volume of State Recollections." In transcribing the title of the paper Mr. Coleman made an omission, of some importance, of the words "before she knew her birth." Now, though Your intelligent correspondent, CALCUTTENSIS, the list is not dated, it could not have been written expressed an opinion ("N. & Q." 3rd S. xi. 11) before 1821, the year in which Mrs. Serres assumed that "a complete list of the publications of Olivia the title of Princess Olive, a fact of which she Wilmot Serres would be a desideratum." This became aware, according to her statement, in May, opinion will be shared by every one who has paid 1815,-yet this list not only contains a book which any attention to the history of Mrs. Serres, or of she dates in 1818 (I think erroneously), but one— the barefaced imposture of which she was the the Memoirs of Lord Warwick-which was not moving spirit; and I have, during the last few published till 1819! Like almost everything years, neglected no opportunity of securing copies written by her, the facts which the paper is of her works, or such other materials for exposing intended to establish contradict each other. her absurd and dishonest pretensions as I have been able to meet with. Among some recent acquisitions of this character is a list of her works, written by herself. I purchased it of Mr. Coleman, the well-known genealogical bookseller of High Street, Bloomsbury. He informed me that he had printed it in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1866; but as it is not very long, and that copy of it contains some few omissions and errors, very excusable on the part of one not well acquainted with the illegible scrawl of Olivia Wilmot Serres, I hope you will think the space which it will occupy in your columns not altogether wasted. It is written on As the works of this extraordinary woman are by no means common, I venture to add some brief notes on such of them as I have had an opportunity of examining. 1. Flights of Fancy is a handsomely printed post 8vo. volume, published by Ridgway in 1805, and has for a frontispiece a portrait of the authoress, engraved by Mackenzie from a picture by Joseph. She designates herself "Mrs. J. T. Serres." I particularize this, because the variety of names assumed by the lady on her successive title-pages is noteworthy. The volume is dedicated to the Earl of Warwick, who, after his death, was made to figure so prominently in Mrs. Serres's claim to royal descent. The dedication is couched in very humble and fulsome terms, which contrast strongly with the statement made by her in 1822, "that she was a lady, intimate from infancy with the late Earl of Warwick." See her account in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1822, of his apparition appearing to her, her daughter (Mrs. Ryves), and the Rev. Mr. Grove. 2. St. Julian, a Series of Letters by Mrs. J. T. Serres, was also published by Ridgway in the same year, 1805. 3. Memoirs of a Princess, or First Love: an Historical Romance. In 2 vols. By Olivia W. S, Author of The Book. (Maynard, 1812.) The heroine of this story is the unfortunate Caroline, Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline; and the story itself is a fine specimen of the pure Minerva Press style, as the following extract will show. Speaking of England, a Princess writes as follows: "How blessed is that land of liberty and repose where no sanguinary tides of life's sacred vitality desolate its plains. On the title-page the writer describes herself as "Olivia W. S ," with that affectation of mystery which is so characteristic of her; while the Preface is signed "O. W. Serres" in her own handwriting. 4. I have not been able to see a copy of the Letter to Lord Castlereagh, published in 1810. 5. Olivia's Letter of Advice to Her Daughter, written by Mrs. Wilmot Serres, Landscape Painter to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Author of "Flights of Fancy,' ," "St. Julian," &c., published by Ebers in 1808. It is addressed, not to her daughters, but only to Lavinia, the late Mrs. Ryves, Mrs. Serres ignoring at this early period the existence of her younger daughter Britannia (Mrs. Brock) as persistently as Mrs. Ryves afterwards did in her Appeal to Royalty and her proceeding in the Courts of Law. Mrs. Brock was living in 1866, nor have I seen any notice of her death. 6. Essay on the Trinity. I have never seen this volume, which, although dated by Mrs. Serres 1818, is probably identical with that described in the Gentleman's Magazine (July, 1835, p. 93), as having been published in 1814, under the title of "St. Athanasius's Creed Explained for the Advantage of Youth. By Olivia Wilmot Serres, Niece of Dr. Wilmot." The writer of the notice in the Gentleman's Magazine adds: "It will be observed she had already begun to traffic in assumed names, for that of Wilmot was not given her in baptism." 7. Of the Essay in Favour of the Duke of York I am unable to say anything, not having as yet been able to meet with a copy. 8, which by a pardonable mis-reading of Mrs. Serres's ill-written list, Mr. Coleman printed as The Life of Tiniers, is, no doubt, The Life of the Author of the Letters of Junius, the Rev. James Wilmot, D.D., &c., by his Niece, Olivia Wilmot Serres, published by Williams in 1813,—a book fatal to the claims which the authoress subsequently put forward, containing, as it does, statements which directly contradict the story of her royal birth, and place her case in this dilemma: if her first statement is true, her second is false; if her first statement is false, her second is unworthy of credit. Mrs. Serres makes no mention of her second book on Junius, Junius Sir Philip Francis denied, 8vo., 1817,-a work of equal importance in demolishing her pretensions. I have in my possession a copy of the Life of Wilmot, with Mrs. Serres's corrections, made for a new edition. 9. The proper title of this volume is Letters of the late Right Hon. Earl of Brooke and Warwick to Mrs. Wilmot Serres, Illustrated with the Poems and Memoirs of His Lordship, &c., 8vo. (Birkett & Scott), 1819. Taken for what it professes to be, this book is, probably, as dull and twaddling a volume as any man could be. condemned to wade through; but looked at with reference to the history of Mrs. Serres, and the extraordinary events with which her name will ever be associated, it contains many points of great interest and importance, as I may, at some more convenient opportunity, endeavour to demonstrate. Warwick is said to have told Mrs. Serres the secret of her birth in 1815, yet here is his life, published in 1819, inserted in a list of those which she describes as having been written before she knew her birth! In 1816 there appeared another work coined in the same mint, or forged in the same stithy, professing to be (as it is entitled) Narrative of the peculiar Case of the Earl from His Lordship's own Manuscript. This was also published by Williams. 66 Lord 10. The Mary Ann Lewis" of the list, as printed in the Gentleman's Magazine, is “Marie Anne Lais, the Courtezan; or, Certain Illustrations. A Romance. By the Author of THE BOOK." Small 8vo. Rodwell, 1812. But though in the titlepage the writer modestly describes herself only as the author of The Book, yet the satirical dedication "to two most injured illustrious characters" is subscribed, like the Preface to the Memoirs of a Princess, with the autograph of O. W. Serres. As the reader will probably anticipate from the date, &c., the parties so distinguished are the Duke of York and Mrs. Mary Anne Clark, whose life, actions, and feelings Mrs. Serres probably undertook to describe on the principle that "She best can paint them who shall feel them most." Those who remember the character of some of Mrs. Serres's later productions will be amused at reading the following extract from this little trumpery book : : "Receipt to make a very valuable Publication. " "Take of invention, the utmost degree of falsehood, and the extreme of calumny, well blend these two desirable compounds in the oil of audaciousness,”And so on for a whole page. With Mrs. Serres's musical compositions I do not propose to trouble myself. Neither have I anything to say with respect to those works described by her as "ready to publish when revised." Probably among a large collection of MSS. in her handwriting which I possess, there are some fragments of her State Recollections, Correspondence with Ministers, Memoir of the Duke of Kent, which, I fear, will scarcely repay one for the trouble of deciphering. If on examination I should find anything worthy of notice, it shall be given to the world. And now I come to one entry on the list which I have advisedly deferred noticing. I allude to the remarkable unnumbered article, between Nos. 6 and 7, which the authoress has marked with inverted commas, and doubly underlined-"THE BOOK." But "THE BOOK" must form the subject of another paper. In the mean time, can any correspondent refer me, either through "N. & Q." or directly to myself, to any copy of "THE BOOK" by Mrs. Serres, bearing an earlier date than 1813? WILLIAM J. THOMS. 40, St. George's Square, Belgrave Road, S.W. SPELLING REFORMS.-No. IV. Come we now to the plurals of nouns ending in o; they are about 100, and may be best displayed under 3 groups: 1. Musical terms and terms descriptive of the size of a book. All these are Italian words, and make their plurals by adding -8, as alto-s, basso-s, solo-s, flauto-s piano-s, and violoncello-s; canto-s, rondo-s, &c.; with folio-s, quarto-s, octavo-s, duodecimo-s, 24mo-s, and so on. As this group is consistent and without exception, no objection can be brought against it. The other 2 groups are about equal, 30 of one make the plural in -s, and the 29 of the other add -es. place, we never add -es except to make an extra syllable, as church-es, fox-es, sash-es, and so on.* In the next place, not one of the words have any etymological claim to a plural in -es. Let us take them in terminational order. 66 1. -cho and -co, as echo, calico, fresco, magnifico, 66 2. In do, as bravado, innuendo, rotundo, tornado, and torpedo. Of these, rotundo Italian, often written rotunda in English; and, is to show our spirit of contradiction, the foreign words bravata and tornada we make "bravado and "tornado"; "innuendo" and "torpedo" are concocted from the Latin verbs innuo and torpeo, so that none of these 5 words has a right to a plural in -es. 3. The words in -go are cargo, flamingo, indigo, mango, sago, and virago. Of these, 66 cargo, flamingo, indigo," are Italian. "Mango" is the Indian-Talmudic word mangos; 66 sago," the Malay word sagu, in French sagou; and virago" is Latin, the plural being viragines. So that none of these six words has a plural resembling its modern English form. 66 66 4. In no, the only examples are no-es (persons voting "no"), albino-es, domino-es, and volcano-es. Of these, "albino" is spelt both ways in the " domino and plural, albinos and albinoes; volcano" are Italian; and as for the plural of "no," if nos will not do, write no's, as we write I's, m's, and so on. 66 5. In ro there are 4 words: they are hero, All nouns ending in -lo, -so, -vo, and -o, after a negro, tyro, and zero. Hero," like "echo," is vowel, make the plural by adding -s, with one ex- common to Greek, Latin, and French, in all ception, viz., buffalo-es. Thus we have armadillo-s, which languages the singular is heros. Probably halo-s, and peccadillo-s in -lo; proviso-s and vir- we borrowed the word from the French, where the tuoco-8 in so; bravo-s, relievo-s, and salvo-s in -vo;s is silent; but there is not a tittle of authority imbroglio-s, nuncios, oglio-s or olio-s, pistachio-s, portfolio-s, punctilio-s, ratio-s, seraglio-s, studio-s, embryo-s, cuckoo-s, &c., in -o preceded by a vowel. To these add six in -to, not musical terms or sizes of books, viz., cento-s, grotto-s, junto-s, memento-s, pimento-s, and stiletto-s, with all such proper names, as the Cato-s. The list complete contains between 60 and 70 words. The third group consists of 29 words, which make the plural in -es, and I have no hesitation in saying that the e should be expunged. In the first for heroes. As for "negro" and "zero," they are Italian; and "tyro," the Latin word, has tyrones for its plural. We have now gone through every word ending in -o except 6, and can find no reason why the 30 which make their plural in -es should not join the 60 or 70 which make their plural in -s. By enforcing this uniformity, an enormous difficulty of spelling would be removed, nothing would be * Those in -f and -fe changed into ves are objected to as abnormal. |