Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 | Page 9

readers give the history of the
Staffordshire knot, traced on the carriages and trucks of the North
Staffordshire Railway Company?
T. P.
Sir Thomas Elyot.--I shall be extremely obliged by a reference to any
sources of information respecting Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight, living in
the time of Henry VIII., son of Sir Richard Elyot, Knight, of Suffolk.
I shall be glad also to know whether a short work (among others of his
in my possession) entitled The Defence of good Women, printed in
London by Thomas Berthelet, 1545, is at all a rare book?
H. C. K.
"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c.--
"Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentes, Sub pedibus cernens,
et cæca tonitrua calcans."
Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found?
They appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.
J. P. A.
The Bargain Cup.--Can the old English custom of drinking together
upon the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the
Norman era? Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke,
in his Mysteries (London, 1634), says:
"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they
also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie
vsed in striking of couenants."
This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this
custom, which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I

should like confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an
ancestry so remote.
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
School-Libraries.--I am desirous of ascertaining whether any of our
public schools possess any libraries for the general reading of the
scholars, in which I do not include mere school-books of Latin, Greek,
&c., which, I presume, they all possess, but such as travels, biographies,
&c.
Boys fresh from these schools appear generally to know nothing of
general reading, and from the slight information I have, I fear there is
nothing in the way of a library in any of them. If not, it is, I should
think, a very melancholy fact, and one that deserves a little attention:
but if any of your obliging correspondents can tell me what public
school possesses such a thing, and the facilities allowed for reading in
the school, I shall take it as a favour.
WELD TAYLOR.
Bayswater.
Queen Elizabeth and her "true" Looking-glass.--An anecdote is current
of Queen Elizabeth having in her later days, if not during her last
illness, called for a true looking-glass, having for a long time
previously made use of one that was in some manner purposely
falsified.
What is the original source of the story? or at least what is the authority
to which its circulation is mainly due? An answer from some of your
correspondents to one or other of these questions would greatly oblige
VERONICA.
Bishop Thomas Wilson.--In Thoresby's Diary, A.D. 1720, April 17 (vol.

ii. p. 289.), is the following entry:
"Easter Sunday ... after evening prayers supped at cousin Wilson's with
the Bishop of Man's son."
Was there any relationship, and what, between this "cousin Wilson,"
and the bishop's son, Dr. Thomas Wilson? I should be glad of any
information bearing on any or on all these subjects.
WILLIAM DENTON.
Bishop Wilson's Works.--The REV. JOHN KEBLE, Hursley, near
Winchester, being engaged in writing the life and editing the works of
Bishop Wilson (Sodor and Man), would feel obliged by {221} the
communication of any letters, sermons, or other writings of the bishop,
or by reference to any incidents not to be found in printed accounts of
his life.
Hobbes, Portrait of.--In the Memoirs of T. Hobbes, it is stated that a
portrait of him was painted in 1669 for Cosmo de Medici.
I have a fine half-length portrait of him, on the back of which is the
following inscription:
"Thomas Hobbes, æt. 81. 1669. J^{os}. Wick Wrilps, Londiensis,
Pictor Caroli 2^{di}. R. pinx^t."
Is this painter the same as John Wycke, who died in 1702, but who is
not, I think, known as a portrait painter?
Can any of your readers inform me whether a portrait of Hobbes is now
in the galleries at Florence, and, if so, by whom it was painted? It is
possible that mine is a duplicate of the picture which was painted for
the Grand Duke.
W. C. TREVELYAN.
Wallington.

* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
Brasenose, Oxford.--I am anxious to learn the origin and meaning of
the word Brasenose. I have somewhere heard or read (though I cannot
recall where) that it was a Saxon word, brasen haus or
"brewing-house;" and that the college was called by this name, because
it was built on the site of the brewing-house of King Alfred. All that
Ingram says on the subject is this:
"This curious appellation, which, whatever was