Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 | Page 6

disposed to furnish me with a ream or two of the unglazed, plain,
and unhotpressed paper which I am anxious to obtain?
Whilst I am on this subject, I will take occasion to lament the very
great inferiority of the paper generally which is employed in printing

books. It may have a fine, glossy, smooth appearance, but its texture is
so poor and flimsy, that it soon frays or breaks, without the greatest
care; and many an immortal work is committed to a miserably frail and
perishable material!
A comparison of the books which were printed a century ago, with
those of the present day, will, I conceive, fully establish the complaint
which I venture to make; and I would particularly remark upon the
large Bibles and Prayer Books which are now printed at the
Universities for the use of our churches and chapels, which are exposed
to much wear and tear, and ought, therefore, to be of more substantial
and enduring texture, but are of so flimsy, brittle, and cottony a
manufacture, that they require renewing every three or four years.
"LAUDATOR TEMPORIS ACTI."
Little Casterton (Rutland) Church.--Within the communion rails in the
church of Little Casterton, Rutland, there lies in the pavement (or did
lately) a stone, hollowed out like the basin or drain of a piscina, which
some church-hunters have supposed to be a piscina, and have noticed
as a great singularity. The stone, however, did not originally belong to
this church; it was brought from the neighbouring site of the desecrated
church of Pickworth, by the late Reverend Richard Twopeny, who held
the rectory of Little Casterton upwards of sixty years; he had long seen
it lying neglected among the ruins, and at length brought it to his own
church to save it from destruction.
It may be interesting to some of your readers to learn that in the chancel
of Little Casterton are monumental brasses of an armed male and a
female figure, the latter on the sinister side, with the following
inscription in black letter:--
"Hic jacet D[=n]s Thomas Burto[=n] miles quondam d[=u]s de
Tolthorp ac ecclesiæ.... patronus qui obiit kalendas Augusti.... d[=n]a
Margeria uxor ejus sinistris quor[um], a[=i]abus ppicietur deus amen."
R. C. H.

The Hippopotamus (Vol. ii., pp. 35. 277.).--I can refer your
correspondent L. (Vol. ii, p. 35.) to one more example of a Greek writer
using the word [Greek: hippopotamos], viz., the Hieroglyphics of
Horapollo Nilous, lib. i. 56. (I quote from the edition by A. T. Cory.
Pickering, 1840): {182}
"[Greek: Adikon de kai achariston, hippopotamou onuchas duo, katô
blepontas, graphousin]."
He there mentions the idea of the animal contending against his father,
&c.; and as he flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, it is
probable that he is the source from which Damascius took the story.
I have in my cabinet a large brass coin of the Empress Ptacilia Severa,
wife of Philip, on which is depicted the Hippopotamus, with the legend
SAECVLARES. AVGG., showing it to have been exhibited at the
sæcular games.
E. S. TAYLOR.
Specimens of Foreign English.--Several ludicrous examples have of
late been communicated (see Vol. ii., pp. 57. 138.), but none, perhaps,
comparable with the following, which I copied about two years since at
Havre, from a Polyglot advertisement of various Local Regulations, for
the convenience of persons visiting that favourite watering-place.
Amongst these it was stated that--
"Un arrangement peut se faire avec le pilote, pour de promenades à
rames."
Of this the following most literal version was enounced,--
"One arrangement can make himself with the pilot for the walking with
roars" (sic).
ALBERT WAY.
St. Clare.--In the interesting and amusing volume of Rambles beyond

Railways, M. W. Wilkie Collins has attributed the church of St. Cleer
in Cornwall, with its Well and ruined Oratory, to St. Clare, the heroic
Virgin of Assisi; but in the elegant and useful Calendar of the Anglican
Church, the same church is ascribed to St. Clair, the Martyr of Rouen.
My own impression is, that the latter is correct; but I note the
circumstance, that some of your readers better informed than myself,
may be enabled to answer the Query, which is the right ascription?
When Mr. Collins alluded to the fate of Bishop Hippo, devoured by rats,
I presume he means Bishop Hatto, commemorated in the "Legends of
the Rhine."
BERIAH BOTFIELD.
Norton Hall, Feb. 14. 1851.
Dr. Dodd.--On the 13th February, 1775, Dr. Dodd was inducted to the
vicarage of Wing, Bucks, on the presentation of the Earl of Chesterfield.
On the 8th February, 1777, he was arrested for forging the Earl's bond.
Dr. Dodd never resided at Wing; but, during the short period he held
the living, he preached there four times. The tradition of the parish is,
that on those occasions he preached