* * * * *
_Botanical A.B.C._--The A.B.C. Daria is a name given to a plant of the
camomile species. The appellation is designed to express the use made
of this plant by the black schoolmasters at Amboyna, who cause their
young pupils to chew the flowers and roots, either alone or with
beetlenut, in order that they may more easily pronounce some of the
difficult Arabic letters. It is similar to the _Anthemis Pyrethrum_,
as stimulating the mouth, and is recommended in paralyses of the
tongue. P.T.W.
_Smoking._--A standing order of the House of Commons, in 1693,
directs, "that no member of the house do presume to smoke tobacco in
the gallery, or at the tables of the house sitting at committees."
H.B. ANDREWS.
_A Turn-coat._--De Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, was notorious for
his shiftings in religion. One of his friends ended a report of an
interview with him as follows:--"It is clear he is a _wily-beguily_,
rightly bred in the nest of the Jesuits."
* * * * *
_A Turtle Mayor_.--In the fourteenth century, one Roger Turtle was
Mayor of Bristol no less than seven times, 1326 to 1341--a
circumstance which elicited the following _jeu d'esprit_:--
If old _Roger Turtle_ was seven times mayor,
An honour which fell to no other man's share,
His descendant, a _Turtle_, in this modern day,
Bears, as _mayor-elect_, a perpetual sway.
* * * * *
_Auctions_.--In France, to this day, sales are announced with the
drum. In this country they were formerly accompanied by trumpet; for,
in a will of 1388, we find "that the tenements so bequeathed shall be
sold separately, by the sound of the trumpet, at the High Cross
(Bristol), without fraud or collusion."
_Charters_.--In one of the most valuable, but least known collections
in the British Museum, are about _ten thousand_ charters, which were
indexed by Ayscough.
_Cowley_, the poet, was the son of a grocer, who lived in
Fleet-street, near the end of Chancery-lane.
* * * * *
_Epitaph, formerly in a Churchyard at Bristol_.
Ye witty mortals! as you're passing by,
Remark, that near this monument doth lie,
Center'd in dust,
Described thus:
Two Husbands, two Wives,
Two Sisters, two Brothers,
Two Fathers, a Son,
Two Daughters, Two Mothers,
A Grandfather, a Grandmother, a Granddaughter,
An Uncle and an Aunt--their Niece follow'd after.
This catalogue of persons mentioned here
Was only five, and all from incest free.