late Davies Gilbert?

J.A. GILES.

Bilderdijk the Poet.—Banished from his native country, disowned by his own countrymen, the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk pitched his tent for a while on the hospitable soil of Old England. Prince William V. residing in 1795 at Hampton Court, he resolved to stay there; but, possessing no income at all, and, like the sage of antiquity, having saved nothing from the shipwreck but his genius, he shifted his dwelling-place to London, where he gave lessons in drawing, languages, and various, even medical, sciences. He was married in England to Katharine Wilhelmina Schweickhardt, on the 18th of May, 1797. His residence in the birthplace of "NOTES AND QUERIES" makes me ask, if there be still persons living, who remember him as teacher, friend, or poet? A presentation-copy of Mrs. Bilderdijk's translation of Rodrick, the Last of the Goths, was offered to Southey, accompanied by a Latin letter from her spouse. The poet-laureate visiting Leyden in the summer of 1825, Bilderdijk would not suffer him to remain lodged in the inn, where an injury to his leg urged him to favour the landlord with a protracted stay. Southey was transported accordingly to the Dutch poet's house; and did not leave it before he was cured, several weeks having elapsed in the meanwhile. Mention of this fact is made in a poem the British bard addresses to Cuninghame. I do not know whether it is alluded to in Southey's Life.

Bilderdijk's foot was crushed accidentally, in the sixth year of his age, by one of his play-fellows; and thus he, who, by his natural disposition seemed to be destined to a military career, was obliged to enlist in the militia togata. He fought the good fight in verse. It is remarkable that Byron and Sir Walter Scott, his cotemporaries, were also lame or limping.

JANUS DOUSA.

Egyptian MSS.—What is the age of the oldest MS. found in Egypt? Are there any earlier than the age of Alexander?

J.A. GILES.

Scandinavian Priesthood.—Will one of your correspondents do me the favour to let me know the best authority I can refer to for information as to the priesthood of the Scandinavians; the mode of their election, the rank from which they were generally chosen, whether they were allowed to marry, &c.?

MAX BRANDESON.

Thomas Volusemus (or Wilson?).—Is anything known of Thomas Volusemus (Wilson?) who edited the works of his father-in-law, Patrick Adamson, titular Archbishop of St. Andrew's, which were published in London A.D. 1619?

H.A.E.

REPLIES.

CURFEW.

We have received the following Replies to NABOC'S inquiry (Vol. ii., p. 103.) as to where the custom of ringing the curfew still remains.

Bingley in Yorkshire.—In the town of Bingley, in Yorkshire, the custom of ringing the curfew existed in the year 1824. It may have been discontinued since that year, but I do not know that it has.

It is also the custom at Blackburn, in Lancashire; and it was, if it is not now, at Bakewell in Derbyshire.

H.J.

Bromyard, Herefordshire.—The curfew is still rung at Bromyard, Herefordshire, at nine P.M., from the 5th of November, until Christmas Day; and the bell is afterwards tolled the number of the day of the month. Why it is merely confined to within the above days, I could never ascertain.

G.F.C.

Waltham-on-the-Wolds.—The curfew is still rung at Waltham-on-the-Wolds, Leicestershire, at five A.M., eight P.M. in summer, and at six A.M., seven P.M. in winter; the bell also tolling the day of the month.

R.J.S.

Oxfordshire.—I see that NABOC's inquiry about the curfew is answered at p. 175. by a reference to the Journal of the British Archæological Association. The list there is probably complete: but lest it should omit any, I may as well mention, from my own knowledge, Woodstock, Oxon, where it rings from eight to half-past eight in the evening, from October to March; Bampton and Witney, Oxon, and Stow, in Gloucester; at some of which places it is also rung at four in the morning.

C.

Chertsey, Surrey.—In the town of Chertsey in Surrey, the curfew is regularly tolled for a certain time at eight every evening, but only through the winter months. There is also a curious, if not an uncommon, custom kept up with regard to it. After the conclusion of the curfew, and a pause of half a minute, the day of the month is tolled out: one stroke for the 1st, two for the 2nd, and so on.

H.C. DE ST. CROIX.

Penrith.—The curfew bell continues to be rung at Penrith, in Cumberland, at eight o'clock in the evening, and is the signal for closing shops, &c.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.—The curfew is still rung by all the churches of Newcastle-upon-Tyne at eight in the evening; and its original use may be said to be preserved to a considerable extent, for the greater bulk of the shops make it a signal for closing.

G. BOUCHIER RICHARDSON.

Morpeth.—The curfew bell is still rung at eight P.M. at Morpeth in Northumberland.

E.H.A.

Exeter.—The curfew is rung in Exeter Cathedral at eight P.M.

The present practice is to toll the bell thirty strokes, and after a short interval to toll eight more; the latter, I presume, denoting the hour.

G.T.

Winchester.—Curfew is still rung at Winchester.

AN OLD COMMONER PREFECT.

Over, near Winsford, Cheshire.—The custom of ringing the curfew is still kept up at Over, near Winsford, Cheshire; and the parish church, St. Chads, is nightly visited for that purpose at eight o'clock. This bell is the signal amongst the farmers in the neighbourhood for "looking up" their cattle in the winter evenings; and was, before the establishment of a public clock in the tower of the Weaver Church at Winsford, considered the standard time by which to regulate their movements.

A READER.

[We are indebted to the courtesy of the Editor of the Liverpool Albion for this Reply, which was originally communicated to that paper.]

The Curfew, of which some inquiries have appeared in the "NOTES AND QUERIES," is generally rung in the north of England. But then it is also common in the south of Scotland. I have heard it in Kelso, and other towns in Roxburghshire. The latter circumstance would appear to prove that it cannot have originated with the Norman conqueror, to whom it is attributed.

W.

ENGELMANNS BIBLIOTHECA SCRIPTORUM CLASSICORUM.

(Vol. ii., p. 296.)

The shortest reply to MR. DE MORGAN'S complaint against a foreign bookseller would be, that Engelmann himself printed for any of the purchasers of a large number of his Catalogues the titles to which MR. DE MORGAN objects so much.

Will you allow me to add one or two remarks occasioned by MR. DE MORGAN'S strictures?

1. Engelmann is not, strictly speaking, a bookseller, and his catalogues are not booksellers' catalogues in the sense in which that term is generally received here. He is a publisher and compiler (and an admirable one) of general classified catalogues for the use of the trade and of students, without any reference to his stock, or, in many instances, to the possibility of easily acquiring copies of the books enumerated: and although he might execute an order from his catalogues, getting orders is not the end for which he publishes them.

2. Some foreign houses in London, as well as in other countries, bought a large number of his Catalogues, not as a book but as a catalogue, to be