student must be so sensible of the great obligation he is under to our distinguished scholar Mr. Thorpe, that I trust it will not be deemed invidious or ungracious to point out another passage in this Colloquy which seems to have hitherto baffled him, but which it appears to me may be elucidated.

To the question, "Hwilce fixas gefehst thu?" the fisherman answers, "Aelas aud hacodas, mynas, aud aelputan, sceotan aud lampredan, aud swa hwylce swa on waetere swymath, sprote."

Mr. Thorpe, in the 1st edition of his Analecta, says, "What is intended to be meant by this word [sprote], as well as by salu [the correspondent word in the Latin], I am at a loss to conjecture." In his second edition, Mr. Thorpe repeats, "I am unable to explain salu otherwise than by supposing it may be an error for salice. In his Glossary he has "spro't, ii. 2.? sprout, rod?" with a reference to his note. I must confess I cannot see how the substitution of salice for salu would make the passage more intelligible, and the explanation of spro'te in the Glossary does not help us. The sense required appears to me to be, quickly, swiftly, and this will, I think, be found to be the meaning of sprote. In the Moeso-Gothic Gospels the word sprauto occurs several times and always in the sense of cito, subito; and though we have hitherto, I believe, no other example in Anglo-Saxon of this adverbial use of the word, we are warranted, I think, in concluding, from the analogy of a cognate language, that it did exist. In regard to the evidently corrupt Latin word salu, I have nothing better to offer than the forlorn conjecture that, in monkish Latin, "saltu't" may have been contractedly written for saltuatim."

Dr. Leo, in his Angelsâchsiche Sprachproben, has reprinted the Colloquy, but without the Latin, and, among many other capricious deviations from Mr. Thorpe's text, in the answer of the shoewright has printed hygefata! but does not notice the word in his Glossary. Herr Leo has entirely omitted the word sprote.

S.W. SINGER.

Jan. 14. 1850.

LOGOGRAPHIC PRINTING.

[NASO has, in compliance with our request, furnished us with a facsimile of the heading of his early number of The Times, which is as follows:—"THE (here an engraving of the King's Arms) TIMES, OR DAILY UNIVERSAL REGISTER, PRINTED LOGOGRAPHICALLY, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12. 1788," and informs us that it was printed "By R. Nutkins, at the Logographic Press, Printing-House Square, near Apothecaries' Hall, Blackfriars," and the height to which the Mr. Walter of that day had brought his invention, by the same energy by which his successor has raised THE TIMES to its present position, is shown by the following note from a kind and most able correspondent.]

A much more remarkable specimen of Logographic Printing than the number of the Times newspaper mentioned by NASO, No. 9., p. 136., is an edition of Anderson's History of Commerce, with a continuation, in 4 vols. 4to., printed by that method in 1787-1789, "at the Logographic Press, by J. Walter, Printing-House Square, Blackfriars." The work, which makes in all not much short of 4000 pages, is very well printed in all respects; and the following interesting note on the subject of Logographic Printing is attached to the preface heading the Continuation, or fourth volume.

"Mr. Walter cannot here omit suggesting to the Public a few observations on his improved mode of printing LOGOGRAPHICALLY. In all projects for the general benefit, the individual who conceives that the trade in which he is engaged diminishes in its emoluments from any improvement which another may produce in it, is too much disposed to become its enemy; and, perhaps, the interest of individuals never exerted itself with more inveteracy than has been experienced by Mr. Walter from many concerned in the trade into which he had entered.

"The invention which he brought forward, promised to be of essential service to the public, by expediting the process and lessening the expense of printing. Dr. Franklin sanctioned it with his approbation, and Sir Joseph Banks encouraged him with the most decided and animated opinion of the great advantages which would arise to literature from the LOGOGRAPHIC PRESS. Nevertheless Mr. Walter was left to struggle with the interest of some, and the prejudice of others, and, though he was honoured by the protection of several persons of high rank, it happened in his predicament, as it generally happens in predicaments of a similar nature, that his foes were more active than his friends, and he still continued to struggle with every difficulty that could arise from a very determined opposition to, and the most illiberal misrepresentations of, the LOGOGRAPHIC IMPROVEMENT.

"Mr. Walter has, however, at length triumphed over the falsehood and malignity of his opponents; LOGOGRAPHIC PRINTING, after having produced such a work as this, which he now presents to the public, with many excellent publications that he has already printed, can no longer be considered as an idle speculation: on the contrary, it is proved to be a practical improvement, that promises, under a due encouragement, to produce a great national benefit. To advance it to the perfection of which it is capable, Mr. Walter engages to employ his utmost exertions, and he takes the liberty of expressing his confidence, that he shall not be disappointed in the enjoyment of that public favour which now promises to reward his labours."

C.

Old Brompton, Jan. 3. 1850.

[We may mention another work printed in this manner—an edition of Robinson Crusoe, in 3 vols. 8vo. 1790—"printed at the Logographic Press, and sold by J. Walter, No. 169. Piccadilly, opposite Old Bond Street."]

MEMORIALS OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S LAST DAYS.⁹

At a recent meeting of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, Dr. Anster exhibited a manuscript volume of 157 pages, which he declared to be the identical "album filled with songs, recipes, prayers, and charms," found in the Duke of Monmouth's pocket when he was seized. It was purchased at a book-stall in Paris in 1827 by an Irish divinity student, was given by him to a priest in the county of Kerry, and, on the priest's death, became the property of the present possessor. Respecting in its identity and history, from its removal from the rebel duke's pocket down to its production at the Royal Irish Academy, Dr. Anster showed that after Monmouth was beheaded—which he was on Tower Hill, by the too-celebrated John Ketch, on the 15th July, 1685—the articles found on his person were given to the king. At James's deposition, three years afterwards, all his manuscripts, including those that had belonged to Monmouth, were carried into France, where they remained till the Revolution in that country a century afterwards. Dr Anster, in exhibiting the book, showed that the remains of silver clasps had been destroyed, and a part of the leather of the covers at each side torn away, seemingly for the purpose of removing some name on a coat of arms with which it had been once marked; and this he accounted for by the belief that at the period of the French Revolution the persons in whose custody they were, being fearful of the suspicions likely to arise from their possession of books with royal arms on them, tore off the covers, and sent the books to St. Omer's. The after-fate of the larger books was, that they were burned; some small ones, we are distinctly told, were saved