Universal Museum, were not those selected for his correspondence.

If any of your readers can refer me to any papers or essays of his, or any details of the internal management of his China works, or of his public or private life, it will be doing me a great favour.

What I have hitherto collected are chiefly fragmentary accounts of his life and character; general notices of his discovery of the China clay and stone, of the progress of his manufactory, and of his treatment of British cobalt ores; details of his experiments on the distillation of sea-water for use on ship-board; a treatise in detail on the divining rod; and several of his private letters, chiefly religious.

Most of these I have thrown out in print, under the title of Relics of William Cookworthy, &c., which I am desirous of making much more complete.

J. Prideaux.

CATHOLIC FLORAL DIRECTORIES, ETC.

More than a year ago (Vol. vi., p. 503.) I made a Query respecting Catholic Floral Directories, and two works in particular which were largely quoted in Mr. Oakley's Catholic Florist, Lond. 1851; and I again alluded to them in Vol. vii., p. 402., but have not got any reply. The two works referred to, viz. the Anthologia Borealis et Australis, and the Florilegium Sanctorum Aspirationum, are not to be heard of anywhere (so far as I can see) save in Mr. Oakley's book. During the last year I have ransacked all the bibliographical authorities I could lay hold of, and made every inquiry after these mysterious volumes, but all in vain.

The orthography and style of the passages cited are of a motley kind, and most of them read like modern compositions, though here and there we have a quaint simile and a piece of antique spelling. In fact they seem more like imitations than anything else; and I cannot resist the temptation of placing them on the same shelf with M‘Pherson's Ossian and the poems of Rowley. In some places a French version of the Florilegium is quoted: even if that escaped one's researches, is it likely that two old English books (which these purport to be), of such a remarkable kind, should be unknown to all our bibliographers, and to the readers of "N. & Q.," among whom may be found the chief librarians and bibliographers in the three kingdoms. Is it not strange also that Mr. Oakley and his "compiler" decline giving any information respecting these books?

I shall feel extremely obliged to any correspondent who will clear up this matter, and who will furnish me with a list of Catholic Floral Directories.

Eirionnach.

GEORGE ALSOP.

George Alsop was ordained deacon 1666-67, priest 1669, by Henry King, Bishop of Chichester. He printed in 1669—

"An Orthodox Plea for the Sanctuary of God, Common Service, and White Robe of the House. Printed for the Author, and sold by R. Reynolds, at the Sun and Bible in the Postern."

It is a small 8vo. of eighty-six pages, exclusive of the dedication to the Bishop of Chichester, and an Epistle to the Reader, and has a portrait of the author by W. Sherwin.

Can any of your readers give me any account of this George Alsop, his preferment, if any, and the time of his death?

He is, I feel persuaded, a different person from the author of A Character of Maryland, 12mo., 1666.

P. B.

Minor Queries.

B. L. M.—What is the meaning of the abbreviation B. L. M. in Italian epistolary correspondence? I have reason to believe that it is used

where some degree of acquaintance exists, but not in addressing an entire stranger. In a correspondence now before me, one of the writers, an Italian gentleman, uses it in the subscription to every one of his letters, except the first, thus:

I need not add more examples. There is nothing in Graglia's Collection of Italian Letters that explains it.

J. W. T.

Dewsbury.

Member of Parliament electing himself.—In the biographical notices of the author of an Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative in England, 1849, I find the following curious circumstances:

"The writ for election (of a member for the county of Bute) was transmitted to the sheriff, Mr. M‘Leod Bannatine, afterwards Lord Bannatine. He named the day, and issued his precept for the election. When the day of election arrived, Mr. Bannatine was the only freeholder present. As freeholder he voted himself chairman of the meeting; as sheriff he produced the writ and receipt for election, read the writ and the oaths against bribery at elections; as sheriff he administered the oaths of supremacy, &c., to himself as chairman; he signed the oaths as chairman and as sheriff; as chairman he named the clerk to the meeting, and called over the roll of freeholders; he proposed the candidate and declared him elected; he dictated and signed the minutes of election; as sheriff he made an indenture of election between himself as sheriff and himself as chairman, and transmitted it to the crown office."

Can any of your correspondents furnish me with a similar case?

H. M.

Peckham.

"Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re."—This rule is strongly recommended by Lord Chesterfield in one of his letters, as "unexceptionably useful and necessary in every part of life." Whence is it taken, and who is its author?

J. W. T.

Dewsbury.

Jacobite Garters.—Can any of your readers inform me of the origin of the "rebel garters," a pair of which I possess, and which have been carefully handed down with other Stuart relics by my Jacobin fathers?

They are about 4 feet long, and 1¼ inch deep, of silk woven in the loom; the pattern consists of a stripe of red, yellow, and blue, once repeated, and arranged so that the two blue lines meet in the centre. At each end, for about six or seven inches, and at spaces set at regular intervals, these lines of colour are crossed, so as to form a check or tartan; the spaces corresponding with the words in the following inscription, and one word being allotted to each space:

"Come lett us with one heart agree"

and it is continued on the other:

"To pray that God may bless P. C."

The tartan, however, does not appear to be the "Royal Stuart."

Probably they were distributed to the friends and adherents of poor Prince Charles Edward, to commemorate some special event in his ill-fated career. But it would be interesting to know if many of them remain, and, if possible, their correct history.

E. L. I.

Daughters taking their Mothers' Names.—Can any of your readers favour me with any instances, about the time of the first, second, and third Edwards, of a daughter adding to her own name that of the mother, as Alicia, daughter of Ada, &c.

Buriensis.

General Fraser.—Have there been any Life or Memoirs ever published of General Fraser, who fell in Burgoyne's most disastrous campaign? If