12 B. II. SEPT. 2, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
187
oa the other hand, we are just as unable to
think of a cessation of time. These are
matters which to the human brain, being
what it is, are truly " unthinkable."
" Unthinkable " is not, it may be ad- mitted, in any sense a pleasing word, but it as a very apt one. Its very literalness, its Anglo-Saxon directness, its uncouth con- struction, all help to enforce its meaning. Jt seems to have been, and quite possibly was, coined for the occasion. To say that a thing is " incomprehensible," for instance, does not now convey nearly the same mean- ing. It may merely denote that we do not understand because we have not the neces- sary facts before us upon which to form a judgment. But to say that a thing is " unthinkable " is to say that it is altogether beyond the scope of mind.
Can we not make some effort to save this word for its legitimate use, instead of having it applied in pure sensationalism to any political occasion which presents factors which are a little out of the common ? Does the man who says that "it is unthinkable that Germany will win the war," or that " an election is unthinkable at this time," really suppose that the human mind is in- capable of forming a conception of either of these contingencies ? W. A. ATKINSON.
UNCUT PAPER. On Nov. 24, 1665, Pepys paid a visit to Evelyn at Sayes Court, where his host showed him some autograph letters of Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots. In his ' Diary,' under the above date, Pepys makes the following entry : "" But, Lord ! how poorly, methinks, they wrote in those days, and in what plain uncut paper," from which it would appear that it was then the practice to trim writing paper by removing the rough or " deckle " edge. I was not previously aware that this practice was of quite so early a date. R. B. P.
MEMORIAL OF CHOLERA VICTIMS, BICESTER, OXON. In the year 1832 this town was visited by a severe cholera epidemic, to which upwards of sixty-four persons fell victims. A headstone on the south side of the churchyard was erected to their memory. During the course of time many of the names became worn away and needed renewing. A former Vicar of Bicester, the Rev. J. B. Kane, who was presented to that living in 1881, had this stone restored at his own expense, and the work was carried out by Randell James Litten (junior), son of Randell James Litten (senior), who were both monu- mental masons in Bicester. As a few of the
names and figures are again showing signs
of decay and will soon need a second
restoration, I thought it advisable to tran-
scribe them and send them to ' N. & Q.' for
publication while they can still be read. The
inscription on the stone is as under :
Erected at the public expense
to the memory of
sixty Eoui persons who died in this parish
by cholera morbus
A.D. MDCCCXXXII.
Their names are under written
James George
William Westbury
Samuel Clark
John Edmonds
Hannah Pallett
Mary Ann Mason
Mary Pritchett
Robert Spenser
Jane Horwood
Hannah Aston
Ann Plester
Levi Dormer
Jane Jackson
William Blinco
Sarah Aston
Sarah Jackson
Phoebe Clifton
Mary Pratt
William Bradley
Mary Steven
Thomas Plester
Dorothy Castle
Thomas Mauder
Samuel Clifton
William Stirman
Matilda Dormer
Martha Bradley
John Smith
Mary Smith
Thomas Miles
James Richardson
Elizabeth Hunt
53
19
67
18
39
7
16 50 21 12
2
4
3
63 52 54 52
6
63 38
4
67 54 52 47
1
62 19 15 35 63 30
Mary Pritchett 42
William Blinco 41
Harriett Grace
Thomas Roberts 45
Mary Ann Wheeler 9
George King 62
Ann Pritchett Hannah Blinco 25 Edward Coxill 62
Martha Gaydon 47 Robert Timms Emma Archer Jane Auger George Wiggins Henry Tooley Sarah Tooley Rebecca Allen 27
Elizabeth Coleman 8 Jane Pitts 2
William Waddup 69 Mary Ann Gomm 25 William March 13
James Pallett 30
Ann Pallett 6
Richard Edmonds 55 Fanny Force William Force Ann Parker Elizabeth Auger 26 Thomas Auger Martha Waddup 69 James Parker 37
These persons all died within the space of two
months commencing June 7, 1832, and their
bodies are buried near this stone.
Bedford.
L. H. CHAMBERS.
ANCIENT ROMAN AND WELSH LAW. It
may, perhaps, be worth recording that the
substance of ancient Roman law, which
has been summarized in its three tenets,
" 1. Honeste vivere ; 2. Alterum non
Isedere ; 3. Suum cuique tribuere," accord-
ing to Justinian's ' Institutiones ' (as correctly
stated in ' N. & Q.,' 10 S. xi. 38, by PROF. E.
BENSLY, in reply to a query of mine), must
have been not unknown to the lawgivers
of ancient Wales, and afforded one of the
chief sources for the law-book of King
Howel-Dda, i.e., Howel the Good, who
reigned A.D. 907-48. For the following
paragraph, almost verbally, in its sense,
agreeing with it, occurs in Aneurin Owen's