9 th S. I. JAN. 22, '98.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
a wood, stone, or terra-cotta. A builder woulc
ell you this is merely an ornament, an architectura
Accessory, but it really is the survival of the shea:
if corn, which, therefore, must have b,een also usua
n England at one time in our country's history
3ut this sheaf of corn also survives in another form
.n many parts of the country, as soon as the brick
ayers have finished their work and set the chimney
jots, a bush is fixed to the end of a scaffold pole.
Here, in Margate, it is replaced by a flag. I asked a
Margate builder, a little while ago, why his men die
- his, and he said it was because it showed they hac
- ome to an end of their work, and expected a drink
Co celebrate the occasion. No doubt that is why
ohey do it now, but their early forefathers did it as
in offering to Woden's horse, and the drink was a
solemn libation or drink - offering to the same
animal, or perhaps to Woden himself. Thus, the
flag derives from the bush, and the bush from the
sheaf. Custom survives the reason changes."
At Lytchett Park, near Poole, the residence of the Hon. Lord Eustace Cecil, during the recent building of a new private chapel, I saw a flag flying from the highest scaffold pole. Asking the reason, I learned the worthy builder had the day previously been returned for the County Council at "the top of the poll " ! HAEEY HEMS.
Fair Park, Exeter.
A similar custom exists in the building trade in England, but it has to do with the building, not with the scaffolding. When the bricklayers come to the "topping" a small flag it may be a small handker- chief on a stick is lashed to the top of a scaffold pole, which is the signal for libations not commended by Sir Wilfrid Lawson.
AYEAHE.
A BOOKBINDING QUESTION (8 th S. xii. 207, 292, 353, 452). I have been hoping some pub- lisher would kindly come forward and explain (if possible) the why and the wherefore of books lettered along the back being almost invariably lettered upside down. In default of any one coming forward, I may perhaps be permitted to reply on behalf of the plain- tiffs. My answer to ME. WAEEEN is that not only is my argument good, but the assump- tion upon which it is founded is good also. That assumption simply is that a book is meant to be read, or, if of the drawing-room table character, looked at, and is not meant to be kept constantly in a bookcase. When out for _the purpose of being read or looked at, it is invariably, when not actually in some one's hands, laid upon the drawing-room, library, sitting-room, or bedroom table, with the face upwards. Every one admits that. When so naturally and reasonably laid upon the table, as things are at present, the title along the back is almost always printed up- side down, so that, seated anywhere within
reading distance of the table, the title cannot
be read unless you stand on your head an
acrobatic feat which some of us are now too
old to perform gracefully.
I do not agree with the argument, " made in Germany," that " when the book is lying on the table you do not want the en- dorsement." You most certainly do want it then, quite as much as at any other time.
The question is one for publishers to con- sider simply in the light of plain, ordinary common sense. Which method is most con- venient for their customers, the users of books ? To this question I think there can be but one reply. To letter the book so that when placed upon a table with its face up- wards the title printed along the back can be read is sensible. To print it upside down, so that it cannot be read, is the reverse of sen- sible, besides being provocative of much pro- fane language.
ME. RALPH THOMAS, who though some- thing of the character of Thomas called Didymus, as he says, "After all, does it matter which 1 ?" is, on the whole, with me in this question, seems to think that those responsible for this enormity have no time to read * N. & Q ' and so continue in their sins. I shall undertake to get this corre- spondence in ' N. & Q.' printed and sent to all the principal publishers ; and I would earnestly appeal to them to give this matter their best consideration, for though the ques- tion is a small one, it is an extremely irritating one, from its " damnable iteration."
J. B. FLEMING. Kelvinside, Glasgow.
P.S. I see copies of the Review of Reviews and the Strand Magazine lying in front of me on the table, face up. Both are correctly lettered along the back, so that they can be read without rising and lifting them to see what magazines they are. Pearson's and the Badminton are wrong.
I prefer that the title should read upwards ; 3ut I cannot see from my own library that any rule prevails either among French or Grerman publishers. Perhaps most foreign itles are printed downwards ; but among
- hose I find with letters printed upwards are
Terrot's ' La Province en Decembre, 1851 ' 1868), Moliere's ' Le Misanthrope' (Biblio- heque Rationale, 1868), and Scheffel's 'Trom- )eter von Sakkingen ' (1885).
WILLIAM GEOEGE BLACK.
Glasgow.
COLD HAEBOUE (8th S. xii. 482 ; 9 th S. i. 17). 't may be sufficient to compare these names without any surviving remains) with the "dak
