276
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9*s.ix. APRIL 5, 1902.
BLACK BOTTLES FOR WINE (9 th S. ix. 7, 175)
Some years ago my brother, the late* Mr
Clement Southam, was given a dark green
squat bottle, which is now in the possession
of his son. It is said to have been taken ou
of the lake at Ellesmere. In shape it is lik
some old liqueur or wine bottles that I hav<
seen in Holland, but with a deep hollow butt
the total height being 6f in., of which 2| in
are neck ; the circumference is about 18j in
On the shoulder the letters "E. A." are
deeply scratched, and a little lower down, in
another part, the following name and date
in the characters of the period, " John Joyce
1714." My brother always thought that the
bottle had contained ale, and had been
dropped by some excited angler into the
lake, probably by one of the family of Joyce
who have been noted clockmakers at Whit
church (Salop) for some generations.
HEKBEKT SOUTHAM.
Shrewsbury.
I have a black glass bottle of a rather unusual shape. It stands 7 in. high, with a long neck, and a squat body 4 in. in diameter. It has a date impressed upon it in the shape of a seal the size of a crown piece, with "E. C. 1731 " on it. It came from the village of Wark worth, Northumberland. This is no great distance from Seaton Delaval in the same county, and may probably have been manufactured there, according to the state- ment in the Times that making black glass bottles was commenced there. May not the initials refer to the Clutterbuck family, which has for a very long time been connected with Warkworth ? G. H. THOMPSON.
A LINE OF BROWNING (9 th S. ix. 47, 173).
The fact that MR. EAMES and ST. SWITHIN
take diametrically opposite views about the
meaning of this line is proof that Browning
does not make his meaning clear to all
readers. Yet I cannot think it doubtful
which interpretation is correct. Browning
never would set himself down as a "driveller "
Ine words are governed by the interrogation
point at the end of the line, and form a
second question, succeeding that in the
previous line. Browning's punctuation may
not show this to a casual reader. But is
K ^ ME A S J usfcified in cal ling it simply
bad 1 A writer in the Edinburgh Review
lately asserted that Browning had 'no idea of
punctuation. We know, on the contrary
that he had a very great care for punctuation,
and attended to this himself in his proofs (Mrs
? rr u 8 J Llf ? P- 381) ' Onl y> as in oth er matters' he had views of his own, and was a law to himself. An observant reader, I think, will
find a very careful punctuation running
through all Browning's poems, and it is
worth trying to grasp its principle. For
one thing which bears on the line in ques-
tion he clearly used the dash, not disjunc-
tively, as I have just done, but connect! vely.
He employs it to link two ideas, not to
separate them. Any one accustomed to
Browning's usage would see at once that
"did I drivel Being who?" is meant to
run together, not to be parted.
Whether any writer is justified in thus inventing a system of his own may be open to question. Yet our present system has neither age nor authority behind it, and is in many ways defective. It takes note solely of grammatical construction, and practically compels a reader to punctuate mentally for himself. Older writers were quite different. They punctuated for rhetorical pause instead of grammar. They would say, for instance, "To err, is human" which we should now write "To err is human." Browning read deeply in old English poets, and probably drew some of his notions from their usage. At all events, his punctuation seems an attempt to supply that rhetorical arrange- ment of clauses which modern stopping altogether ignores. If MR. EAMES will study it in this way, he may find it a help rather than a hindrance in obscurely worded passages. That such help should be so often required is a misfortune, and I personally think MR. EAMES has rightly stated one great cause of the necessity. But at least we can use the stepping-stones which the poet him- self laboured to place at our disposal.
T. S. OMOND.
TINTAGEL (8 th S. i. 434 ; 9 th S. ix. 194). Borlase, 'Antiquities of Cornwall/ 1754, p. 320, spells this "Tindagel alias Tindogel," and adds in a foot-note "Rectius f. Tintughel, viz., the high fortify'd hill." Polwhele,
' f In-rnieVi-TTncrliol-i ~\Tr\nn Knlo WIT ' 1 Qf\Q n f
corresponds
ranslation " castle of guile," mentioned by
MR. LEWIS at the last reference, and is also
confirmed by Williams, 'Lexicon Cornu-
Britannicum/ 1865, where I find "Tin, a
! ortified place, a castle; another form of din ;
ience Tintagel in Cornwall."
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
LADY MARY TUDOR (9 th S. viii. 484 ; ix. 72, 94). In vol. ii., facing p. 256 of the 'History >f English Dress/ by Georgiana Hill, is a ull- length engraved portrait of this lady, epresenting a very beautiful woman. Underneath is inscribed "Lady Mary Tudor,
