This was the first intimation I ever had of the z¸nd-nadel guns. I should like to know when and by whom they were invented, and their mechanism.
_Bacon Family, Origin of the Name._--Among the able notes, or the _not_-able Queries of a recent Number, (I regret that I have it not at hand, for an exact quotation), a learned correspondent mentioned, _en passant_, that the word _bacon_ had the obsolete signification of "_dried wood_." As a patronymic, BACON has been not a little illustrious, in literature, science, and art; and it would be interesting to know whether the name has its origin in the crackling fagot or in the cured flitch. Can any of your genealogical correspondents help me to authority on the subject?
A modern motto of the Somersetshire Bacons has an ingenious rebus:
the capitals, thus placed, giving it the double reading, Proba coniscientia, and Pro Bacon Scientia.
_Armorials._--Sable, a fesse or, in chief two fleurs de lis or, in base a hind courant argent. E.D.B. will feel grateful to any gentlemen who will kindly inform him of the name of the family to which the above coat belonged. They were quartered by Richard or Roger Barow, of Wynthorpe, in Lincolnshire (_Harl. MS._ 1552. 42 _b_), who died in 1505.
_Artephius, the Chemical Philosopher._--What is known of the chemical philosopher Artephius? He is mentioned in Jocker's _Dictionary_, and by Roger Bacon (in the _Opus Majus_ and elsewhere), { 248} and a tract ascribed to him is printed in the _Theatrum Chemicum_.
_Sir Robert Howard._--Can any reader assist me in finding out the author of
"A Discourse of the Nationall Excellencies of England. By R.H., London. Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Henry Fletcher, at the Three Gilt Cups in the New Buildings, near the west end of St. Paul's, 1658. 12 mo., pp. 248."
This is a very remarkable work, written in an admirable style, and wholly free from the coarse party spirit which then generally prevailed. The writer declares, p. 235., he had not subscribed the engagement, and there are internal evidences of his being a churchman and a monarchist. Is there any proof of its having been written by Sir Robert Howard? A former possessor of the copy now before me, has written his name on the title-page as its conjectured author. My copy of Sir Robert's _Poems_, published two years after, was published not by _Fletcher_, but by "Henry Herringman, at the sign of the Anchor, in the lower walk of the New Exchange." John Dryden, Sir Robert's brother-in-law, in the complimentary stanzas on Howard's poems, says,