MISCELLANEOUS.
Trela.—Miniature portrait painting on ivory has become very fashionable of late, and there are always many in the exhibition at the Royal Academy each year. Moist water-colours are used for the painting, sable brushes, and a piece of ivory. The work is very fine, and requires strong and good sight. We think you would require lessons and some study before you made it valuable to you. Meanwhile you should try to see a collection. Richard Cosway was a great miniature painter. You do not say where you write from, so we cannot tell you where to go. If near it, go to the South Kensington Museum.
Margherita.—The population of the world is given in Meyer's Konversations Lexikon at, Christians, 448,000,000; non-Christians, 1,004,000,000.
Green-Eyed Cat.—For "madeira cake" take eight ounces of flour, five ounces of castor sugar, five ounces of butter, four eggs, citron as desired, and grated lemon-peel. Blend the butter and sugar together, add the grated lemon-peel, stir in the eggs one at a time, and sift in the flour by degrees. Then pour the mixture into a buttered cake-tin, placing the pieces of citron on the top, and bake during forty minutes in a moderately hot oven.
Confectioner (New Zealand).—The following is the recipe for the cream: Take three cups of sugar, one and a half of water, half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar, and flavour with essence of vanilla. Boil the mixture till drops will nearly keep their shape in water, then pour into a bowl set in cold water. Stir steadily with a silver or wooden spoon till cold enough to bear the hand in it, and then place on a platter and knead till of an even texture. If too hard, a few drops of warm water may be stirred in; if too soft, it must be boiled again. This is the usual foundation of cream bon-bons. It may be flavoured with chocolate by adding a tablespoon of melted chocolate while the syrup is hot. To make "chocolate creams," set one-half of a cake of cooking chocolate on a flat dish in the oven until soft. Prepare cream as above. Roll into small balls, leave for a few minutes to dry, then roll in the melted chocolate and place on buttered paper. A two-pronged fork will be found convenient for so doing.
Vipers Bugloss.—In the year 1620 Oliver Cromwell married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir James Bourchier, a gentleman of landed property in Essex. The name Bourchier is said by Burke to be Anglo-Norman. The first number of The Girl's Own Paper is dated January 3rd, 1880.
C. T. J. (Harrogate).—The kings of England claimed the crown of France from Edward III., 1340, to the time of George III., 1802—462 years—and the title "King of France" was used till the treaty of Amiens in 1802. At the time of the Union, however, we find the royal style and title was appointed to run thus:—"Georgius Tertius, Dei Gratia Britanniarum Rex, Fidei Defensor," France having been omitted already in 1801. This title was assumed by Edward III. in right of his mother, Isabella, daughter of Philip IV. of France, A.D. 1290. As France was under the Salic Law, which excludes women from the throne, this claim was obviously untenable, but is said to have been made to win over the Flemish allegiance. Edward, however, was originally forced into a defensive war with France, because Philip of Valois desired to seize Edward's duchy of Aquitaine, which had never belonged to the kings of France.
H. R. H.—There are loan funds for helping women to train for professional or technical careers at the Ladies' College, Cheltenham, at Bedford College, and at Queen Margaret's College, Glasgow. For the latter, address Mrs. E. J. Mills, 5, Hillhead Street, Glasgow. In London there is the "Caroline Ashurst Bigg Memorial Loan Fund," Hon. Secretary, Mrs. Alfred Pollard, 13, Cheniston Gardens, Kensington, W. We believe that the paper is still in being. Write and inquire about it, however.
Sweet Briar.—You should learn the Roman numerals. MDCCCXXVII. means 1827. M means a thousand, D five hundred, and C one hundred; X ten, V five, and I one. There are many nice books for girls, from Sir Walter Scott's downwards. Mrs. Craik, Miss Beale, Miss Rosa N. Carey, Miss Sarah Doudney, are all writers for girls.
Nell.—There are twenty-one colleges at Oxford, and about 3000 members of the university in residence. At Cambridge there are seventeen colleges, and the members on the boards amounted to 13,079 in 1897, while 887 students matriculated. The earliest university was at Bologna, and that at Paris was the most important. These both rose into notice in the twelfth century, and Oxford and Cambridge in the thirteenth. The system of degrees and the names of the chief officers were introduced into England, as well as into other countries, from Paris. The distinguishing characteristic of Oxford or Cambridge is the existence of a number of separate corporations or colleges within the universities themselves. The origin of the colleges was due to benevolent persons who desired to relieve a certain number of poor scholars from the hardship of their lives at the mediæval universities, and so provided a building where they could have a common life, and an endowment for their maintenance.
Dolly.—The first steamer that crossed the Atlantic was the Rising Sun, built in 1818 by Lord Cochran. We do not know how long her voyage was, but the following year an American ship left New York and arrived at Liverpool after a run of twenty-six days. Her engines propelled her during eighteen days, but the rest of the voyage was accomplished with the assistance of her sails. She was called the Savannah, of 300 tons. Now the transit may be made in about five days.
Lizzie.—We remember seeing an account of the so-called language of stamps, but we hope no one will adopt it, as it would give extra trouble to the Post Office employés, who ask us to put them always in the right-hand upper corner. Besides, we do not see the use of it when, by opening the letter itself, you would acquire the knowledge you want; and it is a vulgar idea, and "bad form."
High Church.—Your bookseller would inform you. The Church of England does not hold the first two dogmas you mention.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A fact.
[2] A fact.
Transcriber's note—the following changes have been made to this text:
Page 147: Shorncliff to Shorncliffe.
Page 151: disburbed to disturbed.
Page 154: acepted to accepted.