The Dutch book, as well as the translation, are very scarce. Five and six copies of the latter could only be found at the time of the discovery in London.
C. B. d'O.
Tin (Vol. viii., p. 593.).—The suggestions of your correspondent S. G. C. are ingenious respecting the etymology of Cassiteros, but a slight examination will show they are erroneous. The Cassi was only one of the many tribes inhabiting Britain in the time of Cæsar, and it is by no means probable that it was able to confer its name upon the entire country, to the exclusion of all the rest; such as the Iceni, the Trinobanti, the Coritani, the Belgæ, and various others too numerous to mention. We must bear in mind that the Phœnicians gave the name of Cassiterides to the British Isles; and that in naming places they invariably called them after some known or supposed quality possessed by them, or from some natural appearance which first arrested their notice: and such was the case in this instance. We learn that it was the common belief in ancient times, that the islands to the west of Europe were shrouded in almost perpetual gloom and darkness; hence the British Isles were called Cassiterides, from Ceas, pronounced Kass, i. e. gloom, darkness, obscurity; and tir, i. e. lands, plural Ceasiterides, i. e. "the islands of darkness." And the tin which the Phœnicians procured from them received the appropriate name of Cassiteros, i. e. the metal from the islands of darkness.
Fras. Crossley.
John Waugh (Vol. viii, pp. 271. 400. 525.; Vol. ix, p. 20.).—The Rev. John Waugh was of Broomsgrove, Worcester, and died unmarried and intestate. Letters of administration of his estate in the province of York were granted Oct. 28, 1777, to his five sisters and co-heiresses, Judith, Isabella, Elizabeth, Mary, and Margaret, spinsters, who all were living at Carlisle; and were unmarried in August, 1792.
Wm. Durrant Cooper.
Rev. Joshua Brooks (Vol. viii., p. 639.).—Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine for March, 1821, contains a paper entitled a "Brief Sketch of the Rev. Josiah Streamlet." Under this sobriquet, a few incidents in the life of the Rev. Joshua Brooks are related, which may interest C. (1).
G. D. R.
Hour-glass Stand (Vol. viii., p. 454.).—There is an hour-glass stand attached to the pulpit at Nassington Church, Northants. Nassington is about six miles frown the town of Oundle.
G. R. M.