To succeed in the preparation of the céroléine, it is important to work with wax of the best quality; this is not easy in Paris, where they sell, under the name of wax, a resinous matter which is only wax in appearance. It will be well to observe, with the greatest care, the smell and the look of a fresh cut.
[This article reached us after our preceding note was in type. We shall be glad to hear from any correspondents who have tried this process how far they find it to be one deserving of attention.]
Replies to Minor Queries.
Origin of Clubs (Vol. ix., p. 327.).—Johnson's definition of club, as "an assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions," will apply to a meeting held two centuries earlier than that established by Sir Walter Raleigh at the Mermaid, in Friday Street. In the reign of Henry IV., there was a Club called "La Court de bone Compagnie," of which Occleve was a member, and probably Chaucer. In the works of the former are two ballads, written about 1413, one a congratulation from the brethren to Henry Somer, on his appointment as Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer; and the other a reminder to the same person, that the "styward" had warned him that he was—
" . . . . for the dyner arraye
Ageyn Thirsday next, and nat it delaye."
That there were certain conditions to be observed by this Society, appears from the latter epistle, which commences with an answer to a letter of remonstrance the "Court" has received from Henry Somer against some undue extravagance, and a breach of their rules. They were evidently a jovial company; and such a history as could be collected of these Societies would be both interesting and curious. We have proof that Henry Somer received Chaucer's pension for him.
Edward Foss.
Dr. Whichcote and Dorothy Jordan (Vol. ix., p. 351.).—The sentence which Mr. Leigh Hunt couples with Mrs. Jordan's laugh, as among the best sermons he ever heard, your correspondent Ξανθος will find in the collection of Moral and Religious Aphorisms of Dr. Whichcote, first published by Dr. Jeffery in 1703, and which were re-published by Dr. Salter in 1753. It is to the following effect: