Edgar MacCulloch.
Guernsey.
"Mantel, n. s. (mantel, old French, or rather the German word mantel, 'Germanis mantel non pallium modo significat, sed etiam id omne quod aliud circumdat: hinc murus arcis, atque structura quæ focum invertit, mantel ipsis dicitur.' V. Ducange in v. Mantum). Work raised before a chimney to conceal it, whence the name, which originally signifies a cloak."—Todd's Johnson.
Richardson gives the two following quotations from Wotton:
From them (Italians) we may better learn, both how to raise fair mantles within the rooms, and how to disguise gracefully the shafts of chimneys abroad (as they use) in sundry forms."—Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 37.
"The Italians apply it (plastick) to the mantling of chimneys with great figures, a cheap piece of magnificence."—Id. p. 63.
Zeus.
"Perturbabantur," &c. (Vol. ix., p. 452.).—When I first learned to scan verses, somewhere about thirty years ago, the lines produced by your correspondent P. were in every child's mouth, with this story attached to them. It was said that Oxford had received from Cambridge the first line of the distich, with a challenge to produce a corresponding line consisting of two words only. To this challenge Oxford replied by sending back the second line, pointing out, at the same time, the false quantity in the word "Constantinŏpolitani."
J. Sansom.
The story connected with these lines current at Cambridge in my time was, that the University of Oxford challenged the sister university to match the first line; to which challenge the second line was promptly returned from Cambridge by way of reply. At Oxford, I believe, the story is reversed, as neither university is willing to own to the false quantity in "Constantinŏpolitani."
J. Eastwood, M.A.