"At the very early age of eleven he commenced a task that would have reflected credit on any period of life; which, by the indulgence of his mother, appeared in print under the title of 'The History of the Bible, translated from the French by R. G., junior, 1746. London: Printed by James Waugh in the year 1747.' Of this curious volume, consisting of 160 sheets in folio, not more than twenty-five copies were printed, as presents to a few particular friends and when completed at the press, it is marked by way of colophon, 'Done at twelve years and a half old.'"
Mr. Nichols in his notes says, that the French edition was printed at Amsterdam, in 2 vols. folio, with plates, 1700. That by the generosity of Mr. Gough's worthy relict, he had a copy of the work with Mr. Gough's corrections in maturer age; and in a note at p. 642. of this volume of the Literary Anecdotes Mr. Nichols further states, that
"By a singular chance, at a sale of the library of Dr. Guise in January, 1812, he met with two copies of Mr. Gough's juvenile translation of the History of the Bible; and at the end of one of the volumes were ten sheets of Mr. Pickering's Dictionary, perhaps the only copy of them in existence."
The Rev. Roger Pickering was Mr. Gough's tutor until he was admitted at Bene't College, Cambridge, July, 1752, being then in the 17th year of his age. This Dictionary was compiled on the plan of Calmet, but left unfinished.
Mr. J. B. Nichols, son of the late venerable octogenarian, having recently presented me with a copy of Mr. Gough's scarce volume, I am anxious to learn by whom the original French work was written, and where a copy may be purchased. It is one of much erudition; sound in doctrine and principle; pleasing and familiar in its language, and would, I should think, well repay the publisher of a new edition, after a careful correction of a few deficiencies in composition, incidental to the early period at which Mr. Gough translated it. There is nothing in the preface, or in any part of the volume, to indicate the name of the original author. Should Mr. J. B. Nichols still possess Mr. Gough's more matured and corrected copy, he might perhaps discover some reference to the author.
J. M. G.
Worcester, Jan. 1851.
FOLK LORE.
Lammer Beads (Vol. iii. p. 84.).—If L. M. M. R. had taken the trouble to consult Jamieson's Etymological Dictionary,—that rich storehouse of curious information, not merely in relation to the language, but to the manners and customs, and the superstitions of North Britain,—he would have found interesting notices connected with his inquiry. See the word Lammer, and the same in the Supplement. We might accept, without a moment's hesitation, the suggestion of a learned friend of Dr. Jamieson's, deriving Lammer from the French, l'ambre, were it not that Kilian gives us Teut. Lamertyn-steen, succinum. In Anglo-Saxon times it was called Eolhsand (Gloss. Ælfr.), and appears to have been esteemed in Britain from a very early period. Amongst antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon age, beads of amber are of very frequent occurrence. Douglas has collected some interesting notes regarding this substance, in his Nenia, p. 9. It were needless to cite the frequent mention of precularia, or Paternosters, of amber, occurring in inventories. The Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, purchased a most costly chaplet from a Parisian jeweller, in 1431, described as "une patenostres à signeaux d'or et d'ambre musquet." (Leber, Inventaires, p. 235.) The description "de alba awmbre," as in the enumeration of strings of beads appended to the shrine of Sr William, at York Minster, may have been in distinction from jet, to which, as well as to amber, certain virtuous or talismanic properties were attributed. There were, however, several kinds of amber,—succinum rubrum, fulvum, &c. The learned professor of Copenhagen, Olaus Worm, alludes to the popular notions and superstitious use of amber—