Newick, Sussex.
Outline in Painting.—J. O. W. H. (Vol. i., p. 318.) and H. C. K. (Vol. iii., p. 63.) are earnestly referred, for resolution of their doubts, to the work by Mr. Ruskin, in 2 vols. large 8vo., entitled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford, published by Smith and Elder, 1846.
Robert Snow.
Handbell before a Corpse (vol. iii., p. 68.).—Your correspondent
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. has too inconsiderately dismissed the Query which he has undertaken to answer touching the custom of ringing a handbell in advance of a funeral procession. He says, "I have never considered it as anything but a cast of the bell-man's office, to add more solemnity to the occasion."
The custom is invariably observed throughout Italy, and is common in France and Spain. I have witnessed at least some hundreds of funerals in various cities and villages of Piedmont, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Roman States, Naples, Elba, and Sicily; and in Malta; yet never knew I one without the handbell.
Its object, as first explained to me in Florence, is to clear the way for the procession; to remind passengers and loiterers to take off their hats; and to call the pious to their doors and windows to gaze upon the emblems of mortality, and to say a prayer for the repose of the departed soul.
Nocab.
Brandon the Juggler (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—Your correspondent T. Cr. is referred to Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 308. (edit. 1584) for a notice of this person and his pigeon.