in oil, or some transparent varnish, and then coloured in separate
tints, probably from the back; the shadows being _entirely_ photographic.
It is evident they are quickly and easily executed; but I am desirous of
knowing the exact process, and shall be much obliged for information on the
subject.

AN AMATEUR.

* * * * *


Replies to Minor Queries.

_Dr. Eleazar Duncon_ (Vol. ix., pp. 56. 184.).--Dr. Eleazar Duncon, and his
brother Mr. John Duncon, are mentioned in Barnabas Oley's Preface to George
Herbert's _Country Parson_, as having "died before the miracle of our happy
Restoration." There was another brother, Mr. Edmund Duncon, rector of
Fryarn Barnet, in the county of Middlesex; sent by Mr. Farrer to visit
George Herbert, during his last illness.

E. H. A.

_Christian Names_ (Vol. vii., pp. 406. 488. 626.).--The earliest instance I
have yet met with, of an individual with two Christian names, occurs in the
compulsory cession of the Abbey of Vale Royal to King Henry VIII.; the deed
conveying which is still extant in the Augmentation Office. It is in Latin,
and signed by John Harwood the Abbot, Alexander Sedon the Prior, _William
Brenck Harrysun_, and twelve other monks of the Abbey. Vale Royal Abbey is
now the seat of Lord Delamere, into whose family it came by purchase in
1616, from the descendant of Sir Thomas Holcroft, the original grantee from
the crown.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

I send you a much earlier instance of two Christian names than any that has
hitherto been given in your pages. Henry Prince of Wales, son of King Henry
IV., was baptized by the names Henry Frederick. Vide Camden's _Remains_,
4to., 1605. I have not a reference to the page.

C. DE D.

_Abigail_ (Vol. iv., pp. 424., &c.; Vol. viii., p. 653.).--Your recent
correspondents on this subject do not appear to have met with the passage
in which I mentioned, that since putting the question, I had found that a
waiting-maid in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of _The Scornful Lady_ was
named Abigail; and that, as the play appeared to have been a favourite one,
the application of the name to the class generally was probably owing to
it. In the absence of any proof of its having been previously used in this
sense, I still continue to think that this conjecture was well founded.
Considering the terms on which Dean Swift was with the Mashams, he was the
last person in the world to have used such a term, unless it had been so
long in familiar use as to be deprived of all appearance of personal
allusion to them.

J. S. WARDEN.

"_Begging the question_" (Vol. viii., p. 640.).--This phrase is identical
with that of "petitio principii," a figure of speech well known both to
logicians and mathematicians, _i. e._ assuming a point as proved, and
reasoning upon it as such, which has in fact not been proved.

J. S. WARDEN.

_Russian Emperors_ (Vol. ix., p. 222.).--I am informed by a late resident
in Russia that the rumour to which MR. CROSFIELD refers has no foundation.
I am farther informed, however, that after a twenty-five years' reign the
monarch has even more absolute and despotic authority than before the lapse
of that time. I hope this subject may be well ventilated, as considerable
misapprehension exists about it.

JOHN SCRIBE.

_Garble_ (Vol. ix., p. 243.).--Your correspondent E. S. T. T. was mistaken
when he said that the "corrupt" meaning of the word _garble_ is now the
only one ever used. In proof of this I would give one instance, familiar to
me, in which it still retains its "good" signification. In "working"
cochineal, spices, and other similar merchandise at the warehouse in which
they are stored upon their arrival in this country, the operation of {360}
sifting and separating the good from the bad is termed _garbling_: the word
being here employed in the very same sense as in the examples quoted by
E. S. T. T., illustrative of its original meaning,