Transcriber's Note: Italicized words, phrases, etc. are surrounded by underline characters. Greek transliterations are surrounded by tildes. Overlines indicating abbreviations are shown like this, Dne, meaning a line over the letter n. Archaic spellings and hyphenation inconsistencies have been left as originally printed.

{397} NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 182.] SATURDAY, APRIL 23. 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page Poetical Epithets of the Nightingale, by Cuthbert Bede, B.A. 397 On a Passage in Orosius, by E. Thomson 399 Notes on several Misunderstood Words, by Rev. W. R. Arrowsmith 400 A Work on the Macrocosm 402 Dr. South's Latin Tract against Sherlock, by James Crossley 402 Shakspeare Correspondence, by C. Mansfield Ingleby, S. Singleton, &c. 403

MINOR NOTES:—Robert Weston—Sonnet on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White—English and American Booksellers —Odd Mistake—Thomas Shakspeare—Early Winters 404

QUERIES:— Satirical Playing Cards, by T. J. Pettigrew 405 Movable Metal Types anno 1435, by George Stephens 405 Portraits at Brickwall House 406

MINOR QUERIES:—Christian Names—Lake of Geneva —Clerical Portrait—Arms: Battle-axe—Bullinger's Sermons—Gibbon's Library—Dr. Timothy Bright —Townley MSS.—Order of St. John of Jerusalem —Consecrated Roses, Swords, &c.—West, Kipling, and Millbourne—Font Inscriptions—Welsh Genealogical Queries—The Butler and his Man William—Longhi's Portraits of Guidiccioni—Sir George Carr—Dean Pratt—Portrait of Franklin—"Enquiry into the State of the Union" 406

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Bishop of Oxford in 1164—Roman Inscription found at Battle Bridge— Blow-shoppes—Bishop Hesketh—Form of Prayer for Prisoners 409

REPLIES:— Edmund Spenser, and Spensers, or Spencers, of Hurstwood, by J. B. Spencer, &c. 410 Throwing old Shoes for Luck, by John Thrupp 411 Orkneys in Pawn 412 Hogarth's Pictures, by E. G. Ballard and W. D. Haggard 412 Phantom Bells and Lost Churches 413

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES:—Photographic Collodion—Filtering Collodion—Photographic Notes —Colouring Collodion Pictures—Gutta Percha Baths 414

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Pilgrimages to the Holy Land—"A Letter to a Convocation Man"—King Robert Bruce's Coffin-plate—Eulenspiegel or Howleglas —Sir Edwin Sadleir—Belfry Towers separate from the Body of the Church—God's Marks—"The Whippiad" —The Axe that beheaded Anne Boleyn, &c. 415

MISCELLANEOUS:— Books and Odd Volumes wanted 417 Notices to Correspondents 418 Advertisements 418

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NOTES.

POETICAL EPITHETS OF THE NIGHTINGALE.

Having lately been making some research among our British poets, as to the character of the nightingale's song, I was much struck with the great quantity and diversity of epithets that I found applied to the bird. The difference of opinion that has existed with regard to the quality of its song, has of course led the poetical adherents of either side to couple the nightingale's name with that very great variety of adjectives which I shall presently set down in a tabular form, with the names of the poetical sponsors attached thereto. And, in making this the subject of a Note, I am only opening up an old Query; for the character of the nightingale's song has often been a matter for discussion, not only for poets and scribblers, but even for great statesmen like Fox, who, amid all the anxieties of a political life, could yet find time to defend the nightingale from being a "most musical, most melancholy" bird.

Coleridge's onslaught upon this line, in his poem of "The Nightingale," must be well known to all lovers of poetry; and his re-christening of the bird by that epithet which Chaucer had before given it:

"'Tis the merry nightingale, That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates, With fast thick warble, his delicious notes, As he were fearful that an April night Would be too short for him to utter forth His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul Of all its music!"

The fable of the nightingale's origin would, of course, in classical times, give the character of melancholy to its song; and it is rather remarkable that AEschylus makes Cassandra speak of the happy chirp of the nightingale, and the Chorus to remark upon this as a further proof of her insanity. (Shakspeare makes Edgar say, "The foul fiend haunted poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale."—King Lear, Act III. Sc. 6.)

Tennyson seems to be almost the only poet who has thoroughly recognised the great variety of epithets that may be applied to the nightingale's song, through the very opposite feelings which it {398} seems to possess the power to awaken. In his Recollections of the Arabian Nights, he says,—

"The living airs of middle night Died round the Bulbul as he sung; Not he; but something which possess'd The darkness of the world, delight, Life, anguish, death, immortal love, Ceasing not, mingled, unrepress'd, Apart from place, withholding time."

Again, in the In Memoriam:

"Wild bird! whose warble, liquid, sweet, Rings Eden through the budded quicks, Oh, tell me where the senses mix, Oh, tell me where the passions meet,

"Whence radiate? Fierce extremes employ Thy spirit in the dusking leaf, And in the midmost heart of grief Thy passion clasps a secret joy."

With which compare these lines in The Gardener's Daughter:

"Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells,— Of that which came between, more sweet than each, In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves That tremble round a nightingale—in sighs Which perfect Joy, perplexed for utterance, Stole from her sister Sorrow."

But the most singular proof that, I think, I have met with, concerning the diversity of opinion touching the song of the nightingale, is to be found in the following example. When Shelley (Prometheus Unbound) is describing the luxurious pleasures of the Grove of Daphne, he mentions (in some of the finest lines he has ever written) "the voluptuous nightingales, sick with sweet love," to be among the great attractions of the place: while Dean Milman (Martyrs of Antioch), in describing the very same "dim, licentious Daphne," is particular in mention that everything there

"Ministers Voluptuous to man's transgressions"

(even including the "winds, and flowers, and waters"); everything, in short,

"Save thou, sweet nightingale!"

The question is indeed a case of "fierce extremes," as we may see by the following table of epithets, which are taken from the British poets only:

Amorous. Milton. Artless. Drummond of Hawthornden. Attick ("Attica aedon"). Gray. Beautiful. Mackay. Charmer. Michael Drayton, Philip Ayres. Charming. Sir Roger L'Estrange. Cheerful. Philip Ayres. Complaining. Shakspeare. Conqueror. Ford Dainty. Carshaw, Giles Fletcher. Darkling. Milton. Dear. Ben Jonson, Drummond of Hawthornden. Deep. Mrs. Hemans. Delicious. Crashaw, Coleridge. Doleful. Shakspeare. Dusk. Barry Cornwall. Enchanting. Mrs. T. Welsh. Enthusiast. Crashaw. Evening. Chaucer. Ever-varying. Wordsworth. Fervent. Mrs. Hemans. Fond. Moore. Forlorn. Shakspeare, Darwin, Hood. Full-hearted. Author of The Naiad (1816). Full-throated. Keats. Gentle. The Spanish Tragedy, Dunbar (Laureate to James IV. Scot.), Mrs Charlotte Smith. Good. Chaucer, Ben Jonson. Gushing. Campbell. Hapless. Milton. Happy. Keats, Mackay. Harmless. Crashaw, Browne. Harmonious. Browne. Heavenly.[1] Chaucer, Dryden, Wordsworth. Holy. Campbell. Hopeful. Crashaw. Immortal. Keats. Joyful. Moore. Joyous. Keble. Lamenting. Shakspeare, Michael Drayton, Drummond of Hawthornden. Light-foot. Crashaw. Light-winged. Keats. Liquid. Milton, Bishop Heber, Tennyson. Listening. Crashaw, Thomson. Little. James I. Scot., Philip Ayres, Crashaw. Lone. Beattie, Mrs. Hemans, Miss London, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, Milman. Lonely. Countess of Winchilsea (1715), Barry Cornwall. Loud. Shelley. Loved. Mason. Lovely. Bloomfield. Love-lorn. Milton, Scott, Collins. Lowly. Mrs. Thompson. {399} Lusty. Chaucer. Melancholy. Milton, Milman. Melodious. Chris. Smart, Ld. Lyttelton, Southey. Merry. Red Book of Ossory, fourteenth century (quoted in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., No. 54.), Chaucer, Dunbar, Coleridge. Minstrel. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. Modest. Keble. Mournful. Shakspeare, Theo. Lee, Pope, Lord Thurlow, Byron. Musical. Milton. Music-panting. Shelley. New-abashed.[2]Chaucer. Night-warbling. Milton, Milman. Pale. Author of Raffaelle and Fornarina (1826). Panting. Crashaw. Passionate. Lady E. S. Wortley. Pensive. Mrs. Charlotte Smith. Piteous. Ambrose Philips. Pity-pleading (used ironically). Coleridge. Plaintive. Lord Lyttelton, Thomson, Keats, Hood. Pleasant. An old but unknown author, quoted in Todd's Illustrations to Gower and Chaucer, p. 291., ed. 1810. Poor. Shakspeare, Ford. Rapt. Hon. Julian Fane (1852). Ravished. Lilly. Responsive. Darwin. Restless. T. Lovell Beddoes (in The Bride's Tragedy, 1822). Richly-toned. Southey. Sad. Milton, Giles Fletcher, Drummond of Hawthornden, Graves, Darwin, Collins, Beattie, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs Fanny Kemble, Hood, T. L. Beddoes. Shrill. Chaucer, Crashaw. Silver-sounding. Richard Barnfield. Single.[3] Southey. Skilled. Ford. Sleepless.[4] Atherstone. Sober-suited. Thomson. Soft. Milton, James I. Scot., Crashaw, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Byron. Solemn. Milton, Otway, Graingle. Sole-sitting. Thomson. Sorrowing. Shakspeare. Soul-entrancing. Bishop Heber. Supple. Crashaw. Sweet. Chaucer, James I. Scot., Milton, Spenser, Crashaw, Drummond, Richard Barnfield, Ambrose Philips, Shelley, Cowper, Thomson, Young, Darwin, Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Moore, Coleridge, Wordsworth, L. E. L., Milman, Hood, Tennyson, P. J. Bailey, Kenny, Hon. J. Fane. Sweetest. Milton, Browne, Thomson, Turnbull, Beattie. Sweet-voiced. Wither. Syren. Crashaw. Tawny. Cary. Tender. Crashaw, Turnbull. Thrilling. Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley (1847). Tuneful. Dyer, Grainger. Unseen. Byron. Vaunting. Bloomfield. Voluptuous. Shelley. Wakeful. Milton, Coleridge. Wailing. Miss Landon. Wandering. Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley. Wanton. Coleridge. Warbling. Milton, Ford, Chris. Smart, Pope, Smollett, Lord Lyttelton, Jos. Warton, Gray, Cowper. Welcome. Wordsworth. Wild. Moore, Tennyson, J. Westwood (1840). Wise. Waller. Wondrous. Mrs. Fanny Kemble.

In addition to these 109 epithets, others might be added of a fuller character; such as "Queen of all the quire" (Chaucer), "Night-music's king" (Richard Barnfield, 1549), "Angel of the spring" (Ben Jonson), "Music's best seed-plot" (Crashaw), "Best poet of the grove" (Thomson), "Sweet poet of the woods" (Mrs. Charlotte Smith), "Dryad of the trees" (Keats), "Sappho of the dell" (Hood); but the foregoing list of simple adjectives (which doubtless could be greatly increased by a more extended poetical reading) sufficiently demonstrates the popularity of the nightingale as a poetical embellishment, and would, perhaps, tend to prove that a greater diversity of epithets have been bestowed upon the nightingale than have been given to any other song-bird.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Footnote 1: The epithets "heavenly," "holy," "solemn," &c., represent the nightingale's song, as spoken of by Keats, as the bird's "plaintive anthem;" by Mackay, as its

"Hymn of gratitude and love;"

and by Moore also, in his account of the Vale of Cashmere, as

"The nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars."

In A Proper New Boke of the Armony of Byrdes (quoted by Dibdin, Top. Antiq., iv. 381.), of unknown date, though probably before 1580, the nightingale is represented as singing its Te Deum:

"Tibi Cherubin Et Seraphin Full goodly she dyd chaunt, With notes merely Incessabile Voce Proeclamant."]

[Footnote 2: Chaucer (Troilus and Creseide) imagines the nightingale to "stint" at the beginning of its song, and to be frightened at the least noise.]

[Footnote 3: This, and the epithets of "sole-sitting" and "unseen," refer to the nightingale's love of solitary seclusion.]

[Footnote 4:

"He slep no more than doth the nightingale."

Chaucer, Cant. Pil.]

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ON A PASSAGE IN OROSIUS.

In King Alfred's version of Orosius, book ii. chap. iv. p. 68., Barrington, we have an account of an unsuccessful attempt made by one of Cyrus the Great's officers to swim across a river "mid twam tyncenum," with two tynkens. What was a tyncen? That was the question nearly a hundred years ago, when Barrington was working out his translation; and the only answer to be found then was contained in the great dictionary published by Lye and Manning, but is not found now in Dr. Bosworth's second edition of his Dictionary: "Tynce, a tench."

How the Persian nobleman was to be supported by two little fishes, which were more likely to land their passenger at the bottom of the river than on the opposite bank, we are left to guess. But, before we proceed with the experiment, let us see that we have got the fishes. That tench was in the Gyndis we have no authority for denying; but, if its Anglian or Saxon name was such as the dictionary exhibits, we have no trace of it {400} in the text of Alfred; for under no form of declension, acknowledged in grammar, will tynce ever give tyncenum. We have no need, then, to spend time in calculating the chance of success, when we have not the means of making the experiment.

As either tync or tynce would give tyncum, not tyncenum, the latter must come out of tyncen (query, tynkin or tunkin, a little tun, a barrel, or a cask?). Such was the form in which the question presented itself to my mind, upon my first examination of the passage three or four years ago, but which was given up without sufficient investigation, owing to an impression that if such had been the meaning, it was so simple and obvious that nobody could have missed it.

An emergency, which I need not explain here, has within these few days recalled my attention to the subject; and I have no reason to be ashamed, or to make a secret, of the result.

Tyncen, the diminutive of tunne, is not only a genuine Anglo-Saxon word, but the type of a class, of whose existence in that language no Saxonist, I may say no Teutonist, not even the perspicacious and indefatigable Jacob Grimm himself, seems to be aware. The word is exactly analogous to Ger. toennchen, from tonne, and proves three things:—1. That our ancestors formed diminutives in cen, as well as their neighbours in ken, kin, chen; 2. That the radical vowel was modified: for y is the umlaut of u; 3. That these properties of the dialect were known to Alfred the Great when he added this curious statement to the narrative of Orosius.

E. THOMSON.

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NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS.

(Continued from p. 376.)

Imperseverant, undiscerning. This word I have never met with but twice,—in Shakspeare's Cymbeline, with the sense above given; and in Bishop Andrewes' Sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth at Hampton Court, A.D. 1594, in the sense of unenduring:

"For the Sodomites are an example of impenitent wilful sinners; and Lot's wife of imperseverant and relapsing righteous persons."—Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. ii. p. 62.

Perseverant, discerning, and persevers, discerns, occur respectively at pp. 43. and 92. of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure (Percy Society's edition). The noun substantive perseverance=discernment is as common a word as any of the like length in the English language. To omit the examples that might be cited out of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, I will adduce a dozen other instances; and if those should not be enough to justify my assertion, I will undertake to heap together two dozen more. Mr. Dyce, in his Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare, rightly explains the meaning of the word in Cymbeline; and quotes an example of perseverance from The Widow, to which the reader is referred. Mr. Dyce had, however, previously corrupted a passage in his edition of Rob. Greene's Dramatic Works, by substituting, "perceivance" for perseverance, the word in the original quarto of the Pinner of Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 184.:

"Why this is wondrous being blind of sight, His deep perseuerance should be such to know us."

I subjoin the promised dozen:

"For his dyet he was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse and surfetting; and so carelesse of delicates, as though he had had no perseuerance in the tast of meates," &c.—"The Life of Ariosto," Sir John Harington's Translation of Orlando Furioso, p. 418.

"In regarde whereof they are tyed vnto these duties: First by a prudent, diligent, and faithfull care to obserue by what things the state may be most benefited; and to haue perseuerance where such marchandize that the state most vseth and desireth may be had with greatest ease," &c.—The Trauailer, by Thomas Palmer: London, 1606.

"There are certain kinds of frogs in Egypt, about the floud of Nilus, that have this percewerance, that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is, which is great a murtherer and spoiler of frogs, they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed, which groweth about the banks of Nile; and as this fish doth gape, thinking to feed upon the frog, the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the frog; and so they save their lives."—"The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes," chap. xliii. p. 294. of Lloyd's Marrow of History, corrected and revised by R. C., Master of Arts: London, 1653.

"This fashion of countinge the monthe endured to the ccccl yere of the citie, and was kepte secrete among the byshops of theyr religion tyl the time that C. Flauius, P. Sulpitius Auarrio, and P. Sempronius Sophuilongus, then beinge Consuls, against the mynde of the Senatours disclosed all their solemne feates, published thē in a table that euery man might haue perseueraūce of them."—An Abridgemente of the Notable Worke of Polidore Vergile, &c., by Thomas Langley, fol. xlii.

"And some there be that thinke men toke occasion of God to make ymages, whiche wylling to shewe to the grosse wyttes of men some perceiueraunce of hymselfe, toke on him the shape of man, as Abraham sawe him and Jacob also."—Id., fol. lxi.

In this passage, as in others presently to be alleged, "notification" seems to be the drift of the word.

"Of this vnreuerent religiō, Mahomete, a noble mane, borne in Arabie, or, as some report, in Persie, was authour: and his father was an heathen idolater, and his mother an Ismaelite; wherfore she had more perceuerance of the Hebrues law."—Id., fol. cxlii.

"Where all feelyng and perseuerāce of euill is awaie, nothyng there is euill or found a misse. As if a manne {401} be fallen into a sound slepe, he feleth not the hardenesse or other incommoditie of his cabon or couche."—"The Saiynges of Publius, No. 58.," The Precepts of Cato, &c., with Erasmus Annotations: London, 1550.

"Wherfore both Philip and Alexander (if ye dead haue anie perceuerance) woulde not that the rootes (rooters) out of them and theyre issue, but rather that the punnishers of those traitors, should enioye the kingdom of Macedone."—"The XVI Booke of Justine," fol. 86., Golding's Translation of the Abridgement of the Historyes of Trojus Pompeius: London, 1578.

"And morouer bycause his setting of vs here in this world is to aduaunce vs aloft, that is, to witte to the heauenly life, whereof he giueth vs some perceyuerance and feeling afore hande."—Io. Calvin. "Sermon XLI., on the Tenth Chap. of Job," p. 209., Golding's Translation: London, 1574.

"And so farre are wee off from being able to atteine to such knowledge through our owne power, that we flee it as much as is possible, and blindfold our own eyes, to the intent we might put away all perceyuerance and feeling of God's judgement from vs."—Id., "Sermon XLII.," p. 218.

"For (as I haue touched already) God of his goodnesse doth not vtterly barre vs from hauing any perceyuerance at all of his wisdome: but it behoueth vs to keepe measure."—Id., "Sermon XLIII.," p. 219.

I shall not cite any more from Golding, but simply observe that the word occurs again and again in his translations. The remaining three examples exhibit the noun in a somewhat different sense, viz. "notification," or "means of discerning:"

"The time most apt in all the yeare, and affoording greatest perseuerance for the finding out of the heads of wells and fountaines, are the moneths of August or September."—The First Booke of the Countrie Farme, p. 8., by Stevens and Liebault, translated by Svrflet, and edited by G. Markham: London, 1616.

"He may also gather some perceiuerance by the other markes before specified; that is to say, by the prints of his foote vpon the grasse, by the carriages of his head, his dung, gate," &c.—Id., booke vii. p. 685.

"And this lyfe to men is an high perseveraunce, Or a lyght of faythe wherby they shall be saved."

"God's Promises," by John Bale; Dodsley's Old Plays (Collier's edition), vol. i. Part II. Act I.

By-the-bye, as a specimen of the value of this edition, take the following passage of this very play:

"O perfyght keye of David, and hygh scepture of the kyndred of Jacob; whych openest and no man speareth, that speakest and no man openeth."—Act VII. p. 40.

On the word speareth the commentator treats his reader to a note; in which he informs him that speareth means "asketh," and in proof of this cites one passage from Chaucer, and two from Douglas's Virgil. It might almost appear to be upbraiding the reader with stupidity to mention that speareth signifieth "bolteth, shutteth;" and that "speaketh" is a misprint for speareth. This verb was a favourite with Bale. One word more closes my budget for the present.

More, a root. Still in use in Gloucestershire, once of frequent occurrence. To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his Dictionary, add the following:

"I se it by ensaunple In somer tyme on trowes; Ther some bowes ben leved, And some bereth none, There is a meschief in the more Of swiche manere bowes." The Vision of Piers Ploughman, edited by Thomas Wright, vol. ii. p. 300.

At p. 302. you find the sentiment in Latin:

"Sicut cum videris arborem pallidam et marcidam, intelligis quod vitium habet in radice"—"a meschief in the more."

The Glossary of the editor is silent.

"It is a ful trie tree, quod he, Trewely to telle; Mercy is the more therof, The myddul stok is ruthe; The leves ben lele wordes, The lawe of holy chirche; The blosmes beth buxom speche, And benigne lokynge; Pacience hatte the pure tree," &c. Id., vol. ii. p. 330.

"It groweth in a gardyn, quod he, That God made hymselve, Amyddes mannes body, The more is of that stokke, Herte highte the herber, That it inne groweth." Id., vol. ii. p. 331.

There should not be any comma, or other stop, at body, because the sense is—"The root of that stock is amid man's body."

Mr. Wright's Glossary refers to these last two instances as follows:

"More (A.-S.) 330, 331., the main or larger part, body (?)"

At p. 334. we meet with the word again:

"On o more thei growed."

And again, at p. 416.:

"And bite a-two the mores."

May I, in passing, venture to inquire of the editor on what authority he explains waselede (p. 476.) to be "the pret. of waselen (A.-S.) to become dirty, dirty oneself?"

"This Troilus withouten rede or lore, As man that hath his joies eke forlore, Was waiting on his lady evermore, As she that was sothfast croppe and more, Of all his lust or joyes here tofore." Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, b.v.

{402} Afterwards, in the same book, a few stanzas further on, he joins "crop" and "root" together.

"Last of all, if these thinges auayle not the cure, I do commend and allow above all the rest, that you take the iuyce of Celendine rootes, making them cleane from the earth that doth vse to hang to the moores."—The Booke of Falconrie, by George Turbervile, 1611, p. 236.

"Chiefely, if the moare of vertue be not cropped, but dayly rooted deepelyer."—The Fyrste Booke of the Nobles or of Nobilitye, translated from Laurence Humfrey.

The next and last example from the "Second Booke" of this interesting little volume I will quote more at large:

"Aristotle mencioneth in his Politikes an horrible othe vsed in certaine states, consistinge of the regimente of fewe nobles, in maner thus: I will hate the people, and to my power persecute them. Which is the croppe and more of al sedition. Yet too much practised in oure liues. But what cause is there why a noble man should eyther despise the people? or hate them? or wrong them? What? know they not, no tiranny maye bee trusty? Nor how yll gardē of cōtinuance, feare is? Further, no more may nobilitie misse the people, then in man's body, the heade, the hande. For of trueth, the common people are the handes of the nobles, sith them selues bee handlesse. They labour and sweate for them, with tillinge, saylinge, running, toylinge: by sea, by lād, with hāds, w't feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the bytle bee."

The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb miss, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word, appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which now-a-days are pouring in like a flood—to corrupt long recognised readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers' capacities—I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.

W. R. ARROWSMITH.

Broad Heath, Presteign, Herefordshire.

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A WORK ON THE MACROCOSM.

I intended to have contributed a series of papers to "N. & Q." on the brute creation, on plants and flowers, &c.; and in a Note on the latter subject I promised to follow it up. However, as circumstances have changed my intentions, I think it may be well to mention that I have in hand a work on Macrocosm, or World of Nature around us, which shall be published in three separate parts or volumes. The first shall be devoted to the Brute Creation; the second shall be an Herbal, with a Calendar of dedicated Flowers prefixed; the third shall contain Chapters on the Mineral Kingdom: in the last I shall treat of the symbolism of stones, and the superstitions respecting them. I purpose in each case, as far as possible, to go to the fountain-head, and shall give copious extracts from such writers as St. Ildefonso of Toledo, St. Isidore of Seville, Vincent of Beauvais, St. Basil, Origen, Epiphanius, and the Christian Fathers.

As the work I have sketched out for myself will require time to mature, I shall publish very shortly a small volume, containing a breviary of the former, which will give some idea of the manner in which I shall treat the proposed subject.

Many correspondents of "N. & Q." have evinced great interest in the line I intend to enter upon. (See Vol. i., pp. 173. 457.; Vol. iv., p. 175.; Vol. vi., pp. 101. 272. 462. 518.) Their Queries have produced no satisfactory result. I myself made a Query in my "Chapter on Flowers," some months ago, respecting Catholic floral directories, and two works in particular, about which I was most anxious, and which were quoted in The Catholic Florist, London, 1851, and I have received no answer. Mr. Oakley, indeed, wrote to me to say that he "only edited it, and wrote a preface," and that he forwarded my Query "to the compiler:" the latter personage, however, has not favoured me with a reply.

In spite of all these discouragements, I have taken the step of bringing my contemplated work before the readers of "N. & Q.," and I shall gratefully acknowledge any communications relative to legends, folk-lore, superstitions, symbolism, &c. bearing on the subjects proposed. As I intend inserting a bibliographical list of the chief works which come under the scope of each volume, I might receive much valuable assistance on this point, especially as regards Oriental and other foreign books, which might escape my researches. As regards the brute creation, I have gotten, with the kind assistance of the editor of "N. & Q.," Hildrop's famous reply to Father Bougeant; and I have sent to Germany for Dr. Kraus's recent work on the subject.

EIRIONNACH.

* * * * *

DR. SOUTH'S LATIN TRACT AGAINST SHERLOCK.

None of South's compositions are more striking or characteristic than his two English tracts against Sherlock, his Animadversions on Sherlock's Vindication of the Trinity, 1693-94, 4to., {403} and his Tritheism charged on Sherlock's new Notion of the Trinity, 1694, 4to. For caustic wit and tremendous power of vituperation, I scarcely know any controversial works which surpass, or even equal them. South looked upon Sherlock with profound scorn as a Sciolist, and hated him most cordially as a heretic and a political renegade. He accordingly gives him no quarter, and seems determined to draw blood at every stroke. Mrs. Sherlock is of course not forgotten, and one of the happiest passages in the Tritheism charged is the well-known humorous illustration of Socrates and Xantippe, p. 129. It is somewhat curious that, notwithstanding these two works of South have attracted so much notice, it seems to be quite unknown that he also published a Latin tract against Sherlock, in further continuation of the controversy, in which the attack is carried on with equal severity. The title of the tract in question is, Decreti Oxoniensis Vindicatio in Tribus ad Modestum ejusdem examinatorem modestioribus Epistolis a Theologo Transmarino. Excusa Anno Domini 1696, 4to., pp. 92. The tract, of which I have a copy, is anonymous, but it is ascribed to South in the following passages in The Agreement of the Unitarians with the Catholic Church, part i. 1697, 4to., which is included in vol. v. of the 4to. Unitarian Tracts, and evidently written by one who had full information on the subject. His expressions (p. 62.) are—"Dr. South, in his Latin Letters, under the name of a Transmarine Divine;" and a little further on, "Dr. South, in two (English) books by him written, and in three Latin letters, excepts against this (Sherlock's) explication of the Trinity." In confirmation of this ascription, I may observe that the Latin tract is contained in an extensive collection of the tracts in the Trinitarian Controversy formed by Dr. John Wallis, which I possess, and in which he has written the names of the authors of the various anonymous pieces. He took, as is well known, a leading part in the controversy, and published himself an anonymous pamphlet (not noticed by his biographers), also in defence of Oxford decrees. On the title-page of the Latin tract he has written "By Dr. South." I have likewise another copy in a volume which belonged to Stephen Nye, one of the ablest writers in the controversy, and who ascribes it in the list of contents in the fly-leaf, in his handwriting, to Dr. South. These grounds would appear to be sufficient to authorise our including this tract in the list of South's works, though, from the internal evidence of the tract itself alone, I should scarcely have felt justified in ascribing it to him.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

Parallel Passages.—

"You leaden messengers, That ride upon the violent wings of fire, Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing air, That sings with piercing,—do not touch my lord!" All's Well that Ends Well, Act III. Sc. 2.

"the elements, Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd at stabs Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish One dowle that's in my plume." The Tempest, Act III. Sc. 3.

There can be little doubt that the clever corrector of MR. COLLIER'S folio had the last of these passages in view when he altered the word move of the first, into wound of the second: but in this instance he overshot the mark, in not perceiving the nice and subtle distinction which exists between them. The first implies possibility: the second impossibility.

In the second, the mention of, to "wound the loud wind, or kill the still-closing water," is to set forth the absurdness of the attempt; but in the first passage there is a direct injunction to a possible act: "Fly with false aim, move the still-piecing air." To say "wound the still-piecing air" would be to direct to be done, in one passage, that which the other passage declares to be absurd to expect!

If it were necessary to disturb move at all, the word cleave would be, all to nothing, a better substitution than wound.

Whether the annotating of MR. COLLIER'S folio be a real or a pseudo-antique, it is impossible to deny that its executor must have been a clever, as he was certainly a slashing hitter. It cannot, therefore, be wondered that he should sometimes reach the mark: but that these corrections should be received with that blind and superstitious faith, so strangely exacted for them, can scarcely be expected. Indeed, it is to be regretted that they have been introduced to the public with such an uncompromising claim to authority; as the natural repugnance against enforced opinion may endanger the success of the few suggestive emendations, to be found amongst them, which are really new and valuable.

A. E. B.

Leeds.

P.S.—With reference to the above Note, which, although not before printed, has been for some time in the Editor's hands, I have observed in a Dublin paper of Saturday, April 9th, a very singular coincidence; viz. the recurrence of the self-same misprint corrected by Malone, but retained by Messrs. Collier and Knight in their respective editions of Shakspeare. Had the parallel expressions still-closing, still-piecing, which I have compared in the above paper, been noticed by these {404} editors, they would no more have hesitated in accepting Malone's correction than they would object to the same correction in the misprint I am about to point out; viz.

"Two planks were pointed out by the witnesses, viz. one with a knot in it, and another which was piered with strips of wood," &c.—Saunders's Newsletter, April 9th, 3rd page, 1st col.

The Passage in "King Henry VIII.," Act III. Sc. 2. (Vol. vii., pp. 5. 111. 183.).—Is an old Shakspearian to talk rashly in "N. & Q." without being called to account? "If 'we can,'" says MR. SINGER, "'by no means part with have,' we must interpolate been after it, to make it any way intelligible, to the marring of the verse." Now, besides the passage in the same scene—

——"my loyalty, Which ever has, and ever shall be growing,"

pointed out by your Leeds correspondent, there is another equally in point in All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Sc. 5., which, being in prose, settles the question as to whether the omission of the past participle after the auxiliary was customary in Shakspeare's time. It is Lafeu's farewell to Parolles:

"Farewell, Monsieur: I have spoken better of you, than you have or will deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil."

Either this is "unintelligible," and "we must interpolate" deserved, or (the only possible alternative) all three passages are free from MR. SINGER'S objection.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

On a Passage in "Macbeth."—Macbeth (Act I. Sc. 7.) says:

"I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, And falls on the other."

Should not the third line be—

"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its sell!"

Sell is saddle (Latin, sella; French, selle), and is used by Spenser in this sense.

"O'erleaping itself" is manifest nonsense; whereas the whole passage has evident reference to horsemanship; and to "vault" is "to carry one's body cleverly over anything of a considerable height, resting one hand upon the thing itself,"—exactly the manner in which some persons mount a horse, resting one hand on the pommel of the saddle.

It would then be perfectly intelligible, thus—

"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its saddle (sell), And falls on the other (side of the horse)."

Does MR. COLLIER'S "New Text," or any other old copy, prove this?

S. SINGLETON.

Greenwich.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

Robert Weston.—I copy the following from a letter of R. L. Kingston to Dr. Ducarel in Nichols's Literary History, vol. iii. p. 629.:

"Robert Weston was Lord of Manor of Kilmington in Devon, and divided his estate among four daughters, reserving to the eldest son the royalties of his courts. In his will or deed of settlement is this clause:—'That the Abbot of Newnhams, near Axminster, had nothing to do in the highway any further than to his land of Studhays, and that he should stand without the court gate of his land of Studhays, and take his right ear in his left hand, and put his right arm next to his body under his left across, and so cast his reap-hook from him; and so far he shall come.'"

BALLIOLENSIS.

Sonnet on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White.—Some years ago, I copied the following sonnet from a newspaper. Can you say where it first made its appearance? After the annexed testimony of Coleridge, it is needless to say anything in its praise.

"SONNET ON THE REV. JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE.

Mysterious Night! When our first parent knew Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came, And lo! Creation widen'd in man's view.

Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'd Within thy beams, O Sun! Or who could find, Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect, stood reveal'd, That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind? Why do we then shun death with anxious strife? If light can thus deceive—wherefore not life?"

Coleridge is said to have pronounced this "The finest and most grandly conceived in our language; at least, it is only in Milton's and in Wordsworth's sonnets that I recollect any rival."

BALLIOLENSIS.

English and American Booksellers.—It is rather curious to note, that whilst English booksellers are emulously vying with one another to publish editions of Uncle Toms, Queechys, Wide Wide Worlds, &c., they neglect to issue English works which the superior shrewdness of {405} Uncle Sam deems worthy of reprinting. Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, which was published by Longman in 1808, and not since printed in England, was brought out in a very handsome octavo form at Lowell, U. S., in 1846. And this, the "first American edition," as it is called on the title-page, can be readily procured from the booksellers in London; whereas the English original is not to be met with. In like manner, Macaulay's Essays were collected and published first in America; and so with Praed's Poems, and many others. Uncle Sam has lately announced collections of Dr. Maginn's and De Quincey's scattered Essays, for which we owe him our most grateful acknowledgments.

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

Odd Mistake.—

"One of the houses on Mount Ephraim formerly belonged to Judge Jeffries, a man who has rendered his name infamous in the annals of history by the cruelty and injustice he manifested in presiding at the trial of King Charles I."—Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells, by John Britton, F.S.A., p. 59.

Voila comment on fait l'histoire!

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

Thomas Shakspeare.—In the year 1597 there resided in Lutterworth in Leicestershire, only distant from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth-town of Shakspeare, a very few miles, one Thomas Shakspeare, who appears to have been employed by William Glover, of Hillendon in Northamptonshire, gentleman, as his agent to receive for him and give an acquittance for a considerable sum of money.

Having regard to the age in which this Thomas Shakspeare lived, coupled with his place of residence, is it not probable he was a relative of the great Bard?

CHARLECOTE.

Early Winters.—I heard it mentioned, when in St. Petersburg very lately, that they have never had so early a commencement of winter as this last year since the French were at Moscow.

I find in accounts of the war, that the winter commenced then (1812) on November 7, N. S., with deep snow. Last year (1852) it commenced at St. Petersburg on October 16, N. S., as noted in my diary, with snow, which has remained on the ground ever since, accompanied at times with very severe frost.

Query: Can November 7, N. S., be the correct date? If it is, this last winter's commencement must be unprecedented; as I have always heard it remarked, that the winter began unusually early the year the French were at Moscow.

I may mention as a note, that by the last accounts from Russia, they say the ice in the Gulf of Finland was four and a half feet thick.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

SATIRICAL PLAYING CARDS.

I have lately been much interested in a pack of cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth at the Hague, and representing the chief personages and the principal events of that period. I have been able, by reference to historical authorities, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broadsides in the British Museum, forming the collection presented to the nation by George III., to explain the whole pack, with the exception of two. These are "Parry, Father and Sonne," and "Simonias slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The former simply represents two figures, without any thing to offer a clue to any event; the latter gives the representation of six Puritans, forming an assembly, who are being addressed by one of the body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to whom such a name has been applied, in any of the Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. Probably some of your readers can help me in this matter. Of these cards I can find no notice: they are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatto. They were purchased at the Hague, more than thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are exceedingly curious: indeed they form a bundle of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal persons of the time figure in some characteristic representation, and the private scandal is also recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert; Sir Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which his own corrects him; and he is also being beaten by a footboy,—which event is alluded to in Butler's Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom your pages have given some interesting information, is represented as "The Knight of the Golden Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal with a pension to Holland, where he is known to have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope this communication may enable me to complete my account of these cards, the explanation of which may probably throw light upon some of the stirring events of that extraordinary period of our history.

T. J. PETTIGREW.

Saville Row.

* * * * *

MOVABLE METAL TYPES ANNO 1435.

A vellum MS. has lately come into my possession, containing the Service for the Dead, Prayers, &c., with the tones for chanting, &c., in Latin, written for a German Order, apparently about the year 1430.

This tome, which is in small 4to., is very remarkable and valuable on account of the binding. This is red leather, stamped with double lines forming lozenges, and powdered with additional stamps, Or, a lion, a fleur-de-lys, an eagle, and a star. The whole is on the plain leather, without any gilding.

But in addition hereto, a full inscription runs along each back, at top and bottom and each side, stamped with movable metal types applied by hand, {406} without gold, as is done by the bookbinder to this day in blind stamping.

The legend on the first back is as follows:

At top.—"DIEZ . PUCHLEĪ Continued to the right.—IST . S. . MARGRETEN . At the bottom.—SCHUEST . ABT . ZU . Continued to the left.—S. . KATHEREĪ . ZU . MUR."

That is,—

"Diez puchlein ist schwester Margreten, sehuest abtisse zu Sankt Katherein zu Mur."

The legend on the last back is,—

At top.—"NACH . CRIST . Continued to the right.—GEPURT . MCCCCXXXV . At bottom.—UVART . GEPUN Continued to the left.—DĒ . DIEZ . PUCH ... K."

That is,—

"Nach Crist gepurt MCCCCXXXV uvart gepunden diez puch ... k."

The whole inscription will therefore be, in English,—

THIS BOOKLET IS SISTER MARGARET'S, SISTER-ABBESS AT SAINT CATHERINE'S AT MUR.

AFTER CHRIST'S BIRTH, 1435, WAS BOUN- DEN THIS BOOK ... K.

A letter or two is illegible, from the injury made by the clasp, before the last K. Both the clasps are torn away, perhaps from their having been of some precious metal. Has this K anything to do with Koester?

Can any particulars be given of the abbess, monastery, and town mentioned?

Is any other specimen of movable metal types known of so early a date?

GEORGE STEPHENS.

Copenhagen.

* * * * *

PORTRAITS AT BRICKWALL HOUSE.

Among the pictures at Brickwall House, Northiam, Sussex, are the following portraits by artists whose names are not mentioned either in Bryan, or Pilkington, or Horace Walpole's notices of painters. I shall be thankful for any information respecting them.

1. A full-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (29 inches by 24) of a gentleman seated, dressed in a handsome loose gown, red slippers, and on his head a handsome, but very peculiar velvet cap; on the ground, near him, a squirrel; and on a table by his side, a ground plan of some fortification. "John Sommer pinxit, 1700."

N. B.—The late Capt. Marryatt, and subsequently another gentleman, guessed it to be a portrait of Wortley Montague from the peculiar dress; but the fortification would seem to indicate a military personage. The picture is well painted.

2. A half-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (20-1/2 inches by 17), of an old lady seated; a landscape in the background. A highly finished and excellent picture; the lace in her cap is most elaborate. "T. Vander Wilt, 1701."

N. B.—I conclude this is the artist's name, though possibly it may be the subject's.

3. A pair of portraits (Kit Kat size), of John Knight of Slapton, Northamptonshire, aged seventy-two; and Catherine his wife, aged thirty-seven. "Lucas Whittonus pinxit, 1736."

N. B.—Inferior portraits by some provincial artist. I conclude Lucas is the surname, and Whittonus indicates his locality; if so, what place?

Whilst on this subject, I would add another Query respecting a picture in this house: a very highly finished portrait (small size) by Terburgh, of a gentleman standing, in black gown, long brown wig, and a book on a table by him. "Andries de Graeff. Obiit lxxiii., MDCLXXIIII."

Can you tell me anything about this old gentleman?

T. F.

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

Christian Names.—Can any of your correspondents inform me when it became a common practice to have more than one Christian name? Lord Coke says (Co. Litt. 3 a):

"And regularly it is requisite that the purchaser be named by the name of baptism and his surname, and that special heed be taken to the name of baptism; for that a man cannot have two names of baptism as he may have divers surnames."

And further on he says:

"If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his confirmation by the bishop, he is named John, he may purchase by the name of his confirmation.... And this doth agree with our ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian names."

It appears, then, that during the first half of the seventeenth century a man could not have two Christian names.

Also, at what period did the custom arise of using as Christian names words which are properly surnames?

ERICAS.

Lake of Geneva.—The chronicler Marius (in the second volume of Dom Bouquet) mentions that, in the reign of the sons of Clotaire, an earthquake or landslip, in the valley of the Upper Rhone, enlarged the Lemannus, or Genevese Lake, by thirty miles of length and twenty of breadth, destroying towns and villages. Montfaucon, in his Monumens de la Monarchie, i. p. 63., {407} states that the Lake of Geneva was formed on this occasion: absurdly, unless he means that upon this occasion its limits were extended to Geneva, having previously terminated further east. What vestiges of this catastrophe are now perceptible?

A. N.

Clerical Portrait.—May I request the assistance of "N. & Q." in discovering the name of a reverend person whose portrait I have recently met with in my parish? The individual from whom I procured it could give me no other history of it, but that he had bought it at the sale of the effects of a respectable pawnbroker in the village many years ago.

Afterwards I learned from another resident in the parish that he well remembered visiting the shop of the same broker, in company with another gentleman still living, when this identical portrait was the subject of conversation, and the broker went into his private room and brought out a book, conceived to be a magazine, from which he read a description of the person of whom this was the portrait, to the following effect, viz., "That he was born of obscure parentage in the parish of Glemham, Suffolk; that he was sent to school, and afterwards became a great man and a dignitary of the church, if not a bishop; and became so wealthy that he gave a large sum for the repairs of Norwich Cathedral."

These are the only particulars which I have yet ascertained as to the portrait, for neither of the gentlemen who were present at this transaction with the broker, though they agree in the circumstances which I have above narrated, can remember the name of my great unknown.

I look, however, with confidence to the wide range of your correspondents, and hope to receive some clue which may guide me to the wished-for discovery.

The portrait is an oil painting, a fine full florid face, with a long wig of black curly hair resting on the shoulders, gown and band, date probably from Queen Anne to George II.

J. T. A.

Arms: Battle-axe.—With some quarterings of Welsh arms in Bisham (Marlow) of Hobey, is one of three battle-axes. The same appear near Denbigh, supposed taken in with a L. R. from Vaughan. Query, What family or families bore three battle-axes?

A. C.

Bullinger's Sermons.—Will some of your correspondents kindly give me some information regarding a volume of sermons by Henry Bullinger, which I have reason to believe is of rather rare occurrence? It is Festorum dierum Domini et Servatoris nostri Jesu Christi Sermones Ecclesiastici: Heinrycho Bullingero, Authore. There is a vignette, short preface (on title-page), with a Scripture motto, Matt. xvii. Date is, "Tiguri apud Christoph. Froschoverum a. MDLVIII." I believe there is a copy in the University Library, Cambridge.

ENIVRI.

Monkstown, Dublin.

Gibbon's Library.—Matthews, in his Diary of an Invalid, says, when visiting Gibbon's house at Lausanne, "His library still remains; but it is buried and lost to the world. It is the property of Mr. Beckford, and lies locked up in an uninhabited house at Lausanne" (1st edit. 1820, p. 319.). This was written about 1817. Was the library ever transferred to Fonthill or to Bath, or does it still remain at Lausanne?

J. H. M.

Dr. Timothy Bright.—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether this gentleman, author of a Treatise on Melancholy, an edition of Fox's Martyrs, &c., was an ancestor of the Rev. Henry Bright, prebend of Worcester Cathedral, and instructor of Samuel Butler, author of Hudibras?

H. A. B.

Townley MSS.—I request to know, where are the Townley MSS.?* They are quoted by Nicolas in the Scope and Grosvenor Rolls? Also, where are the MSS. often referred to in the History of the House of Yvery as then penes the Earl of Egmont; and also a folio of Pedigrees by Camden Russet?

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

[* For a notice of the Townley MSS., see "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 103.]

Order of St. John of Jerusalem.—1. Who were the members of the British Language of St. John of Jerusalem, when Elizabeth took away their property?

2. What members of the British Language were present when, in 1546, the English commander Upton attacked and defeated the famous Corsair Dragut at Tarschien in Malta? Also, what members of it were present when the Chevalier Repton, Grand Prior of England in 1551, was killed, after signally defeating the Turks in another attack which they made on the island?

3. What became of the records of the Language?

N.B.—Some of them, belonging to the Irish branch of it, were lately bought of a Jew by a private gentleman in the Grand Duchy of Baden. They are supposed to have been deposited for security at Heidersheim near Fribourg, which was the chief seat of the German Language of the Order.

R. L. P.

Wartensee, Lake of Constance.

Consecrated Roses, Swords, &c.—Where will any account be found of the origin of the custom, which has long prevailed at Rome, of the Pope's blessing, on the eve at certain festivals, roses and {408} other articles, and which were afterwards frequently presented to sovereigns and potentates as tokens of friendship and amity?

G.

West, Kipling, and Millbourne.—In 1752 there was a firm of West and Kipling in Holborn: the Christian name of West was Thomas; and there is reason to believe that he had two sons, Francis and Thomas. A George Millbourne, Esq., of Spring Gardens, married a cousin of Thomas West, the partner of Kipling: these facts are referred to in the will of a lady proved A.D. 1764. Can any reader of "N. & Q." furnish me with materials or references from which I may gather information of these families of West and Millbourne? The smallest contribution will be thankfully received by

F. S.

Font Inscriptions.—I would request the favour of any such of ancient date. A collection of them would be interesting. I can give three.

At Lullington, Somerset, on a Norman font, in characters of that date:

"In hoc Fontu sacro pereunt delicta lavacro."

At Bourn, Lincoln:

"Sup ome nom I H C est nom qde."

At Melton Mowbray:

"Sancta Trinitas misere nobis."

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

Welsh Genealogical Queries.—Can JOHN AP WILLIAM AP JOHN (Vol. vii., p. 292.), or some other reader, enlighten me as to who the following personages were, or where a pedigree of them is to be found:

1. Gwladys, da. of Ithel ap Rhys ap Morgan, of Ewias ap Morgan Hir ap Testyn ap Gwrgant, of 4th royal tribe, who ma. Madog ap Griffith.—Burke's Landed Gentry, "Hughes of Gwerclas."

2. Beatrix, da. of Eignion ap David ap Myles ap Griffith ap Owen, lord of Bromfield; and Honet ap Jago ap Ydwall, prince of Wales, who ma. William Belward, baron of Malpas.

3. Gwernwy, cousin of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn, called prince of the 14th royal tribe, whose grand-da. Hunydd ma. Meredith ap Bleddyn.—V. Burke, as above.

4. Gwentlian, wife of the above Gwernwy, da. of Rhys ap Morgan.

5. Griffin, son of Wenovewyn, whose da. ma. Fulke Fitzwarine, a baron, 1295—1314.—V. Burke's Extinct Peerage.

6. Gladys, da. of Rygwallon, prince of Wales, said by Sir Wm. Segar to be wife of Walter FitzOther, ancestor of Lords Windsor; and what authority is there for this match?—V. Collins, &c.

As these Queries are not of general interest, I inclose a stamped envelope for the answers.

E. H. Y.

The Butler and his Man William.—These mythological personages, the grotesque creation of Mr. Grosvenor Bedford's fertile imagination, are frequently referred to and dilated on in the letters addressed to him by Southey (Life of Southey, by his Son, vol. ii. p. 335., &c.), when urging Mr. Bedford to write a Pantagruelian romance on their lives and adventures, which however was never accomplished. What therefore is the meaning of the following paragraph, which appears at the conclusion of the review of volume ii. of Southey's Life, contained in the Gent.'s Mag. for April, 1850, p. 359.?

"We will only add, that with respect to the Butler mentioned at p. 335., the editor seems but imperfectly informed. His portrait, and that of his man William, are now hanging on the walls of our study. His Life is on our table. He himself has long since returned to the 'august abode' from which he came."

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

Longhi's Portraits of Guidiccioni.—The Count Alessandro Cappi of Ravenna is about to publish an elaborate life of his fellow-townsman Luca Longhi, with very copious illustrations from that painter's works.

He has ransacked Italy in vain for a portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Guidiccioni, President of Romagna, painted by Luca Longhi in 1540. This portrait possesses more than ordinary interest, since (to use the words of Armenini, author of Veri Precetti della Pittura) "fu predicato per maraviglioso in Roma da Michelangelo Buonarrotti." Count Cappi, supposing that the picture may have found its way to England, hopes by the publication of this notice to discover its whereabouts. Any correspondent who shall be kind enough to furnish him, through this journal, with the desired information, may be assured of his "piu vera riconoscenza."

W. G. C.

Sir George Carr.—Wanted, pedigree and arms, wife's name and family, of Sir George Carr, who was joint clerk of the council of Munster from 1620 to 1663, or thereabouts. Sir George had two sons at least, William and Thomas; William was alive in 1673. Whom did he marry, and what family had he?

Y. S. M.

Dublin.

Dean Pratt.—DR. HESSEY will feel obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who can answer the following questions.

At what College of what University did Dr. Samuel Pratt, Dean of Rochester, receive his education, and by whom was he ordained?

He was born in 1658, left Merchant Taylors' school (where he passed his early years) in 1677, and was created D.D. by royal mandate, at Cambridge, in 1697, but no college is attached to his {409} name in the list of Cambridge graduates. Still, if he was of neither university, it seems difficult to account for his having had the successive preferments of Chaplain to the Princess of Denmark, Almoner to the Duke of Gloucester, Clerk of the Closet to the Queen, and in 1706 Dean of Rochester. He died in 1728, aged seventy-one.

Merchant Taylors'.

Portrait of Franklin.—I have heard of a story to the effect that when Franklin left England, he presented a portrait of himself, by West, to Thurlow. I am exceedingly anxious to know if there is any foundation for this, as during the last week I saw in a shop near the chapel here, a portrait of the philosopher which I rather suspect to be the one alluded to.

H. G. D.

Knightsbridge.

"Enquiry into the State of the Union."—A book of much importance has fallen into my hands, entitled—

"An Enquiry into the State of the Union of Great Britain. The past and present State of the public Revenues. By the Wednesday's Club in Friday Street. London: printed for A. and W. Bell, at the Cross Keys, Cornhill; J. Watts, in Bow Street, Covent Garden: and sold by B. Barker and C. King, in Westminster Hall; W. Mears and J. Brown, without Temple Bar; and W. Taylor, in Paternoster Row. 1717."

Can any of your correspondents throw a light upon this Wednesday's Club, in Friday Street? Was it a real club or fictitious?

By so doing you would greatly oblige me, and afford important information to this office.

JAMES A. DAVIES.

National Debt Office.

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS.

Bishop of Oxford in 1164.—Among the names of the bishops who signed the Constitutions of Clarendon I see "Bartholomeus Oxoniensis Episcopus." How is this signature accounted for? There are no other signatures of suffragan or inferior bishops attached.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

[Clearly a misprint for Bartholomeus Exoniensis Episcopus, the celebrated Bartholomew Iscanus, the opponent of Thomas a Becket. Our correspondent should have given the title of the work where he found the signatures, as they are not appended to the "Constitutions" in Matthew Paris, Spelman, or Wilkins.]

Roman Inscription found at Battle Bridge.—I shall be very much obliged if any one of your numerous readers or correspondents will be so kind as to furnish me with an authentic copy of the inscription on the Roman stone which in July 1842 was found at Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, and also state where the original stone is to be seen. The account of the discovery of the stone is mentioned in a paragraph which appeared in The Times newspaper of the 30th July, 1842, in the following manner:

"ANTIQUITIES DISCOVERED.—A Roman inscription has within these few days past been discovered at Battle Bridge, otherwise, by an absurd change of denomination, known as King's Cross, New Road, St. Pancras. This discovery appears fully to justify the conjectures of Stukeley and other antiquaries, that the great battle between the Britons under Boadicea and the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus took place at this spot. Faithful tradition, in the absence of all decisive evidence, still pointed to the place by the appellation of Battle Bridge. The inscription, which in parts is much obliterated, bears distinctly the letters 'LEG. XX.' The writer of this notice has not yet had an opportunity personally to examine it, but speaks from the information of an antiquarian friend. The twentieth legion, it is well known, was one of the four which came into Britain in the reign of Claudius, and contributed to its subjugation: the vexillation of this legion was in the army of Suetonius Paulinus when he made that victorious stand in a fortified pass, with a forest in his rear, against the insurgent Britons. The position is sketched by Tacitus, and antiquaries well know that on the high ground above Battle Bridge there are vestiges of Roman works, and that the tract of land to the north was formerly a forest. The veracity of the following passage of Tacitus is therefore fully confirmed:—'Deligitque locum artis faucibus, et a tergo sylva clausum; satis cognito, nihil hostium, nisi in fronte, et apertam planitiem esse, sine metu insidiarum.' He further tells us that the force of Suetonius was composed of 'Quartadecima legio cum vexillariis vicessimariis et e proximis auxiliares.'"

S. R.

[A sketch of this fragment of stone, discovered by Mr. E. B. Price, is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1842, p. 144.]

Blow-shoppes.—

"Wild bores, bulls, and falcons bredde there in times paste; now, for lakke of woodde, blow-shoppes decay there."—Leland's Itin., Hearne's edit., vol. vii. p. 42.

What is the meaning of blow-shoppe?

J. B.

[Leland appears to refer to blacksmiths' forges, which decayed for lack of wood.]

Bishop Hesketh (Vol. vii., p 209.).—There is evidently an error in your note respecting the death of Bishop Hesketh, but it is one common to all the lists of Manx bishops to which I have access. You state that he died in 1510: it is certain that he was living in 1520.

He was a son of Robert Hesketh, of Rufford, co. Lanc., and his brother Richard Hesketh, "learned in the lawe," and who is stated by Kimber to have been Attorney-General to King Hen. VIII., {410} by his will, dated 15th August, 1520, appointed his "trusty brethren Hugh, bishopp of Manne, and Thomas Hesketh, esquier," executors, and proceeded:

"I wyll that the said Bishopp shall haue a goblett of syluer w't a couir, and my said brothir Thomas to haue a pouncid bool of syluer, a counterpoynt, and a cordyn gemnete bedde w't the hangings, a paire of fustyan blanketts, and a paire of shetys, and a fether bedde that lyeth uppon the same bedde, for their labours."

So that the vacancy, if there really was any, between his death and the consecration of Bishop Stanley, is much less than is generally supposed.

H. A.

[Our authority for the date of Bishop Hesketh's death was Bishop Hildesley's MS. list of the Manx bishops, which he presented to the British Museum, and which appears to have been carefully compiled. His words are, "Huan Hesketh died 1510, and was buried in his cathedral of St. Germans in Peel." It is clear, however, there is an error somewhere, which did not escape the notice of William Cole, the Cambridge antiquary; for in his MS. Collections, vol. xxvi. p. 24., he has the following entry:—"Huan Hesketh was living 13 Henry VIII., 1531, at which time Thomas Earl of Derby appointed, among others, Sir Hugh Hesketh, Bishop of Man, to be one of his executors. (See Collins's Peerage, vol. ii. p. 33.) Wolsey was appointed supervisor of the will, and is in it called Lord Chancellor: he was so made 1516, which proves that he was alive after 1510. The will of Richard Hesketh, Esq.—to be buried in his chapel at Rufford: executors, Hugh Hesketh, Bishop of Man, his brother; and Thomas Hesketh, Esq.—was proved Nov. 13, 1520. (In Reg. Manwaring, 3.) He continued bishop, I presume, forty-three years, from 1487 to 1530. It is plain he was so thirty-four years."]

Form of Prayer for Prisoners.—

"It is not, perhaps, generally known, that we have a form of prayer for prisoners, which is printed in the Irish Common Prayer-Book, though not in ours. Mrs. Berkeley, in whose preface of prefaces to her son's poems I first saw this mentioned, regrets the omission; observing, that the very fine prayer for those under sentence of death, might, being read by the children of the poor, at least keep them from the gallows. The remark is just."—Southey's Omniana, vol. i. p. 50.

What Irish Common Prayer-Book is here meant? I have the books issued by the late Ecclesiastical History Society, but do not see the service among them. Could the prayer referred to be transferred to "N. & Q.;" or where is the said Irish Prayer-Book to be found?

THOMAS LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

[The Book of Common Prayer according to the use of the Church of Ireland, we believe, may frequently be met with. An edition in folio, 1740, is in the British Museum, containing "The Form of Prayer for the Visitation of Prisoners, treated upon by the Archbishops and Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy of Ireland, and agreed upon by Her Majesty's License in their Synod, holden at Dublin in the Year 1711." We are inclined to think that Mrs. Berkeley must have intended its beautiful exhortation—not the prayer—for the use of the poor. See "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 246.]

* * * * *

REPLIES.

EDMUND SPENSER, AND SPENSERS, OR SPENCERS, OF HURSTWOOD.

(Vol. vii., pp. 303. 362.)

Without entering on the question as to possible connexion of the poet with the family above mentioned, the discussion may be simplified by solving a difficulty suggested by CLIVIGER (p. 362.), arising from Hurstwood Hall (another estate in Hurstwood) having been possessed by Townley, and by explaining, 1st, The identity of the tenement once owned by Spencers; 2ndly, The seeming cause of Whitaker's silence; and, 3rdly, The certainty of possession by the Spencers.

I. The former estate of the Spencers in Hurstwood is a tenement which was purchased by the late Rev. John Hargreaves from the representatives of William Ormerod, of Foxstones, in Cliviger, in 1803, and which had been conveyed in 1690, by John Spencer, then of Marsden, to Oliver Ormerod of Hurstwood, and his son Laurence; the former of these being youngest son, by a second marriage, of Peter Ormerod of Ormerod, and co-executor of his will in 1650. So much for the locality.

II. As for Dr. Whitaker's silence, I know, from correspondence with him (1808-1816), that, from an irregularity in the Prerogative Office, he was not aware of this will, and uninformed as to this second marriage, or the connexion of this purchaser's family with the parent house; and I think it as probable that he was as unaware of the ancient possession of the purchased tenement by Spencers, as it is certain that this theory as to the connexion of the poet with it was then unknown. If otherwise, he would doubtless have extended his scale, and included it.

III. As to the certainty of possession by Spencers, I have brief extracts from deeds as to this tenement as follows:—

1677. Indenture of covenants for a fine, between John Spencer the elder, and Oliver Ormerod of Cliviger, and note of fine.

1687. Will of same John Spencer, late of Hurstwood, mentioning possession of this tenement as the inheritance of his great-grandfather, Edmund Spencer.

1689. Family arrangements of John Spencer (the son) as to same tenement, then in occupation of "Oliver Ormeroyde" before mentioned.

{411} 1690. Conveyance from John Spencer to O. and L. O., as before mentioned.

In Gentleman's Magazine, August, 1842 (pp. 141, 142.), will be found numerous notices of these Spencers or Spensers, with identified localities from registers.

I think that this explanation will solve the difficulty suggested by CLIVIGER. On the main question I have not grounds sufficient for an opinion, but add a reference to Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1848, p. 286., for a general objection by MR. CROSSLEY, President of the Chetham Society, who is well acquainted with the locality.

LANCASTRIENSIS.

I was about to address some photographic Queries to the correspondents of "N. & Q." when a note caught my attention relating to Edmund Spenser (in the Number dated March 26.). The Mr. F. F. Spenser mentioned therein was related to me, being my late father's half-brother. I regret to say that he died very suddenly at Manchester, Nov. 2, 1852. During his lifetime, he took much pains to clear up the doubts about the locality of the poet's retirement, and his relatives in the North; and has made out a very clear case, I imagine. On a visit to Yorkshire in 1851, I spent a few days with him, and took occasion to urge the necessity of arranging the mass of information he had accumulated on the subject; which I have no doubt he would have done, had not his sudden death occurred to prevent it. These facts may be of some interest to biographers of the poet, and with this object I have ventured to trouble you with this communication.

J. B. SPENCER.

11. Montpellier Road, Blackheath.

* * * * *

THROWING OLD SHOES FOR LUCK.

(Vol. ii., p. 196.; Vol. v., p. 413.; Vol. vii., pp. 193. 288.)

I do not know whether you will permit me to occupy a small portion of your valuable space in an attempt to suggest an origin of the custom of throwing an old shoe after a newly married bride.

Your correspondents assume that the old shoe was thrown after the bride for luck, and for luck only. I doubt whether it was so in its origin.

Among barbarous nations, all transfers of property, all assertions and relinquishments of rights of dominion, were marked by some external ceremony or rite; by which, in the absence of written documents, the memory of the vulgar might be impressed. When, among Scandinavian nations, land was bought or sold, a turf was delivered by the trader to the purchaser: and among the Jews, and probably among other oriental nations, a shoe answered the same purpose.

In Psalm lx., beginning with "O God, thou hast cast me off," there occurs the phrase, "Moab is my washpot, over Edom have I cast out my shoe." Immediately after it occurs the exclamation, "O God! who has cast us off!" A similar passage occurs in Psalm cix.

By this passage I understand the Psalmist to mean, that God would thoroughly cast off Edom, and cease to aid him in war or peace. This interpretation is consistent with the whole tenor of the Psalm.

The receiving of a shoe was an evidence and symbol of asserting or accepting dominion or ownership; the giving back a shoe, the symbol of rejecting or resigning it.

Among the Jews, the brother of a childless man was bound to marry his widow: or, at least, he "had the refusal of her," and the lady could not marry again till her husband's brother had formally rejected her. The ceremony by which this rejection was performed took place in open court, and is mentioned in Deut. xxv. If the brother publicly refused her, "she loosed his shoe from off his foot, and spat in his face;" or, as great Hebraists translate it, "spat before his face." His giving up the shoe was a symbol that he abandoned all dominion over her; and her spitting before him was a defiance, and an assertion of independence. This construction is in accordance with the opinions of Michaelis, as stated in his Laws of Moses, vol. ii. p. 31.

This practice is still further illustrated by the story of Ruth. Her nearest kinsman refused to marry her, and to redeem her inheritance: he was publicly called on so to do by Boaz, and as publicly refused. And the Bible adds, "as it was the custom in Israel concerning changing, that a man plucked off his shoe and delivered it to his neighbour," the kinsman plucked off his shoe and delivered it to Boaz as a public renunciation of Ruth, of all dominion over her, and of his right of pre-marriage.

These ceremonies were evidently not unknown to the early Christians. When the Emperor Wladimir made proposals of marriage to the daughter of Raguald, she refused him, saying, "That she would not take off her shoe to the son of a slave."

There is a passage in Gregory of Tours (c. 20.) where, speaking of espousals, he says, "The bridegroom having given a ring to the fiancee, presents her with a shoe."

From Michelet's Life of Luther we learn, that the great reformer was at the wedding of Jean Luffte. After supper, he conducted the bride to bed, and told the bridegroom that, according to common custom, he ought to be master in his own house when his wife was not there: and for a symbol, he took off the husband's shoe, and put it upon the head of the bed—"afin qu'il prit ainsi la domination et gouvernement."

{412} I would suggest for the consideration of your correspondents that the throwing a shoe after a bride was a symbol of renunciation of dominion and authority over her by her father or guardian; and the receipt of the shoe by the bridegroom, even if accidental, was an omen that that authority was transferred to him.

JOHN THRUPP.

Surbiton.

* * * * *

ORKNEYS IN PAWN.

(Vol. vii., pp. 105. 183.)

That the Orkney and Zetland Islands were transferred by Denmark to Scotland in 1468, in pledge for payment of part of the dower of the Princess of Denmark, who was married to James III., King of Scotland, under right of redemption by Denmark, is an admitted historic fact; but it is asserted by the Scottish, and denied by the Danish historians, that Denmark renounced her right of redemption of these Islands. The question is fully discussed, with references to every work and passage treating of the matter, in the first introductory note to the edition of The General Grievances and Oppressions of the Isles of Orkney and Shetland, published at Edinburgh, 1836. And the writer of the note is led to the conclusion that there was no renunciation, and that Denmark still retains her right of redemption. Mr. Samuel Laing, in his Journal of a Residence in Norway, remarks, that the object of Torfaeus' historical work, Orcades, seu Rerum Orcadensium Historiae libri tres, compiled by the express command of Christian V., King of Denmark, was to vindicate the right of the Danish monarch to redeem the mortgage of the sovereignty of these islands; and he adds, that in 1804, Bonaparte, in a proclamation addressed to the army assembled at Boulogne for the invasion of England, descanted on the claim of Denmark to this portion of the British dominions. In a note he has the farther statement, that in 1549 an assessment for paying off the sum for which Orkney and Zetland were pledged was levied in Norway by Christian III. (Vide Laing's Norway, 1837, pp. 352, 353.) From the preceding notice, it would appear, that Denmark never renounced her right of redemption, now merely a matter of antiquarian curiosity. And it is pertinent to mention, that the connexion of Orkney and Zetland was with Norway, not Denmark. I observe in the Catalogue of MSS., in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum (Titus C. VII. art. 71. f. 134.), "Notes on King of Denmark's Demand of the Orcades, 1587-8," which may throw some light on the matter.

In the historical sketch given by Broctuna, Kenneth II., King of Scotland, is said to have taken the Orkneys from the Picts A.D. 838; and that they remained attached to that kingdom till 1099, when Donald Bain, in recompense of aid given to him by Magnus, King of Norway, gifted all the Scotch isles, including the Orkneys, to Norway. This is not what is understood to be the history of Orkney.

In the middle of the ninth century, Harold Harfager, one of the reguli of Norway, subdued the other petty rulers, and made himself king of the whole country. The defeated party fled to Orkney, and other islands of the west: whence, betaking themselves to piracy, they returned to ravage the coast of Norway. Harold pursued them to their places of refuge, and conquered and colonised Orkney about A.D. 875. The Norwegians at that time destroyed or expelled the race then inhabiting these islands. They are supposed to have been Picts, and to have received Christianity at an earlier date, but it is doubtful if there were Christians in Orkney at that period: however, Depping says expressly, that Earl Segurd, the second Norwegian earl, expelled the Christians from these isles. I may remark, that the names of places in Orkney and Zetland are Norse, and bear descriptive and applicable meanings in that tongue; but hesitate to extend these names beyond the Norwegian colonisation, and to connect them with the Picts or other earlier inhabitants. No argument can be founded on the rude and miserable subterraneous buildings called Picts' houses, which, if they ever were habitations, or anything else than places of refuge, must have belonged to a people in a very low grade of civilisation. Be this as it may, Orkney and Zetland remained under the Norwegian dominion from the time of Harold Harfager till they were transferred to Scotland by the marriage treaty in 1468, a period of about six hundred years. What cannot easily be accounted for, is the discovery of two Orkney and Zetland deeds of the beginning of the fifteenth century prior to the transfer, written not in Norse, but in the Scottish language.

R. W.

* * * * *

HOGARTH'S PICTURES.

(Vol. vii., p. 339.)

The numerous and interesting inquiries of AN AMATEUR respecting a catalogue of Hogarth's works has brought to my recollection the discovery of one of them, which I was so fortunate as to see in its original situation. About the year 1815 I was invited by a friend, who was an artist, to visit a small public-house in Leadenhall Street, to see a picture by Hogarth: it was "The Elephant," since, I believe, pulled down, being in a ruinous condition. In the tap-room, on the wall, almost obscured by the dirt and smoke, and grimed by the rubbing of numberless foul jackets, was an indisputable picture by the renowned Hogarth. It represented the meeting of the committee of the {413} South Sea Company, and doubtless the figures were all portraits. It was painted in his roughest manner; but every head was stamped with that character for which he stood unrivalled. I have since heard that, when the house was pulled down, this picture was sold as one of the lots, in the sale of furniture, and bought by a dealer. It was painted on the wall, like a fresco; and how to remove it was the difficulty. On sounding the wall it was found to be lath and plaster, with timber framework (the usual style of building in the reign of Elizabeth). It was therefore determined to cut it out in substance, which was accordingly performed; and by the help of chisels, thin crowbars, and other instruments, it was safely detached. The plaster was then removed from the back down to the priming, and the picture was backed with strong canvas. It was then cleaned from all its defilement, and, on being offered for sale at a good price, was bought by a nobleman, whose name I have not heard, and is now in his collection.

I do not know whether your correspondent has heard of Hogarth's portrait of Fielding. The story, as I have heard or read it, is as follows:—Hogarth and Garrick sitting together after dinner, Hogarth was lamenting there was no portrait of Fielding, when Garrick said, "I think I can make his face."—"Pray, try my dear Davy," said the other. Garrick then made the attempt, and so well did he succeed, that Hogarth immediately caught the likeness, and exclaimed with exultation, "Now I have him: keep still, my dear Davy." To work he went with pen and ink, and the likeness was finished by their mutual recollections. This sketch has been engraved from the original drawing, and is preserved among several original drawings and prints in the illustrated copy of Lysons's Environs, vol. i. p. 544., in the King's Library, British Museum.

While I am writing about unnoticed pictures by what may be called erratic artists, I may mention that in the parlour of the "King's Head," corner of New Road and Hampstead Road, on the panel of a cupboard, is a half-length of a farmer's boy, most probably the work of G. Morland, who visited this house on his way to Hampstead, and probably paid his score by painting this picture; which is well known to have been his usual way of paying such debts.

E. G. BALLARD.

Agreeably to the suggestion of AN AMATEUR, I beg to send you the following list of pictures, from a catalogue in my possession:

CATALOGUE of the Pictures and Prints, the property of the late Mrs. Hogarth, deceased, sold by Mr. Greenwood, the Golden Head, Leicester Square, Saturday, April 24, 1790.

Pictures by Mr. Hogarth.

41. Two portraits of Ann and Mary Hogarth. 42. A daughter of Mr. Rich the comedian, finely coloured. 43. The original portrait of Sir James Thornhill. 44. The heads of six servants of Mr. Hogarth's family. 45. His own portrait—a head. 46. A ditto—a whole-length painting. 47. A ditto, Kit Kat, with the favourite dog, exceeding fine. 48. Two portraits of Lady Thornhill and Mrs. Hogarth. 49. The first sketch of the Rake's Progress. 50. A ditto of the altar of Bristol Church. 51. The Shrimp Girl—a sketch. 52. Sigismunda. 53. A historical sketch, by Sir James Thornhill. 54. Two sketches of Lady Pembroke and Mr. John Thornhill. 55. Three old pictures. 56. The bust of Sir Isaac Newton, terra cotta. 57. Ditto of Mr. Hogarth, by Roubilliac. 58. Ditto of the favourite dog, and cast of Mr. Hogarth's hand.

W. D. HAGGARD.

* * * * *

PHANTOM BELLS AND LOST CHURCHES.

(Vol. vii., pp. 128. 200. 328.)

In a little brochure entitled Christmas, its History and Antiquity, published by Slater, London, 1850, the writer says that—

"In Berkshire it is confidently asserted, that if any one watches on Christmas Eve he will hear subterranean bells; and in the mining districts the workmen declare that at this sacred season high mass is performed with the greatest solemnity on that evening in the mine which contains the most valuable lobe of ore, which is supernaturally lighted up with candles in the most brilliant manner, and the service changed by unseen choristers."—P. 46.

The poet Uhland has a beautiful poem entitled Die Verlorne Kirche. Lord Lindsay says:

"I subjoin, in illustration of the symbolism, and the peculiar emotions born of Gothic architecture, The Lost Church of the poet Uhland, founded, I apprehend, on an ancient tradition of the Sinaitic peninsula."—Sketches of Christian Art.

I give the first stanza of his translation:

"Oft in the forest far one hears A passing sound of distant bells; Nor legends old, nor human wit, Can tell us whence the music swells. From the Lost Church 'tis thought that soft Faint ringing cometh on the wind: Once many pilgrims trod the path, But no one now the way can find."

See also Das Versunkene Kloster, by the same sweet poet, commencing:

"Ein Kloster ist versunken Tief in den wilden See."

After Port Royal (in the West Indies) was submerged, at the close of the seventeenth century, sailors in those parts for many years had {414} stories of anchoring in the chimneys and steeples, and would declare they heard the church bells ringing beneath the water, agitated by the waves or spirits of the deep.

The case of the Round Towers seen in Lough Neagh, I need not bring forward, as no sound of bells has ever been heard from them.

There is one lost church so famous as to occur to the mind of every reader, I mean that of the Ten Tribes of Israel. After the lapse of thousands of years, we have here an historical problem, which time, perhaps, will never solve. We have a less famous, but still most interesting, instance of a lost church in Greenland. Soon after the introduction of Christianity, about the year 1000, a number of churches and a monastery were erected along the east coast of Greenland, and a bishop was ordained for the spiritual guidance of the colony. For some four hundred years an intercourse was maintained between this colony and Norway and Denmark. In the year 1406 the last bishop was sent over to Greenland. Since then the colony has not been heard of. Many have been the attempts to recover this lost church of East Greenland, but hitherto in vain.

I could send you a Note on a cognate subject, but I fear it would occupy too much of your space,—that of Happy Isles, or Islands of the Blessed. The tradition respecting these happy isles is very wide-spread, and obtains amongst nearly every nation of the globe; it is, perhaps, a relic of a primeval tradition of Eden. Some have caught glimpses of these isles, and some more favoured mortals have even landed, and returned again with senses dazzled at the ravishing sights they have seen. But in every case after these rare favours, these mystic lands have remained invisible as before, and the way to them has been sought for in vain. Such are the tales told with reverent earnestness, and listened to with breathless interest, not only by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans of old, but by the Irishman, the Welshman, the Hindoo, and the Red Indian of to-day.

EIRIONNACH.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.

Photographic Collodion (Vol. vii., p. 314.).—In a former communication I pointed out the wide differences in the various manipulations prescribed for making the photographic gun cotton by several photographers: differences most perplexing to persons of small leisure, and who are likely to lose half the opportunities of a photographic season, whilst puzzling over these diversities of proceeding. Suffer me now to entreat some one to whom all may look up (perhaps your kind and experienced correspondent DR. DIAMOND will do this service, so valuable to young photographers) to clear up the differences I will now "make a note of," viz. as to the amount of dry photographic gun cotton to be used in forming the prepared collodion.

On comparing various authors, and reducing their directions to a standard of one ounce of ether, I find the following differences: viz., DR. DIAMOND (Vol. vi., p. 277.) prescribes about three grains of gun cotton; Mr. Hennah (Directions, &c., p. 5.) about seven grains; the Count de Montizon (Journ. of Phot. Soc., p. 23.) eight grains; whilst Mr. Bingham (Supplement to Phot. Manip., p. 2.) directs about thirty-four grains! in each case to a single ounce of ether.

These differences are too wide to come within even Mr. Archer's "long range," that "the proportions ... must depend entirely upon the strength and the thickness required ... the skill of the operator and the season of the year." (Archer's Manual, p. 17.)

COKELY.

Filtering Collodion.—Count de Montizon, in his valuable paper on the collodion process, published in the second number of the Journal of the Photographic Society, objects to filtration on the ground that the silver solution is often injured by impurities contained in the paper. It may be worth while to state, that lime, and other impurities, may be removed by soaking the filter for a day or two, before it is used, in water acidulated with nitric acid; after which it should be washed with hot water and dried.

T. D. EATON.

Photographic Notes (Vol. vii., p. 363.).—I wish to correct an error in my communication in "N. & Q." of April 9: in speaking of "a more even film," I meant a film more evenly sensitive. I am sorry I have misled MR. SHADBOLT as to my meaning. I have very rarely any "spottings" in my pictures; but I always drop the plates once or twice into the bath, after the two minutes' immersion, to wash off any loose particles. I also drain off all I can of the nitrate of silver solution before placing the glass in the camera, and for three reasons:—1. Because it saves material; 2. Because the lower part of dark frame is kept free from liquid; 3. Because a "flowing sheet" of liquid must interfere somewhat with the passage of light to the film, and consequently with the sharpness of the picture. I think it is clear, from MR. SHADBOLT'S directions to MR. MERITT, that it is no very easy thing to cement a glass bath with marine glue.

J. L. SISSON.

Colouring Collodion Pictures (Vol. vii., p. 388.).—In your impression of April 16, there is a typographical error of some importance relative to lifting the collodion in and out of the bath: "The plate, after being plunged in, should be allowed to repose quietly from twenty to thirty minutes," &c. This should be seconds. The error arose, in all {415} probability, from my having used the contractions 20" to 30".

It may appear somewhat droll for any one to answer a question on which he has not had experience; but I beg to offer as a suggestion to PHOTO, that if he wishes to use collodion pictures for the purpose of dissolving views, he should first copy them in the camera as transparent objects so as to reverse the light and shade, then varnish them with DR. DIAMOND'S solution of amber in chloroform, when they will bear the application of transparent colours ground in varnish, such as are used for painting magic-lantern slides.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

Gutta Percha Baths (Vol. vii., p. 314.).—In "N. & Q." for March 26, I ventured to recommend to H. HENDERSON gutta percha, as a material for nitrate of silver baths. I did this from a knowledge that hundreds of them were in use, but chiefly because I have found them answer so well. In the same Number the Editor gives MR. HENDERSON very opposite advice; and, had I seen his opinion before my notes appeared, I should certainly have kept them back. But it is, I think, a matter of some importance, especially to beginners, to have it settled, whether gutta percha has the effect of causing "unpleasant markings" in collodion pictures or not. With all due deference to the Editor's opinion, I do not believe that gutta percha baths are injurious to the finished picture. I have never any markings in my glass positives now, but what may be traced with certainty to some unevenness in the film or dirtiness on the glass. And I hope that the number of beginners who are using gutta percha baths, and who are troubled with these unpleasant markings (as all beginners are, whether they use glass or gutta percha), will not, without some very careful experiments, lay the fault upon the gutta percha. In the Number for April 2, the Editor thanks me for what he is pleased to call "the very beautiful specimen of my skill." This was a small glass positive, which I sent him in accordance with an offer of mine in a former note. Now, that was rendered sensitive in a gutta percha bath, which I have had in use for months; and I think I may appeal to the Editor as to the absence of all unpleasant markings in it. Probably it may be a good plan for those who make the baths for themselves to adopt the following simple method of cleaning them at first. Fill the bath with water, changing it every day for a week or so. Then wash it with strong nitric acid, and wash once or twice afterwards. Always keep the nitrate of silver solution in the bath, with a cover over it. Never filter, unless there is a great deal of extraneous matter at the bottom. If glass baths are used, cemented together with sealing-wax, &c., I imagine they might be as objectionable as gutta percha. The number of inquiries for a diagram of my head-rest, &c., from all parts of the kingdom—Glasgow, Paisley, Manchester, Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle, Durham, &c. &c.—proves the very large number of photographic subscribers "N. & Q." possesses. I think, therefore, it cannot but prove useful to discuss in its pages the question of the advantage or disadvantage of gutta percha.

J. L. SISSON.

Edingthorpe Rectory, North Walsham.

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REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

Pilgrimages to the Holy Land (Vol. v., p. 289.).—I beg to inform W. M. R. E. (Vol. vii., p. 341.) that, though I have never met with a printed copy of the "Itinerary to the Holy Land" of Gabriele Capodilista (the Perugia edition of 1472, mentioned by Brunet, being undoubtedly a book of very great rarity, and perhaps the only one ever printed), I have in my possession a very beautiful manuscript of the work on vellum, which appears to have been presented by the author to the nuns of St. Bernardino of Padua. It is a small folio; and the first page is illuminated in a good Italian style of the fifteenth century. It is very well written in the Venetian dialect, and commences thus:

"Venerabilibus ac Devotissimis Dne Abbatissae et Monialibus Ecclesiae Sancti Bernardini de Padua salutē in D[=NO].—Ritrovandomi ne li tempi in questa mia opereta descripti, Io Gabriel Capodelista Cavalier Padoano dal sumo Idio inspirato et dentro al mio cor concesso fermo proposito di vistare personalmente el Sanctissimo loco di Jerusalem," &c.

This MS., which was formerly in the library of the Abbati Canonici, I purchased, with others, at Venice in 1835.

If W. M. R. E. has any wish to see it, and will communicate such wish to me through the medium of the publisher of "N. & Q.," I shall be happy to gratify his curiosity. I do not know whether there is any MS. of Capodilista's Itinerary in the British Museum.

W. SNEYD.

"A Letter to a Convocation Man" (Vol vii., p. 358.).—The authorship of the tract concerning which MR. FRASER inquires, is assigned to Sir Bartholomew Shower, not by the Bodleian Catalogue only, but also by Sir Walter Scott, in his edition of the Somers' Tracts (vol. ix. p. 411.), as well as by Dr. Watt, in his Bibliotheca Britannica. The only authorities for ascribing it to Dr. Binckes which I have been able to discover, are Dr. Edmund Calamy, in his Life and Times (vol. i. p. 397.), and the Rev. Thomas Lathbury, in his History of the Convocation of the Church of England (p. 283.); but neither of those authors gives the source from which his information is {416} derived: and Mr. Lathbury, who appears perfectly unaware that the tract had ever been ascribed to Sir Bartholomew Shower, a lawyer, remarks: "It is worthy of observation that the author of the letter professes to be a lawyer, though such was not the case, Dr. Binckes being a clergyman." Dr. Kennett also, in his Ecclesiastical Synods, p. 19., referred to by Mr. Lathbury, speaking of Archbishop Wake's reply, says: "I remember one little prejudice to it, that it was wrote by a divine, whereas the argument required an able lawyer; and the very writer of the Letter to a Convocation Man suggesting himself to be of that profession, there was the greater equity, there should be the like council of one side as there had been of the other."—It has occurred to me that the mistake of assigning the tract to Dr. Binckes may possibly have been occasioned by the circumstance that another tract, with the following title, published in 1701, has the initials W. B. at the end of it,—A Letter to a Convocation Man, by a Clergyman in the Country. I have examined both tracts, and they are quite different, and leave no appearance of having proceeded from the same hand.