Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.

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{69}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

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

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No. 195.] SATURDAY, JULY 23. 1853.. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page William Blake 69 A Poem by Shelley, not in his Works 71 The Impossibilities of History 72 "Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat," by T. J. Buckton 73 Shakspeare Correspondence, by J. Payne Collier, George Blink, &c. 73 "The Dance of Death," by Weld Taylor 76

MINOR NOTES:—Old Lines newly revived—Inscription near Cirencester—Wordsworth—"Magna est Veritas et praevalebit"—"Putting your foot into it" 76

QUERIES:— Fragments of MSS., by Philip Hale 77 The Electric Telegraph, by W. Matthews 78

MINOR QUERIES:—Sir Walter Raleigh—Ancient Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost—Newton and Somers—Daventry, Duel at—Passage in Burial Service— "They shot him on the nine-stane rig"—Wardhouse, and Fishermen's Custom there—"Adrian turn'd the bull"— Cary's "Palaeologia Chronica"—The Southwark Pudding Wonder—Roman Catholics confined in Fens of Ely—White Bell Heather transplanted—Green's "Secret Plot"— "The full Moon brings fine Weather"—Nash the Artist— Woodwork of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell— "The Mitre and the Crown"—Military Music 78

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Stoven Church—The Statute of Kilkenny—Kenne of Kenne—Rents of Assize, &c.—Edifices of Ancient and Modern Times—Gorram— "Rock of Ages" 80

REPLIES:— Remuneration of Authors 81 On the Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits 82 Ladies' Arms borne in a Lozenge 83

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Multiplication of Photographs—Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals 85

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Donnybrook Fair—Abigail— Honorary Degrees—Red Hair—Historical Engraving— Proverbs quoted by Suetonius—"Sat cito, si sat bene"— Council of Laodicea, Canon 35.—Anna Lightfoot—Jack and Gill—Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic Needle— Gibbon's Library—St. Paul's Epistles to Seneca— "Hip, Hip, Hurrah!"—Emblemata—Campvere, Privileges of— Slang Expressions: "Just the cheese"—The Honorable Miss E. St. Leger—Queries from the Navorscher—"Pity is akin to Love" 86

MISCELLANEOUS:— Notes on Books, &c. 89 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 90 Notices to Correspondents 90 Advertisements 90

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Notes.

WILLIAM BLAKE.

My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted with many neglected and obscure individuals connected with our earlier English literature, who, after "fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have passed away; leaving their names entombed upon the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty book, only to be found upon the shelves of the curious.

To look for these in Kippis, Chalmers, Gorton, or Rose would be a waste of time; and although agreeing to some extent with the Utilitarians, that we have all that was worth preserving of the Antediluvians, there is, I think, here and there a name worth resuscitating, possessing claims to a niche in our "Antiquary's Newspaper;" and for that distinction, I would now put in a plea on behalf of my present subject, William Blake.

Although our author belongs to the eccentric category, he is a character not only deserving of notice, but a model for imitation: the "bee in his bonnet" having set his sympathies in the healthy direction of a large philanthropy for the spiritual and temporal interests of his fellow men.

The congenial reader has already, I doubt not, anticipated that I am about to introduce that nondescript book bearing the running title—and it never had any other—of Silver Drops, or Serious Things; purporting, in a kind of colophon, to be "written by William Blake, housekeeper to the Ladies' Charity School."[1] The curious in old books knows too, that, apart from its subject, the Silver Drops of W. B. has usually an attractive exterior; most of the exemplaires which have come under my notice being sumptuously bound in old morocco, profusely tooled; with the name of the party to whom it had apparently been presented, stamped in a compartment upon the cover. Its value is farther enhanced by its pictorial and emblematical accompaniments. These are four in number: the first representing a heart, whereon {70} a fanciful picture of Charity supported by angels; second, a view of Highgate Charity Schools (Dorchester House); third, Time with his scythe and hour-glass[2]; and the fourth, in three compartments, the centre containing butterflies; the smaller at top and bottom, sententious allusions to the value of time—"Time drops pearles from his golden wings," &c. These are respectable engravings, but by whom executed I know not. After these, and before coming to the Silver Drops, which are perhaps something akin to Master Brooks' Apples of Gold, the book begins abruptly: "The Ladies' Charity School-house Roll of Highgate, or a subscription of many noble well-disposed ladies for the easie carrying of it on." "Being well informed," runs the Prospectus, "that there is a pious, good, commendable work for maintaining near forty poor or fatherless children, born all at or near Highgate, Hornsey, or Hamsted: we, whose names are subscribed, do engage or promise, that if the said boys are decently cloathed in blew, lined with yellow; constantly fed all alike with good and wholsom diet; taught to read, write, and cast accompts, and so put out to trades, in order to live another day; then we will give for one year, two or three (if we well like the design, and prudent management of it,) once a year, the sum below mentioned," &c. The projector of this good work was the subject of my present note; and after thus introducing it, the worthy "woollen-draper, at the sign of the Golden Boy, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden," for such he was, goes on to recommend and enforce its importance in a variety of cajolling addresses, or, as he calls them, "charity-school sticks," to the great and wealthy; ostensibly the production of the boys, but in reality the concoctions of Mr. Blake, and in which he pleads earnestly for his hobby. In An Essay, or Humble Guess, how the Noble Ladies may be inclined to give to and encourage their Charity-school at Highgate, Mr. Blake farther humorously shows up the various dispositions of his fair friends:—"And first," says he, "my lady such-a-one cryed, Come, we will make one purse out of our family;" and "my lady such-an-one said she would give for the fancy of the Roll and charity stick. My lady such-an-one cryed by her troth she would give nothing at all, for she had waies enough for her money; while another would give five or six stone of beef every week." Again, in trying to come at the great citizen-ladies, he magnifies, in the following characteristic style, the city of London; and, by implication, their noble husbands and themselves:—"There is," says Mr. Blake, "the Tower and the Monument; the old Change, Guild-Hall, and Blackwall-Hall, which some would fain burn again; there is Bow steeple, the Holy Bible, the Silver Bells of Aaron, the godly-outed ministers; the melodious musick of the Gospels; Smithfield martyrs yet alive; and the best society, the very best in all the world for civility, loyalty, men, and manners; with the greatest cash, bulk, mass, and stock of all sorts of silks, cinnamon, spices, wine, gold, pearls, Spanish wooll and cloaths; with the river Nilus, and the stately ships of Tarshish to carry in and out the great merchandizes of the world." In this the city dames are attacked collectively. Individually, he would wheedle them thus into his charitable plans:—"Now pray, dear madam, speak or write to my lady out of hand, and tell her how it is with us; and if she will subscribe a good gob, and get the young ladies to do so too; and then put in altogether with your lordship's and Sir James's also: for it is necessary he or you in his stead should do something, now the great ship is come safe in, and by giving some of the first-fruits of your great bay, or new plantation, to our school, the rest will be blessed the better." The scheme seems to have offered attractions to the Highgate gentry:—"The great ladies do allow their house-keeper," he continues, "one bottle of wine, three of ale, half a dozen of rolls, and two dishes of meat a-day; who is to see the wilderness, orchard, great prospects, walks, and gardens, all well kept and rolled for their honours' families; and to give them small treats according to discretion when they please to take the air, which is undoubtedly the best round London." Notwithstanding the eloquent pleadings of Mr. Blake for their assistance and support, it is to be feared that the noble ladies allowed the predictions of his friends to be verified, and did "suffer such an inferiour meane and little person (to use his own phraseology) to sink under the burden of so good and great a work:" for we find that Gough, in allusion thereto, says (Topographical Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 644.):—

"This Hospital at Highgate, called the Ladies' Charity School, was erected by one W. Blake, a woollen-draper in Covent Garden; who having purchased Dorchester House, and having fooled away his estate in building, was thrown into prison."

Even here, and under such circumstances, our subject was nothing daunted; for the same authority informs us, that, still full of his philanthropic projects, he took the opportunity his leisure there admitted to write another work upon his favourite topic of educating and caring for the {71} poor; its title is, The State and Case of a Design for the better Education of Thousands of Parish Children successively in the vast Northern Suburbs of London vindicated, &c. Besides the above, there is another remarkable little piece which I have seen, beginning abruptly, "Here followeth a briefe exhortation which I gave in my owne house at my wife's funerall to our friends then present," by Blake, with the MS. date, 1650; and exhibits this original character in another not less amiable light:—"I was brought up," says he, "by my parents to learne Hail Mary, paternoster, the Beliefe, and learne to reade; and where I served my apprenticeship little more was to be found." He attributes it to God's grace that he fell a reading the Practice of Piety, by which means he got a little persuading of God's love to his soul:—"Well, my time being out, I set up for myselfe; and seeking out for a wife, which, with long waiting and difficulty, much expence and charge, at last I got. Four children God gave me by her; but he hath taken them and her all again too, who was a woman of a thousand." Mr. B. then naturally indulges in a panegyric upon this pattern of wives, and reproaches himself for his former insensibility to her surpassing merits: relating with great naivete some domestic passages, with examples of her piety and trials, in one of which latter the enemy would tempt her to suicide:—"There lie your garters," said he; "but she threw them aside, and so escaped this will of the Devil."

In conclusion, let me inquire if your Highgate correspondents are cognisant of any existing institution raised upon the foundation of William Blake's Charity School at Dorchester House?

J. O.

[Our correspondent's interesting communication suggests a Query: Is there any biographical notice of William Blake; and was he the author of the following piece, preserved among the Kings' pamphlets in the British Museum? "The Condemned Man's Reprieve, or God's Love-Tokens, flowing in upon the heart of William Blake, a penitent sinner, giving him assurance of the pardon of his sins, and the enjoyment of eternal happiness through the merits of Christ his Saviour. Recommended by him (being a condemned prisoner for manslaughter within the statute) unto his sister, and bequeathed unto her as a legacy." It is dated from "Exon Jayle," June 25, 1653, and was published July 14, 1653."—ED.]

[Footnote 1: "Mr. Henry Cornish, merchant," was a coadjutor of Blake's in this charitable undertaking; and as that Alderman was not executed until 1635, this publication may be assigned to about that date.]

[Footnote 2: [It appears, from the following advertisement at the end of Silver Drops, that the plates of Time and Charity were used as receipts:—"It is humbly desired, that what you or any of you, most noble Ladies, Gentlewomen, or others, are pleased to bestow or give towards this good or great design, that you would be pleased to take a receipt on the backside of Time or Charity, sealed with three seales, namely, the Treasurer's, Housekeeper's, and Register's; and it shall be fairly recorded, and hung up in the school-house, to be read of all from Time to Time, to the world's end, we hope."—ED.]]

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A POEM BY SHELLEY, NOT IN HIS WORKS.

The following poem was published in a South Carolina newspaper in the year 1839. The person who communicates it states that it was among the papers of a deceased friend, in a small packet, endorsed "A letter and two poems written by Shelley the poet, and lent to me by Mr. Trelawney in 1823. I was prevented from returning them to him, for which I am sorry, since this is the only copy of them—they have never been published." Upon this poem was written, "Given to me by Shelley, who composed it as we were sailing one evening together."

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

"The Calm.

"Hush! hark! the Triton calls From his hollow shell, And the sea is as smooth as a well; For the winds and the waves In wild order form, To rush to the halls And the crystal-roof'd caves Of the deep, deep ocean, To hold consultation About the next storm.

"The moon sits on the sky Like a swan sleeping On the stilly lake: No wild breath to break Her smooth massy light And ruffle it into beams:

"The downy clouds droop Like moss upon a tree; And in the earth's bosom grope Dim vapours and streams. The darkness is weeping, Oh, most silently! Without audible sigh, All is noiseless and bright.

"Still 'tis living silence here, Such as fills not with fear. Ah, do you not hear A humming and purring All about and about? 'Tis from souls let out, From their day-prisons freed, And joying in release, For no slumber they need.

"Shining through this veil of peace, Love now pours her omnipresence, And various nature Feels through every feature The joy intense, Yet so passionless, Passionless and pure; The human mind restless Long could not endure.

"But hush while I tell, As the shrill whispers flutter Through the pores of the sea,— Whatever they utter I'll interpret to thee. King Neptune now craves Of his turbulent vassals Their workings to quell; And the billows are quiet, Though thinking on riot. On the left and the right In ranks they are coil'd up, {72} Like snakes on the plain; And each one has roll'd up A bright flashing streak Of the white moonlight On his glassy green neck: On every one's forehead There glitters a star, With a hairy train Of light floating from afar, And pale or fiery red. Now old Eolus goes To each muttering blast, Scattering blows; And some he binds fast In hollow rocks vast, And others he gags With thick heavy foam. 'Twing them round The sharp rugged crags That are sticking out near,' Growls he, 'for fear They all should rebel, And so play hell.' Those that he bound, Their prison-walls grasp, And through the dark gloom Scream fierce and yell: While all the rest gasp, In rage fruitless and vain. Their shepherd now leaves them To howl and to roar— Of his presence bereaves them, To feed some young breeze On the violet odour, And to teach it on shore To rock the green trees. But no more can be said Of what was transacted And what was enacted In the heaving abodes Of the great sea-gods."

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THE IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY.

In The Tablet of June 18 is a leading article on the proposed erection of Baron Marochetti's statue of Richard Coeur de Lion. Theology and history are mixed: of course I shall carefully exclude the former. I have tried to trace the statements to their sources; and where I have failed, perhaps some of your readers may be able to help me.

"When the physicians told him that they could do nothing more for him, and when his confessor had done his duty faithfully and with all honesty, the stern old soldier commanded his attendants to take him off the bed, and lay him naked on the bare floor. When this was done, he then bade them take a discipline and scourge him with all their might. This was the last command of their royal master; and in this he was obeyed with more zeal than he found displayed when at the head of his troops in Palestine."

I find no record that "the stern old soldier," who was then forty-two years of age, and whom the writer oddly calls Richard II., had any reason to complain of want of zeal in his troops. They fought well, and flogged well—if they flogged at all. Richard died of gangrene in the shoulder; and I have the authority of an eminent physician for saying, that gangrene, so near the vital parts, would produce such mental and bodily prostration, that it is highly improbable that the patient, unless in delirium, should give such an order, and impossible that he should live through its execution.

Hume and Lingard do not allude to the "discipline;" and the silence of the latter is important. Henry says:

"Having expressed great penitence for his vices, and having undergone a very severe discipline from the hands of the clergy, who attended him in his last moments," &c.—Vol. iii. p. 161. ed. 1777.

He cites Brompton, and there I find the penance given much stronger than in The Tablet:

"Praecepitque pedes sibi ligari, et in altum suspendi nudumque corpus flagellis caedi et lacerari, donec ipse praeciperat ut silerent. Cumque diu caederetur, ex praecepto, ad modicum siluerunt. Et spiritu iterum reassumpto, hoc idem secundo ac tertio in abundantia sanguinis compleverunt. Tamdiu in se revertens, afferri viaticum sibi jussit et se velut proditorem et hostem, contra dominum suum ligatis pedibus fune trahi."

This is taken from Brompton's Chronicle in Decem Scriptores Historiae Anglicanae, 1652, p. 1279., edited by Selden. As Brompton lived in the reign of Edward III., he is not a high authority upon any matter in that of Richard I. I cannot find any other. Hoveden and Knyghton are silent. Is the fact stated elsewhere? Hoveden states, and the modern historians follow him, that after the king's death, Marchader seized the archer, flayed him alive, and then hanged him. My medical authority says, that no man could be flayed alive: and that the most skilful operator could not remove the skin of one arm from the elbow to the wrist, before the patient would die from the shock to his system.

Mr. Riley, in a note on the passage in Hoveden, cites from the Winchester Chronicle a possible account of Gurdum being tortured to death. The historian of The Tablet, in the same article, says:

"We are far from attributing absolute perfection to the son of Henry II., one of that awful race popularly believed to be descended from the devil. When Henry, as a boy, practising Whiggery by revolting against his father, was presented to St. Bernard at the Court of the King of France, the saint looked at him with a sort of terror, and said, 'From the Devil you came, and to the Devil you will go.'"

The fact that Henry II. rebelled against his father is not given in any history which I have {73} read; and the popular belief in the remarkable descent of Henry, and consequently of our present royal family, is quite new to me, and to all of whom I have inquired. Still, finding that the writer had an authority for the "discipline," he may have one for the Devil. If so, I should like to know it; for I contemplate something after the example of Lucian's Quomodo Historia sit conscribenda.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

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"QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE PRIUS DEMENTAT."

Having disposed of the allegation that the Greek Iambic,

"[Greek: hon theos thelei apolesai prot' apophrenai],"

was from Euripides, by denying the assertion, I am also, on farther investigation, compelled to deny to him also the authorship of the cited passage,—

"[Greek: hotan de Daimon andri porsunei kaka, ton noun eblapse proton]."

Its first appearance is in Barnes, who quotes it from Athenagoras "sine auctoris nomine." Carmeli includes it with others, to which he prefixes the observation,—

"A me piacque come al Barnesio di porle per disteso, ed a canto mettervi la traduzione in nostra favella, senza entrare tratto tratto in quistioni inutili, se alcuni versi appartengano a Tragedia di Euripide, o no."

There is, then, no positive evidence of this passage having ever been attributed, by any competent scholar, to Euripides. Indirect proof that it could not have been written by him is thus shown:—In the Antigone of Sophocles (v. 620.) the chorus sings, according to Brunck,—

"[Greek: Sophiai gar ek tou] [Greek: kleinon epos pephantai;] [Greek: To kakon dokein pot' esthlon] [Greek: toid' emmen, hotoi phrenas] [Greek: theos agei pros atan;] [Greek: prassein d' oligoston chronon ektos atas]."

"For a splendid saying has been revealed by the wisdom of some one: That evil appears to be good to him whose mind God leads to destruction; but that he (God) practises this a short time without destroying such a one."

Now, had Barnes referred to the scholiast on the Antigone, or remembered at the time the above-cited passage, he would either not have omitted the conclusion of his distich, or he would at once have seen that a passage quoted as "[Greek: ek tou], of some one," by Sophocles, seventeen years the senior of Euripides, could not have been the original composition of his junior competitor. The conclusion of the distich is thus given by the old scholiast:

"[Greek: hotan d' ho Daimon andri porsunei kaka,] [Greek: ton noun eblapse proton hoi BOULEUETAI]."

The words "when he wills it" being left out by Barnes and Carmeli, but which correspond with the last line of the quotation from Sophocles. The old scholiast introduces the exact quotation referred to by Sophocles as "a celebrated (notorious, [Greek: aoidimon]) and splendid saying, revealed by the wisdom of some one, [Greek: meta sophias gar hupo tinos]."

Indeed, the sentiment must have been as old as Paganism, wherein, whilst all voluntary acts are attributed to the individual, all involuntary ones are ascribed to the Deity. Even sneezing was so considered: hence the phrase common in the lower circles in England, "Bless us," and in a higher grade in Germany, "Gott segne euch," which form the usual chorus to a sneeze.

The other scholiast, Triclinius, explains the passage of Sophocles by saying, "The gods lead to error ([Greek: blaben]) him whom they intend to make miserable ([Greek: dustuchein]): hence the application to Antigone, who considers death as sweet."

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

A Passage in "The Taming of the Shrew."—Perhaps I mistake it, but MR. C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY seems to me to write in a tone as if he fancied I should be unwilling to answer his questions, whether public or private. Although I am not personally acquainted with him, we have had some correspondence, and I must always feel that a man so zealous and intelligent is entitled to the best reply I can afford. I can have no hesitation in informing him that, in preparing what he terms my "monovolume Shakspeare," I pursued this plan throughout; I adopted, as my foundation, the edition in eight volumes octavo, which I completed in 1844; that was "formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions," and my object there was to give the most accurate representation of the text of the folios and quartos. Upon that stock I engrafted the manuscript alterations in my folio 1632, in every case in which it seemed to me possible that the old corrector might be right—in short, wherever two opinions could be entertained as to the reading: in this way my text in the "monovolume Shakspeare" was "regulated by the old copies, and by the recently discovered folio of 1632."

MR. INGLEBY will see that in the brief preface to the "monovolume Shakspeare," I expressly say that "while a general similarity (to the folio 1632) has been preserved, care has been taken to rectify the admitted mistakes of the early impression, and to introduce such alterations of a corrupt and imperfect text, as were warranted by better authorities. Thus, while the new readings of the old corrector of the folio 1632, considerably exceeding a thousand, are duly inserted in the places {74} to which they belong, the old readings, which, during the last century and a half, have recommended themselves for adoption, and have been derived from a comparison of ancient printed editions, have also been incorporated." I do not know how I could have expressed myself with greater clearness; and it was merely for the sake of distinctness that I referred to the result of my own labours in 1842, 1843, and 1844, during which years my eight volumes octavo were proceeding through the press. Those labours, it will be seen, essentially contributed to lighten my task in preparing the "monovolume Shakspeare."

My answer respecting the passage in The Taming of the Shrew, referred to by MR. INGLEBY, will, I trust, be equally satisfactory; it shall be equally plain.

I inserted ambler, because it is the word substituted in manuscript in the margin of my folio 1632. I adopted mercatante, as proposed by Steevens, not only because it is the true Italian word, but because it exactly fits the place in the verse, mercatant (the word in the folios) being a syllable short of the required number. In the very copy of Florio's Italian Dictionary, which I bought of Rodd at the time when I purchased my folio 1632, I find mercatante translated by the word "marchant," "marter," and "trader," exactly the sense required. Then, as to "surely" instead of surly, I venture to think that "surely" is the true reading:

"In gait and countenance surely like a father."

"Surely like a father" is certainly like a father; and although a man may be surly in his "countenance," I do not well see how he could be surly in his "gait;" besides, what had occurred to make the pedant surly? This appears to me the best reason for rejecting surly in favour of "surely;" but I have another, which can hardly be refused to an editor who professes to follow the old copies, where they are not contradicted. I allude to the folio 1628, where the line stands precisely thus:

"In gate and countenance surely like a Father."

The folio 1632 misprinted "surely" surly, as, in Julius Caesar, Act I. Sc. 3., it committed the opposite blunder, by misprinting "surly" surely. Another piece of evidence, to prove that "surely" was the poet's word in The Taming of the Shrew, has comparatively recently fallen in my way; I did not know of its existence in 1844, or it would have been of considerable use to me. It is a unique quarto of the play, which came out some years before the folio 1623, and is not to be confounded with the quarto of The Taming of the Shrew, with the date of 1631 on the title-page. This new authority has the line exactly as it is given in the folio 1623, which, in truth, was printed from it. It is now before me.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

July 10.

Critical Digest of various Readings in the Works of Shakspeare.—There is much activity in the literary world just now about the text of Shakspeare: but one most essential work, in reference to that text, still remains to be performed,—I mean, the publication of a complete digest of all the various readings, in a concise shape, such as those which we possess in relation to the MSS. and other editions of nearly every classical author.

At present, all editions of Shakspeare which claim to be considered critical, contain much loose information on readings, mixed up with notes (frequently very diffuse) on miscellaneous topics. This is not in the least what we require: we need a regular digest of readings, wholly distinct from long debates about their value.

What I mean will be plain to any one who is familiar with any good critical edition of the Greek New Testament, or with such books as Gaisford's Herodotus, the Berlin Aristotle, the Zurich Plato, and the like. We ought to have, first, a good text of Shakspeare: such as may represent, as fairly as possible, the real results of the labours of the soundest critics; and, secondly, page by page, at the foot of that text, the following particulars:

I. All the readings of the folios, which should be cited as A, B, C, and D.

II. All the readings of the quartos, which might be cited separately in each play that possesses them, either as a, b, c, d; or as 1, 2, 3, and 4.

III. A succinct summary of all the respectable criticisms, in the way of conjecture, on the text. This is especially needed. The recent volumes of Messrs. Collier, Singer, and Dyce, show that even editors of Shakspeare scarcely know the history of all the emendations. Let their precise pedigree be in the last case recorded with the most absolute brevity; simply the suggestion, and the names of its proposers and adopters.

IV. To simplify this last point, a new siglation might be introduced to denote the various critical editions.

Such a publication should be kept distinct from any commentary; especially from one laid out in the broad flat style of modern editors. Mr. Collier's volume of Emendations, &c., for instance, need not have occupied half its present space, if he had first denoted his MS. corrector by some short symbol, instead of by a lengthy phrase; and, secondly, introduced his suggestions by some such formularies as those employed in classical criticisms, instead of toiling laboriously after variations in his style of expression, till we are wearied by the real iteration which lies under the seeming diversity.

There should be none of this phrasework in the digest which I recommend. If indeed it were found absolutely necessary to connect it with a commentary, then arrange the two portions of the {75} apparatus as in Arnold's edition of Thucydides: the variae lectiones in the middle of the page, and the comment in a different type below it. But I repeat, it would be better still to give us the digest without the comment. All would go into one large volume. And it cannot be doubted that such a volume, if thoroughly well done, would furnish at once a sort of textus receptus, and a critical basis, from which future editors might commence their labours. It would also be an indispensable book of reference to all who treat of, or are interested in, the poet's text. Such, I say, would be its certain prospects if the editor were at once an accurate, painstaking scholar, and a man of true poetical feeling. The labour would be great, but so would be the reward. It is only what the ablest scholars have proudly undertaken for the classics, even in the face of toils far more severe. Would that Mr. Dyce could be roused to attempt it!

B.

[Some such edition as that alluded to by our correspondent has been long desired and contemplated. A proposal in connexion with it has been afloat for some time past, and we had hoped would have been publicly made in our pages before now. There are difficulties in the way which do not exist in the parallel instances from classical literature, and which do not seem to have occurred to our correspondent; but the project is in good hands, and we hope will soon be brought to bear.—ED.]

Emendations of Shakspeare.—I am sadly afraid, what with one annotator and another, that we, in a very little time, shall have Shakspeare so modernised and weeded of his peculiarities, that he will become a very second-rate sort of a person indeed; for I now see with no little alarm, that one of his most delightful quaintnesses is to give way to the march of refinement, and be altogether ruined. Hazlitt, one the most original and talented of critics, has somewhere said, that there was not in any passage of Shakspeare any single word that could be changed to one more appropriate, and as an instance he gives a passage from Macbeth, which certainly is one of the most perfect and beautiful to be found in the whole of his works:

"This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle senses. This guest of summer, The temple-haunting martlet, does approve By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress, Nor coin of vantage, but this bird hath made His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: where they Most breed and haunt, I have observed, the air Is delicate."

There are some who differ from Hazlitt in the present day, and assert that there is an error in the press in Dogberry's reproof of Borachio for calling him an "ass." The passage as it stands is as follows:

"I am a wise fellow; and which is more, an officer, and which is more, a householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him."

His having had losses evidently meaning, though he was then poor, that his circumstances were at one time so prosperous, that he could afford to bear losses; and he, even then, had a superfluity of wardrobe in "two gowns, and everything handsome about him." But this little word losses, the perfect Shakspearian quaintness of which is universally acknowledged, is to be changed into leases; if it should be leases, how is it that it does not follow upon "householder," instead of being introduced so many words after? as, if leases were the proper word, it would assuredly have suggested itself immediately as an additional item to his respectability as a householder: for a moment only fancy similar corrections to be introduced in others of Shakspeare's plays, and Falstaff be made to exclaim at the robbery at Gad's Hill, "Down with them, they dislike us old men," instead of "they hate us youth;" for Falstaff was no boy at the time, and this might be advanced as an authority for the emendation. But seriously, if this alteration is sent forth as a specimen of the improvements about to be effected in Shakspeare, from an edition of his plays lately discovered, I shall, for one, deeply regret that it was ever rescued front its oblivion; for with my prejudices and prepossessions against interpolations, and in favour of old readings, I shall find it no easy matter to reconcile my mind to the new. Strip history of its romance, and you deprive it of its principal charm; the scenery of a play-house imposes upon us an illusion, and though we know it to be so, it is not essential that the impression should be removed. I remember once travelling at night in Norfolk, and a part of my way was through a wood, at the end of which I came upon a lake lit up by a magnificent moon. I subsequently went the same road by day: the wood, I then found, was a mere belt of trees, and the lake had dwindled to a duck-pond. I have ever since wished that the first impression had remained unchanged; but this is a digression. There is no author so universal as Shakspeare, and would that be the case if he was not thoroughly understood? He is appreciated alike in the closet and on the stage, quoted by saints and sages, in the pulpit and the senate, and your nostrum-monger advertises his wares with a quotation from his pages; does he then require interpreting who is his own interpreter? Johnson says of him that—

"Panting Time toil'd after him in vain."

{76} And that he—

"Exhausted worlds and then imagined new."

There is no passion that he has not pourtrayed, and laid bare in its beauty or deformity; no feeling or affection to which his genius has not given the stamp of immortality: and does he want an interpreter? It is treading on dangerous ground to attempt to improve him. Even MR. KNIGHT, enthusiast as he is in his veneration for Shakspeare, and who, by his noble editions of the poet's works, has won the admiration and secured the gratitude of every lover of the poet, has gone too far in his emendations when he changes a line in Romeo and Juliet from

"Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell."

to

"Hence will I to my ghostly friar's close cell."

As in the latter case the line will not scan unless the word "friar" be reduced to a monosyllable, which, on reflection, I think MR. KNIGHT will be inclined to admit. But my paper is, I fear, extending to a limit beyond which you have occasionally warned your correspondents not to go, and I must therefore draw my remarks to a close, with a hope that not any offence will be taken where none is intended by those to whom any of my observations may apply.

GEORGE BLINK.

Canonbury.

* * * * *

"THE DANCE OF DEATH."

Amongst the numerous emblematic works, it has often appeared to me that the above work should be republished entire; to give any part of it would be spoiling a most admirable series. I should desire to see it executed not as a fac-simile, but improved by good modern artists. The history of "The Dance of Death" is too long and too obscure to enter upon here; but from the general tenor of the accounts and criticisms of the work, it does not appear to have originated at all with Hans Holbein, or even his father, who also really painted it at Basil, in Switzerland, but to have had its origin in more remote times, as quoted in several authors, that anciently monasteries usually had a painted representation of a Death's Dance upon the walls. It is a subject, therefore, open to any artist, nor could it be said he had pirated anything if he treated the subject after his own fashion. "The Dance of Death" begins of course with king, the queen, the bishop, the lawyer, the lovers, &c., and ends with the child, whom Death is leading away from the weeping mother. The original plates of Hollar, from Holbein's drawings, are possibly still extant, but they are by no means perfect, although admirable in expression. The deaths or skeletons are very ill-drawn as to the anatomical structure, and were they better the work would be excellent. The Death lugging off the fat abbot is inimitable; and the gallant way he escorts the lady abbess out the convent door is very good. I have the engravings by Hollar, and have made some of the designs afresh, intending to lithograph them at some future day; but there being thirty subjects in all, the work would be a difficult task. Mr. J. B. Yates might, indeed, with his excellent collection of Emblemata, revive this old and beautiful taste now in abeyance: it is now rarely practised by our painters. There is, however, a very fine picture in the Royal Academy Exhibition, by Mr. Goodall, which is, strictly speaking, an emblem, though the artist calls it an historical episode. Now it appears to me an episode cannot be reduced into a representation; it might embrace a complete picture in writing, but as I read the picture it is an emblem, and would have been still more perfect had the painter treated it accordingly. The old man at the helm of the barge might well represent Strafford, because, though he holds the tiller, he is not engaged in steering right, his eyes are not directed to his port. Charles himself, rightly enough, has his back to the port, and is truly not engaged in manly affairs, nor attending to his duty; but the sentiment of frivolity here painted cannot, I should say, attach itself to him, for he is not to be reproached with idling away his time with women and children, as this more strictly must be laid to his son. But the port where some grim-looking men are seriously waiting for him, completes a very happy and poetical idea, but incomplete as an emblem, which it really is; and were the emblematic rules more cultivated, it would have told its story much better.

At present, the taste of the day lies in more direct caricature, and our volatile friend Punch does the needful in his wicked sallies of wit, and his fertile pencil. His sharp rubs are perhaps more effective to John Bull's temper, who can take a blow with Punch's truncheon and bear no malice after it,—the heavy lectures of the ancients are not so well suited to his constitution.

WELD TAYLOR.

Bayswater.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

Old Lines newly revived.—The old lines of spondees and dactyls are just now applicable:—

Cōntūrbābāntūr Cōnstāntīnōpŏlĭtānī Innŭmĕrābĭlĭbūs sōlĭcĭtūdĭnĭbūs."

W. COLLYNS.

Harlow.

Inscription near Cirencester.—In Earl Bathurst's park, near Cirencester, stands a building—the resort in the summer months of occasional pic-nic parties. During one of these visits, at which I {77} was present, I copied an inscription, painted in old characters on a board, and nailed to one of the walls, and as the whole thing had not the appearance of belonging to modern times, and, as far as I could decipher it, it referred to some agreement between Alfred and some of his neighbouring brother kings, concerning boundaries of territory, I send it to you for insertion.

A. SMITH.

[cross] "FOEDVS . QUOD . AELFREDVS . ET . LVTHRVNVS . REGES . OMNES . ANGLIAM . INTOLEBANT . ORIENTALEM . FERIERVNT . ET . NON . SOLVM . DE . SEIPSIS . VERVM . ETIAM . DE . NATIS . SVIS . AC . NONDVM . IN . LVCEM . EDITIS . QVOTQVOT . MISERICORDIAE . DIVINAE . AVT . REGIAE . VELVNT . ESSE . PARTICIPES . JVREJVRANDO . SANXERVNT." [cross]

[cross] "PRIMO . DITIONIS . NOSTRAE . FINES . TAMESIN . EVEHVNTOR . INDE . LEAM . VSQVE . FONTEM . EJVS . TAM . RECTA . AD . BEDFORDIAM . AC . DENIQVE . PER . VSAM . AD . VIAM . VETE . LINTIANAM."

Wordsworth.—In Wordsworth's touching "Lament of Mary Queen of Scots," one of the stanzas opens with:

"Born all too high; by wedlock rais'd Still higher, to be brought thus low!"

Is it straining a point to suppose that the author has here translated the opening words of the well-known epitaph on the Empress Matilda, mother of our Henry II.?

"Ortu magna; viro major; sed maxima prole; Hic jacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens."

A. W.

Sunningdale.

"Magna est Veritas et praevalebit."—I was asked the other day whence came this hackneyed quotation. It is taken from the uncanonical Scriptures, 3 Esdras iv. 41.:

"Et desiit loquendo: Et omnes populi clamaverunt, et dixerunt: Magna est veritas, et praevalet."

T. H. DE H.

"Putting your Foot into it."—The legitimate origin of this term I have seen thus explained. Perhaps it may pass as correct until a better be found. According to the Asiatic Researches, a very curious mode of trying the title to land is practised in Hindostan. Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyers on either side put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired, or complains of being stung by insects, in which case his client is defeated. An American writer has remarked that in the United States it is generally the client, and not the lawyer, "who puts his foot in it."

W. W.

Malta.

* * * * *

Queries.

FRAGMENTS OF MSS.

Dr. Maitland, in his valuable volume on the "Dark Ages," has the following remarks on a subject which I think has not met with the attention it deserves:

"Those who are in the habit of looking at such things, know how commonly early printed books, whose binding has undergone the analytical operation of damp, or mere old age, disclose the under end pieces of beautiful and ancient manuscript. They know how freely parchment was used for backs and bands, and fly-leaves, and even for covers. The thing is so common, that those who are accustomed to see old books have ceased to notice it."

In order to come within the design of your pages, I must put this in the shape of a Query, and ask, if it is not a pity that this fact has ceased to be noticed? We do not know what treasures may be contained in the shabby covers which we contemplate getting rid of. "There are thousands" (of MSS.), says the same writer, "equally destroyed,—thousands of murdered wretches not so completely annihilated: their ghosts do walk the earth; they glide unseen into our libraries, our studies, our very hands; they are all about and around us. We even take them up and lay them down, without knowing of their existence; unless time and damp (as if to punish and mock us for robbing them of their prey) have loosed their bonds, and set them to confront us."

Archbishop Tenison had not "ceased to notice it." He very diligently rescued these "fragments" from the hands of his bookbinder and it is to be regretted that he did not take equal precaution in preserving them. Recently, all that I could collect have been cleaned, inlaid, and arranged chronologically, making two interesting and valuable volumes.

How far would it be desirable to unite for the purpose of collecting MS. fragments, and early printed leaves?

Might not a Society, which should have for its especial object the discovery, cataloguing, and circulating information about these stray bits, be of great service? E. g. I have before me five volumes of Justinian's Codices and Digesta, Paris, 1526; the covers of which are made of MS. Thirteen leaves go to make one board. They are written on both sides and thus an easy multiplication gives us 260 pages of MS., or early printing, in the covers of one work!

It is not unlikely that, if the results of research in this direction were carefully registered, many perfect pieces might be recovered.

PHILIP HALE.

Archbishop Tenison's Library, St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

* * * * *

{78}

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

I have just met with a passage in the Pseudodoxia Epidemica of Sir Thomas Browne, wherein this invention is foreshadowed in terms more remarkable and significant, if less imaginative and beautiful, than that from The Spectator, to which public attention has already been directed, and which, I conceive, must unquestionably have been written, with this particular example of the "received tenets and commonly presumed truths" of the learned physician's day, distinctly present to the mind of Addison. The passage referred to is as follows:

"There is another conceit of better notice, and whispered thorow the world with some attention; credulous and vulgar auditors readily believing it, and more judicious and distinctive heads not altogether rejecting it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would follow, somewhat divine: whereby we might communicate like spirits, and confer on earth with Menippus in the moon. And this is pretended from the sympathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, and placed in the centre of two abecedary circles, or rings with letters described round about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other, and agreeing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. For then, saith tradition, at what distance of place soever, when one needle shall be removed unto any letter, the other, by a wonderful sympathy, will move unto the same."—Book II. chap. ii, 4to., 1669, p. 77.

Thus it is that "coming events cast their shadows before:" and, in the present case, one is curious to learn how far back the shadow may be traced. By whom has this conceit been whispered thorow the world? and in what musty tomes is that tradition concealed, which speaks concerning it? Kircher's Catena Magnetica might haply tell us something in reply to these inquiries.

In conformity with an often repeated suggestion to the correspondents of "N. & Q.," to the simple signature of my habitat, alone hitherto adopted by me, I now subjoin my name.

WM. MATTHEWS.

Cowgill.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

Sir Walter Raleigh.—In the discussions on the copyright question some years ago, Sir Walter Raleigh was mentioned as one of the authors whose posterity is totally extinct; but in his Life, as given in Lodge's Portraits, his descendants are given as far down as his great-grandchildren, of whom many were still living in 1699, at which period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. It seems unlikely that a family then so numerous should have utterly perished since, both in its male and female branches; and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to trace their subsequent history: the name is certainly not extinct, whether its bearers be his descendants or not.

Is the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert descended from one of Sir Walter's half-brothers?

J. S. WARDEN.

Ancient Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost.—In the Clause Rolls, 16 John, M. 6. (Public Records, vol. i. p. 192.) is a warrant of King John's, addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay of Doncaster, as follows:

"Mandam' vob' qd villa de Danecastr claudi faciatis heritone et palo scdm qd fossatu f[=cm] exigit, et una leve bretasca fi faciatis sup ponte ad villa defendenda."

Which, in Miller's History of that town (p. 40.), is thus translated:

"We command ye, cause the town of Doncaster to be inclosed with hertstone and pale, according as the ditch that is made doth require; and that ye make a light brecost or barbican upon the bridge, to defend the town."

I shall be obliged by being informed if hertstone is the correct translation of the word "heritone," and, if so, what species of fortification it was. Pale is probably a defence composed of high wooden stakes. Brecost is questionable, I imagine, and should most likely be spelt bretesk or bretex. I shall be glad, however, of explanations of the words.

C. J.

Newton and Somers.—It has been said that there is a complimentary allusion to Somers in Newton's writings. Where?

M.

Daventry, Duel at.—

"Veni Daintreo cum puella, Procerum celebre duello."

"Thence to Daintree with my jewel, Famous for a noble duel."—Drunken Barnaby's Journal.

Can any Northamptonshire reader of "N. & Q." say between whom, and when, this duel took place?

J. H. L.

Passage in Burial Service.—Whence comes the expression in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death." I have observed that Mr. Palmer, in his Origines Liturgicae, refers for a parallel passage to ancient liturgies, but, if I mistake not, to none but those used in England. The passage is very scriptural: but I do not believe it exists in the Bible.

J. G. T.

"They shot him on the nine-stane rig."—Where is the ballad beginning with the words—

"They shot him on the nine-stane rig, Beside the headless cross."

to be found? Who is the author?

BORDERER.

Wardhouse, and Fishermen's Custom there.—In a MS. local history, written in 1619, there is this {79} passage: "They bought herrings during the season, and then departed, as those fishermen which kill fish at Wardhouse do use to do at present."

Where was Wardhouse, and what was the custom there?

C. J. P.

Great Yarmouth.

"Adrian turn'd the bull."—In an old MS. in my possession, the following verse occurs:—

"Of whate'er else your head be full, Remember Adrian turn'd the bull; 'Tis time that you should turn the chase, Kick out the knave and take the place."

Would any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." be so good as to explain to me the reference in the second line of the verse?

G. M.

Cary's "Palaeologia Chronica."—I have an old book entitled:

"Palaeologia Chronica; a Chronological Account of Ancient Time. Performed by Robert Cary, D.LL., Devon. London: printed by J. Darby, for Richard Chiswell, at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard, 1677."

and shall be glad to be informed whether the author was any relation of Dr. Valentine Carey, who was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1620, and died in 1626. (See Walton's Life of Dr. Donne.)

CHRIS. ROBERTS.

Bradford, Yorkshire.

The Southwark Pudding Wonder.—I have been very much pleased with the perusal of a collection of MS. letters, written by the celebrated antiquary William Stukeley to Maurice Johnson, Esq., the founder of the Gentlemen's Society at Spalding. These letters have not been published; the MSS. exist in the library of the Spalding Society. They contain much interesting matter, and furnish many traits of the manners, character, and modes of thinking and acting of their respected author.

Can any of your readers explain the meaning of the following passage, which is found in a letter dated 19th June, 1718: "The Southwark Pudding wonder is over?"

In the same letter the Dr. alludes to a contested election for the office of Chamberlain of the City of London, which took place in 1718:

"The city is all in an uproar about the election of a chamberlain, like a country corporation for burgesses, where roast pig and beef and wine are dealt about freely at taverns, and advertisements about it more voluminous than the late celebrated Bangorean Notification, though not in a calm and undisturbed way."

PISHEY THOMPSON.

Stoke Newington.

Roman Catholics confined in Fens of Ely.—Mr. Dickens, in Household Words, No. 169. p. 382., in the continuation of a "Child's History of England," says, when alluding to the threatened invasion of England by the Spanish Armada:

"Some of the Queen's advisers were for seizing the principal English Catholics, and putting them to death; but the queen—who, to her honour, used to say that she would never believe any ill of her subjects, which a parent would not believe of her own children—neglected the advice, and only confined a few of those who were the most suspected among them, in the fens of Lincolnshire."

Mr. Dickens had, of course, as he supposed, good authority for making this statement; but, in reply to a private communication, he states it should have been Fens of Ely. I am, perhaps convicting myself of gross ignorance by seeking for information respecting it; nevertheless, I venture to ask the readers of at "N. & Q." for a reference to the authentic history, where a corroboration of Mr. Dickens' statement is to be found?

PISHEY THOMPSON.

Stoke Newington.

White Bell Heather transplanted.—Is it generally known that white bell heather becomes pink on being transplanted from its native hills into a garden? Two plants were shown to me a few days ago, by a country neighbour, flowering pink, which were transplanted, the one three, and the other two, years ago; the former had white bells for two years, the latter for one year only. What I wish to know is, Whether these are exceptional cases or not?

W. C.

Argyleshire.

Green's "Secret Plot."—Can you inform me where the scene of the following drama is laid, and the names of the dramatis personae? The Secret Plot; a tragedy by Rupert Green, 12mo., 1777. The author of this play, which was published when he was only in his ninth year, was the son of Mr. Valentine Green, who wrote a history of Worcester.

A. Z.

"The full Moon brings fine Weather."—When did this saying originate, and have we any proof of its correctness? The late Duke of Wellington is reported to have said, that, as regarded the weather, it was "nonsense to have any faith in the moon." (Vide Larpent's Private Journal, vol. ii. p. 283.)

W. W.

Malta.

Nash the Artist.—In the year 1802, Mr. F. Nash made a water-colour drawing of the Town Hall, churches, &c., in the High Street of the ancient borough of Dorchester; a line engraving (now rather scarce) was shortly afterwards published therefrom by Mr. J. Frampton, then a bookseller in the town. Can any reader of the {80} "N. & Q." inform me what Mr. Nash this was, and what became of him? Was he related to the Castles and Abbeys Nash?

JOHN GARLAND.

Dorchester.

Woodwork of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell.—The Cambridge Architectural Society, which is now attempting the restoration of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell, will feel deeply indebted to any of your readers who can give them any information respecting the carved woodwork removed from that church some forty years ago, to make way for the present hideous arrangement of pews and pulpit. A man who lives on the spot speaks of a fine wood screen, and highly decorated pulpit, some portions of which were sold by auction; and the rest was in his possession for some time, and portions of it were given away by him to all who applied for it.

THE TREASURER.

Trin. Coll. Camb.

"The Mitre and the Crown."—I find the following work, at first published anonymously, reprinted as Dr. Atterbury's in Sir Walter Scott's edition of the Somers' Tracts. No reason is assigned by the editor for ascribing it to him, and I should be glad to know whether there is any satisfactory evidence for doing so. The original tract appears as anonymous the Bodleian Catalogue:

"The Mitre and the Crown, or a real Distinction between them: in a Letter to a Reverend Member of the Convocation: Lond. 1711, 8vo."

[Greek: Halieus].

Dublin.

Military Music.—Was military music ever played at night in the time of King Charles I.?

MILITARIS.

Belfast.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

Stoven Church.—Can you give me any information concerning the original church of Stoven, Suffolk, which was of good Norman work throughout, as lately ascertained by the vast number of Norman mouldings found in the walls in restoring it?

L. (2)

[In Jermyn's "Suffolk Collections," vol. vi. (Add. MSS. 8173.), in the British Museum, are the following Notes of this church, taken 1st June, 1808, by H. I. and D. E. D.: "The Church consists of a nave and chancel, both under one roof, which is covered with thatch. The chancel is 30 ft. 3 in. long, and 15 ft. 5 in. wide. The communion-table is neither raised nor inclosed. The floor of the whole church is also of the same height. The nave is 30 ft. long, and 16 ft. 1 in. wide. Between the chancel and nave are the remains of a screen, and over it the arms of George II., between two tables containing the Lord's Prayer, &c. In the N. E. angle is the pulpit, which is of oak, hexagon, ordinary, as are also the pews and seats. At the W. end stands the font, which is octagon, the faces containing roses and lions, and two figures holding blank escutcheons, the pedestal supported by four lions. The steeple is in the usual place, small, square, of flints, but little higher than the roof. In it is only one bell, inscribed 1759. The entrance into the church on the N. side is through a circular Saxon arch, not much ornamented. On the side is another of the same description, but more ornamented, with zig-zag moulding, &c." Then follow the inscriptions, &c. in the chancel, of Mrs. Elizabeth Brown, John Brown, Thomas Brown; in the nave, of Henry Keable, with extracts from the parish register commencing in 1653.]

The Statute of Kilkenny.—Said to have been passed in 1364. What was the nature of it?

ABREDONENSIS.

[This statute legally abolished the ancient code of the Irish, called the Brehon laws, and was passed in a parliament held at Kilkenny in the 40th Edward III., under the government of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. By this act, the English are commanded in all controversies to govern themselves by the common laws of England, so that whoever submitted himself to the Brehon law, or the law of the Marches, is declared a traitor. Among other things the statute enacted that "the alliaunce of the English by marriage with any Irish, the nurture of infantes, and gossipred with the Irish, be deemed high treason." And again, "If anie man of English race use an Irish name, Irish apparell, or any other guize or fashion of the Irish, his lands shall be seized, and his bodie imprisoned, till he shall conform to English modes and customs." This statute was followed by the 18th Henry VI. c. i. ii. iii., and the 28th Hen. VI., c. i., with similar prohibitions and penalties. These prohibitions, however, had little effect; nor were the English laws universally submitted to throughout Ireland until the time of James I., when the final extirpation of the ancient Brehon law was effected.]

Kenne of Kenne.—Can any of your Kentish correspondents inform me to whom a certain Christ. Kenne of Kenne, in co. Somerset, sold the manor of "Oakley," in the parish of Higham, near Rochester; and in whose possession it was about the close of the reign of Queen Elizabeth or commencement of James I.?

The above Kenne, by marrying Elizabeth, the daughter of Sir Roger Cholmeley, and widow of Sir Leonard Beckwith, of Selby, in co. York, acquired possession of the same manor in co. Kent.

After the death of his first wife, he married a Florence Stalling, who survived him. He died in 1592.

F. T.

["Christopher Kenne of Kenne, in the county of Somerset, Esq., was possessed of the manor of Little Okeley, in Higham, Kent, in the right of his wife, the daughter and co-heir of Sir Roger Cholmeley, anno {81} 22 Eliz.; and then, having levied a fine of it, sold it to Thompson, and he, in the reign of Charles I., alienated it to Best."—Hasted.

Of course, the Christian name of Thompson, and other particulars if required, can be obtained by a reference to the foot of the fine in the Record Office, Carlton Ride.]

Rents of Assize, &c.—In the Valor Ecclesiasticus, the following varieties of income derived from rent of land constantly recur, viz.:

"De redditu (simply). De redditu assisae. De redditu libero. De redditu ad voluntatem."

Can the distinction between these be exactly explained by any corresponding annual payments for land according to present custom? And will any of your readers be kind enough to give such explanation?

J.

[Redditus.—Rents from lands let out to tenants; modern farm rents.

Redditus Assisae.—Quit rents: fixed sums paid by the tenants of a manor annually to the lord; as in modern times.

Redditus Liberi.—Those quit rents which were paid to the lord by "liberi tenentes," freeholders; as distinguished from "villani bassi tenentes," &c.

Redditus ad voluntatem.—Annual payments "ad voluntatem donatium;" such as "confrana," &c. The modern Easter Offering perhaps corresponds with them.]

Edifices of Ancient and Modern Times.—Can any of your architectural or antiquarian readers inform me where a chronological list of the principal edifices of ancient and modern times can be found?

GETSRN.

[Consult Chronological Tables of Ancient and Modern History Synchronistically and Ethnographically arranged, fol., Oxford, 1835. For those relating to Great Britain, see Britton's Chronological and Historical Illustrations, and his Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain.]

Gorram.—Please to direct me where I can find a short account of Gorram, an ecclesiastical writer (I suppose) mentioned by D'Aubigne, vol. v. p. 245.

L. (2)

[The divine alluded to by D'Aubigne is no doubt Nicholas de Gorran, a Dominican, confessor to Philip the Fair of France. He was an admired and eloquent preacher, and his Sermons, together with a Commentary on the Gospels, appeared at Paris, 1523 and 1539. He died in 1295.]

"Rock of Ages."—Who is the author of the hymn beginning "Rock of Ages?"

J. G. T.

[That celebrated advocate for The Calvinism of the Church of England, the Rev. Augustus Montague Toplady.]

* * * * *

Replies.

REMUNERATION OF AUTHORS.

(Vol. vii., p. 591.)

Responding to the challenge of your correspondent MR. ANDREWS, I copy the following from my common-place book:

From Lintot's memorandum-book of "Copies when purchased."

Farquhar. L s. d. 1705. Recruiting Officer 16 2 6 1706. Beaux Stratagem 30 0 0

Betterton.

1712. The Miller's Tale, with some characters from Chaucer 5 7 6

Mr. Centlivre.

1703. May 14. Love's Contrivance 10 0 0 1709. May 14. Busy Body 10 0 0

Mr. Cibber.

1701. Nov. 8. A third of Love's Last Shift 3 4 6 1705. Nov. 5. Perolla and Izadora 36 11 0 1707. Oct. 27. Double Gallant 16 2 6 Nov. 22. Lady's Last Stake 32 5 0 Feb. 26. Venus and Adonis 5 7 6 1708. Oct. 9. Comical Lover 10 15 0 1712. Mar. 16. Cinna's Conspiracy 13 0 0 1718. Oct. 1. The Nonjuror 105 0 0

Mr. Gay.

1713. May 12. Wife of Bath 25 0 0 1714. Nov. 11. Letter to a Lady 5 7 6 1715. Feb. 14. The What-d'ye-call-it? 16 2 6 Dec. 22. Trivia 43 0 0 Epistle to the Earl of Burlington 10 15 0 1717. May 4. Battle of the Frogs 16 2 6 Jan. 8. Three Hours after Marriage 43 2 6 Revival of the Wife of Bath 75 0 0 The Mohocks, a farce 2l. 10s. Sold the Mohocks to him again. —————- 234 10 0 —————-

Captain Killegrew.

1718-l9. Feb. 14. Chit Chat 84 0 0

Mr. Ozell.

1711. Nov. 18. } Translating Homer's Iliad, 1712. Jan. 4. } books i. ii. iii. 10 8 6 1713. April 29. Translating Moliere 37 12 6

N. Rowe, Esq.

Dec. 12. Jane Shore 50 15 0 1715. April 27. Jane Grey 73 5 0

Somerville.

1727. July 14. A Collection of Poems. 35 15 0

{82}

Pope.

1712. Feb. 19. Statius, 1st book, and Verstumnus and Pomona 16 2 6 Mar. 21. First edition of the Rape 7 0 0 April 9. To a lady presenting Voiture. Upon Silence. To the author of a poem called Successio 3 16 6

1712-13. Windsor Forest (Feb. 23) 32 5 0

1713. July 23. Ode to St. Cecilia's Day 15 0 0

1714. Feb. 20. Addition to the Rape 15 0 0 Mar. 23. Homer, vol. i. 215 0 0 650 copies on royal paper 176 0 0

1715. Feb. 1. Temple of Fame 32 5 0 April 21. Key to the Lock 10 15 0

1716. Feb. 9. Homer, vol. ii. 215 0 0 May 2. 650 royal paper 150 0 0 July 17. Essay on Criticism 15 0 0

1717. Aug. 9. Homer, vol. iii. 215 0 0

1718. Jan. 6. 650 royal paper 150 0 0 Mar. 3. Homer, vol. iv. 210 0 0 650 royal paper 150 0 0 Oct. 17. Homer, vol. v. 210 0 0

1719. April 6. 650 royal paper 150 0 0

1720. Feb. 26. Homer, vol. vi. 210 0 0 May 7. 650 royal paper 150 0 0

1721. Parnell's Poems 15 0 0 Paid Mr. Pope for the subscription-money due on the 2nd volume of his Homer, and on his 5th volume, at the agreement for the said 5th vol.—(I had Mr. Pope's assignment for the royal paper that was then left of his Homer) 840 0 0

Copy-money for the Odyssey, vols. i. ii. iii., and 750 of each volume printed on royal paper, 4to. 615 0 0

Copy-money for the Odyssey, vols. iv. and v., and 750 of each royal 425 18 7-1/2 ———————— L4244 8 7-1/2 ————————

From that storehouse of instruction and amusement, Nichols's Anecdotes, vol. viii. pp. 293-304.

I take this opportunity of forwarding to you a curious memorandum which I found in rummaging the papers of a "note-maker" of the last century. It appears to be a bill of fare for the entertainment of a party, upon the "flitch of bacon" being decreed to a happy couple. It is at Harrowgate, and not at Dunmow, which would lead us to believe that this custom was not confined to one county. The feast itself is almost as remarkable, as regards its component parts, as that produced by Mr. Thackeray, in his delightful "Lectures," as characteristic of polite feeding in Queen Anne's reign:

"June 25.—Mr. and Mrs. Liddal's Dinner at Green Dragon, Harrowgate, on taking Fflitch Bacon Oath.

Bill Fare. Beans and bacon. Cabbage, colliflower. Three doz. chickens. Two shoulders mutton, cowcumbers. Two turbets. Rump beef, &c. &c. Goose and plumbpudding. Quarter lamb, sallad. Tarts, jellies, strawberries, cream. Cherrys, syllabubs, and blomonge. Leg lamb, spinnage. Crawfish, pickled salmon. Fryd tripe, calves' heads. Gravy and Pease soup. Two piggs. Breast veal, ragoud. Ice cream, pine apple. Surloin beaf. Pidgeons, green peas. Lobsters, crabs. Twelve red herrings, twenty-two dobils."

W. R.

Stockwell.

* * * * *

ON THE USE OF THE HOUR-GLASS IN PULPITS.

(Vol. vii., p. 489.)

Perhaps the following may be of service as a farther illustration of this subject.

Zacharie Boyd says, in The Last Battell of the Sovle in Death, 1629, reprinted Glasgow, 1831, at p. 469.:

"Now after his Battell ended hee hath surrendered the spirit, Clepsydra effluxit, his houre-glasse is now runne out, and his soule is come to its wished home, where it is free from the fetters of flesh."

This divine was minister of the barony parish of Glasgow, the church for which was then in the crypt of the cathedral. I have no doubt the hour-glass was there used from which he draws his simile. Your correspondent refers to sermons an hour long, but, to judge from the contents of "Mr. Zacharie's" MS. sermons still preserved in the library of the College of Glasgow, each, at the rate of ordinary speaking, must have occupied at least an hour and a half in delivery. When he had become infirm and near his end, and had found it necessary to shorten his sermons, his "kirk session" was offended, as—

"Feb. 13, 1651. Some are to speak to Mr. Z. Boyd about the soon skailing (dismissing) of the Baronie Kirk on Sunday afternoon."

Though sermons are now generally restricted from three quarters to an hour's delivery, the practice of long preaching in the olden times in the west of Scotland had much prevailed. Within my own recollection I have heard sermons of nearly two hours' duration; and early among a few classes of the first Dissenters, on "Sacramental Occasions" as they are yet called, the services lasted altogether (not unfrequently) continuously from ten o'clock on Sabbath forenoon, to three and {83} four o'clock the following morning. A traditional anecdote is current of an old Presbyterian clergyman, unusually full of matter, who, having preached out his hour-glass, was accustomed to pause, and addressing the precentor, "Another glass and then," recommenced his sermon.

A pictorial representation of the hour-glass in a country church is to be seen in front of the precentor's desk, or pulpit, in a very scarce humorsome print, entitled "Presbyterian Penance," by the famous David Allan. It also figures in the engraving of the painting by Wilkie, of John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots. About twenty years ago it was either in the Cathedral of Stirling or the Armory of the Castle (the ancient chapel), that I saw the hour-glass (about twelve inches high) which had been connected with one or other of the pulpits, from both of which John Knox is said to have preached. It is likely the hour-glass is there "even unto this day" (unless abstracted by some relic hunter); and if it could be depended on as an original appendage to the pulpits, would prove that its use was coeval with the times of the Scottish Reformation. I think its high antiquity as certain as the oaken pulpits themselves.

At an early period the general poverty of the country, and the scarcity of clocks and watches, must have given rise to the adoption of the hour sand-glass, a simple instrument, but yet elegant and impressive, for the measurement of a brief portion of our fleeting span.

G. N.

Glasgow.

On the 31st May, 1640, the churchwardens of great Staughton, co. Huntingdonshire, "are, and stand charged with (among other church goods), a pulpit standinge in the church, having a cover over the same, and an houre-glasse adjoininge."

Copy of a cutting from a magazine, name and date unknown:

"Among Dr. Rawlinson's manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, No. 941 contains collection of Miscellaneous Discourses, by Mr. Lewis of Margate, in Kent, whence the following extract has been made:

"'It appears that these hour-glasses were coeval with our Reformation. In a fine frontispiece, prefixed to the Holy Bible of the bishops' translation, printed in 4to. by John Day, 1569, Archbishop Parker is represented in the pulpit with an hour-glass standing on his right hand; ours, here, stood on the left without any frame. It was proper that some time should be prescribed for the length of the sermon, and clocks and watches were not then so common as they are now. This time of an hour continued till the Revolution, as appears by Bishop Sanderson's, Tillotson's, Stillingfleet's, Dr. Barrow's, and others' sermons, printed during that time.'

"The writer of this article was informed in 1811 by the Rev. Mr. Burder, who had the curacy of St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street, that the large silver hour-glass formerly used in that church, was melted down into two staff heads for the parish beadles.

"An hour-glass frame of iron, fixed in the wall by the side of the pulpit, was remaining in 1797 in the church of North Moor, in Oxfordshire."

JOSEPH RIX.

St. Neots, Huntingdonshire.

In many of our old pulpits built during the seventeenth century, when hour sermons were the rule, and thirty minutes the exception, the shelf on which the glass used to stand may still be seen. If I recollect rightly, that of Miles Coverdale was thus furnished, as stated in the newspapers, at the time the church of Bartholomew was removed. Perhaps this emblem was adopted on gravestones as significant of the character of Death as a minister or preacher.

The late Basil Montague, when delivering a course of lectures on "Laughter" at the Islington Institution some few years since, kept time by the aid of this antique instrument. If I remember aright, he turned the glass and said, "Another glass and then," or some equivalent expression.

E. G. BALLARD.

There is an example at the church of St. Alban, Wood Street, Cheapside. This church was rebuilt by Sir C. Wren, and finished 1685; showing that the hour-glass was in use subsequent to the times alluded to.

J. D. ALLCROFT.

I saw on 13th January last, an iron hour-glass stand affixed to a pillar in the north aisle of Belton Church, in the Isle of Axholme.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

* * * * *

LADIES' ARMS BORNE IN A LOZENGE.

(Vol. vii., p. 571.)

The subject of the Query put by your correspondent is one that has frequently occurred to me, but which is involved in obscurity. Heraldic writers generally have contented themselves with the mere statement of ladies' arms being thus borne; and where we do find an opinion hazarded, it is more in the form of a quotation from a nameless author, or of a timid suggestion, than an attempt to elucidate the question by argument or from history.

By some this form of shield is said to have descended to us from the Amazons, who bore such: others say, from the form of their tombstones! Now we find it to represent the ancient spindle so much used by ladies; and again to be a shield found by the Romans unfit for use, and therefore transferred to the weaker sex, who were "allowed to place their ensigns upon it, with one corner always uppermost." {84}

Here are quotations from a few of our writers on the science of Heraldry:—

BURKE, Encyclop. Herald. 1844. Queen Victoria bears her arms on a full and complete shield; "for," says the old rhyme—

"Our sagest men of lore define The kingly state as masculine, Paiseant, martial bold and strong, The stay of right, the scourge of wrong; Hence those that England's sceptre wield, Must buckle on broad sword and shield, And o'er the land, and o'er the sea, Maintain her sway triumphantly."

This, unfortunately, is only one side of the question: and, though satisfactorily accounting for the shape of the shield of royalty, does not enlighten us on the "origin and meaning" of the lozenge.

BARRINGTON, Display of Heraldry, 1844:—

"An unmarried daughter bears her father's arms on a lozenge-shaped shield, without any addition or alteration."

BERRY, Encycl. Herald. 1830:—

"The arms of maidens and widows should be borne in shields of this shape."

ROBSON, British Herald, 1830:—

"Lozenge, a four-cornered figure, differing from the fusil, being shorter and broader. Plutarch says that in Megara [read Megura], an ancient town of Greece, the tombstones under which the bodies of Amazons lay were of that form: some conjecture this to be the cause why ladies have their arms on lozenges."

PORNY, Elements of Heraldry, 1795, supposes—

"The lozenge may have been originally a fusil, or fusee, as the French call it: it is a figure longer than the lozenge, and signifies a spindle, which is a woman's instrument."

This writer also quotes Sylvester de Petra Sancta, who would have this shield to "represent a cushion, whereon women used to sit and spin, or do other housewifery."

BRYDSON, Summary View of Heraldry, 1795:—

"The shields on which armorial bearings are represented are of various forms, as round, oval, or somewhat resembling a heart; which last is the most common form. Excepting sovereigns, women unmarried, or widows, bear their arms on a lozenge shield, which is of a square form, so placed as to have one of its angles upwards, and is supposed to resemble a distoff."

BOYES, Great Theatre of Honour, 1754. In this great work the various forms of shields, and the etymology of their names, are treated on at considerable length. The Greeks had five:—the Aspis, the Gerron or Gerra, the Thurios, the Laiveon, and the Pelte or Pelta. The Romans had the Ancile, the Scutum, the Clypeus, the Parma, the Cetra, and others; but none of these approached the shape of the lozenge. The shields of modern nations are also dealt with at length; still the author appears to have had no information nor an opinion upon the lozenge, which he dismisses with these remarks:—

"L'ecu des filles est en lozenge, de meme de celui des veuves; et en France et ailleurs, celles-ci l'ornent et l'entourent d'une cordeliere ou cordon a divers neuds. Quant aux femmes mariees, elles accollent d'ordinaire leurs armes avec celles de leurs epoux; mais quelquefois elles les portent aussi en lozenge."

COATES, Dictionary of Heraldry, 1725, quotes Colombiere, a French herald, who, he says, gives upwards of thirty examples of differently formed shields; but no allusion is made to the lozenge.

CARTER, Honor Redivivus, 1660.

DUGDALE, Ancient Usage in bearing Arms, 1682.

GWILLIM, Display of Heraldry, 1638.

CAMDEN, Remains, 1637.

GERARD LEGH, Accedence of Armorie, 1576.

None of these authors have touched on the subject; which, considering that at the least two of them are the greatest authorities, appears somewhat strange.

FERNE, Blazon of Gentrie, 1586—

"Thinks the lozenge is formed of the shield called Tessera or Tessela, which the Romans, finding unfit for use, did allow to women to place their ensigns upon, with one of its angles always upmost."

Though unable at this moment to furnish examples in proof of my opinion, I must say that it is contrary to the one expressed by your correspondent CEYREP, that "formerly all ladies of rank" bore their arms upon a complete shield, or bore shields upon their seals. The two instances cited by him are rather unfortunate, the connexion of both ladies with royalty being sufficiently close to suggest the possibility of their right to the "full and complete" shield.

Margaret, Duchess (not Countess) of Norfolk, was sole heir of her father, Thomas of Brotherton, fifth Earl of Norfolk, son of King Edward I., and Marshal of England. She, "for the greatness of her birth, her large revenues and wealth," was created Duchess of Norfolk for life; and at the coronation of King Richard II. she exhibited her petition "to be accepted to the office of High Marshal," which was, I believe, granted. In such case, setting aside her royal descent, I apprehend that, by virtue of her office, she would not bear her arms in a lozenge. She bore the arms of England with only a label for difference.

Margaret, Countess of Richmond, was herself royally descended, being great-granddaughter of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III.; was daughter-in-law of Henry V.'s widow, and mother of Henry VII. Being descended from the antenuptial children of John of Gaunt's third wife, who had been legitimatised by act of parliament for all purposes except succession to the crown, {85} Henry VII. would probably desire by every means in his power to suppress anything suggestive of his unsubstantial title to the crown. It might be by his particular desire that his mother assumed the full regal shield, on which to emblazon arms differing but slightly from those of her son, the king.

It is not, however, my opinion that the form of shield under consideration is anything like so ancient as some of the authors would make it. I do not believe it comes to us either from the Amazons or the Romans.

My own opinion, in the absence of any from the great writers to guide me, is, that we owe the use of this form of shield amongst ladies to hatchments or funeral achievements. During the time of mourning for persons of rank, their coats of arms are set up in churches and over the principal entrances of their houses. On these occasions it is well known their arms are always placed in a large black lozenge; a form adopted as the most proper figure for admitting the coats of arms of sixteen ancestors to be placed round it, four on each of the sides of the square.

It was not until the reign of Richard III. that the College of Arms was regularly incorporated; and though the science of heraldry received its highest polish during the splendid reigns of Edward III. and Henry V., it had yet scarcely been subjected to those rules which since the establishment of the College have controlled it. Mark Noble, in his History of the College of Arms, says that the latter reign—

"If it did not add to the wealth of the nation at large, gave rise to a number of great families, enriched by the spoils of Azincourt, the plunder of France, and the ransom of princes. The heraldic body was peculiarly prized and protected by the king, who, however, was very whimsical in the adoption of cognizances and devices."

During the greater portion of the fourteenth century, and the early part of the fifteenth, there was a rage for jousts, tilts, and tournaments; and almost every English nobleman had his officers of arms; dukes, marquesses, and earls were allowed a herald and pursuivant; the lower nobility, and even knights, might retain one of the latter. To these officers belonged the ordering of everything relating to the solemn and magnificent funerals, which were so general in these centuries, and which they presided over and marshalled.

During the reign of Edward IV. the exact form of these obsequies was prescribed. Not only were the noblemen's own heralds there, but the king's also; and not in tabards bearing the sovereign's, but the deceased's arms.

So preposterously fond of funeral rites were monarchs and their subjects, that the obsequies of princes were observed by such sovereigns as were in alliance with them, and in the same state as if the royal remains had been conveyed from one Christian kingdom to another. Individuals had their obsequies kept in various places where they had particular connexions.[3]

Is it too much then to presume that in the midst of all this pomp and affectation of grief, the hatchment of the deceased nobleman would be displayed as much, and continued as long, as possible by the widow? May we not reasonably believe that these ladies would vie with each other in these displays of the insignia of mourning, until, by usage, the lozenge-shaped hatchment became the shield appropriated to the sex?

These hypotheses are not without some foundation; but if any of your correspondents will enunciate another theory, I shall be glad to give it my support if it is found to be more reasonable than the foregoing.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

[Footnote 3: Noble.]

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Multiplication of Photographs.—In Vol. viii., p. 60. is a letter from MR. JOHN STEWART of Pau suggesting certain modes of operating in producing positive photographs, and which suggestions are apparently offered as novelties, when, in fact, they have been for some considerable time in practice by other manipulators. Of course, I do not suppose that they are otherwise regarded by MR. STEWART than as novelties, who cannot be acquainted with what is doing here; but it appears to me desirable to discriminate between facts that are absolutely, and those that are relatively new.

Most of the transparent stereoscopic photographs sold in such numbers by all our eminent opticians, are actually produced in the way recommended by MR. STEWART; and reduced copies of photographs, &c., have been produced in almost every possible variety by DR. DIAMOND, and many others of our most eminent photographers. Very early in the history of this science, the idea was suggested by Mr. Fox Talbot himself, of taking views of a small size, and enlarging them for multiplication; and, if I am rightly informed, Mr. Ross was applied to to construct a lens specially for the purpose. Some months back, as early at least as March or April in the present year, Mr. F. H. Wenham actually printed on common chloride paper a life-size positive from a small negative on collodion; and immediately afterwards adopted the use of iodized paper for the same purpose; and after he had exhibited the proofs, I myself repeated the experiment. In fact, had there been time at the last meeting of the Photographic Society, a paper on this very subject would have been read by Mr. Wenham; but the {86} business before the meeting was too extensive to admit of it. My object is not, of course, to offer any objection to the proposition, but simply to put in a claim of merit for the idea originally due to Mr. Fox Talbot, and secondarily to Mr. Wenham, who I believe was an earlier operator in this way than any one.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals.—As light transmitted through a yellow curtain, or yellow glass, does not affect photographic operations, would it not be desirable to keep the nitrate of silver and its solutions in yellow glass bottles, instead of covering the plain white glass with black paper, as I see directed in some cases?

CERIDWEN.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

Donnybrook Fair (Vol. vii., p. 549.).—ABHBA will find his answer in D'Alton's History of the County of Dublin, p. 804.:

"About the year 1174, Earl 'Strongbow' gave Donnybrock (Devonalbroc), amongst other lands, to Walter de Riddlesford; and in 1204, King John granted to the corporation of Dublin license for an annual eight-day fair here, commencing on the day of the finding of the Holy Cross (May 3rd), with similar stallages and tolls, as established in Waterford and Limerick."

This scene of an Irishman's glory has been daguerreotyped in lines that may be left in your pages, as being probably quite as little known to your readers as is the work above cited: