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{93}
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. 196.] SATURDAY, JULY 30. 1853.. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:— Page Books chained to Desks in Churches: Font Inscription: Parochial Libraries, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A. 93 Real Signatures versus Pseudo-names, by the Rev. James Graves 94 Popular Stories of the English Peasantry, by Vincent T. Sternberg 94 Shakspeare Correspondence, by Cecil Harbottle, &c. 95 Epitaph and Monuments in Wingfield Church, Suffolk 98 Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta 99
MINOR NOTES:—Meaning of "Clipper"—Anathema, Maran-atha—Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts—Pigs said to see the Wind—Anecdote of the Duke of Gloucester 100
QUERIES:— Lord William Russell 100 Ancient Furniture—Prie-Dieu 101
MINOR QUERIES:—Reynolds' Nephew—Sir Isaac Newton—Limerick, Dublin, and Cork—Praying to the West—Mulciber—Captain Booth of Stockport—"A saint in crape"—French Abbes—What Day is it at our Antipodes?—"Spendthrift"—Second Growth of Grass— The Laird of Brodie—Mrs. Tighe, Author of "Psyche"— Bishop Ferrar—Sir Thomas de Longueville—Quotations wanted—Symon Patrick, Bishop of Ely: Durham: Weston: Jephson—The Heveninghams of Suffolk and Norfolk— Lady Percy, Wife of Hotspur (Daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March)—Shape of Coffins—St. George Family Pictures—Caley (John), "Ecclesiastical Survey of the Possessions, &c. of the Bishop of St. David's," &c.—Adamson's "Lusitania Illustrata"—Blotting-paper— Poetical Versions of the Fragments in Athenaeus 102
REPLIES:— Robert Drury 104 The Termination -by 105 The Rosicrucians, by William Bates 106 Inscriptions on Bells, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A. 108 Was Cook the Discoverer of the Sandwich Islands? by C. E. Bagot 108 Megatherium Americanum, by W. Pinkerton 109
Photographic Correspondence:—Stereoscopic Angles—Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals 109
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Earth upon Earth, &c.—Picalyly—Mr. Justice Newton—Manners of the Irish—Arms of the See of York—"Up, Guards, and at 'em!"—Coleridge's Christabel: the 3rd Part—Mitigation of Capital Punishment—The Man with the Iron Mask— Gentleman executed for Murder of a Slave—Jahn's Jahrbuch—Character of the Song of the Nightingale, &c. 110
MISCELLANEOUS:— Books and Odd Volumes wanted 114 Notices to Correspondents 114 Advertisements 115
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Notes.
BOOKS CHAINED TO DESKS IN CHURCHES: FONT INSCRIPTION: PAROCHIAL LIBRARIES.
It would be interesting to have a complete list of the various books still to be found chained to desks in our ancient churches. The "Bible of the largest volume," the "Books of Homilies allowed by authority," and the Book of Common Prayer, are ordered by Canon 80. to be provided for every church. In some places this regulation is still complied with: at Oakington, Cambridgeshire, a copy of a recent (1825) edition of the Homilies lies on a small desk in the nave. But besides these authoritative works, other books are found chained to their ancient desks: at Impington, Cambridgeshire are, or were, "three black-letter volumes of Fox's Martyrs chained to a stall in the chancel." (Paley's Ecclesiologist's Guide, &c.) At St. Nicholas, Rochester, chained to a small bracket desk at the south side of the west door, is a copy of A Collection of Cases and other Discourses to recover Dissenters to the Church of England, small 8vo., 1718. The Paraphrase of Erasmus may probably be added to the list (see Professor Blunt's Sketch of the History of the Reformation, 10th edit., p. 130.), though I cannot call to mind any church in which a copy of this work may now be found. In the noble minster church at Wimborne, Dorsetshire, is a rather large collection of books, comprising some old and valuable editions: all these books were, and many still are, chained to their shelves; an iron rod runs along the front of each shelf, on which rings attached to the chains fastened to the covers of the works have free play; these volumes are preserved in an upper chamber on the south side of the chancel. The parochial library at St. Margaret's, Lynn, Norfolk, is one of considerable interest and importance; amongst other treasures are a curious little manuscript of the New Testament very neatly written, a (mutilated) black-letter copy of the Sarum Missal, and many fine copies of the works of the Fathers, and also of the Reformers; these are preserved in the south aisle of the chancel, which is fitted up as a library, and are in very good order. At Margate Church are a few volumes, of what kind my note-book does {94} not inform me. I may also mention, in connexion with St. Nicholas, Rochester, that the font is octagonal, and inscribed with the following capital letters, the first surmounted by a crown:
C . R . I . * . * . * . A . N.
The large panel on each side contains one of the letters; the font is placed close to the wall, so that the remaining letters, indicated by asterisks, cannot now be read: the sexton said that the whole word was supposed to be "Christian," or rather "Cristian." Beside the font is a very quaint iron bracket-stand, painted blue and gold, "constructed to carry" two candles.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON.
P. S.—Permit me to correct an error of the press in my communication at p. 8. of your present volume, col. 1. l. 10. from bottom; for "worn," read "won."
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REAL SIGNATURES VERSUS PSEUDO-NAMES.
It is pleasant to see so many of the correspondents of "N. & Q." joining in the remonstrance against the anonymous system. Were one to set about accumulating the reasons for the abandonment of pseudo-names and initials, many of the valuable columns of this periodical might be easily filled; such an essay it is not, however, my intention to inflict on its readers, who by a little thought can easily do for themselves more than a large effusion of ink on the part of any correspondent could effect. I shall content myself with recounting the good which, in one instance, has resulted from a knowledge of the real name and address of a contributor.
The REV. H. T. ELLACOMBE (one of the first to raise his voice against the use of pseudo-names) having observed in "N. & Q." many communications evincing no ordinary acquaintance with the national Records of Ireland, and wishing to enter into direct communication with the writer (who merely signed himself J. F. F.), put a Query in the "Notices to Correspondents," begging J. F. F. to communicate his real name and address. There in all probability the matter would have ended, as J. F. F. did not happen to take "N. & Q.," but that the writer of these lines chanced to be aware, that under the above given initials lurked the name of the worthy, the courteous, the erudite, and, yet more strange still, the unpaid guardian of the Irish Exchequer Records—James Frederick Ferguson,—a name which many a student of Irish history will recognise with warm gratitude and unfeigned respect. Now it had so happened that by a strange fortune MR. ELLACOMBE was the repository of information as to the whereabouts of certain of the ancient Records of Ireland (see MR. ELLACOMBE'S notice of the matter, Vol. viii., p. 5.), abstracted at some former period from the "legal custody" of some heedless keeper, and sold by a Jew to a German gentleman, and the result of his communicating this knowledge to Mr. Ferguson, has been the latter gentleman's "chivalrous" and successful expedition for their recovery. The English Quarterly Review (not Magazine, as MR. ELLACOMBE inadvertently writes), in a forthcoming article on the Records of Ireland, will, it is to be hoped, give the full details of this exciting record hunt, and thus exemplify the great utility, not to speak of the manliness, of real names and addresses, versus false names and equally Will-o'-the-Wisp initials.
JAMES GRAVES.
Kilkenny.
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POPULAR STORIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY.
(Vol. v., p. 363. &c.)
Will you allow me, through the medium of "N. & Q.," to say how much obliged I should be for any communications on this subject. Since I last addressed you (about a year ago) I have received many interesting contributions towards my proposed collection; but not, I regret to say, quite to the extent I had anticipated. My own researches have been principally confined to the midland counties, and I have very little from the north or east. Such a large field requires many gleaners, and I hope your correspondents learned in Folklore will not be backward in lending their aid to complete a work which Scott, Southey, and a host of illustrious names, have considered a desideratum in our national antiquities.
I propose to divide the tales into three classes—Mythological, Humorous, and Nurse-tales. Of the mythological I have already given several specimens in your journal, but I will give the following, as it illustrates another link in the transmission of MR. KEIGHTLEY'S Hindustani legend, which appeared in a recent Number. It is from Northamptonshire.
The Bogie and the Farmer.
Once upon a time a Bogie asserted a claim to a field which had been hitherto in the possession of a farmer; and after a great deal of disputing, they came to an arrangement by agreeing to divide its produce between them. At seed time, the farmer asks the Bogie what part of the crop he will have, "tops or bottoms." "Bottoms," said the spirit: upon which the crafty farmer sows the field with wheat, so that when harvest arrives the corn falls to his share, while the poor Bogie is obliged to content himself with the stubble. Next year the spirit, finding he had made such an unfortunate selection in the bottoms, chose the tops; whereupon cunning Hodge set the field with turnips, thus again outwitting the simple {95} claimant. Tired of this unprofitable farming, the Bogie agrees to hazard his claims on a mowing-match, thinking that his supernatural strength would give him an easy victory; but before the day of meeting, the cunning earth-tiller procures a number of iron bars which he stows among the grass to be mown by his opponent; and when the trial commences, the unsuspecting goblin finds his progress retarded by his scythe coming into contact with these obstacles, which he takes to be some very hard—very hard—species of dock. "Mortal hard docks, these," said he; "Nation hard docks!" His blunted scythe soon brings him to a stand still, and as, in such cases, it is not allowed for one to sharpen without the other, he turns to his antagonist, now far ahead, and inquires, in a tone of despair, "When d'ye wiffle-waffle (whet), mate?" "Waffle!" said the farmer, with a well-feigned stare of amazement, "O, about noon mebby." "Then," said the despairing spirit, "That thief of a Christian has done me;" and so saying, he disappeared and was never heard of more.
Under Nurse-tales, I include the extremely puerile stories of the nursery, often (as in the German ones) interlaced with rhymes. The following, from the banks of the Avon, sounds like an echo from a German story-book.
Little Elly.
In the old time, a certain good king laid all the ghosts, and hanged all the witches and wizards save one, who fell into a bad way, and kept a school in a small village. One day Little Elly looked through a chink-hole, and saw him eating man's flesh and drinking man's blood; but Little Elly kept it all to herself, and went to school as before. And when school was over the Ogee fixed his eyes upon her, and said—
"All go home but Elly, And Elly come to me."
And when they were gone he said, "What did you see me eat, Elly?"
"O something did I see, But nothing will I tell, Unto my dying day."
And so he pulled off her shoes, and whipped her till she bled (this repeated three days); and the third day he took her up, and put her into a rose-bush, where the rain rained, and the snow snowed, and the hail hailed, and the wind blew upon her all night. Quickly her tiny spirit crept out of her tiny body and hovered round the bed of her parents, where it sung in mournful voice for evermore—
"Dark, weary, and cold am I, Little knoweth Gammie where am I."
Of the Humorous stories I have already given a specimen in Vol. v., p. 363.
Any notes of legends, or suggestions of any kind, forwarded to my address as below, will be thankfully received and acknowledged.
VINCENT T. STERNBERG.
15. Store Street, Bedford Square.
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SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.
The old Corrector on "The Winter's Tale."—I am glad to find that you have another correspondent, and a very able one too, under the signature of A. E. B., who takes the same view of "Aristotle's checks" as I have done; though I think he might have paid me the compliment of just noticing my prior remonstrance on this subject. It is to be lamented, that MR. COLLIER should have hurried out his new edition of Shakspeare, adopting all the sweeping emendations of his newly-found commentator, without paying the slightest heed to any of the suggestions which have been offered to him in a friendly spirit, or affording time for the farther objections which are continually pouring in. At the risk of probably wearying some of your readers, I cannot forbear submitting to you a few more remarks; but I shall confine them on this occasion to one play, The Winter's Tale: which contains, perhaps, as many poetical beauties as any single work of our great dramatic bard. With reference to the passage quoted in p. 437., I can hardly believe that Shakspeare ever wrote such a poor unmeaning line as—
" . . . they are false as dead blacks."
nor can I perceive any possible objection to the original words "o'er dyed blacks." They may either mean false mourners, putting an over dark semblance of grief; or they may allude figuratively to the material of mourning, the colours of which if over-dyed will not stand. In either of these senses, the passage is poetical; but there is nothing like poetry in "our dead blacks."
In p. 450. the alteration of the word "and" to "heaven" may be right, though it is difficult to conceive how the one can have been mistaken for the other. At all events, the sense is improved by the change; but I do not see that anything is gained by the substitution in the next line of "dream" for "theme." Whatever the king said in his ravings about Hermione, might as aptly be called part of his "theme" as part of his "dream." The subject of his dream was in fact his theme!
Neither can I discover any good reason for changing, in p. 452.,
" . . . and one may drink, depart, And yet partake no venom,"
into "drink a part." The context clearly shows the author's meaning to have been, that if any one departed at once after tasting of the beverage, he would have no knowledge of what he had drunk; {96} but if he remained, some one present might point out to him the spider in the cup, and then "he cracks his gorge," &c.
In p. 460. MR. COLLIER says that the passage, "dangerous, unsafe lunes i' the king," is mere tautology, and therefore he follows the old corrector in substituting "unsane lunes." Now it strikes me that there is quite as much tautology in "unsane lunes" as in the double epithet, "dangerous, unsafe." It is, in fact, equivalent to "insane madness;" and, moreover, drags in quite needlessly a very unusual and uncouth word.
In p. 481. we have the last word of the following passage—
"I never saw a vessel of like sorrow, So fill'd and so becoming,"—
converted into "o'er-running." This may possibly be the correct reading; but, seeing that it is immediately followed by the words—
" . . . in pure white robes, Like very sanctity,"
I question whether "becoming" is not the more natural expression.
"There weep—and leave it crying,"
is made—
"There wend—and leave it crying,"
which I submit is decidedly wrong. I will not be hypercritical, or I might suggest that in that case the words would have been "thither wend;" but I maintain that the change is contrary to the sense. The spirit of Hermione never could have been intended to say that the child should be left crying. She would rather wish that it might not cry! The meaning, as it seems to me, is, that Antigonus should weep over the babe, and leave it while so weeping.
In p. 487. the words "missingly noted" are altered to "musingly noted," which is a very questionable improvement. Camillo, missing Florigel from court, would naturally note his absence; and he may have mused over the causes of it, but there could be no necessity for musing to note the fact of his absence: and I cannot help thinking that the word missingly is more in Shakspeare's style.
I cannot subscribe at all to the alteration in p. 492. of the word "unrolled" to "enrolled." To be enrolled and placed in the book of virtue is very like tautology; but I conceive Shakspeare meant Autolycus to wish that his name might be unrolled from the company of thieves and gypsies with whom he was associated, and transferred to the book of virtue.
I am entirely at issue with the old corrector upon his emendation in p. 498.:
" . . . Nothing she does or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself;"
he says, ought to be: "Nothing she does or says." And how does MR. COLLIER explain this misprint? Why, by stating that formerly "says" was often written "saies." Now, I cannot for the life of me discover why the word "saies" should have been mistaken for "seems," any more than the word "says." But surely the phrase, "nothing she does or seems," is far more poetical and elegant than the other. It says in effect: there is nothing either in her acts or her carriage, "but smacks of something greater than herself." We have positive evidence, however, that the passage could not have been "nothing she does or says," viz. that this speech of Polixenes immediately follows a long dialogue between Florizel and Perdita, which could not have been overheard, because Camillo directly afterwards says to the king:
" . . . He tells her something, That makes her blood look out."
Thereby clearly proving, that the king could not have been remarking on what she said.
The transformation of the last-mentioned line into—
"That wakes her blood—look out!"
cannot, I think, be justified on any ground. He tells her something which "makes her blood look out." That is, something which makes her blush rush to the surface to look out upon it! What can be more natural? The proposed alteration is not only unnecessary, but awkward!
In p. 499., if the words "unbraided wares" must be altered, I see no reason for the change to "embroided" wares. It seems to me that embraided would be the most proper word.
What possible reason can there be for converting "force and knowledge," in p. 506., to "sense and knowledge?" If I may be excused a play upon the words, I should say the sense of the passage is not at all improved, and the force is entirely lost.
I must protest most decidedly against the correction of the following lines, p. 507.:
" . . . Can he speak? hear? Know man from man? dispute his own estate?"
Dispute his own estate means, defend his property, dispute with any one who questions his rights. The original passage expresses the sense quite perfectly, while "dispose his own estate" appears to me poor and insipid in comparison.
MR. COLLIER'S objection to the speech of Camillo, in p. 514.,
" . . . it shall be so my care To have you royally appointed, as if The scene you play were mine;"
is, that to make the scene appear as if it were Camillo's, could be of no service to the young prince. Now Camillo says nothing about the scene appearing as his. He says he will have the prince royally appointed, as if the scene he played were really his own: that is, as if he were the party interested in it, instead of the prince. {97}
The reading of the old corrector—
" . . . . As if The scene you play were true,"
would be nonsense; because, so far as the prince appearing to be Bohemia's son (which was what he was most anxious about), the scene to be played was really true!
The last correction I have now to notice is in the soliloquy of Autolycus in p. 522.: where MR. COLLIER proposes to read, "who knows how that may turn luck to my advantage," instead of "may turn back to my advantage." I see no advantage in the change, but the very reverse. "Who knows but my availing myself of the means to do the prince my master a service, may come back to me in the shape of some advancement?" This seems to me to be the author's meaning, and it is legitimately expressed. How frequently it has been said that an evil deed recoils upon the head of the perpetrator! Then why not a good deed turn back to reward the doer?
CECIL HARBOTTLE.
P. S.—It is rather singular that A. E. B., who, as I have already shown, has so completely shelved me in his remarks upon "Aristotle's checks," should now complain of the very same thing himself, and say that his "humble auxilia have been coolly appropriated, without the slightest acknowledgment." However, as our opinions coincide upon the passage in question, I am not disposed to pick a quarrel with him. I cannot, however, at all concur in his alteration of the passage in King Lear: "Our means secure us," to "Our means recuse us." I will certainly leave him "in the quiet possession of whatever merit is due to this restoration," or rather this invention! Can A. E. B. show any other instance in which Shakspeare has used the verb recuse; or will he point out any other author who has adopted it in the sense referred to? Johnson calls it a "juridical word:" and I certainly have no recollection of having met with it, except in judicial proceedings.
I can neither subscribe to the emendation of A. E. B., nor to that of the old commentator, but infinitely prefer the original words, which appear to me perfectly intelligible. The sense, as it strikes me, is, that however we may desire things which we have not, the means we already possess are sufficient for our security; and even our defects prove serviceable. Blindness, for instance, will make a man more careful of himself; and then the other faculties he enjoys will secure him from harm.
"King Lear," Act IV. Sc. 1.—
"Our means secure us, and our mere defects Prove our commodities."
I should not object to your correspondent A. E. B.'s conjectural emendation, "recuse" for "secure," but that, unless my memory and Ayscough are both deceptive, the word "recuse" is nowhere to be found in Shakspeare; nor, as far as I know, in any dramatist of the age. If it be used by any of the latter, it is probably only in the strict legal meaning, which is quite different from that which A. E. B. would attach to it. This is conclusive with me; for I hold that there is no sounder canon in Shakspearian criticism than never to introduce by conjecture a word of which the poet does not himself elsewhere make use, or which is not at least strongly sanctioned by contemporary employment.
I therefore, as the passage is flat nonsense, return to the well-abused "corrector's" much modester emendation, "wants" for "means."
And now permit one word in defence of this deceased and untoward personage.
I think much of the unpopularity into which he has fallen with a certain class of critics, is owing to their not allowing him fair play.
Suppose a MS. placed in our hands, containing, beyond all doubt, what MR. COLLIER'S corrected second folio is alleged to contain, authoritative emendations of the text: what should we, a priori, expect to find in it?
That text is abominably corrupt beyond a doubt; it contains many impossible readings, which must be misprints or otherwise erroneous; it contains also many improbable readings, harsh, strained, mean, inadequate, and the like.
Now it is excessively unlikely that a truly corrected copy, could we find one, would remove all the impossible readings, and leave all the improbable ones.
It is still more unlikely that, in correcting the improbable passages, it would leave those to which Mr. A., or Mr. B., or Mr. C., ay, or all of us together, have formed an attachment from habit, predilection, or prejudice of some kind. Such phrases as "the blanket of the dark," "a man that hath had losses," "unthread the rude eye of rebellion," and many more, have become consecrated in our eyes by habit; they have assumed, as it were, the character of additions to our ordinary vocabulary; and yet I think sound reason itself, and that kind of secondary reason or instinct which long familiarity with critical pursuits gives us, combine to suggest that, occurring in a corrupt text, they are probably corruptions; and corruptions in lieu of some very common and even prosaic phrases, such as the corrector substitutes for them, and such as no conjectural critic would venture on.
In short, the kind of disappointment which many of these corrections unavoidably give to the reader, is with me an argument in favour of their genuineness, not against it.
And, lastly, in so very corrupt a text, it is a priori probable that many phrases which appear to need no correction at all, are misprints or {98} mistakes nevertheless. It is probably that the true text of the poet contained many variations utterly unimportant, as well as others of importance, from the printed one. Now here it is precisely, that we find in the corrector what we should anticipate, and what it is difficult to account for on any theory disparaging his authority. What could have induced him to make such substitutions as swift for "sweet," then for "there," all arose for "are arose," solemn for "sorry," fortune for "nature," to quote from a single play, the Comedy of Errors, which happens to lie before me,—none of them necessary emendations, most of them trivial, unless he had under his eye some original containing those variations, to which he wished his own copy to conform? It is surely wild guessing to attribute corrections like these to a mere wanton itch for altering the text; and yet no other alternative is suggested by the corrector's enemies.
I am myself as yet a sceptic in the matter, being very little disposed to hasty credulity on such occasions, especially where there is a possibility of deceit. But I must say that the doctrine of probabilities seems to me to furnish strong arguments in the corrector's favour; and that the attacks of professed Shakspearian critics on him, both in and out of "N. & Q.," have hitherto rather tended to raise him in my estimation.
H. M.
Aristotle's Checks v. Aristotle's Ethics.—
"Only, good master, while we do admire This virtue, and this moral discipline, Let's be no stoicks, nor no stocks, I pray; Or so devote to Aristotle's checks, As Ovid be an outcast quite abjur'd." Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Sc. 1.
The following are instances of the use of the substantive check by Shakspeare:
"Orlando. A man that had a wife with such a wit, might say,—'Wit whither wilt?' "Rosalind. Nay, you might keep that check for it, till you met your wife's wit going to your neighbour's bed."
"Falstaff. I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour."
"Antony. This is a soldier's kiss; rebukable, And worthy shameful check it were to stand On more mechanic compliment."
"Belarius. . . . O, this life Is nobler, than attending for a check."
"Iago. However, this may gall him with some check.
"Desdemona. And yet his trespass, in our common reason . . . . is not almost a fault To incur a private check."
These instances may show that the word in question was a favourite expression of the poet. It is true there was a translation of the Ethics of Aristotle in his time, The Ethiques of Aristotle. If he spelt it ethiques, no printer would have blundered and substituted checks.
Judge Blackstone suggested ethicks, but Johnson and Steevens kept to checks. And Johnson, in his Dictionary, sub voce Devote, quotes the passage, but which, by a strange printer's misreading, is referred to "Tim. of Ath." instead of Tam. of Sh. in Todd's edit. of Johnson's Dictionary (1818).
W. N.
Pall Mall.
* * * * *
EPITAPH AND MONUMENTS IN WINGFIELD CHURCH, SUFFOLK.
I am not aware if the following epitaph has yet appeared in print; but I can safely assert that it really has a sepulchral origin; unlike those whose doubtful character causes them to be placed by your correspondent MR. SHIRLEY HIBBERD among the "gigantic gooseberries" ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 190.). I copied it myself from a gravestone in the churchyard of the village of Wingfield, Suffolk. After the name, &c. of the deceased is the following verse:
"Pope boldly says (some think the maxim odd), 'An honest man's the noblest work of God;' If Pope's assertion be from error clear, The noblest work of God lies buried here."
Wingfield Church itself is an interesting old place, but has been a good deal mauled in times past; and the brasses, of which there were once several, are all gone. It is, I believe, a good deal noted for a parvise, or room over the porch, from which, by an opening in the wall, a view of the altar is obtained. There are two or three piscinas in different parts of the church, and a sedilla near the altar. The most interesting objects are, however, three altar tombs, with recumbent figures of the Earls of Suffolk; the earliest, which is of wood, representing either the first or second peer of the family, with his spouse. The next in date is that of the celebrated noble who figures in Shakspeare's Henry VI. The monument is, if I recollect right, of alabaster. The figure is attired in complete armour, and was originally painted; a good deal of the colour still remaining. This and the following monument are partly let into the wall, and are surmounted by beautiful Gothic canopies. The third is, I believe, also of alabaster, and is the effigy of (I think) the nephew of Margaret of Anjou's earl, and who lies by the side of his wife, one of Edward IV.'s family.
It is very likely that all I have been writing is no news to any one. In that case I have but to ask your pardon for troubling you with such a worthless Note.
PICTOR.
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{99}
ORIGINAL ROYAL LETTERS TO THE GRAND MASTERS OF MALTA.
In searching through the manuscripts now filed away in the Record Office of this island with Dr. Villa, who has charge of them, and for whose assistance in my search I am greatly indebted, I have been gratified by seeing several original letters, addressed by different monarchs of England to the Grand Masters of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Each of the royal letters in the following list bears the signature of the writer:
+ -+ -+ -+ -+ Writer. Date. In what To whom addressed, language or by whom written. received. + -+ -+ -+ -+ Henry VIII. 8th January, 1523 Latin Villiers de L'Isle Adam. Ditto 1st August, 1524 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 14th January, 1526 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 10th day, 1526 Ditto Ditto. (month omitted) Ditto 22nd November, 1530 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 17th November, 1534 Ditto Ditto. Charles II. 17th January, 1667-8 Ditto Nicholas Cotoner. Ditto 29th April, 1668 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 26th January, 1675-6 Ditto Ditto. Ditto Last day of November, Ditto Ditto. 1674 Ditto 21st June, 1675 Ditto Ditto. James II. 13th July, 1689 French Gregory Carafa. Anne 8th July, 1713 Ditto Raymond Perellos de Roccaful. George I.* 24th August, 1722 Latin Anthony Manoel de Villena. James (the 14th September, 1725 French Ditto. Pretender) George II. 19th June, 1741 Latin Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca. Ditto 8th December, 1748 Ditto Ditto. Ditto 6th November, 1756 Ditto Ditto. + -+ -+ -+ -+
* The letter of George I. is countersigned "Carteret;" those of George II. by "Harrington," "H. Fox," and "Bedford." None of the other letters in the above list bear any signature but that of the king or queen who wrote them. Among the letters of Henry VIII., addressed to Villiers de L'Isle Adam, there is one of much interest. I refer to that of the earliest date, in which his majesty strongly recommended the Grand Master to accept of Tripoli, on the coast of Barbary, and the islands of Malta and Gozo, as a residence for the convent, which Charles V. had offered him. The importance of Malta as a military station was known in England three hundred years ago. L'Isle Adam (with the exception of La Valetta), the most distinguished of all the Maltese Grand Masters, died on the 21st of August, 1534. The last letter of Henry VIII., addressed to him, came to his successor, Nicholas Cotoner. On the mantle which covered the remains of this great man these few words were inscribed,—"Here lies Virtue triumphant over Misfortune."]
Intending in a short time to examine these royal letters more closely, and hoping to refer to them again in "N.& Q.," I refrain from writing more at length on the present occasion.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
P.S.—Perhaps the following chronological table, referring to the Maltese Grand Masters who are mentioned in the above Note, may not be uninteresting to the readers of "N. & Q.":
- - Name. When elected. When deceased at Malta. - - Villiers de L'Isle Adam At Rhodes, 1521 1534, 21st of August. Nicholas Cotoner At Malta, 1663 1680. Gregory Carafa Ditto 1680 1690. Raymond Perellos Ditto 1697 1720. Anthony Manoel de Villena Ditto 1722 1736. Emanuel Pinto de Fonseca Ditto 1741 1773. - -
* * * * *
{100}
Minor Notes.
Meaning of "Clipper."—I have more than once been asked the meaning and derivation of the term clipper, which has been so much in vogue for some years past. It is now quite a nautical term, at least among the fresh-water sailors: and we find it most frequently applied to yachts, steamers, fast-sailing merchant vessels, &c. And in addition to the colloquial use of the word, so common in praising the appearance or qualities of a vessel, it has become one quite recognised in the official description given of their ships by merchants, &c. Thus we often see an advertisement headed "the well-known clipper ship," "the noted clipper bark," and so forth. This use of the word, however, and its application to vessels, is somewhat wide of the original.
The word in former times meant merely a hackney, or horse adapted for the road. The owners of such animals naturally valued them in proportion to their capabilities for such service, among which great speed in trotting was considered one of the chief: fast trotting horses were eagerly sought after, and trials of speed became the fashion. A horse then, which was pre-eminent in this particular, was termed a clipper, i.e. a hackney, par excellence.
The original of the term is perhaps the following: Klepper-lehn was a feudal tenure, so termed among the old Germans, where the yearly due from the vassal to the lord was a klepper, or, in its stead, so many bushels of oats: and the word klepper, or kleopper, is explained by Haltaus. Glos. Germ. Med. Aevi, 1758:
"Equus qui corripit gradum, et gressus duplicat. Nomen habet a celeri correptorum passuum sonitu."
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Anathema, Maran-atha.—Perhaps the following observation on these words may be as instructive to some of the readers of "N. & Q." as it was to me. Maran-atha means "The Lord cometh," and is used apparently by St. Paul as a kind of motto: compare [Greek: ho kurios engus], Phil. iv. 5. The Greek word has become blended with the Hebrew phrase, and the compound used as a formula of execration. (See Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 64., note 4.)
F. W. J.
Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.—
"When the committee I have mentioned was appointed, March 13, 1700, to consider what might be done towards propagating the Christian Religion as professed in the Church of England in our Foreign Plantations; and the committee, composed of very venerable and experienced men, well suited for such an inquiry, had sat several times at St. Paul's, and made some progress in the business referred to them, a charter was presently procured to place the consideration of that matter in other hands, where it now remains, and will, we hope, produce excellent fruits. But whatever they are, they must be acknowledged to have sprung from the overtures to that purpose first made by the lower house of Convocation."—Some Proceedings in the Convocation of 1705 faithfully represented, p. 10. of Preface.
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
Pigs said to see the Wind.—In Hudibras, Independant says to Presbyter:
"You stole from the beggars all your tones, And gifted mortifying groans; Had lights when better eyes were blind, As pigs are said to see the wind."—Pt. 3. c. ii. l. 1105.
That most delightful of editors, Dr. Zachary Grey, with all his multifarious learning, leaves us here in the lurch for once with a simple reference to "Hudibras at Court," Posthumous Works, p. 213.
Is this phrase merely an hyperbolic way of saying that pigs are very sharp-sighted, or is it an actual piece of folk-lore expressing a belief that pies have the privilege of seeing "the viewless wind?" I am inclined to take the latter view. Under the head of "Superstitions," in Hone's Year-Book for Feb. 29, 1831, we find:
"Among common sayings at present are these, that pigs can see the wind," &c.
The version I have always heard of it is—
"Pigs can see the wind 'tis said, And it seemeth to them red."
EIRIONNACH.
Anecdote of the Duke of Gloucester.—Looking through some of the Commonwealth journals, I met with a capital mot of this spirited little Stuart.
"It is reported that the titular Duke of Gloucester, being informed that the Dutch fleet was about the Isle of Wight, he was asked to which side he stood most addicted. The young man, apprehending that his livelihood depended on the parliament, and that it might be an art to circumvent him, turning to the governor, demanded of him how he did construe 'Quamdiu se bene gesserit.'"—Weekly Intelligencer.
SPERIEND.
* * * * *
Queries.
LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL.
Can any of your correspondents inform me where the virtuous and patriotic William Lord Russell was buried? It is singular that neither Burnet, who attended him to the scaffold, nor his descendant Lord John Russell in writing his life, nor Collins's Peerage, nor the accounts and letters of his admirable widow, make any allusion to his {101} remains. At last I found, in the State Trials, vol. ix. p. 684., that after the executioner had held up the head to the people, "Mr. Sheriff ordered his Lordship's friends or servants to take the body and dispose of it as they pleased, being given them by His Majesty's favour." Probably, therefore, it was buried at Cheneys; but it is worth a Query to ascertain the fact.
My attention was drawn to this omission by the discovery of the decapitated man found at Nuneham Regis ("N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 386.), and from observing that the then proprietor of the place appears to have been half-sister to Lady Russell, viz. daughter of the fourth Lord Southampton, by his second wife Frances, heiress of the Leighs, Lords Dunsmore, and the last of whom was created Earl of Chichester. But a little inquiry satisfied me this could not have been Lord Russell's body; among other reasons, because it was very improbable he should be interred at Nuneham, and because the incognito body had a peaked beard, whereas the prints from the picture at Woburn represent Lord Russell, according to the fashion of the time, without a beard.
But who then was the decapitated man? He was evidently an offender of consequence, from his having been beheaded, and from the careful embalming and the three coffins in which his remains were inclosed. The only conjecture I see hazarded in your pages is that of MR. HESLEDEN (Vol. vi., p. 488.), who suggests Monmouth; but he has overlooked the fact stated in the original communication of L. M. M. R., that Nuneham only came into the possession of the Buccleuch family through the Montagues, i.e. by the marriage of Henry, third Duke of Buccleuch, to Lady Elizabeth Montagu; the present proprietor, Lord John Scott, being their grandson. This marriage took place in 1767, or eighty-two years after Monmouth's execution, and thirty-three years after the death of his widow, the Duchess of Buccleuch and Monmouth, who is supposed to have caused the body to be removed from Tower Hill.
Notwithstanding the failure of heirs male in three noble families within the century, viz. the Leighs, the Wriothesleys, and the Montagus, the present proprietor is their direct descendant, and there are indications in the letter referred to, that the place of interment of his ancestors, as well as of this singular unknown, will no longer be abandoned to be a depository of farm rubbish.
W. L. M.
* * * * *
ANCIENT FURNITURE—PRIE-DIEU.
Perhaps some of the readers of "N. & Q." will be able to give me some information as to the use of an ancient piece of furniture which I have met with. At Codrington, a small village in Gloucestershire, in the old house once the residence of the family of that name, now a farm-house, they show you in the hall a piece of furniture which was brought there from the chapel when that part of the building was turned into a dairy. It is a cupboard, forming the upper part of a five-sided structure, which has a base projecting equally with the top, which itself hangs over a hollow between the cupboard and the base, and is finished off with pendants below the cupboard. The panel which forms the door of the cupboard is wider than the sides. All the panels are carved with sacred emblems; the vine, the instruments of the Passion, the five wounds, the crucifix, the Virgin and child, and a shield, with an oak tree with acorns, surmounted by the papal tiara and the keys. The dimensions are as follows:
Depth from front to back, 2 feet 4-1/2 inches.
Height, 4 feet 8 inches.
Height of cupboard from slab to pendants, 2 feet 6 inches.
Height of base, 9-1/2 inches.
Width of side panels, 1 foot 8 inches; of centre panel, 1 foot 10-1/2 inches.
Width of the door of the cupboard, 1 foot 5 inches.
The door has carved upon it a scene representing two men, one an old man sitting upon a chair, the other a young one falling back from a stool; a table separates them and in the next compartment (for an arcade runs through the group) a female figure clasps her hands, as if in astonishment. This I can hardly understand. But the panel with the papal ensigns I think may throw some light on the use of the whole. In the year 1429, John Codrington of Codrington obtained a bull from Pope Martin V. to have a portable altar in his house, to have mass celebrated when and where he pleased. I find that such a portable altar ought to have "a suitable frame of wood whereon to set it." Such altars are frequently mentioned, though I believe very few remain; but I never could hear of the existence of anything to show what the frame would be. It occurs to me as possible that this piece of furniture may have been used for the purpose. The whole question of portable altars is an interesting one, and if this account should by the means of "N. & Q." fall into the hands of any one who is acquainted with the subject, I hope he would consider it worth a communication.
For some time I was at a loss for another instance; however, I have just received from a friend, who took interest in the subject, a sketch of something almost identical from the disused chapel at Chillon in the Canton Vaud. Of this I have not the measurements, but it stands about breast-high. It is there called a "prie-dieu," and is said to have belonged to the Dukes of Savoy, but the size is very unusual for such a use. I send sketches of each of the subjects of my Query, {102} and hope that, if this should be thought worthy of a place in "N. & Q.," some one will be able and willing to afford some information about them. I would add as a farther Query, the question of the meaning of the battle-axe and pansy, which appear on the "prie-dieu" at Chillon. Is it a known badge of the Savoy family?
R. H. C.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
Reynolds' Nephew.—In the Correspondence of David Garrick, vol. i. pp. 664. 658., 4to., 1831, there are letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds regarding a play written by his nephew. Can you tell me whether this was the Rev. Mr. Palmer, minister of the Temple Church, and who was afterwards Dean of Gashel; or had Sir Joshua any other nephew? The letters are dated 1774, and the author appears to have been resident in London about that time.
A. Z.
Sir Isaac Newton.—Which is the passage in Newton's Optics to which Flamsteed refers, in his account of the altercation between them, as having given occasion to some of the enemies of the former to tax him with Atheism? and is there any evidence, besides what this passage may afford, in favour of Dr. Johnson's assertion, that Newton set out as an infidel? (Boswell, July 28, 1763.) The Optics were not published till 1704, but had been composed many years previously.
J. S. WARDEN.
Limerick, Dublin, and Cork.—Can any of your Irish or other correspondents inform me to whom we are indebted for the lines—
"Limerick was, Dublin is, and Cork shall be, The finest city of the three"?
Also, in what respect Limerick was formerly superior to Dublin?
N.
Dublin.
Praying to the West.—A friend of mine told me that a Highland woman in Strathconan, wishing to say that her mother-in-law prayed for my friend daily, said: "She holds up her hands to the West for you every day." If to the East it would have been more intelligible; but why to the West?
L. M. M. R.
Mulciber.—Who was Mulciber, immortalised (!) in Garth's Dispensary (ed. 1699, p. 65.) as "the Mayor Bromicham?" My copy contains on the fly-leaf a MS. key to all the names save this.
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
Captain Booth of Stockport (Vol. vi., p. 340.).—As yet, no reply to this Query has been elicited; but as it is a subject of some interest to both Lancashire and Cheshire men, I should like to ascertain from JAYTEE in what collection he met with the MS. copy of Captain Booth's Ordinary of Arms? Its existence does not appear to have been known to any of our Cheshire or Lancashire historians; for in none of their works do I find any mention of such an individual as Capt. Booth of Stockport. Sir Peter Leycester, in his Antiquities of Bucklow Hundred, Cheshire, repeatedly acknowledges the assistance rendered him by John Booth of Twanbow's Book of Pedigrees; but this gentleman appears merely to have collected for Cheshire, and not for Lancashire. Sir George Booth, afterwards Lord Delamere, is the only Captain Booth I have met with in my limited sphere of historical research; and I am not aware that he ever indulged much in genealogical study.
T. HUGHES.
Chester.
"A saint in crape."—
"A saint in crepe is twice a saint in lawn."
Whence this line?
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
French Abbes.—What was the precise ecclesiastical and social status of a French Abbe before the Revolution?
W. FRASER.
Tor-Mohun.
What Day is it at our Antipodes?—Perhaps you can give me a satisfactory answer to the following question, a reply to which I have not yet been able to procure.
I write this at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12; at our Antipodes it is, of course, 11 a.m.: but is it 11 a.m. on Tuesday, July 12, or on Wednesday, July 13? And whichever it is, what is the reason for its being so? for it seems to me that the solution of the question must be perfectly arbitrary.
H.
"Spendthrift."—In Lord John Russell's Memorials of Charles James Fox, vol. i. p. 43., there is a letter addressed to Mr. Richard Fitzpatrick, in which Mr. Fox asks "if he was in England when Lord Carlisle's Spendthrift came out." And at the foot of the same page there is a note in which it is stated that this "was probably some periodical paper of 1767."
My object in writing the above is for the purpose of asking what publication the Spendthrift really was, and where it can be purchased or seen?
W. W.
Malta.
Second Growth of Grass.—The second growth of grass is known by different names in different localities. In some it is called fog, in others after-math and after-grass. The former name is common about Uxbridge, and the latter about Stoke Pogis, in Buckinghamshire. In Hertfordshire it is {103} called hugga-mabuff; I am not certain that this is the correct spelling of the name, never having seen it either in writing or print. In Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire the name eddish prevails, I am told, and hence eddish cheese, made from the milk of cows which have grazed eddish. Can any of your correspondents add to the above names, or throw a light upon their origin?
R. W. F.
Bath.
The Laird of Brodie.—Can any of your correspondents explain what James V. of Scotland means in his celebrated ballad when he says:
"I thocht you were a gentleman, At least the Laird of Brodie."
According to the literal meaning, it would seem that the Laird of Brodie was something less than a gentleman? Could his majesty intend to satirise the alleged royal descent of Brodie from Bruidhie, the son of Billi, king of the Picts (see James' Critical Essay), by insinuating that the "Picts" and their descendants were not entitled to be ranked as "Generosi?"
I. H. B.
Mrs. Tighe, Author of "Psyche."—There is a monument in Inistioge churchyard, co. Kilkenny, to the memory of the authoress of that beautiful poem Psyche, Mrs. Mary Tighe, with a statue of her, said to be by Flaxman, which statement, as to its being from the chisel of that celebrated sculptor, I have seen contradicted. She was the daughter of the Rev. W. Blackford, and married Mr. Henry Tighe of Woodstock, Ireland, in 1793. The inscription, which, I believe, is in existence, was not added to the monument in 1845. Can any of your correspondents favour me with a copy of it? and was the statue by Flaxman? Is there any authentic memoir of this delightful poetess? When did her husband Mr. Tighe die? He is said to have survived his lady, who died in 1810, but a short time; and that he was the author of a History of the County of Kilkenny. I believe it was on visiting the churchyard of Inistioge that Mrs. Hemans wrote "The Grave of a Poetess." She is said to have been very beautiful. Is there any other engraved portrait of her in existence beside the one annexed to the several editions of her poems? Any particulars relating to this lady or her husband will be esteemed by
T. B. WHITBORNE.
Bishop Ferrar.—Was the Bishop Ferrar (or Farrar), the martyr who suffered during the reign of Mary, of the same family as Ferrers (or Ferrars) earl of Derby and Nottingham, in the reign of Henry III.?
A CONSTANT READER.
Sir Thomas de Longueville.—In the year 1753, a Sir Thomas de Longueville, baronet, was a lieutenant in his Majesty's fleet, and his commission bore date 3rd June, 1719. I should be glad if any of your correspondents could inform me if he was a descendant of the De Longueville, the second Fides Achates of Scotland's "ill-requited chief." The real Sir Thomas de Longueville reposes in the churchyard of Bourtie, in the county of Aberdeen. Bourtie is a parish fraught with historic recollections. On the hill of Barra, within a mile of the parish church, Bruce at once and for ever put a period to the sway and power of the Cuming. I should be glad to learn if any of the descendants of the Lieutenant Longueville still survive, and if he was any descendant of the favorite "De Longueville" of the olden time.
ABREDONENSIS.
Quotations wanted.—
(1.) "Never ending, still beginning."
(2.) "Chew the bitter cud of disappointment."
Whence?
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
Symon Patrick, Bishop of Ely—Durham—Weston—Jephson.—In a small autobiography of Symon Patrick, the bishop's wife is stated to have been Penelope Jephson, grandchild of Lady Durham of Borstall. Can any of your readers inform me who this Lady Durham was?
Penelope Jephson was daughter of Sir Cornelius (?) Jephson, I suppose of Mallow in Ireland.
One of Bishop Patrick's granddaughters, Penelope, married Edward Weston, Under-Secretary of State, of Corkenhatch (Herts?). Query, Who was he, and are there any descendants of this marriage?
K. G.
The Heveninghams of Suffolk and Norfolk.—This ancient family traces its pedigree through twenty-five knights in succession to Galtir Heveninghame, who lived when Canute was king of England, ann. 1020. (See Harleian MSS. 1449. fol. 91 b.; and Southey's Doctor, &c.)
From one of those knights, Sir John Hevenyngham (ob. 1536), descended a collateral branch, represented by Walter Heveningham of Pipe Hall and Aston estates, Staffordshire (1562), who married Annela, daughter of Fitzherbert the Judge. His eldest son was Nicholas, who married Eliza, daughter of Sir John Beevor; and the eldest son of the last-named was Sir Walter Heveningham (1612, ob. 1691).
Now I should feel greatly obliged to any of your readers if, from any of the published or written documents relating to the county of Stafford, or from any other source, they could favour me with answers to the following Queries:
1. Whom did Sir Walter Heveningham marry? His second son married the widow of Sir Edward Simeon, Bart.; but
2. What was the name of Sir Walter's eldest son, and whom did he marry? The issue of this {104} latter marriage was Charles Heveningham of Lichfield (ob. 1782), who married a daughter of Robinson of Appleby, and John Heveningham.
A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK.
Lady Percy, Wife of Hotspur (Daughter of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March).—Upon what authority does Miss Strickland say (Lives of the Queens of England, vol. iv. p. 300.) that it is stated "by all ancient heralds" that this lady died without issue? What herald can say this without bastardising the second Earl of Northumberland? This assertion is a very sweeping one, and I have sought in vain for the statement said to be made by all heralds.
G.
Shape of Coffins.—It would be interesting to ascertain in what localities any peculiar form of coffin is used?
In Devonshire, particularly among the farmers and poorer classes, the ridged coffin is very general, the end being gabled. The top, instead of being flat with one board, is made of two boards, like the double roof of a house; in other respects the shape is of the common form. The idea is, that such coffins resist much longer the weight of the superincumbent earth; but there can be no doubt that it is a very ancient shape. Many years ago I heard that in some parish in this county the coffin was shaped like a flat-bottomed boat; the boat shape is known to have been an old form.
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George.
St. George Family Pictures.—In Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, vol. iii. p. 77., it is mentioned, with reference to the estate of Hatley St. George, in county of Cambridge, that, at the sale of the house in 1782, "The family pictures were removed to Mr. Pearce's house at Cople, Bedford." Can any one tell me if the family pictures here spoken of were those of the St. George family (which inhabited the house for six hundred years); and if so, what has become of them?
R. A. S. O.
Ceylon, June 11, 1853.
Caley (John), "Ecclesiastical Survey of the Possessions, &c. of the Bishop of St. David's," 8vo. 1812.—The above is said, in a bookseller's catalogue, to be privately printed. It is unknown to the bishop of the diocese and Mr. Black. Can any of your readers give any information about it?
JOHN MARTIN.
Froxfield.
Adamson's "Lusitania Illustrata."—Is there any prospect of Mr. Adamson continuing his Lusitania Illustrata? Could that accomplished Portuguese student kindly inform me if there is any better insight into Portuguese literature than that contained in Bouterweck's Geschichte der Poesie und Beredsamkeit?
W. M. M.
Blotting-paper.—When did blotting-paper first come into use. Carlyle, in his Life of Cromwell, twice repeats that it was not known in those days. Is not this a mistake? I have a piece which I am able to refer to 1670.
SPERIEND.
Poetical Versions of the Fragments in Athenaeus.—Can any of your correspondents inform me of the locus of any of these, in addition to Blackwood, xxxvi., and Fraser's Magazine?
P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.
* * * * *
Replies.
ROBERT DRURY.
(Vol. v., p. 533.; Vol. vii., p. 485.)
Under the conviction that Robert Drury was a real character, and his Madagascar a true narrative of his shipwreck, sufferings, and captivity, I crave your permission to give a few additional reasons why I think he should be discharged from the fictitious, and admitted into the catalogue of real and bona fide English travellers.
I have before stated that Drury did not skulk in the background when he published his book in 1727; but, on the contrary, invited the public to Tom's Coffee-house, where he engaged to satisfy the incredulous, and resolve the doubting. By the 3rd edition of Madagascar, 1743, it farther appears that he continued "for some years before his death" to resort to the above-named house; "at which place several inquisitive gentlemen received from his own mouth the confirmation of those particulars which seemed dubious, or carried with them the air of romance." The period was certainly unpropitious for any but a writer of fiction, and Drury seems to have anticipated no higher rank for his Treatise, in point of authenticity, than that occupied by the several members of the Robinson Crusoe school. He, however, positively affirms it to be "a plain honest narrative of the matter of fact;" which is endorsed in the following terms by "Capt. William Mackett:"
"This is to certify, that Robert Drury, fifteen years a slave in Madagascar, now living in London, was redeemed from thence and brought into England, his native country, by myself. I esteem him an honest industrious man, of good reputation, and do firmly believe that the account he gives of his strange and surprising adventures is genuine and authentic."
Mackett was a commander in the E. I. Comp. service; and the condenser of Drury's MSS., after showing the opportunities the Captain had of assuring himself upon the points he certifies to, characterises him as a well-known person, of the highest integrity and honour: a man, indeed, as unlikely to be imposed upon, as to be guilty of lending himself to others, to carry out a deception upon the public. {105}
Mr. Burton, in his lately published "Narratives," points out another source of information regarding Drury, in the Gent. Mag. for 1769, where will be found an account of W. Benbow; in this, allusion is made to his brother John Benbow, who was wrecked with Drury in the "Degrave" Indiaman, on Madagascar. W. D., who communicates the information to SYLVANUS URBAN, asserts that he recollects hearing the MS. Journal of this John Benbow read; and that it afforded to his mind a strong confirmation of the truthfulness of Drury's Madagascar. He adds the following curious particulars anent our subject:—"Robin Drury," he says, "among those who knew him (and he was known to many, being a porter at the East India House), had the character of a downright honest man, without any appearance of fraud or imposture. He was known to a friend of mine (now living), who frequently called upon him at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, which were not then enclosed. He tells me he has often seen him throw a javelin there, and strike a small mark at a surprising distance. It is a pity," he adds, "that this work of Drury's is not better known, and a new edition published[1] (it having been long out of print); as it contains much more particular and authentic accounts of that large and barbarous island, than any yet given; and, though it is true, it is in many respects as entertaining as Gulliver or Crusoe."
It may farther be mentioned that the French, who have a good acquaintance with Madagascar, "have found Drury's statement of the geography, the natural history, the manners of the people, and the conspicuous men of the time, in Madagascar, remarkably accurate." (Bib. Gen. des Voyages, Paris, 1808.) Archdeacon Wrangham says: "Duncombe (?) calls Drury's Madagascar the best and most genuine account ever given of the island;" and the missionary Ellis quoted Drury without the slightest suspicion that any doubt hangs over the genuineness of his narrative. Drury's account of himself runs thus:—"I, Robert Drury," he says, when commencing his book, "was born on July 24, 1687, in Crutched Friars, London, where my father then lived; but soon after removed to the Old Jury, near Cheapside, where he was well known, and esteemed for keeping that noted house called 'The King's Head,' or otherwise distinguished by the name of the Beef-stake House; and to which there was all my father's time a great resort of merchants, and gentlemen of the best rank and character." To this famous resort of the Revolutionary and Augustan ages I lately betook myself for my stake, in the hope that mine host might be found redolent of the traditional glory of his house. But alas! that worthy, although firmly believing in the antiquity of the King's Head, and of there being some book in existence that would prove it, could not say of his own knowledge whether the king originally complimented by his predecessor was Harry the Eighth or George the Fourth!
In conclusion, I would just add, is not the circumstance of our subject holding the humble post of porter at the East India House confirmatory of that part of his story which represents him as one of the crew of Hon. Company's ship "Degrave," whose wreck upon Madagascar I take to be an undoubted fact? What so probable as this recognition, in a small provision for a man in his old age, whose misfortunes commenced while in their service? Finally, to me the whole narrative of Robert Drury seems so probable, and so well vouched for, that I have given in my adhesion thereto by removing him to a higher shelf in my library than that occupied by such apocryphal persons as Crusoe, Quarle, Boyle, Falconer, and a host of the like.
J. O.
[Footnote 1: The editions of Madagascar known to me are those of 1727, 1731, and 1743, by the original publisher, Meadows, Hull, 1807, and London, 1826.]
* * * * *
THE TERMINATION -BY.
(Vol. vii., p. 536.)
I would suggest a doubt, whether the suffix -by, in the names of places, affords us any satisfactory evidence, per se, of their exclusively Danish origin. This termination is of no unfrequent occurrence in districts, both in this country and elsewhere, to which the Danes, properly so called, were either utter strangers, or wherein they at no time established any permanent footing. The truth is, there seems to be a fallacy in this Danish theory, in so far as it rests upon the testimony of language; for, upon investigation, we generally find that the word or phrase adduced in its support was one recognised, not in any single territory alone, but throughout the whole of Scandinavia, whose different tribes, amid some trifling variations of dialect, which can now be scarcely ascertained, were all of them as readily intelligible to one another as are, at this day, the inhabitants of two adjoining English counties. If this were so, it appears that, in the case before us, nothing can be proved from the existence of the expression, beyond the fact of its Norse origin; and our reasonable and natural course is, if we would arrive at its true signification, to refer at once to the parent tongue of the Scandinavian nations, spoken in common, and during a long-continued period, amid the snows of distant Iceland, on the mountains of Norway, the plains of Denmark, and in the forests of Sweden.
This ancient and widely-diffused language was the Icelandic, Norman, or Doensk tunga,—that in which were written the Eddas and Skalda, the {106} Njala and Heimskringla. In it we have the suffix by, under the forms of the verbs ek by, ek bio, or at bua, and ek byggi or byggia, manere, habitare, incolere, struere, edificare; also the nouns bu (Ang.-Sax. by, Dan. bo, by), domus, habitaculum; and bui, incola, colonus, vicinus; closely assimilated expressions all of them, in which the roots are found of our English words bide, abide, be, by (denoting proximity), build, borough, bury (Edmondsbury), barrow, byre, bower, abode, &c. Now, these explanations undoubtedly confirm the interpretation assigned by MR. E. S. TAYLOR to his terminating syllable; and it is probable enough that the villages to which he refers received their titles from the Danes, who, we know, on the subjugation of its former inhabitants, possessed themselves of the country in which they are situated. This, however, is a begging the question; for, resting simply on the evidence of the suffix, it is equally probable that these places preserved the names assigned to them by their former northern colonists. But our by or bua, Ang.-Sax. bugan and beon, and the Germ. (ich) bin and bauen, have all been referred by learned philologists to the Greek [Greek: phuo], or to [Greek: bioo], or to [Greek: pauo, pauomai]; and the word has affinities scattered throughout numerous languages (there are the Camb.-Brit. bydio, habitare, and byw, vivere, for instance), so that we are surrounded by difficulties, if we attempt to establish from its use any such point as that involved in your correspondent's Query.
COWGILL.
* * * * *
THE ROSICRUCIANS.
(Vol. vii., p. 619.)
When Pope, in dedicating his Rape of the Lock to Mrs. Arabella Fermor, was desirous of putting within the reach of that lady the information which MR. E. S. TAYLOR has sought through your pages, he wrote:
"The Rosicrucians are a people that I must bring you acquainted with. The best account of them I know is in a French book called Le Compte de Gabalis, which, both in its title and size, is so like a novel, that many of the fair sex have read it for one by mistake."—Dedicatory Letter to the Rape of the Lock.
This celebrated work was written by the Abbe Montfaucon de Villars, and published in 1670. "C'est une partie (says Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV.) de l'ancienne mythologie des Perses. L'auteur fut tue en 1675 d'un coup de pistolet. On dit que les sylphes l'avaient assassine pour avoir revele leurs mysteres." In 1680, an English translation appeared (penes me), entitled:
"The Count of Gabalis; or the Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists, exposed in Five Pleasant Discourses on the Secret Sciences. Done into English by P. A. (Peter Ayres), Gent., with short Animadversions. London printed for B. M., printer to the Royal Society of the Sages at the Signe of the Rosy Crusian."
The original French work went through several editions: my own copy bears the imprint of Amsterdam, 1715, and has appended to it La Suite du Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences secretes, touchant la nouvelle Philosophie," &c.
So much in deference to Pope,—whose only object, however, was to make Mrs. Fermor acquainted with so much of Rosicrucianism as was necessary to the comprehension of the machinery of his poem. MR. E. S. TAYLOR must go farther afield if he is desirous of "earning the vere adeptus," and becoming, like Butler's Ralpho—
For MYSTIC LEARNING wondrous able, In magic Talisman and Cabal, Whose primitive tradition reaches As far as ADAM'S first green breeches; Deep-sighted in INTELLIGENCES, IDEAS, ATOMS, INFLUENCES; And much of TERRA-INCOGNITA, Th' intelligible world could say; A deep OCCULT PHILOSOPHER, As learned as the wild Irish are, Or SIR AGRIPPA; for profound And solid lying much renowned. He ANTHROPOSOPHUS and FLUDD, And JACOB BEHMEN understood; Knew many an amulet and charm, That would do neither good nor harm; In ROSY-CRUCIAN lore as learned As he that vere adeptus earned." Hudibras, Part i. Canto 1.
These lines enumerate, in a scarcely satirical form, the objects and results of a study of Rosicrucianism, in so far as it differs from that of alchemy and the occult sciences. The history of the Rosicrucians,—or rather the inquiry as to whether actually existed at any time such a college or brotherhood, and, if so, to what degree of antiquity can it lay claim,—forms another and, perhaps, somewhat more profitable subject of attention. This question, however, having been fully discussed elsewhere, I will conclude by a catalogue raisonne of such books and essays (the most important of which are readily obtainable) as will enable your correspondent to acquire for himself the information he seeks.
Allgemeine und General Reformation der ganzen weiten Welt, beneben der Fama Fraternitatis, oder Enstehung der Bruederschaft des loeblichen Ordens des Rosenkreutzes, &c. 8vo. Cassel, 1614. [Ascribed to John Valentine Andrea. In this pamphlet occurs the first mention of the society; no allusion being made to it in the works of Bacon, Paracelsus, Agrippa, &c. It was republished at Frankfort in 1617 under a somewhat different title. Appended to it is a tract entitled "Sendbrieff, oder Bericht an Alle welche von den neuen Bruederschafft des Ordens von Rosen-Creutz genannt etwas gelesen," &c. This work contains a full account of the origin and tenets of the brotherhood, {107} and is the source whence modern writers have drawn their information. It called into existence a host of pamphlets for and against the very existence and tenets of the society.]
Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique, accompagnee d'un Catalogue raisonne des Ecrivains de cette Science, par l'Abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy. 3 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1742.
Theomagia, or the Temple of Wisdom, containing the Occult Powers of the Angels of Astromancy in the Telesmatical Sculpture of the Persians and Aegyptians; the knowledge of the Rosie-Crucian Physick, and the Miraculous in Nature, &c., by John Heydon. 8vo. 1664. [The works of this enthusiast are extremely curious and rare. He is also the author of the following.]
The Wiseman's Crowne, or the Glory of the Rosie-Cross, &c.; with the Regie Lucis, and Holy Household of Rosie-Crucian Philosophers. 8vo. 1664.
Elhavarevna, or the English Physitian's Tutor in the Astrabolismes of Mettals Rosie-Crucian, Miraculous Sapphiric Medicines of the Sun and Moon, &c., all Harmoniously United, and Operated by Astromancy and Geomancy, in so Easie a Method that a Fine Lady may practise and compleat Incredible, Extraordinary Telesmes (and read her Gallant's devices without disturbing her fancy), and cure all Diseases in Yong and Old, whereunto is added Psonthonphancia, &c. 8vo. 1665.
Dictionnaire Infernal; ou Repertoire des Etres, Apparitions de la Magique, des Sciences occultes, Impostures, &c., par Collin de Plancy. 8vo. Paris, 1844.
To render this list more complete, a great number may be added, the titles of which will be found in the following essays, from which much information on the subject will be gained:—
New Curiosities of Literature. By George Soane, B.A. 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1849. [In vol. ii. p. 135. is an able and interesting essay entitled "Rosicrucianism and Freemasonry," in which the author, with considerable success, endeavours to show that Rosicrucianism had no existence before the sixteenth century, and is a mere elaboration of Paracelsian doctrines: and that Freemasonry is nothing more than an offspring from it, and has, consequently, no claim to the antiquity of which it boasts.]
Swift's Tale of a Tub. [In Section X. of this wonderful book will be found a caustic piece of satire on the futility of the Rosicrucian philosophy.]
Butler's Hudibras. [Grey's notes to part I., passim.]
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions. By Charles Mackay, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. [In the section devoted to the Alchymists, is a carefully compiled account of the Rosicrucians.]
Chambers's Papers for the People, No. 33., vol. v., "Secret Societies of the Middle Ages."
Idem, No. 66., "Alchemy and the Alchemists."
The Guardian, No. 166.
The Spectator, No. 574.
Idem, No. 379. [This number contains Budgell's Legend of the Sepulchre of Rosicrucius.]
The Rosicrucian: a Novel. 3 vols. 8vo.
Zanoni. By Sir E. L. Bulwer.
After the slumber of a century, with new objects and regulations, Rosicrucianism (so to speak) was revived in the country of its birth.
A very curious volume was published fifty years ago, entitled Proofs of a Conspiracy against all the Religions and Governments of Europe, carried on in the secret meetings of Freemasons, Illuminati, and Reading Societies, by John Robinson, A.M., &c., 8vo., London, 1798. This volume is chiefly occupied by a history of the origin, proceedings, and objects of the Illuminati, a sect which had rendered important services to revolutionary interests, and laid the foundations of European propagandism. Much curious matter relative to this sect will also be found in George Sand's Comtesse de Rudolstadt, vol. ii.; upon, or just before, its extinction, a new political association was formed at Baden and Carlsruhe, under the auspices of Baron van Edelsheim, police minister of the Elector, under the title of Die Rosenkrietzer. This society was called into existence by a reactionary dread of that republicanism in politics, and atheism in morals, which seemed at that time to prey upon the vitals of European society. The society soon spread, and had its affiliations in various parts of Germany, giving such uneasiness to Buonaparte, to the accomplishment of whose projects it exercised an adverse influence, that he despatched a secret messenger for the purpose of obtaining information as to its projects and developments. He did everything in his power to destroy the association, which, however, survived, until his murder of Palm, the bookseller, for publishing the Geist der Zeit, seeming to call for a new and modified association, led to its extinction, and the creation of a new secret society, the celebrated Tungen-Bund, in its place.
It will be seen that in the foregoing I have confined myself to that part of your correspondent's Query which relates to "the Brethren of the Rosy-Cross." I have not ventured to allude to the Alchymists, or the writings of Paracelsus, his predecessors and followers, which form a library, and demand a catalogue for their mere enumeration. If MR. E. S. TAYLOR, however, is desirous of farther information, and will favour me with his address, I shall be happy to assist his researches in Hermetic philosophy to the extent of my ability.
WILLIAM BATES.
Birmingham.
The Society of Rosicrucians, or Rosecroix (whom Collier calls a sect of mountebanks), first started into existence in Germany in the seventeenth century. They laid claim to the possession of divers secrets, among which the philosopher's stone was the least. They never dared to appear publicly, and styled themselves The Invisible. {108}
In 1622 they put forth the following advertisement:
"We, deputed by our College, the principal of the brethren of the Rosicrucians, to make our visible and invisible abode in this city, through the grace of the Most High; towards whom are turned the hearts of the just: we teach without books or notes, and speak the languages of the countries wherever we are, to draw men like ourselves from the error of death."
The Illuminati of Spain were a branch of this sect. In 1615 one John Bringeret printed a work in Germany containing two treatises, entitled The Manifesto and Confession of Faith of the Fraternity of the Rosicrucians in Germany.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
* * * * *
INSCRIPTIONS ON BELLS.
(Vol. vi., p. 554. Vol. vii., p. 633.)
My note-book contains a considerable number of inscriptions on bells; some extracted from books, but others transcribed from the bells themselves. I send you a few of the most remarkable inscriptions, with one or two notes on the subject.
Chesterton, Cambridgeshire:
1. "God save the Church."
2. "Non sono animabus mortuorum, sed viventium."
S. Benet's, Cambridge (see Le-Keux' Memorials):
1. "Of all the bels in Bennet, I am the best, And yet for my casting the parish paid lest. 1607."
2. "Non nomen fero ficti, Sed nomen Benedicti. 1610."
3. "This bell was broke, and cast againe, by John Draper, in 1618, as plainly doth appeare: Churchwardens were, Edward Dixon, for one, who stood close to his tacklyn, and he that was his partner then, was Alexander Jacklyn."
Girton, Cambridgeshire:
"Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei."
Stoneleigh, Warwickshire:
1. "Michaele te pulsante Winchelcombe a petente daemone te libera.
2. "O Kenelme nos defende ne maligni sentiamus focula."
Eastry, Kent:
"One bell inscribed with the names of the churchwardens and the maker; a shilling of William III., and other coins are let into the rim."
Erith, Kent:
"A tablet in the belfry commemorates the ringing of a peal of 726 changes in twenty-six minutes."
S. Clement, Sandwich, Kent:
"In the ringing chamber of this noble tower is a windlass for lowering the bells in case of repairs becoming necessary, with a trap-door in the floor opening into the church."
S. Mary, Sandwich, Kent:
"This bel was bought and steeple built, A.D. 1718. J. Bradley, R. Harvey, Ch. wardens. R. P. F."
S. Andrew, Histon, Camb.:
"Coins of Queen Anne in the rim of one bell; but dated 1723."
S. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster (Weever, Fur. Mon., p. 491., edit. fol. 1631):
"King Edward the Third built in the little sanctuarie a clochard of stone and timber, and placed therein three bells, for the vse of Saint Stephen's Chappel. About the biggest bell was engrauen, or cast in the metall, these words:
'King Edward made mee thirtie thousand weight and three: Take mee downe and wey mee, and more you shall fynd mee.'
But these bells being to be taken downe, in the raigne of King Henry the Eight, one writes vnderneath with a coal:
'But Henry the Eight will bait me of my weight.'"
If any farther extracts may interest you, they are very much at your service.
W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.
* * * * *
WAS COOK THE DISCOVERER OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS?
(Vol. viii., p. 6.)
MR. WARDEN will find this question discussed by La Perouse (English 8vo. edit., vol. ii. ch. 6.), who concludes unhesitatingly that the Sandwich group is identical with a cluster of islands discovered by the Spanish navigator Gaetan in 1542, and by him named "The King's Islands." These the Spaniard placed in the tenth, although the Sandwich Islands are near the twentieth, degree of north latitude, which La Perouse believed was a mere clerical error. The difference in longitude, sixteen or seventeen degrees, he ascribed to the imperfect means of determination possessed by the early navigators, and to their ignorance of the currents of the Pacific.
Allowing for the mistake in latitude, the King's Islands are evidently the same as those found on some old charts, about the nineteenth and twentieth degrees of north latitude, under the names of La Mesa, Los Mayos, and La Disgraciada; which Capt. Dixon, as well as La Perouse, sought for in vain in the longitude assigned to them. They appear to have been introduced into the {109} English and French charts from that found in the galleon taken by Commodore Anson, and of which a copy is given in the account of his voyage. Cook, or Lieutenant Roberts, the compiler of the charts to his third voyage, retained them; and La Perouse was the first to erase them from the map. There can, indeed, be little doubt of their identity with the Sandwich Islands. But although Cook was not actually the first European who had visited those islands, to him rightly belongs all the glory of their discovery. Forgotten by the Spaniards, misplaced on the chart a thousand miles too far to the eastward, and unapproached for 240 years, their existence utterly unknown and unsuspected, Cook was, to all intents and purposes, their real discoverer.
C. E. BAGOT.
Dublin.
* * * * *
MEGATHERIUM AMERICANUM.
(Vol. vii., p. 590.)
Is not the cast of a skeleton in the British Museum, recently alluded to by A FOREIGN SURGEON, and which is labelled Megatherium Americanum Blume., better known to English naturalists by its more correct designation of Mylodon robustus Owen; and if so, why is the proper appellation not painted on the label? If that had been done, A Foreign Surgeon would not have fallen into the error of confounding the remains of two distinctly different animals.
Might I beg leave to add, for the information of your correspondent, that no British naturalist "of any mark or likelihood," has ever assumed that (though undoubtedly sloths) either the Mylodon, Scelidotherium, or Megatherium, were climbers. Indeed, the whole osseous structure of those animals proves that they were formed to uprend the trees that gave them sustenance. By no other hypothesis can we intelligibly account for the immense expanse of pelvis, the great bulk of hind-legs, the solid tail, the massive anterior limbs furnished with such powerful claws, and the extraordinary large spinal chord—all these the characteristic features of the Mylodon.
Whether there were palms or not at the period of the telluric formation, I cannot undertake to say; but as A FOREIGN SURGEON assumes that a palm is an exogenous tree (!), I am induced to suspect that his acquaintance with geology may be equally as limited as his knowledge of botany. Besides, what can he mean by speaking of a sloth "the size of a large bear?" Why, the Mylodon must have been larger than a rhinoceros or hippopotamus. The veriest tyro in natural history would see that at the first glance of the massive skeleton.
It is a painful and ungracious task to have to pen these observations, especially, too, in the case of a stranger. But "N. & Q." must not be made a channel for erroneous statements, and we "natives and to the manner born" must be allowed to know best what is in our own museums.
W. PINKERTON.
Ham.
* * * * *
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Stereoscopic Angles.—Like many of your correspondents, I have been an inquirer on the subject of stereoscopic angles, which seems to be still a problem for solution. What is this problem? for until that be known, we cannot hope for a solution. I would ask, is it this?—Stereoscopic pictures should create in the mind precisely such a conception as the two eyes would if viewing the object represented by the stereograph. If this be the problem (and I cannot conceive otherwise), its solution is simple enough, as it consists in placing the cameras invariably 2-1/2 inches apart, on a line parallel to the building, or a plane passing through such a figure as a statue, &c. In this mode of treatment we should have two pictures possessing like stereosity with those on the retinas, and consequently with like result and as our eyes enable us to conceive perfectly of any solid figure, so would the stereograph. I believe, therefore, that this is, under every circumstance, the correct treatment; simply because every other mode may be proved to be false to nature.
Professor Wheatstone recommends 1 in 25 when objects are more than 50 feet distant, and this rule seems to be pretty generally followed. Its incorrectness admits of easy demonstration. Suppose a wall 300 feet in extent, with abutments, each two feet in front, and projecting two feet from the wall, at intervals of five feet. The proper distance from the observer ought to be 450 feet, which, agreeably with this rule, would require a space of 18 feet between the cameras. Under this treatment the result would be, that both of the sides, as well as the fronts, of the three central abutments would be seen; whilst of all the rest, only the front and one side would be visible. This would be outraging nature, and false, and therefore should, I believe, be rejected. The eyes of an observer situated midway between the cameras, could not possibly perceive either of the sides of the buttress opposite to him, and only the side next to him of the rest. This seems to me conclusive.
Again, your correspondent [Phi]. (Vol. vii., p. 16.) says, that for portraits he finds 1 in 10 a good rule. Let the sitter hold, straight from the front, i.e. in the centre, a box 2-1/2 inches in width. The result would be, that in the stereographs the box would have both its sides represented, and the front, instead of being horizontal, consisting of two inclined lines, i.e. unless the cameras were {110} placed on one line, when it would be horizontal. In such treatment the departure from both is as great as in the first example, and the outrage greater, inasmuch as, under these circumstances (I mean a boy with a box), to any person of common sense, the caricature would be at a glance obvious. This rule, then, although it produces stereosity enough, being false, should also be rejected.
I believe that 2-1/2 inches will be found to be right under any circumstance; but should sufficient reasons be offered for a better rule, I trust I am open to conviction, and shall hail with great pleasure a demonstration of its correctness.
Should it, however, turn out that I have given a right definition, and a correct solution of this most interesting problem, I shall rejoice to know that I have rendered an essential service to a great number of anxious students in photography.
T. L. MERRITT.
Maidstone.
Yellow Bottles for Photographic Chemicals.—The proposal of your correspondent CERIDWEN to employ yellow glass bottles for preventing the decomposition of photographic solutions has been anticipated. It was suggested by me, in some lectures on Photography in November 1847, and in January of the present year, that yellow bottles might be so used, as well as for preventing the decomposition, by light, of the vegetable substances used in pharmacy, such as digitalis, ipecacuanha, cinchona, &c. For solutions of silver, however, the most effectual remedy against precipitation is the use of very pure water, procured by slow redistillation in glass vessels at a temperature much below the boiling point.
HUGH OWEN.
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
Earth upon Earth, &c.—I think the information which has been elicited in connexion with the so-called "Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott," "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 498., sufficiently curious to justify an additional reference to the sentiment in question; the more so as I have to mention the name of its putative author. In Montgomery's Christian Poet, 3rd edit. p. 58., he gives, under the title of "Earth upon Earth," five verses, which it would appear are substantially the same as those published by Weaver (whose Funeral Monuments, his only publication, I have not within reach), but they exhibit considerable verbal difference in the verses corresponding with those cited in "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 576. Montgomery tells us in a note that this extract, given under the name of William Billyng, along with another from a poem entitled "The Five Wounds of Christ," by the same author, were from "a manuscript on parchment of great antiquity, in possession of William Bateman, Esq.," of which a few copies had been printed at Manchester, and "accompanied by rude but exceedingly curious cuts." Now who was William Billyng? And when did he live? Montgomery says "the age of this author is well known." The death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom Weaver (Fun. Mon. 1631) applies the Stratford epigraph, is temp. Edward III. Is Mr. Bateman's MS. in a hand indicating so early a date?
J. H.
Picalyly (Vol. viii., p. 8.).—In Barnaby Rich's Honestie of this Age, p. 37. of the Percy Society reprint, we find this passage:
"But he that some fortie or fifty yeares sithens should haue asked after a Pickadilly, I wonder who could haue understood him, or could haue told what a Pickadilly had beene, either fish or flesh."
Little did the writer think that in future years the name would become a "household word;" though his prophecy as to the meaning of the word has been fulfilled by the appearance of the Query in the pages of "N. & Q."
The editor of the work, Mr. Peter Cunningham, has a long note on the above passage; and I am indebted to him for the following.
"Ben Jonson (Works by Gifford, viii. 370.) speaks of a picardill as a new cut of band much in fashion:
'Ready to cast at one whose band stands still, And then leap mad on a neat picardill.'
"But Middleton, The World tost at Tennis, 1620, speaks of a pickadill in connexion with the shears, the needle, &c. of the tailor; from which it appears to have been an instrument used for plaiting the picked vandyke collar worn in those days.
"Mr. Gifford, in a note on another passage in Ben Jonson, says:
'Picardil is simply a diminutive of picca (Span. and Ital.), a spear-head; and was given to this article of foppery from a fancied resemblance of its stiffened plaits to the bristled points of these weapons. Blount thinks, and apparently with justice, that Picadilly took its name frown the sale of the 'small stiff collars so called,' which was first set on foot in a house near the western [eastern] extremity of the present street by one Higgins, a tailor.'"
The bands worn by the clergy and judges, &c., at the present day, are lineal descendants of the old picadils, reduced to a more sober cut; and the picked ornament alluded to by your correspondent no doubt derived its name from its resemblance in shape to these tokens of ancient fashion.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Mr. Justice Newton (Vol. vii., pp. 528. 600.; Vol. viii., p. 15.).—I did not answer MR. F. KYFFIN LENTHALL'S first Query, because it was {111} palpable, from the context, that the "Mr. Justice Newton" he inquired after could not possibly be the Chief Justice who flourished in the fifteenth century; and because I am not aware of any judge of the superior courts of that name, during the time of the Commonwealth, or the years which immediately preceded or followed that period. Indeed, his designation as "Mr. Justice Newton, of the Middle Temple," plainly proves that he could not have been a judge upon the Bench at Westminster. He may perhaps have been a Welsh judge; or, remembering that "Mr. Justice" was the common title for a Justice of the Peace, it is still more probable that he was merely a magistrate of the county in which he resided.
EDWARD FOSS.
Manners of the Irish (Vol. viii., p. 5.).—In the very curious extract given by your correspondent H., boyranne is very likely to stand for borbhan, the Irish for "lamentation" or "complaint." An Irish landlord knows full well that, even up to the present day, his tenants "keep the bread, and make borbhan." Molchan, I suspect, comes from miolc, whey. Localran stands for loisgrean, corn turned out of the ear. As to the concluding line of the extract, I must leave it to some better Irish scholar than I can boast myself.
"I am the geyest mayed of all that brought the somer houme,"
plainly has reference to the old practice, still prevalent in some parts of Ireland on May-day, when young girls carry about a figure dressed as a baby, singing the Irish song, [Irish: thugamar fein an samhra linn], "We have brought the summer with us" (See Transactions of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society). Ultagh (Ultach) is Irish for an Ulster man, as H. will see by consulting any Irish dictionary, and can have no connexion with Utlagh, the Kilkenny money-lender. Ugteller is of course a misprint for Kyteller. Would that H. would give us his real name and address, or at least allow me to ask whether H. F. H. do not constitute his initials in full.
JAMES GRAVES.
Kilkenny.
Arms of the See of York (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—I was about to send a note to "N. & Q.," pointing out that Mr. Knight, in his heraldic illustrations to 2 Hen. IV., in his Pictorial Edition of Shakspeare, has given the modern bearings of the see of York to Archbishop Scroope, instead of those which belonged to that date, when I observed a Query from TEE BEE, asking the date and origin of the change of arms which took place. I am sorry that I am unable to give any authority for my statement, but I believe it to be not the less true, that the change in question took place when Cardinal Wolsey came to the see. Nor can I give any farther reason for that change than the notorious jealousy of the Cardinal towards the superior rank of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Up to this period the arms of the two sees were precisely the same, though TEE BEE gives the number of crosses "patee fitchee" on the pall for difference; I should be glad to know whether there is good authority for this statement. The present arms of the see evidently have reference to the dedication of the ancient cathedral church to St. Peter.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
"Up, Guards, and at 'em!" (Vol. v., p. 426.).—These oft-quoted words have already engaged the attention of the readers of "N. & Q." Your frequent correspondent C. (Vol. v., p. 426.) is of opinion that the Duke did make use of these, or equivalent, words. The following extract I have copied from an article in the June number of Bentley's Miscellany. It will be found at p. 700. as a foot-note to a clever article, one of a series, entitled "Random Recollections of Campaigns under the Duke of Wellington," written by an officer of the second brigade of Guards.
"The expression attributed to the Duke of 'Up, guards, and at them again!' I have good reason for knowing was never made use of by him. He was not even with the brigade of Guards in question at the time they rose from their recumbent position to attack the French column in their front, and therefore could not well have thus addressed them. I never heard this story till long after, on my return to England, when it was related by a lady at a dinner-table; probably it was the invention of some goodly Botherby. I remember denying my belief at the time, and my view has since been sufficiently confirmed. Besides, the words bear no internal evidence of the style either of thought or even expression of him to whom they were attributed."
The invention of the goodly Botherby has prospered!
CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.
Coleridge's Christabel—The 3rd Part (Vol. viii., pp. 11, 12.).—MR. J. S. WARDEN asks if I am correct in stating the 3rd part of Christabel to be the composition of Dr. Maginn. I can but "give my authority" in a reference to a sketch of Maginn's life, in a new and well-conducted periodical, The Irish Quarterly Review, which, in the number for September, 1852, after giving a most humorous account of a first interview between Blackwood and his wild Irish contributor, who had for more than a year been mystifying the editor by contributions under various signatures, proceeds thus:— |
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