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

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{213}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

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

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No. 201.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3. 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page "That Swinney" 213

Monumental Inscription in Peterborough Cathedral, by Thos. Wake 215

FOLK LORE:—Superstition of the Cornish Miners— Northamptonshire Folk Lore 215

Shakspeare Correspondence 216

MINOR NOTES:—Lemon-juice administered in Gout and Rheumatism—Weather Proverbs—Dog Latin—Thomas Wright of Durham—A Funeral Custom 217

QUERIES:—

Littlecott—Sir John Popham, by Edward Foss 218

Early Edition of the New Testament, by A. Boardman 219

MINOR QUERIES:—Ravilliac—Emblem on a Chimney-piece— "To know ourselves diseased," &c.—"Paetus and Arria"—Heraldic Query—Lord Chancellor Steele—"A Tub to the Whale"—Legitimation (Scotland)— "Vaut mieux," &c.—Shakspeare First Folio— The Staffordshire Knot—Sir Thomas Elyot— "Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c.—The Bargain Cup— School-Libraries.—Queen Elizabeth and her "true" Looking-glass—Bishop Thomas Wilson— Bishop Wilson's Works—Hobbes, Portrait of 219

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Brasenose, Oxford— G. Downing—Unkid—Pilgrim's Progress—John Frewen—Histories of Literature—"Mrs. Shaw's Tombstone" 221

REPLIES:—

Cranmer and Calvin, by the Rev. H. Walter 222

Barnacles, by Sir J. E. Tennent and T. J. Buckton 223

Dial Inscriptions, by Cuthbert Bede, B.A. 224

The "Saltpeter Maker" 225

Tsar, by T. J. Buckton, &c. 226

"Land of Green Ginger," by John Richardson and T. J. Buckton 227

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Stereoscopic Angles— Protonitrate of Iron—Photographs in natural Colours—Photographs by artificial Lights 227

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Vandyke in America— Title wanted: Choirochorographia—Second Growth of Grass—Snail-eating—Sotades—The Letter "h" in "humble"—Lord North—Singing Psalms and Politics—Dimidiation by Impalement—"Inter cuncta micans," &c.—Marriage Service—Widowed Wife—Pure—Mrs. Tighe—Satirical Medal—"They shot him dead at the Nine-Stone Rig"—Hendericus du Booys: Helena Leonore de Sieveri—House-marks, &c.—"Qui facit per alium, facit per se"— Engin-a-verge—Campvere, Privileges of—Humbug: Ambages—"Going to Old Weston"—Reynolds's Nephew—The Laird of Brodie—Mulciber—Voiding Knife—Sir John Vanbrugh—Portrait of Charles I.— Burial in an erect Posture—Strut-Stowers and Yeathers or Yadders—Arms of the See of York— Leman Family—Position of Font 228

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Notes on Books, &c. 234

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 234

Notices to Correspondents 234

Advertisements 235

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Notes.

"THAT SWINNEY."

Junius thus wrote to H. S. Woodfall in a private note, to which Dr. Good has affixed the date July 21st, 1769 (vol. i. p. 174.*)

"That Swinney is a wretched but dangerous fool. He had the impudence to go to Lord G. Sackville, whom he had never spoken to, and to ask him whether or no he was the author of Junius: take care of him."

This paragraph has given rise to a great deal of speculation, large inferences have been drawn from it, yet no one has satisfactorily answered the question, who was "that Swinney?"

That neither Dr. Good nor Mr. George Woodfall, the editors of the edit. of 1812, knew anything about him, is manifest from their own bald note of explanation, "A correspondent of the printers." Some reports say that he was a collector of news for the Public Advertiser, and subsequently a bookseller at Birmingham, but I never saw any one fact adduced tending to show that there was any person of that name so employed. Others that the Rev. Dr. Sidney Swinney was the party referred to: and Mr. Smith, in his excellent notes to the Grenville Papers, vol. iii. p. lxviii., assumes this to be the fact. I incline to agree with him, but have only inference to strengthen conjecture. What may be the value of that inference will appear in the progress of this inquiry, Who was Dr. Sidney Swinney?

Reports collected by Mr. Butler, Mr. Barker, Mr. Coventry, and others, say that the Doctor had been chaplain to the Russian Embassy, chaplain to the Embassy at Constantinople, and chaplain to one of the British regiments serving in Germany. Mr. Falconer, in his Secret Revealed, p. 22., quotes a paragraph from one of Wray's letters to Lord Hardwick with reference to the proceedings at the Royal Society:

"Dr. Swinney, your Lordship's friend, presented his father-in-law Howell's book."

Swinney's father-in-law, here called Howell, was John Zephaniah Holwell, a remarkable man, whose name is intimately associated with the early history of British India, one of the few survivors of the Black Hole imprisonment, the successor of {214} Clive as governor, and a writer on many subjects connected with Hindoo antiquities. Swinney enrols him amongst his heroes,

"Holwell, Clive, York, Lawrence, Adams, Coote, Of Draper, Bath-strung for his baffled suit."

And he refers, in a note, to those

"Ungrateful monsters (heretofore in a certain trading company), who have endeavoured to vilify and sully one of the brightest characters that ever existed."

I learn farther, from a volume of Fugitive Pieces, published by Dr. Swinney, that he was the son of Major Mathew Swinney, whom after his flourishing fashion he calls on another occasion "Mathew Swinney of immortal memory;" from one of his dedications that the Doctor himself was educated at Eton; from the books of the Royal Society that he was of Clare Hall, Cambridge; from dates and dedications, that from 1764 to 1768, he was generally resident at Scarborough; and from the Gentleman's Magazine, that he died there 12th November, 1783.

That Swinney had been chaplain to the Russian Embassy I have no reason to believe; but that he had been in the East for a time, possibly as chaplain to the Embassy at Constantinople, is asserted in the brief biographical notice in the Gentleman's Magazine, and would seem to be proved by a work which he published in 1769, called—

"A Tour through some parts of the Levant: in which is included An Account of the Present State of the Seven Churches in Asia. Also a brief Explanation of the Apocalypse. By Sidney Swinney, D.D."

Nothing, however, can be inferred from a title-page of Swinney's. Here we have two or three distinct works referred to:—A Tour, including "An Account of the Seven Churches," and the "Explanation of the Apocalypse." Now I must direct attention to the fact, that from the peculiar punctuation and phraseology—the full-stop after Asia in this title-page—it may have been Swinney's intention to indicate, without asserting, that the Account of the Apocalypse only was by Sidney Swinney. If so, though Swinney's name alone figures in the title-page of the work, he is responsible only for one or two notes!

I would not have written conjecturally on this subject if I could have avoided it; but though Swinney was a F.A.S. F.R.S., and though the work is dedicated to the Fellows of those Societies, no copy of it is to be found in the libraries of either, or in the British Museum. I cannot, therefore, be sure that my own copy is perfect. What that copy contains is thus set forth in half a dozen lines of introduction:

"Before I [S. S.] enter upon the more important part of my dissertation [The Explanation of the Apocalypse], it may not be improper to give you some account of the present state of the Seven Churches in Asia, as they are, which was communicated to me by a certain friend of mine, in the description of a short tour which he made through the principal parts of the Levant: should they be accompanied with a few casual notes of my own, I trust the work will not be less acceptable to you on that account."

It must be obvious, after this declaration, that the Tour set forth so conspicuously in the title-page, was not written by Swinney. Now the "Itinerary" which follows is advowedly "wrote by the author of the preceding account," and this brings the reader and the work itself to "The End!"

The truth I suspect to have been this:—Swinney was not prudent and was poor, and raised money occasionally, after the miserable fashion of the time, by publishing books on subscription, and receiving subscriptions in anticipation of publication.

About this time, from 1767 to 1769, he published a Sermon; The Ninth Satire of Horace, a meaningless trifle of a hundred lines, swollen, by printing the original and notes, into a quarto; a volume of Fugitive Pieces; and the first canto of The Battle of Minden, a Poem in three Books, enriched with critical Notes by Two Friends, and with explanatory Notes by the Author. Of the latter work, as of the Tour, I have never seen but one copy, a splendid specimen of typography, splendidly bound, containing the first and second canto. Whether the third canto was ever published is to me doubtful; some of your correspondents may be able to give you information. My own impression is that it was not, and for the following reasons.

Swinney, it appears, had received subscriptions for the work, and promised in his prospectus a plan of the battle, and portraits of the heroes, which the work does not contain. "However, to make some little amends" to his "generous subscribers," Swinney announces his intention to present them with "three books instead of one."

The first book is dedicated to Earl Waldegrave, who commanded "the six British regiments of infantry" on the "ever memorable 1st August, 1759," and a note affixed states that "Book the Second" will be published on 1st January, and "Book the Third" on 1st of August.

But the public, as Swinney says, were kept "in suspense" almost three years for the second book, which was not published until 1772; and in the dedication of this second book, also to Earl Waldegrave, Swinney says:

"Doubtless many of my subscribers have thought me very unmindful of the promise I made them in my printed proposal, in which I undertook to publish my poem out of hand. Ill health has been the sole cause of my disappointing their expectations. A fever of the nerves ... for these four years, has rendered me incapable.... In my original proposals I undertook to publish this work in two books. [In the introduction he says, as I have just quoted, one book.] Poetical {215} matter hath increased upon me to such a degree, in the genial climate of Languedoc, as to have enabled me to compose several more books on this interesting subject, all which I purpose presenting my subscribers with at the original price of half a guinea.... Many months ago this Second Book was printed off; but on my arrival in town from Montauban (whither I purpose to return), I found there were so many faults and blunders in it throughout, that I was under the necessity of condemning five hundred copies to the inglorious purpose of defending pye bottoms from the dust of an oven.... Profit, my Lord, has not been my motive for publishing: if it had, I should be egregiously disappointed, for instead of gaining I shall be a considerable loser by the publication; and yet many of my subscribers have given me four, five, and six times over and above the subscription-price for my Poem. How even the remaining books will see the light must depend entirely upon my pecuniary, not my poetical abilities. The work is well nigh completed; but not one solitary brother have I throughout the airy regions of Grub Street who is poorer than I. It is not impossible, however, but when some of my partial friends shall know this, they may enable me by their bounty to publish out of hand."

This leads me to doubt whether the third book was ever published, for I think the most "partial" of his friends—those who had given "four, five, and six times over and above the subscription price"—must have had enough in two books. If it were not published, it is a curious fact that, in a poem called The Battle of Minden, the battle of Minden is not mentioned; though not more extraordinary perhaps than the omissions of the "Explanation of the Apocalypse" in his previous work.

I come now to the question, Why did Junius speak so passionately and disrespectfully of Swinney, and what are the probabilities that Swinney had never before (July) 1769 spoken to Lord G. Sackville? These I must defer till next week.

T. S. J.

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MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION IN PETERBOROUGH CATHEDRAL.

The following Notes occur on a fly-leaf at the end of a copy of Gunton's History of Peterborough Cathedral, and appear to have been written soon after that book was printed:

"Among other things omitted in this history, I cannot but take notice of one ancient inscription upon a tomb in y^e body of the church, written in old Saxon letters, as followeth:

[Cross] 'WS : KI : PAR : CI : PASSEZ : PVR : LE : ALME : ESTRAVNGE : DE : WATERVILLE : PRIEZ.'

"This inscription may seem to challenge some relation to William de Waterville, one of the abbots of this church. (See p. 23.)"

"On Sennour Gascelin de Marrham's tomb, mentioned p. 94., these letters seem to be still legible:

'CI : GIST : EDOVN : GASCELIN : SENNOVR : DE MARRHAM : IADIS : DE : RI : ALM.. ^{DI} EV EST MERCIS : PATER : NOSTER.'"

"In St. Oswald's Chapel, on y^e ground round the verge of a stone:

'HIC IACET COR.... ROBERTI DE SVTTON ABBATIS ISTIVS MONASTERII CVIVS ANIMA REQVIESCAT IN PACE. AMEN.'"

"In y^e churchyard is this inscription:

[Cross] 'ANA IOANNIS DE SCO IVONE QVOĀ P[IO]RIS PMA Ā M DIIII PACE REQVIESCAT. AMEN.'

"This may probably relate to Ivo, sub-prior of this monastery, whose anniversary was observed in y^e Kalends of March. (See page 324. of this book.)"

"In y^e churchyard:

'Joannes Pocklington, S. S. Theologiae doctor, obiit Nov. 14, A. D^i. 1642.'

'Anne Pocklington, 1655.'

'Mary, y^e wife of John Towers, late Lord Bp. of Peterborough, dyed Nov. 14, A.D. 1672.'

'Quod mori potuit praestantissimae foeminae Compton Emery Filiae Joannis Towers S. T. P. Hujus Ecclesiae quondam Episcopi Viduae Roberti Rowell LL. D. Nec non charissimae conjugis Richardi Emery Gen: In hoc tumulo depositum: Feb. 4. A^o AEtatis 54, A^o Domini 1683.'"

A marginal note states that "The Chapter-house and Cloyster sold in 1650 for 800l., to John Baker, Gent., of London."

H. THOS. WAKE.

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FOLK LORE.

Superstition of the Cornish Miners (Vol. viii., p. 7.).—I cannot find the information desired by your correspondent in the Cornish antiquaries, and have in vain consulted other works likely to explain this tradition; but the remarks now offered will perhaps be interesting in reference to the nation alluded to. The Carthaginians being of the same race, manners, and religion as the Phoenicians, there are no particular data by which we can ascertain the time of their first trading to the British coast for the commodity in such request among the traders of the East. The genius of Carthage being more martial than that of Tyre, whose object was more commerce than conquest, it is not improbable that the former might by force of arms have established a settlement in the Cassiterides, and by this means have secured that monopoly of tin which the Phoenicians and their colonies indubitably enjoyed for several centuries. Norden, in his Antiquities of Cornwall, mentions it as a tradition universally received by the inhabitants, that their tin mines were formerly wrought by the Jews. He adds that these old works are there at this day called Attal Sarasin, the ancient {216} cast-off works of the Saracens, in which their tools are frequently found. Miners are not accustomed to be very accurate in distinguishing traders of foreign nations, and these Jews and Saracens have probably a reference to the old merchants from Spain and Africa; and those employed by them might possibly have been Jews escaped the horrors of captivity and the desolation which about that period befel their country.

"The Jews," says Whitaker (Origin of Arianism, p. 334.), "denominated themselves, and were denominated by the Britons of Cornwall, Saracens, as the genuine progeny of Sarah. The same name, no doubt, carried the same reference with it as borne by the genuine, and as usurped by the spurious, offspring of Abraham."

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

Northamptonshire Folk Lore (Vol. vii., p. 146.).—In Norfolk, a ring made from nine sixpences freely given by persons of the opposite sex is considered a charm against epilepsy. I have seen nine sixpences brought to a silversmith, with a request that he would make them into a ring; but 131/2d. was not tendered to him for making, nor do I think that any threehalfpences are collected for payment. After the patient had left the shop, the silversmith informed me that such requests were of frequent occurrence, and that he supplied the patients with thick silver rings, but never took the trouble to manufacture them from the sixpences.

A similar superstition supposes that the sole of the left shoe of a person of the same age, but opposite sex, to the patient, reduced to ashes is a cure for St. Anthony's fire. I have seen it applied with success, but suppose its efficacy is due to some astringent principle in the ashes.

E. G. R.

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SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

On Two Passages in Shakspeare.—Taking up a day or two since a Number of "N. & Q.," my attention was drawn to a new attempt to give a solution of the difficulty which has been the torment of commentators in the following passage from the Third Act of Romeo and Juliet:

"Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, Towards Phoebus' mansion; such a waggoner As Phaeton would whip you to the West, And bring in cloudy night immediately.— Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night, That runaways' eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

"Runaways'" being a manifest absurdity, the recent editors have substituted "unawares," an uncouth alteration, which, though it has a glimmering of sense, appears to me almost as absurd as the word it supplies. In this dilemma your correspondent MR. SINGER ingeniously suggests the true reading to be,—

"That rumourers' eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

No doubt this is a felicitous emendation, though I think it may be fairly objected that a rumourer, being one who deals in what he hears, as opposed to an observer, who reports what he sees, there is a certain inappropriateness in speaking of a rumourer's eyes. Be this as it may, I beg to suggest another reading, which has the merit of having spontaneously occurred to me on seeing the word "runaways'" in your correspondent's paper, as if obviously suggested by the combination of letters in that word. I propose that the passage should be read thus:

"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night, That rude day's eyes may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

A subsequent reference to Juliet's speech has left no doubt in my mind that this is the true reading, and so obviously so, as to make it a wonder that it should have been overlooked. She first asks the "fiery-footed steeds" to bring in "cloudy night," then night to close her curtain (that day's eyes may wink), that darkness may come, under cover of which Romeo may hasten to her. In the next two lines she shows why this darkness is propitious, and then, using an unwonted epithet, invokes night to give her the opportunity of darkness:

"Come, civil night, Thou sober suited matron all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning game," &c.

The peculiar and unusual epithet "civil," here applied to night, at once assured me of the accuracy of the proposed reading, it having evidently suggested itself as the antithesis of "rude" just before applied to day; the civil, accommodating, concealing night being thus contrasted with the unaccommodating, revealing day. It is to be remarked, moreover, that as this epithet civil is, through its ordinary signification, brought into connexion with what precedes it, so is it, through its unusual meaning of grave, brought into connexion with what follows, it thus furnishing that equivocation of sense of which our great dramatist is so fond, rarely missing an opportunity of "paltering with us in a double sense."

I think, therefore, I may venture to offer you the proposed emendation as rigorously fulfilling all the requirements of the text, while at the same time it necessitates a very trifling literal disturbance of the old reading, since by the simple change of the letters naw into ded, we convert "runaways'" into "rude day's," of which it was a very easy misprint.

Having offered you an emendation of my own, I cannot miss the opportunity of sending you {217} another, for which I am indebted to a critical student of Shakspeare, my friend Mr. W. R. Grove, the Queen's Counsel. In All's Well that ends Well, the third scene of the Second Act opens with the following speech from Lafeu:

"They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar things, supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves in a seeming knowledge when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear."

On reading this passage as thus printed, it will be seen that the two sentences of which it is composed are in direct contradiction to each other; the first asserting that we have philosophers who give a causeless and supernatural character to things ordinary and familiar: the second stating as the result of this, "that we make trifles of terrors," whereas the tendency would necessarily be to make "terrors of trifles." The confusion arises from the careless pointing of the first sentence. By simply shifting the comma at present after "things," and placing it after "familiar," the discrepancy between the two sentences disappears, as also between the two members of the first sentence, which are now at variance. It should be pointed thus:

"They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless."

It is singular that none of the editors should have noticed this defect, which I have no doubt will hereafter be removed by the adoption of a simple change, that very happily illustrates the importance of correct punctuation.

R. H. C.

Shakspeare's Skull.—As your publication has been the medium of many valuable comments upon Shakspeare, and interesting matter connected with him, I am induced to solicit information, if you will allow me, on the following subject. I have the Works of Shakspeare, which being in one volume 8vo., I value as being more portable than any other edition. It was published by Sherwood without any date affixed, but probably about 1825. There is a memoir prefixed by Wm. Harvey, Esq., in which, p. xiii., it is stated that while a vault was being made close to Shakspeare's, when Dr. Davenport was rector, a young man perceiving the tomb of Shakspeare open, introduced himself so far within the vault that he could have brought away the skull, but he was deterred from doing so by the anathema inscribed on the monument, of—

"Curs'd be he that moves my bones."

This is given upon the authority of Dr. Nathan Drake's work on Shakspeare, in two vols. 4to. Now in this work much is given which is copied into the memoir, but I do not there find this anecdote, and perhaps some reader of "N. & Q." may supply this deficiency, and state where I may find it. I may be allowed to state, that Pope's skull was similarly stolen and another substituted.

I annex Wheler's remark that no violation of the grave had, up to the time of his work, taken place.

"Through a lapse of nearly two hundred years have his ashes remained undisturbed, and it is to be hoped no sacrilegious hand will ever be found to violate the sacred repository."—History of Stratford-upon-Avon, by R. B. Wheler (circa 1805?), 8vo.

A SUBSCRIBER.

On a Passage in "Macbeth."—MR. SINGLETON (Vol. vii., p. 404.) says, "Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself," is nonsense—the thing is impossible; and proposes that "vaulting ambition" should "rest his hand upon the pommel, and o'erleap the saddle (sell)," a thing not uncommon in the feats of horsemanship.

Did MR. SINGLETON never o'erleap himself, and be too late—later than himself intended? Did he never, in his younger days, amuse himself with a soprasalto; or with what Donne calls a "vaulter's sombersault?" Did he never hear of any little plunderer, climbing a wall, o'erreaching himself to pluck an apple, and falling on the other side, into the hands of the gardener? "By like," says Sir Thomas More, "the manne there overshotte himself."

What was the manne about? Attempting such a perilous gambol, perhaps, as correcting Shakspeare.

To {overleap, overreach, overshoot} himself are merely, to {leap, reach, shoot}, over or beyond the mark himself intended.

Q.

Bloomsbury.

P.S.—MR. ARROWSMITH reminds us of the old saw, that "great wits jump." He should recollect also that they sometimes nod.

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Minor Notes.

Lemon-juice administered in Gout and Rheumatism.—At a time when lemon-juice seems to be frequently administered in gout and rheumatism, as though it were an entirely new remedy, I have been somewhat amused at the following passage, which may also interest some of your readers; it occurs in Scelta di Lettere Familiari degli Autori piu celebri ad uso degli studiosi della lingua Italiana, p. 36., in a letter "Di Don Francesco a Teodoro Villa":

"Io non posso star meglio di quel che sto, e forse perche uso di spesso il bagno freddo, e beo limonata a pranzo e a cena da molti mesi. Questa e la mia quotidiana bevanda, e dacche mi ci sono messo, m' ha fatto un bene che non si puo dire. Di quelle doglie di capo, {218} che un tempo mi sconquassavano le tempie, non ne sento piu una. Le vertigini, che un tratto mi favorivano si di spesso, se ne sono ite. Sino un reumatismo, che m' aveva afferrato per un braccio, s' e dileguato, cosi ch'io farei ora alla lotta col piu valente marinaro calabrese che sia. L' appetito mio pizzica del vorace. Che buona cosa il sugo d' un limone spremato nell' acqua, e indolciato con un po' di zucchero! Fa di provarlo, Teodoro. Chi sa che non assesti il capo e lo stomaco auche a te."

S. G. C.

Weather Proverbs.—Are these proverbs worth recording?

"Rain before seven, fine before eleven."

"A mackerel sky and mare's tails, Make lofty ships carry low sails."

"If the rain comes before the wind, Lower your topsails and take them in: If the wind comes before the rain, Lower your topsails and hoist them again."

The expressions in the latter two are maritime, and the rhymes not very choice; but they hold equally in terrestrial matters, and I have seldom found them wrong.

RUBI.

Dog Latin.—The answer of one of your late correspondents (E. M. B., Vol. vii., p. 622.) on the subject of "Latin—Latiner," has revived a Query in your First Volume (p. 230.) as to the origin of this expression which does not appear to have been answered. I do not remember having seen any explanation of the term, but I have arrived at one for myself, and present it to your readers for what it is worth. Nothing, it must be admitted, can be more inconsistent with the usual forms of language than the Latin of mediaeval periods; it is often, in fact, not Latin at all, but merely a Latin form given to simple English or other words, and admitting of the greatest variety. Now of all animals the distinctions of breed are perhaps more numerous in the canine race than any other. The word "mongrel," originally applied to one of these quadruped combinations of variety, has long been used to signify anything in which mixture of class existed, especially of a debasing kind, to which such mixture generally tends. Nothing could be more appropriate than the application of the term to the "infima latinitas" of the Middle Ages; and from "mongrel" the transition to the name of the genus from that of the degenerate species appears to me to be very easy, though fanciful.

J. B—T.

Thomas Wright of Durham.—In the Philosophical Magazine for April, 1848, I gave an account of the "Original Theory or new Hypothesis of the Universe" of Thomas Wright, whose anticipations of modern speculation on the milky way, the central sun, and some other points, make him one of the most remarkable astronomical thinkers of his day. In the biography in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1793, he is described as struggling for a livelihood when a young man, and no account is given of the manner in which he obtained the handsome competence with which he emerges in 1756, or thereabouts. A few days after my account was published, I was informed (by Captain James, R.E.) that a large four-foot orrery, constructed by Wright for the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, was still in that town; and that by the title of "J. Harrises Use of the Globes" it appears that he (Wright) kept his shop at the Orrery, near Water Lane, Fleet Street (No. 136), under the title of instrument-maker to his Majesty. In an edition of Harris (the 8th, 1767), which I lately met with, the above is described as "late the shop of Thomas Wright," &c. By the advertisements which this work contains, Wright must have had an extensive business as a philosophical instrument-maker. The omission in the biography is a strange one. Possibly some farther information may fall in the way of some of your readers.

A. DE MORGAN.

A Funeral Custom.—At Broadwas, Worcestershire, in the valley of the Teame, it is the custom at funerals, on reaching "the Church Walk," for the bearers to set down the coffin, and, as they stand around, to bow to it.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.

* * * * *

Queries.

LITTLECOTT—SIR JOHN POPHAM.

Every one knows the tradition attached to the manor of Littlecott in Wiltshire, and the alleged means by which Chief Justice Sir John Popham acquired its possession. It is told by Aubrey, Sir Walter Scott, and many others, and is too notorious to be here repeated. Let me ask you or your learned correspondents whether there exists any refutation of a charge so seriously detrimental to the character of any judge, and so inconsistent with the reputation which Chief Justice Popham enjoyed among his cotemporaries? See Lord Ellesmere's notice of him in the case of the Postnati (State Trials, ii. 669.), and Sir Edward Coke's flattering picture of him at the end of Sir Drew Drury's case (Reports, vi. 75.). Are there any records showing that a Darell was ever in fact arraigned on a charge of murder, and the name of the judge who presided at the trial? Is the date known of the death of the last Darell who possessed the estate, or that of Sir John Popham's acquisition of it? The discovery of these might throw great light on the subject, and possibly afford a complete contradiction.

Sir Francis Bacon, in his argument against Sir John Hollis and others for traducing public justice, states that—

"Popham, a great judge in his time, was complained of by petition to Queen Elizabeth; it was committed {219} to four privy councillors, but the same was found to be slanderous, and the parties punished in the court."—State Trials, vol. ii. p. 1029.

If this petition could be discovered, and it should turn out that the slander complained of in it had reference to this story, the investigation which it then underwent by the four privy councillors, and the chief justice's enjoyment of his high office for so many subsequent years, would go far to prove the utter falsehood of the charge. This is a "consummation devoutly to be wished" by every one who feels an interest in the purity of the bench, and particularly by the present possessors of the estate, who must be anxious for their ancestor's fame.

Your useful publication has acted the part of the "detective police" in the elucidation of many points of history less interesting than this, and I trust you will consider the case curious enough to justify a close examination.

EDWARD FOSS.

* * * * *

EARLY EDITION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

I should be greatly obliged if I could obtain through "N. & Q." when, where, and by whom an imperfect black-letter copy of the New Testament, lately come into my possession, was printed, and also who was the translator of it.

It is bound in boards, has three thongs round which the sheets are stitched, seems never to have been covered with cloth, leather, or other material like our modern books, has had clasps, and is four inches long and two inches thick.

The chapters are divided generally into four or five parts by means of the first letters of the alphabet. The letters are neither placed equidistant, nor do they always mark a fresh paragraph.

It is not divided into verses. There are a few marginal references, and the chapter and letter of the parallel passages are given.

Crosses are placed at the heads of most chapters, and also throughout the text, without much apparent regularity. It contains a few rude cuts of the Apostles, &c. The Epistles of St. Peter and St. John are placed before that to the Hebrews.

Letters are frequently omitted in the spelling, and this is indicated by a dash placed over the one preceding the omitted letter. A slanting mark (/) is the most frequent stop used. I will transcribe a few lines exactly as they occur, only not using the black-letter.

"B. As some spake of the temple/ howe yt was garnesshed with goodly stones and iewels he sayde. The dayes will come/ when of these thyngis which ye se shall not be lefte stone upon stone/ that shall not be throwen doune. And they asked hym sayinge/ Master whē shall these thynges be? And what sygnes wil there be/ when suche thynges shal come to passe."—St. Luke, ch. xxi.

Land is spelt londe; saints, sainctis; authority, auctorite, &c.

A. BOARDMAN.

P.S. It commences at the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, and seems perfect to the 21st chapter of Revelation.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

Ravilliac.—I have read that a pyramid was erected at Paris upon the murder of Henry IV. by Ravilliac, and that the inscription represented the Jesuits as men—

"Maleficae superstitonis, quorum instinctu peculiaris adolescens (Ravilliac) dirum facinus instituerat."—Thesaur. Hist., tom. iv. lib. 95, ad ann. 1598.

We are also informed that he confessed that it was the book of Mariana the Jesuit, and the traitorous positions maintained in it, which induced him to murder the king, for which cause the book (condemned by the parliament and the Sorbonne) was publicly burnt in Paris. Is the pyramid still remaining? If not, when was it taken down or destroyed, and by whom or by whose authority?

CLERICUS (D).

Emblem on a Chimney-piece.—In the committee room of the Church Missionary Society, Nos. 16. and 17. Upper Sackville Street, Dublin, a curious emblem-picture is carved on the centre of the white marble chimney-piece. An angel or winged youth is sleeping in a recumbent posture; one arm embraces a sleeping lion, in the other hand he holds a number of bell flowers. In the opposite angle the sun shines brightly; a lizard is biting the heel of the sleeping youth. I shall not offer my own conjectures in explanation of this allegorical sculpture, unless your correspondents fail to give a more satisfactory solution.

ATH CELIATH.

"To know ourselves diseased," &c.—

"To know ourselves diseased, is half the cure."

Whence?

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

"Paetus and Arria."—Can you inform me who is the author of Paetus and Arria, a Tragedy, 8vo., 1809?

In Genest's Account of the English Stage, this play is said to be written by a gentleman of the University of Cambridge. Can you tell me whether this is likely to be W. Smyth, the late Professor of Modern History in that university, who died in June, 1849?

GW.

Heraldic Query.—A. was killed in open rebellion. His son B. lived in retirement under a fictitious name. The grandson C. retained the assumed name, and obtained new arms. Query, {220} Can the descendants of C. resume the arms of A.? If so, must they substitute them for the arms of C., or bear them quarterly, and in which quarters?

FRANCIS P.

Lord Chancellor Steele.—Is any pedigree of William Steele, Esq., Lord Chancellor of Ireland temp. Commonwealth, extant; and do any of his descendants exist?

It is believed he was nearly related to Captain Steel, governor of Beeston Castle, who suffered death by military execution in 1643 on a charge of cowardice.

STATFOLD.

"A Tub to the Whale."—What is the origin of this phrase?

PIMLICO.

Legitimation (Scotland).—Perhaps some of your Scotch readers "learned in the law" would obligingly answer the subjoined Queries, referring to some decisions.

1. Will entail property go to a bastard, legitimated before the Union under the great seal (by the law of Scotland)?

2. Will titles and dignities descend?

3. Will armorial bearings?

M. M.

Inner Temple.

"Vaut mieux," &c.—The proverb "Vaut mieux avoir affaire a Dieu qu'a ses saints" has a Latin origin. What is it?

M.

Shakspeare First Folio.—Is there any obtainable edition of Shakspeare which follows, or fully contains, the first folio?

M.

The Staffordshire Knot.—Can any of your readers give the history of the Staffordshire knot, traced on the carriages and trucks of the North Staffordshire Railway Company?

T. P.

Sir Thomas Elyot.—I shall be extremely obliged by a reference to any sources of information respecting Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight, living in the time of Henry VIII., son of Sir Richard Elyot, Knight, of Suffolk.

I shall be glad also to know whether a short work (among others of his in my possession) entitled The Defence of good Women, printed in London by Thomas Berthelet, 1545, is at all a rare book?

H. C. K.

"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c.—

"Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentes, Sub pedibus cernens, et caeca tonitrua calcans."

Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found? They appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.

J. P. A.

The Bargain Cup.—Can the old English custom of drinking together upon the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era? Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his Mysteries (London, 1634), says:

"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie vsed in striking of couenants."

This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom, which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I should like confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an ancestry so remote.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

School-Libraries.—I am desirous of ascertaining whether any of our public schools possess any libraries for the general reading of the scholars, in which I do not include mere school-books of Latin, Greek, &c., which, I presume, they all possess, but such as travels, biographies, &c.

Boys fresh from these schools appear generally to know nothing of general reading, and from the slight information I have, I fear there is nothing in the way of a library in any of them. If not, it is, I should think, a very melancholy fact, and one that deserves a little attention: but if any of your obliging correspondents can tell me what public school possesses such a thing, and the facilities allowed for reading in the school, I shall take it as a favour.

WELD TAYLOR.

Bayswater.

Queen Elizabeth and her "true" Looking-glass.—An anecdote is current of Queen Elizabeth having in her later days, if not during her last illness, called for a true looking-glass, having for a long time previously made use of one that was in some manner purposely falsified.

What is the original source of the story? or at least what is the authority to which its circulation is mainly due? An answer from some of your correspondents to one or other of these questions would greatly oblige

VERONICA.

Bishop Thomas Wilson.—In Thoresby's Diary, A.D. 1720, April 17 (vol. ii. p. 289.), is the following entry:

"Easter Sunday ... after evening prayers supped at cousin Wilson's with the Bishop of Man's son."

Was there any relationship, and what, between this "cousin Wilson," and the bishop's son, Dr. Thomas Wilson? I should be glad of any information bearing on any or on all these subjects.

WILLIAM DENTON.

Bishop Wilson's Works.—The REV. JOHN KEBLE, Hursley, near Winchester, being engaged in writing the life and editing the works of Bishop Wilson (Sodor and Man), would feel obliged by {221} the communication of any letters, sermons, or other writings of the bishop, or by reference to any incidents not to be found in printed accounts of his life.

Hobbes, Portrait of.—In the Memoirs of T. Hobbes, it is stated that a portrait of him was painted in 1669 for Cosmo de Medici.

I have a fine half-length portrait of him, on the back of which is the following inscription:

"Thomas Hobbes, aet. 81. 1669. J^{os}. Wick Wrilps, Londiensis, Pictor Caroli 2^{di}. R. pinx^t."

Is this painter the same as John Wycke, who died in 1702, but who is not, I think, known as a portrait painter?

Can any of your readers inform me whether a portrait of Hobbes is now in the galleries at Florence, and, if so, by whom it was painted? It is possible that mine is a duplicate of the picture which was painted for the Grand Duke.

W. C. TREVELYAN.

Wallington.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

Brasenose, Oxford.—I am anxious to learn the origin and meaning of the word Brasenose. I have somewhere heard or read (though I cannot recall where) that it was a Saxon word, brasen haus or "brewing-house;" and that the college was called by this name, because it was built on the site of the brewing-house of King Alfred. All that Ingram says on the subject is this:

"This curious appellation, which, whatever was the origin of it, has been perpetuated by the symbol of a brazen nose here and at Stamford, occurs with the modern orthography, but in one undivided word, so early as 1278, in an Inquisition, now printed in the Hundred Rolls, though quoted by Wood from the manuscript record."—See his Memorials of Oxford.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Our correspondent will find the notice of King Alfred's brew-house in the review of Ingram's Memorials in the British Critic, vol. xxiv. p. 139. The writer says, "There is a spot in the centre of the city where Alfred is said to have lived, and which may be called the native place or river-head of three separate societies still existing, University, Oriel, and Brasenose. Brasenose claims his palace, Oriel his church, and University his school or academy. Of these Brasenose College is still called, in its formal style, 'the King's Hall,' which is the name by which Alfred himself, in his laws, calls his palace; and it has its present singular name from a corruption of brasinium, or brasin-huse, as having been originally located in that part of the royal mansion which was devoted to the then important accommodation of a brew-house." Churton, in his Life of Bishop Smyth, p. 277., thus accounts for the origin of the word:—"Brasen Nose Hall, as the Oxford antiquary has shown, may be traced as far back as the time of Henry III., about the middle of the thirteenth century; and early in the succeeding reign, 6th Edward I., 1278, it was known by the name of Brasen Nose Hall, which peculiar name was undoubtedly owing, as the same author observes, to the circumstance of a nose of brass affixed to the gate. It is presumed, however, this conspicuous appendage of the portal was not formed of the mixed metal, which the word now denotes, but the genuine produce of the mine; as is the nose, or rather face, of a lion or leopard still remaining at Stamford, which also gave name to the edifice it adorned. And hence, when Henry VIII. debased the coin, by an alloy of copper, it was a common remark or proverb, that 'Testons were gone to Oxford, to study in Brasen Nose.'"]

G. Downing.—Can any one point out to me a biography of G. Downing, or at least indicate a work where the dates of the birth and death of this celebrated statesman may be found? He was English ambassador in the Hague previous to and in the year 1664, and to him Downing Street in London owes its name. A very speedy answer would be most welcome.—From the Navorscher.

A. T. C.

[In Pepys's Diary, vol. i. p. 2. edit. 1848, occurs the following notice of Sir George Downing:—"Wood has misled us in stating that Sir George Downing was a son of Dr. Calibut Downing, the rector of Hackney. He was beyond doubt the son of Emmanuel Downing, a London merchant, who went to New England. It is not improbable that Emmanuel was a near kinsman of Calibut; how related has not yet been discovered. Governor Hutchinson, in his History of Massachusetts, gives the true account of Downing's affiliation, which has been farther confirmed by Mr. Savage, of Boston, from the public records of New England. Wood calls Downing a sider with all times and changes; skilled in the common cant, and a preacher occasionally. He was sent by Cromwell to Holland, as resident there. About the Restoration, he espoused the King's cause, and was knighted and elected M. P. for Morpeth, in 1661. Afterwards, becoming Secretary to the Treasury and Commissioner of the Customs, he was in 1663 created a Baronet of East Hatley, in Cambridgeshire, and was again sent ambassador to Holland. His grandson of the same name, who died in 1749, was the founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The title became extinct in 1764, upon the decease of Sir John Gerrard Downing, the last heir male of the family." According to Hutchinson, Sir George died in 1684.]

Unkid.—Can any of your readers inform me as to the derivation of this word, or give any instance of its recent use? I have frequently heard it in my childhood (the early part of the present century) among the rural population of Oxon and Berks. It was generally applied to circumstances of a melancholy or distressing character, but sometimes used to express a peculiar state of feeling, being apparently intended to convey nearly the same meaning as the ennui of the French. I {222} recollect an allusion to the phrase somewhere in Miss Mitford's writings, who speaks of it as peculiar to Berks; but as I was then ignorant of Captain Cuttle's maxim, I did not "make a note of it," so that I am unable to lay my hand on the passage.

G. T.

Reading.

[Mr. Sternberg also found this word in Northamptonshire: for in his valuable work on The Dialect and Folk Lore of that county occurs the following derivation of it:—"UNKED, HUNKID, s. lonely, dull, miserable. 'I was so unked when ye war away.' 'A unked house,' &c. Mr. Bosworth gives, as the derivative, the A.-S. uncyd, solitary, without speech. In Batchelor's List of Bedfordshire Words, it is spelt ungkid."]

Pilgrim's Progress.—The common editions contain a third part, setting forth the life of Tender-conscience: this third part is thought not to have been written by Bunyan, and is omitted from some, at least, of the modern editions. Can any of your readers explain by whom this addition was made, and all about it? The subject of the Pilgrim's Progress generally—the stories of a similar kind which are said to have preceded—especially in Catholic times—the history of its editions and annotations, would give some interesting columns.

M.

[Mr. George Offor, in his Introduction to The Pilgrim's Progress, published by the Hanserd Knollys Society in 1847, notices the third part as a forgery:—"In a very few years after Bunyan's death, this third part made its appearance; and although the title does not directly say that it was written by Bunyan, yet it was at first generally received as such. In 1695, it reached a second edition; and a sixth in 1705. In 1708, it was denounced in the title to the ninth edition of the second part, by a 'Note, the third part, suggested to be J. Bunyan's, is an imposture.' The author of this forgery is as yet unknown." Mr. Offor has also devoted fifty pages of his Introduction to the conjectured prototypes of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. He says, "Every assertion or suggestion that came to my knowledge has been investigated, and the works referred to have been analysed. And beyond this, every allegorical work that could be found, previous to the eighteenth century, has been examined in all the European languages, and the result is a perfect demonstration of the complete originality of Bunyan."]

John Frewen.—What is known of this divine? He was minister at Northiam in Sussex in 1611; and published, the following year, a small volume of Sermons, bearing reference to some quarrel between himself and parishioners. Are these Sermons rare? Any particulars would be acceptable.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

[Accepted Frewen, Archbishop of York, was the eldest son of John Frewen, "the puritanical Rector of Northiam," as Wood calls him, and indeed his name carries a symbol of his father's sanctity. Wood has given a few particulars of John, who, he says, "was a learned divine, and frequent preacher of the time, and wrote, 1. Fruitful Instructions and Necessary Doctrine, to edify in the Fear of God, &c., 1587. 2. Fruitful Instructions for the General Cause of Reformation, against the Slanders of the Pope and League, &c., 1589. 3. Certain Choice Grounds and Principles of our Christian Religion, with their several Expositions, by Way of Questions and Answers, &c., 1621, and other things. He died in 1627 (about the latter end), and was buried in Northiam Church, leaving then behind these sons, viz. Accepted, Thankful, Stephen, Joseph, Benjamin, Thomas, Samuel, John, &c., which John seems to have succeeded his father in the Rectory of Northiam; but whether the said father was educated at Oxford, I cannot tell."]

Histories of Literature.—Can any correspondent inform me of the best, or one or two principal Histories of Literature, published in the English language, with the names of the author and publisher; as well as, if possible, the size and price?

ILMONASTERIENSIS.

[Our correspondent cannot do better than procure Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, 3 vols. 8vo. (36s.). He may also consult with advantage Dr. Maitland's Dark Ages, which illustrates the state of religion and literature from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, 8vo., 12s. and Berrington's Literary History of the Middle Ages, 3s. 6d.]

"Mrs. Shaw's Tombstone."—In Leigh's Observations (London, 1660) are several quotations from a work entitled Mrs. Shaw's Tombstone. Where may a copy of this be seen?

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

[Mrs. Dorothy Shaw's Tombstone, or the Saint's Remains, 1658, may be seen in the British Museum, Press-mark, 1418. i. 41.]

* * * * *

Replies.

CRANMER AND CALVIN.

(Vol. viii., p. 182.)

A correspondent who seems to delight in sibilants, signing, himself S. Z. Z. S., invites me to "preserve, in your columns, the letter of Calvin to Cranmer, of which Dean Jenkyns has only given extracts," as noticed by me in your Vol. vii., p. 621.

I would not shrink from the trouble of transcribing the whole letter, if a complete copy were only to be found in the short-lived columns of a newspaper, as inserted in the Record of May 15, 1843, by Merle d'Aubigne; but the Dean has given a reference to the volume in which both the letters he cites are preserved and accessible, viz. Calvin Epistles, pp. 134, 135., Genev. 1616. {223}

S. Z. Z. S. justly observes that there are two points to be distinguished: first, Cranmer's wish that Calvin should assist in a general union of the churches protesting against Romish errors; second, Calvin's offer to assist in settling the Church of England. He adds, "The latter was declined; and the reason is demonstrated in Archbishop Laurence's Bampton Lectures." I neither possess those lectures, nor the volume of Calvin's epistles; but all I have seen of the correspondence between him and Cranmer, in the Parker Society's editions of Cranmer, and of original letters between 1537-58, and in Jenkyns' Remains of Cranmer, indisposes me to believe that Calvin made any "offer to assist in settling the Church of England." It appears from Dean Jenkyns' note, vol. i. p. 346., that Archbishop Laurence made a mistake in the order of the correspondence, calculated to mislead himself; and as to Heylyn's assertion, Eccles. Restaur., p. 65., that Calvin made such an offer and "that the Archbishop (Cranmer) knew the man and refused his offer," the Dean says:

"He gives no authority for the later part of his statement, and it can hardly be reconciled with Cranmer's letter to Calvin of March 20, 1552."

The contemptuous expression, he "knew the man and refused his offer," is, in fact, utterly irreconcilable with Cranmer's language in all his three letters to Melancthon, to Bullinger, and to Calvin (Nos. 296, 297, 298. of Parker Society's edition of Cranmer's Remains, and Nos. 283, 284, 285. of Jenkyns' edition), where he tells each of the other two that he had written to Calvin from his desire—

"Ut in Anglia, aut alibi, doctissimorum et optimorum virorum synodus convocaretur, in qua de puritate ecclesiasticae doctrinae, et praecipue de consensu controversiae sacramentariae tractaretur."

Or, as he said to Calvin himself:

"Ut docti et pii viri, qui alios antecellunt eruditione et judicio, convenirent."

Your correspondent seems to have used the word "demonstrated" rather in a surgical than in its mathematical sense.

Having taken up my pen to supply you with an answer to this historical inquiry, I may as well notice some other articles in your No. 199. For example, in p. 167., L. need not have referred your readers to Halliwell's Researches in Archaic Language for an explanation of Bacon's word "bullaces." The word may be seen in Johnson's Dictionary, with the citation from Bacon, and instead of vaguely calling it "a small black and tartish plum," your botanical readers know it as the Prunus insititia.

Again, p. 173., J. M. may like to know farther, that the Duke of Wellington's clerical brother was entered on the boards of St. John's College, Cambridge, as Wesley, where the spelling must have been dictated either by himself, or by the person authorised to desire his admission. It continued to be spelt Wesley in the Cambridge annual calendars as late as 1808, but was altered in that of 1809 to Wellesley. The alteration was probably made by the desire of the family, and without communicating such desire to the registrary of the university. For it appears in the edition of Graduati Cantabrigienses, printed in 1823, as follows:

"Wesley, Gerard Valerian, Coll. Joh. A. M. 1792. Comitis de Mornington, Fil. nat. 4^{tus}."

In p. 173., C. M. INGLEBY may like to know, as a clue to the origin of his apussee and, that I was taught at school, sixty years ago, to call & And per se, whilst some would call it And-per-se-and.

In the same page, the inquirer B. H. C. respecting the word mammon, may like to know that the history of that word has been given at some length in p. 1. to p. 68. of the Parker Society's edition of Tyndale's Parable of the wicked Mammon, where I have stated that it occurs in a form identical with the English in the Chaldee Targum of Onkelos on Exod. viii. 21., and in that of Jonathan on Judges, v. 9., as equivalent to riches; and that in the Syriac translation it occurs in a form identical with [Greek: Mamona], in Exod. xxi. 30., as a rendering for [Hebrew: KholamPsegolR], the price of satisfaction. In B. H. C.'s citation from Barnes, even seems a misprint for ever. The Jews did not again fall into actual idolatry after the Babylonish captivity; but we are told that in the sight of God covetousness is idolatry.

HENRY WALTER.

Hasilbury Bryan.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 124.)

A Querist quoting from Porta's Natural Magic the vulgar error that "not only in Scotland, but in the river Thames, there is a kind of shell-fish which get out of their shells and grow to be ducks, or such like birds," asks, what could give rise to such an absurd belief? Your correspondent quotes from the English translation of the Magia Naturalis, A.D. 1658; but the tradition is very ancient, Porta the author having died in 1515 A.D. You still find an allusion in Hudibras to those—

"Who from the most refin'd of saints, As naturally grow miscreants, As barnacles turn Soland geese, In th' islands of the Orcades."

The story has its origin in the peculiar formation of the little mollusc which inhabits the multivalve shell, the Pentalasmis anatifera, which by a fleshy peduncle attaches itself by one end to the bottoms of ships or floating timber, whilst from the other {224} there protrudes a bunch of curling and fringe-like cirrhi, by the agitation of which it attracts and collects its food. These cirrhi so much resemble feathers, as to have suggested the leading idea of a bird's tail: and hence the construction of the remainder of the fable, which is thus given with grave minuteness in The Herbal, or General Historie of Plants, gathered by John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgerie: London, 1597:

"What our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, we shall declare. There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders, wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by shipwreck; and also the trunks or bodies, with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there likewise, whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of a mussel, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is contained a thing in form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together, of a whitish colour; one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are; the other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which in time cometh to the shape and form of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out and as it groweth greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come forth, and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it cometh to full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers, and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose; having black legs, and a bill or beak, and feathers black and white, spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in some places a Pie-Annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjacent, do so much abound therewith, that one of the best may be bought for threepence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repair unto me, and I shall satisfy them by the testimony of credible witnesses."—Page 1391.

Gerarde, who is doubtless Butler's authority, says elsewhere, that "in the north parts of Scotland, and the islands called Orcades," there are certain trees whereon these tree-geese and barnacles abound.

The conversion of the fish into a bird, however fabulous, would be scarcely more astonishing than the metamorphosis which it actually undergoes—the young of the little animal having no feature to identify it with its final development. In its early stage (I quote from Carpenter's Physiology, vol. i. p. 52.) it has a form not unlike that of the crab, "possessing eyes and powers of free motion; but afterwards, becoming fixed to one spot for the remainder of its life, it loses its eyes and forms a shell, which, though composed of various pieces, has nothing in common with the jointed shell of the crab."

Though Porta wrote at Naples, the story has reference to Scotland; and the tradition is evidently northern, and local. As to SPERIEND's Query, What could give rise to so absurd a story? it doubtless took its origin in the similarity of the tentacles of the fish to feathers of a bird. But I would add the farther Query, whether the ready acceptance and general credence given to so obvious a fable, may not have been derived from giving too literal a construction to the text of the passage in the first chapter of Genesis:

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and the fowl that may fly in the open firmament of heaven?"

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

Drayton (1613) in his Poly-olbion, iii., in connexion with the river Dee, speaks of—

"Th' anatomised fish, and fowls from planchers sprung,"

to which a note is appended in Southey's edition, p. 609., that such fowls were "barnacles, a bird breeding upon old ships." In the Entertaining Library, "Habits of Birds," pp. 363-379., the whole story of this extraordinary instance of ignorance in natural history is amply developed. The barnacle shells which I once saw in a sea-port, attached to a vessel just arrived from the Mediterranean, had the brilliant appearance, at a distance, of flowers in bloom[1]; the foot of the Lepas anatifera (Linnaeus) appearing to me like the stalk of a plant growing from the ship's side: the shell had the semblance of a calyx, and the flower consisted of the fingers (tentacula) of the shell-fish, "of which twelve project in an elegant curve, and are used by it for making prey of small fish." The very ancient error was to mistake the foot of the shell-fish for the neck of a goose, the shell for its head, and the tentacula for a tuft of feathers. As to the body, non est inventus. The Barnacle Goose is a well-known bird: and these shell-fish, bearing, as seen out of the water, resemblance to the goose's neck, were ignorantly, and without investigation, confounded with geese themselves, an error into which Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) did not fall, and in which Pope Pius II. proved himself infallible. Nevertheless, in France, the Barnacle Goose may be eaten on fast-days by virtue of this old belief in its marine origin.

T. J. BUCKTON

[Footnote 1: See Penny Cycl., art. CIRRIPEDA, vii. 208., reversing the woodcut.]

* * * * *

DIAL INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. iv., p. 507. Vol. v., p. 155., &c.)

In the churchyard of Areley-Kings, Worcestershire (where is the singular memorial to Sir Harry Coningsby, which I mentioned at Vol. vi., {225} p. 406.), is a curious dial, the pillar supporting which has its four sides carved with figures of Time and Death, &c., and the following inscriptions.

On the south side, where is the figure of Time:

Consider

"Aspice—ut aspicias."

"Time's glass and scythe Thy life and death declare, Spend well thy time, and For thy end prepare."

"O man, now or never While there is time, turn unto the Lord, And put not off from day to day."

On the north side, where is the figure of Death standing upon a dead body, with his dart, hour-glass, and spade:

"Three things there be in very deede, Which make my heart in grief to bleede: The first doth vex my very heart, In that from hence I must departe; The second grieves me now and then, That I must die, but know not when; The third with tears bedews my face, That I must die, nor know the place.

I. W. fecit, Anno Dmi. 1687."

"Behold my killing dart and delving spade; Prepare for death before thy grave be made; for After death there's no hope."

"If a man die he shall live again. All the days of my appointed time Will I wait till my days come."—Job xiv. 14.

"The death of saints is precious, And miserable is the death of sinners."

The east side of the pillar has the following:

"Si vis ingredi in vitam, Serve mandata."

"Judgments are prepared for sinners."—Prov. xiv. 9.

And on the west:

"Sol non occidat Super iracundiam vestram."

"Whatsoever ye would that men Should do unto you, Do ye even so unto them."

I subjoin a few other dial inscriptions, copied from churches in Worcestershire.

Kidderminster (parish church):

"None but a villain will deface me."

Himbleton (over the porch):

"Via Vitae."

Bromsgrove:

"We shall ——" (i.e. we shall die-all).

Shrawley:

"Ab hoc nomento pendet aeternitas."

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

* * * * *

THE "SALTPETER MAKER."

(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460. 530.)

The following humble petition will give an idea of the arbitrary power exercised by the "Saltpeter maker" in the days of Good Queen Bess; and of the useful monopoly that functionary contrived to make of his employment, in defiance of county government:

"Righte honorable, our humble dewties to yo^r good Lordshippe premised, maye it please the same to be advertised, that at the Quarter sessions holden at Newarke within this countie of Nottingham, There was a generall Complaynte made unto us by the Whole Countrie, that one John Ffoxe, saltpeter maker, had charged the Whole Countrie by his precepts for the Caryinge of Cole from Selsonn, in the Countie of Nottingham, unto the towne of Newarke w^{th}in the same countie; beinge sixteene myles distante for the makeinge of saltpeter, some townes w^{th} five Cariages and some w^{th} lesse, or els to geve him foure shillinges for everie Loade, whereof he hath Recyved a great parte. Uppon w^{ch} Complaynte we called the same Ffoxe before some of us at Newarke at the Sessions, there to answere the premisses, and also to make us a propcīon what Loades of Coales would serve to make a thowsand of saltpeter, To thend we might have sett some order for the preparing of the same: But the said Ffoxe will not sett downe anie rate what would serve for the makeinge of a Thowsande. Therefore we have thoughte good to advertise your good Lordshippe of the premisses, and have appoynted the clarke of the peace of this countie of Nottingham to attend yo^r good Lordshippe to know yo^r Lordshippes pleasure about the same, who can further informe yo^r good Lordshippe of the particularities thereof, if it shall please yo^r good Lordshippe to geve him hearings, And so most humblie take our Leaves, Newarke, the viij^{th} of Octob^r, 1589.

"Your L^{pp} most humblie to Comaunde,

RO. MARKHAM, WILLIAM SUTTON, R[=AU]F BARTON, 1589, N[=IH]S ROOS, BRIAN LASSELS, JOHN THORNHAGH."

The document is addressed on the back "To the Right Honorable our verie good Lord the Lord Burghley, Lord Heighe Threasoro^r of England, yeve theis;" and is numbered LXI. 72. among the Lansdowne MSS., B. M.

The proposal quoted below has no date attached, but probably belongs to the former part of the seventeenth century:

"THE SERVICE.

"1. To make 500 Tunne of refined Saltpetre within his Ma^{ties} dominions yearely, and continually, and cheaper.

2. Without digging of homes or charging of carts, or any other charge to the subject whatsoever. {226}

3. To performe the whole service at our owne cost.

4. Not to hinder any man in his owne way of makeing saltpetre, nor importation from forreine parts."

The following memorandum is underwritten:

"Mr. Speaker hath our Bill; Be pleased to-morrow to call for it."

The original draft of the above disinterested offer may be seen Harl. CLVIII. fol. 272.

FURVUS.

St. James's.

* * * * *

TSAR.

(Vol. viii., p. 150.)

The difficulty in investigating the origin of this word is that the letter c, "the most wonderful of all letters," says Eichhoff (Vergleichung der Sprachen, p. 55.), sounds like k before the vowels a, o, u, but before e, i, in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, as s, in Italian as tsh, in German as ts. It is always ts in Polish and Bohemian. In Russian it is represented by a special letter [Cyrillic: ts], tsi; but in Celtic it is always k. Conformably with this principle, the Russians, like the Germans, Poles, and Bohemians, pronounce the Latin c as ts. So Cicero in these languages is pronounced Tsitsero, very differently from the Greeks, who called him Kikero. The letter tsi is a supplementary one in Russian, having no corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet, from which the Russian was formed in the ninth century by St. Cyril. The word to be sought then amongst cognate languages as the counterpart of tsar (or as the Germans write it czar) is car, as pronounced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The most probable etymological connection that I can discover is with the Sanscrit [Sanskrit: car] car, to move, to advance; the root of the Greek [Greek: karrhon], in English car, Latin curro, French cours. So Sanscrit caras, carat, movable, nimble; Greek [Greek: chraon], Latin currens. And Sanscrit caras, motion, Greek [Greek: choros], Latin currus, cursus, French char, English car, cart, &c. The early Russians were doubtless wanderers, an off-shoot of the people known to the Greeks as Scythians, and to the Hebrews and Arabians as Gog and Magog, who travelled in cars, occupying first one territory with their flocks, but not cultivating the land, then leaving it to nature and taking up another resting-place. It is certain that the Russians have many Asiatic words in their vocabulary, which must necessarily have occurred from their being for more than two centuries sometimes under Tatar, and sometimes under Mongol domination; and the origin of this word tsar or car may leave to be sought on the plateaus of North-east Asia. In the Shemitic tongues (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, &c.) no connexion of sound or meaning, so probable as the above Indo-European one, is to be found. The popular derivations of Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, &c., are not to be trusted. It is remarkable, however, that these names are significant in Russian. (See "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 432, 433, note.) The cuneatic inscriptions may yet throw light on these Assyrian names. In Russian the kingdom is Tsarstvo, the king Tsar, his queen Tsarina, his son is Tsarevitch, and his daughter Tsarevna. The word is probably pure Russian or Slavic. The Russian tsar used about two hundred years ago to be styled duke by foreign courts, but he has advanced in the nomenclature of royalty to be an emperor. The Russians use the word imperatore for emperor, Kesar for Caesar, and samodershetse for sovereign.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

In Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire, it is stated that the title of Czar may possibly be derived front the Tzars or Tchars of the kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, Grand Prince of Russia, had completed the reduction of this kingdom, he assumed this title, and it has since continued to his successors. Before the reign of John Basilides, the sovereigns of Russia bore the name of Velike Knez, that is, great prince, great lord, great chief, which in Christian countries was afterwards rendered by that of great duke. The Czar Michael Federovitz, on occasion of the Holstein embassy, assumed the titles of Great Knez and Great Lord, Conservator of all the Russias, Prince of Wolodimir, Moscow, Novogorod, &c., Tzar of Casan, Tzar of Astracan, Tzar of Siberia. The name of Tzar was therefore the title of those Oriental princes, and therefore it is more probable for it to have been derived from the Tshas of Persia than from the Roman Caesars, whose name very likely never reached the ears of the Siberian Tzars on the banks of the Oby. In another part of Voltaire's History, when giving an account of the celebrated battle of Narva, where Charles XII., with nine thousand men and ten pieces of cannon, defeated "the Russian army with eighty thousand fighting men, supported by one hundred and forty-five pieces of cannon," he says, "Among the captives was the son of a King of Georgia, whom Charles sent to Stockholm; his name was Mittelesky Czarowitz, or Czar's Son, which is farther proof that the title of Czar or Tzar was not originally derived from the Roman Caesars." To the above slightly abbreviated description may not be uninterestingly added the language of Voltaire, which immediately follows the first reference:

"No title, how great soever, is of any signification, unless they who bear it are great and powerful of themselves. The word emperor, which denoted only the general of an army, became the title of the {227} sovereigns of Rome and it is now conferred on the supreme governor of all the Russias."

A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.

I beg to inform J. S. A. that the right word is Tsar, and that it is the Russian word answering to our king or lord, the Latin Rex, the Persian Shah, &c. There may be terms in other languages that have an affinity with it, but I believe we should seek in vain for a derivation.

T. K.

* * * * *

"LAND OF GREEN GINGER."

(Vol. viii., p. 160.)

I wish that R. W. ELLIOT of Clifton, whom I recognise as a former inhabitant of Hull, had given the authority on which he states, that "It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times." The name of this street has much puzzled the local antiquaries; and having been for several years engaged on a work relative to the derivations, &c., of the names of the streets of Hull, I have spared no pains to ascertain the history and derivation of the singular name of this street.

I offer then a conjecture as to its derivation as follows:—The ground on which this street stands was originally the property of De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on which he had built his stately manor-house. On the attainder of the family it was seized by the king; and Henry VIII. several times held his court here, on one of his visits having presented his sword to the corporation. It was then, 1538, called Old Beverley Street, as seen in the survey made of the estates of Sir William Sydney, Kt. In a romance called Piraute el Blanco, it is stated "The morning collation at the English Court was green ginger with good Malmsey, which was their custom, because of the coldness of the land." And in the Foedera, vii. 233., it is stated that, among other things, the cargo of a Genoese ship, which was driven ashore at Dunster, in Somersetshire, in 1380, consisted of green ginger (ginger cured with lemon-juice). In Hollar's Map of Hull, 1640, the street is there laid out as built upon, but without any name attached to it. No other plans of Hull are at present known to exist from the time of Hollar, 1640, to Gent, 1735. In Gent's plan of Hull, it is there called "The Land of Green Ginger;" so that probably, between the years 1640 and 1735, it received its peculiar name.

I therefore conjecture that, as Henry VIII. kept his Court here with his usual regal magnificence, green ginger would be one of the luxuries of his table; that this portion of his royal property being laid out as a garden, was peculiarly suitable for the growth of ginger—the same as Pontefract was for the growth of the liquorice plant; and that, upon the property being built upon, the remembrance of this spot being so suitable for the growth of ginger for the Court, would eventually give the peculiar name, in the same way that the adjoining street of Bowl-Alley-Lane received its title from the bowling-green near to it.

JOHN RICHARDSON.

13. Savile Street, Hull.

This has long been a puzzle to the Hull antiquaries. I have often inquired of old persons likely to know the origin of such names of places at that sea-port as "The Land of Green Ginger," "Pig Alley," "Mucky-south-end," and "Rotten Herring Staith;" and I have come to the conclusion, that "The Land of Green Ginger" was a very dirty place where horses were kept: a mews, in short, which none of the Muses, not even with Homer as an exponent, could exalt ([Greek: Epea pteroenta en athanatoisi theoisi]) into the regions of poesy.

Ginger has been cultivated in this country as a stove exotic for about two hundred and fifty years. In one of the histories of Hull, ginger is supposed to have grown in this street, where, to a recent period, the stables of the George Inn, and those of a person named Foster opposite, occupied the principal portion of the short lane called "Land of Green Ginger." It is hardly possible that the true zingiber can have grown here, even in the manure heaps; but a plant of the same order (Zingiberaceae) may have been mistaken for it. Some of the old women or marine school-boys of the Trinity House, in the adjoining lane named from that guild, or some druggist, may have dropped, either accidentally or experimentally, a root, if not of the ginger, yet of some kindred plant. The magnificent Fuchsia was first noticed in the possession of a seaman's wife by Fuchs in 1501, a century prior to the introduction of the ginger plant into England.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Stereoscopic Angles.—The discussion in "N. & Q." relative to the best angle for stereoscopic pictures has gone far towards a satisfactory conclusion: there are, however, still a few points which may be beneficially considered.

In the first place, the kind of stereoscope to be used must tend to modify the mental impression; and secondly, the amount of reduction from the size of the original has a considerable influence on the final result.

If in viewing a stereoscopic pair of photographs, they are placed at the same distance from the eyes as the length of the focus of the lens used in producing them, then without doubt the distance between the eyes, viz. about two and a quarter {228} inches, is the best difference between the two points of view to produce a perfectly natural result; and if the points of operation be more distant from one another, as I have before intimated, an effect is produced similar to what would be the case if the pictures were taken from a model of the object instead of the object itself.

When it is intended that the pictures taken are to be viewed by an instrument that requires their distance from the eyes to be less than the focal length of the lens used in their formation, what is the result? Why, that they subtend an angle larger than in nature, and are consequently apparently increased in bulk; and the obvious remedy is to increase the angle between the points of generation in the exact ratio as that by which the visual distance is to be lessened. There is one other consideration to which I would advert, viz. that as we judge of distance, &c. mainly by the degree of convergence of the optic axes of our two eyes, it cannot be so good to arrange the camera with its two positions quite parallel, especially for objects at a short or medium distance, as to let its centre radiate from the principal object to be delineated; and to accomplish this desideratum in the readiest way (for portraits especially), the ingenious contrivance of Mr. Latimer Clark, described in the Journal of the Photographic Society, appears to me the best adapted. It consists of a modification of the old parallel ruler arrangement on which the camera is placed; but one of the sides has an adjustment, so that within certain limits any degree of convergence is attainable. Now in the case of the pictures alluded to by MR. H. WILKINSON in Vol. viii., p. 181., it is probable they were taken by a camera placed in two positions parallel to one another, and it is quite clear that only a portion of the two pictures could have been really stereoscopic. It is perfectly true that two indifferent negatives will often combine and form one good stereoscopic positive, but this is in consequence of one possessing that in which the other is deficient; and at any rate two good pictures will have a better effect; consequently, it is better that the two views should contain exactly the same range of vision.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

Protonitrate of Iron.—"Being in the habit of using protonitrate of iron for developing collodion pictures, the following method of preparing that solution suggested itself to me, which appears to possess great advantages:—

Water 1 oz. Protosulphate of iron 14 grs. Nitrate of potash 10 grs. Acetic acid 1/2 drm. Nitric acid 2 drops.

In this mixture nitrate of potash is employed to convert the sulphate of iron into nitrate in place of nitrate of baryta in Dr. Diamond's formula, or nitrate of lead as recommended by Mr. Sisson; the advantage being that no filtering is required, as the sulphate of potash (produced by the double decomposition) is soluble in water, and does not interfere with the developing qualities of the solution.

"The above gives the bright deposit of silver so much admired in Dr. Diamond's pictures, and will be found to answer equally well either for positives or negatives. If the nitric acid be omitted, we obtain the effects of protonitrate of iron prepared in the usual way.—JOHN SPILLER."

(From the Photographic Journal.)

Photographs in natural Colours.—As "N. & Q." numbers among its correspondents many residents in the United States, I hope you will permit me to inquire through its columns whether there is really any foundation for the very startling announcement, in Professor Hunt's Photography, of Mr. Hill of New York having "obtained more than fifty pictures from nature in all the beauty of native coloration," or whether the statement is, as I conclude Professor Hunt is inclined to believe, one of those hoaxes in which many of our transatlantic friends take so much delight.

MATTER-OF-FACT.

Photographs by artificial Lights.—May I ask for references to any manuals of photography, or papers in scientific journals, in which are recorded any experiments that have been made with the view of obtaining photographs by means of artificial lights? This is, I have no doubt, a subject of interest to many who, like myself, are busily occupied during the day, and have only their evenings for scientific pursuits: while it is obvious, that if such a process can be successfully practised, there are many objects—such as prints, coins, seals, objects of natural history and antiquity—which might well be copied by it, even though artificial light should prove far slower in its action than solar light.

A CLERK.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

Vandyke in America (Vol. viii., p. 182.).—I would take the liberty of asking MR. BALCH of Philadelphia whom he means by Col. Hill and Col. Byrd, "worthies famous in English history, and whose portraits by Vandyke are now on the James River?" I know of no Col. Hill or Byrd whom Vandyke could possibly have painted. I should also like to know what proof there is that the pictures, whomsoever they represent, are by Vandyke. MR. BALCH says that he favours us with this information "in answer to the query" (Vol. vii., p. 38.); but I beg leave to observe that it is by no means "in answer to the query," which was about an engraved portrait and not picture, and {229} his thus bringing in the Vandykes a propos de bottes makes me a little curious about their authenticity.

C.

Title wanted—Choirochorographia (Vol. viii., p. 151.).—The full title of the book inquired after is as follows:

"[Greek: Choirochorographia]: sive, Hoglandiae Descriptio.—Plaudite Porcelli Porcorum pigra Propago (Eleg. Poet.): Londini, Anno Domini 1709. Pretium 2^d," 8vo.

The printer, as appears from the advertisement at the end of the volume, was Henry Hills. The middle of the title-page is occupied by a coarsely executed woodcut, representing a boar with barbed instrument in his snout, and similar instrument on a larger scale under the head, surmounted with some rude characters, which I read

"TURX TRVYE BEVIS O HAMTVN."

The dedication is headed, "Augusto admodum & undiquaq; Spectabili Heroi Domini H—— S—— Maredydius Caduganus Pymlymmonensis, S.P.D." The entire work appears to be written in ridicule of Hampshire, and to be intended as a retaliation for work written by Edward Holdsworth, of Magd. Coll. Oxford, entitled Muscipula, sive [Greek: kambro-muo-machia], published by the same printer in the same year, and translated by Dr. Hoadly in the fifth volume of Dodsley's Miscellany, p. 277., edit. 1782.

Query, Who was the author? and had Holdsworth any farther connexion with Hampshire than that of having been educated at Winchester School?

J. F. M.

Second Growth of Grass (Vol. viii., p. 102.).—R. W. F. of Bath inquires for other names than "fog," &c. In Sussex we leave "rowens," or "rewens" (the latter, I believe, a corruption), used for the second growth of grass.

Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, has "Rowens, after-grass," as a Suffolk word. Bailey gives the word, with a somewhat different signification; but he has "Rowen hay, latter hay," as a country word.

WILLIAM FIGG.

Lewes.

In Norfolk this is called "aftermath eddish," and "rowans" or "rawins."

The first term is evidently from the A.-S. maeth, mowing or math: Bosworth's Dictionary. Eddish is likewise from the A.-S. edisc, signifying the second growth; it is used by Tusser, October's Husbandry, stanza 4.:

"Where wheat upon eddish ye mind to bestow, Let that be the first of the wheat ye do sow."

Rawings also occurs in Tusser, and in the Promptorium Parvulorum, rawynhey is mentioned. In Bailey's Dictionary it is spelt rowen and roughings: this last form gives the etymology, for rowe, as may be seen in Halliwell, is an old form for rough.

E. G. R.

I have always heard it called in Northumberland, fog; in Norfolk, after-math; in Oxfordshire, I am told, it is latter-math. This term is pure A.-Saxon, maeth, the mowing; the former word fog, and eddish also, are to be found in dictionaries, but their derivation is not satisfactory.

C. I. R.

Snail eating (Vol. viii., p. 34).—The beautiful specimens of the large white snails were brought from Italy by Single-speech Hamilton, a gentleman of vertu and exquisite taste, and placed in the grounds at Paynes Hill, and some fine statues likewise. On the change of property, the snails were dispersed about the country; and many of them were picked up by my grandfather, who lived at the Grove under Boxhill, near Dorking. They were found in the hedges about West Humble, and in the grounds of the Grove. I had this account from my mother; and had once some of the shells, which I had found when staying in Surrey.

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge.

The snails asked after by MR. H. T. RILEY are to be met with near Dorking. When in that neighbourhood one day in May last, I found two in the hedgerow on the London road (west side) between Dorking and Box Hill. They are much larger than the common snail, the shells of a light brown, and the flesh only slightly tinged with green. I identified them by a description and drawing given in an excellent book for children, the Parent's Cabinet, which also states that they are to be found about Box Hill.

G. ROGERS LONG.

The large white snail (Helix pomatia) is found in abundance about Box Hill in Surrey. It is also plentiful near Stonesfield in Oxfordshire, where have, at different periods, been discovered considerable remains of Roman villas; and it has been suggested that this snail was introduced by the former inhabitants of those villas.

W. C. TREVELYAN.

Wallington.

Sotades (Vol. vii., p. 417.).—Sotades is the supposed inventor of Palindromic verses (see Mr. Sands' Specimens of Macaronic Poetry, p. 5., 1831. His enigma on "Madam" was written by Miss Ritson of Lowestoft).

S. Z. Z. S.

The Letter "h" in "humble" (Vol. viii., p. 54).—The question has been raised by one of your correspondents (and I have not observed any reply thereto), as to whether it is a peculiarity of Londoners to pronounce the h in humble. If, as a Londoner by birth and residence, I might be allowed to answer the Query, I should say that {230} the h is never heard in humble, except when the word is pronounced from the pulpit. I believe it to be one of those, either Oxford or Cambridge, or both, peculiarities, of which no reasonable explanation can be given.

I should be glad to hear whether any satisfactory general rule has been laid down as to when the h should be sounded, and when not. The only rule which occurs to me is to pronounce it in all words coming to us from the Celtic "stock," and to pass it unsounded in those which are of Latin origin. If this rule be admitted, the pronunciation sanctioned by the pulpit and Mr. Dickens is condemned.

BENJAMIN DAWSON.

London.

Lord North (Vol. vii., p. 317. Vol. viii., p. 184.).—Is M. E. of Philadelphia laughing at us, when he refers us to a woodcut in some American pictorial publication on the American Revolution for a true portraiture of the figure and features of King George III.; different, I presume, from that which I gave you. His woodcut, he says, is taken "from an English engraving;" he does not tell us who either painter or engraver was—but no matter. We have hundreds of portraits by the best hands which confirm my description, which moreover was the result of personal observation: for, from the twentieth to the thirtieth years of my life, I had frequent and close opportunities of approaching his Majesty. I cannot but express my surprise that "N. & Q." should have given insertion to anything so absurd—to use the gentlest term—as M. E.'s appeal to his "woodcut."

C.

Singing Psalms and Politics (Vol. viii., p. 56.).—One instance of the misapplication of psalmody must suggest itself at once to the readers of "N. & Q.," I mean the melancholy episode in the history of the Martyr King, thus related by Hume:

"Another preacher, after reproaching him to his face with his misgovernment, ordered this Psalm to be sung,—