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

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{285}

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. 204.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24. 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page

Extinct Volcanos and Mountains of Gold in Scotland 285 Thomas Blount, Author of "Fragmenta Antiquitatis," &c., by J. B. Whitborne 286 "Give him a Roll."—A Plea for the Horse, by C. Forbes 287 Dream Testimony, by C. H. Cooper 287 Shakspeare Correspondence 288

MINOR NOTES:—Epitaph from Stalbridge—Curious Extracts: Dean Nowell: Bottled Beer—A Collection of Sentences out of some of the Writings of the Lord Bacon—Law and Usage—Manichaean Games —Bohn's Hoveden—Milton at Eyford House 289

QUERIES:—

Earl of Leicester's Portrait, 1585 290 Early Use of Tin 291 St. Patrick—Maune and Man, by J. G. Cumming 291 Passage in Bingham, by Richard Bingham 291

MINOR QUERIES:—"Terrae filius"—Daughter pronounced Dafter—Administration of the Holy Communion —Love Charm from a Foal's Forehead—A Scrape—"Plus occidit Gula," &c.—Anecdote of Napoleon—Canonisation in the Greek Church—Binometrical Verses—Dictionary of English Phrases —Lines on Woman—Collections for Poor Slaves— The Earl of Oxford and the Creation of Peers— "Like one who wakes," &c. 292

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Glossarial Queries —Military Knights of Windsor—"Elijah's Mantle" 294

REPLIES:—

Milton and Malatesti, by S. W. Singer 295 Attainment of Majority 296 John Frewen 296 "Voiding Knife," "Voider," and "Alms-Basket," by W. Chaffers 297 The Letter "h" in Humble 298 School Libraries, by Mackenzie Walcott, M.A., &c. 298 Dr. John Taylor 299 Portrait of Sir Anthony Wingfield, by John Wodderspoon, &c. 299 Barnacles 300

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Precision in Photographic Processes—Tent for Collodion—Mr. Sisson's Developing Solution—Mr. Stewart's Pantograph 301

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—George Browne of Shefford—Wheale—Sir Arthur Aston—"A Mockery," &c.—Norman of Winster—Arms of the See of York—Roger Wilbraham Esq.'s, Cheshire Collection —Pierrepont—Passage in Bacon—Monumental Inscription in Peterborough Cathedral—Lord North— Land of Green Ginger—Sheer, and Shear Hulk— Serpent with a Human Head—"When the maggot bites"—Definition of a Proverb—Gilbert White of Selborne, &c. 301

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Notes on Books, &c. 306 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 306 Notices to Correspondents 306 Advertisements 307

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Notes.

EXTINCT VOLCANOS AND MOUNTAINS OF GOLD IN SCOTLAND.

It is by some supposed that the Hill of Noth, in the parish of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, had at one time been a volcano in full operation: others, again, maintain that the scoria found on and in the neighbourhood are portions of a vitrified fort, which had at one time stood on its summit. I am not aware that the matter has been investigated since our advancement in the science of geology has enabled us to have a more intimate knowledge of these things than formerly. The last statistical account of Scotland has suffered severely in its Aberdeenshire volume, in consequence of the temporary deposition of the "seven Strathbogie clergymen." The accounts of their several parishes were written by parties only newly come to reside in them, and who appear to have taken little interest in it; and Rhynie is one of these. Those who argue for its having been a volcano, say that it is very possible that there may at one time have been an electric or magnetic chain connecting it with subterranean fire in some other quarter of the world; and that by some convulsion of nature, the spinal cord of its existence had been broken, and life became extinct. This hypothesis has been acted on, in accounting for the earthquakes which occur at Comrie in Perthshire. The great storm which devastated the princely estates of Earl Goodwin in Kent (circa anno 1098), and now so well known to mariners as the Goodwin Sands, is also said to have laid waste the parish of Forvie, in Aberdeenshire. On the occasion of the great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, a flock of sheep were drowned in their cot in the neighbourhood of Lossiemouth, near Elgin, by the overflowing of the tide, although far removed from ordinary high-water-mark. Assuming this mountain to have been a volcano, are there any others in Great Britain? While on the subject of mountains in that quarter, there is another which also demands attention for quite a different reason, the Hill of Dun-o-Deer, in the parish of Insch: a conical hill of no great elevation, on the top of which stand the remains of a vitrified fort {286} or castle, said to have been built by King Gregory about the year 880, and was used by that monarch as a hunting-seat and where, combining business with pleasure, he is said to have meted out even-handed justice to his subjects in the Garioch. It has long been the popular belief that this hill contains gold; and that the teeth of sheep fed on it assume a yellower tinge, and also that their fat is of the same colour. Notwithstanding this, no attempt at scientific investigation has ever been made. The operations on the line of the Great North of Scotland Railway, now in progress in the immediate neighbourhood, may possibly bring something to light. This line passes for many miles through a country particularly rich in recollections of the "olden time"—cairns, camps, old chapels, druidical circles, sculptured stones, &c. and where ancient coins, battle-axes of all the three periods, urns and elf-arrow heads, Roman armour, &c., have been disinterred by the ordinary labours of the field. Within a short distance of its route lies the Hill of Barra, where the famous battle was fought, anno 1308, between the "Bruce" and the "Comyn;" the Bass at Inverary, the Hill of Benachie, with the remains of a fortification on its summit, said to have been erected by the Picts; the field of Harlaw, famed in song, where the battle was fought in 1411, in which Donald of the Isles was defeated. There are many traditional ballads and stories relating to Benachie and Noth. There is a ballad called "John O'Benachie" and another, "John O'Rhynie, or Jock O'Noth" and they do not appear in any collection of ancient ballads I have seen. It is said that long "before King Robert rang," two giants inhabited these mountains, and are supposed to be the respective heroes of the two ballads. These two sons of Anak appear to have lived on pretty friendly terms, and to have enjoyed a social crack together, each at his own residence, although distant some ten or twelve miles. These worthies had another amusement, that of throwing stones at each other; not small pebbles you may believe, but large boulders. On one occasion, however, there appears to have been a coolness between them; for one morning, as he of Noth was returning from a foraging excursion in the district of Buchan, his friend of Benachie, not relishing what he considered an intrusion on his legitimate beat, took up a large stone and threw at him as he was passing. Noth, on hearing it rebounding, coolly turned round, and putting himself in a posture of defence, received the ponderous mass on the sole of his foot: and I believe that the stone, with a deeply indented foot-mark on it, is, like the bricks in Jack Cade's chimney, "alive at this day to testify." Legendary lore and fabulous ballads aside, it would indeed be strange if something interesting to the antiquary does not turn up in such a mine as this. It is curious, however, that in all the operations antecedent to covering Great Britain with, as it were, a network of iron, so very few discoveries should have been made of any importance, either to the antiquary or geologist.

ABREDONENSIS.

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THOMAS BLOUNT, AUTHOR OF "FRAGMENTA ANTIQUITATIS," ETC.

Being on a visit to some friends on the confines of the county of Salop, bordering on Herefordshire, I took the opportunity long cherished of visiting the spot where lie the remains of the author of Boscobel; Fragmenta Antiquitatis, or Ancient Tenures of Land, and Jocular Customs of Manors, &c., and copied the following inscription from his monument, in the chancel of the ancient church of Orleton in the latter county. I believe it has never been published; and although neither Note nor Query is connected with it, it may serve to fill up a corner in your valuable miscellany, and thus preserve from the oblivion of a retired country church, a memorial of one well known to the antiquarian world of literature. It is on a brass plate inserted in a stone monument against the wall of the chancel:

"D.O.M. Hic seminatur Corpus Animale Spiritale resurrecturum THOMAE BLOUNT. De Orleton in agro Herefordiensi Armigeri, Ex interiori Templo Londini J Cti. Viri priscis Moribus avitae Fidei, Vitae integerrimae, Pietatis solidae, Fidelitatem, Dilectionem, Amorem, Charitatem, In Principem, Suos, Amicos, Omnes, Illibate coluit. Uxorem duxit Annam Filiam Eadmundi Church Armigeri E Maldonia East Saxonum. Unica Corporis prole. (Elizabetha) Mentis multiplici (Libris utilissimis) Familiam propagavit, perennavit Famam. Requiem, Lector, si fas ducis, huic apprecare Et melior abi. Obiit Decembris 26, 1679. AEtatis 61. —— Pientissima Coniunx moerens Posuit."

The village of Orleton is celebrated for a very large annual fair, which occurs on April 23; and a saying is connected therewith: "That the cuckoo always comes on Orleton fair-day;" which has doubtless arisen from the circumstance, that this "messenger of spring" generally arrives in this country by that day.

J. B. WHITBORNE.

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{287}

"GIVE HIM A ROLL."—A PLEA FOR THE HORSE.

We learn, from the comedy of the The Clouds, that the Athenians were accustomed to refresh their horses after a race by allowing then to roll on the ground; for Pheidippides, the wild young man of the play, who spent much of his own time and of his father's money on the "turf," and who is shown in the opening scene fast asleep in bed, dreaming of his favourite amusement, says very quietly,

"[Greek: Apage ton hippon exalisas oikade] [32]—

an order which he had probably often given to his groom at the Hippodrome, the Newmarket or Ascot of Athens.

I have often seen racing, I have often seen hunters brought home after a hard day's work, and I have read of forced marches, &c. made by cavalry and artillery; but never yet have I heard of an English Houyhnhnm, either at home or abroad, who was invited to refresh himself after his labours, civil or military, classically, with a roll.

Dobbin, that four-footed Ofellus,

"Rusticus, abnormis sapiens, crassaque Minerva,"

whenever he has the luck to spend his summer Sunday's otium cum dignitate in a paddock, invariably indulges in a baker's dozen, without waiting for an invitation to do so, and without saying "with your leave" or "by your leave."

They ordered this matter better in Africa some fifty years ago, and I hope they still continue so to order it.

By one of the stipulations of the hollow Peace of Amiens, the colony of the Cape of Good Hope was restored by Great Britain to the Batavian Republic, which immediately appointed Mr. J. A. de Mist its Commissary-General, and despatched him to receive the ceded territory from the hands of the English, to instal the new Governor, General J. W. Janssens, into his high office, and to reorganise the constitution of the colony.

Having fulfilled these duties, Mr. De Mist determined to make a tour of inspection, and he accordingly travelled on horseback nearly 4500 English miles through the interior. Among his suite was a Dr. Lichtenstein, the physician and savant of the party, who afterwards published an account of the expedition.

The extract that I am about to make from his work may at first sight appear unnecessarily long; but I wish the "courteous reader" to bear in mind that I do not cite it for the sake of parading a long rambling comment on five short words of Aristophanes, but for that of bringing forward additional evidence, to prove that a dry roll may occasionally be of as much service in recruiting the strength and spirits of that noble animal, the horse, when jaded by violent exertion or long-protracted toil, as our English nostrums, a warm mash or a bottle of water. Dr. Lichtenstein says,—

"Our road led us soon again over the Vogel river and here we were obliged to supply ourselves with water for the whole day, since not a drop was to be met with again till the Melk river, a distance of ten hours [ = 50 English miles]. When we had filled our vessels, and our cattle had drunk plentifully, we proceeded on our way.

"It is difficult for an European to form an idea of the hardships that are to be encountered in a journey over such a dry plain at the hottest season of the year. All vegetation seems utterly destroyed; not a blade of grass, not a green leaf, is anywhere to be seen; and the soil, a stiff loam, reflects back the heat of the sun with redoubled force; a man may congratulate himself that, being on horseback, he is raised some feet above it. Nor is any rest from these fatigues to be thought of, since to stop where there is neither shade, water, or grass, would be only to increase the evil, rather than to diminish it.

"Yet the African horses are so well accustomed to hardships, although they have in fact much less innate strength than the European, that it is incredible what a length of way they will go, in the most intense heat, without either food or drink. It is, however, customary for the riders to dismount at intervals, when the saddles are taken off, and the animals are suffered to roll upon the ground and stretch out their limbs for a short time. This they do with evident delight, and after they have well rolled, stretched, and shaken themselves, they rise up and go on as much refreshed as if they had had food and drink given them. On arriving at a farm, the invitation of the host, who comes immediately to the door, is, 'Get off, Sir, and let him roll.' A slave then appears, takes the horse, and leads him backwards and forwards for a few minutes, to recover his breath, and he is then unsaddled and left to roll.

"These rollings were then the only refreshment we could offer our horses, and both they and their riders were, when towards evening they arrived at the Melk river, exceedingly exhausted."—Travels in Southern Africa in the Years 1803-1806. By Henry Lichtenstein, Doctor in Medicine and Philosophy, &c. &c. Translated from the original German by Anne Plumptre: London, Henry Colburn, 1812; vol. i. chap. xxv.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

* * * * *

DREAM TESTIMONY.

On Saturday the 30th of July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. The body has not yet been identified, and there can be little doubt that the young woman was murdered. At the adjourned inquest, held on the 29th of August, before Mr. William Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, the following extraordinary evidence was given:

"James Jessop, an elderly, respectable-looking labourer, with a face of the most perfect stolidity, and {288} who possessed a most curiously-shaped skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry it woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after that. I got up between four and five o'clock, but I did not go down to the close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream I entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder, but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream and the trees thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind lay from that spot to my house.'

"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related his dreams to her on the evening of the day the body was found."

In Mr. John Hill Burton's Narratives from Criminal Trials in Scotland, is a chapter entitled "Spectral and Dream Testimony," to which the above evidence will be a curious addition.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

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SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

"Priam's six-gated city," &c.—In the prologue to Troilus and Cressida occurs—

" . . . Priam's six-gated city, Dardan and Tymbria, Ilias, Chetas, Trojan, And Antenorides, with massy staples, And corresponsive and fulfilling bolts."

What struck me here was the omission of the only gate of Troy really known to fame, the Scaean, which looked on the tomb of the founder Laomedon; before which stood Hector, "full and fixed," awaiting the fatal onslaught of Achilles; where Achilles, in turn, received his death-wound from the shaft of Paris; and through which, finally, the wooden horse was triumphantly conveyed into the doomed city.

The six names are shown to be taken by Shakspeare in part from Caxton, and in part from Lydgate: and in Knight's edition we are told that they are "pure inventions of the middle age of romance-writers."

Let us examine this assertion. The names are to be found pretty nearly as above, but with one important difference, in Dares' History of the Trojan War. My authority is Ruaeus, the Delphine editor of Virgil (see his note at AEn. II. 612.). Now Dares (perhaps the oldest of the profane writers whom we know) was a Phrygian, who took part in the Trojan war, and wrote its history in Greek: and the Greek original was still extant in the time of AElian, from A.D. 80 to 140. Of this, now lost, a Latin translation still survives, by some attributed to Cornelius Nepos, and by some regarded as spurious; but, either way, its date must be long antecedent to "the middle age of romance-writers." It was doubtless from this Latin history that Caxton or Lydgate, or both, derived directly or indirectly the names they adopted; and yet it is to be noted that they give respectively the names of Chetas and Cetheas to one of their gates, and omit the well-known Scaean, which Dares expressly mentions; for I presume that no principle of philology will sanction the identification of Scaean with either of the terms used by these two writers.

I have trespassed somewhat on your space, but let me hope the subject may be farther elucidated. The points I wish to put forward are, Shakspeare's omission of the Scaean gate, and the proposition by Knight (for a proposition it is, though in a participular form), that these six names are "pure inventions of the middle age of romance-writers."

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

On the Word "delighted" in "Measure for Measure," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 241.).—Inasmuch as the controversy respecting this word seems to be over, and no one of the critics and commentators on Shakspeare's text appears to have the slightest clue to the real meaning and derivation, I will enlighten them. But, first, I must say, I am surprised that DR. KENNEDY should (though he has certainly hit on the right meaning) be unable to give a better account of the word than that in Vol. ii., pp. 139. 250. And as to the passage quoted (Vol. ii., p. 200) by MR. SINGER from Sidney's Arcadia, I beg to inform him that the word delight, which occurs therein, is a misprint for daylight!

We find, in the Latin, the substantive deliciae, delight, pleasure, enjoyment; and the adjective (derived from the same root, and guiding us to the original meaning of the substantive) delicatus, which amongst other meanings, has that of tender, soft, gentle, delicate, dainty.

As the early English scholars were not very particular about the form of the words they introduced from the Latin, or indeed of those which were purely English, for they changed them at their pleasure,—and that this is the case, I presume no one at all versed in the literature of the time of Henry VIII. will dispute,—it requires no great exertion of fancy to believe, that, finding {289} the substantive deliciae Englished delight, they rendered the adjective delicatus delighted. The fact that they did use the words delight and delicate as synonymous, is proved by a passage in "a boke named the Gouernour deuised by Syr Thomas Elyot, Knyght, Londini, 1557;" in which, at folio 203., p. 1., we find Titus, the son of Vespasian, who was ordinarily termed "the delight of mankind," called "the delicate of the world."

We are therefore to conclude that the words delicate and delighted were used indifferently by writers of the age of Shakspeare, as well as by those previous to him, to express the same thing; and that by the phrase "delighted spirit" in Measure for Measure, "delighted beauty" in Othello, "delighted gifts" in Cymbeline, we are to understand, exquisitely tender, delicate, or precious.

I cannot agree with DR. KENNEDY that deliciae, delicatus come from deligere rather than delicere; since, if my memory does not deceive me, the former is as often, if not oftener, used by good writers to express to drive away, to upset, to remove from, or detach—as to select or choose—which is the only meaning the word has akin to deliciae; whereas delicere is actually used by one of the earlier Latin poets for to delight.

The word dainty, I may inform DR. KENNEDY, is from the obsolete French dein or dain, delicate; which probably came from the still older Teut. deinin, minuta (vid. Schilter).

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

Epitaph from Stalbridge.—The following epitaph from the churchyard of Stalbridge, Dorsetshire, may perhaps be thought worthy of preservation, if it be not a hackneyed one:

"So fond, so young, so gentle, so sincere, So loved, so early lost, may claim a tear: Yet mourn not, if the life, resumed by heaven, Was spent to ev'ry end for which 'twas given. Could he too soon escape this world of sin? Or could eternal life too soon begin? Then cease his death too fondly to deplore, What could the longest life have added more?"

C. W. B.

Curious Extracts.—Dean Nowell—Bottled Beer.—I was somewhat hasty in assuming (see Vol. vii., p. 135.) that bottled beer was an unknown department in early times, as the following extract will show. It is from Fuller's Worthies of England, under "LANCASHIRE," the subject of the notice being no less a person than the grave divine Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, author of the Catechism, whose fondness for angling is also commemorated by Izaak Walton. Fuller, having noticed the narrow escape which Nowell had from arrest by some of Bishop Bonner's emissaries in Queen Mary's reign, having had a hint to fly whilst fishing in the Thames, "whilst Nowell was catching of fishes, Bonner was catching of Nowell," proceeds to say,—

"Without offence it may be remembered that, leaving a bottle of ale, when fishing, in the grass, he found it some days after no bottle, but a gun, such the sound at the opening thereof: and this is believed (casualty is the mother of more inventions than industry[1]) the original of bottled ale in England."—Nuttall's edit., vol. ii. p. 205.

BALLIOLENSIS.

[Footnote 1: Fuller might have quoted the Greek proverb, [Greek: Tuche technes esterxe kai techne tuches.]]

A Collection of Sentences out of some of the Writings of the Lord Bacon (i. 422. edit. Montagu), with the ensuing exceptions, is taken out of the Essays, and in regular order:

No. 1. p. 33. of the same volume.

No. 2. p. 21.

No. 3. p. 5.

No. 4. p. 8.

No. 51. My reference is illegible: the words are,—"Men seem neither well to understand their riches nor their strength: of the former they believe greater things than they should; and of the latter, much less. And from hence, certain fatal pillars have bounded the progress of learning."

No. 68. pp. 173. 272. 321.

No. 69. p. 185.

No. 70. p. 176.

No. 71. Vol. vi., p. 172. The Charge of Owen, &c.

Nos. 72, 73. Vol. vii., p. 261. The Speech before the Summer Circuits, 1617.

S. Z. Z. S.

Law and Usage.—In The Times of September 1, the Turkish correspondent writes as follows:

"Mahmoud Pasha declared in the Divan of the 17th that 'he would divorce his wife, but would not advise a dishonourable peace with Russia.' This is an expression of the strongest kind in use amongst the Turks."

It is worth a Note that, in spite of polygamy and divorce, a common proverb is monogamic, and divorce is spoken of as the greatest of unlikelihoods.

M.

Manichaean Games.—Take any game played by two persons, such as draughts, and let the play be as follows: each plays his best for himself, and follows it by playing the worst he can for the other. Thus, when it is the turn of the white to play, he first plays the white as well as he can; and then the black as badly (for the other player) as he can. The black then does the best he can with the black, and follows it by the worst he can {290} do for the white. Of course, by separating the good and evil principles, four persons might play.

M.

Bohn's Hoveden.—By way of expressing my sense of obligation to Mr. Bohn and his editors for the Antiquarian Library, perhaps you will suffer me to point out what appears to be an inaccuracy in the translation of Roger de Hoveden's Annals? At p. 123. of vol. ii., the word Suuelle (as it appears to stand in the original text) is translated into Swale: but surely no other place is here meant than the church of St. Mary's at Southwell[2] (or Suthwell, Sudwell, Suwell, or Suell, as variously spelt, but never Swale), in Nottinghamshire.

I would also notice a trifling error (perhaps only a misprint) at p. 125.; where we are informed in a note, that the Galilee of Durham Cathedral is at the east end, whereas its real position is at the west.

J. SANSOM.

Oxford.

[Footnote 2: The seal of the vicars of Southwell, ann. 1262, had in its circumference the words "Commune sigillum Vicariorum Suuell."—Vid. Thoroton's Nottinghamshire, North Muskham, ed. 1796, vol. iii. p. 156.]

Milton at Eyford House, Gloster.—In the British Museum (says Wilson in his description of Christ's College, Cambridge) is the original proclamation for Milton's appearance after the Restoration. Where was he secreted? I find this note in my book:—At Eyford House, Gloucestershire, within two miles of Stow-on-the-Wold, on the road to Cheltenham, a spring of beautiful water is called "Milton's Well," running into a tributary of the Thames. The old house, &c., at the time would be out of the way of common information.

P. J.

* * * * *

Queries.

EARL OF LEICESTER'S PORTRAIT, 1585.

There is at Penshurst, among many other interesting memorials of the Dudleys, an original portrait of Elizabeth's Earl of Leicester, with the following painted upon it: "Robert, E. of Leicester, Stadtholder of Holland, A.D. 1585." After this comes the ragged staff, but without its usual accompaniment, the bear. Under the staff follow these enigmatical lines, which I request any of your correspondents to translate and explain. I send you a translation in rhyme; I should thank them the more if they would do the same: as to explanation, the longer the better.

"Principis hic Baculus, patriae columenque, decusque, Hoc uno, ingratos quo beet, ipse miser."

This ragged staff by Leicester's potent hand, Brought succour, safety, to this threaten'd land: One thing alone embitters every thought, He to ungrateful men these blessings brought.

Now for a word of commentary: and first as to "Stadtholder of Holland, A.D. 1585." The good woman who showed the picture informed us that it was painted by order of the stadtholder, and presented to Leicester; if so, there would have been a jussu provinciarum foederatarum depictus, or something of that sort; but no such compliment was to be expected from the Dutch, for they hated him, complained of his conduct, memorialised the queen against him: see the pamphlets in the British Museum, 4to. 1587, C. 32. a. 2. But though it was most unlikely that the Dutch or their stadtholder should have presented this picture to Leicester, it well accorded with Leicester's vanity and presumption, and still more with that vanity and presumption as displayed in his conduct as commander-in-chief of the forces in Holland, to call himself The Stadtholder, and to order his painter to put that title under his portrait.

The verses may now be referred to in support of this view of the subject. Leicester therein represents himself as unhappy, because he had bestowed blessings on the ungrateful Dutch.

In conclusion, take the following full-length portrait of Leicester's indignation (Leicester, a Belgis vituperatus, loquitur):

"This ragged staff my resolution shows, To save my Queen and Holland from their foes: Still deeply seated in my heart remains One cause, one fruitful cause, of all my pains; 'Tis base ingratitude—'tis Holland's hate. My presence sav'd that country, chang'd its fate. But the base pedlars gain'd my sov'reign's ear, And at my counsels and my courage sneer; They call me tyrant, breaker of my word, Fond of a warrior's garb without his sword. A servile courtier, saucy cavalier, Bold as a lion when no danger's near, They say I seek their country for myself, To fill my bursting bags with plunder'd pelf; They say with goose's, not with eagle's wing, I wish to soar, and make myself a king. Dutchmen! to you I came, I saw, I sav'd: Where'er my staff, my bear, my banner wav'd, The daunted Spaniard fled without a blow, And bloodless chaplets crown'd my conquering brow. Dutchmen! with minds more stagnant than your pools, (But in reproachful words more knaves than fools), You will not see, nor own the debt you owe To him who conquers a retreating foe. Such base ingratitude as this alloys My triumph's glory, and my bosom's joys."

V. T.

Tunbridge Wells.

* * * * *

{291}

EARLY USE OF TIN.

Mr. Layard, in his work upon Nineveh and Babylon, in reference to the articles of bronze from Assyria now in the British Museum, states, that the tin used in the composition was probably obtained from Phoenicia; and, consequently, that that used in the Assyrian bronze may actually have been exported nearly three thousand years ago from the British Isles.

The Assyrians appear to have made an extensive use of this metal; and the degree of perfection which the making of bronze had then reached, clearly shows that they must have been long experienced in the use of it. They appear to have received what they used from the Phoenicians. When and by whom was tin first discovered in our island? Were the Celtic tribes acquainted with it previously to the arrival of the Phoenicians upon our shores?

It is said that the Phoenicians were indebted to the Tyrian Hercules for their trade in tin; and that this island owed them its name of Baratanac, or Britain, the land of tin. Was the Tyrian Hercules, or, as he was afterwards known and worshipped, as the Melkart of Tyre, and the Moloch of the Bible, was he the merchant-leader of the first band of Phoenicians who visited this island? When did he live?

G. W.

Stansted, Montfichet.

* * * * *

ST. PATRICK—MAUNE AND MAN.

Amongst the many strange derivations given of the name of Mona or Man (the island), I find one in an old unpublished MS. by an unknown author, of the date about 1658, noticed by Feltham (Tour through the Isle of Man, p. 8.), on which I venture to ground a Query. The name of the island is there said to have been derived from Maune, the name of the great apostle of the Mann, before he received that of Patricius from Pope Celestine.

Now if St. Patrick ever had the name Maune, he could not have given it to the island, which was called Mona, Monabia, and Menavia, as far back as the days of Caesar, Tacitus, and Pliny. I have not access to any life of St. Patrick in which the name Maune occurs; but in the Penny Cyclopaedia, under the head "Patrick," I find it said, "According to Nennius, St. Patrick's original name was Maur," and I find the same stated in Rose's Biographical Dictionary. But the article in the latter is evidently taken from the former, and I suspect the Maur may in both be a misprint for Maun.[3] Can "N. & Q." set me right, or give me any information likely to solve the difficulty?

I may as well notice here that amongst the many ways in which the name of this island has been pronounced and spelt, that of Maun seems to have prevailed at the period of the Norwegian occupation. On a Runic monument at Kirk Michael, we have it very distinctly so spelt.

With regard to the name Mona, applied both to Man and Anglesea, I have little doubt we may find its root in the Sanscrit man, to know, worship, &c., whence we have Manu the son of Brahma, Menu, Menes, Minos, Moonshee, and Monk. The name Mona would seem to have been applied to both islands, as being specially the habitation of the Druids, whose name probably came either from the Celtic Trow-wys, wisemen, or the Saxon dru, a soothsayer, very close in signification to the Sanscrit mooni, a holy sage, learned person. As connected with this idea I may ground another Query: Might not these two Monas, the abode of piety and wisdom, be the true, [Greek: makaron nesoi], the Fortunatae Insulae of the ancients?

J. G. CUMMING.

Castletown.

[Footnote 3: In Monumenta Historica Britannica the passage reads "Quia Maun prius vocabatur." In a note from another MS. the word is spelt Mauun.—ED.]

* * * * *

PASSAGE IN BINGHAM.

MR. RICHARD BINGHAM, whose new and improved edition of his ancestor's works is now printing at the Oxford University Press, would feel sincerely obliged to any literary friend who should become instrumental in discovering the following passage from one of the sermons of Augustine:

"Non mirari debetis, fratres carissimi, quod inter ipsa mysteria de mysteriis nihil diximus, quod non statim ea, quae tradidimus, interpretati sumus. Adhibuimus enim tam sanctis rebus atque divinis honorem silentii."

Joseph Bingham (b. x. ch. v. s. 11.) cites those words as from "Serm. I., inter 40. a Sirmondo editos," which corresponds with Serm. V. according to the Benedictine edition, Paris, 1689—1700, tom. v. p. 28.; but no such words occur in that sermon. The passage is daggered by Grishovius, who first gave the citations at length; neither has MR. R. BINGHAM hitherto been able to meet with it, though a great many similar desiderata in former editions he has discovered and corrected.

An answer through "N. & Q." will oblige; still more so if sent direct to his present address, 57. Gloucester Place, Portman Square, London.

MR. BINGHAM would also be glad to be informed where Athanasius uses the term [Greek: diakonos], generally for any minister of the church, whether deacon, presbyter, or bishop? Joseph Bingham (b. ii. ch. xx. s. 1.) cites the tract Contra Gentes, but the expression is not there.

{292}

The earlier a reply comes the more acceptable will it be.

57. Gloucester Place, Portman Square.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

"Terrae filius."—When was the last "Terrae filius" spoken at Oxford; and what was the origin of the name?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

Daughter pronounced Dafter.—In the Verney Papers lately printed by the Camden Society is a letter from a Mistress Wiseman, in which she spells daughter "daftere." It is evident that she pronounced the -augh as we do in laughter. Is this pronunciation known to prevail anywhere at the present day?

C. W. G.

Administration of the Holy Communion.—Which side, north or south, is the more correct for the priest to commence administering the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper? Give the authority or reasons in support of your opinion. I cannot find any allusion in Hook's Church Dictionary, or in Wheatly's Common Prayer; and I have seen some clergymen begin one end, some the other.

CLERICUS (A.).

Love Charm from a Foal's Forehead.—I have searched some time, but in vain, in order to find out what the lump or love charm, taken out of a foal's forehead, was called. Virgil mentions it in AEneid, lib. iv. 515., where Dido is preparing her funeral pile, &c.:

"Quaeritur et nascentis equi de fronte revulsus, Et matri praereptus, amor."

Tacitus also makes mention of it continually. I have no doubt but that through your interesting and learned columns I shall obtain an answer. It was not philtrum.

H. P.

A Scrape.—What is the origin of the expression "Getting into a scrape?"

Y. B. N. J.

"Plus occidit Gula," &c.—Can any of your correspondents direct me where the following passage is to be found?—

"Plus occidit gula, quam gladius."

T.

Anecdote of Napoleon.—I remember to have heard of a young lady, one of the detenus in France after the Peace of Amiens, having obtained her liberation through a very affecting copy of verses of her composition, which, by some means, came under the notice of Napoleon. The Emperor was so struck with the strain of this lament, that he forwarded passports, with an order for the immediate liberation of the fair writer. Can any of your correspondents verify this anecdote, and supply a copy of the verses?

BALLIOLENSIS.

Canonisation in the Greek Church.—Does the Greek Church ever now canonise, or add the names of the saints to the Calendar?

If so, by whom is the ceremony performed?

ANTONY CLOSE.

Woodhouse Eaves.

Binometrical Verses.—Who made the following verse?—

"Quando nigrescit nox, rem latro patrat atrox."

It is either hexameter or pentameter, according to the scansion?

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

Dictionary of English Phrases.—Is there in English any good dictionary of phrases similar to the excellent Frasologia Italiana of P. Daniele?

G. K.

Lines on Woman.—W. V. will be glad to know if any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." can tell where the following lines are to be found?—

"Not she with traitrous kiss her master stung, Not she denied him with unfaithful tongue; She, when apostles fled, could danger brave, Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave."

Collections for Poor Slaves.—I have met with the following memorandum in a parish register, and have seen notices of similar entries in others:

"1680. Collected for the redemption of poor slaves in Turkey, the sum of 2s. 8d."

Can you refer me to the king's letter authorising such collections to be made?

W. S.

Northiam.

[Some information upon this point will be found in "N. & Q.," Vol. i., p. 441.; Vol. ii., p 12.]

The Earl of Oxford and the Creation of Peers.—Where will be found the answer made by the Earl of Oxford when impeached in the reign of Queen Anne for creating in one day twelve peers?

S. N.

"Like one who wakes," &c.—Can any of your readers supply the authorship and connexion of the following lines?—

"Like one who wakes from pleasant sleep, Unto the cares of morning."

C. W. B.

Bells at Berwick-upon-Tweed.—Can any one favour me with a parallel or similar case, in respect to bells, to what I recently met with at Berwick-upon-Tweed? The parish church, which is the only one in the town, and a mean structure of Cromwell's time, is without either tower or {293} bell; and the people are summoned to divine service from the belfry of the town-hall, which has a very respectable steeple. Indeed, so much more ecclesiastical in appearance is the town-hall than the Church, that (as I was told) a regiment of soldiers, on the first Sunday after their arrival at Berwick, marched to the former building for divine service, although the church stood opposite the barrack gate. My kind informant also told me that he found a strange clergyman one Sunday morning trying the town-hall door, and rating the absent sexton; having undertaken to preach a missionary sermon, and become involved in the same mistake as the soldiers.

But more curious still was the news that there is a meeting-house in Berwick belonging to the anti-burghers, who are dissenters from the Church of Scotland, which has a bell, for the ringing of which, as a summons to worship, Barrington, Bishop of Durham, granted a licence, which still exists. I was not aware that bishops either had, or exercised, the power of licensing bells; but my informant will, I doubt not, on reading this, either verify or correct the statement. At the time when the bell was licensed, the congregation were in communion with the Church of Scotland.

ALFRED GATTY.

The Keate Family, of the Hoo, Herts.—I shall be obliged to any of your readers for information respecting the Sir Jonathan Keate, Bart., of the Hoo, Hertfordshire, who was living in the year 1683; also for any particulars respecting his family? I especially desire to know what were his relations to the religious parties of the time, as I have in my possession the journal of a nonconformist minister, who was his domestic chaplain from 1683 to 1688.

G. B. B.

Cambridge.

Divining-rod.—Can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." supply instances of the use of the divining-rod for finding water? I know several circumstances which might incline one, in these table-turning days, to inquire seriously whether there be any truth in the popular notion.

G. W. SKYRING.

Medal and Relic of Mary Queen of Scots.—I have in my possession a medal, the size of a crown piece, of base metal, with perhaps some admixture of silver. On one side of this are the arms of Scotland with two thistles, and the legend—

MARIA ET HENRICUS DEI GRATIA R: ET R: SCOTORUM,

and the reverse, a yew-tree with a motto of three words, of which the last seems to be VIRES, the date 1566, and the legend—

EXURGAT DEUS ET DISSIPANTUR INIMICI.

Associated with this for a very considerable period has been a small wooden cross, which is said to have been made from the yew-tree under which Mary and Darnley had been accustomed to meet.

I have been told that there is some farther tradition or superstition connected with these relics: if there be, I shall be glad to be informed of it, or of any other particulars concerning them.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

Bulstrode's Portrait.—Prefixed to a copy in my possession of Essays upon the following Subjects: 1. Generosity, &c., by Whitelock Bulstrode, Esq., 8vo. Lond. 1724, there is a portrait of the author, bearing this note in MS.: "This scarce portrait has sold for 7l." It is engraved by Cole from a picture by Kneller, in oval with armorial bearings below, and is subscribed "Anno Salutis 1723, aetatis 72." I am at a loss to suppose it ever could have fetched the price assigned to my impression by its previous owner, and should feel obliged if any of your correspondents would state whether, from any peculiar circumstances, it may have become rare, and so acquired an adventitious value. It does not appear to have been known to Granger.

While the two names are before me, I venture to inquire how the remarkable interchange occurred between that of Whitelock Bulstrode the Essayist, and Bulstrode Whitelock the Memorialist, of the parliamentary period. Was there any family connexion?

BALLIOLENSIS.

The Assembly House, Kentish Town.—Can any of your antiquarian correspondents give me a clue as to the date, or probable date, of the erection of this well-known roadside public-house (I beg pardon, tavern), which is now being pulled down? I am desirous of obtaining some slight account of the old building, having just completed an etching, from a sketch taken as it appeared in its dismantled state. Possibly some anecdotes may be current regarding it. I learn from a rare little tome, entitled Some Account of Kentish Town, published at that place in 1821, and written, I believe, by a Mr. Elliot, that the Assembly House was formerly called the Black Bull. The writer of this Query asked "one of the oldest inhabitants," who was seated on a door-step opposite the house, his opinion concerning its age: considering a little, the old gentleman seriously said he thought it might be two or three thousand years at least! This opinion I am afraid to accept as correct, and I would therefore seek, through the medium of "N. & Q.," some information which may be more depended upon.

W. B. R.

Camden New Town.

Letters respecting Hougomont.—Could any reader of "N. & Q." kindly furnish the undersigned with certain Letters, which have recently {294} appeared in The Times, on "The Defence of Hougomont?" Such letters, extracted, would be of much service to him, as they are wanted for a specific purpose. The letters from Saturday, Sept. 10, inclusive, are already obtained: but the letters on the subject previous to that date are wanting, and would greatly favour, if it were possible to have them,

ARAN.

Swillington.

Peter Lombard.—Mr. Hallam, in his Literature of Europe (vol. i. p. 128.), says, on the authority of Meiners (vol. iii. p. 11.):

"Peter Lombard, in his Liber Sententiarum, the systematic basis of scholastic theology, introduces many Greek words, and explains them rightly."

Having, however, examined this work for the purpose of ascertaining Peter Lombard's knowledge of Greek, I must, out of regard to strict truth, deny the statement of Meiners; for only one Greek word in Greek letters is to be found in the Liber Sententiarum, and that is [Greek: metanoia]: and so far frown Peter explaining this word rightly, he says, 'Poenitentia dicitur a puniendo" (lib. IV. dist. xiv.); an etymological notion which caused Luther to think wrongly of the nature of repentance, till he learnt the meaning of the Greek word, which he received with joy as the solution of one of his greatest difficulties in Romanism. I do not consider the introduction of such Latinized church words as ecclesia, episcopus, presbyter, or even homoousius, as evincing any knowledge of Greek on the part of Peter Lombard, wherein he appears to have been lamentably deficient, as the great teacher and authority for centuries in Christian dogmatics. Your correspondents will greatly oblige me by showing anything to the contrary of my charge against Peter Lombard of being ignorant of Greek.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

Life of Savigny.—Is there in French or English any life or memoir of Savigny?

C. H.

Picture by Hogarth.—Some years since a gentleman purchased at Bath the first sketch of a picture said to be by Hogarth, of "Fortune distributing her favours." Shortly afterwards a gentleman called on the purchaser of it, and mentioned to him that he knew the finished painting, and that it was in the panelling of some house with which he was acquainted.

I am desirous of finding out for the family of the purchaser, who died recently, 1st, whether there is any history that can be attached to this picture and 2ndly, to discover, if possible, in whose possession, and where, the finished painting is preserved.

J. K. R. W.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

Glossarial Queries.—In a Subsidy Roll of 25 Edward I., in an enumeration of property in the parish of Skirbeck, near Boston, Lincolnshire, upon which a ninth was granted to the king, I find the following articles and their respective value. What were they?—

"3 alece, 18s. 1 bacell cum arment. 15s."

In the taxation of Leake I find—

"9 hocastr. 6s."

In that of Leverton—

"4 hocastr. 4s."

In Butterwick—

"1 pull. 12d."

In Wrangle—

"1 stagḡ. 2s."

PISHEY THOMPSON.

Stoke Newington.

[It is very desirable that in all cases Querists desirous of explanations of words, phrases, or passages, should give the context.

3 Alece, were it not for the price, one would render "herrings;" but the price, 18s., forbids such interpretation. Perhaps alece is a misreading for vacce, cows; which might well occur in a carelessly written roll temp. Edward I.

1 bacell cum arment. is 1 bacellus cum armamentis, one ass (or pack-horse) with its furniture.

9 hocastr. is 9 pigs. "Hogaster, porcellus."—Du Cange.

1 pull. (i.e. pullulus), 1 colt.

1 stagḡ., a yearling ox.]

Military Knights of Windsor.—I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who will furnish some account, or refer me to any work in which notices may be found of this foundation, its statutes, mode of appointment, endowments, &c.? Up to the reign of William IV. they were known, I believe, as Poor Knights of Windsor.

Y. B. N. J.

[Consult Ashmole's History of the Order of the Garter, pp. 99-104., edit. 1715. Among the Birch and Sloane MSS. in the British Museum are the following articles: No. 4845. Statutes for the Poor Knights of Windsor, 1 Eliz. Orders and rules for the establishment and good government of the said thirteen poor knights. The Queen's Majestie's ordinances for the continual charges. No. 4847. Articles of complaint exhibited by the Poor Knights (to the Knights of the Garter) against the Dean and Canons. The Dean and Canons' answer to the Poor Knights' second replication. The complaint of the Poor Knights to King Richard II. A petition of the Poor Knights to the king and parliament for a repeal of the act of incorporation, A. 22 Edw. IV. The petition of the Poor Knights of Windsor to George II., Jan. 28, 1735. This petition was drawn up by Mr. Fortescue, {295} afterwards Master of the Rolls. The Poor Knights' rejoinder to their former petition. The memorial of the Poor Knights to John Willes, Esq., Attorney-General. Another petition to J. Willes, Esq. Copy of an indenture between Queen Elizabeth and the Dean and Chapter of Lands, to the value of 600l. a year and upwards, for the maintenance of the Poor Knights, 1 Eliz. Orders and rules for the establishment and good government of the said thirteen Poor Knights. The case of the Poor Knights (printed), with several other papers relating to them.]

"Elijah's Mantle."—Who was the author of Elijah's Mantle? And are there any grounds for ascribing it to Canning?

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

[This poem was attributed to Canning, as noticed by Mr. Bell, in his Life of George Canning, p. 206. He says, "Mr. Canning's reputation was again put into requisition as sponsor for certain verses that appeared at this time in the public journals. The best of these is a piece called Elijah's Mantle."]

* * * * *

Replies.

MILTON AND MALATESTI.

(Vol. ii., p. 146.; Vol. viii., p. 237.)

When I gave some account of La Tina of Antonio Malatesti, and its dedication to Milton, two years since, I was not aware that it had been printed, as I had no other edition of Gamba's Serie dell' Edizioni de' Testi di Lingua, than the first printed in 1812. That account was derived from the original MS. which formerly passed through my hands. I fear that my friend MR. BOLTON CORNEY will be disappointed if he should meet with a copy of the printed book, for the MS. contained no other dedication than the inscription on the title-page, of which I made a tracing. It represents an inscribed stone tablet, in the following arrangement:

"LA Tina Equiuoci Rusticali di Antonio Malatesti cō- posti nella sua Villa di Taiano il Settembre dell' L'Anno, 1637.

Sonetti Ciquanta Dedicati all' Ill^{mo} Signore Et Padrone Oss^{mo} Il Signor' Giouanni Milton Nobil' Inghilese."

I copied at the time eight of these equivocal sonnets, and in my former notice gave one as a specimen. They are certainly very ingenious, and may be "graziosissimi" to an Italian ear and imagination; but I cannot think that the pure mind of Milton would take much delight in obscene allusions, however neatly wrapped up.

Milton seems to have dwelt with pleasure on his intercourse with these witty, ingenious, and learned men, during his two-months' sojourn at Florence; and it is remarkable that Nicolas Heinsius has spoken of the same men, in much the same terms, in his dedication to Carlo Dati of the second book of his Italici Componimenti:

"Sanctum mehercules habebo semper Jo. Bapt. Donij memoriam, non tam suo nomine (et si hoc quoque) aut quod Frescobaldos, Cavalcantes, Gaddios, Cultellinos, alios urbis vestrae viros precipuos mihi conciliarit, quorum amicitiam feci hactenus, et faciam porro maximi, quam quod tibi me conjunxerit, mi Date; cujus opera in notitiam, ac familiaritatem plurimorum apud vos hominum eximiorum mox irreperem."

And, after mentioning others, he adds:

"Quid de Valerio Chimentellio, homine omni literatura perpolita, dicam? Quid de Joanne Pricaeo? qui ingens civitati vestrae ornamentum ex ultima nuper accessit Britannia."

One feels some decree of disappointment at not meeting here with the name of Milton.

Of the distinguished men mentioned by Milton, some interesting notices occur in that curious little volume, the Bibliotheca Aprosiana. Benedetto Buommattei and Carlo Dati are well known from their important labours; and of the others there are scattered notices in Rilli Notizie degli Uomini Illustre Fiorentine, and in Salvini Fasti Consolari dell' Accademia Fiorentina. I have an interesting little volume of Latin verses by Jacopo Gaddi, with the following title Poetica Jacobi Gaddii Corona e Selectis Poematiis, Notis Allegoriis contexta, Bononiae, 1637, 4to.

There is a good deal of ingenious and pleasing burlesque poetry extant by Antonio Malatesti. I have before mentioned his Sphinx: of this I have a dateless edition, apparently printed about the middle of the last century at Florence: the title is La Sfinge Enimmi del Signor Antonio Malatesti. Commendatory verses are prefixed by Chimentelli, Coltellini, and Galileo Galilei. The last, from the celebrity of the writer, may deserve the small space it will occupy in your pages. It is itself an enigma:

"DEL SIGNOR GALILEO GALILEI SONETTO. Mostro son' io piu strano, e piu difforme, Che l'Arpia, la Sirena, o la Chimera; Ne in terra, in aria, in acqua e alcuna fiera, Ch' abbia di membra cosi varie forme. Parte a parte non ho che sia conforme, Piu che s' una sia bianca, e l' altra nera; Spesso di Cacciator dietro ho una schiera, Che de' miei pie van ritracciando l' orme. Nelle tenebre oscure e il mio soggiorno; Che se dall' ombre al chiaro lume passo, Tosto l' alma da me sen fugge, come Sen fugge il sogno all' apparir del giorno, E le mie membra disunito lasso, E l' esser perdo con la vita, e l nome."

{296}

Three more sonnets by this illustrious man are printed by Salvini in his Fasti, of which he says:

"I quali esendo parto di si gran mente, mi concedera la gloria il benigno lettore, che io, ad honore della Toscana Poesia, gli esponga il primo alla publica luce."

Dr. Fellowes was not singular in confounding Dati and Deodati; it has been done by Fenton and others: but that Dr. Symmons, in his Life of Milton (p. 133.), should transform La Tina into a wine-press, is ludicrously amusing. La Tina is the rustic mistress to whom the sonnets are supposed to be addressed; and every one knows that rusticale and contadinesca is that naive and pleasing rustic style in which the Florentine poets delighted, from the expressive nature of the patois of the Tuscan peasantry; and it might have been said of Malatesti's sonnets, as of another rustic poet:

"Ipsa Venus laetos jam nunc migravit in agros Verbaque Aratoris Rustica discit Amor."

I may just remark that the Clementillo of Milton should not be rendered Clementini, but Chimentelli. As Rolli tells us,—

"Clementillus fu quel Dottore Valerio Chimentelli di cui leggesi una vaghissima Cicalata nel sesto volume delle Prose Fiorentine."

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham.

* * * * *

ATTAINMENT OF MAJORITY.

(Vol. viii., pp. 198. 250.)

I greatly regret that there should be anything in the matter or manner of my Query on this subject to induce MR. DE MORGAN to reply to it more as if repelling an offence, than assisting in the investigation of an interesting question on a subject with which he is supposed to be especially conversant. I can assure him that I had no other object in writing ninth numerically instead of literally, or in omitting the words he has restored in brackets, or in italicising two words to which I wished my question more particularly to refer, than that of economising space and avoiding needless repetition; and in the use of the word "usage" rather than "law," of which he also complains, I was perhaps unduly influenced by the title of his own treatise, from which I was quoting. But however I may have erred from exact quotation, it is manifest I did not misunderstand the sense of the passage, since MR. DE MORGAN now repeats its substance in these words,—

"I cannot make out that the law ever recognised a day of twenty-four hours, beginning at any hour except midnight."

This is clearly at direct issue with Ben Jonson, whose introduced phrases, "pleaded nonage," "wardship," "pupillage," &c., seem to smack too much of legal technology to countenance the supposition of poetic license.

But had I not accidentally met with an interesting confirmation of Ben Jonson's law of usage, or usage of law, I should not have put forth my Query at all, nor presumed to address it to PROFESSOR DE MORGAN; my principal reason for so doing being that the interest attaching to discovered evidence of a forgotten usage in legal reckoning, must of course be increased tenfold if it should appear to have been unknown to a gentleman of such deep and acknowledged research into that and kindred subjects.

In a black-letter octavo entitled A Concordancie of Yeares, published in and for the year 1615, and therefore about the very time when Ben Jonson was writing, I find the following in chap. xiii.:

"The day is of two sorts, natural and artificiall: the natural day is the space of 24 hours, in which time the sunne is carried by the first Mover, from the east into the west, and so round about the world into the east againe."

"The artificiall day continues from sunne-rising to sunne-setting: and the artificiall night is from the sunne's setting to his rising. And you must note that this natural day, according to divers, hath divers beginnings: As the Romanes count it from mid-night to mid-night, because at that time our Lorde was borne, being Sunday; and so do we account it for fasting dayes. The Arabians begin their day at noone, and end at noone the next day; for because they say the sunne was made in the meridian; and so do all astronomers account the day, because it alwayes falleth at one certaine time. The Umbrians, the Tuscans, the Jewes, the Athenians, Italians, and Egyptians, do begin their day at sunne-set, and so do we celebrate festivall dayes. The Babylonians, Persians, and Bohemians begin their day at sunne-rising, holding till sunne-setting; and so do our lawyers count it in England."

Here, at least, there can be no supposition of dramatic fiction; the book from which I have made this extract was written by Arthur Hopton, a distinguished mathematician, a scholar of Oxford, a student in the Temple; and the volume itself is dedicated to "The Right Honourable Sir Edward Coke, Knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of England," &c.

A. E. B.

Leeds, Sept. 10.

* * * * *

JOHN FREWEN.

(Vol. viii., p. 222.)

He is supposed to have been the son of Richard Frewen, of Earl's Court in Worcestershire, and was born either at that place or in its immediate vicinity in the early part of the year 1558. Richard Frewen purchased the presentation to Northiam rectory, in Sussex, of Viscount Montague, and presented John Frewen to it in Nov. 1583; and {297} he continued to hold that living till his death, which took place at the end of April, 1628. He was buried in the chancel of his own church, May 2nd; and a plain stone on the floor, with an inscription, marks the place of his interment. He was a learned and pious Puritan divine, and wrote:

1. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions and necessary Doctrine meete to edify in the feare of God." 1587, 18mo.

2. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions for the generall Cause of Reformation against the Slanders of the Pope and League, &c." 1589, small 4to.

3. He edited and wrote the preface to—

"A Courteous Conference with the English Catholickes Romane, about the Six Articles administered unto the Seminarie Priestes, wherein it is apparently proved by theire own divinitie, and the principles of their owne religion, that the Pope cannot depose her Majestie, or release her subjects of their alleageance unto her, &c.; written by John Bishop, a recusant Papist." 1598. Small 4to.

4. "Certaine Sermons on the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 verses of the Eleventh chapter of S. Paule his Epistle to the Romanes." 1612, 12mo.

5. "Certaine choise Grounds and Principles of our Christian Religion." 1621, 12mo.

6. A large unpublished work in MS. entitled "Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion," left unfinished (probably age and infirmity prevented him from completing it): it consisted of seven books, of which two only (the fourth and fifth, of 95 and 98 folio pages respectively) have been preserved.

John Frewen had three wives, and by each of the first two several children, of whom the following lived to grow up, viz. by Eleanor his first wife, (1.) Accepted Frewen, Archbp. of York; (2.) Thankful F., Purse Bearer and Secretary of Petitions to Lord Keeper Coventry; (3.) John F., Rector of Northiam; (4.) Stephen F., Alderman of the Vintry Ward, London; (5.) Mary, wife of John Bigg of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; (6.) Joseph F. By his second wife, Helen, daughter of —— Hunt, J. F. had (7.) Benjamin, Citizen of London; (8.) Thomas F.; (9.) Samuel, Joseph, Thomas, and Samuel joined Cromwell's army for invading Ireland; and one of them (Captain Frewen) fell at the storming of Kilkenny; another of them died at Limerick of the plague, which carried off General Freton; the other (Thomas) founded a family at Castle Connel, near Limerick.

John Frewen's Sermons in 1612 are in some respects rare; but the following copies are extant, viz. one in the Bodleian at Oxford; one in the University Library at Cambridge; one in possession of Mr. Frewen at Brickwall, Northiam; and one sold by Kerslake of Bristol, for 7s. 6d., to the Rev. John Frewen Moor, of Bradfield, Berks.

If R. C. WARDE, of Kidderminster, has a copy which he would dispose of, he may communicate with T. F., Post-office, Northiam, who would be glad to purchase it.

J. F.

* * * * *

"VOIDING KNIFE," "VOIDER," AND "ALMS-BASKET."

(Vol. vi., pp. 150. 280.; Vol. viii., p. 232.)

In later times (the sixteenth century) the good old custom of placing an alms-dish on the table was discontinued, and with less charitable intentions came the less refined custom of removing the broken victuals after a meal by means of a voiding-knife and voider: the latter was a basket into which were swept by a large wand, usually of wood, or voiding-knife, as it was termed, all the bones and scraps left upon the trenchers or scattered about the table. Thus, in the old plays, Lingua, Act V. Sc. 13.: "Enter Gustus with a voiding-knife;" and in A Woman killed with Kindness, "Enter three or four serving men, one with a voider and wooden knife to take away."

The voider was still sometimes called the alms-basket, and had its charitable uses in great and rich men's houses: one of which was to supply those confined in gaols for debt, and such prisoners as had no means to purchase any food.

In Green's Tu Quoque, a spendthrift is cast into prison; the jailer says to him:

"If you have no money, you had best remove into some cheaper ward; to the twopenny ward, it is likeliest to hold out with your means; or, if you will, you may go into the hole, and there you may feed for nothing."

To which he replies:

"Ay, out of the alms-basket, where charity appears in likeness of a piece of stinking fish."

Even this poor allowance to the distressed prisoners passed through several ordeals before it came to them; and the best and most wholesome portions were filched from the alms-basket, and sold by the jailers at a low price to people out of the prison. In the same play it is related of a miser, that—

"He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these four-and-twenty years, but always cozened the poor prisoners, for he brought his victuals out of the alms-basket."

In the ordinances of Charles II. (Ord. and Reg. Soc. Ant. 367.), it is commanded—

"That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away my meat or wine from the table, or out of the chamber, upon any pretence whatsoever; and that the gentlemen-ushers take particular care herein, that all the meate that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates be put into a basket for the poore, and not undecently eaten by any servant in the roome; and if any person shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited {298} immediately to remaine in the chamber, or to come there again, until further order."

The alms-basket was also called a maund, and those who partook of its contents maunders.

W. CHAFFERS.

Old Bond Street.

* * * * *

THE LETTER "H" IN HUMBLE.

(Vol. viii., p. 229.)

The recent attempt to introduce a mispronunciation of the word humble should be resisted by every one who has learned the plain and simple rule of grammar, that "a becomes an before a vowel or a silent h." That the rule obtained a considerable time ago, we have only to look into the Book of Common Prayer to prove, where the congregation are exhorted to come "with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart," and I believe it will be admitted that the compilers of that work fully understood the right pronunciation.

It may assist to settle the question by giving the etymology of the word humble. It is derived from the Celtic uim, the ground, Latin humus. Umal in Celtic is humble, lowly, obedient; and the word signifies the bending of the mind or disposition, just as a man would kneel or become prostrate before a superior.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

In the course of a somewhat long life I have resided in the North of England, in the West, and in London, upwards of twenty years each, and my experience is directly the reverse of that of MR. DAWSON. I have very rarely heard the h omitted in humble, and when I have heard it, always considered a vulgarity. The u at the beginning of a word is always aspirated. I believe the only words in which the initial h is not pronounced are derived from the Latin. If that were the general rule, which, however, it is not, as in habit, herb, &c., still, where h precedes u, it would be pronounced according to the universal rule for the aspiration of u.

E. H.

The letter "h" to be passed unsounded in those words which are of Latin origin.—Try it:

"Ha! 'tis a horrible hallucination To grudge our hymns their halcyon harmonies, When in just homage our rapt voices rise To celebrate our heroes in meet fashion; Whose hosts each heritage and habitation, Within these realms of hospitable joy, Protect securely 'gainst humiliation, When hostile foes, like harpies, would annoy. Habituated to the sound of h In history and histrionic art, We deem the man a homicide of speech, Maiming humanity in a vital part, Whose humorous hilarity would treat us, In lieu of h, with a supposed hiatus."

* *.

* * * * *

SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

(Vol. viii., p. 220.)

I have great pleasure in removing from the mind of your correspondent an erroneous impression which must materially affect his good opinion of a school to which I am sincerely attached. He asks if in any of the public schools there are libraries of books giving general information accessible to the scholars. Now my information only refers to one, that of Eton. There is a library at Eton consisting of some thousand volumes, filled with books of all kinds, ancient and modern, valuable and valueless. It is open to the 150 first in the school on payment of eighteen shillings per annum, and on their refusal the option of becoming subscribers descends to the next in gradation. The list, however, is never full. The money collected goes to the support of a librarian, and to buy pens, ink, and paper, and the surplus (necessarily small) to the purchase of books. The basis of the library is the set of Delphin classics, presented by George I. The late head master (now provost) has been a most munificent contributor; Prince Albert has also presented several valuable volumes. Whenever the Prince has come to Eton he has always visited the library, and taken great interest in its welfare; and on his last visit said to the provost that he should be quite ready and willing to obey the call whenever he was asked to lay the first stone of a museum in connexion with the library.

ETONENSIS.

The free grammar school at Macclesfield, Cheshire, has always had a library. It did contain some rare volumes of the olden time; it was at various times more or less supported by a small payment from the scholars. Some years since Mr. Osborn, the then head master, solicited subscriptions from former pupils, and with some success. Of the present state of the school library I know nothing.

EDWARD HAWKINS.

At Winchester there are libraries for the commoners and scholars containing books for general reading: they are under the several charge of the commoner-prefects and the prefect of library, who lend them on application to the juniors.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Christ's Hospital has a library such as inquired after by MR. WELD TAYLOR. The late Mr. Thackeray, of the Priory, Lewisham (who died about two years ago), bequeathed to this school his valuable library of books on general literature for the use of the boys. Previously to this bequest the collection of books was small.

N.

* * * * *

{299}

DR. JOHN TAYLOR.

(Vol. i., p. 466.)

My attention has been caught by some remarks in the early volumes of your work upon my learned ancestor Dr. John Taylor, minister at Norwich, and subsequently divinity tutor at Warrington. Whatever opinion may have been attributed to Dr. Parr concerning Dr. Taylor, this I know, that on revisiting Norwich he desired my father (the Dr.'s grandson) to show him the house inhabited by him while he was the minister of the Octagon Chapel.

Dr. Parr looked serious and solemn, and in his usual energetic manner pronounced, "He was a great scholar."

Dr. John Taylor was buried at Kirkstead[4], Lancashire, where his tomb is distinguished by the following simple inscription:

"Near to this place lies interr'd what was mortal of IOHN TAYLOR, D.D.

Reader, Expect no eulogium from this Stone. Enquire amongst the friends of LEARNING, LIBERTY, AND TRUTH; These will do him justice. Whilst taking his natural rest, he fell asleep in JESUS, the 5th of March, 1761, Aged 66."

The following inscription, in Latin, was composed by Dr. Parr for a monumental stone erected by grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich:

"Joanni Taylor, S.T.P. Langovici nato Albi ostii in agro Cumbriensi bonis disciplinis instituto Norvici Ad exequendum munus pastoris delecto A.D. 1733. Rigoduni quo in oppido Senex quotidie aliquid addiscens Theologiam et philosophiam moralem docuit Mortuo Tert. non. Mart. Anno Domini MDCCLXI. AEtat. LXVI. Viro integro innocenti pio Scriptori Graecis et Hebraicis litteris probe erudito Verbi divini gravissimo interpreti Religionis simplicis et incorruptae Acerrimo propugnatori Nepotes ejus et pronepotes In hac Capella Cujus ille fundamenta olim jecerat Monumentum hocce honorarium Poni curaverunt."

S. R.

[Footnote 4: His first appointment, as minister of the Gospel, was at Kirkstead Chapel.]

* * * * *

PORTRAIT OF SIR ANTHONY WINGFIELD.

(Vol. viii., p. 245.)

It is most likely that Q., who inquired relative to a picture of Sir Anthony Wingfield, may occasionally meet with an engraving of this worthy, though the depository of the original portrait is unknown. The tale told Horace Walpole by the housekeeper at the house of the Nauntons at Letheringham, Suffolk, is not correct. Sir Anthony was a favourite of the monarch, and was knighted by him for his brave conduct at Terouenne and Tournay. A private plate of Sir Anthony exists, the original portrait from which it was taken being at Letheringham at the time the engraving was made. The position of the hand in the girdle only indicates the fashion of portraiture at the time, and is akin to the frequent custom of placing one arm a-kimbo in modern paintings.

The Query of your correspondent opens a tale of despoliation perhaps unparalleled even in the days of iconoclastic fury, and but very imperfectly known.

The estate of Letheringham devolved, about the middle of the last century, upon William Leman, Esq., who, being obliged to maintain his right against claimants stating they descended from a branch of the Naunton family who had migrated into Normandy at the end of the preceding century, was placed in a position of considerable difficulty to defend his occupation of the house and lands. I will not say by whom, but in 1770 down came the residence in which the author of the well-known Fragmenta Regalia had resided, and, what is far worse, the Priory Church, which, after the Dissolution, was made parochial, and which was filled with tombs, effigies, and brasses to members of the family—Bovilles, Wingfields, and Nauntons—was also levelled with the ground. It was stated at the time that the sacred edifice had only become dilapidated from age, and that the parishioners were therefore obliged to do something. What was done, however, was no re-edification of the fabric, but its entire destruction, and the erection of a new church. Fortunately, Horace Walpole saw the edifice before the contractor for the new building had cast his "desiring eyes" upon it, and has recorded his impressions in one of his letters. More fortunate still, the late Mr. Gough and Mr. Nichols visited it, and the former employed the well-known topographical draughtsman, the late James Johnson of Woodbridge, Suffolk, to copy some of the effigies, which were afterwards engraved and inserted in the second volume of the Sepulchral Monuments. The zeal of Johnson, however, led him to preserve, by his minute delineation, not only every monument (only two, I think, are given by Gough), but also the interior and exterior of the church, with the {300} position of the tombs. The interior view may be seen among Craven Ord's drawings in the library of the British Museum; and I am happy to say I possess Johnson's original sketches of all the monuments, and of the exterior of the building. A fair idea of the extent of the destruction may be gained by the mention of the fact, that six hundred-weight of alabaster effigies were beaten into powder, and sold to line water-cisterns. Some of the figures were rescued by the late Dr. W. Clubbe, and erected into a pyramid in his garden at Brandeston Vicarage, with this inscription:

"Fuimus. Indignant Reader, these monumental remains are not (as thou mayest suppose) the ruins of Time, but were destroyed in an irruption of the Goths so late in the Christian era as the year 1789. Credite posteri."

JOHN WODDERSPOON.

Norwich.

William Naunton, son and heir of Thomas Naunton (temp. Hen. VII.), and Margery, daughter and heiress of Richard Busiarde, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Anthony Wingfield. Their only child, Henry Naunton, was the father of two sons, viz. Robert the secretary (temp. James I.), whose son died unmarried, and daughter, married to Paul Viscount Bayning, died without issue; and William Naunton (fil. 2^s). His son and heir, who married a Coke, had one daughter, Theophila, married to William Leman (ancestor of the family whose great estates are in search of an owner): their only issue, Theophila, married Thomas Rede, who thereby became possessed of Letheringham in Suffolk, and the whole of the Naunton property. His estates went to his son Robert, who, dying without issue in 1822, left them much diminished to his nephew, the Rev. Robert Rede Cooper, second son of the Rev. Samuel Lovick Cooper and Sarah Leman, youngest daughter, and eventually heiress, of the above Thomas Rede. The Rev. Robert Rede Rede (for he assumed that name) died a few years ago possessed of Ashmans Park, Suff., which was independent of the Naunton property, and of certain heir-looms, the sole remains of the great estates of the "Nauntons of Letheringham," which continue in the possession of the descendants of that family. It is at Ashmans that the portrait inquired for by your correspondent Q. will probably be found. Whether that estate has already been sold by the daughters of the late possessor (four co-heiresses) I am unable to say.

H. C. K.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 223.)

In reference to the article on the barnacle bird in "N. & Q." as above, I send you a paper which I lately put in our local journal (The Tralee Chronicle), containing a collection of notices of the curious errors and gradual correction of them, on the subject of the barnacle. I fear it may be long for your columns, but don't know how to shorten it; nor can I well omit another amusing notice of the subject, to which, since I published it, an intelligent friend called my attention; it is from the Memoirs of Lady Fanshaw:—

"When we came to Calais, we met the Earl of Strafford and Sir Kenelm Digby, with some others of our countrymen; we were all feasted at the Governor's of the castle, and much excellent discourse passed; but, as was reason, most share was Sir Kenelm Digby's, who had enlarged somewhat more in extraordinary stories than might be averred, and all of them passed with great applause and wonder of the French then at table; but the concluding one was—that barnacles, a bird in Jersey, was first a shell-fish to appearance, and from that sticking upon old wood, became in time a bird. After some consideration, they unanimously burst out into laughter, believing it altogether false, and, to say the truth, it was the only thing true he had discoursed with them!—that was his infirmity, tho' otherwise a person of most excellent parts, and a very free bred gentleman."—Lady Fanshaw's Memoirs, pp. 72-3.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

As a tail-piece to the curious information communicated respecting these strange creatures in Vol. i., pp. 117. 169. 254. 340., Vol. viii., pp. 124. 223., may be added an advertisement, extracted from the monthly compendium annexed to La Belle Assemblee, or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, for June, 1807, in the following terms:

"Wonderful natural curiosity, called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or Tree bearing Geese, taken up at sea, on the 12th of January, 1807, by Captain Bytheway, and was more than twenty men could raise out of the water, which may be seen at the Exhibition Rooms, Spring Gardens, from ten o'clock in the morning till ten at night, every day. Admission, one shilling; children half-price.

"The Barnacles which form the present Exhibition, possess a neck upwards of two feet in length, resembling the windpipe of a chicken; each shell contains five pieces, and notwithstanding the many thousands which hang to eight inches of the tree, part of the fowl may be seen from each shell. Sir Robert Moxay, in the Wonders of Nature and Art, speaking of this singularly curious production, says, in every shell he opened he found a perfect sea-fowl, with a bill like that of a goose, feet like those of water-fowl, and the feathers all plainly formed.

"The above wonderful and almost indescribable curiosity, is the only exhibition of the kind in the world."

[mu].

* * * * *

{301}

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Precision in Photographic Processes.—I have for a long period observed, and been much annoyed at the circumstance, that many of your photographic correspondents are very remiss when they favour you with recipes for certain processes, in not stating the specific gravity of the articles used; also, in giving the quantities, in not stating if it is by weight or measure.

To illustrate my meaning more fully, I will refer to Vol. viii., p. 252., where a correspondent, in his albumen process, adds "chloride of barium, 7-1/4 dr." Now, as this article is prepared and sold both in crystals and in a liquid state, it would be desirable to know which of the two is meant before his disciples run the risk of spoiling their paper and losing their time.

How easy would it be to prefix the letter f where fluid oz., dr., or other quantity is meant.

Trusting that this hint may in future induce your correspondents to be as explicit as possible on all points, believe me to be an

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER.

Tent for Collodion.—As I have frequently benefited from the hints of your correspondents, I in my turn hasten to communicate a very simple plan I have contrived for a portable tent for the collodion process, in the hope it may be found to answer with others as well as it has done with me: it is as follows.

Round the legs of my camera stand (a tripod one) I have made a covering for two of the sides, of a double lining of glazed yellow calico, with a few loops at the foot to stake to the ground; the third side is made of thick dark cloth, much wider and larger than to cover the side, which is fastened at one leg of the stand to the calico. The other side is provided with loops to fasten to corresponding buttons on the other leg, and by bending on my knees I can easily pull the dark cloth over my head and back, fasten the loops to the buttons, and then I can perfectly perform any manipulation required, without the risk of any ray of white light entering; and certainly nothing can be more portable.