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

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{333}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

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

* * * * *

No. 206.] SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8. 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:— Page Notes on Newspapers: "The Times," Daily Press &c., by H. M. Bealby 333 "In quietness and confidence shall be your strength," by Joshua G. Fitch 335 Binders of the Volumes in the Harleian Library 335 French Verse, by Thos. Keightley 336 A Spanish Play-bill, by William Robson 336 Shakspeare Correspondence, by Robert Rawlinson, C. Mansfield Ingleby, &c. 336

MINOR NOTES:—Injustice, its Origin—Two Brothers of the same Christian Name—Female Parish Clerk 338

QUERIES:— Descendants of Milton 339 An anxious Query from the Hymmalayas 339

MINOR QUERIES:—"De la Schola de Sclavoni"—Mineral Acids—Richard Geering—Stipendiary Curates—Our Lady of Rounceval—Roden's Colt—Sir Christopher Wren and the Young Carver—Vellum Cleaning—Dionysia in Boeotia—Poll Tax in 1641—Thomas Chester Bishop Of Elphin, 1580—Rev. Urban Vigors—Early English MSS.—Curing of Henry IV.—Standard of Weights and Measures—Parish Clerks' Company—Orange Blossom—Mr. Pepys his Queries—Foreign Medical Education 339

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:—Chandler, Bishop of Durham—Huggins and Muggins—Balderdash—Lovell, Sculptor—St. Werenfrid and Butler's "Lives of the Saints" 341

REPLIES:—

Sir W. Hankford—Gascoigne's Tomb, by Mr. Foss, &c. 342 Translation of the Prayer Book into French 343 Praying to the West 343 Jacob Bobart, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 344 Early Use of Tin.—Derivation of the Name of Britain, by the Rev. Dr. Hincks and Fras. Crossley 344 Yew-trees in Churchyards, by J. G. Cumming, Wm. W. King, &c. 346 Stars are the Flowers of Heaven, by W. Fraser 346 Books burned by the common Hangman, by John S. Burn, &c. 346

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Stereoscopic Angles—Mr. Pumphrey's Process for securing black Tints in Positives 348

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Baskerville the Printer—Lines on Woman—Haulf-naked—Cambridge and Ireland— Autobiographical Sketch—Archbishop Chichely—"Discovery of the Inquisition"—Divining Rod—"Pinece with a stink"— Longevity—Chronograms—Heraldic Notes—Christian Names— "I put a spoke in his wheel"—Judges styled Reverend—Palace at Enfield—Sir John Vanbrugh—Greek Inscription on a Font—"Fierce"—Giving Quarter—Sheriffs of Glamorganshire— "When the maggot bites"—Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages—Bacon's Essays, &c. 349

MISCELLANEOUS:— Notes on Books, &c. 354 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 354 Notices to Correspondents 354 Advertisements 355

* * * * *

Notes.

NOTES ON NEWSPAPERS: "THE TIMES," DAILY PRESS, ETC.

A newspaper, rightly conducted, is a potent power in promoting the well-being of universal man. It is also a highly moral power—for it quickens mind everywhere, and puts in force those principles which tend to lessen human woe, and to exalt and dignify our common humanity. The daily press, for the most part, aims to correct error—whether senatorial, theological, or legal. It pleads in earnest tones for the removal of public wrong, and watches with a keen eye the rise and fall of great interests. It teaches with commanding power, and makes its influence felt in the palace of the monarch, as well as through all classes of the community. It helps on, in the path of honorable ambition, the virtuous and the good. It never hesitates or falters, however formidable the foe. It never crouches, however injurious to itself the free and undisguised utterance of some truths may be. It is outspoken. When the nation requires them, it is bold and fearless in propounding great changes, though they may clash with the expectations of a powerful class. It heeds the reverses to which a nation is subjected, and turns them to good account. It does not abuse its power, and is never menaced. It is unshackled, and therefore has a native growth. It looks on the movements of the wide world calmly, deliberately, and intelligently. We believe the independency of the daily press can never be bribed, or its patronage won by unlawful means. Its mission is noble, and the presiding sentiment of the varied intellect employed upon it is "the greatest good to the greatest number." It never ceases in its operations. It is a perpetual thing: always the same in many of its aspects, and yet always new. It is untiring in its efforts, and unimpeded in its career. We look for it every day with an unwavering confidence, with an almost absolute certainty. Power and freshness are its principal characteristics; and with these it combines a healthy tone, a fearless courage, and an invincible determination. That it has its imperfections, we do not deny—and what agency is {334} without them? It is not free from error, and no estate of the realm can be. The purity of the public press will be increased as Christianity advances. There is no nation in the world which can boast of a press so moral, and so just, as the daily newspaper press of Great Britain. The victories it achieves are seen and felt by all: and when compared with the newspaper press of other countries, it has superior claims to our admiration and regard.

Taking The Times as the highest type of that class of newspapers which we denominate the daily press, these remarks will more particularly apply. The history of such a paper, and its wonderful career, is not sufficiently known, and its great commercial and intellectual power not adequately estimated. The extinction of such a journal (could we suppose such a thing,) would be a public calamity. Its vast influence is felt throughout the civilised world; and we believe that influence, generally speaking, is on the side of right, and for the promotion of the common weal. It is strange that such an organ of public sentiment should have been charged with the moral turpitude of receiving bribes. That it should destroy its reputation, darken its fair fame, and undermine the very foundation of its prosperity, by a course so degrading, we find it impossible to believe. We feel assured it is far removed from everything of the kind: that its course is marked by great honesty of purpose, and its exalted aim will never allow it to stoop to anything so beneath the dignity of its character, and so repugnant to every sense of rectitude and propriety. It is no presumption to assert that, under such overt influences, it remains unmoved and immovable; and to reiterate a remark made in the former part of this article, "its independency can never be bribed, or its patronage won by unlawful means." Looking at it in its colossal strength, and with its omnipotent power (for truth is omnipotent), it may be classed, without any impropriety, among the wonders of the world.

Allow me to give to the readers of "N. & Q." the following facts in connexion with The Times, and on the subject of newspapers generally. They are deserving of a place in your valuable journal. There were sold of The Times on Nov. 19, 1852, containing an account of the Duke of Wellington's funeral, 70,000 copies: these were worked off at the rate of from 10,000 to 12,000 an hour. The Times of Jan. 10, 1806, with an account of the funeral of Lord Nelson, is a small paper compared with The Times of the present day. Its size is nineteen inches by thirteen: having about eighty advertisements, and occupying, with woodcuts of the coffin and funeral car, a space of fifteen inches by nine. Nearly fifty years have elapsed since then, and now the same paper frequently publishes a double supplement, which, with the paper itself, contains the large number of about 1,700 advertisements.[1] 54,000 copies of The Times were sold when the Royal Exchange was opened by the Queen; 44,500 at the close of Rush's trial. 1828, the circulation of The Times was under 7,000 a day; now its average circulation is about 42,000 a day, or 12,000,000 annually.[2] The gross proceeds of The Times, in 1828, was about 45,000l. a year: and, from an article which appeared twelve months ago in its columns, it now enjoys a gross income equal to that of a flourishing German principality.

We believe we are correct when we assert, that there were sold of the Illustrated London News, with a narrative of the Duke's funeral (a double number), 400,000 copies. One newsman is said to have taken 1000 quires double number, or 2000 quires single number: making 27,000 double papers, or 54,000 single papers (twenty-seven papers being the number to a quire), and for which he must have paid 1075l.[3] It is a remarkable fact, that Manchester, with a population of 400,000, has but three newspapers; Liverpool, with 367,000, eleven; Glasgow, with 390,000, sixteen; Dublin, with but 200,000, no less than twenty-two. The largest paper ever known was published some years ago by Brother Jonathan, and called the Boston Notion. The head letters stand two inches high; the sheet measures five feet ten inches by four feet one inch, being about twenty-four square feet; it is a double sheet, with ten columns in each page; making in all eighty columns, containing 1,000,000 letters, and sold for 31/2d. In the good old times, one of the earliest provincial newspapers in the southern part of the kingdom was printed by a man named Mogridge, who used to insert the intelligence from Yorkshire under the head "Foreign News."

It is curious to search a file of old newspapers. It is seldom we have the opportunity of doing so, because we rarely preserve them in consecutive order. It is easy to keep them, and would repay the trouble, and their value would increase as years rolled on. Such reading would be very interesting, and more so than we can at all imagine. It is a history of every day, and a record of a people's sayings and doings. It throws us back on the past, and makes forgotten times live again. Some of the early volumes of The Times newspaper, for instance, would be a curiosity in their {335} way. We should read them with special interest, as reflecting the character of the age in which they appeared, and as belonging to a series exercising a mighty influence in moulding and guiding the commercial and political opinions of this great nation. The preservation of a newspaper, if it be but a weekly one, will become a source of instruction and amusement to our descendants in generations to come.

H. M. BEALBY.

North Brixton.

[Footnote 1: The largest number of advertisements in one paper with a double supplement was in June last, 2,250.]

[Footnote 2: The quantity of paper used for The Times with a single supplement is 126 reams, each ream weighing 92 lbs., or 7 tons weight of paper; with a double supplement, 168 reams.]

[Footnote 3: During the week of the Duke's funeral, there were issued by the Stamp Office to the newspaper press more than 2,000,000 of stamps.]

* * * * *

"IN QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE SHALL BE YOUR STRENGTH."

There is an old house in the "Dom Platz," at Frankfort, in which Luther lived for some years. A bust of him in relief is let into the outer wall; it is a grim-looking ungainly effigy, coarsely coloured, and of very small pretensions as a work of art; but evidently of a date not much later than the time of the great Iconoclast. Round the figure, the following words are deeply cut: "In silentio et in spe, erit fortitudo vestra." Can any of your readers tell me whether any particular circumstance of Luther's life led him to adopt this motto, or otherwise identified it with his name; or whether the text was merely selected by some admirer after his death, to garnish this memorial?

In either case it is not uninteresting to notice, that this passage of Scripture has been employed more than any other as the watchword of that religious movement in the English Church which we are accustomed to associate with Oxford and the year 1833. It forms the motto on the title-page of the Christian Year; it has been very conspicuous in the writings of many eminent defenders of the same school of theology, and it is thus alluded to by Dr. Pusey in the preface to that celebrated sermon on the Eucharist, for which he received the University censure:

"Since I can now speak in no other manner, I may in this way utter one word to the young, to whom I have heretofore spoken from a more solemn place; I would remind them how almost prophetically, sixteen years ago, in the volume which was the unknown dawn and harbinger of the re-awakening of deeper truth, this was given as the watchword to those who should love the truth, 'In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.' There have been manifold tokens that patience is the one great grace which God is now calling forth in our church," &c.

I will not here inquire which of the two great religious revolutions I have mentioned has been more truly characterised by the spirit of this beautiful and striking text, but perhaps some of your readers will agree with me in thinking that the coincidence is at least a note-worthy one; and not the less so, because it was probably undesigned.

JOSHUA G. FITCH.

* * * * *

BINDERS OF THE VOLUMES IN THE HARLEIAN LIBRARY.

In Dr. Dibdin's Bibliographical Decameron, 1817, vol. ii. p. 503., he thus introduces the subject:

"The commencement of the eighteenth century saw the rise and progress of the rival libraries of Harley and Sunderland. What a field, therefore, was here for the display of the bibliopegistic art! Harley usually preferred red morocco, with a broad border of gold, and the fore-edges of the leaves without colour or gilt. Generally speaking, the Harleian volumes are most respectably bound; but they have little variety, and the style of art which they generally exhibit rather belongs to works of devotion."

In a note on the above passage, Dibdin adds:

"I have often consulted my bibliomaniacal friends respecting the name of the binder or binders of the Harleian Library. Had Bagford or Wanley the chief direction? I suspect the latter."

If Dr. Dibdin and his "bibliomaniacal friends" had not preferred the easy labour of looking at printed title-pages to the rather more laborious task of examining manuscripts, they might readily have solved the Query thus raised by referring to Wanley's Autograph Diary, preserved in the Lansdowne Collection, Nos. 771, 772, which proves that the binders employed by Lord Oxford were Christopher Chapman of Duck Lane, and Thomas Elliot. Very many entries occur between January 1719-20 and May 1726, relative to the binding both of manuscripts and books in morocco and calf; and it appears, in regard to the former material, that it was supplied by Lord Oxford himself. Some of these entries will show the jealous care exercised by honest Humphrey Wanley over the charge committed to him.

"25th January, 1719-20. This day having inspected Mr. Elliot's bill, I found him exceedingly dear in all the work of Morocco, Turkey, and Russia leather, besides that of velvet.

"28th January, ——. Mr. Elliot the bookbinder came, to whom I produced the observations I made upon his last bill, showing him that (without catching at every little matter) my Lord might have had the same work done as well and cheaper, by above 31l. He said that he could have saved above eight pounds in the fine books, and yet they should have looked well. That he now cannot do them so cheap as he rated them at; that no man can do so well as himself, or near the rates I set against his. But, upon the whole, said he would write to my Lord upon the subject.

"13th July, 1721. Mr. Elliot having clothed the CODEX AVREVS in my Lord's Morocco leather, took the same from hence this day, in order to work upon it with his best tools; which, he says, he can do with much more convenience at his house than here.

"19th January, 1721-22. Mr. Chapman came, and received three books for present binding. And upon {336} his request I delivered (by order) six Morocco skins to be used in my Lord's service. He desires to have them at a cheap price, and to bind as before. I say that my Lord will not turn leather-seller, and therefore he must bring hither his proposals for binding with my Lord's Morocco skins; otherwise his Lordship will appoint some other binder to do so.

"17th September, 1725. Mr. Elliot brought the parcel I last delivered unto him, but took one back to amend a blunder in the lettering. He said that he has used my Lord's doe-skin upon six books, and that they may serve instead of calf; only the grain is coarser, like that of sheep, and this skin was tanned too much.

"23rd December, 1725. Mr. Chapman came, but I gave him no work; chiding him for being so slow in my Lord's former business, which he had frequently postponed, that he might serve the booksellers the sooner."

[mu].

* * * * *

FRENCH VERSE.

In the Diary of T. Moore I lately read, with some surprise, the following passages:

"Attended watchfully to her [Mdlle Duchesnois] recitative, and find that in nine verses out of ten 'A cobbler there was, and he lived in a stall' is the tune of the French heroics."—April 24, 1821.

"Two lines I met in Athalie; how else than according to the 'Cobbler there was,' &c., can they be repeated?

'N'a pour servir sa cause et venger ses injures, Ni le coeur assez droit, ni les mains assez pures.'"—May 30, 1821.

Now, if this be the mode of reading these lines, I confess all my ideas are erroneous with respect to French poetry. I have always considered that though hemistichs and occasionally whole lines occur in it, which bear a resemblance to the Spanish Versos de Arte Mayor, the anapaestic measure of "A Cobbler" is quite foreign to it. I may, however, be mistaken; and it is in the hope of eliciting information on the subject that I send these few remarks to "N. & Q." Should it appear that I am not wrong, I will on a future occasion endeavour to develop my ideas of the French rhythm; a subject that I cannot recollect to have seen treated in a satisfactory manner in any French work.

Bishop Tegner, the poet of Sweden, seems also to have differed in opinion with Moore respecting the rhythm of French poetry, for he compares it to the dancing of a deaf man, who forms his steps accurate, but who does not keep time. Both are alike mistaken, in my opinion; and their error arises from their judging French poetry by rules that are foreign to it. The rhythm of French verse is peculiar, and differs from that of any other language.

THOS. KEIGHTLEY.

* * * * *

A SPANISH PLAY-BILL.

Though not much a frequenter of theatres of late, I was recently induced, by the flourishing public announcements, to go to Drury Lane Theatre; with the chance, but scarcely in the hope, of seeing what I never yet have seen, a perfect Othello. Alas! echo still answers never yet. But yours are not the pages for dramatic criticism.

As my bill lay before me, I could not help thinking what an execrably bad taste our modern managers show in the extravagant and ridiculous announcement of the splendour of the star you come to contemplate! If Mr. Brooke have great merit, he needs not all this sound of trumpets; if he have it not, he is only rendered the more contemptible by it. I have some of the play-bills of John Kemble's last performances before me, and there is none of this fustian: the fact, the performance, and the name are simply announced. If our taste improves in some respects, it does not in this; it is a retrogression—a royal theatre sinking back into the booth of a fair. Shakspeare's and Byron's texts have been converted into the showman's explanations of panoramas: to what vile uses they may be next applied, there is no guessing. Poor Shakspeare! how I have pitied him, and you too, Mr. Editor, as I have seen him for so many months undergoing the operation of the teazle in "N. & Q.!" I hope there will be soon an end of this "skimble stuff," "signifying nothing."

But my observation upon the Drury Lane play-bill reminded me of one I have in my common-place book; and, as a correspondent and reader of "N. & Q.," I think it my duty to send it:

A Spanish Play-bill, exhibited at Seville, 1762.

"To the Sovereign of Heaven—to the Mother of the Eternal World—to the Polar Star of Spain—to the Comforter of all Spain—to the faithful Protectress of the Spanish Nation—to the Honour and Glory of the Most Holy Virgin Mary—for her benefit, and for the Propagation of her Worship—the company of Comedians will this day give a representation of the Comic Piece called—

NANINE.

The celebrated Italian will also dance the Fandango, and the Theatre will be respectably illuminated."

WILLIAM ROBSON.

Stockwell.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

The Meteorology of Shakspeare.—A treatise might be written on meteorology, and might be illustrated entirely by passages taken from the writings of "the world's greatest poet." "N. & Q." may not be the fitting medium for a lengthened treatise, but it is the most proper depository of a few loose Notes on the subject. {337} Those who study Shakspeare should, to understand him, thoroughly study Nature at the same time: but to our meteorology. Recent observers have classified clouds as under:

___________ Howard's Latin Foster's English Local Names. Nomenclature. Names. ___ ____ ____ Cumulus. Stackencloud. Woolbag. Cirrus. Curlcloud. Goatshair, Grey Stratus. Fallcloud. Marestails. Nimbus. Raincloud. ___ ____ ____

There are composite forms of cloud, varieties of the above, which need not be noticed here. The Cumulus is the parent cloud, and produces every other form of cloud known, or which can exist. Mountain ranges and currents of air of unequal temperatures may produce visible vapour, but not true cloud.

Cumulus. This cloud is always formed at "the dew point." The vapour of the lower atmosphere, at this elevation, is condensed, or rendered visible. In fog the dew point is at the surface of the earth; in summer it may be several thousands of feet above. The Cumulus cloud forms from below. The invisible vapour of the lower atmosphere is condensed, parts with its thousand degrees of latent heat, which rush upwards, forcing the vapour into the vast hemispherical heaps of snowy, glittering clouds, which, seen in midday, appear huge mountains of clouds; the "cloud-land" of the poet, floating in liquid air. The Cumulus cloud is ever changing in form. Cumulating from a level base, the top is mounting higher and higher, until the excessive moisture is precipitated in heavy rain, hail, or thunder showers.

The tops of the Cumulus, carried away by the upper equatorial currents, form the Cirrus clouds, which clouds must be frozen vapour, as they are generally from twenty to thirty thousand feet above the level of the sea. The base of the Cumulus is probably never more, in England, than five thousand feet high, rarely this. The Nimbus is the Cumulus shedding its vapour in rain; and the Stratus is the partially exhausted and fading Nimbus.

Poets in all ages have watched the clouds with interest; and Shakspeare has not only correctly described them, but has, in metaphor, used them in some of his sublimest passages. Ariel will "ride on the curled clouds" to Prospero's "strong bidding task" that is, ride on the highest Cirrus cloud, in regions impassable to man. How admirably the raining Cumulus (Nimbus cloud) is described in the same play:

"Trinculo. Here's neither bush[4] nor shrub, to bear off any weather at all, and another storm brewing. I hear it sing i' the wind: yond' same black cloud, yond' huge one, looks like a foul[5] bumbard that would shed his liquor ...

... Yond' same cloud cannot choose but fall by pailfuls."

Hamlet points to a changing Cumulus cloud, when he says to Polonius, "Do you see that cloud, that almost in shape like a camel?"

"Pol. By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks it is like a weasel. Pol. It is back'd like a weasel. Ham. Or like a whale? Pol. Very like a whale."

But the finest cloud passage in the whole range of literature is contained in Antony and Cleopatra, painting, as it does, the fallen and wasting state of the emperor (Act IV. Sc. 12.):

"Ant. Eros, thou yet behold'st me? Eros. Ay, noble lord! Ant. Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish: A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion, A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon't, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air. Thou hast seen these signs: They are black vesper's pageants. Eros. Ay, my lord. Ant. That which is now a horse, even with a thought, The rack dislimns; and makes it indistinct, As water is in water. Eros. It does, my lord. Ant. My good knave, Eros, now thy captain is Even such a body: here I am Antony; Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave."

Those who wish to understand this sublime passage must watch a bank of Cumulus clouds at the western sky on a summer's evening. The tops of the clouds must not be more than five or ten degrees above the apparent horizon. There must also be a clear space upwards, and the sun fairly set to the last stages of twilight. It will then be comprehended as to what is meant by "black vesper's pageants," and Warton and Knight will no more mislead by their note. It is only at "black vespers" that such a pageant can be seen, when the liberated heat of the Cumulus cloud is forcing the vapour into the grand or fantastic shapes indicated to the poet's eye and mind.

How truly does Antony read his own condition in the changing and perishable clouds. Shakspeare names or alludes to the clouds in more than one hundred passages, and the form of cloud is ever correctly indicated. Who does not remember the {338} passages in Romeo and Juliet? Much more might be written on this subject.

ROBERT RAWLINSON.

[Footnote 4: Bush, not brush, as misprinted in Knight's edition.]

[Footnote 5: Foul. Surely this ought to be full. A foul bumbard might be empty. "Foulness" and "shedding his liquor" are not necessarily contingent; but fulness and overflowing are. A full vessel, shaken, cannot choose "but shed his liquor."]

* * * * *

At the Hull meeting of the British Association, Mr. Russell, farmer, Kilwhiss, Fife, read a paper on "The Action of the Winds which veer from the South-west to West, and North-west to North." This he wound up by a reference to Shakspeare, which may be worthy of noting:

"In concluding, I cannot help remarking that this circuit of the wind from SW. by W. to NW. or N., from our insular position, imparts to our climate its fickleness and inconstancy. How often will our brightest sky become suffused by the blackest vapours on the slightest breach of SW. wind, and the clouds will then disappear as speedily as they formed, when the NW. upper current forces their stratum of moist air to rise and mingle with the dryer current above. I do not know who first noticed and recorded this change of the wind from SW. to NW., but the regularity of the phenomenon must teach us that the law which it obeys is part of a grand system, and invites us to trace its action. I do not think it will be out of place to point out the fact that the great English poet seems to have been quite familiar with this feature of our weather, not only in its most striking manifestations in the autumn and winter months, to which he especially refers, but even in its more pleasant aspects of summer. Shakspeare likens the wind in this shifting to an individual who pays his addresses in succession to two fair ones—first he wooes the North, but in courting that frigid beauty a difference takes place, whereupon he turns his back upon her and courts the fair South. You will observe the lines are specially applied to the winter season—

'And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence, Turning this face to the dew-dropping south.'

—I am not aware that the philosophic truth contained in these lines has ever before been pointed out. The beautiful lines which the poet, in his prodigality, put into the mouth of one of his gay frolicsome characters, the meaning of them he no doubt thought might have been understood by every one; but his commentators do not seem to have done so. In some editions turning his side has been put for face, which is feeble and unmeaning. And I do not think the recent emendation by Mr. Collier on the text is any improvement, where tide is substituted for face, which impairs both the beauty and harmony of the metaphor."

ANON.

* * * * *

A Word for "the Old Corrector."—Allow me, as an avowed enemy to "the Old Corrector's" novelties, render "the Great Unknown" one act of justice. I am convinced there are but two practically possible hypotheses, on which to account for the MS. emendations: either the emendations were for the most part made from some authoritative document, or they are parts of a modern fabrication. No third supposition can be reasonably maintained. MR. KNIGHT'S view, for example, gives no account of the immense number of coincidences with the conjectural emendations of the commentators. Whichever of the two hypotheses be the true one, I need hardly say that MR. COLLIER'S name is a sufficient guarantee for all honorable dealing, so far as he is connected with the MS. corrections.

Permit me farther to do an act of justice to MR. COLLIER himself. In my note on a passage in The Tempest, I stated that Mr. Collier had overlooked a parallel passage in Richard II. It was I who had overlooked MR. COLLIER'S supplemental note. However, I must add, that how MR. COLLIER could persuade himself to print heat for "cheek," in his "monovolume edition," after he had seen the passage in Richard II., is utterly beyond my power of comprehension.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

Injustice, its Origin.—In looking through a file of papers a few days since, I met with the following as being the origin of this term, and would ask if it is correct?

"When Nushervan the Just was out on a hunting excursion, his companions, on his becoming fatigued, recommended him to rest, while they should prepare him some food. There being no salt, a slave was dispatched to the nearest village to bring some. But as he was going, Nushervan said, 'Pay for the salt you take, in order that it may not become a custom to rob, and the village ruined.' They said, 'What harm will this little quantity do?' He replied, The origin of injustice in the world was at first small, but every one that came added to it, until it reached its present magnitude.'"

W. W.

Malta.

Two Brothers of the same Christian Name.—An instance of this occurs in the family of Croft of Croft Castle. William Croft, Esq., of Croft Castle, had issue Sir Richard Croft, Knight, his son and heir, the celebrated soldier in the wars of the Roses, and Richard Croft, Esq., second son, "who, by the description of Richard Croft the Younger, received a grant of lands" in 1461. (Retrospective Review, 2nd Series, vol. i. p. 472.)

TEWARS.

Female Parish Clerk.—In the parish register of Totteridge appears the following:

"1802, March 2. Buried, Elizabeth King, widow, for forty-six years clerk of this parish, in the ninety-first year of her age."—Burn on Parish Registers, 110.

Is there any similar instance on record of a woman being a parish clerk?

Y. S. M.

* * * * *

{339}

Queries.

DESCENDANTS OF MILTON.

It is well known that the issue of the poet became extinct in 1754, unless they survived in the descendants of Caleb Clarke, the only son of Milton's third daughter, Deborah. Caleb Clarke went out to Madras, and was parish clerk at Fort St. George from 1717 to 1719. In addition to a daughter, who died in infancy, he had two sons, Abraham and Isaac; of neither of whom is anything known, except that the former married a person of the same surname as himself; and had a daughter Mary, baptised in 1727. Sir James Mackintosh made some ineffectual attempts to trace them, and came to the conclusion that they had migrated to some other part of India.

I am perhaps catching at a straw: but it is possible there may be something more than a coincidence in the name of Milton Clark, who is spoken of in the fourth chapter of the Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin as brother to Lewis Clark, the original of the character of George Harris. Perhaps some of your transatlantic friends can inform us:

1st. Whether there is, or has been, in use any system of assigning names to slaves, which would account for their bearing the Christian and surname of their owners or other free men, and thus lead to the inference that there has been some free man of the name of Milton Clark.

2nd. Whether there is any family in America of the name of Clark, in which Milton, or even Abraham or Isaac, is known to have been adopted as a Christian name; and, if so, whether there is any tradition in the family of migration from India.

J. F. M.

* * * * *

AN ANXIOUS QUERY FROM THE HYMMALAYAS.

I was honoured, a few days ago, with a communication from India, which contains a Query that is out of my power to answer. But being very solicitous to do my best towards affording the desired information, I bethought myself of sending the letter, in extenso, for insertion in your very valuable and exceedingly useful miscellany. I venture to think that you will agree with me, that the interesting nature of the communication entitles it to a place in "N. & Q." As the letter speaks for itself, I shall say no more about it, but proceed to transcribe the greatest part of it at once.

"Landour Academy, May 26th, 1853.

"Rev. M. Margoliouth,

"Sir,—I do not know in what terms to apologise to you for this communication, especially as it may entail trouble on you, which can result in my advantage alone.

"I am a Jew, believing that Jesus is the Messiah; and I trust this will induce you to assist me in my search after some of my relations whom I believe to be in England.

"I wrote to Dr. Adler, Chief Rabbi of the Jews in England, some years ago, but his information was limited to some distant connexions, the Davises, Isaacs, and Lewises, who still professed Judaism. Subsequent inquiries discovered two uncles of mine, Charles Lewes and Mordan Lewes, in London, who informed me that my grandfather, Isaac Levi, was for ten years a clergyman of the Church of England, and had congregation at Lynn, in Norfolk, and that he had published a tract against Judaism. Beyond this I can get no farther information: my uncles are either too poor or unwilling to prosecute their inquiries any farther. Could you ascertain for me whether my grandfather left any family, and if any member is still alive? My object is to discover their existence, and to renew a correspondence which has been interrupted for more than forty years.

"I am the grandson of Isaac Levi, for many years dead, reader of a congregation of Jews in London; my father, Benjamin Levi, is still alive, and is with me. I keep a school at Landour, in the Hymmalayas, in the north-western provinces of India. I have been led to write to you after reading your Pilgrimage to the Land of My Fathers, and seeing in it that you are the author of a work entitled The Jews in Great Britain, which I have not seen, and concluding from this that if any one can obtain information you can.

"I send this letter to Messrs. Smith and Elder, booksellers, of Cornhill, London, with a request to send it to you through your publisher, Mr. R. Bentley," &c. &c.

I do not feel justified in publishing the last two paragraphs in my correspondent's letter, and have therefore omitted them. I shall feel extremely obliged to any of the readers of "N. & Q." who could and would help me to answer the anxious Query from the Hymmalayas.

M. M.

Wybunbury, Nantwich.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

"De la Schola de Sclavoni."—On a large marble slab at North Stoneham, near Southampton, is the following, inscription:

Ano Dni MCCCCLXXXI Sepvltvra de la Schola de Sclavoni."

Is this the burial-place of the family of one of the foreign merchants settled in this country, and can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." give any information about it?

JOHN S. BURN.

Mineral Acids.—As it is generally supposed that these powerful solvents were not known anterior to circiter A.D. 1100, I should be glad to learn what opinion is entertained by the learned concerning {340} the death of the prophet Haken al Mokannah. This person is said to have disappeared in 785, or 163 of the Hejrah, by casting himself into a barrel of corrosive fluids, which dissolved his body. Is it not the best supposition, that this story was supposed by Khondemir and others, in more advanced ages of science, to account for the fact of his having disappeared, and of his real fate having never been ascertained? I have never seen this apparent anticipation of chemical discoveries animadverted on.

A. N.

Richard Geering.—Wanted, arms, pedigree, and particulars of the family of Richard Geering, one of the six clerks in Chancery in Ireland from March 1700 to April 1735. One of his daughters, Prudence, married, in 1722, Charles Coote, Esq., M.P., and by him was mother of the last Earl of Bellamont. Another daughter, Susannah, was wife of Mr. Charles Wilson; who was, it is believed, a connexion of the family of Ward of Newport, in Shropshire. Any information about Mr. Wilson's ancestry would be very acceptable.

Y. S. M.

Stipendiary Curates.—What is the earliest mention of stipendiary curates in our ecclesiastical establishment? And what other national churches have priests placed in a corresponding position?

BEROSUS.

Our Lady of Rounceval.—Can you or any of your correspondents furnish me with particulars of our Lady of Rounceval?

A. J. DUNKIN.

Roden's Colt.—A lady of a certain age is said in common parlance to be "Forty, save one, the age of Roden's colt." What can Nimrod tell us touching this proverbialised animal?

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

Sir Christopher Wren and the Young Carver.—A reader has a floating notion in his head of having once read in the Literary Gazette a strange story of a country boy going to town to seek employment as a carver or sculptor; of his being accosted by Sir Christopher Wren, and offering to carve for him a sow and pigs, &c. Can any correspondent have pity on him, and tell him where to find the tale?

A. H.

Vellum Cleaning.—Are there not preparations in use for cleaning the backs of old vellum-bound books without destroying the polish? How made, or where procurable?

J. F. M.

Dionysia in Boeotia.—Can any of your readers refer me to a passage in any ancient author in which this supposed town is mentioned?

Dumersan refers to Diodorus Siculus as his authority for its existence, but my search in that author has been vain, and I am not alone in that respect.

AUGUSTUS LANGDON.

Bloomsbury.

Poll Tax in 1641.—I find in Somers' Tracts, 2nd ed. vol. iv. p. 298.:

"The copy of an order agreed upon in the House of Commons upon Friday, 18th June, wherein every man is rated according to his estate, for the king's use."

Is there on record the return made to this order; and where may it be consulted?

TEWARS.

Thomas Chester, Bishop of Elphin, 1580.—This prelate, who was the second son of Sir William Chester, Kt., Lord Mayor of London in 1560, by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Astwell in Northamptonshire, is said by Anthony a Wood (Athenaae Oxon., ed. Bliss, vol. ii. p. 826.) to have "given way to fate at Killiathar in that city, in the month of June in 1584." The calendars of the Will Office of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury do not contain his name; can any of your Irish contributors inform me whether his will was proved in Ireland? I should be glad to know, too, what will offices exist in Ireland, and from what period they date their commencement. He is said to have married ——, daughter of Sir James Clavering, Kt., of Axwell Park in Northumberland: does any pedigree of the Claverings supply this lady's Christian name? His eldest brother, William Chester, Esq., married his cousin-german Judith, daughter and co-heiress of Anthony Cave, Esq., of Chichley Hall, Bucks, and was ancestor to the extinct family of the baronets of that name and place. Bishop Chester died s. p.

TEWARS.

Rev. Urban Vigors.—Amongst the chaplains of King Charles I., was there one of the name of Vigors, the Rev. Urban Vigors of Taunton? Any particulars of him will be acceptable.

Y. S. M.

Early English MSS.—What is the earliest document, of any historical import to this country, now existing in MS.?

T. HUGHES.

Curing of Henry IV.—The best account of the curing of Hen. IV. from the leprosy: vide Lambard's Dictionary, p. 306.

A. J. DUNKIN.

Standard of Weights and Measures.—I would gladly learn something of the system of weights and measures in other countries, and particularly whether in England and America there exists for this object any government inspection; and if so, how this is executed? A list of works on this subject would be most welcome. I am acquainted only with the works of Ravon, Fabrication des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1843, and of Tarbe, Poids, Mesures et Verification, both found in the Encyclopedie Roret; and the Vollstaendige Darstellung {341} des Masz- and Gewicht-Systems in Grossherzogthum Hessen, by F. W. Grimm, Darmstadt, 1840.—From the Navorscher.

[Phi]. [Phi].

Parish Clerks' Company.—

"In making searches in registers of parishes within the bills of mortality, a facility is afforded by the company of parish clerks; by paying a fee of about two guineas, a circular is sent to all the parish clerks, with the particulars of information required: the registers are accordingly searched, and the result communicated to the clerk of the company."

The above I give from Burn's History of Parish Registers, p. 217. note, published in 1829. Is this the case at present and if so, what is the direction of the clerk of the Company? I wish this system existed in Oxford.

Y. S. M.

Orange Blossom.—Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me why the flowers of the orange blossom are so universally used in the dress of a bride? and from what date they have been so used?

AUGUSTA.

Mr. Pepys his Queries.—I cannot say that I met with Pepys as Fielding did Shakspeare, in a Journey from this World to the next; but I met with seven of his Queries among the Rawlinson MSS. in the Bodleian, addressed to Sir William Dugdale, a name dear to all orthodox antiquaries. It would appear the Secretary to the Admiralty felt the want of a "medium of inter-communication" in his day. Here are his Queries:

1. Whether any foreigners are to be found in our list of English admirals?

2. The reason or account to be given of the place assigned to our admirals in the Act of Precedence?

3. Whether any of the considerable families of our nobility or gentry have been raised by the sea?

4. Some instances of the greatest ransoms heretofore set upon prisoners of greatest quality.

5. The descent and posterity of Sir Francis Drake; and what estate is now in the possession of any of his family derived from him.

6. Who Sir Anthony Ashby was?

7. What are and have been generally the professions, trades, or qualifications, civil or military, that have and do generally raise families in England to wealth and honour in Church and State?

J. YEOWELL.

50. Burton Street.

Foreign Medical Education.—Can any contributor direct me to any sources of information on the regulations concerning medical instruction and medical degrees in the principal universities on the Continent?

MEDICUS.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

Chandler, Bishop of Durham.—Lord Dover, in the second volume of his edition of Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, p. 373., in a note, thus speaks of this prelate:

"A learned prelate and author of various polemical works, he had been raised to the see of Durham in 1730, as it was then said, by symoniacal means."

Can any of your readers inform me where I can obtain evidence of the symoniacal means by which it is said this bishop obtained the bishopric of Durham? One would scarcely think so cautious a man as Lord Dover would refer to the imputation, without some evidence on which his lordship could rely.

Mr. Surtees, in his History of the Bishops of Durham, makes no allusion to the symoniacal means by which Chandler obtained his promotion to the see of Durham. He gives a list of the bishop's printed works, amongst which is a "charge to the grand jury of Durham concerning engrossing of corn, &c., 1740." Can you, or any of your readers, inform me where this pamphlet is to be met with? For I am curious to know how a bishop could make a charge to a grand jury. There must surely be some mistake in the title of the pamphlet.

FRA. MEWBURN.

Darlington.

[The charge of simony is loosely noticed by Shaw in his History of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. 278. He says, "Edward Chandler was translated from Lichfield and Coventry to Durham in 1730; and it was then publicly said that he gave 9000l. for that opulent see." To this Chalmers, in his Biog. Dict., adds, "which is scarcely credible." The Charge by the bishop is in the British Museum: it is entitled, "A Charge delivered to the Grand Jury at the Quarter-Sessions held at Durham, July 16, 1740, concerning engrossing of corn and grain, and the riots that have been occasioned thereby." 4to., Durham.]

Huggins and Muggins.—Can any of your readers assign the origin of this jocular appellation? I would hazard the conjecture, that it may be corruption of Hogen Mogen, High Mightinesses, the style, I believe, of the States-General of Holland; and that it probably became an expression of contempt in the mouths of the Jacobites for the followers of William III., from whence it has passed to a more general application.

F. K.

Bath.

[HUGGER-MUGGER, says Dr. Richardson, is the common way of writing this word, from Udal to the present time. No probable etymology, he adds, has yet been given. Sir John Stoddart (Ency. Metropolitana, vol i. p. 120.) has given a long article on this word, which concludes with the following remarks:—"The last etymology that we shall mention is from the Dutch title, {342} Hoog Moogende (High Mightinesses), given to the States-General, and much ridiculed by some of our English writers; as in Hudibras:

'But I have sent him for a token To your Low-country, Hogen Mogen.'

It has been supposed that hugger-mugger, corrupted from Hogen Mogen, was meant in derision of the secret transactions of their Mightinesses; but it is probable that the former word was known in English before the latter, and upon the whole it seems most probable that hugger is a mere intensitive form of hug, and that mugger is a reduplication of sound with a slight variation, which is so common in cases of this kind."]

Balderdash.—What is the meaning and the etymology of "balderdash?"

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

[Skinner suggests the following etymology: "BALDERDASH, potus mixtus, credo ab A.-S. bald, audax, balder, audacior vel audacius, et nostro dash; miscere, q.d. potus temere mixtus." Dr. Jamieson explains it as "foolish and noisy talk. Islandic, bulldur, stultorum balbuties." Dr. Ogilvie, however, has queried its derivation from the "Spanish balda, a trifle, or baldonar, to insult with abusive language; Welsh, baldorz, to prattle. Mean, senseless prate; a jargon of words; ribaldry; anything jumbled together without judgment."]

Lovell, Sculptor.—What is known of this artist? That he was in advance of the age he flourished in is evinced by his beautifully executed engravings in Love's Sacrifice (fol. Lond. 1652), which for delicacy of work are far beyond anything of the period.

R.C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

[Is the name Lovell, or Loisell? for we find that Strutt, in his Dictionary of Engravers, vol. ii. p. 101., speaks of "P. Loisell having affixed some slight etchings, something in the style of Gaywood (if I mistake not), to Benlowe's Theophilia, or Love's Sacrifice."]

St. Werenfrid and Butler's "Lives of the Saints."—One of your correspondents will perhaps explain the cause of an omission in Butler's Lives of the Saints. The life of St. Werenfrid, whose anniversary is the 14th of August, is abstracted, vol. iii. p. 492. His name occurs in the table of contents: and pages 493 and 494, where the life should have appeared, are wanting; still page 495 follows 492 correctly in type, so that the former must have been reprinted after the castration of the leaf. Was the saint deemed unworthy of the place which had been allotted to him?

J. H. M.

[In the best edition of Butler's Lives (12 vols., 1812-13), the life of St. Werenfrid is given on Nov. 7. He is honored in Holland on the 14th of August; and his life appears in Britannia Sancta on that day, but in the Bollandists on the 28th of August.]

* * * * *

Replies.

SIR W. HANKFORD-GASCOIGNE'S TOMB.

(Vol. viii., p. 278.)

On reading MR. SANSOM'S letter, it occurred to me that I had seen a different account of the master being shot by his park-keeper; and on search I found the following in 1 Hale's P. C. p. 40., which I send, as it may tend to clear up the question:

"In the case of Sir William Hawksworth, related by Baker in his Chronicle of the Time of Edward IV., p. 223. (sub anno 1471), he being weary of his life, and willing to be rid of it by another's hand, blamed his parker for suffering his deer to be destroyed; and commanded him that he should shoot the next man that he met in his park that would not stand or speak. The knight himself came in the night into the park, and being met by the keeper, refused to stand or speak. The keeper shot and killed him, not knowing him to be his master. This seems to be no felony, but excusable by the statute of Malefactores in Parcis."

This account varies from Ritson's in the name "Hawksworth" instead of "Hankford," and the date 1471 instead of 1422. It seems plain that Lord Hale had no idea that the person shot was a judge: and possibly the truth may be, that it was a descendant of the judge that was shot. Even if Hankford's death were in 1422, as stated by Risdon, the traditional account that he caused his own death "in doubt of his safety" does not seem very probable, as Henry V. came to the throne in 1412-13. Probably some of your readers may be able to clear up the matter.

I was at Harewood the other day, and examined a tomb there alleged to be that of the C.-J. Gascoigne. In the centre of the west end of the tomb is a shield: first and fourth, five fleurs-de-lys (France); second and third, three lions passant gardant (England).—May I ask how these arms happen to be on this tomb?

There are several other shields on the tomb, but all are now undistinguishable except one; which appears to be a bend impaling a saltire, as far as I can make it out: the colours are wholly obliterated. The head of the figure has not a coif on it, as I should have anticipated; but a cap fitting very close, and a bag is suspended from the left arm.—Is it known for certain that this is C.-J. Gascoigne's tomb?

S. G. C.

Harrogate.

* * * * *

MR. SANSOM need not have been very much surprised that I should have omitted noticing a tradition concerning Sir William Hankford, when I was merely rectifying an error with reference to Sir William Gascoigne. That I have not overlooked entirely "the Devonshire tradition, which represents Sir William Hankford to be the judge {343} who committed Prince Henry," may be seen in The Judges of England, vol. iv. p. 324., wherein I show the total improbability of the tale. And my disbelief in the story of Hankford's death, and its more probable application to Sir Robert Danby, is already noticed in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 93.

EDWARD FOSS.

* * * * *

TRANSLATION OF THE PRAYER BOOK INTO FRENCH.

(Vol. vii., p. 382.)

In answer to some of the questions proposed by O. W. J. respecting the Prayer Book translated into French, I am able to give this information.

A copy of a French Prayer Book is to be found in the Bodleian Library (Douce Coll.), which is very probably the first edition of the translation. A general account of this book may be gained from Strype's Mem. Eccl. K. Ed. VI. (vol. iii. p. 208. ed. 1816); also Strype's Mem. Abp. Cranmer (b. ii. c. 22. sub fin. and c. 33., and App. 54. and 261.); also Collier's Eccl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 321.

From these sources we may conclude that a translation of the first book of K. Ed. VI. was begun very soon after its publication in England, at the instigation of Pawlet (at that time governor of Calais), with the sanction of the king and the archbishop "for the use of the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and of the town and dependencies of Calais;" but it does not seem to have been completed before the publication of the second book took place, and so the alterations were incorporated into this edition.

The translator was "Francoys Philippe, a servant of the Lord Chancellor" (Thos. Goodrick, Bishop of Ely), as he styles himself. The printer's name is Gaultier. It was put forth in 1553.

There is still extant an "Order in Council" for the island of Jersey, dated April 15, 1550, commanding to "observe and use the service, and other orders appertaining to the same, and to the ministration of the sacraments, set forth in the booke sent to you presentlye." It is uncertain what the book here referred to was, whether a translation or a copy of the English liturgy.

There are copies extant of another liturgy put forth in 1616, purporting to be "newly translated at the command of the king." The printer's name is Jehan Bill, of London. The name of John Bill appears also as king's printer in the English authorised edition of 1662.

Another was published in 1667, by Jean Dunmore and Octavien Pulleyn.

The edition of 1695, published by Erringham (Everingham) and R. Bentley, has the sanction of K. Charles II. appended to it.

Numerous editions have since been published, varying in many important points (even of doctrine) from one another, and from their English original. There is now no authorised edition fit for general use; the older translations having become too antiquated by the variations in the French language to be read in the churches.

M. A. W. C.

* * * * *

PRAYING TO THE WEST.

(Vol. viii., p. 208.)

Although going over old ground, yet, if it be permitted, I would note a curious coincidence connected with this far-spread veneration for the West.

As mentioned by G. W., the Puranas point to the "Sacred Isles of the West" as the elysium of the ancient Hindus, "The White Islands of the West." The Celtae of the European continent believed that their souls were transported to England, or some islands adjacent. (See Encyclopedie Methodique, art. "Antiquites," vol. i. p. 704.) The Celtic elysium, "Flath-Innis," a remote island of the West, is mentioned by Logan in his Celtic Gael, vol. ii. p. 342., who no doubt drew his information from the same source as Professor Rafinesque, whose observations on this subject I transcribe, viz.:

"It is strange but true, that, throughout the earth, the place of departed souls, the land of spirits, was supposed to be in the West, or at the setting sun. This happens everywhere, and in the most opposite religions, from China to Lybia, and also from Alaska to Chili in America. The instances of an eastern paradise were few, and referred to the eastern celestial abode of yore, rather than the future abode of souls. The Ashinists, or Essenians, the best sect of Jews, placed Paradise in the Western Ocean; and the Id. Alishe, or Elisha of the Prophets, the happy land. Jezkal (our Ezekiel) mentions that island; the Phoenicians called it Alizut, and some deem Madeira was meant, but it had neither men nor spirits! From this the Greeks made their Elysium and Tartarus placed near together, at first in Epirus, then Italy, next Spain, lastly in the ocean, as the settlers travelled west. The sacred and blessed islands of the Hindus and Lybians were in this ocean; Wilford thought they meant the British Islands. Pushcara, the farthest off, he says, was Iceland, but may have meant North America.

"The Lybians called their blessed islands 'Aimones;' they were the Canaries, it is said, but likely the Atlantides, since the Atlantes dwelt in the Aimones," &c.

And farther he says, the Gauls had their Cocagne, the Saxons their Cockaign, Cocana of the Lusitanians,—

"A land of delight and plenty, which is proverbial to this day! By the Celts it was called 'Dunna feadhuigh,' a fairy land, &c. But all these notions have earlier foundations, since the English Druids put their paradise in a remote island in the west, called {344} 'Flath-Innis,' the flat island", &c.—American Nations, vol. ii. p. 245. et infra.

The coincidence then is this. The same veneration for the West prevails among many of our Indian tribes, who place their Paradise in an island beyond the Great Lake (Pacific), and far toward the setting sun. There, good Indians enjoy a fine country abounding in game, are always clad in new skins, and live in warm new lodges. Thither they are wafted by prosperous gales; but the bad Indians are driven back by adverse storms, wrecked on the coast, where the remains of their canoes are to be seen covering the strand in all directions.

I cannot refrain from adding here another coincidence connected with futurity. The above idea of sailing to the Indian Paradise, though prevalent, is not general; for instance, the Minnetarees and Mandans believed that to reach Paradise the souls of the departed had to pass over an extremely narrow bridge, which was done safely by the good Indians, but the bad ones slipped off and were buried in oblivion. (See Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, vol. i. p. 259.)

The Chepewa crosses a river on a bridge formed by the body of a large snake (see Long's Expedition to St. Peter's River, vol. i. p. 154.); and in the same volume it is stated that the Dacota, or Sioux, believe they must pass over a rock with a sharp edge like a knife. Those who fall off go to the region of evil spirits, where they are worked, tormented, and frequently flogged unmercifully.

Now, this bridge for gaining Paradise is just the Alsirat of the Mahomedans; I think it will be found in the Bibliotheque Orientale of D'Herbelot; at all events it is mentioned in the preliminary discourse to Sale's Koran. Sale thinks Mahomet borrowed the idea from the Magians, who teach, that on the last day all mankind must pass over the "Pul Chinavad" or "Chinavar," i.e. "The Straight Bridge." Farther, the Jews speak of the "Bridge of Hell," which is no broader than a thread. According to M. Hommaire de Hell, the Kalmuck Alsirat is a bridge of iron (or causeway) traversing a sea of filth, urine, &c. When the wicked attempt to pass along this, it narrows beneath them to a hair's breadth, snaps asunder, and thus convicted they are plunged into hell. (Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, &c., p. 252.)

Having already trespassed most unconscionably, I forbear farther remark on these coincidences, except that such ideas of futurity being found amongst nations so widely separated, cannot but induce the belief of a common origin, or at least of intimate communication at a former period, and that so remote as to have allowed time for diverging dialects to have become, as it were, distinct languages.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

* * * * *

JACOB BOBART.

(Vol. viii., p. 37.)

The completion of a laborious literary work has taken my attention away from the "N. & Q." for some weeks past, otherwise I should sooner have given MR. BOBART the following information.

The engraving of old Jacob Bobart by W. Richardson is not of any value, being a copy from an older print. Query if it is not a copy of the very rare engraving by Loggan and Burghers?

The original print of the "founder of the physick garden," "D. Loggan del., M. Burghers sculp., 1675," which Mr. Bobart wishes to procure, may be purchased of A. E. Evans, 403. Strand, for 2l. 12s. 6d. I also learn from Mr. Evans' invaluable Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits (an octavo of 431 pages, lately published), that there exists a portrait of Bobart, "the classical alma mater coachman of Oxford," whole length, by Dighton, 1808. The same catalogue also contains other portraits of the Bobarts.

Since my last communication on the present subject, I find the following memorandums in one of my note-books, which possibly may be unknown to your correspondent; they relate to MSS. in the British Museum.

Add. MS. 5290. contains 227 folio drawings of various rare plants, the names of which are added in the autograph of Jacob Bobart the elder.

Sloane MS. 4038. contains some letters from Jacob Bobart to Sir Hans Sloane, 1685-1716; also one from Anne Bobart, dated 1701.

Sloane MS. 3343. contains a catalogue of plants and seeds saved at Oxford, by Mr. Bobart, 1695-6.

Sloane MS. 3321., consisting of scientific letters addressed to Mr. Petiver, contains one from Jacob Bobart, and another from Tilleman Bobart. The latter has a letter dated "Blenheim, Feb. 5, 1711-12," to some person unknown, in Sloane MS. 4253.

Tilleman Bobart appears to have been employed in laying out the park and gardens at the Duke of Marlborough's magnificent seat at Blenheim. A member of his original papers and receipts were lately disposed of by auction at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's. (See the sale catalogue of July 22, 1853, lot 1529.)

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

EARLY USE OF TIN.—DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF BRITAIN.

(Vol. viii., p. 290.)

Many questions are proposed by G.W., to which it is extremely improbable that any but a conjectural answer can ever be given. That tin was in common use 2800 years ago, is certain. Probably evidence may be obtained, if it have not been so {345} already, of its use at a still earlier period; but it is unlikely that we shall ever know who first brought it from Cornwall to Asia, and used it to harden copper. It is, however, a matter of interest to trace the mention of this metal in the ancient inscriptions, Egyptian and Assyrian, which have of late years been so successfully interpreted. Mistakes have been made from time to time, which subsequent researches have rectified. It was thought for a long time that a substance, mentioned in the hieroglyphical inscriptions very frequently, and in one instance said to have been procured from Babylon, was tin. This has now been ascertained to be a mistake. Mr. Birch has proved that it was Lapis lazuli, and that what was brought from Babylon was an artificial blue-stone in imitation of the genuine one. I am not aware whether the true hieroglyphic term for tin has been discovered. Mention was again supposed to have been made of tin in the annals of Sargon. A tribute paid to him in his seventh year by Pirhu (Pharaoh, as Col. Rawlinson rightly identifies the name; not Pihor, Boccharis, as I at one time supposed), king of Egypt, Tsamtsi, queen of Arabia, and Idhu, ruler of the Isabeans, was supposed to have contained tin as well as gold, horses, and camels. This, however, was in itself an improbable supposition. It is much more likely that incense or spices should have been yielded by the countries named than tin. At any rate, I have recently identified a totally different word with the name of tin. It reads anna; and I supposed it, till very lately, to mean "rings." I find, however, that it signifies a metal, and that a different word has the signification "rings." When Assur-yuchura-bal, the founder of the north-western palace at Nimrud, conquered the people who lived on the banks of the Orontes from the confines of Hamath to the sea, he obtained from them twenty talents of silver, half a talent of gold, one hundred talents of anna (tin), one hundred talents of iron, &c. His successor received from the same people all these metals, and also copper.

It is already highly probable, and farther discoveries may soon convert this probability to certainty, that the people just referred to (whom I incline strongly to identify with the Shirutana of the Egyptian inscriptions) were the merchants of the world before Tyre was called into existence; their port being what the Greeks called Seleucia, when they attempted to revive its ancient greatness. It is probably to them that the discovery of Britain is to be attributed; and it was probably from them that it received its name.

In G. W.'s communication, a derivation of the name from barat-anac, "the land of tin," is suggested. He does not say by whom, but he seems to disclaim it as his own. I do not recollect to have met with it before; but it appears to me, even as it stands, a far more plausible one than bruit-tan, "the land of tin:" the former term being supposed to be Celtic for tin, and the latter a termination with the sense of land: or than brit-daoine, "the painted (or separated) people."

I am, however, disposed to think that the name is not of Phoenician origin, but was given by their northern neighbours, whom I have mentioned as their predecessors in commerce. These were evidently of kindred origin, and spoke a language of the same class; and I think it all but certain, that in the Assyrian name for tin (anna) we have the name given to it by this people, from whom the Assyrians obtained it. "The land of tin" would be in their language barat (or probably barit) anna, from which the transition to Britannia presents no difficulty. I assume here that b-r-t, without expressed vowels, is a Phoenician term for "land of." I assume it on the authority of the person, whoever he may be, that first gave the derivation that G. W. quotes. I have no Phoenician authority within reach: but I can readily believe the statement, knowing that banit would be the Assyrian word used in such a compound, and that n, r, and b are perpetually interchanged in the Semitic languages, and notoriously so in this very root. Ummi banitiya, "of the mother who produced me," is pure Assyrian; and so would banit-anna, "the producer of tin," be; all names of lands being feminine in Assyrian.

It would be curious if the true derivation of the world-renowned name of Britain should be ascertained for the first time through an Assyrian medium.

EDW. HINCKS.

Killyleagh, Down.

* * * * *

As there are several Queries in the Note of G. W. which the Celtic language is capable of elucidating, I beg to offer a few derivations from that language.

Britain is derived from briot, painted, and tan, a country—i. e. "the country of the painted people." It is a matter of history, that the people of Britain dyed their bodies with various colours.

Tin is from the Celtic tin, to melt readily, to dissolve. It is also called stan: Latin, stannum.

Hercules is from the Phoenician or Celtic, Earr-aclaide, pronounced Er-aclaie, i. e. the noble leader or hero.

Melkarthus is derived from Mal-catair, pronounced Mal-cahir, i. e. the champion or king of the city (of Tyre).

Moloch cannot be identical with the Tyrian Hercules, as Moloch was the god of fire: probably a name for the sun, from the Celtic molc, i. e. fire.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

{346}

YEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS.

(Vol. viii., p. 244.)

Whilst offering a solution to the Query of R. C. WARDE, as to the placing yew-trees in churchyards, I am obliged to differ from him toto coelo, by considering the derivation of the name of the plant itself, though I must candidly confess that the solution of the Query and the derivation of the word are my own.

Yew is ancient British, and signifies existent and enduring, having the same root as Jehovah; and yew is Welsh for it is, being one of the forms of the third person present indicative of the auxiliary verb bod, to be. Hence the yew-tree was planted in churchyards, not to indicate death, despair, but life, hope and assurance. It is one of our few evergreens, and is the most enduring of all, and clearly points out the Christian's hope in the immortality of the soul: Resurgam.

Whilst on the word yew, I may perhaps observe that I am hardly inclined now (though I once was so) to derive from it, as the author of the Etymological Compendium does, the name yeoman: I think that yeoman is not yew-man, "a man using the yew-bow," but yoke-man, a man owning as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a certain time.

J. G. CUMMINGS.

The following extract frown the Handbook of English Ecclesiology, p. 190., may be of some assistance to your correspondent:

"YEW. These were planted generally to the south of the church, to supply green for the decoration of churches at the great festivals; this tree being an emblem of immortality. It is a heathen prejudice which regards it as mournful. It is not probable yews were used as palms; the traditional name given to the withy showing that this was used in the procession on that festival."

WILLIAM W. KING.

Instead of troubling you with a particular answer to MR. WARDE'S inquiry, let me refer him to the Forest Trees of Britain, by the Rev. C. A. Johns, p 297. et seq., where, among many other curious and interesting facts, he will find the various reasons assigned by different authors, ancient and modern, for the plantation of yew-trees in churchyards. I do not find, however, that the origin ingeniously assigned by MR. WARDE is among the number.

[Phi].

I have always supposed, but I know not upon what authority, that the custom of planting yew-trees in churchyards originated in the idea of supplying the yeomen of the parish with bows, in the good old archery days.

IGNORAMUS.

* * * * *

STARS ARE THE FLOWERS OF HEAVEN.

(Vol. vii. passim.)

I sent a Note to "N. & Q" some time ago, expressing my conviction that the original locale of this beautiful idea was in St. Chrysostom. but, as I could not then give a reference to the passage which contained it, my suggestion was of course not definite enough to call for attention. I am now able to vindicate to the "golden-mouthed" preacher of Antioch this expression of poetic fancy, the origination of which has excited, and deservedly, so much inquiry among the readers of "N. & Q." It occurs in Homily X., "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch. I transcribe the passage from the translation in The Library of the Fathers:

"Follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the flowering tribes; all sorts of herbs and their uses, their odours, forms, disposition; yea, but their very names; the trees which are fruitful and the barren; the nature of metals; that of animals, in the sea or on the land; of those that swim and those that traverse the air; the mountains, the forests, the groves; the meadow below and the meadow above; for there is a meadow on the earth, and a meadow too in the sky, THE VARIOUS FLOWERS OF THE STARS; the rose below, and the rainbow above!... Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been preserved so long without being dimmed, and remains as bright and clear as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover the power of the earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so long a time!" &c. Homily X., "On the Statues," pp. 178-9.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

P.S.—Are the following lines, which contain this idea, and were copied long ago from the poet's corner of a provincial paper, with the title of "The Language of the Stars, a fragment," worth preserving?

"The stars bear tidings, voiceless though they are: 'Mid the calm loveliness of the evening air, As one by one they open clear and high, And win the wondering gaze of infancy, They speak,—yet utter not. Fair heavenly flowers Strewn on the floor-way of the angels' bowers! 'Twas HIS own hand that twined your chaplets bright, And thoughts of love are in your wreaths of light, Unread, unreadable by us;—there lie High meanings in your mystic tracery; Silent rebukings of day's garish dreams, And warnings solemn as your own fair beams."

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

(Vol. viii., p. 272.)

Your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS should remember that at the time Dr. Drake published his {347} Historia Anglo-Scotica, 1703, there were no bounds to the angry passions and jealousies evoked by the discussion of the projected union; consequently, what may appear to as in the present day an insufficient reason for the treatment the book met with in the northern metropolis, wore a very different aspect to the Scots, who, under the popular belief that they were to be sold to their enemies, saw every movement with distrust, and tortured everything said or written on this side the Tweed, upon the impending question, to discover an attack upon their national independence, their church, and their valour.

Looking at Dr. Drake's book, then, for the data upon which it was condemned, we find that it opens with a prefatory dedication to Sir E. Seymour, one of Queen Anne's Commissioners for the Union, and a high churchman, wherein the author distinctly ventures a blow at Presbytery when he says to his patron:

"The languishing oppressed Church of Scotland is not without hopes of finding in you hereafter the same successful champion and restorer that her sister of England has already experienced."

He farther calculated upon Sir Edward inspiring the neighbouring nation "with as great a respect for the generosity of the English as they have heretofore had to dread their valour." Now the Scots neither acknowledged the Episcopacy which Seymour is here urged to press upon them, nor had they any such slavish fear of the vaunted English prowess with which Dr. Drake would have them intimidated; without going farther, therefore, into the book, it appears to me that the Scots parliament had a right to consider it written in a bad spirit, and to pacify the people by condemning it.

Defoe, in his History of the Union (G. Chalmers' edition, London, 1786), says:

"One Dr. Drake writes a preface to an abridgment of the Scots History, wherein, speaking something reflecting upon the freedom and independence of Scotland, the Scots parliament caused it to be burned by the hangman in Edinburgh."

In his Northern Memoirs, 1715, Oldmixon observes:

"They (the Jacobites) therefore put Dr. Drake, author of the High Church Memorials, upon publishing an antiquated Scotch history, on purpose to vilify the whole nation in the preface, and create more ill blood. This had the desired effect. The Scots parliament highly resented the affront, and ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman at Edinburgh."

D'Israeli, in his Calamities of Authors, has the following interesting notice of Drake:

"I must add one more striking example of a political author in the case of Dr. James Drake, a man of genius and an excellent writer. He resigned an honorable profession, that of medicine, to adopt a very contrary one, that of becoming an author by profession for a party. As a Tory writer he dared every extremity of the law, while he evaded it by every subtlety of artifice; he sent a masked lady with his MSS. to the printer, who was never discovered; and was once saved by a flaw in the indictment, from the simple change of an r for a t, or nor for not, one of those shameful evasions by which the law, to its perpetual disgrace, so often protects the criminal from punishment. Dr. Drake had the honor of hearing himself censured from the throne, of being imprisoned, of seeing his Memorials of the Church of England burned at (the Royal Exchange) London, and his Hist. Angl. Scot. at Edinburgh. Having enlisted himself in the pay of the booksellers, among other works, I suspect, he condescended to practise some literary impositions; for he has reprinted Father Parsons famous libel against the Earl of Leicester, under the title of Secret Memoirs of Robert Dudley, E. of L., 1706, with a preface pretending it was printed from an old MS."

The same instructive writer adds:

"Drake was a lover of literature; he left behind him a version of Herodotus, and a system of anatomy, once the most popular and curious of its kind. After all this turmoil of his literary life, neither his masked lady nor the flaws in his indictments availed him; government brought a writ of error, severely prosecuted him; and abandoned, as usual, by those for whom he had annihilated a genius which deserved a better fate, his perturbed spirit broke out into a fever, and he died raving against cruel persecutors, and patrons not much more humane."

Another book before me, and one which shared the fate of Drake's in Edinburgh, is The Superiority and Direct Dominion of the Imperial Crown of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland, the true Foundation of a compleat Union reasserted; 4to. London, 1705. This had appeared the year before, but was reproduced to answer the objections to it from the other side. It was written by William Attwood, Esq. If it required a nice discrimination to discover the offence of Drake, there was no such dubiety about this book, which goes the whole length of Scottish vassalage; and Mr. Attwood would lead us to believe that he knocks over the arguments of Hodges and Anderson[6] for Scottish independence with as much ease as he would ninepins.

{348}

Unfortunately these subjects are again forced upon us, and a reference to some of the books I have cited will enable gentlemen who are curious upon the point to judge for themselves in the matter of the present agitation of "Justice to Scotland."

J. O.

[Footnote 6: Jas. Hodges, a Scotch gentleman, who supported the Independency in a work entitled War betwixt the Two Kingdoms considered, for which, says Attwood, "he had 4800 Scots Punds given him for nothing but begging the question, and bullying England with the terror of her arms."

"An Historical Essay, showing that the Crown of Scotland is Independent; wherein the gross Errors of a late book, entitled 'The Superiority and Direct Dominion,' &c., and some other books for that purpose, are exposed by Jas. Anderson, A.M., Writer to His Majesty's Signet," Edin. 1705. For this work Anderson received the thanks of the Scottish parliament, as well as some pecuniary reward. (Chalmers' Life of Ruddiman.) The authors of these books having made out a case which was adopted as the national one, it is nowise surprising that they should hand over Drake and Attwood to the hangman for attempting to demolish it.]

On May 5, 1686, M. Claude's account of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was burnt in the Old Exchange, "so mighty a power and ascendant here had the French ambassador." (Evelyn's Memoirs.)

JOHN S. BURN.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

Stereoscopic Angles.—As I presume that MR. T. L. MERRITT is, like myself, only desirous of arriving at truth, I beg to offer the following reply to his last communication (Vol. viii., pp. 275-6.), in which he misinterprets some observations of mine upon the subject in question.

With regard to the distance quoted by me of 2-1/4 inches, I look upon it as the same thing as intended by MR. MERRITT—that is, the average distance between the centres of the eyes; and it amounts simply to a difference of opinion between us; but, so far as that point is concerned, I am quite ready to adopt 2-1/2 inches as a standard, although I believe that the former is nearer the truth: however, I require more than a mere assertion that "the only correct space for the cameras to be apart is 2-1/2 inches, and this under every circumstance, and that any departure from this must produce error." I quote verbatim, having merely Italicised three words to point my meaning more clearly. An object being 5 feet distant, and another at 10 feet from the observer, a line between the eyes will subtend a very much larger angle in the former than in the latter instance: hence the inclination of the axes of the eyes is the chief criterion by which people with the usual complement of those useful organs judge of proximity: but if half a dozen houses are made to appear as if 10 or 12 feet distant (by means of the increase of the angle between the points of formation of the pictures), while the angle which each picture subtends is relatively small; it is clear that both eyes will see in relief at a short distance half a dozen houses in a space not large enough for a single brick of one of them, and, consequently, the view will appear as if taken from a model. MR. MERRITT will object that an erroneous effect is produced; if he will refer to my statement (Vol. viii., p. 228.), he will find that it is precisely what I admitted; and he appears to have overlooked the proviso attached to my next observation (judging by his comment thereon), so I shall make no farther remark upon that point, beyond inquiring why the defect he is content to put up with is called a trifling exaggeration, while that which is less offensive to me is designated as absolute deformity and error? Persons with one eye are not good judges of distance, and this may be easily tested thus:—Close one eye, and endeavour to dip a pen in an inkstand at some little distance not previously ascertained by experiment, with both eyes open; it will be found far less easy than would be imagined. One-eyed people, from habit, contrive to judge of distance mainly by relative position, and by moving the head laterally cause a change therein: to them, all pictures are, to an extent, stereoscopic.

I am really amazed that my advocacy of the radial, instead of the parallel, position of the cameras should have been so misunderstood. Surely, it cannot be seriously asserted that the former will produce two vanishing points, and the latter only one? And as to the supposition connected with the boy, the ass, and the drum, a camera that would produce the effect of showing both sides of the ass, both legs of the boy, and both heads of the drum, with a movement of only 2-1/2 inches, whether radially or parallel, would indeed be a curiosity. But if the motion of the camera extended over a space sufficiently large to exhibit the phenomena alluded to, then it would confirm what I have before advanced, viz. present the idea of a small model of the objects, which could be so placed as to show naturally these very effects.

That the axes of the eyes are inclined when viewing objects, is readily proved thus:—Let a person look across the road at any object—say a shop-window; but stand so that a lamp-post near him shall intervene, and be in a direct line between the observer's nose and the object viewed. If he be requested to observe the post instead of the distant object, the pupils of his eyes will be seen to approach one another; and on again looking to the distant object, will instantly recede. The range of vision is another point that appears to be misunderstood, as we are differing about words instead of facts. The column is an illustration that will exactly suit my views; for I call the range of vision the same if taken from side to side of the column, although it is perfectly true that the tangents to the two eyes differ by the angle they subtend: but certainly MR. WILKINSON'S case (Vol. viii., p. 181.) of seven houses and five bathing-machines in one picture, and five houses and eight machines in the other, illustrates an instance where the range of vision is not the same; but I contend that the stereoscopic effect is then confined to five {349} houses and five machines, otherwise MR. WILKINSON'S supposititious case (ibid.), of all machines in one, and all houses in the other, might be considered as stereoscopic.

In concluding this very lengthened and, I fear, tedious reply, I beg to assert that I am most willing to recant any proposition I may have put forth, if proved to be erroneous; but I must have proof, not mere assertion. And farther, my willing thanks are always tendered to any one kind enough to correct an error.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

Mr. Pumphrey's Process for securing black Tints in Positives.—The importance that appears to be attached by some of thy correspondents to the stereoscopic appearance of photographs, induces me to call the attention of those who may not have noticed it to the fact that, as all camera pictures are monocular, they are best seen by closing one eye, and then they truly represent nature; and the effect of distance (which so often appears wanting in photographs) is given with marvellous effect, so well indeed as to render the use of a stereoscope unnecessary. Like other photographers, I have been long seeking for a method, easy, cheap, and certain, for obtaining the black tints that are so highly prized by many in the French positives; and having at last attained the object of my search, I lose no time in laying it before my fellow-operators.