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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.
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{485}
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. 212.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19. 1853. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:— Page
Party-Similes of the Seventeenth Century:—No. 1. "Foxes and Firebrands." No. 2. "The Trojan Horse" 485 Testimonials to Donkeys, by Cuthbert Bede, B.A. 488 Longevity in Cleveland, Yorkshire, by William Durrant Cooper 488 Rev. Josiah Pullen 489
FOLK LORE:—Ancient Custom in Warwickshire— Nottinghamshire Customs 490
MINOR NOTES:—A Centenarian Couple—"Veni, vidi, vici"—Autumnal Tints—Variety is pleasing— Rome and the Number Six—Zend Grammar—The Duke's First Victory—Straw Paper—American Epitaph 490
QUERIES:—
Laurie (?) on Currency, &c. 491 "Donatus Redivivus" 492
MINOR QUERIES:—Henry Scobell—The Court House —Ash-trees attract Lightning—Symbol of Sow, &c. —Passage in Blackwood—Rathband Family— Encaustic Tiles from Caen—Artificial Drainage— Storms at the Death of Great Men—Motto on Wylcotes' Brass—"Trail through the leaden sky," &c.— Lord Audley's Attendants at Poictiers—Roman Catholic Bible Society 493
MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS—"Vox Populi Vox Dei"—"Lanquettes Cronicles"—"Our English Milo"—"Delights for Ladies"—Burton's Death —Joannes Audoenus—Hampden's Death 494
REPLIES:-
"Pinece with a Stink," by W. Pinkerton, &c. 496 Monumental Brasses abroad, by Josiah Cato 497 Milton's "Lycidas," by C. Mansfield Ingleby 497 School Libraries, by Weld Taylor and G. Brindley Acworth 498 Cawdray's "Treasurie of Similies," and Simile of Magnetic Needle, by Rev. E. C. Harington, &c. 499 "Mary, weep no more for me," by J. W. Thomas 500
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:—Clouds in Photographs —Albumenized Paper—Stereoscopic Angles —Photographic Copies of MSS. 501
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:—Lord Cecil's "Memorials" —Foreign Medical Education—Encyclopaedias —Pepys's Grammar—"Antiquitas Saeculi Juventus Mundi"—Napoleon's Spelling—Black as a mourning Colour—Chanting of Jurors—Aldress—Huggins and Muggins—Camera Lucida—"When Orpheus went down"—The Arms of De Sissone—Oaths of Pregnant Women—Lepel's Regiment—Editions of the Prayer Book prior to 1662—Creole—Daughter pronounced "Dafter"—Richard Geering—Island 502
MISCELLANEOUS:—
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 505 Notices to Correspondents 505 Advertisements 505
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Notes.
PARTY-SIMILES OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—NO. I. "FOXES AND FIREBRANDS." NO. II. "THE TROJAN HORSE."
With Englishmen, at least, the seventeenth was a century pre-eminent for quaint conceits and fantastic similes: the literature of that period, whether devotional, poetical, or polemical[1], was alike infected with the universal mania for strained metaphors, and men vied with each other in giving extraordinary titles to books, and making the {486} contents justify the title. Extravagance and the far-fetched were the gauge of wit: Donne, Herbert, and many a man of genius foundered on this rock, as well as Cowley, who acted up to his own definition:
"In a true Piece of Wit all things must be, Yet all things there agree; As in the Ark, join'd without force or strife, All creatures dwelt—all creatures that had life."
It is not, however, for the purpose of illustrating this mania that I am about to dwell on the two similes which form the subject of my present Note: I selected them as favourite party-similes which formed a standing dish for old Anglican writers; and also because they throw light on the history of religious party in England, and thus form a suitable supplement to my article on "High Church and Low Church" (Vol. viii., p. 117.).
As the object of the Church of England, in separating from Rome, was the reformation, not the destruction of her former faith, by the very act of reformation she found herself opposed to two bodies; namely, that from which she separated, and the ultra-reformers or Puritans, who clamoured for a radical reformation.
Taking these as the Scylla and Charybdis—the two extremes to be avoided—the Anglican Church hoped to attain the safe and golden mean by steering between these opposites, and find, in this via media course, the path of truth.
Accordingly, her divines abound with warnings against the aforesaid Scylla and Charybdis, and with exhortations to cleave to the middle line of safety. Acting on the proverb that extremes meet, they were ever drawing parallels between their two opponents. On the other hand, the Puritans stoutly contended that they were the true middle-men; and in their turn traced divers similarities and parallels betwixt "Popery and Prelacy," the "Mass Book and Service Book."[2]
Without farther preface, I shall give the title of a curious work, which will tell its own story:
"Foxes and Firebrands; or A Specimen of the Danger and Harmony of Popery and Separation. Wherein is proved from undeniable Matter of Fact and Reason, that Separation from the Church of England is, in the Judgment of Papists, and by Experience, found the most Compendious way to introduce Popery, and to ruine the Protestant Religion:
'Tantum Religio potuit suadere Malorum.'"
A work under this title was published, if I mistake not, in London in 1678 by Dr. Henry Nalson; in 1682, Robert Ware reprinted it with a second part of his own; and in 1689 he added a third and last part in 12mo., uniform with the previous volume.[3] In the Epist. Ded. to Part II. the writer says of the Church of England:
"The Papists on the one hand, and the Puritans on the other, did endeavour to sully and bespatter the glory of her Reformation: the one taxing it with innovation, and the other with superstition."
The Preface to the Third Part declares that the object of the whole work is "to reclaim the most haggard Papists" and Puritans.
Wheatly, in treating of the State Service for the 29th of May, remarks:
"The Papists and Sectaries, like Sampson's Foxes, though they look contrary ways, do yet both join in carrying Fire to destroy us: their End is the same, though the method be different."—Rational Illust. of the Book of Common Prayer, 3rd edit., London, 1720, folio.
The following passage occurs in A Letter to the Author of the Vindication of the Clergy, by Dr. Eachard, London, 1705:
"I have put in hard, I'll assure you, in all companies, for two or three more: as for example, The Papist and the Puritan being tyed together like Sampson's Foxes. I liked it well enough, and have beseeched them to let it pass for a phansie; but I could never get the rogues in a good humour to do it: for they say that Sampson's foxes have been so very long and so very often tied together, that it is high time to part them. It may be because something very like it is to be found in a printed sermon, which was preached thirty-eight years ago: it is no flam nor whisker. It is the forty-third page upon the right hand. Yours go thus, viz. Papist and Puritan, like Sampson's Foxes, though looking and running two several ways, yet are ever joyned together the tail. My author has it thus, viz. The Separatists and the Romanists consequently to their otherwise most distant principles do fully agree, like Sampson's Foxes, tyed together by the tails, to set all on fire, although their faces look quite contrary ways."—P. 34.
It would be easy to multiply passages in which this simile occurs; but what I have given is {487} suffcient for my purpose, and I must leave room for "The Trojan Horse."[4]
I must content myself with giving the title of the following work, as I have never met with the book itself: The Trojan Horse, or The Presbyterian Government Unbowelled, London, 1646.
In a brochure of Primate Bramhall's, entitled
"A Faire Warning for England to take heed of the Presbyterian Government.... Also the Sinfulnesse and Wickednesse of the Covenant, to introduce that Government upon the Church of England."
the second paragraph of the first page proceeds:
"But to see those very men who plead so vehemently against all kinds of tyranny, attempt to obtrude their own dreames not only upon their fellow-subjects, but upon their sovereigne himself, contrary to the dictates of his own conscience, contrary to all law of God and man; yea to compell forreigne churches to dance after their pipe, to worship that counterfeit image which they feign to have fallen down from Jupiter, and by force of arms to turne their neighbours out of a possession of above 1400 years, to make roome for their Trojan Horse of ecclesiastical discipline (a practice never justified in the world but either by the Turk or by the Pope): this put us upon the defensive part. They must not think that other men are so cowed or grown so tame, as to stand still blowing of their noses, whilst they bridle them and ride them at their pleasure. It is time to let the world see that this discipline which they so much adore, is the very quintessence of refined Popery."
My copy of this tract has no place or date: but it appears to have been printed at the Hague in 1649. It was answered in the same year by "Robert Baylie, minister at Glasgow," whose reply was "printed at Delph."
As the tide of the time and circumstance rolled on, this simile gained additional force and depth; and to understand the admirable aptitude of its application in the passage I shall next quote, a few preliminary remarks are necessary.
There was always in the Church of England a portion of her members who could not forget that the Puritans, though external to her communion, were yet fellow Protestants; that they differed not in kind, but in degree—and that these differences were insignificant compared with those of Rome. At the same time, they reflected that perhaps the Church of England was not exactly in the middle, and that she would not lose were she to move a little nearer the Puritan side. Accordingly, various attempts were made to enlarge the terms of her communion, and eject from her service-book any lingering "relics of Popery" which might offend the weaker brethren yclept the Puritans: thus to make a grand Comprehension Creed—a Church to include all Protestants.
This was tried in James I.'s reign at the Savoy Conference; but in spite of Baxter's strenuous efforts and model prayer-book, it was a failure. Even Archbishop Sancroft was led to attempt a similar Comprehensive Scheme, so terrified was he at the dominance of the Roman Church in the Second James's reign: however, William's accession, and his becoming a nonjuror, crossed his design. In 1689, Tillotson, Burnet, and a number of William's "Latitudinarian" clergy made a bold push for it. A Comprehension Bill actually passed the House of Lords, but was thrown out by the Commons and Convocation. From William's time toleration and encouragement were extended to all save "Popish Recusants;" so that there were a large number in the Church of England ready to assist their comrades outside in breaking down her fences. The High Churchmen, however, as may be guessed, would not sit tamely by, and see the leading idea of the Anglican Church thrown to the winds, her via media profaned, her park made a common, and her distinctive doctrines and fences levelled to the ground. What their feelings were, may be gathered from this indignant invective:
"The most of the inconveniences we labour under to this day, owe their original to the weakness of some and to the cowardice of others of the clergy. For had they stood stiff and inflexible at first against the encroachments and intrigues of a Puritanical faction, like a threefold cord, we could not have been so easily shattered and broken. The dissenters, as well skilled in the art of war, have besieged the Church in form: and at all periods and seasons have raised their batteries, and carried on their saps and counter-scarps against her. They have left no means unessayed or practised, to weaken her. And when open violence has been baffled, and useless, stratagem and contrivance have supplied what force could never effect. Hence it is, that under the cant of conscience and scruple, they have feigned a compliance of embracing her communion; if such and such ceremonies and rules that then stood in force could be omitted, or connived at: and having once broke ground on her discipline, they have continued to carry on their trenches, and had almost brought the Great Comprehension-Horse within our walls; whilst the complying, or the moderate clergy (as they are called), like the infatuated Trojans, helped forward the unwieldy machine; nor were they aware of the danger and destruction that might have issued out of him."—The Entertainer, London, 1718, p. 153.[5]
{488}
I shall but add a postscript to my former Note. In "N. & Q." (Vol. viii., p. 156.), a number of pamphlets on High Church and Low Church are referred to. A masterly sketch of the two theories is given at pp. 87, 88. of Mr. Kingsley's Yeast, London, 1851.
JARLTZBERG.
[Footnote 1: Dr. Eachard, in his work on The Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the Clergy and Religion inquired into, London, 1712, after ably showing up the pedantry of some preachers, next attacks the "indiscreet and horrid Metaphor Mongers." "Another thing that brings great disrespect and mischief upon the clergy ... is their packing their sermons so full of similitudes" (p. 41.). Eachard has a museum of curiosities in this line. The Puritan Pulpit, however, far outstrips even the incredible nonsense and irreverence which he adduces. Let any one curious in such matters dip into a collection of Scotch Sermons of the seventeenth century. Sir W. Scott, in some of his works, has endeavoured to give a faint idea of the extraordinary way in which passages of Holy Scripture were applied in the same century. I have a very curious book of soliloquies, which unfortunately wants the title-page. From internal evidence, however, it appeals to have been written in Ireland in the seventeenth century: the writer signs himself "P. P." The editor of this little 12mo., in "An Epistle to the Reader," after reprehending "the wits of our times" for "quibbling and drolling upon the Bible," says immediately after:—"This author's innocent abuse of Scripture is so far from countenancing, that it rather shames and condemns that licentious and abominable practice. Nor can we admit of the most useful allusions without that harmless (nay helpful and advantageous) [Greek: katachresis], or abuse here practised: wherein the words are indeed used to another, but yet to a Holy end and purpose, besides that for which they were at first instituted and intended." The most reverend of our readers must need smile, were I to give a specimen of this "innocent abuse."
While noticing the false wit which passed current in that century, we must not forget that the same age produced a South and a Butler: and that in beauty of simile, few, if any, surpass Bishop Jeremy Taylor.]
[Footnote 2: An Analysis of the "divers pamphlets published against the Book of Common Prayer" would make a very curious volume. Take a passage from the Anatomy of the Service Book, for instance: "The cruellest of the American savages, called the Mohaukes, though they fattened their captive Christians to the slaughter, yet they eat them up at once; but the Service-book savages eat the servants of God by piece-meal: keeping them alive (if it may be called a life) ut sentiant se mori, that they may be the more sensible of their dying" (p. 56.). Sir Walter Scott quotes a curious tract in Woodstock, entitled Vindication of the Book of Common Prayer against the Contumelious Slanders of the Fanatic Party terming it "Porridge." The author of this singular and rare tract (says Sir W.) indulges in the allegorical style, till he fairly hunts down the allegory. The learned divine chases his metaphor at a very cold scent, through a pamphlet of his mortal quarto pages.—See a Parallel of the Liturgy with the Mass Book, Breviary, &c., by Robert Baylie. 1661, 4to.]
[Footnote 3: [See "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., p. 172.—ED.]]
[Footnote 4: See Grey's Hudibras, Dublin, 1744, vol. ii. p. 248., vol. i. pp. 150, 151., where allusions both to "The Trojan Mare" and tying "the fox tails together" occur. Butler was versed in the controversies of his day, and, moreover, loved to satirise the metaphor mania by his exquisitely comic similes.]
[Footnote 5: Let any one interested in the history of Comprehension refer to the proceedings relative to the formation of the "Evangelical Alliance." Jeremy Collier gives a curious parallel:—"Lord Burleigh, upon some complaint against the Liturgy, bade the Dissenters draw up another, and contrive the offices in such a form as might give general satisfaction to their brethren. Upon this overture the first classis struck out their lines, and drew mostly by the portrait of Geneva. This draught was referred to the consideration of a second classis, who made no less than six hundred exceptions to it. The third classis quarrelled with the corrections of the second, and declared for a new model. The fourth refined no less upon the third. The treasurer advised all these reviews, and different committees, on purpose to break their measures and silence their clamours against the Church. However, since they could not come to any agreement in a form for divine service, he had a handsome opportunity for a release: for now they could not decently importune him any farther. To part smoothly with them, he assured their agents that, when they came to any unanimous resolve upon the matter before them, they might expect his friendship, and that he should be ready to bring their scheme to a settlement." Collier's Hist., vol. viii. p. 16. See Cardwell's Hist. of the Conference connected with the Revision of the Book of Common Prayer, London, 1849, 8vo. See also Quarterly Review, vol. 1. pp. 508-561., No. C. Jan. 1834. The present American Prayer Book is formed on the Comprehension scheme. Last year Pickering published a Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, adapted for General Use in other Protestant Churches, which is well worth referring to.
Those who wished to "comprehend" at the Roman side of the via media were very few. Elizabeth and Laud are the most prominent instances. Charles I., and afterwards the Nonjurors, had schemes of communion with the Greek Church. A History of Comprehension would involve a historical notice of the Thirty-nine Articles, and the plan of Comprehension maintained by some to be the intention of their framers. It should include also distinctive sketches of the classes formerly denominated Church Papists and Church Puritans.]
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TESTIMONIALS TO DONKEYS.
The following extract from an article on "Angling in North Wales," which appeared in The Field newspaper of October 22nd, contains a specimen of an entirely original kind of testimonial, which seems to me worthy of preservation in "N. & Q.'s" museum of curiosities:
"Beguiled by the treacherous representations of a certain Mr. Williams, and the high character of his donkeys, I undertook the ascent of Dunas Bran, and poked about among the ruins of Crow Castle on its summit, where I found nothing of any consequence, except an appetite for my dinner. The printed paper which Mr. Williams hands about, deploring the loss of his 'character,' and testifying to the wonderful superiority of all his animals, is rather amusing. Mr. Williams evidently never had a donkey 'what wouldn't go.' This paper commences with an affidavit from certain of the householders and literati of Llangollen, that he 'had received numerous testimonials, all of which we are sorry to say has been lost.' Those preserved, however, and immortalised in print, suffice to establish Mr. Williams' reputation:
"Mr. W. and his son and daughter bear testimony to the civility and attention of Mr. Williams and his donkeys.
"S. P., Esquire, attended at the Haud Hotel, 24th June, 1851, and engaged four of Mr. Williams' donkeys for the use of a party of ladies, who expressed themselves highly gratified. The animals were remarkably tractable, and void of stupidity.
"Mrs. D. A. B. visited Valle Crucis Abbey on the back of Mr. Williams' ass, and is well satisfied.
"Sept. 4. 1852. This is to certify that LADY MARSHALL Is to Donkeys very partial, And no postilion in a car, shall Ever more her drive O'er all the stones; On 'Jenny Jones' She'll ride while she's alive!"
Those who have visited Malvern will remember the vast quantity of donkeys who rejoice in the cognomen of "The Royal Moses." Their history is as follows:—When the late Queen Dowager was at Malvern, she frequently ascended the hills on donkey-back; and on all such occasions patronised a poor old woman, whose stud had been reduced, by a succession of misfortunes, to a solitary donkey, who answered to the name of "Moses." At the close of her visit, her majesty, with that kindness of heart which was such a distinguishing trait in her character, not only liberally rewarded the poor old woman, but asked her if there was anything that she could do for her which would be likely to bring back her former prosperity. The old woman turned the matter over in her mind, and then said, "Please your majesty to give a name to my donkey." This her Majesty did. "Moses" became "the Royal Moses;" every body wanted to ride him; the old woman's custom increased, and when the favoured animal died (for he is dead) he left behind him a numerous family, all of whom called after their father, "the Royal Moses."
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
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LONGEVITY IN CLEVELAND, YORKSHIRE.
A cursory conversation with a lady in her eighty-fifth year, now living at Skelton in Cleveland, in the North Riding of Yorkshire, when she {489} deprecated the notion that she was one of the old inhabitants, led me to inquire more particularly into the duration of life in that township. The minister, the Rev. W. Close, who has been the incumbent since the year 1813, and who has had the duties to perform, and the registers to keep, therefore, from about the period of the act which required the age to be stated, now forty years ago, was most willing to give me aid and extracts from the burial register, from the commencement of 1813 to August, 1852, during which period 799 persons were buried. The extracts show these extraordinary facts.
Out of the 799 persons buried in that period, no less than 263, or nearly one-third, attained the age of 70. Of these two, viz. Mary Postgate, who died in 1816, and Ann Stonehouse, who died in 1823, attained respectively the ages of 101. Nineteen others were 90 years of age and upwards, viz. one was 97, one was 96, one was 95, four were 94, one was 93, five were 92, three were 91, and three were 90. Between the ages of 80 and 90 there died 109, of whom thirty-nine were 85 and upwards, and seventy were under 85; and between the ages of 70 and 80 there died 133, of whom sixty-five were 75 years and upwards, and sixty-eight were between 70 and 75. In one page of the register containing eight names, six were above 80, and in another five were above 70.
In this parish of Skelton there is now living a man named Moon, 104 years old, who is blind now, but managed a small farm till nearly or quite 100; and a blacksmith named Robinson Cook, aged 98, who worked at his trade till May last.
In the chapelry of Brotton, which adjoins Skelton township, and has been also under the spiritual charge of Mr. Close, the longevity is even more remarkable. Out of 346 persons buried since the new register came into force in 1813, down to 1st October, 1853, no less than 121, or more than one-third, attained the age of 70. One Betty Thompson, who died in 1834, was 101; nineteen were more than 90, of whom one was 98, two were 97, three were 95, one was 93, four were 92, five were 91, and three were 90; there were forty-four who died between 80 and 90 years old, of whom nineteen were 85 and upwards, and twenty-five were between 80 and 85; and there were fifty-seven who died between the ages of 70 and 80, of whom no less than thirty-one were 75 and upwards. The average of the chapelry is increased from the circumstance that sixteen bodies of persons drowned in the sea in wrecks, and whose ages were not of course very great, are included in the whole number of 346 burials. That celibacy did not lessen the chance of life, was proved by a bachelor named Simpson, who died at 92, and his maiden sister at 91.
I am told that the neighbouring parish of Upleatham has also a high character for longevity, but I had not the same opportunity of examining the register as was afforded me by Mr. Close.
And now for a Query. What other, if any district in the north or south, will show like or greater longevity?
WILLIAM DURRANT COOPER.
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REV. JOSIAH PULLEN.
Every Oxford man regards with some degree of interest that goal of so many of his walks, Joe Pullen's tree, on Headington Hill. So at least it was in my time, now some thirty years since. Perhaps the following notices of him, who I suppose planted it, or at all events gave name to it, may be acceptable to your Oxford readers. They are taken from that most curious collection (alas! too little known) the Pocket-books of Tom Hearne, vol. liii. pp. 25-35., now in the Bodleian:
"Jan. 1, 1714-15. Last night died Mr. Josiah Pullen, A.M., minister of St. Peter's in the East, and Vice-Principal of Magdalen Hall. He had also a parsonage in the country. He was formerly domestick chaplain to Bishop Sanderson, to whom he administered the sacrament at his death. He lived to a very great age, being about fourscore and three, and was always very healthy and vigorous. He was regular in his way of living, but too close, considering that he was a single man, and was wealthy. He seldom used spectacles, which made him guilty of great blunders at divine service, for he would officiate to the last. He administered the Sacrament last Christmas Day to a great congregation at St. Peter's, which brought his illness upon him. He took his B.A. degree May 26, 1654. He became minister of St. Peter's in the East anno 1668, which was the year before Dr. Charlett was entered at Oxford."—P. 25.
"Jan. 7, Friday. This day, at four in the afternoon, Mr. Pullen was buried in St. Peter's Church, in the chapel at the north side of the chancell. All the parishioners were invited, and the pall was held up by six Heads of Houses, though it should have been by six Masters of Arts, as Dr. Radcliffe's pall should have been held up by Doctors in Physic, and not by Doctors of Divinity and Doctors of Law."—P. 32.
Dr. Radcliffe's funeral had taken place in the preceding month.
In Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 181., is the following epitaph of Pullen, drawn up by Mr. Thomas Wagstaffe:
"Hic jacet reverendus vir Josia Pullen, A.M. Aulae Magd. 57 annos vice principalis, necnon hujusce ecclesiae Pastor 39 annos. Obiit 31^o Decembris, anno Domini 1714, aetatis 84."
From the notice of Thomas Walden, in Johnson's Lives of the Poets, it appears that Yalden was a pupil of Pullen. (See also Walton's Life of Sanderson, towards the end.) I hope this may elicit some farther account of a man whose name has survived so long in Oxford memory. {490}
As to the tree, I have some recollection of having heard that it had a few years ago a narrow escape of being thrown down, sometime about the vice-chancellorship of Dr. Symons, who promptly came forward to the rescue. Was it ever in such peril? and, if so, was it preserved?
BALLIOLENSIS.
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FOLK LORE.
Ancient Custom in Warwickshire.—In Sir William Dugdale's Diary, under the year 1658, is noted the following:
"On All Hallow Even, the master of the family antiently used to carry a bunch of straw, fired, about his corne, saying,
'Fire and red low, Light on my teen low.'"
Can any of your readers learned in ancient lore explain the custom and the meaning of the couplet, well as its origin? Does it now at all prevail in that county?
J. B. WHITBORNE.
Nottinghamshire Customs.—1. The 29th of May is observed by the Notts juveniles not only by wearing the usual piece of oak-twig, but each young loyalist is armed with a nettle, as coarse as can be procured, with which instrument of torture are coerced those unfortunates who are unprovided with "royal oak," as it is called. Some who are unable to procure it endeavour to avoid the penalty by wearing "dog-oak" (maple), but the punishment is always more severe on discovery of the imposition.
2. On Shrove Tuesday, the first pancake cooked is given to Chanticleer for his sole gratification.
3. The following matrimonial custom prevails at Wellow or Welley, as it is called, a village in the heart of the county. The account is copied from the Notts Guardian of April 28, 1853:
"Wellow. It has been a custom from time immemorial in this parish, when the banns of marriage are published, for a person, selected by the clerk, to rise and say 'God speed them well,' the clerk and congregation responding, Amen! Owing to the recent death of the person who officiated in this ceremony, last Sunday, after the banns of marriage were read, a perfect silence prevailed, the person chosen, either from want of courage or loss of memory, not performing his part until after receiving an intimation from the clerk, and then in so faint a tone as to be scarcely audible. His whispered good wishes were, however, followed by a hearty Amen, mingled with some laughter in different parts of the church."
I do not know whether any notices of the above have appeared in "N. & Q.," and send to inquire respecting 1. and 3. whether a similar custom holds elsewhere; and whether 2. has any connexion with the disused practice of cock-shying?
FURVUS.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
A Centenarian Couple.—The obituary of Blackwood's Magazine for August, 1821, contains the following:
"Lately, in Campbell, County Virginia, Mr. Chas. Layne, sen., aged 121 years, being born at Albemarle, near Buckingham county, 1700. He has left a widow aged 110 years, and a numerous and respectable family down to the fourth generation. He was a subject of four British sovereigns, and a citizen of the United States for nearly forty-eight years. Until within a few years he enjoyed all his faculties, and excellent health."
The above extract is followed by notices of the deaths of Anne Bryan, of Ashford, co. Waterford, aged 111; and Wm. Munro, gardener at Rose Hall, aged 104.
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
"Veni, vidi, vici."—To these remarkable and well-known words of the Roman general, I beg to forward two more sententious despatches of celebrated generals:
Suwarrow. "Slava bogu! Slava vam! Krepost Vzala, yiatam."
"Glory to God and the Empress! Ismail's ours."
It is also stated, I do not know on what authority, that the old and lamented warrior, Sir Charles Napier, wrote on the conquest of Scinde, "Peccavi."
Perhaps some of your correspondents could add a few more pithy sentences on a like subject.
G. LLOYD.
Dublin.
Autumnal Tints.—Scarce any one can have failed to notice the unusual richness and brilliance of the autumnal tints on the foliage this year. I have more particularly remarked this in Clydesdale, the lake districts of Cumberland and Westmoreland, and in Somersetshire and Devonshire. Can any of the contributors to "N. & Q." inform me if attributable to the extraordinary wetness of the season?
R. H. B.
Variety is pleasing.—Looking over my last year's note-book, I find the following morceau, which I think ought to be preserved in "N. & Q.:"
"Nov. 30, 1851. Observed in the window of the Shakspeare Inn a written paper running thus:
'To be raffled for: The finding of Moses, and six Fat geeze(!!). Tickets at the bar.'"
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
Rome and the Number Six.—It has been remarked lately in "N. & Q." that in English history, the reign of the second sovereign of the same name has been infelicitous. I cannot turn to the {491} note I read, and I forget whether it noticed the remarks in Aubrey's Miscellanies (London, 8vo., 1696), that "all the second kings since the Conquest have been unfortunate." It may be worth the while to add (what is remarked by Mr. Matthews in his Diary of an Invalid), that the number six has been considered at Rome as ominous of misfortune. Tarquinius Sextus was the very worst of the Tarquins, and his brutal conduct led to a revolution in the government; under Urban the Sixth, the great schism of the West broke out; Alexander the Sixth outdid all that his predecessors amongst the Tarquins or the Popes had ventured to do before him; and the presentiment seemed to receive confirmation in the misfortunes of the reign of his successor Pius VI., to whose election was applied the line:
"Semper sub sextis perdita Roma fuit."
W. S. G.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Zend Grammar.—The following fragment on Zend grammar having fallen in my way, I inclose you a copy, as the remarks contained in it may be of service to Oriental scholars.
I am unable to state the author's name, although I suspect the MS. to be from a highly important quarter. The subject-matter, however, is sufficiently important to merit publication.
"The Zend, of disputed authenticity, and the Asmani Zuban, a notoriously fictitious tongue, compared."
"It is well known that Sanscrit words abound in Zend; and that some of its inflexions are formed by the rules of the Vyacaran or Sanscrit grammar.
"It would therefore seem quite possible that by application of these rules a grammar might be written of the Zend. Would such a composition afford any proof of the disputed point—the authenticity of the Zend?
"I think it would not, and support my opinion by reasons founded on the following facts.
"The Asmani Zuban of the Desstu is most intimately allied to Persian. It is, in fact, fabricated out of that language, as is shown by clear internal evidence. Now the grammatical structure of this fictitious tongue is identical with that of Persian: and hence by following the rules of Persian grammar, a grammar of the Asmani Zuban might be easily framed. But would this work advance the cause of forgery, and tend to invest it with the quality of truth? No more, I answer, and for the same reason, than is a grammar of the Zend, founded on the Vyacaran, to be received in proof of the authenticity of that language."
KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.
The Duke's first Victory.—Perhaps it may interest the future author of the life of the Duke of Wellington to be informed of his first victory. It was not in India, as commonly supposed, but on Donnybrook Road, near Dublin, that his first laurels were won. This appears from the Freeman's Journal, September 18th, 1789, where we learn that in consequence of a wager between him and Mr. Whaley of 150 guineas, the Hon. Arthur Wesley walked from the five-mile stone on Donnybrook Road to the corner of the circular road in Leeson Street, in fifty-five minutes, and that a number of gentlemen rode with the walker, whose horses he kept in a tolerable smart trot. When it is recollected that those were Irish miles, even deducting the distance from Leeson Street to the Castle, whence the original measurements were made, this walk must be computed at nearly six English miles.
OMICRON.
Straw Paper.—Various papers manufactured of straw are now in the market. The pen moves so easily over any and all of them, that literary men should give them a trial. As there seems considerable likelihood of this manufacture being extensively introduced, on account of the dearness of rags, &c., it is to be hoped that it will not be improved into the resemblance of ordinary paper. Time was when ordinary paper could be written on in comfort, but that which adulterated Falstaff's sack spoiled it for the purpose, and converted it into limed twigs to catch the winged pen.
M.
American Epitaph (Vol. viii., p. 273.).—The following lines are to be seen on a tombstone in Virginia:
"My name, my country, what are they to thee? What whether high, or low, my pedigree? Perhaps I far surpassed all other men: Perhaps I fell behind them all—what then? Suffice it, stranger, that thou see'st a tomb, Thou know'st its use; it hides—no matter whom."
W. W.
Malta.
* * * * *
Queries.
LAURIE (?) ON CURRENCY, ETC.
I have before me a bulky volume, apparently unpublished, treating of currency and of many other politico-economical affairs; the authorship of which I am desirous of tracing. If any reader of "N. & Q." can assist my search I shall feel greatly obliged to him.
This volume extends to 936 closely printed pages, and is altogether without divisions either of book, chapter, or section. It has neither title-page, conclusion, imprint, or date; and my copy seems to consist of revises or "clean sheets" as they came from the press. The main gist of the work is thus described, apparently by the author himself, in a MS. note which occupies the place of the title-page:
"It is here meant to show that in civilised nations money is an emanating circulable wealth and power, {492} without which individuals cannot go on in improvement on independent principles. It resolves wealth into the forms most conducive to this object, and prepares for the highest services both individuals and communities."
The book, however, is extremely discursive, and no small portion of it is devoted to foreign politics. Thus, of the "Eastern Question," the author disposes in this fashion:
"Austria, to answer its destination, ought to comprise Wallachia, Bessarabia, Moldavia, and, following the line of demarcation drawn by the Danube, the whole territory at its debouchment.... Turkey cannot regard the sacrifices proposed as of much importance, when such security as that now in contemplation could be obtained. The whole strength of her immense empire is at present drained to support her contest on this very barrier with Russia. But that barrier, it is evident, would this way be effectually secured: for Austria has too many points of importance to protect, to dream of creating new ones on this feeble yet extended confine of her domains."—Pp. 835, 836.
From internal evidence, the book appears to have been written between 1812 and 1815. It is printed in half-sheets, from sig. A to sig. 6 B, and three half-sheets are wanting, viz. E, 5 Q, and 5 R. In place of the last two, the following MS. note is inserted:
"The speculations in the two following sheets included views that related to the disorganised state of Turkey, and the unhappy dependence of the Bourbon family; which are now, from the changes which have taken place, altogether unfit for publication."
The sole indication of the authorship which I have observed throughout the volume lies in the following foot-note, at p. 893.:
"This is all that seems to be necessary to say on the subject of education. In a treatise published by me a few years ago, entitled Improvements in Glasgow, I think I have exhausted," &c.[6]
The only treatise with such a title which I find in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica is thus entered:
"LAURIE, David. Proposed improvements in Glasgow. Glasg., 1810, 8vo.—Hints regarding the East India Monopoly, 1813. 2s."
My Queries then are these:
1. Is anything known of such a treatise on "circulable wealth," &c., as that which I have named?
2. Is any biographical notice extant of the "David Laurie" mentioned by Watt?
I may add that the volume in question was recently purchased along with about 1000 other pamphlets and books, chiefly on political economy: all of which appear to have formerly belonged to the late Lord Bexley, and to have been for the most part collected by him when Chancellor of the Exchequer.
E.
Old Trafford, near Manchester.
[Footnote 6: I find no mention of Mr. Laurie, or of his "Improvements in Glasgow," in Cleland's Annals of Glasgow, published in 1816, nor is he mentioned in Mr. McCulloch's Literature of Political Economy.]
* * * * *
"DONATUS REDIVIVUS."
Can you, or any of your correspondents, give me any information relative to the history or authorship of the following pamphlet?—
"Donatus Redivivus: or a Reprimand to a modern Church-Schismatick, for his Revival of the Donatistical Heresy of Rebaptization, in Defiance to the Judgment and Practice of the Catholick Church, and of the Church of England in particular. In a Letter to Himself. London, 1714."
The same tract (precisely identical, except in the title-page) is also to be found with the following title:
"Rebaptization condemned. Wherein is shown, 1. That to Rebaptize any Person that was once Baptiz'd, even by Laymen, in the name of the Sacred Trinity, is contrary to the Practice of the Catholick Church in all Ages. 2. That it is repugnant to the Principles and Practice of the Church of England. 3. The Pernicious Consequences of such a Practice. By the Author of Plain Dealing, or Separation without Schism," &c. London, 1716.
I am aware that, according to Dr. Watt, the author of Plain Dealing was Charles Owen, D.D., but he makes no mention of Donatus Redivivus, and I am unable to discover any account of Dr. Charles Owen or his writings elsewhere. There appears to have been a reply to Donatus Redivivus, purporting to be from the pen of a Mrs. Jane Chorlton. This I have never seen, and have only learned of its existence from a subsequent pamphlet with the following title:
"The Amazon Disarm'd: or, the Sophisms of a Schismatical Pamphlet, pretendedly writ by a Gentlewoman, entituled An Answer to Donatus Redivivus, exposed and confuted; being a further Vindication of the Church of England from the scandalous imputation of Donatism or Rebaptization. London, 1714."
The dedication of this last tract begins as follows:
"To the Reverend Mr. L—ter, and the Demi-reverend Mr. M—l—n.
"Gentlemen,
"This letter belongs to you upon a double account, as you were the chief Actors in the late Rebaptizaton, and are the supposed Vindicators of it, in the Answer to Donatus: a Treatise writ in Defence of the Sentiments of the Church, which you father upon a Dissenting Minister, and disingenuously point out to Mr. O——n by Name," &c.
The point which I wish particularly to ascertain is, whether Dr. Charles Owen was really the {493} author of either of the tracts I have mentioned; and if so, who he was, and where I can find an account of him and his writings.
[Greek: Halieus].
Dublin.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
Henry Scobell.—Henry Scobell, compiler of a well-known Collection of Acts, was for several years clerk to the Long Parliament. I should be glad to learn what became of him after the dissolution of that assembly.
A LEGULEIAN.
The Court House.—This place is situated in Painswick, in Gloucestershire, and has been described to me as an old out-of-the-way place. Where can I meet with a full description of it? Is the tradition that a king—supposed to be either the first or second Charles—ever slept there true?
F. M.
Ash-trees attract Lightning.—Is it true that ash-trees are more attractive to lightning than any others? and the reason, because the surface of the ground around is drier than round other trees?
C. S. W.
Symbol of Sow, &c.—A sow suckled by a litter of young pigs is a common representation carved on the bosses of the roofs of churches. What is this symbolical of?
F. G. C.
Ottery St. Mary.
Passage in Blackwood.—
"I sate, and wept in secret the tears that men have ever given to the memory of those that died before the dawn, and by the treachery of earth our mother."—Blackwood's Magazine, December, 1849, p. 72., 3rd line, second column.
Will some of your readers give information respecting the above words in Italic?
D. N. O.
Rathband Family.—Can any of your readers assist me in distinguishing between the several members of this clerical family, which flourished during the period of the Commonwealth, and immediately preceding? From Palmer's Nonconformist Mem. (vol. i. p. 520.), there was a Mr. William Rathband, M.A., ejected from Southwold, a member of Oxford University, who was brother to Mr. Rathband, sometime preacher in the Minster of York, and son of an old Nonconformist minister, Mr. W. Rathband, who wrote against the Brownists.—I should feel obliged by any information which would identify them with the livings they severally held.
OLIVER.
Encaustic Tiles from Caen.—In the town of Caen, in Normandy, is an ancient Gothic building standing in the grounds of the ancient convent of the Benedictines, now used as a college. This building, which is commonly known as the "Salle des Gardes de Guillaume le Conquerant," was many years ago paved with glazed emblazoned earthenware tiles, which were of the dimensions of about five inches square, and one and a quarter thick; the subjects of them are said to be the arms of some of the chiefs who accompanied William the Conqueror to England. Some antiquaries said these tiles were of the age of William I.; others that they could only date from Edward III. I find it stated in the Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1789, vol. lix. p. 211., that twenty of the tiles above spoken of were taken up by the Benedictine monks, and sent as a present to Charles Chadwick, Esq., Healey Hall, Lancashire, in 1786. The rest of the tiles were destroyed by the revolutionists, with the exception of some which were fortunately saved by the Abbe de la Rue and M. P. A. Lair, of Caen. What I wish to inquire is, firstly, who was Charles Chadwick, Esq.? and secondly, supposing that he is no longer living, which I think from the lapse of time will be most probable, does any one know what became of the tiles which he had received from France in 1786?
GEORGE BOASE.
P.S.—The Gentleman's Magazine gives a plate of these tiles, as well as a plate of some others with which another ancient building, called "Grand Palais de Guillaume le Conquerant," was paved.
Alverton Vean, Penzance.
Artificial Drainage.—Can any of your correspondents refer me to a work, or works, giving a history of draining marshes by machines for raising the water to a higher level? Windmills, I suppose, were the first machines so used, but neither Beckmann nor Dugdale informs us when first used. I have found one mentioned in a conveyance dated 1642, but they were much earlier. Any information on the history of the drainage of the marshes near Great Yarmouth, of which Dugdale gives passing notice only, would also be very acceptable to me.
E. G. R.
Storms at the Death of great Men.—Your correspondent at Vol. vi., p. 531., mentions "the storms which have been noticed to take place at the time of the death of many great men known to our history."
A list of these would be curious. With a passing reference to the familiar instance of the Crucifixion, as connected with all history, we may note, as more strictly belonging to the class, those storms that occurred at the deaths of "The Great Marquis" of Montrose, 21st May, 1650; Cromwell, 3rd September, 1658; Elizabeth Gaunt, who was burnt 23rd October, 1685, and holds her reputation as the last female who suffered death for a political offence in England; and Napoleon, 5th May, 1821; as well as that which solemnised {494} the burial of Sir Walter Scott, 26th September, 1832.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Motto or Wylcotes' Brass.—In the brass of Sir John Wylcotes, Great Tew Church, Oxfordshire, the following motto occurs:
"IN . ON . IS . AL."
I shall feel obliged if any one of your numerous correspondents will enlighten my ignorance by explaining it to me.
W. B. D.
Lynn.
"Trail through the leaden sky," &c.—
"Trail through the leaden sky their bannerets of fire."
Where is this line to be found, as applied to the spirits of the storm?
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
Lord Audley's Attendants at Poictiers.—According to the French historian Froissart, four knights or esquires, whose names he does not supply, attended the brave Lord Audley at the memorable battle of Poictiers, who, some English historians say, were Sir John Delves of Doddington, Sir Thomas Dutton of Dutton, Sir Robert Fowlehurst of Crewe (all these places being in Cheshire), and Sir John Hawkstone of Wrinehill in Staffordshire; whilst others name Sir James de Mackworth of Mackworth in Derbyshire, and Sir Richard de Tunstall alias Sneyde of Tunstall in Staffordshire, as two of such knights or esquires. The accuracy of Froissart as an historian has never been questioned; and as he expressly names only four attendants on Lord Audley at the battle of Poictiers, it is extremely desirable it should be ascertained if possible which of the six above-named knights really were the companions of Lord Audley Froissart alludes to; and probably some of your learned correspondents may be able to clear up the doubts on the point raised by our historians.
T. J.
Worcester.
Roman Catholic Bible Society.—About the year 1812, or 1813, a Roman Catholic Bible Society was established in London, in which Mr. Charles Butler, and many other leading gentlemen, took a warm part. How long did it continue? Why was it dissolved? Did it publish any annual reports, or issue any book or tract, besides an edition of the New Testament in 1815? Where can the fullest account of it be found?
Will any gentleman be kind enough to sell, or even to lend, me Blair's Correspondence on the Roman Catholic Bible Society, a pamphlet published in 1813, which I have not been able to meet with at a bookseller's shop, and am very desirous to see.
HENRY COTTON.
Thurles, Ireland.
* * * * *
Minor Queries with Answers.
"Vox Populi Vox Dei."—Lieber, in the last chapter of his Civil Liberty, treating of this dictum, ascribes its origin to the Middle Ages, acknowledging, however, that he is unable to give anything very definite. Sir William Hamilton, in his edition of the Works of Thomas Reid, gives the concluding words of Hesiod's Works and Days thus:
"The word proclaimed by the concordant voice of mankind fails not; for in man speaks God."
And to this the great philosopher adds:
"Hence the adage (?), 'Vox Populi vox Dei.'"
The sign of interrogation is Sir William Hamilton's, and he was right to put it; for whatever the psychological connexion between Hesiod's dictum and V. P. V. D. may be, there is surely no historical. "Vox Populi vox Dei" is a different concept, breathing the spirit of a different age.
How far back, then, can the dictum in these very words be traced?
Does it, as Lieber says, originally belong to the election of bishops by the people?
Or was it of Crusade origin?
America begs Europe to give her facts, not speculation, and hopes that Europe will be good enough to comply with her request. Europe has given the serious "V. P. V. D." to America, so she may as well give its history to America too.
AMERICUS.
[As this Query of AMERICUS contains some new illustration of the history of this phrase, we have given it insertion, although the subject has already been discussed in our columns. The writer will, however, find that the earliest known instances of the use of the sayings are, by William of Malmesbury, who, speaking of Odo yielding his consent to be Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 920, says: "Recogitans illud Proverbium, Vox Populi Vox Dei;" and by Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury, who, as we learn from Walsingham, took it as his text for the sermon which he preached when Edward III. was called to the throne, from which the people had pulled down Edward II. AMERICUS is farther referred to Mr. G. Cornewall Lewis' Essay on the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion (pp. 172, 173., and the accompanying notes) for some interesting remarks upon it. See farther, "N. & Q.," Vol. i., pp. 370. 419. 492.; Vol. iii., pp. 288. 381.]
"Lanquettes Cronicles."—Of what date is the earliest printed copy of these Chronicles? The oldest I am acquainted with is 1560, in quarto (continued up to 1540 by Bishop Cooper). Is this edition rare?
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
[The earliest edition is that printed by T. Berthelet, 4to., 1549. The first two parts of this Chronicle, {495} and the beginning of the third, as far as the seventeenth year after Christ, were composed by Thomas Lanquet, a young man of twenty-four years of age. Owing to his early death, Bishop Cooper finished the work; and his part, which is the third, contains almost thrice as much as Lanquet's two parts, being taken from Achilles Pyrminius. When it was finished, a surreptitious edition appeared in 1559, under the title of Lanquet's Chronicle; hereupon the bishop protested against "the vnhonest dealynge" of this book, edited by Thomas Crowley, in the next edition, entitled Cooper's Chronicle, "printed in the house late Thomas Berthelettes," 1560. The running title to the first and second parts is, "Lanquet's Chronicle;" and to the third, "The Epitome of Chronicles." The other editions are, "London, 1554," 4to., and "London, 1565," 4to. We should think the edition of 1560 rare: it was in the collections of Mr. Heber and Mr. Herbert. In this work the following memorable passage occurs, under the year 1542:—"One named Johannes Faustius fyrste founde the crafte of printynge in the citee of Mens in Germanie."]
"Our English Milo."—Bishop Hall extols in his Heaven upon Earth the valour of a countryman in a Spanish bull-fight (see p. 335., collected ed. Works, 1622). Of whom does he speak?
R. C. WARDE.
Kidderminster.
[If we may offer a conjecture, in the passage cited the bishop seems to refer to that "greatest scourge of Spain" Sir Walter Raleigh, and not so much to a bull-fight as to the Spanish Armada. The bishop is prescribing Expectation as a remedy for Crosses, and says, "Is it not credible what a fore-resolved mind can do—can suffer? Could our English Milo, of whom Spain yet speaketh, since their last peace, have overthrown that furious beast, made now more violent through the rage of his baiting, if he had not settled himself in his station, and expected?" Sir Walter's "fore-resolved and expectant mind" was shown in the publication of his treatise, Notes of Directions for the Defence of the Kingdom, written three years before the Spanish invasion of 1588.]
"Delights for Ladies."—I lately picked up a small volume entitled—
"Delights for Ladies; to adorn their Persons, Tables, Closets, and Distillatories, with Beauties, Bouquets, Perfumes, and Waters. Reade, practise, and censure." London, Robert Young. 1640.
Who is the author of this interesting little work? Some one has written on the fly-leaf, "See Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 69., where there is a reference to this curious little book;" but as I cannot readily lay my hand on Douce, I will feel obliged for the information sought for from any of your valued correspondents.
GEORGE LLOYD.
Dublin.
[The author was Sir Hugh Plat, who, says Harte, "not to mention his most excellent talents, was the most ingenious husbandman of the age he lived in. In a word, no man ever discovered, or at least brought into use, so many new sorts of manure." The Delights for Ladies first appeared in 1602, and passed through several editions. Douce merely quotes this work. Plat was the author of several other works: see Watt and Lowndes.]
Burton's Death.—Did Burton, author of Anatomy of Melancholy, commit suicide?
C. S. W.
[The supposition that Robert Burton committed suicide originated from a statement found in Wood's Athenae, vol. ii. p. 653. (Bliss). Wood says, "He, the said R. Burton, paid his last debt to nature in his chamber in Christ Church, at or very near that time which he had some years before foretold from the calculation of his own nativity; which, being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves that, rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck."]
Joannes Audoenus.—I shall be obliged by any notices of the personal or literary history of John Owen, the famous Latin epigrammatist, in addition to those furnished by the Athenae Oxonienses. Wood remarks, that "whereas he had made many epigrams on several people, so few were made on or written to him. Among the few, one by Stradling, and another by Dunbar, a Scot," I have met with one allusion to him among the epigrams of T. Bancroft, 4to., Lond. 1639, signat. A 3.:
"To the Reader.
Reader, till Martial thou hast well survey'd, Or Owen's wit with Jonson's learning weighed, Forbeare with thanklesse censure to accuse My writ of errour, or condemne my Muse."
As translators of Audoenus, Wood mentions, in 1619, Joh. Vicars, usher of Christ's Hospital school, as having rendered some select epigrams, and Thomas Beck six hundred of Owen's, with other epigrams from Martial and More, under the title of Parnassi Puerperium, 8vo., Lond. 1659. In addition to these I find, in a catalogue of Lilly, King Street, Covent Garden, No. 4., 1844:
"HAYMAN, Robert. Certaine Epigrams out of the First Foure Bookes of the excellent Epigrammatist Master John Owen, translated into English at Harbor Grace in Bristol's Hope, anciently called Newfoundland, 4to., unbound; a rare poetical tract, 1628, 10s. 6d."
BALLIOLENSIS.
[The personal and literary history of John Owen (Audoenus) is given in the Biographia Britannica, vol. v., and in Chalmers' and Rose's Biographical Dictionaries.]
Hampden's Death.—Was the great patriot Hampden actually slain by the enemy on Chalgrove Field? or was his death, as some have asserted, {496} caused by the bursting of his own pistol, owing to its having been incautiously overcharged?
T. J.
Worcester.
[See the Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1815, p. 395., for "A true and faithfull Narrative of the Death of Master Hambden, who was mortally wounded at Challgrove Fight, A.D. 1643, and on the 18th of June." From this narrative we learn, that whilst Hampden was fighting against Prince Rupert at Chalgrove Field, he was struck with two carbine-balls in the shoulder, which broke the bone, and terminated fatally.]
* * * * *
Replies.
"PINECE WITH A STINK."
(Vol. viii., pp. 270. 350.)
I would not have meddled with this subject if R. G., getting on a wrong scent, had not arrived at the very extraordinary conclusion that Bramhall meant a "pinnace," and an "offensive composition well known to sailors!"
The earliest notice that I have met with of the pinece in an English work, is in the second part of the Secrets of Maister Alexis of Piemont, translated by W. Warde, Lond. 1568. There I find the following secrets—worth knowing, too, if effective:
"Against stinking vermin called Punesies.—If you rub your bedsteede with squilla stamped with vinaigre, or with the leaves of cedar tree sodden in oil, you shall never feel punese. Also if you set under the bed a payle full of water the puneses will not trouble you at all."
Butler, in the first canto of the third part of Hudibras, also mentions it thus:
"And stole his talismanic louse— His flea, his morpion, and punaise."
If the Querist refers to his French dictionary he will soon discover the meaning of morpion and punaise—the latter without doubt the pinece of Bishop Bramhall. Cotgrave, in his French-English Dictionary, London, 1650, defines punaise to be "the noysome and stinking vermin called the bed punie."
It may be bad taste to dwell any longer on this subject; but as it illustrates a curious fact in natural history, and as it has been well said, that whatever the Almighty has thought proper to create is not beneath the study of mankind, I shall crave a word or two more.
The pinece is not originally a native of this country; and that is the reason why, so many years after its first appearance in England, it was known only by a corruption of its French name punaise, or its German appellation wandlaus (wall-louse). Penny, a celebrated physician and naturalist in the reign of Henry VII., discovered it at Mortlake in rather a curious manner. Mouffet, in his Theatrum Insectorum (Lond. 1634), thus relates the story:
"Anno 1503, dum haec Pennio scriptitaret, Mortlacum Tamesin adjacentem viculum, magna festinatione accersebatur ad duas nobiles, magno metu ex cimicum vestigiis percussas, et quid nescio contagionis valde veritas. Tandem recognita, ac bestiolis captis, risu timorem omnem excussat."
Mouffet also tells us that in his time the insect was little known in England, though very common on the Continent, a circumstance which he ascribes to the superior cleanliness of the English:
"Munditiem frequentemque lectulorum et culcitrarem lotionem, cum Galli, Germani, et Itali minus curant, pariunt magis hane pestem, Angli autem munditei et cultus studiosissimi rarius iis laborant."
Ray, in his Historia Insectorum, published in 1710, merely terms it the punice or wall-louse; indeed, I am not aware that the modern name of the insect appears in print previous to 1730, when one Southal published A Treatise of Buggs. Southal appears to have been an illiterate person; and he erroneously ascribes the introduction of the insect into this country to the large quantities of foreign fir used to rebuild London after the Great Fire.
The word bug, signifying a frightful object or spectre, derived from the Celtic and the root of bogie, bug-aboo, bug-bear—is well known in our earlier literature. Spenser, Shakspeare, Milton, Beaumont and Fletcher, Holinshed and many others, use it; and in Matthew's Bible, the fifth verse of the ninety-first psalm is rendered:
"Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs by night."
Thus we see that a real "terror of the night" in course of time, assumed, by common consent, the title of the imaginary evil spirit of our ancestors.
One word more. I can see no difficulty in tracing the derivation of the word humbug, without going to Hamburg, Hume of the Bog, or any such distant sources. In Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, I find the word hum signifying deceive. Peter Pindar, too, writes writes:
"Full many a trope from bayonet and drum He threaten'd but behold! 'twas all a hum."
Now, the rustic who frightens his neighbour with a turnip lanthorn and a white sheet, or the spirit-rapping medium, who, for a consideration, treats his verdant client with a communication from the unseen world, most decidedly humbugs him; that is, hums or deceives him with an imaginary spirit, or bug.
W. PINKERTON.
Ham.
I take it that the editor of Archbishop Bramhall's Works was judicious in not altering the {497} word pinece to pinnace, as an object very different from the latter was meant; i. e. a cimex, who certainly revenges any attack upon his person with a stink. Pinece is only a mistaken orthography of punese, the old English name of the obnoxious insect our neighbours still call a punaise (see Cotgrave in voce). Florio says "Cimici, a kinde of vermine in Italie that breedeth in beds and biteth sore, called punies or wall-lice." We have it in fitting company in Hudibras, III. 1.:
"And stole his talismanic louse, His flea, his morpion, and punese."
This is only one more instance of the danger of altering the orthography, or changing an obsolete word, the meaning of which is not immediately obvious. The substitution of pinnace would have been entirely to depart from the meaning of the Archbishop.
S. W. S.
* * * * *
MONUMENTAL BRASSES ABROAD.
(Vol. vi., p. 167.)
A recent visit to the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle enables me to add the following Notes to the list already published in "N. & Q."
The brasses are five in number, and are all contained in a chapel on the north-west side of the dome:
1. Arnoldus de Meroide, 1487, is a mural, rectangular plate (3' . 10" x 2' . 4"), on the upper half of which are engraved the Virgin and Child, to whom an angel presents a kneeling priest, and St. Bartholomew with knife and book.
2. Johannes Pollart, 1534, is also mural and rectangular (5' . 2-1/2" x 2' . 4"), but is broken into two unequal portions, now placed side by side. The upper half of the larger piece has the following engraving:—In the centre stands the Virgin, wearing an arched imperial crown. Angels swing censers above her head. St. John Baptist, on her right hand, presents a kneeling priest in surplice and alb; and St. Christopher bears "the mysterious Child" on her left. The lower half contains part of the long inscription which is completed on the smaller detached piece.
3. Johannes et Lambertus Munten, 1546. This is likewise mural and rectangular (2' . 11-1/2" x 2' . 1"). It is painted a deep blue colour, and has an inscription in gilt letters, at the foot of which is depicted an emaciated figure, wrapped in a shroud and lying upon an altar-tomb: large worms creep round the head and feet.
4. Johannes Paiel, 1560. Mural, rectangular (3' . 4" x 2' . 4-1/4"). This is painted as the last-mentioned plate, and represents the Virgin and Child in a flaming aureole. Her feet rest in a crescent, around which is twisted a serpent; on her right hand stand St. John Baptist and the Holy Lamb, each bearing a cross; and to her left is St. Mary Magdalene, who presents a kneeling priest.
5. Henricus de .... This is on the floor in front of the altar-rails, and consists of a rectangular plate (2' . 9" x 2' . 1"), on which is represented an angel wearing a surplice and a stole semee of crosses fitchee, and supporting a shield bearing three fleurs-de-lis, with as many crosses fitchee. A partially-effaced inscription runs round the plate, within a floriated margin, and with evangelistic symbols at the corners.
In the centre of the choir of Cologne Cathedral lies a modern rectangular brass plate (8' . 10" x 3' . 11") to the memory of a late archbishop, Ferdinandus Augustus, 1835.
Beneath a single canopy is a full-length picture of the archbishop in eucharistic vestments (the stole unusually short), a pall over his shoulders, and an elaborate pastoral staff in his hand.
JOSIAH CATO.
Kennington.
* * * * *
MILTON'S "LYCIDAS."
(Vol. ii., p. 246.; Vol. vi., p. 143.)
Your correspondent JARLTZBERG, at the first reference, asks for the sense of the passage,—
"Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing sed: But that two-handed engine at the door Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
My own view of this passage strongly testifies against the interpretation of another passage at the second reference.
The two-handed engine, I am positive, is St. Michael's sword. Farther on in the poem the bard addresses the angel St. Michael (according to Warton), who is conceived as guarding the Mount from enemies with a drawn sword, for in this form I apprehend does tradition state the vision to have been seen; and he bids him to desist from looking out for enemies towards the coast of Spain, and to "look homeward," at one of his own shepherds who is being washed ashore, in all probability upon this very promontory. Milton elsewhere (Par. Lost, book vi. 251.) speaks of the "huge two-handed sway" of this sword of St. Michael; and here, in Lycidas he repeats the epithet to identify the instrument which is to accomplish the destruction of the wolf. St. Michael's sword is to smite off the head of Satan, who at the door of Christ's fold is, "with privy paw," daily devouring the hungry sheep. Note here that, according to some theologians, the archangel Michael, in prophecy, means Christ himself. (See the authorities quoted by Heber, Bampton Lectures, iv. note l, p. 242.) Hence it is His business to preserve His own sheep. In the Apocalypse the final blow of St. Michael's (or Christ's) two-edged sword, which {498} is to cleave the serpent's head, is made a distinct subject of prophecy. (See Rev. xii. 7-10.)
While on this subject allow me to ask, Can a dolphin waft? Can a shore wash?
C. MANSFIED INGLEBY.
Birmingham.
* * * * *
SCHOOL LIBRARIES.
(Vol. viii., pp. 220. 395.)
In returning thanks to those of your correspondents who replied to my Query, I ought, perhaps, to have begged to learn such of our public schools that were without libraries, as the best means of obtaining for them bequests or gifts that would form a nucleus of a good library. For example, a correspondent informs me that the governors of Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Wimborne, Dorset, are laying by 10l. a year towards the purchase of books for that purpose: that having no library at present, there now is a favourable opportunity for either a gift or a bequest: but I should in any case prefer a selection of works likely to prove readable for young people, as history, biography, travels, and the popular works of science.
I can quite imagine that Eton, Winchester, Westminster, Harrow, Shrewsbury, and other similar great schools, would have such libraries, but these are not half the number of our public foundations; the wealthy schools above mentioned, and the rich men's children who go to them, would be in a sad plight indeed were they not amply provided for in such matters. But there are others whose mission is not less important, perhaps more so; and on this head none would be better pleased than I to find I laboured under an "erroneous impression," as remarked by ETONENSIS. The English public appeared to have an "erroneous impression" that they were better provided with books than any other people a short time ago, till it was disproved when the agitation respecting parochial libraries was set on foot, the facts appearing on the institution of the Marylebone public library.
It has been shown that in France and Germany the public libraries, and the volumes in them, far exceed any that we possess; a strange fact, when we are better provided with standard authors than any other language in the world. I should much wish these brief parallels answered. The city of Lyons has a magnificent public library of 100,000 vols., open to all; how many has her rival Manchester? Boulogne has a public library of 16,000 vols.; how many has Southampton? From the obliging notices of correspondents in "N. & Q.," we have had several articles on parochial libraries, and the sum of the whole appears to be most miserable; surely some bad system has prevailed either in not having proper places for them, or in some other fault. In one place the resident clergyman sells them: surely if they were combined under some enlarged plan, people desirous of making bequests or gifts would do so very willingly when they knew they would be cared for and made use of; for it is probably the case that private libraries are more numerous here than abroad, and that there are altogether more books in the country. I am told by a correspondent that in his time there were no books at Christ's Hospital, therefore the bequest made is, I presume, a late one; and if such is the case, it will be a favourable opportunity for the governors of that school to enlarge the collection and make it available to the scholars.
If, therefore, our schools are no better provided than our public libraries, the inquiry may be of service; but if they are, it cannot do harm to know their condition. It is true I have heard of but one public school hitherto that has no library and wants one, but I shall remain unsatisfied till other returns make their appearance in "N. & Q." or privately, when, if it should appear I have taken a wrong opinion, I shall be as please as anybody else to find myself mistaken.
WELD TAYLOR.
Bayswater.
In answer to your correspondent MR. WELD TAYLOR'S Query on this subject, may I be allowed to say that at Tonbridge School, where I was educated, there is a very good general library, consisting of the best classical works in our own language, travels, chronicles, histories, and the best works of fiction and poetry, and I believe all modern periodicals.
This library is under the care of the head boy for the time being, and he, with the other monitors, acts as librarian. Books are given out, I believe, daily; the library is maintained by the boys themselves, and few leave the school without making some contribution to its funds, or placing some work on its shelves.
The head master, the Rev. Dr. Welldon, approves of all books before they are added to the library.
There is also what is called the "Sunday Library," consisting of standard works of theology and church history, and other works, chiefly presented by the head and other masters, to induce a taste for such reading.
I am sorry that MR. WELD TAYLOR should have to complain of the general ignorance of public schoolboys; but I know I may on behalf of the head boy of Tonbridge say, he will be happy to acknowledge any contribution from MR. WELD TAYLOR, which he may be disposed to give, towards the removal of this charge.
G. BRINDLEY ACWORTH.
Star Hill, Rochester.
{499}
* * * * *
CAWDRAY'S "TREASURIE OF SIMILIES," AND SIMILE OF MAGNETIC NEEDLE.
(Vol. viii., p. 386.)
There can be no doubt as to the authorship of the Store-house of Similies. The work is now before me, and the title-page is as follows:
"A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies; both Pleasaunt, Delightfull, and Profitable for all Estates of Men in Generall: newly collected into Heades and Common Places. By Robert Cawdray. London: printed by Thomas Creede, 1609."
The only reference to his Life, which I can find, is in "The Epistle Dedicatorie;" and two ancestors of mine, "Sir John Harington, Knight, and the Worshipful James Harington, Esquire, his brother," in which, when assigning his reasons for the "Dedication," he says:
"Calling to mind (right worshipfuls) not only the manifold curtesies and benefits, which I found and received, now more than thirty years ago, when I taught the grammar schoole at Okeham in Rutland, and sundry times since, of the religious and virtuous lady, Lucie Harington," &c.
The "Dedication" is subscribed "Robert Cawdray." Cawdray was also the author of a work On the Profit and Necessity of Catechising, London, 1592, 8vo.
E. C. HARINGTON.
The Close, Exeter.
* * * * *
The "Epistle Dedicatorie," as well as the title-page, appears to be wanting in J. H. S.'s copy of Robert Cawdray's Store-house, which was "printed by Thomas Creede, London, 1609." From this we find that it was dedicated to "his singular benefactors, Sir John Harington, Knight, as also to the Worshipfull James Harington, Esquire, his brother," whose "great kindness and favourable good will (during my long trouble, and since)" the author afterwards "calls to mind," and also the "manifold curtesies and benefites which I found and received, now more than thirtie years agoe (when I taught the Grammar School at Okeham in Rutland, and sundrie times since) of the religious and vertuous lady, Lucie Harington your Worship's Mother, and my especial friend in the Lord." Would this be the "lady, a prudent woman," who "had the princess Elizabeth committed to her government" (vide Fuller's Worthies, Rutlandshire)?
J. H. S.'s Query recalls two examples of the "magnetic needle simile" (Vol. vi. and vii. passim), which Cawdray has garnered in his Store-house, and which fact would probably account for their appearance in many sermons of the period, as the book being expressly intended to "lay open, rip up, and display in their kindes," "verie manie most horrible and foule vices and dangerous sinnes of all sorts;" and the "verie fitte similitudes" being for the most part "borrowed from manie kindes and sundrie naturall things, both in the Olde and New Testament," and being as the writer says "for preachers profitable," would find a place on many a clerical shelf; and its contents be freely used to "learnedly beautifie their matter, and brauely garnish and decke out" their discourses. I fear that I have already encroached too much on your valuable space, but send copies for use at discretion. In the first, the "Sayler's Gnomon" is used as an emblem of the constancy which ought to animate every "Christian man;" and in the second, of steadfastness amidst the temptations of the world. I shall be glad to know more of Cawdray than the trifles I have gathered from his book:
"Euen as the Sayler's Gnomon, or rule, which is commonly called the mariner's needle, doth alwayes looke towards the north poole, and will euer turne towards the same, howsoeuer it bee placed: which is maruellous in that instrument and needle, whereby the mariners doo knowe the course of the windes: Euen so euerie Christian man ought to direct the eyes of his minde, and the wayes of his heart, to Christ; who is our north poole, and that fixed and constant north starre, whereby we ought all to bee governed: for hee is our hope and our trust; hee is our strength, whereupon wee must still relie."
"Like as the Gnomon dooth euer beholde the north starre, whether it be closed and shutte uppe in a coffer of golde, siluer, or woode, neuer loosing his nature: So a faithfull Christian man, whether hee abound in wealth, or bee pinched with pouertie, whether hee bee of high or lowe degree in this worlde, ought continually to haue his faith and hope surely built and grounded uppon Christ: and to haue his heart and minde fast fixed and settled in him, and to follow him through thicke and thinne, through fire and water, through warres and peace, through hunger and colde, through friendes and foes, through a thousand perilles and daungers, through the surges and waues of enuie, malice, hatred, euill speeches, rayling sentences, contempt of the worlde, flesh, and diuell: and, euen in death itselfe, bee it neuer so bitter, cruell, and tyrannicall; yet neuer to loose the sight and viewe of Christ, neuer to giue ouer our faith, hope, and trust in him."
SIGMA.
Stockton.
* * * * *
Robert Cawdray, the author of A Treasurie or Store-house of Similes, was a Nonconformist divine of learning and piety. Having entered into the sacred function about 1566, he was presented by Secretary Cecil to the rectory of South Luffenham in Rutlandshire. After he had been employed in the ministry about twenty years, he was cited before Bishop Aylmer and other high commissioners, and charged with having omitted parts of the Book of Common Prayer in public worship, {500} and with having preached against certain things contained in the book. Having refused, according to Strype, to take the oath to answer all such articles as the commissioners should propose, he was deprived of his ministerial office. Mr. Brook, however, in his Lives of the Puritans, states that though he might at first have refused the oath, yet that he afterwards complied, and gave answers to the various articles which he proceeds to detail at length. He was cited again on two subsequent occasions; and, on his third appearance, being required to subscribe, and to wear the surplice, he refused, and was imprisoned, and ultimately deprived. He applied to Lord Burleigh to intercede on his behalf, and his lordship warmly espoused his cause, and engaged Attorney Morrice to undertake his defence, but his arguments proved ineffectual. Mr. Cawdray, refusing to submit, was brought before Archbishop Whitgift, and other high commissioners, May 14, 1590, and was degraded and deposed from the ministry and made a mere layman. The above account is abridged from Brook's Lives of the Puritans, London, 1813, pp. 430-43.
[Greek: Halieus].
Dublin.
P. S. Besides the Treasurie of Similies, I find the following work under his name in the Bodleian Catalogue:
"A Table Alphabeticall; conteyning and teaching the True Writing and Vnderstanding of hard vsuall English Wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine, or French, &c. London. 8vo. 1604."
* * * * *
The title of this work is—
"A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies; both Pleasant, Delightfull, and Profitable for all Estates of Men in Generall: newly collected into Heades and Common Places. By Robert Cawdray. Thomas Creed, London, 1609, 4to."
Cawdray was rector of South Luffenham, in Rutland; and was deprived by Bishop Aylmer for nonconformity in 1587. He appealed to the Court of Exchequer, and his case was argued before all the judges in 1591. A report of the trial is in Coke's Reports, inscribed "De Jure Regis Ecclesiastico." There is a Life of Cawdray in Brook's Lives of the Puritans (vol. i. pp. 430-443.), which contains an interesting account of his examination before the High Commission, extracted from a MS. register. Notices of him will also be found in Neal's Puritans, 1837 (vol. i. pp. 330. 341.); and Heylin's History of the Presbyterians, 1672 (fol. p. 317.).
JOHN I. DREDGE.
* * * * *
"MARY, WEEP NO MORE FOR ME."
(Vol. viii., p. 385.)
For the following information respecting the author, and the original, I am indebted to the Lady's Magazine of 1820, from which I copied it several years ago.
Mr. Joseph Lowe, born at Kenmore in Galloway, 1750, the son of a gardener, at fourteen apprenticed to a weaver, by persevering diligence in the pursuit of knowledge, was enabled in 1771 to enter himself a student in Divinity in the University of Edinburgh. On his return from college he became tutor in the family of a gentleman, Mr. McGhie of Airds, who had several beautiful daughters, to one of whom he was attached, though it never was their fate to be united. Another of the sisters, Mary, was engaged to a surgeon, Mr. Alexander Miller. This young gentleman was unfortunately lost at sea, an event immortalised by Mary's Dream. The author was unhappy in his marriage with a lady of Virginia, whither he had emigrated, and died in 1798. This poem was originally composed in the Scottish dialect, and afterwards received the polished English form from the hand of its author.
"MARY'S DREAM.
"The lovely moon had climb'd the hill, Where eagles big aboon the Dee, And, like the looks of a lovely dame, Brought joy to every body's ee: A' but sweet Mary deep in sleep, Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea; A voice drapt saftly on her ear— 'Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me!'
"She lifted up her waukening een, To see from whence the sound might be, And there she saw young Sandy stand, Pale, bending on her his hollow ee. 'O Mary dear, lament nae mair! I'm in death's thraws aneath the sea: Thy weeping makes me sad in bliss, Sae Mary, weep nae mair for me!
"'The wind slept when we left the bay, But soon it waked and raised the main; And God he bore us down the deep— Wha strave wi' him, but strave in vain. He stretch'd his arm and took me up, Tho' laith I was to gang but thee: I look frae heaven aboon the storm, Sae Mary, weep nae mair for me!
"'Take aff thae bride-sheets frae thy bed, Which thou hast faulded down for me, Unrobe thee of thy earthly stole— I'll meet in heaven aboon wi' thee.' Three times the gray cock flapp'd his wing, To mark the morning lift his ee; And thrice the passing spirit said, 'Sweet Mary, weep nae mair for me!'"
J. W. THOMAS.
Dewsbury.
* * * * *
{501}
PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.
Clouds in Photographs (Vol. viii., p. 451.).—Your correspondent on this subject may easily produce clouds on paper negatives by drawing in the lights on the back with common writing ink. There is usually some tint printed with all negatives, therefore the black used will stop it out.
It is at the same time unfair and untrue to the art, because clouds cannot be represented in the regular mode of practice. If they appear, as they do sometimes by accident, it is well to leave them; but in no art is any trick so easily detected as in photography, and it cannot add to any operator's credit in expertness to practise them.
W. T.
Albumenized Paper.—In a late Number of "N. & Q." you published an account of albumenizing paper for positives by MR. SHADBOLT. Having considerable experience in the manipulation of photographical art, I have bestowed great pains in testing the process he recommends; and, I regret to say, the results are by no means satisfactory. I well know the delicacy which is required in applying the albumen evenly to the surface of the paper, and am therefore not surprised to find that each of his "longitudinal strokes" remains clearly indicated, thereby entirely destroying the effect of the picture.
He also advises that the paper should not be afterwards ironed, as it is apt to produce flaws and spots on the albumenized surface; and he believes that the chemical action of the nitrate of silver alone is sufficient to coagulate the albumen, without the application of heat. This I have found in practice to be incorrect: for when I have excited albumenized paper, to which a sufficient heat has not been applied, I have invariably observed that a portion of the albumen becomes detached into the silver solution, making it viscid, and favouring its decomposition. Consequently, the sheets last excited seldom retain their colour so long as those which are first prepared. But even laying aside the question of the coagulation of the albumen, the paper, unless it is ironed, remains so "cockled up," that it is not only unsightly, but very difficult to use. 100-grain solution of nitrate of silver (I presume to the ounce) is also recommended. In a late Number, I find DR. DIAMOND uses a 40-grain solution with perfect success; and my own experience enables me to verify this formula as being sufficiently powerful:—no additional intensity of colour being obtained by these strong solutions, it is a mere waste of material. Therefore I think your correspondent fails in effecting either economy of material or time.
However painful it may be to me to offer remarks at variance with the opinions of your kind and intelligent correspondents, yet I consider it a duty that yourself and readers should not be misled, and so interesting and elegant an art as photography brought into disrepute by experiments which, however well intentioned, plainly indicate a want of experience.
K. N. M.
[MR. SHADBOLT'S scientific acquirements appeared to us to demand that we should give insertion to his plan of albumenizing paper: although we felt some doubts whether it did not contain the disadvantages which our correspondent now points out. We had met with such complete success in following out the process recommended by DR. DIAMOND in our 205th Number, that we did not think it advisable to make any alteration. For our own experience has shown us the wisdom, in photography as in other matters, of holding fast that which is good.—ED.]
Stereoscopic Angles.—Notwithstanding the space you have devoted to this subject, I find little practical information to the photographer: will you therefore allow me to presume to offer you my mode, which, regardless of all scientific rules, I find to be perfectly successful in obtaining the desired results?
My focussing-glass is ruled with a few perpendicular and horizontal lines with a pencil, and I also cross it from corner to corner, which marks the centre of the glass. These lines always allow me to place my camera level, because the perpendicular lines being parallel with any upright line secures it.
Having taken a picture, I note well the spot of some object near the centre of the picture: thus, if a window or branch of a tree be upon the spot where the lines cross [Cross lines], I remove the camera in a straight line about one foot for every ten yards distance from the subject, and bring the same object to the same spot: I believe it is not very important if the camera is moved more or less. This may be known and practised by many of your friends; but I am sure others make a great difficulty in effecting those satisfactory results which, as I have shown, may be so easily obtained.
H. W. D.
Photographic Copies of MSS.—I am glad to find from your Notices to Correspondents in Vol. viii., p. 456., that the applicability of photography to the copying of MSS., or printed leaves, is beginning to excite attention. The facility and cheapness of thus applying it (as I have been informed by a professional photographer) is so great, that I have no doubt but that we shall shortly have it used in our great public libraries; so as to supersede the present slow, expensive, and uncertain process of copying by hand. And it is in order to help to bring about so desirable a state of things, that I send these few lines to your widely-circulated journal.
M. D.
* * * * *
{502}
Replies to Minor Queries.
Lord Cecil's "Memorials" (Vol. viii., p. 442.).—Cecil's "First Memorial" is printed in Lord Somers's Tracts. It appears that Primate Ussher, and, subsequently, Sir James Ware and his son Robert, had the benefit of extracts from Lord Burleigh's papers. MR. BRUCE may find the "Examination" of the celebrated Faithfull Comine, and "Lord Cecyl's Letters," together with other interesting documents, entered among the Clarendon MSS. in Pars altera of the second volume of Catal. Lib. Manuscr. Angl. et Hib., Oxon. 1697.
R. G.
Foreign Medical Education (Vol. viii., pp. 341. 398.).—In addition to the previous communications on this subject, I beg to refer your correspondent MEDICUS to Mr. Wilde's Austria; its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions, with Notes on the State of Science, and a Guide to the Hospitals and Sanitary Institutions of Vienna, Dublin: Curry and Co., 1842.
J. D. MCK.
Encyclopaedias (Vol. viii., p. 385.).—Surely there must be many persons who sympathise with ENCYCLOPAEDICUS in wishing to have a work not encumbered and swollen by the heavy and bulky articles to which he refers: perhaps there may be as many as would make it worth the while of some publisher to furnish one. Of course copyright, and all sorts of rights, must be respected but that being done, there would be little else to do than to cut out and wheel away the heavy articles from a copy of any encyclopaedia, and put the rest into the hands of a printer. The residuum (which is what we want) would probably be to a considerable extent the same. When necessary additions had been made, the work would still be of moderate size and price.
N. B.
Pepys's Grammar (Vol. viii., p. 466.).—I am unable to answer MR. KEIGHTLEY'S Query, not having the slightest knowledge of short-hand; but I always understood that the original spelling of every word in the Diary was carefully preserved by the gentleman who decyphered it.
No estimate, however, of Pepys's powers of writing can be formed from the hasty entries recorded in his short-hand journal, and, as I conceive, they derive additional interest from the quaint terms in which they are expressed.
BRAYBROOKE.
"Antiquitas Saeculi Juventus Mundi" (Vols. ii. and iii. passim).—The following instances of this thought occur in two writers of the seventeenth century:
"Those times which we term vulgarly they Old World, were indeed the youth or adolescence of it ... if you go to the age of the world in general, and to the true length and longevity of things, we are properly the older cosmopolites. In this respect the cadet may be termed more ancient than his elder brother, because the world was older when he entered into it. Nov. 2, 1647."—Howell's Letters, 11th edit.: London, 1754, p.426.
Butler, in his character of "An Antiquary," observes:
"He values things wrongfully upon their antiquity, forgetting that the most modern are really the most ancient of all things in the world; like those that reckon their pounds before their shillings and pence, of which they are made up."—Thyer's edit., vol.ii. p. 97.
JARLTZBERG.
Napoleon's Spelling (Vol. viii., p. 386).—The fact inquired after by HENRY H. BREEN is proved by the following extract from the Memoires of Bourrienne, Napoleon's private secretary for many years:
"Je previens une fois pour toutes que dans les copies que je donnerai des ecrits de Bonaparte, je retablirai l'orthographe, qui est en general si extraordinairement estropiee qu'il serait ridicule de les copier exactement."—Mem. i. 73.
C.
Black as a mourning Colour (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—Mourning habits are said first to appear in England in the time of Edward III. Chaucer and Froissart are the first who mention them. The former, in Troylus and Creseyde, says:
"Creseyde was in widowe's habit black."
Again:
"My clothes everichone Shall blacke ben, in tolequyn, herte swete, That I am as out of this world gone."
Again, in the Knights Tale, Palamon appeared at a funeral
"In clothes black dropped all with tears."
Froissart says, the Earl of Foix clothed himself and household in black on the death of his son. At the funeral of the Earl of Flanders black gowns were worn. On the death of King John of France, the King of Cyprus wore black. The very mention of these facts would suggest that black was not then universally worn, but being gradually adopted for mourning.
B. H. C.
Chanting of Jurors (Vol. vi., p. 315.).—No answer has yet been given to J. F. F.'s Query on this, yet the expression "to chant" was not an unusual one, if we may believe Lord Stratford:
"They collected a grand jury in each county, and proceeded to claim a ratification of the rights of the crown. The gentlemen on being empanelled informed that the case before them was irresistible, and that no doubts could exist in the minds of reasonable {503} men upon it. His majesty was, in fact, indifferent whether they found for him or no. 'And there I left them,' says Strafford, 'to chant together, as they call it, over their evidence.' The counties of Roscommon, Sligo, and Mayo instantly found a title for the king." |
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