The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19,
1850, by Various
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Title: Notes and Queries, Number 51, October 19, 1850
A Medium Of Inter-Communication For Literary Men, Artists,
Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc.
Author: Various
Release Date: March 2, 2005 [EBook #15232]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES ***
Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon Ingram, Keith
Edkins and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
{321} NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 51.]
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 16. 1850.
[Price, with Supplement, 6d. Stamped Edition, 7d.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
NOTES:--
Roberd the Robber, by R.J. King 321
On a Passage in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and on Conjectural
Emendation 322
Minor Notes:--Chaucer's Damascene--Long Friday--Hip,
hip, Hurrah!--Under the Rose--Albanian Literature 322
QUERIES:--
Bibliographical Queries 323
Fairfax's Tasso 325
Minor Queries:--Jeremy Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium--First
Earl of Roscommon--St. Cuthbert--Vavasour
of Haslewood--Bells in Churches--Alteration
of Title-pages--Weights for Weighing Coins--Shunamitis
poema--Lachrymatories--Egg-cups used by
the Romans--Meleteticks--Luther's Hymns--"Pair of
Twises"--Countermarks on Roman Coin 325
REPLIES:--
Gaudentio di Lucca 327
Englemann's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum, by
Professor De Morgan 328
Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Delighted," by Samuel
Hickson 329
Collar of Esses, by John Gough Nichols 329
Sirloin, by T.T. Wilkinson, &c. 331
Riots of London, by E.B. Price, &c. 332
Meaning of "Gradely" 334
Pascal and his Editor Bossut, by Gustave Masson 335
Kings-skugg-sio, by E. Charlton, &c. 335
Gold in California 336
The Disputed Passage from the Tempest, by
Samuel Hickson, &c. 337
"London Bridge is broken down," by Dr. E.F. Rimbault 338
Arabic Numerals 339
Caxton's Printing-office, by J. Cropp 340
Cold Harbour 340
St. Uncumber, by W.J. Thoms 342
Handfasting 342
Gray's Elegy--Droning--Dodsley's Poems 343
Replies to Minor Queries:--Zündnadel Guns--Thompson
of Esholt--Minar's Books of Antiquities--Smoke
Money--Holland Land--Caconac, Caconacquerie--Discourse
of national Excellencies of England--Saffron
Bags--Milton's Penseroso--Achilles and the
Tortoise--Stepony Ale--North Side of Churchyards--Welsh
Money--Wormwood--Puzzling Epitaph--Umbrella--Pope
and Bishop Burgess--Book of
Homilies--Roman Catholic Theology--Modum Promissionis--Bacon
Family--Execution of Charles I.,
and Earl of Stair--Watermarks on Writing-paper--St.
John Nepomuc--Satirical Medals--Passage in
Gray--Cupid Crying--Anecdote of a Peal of Bells, &c. 343
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 350
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 351
Notices to Correspondents 351
Advertisements 351
* * * * *
NOTES.
ROBERD THE ROBBER.
In the _Vision of Piers Ploughman_ are two remarkable passages in which
mention is made of "Roberd the robber," and of "Roberdes knaves."
"Roberd the robbere,
On _Reddite_ loked,
And for ther was noght wherof
He wepte swithe soore."
Wright's ed., vol. i. p. 105.
"In glotonye, God woot,
Go thei to bedde,
And risen with ribaudie,
The Roberdes knaves."
Vol. i. p. 3.
In a note on the second passage, Mr. Wright quotes a statute of Edw. III.,
in which certain malefactors are classed together "qui sont appellez
_Roberdesmen_, Wastours, et Dragelatche:" and on the first he quotes two
curious instances in which the name is applied in a similar manner,--one
from a Latin song of the reign of Henry III.:
"Competenter per _Robert_, robbur designatur;
Robertus excoriat, extorquet, et minatur.
_Vir quicunque rabidus consors est Roberto_."
It seems not impossible that we have in these passages a trace of some
forgotten mythical personage. "Whitaker," says Mr. Wright, "supposes,
without any reason, the 'Roberde's knaves' to be 'Robin Hood's men.'" (Vol.
ii. p. 506.) It is singular enough, however, that as early as the time of
Henry III. we find the term 'consors Roberto' applied generally, as
designating any common thief or robber; and without asserting that there is
any direct allusion to "Robin Hood's men" in the expression "Roberdes
knaves," one is tempted to ask whence the hero of Sherwood got his own
name?
Grimm (_Deutsche Mythol._, p. 472.) has suggested that Robin Hood may be
connected with an equally famous namesake, Robin Goodfellow; and that he
may have been so called from the hood or hoodikin, which is a well-known
characteristic of the mischievous elves. I believe, however, it is now
generally admitted that "Robin Hood" is a corruption {322} of "Robin o' th'
Wood" equivalent to "silvaticus" or "wildman"--a term which, as we learn
from Ordericus, was generally given to those Saxons who fled to the woods
and morasses, and long held them against their Norman enemies.
It is not impossible that "Robin o' the Wood" may have been a general name
for any such outlaws as these and that Robin Hood, as well as "Roberd the
Robbere" may stand for some earlier and forgotten hero of Saxon tradition.
It may be remarked that "Robin" is the Norman diminutive of "Robert", and
that the latter is the name by which we should have expected to find the
doings of a Saxon hero commemorated. It is true that Norman and Saxon soon
came to have their feelings and traditions in common; but it is not the
less curious to find the old Saxon name still traditionally applied by the
people, as it seems to have been from the _Vision of Piers Ploughman_.
Whether Robin Goodfellow and his German brother "Knecht Ruprecht" are at
all connected with Robin Hood, seems very doubtful. The plants which, both
in England and in Germany, are thus named, appear to belong to the elf
rather than to the outlaw. The wild geranium, called "Herb Robert" in
Gerarde's time, is known in Germany as "Ruprecht's Kraut". "Poor Robin",
"Ragged Robin", and "Robin in the Hose", probably all commemorate the same
"merry wanderer of the night."
RICHARD JOHN KING.
* * * * *
ON A PASSAGE IN "THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR," AND ON CONJECTURAL
EMENDATION.
The late Mr. Baron Field, in his _Conjectures on some Obscure and Corrupt
Passages of Shakspeare_, published in the "Shakspeare Society's Papers,"
vol. ii. p. 47., has the following, note on _The Merry Wives of Windsor_,
Act ii. Sc. 2.:--
"'_Falstaff._ I myself sometimes having the fear of heaven on the left
hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge,
and to lurch; and yet you, you rogue, will esconce your _rags_, your
cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases and your bold-beating oaths,
under the shelter of your honour.'
"Pistol, to whom this was addressed, was an ensign, and therefore _rags_
can hardly bear the ordinary interpretation. A _rag_ is a beggarly fellow,
but that will make little better sense here. Associated as the phrase is, I
think it must mean _rages_, and I find the word used for _ragings_ in the
compound _bard-rags_, border-ragings or incursions, in Spenser's _Fairy
Queen_, ii. x. 63., and _Colin Clout_, v. 315."
Having on one occasion found that a petty larceny committed on the received
text of the poet, by taking away a superfluous _b_, made all clear, perhaps
I may be allowed to restore the abstracted letter, which had only been
_misplaced_ and read _brags_, with, I trust, the like success? Be it
remembered that Pistol, a braggadocio, is made up of _brags_ and slang; and
for that reason I would also read, with Hanmer, _bull-baiting_, instead of
the unmeaning "_bold-beating_ oaths."
I well know with what extreme caution conjectural emendation is to be
exercised; but I cannot consent to carry it to the excess, or to preserve a
vicious reading, merely because it is warranted by the _old copies_.
Regretting, as I do, that Mr. Collier's, as well as Mr. Knight's, edition
of the poet, should both be disfigured by this excess of caution, I venture
to subjoin a cento from George Withers, which has been inscribed in the
blank leaf of one of them.
"Though they will not for a better
Change a syllable or letter,
Must the _Printer's_ spots and stains
Still obscure THE POET'S Strains?
Overspread with antique rust,
Like whitewash on his painted bust
Which to remove revived the grace
And true expression of his face.
So, when I find misplaced B's,
I will do as I shall please.
If my method they deride,
Let them know I am not tied,
In my free'r course, to chuse
Such strait rules as they would use;
Though I something miss of might,
To express his meaning quite.
For I neither fear nor care
What in this their censures are;
If the art here used be
Their dislike, it liketh me.
While I linger on each strain,
And read, and read it o'er again,
I am loth to part from thence,
Until I trace the poet's sense,
And have the _Printer's errors_ found,
In which the folios abound."
PERIERGUS BIBLIOPHILUS.
October.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Chaucer's Damascene._--Warton, in his account of the physicians who formed
the Library of the Doctor of Physic, says of John Damascene that he was
"Secretary to one of the caliphs, wrote in various sciences before the
Arabians had entered Europe, and had seen the Grecian philosophers."
(_History of English Poetry_, Price's ed., ii. 204.) Mr. Saunders, in his
book entitled _Cabinet Pictures of English Life_, "Chaucer", after
repeating the very words of this meagre account, adds, "He was, however,
more famous for his religious than his medical writings; and obtained for
his eloquence the name of the Golden-flowing" (p 183.) Now Mr. Saunders
certainly, whatever Warton did, has confounded Damascenus, the physician,
with Johannes Damascenus Chrysorrhoas, "the {323} last of the Greek
Fathers," (Gibbon, iv. 472.) a voluminous writer on ecclesiastical
subjects, but no physician, and therefore not at all likely to be found
among the books of Chaucer's Doctour,
"Whose studie was but litel on the Bible."
Chaucer's _Damascene_ is the author of _Aphorismorum Liber_, and of
_Medicinæ Therapeuticæ_, libri vii. Some suppose him to have lived in the
ninth, others in the eleventh century, A.D.; and this is about all that is
known about him. (See _Biographie Universelle_, s.v.)
ED. S. JACKSON.
_Long Friday, meaning of._--C. Knight, in his _Pictorial Shakspeare_,
explains Mrs. Quickly's phrase in _Henry the Fourth_--"'Tis a _long_ loan
for a poor lone woman to bear,"--by the synonym _great_: asserting that
_long_ is still used in the sense of great, in the north of England; and
quoting the Scotch proverb, "Between you and the long day be it," where
_we_ talk of the _great_ day of judgment. May not this be the meaning of
the name _Long Friday_, which was almost invariably used by our Saxon
forefathers for what we now call Good Friday? The commentators on the
Prayer Book, who all confess themselves ignorant of the real meaning of the
term, absurdly suggest that it was so called from the great _length of the
services_ on that day; or else, from the length of the fast which preceded.
Surely, The Great Friday, the Friday on which the great work of our
redemption was completed, makes better sense?
T.E.L.L.
_Hip, hip, Hurrah!_--Originally a war cry, adopted by the stormers of a
German town, wherein a great many Jews had taken their refuge. The place
being sacked, they were all put to the sword, under the shouts of,
_Hierosolyma est perdita_! From the first letter of those words (_H.e.p._)
an exclamation was contrived. We little think, when the red wine sparkles
in the cup, and soul-stirring toasts are applauded by our _Hip, hip,
hurrah!_ that we record the fall of Jerusalem, and the cruelty of
Christians against the chosen people of God.
JANUS DOUSA.
_Under the Rose_ (Vol. i., p. 214.).--Near Zandpoort, a village in the
vicinity of Haarlem, Prince William of Orange, the third of his name, had a
favourite hunting-seat, called after him the Princenbosch, now more
generally known under the designation of the Kruidberg. In the
neighbourhood of these grounds there was a little summer-house, making
part, if I recollect rightly, of an Amsterdam burgomaster's country place,
who resided there at the times I speak of. In this pavilion, it is said,
_and beneath a stucco rose_, being one of the ornaments of the ceiling,
William III. communicated the scheme of his intended invasion in England to
the two burgomasters of Amsterdam there present. You know the result.
Can the expression of "being under the rose" date from this occasion, or
was it merely owing to coincidence that such an ornament protected, as it
were, the mysterious conversation to which England owes her liberty, and
Protestant Christendom the maintenance of its rights?
JANUS DOUSA.
Huis te Manpadt.
_Albanian Literature.--Bogdano, Pietro, Archivescovo di Scopia,
L'Infallibile Verita della Cattolica Fede_, in Venetia, per G. Albrizzi,
MDXCI, is I think much older than any Albanian book mentioned by Hobhouse.
The same additional characters are used which occur in the later
publications of the Propaganda, in two parts, pp. 182. 162.
F.Q.
* * * * *
Queries.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES.
1. Has anything recently transpired which could lead bibliographers to form
an absolute decision with regard to the "unknown" printer who used the
singular letter R which is said to have originated with Finiguerra in 1452?
That Mentelin was the individual seems scarcely credible; and there is a
manifest difference between his type and that of the anonymous printer of
the _editio princeps_ of Rabanus Maurus, _De Universo_, the copy of which
work (illuminated, ruled, and rubricated) now before me was once in Heber's
possession; and it exhibits the peculiar letter R, which resembles an
ill-formed A, destitute of the cross stroke, and supporting a round O on
its reclined back. (Panzer, i. 78.; Santander, i. 240.)
2. Is it not quite certain that the acts and decrees of the synod of
Würtzburg, held in the year 1452, were printed in that city previously to
the publication of the _Breviarium Herbiplense_ in 1479? The letter Q which
is used in the volume of these acts is remarkable for being of a double
semilunar shape; and the type, which is very Gothic, is evidently the same
as that employed in an edition of other synodal decrees in Germany about
the year 1470.
3. When and where was the _Liber de Laudibus gloriosissime Dei genitricis
Marie semper Virginis_, by Albertus Magnus, first printed? I do not mean
the supposititious work, which is often confounded with the other one; but
that which is also styled _Super Evangelium_ Missus est _Quæstiones_. And
why are these Questions invariably said to be 230 in number, when there are
275 chapters in the book? Beughem asserts that the earliest edition is that
of Milan in 1489 (_Vid._ Quetif et Echard, i. 176.), but what I believe to
be a volume of older date is "sine ullâ notâ;" and a bookseller's
observation respecting it is, that it is "very rare, and unknown to De
Bure, Panzer, Brunet, and Dibdin." {324}
4. Has any discovery made as to the author of the extraordinary 4to. tract,
_Oracio querulosa contra Inuasores Sacerdotum?_ According to the Crevenna
_Catalogue_ (i. 85.), the work is "inconnu à tous les bibliographes."
Compare Seemiller, ii. 162.; but the copy before me is not of the
impression described by him. It is worthy of notice, that at signature A
iiiij the writer declares, "nostris jam temporibus calchographiam, hoc est
impressioram artem, in nobilissima Vrbanie germe Maguncia fuisse repertam."
5. Are we to suppose that either carelessness or a love of conjectures was
the source of Chevillier's mistake, not corrected by Greswell (_Annals of
Paris. Typog._, p. 6.), that signatures were first introduced, anno 1476,
by Zarotus, the printer, at Milan? They may doubtless be seen in the _Opus
Alexandride Ales super tertium Sententiarum_, Venet. 1475, a book which
supplies also the most ancient instance I have met with of a "Registrum
Chartarum." Signatures, however, had a prior existence; for they appear in
the _Mammetractus_ printed at Beron Minster in 1470 (Meermau, ii. 28.;
Kloss, p. 192.), but they were omitted in the impression of 1476. Dr.
Cotton (_Typ. Gaz._, p. 66.), Mr. Horne (_Introd. to Bibliog._, i. 187.
317), and many others, wrongly delay the invention or adoption of them till
the year 1472.
6. Is the edition of the _Fasciculus Temporum_, set forth at Cologne by
Nicolaus de Schlettstadt in 1474, altogether distinct from that which is
confessedly "omnium prima," and which was issued by Arnoldus Ther Huernen
in the same year? If it be, the copy in the Lambeth library, bearing date
1476, and entered in pp. 1, 2. of Dr. Maitland's very valuable and accurate
_List_, must appertain to the third, not the second, impression. To the
latter this Louvain reprint of 1476 is assigned in the catalogue of the
books of Dr. Kloss (p. 127.), but there is an error in the remark that the
"Tabula" prefixed to the _editio princeps_ is comprised in _eight_ leaves,
for it certainly consists of _nine_.
7. Where was what is probably a copy of the second edition of the _Catena
Aurea_ of Aquinas printed? The folio in question, which consists of 417
unnumbered leaves, is an extremely fine one, and I should say that it is
certainly of German origin. Seemiller (i. 117.) refers it to Esslingen, and
perhaps an acquaintance with its water-marks would afford some assistance
in tracing it. Of these a rose is the most common, and a strigilis may be
seen on folio 61. It would be difficult to persuade the proprietor of this
volume that it is of so modern a date as 1474, the year in which what is
generally called the second impression of this work appeared.
8. How can we best account for the mistake relative to the imaginary
Bologna edition of Ptolemy's _Cosmography_ in 1462, a copy of which was in
the Colbert library? (Leuglet du Fresnoy, _Méth. pour étud. l'Hist._, iii.
8., à Paris, 1735.) That it was published previously to the famous Mentz
Bible of this date is altogether impossible; and was the figure 6 a
misprint for 8? or should we attempt to subvert it into 9? The _editio
princeps_ of the Latin version by Angelus is in Roman letter, and is a very
handsome specimen of Vicenza typography in 1475, when it was set forth "ab
Hermano Leuilapide," alias Hermann Lichtenstein.
9. If it be true, as Dr. Cotton remarks in his excellent _Typographical
Gazetteer_, p. 22., that a press was erected at Augsburg, in the monastery
of SS. Ulric and Afra, in the year 1472, and that Anthony Sorg is believed
to have been the printer, why should we be induced to assent to the
validity of Panzer's supposition that Nider's _Formicarius_ did not make
its appearance there until 1480? It would seem to be more than doubtful
that Cologne can boast of having produced the first edition, A.D. 1475/7;
and it may be reasonably asserted, and an examination of the book will
abundantly strengthen the idea, that the earliest impression is that which
contains this colophon, in which I would dwell upon the word "_editionem_"
(well known to the initiated): "Explicit quintus ac totus formicarii liber
uxta editionem fratris Iohannis Nider," &c., "Impressum Auguste per
Anthonium Sorg."
10. In what place and year was _Wilhelmi Summa Viciorum_ first printed?
Fabricius and Cave are certainly mistaken when they say Colon. 1479. In the
volume, which I maintain to be of greater antiquity, the letters _c_ and
_t_, _s_ and _t_, are curiously united, and the commencement of it is:
"Incipit summa viciorum seu tractatus moral' edita [_sic_] a fratre
vilhelmo episcopo lugdunes. ordinsq. fratrû predicator." The description
given by Quetif and Echard (i. 132.) of the primary impression of Perault's
book only makes a bibliomaniac more anxious for information about it: "in
Inc. typ. absque loco anno et nomine typographi, sine numeris reclamat. et
majusculis."
11. Was Panormitan's _Lectura super primo Decretalium_ indubitably issued
at Venice, prior to the 1st of April, 1473? and if so, does it contain in
the colophon these lines by Zovenzonius, which I transcribe from a noble
copy bearing this date?
"Abbatis pars prima notis que fulget aliemis
Est vindelini pressa labore mei:
Cuius ego ingenium de vertice palladis ortum
Crediderim. veniam tu mihi spira dabis."
12. Is it not unquestionable that Heroldt's _Promptuarium Exemplorum_ was
published at least as early as his _Sermones_? The type in both works is
clearly identical, and the imprint in the latter, at the end of _Serm._
cxxxvi., vol. ii., is Colon. 1474, an edition unknown to very nearly all
bibliographers. For instance, Panzer and Denis commence with that of
Rostock, in 1476; Laire {325} with that of Cologne, 1478; and Maittaire
with that of Nuremberg, in 1480. Different statements have been made as to
the precise period when this humble-minded writer lived. Altamura (_Bibl.
Domin._, pp. 147. 500.) places him in the year 1400. Quetif and Echard (i.
762.), Fabricius and Mansi (_Bibl. Med. et inf. Latin._), prefer 1418, on
the unstable ground of a testimony supposed to have proceeded from the
author himself; for whatever confusion or depravation may have been
introduced into subsequent impressions, the _editio princeps_, of which I
have spoken, does not present to our view the alleged passage, viz., "à
Christo autem transacti sunt _millequadringenti decem et octo_ anni," but
most plainly, "M.cccc. & liij. anni." (_Serm._ lxxxv., tom. ii.) To this
same "Discipulus" Oudin (iii. 2654.), and Gerius in the Appendix to Cave
(p. 187.), attribute the _Speculorum Exemplorum_, respecting which I have
before proposed a Query; but I am convinced that they have confounded the
_Speculum_ with the _Promptuarium_. The former was first printed at
Deventer, A.D. 1481, and the compiler of it enters upon his prologue in the
following striking style: "Impressoria arte jamdudum longe lateque per
orbem diffusa, multiplicatisque libris quarumcunque fere materiarum," &c.
He then expresses his surprise at the want of a good collection of
_Exempla_; and why should we determine without evidence that he must have
been Heroldus?
R.G.
* * * * *
FAIRFAX'S TASSO.
In a copy of Fairfax's _Godfrey of Bulloigne_, ed. 1600 (the first), which
I possess, there occurs a very curious variorum reading of the first stanza
of the first book. The stanza, as it is given by Mr. Knight in his
excellent modern editions, reads thus:
"The sacred armies and the godly knight,
That the great sepulchre of Christ did free,
I sing; much wrought his valour and foresight,
And in that glorious war much suffer'd he;
In vain 'gainst him did hell oppose her might,
In vain the Turks and Morians armed be;
His soldiers wild, to brawls and mutines prest,
Reduced he to peace, so heaven him blest."
By holding up the leaf of my copy to the light, it is easy to see that the
stanza stood originally as given above, but a cancel slip printed in
_precisely the same type_ as the rest of the book gives the following
elegant variation:
"I sing the warre made in the Holy Land,
And the Great Chiefe that Christ's great tombe did free:
Much wrought he with his wit, much with his hand,
Much in that braue atchieument suffred hee:
In vaine doth hell that Man of God withstand,
In vaine the worlds great princes armed bee;
For heau'n him fauour'd; and he brought againe
Vnder one standard all his scatt'red traine."
Queries.--1. Does the above variation occur in any or many other copies of
the edition of 1600?
2. Which reading is followed in the second old edition?
T.N.
Demerary, September 11. 1850.
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
_Jeremy Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium._--Book I. chap. 2. Rule 8. § 14.--
"If he (the judge) see a stone thrown at his brother judge, as happened
at Ludlow, not many years since."
(The first ed. was published in 1660). Does any other contemporary writer
mention this circumstance? or is there any published register of the
assizes of that time?
_Ibid._ Chap. 2. Rule 3. § 32.--
"The filthy gingran."
Apparently a drug or herb. Can it be identified, or its etymology pointed
out?
_Ibid._ §. 50.--
"That a virgin should conceive is so possible to God's power, that it
is possible in nature, say the Arabians."
Can authority for this be cited from the ancient Arabic writers?
A.T.
_First Earl of Roscommon._--Can you or any of your correspondents put me on
any plan by which I may obtain some information on the following subject?
James Dillon, first Earl of Roscommon, married Helen, daughter of Sir
Christopher Barnwell, by whom he had seven sons and six daughters; their
names were Robert, Lucas, Thomas, Christopher, George, John, Patrick.
Robert succeeded his father in 1641, and of his descendants and those of
Lucas and Patrick I have some accounts; but what I want to know is, who are
the descendants of Thomas (particularly), or of any of the other three
sons?
Lodge, in his _Peerage_, very kindly kills all the sons, Patrick included;
but it appears that he did not depart this life until he had left issue,
from whom the late Earl had his origin. If Lodge is thus wrong in one case,
he may be in others, and I have reason to believe that Thomas left a son
settled in a place in Ireland called Portlick.
FRANCIS.
_St. Cuthbert._--The body of St. Cuthbert, as is well known, had many
wanderings before it found a magnificent resting-place at Durham. Now, in
an anonymous _History of the Cathedral Church of Durham_, without date, we
have a very particular account of the defacement of the shrine of St. {326}
Cuthbert, in the reign of Henry VIII. The body was found "lying whole,
uncorrupt, with his face bare, and his beard as of a fortnight's growth,
with all the vestments about him as he accustomed to say mass withal." The
vestments are described as being "fresh, safe, and not consumed." The
visitors "commanded him to be carried into the Revestry, till the king's
pleasure concerning him was further known; and upon the receipt thereof the
prior and monks buried him in the ground under the place where his shrine
was exalted." Now, there is a tradition of the Benedictines (of whose
monastery the cathedral was part) that on the accession of Elizabeth the
monks, who were apprehensive of further violence, removed the body in the
night-time from the place where it had been buried to some other part of
the building. This spot is known only to three persons, brothers of the
order; and it is said that there are three persons who have this knowledge
now, as communicated from previous generations.
But a discovery was made in 1827 of the remains of a body in the centre of
the spot where the shrine stood, with various relics of a very early period
and it was asserted to be the body of St. Cuthbert. This, however, has not
been universally assented to, and Mr. Akerman, in his _Archæological
Index_, has--
"The object commonly called St. Cuthbert's Cross" (though the
designation has been questioned), "found with human remains and other
relics of the Anglo-Saxon period, in the Cathedral of Durham in
1827."--p. 144.
There does seem considerable discrepancy in the statements of the remains
found in 1827 and the body deposited 1541.
I will conclude with asking, Is there any evidence to confirm the tradition
of the Benedictines?
J.R.N.
_Vavasour of Haslewood.--Bells in Churches._--It is currently reported in
Yorkshire that three curious privileges belong to the chief of the ancient
Roman Catholic family of Vavasour of Haslewood:
1. That he may ride on horseback into York Minster.
2. That he may specially call his house a castle.
3. That he may toll a bell in his chapel, notwithstanding any law
prohibiting the use of bells in places of worship not in union with the
Church of England.
Is there any foundation for this report; and what is the real story? Is
there still a law against the use of bells as a summons to divine services
except in churches?
A.G.
_Alteration of Title-pages._--Among the advertisements in the last
_Quarterly_ and _Edinburgh Reviews_, is one which replies to certain
criticisms on a work. One of these criticisms was a stricture upon its
title. The author states that the reviewer had a _presentation copy_, and
ought to have inquired into the title under which the book was sold to the
_public_ before he animaverted upon the connexion between the title and the
work. It seems then that, in this instance, the author furnished the
Reviews with a title-page differing from that of the body of his
impression, and thinks he has a right to demand that the reviewers should
suppose such a circumstance probable enough to make it imperative upon them
to inquire what the real title was. Query, Is such a practice common? Can
any of your readers produce another instance?
M.
_Weights for Weighing Coins._--A correspondent wishes to know at what
period weights were introduced for weighing coins.
He has met with two notices on the subject in passages of Cottonian
manuscripts, and would be glad of farther information.
In a MS. Chronicle, Cotton. Otho B. xiv.--
"1418. Novæ bilances instituuntur ad ponderanda aurea Numismata."
In another Cottonian MS., Vitell. A. i., we read--
"1419. Here bigan gold balancis."
H.E.
_Shunamitis Poema._--Who was the author of a curious small 8vo. volume of
179 pages of Latin and English poems, commencing with "Shunamitis Poema
Stephani Duck Latine redditum?"
The last verse of some commendatory verses prefixed point out the author as
the son of some well-known character:
"And sure that is the most distinguish'd fame,
Which rises from your own, not father's name.
London, 21 April, 1738."
My copy has no title-page: a transcript of it would oblige.
E.D.
_Lachrymatories._--In many ancient places of sepulture we find long narrow
phials which are called lachrymatories, and are supposed to have been
receptacles for tears: can you inform me on what authority this supposition
rests?
J.H.C.
_Egg-cups used by the Romans._--That the Romans used egg-cups, and of a
shape very similar to our own, the ruins at Pompeii and other places afford
ocular demonstration. Can you tell me by what name they called them?
J.H.C.
_Sir Oliver Chamberlaine._--In Miss Lefanu's _Memoirs of Mrs. Frances
Sheridan_, the celebrated authoress of _Sidney Biddulph_, _Nourjahad_, and
_The Discovery_, and mother of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, it is stated that
"her grandfather, Sir {327} Oliver Chamberlaine," was an "English baronet."
The absence of his name in any of the Baronetages induces the supposition,
however, that he had received only the honour of knighthood; and the
connexion of his son with Dublin, that the statement of Whitelaw and Walsh,
in their history of that city, may be more correct,--viz. that "Sir Oliver
Chamberlaine was descended from a respectable English family that had been
settled in Dublin since the Reformation." I should be glad to be informed
on this point, and also respecting the paternity of this Sir Oliver, who is
not only distinguished as one of the progenitors of the Sheridans, but also
of Dr. William Chamberlaine, the learned author of the _Abridgement of the
Laws of Jamaica_, which he for some time administered, as one of the judges
in that island; and of his grandson, the brave, but ill-fated, Colonel
Chamberlaine, aide-de-camp to the president Bolivar.
J.R.W.
October 10. 1850.
_Meleteticks._--In Boyle's _Occasional Reflections_ (ed. 1669), he uses the
word _meleteticks_ (pp. 8. 38.) to express the "way and kind of meditation"
he "would persuade." Was this _then_ a new word coined by him, and has it
been used by any other writer?
P.H.F.
_Luther's Hymns._--"In the midst of life we are in death," &c., in the
Burial Service, is almost identical with one of Luther's hymns, the words
and music of which are frequently closely copied from older sources.
Whence?
F.Q.
_"Pair of Twises."_--What was the article, carried by gentlemen, and called
by Boyle (R.B.), in his _Occasional Reflections_ (edit. 1669, p. 180.), "a
pair of _twises_," out of which he drew a little penknife?
P.H.F.
_Countermarks on Roman Coin._--Several coins in my cabinet of Tiberius,
Trajan, &c. bear the stamp NCAPR; others have an open hand, &c. I should be
glad to know the reason of this practice, and what they denote.
E.S.T.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
GAUDENTIO DI LUCCA.
(Vol. ii., p. 247. 298.)
The _Memoirs of Sig. Gaudentio di Lucca_ have very generally been ascribed
to Bishop Berkeley. In Moser's _Diary_, written at the close of the last
century (MS. penes me), the writer says,--
"I have been reading Berkeley's amusing account of _Sig. Gaudentio_.
What an excellent system of patriarchal government is there developed!"
See the _Retrospective Review_, vol iv. p. 316., where the work is also
ascribed to the celebrated Bishop Berkeley.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
In the corrigenda and addenda to Kippis's _Biographia Britannica_, prefixed
to vol. iii. is the following note, under the head of _Berkeley_:
"On the same authority [viz., that of Dr. George Berkeley, the bishop's
son,] we are assured that his father did not write, and never read
through, the _Adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca_. Upon this head,
the editor of the _Biographia_ must record himself as having exhibited
an instance of the folly of building facts upon the foundation of
conjectural reasonings. Having heard the book ascribed to Bishop
Berkeley, and seen it mentioned as his in catalogues of libraries, I
read over the work again under this impression, and fancied that I
perceived internal arguments of its having been written by our
excellent prelate. I was even pleased with the apprehended ingenuity of
my discoveries. But the whole was a mistake, which, whilst it will be a
warning to myself, may furnish an instructive lesson to others. At the
same time, I do not retract the character which I have given of the
_Adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca_. Whoever was the author of
that performance, it does credit to his abilities and to his heart."
After this decisive testimony of Bishop Berkeley's son, accompanied by the
candid confession of error on the part of the editor of the _Biographia
Britannica_, the rumour as to Berkeley's authorship of _Gaudentio_ ought to
have been finally discredited. Nevertheless, it seems still to maintain its
ground: it is stated as probable by Dunlop, in his _History of Fiction_;
while the writer of a useful Essay on "Social Utopias," in the third volume
of _Chambers's Papers for the People_, No. 18., treats it as an established
fact.
L.
In addition to the remarks of your correspondent L., I may state that the
first edition in 1737, 8vo., contains 335 pages, exclusive of the
publisher's address, 13 pages. It is printed for T. Cooper, at the Globe,
in Paternoster Row. The second edition in 1748, 8vo., contains publisher's
address, 12 pages; the work itself 291 pages.
I find no difference between the two editions, except that in the first the
title is _The Memoirs of Sigr. Gaudentio di Lucca_; and in the second, _The
Adventures of Sigr. Gaudentio di Lucca_; and that in the second the notes
are subjoined to each page, while in the first they follow the text in
smaller type, as _Remarks of Sigr. Rhedi_. The second edition is--
"Printed for W. Innys in Paternoster Row, and R. Manby and H.S. Cox on
Ludgate Hill, and sold by M. Cooper in Paternoster Row."
With respect to the author, it must be observed that there is no evidence
whatever to justify its being attributed to Bishop Berkeley. Clara Reeve,
in her _Progress of Romana_, 1786, 8vo., mentions him as having been
supposed to be the author; {328} but her authority seems only to have been
the anonymous writer in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xlvii. p. 13.,
referred to by your correspondent. The author of an elaborate review of the
work in the _Retrospective Review_, vol. iv., advocates Bishop Berkeley's
claim, but gives no reasons of any validity; and merely grounds his
persuasion upon the book being such as might be expected from that great
writer. He was, however, at least bound to show some conformity in style,
which he does not attempt. On the other hand, we have the positive denial
of Dr. George Berkeley, the bishop's son (Kippis's _Biog. Brit._, vol.
iii., addenda to vol. ii.), which, in the absence of any evidence to the
contrary, seems to be quite sufficient.
In a letter signed C.H., _Gent. Mag._, vol. vii. p. 317., written
immediately on the appearance of the work, the writer observes:--
"I should have been very glad to have seen the author's name prefixed
to it: however, I am of opinion that it its very nearly related to no
less a hand than that which has so often, under borrowed names,
employed itself to amuse and trifle mankind, in their own taste, out of
their folly and vices."
This appears to point at Swift; but it is quite clear that he could not be
the author, for very obvious reasons.
A correspondent of the _Gent. Mag._, who signs his initials W.H. (vol. lv.
part 2. p. 757), states "on very good authority" that the author was--
"Barrington, a Catholic priest, who had chambers in Gray's Inn, in
which he was keeper of a library for the use of the Romish clergy. Mr.
Barrington wrote it for amusement, in a fit of the gout. He began it
without any plan, and did not know what he should write about when be
put pen to paper. He was author of several pamphlets, chiefly
anonymous, particularly the controversy with Julius Bate on Elohim."
Of this circumstantial and sufficiently positive attribution, which is
dated October, 1785, no contradiction ever appeared that I am aware of. The
person intended is S. Berington, the author of--
"Dissertations on the Mosaical Creation, Deluge, building of Babel, and
Confusion of Tongues, &c." London: printed for the Author, and sold by
C. Davis in Holborn, and T. Osborn in Gray's Inn, 1750, 8vo., pages
466, exclusive of introduction, 12 pages.
On comparing Gaudentio di Lucca with this extremely curious work, there
seems a sufficient similarity to bear out the statement of the
correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, W.H. The author quoted in the
_Remarks of Sigr. Rhedi_, and in the _Dissertations_, are frequently the
same, and the learning is of the same cast in both. In particular, Bochart
is repeatedly cited in the _Remarks_ and in the _Dissertations_. The
philosophical opinions appear likewise very similar.
On the whole, unless some strong reason can be given for questioning the
statement of this correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, I conceive
that S. Berington, of whom I regret that so little is known, must be
considered to be the author of _The Memoirs of Gaudentio di Lucca_.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
Manchester, October 7. 1850.
* * * * *
ENGLEMANN'S BIBLIOTHECA SCRIPTORUM CLASSICORUM.
(Vol. ii., pp. 296. 312.)
The sort of defence, explanation, or whatever it may be called, founded
upon usage, and offered by ANOTHER FOREIGN BOOKSELLER, is precisely what I
wanted to get out, if it existed, as I suspected it did.
If your correspondent be accurate as to Engelmann, it appears that no wrong
is done to _him_; it is only the public which is mystified by a variety of
title-pages, all but one containing a suppression of the truth, and the one
of which I speak containing more.
I now ask you to put in parallel columns extracts from the title given by
Engelmann with the substitutes given in that which I received.
"Schriftsteller--welche vom "Classics ... that have
Jahre 1700 bis zu Ende des appeared in Germany and the
Jahres 1846 besonders in adjacent countries up to the
Deutschland gedruckt worden end of 1846."
sind."
I do not think it fair towards Mr. Engelmann, whose own title is so true
and so precise, to take it for certain, on anonymous authority, that he
sanctioned the above paraphrase. According to the German, the catalogue
contains works from 1700 to 1846, published _especially_ in Germany;
meaning, as is the fact, that there are some in it published elsewhere.
According to the English, all classics printed in Germany, and all the
adjacent countries, in all times, are to be found in the catalogue. I pass
over the implied compliment to this country, namely, that while a true
description is required in Germany, a puff both in time and space is wanted
for England. I dwell on the injurious effect of such alterations to
literature, and on the trouble they give to those who wish to be accurate.
It is a system I attack, and not individuals. There is no occasion to say
much, for publicity alone will do what is wanted, especially when given in
a journal which falls under the eyes of those engaged in research. I hope
those of your contributors who think as I do, will furnish you from time to
time with exposures; if, as a point of form, a Query be requisite, they can
always end with, Is this right?
A. DE MORGAN.
October 14. 1850.
* * * * * {329}
SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED."
(Vol. ii., pp. 113. 139. 200. 234.)
I should have been content to leave the question of the meaning of the word
_delighted_ as it stands in your columns, my motive, so kindly appreciated
by Mr. SINGER, in raising the discussion being, by such means to arrive at
the true meaning of the word, but that the remarks of L.B.L. (p. 234.)
recall to my mind a canon of criticism which I had intended to communicate
at an earlier period as useful for the guidance of commentators in
questions of this nature. It is as follows:--Master the grammatical
construction of the passage in question (if from a drama, in its dramatic
and I scenic application), deducing therefrom the general sense, before you
attempt to amend or fix the meaning of a doubtful word.
Of all writers, none exceed Shakspeare in logical correctness and nicety of
expression. With a vigour of thought and command of language attained by no
man besides, it is fair to conclude, that he would not be guilty of faults
of construction such as would disgrace a school-boy's composition; and yet
how unworthily is he treated when we find some of his finest passages
vulgarised and degraded through misapprehensions arising from a mere want
of that attention due to the very least, not to say the greatest, of
writers. This want of attention (without attributing to it such fatal
consequences) appears to me evident in L.B.L.'s remarks, ably as he
analyses the passage. I give him credit for the faith that enabled him to
discover a sense in it as it stands; but when he says that it is perfectly
intelligible in its natural sense, it appears to me that he cannot be aware
of the innumerable explanations that have been offered of this very clear
passage. The source of his error is plainly referable to the cause I have
pointed out.
It is quite true that, in the passage referred to, the condition of the
body before and after death is contrasted, but this is merely incidental.
The natural antithesis of "a sensible warm motion" is expressed in "a
kneaded clod" and "cold obstruction;" but the terms of the other half of
the passage are not quite so well balanced. On the other hand, it is not
the contrasted condition of each, but the separation of the body and
spirit--that is, _death_--which is the object of the speaker's
contemplation. Now with regard to the meaning of the term _delighted_,
L.B.L. says it is applied to the spirit "_not_ in its state _after death_,
but _during life_." I must quote the lines once more:--
"Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; _and_ the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods," &c.
And if I were to meet with a hundred thousand passages of a similar
construction, I am confident they would only confirm the view that the
spirit is represented in the _then present_ state as at the termination of
the former clause of the sentence. If such had not been the view
instinctively taken by all classes of readers, there could have been no
difficulty about the meaning of the word.
As a proof that this view of the construction is correct, let L.B.L.
substitute for "delighted spirit", _spirit no longer delighted_, and he
will find that it gives precisely the sense which he deduces from the
passage as it stands. If this be true, then, according to his view, the
negative and affirmative of a proposition may be used indifferently, in the
same time and circumstances giving exactly the same meaning.
MR. SINGER furnishes another instance (Vol. ii., p. 241.) of the value of
my canon. I think there can be no doubt that his explanation of the meaning
of the word _eisell_ is correct; but if it were not, any way of reading the
passage in which it occurs would lead me to the conclusion that it could
not be a river. _Drink up_ is synonymous with _drink off_, _drink to the
dregs_. A child, taking medicine, is urged to "drink it up." The idea of
the passage appears to be that each of the acts should go beyond the last
preceding in extravagance:--
"Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear thyself?
Woo't drink up eisell?"
And then comes the climax--"eat a crocodile?" Here is a regular succession
of feats, the last but one of which is sufficiently wild, though not
unheard of, and leading to the crowning extravagance. The notion of
drinking up a river would be both unmeaning and out of place.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
September 18. 1850.
* * * * *
THE COLLAR OF ESSES.
I shall look with interest to the documents announced by Dr. ROCK (Vol.
ii., p. 280.), which in his mind connect the Collar of Esses with the
"Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus" of the Salisbury liturgy: but hitherto I have
found nothing in any of the devices of livery collars that partakes of
religious allusion. I am well aware that many of the collars of knighthood
of modern Europe, headed by the proud order of the Saint Esprit, display
sacred emblems and devices. But the livery collars were perfectly distinct
from collars of knighthood. The latter, indeed, did not exist until a
subsequent age: and this was one of the most monstrous of the popular
errors which I had to combat in my papers in the _Gentleman's Magazine_. A
Frenchman named Favyn, at the commencement of the seventeenth century,
published {330} a folio book on Orders of Knighthood, and, giving to many
of them an antiquity of several centuries,--often either fabulous or
greatly exaggerated,--provided them all with imaginary collars, of which he
exhibits engravings. M. Favyn's book was republished in English, and his
collars have been handed down from that time to this, in all our heraldic
picture-books. This is one important warning which it is necessary to give
any one who undertakes to investigate this question. From my own experience
of the difficulty with which the mind is gradually disengaged from
preconceived and prevailing notions on such points, which it has originally
adopted as admitting of no question, I know it is necessary to provide that
others should not view my arguments through a different medium to myself.
And I cannot state too distinctly, even if I incur more than one
repetition, that the Collar of Esses was not a badge of knighthood nor a
badge of personal merit; but it was a collar of livery; and the idea
typified by livery was feudal dependence, or what we now call party. The
earliest livery collar I have traced is the French order of _cosses de
geneste_, or broomcods: and the term "order", I beg to explain, is in its
primary sense exactly equivalent to "livery:" it was used in France in that
sense _before_ it came to be applied to orders of knighthood. Whether there
was any other collar of livery in France, or in other countries of Europe,
I have not hitherto ascertained; but I think it highly probable that there
was. In England we have some slight glimpses of various collars, on which
it would be too long here to enter; and it is enough to say, that there
were only two of the king's livery, the Collar of Esses and the Collar of
Roses and Suns. The former was the collar of our Lancastrian kings, the
latter of those of the house of York. The Collar of Roses and Suns had
appendages of the heraldic design which was then called "the king's beast,"
which with Edward IV. was the white lion of March, and with Richard III.
the white boar. When Henry VII. resumed the Lancastrian Collar of Esses, he
added to it the portcullis of Beaufort. In the former Lancastrian regions
it had no pendant, except a plain or jewelled ring, usually of the trefoil
form. All the pendant badges which I have enumerated belong to secular
heraldry, as do the roses and suns which form the Yorkist collar. The
letter S is an emblem of a somewhat different kind; and, as it proves, more
difficult to bring to a satisfactory solution than the symbols of heraldic
blazon. As an initial it will bear many interpretations--it may be said, an
indefinite number, for every new Oedipus has some fresh conjecture to
propose. And this brings me to render the account required by Dr. Rock of
the reasons which led me to conclude that the letter S originated with the
office of Seneschallus or Steward. I must still refer to the _Gentleman's
Magazine_ for 1842, or to the republication of my essays which I have
already promised, for fuller details of the evidence I have collected; but
its leading results, as affecting the origin of this device, may be stated
as follows:--It is ascertained that the Collar of Esses was given by Henry,
Earl of Derby, afterwards King Henry IV., during the life-time of his
father, John of Ghent, Duke of Lancaster. It also appears that the Duke of
Lancaster himself gave a collar, which was worn in compliment to him by his
nephew King Richard II. In a window of old St. Paul's, near the duke's
monument, his arms were in painted glass, accompanied with the Collar of
Esses; which is presumptive proof that his collar was the same as that of
his son, the Earl of Derby. If, then, the Collar of Esses was first given
by this mighty duke, what would be _his_ meaning in the device? My
conjecture is, that it was the initial of the title of that high office
which, united to his vast estates, was a main source of his weight and
influence in the country,--the office of Steward of England. This, I admit,
is a derivation less captivating in idea than another that has been
suggested, viz. that S was the initial of _Souveraine_ which is known to
have been a motto subsequently used by Henry IV., and which might be
supposed to foreshadow the ambition with which the House of Lancaster
affected the crown. But the objection to this is, that the device is traced
back earlier than the Lancastrian usurpation can be supposed to have been
in contemplation. It might still be the initial of _Souveraine_, if John of
Ghent adopted it in allusion to his kingdom of Castille: but, because he is
supposed to have used it, and his son the Earl of Derby certainly used it,
after the sovereignty of Castille had been finally relinquished, but also
before either he or his son can be supposed to have aimed at the
sovereignty of their own country, therefore it is that, in the absence of
any positive authority, I adhere at present to the opinion that the letter
S was the initial of Seneschallus or Steward.
JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.
P.S.--Allow me to put a Query to the antiquaries of Scotland. Can any of
them help me to the authority from which Nich. Upton derived his livery
collar of the King of Scotland "de gormettis fremalibus equorum?"--J.G.N.
_Collar of SS_ (Vol. ii., pp. 89. 194. 248. 280.).--I am surprised that any
doubt should have arisen about this term, which has evidently no
_spiritual_ or _literary_ derivation from the initial letters of
_Sovereign_, _Sanctus_, _Seneschallus_, or any similar word. It is (as MR.
ELLACOMBE hints, p. 248.) purely descriptive of the _mechanical_ mode of
forming the chain, not by round or closed links, but by hooks alternately
deflected into the shape of _esses_; thus, [Illustration: 3 sideways
capital letter S's]. Whether chains so made (being more susceptible of
ornament than other forms of links) may not have been in special use for
particular {331} purposes, I will not say; but I have no doubt that the
_name_ means no more than that the links were in the shape of the letter S.
C.
* * * * *
SIRLOIN.
Several correspondents who treat of Lancashire matters do not appear to be
sufficiently careful to ascertain the correct designations of the places
mentioned in their communications. In a late number Mr. J.G. NICHOLS gave
some very necessary corrections to CLERICUS CRAVENSIS respecting his note
on the "Capture of King Henry VI." (Vol. ii., p. 181.); and I have now to
remind H.C. (Vol. ii., p. 268.) that "Haughton Castle" ought to be "Hoghton
Tower, near Blackburn, Lancashire." Hoghton Tower and Whittle Springs have
of late been much resorted to by pic-nic parties from neighbouring towns;
and from the interesting scenery and splendid prospects afforded by these
localities, they richly deserve to be classed among the _lions_ of
Lancashire. It is not improbable that the far-famed beauties and rugged
grandeur of "The Horr" may, for the time, have rendered it impossible for
H.C. to attend to orthography and the simple designation "Hoghton Tower,"
and hence the necessity for the present Note.
The popular tradition of the knighting of the Sirloin has found its way
into many publications of a local tendency, and, amongst the rest, into the
graphic _Traditions of Lancashire_, by the late Mr. Roby, whose premature
death in the Orion steamer we have had so recently to deplore. Mr. Roby,
however, is not disposed to treat the subject very seriously; for after
stating that Dr. Morton had preached before the king on the duty of
obedience, "inasmuch as it was rendered to the vicegerent of heaven, the
high and mighty and puissant James, Defender of the Faith, and so forth,"
he adds:--
"After this comfortable and gracious doctrine, there was a rushbearing
and a piping before the king in the great quadrangle. Robin Hood and
Maid Marian, with the fool and Hobby Horse, were, doubtless, enacted to
the jingling of morris-dancers and other profanities. These fooleries
put the king into such good humour, that he was more witty in his
speech than ordinary. Some of these sayings have been recorded, and
amongst the rest, _that well-known quibble which has been the origin of
an absurd mistake, still current through the county, respecting the
sirloin_. The occasion, as far as we have been able to gather, was
thus. Whilst he sat at meat, casting his eyes upon a noble _surloin_ at
the lower end of the table, he cried out, 'Bring hither that _surloin_,
sirrah, for 'tis worthy a more honourable post, being, as I may say,
not _sur_-loin, but _sir_-loin, the noblest joint of all;' which
ridiculous and desperate pun raised the wisdom and reputation of
England's Solomon to the highest."--_Traditions_, vol. ii. pp. 190-1.
Most probably Mr. Roby's view of the matter is substantially correct; for
although _tradition_ never fails to preserve the remembrance of
transactions too trivial, or perhaps too indistinct for sober history to
narrate, the _existence_ of a tradition does not necessarily _prove_, or
even _require_, that the myth should have had its foundation in fact.
Had the circumstance really taken place as tradition prescribes, it would
probably have obtained a greater permanency than oral recital; for during
the festivities at Hoghton Tower, on the occasion of the visit of the
"merrie monarch", there was present a gentleman after Captain Cuttle's own
heart, who would most assuredly have made a note of it. This was Nicholas
Assheton, Esq., of Downham, whose _Journal_, as Dr. Whitaker well observes,
furnishes an invaluable record of "our ancestors of the parish of Whalley,
not merely in the universal circumstances of birth, marriage, and death,
but acting and suffering in their individual characters; their businesses,
sports, bickerings, carousings, and, such as it was, religion." This worthy
chronicler thus describes the King's visit:--
"August 15. (1617). The king came to Preston; ther, at the crosse, Mr.
Breares, the lawyer, made a speche, and the corporn presented him with
a bowle; and then the king went to a banquet in the town-hall, and soe
away to Houghton: ther a speche made. Hunted, and killed a stagg. Wee
attend on the lords' table.
"August 16, Houghton. The king hunting: a great companie: killed affore
dinner a brace of staggs. Verie hot: soe hee went in to dinner. Wee
attend the lords' table, abt four o'clock the king went downe to the
Allome mynes, and was ther an hower, and viewed them p[re]ciselie, and
then went and shott at a stagg, and missed. Then my Lord Compton had
lodged two brace. The king shott again, and brake the thigh-bone. A
dogg long in coming, and my Lo. Compton shott agn and killed him. Late
in to supper.
"Aug. 17, Houghton. Wee served the lords with biskett, wyne, and
jellie. The Bushopp of Chester, Dr. Morton, p[re]ched before the king.
To dinner. Abt four o'clock, ther was a rush-bearing and piping affore
them, affore the king in the middle court; then to supp. Then abt ten
or eleven o'clock, a maske of noblemen, knights, gentlemen, and
courtiers, affore the king, in the middle round, in the garden. Some
speeches: of the rest, dancing the Huckler, Tom Bedlo, and the Cowp
Justice of Peace.
"Aug. 18. The king went away abt twelve to Lathome."
The journalist who would note so trivial a circumstance as the heat of the
weather, was not likely to omit the knighting of the Sirloin, if it really
occurred; and hence, in the absence of more positive proof, we are disposed
to take Mr. Roby's view of the case, and treat it as one of the thousand
and one pleasant stories which "rumour with her hundred tongues" ever
circulates amongst the peasantry of a district where some royal visit, or
{332} other unexpected memorable occurrence, has taken place.
But this is not the only "pleasant conceit" of which the "merrie monarch"
is said to have delivered himself during his visit to Hoghton Tower. On the
way from Preston his attention was attracted by a huge boulder stone which
lay in the roadside, and was still in existence not a century ago. "O' my
saul," cried he, "that meikle stane would build a bra' chappin block for my
Lord Provost. Stop! there be letters thereon: unto what purport?" Several
voices recited the inscription:--
"_Turn me o're, an I'le tel thee plaine._"
"Then turn it ower," said the monarch, and a long and laborious toil
brought to light the following satisfactory intelligence:--
"_Hot porritch makes hard cake soft,_
_So torne me o'er againe._"
"My saul," said the king, "ye shall gang roun' to yere place again: these
country gowks mauna ken the riddle without the labour." As a natural
consequence, Sir Richard Hoghton's "great companie" would require a
correspondingly great quantity of provisions; and the tradition in the
locality is, that the subsequent poverty of the family was owing to the
enormous expenses incurred under this head; the following characteristic
anecdote being usually cited in confirmation of the current opinion. During
one of the hunting excursions the king is said to have left his attendants
for a short time, in order to examine a numerous herd of horned cattle then
grazing in what are now termed the "Bullock Pastures," most of which had
probably been provided for the occasion. A day or two afterwards, being
hunting in the same locality, he made inquiry respecting the cattle, and
was told, in no good-humoured way, by a herdsman unacquainted with his
person, that they were all gone to feast the beastly king and his
gluttonous company. "By my saul," exclaimed the king, as he left the
herdsman, "then 'tis e'en time for me to gang too:" and accordingly, on the
following morning, he set out for Lathom House.
In conclusion, allow me to ask the correspondents to the "NOTES AND
QUERIES," what is meant by "dancing the _Huckler_, _Tom Bedlo_, and the
_Cowp Justice of Peace_?"
T.T. WILKINSON.
Burnley, Lancashire, Sept. 21. 1850.
_Sirloin._-In Nichols's _Progresses of King James the First_, vol. iii. p.
401., is the following note:--
"There is a laughable tradition, still generally current in Lancashire,
that our knight-making monarch, finding, it is presumed, no undubbed
man worthy of the chivalric order, knighted at the banquet in Hoghton
Tower, in the warmth of his honour-bestowing liberality, a loin of
beef, the part ever since called the _sirloin_. Those who would credit
this story have the authority of Dr. Johnson to support them, among
whose explanations of the word _sir_ in his dictionary, is that it is
'a title given to the loin of beef, which one of our kings knighted in
a fit of good humour.' 'Surloin,' says Dr. Pegge (_Gent. Mag._, vol.
liv. p. 485.), 'is, I conceive, if not knighted by King James as is
reported, compounded of the French _sur_, upon, and the English _loin_,
for the sake of euphony, our particles not easily submitting to
composition. In proof of this, the piece of beef so called grows upon
the _loin_, and behind the small ribs of the animal.' Dr. Pegge is
probably right, and yet the king, if he did not give the sirloin its
name, might, notwithstanding, have indulged in a pun on the already
coined word, the etymology of which was then, as now, as little
regarded as the thing signified is well approved."
JOHN J. DREDGE.
_Sirloin._-Whence then comes the epigram--
"Our second _Charles_, of fame faeete,
On loin of beef did dine,
He held his sword pleased o'er the meat,
'Rise up thou famed sir-loin!'"
Was not a _loin_ of pork part of _James_ the First's proposed banquet for
the devil?
K.I.P.B.T.
* * * * *
RIOTS OF LONDON.
The reminiscences of your correspondent SENEX concerning the riots of
London in the last century form an interesting addition to the records of
those troubled times; but in all these matters correctness as to dates and
facts are of immense importance. The omission of a date, or the narration
of events out of their proper sequence, will sometimes create vast and most
mischievous confusion in the mind of the reader. Thus, from the order in
which SENEX has stated his reminiscences, a reader unacquainted with the
events of the time will be likely to assume that the "attack on the King's
Bench prison" and "the death of Allen" arose out of, and formed part and
parcel of, the Gordon riots of 1780, instead of one of the Wilkes tumults
of 1768. By the way, if SENEX was "personally either an actor or spectator"
in _this_ outbreak, he fully establishes his claim to the signature he
adopts. I quite agree with him that monumental inscriptions are not always
remarkable for their truth, and that the one in this case may possibly be
somewhat tinged with popular prejudice or strong parental feeling; but, at
all events, there can be but little doubt that poor Allen, whether guilty
or innocent, was shot by a soldier of the Scotch regiment, be his name what
it may; and further, the deed was not the effect of a random shot fired
upon the mob,--for the young man was chased into a cow-house, and shot by
his pursuer, away from the scene of conflict. {333}
Noorthouck, who published his _History of London_, 1773, thus speaks of the
affair:--
"The next day, May 10. (1768,) produced a more fatal instance of rash
violence against the people on account of their attachment to the
popular prisoner (Wilkes) in the King's Bench. The parliament being to
meet on that day to open the session, great numbers of the populace
thronged about the prison from an expectation that Mr. W. would on that
occasion recover his liberty; and with an intention to conduct him to
the House of Commons. On being disappointed, they grew tumultuous, and
an additional party of the third regiment of Guards were sent for. Some
foolish paper had been stuck up against the prison wall, which a
justice of the peace, then present, was not very wise in taking notice
of, for when he took it down the mob insisted on having it from him,
which he not regarding, the riot grew louder, the drums beat to arms,
the proclamation was read, and while it was reading, some stones and
bricks were thrown. William Allen, a young man, son of Mr. Allen,
keeper of the Horse Shoe Inn in Blackman Street, and who, _as appeared
afterwards, was merely a quiet spectator_, being pursued along with
others, was unfortunately singled out and followed by three soldiers
into a cow-house, and shot dead! A number of horse-grenadiers arrived,
and these hostile measures having no tendency to disperse the crowd,
which rather increased, the people were fired upon, five or six were
killed, and about fifteen wounded; among which were two women, one of
whom afterwards died in the hospital."
The author adds,--
"The soldiers were next day publicly thanked by a letter from the
Secretary-at-War in his master's name. McLaughlin, who actually killed
the inoffensive Allen, was withdrawn from justice and could never be
found, so that though his two associates Donald Maclaine and Donald
Maclaury, with their commanding officer Alexander Murray, were
proceeded against for the murder, the prosecution came to nothing and
only contributed to heighten the general discontent."
With respect to the monument in St. Mary's, Newington, I extract the
following from the _Oxford Magazine_ for 1769, p. 39.:--
"Tuesday, July 25. A fine large marble tombstone, elegantly finished,
was erected over the grave of Mr. Allen, junr., in the church-yard of
St. Mary, Newington, Surry. It had been placed twice before, but taken
away on some disputed points. On the sides are the following
inscriptions:--
_North Side._
Sacred to the Memory of
William Allen,
An Englishman of unspotted life and amiable disposition, [who was
inhumanely murdered near St. George's Fields, the 10th day of May,
1768, by the Scottish detachment from the army.][1]
"His disconsolate parents, _inhabitants of this parish_, caused this
tomb to be erected to an only son, lost to them and the world, in his
twentieth year, as a monument of his virtues and their affections."
At page 53. of the same volume is a copperplate representing the tomb. On
one side appears a soldier leaning on his musket. On his cap is inscribed
"3rd Regt.;" his right hand points to the tomb; and a label proceeding from
his mouth represents him saying, "I have obtained a pension of a shilling a
day only for putting an end to thy days." At the foot of the tomb is
represented a large thistle, from the centre of which proceeds the words,
"Murder screened and rewarded."
Accompanying this print are, among other remarks, the following:--
"It was generally believed that he was m----d by one Maclane, a
Scottish soldier of the 3d Regt. The father prosecuted, Ad----n
undertook the defence of the soldier. The solicitor of the Treasury,
Mr. Nuthall, the deputy-solicitor, Mr. Francis, and Mr. Barlow of the
Crown Office, attended the trial, and it is said, paid the whole
expence for the prisoner out of the Treasury, to the amount of a very
considerable sum. The defence set up was, that young Allen was not
killed by Maclane, but by another Scottish soldier of the same
regiment, one McLaughlin, who confessed it at the time to the justice,
as the justice says, though he owns he took no one step against a
person who declared himself a murderer in the most express terms....
The perfect innocence of the young man as to the charge of being
concerned in any riot or tumult, is universally acknowledged, and a
more general good character is nowhere to be found. This McLaughlin
soon made his escape, therefore was a deserter as well as a murtherer,
yet he has had a discharge sent him with an allowance of a shilling a
day."
Maclane was most probably the "Mac" alluded to by SENEX; but his account
differs in so many respects from cotemporaneous records that I have
ventured to trespass somewhat largely upon your space. I may add, that I by
no means agree in the propriety of erasing a monumental inscription of more
than eighty years' existence without some much stronger proof of its
falsehood; for I quite coincide with the remarks of Rev. D. Lysons, in his
allusion to this monument (_Surrey_, p. 393.), that
"Allen was illegally killed, whether he was concerned in the riots or
not, _as he was shot apart from the mob at a time when he might, if
necessary, have been apprehended and brought to justice_."
E.B. PRICE.
September 30. 1850.
The Rev. Dr. John Free[2] preached a sermon on the above occasion (which
was printed) from the {334} 24th chapter of Leviticus, 21st and 22nd
verses, "He that killeth a man," &c.; and he boldly and fearlessly
denominates the act as a murder, and severely reprehends those in authority
who screened and protected the murderer. The sermon is of sixteen pages,
and there is an appendix of twenty-six pages, in which are detailed various
depositions, and all the circumstances connected with the catastrophe.
§ N.
Your correspondent SENEX will find in Malcolm's _Anecdotes of London_ (Vol.
ii., p. 74.), "A summary of the trial of Donald Maclane, on Tuesday last,
at _Guildford Assizes_, for the murder of William Allen, Jun., on the 10th
of May last, in St. George's Fields."
R. BARKER, JUN.
A long account of this lamentable transaction may be found in every
magazine eighty-two years since. The riot took place in St. George's
Fields, May 10. 1768, and originated in the cry of "Wilkes and Liberty."
GILBERT.
[Footnote 1: A foot-note informs us that "a white-wash is put over these
lines between the crotchets."]
[Footnote 2: Dr. Free was of Christ Church, Oxford, and perhaps some of
your readers may know where his biography is.]
* * * * *
MEANING OF "GRADELY."
(Vol. ii., p. 133.)
For the origin of this word, A.W.H. may refer to Brocket's _Glossary of
North Country Words_, where he will find--
"Gradely, decently, orderly. Sax. _grad_, _grade,_ ordo. Rather, Mr.
Turner says, from Sax. _gradlie_ upright; _gradely_ in Lanc., he
observes, is an adjective simplifying everything respectable. The
Lancashire people say, our _canny_ is nothing to it."
The word itself is very familiar to me, as I have often received a scolding
for some boyish, and therefore not very wise or orderly prank, in these
terns:--"One would think you were not altogether gradely," or, as it was
sometimes varied into, "You would make one believe you were not _right in
your head;_" meaning, "One would think you had not common sense."
H. EASTWOOD.
Ecclesfield.
_Gradely._--This word is not only used in Yorkshire, but also very much in
Lancashire, and the rest of the north of England. I have always understood
it to mean "good," "jolly," "out and out." Its primary meaning is "orderly,
decently." (See Richardson's _Dictionary_.) The French have _grade_; It.
and Sp., _grado_; Lat. _gradus_.
AREDJID KOOEZ.
_Gradely._--This word, in use in Lancashire and Yorkshire, means
_grey-headedly_, and denotes such wisdom as should belong to old age. A
child is admonished to do a thing _gradely_, _i.e._ with the care and
caution of a person of experience.
E.H.
_Gradely._--In Webster's and also in Richardson's _Dictionaries_ it is
defined, "orderly, decently." It is a word in common use in Lancashire and
Yorkshire, and also Cheshire. A farmer will tell his men to do a thing
gradely, that is, "properly, well."
G.W.N.
_Gradely._--In Carr's _Craven Dialect_ appears "_Gradely_, decently." It is
also used as an adjective, "decent, worthy, respectable."
2. Tolerably well, "How isto?" "_Gradely._" Fr. _Gré_, "satisfaction"; _à
mon gré._
S.N.
_Gradely._--Holloway[3] derives _gradely_ from the Anglo-Saxon _Grade_, a
step, order, and defines its meaning, "decently." He, however, fixes its
paternity in the neighbouring county of York.
In Collier's edition of _Tim Bobbin_ it is spelt _greadly_, and means
"well, right, handsomely."
"I connaw tell the _greadly_, boh I think its to tell fok by."--p. 42.
"So I seete on restut meh, on drank meh pint o ele; boh as I'r naw
_greadly_ sleekt, I cawd for another," &c.--p. 45.
"For if sitch things must be done _greadly_ on os teh aught to bee,"
&c.--p. 59.
Mr. Halliwell[4] defined it, "decently, orderly, moderately," and gives a
recent illustration of its use in a letter addressed to Lord John Russell,
and distributed in the Manchester Free Trade Procession. It is dated from
Bury, and the writer says to his lordship,--
"Dunnot be fyert, mon, but rapt eawt wi awt uts reef, un us Berry
foke'll elp yo as ard as we kon. Wayn helps Robdin, un wayn elp yo, if
yoan set obeawt yur work _gradely_."
_Gradely._--I think this word is very nearly confined to Lancashire. It is
used both as an adjective and adverb. As an adjective, it expresses only a
moderate degree of approbation or satisfaction; as an adverb, its general
force is much greater. Thus, used adjectively in such phrases as "a gradely
man," "a gradely crop," &c., it is synonymous with "decent." In answer to
the question, "How d'ye do?" it means, "Pretty well," "Tolerable, thank
you."
Adverbially it is (1.) sometimes used in sense closely akin to that of the
adjective. Thus in "Behave yourself gradely," it means "properly,
decently." But (2.) most frequently it is precisely equivalent to "very;"
as in the expressions "A gradely fine day," "a gradely good man"--which
last is a term of praise by no means applicable to the mere gradely man,
or, as such a one is most commonly described, a "gradely sort of man."
Though one might have preferred a Saxon origin for it, yet in default of
such it seems most natural to connect it with the Latin _gradus_,
especially as the word _grade_, from which it is immediately formed, has a
handy English look about it, that would soon naturalise it amongst us.
_Gradely_ {335} then would mean "orderly, regular, according to degree."
The difference in intensity of meaning between the adjective and the adverb
seems analogous to that between the adjectives proper, _regular_, &c., and
the same words when used in the vulgar way as adverbs.
G.P.
[Footnote 3: Dictionary of Provincialisms.]
[Footnote 4: Dictionary of Provincial Words.]
* * * * *
PASCAL AND HIS EDITOR BOSSUT.
(Vol. ii., p. 278.)
Although I am not afraid of the fate with which that unfortunate monk met,
of whom it is said,--
"Pro solo puncto caruit Martinus Asello,"
yet a blunder is a sad thing, especially when the person who is supposed to
commit it attempts to correct others.
Now the printer of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" has introduced, in my short
remark on Pascal, the _very error_ which has led the author of the article
in the _British Quarterly Review_, as well as many others, to mistake the
Bishop of Meaux for the editor of Pascal's works. Once more, that
unfortunate editor is BOSSUT, not BOSSUET; and if it may appear to some
that the difference of one letter in a name is not of much consequence, yet
it is from an error as trifling as this that people of my acquaintance
confound Madame de Staël with Madame de Staal-Delauney, in spite of
chronology and common sense. Again, by the leave of the _Christian
Remembrancer_ (vol. xiii. no. 55.), the elegant and accomplished scholar to
whom we owe the only complete text of Pascal's thoughts, is M. Faugère, not
Fougère. All these are minutiæ; but the chapter of minutiæ is an important
one in literary history.
Another remarkable question which I feel a wish to touch upon before
closing this communication, is that of _impromptus_. Your correspondent MR.
SINGER (p. 105.) supposes Malherbe the poet to have been "ready at an
impromptu." But, to say the least, this is rather doubtful, unless the
extemporaneous effusions of Malherbe were of that class which Voiture
indulged in with so much success at the Hôtel de Rambouillet--sonnets and
epigrams leisurely prepared for the purpose of being fired off in some
fashionable "_ruelle_" of Paris. Malherbe is known to have been a very slow
composer; he used to say to Balzac that ten years' rest was necessary after
the production of a hundred lines: and the author of the _Christian
Socrates_, himself rather too fond of the file, after quoting this fact,
adds in a letter to Consart:
"Je n'ai pas besoin d'un si long repos après un si petit travail. Mais
aussi d'attendre de moi cette heureuse facilité qui fait produire des
volumes à M. de Scudéry, ce serait me connaître mal, et me faire une
honneur que je ne mérite pas."
Malherbe certainly had a most happy influence on French poetry; he checked
the ultra-classical school of Ronsard, and began that work of reformation
afterwards accomplished by Boileau.
As I have mentioned Voiture's name, I shall add a very droll "_soi-disant_"
impromptu of his, composed to ridicule Mademoiselle Chapelain, the sister
of the poet. Like her brother, she was most miserly in her habits, and not
distinguished by that virtue which some say is next to godliness.
"Vous qui tenez incessamment
Cent amans dedans votre manche,
Tenez-les au moins proprement,
Et faites qu'elle soit plus blanche.
"Vous pouvez avecque raison,
Usant des droits de la victoire,
Mettre vos galants en prison;
Mais qu'elle ne soit pas si noire.
"Mon coeur, qui vous est bien dévot,
Et que vous réduisez en cendre,
Vous le tenez dans un cachot
Comme un prisonnier qu'on va pendre.
"Est-ce que, brûlant nuit et jour,
Je remplis ce lieu de fumée,
Et que le feu de mon amour
En a fait une cheminée?"
GUSTAVE MASSON.
Hadley, near Barnet.
* * * * *
KONGS-SKUGG-SIO.
(Vol. ii., p. 298.)
The author of the _Kongs-skugg-sio_ is unknown, but the date of it has been
pretty clearly made out by Bishop Finsen and others. (_V._ Finsen,
_Dissertatio Historica de Speculo Regali_, 1766.) There is only one
complete edition of this remarkable work, viz. that published at Soröe in
1768, in 4to. Bishop Finsen maintains the _Kongs-skugg-sio_ to have been
written from 1154 to 1164. Ericksen believes it not to be older than 1184;
while Suhm and Eggert Olafsen do not allow it to be older than the
thirteenth century. Rafn, and the modern editors of the _Grönlands
Historiske Mindesmærker_, p. 266., vol. iii., accept the date given by
Finsen as the true one. From the text of the work we learn that it was
written in Norway, by a young man, a son of one of the leading and richest
men there, who had been on terms of friendship with several kings, and had
lived much, or at least had travelled much, in Helgeland. Rafn and others
believe the work to have been written by Nicolas, the son of Sigurd
Hranesön, who was slain by the Birkebeiners on the 8th of September, 1176.
Their reasons for coming to this conclusion are given at full length in the
work above quoted. {336}
The whole of the _Kongs-skugg-sio_ is well worthy of being translated into
English. It may, indeed, in many respects, be considered as the most
remarkable work of the old northerns.
EDWARD CHARLTON.
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct 7. 1850.
If F.Q. will look into Halfdan Einersen's edition of _Kongs-skugg-sio_,
Soröe, 1768, the first time it was printed, he will find in the editor's
preliminary remarks all that is known of the date and origin of the work.
The author is unknown, but that he was a Northman and lived in Nummedal, in
Norway, and wrote somewhere between 1140 and 1270, or, according to Finsen,
about 1154; and that he had in his youth been a courtier, and afterwards a
royal councillor, we infer from the internal evidence the work itself
affords us. _Kongs-skugg-sio_, or the royal mirror, deserves to be better
known, on account of the lively picture it gives us of the manners and
customs of the North in the twelfth century; the state of the arts and the
amount of science known to the educated. It abounds in sound morals, and
its author might have sate at the feet of Adam Smith for the orthodoxy of
his political economy. He is not entirely free from the credulity of his
age and his account of Ireland will match anything to be found in Sir John
Mandeville. Here we are told of an island on which nothing rots, of another
on which nothing dies, of another on one-half of which devils alone reside,
of wonderful monsters and animals, and of miracles the strangest ever
wrought. He invents nothing. What he relates of Ireland he states to have
found in books, or to have derived from hearsay. The following extract must
therefore be taken as a specimen of Irish Folk-lore in the twelfth
century:--
"There is also one thing, he says, that will seem wonderful, and it
happened in the town which is called Kloena [Cloyne]. In that town
there is a church which is dedicated to the memory of a holy man called
Kiranus. And there it happened one Sunday, as the people were at
prayers and heard mass, that there descended gently from the air an
anchor, as if it had been cast from a ship, for there was a cable to
it, and the fluke of the anchor caught in the arch of the church-door,
and all the people went out of church, and wondered, and looked up into
the air after the cable. There they saw a ship floating above the
cable, and men on board; and next they saw a man leap overboard, and
dive down to the anchor to free it. He appeared, from the motions he
made with both hands and feet, like a man swimming in the sea. And when
he reached the anchor, he endeavoured to loosen it, when the people ran
forwards to seize the man. But the church in which the anchor stuck
fast had a bishop's chair in it. The bishop was present on this
occasion, and forbade the people to hold the man, and said that he
might be drowned just as if in water. And immediately he was set free
he hastened up to the ship, and when he was on board, they hauled up
the cable and disappeared from men's sight; but the anchor has since
laid in the church as a testimony of this."
CORKSCREW.
* * * * *
GOLD IN CALIFORNIA.
(Vol. ii., p. 132.)
E.N.W. refers to Shelvocke's voyage of 1719, in which reference is made to
the abundance of gold in the soil of California. In Hakluyt's _Voyages_,
printed in 1599-1600, will be found much earlier notices on this subject.
California was first discovered in the time of the Great Marquis, as Cortes
was usually called. There are accounts of these early expeditions by
Francisco Vasquez Coronada, Ferdinando Alarchon, Father Marco de Niça, and
Francisco de Ulloa, who visited the country in 1539 and 1540. It is stated
by Hakluyt that they were as far to the north as the 37th degree of
latitude, which would be about one degree south of St. Francisco. I am
inclined, however, to believe from the narrations themselves that the
Spanish early discoveries did not extend much beyond the 34th degree of
latitude, being little higher than the Peninsular or Lower California. In
all these accounts, however, distinct mention is made of abundance of gold.
In one of them it is stated that the natives used plates of gold to scrape
the perspiration off their bodies!
The most curious and distinct account, however, is that given in "The
famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea, &c. in 1577", which
will be found in the third volume of Hakluyt, page 730., _et seq_. I am
tempted to make some extracts from this, and the more so because a very
feasible claim might be based upon the transaction in favour of our
Sovereign Lady the Queen. At page 737. I find:
"The 5th day of June (1579) being in 43 degrees wards the pole Arctike,
we found the ayre so colde, that our men being grievously pinched with
the same, complained of the extremitie thereof, and the further we
went, the more the colde increased upon us. Whereupon we thought it
best for that time to seeke the land, and did so, finding it not
mountainous, but low plaine land, till we came within thirty degrees
toward the line. In which height it pleased God to send us into a faire
and good baye, with a good winde to enter the same. In this baye wee
anchored."
A glance at the map will show that "in this baye" is now situated the
famous city of San Francisco.
Their doings in the bay are then narrated, and from page 738. I extract the
following:--
"When they [the natives with their king] had satisfied themselves [with
dancing, &c.] they made signes to our General [Drake] to sit downe, to
whom the king and divers others made several orations, or rather
supplications, that hee would take their province or {337} kingdom into
his hand, and become their king, making signes that they would resigne
unto him their right and title of the whole land, and become his
subjects. In which, to persuade us the better, the king and the rest
with our consent, and with great reverence, joyfully singing a song,
did set the crowne upon his head, inriched his necke with all their
chaines, and offred unto him many other things, honouring him by the
name of Hioh, adding thereulto, as it seemed, a sign of triumph; which
thing our Generall thought not meet to reject, because he knew not what
honour and profit it might be to our countrey. Whereupon, in the name
and to the use of Her Majestie, he took the scepter, crowne, and
dignitie of the said country into his hands, wishing that the riches
and treasure thereof might so conveniently be transported to the
inriching of her kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in ye same.
"Our Generall called this countrey Nova Albion, and that for two
causes; the one in respect of the white bankes and cliffes, which lie
towards the sea, and the other, because it might have some affinities
with our countrey in name, which sometime was so called."
Then comes the curious statement:
"_There is no part of earth heere to be taken up, wherein there is not
some probable show of gold or silver._"
The narrative then goes on to state that formal possession was taken of the
country by putting up a "monument" with "a piece of sixpence of current
English money under the plate," &c.
Drake and the bold cavaliers of that day probably found that it paid better
to rob the Spaniard of the gold and silver ready made in the shape of "the
Acapulco galleon," or such like, than to sift the soil of the Sacramento
for its precious grains. At all events, the wonderful richness of the
"earth" seems to have been completely overlooked or forgotten. So little
was it suspected, until the Americans acquired the country at the peace
with Mexico, that in the fourth volume of Knight's _National Cyclopædia_,
published early in 1848, in speaking of Upper California, it is said, "very
little mineral wealth has been met with"! A few months after, intelligence
reached Europe how much the reverse was the case.
T.N.
* * * * *
THE DISPUTED PASSAGE PROM THE TEMPEST.
(Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299.)
When the learning and experience of such gentlemen as MR. SINGER and MR.
COLLIER fail to conclude a question, there is no higher appeal than to
plain common sense, aided by the able arguments advanced on each side.
Under these circumstances, perhaps you will allow one who is neither
learned nor experienced to offer a word or two by way of vote on the
meaning of the passage in the _Tempest_ cited by MR. SINGER. It appears to
me that to do full justice to the question the passage should be quoted
entire, which, with your permission, I will do.
"_Fer._ There be some sports are painful; and their labour
Delight in them sets off: some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone; and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This, my mean task
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but
The mistress, which I serve, quickens what's dead
And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed,
And he's compos'd of harshness. I must remove
Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up
Upon a sore injunction: my sweet mistress
Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such baseness
Had ne'er like executor. _I forget_;
_But_ these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour(s),
Most busy(l)est when I do it."
The question appears to be whether "most busy" applies to "sweet thoughts"
or to Ferdinand, and whether the pronoun "it" refers to the act of
_forgetting_ or to "labour(s);" and I must confess that, to me, the whole
significancy of the passage depends upon the idea conveyed of the mind
being "most busy" while the body is being exerted. Every man with a spark
of imagination must many a time have felt this. In the most essential
particular, therefore, I think MR. SINGER is right in his correction but at
the same time agreeing with MR. COLLIER, that it is desirable not to
interfere with the original text further than is absolutely necessary, I
think the substitution of "labour" for "labours" is of questionable
expediency. What is the use of the conjunction "but" if not to connect the
excuse for the act of forgetting with the act itself?
Without intending to follow MR. COLLIER through the course of his argument,
I should like to notice one or two points. The usage of Shakspeare's day
admitted many variations from the stricter grammatical rules of our own;
but no usage ever admitted such a sentence as this,--for though
elliptically expressed, MR. COLLIER treats it as a sentence,--
"Most busy, least when I do it."
This is neither grammar nor sense: and I persist in believing that
Shakspeare was able to construct an intelligible sentence according to
rules as much recognised by custom then as now.
But, indeed, does not MR. COLLIER virtually admit that the text is
inexplicable in his very attempt to explain it? He sums up by saying "that
in fact, his toil is no toil, and that when he is 'most busy' he 'least
does it,'" which is precisely the reverse of what the text says, if it
express any meaning at all. I will agree with him in preferring the old
text to any other text where it gives a perfect meaning; but to prefer it
here, when the omission of a single letter produces an image at once {338}
noble and complete, would, to my mind, savour more of superstition than
true worship.
P.S. It should be observed that MR. COLLIER'S "least" is as much of an
alteration of the original text as MR. SINGER'S "busyest", the one adding
and the other omittng a letter. The folio of 1632, where it differs front
the first folio, will hardly add to the authority of MR. COLLIER himself.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
Oct. 10. 1850.
If one, who is but a charmed listener to Shakspeare, may presume to offer
an opinion to practised interpreters, I should suggest to MR. SINGER and
MR. COLLIER, another and a totally different reading of the passage in
discussion by them from the exquisite opening scene of the 3d Act of the
_Tempest_.
There can be little doubt that "most busy" applies more poetically to
_thoughts_ than to _labours_; and, in so much, MR. SINGER'S reading is to
be commended. But it is equally true that, by adhering to the early text,
MR. COLLIER'S school of editing has restored force and beauty to many
passages which had previously been outraged by fancied improvements, so
that his unflinching support of the original word in this instance is also
to be respected. But may not both be combined? I think they may, by
understanding the passage in question as though a transposition had taken
place between the words "least" and "when".
"Most busy _when least_ I do it,"
or,--
"Most busy when least employed."
forming just the sort of verbal antithesis of which the poet was so fond.
An actual transposition of the words may have taken place through the fault
of the early printers; but even if the _present order_ be preserved, still
the _transposed sense_ is, I think, much less difficult than the forced and
rather contradictory meaning contended for by MR. COLLIER. Has not _the
pause_ in Ferdinand's labour been hitherto too much overlooked? What is it
that has induced him to _forget_ his task? Is it not those delicious
thoughts, most busy in the _pauses_ of labour, making those pauses still
more refreshing and renovating?
Ferdinand says--
"I forget,"--
and then he adds, _by way of excuse_,--
"_But_ the sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,
Most busy when least I do it."
More busy in thought when idle, than in labour when employed. The cessation
from labour was favourable to the thoughts that made it endurable.
Malone quarrelled with the word "but", for which he would have substituted
"and" or "for". But in the _apologetic_ sense which I would confer upon the
last two lines of Ferdinand's speech, the word "but", at their
commencement, becomes not only appropriate but necessary.
A.E.B.
Leeds, October 8. 1850.
* * * * *
"LONDON BRIDGE IS BROKEN DOWN."
(Vol. ii., p. 258.)
Your correspondent T.S.D. does not remember to have seen that interesting
old nursery ditty "London Bridge is broken down" printed, or even referred
to in print. For the edification then of all interested in the subject, I
send you the following.
The old song on "London Bridge" is printed in Ritson's _Gammer Gurton's
Garland_, and in Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes of England_; but both copies
are very imperfect. There are also some fragments preserved in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for September, 1823 (vol. xciii. p. 232.), and in
the _Mirror_ for November 1st of the same year. From these versions a
tolerably perfect copy has been formed, and printed in a little work, for
which I am answerable, entitled _Nursery Rhymes, with the Tunes to which
they are still sung in the Nurseries of England_. But the whole ballad has
probably been formed by many fresh additions in a long series of years, and
is, perhaps, almost interminable when received in all its different
versions.
The correspondent of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ remarks, that "London
Bridge is broken down" is an old ballad which, more than seventy years
previous, he had heard plaintively warbled by a lady who was born in the
reign of Charles II., and who lived till nearly that of George II. Another
correspondent to the same magazine, whose contribution, signed "D.," is
inserted in the same volume (December, p. 507.), observes, that the ballad
concerning London Bridge formed, in his remembrance, part of a Christmas
carol, and commenced thus:--
"Dame, get up and bake your pies,
On Christmas Day in the morning."
The requisition, he continues, goes on to the dame to prepare for the
feast, and her answer is--
"London Bridge is broken down,
On Christmas Day in the morning."
The inference always was, that until the bridge was rebuilt some stop would
be put to the dame's Christmas operations; but why the falling of a part of
London Bridge should form part of a Christmas carol it is difficult to
determine.
A Bristol correspondent, whose communication is inserted in that delightful
volume the _Chronicles of London Bridge_ (by Richard Thomson, of the London
Institution), says,--
"About forty years ago, one moonlight night, in a street in Bristol, his
attention was attracted by dance {339} and chorus of boys and girls, to
which the words of this ballad gave measure. The breaking down of the
bridge was announced as the dancers moved round in a circle, hand in hand;
and the question, 'How shall we build it up again?' was chanted by the
leader, whilst the rest stood still."
Concerning the antiquity of this ballad, a modern writer remarks,--
"If one might hazard a conjecture concerning it, we should refer its
composition to some very ancient date, when, London Bridge lying in
ruins, the office of bridge master was vacant, and his power over the
river Lea (for it is doubtless that river which is celebrated in the
chorus to this song) was for a while at an end. But this, although the
words and melody of the verses are extremely simple, is all uncertain."
If I might hazard another conjecture, I would refer it to the period when
London Bridge was the scene of a terrible contest between the Danes and
Olave of Norway. There is an animated description of this "Battle of London
Bridge," which gave ample theme to the Scandinavian scalds, in _Snorro
Sturleson_; and, singularly enough, the first line is the same as that of
our ditty:--
"London Bridge is broken down;
Gold is won and bright renown;
Shields resounding,
War horns sounding,
Hildur shouting in the din;
Arrows singing,
Mail-coats ringing,
Odin makes our Olaf win."
See Laing's _Heimskringla_, vol. ii. p. 10.; and Bulwer's _Harold_, vol. i.
p. 59. The last-named work contains, in the notes, some excellent remarks
upon the poetry of the Danes, and its great influence upon our early
national muse.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
[T.S.D.'s inquiry respecting this once popular nursery song has brought
us a host of communications; but none which contain the precise
information upon the subject which is to be found in DR. RIMBAULT's
reply. TOBY, who kindly forwards the air to which it was sung, speaks
of it as a "'lullaby song,' well-known in the southern part of Kent and
in Lincolnshire."
E.N.W. says it is printed in the collection of _Nursery Rhymes_
published by Burns, and that he was born and bred in London, and that
it was one of the nursery songs he was amused with. NOCAB ET AMICUS,
two old fellows of the Society of Antiquaries, do not doubt that it
refers to some event preserved in history, especially, they add, as we
have a faint recollection "of a note, touching such an event, in an
almost used-up English history, which was read in our nursery by an
elder brother, something less than three-fourths of a century since.
And we have also a shrewd suspicion that the sequel of the song has
reference to the reconstruction of that fabric at a later date."
J.S.C. has sent us a copy of the song; and we are indebted for another
copy to AN ENGLISH MOTHER, who has accompanied it with notices of some
other popular songs, notices which at some future opportunity we shall
lay before our readers.--ED.]
* * * * *
ARABIC NUMERALS.
(Vol. ii., pp. 27. 61.)
I must apologise for adding anything to the already abundant articles which
have from time to time appeared in "NOTES AND QUERIES" on this interesting
subject; I shall therefore confine myself to a few brief remarks on the
_form_ of each character, and, if possible, to show from what alphabets
they are derived:--
1. This most natural form of the first numeral is the first character in
the Indian, Arabic, Syriac, and Roman systems.
2. This appears to be formed from the Hebrew [Hebrew: b], which, in the
Syriac, assumes nearly the form of our 2; the Indian character is
identical, but arranged vertically instead of horizontally.
3. This is clearly derived from the Indian and Arabic forms, the position
being altered, and the vertical stroke omitted.
4. This character is found as the fourth letter in the Phoenician and
ancient Hebrew alphabets: the Indian is not very dissimilar.
5. and 6. These bear a great resemblance to the Syriac Heth and Vau (a
hook). When erected, the Estrangelo-Syriac Vau is precisely the form of our
6.
7. This figure is derived from the Hebrew [Hebrew: z], zayin, which in the
Estrangelo-Syriac is merely a 7 reversed.
8. This figure is merely a rounded form of the Samaritan Kheth (a
travelling scrip, with a string tied round thus, [Character]). The
Estrangelo-Syriac [Character] also much resembles it.
9. Identical with the Indian and Arabic.
0. Nothing; vacuity. It probably means the orb or _boundary_ of the
earth.--10. is the first boundary, [Hebrew: tchwm], Tekum, [Greek: Deka],
Decem, "terminus." Something more yet remains to be said, I think, on the
_names_ of the letters. Cf. "Table of Alphabets" in Gesenius, _Lex_., ed.
Tregelles, and "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., p. 434.
E. S. T.
_Arabic Numerals._--With regard to the subject of Arabic numerals, and the
instance at Castleacre (Vol. ii., pp. 27. 61.), I think I may safely say
that no archæologist of the present day would allow, after seeing the
original, that it was of the date 1084, even if it were not so certain that
these numerals were not in use at that time. I fear "the acumen of Dr.
Murray" was wasted on the occasion referred to in Mr. Bloom's work. It is a
very far-fetched idea, that the visitor must cross himself to discover the
meaning of the figures; not to mention the inconvenience, I might say
impossibility, {340} of reading them after he had turned his back upon
them,--the position required to bring them into the order 1084. It is also
extremely improbable that so obscure a part of the building should be
chosen for erecting the date of the foundation; nor is it likely that so
important a record would be merely impressed on the plaister, liable to
destruction at any time. Read in the most natural way, it makes 1480: but I
much doubt its being a date at all. The upper figure resembles a Roman I;
and this, with the O beneath, may have been a mason's initials at some time
when the plaister was renewed: for that the figures are at least sixty
years later than the supposed date, Mr. Bloom confesses, the church not
having been built until then.
X.P.M.
* * * * *
CAXTON'S PRINTING-OFFICE.
(Vol. ii., pp. 99. 122. 142. 187. 233.)
I confess, after having read MR. J.G. NICHOLS' critique in a recent number
of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," relative to the locality of the first
printing-press erected by Caxton in this country, I am not yet convinced
that it was not within the Abbey of Westminster. From MR. NICHOLS' own
statements, I find that Caxton himself says his books were "imprynted" by
him in the Abbey; to this, however, MR. NICHOLS replies by way of
objection, "that Caxton does not say in the church of the Abbey."
On the above words of Caxton "in the Abbey of Westminster," Mr. C. Knight,
in his excellent biography of the old printer, observes, "they leave no
doubt that beneath the actual roof of some portion of the Abbey he carried
on his art." Stow says "that Caxton was the first that carried on his art
in the Abbey." Dugdale, in his _Monasticon_, speaking of Caxton, says, "he
erected his office in one of the side chapels of the Abbey." MR. NICHOLS,
quoting from Stow, also informs us that printing-presses were, soon after
the introduction of the art, erected in the Abbey of St. Albans, St.
Augustin at Canterbury, and other monasteries; he also informs us that the
scriptorium of the monasteries had ever been the manufactory of books, and
these places it is well known formed a portion of the abbeys themselves,
and were not in detached buildings similar to the Almonry at Westminster,
which was situated some two or three hundred yards distant from the Abbey.
I think it very likely, when the press was to supersede the pen in the work
of book-making, that its capabilities would be first tried in the very
place which had been used for the object it was designed to accomplish.
This idea seems to be confirmed by the tradition that a printer's office
has ever been called a chapel, a fact which is beautifully alluded to by
Mr. Creevy in his poem entitled _The Press_:--
"Yet stands the chapel in yon Gothic shrine,
Where wrought the father of our English line,
Our art was hail'd from kingdoms far abroad,
And cherish'd in the hallow'd house of God;
From which we learn the homage it received
And how our sires its heavenly birth believed.
Each printer hence, howe'er unblest his walls,
E'en to this day, his house a chapel calls."
Mr. Nichols acknowledges that what he calls a vulgar error was current and
popular, that in some part of the Abbey Caxton did erect his press, yet we
are expected to submit to the almost unsupported dictum of that gentleman,
and renounce altogether the old and almost universal idea. With respect to
his alarm that the _vulgar error_ is about to be further propagated by an
engraving, wherein the mistaken draftsman has deliberately represented the
printers at work within the consecrated walls of the church itself, I may
be permitted to say, on behalf of the painter, that he has erected his
press not even on the basement of one of the Abbey chapels, but in an upper
story, a beautiful screen separating the workplace from the more sacred
part of the building.
JOHN CROPP.
* * * * *
COLD HARBOUR.
(Vol. i., p. 60.; Vol. ii., p. 159.)
I beg leave to inform you that Yorkshire has its "Cold Harbour," and for
the origin of the term, I subjoin a communication sent me by my father:--
"When a youngster, I was a great seeker for etymologies. A solitary
farm-house and demesne were pointed out to me, the locality of which was
termed Cad, or Cudhaber, or Cudharber. Conjectures, near akin to those now
presented, occurred to me. I was invited to inspect the locality. I dined
with the old yeoman (aged about eighty) who occupied the farm. He gave me
the etymology. In his earlier days he had come to this farm; a house was
not built, yet he was compelled by circumstances to bring over part of his
farming implements, &c. He, with his men-servants, had no other shelter at
the time than a dilapidated barn. When they assembled to eat their cold
provisions, the farmer cried out, 'Hegh lads, but there's cauld (or caud)
harbour here.' The spot had no name previously. The rustics were amused by
the farmer's saying. Hence the locality was termed by them Cold Harbour,
corrupted, Cadharber, and the etymon remains to this day. This information
put an end to my enquiries about Cold Harbour."
C.M.J.
_Cold Harbour._--The goldfinches which have remained among the valleys of
the Brighton Downs during the winter are called, says Mr. {341} Knox, by
the catchers, "harbour birds, meaning that they have sojourned or
harboured, as the local expression is, here during the season." Does not
this, with the fact of a place in Pembroke being called Cold Blow, added to
the many places with the prefix Cold, tend to confirm the supposition that
the numerous cold harbours were places of protection against the winter
winds?
A.C.
With regard to Cold Harbour (supposed "Coluber," which is by no means
satisfactory), it may be worth observing that Cold is a common prefix: thus
there is Cold Ashton, Cold Coats, Cold or Little Higham, Cold Norton, Cold
Overton, Cold Waltham, Cold St. Aldwins, --coats, --meere, --well,
--stream, and several _cole_, &c. Cold peak is a hill near Kendall. The
latter suggests to me a _Query_ to genealogists. Was the old baronial name
of Peche, Pecche, of Norman origin as in the Battle Roll? From the fact of
the Peak of Derby having been Pech-e _antè_ 1200, I think this surname must
have been local, though it soon became soft, as appears from the rebus of
the Lullingstone family, a peach with the letter é on it. I do not think
that _k_ is formed to similar words in Domesday record.
Caldecote, a name of several places, may require explanation.
AUG. CAMB.
I beg to give you the localities of two "Cold Harbours:" one on the road
from Uxbridge to Amersham, 19½ miles from London (see Ordnance Map 7.); the
other on the road from Chelmsford to Epping, 13½ miles from the former
place (see Ordnance Map No. 1. N.W.).
DISS.
There are several Cold Harbours in Sussex, in Dallington, Chiddingly,
Wivelsfield, one or two in Worth, one S.W. of Bignor, one N.E. of Hurst
Green, and there may be more.
In Surrey there is one in the parish of Bletchingley.
WILLIAM FIGG.
There is a farm called Cold Harbour, near St. Albans, Herts.
S.A.
After the numerous and almost tedious theories concerning Cold Harbours,
particularly the "forlorn hope" of the _Coal Depôts_ in London and
elsewhere, permit me to suggest one of almost universal application.
Respecting _here-burh_, an inland station for an army, in the same sense as
a "harbour" for ships on the sea-coast, a word still sufficiently familiar
and intelligible, the question seems to be settled; and the French
"auberge" for an inn has been used as an illustration, though the first
syllable may be doubtful. The principal difficulty appears to consist in
the prefix "Cold;" for why, it may be asked, should a bleak and "cold"
situation be selected as a "harbour"? The fact probably is that this
spelling, however common, is a corruption for "COL.". Colerna, in
Wiltshire, fortunately retains the original orthography, and in Anglo-Saxon
literally signifies the habitation or settlement of a colony; though in
some topographical works we are told that it was formerly written "Cold
Horne," and that it derives its name from its bleak situation. This,
however, is a mere coincidence; for some of these harbours are in warm
sheltered situations. Sir R.C. Hoare was right when he observed, that these
"harbours" were generally near some Roman road or Roman settlement. It is
therefore wonderful that it should not at once occur to every one
conversant with the Roman occupation of this island, that all these
"COL-harbours" mark the settlements, farms, outposts, or garrisons of the
Roman colonies planted here.
J.I.
Oxford.
_Cold Harbour._--Your correspondent asks whether there is a "Cold Harbour"
in every county, &c. I think it probable, though it may take some time to
catalogue them all. There are so many in some counties, that ten on an
average for each would in all likelihood fall infinitely short of the
number. The Roman colonists must have formed settlements in all directions
during their long occupation of so favourite a spot as Britain. "Cold
Harbour Farm" is a very frequent denomination of insulated spots cultivated
from time immemorial. These are not always found in _cold_ situations.
Nothing is more common than to add a final _d_, unnecessarily, to a word or
syllable, particularly in compound words. Instances will occur to every
reader, which it would be tedious to enumerate.
J.I.
After reading the foregoing communications on the subject of the
much-disputed etymology of COLD HARBOUR, our readers will probably
agree with us in thinking the following note, from a very distinguished
Saxon scholar, offers a most satisfactory solution of the question:--
With reference to the note of G.B.H. (Vol. i, p. 60.) as well as to the
very elaborate letter in the "Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries"
(the paper in the _Archæologia_ I have not seen), I would humbly suggest
the possibility, that the word _Cold_ or _Cole_ may originally have been
the Anglo-Saxon Col, and the entire expression have designated _a cool
summer residence_ by a river's side or on an eminence; such localities, in
short, as are described in the "Proceedings" as bearing the name of Cold
Harbour.
The denomination appears to me evidently the modern English for the A.-S.
Col Hereberg. Colburn, Colebrook, Coldstream, are, no doubt, analagous
denominations.
[Greek: PH.]
* * * * * {342}
ST. UNCUMBER.
(Vol. ii., p. 286.)
PWCCA, after quoting from Michael Wodde's _Dialogue or Familiar Talke_ the
passage in which he says, "If a wife were weary of her husband _she offred
otes at Paules_ in London to St. Uncumber," asks "who St. Uncumber was?"
St. Uncumber was one of those popular saints whose names are not to be
found in any calendar, and whose histories are now only to be learned from
the occasional allusions to them to be met with in our early
writers,--allusions which it is most desirable should be recorded in "NOTES
AND QUERIES." The following cases, in which mention is made of this saint,
are therefore noted, although they do not throw much light on the history
of St. Uncumber.
The first is from Harsenet's _Discoverie, &c._, p.l34.:
"And the commending himselfe to the tuition of S. Uncumber, or els our
blessed Lady."
The second is from Bale's _Interlude concerning the Three Laws of Nature,
Moses, and Christ_:
"If ye cannot slepe, but slumber,
Geve _Otes_ unto Saynt Uncumber,
And Beanes in a certen number
Unto Saynt Blase and Saynt Blythe."
I will take an early opportunity of noting some similar allusions to Sir
John Shorne, St. Withold, &c.
WILLIAM J. THOMS.
* * * * *
HANDFASTING.
(Vol. ii., p. 282.)
JARLTZBRG, in noticing this custom, says that the Jews seem to have had a
similar one, which perhaps they borrowed from the neighbouring nations; at
least the connexion formed by the prophet Hosea (chap. iii., v. 2.) bears
strong resemblance to _Handfasting_. The 3rd verse in Hosea, as well as the
2nd, should I think be referred to. They are both as follows:
"So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer
of barley, and an half homer of barley: and I said unto her, Thou shalt
abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt
not be for another man; so will I also be for thee."
Now by consulting our most learned commentators upon the meaning which they
put upon these two verses in connexion with each other, I cannot think that
the analogy of JARLTZBERG will be found correct. In allusion to verse 2,
"so I bought her," &c., Bishop Horsley says:
"This was not a payment in the shape of a dowry; for the woman was his
property, if he thought fit to claim her, _by virtue of the marriage
already had_; but it was a present supply of her necessary wants, by
which he acknowledged her as his wife, and engaged to furnish her with
alimony, not ample indeed, but suitable to the recluse life which he
prescribed to her."
And in allusion, in verse 3., to the words "Thou shall abide for me many
days," Dr. Pocock thus explains the context:
"That is, thou shalt stay sequestered, and as in a state of widowhood,
till the time come that I shall be fully reconciled to thee, and shall
see fit again to receive thee to the privileges of a wife."
Both commentators are here evidently alluding to what occurs after a
marriage has actually taken place. Handfasting takes place before a
marriage is consummated.
A chapter upon marriage contracts and ceremonies would form an important
and amusing piece of history. I have not Picart's _Religious Ceremonies_ at
hand, but if I mistake not he refers to many. In Marco Polo's _Travels_, I
find the following singular, and to a Christian mind disgusting, custom. It
is related in section l9.:--
"These twenty days journey ended, having passed over the province of
Thibet, we met with cities and many villages, in which, through the
blindness of idolatry, a wicked custom is used; for no man there
marrieth a wife that is a virgin; whereupon, when travellers and
strangers, coming from other places, pass through this country and
pitch their pavilions, the women of that place having marriageable
daughters, bring them unto strangers, desiring them to take them and
enjoy their company as long as they remain there. Thus the handsomest
are chosen, and the rest return home sorrowful, and when they depart,
they are not suffered to carry any away with them, but faithfully
restore them to their parents. The maiden also requireth some toy or
small present of him who hath deflowered her, which she may show as an
argument and proof of her condition; and she that hath been loved and
abused of most men, and shall have many such favours and toys to show
to her wooers, is accounted more noble, and may on that account be
advantageously married; and when she would appear most honourably
dressed, she hangs all her lovers' favours about her neck, and the more
acceptable she was to many, so much the more honour she receives from
her countrymen. But when they are once married, they are no more
suffered to converse with strange men, and men of this country are very
cautious never to offend one another in this matter."
J.M.G.
Worcester, Oct. 1850.
The curious subject brought forward by J.M.G. under this title, and
enlarged upon by JARLTZBERG (Vol. ii., p. 282.), leads me to trouble you
with this in addition. Elizabeth Mure, according to the _History and
Descent of the House of Rowallane_ by Sir William Mure, was made choyce of,
for her excellent beautie and rare virtues, by King Robert II., to be Queen
of Scotland; and if their union may be considered to illustrate in any way
the singular custom of _Handfasting_, it will be seen {343} from the
following extract that they were also married by a priest:--
"Mr. Johne Lermonth, chapline to Alexander Archbishop of St. Andrews,
hath left upon record in a deduction of the descent of the House of
Rowallane collected by him at the command of the said Archbishop (whose
interest in the familie is to be spoken of heirafter), that Robert,
Great Stewart of Scotland, having taken away the said Elizabeth Mure,
drew to Sir Adam her father ane instrument that he should take her to
his lawful wife, (which myself hath seen saith the collector), as also
ane testimonie written in latine by Roger Mc Adame, priest of our Ladie
Marie's chapel (in Kyle), that the said Roger maried Robert and
Elizabeth forsds. But yrafter durring the great troubles in the reign
of King David Bruce, to whom the Earl of Rosse continued long a great
enemie, at perswasion of some of the great ones of the time, the Bishop
of Glasgow, William Rae by name, gave way that the sd marriage should
be abrogate by transaction, which both the chief instrument, the Lord
Duglasse, the Bishope, and in all likelihood the Great Stewart himself,
repented ever hereafter. The Lord Yester Snawdoune, named Gifford, got
to wife the sd Elizabeth, and the Earl of Rosse's daughter was maried
to the Great Stewart, which Lord Yester and Eupheme, daughter to the
Earle of Rosse, departing near to one time, the Great Stewart, being
then king, openly acknowledged the first mariage, and invited home
Elizabeth Mure to his lawfull bed, whose children shortlie yrafter the
nobility did sweare in parliament to maintaine in the right of
succession to the croune as the only lawfull heirs yrof."
"In these harder times shee bare to him Robert (named Johne
Fairneyear), after Earle of Carrick, who succeeded to the croune;
Robert, after Earl of Fyffe and Maneteeth, and Governour; and
Alexander, after Earle of Buchane, Lord Badyenoch; and daughters, the
eldest maried to Johne Dumbar, brother to the Earl of March, after
Earle of Murray, and the second to Johne the Whyt Lyon, progenitor of
the House of Glames, now Earle of Kinghorn."
So much for the marriage of Elizabeth Mure, as given by the historian of
the House of Rowallane. Can any of your readers inform me whether Elizabeth
had any issue by her second husband, Lord Yester Snawdoune? If so, there
would be a relationship between Queen Victoria and the Hays, Marquesses of
Tweeddale, and the Brouns, Baronets of Colstoun. One of the latter family
received as a dowry with a daughter of one of the Lords Yester the
celebrated WARLOCK PEAR, said to have been enchanted by the necromancer
Hugo de Gifford, who died in 1267, and which is now nearly six centuries
old. In the _Lady of the Lake_, James Fitz-James is styled by Scott
"Snawdon's knight;" but why or wherefore does not appear, unless Queen
Elizabeth Mure had issue by Gifford. Robert II. was one of three Scottish
kings in succession who married the daughters of their own subjects, and
those only of the degree of knights; namely, David Bruce, who married
Margaret, daughter of Sir John Loggie; Robert II., who married Elizabeth,
daughter of Sir Adam Mure; and Robert III., who married Annabell, daughter
to Sir John Drummond of Stobhall.
SCOTUS.
* * * * *
GRAY'S ELEGY.--DRONING.--DODSLEY'S POEMS.
(Vol. ii., pp. 264. 301.)
I only recur to the subject of Gray's Elegy to remark, that although your
correspondents, A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD, and W.S., have given me a good deal
of information, for which I thank them, they have not answered either of my
Queries.
I never doubted as to the true reading of the third line of the second
stanza of Gray's Elegy, but merely remarked that in one place the
penultimate word was printed _drony_, and other authorities _droning_. With
reference to this point, what I wanted to know was merely, whether, in any
good annotated edition of the poem, it had been stated that when Dodsley
printed it in his _Collection of Poems_, 1755, vol. iv., the epithet
applied to flight was _drony_, and not _droning_? I dare say the point has
not escaped notice; but if it have, the fact is just worth observation.
Next, any doubt is not at all cleared up respecting the date of publication
of Dodsley's Collection. The Rev. J. Mitford, in his Aldine edition of
Gray, says (p. xxxiii.) that the first three volumes came out in 1752,
whereas my copy of "the _second edition_" bears the date of 1748. Is that
the true date, or do editions vary? If the second edition came out in 1748,
what was the date of the first edition? I only put this last question
because, as most people are aware, some poems of note originally appeared
in Dodsley's _Collection of Poems_, and it is material to ascertain the
real year when they first came from the press.
THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.
* * * * *
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
_Zündnadel Guns_ (Vol. ii., p. 247.).--JARLTZBERG "would like to know when
and by whom they were invented, and their mechanism."
To describe mechanism without diagrams is both tedious and difficult; but I
shall be happy to show JARLTZBRG one of them in my possession, if he will
favour me with a call,--for which purpose I inclose my address, to be had
at your office. The principle is, to load at the breach, and the cartridge
contains the priming, which is ignited by the action of a pin striking
against it. It is one of the worst of many methods of loading at the
breach; and the same principle was patented in England by A.A. Moser, a
German, more than ten years ago. {344}
It has already received the attention of our Ordnance department, and has
been tried at Woolwich. The letter to which JARTZBERG refers, dated Berlin,
Sept. 11., merely shows the extreme ignorance of the writer on such
subjects, as the range he mentions has nothing whatever to do with the
principle or mechanism of the gun in question. He ought also, before he
expressed himself so strongly, to have known, that the extreme range of an
English percussion musket is nearer _one mile_ than _150 yards_ (which
latter distance, he says, they do not exceed) and he would not have been so
astonished at the range of the Zündnadel guns being 800 yards, if he had
seen, as I have, a plain English two-grooved rifle range 1200 yards, with a
proper elevation for the distance, and a conical projectile instead of a
ball.
The form and weight of the projectile fired from rifle, at a considerable
elevation, say 25º to 30º, with sufficient charge of gunpowder, is the
cause of the range and of the accuracy, and has nothing whatever to do with
the construction or means by which it is fired, whether flint or
percussion. The discussion of this subject is probably unsuited to your
publication, or I could have considerably enlarged this communication. I
will, however, simply add, that the Zündnadel is very liable to get out of
order, much exposed to wet, and that it does not in reality possess any of
the wonderful advantages that have been ascribed to it, except a facility
of loading, _while clean_, which is more than counterbalanced by its
defects.
HENRY WILKINSON.
_Thomson of Esholt_ (Vol. ii., p. 268.).--Dr. Whitaker tells us (Ducatus,
ii. 202.) that the dissolved priory of Essheholt was, in the 1st Edw. VI.,
granted to Henry Thompson, Gent., one of the king's _gens d'armes_ at
Bologne. About a century afterwards the estate passed to the more ancient
and distinguished Yorkshire family of Calverley, by the marriage of the
daughter and heir of Henry Thompson, Esq., with Sir Walter Calverley. If
your correspondent JAYTEE consult Sims's useful _Index to the Pedigrees and
Arms contained in the Genealogical MSS. in the British Museum_, he will be
referred to several pedigrees of the family of Thomson of Esholt. Of
numerous respectable families of the name of Thompson seated in the
neighbourhood of York, the common ancestor seems to have been a James
Thompson of Thornton in Pickering Lythe, who flourished in the reign of
Elizabeth. (Vice Poulson's _Holderess_, vol. ii. p. 63.) All these families
bear the arms described by your correspondent, but _without_ the bend
sinister. The crest they use is also nearly the same, viz., an armed arm,
embowed, grasping a broken tilting spear.
No general collection of Yorkshire genealogies has been published.
Information as to the pedigrees of Yorkshire families must be sought for in
the well-known topographical works of Thoresby Whitaker, Hunter, &c., or in
the MS. collections of Torre, Hopkinson, &c.
In the _Monasticon Eboracense_, by John Burton M.D., fol., York, 1778,
under the head of "Eschewolde, Essold, Esscholt, or Esholt, in Ayredale in
the Deanry of the Ainsty," at pp. 139. and 140., your correspondent JAYTEE
will find that the site of this priory was granted, 1 Edward VI., 1547, to
Henry Thompson, one of the king's _gens d'armes_, at Boleyn; who, by Helen,
daughter of Laurence Townley, had a natural son called William, living in
1585 who, assuming his father's surname, and marrying Dorothy, daughter of
Christopher Anderson of Lostock in com. Lanc. prothonotary became the
ancestor of those families of the Thompsons now living in and near York. He
may see also Burke's _Landed Gentry_, article "Say of Tilney, co. Norfolk,"
in the supplement.
_Minar's Books of Antiquities_ (Vol. i., p. 277.).--A.N. inquires who is
intended by Cusa in his book _De Docta Ignorantia_, cap. vii., where he
quotes "Minar in his _Books of Antiquities_." Upon looking into the passage
referred to, I remembered the following observation by a learned writer now
living, which will doubtless guide your correspondent to the author
intended:--
"On the subject of the imperfect views concerning the Deity,
entertained by the ancient philosophical sects, I would especially
refer to that most able and elaborate investigation of them, Meiner's
very interesting tract, _De Vero Deo._"--(An Elementary Course of
Theological Lectures, delivered in Bristol College, 1831-1833, by the
Rev. W.D. Conybeare, now the Very Rev. the Dean of Llandaff. )
A.N. will not be surprised at Cusa Using the term "antiquitates" instead of
"De Vero Deo," if he will compare his expressions on the same subject in
his book _De Venatione Sapientiæ_, e.g.:--
"Vides nunc æternum illud _antiquissimum_ in eo campo (scilicet non
aliud) dulcissima venatione quæri posse. Attingis enim _antiquissimum_
trinum et unum."--Cap. xiv.
T.J.
_Smoke Money_ (Vol. ii., pp. 120. 174.).--Sir Roger Twisden (_Historical
Vindication of the Church of England_, chap. iv. p. 77.) observes--
"King Henry, 153¾, took them (Peter's pence) so absolutely away, as
though Queen Mary repealed that Act, and Paulus Quartus dealt earnestly
with her agents in Rome for restoring the use of them, yet I cannot
find that they were ever gathered and sent thither during her time but
where some monasteries did answer them to the Pope, and did therefore
collect the tax, that in process of time became, as by custom, paid to
that house which being after derived to the crown, and from thence, by
grant, to others, with as ample {345} profits as the religious persons
did possess them, I conceive they are to this day paid as an appendant
to the said manors, by the name of _Smoke Money_.
J.B.
_Smoke Money_ (Vol. ii., pp. 120, 269.).--I do not know whether any
additional information on _smoke money_ is required but the following
extracts may be interesting to your Querist:--
"At this daie the Bp. of Elie hath out of everie parish in
Cambridgeshire a certeine tribute called Elie Farthings, or _Smoke
Farthings_, which the church-wardens do levie, according to the number
of houses or else of chimneys that be in a parish."--MSS, Baker, xxix.
326.
The date of this impost is given in the next extract:--
"By the records of the Church of Elie, it appears that in the year
1154, every person who kept a fire in the several parishes within that
diocese was obliged to pay one farthing yearly to the altar of S.
Peter, in the same cathedral."--MSS. Bowtell, Downing Coll. Library.
This tax was paid in 1516, but how much later I cannot say.
The readers of Macaulay will be familiar with the term "heart-money"
(_History_, vol. i. p. 283.), and the amusing illustrations he produces,
from the ballads of the day, of the extreme unpopularity of the tax on
chimneys, and the hatred in which the "chimney man" was held (i. 287.) but
this was a different impost frown that spoken of above, and paid to the
king, not to the cathedral. It was collected for the last time in 1690,
having been first levied in 1653, when, Hume tells us, the king's debts had
become so--
"Intolerable, that the Commons were constrained to vote him an
extraordinary supply of 1,200,000l., to be levied by eighteen months'
assessment, and finding upon enquiry that the several branches of the
revenue fell much short of the sums they expected, they at last, after
much delay, voted _a new imposition of 2s. on each hearth_, and this
tax they settled on the king during his life."
The Rev. Giles Moore, Rector of Horstead Keynes, Sussex, notes in his
_Diary_ (published by the Sussex Archæological Society),--
August 18, 1663.--I payed fore 1 half yeares earth-money 3s.
Other notices of this payment may be supplied by other correspondents.
E. VENABLES.
_Holland Land_ (Vol. ii., p. 267.).--Holland means _hole_ or _hollow
land_--land lower than the level of contiguous water, and protected by
_dykes_. So _Holland_, one of the United Provinces; so _Holland_, the
southern division of Lincolnshire.
C.
_Caconac, Caconacquerie_ (Vol. ii., p. 267.).--This is a misprint of yours,
or a misspelling of your correspondents. The word is _cacouac,
cacouacquerie_. It was a cant word used by Voltaire and his correspondents
to signify an _unbeliever_ in Christianity, and was, I think, borrowed from
the name of some Indian tribe supposed to be in a natural state of freedom
and exemption from prejudice.
C.
_Discourse of National Excellencies of England_ (Vol. ii., p. 248.).--_A
Discourse of the National Excellencies of England_ was not written by Sir
Rob. Howard, but by RICHARD HAWKINS, Whose name appears at length in the
title-page to some copies; others have the initials only.
P.B.
_Saffron Bags_ (Vol. ii., p. 217.).--In almost all old works on Materia
Medica the use of these bags is mentioned. Quincy, in his _Dispensatory_,
1730, p. 179., says:--
"Some prescribe it (saffron) to be worn with camphire in a bag at the
pit of the stomach for _melancholy_; and others affirm that, so used,
it will cure agues."
Ray observes (_Cat. Plant. Angl._, 1777, p. 84.):
"Itemque in sacculo suspenditur sub mento vel gutture ad dissipandam
sc. materiam putridam et venenatam, ne ibidem stagnans, inflammationen
excitet, ægrotumque strangulet."
The origin of the "saffron bag", is probably to be explained by the strong
aromatic odour of saffron, and the high esteem in which it was once held as
a medicine; though now it is used chiefly as a colouring ingredient and by
certain elderly ladies, with antiquated notions, as a specific for
"striking out" the measles in their grandchildren.
[Hebrew: t. a.]
_Milton's "Penseroso"_ (Vol. ii, p. 153.).--H.A.B. desires to understand
the couplet--
"And love the high embower'd roof,
With antique pillars massy proof."
He is puzzled whether to consider "proof" an adjective belonging to
"pillars," or a substantive in apposition with it. All the commentators
seem to have passed the line without observation. I am almost afraid to
suggest that we should read "pillars'" in the genitive plural, "proof"
being taken in the sense of _established strength_.
Before dismissing this conjecture, I have taken the pains to examine every
one of the twenty-four other passages in which Milton has used the word
"proof." I find that it occurs only four times as an adjective in all of
which it is followed by something dependent upon it. In three of than thus:
"---- not proof
Against temptation."--_Par. L._ ix. 298.
"---- proof 'gainst all assaults."--_Ib._ x. 88.
"Proof against all temptation."--_Par. R._ iv. 533.
In the fourth, which is a little different, thus:
"---- left some part
Not proof enough such object to sustain."
_Par. L._ viii. 5S5.
{346} As Milton, therefore, has in no other place used "proof" as an
adjective without something attached to it, I feel assured that he did not
use it as an adjective in the passage in question.
J.S.W.
Stockwell, Sept. 7.
_Achilles and the Tortoise_ (Vol. ii., p. l54.).--[Greek: Idiôtês] will
find the paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" explained by Mr. Mansel of
St. John's College, Oxon, in a note to his late edition of Aldrich's
_Logic_ (1849, p. 125.). He there shows that the fallacy is a material one:
being a false assumption of the major premise, viz., that the sum of an
infinite series is itself always infinite (whereas it may be finite).
Mansel refers to Plato, _Parmenid._ p. 128. [when will editors learn to
specify the editions which they use?] Aristot. _Soph. Eleuctr._ 10. 2. 33.
4., and Cousin, _Nouveaux Fragments, Zénon d'Elée._
T.E.L.L.
_Stepony Ale_ (Vol. ii., p. 267.).--The extract from Chamberlayne certainly
refers to ale brewed at _Stepney._ In Playford's curious collection of old
popular tunes, the _English Dancing Master_, 1721, is one called "Stepney
Ale and Cakes;" and in the works of Tom Brown and Ned Ward, other allusions
to the same are to be found.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
_North Side of Churchyards_ (Vol. ii., p. 253.).--In reference to the north
region being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts," Milton seems to
have recognised the doctrine when he says--
"At last,
Far in the horizon to the north appear'd
From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretched
In battailous aspect, and nearer view
Bristled with upright beams innumerable
Of rigid spears, and helmets throng'd, and shields
Various, with boastful argument pourtray'd,
The banded powers of Satan hasting on
With furious expedition."--Book vi.
F.E.
_Welsh Money_ (Vol. ii., p. 231.).--It is not known that the Welsh princes
ever coined any money: none such has ever been discovered. If they ever
coined any, it is almost impossible that it should all have disappeared.
GRIFFIN.
_Wormwood_ (Vol. ii., pp. 249. 315.).--The French gourmands have two sorts
of liqueur flavoured with wormwood; Crême d'Absinthe, and Vermouthe. In the
_Almanac des Gourmands_ there is a pretty account of the latter, called the
_coup d'après._ In the south of France, I think, they say it is the fashion
to have a glass brought in towards the end of the repast by girls to refit
the stomach.
C.B.
_Puzzling Epitaph_ (Vol. ii., p. 311.).--J. BDN has, I think, not given
this epitaph quite correctly. The following is as it appeared in the
_Times_, 20th Sept., 1828 (copied from the _Mirror_). It is stated to be in
a churchyard in Germany:--
"O quid tua te
be bis bia abit
ra ra ra
es
et in
ram ram ram
i i
Mox eris quod ego nunc."
The reading is--
"O superbe quid superbis? tua superbia te superabit. Terra es et in terram
ibis. Mox eris quod ego nunc."
E.B. PRICE.
October 14. 1850.
[The first two lines of this epitaph, and many similar specimens of
learned trifling, will be found in _Les Bigarrures et Touches de
Seigneur des Accords,_ cap. iii., _autre Façons de Rebus_, p. 35., ed.
1662.]
_Umbrella_ (Vol. ii., pp. 25. 93.).--In the collection of pictures at
Woburn Abbey is a full-length portrait of the beautiful Duchess of Bedford,
who afterwards married the Earl of Jersey, painted about the year 1730. She
is represented as attended by a black servant, who holds an open umbrella
to shade her.
Cowper's "Task," published in 1784, twice mentions the umbrella:
"We bear our shades about us; self-deprived
Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread,
And range an Indian waste without a tree."
Book i.
In book iv., the description of the country girl, who dresses above her
condition, concludes with the following lines--
"Expect her soon with footboy at her heels,
No longer blushing for her awkward load,
Her train and her umbrella all her care."
In both these passages of Cowper, the umbrella appears to be equivalent to
what would now be called a parasol.
L.
_Pope and Bishop Burgess_ (Vol. ii., p. 310.).--The allusion is to the
passage in _Troilus and Cressida_:
"The dreadful sagitary appals our numbers."
which Theobald explained from Caxton, but Pope did not understand.
C.B.
[Not the only passage in Shakspeare which Theobald explained and Pope
did not understand; but more of this hereafter.]
_Book of Homilies_ (Vol. ii., p. 89.).--Allow me to inform B. that the
early edition of Homilies {347} referred to in his Query was compiled by
Richard Taverner, and consists of a series of "postils" on the epistles and
gospels throughout the year. It appears to have been first printed in 1540
(_Ames_, i. 407.), and was republished in 1841, under the editorial care of
Dr. Cardwell.
C.H.
St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.
_Roman Catholic Theology_ (Vol. ii., p. 279.).--I beg to refer M.Y.A.H. to
the _Church History of England_ by Hugh Tootle, better known by his
pseudonyme of Charles Dod (3 vols. folio, Brussels, 1737-42). A very
valuable edition of this important work was commenced by the Rev. M.A.
Tierney; but as the last volume (the fifth) was published so long ago as
1843, and no symptom of any other appears, I presume that this extremely
curious book has, for some reason or other, been abandoned. Perhaps the
well-known jealousy of the censor may have interfered.
A useful manual of Catholic bibliography exists in the _Thesaurus Librorum
Rei Catholicæ_, 8vo. Würzburg, 1850.
G.R.
_Modum Promissionis_ (Vol. ii., p. 279.).--Without the context of the
passage adduced by C.W.B., it is impossible to speak positively as to its
precise signification. I think, however, the phrase is equivalent to
"formula professionis monasticæ." _Promissio_ frequently occurs in this
sense, as may be seen by referring to Ducange (s.v.).
C.H.
_Bacon Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 247.).--The name of Bacon has been considered
to be of Norman origin, arising from some fief so called.--See _Roman de
Rose_, vol. ii. p. 269.
X.P.M.
_Execution of Charles I. and Earl of Stair_ (Vol. ii., pp. 72. 140.
158.).--MATFELONENSIS speaks too fast when he says that "no mention occurs
of the Earl of Stair." I distinctly recollect reading in an old life of the
Earl of Stair an account of his having been sent for to visit a mysterious
person of extreme old age, who stated that he was the earl's ancestor
(grandfather or great-grandfather, but whether paternal or not I do not
remember), and that he had been the executioner of Charles I.
T.N.
[The story to which our correspondent alludes is, probably, that quoted
in Cecil's (Hone's) _Sixty Curious and Authentic Narratives_, pp.
138-140., from the _Recreations of a Man of Feeling_. The peerage and
the pedigree of the Stair family alike prove that there is little
foundation for this ingenious fiction.]
_Water-marks on Writing-paper_ (Vol. ii., p. 310.).--On this subject C.,
will, I think, find all the information he seeks in a paper published in
the _Aldine Magazine_, (Masters, Aldersgate-st., 1839). This paper is
accompanied by engravings of the ancient water-marks, as well as those of
more modern times, and enters somewhat largely into the question of how far
water-marks may be considered as evidence of precise dates. They are not
always to be relied upon, for in December, 1850, there will doubtless be
thousands of reams of paper issued and in circulation, bearing the date of
1851, unless the practice is altered of late years. Timperley's
_Biographical, Chronological, and Historical Dictionary_ is much quoted on
the subject of "Water-marks."
E.B. PRICE.
_St. John Nepomuc_ (Vol. ii., pp. 209. 317.).--The statues in honour of
this Saint must be familiar to every one who has visited Bohemia, as also
the spot of his martyrdom at Prague, indicated by some brass stars let into
the parapet of the _Steinerne Brücke_, on the right-hand side going from
Prague to the suburb called the _Kleinseite_. As the story goes, he was
offered the most costly bribes by _Wenzel_, king of Bohemia, to betray his
trust, and after his repeated refusal was put to the torture, and then
thrown into the Moldau, where he was drowned. The body of the saint was
embalmed, and is now preserved in a costly silver shrine of almost fabulous
worth, in the church of St. Veit, in the Kleinseite. In Weber's _Briefe
eines durch Deutschland reisende Deutschen_, the weight silver about this
shrine is said to be twenty "centener."
C.D. LAMONT.
_Satirical Medals_ (Vol. ii., p. 298.).--A descriptive catalogue of British
medals is preparing for the press, wherein all the satirical medals
relating to the Revolution of 1688 will be minutely described and
explained.
G.H.
_Passage in Gray_ (Vol. i., p. 150.).--I see no difficulty in the passage
about which your correspondent; A GRAYAN inquires. The _abode_ of the
merits and frailties of the dead, _i.e._ the place in which they are
treasured up until the Judgment, is the Divine mind. This the poet, by a
very allowable figure, calls "Bosom." Homer's expression is somewhat
analogous.
[Greek: "Tade panta theion en gounasi keitai."]
E.C.H.
_Cupid Crying_ (Vol. i., pp. 172. 308.).--Another translation of the
English verses, p. 172., which English are far superior to the Latin
original:--
"Perchi ferisce Venere
Il filio suo che geme?
Diede il fanciullo a Celia
Le freccie e l'arco insieme.
Sarebbe mai possibile!
Ei nol voluto avea;
Ma rise Celia; ei subito
La Madre esser credea."
E.C.H. {348}
_Anecdote of a Peal of Bells_ (Vol. i., p. 382.).--It is related of the
bells of Limerick Cathedral by Mrs. S.C. Hall (_Ireland_, vol. i., p. 328.
note).
M.
[Another correspondent, under the same signature, forwards the legend
as follows
"THOSE EVENING BELLS."
"The remarkably fine bells of Limerick Cathedral were originally
brought from Italy. They had been manufactured by a young native (whose
name tradition has not preserved), and finished after the toil of many
years; and he prided himself upon his work. They were subsequently
purchased by a prior of a neighbouring convent, and, with the profits
of this sale, the young Italian procured a little villa, where he had
the pleasure of hearing the tolling of his bells from the convent
cliff, and of growing old in the bosom of domestic happiness. This,
however, was not to continue. In some of those broils, whether civil or
foreign, which are the undying worm in the peace of a fallen land, the
good Italian was a sufferer amongst many. He lost his all; and after
the passing of the storm, he found himself preserved alone, amid the
wreck of fortune, friends, family, and home. The convent in which the
bells, the chef-d'oeuvre of his skill, were hung, was rased to the
earth, and these last carried away to another land. The unfortunate
owner, haunted by his memories and deserted by his hopes, became a
wanderer over Europe. His hair grew gray, and his heart withered,
before he again found a home and friend. In this desolation of spirit
he formed the resolution of seeking the place to which those treasures
of his memory had finally been borne. He sailed for Ireland, proceeded
up the Shannon; the vessel anchored in the pool near Limerick, and he
hired a small boat for the purpose of landing. The city was now before
him; and he beheld St. Mary's steeple lifting its turreted head above
the smoke and mist of the old town. He sat in the stern, and looked
fondly towards it. It was an evening so calm and beautiful as to remind
him of his own native haven in the sweetest time of the year--the death
of spring. The broad stream appeared like one smooth mirror, and the
little vessel glided through it with almost a noiseless expedition. On
a sudden, amid the general stillness, the bells tolled from the
cathedral; the rowers rested on their oars, and the vessel went forward
with the impulse it had received. The old Italian looked towards the
city, crossed his arms on his breast, and lay back on his seat; home,
happiness, early recollections, friends, family--all were in the sound,
and went with it to his heart. When the rowers looked round, they
beheld him with his face still turned towards the cathedral, but his
eyes were closed, and when they landed they found him cold in death."
MR. H. EDWARDS informs us it appeared in an early number of _Chambers'
Journal._ J.G.A.P. kindly refers us to the _Dublin Penny Journal_, vol.
i. p. 48., where the story is also told; and to a poetical version of
it, entitled "The Bell-founder," first printed in the _Dublin
University Magazine_, and since in the collected poems of the author,
D. H. McCarthy.]
_Codex Flateyensis_ (Vol. ii., p. 278.).--Your correspondent W.H.F., when
referring to the _Orkneyinga Saga_, requests information regarding the
_Codex Flateyensis_, in which is contained one of the best MSS. of the Saga
above mentioned. W.H.F. labours under the misapprehension of regarding the
_Codex Flateyensis_ as a mere manuscript of the Orkneyinga Saga, whereas
that Saga constitutes but a very small part of the magnificent volume. The
_Codex Flateyensis_ takes its name, as W.H.F. rightly concludes, from the
island of Flatey in the Breidafiord in Iceland, where it was long
preserved. It is a parchment volume most beautifully executed, the initial
letters of the chapters being finely illuminated, and extending in many
instances, as in a fac-simile now before me, from top to bottom of the
folio page. The contents of the volume may be learned from the following
lines on the first page; I give it in English as the original is in
Icelandic:--
"John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are written verses, then
how Norway was colonised, then of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of
Olaf Tryggvason the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of
Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, _and therewith the history
of the earls of Orkney_, then is there Sverrers Saga; thereafter the
Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Saga of Magnus the king, his son, then
the deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of Elga and Ulf the
Bad; and then begin the annals from the creation of the world to the
present year. John Thordarson the priest wrote the portion concerning
Erik the Far-travelled, and the Sagas of both the Olaves; but Magnus
Thorhallson the priest has written all that follows, as well as all
that preceded, and has illuminated all (the book). Almighty God and the
holy virgin mary give joy to those who wrote and to him who dictated."
A little further on we learn from the text that when the book began to be
written there had elapsed from the birth of Christ 1300 and 80 and 7 years.
The volume was, therefore, commenced in 1387, and finished, as we judge
from the year at which the annals cease, in 1395. The death of Hakon
Hakonson is recorded in the last chapters of the Saga of that name, which
we see is included in the list of those contained in the _Codex
Flateyensis_.
E. CHARLTON.
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Oct. 6. 1850.
_Paying through the Nose, and Etymology of Shilling_ (Vol. i., p.
335.).--Odin, they say, laid a nose-tax on ever Swede,--a penny a nose.
(Grimm, _Deutsche Rechts Alterthümer_, p. 299.) I think people not able to
pay forfeited "the prominence on the face, which is the organ of scent, and
emunctory of the brain," as good Walker says. It was according to the rule,
"Qui non habet in ære, luat in pelle." Still we "count" or "tell noses,"
when computing, for instance, how many persons of the company are to pay
the reckoning. The expression is used in England, if I am rightly informed,
as well as in Holland. {349}
Tax money was gathered into a brass shield, and the jingling (_schel_)
noise it produced, gave to the pieces of silver exacted the name of
_schellingen_ (shillings). Saxo-Grammaticus, lib viii. p. 267., citatus
apud Grimm, l. 1. p. 77. The reference is too curious not to note it
down:--
"Huic (Fresiæ) Gotricus nom tam arctam, quam inusitatam pensionem
imposuit, de cujus conditione et modo summatim referam. Primum itaque
ducentorum quadraginta pedum longitudinem habentis ædificii structura
disponitur, bis senis distincta spatiis, quorum quodlibet vicenorum
pedum intercapedine tenderetur, prædictæ quantitatis summam totalis
spatii dispendio reddente. In hujus itaque ædis capite regio considente
quæstore, sub extremam ejus partem _rotundus_ e regione _elipeus_
exhibetur. Fresonibus igitur tributum daturis mos erat singulos nummos
in hujus _scuti cavum_ conjicere, e quibus eos duntaxat in censum
regium ratio computantis eligeret, qui eminus exatoris aures clarioris
soni crepitaculo perstrinxissent quo evenit, ut id solum æs quæstor in
fiscum supputando colligeret, cujus casum remotiore auris indicio
persensisset, cujus vero obscurior sonus citra computantis defuisset
auditum, recipiebatur quidem in fiscum (!!!), sed nullum summæ
præstabat augmentum. Compluribus igitur nummorum jactibus quæstorias
aures nulla sensibili sonoritate pulsantibus, accidit, ut statam pro se
stipem erogaturi multam interdum æris partem inani pensione
consumerent, cujus tributi onere per Karolum postea liberati
produntur."
JANUS DOUSA.
Huis te Manpadt.
_Small Words_ (Vol. ii., p. 305.).--Some of your correspondents have justly
recommended correctness in the references to authorities cited. Allow me to
suggest the necessity of similar care in quotations. If K.J.P.B.T. had
taken the pains to refer to the passage in Pope which he criticises (Vol.
ii., p. 305.), he would have spared himself some trouble, and you
considerable space. The line is not, as he puts it, "And ten _small_
words," but--
"And ten _low_ words oft creep in one dull line."
a difference which deprives his remarks of much of their applicability.
[Greek: PH.]
_Bilderdijk the Poet_ (Vol. ii., p. 309.).--There are several letters from
Southey, in his _Life and Correspondence_, written while under the roof of
Bilderdijk, giving a very agreeable account of the poet, his wife, and his
family.
[Greek: PH.]
_Fool or a Physician_ (Vol. i., p. 137.; vol. ii., p. 315.).--The writer
who has used this expression is Dr. Cheyne, and he probably altered it from
the alliterative form, "a man is a fool or a physician at forty," which I
have frequently heard in various parts of England. Dr. Cheyne's words are:
"I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age, (that
is to say), by that time he ought to know his own constitution, and unless
he is determined to live an intemperate and irregular life, I think he may
by diet and regimen prevent or cure any _chronical_ disease; but as to
_acute_ disorders no one who is not well acquainted with medicine should
trust to his own skill."
Dr. Cheyne was a medical writer of the last century.
A. G----T.
_Wat the Hare_ (Vol. ii., p. 315.).--In the interesting, though perhaps
somewhat partial, account of the unsuccessful siege of Corfe Castle, during
the civil wars of the seventeenth century, which is given in the _Mercurius
Rusticus_, there is an anecdote which will give a reply to the Query of
your correspondent K. The commander of the Parliamentarian forces was Sir
Walter Erle; and it was a great joke with his opponents that the pass-word
of "Old Wat" had been given (by himself I believe) on the night of his last
assault on the castle. The chronicler informs us that "Old Wat" was the
usual notice of a hare being found sitting; and the proverbial timidity of
that animal suggested some odious comparisons with the defeated general.
I have not the book at hand, but I am pretty sure that the substance of my
information is correct.
C.W. BINGHAM.
Bingham's Melcombe, Blandford.
_Law Courts at St. Albans_ (Vol. i., p. 366.).--Although unable to answer
[Greek: S.], perhaps I may do him service by enabling him to put his Query
more correctly. The disease which drove the lawyers from London in the 6th
year of Elizabeth (1563) was not the _sweating sickness_ (which has not
returned since the reign of Edward VI.), but a plague brought into England
by the late garrison of Havre de Grâce. And it was at _Hertford_ that
Candlemas term was kept on the occasions. See Heylyn, _Hist. Ref._, ed.
Eccl. Hist. Soc. ii. 401.
J.C.R.
_The Troubles at Frankfort_ (Vol. i., p. 379.).--In Petheram's edition of
this work, it is shown that Whittingham, dean of Durham, was most likely
the author. That Coverdale was not, appears from the circumstance that the
writer had been a party in the "Troubles," whereas Coverdale did not reside
at Frankfort during any part of his exile.
J.C.R.
_Standing during the Reading of the Gospel_ (Vol. ii., p. 246.).--
"Apostolica auctoritate mandamus, dum sancta Evangelia in Ecclesia
recitantur, ut Sacerdotes, et cæteri omnes presentes, non sedentes, sed
venerabiliter curvi, in conspectu Evangelii stantes Dominica verba
intente audiant, et fideliter adorent."--Anastasius, i., apud _Grat.
Decret. De Consecrat. Dist._, ii. cap. 68.
J. BE. {350}
_Scotch Prisoners at Worcester_ (Vol. ii., p. 297.).--I cannot think that
the extract from the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Margaret's,
Westminster, at all justifies C.F.S. in supposing that the Scotch prisoners
were massacred in cold blood. The total number of these prisoners was
10,000. Of the 1,200 who were buried, the greater part most probably died
of their wounds; and though this number is large, yet we must bear in mind
that in those days the sick and wounded were not tended with the care and
attention which are now displayed in such cases. We learn from the
_Parliamentary History_ (xx. 58.), that on the 17th Sep. 1651, "the Scots
prisoners were brought to London, and marched through the city into
Tothill-fields." The same work (xx. 72.) states that "Most of the common
soldiers were sent to the English Plantations; and 1500 of them were
granted to the Guiney merchants and sent to work in the Gold mines there."
Large numbers were also employed in draining the great level of the Fens
(Wells, _History of the Bedford Level_, i. 228-244.). Lord Clarendon (book
xiii.) says, "Many perished for want of food, and, being enclosed in little
room till they were sold to the plantations for slaves, they died of all
diseases."
C.H. COOPER.
Cambridge, Oct. 5. 1850.
_Scotch Prisoners at Worcester._--The following is Rapin's account of the
disposition of these prisoners, and even this statement he seems to doubt.
(Vol. ii. p. 585.)
"It is pretended, of the Scots were slain [at Worcester] about 2000,
and seven or eight thousand taken prisoners, who being sent to London,
were sold for slaves to the plantations of the American
isles."--Authorities referred to: Phillips, p. 608., Clarendon, iii. p.
320., Burnet's _Mem._ p. 432.
J.C.B.
"_Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi_" (Vol. ii., p. 218.).--A learned
friend, who although involved in the avocations of an active professional
career, delights "inter sylvas Academi quærere verum," has favoured me with
the following observation on these words:--"That the phrase _Antiquitas
sæculi juventus mundi_ is in Italics in Bacon's work does not, in my
opinion, prove it to be a quotation, any more than the words _ordine
retrogrado_ in the subsequent passage. Italics were used in Bacon's time,
and long afterwards, to to mark not only quotations, but emphatic words,
[Greek: gnômai], and epigrammatic sentences, of which you will every where
see instances. I have not the original edition of the work, but we have
here[5] the rare translation into English by Gilbert Wats, Oxford, 1640,
folio, through which the references to authors are given in the margin; but
there is no reference appended to this passage. I cannot of course decide
positively that the phrase is not a quotation, but I incline to the opinion
that it is not. It may be an adaptation of some proverbial expression; but
I prefer believing that it is Bacon's own mode of expressing that the
present times are more ancient (_i.e._ full of years) than the earliest,
and thus to show that the respect we entertain for authority is unfounded."
Coleridge was of the same opinion (Introd. to _Encycl. Metrop._, p. 19.).
Had the phrase been a quotation, would not Bacon have said, "Sanè ut vere
_dictum est_," rather than "Ut vere _dicamus_."
T.J.
[Footnote 5: Primate Marsh's library, St. Patrick's, Dublin, which contains
about 18,000 volumes, including the entire collection of Stillingfleet,
Bishop of Worcester.]
_The Lass of Richmond Hill_ (Vol. ii., p. 103.)--In reply to QUÆRO, I beg
to say that he will find the words of the above song in the _Morning
Herald_ of August 1, 1789, a copy of which I possess. It is here described
as a "favourite song, sung by Mr. Incledon at Vauxhall; composed by Mr.
Hook."
J.B.
Walworth.
* * * * *
MISCELLANEOUS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
The importance of Winchelsea as a convenient port for communication with
France, from the time of the Conquest to the close of the fifteenth
century, having led to a wish for a more extended history of that town than
is to be found in any work relating either to the Cinque Ports or to the
county of Sussex, Mr. Durrant Cooper determined to gather together the
existing materials for such a history as a contribution to the Sussex
Archæological Society. The industry, however, with which Mr. Cooper
prosecuted his search after original records and other materials connected
with the town and its varied history, was rewarded by the discovery of so
many important documents as to render it impossible to carry out his
original intention. The present separate work, entitled _The History of
Winchelsea, one of the Ancient Towns added to the Cinque Ports_, is the
result of this change; and the good people of Winchelsea have now to thank
Mr. Cooper for a history of it, which has been as carefully prepared as it
has been judiciously executed. Mr. Cooper has increased the amusement and
information to be derived from his volume, by the manner in which he has
contrived to make transactions of great historical importance illustrate
his narrative of events of merely local interest.
The new edition of the _Pictorial Shakspeare_ which Mr. Charles Knight has
just commenced under the title of the "National Edition" cannot, we think,
prove other than a most successful attempt to circulate among all classes,
but especially among readers of comparatively small means, a cheap,
well-edited, and beautifully illustrated edition of the works of our great
poet. The text of the present edition is not printed, {351} like of its
precursor, in double columns, but in a distinct and handsome type extending
across the page; and as there is no doubt the notes will be revised so as
to incorporate the amendments and elucidations of the text, which have
appeared from our Colliers, Hunters, &c., since the _Pictorial Shakspeare_
was first published, there can be little doubt but that this _National
Edition_ will meet with a sale commensurate with the taste and enterprise
of its editor and publisher, Mr. Knight.
We have received the following Catalogues:--W. Waller and Son's (188. Fleet
Street) Catalogue Part III. for 1850 of Choice Books at remarkably low
prices, in the best condition; John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue
Part CXVI. No. 10. for 1850 of Old and New Books; Williams and Norgate's
(14. Henrietta Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue No. 1. of Second-hand Books
and Books at reduced Prices.
* * * * *
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SALVADOR'S "INSTITUTIONS DE MOÏSE ET DU PEUPLE HEBREU."
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G.R.M., _who inquires respecting the oft-quoted line_,
"Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis,"
_is referred to_ NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. I., pp. 234. 419. _The germ of the
line is in the_ Delitiæ Poet. Germ., _under the poems of Mathias
Borbonius._
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advertisement, in which he says he has "engaged the services," of Mr.
Halliwell as editor, Mr. Halliwell begs publicly to state he has no
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in that advertisement is entirely made without his authority.
Another advertisement of a similar work has been issued by Messrs. Tallis
and Co. of St. John Street, London, announcing the publication by them of
the Works of Shakspeare, edited, as the advertisement states, by Mr.
Halliwell. This announcement has also been made entirely without Mr.
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A MANUAL FOR THE STUDY OF SEPULCHRAL SLABS AND CROSSES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
By the Rev. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A. 8vo., illustrated by upwards of 300
engravings, 12s.
THE CROSS AND THE SERPENT. Being a brief History of the Triumph of the
Cross, through a long series of ages, in Prophecy, Types, and Fulfilment.
By the Rev. WILLIAM HASLAM, Perpetual Curate of St. Michael's Baldiu,
Cornwall. 12mo., with numerous woodcuts, 5s.
SOME OF THE FIVE HUNDRED POINTS OF GOOD HUSBANDRY, As well for the Champion
or open Country, as also for the Woodland or several, mixed in every month
with Huswifery, over and above the Book of Huswifery, with many lessons
both profitable and not unpleasant to the reader, once set forth by THOMAS
TUSSER, Gentleman, now newly corrected and edited, and heartily commended
to all true lovers of country life and honest thrift. 16mo. 2s. 6d.
* * * * *
JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.
* * * * *
Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New
Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride in the City of London; and
published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St.
Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet
Street aforesaid.--Saturday, October 19. 1850.
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