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Title: Notes and Queries, Number 138, June 19, 1852 - A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, - Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Author: Various
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Notes and Queries, Number 138, June 19, 1852 - A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, - Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc" ***


Libraries)



Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are indicated by footnotes to the relevant item.

       *       *       *       *       *


{577}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

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

       *       *       *       *       *


Vol. V.--No. 138.]
SATURDAY, JUNE 19. 1852
[Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

       *       *       *       *       *


CONTENTS.

  NOTES:--                                                    Page

  Defoe's Pamphlet on the Septennial Bill, by James Crossley   577

  Arthur O'Connor                                              579

  Inedited Poetry, by W. Sparrow Simpson                       580

  Folk Lore:--Lancashire May-day Custom--Hair cut off, an
    Antidote--Weather Prophecy--The Oak Tree and the Ash       581

  The Diphthong "ai"                                           581

  Minor Notes:--A Bit o' fine Writin'--Custom of Cranes in
    Storms--Aldress--How the ancient Irish used to crown
    their King--One of Junius's Correspondents identified      581

  QUERIES:--

  Old Music                                                    582

  Treasury of St. Mark's; Record at Tiberius                   583

  Unicorn                                                      583

  Flanagan on the Round Towers of Ireland                      584

  Minor Queries:--St. Augustine's Six Treatises on
    Music--Bishop Merriman--The Escubierto--J. Scandret--Mary
    Horton--Biblicus on the Apocalypse--Cleopatra playing
    at Billiards--"Then comes the reckoning"--Giving the
    Sack--Scotch Provincial Tokens of the Seventeenth
    Century--Burial of Sir John Moore--Mexican, &c.
    Grammar--Foundation Stones--Mary Faun--Tonson and
    the Westminsters                                           584

  MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Lady Farewell's Funeral Sermon--
    Sir E. K. Williams--Order of the Cockle--Waller Family--
    Life of St. Werburgh--Blindman's Holiday--Ab. Seller--
    Martin-drunk--Bagster's English Version                    585

  REPLIES:--

  Reply to Mr. Hickson's Objections                            587

  The Term "Milesian," by John D'Alton                         588

  Ben. Jonson's adopted Sons, by C. H. Cooper                  588

  Shakspeare's Seal                                            589

  Reason and Understanding according to Coleridge              590

  General Wolfe      590

  "The Miller's Melody," an old Ballad, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault  591

  Surnames                                                     592

  Sir John Trenchard, by Sydney Walton                         593

  Papal Seal                                                   593

  Market Crosses                                               594

  Replies to Minor Queries:--The two Gilberts de Clare--
    Baxter's Shove--Frebord--Devil--Mummy Wheat--Nacar--
    Mistletoe--The Number Seven--Gabriel Hounds--Burial--
    Marvell's Life and Works--The Death-Watch--The Rabbit
    as a Symbol, &c.                                           594

  MISCELLANEOUS:--

  Books and Odd Volumes wanted                                 599

  Notices to Correspondents                                    599

  Advertisements                                               599

       *       *       *       *       *


Notes.

DEFOE'S PAMPHLET ON THE SEPTENNIAL BILL.

It is impossible to read Chalmers' and Wilson's _Lives of Defoe_ without
being constantly struck not merely by the want of all critical acumen and
ordinary knowledge of the characteristics of Defoe's style which they
display, but also by the absence of research on almost every point of
importance connected with his career. Out of innumerable instances, I may
mention his pamphlet on the subject of the Septennial Bill. Chalmers, and
after him Wilson, are satisfied with repeating Boyer's statement that Defoe
was the author of _The Triennial Bill Impartially Stated_, London, 1716;
but neither of them appears to have referred to the pamphlet itself, and
Wilson does not seem to have even consulted Boyer. He observes, "Mr.
Chalmers thinks the pamphlet was not his." Whatever Chalmers might think,
he does not certainly say so in express terms. The point itself is a
curious one; and as it has not hitherto been gone into, perhaps I shall not
trespass too much upon your space if I give your readers the results of my
examination of it. In Boyer's _Political State for April_, 1716 (p. 484.),
he enumerates in the following terms the pamphlets on the Septennial
Bill:--

    "_A Letter to a Country Gentleman, showing the Inconveniences which
    attend the Last Act for Triennial Parliaments_, which, I am informed,
    was written by the learned Dr. Tyndal. This was followed with others
    intitled, _An Epistle to a Whig Member of Parliament_; _Some
    Considerations on a Law for Triennial Parliaments_; _The Suspension of
    the Triennial Bill, the Properest Means to unite the Nation_; _A First
    and Second Letter to a Friend in Suffolk_; _The Alterations in the
    Triennial Act Considered_; _The Innkeeper's Opinion of the Triennial
    Act_; and a few others. The only pamphlet that was published on the
    other side was called _The Triennial Act Impartially Stated_, &c. This
    pamphlet was judged, from its loose style and way of arguing, to be
    written by that prostituted fool of the last ministry, D---- D-- F--;
    but whatever was offered either in print, or vivâ voce, against the
    Septennial Bill, was fully answered and confuted by the following
    writing, generally fathered on the ingenious and judicious Joseph
    Addison, Esq."

{578}

Then follows (pp. 485-501.) a printer of a pamphlet, certainly an able one,
entitled:

    "Arguments about the Alteration of Triennial Elections of Parliament.
    In a Letter to a Friend in the Country."

In the following year, when Defoe had occasion to notice _The Minutes of
the Negociations of Mons. Mesnager_, 1717, 8vo., the well-known work which
has been so frequently attributed to him, in a letter in the public prints,
which letter seems entirely to have escaped all his biographers, and yet is
of the most interesting description, he adverts to the above charge of
being the author of _The Triennial Act Impartially Stated_, in the
followings words:--

    "About a year since, viz., when the debates were on foot for enlarging
    the time for the sitting of the present Parliament, commonly called
    repealing the Triennial Bill, a stranger, whom I never knew, wrote a
    warm pamphlet against it; and I, on the other hand, wrote another about
    a week before it. Mr. Boyer, with his usual assurance, takes notice of
    both these books in his monthly work, and bestows some praises, more
    than I think it deserved, upon one; but falls upon the other with great
    fury, naming, after much ill language, D. D. F. to be the author of it,
    which, he said, might be known by the inconsistency of the style, or to
    that effect. Now that the world may see what a judge this Frenchman is
    of the English style, and upon what slender ground he can slander an
    innocent man, I desire it may be noted, that it has been told him by
    his own friends, and I offer now to prove it to him by three
    unquestionable witnesses, _that the book which he praised so
    impertinently I was the author of, and that book which he let fly his
    dirt upon I had no concern in_."

This declaration of Defoe, which claims to him the pamphlet fastened on the
"ingenious and judicious Joseph Addison, Esq.," and repudiates that "judged
to be written by that prostituted fool of the last ministry, D---- D--
F--," will amuse your readers, as it seems to form an admirable commentary
on the text--

    "And every blockhead knows me by my style."

We can fully accept his disclaimer of _The Triennial Act Impartially
Stated_. It is, however, singular enough that the style of the _Arguments
about the Alteration of Triennial Elections of Parliament_, without
attaching too much importance to that criterion, is not the style of Defoe;
and the Bill of Commerce with France is denounced in it in such terms as
"that destructive bill," "that fatal bill," as one can scarcely suppose,
without entertaining a meaner opinion of him than I feel assured he
deserves, he could or would, under any circumstances, have made use of. To
carry this Bill of Commerce he exerted all his great powers as a writer,
and supported it in the _Review_ and the _Mercator_, in the _Essay on the
Treaty of Commerce with France_ (1713, 8vo.), and in two other tracts, both
of which were unknown to Chalmers and Wilson, and have never been noticed
or included in the list of his works, namely, _Some Thoughts upon the
Subject of Commerce with France: by the Author of the Review_ (Baker, 1713,
8vo.), and _A general History of Trade, in which an Attempt is made to
state and moderate the present Disputes about settling a Commerce between
Great Britain and France for the Month of September_ (Baker, 1713); being
the fourth Number of the _History of Trade_, which Wilson says "extended
only to two Numbers" (vol. iii. p. 339.). In the _Appeal to Honour and
Justice_, published only the year before (1715), he supports the same cause
with all his strength. He vindicates the part he had taken, and says--

    "This was my opinion, and is so still; and I would venture to maintain
    it against any man upon a public stage, before a jury of fifty
    merchants, and venture my life upon the cause, if I were assured of
    fair play in the dispute."--_Works_, edit. 1841, vol. xx. p. 43.

His opinion on the policy of the bill, as appears by all his subsequent
commercial works, never changed: and that he could so speak of it in this
pamphlet (_Arguments about the Alteration, &c._), supposing it to be his,
seems almost incredible. I feel convinced that no other similar instance
can be found, during the whole of his career, in which he can be shown to
express himself with such a total disregard of his avowed opinions and his
honest convictions. Were it certain that he had done so, then the character
which the Tolands, Oldmixons, and Boyers have given of him, as ready to
take up any cause for hire, and as the prostituted agent of a party, and
which I believe to be a base slander, would indeed be well deserved. But it
will be asked how, after so apparently distinct and explicit an avowal, can
it be doubted that he was the author of the pamphlet in question? I can
only account for it on the supposition that Defoe, in writing from
recollection of what Boyer had stated, in the following year, confounded
the pamphlet praised with one of the pamphlets noticed. It appears to me
that one of them, the full title of which is _Some Considerations on a Law
for Triennial Parliaments, with an enquiry_, 1. _Whether there may not be a
time when it is necessary to suspend the execution even of such Laws as are
most essential to the Liberties of the People?_ 2. _Whether this is such a
time or no?_ (London, printed for J. Baker and T. Warner, at the Black Boy,
in Paternoster Row, 1716, pp. 40.), and which is noticed in Boyer's list,
has infinitely more both of Defoe's style and manner of treating a subject
than the other pamphlet. I entertain no doubt that it was written by him,
though it has never hitherto been attributed to him; and it is far from
being unlikely that his recollection may have deceived him and that he may
have thought that Boyer's praise applied to this pamphlet, written on the
same side, and not to the other. It {579} will be observed that Defoe does
not give the title of the pamphlet, and that he does not notice that it was
attributed by Boyer to Addison; which he would scarcely have omitted doing
if he had written his letter with Boyer's words before him, in which also
the term "inconsistency" is not used. Such is my solution of the
difficulty, which unexplained would throw a new, and certainly a very
unfavourable light on Defoe's character as a pamphleteer and politician.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

       *       *       *       *       *

ARTHUR O'CONNOR.

From the French recent papers we learn that Arthur O'Connor, one of the
prominent actors in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, has just closed his
prolonged life at his residence, the Château de Bignon, near Nemours (Seine
et Marne) in France. When, in 1834, by permission of the government of Lord
Grey, he and his accomplished wife were in this city (Cork), with the view
of disposing of his inherited and not confiscated property, in order to
invest the produce in France, I was almost in daily intercourse with them;
and, from my recollection of the lady's father, the Marquis de Condorcet, a
distinguished mathematician, but better known as the biographer and ardent
propagator of Voltaire's infidel principles, as well as the zealous
partisan of the Revolution, though finally its victim, I was always a
welcome visitor. O'Connor, whom Bonaparte had raised to the rank of General
of Division, equivalent to that of General in full in our service, being
next to the degree of Marshal, told me that the disunion and personal
altercations of the Irish Legion engaged in the service of the then
republican France had deservedly and utterly estranged and disgusted the
French successive rulers, particularly Napoleon, in whose triumphs they
consequently were not allowed to participate as a national body. The
rancorous duel between two officers, McSweeny and Corbet, both from Cork,
had made a deep impression on the great soldier, and the Legion was
disbanded. Having inquired from O'Connor whether he did not intend to
publish the events of his variegated life, he told me that he was preparing
the narrative; but, on mentioning to his wife that he had made this
acknowledgment, she immediately called on me with an earnest request that I
would dissuade him from doing so. She did not explain her motive, and I
only promised to avoid the future renewal of the subject in our
conversations. As yet, whatever preparations he may have made, the press
has not been resorted to; though, if in existence, as may be presumed, the
work, or its materials, will not, most probably, be suffered to remain in
closed and mysterious secrecy. The Memoirs, for so he entitled it, cannot
fail to be most interesting; for he was a man of truth, and incapable of
misrepresentation, though, of course, liable to misconception, in his
recital of events; nor can it be denied, that a history, in any degree
worthy of the theme--that is, of the Irish Rebellion, is still
unpublished.[1] Whatever objection may have prevented the publication
during his life, none, I should suppose and hope, can now be urged after
his death, which, singularly enough, in an article devoted to him in the
_Biographie Universelle_, I find as having occurred so long since as 1830.
His son, too, is there represented as the husband of his own mother! the
writer, with other confusions of facts, having mistaken Arthur for his
elder brother, Roger O'Connor, father of the present eccentric Feargus,
M.P. It is thus, too, that the great vocalist Braham is in the same
voluminous repository stated to have died of the cholera in August, 1830,
though, several years subsequently, I saw him in hale flesh and blood; but
the compilation, valuable, it must be admitted, in French biography, teems
with ludicrous blunders on English lives, which, in the new edition now in
state of preparation, will, I hope, be corrected. Even the articles of
Newton, though by Biot, and of Shakspeare and Byron by Villemain, are not
much to their credit, particularly the latter, in which the national
prejudices prominently emerge.

O'Connor, after having for sixteen years occupied apartments in the house
of an eminent bookseller and printer, Monsieur Renouard, in the Rue de
Tournan, leading to the Luxembourg, and the only street that I remember,
now sixty years since, had a flagged footpath in that, at present,
embellished metropolis, purchased his late residence, the Château de
Bignon, with the proceeds of his paternal estates sold here, as previously
stated, in 1834. The purchase was made from the heirs of Mirabeau, who was
born in that mansion, and not in Provence, as generally supposed, because
that southern province was the family's original seat. The great orator's
father, distinguished, _per antiphrasim_, as "l'Ami des hommes," for he was
the most unamiable of men, had acquired and removed to the castle so
called, in order to approach the royal court of Versailles. The renowned
son's bursts of eloquence still, I may say, resound in my ears, dazzling
and entrancing my judgment, as Lord Chatham is reported similarly to have
affected his hearers. Yet my old friend Vergniaux's genuine oratory and
reasoning power struck me as far superior; and I can well believe that
Chatham's son's were to those of his father, which his contemporary, Hume,
no incompetent judge, and doubtless his {580} hearer, by no means exalts,
though the effects on his parliamentary audience appear to have been so
extraordinary. "At present," writes Hume (Essay xiii.), "there are above
half-a-dozen speakers in the two houses, who, in the judgment of the
public, have reached very nearly the same pitch of eloquence, and no man
pretends to give any one a preference over the next. This seems to me a
certain proof that none of them have attained much beyond mediocrity in
this art." Hume's _Essays_ first appeared in 1742, when the elder Pitt was,
indeed, young in parliament; but he survived till 1776, during which
interval Chatham's fame reached its culminating point. Yet, in all the
ensuing editions, the author never thought it necessary to modify his
depreciation of British eloquence.

O'Connor, it is said, published his father-in-law Condorcet's _collective_
works; but whether the edition of 1804 in 21 volumes is meant, I cannot
determine, though I know no other; nor does this contain his mathematical
writings. While outlawed in 1793 with the Girondist faction, he evaded,
from October to March, 1794, the revolutionary search, when he poisoned
himself, unwilling, he said, in some verses addressed to his wife, the
sister of Marshal Grouchy, further to participate in the horrors of the
period, though he had been most instrumental in preparing the way for them.
He chose, however, the better side, in his conception, of the proposed
alternative or dilemma:

 "Ils m'ont dit: Choisis d'être oppresseur ou victime;
  J'embrassai le malheur, et leur laissai le crime."

Madame O'Connor, a child of five years old at her father's death, had a
very faint recollection of him; but I perfectly remember him, with his
ardent look, and, while still young, a grey head,--"a volcano covered with
snow," as was observed of him. O'Connor's only child, a mild gentlemanly
young man, but certainly not the inheritor of his parent's talents,
predeceased him, so that no descendant, either of Condorcet or O'Connor,
now survives.

J. R. (of Cork).

[Footnote 1: Indeed, the general history of the kingdom is still a sad
desideratum, and, in the impassioned dissensions of the people, not likely
to be adequately supplied.]

       *       *       *       *       *

INEDITED POETRY.

(Vol. v., pp. 387. 435.)

By way of concluding my notes upon the MS. volume of poetry, from which I
have already transcribed two pieces (inserted at pages 387. 485. of your
present volume), I now send you the short poem referred to in my first
communication:

         "February 15th, past two in the morning.
                          Going to bed very ill.

  Oh, when shall I, from pain and sorrow free,
  Enjoy calm rest, and lasting peace with thee!
  When will my weary pilgrimage be o'er,        }
  When shall my soul from earth to heav'n soar, }
  And, freed from flesh, the God of Gods adore. }
  Oh thou who only knowest what is best,
  Give me, oh give me, peace, content and rest!
  In life and death, oh be thou ever nigh,
  And my great weakness with thy strength supply.
  If on the bed of sickness I am laid,
  Then let me find that thou can'st give me aid.
  My drooping soul may thy blest Spirit che_a_r,
  And dissipate d_i_sponding gloomy fear.
  May the bright angels watch around my bed,
  And keep my timorous soul from fear and dread.
  And should excess of agony or pain,
  Or fever's rage o'er reason longest gain;
  Even then protect me by thy mighty power,
  Oh save me, save me, in that dreadful hour!
  Make every thought such as thou mayst approve,
  And every word show I my Maker love.
  If void of reason I should think, or say,
  _O_ught that's improper, wash such stain_e_s away.
  Resign'd unto thy will let me submit,
  With joy to whatsoe_v_er thou think'st fit.
  In peace let me resign my latest breath,
  And, void of fear, meet the grim tyrant death.
  My parting soul let me to God entrust,
  And hope a Resurrection with the just."

The devotional feeling displayed in these lines, and the circumstances
under which they were composed, will probably render them interesting to
some of your readers. The other poems in the little volume relate chiefly
to the death of her beloved husband. I should have sent one of these had I
thought them suitable to your columns. Suffice it to say, that her grief
for her bereavement seems only to have been equalled by her affectionate
reminiscences of the piety and excellence of the departed bishop, and only
to have been assuaged by the "sure and certain hope" which filled her mind.
The Queries which I would found upon the MS. are two in number:

1. What is the precise date of the author's death?

2. The meaning (if any) of the subscription to the piece printed at page
435.?

Permit me to notice a trifling error of the press, p. 387. col. 2. l. 21,
for _then_ read _them_; and to thank you for the space given to these three
communications.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

P.S.--Since writing the above I have seen the observation of your
correspondent C. B., p. 523.: I cannot think the meaning of the signature
so evident as he implies. His reason for the use of the name Juba is
evidently correct: I am indebted to him for the suggestion, and must
confess that the coincidence had escaped me. With regard to the word
Issham, had it been intended to signify that the former name was "assumed,
or false," it would certainly have been written I-sham, as C. B. evidently
feels. It is _possible_ that this part of the signature may have no
meaning: this I must leave for some other correspondent to determine.

       *       *       *       *       *

{581}

FOLK LORE.

_Lancashire May-day Custom._--On the 1st of May, the following custom is
observed in some parts of Lancashire, though now very nearly obsolete.

Late on the preceding night, or early on that morning, small branches of
trees are placed at the doors of houses in which reside any marriageable
girls. They are emblematical of the character of the maidens, and have a
well understood language of their own, which is rhythmical. Some speak
flatteringly, others quite the reverse: the latter being used when the
character of the person for whom it is intended is not quite "above
suspicion."

A malicious rustic wag may sometimes put a branch of the latter description
where it is not deserved, but I believe this is an exception.

I only remember a few of the various trees which are laid under
contribution for this purpose. The following will illustrate what I am
writing about. I must premise that _wicken_ is the local name for mountain
ash:

  _Wicken_, sweet chicken.
  _Oak_, for a joke.
  _Ash_, trash.
  _Gorse in bloom_--rhymes with at noon,

(I omit the epithet given here, as commonly, to an unchaste woman), and is
used for a notorious delinquent.

A. B.

Liverpool.

_Hair cut off, an Antidote._--A few days ago I observed my old servant
thrusting something into the ear of one of my cows. Upon inquiry, I was
informed that it was hair cut off the calf's tail, the said calf having
been taken away from the cow on the previous morning: the butcher cut it
off, for the above purpose, "to make her forget the calf." I half resolved
on sending this account to "N. & Q.," but I hesitated, under the idea that
it would perhaps hardly be worth the while. But this afternoon my eye
caught the following scrap in a newspaper just published:

    "At Oldham, last week, a woman summoned the owner of a dog that had
    bitten her. She said that she should not have adopted this course had
    the owner of the animal given her some of its hair, to ensure her
    against any evil consequences following the bite."

There is so much similarity in the two cases, that I now would ask whether
your readers can throw any light on the subject?

BOEOTICUS.

Edgmond, Salop.

_Weather Prophecy--The Oak Tree and the Ash_ (Vol. v., p. 534.).--When the
oak comes out before the ash, there will be fine weather in harvest. I have
remarked this for several years, and find it generally correct, as far as
such things can be.

BOSQUECILLO VIEGO.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE DIPHTHONG "AI."

Speaking of the diphthong _ai_, Walker, in the "Principles of English
Pronunciation" prefixed to his _Dictionary_, says (Art. 202.):

    "The sound of this diphthong is exactly like the long slender sound of
    _a_; thus, _pail_ a vessel, and _pale_ a colour, are perfectly the same
    sound."

This sound is analysed (Art. 225.) as follows:

    "This triphthong (_aye_) is a combination of the slender sound of _a_,
    heard in _pa-per_; and the _e_ in metre."

The sound, therefore, is a combination of _two simple_ sounds. But in a
previous article (8.) _a_, _e_, _o_ are called _simple_ vowels; or
(according to his definition):

    "Those which are formed by _one_ conformation of the organs only; that
    is, the organs remain exactly in the _same_ position at the _end_ as at
    the _beginning_ of the letter; whereas, in the _compound_ vowels _i_
    and _u_, the organs _alter_ their position before the letter is
    completely sounded."

Walker, therefore, makes the sound to be "_combination_ of _two simple_
sounds," although he had already declared it to be a _simple_ sound. Now,
strange to say, Dr. Richardson, in his very valuable contribution to our
literature, viz. his 8vo. _Dictionary_ (a veritable _Richardson_, very long
ago foretold by Joe Miller), is guilty of the same inconsistency. In the
"Grammatical and Etymological Examination adapted to the Dictionary," he
reckons _thirteen simple_ vowels in our language. The _tenth_ is the "long
slender sound of _a_," as Walker would call it; and the sound is given us
(according to Richardson) in these words: "_Lame_, _Tame_, _Crane_,
_Faint_, and _Layman_." My Query is, ought not this sound to be transferred
from the _simple vowels_ under the _true diphthongs_? And ought we not to
distinguish between the pronunciation of _pail_ and _pale_, just as we do
between _neigh_, and _né_ (French); _bait_ and _bête_ (French); or between
_pay_ and _pe_ (Welsh); _tay_ and _te_ (Welsh)? It is worthy of remark,
that the Welsh language has only the _simple_ sound, _not_ the
_diphthongal_?

R. PRICE.

       *       *       *       *       *


Minor Notes.

_A Bit o' fine Writin'._--In the Preface to certain _Lectures on
Ecclesiastes_, recently published, there occurs a choice scientific
illustration, the "intellectual vastitude" whereof "necessitates a certain
catholicity" of acquirements possessed by few readers. The author is
referring to Jerome, and says:

    "The most painful thing in his writings is the tone of _litigious
    infelicity_ by which they are pervaded. It is a sort of _formic acid
    which flows from the finger-points not of our good father alone, but of
    a whole class of {582} divines; and, like the red marks left by the
    feet of ants on litmus-paper, it discolours all his pages_."

There are two vignettes in the work: one illustrates "Consider the lilies,"
concerning which the artist had the benefit of an eminent botanist's
opinion, to ensure correctness in the design. The other represents Solomon
in all his glory, _driving his own chariot_, holding the reins in his right
hand, and a sceptre or "morning-star" in his left hand. Methinks this
illustration would not have passed muster with Mr. Scharf or Dr. Braun.

AN UPLONDISHE MANNE.

_Custom of Cranes in Storms._--Some of your readers may be able further to
illustrate the customs which I mention:

    "Ex avibus est præsagium coeli. When the crane taketh up a stone and
    flies with it in his _foot_, it is a sign of a storm."--Bishop
    Andrewes' _Orphan Lectures_, p. 92.: Lond. 1657, fol.

Nonnus describes cranes as carrying stones in their _mouths_ to prevent
them from being carried hither and thither by the violence of winds and
storms.--_Dyonysiacks_, lib. xii. p. 689.: Antwerp, 1569.

Bishop J. Taylor mentions a similar custom in the case of geese, but there
is a different reason assigned for it:

    "Ælian tells of the geese flying over the mountain Taurus: [Greek:
    hôsper embalontes sphisi stomion diapetontai]; that for fear of eagles
    nature hath taught them to carry stones in their _mouths_ till they be
    past their danger."--Sermon XXIII. _The Good and Evil Tongue._ Part II.
    ab init., p. 168.: Lond. 1678, fol.

RT.

Warmington.

_Aldress._--This word signifies the wife of an alderman. It is found on a
brass plate in the following epitaph, in the church of St. Stephen,
Norwich, as given by Blomefield, _Hist. Norw._, 1739, vol. ii. p. 595.
Where else may it be met with? It is assuredly a better designation than
that of "Mrs. Ald. A.," or "The Lady of Ald. B.;" and, from its occurrence
in this place, seems to be a term once in use:

 "Here ly buried Misstresse Maud Heade,
  Sometyme an Aldress, but now am deade,
  Anno MCCCCCLX and Seaven,
  The XIII Day of April, then
  My Lyf I leafte, as must all Men,
  My Body yelding to Christen Dust,
  My Soule to God the faithfull and Just."

COWGILL.

_How the Ancient Irish used to crown their King._--

    "A White cow was brought forth, which the king must kill, and seeth in
    water whole, and bathe himself therein stark naked; then, sitting, in
    the same cauldron, his people about him, he must eat the flesh and
    drink the broth wherein he sitteth, without cup or dish, or use of his
    hand."

Cited by Sir R. Peel in the debate on the Union with Ireland, April 25th,
1834. (_Mirror of Parliament_, p. 1311.)

_One of Junius's Correspondents identified._--It has often appeared to me
that a portion of the pages of "N.& Q." would be usefully employed in
supplying information relative to works either anonymous, or by authors of
whom little is known. The French have one or two works expressly on this
subject, but we have not any of the kind.

I have a volume now before me, concerning the author of which I now seek
for information, as he was one of those who entered the lists with Junius,
and addressed him under the signature of "An Advocate in the Cause of the
People." One of his letters is reprinted in vol. i. p. 429. of (I am sorry
to say) the unsatisfactory edition of the _Letters of Junius_ recently
published by Mr. Bohn; but the editor does not seem to have known the name
of this "Advocate." This I learn from the work in question: _Hope's Curious
and Comic Miscellaneous Works, started in his Walks_: London, printed for
the Author, 8vo. without year or printer's name; but the Preface is dated
April 24, 1780, and the Dedication is signed "John Hope," who had, he tells
us, "once the honour of sitting" in the House of Commons; and he also
informs us that Falkner wrote part of the poem _The Shipwreck_ under his
roof. Besides many amusing articles in prose and verse, the volume contains
twenty-one papers entitled "The Leveller," which I believe originally
appeared periodically in the _Westminster Mag._; but I do not find them
noticed by Drake in his Essays on that class of literature.

F. R. A.

Oak House.

    [We entirely agree with our Correspondent on the subject of the first
    part of his Note; and can assure him there are no communications which
    we more earnestly desire than such as identify the authors of anonymous
    works, or furnish new information respecting writers of whom little is
    known.--ED.]

       *       *       *       *       *


Queries.

OLD MUSIC.

I feel thankful to DR. RIMBAULT for the "Old Concert Bill" which you have
printed in Vol. v., p. 556., and wish it may lead to more contributions
towards what does not exist, but is much to be wished for, a history of
_instrumental_ music in this country. Having had this subject in my mind a
good while, and having had occasion to observe how defective and erroneous
the supposed sources of information are, I have from time to time made
memoranda, which would be at the service of anybody who would undertake
such a {583} work as the correction of the _Dictionary of Musicians_, or
the compilation of a more complete work. My notes indeed are not of much
importance, but it is the kind of case in which every little helps. In this
concert bill, for instance, relating to a first-rate performance, we have
five names, Grano, Dieupart, Pippo, Vebar, and Baston, which are not in the
Dictionary. As to the first, I only know him by a set of solos for a violin
or flute, which I have; of the next three, I know nothing; and of the last,
I did not know that he performed Woodcock's music, or indeed that he
performed at all, though I knew him as a composer. And in a volume now
lying before me, "XII Concertos" by Woodcock are followed by "Six Concertos
in Six Parts for Violins and Flutes, viz.: a Fifth, Sixth, and Concert
Flute: the proper Flute being nam'd to each Concerto; composed by Mr. John
Baston," and printed for Walsh. He is not, however, named either as a
composer or performer in the Dictionary. It may be said that these are
obscure persons; but that is the very reason why some slight, plain notice
of them should exist somewhere; for the history of an art is not well
written, or well understood, if there is not some easy way of learning more
or less about the obscure persons who are every now and then coming on the
stage.

To this note, may I be allowed to add a couple of Queries which perhaps
some musical reader may be able and willing to answer.

1. Who was "_Joseph_ Jackson, Batchelor in Music, late of St. John's
College, Oxford;" and did he compose anything beside six sonatas for two
violins and a violoncello, which were "printed for the widow by Thompson
and Son in St. Paul's Churchyard," I suppose (from some other "just
published" music advertised on the title-page) about a century ago?

2. I have also--

    "Six Trio pour deux Violons et Alto Viola ou Basse obligé. Composés par
    Mr. Bach; mis au jour par Mr. Huberty de l'Academie Royale de Musique,
    gravés par M^e son Epouse. Oeuvre II."

Which Bach was the composer? I do not pretend to know by the style, being
only--

AN AMATEUR.

       *       *       *       *       *

TREASURY OF ST. MARK'S; RECORD AT TIBERIUS.

In Howell's _Familiar Letters_, edit. 1726, p. 62., he says that he saw in
the Treasury of St. Mark's, Venice, a huge[2] iron chest as tall as
himself--

    "that hath no lock, but a crevice through which they cast in the gold
    that's bequeathed to St. Mark in legacies, whereon is engraven this
    proud motto:

     'Quando questo scrinio S'apria,
      Tutto 'l Mundo tremera.'

    'When this chest is opened, the whole world shall tremble.'"

Is there any other account of this chest, or of its having been opened, as
it was evidently reserved for some great necessity? Did not the exigencies
of the state, during its decline, compel the Venetians to resort to it; if
not, such a treasure could hardly escape the lynx-eyed rapacity of some one
of the many spoilers to whom the unfortunate city has been subject. At p.
275. he gives an account of having read in _Suidas_, that in his time a
record existed at Tiberius which was found in the Temple at Jerusalem when
it was destroyed, which affirms that our Saviour was in his lifetime upon
earth chosen a priest of the Temple, and registered therein as "Jesus
Christ, the Son of God and of the Virgin Mary." Howell requests the opinion
of Dr. Usher, Lord Primate of Ireland, on the subject. Is there any
corroborative evidence that such a register existed?

E. N. W.

Southwark.

[Footnote 2: "huge" corected from "hugh"--Transcriber.]

       *       *       *       *       *

UNICORN.

Can any of your correspondents refer me to an account of the supposed
habits of this animal, which in these matter-of-fact days we must, I
presume, be content to consider as fabulous? I am desirous to know from
what source we derive the stories of the animosity between the lion and
unicorn, and the curious way of catching the latter, which are referred to
in Spenser's _Faerie Queen_, Act II. Sc. 5. 10.:

   "Like as a lyon, whose imperiall powre,
    A prowd rebellious unicorn defyes,
    T'avoide the rash assault and wrathful stowre
    Of his fiers foe, him a tree applyes,
    And when him ronning in full course he spyes,
    He slips aside; the whiles that furious beast
    His precious horne, sought of his enemyes,
    Strikes in the stocke, ne thence can be releast,
  But to the mighty victor yields a bounteous feast."

Shakspeare also (_Julius Cæsar_, Act II. Sc. 1.) speaks of the supposed
mode of entrapping them:

                 "For he loves to hear,
  That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
  And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
  Lions with toils, and men with flatterers."

The ancients were most liberal with their descriptions of fabulous animals,
and the Monoceros or Unicorn was a favourite subject with them; but I am
not aware whether or no the account which Spencer gives has so early an
origin.

The connexion of the unicorn with the lion in the royal arms of this
country naturally forces itself upon the attention, and I find that the
present arms were settled at the accession of George I. We owe the
introduction of the unicorn, however, to James I.; who, as King of
Scotland, bore two unicorns, and coupled one with the English lion when the
two kingdoms were {584} united. Perhaps some of your correspondents can
inform me how two unicorns became the "supporters" of the "achievement" of
the Scottish kings.

The position of the lion and unicorn in the arms of our country seems to
have given rise (and naturally enough in the mind of one who was ignorant
of heraldic decoration) to a nursery rhyme, which I well remember to have
learnt:

 "The lion and the unicorn
  Were fighting for the crown,
  The lion beat the unicorn
  All round the town," &c. &c.;

unless it alludes to a contest for dominion over the brute creation, which
Spenser's "rebellious unicorn" seems to have waged with the tawny monarch.

ERICA.

       *       *       *       *       *

FLANAGAN ON THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND.

Can you tell me anything of the history of a little work, of which the
following is the title?--

    "A Discourse of the Round Towers of Ireland, in which the errors of the
    various writers on that subject are detected and confuted, and the true
    cause of so many differences among the learned, on the question of
    their use and history, is assigned and demonstrated. By John Flanagan,
    Kilkenny. Printed for the author by Thomas Kelly, 1843."

It was purchased by a Dublin bookseller at Jones' last sale (Catalogue, No.
704.), for 2s. 6d. The bookseller, who has kindly lent me the book, says
that it was never printed in Kilkenny, and that it is very scarce, he
having seen only one other copy of it. It is a small quarto of twenty-four
pages, beautifully printed on good paper, which leads me also to believe
that the book could not have been printed in Kilkenny. The author, whoever
he was or is, boldly says that, "There are no Round Towers in Ireland," p.
8., and through the pages of the work runs a vein of nonsense, which would
lead a person to think that the author was not very right in his mind.
Still, there is something very remarkable in the production.

R. H.

       *       *       *       *       *


Minor Queries.

_St. Augustine's Six Treatises on Music._--Dupin mentions St. Augustine's
_Six Treatises on Music_: do these exist in print? if so, in what edition
are they to be found?

E. A. H. L.

_Bishop Merriman._--A few years ago inquiry was unsuccessfully made in the
_Gentleman's Magazine_, and elsewhere both in England and Ireland for some
particulars of John Merriman, the first Protestant Bishop of Down and
Connor.

In Cox's _Hibernia Anglicana_ it appears that "Loftus, Archbishop of
Armagh, was consecrated by the Popish Archbishop Curwin; Thomas Lancaster,
the first Protestant Bishop of Kildare, was consecrated by Archbishop
Brown; and John Merriman, the first Protestant Bishop of Down and Connor,
was consecrated by Lancaster when Primate."

This Bishop Merriman had been chaplain to Queen Elizabeth; he was made
Vicar of St. John's, Atheboy, in the first year of her reign, and was
consecrated Bishop of Down and Connor, Jan. 19, 1568/9. He died in 1572.

The probable father of Bishop Merriman may be found in the _Rutland
Papers_, published by the Camden Society, where _Mr. Meryman_, in a second
list called _William Meryman_, who held some office in the "Kechyn," is
selected as one of the attendants on Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine to the
Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520.

There was formerly a family of the name of Merriman residing in Ireland:
does it now exist? In England there are several families of this name: are
any of them descended from this source?

T. D. P.

_The Escubierto._--Where can the effusions of the Capateiro da Bandarra be
seen in England? And has any of your correspondents read them, so as to be
able to explain the nature of his language and teaching concerning the
Escubierto? I believe it is admitted, that the doctrine of the
Sebastianistas is superadded, exegetically, to that of the Capateiro, and
is not to be found in him.

A. N.

_J. Scandret._--I should be much obliged for any information respecting "J.
Scandret, priest of the Church of England," the author of a little treatise
entitled _Sacrifice, the Divine Service_, originally published in 1707;
with a recommendation from the celebrated Charles Leslie, Chancellor of
Connor. Mr. Parker, of Oxford, reprinted it in 1840; but as "N. & Q." had
not then begun its useful career, the editor was unable to satisfy that
curiosity which most readers feel respecting the authors of such books as
merit their attention.

E. H. A.

_Mary Horton._--I find in Burke's _Extinct Baronetage_, p. 269. (article
"Horton of Chadderton"), that "William Horton, of Coley, in Halifax parish,
died in 1739-40: by Mary his wife, daughter of (Thomas) Chester, Esq., he
left an only daughter, _Mary_, living and unmarried in 1766." Can any one
inform me whether this Mary Horton ever _married_, when she _died_, and
where she was buried?

TEWARS.

_Biblicus on the Apocalypse._--I shall feel much obliged if any reader of
"N. & Q." will give me information respecting a series of articles which
appeared about the year 1819 in some newspaper or periodical with the
signature of _Biblicus_ {585} appended to them: they were intended, as far
as I can learn, to be a sort of commentary on some portion of the
Apocalypse. The writer left his work unfinished; but as many as appeared
thus periodically were afterwards published in a separate pamphlet. I
should be glad to know where a copy of this pamphlet is to be had; or in
what paper the articles originally appeared.

F. N.

_Cleopatra playing at Billiards._--Perhaps one of your readers, more
learned in Shakspeare than myself, can tell me what game he refers to in
the following extract:

 "_Cleo._ Let us to billiards. Come, Charmian.
  _Char._ My arm is sore: best play with Mardian."
                  _Ant. and Cleo._, Act II. Sc. 5.

Can the game of billiards, as we now have it, boast of such high antiquity
as to have been played by "the serpent of Old Nile;" or is the mention of
it simply one of the great poet's anachronisms?

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

"_Then comes the reckoning_," &c.--Who is the author of the following
well-known couplet?

 "Then comes the reckoning when the feast is o'er,
  The dreadful reckoning, when men smile no more."

A CONSTANT READER.

_Giving the Sack._--Will any of your numerous readers kindly explain to me
the _origin_ of the phrases "to give any one the sack or bag," and "einem
einen Korb geben"? We must all be aware of their acceptation.

THOMAS LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_Scotch Provincial Tokens of the Seventeenth Century._--Can any of your
readers inform me if there were any of these tokens, which were so abundant
throughout England, Wales, and Ireland, issued in Scotland?

R. H. B.

_Burial of Sir John Moore._--You have had many very interesting
communications respecting the justly admired poem on "The Burial of Sir
John Moore." Let me ask whether it was a matter of fact, that they "buried
him darkly at dead of night"? I believe the clergyman who read the service
is now living near Hereford, and that he will state that the interment took
place _in the morning_ after the battle.

BALLIOLENSIS.

_Mexican, &c. Grammar._--I hope some of your readers can tell me where I
may get a grammar of the language of the Mexicans, Chilians, or any other
of the tribes of South America. The Spanish missionaries compiled grammars
of some of the South American tongues; but I think they must have become
scarce, as I can never find one in any catalogue of old books.

W. B. D.

_Foundation Stones._--In the _Illustrated News_ of the 29th of May, is an
account of the masonic jewels for the grand lodge of England, including
three ivory gavels for "laying foundation stones:" hence arise the
following Queries.

When did the laying of foundation stones first become a ceremony?

What old foundation stones have been restored to light, showing the date of
laying, and the accessories used, whether oil, wine, and corn, or what
else? I have never seen an allusion to such discovery in the demolition of
old buildings.

JNO. D. ALLCROFT.

Oxford Square.

_Mary Faun._--Can any of your subscribers give me any account of the
ancestry of Mary Faun said to have married Thomas Charlton, Esq.? See
Burke's _Landed Gentry_, vol. i. p. 209.

B.

_Tonson and the Westminsters._--I have a small duodecimo print, in which
are represented three scenes,--

  A man tossed in a blanket.
  A man flogged.
  A man begging.

This victim is said to be Jacob Tonson, the printer. The tormentors, who
are all in collegiate dresses, are said to be Westminster Collegians.

Are these scenes facts or fictions?

What was Tonson's offence?

Is there any other explanation of the print?

I hope some old Westminster to whom the school tradition may have descended
will be kind enough to answer these Queries.

GRIFFIN.

       *       *       *       *       *


Minor Queries Answered.

_Lady Farewell's Funeral Sermon._--Would any of your correspondents help me
to unravel the mystery (if there be any) involved in the typography of the
Latin portion of the following title of a book "printed for Edw. Brewster,
at the Crane, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1661?"

    "Magna Charta; or the Christian's Charter Epitomized. In a Sermon
    preached at the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull the Lady Mary
    Farewell at Hill-Bishops near Taunton, by Geo. Newton, Minister of the
    Gospel there.

      D. FareweLL obIIt MarIa saLVtIs
                  In anno
      Hos annos posItos VIXIt & Ipsa
                  VaLe."

W. A. J.

    [The information required by our correspondent is more quaint and
    curious than difficult to supply. The four lines with which the title
    concludes form a chronogram, or an inscription comprising a certain
    date and number, expressed by those letters inserted in larger
    characters; which are to be taken separately and added together,
    according to their value as Roman numerals. When the arithmetical
    letters occurring in the first two lines are thus taken, they will be
    found to compose the year 1660, when the Lady Farewell died, {586} as
    the words declare; and when the numerals are selected from the last two
    lines, they exhibit 74, her age at the time, as they also indicate; in
    the following manner:--

        D    500       I    1
       LL    100    VIXI   17
       II      2       I    1
       MI   1001      VL   55
      LVI     56           --
        I      1           74
            ----           --
            1660

    The lady who is commemorated in this inscription was the daughter of
    Sir Edwald Seymour of Berrie Castle, in Devonshire, Baronet, and wife
    of "the excellently-accomplished Sir George Farewell, Knight, who died
    May 14, 1647;" as it is recorded on his monument at Hill-Bishops. In
    the same epitaph it is stated, that she was the mother of twenty
    children, and that she died Dec. 13, 1660; and the inscription
    concludes with these verses to the united memory of Sir George and Lady
    Farewell:

     "A person graceful, learn'd, humble, and good,
      Well match'd with beautie, virtue, and high blood:
      Yet, after sufferings great and long, both dead
      To mind us where great worth is honouréd."

      Collinson's _Somersetshire_, vol. iii. p. 255.

    The practice of making chronograms for the expressing of dates in
    books, epitaphs, and especially on medals, was extremely common in the
    sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One of the most remarkable is that
    commemorating the death of Queen Elizabeth:--

     "My Day Is Closed In Immortality:"

    the arithmetical formula of which is M = 1000 + D = 500 + C = 100 + III
    = 3 = A. D. 1603. In the second paper by Addison on the different
    species of false wit (_Spectator_, No. 60) is noticed the medal that
    was struck of Gustavus Adolphus, with the motto:

     "ChrIstVs DuX ergo trIVMphVs."

    "If you take the pains," continues the author, "to pick the figures out
    of the several words, and range them in their proper order, you will
    find they amount to MDCXVVVII, or 1627; the year in which the medal was
    stamped."

    There is one peculiarity in the chronogram sent by our correspondent,
    which singularly illustrates a passage in Shakspeare, and by which also
    it is most amusingly illustrated. It will be observed, that the Rev. G.
    Newton takes advantage of the double letters at the end of Farewell, to
    express 100: and it will be remembered that "good M. Holofernes," in
    _Love's Labour's Lost_, introduces the same thought into his sonnet as
    an exquisite and far-fetched fancy:

     "If Sore be sore, then _L to Sore_
        _Makes Fifty Sores_: Oh sore L!
      Of _One_ sore I _an Hundred_ make,
        By adding but _One more L_."]

_Sir E. K. Williams._--Will any gentleman refer me to the pedigree of
Lieut.-Gen. Sir Edmund Kenyon Williams, a distinguished Peninsular officer,
who died about three years ago? And also, where can I find or obtain such a
book as the _History of Aberystwith, or Blaina Gwent?_

C. W.

Bradford.

    [Sir Edmund Keynton Williams, K.C.B., born 1779, at Mathern, county of
    Monmouth, died Dec. 7, 1849, Colonel of the 80th Regiment of Foot, was
    only son of the Rev. Henry Williams, Vicar of Undy, county of Monmouth;
    who was second son of Edmund Williams, of Incasryddit, in the parish of
    Bedwelty, county of Monmouth; and grandson of William Williams of the
    same place. Where any farther account of his family can be found we
    know not.]

_Order of the Cockle._--What sort of Order was this? Was it the Order of
_St. Michael_? It is mentioned incidentally by John Knox in his _History of
the Reformation of Religion in Scotland_ (book v.):

    "In the end of January [1566] arrived an ambassador from France, named
    Monsieur Rambullet, having with him about forty horse in train, who
    came from England. He brought with him the Order of the Cockle from the
    King of France to the king [Lord Darnley], who received the same at the
    mass, in the chapel of the palace of Holyrood House."

In 1548, also, the Duke of Chatelherault, and the Earls of Huntly, Argyle,
and Angus, had been invested with the same Order (book i.). Of course, Knox
was always ready to ridicule such "remnants of paganism and popery."

R. S. F.

Perth.

    [The order which Dudley received was that of St. Michael. There was
    formerly in France an order "du navire et de la coquille de mer,"
    instituted, says Perrot[3], by St. Louis, in 1269, in memory of a
    perilous expedition which he made by sea for the succour of Christians;
    but adds, "il a peu survécu à son fondateur."]

[Footnote 3: _Collection Historique des Ordres de Chevalerie._ Paris, 4to.
1820, p. 270.]

_Waller Family._--I find from Clutterbuck's _Herts_, vol. ii. p. 476., that
Sir Henry Boteler, Kt., of Hatfield Woodhall, Herts, married to his first
wife, at Watton Woodhall, Herts, July 26, 1563, Katherine, daughter of
Robert Waller, of Hadley, and widow of Mr. Pope. I have examined all the
pedigrees of the Wallers I can find to ascertain to which branch of them
this lady belonged. Can any of your readers supply me with any particulars
of her family?

TEWARS.

    [Possibly from the Wallers of Groombridge, county of Sussex. Thomas
    Waller, of Lansdall, in that county, second son of Thomas Waller, of
    Groombridge, had a son, Thomas, whose only daughter and heir,
    Catherine, married Thomas Pope, of Henfield, county of Sussex. In such
    cases the Christian name given by Clutterbuck may be wrong.--See the
    Histories of Kent and Sussex for the account of the Wallers.]

{587}

_Life of St. Werburgh._--In King's _Vale Royal_, and other works on
Cheshire antiquities, reference is made to a _Life of St. Werburgh_ in
verse, by Henry Bradshaw, a monk of Chester. I am anxious to ascertain
whether the original MS. is now in existence; and, if not, in what
collection a _copy_ of the poem is preserved?

T. H.

    [Mr. Hawkins of the British Museum edited a reprint of this _Life of
    St. Werburgh_ for the Chetham Society, and in Mr. H.'s preface will be
    found all that is known of the existing copies of the printed work. The
    Editor did not know of any manuscript copy of the _Life_.]

_Blindman's Holiday._--I have frequently heard the term "Blind Man's
Holiday" used when it is getting dark in the evening, and one cannot see to
read or write, work, &c. I have asked several persons if they knew the
origin and reason of application of this expression, but can obtain no
satisfactory explanation. Can any of your readers furnish one?

W. H. C.

    [Florio has "_Feriato_, vacancy from labour, rest from worke,
    _blindman's holiday_." That amusing old antiquary, Dr. Pegge, made a
    query of this term about half a century ago. He says, "The twilight, or
    rather the hour between the time when one can no longer see to read,
    and the lighting of the candle, is commonly called _blindman's
    holiday_: _qu._ the meaning or occasion of this proverbial saying? I
    conceive, that at that time, all the family being at leisure to
    converse and discourse, should there be a blind person in the family,
    it is the time when his happiness is greatest, every one then being at
    liberty to attend to, and to entertain him."--_Anonymiana_, cent. iii.
    sect. xviii.]

_Ab. Seller._--Any information respecting Ab. Seller, rector of
Combentynhead, Devon, and author of _The Devout Communicant, assisted with
Rules for the Worthy Receiving of the Blessed Eucharist_, London, 1686,
will be much valued by

E. D. R.

    [Abednego Seller was a native of Plymouth, educated at Lincoln College,
    Oxford; minister of Combentynhead, in Devonshire, and subsequently
    vicar of St. Charles, Plymouth; but was deprived for refusing to take
    the oaths to William III. In Hearne's _MS. Diaries_, 1710, vol. xxv.
    occurs a notice of him:--"Mr. Abednego Seller was another Nonjuror, and
    had also collected an excellent study of books; but as he was a man of
    less learning than Dr. Thomas Smith [the editor of Bede], so his books
    were inferior to them, and heaped together with less discretion."
    Another notice of him occurs in Granger's _Biog. Dict._, vol. iv. p.
    11.;--"Mr. Ashby, President of St. John's College, Cambridge, has a
    copy of _Konigii Bibliotheca_, interleaved and filled with MS. notes by
    A. Seller." He was the author of several works which are given in
    Watt's _Bibliotheca Britan._, but the following is omitted: _Remarks
    upon the Reflections of the Author of 'Popery Misrepresented,' &c. in
    his Answerer, particularly as to the Deposing Doctrine_, Anon., London,
    4to. 1686. Another work has also been attributed to him, viz.
    _Considerations upon the Second Canon in the Book entitled
    'Constitutions and Canons Ecclesiastical,'_ &c. Lond., 4to. 1693.
    Seller died about 1720, aged seventy-three. A letter from Seller to
    Humphrey Wanley, concerning Greek music, &c., will be found in the
    Harl. MSS. No. 3782, Art. 26. Consult also Wood's _Athenæ Oxon._, vol.
    iv. p. 563. edit. Bliss.]

_Martin-drunk._--1. Thomas Nash, in his classification of drunkards,
describes the seventh species as "Martin-drunk, when a man is drunk, and
drinks himself sober ere he stir." What is the origin of the expression
"Martin-drunk?"

2. This passage reminds me of a line, which I fancied I had read in Lord
Byron, but which I am now unable to trace. It is (if I remember aright):

 "And drinking largely sobers one again."

Can you give me a reference for this, either in Byron or any other of our
poets?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

    [2. The latter passage occurs in Pope's _Essay on Criticism_, line
    215:--

     "A little learning is a dangerous thing!
      Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
      There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
      And drinking largely sobers us again."]

_Bagster's English Version._--Who edited Bagster's English version of the
_Polyglott Bible_? The preface is signed T. C. Whence is the motto:

  [Greek: Pollai men thnêtois Glôttai, mia d' Athanatoisin?]

A. A. D.

    [The late Dr. Thomas Chevalier was the editor, and wrote the Preface;
    and the Rev. H. F. Cary supplied the Greek motto.]

       *       *       *       *       *


Replies.

REPLY TO MR. HICKSON'S OBJECTIONS.

Vol. v., pp. 554. 573.)

That MR. HICKSON should have discovered no graver objections to certain
suggestions of mine respecting the text of Shakspeare than those he has
brought forward, is of itself no slight testimonial in their favour.

In one instance I have already (Vol. v., p. 210.) shown MR. HICKSON (I
trust _satisfactorily_) that his then somewhat similar objection had no
weight; nor do these now advanced appear much more formidable.

As to the passage from _As You Like It_, which MR. HICKSON remarks is
capable of a moral as well as a physical interpretation--undoubtedly it is!
But, in the first place, it must still remain a matter of opinion _which_
sense best accords with the context: and, secondly, even admitting the
moral sense to be the true one, still it does not necessarily disturb the
analogy between it and {588} Imogen's allusion to the _jay of Italy_. In
that case, also, the _moral_ sense may be understood as implying the
absence of all principle other than that derived from her own gaudy vanity.

Were I disposed to cavil, I might, in my turn, question MR. HICKSON'S
estimate of Phebe's beauty. Surely Rosalind's depreciation of it is not
real, but only assumed, for the purpose of humbling, Phebe! _Inky brows,
black silk hair, bugle eye-balls, cheek of cream_--these are not items in a
catalogue of ugliness!

MR. HICKSON'S second objection (p. 573.) is to my explanation of the
demonstrative _that_ in the Duke's opening speech in _Measure for Measure_.
He thinks that, according to "the language we in England use," the Duke
would have used the word _this_ instead of _that_.

Does MR. HICKSON seriously mean to say that Shakspeare's language is to be
scanned by our present ideas of correctness? Is the bold sweep of the
Master's hand to be measured by the graduation of modern convention? Are
there no instances in Shakspeare of the indiscriminate substitution of
personal and impersonal pronouns--of active and passive participles--of
words and phrases waiting upon the magician's wind, like familiar spirits,
to be moulded to his will, and acknowledging no rule but of _his_ creation?

But, in the present case, I will not admit that any such licence is
necessary. To MR. HICKSON'S question, "Is this the language we in England
use?" I answer, It is!

We do, even at the present day, say to a messenger, "Take _that_ to," &c.,
even before we have transferred the missive from our hand to his. I can
even fancy an individual, less anxious perhaps about grammar than
benevolence, stretching forth to some unfortunate, and exclaiming, while
yet his intended gift was in his own keeping, "_There needs but_ THAT _to
your relief--there it is!_"

It does not seem to have occurred to MR. HICKSON that the same "fatal
objection" which he brings forward against _that_, might also be pleaded
against _there_. When the Duke says, "_There_ is our commission:" why not,
"_Here_ is our commission"? _There_ stands precisely in the same relation
to _that_, as _here_ does to _this_!

A. E. B.

Leeds.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE TERM "MILESIAN."

(Vol. v., p. 453.)

In reference to the communication of MR. RICHARDS, but I have not seen MR.
FRASER'S Query, I beg to observe, for the honour of "Old Ireland," that
upwards of thirty years since, the Royal Irish Academy awarded to me a
prize of 80l., with the Cunningham gold medal, for an _Essay on the Ancient
History, &c. of Ireland_. It was published in the sixteenth volume of their
_Transactions_ to an extent of 380 pages quarto; and Mr. Moore has done me
the honour to write to me, that it was his guide throughout the first two
volumes of his history of this country. In that Essay, I have written very
fully of the "Milesian" colonisation; so called, not directly from Milesius
himself, but from his two sons, Heber and Heremon, who led the expedition.
The native annalists represent the course of the emigrants through the
Mediterranean by such progressive stages as indicate the state and progress
of the Phoenicians after their exodus under the conduct of Cadmus; though
the ingenuity of the Bards occasionally introduced that colouring of
romance, which perhaps can alone make very remote objects distinguishable.
External testimonies of these oriental wanderers are traceable through
_Herodotus_, lib. iv. c. 42.; _Pliny_, c. 86.; Nennius, _Hist. Britt._, c.
9.; Thomas Walsingham, _Ypodigma Neustriæ_ ad ann. 1185. The venerable
WINTOUN adopts all the traditions of the Irish Chronicles on the subject
(_Cronyk. of Scotl._, lib. ii. c. 9.); and Macpherson declares
(_Dissertation_, p. 15.) that such of the ancient records of Scotland as
escaped the barbarous policy of Edward I. support this account. The writers
on Spanish history, the _Hispania Illustrata_, De Bellegarde's _Hist. Gen.
d'Espagne_, vol. i. c. i. p. 4., Emanuel de Faria y Sousa, &c., carry the
links through Spain; and such indeed has been the long and general faith in
the tradition, that it has been actually embodied, even to the names of
those alleged leaders Heber and Heremon, in an act of parliament (of
Ireland I must admit) in the eleventh year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
and through an occurrence therein engrafted upon it is expressly derived
one of Her Majesty's--

    "Auntient and sundrie strong authentique tytles for the Kings of
    England to this land of Ireland."

JOHN D'ALTON.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

       *       *       *       *       *

BEN. JONSON'S ADOPTED SONS.

(Vol. v., p. 537.)

I doubt if _Alexander_ Brome was one of Ben. Jonson's adopted sons. It is
not improbable, however, that _Richard_ Brome (author of the comedies of
_The Northern Lass_ and the _Antipodes_) was one. In Ben. Jonson's
_Underwoods_ is a poem to Richard Brome "on his comedy of _The Northern
Lass_," which commences thus:

 "I had you for a servant once, Dick Brome,
    And you perform'd a servant's faithful parts;
  Now you are got into a nearer room
    Of fellowship, professing my old arts."

Thomas Randolph was certainly one of Jonson's sons. See in his _Poems_ (4th
edit. p. 17.): "A {589} gratulatory to M. Ben. Jonson for his adopting of
him to be his _son_."

In Jonson's _Underwoods_ is a poem "To my _dear Son_ and right learned
Friend Master Joseph Rutter." This is in praise of his "first play," but I
am unable to state what that play was; nor can I give further information
respecting Master Joseph Rutter, than that he is apparently the author of
"An Elegy upon Ben. Jonson" in _Jonsonus Viribus_.

Of William Cartwright Ben. Jonson used to say, "_My son_, Cartwright,
writes all like a man." (Campbell's _Specimens of the British Poets_, ed.
1841, p. 183.)

James Howell was another of Jonson's sons, and has, in _Jonsonus Viribus_,
some lines "Upon the Poet of his Time, Benjamin Jonson, his honoured Friend
and _Father_."

Shackerley Marmion seems to have been another son. See in _Jonsonus
Viribus_, "A Funeral Sacrifice to the sacred memory of _his thrice-honoured
father_ Ben. Jonson."

If Jonson really had twelve sons, it is not improbable that some of the
following were of the number: Sir Kenelm Digby, Thomas Carew, John
Cleveland, Sir John Suckling, Thomas May, Edward Hyde (afterwards Earl of
Clarendon), Owen Feltham, Jasper Mayne, Richard West, John Vaughan, Thomas
Hobbes.

I should have been disposed to have added to the above illustrious list the
name of Edmund Waller, but for a statement of Aubrey, who says, "He told me
he was not acquainted with Ben. Jonson" (Aubrey's _Lives_, p. 564.).

Aubrey (_Lives_, p. 413.), speaking of Ben. Jonson, says:

    "Serjeant Jo. Hoskins, of Herefordshire, was his _father_. I remember
    his sonne (S^r Bennet Hoskins, baronet, who was something poeticall in
    his youth), told me, that when he desired to be adopted his son, 'No,'
    sayd he, ''tis honour enough for me to be your brother; I am your
    father's son, 'twas he that polished me, I do acknowledge it.'"

I observe that, prefixed to Randolph's _Poems_, are some lines by Richard
West, B.A., and student of Christ's Church: "To the pious Memory of my dear
_Brother-in-Law_, Mr. Thomas Randolph." As West must have been unmarried,
and as I believe Randolph was also unmarried, it is possible that West
calls him his brother-in-law from his being also an adopted son of Ben.
Jonson.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

       *       *       *       *       *

SHAKSPEARE'S SEAL.

(Vol. v., p. 539.)

There is a very full and curious account of a _ring_-seal (of which I
possess two red wax impressions), supposed to have belonged to Shakspeare,
in a work unassumingly entitled _A Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon_, by R. B.
Wheler, published in 1814. I presume _that_ is the seal--or, rather,
_ring_-seal--to which reference is made; but how far Mr. Wheler's
statements and speculations may encourage "belief in the genuineness of
this relic," your correspondent, and others taking any interest in such
matters, must for themselves determine.

As the publication above named is before me, it may not be unacceptable to
give a summary of Mr. Wheler's narrative, which occupies eight concluding
pages of the _Guide_. It appears that on the 16th March, 1810, an ancient
gold ring, weighing 12 dwts., and bearing the initials "W. S.," engraved in
Roman characters, was found by a labourer's wife upon the surface of the
mill-close adjoining Stratford churchyard, being the exact spot whereon Mr.
Oldaker since erected his present residence. It had undoubtedly been lost a
great many years, being nearly black; and, continues Mr. W.,--

    "Though I purchased it upon the same day, for 36s. (the current value
    of the _gold_), the woman had sufficient time to destroy the 'precious
    _ærugo_' by having it unnecessarily immersed in _aquafortis_, to
    ascertain and prove the metal, at a silversmith's shop, which
    consequently restored its original colour. It is of tolerably large
    dimensions, and evidently a gentleman's ring of Elizabeth's age.
    Similar seal-rings are represented on cotemporary paintings and
    monuments: and the crossing of the central lines of the 'W.' with the
    oblique direction of the lines of the 'S.' exactly agree with the
    characters of that day. For proof we need wander no farther than
    Stratford Church, where the Totness and Clopton tombs will furnish
    representations of rings, and Shakspeare's monument of letters,
    perfectly corresponding in point of shape. The connexion or union of
    the letters by _the ornamental string and tassels_" [or _True Lover's
    Knot_, according to your correspondent], "was then frequently used, of
    which numberless instances may be found upon seals and upon
    inscriptions, in painted windows, and in the title-pages of books of
    that period; and for further coincidence of circumstances, it may be
    observed over the porch leading into the hall of Charlcote House near
    Stratford (erected in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, by the very
    Sir Thomas Lucy said to have prosecuted Shakspeare for deer-stealing),
    that the letters 'T. L.' are surrounded in a manner precisely similar."

After adverting to many vain efforts made by him to discover whether there
existed anywhere Shakspeare's seal attached to letter or other writing, Mr.
Wheler states that he had examined--

    "A list of all the inhabitants of Stratford assessed to the levies in
    1617, wherein I cannot discover any apparently _respectable_ person the
    initials of whose name agree with 'W. S.:' but from this assessment,
    though probably copied from an anterior one, nothing conclusive can be
    estimated, it being made in the year subsequent to Shakspeare's death;
    and I should, from a close observation of the ring, be inclined to
    suppose that it was {590} made in the early part of the poet's life.
    Mr. Malone, in a conversation I had with him in London," (adds Mr.
    Wheler), "the 20th April, 1812, about a month before his death, said
    that he had nothing to allege against the probability of my conjecture
    as to its owner."

Mr. W. afterwards proceeds:

    "That such a seal was used by a person connected with Shakspeare by a
    marriage is certain; for I possess an impression of the seal (and
    apparently a seal-ring) of Adrian Quiney, bailiff of Stratford in
    1559-60; and who, I have every reason to believe, was the uncle of
    Thomas Quiney, our poet's son-in-law. This seal of Quiney's, which is
    appended to a deed dated June 28, 9 Eliz., 1567, being a conveyance of
    property in Bridge Street, Stratford, very minutely corresponds with
    the Shakspeare ring in size, and has a very near resemblance to it in
    _the string and tassels_ uniting the Roman initials 'A. Q.;' which
    ornamental junction is carved somewhat similar to what is now called
    _The True Lover's Knot_, and in the Shakspeare ring the upper bow or
    flourish resembles a heart."

In Shakspeare's age--

    "Seal-rings were very fashionable, but were probably more limited than
    at present to the nobility and respectable families; for I still
    confine myself to the respectability of its proprietor.... After
    numerous and continued researches into public and private documents, I
    find no Stratfordian of that period so likely to own such a ring as
    Shakspeare."

Mr. Wheler concludes--

    "At present, I possess no positive proof whatever. Let it be remembered
    that my observations are merely relative. I yet hope to meet with an
    impression of the ring in my possession; and in this I am more
    particularly encouraged by the fact, that should success attend the
    investigation, this seal-ring would be the _only existing article_
    PROVED to have originally belonged to our immortal poet."

When Mr. Wheler wrote, the signatures in Montaigne's work, &c. had not been
restored to the light.

A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.

       *       *       *       *       *

REASON AND UNDERSTANDING ACCORDING TO COLERIDGE.

(Vol. v., p. 535.)

Your correspondent C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY will pardon me if I deny the
discrepancy in Coleridge's statements on the difference between these
faculties. Coleridge refuses to brutes the possession of reason as a
contemplative faculty; he allows them, that which in kind differs from
reason, the understanding _in a certain degree_, and asserts that they do
possess, in a very marked and characteristic manner, instinct, which, in
degree only, falls below understanding. Instinct is distinguishable in
_degree_ from understanding. Reason is distinguishable from it in _kind_.
Some kinds of brutes, as dogs and elephants, possess more intelligence than
others, as tigers and swine; and some individual dogs possess more of this
intelligence than others. This intelligence arises from the superior
activity of the "faculty judging according to sense;" and, when Coleridge
says that it is not clear to him "that the dog may not possess an analogon
to words," he might have gone, I think, further, and have said, with much
probability of truth on his side, that the dog _has_ this analogon of
words. I am sure I have often known a dog's thoughts by his own way of
expressing them, far more distinctly than I am sometimes able to gather a
fellow man's meaning from his words. Nay, much as I love and venerate
Coleridge--his goodness, his genius, his writings, his memory--I find a dog
sometimes far more intelligible. Language is a property of the
understanding, but it cannot be developed in words unless there be in the
creature an adequate degree of the faculty. This degree of the faculty,
dogs have not. If they had it, they might fairly be expected to speak,
read, and write. What we want is the man, or the observation and
experiment, which shall show us where the line is to be drawn, if in the
nature of such gradations lines can be drawn at all, which shall
distinguish the degree at which instinct overlaps understanding. The case
is perhaps too hopelessly complicated. Coleridge has carefully guarded his
expressions, that they should not seem to assert for brutes more than he
can _prove_ that they possess, by the use of the words "analogous or fully
equivalent." That brutes can and do reflect, abstract, and generalise, it
needs but an understanding of the terms, and some observation of their
habits, to feel assured.

CASPAR.

       *       *       *       *       *

GENERAL WOLFE.

(Vol. v., pp. 185. 398. &c.)

Since my last communication relative to this celebrated soldier, I have
fallen in with a volume of the _London Chronicle_ for the first half of the
year 1760, and from it I send the following extracts: although there is
more information relative to the battle, these only I thought worth
insertion in "N. & Q." The first is entitled:

 "A CALL TO THE POETS, ON THE TAKING OF QUEBEC.

 "While to brave Wolfe such clouds of incense rise,
  And waft his glory to his native skies;
  Shall yet no altar blaze to Moncton's name,
  And consecrate his glorious wound to fame;
  Shall Townshend's deeds, o'er Canada renown'd,
  So faint in British eulogies resound!
  No grateful bard in some exalted lay
  Brave Townshend's worth to future times convey
  Who, for his country, and great George's cause,
  Forsook the fulness of domestic joys,
  To crush 'midst dangers of a world unknown,
  The savage insults on the British crown.
  {591}
  See him return'd triumphant to his king,
  Wafted on Vict'ry's, and on Glory's wing:
  Hast thou, great patroness of martial fire,
  No fav'rite genius, Clio, to inspire?
  Shall worth, like his, unnotic'd pass away
  But with the pageant of a short-liv'd day?
  No; Soul of numbers, tune the votive strings
  On which thou sing'st of heroes and of kings;
  Rouse from ungrateful silence some lov'd name
  Or from the banks of Isis, or of Cam;
  Bid him, tho' grateful to the dead, rehearse
  The living hero in immortal verse:
  So shall each warlike Briton strive to raise,
  Like him, a monument of deathless praise;
  So shall each patriot heart his merit move
  By the warm glow of sympathy of love."--T. D.
                          P. 71. Jan. 19.

At p. 120., June 31st, is "A New Song, entitled and called, Britain's
Remembrancer for the Years 1758 and 1759." The fourth verse runs as
follows:

 "Quebec we have taken, and taken Breton;
  Tho' the coast was so steep, that a man might as soon,
  As the Frenchmen imagin'd, have taken the moon,
                  Which nobody can deny."

May 10th, p. 449.: "Capt. Bell, late Aide-de-Camp to the great Gen. Wolfe,
is appointed captain in the fifth regiment," &c. Under the date of June
28th is Gen. Murray's despatch.

Among the advertisements are, "A Discourse delivered at Quebec," &c., by
the Rev. Eli Dawson (dedicated to Mrs. Wolfe); "Two Discourses by Jonathan
Mayhew, D.D. of Boston;" and "Quebec, a Poetical Essay, in imitation of the
Miltonic Style, composed by a Volunteer in the service; with Notes
entertaining and explanatory."

A notice of the death of Sir Harry Smith, Bart., aide-de-camp to Wolfe,
appears in the _Examiner_ for October 22nd, 1811.

Among other instances of the name is a notice of Major J. Wolfe in
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1836, p. 334.

H. G. D.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE MILLER'S MELODY," AN OLD BALLAD.

(Vol. v., p. 316.)

The original ballad of "The Miller's Melody" is the production of no less a
person than a "Doctor in Divinity," of whom the following are a few brief
particulars.

James Smith was born about 1604, educated at Christ Church and Lincoln
Colleges, in Oxford; afterwards naval and military chaplain to the Earl of
Holland, and domestic chaplain to Thomas Earl of Cleveland. On the
Restoration of Charles II. he held several Church preferments, and
ultimately became canon and "chauntor" in Exeter Cathedral. He was created
D.D. in 1661, and quitted this life in 1667. Wood informs us he was much in
esteem "with the poetical wits of that time, particularly with Philip
Massinger, who call'd him his son."

I have an old "broadside" copy of the ballad in question, "Printed for
Francis Grove, 1656," which is here transcribed, _verbatim et literatim_,
for the especial benefit of your numerous readers. It may also be found in
a rare poetical volume, entitled _Wit Restored_, 1658, and in Dryden's
_Miscellany Poems_ (second edition, which differs materially from the
first).

 "THE MILLER AND THE KING'S DAUGHTER.
              _By Mr. Smith._

 "There were two sisters they went playing,
    With a hie downe, downe, a downe-a,
  To see their father's ships come sayling in,
    With a hy downe, downe, a downe-a.

 "And when they came unto the sea-brym,
    With, &c.
  The elder did push the younger in;
    With, &c.

 "O sister, O sister, take me by the gowne,
    With, &c.
  And drawe me up upon the dry ground,
    With, &c.

 "O sister, O sister, that may not bee,
    With, &c.
  Till salt and oatmeale grow both of a tree,
    With, &c.

 "Sometymes she sanke, sometymes she swam,
    With, &c.
  Until she came unto the mill-dam;
    With, &c.

 "The miller runne hastily downe the cliffe,
    With, &c.
  And up he betook her withouten her life,
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her brest bone?
    With, &c.
  He made him a violl to play thereupon,
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her fingers so small?
    With, &c.
  He made him peggs to his violl withal;
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her nose-ridge?
    With, &c.
  Unto his violl he made him a bridge,
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her veynes so blew?
    With, &c.
  He made him strings to his violl thereto;
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her eyes so bright?
    With, &c.
  Upon his violl he played at first sight:
    With, &c.

  {592}
 "What did he doe with her tongue so rough?
    With, &c.
  Unto the violl it spake enough;
    With, &c.

 "What did he doe with her two shinnes?
    With, &c.
  Unto the violl they danc'd _Moll Syms_;
    With, &c.

 "Then bespake the treble string,
    With, &c.
  O yonder is my father the king;
    With, &c.

 "Then bespake the second string,
    With, &c.
  O yonder sitts my mother the queen;
    With, &c.

 "And then bespake the strings all three;
    With, &c.
  O yonder is my sister that drowned mee.
    With, &c.

 "Now pay the miller for his payne,
    With &c.
  And let him bee gone in the divel's name.
    With, &c."

As this old ditty turns upon the making "a viol," it may be as well to add
that this instrument was the precursor of the violin: but while the viol
was the instrument of the higher classes of society, the "fiddle" served
only for the amusement of the lower. The viol was entirely out of use at
the beginning of the last century.

Moll (or Mall) Symms (mentioned in the thirteenth stanza) was a celebrated
dance tune of the sixteenth century. The musical notes may be found in
_Queen Elizabeth's Virginal Book_, in the Fitzwillian Museum, Cambridge;
and in the curious Dutch collection, _Neder Lantsche Gedenck clank_,
Haerlem, 1626.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

       *       *       *       *       *

SURNAMES.

(Vol. v., p. 509.)

I shall endeavour to answer some of MR. LOWER'S Queries.

1. Names having the prefix _Le_ and ending in _er_ or _re_. They are
undoubtedly Norman or French, and generally relate to personal trade or
employment, as _Le Mesurier_, _Le Tellier_, _Le Tanneur_, _Le Fevre_.
Another class with the prefix _Le_, but of various terminations, are
obviously of French origin, as _Leblanc_, _Lenoir_, _Lebreton_,
_Lechaplin_, _Lemarchant_. All these came to us by the French Protestant
refugees, or from Jersey and Guernsey.

2. The meaning of _worth_. This word generally implies a _military work_,
and, I think, an _earth-work_; and I doubt whether _worth_ and _earth_ are
not from the same root; I personally have been able to trace _works_ in
many places whose names end in _worth_. I am satisfied all such surnames
were _local_, that is, derived from _places_ so named from military mounds
or _earth-works_.

3. The meaning of _Le Chaloneur_. It is evidently the same as our English
name _Challoner_, which Cole admits into his dictionary as "the name of an
ancient family." It means in old French either the _boatman_, from
"chalun," a boat; or a _fisherman_, from "chalon," a kind of net. As we
have in English _Fisher_, in modern French _Lepécheur_, in Italian
_Piscatory_.

4. _Le Cayser._ The same as _Cæsar_, a name now, we believe, extinct
amongst us, but preserved in our literature by Lord Clarendon and Pope. I
suspect that it was of a class of _fancy_ names which I shall mention
presently.

5. Baird and Aird are Scotch names, and probably local. Jameson (whose
authority is very low with me) derives _Baird_ from _bard_, and _Aird_ he
does not mention. _Aird_ or _ard_ is Celtic for _high_, and is a common
local denomination in Scotland and Ireland.

6. For the rest of the out-of-the-way names MR. LOWER mentions I can give
no more explanation than of many thousands others which have been probably
produced by some peculiarity or incidents in the first nominee, or some
corruption of a better known name. As to this class of fancy names, I can
give MR. LOWER a hint that may be of use to him. It used to be the custom
at the old Foundling Hospital and in all parish workhouses, to give the
children what I venture to call _fancy_ names. I remember being shocked at
the heterogeneous nomenclature that was outpoured on fifty or a hundred
poor babes at the Foundling. I happened once to accompany a noble lady--the
daughter of a great sea officer--to one of these Foundling christenings,
when the names of Howe, Duncan, Jervis, and Nelson, were in fashion, and
they were each given to half-a-dozen children; and while this was going on,
my fair and noble friend whispered me, "What a shame! all these poor little
creatures will grow up to be our cousins." Sometimes the names given were
grotesque, such as ought not to have been permitted; and sometimes the
children brought into the hospital, pinned to their clothes, names in which
I suppose the poor mother may have had a meaning, but which seemed to us
fantastical and extravagant.

Illegitimacy is a considerable source of strange names. I could give some
droll instances. Corruption is another; there are half-a-dozen names of
labourers in my village which are mere corruptions by vulgar pronunciation
of some of the noblest names of the peerage.

MR. LOWER cannot have failed to observe the {593} great tendency in the
United States to vary the orthography, and of course, I suppose, the
pronunciation of some of their old English patronymics; not from any
dislike to them, for the contrary sentiment, I believe, is very prevalent,
but the emigrants who carried out the names were ignorant or indifferent as
to the true orthography or pronunciation, and in time the departure grows
more wide. Instances of this may be also found in the small towns of
England, where MR. LOWER will find on the signs frequent deviations from
the usual spelling of the commonest as well as of the rarer names.

C.

In glancing through Cole's MSS. in the British Museum, my eye rested on two
paragraphs, which perhaps may be unknown to MR. LOWER. In Additional MSS.
No. 5805. p. iv., Cole says:

    "Before surnames were in use they were forced to distinguish one
    another by the addition of _Fitz_ or _Son_, as John Fitz-John, or John
    the son of John, or John Johnson, as now in use. This was in the first
    Edward's time: nay, so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth, in some
    places in France they had no surnames, but only Christian names, as the
    learned Monsieur Menage informs us: 'Il y a environ cent ans, à ce que
    dit M. Baluze, qu'à Tulle on n'avait que des noms propres, et point de
    surnoms.'--_Menagiana_, tom. i. p. 116. edit. 1729."

Again, in Cole's MSS., vol. xliii. p. 176., relating to a deed of the
Priory of Spalding, Cole says:

    "One observes in this deed several particulars: first that the Priory
    used a seal with an image of the Blessed Virgin, together with one of
    their arms; if possibly they used one of the latter sort so early as
    this John the Spaniard's time, in the reign, as I conceive, of King
    Richard I., when arms for the chief gentry were hardly introduced.
    Among the witnesses are two Simons, one distinguished by his
    complexion, and called Simon Blondus, or the Fair; the other had no
    name as yet to distinguish him by, and therefore only called here
    'another Simon.' This occasioned the introduction of sirnames, and
    shows the necessity of them."

J. Y.

Hoxton.

       *       *       *       *       *

SIR JOHN TRENCHARD.

(Vol. v., p. 496.)

Your Querist E. S. TAYLOR will find an interesting account of the manner in
which a pardon was obtained for John Trenchard, afterwards secretary of
state under William III., in MR. HEPWORTH DIXON'S work on William Penn. MR.
TAYLOR is evidently wrong in supposing that the pardon, of which he
furnishes a copy, was issued in 1688, and at the very critical period to
which he refers it. It was issued in 1686, that being the third year,
reckoning by the old style, of King James's reign; so that his quotation
from Pepys, and his suggestion of a reason for the pardon, are beside the
purpose. It appears from MR. DIXON'S account, that William Penn was the
mediator between Trenchard and the king; but the circumstances which led to
it were so curious, that I transcribe part of the statement from page 276
of the new edition.

    "Lawton, a young man of parts and spirit, had attracted Penn's notice;
    in politics he was a state whig, and it was at his instance that he had
    braved the king's frown by asking a pardon for Aaron Smith. One day
    over their wine at Popples, where Penn had carried Lawton to dine, he
    said to his host, 'I have brought you such a man as you never saw
    before; for I have just now asked him how I might do something for
    himself, and he has desired me to obtain a pardon for another man! I
    will do that if I can; but,' he added, turning to Lawton, 'I should be
    glad if thou wilt think of some kindness for thyself.' 'Ah,' said
    Lawton, after a moment's thought, 'I can tell you how you might indeed
    prolong my life.' 'How so?' returned the mediator, I am no physician.'
    Lawton answered, 'There is Jack Trenchard in exile; if you could get
    leave for him to come home with safety and honour, the drinking of a
    bottle now and then with Jack would make me so cheerful that it would
    prolong my life.' They laughed at the pleasantry, and Penn promised to
    do what he could. He went away to the Lord Chancellor, got him to join
    in the solicitation, and in a few days the future secretary was
    pardoned and allowed to return to England."

It appears also frown MR. DIXON'S narrative, that Trenchard was employed by
Penn to dissuade James from his bigoted and violent course, and that he had
interviews with the king for this purpose. MR. TAYLOR will find in the same
place curious particulars, given on the authority of Lawton himself,
concerning the intrigues which preceded the fall of James.

SYDNEY WALTON.

       *       *       *       *       *

PAPAL SEAL.

(Vol. v., p. 508.)

I have in my possession a _leaden_ seal, which has on the one side a
precisely similar impression to that described by H. F. H. in p. 508. of
"N. & Q.:" viz. two heads, with a cross between them, and the letters "S P
A   S P E" over them. The head under "S P A" has straight hair and a long
pointed beard. The other head, under "S P E," has curled hair and a short
curled beard, the whole surrounded with a circle of raised spots. On the
other side of the seal is the following inscription, also surrounded by a
circle of raised spots:

       +
  · E V G E N
  I V S . P.P
  · I I I I ·

It was attached by a strong cord that runs through the substance of the
seal to a parchment {594} document that, some thirty years since, I found
being cut into strips for labels for a gardener. The few fragments I was
enabled to preserve showed that the document related to some conventual
matter, from the repetition of the words "Abbati, Conventii, et
Monasterii." One of the lines commences with an illuminated capital of
about half an inch in height, as follows:

    "Militanti ecdie licet immeriti disponente domino presidente"....

Another line commences--

    "Persone tam religiose qua seculares necnon duces Marchione"....

On one of the fragments, apparently an endorsement on the back of the
document, are the names "Anselmus," and beneath it "Bonanmy" or "Bouanmy."
There are unfortunately no traces of the name of any place, or of a date.
The writing is very clear and in good condition. Is the document a papal
bull? I shall be obliged by any reply to my inquiries.

R. H.

Kensington.

       *       *       *       *       *

MARKET CROSSES.

(Vol. v., p. 511.)

It is stated in Gillingwater's _History of Bury St. Edmunds_, edition 1804,
that "The theatre, an elegant structure, originally the _Old Market Cross_,
was erected in the year 1780, from a design by Mr. Adams."

In Alexander Downing's _Plan of the ancient Borough of Bury St. Edmunds_,
published in 1740, there is a very good view of the old _Cross_. It appears
from this print to have been a fine old building; the lower part open. It
is possible that there might have been a chapel in the upper part of the
cross, as it appears in the print on Downing's map to have been three
stories high, with a bell turret or tower.

Downing's _Plan_ is not scarce: it is one large sheet, and is engraved by
W. C. Toms, sculpt.

In Thomas Warren's _Plan of Bury_, subsequently published, there is a view
of the _New_ Cross, with the theatre above it, as built in 1780.

J. B.

Since I sent you a hasty Note respecting the Old Market Cross at Bury St.
Edmunds, with reference to your correspondent's Query, I bethought me of
the old market cross which formerly stood in the Great Market Place at
Norwich. Blomefield, in his _History of Norfolk_, vol. ii. p. 652., gives
an account of that ancient cross, which is too long to quote but he states
that "it was a neat _octagonal_ building, with steps round it, and an
_oratory or chapel in it_, with a chamber over it."

Now possibly there might have been such a "chapel" in the old cross at
Bury, wherein "Henry Gage was married in 1655;" for I put faith in all that
Mr. Rookwood Gage said or wrote.

There is still standing, at Wymondham in Norfolk, an old wooden market
cross, with a chamber over it, supported by wooden columns: it is an
octagon building. Blomefield makes no mention of it. An etching was
published of this cross, by -- Dixon, of Norwich, some few years back.

J. B.

       *       *       *       *       *


Replies to Minor Queries.

_The two Gilberts de Clare_ (Vol. v., p. 439.).--In reference to No. 2. of
"Irish Queries", as to the relationship which existed between the two
Gilberts de Clare, Earls of Gloucester, I beg to send you the information
required by your correspondent MAC AN BHAIRD.

  Gilbertus Co. Gloucest. = Isabella, tertia natu filiarium
    & Hertf.:             |   & cohær. Will. Mareschalli
    obiit 14 Henr. 3.     |   Co. Pembr.
                          |
      +-------------------+
      |
  Ricardus, Co. Gloucest. = Matilda, filia Joh. de Laci
    & Hertf.:             |   Comit. Lincoln ux. 2.
    obiit 46 Henr. 3.     |
                          |
      +-------------------+
      |
  Gilbertus, Comes        = Joanna de Acres, filia Regis
    Glouc. & Hertf.       |   Ed. 1.
    cogn. Rufus, ob.      |
    24 Ed. 1.            /|\

  Dugdale's _Baronage_, i. 209.

See also Miller's _Catalogue of Honor_, pp. 369-373.; Vincent's _Errours of
Brooke_, pp. 122, 123.; Yorke's _Union of Honour_, pp. 109, 110.

FARNHAM.

Farnham, Cavan.

_Baxter's Shove, &c._ (Vol. v., p. 416.).--I fear it may savour somewhat of
presumption in me to offer the following remarks to one who confesses
himself to be a collector of Baxter's works; but if they afford no
information to your correspondent MR. CLARK, they may probably prove
acceptable to other less sedulous inquirers after the writings of this
truly pious man.

Baxter, in his enthusiastic zeal in the cause of religion, did not hesitate
to append to some of his popular tracts, titles more calculated to excite
the curiosity of the vulgar than engage the attention of the refined
reader; as the age became more enlightened, this breach of propriety was
discontinued, and these records of genius and piety have been since
reprinted under more appropriate appellations. If I am not misinformed, the
title of Baxter's _Shove_ has undergone this transformation, and now
appears under that of _The Call to the Unconverted_. {595}

The two following works are doubtless familiar to your correspondent, viz.:
_Crumbs of Grace for &c._, and _Hooks and Eyes to &c._ I think the former
is the original title to _The Saint's Rest_; but as to the latter, I am not
able to say whether it has been issued under any new name or not.

M. W. B.

_Frebord_ (Vol. v., pp. 440. 548.).--In some, if not in all, of the manors
in this vicinity in which this right exists, the quantity of ground claimed
as _frebord_ is thirty feet in width from the set of the hedge.

LEICESTRIENSIS.

_Devil_ (Vol. v., p. 508.).--If [Greek: Diabolos] was used as an equivalent
for Adversarius, I should say that "the rendering _would_ be accurate" in
no slight degree; especially when understood in the juridical sense. But
the "adversarius in judicio" is the character of the Hebrew Satan in Job,
c. i. and ii., and Zechariah, c. iii.; and the same appears clearly in
Revelations, c. 12:

    "The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
    our God day and night."

The term [Greek: diabolos] adds, to that of [Greek: katêgoros], the idea of
falsehood and injustice, essential to the accuser of the Saints, but not
expressed in the latter word[4]. Why the word should mean "a supernatural
agent of evil," I cannot form the slightest idea. The name of a thing does
not express all which that thing is! _Physician_ does not mean a natural
agent of good. As little can I understand how the correctness of a
derivation can form "a case of ecclesiastical usage."

With what words, manifestly and analogically Greek, but yet clearly derived
in reality from the vague sources termed _Oriental_, nay even from Hebrew,
are "the Septuagint and Greek Testament replete?" I say "clearly," because
one paradoxical conjecture cannot obtain support from others.

I am surprised that MR. LITTLEDALE should be struck by the "similarity" of
the gipsy word _Debel_, "God," "and our word devil," after himself
admitting that our word is _diabolos_, and confining his attack to that
"first link in the chain."

I will add a very few words on the other point, though not relevant. What
is holy at one time, becomes the direct contrary in subsequent times and
circumstances. Homer's Minerva ascended to heaven [Greek: meta daimonas
allous], among the other dæmons. But that word in modern Europe means a
devil of hell. _Deva_ and _Devi_ are (I believe) god and goddess in
Sanskrit. _Div_, in Persian (MR. L. says), is a wizard or dæmon. I have no
_Zend Avesta_ at hand: but we require to know whether _Div_ had a decidedly
evil and Ahrimanian sense, in the language of the dualistic Pagan ages; or
only in Ferdoosi and the like. If _afriti_ is "blessed" in Zend, and "a
devil" in Arabic, I again ask whether the allusion be to the literary
remains of Arabic polytheism, or to Islam? I suspect the latter; and so, it
would come to nothing.

A. N.

[Footnote 4: "word" corected from "work"--Transcriber.]

I think MR. LITTLEDALE'S difficulty about the same Hebrew word's
representing both [Greek: Diabolos] and _Adversarius_ is, on the contrary,
rather a confirmation of the old derivation. Had he forgotten that "the
Adversary" is often technically used for the _Devil_? Surely there can be
no more doubt that _Devil_ comes from _Diavolo_, and that from [Greek:
Diabolos], than that _journal_ comes from _giorno_, and that from
_diurnus_.

C.

_Mummy Wheat_ (Vol. v., p. 538.).--Having a few grains of mummy wheat in my
possession, I send you the following information concerning it, with a
portion thereof as sample. About three years ago, when in New York, I
purchased, at a sale of the Hon. Judge Furman's effects, a small parcel
which was stated in his own writing to be "Egyptian wheat such as is
mentioned in Scripture, and taken out of a mummy case."

I planted a few of the grains in a flower-pot, and they came up in an
apparently very healthy and flourishing manner, with an appearance similar
to that represented in Scriptural illustrations as Egyptian corn. But after
attaining a height of about two inches, I noticed that it began to grow
sickly, and in a short time afterwards died away. Upon examining the mould
I found some of the grains still there; but they looked as though some very
minute insect had eaten away the entire heart, leaving the shell only. It
seemed to me that such insect must have been within, and not entered the
grain from without.

Lately I have again tried in my garden a few of the grains I had reserved
from the original stock. These, however, have not come up at all; and I
find, on uprooting them, that the same sort of decay had taken place as
occurred in New York. I am not able to forward you any of the husks, for
they are now rotted: but I thought that some of your readers and your last
correspondent might feel interested in knowing other attempts had also been
made to rear mummy wheat.

S.

Meadow Cottage, Ealing.

    [We have placed the grains forwarded by our Correspondent in the hands
    of a skilful horticulturist; and will publish the result.--ED.]

_Nacar_ (Vol. v., p. 536.).--This word is not, I believe, a name
appropriated to any one particular shell, but is the term used for the
pearl-like substance which, in greater or smaller quantities, forms the
lining of many shells. This substance, frequently called mother-of-pearl,
exhibits in some species a beautiful play of colours, said to be due to a
particular arrangement of the particles. The words _naker_ and
_nacreous_--with _nacar_ Spanish, _nacchera_ Italian, and _nacre_
French--are given {596} in Webster's _Dictionary_, 2 vols. 4to., London
1832. The beard, or byssus, found in a few genera only, as _Avicula_,
_Mytilus_, _Pinna_, and some others, is strong and silky, formed of
numerous fibres produced from a gland near the foot of the soft animal, and
employed by it to form an attachment to rocks or other objects. In Sicily
this is sometimes made into gloves or stockings, more for curiosity than
use. A byssus now before me measures six inches in length, is delicately
soft and glossy, varying in colour from a rich dark brown to golden yellow,
and is nearly as fine as the production of the silk-worm. _Byssine_ is an
old name for fine silk.

WM. YARRELL.

_Mistletoe_ (Vol. v., p. 534.).--Mr. Jesse, in his agreeable and
instructive _Scenes and Tales of Country Life_, has devoted a chapter of
eight pages to the mistletoe, giving a list of more than forty different
species of trees and shrubs upon which this parasitic plant has been found,
with many localities. In this list the white, gray, black, and Lombardy
poplars are included. The mistletoe is there stated to have been found
growing on the oak near Godalming, Surrey; at Penporthleuny, parish of
Goitre, Monmouthshire; also on one near Usk, and another at St. Dials near
Monmouth.

WM. YARRELL.

_The Number Seven_ (Vol. v., p. 532.).--The reply to the Query of MR.
EDWARDS is, that _sheva_, "seven," is used indefinitely for _much_ or
_frequently_ in Ruth iv. 15., 1 Sam. ii. 5., Is. iv. 1., Jer. xv. 9., and
Ezech. xxxix. 9. 12.; also in Prov. xxiv. 16., where, however, it may refer
to seven witnesses or pledges, as in Gen. xxi. 28-30. Compare Herodotus, l.
3. c. 8. on the seven stones of the Arabs, with Homer's _Iliad_, l. 19. v.
243. on the seven tripods of Agamemnon. In Arabic and Hebrew the word
_seva_ means finished, completed, satiated, as in Ezech. xvi. 28, 29. and
Hos. iv. 10. Seven, as an astronomical period, is known to most nations,
and has been from times prior to history. Clemens Alex. (_Stromat._ lib.
vi. p. 685., Paris, 1629) says the moon's phases are changed every seven
days. Seleucus, the mathematician, he also says distinguished seven phases
of that luminary. He notices the seven planets, seven angels, seven stars
in the Pleiades and in the Great Bear, seven tones in music, seventh days
in diseases, and gives an elegant elegy of Solon on the changes of every
seven years in man's life. Clemens (lib. v. p. 600., Paris, 1629) has
accumulated a variety of passages from ancient poets on the sacredness of
the seventh day. Cicero, in the _Somnium Scipionis_, speaks of seven as
"numerus rerum fere omnium nodus est." The following have treated on this
mystic number: _Fabii Paulini Hebdomades, sive septem de septenario libri_;
Omeisius _de Numero septenario_; Philo, _de Mundi opificio_; Macrobius, in
_Somnio Scipionis_, l. 50. c. 6.; Gellius, _Noct. Attic._ l. 3. 10.;
Censorinus _de die Natali_, c. 7.; and Eusebius, _de Praep. Evang._ l. 13.
c. 12. The Hebrews commemorated their seventh day, a seventh week
(Pentecost), the seventh month (commencing their _civil_ year), the seventh
year (for fallowing the land), and the seven times seventh year, or
jubilee.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Bristol Road, Birmingham.

_Gabriel Hounds_ (Vol. v., p. 534.).--The term occurs in Mr. Halliwell's
_Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, &c._, vol. i. p. 388., with
the following, explanation:--

    "At Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, the colliers going to their pits
    early in the morning hear the noise of a pack of hounds in the air, to
    which they give the name of _Gabriel's Hounds_, though the more sober
    and judicious take them only to be wild geese making this noise in
    their flight.--Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033."

The species here alluded to is the Bean Goose _Anser segetum_, of authors.
A few of them breed in Scotland and its islands, but by far the larger
portion breed still farther north, in Scandinavia. Of the various birds
which resort to this country to pass the winter season the Bean Goose is
one of the first. I have seen very large flocks in Norfolk early in
September, where they feed on the stubbles. I have good authority for their
appearance in Gloucestershire, in the vicinity of the Severn, by the last
week in August. This is in accordance with the habits of this goose in some
parts of the Continent; Sonnerat and M. de Selis Longchamps calling it
_L'oie des moissons_, or Harvest Goose. They are frequently very noisy when
on the wing during the night, and the sound has been compared to that of a
pack of hounds in full cry.

WM. YARRELL.

_Burial_ (Vol. v., p. 509.).--To the names already given of those interred
in ground not consecrated, may be added that of the eccentric Samuel
Johnson, formerly a dancing-master, but through his talent, wit, and
gentlemanly manners, became the guest and table companion of the principal
families of Cheshire.

He is not mentioned in Chalmers's _Biog. Dict._, and but very meagrely in
that of Rose. The best notice of him is in the _Biographia Dram._, ed.
1812, as the author of _Hurlothrumbo: or the Supernatural_, and five other
dramatic pieces, the first of which took an amazing run, owing to the
whimsical madness and extravagance which pervade through the whole piece.
Besides these, he is the writer of another strange mystical work, which, as
I do not find it anywhere mentioned, I will give the title of, from my copy
now before me:

    "A Vision of Heaven, which is introduc'd with Essays upon Happiness, a
    Description of the Court, the Characters of the Quality: Politics,
    Manners, Satyr, Wit, Humour, Pastoral, Sublimity, Extasy, {597} Love,
    Fire, Fancy and Taste Universal. Written by Mr. Samuel Johnson. Lond.,
    for E. Withers, &c., where may be had Hurlothrumbo, 1738." 8vo., two
    neat engravings, and six pages of music.

The compilers of the _Biog. Dram._ state that they had not discovered the
date of his death; but we learn from Hanshall's _Hist. of the County
Palatine of Chester_: 1817, 4to. p. 515., that he died in 1773, aged
eighty-two, and was buried in the plantation forming part of the
pleasure-grounds of the Old Hall at Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, in
Cheshire. Over his remains is a stone (now there) with an inscription,
stating that he was so buried at his own desire.

F. R. A.

_Marvell's Life and Works_ (Vol. v., pp. 439. 513.).--I thought the
question proposed by J. G. F. had been answered to the satisfaction of all
unprejudiced minds by the remarks on this subject published long ago. (See
_Gentleman's Magazine_, vols. xlvi. & xlvii.; _Retrospective Review_, vol.
xi., &c.) I say all _unprejudiced_ minds; for I confess that, although I am
strongly prejudiced in favour of Marvell, yet the internal evidence of the
poems in question is so strongly against Marvell, that I am compelled to
resign them to their rightful owner. Any careful reader of poetry must
acknowledge that every feature in the style is Addison's. Captain
Thompson's having found them in MSS. in Marvell's own hand, is no proof of
parentage, as in the same MSS. is one which undoubtedly belongs to Mallet,
and another which has been proved to be from the pen of Dr. Watts.

My chief reason, however, for intruding on your space is for the purpose of
correcting a mistake into which all the biographers of Marvell have fallen,
as to the time and place of his birth. It is again and again stated,
without any correction, that he was born at Hull, on the 15th November,
1620. That he was not born at Hull I am at length reluctantly compelled to
believe; and that the date of his birth is "March 2, 1621," I can prove
from authorised documents in my own possession, copied from MS. in his
father's hand-writing.

With reference to MR. CROSSLEY'S hope that a new edition of his works might
soon be published, I may say that a new biography of Marvell, with a
selection from his works by a townsman, is already in the press.

JOS. A. KIDD.

Hull.

_The Death-Watch_ (Vol. v., p. 537.).--A good account of this small insect
will be found in the second volume of the _Introduction to Entomology_ by
Messrs. Kirby and Spence. A chapter is devoted to the "Noises produced by
Insects."

    "In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm
    weather during the whole day. The noise is produced by raising the
    head, and striking the hard mandibles against wood.

    "Thus sings the muse of the witty Dean of St. Patrick on the subject:

              --------------------'a wood worm[5]
      That lies in the old wood, like a hare in her form:
      With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch,
      And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:
      Because like a watch it always cries click;
      Then woe be to those in the house who are sick!
      For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost,
      If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post;
      But a kettle of scalding hot water injected,
      Infallibly cures the timber affected:
      The omen thus broken, the danger is over,
      The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.'"

The kettle of scalding hot water is also very useful in houses infested
with ants or black-beetles.

WM. YARRELL.

[Footnote 5: A small beetle, the _Anobium tesselatum_ of Fabricius.]

The Query of M. W. B. reminds me of a family bereavement that followed the
visit of this insect to my father's homestead. The ticking was heard in a
closet, which opened out of the drawing-room. I first discovered it; and
was struck with the fact that it occasionally altered the interval which
formed the standard of the beats, though with one standard the beats
remained punctually uniform. On examination, I found a very tiny insect, in
shape like an elongated spider, whose "hind leg" kept beat with the sound;
so I suppose that member to have been the instrument by which the ticking
was effected. The family bereavement that ensued was the total extinction
of the last dying embers of our faith in this world-famed omen; for
unhappily, in this instance, no death ensued in our domestic circle.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_The Rabbit as a Symbol_ (Vol. v., p. 487.).--It will be remembered that
Richard of the Lion Heart, on his way to the Holy Land, proceeded to
Sicily, where he played all manner of rough fantastic tricks, to the
infinite disgust of the king and people of the island. On pretence of
certain assumed claims, but the rather _pour passer le temps_, our Achilles
and his myrmidons fixed a quarrel upon the reigning sovereign, Tancred the
Bastard, whose immediate predecessor, William the Good, had married
Joanna[6], Richard's sister; took forcible possession of an important
fortress; turned the monks out of a monastery whose situation was
convenient for the purposes of his commissariat; and at last, by an act of
most unjustifiable aggression, laid siege to the city and castle of
Messina, {598} on whose walls was soon triumphantly planted the royal
banner of the Plantagenets. Now the hare and rabbit frequently occur upon
the coins of Spain and Sicily, of which countries they were, indeed, the
particular and well-recognised symbols. (Fosb. _Ency. Antiq._, pp. 722.
728.); and I would suggest that the device in question has reference to
Richard's proceedings in the latter kingdom, which, in an age whose
acknowledged principle was that "Might makes Right," would be looked upon
as redounding vastly to his credit and renown, and most worthy, therefore,
of commemoration amongst the other emblematic representations which give so
remarkable a character to the monumental effigies at Rouen. Regarding it in
this point of view, there appears to be much inventive significancy in this
device, and the exercise of a little ingenuity would soon, I think, render
manifest the peculiar applicability of its "singular details" to the
circumstances of Richard's transactions with Tancred, as they are presented
to us by our own chroniclers.

The appearance of this symbol or device of a rabbit, upon old examples of
playing cards, as referred to by SYMBOL, is easily accounted for. These
"devil's books" came to us originally from Spain; and in ancient cards of
that country, columbines were Spades, _rabbits_[7] Clubs, pinks Diamonds,
and roses Hearts.--Fosb. _ut sup._, p. 602.

COWGILL.

[Footnote 6: This lady afterwards married Raymond, Count de St. Gilles, son
of the Count of Toulouse. Eleanora, another of Richard's sisters, married
Alphonso, third king of Castile.]

[Footnote 7: The Clubs, in Spanish cards, are not, as with us, trefoils,
but cudgels, i. e. _bastos_: the Spades are swords, i. e. _espadas_.--Fosb.
_ut sup._; see the plate of "Sports, Amusements," &c.]

_Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Irish Coast_ (Vol. v., p. 491.).--A fair
account of this eventful visitation may be expected from the _Annals of the
Four Masters_, a work compiled within forty years of the occurrence, and
not near so many miles removed from the waters over which most of its
fatalities were felt:

    "A large fleet (says this work) consisting of eight sure ships, came on
    the sea from the King of Spain this year (1588), and some say it was
    their intention to take harbour and land on the coasts of England
    should they obtain an opportunity; but in that they did not succeed,
    for the Queen's fleet encountered them at sea, and took four of their
    ships, and the rest of the fleet was scattered and dispersed along the
    coasts of the neighbouring countries, viz., on the eastern side of
    England, on the north-eastern shores of Scotland, and on the
    north-western coast of Ireland. A great number of the Spaniards were
    drowned in those quarters, their ships having been completely wrecked;
    and the smaller proportion of them returned to Spain, and some assert
    that 9,000 of them were lost on that occasion."

This narrative is utterly innocent of the wholesale, or of any _execution_
of the unfortunate invaders; and, in truth, our Lord Deputies have too much
to answer for, without throwing the barbarism of such a massacre upon one
of them. Some colouring is, however, given to the charge by the writings of
Smith, _History of Kerry_; Cox, _Hibernia Anglicana_; and even Leland,
_History of Ireland_, vol. ii. p. 322. The deviation of these Spaniards
northwards can be, I think, accounted for by the discomfitures they
sustained from the English and Dutch fleets, who so kept the seas east and
south of England, as to make a circuit round the Orkney Islands, with a
descent to the westward of Ireland, the most advisable, though as it
proved, not the less dangerous line of return.

JOHN D'ALTON.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

_Second Exhumation of King Arthur's Remains_ (Vol. v., p. 490.).--The
details of the circumstances attending the first (I am not aware of any
second) exhumation of these remains at Glastonbury in 1189, have been
transmitted to us by Giraldus Cambrensis, who saw both the bones and the
inscription, by the Monk of Glastonbury, and, briefly, by William of
Malmesbury, all cotemporaries with the event. Sharon Turner, in his
_History of the Anglo-Saxons_, 8vo. edit., 1823, vol. i. pp. 279-282.,
gives a full account, from these and other authorities, of this remarkable
discovery.

COWGILL.

_Etymology of Mushroom_ (Vol. iii., p. 166.).--DR. RIMBAULT states that the
earliest example with which he is acquainted of this word, being spelt
_mushrump_, occurs in the following passage in Robert Southwell's
_Spirituall Poems_, 1595:

 "He that high growth on cedars did bestow,
  Gave also lowly _mushrumps_ leave to growe."

I suppose that this word has been derived from _Maesrhin_, one of the names
of the mushroom in Welsh. As the meanings of the word _rhin_ are "a
channel," "a virtue," "a secret," "a charm," none of which are applicable
to a mushroom, I conjecture that it is a corruption of the word _rhum_
(also spelt _rhump_), but I am unable to mention an instance of the word
being spelt by any Welsh writer of ancient times. The etymology which I
suggest is _maesrhum_; from _maes_, "a field," and _rhum_, "a thing which
bulges out." This meaning very nearly resembles that of the French name of
one kind of mushroom, _champignon_.

S. S. S. (2.)

_The Grave of Cromwell_ (Vol. v., p. 477.).--MR. OLIVER PEMBERTON has
referred your correspondent A. B. to Lockinge's _Naseby_ for an account of
the Protector's funeral and probable burial on the field of Naseby. As the
volume may not be very generally known, would A. B. like a summary of Mr.
Lockinge's ten 12mo. pages? or could you, Mr. Editor, spare room for the
whole? Mastin, in his _History of Naseby_, alludes to the doubts that have
been expressed {599} "relative to the funeral-place of the Protector
Cromwell", and quotes a passage from Banks's _Life of Cromwell_, but gives
no opinion thereon.

ESTE.

_Edmund Bohun_ (Vol. v., p. 539.).--Of Edmund Bohun's _Historical
Collections_, in eight vols. folio, I became the purchaser at Mr. Bright's
sale. They consist of a most curious and interesting collection of the
newspapers, ballads, tracts, broadsides of the period (1675-92) in regular
series, bound up with original MS. documents, and with a manuscript
correspondence with Bohun from Hickes, Roger, Coke, Charlotte, and others,
relating to the politics and news of the day. If your correspondent MR.
RIX, from whom I am glad to find we are to expect the private Diary of
Bohun, wishes for a more particular description of the volumes, I shall be
happy to furnish it.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Sneezing_ (Vol. v., pp. 369. 500.).--D'Israeli, in the first series of the
_Curiosities_, in a paper on the custom of saluting persons after sneezing,
says:

    "A memoir of the French Academy notices the practice in the New World,
    on the first discovery of America."

A relation of mine tells me, that when young, he once fell down in a fit
after a violent sneeze; the "Cryst helpe" may therefore not be totally
superfluous!

A. A. D.

_Braem's Memoires_ (Vol. v., pp. 126. 543.).--Permit me to inform MR. J. F.
L. COENEN that the MS. volume containing Braem's _Memoires Touchant le
Commerce, &c._, is at Oxford, in the library of Sir Robert Taylor's
Institution, where it may be seen and consulted, but cannot be disposed of.
MR. COENEN is thanked for his obliging information.

J. M.

_Portrait of Mesmer_ (Vol. v., p. 418.).--I beg to inform SIGMA there is a
very good engraved profile (bust) of Mesmer in a German work by him,
entitled _Mesmerismus, oder System der Wechselwirkungen, &c._, published at
Berlin in 1814, in 1 vol. 8vo., a copy of which is now before me.

J. M.

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