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Title: Notes and Queries, Number 139, June 26, 1852 - A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, - Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
Author: Various
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Notes and Queries, Number 139, June 26, 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 listed at the end of the text.
* * * * *
{601}
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. 139.]
SATURDAY, JUNE 26. 1852
[Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
Popular Stories of the English Peasantry, No. V., by
T. Sternberg 601
Dr. Thomas Morell's Copy of H. Stephens' Edition of
Æschylus, 1557, with MSS. Notes, by Richard Hooper 604
On a Passage in the "Merchant of Venice," Act III. Sc. 2.,
by S. W. Singer 605
Episode of the French Revolution, by Philip S. King 605
Milton indebted to Tacitus, by Thomas H. Gill 606
Minor Notes:--Note by Warton on Aristotle's "Poetics"--
Misappropriated Quotation--The God Arciacon--Gat-tothed--
Goujere--The Ten Commandments in Ten Lines--Vellum-bound
Books 606
QUERIES:--
Thomas Gill, the Blind Man of St. Edmundsbury 608
Bronze Medals, by John J. A. Boase 608
Acworth Queries 608
Minor Queries:--"Row the boat, Norman"--The Hereditary
Standard Bearer--Walton's Angler; Seth's Pillars;
May-butter; English Guzman--Radish Feast--What Kind of
Drink is Whit?--"Felix natu," &c.--"Gutta cavat
lapidem"--Punch and Judy--Sir John Darnall--The Chevalier
St. George--Declaration of 2000 Clergymen--MS. "De
Humilitate"--MS. Work on Seals--Sir George Carew--Docking
Horses' Tails--St. Albans, William, Abbot of--Jeremy
Taylor on Friendship--Colonel or Major-General Lee--
"Roses and all that's fair adorn" 609
MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Donne--Dr. Evans 611
REPLIES:--
Carling Sunday; Roman Funeral Pile 611
Hart and Mohun 612
Burial without Religious Service--Burial, by Alfred Gatty 613
"Quod non fecerunt Barbari," &c. 614
Restive 614
Men of Kent and Kentish Men, by George R. Corner 615
Replies to Minor Queries:--Speculum Christianorum, &c.--
Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire--M. Barrière
and the Quarterly Review--"I do not know what the truth
may be"--Optical Phenomena--Stoup--Seventh Son of a
Seventh Son--The Number Seven--Commentators--Banning
or Bayning Family--Tortoiseshell Tom Cat--A Tombstone
cut by Baskerville--Shakspeare, Tennyson, &c.--Rhymes
on Places--Birthplace of Josephine--The Curse of
Scotland--Waller Family--"After me the Deluge"--Sun-Dial
Motto--Lines by Lord Palmerston--Indian Jugglers--Sons
of the Conqueror--Saint Wilfrid's Needle--Frebord--
Royd--Spy Wednesday--Book of Jasher--Stearne's
Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft--Lines on
Chaucer--Fairlop Oak--Boy Bishop at Eton--Plague Stones;
Mr. Mompesson--Raleigh's Ring--Pandecte, an entire Copy
of the Bible 616
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 622
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 622
Notices to Correspondents 623
Advertisements 623
* * * * *
Notes.
POPULAR STORIES OF THE ENGLISH PEASANTRY,
NO. V.
By far the larger portion of our tales consist of those connected with the
popular mythology of elves, and giants, and bleeding trees; of witches and
their wicked doings; of frogs that _would_ go a-wooing, and got turned into
princes; and amorous princes who became frogs; of primitive rough chests
transformed into coaches; young ladies who go to bed young ladies, and get
up owls; much despised younger sons crowned kings of boundless realms; and
mediæval tabbies getting inducted into flourishing vizierships by the mere
loss of their tails: stories, in short, of the metamorphosis of all
conceivable things into all conceivable shapes. Lest this catalogue should
frighten your readers, I at once disavow any intention of reflecting more
than a specimen. Their puerility renders them scarcely suitable to your
columns, and there is moreover such a sameness in those best worth
preserving--the fairy legends--that a single example would be amply
sufficient for our purpose of pointing out the different varieties of oral
romance. Whenever the story relates to the dealings of the fairy-folk with
mankind, the elf is almost always represented as the dupe; while, in his
transactions with rival supernaturals, he invariably comes off victorious.
Giants especially, being always of sleepy and obtuse intellect, afford a
fine field for the display of his powers; and we find him baffling their
clumsy plans, as well also as the more cunning devices of weird-sisters, in
a manner which proves him to be a worthy scion of the warlike _avenger_ of
the Sagar. The lovers of folk-lore will probably agree with me in regarding
the following tale as a choice bit of elfin history, illustrating the not
very amicable relations of the witches and the good people. No sneers,
therefore, gentle readers, but listen to the simple strain of "Fairy Jip
and Witch One-eye."
Once upon a time, just before the monkey tribe gave up the nauseous custom
of chewing tobacco, there lived an old hag, who had conceived an inordinate
desire to eat an elf: a circumstance, by the way, which indubitably
establishes that elves were {602} of masticable solidity, and not, as some
one has it, mere
"_Shadowry_ dancers by the summer streams."
So the old lady went to the place where the fairies dwelt, and knocked at
the hill-top:--"Pretty little Jip!" said she; "come and see the sack of
cherries I have brought thee, _so_ large, _so_ red, _so_ sweet." Fairies,
be it known, are extremely fond of this fruit, and the elf rushed out in
eager haste. "Ha! ha!" said One-eye, as she pounced upon him, and put him
in her bag (witches always carry bags), "take care the stones don't stick
in thy throttle, my little bird." On the way home, she has to visit a place
some distance from the road, and left Jip meanwhile in the charge of a man
who was cutting faggots. No sooner was her back turned, than Jip begged the
man to let him out; and they filled the bag with thorns. One-eye called for
her burden, and set off towards home, making sure she had her dinner safe
on her back. "Ay, ay! my lad," said she, as she felt the pricking of the
thorns; "I'll trounce thee when I get home for stinging me with thy pins
and needles." When she reached her house, she belaboured the bag with a
huge stick, till she thought she had broken every bone in the elf's body;
and when she found that she had been wasting her strength upon a "kit" of
thorns, her rage knew no bounds. Next day, she again got possession of Jip
in a similar manner, and this time left him in care of a man who was
breaking stones by the road-side. The elf makes his escape as before, and
they fill the sack with stones. "Thou little rogue!" said the witch, as she
perspired under the burden; "I'll soften thy bones nigh-hand." Her appetite
was only whetted, not blunted, by these repeated failures, and despairing
of again catching her prey in the same way as before, she assumed the shape
of a pedlar with a churn on his shoulder, and contrived to meet Jip in a
wood. "Ah! Master Redcap," quoth she; "look alive, my little man, the fox
is after thee. See! here he comes: hie thee into my churn, and I will
shelter thee. Quick! quick!" In jumped the elf. "Pretty bird!" chuckled the
old Crocodile; "dost thee scent the fox?" This time she went straight home,
and gave Jip to her daughter, with strict orders that she should cut off
his noddle and boil it. When the time came for beginning the cooking, Miss
One-eye led her captive to the chopping-block, and bade him lay down his
head. "How?" quoth Jip; "I don't know how." "Like this, to be sure," said
she; and, suiting the action to the word, she put her poll in the right
position. Instantly the fairy seizes the hatchet, and serves her in the
manner she intended to serve him. Then picking up a huge pebble, he climbs
up the chimney to watch the progress of events. As he expected, the witch
came to the fire to look after her delicacy; and no sooner does she lift up
the lid of the pot, than "plop" came down Jip's pebble right into the
centre of her remaining optic, the light of which is extinguished for ever;
or, according to some versions, killed her _stone_-dead.[1]
Some of the stories are so extremely like the German ones, that, with very
slight alterations, they would serve as translations. These, for obvious
reasons, it will not be worth while to trouble you with. Among them, I may
particularise the following from the _Kinder und Hausmärchen_:--Hans im
Gluck: Der Frieder und das Catherlieschen; Von der Frau Füchsin; and Van
den Nachandel-Boom.
Modern tales of diablerie are not so uncommon as might be expected. In the
time of Chaucer, the popular belief ascribed the departure of the elves to
the great number of wandering friars who mercilessly pursued them with
bell, book, and candle; and at the present day, in the opinion of our
uneducated peasantry, the itinerant sectarian preachers are endowed with
similar attributes. The stories told of these men, and their encounters
with the powers of darkness, would fill a new Golden Legend. There is one
tale in particular which comes within our designation of "popular stories,"
as is well known in almost all parts of England,--How a godly minister
falls over the company of wicked scoffing elves, and how he gets out.[2]
The last time I heard it, it was related of a preacher of the Ranting
persuasion, well known some dozen years ago in a certain district of
Warwickshire; and I prefer to give it in this localised form, as it enables
me to present your readers with "Positively the last from Fairyland."
Providence B---- was a well-known man throughout that whole country-side.
He had made more converts than all his brethren put together, and, in the
matter of spirits and demons, would stand a comparison with Godred or
Gutlac, or, by'r Lady, St. Anthony himself. Now it fell out one day, that
Providence was sent for to the house of a wealthy yeoman to aid in
expelling an evil spirit which had long infested his daughter. I must here
remark, _en parenthèse_, that scenes of this fearfully ludicrous nature are
far from unfrequent in our country districts. The besotted state of
ignorance in which a great portion of our rural population are still
enwrapt, renders them peculiarly open to the fleecing of these fanatics,
who, marvellous to relate, are almost everywhere {603} looked upon with
respect, and treated with the greatest consideration, proving incontestably
that,
"Mad as Christians used to be
About the seventeenth century,
There's others to be had
In this the nineteenth just as bad."
On this occasion the job proved a tough one, and it was not till a late
hour that Prov. set off on his road home. It was a pitchy dark night, and
somehow or other the preacher and his nag contrived to lose their way among
the green lanes, and it was not till they had floundered about for some
time that our hero discerned (as is usual in such cases) a light gleaming
through the thick foliage before him, which he incontinently discovers to
proceed from a solitary dwelling in the middle of the woods. _Of course_ he
dismounts, and knocks at the door; and _of course_ it was opened by a
suspicious-looking old woman in toggery which it would do Mr. James's heart
good to depict. To his request for a night's lodging, she yielded a ready
assent--too ready, Prov. thought; for it seemed from her manner as though
he had been expected. He was shown into a bed-room, and was proceeding to
divest himself of his garments, when he hears a knock at the door, and a
voice asked him to come down to supper. Prov. made answer that he didn't
want any, that he was in bed, and that moreover he was engaged at his
devotions; but presently the messenger returned, and declared that if he
did not join the company downstairs, they would come and sup with him. Poor
Prov. quaked with fright, but thought it politic to cloak his fears, so
followed the servant to the house-room, where there were a number of people
sitting round a table plentifully laden with good things. All of them were
little "shrivelled up" old men; and, as the chairman motioned Prov. to a
vacant seat, they all regarded him with a stare that made him feel the
reverse of jolly. Although he is well acquainted with the neighbourhood, he
recognises none of them. The meal proceeded in solemn silence: look which
way he would, he encounters the gaze of his companions, who appear to scowl
at him with an expression of fiendish hate. Dreadful surmises flit across
his brain. Suddenly his attention becomes directed to the posterior portion
of the gentleman next him. "By Jove! he has a tail. Yes, he has; and so has
his neighbour, and so have they all." He fancies too he can trace a
resemblance between the individual who sits at the head of the table and
the fiend of the morning's exorcism. All is now clear as a pike-staff. It
is a decided case of trepan. That dark fellow on the right has to complain
of a forcible ejection from a comfortable dwelling in the portly corpus of
Master Muggins the miller; and he on the left is the identical demon who
got into Farmer Nelson's cow, and gave our hero a world of trouble to get
him out. He is in the power of the incubi, whom he has been so long warring
against. Not a moment is to be lost, for already they are whispering
together, and the scowls get fiercer and fiercer. What is to be done? A
monk would have had recourse to his breviary; Prov. thought of his
hymn-book. "Brethren," says he, "it is usual wi' us at the heend of a feast
to ax a blessing."
"A blessing quotha! and to _us_?" roared the fiends. "Ha! ha! Yea! yea!"
said Prov.; and _instanter_ he out with that _spirit-stirring_ stanza of
"immortal John:"
"Jesus the name, high over all,
In hell, or earth, or sky,
Angels and men before Him fall,
And devils fear and fly!"
Who shall depict the scene while these words were being uttered? The old
men turn all sorts of colours, from green to blue, and blue to green, and
back again to their original hue. At the last line, the uproar becomes
terrible; and, amidst shouts of fiendish wailing, the whole company resolve
themselves into a thin blue smoke, in which state they career up the
chimney, taking with them a bran new chimney-pot, and leaving behind a most
offensive odour of lucifer matches. Prov. saw no more; he fainted.
* * * * *
Some scandalous fellows spread abroad a report that the morning's sun
discovered our valiant vessel snugly ensconced in a dry ditch; but as he
always denounced strong waters, and was moreover a leading member of the
Steeple "United Totals," I, for one, do not believe it. From the examples
already given, I trust your readers will think with me that these old world
relics are worth preserving. I hope they will not be backward in the good
work. A few more years, and the scheme of an English work on the plan of
Grimm's will be impracticable. The romance-lore, both oral and written,
which erewhile delighted the cottager, is growing out of date. The prosy
narrative of "How John the serving-man wedded an earl's daughter, and
became a squire of high degree;" and the less placid, but still intolerably
dull feats of the "Seven Champions," have no charms for him now. He has
outgrown the old chap-book literature, and affectionates the highly
seasoned atrocities of the Old Bailey school; which, to the disgrace of the
legislature, are allowed to poison the minds of our labouring community
with their weekly broad-sheets of crime and obscenity. Even those prime old
favourites, the _Robin Hood Garland_ and _Shepherd's Kalendar_, with its
quaint letter-press and grim woodcuts, are getting out of fashion, and
beginning to be missed from their accustomed nook beside the family Bible.
T. STERNBERG.
{604}
P.S. Owing to some unaccountable inadvertence, I have only just seen the
number of "N.& Q." containing the highly interesting communications of H.
B. C. and MR. STEPHENS. Will MR. STEPHENS allow me to ask him where he
procured his tale, for I agree with H. B. C. that it is "desirable to fix
the localities as nearly as possible." My version came from the
Gloucestershire side of the county.
[Footnote 1: This story is from Northamptonshire, and by some oversight was
omitted in my _Dialect and Folk-Lore_.]
[Footnote 2: I use the term _elves_ advisedly; for though, of course, the
creed of _rantism_ does not recognise the existence of the mere poetic
beings, yet it absolutely inculcates belief in all sorts of _bona fide_
corporeal demons: which, like the club-footed gentry of the saintly
hermits, are nothing more than Teutonic _elfen_ in ecclesiastical
masquerade.]
* * * * *
DR. THOMAS MORELL'S COPY OF H. STEPHENS' EDIT. OF ÆSCHYLUS, 1557, WITH MSS.
NOTES.
As your valuable paper is in the hands of scholars of every description in
every part of the world, the following communication may meet the eye, and
be of no slight interest to some of your classical readers, and, at the
same time, give a stimulus to hunters at bookstalls. Some time since, in
one of my hunts, I stumbled upon a very fine copy of Pet. Victorine's
(Vettori) edition of Æschylus, printed by H. Stephens, 1557. I was much
gratified in finding it had belonged to the celebrated Thomas Morell, D.D.,
F.R.S., F.S.A., the lexicographer, and had his book-plate and autograph.
The margins were filled with many conjectures and emendations written in
two very ancient hands, and, besides, some MSS. Scholia on the _Prometheus_
and _Poesæ_. In carefully examining them I found many were marked with the
letters (A) and (P). I remembered the present very learned Bishop of
London, in the preface to his edition of the _Choæphoræ_, mentioned the
vast assistance he had received in editing that play from a copy of this
very edition of Æschylus (H. Stephens, 1557), lent to him by Mr. Mitford,
the margins of which were similarly marked. The bishop observes these
emendations were by Auratus and Portus, two learned French scholars; and
that Mr. Mitford's volume contained several other emendations without the
signatures (A) and (P), which he, for distinction's sake, marked (Q). Now
my copy also possessed these readings marked (Q). The bishop further
observed, that the writer of the MSS. notes was a cotemporary of Casaubon's
from a remark at p. 14. of the volume. The learned bishop's description of
the volume will be found in the _Museum Criticum_, vol. ii. p. 488. I at
first imagined I had met with this identical volume; but a closer
examination proved I was mistaken, as my copy, besides all those carefully
noted by Dr. Blomfield, contained many other emendations, but had _not_ the
note at p. 14. of the _Prometheus_. Whoever was the copier or writer of the
marginal MSS. in my volume, was evidently a Frenchman, as some of the notes
are in French. The handwriting is very ancient and contracted, and has the
appearance of being of the early portion of the seventeenth century. The
most interesting part, however, of the story still remains. Dr. Thomas
Morell edited the _Prometheus_, 4to., 1773. The title is as follows:
_Æschyli P. V. cum Stanl. Versione et Scholiis, [alpha], [beta], (et
[gamma] ineditis), &c._ Now these Scholia [gamma], which he professes to
give for the first time, I found to be those in the very ancient hand in
the margin of my volume. He frequently also gives the various marginal
readings, and styles them "Marg. MS." Moreover he occasionally adopts these
notes without any acknowledgment, especially where they throw any light on
the text. The volume then is of great curiosity and value. From a curious
note at the end of the _Prometheus_, Morell takes nine iambic lines, to
which is affixed "Ad Calcem Dramatis MS. Regii." From this it would seem
the Scholia were taken from a MS. in the Royal Library at Paris.
We may observe then as a remarkable circumstance, that while Bishop
Blomfield was describing the copy belonging to Mr. Mitford, a similar copy,
with more notes, and of equal antiquity as to the MSS. emendations, was in
existence, and had once been in the possession of, and of much assistance
to the great Dr. Morell. Where Morell got this volume, and how he should
not have acknowledged the aid he derived from it, is a mystery. As I
mentioned before, the handwriting is far prior to Morell's day. The volume
is rendered still more interesting by its having many of Stanley's
emendations, about which such a controversy arose from the observations
made by Blomfield in his preface to the _Agamemnon_. And I am almost
induced to think it might originally have belonged to Stanley, who made a
similar use of it to what Morell did. Many of the emendations are _still
inedited_. This valuable volume, therefore, is of great interest, (1) from
the vast number of MSS. readings, and (2) from its having been formerly in
the possession of Dr. Morell, and the circumstances above mentioned. It is
a very large and clean copy of the now scarce edition of H. Stephens; and
your bibliographical readers will be astonished to hear I purchased it for
_one shilling_! I may mention I showed it to the Bishop of London and Dr.
Wordsworth, Canon of Westminster, who were both interested with it. The
latter showed me in return several volumes of MSS. collections for a new
edition of Æschylus, made by his lamented brother the late Mr. John
Wordsworth, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, perhaps the profoundest
Greek scholar next to Porson the University of Cambridge ever possessed,
and who so ably reviewed Professor Scholefield's Æschylus in the
_Philological Museum_. The classical world can never sufficiently regret
that death prevented us from receiving at his hands a first-rate edition of
this noble poet, as he had been at much pains in travelling all over the
Continent, and examining all the MSS. extant; and from his known partiality
to the author, and {605} vast learning, would doubtless have done ample
justice to his task.
RICHARD HOOPER.
St. Stephen's, Westminster.
* * * * *
ON A PASSAGE IN THE "MERCHANT OF VENICE," ACT III. SC. 2.
The passage in which I am about to propose some verbal corrections has
already been in part examined by your correspondent A. E. B. in p. 483. of
this volume; but the points, except one, to which I advert, have not been
touched by that gentleman. The first folio reads thus:
"Thus ornament is but the _guiled_ shore
To a most dangerous sea, the beauteous scarfe
Vailing an Indian _beautie_; In a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To intrap the wisest. Therefore then, thou gaudie gold,
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee,
Nor none of thee, thou _pale_ and common drudge
Tweene man and man; but thou, thou meager lead,
Which rather threatnest than doth promise ought,
Thy palenesse moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I, joy be the consequence."
The word _guiled_ in the first line is printed _guilded_ in the second
folio, the form in which _gilded_ appears often in the old copies. I have
no doubt that this is the true reading, and it would obviate the difficulty
of supposing that Shakspeare wrote guil_ed_ for guil_ing_.
In Henry Peacham's _Minerva Britanna_, 1612, p. 207., of _deceitful_ "court
favour" it is said:
"She beares about a holy-water brush,
Wherewith her bountie round about she throwes
Fair promises, good wordes, and gallant showes:
Herewith a knot of _guilded_ hookes she beares," &c.
Notwithstanding your correspondent's ingenious argument to show that
_beautie_ in the third line may be the true reading, I cannot but think
that it is a mistake of the compositor caught from _beauteous_ in the
preceding line; and that _gypsie_ was the word used by the poet, who thus
designates Cleopatra. The words in their old form might well be confused.
For "thou _pale_ and common drudge," in the seventh line, I unhesitatingly
read "thou _stale_ and common drudge;" and, by so doing, avoid the
repetition of the same epithet to silver and lead. It is evident that the
epithet applied to silver should be a depreciating one; while _paleness_ is
said to _move more than eloquence_. The following passage in _King Henry
IV._, Part I. Act III. Sc. 2. confirms this reading:
"So _common_ hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So _stale_ and cheap."
To obviate the repetition, Warburton altered _paleness_ to _plainness_, but
_paleness_ was the appropriate epithet for lead. Thus, Baret has,
"_Palenesse or wannesse_ like lead. Ternissure."
And in _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 5., we have:
"Unwieldly, slow, heavy and _pale as lead_."
With these simple and, most of them, obvious corrections, I submit the
passage to the impartial consideration of those who with me think that our
immortal poet, so consummate a master of English, has been here, as
elsewhere, rendered obscure, if not absurd, by the blunders of the printer.
It will then run thus:
"Thus ornament is but the _gilded_ shore
To a most dangerous sea: the beauteous scarf
Veiling an Indian _gipsy_; in a word,
The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold
Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee:
Nor none of thee, thou _stale_ and common drudge
'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
Which rather threat'nest than doth promise aught,
Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence,
And here choose I; joy be the consequence!"
I may just observe, that in _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II. Sc. 2., the
quarto copies have printed _pale_ for _stale_, which is corrected in the
folio.
S. W. SINGER.
* * * * *
EPISODE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.
_Mademoiselle de Sombreuil and the Glass of Blood._
"... In the Abbaye, Sombreuil, the venerable Governor of the Invalides,
was brought up to the table, and Maillard had pronounced the words 'à
la Force,' when the Governor's daughter, likewise a prisoner, rushed
through pikes and sabres, clasped her old father in her arms so tightly
that none could separate her from him, and made such piteous cries and
prayers that some were touched. She vowed that her father was no
aristocrat, that she herself hated aristocrats. But to put her to a
further proof, or to indulge their bestial caprices, the ruffians
presented to her a cup full of blood, and said 'Drink! drink of the
blood of the aristocrats, and your father shall be saved!' The lady
took the horrible cup, and drank and the monsters kept their promise."
Thus, in relating the massacres of September, writes the author of Knight's
_Pictorial Hist. of Engl._ (Reign of Geo. III., vol. iii. p. 160.); and
thus tradition has handed down to us this most horrible episode of the
first French revolution; one which made so deep an impression on my own
mind, that the scene was always uppermost whenever the atrocities committed
during that eventful period of French history were under consideration.
This impression, I am glad to say, has now been removed by M. Granier de
Cassagnac, who (_Histoire du Directoire_) states that the tradition is not
founded on fact; and as it is the first denial of the event which has come
under my notice, I send you the substance of the evidence which M. de
Cassagnac brings forward in support of his statement:-- {606}
1. The Marquise de Fausse-Lendry, in her work, _Quelques-uns des Fruits
amers de la Révolution_, does not make any allusion to the fact, although
she was in the same chamber with Mlle. de Sombreuil, and relates her heroic
devotion to her father.
2. Peltier, who was in Paris at the time, and published his _Histoire de la
Révolution du 10 Août_ early in 1793, does not say a word as to the
occurrence.
3. The report of Piette, which was drawn up in Mlle. de Sombreuil's favour,
and from details supplied by herself, is completely silent on the matter.
4. Being arrested with her father, and her younger brother, Mlle. de
Sombreuil was taken to the Prison de la Bourbe on the 31st of December,
1793. One of the prisoners thus notices the event in his journal:
"Du 11 Nivôse, an II.
"L'on amena aussi a famille Sombreuil, le père, le fils, et la fille:
tout le monde sait que cette courageuse citoyenne se précipita, dans
les journées du mois de Septembre, entre son père et le fer des
assassins, et parvint à l'arracher de leurs mains. Depuis, sa tendresse
n'avait fait que s'accroître, et il n'est sorte de soins qu'elle ne
prodiguât à son père, malgré les horribles convulsions qui la
tourmentaient tous les mois, pendant trois jours, depuis cette
lamentable époque. Quand elle parut au salon, tous les yeux se fixèrent
sur elle et se remplirent de larmes."--_Tableau des Prisons de Paris
sous Robespierre_, p. 93.
Here again, not a word about the glass of blood, although the narrative was
written at no very distant period from the occurrences of September.
Maton de la Varennes, in his _Hist. particulière des Evènemens_, written
subsequent to the events of Fructidor, year V., is enthusiastic in his
praise of Mlle. de S.'s devotion; but says not a word as to the horrible
sacrifice by which she is represented to have purchased her father's life.
The tradition is found for the first time in print in a note to Legouvé's
_Mérite des Femmes_, which appeared in 1801; and the subject has been
consecrated by the pen of the exiled poet Victor Hugo, in an ode to Mlle.
de Sombreuil. Since then M. Thiers, without further looking into the
matter, has given place to it in his _Hist. de la Révolut. Française_:
Victor Hugo's lines are the following:--
"S'élançant au travers des armes:
--Mes amis, respectez ses jours!
--Crois-tu nous fléchir par tes larmes?
--Oh! je vous bénirai toujours!
C'est sa fille qui vous implore;
Rendez-le moi; qu'il vive encore!
--Vois-tu le fer déjà levé;
Crains d'irriter notre colère;
Et si tu veux sauver ton père,
Bois ce sang....--Mon père est sauvé!"
The subsequent history of this unfortunate family was this. M. de Sombreuil
and his youngest son perished on the scaffold, the 10th June, 1794. The
elder brother, Charles de Sombreuil, was shot at Vannes in June, 1795,
after the Quiberon expedition. Leaving prison and France, after the 9th
Thermidor, Mlle. de S. married an emigrant, the Comte de Villelume, who,
under the Restoration, became governor of the Invalides at Avignon, at
which place she died in 1823.
PHILIP S. KING.
* * * * *
MILTON INDEBTED TO TACITUS.
There is perhaps nothing in "Lycidas" which has so commended itself to the
memory and lips of men, as that exquisite strain of tender regret and
pathetic despondency in which occur the lines--
"Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise
(That last infirmity of noble mind)
To scorn delights, and live laborious days."
It is with no desire to impair our admiration of these noble lines that I
would ask, if that graceful glorifying of Fame as "the last infirmity of
noble minds" was not suggested by the profound remark of Tacitus, in his
character of the stoical republican, Helvidius Priscus (_Hist._, l. iv. c.
6.):
"Erant, quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus
cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur."
The great Englishman has condensed and intensified the expression of the
concise and earnest Roman. This is one of those delightful obligations
which repay themselves: Milton has more than returned the favour of the
borrowed thought by lending it a heightened expression.
THOMAS H. GILL.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Note by Warton on Aristotle's "Poetics."_--Some of your correspondents
having expressed a wish that the MS. remarks of eminent scholars, when met
with by your readers, might be communicated to the world through your
pages, I beg to send you the following observations, signed _J. Warton_,
which I have found on the blank leaf of a copy of Aristotle's _Poetics_
(edit. of Ruddimannos, Edinb. 1731):--
"To attempt to understand poetry without having diligently digested
this treatise, would be as absurd and impossible as to pretend to a
skill in geometry without having studied Euclid. The fourteenth,
fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters, wherein he has pointed out the
properest methods of exciting terror and pity, convince us that he was
intimately acquainted with those objects which most forcibly affect the
heart. The prime excellence of this precious treatise is the scholastic
precision and philosophical clearness with which the subject is
handled, without any address to {607} the passions or imagination. It
is to be lamented that the part of the Poeticks in which he has given
precepts for comedy did not likewise descend to posterity."
A considerable number of notes, in the same handwriting, are also in the
volume.
J. M.
Oxford.
_Misappropriated Quotation._--I have heard the following passage of Lord
Bacon's, Essay VIII., and by a Cambridge D.D. too, so far as the word
"fortune," attributed to Paley:
"He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for
they are impediments to great enterprises. The best works of the
greatest merit for the public have proceeded from unmarried and
childless men."
B. B.
_The God Arciacon._--In a _Descriptive Account of the Antiquities in the
Grounds and in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society_, drawn up
by the learned Curator of the antiquities, at page 20. I find the following
inscription and explanation:--
"N. III. An altar recently discovered in the rubble foundation, under
one of the pillars of the church of St. Dionis, Walmgate, York. It is
inscribed:
DEO
ARCIACON
ET N. AVG. SI
MAT. VITALIS
ORD V. S. LM.
Which may be read thus: DEO Arciacon et Numini Augusti Simatius Vitalis
Ordovix Votum solvit libens merito, _i.e._ To the God Arciacon and to
the Divinity of Augustus, Simatius Vitalis, one of the Ordovices,
discharges his vow willingly, deservedly--namely, by dedicating this
altar. There is nothing in this inscription to indicate its date, or
the Emperor to whose divinity, in part, the altar is dedicated. The god
Arciacon, whose name occurs in no other inscription, was probably one
of those local deities to whom the Roman legions were so prone to pay
religious reverence, especially if in the attributes ascribed to them
they bore any resemblance to the gods of their own country. If the
reading and interpretation of ORD be right, Vitalis was a Briton; and
Arciacon may have been a deity acknowledged by the Ordovices, who
occupied the northern parts of Wales."
In the name ARCIACON I fancy that I see in a Latinized form the British
words ARCH IACHAWR, _i.e._ the Supreme Healer. _Arch_ has the same meaning
in Welsh as it has in the English and several other languages. In
combination it is shortened to _Ar_, as in Yr Arglwdd Dduw, the Lord God.
My conjecture is, that the Britons may have worshipped a God whose
attributes resembled those of the Æsculapius of the Greeks. I hope that
some of the contributors to "N. & Q." will be so kind as to give some
information on this subject.
[Inverted hand symbol]
_Gat-tothed._--I do not know whether this mysterious word in the
description of the "Wife of Bath[3]," has been satisfactorily explained
since the time of Tyrwhitt; but perhaps the following passage may suggest a
new reading in addition to "cat-tothed" and "gap-tothed," which he gives in
his note on _Canterbury Tales_, p. 470.:
"The Doctor deriveth his pedigree from Grono ap Heylyn, who descended
from Brocknel Skythrac, one of the princes of Powis-land, in whose
family was ever observed that one of them had a _gag_-tooth, and the
same was a notable omen of good fortune."--Barnard's _Life of Heylyn_,
p. 75., reprinted in _Heyl. Hist. Ref._ Eccl. Hist. Soc., 1. xxxii.
Query, What was a _gag-tooth_? The "Wife" herself says,
"Gat-tothed I was, and that became my wele,
I hold the print of Seinte Venus sele."--6185-6.
J. C. R.
[Footnote 3: "Bath" corrected from "Both"--Transcriber.]
_Goujere._--The usage of this word by Shakspeare (in the Second Part of
_Henry IV._) is another proof that he took refuge in Cornwall, when he fled
from the scene of his deerstalking danger. The _Goujere_ is the old Cornish
name of the Fiend, or the Devil; and is still in use among the folk words
of the West.
C. E. H. MORWENSTOW.
_The Ten Commandments in Ten Lines._--In looking over the Registers of the
Parish of Laneham, Notts, last April, I discovered on one of the leaves the
Commandments with the above title. It is signed "Richard Christian, 1689:"
he was vicar at that time.
"Have thou no other Gods Butt me.
Unto no Image bow thy knee
Take not the name of God in vain
Doe not thy Sabboth day profaine
Honour thy ffather and Mother too
And see y^t thou no murder doo
ffrom vile Adultry keep the cleane
And Steale not tho thy state be meane
Bear no ffalse Witness, shun y^t Blott
What is thy neighbour's Couet not.
Whrite these thy Laws Lord in my heart
And Lett me not from them depart."
S. WISWOULD.
_Vellum-bound Books._--In a list of thirty books printed for T. Carnan and
F. Newbery, and issued in 1773, I find the phrase _two volumes bound in one
in the vellum manner_ in seven instances; also, _four volumes bound in two
in the vellum manner_; and, _six volumes bound in three in the vellum
manner_. In other cases we have only the word _bound_ or _sewed_. I have a
suspicion that the phrase _in the vellum manner_ may have some obsolete
meaning; and submit this note to the consideration of those who are in
search of a _vellum-bound Junius_.
BOLTON CORNEY.
{608}
* * * * *
Queries.
THOMAS GILL, THE BLIND MAN OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY.
Putting in order this morning a mass of pamphlets, which my women-kind
threaten to sweep into the kitchen unless more _tidily_ kept, I came upon a
few poetical tracts by "Thomas Gill, the Blind Man of St. Edmundsbury." Not
having had any previous acquaintance with this poetical moralist, I have
looked over the lot; but beyond the above description of himself upon their
titles, they afford little information regarding their author.
There is, however, proof, in _The Blind Man's Case at London_, 1711, that
Gill was a character in his day. In what he loftily calls "The Argument" to
these eight pages of doggrel, he says:
"The Blind Man of Bury by the Persuasions of his Printer, and some
other supposed Friends, takes his Wife with him to London, with an
Intention to settle there, where they met with so many Inconveniences,
and so great Difficulties and Charges, as soon disgusted them with the
Place."
Hereupon the blind man, finding himself disappointed in his expectations
of, apparently, a larger sphere for his begging operations, opens out upon
the metropolis in a fine round style of abuse in his "Letter to his Good
Friend and Benefactor at Bury."
Desirous that my successor in the O---- library should have the advantage
of all the information I can collect, in regard to the bibliographical
curiosities therein contained, I am induced to avail myself of the medium
your pages afford to inquire whether any of your Suffolk antiquaries can
give me, or point out where I can help myself to, any particulars touching
my new friend with an old face.
J. O.
* * * * *
BRONZE MEDALS.
Having applied in vain to several distinguished numismatists respecting
certain bronze medals in my cabinet, which have baffled my own researches,
I now beg to seek for information through the medium of "N. & Q.," to which
I have been already much indebted; and have little doubt but that among
your many intelligent correspondents some one will be found to solve my
difficulties.
The medals to which I refer, and which I will describe very briefly, are
the following; and I am desirous of obtaining some account of the persons
in whose honour they were struck:--
1. _Astalia._ Size (Mionnet's scale), 16. "Diva Julia Astalia." Bust to the
left. Rev. "Unicum for. et pud. Exemplum." A phoenix rising from its ashes.
Probably not later than the early part of the sixteenth century.
2. _Conestagius._ Size, 15½. "Hieronimus Conestagius, MDXC." Bust in armour
to the right, with ruff round the neck. Beneath, "MART. S***." Rev. A pen
and a sword in saltire. An oval in high relief, of Italian workmanship.
3. _Meratus._ Size, 13½. "Franciscus Meratus I.P.F." Bearded bust to the
right. Rev. "Me Duce Tutus Eris." A figure seated holding a book in its
right hand. Query the meaning of the initials after the name?
4. _Aragonia._ Size, 13. "D. Maria Aragonia." Bust to the right, with a
crown falling from her head. Rev. None.
5. _Hanna._ Size, 18. "Martinus de Hanna." Bust in a gown, to the right.
Rev. "Spes mea in Deo est." A full-length figure, with hands clasped and
raised towards heaven: apparently a foreign Protestant divine.
6. _Corsi._ Size, 20. "Laura Corsi March. Salviati." Hooded bust to the
left, with crucifix suspended from the neck. Beneath, "MDCCVIII." Rev.
"Mens immota manet." Full-length female figure, with helmet on her head,
leaning on a spear round which a serpent is twined, with a stag by her
side. In the background, on one side, is represented a castle on a wooded
height; on the other, a vessel is seen labouring in a storm. A striking
medal; and the lady's portrait makes one feel interested to learn her
history, which seemingly ought to be known: but I must confess my ignorance
even whether the Marquisate of Salviati be in Italy or Sicily.
JOHN J. A. BOASE.
P.S.--John de Silvâ, Count de Portalegre, who accompanied Don Sebastian in
his expedition to Africa against Muley Moloch, published at Genoa in 1585 a
work entitled _Dell' Unione del Regno di Portogallo alla Corona di
Castiglia_, under the name of _Conestaggio_; but not having the book by me,
I do not know whether the Christian name "Geronimo" also appears.
[The remainder of the title-page reads, "Istoria Del Sig. Ieronimo De
Franchi Conestaggio Gentilhuomo Genovese."]
* * * * *
ACWORTH QUERIES.
In the church of St. Mary Luton, Beds, there is a brass slab bearing the
figures of a knight and his two wives, with the following inscription:
"Pray for the soules of John Acworth Squyer and Alys and Amy his wyfes,
which John deceased the xvij day of March the yer of our Lord
M'v^cxiij. On whose souls Jhu have mercy."
For arms, he bore quarterly, 1st and 4th, erm. on a chief indented gu. 3
coronets or. 2nd and 3rd, or, between 3 roses a chev. gu.
In the reign of Henry VIII. there was one Johan Acworth (a lady of the
bedchamber to Katherine Howard), who married Sir John Bulmer, and went to
reside at York.
John Acworth was, I believe, succeeded by his son, George Acworth, who
married Margaret, the {609} daughter of -- Wilborefoss, of Durham, Esquire,
and had issue a daughter, Johan Acworth. This Johan Acworth married Sir
Edward Waldegrave, the youngest son of George Waldegrave, of Smalbridge,
Essex, Esq. I do not know if George Acworth had any other issue.
In 1560 there was a George Acworth who was public orator of Cambridge. He
was formerly of Peterhouse, and took his D.C.L. at St. John's, Oxon. He was
in his early days the friend and companion of Archbishop Parker. In 1576,
he was appointed Master of the Faculties, Judge of the Prer. Court of
Ireland. He is said to have died in Ireland, but where or when I do not
know.
There was another of the name, Allin Acworth, formerly of Magdalen Hall,
Oxon, and Vicar of St. Nicholas, Rochester, Kent. He was a sufferer by the
Act of Uniformity, having been, in consequence of that Act, expelled his
vicarage in 1666. Of his subsequent history I find no trace.
If any of your correspondents can give me any information relative to any
of the above, their descent, or intermarriages, I shall be much obliged.
The name is, I believe, an uncommon one, and is only borne, as far as I can
learn, by one family now in existence. There was, however, another family
of the name formerly belonging to Suffolk, who bore for arms: Sa. a griffin
segreant armed and langued or. But I cannot find any trace of their
residence, &c., or when they flourished or became extinct.
I believe there was a Baron of the name in the reign of one of the early
Henries, but unfortunately can discover no certain information about him.
The above particulars are wanted for genealogical purposes.
G. B. A.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
"_Row the boat, Norman._"--In the _Chronicles of England_ collected by John
Stow, and printed in 1580, is the following passage:--
"1454. John Norman, Draper, Maior. Before thys time the Maiors,
Aldermen, and Commoners of the Citie of London were wonte all to ride
to Westminster when the Maior should take hys charge, but this Maior
was rowed thyther by water; for the whiche the watermen made of hym a
song, 'Rowe the boate, Norman,' &c."
Are any of your correspondents in possession of the words of this song? or
is the tune to which it was sung known?
T. G. H.
_The Hereditary Standard Bearer._--In Crawford's _Peerage of Scotland_ it
is mentioned, that in the year 1107 Alexander I., by a special grant,
appointed a member of the Carron family (to whom he gave the name of
Scrimgeour, for his valour in a _sharp fight_) the office of Hereditary
Standard Bearer. Can you inform me how the Scrimgeours were deprived of
this honour? The family is not extinct, and yet I see the Hereditary Royal
Standard Bearer is now a Wedderburne, and the Earl of Lauderdale is also
Hereditary Standard Bearer. There surely must have been injustice committed
some time to cause such confusion. When and how did it take place?
T. G. H.
_Walton's Angler; Seth's Pillars; May-butter; English Guzman._--In Walton's
_Complete Angler_, in the beginning of the discourse between Piscator and
Venator, the former, expatiating on the antiquity of the art of angling,
gives as one of the traditions of its origin, that Seth, one of the sons of
Adam,
"Left it engraven on those pillars which he erected, and trusted to
preserve the knowledge of the mathematics, music, and the rest of that
precious knowledge, and those useful arts which, by God's appointment
or allowance, and his noble industry, were thereby preserved from
perishing in Noah's flood."
What is the tradition of Seth's Pillars?
Piscator in chap. v. says:
"But I promise to tell you more of the fly-fishing for a trout, which I
may have time enough to do, for you see it rains May-butter."
What is May-butter, or the origin of the saying?
In the amusing contest between the gypsies related in the same chapter,
these worthies were too wise to go to law about the residuary shilling, and
did therefore choose their choice friends Rook and Shark, and our late
English Guzman, to be their arbitrators and umpires.
What is the explanation of these names? There appears to be some natural
consequence to this choice, for the decision seems to have been arrived at
by the act of reference. The notes explain that by "our English Guzman"[4]
was intended one James, a noted thief. I suppose his prototype was Don
Guzman D'Alfarache; but no interpretation of the passage is given. Would it
be found to have reference to some passage in the book referred to in the
note?
ANON.
[Footnote 4: [Sir Harris Nicolas says: "The allusion is to a work which had
appeared three years before: _The English Gusman; or, the History of that
unparalleled Thief, James Hind_, written by G. F. [George Fidge] 4to.,
London, 1652. Hind appears to have been the greatest thief of his age; the
son of a saddler at Chipping Norton, and apprenticed to a butcher. In the
rebellion he attached himself to the royal cause, and was actively engaged
in the battles of Worcester and Warrington. In 1651, he was arrested by
order of parliament, under the name of Brown, 'at one Denzy's, a barber
over against St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street;' which circumstance may
have introduced him to Walton's notice."--ED.]]
{610}
_Radish Feast._--I copied the following from the north door of St. Ebbe's
Church, Oxford. Can any of your correspondents explain the origin and
meaning of this feast?
"_St. Ebbe's Parish._
"The annual meeting for the election of Church-wardens for this Parish
will be held in the vestry of the Parish Church on Easter Tuesday, at 4
o'clock in the afternoon.
"WM. BRUNNER, }
WM. FISHER, } Churchwardens.
"Dated 10 April, 1852.
"The Radish Feast will be at the Bull Inn, New Street, immediately
after the Vestry."
R. R. ROWE.
Cambridge.
_What Kind of Drink is Whit?_--In going over the famous old mansion
Cothele, near Tavistock, the other day, I saw, among other primæval
crockery, three pot-bellied jugs, two of which were inscribed "Sack, 1646;"
and the third, a smaller one, "Whit, 1646." What kind of drink is _whit_?
W. G. C.
_"Felix natu," &c._--
"Felix natu, felicior vitâ, felicissimus morte."
Of whom was this said, and by whom?
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia.
"_Gutta cavat lapidem._"--Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me whence the
following verse is taken?
"Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi sed sæpe cadendo."
The first half, I know, is the commencement of a line in _Ov. ex Ponto_,
Ep. x. v. 5., which concludes with--
"... consumitur annulus usu."
I have seen it quoted, but no reference given.
A. W.
Kilburn.
_Punch and Judy._--Are any of your readers of "N. & Q." not aware that
_Punch and Judy_ is a corruption, both in word and deed, of _Pontius cum
Judæis_, one of the old mysteries, the subject of which was Pontius Pilate
with the Jews; and particularly in reference to St. Matt. xxvii. 19.? I
should be glad to hear of some similar instances.
BOEOTICUS.
Edgmond, Salop.
_Sir John Darnall_ (Vol. v., pp. 489. 545.).--Can either of your
correspondents, E. N. or G., inform me whether the Sir John Darnall, who is
the subject of their communications, is descended from John Darnall, who
was a Baron of the Exchequer in 1548, or give me any particulars of the
"birth parentage, education, life, character, and behaviour" of the latter?
EDWARD FOSS.
_The Chevalier St. George._--Can any of the numerous readers of "N. & Q."
inform me where ample and minute accounts, either in print or MS., of the
Life and Court of the Chevalier St. George, particularly from the death of
James II. to his own death, can be obtained; also, of his ministers of
state, personal attendants, &c.? I have already examined such of the Stuart
Papers as have been published by Mr. Glover, and by Brown in his _History
of the Highland Clans_.
J. W. H.
_Declaration of 2000 Clergymen._--Several allusions have been lately made
at Parliament to the 2000 clergymen who signed a Declaration calling in
question the Queen's supremacy. Was a list of these clergymen ever
published? If so, in what newspaper or periodical? What were the exact
words of the declaration?
RUSTICUS.
_MS. "De Humilitate."_--Can any of your correspondents give me any
information as to the date, authorship, or value of a MS. that has lately
fallen into my hands? It is a thin quarto, beautifully written upon
parchment. The title page is wanting, and the MS. commences with the index:
but the title of the work is _De Humilitate_. It consists of twenty-four
chapters. The heading of the first two is as follows:
"Incipit prologus in libello qui inscribitur de humilitate,
Cap. I. Quam perniciosum sit et Deo odibile superbiæ initium, et
qualiter ac de quibus gloriandum sit.
II. Quod sit superbia fugienda et sectanda humilitas, quæ in sui vera
cognitione fundata consistit," &c.
The top of the first page has a rich initial letter; and at the bottom a
coat of arms: Crest, a leopard rampant; shield, argent, 3 bars gules, on a
chief azure 3 fleur de lys or. The heading of each chapter is written in
red ink.
CEYREP.
_MS. Work on Seals._--Moule, in his _Bibliotheca Heraldica_, states that
there was at the date of the publication of his work (1822), in the library
at Stowe, a MS. work, two volumes, folio, by Anstis, on the Antiquity and
Use of Seals. Can any of your readers inform me in whose possession this
work now is?
A. O. D. D.
_Sir George Carew._--Sir George Carew, the able commander and crafty
statesman of Queen Elizabeth's time, was created Earl of Totness. His
grandfather mortgaged his ancestral estate of Carew, in Pembrokeshire, to
Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who, with its subsequent possessors, Sir John Perrot
and the Earl of Essex, made great additions to Carew Castle, the
magnificent remains of which entitle it to be called the ruined Windsor of
Wales.
The Carews then pushed their fortunes in Ireland, and endeavoured to
recover the "Marquisate of Cork" on an obsolete and false claim. {611}
The writer wishes for an accurate pedigree of Sir George Carew, showing his
relationship to Sir Peter Carew, who was buried at Ross, and to Sir Peter
who was killed at the skirmish of Glendalough in 1581.
H.
_Docking Horses' Tails._--I should be glad to learn when the practice of
docking horses' tails commenced in England, or in any country of Europe,
and what was the immediate cause of this amputation? I cannot trace in the
plates of Froissart, or others of a later date, any indication of this
practice, and in them there are no tails lopped of their fair proportions.
What other nations besides the English have ever docked their horses'
tails; and where is any account to be found of their reasons for so doing?
If any of your correspondents will answer these Queries, I shall feel
obliged.
TAIL.
_St. Albans, William, Abbot of._--Archbishop Morton addressed a monition in
1490 to William, Abbot of St. Albans. It is to be found in Wilkin's
_Concilia_, iii. 632., and is extracted from Archbishop Morton's
_Register_, fol. 22. b. Now, in Tanner's _Notitia_, and in Dugdale's
_Monasticon_, it is stated that William Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans,
died in 1484; and that the chair was vacant until 1492, when Thomas Ramryge
was elected abbot. Archbishop Morton's original letter is, I believe, to be
seen in the register at Lambeth, and its date is distinctly 1490. This
date, moreover, agrees with the Excerpta of Dr. Ducarel in the British
Museum.
Can any of your readers solve this difficulty for me, as I am anxious to
know immediately whether I may safely identify "William," the notorious
evil-liver of Morton's monition, with "Wallington," who bears a respectable
character in Dugdale's _Monasticon_.
L. H. J. TONNA.
_Jeremy Taylor on Friendship._--
"I am grieved at every sad story I hear. I am troubled when I hear of a
pretty bride murdered in her bride-chamber by an ambitious and enraged
rival," &c.--_Jeremy Taylor on Friendship_, p. 37, fol. Lond. 1674.
This was written A.D. 1657: what is the case referred to?
C. P. E.
_Colonel or Major-General Lee._--The dates of his letters tend to prove
that Lee was on the continent in 1770, and this is apparently borne out by
the "memoirs" published both in America and in England. But Dr. Girdleston,
in his strange work published in 1813, asserts that on the 20th April,
1770, at the christening of Sir Charles Davis's eldest son, Charles Sydney,
Lee was at Rushbrooke in Suffolk. The proof, however, is not adduced in a
simple and straightforward manner. At page 6, Dr. Girdlestone tells us that
some person, not named, remembers that Lee stood sponsor, &c.; at page 7,
that the register proves that the baptism took place on the 20th April,
1770; and at page 13, that the register proves that Lee was on the 20th
April "in that church." This last is the only fact bearing on the question
at issue. Will any of your intelligent correspondents residing at Bury
favour you with a copy of the register of the baptism of Charles Sydney on
the 20th April, 1770?
C. M. L.
"_Roses all that's fair adorn._"--Can you inform me where I can find a copy
of an old poem, which begins as follows:
"Roses all that's fair adorn,
Rosy-finger'd is the morn," &c.;
since I have searched in vain for it.
W. S.
* * * * *
Minor Queries Answered.
_Donne._--In Walton's _Life of Donne_ it is said that Donne left behind
him--
"The resultance of 1400 authors, most of them abridged and analysed
with his own hand; he left also some six score of sermons, all written
with his own hand."
Can any one tell me what has become of these MSS., and where they are now
to be found if they still exist?
AJAX.
[The Sermons have been published in three volumes folio: the first
printed in 1640, containing eighty; the second in 1649, containing
fifty; and the third in 1660, containing twenty-six.]
_Dr. Evans._--Who was Dr. Evans, author of the _Sketch of Christian
Denominations_? It would not be easy to ascertain, from internal evidence,
what "denomination" he was himself! Who is the modern editor, the Rev.
James Bransby?
A. A. D.
[Mr. Evans was born at Uske in Monmouthshire in 1767, studied at the
Bristol Academy, and afterwards at the Universities of Aberdeen and
Edinburgh. In 1792 he became pastor of a congregation of General
Baptists in Worship Street, London; and opened an academy for youth in
Hoxton, which was subsequently removed to Islington. In 1819 he
obtained the diploma of Doctor of Laws from Brown University, in Rhode
Island, America. His death took place Jan. 25, 1827. In doctrinal
matters, we believe he was a mitigated Socinian; and we believe his
Editor, who was a schoolmaster at Carnarvon, held the same theological
views.]
* * * * *
Replies.
CARLING SUNDAY--ROMAN FUNERAL PILE.
(Vol. iii., p. 449.; Vol. iv., p. 381.; Vol. v., p. 67.)
At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and many other places in the North of England, grey
peas, after having been steeped a night in water, are fried with butter,
given away, and eaten at a kind of entertainment on the Sunday preceding
Palm Sunday, which {612} was formerly called Care or Carle Sunday, as may
be yet seen in some of our old almanacks. They are called _carlings_,
probably, as we call the presents at fairs, _fairings_. Marshal, in his
_Observations on the Saxon Gospels_, tells us that "the Friday on which
Christ was crucified is called in German both Gute Freytag and Carr
Freytag;" that the word _karr_ signifies a satisfaction for a fine or
penalty; and that Care or Carr Sunday was not unknown to the English in his
time, at least to such as lived among old people in the country.
In the old Roman calendar I find it observed on this day (the 12th of
March), that a dole is made of soft beans. I can hardly entertain a doubt
but that our custom is derived from hence. It was usual among the Romanists
to give away beans in the doles at funerals; it was also a rite in the
funeral ceremonies of heathen Rome. There is a great deal of learning in
Erasmus's _Adages_ concerning _the religious use of beans_, which were
thought to belong to the dead. An observation which he gives us of Pliny
concerning Pythagoras's interdiction of the pulse, is highly remarkable. It
is "that beans contain the souls of the dead." For which cause also they
were used in the Parentalia. Plutarch also, he tells us, held that pulse to
be of the highest efficacy for invoking the manes. Ridiculous and absurd as
these superstitions may appear, it is yet certain that our _carlings_
deduce their origin from thence. On the interdiction of this pulse by
Pythagoras, the following occurs in Spencer _De Leg. Hebr._, lib. i. p.
1154.:--
"Quid enim Pythagoras, ejusque præceptores, Ægypti Mystæ, adeo
leguminum, fabarum imprimis, esum et aspectum fugerent; nisi quod cibi
mortuorum coenis et exequiis proprii, adeoque polluti et abominandi
haberentur," &c.--Brand's _Observations on Popular Antiquities_,
Ellis's ed., vol. i. pp. 95-99.
In the notes in loco is mentioned "a practice of the Greek church, not yet
out of use, to set boyled corne before the singers at their commemorations
of the dead," v. _Gregorii Opusc._, p. 128. The length of this reply will
not admit of my here enumerating the other emblems of the resurrection of
the body used by the fathers and other writers. I shall therefore conclude
with an extract from Rennel's _Geographical System of Herodotus_, p. 632.,
relating to the Pythagorean prohibition of beans:--
"The Bengalese have the _Nymphæa nelumbo_ in their lakes and
inundations; and its fruit certainly resembles at all points that of
the second species of water-lily described by Herodotus; that is, it
has the form of the orbicular wasp's nest; and contains kernels of the
size and shape of a small bean. Amongst the Bramins this plant is held
_sacred_; but the kernels, which are of a better flavour than almonds,
are almost universally eaten by the Hindoos.
"It may, however, be a question whether it has always been the case;
and whether in the lapse of time that has taken place since the days of
Pythagoras (who is supposed to have visited India, as well as Chaldæa,
Persia, and Egypt), a relaxation in discipline may not have occasioned
the law to be dispensed with; instances enough of a like kind being to
be met with elsewhere. _Kyamos_ in the Greek language appears to
signify, not only a bean, but also the fruit or bean of the _Nymphæa
nelumbo_. Is it not probable then that the mystery of the famous
inhibition of Pythagoras, an enigma of which neither the ancients nor
the moderns have hitherto been able to give a rational solution, may be
discovered in those curious records of Sanscrit erudition, which the
meritorious labours of some of our countrymen in India are gradually
bringing to light?"
BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.
* * * * *
HART AND MOHUN.
(Vol. v., p. 466.)
In Downes' _Roscius Anglicanus_, edit. 1789, mention is made of these two
actors, thus:
"Hart was apprentice to Robinson, an actor who lived before the Civil
Wars; he afterwards had a captain's commission, and fought for Charles
I. He acted women's parts when a boy.
"Mohun was brought up under Robinson, as Hart and others were: in his
youth he acted Bellamente, in _Love's Cruelty_, which part he retained
after the Restoration."--Page 10.
It appears to have been the practice of the old actors--the "master
actors," as they were called--to take youths as apprentices, and to
initiate them in female characters, as a preparatory step towards something
weightier. Richard Robinson, above-mentioned, _circa_ 1616, usually
performed female characters himself.[5] In 1647 his name occurs, with
several others, prefixed to the dedication of the first folio edition of
Fletcher's _Plays_. He served in the king's army in the civil wars, and was
killed in an engagement by Harrison, who refused him quarter, and who was
afterwards hanged at Charing Cross.
The patent of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, of which Mr. Hart and Major
Mohun formed part of the company, having descended from Thomas to Charles
Killigrew--
"In 1682 he joined it to Dr. Davenant's patent, whose company acted
then in Dorset Garden, which, upon the union, were created the King's
Company: after which Mr. Hart acted no more, having a pension to the
day of his death from the United Company. I must not omit to mention
the parts in several plays of some of the actors, wherein they excelled
in the performance of them. First, Mr. Hart, in the part of Arbaces, in
_King and no King_; Amintor, in the _Maid's Tagedy_; Othello; Rollo;
Brutus, in _Julius Cæsar_; Alexander. Towards the latter end of his
acting, if he {613} acted in any one of these but once in a fortnight,
the house was filled as at a new play, especially Alexander; he acting
that with such grandeur and agreeable majesty, that one of the Court
was pleased to honour him with this commendation; that Hart might teach
any king on earth how to comport himself."[6]
In Rymer's _Dissertation on Tragedy_ he is thus noticed:
"The eyes of the audience are prepossessed and charmed by his action,
before aught of the poet can approach their ears; and to the most
wretched of characters Hart gives a lustre which dazzles the sight,
that the deformities of the poet cannot be perceived."
"He was no less inferior in Comedy; as Mosca, in the _Fox_; Don John,
in the _Chances_; Wildblood, in the _Mock Astrologer_; with sundry
other parts. In all the Comedies and Tragedies he was concerned, he
perform'd with that exactness and perfection that not any of his
successors have equall'd him."[7]
It would seem that through Hart's "excellent action" alone Ben Jonson's
_Catiline_ (his own favourite play), which had been condemned on its first
representation, was kept on the stage during the reign of Charles II. With
Hart this play died.
Previous to Nell Gwyn's elevation to royal favour, it is said, upon the
authority of Sir George Etherge, in _Lives of the most celebrated Beauties,
&c._, 1715, she was "protected" by Lacy, and afterwards by Hart. Whether
this be true or not, it is certain that she received instructions in the
Thespian art from both of these gentlemen.
The cause of Hart retiring from the stage was in consequence of his being
dreadfully afflicted with the stone and gravel, "of which he died sometime
after, having a salary of forty shillings a week to the day of his death."
Hart's Christian name was Charles. He is believed by Malone to have been
Shakspeare's great nephew.[8]
Major Mohun remained in the "United Company" after Hart's retirement.
"He was eminent for Volpone; Face, in the _Alchemist_; Melantius, in
the _Maid's Tragedy_; Mardonius, in _King and no King_; Cassius, in
_Julius Cæsar_; Clytus, in _Alexander_; Mithridates, &c. An eminent
poet[9] seeing him act this last, vented suddenly this saying: 'Oh,
Mohun, Mohun! thou little man of mettle, if I should write 100 plays,
I'd write a part for thy mouth.' In short, in all his parts, he was
most accurate and correct."[10]
Rymer remarks:
"We may remember (however we find this scene of Melanthius and Amintor
written in the book) that at the Theater we have a good scene acted;
there is work cut out, and both our Æsopus and Roscius are on the stage
together. Whatever defect may be in Amintor and Melanthius, Mr. Hart
and Mr. Mohun are wanting in nothing. To these we owe what is pleasing
in the scene; and to this scene we may impute the success of the
'_Maid's Tragedy_.'"
Major Mohun's Christian name was Michael.
W. H. LN.
Berwick-on-Tweed.
[Footnote 5: See _The Devil is an Ass_, Act II. Sc. 8.]
[Footnote 6: _Roscius Anglicanus_, p. 23.]
[Footnote 7: Ibid., p. 24.]
[Footnote 8: See _Historical Account of the English Stage_, in Malone's
edition of Shakspeare, vol. i. part ii. p. 278. Lond. 1790.]
[Footnote 9: Thought by Thomas Davies to have been Lee.]
[Footnote 10: _Roscius Anglicanus._]
* * * * *
BURIAL WITHOUT RELIGIOUS SERVICE--BURIAL.
(Vol. v., pp. 466. 549.)
There can be no doubt, I think, that a burial ground, whether parish
churchyard or cemetery, so long as it has been consecrated, or even
licensed by the bishop, is only _legally_ useable for interments performed
according to "the ecclesiastical laws of this realm;" _i.e._ the burial
service, as rubrically directed, must be read by a clergyman over the
corpse. Whether the bishop would have proceeded by law against the
clergyman in Carlile's case, supposing he had desisted from the service
under the protests of the sons, may be questioned; but that he could have
done so is beyond a doubt. The sixty-eighth canon says, that "no minister
shall refuse or delay to bury any corpse that is brought to the church or
churchyard ... in such manner and form as is prescribed in the Book of
Common Prayer. And if he shall refuse, &c., he shall be suspended by the
bishop of the diocese from his ministry by the space of three months." The
consecration, or episcopal licence, seems to tie the burial ground to the
burial service, except in the three cases of persons who die
excommunicated, unbaptised, or by their own hands; and I imagine that a
clergyman would render himself liable to suspension by his bishop, who
either allowed interments to take place in the churchyard without the
burial service, or, on the other hand, used the service in unconsecrated or
unlicensed ground. By the 3 Ja. I. c. 5., there is a penalty for burying a
corpse away from the church; but this law is either repealed or obsolete.
If any services of the church be used by a clergyman, except "according to
order," I imagine that he renders himself liable to penal consequences; but
it may be sometimes thought best to omit them. Sometimes, however, as in
the case of baptisms being allowed in drawing-rooms, there is such an
intentional oversight as is quite indefensible.
The story which I have heard of Baskerville's burial is as follows;--He
died at Birmingham, but was not interred, and his corpse was kept in the
house in which he had lived. After a time this house was sold, and the
purchaser of it became embarrassed by the unexpected discovery that he was
in possession of the old printer's mortal remains. He applied to the
clergyman of {614} the parish for release from his difficulty; and this
gentleman, being a man of the world, said that he was the last person who
ought to have been consulted, but since it was so, the churchyard and the
shades of evening afforded a remedy.
Perhaps it is worth adding, that when Sir W. Page Wood, the late
Solicitor-General, would have brought a bill into parliament to relieve
dissenters from the payment of church rates, on condition that they
consented to forego all claim upon the services of the church, including of
course the burial service, the bargain was declined by them.
ALFRED GATTY.
* * * * *
"QUOD NON FECERUNT BARBARI," ETC.
(Vol. v., p. 559.)
Your correspondent MR. BREEN is mistaken in supposing this "epigram" to
refer to the Barberini spoliation of the Coliseum; it was an equally
important and more sacrilegious theft that aroused Pasquin's satire and
indignation.
Urban VIII. (Matteo Barberini), 1623-44, had just stripped the dome of the
Pantheon of the bronze that adorned it, to construct therewith the
baldacchino over the high altar in St. Peter's. The amount of metal
obtained, says Venuti, was upwards of 450,250 pounds weight; and upon the
principle of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the material thus stolen from the
Madonna was dedicated to the service of San Pietro. Bernini was the artist
employed, from whose taste, perhaps, little better was to be expected; and
the baldacchino, though highly ornamented, richly gilt, and of imposing
dimensions, certainly makes the beholder regret that the metal was moved
from its original position. It was costly enough too, upwards of 20,000l.
having been expended upon its production.
Urban evidently had a practical turn for warfare by no means unusual to the
possessors of the "holy see," for we find that the surplusage of the metal
was cast into cannon for the defence of St. Angelo.
This pope certainly was _one_ of the most unsparing despoilers of the
Coliseum, inasmuch as the huge pile of the Palazzo Barbarini was erected by
him with stone supplied solely from that convenient and inexpensive quarry.
If, however, we reflect that he did but follow the example of many of his
predecessors (Paul II. built the Palazzo di Venezia, and Paul III. the
Farnese, from the same exhaustless supply), and that the Coliseum was not
only much ruined by the "barbarians" during the various sieges of Rome, but
was used as a fortress by the Frangipani in the Middle Ages, the pasquinade
quoted by MR. BREEN would hardly have been applicable to Urban's misdeeds
in that quarter. Nor was the Coliseum at that time consecrated ground, as
it was not till the year 1750 that Benedict XIV., with a view to protect it
from future depredation, dedicated it to the memory of the Christian
martyrs who had perished in its arena. But the Pantheon, consecrated as
early as A.D. 608, under the name of S. Maria Rotonda, had been respected
and spared by all, whether Arian or barb-"arian;" and it was reserved for a
"Santo Padre" of the seventeenth century to despoil a Christian Church, and
himself set an example of sacrilege to the Christian world. Urban was the
sole member of the Barberini family (of Florentine extraction) that ever
attained the papal tiara. The amount of wealth stated to have been amassed
by him during his pontificate appears almost fabulous.
The author of the pasquinade in question is, I believe, unknown.
A. P.
Bayswater.
* * * * *
RESTIVE.
(Vol. v., p. 535.)
I am inclined to think that your correspondents, however deeply they may be
versed in "Folk-Lore," are generally not much acquainted with "Horse-Lore."
Such, at least, is the opinion that is warranted by the extraordinary
nature of the questions (not many in number, it is true) which have been
put in relation to that subject, and of the replies that have been given to
them. In the case now before us, J. R. has only superficially considered
the matter. He takes one out of many definitions "in our dictionaries," and
on that takes his stand. He is manifestly in error. The tempting facility
of referring all words similar in appearance to the same etymon lies at the
root of his mistake; for _restive_, as he will find on more patient
investigation, is by our lexicographers (Richardson, for example) classed
under a different root from _rest_, used to express _quiescence_, or
_repose_. _Restive_, or more properly _restiff_, is equivalent to the
French _rétif_, or Italian _restio_; and, as applied to horses, means those
which resist the will of their rider. Hence, whether in standing stock
still, in running away, in rearing, in plunging, or in kicking, they employ
their natural means of defence against the control of the cavalier, and may
equally be called _restiff_. In support of this view, take the following
quotation, to which others might be added. It is from Grisone, _Ordini di
Cavalcare_, 4to., 1550:
"Se il cavallo è restio, il più delle volte procede per colpa del
Cavaliero, per una di questi ragioni. Overo il Cavallo è vile, e di
poca forza, e essendo troppo molestato si abandona e avvilisce di sorte
che accorando non vuole caminare avante; over è superbo, e gagliardo, e
dandogli fatica, egli mancandogli un poco di lena, si prevalerà con
salti, e con aggrupparsi, e con altre malignità, ò fara pur questo dal
principio che si cavalca, di maniera che se allora conoscerà chi il
Cavaliero lo teme, {615} prenderà tant' animo, che usando molte
ribalderie, si fermerà contra la volontà sua; _e di queste due Specie
di Restii_ [which J. R. will be pleased to _note_], la peggior è quella
che nasce da viltà, e da poca forza."--Folio 92, verso.
Thus much for the equestrian part of the subject. With regard to the use of
the word _restive_ by the author of the _Eclipse of Faith_, that is purely
a matter of taste, which it is unnecessary here to discuss; but I hope that
the foregoing opinion of one who in his day passed for the most
accomplished horseman of Europe, will suffice to show that, in the passage
quoted, the term is not so entirely misapplied as J. R. supposes.
F. S. Q.
* * * * *
MEN OF KENT AND KENTISH MEN.
(Vol. v., p. 321.)
In your answers to Minor Queries (Vol. v., p. 321.) I find it stated, that
the inhabitants of the part of Kent lying between Rochester and London
being _invicti_, have ever since (the Norman Conquest) been designated as
Men of Kent; while those to the eastward, through whose district the
Conqueror marched unopposed, are only "Kentish Men."
As I have always understood that the contrary is the case, and that the
inhabitants of East Kent are called "Men of Kent," and those in West Kent,
"Kentish Men"--because in East Kent the people are less intermixed with
strangers than in West Kent, from its proximity to the metropolis--I was
desirous of correcting what appeared to me to be a manifest error: but not
finding any direct authority on the point, I consulted my friend Charles
Sandys, Esq., of Canterbury, as a Kentish antiquary, on the subject. And I
now send you a letter from that gentleman, which you are at liberty to
print.
GEO. R. CORNER.
Eltham.
"'MEN OF KENT,' AND 'KENTISH MEN.'
"I am not aware that any professed treatise has been written or published
upon our provincial distinction of 'Men of Kent' and 'Kentish Men.' That
some such traditionary distinction, however, (whatever it may be) has
existed from time immemorial in our county, cannot be disputed, and I think
it has an undoubted and unquestionable historic origin, which I will
endeavour briefly to illustrate.
"The West Kent Men, according to the tradition, are styled 'Kentish Men;'
whilst those of East Kent are more emphatically denominated 'Men of Kent.'
"And now for my historical authorities:--
"That the East Kent people were denominated from ancient time 'Men of
Kent,' may, I think, be inferred from the ancient Saxon name of its
metropolis, [Cant-wara-burh] [_Canterbury_], literally, 'The City of the
Men of Kent;' the royal city and seat of government of King Ethelbert at
the time of the arrival of St. Augustine (A.D. 597) to convert our
idolatrous Saxon ancestors from the worship of Woden and his kindred
deities to that of the Saviour of the world.
"St. Augustine, having succeeded in his holy mission, and having been
consecrated Archbishop of the Saxons and Angles in Britain, fixed his
metropolitical see in the royal city of Canterbury, which had been granted
to him by King Ethelbert on his conversion (who thereupon retired to his
royal fortress, or Castrum, of Regulbium, _Reculver_). And in that city it
has ever since continued for a period of more than twelve centuries.
"The conversion of the Pagan inhabitants of Kent proceeded so rapidly that
St. Augustine, with the assistance of King Ethelbert, soon founded another
episcopal see at Rochester, and thus divided the Kentish kingdom into two
dioceses: the eastern, or diocese of Canterbury; the western, or diocese of
Rochester. And thus, I conceive, originated the divisions of East and West
Kent: the men of the former retaining their ancient name of 'Men of Kent;'
whilst those of the latter adopted that of 'Kentish Men.'
"The Saxon (or Jutish) kingdom of Kent continued a separate and independent
kingdom of the Octarchy from the time of Hengist (A.D. 455) until its
subjugation by Offa, King of Mercia, in the eighth century, to which it
continued tributary until King Egbert reduced all the kingdoms of the
Octarchy under his dominion, at the commencement of the ninth century,--and
thus became the first King of all England.
"That Kent was separated at an early period into the two divisions of East
and West Kent, may be inferred from a charter (Kemble, _Cod. Dipl._ ii.
19.) relating to some property withheld from the church of Canterbury, and
which is specially described as having been that "of Oswulf, duke and
prince of the province of _East Kent_" ('dux atque princeps provinciæ
_Orientalis Cantiæ_') c. A.D. 844.
"The _Saxon Chronicle_ also confirms this view of the matter, thus:
A.D. 853. "Ealhere with the 'Men of Kent' fought in _Thanet_ against the
heathen army (Danes)."--Thanet is in _East_ Kent.
A.D. 865. "The heathen army sate down in _Thanet_, and made peace with the
'Men of Kent.' And the 'Men of Kent' promised them money for the peace."
A.D. 902. ... "Battle at the _Holmes_, between the 'Kentish Men' and the
'Danish Men.'--This, I take it, occurred in _West_ Kent.
A.D. 999. "The army (Danes) went up along the Medway to _Rochester_, and
then the '_Kentish_ forces' stoutly joined battle ... and full nigh {616}
all the 'West Kentish men' they ruined and plundered."
A.D.[11] 1009. "Then came the vast hostile army (Danes) to _Sandwich_, and
they soon went their way to _Canterbury_; and all the people of '_East
Kent_' made peace with the army, and gave them 3000 pounds."
"Thus, I trust, I have satisfactorily shown from our ancient annals, that
the distinction between 'Kentish Men' and 'Men of Kent,' existed at a
period long anterior to the Norman Conquest, and is distinctly recognised
in the foregoing historical passages. And its origin may, I think, be
attributed to the ancient division of the Jutish kingdom of Kent into the
two dioceses of _Canterbury_ and _Rochester_.
"Our Gavelkind Tenure and free Kentish customs, of which I have attempted a
history in my recently published _Consuetudines Kanciæ_, gave rise to our
well-known old provincial song of 'The Man of Kent,' its burthen being:
"Of Briton's race--if one surpass,
'A Man of Kent' is He."
CHARLES SANDYS, F.S.A.
Canterbury.
[Footnote 11: "A.D." corrected from "A.B."--Transcriber.]
* * * * *
Replies to Minor Queries.
_Speculum Christianorum, &c._ (Vol. v., p. 558.).--In case no fuller
information should be forthcoming on this tract, allow me to refer MR.
SIMPSON to Ames's _Typographical Dictionary_, p. 113., where is an account
of what is apparently another edition of the above, printed by William
Machlinia, or Macklyn, about the year 1480. The title runs thus: _Incipit
liber qui vocatur Speculum Xpristiani_. It is a short exposition of the
common topics of divinity of that time, for the most part in Latin, but
there is some English which is chiefly in rhyme. The first English lines
are--
"In heauen shall dwelle alle cristen men
That knowe and kepe goddes byddynges ten."
At the end, after--
"Explicit liber qui vocatur specul[=u] Xpr[=i]ani, Sequitur exposicio
oracionis dominice c[=u] quodam bono notabili et sept[=e] capitalia
vicia c[=u] aliquibus ramis eor[=u]."
Afterwards--
"Sequuntur monita de verbis beati Ysidori extracta ad instruend[=u]
homin[=e] qualiter vicia valeat euitare et in bonis se debeat
informare."
The whole concludes with this colophon:
"Jste Libellus impressus est [=i] opulentissima Ciuitate Londoniarum
per me Willelmum de Machlinia ad instanciam necnon expensas Henrici
Vrankenbergh mercatoris."
The author is said to be John Watton in the Catalogue of MSS. in England
and Ireland, C.C.C., Oxon. n. clv. p. 53.
J. EASTWOOD.
_Smyth's MSS. relating to Gloucestershire_ (Vol. v., p. 512.).--A querist
writes to know where any of these may be seen.
The original manuscript (three vols. folio) was given to the library of the
College of Arms, through the hands of Sir Charles Young, by the Rev. R. W.
Huntley of Boxwell Court, about 1835, who became possessed of it by a
legacy from a descendant of Mr. Smyth. There is another copy in the
"Evidence Room," at Berkeley Castle; and another in the library of Smyth
Owen, Esq., a descendant from the author, at Condover Hall, Shropshire.
There is another copy in the possession of the Hon. Robert Berkeley at
Spetchley Park, Worcestershire. And an imperfect copy was sold at the sale
at Hill Court, Gloucester, in 1846. It was bought by a bookseller for Mr.
Pigott of Brockley; it was resold in 1849, but to whom I could never find
out. This last is also in three vols.; two of these match in the binding,
but the third does not: the leather of this odd vol. is thickly studded
with the _portcullis_. The imperfection of this set consists in being
_unfinished_ in many parts. Mr. Huntley's is considered the first copy of
that at the castle; and that at Condover was probably Mr. Smyth's own. The
Hill Court copy seems to be about the same date.
The _Abstracts and Extracts_ of these MSS. as published by Fosbroke in
1821, are but a tantalising meagre sample of the very rich store of
genealogical and historical information which the originals contain.
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George, Devon.
_M. Barrière and the Quarterly Review_ (Vol. v., pp. 347. 402.).--As I see
that J. R. (of Cork) has resumed his correspondence with "N. & Q.," I beg
leave to call his attention to his statement, and to my inquiry under the
above references: any one or two instances of what is stated to be "so
frequent" a practice will suffice.
C.
"_I do not know what the truth may be_" (Vol. v., p. 560.).--The lines run
thus in the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, Canto II. 22.:
"I cannot tell how the truth may be,
I say the tale as 'twas said to me."
J. EASTWOOD.
[J. M.--D. P. WATERS--NASO--L. X. R.--W. J. B. S.--B. R. J.--MARY, &c.,
have also furnished us with Replies to this Query.]
_Optical Phenomena_ (Vol. v., p. 441.).--You have not yet published any
satisfactory reply to the optical Query of N. B., at p. 441. of the present
volume. I apprehend there is not much difficulty in finding the solution. I
attribute the phenomenon to the refraction of light through a stratum of
air that is more dense than the surrounding air. Every solid is coated by
such a stratum. This is the well-known fact of _adhesion_ {617} alluded to
by Liebig, in his _Letters on Chemistry_, 1st series [2nd edit. by Gardner,
p. 16.]
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
_Stoup_ (Vol. v., p. 560.).--In answer to the inquiry of CUTHBERT BEDE, I
beg to inform him that an _exterior_ stoup, in excellent preservation, is
to be found on the outer wall of the south porch of Hungerton Church,
Leicestershire. The inquiry confirms the belief I have always entertained,
that examples of exterior stoups are rarely met with in the ecclesiastic
architecture of England.
KT.
Aylestone.
_Seventh Son of a Seventh Son_ (Vol. v., p. 532.).--The note which appears
in p. 532. has induced me to look out a rare old printed copy of "The Quack
Doctor's Speech," which is in my possession, and which was spoken by the
witty Lord Rochester, in character, and mounted on a stage; it is
altogether a very humorous and lengthy address, partaking of the licence of
language not uncommon to the courtiers of that period, abounding in much
technical phraseology, and therefore unsuited for an introduction into your
pages _in extenso_. The titles assumed, however, are in character with the
pretensions claimed by virtue of being the seventh begotten son of a
seventh begotten father; and may perhaps prove an interesting addition to
the collection of instances recorded by your correspondent HENRY EDWARDS:
"Gentlemen,
"I, Waltho Van Clauterbauck, High German Doctor, Chymist and
Dentrificator--Native of Arabia Deserta, Citizen and Burgomaster of the
City of Brandipolis--Seventh son of a Seventh son, unborn Doctor of
above sixty years' experience, having studied over Galen, Hypocrates,
Albumazer, and Paracelsus, am now become the Æsculapius of this age.
Having been educated at twelve Universities, and travelled through
fifty-two Kingdoms, and been Counsellor to the Counsellors of several
grand Monarchs, natural son of the wonder working chymical Doctor
Signior Hanesio, lately arrived from the farthest parts of Utopia,
famous throughout all Asia, Europe, Africa, and America, from the Sun's
oriental exaltation to his occidental declination, out of mere pity to
my own dear self and languishing mortals, have by the earnest prayers
and entreaties of several Lords, Dukes, and honourable Personages been
at last prevailed upon to oblige the World with this Notice, &c. &c.
"Veniente occurrite morbo--Down with your dust.
Principiis obsta--No cure no money.
Querenda Pecunia Premium--Be not sick too late.
"You that are willing to render yourselves immortal, Buy this pacquet,
or else repair to the sign of the Pranceis, in Vico vulgo dicto
Ratcliffero, something south-east of Templum Dancicum, in the Square of
Profound Close, not far from Titter Tatter Fair; and you may hear, see,
and return Re-infecta."
KT.
Aylestone.
At my father's school was a Yorkshire lad, who was to be educated
classically, because he was intended for the medical profession. The cause
assigned was, that "he was the seventh son of a seventh son;" and the
seventh son of a seventh son "_maks the bigg'st o' doctors_."
C. C. C.
_The Number Seven_ (Vol. v., p. 533.).--MR. HENRY EDWARDS is quite right in
his conjecture that the number _seven_, so often used in the Old and New
Testament, is generally put to mean "several," "many," or an indefinite
number. Hence the number seven was esteemed a sacred, symbolical, and
mystical number. There were seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, seven days in
the week, seven sacraments, seven branches on the candlestick of Moses,
seven liberal arts, seven churches of Asia, seven mysterious seals, seven
stars, seven symbolic trumpets, seven heads of the dragon, seven joys and
seven sorrows of the blessed Virgin, seven penitential psalms, seven deadly
sins, seven canonical hours, &c. &c.
"Septenarius numerus est numerus universitatis," says J. de Voragine. See
also, Bede, Duranti, and Rhabanus Maurus, on the mystical explanation of
this number. A curious French MS. belonging to the latter part of the
thirteenth century has a singular illustration of the number seven. It is a
miniature: a wheel cut into seven rays, and composed of seven concentric
cordons. The rays form seven compartments, divided into as many cordons,
containing in each cordon one of the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer,
one of the seven sacraments, one of the seven spiritual arms of justice,
one of the seven works of mercy, one of the seven virtues, one of the seven
deadly sins, and one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.
CEYREP.
_Commentators_ (Vol. v., pp. 512. 570.).--The original verses are
Young's:--
"How commentators each dark passage shun,
And hold their farthing candle to the sun.
_The Love of Fame_, Satire vii.
L. X. R.
_Banning or Bayning Family_ (Vol. v., p. 536.).--This surname is traced in
Ireland on _record_ from the time of Richard II., while the native
annalists represent it with that Milesian prefix which old Alvary so
ingraciously attaints--"_O datur ambiguis_." These annalists mark Patrick
"O'Bainan" Bishop of Connor in 1152, and Gelasius "O'Banan" Bishop of
Clogher in 1316. The records that I have alluded to spell the name
"Bannyn," or "Banent." In 1620 Creconnaght "Bannan" was seised of lands in
Ulster; and in the army raised for the service of King James, while in this
country in 1689, William Bannan was a quartermaster in Colonel Nicholas
Purcel's regiment of {618} horse. I have reason myself to know that two
families of "Banon" still exist here.
JOHN D'ALTON.
Dublin.
_Tortoiseshell Tom Cat_ (Vol. v., p. 465.).--I always thought the
tortoiseshell tom cat was an animal of very rare occurrence; but I was not
aware, until I read the Note of your correspondent W. R., that it was
unknown in natural history. The late (and highly respected) Mr. John
Bannister, familiarly called "Jack Bannister," wrote, more than forty years
ago, a humorous and witty _jeu d'esprit_ on this subject: this was composed
for his "Budget," a species of entertainment from which the late Mr.
Matthews took the idea of his "At Home;" an entertainment exhibiting a most
extraordinary range of talent, and must be fresh in the memory of most of
your readers. It supposes the auctioneer, "Mr. Catseye," in the Great Room
in "Cateaton Street," and opens thus:
"Oh! what a story the papers have been telling us
About a little animal of wond'rous price;
Who but an auctioneer would ever think of selling us,
For two hundred yellow-boys, a trap for mice?"
&c. &c.
Having, humorously described the company assembled, and enlarged on the
"beauty and rarity" of the animal, it thus concludes:
"Now louder and warmer the competition growing,
Politeness nearly banished in the grand _fracas_;
Two hundred, two hundred and thirty-three--a-going!
Gone! Never cat of _talents_ surely met avidly such _éclat_!
E'en nine or ten fine gentlemen were in the fashion caught as well,
As ladies in their bidding for this purring piece of tortoiseshell.
And the buyer bore him off in triumph, after all the fun was done,
And bells rang, as if Whittington had been Lord Mayor of London;
Mice and rats flung up their hats, to find that cats so scarce were,
And mouse-trap makers raised their prices cent. per cent.!"
M. W. B.
_A Tombstone cut by Baskerville_ (Vol. v., p. 209.).--A correspondent
complains that on visiting Edgbaston Church he was unable to obtain a sight
of the tombstone, which he much wished to see. Since I read his Note, I
have met with the following, which I copy from Pye's _Modern Birmingham_,
1819. After speaking of a monument in Handsworth Church, Birmingham, to the
late Matthew Boulton, the writer proceeds:
"The other is a humble tombstone, remarkable as being one of the last
works cut by his own hand, with his name at the top of it, of that
celebrated typographer, Baskerville; but this, being neglected by the
relations of the deceased, has been mutilated, although the inscription
is still perfect, but so much overgrown with moss and weeds, that it
requires more discrimination than falls to the lot of many passing
travellers, to discover the situation of this neglected gem. To those
who are curious it will be found close to the wall, immediately under
the chancel window. This precious relic of that eminent man is
deserving of being removed at the expense of the parish, and preserved
with the greatest care, withinside the church.... There is only one
other of his cuttings known to be in existence, and that has lately
been removed and placed withinside the church at Edgbaston--"
Which is subsequently thus described:
"There was in this churchyard a gravestone cut by the hands of the
celebrated typographer Baskerville, which is now removed and placed
withinside the church. The stone being of a flaky nature, the
inscription is not quite perfect, but whoever takes delight in
well-formed letters, may here be highly gratified; it was erected to
the memory of Edw. Richards, an idiot, who died 21st September, 1728,
with the following inscription:--
'If innocents are the favourites of heaven,
And God but little asks where little's given,
My great Creator has for me in store
Eternal joys; what wise man can have more?'"
I am sorry I cannot just now give any further information, but hope this
Note will be new to some of your readers, and interesting to all.
ESTE.
_Shakspeare, Tennyson, &c._ (Vol. v., p. 492.).--The editorial note has
supplied the Latin parallel, but not "the origin and reason of the idea."
This Koenig's note to Persius (I. 40.) will do:
"_Nascentur violæ_; Hoc inde videtur natum esse quod veteres tumulos
mortuorum sparsis floribus et corollis solebant ornate; pertinebat hoc
ad religionem manium, qui, ut putabatur, libationibus annuis, coronis,
floribus, cet. delectabantur."
This is the first step. Further:
"Beatissima mortui conditio, cui _vel natura ipsa inferias agat_,
floribus in tumulo sponte nascentibus, videtur indicari."
Lastly:
"Videtur quoque privata nonnullorum opinio fuisse, _cinerem in flores
mutari, idque contingere non nisi probis ac pulchris_ (_Anthol. Lat._);
ex fabulis heroum in flores post mortem mutatorum fortasse nata."
This last, and deepest thought, is that seized on by Shakspeare and
Tennyson. Koenig gives many parallels.
A. A. D.
_Rhymes on Places_ (Vol. v., pp. 293. 374. 500. 547.).--The following
rhymes (if so they can be termed) respecting the exploits of a certain
giant named Bell, and his wonderful sorrel horse, whose leaps were each a
mile long, are, or were a few {619} years since, prevalent in this
neighbourhood among the inhabitants of the villages therein mentioned. The
legend has been noticed by Peck:
"Mountsorrel he mounted at,
Rodely[12] he rode by,
Onelept[13] he leaped o'er,
At Birstall he burst his gall,
And Belgrave he was buried at."
LEICESTRIENSIS.
[Footnote 12: Now Rothley.]
[Footnote 13: Now Wanlip.]
The following I had years ago from a Buckinghamshire gentleman:
"_Tring_, _Wing_, and _Ivinghoe_,
Three dirty villages all in a row,
And never without a rogue or two.
Would you know the reason why?
_Leighton Buzzard_ is hard by."
J. EASTWOOD.
_Birthplace of Josephine_ (Vol. v., p. 220.).--MR. BREEN'S able and
interesting Note seems to establish beyond dispute that Josephine was born
in St. Lucia, and not, as is commonly supposed, in Martinique.
But can MR. BREEN, or any other of your correspondents, speak to this still
more curious Query, whether or no she had African blood in her veins? I
heard it confidently asserted lately by a gentleman of high standing on
this island, who has business relations with Martinique, that such was the
case, and that either the grandmother or great-grandmother of the Empress
was a negress slave. He had the fact, he said, on good local authority, and
appeared satisfied in his own mind of the truth of the statement. The
sudden and surprising elevation of her grandson gives some interest to the
inquiry.
A. KER.
Antigua.
_The Curse of Scotland_ (Vol. i., pp. 61. 90.; Vol. iii., pp. 22. 253. 423.
483.).--
"There is a common expression made use of at cards, which I have never
heard any explanation of; I mean the nine of diamonds being commonly
called the Curse of Scotland.
"Looking lately over a book of heraldry I found nine diamonds, or
lozenges, conjoined, or, in the heraldic language, Gules, a cross of
lozenges, to be the arms of Packer.
"Colonel Packer appears to have been one of the persons who was on the
scaffold when Charles the First was beheaded, and afterwards commanded
in Scotland, and is recorded to have acted in his command with
considerable severity. It is possible that his arms might, by a very
easy metonymy, be called the Curse of Scotland; and the nine of
diamonds, at cards, being very similar in figure to them, might have
ever since retained the appellation."--_Gent. Mag._, vol. lvi. p. 301.
"I cannot tell whence he learns that Colonel Packer was on the scaffold
when King Charles was beheaded."--_Ibid._, p. 390.
"When the Duke of York (a little before his succession to the crown)
came to Scotland, he and his suite introduced a new game, there called
_Comet_, where the ninth of diamonds is an important card. The Scots
who were to learn the game, felt it to their cost: and from that
circumstance the ninth of diamonds was nicknamed the Curse of
Scotland."--_Ibid._, p. 538.
"The nine of diamonds is called the Curse of Scotland because it is the
great winning card at Comette, which was a game introduced into
Scotland by the French attendants of Mary of Lorraine, queen of James
V., to the ruin of many Scotch families."--_Ibid._, p. 968.
The explanation supplied by the game of Pope Joan is doubtless the correct
one.
GOODLUCK.
_Waller Family_ (Vol. v., p. 586.).--Francis Waller, of Amersham, Bucks,
grandfather of Edmund Waller the poet, by his will, dated 13th of January,
1548-49, entails his mansion house in Beaconsfield, and other estates in
Bucks, Herts, &c., on the child of which his wife Anne is "now pregnant,"
with remainders to his two brothers, Thomas and Edmund, in tail, with
divers remainders over, to Francis Waller, son of his brother Ralph Waller,
and the heirs of his "sister Pope" and his sister Davys. The lady in
question was of the Beaconsfield branch of the Wallers, and great aunt to
the poet. (From the family muniments.)
LAMBERT H. LARKING.
"_After me the Deluge_" (Vol. iii., pp. 299. 397.).--The modern, whoever he
may be, can only lay claim to reviving this proverb of selfishness, which
was branded by Cicero long ago:
"Illa vox inhumana et scelerata ducitur, eorum, qui negant se recusare,
quò minùs, ipsis mortuis, terrarum omnium deflagratio consequatur, quod
vulgari quodam versu Græco [[Greek: Emou Thanontos gaia michthêtô
puri]] pronuntiari solet."
This passage occurs in his treatise _De Finibus_, III. xix., vol. xiv. p.
341. Valpy's edition, 1830.
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
_Sun-Dial Motto_ (Vol. v., p. 499.).--Y. is informed that Hazlitt, in his
_Sketches and Essays_, has an essay on a sun-dial, beginning with these
words:
"_Horas non numero nisi serenas_, is the motto of a sun-dial near
Venice."
In _La Gnomonique Pratique_ of François de Celles, 8vo., there is pretty
long list of Latin mottos for sun-dials, but I do not find the above
amongst them. It scarcely reads like a classical quotation.
ROBERT SNOW.
_Lines by Lord Palmerston_ (Vol. i., p. 382.; Vol. ii., p. 30. Vol. iii.,
p. 28.).--In Vol. i., p. 328., INDAGATOR inquired whether there was any
{620} authority for attributing to the late Lord Palmerston the beautiful
lines on the loss of his lady, beginning,--
"Whoe'er like me his heart's whole treasure brings."
INDAGATOR says they have been supposed to be Hawksworth's and S. S. S.
(Vol. ii., p. 30.) that they have been also attributed to Mason. I can
state, _from the best authority_, that they are Lord Palmerston's. My
authority needs no extrinsic confirmation, but I may as well observe that
INDAGATOR has himself sufficiently disposed of Hawksworth's claim, as his
wife was still alive when the lines appeared; and the conjecture of S. S.
S. is obviously a confusion of Lord Palmerston's lines with those of
Mason's (whose wife died at Bristol), beginning--
"Take, holy earth, all that my soul holds dear."
But another of your correspondents, A. B. (Vol. iii., p. 28.), or your
printer, has made a mistake on this point which I cannot account for. A. B.
says that he inquired after the author of the lines beginning--
"Stranger, whoe'er thou art that viewest this tomb;"
and this statement is headed with a reference to INDAGATOR'S inquiry about
Lord Palmerston, to which it had no reference whatsoever. I do not remember
to have seen A. B.'s inquiry, but it assuredly has nothing to do with
INDAGATOR'S which I have now set at rest.
C.
_Indian Jugglers_ (Vol. iv., p. 472.).--In looking over some former Numbers
I find an inquiry under this head. N. will find a full account of some of
these wonderful and apparently inexplicable performances in the _Dublin
University Magazine_. I have not a set to refer to, but the papers appeared
about three or four years ago.
ESTE.
_Sons of the Conqueror_ (Vol. v., pp. 512. 570.).--I believe after all that
Sir N. Wraxall is right. According to the old chroniclers, _three_ members
of the Conqueror's family met their death in the New Forest.
1. _Richard_, his _second son_, is said to have been killed by a stag in
the New Forest when hunting, and to have been buried at Winchester in the
choir of the cathedral there.
2. _Henry_, youngest son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, and _grandson_ of the
Conqueror, was accidentally slain in the New Forest.
3. _William Rufus_, third son of the Conqueror, fell in a similar way and
in the same place.
J. R. W.
Bristol.
_Saint Wilfred's Needle_ (Vol. v., pp. 510. 573.).--A very interesting
account of this curious crypt beneath the central tower of Ripon Cathedral
will be found in a pamphlet published twelve years ago, entitled
"_Sepulchri a Romanis Constructi infra Ecclesiam S. Wilfridi in civitate
Reponensi Descriptio Auctore Gul. D. Bruce_. London 1841." A copy is in the
library of the Society of Antiquaries, and another in the British Museum.
D. W.
_Frebord_ (Vol. v., p. 440.).--It may possibly assist the inquiries of your
correspondents SPES and P. M. M. to be informed that the right of Frebord
belongs to many estates in the midland counties. In some instances in
Leicestershire the claim extends from the boundary hedge of one lordship to
the extent of twenty-one feet over the land of the adjoining lordship; it
is here understood to represent a _deer's leap_, and is said to have been
given with the original grant of the manor, in order to secure to the lord
a right to take the deer he happened to shoot when in the act of leaping
from his domain into his neighbour's manor.
KT.
Aylestone.
_Royd_ (Vol. v., p. 571.).--The meaning of this word may be further
illustrated by reference to Swiss etymology and history. The great battle
of Naefels (April 9, 1388) is celebrated on the first Thursday of every
April, on the spot where the fiercest part of the struggle took place.
Mount _Ruti_, the meadow where the liberators of Switzerland met, on the
lake of the Four Cantons, and opposite Brunner, is called the Rutli: both
words being derived from a common root of common use in the formation of
names in German Switzerland, _Ruten-defricher_, "to clear;" or, _Ruthen_,
"to measure, gauge;" in short, "prepare for clearing;" whence, perhaps, our
_Ruthyn_ and Rutland.
H. P. S.
_Spy Wednesday_ (Vol. v., p. 511.).--Your correspondent MR. CHADWICK is
informed that the Wednesday in Holy Week, _i. e._ the Wednesday before
Easter Sunday, is called _Spy Wednesday_. The term has its origin in the
fact, that Judas made his compact with the Sanhedrim upon that day for the
betrayal of our Blessed Saviour. See Matthew, xxvi. 3, 4, 5. 14, 15, and
16.
CEYREP.
_Book of Jasher_ (Vol. v., pp. 415. 476. 524.).--Hartwell Horne, in his
_Introduction_ (vol. ii. part ii. pp. 132-138. ed. 1839), has with much
diligence exposed both Ilive's original forgery (1751) and the
"unacknowledged reprint" (1829). He adds:
"There is also extant a Rabbinical Hebrew Book of Jasher printed at
_Venice_ in 1625, which is an explanation of the histories contained in
the Pentateuch and Joshua. Barlocci, in his _Biblioth. Rabbinica_,
states that it contains some curious but many fabulous things; and
particularly that this book was discovered at the time of the
destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in a certain place, in which an
old man was shut up, in whose possession a great number of Hebrew books
were found, and among them the Book of Jasher; which was first carried
into Spain, and preserved at Seville, whence finally it was taken to
Naples, where it was first published."--Vol. iii p. 934.
{621}
Is this the work published at New York in 1840? I suppose so: at least, if
"Prof. Noah" has been reproducing the _Bristol Book of Jasher_ (1829), he
can claim but little of the _justice and perfectness_ of his great
namesake.
A. A. D.
_Stearne's (not Hearne's) Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft_ (Vol.
v., p. 416.).--Of this tract, inquired after by MR. CLARKE, and which is
certainly one of the most extraordinary of all the treatises on Witchcraft,
the only copy I ever saw is the one I possess, and which I have fully
described in the notes to Pott's _Discovery of Witches_, printed for the
Chetham Society, p. 4. The Rev. Author was no theorist, but a thoroughly
practical man; having been an agent in finding and bringing to justice 200
witches in the eastern counties. He has the subject so perfectly at his
fingers' ends, and discusses it so scientifically, that Hopkins sinks into
insignificance by the side of him. Pity it is that such a philanthropic
individual should have had occasion to complain: "In many places I never
received penny as yet, nor any am like, except that I should sue!!"
JAS. CROSSLEY.
_Lines on Chaucer_ (Vol. v., p. 586.).--The lines should be quoted:--
"Britain's first poet,
Famous old Chaucer,
Swan-like, in dying
Sung his last song
When at his heart-strings
Death's hand was strong."
They are taken from Hymn cxxiii. of _Hymns and Anthems_, London, C. Fox,
1841.
[Gamma].
_Fairlop Oak_ (Vol. v., pp. 114. 471.).--Your correspondents J. B. COLMAN
and SHIRLEY HIBBERD will find much information relative to this oak and the
fair in a work with the following title:
"Fairlop and its Founder, or Facts and Fun for the Forest Frolickers.
By a famed first Friday Fairgoer; contains Memoirs, Anecdotes, Poems,
Songs, &c., with the curious Will of Mr. Day, never before printed. A
very limited number printed. Tobham, Printed at Charles Clark's Private
Press. Fairlop's Friday, 1847."
J. Russell Smith, 30. Soho Square, had several copies on sale some time
back.
S. WISWOULD.
_Boy Bishop at Eton_ (Vol. v., p. 557.).--The festival of St. Hugh,
_Bishop_ (_Pontificis_) of Lincoln, was kept on November 17.
For "Nihilensis," in the "Consuetudinarium Etonense," should be read
"Nicolatensis," as it stands in a Compatus of Winchester College, of the
date 1461: the Boy Bishop assuming his title on St. Nicholas' Day, Dec. 6,
and then performing his parody of Divine Offices for the first time; St.
Nicholas of Myra being, according to the legend, the patron of children.
It is singular that, whereas, as in other foundations, the Feast of the
Holy Innocents was appointed for the mummeries of the Boy Bishop at
Winchester by the founder, it was forbidden at Eton and King's, although
the statutes of the latter were borrowed almost literally from those of
Wykeham. It would therefore appear that there was some local reason for the
exception.
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
_Plague Stones--Mr. Mompesson_ (Vol. v., p. 571.).--I should be sorry that
anything inaccurate was recorded in "N. & Q." respecting so eminently
worthy a person as the Rev. William Mompesson, Rector of Eyam during the
time that it was scourged by the plague in 1666, when, out of a population
of only 330, 259 died of the disorder. Mr. M. himself did not fall a
victim, as J. G. C. states; but his wife did, and her tomb remains to this
day. He was, indeed, an ornament to his sacred profession. He not only
stood by his flock in the hour of their visitation, but he obtained such an
influence during the panic that they entirely deferred to his judgment, and
remained, as he advised, within the village. He preached to them on Sundays
in the open air from a sort of natural pulpit in the rock, now called
Cucklet Church; and he established the water troughs, or _plague stones_,
into which the people dropped their money, in payment for the victuals that
were brought to them from the surrounding country. When in reward for his
devotedness the Deanery of Lincoln was offered him, he generously declined
it in favour of his friend Dr. Fuller, author of the _Worthies of England_,
who thus obtained the appointment. Mr. Mompesson was subsequently presented
to the living of Eakring in Notts, where he died in 1708.
There has recently been discovered on the moor near Fullwood, by Sheffield,
a chalybeate spring, which flows into a small covered recess formed of
ashlar stone, and this stands just as it did when the wretched inhabitants
of Eyam, believing the water to have sanatory virtues, came to drink of it,
until a watch was placed on the spot by the Sheffield people, and they were
driven back to their infected homes.
ALFRED GATTY.
_Raleigh's Ring_ (Vol. v., p. 538.).--Sir Walter Raleigh's ring, which he
wore at the time of his execution, is, I believe, in the possession of
Capt. Edward James Blanckley, of the 6th Foot, now serving at the Cape of
Good Hope. It is an heirloom in the Blanckley family, of which Captain
Blanckley is the senior representative, who are directly descended from Sir
Walter, and have in their possession several interesting relics of their
great ancestor, viz. a curious tea-pot, and a state paper box of iron gilt
and red velvet.
A DESCENDANT OF SIR WALTER'S.
{622}
_Pandecte, an entire Copy of the Bible_ (Vol. v., p. 557.).--Your
correspondent C. H. has noticed this word; I send you a short account of
the Irish MSS. in the Bodleian Library, which I laid some time ago before
the Royal Irish Academy, and which is printed in their _Proceedings_, vol.
v. p. 162. I have there noticed a curious work by Oengus Cele De, or Oengus
the Culdee, a writer of the eighth century, in which the word _Pandecte_
(or, as the Irish scribe spells it, _Pantecte_) is used in the same sense
as that in which Alcuin employs it, for the _Bibliotheca_, or Bible of St.
Jerome.
I have marked the passage, pp. 9, 10. of the enclosed paper, which if you
think it worth while you may insert. But perhaps it may be enough to refer
your readers to the above-mentioned volume of the _Proceedings of the Royal
Irish Academy_.
JAS. H. TODD.
Trin. Coll. Dublin.
* * * * *
Miscellaneous.
NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.
If among the writers of the present day there is one whose opinion with
regard to Robin Hood and the cycle of ballads of which that renowned outlaw
is the hero would be looked for with anxiety and received with respect, it
is the Rev. Joseph Hunter, a gentleman in whom are happily combined that
thorough historical and antiquarian knowledge, and that sound poetic taste
which are required to do justice to so interesting a theme. The
announcement, therefore, that the fourth of Mr. Hunter's _Critical and
Historical Tracts_ is entitled _The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of
England, Robin Hood_. _His Period, real Character, &c., investigated, and
perhaps ascertained_, will be received with welcome by all who rejoice
"that the world was very guilty of such ballads some three ages since," and
who, loving them and their hero, would fain know something of the history
on which they are founded. Mr. Hunter dissents, and we think rightly, from
two popular and recent theories upon the subject,--the one, that which
elevates Robin Hood into the chief of a small body of Saxons impatient of
their subjection to the Norman rule; the other, that which reduces him to
one among the "personages of the early mythology of the Teutonic people."
Mr. Hunter, on the other hand, _identifies_ him with one "Robyn Hood" who
entered the service of Edward II. a little before Christmas 1323, and
continued therein somewhat less than a twelvemonth:
"Alas then said good Robyn,
Alas and well a woo,
If I dwele longer with the kynge
Sorowe wyll me sloo:"
and the evidence which he adduces in favour of our popular hero having been
one of the _Contrariantes_ of the reign of the Second Edward; and the
coincidences which he points out between the minstrel testimony of the
_Little Geste_ and the testimony of records of different kinds and lying in
different places, will, we are sure, be read with great interest even by
those who may not think that our author has quite succeeded in unmasking
the "Junius" of those olden times.
_Richmondshire, its Ancient Lords and Edifices: a Concise Guide to the
Localities of Interest to the Tourist and Antiquary; with short Notes of
Memorable Men_, by W. Hylton Longstaffe, is a pleasant, chatty, and amusing
guide to a beautiful locality, which the author describes as "the capital
of a land whose riches of romance are scarcely exceeded by any other in
England, the chosen seat of its own Earls, the Scropes, Fitzhughs,
Marmions; and those setters up and pullers down of kings, the richest,
noblest, and most prudent race of the North, the lordly Nevilles:" and
which as such may well tempt the tourist and antiquary to visit it during
the coming autumn. Those who do will find Mr. Longstaffe's little volume a
pleasant companion.
BOOKS RECEIVED.--The second volume of Charlotte A. Eaton's _Rome in the
Nineteenth Century, containing, a Complete Account of the Ruins of the
Ancient City, the Remains of the Middle Ages, and the Monuments of Modern
Times_, which completes this lady's excellent guide to the Eternal
City.--The second volume of Miss Thomasina Ross's well-executed translation
of Humboldt's _Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of
America during the Years 1799-1804_, is the new volume of Bohn's
_Scientific Library_.--_The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to
the Constitution and Course of Nature; to which are added Two Brief
Dissertations; on Personal Identity, and on the Nature of Virtue; and
Fifteen Sermons_, by Joseph Butler, D.C.L., _late Lord Bishop of
Durham_.--The new volume of Bohn's _Standard Library_ is deserving of
especial mention. It is a reprint of Bishop Halifax's Standard Edition,
with the addition of Analytical Introductions, and Notes by a Member of the
University of Oxford; and we have no doubt will be found a really useful
_popular_ edition, such as may allure to the careful study of one of the
best works in our language those minds which, without such help, might
shrink from the task.
* * * * *
BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.
MAHON'S ENGLAND, 4 Vols.
SCOTT'S LADY OF THE LAKE.
---- LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.
---- MARMION.
The original 4to. editions in boards.
FLANAGAN ON THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 4to. 1843.
A NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE DOUGLAS CAUSE. London, Griffin. 8vo.
1767.
CLARE'S POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. Last edition.
MALLET'S ELVIRA.
MAGNA CHARTA; a Sermon at the Funeral of Lady Farewell, by George Newton.
London, 1661.
CHAUCER'S POEMS. Vol. I. Aldine Edition.
BIBLIA SACRA, Vulg. Edit., cum Commentar. Menochii. Alost and Ghent, 1826.
Vol. I.
BARANTE, DUCS DE BOURGOGNE. Vols. I. and II. 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Edit. Paris.
Ladvocat, 1825.
BIOGRAPHIA AMERICANA, by a Gentleman of Philadelphia.
POTGIESERI DE CONDITIONE SERVORUM APUD GERMANOS. 8vo. Col. Agrip.
THE COMEDIES OF SHADWELL may be had on application to the Publisher of "N.
& Q."
*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, _carriage free_, to be
sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.
* * * * *
{623}
Notices to Correspondents.
REPLIES RECEIVED.--_Optical Phenomenon_--_The Number Seven_--_Exterior
Stoup (several)_--_Etymology of Fetch and Haberdasher_--_Passage in "As You
Like It"_--_The Name Charing_--_Etymology of Camarthen_--_Venit ad
Euphratem_--_Mexican Literature_--_Surname of Devil_--_Family Likenesses,
&c._--_Toad Eater_--_Lines on the Crawford Family_--_Algernon
Sydney_--_Monody on Death of Sir John Moore_--_Flanagan on the Round
Towers_--_Use of Slings by Early Britons_--_Giving the Sack_--_How the
ancient Irish crowned their Kings_--_Papal Seal_--_Plague
Stones_--_Wicliffe, &c._--_Mother Carey's Chickens_--_Cranes in
Storms_--_Unicorns, &c._
J. SMYTH (Dublin). _The line referred to_--
"_Fine_ by degrees, and beautifully less,"
_is from Prior's_ Henry and Emma. _See, for further illustration of it_,
"N. & Q.," No. 69., p. 154.
L. H. I. T. _will find much illustration of the oft-quoted passage from
Sterne, "God tempers the wind," in our_ 1st Vol., pp. 211. 236. 325. 357.
418.
W. Cl._'s Query respecting a remarkable experiment in our next._
LINES ON ENGLISH HISTORY. _We have forwarded to_ AN ENGLISH MOTHER one _of
the copies so kindly sent by_ E. C. _One we retain for our own use. The
lines forwarded by_ SEWARG _are very generally known: not so those inquired
by_ MÆRIS, _beginning_
"William and William, and Henry and Stephen,
And Henry the Second, to make the first even;"
_and of which we should be very glad to receive a copy._
B. B. _We shall be very glad to see the_ Iter _to which our Correspondent
refers._
H. P. S., _who inquires for the author of_
"Tempora mutantur," &c.,
_is referred to our_ 1st Vol., pp. 234. 419.
S. S. S. _Richard II. inherited the White Hart as a badge from his mother
Joan, the Fair Maid of Kent. The Red Rose was the badge of Henry IV._
SIRNAMES. _We have forwarded the curious list sent us by_ A.C.M., _and the
Notes by_ MISS BOCKETT _and_ E. H. A., _to_ MR. LOWER.
ERRATA.--Page 477. col. 1. l. 43. and 46. for "Marco_n_cies," read
"Marco_u_cies;" l. 51., for "Montag_n_" read "Montag_u_;" col. 2 l. 1., for
"Robert_i_" read "Robert_o_."
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F. Fuller, Esq.
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James Lys Seager, Esq.
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* * * * *
PHOTOGRAPHY.--J. B. HOCKIN & CO., OPERATIVE CHEMISTS, 289. STRAND,
manufacture all the PURE chemicals used in this art; also Apparatus for the
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gold assaying, and instruction therein.
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the very best description, requisite for a complete outfit of Mourning, may
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ESTIMATES FOR SERVANTS' MOURNING, affording a great saving to families, are
furnished; whilst the habitual attendance of experienced assistants
(including dressmakers and milliners), enables them to suggest or supply
every necessary for the occasion, and suited to any grade or condition of
the community. WIDOWS' AND FAMILY MOURNING is always kept made up, and a
note, descriptive of the Mourning required, will insure its being sent
forthwith, either in Town or into the Country, and on the most Reasonable
Terms.
W. C. JAY, 247-249. Regent Street.
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_Principal_--GEORGE EDMONDSON.
_Natural Philosophy._--Dr. John Tyndall, F.R.S., Foreign Member of the
Physical Society, Berlin.
_Chemistry._--Dr. H. Debus, late Assistant in the Laboratory of Professor
Bunsen, and Chemical Lecturer in the University of Marburg.
_Classics and History._--Mr. Henry Phelan, T. C. D.
_Modern Languages and Foreign Literature._--Mr. John Haas, from M. de
Fellenberg's Institution, Hofwyl, Switzerland.
_Geodesy._--Mr. Richard P. Wright.
_Painting and Drawing._--Mr. Richard P. Wright.
_English and Elementary Mathematics._--Mr. Henry Taylor, late Pupil of M.
de Fellenberg.
_Music._--Mr. Cornwall.
_Farm Superintendent._--Mr. Richard Davis--Farm, 800 acres.
TERMS.
For Pupils under 12 years of age 40l. per ann.
" from 12 to 16 50 "
" above 16 60 "
For further information see Prospectuses, to be had of the Principal.
The Second Session of 1852 commences on the 29th of July.
* * * * *
Miss Agnes Strickland's
NEW SERIES OF
ROYAL FEMALE BIOGRAPHIES.
LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF SCOTLAND, AND ENGLISH PRINCESSES CONNECTED WITH THE
REGAL SUCCESSION, in 6 vols., post 8vo., with Portraits and Historical
Vignettes, uniform with "Lives of the Queens of England," by the same
Author. Vols. I. and II. are published, price 10s. 6d. each, containing--
MARGARET TUDOR, Queen of James IV.
MAGDALENE OF FRANCE, First Queen of James V.
MARY of LORRAINE, second Queen of James V., and Mother of Mary Queen of
Scots.
MARGARET DOUGLAS, Countess of Lennox, and Mother of Darnley.
VOL. III. will contain the Life of MARY QUEEN of SCOTS.
"Every step in Scotland is historical; the shades of the dead arise on
every side; the very rocks breathe. Miss Strickland's talents as a
writer, and turn of mind as an individual, in a peculiar manner fit her
for painting a historical gallery of the most illustrious or dignified
female characters in that land of chivalry and song."--_Blackwood's
Magazine._
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS,
Edinburgh and London.
* * * * *
This day is published, price 8s., in post 8vo. cloth gilt, with numerous
engravings,
THE CELT, THE ROMAN, and THE SAXON. A History of the early Inhabitants of
Britain down to the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity.
Illustrated by the Ancient Remains brought to light by recent Research. By
THOMAS WRIGHT, Esq., M.A., F.S.A.
ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE, & CO.,
25. Paternoster Row.
* * * * *
TO BOOK BUYERS.
Just published, Gratis and Post Free on application,
THE EXETER BOOK CIRCULAR: being a Catalogue of Second-hand Books of all
Classes; comprising Theology, Classics, History, Biography, Voyages, and
Travels, &c. in good condition, and warranted perfect, now offered for sale
by ADAM HOLDEN, Exeter.
* * * * *
{624}
8vo., price 12s.
A MANUAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, from the First to the Twelfth Century
inclusive. By the Rev. E. S. FOULKES, M.A., fellow and Tutor of Jesus
College, Oxford.
The main plan of the work has been borrowed from Spanheim, a learned,
though certainly not unbiassed, writer of the seventeenth century; the
matter compiled from Spondanus and Spanheim, Mosheim and Fleury, Gieseler
and Döllinger, and others, who have been used too often to be specified,
unless when reference to them appeared desirable for the benefit of the
reader. Yet I believe I have never once trusted to them on a point
involving controversy, without examining their authorities. The one object
that I have had before me has been to condense facts, without either
garbling or omitting any that should be noticed in a work like the present,
and to give a fair and impartial view of the whole state of the
case.--_Preface._
"An epitomist of Church History has a task of no ordinary greatness....
He must combine the rich faculties of condensation and analysis, of
judgment in the selection of materials, and calmness in the expression
of opinions, with that most excellent gift of faith, so especially
precious to Church historians, which implies a love for the Catholic
cause, a reverence for its saintly champions, an abhorrence of the
misdeeds which have defiled it, and a confidence that its 'truth is
great, and will prevail.'
"And among other qualifications which may justly be attributed to the
author of the work before us, this last and highest is particularly
observable. He writes in a spirit of manly faith, and is not afraid of
facing 'the horrors and uncertainties,' which, to use his own words,
are to be found in Church history."--_From the Scottish Ecclesiastical
Journal, May, 1852._
JOHN HENRY PARKER, Oxford, and 377. Strand, London.
* * * * *
THE HISTORY of the PAINTERS OF ALL NATIONS. Now ready, the First Part of a
Magnificent Work in Quarto, under the above title, printed on the best
paper, and produced in the most perfect style of Typography, containing THE
LIFE OF MURILLO, with a Portrait, and Eight Specimens of his choicest
Works, including the "Conception of the Virgin," lately purchased by the
French Government for the sum of 23,440l. This beautiful Work, to the
preparation of which many years have already been devoted, will comprise
the "Lives of the Greatest Masters" of the Flemish, Dutch, Italian,
Spanish, English, French and German Schools, with their Portraits, and
Specimens of their most Celebrated Works, from Drawings and Engravings by
the first Artists of England and France. The Editorship of the Work has
been confided to MR. M. DIGBY WYATT, Author of "The Industrial Arts of the
Nineteenth Century," &c. &c., whose deep study of the Fine Arts, as well as
of the connexion which should exist between their culture and industrial
progress, will enable him to confer a utilitarian value upon the Work by a
judicious arrangement of the whole, and the supply of Original Notes and
Contributions.
The Parts will appear on the First of every Month, at 2s. each; and will be
supplied through every Bookseller in Town and Country.
JOHN CASSELL, Ludgate Hill, London.
* * * * *
In crown 8vo. with Woodcuts, price 14s. cloth,
THE GREAT EXHIBITION and LONDON in 1851 review by DR. LARDNER, &c.
"An instructive and varied memento of the Great
Exhibition."--_Spectator._
"Dr. Lardner's book is not so much a detailed account of the objects
exhibited, or all the facts concerning that remarkable display, as
essays on several branches of art illustrated by objects that were in
the Exhibition. His work will be long valuable as a record of the
progress of knowledge. It has much scientific accuracy without its
harshness."--_Economist._
London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.
* * * * *
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THE NATURAL HISTORY of CREATION. By T. LINDLEY KEMP, M.D., Author of
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BRITTANY and the BIBLE: With remarks on the French People and their
Affairs. By I. HOPE.
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London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.
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BRANDE'S DICTIONARY of SCIENCE, LITERATURE, and ART: Second Edition,
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the chief Scientific Terms, Processes, and Improvements that have come into
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*** The Supplement may be had separately, price 3s. 6d.
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instance, the accounts given of the screw propelling power and the
tubular bridges."--_Examiner._
London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.
* * * * *
In 1 vol., medium 8vo., price 14s. cloth,
DR. ROGET'S THESAURUS of ENGLISH WORDS and PHRASES Classified and Arranged
as to Facilitate the Expression of Ideas and assist in Literary
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"There cannot be the slightest doubt that, upon the whole, it is one of
the most learned as well as one of the most admirable contributions
that have been made to philology in this country since the 'Hermes' of
Harris, and the 'Diversions of Purley' by Horne Tooke."--_Observer._
"Dr. Roget's 'Thesaurus' will be found a most useful supplement to our
ordinary English dictionaries. Its value will be most recognised by
those who are best acquainted with the language, and best practised in
its use. The mere arrangement of the groups of words, unaccompanied by
definitions, suggests often various ideas associated with the different
expressions. In such practical operation as translation from a foreign
language, the utility of such a Thesaurus is obvious."--_Literary
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class containing any word of similar idea, and there he will find a
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words and phrases from which he may employ his tact to pick the
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Categories at the beginning, or a very ample alphabetical index of
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THE PRACTICAL WORKING of THE CHURCH OF SPAIN. By the Rev. FREDERICK
MEYRICK, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
"Pleasant meadows, happy peasants, all holy monks, all holy priests,
holy every body. Such charity and such unity, when every man was a
Catholic. I once believed in this Utopia myself but when tested by
stern facts, it all melts away like dream."--_A. Welby Pugin._
"The revelations made by such writers as Mr. Meyrick in Spain and Mr.
Gladstone in Italy, have at least vindicated for the Church of England
a providential and morally defined position, mission, and purpose in
the Catholic Church."--_Morning Chronicle._
"Two valuable works ... to the truthfulness of which we are glad to add
our own testimony: one, and the most important, is Mr. Meyrick's
'Practical Working of the Church of Spain.' This is the experience--and
it is the experience of every Spanish traveller--of a thoughtful
person, as to the lamentable results of unchecked Romanism. Here is the
solid substantial fact. Spain is divided between ultra-infidelity and
what is so closely akin to actual idolatry, that it can only be
controversially, not practically, distinguished from it: and over all
hangs a lurid cloud of systematic immorality, simply frightful to
contemplate. We can offer a direct, and even personal, testimony to all
that Mr. Meyrick has to say."--_Christian Remembrancer._
"I wish to recommend it strongly."--_T. K. Arnold's Theological
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opportunities; but we suspect these 'workings' are the fullest, the
most natural, and the most trustworthy, of anything that has appeared
upon the subject since the time of Blanco White's
Confessions."--_Spectator._
"This honest exposition of the practical working of Romanism in Spain,
of its everyday effects, not its canons and theories, deserves the
careful study of all, who, unable to test the question abroad, are
dazzled by the distant mirage with which the Vatican mocks many a
yearning soul that thirsts after water-brooks pure and
full."--_Literary Gazette._
JOHN HENRY PARKER, Oxford, and 377. Strand, London.
* * * * *
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of considerable rarity, some interesting and highly curious English
Poetical and other Manuscripts of early date, some Autograph Papers and
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186. Fleet Street aforesaid.--Saturday, June 26, 1852.
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