(Vol. viii., pp. 387. 519. 641.)
The courteous spirit which generally distinguishes
the communications of your correspondents,
renders the "N. & Q." the most agreeable
magazine, or, as you have it, "medium of inter-communication
for literary men," &c. I was so
much pleased with the general animus which
characterised the strictures on my proposed
translation of Ps. cxxvii. 2., that I was almost
disposed to cede to my critics, from sheer good-will
towards them. But the elder D'Israeli speaks
of such a thing "as an affair of literary conscience,"
which consideration prescribes my yielding in the
present instance; but I trust that our motto will
always be, "May our difference of opinion never
alter our inter-communications!"
I must however, at the outset, qualify an expression
I made use of, which seems to have incurred
the censure of all your four correspondents
on the subject; I mean the sentence, "The translation
of the authorised version of that sacred
affirmation is unintelligible." It seems to be perfectly
intelligible to Messrs. Buckton, Jebb,
Walter, and S. D. I qualify, therefore, the
assertion. I mean to say, that the translation of
the authorised version of that sacred affirmation
was, and is, considered unintelligible to many intelligent
biblical critics and expositors; amongst
whom I may name Luther, Mendelsohn, Hengstenberg,
Zunz, and many others whose names
will transpire in the sequel.
Having made that concession, I may now proceed
with the replying to my Querists, or rather
Critics. Mr. Buckton is entitled to my first consideration,
not only because you placed him at the
head of the department of that question, but also
because of the peculiar mode in which he treated
the subject. My replies shall be seriatim.
1. Luther was not the first who translated
כן יתן לידידו שנא "Denn seinen Freunden gibt
er es schlafend." A far greater Hebraist than
Luther, who flourished about two hundred years
before the great German Reformer came into
note, put the same construction on that sacred
affirmation. Rabbi Abraham Hacohen of Zante,
who paraphrased the whole Hebrew Psalter into
modern metrical Hebrew verse (which, according
to a P.S., was completed in 1326), interprets the
sentence in question thus:
כי כן יתן אל טרף
לידידו ושנתו מנהו לא תרף׃
"For surely God shall give food
To His beloved, and his sleep shall not be withheld from him."
2. It is more than problematical whether the
eminent translator, Mendelsohn, was influenced by
Luther's error (?), or by his own superior knowledge
of the sacred tongue.
3. I do not think that the phrase, "the proper
Jewish notion of gain," was either called for or
relevant to the subject.
4. The reign of James I. was by no means as
distinguished for Hebrew scholarship as were the
immediate previous reigns. Indeed it would appear
that the knowledge of the sacred languages
was at a very low ebb in this country during the
agitating period of the Reformation, so much so
that even the unaccountable Henry VIII. was
forced to exclaim, "Vehementer dolere nostratium
Theologorum sortem sanctissime linguæ
scientia carentium, et linguarum doctrinam fuisse
intermissam." (Hody, p. 466.)
When Coverdale made his version of the Bible
he was not only aided by Tindale, but also by
the celebrated Hebrew, of the Hebrews, Emanuel
Tremellius, who was then professor of the sacred
tongue in the University of Cambridge, where
that English Reformer was educated; and Coverdale
translated the latter part of Ps. cxxvii. 2. as
follows: "For look, to whom it pleaseth Him, He
giveth it in sleep."
When the translation was revised, during the
reign of James I., the most accomplished Anglo-Hebraist
was, by some caprice of jealousy, forced
to leave this country; I mean Hugh Broughton.
He communicated many renderings to the revisers,
some of which they thoughtlessly rejected,
and others, to use Broughton's own phrase, "they
thrust into the margin." A perusal of Broughton's
works gives one an accurate notion of the
proceedings of the revisers of the previous versions.
5. Coverdale's translation is not "ungrammatical"
as far as the Hebrew language is concerned,
notwithstanding that it was rejected in the reign
of James I.
לחם, "bread," is evidently the accusative
noun to the transitive verb
יתן, "He shall
give." Nor is it "false," for the same noun,
לחם,
"bread," is no doubt the antecedent to which the
word it refers.
6. Mendelsohn does not omit the it in his Hebrew
comment; and I am therefore unwarrantably
charged with supplying it "unauthorisedly." I
should like to see Mr. Buckton's translation of
that comment. If any doubt remained upon Mr.
B.'s mind as to the intended meaning of the word
יתנהו used by Mendelsohn, his German version
might have removed such a doubt, as the little word
es, "it," indicates pretty clearly what Mendelsohn
meant by
יתנהו. So that, instead of proving Mendelsohn
"at variance with himself," he is proved
most satisfactorily to have been in perfect harmony
with himself.
7. Mendelsohn does not omit the important word
כן; and if Mr. B. will refer once more to his copy of
Mendelsohn (we are both using the same edition),
he will find two different interpretations proposed
for the word
כן, viz. thus and rightly. I myself
prefer the latter rendering. The word occurs
about twenty times in the Hebrew Bible, and in
the great majority of instances rightly or certainly
is the only correct rendering. Both Mendelsohn
and Zunz omit to translate it in their German
versions, simply because the sentence is more
idiomatic, in the German language, without it
than with it.
8. I perfectly agree with Mr. B. "that no
version has yet had so large an amount of learning
bestowed on it as the English one." But
Mr. B. will candidly acknowledge that the largest
amount was bestowed on it since the revision of
the authorised version closed. Lowth, Newcombe,
Horne, Horsley, Lee, &c. wrote since, and they
boldly called in question many of the renderings
in the authorised version.
Let me not be mistaken; I do most sincerely
consider our version superior to all others, but it
is not for this reason faultless.
In reply to Mr. Jebb's temperate strictures, I
would most respectively submit—
1. That considerable examination leads me to
take just the reverse view to that of Burkius,
that
שנא cannot be looked upon as antithetical
to surgere, sedere, dolorum. With all my searchings
I failed to discover an analogous antithesis.
I shall be truly thankful to Mr. Jebb for a case
in point. Moreover, Psalms iii. and iv., to which
Dr. French and Mr. Skinner refer, prove to my
mind that not sleep is the gift, but sustenance and
other blessings bestowed upon the Psalmist whilst
asleep. I cannot help observing that due reflection
makes me look upon the expression, "So He
giveth His beloved sleep," as an extraordinary
anticlimax.
2. Mr. Jebb challenges the showing strictly
analogous instances of ellipses. He acknowledges
that there are very numerous ellipses even in the
Songs of Degrees themselves, but they are of a
very different nature. I might fill the whole of
this Number with examples, which the most scrupulous
critic would be obliged to acknowledge as
being strictly analogous to the passage under review;
but such a thing you would not allow. Two
instances, however, you will not object to; they
will prove a host for Mr. Jebb's purpose, inasmuch
as one has the very word
שנה elliptically,
and the other the transitive verb
יתן, minus an
accusative noun. Would Messrs. Buckton, Jebb,
Walter, and S. D. kindly translate, for the benefit
of those who are interested in the question, the
following two passages?
זרמתם שנה יהיו בבקר כחציר יחלף׃
יתן לפנין גוים ומלכים ירד
יתן כעפר הרבו כקש נזף קשתו׃
The Rev. Henry Walter will see that some of
his observations have been anticipated and already
replied to. It remains, however, for me to
assure him that I never dreamt that any one would
suppose that I considered
שנא anything else but
a noun, minus the ב preposition. The reason why
I translated the word "whilst he [the beloved]
is asleep," was because I thought the expression
more idiomatic.
S. D. attempts to prove nothing; I am exempt
therefore from disproving anything as far as he is
concerned.
Before I take leave of this lengthy and somewhat
elaborate disquisition, let me give my explanation
of the scope of the Psalm in dispute,
which, I venture to imagine, will commend itself,
even to those who differ from me, as the most
natural.
This Psalm, as well as the other thirteen entitled
"A Song of Degrees," was composed for
the singing on the road by those Israelites who
went up to Jerusalem to keep the three grand
festivals, to beguile their tedious journey, and
also to soothe the dejected spirits of those who
felt disheartened at having left their homes, their
farms, and families without guardians. Ps. cxxvii.
is of a soothing character, composed probably by
Solomon.
In the first two verses God's watchfulness and
care over His beloved are held up to the view of
the pilgrims, who are impressed with the truth
that no one, "by taking thought, can add one
cubit to his stature." The best exposition which
I can give of those two verses I have learned from
our Saviour's "Sermon on the Mount" (Matt. vi.
25-33.). The third and following verses, as well
as the next Psalm, are exegetical or illustrative.
To whom do you attribute the gift of children?
Is it not admitted on all hands to be "an heritage
of the Lord?" No one can procure that blessing
by personal anxiety and care: God alone can confer
the gift. Well, then, the same God who gives
you the heritage of children will also grant you all
other blessings which are good for you, provided
you act the part of "His beloved," and depend
upon Him without wavering.
The above is a hasty, but I trust an intelligible,
view of the scope of the Psalm.
Moses Margoliouth
Wybunbury, Nantwich.
(Vol. viii., p. 448.)
The inscription on one of the bells of Great
Milton Church, Oxon. (as given by Mr. Simpson
in "N. & Q."), has a better and rhyming form
occasionally.
In Meivod Church, Montgomeryshire, a bell
(the "great" bell, I think) has the inscription—
"I to the church the living call,
And to the grave do summon all."
The same also is found on the great bell of the
interesting church (formerly cathedral) of Llanbadarn
Fawr, Cardiganshire.
E. Dyer Green.
Nantcribba Hall.
I beg to forward the following inscription on
one of the bells in the tower of St. Nicholas
Church, Sidmouth. I have not met with it elsewhere;
and you may, perhaps, consider it worthy
of being added to those given by Cuthbert Bede
and J. L. Sisson:
"Est michi collatum
Ihc istud nomen amatum."
There is no date, but the characters may indicate
the commencement of the fifteenth century as the
period when the bell was cast.
G. J. R. Gordon.
At Lapley in Staffordshire:
"I will sound and resound to thee, O Lord,
To call thy people to thy word."
G. E. T. S. R. N.
Pray add the following savoury inscriptions to
your next list of bell-mottoes. The first disgraces
the belfry of St. Paul's, Bedford; the second, that,
of St. Mary's, Islington:
"At proper times my voice I'll raise,
And sound to my subscribers' praise!"
"At proper times our voices we will raise,
In sounding to our benefactors' praise!"
The similarity between these two inscriptions
favours the supposition that the ancient bell-founders,
like some modern enterprising firms,
kept a poet on the establishment, e.g.
"Thine incomparable oil, Macassar!"
J. Yeowell.
A friend informs me, that on a bell in Durham
Cathedral these lines occur:
"To call the folk to Church in time,
I chime.
When mirth and pleasure's on the wing,
I ring.
And when the body leaves the soul,
I toll."
J. L. S.
(Vol. viii., p. 563.)
Your correspondent who desires the blazon of
the arms of the "town of Geneva," had better
have specified to which of the two bearings assigned
to that name he refers.
One of these, which I saw on the official seal
affixed to the passport of a friend of mine lately
returned from that place, is an instance of the
obsolete practice of dimidiation; and is the more
singular, because only the dexter one of the shields
thus impaled undergoes curtailment.
The correct blazon, I believe, would be: Or,
an eagle double-headed, displayed sable, dimidiated,
and impaling gu. a key in pale argent, the
wards in chief, and turned to the sinister; the
shield surmounted with a marquis' coronet.
The blazon of the sinister half I owe to Edmondson,
who seems, however, not at all to have
understood the dexter, and gives a clumsy description
of it little worth transcribing. He, and the
Dictionnaire de Blazon, assign these arms to the
Republic of Geneva.
The other bearing would, in English, be blazoned,
Checquy of nine pieces, or and azure: and
in French, Cinq points d'or, équipollés à quatre
d'azur. This is assigned by Nisbett to the
Seigneurie of Geneva, and is quartered by the
King of Sardinia in token of the claims over the
Genevese town and territory, which, as Duke of
Savoy, he has never resigned.
With regard to the former shield, I may just
remark, that the dimidiated coat is merely that of
the German empire. How or why Geneva obtained
it, I should be very glad to be informed;
since it appears to appertain to the present independent
Republic, and not to the former seignorial
territory.
Let me also add, that the plate in the Dictionnaire
gives the field of this half as argent. Mr.
Willement, in his Regal Heraldry, under the arms
of Richard II.'s consort, also thus describes and
represents the imperial field; and Nisbett alludes
to it as such in one place, though in his formal
blazon he gives it as or.
Nothing, in an heraldic point of view, would be
more interesting than a "Regal Heraldry of Europe,"
with a commentary explaining the historical
origin and combinations of the various bearings.
Should this small contribution towards such a
compilation tend to call the attention of any able
antiquary to the general subject, or to elicit
information upon this particular question, the
writer who now offers so insignificant an item
would feel peculiarly gratified.
L. C. D.
Multiplying Negatives.—In reply to M. N. S.
(Vol. ix., p. 83.) I would suggest the following mode
of multiplying negatives on glass, which I have every
reason to believe would be perfectly successful:—First,
varnish the negative to be copied by means of
Dr. Diamond's solution of amber in chloroform; then
attach to each angle, with any convenient varnish, a
small piece of writing-paper. Prepare a similar plate
of glass with collodion, and drain off all superfluous
nitrate of silver, by standing it for a minute or so on
edge upon a piece of blotting-paper. Lay it flat upon
a board, collodion side upwards, and the negative prepared
above upon it, collodion side downwards. Expose
the whole to daylight for a single second, or to
gas-light for about a minute, and develope as usual.
The result will be a transmitted positive, but with reversed
sides; and from this, when varnished and treated
as the original negative, any number of negatives similar
to the first may be produced.
The paper at the angles is to prevent the absolute
contact and consequent injury by the solution of nitrate
of silver; and, for the same reason, it is advisable
not to attempt to print until the primary negative is
varnished, as, with all one's care, sometimes the nitrate
will come in contact and produce spots, if the varnishing
has been omitted. Should the negative become
moistened, it should be at once washed with a gentle
stream of water and dried.
I have repeatedly performed the operation above
described so far as the production of the positive, and
so perfect is the impression that I see no reason why
the second negative should be at all distinguishable
from the original.
I am, indeed, at present engaged upon a similar
attempt; but there are several other difficulties in my
way: I, however, entertain no doubts of perfect success.
Geo. Shadbolt.
Towgood's Paper.—A. B. (Vol. ix., p. 83.) can purchase
Towgood's paper of Mr. Sandford, who frequently
advertises in "N. & Q." With regard to his other Query,
I think there can be no doubt of his being at liberty
to publish a photographic copy of a portrait, Mr. Fox
Talbot having reserved only the right to paper copies
of a photographic portrait. Collodion portraits are not
patent, but the paper proofs from collodion negatives
are.
Geo. Shadbolt.
Adulteration of Nitrate of Silver.—Will any of your
chemical readers tell me how I am to know if nitrate
of silver is pure, and how to detect the adulteration?
If so with nitrate of potash, how? One writer on
photography recommends the fused, as then the excess
of nitric acid is got rid of. Another says the fused
nitrate is nearly always adulterated. I fear you have
more querists than respondents. I have looked carefully
for a reply to some former Queries respecting
Mr. Crookes's restoration of old collodion, but at
present they have failed in appearance.
The Reader of Photographic Works.
Passage of Cicero (Vol. viii., p. 640.).—Is the
following what Semi-Tone wants?
"Mira est enim quædam natura vocis; cujus quidem,
e tribus omnino sonis, inflexo, acuto, gravi, tanta sit,
et tam suavis varietas perfecta in cantibus."—Orator,
cap. 17.
B. H. C.
Major André (Vol. viii., pp. 174. 604.).—The late
Mrs. Mills of Norwich (née André) was not the
sister of Major André; she was the only daughter
of Mr. John André of Offenbach, near Frankfort
on the Maine, in Germany; where he established
more than eighty years ago a prosperous concern
as a printer of music, and was moreover an eminent
composer: this establishment is now in the
hands of his grandson. Mr. John André was not
the brother of the Major, but a second or third
cousin. Mrs. Mills used to say, that she remembered
seeing the Major at her father's house as a
visitor, when she was a very small child. He
began his career in London in the commercial
line; and, after he entered the army, was sent
by the English ministry to Hesse-Cassel to conduct
to America a corps of Hessian hirelings to
dragoon the revolted Americans into obedience:
it was on this occasion that he paid the above-mentioned
visit to Offenbach.
Having frequently read the portion of English
history containing the narrative of the transactions
in which Major André was so actively
engaged, and for which he suffered, I have often
asked myself whether he was altogether blameless
in that questionable affair.
Trivet Allcock.
Norwich.
P.S.—This account was furnished to me by
Mr. E. Mills, husband of the late Mrs. Mills.
Catholic Bible Society (Vol. ix., p. 41.).—Besides
the account of this society in Bishop Milner's
Supplementary Memoirs of the English Catholics,
many papers on the same will be found in the
volumes of the Orthodox Journal from 1813, when
the Society was formed, to 1819. In this last
volume, p. 9., Bishop Milner wrote a long letter,
containing a comparison of the brief notes in the
stereotyped edition of the above Society with the
notes of Bishop Challoner, from whose hands he
mentions having received a copy of his latest edition
of both Testaments in 1777. It should be
mentioned that most of the papers in the Orthodox
Journal alluded to were written by Bishop Milner
under various signatures, which the present writer,
with all who knew him well, could always recognise.
That eminent prelate thus sums up the fate
of the sole publication of the so-called Catholic
Bible Society:
"Its stereotype Testament ... was proved to
abound in gross errors; hardly a copy of it could be
sold; and, in the end, the plates for continuing it have
been of late presented by an illustrious personage, into
whose hands they fell, to one of our prelates [this was
Bishop Collingridge], who will immediately employ
the cart-load of them for a good purpose, as they were
intended to be, by disposing of them to some pewterer,
who will convert them into numerous useful culinary
implements, gas-pipes, and other pipes."
F. C. H.
Cassiterides (Vol. ix., p. 64.).—Kassiteros; the
ancient Indian Sanscrit word Kastira. Of the disputed
passage in Herodotus respecting the Cassiterides,
the interpretation of Rennell, in his
Geographical System of Herodotus; of Maurice,
in his Indian Antiquities, vol. vi.; and of Heeren, in
his Historical Researches; is much more satisfactory
than that offered by your correspondent
S. G. C., although supported by the French academicians
(Inscript. xxxvi. 66.)
The advocates for a Celtic origin of the name
of these islands are perhaps not aware that—
"Through the intercourse which the Phœnicians, by
means of their factories in the Persian Gulph, maintained
with the east coast of India, the Sanscrit word
Kastira, expressing a most useful product of farther
India, and still existing among the old Aramaic idioms
in the Arabian word Kasdir, became known to the
Greeks even before Albion and the British Cassiterides
had been visited."—See Humboldt's Cosmos, "Principal
Epochs in the History of the Physical Contemplation
of the Universe," notes.
Bibliothecar. Chetham.
Wooden Tombs and Effigies (Vol. ix., p. 62.).—There
are two fine recumbent figures of a Lord
Neville and his wife in Brancepeth Church, four
miles south-west of Durham. They are carved in
wood. A view of them is given in Billing's Antiquities
of Durham.
J. H. B.
Tailless Cats (Vol. ix., p. 10.).—In my visits
to the Isle of Man, I have frequently met with
specimens of the tailless cats referred to by your
correspondent Shirley Hibberd. In the pure
breed there is not the slightest vestige of a tail,
and in the case of any intermixture with the
species possessing the usual caudal appendage, the
tail of their offspring, like the witch's "sark," as
recorded by honest Tam o' Shanter,
"In longitude is sorely scanty."
In fact, it terminates abruptly at the length of a
few inches, as if amputated, having altogether a
very ludicrous appearance.
G. Taylor.
Reading.
The breed of cats without tails is well known in
the Isle of Man, and accounted by the people of the
island one of its chief curiosities. These cats are
sought after by strangers: the natives call them
"Rumpies," or "Rumpy Cats." Their hind legs
are rather longer than those of cats with tails, and
give them a somewhat rabbit-like aspect, which
has given rise to the odd fancy that they are the
descendants of a cross between a rabbit and cat.
They are good mousers. When a perfectly tailless
cat is crossed with an ordinary-tailed individual,
the progeny exhibit all intermediate states
between tail and no tail.
Edward Forbes.
Warville (Vol. viii., p. 516.).—
"Jacque Pierre Brissot was born on the 14th Jan.,
1754, in the village of Ouarville, near Chartres."—Penny
Cyclo.
If your correspondent is a French scholar, he
will perceive that Warville is, as nearly as possible,
the proper pronunciation of the name of this
village, but that Brissot being merely the son of a
prior pastrycook, had no right whatever to the name,
which doubtless he bore merely as a distinction from
some other Brissot. It may interest your American
friend to know, that he married Félicité
Dupont, a young lady of good family at Boulogne.
A relation of my own, who was very intimate with
her before her marriage, has often described her
to me as being of a very modest, retiring, religious
disposition, very clever with her pencil, and as
having received a first-rate education from masters
in Paris. These gifts, natural and acquired,
made her a remarkable young person, amidst the
crowd of frivolous idlers who at that time formed
"good society," not only in Paris, but even in
provincial towns, of which Boulogne was not the
least gay. Perhaps he knows already that she
quickly followed her husband to the scaffold. Her
sister (I believe the only one) married a Parisian
gentleman named Aublay, and died at a great
age about ten years ago.
N. J. A.
W is not a distinct letter in the French alphabet;
it is simply double v, and is pronounced like
v, as in Wissant, Wimireux, Wimille, villages between
Calais and Boulogne, and Wassy in Champagne.
W. R. D. S.
Green Eyes (Vol. viii., p. 407.).—The following
are quotations in favour of green eyes, in addition
to Mr. H. Temple's:
"An eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye."
Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Sc. 5.
And Dante, in Purgatory, canto xxxi., likens
Beatrice's eyes to emeralds:
"Disser: fa che le viste non risparmi:
Posto t' avem dinanzi agli smeraldi,
Ond' Amor già ti trasse le sue armi."
"Spare not thy vision. We have station'd thee
Before the emeralds, whence Love, erewhile,
Hath drawn his weapons on thee."
Cary's Translation.
I think short-sightedness is an infirmity more
common among men of letters, authors, &c., than
any other class; indeed, one is inclined to think
it is no rare accompaniment of talent. A few celebrated
names occur to me who suffered weakness
of distinct vision to see but the better near. I
am sure your correspondents could add many to the
list. I mark them down at random:—Niebuhr,
Thomas Moore, Marie Antoinette, Gustavus
Adolphus, Herrick the poet, Dr. Johnson, Margaret
Fuller, Ossoli, Thiers, Quevedo. These are
but a few, but I will not lengthen the list at
present.
M——a S.
Came (Vol. viii., p. 468.).—H. T. G. will find
this word to be as old as our language. Piers
Ploughman writes:
"A cat
Cam when hym liked."
Vision, l. 298.
"A lovely lady
Cam doun from a castel."
Ib. l. 466.
Chaucer:
"Till that he came to Thebes."
Cant. T. l. 985.
Gower:
"Thus (er he wiste) into a dale
He came."
Conf. Am. b. i. fol. 9. p. 2. col. l.
Q.
"Epitaphium Lucretiæ" (Vol. viii., p. 563.).—Allow
me to send an answer to the Query of Balliolensis,
and to state that in that rather scarce
little book, Epigrammata et Poematia Vetera, he
will find at page 68. that "Epitaphium Lucretiæ"
is ascribed to Modestus, perhaps the same person
who wrote a work de re militari. The version
there given differs slightly from that of Balliolensis,
and has two more lines; it is as follows:
"Cum foderet ferro castum Lucretia pectus,
Sanguinis et torrens egereretur, ait:
Procedant testes me non favisse tyranno,
Ante virum sanguis, spiritus ante deos.
Quam recte hi testes pro me post fata loquentur,
Alter apud manes, alter apud superos."
Perhaps the following translation may not be unacceptable:
"When thro' her breast the steel Lucretia thrust,
She said, while forth th' ensanguin'd torrent gush'd;
'From me that no consent the tyrant knew,
To my spouse my blood, to heaven my soul shall show;
And thus in death these witnesses shall prove,
My innocence, to shades below, and Powers above.'"
C—S. T. P.
Oxford Commmemoration Squib, 1849 (Vol. viii.,
p. 584.).—Quoted incorrectly. The heading stands
thus:
"Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!"
After the name of "Wrightson" add "(Queen's);"
and at the foot of the bill "Floreat Lyceum." I
quote from a copy before me.
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.
"Imp" (Vol. viii., p. 623.).—Perhaps as amusing
use of the word imp as can be found anywhere
occurs in an old Bacon, in his "Pathway unto
Prayer" (see Early Writings, Parker Society,
p. 187.):
"Let us pray for the preservation of the King's
most excellent Majesty, and for the prosperous success
of his entirely beloved son Edward our Prince, that
most angelic imp."
P. P.
False Spellings from Sound (Vol. vi., p. 29.).—The
observations of Mr. Waylen deserve to be
enlarged by numerous examples, and to be, to a
certain extent, corrected. He has not brought
clearly into view two distinct classes of "false
spelling" under which the greater part of such
mistakes may be arranged. One class arose solely
from erroneous pronunciation; the second from
intentional alteration. I will explain my meaning
by two examples, both which are, I believe, in
Mr. Waylen's list.
The French expression dent de lion stands for a
certain plant, and some of the properties of that
plant originated the name. When an Englishman
calls the same plant Dandylion, the sound has not
given birth "to a new idea" in his mind. Surely,
he pronounces badly three French words of which
he may know the meaning, or he may not. But
when the same Englishman, or any other, orders
sparrow-grass for dinner, these two words contain
"a new idea," introduced purposely: either he, or
some predecessor, reasoned thus—there is no
meaning in asparagus; sparrow-grass must be
the right word because it makes sense. The name
of a well-known place in London illustrates both
these changes: Convent Garden becomes Covent
Garden by mispronunciation; it becomes Common
Garden by intentional change.
Mistakes of the first class are not worth recording;
those of the second fall under this general
principle: words are purposely exchanged for
others of a similar sound, because the latter are
supposed to recover a lost meaning.
I have by me several examples which I will
send you if you think the subject worth pursuing.
J. O. B.
Wicken.
"Good wine needs no bush" (Vol. viii., p. 607.).—The
custom of hanging out bushes of ivy,
boughs of trees, or bunches of flowers, at private
houses, as a sign that good cheer may be had
within, still prevails in the city of Gloucester at
the fair held at Michaelmas, called Barton Fair,
from the locality; and at the three "mops," or
hiring fairs, on the three Mondays following, to
indicate that ale, beer, cider, &c. are there sold,
on the strength (I believe) of an ancient privilege
enjoyed by the inhabitants of that street to sell
liquors, without the usual license, during the fair.
Brookthorpe.
Three Fleurs-de-Lys (Vol. ix., p. 35.).—In
reply to the Query of Devoniensis, I would say
that many families of his own county bore fleurs-de-lys
in their coat armour, in the forms of two
and one, and on a bend; also that the heraldic
writers, Robson and Burke, assign a coat to the
family of Baker charged with three fleurs-de-lys
on a fesse. The Devon family of Velland bore,
Sable, a fesse argent, in chief three fleurs-de-lys of
the last, but whether these bearings were ever
placed fesse-wise, or, as your querist terms it, in a
horizontal line, I am not sure.
J. D. S.
If Devoniensis will look at the arms of Magdalen
College, Oxford, he will there find the three
fleurs-de-lys in a line in the upper part of the
shield.
A. B.
Athenæum.
Portrait of Plowden (Vol. ix., p. 56.).—A portrait
of Plowden (said to have been taken from
his monument in the Temple Church) is prefixed
to the English edition of his Reports, published in
1761.
J. G.
Exon.
St. Stephen's Day and Mr. Riley's "Hoveden"
(Vol. viii., p. 637.).—The statement of this feast
being observed prior to Christmas must have
arisen from the translator not being conversant
with the technical terms of the Ecclesiastical Calendar,
in which, as the greater festivals are celebrated
with Octaves, other feasts falling during
the Octave are said to be under (infrà) the
greater solemnity. Thus, if Mr. Warden will
consult the Ordo Recitandi Officii Divini for 1834,
he will see that next Sunday, the 8th inst., stands
"Dom inf. Oct.," i.e. of the Epiphany, and that
the same occurs on other days during the year.
May I point out an erratum in a Query inserted
some time since (not yet replied to), regarding a
small castle near Kingsgate, Thanet, the name of
which is printed Aix Ruochim; it should be Arx
Ruochim.
A. O. H.
Blackheath.
Death Warnings in Ancient Families (Vol. ix.,
p. 55.).—A brief notice of these occurrences, with
references to works where farther details may be
met with, would form a very remarkable record
of events which tend to support one's belief in
the truth of the remark of Hamlet:
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy."
A drummer is stated to be heard in C——
Castle, the residence of the Earl and Countess of
A., "going about the house playing his drum,
whenever there is a death impending in the
family." This warning is asserted to have been
given shortly before the decease of the Earl's first
wife, and preceded the death of the next Countess
about five or six months. Mrs. Crowe, in her
Night Side of Nature, observes hereupon:
"I have heard that a paper was found in her (the
Countess's) desk after her death, declaring her conviction
that the drum was for her."
Whenever a little old woman visits a lady of the
family of G. of R., at the time of her confinement,
when the nurse is absent, and strokes down the
clothes, the patient (says Mrs. Crowe), "never
does any good, and dies." Another legend is, that
a single swan is always seen on a particular lake
close to the mansion of another family before a
death. Then, Lord Littleton's dove is a well-known
incident. And the lady above quoted
speaks of many curious warnings of death by the
appearance of birds, as well as of a spectral black
dog, which visited a particular family in Cornwall
immediately before the death of any of its members.
Having made this Note of a few more
cases of death warnings, I will end with a Query
in the words of Mrs. Crowe, who, after detailing
the black dog apparition, asks: "if this phenomenon
is the origin of the French phrase bête
noire, to express an annoyance, or an augury of
evil?"
Jas. J. Scott.
Hampstead.
"The Secunde Personne of the Trinitie" (Vol. ix.,
p. 56.).—I think it is Hobart Seymour who
speaks of some Italians of the present day as considering
the Three Persons of the Trinity to be
the Father, the Virgin, and the Son.
J. P. O.