Notes and Queries Vol. IV., No. 90, Saturday, July 19. 1851

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

After Caxton had slept with his fathers for three centuries, remembered only by a few antiquaries, it was deemed fit that a public monument should record his merits.

The Roxburghe club, much to the honour of its members, undertook to bear the cost of it, and to superintend its execution. With regard to its location, there was no question as to the paramount claims of Westminster. It was proposed, in the first instance, to place it in the collegiate church of St. Peter, within the precincts of which church Caxton had exercised his art. The want of a convenient space was rather an obstacle to that plan: a more serious obstacle was the amount of fees demanded on such occasions. It was then decided, and perhaps with more propriety, that it should be placed in the parish church of St. Margaret; and the execution of the monument, which was to be of the tablet form, was entrusted to the younger Westmacott.[1] An engraving of it has been published.[2] The inscription is

"To the memory

of William Caxton

who first introduced into Great Britain

the art of printing

and who A.D. 1477 or earlier

exercised that art

in the abbey of Westminster.

This tablet

in remembrance of one

to whom

the literature of his country

is so largely indebted

was raised

anno Domini MDCCCXX

by the Roxburghe club

earl Spencer, K.G. president."

[1] T. F. Dibdin, Reminiscences of a literary life. London, 1836. 8vo. i. 386.

[2] J. Martin, A catalogue of books privately printed. London, 1834. 8vo. p. 486.

The monument, as a piece of sculpture, is simplicity itself, and therefore suitable to the place of its destination. To the inscription I venture to make some slight objections: 1. Whether Caxton "introduced into Great Britain the art of printing" admits of a doubt. There is no evidence to invalidate the colophon of the Exposicio S. Jeronimi in simbolo Apostolorum.[3] Dibdin fully believed in its authenticity.[4] 2. Caxton is very imperfectly designated. He was a well-informed writer, a most assiduous translator, and a very careful editor. As early as 1548, he was classed among the Illustres majoris Britanniæ scriptores[5] — but we are on the decline, it seems, in point of tact and intelligence. 3. The date of his decease, and the place of his burial, should have been stated. The facts are recorded in the accounts of the churchwardens of this very parish, and nowhere else.[6] 4. The inscription, as a composition, wants terseness: on this point, I content myself with giving a hint typographically.

[3] S. W. Singer, Some account of the book printed at Oxford in 1468. London, 1812. 8vo. p. 44.

[4] Typographical antiquities, by Joseph Ames, etc. London, 1810. 4to. Life of Caxton, p. 75.

[5] Illvstrivm maíoris Britanniae scriptorvm summari[=u] avtore Ioanne Balaeo. Gippeswici, 1548. 4to. fol. 208.

[6] John Nichols, Illustrations of the manners and expences of ancient times. London, 1797. 4to. p. 3.

In 1847 a fresh attempt as made to revive the memory of Caxton. After due notice, a public meeting was held on the 12th of June to "promote the erection of a monument to commemorate the introduction of printing into England, and in honour of William Caxton, the earliest English printer"—the lord Morpeth in the chair. The meeting was extremely well attended. The form of monument proposed was, the combination of a fountain by day and a light by night—the poetical conception of the rev. H. H. Milman. Some excellent speeches were made—and I cannot but particularize that of the noble chairman; considerable sums were subscribed—the messieurs Clowes tendering 100l.; a committee, a sub-committee, a treasurer, and a secretary, were appointed.[7] —With the proceedings of that meeting, as publicly reported, my information terminated.

[7] The Times, June 14, 1847.

After a lapse of four years, a meeting of the subscribers to the Caxton Testimonial was advertised for the 10th of July, to "consider an offer made by the Coalbrookdale Iron Company to erect an iron statue of Caxton—and, in the event of the proposal being adopted, to determine the best means of carrying the same into effect." I was much astonished at this announcement. A meeting to consider an offer to perpetuate a fiction in connexion with an art which surpasses all other arts in its power of establishing truth! On reflection, I became calm; and felt that Mr. Henry Cole, the honorary secretary, was perfectly right in adopting the customary phraseology. The result of this meeting is a desideratum. It seems to have been private; for an examination of 300 columns of The Times, being, the history of four days, did not lead to the discovery of one word on the iron statue of Caxton.

If the statue-mania did not now prevail to an unexampled extent, I should feel much confidence in the sound sense of the subscribers—but I have my misgivings.

According to my feelings, which I avail myself of this opportunity of recording, we may commemorate an eminent individual in better ways than by the erection of a statue; the philanthropist, by an alms-house—the scholar, by scholarships—the naval commander, by a sea-mark—etc. Admitting that a statue may sometimes be the most desirable form of monument, the statue of an individual of whose features we are in entire ignorance is a misnomer. It is scarcely less than an absurdity.

As I have intimated that there is no authentic portrait of Caxton, I must now justify my conviction. Ames published a woodcut as a portrait of our venerable Caxton:[8] Dibdin discovered it to be a "portrait of Burchiello,"[9] an eccentric Florentine barber!—le poète le plus bizarre qui ait jamais écrit! Horace Walpole published a print said to represent earl Rivers "introducing Caxton to Edward IV."[10] It was copied from an illuminated MS. in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, No. 265. Now, what says Mr. Todd? "That Caxton printed this book in 1477, is well known. But what has that circumstance to do with the earl presenting or attending the presentation of his own manuscript? The figure here introduced by the earl is evidently, by the tonsure and habit, a priest; which Caxton was not."[11] I have heard of no other engraved portraits of Caxton.

[8] Typographical antiquities. London, 1749. 4to. p. 54.

[9] The bibliographical decameron. London, 1817. 8vo. ii. 288.

[10] Catalogue of royal and noble authors. Strawberry-hill, 1758. 8vo. i. 60.

[11] Catalogue of the archiepiscopal manuscripts at Lambeth. London, 1812. Fol. p. 37.

Viewing Caxton as a man of considerable literary abilities, and as the first English printer, I have now to propose for him a monument which shall do justice to his merits in both capacities—a monument which shall be visible at all times, and in all places: I propose a collective impression of his original compositions. Such a volume would be the best account of his life and works. It would also exhibit much of the literary history of the times—some sound criticism and notions on editorship—and curious specimens of the style of our forefathers. It would comprise what no wealth could procure—what no single library could produce. It would be, to use the forcible words of messieurs Visconti and Castellan, on a somewhat similar occasion, "un monument plus utile et plus durable que ceux même que l'on peut ériger avec le marbre et le bronze."[12]

[12] Journal des savans. 1818. 4to. p. 389.

Proposed Conditions.

1. A volume, to be entitled The Caxton Memorial, shall be printed for subscribers under approved editorship, and shall contain all the original compositions of WILLIAM CAXTON, as proems, notes, colophons, etc., with specimens of his translations, and fac-simile cuts of his device and types.

2. In order to expedite the progress of the volume, and to ensure the perfect accuracy of its contents, there shall be three co-editors—one of whom shall act as secretary.

3. The volume shall be printed in Roman type, with the ancient orthography and punctuation; and in two sizes—in royal octavo, and in demy octavo.

4. Subscribers of 1l. 1s. shall be entitled to a copy on royal paper, and subscribers of 10s. 6d. to a copy on demy paper.

5. Each editor shall be entitled to the same number of copies as are allowed by the Camden and other similar societies.

6. The number of copies printed shall not exceed the number for which subscriptions shall have been received, except as required by the fifth rule, and as presents to such public libraries, or private collectors, as may furnish a part of the materials.

7. Printers and publishers subscribing for six copies shall be allowed a discount of 25 per cent.

8. The names of the subscribers, and an account of the receipts and expenditure, shall be added to the volume.

The project now announced was formed by me, as to its principal features, at the close of the year 1849; but not a line was written before the appearance of the advertisement of the 5th instant. It had been communicated, however, in private, to the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES." To this fact I have no doubt he will cheerfully bear witness. As the previous scheme of a Caxton Testimonial was then almost forgotten, the idea could not have been conceived in spirit of rivalry. Nevertheless, if need be, I would oppose to the utmost of my ability, and fearless of any array of names which the rolls of literature may furnish, the PERPETUATION OF A FICTION.

BOLTON CORNEY.

Barnes Terrace, Surrey, July 15.

Cole, in his manuscript volume xlvi. p. 340, gives the copy of a paper written at the beginning of the seventeenth century, addressed to some Justices in Quarter Sessions, though of what county is not mentioned:—

"Maye it please your worships to understand what troubles, sicknesse, and losses the Petitioner hath suffered, and in what manner theye happened, and by plaine tokens and lyklyhood, by the meanes of this woman and others; but chiefly by her, as is gathered by all conjectures. And first of all, a Boare which I have, was in such case, that he could not crye nor grunt as beforetyme; neither could he goe, but creepe, until we used some meanes to recover him; but all was to no purpose, untill such tyme as we sent for Nicholas Wesgate, who, when he saw him, said, 'He was madd or bewitched;' and my Wyfe using meanes to give him some Milke, he bit her by the hand, and I fearing he was madd, sent after my wyfe, being toward Norwich, that she might get something at the Apothecaries to prevent the danger we feared: and that Horse which my man did ryde upon after my wife, was taken lame as he returned back again, and suddenly after was swollen lyke a Bladder which is blown, and died within eight dayes. Nexte a Calfe was taken lame, the legg turning upward, which was a strange sight to them whoe did beholde the same. Suddenly after that I had fyve Calves more, which should have sold for xiijs. iiijd. the Calfe, being sound and well in the evening, and the next daye in the morning they were in such case as wee could not endure to come nigh them, by reason of a filthy noisome savour, theyre hayre standinge upright on theyre backes, and theye shakinge in such sorte as I never sawe, nor any other, I suppose, lyveynge. Againe within a short space I had another Calfe, which was taken so strangely, as if the backe were broken, and much swollen, and within the space of three or four dayes it dyed. And within two or three dayes after, another Calfe was taken in such sorte that it turned round about, and did goe as if the backe were broken. Then was I wished to burne it, and I carried the Calfe to burne it, and after it was burned, I was taken with paynes and gripings, and soe continued in such sort, untyll shee came to my House; whereupon I did earnestly chide her, and said I would beate her, and that daye, I prayse God, I was restored to my former health."

H. E.

This learned and accomplished gentleman was born in 1776. He was educated for the Scottish bar, to which he was called in the year 1797. Within a year or two after he was enrolled as a member of the Faculty, he produced his first quarto, Fragments of Scottish History. This was followed, in the year 1801, by a collection of Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century, in two octavo volumes. In 1809 appeared a Tract chiefly relative to Monastic Antiquities, with some Account of a recent Search for the Remains of the Scottish Kings interred in the Abbey of Dunfermline, the first of four or five thin octavos, in which Mr. Graham Dalyell called attention to those ecclesiastical records of the north, so many of which have since been printed by the Bannatyne, Maitland, and Spalding Clubs, under the editorial care of Mr. Cosmo Innes. A later and more laborious work was his Essay on the Darker Superstitions of Scotland; a performance which embodies the fruit of much patient study in rare and little read works, and affords many curious glimpses of the popular mythology of the north. The long list of the productions of Sir John Graham Dalyell closes with his Musical Memoirs of Scotland, published little more than a twelvemonth ago. The deceased baronet was distinguished also by his acquaintance with mechanical science, and still more by his knowledge of Natural History. Of the zeal with which he prosecuted this last pursuit, he has left a signal monument in his Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland. Sir John succeeded to the family title and estates, as sixth baronet, on the death of his elder brother, Sir James Dalyell, on February 1, 1841. He had previously been advanced to the honours of knighthood, by patent under the Great Seal, in the year 1836. He had been for some time in infirm health, and died at his residence, Great King Street, Edinburgh, on May 17, 1851, in his seventy-fourth year. Dying unmarried, he is succeeded by his younger brother, now Sir William Cunningham Cavendish Dalyell, of Binns, baronet, Commander R.N., Royal Hospital, Greenwich.

ABERDENIENSIS.

Dryden, alluding to his work:

"When it was only a confused mass of thoughts tumbling over one another in the dark; when the fancy was yet in its first work, moving the sleeping images of things towards the light, there to be distinguished, and there either to be chosen or rejected by the judgment."—Dedication to the Rival Ladies.

Lord Byron's appropriation of the same idea:

Had Oldham or Dryden the prior claim to the thought? Byron derived his plagiarism from D'Israeli, "On the Literary Character" (vol. i. p. 284., 1828), where Dryden's Dedication to his Rival Ladies is quoted, and not from the Dedication itself, as the Retrospective Review imagined (vol. vii. p. 158.), "by levying contributions in the most secret and lonely recesses of our literature."

JAMES CORNISH.

When Polonius proposed to use the players according to their desert, Hamlet rebuked him with "Much better man! use every man after his desert, and who shall 'scape whipping? Use them after your own honour and dignity!" I do not think it necessary to notice that what is merely coarse and vulgar in an unprovoked attack upon myself, feeling that I have no right to expect the man who has no consideration for his own dignity to think of mine. But when an attempt is made to sow dissension between me and those whose opinions I value, and whose characters I esteem, I feel that in justice to myself and in satisfaction to them, a few words are not out of place.

Some few of your readers may have seen a pamphlet in reply to MR. SINGER, on the meaning of eisell and from certain insinuations about "pegs and wires," and a "literary coterie," it might be supposed that there existed some other bond for the support of "NOTES AND QUERIES" than a common object affords. I wish then to inform such of them as may not happen to belong to the "coterie" in question (which I suppose exists somewhere—perhaps holds a sort of witch's-sabbath on some inaccessible peak in the pamphleteer's imagination), that I have never, to my knowledge, even seen either MR. SINGER or the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" and that, so far from meaning offence to the angry gentleman who seems disposed to run-a-muck against all who come in his way, I actually supposed all meant in good part, and characterised his remarks as "pleasant criticism."

From an apparent inability, however, of this pamphleteer to distinguish between pleasantry and acrimony, he has attempted to fix on me offences against others when I have ventured to dissent from their conclusions. All I can say is, that I have never written anything inconsistent with the very high respect I feel for the abilities and the great services rendered by the gentlemen I have had occasion to allude to.

Dire is the wrath of the pamphleteer that he should have been charged by MR. SINGER with "want of truth." That gentleman doubtless saw what I did not, the implied insinuation—since burst into full flower—about a "coterie." Yet the candid controversialist, now, after due deliberation, insinuates that a "canon of criticism," which I ventured to suggest, and at which he now finds it convenient to sneer, was remembered for the purpose of "bolstering up" MR. SINGER'S "bad argument." So far from this being the case, he knows that I used MR. SINGER'S argument—at the close of, and apart from the main purpose of my letter, to illustrate mine. So, in another place, in the attempt to show up my "charming and off-hand modesty," he quotes my opinion that the meaning of "rack" might be "settled at once and for ever," suppressing the fact that I made the assertion with a view of "testing the correctness of my opinion that the question was not one of etymology, but of construction. In short, an adept in the use of those weapons which are of value only where victory seems a higher aim than truth, his honesty would appear to be upon a level with his taste.

I have now done with this gentleman. Of the importance of inquiries into nice verbal distinctions there might be a question, but that they sometimes furnish a clue to more valuable discoveries but for this fact I should little regard them. At all events, the remark about the difference "'twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee," comes with strange inconsistency from one who has written fifty-two pages with no other result than raising the question whether "bitter" was not "sour," and proving how both qualities may be combined in a truly "nauseous medicament."

SAMUEL HICKSON.

St. John's Wood.

[Our attention having, been directed by the preceding letter to Mr. Causton's pamphlet, we procured and read it, with feelings of deep pain, not for ourselves but for the writer. We are content to rest the justification of our conduct in abridging, or, as Mr. Causton terms it, "mutilating," that gentleman's communication, on the very passages which we omitted, and he has reprinted. Mr. Causton's pamphlet, written in defence of his literary reputation, proves that that reputation has no enemy so dangerous as himself. We may add that we propose next week publishing a summary of the evidence on both sides of this disputed question, written not by Mr. Causton nor Mr. Hickson, but by a correspondent who, like those gentlemen, is personally unknown to us.]

—I have an extraordinary little volume, which, I am told, was written by Frederic Mansell Reynolds, who died in June, 1850, entitled, "Miserrimus. On a gravestone in Worcester Cathedral is this inscription, 'Miserrimus,' with neither name, date, nor comment. NOT PUBLISHED. Printed by Davison, Simmons, & Co., 1832," 12mo.

The work purports to be a sort of autobiography of a most miserable wretch, and we are left to suppose that his remains lie under the stone in question, for we are not furnished with any preface or introduction. Whether the author was aware of the name of the person over whom so singular an inscription was placed does not appear; but there is no reason to believe that the repulsive and painful aberrations he details had any relation to the individual buried under the memorial of "Miserrimus," whose name is recorded in Chambers's Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire, p. 310., as the Rev. Thomas Morris, who was deprived of all ecclesiastical preferment for refusing to acknowledge the king's supremacy at the Revolution, and died, it is stated, in 1748, silvered over with the weight and infirmities of eighty-eight years—"Miserrimus."

F. R. A.

—It is not generally known, that the old stone sign of that celebrated place of public resort is still in existence, and is preserved by being imbedded in the brick wall of the garden of Bedlam Hospital (visible from the road), representing a dog squatting on his haunches with a duck in his mouth; and the date 1617. It was placed here on removal of the old house which stood on, or very close to, the spot; and in the superintendent's (Mr. Nicholl's) room is a very pretty drawing of that ancient place of amusement. I have had a sketch made of it in large.

Any information respecting the Dog and Duck, its guests, visitors, or landlords, would be most acceptable to

G. CREED.

—The revolting habit of swearing—which, of late years, has happily diminished—has been a marked characteristic of the English for many centuries; and the national adjuration which has given us a nick-name on the continent, appears to have prevailed at an earlier period than is generally supposed.

"The English," observes Henry, "were remarkable in this period (between 1399 and 1485) among the nations of Europe, for the absurd and impious practice of profane swearing in conversation."

The Count of Luxemburg, accompanied by the Earls of Warwick and Stafford, visited the Maid of Orleans in her prison at Rouen, where she was chained to the floor and loaded with irons. The Count, who had sold her to the English, pretended that he had come to treat with her about her ransom. After addressing him with contempt and disdain, she turned her eyes towards the two Earls, and said,—"I know that you English are determined to put me to death, and imagine that, after I am dead, you will conquer France: but, though there were a hundred thousand G—— dammees more in France than there are, they will never conquer that kingdom." So early had the English got this odious nick-name by their frequent and common use of that horrid and disgusting imprecation.

T. WE.

—A Moiety.—There is a line in Locksley Hall which has always appeared to me a sad blemish in a fine poem, and which may, perhaps, puzzle posterity as much as any of those which have been illustrated by G. P. (Vol. iii., p. 319.) I allude to that in stanza 92.:

Posterity will easily learn that the Chinese cycle was just "sixty years," and will have some difficulty in believing that Tennyson should have rated the disparity between life in Europe and in China no higher than as six to five. It is evident that the poet used a "cycle" in the signification of a long period of years; but will posterity be able to find any authority for this use of the word? Can any one refer to a dictionary which explains it in that sense, or to any other good author who has so used it?

This use of the word "cycle" is associated in my mind with a use (or rather abuse) of the word "moiety," which prevails in the north of Ireland, and perhaps elsewhere. It properly signifies "one half," but many employ it in the sense of a very small portion. I hope no one will introduce it into poetry with this signification.

MATTER OF FACT.

The Description Routière et Géographique de l'Empire Français, already cited by me on the subject of Bicêtre, furnishes the following particulars respecting the derivation of Fontainebleau:

"Ce bassin sert de décharge à la fontaine, qui a donné, dit-on, son nom à Fontainebleau. Elle est nommée, dans les anciennes chartes, Fons Blaudi. Quelques modernes substituent à cette étymologie celle de belle eau, d'où ils font également dériver Fontainebleau. L'une et l'autre sont rejetées par Expilly, et remplacées par une troisième de sa façon, qui est évidente, selon lui, et qui, selon ses lecteurs, est la plus absurde de toutes. Je vais citer ce passage pour faire sentir jusqu'à quel travers d'esprit peut conduire la manie des étymologies. 'Pourquoi,' dit-il, 'se donner la torture à ce sujet? Il suffit de la moindre notion de la chasse pour savoir que, quand le chasseur appelle les chiens, il crie: Thia hillaut! N'est-il pas vraisemblable que le château ayant été bâti en pays de chasse, les habitans des environs, entendant continuellement le mot hillaut, l'appellèrent de ce nom, auquel ils joignirent celui de la fontaine près de laquelle il avait été bâti. De Fontaine hillaut on fit insensiblement Fontainebleau.'"

TWO Queries suggest themselves here. Who or what was Blaudus or Blaudum? Is our Tally-ho derived from Thia hillaut, or vice versâ? As to the "travers d'esprit," so gravely imputed to Expilly, it is clear to me that his solution of the matter must be taken as a burlesque on etymologists, rather than as any evidence of his own extravagance in that respect.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

The following relation has often been reprinted in religious magazines and the like. It is given by Dr. Fordyce, Professor of Philosophy at Aberdeen, in his Dialogues concerning Education (London, 1748, vol. ii. p. 401.), as "a true story, which happened in a neighbouring state not many years ago." Can any of your readers furnish me with Dr. F.'s authority for the assertion?—the Doctor himself gives none. One would think that, if true, its truth might be easily verified. If its truth cannot be satisfactorily established, to reprint such tales cannot but be most mischievous:—

"A jeweller of considerable wealth having occasion to travel to some distance from the place of his abode, took with him a servant in order to take care of his portmanteau. Having occasion to dismount on the road, the servant, watching his opportunity, took a pistol from his master's saddle and shot him dead on the spot; then rifled him of his money and jewels, and threw the body into the nearest river. With this booty he made off to a distant part of the country.... He was at length admitted to a share of the government of the town, and rose from one post to another, till at length he was chosen to be chief magistrate.... One day as he sat on the bench with some of his brethren in the magistracy, a criminal was brought before him who was accused of murdering his master. The evidence was full; the jury brought in their verdict that the prisoner was guilty; and the whole assembly awaited the sentence of the President of the court, which he happened to be on that day.... At length coming down from the bench he placed himself by the guilty man at the bar and made a full confession of his own guilt, and of all its aggravations.... We may easily suppose the great amazement of all the assembly, and especially of his fellow-judges. They proceeded, however, upon this confession, to pass sentence upon him, and he died with all the symptoms of penitent mind."

J. K.

English letters are exciting a daily increasing interest in the north of Europe—that hardy and romantic country whence we ourselves are descended. But their means for purchase are very scanty, and I have been requested by the chief librarians of the Royal Library, Stockholm, and the University Library, Copenhagen, to endeavour to procure them English books by gift from private individuals and public societies and libraries.

Can you assist me in this work by making this their prayer known in your widely-spread columns?

Any English works, large or small, old or new, in any department of literature, but especially in archæology, folk-lore, history, theology, belles-lettres, &c., particularly books privately printed, or otherwise scarce or dear, will be most acceptable. Every donor will have the goodness to state for which library his gift is intended. So many have duplicates, or copies of books, which they no longer use or need, that many will doubtless be able to assist in this pleasant book-gathering for our Scandinavian cousins.

GEORGE STEPHENS,
Professor of English Literature in the
University of Copenhagen.

Mill Farm, Barnes, Surrey, July, 1851.

[We have good reason to know the great interest which our Scandinavian brethren take in the literature of this country, and hope this appeal of MR. STEPHENS will be liberally responded to. Any donations for the libraries in question, which, we believe, are both public libraries, may be left for him at the office of "NOTES AND QUERIES."]

—In Vol. iii., pp. 324, 325., under the title "The Bellman and his History," are quoted some lines from Gay's Trivia, book ii. p. 482. The last line is—

Who was Overton, and what were his prints that Gay in these lines makes the companions of the bellman's song?

F. L. H.

—In the accounts of the churchwardens of St. Edmund's, Sarum, temp. Edw. IV., this item often occurs, for which a payment was made. Does it not mean the dying knell, from the German "to depart."

H. T. E.

Clyst St. George, June 3. 1851.

—Can any of your readers inform me if any likeness is in existence of the author of An Essay towards a Description of Bath? or if any of his descendants are still living? He built the Bristol Exchange; and Bath is indebted to him for many of its most noble edifices. He was a magistrate for the county of Somerset, and died in 1754.

GAMMA.

—Can you or your readers give me a derivation of the word "spon," in its application to street names? There is "Spon End," and also "Spon Street," in Coventry, "Spon Lane" at West Bromwich, and "Spon Terrace" at Birmingham. Can you supply any other instances?

Mr. Halliwell merely says, "Spon, a shaving of wood;" and it is used in this sense in Scott's Sir Tristrem, p. 119.:

C. H. B.

Clarence Street, Islington.

—I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can tell me whereabouts this place is, and in what county?

J. N. C.

—There is a large class of salesmen in Billingsgate Market not recognised as such by the trade, but styled Bumarees, who get a living by purchasing large parcels of fish of the factor or common salesman, and selling it out in smaller quantities to the fishmongers and other retailing buyers. This whole-sale retailing of fish is also called bummareeing it, hence the name of these (self-styled) salesmen.

I have not been able to find any clue to the meaning of this word thus used in any authority that I possess, though the word has been recognised in statutes and bye-laws of the markets for upwards of one hundred years.

As I feel very interested in this matter, may I be allowed to call the attention of some of your very learned correspondents to this matter, and ask for the probable etymology and exact orthography of the word.

I have been informed that the only other use of the word known is with the confectioners, who use Bummaree pans.

The prefix "bum" is used to express the lowest of the kind in bum-bailiff, and also further additionally in connexion with selling in "bum-boat." I cannot think that "bona venalia," goods set to sale, among the Romans, give any clue to Bummaree. This, and other derivations equally unsatisfactory, have been submitted by those who have hitherto directed their attention to this subject.

BLOWEN.

—What is the game so called? and what its origin?

In it these words occur:

I have somewhere seen the name of Thread-the-Needle-Gate. Where is, or was, it? and whence was the London street so named?

R. S. H.

Morwenstow.

—Is the following statement correct and true (I mean, as to the trial of the sword blade, not the anecdote)?

"A troop of horse are riding along under the command of 'Duke William' of Cumberland, in the '45. A little old Highlander joins the march; a strong lusty soldier laughs at, and insults him. He is allowed to demand satisfaction, and fight it out at once: he craves the loan of a sword; one is handed to him. But Donald had seen too many snows to trust his life to the blade of untried metal: he minutely examined the handle, the edge, the point, and the spring, and finally turning aside to a pool of water, and applying the flat side of the blade to its surface, with one smart stroke broke it in two."

Is this a good test of a sword blade? Would any sword stand it?

Would the Toledo blade, at the Crystal Palace, that rolls up into the form of a serpent, bear it?

What is the usual test of a good blade?

ENSIS.

—Are any of Shelley's children, by his first wife, still living and where?—a friend of mine, who was her companion, having a relic of her, which she would gladly give into their possession.

PHILO.

—I have in my cabinet a silver coin (shilling size) which has on the obverse, besides the bust of the kind, the date 1818, and the legend, the following under the head (between it and the legend), "½ Ackey Trade;" and I shall be glad to have an explanation of what is meant by the "Ackey Trade?" The reverse has the arms and crest of the African Company. The legend is "Free Trade to Africa by Act of Parliament, 1750."

J. N. C.

—I was informed in 1835, by a friend living at Birmingham, that the coffin containing the body of that celebrated printer was then lying in a timber yard in that town under a pile of deals—a fact which was well known there.

Is it still in the same place? And why? And is there any portrait, engraved or otherwise, of him? Mr. Merridew of Coventry, and others, have assured me there was not.

G. C.

—What became of the fine statue of Charles II. on horseback which formerly stood in Stock's Market, the site of the present Mansion House?

It was placed on a conduit at the "sole cost and charges of that worthy citizen and alderman Sir Robert Viner, Bart." I have seen a print of it, folio. (London, pub. 1708.)

G. CREED.

—In Hallam's Literature of Europe, 2nd edition, vol. i. p. 461., I read this passage:—

"Two crude Attempts at introducing the Eastern tongues were made soon afterwards (1530). One of these was by William Postel, a man of some parts, and more reading; but chiefly known, while he was remembered at all, for mad reveries of fanaticism, and an idolatrous veneration for a saint of his own manufacture, La Mère Jeanne, the Joanna Southcote of the sixteenth century."

Has any account of the character and proceedings of "La Mère Jeanne" been handed down to us; and, if so, where is it to be found?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

—Will any of your readers inform me the origin of a ship of a certain number of guns being called "a man of war?" In Shakspeare the term is applied to Falstaff: Davy inquires of Shallow:

And it is singular to remark, in the same scene, the first of Act V., the Second Part of Henry IV., that the dinner ordered by Shallow for Falstaff is just such as any country gentleman would now provide for an unexpected guest:—

Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of mutton; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook."

The only difference is the sex of the cook, as country gentlemen in these days have females in that capacity.

AN M. D.

—In Mr. Akerman's preface to this work, just published by the Camden Society, I find this passage:

"Amongst these (sums lavished on female favourites) the payments to the Duchess of Portsmouth are most conspicuous. No less a sum than 136,688l. 10s. appears to have been bestowed by the profligate monarch on this woman within the space of one year."—See Payments under the year 1681, p. 42.

Now, on turning to the year and page designated, I find that the whole of the class in which the Duchess's name appears amounts for that year only to about 22,000l., of which the Duchess of Portsmouth appears to have received about 12,000 in several quarterly payments on account of an annual pension or pensions of that amount: so in other years. This is a very different sum from 136,000l. I would beg leave to inquire of the editor, or of any of your Camdenite correspondents, whether there is an error in Mr. Akerman's statement, or only in my way of reading it?

C.

—Miss Strickland, in the Queens of England, after saying that the Queen (Elizabeth of York, Henry VII.'s wife) had stayed at Hampton Court eight days, continues:

"It is worth noticing that Hampton Court was a favourite residence of Elizabeth of York long before Cardinal Wolsey had it."

Now, in the Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1834, is a copy of the lease from the prior of St. John of Jerusalem to Cardinal Wolsey of their manor of Hampton Court, it having been in the possession of the Knights Hospitallers of St. John since 1211, when Joan Lady Grey left it by will to that order. Where, then, was Elizabeth of York's residence? Did she hold a lease of the manor and manor-house of Hampton of the Knights Hospitallers? Or was there another royal residence in that locality?

TEE BEE.

1. Silvester Giraldus Cambrensis, born in Wales, A.D. 1145, was the author of numerous works. Can any one furnish a list of them?

2. What is the date of the Annals of the Four Masters?

3. Who was Tigernach, and when did he live?

4. What are the Annals of Ulster, and when were they written?

WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE.

[1. The printed works, as well as the manuscript collections, of Giraldus, are so numerous, and deposited in so many different libraries, that we must refer our correspondent to Sir R. C. Hoare's description of them in his Introduction to the translation of Giraldus' Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales, vol. i. pp. liv.-lxxii. 4to. 1806.

2. The Annals of Dunagall, otherwise called The Annals of the Four Masters, were compiled between A.D. 1632 and 1636. From a MS. in the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe, Dr. O'Conor published the first part of these Annals, extending from the earliest period to A.D. 1172, in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores. The latter portion has since been edited, with a translation and notes, by John O'Donovan, Esq., M.R.I.A., in 3 vols. 4to.

3. Tigernach was Abbot of Cluain-mac-nois, and died A.D. 1088. He wrote the Annals of Ireland, from A.M. 3596 to his own time.

4. The Annals of Ulster were compiled by Cathald Mac Magnus (Charles Maguire), who died A.D. 1498. They commence with the reign of Feradach Fionnfachtnach, monarch of Ireland, A.D. 60, and are carried down to the author's own time. They were afterwards continued to the year 1504, by Roderick O'Cassidy, Archdeacon of Clogher. See O' Reilly's Chronological Account of Irish Writers.]

—Where can one see, or what is the correct title of the book containing Abridgment of the Assizes, and Iters of Pickring and Lancaster? It is referred to in Manwood on Forest Laws.

S. S.

[Richard Tottle, dwelling at the Hand and Star in Fleet Street, and who was "licensed to print all manner of books touching the common laws of England," published in the middle of the sixteenth century the following work:—"The Abridgment of the Book of Assises, lately perused over and corrected, and now newely imprinted by Richard Tottle, the last day of September, 1555." It is probable that the Iters of Pickring and Lancaster are still in manuscript.]

—I have in my possession a Life of Cromwell, written by R. B. "without passion or partiality," printed by N. Crouch in the Poultry, 1715. Query, who was this R. B.?

PHILO.

[The author was Richard or Robert Burton, alias Nathaniel Crouch, who, says Dunton in his Life and Errors, "melted down the best of our English histories into twelve penny books, which are filled with wonders, rarities, and curiosities." The first edition of The History of Cromwell was published in 1693, "relating only matters of fact without reflection or observation."]

Your versatile correspondent MR. GATTY has been led astray by an incorrect assertion of Bingham's (magni nominis vir), that Origen was the first who preached extempore. The passage to which Bingham refers us, in Eusebius, asserts nothing of this sort; but simply that Origen would not suffer his sermons to be taken down by the short-hand writers till he was sixty years old,—a sufficient proof, if any were needed, that the custom of taking down sermons by notaries in the third century was not unusual.

Some rogue has stolen my Number of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" in which the inquiry on the subject of written sermons was made; but, if I remember rightly, the question was put correctly, it having been asked when written sermons were first preached. As I at one time took some pains to look into this point, and as no one else seems inclined to take it up, perhaps you will allow me space for a few remarks.

1. I suppose no one will be disposed to question the extreme improbability of the "sermons" in the Apostolic are having been written discourses: if, however, this be considered doubtful, I am willing to argue the point, and be set right if I am wrong in thinking it unquestionable.

2. I believe it is almost as improbable, that in what Professor Brunt calls the "post-Apostolic" times sermons were written, not only from the complete silence of the Apostolic Fathers on the point—for that would really prove next to nothing,—but because it seems quite incredible that no vestige of any such sermon should have come down to us; no forgery of one, no legend or tradition of the existence of one if the practice of writing sermons had prevailed at all.

3. In the Apologies of Justin and Tertullian [Justin, ed. Otto, i. 270.; Tertullian, Ap. ch. xxxix.] there is a description of the addresses delivered in the congregations of their times, which appears to me to prove that they knew of no such practice as reading a sermon and the passage from Origen contra Cels., which De la Cerda gives in his note on Tertullian, though it is only quoted in the Latin, surely shows the same (vol. i. p. 190.). I came across something of the sort in Cyprian about two years ago and, if I may dare trust my memory, it appeared to me at the time to be more satisfactory than the passages above referred to; but I made no note of it,—and I was hunting for other game when I met with it. Still, if your querist is going into the subject as a student into a matter of history, I dare stay I could find the paragraph.

4. I have really no acquaintance with the post-Nicene fathers, the mere desultory reading out of some few of the works of the Arian period counting for something less than nothing; but, as far as secondary sources are to be trusted, I certainly never met with anything that would lead me to conclude that sermons were ever read in the fourth or fifth centuries. [I shall come to the only shadow of an argument in favour of such a practice having prevailed so early, presently.] Certainly, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Chrysostom, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, were extempore preachers by Bingham's showing. Gregory the Great, much later, for all that appears to the contrary, never wrote his sermons at all, and even preached his homilies on Ezekiel almost without any preparation. Indeed the prevalence of that most abominable system of applauding the preacher, which St. Chrysostom protests against in the magnificent sermon on 1Cor.xiv.38., could scarcely have been universal where sermons were read.

5. I come now to the argument which Bingham deduces from a passage in Sidonius Apollinaris; where, in speaking of Faustus, Bishop of Riez, he says that he was "raucus plausor," while hearing "tuas prædicationes, nunc repentinas, nunc, cum ratio poposcisset, elucubratas." Until I had turned up the passage itself, I thought there was no doubt that Bingham was right in explaining it as referring partly to extempore, partly to written-and-read sermons; but taking the passage as it stands, I would submit that the "prædicationes elucubratas" were not at all read sermons, though prepared and studied beforehand, and that the "prædicationes repentinas" were such as St. Augustine sometimes delivered, viz., on a text which suggested itself to him during the time of service, or in consequence of some unforeseen event having happened just before his ascending the pulpit.

6. I have as yet dealt only with the negative evidence; but the positive testimony against the reading, and in favour of the reciting or preaching sermons, is far from small. I should look upon man as crazy who ventured to speak slightingly of Bingham, and should as soon think of setting up myself against that great man as of challenging Goliah of Gath to fisty-cuffs; but I can never get rid of the thought that Bingham had a strong prejudice against extempore preaching, and treated the history of sermons somewhat unfairly: e.g., in his 22nd section of that 4th chap. of the xivth book (with which chap. I take it for granted my readers are acquainted), he somewhat roguishly misrepresents Mabillon and the Council of Vaison; and as to every other passage he quotes or refers to, every one asserts that the sermons were to be preached or recited, not one says a word about reading.

The Council of Vaison is, of course, that which was held in A.D. 529, and at which Cæsarius of Arles presided: but the 2nd canon does not say a word about reading; so far from it, it commands that the homilies which the deacons preached should be recited [recitentur, Labbe, iv. p 1679.], as though the practice of reading a sermon were not known. So, with regard to the other passages from St. Augustine, there is not a hint about reading: if a man could not make his own sermons, he was to take another's; but to take care to commit it to memory, and then deliver it.

I should be glad to furnish you with a few "more last words" on this subject, but I fear that these remarks have already proceeded to too great a length: still, if you give me any encouragement, I should like to take up the matter again.

I should be glad to be informed whether it be true, as I have heard, that the practice of learning their sermons by heart is universal and avowed by the preachers in Germany; and whether it be really a common thing for a preacher there to deny himself on a Saturday, on the plea that he is getting his sermon by heart?

AJAX.

Papworth St. Agnes, July 8. 1851.

—Your querist M. C. L. may be referred to Dr. Short's History of the Church of England, § 223.; or to Burnet's Reformation, vol. i. p. 317., folio; where he will find that the practice commenced about the year 1542.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

Not questioning the meaning given to the word Fest by R. VINCENT, I take leave to refer you to Dr. Willan's list of words in use in the mountainous districts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, in the seventeenth volume of the Archæologia. You will there find: "FEST, to board from home." The word is used in that sense at the present time. A gentleman resident in the West Riding writes to me:

"I have heard the term 'fest' used generally as applying to sending out cattle to pasture, and so says Carr in his Dialect of Craven. I have also frequently heard it used in this manner: 'I have fest my lad out apprentice to so and so.' In my own neighbourhood, in the West Riding, it is a frequent practice for poor man who possesses a cow, but no pasture, to 'fest' her with some occupier of land at a certain sum by the week, or for some other term. So a gamekeeper is said 'to fest' his master's pointer, when he agrees with a farmer to keep it for a time. In these cases the boy, the cow, the pointer, 'are boarded from home.'"

As to "statutes" or "sittings," the word "statutes" is explained in Blount's Dictionary as follows:

"It is also used in our vulgar discourse for the Petty Sessions which are yearly kept for the disposing of servants in service by the statute 5 Eliz. chap. iv." (§ 48.)

See in the Archaic and Provincial Dictionary, "SITTINGS" and "STATUTE." In Holderness (I collect it from the Query of F. R. H.) the term "sittings" is used in the same sense as "statute" in the West Riding, and in many other parts of the kingdom. "Fest sittings" appear then to mean "the annual assemblage of servants who hire themselves to board from home." In many places the "statute" or "stattie" is connected with the fair.

"Statute Fairs," my friend writes, "are held at Settle, Long Preston, and other places, which don't occur to me, in our district (Craven). At Settle servants wishing to hire stand with a small white wand in their hands, to show their object. In like manner horses, when taken to a fair, wear on their heads a white leather kind of bridle; and (to come nearer home) when a young lady has attained a certain age, and begins to look with anxious eye to future prospects, we say that she also has put on the white bridle."

He adds: "I have myself had servants hired at Long Preston Statute Fair." Another friend writes to me:

"Richmond Statties are very famous, every servant desirous of hiring having a peeled twig or stick. At Penrith they put a straw in their mouths. I remember a poor girl being killed by an infuriated cow at Penrith; and the poor thing had the straw in her mouth when dead."

In the East Riding, Pocklington Statute is well known; and York has its Statute Fair. At these "statutes" or "statties" ("Stattie Fairs" and "Sittings," or Fest Sittings), servants "fest themselves," that is, hire themselves to board from home.

Standing in the market-place to be hired will occur to any one who may take the trouble of reading these desultory observations.

Excuse my adding irrelevantly the following use of the word "sitting." It is said that a young man is "sitting a young woman," when he is wooing or courting her.

F. W. T.

In Quérard's France Littéraire (Didot, Paris, 1839), tome x. p. 10., I read the following notice of the author of Histoire des Sévérambes:—

"Vairasse (Denis) d'Alais, écrivain français du XVII. Siècle.

"—— Grammaire raisonnée et méthodique, contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les règles les plus nécessaires de la langue français. Nouv. édit. Paris, D. Mariette, 1702, in-12.

"La première édition a paru en 1681.

"—— Histoire des Sévérambes (Roman politique) nouv. édit. Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1716, 2 vol. in-12.

"La première édition parut de 1677 à 1679, en trois vol. in-12.

"Cet ouvrage a été réimprimé dans la collection des Voyages imaginaires."

La France Littéraire is a compilation of extraordinary labour and research; and, in the absence of more authentic information, I believe we may safely rely on the above statement. The facts, therefore, in so far as they have been brought to light, may be summed up as follows:—

1. The original work was written in English, was entitled History of the Sevarites, and published in 1675.

2. That work suggested the idea of the Histoire des Sévérambes, which was published in 1677-9, and in all essential respects may be said to be an original composition.

3. The Captain Liden of one edition, and the Captain Siden of another (from whose memoirs the work is said to have been translated), are one and the same imaginary personage.

4. The author of the History of the Sevarites has not been ascertained; the claims of Vairasse, Algernon Sidney, and Isaac Vossius, being founded on mere conjecture.

5. There seems no reason to doubt that Denis Vairasse d'Alais was the author of Histoire des Sévérambes; supported as that opinion is by the testimony of Christian Thomasius, Barbier, and Quérard.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

An amusing instance of this custom—perhaps even now, under certain circumstances, prevalent in some parts of England—occurs in Mrs. Bray's Letters on the Superstitions, &c. of Devonshire. A traveller while passing over one of the large uninclosed tracts of land near Tavistock, was overtaken by a violent snowstorm, which compelled him to seek a night's shelter from the inhabitants of a lonely cottage on the moor. In the chamber assigned for his repose, he observed a curiously carved oak chest of antique appearance.

"He noticed or made some remarks upon it to the old woman who had lighted him up stairs, in order to see that all things in his room might be as comfortable as circumstances would permit for his rest. There was something he thought shy and odd about the manner of the woman when he observed the chest; and after she was gone, he had half a mind to take a peep into it."

After a while he does, and horribile dictu! a human corpse, stiff and cold, lay before his sight! After a night spent in the most agonizing apprehensions he descends to breakfast, and his fears become somewhat lightened by the savoury fumes of the morning meal.

"Indeed so much did he feel reassured and elevated by the extinction of his personal fears, that, just as the good woman was broiling him another rasher, he out with the secret of the chest, and let them know that he had been somewhat surprised by its contents; venturing to ask, in a friendly tone, for an explanation of so remarkable a circumstance. 'Bless your heart, your honour, 'tis nothing at all,' said her son; 'tis only fayther!'—'Father! your father!' cried the traveller; 'what do you mean?'—'Why, you know, your honour,' replied the peasant, 'the snaw being so thick, and making the roads so cledgy like, when old fayther died, two weeks agon, we couldn't carry un to Tavistock to bury un, and so mother put un in the old box, and salted un in: mother's a fine hand at salting un in.'"—Vol. i. pp. 29. 32.

In connexion with this subject you will perhaps permit me to observe, that the custom of placing a plate of salt on the body is still retained in many parts of the country. An instance of its use in the metropolis came under my notice only last week. The reason assigned for this is, that it prevents the spread of any noxious vapours. But query, is it not an ancient superstitious observance? According to Moresin:

"Salem abhorrere constat diabolum et ratione optima nititur, quia Sal æternitatis est et immortalitatis signum, neque putredine neque corruptione infestatur unquam, sed ipse ab his omnia vendicat."—Moresini Papatus, p. 154.

SPERIEND.

—A very satisfactory biographical sketch of Bogatsky, author of the Golden Treasury, will be found in Evangelical Christendom, vol. iii. for 1849, pp. 69. and 101.

C. W. B.

—Selden was of opinion that Baronet was used for Banneret, as may be seen in the following extracts from the second part of Titles of Honor.

Chap. iii. sect. 23.:

"Bannerets ... some have stiled them Baronets, as if they had a diminitive title of Barons."

Chap. v. sect. 25.:

"And whereas in the statutes of the same King" (Richard II.), "as we read them in English, every Archbishop, Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Duke, Earl, Baron, Baronet, Knight of the Shire, &c., are commanded under paine of amerciament or other punishment, according to ancient use, to appear in Parlament; the French, both of the Roll and of those Books that are truly printed, hath Banneret and by some little mistake Barneret for the same word. And as when mention is in the old stories of Knight Banneret, the word Baronet (which runnes easier from the tongue) is often for Banneret; so fell it not only in the English print of our statutes, but also in a report of a case that is of a later time than that to which our present division confines us, that Baronet (for Banneret) is likewise used for a Baron. For in an attaint under Henry the Sixt, one of the Jury challenged himselfe because his ancestors had been Baronets and Seigneurs des Parlements. I cannot doubt but that the title of Banneret in this sense was meant there."

Chap. v. sect. 39.:

"Of the name of Banneret as it sometimes expressed a Baron of Parlament enough is before said. And as in that notion of it, Baronet was often miswritten for it, so also in this." (Milites vexilliferi): "Neither only have the old stories Baronetti very frequent for Banneretti, but even in a patent passed to Sir Ralph Fane, a Knight-Banneret under Edward the Sixt, he is called Baronettus for Bannerettus."

LLEWELLYN.

—In reply to A. C., I can safely assert that the best American rifles are nearly equal, in point of workmanship, to the common ones made in Birmingham, and that there is no "use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English," French, or Belgian one; and further, that the American rifles will not bear comparison with those of any London maker.

Colt's revolvers were submitted to our Government twelve or fourteen years ago, and not approved. The present revolvers, made in England, have always been considered improvements upon them.

I do not pretend to be the "highest authority," though I profess to know something of the subject.

THE AUTHOR OF
"ENGINES OF WAR."

—Evelyn's notice of this word is prior to the instance cited by your correspondent. Under the 9th of January, 1662, he has,—

"I saw acted The Third Part of the Siege of Rhodes. In this acted ye faire and famous comedian call'd Roxalana, from ye part she perform'd; and I think it was ye last, she being taken to be ye Earle of Oxford's Misse (as at this time they began to call lewd women)."

SPERIEND.

—I can state positively, that the lines with the above title were "in reality written by that lamented lady." I was not aware they had ever appeared in print, nor do I think her family are aware either. I am truly sorry that a "Christian Lady" should have been guilty of such a shameless, heartless act of literary piracy.

I here take the opportunity of remarking that, in the last stanza but one, and sixth line, "upon" is a misprint for "uprose."

ERZA.

—In the translation of the Psalms of David by Sir P. Sidney and his sister, the Countess of Pembroke, the 125th Psalm is rendered in Sapphics. The first stanza is as follows:

The 120th Psalm is in Alcaics, and, I think, very successful, considering the difficulty of the metre. It commences thus:

There are also specimens of other Latin metres in the same collection.

I remember about eighteen or twenty years ago an "Ode to December," in Blackwood's Magazine, the first stanza of which was as follows (I quote from memory):

M. W.

—The imprint of the first edition of his Memoirs is "London, for Tim. Goodwin, 1700." The Museum copy which bears the press-mark 808. f. is a distinct impression.

BOLTON CORNEY.

—In your paper of June 21st, there is a question inserted as to the precise text in which Cardinal Bellarmin is said to maintain that "should the Pope command the commission of vice, and forbid the practice of virtue, it would become the duty of Catholics to perform the one and to avoid the other." To that question you have replied by quoting a passage from the fourth book of the cardinal's great work. It is quite true that the words quoted by you occur at that place; it is quite as untrue that the "monstrous paradox" is there attempted to be maintained. A reference to the book will show at once that this paradox is simply used as an argument to enable the cardinal to prove his point by the common method of a reductio ad absurdum. If what I maintain, says the cardinal, is false, then it follows that "should the Pope," &c. Of course, the rest of the argument fully stated would be: But this consequence is not true, therefore neither is the antecedent true; that is to say, "what I maintain" is true. So that instead of maintaining in this passage the monstrous paradox alleged, the cardinal, in reality, is only quoting it as a monstrous absurdity, which he himself condemns, and which would result from the contradiction of his proposition. In justice to the memory of a great man, who has been much and most unjustly slandered upon this very point, may I ask for the insertion of this letter.

J. W. CT.

—E. J. K. probably founds his unqualified rejection of the word "whale" on the English version, as a presumed more correct interpretation of the corresponding term in the original Hebrew. But it should not be forgotten, that the equal, or perhaps superior authority of the Seventy translators, to that of our best modern interpreters, is becoming daily more apparent. At all events, without a reference to such collateral aid, it is scarcely safe to pronounce on the meaning of any word or passage in the Old Testament. On this subject, among many other works, may be consulted the valuable Lexicon of the Rev. Dr. Wilson, Canon of Winchester; and the learned Apology for the Septuagint, by the Rev. E. W. Grinfield.

In the present case, it is certainly of little consequence, whether the Greek word κῆτος, and the Latin cetus, be translated "whale," or "great fish," both of which may be comprehended under them. Though the former is the usual interpretation, and though the English translators employ the term "great fish" in the passages "Καὶ προσέταξε Κύριος κήτει μεγάλῳ," and "ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους," the commonly accepted word seems more in accordance with an authority of unquestionable importance.

C. H. P.

Brighton, June 28. 1851.

It must have escaped the memory of your correspondent E. J. K., in speaking of the supposed error of calling the "great fish" which swallowed Jonah a "whale," that our Lord, in giving this sign to the Jews, calls it in our English version a "whale" (τοῦ κήτους, St. Matt. xii. 40., this being the word used in the Septuagint version, from which the Evangelists quoted the SS. of the Old Testament).

Surely then there is not any popular error in the term "whale" as expressing the "great fish" of the prophet Jonah, for your correspondent does not go beyond the English version, nor can I say what the word used in the original Hebrew would strictly signify. Κῆτος, it is true, may not, and probably does not, mean anything more definite than the "great fish" of the Hebrew; but certainly our translators, by adopting the term "whale" in the Gospels, have so sanctioned the interpretation, that the error, if such, must be referred to them, and not to any later period, and therefore can hardly be reckoned amongst those of the popular class.

OXONIENSIS.

Walthamstow, June 30. 1851

Great disputes have been raised what the fish was. As it is called a whale in the Septuagint, and in St. Matthew, xii. 40., one can hardly call it a vulgar error to speak of it commonly as a whale.

C. B.

—Your correspondent inquiring about book plates mentions, that 1698 is the earliest date he has heard of. In a sale at Sotheby's, commencing on the 21st inst., there is a copy of Evelyn's Silva, presented by him to Sir Robert Clayton, Lord Mayor of London, with his book plate in it, date 1679.

E. N. W.

Southwark, July, 1851.

The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, with a Supplement, containing the Condemnations of the Early Reformers, and other matters relating to the Council. Literally translated into English by Theodore Alois Buckley, B.A., of Christ Church, Oxford, is the title of a volume which has just been issued; and which many of our readers will probably consider a very well-timed volume. It is not, however, because we admit with Mr. Buckley that "to try Rome fairly we must hear her plead her own cause" (for with polemics we have nothing to do), that we direct their attention to it; but because we agree with him that the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent are documents as valuable in a legal and historical, as in a religious point of view, and because there must be many who would gladly learn what these Canons and Decrees were, yet are not acquainted with the language in which they were originally recorded. By such persons Mr. Buckley's name on the title-page may be received as a sufficient guarantee of the accuracy of the present translation.

The first volume of a history of the book-trade in Germany, containing notices of some booksellers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, has just been published at Leipsic, under the title of Beitrage zur Geschichte des Deutschen Buchhandels. The author is Albrecht Kirchhoff, and the work, short as it is, will be found very useful to parties engaged in bibliographical investigations.

Our valued correspondent, the Rev. Dr. Todd of Dublin, has just published Three Treatises by John Wycklyffe, D.D. I. Of the Church and her Members. II. Of the Apostacy of the Church. III. Of Antichrist and his Meynee. Now first printed from a Manuscript in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. The Treatises, which, in Dr. Todd's opinion, contain internal evidence of having been written within the last year of the Reformer's life, are accompanied by Notes and a copious Glossary; and the work has been undertaken not without a hope that the publication of these Treatises may direct the attention of influential scholars to the importance of collecting and printing all the existing writings which remain in our libraries under the name of Wycklyffe and his followers. We sincerely trust that this hope will soon be realised.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson announce for approaching sale the highly important collection of Autograph Letters and Historical MSS. of Mons. A. Donnadieu. The series of English Royal Autographs alone extends to nearly three hundred articles; nearly all the letters after Henry VII. being entirely autograph. This fact alone will give some idea of the extent and value of this extraordinary collection.

• WILLIS'S ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
• CLARKSON'S HISTORY OF RICHMOND, 2nd Edition 4to.
• BRITISH POETS. Whittingham's Edition, boards or quires, without the Plates.
• BEBELII ECCLESIA ANTE-DILUVIANA, &c. Argent. 4to. 1665.
• TYNDALE'S "PARABLE OF THE WICKED MAMMON." Any Edition prior to 1550.
• THE DAPHNIS AND CHLOE OF LONGUS. Courier's French Translation.
• BELL'S SYSTEM OF SURGERY. Vol. I.
• THE CHIRURGICAL WORKS OF PERCIVAL POTTS. Vol. I.
• BRYANT, DISSERT ON THE. WAR OF TROY. 4to.
• —— OBSERV. ON LE CHEVALIER'S PLAIN OF TROY. 4to.
• —— MORETT'S VINDIC. OF HOMER. 4to.
• BRYDGES, RES LITERARIÆ, BIBL. AND CRITICAL. 3 Vols. 8vo.
• BYRES, ETRURIAN ANTIQUITIES, by Howard. Folio.
• CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON BOOKS; ANCIENT AND MODERN. 5 Vols. 8vo.
• DOMESDAY BOOK. 4 Vols. Folio.
• DRUMMOND, HISTORY OF NOBLE BRITISH FAMILIES.
• CORONA MISTICA BEATE VIRGINIS MARIE GLORIOSE. Impressa Antewerpie per G. Leeu, 1492.
• PASSIONAEL EFTE DAT LEVENT DER HEILIGEN. Folio. Basil. 1522.
• BROEMEL, M. C. H., FEST-TANZEN DER ERSTEN CHRISTEN. Jena 8vo. 1705.
• ALLAN CUNNINGHAM'S TRADITIONARY TALES OF THE PEASANTRY. 2 Vols. 12mo. Two copies wanted.
• STEWART'S PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND. 4to. Vol. I.
• ARTHUR YOUNG'S TRAVELS IN ITALY.
• THE DEMON, &c., by James Hinton, London: J. Mason.
• WANDELINI, IV EXERCITATIONES IN PERIODUM ANTE-DILUVIANUM HISTORÆ SACRÆ VET. TEST. Hafniæ. 4to. 1652.
• STEPHANI THESAURUS. Valpy. Parts I. II. X. XI. and XXIX.
• The Second Vol. of CHAMBERS' CYCLOPÆDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
• AIKIN'S SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS. 10 Vols. 24mo. Published by Longmans and Co. 1821. Vols. I. V. and VIII. wanted.
• MARKHAM'S HISTORY OF FRANCE. Vol. II. 1830.
• MARKHAM'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Vol. II. 1836. Sixth Edition.
• JAMES'S NAVAL HISTORY. (6 Vols. 8vo.) 1822-4. Vol. VI.
• HUME'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND (8 Vols. 1818.) Vol. IV.
• RUSSELL'S EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. 4to. 1824. Vol. II.
• WATT'S BIBLIOTHECA BRITANNICA, Part V. 4to.
• STRUTT'S MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Vol. II. 4to.
• OLD BAYLEY SESSIONS PAPERS, 1744 to 1774. or any portion thereof. 4to.
• COLDEN'S HISTORY OF THE FIVE INDIAN NATIONS OF CANADA. Vol. I. 12mo. Lond. 1755.
• HEARNE (T.) LELAND'S ITINERARY. Vols. I. II. III. and VII.
• D'ARBLAY'S DIARY. Vol. III.
• CHEVALIER RAMSAY, ESSAI DE POLITIQUE, où l'on traite de la Nécessité, de l'Origine, des Droits, des Bornes et des différentes Formes de la Souveraineté, selon les Principes de l'Auteur de Télémaque. 2 Vols. 12mo. La Haye, without date, but printed in 1719.
• The same. Second Edition, under the title "Essai Philosophique sur le Gouvernement Civil, selon les Principes de Fénélon," 12mo. Londres, 1721.
• SIR THOS. ELYOT, THE GOVERNOUR. 1st Edit. 1531.
• BASTWICK (DR. JOS.) SUPPLEMENTUM, &c., 1635.
• ENGRAVED PORTRAITS OF BISHOP BUTLER.
• MARLBOROUGH DISPATCHES. Volumes IV. and V.
• ART JOURNAL, 1839 to 1844 inclusive. Also 1849.
• BULWER'S NOVELS. 12mo. Published at 6s. per Vol. Pilgrims of the Rhine, Alice, and Zanoni.
• DR. ADAMS' SERMON ON THE OBLIGATION OF VIRTUE. Any edition.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

REMIGIUS. "Murder considered as one of the Fine Arts" appeared in Blackwood's Magazine some twenty years since.

MR. PARSONS, whose Query on the subject of Book plates appears in our 86th No., is requested to say where a letter may be addressed to him.

C. H. B. We are much obliged for his paper, which has been to our knowledge transcribed twice before; and is about to be published in a way in which we are sure C. H. B. will be very pleased to see it. At present we think we had better not interfere with, we trust, a shortly forthcoming book.

A CONSTANT READER (Temple) will find a very full account of the Lambeth Articles in Mr. Hardwick's recently published History of the Articles.

J. C. (Falmouth). The Folk Lore Articles alluded to will be received with thanks.

The subscribers who wanted BORLAND'S DARIAN and Dens' Theologia, 8 vols. 12mo., are requested to send their names to the Publisher.

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Lady Petre's Monument—Redwing's Nest—Dies Iræ—Epitaph on Voltaire—Sheridan and Vanbrugh—Quotation from an old Ballad—Curious Monumental Inscription—Passage from Virgil—Petty Cury—Dr. Young's Narcissa—Tennyson's In Memoriam—Anonymous Ravennas—Topical Memory—Plaids and Tartans—System of Notation—Salting Bodies of the Dead—Passelew Family—Mark for a Dollar—Lay of the Last Minstrel—Spenser's Age at his Death—Charles Lamb's Epitaph.

CIRCULATION OF OUR PROSPECTUSES BY CORRESPONDENTS. The suggestion of T. E. H., that by way of hastening the period when we shall be justified in permanently enlarging our Paper to 24 pages, we should forward copies of our Prospectus to correspondents who would kindly enclose them to such friends as they think likely, from their love of literature, to become subscribers to "NOTES AND QUERIES," has already been acted upon by several friendly correspondents, to whom we are greatly indebted. We shall be most happy to forward Prospectuses for this purpose to any other of our friends able and willing thus to assist towards increasing our circulation.

The commencement of a New Volume with our 88th Number affords a favourable opportunity to gentlemen resident in the country to commence the work. The Subscription for the Stamped Edition of "NOTES AND QUERIES " is ten shillings and twopence for six months, which may be paid by Post-Office Order, drawn in favour of our Publisher, MR. GEORGE BELL, No. 186. Fleet Street.

VOL. III., neatly bound in cloth, and with very copious Index, is now ready, price 9s. 6d. VOLS. I. and II. may still be had, price 9s. 6d. each.

NOTES AND QUERIES may be procured, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsvenders. It is published at noon on Friday, so that our country Subscribers ought not to experience any difficulty in procuring it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers, &c., are, probably, not yet aware of this arrangement, which will enable them to receive NOTES AND QUERIES in their Saturday parcels.

All communications for the Editor of NOTES AND QUERIES should be addressed to the care of MR. BELL, No. 186. Fleet Street.

Erratum.—Vol. iii., p. 495., for "Dumore Castle" read "Dunmore Castle."

Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride in the City of London, and published by GEORGE BELL of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.—Saturday, July 19, 1851.

      [List of volumes and pages in "Notes and Queries", Vol. I-IV]

      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. I.                                   |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.     | Date, Year        | Pages     | PG # xxxxx  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No.  1 | November  3, 1849 |   1 -  17 | PG #  8603  |
      | Vol. I No.  2 | November 10, 1849 |  18 -  32 | PG # 11265  |
      | Vol. I No.  3 | November 17, 1849 |  33 -  46 | PG # 11577  |
      | Vol. I No.  4 | November 24, 1849 |  49 -  63 | PG # 13513  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No.  5 | December  1, 1849 |  65 -  80 | PG # 11636  |
      | Vol. I No.  6 | December  8, 1849 |  81 -  95 | PG # 13550  |
      | Vol. I No.  7 | December 15, 1849 |  97 - 112 | PG # 11651  |
      | Vol. I No.  8 | December 22, 1849 | 113 - 128 | PG # 11652  |
      | Vol. I No.  9 | December 29, 1849 | 130 - 144 | PG # 13521  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 10 | January   5, 1850 | 145 - 160 | PG #        |
      | Vol. I No. 11 | January  12, 1850 | 161 - 176 | PG # 11653  |
      | Vol. I No. 12 | January  19, 1850 | 177 - 192 | PG # 11575  |
      | Vol. I No. 13 | January  26, 1850 | 193 - 208 | PG # 11707  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 14 | February  2, 1850 | 209 - 224 | PG # 13558  |
      | Vol. I No. 15 | February  9, 1850 | 225 - 238 | PG # 11929  |
      | Vol. I No. 16 | February 16, 1850 | 241 - 256 | PG # 16193  |
      | Vol. I No. 17 | February 23, 1850 | 257 - 271 | PG # 12018  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 18 | March     2, 1850 | 273 - 288 | PG # 13544  |
      | Vol. I No. 19 | March     9, 1850 | 289 - 309 | PG # 13638  |
      | Vol. I No. 20 | March    16, 1850 | 313 - 328 | PG # 16409  |
      | Vol. I No. 21 | March    23, 1850 | 329 - 343 | PG # 11958  |
      | Vol. I No. 22 | March    30, 1850 | 345 - 359 | PG # 12198  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 23 | April     6, 1850 | 361 - 376 | PG # 12505  |
      | Vol. I No. 24 | April    13, 1850 | 377 - 392 | PG # 13925  |
      | Vol. I No. 25 | April    20, 1850 | 393 - 408 | PG # 13747  |
      | Vol. I No. 26 | April    27, 1850 | 409 - 423 | PG # 13822  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Vol. I No. 27 | May       4, 1850 | 425 - 447 | PG # 13712  |
      | Vol. I No. 28 | May      11, 1850 | 449 - 463 | PG # 13684  |
      | Vol. I No. 29 | May      18, 1850 | 465 - 479 | PG # 15197  |
      | Vol. I No. 30 | May      25, 1850 | 481 - 495 | PG # 13713  |
      +---------------+-------------------+-----------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. II.                                  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.      | Date, Year         | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 31 | June  1, 1850      |   1- 15 | PG # 12589  |
      | Vol. II No. 32 | June  8, 1850      |  17- 32 | PG # 15996  |
      | Vol. II No. 33 | June 15, 1850      |  33- 48 | PG # 26121  |
      | Vol. II No. 34 | June 22, 1850      |  49- 64 | PG # 22127  |
      | Vol. II No. 35 | June 29, 1850      |  65- 79 | PG # 22126  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 36 | July  6, 1850      |  81- 96 | PG # 13361  |
      | Vol. II No. 37 | July 13, 1850      |  97-112 | PG # 13729  |
      | Vol. II No. 38 | July 20, 1850      | 113-128 | PG # 13362  |
      | Vol. II No. 39 | July 27, 1850      | 129-143 | PG # 13736  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 40 | August  3, 1850    | 145-159 | PG # 13389  |
      | Vol. II No. 41 | August 10, 1850    | 161-176 | PG # 13393  |
      | Vol. II No. 42 | August 17, 1850    | 177-191 | PG # 13411  |
      | Vol. II No. 43 | August 24, 1850    | 193-207 | PG # 13406  |
      | Vol. II No. 44 | August 31, 1850    | 209-223 | PG # 13426  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 45 | September  7, 1850 | 225-240 | PG # 13427  |
      | Vol. II No. 46 | September 14, 1850 | 241-256 | PG # 13462  |
      | Vol. II No. 47 | September 21, 1850 | 257-272 | PG # 13936  |
      | Vol. II No. 48 | September 28, 1850 | 273-288 | PG # 13463  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 49 | October  5, 1850   | 289-304 | PG # 13480  |
      | Vol. II No. 50 | October 12, 1850   | 305-320 | PG # 13551  |
      | Vol. II No. 51 | October 19, 1850   | 321-351 | PG # 15232  |
      | Vol. II No. 52 | October 26, 1850   | 353-367 | PG # 22624  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 53 | November  2, 1850  | 369-383 | PG # 13540  |
      | Vol. II No. 54 | November  9, 1850  | 385-399 | PG # 22138  |
      | Vol. II No. 55 | November 16, 1850  | 401-415 | PG # 15216  |
      | Vol. II No. 56 | November 23, 1850  | 417-431 | PG # 15354  |
      | Vol. II No. 57 | November 30, 1850  | 433-454 | PG # 15405  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. II No. 58 | December  7, 1850  | 457-470 | PG # 21503  |
      | Vol. II No. 59 | December 14, 1850  | 473-486 | PG # 15427  |
      | Vol. II No. 60 | December 21, 1850  | 489-502 | PG # 24803  |
      | Vol. II No. 61 | December 28, 1850  | 505-524 | PG # 16404  |
      +----------------+--------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. III.                                 |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.       | Date, Year        | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 62 | January  4, 1851  |   1- 15 | PG # 15638  |
      | Vol. III No. 63 | January 11, 1851  |  17- 31 | PG # 15639  |
      | Vol. III No. 64 | January 18, 1851  |  33- 47 | PG # 15640  |
      | Vol. III No. 65 | January 25, 1851  |  49- 78 | PG # 15641  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 66 | February  1, 1851 |  81- 95 | PG # 22339  |
      | Vol. III No. 67 | February  8, 1851 |  97-111 | PG # 22625  |
      | Vol. III No. 68 | February 15, 1851 | 113-127 | PG # 22639  |
      | Vol. III No. 69 | February 22, 1851 | 129-159 | PG # 23027  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 70 | March  1, 1851    | 161-174 | PG # 23204  |
      | Vol. III No. 71 | March  8, 1851    | 177-200 | PG # 23205  |
      | Vol. III No. 72 | March 15, 1851    | 201-215 | PG # 23212  |
      | Vol. III No. 73 | March 22, 1851    | 217-231 | PG # 23225  |
      | Vol. III No. 74 | March 29, 1851    | 233-255 | PG # 23282  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 75 | April  5, 1851    | 257-271 | PG # 23402  |
      | Vol. III No. 76 | April 12, 1851    | 273-294 | PG # 26896  |
      | Vol. III No. 77 | April 19, 1851    | 297-311 | PG # 26897  |
      | Vol. III No. 78 | April 26, 1851    | 313-342 | PG # 26898  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 79 | May  3, 1851      | 345-359 | PG # 26899  |
      | Vol. III No. 80 | May 10, 1851      | 361-382 | PG # 32495  |
      | Vol. III No. 81 | May 17, 1851      | 385-399 | PG # 29318  |
      | Vol. III No. 82 | May 24, 1851      | 401-415 | PG # 28311  |
      | Vol. III No. 83 | May 31, 1851      | 417-440 | PG # 36835  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. III No. 84 | June  7, 1851     | 441-472 | PG # 37379  |
      | Vol. III No. 85 | June 14, 1851     | 473-488 | PG # 37403  |
      | Vol. III No. 86 | June 21, 1851     | 489-511 | PG # 37496  |
      | Vol. III No. 87 | June 28, 1851     | 513-528 | PG # 37516  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Notes and Queries Vol. IV.                                  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol., No.       | Date, Year        | Pages   | PG # xxxxx  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol. IV No. 88  | July  5, 1851     |   1- 15 | PG # 37548  |
      | Vol. IV No. 89  | July 12, 1851     |  17- 31 | PG # 37568  |
      +-----------------+-------------------+---------+-------------+
      | Vol I. Index. [Nov. 1849-May 1850]            | PG # 13536  |
      | INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME. MAY-DEC., 1850    | PG # 13571  |
      | INDEX TO THE THIRD VOLUME. JAN.-JUNE, 1851    | PG # 26770  |
      +-----------------------------------------------+-------------+