John Bodley is a name that ought not to be passed over without due
reverence. He not only fostered the translation of the Genevan Bible,
but was specially interested in its circulation throughout England.
Neither Fox, Burnet, or Strype, Mr. Todd, or Mr. Whittaker give us any
particular information respecting him. Lewis glances at him as one
John Bodley; and Mr. Townley, in his valuable Biblical Literature,
after some notice of Whittingham, Gilby, Sampson, &c., closes by saying,
"Of John Bodleigh no account has been obtained."
This good and pious man was the father of the celebrated Sir Thomas
Bodley. He was born at Exeter, and according to the statement of his son
(Autobiography, 4to., Oxf. 1647),—
"In the time of Queen Mary, after being cruelly threatened and
narrowly observed by those that maliced his religion, for the
safety of himself and my mother (formerly Miss Joan Hone, an
heiress in the hundred of Ottery St. Mary), who was wholly
affected as my father, knew no way so secure as to fly into
Germany; where, after a while, he found means to call over my
mother, with all his children and family, when he settled for a
while at Wesel, in Cleveland, and from thence we removed to the
town of Frankfort. Howbeit, we made no long tarriance in either
of these towns, for that my father had resolved to fix his abode
in the city of Geneva, where, as far as I remember, the English
Church consisted of some hundred members."
John Bodley returned to England in 1559, and on the 8th of January,
1560-61, a patent was granted to him by Queen Elizabeth, "to imprint, or
cause to be imprinted, the English Bible, with annotations." This
privilege was to last for the space of seven years. In 1565 Bodley was
preparing for a new impression; and by March the next year, a careful
review and correction being finished, this zealous reformer wished to
renew his patent beyond the seven years first granted. It does not
appear, however, that his application to the authorities had the desired
effect; for it will be remembered that Archbishop Parker's Bible was now
in the field, and the Queen's Secretary, Sir William Cecil, was
compelled to act with caution. A curious letter, addressed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London to Sir William Cecil,
concerning the extension of Bodley's privilege, is printed from the
Lansdown MS. No. 8. (Art. 82.), in Letters of Eminent Literary Men,
edited by Sir Henry Ellis for the Camden Society.
For a full history of the Geneva Bible, I beg to refer S. S. S. to the
second volume of Anderson's Annals of the English Bible: Lond. 2 vols.
8vo. 1845.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
In the notice of Sir Thomas Bodley contained in Prince's Worthies of
Devon, S. S. S. will find some particulars relating to his father, John
Bodley. Prince's account of Sir Thomas is "from a MS. on probable
grounds supposed to be his own handwriting, now in the custody of a
neighbour gentleman," (Walter Bogan of Gatcombe, near
Totnes.)
From this it appears that John Bodley was long resident at Geneva—
"Where [says Sir Thomas], as far as I remember, the English
church consisted of some hundred persons. I was at that time of
twelve years of age, but through my father's cost and care
sufficiently instructed to become an auditor of Chevalerius in
Hebrew, of Beraldus in Greek, of Calvin and Beza in divinity, and
of some other professors in the university, which was then newly
erected: besides my domestical teachers in the house of
Philibertus Saracenus, a famous physician in that city, with whom
I was boarded, where Robertus Constantinus, that made the Greek
Lexicon, read Homer unto me."
There is, however, no mention of John Bodley's having been one of the
translators of the Bible.
R. J. KING.
A correspondent, S. S. S., inquires concerning one of the numberless,
and now almost fameless, works of George Wither, a poet of the
seventeenth century, famous in his generation, but unworthily disparaged
in that which followed him; the names of Quarles and Wither being
proverbially classed with those of Bavius and Mævius in the Augustan
age. The Hallelujah of the latter has become precious from its rarity.
A copy of this volume (of nearly 500 pages) was lent to me several years
ago, by a collector of such treasures. On the blank at the back of the
cover, there was written a memorandum that it had been bought at Heber's
sale by Thorpe the bookseller for sixteen guineas; my friend, I had
reason to believe, paid a much higher price for it, when it fell into
his hands. The contents consist of several hundreds of hymns for all
sorts and conditions of men, on all the ordinary, and on many of the
extraordinary circumstances of human life. Of course they are very
heterogeneous, yet no small number are beyond the average of such
compositions in point of devotional and poetical excellence.
The author himself, with the consciousness of Horace, in his
"Exegi monumentum ære perennius,"
crowns his labours at the 487th page with the following "Io triumphe"
lines:—
"Although my Muse flies yet far short of those,
Who perfect Hallelujahs can compose,
Here to affirm I am not now afraid,
What once in part a heathen prophet said,
With slighter warrant, when to end was brought
What he for meaner purposes had wrought;
The work is finished, which nor human power,
Nor flames, nor times, nor envy shall devour,
But with devotion to God's praise be sung
As long as Britain speaks her English tongue,
Or shall that Christian saving faith possess,
Which will preserve these Isles in happiness;
And, if conjecture fail not, some, that speak
In other languages, shall notice take
Of what my humble musings have composed,
And, by these helps, be often more disposed
To celebrate His praises in their songs,
To whom all honour and all praise belongs."
How has this fond anticipation been fulfilled? There are not known (says
my authority) to be more than three or four copies in existence of
this indestructible work; and the price in gold which a solitary
specimen can command, is no evidence of anything but its market value.
Had its poetic worth been proportionate, its currency might have been as
common as that of Milton's masterpiece, and its trade price as low as
Paternoster Row could afford a cheap edition of the Pilgrim's
Progress.
J. M. G.
Hallamshire.
P.S.—Lowndes says:
"Few books of a cotemporary date can more readily be procured
than Wither's first Remembrancer in 1628; few, it is believed,
can be more difficult of attainment than his second
Remembrancer, licensed in 1640, of which latter Dalrymple
observes, 'there are some things interspersed in it, nowhere,
perhaps, to be surpassed.'"—Bibliographer's Manual, p. 1971.
I did not speak of my own recollection of Girtin's panorama; my memory
cannot reach so far back. It was my father who does perfectly remember
Girtin's semicircular panorama. I think the mistake must be with H. T.
E. Some years back a large collection of Girtin's drawings and sketches
were sold at Pimlico; my father went to see them, and was delighted to
find among them some of the original sketches for this panorama, which
he immediately recognised and bought. He afterwards showed them to
Girtin's son, now living in practice as a surgeon at Islington (I
believe), who identified them as his father's work, and with whom I went
to see the painting, when not many years back it was found in a
carpenter's loft. Girtin certainly was a painter principally in water
colour, and one who, with the present J. M. W. Turner, contributed much
to the advancement of that branch of art; but I do not see how that is a
reason why he did not paint a panorama. I should think it not unlikely
that two semicircular panoramas of the same subject were painted; and,
therefore, with all deference, believe that the mistake is with H. T. E.
Girtin's son, if applied to, could, and I am sure would, give any
information he possessed readily.
E. N. W.
We are not yet quite right about the first panorama, but perhaps the
following will close the discussion.
I have lately been sitting with Mr. Barker (ætat 78), and he tells me
that, when quite a boy, he sketched for his father the view of Edinburgh
from the observatory on the Calton Hill: in the foreground was Holyrood
House; that that was a half circle, and was exhibited in Edinburgh.
So much was thought of the discovery of its being possible to take a
view beyond the old rule of sixty degrees, that they went to London, and
then he took the view from the top of the Albion Mills, as was stated in
Vol. iv., p. 54.
That was three quarters of a circle, and was exhibited in Castle Street,
Leicester Square. Afterwards the whole circle was attempted. The idea of
painting a view more than sixty degrees, was suggested by his mother.
His father did not work at them, he being a portrait painter; but he
did, young as he was. Mr. Robert Barker and his wife were both Irish;
but Henry Aston the son was born in Glasgow.
H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyst St. George.
As I have not seen the Athenæum, I send the following notes, in
uncertainty whether or not they may prove acceptable to MR. COLLIER.
Sion y Cent, i.e. John a Kent, or John of Kentchurch, is very
generally believed in Wales to have been Owen Glendowr; though some
few—unable to account for the mysterious disappearance of the hero—are
still firmly convinced that he sleeps, like Montezuma and various other
mighty men, in some deep cavern, surrounded by his warriors, until the
wrongs of his country shall call him forth once more to lead them on to
battle.
The following extracts are from notes appended [by the editors] to some
poems of John a Kent which are published amongst the "Iolo MSS." by the
"Welsh MSS. Society."
"... John of Kent, as he is called, is said to have been a priest
at Kentchurch in Herefordshire, on the confines of Wales, about
the beginning of the fifteenth century. He still enjoys a high
degree of popularity, in the legendary stories of the
principality, as a powerful magician. There is in the possession
of Mr. Scudamore, of Kentchurch, an ancient painting of a monk,
supposed to be a portrait of John of Kent; and as the family of
Scudamore is descended from a daughter of Owen Glendowr, at whose
house that chieftain is believed to have passed in concealment a
portion of the latter part of his life, it has been supposed that
John of Kentchurch was no other than Owen Glendowr himself," &c.
&c.—Page 676., note to the poem on The Names of God.
"... The author was a priest of Kentchurch in Herefordshire, on
the confines of Monmouthshire and Breconshire, and is said to
have lived in the time of Wickliffe, and to have been of his
party. As the parish of Kentchurch is adjacent to that of
Oldcastle, the residence of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, it
is by no means impossible that John of Kentchurch may also have
favoured the same opinions; and may in some measure sanction the
idea."
"... The poet then proceeds to speak of the indignation of the
well-robed bishops, the monks, friars and priests; and in the
course of the composition he makes some strong animadversions on
the luxurious living of the churchmen, stating that formerly the
friars were preachers, who possessed no wealth, and went about on
foot with nothing but a staff; but that they now possessed
horses, and frequented banquets," &c. &c.—Page 687., notes to A
Poem to another's Book, by John of Kentchurch; from the
collection of Thomas ap Jevan of Tre'r Bryn, made about 1670.
The following words occur in this poem:—
"... onid côf cwymp
Olcastr, ti a gair ailcwymp."
"—— rememberest thou not the fall
Of Oldcastle?—Thou shall have a repetition of the fall."
In addition to the two poems here mentioned, the collection contains one
"Composed by John of Kent on his death-bed;" in which are some lines
of considerable beauty: and also one on The Age and Duration of
Things.
The parish church of Kentchurch is dedicated to St. Mary. I hope to be
able to send you some further information on the subject, but I well
know that quotations from memory are nearly valueless. Meanwhile, the
following note on the mysterious disappearance to which I have already
alluded may be not uninteresting: I give it as translated by the editors
of the Iolo MSS.
"In 1415, Owen disappeared, so that neither sight nor tidings of
him could be obtained in the country. It was rumoured that he
escaped in the guise of a reaper; bearing[1] ... according to the
testimony of the last who saw and knew him; after which little or
no information transpired respecting him, nor of the place or
manner of his concealment. The prevalent opinion was, that he
died in a wood in Glamorgan; but occult chroniclers assert that
he and his men still live, and are asleep on their arms, in a
cave called Govog y ddinas, in the Vale of Gwent, where they will
continue, until England becomes self-debased; but that then they
will sally forth, and reconquer their country, privileges, and
crown for the Welsh, who shall be dispossessed of them no more
until the day of judgment, when the world shall be consumed with
fire, and so reconstructed, that neither oppression nor
devastation shall take place any more: and blessed will be he who
shall see the time."—Page 454.
Historical Notices extracted
from the Papers of the Rev. Evan
Evans, now in the
Possession of Paul Panton, Esq., of Anglesea.
SELEUCUS.
MR. J. P. COLLIER will find all the information that Cambrian
antiquaries can give him respecting Sidanen in Powell's Cambria,
Matthew Paris, Wynne's Caradoc, and Warrington's History of Wales,
under the year 1241. The history is given at most length in Warrington;
where the share which Sidanen had in an interesting episode in Cambrian
history is fully developed. There were two Welsh princes named Llywelyn,
who stood to each other in the following relation:
|
LLYWELYN AB JORWERTH (died in 1240). | |
|
|
|
_____________________________________________________ |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
GRIFFITH, |
DAVID. |
GLADYS, |
|
married to Senena, daughter of a Cambrian lord named Caradoc ab Thomas. | | |
|
a daughter. |
|
_____________________________________________________ |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
| |
| |
|
LLYWELYN AB GRIFFITH, last Prince of Wales. |
OWEN. |
DAVID. |
The Prince of Wales mentioned by Munday is the first, Llywelyn ab
Jorwerth, whose descent, as his father was not allowed to reign on
account of personal deformity, we had better indicate:
|
OWEN, king of North Wales. | |
|
(Eldest son) JORWERTH, the Broken-nosed. | |
|
LLYWELYN AB JORWERTH.
| |
Llywelyn, as has been shown, had two sons, Griffith and David, the first
and eldest of whom, being a turbulent prince, was set aside by his
father at a solemn assembly of Cambrian lords, in 1238, and David was
elected to succeed his father. In 1240, David became king of North
Wales, and one of his first acts was to apprehend his brother and his
son Owen, and put them in prison. This was done with the connivance of a
Bishop of Bangor: but that worthy, fearing that the scandal would spread
abroad, intrigued with Senena, the daughter-in-law, and not the
daughter of Prince Llywelyn, and wife of his son Griffith, for his
release. Overtures were made to Henry III.; and certain lords having
joined the confederacy, stipulations were entered into, and Henry
marched against King David. David, who had married the king's daughter,
now began to counterplot, in which he was quite successful; for Henry,
who had come to release Griffith, by special contract with his
brother, took him, with his wife Senena, and his son Owen, with him to
London, and imprisoned them in the Tower, in attempting to escape from
whence, two years afterwards, Griffith lost his life. Such is a brief
outline of all that is known of Senena, who is undoubtedly the Sidanen
of Munday, and whose name is variously written Sina, Sanan,
Sanant, and in the Latin chronicle Senena. The negotiations here
alluded to, with the names of all the parties engaged in them, will be
found in the authorities herein named; all of which being in English,
MR. COLLIER can easily consult.
John a Cumber is probably John y Kymro, or John the Cambrian; but I know
nothing of him.
Respecting John of Kent there is but little else known than may be found
in Coxe's Monmouthshire, and Owen's Cambrian Biography, sub "Sion
Cent." There is, however, a tradition in this neighbourhood that he was
born at Eglwys Ilan, in the county of Glamorgan; and the road is shown
by which he went to Kentchurch, in Herefordshire. It was at Eglwys Ilan
that he is reported to have pounded the crows by closing the park gates.
As this story has not appeared in English print, I will endeavour to
furnish you again with a more circumstantial statement. Sion Kent, who
lived about 1450, appears to have derived his name from Kent Chester, or
Kent Church. He was a monk, holding Lollard opinions; and a bard of
considerable talent and celebrity. As a matter of course, he was on good
terms with his Satanic majesty; for he was a mighty reputation as a
conjuror. MR. COLLIER may find a portion of one of his poems, translated
in the Iolo MSS., page 687. Should this, or any other authority herein
named, not be accessible to MR. COLLIER, it would afford me great
pleasure to send him transcripts.
There is a very gross anachronism in making Sion, lege Shôn Kent, to
be the contemporary of Senena.
T. STEPHENS.
Merthyr Tydfil, Aug. 7. 1851.
I believe that Petty Cury signifies the Little Cookery. See a note in my
Annals of Cambridge, vol. i. p. 273.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, July 12. 1851.
To those who are familiar with the Form of Cury, edited by Dr. Pegge,
no explanation can be necessary for the name of this street, or rather
lane. It seems, indeed, strange that any one who calls himself a
Cambridge man should have failed to discover that it was the peculiar
quarter of the cooks of the town; as we in London have our Poultry
named from the Poulters (not Poulterers, as now corruptly
designated) who there had their shops.
F. S. Q.
The Cambridge senate-house is called "Curia,"
and therefore it
may be supposed that "Petty Cury" means "parva curia," from some
court-leet or court-baron formerly held there; the town-hall is at the
end of it to this day. The only objection to the above is, that in the
Caius map of Cambridge, A.D. 1574, now in the British Museum, Petty
Curie is a large street even then, whilst neither town-hall nor
senate-house exist.
J. EASTWOOD.
Surely there can be little doubt that the name of this street at
Cambridge is a corruption from the French "petite écurie." We knew
little enough about such matters when I was an undergraduate there; but
still, I think, we could have solved this mystery. Might I be permitted
to suggest that as the court stables at Versailles were called "les
petites écuries," to distinguish them from the king's, which were styled
"les grandes écuries," although they exactly resembled them, and
contained accommodation for five hundred horses; so the street in
question may have contained some of the fellows' stables, which were
called "les petites écuries," to distinguish them from the masters'.
Should this supposition be correct, it would seem to imply that at one
time the French language was not altogether ignored at Cambridge.
H. C.
Workington.
MR. HICKSON seems to court opinion as to the justness of his
interpretation of rack. I therefore express my total and almost
indignant dissent from it.
Luckily, neither in the proposition itself, nor in the manner in which
it is advocated, is there anything to disturb my previous conviction as
to the true meaning of this word (which, in the well-known passage in
the Tempest, is, beyond all doubt, "haze" or "vapour"), since few
things would be more distasteful to me than to encounter any argument
really capable of throwing doubt upon the reading of a passage I have
long looked upon as one of the most marvellous instances of
philosophical depth of thought to be met with, even in Shakspeare,—one
of those astonishing speculations, in advance of his age, that now and
then drop from him as from the lips of a child inspired,—wherein the
grandeur of the sentiment is so out of all proportion to the simplicity
and absence of pretension with which it is introduced, that the reader,
not less surprised than delighted, is scarcely able to appreciate the
full meaning until after long and careful consideration.
It is only lately that the nebular theory of condensation has been
advanced, for the purpose of speculating upon the probable formation of
planetary bodies. Yet it is a subject that possesses a strange
coincidence with this passage of Shakspeare's Tempest.
Perhaps the best elucidation I can give of it will be to cite a certain
passage in Dr. Nichols' Architecture of the Heavens, which happens to
bear a rather remarkable, although I believe an accidental, resemblance
to Shakspeare's words: accidental, because if Dr. Nichols had this
passage of the Tempest present to his mind, when writing in a
professedly popular and familiar style, he would scarcely have omitted
allusion to it, especially as it would have afforded a peculiarly happy
illustration of his subject.
I shall now quote both passages, in order that they may be conveniently
compared:
"Our revels now are ended—these our actors
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air—INTO THIN AIR:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all that it inherit—shall dissolve—
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."
"—— in the laboratory of the chemist matter easily passes
through all conditions, the solid, liquid, and gaseous, as if in
a sort of phantasmagoria; and his highest discoveries even now
are pointing to the conclusion, that the bodies which make up the
solid portion of our earth may, simply by the dissolution of
existing combinations, be ultimately resolved into a permanently
gaseous form."—Nichols' Architecture of the Heavens, p. 147.
Had we no other presumption to lead us to Shakspeare's true meaning but
what is afforded by the expression, "into air—thin air," it ought, in
my opinion, to be amply sufficient; for no rational person can entertain
a doubt that Shakspeare intended the repetition, "thin air," to have
reference to the simile that was to follow. The globe itself shall
dissolve, and, like this vision, leave not a rack behind! In what was
the resemblance to the vision to consist, if not in melting, like it,
into thin air? into air unobscured by vapour, rarified from the
slightest admixture of rack or cloud.
Shakespeare knew that atmospheric rack is not insubstantial; that it is
corporeal like the globe itself, of which it is a part; and that, so
long as a particle of it remained, dissolution could not be complete.
And shall we reject this exquisite philosophy—this profundity of
thought—to substitute our own mean and common-place ideas?
A. E. B.
Leeds, July 22.
P.S.—Apart from the philosophical beauty of this wonderful passage,
there are other aspects in which it may be studied with not less
interest.
How true is the poetical image of the rack as
the last object
of dissipation! the expiring evidence of combustion! the lingering
cloudiness of solution!
—It is too bad! In
Vol. iii., p. 282., there is a good page and a half taken up with a
verbatim extract from Echard, which has either been alluded to or quoted
by every writer on Cromwell from Echard's time down to a few months ago,
when it appeared in Chambers's Papers for the People, No. 11. Again,
in Vol. iv., p. 19., there is another page and a half relating to
Cromwell, which, I fearlessly assert, I have seen frequently in print,
but cannot at present tell where; and more important avocations forbid
me to search. As if that was not enough, in Vol. iv., p. 50. there is
another half page respecting the preservation of these precious MSS.!
Is it not too bad? Do, worthy Mr. Editor, make the amende honorable by
publishing the true characters of the MSS. forwarded by S. H. H., which
you have so inadvertently published as original.
W. PINKERTON.
[Our correspondent seems to doubt that the communications to
which he refers were really printed from contemporary MSS. The
Editor is able to vouch for that having been certainly the fact.
They are not printed from transcripts from Echard, but from real
MSS. of the time of Charles II., or thereabouts; while the fact
of these early transcripts having been printed surely does not
furnish any argument against the valuable suggestion of S. H. H.
as to the preservation of similar documents for the use of the
public, and in the manner pointed out in his communication.—ED.]
—Your correspondents have neglected to observe that this author's
Chorography of Britain was published by Gale, "ad calcem Antonini Iter
Britanniarum," viz., Britanniæ Chorographia cum Autographo Regis Galliæ
Mso. et Codice Vaticano collata; Adjiciuntur conjecturæ plurimæ cum
nominibus locorum Anglicis, quotquot iis assignari potuerint: Londini,
1709, 4to.
A copy of the edition of Anonymi Ravennatis Geographiæ Libri Quinque
(of the last of which the Chorography of Britain forms a part) noticed
by J. I. (Vol. i., p. 220.) is now before me; as also a later edition,
published by the editor's son, Abram Gronovius: Lugduni Batavorum, 1722,
8vo.
Horsley's Britannia Romana, book iii. chap. iv., contains "1. Some
account of this author and his work; 2. The Latin text of this
writer;[2] 3. Remarks upon many of the places mentioned by him, and more
particularly of such as seem to be the same with the stations per lineam
valli in the Notitia." His remarks are diametrically opposite to the
conjectures of Camden and Gale.
T. J.
—Your correspondent who
inquires where he can meet with the particulars of the life of Margaret,
surnamed Maultasch, Countess of Tyrol, will find them in the
Supplement of the Biographie Universelle, vol. lxxiii. p. 136.
The great heiress in question, though a monster of ugliness, was twice
married: first to John Henry, son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia (1331),
from whom she procured a divorce on the plea of his incapacity; and,
secondly (1341), to Louis of Bavaria, eldest son of the Emperor Louis
IV., by whom she had a son, Mainard, who died without issue during his
mother's lifetime.
I know not upon what authority rest the imputed irregularities of her
life, but her biographer, in the article above mentioned, casts no such
slur upon her character. Nor can I discover that the armorial bearings
of the town of Halle, in Tyrol, have any such significant meaning as has
been hinted at. They are to be found in Matthew Merian's Topographia
Provinciarum Austriacarum, printed at Frankfort on the Maine in 1649,
engraved on the view of Halle, at p. 139., and appear to be a cask or
barrel, supported by two lions. There is no statue of Margaret
Maultasch among those which surround the mausoleum of Emperor
Maximilian (not Matthias) in the Franciscan church at Inspruck; but
her ludicrously hideous features may be found amongst the historical
portraits engraved in the magnificent work descriptive of the Museum of
Versailles, published a few years ago at Paris, under the auspices of
King Louis Philippe.
W. S.
Denton, July 28.
—Is your correspondent C. correct in attributing A true
Character of Mr. Pope and his Writings, in a Letter to a Friend,
printed for Popping, 1716, to Oldmixon? In the Testimonies of Authors,
prefixed to the Dunciad, and the Appendix, and throughout the Notes,
Dennis is uniformly quoted and attacked as the author. Oldmixon's feud
with Pope was hardly, I think, so early.
Assuming your correspondent's quotation from the pamphlet to be correct,
the terms made use of will surely refer to Pope's Imitation of Horace
(S. ii. L. i.), a fragment of which was published by Curll about this
time (1716). It was afterwards republished in folio about 1734, printed
for J. Boreman, under the title of Sober Advice from Horace to the
young Gentlemen about Town, but in an enlarged state, and with some of
the initials altered, and several new adaptations. Mrs. Oldfield and
Lady Mary are not introduced in the first edition. I have both, but at
present can only refer to the second one in folio. From this the
Imitation was transferred to the Supplement to
Pope's Works,
published by Cooper: London, 1757, 12mo., and from thence to the
Supplementary Volumes to the later editions. The publication of it
formed an article of impeachment against Dr. Jos. Warton, by the author
of the Pursuits of Literature, as all who have read that satire will
well remember.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
—The origin of this term, as
applied to the United States, is given in a recent number of the
Norwich Courier. The editor says it was communicated by a gentleman
now upwards of eighty years of age, who was an active participator in
the scenes of the revolution. The story is as follows:
"When General Washington, after being appointed commander of the
army of the revolutionary war, came to Massachusetts to organize
it, and make preparations for the defence of the country, he
found a great want of ammunition and other means necessary to
meet the powerful foe he had to contend with, and great
difficulty to obtain them. If attacked in such condition, the
cause at once might be hopeless. On one occasion at that anxious
period a consultation of the officers and others was had, when it
seemed no way could be devised to make such preparations as were
necessary. His Excellency Jonathan Trumbull the elder was then
governor of the State of Connecticut, on whose judgment and aid
the general placed the greatest reliance, and remarked, 'We must
consult Brother Jonathan on the subject.' The general did so, and
the governor was successful in supplying many of the wants of the
army. When difficulties afterwards arose, and the army was spread
over the country, it became a by-word, 'We must consult Brother
Jonathan.' The term Yankee is still applied to a portion, but
'Brother Jonathan' has now become a designation of the whole
country, as John Bull has for England."—Dictionary of
Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett, 1849.
H. J.
—E. A. asks
whether there are any grants of land in the county of Monaghan recorded
as made by Cromwell, and where such records are preserved? I fear I can
give but a negative answer to the question: but among the stores of the
State Paper Office are many books of orders, letters, &c. during the
Commonwealth. Among them are two bundles dated in 1653, which relate to
the lands granted by lot, to the adventurers who had advanced money for
the army, in the different provinces of Ireland. Monaghan is not
mentioned.
SPEC.
—In answer to your correspondent
A. N., I beg to state that Stanedge Pole is between six and seven miles
from Sheffield, on the boundary line between Yorkshire and Derbyshire,
on a long causeway which was in former times the road from Yorkshire to
Manchester. Its only antiquity consists in having been for centuries one
of the meers marking the boundaries of Hallamshire. In Harrison's
Survey of the Manor of Sheffield, 1637, appears an account of the
boundaries as viewed and seen the 6th of August, 1574, from which the
following is an extract:—
"Item. From the said Hurkling Edge so forward after the Rock to
Stannedge, which is a meer between the said Lordshipps (of
Hallamshire and Hathersedge).
"Item. From Stannedge after the same rock to a place called the
Broad Rake, which is also a meer between the said Lordshipps of
Hallamshire and Hathersedge."
The situation is a very fine one, commanding a very beautiful and
extensive view of the surrounding country.[3]
H. J.
Stanedge.
—Baskerville was interred
in the grounds attached to the house in which he lived, near Easy Row,
Birmingham. The land becoming valuable for building purposes, he was,
after lying there about half a century, disinterred and removed to the
workshop of a lead merchant, named Marston, in Monmouth Street,
Birmingham. While there I saw his remains. They were in a wooden coffin,
which was enclosed in one of lead. How long they had been above ground I
do not know, but certainly not long. This, as far as I can recollect, is
about twenty-five years since. The person who showed me the body, and
who was either one of the Marstons or a manager of the business, told me
he had seen the coffins opened, and that the features were then perfect.
When exhibited to me the nose and lips were gone, as were also two front
teeth, which had been torn from the mouth surreptitiously and taken
away. I understood that it was known who had them, and that they would
be restored. The shroud was discoloured, I presume from natural causes,
being of a dirty yellow colour, as though it had been drawn through a
clay pit. The texture and strength of the cloth remained unaffected.
Baskerville entertained peculiar opinions on religious subjects. There
was a rumour of some efforts having been made to deposit his remains in
one of the church burial grounds, but they were not successful. A year
or two ago, while in Birmingham, a snuff-box was shown me, on the lid of
which a portrait of Baskerville was painted, which fully agreed with a
description of his person given me many years previously by one who had
known him. This portrait had not, from its appearance, been painted very
long. From its being there I infer that there is in existence at least
one original portrait of this eminent printer.
T. JOHNS.
—Is your correspondent
"T. M. W., Liverpool," who inquires the translation of an "inscription
on a claymore," certain that his quotation is correct? To me it appears
that it should run thus:
[X] GOTT BEWAR DE
[X] GERECHTE SCHOTTEN.
or, "God preserve the righteous (or just) Scots;" referring, no doubt,
to the undertaking in which they were then engaged.
I believe that formerly, and probably at the present time, many of the
finest sword blades were made abroad, and sent to England to be mounted,
or even entirely finished on the Continent. I have in my possession a
heavy trooper's sword, bearing the name of a celebrated German maker,
although the ornaments and devices are unquestionably English. Another
way of accounting for the inscription is, that it belonged to some of
those foreign adventurers who are known to have joined Charles Edward.
W. SHIRLEY.
—In Hunter's History of
Hallamshire, p. 236., is a pedigree of Burton of Royds Mill, near
Sheffield, in which are the following remarks:—
"Richard Burton of Tutbury, Staffordshire, died May 9th, 8 Henry
V. Married Maud, sister of Robert Gibson of Tutbury; and had a
son, Sir William Burton of Falde and Tutbury, Knight; slain at
Towtonfield, 1461, from whom descended the Burtons of Lindley."
"Thomas Burton of Fanshawgate, who died in 1643, left three sons;
Michael, Thomas, and Francis. Michael was of Mosborough, and had
a numerous issue; the names of his children appear on his
monumental brass in the chancel of the church at Eckington.
Thomas, the second son, was of London and Putney, married, and
had issue. Francis, the youngest, was lord of the Manor of
Dronfield, and served the office of High Sheriff of Derby in
1669. Was buried at Dronfield in 1687."
I find no account of any Roger Burton; but if your correspondent E. H.
A. is not in possession of the above pedigree, and should wish for a
copy, I shall be glad to send him it.
JOHN ALGOR.
Eldon Street, Sheffield.
—The notation used by
coalwhippers, &c., mentioned by I. J. C., is, after all, I expect, but a
part of a system which was probably the origin of the Roman notation.
The first four strokes or units were cut diagonally by the fifth, and
taking the first and last of these strokes we readily obtain V, or the
Roman five; but as the natural systems of arithmetic are decimal, from
the number of fingers, it is most probable that the tens were thus
marked off, or by a stroke drawn across the last unit thus X, whence we
obtain the Roman ten: these tens were repeated up to a hundred, or the
second class of tens, which were probably connected by two parallel
lines top and bottom [C];, which would be the sign of the second
class of tens, or hundreds; this became afterwards rounded into C: the
third class of tens, or thousands, was represented by four strokes M,
and these symbols served by abbreviation for some intermediate numbers;
thus X divided became V, or 5, the half of 10; then L, half of [C],
represented 50, half of 100; and M becoming rounded thus (M); was frequently expressed in this manner CIƆ; and this became
abbreviated into D, 500, half of CIƆ or 1000: and thus, by variously
combining these six symbols (though all derived from the one straight
stroke), numbers to a very high amount could be expressed.

THOS. LAWRENCE.
Ashby de la Zouch.
—The following passage is
from Hughson's History of London, vol. ii. p. 521.:
"Among the adherents and sufferers in the cause of Charles II.
was Sir Robert Viner, alderman of London. After the Restoration
the worthy alderman, willing to show his loyalty and prudence,
raised in this place [i. e. the Stock's Market] the statue
above mentioned. The figure had been carved originally for John
Sobieski, king of Poland, but by some accident was left upon the
workman's hands. Finding the work ready carved to his hands, Sir
Robert thought that, with some alteration, what was intended for
a king of Poland might suit the monarch of Great Britain; he
therefore converted the Polander into an Englishman, and the Turk
underneath his horse into Oliver Cromwell; the turban on the last
figure being an undeniable proof of the truth attached to the
story. The compliment was so ridiculous and absurd, that no one
who beheld it could avoid reflecting on the taste of those who
had set it up; but as its history developed the farce improved,
and what was before esteemed contemptible, proved in the end
entertaining. The poor mutilated figure stood neglected some
years since among the rubbish in the purlieus of Guildhall; and
in 1779, it was bestowed by the common council on Robert Viner,
Esq., who removed it to grace his country seat."
The earliest engraving of "the King at the Stock's Market" may be seen
in Thomas Delaune's Present State of London, 12mo. 1681.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
—The Serius, now Serio,
rises in the chain of mountains in the south of the Valteline, between
the lakes Como and Ixo: it flows through a valley called the Val Seria,
passes near Bergamo and Cremona, and falls into the Adda a little before
that river joins the Po.
J. M. (4)
—Some time ago, I buried in our churchyard a person from an
adjoining parish; but, instead of taking a pathway which led directly
from the house of the deceased to the church, they kept to the
high-road,—so going
four miles instead of one. When I asked
the reason, I was told that the pathway was not a lich-road, and
therefore it was not lawful to bring a corpse along it.
J. M. (4)
—Your
correspondents LLEWELLYN and J. S. B. do not appear to be acquainted
with Heylyn's quotations from the book thus designated. In one place (p.
63., folio; vol. i. p. 132., 8vo.) he refers to it for a statement—
"That many at this time [A.D. 1548] affirmed the most blessed
Sacrament of the altar to be of little regard," &c.
And in another place (p. 65., folio; vol. i. p. 136., 8vo.), he gives an
extract relating to Day, Bishop of Chichester:—
"Sed Ricardus Cicestrensis, (ut ipse mihi dixit) non
subscripsit."
Hence the Register would seem to have been a sort of chronicle, kept
by the rector of Petworth; and it does not appear whether it was or was
not in the same volume with the register of births, marriages, and
deaths. In the latter case, it may possibly be still in the Petworth
parish chest; for the returns to which your correspondents refer, would
probably not have mentioned any other registers than those of which the
law takes cognizance. On the other hand, if the chronicle was attached
to the register of births, &c., it may have shared the too common fate
of early registers; for, when an order of 1597 directed the clergy to
transcribe on parchment the entries made in the proper registers since
the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, they seem to have generally
interpreted it as a permission to make away with the older registers,
although there are cases in which the proper books are still
preserved. (I am myself acquainted with two in this neighbourhood; and
J. S. B., if I am right in identifying him with the author of the very
curious and valuable History of Parish Registers, can no doubt mention
many others.) But how did Heylyn, who collected most of his materials
about 1638, get hold of the book?
J. C. ROBERTSON.
Bekesbourne.
Holland's "Monumenta Sepulchralia Ecclesiæ S. Pauli" (Vol. ii., p.
265.; Vol. iii., p. 427.; Vol. iv., p. 62.).—Sir Egerton Brydges, in
his Censura Literaria, vol. i. p. 305., attributes this work to
Henry Holland. In his notice of Heroologia Anglica, he says:
"The author was Henry Holland, son of Philemon Holland, a
physician and schoolmaster at Coventry, and the well-known
translator of Camden, &c. Henry was born at Coventry, and
travelled with John, Lord Harrington, into the Palatinate in
1613, and collected and wrote (besides the Heroologia)
Monumenta Sepulchralia Ecclesiæ S. Pauli, Lond., 4to.; and
engraved and published A Book of Kings, being a true and lively
effigies of all our English Kings from the Conquest till this
present, &c., 1618. He was not educated either in Oxford or
Cambridge; having been a member of the society of Stationers in
London. I think it is most probable that he was brother to
Abraham Holland, who subscribes his name as 'Abr. Holland alumnus
S. S. Trin. Coll. Cantabr.' to some copies of Latin verses on the
death of John, second Lord Harrington, of Exton, in the
Heroologia; which Abraham was the author of a poem called
Naumachia, or Holland's Sea-Fight, Lond. 1622, and died Feb.
18, 1625, when his Posthuma were edited by 'his brother H.
Holland.' At this time, however, there were other writers of the
name of Hen. Holland.—(See Wood's Athenæ, i. 499.)"
J. Y.
Hoxton.
—From your
correspondent's mention of it, I should have supposed Casaubon meant
that the astronomers had been mistaken in the calculation of an
eclipse. But the matter is of another kind. In the lunar eclipse of
April 3, 1605, two observers, Wendelinus and Lansberg, in different
longitudes, made the eclipse end at times far more different than their
difference of longitudes would explain. The ending of a lunar eclipse,
observed with the unassisted eye, is a very indefinite phenomenon.
The allusion to this, made by Meric Casaubon, is only what the French
call a plat de son métier. He was an upholder of the ancients in
philosophy, and his bias would be to depreciate modern successes, and
magnify modern failures. When he talks of the astronomer being "deceived
in the hour," he probably uses the word hour for time, as done in
French and old English.
M.
—D. Q. is
referred to Montaigne, who is the author of the passage; but not having
access to his works, I am not able to give a paginal reference.
H. T. E.
Clyst St. George.
—The
History, &c., by T. S. Davies, is in the British Annual for 1837,
published by Baillière.
M.
—A. B. C. will find his
questions fully answered in Henry Wharton's tract, entitled A Treatise
of the Celibacy of the Clergy, wherein its Rise and Progress are
historically considered, 1688, 4to. pp. 168. There is also another
treatise on the same subject, entitled An Answer to a Discourse
concerning the Celibacy of the Clergy, by E. Tully, 1687, in reply to
Abraham Woodhead.
E. C. HARRINGTON.
The Close, Exeter, July 28. 1851.
—The same idea as that conveyed in this line is frequently expressed, though
not in precisely the same words, in Defoe's
Jure Divino, a
poem which contains many vigorous and spirited passages; but I do not
believe that Pope gave the line as a quotation at all, or that it is
other, as far as he is concerned, than original. The inverted commas
merely denote that this line is the termination of the goddess's speech.
The punctuation is not very correct in any of the editions of the
Dunciad; and sometimes inverted commas occur at the end of the last
line of a speech, and sometimes both at the beginning and end of the
line.
JAMES CROSSLEY.
—In reply to F. M.'s Query
respecting the Duke of Wellington's statue being the only equestrian one
erected to a subject in her Majesty's dominions, I may mention that
there is one erected in Cavendish Square to William Duke of Cumberland,
who, though of the blood royal, was yet a subject.
D. K.