1. Without wishing to protract the discussion about eisell, let me
tell the correspondent who questioned whether wormwood could be an
ingredient in any palatable drink, that crême d'absinthe ordinarily
appears with noyau, &c. in a Parisian restaurateur's list of luxurious
cordials. Whilst that eisell was equivalent to wormwood is confirmed
by its being joined with gall, in a page of Queen Elizabeth's book of
prayers, which caught my eye in one of those presses in the library of
the British Museum, where various literary curiosities are now so
judiciously arranged, and laid open for public inspection.
2. As a decisive affirmation of what rack meant, where the word was
the derivative of the Saxon pecan, your correspondents may accept the
following from our martyr, Frith's, Revelation of Antichrist. He
renders the second clause of 2 Peter ii. 17., "And racks carried about
of a tempest;" and he immediately adds, "Racks are like clouds, but they
give no rain."
3. In answer to MR. BREEN'S inquiry where there is any evidence from the
writings of Gregory I., that he could be so shameless as to panegyrise
that female monster Queen Brunéhaut, he may read some of that Pope's
flattering language in his letter addressed to her on behalf of that
Augustine whom he sent to England, as contained in Spelman's Concilia.
Epist. xvii. (Brunichildæ, Reginæ Francorum) begins as follows:
"Gratias omnipotenti Deo referimus, qui inter cætera pietatis suæ
dona, quæ excellentiæ vestræ largitus est, ita vos amore
Christianæ religionis implevit, ut quicquid ad animarum lucrum,
quicquid ad propagationem fidei pertinere cognoscitis, devota
mente et pio operari studio non cessetis.... Et quidem hæc de
Christianitate vestra mirentur alii, quibus adhuc beneficia
vestra minus sunt cognita; nam nobis, quibus experimentis jam
nota sunt, non mirandum est, sed gaudendum."—Spelm. Concil. p.
82.
And in Epist. xi.:
"Excellentia ergo vestra, quæ prona in bonis consuevit esse
operibus."—Id. p. 77.
4. The etymology of Fontainebleau (Vol. iv., p. 38.). I can only speak
from memory of what was read long ago. But I think that in one of
Montfaucon's works, probably Les Monumens de la Monarchie Française,
he ascribed the origin of that name to the discovery of a spring amongst
the sandy rocks of that forest by a hound called Bleau, to the great
satisfaction of a thirsty French monarch who was then hunting there, and
was thereby induced to erect a hunting-seat near the spring.
5. To A. B. C. (Vol. iv., p. 57.), your questionist about the marriage
of bishops in the early ages of the Christian church, who has had a
reply in p. 125., I would further say, that as we have no biographies
describing the domestic life of any Christian bishop earlier than
Cyprian, who belonged to the middle of the third century, it is only
incidentally that anything appears of the kind which he inquires after.
It would be enough for the primitive Christians to know that their
scriptures said of marriage, that it was honourable in all; though
such as were especially exposed to
persecution, from their
prominence as officers of the church, would also remember the apostle's
advice as good for the present distress, 1 Cor. vii. As, however, your
correspondent asks what evidence there is that Gregory Nazienzen's
father had children after he was raised to the episcopate, this fact is
gathered from his own poem, in which he makes his father say to him,
"Thy years are not so many as I have passed in sacred duties." For
though these sacred duties began with his admission into the priesthood,
he was made a bishop so soon afterwards, that his younger son, Cæsarius,
must at any rate be held to have been born after the elder Gregory
became a bishop.
Curiously enough, however, good evidence appears in the papal law
itself, that the marriages of ecclesiastics were not anciently deemed
unlawful. In the Corpus Juris Canonici, or Decretum aureum, D.
Gratiani, Distinctio lvi. canon 2., which professes to be a rescript of
Pope Damasus (A.D. 366-84), says:
"Theodorus papa filius [fuit] Theodori episcopi de civitate
Hierosolyma, Silverius papa filius Silverii episcopi Romæ—item
Gelasius, natione Afer, ex patre episcopo Valerio natus est. Quam
plures etiam alii inveniuntur: qui de sacerdotibus nati
apostolicæ sedi præfuerunt."
To which Gratian attaches as his own conclusion:
"Hine Augustinus ait, Vicia parentum Filiis non imputentur."
Thereby throwing a slur on the said married bishops. But can. xiii., or
Cænomanensem, of the same Distinctio, says:
"Cum ergo ex sacerdotibus nati in summos pontifices supra
legantur esse promoti, non sunt intelligendi de fornicatione, sed
de legitimis conjugiis."
I will only add that Athanasius mentions a Bishop Eupsychius (Primâ
contra Arianos) who was martyred in the reign of Julian, and that the
historian Sozomen says of him (Eccl. Hist., lib. v. ch. 11.), that
when he suffered he had but recently married,
καὶ οἷον ἔτι
νυμφίον ὄντα.
H. WALTER.
As it is not to be met with in a regular way, your correspondent may be
ignorant that Domingo Lomelyne was progenitor of the extinct baronets
LUMLEY, his descendants having softened or corrupted his name into an
identity with that of the great northern race of the latter name. They,
however, retained different coat-armour in the senior line, bearing in
common with many other English families of Italian, Champaigne, and
generally trans-Norman origin, "a chief." Guido de St. Leodigaro and one
Lucarnalsus are the earliest heroes to whom I find it assigned; but
Stephen, son of the Odo, Earl of Champaigne (whence Fortibus, Earl of
Albemarle), also brought it to England at a very early period; and
thence from the Holderness annex of de Fortibus (in spite of the
allegations in Wott. Bar., i. 189.), Worsley perhaps copied it. The
old Lumley or Lomelyne accounts connect it with the city of Naples.
Your correspondent will find that Domingo Lomelyne was a Genoese, and
of the bedchamber to Henry VIII.; that he maintained at his own cost,
and commanded, a troop of horse at Boulogne in the same reign, and had a
pension of 200l. per annum from Queen Elizabeth in 1560. If any of
your corespondents can give me the junior ramifications of this family
diverging from the son and grandson of Domingo, I shall feel much
obliged, provided that James Lumley, living 1725, who married Catherine
Hodilow, can be satisfactorily linked with James, the son of Domingo.
James and Martin were the family names, and the family was settled in
London and Essex.
WM. D'OYLY BAYLEY.
Having noticed in a recent number some rather various derivations of the
name "Petty Cury," which one of the streets in Cambridge bears, I have
been led to examine the word "Cury," and think that a meaning may be
given to it, preferable to any of the three mentioned in your paper. The
three to which I refer connect the word with "cook-shops," "stables," or
some kind of a court-house ("curia"). The arguments brought forward in
their favour either arise from the similarity of the words (as "Cury"
and "écurie"), or from the probability that either cook-shops, stables,
or a court-house existed in the vicinity of the street, whence it might
derive its name. With regard to the name "Cury" being derived from the
cook-shops in the streets, this seems to have little to do with the
question; for supposing there are some half dozen such shops there
(which I do not know to be the case), it proves little as to what was
the number three or four centuries ago. Secondly, "Cury" derived from
"écurie:" this seems unsatisfactory, for, as nothing whatever is known
about our former fellows' horses, the argument in its favour simply
consists in "Cury" being similar to "écurie." The third derivation is,
that "Cury" is taken from "curia," a senate or court-house. This falls
to the ground from the considerations, that if it were derived from it
we might expect the name to be Parva Cury and not Petty Cury; and if it
be derived from it, it implies that there was some larger court existing
at that time, in contradistinction to which this was called "Parva
Curia." But no larger one (as the advocate of the derivation allows) did
exist, so that this derivation meets the fate of the former ones.
The most probable derivation of the word is
from the French
"curie," a ward or district, which certainly possesses this
advantage over the three former ones, that the word is exactly the same
as that of the street. The arguments in its favour are these:—In
referring to a map of Cambridge dated A.D. 1574, I find the town divided
into wards, with different names attached to them. These wards are all
larger than "Petty Cury:" in the same map the name is spelt "Peti
Curie" (i.e. small ward), both words being French or Norman ones, and
the word "peti" being applied to it from its being smaller than any of
the other wards. In former times it was not unusual to give French names
to the wards and streets of a town, as may be seen any day in London, or
even in Liverpool, which is comparatively a modern place. Thus the word
from which I propose to derive the name "Cury" being the very same, and
not requiring us to form any vague suppositions either about cook-shops,
stables, or court-houses, I conclude, may be considered preferable to
the three before mentioned.
W. F. R.
Trinity College, Sept. 1. 1851.
The communication of your correspondent ÆGROTUS respecting the claims of
an individual to be the Dauphin of France and Duke of Normandy, brought
to my recollection pretensions of a similar nature made by a person who,
about twenty years ago, was resident in London; and was a teacher of
music, as I was informed. This person introduced himself to me, in a
French house of business, as the genuine Dauphin of France, the second
son of Louis XVI. In justice to the soi-disant Dauphin, I should state
that he did not bring forward his claims abruptly, but in the course of
a conversation held in his presence, relating to the claims of another
pretender to the same honours. The communicator of this important
intelligence of a new rival to the contested diadem, urged his claims
with so much plausibility, and pressed me so earnestly to pay him a
visit—seeing that I listened to his impassioned statement with decorous
patience and real interest—in order that he might explain the matter
more fully and at leisure—that I went to his house in the New Road,
where I saw him more than once. He told me that the woman, who had all
her life passed as his mother, informed him on her death-bed that he was
the Duke of Normandy, and had been confided to her charge and care; and
that she was told to make her escape with him by his true mother, Marie
Antoinette, when that unfortunate queen eluded the murderous pursuit of
her assailants in the furious attack made on the Tuileries on the 10th
of August, 1792. So impressed was I by the earnestness of the narrator,
and the air of truth thrown around his story—knowing also that some
doubts had been started as to the death of the Dauphin in the
Temple—that I offered, being then about to visit Edinburgh, which was
at that time the residence of the exiled monarch Charles X. and his
ill-starred family, to be the bearer to them of any memorial or other
document, which the claimant to the rights of Dauphin might wish to
submit to that illustrious body. A statement was accordingly drawn up,
and sent by me when in Edinburgh, not to Charles X., but to her royal
highness the Duchess of Angoulême; who immediately replied, requesting
an interview on my part with one of the noblemen or gentlemen of her
household, whom I met; and was informed by him from her royal highness,
that such communications exceedingly distressed her, in recalling a past
dreadful period of her life; for that there was no truth in them, and
that her brother, the Duke of Normandy, died in the Temple. With deep
and sincere protestations of regret at having been the cause of pain to
her royal highness, and made the unconscious dupe of either a knave or a
fool, instead of bringing forward an illustrious unknown to his due
place in history, I took my leave; and think this account ought to
scatter for ever to the winds all tales, in esse or posse, of
pretended Dauphins of France and Dukes of Normandy.
I should mention, that in my interview with the soi-disant Dauphin, he
showed me various portraits of Louis XVI., and then bade me look at his
own features, in every attitude and form, and say if the likeness was
not most striking and remarkable. I could not deny it; and in truth was
so impressed with his whole account, that I began to look upon the
humble individual before me with something of the reverence due to
majesty, shorn of its glories.
J. M.
P.S.—I now recollect that the name of this pretended Dauphin was Mevis,
and that he was said to have been seen in Regent Street by a friend of
mine about five years ago; and may, for aught I know, be still living.
Oxford, Sept. 2.
Visiting Cards (Vol. iv., p. 133.).—In answer to your 87th Query, it
may serve in part to help to show "when visiting cards first came into
use," by informing you that about six or eight years ago a house in Dean
Street, Soho, was repaired (I think No. 79.), where Allison and Co., the
pianoforte makers, now of the Quadrant, formerly resided; and, on
removing a marble chimney-piece in the front drawing-room, four or five
visiting cards were found, one with the name of
"Isaac Newton" on
it. The names were all written on the back of common playing cards;
and it is not improbable that one or more may still be in the possession
of Mr. Allison, 65. Quadrant. The house in Dean Street was the residence
of either Hogarth or his father-in-law.
A. MITE.
—I beg to refer such of your
readers as take an interest in the discussion of "Sardonic Smiles" to a
treatise or memoir on the subject, by a learned scholar and antiquary in
the St. Petersburgh Transactions for 1851. The title of the memoir is as
follows: Die Talos-Sage und das Sardonische Lachen. Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte Griechischer Sage und Kunst, von Ludwig Mercklin. The memoir
is also printed separately, from the Mémoires des Savants Etrangers.
J. M.
Oxford, August 4.
—As no one has answered your
correspondent by referring him to a copy of this ballad, I have great
pleasure in calling his attention to A Collection of Songs, Moral,
Sentimental, Instructive, and Amusing, 4to. Cambridge, 1805. At p. 152.
of this volume, the "pleasant old ditty" of "Darby and Joan" is given at
length, accompanied with the music. The editor, the Rev. James Plumptre,
M.A., tells us that it is "attributed to Matthew Prior." As this book is
somewhat difficult to procure, your correspondent is welcome to the loan
of my copy.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
—In reference to the
inquiry of your correspondent A. B. C., for any instances of bishops and
priests who, during the first three centuries, were married after
ordination, I may suggest that the Council of Nice in 325 declared it to
be then "an ancient tradition of the Church that they who were
unmarried when promoted to holy orders should not afterwards
marry."—Socrates, Hist. Eccl., lib. i. cap. ii.; Sozomen, Hist.
Eccl., lib. i. c. xxiii.
May not the proper translation in the text which he quotes, 1 Cor. ix.
5., be "woman," instead of "wife;" and might not the passage be more
accurately rendered by the expression "sister-woman?" Clemens
Alexandrinus says (Stromat., lib. iii. edit. Poterii, Venet. 1757,
tom. i. p. 526.): "Not as wives but as sisters did the women go round
with the apostles:" and see also Matt. xxvii. 55., Mark xv. 41., and
Luke viii. 3.
DORFSNAIG.
—LORD BRAYBROOKE has furnished your
readers with a very curious list of the various printed forms in which,
at different times, this popular song has been given to the world; but
he has omitted one which I think ought to be placed on record. I allude
to a copy contained in the third number of The Foundling Hospital for
Wit, a rare miscellany of "curious pieces," printed for W. Webb, near
St. Paul's, 8vo. 1746 (p. 23.). This work was printed in numbers, at
intervals, the first bearing date 1743; and the sixth, and last, 1749.
My copy is particularly interesting as having the blank names filled up
in a cotemporary hand, and the authors' names, in many cases, added. The
song of Winifreda is assigned to "Mr. G. A. Stevens;" so that, after
all, the Edinburgh reviewer may have confounded George Steevens, the
"commentator," with his earlier and equally facetious namesake, George
Alexander.
George Alexander Stevens was born (if a MS. obituary in my possession
may be relied on) "in the parish of St. Andrew's Holborn, 1710." He died
(according to the Biographia Dramatica) "at Baldock in Hertfordshire,
Sept. 6, 1784."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
—The printed books and MSS. of the
late George Chalmers were disposed of by auction in 1841 and 1842 by Mr.
Evans of Pall Mall. The particular MS. inquired after by J. O. occurs in
the third part of the printed sale catalogue, and is numbered 1891. It
is thus described by Mr. Evans:
"CHALMERS'S BIBLIOGRAPHIA SCOTICA POETICA, or
NOTICES OF SCOTTISH POETS AND THEIR WORKS, from 1286 to 1806, 4 vols. Chalmers's Notices of the
Scottish Poetry, Drama, and Songs, 2 vols., together 6 vols.
*** These
Volumes contain a great fund of Information,
and furnish very valuable Materials for a History of Scotch
Poetry. They would also be very useful to Collectors."
Lot 1894. is also highly interesting. It is described as—
"RITSON'S BIBLIOGRAPHIA SCOTICA, 2 vols. Unpublished.
*** A very
Valuable Account of Scottish Poets and
Historians, drawn up with great care and indefatigable Research
by Ritson. The Work was intended for Publication. These Volumes
were purchased at the sale of Ritson's Library by Messrs. Longman
and Constable for Forty-three Guineas, and presented to George
Chalmers, Esq., who had edited Sir D. Lyndsay's Works for them
gratuitously."
My catalogue of Chalmers's library, unfortunately, has not the prices or
purchasers' names; and the firm of the Messrs. Evans being no longer in
existence, I have no means of ascertaining the present locality of the
above-mentioned MSS.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
—W. FRASER is
quite right in repudiating the cockney error of "Queen, Lords, and
Commons" forming the "three estates of the realm." The sovereign is
over the "realm;" a word which obviously designates the persons
ruled. W. F.
however does not exactly hit the mark when he
infers, that "the Lords, the Clergy in convocation, and the Commons"
are the "three estates." The phrase "assembled in Parliament" has no
application to the Convocation; which moreover does not sit at
Westminster, and was not exposed to the peril of the gunpowder plot. The
three estates of the realm are the three orders (états) into which all
natural-born subjects are legally divided: viz. the clergy, the
nobility, and the commonalty. They are represented "in Parliament"
by the "Lords Spiritual," the "Lords Temporal," and the "Commons"
(elected by their fellows). The three estates thus meet their sovereign
in the "chamber of Parliament" at the opening of every session; and
there it was that the plot was laid for their destruction.
W. F. is no doubt aware that originally they all deliberated also
together, and in the presence of the sovereign or his commissioners: and
though, for the freedom of discussion, the sovereign now withdraws, and
the Commons deliberate in a separate chamber (leaving the chamber of
Parliament to be used as "the House of Lords," both Spiritual and
Temporal), yet to this day they all reassemble for the formal passing
of every act; and the authority of all three is recited by their proper
names in the preamble.
The first and second estates are not fused into one, simply because they
continue to deliberate and vote together as all three did at the first.
The Convocation of the Clergy was altogether a different institution,
which never met either the sovereign or the Parliament: but their order
was represented in the latter by the prelates. It is another mistake
(therefore) to think the Bishops sit in the House of Lords as Barons.
CANONICUS EBORACENSIS.
—When I was a boy,
about sixty-five years ago, Mr. Holder (a surgeon of some eminence at
that time) was a frequent visitor at our house, and much amused us by
several catches in which (under his instruction) we delighted to join;
and among which was—
"I friend, drink to thee, friend, as my friend drank to me;
I friend, charge thee, friend, as my friend chargēd me;
Sŏ dŏ thou, friend, drĭnk tŏ thy friend, as my friend drank to me,
For the more we drink liquor the merrier are we."
R. S. S.
56. Fenchurch Street.
—Broad halpeny, or broad
halfpenny, signifies to be quit of a certain custom exacted for setting
up tables or boards in fairs or markets; and those that were freed by
the King's charter of this custom, had this word put in their
letters-patent: by reason whereof, the freedom itself (for brevity of
speech) is called broad halfpenny. (Les Termes de la Ley.) Hence the
origin of "Broad-halfpenny Down."
FRANCISCUS.
Whence the name I cannot say, but would just note the fact, that sixteen
miles from London, on the Brighton railway, is a breezy upland called
Farthing Down. The country folk deem it a sufficiently famous place,
and one told me "that was once London;" meaning, a town stood there
before London was built. It is a locality well known to those who hunt
with the Croydon pack.
P. M. M.
—Is it true that the following
rhymes apply to one of the Horners of Mells?
"Little Jack Horner
Sat in a corner,
Eating a Christmas pie,
He put in his thumb,
And pulled out a plum,
And said what a good boy am I."
The plum being 100,000l. I have been told a long story on the matter
by Somersetshire people.
P. M. M.
—The lines so felicitously quoted
by Mr. Serjeant Byles at a recent trial were thus given in The Times:
"The man of law who never saw
The way to buy and sell,
Wishing to rise by merchandise,
Shall never speed him well."
This version is rather nearer the original than that of your
correspondent MR. KING, who avowedly writes from memory. The author of
the lines was Sir Thomas More. They are thus given in "A Mery Jest how
a Sergeant would learn to play the Freere. Written by Maister Thomas
More in hys youth:"
"A man of lawe that never sawe
The wayes to bye and sell,
Wenyng to ryse by marchaundyse,
I praye God spede hym well!"
My quotation is at second-hand from Warton's History of English
Poetry, sect. xliii.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, August 30. 1851.
[We are also indebted to T. LAWRENCE and BARTANUS for replying to
this Query. The latter adds, "The poem is given at length in the
History of the English Language prefixed to the 4to. edition of
Johnson's Dictionary."]
—The riddle (query rebus?) for the
solution of which your correspondent A. W. H. inquires, may be found
printed in vol. i. pp. 109, 110. of the poems of Dr. Byrom, well known
as the author of the "Pastoral," inserted with much commendation by
Addison in
the 8th volume of the Spectator, and the supposed
inventor of the universal English short-hand. The author of the rebus
seems to have been then unknown (1765), and it is said to have been
"commonly ascribed to Lord Chesterfield." Whether this was asserted in
jest, does not appear: but Dr. Byrom, to whom application for a solution
had been made, in the course of his reply, given in his own peculiar
style, has the following passage, which may be a guide to those who may
now seek to arrive at the mystery:—
"Made for excuse, you see, upon the whole,
The too great number of words, that poll
For correspondency to ev'ry line;
And make the meant one tedious to divine:
But we suspect that other points ambiguous,
And eke unfair, contribute to fatigue us.
For first, with due submission to our betters;
What antient city would have eighteen letters?
Or more?—for, in the latter lines, the clue
May have one correspondent word or two:
Clue should have said, if only one occurr'd,
Not correspondent words to each, but word.
From some suspicions of a bite, we guess
The number of the letters to be less;
And, from expression of a certain cast,
Some joke, unequal to the pains at last:
Could you have said that all was right and clever,
We should have try'd more fortunate endeavour.
It should contain, should this same JEU DE MOTS,
Clean-pointed turn, short, fair, and >A PROPOS;
Wit without straining; neatness without starch;
Hinted, tho' hid; and decent, tho' tis arch;
No vile idea should disgrace a rebus—
SIC DICUNT MUSÆ, SIC EDICIT PHŒBUS."
T.W. (1)
[We are also indebted to R. P. for a similar Reply.]
—As L. M. M. R. is not
certain as to the title and author of the book he inquires about,
perhaps he may find it under the title of The Semi-sceptic, or the
Common Sense of Religion considered, by the Rev. J. T. James, M.A.;
London, 1825. This is a very unpretending but very beautiful work, of
some 400 pages. The author died Bishop of Calcutta.
O. T. DOBBIN.
—In answer to EMUN, allow me to name a
Life of St. Paul by the Rev. Dr. Addington, an eminent dissenting
minister of the close of the last century; a work on the life and
epistles of St. Paul by Mr. Bevan, a member of the Society of Friends;
and two books by Fletcher and Hannah More on the character of the same
apostle.
O. T. D.
—I
can give no information respecting the commission of July 27, 1733; but
on June 2, 8 GEO. II. [1735], a commission issued to Sir William
Joliffe, Knt., William Bunbury, Simon Aris, Thomas Brown, Thomas De
Veil, Esquires, and others, for inquiring into the officers of the Court
of Exchequer, and their fees, "and for the other purposes therein
mentioned." I imagine this commission also extended to other courts. The
names of the jurors impannelled and sworn as to the Court of Exchequer,
July 9, 1735; their oath, presentment, and six schedules of fees, are
given in Jones's Index to the Originalia and Memoranda Records
(London, fo. 1793), vol, i. Preface, xxxiii.-xliv.
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge.
—I can enumerate
several old names, some Anglo-Saxon, in the parishes of Burghfield and
Tylchurst, in Berks, belonging to the peasantry, many of whom may have
been gentry in bygone years; such as Osborne, Osman, Seward, Wolford,
Goddard, Woodward, Redbourne, Lambourne, Englefield, Gower, Harding,
Hussey, Coventry, Avery, Stacy, Ilsley, Hamlin, Pigot, Hemans, Eamer,
and Powel. A respectable yeoman's widow, whose maiden name was
Wentworth, told me she was of the same family as Sir Thomas Wentworth,
Earl of Strafford, beheaded in Charles's reign.
JULIA R. BOCKETT.
Southcote Lodge.
—The meaning of this word is undoubtedly
as D. X. surmises. The original term was upholder, which is still in
occasional use; next upholster; and, thirdly, upholsterer. In
Stowe's Survey of London, it appears in the second form: and so also
poulter, which still exists as a surname. "Mr. Richard Deakes,
Uphoulster," was buried at St. Dunstan's in the West, London, in 1630.
(Collectanea Topog. et Geneal., v. 378.) It would be worth inquiry
when the incorrect duplication of termination first produced our
modern words upholsterer and poulterer? Mr. Pegge remarks, that
"Fruiterer seems to be equally redundant;" and that "cater-er is
written cater in the margin of the Life of Gusmand de Alfarache,
folio edition, 1622, p. 125. (Anecdotes of the English Language, edit.
Christmas, 1844, p. 79.)"
J. G. N.
—Your correspondent. F. W.
J., before he receives an answer to his Query, "When did the judges lose
the title of Reverend and Very Reverend?" must first show that they ever
bore it. By the example he quotes he might as well argue that they bore
the title of "Très Sages," as that of "Très Reverend." The fact is,
that, as a title, it was never used by them, the words quoted being
nothing more than respectful epithets applied to eminent men of a past
age, by the editors or publishers of the work.
I very much doubt also whether the style of "The Honorable" is properly
given to the judges.
It would be curious to trace the commencement of the practice of
addressing a judge on the bench as "My Lord." In the Year Books are
numerous instances of his being addressed simply "Syr." Off the bench
the chief alone is entitled to the designation "My Lord," and that
address can be properly given to the puisne judges only when they are on
the circuit, and then because they are acting under a special royal
commission.
EDW. FOSS.
—In the ancient ritual of
marriage, the ring was placed by the husband on the top of the thumb of
the left hand, with the words "In the name of the Father;" he then
removed it to the forefinger, saying, "and of the Son;" then to the
middle finger, adding, "and of the Holy Ghost;" finally, he left it as
now, on the fourth finger, with the closing word "Amen."
R. S. H.
Morwenstow.