Notes and Queries Vol. V., No. 127, Saturday, April 3, 1852

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

The Rev. J. Sanford has authorised me to place the following letter in your hands, in order that you may print it in "N. & Q." should it appear to be of sufficient interest.

BRAYBROOKE.

"I send you an account of the very memorable scene which occurred at Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room on the 13th of March, 1803. I believe I am the only living witness, as those who were near the person of Lord Whitworth were members of the corps diplomatique, Cobenzel, Marcoff, Lucchesini, all dead. Many years after I became intimately acquainted with the Marchese Lucchesini at Florence, when I had an opportunity of referring to that remarkable conversation.

"It was announced that Madame Bonaparte was to receive on the following Sunday, and it was reported that she was to have maids of honour for the first time; a little curiosity was excited on this score. The apartment of Madame B. was on the opposite side of the Tuilleries in which Bonaparte held his levees. I was acquainted with Lord Whitworth, who told me to place myself near to him, in order to afford facility for presentation, as Madame B. would occupy an arm-chair to which he pointed, and on each side of which were two tabourets. As all foreigners had been presented to General B. at his levee, his presence was not expected. The rooms, two in number, were not very large; the ladies were seated round the rooms in arm-chairs: a passage was left, I suppose, for Madame B. to pass without obstacle. When the door of the adjoining room was opened, instead of Madame B. the First Consul entered; and as Lord Whitworth was the first ambassador he encountered, he addressed him by enquiring about the Duchess of Dorset's health, she being absent from a cold. He then observed that we had had fifteen years' war; Lord W. smiled very courteously, and said it was fifteen years too much. We shall probably, replied General B., have fifteen years more: and if so, England will have to answer for it to all Europe, and to God and man. He then enquired where the armaments in Holland were going on, for he knew of none. Then for a moment he quitted Lord W. and passed all the ladies' addressing Mrs. Greathead only, though the Duchess of Gordon and her daughter, Lady Georgina, were present. After speaking to several officers in the centre of the room, which was crowded, he returned to Lord W. and asked why Malta was not given up. Lord W. then looked more serious, and said he had no doubt that Malta would be given up when the other articles of the treaty were complied with. General B. then left the room, and Madame B. immediately entered. As soon as the drawing-room was over, I observed to Lord W. that it was the first cabinet council I had ever witnessed; he laughingly answered, by far the most numerously attended. Lord W. then addressed the American Minister, who was very deaf, and repeated what had passed, and I perceived that he was very much offended at what had occurred. In justice to the First Consul, I must say that the impropriety consisted in the unfitness of the place for such a subject; the tone of his voice was not raised, as was said at the time. He spoke in the same tone as when he enquired for the Duchess of Dorset."

I have two Queries to propose; but before I can do so effectually, it is necessary to enter into an explanation and statement of facts, which may be considered as Notes conveying information which will, I anticipate, prove new and interesting to many readers of "N. & Q."

On the 2nd of September, 1644, Archbishop Laud, then a man of more than threescore years and ten, but still with intellect vigorous, active, and unimpaired by age or trouble, appeared at the bar of the House of Lords, to recapitulate in one address the various points of his defence, which had been made at intervals during the six months previous, as the trial had gone on, from time to time, since the 12th of the preceding March. On coming to the bar, he was for the moment staggered by seeing, in the hands of each of his judges, a blue book, containing, as he had just learnt, great part of his own most secret memoranda and most private thoughts, extracted by the bitterest of his opponents out of his Diary and MS. book of devotions. This was Prynne's Breviate of the Life of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; extracted (for the most part) verbatim out of his own Diary, and other writings, under his own hand.

"So soon as I came to the bar," (this is his own account,) "I saw every Lord present with a new thin book in folio, in a blue coat. I heard that morning that Mr. Pryn had printed my Diary, and published it to the world, to disgrace me. Some notes of his own are made upon it. The first and the last are two desperate untruths, beside some others. This was the book then in the Lords' hands, and I assure myself, that time picked for it, that the sight of it might damp me, and disinable me to speak. I confess I was a little troubled at it. But after I had gathered up myself, and looked up to God, I went on to the business of the day, and thus I spake."

History of Troubles and Trial, c. xlii. pp. 411, 412.

In his defence he turned this circumstance, and the use previously made of his Diary and Devotions during the course of his trial, very happily to account. After speaking of the means which had been used to frame the charges against him, how he had been "sifted to the very bran," he says:

"My very pockets searched; and my Diary, nay, my very Prayer Book taken from me, and after used against me; and that, in some cases, not to prove, but to make a charge. Yet I am thus far glad, even for this sad accident. For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the passages of my life; and by my Prayer Book, the greatest secrets between God and my soul: so that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom. Yet, blessed be God, no disloyalty is found in the one; no Popery in the other."

Ibid. c. xliii. p. 413.

The recapitulation over, the Archbishop was remanded to the Tower, and prosecuted the work on which he had been long engaged, The History of his Troubles and Tryal: intending, when that was finished, to publish a reply to this Breviate. His words are:

"For this Breviate of his, if God lend me life and strength to end this (the History) first, I shall discover to the world the base and malitious slanders with which it is fraught."

Ibid. c. xx. p. 254.

His life was not spared to do more than carry on that History to the day preceding the passing of the bill of attainder by the Lords, three months after the publication of the Breviate. Thus it ends:

"And thus far had I proceeded in this sad history by Jan. 3, 1644-45. The rest shall follow as it comes to my knowledge."

Ibid. c. xlvi. p. 443.

Wharton adds this note:

"Next day the Archbishop, receiving the news that the bill of attainder had passed the House of Lords, broke off his history, and prepared himself for death."

He was beheaded the 10th day of the same month, January 1645.

The information I have to communicate, after this long preface, is, that a copy of this book of Prynne's, with marginal notes by the Archbishop, made apparently in preparation for the answer which he contemplated, is still extant; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who can give any further information on the subject.

In this copy the notes are only a transcript from those made by the Archbishop; and partly, perhaps, owing to the narrow margin of Prynne's book, we have to regret that they are not more ] copious; but, such they are, they are of value, as throwing new light on some points of history; and they appear not to have been known to any of the biographers of Laud, or to those who, as Archbishop Sancroft and Wharton, sought most carefully after his literary remains.

The volume of which I speak is the property of an Institution at Warrington, "The Warrington Museum and Library," to which it was presented by Mr. Crosfield, of Fir Grove, Latchford, at the time of the library being established, in 1848, having been bought by his father at a book-stall in Manchester some years previously.

A transcript of the notes is now before me; which the Committee of the Museum have, with great liberality, allowed to be made for the edition of the Archbishop's works now publishing in The Anglo-Catholic Library. The readiness which they have shown to impart the benefit of their collection, and the kindness with which the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Marsh, has given a full and accurate account of the MS. information, and himself transcribed the notes, deserve the most public acknowledgment.

That the notes in this volume are not written by the Archbishop is proved decisively, not only by the handwriting, but by the following note on Prynne's translation of the Diary, at p. 9. last line,—"I, whiles others were absent, held the cup to him," on which the following is the note:—

"In yt Breviate in which ye Archbp. has made [his notes], 'tis printed city, and in this place he has [written] 'In my diary 'tis calicem. Note that....'"

Owing to the edge of the paper being worn, some parts of the note are lost; they have been conjecturally filled up by the words in brackets.

On the title-page is written, in a hand cotemporary with the transcript:

"Memorand. Mr. Prynn presented this worke of his to the Lds. Sep. 2nd, 1644, ye same day that ye poor Archbp. was to make his recapitulation, divers Lords holding it in their hands all the while, &c."

And beneath this, apparently in the same hand, is written:

"This I suppose was written by Mr. Dell, secretary to Archbp."

It is inferred that this memorandum had been made by Mr. Dell on the Archbishop's copy, and transcribed together with the notes.

Now the Queries I have to make are these three:

1. Whether any copies of Prynne's Breviate are extant, having, in the last line of the ninth page cited above, the misprint city for cup?[1]

2. Whether any information can be given which may lead to the discovery of the copy containing the original notes of the Archbishop, of which the Warrington copy is a transcript?

3. Whether any allusion to the fact of the Archbishop having made such notes is made by any cotemporary writer? Antony Wood, Wharton, and Heylin do not mention it.

In respect to the second Query, I presume to ask every one who has access to a copy of Prynne's Breviate to look into it, and see whether it contains MS. marginal notes. I do so, because in so many cases copies of works stand in their places in libraries unopened, and with contents unknown; the knowledge of their special value having perhaps been possessed by some curious collector or librarian, but not being noted down, having died with him: and the owner of the volume, should it be found, will receive his reward in the consciousness of possessing a treasure, such as it is, which before he knew not of—some of the last writing of a great man, imprisoned and anticipating death, who was engaged in vindicating himself from misrepresentation and calumnies, part of which had adhered to his memory till these notes came to light.

For the identification of that volume, should it be found, and for the information of your readers, I will transcribe the first paragraph of the Breviate, with the Archbishop's marginalia:

"Hee was borne at Redding in Barkshire, October 7, 1573, of poore (a) and obscure (b) parents, in a cottage (c), just over against the (d) Cage: which Cage since his comming to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury, upon complaint of Master Elveston (that it was a dishonour the Cage should be suffered to stand so neare the house, where so great a royall Favourite and Prelate had his birth) was removed to some other place; and the cottage (e) pulled downe, and new-built by the Bishop."

(a) "All this, if true, is no fault of mine."

(b) "My father had born all offices in ye town save ye mayoralty."

(c) "The howsing whch my father dwelt in is rented at this day at thirty-three pounds a year."

(d) "The Cage stood two streets off from my father's house all his life time, and divers years after, as many yet living know. By whom it was remov'd into yt street, and why out again, I know not."

(e) "No one stick of ye cottage was pulled down by me."

The passage which concludes the notes on p. 35. is unfortunately maimed by the wearing away of the edges of the leaves; it is as follows:—

... "And as I hope for comfort in my Saviour this is true ... uncharitable conclusion, my life is in ye hands of God ... blessed be His name. But let not Mr. Pryn call for Blood...."

It should be added that the volume has been formerly in the hands of some one who took an interest in the Archbishop's history, as a few notes in a handwriting of the last century are inserted on slips in various parts of the volume, chiefly passages from the Diary "maliciously omitted by Prynne."

The writer of this notice has not the means of identifying the hand by which these more recent notes, or the transcript of those of the Archbishop, were written; but will take this occasion of suggesting what has often appeared to him a great desideratum in literature—that is, a collection of fac-similes of the autographs of distinguished people, whether literary or public characters; not merely their signatures, which are found in existing collections of autography, but passages sufficiently long to aid in identifying their ordinary writing, and, if possible, taken from writing made at different periods of their lives. With the improvements of mechanical skill which we enjoy, such works might be afforded at a much cheaper rate than formerly, and would, it is conceived, command a remunerating sale.

It remains only to add, that information on the points about which inquiry is made may be communicated through the medium of the "N. & Q.," or by letter to the Rev. James Bliss, Ogborne St. Andrew, near Marlborough, who is engaged in editing the works of Archbishop Laud; and who would be glad to receive any information with respect to unpublished letters or papers of the Archbishop.

C. R. O.

[1] [It is clear there have been two editions of Prynne's Breviate, both printed in the year 1644. The copy in the King's Library, at the British Museum, contains the misprinted word city, but is corrected in the Errata, at the bottom of p. 35.; whereas the copy in the Grenville Library has it correctly printed cup, and the list of Errata is omitted.—ED.]

I send you two versions of the epitaph on Voltaire given in Vol. iv., p. 73., not for their intrinsic merit, but as illustrations of a curious physiological trait, as to the nature and power, or powerlessness, of memory:

Version No. 1.:

Version No. 2.:

These are not offered as competing in excellence, for they are both the productions of the same mind, but for the purpose of recording the following remarkable fact respecting their composition. No. 2. was written down immediately on reading your Number in July last (1851); having composed it, I took from my library shelf Lord Brougham's Life of Voltaire, in which I knew the lines were, for the purpose of pencilling in my rendering of them. You may conceive my surprise at finding already there the version No. 1. with the date 1848, which I had made in that year, but of which I had so totally lost all remembrance, that not a single turn of thought or expression in one resembles the other. I perfectly remember the mental process of hammering out No. 2., and can confidently affirm that, during the time, no recollection whatever of No. 1., or anything about it, ever crossed my thought. I fear such a total obliteration is a token of failure in a faculty once powerful and accurate, but, perhaps, unduly tasked; yet I offer it to be recorded as a singular fact connected with this wonderful function of mind.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

When I was a good little boy, I was a favourite visitor to an old maiden lady, whose memory retained such a store of old ballads and folk-lore as would be a treasure to many a reader of "N. & Q." were she still living and able to communicate. One ballad, parts of which, as well as the tune, still haunt my memory, I have tried to recover in its integrity but in vain; and of all the little wearers of frocks and pinafores, who had the privilege of occasionally assembling round the dear old lady's tea-table, and for whose amusement she was wont to sing it, I fear I am the sole survivor. The associations connected with this song may perhaps have invested it with an undue degree of interest to me, but I think it sufficiently curious to desire to insert as much as I can remember of it in "N. & Q." in the hope that some of your correspondents may be able to supply the deficiencies. I wish I could at the same time convey an idea of the air. It began in a slow quaint strain, with these words:—

For the next two verses I am at fault, but their purport was that the body "stopped hard by a miller's mill," and that this "miller chanced to come by," and took it out of the water "to make a melodye."

My venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and the time quicker; but I can only recollect a few of the couplets, and those not correctly, nor in order of sequence, in which the transformation of the lady into a viol is described:

G. A. C.

—Can any of your readers inform me where the following anecdote is recorded? It bears the mark of authenticity, and if so adds, to the extraordinary gifts of the great moralist, that of prophecy; be it observed, however, that the prognostication is founded on a deduction of science. As the Doctor was one evening leaning out of the window of his house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, he observed the parish lamplighter nimbly ascend a ladder for the purpose of lighting one of the old glimmering oil lamps which only served to make "darkness visible." The man had scarcely descended the ladder half way, when he discovered that the flame had expired; quickly returning he lifted the cover partially, and thrusting the end of his torch beneath it, the flame was instantly communicated to the wick by the thick vapour which issued from it.

"Ah!" exclaimed the Doctor, after a pause, and giving utterance to his thoughts, "Ah! one of these days the streets of London will be lighted by smoke!" It is needless to add that in the succeeding century the prediction was verified.

M. W. B.

—Without becoming "a piddler in minute plagiarisms" (as Gifford called Warton), I think the following coincidence worth noting. S. T. Coleridge, in his "Lines on an Autumnal Evening," has these lines:

Plato had written ("To Stella," in Anthol. Palat.):

I cannot withhold Shelley's exquisite version:

Dr. Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta contains several versions of Plato's lines. There is also one by Swynfen Jervis, in Lewis's Biographical History of Philosophy, s. v. Plato.

C. P. PH***.

The above epitaph is curious; but what is the meaning of the letters "S. R. Q. P.?"

NEDLAM.

—Stillingfleet, referring to a MS. author, who wrote a chronicle of St. Augustine's, says:

"He observes one particular custom of the Normans, that they were wont to put some of the hair of their heads or beards into the wax of their seals: I suppose rather to be kept as monuments than as adding any strength or weight to their charters. So he observes, that some of the hair of William, Earl of Warren, was in his time kept in the Priory of Lewis."

Orig. Brit., chap. I., Works, Lond. 1710, tom. iii. p. 13.

J. SANSOM.

—The meaning of this word, according both to its etymology and its usage in the Latin authors, is quite clear; it is to "turn out of doors." Figuratively, it has been used by mathematicians to denote the process by which all incidental matters are gradually thrown out of an equation to be solved, &c., so that only its essential conditions at last remain. Of late, however, I have observed it used not of the act of elimination, but of the result; a sense quite foreign to its true meaning, and producing great ambiguity. Thus, in a recent Discourse, the object of biblical exegesis is declared to be "the elimination of the statements of the Bible respecting doctrine;" the author evidently meaning, not what his words imply,—to get rid of the statements of the Bible,—though that has been sometimes the problem of exegesis, but to present the doctrinal result in a clear form, and detached from everything else.

A PRECISIAN.

In no way, perhaps, has "N. & Q." been so useful to the literary public as in making itself the ready means of concentrating on any given point the various readings of many persons; unless, indeed, it should be considered more useful to have proved how courteous, how willing to oblige—even at some personal sacrifices—men of reading are in this day and generation. The information recently sent from so many quarters in relation to General Wolfe is a good example of what may be done in other cases; that about Sterne in Paris is another. The latter instance suggests to me a way in which some of your correspondents, whose private communications I have had to acknowledge in reference to other inquiries, might do me a real service at no great inconvenience perhaps to themselves.

I am collecting materials for a volume on Algernon Sydney. A great part of this illustrious patriot's life was spent abroad; in many parts of the continent, France, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Germany, &c. This part of his history has been so far veiled in considerable obscurity, and incidents of it misrepresented. Some better knowledge of it than we now possess, must be, I think, recoverable. A man of Sydney's birth, active temperament, and distinguished abilities, must have been spoken of in many letters and memoirs of that time. No doubt anecdotes and traits of character may be found in cotemporary French, Italian, German, and Scandinavian literature.

But with a library so vast to examine, no single man could ever feel sure that nothing was overlooked. Other explorers, working for themselves, may have hit upon statements or anecdotes of the greatest value to me. May I ask any such to oblige me by references to any works in which the information that I seek is to be found; sent either to "N. & Q.," or to my address as under?

HEPWORTH DIXON.

84. St. John's Wood Terrace.

A black-letter duodecimo, printed in London in 1584, under the anomalous title of Beware the Cat, was advertised for sale in one of Thorpe's Catalogues a few years back, at a price of seven guineas. The copy was believed to be unique; it had been in the libraries of several book collectors, and among others of Mr. Heber, who considered it the most curious volume illustrative of the times, in all his vast collection. It appears, by the short abstract of contents, that the book contains some curious notices of Ireland and Irishmen; an "account" is given "of the civil wars in Ireland, by Mackmorro, and all the rest of the wild Irish lords." This hero was probably Art Kavanagh, "the Mac-Morrogh" (the hereditary title of the chief of the Leinster septs) whose rebellions were, on two occasions, the cause of Richard II.'s two great expeditions to Ireland. Then follows the tale of "Fitz-Harris and the Prior of Tintern Abbey." Fitz-Harris, or Fitz-Henry, was an Anglo-Irish baron, who resided in the south of the county of Wexford, in the neighbourhood of a convent, which having been founded by Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and supplied with monks from Tintern in Monmouthshire, was named after the parent monastery. The Fitz-Harris's are said to have descended from Meyler Fitz-Henry, the "indomitor totius gentis Hiberniæ," but they became, to quote Spenser's adage current of the Anglo-Irish of his day,

they "matched with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, and held with them," and thus became involved in the interminable feuds of the native tribes, and, like them, they left their estates to their bastards.

"The fashion of the Irish wars at that time" is there described, but probably not more graphically than in Derrick's quaint doggrel verses. "The Irish Churle's Tale" is next told; the churl was the husbandman, the "Protectionist" of the day, who doubtless could tell many piteous tales of oppression, rapine, and ravishment, whose only hope of protection lay in acting as a sort of sponge to some "wild lord" (who would guard him from being plundered by others, that he might himself devour his substance), and whose "tenant-right" cry of that day was "spend me, but defend me."

The volume affirms that "the wild Irishmen were better than we in reverencing their religion:" the verb is used in the preterimperfect tense. "The old Irish diet was to dine at night;" this is even a stranger assertion. Higden, in his Polychronicon, declares of the Irish clergy,

That glorious chanson à boire, commencing

must have been composed in Ireland. If the old black-letter book had said that the Irish got their dinner at night, it would have been nearer the truth, for the larders of the Milesian chiefs in the neighbourhood of the English pale were often supplied by the nocturnal marauds of their cattle-lifters. However, I see that Stanihurst writes that the Irish dined in winter before day, and in summer about the seventh hour.

Can any of your readers say in whose possession this book is now? I was informed that it was purchased by a dignitary of Cambridge University.

H. F. H.

Wexford.

The loan of the following works is much desired by a gentleman who has in vain tried to find them in the British Museum, or to purchase them. They belong to a class of books which being of little money-value are generally wasted by booksellers, rarely or never inserted in their catalogues:—

A Collection of Letters on Government, Liberty and the Constitution, which appeared from the time Lord Bute was appointed First Lord of the Treasury to the Death of Lord Egremont. 3 vols. [possibly 4], published in 1774 by Almon.

A Collection of esteemed Political Tracts, which appeared 1764, 5, and 6. 3 or 4 vols. published 1766 or 7, by Almon.

A Collection of most Interesting Political Letters which appeared in the Public Papers from 1763 to 1765. 3 or 4 vols. Almon, 1766.

The Briton (a Periodical). 1763.

The Auditor (a Periodical). 1763.

A Collection of all Remarkable and Personal Passages in the Briton, North Briton, and Auditor. Almon, 1765.

The Expostulation, a Poem. Bingley, 1768.

Vox Senatus. 1771.

Two Remarkable Letters of Junius and The Freeholder. 1770.

Junius's Letters. Wheble, 1771 (not 1772 or 1775).

Wilkes's Speeches. 3 vols.

The Editor of "N. & Q." has undertaken to take charge of them, and when done with to return them safely to their respective owners.

Q. N.

—Some twenty or thirty years since a gentleman named Abraham Roth resided in London, having in his possession a manuscript of the early part of the seventeenth century bearing the above title, and relating to the history and internal polity of the town of Kilkenny. It is frequently quoted by Dr. Ledwich in his Antiquities of Kilkenny and Irishtown. Mr. Roth subsequently deceased in London, and it is believed his books and other effects were sold there.

Qy. Is The Book of Nicholas Leigh known to any of the correspondents or readers of "N. & Q.?"

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny.

—It appears by a note of Park's in Warton's Poetry, vol. iii. p. 86. (ed. 1840), that Bishop Percy had in his possession a copy of Speght's Chaucer, in which was a note by Gabriel Harvey to the effect that some of Heywood's Epigrams were supposed to be "conceits and devices of pleasant Sir Thomas More." Is the copy of Speght in existence, and where? If it contain many notes by Harvey, they would probably prove to be worth recording.

PHILO CHAUCER.

—During the late visitation of cholera, observations were made tending to establish a relation between the state of the Electrometer and the quotidian fluctuations of the disease.

Where can any authentic account of these observations be found, and what is the name of the observer?

T. J.

—Can I be referred to any source of information respecting Isaac, mentioned in Domesday Book as holding lands in Norfolk of the gift of the Conqueror, and whether he had any descendants?

G. A. C.

—One of the earliest Queries kindly inserted in Vol. i., p. 92., requesting information regarding the legend and tradition of the tenor bell at Margate, being still unanswered, be pleased to append as a note the following lines from a descriptive poem called The Margate Guide, 1797, by the late Mr. Zechariah Cozens, an esteemed local antiquary, now buried within its sound:

"Note.—Concerning this bell the inhabitants repeat this traditionary rhyme:

E. D.

—Where did Mallet the poet die, and where was he buried?

F.

—I have been told that Grotius quoted from memory alone when writing his Commentary; is this possible, considering the number and variety of the quotations? One thing is certainly very remarkable, and goes some way towards favouring this notion, viz., in many of the quotations there are mistakes,—words are inserted, or rather substituted for others, but without destroying the sense. This I have frequently observed myself; but the observation applies only, as far as I know, to the poetical quotations;—may he not have quoted the poetry from memory, and, for the prose, had recourse to the original?

L. G.

—You have allowed some discussion in your pages on what I consider the certainly incorrect translation of Heb. xiii. 4. in our authorised version. I do not think it at all desirable to encourage a captious spirit of fault-finding towards that admirable translation, but fair criticism is assuredly allowable. Can any of your correspondents account for the rendering in Heb. x. 23. of τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος  by "the profession of our faith?"

I have never seen any reply to a former Query of mine (Vol. ii., p. 217.) about the omission of the word "holy" in the article on the Church in the Nicene Creed in all our Prayer-books. It is not omitted in the original Greek and Latin.

J. M. W.

—Would you, or one of your correspondents, kindly inform me how the following case has been settled; it is one which in all probability has often arisen, but I have not yet been able to learn anything about it that is satisfactory.

In old times when a church became too small for the parish, the ordinary custom was to build an additional part to it in such a way that the old church, after the alteration, formed an aisle to the new part, which henceforth because the nave. Until the Reformation the altar in the old chancel would probably remain after the new chancel was built, and be used as an inferior altar, while the new altar would be used for high mass; under these circumstances the rector's right in the chancel would probably remain untouched, and his obligation to keep it in repair undisputed. But when, at the Reformation, all but high altars were taken away, which chancel was accounted the rector's, the new, or the old, or both? This question has just arisen in an adjoining county.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

—Can any of your correspondents inform us whether the Queen is really Duchess of Lancaster? The Lancastrians have always rather prided themselves on that circumstance, but some wise person has lately made the discovery that William III. never created himself Duke of Lancaster, nor any of the Hanoverian dynasty, and that consequently the title remains with the Stuarts, although the duchy privileges belong to the Crown. Is this really the truth?

A LANCASTRIAN.

—Strype, in his Life of Sir John Cheke, mentions that among other presents bestowed on him by the king, was his own clock, which after his death came into the possession of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, who, about 1563, gave it as a new year's gift to Cecil the Secretary. Can any of your readers give a description of this clock, or what became of it after coming into Cecil's possession?

C. B. T.

—In a pedigree by Vincent in the College of Arms, two sons of Patrick Ruthven are to be found, the first called Cames de Gowrie, the second Robert Ruthven; they were alive in 1660. Can any of your correspondents tell me what became of them?

S. C.

—Will some kind correspondent favour me with an elucidation of the phrase "Man in the Almanack," which occurs in the following quotation from the epilogue to Nat. Lee's Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Cæsar?

Has this any reference to the practice of "pricking for fortunes?"

HENRY CAMPKIN.

—What is the origin of this name? It might have been the family name of the patriarch Noah, but I suppose it hardly goes so far back.

M.

—Is there in existence any law rendering burial in consecrated ground compulsory? Most people have a strong desire to receive such interment; but some few might prefer to have their mortal remains deposited in some loved spot, far away from other graves,—in a scene where many happy hours had been passed. It would be a very unusual thing; but supposing such a desire to exist, could its execution be prevented? It is recorded that Manasseh, King of Judah, "slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the gardens of Uzza."—2 Kings xxi. 18.

SAMPSON ANRAMENII.

—If this gentleman correctly states (in his Lavengro) that a minister of the Antinomians, with whom he was formerly acquainted, was otherwise called a Muggletonian, the inconceivable fact of that wretched maniac of the seventeenth century (whose portrait indicates the most hopeless fatuity) still having believers, must be a fact. But I marvel how Antinomianism should arise out of the teaching of an Unitarian, as Muggleton was. Can Mr. B. have confounded Muggleton with Huntington?

A. N.

—Can any of your readers inform me why "custard" was held in such abomination by the Puritans?—See Ken's Life, by W. L. Bowles, vol. i. p. 143.

W. N.

—To what source is the well-known saying, "Corruptio optimi fit pessima," to be traced?

Hs.

—The enigma of Miss Catherine Fanshawe on the letter "H" is so good, as to make me wish much to see the other by the same lady, to which E. H. Y. refers in your Number of Vol. v., p. 258. If E. H. Y. could procure a copy, and send it to you for publication, he would probably oblige many besides

E. S. S. W.

Winton.

—Is there any good account (not scattered notices) of Mary Ambree?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

—I find in one of the usual history books in use that Sir William Stanley, who was beheaded for high treason, for saying "If Perkin Wabbeck is son of Edward IV., I will supply him with five hundred men," was executed in the third year of Henry VII. Now, in a memorandum of the time in a Horæ B. Virg. in my possession, it states:

"Memorandum: Quod die lune xvio die Februarii anno Regis Henrici Septimi Decimo Willius Stanley, Miles, Camerarius regis prædicti receptus fuit apud Turrim London, et ductus usque scaffold et ibidem fuit decapitatus. Johannes Warner et Nicholas Allwyn tunc vic. London."

Could you help me to the true account?

JOHN C. JACKSON.

Cross House, Ilminster, Somerset.

[The memorandum in the Horæ agrees with the date given in Fabyan's Chronicle, p. 685., edit. 1811, viz. February 16, 1495. Fuller, in his Worthies, also states that Allwyn and Warner were sheriffs of London in the tenth year of Henry VII.]

—In the appointment of a pinder for the town of Hunstanton, Norfolk, dated 1644, these two words occur: "No person shall feed any mires with any beast," &c. Mire is clearly the same as meer, i.e. the strip of unploughed ground bounding adjacent fields. "None shall tye any of their cattle upon anothers somerlayes without leave of the owner," &c. I suppose somerlaye to be the same as somerland, explained by Halliwell to mean, land lying fallow during summer. I find neither word in Forby's Glossary.

C. W. G.

[Grass laid down for summer pasture, is called in Kent, lay fields; doubtless somerlayes are such. Probably a corruption of lea, the lesura of Latin charters.]

—In an old precedent (seventeenth century) of a lease of a house, I find the words "divers parcels of wyned waynescott windowes and other implements of household." What is wyned?

C. W. G.

[A friend, who is extremely well versed in early records, and to whom we referred this Query, observes, "I have never met with the word, nor can I find a trace of it anywhere. I suspect that the querist has misread his MS., and that, in the original, it is payned, for paned. In the slovenly writing of that period many a form of pa might be mistaken for w. The upstroke of the p is often driven high. I have seen many a pa like this instance."]

—Two leaves, paged from 243 to 246, cuttings from an old magazine, seemingly having dates down to 1772, entitled "Account of the Male Descendants of Oliver Cromwell. By the Rev. Mr. Hewling Luson, of Lowestoft, in Suffolk. In a Letter to Dr. Brooke." [Concluded from our last, page 197.] The next article commencing, "On the Knowledge of Mankind. From Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his Son," having lately come into my hands, I shall feel greatly obliged by being informed through "N. & Q.," or otherwise, where may I meet with the previous part of such account of the Cromwell family, or the title and date of such magazine?

W. P. A.

[Mr. Luson's letter to Dr. Brooke, referred to by our correspondent, will be found in Hughes's Letters, edited by Duncombe, vol. ii. Appendix, p. xxxii. edit. 1773.]

—Is the word "beholden" a corruption of the Dutch "gehouden," or is it a past participle from the verb "to behold?" If the latter, how comes it from signifying "seen," to denote "indebted"?

A. F. S.

[If our correspondent had referred to Richardson's Dictionary, his difficulty would have been removed on reading this derivation and definition:

—The natives of Kent are often spoken of in these different terms. Will you be so good as to inform me what is the difference between these most undoubtedly distinctive people?

B. M.

[A very old man, in our younger days, whose informant lived temp. Jac. II., used to explain it thus:—When the Conqueror marched from Dover towards London, he was stopped at Swansconope, by Stigand, at the head of the "Men of Kent," with oak boughs "all on their brawny shoulders," as emblems of peace, on condition of his preserving inviolate the Saxon laws and customs of Kent; else they were ready to fight unto the death for them. The Conqueror chose the first alternative: hence we retain our Law of Gavelkind, &c., and hence the inhabitants of the part of Kent lying between Rochester and London, being "invicti," have ever since been designated as "Men of Kent," while those to the eastward, through whose district the Conqueror marched unopposed, are only "Kentish Men." This is hardly a satisfactory account; but we give it as we had it.

We suspect the real origin of the terms to have been, a mode of distinguishing any man whose family had been long settled in the county (from time immemorial, it may be), from new settlers; the former being genuine "Men of Kent," the latter only "Kentish." The monosyllabic name of the county probably led to this play upon the word, which could not have been achieved in the "shires."]

—This term is used in Cornish title-deeds. What species of inclosure does it express? Do any such exist now?

C. W. G.

[We have never met with the word, and can only guess at random that it is quasi "the bee-croft," the enclosure where the bees were kept; always remembering that formerly, when honey was an article of large consumption, immense stores of these insects must have been kept. In royal inventories we have "honey casks" enumerated to an immense amount.]

—Of what great historical character is it recorded, that though by no means deficient in education, he never could succeed in spelling correctly? I have an impression of having read this in some biography a few years since, and I think it was a great military commander, who always committed this error in his despatches, though a man of acknowledged high talents and well-informed mind, and conscious of this defect, which he had endeavoured in vain to overcome.

SAMPSON ANRAMENII.

[Does our correspondent allude to the Duke of Marlborough, who was avowedly "loose in his cacography" as Lord Duberly has it?]

—The appearance in your pages of several very interesting Notes on the First Paper-mill in England leads me to beg space for a few Queries on another subject of Art-History.

1. When, where, and under what circumstances, was the first manufactory for glass established in England?

2. What writer first notices the introduction or use of glass, in our island?

3. Are there any works of authority published devoted to this material? If so, may I request some of your learned contributors to direct me to them, or, in fact, to any good notice of its early history?

JOSIAH CATO.

5. Holland Place, North Brixton.

[Fosbroke, in his Encyclopædia of Antiquities, vol. i. p. 397., has given some curious notices of the early manufacture of this useful article. The art of glass-making was known to the early Egyptians, as is fully discussed in a Memoir by M. Boudet, in the Description de l'Egypt, vol. ix. Antiq. Mémoires. See also the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. viii. p. 469, which contains many historical notices, from a neat and concise sketch published by Mr. Pellatt, of the firm of Pellatt and Green, whose works are scientifically conducted on a scale of considerable magnitude.]

—Was Eustachius Monachus ever in Guernsey?

MORTIMER COLLINS.

[It is very probable. Some of the crew of this renowned pirate were captured at Sark. See Michel's Introduction to the Roman d'Eustache le Moine, 8vo. 1834, where copies of most of our records, and of the passages in our early historians, in which Eustace is mentioned, have been collected with great care.]

—I inquired what was the meaning of Mass Robert Fleming, and I partly answer my own question, by saying that Cameronian preachers were so styled, or rather Mas with one "s" before their Christian names,—as Mas David Williamson, Mas John King: see John Creichton's Memoirs. But I ask again, how the title arises, and whether it is short for master?

A. N.

[Nares, in his Glossary, has given several examples from our earlier dramatists in which Mas is used as a colloquial abbreviation of Master, the plural being Masse.]

—Who was John Le Neve, the compiler and editor of the Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, fol. 1716? He has been, though erroneously, supposed to be a brother of Peter Le Neve, Norroy. When did he die?

G.

[John Le Neve was born in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, Dec. 27, 1679. In his twelfth year he was sent to Eton School, and at the age of sixteen became a fellow-commoner of Trinity College, Cambridge, where he remained three years. He married Frances, the second daughter of Thomas Boughton, of King's Cliffe, in Northamptonshire, by whom he had four sons and four daughters. He died about 1722. Mr. Lysons, in Environs of London, says he had a house at Stratford, Bow. (See Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, vol. i. p. 128.) In Cole's MSS., vol. i. p. 143., is the following curious note respecting his Fasti:—"I was told by my worthy friend and benefactor, Browne Willis, Esq., that though Mr. John Le Neve has the name and credit of the Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae, yet the real compiler of that most useful book was Bishop Kennett." The Bodleian contains a copy of this work, with MS. additions by Bishop Tanner.]

—At page 437. of Lloyd's Statesmen and Favourites of England is a letter from Queen Elizabeth addressed to the mother of Sir John Norris, written upon the occasion of the death of the said Sir John, which she commences thus: "My own Crow." This appears to me a very curious mode of address, particularly from a queen to a subject, and seems to mark a more than ordinary intimacy between the correspondents, for it has been suggested to me that it is still used as a term of endearment, in the same way as "duck," &c. are used: I have, however, never before met with it myself, and have sent you a Note of it now, not only because I consider it curious that the queen should thus write, but because I hope that some of your correspondents may be able to suggest how this word came to be thus used.

JOHN BRANFILL HARRISON.

Maidstone.

[Queen Elizabeth had pet-names, or nick-names, for all the people of her court. Burghley was her "Spirit," Mountjoy her "Kitchen-maid;" and so of many others.]

No such oath as that given in page 274. of "N. & Q." is taken by Presbyterian ministers. Immediately previous to the ordination of a minister of the church of Scotland, the Moderator—that is, the member of Presbytery who presides upon the occasion—calls upon him to answer certain questions, acknowledging the Scriptures to be the word of God, the doctrines of the Confession of Faith to be the truth of God; disowning certain doctrinal errors; declaring his belief that the Presbyterian government and discipline of this church are founded on the word of God, and agreeable thereto; expressing the views with which he enters the ministry, and his resolution faithfully to discharge its duties. Having answered these questions satisfactorily, he is set aside to the work of the ministry by prayer and imposition of the hands of the Presbytery (the local Ecclesiastical Court).

At the conclusion of the service he is called on to sign what is called the Formula, an abstract of the first portion of the questions put to him. It is as follows:—

"I, A. B., do hereby declare, that I do sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, approven by the General Assemblies of this national church, and ratified by law in the year 1690, and frequently confirmed by divers acts of parliament since that time, to be the truths of God; and I do own the same as the confession of my faith: as likewise, I do own the purity of worship presently authorised and practised in this church, and also the Presbyterian government and discipline now so happily established therein; which doctrine, worship, and church government, I am persuaded, are founded upon the word of God, and agreeable thereto: and I promise that, through the grace of God, I shall firmly and constantly adhere to the same; and to the utmost of my power, shall, in my station, assert, maintain, and defend the said doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of this church by Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies; and that I shall in my practice conform myself to the said worship, and submit to the said discipline and government, and never endeavour directly or indirectly the prejudice or subversion of the same: and I promise that I shall follow no divisive course from the present establishment in this church: renouncing all doctrines, tenets, and opinions whatsoever, contrary to or inconsistent with the said doctrine, worship, discipline, or government of this church.

"Signed, A. B."

No oath is taken, and no obligation come under but the above. In the Confession of Faith, under the head Church, the supremacy of the Pope is denied; but neither in that, the Questions, or the Formula, is there any other reference to any other form of church government.

H.

As there has been, from time to time, much written in your very interesting publication on the subject of the "Old Countess of Desmond," it may, perhaps, not be unacceptable that I should give you a description of an old family picture in my possession, said to be of that person, to which allusion has been made by some of your correspondents, especially by A. B. R., in your paper of Saturday, 14th February. The painting in question has been for a great number of years in the possession of my family, and from my earliest childhood I have heard it designated as that of the old "Countess of Desmond," although there is no mention of her name thereon. My father for a long time thought it was a work of Rembrandt; but on a close examination there was discovered the name of "G. Douw," low at the left-hand side; and since the picture has been cleaned, the signature has become more distinct. It is painted on board of dark-coloured oak, of eleven inches by eight and a half. The portrait, which reaches to below the bust, and represents a person sitting, is eight and a half inches in length; the face about two and three quarter inches. It is admitted by the best judges to be a painting of great merit. It represents, as well as it is possible, extreme old age, with an extraordinary degree of still remaining vigour, and in this respect certainly fits exactly the character of its subject. The dress is correctly described by your correspondent A. B. R. The forehead is not very high, but square and intellectual—deeply wrinkled; the nose is rather long, and very well formed; the eyes dark; the mouth compressed, and denoting quiet firmness; the expression altogether pleasing and placid, and the face one that must have been handsome in youth. Should any of your correspondents wish to see this picture, I shall leave it for a short time in the hands of my bookseller, Mr. Newman, 3. Bruton Street, Bond Street, who has kindly consented to take charge of it, and to show it to those who feel an interest in such matters.

It must, at first sight, appear strange that such men as G. Douw, the painter of the picture in question, or Rembrandt to whom are attributed other portraits of this old lady, should have condescended to copy from other artists, (for the respective dates render it quite impossible they could have painted from life in this instance): however, it is natural to suppose that this extraordinary instance of longevity made great noise at the time of, and for some time after, her death, and that a correct representation of such a physical phenomenon, although the work of an inferior artist, may well have afforded a fitting study for even such eminent painters as Rembrandt and G. Douw.

As I am on this subject, I shall further trouble you with a circumstance in connexion therewith, which has recently come to my knowledge. My friend, Mr. Herbert, M.P., of Muckross Abbey, Killarney, has also an old family picture of the same lady, with a very curious inscription, which, while it would appear to go far towards establishing several of her characteristic attributes, has also its peculiar difficulties, which I shall presently point out, in the hope that some of your correspondents who are learned in such matters may explain them. The inscription, which is on the canvass itself, is as follows:

"Catharine, Countesse of Desmonde, as she appeared at ye court of our Sovraigne Lord King James, in thys preasant A.D. 1614, and in ye 140th yeare of her age. Thither she came from Bristol to seek relief, ye house of Desmonde having been ruined by Attainder. She was married in ye Reigne of King Edward IV., and in ye course of her long Pilgrimage renewed her teeth twice: her Principal residence is at Inchiquin, in Munster, whither she undoubtedlye proposeth (her Purpose accomplished) incontinentlie to return. LAUS DEO."

Now, as to the authenticity of this picture, there can, I should think, be no question. It has not been got up for the present antiquarian controversy; for it is known to have been in existence in the family of Mr. Herbert for a great many years. It could not well be a mystification of the intervening "middle age," for in that case it would doubtless have been brought forward at the time, to establish a particular theory as to this lady. I think, therefore, it is only reasonable to suppose that it was painted at the time it professes. It may also be mentioned, in corroboration, that a connoisseur who examined this picture for Mr. Herbert attributed it to the hand of Jamieson, the Scotch painter, who lived at a time that would render it quite possible for him to have painted it from life. So far so good. The main difficulty is that of the dates given in the inscription. If the Countess was 140 in 1614, and therefore born in 1474, she could have been but eight or nine years old at the death of Edward IV., and therefore could not have been married in his reign. It is difficult to account for this discrepancy, except by supposing that the old lady sank ten years of her age (and there are statements in existence of 1464 being the year of her birth); or else by supposing that the story of her marriage in the reign of Edward IV. was not her own, but communicated, at second-hand and erroneously, to the artist.

On this point I hope some of your more learned correspondents will favour us with their opinion. There has also been recently sent me by a friend an extract from the "Birch Collection," British Museum (Add. MSS. 4161.), being transcripts of a Table Book of Robert Sidney, second Earl of Leicester, which contradicts the inscription in some particulars: but Lord Leicester writes in a loose and apparently not very authentic style. He states, on the authority of a "Mr. Harnet," that the Countess of Desmond came to petition "the Queen" (Elizabeth), and not King James; and quotes Sir W. Raleigh (on memory) as saying that he (Sir W. R.) saw her in England in 1589. He also talks of her death as occurring at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and as being caused by a fall from a "nutt-tree." I do not think, indeed, that much weight should attach to these notes of Lord Leicester; but it is fair to give all that comes to light, whether it makes against or for the authenticity of what one wishes to establish.

P. FITZGERALD,
KNIGHT OF KERRY.

Union Club, London.

I undertake to answer C. W. B.'s Query with the greater readiness, because it affords me an opportunity of upholding that which has ever been the leading object in every amendment of Shakspeare's text advocated by me, viz., the unravelling and explaining, rather than the alteration, of the original. Perhaps it is with a similar aim that C. W. B. wishes to investigate the value of "siclus;" if so, he must pardon me if I forestall him.

I see no difficulty in the passage which he asks to have construed; its meaning is this:

"The sacred sickle (or shekel) was equivalent to an Attic tetradrachma, which Budæus estimated at 14 Gallic solidi, or thereabouts; for the didrachma was seven solidi, since the single drachma made three and a half solidi, less a denier Tournois."

Which is as much as to say, that the sickle equalled fourteen solidi, less four deniers; or 13-2/3 solidi.

But owing to the rapid declension in the value of French coin after the tenth century, it is manifestly impossible to assign a value to these solidi unless the precise date of their coinage were known. A writer may, of course, allude to coin indefinitely precedent to his own time. In the present case, however, we may, as a matter of curiosity, analytically approximate to a result in this way:—

The drachma is now known to have contained about 65 grains of pure silver, consequently the tetradrachma contained 260 grains. The present franc contains about 70 grains of pure silver, and consequently the sol, or 20th part, is 3-1/2 grains.

This last, multiplied by 13-2/3, produces about 48 grains. But the weight of the tetradrachma is 260 grains; therefore the sol with which the comparison was made must have contained upwards of fivefold its present value in pure silver.

Now, according to the depreciation tables of M. Dennis, this condition obtained in 1483, under Charles VIII., at which time Budæus was actually living, having been born in 1467; but from other circumstances I am induced to believe that the solidus gallicus mentioned by him was coined by Louis XII. in 1498, at which time the quantity of pure silver was fourfold and a half that of the present day.

So much in answer to C. W. B.'s Query; now for its relation to Shakspeare's text, with which however the "siclus" in question has nothing in common except the name; since the "sickles," so beautifully alluded to by Isabella, in Measure for Measure (Act II. Sc. 2.), were sicli aurei, "of the tested gold."

But I have designedly used the word sickle as the English representative of the Latin siclus (Gallicè cicle), because it is the original word of Shakspeare, which was subsequently, most unwarrantably and unwisely, altered by the commentators to shekels in conformity with the Hebraicised word of our scriptural translation.[2] Hence it is that "sickles" has come to be looked upon as a corruption of the text; and "shekels" as a very clever conjectural emendation!

We retain sickle, Anglicè for sicula, a scythe; but we refuse it to Shakspeare for a word almost identical in sound—siculus, or siclus!

The real corruption has been that of Shakspeare's commentators, not his printers'; and I hope that some future editor of his plays will have the courage to permit him to spell this, and other proper names, in his own way. For how can his text continue to be an example of his language, if his words may be altered to suit the précieuse fashion of subsequent times?

A. E. B.

Leeds.

[2] [Our correspondent of course alludes to King James's translation. Upon reference to Sir Frederic Madden's admirable edition of Wickliffe's Bible, we find A. E. B.'s position directly corroborated: "The erthe that thou askist is worth foure hundryd sicles of silver."—Genesis, xxiii. 15. And in Exodus, xxx. 13., "A sicle that is a nounce hath twenti half scripples;" or, as in the second edition, "A sicle hath twenti halpens."—ED.]

By the aid of Dr. Adam Littleton and your correspondent A. N., all future editors of Chaucer and glossarists are helped over this pons asinorum: the word being evidently nothing more than the adoption of the Arabic DHU 'LKARNEIN, i.e. two-horned; and hence, as the reputed son of Jupiter Ammon, Alexander's oriental name, Iscander Dhu 'lkarnein, i.e. Bicornis.

The legend of the building of the wall, in the fabulous Eastern lives of Alexander, is to be found in the 18th chapter of the Koran; and it is related with variations and amplification by Sir John Mandeville. The metrical as well as prose romances on the subject of Alexander also contain it; and those who wish for more information will find it in the third volume of Weber's Metrical Romances, p. 331.

I cannot say that I am quite convinced of the truth of the ingenious supposition of your correspondent, that "Sending to Dulcarnein is merely an ellipsis of the person for his place, i.e. for the rampart of Dulcarnein." It appears to me more probable, that as, according to St. Jerome and other writers of the Middle Ages, the Dilemma was also called Syllogismum Cornutum, its Arabic name was Dhu 'lkarnein; and we know how much in science and literature the darker ages were indebted to the Arabian writers. Wyttenbach, in his Logic, says "Dilemma etiam Cornutus est; quod utrimque veluti Cornibus pugnat." At any rate it is clear that the enclosure had another name:

It does not appear to me that to be at Dalcarnon is equivalent to being sent to Coventry, or to Jericho, as your correspondent A. N. supposes; or that the word flemyng, in this passage, means banishing, but rather defeating, daunting, dismaying, in which sense it occurs more than once in Layamon; thus, vol. ii. p. 410.:—

The general sense of the word is, however, to expel, to drive out, and not to enclose, as Alexander is said to have done the Gog and Magog people, by his iron, or rather bituminous, wall. Now those who were at Dulcarnon, or in a Dilemma, might well be said to be defeated or dismayed.

Let us hope that some oriental scholar among your correspondents may be able to indicate where the word is to be found in some Arabian expositor of logic or dialectic, &c., and thus set the question entirely at rest.

Are we never to have an edition of Chaucer worthy of him, and creditable to us? Had our northern neighbours possessed such a treasure, every MS. in existence would have been examined and collated, and the text settled. His language would have been thoroughly investigated and explained,[3] and every possible source of elucidation made available. May we not hope that the able editor of Layamon and Wickliffe will yet add to the obligation every lover of our early literature owes to him, an edition of our first great poet, such as his previous labours have shown that he is so well qualified to give?

[3] This is evident from the interest the Germans have manifested, e.g. the younger Gesenius, in his able essay, De Lingua Chauceri Commentationem Grammaticam; and Edward Fiedler's Translation of the Canterbury Tales.

S. W. SINGER.

I have, as most of the readers of "N. & Q." are aware, for a considerable time past turned my attention to the subject of English Surnames, and the sale of three editions of my work under that title shows that such a book was a desideratum. Chapters on the origin of surnames exist in Camden's Remaines, Verstegan's Restitution, and elsewhere, and there are detached notices in the Gentleman's Magazine and other periodicals; but my work is the first, and as yet the only independent treatise on the subject. Any one who will be at the trouble to compare my first and third editions will at once see how this inquiry has grown under my hands; but although I have collected and classified 6000 names, much still remains to be accomplished. Under this conviction, I am now engaged in the compilation of a Dictionary of English Family Names, which I hope to complete within the present year. My plan will include:

I. The name.

II. The class to which it belongs. The classes will be about twenty in number.

III. The etymology of each name when necessary.

IV. Definitions and remarks.

V. Illustrative quotations from old English authors.

VI. The century in which the name first occurs.

VII. The corruptions and most remarkable variations which the name has undergone.

VIII. Proverbs associated with family names, e.g.:—

in allusion to the judgment of heaven which is said to have befallen the posterity of Wm. de Traci, one of the assassins of Thos. à Becket.

IX. Anecdotes and traditions.

My object in making this statement, is to solicit from the numerous and learned correspondents of "N. & Q." contributions of surnames and suggestions in furtherance of my undertaking; and from the Editor, permission to query from time to time upon the origin, date, and history of such surnames as I am unable satisfactorily to elucidate without assistance. A field so large requires the co-operation of many labourers. I have already secured the friendly aid of some of the most competent antiquaries in England; and I confidently anticipate for the forthcoming collection a degree of success proportioned to the amount of labour and research bestowed upon it.

Of local surnames few will be introduced; for, as nearly every landed property has given a name to the family of its early proprietor, it would be impossible to include all the names so derived. Only the more remarkable ones of this class, which would appear at first sight to come from a totally different source, will be admitted. Blennerhasset, Polkinghom, Woodhead, Wisdom, Bodycoat, and Crawl, for example, are names of places, and surnames have been derived from them, although few except the persons resident in the particular localities are aware that any such places exist. Most of the names that baffle all historical and etymological acumen are probably of this class.

I wish it to be understood that my dictionary will only include family, that is, hereditary surnames. Merely personal sobriquets which died with their first possessors (and which are found in large numbers in ancient records) will be passed by, unless they should illustrate some appellative which has descended to our times.

In conclusion, this work is by no means intended to supersede my English Surnames, which contains much matter unsuited to dictionary arrangement, and is intended to convey information on a neglected subject in a popular form. The illustrations in the Dictionary will for the most part be new, with references to the English Surnames for others.

The foregoing announcement was intended to be sent to "N. & Q." some weeks since. I am now induced to forward it without further delay, because I see the subject of surnames introduced in to-day's number by two different correspondents. COWGILL, the first of these, could, if so disposed, render me efficient help. As to the remarks of J. H. on the works of "Lower and others" (what others?), they clearly show that he has never read what he so summarily condemns, or he would not now have to ask for the supposed number of surnames in England, which is given in my third edition, vol. i., preface, p. xiii. Though I am, perhaps, more fully aware than any other person of the defects and demerits of my English Surnames, I think the literary public will hardly deny me the credit of "some study and research," praise which has been awarded me by better critics than J. H. It is not my practice to notice the censures of anonymous writers, but I cannot forbear adverting to two points in J. H.'s short communication. In the first place his desire for a work giving all the names used in England, and "showing when they were first adopted or brought into this country," shows his entire want of acquaintance with the existing state of the nomenclature of English families. A glance at a few pages of so common a book as the London Directory, will convince any competent observer that there are hundreds upon hundreds of surnames that would baffle the most imaginative etymologist. Secondly, J. H. proposes that an author treating on the subject of family names, should begin "with the Britons." Does he really suppose that the Celtic possessors of our island bore family names according to the modern practice? If so, "Lower and (many) others" can assure him that his antiquarian and historical knowledge must be of a somewhat limited kind.

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes.

Since the Notes, kindly transmitted from Holland in answer to my Query respecting the family of the Rev. John Paget, appeared in "N. & Q.," I have discovered that the Pagets to whom my Query related, as well as the others alluded to by your correspondents, were all of the family of Paget of Rothley, Leicestershire, of whom a (partially incomplete) pedigree is given in Nichols's Leicestershire, vol. iv. p. 481. I was led to this conclusion by finding that Robert Paget (the writer of a preface before alluded to "from Dort, 1641") mentions in his will Roadley (Rothley) in Leicestershire as his birthplace, and speaks of his brother George as residing in his "patrimoniall house" there: he is probably the Robert, son of Michael Paget, and great-grandson of the Rev. Harold Paget, vicar of Rothley in 1564, who is mentioned in the pedigree as born at Rothley in 1611: he died at Dordt in 1684. The pedigree gives him an uncle named Thomas, born in 1589 (two indeed of that name, and both born the same year!); this will do very well for the Rev. Thomas Paget, incumbent of Blackley, and rector of Stockport; and another named John, who died, aged seven, in 1582: still I cannot help believing that John Paget, the writer, was this Robert's uncle, and feel mightily disposed to metamorphose one of the two Thomases into John. The Rev. Thomas Paget died in October, 1660, leaving his property to his two sons, Nathan M.D., and Thomas a clergyman. What relation was he to that Mr. Paget to whom Dee, the astrologer (see his Diary, p. 55. Camden Society, 1842), sold a house in Manchester in 1595? His son, Dr. Nathan, in a Thesis on the Plague, printed at Leyden in 1639, describes himself on the title-page as Mancestr-Anglus. According to Mr. Paget's will, dated May 23, 1660, he was then minister at Stockport, Cheshire; and I am inclined to think him identical with Thomas Paget, rector of St. Chads, Shrewsbury, from 1646 to 1659, although Owen and Blakeway (History of Shrewsbury, 2 vols. 4to. 1825) consider the latter to be son of John (James?) Paget, Baron of the Exchequer, temp. Car. I.: this descent is, I am confident, erroneous. Thomas Paget appears to have gone to Amsterdam in 1639 on the death of the Rev. John Paget, and to have returned to England in 1646, in which year his son John (who must have been much younger than his two other sons, and is, moreover, not mentioned in his will dated 1660) was baptized at Shrewsbury. Dr. Nathan Paget was an intimate friend of Milton, and cousin to the poet's fourth wife, Elizabeth Minshull, of whose family descent (which appears to be rather obscure) I may, at another time, communicate some particulars.

Whilst the subject of the Pagets (a very interesting one to me), I cannot refrain from noticing, even at the risk of encroaching on your space, a singular mistake of Anthony à Wood respecting another writer (though of an entirely different family) of the name of Paget. Speaking of the Rev. Ephraim Paget (Athen. Oxon., vol. ii. p. 51.) he says:

"One of both his names (his uncle I think) translated into English Sermons upon Ruth, Lond. 1586, in oct., written originally by Lod. Lavater; but whether the said Ephraim Paget was educated at Oxon, I cannot justly say, though two or more of his sirname and time occur in our registers."

Had Anthony ever seen the book in question, he would have been aware that the title-page informs him that it was translated by Ephraim Pagitt, a child of eleven years of age; and as, according to the said Anthony's account, Ephraim was born in 1575, he would also at once have seen that Ephraim himself—not that ideal personage, his "uncle of the same name"—was the translator.

CRANMORE.

Your correspondent W. C. begins his letter modestly. "If," he says, Thomas Lord Lyttleton wrote The Letters of Junius, and "if" Junius wrote the "Letter to the Brigadier-General," then he sees a difficulty. Why, of course he does: but as nobody but the writer in the Quarterly believes that the said Thomas did write the Letters of Junius, and as it has never been proved that Junius did write the "Letter to a Brigadier," I must believe that something remains to be done before we proceed a step farther either in the way of argument or inference. Unless some such resolution be come to by inquirers, we shall never get out of the mazes in which this question has been involved, by like conditional statements, and the conditional arguments founded thereon.

As to the Lyttleton story, I shall dismiss it at once: it is not entitled to the sort of respectability which attaches to a case put hypothetically, nor to the honour of an "if;" and I must remind your correspondent that in a Junius question "general belief" is no evidence. Every story, however absurd, once asserted, is "generally believed," until some one (a rare and exceptional case) proves that it is not true—probably that it could not be true. The general belief, for example, that the "Letter to a Brigadier" was written by Junius, is not, so far as I know, supported by a tittle of evidence. It is all assertion and assumption, founded on the opinion of A., B., and C., as to "style," &c. Now, as some two dozen different persons have been proved, by like confident opinions, on like evidence, to be the writer of Junius's Letters, I may be excused when I acknowledge that the test is not with me quite conclusive. In respect, however, to this "Letter to a Brigadier," Mr. Britton and Sir David Brewster have proceeded somewhat further. Having, with others, come to the conclusion that Junius was the writer, Mr. Britton proceeds to show that Barré served in Canada under Wolfe, and was the very man, from circumstances, position, and feelings, who could, would, and did write that letter. Sir David endeavours to show that Macleane was in like circumstance, stimulated by like feelings, and was the veritable Simon; founding his argument mainly on the belief that Macleane was also serving there as surgeon of Otway's regiment. It has been shown in the Athenæum that Macleane never was surgeon of Otway's regiment, and that in all probability he never was in Canada: in brief, that the memoir is a mistake from beginning to end. As all, however, that is urged by Sir David in favour of Macleane, as one who had served under Wolfe, may be thought to strengthen, to that extent, the claim of Barré, who certainly did so serve, and was severely wounded, let us look at the facts.

Barré was wounded at the capture of Quebec; and, under date of Oct. 1759, Knox, in his Historical Journal, says, "Colonel Carlton and Major Barré retired to the southward for the recovery of their wounds." From his letter to Mr. Pitt (Chath. Corr.), we find that Barré was at New York, April 28, 1760. He appears subsequently to have joined Amherst before Montreal; and on the capture of Montreal, on Sept. 8, 1760, he was appointed to convey the despatches to England, and arrived in London on the 5th October. These are facts public and unquestioned—admitted by Mr. Britton.

Now for a fact out of the "Letter to a Brigadier." I could give you half a dozen of like character, but space is precious, and one, I think, will be sufficient. The writer quotes in extenso a letter written by Townshend, published in The Daily Advertiser, and dated "South Audley Square, 20th June, 1760." Mr. Britton admits that the pamphlet must have been published "some time before the 5th October, as on that day a Refutation appeared;" it was, in fact, reviewed, or rather abused, in the Critical Review for September. We have proof, therefore, that the "Letter to a Brigadier" was written after 20th June, and founded, in part, on facts known in London only on the 21st of June at the earliest: the probabilities are that it was published in August or September, certainly before the 5th October. How then could it have been written by a man in America, serving before Montreal?

L. B. G.

I do not know why, because a man publishes maps of Africa at Gotha, they should not be "fancy portraits," any more than why a man's book should be a good one, because it is printed on a composition which nobody but a German would have the effrontery to call paper.

I had seen Spruner's Map a few weeks after it came out, and the conclusion I came to about it at the time was, that it was certainly a fancy portrait. I shall be glad to be shown that I am in error; and, as I am more sure of the fact that I did come to this conclusion after some examination, than I am of the argument whereby I arrived at it—for my memory is singularly gifted in this way—I should be obliged by E. C. H., or any of your correspondents, informing me what grounds there are for believing Spruner, or any one else, to have produced a map or maps of the north coast of Africa between long. 5° west, and 25° east of Greenwich, or any portion of the said coast,—said map or maps being the result of actual survey. Moreover, if I further inquire when any survey whatever took place of this coast at any time, and profess my utter ignorance of the history of our present North African maps, and my great doubts of their credibility, let not your correspondents imagine that this is one of a few things that I ought to be acquainted with, and really know nothing whatever about.

AJAX.

—To the numerous list of men whose services to literature our English biographers have injudiciously omitted to record may be added James Wilson, M.D. As editor of the Mathematical tracts of Mr. Benjamin Robins in 1761, he has often been noticed with commendation. Beyond that circumstance, all is obscurity.

He wrote, however, a valuable Dissertation on the rise and progress of the modern art of navigation, which was first published by Mr. John Robertson in his Elements of navigation in 1764, and republished by him in 1772. The authors shall now speak for themselves:—

"This edition [of the Elements of navigation] is also enriched with the history of the art of navigation; for with the author's leave, I have published the following dissertation on that subject, written by Dr. Wilson, believing it would afford the most ample satisfaction on that subject."—John ROBERTSON, 1764.

"My enquiries into these matters [navigation] induced the late learned Dr. James Wilson to review and complete his observations on the subject, and produced his Dissertation on the history of the art of navigation, which he was pleased to give me leave to publish with the second edition of this work.... The second edition of these Elements having also been well received by the public, Dr. Wilson took the pains to revise his Dissertation, which he improved in many particulars."—John ROBERTSON, Nov. 1, 1772.

"This Dissertation, written at first by desire, is now reprinted with alterations. Though I may be thought to have dwelt too long on some particulars, not directly relating to the subject; yet I hope that what is so delivered, will not be altogether unentertaining to the candid reader. As to any apology for having handled a matter quite foreign to my way of life, I shall only plead, that very young, living in a sea-port town, I was eager to be acquainted with an art that could enable the mariner to arrive across the wide and pathless ocean at his desired harbour."

London. James WILSON, 1771?

The united libraries of Henry Pemberton, M.D., F.R.S., and James Wilson, M.D., were sold in 1772. The sale occupied eighteen evenings, and produced 701l. 17s. 6d. The learned writers, who were intimate friends, died within seven months of each other in 1771.

BOLTON CORNEY.

—As a learned and lucid account of the early commercial intercourse between Europe and the eastern countries, I believe there is no work comparable to that entitled Histoire du commerce entre le Levant et l'Europe depuis les croisades jusqu'à la fondation des colonies d'Amérique, par G. B. Depping. Paris, 1830. 8vo. 2 vols. This subject was proposed in 1826, as a prize essay, by the Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres, and M. Depping was the successful competitor. The prize, a gold medal of the value of 1500 francs, was awarded in 1828. M. le baron Silvestre de Sacy, whose profound acquaintance with oriental history and literature enabled him to detect some slight errors in the work, thus concludes his review of it in the Journal des savants: "Mais ces légères critiques ne m'empêchent pas de rendre toute justice à un travail véritablement estimable, et digne de l'honneur qu'il a obtenu de l'Académie des belles-lettres."

BOLTON CORNEY.

—There is a work on this subject by I. E. T. Wiltsch, Handbuch der Kirchlichen Geographie and Statistik, Berlin, 1846, 2 vols. 8vo., which, in so far as I have looked at it, appears to be carefully done.

J. C. R.

—I read yesterday an article signed COWGILL, asking information concerning the family of Butts, anciently of Thornage, Norfolk. Sir William Butts, physician to Henry VIII., and Dr. Robert Butts, my great-grandfather, formerly Bishop of Norwich, were of that family, and if your correspondent will communicate privately with me, I shall be happy to receive from him, and communicate to him, any particulars of a public character concerning a family of which I am nearly the only representative. My address is "Rev. Edward Drury Butts, Camesworth, Bridport."

E. D. B.

—The story to which your correspondent? refers may be found in a note to one of Fennimore Cooper's sea novels; I do not remember which, and am unable at present to ascertain by reference to the book itself. If my recollection be accurate, the novelist speaks of it as an event of which he had personal knowledge, and does not quote any earlier authority.

K. E.

It is a most curious circumstance connected with the superstition sailors have regarding putting to sea on a Friday, which will now have greater weight attached to it than ever, that I can inform your correspondent, W. FRASER, that the ill-fated Amazon, Captain Symons, did really sail on a Friday, as he suggested she might have done.

The day was January 2, 1852, by Lloyd's Lists, which is the day of the month the West India mail always leaves this country.

J. S. O.

Old Broad Street.

—The printed leaves inquired for by A SUBSCRIBER, are from the Irish Union Magazine, No. 2., April, 1845, and are quoted at p. 182. of Wilde's Closing Scenes of Dean Swift's Life, where may be found several particulars of the snuff-box inquired about. The inscription within the lid is curious, and is copied by Wilde.

E. D.

—M. tells us that in the second clause of the 36th canon of 1603, the words quodque eodem taliter uti liceat are translated "and that the same may be lawfully used," the word taliter being altogether omitted in the English. What authority is there for this statement? In all the copies of the English Canons that I have examined, the translation is exact, viz., "and that it may lawfully so be used;" and that the form now presented for subscription at ordination agrees with this, may be inferred from the fact that the words are so printed in Mr. Hodgson's Instructions for the Clergy (6th edition, p. 8.).

It would seem that M. has confounded with the Canons of 1603 an older form, which was prescribed by Archbishop Whitgift in 1584 (Cardwell, Docum. Annals, i. 414.). The words of that form agree with your correspondent's quotation; and it has also a bearing on his assumption that the 36th canon was originally presented for subscription in Latin, and that the English version has been wrongfully substituted. Not only is there (as I believe) no proof of this assumption; but we have the fact that a set of English articles, substantially the same with those of the 36th canon of 1603 (or rather 1604), was subscribed for twenty years before the body of the canons existed.

J. C. R.

—The pedigree of the noble family of Dartmouth, given by Edmondson in his Baronagium Genealogicum, No. 197., contains an extraordinary instance of few descents through a long period of time.

The stock of descent is Thomas Legge, Sheriff of London in 1343, and Lord Mayor in 1346. He had a son, Simon, whose son, Thomas, had issue, William, who had issue an only son, Edward. This Edward had thirteen children, one of whom, John, is stated to have died in 1702, aged 109. Supposing Thomas Legge to have been 46 years old at his Mayoralty (i.e. born in 1300) these six lives would extend over more than 400 years. This is so extraordinary that I append a Query. Is Edmondson's Genealogy correct, or are there any intermediate descents omitted?

The ages at death of four only of Edward's children are given, and they, too, are remarkable: the before-mentioned John, aged 109 years; Elizabeth (unmarried), 105 years; Margaret (married —— Fitzgerald, Esq.), 105 years; and Anne (married —— Anthony, Esq.), 112 years. Can any of your correspondents inform me the years when any of these died, or where they are buried? to enable me to verify these facts by certificates.

C. H. B.

30. Clarence Street, Islington.

—Looking over some of the back numbers, I see under this heading a very tantalising announcement of a rich store of venerable literature in an ancient mansion in a distant part of Cornwall. It would be very desirable to know the habitat of such an unique collection of books. Will FABER MARINUS gratify the readers of "N. & Q." by allowing it to be known?

S. S.

—Has not your querist J. B. C. mistaken the initial letter here,—read H for M? I have often met in Court Rolls with Land Molland, viz., held by mill service.

G. A. C.

—In East Anglia the Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) is called Harber or Arber wood.

G. A. C.

—M. de Magnard, in the opening chapter of his novel of Outre-mer, says the name of "Martinique" is derived from that which the island had received from the Caribs:

"Ce nom de 'Martinique' dérive par corruption de l'ancien nom sauvage et indigène, Matinina."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

—I beg to direct attention to the subjoined extract from Mr. Trench's Lectures on the Study of Words, a most able and interesting little work:

"'Bigot' is another word widely spread over Europe, of which I am inclined to think that we should look for the derivation where it is not generally sought, and here too we must turn to Spain for the explanation. It has much perplexed inquirers, and two explanations of it are current; one of which traces it up to the early Normans, while they yet retained their northern tongue, and to their often adjuration by the name of God, with sometimes reference to a famous scene in French history, in which Rollo, Duke of Normandy, played a conspicuous part; the other puts it in connexion with 'Beguines,' often called in Latin 'Beguttæ,' a name by which certain communities of pietest women were known in the Middle Ages. Yet I cannot but think it probable, that rather than to either of these sources, we owe the word to that mighty impression which the Spaniards began to make upon all Europe in the fifteenth century, and made for a long time after. Now the word 'bigote' means in Spanish 'mustachio;' and, as contrasted with the smooth or nearly smooth upper lip of most other people, at that time the Spaniards were the 'men of the mustachio.' That it was their characteristic feature comes out in Shakspeare's Love's Labour's Lost, where Armado, the 'fantastical Spaniard,' describes the king, 'his familiar, as sometimes being pleased to lean on his poor shoulder, and dally with his mustachio.' [Act V. Sc. 1.] That they themselves connected firmness and resolution with the mustachio, that it was esteemed the outward symbol of these, is plain from such phrases as 'hombre de bigote,' a man of resolution; 'tener bigotes,' to stand firm. But that in which they eminently displayed their firmness and resolution in those days, was their adherence to whatever the Roman See required and taught. What then more natural, or more entirely according to the law of the generation of names, than that this striking and distinguishing outward feature of the Spaniard should have been laid hold of to express that character and condition which eminently were his, and then transferred to all others who shared the same? The mustachio is, in like manner, in France a symbol of military courage; and thus 'un vieux moustache,' is an old soldier of courage and military bearing. And strengthening this view, the earliest use of the word which Richardson gives, is a passage from Bishop Hall, where 'bigot' is used to signify a pervert to Romanism: 'he was turned both bigot and physician.' In further proof that the Spaniard was in those times the standing representative of the bigot and the persecutor, we need but turn to the older editions of Fox's Book of Martyrs, where the Pagan persecutors of the early Christians are usually arrayed in the armour of Spanish soldiers, and sometimes graced with tremendous 'bigotes.'"—2nd edit. 80-82.

Mr. Trench's derivation of bigot is, I think, very preferable to those you cite.

C. H. COOPER.

—LLAW GYFFES asks for a correct description of the monument erected to Sir John Davys, Davis, or Davies, in St. Martin's church. Perhaps the following will answer his purpose: it is extracted from one of a series of MS. volumes in my possession, in the autograph of John Le Neve:—

"On the 3rd pillar, on the south range, a plain white marble monument, in memory of Sir John Davis, Knight. Inscrip.:

"D. O. M. S. Johannes Davys, Equestris Ordinis, quondam attornati Regii Generalis amplissima Provincia regno Hib. functus. Inde in patriam revocatus inter Servientes Domini Regis ad Regem primum locum sustinuit, ob. 1626.

"Accubat Dignissimo Marito incomparabilis Uxorque illustre genus et generi pares animos, Christiana Mansuetudine temperavit, Erudita supra sexum mitis infra sortem, plurimis major, quia humilior, in eximia forma sublime ingenium, in venusta Comitate, singularem modestiam, in Fœmineo Corpore virales spiritus, in Rebus adversissimis serenam mentem, in Impio seculo Pietatem et Rectitudinem inconcussa possedit.

"Non illi Robustam animam ad res lauta laxavit, aut Angusta contraxit, sed utramq; sortem pari animoq; non excepit modo sed rexit. Quippe Dei plena cui plenitudini mundus, nec benig. addere nec malignus detrahere potuisset.

"Talis Deum jamdudum spirans et sursum aspirans, sui ante et Reip. fata præsaga, salutisq; Æterna certissima, ingenti lætoq; ardore in Servatoris dilectissimi sinum ipsius sanguine totam animam efflavit, rebus humanis exempta, immortalitate induit 3 nonas Quintilis, An. Kal. 1652.

"Arms; on a Lozenge; Argent a Heart Gules, on a Chief Sable 3 Mullets.

"Also at the bottom of the Monument, Sable a Fess Ermin between 3 Cinquefoils Argent."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

—See Baker's Northamptonshire, vol. i. p. 385-6., where the shield of the knightly quarterings is noticed in describing the Manor house.

r.

—Your correspondent E. N., after quoting a passage from Mr. Tytler's Dissertation on Scottish Music, says he has "never yet been able to meet with any of the ports here referred to." I have the pleasure to inform him that several curious ancient ports have been preserved, and may be found in the Skene MS., and in Gordon of Straloch's Lute Book.

Port, in Gaelic, signifies an air, either sung or played upon an instrument. Mr. Tytler correctly describes this species of composition as of the plaintive strain, and modulated for the harp. All the existing specimens answer to this character.

The Ports which are contained in the above-named MSS., are named as follows: "Rory Dall's Port," "Port Ballangowne," "Jean Lindsay's Port," &c.

It may be necessary to say, that these tunes are written in an obsolete notation called tablature. Translations, however, are in my possession, and if E. N. wishes for copies, he is quite welcome to have them if he will favour me with a communication.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

29. St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park.

—The following note, from Withering's Arrangement of British Plants, vol. ii. p. 341. ed. 1830, will perhaps be acceptable to MELANION:—

"VINCA. PERIWINKLE. (From vincio, to bind; its runners trailing round other plants. Or to those who prefer a more interesting association, we would intimate that of such was formed in ancient times the bridal zone, which none but the bridegroom was privileged to untie. In modern Italy it is said to be appropriated to a far different usage, that of enwreathing deceased infants; and is hence called Fior di Morto.—E.)"

W. R. DEERE SALMON.

—If it be allowable to answer one's own Query, and not too late to go back to Vol. i., I should like to notice that the fragment therein referred to corresponds, as far as it goes, with an edition "Empriented in Flete Strete the last daie of Januarie, Anno Domini, 1548," by Edward Whitchurch, and is no doubt part of that edition. In the Churchwardens' Accounts for this parish it is thus mentioned:

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield Hall.

—I am not aware that it was ever any secret, or, at any rate, that there is any occasion to make it so now, that the satire Black Gowns and Red Coats was the production of George Cox, M.A., and Fellow of New College, Oxford; neither did I ever hear of its suppression. The satire is certainly somewhat severe; but even those who fell under its lash could scarcely deny its great ability, or the high poetical talent which it evinced. Such as knew the marvellous promise of his youth can never cease to lament that it pleased God to bring the author's life to a premature and unhappy close.

I have a copy of the little book, which I would gladly lend to any one making a proper application through the publisher.

C. W. B.

—The arms of Manchester (gules 3 hindlets enhanced or) are those attributed to the family of Grelle, De Greslet, or Grelly, feudal Barons of Manchester under the Normans. The town has used them for years; long before the charter of incorporation.

P. P.

—Thomas Frowyk was, in all likelihood, of a family long connected with the government of London. According to Fuller, he was born at Ealing in Middlesex, and was son of Thomas Frowyk, Esq. [if I do not greatly err he was knighted in or before the reign of Richard III.] of Gunnersbury, by the daughter and heiress of Sir John Sturgeon, knight. He was "bred in the study of our municipal law," and read on the statute Prerogative Regis (17 Edw. II. stat. 1.), but in what inn of court, or in what year, I have not seen stated. He was (with others) made serjeant-at-law, by writ tested 10th September, 1496. The feast was kept on the 16th of November following, at Ely House in Holborn, "where dined the King, Queen, and all the chief lords of England." He was afterwards one of the King's serjeants. On the 11th July, 1502, he (with Mr. Justice Fisher and Humphrey Conyngsbye, one of the King's serjeants) made an award between the University and town of Cambridge adjusting disputes between the two bodies, and defining in minute detail their respective jurisdictions. On the 30th September, 1502, he was constituted Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and was, at or about the same time, knighted. In 19 Hen. VIII. he was, by Act of Parliament, appointed one of the feoffees to the use of the King's will. He died 17th October, 1505, being, as it is said, under forty years old. He was buried, with Joan his wife, in the church of Finchley. He left a large estate to his two daughters, of whom Elah, the eldest, was married to Sir John Spelman, Justice of the King's Bench, "grandfather to Sir Henry, that renowned knight." Sir Thomas Frowyk's arms (azure a cheveron between 3 leopards' faces or) were in a window of the hall of Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street; and the same coat (quartering Sturgeon and another) was in a window at St. Dunstan's in the West. (Fuller's Worthies in Middlesex; Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 47. 128. 328.; Chronica Series, 74. 76.; Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ, ii. 192.; Excerpta Historica, 119. 121. 123.; Plumpton Correspondence, 152, 153. 161. 165.; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, 258. 260.; Rotuli Parliamentorum, vi. 522.; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, iv. 107.)

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

—John Goldesborough, or Goldesburgh, was born 18th October, 1568, studied at Oxford, and went thence to the Middle Temple, where he was called to the Bar. In or about 1613 he was constituted Second Prothonotary of the Common Pleas, which office he held till his death, 9th October, 1618. He was buried in the Temple Church, where there is, or was, a monumental brass to his memory, having thereon his and his wife's effigies, with an inscription in English. His Reports were printed several years after his death. (Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, i. 293. 369.; Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 63. 178.; Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ, i. 236. 242., ii. 213.; Reports of Deputy Keeper of Public Records, Second Report, Appendix, ii. p. 73.; Fourth Report, Appendix, ii. p. 37.)

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

—I beg to offer a few additions to mispronounced names of places:

In Sussex the names of places ending in ly are pronounced with the accent on the last syllable; e.g. West Hoathly, Hellingly, &c. In Gloucestershire, a place written Newland is unexpectedly called Newlànd.

C. W. B.

My memory enables me to make the following small additions to the list of "Popular Dialects" requested by your correspondent P. M. M. The names of the towns are derived exclusively from my native county, Essex:

M. W. B.

—Bramshall, Hants (of which there are some views in Nash's Mansions), claims to be connected with a Ginevra tradition, so that Rogers seems to be justified in stating that "many" old houses in this country do so.

P. P.

—FLORENCE must be in error as to the locality of one of her hermits. There is no place called Marcham in Lancashire, nor any resident family of Powyss. The late Lord Lilford certainly married a Lancashire heiress in 1797, and became possessed of property near Warrington. Whether he had a hermit, I cannot say but I never heard of a hermit in the Preston neighbourhood.

P. P.

—Mr. Tom Sheridan, the only child of Richard Brinsley Sheridan by his wife (Miss Elizabeth Linley), is author of the lines on Dr. Fell. They were written on the celebrated Dr. Parr, under whose tuition he was. Why he gave to Dr. Parr the nomen "Dr. Fell," I do not know. I have often heard my dear mother repeat the lines:

The metre of the third line would be more perfect by the addition of the dissyllable; but the lines I have so often heard want this.

My mother was very intimate with the Sheridan family, and many years agone she informed me that Miss Jane Linley (afterwards Mrs. Ward) told her that young Tom Sheridan composed the foregoing lines on Dr. Parr.

E. F.

—Lists of the prothonotaries of the Court of Common Pleas, from Henry VIII. to George IV., may be collected from the Reports of the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, Second Report, Appendix, ii. 67-88.; Fourth Report, Appendix, ii. 30-52.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

—Since I wrote to you I have seen my informant, and am now enabled to state, that what your correspondent calls "the vellum-bound Junius," at Stowe, was, as I said, printed on vellum, but was not bound in vellum.

V. B. J.

—The three following places, where these stones of exchange were erected, have just occurred to me, and I forward them to add to the desired list:—

At Derby the stone was known by the name of the Headless Cross; and it has within the last few years been removed for preservation to the Arboretum in that town.

A stone of a similar name existed at Shrewsbury.

At East Retford, in Nottinghamshire, was also one, called the Broad Stone.

L. JEWITT.

—George Trehern, or Treheryon, was Autumn Reader of Lincoln's Inn, 12 Hen. VIII.; Lent Reader there 16 Hen. VIII.; and one of the Governors of that society 12 & 17 Hen. VIII. His reading on Carta Forestæ appears to have been printed in 4to., but in what year is not stated. (Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 251. 259.; Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ, i. 24., ii. 191.)

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

—I know not whether Mr. Drake's explanation (referred to by E. A. H. L.) be the same as that given in Sacred and Legendary Art, but the latter seems sufficiently satisfactory.

"It was believed that in consequence of his prayer, those who beheld the figure of St. Christopher were exempt during that day from all perils of earthquake, fire, and flood. The mere sight of his image, that type of strength, was deemed sufficient to inspire with courage those who had to struggle with the evils and casualties of life, and to reinvigorate those who were exhausted by the labours of husbandry.... Hence it became a custom to place his image in conspicuous places, to paint it of colossal size on the walls of churches and houses, where it is sometimes seen occupying the whole height of the building, and is visible from a great distance, being considered as a good omen for all those who look upon it. A mountain in Granada, which is first seen by ships arriving from the African coast, is called San Cristobal, in allusion to this poetical superstition."—S. and L. Art, p. 262.

J. EASTWOOD.

—The superstition, that a man or woman who survives several wives or husbands has a white liver, is common among the lower orders in Lancashire.

P. P.

—This rare and valuable tract is reprinted in The Phenix, 1707, vol. i. pp. 96-113.

JOHN I. DREDGE.

The success which has attended the endeavour to supply, by means of the London Library in St. James's Square, the want so long felt by scholars and reading men, of a library of circulation of works of a higher class than those to be met with in ordinary subscription libraries, has just been rendered evident by the publication of the second volume of its Catalogue.

From this it appears that there are now in this admirable collection—for it is an admirable one—fifteen thousand distinct works (upwards, we believe, of forty-five thousand volumes), comprising the best and most expensive works in every department of learning, which scholars and men of learning may have the use of in their own studies for the small subscription of two pounds a year. There is little wonder that the plan has succeeded, for it has been well carried out,—thanks to the zeal of the Managing Committee, and to the care and attention of Mr. Cochrane, its able and most efficient Librarian.

The History of the Restoration of Monarchy in France, by Alphonse de Lamartine. Volume the Second.—The brilliant and eloquent narrative contained in this volume includes the period between Napoleon's departure from Fontainebleau and his abdication. In the course of this history we are presented with scene after scene which dazzle us with all the gorgeous colouring of a panorama; but which, when we come to look into their details, are found to be almost as obscure and indefinite as the objects in those attractive works of art to which we have likened them. The work has all the charms of a romance; but we fear purchases this reputation by sacrificing the more sober requirements of a history.

Lectures and Addresses in Aid of Popular Education, by the Right Hon. the Earl of Carlisle.—It would be difficult to find a more faithful or a more gratifying type of the present age than this new part of The Traveller's Library, in which we see one of England's "belted earls," and one of the most amiable and accomplished men of his time, recording the experiences of his travels; and inviting to join him in the delights which he has gathered from literary pursuits,—not a crowd of titled listeners, but "a band of the hard-handed working men" fresh from the anvil and the loom.

Were Heretics ever burned at Rome? A Report of the Proceedings of the Roman Inquisition against Fulgentio Manfredi, taken from the Original Manuscript brought from Italy by a French Officer, and edited, with a parallel English Version, and Notes, by the Rev. Richard Gibbings, M.A.—The Dublin Review for June 1850 having boldly asserted as a fact, that "the Roman Inquisition—that is to say, the tribunal which was immediately subject to the control and direction of the Popes themselves, in their own city, has never been known to order the execution of capital punishment"—the Rev. Richard Gibbings has published, in contradiction of such assertion, this important document, in the history of Father Fulgentio, who was hanged and burned in the Campo di Fiore.

SCOTT'S CONTINUATION OF MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. Vol. II. Part II. 8vo.

WINKELMAN'S REFLECTIONS ON THE PAINTING OF THE GREEKS, translated by FUSELI. London, 1765. 8vo.

ROYAL PROCLAMATIONS IN ENGLAND IN THE YEAR 1688, EXTENDING TO AND INCLUDING THE YEAR 1707. London, folio.

TYRWITT'S SOLID REASONS FOR PHILOSOPHIZING. Winchester, 1652.

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY. The first two Volumes. In Numbers preferred.

MARVELL'S WORKS. 3 Vols. 4to.

MARVELL'S (ANDREW) LIFE.

KINGSTON-ON-HULL, any work upon.

EDWIN AND EMMA. Taylor, 1776. 5s. will be given for a perfect copy.

JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. Vol. V. Part I.

—— —— —— —— Vols. VIII. and IX. in Numbers.

POPE'S WORKS, BY WARTON, 1797. Vol. IV.

ROSCOE'S NOVELIST'S LIBRARY.—TRISTRAM SHANDY. Vol. II.

LINGARD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 4to. edit. Vol. VII.

LEBEUF, TRAITE HISTORIQUE SUR LE CHANT ECCLESIASTIQUE.

NOTES AND QUERIES. No. 19.

GEMMÆ ET SCULPTURÆ ANTIQUÆ DEPICTÆ IN LATINUM VERSÆ, per Jac. Gronovium. Amstelodami, 1685.

SWALBACI DISSERTATIO DE CICONIIS, &c. Spiræ. 1630.

SYNTAGMA HERBARUM ENCOMIASTICUM, ABR. ORTELIO INSCRIPTUM. Ex officina Plantin. 1614.

TYRWHITT, THO., CONJECTURÆ IN STRABONEM. London, 1783.

CRAKANTHORP'S DEFENCE OF JUSTINIAN THE EMPEROR AGAINST CARDINAL BARONIUS. London, 1616.

HALLERI (A.) ELEMENTA PHYSIOLOGIÆ CORPORIS HUMANI. 8 Vols. 4to. Lausannæ and Lugd. Batav. 1757-66. Vol. III.

RACCOLTA DI OPUSCULI SCIENTIFICI, &c., dal Padre Calogera. Venezia, 1728-57.

THE WHOLE DUTY OF A CHRISTIAN, by Way of Question and Answer: designed for the Use of Charity Schools. By Robert Nelson, 1718.

QUARTERLY REVIEW. Nos. 153. to 166., both inclusive.

BELL'S FUGITIVE POETRY COLLECTION. Vols. X. and XVI. 12mo. 1790.

THE CRITIC, London Literary Journal. First 6 Nos. for 1851.

VOLTAIRE, ŒUVRES COMPLETES DE. Aux Deux-Ponts. Chez Sanson et Compagnie. Vols. I. & II. 1791-2.

SCOTT'S CONTINUATION OF MILNER'S CHURCH HISTORY. Part II. of Vol. II. 8vo.

SPECTATOR. No. 1223. Dec. 6, 1851.

ANNUAL REGISTER, from 1816 inclusive to the present time.

MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL TRANSACTIONS. From Part II. of Vol. XI. March 1819; and also from Vol. XXX.

THE CODE MATRIMONIAL. Paris, 1770.

PRO MATRIMONIO PRINCIPIS CUM DEFUNCTÆ UXORIS SORORE CONTRACTO RESPONSUM JURIS, COLLEGII JURISCONSULTORUM IN ACADEMIÂ RINTELENSI. Published about 1655.

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

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Knights Templars—Greek Macaronic—Miniature of Cromwell—Folk Lore, Isle of Man—Dr. Fell—Amyclæ—Rhymes connected with Places—Family Likenesses—Spanish Verses on the Invasion of England—Sir Thomas Frowyk—George Trehern—John Goldesborough—Lists of Prothonotaries—Sailor's Superstition—Boiling to Death—St. Christopher—Marriage of Mrs. Claypole—"Black Gowns and Red Coats"—Periwinkle—Deaths from Fasting—Almascliffe—London Genealogical Society—Earl of Errol—Artificial Memory—and very many others, which we are this week prevented from acknowledging.

R. S. H.'s letter to F. C. has been duly forwarded.

W. S. The copy of Hoffman von Fallersleben has been left for him, as he wished.

C. S. P. T. (Oxon.) Duly received: only waiting for room.

BIS., who writes concerning the Palæologi, is quite right. We will look for J. B.'s reply.

P. T. The article shall be looked for. Its omission has arisen from press of matter, not from any such cause as P. T. supposes.

KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. C. S. will be happy to give E. A. H. L. much information on this subject, if he will put himself in communication with C. S., whose address the Editor is in possession of.

E. D. The communication respecting the "Catalogue of Pictures" has been forwarded.

Full price will be given for clean copies of No. 19. upon application to our Publisher.

Neat Cases for holding the Numbers of "N. & Q." until the completion of each Volume are now ready, price is 1s. 6d., and may be had by order of all booksellers and newsmen.

VOLUME THE FOURTH OF NOTES AND QUERIES, with very copious INDEX, is now ready, price 9s. 6d. cloth boards.

"NOTES AND QUERIES" is published at noon on Friday, so that the Country Booksellers may receive Copies in that night's parcels, and deliver them to their Subscribers on the Saturday.

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, April 3, 1852.