Notes and Queries Vol. V., No. 130, Saturday, April 24, 1852

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Whether it was Ashmole's influence, or that the equity of the case was on his side, is uncertain; but the Court of Chancery decided in his favour, and he was declared the proprietor of the Tredescantian Museum. He obtained, without being able to produce any written document which declared his right to the possession, all that the two Tredescants, father and son, had with inexpressible trouble, and by means of many voyages, brought together in their Museum and Botanic Garden.

The judgement of the Lord Chancellor[1] (Clarendon) was:

"He, Ashmole, shall have and enjoy all and singular the bookes, coynes, medalls, stones, pictures, mechanicks, and antiquities, and all and every other the raryties and curiosities, of what sort or kind soever, whether naturall or artificiall, which were in John Tredescant's Closett, or in or about his house at South Lambeth the 16th December, 1659, and which were commonly deemed, taken, and reputed as belonging or appertaining to the said Closett, or Collection of Rarities, an abstract whereof was heretofore printed under the tytle of 'Museum Tredescantianum.'"

[1] "The means of exhibiting Lord Clarendon as an equity judge," says Mr. Lister, "and of estimating his efficiency, are very scanty. The political functions of the Lord Chancellor then preponderated over the judicial functions much more than at present." He had for twenty years ceased to practise at the bar, and the very different avocations of that long period may have tended to unfit him. It is said that he never made a decree without the assistance of two of the judges: this implies a consciousness of want of knowledge, but, as his biographer says, "does not prove that the precaution was required."

Mrs. Tredescant was adjudged to have merely during her life a kind of custody of, or guardianship over the collection, "subject to the Trust for the Defendant during her life."

The Lord Chancellor further decreed that a commission should be named to inquire whether everything was forthcoming which was named in the Catalogue; in order that if anything was missing she should be constrained to replace it, and give security that nothing should be lost in future. The commissioners appointed to carry into effect the Chancellor's decree were however two persons with whom Ashmole must have been on terms of intimate friendship, namely, Sir Edward Bysh and Sir William Dugdale, both Heralds like himself; and with the latter he at length became most intimately connected by marrying his daughter. To them was also added, in his official capacity, Sir William Glascock, a Master in Chancery. Tredescant's widow, as may be imagined, did not very quietly submit to this, as it seemed to her, unjust decree; but all her endeavours at opposition were fruitless; she was constrained to yield; and it seems probable that the depressing influence of this struggle affected her so much as to cause her death. She was found drowned in the pond in the garden cultivated by her husband and his father at South Lambeth, on the 3rd of April, 1678.

Whatever may have been the legal or equitable right of Ashmole, upon which the decree in Chancery was founded, it is impossible for a generous mind to come to any other conclusion than that the course he pursued was unworthy of him as a man of education, and of his wealth and station; for it must be obvious from the will of Tredescant, that even supposing he had willingly and wittingly made a deed of gift of his treasures to Ashmole, and given him formal possession by handing over the Queen Elizabeth's shilling, it is next to impossible to believe that Ashmole did not know that he repented that act, and wished to connect his own name with the bequest to the University. Dr. Hamel[2] is induced to think that many of Tredescant's curiosities were never sent to Oxford; that there had been a careful suppression of every written document which might serve to connect the name of the Tredescants with the collection; and that the relation of the voyage to Russia only escaped because it bore no mark by which it could be recognised as Tradescant's.

[2] Dr. Hamel sought in vain at the Ashmolean Museum for some of the articles which the elder Tredescant brought home from Russia; among others, for an article occurring at p. 46. of the Tredescant Catalogue, described as "The Duke of Muscovy's vest, wrought with gold upon the breast and arms," which he thinks may have belonged to the Wojewode of Archangel, Wassiljewitch Chilkow. He however found nothing but the head of a Sea-diver, the remains of a whole bird described by Tredescant as a "Gorara or Colymbus from Muscovy:" the body seems to have shared the same fate as that of the Dodo. Another remarkable article occurring in the Catalogue is pointed out by Dr. Hamel, viz. "Blood that rained in the Isle of Wight, attested by Sir Jo. Oglander." This article, had it been preserved, he thinks might have proved of great scientific importance, as it is possible that it may have been some of that meteoric red dust which is recorded in the Chronicle of Bromton as having fallen in the Isle of Wight in the year 1177. The words of the Chronicle are: "Anno 1177 die Dominica post Pentecostes sanguineus imber cecidit in insula de Whit, fere per duas hores integras, ita quod panni linei per sepes ad siccandum suspensi, rore illo sanguineo sic aspersi fuerant acsi in vaso aliquo pleno sanguine mersi essent." Sir John Oglander, whose attestation is mentioned, was the immediate descendant of Richard de Okelander, who came over with William the Conqueror. Tredescant most probably became known to him when gardener to the Duke of Buckingham, with whom Sir John was joint commissioner for levies in Hampshire.

"The more we examine the Catalogue of the Museum Tredescantianum," says Dr. Hamel, "the more we are astonished that it was possible for these Gardeners (for such, we see, is the modest denomination the younger Tredescant assumes in his will) to get together so many and such various objects of curiosity, and to become the founders of the first collection of curiosities of Nature and Art in England."

Such men, and their endeavours to promote a love for, and to advance natural science, deserved at least to have had their names perpetuated with their collection; and whatever may be the merits of Ashmole as an antiquary, notwithstanding I am one of the fraternity, I must confess that although he has some claim to consideration for having augmented the collection, the Tredescants rank far above him as benefactors of mankind.

The mention, in the will of Robert and Thomas Tredescant, of Walberswick, in the county of Suffolk, is, I think, decisive that the elder Tredescant was an Englishman. In the relation of his voyage to Russia he shows that he was familiar with the aspect of the two adjoining counties of Essex and Norfolk. Dr. Hamel has directed his inquiries toward the registry of the church at Walberswick, in which he was aided by Mr. Ellis of Southwold; but unfortunately the existing register commences a century too late, the first entry being of the year 1756. In Gardner's Historical Account of Dunwich, Blithburg, and Southwold, 1754, there are notices of Walberswick, but the name of Tredescant does not occur.

I have just learned that the late MR. TRADESCANT LAY claimed descent from the Tredescants; and it seems probable that it was through the MRS. LEA, to whom Ashmole paid the 100l. on account of Tredescant's bequest. Ashmole may have written Lea for Lay, or the name, as often happens, may have assumed the latter form in the lapse of time.

It is remarkable that Mr. Tradescant Lay was the Naturalist attached to Beechey's expedition, and published The Voyage of the Himmaleh. He went subsequently to China, on account of the missions, but afterwards received an appointment under the government (probably that of interpreter). In the year 1841 he put forth an interesting little work, entitled The Chinese as they are; and he was at least worthy of the descent he claimed.

I have only to add, that I have not seen the original will, or the documentary evidence in the suit in Chancery. Desirous of losing no time in this communication, which is not without interest at the present moment, as it may influence the tribute about to be paid to the memory of the Tredescants by the reparation of their monuments, I have relied on Dr. Hamel's transcripts.

One is gratified to find that the merits of these humble and unpretending lovers of science is at length appreciated, and that, while some of the inhabitants of Lambeth, where they dwelt, are taking effective measures to restore the monument erected to their memory by the unfortunate Hester, a just tribute to their merits has been paid by Dr. Hamel at St. Petersburg! On Ashmole's tombstone in Lambeth Church is inscribed: "Mortem obiit 18 Maii, 1692, sed durante Musæo Ashmoleano Oxonii nunquam moriturus." May not some similar record relate to posterity that it was to the Tredescants we owe the foundation of the first Museum of Curiosities of Nature and Art, as well as the first Botanic Garden?

S. W. SINGER.

Manor Place, South Lambeth.

I have now before me an interesting little volume containing "Elegiac Verses" and other poetical effusions, composed by, and in the autograph of, Anne Ellys, wife and widow of a Bishop of St. David's. Most of the pieces are dated, the earliest in January, 1761, the latest February 15, 1763. The MS. is in small 4to. and contains fifteen pieces, eleven of which relate to the death of her husband (which occurred, so far as I can gather from the dates, on January 17th, 1761), and breathe a spirit of deep affection and of fervent piety. So far as I am aware, the poems have never been published; permit me to send you one of the pieces, as it may be deemed worthy of a place in the museum of inedited poetry already collected in your pages, and which I hope to see greatly increased.

This piece is the second in the collection, several of the other poems are signed with the author's name at full length: the last piece appears to be written under a presentiment of impending death; its heading is somewhat curious:

"February 15th [1763], past 2 in the morning. Going to bed very ill."

This leads me to inquire the date of her death. Should any further extracts from the MS. be deemed desirable, allow me to assure you that they are very much at your service.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON.

[From the epitaph on the tablet erected to the memory of Bishop Ellys in Gloucester Cathedral, we learn that "he married Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir Stephen Anderson of Eyworth, in the county of Bedford, Bart., whom he left, with only one daughter, to lament the common loss of one of the best of mankind." Kippis, in his Biog. Britain., adds, "The unfortunate marriage of Bishop Ellys's daughter, after his decease, and the subsequent derangement of her mind, would form a melancholy tale of domestic history."]

The common translations of apex with its epithet levis seem to me to be strangely deficient in sense. I am anxious to submit an idea which has occurred to me to the judgment of the riper scholars whose well-known names are subscribed to so many valuable articles in "N. & Q." The Delphin note defines apex to be "summa pars pilei," the conical termination of the bonnet worn by Iülus; and in this all other comments on this passage (at least with which I am acquainted) seem to agree. But in what sense can any part of a cap or bonnet be levis—light, flimsy, worthless, or capricious? which I take to be the only meanings of which levis is capable. Surely Virgil would not be guilty of so meaningless an epithet—of so palpable an instance of school-boy cram? Now, from a passage in Euripides, Phœn. 1270-4.,

it seems clear to me that Virgil meant, by levis apex, a light, flickering, lambent, pyramidal flame, the omen of success in the Πυρομαντεία.

The nature of the flame which consumed the sacrifice was one point which the haruspices, both Greek and Roman, particularly observed in endeavouring to ascertain the will of the gods; hence the expressions ἔμπυρα σήματα, φλογωπὰ σήματα. See Valckenaer on this very passage of the Phœnissæ.

E. S. TAYLOR, B.A.

Martham, Norfolk.

Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be interested with the following Note:—A few weeks since I met with at a stall a most beautifully-written MS. commentary on the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians. The MS. was evidently of the close of the seventeenth, or the first three or four years of the eighteenth century. I was much struck with its learning. At the end were two sermons written in a different hand. The commentary was scored and corrected by the same hand the sermons were written in. These latter were full of most copious extracts from the Greek and Latin Fathers. The handwriting was very remarkable. I discovered that the commentary was that of Dr. Whitby, though differing in several places from that published by him. By a comparison with some of Dr. Whitby's letters in the British Museum (especially Add. MSS. 4276., fol. 194.), two learned friends at once identified the Doctor's handwriting, which is very peculiar in the formation of some of the letters, and especially from having a remarkable curve [Illustration: horizontal curved line]. The two sermons, I believe, have never been published. Between the leaves of the MS. I found an old letter, of which I send you a copy. The person to whom it was addressed was Dr. Elias Sydall, subsequently, I believe, Bishop of Gloucester, then chaplain to Archbishop Tenison. I know not whether it has ever appeared in print before.

"To the Pious and Revd Dr Sydall, Chaplain to his Grace the Archbp. of Canterbury.

"The humble petition of the Inhabitants of the Parish of Allington in Kent.

"Sr.

"The sublime character his Grace did latelie bestow on a brace of his own Chaplains, that he feared not, not he, to turn them loose against any two preachers in England, has rais'd so high an opinion of your person in all men of sense and understanding, that you cannot wonder to see yourself courted by us as the reigning favourite at Lambeth; be pleas'd, therefore, when business of State or the care of the Church aford his Grace some minutes of leisure, to represent our deplorable case to Him: we are now as a flock without a Shepheard, and are inform'd by a threat'ning Emissary, who came latelie down only to scatter terror through our fields, that my Ld designs to thrust a young looker amongst us, who, tho' fit to be an Amanuensis, should the dreadfull times of Pulton[3] return, yet knows not yet what doctrine He should give, nor what tithes He should receive. Good Sr, put his Lordship in mind that our Fathers had once here the great Erasmus, & that our living should not be the portion of Sucklings: His Grace's singular affection to the Church will encline him, we hope, to consider our case, and we entreat you to favor it with your gracious countenance; and your Petitioners will, as in duty bound, pray to God that he will be pleas'd to translate one of the Prebendaries to Heaven, to make room for you before it is too late.

[3] "The A.B. disputed in K. James' time against Pulton the Jesuite, who prov'd too hard for Him."

I transcribe the letter verbatim et literatim. There is no date; but the writing is very old, evidently of the early part of the eighteenth century. Perhaps some of your readers can throw light upon the subject referred to. Does anybody know of more portions of Dr. Whitby's commentary in MS.?

RICHARD HOOPER.

St. Stephen's, Westminster.

The following copy of an early printer's and binder's bill is from a manuscript of the time of James I., to whose BASILICON DORON it most probably refers. It is presented to "N. & Q." in the hope that some of its correspondents (many of whom are so well versed in bibliographical matters and the literary history of the period) will find some curious particulars worthy their attention and illustration.

JOSEPH BURTT.

"Imprimis, For printinge of eight sheetes of ye King's Majesties Booke in lat. of Mr. Downes translation wch weare all destroyed 1000 copies of ech sheete at two sheetes a peny beinge the com̅on rate cometh to

lb 16 13 4

Item for reprinting five sheetes of ye King's Booke which weare altred, as namelie, B. twise, F. once, H. once, and G. in ye Apologie once, 750 copies of each sheete, at the rate of two sheetes a penye com̅eth to

lb 7 10 7

Item for 6 of the first partes of the King's Booke wch weare delivered to ye Bishop of Bath and Wells, Sir Henry Savill and others

lb 0 12 0

Item for the impression of the King's Booke in 4to., and my continuall attendance all the time it was in hand, and for so manie bookes as weare delivered to ye King's use, and my boatehyre sometimes six times in a day

lb 49 16 11

The Note of the Lesser Vollumes.

Item, To the King's Majesty, 2 bookes gilt

lb 0 6 0

Item, To Mr. Atie Scotsman, by order three dossen, gilt with fillets

lb 3 12 0

Item, To the King's Majestie three dossen in fillets, gilt with silke strings

lb 3 12 0

Item, To Mr. Barclay, 2 dossen and one, in Engl.

lb 1 12 0

Item, To Sir James Murray, 3 dossen, gilt fillets

lb 3 12 0

Item, To Sir Andrew Kith, 3 dossen, gilt fillets

lb 3 12 0

Item, 6 of the Bishop of Lincoln's bookes, per Mr. John Amongly, gilt fillets strings

lb 1 0 0

Item, To the King's Majestie on dussen and a half of Mr. Barclay's bookes, gilt fillets

lb 2 14 0

Item for 2 dossen of Mr. Barclay's bookes per order from Mr. Kircham

lb 3 12 0

———————

lb 98 4 10

———————

Item more delivered to ye King's use per Mr. Kircham:

8 of the Kings bookes in 12o fillets

lb 0 16 0

1 —— in English, sticht

lb 0 2 0

6 Bishop of Chychesters bookes 4to. fillets

lb 1 5 0

———————

lb 2 3 0

lb 98 4 10

———————

lb 100 7 10

———————

The Binder's Note.

Imprimis, For binding 6 of ye King's bookes plaine

lb 0 6 0

Item for bindinge one in Turkie leather wth small tooles

lb 1 0 0

Item for bindinge 6 bookes in vellem fillets gilt

lb 0 12 0

Item for bindinge of 12 bookes for Mr. Thomas Murray, whereof one in velvet

lb 1 10 0

Item for bindinge of 3 dossen vellem fillets

lb 3 12 0

Item for bindinge 31 in velvet, edged with gold lace, and lined wth tafity silk stringes

lb 20 13 4

Item for bindinge 20 of the King's bookes in velvet, silke strings

lb 10 0 0

Item for bindinge one in greene velvet in English and Latten for the Prince

lb 0 10 0

Item for bindinge 4 of the lesser sort in Turky leather, with strings gilt

lb 1 0 0

Item for 12 in vellem and leather with a fillet

lb 1 16 0

———————

lb 40 19 4

———————

For the Velvet.

Imprimis, For 15 yards of crymson velvet at 32s. per yard com̅eth to

lb 24 0 0

Item for 2 yards of purple velvet

lb 2 0 0

Item for 3 eld and a half of Taffity at 15s. per ell com̅eth to

lb 2 12 6

Item for gold lace

lb 3 6 8

Item for greene velvet for the Prince's booke

lb 0 10 0

———————

lb 32 9 2

———————

lb 173 16 4"

———————

Much has been written in "N. & Q." respecting the "Old Countess of Desmond," who is said to have died at the age of 140; but there is a still more remarkable instance of longevity recorded in the pedigree of the Vernon family, and which seems to be too well authenticated to admit of doubt. Sir Ralph Vernon, of Shipbrooke (Lysonsi styles him Baron of Shipbrooke, a barony founded by Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester), who was born some time in the thirteenth century, died at the great age of 150! and is said to have been succeeded by his descendant in the sixth generation. He was called the "Old Sir Ralph," or Sir R. "the long liver." His first wife was a daughter of the Lord Dacre; and in 1325 he made a settlement on the marriage of his grandson (or, as some pedigrees represent, great-grandson,) Sir Ralph with the daughter of Richard Damory, Chief Justice of Chester. This deed was the cause of future litigation; and it is said that the papers respecting this law-suit still exist, to prove the fact of the old knight's patriarchal age. I would refer those who may be curious for further information on the subject to Ormerod's History of Cheshire, where, in the pedigree of "Vernon of Shipbrooke," they will find some account of "Old Sir Ralph."

---

While on the subject of longevity, I may mention that in 1833, while passing through Savoy on my way from Italy, I saw and conversed with an old woman, who was then in her 119th year. It was at Lanslebourg, on the Mont Cenis. Her name was Elizabeth Durieux, and the date of her birth was the 17th of December, 1714, only four months after the death of Queen Anne, and when Louis XIV. still occupied the throne of France. Her age was well authenticated. In early life she had been in the service of the then reigning family, and a small pension had been settled upon her, which she had been receiving nearly a century; and, until within ten years of the time when I saw her, she had been in the habit of journeying on foot over the mountain annually to receive it. She had all her faculties, with the exception of a slight degree of deafness; and assured me that she could remember everything distinctly for one hundred and twelve years! She was bony, large limbed, and appeared to have been a tall strong woman formerly; excessively wrinkled, and very dirty. How long she may have continued to live after I saw her in 1833, I know not.

W. SNEYD.

Denton.

Several communications to the "N. & Q." have already proved how little reliance is to be placed upon the traditions repeated by vergers and guides to wondering lionizers. A collection of other instances, where the test of science and archæological investigation have exposed their falsity, would be interesting and instructive. In spite of Sir Samuel Meyrick's judicious arrangement of the armour in the tower, the beef-eaters still persist in relating the old stories handed down. At Warwick Castle the rib of the dun cow is ascertained to be a bone of a fossil elephant, and Guy's porridge-pot a military cooking utensil of the time of Charles I. St. Crispin's chair, carefully preserved in Linlithgow Cathedral by insertion in the wall, is of mahogany,—an American wood! The chair of Charles I. at Leicester bears a crown, which, having been the fashionable ornament after the Restoration, together with the form, betrays the date. Queen Eleanor's crosses, it now appears, were not built by her affectionate husband, but by her own direction and with her own money. The fire-place and other objects in belted Will's bedroom at Naworth Castle, are manifestly of later date. The curious bed treasured up near Leicester as that occupied by Richard III., immediately before the battle of Bosworth, is in the style commonly called Elizabethan. Queen Mary's bed at Holyrood is of the last century; and her room at Hardwicke is in a house which was not erected till after her death; the tapestry and furniture, however, may have been removed from the old hall where she was imprisoned. The tower of Caernarvon Castle, in which the first Prince of Wales is supposed to have been born, is not of so early a period. In short, archæologists seem to show that there is not only nothing new under the sun, but that there is also nothing true under the sun. To assume "a questionable shape," may I request some of your correspondents to add to the list?

C. T.

Some time ago I ventured to call the attention of your readers to what I regarded as an oversight of the commentators on Shakspeare, in reference to a certain passage of the Tempest in which the word "rack" occurs. It seemed to me that, with the exception of Malone, having overlooked the construction of the passage, they had been misled by the authority of Horne Tooke; for to every other part being conceded its due weight and meaning, and assuming, with Horne Tooke, that Shakspeare understood English at least as well as his commentators, I could not conceive it possible that there could be a serious doubt as to the value of the word in question. I have no wish, now, to say a word in addition upon this point, firmly convinced as I am that the time will come when "(w)rack" will be generally received by critics as it always has been by everybody else, as the true reading; but I have a few observations to make on the derivation of the word used by Shakspeare and others, with which it has been so often identified, which I trust will be found worthy of a few moments' consideration.

Horne Tooke is justly regarded as a very high authority, and certainly I should be the last to deny how deeply philology is indebted to the originality of his views; yet with the respect that I entertain for his labours, I see no reason why my judgment should abdicate its place, even though its conclusion should be that he was not always infallible. In considering the meaning of "rack" in the Tempest, I treated the question entirely as one of construction, and therefore allowed the supposed derivation of the same word in other places from Recan, to reek, to stand unexamined and unquestioned; but let us look now a little more closely into the matter, and I think I shall be able to make it appear that this conclusion is not altogether so unquestionable as many may have supposed. That the application of the word may be more clearly seen, I beg leave to quote a few passages:

"The winds in the upper regions which move the clouds above (which we call the rack)."
Bacon, Naturall Historie.

Steevens, in reference to the last quotation, says, "I should explain the word rack somewhat differently, by calling it 'the last fleeting vestige of the highest clouds, scarce perceptible on account of their distance and tenuity.' What was anciently called 'the rack' is now termed by sailors the scud." It is sufficiently obvious from the above what is meant by the word; but I now come to put the question, What authority had Horne Tooke for deriving it from Recan? It is, in fact, nothing more than a guess, the less probable as the word represents only an indirect result—not the clouds themselves, but a peculiar effect produced upon the clouds by the action of the winds. In another passage (in which I recognise the hand of Shakspeare) the formation of the rack is employed as an illustration; and in this instance "reek" would hardly stand as a substitute for the verb used.

From this it would appear that the rack is literally that which has been wrecked, and that it should be derived from wrac, past part. of wrikan, to wreak; in short, that it is identical with the word in the Tempest in the general sense of remains; in the present case, in its special application, meaning, as Steevens explains, "the last fleeting vestige[4] of the highest clouds" previous to their final disappearance. Had it ever been used with the general sense of vapour or exhalation, or even generally for a cloud or the clouds, the case would be different; but in fact, no examples can be produced by which it can be shown that such was ever its meaning; and in the absence of proof it will be noted as not a little remarkable that, not being used to represent the clouds, which already exist in the form of vapour or exhalations, it is only employed when a word is required descriptive of an effect of their dispersion.

[4] Indeed, the action of the winds is one and the same, whether upon clouds on the face of heaven, or upon bodies at sea; and the wrack of one and the other, broken into fragments, for a fleeting space remains behind to tell the tale.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

—There is a class of persons who fall under this denomination, and to whom the following lines may give a useful hint. Doubtless some of your correspondents, who are furnished with valuable libraries and works of reference, have suffered materially from a neglect of the rules herein laid down.

†.

—Will you permit me to ask the reason of the absurd, and sometimes inconvenient, custom of substituting I for J in MS. spelling of the names John, James, Jane, &c.? If it be correct in MS., why is it not equally correct in print? Let us, then, just see how the names would read in print with such spelling: Iohn, Iames, Iane, &c.! Besides, if it be correct to put I for J in John, it must, of course, be equally correct to put J for I in Isaac, and to turn it into Jsaac. Indeed, if you happen in a subscription list, or a letter, or anything else intended for the press, to write in the MS. the letter I (which rightly stands as the initial in that case), as the initial of some person named Isaac, it is ten to one but the compositor substitutes J in its place in print. I have found Sir I. Newton in my MS. thus metamorphosed into Sir J. Newton in print. I see in "The Clergy List" more than one name which ought to be I, turned into a J. Now, Sir, it is folly to pretend that I and J are synonymous letters, or that they express the same meaning, unless we are prepared to allow Isaac to be spelt with a J or I, according to the writer's pleasure or caprice. May I, then, be permitted to ask whether it is not high time for every one to write I when he means I, and to write J when he means J? If compositors would always print MSS. as they are written in this particular, the palpable absurdity of putting I for J would, I am sure, soon be evident to all, and soon shame people out of the fashion. What if U and V were treated with as little ceremony as I and J? So it once was. Thus T. Rogers, in his work on the Thirty-nine Articles, A.D. 1586, will furnish an example. In it we read: "Such is the estate principally of infants elected vnto life, and saluation, and increasing in yeers." But this old-fashioned mode of spelling has long become obsolete: may the substitution of I for J soon become the same.

C. D.

—A son of Daniel shines in Pope's Dunciad. Does the following notice refer to a son of that son? It is extracted from an old Wiltshire paper:

"On the 2 Jan. 1771, two young men, John Clark and John Joseph De Foe, said to be a grandson to the celebrated author of the True Born Englishman, &c., were executed at Tyburn for robbing Mr. F——, the banker, of a watch and a trifling sum of money on the highway."

And the writer then proceeds to moralise on the inequality of that code of laws, which could visit with death the author of a burglary committed on another man, who, by the failure of his bank, had recently produced an unexampled scene of distress, in the ruin of many families, and was yet suffered to go scatheless.

My next notice, which is also extracted from a Wiltshire paper, is dated 1836.

"In a street adjoining Hungerford Market, there is now living, 'to fortune and to fame unknown,' the great-grandson of the author of Robinson Crusoe. His trade is that of a carpenter, and he is much respected in the neighbourhood. His father, a namesake of this great progenitor, was for many years a creditable tradesman in the old Hungerford Market."

Has it ever been noticed by bibliographers that the History of Robert Drury, which came out the year before Robinson Crusoe, may have had an equal share with Alexander Selkirk's story in forming the basis of De Foe's narrative?

WILTONIENSIS.

—During a visit to Bolingbroke, a village in Lincolnshire, the birth-place of Henry IV., the rapidity of the little stream, so unusual in a county remarkable for the sluggishness of its waters, suggested to me the probable origin of the name, bowling brook; "bowling along," and "running at a bowling pace," being not uncommon expressions. Here then, if we cannot meet with "sermons in stones" amongst the few vestiges of the castle, and in the church with its beautiful decorated windows, the heads of which are so disgracefully blocked up with plaster, we may "find books in the running brooks," and learn that "proud Bolingbroke" owed his appellation to this insignificant babbling rivulet.

C. T.

—Now that we hear no more of Bloomerism, a feeble attempt has been made to introduce a spurious scion of the defunct nuisance, almost as masculine, and to the full as ugly. I have but little fear of its gaining ground, having full confidence in the good taste of our countrywomen: but it will be curious to see what our ancestors of the seventeenth century thought of the wearers of the aforesaid garment. Vide the Glossary to Beaumont and Fletcher's Works:

"WAISTCOATEERS. Strumpets; a kind of waistcoat was peculiar to that class of females."

Verbum non amplius addam.

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

—Professor De Morgan, in his useful List of Works on Arithmetic, published in 1847, enters one, under the date 1596, with the following title: "The Pathway to Knowledge, written in Dutch, and translated into English by W. P., 4to." To this he notes:

"The translator gives the following verses, which are now well known. I suspect he is the author of them, having never seen them at an earlier date. Mr. Halliwell, who is more likely than myself to have found them if they existed very early, names no version of them earlier than 1635:—

Now it seems to me noteworthy to be recorded in your pages, that these lines, so familiar to us all from childhood, appear in a more complete shape in Harrison's Description of Britaine prefixed to the first edition of Holinshed's Chronicles of England, &c., 1577, where at p. 119. the writer says:

"Agayne touching the number of dayes in every moneth:

A. GRAYAN.

—In the north of Lincolnshire the sore mouth with which babies are often troubled is called the frog. And it is a common practice with mothers to hold a real live frog by one of its hind legs, and allow it to sprawl about within the mouth of a child so afflicted. Is the same remarkable custom known elsewhere?

The disease is properly called the thrush, and bears some resemblance to the disorder of the same name which affects the frog of the horse's foot. I wish someone would unravel this entanglement.

W. S.

North Lincolnshire.

—Some time since, a woman refused to be sworn because she was in the family way. In The Times of the 5th March, a woman at Chelmsford is represented as having said: "I swear this positively on the condition I am in, being about to become a mother?"

Can anybody explain these facts?

A. C.

—I wish to inquire what is supposed to be the origin of begging apples, &c., on St. Clement's Day, and money (formerly wheat) on St. Thomas's? There is hardly any trace left of the former saint's day in this neighbourhood (Worcestershire, on the border of Staffordshire), but I have had convincing proof to-day that St. Thomas is not forgotten, for we have had plenty of visitors, tomorrow being Sunday.

T. GOLDSEER.

Dec. 20. 1851.

In a biographical notice (MS.) of Speaker Lenthall by the Rev. Mark Noble, I find the following passage:

"His (Lenthall's) ancestor is mentioned in the will of Sir Richard Williams alias Cromwell. Sir Richard was the great-grandfather of Oliver Lord Protector. There was always a friendship between the family of Cromwell and that of Lenthall."

Can any one versed in Cromwellian lore kindly inform me if any such will is in existence; and if so, what is its date? I should be glad to know too if there is any further authority for the statement in the text, that there was always a friendship between the Cromwells and Lenthalls, assuming such friendship to have subsisted anterior to the days of the Commonwealth.

It is stated by Wood (Athen. Oxon., article LENTHALL), and repeated in substance by Noble in his Protectoral House of Cromwell, that "two or more" of the Speaker's son, Sir John Lenthall's speeches, "spoken in the time of usurpation," are in print. Having hitherto failed in discovering any trace of these speeches, I should greatly value any clue that may direct me to them if still extant. On Noble's authority, when unsupported, of course little reliance can be placed; but in any matter of detail, or pure and simple fact, related by Wood, I have considerable, though not altogether implicit, faith.

In a brief and singularly inaccurate memoir of Lenthall, in the Lives of the Speakers, lately published by Churton, the following passage occurs:

"We omitted to state in reference to Mr. Lenthall's strenuous exertions in favour of the gallant Earl of Derby, that Mrs. Cromwell, in one of her letters to the Protector, urges him to endeavour to effect a reconciliation with the Speaker," &c. &c.

As no authority is cited, I should be glad to learn where the letters of Mrs. Cromwell thus referred to are to be found. Are they in print or MS.? If any of your readers should be able to enlighten me in respect of all or any of the above Queries, and would kindly do so either through the medium of the Notes, or to my address as below, I should be greatly obliged.

F. KYFFIN LENTHALL.

36. Mount Street, Grosvenor Square.

I find that Robert Roper, Esq., of Heanor Hall, co. Derby, married ... daughter of William Nott, Esq., of Imbercourt, co. Surrey, and had issue, with other children, Rebecca; married first Sir William Villiers, Bart., of Brooksby, co. Leicester, elder brother of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham; and secondly Capt. Francis Cave of Ingarsby Hall, co. Leicester.

Can any one of your readers supply me with the Christian name of Robert Roper's wife; and with the names of his other issue: also whether the representation of this branch of the Roper family has devolved upon the descendants of Rebecca Cave? I find in my mem. book a reference to Dodsw. MSS. in Bibl. Bodl. 41. fol. 70., which I have no means of consulting at present.

I find that William Notte, with Elizabeth his wife, his father-in-law and mother-in-law, are buried at Thames Ditton, co. Surrey. Manning and Bray's Surrey, vol. i. p. 463., contains the following passage:

"On a stone, or brass plates, are the portraits of a man kneeling at a table, and of a woman: behind the man are three sons; behind the woman, three daughters all kneeling, and underneath:

"'Here under lyeth the bodies of Robert Smythe, Gent., and Katheryn his wife, daughter to Sir Thomas Blount of Kinlett, Knyght, which Robert dyed the 3rd daye of Sept. 1539, and the sayd Katheryn dyed the x day of July, 1549.'

"Below these, on the same stone, are also the portraits of a man with fourteen sons behind him; and a woman with five daughters, all kneeling; and underneath:

"'Here under lyeth the bodies of William Notte, Esquyre, and Elizabeth his wife, daughter to the above-named Robert Smyth, and Katheryn his wyfe; whiche William dyed the 25th day of Nov. 1576, and the sayd Elizabeth dyed the xv day of May, 1587.'

"Above are the arms, Notte, on a bend between 3 leopards heads one and two, 3 martlets; crest, an otter with a fish in his mouth in a tussock of reeds.'"

Can any one of your readers refer me to any notice or pedigree of this family of Notte, who were lords of the manor of Imbercourt in the parish of Thames Ditton?

Can any one tell me to what family this Robert Smythe belonged? Was he one of the Smythes of Ostenhanger in Kent? Was his wife Katheryne too the daughter of Sir Thomas Blount by the daughter of Sir Richard Crofts of Eldersfield? The History of the Croke family does not notice her existence. And, lastly, would some one on the spot kindly inform me, whether the above-mentioned brasses are still extant, and in sufficiently perfect condition to admit of a rubbing being taken of them?

TEWARS.

—Can any of your readers favour me with information in regard to any seals of suffragan bishops in England, besides that which is engraved in the Archæologia, vol. vii.? Any references or notices on the subject of suffragans would be thankfully received, which may not be included in the observations collected by Dr. Pegge.

ALBERT WAY.

—I should feel much indebted to any of your correspondents who will inform me what is the true etymon of this word—the strict meaning of the term originally—and when first used in our language?

However trifling this Query may at first sight appear, yet I am very anxious to ascertain whether, originally, the term was applied exclusively or principally to deadly agents operating on the body through the skin, or an external wound, and not through the stomach?

The Greek word Toxicon is rendered "venenum," quod barbarorum sagittæ eo illinebantur (Vide Diosc. Lib. VI. cap. XX.) Again, Iòs, jaculum, sagitta. Item, venenum, quod serpentes et cætera animalia venenata ejaculatur. Horace uses the words "pus atque venenum," not to express two different things, but merely to add force and point to his satire; just as in like manner we read "crafts and subtleties" in the Liturgy, or "a thief and a robber" in the Scripture.

Now, is it not probable that our word "poison" takes its origin from this "pus?"

CARBO.

—In the Critic of February 2, 1852, p. 78., there is an excellent letter, written by a lady, in defence of female doctors. In this letter Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D., is mentioned with great respect. It appears, from the Critic of January 15, p. 45., that Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is an American lady, and graduated in some American university, and that she was received with distinguished marks of attention both in London and Paris, and especially at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. Can any of your correspondents favour us with a biography of this lady, and state in what university, and when she graduated?

SOB.

—In Worcester Cathedral is a marble monument to the memory of "Martha,[5] Countess of Middleton, who died the 9th of February, 1705, aged 71."

Can any of your readers inform me who this lady was? I have been unable to find her name in any of the pedigrees within any reach.

J. B. WHITBORNE.

[5] The name is Dorothy in Valentine Green's History of Worcester, vol. i. p. 149.—ED.

—The latter officer, the sheriff, claims precedency over the Queen's representative, the lord lieutenant, in the county, whilst in office. It seems contrary to all reason, but will any of your legal friends state upon what authority such precedence is maintained; and in what instances they know that, when present, the lord lieutenant has ranked below the sheriff?

L. I.

—Mr. W. F. Skene, in his Highlanders, quotes Ari Froda or Arius Multiscius for the assertion, that the Hebrides were occupied, on the departure of Harold Harfagr, "by Vikingr Skotar, a term which is an exact translation of the appellation Gallgael" (vol. ii. p. 27.). That is true, on the assumption that Vikingr is not Icelandic for pirate, but only for Scandinavian pirate; which assumption I should doubt.

But I wish to be informed in what edition of Ari Froda, and at what page thereof, the words Vikingr Skotar may be found.

A. N.

—Will you allow me to call MR. LOWER'S attention to a passage in his English Surnames, vol. ii. p. 122., 3rd edition, which he has passed over without comment, but which struck me as requiring some editorial notice:

"The motto of John Wells, last abbot of Croyland, engraved upon his chair, which is still extant, is:

Reading "Domino" for "Domine" would make the first line of this inscription plain enough, as a quotation from the canticle "Benedicite, omnia opera;" but what are we to think of the second line? Could not the worthy abbot have given the pun upon his name in English, without using those particular words, or placing them in such a position that they actually look as if they were intended as a translation, word for word, of their Latin companions, in defiance of all the laws of grammar?

C. FORBES.

Temple.

—Why and when was the custom of eating apple sauce with pork first introduced?

BONIFACE.

—In Shinar, or the province of Babylon, are the mountains of Singares, and the city and river of Singara. Have they anything to do with the origin of Zingari, the Italian name for gipsies?

L. M. M. R.

—Why do secretaries to provincial gas companies call small pieces of coke breezes; and why do they by letters offer to sell "breezes at tenpence per sack?" My residence is not far distant from the works of one of these Æolian gas companies; and when the wind is in the east, I inhale breezes which my senses tell me do not blow from "Araby the blest."

X. Y. Z.

—The clerk in a parish in the north-west part of Sussex frequently makes use of an expression which I cannot understand,—nay more, he is unable to explain it himself! The expression is used by several of the old men in the parish, though by none of them so often as by the clerk. "Well, master, how are ye to-day?" He answers, "Middling, thanky'e and tye." He brings these two words in at the end of most sentences. If you ask him whether there are many people in the church, he will say, "Fairish number and tye;" or, "No, not many and tye."

Can any of your correspondents say if they have heard it elsewhere, or tell the meaning of it?

NEDLAM.

—Is any MS. of this dramatic pastoral known to exist? It was acted, according to Wood, before the President and Fellows of St. John's College, Oxford, in 1635.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

—A gold ring was found in France, in the province of Artois, between thirty and forty years ago, bearing the following inscription:

The ring is of a proper size for a man's finger, is plain, and rounded on the outside. The words are on the inner side, which is flat. They are well engraved, and very distinct. The character is the black letter of the fifteenth century. Perhaps, through the medium of "N. & Q.," a satisfactory interpretation of the three words may be obtained, which has been long sought in vain.

A. F. A. W.

—"Deaths by Fasting," and "Genevra's Chest," have reminded me of another tradition, no doubt equally groundless. It is said by the vergers that one of the circular windows in the transepts of Lincoln Minster was designed by an apprentice; and that the master, mortified at being surpassed, put an end to his own existence. There is another "'prentice window" at Melrose: a similar anecdote is connected with two pillars in Roslyn Chapel. And there may have been many more of these clever apprentices and foolish architects, but can one case be substantiated?

C. T.

—In George Agar Hansard's Book of Archery, 8vo. London, Longman and Orme, 1840, p. 151., it is stated that "Her Gracious Majesty, Alexandrina Victoria" has her name inscribed upon the Archer Rolls. Query, what are the Archer Rolls?

It is further said:

"That illustrious lady, in imitation of the warrior race of monarchs from whom she springs, has given a proof of real British feeling, by the appointment of a Master of Archery among her household officers."

I confess I can find no authority upon which this assertion is founded. I have looked into the Calendar of the time, and have consulted officers of the present household upon the existence of the office, without success.

I should be glad to ascertain the point, being engaged on a manuscript concerning the practice of archery.

TOXOPHILUS.

—In the Quarterly for March 1852, in the article on "Sir Roger de Coverley," mention is made of "Mrs. Hicks and her daughter," who were executed at Huntingdon in 1716 for "selling their souls to the devil, making their neighbour vomit pins, and raising a storm by which a certain ship was almost lost." I would wish to know whether there is extant any account of this trial; I do not mean of the result, but whether I can anywhere meet with any account of the trial itself; of the judge before whom it was tried; the evidence, especially as to the ship which was almost lost; and whether (what was observed upon in the answer of your correspondent H. B. C. to some Queries about "Old Booty's Ghost") the time of the crime being committed in Huntingdonshire, agrees with the position of the ship at the moment.

J. H. L.

University Club.

—In 4 Henry V. (1417) Sir Hugh Burnell, a descendant of Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Lord Chancellor in the reign of Edward I., entered into articles of agreement with Sir Walter Hungerford (through the King's mediation by letters) for the marriage of Margery, one of Sir Hugh's grandchildren, to Edmund Hungerford, son of Sir Walter. There was issue of this marriage, as I find by a fine levied by Antony Hungerford in the 32nd of Henry VIII.; but any further information respecting this family I am not able to meet with. If any of your correspondents can assist me in my inquiries I shall feel much obliged.

W. H. HART.

New Cross, Hatcham.

—Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." favour me with some particulars regarding the ancestry of the Rev. William Dawson, minister of the Gospel at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who was appointed Professor of Hebrew and other Oriental languages in the University of Edinburgh in 1732? He is supposed to have been descended from the Irish family of Cremorne.

E. N.

—Is there authority for the "Up, Guards, and at them!" traditionally put in the mouth of "the Duke" at Waterloo? I have heard not.

A. A. D.

P.S. Is not the battle itself a myth?

—I much wish some of the readers of "N. & Q." would refer me to any authorities they may know of respecting St. Botolph?

Private hints directed "A. B., Mr. Morton's, Publisher, Boston," will be most thankfully received.

A. B.

—In the year 1333, it appears from The Custom Book, fol. 60., that the then Sheriff of Norfolk sent a copy of the king's proclamation to the Bailiffs of Norwich, commanding them to cause proclamation to be made in the city that "no man presume to take more than 24s. for the best living ox fatted with grain, and if not fatted with grain only 16s.; the best fat cow 12s.; the best fat swine of two years old, only 4s.; the best fat mutton unclipped, 20d.; and if clipped, then 14d.; a fat goose, 2d.; two pullets, 1d.; four pigeons, 1d.; a good fat capon, 2d.; a fat hen, 1d.; and twenty-four eggs, 1d." Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." inform me what was the then yearly (average) rental of an acre of arable land, and the value per annum of an acre (average) of pasture? Also the relative value of one shilling sterling, as compared with one shilling at the present time?

JOHN FAIRFAX FRANCKLIN.

West Newton.

—Can any of your correspondents inform me in what Greek author ἱμάτιον ἀνήρ, "the dress shows the man," is to be found?

W. S.

Richmond, Surrey.

—Can any of your readers help me to identify the Gilbert Burnet, whose correspondence with Professor Francis Hutcheson on the Foundation of Virtue was published, first in The London Journal, and afterwards in a separate pamphlet, in 1735? Was he Gilbert son of Bishop Burnet, or was he the vicar of Coggeshall, who abridged the Boyle Lectures; or was he a third Gilbert Burnet, in addition to the other two?

TYRO.

Dublin.

—It has been the belief of many that the burial at Westminster Abbey was a mock ceremony, that in case a change in the ruling powers should take place, his remains were deposited in a place of greater security, and that the spot selected for his grave was the field of Naseby. The author of The Compleat History of England speaks of a "Mr. Barkstead, the regicide's son," as being ready to depose—

"That the said Barkstead his father, being Lieutenant of the Tower, and a great confident of Cromwell's, did, among other such confidents, in the time of his illness, desire to know where he would be buried; to which the Protector answered, 'where he had obtained the greatest victory and glory, and as nigh the spot as could be guessed where the heat of the action was, viz. in the field at Naseby in com. Northampton.' That at midnight, soon after his death, the body (being first embalmed and wrapt in a leaden coffin) was in a hearse conveyed to the said field, Mr. Barkstead himself attending, by order of his father, close to the hearse. That being come to the field, they found about the midst of it a grave dug about nine feet deep, with the green-sod carefully laid on one side and the mould on the other, in which the coffin being put, the grave was instantly filled up, and the green-sod laid exactly flat upon it, care being taken that the surplus mould should be clean removed. That soon after the like care was taken that the ground should be ploughed up, and that it was sowed successively with corn."

The author further states that the deponent was about fifteen years old at the time of Cromwell's death.

Some seven or eight years ago I visited the field of Naseby, and whilst there I met by accident with the aged clergyman of Naseby. Our conversation naturally referred to the historical incident that had given so much interest to the spot; and finally we spoke of this very subject. I remember his telling me that he had collected some very important memoranda relative to this matter, I think he said, "which proved the arrival of his remains at Huntingdon, on their road elsewhere."

Has this subject been properly investigated? and has any research been made which has led to a satisfactory decision of the question?

A. B.

Islington.

—QUÆRENS would be glad to know whether any of the Knollys family, claimants of the earldom of Banbury, married either an Etheridge or a Blackwell?

Also, especially, who were the wives of Major-General William Knollys, calling himself eighth Earl of Banbury, and of his father, Thomas Woods Knollys, calling himself seventh earl.

[Thos. Woods Knollys, called Earl of Banbury (father of the last claimant to the Earldom of Banbury), married Mary, daughter of William Porter of Winchester, attorney-at-law; he died the 18th March, 1793; and she, 23rd March, 1798.

Their eldest son, William Knollys, called in his father's lifetime Viscount Wallingford, and afterwards Earl of Banbury, married ——, daughter of Ebenezer Blackwell.]

—I enclose a rude drawing of a halfpenny, and should be glad to be favoured with a more detailed account of its emblematical import than I at present possess. It is thus described in Conder's Provincial Coins, Ipswich, 1798, p. 213.:

"A square of daggers, the word 'fire' at each corner, a foot in the middle, under it the word 'honor;' over it 'France,' and the word 'throne' bottom upwards; on one side 'glory' defaced, on the other 'religion' divided. 'A Map of France,' 1794."

On reverse, in a radiation, "May Great Britain ever remain the reverse," encircled with an open wreath of oak. Engrailed.

PETROPROMONTORIENSIS.

[The types here described appear to explain themselves. That of the obverse is clearly emblematical of the then state of France, with France surrounded by fire and sword, honour trodden under foot, the throne overturned, religion shattered, and glory defaced; while the reverse expresses a very natural wish.]

—Will any of your correspondents refer me to any collections of proverbs of different nations, or to writers who may have given lists of those of any particular people, either ancient or modern?

SIGMA.

[To answer our correspondent fully would fill an entire Number of "N. & Q." We had thought of giving him a list of the best collections of the proverbs of different nations, as Le Roux de Lincy's Livre des Proverbes Français; Korte's Die Sprichwörter und Sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der Deutschen; but we shall be doing him better service by referring him to two books, in which we think he will find all the information of which he is in search; viz., 1. Nopitsch, Literatur der Sprichwörter; and 2. Duplessis, Bibliographie Parémiologique. Etudes Bibliographiques et Litéraires sur les Ouvrages, Fragmens d'Ouvrages et Opuscules spécialement consacrés aux Proverbes dans toutes les langues.]

—An armiger had two wives, and issue by both: by the first, sons; by the second, who was an heiress, daughters only. Have the descendants of the second marriage right to quarter the ancestor's arms, male issue of the first marriage still surviving? It would seem that they have, as otherwise the arms of the heiress' family cannot be transmitted to her posterity, nor the heraldic representation carried on.

G. A. C.

[The daughter of armiger by his second wife would of course quarter her mother's arms with those of her father. In case of the daughter marrying and having issue, such issue, to show that the grandmother was an heiress, would, with their paternal crest, quarter those of the grandmother, placing the arms of armiger on a canton.]

—I have just had placed before me a memorandum to the effect that "there is at Leyden the perfect and undoubted original of Chantrey's celebrated figures of the children at Lichfield." The reference is to Poynder's Literary Extracts, Second Series, p. 63. As I have not seen the book, and have no access to it, will some correspondent of "N. & Q." inform me whether the foregoing passage contains the whole of Poynder's statement; or otherwise afford any information relative to its origin? I need scarcely add, that the reputation of the great English sculptor is nowise involved in the issue of the question.

D.

[We subjoin the whole of Mr. Poynder's article, which is signed "Miscellaneous:"—"There is at Leyden the perfect and undoubted original of Chantrey's celebrated figures of the children at Lichfield; and on a friend of the writer mentioning the circumstance to that artist, he did not deny the fact. The figures form the foreground of a celebrated painting in the Town-hall, commemorating the heroic conduct of a former defender of that city, when it was reduced by famine to the greatest extremities. On this occasion the citizens are represented as earnestly importuning the governor to surrender, and representing their deplorable condition from the effects of the siege. Many dying figures are introduced into the painting, and among them the children in question are seen locked in each other's arms, precisely as in the sculpture at Lichfield. The story proceeds to relate, that the commander declared he would never surrender the city; and added, that whether his fellow-citizens chose to hang him, or throw him into the dyke, he was determined never to open the gates to such a monster as the Duke of Alva. It is further stated, that the providential relief of the city by some troops of his own side rewarded his courage."]

—In 1785, Institutes, Political and Military, of the Emperor Timour (incorrectly called Tamerlane), were published at Calcutta, printed by Daniel Stuart. This work, which may more properly be named autobiographical memoranda, written by Timour, was composed by him originally in the Turkish language, and translated by Abu Taulib Alhusseini into Persian, and by Major Davy into English, to which Dr. Joseph White, of Oxford, added notes; and other matter was affixed by a person whose name is not given. The rules for carrying to a successful result great enterprises are profound and dignified, and the enterprises extraordinary and interesting, though only given in outline. This part ends with the capture of Bagdat (d?). I wish to know if there exists an accredited translation from the original by Timour in the Turkish, and of what more this extraordinary work consists; and if any part, or all, has ever been printed in England, or in any European language?

ÆGROTUS.

[In the year 1787, the late Professor Langlés of Paris published a French translation of the Institutes, under the title of Instituts Politiques et Militaires de Tamerlane, proprement appellé Timour, écrits par lui-même en Mogol, et traduits en François sur la version Persane d'Abou Taleb al Hosseini, avec la Vie de ce Conquerant, &c. And in 1830 another English translation was published by Major Charles Stewart, late Professor of Oriental Languages in Hon. E. I. Company's College, entitled, The Mulfuzāt Timūr, or Autobiographical Memoirs of the Moghul Emperor Timūr. In the Preface to this edition our correspondent will find an interesting bibliographical account of the work and its various translations.]

I am somewhat of opinion that your correspondent PETROPROMONTORIENSIS is correct, about this nobleman being by birth the first subject in Scotland, only he has apparently omitted the word "hereditary" before those of Great Constable of Scotland, or Lord High Constable of Scotland. Indeed, some writers make him by birth, not only the first subject in Scotland, but also in England. Dr. Anderson, the learned and laborious editor of The Bee, at p. 306. of vol. v. of that publication, in the article on James, Earl of Erroll, who died 3rd June, 1778, says:

"As to rank, in his lordship's person were united the honours of Livingston, Kilmarnock, and Erroll. As hereditary High Constable of Scotland, Lord Erroll is by birth the first subject in Great Britain, after the blood royal, and, as such, had a right to take place of every hereditary honour. The Lord Chancellor, and the Lord High Constable of England, do indeed take precedence of him, but these are only temporary honours which no man can lay claim to by birth; so that, by birth, Lord Erroll ranks, without a doubt, as the first subject of Great Britain, next after the Princes of the blood royal."

It would appear that the personal appearance of Earl James was in good keeping with his high rank. He was accounted the handsomest man in Britain, and at the coronation of George III. he attended in his robes, and by accident neglected to take off his cap when the king entered. He apologised for his negligence in the most respectful manner; but his majesty, with great complacency, entreated him to be covered, as he looked upon his presence at the solemnity as a very particular honour.

The Earl of Erroll's charter of appointment to this high office, is dated at Cambuskenneth, 12th November, anno 1316; and is still preserved in the charter room of the family seat, Slains Castle, Cruden, Aberdeenshire. The youthful inheritor of this high office is the Right Honourable William Harry, Earl of Erroll, Baron Hay of Slains, Baron Kilmarnock of Kilmarnock, in the county of Ayr, Captain in the Rifle Brigade, born in 1823, succeeded his father, seventeenth Earl, in 1846.

INVERURIENSIS.

Although not affording answers to the Queries in Vol. iv., p. 438. et infra, the following may not be uninteresting to your correspondent. There is much concerning Wolfe in the Historical Journal of Campaigns in North America, by Captain Knox, dedicated by permission to Sir Jeffery Amherst, who commanded that part of the expedition against Canada which, striking on the lower end of Lake Ontario, descended the St. Lawrence to Montreal, whilst Wolfe, ascending the river, operated against Quebec. Thus it appears that General and Sir Jeffery Amherst were one and the same person. The frontispiece to the 1st vol. is a portrait of General Amherst, that of vol. 2nd is a portrait of General Wolfe; both so characteristic, that I should presume they are likenesses, although no authority is given.

In 1828, I saw at Quebec the man who attended Wolfe as orderly-serjeant on the day of his death; and what may be considered a curious coincidence was, that he bore the same name as Wolfe's mother, viz. Thompson. Mr. Thompson was a very respectable and much-respected old man; and, I believe, was occasionally a guest at the Governor's table. He had a son in the Commissariat department, who is no doubt in possession of all his father knew concerning Wolfe.

According to Mr. Thompson, Wolfe always addressed his men "brother soldiers;" and their pet-name for him was, "The little red-haired corporal." Thompson was not the only remnant of Wolfe's army in 1828, as appears by the following:—

"General Orders, Head Quarters, Quebec, 7th Aug. 1828.

"1. The Commander of the Forces is pleased to authorise the payment of a pension, at the rate of 1s. per diem from 25th May last, to Robert Simpson, a veteran, now ninety-six years of age, who fought on the plains of Abraham under Gen. Wolfe," &c. &c.

On the 12th Jan. 1829, died at Kingston, U. C., John Gray of Argyleshire, N. B., aged ninety-six. He had served at Louisburg, Quebec, &c. &c. under Sir Jeffery Amherst and General Wolfe.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

I send the following extracts from the newspapers respecting Wolfe, scarcely knowing whether it may be worth while. Such as they are, they are at your service:—

"Hoc ultimum opus virtutis edens in victoria cœsus."

"To the highest military merit undoubtedly belongs the highest applause, but setting aside the froth of panegyrick—

"Who formed the 20th regt. of foot, exemplary in the field of Minden, only by practising what was familiar to them?

"Who at Rochefort offered to make a good landing, not asking how many were the French, but where are they?

"Who, second then in command, was second to none in those laborious dangers which reduced Louisburgh?

"Who wrote like Cæsar from before Quebec?

"Who, like Epaminondas, died in victory?

"Who never gave his country cause of complaint except by his death?

"Who bequeathed Canada as a triumphant legacy?

"Proclaim, 'twas WOLFE!"—Newcastle Courant, Oct. 27, 1759.

"The late brave General Wolfe was to have been married on his return to England to a sister of Sir James Lowther, a young lady whose immense fortune is her least recommendation. She had shown so much uneasiness at the thoughts of his making his campaign in America, that nothing but the call of honour could have prevailed with him to accept of that command in the discharge of which he fell so gloriously."—N. C. Journal, 1759.

"His mother is, we hear, so much afflicted for the loss of her son that 'tis feared she will never get the better of her disorders. The inhabitants in her neighbourhood sympathised with her so much that they did not make any public rejoicings, lest it should add to her grief. Even the mob of London discovered by their behaviour the night of the illuminations for the victory, what they felt for so brave a man.

E. H. A.

You have lately published some inquiries relative to Wolfe's early career. Is the following fact worth stating? Tradition points to an old house, once an inn, at the back of the Town-hall at Devizes, where the young officer resided while enlisting soldiers into his regiment.

WILTONIENSIS.

This writer will be one instance of the use of such an organ of inquiry as "N. & Q." MR. CORNEY'S reply to my Query reminds me of Wilson's History of Navigation, with which I have long been acquainted: but I had quite forgotten, or perhaps never remarked, that this Wilson was James, and M.D. Baron Maseres reprinted the History of Navigation in the fourth volume of the Scriptores Logarithmici: it is an elaborate summary, of wide research, and puts the author's learning and judgment beyond a doubt. Maseres, in his Preface, gives a mention of Wilson, and, in addition to the facts now brought out, states, in his own curiously explicit style, that Dr. Pemberton's Epistola ad Amicum J. W. de Cotesii inventis, "was addressed to this Dr. James Wilson, who was the person meant by the word Amicum, with the two letters J. W., which were the initial letters of his name." I happen to possess Brook Taylor's copy of this Epistola (4to. 1722), and its Supplement (4to. 1723), in which Taylor has written, "E libris Br. Taylor, ex dono eximii paris amicorum, autoris D. H. Pemberton atque editoris D. J. Wilson." Thus it is established that the author of the dissertation on the fluxional controversy appended to Robins's tracts, lived in friendship with some of the most distinguished parties to that quarrel. It is also established that he was fully conversant with the mathematics of the day; for Pemberton's letter, called out by Wilson's own queries, could have been read by none but a previous reader of Cotes and the highest fluxionists. As to Wilson's age, he says (Robins's Math. Tr., vol. ii. p. 299.) he was a fellow-student of Pemberton at Paris: the latter was born in 1694, and the former was probably of nearly the same age. They were close friends to the end of their lives, and Wilson published Pemberton's Course of Chemistry, delivered at Gresham College, 8vo. 1771, according to Hutton and Watt. These last-named authorities both attribute to Pemberton himself the dissertation on the fluxional controversy in Robins's Tracts: but it certainly has Wilson's name to it; or rather, it is said to be by the publisher (which we now call editor) of the volumes. It is very likely that Pemberton gave help: assuredly he must have been consulted by his intimate friend on facts the truth of which was within his own knowledge. Accordingly, the following assertions, made by Wilson, are not to be lightly passed over: first (which also Robins assumes again and again), that Newton wrote the anonymous account of the Commercium Epistolicum (Phil. Trans., No. 342.) usually attributed to Keill, which, in Latin, forms the Preface to the second edition of that work. Secondly, that Newton wrote the criticism on John Bernoulli's letter at the end of the second edition. Thirdly, that Newton himself, and not Pemberton, omitted the celebrated Scholium from the third edition of the Principia. Montucla, in the second edition (1802, vol. iii. p. 108) of his History of Mathematics, gives statements on these points from a private source, to the effect that the notes of the original edition of the Comm. Epist. were Newton's, and that the informant had seen the matter which was substituted for the Scholium, in Newton's handwriting, among the proof-sheets preserved by Pemberton. If Wilson were the informant, which may have been, for Montucla's first edition was published in 1758, Montucla must have confounded the two editions of the Comm. Epist. If not, it must have been some one who did not draw his account from the dissertation, in which there is nothing about the proof-sheets. Montucla, however, has lowered the credit of his informant by making him assert that the second edition of the Principia was managed by Cotes and Bentley, without communication with Newton. This, which all the world knows to be untrue of the book, is true of the prefatory parts; and Wilson gives an account of Newton's dissatisfaction with those parts. If Wilson were the informant, Montucla has again misunderstood him.

A. DE MORGAN.

B. B. may see, in the British Museum library, a tract of four leaves only, the title of which I will transcribe:

"London's Wonder. Being a most true and positive relation of the taking and killing of a great Whale neer to Greenwich; the said Whale being fifty-eight foot in length, twelve foot high, fourteen foot broad, and two foot between the eyes. At whose death was used Harping-irons, Spits, Swords, Guns, Bills, Axes, and Hatchets, and all kind of sharp Instruments to kill her: and at last two Anchors being struck fast into her body, she could not remoove them, but the blood gush'd out of her body, as the water does out of a pump. The report of which Whale hath caused many hundred of people both by land and water to go and see her: the said Whale being slaine hard by Greenwich upon the third day of June this present yere 1658, which is largely exprest in this following discourse. London, printed for Francis Grove, neere the Sarazen's head on Snowhill, 1658."

Surely after reading the above, your sceptical correspondent can no longer hesitate to accept as a matter of veritable fact this story so very like a whale.

Evelyn, who lived near Greenwich, and was most probably one of the wonder-struck spectators of the huge monster of the deep which had been so rash as to visit our shores, notes in his Diary under the above-mentioned date—

"A large whale was taken betwixt my land butting on the Thames and Greenwich, which drew an infinite concourse to see it by water, horse, coach, and on foote, from London and all parts. It appear'd first below Greenwich at low water, for at high water it would have destroyed all ye boates; but lying now in shallow water encompass'd with boates, after a long conflict it was kill'd with a harping yron, struck in ye head, out of which spouted blood and water by two tunnells, and after an horrid grone it ran quite on shore and died. Its length was 58 foote, height 16; black skin'd like coach leather, very small eyes, greate tail, onely 2 small finns, a picked snout, and a mouth so wide that divers men might have stood upright in it: no teeth, but suck'd the slime onely as thro' a grate of that bone which we call whale-bone; the throate yet so narrow as would not have admitted the least of fishes. The extreames of the cetaceous bones hang downewards from the upper jaw, and was hairy towards the ends and bottom within side: all of it prodigious, but in nothing more wonderfull then that an animal of so greate a bulk should be nourished onely by slime thro' those grates."

Having disposed of this matter, I shall now turn my attention to the great storm that immediately preceded the death of that "arch rebell Oliver Cromwell, cal'd Protector," which, be it remembered, took place on Friday the 3rd of September, 1658.

So saith the witty author of Hudibras; and to these lines his editor, Grey, adds the note—

"At Oliver's death was a most furious tempest, such as had not been known in the memory of man, or hardly ever recorded to have been in this nation. (See Echard's History of England, vol. ii.) Though most of our historians mention the hurricane at his death, yet few take notice of the storm in the northern counties on that day the House of Peers ordered the digging up his carcase with other regicides. (See Mercurius Publicus, No. 51. p. 816.)"

Cotemporaneous proof of the occurrence is afforded by S. Carrington in prose, and by Edmund Waller in verse.

"Nature itself," says Carrington, "did witness her grief some two or three days before by an extraordinary tempest and violent gust of weather, insomuch that it might have been supposed that herself had been ready to dissolve ... all which is so lively set forth by the quaintest wit of these times (E. Waller), who expresseth it more elegantly and copiously than my rough prose can possibly reach to."

[6] Vide Three Poems upon the Death of his late Highnesse Oliver, Lord Protector, written by Waller, Dryden, and Sprat. 4to. London, 1659.

The ensuing night, Carrington adds, was serene and peaceful. (See his Life of Cromwell, 1659, p. 223.) Ludlow, in his Memoirs, also notices the storm. On the afternoon of Monday, August 30, he set out for London. He says:

"On the Monday afternoon I set forward on my journey (from Essex); the morning proving so tempestuous that the horses were not able to draw against it; so that I could reach no further than Epping that night. By this means I arrived not at Westminster till Tuesday about noon."

A. GRAYAN.

O. C. D. has avowed himself incredulous as to the reality of the reported remarkable ages of the old Countess of Desmond, Jenkins, Parr, &c., and he suggests that there should be unquestionable evidence of such extraordinary deviations from the usual course of human life before we credit them. I confess myself of the same way of thinking; and perhaps my doubts have been strengthened from the circumstance, that, although the longevity of members of the Society of Friends is well known at the insurance offices, I do not recollect an instance of any one attaining one hundred years in the United Kingdom. Upwards of ninety is not uncommon, from eighty to ninety common; and more than one-third of the whole deaths are from seventy upwards. There was a well-authenticated instance of a "Friend" in Virginia, named William Porter, who attained one hundred and seven years, who could hoe Indian corn a year previous to his death; but it was considered a rare occurrence in America.

As some of the readers of "N. & Q." may be curious in such matters, the following is an accurate statement of the ages at the time of death of members of the Society of Friends in the past two years. The extra number of females arises from the greater number of males who leave the society, or are excommunicated or emigrate. The average duration of life in these two years appears about 52 years 6 months 4 days. The number of members in the society in the United Kingdom is computed at 19,000 or 20,000. In America they are far more numerous.

A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.

I noticed, within the last week, the following inscription on a tombstone in Conway churchyard:

The round of the "9" was above the line; the figures were in their natural places, and had evidently not been altered; but as the inscription was remarkably clear for its age, the only explanation that occurred to me was that it had been recut by some ignorant person, when nearly defaced. Immediately above it was the following, referring, I presume, to her husband:

If so, and the age of Mrs. Vaughan be correct as stated, she must have been nearly a hundred or so when married. Can any of your correspondents living in the neighbourhood explain how the mistake arose?

AGMOND.

59. Catherine Street, Liverpool.

—Precision is of great importance in investigating the meaning of our ancient technical terms.

Haberdascher was, I apprehend, the generic name of dealers in small wares. Hats and caps were formerley called hures and howves or houfes; and when haberdashers dealt in such articles they were pro tanto hurrers. But as early as the time of Edward I. there were traders called hatters, who were not haberdashers; and at a later period, when the term hurrer was obsolete, there were "haberdashers of hats." In the reign of Edw. IV. a curious petition was presented to Parliament, which is not unworthy of being put upon your Notes. It sets forth—

"That whereas huers, bonnets, and cappes, as well single as double, were wont to be truly made, wrought, fulled, and thickked by the might and strength of men, that is to say, with hand and foot; and they that have so made, wrought, fulled, and thickked such huers, bonnets, and cappes, have well and honestly afore this gotten their living thereby, and thereupon kept apprentices, servants, and good household. It is so that there is a subtile mean found now of late, by reason of a Fullyng Mille, whereby more cappes may be fulled and thickked in one day than by the might and strength of four score men by hand and foot may be fulled and thickked in the same day: the which huers, bonnets, and cappes, so fulled and thickked by such mill, are bruised, broken, and deceivably wrought, and cannot by the mean of any mill be truly made."

The petitioners conclude by praying Parliament to impose heavy penalties upon all who use the fulling mill, or who sell huers, hats, or bonnets that have been "fulled or thickked" by means of any such mill. So early did the antagonism between hand-labour and machinery prevail.

I doubt whether the more ancient name of haberdasher were milainer. There were haberdashers at York in the time of Edward III., but no milliners. In 1372 the haberdashers of London were separated from the hurrers, with whom they had been previously associated. I should be glad to have a reference to the use of the term milainer, as applied to traders of any sort prior to the reign of Edward III.

I should also be obliged to any of your correspondents who will tell me what was the description of trade or business carried on by uphalders in former times.

Δ.

—In Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary the word balk is interpreted, "a ridge of greensward left by the plough in ploughing, or by design, between the different occupancies in a common field." This is exactly the meaning of the word as it is commonly used in Yorkshire at this day; but in a Yorkshire village with which I am acquainted, we have the very phrase of the Golden Legend, "cou-bache," (pronounced skoo-bauk, the prefix s being a not infrequent corruption), as the name of a wide grassy road between thorn-hedges, upon the verbage of which the milch cows of the villages are pastured. This seems to be just the sort of place described in the legend as the scene of Kenelm's murder. I need not add, that it is not unusual to find pure Anglo-Saxon words retained in the rural dialects of Yorkshire.

Δ.

—Having some reason to doubt the high editorial authority attributed to M. Barrière by J. R. (Cork), I would request your ingenious correspondent to favour us with references to one or two (or more, if not too troublesome) of the "frequent cases" in which the Quarterly Review adopts M. Barrière's statements.

The filthy espièglerie related by that very suspicious authority St. Simon, of the Duchess of Burgundy, already sufficiently incredible, is rendered impossible in J. R.'s version of "administered to herself." St. Simon supposes no such legerdemain.

The Groom of the Stole is the first lord of the King's bed-chamber; under a Queen the equivalent office and title is Mistress of the Robes.

C.

—In one of your early Numbers I have seen some Queries respecting the phrase "Grinning like a Cheshire Cat." I remember to have heard many years ago, that it owes its origin to the unhappy attempts of a sign painter of that county to represent a lion rampant, which was the crest of an influential family, on the sign-boards of many of the inns. The resemblance of these lions to cats caused them to be generally called by the more ignoble name. A similar case is to be found in the village of Charlton, between Pewsey and Devizes, Wiltshire. A public-house by the roadside is commonly known by the name of The Cat at Charlton. The sign of the house was originally a lion or tiger, or some such animal, the crest of the family of, I believe, Sir Edward Poore.

H.

—I am now able to answer a Query which I lately sent to you. David Mallet died in George Street, Hanover Square, and was buried in the burial-ground of Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street.

Can any of your readers tell me when and where Mrs. Mallet, his widow, died? Who was T. C., the writer of a letter in the Gentlemen's Magazine, vol. lxii. pt. 1. p. 100.

F.

—MR. J. H. PARKER, in his Query respecting old town-halls, mentions the Town-hall of Weobly, in Herefordshire, as an early example of timber-work. Similar examples exist at Hereford, Ross, Ledbury, and Leominster, in the same country. These buildings are all constructed upon the same plan, viz. a large oblong room supported on wooden pillars; so that there is an open covered space beneath, which is used for the purposes of a market. With respect to the age of these buildings I can give no information; but something might doubtless be determined, partly by records, and partly by the internal evidence of the style of construction.

L.

In reply to MR. J. H. PARKER'S Query about Town-halls, I beg to say that in Leicester there are still standing a Guildhall (part of which is undoubtedly of a date as early as the middle of the fourteenth century) and a County Hall, called "The Castle," similar to the old building at Oakham. The foundation-walls of the latter are parts of the original fabric, and one of the windows is clearly of the Transition period.

JAYTEE.

—On reading this you may exclaim, "Quæ regio in terris nostri non plena laboris." Before this note reaches you, I may have been anticipated; but I will venture it, if only to show that your delightful publication extends its charms even to the "benighted."

I wish to inform C. O. S. M., in furtherance of his Query, that Whiting's watch is included in Thorpe's (178. Piccadilly) Catalogue for 1843, No. 689, and is there given as from the collection of the late Duke of Sussex, who obtained it from the Rev. John Bowen.

B. C.

Madras, March 13.

is fully discussed by DR. ROCK at the end of a small work entitled Did the Early Church in Ireland acknowledge the Pope's Supremacy? Perhaps CEYREP may think his question met by the authorities set forth in the above-named book.

BRITO.

—I am much obliged by the answer to part of my Query; but I should be very glad to know the name of the lady Thomas, second brother of the Marquis of Dorset, married, and who was mother by him of Margaret, wife of John Astley,[7] Master of the Jewels to Queen Elizabeth.

[7] Query, not Ashley.

C. DE D.

—W. B. inquires whether Sir Edward Bagshaw, of Finglas, left other children besides two daughters; which two he describes as married to Ryves and Burroughs respectively? and whether Castle-Bagshaw, in the co. Cavan, took its name from this branch of the family, with any other information concerning this Sir Edward?

I have looked into my Cavan MS. Collections, and I find from them that Sir Edward Bagshaw had been, so far as I can at present see, an adventurer of Cromwell's introduction, debentured on lands of Cavan, viz. Callaghan, Tirgromley, Derrychill, Timhowragh, and seventeen other denominations, which were thereupon erected into the manor of Castlebagshaw, and whereon he built a castle: such I suppose the origin of the manor and castle. It is more certain, and indeed on proof before me, that he had one daughter named Anne, and married before 1654 to Thomas Richardson, of Dublin, Esq., who, having paid 600l. to Sir Edward, he, for that consideration, and for the marriage, granted all the premises to Richardson in fee, who assigned them in 1661 to four different persons. One of these assignees was Ambrose Bedell, a son of the celebrated William Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh. Sir Edward Bagshaw died about 1661, possibly just previous to this partition. His latter days were I think passed at Finglas, in the description of which locality, in my History of the Co. Dublin, I find this apposite notice (p. 371.): "Under the communion table are flat tombstones of very ancient date, to the families of Bagshaw and Ryves;" but their position precluded my decyphering their evidence. Of the family of Bagshaw I have in my Genealogical Collections various notices, as well in this country as in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

JOHN D'ALTON.

48. Sumner Hill, Dublin.

—Dissen interprets the λευκαὶ φρένες of Pindar (Part IV. 194.), pale with envy, envious; alii aliter. Whatever be the exact meaning of this debated phrase, the idea at the ground of it appears the same as that in the modern "white liver." According to Homer, it will be remembered, φρένες ἦπαρ ἔχουσιν. (Od. ix. 301.)

A. A. D.

[SIGMA refers our correspondent to Ryan's Medical Jurisprudence, and Elliotson's Physiology, for a medical explanation of the phrase—not quite suited to our pages.—ED.]

—Miniatures of Oliver Cromwell do not appear to be very rare. At least, in addition to those which have been noted in your columns, I may state that I picked up at Stockholm, a few years ago, a very well-executed miniature of the Regicide, which was in all probability brought to Sweden by his ambassador Whitlock. The miniature is very small, is protected by a thick glass, and is framed in an ornamented, richly gilt, copper frame. It is, I think, painted in ivory, and is backed by a gilt copper plate, on which is engraved, in characters apparently of the period, "Ol, Cromwáll, Anno 1684." The accent over the á renders it probable that setting and inscription are foreign. The painting itself gives the features of Cromwell very exactly, and represents him in plain armour, with a plain falling collar round the neck, and long flowing hair.

G. J. R. G.

—I have just found a passage in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy which proves that R. C. H. was correct in the remarks he made on these words, viz. that they ought to have been printed sleek-stone, and that they were the name of an instrument used for smoothing or polishing, and not for sharpening:

"The ebon stone which goldsmiths use to sleeken their gold with, born about or given to drink, hath the same properties, or not much unlike."

Anat. of Mel., Part ii. sec. iv. mem. 1. subs. 4.
[Blake, one vol. 8vo. MDCCCXXXVI. P. 437.]

Lady Macbeth says:

C. FORBES.

Temple.

Slick or sleek stones are used by curriers to remove wrinkles and other irregularities in, and to smoothen the surface of hides and skins, after they have been converted into leather by the tanner. The stone which is considered to be the best for this purpose is quarried in the neighbourhood of Kendal.

The currier's sleek stone is an oblong square plate, measuring six inches in length by four inches in breadth, and half an inch in thickness. One of the longer edges of the stone is fixed into a groove in a wooden handle or stock, and hence it is also commonly called a stock stone.

The leather being spread out upon a table, the stock is held in both hands, and the opposite edge of the stone is pressed upon and rubbed over the surface of the leather. In a subsequent part of the process of currying the workman uses, in like manner, a slicker or sleeker made of steel, and finishes his work with a glass sleeker.

J. L. C.

—The weight of this "ponderous tenor bell" is not mentioned; but there does not seem to be any particular "obscurity," whatever there may be of strangeness in the alleged mode of its transit by water. By the terms "mill-cog" of the poetaster is doubtless to be understood the cog-wheel of the miller, viz. that which more or less directly connects the motive agent with the shaft carrying the stones. Persons who happen to have noticed the large size and ponderous construction of the main cog-wheel in many an ancient flourmill will easily imagine that if set afloat it would carry a great weight; especially if prepared, as a missionary to the Hudson's Bay territories told me a small cart-wheel was rigged to transport him over the rivers, viz. by stretching a large skin over its area. It was, in all likelihood, to some contrivance of this kind that John de Dandelion and his dog have become so picturesquely and permanently connected with the history of Margate in "traditionary rhyme."

D.

—The following has been printed in the late John Dunkin's History of Dartford; but as topographical works have but a limited circulation, and the above-named author was fond of printing but few impressions of his works, I have taken the liberty of forwarding the lines to you:

All four of the parishes are situate upon the river Darent, and adjoin.

[8] Sutton at Hone—fine pastures.

[9] Horton Kirby, the same.

[10] South Darenth, celebrated for its old church, and (probably when the lines were composed) for its baker.

[11] Dartford: the bridewell of the district was formerly in this parish, in Lowfield Street.

Αλφρεδ.

—Though not a lawyer, I venture to express the opinion that, if preferred, burial may take place in unconsecrated ground. The law exacts the registering of the death, and inhibits a clergyman from officiating except within the consecrated boundary. Indeed the burying-ground of dissenters is not consecrated according to law, although it may have to be licensed. But, supposing a person to have the fancy to lie "in some loved spot, far away from other graves," there seems to be no legal difficulty. In the shrubbery of Brush House, the residence of my friend and neighbour John Booth, Esq., M.D., there is a mausoleum over the remains of his uncle, from whom he inherited the property.

"Here," says Hunter, in his History of Hallamshire, "Mr. Booth spent the latter part of an active life in mathematical and philosophical studies; and, indulging a natural (?) and patriarchal desire, prepared his own sepulchre amidst the shades his own hand had formed, in which his remains are now reposing."

Was not Mrs. Van Butchell preserved many years after death in a glass case by her husband?

ALFRED GATTY.

—The lines on English History, beginning

"William the Norman conquers England's State," &c.

were not from the pen of any Catholic gentleman of the name of Chaloner, but were composed by a Protestant. Some of the lines were subsequently altered by a Catholic lady, the late Mrs. Cholmely, of Brandsby Hall, near York, and I believe the whole verses were printed at her private expense. The line on Mary of England was, in the original, anything but complimentary to the memory of that queen. Mrs. Cholmely's daughter, the late Mrs. Charlton, of Hesleyside in Northumberland, had the verses printed again at Newcastle, about twenty-five years ago. I have no doubt that I could procure a copy for AN ENGLISH MOTHER.

EDWARD CHARLTON.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

—In the fifth chapter of the most remarkable Saga of Thorfinn Karlsefne, we find some curious customs to have been prevalent in Greenland relative to the burial of the dead in unconsecrated ground. Thorstein Erikson, the second husband of Gudrida, died of a sore sickness. Many of the household had previously been carried off by the same malady, and the ghost of each corpse joined its fellows in tormenting and terrifying the survivors. The night after Thorstein's death, his corpse rose up in the bed and called for Gudrid his wife. With reluctance and terror the widow approached the body of her husband.—

"Now when Gudrid arose and went to Thorstein, it seemed to her as though he wept. And he whispered some words to her which none could hear, but these other words he spoke in a loud voice, so that all were aware thereof. 'They that keep the truth shall be saved, but many here in Greenland hold badly to this command. For it is no Christian way as here is practised, since the universal faith was brought to Greenland, to lay a corpse in unblessed earth, and to sing but little over it. It had been the custom in Greenland, after Christianity was brought in, that the dead should be buried on the lands where they died, in unhallowed earth, and that a stake should be set up over the breast of the dead (skyldi setja staur upp af brjosti hinum dauda); and when the priest afterwards came, the stake was pulled up, and holy water was poured into the hole, and they sang over the body even though it was long after.' And Thornstein's body was carried to the church in Eriksfiord, and there it was sung over by the priests (yfirsöngvar af Kennimönnum.")

May not this custom, which prevailed in Greenland in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, have been derived from the Scandinavian north, and there have been applied to the suicide buried in the cross road? Was the idea of burying these outcasts in such a place, the hopeful one of placing them at least under the shadow as it were of the cross, though they were denied a resting-place in consecrated ground. That the old Northerns regarded suicide with horror, we know from the "Eyrbiggia Saga," p. 530. of Mr. Blackwell's edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities.

EDWARD CHARLTON.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

—In old almanacks the sun is represented by a man's face inclosed in a ring, from which externally points or rays, indicating flames, appear to proceed. An Oldham recruit, billeted at the sign of the Sun, in writing home to his friends, described the sign as "th' mon's face set a' round we skivers.[12]"

[12] Skivers, skewers or pins.

ROBERT RAWLINSON.

—I have before me an English version of this most singular writer, by J. S., printed by J. Streater, London, 1658, 1 vol. folio, pp. 342. The marvellous description of the sea serpent by Olaus Magnus is well known, but during the controversy recently raised as to the reappearance of this monster to the officers of the Dædalus, the following testimony to its existence in later times was perhaps overlooked. It is extracted from the notes of Frederick Faber, the celebrated Iceland ornithologist, describing a zoological expedition to the islands in the Cattegat, and published in Oken's Isis for 1829, p. 885.:

"As I was returning in a boat from Endelave to Horsens, the old helmsman, observing that I took great interest in natural history, asked me if I had ever seen the sea serpent. On my replying in the negative, he told me that about two years ago, while he and his companion were fishing near Thunoe, they observed the head of a large creature lying quite on the surface of the water, and in close proximity to their boat. The head was like that of a seal, though they immediately perceived that it belonged to no animal of that kind. A gull flew towards the monster, and made a pounce upon him, when the huge creature raised its body at least three fathoms high into the air, and made a snap at the bird, which flew away in terror. They had time, before it disappeared, to notice that the monster had a red throat, and that its body was about twice the thickness of a boat's mast."

EDWARD CHARLTON.

—The word is French: coucher par écrit. Ménage says, coucher, in its common sense, is derived from collocare in Latin, of which he gives instances as early as Catullus; he might have gone back to Terence. Hence, says he, "coucher bien par écrit, pour dire écrire avec ordre:" and quotes Salmasius, to show that coucher par écrit answered to digerere, in the sense of writing a digest.

The sense is the same as our expression "lay down," "lay down the law," &c., but we do not confine that to writing.

C. B.

It is always a boon to historical literature when a man of learning and industry devotes himself to a monograph of any particular person or period. When we saw, therefore, in the Gentleman's Magazine, the able and interesting papers by Mr. Cunningham, on the history of one who, whatever might have been her life, so died, that Tennison did not hesitate to preach her funeral sermon, we felt sure that those papers could never be allowed to remain the "sole property" of the readers and admirers of our good friend Sylvanus Urban; and we have proved right in our anticipation. The Story of Nell Gwyn, and the Sayings of Charles II., related and collected by Peter Cunningham, which has just been issued, consists of a reprint of those papers, greatly enlarged and increased in value by the information which has reached the author since they appeared in their original form. We know of no volume of the same extent calculated to give a more graphic or faithful picture of the heartlessness and depravity of the age of profligacy in which his heroine lived, an age which furnishes a striking proof how true it is that individuals, communities, and even whole nations, will after a time seek compensation for a state of gloomy and unchristian fanaticism in one of unbridled licentiousness.

Mr. Cunningham has, in this handsomely illustrated volume, treated a subject which required very nice handling with great tact; and his book deserves to be placed on the shelves with Pepys and Evelyn, as a necessary supplement to them. Can we give it higher praise? Its quaint and characteristic binding is a clever fac-simile of the morocco binding which Charles II. so loved.

We are indebted to the publishers of the National Illustrated Library for a new memoir of the great founder of American independence. The Life of General Washington, First President of the United States, written by himself; comprising his Memoirs and Correspondence, as prepared by him for publication, including several Original Letters now first printed, edited by the Rev. C. W. Upham, forms two volumes, which have been written or compiled on the principle, now we believe first applied to Washington, of making the subject of the memoir, its far as possible, his own biographer. This task Mr. Upham has executed with much ability and excellent judgment; and we know of no work calculated to give the general reader a better or more correct idea of the personal character of one of whom the Americans boast, that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Some of our readers may be interested to know that the collection of black-letter ballads, formerly in the Heber collection, and described in the Bibliotheca Heberiana, vol. iv. pp. 28-33., was sold on Monday last at the auction of Mr. Utterson's library at Messrs. Sotheby's. After a rather brisk bidding, Mr. Halliwell became the purchaser at the sum of 104l.

BROUGHAM'S MEN OF LETTERS. 2nd Series, royal 8vo., boards. Original edition.

KNIGHT'S PICTORIAL SHAKSPEARE. Royal 8vo. Parts XLII, XLIII, XLIV, L, and LI.

CONDER'S ANALYTICAL VIEW OF ALL RELIGIONS. 8vo.

NEWMAN'S (J. H.) PRESENT POSITION OF THE CATHOLICS IN ENGLAND.

HALLIWELL ON THE DIALECTS OF SOMERSETSHIRE.

SCLOPETARIA, OR REMARKS ON RIFLES, &c.

SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI. Vol. III.

SUPPLEMENT TO SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI.

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. Vols. XXIII, XXIV, and XXV.

POETIC WREATH. Small 8vo. Newman.

GEMS FROM BRITISH POETS. 4 Vols. Tyas.

CALLIOPE, A SELECTION OF BALLADS LEGENDARY AND PATHETIC. Suttaby, 1808.

THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON. Vo's. VI, VII, and VIII. 12mo. Murray, 1823.

MALLETT'S POEMS. Bell's edition.

MALLETT'S PLAY OF ELVIRA. 1763.

JOANNIS LELANDI COLLECTANEA. Vol. V. 1774.

BISHOP PATRICK'S COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. The Volumes containing Joshua and Judges. Small 4to.

KENT'S ANTHEMS. Vol. I. folio. Edited by Joseph Corfe.

THE MATHEMATICIAN. Vol. I. No. 1. 1844.

MACULLOCH'S HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND.

BACK'S VOYAGE OF THE TERROR, 8vo.

BACK'S OVERLAND JOURNEY IN THE ARCTIC REGIONS, 8vo.

L'HISTOIRE DE LA SAINCTE BIBLE, par ROYAUMONDE: à Paris, 1701.

JOHNSON'S (DR. S.) WORKS, by MURPHY. Trade Edition of 1816, in 8vo. Vol XII. only.

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.

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