Notes and Queries Vol. V., No. 132, Saturday, May 8, 1852

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

One of the most interesting of the recently published parts of Murray's Reading for the Rail is unquestionably Theodore Hook, a Sketch, which has been reprinted from the Quarterly Review, with some additional notes. Of these there is one (at p. 62.) which presents us with the following honorable and characteristic anecdote of the late Sir Robert Peel:—

"The writer of this sketch, now that Sir R. Peel is no more among us, takes this, perhaps his only opportunity of mentioning the generosity of that statesman's conduct towards Maginn. The Doctor having always retained the strong feelings of an Irish Orangeman, was one of those who condemned with severity Sir Robert's pro-Catholic policy of 1829; nor, perhaps was there any one writer of the time by whom the personal motives of the minister were more unmercifully dealt with. The Doctor assailed them with unwearied pertinacity, in various newspapers and magazines; but especially in rhymes only less galling than the fiercest of Swift's. He had never been personally acquainted with Peel, who could have known nothing about him so distinctly as this hostility. Yet when, a few years before Maginn's death, some of his friends were privately making a subscription to relieve him from some pressing difficulties, Sir Robert, casually hearing of it, immediately sent through the writer of this sketch, with a stipulation for secrecy, the sum of 100l. as a contribution to the fund. The writer believes that Sir Robert on various subsequent occasions interfered on the Doctor's behalf in a manner not less liberal, and with the same delicate precautions. At all events, when the doctor was near his end, Sir Robert forwarded for his use a similar benefaction of 100l. The writer has no reason to suppose that Maginn was ever aware of any of these kind deeds. It remains to be added that, some years after Dr. Maginn's death, his only son, on attaining the requisite age, received a cadetship in the East Indies from Sir Robert Peel's last government."—(1852.)

The perusal of this interesting passage has reminded us of a desire which we felt most strongly at the time when the country lost the distinguished man to whom it relates; and which we should then have given expression to, but for the fear that in the multitude of projects for doing honour to his memory then floating before the public eye, what we had to propose might not be received in the way which his merits deserved.

Sir Robert Peel was pre-eminently a patron of English Literature and literary men; and we hoped, and do still hope, to see a recognition of his great claims in that special character on the part of the men of letters in this country. The most appropriate that occurs to us would be the erection of his bust or statue in the vestibule of that national establishment, in the welfare and management of which he always took so great an interest—we mean the British Museum.

The minister who, in terms alike honorable to himself and to the man of letters to whom the dignity was offered, tendered a baronetcy to Southey, and conferred upon him a pension of 300l. a year—who gave the same amount to Wordsworth—who gave to James Montgomery 150l. a year, and to Tytler, to Tennyson, and to M'Culloch, each 200l. a year—who bestowed a pension upon Frances Brown, and gave a 100l. a year to the widow of Thomas Hood—who gave the first appointment of his first administration to a son of Allan Cunningham, and placed the sons of Mrs. Hemans in the service of the Crown,—Sir Robert Peel, the man and the minister who could thus recognise the claims of Literature,[1] and not, like ministers of old, stipulate for a return in the political support of those whom he so distinguished, was surely a person whose memory the men of letters in this country should not be slow to honour.

[1] We have confined our remarks to Sir Robert Peel's patronage of Literature; but that patronage was as liberally bestowed upon Science and Art. To him Mrs. Somerville and Sir M. Faraday were indebted for their pensions; and while his friendship with Lawrence, Wilkie, and Chantrey, and his patronage of Collins, Roberts, Stansfield, &c., cannot be forgotten, his prompt and most kind response to poor Haydon's application for assistance, though addressed to him at a moment when plunged in the fiercest political struggle in which he was ever engaged, can never be forgotten.

Let us hope that the moment has arrived when they will do justice to him who was so ready to recognise their claims. Let Lord Mahon or Mr. Hallam, who enjoyed the friendship of Sir Robert Peel, step forward and begin the good work. An appeal from either of them would arouse a host. They would be supported by all who love Literature, from the highest to the humblest. Who can doubt that the author of Coningsby and the author of Don Carlos would rejoice at the opportunity, which would thus be afforded them, of uniting to do honour to the memory of a political opponent, in that character in which he deservedly won the applause of all men—as the judicious and munificent PATRON OF THE LITERATURE OF OUR NATIVE COUNTRY.

One of the most interesting antiquities of Jarrow Church, Northumberland, is the chair of the Venerable Bede. It is preserved in the vestry of the church, whither all brides repair as soon as the marriage service is over, to seat themselves upon it. This, according to the popular belief, will make them the joyful mothers of children; and the expectant mothers (as I have been informed) would not consider the marriage ceremony complete, until they had been enthroned in the Venerable Bede's chair. The chair is very rude and substantial; made of oak; in height, four feet ten inches; having an upright back, and sides that slope off for the arms. According to the barbarous English fashion, it is carved over with the nomenclature of all the vulgar obscurities of the neighbourhood, whose sacrilegious penknives, together with the wanton depredations of relic-hunters, have so "shorn" the chair of its "fair proportions," that soon nothing but its attenuated form, "small by degrees, and beautifully less," will be left for the future Childe Harold to address with—

Every foreigner who has visited our churches and cathedrals cannot fail to remark how the English love of popularity glares forth in its most sickly form in this barbarous custom of writing and carving names upon monuments, or other works of art. Every observant person, too, when he sees John Smith's name and full address, scratched with painful and elaborate accuracy upon the stern but noseless face of some alabaster knight, while he wonders at the gratuitous trouble which John Smith has taken, must deplore the want of education thus so lamentably evinced. Happily, this vulgar taste (so far as our churches are concerned) is now under some control; but, nevertheless, it is still sad to see—at Lichfield, for example—that control obliged to take the visible shape of railings, to prevent Messrs. Smith, Brown, Jones, and Robinson from handing their names down to posterity on the life-like marble of Chantrey's "Sleeping Children." I have heard that this mode of defacing monuments took its rise in the time of the Protectorate; and I would wish to put this in the form of a Query: Whether it was so, or no? With the impression that it was the case, I have for many years past examined the dates that accompanied names scratched upon monuments, and never found a date earlier than the Protectorate. The subject seems worth the inquiry.

To return to Bede's chair. It has often been engraved: but the best representation of it that I know, is that by Mr. W. B. Scott, in his Antiquarian Gleanings of the North of England. Besides his careful etching of the present state of the chair, he also gives a suggestive woodcut of its restoration. The ornamental portion he confines to the front of the seat, and the head of the chair.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

—While on the subject of Bede's chair at Jarrow, it may not prove altogether useless to transcribe you a faithful copy of the dedication stone of Jarrow Church, which is now placed against the tower-arch of the nave:

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

The first piece in the volume of MS. poetry referred to in my communication in Vol. v., p. 387., may perhaps be deemed of sufficient interest to occupy a place in your columns. It is entitled "A Ballad," and appears to me worthy of notice from its quaintness both in style and rhythm.

I hope that some of your readers will be able to explain this signature, which is to me inexplicable.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON.

Dr. Johnson long since observed that "there is perhaps not one of Shakspeare's plays more darkened than this by the peculiarities of its author, and the unskilfulness of its editors, by distortions of phrase, or negligence of transcription."

Under these circumstances we cannot be surprised that we are favoured with three pages of notes on the following passage, which occurs in the opening scene:

I must refer those who are desirous of seeing the various attempts to extract a meaning from this passage to the Variorum Edition, and content myself with those of the two latest editors, Mr. Collier and Mr. Knight.

Mr. Collier says:

"This passage is evidently corrupt, as is shown both by the metre and the sense. The latter will be cleared by the omission of the preposition 'to:' 'then no more remains [to be said], but that your sufficiency, as your worth is able, and let them work.' This change, however, will only partially cure the defective measure; and even were we to omit 'that,' as well as 'to,' the line would not be perfect without reducing 'sufficiency' to a trisyllable. It has been thought best, therefore, to leave the text as it stands in the first folio. 'Sufficiency' is adequate authority."

Mr. Knight says:

"We encounter at the onset one of the obscure passages for which this play is remarkable. The text is usually printed thus:

"It is certainly difficult to extract a clear meaning from this; and so Theobald and Hanmer assume that a line has dropped out, which they kindly restore to us, each in his own way. The emendation which Steevens proposes is much less forced: 'Then' (says the Duke), 'no more remains to say,

"It is not our purpose to remove obscurities by additions or omissions, and therefore we leave the passage as in the original, excepting a slight alteration in the punctuation. We believe it may be read thus, without much difficulty. 'Then no more remains (to say on government) But that, (your science) to your sufficiency, (joined to your authority) as your worth (as well as your virtue) is able (equal to the duty), and let them work (call them into action).'"

I cannot say that this exposition (paraphrastic as it is) is clear to me; and I feel confident that our great poet never wrote the words "But that," following as they do "Exceeds in that." What does "But that" refer to? It cannot refer to "science," as Mr. Knight imagines. The remedy lies in a very trifling correction of the press. In the MS. from which the play was printed, the words "But thrto" were thus written, and the compositor mistook "thr" for "tht;" there is no comma after that in the old copies. Replace "thereto" and the passage is perfectly clear as to sense.

It may be necessary to show that the word I propose would be used by the poet just in the sense required here. The following passage from the Winter's Tale, Act I. Sc. 2., will, I think, place it beyond doubt:

I take the sense of the whole passage thus: "Since I must acknowledge that you are better skilled in the nature of government than I am, it would be idle in me to lecture you on the subject. Then nothing more is wanting but thereto your sufficient authority (i.e. to govern), as you have the ability, and let them (your skill and authority) come into operation."

Sufficiency, as Warburton long ago observed, is authority, but may possibly be here used in the Latin sense of substitution. Escalus is to be Vice-gerent. The very slight change necessary, and the great probability of the occurrence of the error, strongly recommend this simple emendation.

Daily experience is manifesting how large a portion of the difficult passages are errors of the printer of the first folio, the two happy corrections lately given in The Athenæum, for instance: who can doubt that in Coriolanus, Act III. Sc. 1., "Bosome-multiplied" should be "Bissom-multitude:" or that, in All's Well that Ends Well, Act V. Sc. 3., "infuite comming" should be "infinite cunning?" A glance at the passages as they stand in the old print of the first folio would convince the most sceptical. A list of mere printer's errors in that book would be not a little astounding.

S. W. SINGER.

[It may be proper to observe, that this Note by MR. SINGER had been in the Editor's possession at least a fortnight previous to the appearance of that by our esteemed correspondent at Leeds in our last Number.]

—It may be amusing to the readers of "N. & Q.," and attended with some useful result, to record a few popular traditions respecting the mysterious opposition to the building of certain edifices on the spots originally designed for them by their founders. I will introduce the subject with the local traditions about the building of three churches well known to myself.

1. The church of Breedon, in Leicestershire, stands alone on a high hill, the village being at its foot. The hill is so steep on the side towards the village, that a carriage can only ascend by taking a very circuitous course; and even the footpath winds considerably, and in some parts ascends by steps formed in the turf. The inconvenience of such a situation for the church is obvious, and the stranger, of course, wonders at the folly of those who selected a site for a church which would necessarily preclude the aged and infirm from attending public worship. But the initiated parishioner soon steps forward to enlighten him on the subject, and assures him the pious founder consulted the convenience of the village, and assigned a central spot for the site of the church. There the foundation was dug, and there the builders began to rear the fabric; but all they built in the course of the day was carried away by doves in the night, and skilfully built in the same manner on the hill where the church now stands. Both founder and workmen, awed by this extraordinary interference, agreed to finish the edifice thus begun by doves.

2. The parish church of Wendover, in Buckinghamshire, stands nearly half a mile from the town. The church was to have been placed on a field adjoining the town, and there the building of it was begun; but the materials were all carried away in the night by witches, or, as some relate the tradition, by fairies, and deposited where the church now stands. The field in which the church was to have been built is still called "Witches' Meadow."

3. The parish church of Winwick, Lancashire, stands near that miracle-working spot where St. Oswald, king of the Northumbrians, was killed. The founder had destined a different site for it, but his intention was overruled by a singular personage, whose will he never dreamed of consulting. It must here be noticed that Winwick had then not even received its name; the church, as not uncommon in those days, being one of the earliest erections in the parish. The foundation of the church, then, was laid where the founder had directed, and the close of the first day's labour showed the workmen had not been idle, by the progress made in the building. But the approach of night brought to pass an event which utterly destroyed the repose of the few inhabitants around the spot. A pig was seen running hastily to the site of the new church; and as he ran he was heard to cry or scream aloud "We-ee-wick, We-ee-wick, We-ee-wick!" Then, taking up a stone in his mouth, he carried it to the spot sanctified by the death of St. Oswald, and thus employing himself through the whole night, succeeded in removing all the stones which had been laid by the builders. The founder, feeling himself justly reproved for not having chosen that sacred spot for the site of his church, unhesitatingly yielded to the wise counsel of the pig. Thus the pig not only decided the site of the church, but gave a name to the parish.

In support of this tradition, there is the figure of a pig sculptured on the tower of the church, just above the western entrance; and also the following Latin doggerel:

May not the phrase "Please the pigs" have originated in the above tradition, since the founder of Winwick Church was obliged to succumb to the pleasure of his porkish majesty?

Instances of equally marvellous changes in the sites of buildings are recorded in Bede, and other monkish writers. Perhaps it would not be difficult to unravel the mystery of such changes.

W. H. K.

—While in Herefordshire last spring, I noticed a singular custom in the agricultural districts. When the wheat is just springing out of the ground, the farmer's servants rise before daybreak, and cut a branch of thorn of a particular kind. They then make a large fire in the field, in which they burn a portion of it; the remaining part is afterwards hung up in the house. They do this to prevent the smut, or mildew, affecting the wheat.

J. B. ROBINSON.

Belper.

—An uncle of mine, who has a large farm near Ilford, tells me, that observing a horse-shoe nailed to the door of one of his cow-houses, he asked the cow-keeper why he had fixed it there. The lad gravely replied, "Why, to keep the wild-horse away, to be sure." This is, to me, a new reason for the practice.

I have learned that the superstition about the bees deserting their hives on the death of one of their owner's family, is common in the same county. A lady tells me, that calling upon some poor people who lived at Hyde Green, near Ingatestone, she inquired after the bees. The old woman of the house replied, "They have all gone away since the death of poor Dick; for we forgot to knock at the hives, and tell them he was gone dead."

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

I send another old song; and, as in the case of the "Cuckold's Cap," I would ask is it known?

J. R. R.

—In the plan of Boston, among the maps of the Useful Knowledge Society, is to be found, near Charleston, and on Breed's Hill (the real site of the battle usually misnamed as of Bunker's Hill), the following notice, "Defeat of the British, 1775." My first idea was, that, Liberal though the Society might be, it was being rather too liberal to give away in this manner a victory which, however bloody and fruitless, was indubitably ours: but, on second thoughts, it seemed that the whole fault arose from copying too implicitly an American map. Now I am well aware that a very large part of the Americans, from continually vaunting (and with good reason) the valour they displayed, and the honour they acquired, on that occasion, have gradually worked themselves into the belief that they were the victors, even though their own historians tell a different tale; and they have even placed inscriptions on the monuments standing on the site of the intrenchments from which they were forced by the British; which inscriptions also assert a similar claim. This would be of no great consequence had it been confined to themselves; but its being transferred to an English publication not only tends to mislead many persons on this side, but enables the Americans to refer with confidence to it, as an admission of their victory on the part of the British; and no one who remembers the use they made, on the Oregon Question, of a similarly occasioned error in one of the Society's globes, can doubt that our Transatlantic friends would make the most of this trifling affair in confirmation of their claims to the victory.

J. S. WARDEN.

—This name, so generally associated with vulgarity, is only a corruption, or rather a contraction, of the more dignified name of Sevenoaks. This town is generally called Se'noaks in Kent; and the further contraction, coupled with the phonetic spelling of former days, easily passed into S'nooks. This is no imaginary conclusion, for I am told by a trustworthy friend that Messrs. Sharp and Harrison, solicitors, Southampton, have recently had in their possession a series of deeds in which all the modes of spelling occur from Sevenokes down to S'nokes, in connexion with a family now known as Snooks.

G. W. J.

—Can any of your correspondents tell me the date of the last public slave sale in England? Till the establishment of Granville Sharpe's great principle, in 1772, announcements of these are by no means uncommon. The following, from the Public Ledger of Dec. 31, 1761, grates harshly upon the feelings of the present generation:—

SAXONICUS.

—The following passage occurs in one of Sir W. Scott's letters to Southey, written in September, 1810:

"A witty rogue, the other day, who sent me a letter subscribed 'Detector,' proved me guilty of stealing a passage from one of Vida's Latin poems, which I had never seen or heard of; yet there was so strong a general resemblance as fairly to authorise 'Detector's' suspicion."

Lockhart remarks thereupon:

"The lines of Vida which 'Detector' had enclosed to Scott, as the obvious original of the address to 'Woman' in Marmion, closing with—

"end as follows: and it must be owned that if Vida had really written them, a more extraordinary example of casual coincidence could never have been pointed out.

"'Detector's' reference is Vida ad Eranen, El. ii. v. 21.; but it is almost needless to add there are no such lines, and no piece bearing such a title in Vida's works. 'Detector' was, no doubt, some young college wag; for his letter has a Cambridge post-mark."

It may interest to know that the author of this clever hoax was Henry I. T. Drury, then, I think, of King's College, Cambridge, and afterwards one of the Masters at Harrow. The lines will be found in the Arundines Cami.

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

1. O'Donovan, in his edition of the Post-Invasion Annals of the IV. Masters, vol. iii. p. 2091. note, says that he "intends to publish a review of Spenser's View of the State of Ireland, in which he will give him full credit for his discernment of abuses, and expose all his intentional figments." Query, Has this review since appeared in any Irish periodical, or other publication?

2. What is the relationship (or may it possibly be the identity?) between Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who married a daughter of William, Earl Marshal, the famous Protector, during Henry III.'s minority, and Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, who married a daughter of King Edward I.?

3. The inquirer will consider himself extremely indebted to any one who will inform him of the existence of a set of Middle-Age Maps of the countries of Europe, of 8vo. or small 4to. size, published in England, France, or Germany, in print, or easily to be had second-hand, more or less accurate.

Koch's Révolutions de l'Europe, tome iii., Paris, 1814, gives seven maps of the whole continent and its adjacent islands, at the following periods of Middle-Age history:

which contain, of course, but few names of places. Were Europe divided into five unequal parts, say, 1. The Northern Countries; 2. The British Isles; 3. The Germanic Countries, Hungary, &c.; 4. France and Spain; 5. Italy, Turkey, &c.; and maps of these five parts given, the Northern Countries at three periods, the British Isles at four ditto, and the others at seven periods, as above, we should require twenty-eight maps (not too great a number, as the King's College Modern Atlas, of a convenient size, has twenty-five), which if they contained names of places as closely packed as the King's College Atlas, and laid down from Spruner, or some other trustworthy authority, would soon, it may be said without much foresight, be in the hands of so many readers of history, as to answer thoroughly to any bookseller undertaking to bring them out.

4. A copy of O'Brien's Irish-English Dictionary, first edition, 4to., old, half-calf, margins a little water-stained, otherwise perfect and clean, lately priced at 25s., to be exchanged for a clean copy of the edition of 1832 (inferior in value but more portable), and a clean copy of Thady Connellan's elementary Irish Dictionary, published by Wall, Temple Bar; Hatchard, and Rivingtons: or the latter will be purchased at a moderate price, without exchange.

Any one desiring to report the books wanted, to be so kind as to do so in "N. & Q."

MAC AN BHAIRD.

—In a note in Our Village (vol. v.), Miss Mitford says that this name was given to these islands collectively, on account of the number of hawks and falcons found on them. Is the name Spanish; and does the Natural History of the islands at the present time confirm the assertion?

J. O'G.

—In one of Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe books is the following entry of a trinket, devised at the period of the Duke of Alençon's courting her Majesty:

"Item, one little Flower of gold, with a Frog thereon; and therein mounseer his physnomie, and a little Pearl pendant."

"'Query,' says Miss Strickland (Queens, vol. vi. p. 471., 1st edit.), 'was this whimsical conceit a love-token, from the Duke of Alençon to his royal belle amie, and the frog designed, not as a ridiculous, but a sentimental allusion to his country?'"

To which Query I would add another: When was the term of Johnny Crapaud first applied to the French people, and on what occasion? I am aware of the notion of its being on account of their said partiality for eating frogs; which, by the bye, having tasted, I can pronounce to be very good: mais chacun à son goût. Is the frog introduced in the arms of Anjou or Alençon?

PHILIP S. KING.

—The fine moral poems which first appeared in the Spectator, e.g. that commencing "When all thy mercies, O my God;" the version of the Twenty-third Psalm, "The Lord my pasture shall prepare;" "The spacious firmament on high," &c., are, as most of our readers are aware, commonly ascribed to Addison. In a recent collection of poetical pieces, however, I have seen them attributed to Andrew Marvell. Can any of your readers certify either of these contradictory assertions?

J. G. F.

—I have "An Elegy to the Memory of the late worthy and pious Mr. John Harries of Amleston, in Pembrokeshire, Preacher of the Gospel;" from which it appears that, after devoting himself to preaching for forty-six years, through both North and South Wales, and more particularly in "Roose, Castlemartin, Pembroke, Haverfordwest, Narberth, Woodstockslop, and Amleston," he died at Newport on the 7th of March, 1788. Will you allow me to ask your numerous correspondents whether any of them can assist me in tracing his pedigree? One of his sons, a minor canon of Bristol, bore the arms of Owen Gwynedd, viz. "vert, three eagles displayed on a fesse, or," on his book-plate. He was often called the "Bishop of Wales," from the large district through which he overlooked the progress of the Gospel.

I. J. H. H.

St. Asaph.

—What is the origin of wearing hoods to indicate a man's University degree; and how old is the practice?

J. G. F.

—Observing that in Vol. ii. of "N. & Q." pp. 308. 409., and in Vol. iii., p. 104., there is a discussion about the "Black Rood of Scotland," which does not seem to be very satisfactorily concluded, I am tempted to send you a passage from Madox's Baronia Anglica, p. 268., &c., which seems to bear upon the point in question, but I am not competent to say how far it may serve to throw any light upon the obscurities of the case.

It there appears that 13th Oct. 1306, James Steward of Scotland swore fealty to King Edw. I.:

"By his corporal oath, taken upon the consecrated body of Christ; and upon the two holy crosses, to wit, the cross Neytz, and the Blakerode Descoce, and other holy reliques."

"In the priory of Lanrecost, in the diocese of Carlisle, before W. Bp. of Lichfield and Coventry, the King's Chancellor; and in the presence of Adomar de Valence."

I perceive in one of your communications, there is mention of the English Cross, the Cross Nigth, which in Madox is called "the Cross Neytz." Perhaps some of your antiquarian correspondents will favour us with some explanation of this cross.

I should wish moreover to elicit some further particulars of Thomas Madox, the Historiographer Royal, who has so well deserved of all lovers of ancient English history by the four books in folio which he has left us: especially his Formulare Anglicanum, and that work of prodigious industry and research, his History of the Exchequer. There is some account in Nichols' Lit. Anecdotes, but I should wish to see some more particulars of his life and studies, and a more exact critique upon his several works.

J. T. A.

—I remember reading many years since (I have forgotten both the title and the subject of the work) that the crown jewels were once deposited in Holt Castle, about five miles from Worcester, for greater safety. Can any of your kind correspondents inform me when and upon what turbulent occasion it was thought necessary to forward them to the above stronghold on the banks of the Severn, and who resided there at the time?

J. B. WHITBORNE.

—I should like to know, if you can inform me, where the following couplet is to be found, upon an ecclesiastic singing a hunting song:

Which may be thus freely translated:

W. W. E. T.

Warwick Square, Belgravia.

—Are there any letters of the Rev. Jno. Meekins, D.D., Oxon., chaplain to George, Prince of Denmark, the royal consort of Queen Anne, extant? and in what year did he die?

MICŒNIS.

—Will some of your correspondents kindly inform me where I can meet with an authority to prove the Lord Mayor of London is styled mayor by virtue of crown charters, and lord as lord of the manor of Finsbury? I have seen such a statement, but cannot bring to mind the work in which it occurred.

AMANUENSIS.

—I want information on this matter, and consider "N. & Q." peculiarly the place wherein to seek it, because it is a matter mainly dependent on local custom. All the notice of Frebord that I have been able to discover in books is derived from Dugdale. For instance, in Jacob's Law Dictionary, ed. 1807, I read—

"Frebord, Franchordus, ground claimed in some places more or less, beyond, or without the fence. It is said to contain two foot and a half."

Mon. Ang., tom. ii. p. 141.

I heard, the other day, of a Warwickshire gentleman who claimed ten or twelve feet; but the immediate reason for my Query is a claim at present under the notice of a friend of mine is for sixty-six feet freebord! Is not such a claim preposterous?

P. M. M.

—In a book entitled Physico-Theology, being the substance of sixteen sermons preached in St. Mary-le-Bone Church, London, at the Honourable Mr. Boyle's lectures in 1711 and 1712, with notes, &c., by the Rev. W. Derham (a second edition, with additions, published in 1714), the authors, in treating of the stature and size of man's body, says there is great reason to think the size of man was always the same from the Creation; and in a note at page 330., after quoting Dr. Hakewill's Apolog. and other authorities, concludes with these words:—

"Nay, besides all this probable, we have some more certain evidence. Augustus was five foot nine inches high, which was the just measure of our famous Queen Elizabeth, who exceeded his height two inches, if proper allowance be made for the difference between the Roman and our foot."

Vide Hakewill, Apolog., p. 215.

Probably some of your learned correspondents may give additional information on this interesting subject.

J. F. ALLEN.

Macclesfield.

—Can any of your readers inform me if there exists an original picture of Charles Mordaunt, the famous Earl of Peterborough, and where such can be seen?

A TRAVELLER.

—In looking at some of the old books in the library of the British Museum, I observed, on the fly-leaf of an old Bible, an inscription by Martin Luther, the meaning of which was the following:—

"Elijah the prophet said, the world had existed 2000 years before the law (from Adam to Moses); would exist 2000 years under the Mosaic dispensation (from Moses to Christ), and 2000 years under the Christian dispensation; and then the world would be burnt."

The manuscript was in German and very much effaced, so that I am not able to remember the words, though I very well remember the meaning.

Could any reader inform me in what part of the Bible this prophecy of Elijah's is to be found? for I have searched for it in vain.

C. H. M.

—I should be glad to be informed, through your publication, where I may find this line,—

J. W. V.

—In Macaulay's essay on Southey's edition of The Pilgrim's Progress (Longman & Co., p. 184.) occurs a curious use of this expression:

"The types are often inconsistent with each other; and sometimes the allegorical disguise is altogether thrown off.... It is not easy to make a simile go on all-fours. But we believe that no human ingenuity could produce such a centipede as a long allegory in which the correspondence between the outward sign and the thing signified should be exactly preserved. Certainly no writer ancient or modern has achieved the adventure."

This meaning I cannot find in Bailey's Dictionary, and it has escaped the curious vigilance of Blakie's compilers. The saying, however, is a very old one. Sir Edward Coke employs it (Coke upon Littleton, lib. i. c. 1. sect. 1. p. 3. a.):

"But no simile holds in everything; according to the ancient saying, Nullum simile quatuor pedibus currit."

There is a marginal reference here to 1 Hen. VII. 16.

Perhaps some of your philological correspondents can throw some light on the origin of the phrase, or at least give me some other examples of its use. Is the expression "To be on all-fours with" good English?

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

is said by Hume, and by some minor writers after him, to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest; but William of Malmesbury and Roger of Wendover both say that he died of fever, consequent on malaria, which struck him while hunting there. This is well known to be of frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood of desolated human dwellings; and thus seems to involve even a more striking instance of retributive justice than the fate which Hume assigns to him. The fatality attending most of this name in our history is singular. Of nine princes (three of them kings) who have borne the name of Richard, seven, or, if Hume is right, eight, have died violent deaths, including four successive generations of the House of York.

J. S. WARDEN.

—Your correspondent's mention of my Arithmetical Books (Vol. v., p. 392.) reminds me of a Query which I made in it, and which has never obtained the slightest answer—Who was Francis Walkinghame, and when was his work on arithmetic first published? The earliest edition I know of is the twenty-third, in 1787; but I am told, on good authority, that Mr. Douce had the sixteenth edition of 1779.

A. DE MORGAN.

—I shall be much obliged to anybody who will explain a phenomenon which I have observed.

Suppose 1. A street from twenty to thirty feet broad.

2. At the open window of a house on one side stands a man looking at the corresponding window of the house on the opposite side; that is, he looks at what was a window, but is now filled up with a large board that is covered with an inscription of short lines, black on white; in short, just such a board as one sees at a turnpike gate.

3. From shortness, or defect, of sight (I cannot say which), the man is unable to read the inscription as he stands at his window.

4. He sits down on a low seat, so as to bring his eye almost close to, and just on a level with, the sill of his own window. He then slowly raises and depresses his head. As he does this, it of course appears to him as if his own window-sill travelled up and down the board opposite.

5. In doing so it comes successively under each line of the inscription.

6. As it does so, that one line becomes perfectly legible.

N. B.

—Although I cannot find it in your former volumes, nor in your Index, I think there was an inquiry in one of your past Numbers as to the meaning of the phrase "To sham Abraham."

If there has been any reply, will you be good enough to refer me to it? as it may explain the passage in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, that "every village almost will yield dummerers Abraham-men," &c. (Part I. sec. 2., vol. i. p. 360.)

W. W. E. T.

Warwick Square, Belgravia.

["To sham Abraham" is a cant expression, having reference to the practices of a class of vagabonds and cheats once common in this country. In Decker's English Villanies there are many curious particulars of the habits of this class of impostors. "She's all Abram," that is, quite naked. "What an Abram!" an exclamation for a ragged fellow. "An Abraham-man" was an impostor who personated a poor lunatic called Tom of Bedlam: one of this class is described by Shakspeare in his Lear, Act II. Sc. 3.:

Among sailors, "An Abram" is being unwell, or out of sorts. When Abraham Newland was Cashier of the Bank of England, it was sung—

—Can you give me the date of, or any account of the author of a small black-letter French work on heraldry entitled, Le Blason des Couleurs en Armes, &c. The author introduces himself as "Je Sicille Herault a tres puissant roy Alphōse Darragon: de Sicilie: de Vallence de Maillaque: de Corseique et Sardeigne: Conte de Barselonne," &c.; and at the end of the first part it is said to be "compose par Sicille Herault du roy Alphōse daragon."

H. N. E.

[See Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, vol. i. p. 279., ed. Bruxelles, 1838, 8vo.]

—Can any of your correspondents inform me of the meaning and origin of the term "Banyan-day," which is frequently used by sailors?

W. B. M.

Dee Side.

[A marine term for those days in which the sailors have no flesh meat; and is probably derived from the practice of the Banians, a caste of Hindoos, who entirely abstained from all animal food.]

—Can any of your correspondents inform me whether a General Edward Urmston, who married in 1752 Leonora daughter of the first Earl Bathurst, had any children; or whether he was himself an only son or child: also when he was born, or when he died? His wife died in 1798 (I believe).

E. B.

[Lieutenant-General Edward Urmston, some time in the 1st regiment of Foot Guards, and afterwards, 10th November, 1770, Colonel of the 65th Regiment of Foot. He married in 1752 Leonora Bathurst; died 21st December, 1778, aged 59, and there is an altar tomb to his memory in the churchyard of Harrow, co. Middlesex. She died 1798.]

—Can any of your readers inform me where I can find a collection of the works of Alexander Neville, the poetical writer, born anno 1544, second son of Sir Alex. [Richard] Neville of South Leverton, Notts, by Ann, fourth daughter of Sir Edw. [Walter] Mantle; he died anno 1614? Any particulars or references concerning him would be acceptable. Was he the Alexander Neville who sate for Christchurch, Hants, 1585, and for Saltash 1601.

J. K.

[There is no edition of the collected works of Alexander Nevile or Nevyle; the following will be found in the British Museum under the word Nevyllus:—1. De Furoribus Norfolciensium, Ketto Duce, 4to., 1575. According to Hearne, there are two editions of this date of 1575; the first, without the passage displeasing to the Welshmen, dedicated only to Abp. Parker; the other, with two dedications, viz. that to Abp. Parker, and a new one to Abp. Grindall. The offensive passage is at p. 132. "Sed enim Kettiani rati," &c., to "Nam præter quam quod," &c., p. 133. 2. The same work in English, Norfolk Furies and their Foyle, under Kett and their accursed Captaine; with a Description of the famous Citye of Norwich, by Richard Woods, 4to., 1615, 1623. 3. Academiæ Cantabrigiensis Lachrymæ, Tumulo Nobilissimi Equitis D. Philippi Sidneij Sacratæ, 4 to., 1587. A biographical notice of Alexander Nevile is given in Chalmers' Biog. Dict., which does not mention that he ever had a seat in parliament. He died in 1614, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral.]

—What is the meaning or origin of the word "Lindisfarne?"

K. N. P.

[Holy Island was called Lindisfarne from the Lindis, a rivulet which empties itself into the sea from the opposite shore: farne, the concluding syllable, is a corruption of the Celtic word fahren, a recess.]

—Was there ever a general index published to the whole or any portion of the Critical Review, which commenced in 1756, and I believe ended in 1816? If so, where can it be obtained.

W. J. B.

[There were five series of the Critical Review between the years 1756 and 1817. No general index has been published.]

—Can any of your readers state the origin of the expression "no great shakes," which has obtained an almost universal use, and is employed under a great variety of circumstances? No doubt a knowledge of its derivation would interest many subscribers to "N. & Q." as well as

I. J. H. H.

[Shakes, as used in the following passage by Byron, is a vulgarism, which probably may be traced to the custom of shaking hands, the shake being estimated according to the value set upon the person giving it, and hence applied to the person. Byron writing to Murray, Sept. 28, 1820, says, "I had my hands full, and my head too just then (when he wrote Marino Faliero), so it can be no great shakes."—See Richardson's Dict. s.v.]

—Is the translation of Richard de Bury's Philobiblon, "with a memoir of the illustrious bishop," promised by W. S. G., Vol. ii. p. 203., yet published?

L. S.

[Our correspondent should remember, that "church work is slow work," as Addison facetiously makes Sir Roger de Coverley complain. From a prospectus recently issued, we learn that the Philobiblon is still preparing for publication; and that gentlemen who may wish to have copies are requested by the author to transmit their names to Mr. R. Robinson, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne.]

—Who is the author of the Life of Bishop Ken, by a Layman, published a year or two since?

E. G.

Dorchester.

[J. L. Anderson, Esq., author of The River Dove, &c., and editor of Bishop Ken's Approach to the Holy Altar.]

—Can any of your informants give me the origin of the wedding ring, by whom it was introduced, and what it was meant to signify, and does now signify?

BOSQUECILLO.

[Wheatly, in his Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, ch. x. sect. 5., has ably discussed the origin of the marriage ring, accompanied with numerous references to early and later writers on this visible pledge of fidelity.]

—Will any of your correspondents kindly inform me where I can find an authentic account of the hospitals, monasteries, and religious houses pillaged and destroyed, consequent on the commission of inquiry issued by Henry VIII.?

T. DYSON.

Gainsborough.

[The most authentic account of English monasteries, &c. will be found in Dugdale's Monasticon, edited by Cayley and Ellis; Tanner's Notitia, edit. 1744; and Stevens's Additions to Dugdale. In Dodd's Church History, by Tierney, vol. i. p. 458., will be found "A List of the Abbots, Priors, and other Superiors of the Principal Religious Houses in England, from the Foundation to their Suppression." And for a list of all the mitred abbots and priors of England, who are known to have been mitred, or to have sat in parliament subsequent to the beginning of the reign of Edward III., see Glossary of Heraldry, pp. xxix. xxx.]

—Can you inform me who were the nine bishops who attended the Hampton Court conference in 1603-4?

C. H. D.

[Archbishop of Canterbury, John Whitgift; London, Richard Bancroft; Durham, Tobias Matthew; Winchester, Thomas Bilson; Worcester, Gervase Babington; St. David's, Anthony Rudd; Chichester, Anthony Watson; Carlisle, Henry Robinson; Peterborough, Thomas Dove.]

The story referred to by Jeremy Taylor reminds me of a somewhat similar instance of dishonest astuteness I lately heard of in Scotland, from an old Highlander; the which, though courtesy forbade me to dispute, I at the time received "cum grano," and have since been unable to verify. It was as follows:

The custodians (whether rightful or not, I know not, as no date was assigned to the action of the narrative) of the Scottish regalia being bound by an oath to deliver it to the Governor of Carlisle, as the nearest representative of the English sovereign, by a certain day, determined upon a plan for performing (!), and at the same time evading, their promise. Having selected the most able steed in Scotland, a suitable deputation escorted the regalia and the horse to the appointed place of tradition. The embassy carrying with them the more valuable and portable of their treasures—the jewels, not the horse, of which hereafter,—were duly admitted to an audience with the governor, who received them in the presence of the principal inhabitants of Carlisle: and having produced and surrendered the regalia (and doubtless taken an acquittance!), surreptitiously, and with gipsey adroitness, regained possession of it, and conveying it from the audience chamber, immediately delivered it to an expectant messenger; who, mounted on the before-mentioned horse, awaited its return outside the hall; and who, ventre à terre, pursued his eager flight across the border, nor once drew rein until his precious burden was again deposited in the custody of Scottish tenure. Whether the deputation was dismissed, and escaped before the discovery of its chicanery, or whether the conspirators received the well-merited punishment of their audacious dissimulation, my informant knew not. And although the story tells more in favour of the astuteness than the honesty of his countrymen (if true), he narrated it with considerable unction, and declared that it was generally believed and admired in Scotland; the patriotism displayed, the dangerous nature of the enterprise, and the success which attended it, palliating any stigma which might attach to the want of faith, double dealing, and casuistry which marked the transaction.

The method by which the horse's title to be considered the ablest in Scotland was ascertained, was ingenious. The horses the most renowned for fleetness and endurance were secretly collected, and having been deprived of water for a considerable time, were presently, one by one, permitted to bury their heads in the grateful bucket, and the duration of each draught was scrupulously watched and recorded; the animal that retained its nostrils for the longest time immersed being selected for the honour of rescuing the royal treasure, as having given proofs of its superior wind and bottom.

Is any credit to be attached to the story: and if historical, can any reader inform me where it is recorded?

C. A.

St. John's Wood.

The replies of FABER, EXON., and P. T. to the inquiry of STEPHEN, concerning the origin of Gospel Oaks, are not very explanatory.

The oak was consecrated to the god of thunder—Ang.-Sax., Thunor; Gallic, Taranis; Irish, Toran; Anc. N. Thorr—as being more generally struck by lightning than any other tree; and the acorn was called by the Romans Jovis glans, the fruit of the supreme god.

At Dodona stood the δρῦς ὑψίκομος Διός.—Od. XIV. 327. Woods, groves, and trees were the temples and sacred emblems of the Deity among the greater part of the Pagans, but especially among the Teutonic and Celtic tribes. Maximus Tyrius, an author of the second century, informs us, concerning the worship of the Celts:

"Κελτοὶ σέβουσι μὲν Δία, ἄγαλμα δὲ Διὸς Κελτικὸν ὑψηλὴ δρῦς."

And Tacitus gives us the oldest testimonies concerning the Germans, Germ. 9.:

"Ceterum, nec cohibere parietibus Deos, neque in ullam humani oris speciem assimulare, ex magnitudine cœlestium arbitrantur. Lucos ac nemora consecrant, Deorumque nominibus appellant secretum illud, quod sola reverentia vident."

Vid. Germ. 39. cap. 40. cap. 43., &c.

Also, a passage of the later Claudian is to the same purpose:

From these passages it will be seen that the gods dwelt in these groves, and that sacred vessels and altars were placed there, but no images; neither were temples erected.[2] The practice of worshipping the gods in woods and trees continued for many centuries, till the introduction of Christianity (Vid. Willibald, A.D. 786, in Vita Bonifacii), and the converters did not disdain to adopt every means to raise Christian cultus to higher authority than that of Paganism, by acting upon the senses of the heathen, e.g. using white robes for those baptized, lighting of candles, burning of incense, &c.; and they erected the Christian churches, for the most part, upon the site of Pagan tree or temple; Sulp. Severus (ed. Amst. 1665), p. 485.:

"Nam ubi fana destruxerat (Martinus), statim ibi aut ecclesias aut monasteria construebat."

Dietm. V. Merseb., 7. 52., p. 859.:

"Fana idolorum destruens incendit, et mare dæmonibus cultum inmissis quatuor lapidibus, sacro Chrismate perunctis et aqua purgans benedicta, novam Domino ... plantationem eduxit."

[2] Brissonius De Regno Pers. II. 28.: "Persæ diis suis nulla templa vel altaria constituunt, nulla simulacra."

The heathen gods were represented as impotent, in opposition to the true God, though not as powerless in themselves, and were converted into inimical evil powers, which must submit, but could nevertheless exercise a certain hurtful influence.

Some heathen traditions and superstitions remained, their names only being altered into those of Christ, Maria, and the saints. In this manner they spared the assuefactions of the people, and made them believe that the sacredness of the place was not lost, but henceforth depended on the presence of the true God.

The above facts will perhaps sufficiently explain the origin of the Gospel Oak.

PROFESSOR THEODORE GOEDES.

Hampden House, Reading.

There is a tree called by this name a few miles from Winchester, in the parish of Tichborne or Cheriton,—I think the latter, but have no means of ascertaining at the present moment. Mention of it is made in Duthy's Sketches of Hampshire.

L. G.

The case related by MR. GATTY is interesting, but requires sifting. Perhaps he will be good enough to do it, or to put me on the trail. As the energetic sister may be a reader of "N. & Q.," I do not wish to annoy her by printing the forger's name, but I shall be glad to have the place and date of the conviction.

About twenty years ago, the rule of hanging for forgery was broken in the case of Fry, a school-master, who was sentenced to death without any hope of mercy, and not reprieved till he had heard the "condemned sermon"—I think, not till the day before that which was fixed for his execution. He showed great fear; rolled upon the chapel floor, and delivered to the sheriffs a well-written protest against the right to inflict capital punishment. His being spared caused much surprise; and between that event and the abolition of the punishment of death for forgery, few, if any, were executed for that crime.

The sister, falling, at the feet of Baron G——, who "was notorious for his unflinching obduracy," is a melo-dramatic event which, I think, would have found its way to the newspapers. But the most extraordinary thing is the conclusion:

"The forger was placed in the hulks prior to transportation; and before this took place he had forged a pass or order from the Home Secretary's office for his own liberation, which procured his release, and he was never afterwards heard of."

Letters to convicts in the hulks are opened by the officers before being delivered to the prisoners. It is not usual for the Home Secretary to write to a convict enclosing "a pass or order." On the contrary, a pardon is attended with a good number of formalities, and without one I do not think that any convict would have been allowed to quit the vessel. In that class of prisoners, leave of absence on parole, or a "day rule," would have been something peculiar enough to make the turnkey ask, "Where did you get this?" In short, a convict who made his escape as described must be as extraordinary a person as the strong American, who could sit in a basket and lift himself upon a table by the handles.

"She returned to the city at which the assizes had been held just as they were concluded. The two judges were in the act of descending the cathedral nave, after partaking of the Holy Sacrament, when," &c.

It is usual for the judges to attend divine service on the commission-day if they arrive soon enough, or the day after if they do not. If a Sunday occur during the sitting of the commission, they also attend; but I never knew, and on inquiring I cannot hear, that they ever so attended at the close of the assizes, when they are always glad to get on to the next town, if the circuit is not concluded, and away altogether if it is.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

Allow me to call upon your correspondent I. J. H. H., who dates from St. Asaph, to explain what he means by a Lordship Marcher; and what proof he possesses that his friend Mr. Lloyd is the "only Lord Marcher now extant in the kingdom?" The most authentic single record which we possess of the number, names, and situation of these lordships is the statute 27 Hen. VIII. ch. 26. The writs issued to the Lords Marchers, at various times before that statute, would perhaps furnish materials for a more exact enumeration of them; but the above Act was unquestionably intended to include all of them; and the only reason why the information conveyed by it is not complete is, that some of the names specified in it may perhaps be those of townships, or other districts within, or parcel of, some Lordship Marcher, and that other lordships seem to be comprehended under a general description, such as "all lordships lying between Chepstow Bridge and Gloucestershire." Hence, the number of real Lordships Marchers may, perhaps, be fewer or more than are there mentioned. Herbert, in his History of Henry VIII., says that there were 141 Lordships Marchers. (Kennett's Compl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 189.)

The lordship of Kemes is not, I think, specified in the Act; but I presume that it is comprehended within some of the descriptions of lordships in it. Probably it is included in sect. 16. In old writs of summons to attend the King in his wars, Kemes is associated with Dyvett or with Llandovery.

The statute referred to did, in fact, extinguish the most characteristic privileges of a Lordship Marcher, and reduced it nearly to the level of an ordinary lordship, with such royalties only as have often been granted, and are still enjoyed, by Lords of Manors, or honours in other parts of England and Wales. The franchises left to them are enumerated in sections 25. and 30., explained by the later statute 1 & 2 Phil. & Mary, ch. 15. The palatine jurisdiction which they once possessed, and the exemption from ordinary process, exist no longer; and the various local customs prevailing in each lordship, which were repugnant to the common law of England, must have been almost wholly abolished by the operation of that Act. The lordships themselves remain in name, and in little more than in name.

Hence I am afraid that I. J. H. H.'s friend must be prepared to surrender the distinction of being the sole surviving Lord Marcher. In the strict and original sense of the term, there is now no such lordship in existence. In the sense in which alone the title can now be assumed, he shares the honour with many others; among others, with the Duke of Beaufort, who holds the very extensive and important Marcher Seignory of Gower and Kilvey.

Probably the number of private lordships of this kind is not now great; for, at the passing of the above statute, the majority were in the Crown; and if any have since been re-granted, it is most likely that their franchises and tenure would be so modified as to leave no vestige of the Marcher privileges in them.

The statement of your correspondent suggests to me another doubt. How could any Lordship Marcher be "erected by Martin of Tours?" Every such lordship must be of the creation of the Crown, either shown or presumed. The date of the establishment of these marcherships is so ancient that, perhaps, no one may have actually seen any document to prove them but charters of confirmation and inquisitions post-mortem; still the law refers their origin to specific Crown grants, and not to the act or authority of a mere subject. If, therefore, Martin, who was a tenant in capite of the Crown, founded the lordship of Kemes, he must have done—as the military invaders of Ireland in a subsequent reign did—conquered the territory with his own arms, and obtained palatine jurisdiction over it, with the assent and by the authority of the King.

Let me add, that the MS. treatise in the Harleian Collection (referred to ante, p. 135.) is printed in Pennant's Wales, and, more correctly, in vol. ii. of the Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society. It is much to be lamented that the treatise on the Lordships Marchers, bequeathed by Sir Matthew Hale to the Society of Lincoln's Inn, is not to be found in that library. If the work was composed by that eminent judge himself, it must be one of the highest value and authority. Does any one possess it, or a copy of it?

E. SMIRKE.

"Can any of your readers inform me of any traces of the doctrine of the resurrection before the Christian era?" I shall endeavour as briefly as possible to do justice to this important subject by giving extracts from, and references to, various authors, especially Hody in his work The Resurrection of the (Same) Body Asserted from the Traditions of the Heathens, &c. The arguments derived from this source are as follow:—

1. "The gross notions of the heathens concerning the soul in its state of separation, that it has all the same parts as the body has."

Confer Farmer on the Worship of Human Spirits in the Ancient Heathen Nations, p. 419. et seq.; Æschyli Persæ, v. 616.; and Blomfield's note; Nicolaus de Sepulchris Hebræorum, &c., cap. ix. and xiv.

2. "Their opinion concerning the transmigration of souls." Confer Vossii Idololat., lib. i. c. x.

3. "Their opinion concerning the duration of the soul as long as the body lasted, and its adherence to the body after death," v. Cicero, Tuscul. Quæst., lib. i.; Lucret., lib. iii. Concerning the opinion of the Egyptians, v. Greenham on Embalming.

4. "The belief that some men have ascended up into heaven in their bodies, there to remain for ever," v. Hody.

5. "That others have done so even after death upon a re-union of their souls and bodies." (H.) "There were not only certain persons under the law and among the Jews who were raised to life; but there were also histories among the Gentiles of several who rose the third day; and Plato mentioneth another who revived the twelfth day after death, Plato de Rep., lib. x.; Plin. lib. vii. 52., "De his qui elati revixerunt;" Philostrat. lib. iii. c. xiii."—Pearson on the Creed. There are histories of this description in Bonifacii Hist. Ludiceæ, p. 561. et seq.

6. "The opinion of the Pythagoreans and Platonists, &c., concerning the restitution of our bodies, and of all other things in the world to their former state, after the revolution of many ages, by a new birth or production." On the Platonic year confer Gale's Court of the Gentiles, book iii. c. 7.; on the Phœnix cycle of the Egyptians, Rev. Edw. Greswell's Fasti Catholici and Origines Calendariæ. By some this restitution is considered as merely astronomical, v. Costard's Hist. of Astronomy, p. 131. "The opinion of some of the Genethliacal writers, that the soul returns and is united to the same body in the space of 440 years."—Varro ap Aug. de Civit. xxii. 28.; Jackson's Works, vol. iii. p. 424. "The opinion of the Stoics concerning the reproduction of all the same men, &c., after the general conflagration," v. Eusebii Praep. Evang., lib. xv.; M. Antonin. Imp., lib. xi. The resurrection was asserted by the Persian Magi, the Indian Brachmans, and other philosophers both oriental and western. "Thus we have demonstrated what evident notices the heathens had of the last conflagration, with the ensuing judgment, and man's immortal state; and all from sacred oracles and traditions."—Gale, ut suprà.

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

A Query has been put respecting a clergyman marrying himself. Such a thing did once occur in the case of the Rev. J. D. T. M. F——g, curate of the parish of S——n M——t, Somersetshire. The parish register informs us that—

"On three several Sundays, namely, on the 22nd and 29th days of July, and the 5th August in the year 1787, banns of marriage were published in the parish church between J. D. T. M. F——g and H. V. B——t; and after the third publication, no impediment being alleged, the said J. D. T. M. F——g and H. V. B——t were immediately married in the face of the congregation, on the 5th of August, 1787, by J——n F——g curate."

The parties' names are appended to the form "This marriage was solemnised between us;" and then follows, "in the presence of" two witnesses who signed their names, one of them being the "clark," as he spelt the word. The event occurred "on a Sacrament Sunday." An aged parishioner, who was about seventy-four or seventy-five years of age when my informant wrote, perfectly remembered the ceremony; and added, that previously to Mr. F.'s return from the Lord's Table to the reading desk, in order to continue the service, from the Second Lesson, he exchanged a kiss with his blushing bride! It appears that, owing to several persons having disputed the validity of this marriage, the said parties were re-married by the Rev. W. N——s, officiating minister, on the 9th October in the same year.

I have heard that Mr. F. was always regarded as an eccentric man, if not deranged. I think I have heard that the bride was a milk girl, with whom the reverend gentleman fell in love because "she reminded him of his first love!" The marriage was decidedly opposed by his relatives and friends, which led to the above-mentioned singular occurrence. I believe, before performing the ceremony himself, Mr. F. publicly inquired "whether there was any one provided to marry him?" As there was not, he proceeded to the performance of the ceremony himself.

I have heard also of some such case of a clergyman marrying himself in Ireland. But the marriage was, I believe, pronounced null and void, and the clergyman deposed from the ministry.

Connected with this subject, I would relate another circumstance related to me as a fact by a clergyman, now a surrogate, who for very many years was curate of the parish adjoining that in which it occurred. He related it to justify and to explain his own somewhat unusual practice of using the surnames as well as Christian names of the parties throughout the Marriage Service, saying that in the parish of B——y, Gloucestershire, the not doing so led to the wrong couple being married, owing to the stupidity of the parties and their friends! The rector, Rev. Mr. M——d, on discovering the mistake, formally pronounced the whole proceeding null and void, and then married the right couple!

A correspondent lately inquired whether a person could be buried in a garden! In N——h, Gloucestershire, such a thing occurred about sixteen years ago. An eccentric old gentleman built a kind of summer-house in his garden, and prepared his own tomb in it, and was there buried according to his directions. I rather think the funeral service was read, under the express sanction of the bishop, by the rector of an adjoining parish, who was a friend of the deceased.

E. W. D.

—I can hardly suppose that MR. H. DIXON can have made any progress in his inquiries as to Algernon Sydney, without having met with the "authorities" mentioned by your correspondent C. E. D.; and yet it is certainly strange that, if MR. DIXON had seen these authorities, he could have called Sydney "an illustrious patriot." It may be therefore as well to state that the specific evidence which destroys Sydney's claim to the title not merely of an "illustrious patriot," but even of an honest man, and shows him to have been a corrupt traitor of the worst class, is to be found in the Appendix to Sir John Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. i. pp. 339. 386. (8vo edit. 1790), where are transcribed the secret despatches of the French ambassador, Barillon, to Louis XIV., detailing the bribes by which he engaged Algernon Sydney to that factious and traitorous opposition which had, for a hundred years prior to Dalrymple's publication, passed off for patriotism. I shall be very curious indeed to see what light MR. H. DIXON may be able to throw on this curious and infamous case; of which the best that even Mr. Macaulay can say is, that Barillon's louis d'ors were "a temptation which conquered the virtue and the pride of Algernon Sydney."—History of England, vol. i. p. 228.

C.

—It may be doubted whether Mr. Faber will thank J. R. R. for republishing his absurd blunder. It must not, however, be allowed to gain a settlement in "N. & Q.," or to pass for a real explanation, while it is in reality one of the most unfortunate "cock-and-bull" stories that ever was invented. The truth is, that Reinerius, a writer of the Middle Ages, lays it to the charge of the Waldenses that they did not hold the traditions of the Church and, by way of instance, he specifies that they did not believe (as, he took for granted, all his orthodox readers did) that the cock on the church steeple was symbolical of a doctor or teacher. Reinerius did not think of adding a word of explanation about its overlooking the parish from its elevated position, or of its prescriptive right from the days of St. Peter to do a pastor's office by reminding men of the duty of repentance, or of any of the things which writers on symbolism had said, or might say. He nakedly states, "Item, mysticum sensum in divinis scripturis refutant: præcipue in dictis et actis ab Ecclesia traditis: ut quod gallus super campanile significat Doctorem." Mr. Faber, who was somewhat out of his way in dealing with the thoughts and language of mediæval writers, catching a sight of this passage, blundered between a bell and a belfry, put campanum for campanile, and thus got an idea of a "cock-on-a-bell," and that this symbol meant a doctor. Whereupon it occurred to him to set the world right with the wonderful discovery which J. R. R. has revived for the amusement of your readers.

S. R. MAITLAND.

—In the seventeenth century there were four professors of philosophy in every university in Scotland. Thomas Crawford was one of the professors in the University of Edinburgh from 1640 to 1662.

Thomas Crawford, educated at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrew's, graduated A.M. 1621. Succeeded Mr. Samuel Rutherford as Professor of Humanity in the University of Edinburgh, 1625. Appointed Rector of the High School of Edinburgh in 1630. Elected Professor of Philosophy (or Regent) in the University of Edinburgh, 1640, and continued in that office till his death, in 1662.

He was the author of A Short History of the University of Edinburgh, from 1582 to 1646, first printed in 1808; and of Notes and Observations on G. Buchanan's History of Scotland: Edinb. 1708, 8vo. pp. 187.

Both these posthumous publications are very meagre.

J. L.

Coll. Edinburgh.

—In the church of Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, is the following inscription on a slab in the floor:—

"In memory of Elizabeth, ye Daughter of Thomas Lewis, who departed this life the 31st day of May, 1715, aged 141 years."

I was assured that the age of the deceased, as here stated, is confirmed by the parish register.

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

—Perhaps the following tract is one of those about which S. G. inquires:

"The Huntyng and Fyndyng out of the Romish Fox: whiche more than seven yeares hath bene hyd among the Byshoppes of England, after that the Kynges Hyghnes Henry VIII. had commanded hym to be dryven out of hys Realme. Written by Wyllyam Turner, Doctour of Physicke, and formerly Fellow of Pembroke College in Cambridge. Basyl, 1543."

This tract has just been reprinted, with some curtailments and amendments, and with a short memoir of the author prefixed, by my friend, Robert Potts, Esq., M.A. Trin. Coll., Cam.; and was published by J. W. Parker, London. The copy from which this reprint has been made is in the library of Trinity College.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

—With the Editor of "N. & Q." I think the interpretation of "muck" for the old word used by Wyckliffe is "not satisfactory:" I therefore suggest another, perhaps equally questionable. Every rustic in grazing districts knows, that in the hot season of the year sheep are liable to be fearfully flyblown in their living flesh; and that the maggots thence resulting are called mokes, or mawks. Is not the preacher's allusion in the text to certain shepherds, or rather sheep of Christ's flock, who, rather than give one of their mokes to help one of their "needy brethren," will allow themselves to "perish" and "be taken of" these maggots? The term in question is, or was formerly, in provincial use as a metonym for lendiculosity in a figurative sense—a tetchy, whimsical individual, being said to be "maggoty," vulgo, mokey. Lendix has not, however, in all cases been treated with abhorrence; for one of the elder Wesleys not only printed a book of rhymes with the title of Maggots, but prefixed to it his portrait, with one of these animi impetu concitari represented as creeping on the forehead!

D.

—J. C. E. will find a very elaborate and interesting paper "On the Ice formed, under peculiar Circumstances, at the bottom of Running Waters," by the Rev. J. Farquharson, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for 1835, Part II. p. 329.

J. H.

Hallamshire.

—I beg to suggest to your correspondent J. M., that this nobleman was Richard Boyle, third Earl of Burlington, and fourth Earl of Cork, who had a passion for architecture, and was the architect of numerous buildings in the metropolis and other parts of the kingdom. He repaired Inigo Jones's church of St. Paul, Covent Garden. He built the front of Burlington House in Piccadilly; the dormitory at Westminster School; the Assembly Rooms at York; and several villas and mansions in various parts of the country, besides publishing some architectural works. Bishop Berkeley was introduced to him by Pope about the year 1722, and I believe derived some benefit from his patronage. His architectural pursuits are alluded to by Pope in the epistle on the use of riches, which was addressed to him.

G. R. J.

—Inquiry is made about one of our old English poets, who is said to have lived at the old house in Welling, where there is a high yew hedge.

I am the owner of the house referred to, and have lived here since 1811. I have never heard the report, but I think that it may have arisen from the fact, that about eighty years ago a Major Denham possessed the house. It is possible that he may have been mistaken for his namesake, Denham the poet.

ESTE.

—In vol. i. p. 175. of the Analecta Scotica (Edinburgh, 1834) will be found some curious "fragments relative to the office of Great Constable of Scotland," more particularly before it became heritable in the noble family of Erroll.

E. N.

—In answer to A. W. I beg to say that the iron plate was taken from the ruins of a cottage which was burnt down on the estate of Sir Henry Shiffner some time since; it formed the fire-back of the kitchen: the inscription was turned to the wall, and therefore not visible.

This inscription is a fac-simile of the iron plate placed to the memory of Ann Forster in the church of Crowhurst in Surrey, and it would appear that the founder cast several plates similar to that in Lewes Castle, which are known to exist and be used as fire-backs. See Brayley and Britton's History of Surrey, vol. iv. p. 131., and note at foot of the same page.

WILLIAM FIGG.

Lewes.

The monumental (cast iron?) plate in Lewes castle, referred to by A. W., probably came from the church of Crowhurst in Surrey, where there are several monuments to members of the family of Gaynsford, and there were (in Sept. 1847, when I visited the building) more than one iron plate in the pavement with inscriptions of the exact character of that at Lewes, and with the letters similarly inverted and reversed. My impression is that I saw the memorial in question in the church; but I cannot now discover the notes I made on the subject at the time, nor a rubbing which I took of another iron plate of a more ornate though not less rude character. I remember, in passing within sight of the church on the Dover Railway, since 1847, to have noticed scaffolding about the tower; possibly the plate now at Lewes may have been removed at that time.

R. C. H.

The plate was presented to the Antiquarian Museum in Lewes Castle by Sir H. Shiffner, Bart., about two years ago, when he rescued it from a farm-house burnt down on his property near Lewes. It has been traced to a cottage where it previously served the same purpose as at the farm-house, as back to the fire-place; but no further record of its former history can be discovered. It is not unusual, however, to find monumental plates thus desecrated.

E. A. S.

—Allow me to suggest to your correspondent W. H. K. the possibility that the name in question may originally have been Ceolwoldsburh or Ceolweardesburh, i.e. the burgh or castle of Ceolwold or Ceolweard, analogously with Brihthelmstûn, now contracted into Brighton. The A.-S. ce has constantly been corrupted into che.

D.

—The printer's account supplied by MR. BURTT does not relate, except possibly to a very trifling extent, to the Basilicon Doron; but it is evidently Robert Barker's bill, mainly in the matter of King James's Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance.

R. G.

—In an edition of Hudibras of 1704 appears the following "annotation" to the line "As Friar Bacon's noddle was:"—

"The tradition of Friar Bacon and the Brazen-head is very commonly known, and considering the times he lived in, is not much more strange than what another great philosopher of his name has since deliver'd of a ring that, being ty'd in a string, and held like a pendulum in the middle of a silver bowl, will vibrate of itself, and tell exactly against the sides of the divining-cup the same thing with, Time is, Time was, &c."

I have tried this experiment with the ring, and find the oscillation takes place as described by AGMOND with the shilling. If, however, the thread is tightly pressed between the finger and thumb, the vibration ceases. This latter circumstance appears to support AGMOND'S idea, that the motive power is due to the pulse, the circulation of the blood ceasing by pressure.

C. N. S.

—The places mentioned in the following lines are all within about four miles of each other in the county of Gloucester, and twenty years ago the adjectives exactly described the condition of the people; but the great civiliser, the steam-engine, has now taken away the force of the description; and although the first and third lines may be as true as ever, the second and fourth are not:—

W. H. BAXTER.

—I have to thank both MR. CROSSLEY and DR. RIMBAULT for their information regarding the Ports, of which I have willingly availed myself by consulting the various works to which they refer; and I have been fortunate enough to see a translation of the greater portion of the Straloch lute-book. Hitherto, however, I have failed in my endeavours to discover two of the ports mentioned by MR. TYTLER namely, Port Gordon and Port Seton, both of which I am anxious to obtain.

E. N.

—Allow me to add to the list of books on this subject, Atlas sacer sive ecclesiasticus, Wiltsch, published at Gotha in 1843.

W. S.

—I am inclined to think that this phrase has more to do with the animate than the inanimate. It is a common saying in Devonshire "please the pixies," or fairies, and this reference is much more likely; as our ancestors were most particular in their superstitious attentions to the requirements of this most mischievous fraternity.

C. R.

is quite common in the North of England; in Lancashire it is perhaps especially so. It signifies to shift, to move, to give way: as, speaking of a thing, a wall or foundation, which has moved from its position, we should say, "it has shunted;" or of a thing which requires moving, "Shunt it a little that way," "Shunt it at the other end." Shunt, to move, to slip, to give way; shuntu, they move; shuntut, they moved.—See Bamford's Lancashire Dialect: Smith, Soho Square.

The word grin, in the same county, signifies a noose to catch hares or other game, as well as the act of grinning with the teeth. The word gin is seldom used, except to express a horse gin-wheel, or the blue-ruin of the Pandemoniums.

P. D.

V.

—As your correspondents have not thrown much light upon this subject, I will here mention that the use of this name in the sense alluded to has probably originated from a "waiting gentlewoman" who figures in Beaumont and Fletcher's comedy of The Scornful Lady. As this play appears from Pepys's Diary to have been a great favourite after the Restoration, it was then most probably that the term came into use.

J. S. WARDEN.

—G. H. K. appears to consider the object of H. C. K.'s Query a tradesman's token. This is by no means the case. It is a jetton, or counter, such as was formerly much in use for casting accounts, on a principle very similar to that of the abacus. They are found in vast numbers in England, but were principally manufactured at Nuremberg, where a large trade in them must have been carried on. The greatest manufacturers of the "Rechenpfennige" were the members of the families of Schultz, Laufer, and Krauwinckel. Of the three Krauwinckels, the productions of Hans are most numerous. Many of them have legends of a moral or religious character, as "Gottes Segen macht reich," God's blessing maketh rich; "Gott allein die Ehre sey," To God alone be the glory; "Heut rodt, Morgen todt," To-day red, to-morrow dead, &c. The date 1601 occurs on several of those of Hans K., with mythological devices.—See Snelling's Treatise on Jettons, or Counters.

J. E.

The legend on the counter described signifies

I know not the signification of the solitary E. Snelling (Treatise on Abbey Pieces, &c.) has engraved and described many of these counters, and to him I must refer H. C. K. Hans means John, and has no reference to the Hanseatic League.

W. H. S.

Edinburgh.

—Lode and load, in Cornwall, is the name given to the vein that leads in the mine; or, the leading vein. The word lode is also in common use in Cambridgeshire, having similar reference to the watercourses by which the fens are drained.

Lodestar. The pole-star; the leading star, by which mariners are guided. The magnet is load-stone, that is, leading, or guiding stone. (Nares' Glossary.)

WM. YARRELL.

Rider Street.

Lode seems to have been anciently used as signifying merely a ditch to carry off water. (See "Inquisition, 21 Henry VIII." in Wells's Hist. of Bedford Level, vol. ii. pp. 8-17.) Lode means to carry. (Promptorium Parvulorum, ed. Way, p. 310.) The term lode is now used to signify a navigable ditch. In Cambridgeshire we have Soham Lode, Burwell Lode, Reach Lode, Swaffham Lode, and Bottisham Lode.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

—Your correspondent S. WISWOULD will find some slight information respecting this worthy in Daniel's Merrie England in the Olden Time (Bentley, 1842), vol. i. p. 217.

It appears that Mr. Bindley had an unique engraving of her, and that a well-known alehouse at Holloway (of which a token is extant, with the date 1667) was sacred to her memory as Mother Redcap, as well as that in the Hampstead Road.

JOHN EVANS.

—The monuments referred to by ÆGROTUS are in the church of Aldworth: the effigies are certainly remarkable, especially one for its size and attitude. Another noticeable circumstance is that most of the figures are of older date than the tombs on which they lie, or than the church which contains them. The building consists of a nave and south aisle; and, at the time of its original construction, three canopied recessed tombs were introduced in each of the side walls to receive the effigies which must have existed in the older church. The style of the architecture belongs to the age of Edward III. There are nine figures altogether, some of them greatly mutilated. They are not entirely unknown to archæologists.

I may take this opportunity of calling attention to another very fine monumental effigy, of which I believe no moderately good representation has been published, at Tilton in Leicestershire. There are two figures in the church of as early dates as those at Aldworth, one an armed male, and the other a female. The former is in "edgering" mail, and is of good character; but the latter is of superior design, and very well executed, though unfortunately in a coarse material. The right arm is bent, and the hand brought up to the breast; the left hangs naturally by the side, and has the fore-arm and (bare) hand exposed from among the folds of the drapery. Slight traces of colour are discoverable.

R. C. H.

The village of Aldworth, in Berkshire, where the effigies of the De la Beche family are to be seen, is about five miles from the Goring Station, on the Great Western Railway, viâ Streatley. Hewett's Hundred of Compton furnishes a very interesting account of the ten monumental effigies which represent various members of the ancient family of De la Beche in that church, and will be read with no small pleasure.

FRANCIS POCOCK.

Stanford.

—However affected it may appear, these words have been more generally pronounced Cook and Cooper.

J. H. L. (Vol. iv., p. 76.) adduces the instance of Cowper being made to rhime to Trooper. And I have just stumbled upon a passage in Cowley where Coke is the answering word to Took.

RT.

Warmington.

—Fully agreeing with my friend H. H. in his opinion of the brass of the Abbess of Elstow, considered as a portrait, I should yet be glad if your correspondents would send to "N. & Q." the names of any effigies which may appear to them exceptions to the rule of conventional portraiture, especially if of earlier date than the latter half of the sixteenth century. H. H. has mentioned one, Nicholas Canteys, 1431, at Margate: and I am inclined to add another in the well-executed little brass of Robert de Brentingham at East Horsley, Surrey; this is about the date of 1380. The artists of that time, in brasses as well as in painted glass, wood-carving, &c., may have sometimes desired to produce a portrait, but certainly they seldom succeeded: a religious severity of expression atoned for the deficiency. In English coins it is well known that there is no appearance of a portrait before the reign of Henry VII.

The particular costume, however, of the deceased was more attended to in monumental effigies; and it is this fact which renders the study of them so serviceable towards a knowledge of the manners and habits of our ancestors. Care was even taken not to omit any peculiarity which may have distinguished the deceased; of which the long beard of Sir Wm. Tendring, at Stoke, by Layland, is perhaps an instance, and many others might be quoted. If any decided portraits are known in stone effigies, it would I think be desirable to communicate such to the pages of "N. & Q."

C. R. M.

—It does not appear to me that the mottoes sent by your inquirer C. T. are very difficult to solve. The first is Latin:

He says he is not certain as to one or two letters. I suspect the first O should be Q, and the V should be I. It will then read:

A very proper motto for a fire-side.

The second is Italian:

I suspect the R should be T. It will then read:

If the word is daro, it will be—

JAMES EDMESTON.

Homerton.

The arms given by your correspondent C. T. are those of Cavendish (quartering Clifford), one of that family having been created Earl of Newcastle in 1610. Becoming shortly after extinct, John Holles, Earl of Clare (who had married the heiress of Cavendish), was created by King William III. in 1694 Marquis of Clare and Duke of Newcastle.

Might not the chimney-piece have adorned a mansion of the Cavendish family, who probably resided in Newcastle during the period above alluded to?

The motto underneath (which is not the family motto of Cavendish) certainly at first sight looks puzzling enough; will the following solution suffice, which I merely throw out as a first thought that may lead to a better elucidation?

Presuming "ovula" to be the diminutive of ovum (I am not sure if I am correct), and "tran" (if correctly transcribed) to be a component part of one of the numerous compounds of trans (say transitorius), may not the passage be freely translated: "(Our) transitory life (was) once (as mysterious, or hidden, or minute as) is (the germ of vitality) in an egg?"

If C. T. could give a description of the second coat, some connecting link may possibly be supplied toward unravelling the motto.

HENRY W. S. TAYLOR.

Southampton.

—One of the mottoes which puzzle your correspondent C. T. is Welsh, and means that retribution will follow violence: "he will pay (i.e. suffer) for striking."

Σ.

—Bishop Ridley, in his conference with Bishop Latimer, whilst they were confined in the Tower, makes use of the expression: "For surely, except the Lord assist me with His gracious aid in the time of His service, I know I shall play but the part of a white-livered knight."

CARL.

—The brasses of John Killyngworth, 1412, formerly in Eddlesborough Church, now in Pitson Church, Bucks; and of a priest at St. Peter's, near St. Alban's, have this inscription upon them:

"Ecce quod expendi habui, quod donavi habeo, quod negavi punior, quod servavi perdidi."

That at St. Alban's has an English translation:

[3] So in my authority.

The same inscription is on a brass as late as 1584, at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London. (See Oxford Architectural Society's Manual of Monumental Brasses.)

UNICORN.

In Warner's Glastonbury, plate 18, fig. E., is a very early representation of the pelican feeding her young with her own blood: an emblem of Christ's love for His church. The stone was dug out of the ruins of the Abbey.

In Parker's Glossary the symbol is explained by a quotation from Ortus Vocabulorum:

"Fertur, si verum est, eam occidere natos suos, eosque per triduum lugere, deinde seipsum vulnerare, et aspercione sui sanguinis vivos facere filios suos."

H. F. E.

—In accordance with the suggestion of E. P. M., I forward you a few instances of a change between the spelling, and pronunciation:

R. J. S.

Examples of these are more numerous to the north of the Tweed than C. appears to imagine. The following list, which includes a few surnames, is the result of rather a hurried search:

Arbroath is a corruption of Aberbrothok, Gretna of Gretenhow, and Meiklam of M'Ilquham: but probably one of the most remarkable transformations in Scotland is to be found in the name of a small village, a few miles to the south of Edinburgh, where Burdiehouse has usurped the place of Bordeaux.

E. N.

—I beg to direct your attention to the accompanying extract, which furnishes a reply to MR. FRASER'S Query:—

"Whoever is acquainted with Irish history, or whoever has had opportunities of mixing with the natives of that country, cannot be ignorant that they claim a descent from a long race of Milesian kings, who reigned over them for thirteen centuries before the Christian æra. The stock from which this long line of monarchs emanated is traced to a pretended Milesian colony, supposed to have emigrated from Spain into Ireland under the conduct of Heremon and Heber. The most rational inquirers, however, into the subject consider it as nothing more than a tissue of imaginary events, originating in the fertile fancies of their bards. A very brief and general abstract of this contested part of Irish history shall be given in the words of Mr. Plowden:

"'About 140 years after the Deluge, Ireland was discovered by one Adhua, who had been sent from Asia to explore new countries by a grandson of Belus: he plucked some of the luxuriant grass as a specimen of the fertility of the soil, and returned to his master. After that the island remained unoccupied for 140 years; and about 300 years after the Flood, one Partholan, originally a Scythian, and a descendant from Japhet in the sixth generation, sailed from Greece with his family and 1000 soldiers, and took possession of the island. They all died off, and left the island desolate of human beings for the space of thirty years. Afterwards different sets of emigrant adventurers occupied and peopled the island at different periods. About 1080 years after the Deluge, and 1300 B.C., Niul (the son of Phenius, a wise Scythian prince), who had married a daughter of Pharaoh, inhabited with his people a district given to him by his father-in-law on the Red Sea, when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The descendants of that Phenius (called more generally Feniusa Farsa) were afterwards expelled by Pharaoh's successors on account of their ancestors having favoured the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea. They then emigrated and settled in Spain, whence, under the command of Milesius, a colony of them sailed from Brigantia in Galicia to Ireland, gained the ascendancy over the inhabitants, and gave laws and a race of monarchs to the island. The Milesian dynasty continued to govern Ireland without interruption till about the year 1168, when it ceased in the person of Roger O'Connor, and the sovereignty was assumed by our Henry II. Of this race of kings the first 110 were Pagan, the rest Christian.'"

Barlow's Hist. of Ireland, vol. i. pp. 22-4.

GEORGE RICHARDS, M.A.

Queen's Coll., Birmingham.

—The remark of your correspondent EYE-SNUFF, "that any lay scholar of adequate attainments in theology is competent to receive this distinction, and any university to bestow it upon him," is incorrect in two ways, as far as the university of which I am a member is concerned. A reference to the Oxford University Calendar, or to the Statutes of the University, will show him that no one can take the degree of B.D., or D.D., without first exhibiting his letters of priest's orders: and the theological attainments represented by the degree D.D. are next to nothing; the exercise required for B.D. used to be a mere form, and I believe is little more now; a certain number of terms kept in the university, and payment of certain fees, being all that is necessary for proceeding D.D. The case is the same, I imagine, at Cambridge.

W. FRASER.

—I have heard it said, of course with little regard to probability, that this once popular song was written by George IV. when Prince of Wales.

W. FRASER.

—I have heard it argued that the word bull, meaning an incoherent blunder, was derived from the Pope's Bulls, the tyrannical contents and imperious tone of which often made so odd a contrast with the humility of the subscription, "Servus servorum Dei," that the name bull was applied to anything that seemed absurdly inconsistent or self-contradictory.

W. FRASER.

—We have good evidence that the Saxons used the places of sepulture which they found in England; and it is well known that Anglo-Saxon remains have often been discovered in the vicinity of churches, a fact which leads to the supposition that churches occupied the sites of Pagan temples. The bones of animals have often been found on and near the sites of our London churches.

J. Y. A.

—I am led to think there is an error in the notice of your correspondent R. S. F. on the above subject. The seed of St. John's Fearn cannot be gathered on Midsummer Eve, inasmuch as at that time it is in a merely embryotic state. The seed attains perfection late in autumn, and it remains attached to the dry brown stem until shaken off by the autumnal and winter blasts. The taking of it, therefore, is not, according to those versed in such mysteries, the easy task of a Midsummer twilight, but must be performed amid the darkness of a winter's night. On the midnight of Saint John the Evangelist, to whom the seed and plant are dedicated, must it be shaken, not pulled, from its stem. Very probably mystic virtues were imputed to the seed before the introduction of Christianity. And it were not perhaps hazarding too much to suppose that the old superstitious monks assigned it to Saint John from an idea that the potency of the seed might have influenced the wondrous revelations with which he, more than any other of the disciples, or all the disciples, was favoured.

B.

The Camden Society, of which the fourteenth Annual Meeting on Monday last passed off most successfully, has just issued to its Members The Chronicle of The Grey Friars of London, edited from a MS. in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum. This very interesting document, which altogether escaped the research of the industrious and voluminous Strype, though it had passed through the hands of Stowe, who had either the possession or the loan of the original MS., was written by one of the Grey Friars, who appears to have watched narrowly, and recorded carefully, the religious changes of the times, more particularly, those which occurred within the sphere of his personal observation in the city of London, and the metropolitan church of St. Paul. As he retained possession of his register, and continued his labours after the dissolution of his house, and the dismissal of the rest of his fraternity, he has preserved to us many particulars of great historical value; and his work has this additional claim to attention, that, whereas the majority of the existing documents are records of the Reforming party, this comes from one of the Reformed, and presents us accordingly with the other side of the case. The work is edited by Mr. J. G. Nichols, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for the fidelity with which the document is printed, and the learning and care bestowed upon its illustration.

The Publications of the Antiquarian Etching Club.—Part III., 1851, presents us with no less than thirty-three etchings by Members of the Club (of course of various degrees of merit), of objects of antiquarian interest, comprising Ecclesiastical, Military, and Domestic Edifices, Fonts, Sepulchral Monuments, Portraits, Fac-similes, copies of rare prints, and numerous other vestiges of antiquity calculated at once to instruct the archæologist, and preserve in a pictorial form a record of much which, but for the burins of the members of this useful little Society, might have been lost for ever.

It is but a few weeks since we noticed the admirable second volume of the Catalogue of the London Library, by Mr. J. G. Cochrane. We have now to record the death of that gentleman on Tuesday last. He was a most worthy man, and a good scholar; and possessed a vast fund of bibliographical knowledge. His death therefore will be felt, not only by his own immediate friends, but also by the institution which he had served so ably and so zealously ever since its formation.

It would be treason to the Brothers Grimm, and to our own love of the literature of the people, if we did not notice and (as it deserves it) say a good word of a new and complete translation of the world-renowned Kinder und Haus Mährchen, which Messrs. Addey have commenced publishing under the title of Grimm's Household Stories. They are very faithfully translated from the last edition; and we specify this because the little Almaine 4to. first edition of 1819 has long been one of our household books, and finding that the translation did not agree with the versions there given, we have compared it with the edition of 1843, and so discovered, first, that the translator has used the later edition; and secondly, what we were not till now aware of, namely, that these great scholars, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, amid their more learned labours, have not disdained to revise and enlarge their collection of nursery stories, which have been the delight of the children of all Europe. What a justification is this for the attention which is bestowed in "N. & Q." on our own English Folk Lore!

FABRICII BIBLIOTHECA LATINA. Ed. Ernesti. Leipsig, 1773. Vol. III.

THE ANACALYPSIS. By Godfrey Higgins. 2 Vols. 4to.

CODEX DIPLOMATICUS ÆVI SAXONICI, opera J. M. Kemble. Vols. I. and II. 8vo.

ECKHEL, DOCTRINA NUMORUM. Vol. VIII.

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.

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.

THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON. Vols. VI. VII. and VIII. 12mo. Murray, 1823.

MALLET'S POEMS. Bell's edition.

MALLET'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. I. 1844.

BACK'S VOYAGE OF THE TERROR, 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.

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

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Prentice Pillars—Cross on Counsel's Briefs—Many Children—Merchant Adventurers—Burning Fern brings Rain—Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant—Sir E. Seaward's Narrative—Rhymes on Places—Pedigree of Roper—Pigeons' Feathers—Monumental Plate at Lewes—Portrait of Mesmer—Where was Cromwell buried—Kakous—Passage in "Measure for Measure"—De la Beche Monuments—Daniel Defoe, &c.—"Thirty Days hath September"—Buro Berto Beriora—St. Christopher—Monument to Mary Queen of Scots at Antwerp—Ednowain ap Bradwen—Sir R. Howard's Conquest of China—Corrupted Names of Places—My own Crow, &c.—Jasher—"And tye"—Taylor Family—Scologlandi and Scologi—Couch—The Martyr Rogers—Dr. Fell—Chantrey's Sleeping Children, &c. (from H. G. T.)—Ground Ice—Mr. Van Butchell—"Up Guards, and make ready!"—British Ambassadors—Cromwell's Head—Stops when first introduced—Serpent with human Head—Burials in Woollen—Knollys Family—Sterne at Sutton—"'Tis tuppence now"—Game Feathers—Age of Trees—Baxter's Pulpit—Sally Lunn—Was Queen Elizabeth dark or fair—Martinique—Duchess of Lancaster—Etymology of Poison, &c.

MR. FOSS and MR. LOWER. The communications for these gentlemen (addressed to our care) have been forwarded to them.

J. G. W. is thanked. His list shall be made use of.

C. B. We should be much obliged for the OLDYS article.

THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. We have several more very interesting communications on this subject, which we hope to insert very shortly.

C—S. T. P. will be inserted.

A. N. We shall be obliged by the Note on Cagots.

H. M. The Queries shall receive early attention. We are so full just now, we fear to enter on the JOHN BULL question.

C. F. A. is referred to our Notices to Correspondents in Nos. 129. and 130. The line is from Congreve's Mourning Bride.

C. H. M. will find the information he requires respecting Fletcher of Saltoun's aphorism respecting Legislators and Ballad-makers in our 1st Vol., p. 153.

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

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

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

Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.—Saturday, May 8, 1852.