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| Table of Contents | |
| Section | Page |
| Start of eBook | 1 |
| NOTES. | 1 |
| QUERIES. | 8 |
| L. | 10 |
| REPLIES | 14 |
| J.R. PLANCHE | 20 |
| L. | 21 |
| C.H. COOPER | 25 |
| C. | 27 |
| MISCELLANEOUS. | 27 |
The meaning of “Drink up eisell” In Hamlet.
Few passages have been more discussed than this wild challenge of Hamlet to Laertes at the grave of Ophelia:
“Ham. I lov’d Ophelia!
forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of
love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do
for her?
—Zounds! show me what thou’lt
do?
Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight?
Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear
thyself?
Woo’t drink up Eisell? eat a crocodile?
I’ll do’t”.
The sum of what has been said may be given in the words of Archdeacon Nares:
“There is no doubt that eisell meant vinegar, nor even that Shakspeare has used it in that sense; but in this passage it seems that it must be put for the name of a Danish river.... The question was much disputed between Messrs. Steevens and Malone: the former being for the river, the latter for the vinegar; and he endeavored even to get over the drink up, which stood much in his way. But after all, the challenge to drink vinegar, in such a rant, is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, that we must decide for the river, whether its name be exactly found or not. To drink up a river, and eat a crocodile with his impenetrable scales, are two things equally impossible. There is no kind of comparison between the others.”
I must confess that I was formerly led to adopt this view of the passage, but on more mature investigation I find that it is wrong. I see no necessary connection between eating a crocodile and drinking up eysell; and to drink up was commonly used for simply to drink. Eisell or Eysell certainly signified vinegar, but it was certainly not used in that sense by Shakspeare, who may in this instance be his own expositor; the word occurring again in his CXIth sonnet.
“Whilst, like a willing patient,
I will drink
Potions of eysell, ’gainst my strong
infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction.”
Here we see that it was a bitter potion which it was a penance to drink. Thus also in the Troy Book of Lydgate:
“Of bitter eysell, and of eager wine.”
Now numerous passages in our old dramatic writers show that it was a fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in honour of their mistresses; and among others the swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent; but vinegar would hardly have been considered in this light; wormwood might.
In Thomas’s Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have “Assentio, Eysell” and Florio renders that word by vinegar. What is meant, however, is Absinthites or Wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use; and this being evidently {242} the bitter potion of Eysell in the poet’s sonnet, was certainly the nauseous draught proposed to be taken by Hamlet among the other extravagant feats as tokens of love. The following extracts will show that in the poet’s age this nauseous bitter potion was in frequent use medicinally.
“ABSINTHIUM, [Greek:
apsinthion, aspinthion], Comicis, ab
insigni amarore quo bibeates
illud aversantur."-Junius,
Nomenclator ap. Nicot.
“Absinthites, wormwood wine.—Hutton’s Dict.
“Hujus modi autem propomatum hodie apud Christianos quoque maximus est et frequentissimus usus, quibus potatores maximi ceu proemiis quibusdam atque praeludiis utuntur, ad dirum illud suum propinandi certamen. Ae maxime quidem commune est proponia absynthites, quod vim habet stomachum corroborandi et extenuandi, expellendique excrementa quae in eo continentur. Hoc fere propomate potatores hodie maxime ab initio coenae utuntur ceu pharmaco cum hesternae, atque praeteritae, tum futurae ebrietatis, atque crapulae.... amarissimae sunt potiones medicatae, quibus tandem stomachi cruditates immoderato cibo potuque collectas expurgundi cause uti coguntur.”—Stuckius, Antiquitatae Corviralium. Tiguri, 1582, fol. 327.
Of the two latest editors, Mr. Knight decides for the river, and Mr. Collier does not decide at all. Our northern neighbours think us almost as much deficient in philological illustration as in enlarged philosophical criticism on the poet, in which they claim to have shown us the way.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD.
To the list of subjects and authors in this unrivalled volume, communicated by LORD BRAYBROOKE (Vol. ii., p. 194.), I would add that No. XXI. Probationary Odes (which is unmarked in the Sunning-hill Park copy) was written by Dr. Laurence: so also were Nos. XIII. and XIV., of which LORD BRAYBROOKE speaks doubtfully. My authority is the note in the correspondence of Burke and Laurence published in 1827, page 21. The other names all agree with my own copy, marked by the late Mr. A. Chalmers.
In order to render the account of the work complete, I would add the following list of writers of the Political Miscellanies. Those marked with an asterisk are said “not to be from the club:”—
“* Probationary Ode Extraordinary, by Mason.
The Statesmen, an Eclogue. Read.
Rondeau to the Right Honourable W. Eden. Dr. Laurence.
Epigrams from the Club. Miscellaneous.
The Delavaliad. Dr. Laurence.
This is the House that George built. Richardson.
Epigrams by Sir Cecil Wray. Tickell and Richardson.
Lord Graham’s Diary, not marked.
* Extracts from 2nd Vol. of Lord Mulgrave’s Essays.
* Anecdotes of Mr. Pitt.
Letter from a New Member.
* Political Receipt Book, &c.
* Hints from Dr. Pretyman.
A tale ‘at Brookes’s once,’ &c. Richardson.
Dialogue ‘Donec Gratus eram Tibi.’ Lord J. Townshend.
Pretymaniana, principally by Tickell and Richardson.
Foreign Epigrams, the same and Dr. Laurence.
* Advertisement Extraordinary.
Vive le Scrutiny. Bate Dudley.
* Paragraph Office, Ivy Lane.
* Pitt and Pinetti.
* New Abstract of the Budget for 1784.
Theatrical Intelligence Extraordinary. Richardson.
The Westminster Guide (unknown). Part II. (unknown).
Inscription for the Duke of Richmond’s Bust (unknown).
Epigram, ‘Who shall expect,’ &c. Richardson.
A New Ballad, ‘Billy Eden.’ Tickell and Richardson.
Epigrams on Sir Elijah Impey, and by Mr. Wilberforce (unknown).
A Proclamation, by Richardson.
* Original Letter to Corbett.
* Congratulatory Ode to Right Hon. C. Jenkinson.
* Ode to Sir Elijah Impey.
* Song.
* A New Song, ‘Billy’s Budget.’
* Epigrams.
* Ministerial Undoubted Facts (unknown).
Journal of the Right Hon.
Hen. Dundas. From the Club.
Miscellaneous.
Incantation. Fitzpatrick.
Translations of Lord Belgrave’s
Quotations. From the Club.
Miscellaneous.”
Some of these minor contributions were from the pen of O’Beirne, afterwards Bishop of Meath.
Tickell should be joined with Lord John Townshend in “Jekyll.” The former contributed the lines parodied from Pope.
In reply to LORD BRAYBROOKE’S Query, Moore, in his Life of Sheridan, speaks of Lord John Townshend as the only survivor of “this confederacy of wits:” so that, if he is correct, the author of “Margaret Nicholson” (Adair) cannot be now living.
J.H.M.
Bath.
* * * * *
NOTES AND QUERIES.
“There is nothing new under the sun,” quoth the Preacher; and such must be said of “NOTES AND QUERIES.” Your contributor M. (Vol. ii, p. 194.) has drawn attention to the Weekly Oracle, which in 1736 gave forth its responses to the inquiring public; but, as he intimates, many similar periodicals might be instanced. Thus, we have Memoirs for the Ingenious, 1693, 4to., edited by I. de la Crose; Memoirs for the Curious, 1701, 4to.; The Athenian Oracle, 1704, 8vo.; The Delphick Oracle, {243} 1720, 8vo.; The British Apollo, 1740, 12mo.; with several others of less note. The three last quoted answer many singular questions in theology, law, medicine, physics, natural history, popular superstitions, &c., not always very satisfactorily or very intelligently, but still, often amusingly and ingeniously. The British Apollo: containing two thousand Answers to curious Questions in most Arts and Sciences, serious, comical, and humourous, the fourth edition of which I have now before me, indulges in answering such questions as these: “How old was Adam when Eve was created?—Is it lawful to eat black pudding?—Whether the moon in Ireland is like the moon in England? Where is hell situated? Do cocks lay eggs?” &c. In answer to the question, “Why is gaping catching?” the Querists of 1740 are gravely told,—
“Gaping or yawning is infectious, because the steams of the blood being ejected out of the mouth, doth infect the ambient air, which being received by the nostrils into another man’s mouth, doth irritate the fibres of the hypogastric muscle to open the mouth to discharge by expiration the unfortunate gust of air infected with the steams of blood, as aforesaid.”
The feminine gender, we are further told, is attributed to a ship, “because a ship carries burdens, and therefore resembles a pregnant woman.”
But as the faith of 1850 in The British Apollo, with its two thousand answers, may not be equal to the faith of 1740, what dependence are we to place in the origin it attributes to two very common words, a bull, and a dun?—
“Why, when people speak improperly, is it termed a bull?—It became a proverb from the repeated blunders of one Obadiah Bull, a lawyer of London, who lived in the reign of King Henry VII.”
Now for the second,—
“Pray tell me whence you can derive the original of the word dun? Some falsely think it comes from the French, where donnez signifies give me, implying a demand of something due; but the true original of this expression owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active, and so dexterous at the management of his rough business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay his debts, ‘Why don’t you Dun him?’ that is, why don’t you send Dun to arrest him? Hence it grew a custom, and is now as old as since the days of Henry VII.”
Were these twin worthies, Obadiah Bull the lawyer, and Joe Dun the bailiff, men of straw for the nonce, or veritable flesh and blood? They both flourished, it appears, in the reign of Henry VII.; and to me it is doubtful whether one reign could have produced two worthies capable of cutting so deep a notch in the English tongue.
“To dine with Duke Humphrey,” we are told, arose from the practice of those who had shared his dainties when alive being in the habit of perambulating St. Paul’s, where he was buried, at the dining time of day; what dinner they then had, they had with Duke Humphrey the defunct.
Your contributor MR. CUNNINGHAM will be able to decide as to the value of the origin of Tyburn here given to us:
“As to the antiquity of Tyburn, it is no older than the year 1529; before that time, the place of execution was in Rotten Row in Old Street. As for the etymology of the word Tyburn, some will have it proceed from the words tye and burn, alluding to the manner of executing traitors at that place; others believe it took its name from a small river or brook once running near it, and called by the Romans Tyburnia. Whether the first or second is the truest, the querist may judge as he thinks fit.”
And so say I.
A readable volume might be compiled from these “NOTES AND QUERIES,” which amused our grandfathers; and the works I have indicated will afford much curious matter in etymology, folk-lore, topography, &c., to the modern antiquary.
CORKSCREW.
* * * * *
JAMES THE SECOND, HIS REMAINS.
The following curious account was given to me by Mr. Fitz-Simons, an Irish gentleman, upwards of eighty years of age, with whom I became acquainted when resident with my family at Toulouse, in September, 1840; he having resided in that city for many years as a teacher of the French and English languages, and had attended the late Sir William Follett in the former capacity there in 1817. He said,—
“I was a prisoner in Paris, in the convent of the English Benedictines in the Rue St. Jaques, during part of the revolution. In the year 1793 or 1794, the body of King James II. of England was in one of the chapels there, where it had been deposited some time, under the expectation that it would one day be sent to England for interment in Westminster Abbey. It had never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, inclosed in a leaden one; and that again inclosed in a second wooden one, covered with black velvet. That while I was so a prisoner, the sans-culottes broke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast into bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was swaddled like a mummy, bound tight with garters. The sans-culottes took out the body, which had been embalmed. There was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was beautiful and perfect. The hands and nails were very fine, I moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth in my life. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished much to have a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they were so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The face and cheeks were just as if he were alive. I rolled his eyes: the eye-balls were perfectly firm under my finger. The French and English prisoners {244} gave money to the sans-culottes for showing the body. They said he was a good sans-culotte, and they were going to put him into a hole in the public churchyard like other sand-culottes; and he was carried away, but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the body, but could not. Around the chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung up, made probably at the time of the king’s death, and the corpse was very like them. The body had been originally kept at the palace of St. Germain, from whence it was brought to the convent of the Benedictines. Mr. Porter, the prior, was a prisoner at the time in his own convent.”
The above I took down from Mr. Fitz-Simons’ own mouth, and read it to him, and he said it was perfectly correct. Sir W. Follett told me he thought Mr. Fitz-Simons was a runaway Vinegar Hill boy. He told me that he was a monk.
PITMAN JONES.
Exeter, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
The Legend of Sir Richard Baker (vol. ii., p. 67.).—Will F.L. copy the inscription on the monument in Cranbrook Church? The dates on it will test the veracity of the legend. In the reign of Queen Mary, the representative of the family was Sir John Baker, who in that, and the previous reigns of Edward VI. and Henry VIII., had held some of the highest offices in the kingdom. He had been Recorder of London, Speaker of the House of Commons, Attorney-General and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and died in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. His son, Sir Richard Baker, was twice high-sheriff of the county of Kent, and had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth in her progress through the county. This was, most likely, the person whose monument F.L. saw in Cranbrook Church. The family had been settled there from the time of Edward III., and seem to have been adding continually to their possessions; and at the time mentioned by F.L. as that of their decline, namely, in the reign of Edward VI., they were in reality increasing in wealth and dignities. If the Sir Richard Baker whose monument is referred to by F.L. was the son of the Sir John above mentioned, the circumstances of his life disprove the legend. He was not the sole representative of the family remaining at the accession of Queen Mary. His father was then living, and at the death of his father his brother John divided with him the representation of the family, and had many descendants. The family estates were not dissipated; on the contrary, they were handed down through successive generations, to one of whom, a grandson of Sir Richard, the dignity of a baronet was given; and Sivinghurst, which was the family seat, was in the possession of the third and last baronet’s grandson, E.S. Beagham, in the year 1730. Add to this that the Sir Richard Baker in question was twice married, and that a monumental erection of the costly and honourable description mentioned by F.L. was allowed to be placed to his memory in the chancel of the church of the parish in which such Bluebeard atrocities are said to have been committed, and abundant grounds will thence appear for rejecting the truth of the legend in the absence of all evidence. The unfortunately red colour of the gloves most likely gave rise to the story. Nor is this a solitary instance of such a legend having such an origin. In the beautiful parish church of Aston, in Warwickshire, are many memorials of the Baronet family of Holt, who owned the adjoining domain and hall, the latter of which still remains, a magnificent specimen of Elizabethan architecture. Either in one of the compartments of a painted window of the church, or upon a monumental marble to one of the Holts, is the Ulster badge, as showing the rank of the deceased, and painted red. From the colour of the badge, a legend of the bloody hand has been created as marvellous as that of the Bloody Baker, so fully detailed by F.L.
ST. JOHNS.
[Will our correspondent favour us by communicating the Aston Legend of the Holt Family to which he refers?]
Langley, Kent, Prophetic Spring at.—The following “note” upon a passage in Warkworth’s Chronicle (pp. 23, 24.) may perhaps possess sufficient interest to warrant its insertion in your valuable little publication. The passage is curious, not only as showing the superstitious dread with which a simple natural phenomenon was regarded by educated and intelligent men four centuries ago, but also as affording evidence of the accurate observation of a writer, whose labours have shed considerable light upon “one of the darkest periods in our annals.” The chronicler is recording the occurrence, in the thirteenth year of Edward the Fourth, of a “gret hote somere,” which caused much mortality, and “unyversalle fevers, axes, and the blody flyx in dyverse places of Englonde,” and also occasioned great dearth and famine “in the southe partyes of the worlde.”
He then remarks that “dyverse tokenes have be schewede in Englonde this year for amendynge of mannys lyvynge,” and proceeds to enumerate several springs or waters in various places, which only ran at intervals, and by their running always portended “derthe, pestylence, or grete batayle.” After mentioning several of these, he adds—
“Also ther is a pytte in Kent in Langley Parke: ayens any batayle he wille be drye, and it rayne neveyre so myche; and if ther be no batayle toward, he wille be fulle of watere, be it neveyre so drye a wethyre; and this yere he is drye.”
Langley Park, situated in a parish of the same {245} name, about four miles to the south-east of Maidstone, and once the residence of the Leybournes and other families, well-known in Kentish history, has long existed only in name, having been disparked prior to 1570; but the “pytte,” or stream, whose wondrous qualities are so quaintly described by Warkworth, still flows at intervals. It is scarcely necessary to add, that it belongs to the class known as intermitting springs, the phenomena displayed by which are easily explained by the syphon-like construction of the natural reservoirs whence they are supplied.
I have never heard that any remnant of this curious superstition can now be traced in the neighbourhood, but persons long acquainted with the spot have told me that the state of the stream was formerly looked upon as a good index of the probable future price of corn. The same causes, which regulated the supply or deficiency of water, would doubtless also affect the fertility of the soil.
EDWARD R.J. HOWE.
Chancery Lane, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES.
Poem by Malherbe (Vol. ii., p. 104.).—Possibly your correspondent MR. SINGER may not be aware of the fact that the beauty of the fourth stanza of Malherbe’s Ode on the Death of Rosette Duperrier is owing to a typographical error. The poet had written in his MS.—
“Et Rosette a vecu ce que vivent les roses,” &c.,
omitting to cross his t’s, which the compositor took for l’s, and set up Roselle. On receiving the proof-sheet, at the passage in question a sudden light burst upon Malherbe; of Roselle he made two words, and put in two beautiful lines—
“Et Rose, elle a vecu ce que vivent
les roses,
L’espace d’un matin.”
(See Francais peints par eux-memes, vol. ii. p. 270.)
P.S. KING.
Kennington.
Travels of Two English Pilgrims.—
“A True and Strange Discourse of the Travailes of Two English Pilgrimes: what admirable Accidents befell them in their Journey to Jerusalem, Gaza, Grand Cayro, Alexandria, and other places. Also, what rare Antiquities, Monuments, and notable Memories (concording with the Ancient Remembrances in the Holy Scriptures), they sawe in the Terra Sancta; with a perfect Description of the Old and New Jerusalem, and Situation of the Countries about them. A Discourse of no lesse Admiration, then well worth the regarding: written by one of them on the behalfe of himselfe and his fellowe Pilgrime. Imprinted at London for Thomas Archer, and are to be solde at his Shoppe, by the Royall Exchange. 1603.”
A copy of this 4to. tract, formerly in the hands of Francis Meres, the author of Wit’s Commonwealth, has the following MS. note:—
“Timberley, dwellinge on Tower Hill, a maister of a ship, made this booke, as Mr. Anthony Mundye tould me. Thomas, at Mrs. Gosson’s, sent my wyfe this booke for a token, February 15. A.D. 1602.”
P.B.
* * * * *
QUOTATIONS IN BISHOP ANDREWES’ TORTURA TORTI.
Can any of your contributors help me to ascertain the following quotations which occur in Bishop Andrewes’ Tortura Torti?
P. 49.:
“Si clavem potestatis non praecedat clavis discretionis.”
P. 58.:
“Dispensationes nihil aliud esse quam legum vulnera.”
P. 58.:
“Non dispensatio est, sed dissipatio.”
This, though not marked as a quotation, is, I believe, in S. Bernard.
P. 183.:
“Et quae de septem totum
circumspicit orbem Montibus, imperii
Roma Deumque locus.”
P. 225.:
“Nemo pius, qui pietatem cavet.”
P. 185.:
“Minutuli et patellares Dei.”
I should also be glad to ascertain whence the following passages are derived, which he quotes in his Responsio ad Apologiam?
P. 48.:
“[Greek: to gar trephon me tout ego kalo theon.]”
P. 145.:
“Vanae sine viribus irae.”
P. 119. occurs the “versiculus,”
“Perdere quos vult hos dementat;”
the source of which some of your contributors have endeavoured to ascertain.
JAMES BLISS.
Ogbourne St. Andrew.
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
The Spider and the Fly.—Can any of your readers, gentle or simple, senile or juvenile, inform me, through the medium of your useful and agreeable periodical, in what collection of nursery rhymes a poem called, I think, “The Spider and Fly,” occurs, and if procurable, where? The lines I allude to consisted, to the best of my recollection, of a dialogue between a fly and a spider, and began thus:— {246}
Fly. Spider, spider, what
do you spin?
Spider. Mainsails for a man-of
war.
Fly. Spider, spider, ’tis
too thin.
Tell me truly,
what ’tis for.
Spider. ’Tis for curtains
for the king,
When he lies in
his state bed.
Fly. Spider, ’tis too
mean a thing,
Tell me why your
toils you spread.
&c. &c. &c.
There were other stanzas, I believe, but these are all I can remember. My notion is, that the verses in question form part of a collection of nursery songs and rhymes by Charles Lamb, published many years ago, but now quite out of print. This, however, is a mere surmise on my part, and has no better foundation than the vein of humour, sprightliness, and originality, obvious enough in the above extract, which we find running through and adorning all he wrote. “Nihil quod tetigit non ornavit.”
S.J.
A Lexicon of Types.—Can any of your readers inform me of the existence of a collection of emblems or types? I do not mean allegorical pictures, but isolated symbols, alphabetically arranged or otherwise.
Types are constantly to be met with upon monuments, coins, and ancient title-pages, but so mixed with other matters as to render the finding a desired symbol, unless very familiar, a work of great difficulty. Could there be a systematic arrangement of all those known, with their definitions, it would be a very valuable work of reference,—a work in which one might pounce upon all the sacred symbols, classic types, signs, heraldic zoology, conventional botany, monograms, and the like abstract art.
LUKE LIMNER.
Montaigne, Select Essays of.—
“Essays selected from
Montaigne, with a Sketch of the Life of
the Author. London.
For P. Cadell, &c. 1800.”
This volume is dedicated to the Rev. William Coxe, rector of Bemerton.
The life of Montaigne is dated the 28th of March, 1800, and signed Honoria. At the end of the book is this advertisement:—
“Lately published by
the same Author ‘The Female Mentor.’ 2d
edit., in 2 vols. 12mo.”
Who was Honoria? and are these essays a scarce book in England? In France it is entirely unknown to the numerous commentators on Montaigne’s works.
O.D.
Custom of wearing the Breast uncovered in Elizabeth’s Reign.—Fynes Moryson, in a well-known passage of his Itinerary, (which I suppose I need not transcribe), tells us that unmarried females and young married women wore the breasts uncovered in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. This is the custom in many parts of the East. Lamartine mentions it in his pretty description of Mademoiselle Malagambe: he adds, “it is the custom of the Arab females.” When did this curious custom commence in England, and when did it go out of fashion?
JARLTZBERG.
Milton’s Lycidas.—In a Dublin edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost (1765), in a memoir prefixed I find the following explanation of than rather obscure passage in Lycidas:—
“Besides what the grim wolf, with
privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite
no more.”
“This poem is not all made up of sorrow and tenderness, there is a mixture of satire and indignation: for in part of it, the poet taketh occasion to inveigh against the corruptions of the clergy, and seemeth to have first discovered his acrimony against Arb. Laud, and to have threatened him with the loss of his head, which afterwards happened to him thorough the fury of his enemies. At least I can think of no sense so proper to be given to these verses in Lycidas.” (p. vii.)
Perhaps some of your numerous correspondents will kindly inform me of the meaning or meanings usually assigned to this passage.
JARLTZBERG.
Sitting during the Lessons.—What is the origin of the congregation remaining seated, while the first and second lessons are read, in the church service? The rubric is silent on the subject; it merely directs that the person who reads them shall stand:—
“He that readeth so
standing and turning himself, as he may best
be heard of all such as are
present.”
With respect to the practice of sitting while the epistle is read, and of standing while the gospel is read, in the communion service; there is in the rubric a distinct direction that “all the people are to stand up” during the latter, while it is silent as to the former. From the silence of the rubric as to standing during the two lessons of the morning service, and the epistle in the communion service, it seems to have been inferred that the people were to sit. But why are they directed to stand during the gospel in the communion service, while they sit during the second lesson in the morning service?
Blew-Beer.—Sir, having taken a Note according to your very sound advice, I addressed a letter to the John Bull newspaper, which was published on Saturday, Feb. 16. It contained an extract from a political tract, entitled,—
“The true History of
Betty Ireland, with some Account of her
Sister Blanche of Brittain.
Printed for J. Robinson, at the
Golden Lion in Ludgate Street,
MDCCLIII. (1753).” {247}
In allusion to the English the following passage occurs,—
“But they forget, they
are all so idle and debauched, such
gobbling and drinking rascals,
and expensive in blew-beer,”
&c.
Query the unde derivatur of blew-beer, and if it is to be taken in the same sense as the modern phrase of “blue ruin,” and if so, the cause of the change or history of both expressions?
H.
Carpatio.—I have lately met with a large aquatinted engraving, bearing the following descriptive title: “Angliae Regis Legati inspiciuntur Sponsam petentes Filiam Dionati Cornubiae Regis pro Anglo Principe.” The costume of the figures is of the latter half of the fifteenth century. The painter’s name appears on a scroll, OP. VICTOR CARPATIO VENETI. The copy of the picture for engraving was drawn by Giovanni de Pian, and engraved by the same person and Francesco Gallimberti, at Venice. I do not find the name of Carpatio in the ordinary dictionaries of painters, and shall be glad to learn whether he has here represented an historical event, or an incident of some mediaeval romance. I suspect the latter must be the case, as Cornubia is the Latin word used for Cornwall, and I am not aware of its having any other application. Is this print the only one of the kind, or is it one of a set?
J.G.N.
Value of Money in Reign of Charles II.—Will any of your correspondents inform me of the value of 1000l. circa Charles II. in present money, and the mode in which the difference is estimated?
DION X.
Bishop Berkeley—Adventures of Gaudentio di Lucca.—I have a volume containing the adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca, with his examination before the Inquisition of Bologna. In a bookseller’s catalogue I have seen it ascribed to Bishop Berkeley. Can any of your readers inform me who was the author, or give me any particulars as to the book?
IOTA.
Cupid and Psyche.—Can any of your learned correspondents inform me whether the fable of Cupid and Psyche was invented by Apuleius; or whether he made use of a superstition then current, turning it, as it suited his purpose, into the beautiful fable which has been handed down to us as his composition?
W.M.
Zuend-nadel Guns.—In paper of September or October last, I saw a letter dated Berlin, Sept. 11, which commenced—
“We have had this morning
a splendid military spectacle, and
being the first of the kind
since the revolution, attracted
immense crowds to the scene
of action.”
“The Fusileer battalions (light infantry) were all armed with the new zuend-nadel guns, the advantages and superiority of which over the common percussion musket now admits of no contradiction, with the sole exception of the facility of loading being an inducement to fire somewhat too quick, when firing independently, as in battle, or when acting en tirailleur. The invincible pedantry and amour-propre of our armourers and inspectors of arms in England, their disinclination to adopt inventions not of English growth, and their slowness to avail themselves of new models until they are no longer new, will, undoubtedly, exercise the usual influence over giving this powerful weapon even a chance in England. It is scarcely necessary to point out the great advantages that these weapons, carrying, let us say, 800 yards with perfect accuracy, have over our muskets, of which the range does not exceed 150, and that very uncertain. Another great advantage of the zuend-nadel is, that rifles or light infantry can load with ease without effort when lying flat on the ground. The opponents of the zuend-nadel talk of over-rapid firing and the impossibility of carrying sufficient ammunition to supply the demands. This is certainly a drawback, but it is compensated by the immense advantage of being able to pour in a deadly fire when you yourself are out of range, or of continuing this fire so speedily as to destroy half your opponents before they can return a shot with a chance of taking effect.”
This was the first intimation I ever had of the zuend-nadel guns. I should like to know when and by whom they were invented, and their mechanism.
JARLTZBERG.
Bacon Family, Origin of the Name.—Among the able notes, or the not-able Queries of a recent Number, (I regret that I have it not at hand, for an exact quotation), a learned correspondent mentioned, en passant, that the word bacon had the obsolete signification of “dried wood.” As a patronymic, BACON has been not a little illustrious, in literature, science, and art; and it would be interesting to know whether the name has its origin in the crackling fagot or in the cured flitch. Can any of your genealogical correspondents help me to authority on the subject?
A modern motto of the Somersetshire Bacons has an ingenious rebus:
ProBa-conSCIENTIA;
the capitals, thus placed, giving it the double reading, Proba coniscientia, and Pro Bacon Scientia.
NOCAB.
Armorials.—Sable, a fesse or, in chief two fleurs de lis or, in base a hind courant argent. E.D.B. will feel grateful to any gentlemen who will kindly inform him of the name of the family to which the above coat belonged. They were quartered by Richard or Roger Barow, of Wynthorpe, in Lincolnshire (Harl. MS. 1552. 42 b), who died in 1505.
E.D.B.
Artephius, the Chemical Philosopher.—What is known of the chemical philosopher Artephius? He is mentioned in Jocker’s Dictionary, and by Roger Bacon (in the Opus Majus and elsewhere), {248} and a tract ascribed to him is printed in the Theatrum Chemicum.
E.
Sir Robert Howard.—Can any reader assist me in finding out the author of
“A Discourse of the
Nationall Excellencies of England. By R.H.,
London. Printed by Thomas
Newcomb for Henry Fletcher, at the
Three Gilt Cups in the New
Buildings, near the west end of St.
Paul’s, 1658. 12 mo.,
pp. 248.”
This is a very remarkable work, written in an admirable style, and wholly free from the coarse party spirit which then generally prevailed. The writer declares, p. 235., he had not subscribed the engagement, and there are internal evidences of his being a churchman and a monarchist. Is there any proof of its having been written by Sir Robert Howard? A former possessor of the copy now before me, has written his name on the title-page as its conjectured author. My copy of Sir Robert’s Poems, published two years after, was published not by Fletcher, but by “Henry Herringman, at the sign of the Anchor, in the lower walk of the New Exchange.” John Dryden, Sir Robert’s brother-in-law, in the complimentary stanzas on Howard’s poems, says,
“To write worthy things of worthy
men,
Is the peculiar talent of your pen.”
I would further inquire if a reason can be assigned for the omission from Sir Robert Howard’s collected plays of The Blind Lady, the only dramatic piece given in the volume of poems of 1660. My copy is the third edition, published by Tonson, 1722.
A.B.R.
Crozier and Pastoral Staff.—What is the real difference between a crozier and a pastoral staff?
I.Z.P.
Marks of Cadency.—The copious manner in which your correspondent E.K. (Vol. ii., p. 221.) has answered the question as to the “when and why” of the unicorn being introduced as one of the supporters of the royal arms, induces me to think that he will readily and satisfactorily respond to an heraldic inquiry of a somewhat more intricate nature.
What were the peculiar marks of cadency used by the heirs to the crown, apparent and presumptive, after the accession of the Stuarts? For example, what were the changes, if any, upon the label or file of difference used in the coat-armour of Henry, Prince of Wales, eldest son of James I., and of his brother Charles, when Prince of Wales, and so on, to the present time?
Miniature Gibbet, &c.—A correspondent of the Times newspaper has recently given the following account of an occurrence which took place about twenty-five years ago, and the concluding ceremony of which he personally witnessed:—
“A man had been condemned to be hung for murder. On the Sunday morning previous to the sentence being carried into execution, he contrived to commit suicide in the prison by cutting his throat with a razor. On Monday morning, according to the then custom, his body was brought out from Newgate in a cart; and after Jack Ketch had exhibited to the people a small model gallows, with a razor hanging therefrom, in the presence of the sheriffs and city authorities, he was thrown into a hole dug for that purpose. A stake was driven through his body, and a quantity of lime thrown in over it.”
Will any correspondent of “NOTES AND QUERIES” give a solution of this extraordinary exhibition? Had the sheriffs and city authorities any legal sanction for Jack Ketch’s disgusting part in the performances? What are the meaning and origin of driving a stake through the body of a suicide?
A.G.
Ecclesfield
* * * * *
COLLAR OF SS.
If you desire proof of the great utility of your publication, methinks there is a goodly quantum of it in the very interesting and valuable information on the Collar of SS., which the short simple question of B. (Vol. ii., p. 89.) has drawn forth; all tending to illustrate a mooted historical question:—first, in the reply of [Greek: Phi.] (Vol. ii., p. 110.), giving reference to the Gentleman’s Magazine, with two rider-Queries; then MR. NICHOLS’S announcement (Vol. ii., p. 140.) of a forthcoming volume on the subject, and a reply in part to the Query of [Greek: Phi.]; then (Vol. ii, p. 171.) MR. E. FOSS, as to the rank of the legal worthies allowed to wear this badge of honour; and next (Vol. ii., p. 194.) an ARMIGER, who, though he rides rather high on the subject, over all the Querists and Replyists, deserves many thanks for his very instructive and scholarlike dissertation.
What the S. signifies has evidently been a puzzle. That a chain is a badge of honour, there can be no doubt; but may not the Esses, after all, mean nothing at all? originating in the simple S. link, a form often used in chain-work, and under the name of S. A series of such, linked together, would produce an elegant design, which in the course of years would be wrought more like the letter, and be embellished and varied according to the skill and taste of the workman, and so, that which at first had no particular meaning, and was merely accidental, would, after a time, be supposed to be the initial letters of what is now only guessed at, or be involved in heraldic mystery. As for [Greek: Phi.]’s rider-Query (Vol ii., p. 110.), repeated by MR. FOSS (Vol. ii., p. 171.), as to dates,—it may be one step towards a reply if I here mention, that in Yatton Church, Somerset, there {249} is a beautifully wrought alabaster monument, without inscription, but
“It.: Recipim.
de Dna de Wyke p. man. T. Newton filii sui de
legato Dni. Riei.
Newton ad —— p. campana ... xx.”
Richard Cradock was the first of his family who took the name of Newton, and I have been informed that the last fine levied before him was, Oct. Mart. 27 Hen. VI. (Nov. 1448), proving that the canopied altar tomb in Bristol Cathedral, assigned to him, and recording that he died 1444, must be an error. It is stated, that the latter monument was defaced during the civil wars, and repaired in 1747, which is, probably, all that is true of it. But this would carry me into another subject, to which, perhaps, I may be allowed to return some other day. However, we have got a date for the use of the collar by the chief judges, earlier than that assigned by MR. FOSS, and it is somewhat confirmatory of what he tells us, that it was not worn by any of the puisne order.
H.T. ELLACOMBE.
Bitton, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
The Livery Collar of SS.—Though ARMIGER (Vol. ii., p. 194.) has not adduced any facts on this subject that were previously unknown to me, he has advanced some misstatements and advocated some erroneous notions, which it may be desirable at once to oppose and contradict; inasmuch as they are calculated to envelope in fresh obscurity certain particulars, which it was the object of my former researches to set forth in their true light. And first, I beg to say that with respect to the “four inaccuracies” with which he charges me, I do not plead guilty to any of them. 1st. When B. asked the question, “Is there any list of persons who were honoured with that badge?” it was evident that he meant, Is there any list of the names of such persons, as of the Knights of the Garter or the Bath? and I correctly answered, No: for there still is no such list. The description of the classes of persons who might use the collar in the 2 Hen. IV. is not such a list as B. asked for. 2dly. Where I said “That persons were not honoured with the badge, in the sense that persons are now decorated with stars, crosses, or medals,” I am again unrefuted by the statute of 2 Hen. IV., and fully supported by many historical facts. I repeat that the livery collar was not worn as a badge of honour, but as a badge of feudal allegiance. It seems to have been regarded as giving certain weight and authority to the wearer,
“The persons now privileged to wear the ancient golden collar of SS. are the equites aurati, or knights (chevaliers) in the British monarchy, a body which includes all the hereditary order of baronets in England, Scotland, and Ireland, with such of their eldest sons, being of age, as choose to claim inauguration as knights.”
Here we have a full confession of a large part of the faith of the Baronets’ Committee,—a committee of which the greater number of those who lent their names to it are probably by this time heartily ashamed. It is the doctrine held forth in several works on the Baronetage compiled by a person calling himself “Sir Richard Broun,” of whom we read in Dodd’s Baronetage, that “previous to succeeding his father, he demanded inauguration as a knight, in the capacity of a baronet’s eldest son; but the Lord Chamberlain having refused to present him to the Queen for that purpose, he assumed the title of ‘Sir,’ and the addition of ‘Eques Auratus,’ in June, 1842.” So we see that ARMIGER and the Lord Chamberlain are at variance as to part of the law above cited; and so, it might be added, have been other legal authorities, to the privileges asserted by the mouthpiece of the said committee. But that is a long story, on which I do not intend here to enter. I had not forgotten that in one of the publications of Sir Richard Broun the armorial coat of the premier baronet of each division is represented encircled with a Collar of Esses; but I should never have thought of alluding to this freak, except as an amusing instance of fantastic assumption. I will now confine myself to what has appeared in the pages of “NOTES AND QUERIES;” and, more particularly, to the unfounded assertion of ARMIGER in p. 194., “that the golden Collar of SS. was the undoubted badge or mark of a knight, eques auratus;” which he follows up by the dictum already quoted, that “the persons now privileged to wear the ancient golden Collar of SS. are the equites aurati.” I believe it is generally admitted that knights were equites aurati because they wore golden or gilt spurs; certainly it was not because they wore golden collars, as ARMIGER seems to wish us to believe; and the best proof that the Collar of Esses was not the badge of a knight, as such, at the time when such collars were most worn, in the fifteenth century, is this—that the monumental effigies and sepulchral brasses of many knights at that time are still extant which have no Collar of Esses; whilst the Collar of Esses appears only on the figures of a limited number, who were undoubtedly such as wished to profess their especial adherence to the royal House of Lancaster.
JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.
* * * * *
SIR GREGORY HORTON, BART.
(Vol. ii., p. 216.)
The creation of the baronetcy of Norton, of Rotherfield, in East Tysted, co. Hants, took place in the person of Sir Richard Norton, of Rotherfield, Kt., 23d May, 1622, and expired with him on his death without male issue in 1652.
The style of Baronet, in the case of Sir Gregory Norton, the regicide, was an assumption not uncommon in those days; as in the case of Prettyman of Lodington, and others.
The regicide in his will styles himself “Sir Richard Norton, of Paul’s, Covent Garden, in the county of Middlesex, Bart.” It bears date 12th March, 1651, and was proved by his relict, Dame Martha Norton, 24th Sept., 1652. He states that his land at Penn, in the county of Bucks, was mortgaged, and mentions his “disobedient son, Henrie Norton;” and desires his burial-place may be at Richmond, co. Surrey.
The descent of Gregory Norton is not known. There is no evidence of his connexion with the Rotherfield or Southwick Nortons. His assumption of the title was not under any claim he could have had, real or imaginary, connected with the Rotherfield patent; for he uses the title at the same time with Sir Richard of Rotherfield, whose will is dated 26th July, 1652, and not proved till 5th Oct, 1652, when Sir Gregory was dead; and, what is singular, the will of Sir Richard was proved by his brother, John Norton, by the style of Baronet, to which he could have had no pretension, as Sir Richard died without male issue, and there was no limitation of the patent of 1622 on failure of heirs male of the body of the grantee.
G.
* * * * *
SHAKSPEARE’S WORD “DELIGHTED.”
That the Shakspearian word delighted might, as far as its form goes, mean “endowed with delight,” “full of delight,” I should readily concede; but this meaning would suit neither the passage in Measure for Measure,—“the delighted spirit,”—nor (satisfactorily) that in Othello,—“delighted beauty.” Whether, therefore, delighted be derived from the Latin delectus or not, I still believe that it means “refined,” “dainty,” “delicate;” a sense which is curiously adapted to each of the three places. This will not be questioned with respect to the second and third passages cited by {251} MR. HICKSON: and the following citations will, I think, prove the point as effectually for the passage of Measure for Measure:
1. “Fine apparition".—Tempest, Act i. sc. 2.
2. “Spirit, fine spirit.”—Ditto.
3. “Delicate Ariel.”—Ditto.
4. “And, for thou wast
a spirit too delicate,
To act her earthy and abhorred commands.”
Ditto.
5. “Fine Ariel.”—Ditto.
6. “My delicate Ariel.”—Ditto. Act iv. sc. 1.
7. “Why that’s my
dainty Ariel.”—Ditto.
Act v.
sc. 1.
I do not know the precise nature of the “old authorities” which MR. SINGER opposes to my conjecture: but may we not demur to the conclusiveness of any “old authorities” on such a point? Etymology seems to be one of the developing sciences, in which we know more, and better, than our forefathers, as our descendants will know more, and better, than we do.
To end with a brace of queries. Are not delicioe, delicatus, more probably from deligere than from delicere? And whence comes the word dainty? I cannot believe in the derivation from dens, “a tooth.”
B.H. KENNEDY.
* * * * *
AEROSTATION.
Your correspondent C.B.M. (Vol. ii., p 199.) will find a long article on Aerostation in Rees’ Cyclopaedia; but his inquiry reminds me of a conversation I had with the late Sir Anthony Carlisle, about a year before his death. He wished to consult me on the subject of flying by mechanical means, and that I should assist him in some of his arrangements. He had devoted many years of his life to the consideration of this subject, and made numerous experiments at great cost, which induced him to believe in the possibility of enabling man to fly by means of artificial wings. However visionary this idea might be, he had collected innumerable and extremely interesting data, having examined the anatomical structure of almost every winged thing in the creation, and compared the weight of the body with the area of the wings when expanded in the act of volitation as well as the natural habits of birds, insects, bats, and fishes, with reference to their powers of flying and duration of flight.
These notes would form a valuable addition to natural history, whatever might be thought of the purpose for which they were collected, during a period of thirty years; and it is much to be regretted they were never published. His own opinion was, that the publication, during his life would injure his practice as a physician. It would be impossible without the aid of diagrams, and I do not remember sufficient, to explain his mechanical contrivances; but the general principle was, to suspend the man under a kind of flat parachute of extremely thin feather-edge boards, with a power of adjusting the angle at which it was placed, and allowing the man the full use of his arms and legs to work any machinery placed beneath; the area of the parachute being proportioned, as in birds to the weight of the man, who was to start from the top of a high tower, or some elevated position, flying against the wind.
HENRY WILKINSON.
Brompton.
* * * * *
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Long Lonkin (Vol. ii., p. 168.).—If SELEUCUS will refer to Mr. Chamber’s Collection of Scottish Ballads, he will find there the whole story under the name of Lammilsin, of which Lonkin appears to me to be a corruption. In the 6th verse it is rendered:
“He said to his ladye fair,
Before he gaed abuird,
Beware, beware o, Lammilsin!
For he lyeth in the wudde.”
Then the story goes on to state that Lammilsin crept in at a little shot window, and after some conversation with the “fause nourrice” they decide to
“Stab the babe, and make it cry,
And that will bring her down.”
Which being done, they murder the unhappy lady. Shortly after, Lord Weirie comes home, and has the “fause nourrice” burnt at the stake. From the circumstance that the name of the husband of the murdered lady was Weirie, it is conjectured that this tragedy took place at Balwearie Castle, in Fife, and the old people about there constantly affirm that it really occurred. I am not aware that there exists any connection between the hero of this story and the nursery rhyme; for, as I before stated, I think Lonkin a corruption of Lammilsin.
H.H.C.
Rowley Powley (Vol. ii., p. 74.).—Andre Valladier, who died about the middle of the sixteenth century, was a popular preacher and the king’s almoner. He gained great applause for his funeral oration on Henry IV. In his sermon for the second Sunday in Lent (Rouen, 1628), he says;—
“Le paon est gentil et miste, bien que par la parfaite beaute de sa houppe, par la rarete et noblesse de sa teste, par la gentilesse et nettete de son cou, par l’ornement de ses pennes et par la majeste de tout le reste de son corps, il ravit tous ceux qui le contemplent attentivement; toutefois au rencontre de sa femelle, pour l’attirer a son amour, il deploye sa pompe, fait montrer et parade de son plumage bizarre, et RIOLLE PIOLLE se presente a elle avec piafe, et luy donne la plus belle visee de sa roue. De mesme ce Dieu admirable, amoreux des hommes, pour nous ravir d’amour a soy, desploye le lustre de ses plus accomplies beautez, et comme un amant transporte de sa bienaimee se {252} montre pour nous allecher a cetter transformation de nous en luy, de nostre misere en sa gloire.”—Ap. Predicatoriuna p. 132-3: Dijon, 1841.
H.B.C.
Guy’s Armour (Vol. ii., pp. 55. 187.).—With respect to the armour said to have belonged to Guy, Earl of Warwick, your correspondent NASO is referred to Grose’s Military Antiquities, vol. ii. pl. 42., where he will find an engraving of a bascinet of the fourteenth century, much dilapidated, but having still a fragment of the moveable vizor adhering to the pivot on which it worked. Whether this interesting relic is still at Warwick Castle or not, I cannot pretend to say, as I was unfortunately prevented joining the British Archaeological Association at the Warwick congress in 1847, and have never visited that part of the country; but the bascinet which was there in Grose’s time was at least of the date of Guido de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, the builder of Guy’s Tower, who died in 1315, and who has always been confounded with the fabulous Guy: and if it has disappeared, we have to regret the loss of the only specimen of an English bascinet of that period that I am aware of in this country.
Alarm (Vol. ii., pp. 151. 183.).—The origin of this word appears to be the Italian cry, all’arme; gridare all’arme is to give the alarm. Hence the French alarme, and from the French is borrowed the English word. Alarum for alarm, is merely a corruption produced by mispronunciation. The letters l and r before m are difficult to pronounce; and they are in general, according to the refined standard of our pronunciation, so far softened as only to lengthen the preceding vowel. In provincial pronunciation, however, the force of the former letter is often preserved, and the pronunciation is facilitated by the insertion of a vowel before the final m. The Irish, in particular, adopt this mode of pronouncing; even in public speaking they say callum, firrum, farrum, for calm, firm, farm. The old word chrisom for chrism, is an analogous change: the Italians have in like manner lengthened chrisma into cresima; the French have softened it into chreme.
Alarm.—It is in favour of the derivation a l’arme that the Italian is allarme; some dictionaries even have dare all’arme, with the apostrophe, for to give alarm. It is against it that the German word Laerm is used precisely as the English alarm. Your correspondent CH. thinks the French derivation suspiciously ingenious: here I must differ; I think it suspiciously obvious. I will give him a suggestion which I think really suspiciously ingenious: in fact, had not the opportunity occurred for illustrating ingenuity, I should not have ventured it. May it not be that alarme and allarme is formed in the obvious way, as to arms; while alarum and Laerm wholly unconnected with them? May it not sometimes happen that, by coincidence, the same sounds and meanings go together in different languages without community of origin? Is it not possible that larum and Laerm are imitations of the stroke and subsequent resonance of a large bell? Denoting the continued sound of m by m-m-m, I think that lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m-lrm-m-m &c., is as good an imitation of a large bell at some distance as letters can make. And in the old English use of the word, the alarum refers more often to a bell than to any thing else.
The introduction of the military word into English can be traced, as to time, with a certain probability. In 1579, Thomas Digges published his Arithmeticall Militare Treatise named Stratioticos, which he informs us is mainly the writing of his father, Leonard Digges. At page 170. the father seems to finish with “and so I mean to finishe this treatise:” while the son, as we must suppose, adds p. 171. and what follows. In the father’s part the word alarm is not mentioned, that I can find.
The second edition was published in 1590; about this time the spelling of the English language made a very rapid approach to its present form. This is seen to a remarkable extent in the two editions of the Stratioticos; in the first, the commanding officer of a regiment is always corronel, in the second collonel. But the most striking instance I now remember, is the following. In the first edition of Robert Recorde’s Castle of Knowledge (1556) occurs the following tetrastich:—
“If reasons reache transcende the
skye,
Why shoulde it then to earthe be bounde?
The witte is wronged and leadde awrye,
If mynde be maried to the grounde.”
In the second edition (1596) the above is spelt as we should now do it, except in having skie and awrie.
M.
Prelates of France (Vol. ii., p. 182.).—In answer to a Minor Query of P.C.S.S., I can inform him that I have in my possession, if it be of any use to him, a manuscript entitled Tableau de l’Ordre religieux en France, avant et depuis l’Edit de 1768, {253} containing the houses, number of religions, and revenues, and the several dioceses in which they were to be found.
M.
Midgham House, Newbury, Berks.
Haberdasher (Vol. ii., p. 167.).—
“Haberdasher, a retailer of goods, a dealer in small wares; T. haubvertauscher, from haab; B. have; It. haveri, haberi, goods, wares; and tauscher, vertauscher, a dealer, an exchanger; G. tuiskar; D. tusker; B. tuischer.”
This derivation of the term haberdasher is from Thomson’s Etymons, and seems to be satisfactory.
Haberdascher was the name of a trade at least as early as the reign of Edward III.; but it is not easy to decide what was the sort of trade or business then carried on under that name. Any elucidation of that point would be very acceptable.
D.
“Rapido contrarius orbi” (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—No answer having appeared to the inquiry of N.B., it may be stated that, in Hartshorne’s Book-Rarities of Cambridge, mention is made of a painting, in Emanuel College, of “Abp. Sancroft, sitting at a writing-table with arms, and motto, Rapido contrarius orbi. P.P. Lens, F.L.”
Brayley, in his Concise Account of Lambeth Palace, describes a portrait, in the vestry, of “A young man in a clerical habit, or rather that of a student, with a motto beneath, ‘Rapido contrarium orbo’” (whether the motto, as thus given, is the printer’s or the painter’s error does not appear), “supposed to be Abp. Sancroft when young.—Date 1650.”
G.A.S.
Robertson of Muirtown (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—C.R.M. will find a pedigree of the family of Robertson of Muirton in a small duodecimo entitled:
“The History and Martial
Atchievements of the Robertsons of
Strowan. Edinburgh:
printed for and by Alex. Robertson in
Morison’s Close;
where Subscribers may call for their copies.”
The date of publication is not given; I think, however, it must have been printed soon after 1st January 1771, which is the latest date in the body of the work.
The greater portion of the volume is occupied with the poems of Alexander Robertson of Strowan who died in 1749.
A.R.X.
Paisley.
“Noli me tangere” (Vol. ii., p. 153.)—The following list of some of the painters of this subject may assist B.R.:—
Timoteo delle Vite—for St. Angelo at Cogli.
Titian—formerly in the Orleans collection, and engraved by N. Tardieu, in the Crozat Gallery.
Ippolito Scarsella (Lo Scarsellino)—for St. Nicolo Ferrara.
Cristoforo Roncalli (Il Cav. delle Pomarance)—for the Eremitani at St. Severino.
Lucio Massari—for the Celestini, Bologna.
Francesco Boni (Il Gobbino)—for the Dominicani, Faenza.
I.Z.P.
Clergy sold for Slaves (Vol. ii., p. 51.),—MR. SANSOM will find in the Cromwellian Diary of Thomas Burton, iv. 255. 273. 301-305., ample material for an answer to his question respecting the sale of any of the loyal party for slaves during the rebellion.
There is no evidence of any clergymen having been sold as slaves to Algiers or Barbadoes. Drs. Beale, Martin, and Sterne, heads of colleges, were threatened with this outrage (see Querela Cantabrigiensis appended to the Mercurius Rusticus p. 184). In the life of Dr. John Barwick, one of the authors of the Querela (in the Eng. transl. p. 42.), the story is thus told:
“The rebels at that time threatened some of their greatest men and most learned heads (such as Dr William Beale, Dr. Edward Martin, and Dr. Richard Sterne) transportation into the isles of America, or even to the barbarian Turks: for these great men, and several other very eminent divines, were kept close prisoners in a ship on the Thames, under the hatches, almost killed with stench, hunger, and watching; and treated by the senseless mariners with more insolence than if they had been the vilest slaves, or had been confined therePage 24
for some infamous robbery or murder. Nay, one Rigby, a scoundrel of the very dregs of the parliament rebels, did at that time expose these venerable persons to sale, and would actually have sold them for slaves, if any one would have bought them.”
In a note, it is added that Rigby moved twice in the Long Parliament,
“That those lords and gentlemen who were prisoners, should be sold as slaves to Argiere, or sent to the new plantations in the West Indies, because he had contracted with two merchants for that purpose.”
Col. Rigby, so justly denounced by Barwick, sat in the Long Parliament for the borough of Wigan, and in the Parliarment of 1658-9 represented Lancashire. He was a native of Preston, was bred to the law, and held a colonel’s rank in the parliamentary army. He was one of the committee of sequestrators for Lancashire, served at the siege of Latham House, and in 1649 was created Baron of the Exchequer, but was superseded by Cromwell.
Calamy, the historian and chaplain of the Nonconformists, treated Walker’s statement quoted by MR. SANSOM as a fiction, and advised him to expunge the passage. See his Church and Dissenters compared as to Persecution, 1719, pp. 40, 41.
A.B.R.
North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., pp. 55. 189).—One of your writers has recently endeavoured to explain the popular dislike to burial on the north side of the church, by reference to the place of the churchyard cross, the sunniness, and the greater resort of the people to the south. {254} These are not only meagre reasons, but they are incorrect.
The doctrine of regions was coeval with the death of Our Lord. The east was the realm of the oracles; the especial Throne of God. The west was the domain of the people; the Galilee of all nations was there. The south, the land of the mid-day, was sacred to things heavenly and divine. The north was the devoted region of Satan and his hosts; the lair of demons, and their haunt. In some of our ancient churches, over against the font, and in the northern walls, there was a devil’s door.
It was thrown open at every baptism for the escape of the fiend, and at all other seasons carefully closed. Hence came the old dislike to sepulture at the north.
R.S. HAWKER.
Morwenstow, Cornwall.
Sir John Perrot (Vol. ii., p. 217.).—This Query surprises me. Sir John Perrot was not governor of Ireland in the reign of Henry VIII., and your correspondent E.N.W. is mistaken in his belief that Sir John was beheaded in the reign of Elizabeth. He was convicted of treason 16th June, 1592, and died in the Tower in September following. In the British Plutarch, 3rd edit., 1791, vol. i. p. 121., is The Life of Sir John Perrot. The authorities given are Cox’s History of Ireland; Life of Sir John Perrot, 8vo., 1728; Biographia Britannica; Salmon’s Chronological History; to which I may add the following references:—
Howell’s State Trials, i. 1315; Camden’s Annals; Naunton’s Fragmenta Regalia; Lloyd’s State Worthies; Nash’s Worcestershire; Strype’s Ecclesiastical Memorials, iii. 297.; Strype’s Annals, iii. 337, 398-404.; Stradling Letters, 48-50.; Nare’s Life of Lord Burghley, iii. 407.; Fourth Report of Deputy Keeper of Public Records, Appendix, ii. 281. Dean Swift, in his Introduction to Polite Conversation, says,—
“Sir John Perrot was the first man of quality whom I find upon the record to have sworn by God’s wounds. He lived in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was supposed to be a natural son of Henry VIII., who might also have been his instructor.”
Cambridge, August 31. 1850.
Coins of Constantius II.—The coins of this prince are, from their titles being identical with those of his cousin, very difficult to be distinguished. My only guide is the portrait. Gallus died at twenty-nine; and we may suppose that his coins would present a more youthful portrait than Constantius II. The face of Constantius is long and thin, and is distinguished by the royal diadem. The youthful head resembling Constantius the Great with the laurel crown, Rev. Two military figures standing, with spears and bucklers, between them two standards, Ex. S M N B., I have arranged in my cabinet, how far rightly I know not, as that of Gallus.
E.S.T.
“She ne’er with treacherous Kiss” (Vol. ii., p. 136.).—C.A.H. will find the lines,—
“She ne’er with trait’rous kiss,” &c.
in a poem named “Woman,” 2nd ed. p. 34., by Eaton Stannard Barrett, Esq., published in 1818, by Henry Colburn, Conduit street.
E.D.B.
California (Vol. ii, p. 132.).—Your correspondent E.N.W. will find earlier anticipations of “the golden harvest now gathering in California,” in vol. iii. of Hakluyt’s Voyages, p. 440-442, where an account is given of Sir F. Drake’s taking possession of Nova Albion.
“There is no part of
earth here to bee taken up, wherein there
is not speciall likelihood
of gold or silver.”
In Callendar’s Voyages, vol. i. p. 303., and other collections containing Sir F. Drake’s voyage to Magellanica, there is the same notice. The earth of the country seemed to promise very rich veins of gold and silver, there being hardly any digging without throwing up some of the ores of them.
T.J.
Bishops and their Precedence (Vol. ii., pp. 9. 76.)—The precedence of bishops is regulated by the act of 31 Hen. VIII. c. 10., “for placing of the Lords.” Bishops are, in fact, temporal barons, and, as stated in Stephen’s Blackstone, vol. iii. pp. 5, 6., sit in the House of Peers in right of succession to certain ancient baronies annexed, or supposed to be annexed, to their episcopal lands; and as they have in addition high spiritual rank, it is but right they should have place before those who, in temporal rank only, are equal to them. This is, in effect, the meaning of the reason given by Coke in part iii. of the Institutes, p. 361. ed. 1670, where, after noticing the precedence amongst the bishops themselves, namely, 1. The Bishop of London, 2. The Bishop of Durham, 3. The Bishop of Winchester, he observes:
“But the other bishops have place above all the barons of the realm, because they hold their bishopricks of the king per baroniam; but they give place to viscounts, earls, marquesses, and dukes.”
ARUN.
Elizabeth and Isabel (Vol. i., pp. 439. 488.).—The title of AElius Antonius Nebressengis’s history is, Rerum a Fernando et Elisabe Hispaniaram faelicissimis regibus gestarum Decades duae.
J.B.
Dr. Thomas Bever’s Legal Polity of Great Britain (Vol. i., p. 483.).—Is J.R. aware that the principal part of the parish of Mortimer, near Reading, as well as the manorial rights, belongs to a Richard Benyon de Beauvoir, Esq., residing not very far from that spot, at Englefield House, about five miles on the Newbury Road from Reading. {255} This gentleman, whose original name was Powlett Wright, took the name of De Beauvoir a few years back, as I understand, from succeeding to the property of his relative, a Mr. Beevor or Bever. This gentleman may, perhaps, be enabled to throw some light upon the family of Dr. Bever.
WP.
Eikon Basilike (Vol. ii., p. 134.).—I would suggest to A.C. that the circumstance of his copy of this work bearing on its cover “C.R.,” surmounted by a crown, may not be indicative of its having been in the possession of royalty. It may have been, perhaps, not unusual to occasionally so distinguish words of this description published in or about that year (1660). I have a small volume entitled—
“The History of His Sacred Majesty Charles II. Begun from the Murder of his royal father of Happy Memory, and continued to this present year, 1660, by a person of quality. Printed for James Davies, and are to be sold at the Turk’s Head in Ioy Lane, and at the Greyhound in St. Paul’s Church Yard, 1660.”
This volume is stamped in gold on both covers with C.R., surmounted by a crown.
E.B. PRICE.
Earl of Oxford’s Patent (Vol. ii., PP. 194. 235.).—LORD BRAYBROOKE no doubt knows, that the preamble to the patent was written by Dean Swift. (See Journal to Stella.) I would add, in reply to O.P.Q., that there is no doubt that assassin and assassinate are properly used even when death does not ensue. Not so murder and murderer, which are strict terms of law to which death is indispensable.
Cave’s Historia Litteraria (Vol. ii., p. 230.).—Part I. appeared at London, 1688. An Appendix, by Wharton, followed, 1689. These were reprinted, Geneva, 1693. Part II., Lond., 1698; repr. Genev., 1699. The whole was reprinted, Genev., 1708 and 1720. After the author’s death a new and improved edition appeared, Oxon., 1740-43; rep. Basil, 1741-45. I give the date 1708, not 1705, to the second Geneva impression, on the authority of Walch.
J.E.B. MAYOR.
* * * * *
NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.
Collections of Wills have always been regarded, and very justly so, as among the most valuable materials which exist for illustrating the social condition of the people at the period to which they belong. Executed, as they must be, at moments the most solemn displaying, as we cannot but believe they do, the real feelings which actuate the testators; and having for their object the distribution of existing property, and that of every possible variety of description, it is obvious that they alike call for investigation, and are calculated to repay any labour that may be bestowed upon them. It is therefore, perhaps, somewhat matter of surprise that the Camden Society should not hitherto have printed any of this interesting class of documents; and that only in the twelfth year of its existence it should have given to its members the very interesting volume of Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St. Edmunds and the Archdeacon of Sudbury, which has been edited for the Society by Mr. Tymms, the active and intelligent Treasurer and Secretary of the Bury and West Suffolk Archaeological Institute. The selection contains upwards of fifty Wills, dated between 1370 and 1649, and the documents are illustrated by a number of brief but very instructive notes; and as the volume is rendered more useful by a series of very complete indices, we have no doubt it will be as satisfactory to the members as it is creditable to its editor. Mr. Tymms acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Way and Mr. J. Gough Nicols: we are sure the Camden Society would be under still greater obligations to those gentlemen if they could be persuaded to undertake the production of the series of Lambeth Wills which was to have been edited by the late Mr. Stapleton, with Mr. Way’s assistance.
When the proprietors of the Gentleman’s Magazine at the commencement of the present year announced their projected improvements in that periodical, we expressed our confidence that they would really and earnestly put forth fresh claims to the favour of the public. Our anticipations have been fully realised. Each succeeding number has shown increased energy and talent in the “discovery and establishment of historical truth in all its branches,” and that the conductors of this valuable periodical, the only “Historical Review” in the country, continue to pursue these great objects faithfully and honestly, as in times past, but more diligently and more undividedly. No student of English history can now dispense with, no library which places historical works upon its shelves can now be complete without The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Review.
We have received the following Catalogues:—G.
Willis’s (Great Piazza,
Covent Garden) Catalogue No. 41. New Series of
Second-hand Books,
Ancient and Modern; W.S. Lincoln’s (Cheltenham
House, Westminster Road)
Sixtieth (catalogue of Cheap Second-hand English and
Foreign Books); C.
Hamilton’s (4. Budge Place, City Road)
Catalogue No. 41. of an important
Collection of the Cheapest Tracts, Books, Autographs,
Manuscripts,
Original Drawings, &c. ever offered for sale.
* * * * *
NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.
MARTENS OR MERTENS THE PRINTER. Will D.L. kindly furnish us with a copy of the Note alluded to in his valuable communication in No. 42.?
JUNIUS IDENTIFIED. MR. TAYLOR’S Letter on his authorship of this volume is unavoidably postponed until next week.
M., who writes on the subject of Mr. Thomas’s Account of the State Paper Office, will be glad to hear that a Calendar of the documents contained in that department is in the press.
* * * * * {256}
SECOND PART OF MR. ARNOLD’S GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION.
Now Ready, in 8vo., price 6s. 6d.
A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION TO GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION. Part Second. (On the PARTICLES.) In this Part the Passages for Translation are of considerable length.
By the Rev. THOMAS KERCHEVER ARNOLD, M.A. Rector
of Lyndon, and late
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.
RIVINGTON, St. Paul’s Church Yard, and Waterloo Place.
* * * * *
Of whom may be had, by the same Author,
1. The SEVENTH EDITION of the FIRST PART. In 8vo. 6s. 6d.
2. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK ACCIDENCE. Fourth Edition. 8vo. 5s. 6d.
3. A PRACTICAL INTRODUCTION to GREEK CONSTRUING. 6s. 6d.
4. The FIRST GREEK BOOK; upon the plan of HENRY’S FIRST LATIN BOOK. 5s. (The SECOND GREEK BOOK is in the Press.)
* * * * *
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
The Central Committee of the Institute have considered a Resolution, passed at a recent meeting of the British Archaeological Association at Manchester, August 24th, in reference to the expediency of promoting a union between the Association and the Institute. The Committee desire to give this public notice, that they are ready, as they have always been, to admit members of the Association desirous of joining the Institute. They have determined accordingly, that, in order to offer reasonable encouragement to the members of the Association, they shall henceforth be eligible without the payment of the customary entrance fee, on the intimation of their wish to the Committee to be proposed for election. Life-members of the Association shall be eligible as life-members on payment of half the usual composition. All members of the Association thus elected shall likewise have the privilege of acquiring the previous publications of the Institute at the price to original subscribers.
Apartments of the Institute,
26. Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, Sept. 9, 1850.
By order of the Central Committee,
H. BOWYER LANE, Secretary.
* * * * *
HANDBOOKS FOR THE CLASSICAL STUDENT (WITH QUESTIONS). under the General Superintendence and Editorship of the Rev. T.K. ARNOLD.
I. HANDBOOKS of HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY. From the German of PUeTZ. Translated by the Rev. R.B. PAUL.
1. Ancient History, 6s. 6d.: 2. Mediaeval History, 4s. 6d.; 3. Modern History, 5s., 6d. These works have been already translated into the Swedish and Dutch languages.
II. The ATHENIAN STAGE. From the German of WITZSCHEL. Translated by the Rev. R.B. PAUL. 4s.
III. HANDBOOK of GRECIAN ANTIQUITIES. 3s. 6d. HANDBOOK of ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 3s. 6d. From the Swedish of BOJESEN. Translated from Dr. HOFFA’S German version by the Rev. R.B. PAUL.
IV. HANDBOOKS of SYNONYMES: 1. Greek Synonymes. From the French of PILLON. 6s. 6d. 2. Latin Synonymes. From the German of DOeDERLEIN 7s. 6d. Translated by the Rev. H.H. ARNOLD.
V. HANDBOOKS of VOCABULARY, 1. Green (in the press). 2. Latin. 3. French (nearly ready). 4. German (nearly ready).
RIVINGTON’S, St. Paul’s Church Yard, and Waterloo Place.
* * * * *
Just Published, price 1s. 6d. THE TIPPETS OF THE CANONS ECCLESIASTICAL. With illustrative Woodcuts, by G.J. FRENCH.
Also, by the same author, price 6d. HINTS ON THE ARRANGEMENTS OF COLOURS IN ANCIENT DECORATIVE ART. With some observations on the Theory of Complementary Colours.
GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.
* * * * *
Illustrated with numerous Woodcuts, 8vo, 10s. 6d. THE PRIMEVAL ANTIQUITIES OF DENMARK. By J.J.A. WORSAAE, M.R.S.A., of Copenhagen.
Translated and applied to the Illustration of similar Remains in England; by WILLIAM J. THOMS, Esq., F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society.
JOHN HENRY PARKER, Oxford, and 337. Strand, London.
* * * * *
In a few days, in 8vo., AN EXAMINATION OF THE CENTURY QUESTION: to which is added, A Letter to the Author of “Outlines of Astronomy,” respecting a certain peculiarity of the Gregorian System of Bissextile compensation.
“Judicio perpende: et si tibi
vera videntur,
DEDE MANUS.”
GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.
* * * * *
Second Edition, with Illustrations, 12mos., 3s. cloth.
THE BELL: its Origin, History, and Uses. By the Rev. ALFRED GATTY, Vicar of Ecclesfield.
“A new and revised edition of a very varied, learned, and amusing essay on the subject of bells.”—Spectator.
GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.
* * * * *
Just Published, Octavo Edition, plain, 15s.; Quarto Edition, having the Plates of the Tesselated Pavements all coloured, 1l. 5s.
REMAINS of ROMAN ART in Cirencester, the Site of Ancient Corinium: containing Plates by De la Motte, of the magnificent Tesselated Pavements discovered in August and September, 1849, with copies of the grand Heads of Ceres, Flora, and Pomona; reduced by the Talbotype from facsimile tracings of the original; together with various other plates and numerous wood engravings.
In the Quarto edition the folding of the plates necessary for the smaller volume is avoided.
“The recent discoveries made at Cirencester have been the means of enlisting in the cause of archaelogy two intelligent and energetic associates, to whose exertions we are mainly indebted for the preservation of the interesting remains brought to light, and our obligations are increased by the able manner in which they have described and illustrated them in the volume now under notice.
“These heads” (Ceres, Flora, and Pomona) are of a high order of art, and Mr. De la Motte, by means of the Talbotype, has so successfully reduced them that the engravings are perfect facsimiles of the originals. They are, perhaps, the best of the kind, every tessella apparently being represented.
“Our authors have very advantageously brought to their task a knowledge of geology and chemistry, and the important aid which an application of these sciences confers on archaeology is strikingly shown in the chapter on the materials of the tesselle, which also includes a valuable report by Dr. VOELCKER, on an analysis of ruby glass, which formed part of the composition of one of the Cirencester pavements. This portion of the volume is too elaborate and circumstantial for any justice to be done to it in an extract.”—Gentleman’s Mag., Sept.
London: GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.
* * * * *
Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. 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, September 14. 1850.