Notes and Queries, Number 37, July 13, 1850 eBook

Notes and Queries, Number 37, July 13, 1850

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Table of Contents

Page 1

NOTES

The author of the “Characteristics.”

Lord Shaftesbury’s Letters to a young Man at the University, on which Mr. Singer has addressed to you an interesting communication (Vol. ii., p. 33.), were reprinted in 1746 in a collection of his letters, “Letters of the Earl of Shaftesbury, author of the Characteristicks, collected into one volume:  printed MDCCXLVI.” 18mo.  This volume contains also Lord Shaftesbury’s letters to Lord Molesworth, originally published by Toland, with an introduction which is not reprinted; a “Letter sent from Italy, with the notion of the Judgment of Hercules, &c., to my Lord ——­“; and three letters reprinted from Lord Shaftesbury’s life in the General Dicionary, which was prepared by Dr. Kippis, under the superintendence of Lord Shaftesbury’s son, the fourth earl.

In my copy of the original edition of the Letters to a young Man at the University, two letters have been transcribed by an unknown previous possessor.  One is to Bishop Burnet, recommending young Ainsworth when about to be ordained deacon:—­

    “To the Bishop of Sarum.

    “Reigate, May 23. 1710.

“My Lord,—­The young man who delivers this to your Lordship, is one who for several years has been preparing himself for the ministry, and in order to it has, I think, completed his time at the university.  The occasion of his applying this way was purely from his own inclination.  I took him a child from his poor parents, out of a numerous and necessitous family, into my own, employing him in nothing servile; and finding his ingenuity, put him abroad to the best schools to qualify him for preferment in a peculiar way.  But the serious temper of the lad disposing him, as I found, to the ministry preferably to other advantages, I could not be his hindrance; though till very lately I gave him no prospect of any encouragement through my interest.  But having been at last convinced, by his sober and religious courage, his studious inclination and meek behaviour, that ’twas real principle and not a vanity or conceit that led him into these thoughts, I am resolved, in case your lordship thinks him worthy of the ministry, to procure him a benefice as soon as anything happens in my power, and in the mean time design to keep him as my chaplain in my family.

    “I am, my Lord, &c.,

    “Shaftesbury.”

The second letter inserted in my copy is to Ainsworth himself, dated Reigate, 11th May, 1711, and written when he was about to apply for priest’s orders.  But the bulk of this letter is printed, with a different beginning and ending, in the tenth printed letter, under date July 10th, 1710, and is there made to apply to Ainsworth’s having just received deacon’s orders.  The beginning, and ending of the letter, as in Ms., are—­

Page 2

“I am glad the time is come that you are to receive full orders, and that you hope it from the hands of our {98} great, worthy, and excellent Bishop, the Lord of Salisbury.  This is one of the circumstances” [then the letter proceeds exactly as in the printed Letter X., and the Ms. letter concludes:] “God send you all true Christianity, with that temper, life, and manners which become it.

    “I am, your hearty friend,

    “Shaftesbury.”

I quote the printed beginning of Letter X., on account of the eulogy on Bishop Burnet:—­

“I believed, indeed, it was your expecting me every day at ——­ that prevented your writing since you received orders from the good Bishop, my Lord of Salisbury; who, as he has done more than any man living for the good and honour of the Church of England and the Reformed Religion, so he now suffers more than any man from the tongues and slander of those ungrateful Churchmen, who may well call themselves by that single term of distinction, having no claim to that of Christianity or Protestant, since they have thrown off all the temper of the former and all concern or interest with the latter.  I hope whatever advice the great and good Bishop gave you, will sink deeply into your mind.”

Mr. Singer has extracted from the eighth printed letter one or two sentences on Locke’s denial of innate ideas.  A discussion of Locke’s views on this subject, or of Lord Shaftesbury’s contrary doctrine of a “moral sense,” is not suited to your columns; and I only wish to say that I think Mr. Singer has not made it sufficiently clear that Lord Shaftesbury’s remarks apply only to the speculative consequences, according to his own view, of a denial of innate ideas; and that Lord Shaftesbury, in another passage of the same Letters, renders the following tribute of praise to the Essay on the Human Understanding:—­

“I am not sorry that I lent you Mr. Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding, which may as well qualify for business and the world as for the sciences and a University.  No one has done more towards the recalling of philosophy from barbarity into use and practice of the world, and into the company of the better and politer sort, who might well be ashamed of it in its other dress.  No one has opened a better or clearer way to reasoning; and, above all, I wonder to hear him censured so much by any Church of England men, for advancing reason and bringing the use of it so much into religion, when it is by this only that we fight against the enthusiasts and repel the great enemies of our Church.”

A life of the author of the Characteristics is hardly less a desideratum than that of his grandfather, the Lord Chancellor, and would make an interesting work, written in connection with the politics as well as literature of the reigns of William and Anne; for the third Lord Shaftesbury, though prevented by ill-health

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Letters to Des Maizeaux (one interesting, offering him pecuniary assistance) in Ags.  Cat. MSS. 4288.

Letters to Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax[1], (one introducing Toland).  Add.  MSS. 7121.

Letter to Toland (printed, I think, in one of the Memoirs of Toland). Ags.  Cat. 4295. 10.

Letter to T. Stringer in 1625.  Ib. 4107. 115.

In Watt’s Bibliotheca Britannica, neither the Letters to a young Man at the University, published in 1716, nor the collection of letters of 1746, are mentioned; and confusion is made between the author of the Characteristics and his grandfather the Chancellor.  Several political tracts, published during the latter part of Charles II.’s reign, which have been ascribed to the first Earl of Shaftesbury, but of which, though they were probably written under his supervision, it is extremely doubtful that he was the actual author, are lumped together with the Characteristics as the works of one and the same Earl of Shaftesbury.

Some years ago a discovery was made in Holland of MSS. of Le Clerc, and some notice of the MSS., and extracts from them, are to be found in the following work:—­

“De Joanne Clerico et Philippo A. Limborch Dissertationes Duae.  Adhibitis Epistolis aliisque Scriptis ineditis scripsit atque eruditorum virorum epistolis nunc primum editis auxit Abr.  Des Amorie Van Der Hoeven, &c.  Amstelodami:  apud Fredericum Muller, 1843.”

Two letters of Locke are among the MSS.  Now it is mentioned by Mr. Martyn, the biographer of the first Earl of Shaftesbury, in a MS. letter in the British Museum, that some of this earl’s papers were sent by the family to Le Clerc, and were supposed not to have been returned.  I mention this, as I perceive you have readers and correspondents in Holland, in the hope that I may possibly learn whether any papers relating to the first Earl of Shaftesbury have been found among the lately discovered Le Clerc MSS.; and it is not unlikely that the same MSS. might contain letters of the third earl, the author of the Characteristics, who was a friend and correspondent of Le Clerc.

W.D.  CHRISTIE.

[Footnote 1:  Two of these—­one a letter asking the earl to stand godfather to his son, and the other a short note, forwarding a book (Qy. of Toland’s)—­are printed by Sir Henry Ellis in his Camden volume, Letters of Eminent Literary Men.—­ED.]

       * * * * * {99}

Page 4

CAXTON’S PRINTING-OFFICE.

The particular spot where Caxton exercised his business, or the place where his press was fixed, cannot now, perhaps, be exactly ascertained.  Dr. Dibdin, after a careful examination of existing testimonies, thinks it most probable that he erected his press in one of the chapels attached to the aisles of Westminster Abbey; and as no remains of this interesting place can now be discovered, there is a strong presumption that it was pulled down in making alterations for the building of Henry VII.’s splendid chapel.

It has been frequently asserted that all Caxton’s books were printed in a part of Westminster Abbey; this must be mere conjecture, because we find no statement of it from himself:  he first mentions the place of his printing in 1477, so that he must have printed some time without informing us where.

With all possible respect for the opinions of Dr. Dibdin, and the numerous writers on our early typography, I have very considerable doubts as to whether Caxton really printed within the walls of the Abbey at all.  I am aware that he himself says, in some of his colophons, “Emprinted in th’ Abbey of Westmynstre,” but query whether the precincts of the Abbey are not intended?  Stow, in his Annals (edit 1560, p. 686.), says,—­“William Caxton of London, mercer, brought it (printing) into England about the year 1471, and first practised the same in the Abbie of St. Peter at Westminster;” but in his Survey of London, 1603 (edit.  Thoms, p. 176.), the same writer gives us a more full and particular account; it is as follows:—­

“Near unto this house [i.e.  Henry VII.’s alms-house], westward, was an old chapel of St. Anne; over against the which, the Lady Margaret, mother to King Henry VII., erected an alms-house for poor women, which is now turned into lodgings for the singing men of the college.  The place wherein this chapel and alms-house standeth was called the Elemosinary, or almonry, now corruptly the ambry, for that the alms of the Abbey were there distributed to the poor; and therein Islip, abbot of Westminster, erected the first press of book-printing that ever was in England, about the year of Christ 1471.  William Caxton, citizen of London, mercer, brought it into England, and was the first that practised it in the said abbey; after which time the like was practised in the abbeys of St. Augustine at Canterbury, St. Albans, and other monasteries.”

Again, in the curious hand-bill preserved in the Bodleian Library, it will be remembered that Caxton invites his customers to “come to Westmonester into the Almonestrye,” where they may purchase his books “good chepe.”

From these extracts it is pretty clear that Caxton’s printing-office was in the Almonry, which was within the precincts of the Abbey, and not in the Abbey itself.  The “old chapel of St. Anne” was doubtless the place where the first printing-office was erected in England.  Abbot Milling (not Islip, as stated by Stow) was the generous friend and patron of Caxton and the art of printing; and it was by permission of this learned monk that our printer was allowed the use of the building in question.

Page 5

The old chapel of St. Anne stood in the New-way, near the back of the workhouse, at the bottom of the almonry leading to what is now called Stratton Ground.  It was pulled down, I believe, about the middle of the seventeenth century.  The new chapel of St. Anne, erected in 1631, near the site of the old one, was destroyed about fifty years since.

Mr. Cunningham, in his Handbook for London (vol. i. p. 17.), says,—­

    “The first printing-press ever seen in England was set up in
    this almonry under the patronage of Esteney, Abbot of
    Westminster, by William Caxton, citizen and mercer (d. 1483).”

Esteney succeeded Milling in the Abbacy of Westminster, but the latter did not die before 1492.  On p. 520. of his second volume, Mr. Cunninghan gives the date of Caxton’s death correctly, i.e. 1491.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

SANATORY LAWS IN OTHER DAYS.

In that curious medley commonly designated, after Hearne, Arnold’s Chronicle, and which was probably first printed in 1502 or 1503, we find the following passages.  I make “notes” of them, from their peculiar interest at the moment when sanatory bills, having the same objects, are occupying the public attention so strongly; especially in respect to the Smithfield Nuisance and the Clergy Discipline bill.

1.  In a paper entitled “The articles dishired bi y’e comonse of the cety of London, for reformacyo of thingis to the same, of the Mayer, Aldirmen, and Comon Counsell, to be enacted,” we have the following:—­

“Also that in anoyding the corupte savours and lothsom innoyaunc (caused by slaughter of best) w’tin the cyte, wherby moche people is corupte and infecte, it may plese my Lord Mayr, Aldirmen, and Comen Counsaile, to put in execucion a certaine acte of parlement, by whiche it is ordeigned y’t no such slaughter of best shuld be vsed or had within this cite, and that suche penaltees be leuyed vpo the contrary doers as in the said acte of parlement ben expressed.

“Also in anoyding of lyke annoyauce.  Plese it my Lord Mair, Alderme, and Como Councell, to enact that noo manor pulter or any other persone i this cytee kepe from hinsforth, within his hous, swans, gies, or dowk, upon a peyn therfore to be ordeigned.”—­pp. 83, 84, 3d. ed.

I believe that one item of “folk-faith” is that “farm-yard odours are healthy.”  I have often {100} heard it affirmed at least; and, indeed, has not the common councilman, whom the Times has happily designated as the “defender of filth”, totally and publicly staked his reputation on the dogma in its most extravagant shape, within the last few months?  It is clear that nearly four centuries ago, the citizens of London thought differently; even though “the corupte savours and lothsom innoyaunc” were infinitely less loathsome than in the present Smithfield and the City slaughter-houses.

Page 6

It would be interesting to know to what act of parliament Arnold’s citizens refer, and whether it has ever been repealed.  It is curious to notice, too, that the danger from infuriated beasts running wild through the streets is not amongst the evils of the system represented.  They go further, however, and forbid even the killing within the city.

Moreover, it would really seem that the swan was not then a mere ornamental bird, either alive or dead, but an ordinary article of citizen-dinners, it being classed with “gies and dowks” in the business of the poulterer.  At the same time, no mention being made of swine in any of these ordonnances or petitions, would at first sight seem to show that the flesh of the hog was in abhorrence with the Catholic citizen, as much perhaps as with the Jews themselves; at any rate, that it was not a vendible article of food in those days.  When did it become so?  This conclusion would, however, be erroneous; for amongst “the articles of the good governauce of the cite of London” shortly following we have this:—­

    “Also yf ony persone kepe or norrysh hoggis, oxen, kyen, or
    mallardis within the ward, in noyoying of ther neyhbours.”—­p.
    91.

The proper or appointed place for keeping hoggis was Hoggistone, now Hoxton; as Houndsditch[2] was for the hounds.

There is another among these petitions to the Lord Mayor and corporation, worthy of notice, in connection with sanatory law.

“Also in avoydig ye abhomynable savours causid by ye kepig of ye kenell in ye mote and ye diches there, and i especiall by sethig of ye houndes mete wt roten bones, and vnclenly keping of ye houdes, wherof moche people is anoyed, soo yt when the wynde is in any poyte of the northe, all the fowle stynke is blowen ouer the citee.  Plese it mi Lord Mair, Aldirmen, and Comen Coucell, to ordeigne that the sayd kenell be amoued and sett in so other couenient place where as best shall seme them.  And also that the said diches mai be clensed from yere to yere, and so kepte yt thereof folowe non annoyaunce.”—­p. 87.

Of course “Houndsditch” is here meant; but for what purpose were the hounds kept?  And, indeed, what kind of hounds were they, that thus formed a part of the City establishment?  Were they bloodhounds for tracking criminals, or hounds kept for the special behoof and pleasure of the “Lord Mair, Aldermen, and Comen Cousel?” The Houndsditch of that time bore a strong resemblance to the Fleet ditch of times scarcely exceeding the memory of many living men.

I come now to the passages relating to the clergy.

Page 7

“Also, where as the curatis of the cyte have used often tyme herebefore to selle their offring (at mariag), whereby the pisshes where such sales be made comenly be lettid fro messe or matyns, and otherwhiles from both, by so moch as the frendis of the pties maryed vsen to goo abowte vij. or viij. dayes before, and desiryg men to offryg at such tymes as more conuenyent it were to be at diunyne seruice.  Plese it my Lord Mair, Aldirme, and Come Couseile, to puide remedy, so that the sayd custume be fordone and leid aparte.”—­p. 86.

“Also, to thentent that the ordre of priesthood be had in dew reuerence according to the dignite therof, and that none occasions of incontinence growe bee the famylyarite of seculer people.  Plese it my Lord Mayre, Aldirmen, and Comon Counsyll, to enacte that no maner persone beyng free of this citee take, receyue, and kepe from hensforth ony priest in comons, or to borde by the weke, moneth, or yere, or ony other terme more or lesse, vpon peine thervpon to be lymytyd, prouided that this acte extede not to ony prieste retayned wyth a citezen in famyliar housolde.”—­p. 89.

“Also, plese it my Lord Mayre, Aldyrmen, and Comon Counseylle, that a communication may be had wyth the curatis of this citee for oblacions whiche they clayme to haue of citezens agaynst the tenour of the bulle purchased att their owne instance, and that it may be determined and an ende taken, whervpon the citezens shall rest.”—­p. 89.

“Also, yf ther be ony priest in seruice within the warde, which afore tyme hath been sette in the toune in Cornhyll for his dishoneste, and hath forsworne the cyte, alle suche shulde bee presentyd.”—­p. 92.

Upon these I shall make no remark.  They will make different impressions on different readers; according to the extent of prejudice or liberality existing in different minds.  They show that even during the most absolute period of ecclesiastical domination, there was one spot in England where attempts to legislate for the priesthood (though perhaps feeble enough) were made.  The legislative {101} powers of the corporation were at that time very ample; and the only condition by which they appear to have been limited was, that they should not override an act of parliament or a royal proclamation.

Is there any specific account of the “tonne in Cornhyll” existing?  Its purpose, in connection with the conduit, admits of no doubt; the forsworn and dishonest priest had been punished with a “good ducking,” and this, no doubt, accompanied with a suitable ceremonial for the special amusement of the “’prentices."[3]

I have also marked a few passages relative to the police and the fiscal laws of those days, and when time permits, will transcribe them for you, if you deem them worthy of being laid before your readers.

T.S.D.

Page 8

[Footnote 2:  Mr. Cunningham, speaking of Houndsditch, merely quotes the words of Stow.  It would appear that Stow’s reason for the name is entirely conjectural; and indeed the same reason would justify the same name being applied to all the “ditches” in London in the year 1500, and indeed much later.  This passage of Arnold throws a new light upon the name, at least, of that rivulet; for stagnant its waters could not be, from its inclination to the horizon.  It, however, raises another question respecting the mode of keeping and feeding hounds in those days; and likewise, as suggested in the text, the further question, as to the purpose for which these hounds were thus kept as a part of the civic establishment.]

[Footnote 3:  This view will no doubt be contested on the authority of Stow, who describes the tonne as a “prison for night-walkers,” so called from the form in which it was built.  (Cunningham, p. 141., 2nd ed.) Yet, as Mr. Cunningham elsewhere states (p. xxxix.), “the Tun upon Corn-hill [was] converted into a conduit” in 1401, it would hardly be called a “prison” a century later.  The probability is, that the especial building called the tonne never was a prison at all; but that the prison, from standing near or adjoining the tonne, took its name, the tonne prison, in conformity with universal usage.  It is equally probable that the tonne was originally built for the purpose to which it was ultimately applied; and that some delay arose in its use from the difficulty experienced in the hydraulic part of the undertaking, which was only overcome in 1401.  The universality of the punishment of “ducking” amongst our ancestors is at least a circumstance in favour of the view taken in the text.]

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

Midsummer Fires.—­From your notice of Mr. Haslam’s account of the Beltein or Midsummer fires in Cornwall, I conclude you will give a place to the following note.  On St. John’s eve last past, I happened to pass the day at a house situate on an elevated tract in the county of Kilkenny, Ireland; and I shall long remember the beauty of the sight, when, as dusk closed in, fire after fire shot up its clear flame, thickly studding the near plains and distant hills.  The evening was calm and still, and the mingled shouts and yells of the representatives of the old fire-worshippers came with a very singular effect on the ear.  When a boy, I have often passed through the fire myself on Midsummer eve, and such is still the custom.  The higher the flame, the more daring the act is considered:  hence there is a sort of emulation amongst the unwitting perpetrators of this Pagan rite.  In many places cattle are driven through the fire; and this ceremony is firmly believed to have a powerful effect in preserving them from various harms.  I need not say, that amongst the peasantry the fires are now lighted in honour of St John.

Page 9

X.Y.A.

Kilkenny.

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

Borrowed Thoughts.—­Mr. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 482.) points out the French original from which Goldsmith borrowed his epigram beginning—­

  “Here lies poor Ned Purdon.”

I find, in looking over Swift’s works, a more literal version of this than Goldsmith’s:—­

  “Well then, poor G——­ lies under ground,
    So there’s an end of honest Jack;
  So little justice here he found,
   ’Tis ten to one he’ll ne’er come back.”

I should like to add two Queries:—­Who was the Chevallier de Cailly (or d’Aceilly), the author of the French epigram mentioned by Mr. Singer?  And—­when did he live?

H.C.  DE ST. CROIX

An Infant Prodigy in 1659.—­The following wonderful story is thus related by Archbishop Bramhall (Carte’s Letters, ii. 208.:  Dr. Bramhall to Dr. Earles, Utrecht, Sept. 6-16, 1659):—­

“A child was born in London about three months since, with a double tongue, or divided tongue, which the third day after it was born, cried ‘a King, a King,’ and bid them bring it to the King.  The mother of the child saieth it told her of all that happened in England since, and much more which she dare not utter.  This my lady of Inchiguin writeth to her aunt, Me brow van Melliswarde[4], living in this city, who shewed me the letter.  My Lady writeth that she herself was as incredulous as any person, until she both saw and heard it speak herself very lately, as distinctly as she herself could do, and so loud that all the room heard it.  That which she heard was this.  A gentleman in the company took the child in his arms and gave it money, and asked what it would do with it, to which it answered aloud that it would give it to the King.  If my Lady were so foolish to be deceived, or had not been an eye and ear witness herself, I might have disputed it; but giving credit to her, I cannot esteem it less than a miracle.  If God be pleased to bestow a blessing upon us, he cannot want means.”

It can hardly be doubted that the Archbishop’s miracle was a ventriloquist hoax.

CH.

    [Footnote 4:  The name of the Dutch lady, mis-written for De
    Vrouw, &c.]

Allusion in Peter Martyr.—­Mr. Prescott, in his History of the Conquest of Mexico vol. i. p. 389. (ed. 8vo. 1843), quotes from Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo, dec. 1. c. l., the words, “Una illis fuit spes salutis, desperasse de salute,” applied to the Spanish invaders of Mexico; and he remarks that “it is said with the classic energy of Tacitus.”  The {102} expression is classical, but is not derived from Tacitus.  The allusion is to the verse of Virgil:—­

  “Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem.”

AEn. ii. 354.

L.

Page 10

Hogs not Pigs.—­In Cowper’s humorous verses, “The yearly Distress, or Tithing-time at Stoke in Essex,” one of the grumblers talks

  “of pigs that he has lost
  By maggots at the tail.”

Upon this I have to remark that an intelligent grazier assures me that pigs are never subject to the evil here complained of, but that lambs of a year old, otherwise called “hogs” or “hoggets,” are often infested by it.  It would appear, therefore, that the poet, misled by the ambiguous name, and himself knowing nothing of the matter but by report, attributed to pigs that which happens to the other kind of animal, viz. lambs a year old, which have not yet been shorn.

J. MN.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

A QUERY AND REPLIES.

Plaister or Paster—­Christian Captives—­Members for Calais, &c.—­In editing Tyndale’s Pathway (Works, vol. i. p. 22.), I allowed preceding editors to induce me to print pastor, where the oldest authority had paster.  As the following part of the sentence speaks of “suppling and suaging wounds,” I am inclined to suspect that “paster” might be an old way of spelling, “plaster.”  Can any of your correspondents supply me with any instance in which “plaster” or “plaister” is spelt “paster” by any old English writer?

In return for troubling you with this question, you may inform Mr. Sansom, in answer to Query, Vol. ii., p. 41., that Hallam says, “Not less than fifty gentlemen were sold for slaves at Barbadoes, under Cromwell’s government.” (Constit.  Hist., ch. x. note to p. 128., 4to. edit.) And though Walker exaggerated matters when he spoke “a project to sell some of the most eminent masters of colleges, &c., to the Turks for slaves,” Whitelock’s Memorials will inform him, under date of Sept. 21, 1648, that the English Parliament directed one of its committees “to take care for transporting the Scotch prisoners, in the first place to supply the plantations, and to send the rest to Venice.”

To another, O.P.Q. (Vol. ii., p. 9.), you may state that the members for Calais in the time of Edw.  VI., and in the first four parliaments of Mary, may be seen in Willis’ Notitia Parliamentaria, where their names are placed next to the members for the Cinque Ports.  Willis states that the return for Calais for the last parliament of Henry VIII is lost.  Their names indicate that they were English,—­such as Fowler, Massingberd, &c.

As to umbrellas, there are Oriental scholars who can inform your inquirers that the word “satrap” is traceable to words whose purport is, the bearer of an umbrella.

Another of your latest Querists may find the epigrams on George II.’s (not, as he imagines, Charles I.’s) different treatment of the two English universities in Knox’s Elegent Extracts.  The lines he has cited are both from the same epigram, and, I think, from the first of the two.  They were occasioned by George.  II’s purchasing the library of Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ely, and giving it to the university of Cambridge.

Page 11

The admirer of another epigram has not given it exactly as I can remember it in a little book of emblems more than fifty years ago:—­

  “’Tis an excellent world that we live in,
  To lend, to spend, or to give in;
  But to borrow or beg, or get a man’s own,
  ’Tis just the worst world that ever was known.”

H. WALTER.

* * * * *

LETTERS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II.  OF SPAIN.

Perhaps some of your readers may be able to inform me whether any of the following letters between Queen Elizabeth and Philip II. of Spain, extracted from the archives of Simancas, have yet appeared in print:—­

1.  Queen Elizabeth to Philip II., January 9, 1562-3.

2.  Answer, April 2, 1563.

3.  Philip II.’s reply to the English ambassador in the case of Bishop Cuadra, April, 1563.

4.  Charges made in England against the Bishop of Aquila, Philip’s ambassador, and the answers.

5.  Queen Elizabeth to Philip II., January 18, 1569.

6.  Philip to Elizabeth, May 9, 1569.

7.  Elizabeth to Philip, March 20, 1571.

8.  Answer, June 4, 1571.

9.  Declaration of the Council to the Spanish ambassador Don Gueran de Espes, Dec. 14, 1571.

10.  The ambassador’s answer.

11.  Elizabeth to Philip, Dec. 16, 1571.

12.  Bermandino de Mendoza to Philip II., in cypher, London, January 26, 1584.

13.  Philip to Elizabeth, July, 16, 1568.

14.  Duke of Alva to Philip II., January 14, 1572.

15.  Minutes of a letter from Philip II. to Don Gueran de Espes, February 24, 1572.

A.M.

       * * * * * {103}

MINOR QUERIES.

The New Temple.—­As your correspondent L.B.L. states (Vol. ii., p. 75.) that he has transcribed a MS. survey of the Hospitallers’ lands in England, taken in 1338, he will do me a great kindness if he will extract so much of it as contains a description of the New Temple in London, of which they became possessed just before that date.  It will probably state whether it was then in the occupation of themselves or others:  and, even if it does not throw any light on the tradition that the lawyers were then established there, or explain the division into the Inner and Middle Temple, it will at least give some idea of the boundaries, and perhaps determine whether the site of Essex House, which, in an ancient record is called the Outer Temple, was then comprehended within them.

EDWARD FOSS.

“Junius Identified.”—­The name of “John Taylor” is affixed to the Preface, and there can be little doubt, I presume, that Mr. John Taylor was literally the writer of this work.  It has, however, already become a question of some interest, to what extent he was assisted by Mr. Dubois.  The late Mr. George Woodfall always spoke of the pamphlet as the work of Dubois. 

Page 12

R.J.

Mildew in Books.—­Can you, or any of your readers, suggest a preventive for mildew in books?

In a valuable public library in this town (Liverpool), much injury has been occasioned by mildew, the operations of which appear very capricious; in some cases attacking the printed part of an engraving, leaving the margin unaffected; in others attacking the inside of the backs only; and in a few instances it attacks all parts with the utmost impartiality.

Any hints as to cause or remedy will be most acceptable.

B.

George Herbert’s Burial-place.—­Can any of your correspondents inform me where the venerable George Herbert, rector of Bemerton, co.  Wilts., was buried, and whether there is any monument of him existing in any church?

J.R.  Fox.

The Earl of Essex, and “The Finding of the Rayned Deer."—­

“There is a boke printed at Franker in Friseland, in English, entitled The Finding of the Rayned Deer, but it bears title to be printed in Antwerp, it should say to be done by som prieste in defence of the late Essex’s tumult.”

The above is the postscript to a letter of the celebrated Father Parsons written “to one Eure, in England”, April 30, 1601, a contemporary copy of which exists in the State Paper Office [Rome,] Whitehall.  Can any of your readers tell me whether anything is known of this book?

SPES.

June 28. 1850.

The Lass of Richmond Hill.—­I should be much obliged by being informed who wrote the words of the above song, and when, if it was produced originally at some place of public entertainment.  The Rev. Thomas Maurice, in his elegant poem on Richmond Hill, has considered it to have been written upon a Miss Crop, who committed suicide on that spot, April 23rd, 1782; but he was evidently misinformed, as it appeared some few years later, and had no reference to that event.  I have heard it attributed to Leonard Mac Nally, a writer of some dramatic pieces, but on no certain grounds; and it may have been a Vauxhall song about the year 1788.  The music was by James Hook, the father of Theodore Hook.

Page 13

QUAERO.

Curfew.—­In what towns or villages in England is the old custom of ringing the curfew still retained?

NABOC.

Alumni of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester.—­Are the alumni of the various colleges of Oxford, Cambridge, and Winchester, published from an early period, and the various preferments they held, similar to the one published at Eton.

J.R.  Fox.

St. Leger’s Life of Archbishop Walsh.—­In Doctor Oliver’s History of the Jesuits, it is stated that William St. Leger, an Irish member of that Society, wrote the Life of Thomas Walsh, Archbishop of Cashel, in Ireland, published in 4to. at Antwerp in 1655.  Can any of your numerous readers inform me if a copy of this work is to be found in the British Museum, or any other public library, and something of its contents?

J.W.H. {104}

Query put to a Pope.—­

  “Sancte Pater! scire vellem
  Si Papatus mutat pellem?”

I have been told that these lines were addressed to one of the popes, whose life, before his elevation to the see of St. Peter, had been passed in excesses but little suited to the clerical profession.

They were addressed to him orally, by one of his former associates, who met and stopped him while on his way to or from some high festival of the Church, and who plucked aside, as he spoke, the gorgeous robes in which his quondam fellow-reveller was dressed.

The reply of the pope was prompt, and, like the question, in a rhyming Latin couplet.  I wish, if possible, to discover, the name of the pope;—­the terms of his reply;—­the name of the bold man who “put him to the question;”—­by what writer the anecdote is recorded, or on what authority it rests.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

The Carpenter’s Maggot.—­I have in my possession a MS. tune called the “Carpenter’s Maggot,” which, until within the last few years, was played (I know for nearly a century) at the annual dinner of the Livery of the Carpenters’ Company.  Can any of your readers inform me where the original is to be found, and also the origin of the word “Maggot” as applied to a tune?

F.T.P.

Lord Delamere.—­Can any of your readers give me the words of a song called “Lord Delamere,” beginning: 

  “I wonder very much that our sovereign king,
  So many large taxes upon this land should bring.”

And inform me to what political event this song, of which I have an imperfect MS. copy, refers.

EDWARD PEACOCK, JUN.

Henry and the Nut-brown Maid.—­SEARCH would be obliged for any information as to the authorship of this beautiful ballad.

[Mr. Wright, in his handsome black-letter reprint, published by Pickering in 1836, states, that “it is impossible to fix the date of this ballad,” and has not attempted to trace the authorship.  We shall be very glad if SEARCH’s Query should produce information upon either of these points.]

* * * * *

Page 14

REPLIES.

FRENCH POEM BY MALHERBE.

The two stanzas your correspondent E.R.C.B. has cited (Vol. ii., p. 71.) are from an elegiac poem by MALHERBE (who died in 1628, at the good old age of seventy-three), which is entitled Consolation a Monsieur Du Perrier sur la Mort de sa Fille.  It has always been a great favorite of mine; for, like Gray’s Elegy and the celebrated Coplas of Jorge Manrique on the death of his father, beside its philosophic moralising strain, it has that pathetic character which makes its way at once to the heart.  I will transcribe the first four stanzas for the sake of the beauty of the fourth:—­

  “Ta douleur, Du Perrier, sera done eternelle,
     Et les tristes discours
  Que te met en l’esprit l’amitie paternelle
     L’augmenteront toujours.

  “Le malheur de ta fille au tombeau descendue,
     Par un commun trepas,
  Est-ce quelque dedale, ou ta raison perdue
     Ne se retrouve pas?

  “Je sai de quels appas son enfance estoit pleine;
     Et n’ay pas entrepris,
  Injurieux ami, de soulager ta peine
     Avecque son mepris.

  “Mais elles estoit du monde, ou les plus belles choses
     Ont le pire destin: 
  Et Rose elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses,
     L’espace d’un matin.”

The whole poem consists of twenty-one stanzas and should be read as a whole; but there are several other striking passages.  The consolation the poet offers to his friend breathes the spirit of Epictetus:—­

  “De moy, deja deux fois d’une pareille foudre
     Je me suis vu perclus,
  Et deux fois la raison m’a si bien fait resoudre,
     Qu’il ne m’en souvient plus.

  “Non qu’il ne me soit grief que la terre possede
     Ce qui me fut si cher;
  Mais en un accident qui n’a point de remede,
     II n’en faut point chercher.”

Then follow the two stanzas cited by your correspondent, and the closing verse is:—­

  “De murmurer contre-elle et perdre patience,
     Il est mal-a-propos: 
  Vouloir ce que Dieu veut, est la seule science
     Qui nous met en repos.”

The stanza beginning “Le pauvre en sa cabane,” is an admirable imitation of the “Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede,” &c. of Horace, which a countryman of the poet is said to have less happily rendered “La pale mort avec son pied de cheval,” &c.

Malherbe has been duly appreciated in France:  his works, in one edition, are accompanied by an elaborate comment by Menage and Chevreau:  Racan wrote his life, and Godeau, Bishop of Vence, a panegyrical preface.  He was a man of wit, and ready at an impromptu; yet it is said, that in writing a consolotary poem to the President de Verdun, on the death of his wife, he was so long {105} in bringing his verses to that degree of perfection which satisfied his own fastidious taste, that the president was happily remarried, and the consolation not at all required.

Page 15

Bishop Hurd, in a note on the Epistle to Augustus, p. 72., says: 

“Malherbe was to the French pretty much what Horace had been to Latin poetry.  These great writers had, each of them, rescued the lyric muse of their country out of the rude ungracious hands of their old poets.  And, as their talents of a good ear, elegant judgment, and correct expression, were the same, they presented her to the public in all the air and grace, and yet severity, of beauty, of which her form was susceptible.”

S.W.  SINGER.

Mickleham, July 2. 1850.

* * * * *

“DIES IRAE, DIES ILLA.”

In reply to the first of Mr. SIMPSON’s Queries (Vol. ii., p. 72.) relative to the magnificent sequence Dies irae, I beg to say that the author of it is utterly unknown.  The following references may be sufficient:—­Card.  Bona, Rer.  Liturgic. lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 336., Romae, 1671; or, if possible, Sala’s edition, tom. iii. p 143., Aug.  Turin. 1753; Gavantus, tom. i. pp. 274-5., Lugd. 1664; and the Additions by Merati, i. 117-18., Aug.  Vindel, 1740; Zaccaria, Biblioth.  Ritual. tom. i. p. 34., Romae, 1776; Oldoini Addit. ad Ciaconii Vit.  Pontiff. et Cardd., tom. ii. col. 222., Romae, 1677.

Mr. SIMPSON’s second question is, “In what book was it first printed?” Joannes de Palentia, in his notes upon the Ordinarium PP.  Praed., asserts that this celebrated prose was first introduced into the Venice editions of the Missals printed for the Dominicans.  The oldest Missale Praedicatorum which I possess, or have an opportunity of seeing, is a copy of the Parisian impression of the year 1519; and herein the Dies irae is inserted in the Commemoratio Defunctorum; mens.  Novemb. sig.  M. 5.

An inquiry remains as to the date of the general adoption of this sequence by the Roman Church.  In Quetif and Echard (Scriptt.  Ord.  Praed. i. 437.), under the name of Latinus Malabranca, we read that it certainly was not in use in the year 1255; and there does not appear to be the slightest evidence of its admission, even upon private authority, into the office for the dead anterior to the commencement of the fifteenth century.

Your correspondent was not mistaken in his belief that he had met with an imperfect transcript of this prose, for the original consists not of “twenty-seven,” but of fifty-seven lines.  I may add that I do not remember to have found the text more correctly given than in the beautiful folio missal of the church of Augsburg, partly printed on vellum in 1555 (fol. 466. b.).

R.G.

The Dies Irae is truly said by Mr. SPARROW SIMPSON (Vol. ii., p. 72.) to be an extremely beautiful hymn.  Who was its author is very doubtful, but the probabilities are in favour of Thomas de Celano, a Minorite friar, who lived during the second half of the fourteenth century.  It consists of nineteen strophes, each having three lines.  Bartholomew of Pisa, A.D. 1401, in his Liber Conformitatum, speaks of it; but the earliest printed book in which I have ever seen this hymn, is the Missale Romanum, printed at Pavia, A.D. 1491, in 8vo., a copy of which I have in my possession.

Page 16

D. ROCK.

Buckland, Faringdon.

* * * * *

DR. SAMUEL OGDEN.

In reply to your correspondent TWYFORD (Vol. ii., p. 73.), the original of the common surname Ogden is doubtless Oakden.  A place so called is situated in Butterworth, Lancashire, and gave name to a family,—­possibly extinct in the sixteenth century.  A clergymam, whose name partook both of the original and its corruption, was vicar of Bradford, 1556, viz Dus Tho. Okden.  The arms and crest borne by the Oakdens were both allusive to the name, certainly without any reference to King Charles’s hiding-place.

Dr. Samuel Ogden, born in 1716 at Winchester, was the son of Thomas Ogden, a man of very humble origin:  but he had the merit of giving a liberal education to one whose natural talents well deserved culture; and both his parents, in the decline of life, owed their support to Ogden’s filial piety and affection.  Cole is quite mistaken in fixing the father’s residence at Mansfield, and in stating that he had been in the army.  The monument, spoken of by Cole, is not at Mansfield, but in the cathedral of Manchester:  nor is it a memorial of Dr. Ogden.  It was placed by him in memory of his father.  Ogden was buried in his own church, St. Sephlchre’s, Cambridge.

The following epigram, it is believed, has not been printed.  It is transcribed from a letter in my possession, addressed by the first Lord Alvanley, when at college, to his former tutor, Mr. Thyer, editor of Butler’s Remains:—­

  “When Ogden his prosaic verse
    In Latin numbers drest,
  The Roman language prov’d too weak
    To stand the Critic’s test.

  “To English Rhyme he next essay’d,
    To show he’d some pretence;
  But ah!  Rhyme only would not do—­
    They still expected Sense.

  “Enrag’d, the Doctor said he’d place
    In Critics no reliance,
  So wrapt his thoughts in Arabic,
    And bad them all defiance.”

J.H.  MARKLAND.

       * * * * * {106}

Ogden Family (Vol. ii., p. 73.).—­Perhaps the representatives of the late Thomas Ogden, Esq., and who was a private banker at Salisbury previous to 1810 (presuming he was a member of the family mentioned by your correspondent TWYFORD), might be able to furnish him with the information he seeks.

J.R.  FOX.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

Porson’s Imposition (Vol. i., p. 71.) is indeed, I believe, an imposition.  The last line quoted (and I suppose all the rest) can hardly be Porson’s, for Mr. Langton amused Johnson, Boswell, and a dinner party at General Oglethorpe’s, on the 14th of April, 1778, with some macaronic Greek “by Joshua Barnes, in which are to be found such comical Anglo-hellenisms as [Greek:  klubboisin ebagchthae] they were banged with clubs.”  Boswell’s Johnson, last ed. p. 591.

Page 17

C.

The Three Dukes (Vol. ii., pp. 9, 46, 91.).—­Andrew Marvel thus makes mention of the outrage on the beadle in his letter to the Mayor of Hull, Feb. 28, 1671 (Works, i. 195.):—­

“On Saturday night last, or rather Sunday morning, at two o’clock, some persons reported to be of great quality, together with other gentlemen, set upon the watch and killed a poor beadle, praying for his life upon his knees, with many wounds; warrants are out for apprehending some of them, but they are fled.”

I am not aware of any contemporary authority for the names of the three dukes; and a difficulty in the way of assigning them by conjecture is, that in the poem they are called “three bastard dukes.”  Your correspondent C. has rightly said (p. 46.) that none of Charles II.’s bastard sons besides Monmouth would have been old enough in 1671 to be actors in such a fray.  Sir Walter Scott, in his notes on Absalom and Achitophel, referring to the poem, gives the assault to Monmouth and some of his brothers; but he did so, probably, without considering dates, and on the strength of the words “three bastard dukes.”

Mr. Lister, in the passage in his Life of Clarendon referred to by Mr. Cooper (p. 91.), gives no authority for his mention of Albemarle.  I should like to know if Mr. Wade has any other authority than Mr. Lister for this statement in his useful compilation.

Were it certain that three dukes were engaged in this fray, and were we not restricted to “bastards,” I should say that Monmouth, Albemarle, and Richmond (who married the beautiful Miss Stuart, and killed himself by drinking) would probably be the three culprits.  As regards Albemarle, he might perhaps have been called bastard without immoderate use of libeller’s licence.

If three dukes did murder the beadle, it is strange that their names have not been gibbeted in many of the diaries and letters which we have of that period.  And this is the more strange, as this assault took place just after the attack on Sir John Coventry, which Monmouth instigated, and which had created so much excitement.

The question is not in itself of much importance; but I can suggest a mode in which it may possibly be settled.  Let the royal pardons of 1671 be searched in the Rolls’ Chapel, Chancery Lane.  If the malefactors were pardoned by name, the three dukes may there turn up.  Or if any of your readers is able to look through the Domestic Papers for February and March, 1671, in the State Paper Office, he would be likely to find there come information upon the subject.

Query.  Is the doggerel poem in the State Poems Marvel’s?  Several poems which are ascribed to him are as bad in versification, and, I need not say, in coarseness.

Query 2.  Is there any other authority for Queen Catharine’s fondness for dancing than the following lines of the poem?

Page 18

  “See what mishaps dare e’en invade Whitehall,
  This silly fellow’s death puts off the ball,
  And disappoints the Queen’s foot, little Chuck;
  I warrant ’twould have danced it like a duck.”

CH.

Kant’s Saemmtliche Werke.—­Under the head of “Books and Odd Volumes” (Vol. ii., p. 59.), there is a Query respecting the XIth part of Kant’s Saemmtliche Werke, to which I beg to reply that it was published at Leipzig, in two portions, in 1842.  It consists of Kant’s Letters, Posthumous Fragments, and Biography.  The work was completed by a 12th vol., containing a history of the Kantian Philosophy, by Carl Rosenkranz, one of the editors of this edition of Kant.

J.M.

Becket’s Mother (Vol. i., pp. 415. 490.; vol. ii., p. 78.).—­Although the absence of any contemporaneous relation of this lady’s romantic history may raise a reasonable doubt of its authenticity, it seems to derive indirect confirmation from the fact, that the hospital founded by Becket’s sister shortly after his death, on the spot where he was born, part of which is now the Mercers’ chapel in Cheapside, was called “The Hospital of St. Thomas the Martyr of Acon.”  Erasmus, also, in his Pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury (see J.G.  Nichol’s excellent translation and notes, pp. 47. 120.), says that the archbishop was called “Thomas Acrensis.”

Edward Foss.

"Imprest” and “Debenture."—­Perhaps the following may be of some use to D.V.S. (Vol. ii., p. 40.) in his search for the verbal raw material out of which these words were manufactured.

Their origin may, I think, be found in the Latin terms used in the ancient accounts of persons {107} officially employed by the crown to express transactions somewhat similar to those for which they appear to be now used.  Persons conversant with those records must frequently have met with cases where money advanced, paid on account, or as earnest, was described as “de prestito” or “in prestitis.”  Ducange gives “praestare” and its derivatives as meaning “mutuo dare” with but little variation; but I think that too limited a sense.  The practice of describing a document itself by the use of the material or operative parts expressing or defining the transaction for which it was employed, is very common.  In legal and documentary proceedings, it is indeed the only one that is followed.  Let D.V.S. run over and compare any of the well-known descriptions of writs, as habeas corpus, mandamus, fi. fa.:  or look into Cowell’s Interpreter, or a law dictionary, and he will see numerous cases where terms now known as the names of certain documents are merely the operative parts of Latin formulae.  “Imprest” seems to be a slightly corrupted translation of “in prestito;” that part of the instrument being thus made to give its name to the whole.  Of “debenture” I think there is little doubt that it may be similarly explained. 

Page 19

There is a remarkable feature about these ancient “debentures” which I may perhaps be permitted to notice here, viz., the very beautiful seals of the officers of the royal household and wardrobe which are impressed upon them.  They are of the somewhat rare description known as “applique;” and at a time when personal seals were at the highest state of artistic developement, those few seals of the clerks of the household which have escaped injury (to which they are particularly exposed) are unrivalled for their clearness of outline, design, delicacy, and beauty of execution.

Allowing for the changes produced by time, I think sufficient analogy may be found between the ancient and modern uses of the words “imprest” and “debenture.”

J. BT.

“Imprest” (Vol. ii., p. 40).—­D.V.S. will find an illustration of the early application of this word to advances made by the Treasury in the “Rotulus de Prestito” of 12 John, printed by the Record Commission under the careful editorship of Mr. T. Duffus Hardy, whose preface contains a clear definition of its object, and an account of other existing rolls of the same character.

EDWARD FOSS.

Derivation of News.—­P.C.S.S. has read with great interest the various observations on the derivation of the word “News” which have appeared in the “NOTES AND QUERIES,” and especially those of the learned and ingenious Mr. Hickson.  He ventures, however, with all respect, to differ from the opinion expressed by that gentleman in Vol. i., p. 81., to the effect that—­

“In English, there is no process known by which a noun plural
can be formed from an adjective, without the previous formation
of the singular in the same sense.”

P.C.S.S. would take the liberty of reminding Mr. H. of the following passage in the Tempest:—­

                 “When that is gone,
  He shall drink nought but brine, for I’ll not show him
  Where the quick freshes lie.”

Surely, in this instance, the plural noun “freshes” is not formed from any such singular noun as “fresh,” but directly from the adjective, which latter does not seem to have been ever used as a singular noun.

Page 20

While on the subject of “News,” P.C.S.S. finds in Pepys’ Diary (vol. iii. p. 59.) another application of the word, in the sense of a noun singular, which he does not remember to have seen noticed by others.

    “Anon, the coach comes—­in the meantime, there coming a news
    thither, with his horse to come over.”

In other parts of the Diary, the word News-book is occasionally employed to signify what is now termed a newspaper, or, more properly, a bulletin.  For instance (vol. iii. p. 29.), we find that—­

    “This News-book, upon Mr. Moore’s showing L’Estrange Captain
    Ferrers’s letter, did do my Lord Sandwich great right as to the
    late victory.”

And again (at p. 51.): 

    “I met this noon with Dr. Barnett, who told me, and I find in
    the News-book this week, that he posted upon the ‘Change,’”
    &c. &c.

Much has been lately written in the “NOTES AND QUERIES” respecting the “Family of Love.”  A sect of a similar name existed here in 1641, and a full and not very decent description of their rites and orgies is to be found in a small pamphlet of that date, reprinted in the fourth volume (8vo. ed.) of the Harleian Miscellany.

P.C.S.S. {108}

Origin of Adur (Vol. ii., p. 71.).—­A, derived from the same root as Aqua and the French Eau, is a frequent component of the names of rivers:  “A-dur, A-run, A-von, A-mon,” the adjunct being supposed to express the individual characteristic of the stream. A-dur would then mean the river of oaks, which its course from Horsham Forest through the Weald of Sussex, of which “oak is the weed,” would sufficiently justify.  It is called in ancient geography Adurnus, and is probably from the same root as the French Adour.

C.

The river Adur, which passes by Shoreham, is the same name as the Adour, a great river in the Western Pyrenees.

This coincidence seems to show that it is neither a Basque word, nor a Saxon.  Whether it is a mere expansion of ydwr, the water, in Welch, I cannot pretend to say, but probably it includes it.

We have the Douro in Spain; and the Doire, or Doria, in Piedmont.  Pompadour is clearly derived from the above French river, or some other of the same name.

C.B.

Meaning of Steyne (Vol. ii., P. 71.).—­Steyne is no doubt stone, and may have reference to the original name of Brighthelm-stone:  but what the stone or “steyne” was, I do not conjecture; but it lay or stood probably on that little flat valley now called the “Steyne.”  It is said that, so late as the time of Elizabeth, the town was encompassed by a high and strong stone wall; but that could have no influence on the name, which, whether derived from Bishop Brighthelm or not, is assuredly of Saxon times.  There is a small town not far distant called Steyning, i.e. the meadow of the stone.  In my early days, the name was invariably pronounced Brighthamstone.

Page 21

C.

Sarum and Barum (Vol. ii., p. 21.).—­As a conjecture, I would suggest the derivation of Sarum may have been this.  Salisbury was as frequently written Sarisbury.  The contracted form of this was Sap., the ordinary import of which is the termination of the Latin genitive plural rum.  Thus an imperfectly educated clerk would be apt to read Sarum instead of Sarisburia; and the error would pass current, until one reading was accepted for right as much as the other.  In other instances we adopt the Law Latin or Law French of mediaeval times; as the county of Oxon for Oxfordshire, Salop for Shropshire, &c., and Durham is generally supposed to be French (Duresmm), substituted for the Anglo-Saxon Dunholm, in Latin Dunelmum.  I shall perhaps be adding a circumstance of which few readers will be aware, in remarking that the Bishops of Durham, down to the present day, take alternately the Latin and French signatures, Duresm and Dunelm.

J.G.N.

“Epigrams on the Universities” (Vol. ii., p. 88.).—­The following extract frown Hartshorne’s Book-rarities in the University of Cambridge will fully answer the Query of your Norwich correspondent.

After mentioning, the donation to that University, by George I., of the valuable library of Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ely, which his Majesty had purchased for 6,000 guineas, the author adds,—­

“When George I. sent these books to the University, he sent at the time a troop of horse to Oxford, which gave occasion to the following well-known epigram from Dr. Trapp, smart in its way, but not so clever as the answer from Sir William Browne:—­

      “The King, observing, with judicious eyes,
      The state of both his Universities,
      To one he sent a regiment; for why? 
      That learned body wanted loyalty: 
      To th’ other he sent books, as well discerning
      How much that loyal body wanted learning.”

      The Answer.

      “The King to Oxford sent his troop of horse,
      For Tories hold no argument but force: 
      With equal care to Cambridge books he sent,
      For Whigs allow no force but argument.

“The books were received Nov. 19, 20, &c., 1715.”

G.A.S.

    [J.J.  DREDGE, V. (Belgravia), and many other correspondents,
    have also kindly replied to this Query.]

Dulcarnon (Vol. i., p. 254.)—­Urry says nothing, but quotes Speght, and Skene, and Selden.

“Dulcarnon,” says Speght, “is a proposition in Euclid (lib. i. theor. 33. prop. 47.), which was found out by Pythagoras after a whole years’ study, and much beating of his brain; in thankfulness whereof he sacrificed an ox to the gods, which sacrifice he called Dulcarnon.”

Page 22

Neckam derived it from Dulia quasi sacrificium and carnis.

Skene justly observes that the triumph itself cannot be the point; but the word might get associated with the problem, either considered before its solution, puzzling to Pythagoras, or the demonstration, still difficult to us,—­a Pons Asinorum, like the 5th proposition.

Mr. Selden, in his preface to Drayton’s Polyolbion, says,—­

    “I cannot but digresse to admonition of abuse which this learned
    allusion, in his Troilus, by ignorance hath indured.

      “’I am till God mee better mind send,
      At Dulcarnon, right at my wit’s end.’

It’s not Neckam, or any else, that can make mee entertaine the least thought of the signification of Dulcarnon to be Pythagorus his sacrifice after his geometricall theorem in finding the square of an orthogonall triangle’s sides, or that it is a word of Latine deduction:  but, indeed, by easier pronunciation it was made of D’hulkarnyan[5], i.e. two-horned which the Mahometan Arabians {109} vie for a root in calculation, meaning Alexander, as that great dictator of knowledge, Joseph Scaliger (with some ancients) wills, but, by warranted opinion of my learned friend Mr. Lydyat, in his Emendatio Temporum, it began in Seleucus Nicanor, XII yeares after Alexander’s death.  The name was applyed, either because after time that Alexander had persuaded himself to be Jupiter Hammon’s sonne, whose statue was with Ram’s hornes, both his owne and his successors’ coins were stampt with horned images:  or else in respect of his II pillars erected in the East as a Nihil ultra[6] of his conquest, and some say because hee had in power the Easterne and Westerne World, signified in the two hornes.  But howsoever, it well fits the passage, either, as if hee had personated Creseide at the entrance of two wayes, not knowing which to take; in like sense as that of Prodicus his Hercules, Pythagoras his Y., or the Logicians Dilemma expresse; or else, which is the truth of his conceit, that hee was at a nonplus, as the interpretation in his next staffe makes plaine.  How many of noble Chaucer’s readers never so much as suspect this his short essay of knowledge, transcending the common Rode?  And by his treatise of the Astrolabe (which, I dare sweare, was chiefly learned out of Messahalah) it is plaine hee was much acquainted with the mathematiques, and amongst their authors had it.”

D’Herbelot says: 

“Dhoul (or Dhu) carnun, with the two horns, is the surname of Alexander, that is, of an ancient and fabulous Alexander of the first dynasty of the Persians. 795.  Article Sedd, Tagioug and Magioug. 993.  Article Khedher. 395. b. 335. b.  Fael.

    “But 317.  Escander, he says, Alexander the Great has the same
    title secondarily.  The truth probably is the reverse, that the
    fabulous personage was taken from the real conqueror.

Page 23

    “Hofmann, in Seleucus, says that the area of Seleucus is
    called Terik Dhylkarnain, i.e.  Epocha Alexandri Cornigen.  Tarik
    means probably the date of an event.”

There can be no doubt that the word in Chaucer is this Arabic word; nor, I think, that Speght’s story is really taught by the Arabs, our teachers in mathematics.  Whether the application is from Alexander, (they would know nothing of his date with regard to Pythagoras), or merely from two-horned, is doubtful.  The latter might possibly mean the ox.

Mr. Halliwell gives a quotation from Stanyhurst, in which it means “dull persons”—­an obvious misuse of it for Englishmen, and which Skene fortifies by an A.-S. derivation, but which is clearly not Cressida’s meaning, or she would have said, “I am Dulcarnon,” not “I am at Dulcarnon;” and so Mrs. Roper.

It may seem difficult what Pandarus can mean: 

  “Dulcarnon clepid is fleming of wretches,
  It semith hard, for wretchis wol nought lere
  For very slouthe, or othir wilfull tetches,
  This said is by them that ben’t worth two fetches,
  But ye ben wise.”

Whether he means that wretches call it fleming or not, his argument is, “You are not a wretch.”  Speght’s derivation seems to mean, “Quod stultos vertit.” Fleamas, A.-S. (Lye), is fuga, fugacio, from flean, to flee.  Pandarus, I think, does not mean to give the derivation of the word, but its application of fools, a stumbling-block, or puzzle.

C.B.

    [Footnote 5:  Speght gives it in English letters, but Selden in
    Arabic.]

    [Footnote 6:  Christman, Comment. in Alfragan, cap. ii.
    Lysimachi Cornuum apud Cael.  Rhodigin. Antiq. lect. 10. cap.
    xii., hic genuina interpretatio.]

Dr. Maginn.—­The best account of this most talented but unfortunate man, is given in the Dublin University Mag., vol. xxiii. p. 72.  A reprint of this article, with such additional particulars of his numerous and dispersed productions as might be supplied, would form a most acceptable volume.

F.R.A.

America known to the Ancients.—­To the list of authorities on this subject given in Vol. i., p. 342., I have the pleasure to add Father Laffiteau; Bossu[7], in his Travels through Louisiana; and though last, not least, Acosta, who in his Naturall and Morall Historie of the East and West Indies, translated by E.G. [Grimestone], 1604, 4to., devotes eighty-one pages to a review of the opinions of the ancients on the new world.

Page 24

The similarity which has been observed to exist between the manners of several American nations, and those of some of the oldest nations on our continent, which seems to demonstrate that this country was not unknown in ancient times, has been traced by Nicholls, in the first part of his Conference with a Theist, in several particulars, viz. burning of the victim in sacrifices, numbering by tens, fighting with bows and arrows, their arts of spinning, weaving, &c.  The arguments, multitudinous as they are, adduced by Adair for his hypothesis that the American Indians are descended from the Jews, serve to prove that the known or old world furnished the new one with men.  To these may be added the coincidences noticed in “NOTES AND QUERIES;” burning the dead (Vol. i., p. 308.); the art of manufacturing glass (p. 341.); scalping (Vol. ii., p. 78.).  Your correspondents will doubtless be able to point out other instances.  Besides drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, recorded of the Scythians by Herodotus; and of the savages of Louisiana by Bossu; I beg to mention a remarkable one furnished by Catlin—­the sufferings endured by the youths among the Mandans, when admitted into the rank of warriors, {110} reminding us of the probationary exercises which the priests of Mithras forced the candidates for initiation to undergo.

T.J.

[Footnote 7:  Forster, the translator of this work, annihilates the argument for the settlement of the Welsh derived from the word “penguin” signifying “white head,” by the fact of the bird in question having a black, not a white head!]

Collar of SS. (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—­B. will find a great deal about these collars in some interesting papers in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1842, vols. xvii. and xviii., conmunicated by Mr. J.G.  Nicholls; and in the Second Series of the Retrospective Review, vol. i. p. 302., and vol. ii. pp. 156. 514. 518.  Allow me to add a Query:  Who are the persons now privileged to wear these collars? and under what circumstances, and at what dates, was such privilege reduced to its present limitation?

[Greek:  Phi.]

Martello Towers (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—­A misspelling for Mortella towers.  They are named after a tower which commands the entrance to the harbour of St. Fiorenzo, in Corsica; but they are common along the coasts of the Mediterranean.  They were built along the low parts of the Sussex and Kent coasts, in consequence of the powerful defence made by Ensign Le Tellier at the Tower of Mortella, with a garrison of 38 men only, on 8th February, 1794, against an attack by sea, made by the Fortitude and Juno, part of Lord Hood’s fleet, and by land, made by a detachment of troops under Major-General Dundas.  The two ships kept up a fire for two hours and a half without making any material impression, and then hauled out of gun-shot, the Fortitude having lost 6 men killed and 56 wounded, 8 dangerously. 

Page 25

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

“A Frog he would a-wooing go” (Vol. ii., p. 75.).—­I know not whether this foolish ballad is worth the notice it has already received, but I can venture to say that the supposed Irish version is but a modern variance from the old ballad which I remember above sixty years, and which began—­

  “There was a frog lived in a well,
      Heigho crowdie! 
  And a merry mouse in a mill,
    With a howdie crowdie, &c. &c. 
  This frog he would a-wooing go,
      Heigho crowdie! 
  Whether his mother would let him or no,
    With a howdie crowdie,” &c.

Of the rest of the ballad I only remember enough to be able to say that it had little or no resemblance to the version in your last Number.

C.

William of Wykeham (Vol. ii., p. 89.).—­1.  I believe that there is no better life of this prelate than that by Bishop Lowth.

2.  The public records published since he wrote give several further particulars of Wykeham’s early career, but a proper notice of them would be too extended for your columns.

3.  When W.H.C. recollects that New College, Oxford, the first of the works he names, was not commenced till 1380, and that Wykeham had then enjoyed the revenues of his rich bishopric for nearly fourteen years, and had previously been in possession of many valuable preferments, both lay and ecclesiastical, for fourteen years more, he will find his third question sufficiently answered, and cease to wonder at the accumulation of that wealth which was applied with wise and munificent liberality to such noble and useful objects.

Page 26

I am not able to answer W.H.C.’s 4th and 5th questions.

[Greek:  Phi.]

Execution of Charles I. (Vol. ii., p. 72.).—­The late Mr. Rodd had collected several interesting papers on this subject; and from his well-known acquaintance with all matters relating to English history, they are no doubt valuable.  Of course they exist.  He offered them to the writer of this note, on condition that he would prosecute the inquiry.  Other engagements prevented his availng himself of this liberal offer.

J.M.

Woburn Abbey.

Swords (Vol. i., p. 415.).—­Swords “ceased to be worn as an article of dress” through the influence of Beau Nash, and were consequently first out of fashion in Bath.  “We wear no swords here,” says Sir Lucius O’Trigger.

WEDSECUARF. {111}

The Low Window (Vol. ii., p. 55.).—­In Bibury Church, Gloucestershire, are several windows of unusual character; and in the chancel is a narrow, low window, called to this day “the Lepers’ window,” through which, it is concluded, the lepers who knelt outside the building witnessed the elevation of the host at the altar, as well as other functions discharged by the priest during the celebration of mass.

ROBERT SNOW.

Brasichelli’s Expurgatory Index (Vol. ii., p. 37.).—­Although unable to reply to MR. SANSOM’s Query, by pointing out any public library in which he can find the Ratisbon reprint of Brasichelli’s Expurgatory Index, I beg to state that I possess it, the Bergomi reprint, and also the original, and that MR. SANSOM is perfectly welcome to a sight of either.

C.J.  STEWART

11.  King William Street, West Strand.

Discursus Modestus (Vol. i., pp. 142, 205.)—­Crakanthorp, in his Defens.  Eccl.  Angl., cap. vi. p. 27. (A.C.L. edition), refers to Discur.  Compen. de Jesuit.  Angl., p. 15., and quotes from it the words, “Omnia pro tempore, nihil pro veritate.”  Is this Discur.  Compen. the Discurs.  Modest.? and are these words to be found in Watson’s Quodlibets?  This would fix the identity of the two books.  It is curious that the only two references made by Bishop Andrews to the Discurs.  Modest. (Respons. ad Apol., pp. 7. and 117.) are to page 13., and both the statements are found in page 81. of Watson.  Crakanthorp, however (p. 532.), quotes both the works,—­Discurs.  Modestus de Jesuit.  Anglic., and Watson.

From the many different Latin titles given to this book, it seems certain that it was originally written in English, and that the title was Latinized according to each person’s fancy.  There is no copy in the Lambeth library.

J.B.

Melancthon’s Epigram.—­Melancthon, in the epigram translated by RUFUS (Vol. i., p. 422.), seems to have borrowed the idea, or, to use the more expressive term of your “Schoolboy”, to leave cabbaged from Martial’s epigram, terminating thus:—­

Page 27

  “Non possunt nostros multae Faustine liturae,
  Emendare jocos:  una litura potest.”

Martial, Book iv. 10.

NABOC.

* * * * *

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, &C.

Mr. Bohn has just published the second volume of his very useful and complete edition of Junius’ Letters.  It contains, in addition to a new essay on their authorship, entitled The History and Discovery of Junius, by the editor, Mr. Wade, the Private Letters of Junius addressed to Woodfall; the Letters of Junius to Wilkes; and the Miscellaneous Letters which have been attributed to the same powerful pen.  Mr. Wade is satisfied that Sir Philip Francis was Junius; a theory of which it is said, “Se non e vero e ben trovato:”  and, if he does not go the length of Sir F. Dwarris in regarding Sir P. Francis, not as the solitary champion, but the most active of the sturdy band of politicians whose views he advocated, he shows that he was known to and assisted by many influential members of his own political party.  Some of the most curious points in the Junius history are illustrated by notes by Mr. Bohn himself, who, we have no doubt will find his edition of Junius among the most successful volumes of his Standard Library.

We have received the following Catalogues:—­W.S.  Lincoln’s (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Fifty-eighth Catalogue of Cheap Books in various Departments of Literature; W. Straker’s (3.  Adelaide Street, West Strand) Catalogue No. 4. 1850, Theological Literature, Ancient and Modern; J.G.  Bell’s (10.  Bedford Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue of Interesting and Valuable Autograph Letters and other Documents; John Miller’s (43.  Chandos Street) Catalogue No. 8. for 1850, of Books Old and New.

* * * * *

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

(In continuation of Lists in former Nos.)

PULLEYNE’S ETYMOLOGICAL COMPENDIUM.

BARNABY GOOGE’S POPISH KINGDOM.

Odd Volumes

MILMAN’S EDITION OF GIBBON’S DECLINE AND FALL.  Ed. 1838.  Vols. 9, 10, 11, 12.

DUKE OF BEDFORD’S CORRESPONDENCE.  Vols. 2 and 3.

ARNOLD’S HISTORY OF ROME.  Vol. 3.

LE CLERC’S BIBLIOTHEQUE CHOISIE.  Vol. 6.

AVELLANADA’S CONTINUATION OF DON QUIXOTE, translated by Barker, 12mo. 1760.  Vol. 2.

TOUR THROUGH GREAT BRITAIN, 12mo. 1742.  Vols. 1 and 2.

TRISTRAM SHANDY.  Vols. 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free to be sent to Mr. BELL, Publisher Of “NOTES AND QUERIES”, 186.  Fleet Street.

* * * * *

Notices to Correspondents.

P.M. is referred to our 27th No., p. 445., where he will learn that the supposed French original of “Not a Drum was heard” was a clever hoax from the ready pen of Father Prout.  The date when P.M. read the poem, and not the date it bore, is a point necessary to be established to prove its existence “anterior to the supposed author of that beautiful poem".

Page 28

Will the Correspondent who wished for Vol. 8. of Rushworth, furnish his name and address, as a copy has been reported.

VOLUME THE FIRST OR NOTES AND QUERIES, with Title-page and very copious Index, is now ready, price 9s. 6d., bound in cloth, and may be had, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsmen.

Errata.  In No. 34., p. 63., in reply to Delta, for “MRRIS,” read “MARRIS”; and for “MRIE” read “MARIE.”  No. 36., P. 83., l. 40., for “prohibens” read “prohiben_te_”.

       * * * * * {112}

MILLER’S CATALOGUE OF BOOKS

FOR JULY.  Gratis as usual.  Contains works on Archaeology, Antiquities, Botany, Coins, Chess, Freemasonry, Geology and Mineralogy, Heraldry, Irish Topography, Old Plays, Phrenology, Theatres, and Dramatic History, Wales, its History, &c., with an extensive assortment of Books in other departments of Literature, equally scarce, curious, and interesting.

JOHN MILLER, 43.  Chandos Street.

* * * * *

Second Edition, cloth 1s.

EASTERN CHURCHES.  By the author of “Proposals for Christian Union.”  “This is a very careful compilation of the latest information of the faith and condition of the various churches of Christ scattered through the East.”—­Britannia. “The book is cheap, but it contains a good deal of matter, and appears a labour of duty.”—­Spectator. “A brief, yet full and correct, and withal a most agreeably written account, of the different Eastern Churches.”—­Nottingham Journal.

JAMES DARLING, Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

* * * * *

Preparing for publication, in 2 vols. small 8vo.

THE FOLK-LORE of ENGLAND.  By William J. Thoms, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society, Editor of “Early Prose Romances,” “Lays and Legends of all Nations,” &c.  One object of the present work is to furnish new contributions to the History of our National Folk-Lore; and especially some of the more striking Illustrations of the subject to be found in the Writings of Jacob Grimm and other Continental Antiquaries.

Communications of inedited Legends, Notices of remarkable Customs and Popular Observances, Rhyming Charms, &c. are earnestly solicited, and will be thankfully acknowledged by the Editor.  They may be addressed to the care of Mr. BELL, Office of “NOTES AND QUERIES,” 186.  Fleet Street.

* * * * *

Vols.  I. and II. 8vo., price 28s. cloth.

THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND; from the TIME of the CONQUEST. By EDWARD FOSS, F.S.A.  “A work in which a subject of great historical importance is treated with the care, diligence, and learning it deserves; in which Mr. Foss has brought to light many points previously unknown, corrected many errors, and shown such ample knowledge of his subject as to conduct it successfully through all the intricacies of a difficult investigation, and such taste and judgement as will enable him to quit, when occasion requires, the dry details of a professional inquiry, and to impart to his work, as he proceeds, the grace and dignity of a philosophical history.”—­Gent.  Mag.

Page 29

London:  LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.

* * * * *

THE PRIMAEVAL ANTIQUITIES OF ENGLAND ILLUSTRATED BY THOSE OF DENMARK.

THE PRIMAEVAL ANTIQUITIES OF DENMARK.  By J.J.A.  WORSAAE, Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen.  Translated and applied to the illustration of similar Remains in England, by WILLIAM J. THOMS, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society.  With numerous Woodcuts. 8vo. 10s. 6d.

“The best antiquarian handbook we have ever met with—­so clear is its arrangement, and so well and so plainly is each subject illustrated by well executed engravings....  It is the joint production of two men who have already distinguished themselves as authors and antiquarians.”—­ Morning Herald.

“A book of remarkable interest and ability....  Mr. Worsaae’s book is in all ways a valuable addition to our literature....  Mr. Thoms has executed the translation in flowing and idiomatic English, and has appended many curious and interesting notes and observations of his own.”—­Guardian.

“The work, which we desire to commend to the attention of our readers, is signally interesting to the British antiquary.  Highly interesting and important work.”—­Archaeological Journal.

See also the Gentleman’s Magazine for February 1850.

Oxford:  JOHN HENRY PARKER, and 337.  Strand, London.

* * * * *

REV.  WILLIAM MASKELL’s LIBRARY.

Shortly will be published,

A CATALOGUE OF ENGLISH AND FOREIGN THEOLOGY; including some of the rarest productions of our early English Divines, and embracing the various controversies between the Puritans and the Churches of Rome and England, the works of the Nonjurors, the best Liturgical Commentators, Ecclesiastical Historians, Fathers of the Church, Schoolmen, Councils, &c, many of them of extreme rarity, and forming the Library of the Rev. William Maskell, late Vicar of St. Mary Church, Torquay, together with other recent purchases, now on Sale by J. LESLIE, 58.  Great Queen-street, Lincoln’s Inn.

N.B.—­Gentlemen desirous of receiving this Catalogue are respectfully requested to forward their names to the Publisher, with twelve postage stamps to pre-pay the same.

* * * * *

Now ready, containing 149 Plates, royal 8vo. 28s.; folio, 2l. 5s.; India Paper, 4l. 4s.

The MONUMENTAL BRASSES of ENGLAND:  a series of Engravings upon Wood, from every variety of these interesting and valuable Memorials, accompanied with Descriptive Notices.

By the Rev. C. BOUTELI.  M.A.  Rector of Downham Market.

Part XII., completing the work, price 7s. 6d.; folio, 12s.; India paper, 24s.

By the same Author, royal 8vo., 15s.; large paper, 21s.

MONUMENTAL BRASSES and SLABS:  an Historical and Descriptive Notice of the Incised Monumental Memorials of the Middle Ages.  With upwards of 200 Engravings.

Page 30

“A handsome large octavo volume, abundantly supplied with well-engraved woodcuts and lithographic plates; a sort of Encyclopaedia for ready reference....  The whole work has a look of painstaking completeness highly commendable.”—­Athenaeum.

“One of the most beautifully got up and interesting volumes we have seen for a long time.  It gives, in the compass of one volume, an account of the history of these beautiful monuments of former days....  The illustrations are extremely well chosen.”—­English Churchman.

A few copies only of this work remain for sale; and, as it will not be reprinted in the same form and at the same price, the remaining copies are raised in price.  Early application for the Large Paper Edition is necessary.

By the same Author, to be completed in Four Parts,

CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS in ENGLAND and WALES:  an Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the various classes of Monumental Memorials which have been in use in this country from about the time of the Norman Conquest.  Profusely illustrated with Wood Engravings.  Part I. price 7s. 6d.; Part II. 2s. 6d.

“A well conceived and executed work.”—­Ecclesiologist.

* * * * *

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, July 13. 1850.