Title: Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850
Author: Various
Release date: September 7, 2004 [eBook #13393]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Jon Ingram, David King, the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team and The Internet Library of Early Journals
No. 41. | SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1850 | Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. |
NOTES: | Page |
Sir William Gascoigne, by Edward Foss | 161 |
An old Guy, by Dr. Bell | 163 |
Folk Lore:—Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire, No. 2 Mice, Snakes, Poultry, Crows, Owls, Cuckoos, &c. | 164 |
Minor Notes:—Hon. A. Erskine—Gloves—Punishment of Death by Burning—India Rubber | 165 |
QUERIES: | |
The "Bar" of Michael Angelo, by S.W. Singer | 166 |
Annotated Copies of Bishop Andrewes' Works | 166 |
Minor Queries:—Robert Innes, a Grub Street Poet—Sicilian Vespers—One Bell—Treasure Trove—Poeta Anglicus—Hornbooks—Ben Jonson, or Ben Johnson—MS. Book of Prayers belonging to Queen Catherine Parr—Waltheolf—De Combre Family—Ilda—"De Male quæsitis"—Westminster Abbey—Haberdasher—Martinet—"Querela Cantabrigiensis"—Long Lonkin | 166 |
REPLIES: | |
Treatise of Equivocation | 168 |
Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy, by C.H. Cooper | 169 |
Etymological Queries answered, by Albert Way | 169 |
Replies to Minor Queries:—Solingen—Blackguard—The Three Dukes—Bonny Dundee—Was Quarles pensioned?—Collar of Esses—The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money—Will. Robertson of Murton—Long Meg of Westminster—Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Antholin's—The Plant "Hæmony"—Mildew in Books—The Carpenter's Maggot—Martello Towers—Highland Kilts—Derivation of Penny—Scarf—Smoke-money—Common, Mutual, and Reciprocal—Juice Cups—Curfew—Derivation of Totnes, &c. | 170 |
MISCELLANEOUS: | |
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c | 175 |
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted | 175 |
Notices to Correspondents | 175 |
Advertisements | 176 |
Although you and I no doubt unite in the admiration, which all our fellow-countrymen profess, and some of them feel, for our immortal bard, yet I do not think that our zeal as Shakspearians will extend so far as to receive him as an unquestionable authority for the facts introduced into his historical plays. The utmost, I apprehend, that we should admit is, that they represent the tradition of the time in which he wrote, and even that admission we should modify by the allowance, to which every poet is entitled, of certain changes adopted for dramatic effect, and with the object of enhancing our interest in the character he is delineating.
Two facts in his Second Part of Henry IV, always referred to in connection with each other, notwithstanding the ingenious remarks on them made by Mr. Tyler in his History of Henry V., are still accepted, and principally by general readers, on Shakspeare's authority, as undoubtedly true. The one is the incident of Prince Henry's committal to prison by Chief Justice Gascoigne; and the other is the magnanimous conduct of the Prince on his accession to the throne, in continuing the Chief Justice in the office, which he had shown himself so well able to support.
The first I have no desire to controvert, especially as it has been selected as one of the illustrations of our history in the House of Lords. Frequent allusion is made to it in the play. Falstaff's page says to his master, on seeing the Chief Justice:
"Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph."
And Falstaff in the same scene thus addresses Gascoigne:
"For the box of the ear that the prince gave you,—he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents."
And Gascoigne, when Henry refers to the incident in these words:
"How might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?"
thus justifies himself to the king:
"I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me:
And in the administration of his law,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,—
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,—
And, struck me in my very seat of judgment;
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,
And did commit you."
Now this is a relation that we are well content, although unsupported by contemporaneous authority, to receive on tradition; because in the nature of the circumstances we cannot expect to find any authentic evidence of the occurrence. But we should never think of citing these passages as fixing the fact of the blow, as chronicled by Hall, in opposition to the milder representation of the story as told by Sir Thomas Elliott in "The Governour." The bard makes that selection between the two versions which best suits the scene he is depicting.
We cannot, however, be so easily satisfied with the second fact,—the reappointment of Gascoigne,—thus asserted by Shakspeare when making Henry say:
"You did commit me;
For which, I do commit into your hand
The unstain'd sword that you have us'd to bear;
With this remembrance,—that you use the same
With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me."
We require better evidence for this than tradition, because, if true, better evidence can be adduced. A noble writer has very recently declared that he can "prove to demonstration that Sir William Gascoigne survived Henry IV. several years, and actually filled the office of Chief Justice of the King's Bench under Henry V." As to the first of these points he implicitly follows Mr. Tyler's history, who proves that Gascoigne died in December 1419, in the seventh year of the fifth Henry's reign; but as to the second point, deserting his authority and omitting the dates introduced in it, he entirely fails in supporting his assertion. The assertion, however, having been made in so recent a work, it becomes important to investigate its truth.
The only fact that gives an apparent authenticity to the story is that Gascoigne was summoned to the first parliament of Henry V. as "Chief Justice of our Lord the King." When we recollect, however, that this summons was dated on March 22, 1413, the day following the king's accession, we must see that his Majesty could have had little more time than to command a parliament to be summoned; that the officer who made out the writs would naturally direct them to those peers, judges, and others who were summoned to the preceding parliament; and that the proper title of Gascoigne was Chief Justice until he was actually superseded. This evidence, therefore, is anything but conclusive, and in fact gives very little assistance in deciding the point at issue.
It is well known that Sir William Hankford was Gascoigne's successor as Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and the real question is, when he became so. Dugdale states that the date of his patent was January 29, 1414, ten months after King Henry's accession; and if this were so, the presumption would follow that Gascoigne continued Chief Justice till that time. Let us see whether facts support this presumption.
Now, Hankford was a Judge of the Common Pleas at the end of the previous reign; but he was omitted when his brethren of that court received their new patents from Henry V., which were not issued till May 2, a day or two before Easter Term. And yet we find the name of Hankford in the Year-book reports of both that and Trinity Term; and we find it, not as acting in the Common Pleas, but as ruling in the King's Bench.
Further, although Gascoigne was summoned to the first parliament on March 22, yet on its meeting on May 15, he was not present;—added to which, his usual position, as first named legal trier of petitions, was filled by Sir William Hankford, placed too in precedence of Sir William Thirning, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
These facts, so contradictory to Dugdale's date, rendered it necessary to refer to the roll. This, by the kindness of Mr. Duffus Hardy (who certainly can never be called the "streict-laced" gaoler of the records, alluded to in your fourth number, Vol. i., p. 60.), has been inspected; and the result is that the date of Hankford's appointment, instead of being January 29, 1414, as stated by Dugdale, turns out to be March 29, 1413; just eight days after King Henry's accession, and ten days previous to his coronation.
The peculiar period chosen for this act, and its precipitancy in contrast with the delay in issuing the new patents to the other judges, tend strongly, I am afraid, to deprive us of the "flattering unction" of supposing that it resulted from Gascoigne's choice, rather than Henry's mandate. Nor is the royal warrant of November 1414, 2 Henry V. (twenty months afterwards), granting him four bucks and four does yearly, during his life, out of the forest of Pontefract, a sufficient proof of favour to countervail the impression created by his early removal.
With these facts before us, King Henry's supposed generosity in renominating Gascoigne can no longer be credited. But, even presuming that none of these facts had been discovered, I must own myself surprised that any one could maintain that Gascoigne was ever Chief Justice to Hen. V., with two existing records before him, both containing conclusive proof to the contrary.
The first is the entry on the Issue Roll of July, 1413, of a payment made of an arrear of Gascoigne's salary and pension, in which he is called "late Chief Justice of the Bench of Lord Henry, father of the present King."
The second is the inscription on his monument in Harwood Church in Yorkshire, where he is described as "nuper capit. justio. de banco Hen. nuper regis angliæ quarti."
I think I may fairly ask whether it is possible to suppose that in either of these records, particularly {163} the latter, he would have been docked his title, had he ever been Chief Justice of the reigning king?
Allow me to take this opportunity of thanking L.B.L. for his extracts from the Hospitaller's Survey (Vol. ii., p. 123.), which are most interesting, and, to use a modern word, very suggestive.
Street-End House, near Canterbury.
No one would at present think of any other answer to a Query as to the meaning of this term than that the phrase originated with the scarecrows and stuffed apings of humanity with which the rising generation enlivens our streets on every fifth of November, and dins in our ears the cry, "Please to remember the guy," and that it alludes to the Christian name of the culprit, Guido. Have, however, any of your readers met this title, or any allusion to it, in any writer previously to 1605? and may its attribution to the supposed framer of the Gunpowder Plot only have been the accidental appropriation of an earlier term of popular reproach, and which had become so since the conversion of the nation to Christianity? This naturally heaped contumely and insult upon every thing relating to the Druids, and the heathen superstitions of the earlier inhabitants.
Amongst others, Guy was a term by which, no doubt, the Druids were very early designated, and is cognate, with the Italian Guido and our own Guide, to the Latin cuidare, which would give it great appropriativeness when applied to the offices of teachers and leaders, with which these lordly flamens were invested. Narrowly connected with their rites, the term has descended to the present day, as is decidedly shown in the French name of the mistletoe, le Gui, and as denoting the priesthood. The common cry of the children at Christmas in France, au gui l'an neuf, marks the winter solstice, and their most solemn festival; so ai-guil-lac, as the name of new year's gifts, so necessary and expensive to a Frenchman, which they particularly bear in the diocese of Chartres, can only be explained by referring it to the same origin. In the French vocabulary at present this word, as I have before observed, is restricted to the mistletoe, the viscum album of Linnæus: but in Germany we have pretty much the same conversion of a favourite druidical plant, the trefoil, or shamrock, and the cinquefoil; both of them go in Bavaria and many other parts of Germany under the name of Truten-fuss, or Druid's foot, and are thought potent charms in guarding fields and cattle from harm; but there too, as with us, possibly the oldest title of guy, the term Druid, has grown into a name of the greatest disgrace: "Trute, Trute, Saudreck," "Druid, Druid, sow dirt," is an insulting phrase reserved for the highest ebullitions of a peasant's rage in Schwaben and Franken.
Whilst on the subject of the mistletoe, I cannot forbear to mark the coincidences that run through the popular notions of a country in all ages. Pliny, in his very exact account of the druidical rites, tells us, when the archdruid mounted the oak to cut the sacred parasite with a golden pruning-hook, two other priests stood below to catch it in a white linen cloth, extremely cautious lest it should fall to earth. One is almost tempted to fancy that Shakspeare was describing a similar scene when he makes Hecate say
"Upon the corner of the moon,
There hangs a vap'rous drop profound,
I'll catch it ere it come to ground."
In a very excellent note to Dr. Giles' translation of Richard of Cirencester, p. 432., he adduces the opinion of Dr. Daubeny, of Oxford, that as the mistletoe is now so rarely found in Europe on oaks, it had been exterminated with the other druidical rites on the introduction of Christianity. I am not sufficiently botanist to determine how far it is possible to destroy the natural habitat of a plant propagated by extrinsic means, and should be more inclined to account for the difference then and now by supposing that the Druids may have known the secret of inoculating a desirable oak with the seeds where birds had not done so, and practised it when necessary.
P.S. Since writing the above, I recollect that the Latin verse,
"Ad viscum Druidæ: Druidæ clamare solebant,"
is frequently quoted from Ovid, sometimes, and that recently, specifying the Fasti. I need not tell you that it is not to be found there, and I wish to inquire if any of the numerous readers of your valuable publication can say where I can meet with it; if classical, it is another remarkable evidence of the endurance of popular customs to the present day. In the following quotation from Keyssler's Treatise de Visco, the Anklopferleinstag would be also a noisy demonstration dating from druidical times, at a period of the year not far removed from the beginning of November.
"In superiori Germaniæ parte, Marchionatu Onolsbacensi comprehensa, cujus inolæ plurimas Gentilismi reliquias retinent, regio ipsa multis Druidum vestigiis abundat, tempore adventus Christi, sive media Hyeme (am Anklopferleinstag), vulgus per vias et pagos currit malleisque pulsat fores et fenestras indesinenter clamans Gutheyl! Gutheyl! Quod quidem non salutem per Christi adventum partam indicat, quasi diceres: Gut Heyl; bona salus; multo minus fictitam Sanctam Günthildem, quam rustici illius tractus miris fabulis ac nugis celebrant, sed nomen ipsum visci est."
The present popular and only German name of the mistletoe, the parent of our English denomination, is Mistel, which is evidently only Meist-heyl (most heal, or healing), the superlative of the above Gut-heyl, and both wonderfully agreeing with the name which Pliny says it bore in his time, Omnia sanans.
Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire.—No. 2.
Mice.—A sudden influx of mice into a house, hitherto free from their ravages, denotes approaching mortality among its inhabitants. A mouse running over a person is considered to be an infallible sign of death, as is also the squeaking of one behind the bed of an invalid, or the appearance or apparition of a white mouse running across the room. To meet with a shrew-mouse, in going a journey, is reckoned ominous of evil. The country people have an idea that the harvest-mouse is unable to cross a path which has been trod by man. Whenever they attempt, they are immediately, as my informant expressed it, "struck dead." This, they say, accounts for the numbers which on a summer's evening may be found lying dead on the verge of the field footpaths, without any external wound or apparent cause for their demise.
Snakes.—There is a very prevalent belief that a snake can never die till the sun is down. Cut or hack it as you will, it will never die till sunset. This idea has evidently its source in the amazing vitality common to the species.
Poultry.—The crowing of a hen bodes evil, and is frequently followed by the death of some member of the family. When, therefore, Dame Partlet thus experiments upon the note of her mate, she pays her head as the price of her temerity, a complete severance of the offending member being supposed to be the only way of averting the threatened calamity. No house, it is said, can thrive whose hens are addicted to this kind of amusement. Hence the old proverb often quoted in this district:
"A whistling woman and a crowing hen,
Is neither fit for God nor men."
According to Pluquet, the Normans have a similar belief, and a saying singularly like the English one:
"Un Poule qui chante le coq, et une fille qui siffle, portent malheur dans la maison."
Before the death of a farmer his poultry frequently go to roost at noon-day, instead of at the usual time. When the cock struts up to the door and sounds his clarion on the threshold, the housewife is warned that she may soon expect a stranger. In what is technically termed "setting a hen," care is taken that the nest be composed of an odd number of eggs. If even, the chickens would not prosper. Each egg is always marked with a little black cross, ostensibly for the purpose of distinguishing them from the others, but also supposed to be instrumental in producing good chickens, and preventing any attack from the weasel or other farm-yard marauders. The last egg the hen lays is carefully preserved, its possession being supposed to operate as a charm upon the well-doing of the poultry. In some cases, though less commonly, the one laid on Good Friday is preserved, from the same reason. When a baby is first taken out to see its friends, it is customary for them to give it an egg: this, if preserved, is held to be a source of good fortune to the future man. (Vide Brand, ii. p. 48.) The first egg laid by a pullet is usually secured by the shepherd, in order to present to his sweetheart,—the luckiest gift, it is believed, he can give her.
Crows.—To see a crow flying alone is a token of bad luck. An odd one, perched in the path of the observer, is a sign of wrath.
Owls.—The ominous screech of this, the most ominous of all birds, is still heard with alarm; and he remains with us, as in Chaucer's days,
"The oule eke that of deth the bode bringeth."
When, as sometimes happens, he exchanges the darkness of his ivy bush for the rays of the sun at noon-day, his presence is looked upon as indicative of bad luck to the beholder. Hence it not infrequently happens that a mortal is as much scared by one of these occasional flights as the small bird denizens of the tree on which he may happen to alight.
Cuckoos.—When the cry of the cuckoo is heard for the first time in the season, it is customary to turn the money in the pocket, and wish. If within the bounds of reason, it is sure to be fulfilled. In reference to the pecuniary idea respecting the cuckoo, the children sing,
"Cuckoo, cuckoo, cherry tree
Catch a penny and give it to me."
Robins and Wrens.—The robin is considered a sacred bird: to kill one is little less than sacrilege, and its eggs are free from the destroying hand of the bird-nester. It is asserted that the respect shown to it by man is joined in by the animals of the wood. The weasel and wild cat, it is said, will neither molest it, nor eat it when killed. The high favour in which this bird is held is usually attributed to the ballad of The Babes in the Wood. Few, however, among the peasantry of this district have even heard of it; and, however much that beautiful tale may have tended to popularise the belief, it is evident that we must trace the origin to a more remote source. One cause for the veneration in which it is held may be the superstition which represents him as the medium through which mankind are warned of approaching death. {165} Before the death of a person, a robin is believed, in many instances, to tap thrice at the window of the room in which he or she may be. The wren is also a bird which superstition protects from injury; but it is by no means treated with such reverence as the robin. The praises of both are sung in the old couplet:—
"The robin and the wren,
Be God A'mighty's cock and hen."
Pigeons.—No one, it is believed, can die on pigeons' feathers. In the northern parts of the county, the same thing is said of game feathers,—a superstition also current in Kent.—Ingolsby Legends, Third Series, p. 133.
Wasps.—The first wasp seen in the season should always be killed. By so doing you secure to yourself good luck and freedom from enemies throughout the year.
Bees.—The superstitious ceremonies and observances attached to these animals appear to be current throughout the kingdom, and by no means suffer any diminution in this county. Among others of less common occurrence, we have the belief that they will not thrive in a quarrelsome fammily.
The wild, or, as we term him, the humble bee, is not without a share of the superstitions which pertain to his more civilised brethren. The entrance of one into a cottage is deemed a certain sign of death.
Spiders.—The small spiders called "money spinners" prognosticate good luck; in order to propitiate which, they must be thrown over the left shoulder.
The Hon. A. Erskine.—In J. Reed's Copy of Boswell's and Hon. A. Erskine's Correspondence, 12mo. 1763, was the following note in Reed's autograph:—
"The Hon. A. Erskine was fourth son of the fifth Earl of Kelley. Mr. Boswell told me the 30th of May, 1794, that A.E., having spent all his property, in a fit of despair threw himself from a rock into the sea last winter, and was drowned. His body was found five days after, when it appeared it was a deliberate act, as he had filled his pockets with stones."
Gloves.—The question of F.E. (Vol. i., p. 366.), "Why are gloves not worn before royalty?" having hitherto received no answer, may probably be as difficult of solution as another custom in which a glove figures as a token of defiance. Perhaps, however, covered hands, as well as a covered head, may have been considered discourteous. Indeed, we learn frown Cobarruvias, in his Tesoro, that it was so considered in Spain:—
"ENGUANTADO. El que entra con Guantes adonde se le ha de tener a descortesia. El que sirve no los ha de tener delante de su Senor: ni Vasallo, sea quien fuere, delante de su Rey." Fo. 453. b. ed. 1611.
The use of gloves must be of very high antiquity. In the Middle Ages the priest who celebrated mass always, I believe, wore them during that ceremony; but it was just the contrary in courts of justice, where the presiding judge, as well as the criminal, was not allowed to cover his hands. It was anciently a popular saying, that three kingdoms must contribute to the formation of a good glove:—Spain to prepare the leather, France to cut them out, and England to sow them.
I think the etymology of the word glove is in far from a satisfactory state. It is a good subject for some of your learned philological correspondents, to whom I beg leave to recommend its elucidation.
Mickleham, July 26. 1850.
Punishment of Death by Burning (Vol. ii., pp. 6, 50, 90.).—Your correspondent E.S.S.W. gives an account of a woman burnt for the murder of her husband in 1783, and asks whether there is any other instance of the kind in the latter part of the last century. I cannot positively answer this Query, but I will state a circumstance that occurred to myself about the year 1788. Passing in a hackney-coach up the Old Bailey to West Smithfield, I saw the unquenched embers of a fire opposite Newgate; on my alighting I asked the coachman "What was that fire in the Old Bailey, over which the wheel of your coach passed?" "Oh, sir," he replied, "they have been burning a woman for murdering her husband." Whether he spoke the truth or not I do not know, but I received it at the time as truth, and remember the impression it made on me.
It is, perhaps, as well to state that there were some fifteen to twenty persons standing around the smouldering embers at the time I passed.
India Rubber is now so cheap and common, that it seems worth while to make a note of the following passage in the Monthly Review for Feb. 1772. It occurs at p. 71., in the article on "A familiar Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Perspective, by Joseph Priestly, LL.D. F.R.S., 8vo. 5s., boards. Johnson."
"Our readers, perhaps, who employ themselves in the art of drawing, will be pleased with a transcript of the following advertisement:—'I have seen, says Dr. Priestly, a substance, excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the marks of a black lead pencil. It must, therefore, be of singular use to those who practise drawing. It is sold by Mr. Nairne, mathematical instrument-maker, opposite the Royal Exchange. He sells a cubical piece, of about half an inch, for three shillings; and, he says, it will last several years.'"
In that delightful volume, In Memoriam, in which Mr. Tenyson has so nobly and pathetically enshrined the memory of his friend, Arthur Hallam, the following passage occurs, pp. 126, 127.:—
"To these conclusions, when we saw
The God within him light his face,
And seem to lift the form, and glow
In azure orbits heavenly-wise;
And over those ethereal eyes
The bar of Michael Angelo."
To what does this allude? In the fine profile portrait by Julio Bonasoni, Michael Angelo appears to have had a protuberant brow; and Condivi says, in his very interesting and detailed account of his person, that his forehead was square, and that, seen in profile ("quasi avanza il naso"), it projected almost beyond the nose. It is remarkable that the same spirit pervades these verses which we find in the Platonic breathings of the Rime of the great artist; but we are most forcibly reminded of the poet of Vaucluse. The grief of the poet for the loss of his friend has however had a happier effect on his mind than the more impassioned nature of that of the lover of Laura produced: yet a kindred feeling, of spiritual communion with the lost one, pervades both poets; and this might have been the motto of Mr. Tenyson's volume:—
"Levommi il mio pensiero in parte ov' era
Quello eh' io cerco, e non ritrovo in terra;
... in questa spera
Sarai ancor meco, s' el desir non erra."
Foscolo has remarked that "when a great poet describes his own heart, his picture of Love will draw tears from the eyes of every sensitive mortal in every age." And no one can read these effusions of deepfelt virtuous affection without emotions of a happy tendency.
Acting on a suggestion given in previous number, I beg to state that I shall be much obliged by the use of any annotated copies of the following works of Bp. Andrewes, which I am engaged in taking through the press:—Tortura Torti; Responsio ad Apolog. Cordius Bellarmini; Opuscula Posthuma; Two Answers to Cardinal Perron, &c.; Preces Privitæ.
Ogburne St. Andrew, near Marlborough.
Robert Innes, a Grub Street Poet.—Is there anything known respecting a strange "madcap," one Robert Innes, who, according to a printed broadside now before me, was a pauper in St. Peter's Hospital, 1787? He was in the habit of penning doggrel ballads and hawking them about for sale. Some of them have a degree of humour, and are, to a certain extent, valuable at the present time for their notices of passing events. In one of these now rare effusions, he styles himself "R. Innes, O.P.," and in explanation gives the following lines:—
"Some put unto their name A.M.,
And others put a D. and D.,
If 'tis no harm to mimick them,
I adds unto my name O.P.
"Master of Arts, sure I am not,
No Doctor, no Divine I be
But OAKUM PICKING is my lot,
Of the same clay are we all three."
The "works" of this "rogue and vagabond," now in my possession, were given me by the late Mr. Catnach of Seven Dials.
The Sicilian Vespers.—In what English work can a full and correct narrative of this event be found?
Cambridge, July 29. 1850.
One Bell.—Can any of your readers favour me with a reference to some authority for the following, which may be found in Southey's Book of the Church (vol. ii. p. 121.)?
"Somerset pretended that one bell in a steeple was sufficient for summoning the people to prayer; and the country was thus in danger of losing its best music."
What follows is so beautiful and appropriate, that I may perhaps be excused for lengthening my quotation:
"—a music, hallowed by all circumstances, which, according equally with social exultation and with solitary pensiveness, though it falls upon many an unheeding ear, never fails to find some hearts which it exhilarates, and some which it softens."
It is a curious fact, that in many towers there may be often found a solitary black-letter Bell (if I may so call it), evidently of ante-Reformation date, making one of the peal.
Treasure Trove.—The prejudicial effect which the law of Treasure Trove, as it now exists in this country, has been found to exercise upon the preservation of objects of archaeological interest, especially if such articles happen to be formed of either of the precious metals, is just now exciting the attention of the antiquarian world. Any notes upon the state of this law upon the Continent, any references to instances of valuable "finds" which have been lost to archaeological investigation through the operation of this law, or to cases in which the decisions of the courts have been given upon questions of this law; in short, any hints {167} or information upon any points connected with the subject of Treasure Trove will be thankfully received by,
Poeta Anglicus.—The gloss on the Prooemium to the Constitutions of Clement V., col. iv. "Corp. Jur. Can." t. iii. Lugd. 1671, has the following remark:—
"Et dicitur a Papæ, quod est, interjectio admirantis, et vere admirabilis: quia vices Dei in terris gerit. Inde dixit ille Anglicus in poetria nova: Papa stupor mundi. Et circa fin., Qui maxima rerum, nec Deus es nec homo, quasi neuter es inter utrumque."
Who is the Anglicus Poeta? What is the name of his poem?
Hornbooks.—Can either of your numerous intelligent readers give me an account of the hornbooks from which our ancestors learned their letters? If so, I shall feel especially obliged for the information.
Ben Jonson, or Ben Johnson.—Among some papers I possess of the Digby family, I have an autograph poem on The Picture of the Minde of the Lady Venetia Digby, by Ben "Johnson." Is this the same as Ben "Jonson?" and if so, how comes it the "h" has been dropped from his name? Or was there some other Ben "Johnson," a poet of that period?
MS. Book of Prayers belonging to Queen Catherine Parr.—In vol. ix. of the Gentleman's Magazine is a description of a MS. book of prayers, bound in silver, which probably belonged to Queen Catherine Parr. Can you or any of your numerous readers inform me in whose possession the volume is now?
Waltheof—De Combre Family—Ilda.—In Waltheof, or the Siege of York, an historical drama published at York, 1832, one of the dramatis personæ, Judith, the niece of the Conqueror, and daughter of the Countess of Albemarle, is made to say,—
"When gallant Waltheof, as his country's champion,
On bus'ness of high import and high matters,
Oft at my royal uncle's court appeared,
...
"We married privately.
Two years and more have passed since this has happened,
And one sweet pledge of love has crowned our vows."
Now I am anxious to know,
1. Whether there be any historical authority for Waltheof being sent as envoy to William? and, if so, on what mission?
2. Is it not the more correct account, that the Conqueror gave his niece Judith in marriage to Waltheof after the surrender of the city, [at the same time that he conferred other honours upon him, out of respect for his brave defence of the city; creating him, first, Earl of Northhampton and Huntingdon, and afterwards Earl of Northumberland, A.D. 1070.] And if so, as Waltheof could certainly not have had any "pledge of love" before the siege of York; so neither is it probable that he had any issue at all by Judith, as in the same year, 1070, he was beheaded by William, for supposed participation in a conspiracy at York.
The above drama is said to be "by a descendant of one of the dramatis personæ," viz. of "De Combre, one of William's generals;" being written by Rev. Thomas Comber, of Oswaldkirk, Yorkshire. This De Combre is represented as having married Ilda, a daughter of King Harold, and sister of Edgar. Can any of your correspondents furnish me with information as to the origin and antiquity of this family of Comber? I learn from the present representatives of this family, that they have no recorded pedigree which goes higher than the reign of Henry VI., but that the family tradition has always been, that their ancestor came over from Normandy with William, and married Ilda, daughter of Harold. It seems that the name of Ilda is at this very day borne by one of the family. In the Memoirs of Dr. Thomas Comber, Dean of Durham, this De Combre is said to have had the manor of Barkham, in Sussex, given to him by the Conqueror. What family had King Harold II.? Had he any daughter Ilda? and, if so, is there any record or mention of her husband's name?
19th July, 1850.
"De male quæsitis," &c.—Spelman's striking argument, that spoliated church property is seldom enjoyed for more than three generations, seems but a special application of a general principle,—
"De male quæsitis gaudet non tertius hæraes."
Can any of your readers tell me who is the author of the above verse? I find it quoted as "an adage" by John Gadsbury, in his work On the Doctrine of Nativities, 1658.
Westminster Abbey.—The late Sir Harry Englefield is known to have had access to some of the original fabric accounts of this venerable structure. Can any of your readers inform me whether he published the information he may have obtained from those documents; and, if so, where it may be found?
Haberdasher—Martinet.—Can any of your correspondents suggest an etymology for the word haberdasher? I ought, perhaps, to say that I am acquainted with the derivations propounded by Mr. Richardson, but consider them all unsatisfactory. While on the subject, I would also ask if Mr. Richardson's Dictionary is considered the best {168} source extant of information on English etymology, because I cannot help thinking that it has very many faults and deficiencies. The very word, for instance, on the derivation of which your valuable correspondent MR. FORBES offered a suggestion in No. 38., viz. Martinet, I had in vain sought for in Mr. Richardson's Dictionary, at least in his quarto edition, 1887.
"Querela Cantabrigiensis."—Is anything known of the authorship of the Querela Cantabrigiensis: or, a Remonstrance by way of Apologie for the banished Members of the late flourishing University of Cambridge. By some of the said Sufferers. Anno Dom. 1647? This seems a favourable time for inserting this Query, as there is a chance of a second series of "The Universities' Complaint" making its appearance before the year is out.
Long Lonkin.—Can any of your readers give me a clue to the personality of Long Lonkin, the hero of a moss-trooping ballad popular in Cumberland, which commences—
"The Lord said to his ladie,
As he mounted his horse,
Beware of Long Lonkin
That lies in the moss."
And goes on to tell how Long Lonkin crept in at "one little window" which was left unfastened, and was counselled by the wicked maiden to—
"Prick the babe in the cradle"
as the only means of bringing down the poor mother, whom he wished to kill.
Are there any other traditions of him, and can he have any connection with the name bestowed by children on the middle finger, in the following elegant rhyme?—
"Tom Thumbkin,
Will Wilkins,
Long Lonkin," &c.?
This I had always supposed merely to refer to the length of the finger, but the coincidence of names is curious.
I can now inform you that the MS. Treatise of Equivocation, about which J.M. inquired (Vol. i., p. 263.), is preserved in the Bodleian Library (Laud, Miscellaneous MSS. 655.). Dodd, in his Church History (vol. ii. pp. 381. 428.), under the names Blackwell and Francis Tresham, mentions the work by its second title, A Treatise against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation, and states that the MS. is in the Bodleian. Through the kindness of Dr. Baudinel, I have seen the tract; and as there is a certain historical interest attached to it, some information on the subject may be acceptable to your readers. But it may be as well first to give the account of its production at the trial of Guy Fawkes and the conspirators, Jan. 27, 1606. (See State Trials, vol. ii. col. 180.) After Coke had introduced under the seventh head of his speech, as the fourth means for carrying on the plot, "their perfidious and perjurious equivocating," there follows:—
"And here was showed a Book, written not long before the Queen's death, at what time Thomas Winter was employed into Spain, entituled, 'A Treatise of Equivocation,' which book being seen and allowed by Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits, and Blackwell, the Archpriest of England, in the beginning thereof Garnet with his own hand put out those words in the title of 'Equivocation,' and made it thus; 'A Treatise against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation.' ... And in the end thereof, Blackwell besprinkles it with his blessing, saying, 'Tractatus iste valde doctus, et vere pius et Catholicus est. Certe S. Scripturarum, patrum, doctorum, scholasticorum, canonistarum, et optimarum rationum præsidiis plenissime firmat æquitatem æquivocationis; ideoque dignissimus est qui typis propagetur, ad consolationem afflictorum Catholicorum, et omnium piorum instructionem.'"
Coke referred to it again at Garnet's trial, March 28, 1606 (State Trials, vol. ii. p. 234.); and the importance attached to the discovery of the work may be judged of by Morton's Full Satisfaction, 1606: a very large part of which is occupied in discussing it.
The copy in the Bodleian is the one which was produced at the trial. It is a small quarto in a vellum cover, on the outside of which is written, on the front side, in a later hand, "Blackwell de Equivocatione, &c.;" on the other side, in Sir E. Coke's hand, "Equivocations." It consists of sixty-six pages in all; i.e. two leaves at the beginning originally left blank, and not numbered; sixty-one pages numbered continuously, and fifty-nine of them written on: p. 61., that is, the fly-leaf at the end, contains Blackwell's imprimatur as described by Coke. On the first fly-leaf, at the beginning, is the following memorandum:—
"This booke, contening 61 pages, I founde in a chamber in the Inner Temple, wherein Sr Thomas Tresham used to lye, and whiche he obteyned for his two younger sonnes. This 5 of December, 1605." EDW. COKE.
"Os quod mentitur occidit animam."
It may be enough to remind the reader, that after Nov. 5, 1605, Coke, being Attorney-General, was engaged in prosecuting the discovery of the plot and seeking for evidence. Francis Tresham, to whom the authorship is attributed by Dodd (vol. ii. p. 427, 428.), was a son of Sir Thomas Tresham; his connection with Garnet and the plot is well known. Sir T. Tresham died Sept. 11, 1605. (Dodd, vol. ii. p. 58.) Francis had been committed {169} to prison, and died Nov. 20, 1605; and Coke found this in searching his chambers a fortnight after. The title originally stood thus:—
"A TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION, wherein is largely discussed the question, whether a Catholicke or any other person before a Magistrate being demaunded uppon his oath whether a Prieste were in such a place, may (notwithstanding his perfect knowledge to the contrary), without Perjury, and securely in conscience answere, No: with this secreat meaning reserved in his minde, That he was not there so that any man is bound to detect it."
The words in small capitals and Italics occupying the first two lines are crossed out, and "whe-," the first syllable of whether, re-written at the beginning of line 3. At the end of this title, interlined by another hand, follow the words "newly, overseer ... ignorants;" but these words are also struck through and re-written on the preceding leaf, on which, written by the same hand by which the interlineation was made (Garnet's, as it would seem), the title stands,—
"A Treatise of against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation. Newly overseen by the Authour, and published for the defence of Innocency and for the Instruction of Ignorants."
The "of", in Italics, is struck out. The MS. has other corrections throughout in the same (Garnet's) hand; and was evidently prepared for the press, as Blackwell's imprimatur implies.
I have to apologise for some incorrect dates in my last communication.
The celebrated treatise De Consolatione Philosophiæ, was translated into English verse by John Walton, otherwise called Johannes Capellanus, in the year 1410. A beautiful manuscript on parchment, of this translation, is preserved in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 43.). Other copies are amongst the archives of Lincoln Cathedral, Baliol College, &c. It was printed in the Monastery of Tavestok in 1525, a copy of which impression is of the utmost rarity. There is an English prose translation by "George Colvil, alias Coldewell," printed by John Cawood, 4to. 1556. And again, Boethius' Five Bookes of Philosophicall Comfort, translated by J.T., and printed at London in 12mo., 1609.
Viscount Preston's translation was first printed in 8vo., 1695. The edition of 1712, mentioned by your correspondent, was the second. Boethius was again translated by W. Causton in 1730, and with notes and illustrations, by the Rev. P. Ridpath, 8vo., 1785. The latter is, I believe, an excellent translation; it is accompanied by a Life of Boethius, drawn up with great care and accuracy. In 1789 a translation by R. Duncan appeared at Edinburgh; and in 1792, an anonymous translation was printed in London. The latter is said to be a miserable performance.
King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version, with an English translation and notes, by J.S. Cardale, was printed at London, in 8vo., 1829.
Queen Elizabeth's Translation of Boethius (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—One of JARLTZBERG'S inquiries is, "Has Queen Elizabeth's work (which she executed during her captivity before she ascended the throne) been printed?" Certainly not: if it had been, it would have been well known. May we venture to anticipate an affirmative reply to another parallel question—Does Queen Elizabeth's translation of Boethius exist in manuscript? But where did JARLTZBERG learn that it was "executed during her captivity before she ascended the throne?" We know that she made such a translation when she was sixty years of age, that is, in October and November, 1593, (see Nichols's Progresses, &c., of Queen Elizabeth, vol. iii. p. 564., and the Gentleman's Magazine for February last, p. 143.), and it is a very interesting proof of the continuance of her learned studies at that advanced period of her life; and, as the curious document which records this fact is unnoticed in the last edition of Royal and Noble Authors by Mr. Park, it is probably a misapprehension that the same task had engaged some of the hours of her captivity; or rather is it not one of those dove-tailing conjectures in which some of our most popular lady-biographers have recently exhibited such extravagant and misplaced ingenuity?
Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—JARLTZBERG is wrong in supposing that Richard Viscount Preston's translation appeared first in 1712. I have now before me an edition in 8vo. "London: printed by J.D. for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black Swan, in Paternoster row; and Francis Hildyard, bookseller in York, MDCXCV." Horace Walpole, in his Royal and Noble Authors, states that the publication in 1712 was the "second edition corrected;" and Mr. Park says in a note, that the first edition was in 1695, 8vo.
Cambridge, June 24. 1850.
J. MN. (Vol. ii., p. 153.) has propounded a dozen of most recondite and puzzling archaisms, upon which I have to offer a few notes.
"Rykelot, a magpie?"—The popular and provincial names of animals deserve more careful notice than they have received from glossarists. I need scarcely observe how frequently personal names were derived from those of birds. In the {170} Hundred Rolls we find a "Richard Rikelot" in Huntingdonshire (vol. ii. p. 626.). I know not what has led to the supposition that this name denotes the magpie. It may possibly be traced to the same root as that of a cognate species, the cornix frugivora; Roeck, Germ., according to Gesner; Friesic, roek; Ang.-S. hroc, the rook: but I am at a loss to discover anything similar in old French to explain the occurrence of the termination, which seems to be a popular or familiar diminutive, a Gallicism, analogous to partlot.
"Wrusum or Wursum."—The latter is the correct reading. Trotter Brockett includes the word amongst Northern Provincialisms.—"Wursum, pus, particularly when foul." Jamieson is inclined to derive the word woursom or worsum, used in the same sense by Douglas, in his translation of Virgil, and by other North Country writers, from Ang.-S. Wyr, pus, and sum, as denoting quality.
"Sabraz."—This term has perplexed me much in preparing notes on the portion of the Promptorium I have now in hand. In the Harl. MS. 221. is found "Sabrace, sabracia, Comm." The authority cited, the Commentarius Curialium, is still unknown to me; and I have failed in searching for the word sabracia, which is not found in Ducange, or other glossaries of debased Latinity. Mr. Halliwell gives "Sabras, salve, plaster;" but he cites no authority. It appears, however, rather to signify a tonic or astringent solution than a salve. I have hitherto found it only in the following passage (Sloane MS. 73., f. 211., late xv. sec.) in a recipe for making "cheuerel lether of perchemyne." The directions are, that it be "basked to and fro" in a hot solution of "alome roche;—aftir take xelkis of eyren and breke hem smale in a disch, as thou woldist make therof a caudel, and put these to thyn alome water, and chaufe it; thanne take it doun fro the fier, and put it in the cornetrey; thanne tak thi lether and basche it wel in this sabras, to it be wel drunken up into the lether." A little flour is then to be added, the mixture heated, and the "perchemyn well basked therein, and th't that saberas be wel drunken up into the lether;" and if it enters not well into the leather, "lay it abroad in a good long vessel that be scheld, the fleschside upward, and poure thi sabrace al abouen the lether, and rubbe it wel yn." It is further recommended to "late the lether ligge so still al a nyzt in his owen sabras."
"I-menbred, a girdle i-menbred." (Thus, in old French, "menbrer, membrer," &c., Roquefort). Charpentier gives similar use of the Latin word,—"Membrare, instruere, ornare, Gall. garnir;" citing a French document, dated 1352: "Item, unam zonam de serico Membratam de argento et esmandis;" and another of 1366: "Duas zonas de serico, argento stofatas et Membratas." The term was thus used also in England, as in the inventory of valuables belonging to Edward I. in 1300 (Liber Garderobæ, p. 347.):—"Una zona, cum cathenis argenti annell' cum targ' et membris argenti." It might be supposed from this expression, that the membra were, strictly speaking, the transverse bars of metals, or cloux, Fr., by which the girdle was divided into several compartments, the intervening spaces being filled by chased ornaments of goldsmiths' work, and occasionally by armorial scutcheons, "targie."
But enough for the present. I should esteem it a favour if your correspondent would inform me where these curious terms are found, as the context would greatly facilitate their elucidation.
Wonham, Reigate, August 3.
Solingen (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—Will you allow me to state, for the information of T.S. LAWRENCE, who inquires who Salingen, the sword cutler, was,—that Solingen is the name of a small town near Elberfeld, in Westphalia; a sort of Sheffield for the whole of that part of Germany. Immense quantities of cutlery of all sorts are made there, and many knives are, I was told, made there, stamped with English names, and imported into England as true British ware,—being equally good with ours, and, of course, cheaper. Solingen is still, and has been for centuries, renowned for its sword blades. You cannot ride through the town without meeting a troop or two of girls with a load of sword blades on their heads.
May I suggest to your inquirer JARLTZBERG that the derivation of blackguard is as likely to be blagarode, the Russian for nobleman, as many words are to be descended from their reputed parents.
P.C.S.S. believes that a little research would have enabled MR. LAWRENCE (Vol. ii., p. 135.) to ascertain that Solingen (not Salingen) was not the name of a sword cutler, but of a place in Prussian Westphalia, long celebrated for the fabrication of that weapon, as well as of fencing-foils. Of the latter instrument P.C.S.S. has several pairs in his possession, all marked with the inscription "In Solingen." That the Solingen manufactory still flourishes there, is stated in Murray's Handbook for Northern Germany, p. 373.
Blackguard (Vol. ii., p. 134.).—In the second vol. of B. Jonson's works by Gifford, page 169., there is the following note on this word:—
"In all great houses, but particularly in the royal residences, there were a number of mean, dirty dependants, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, &c.; of these the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended the {171} progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, the people in derision gave the name of black-guards"
I find also the following in Butlerts Hudibras, part 3.:—
"Thou art some paltry, blackguard sprite,
Condemn'd to drudgery in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in the house,
Nor halfpenny to drop in shoes."
The Three Dukes (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—Perhaps a note which I have just stumbled upon, in a MS. account of the Griffin family, may furnish some clue as to "the Dukes who killed the Beadell."
"Edward Griffin was probably the same person, to whom a pardon was granted, April 11. 1671, for the death of Peter Werriel; in the like manner as was granted to the Duke of Albemarle and the Duke of Monmouth."
At all events, both casualties occurred in the same spring, and a reference to the gazettes of the day would perhaps set the question at rest.
Audley End.
Bonny Dundee (Vol. ii., p. 134.) is the name attached to one of the most beautiful of the Scotch melodies. The song is said to be very old. The words, which I recollect to have heard sung to it more than half a century ago, began:
"'O, whar gat ye that hauers-meal bannock,
My bonny young lassie, now tell it to me?'
'I got it frae a sodger laddie,
Between Saint Johnstone and bonnie Dundee."
It is clear that it is to the town, not the man (though from the portraits of him he was very handsome), that the epithet applies. My version of the song differs from that given in Cromek's Burns, and also from Allan Cuningham's; and I am disposed to think my memory at fault from the so near recurrence of the word "bonnie" in the stanza.
Neither the date of the birth of Viscount Dundee, nor his age at the time of his death, is mentioned by the Scottish Peerage writers, Crawford, Douglas, or Wood.
Was Quarles pensioned? (Vol. i., p. 201.).—I believe that no reply has been made to this Query. The following passage, transcribed from the "Epistle Dedicatory" to the surreptitious edition of Quarles's Judgment and Mercy, affords a slight negative proof to the contrary:
"And being so usefull, I dare not doubt your patronage of this child, which survives a father whose utmost abilities were (till death darkened that great light in his soule) sacrificed to your service."
Now if Charles had conferred a pension on Quarles, is it not exceedingly probable that the publisher and dedicator, Richard Royston, would have recalled so honourable a circumstance to the memory of his "most gratious sovereign King Charles" in this "Epistle Dedicatory," when he had so excellent an opportunity of doing so?
Collar of Esses (Vol. ii., p. 140.).—MR. J.G. NICHOLS, in his reply to the Query of φ., says, that "the judges" are among those who are now privileged to wear these collars. Allow me to suggest to him that the privilege among them is limited to the chiefs of the three courts. The other judges certainly now never wear them, and I am unaware that they ever did so. I have a large, though by no means a perfect collection of legal portraits, and there is not one puisne judge or baron so distinguished. The earliest legal worthy who is represented with this collar is in the reign of Henry VIII., and it adorns not a chief justice, but a chancellor, viz. Sir Thomas More; and he is the only chancellor upon whose shoulders it appears. This collar is formed by continuous Esses, without any ornament between them. It is united in the front by two portcullises, with a rose pendant. The print is from Holbein's picture, and presents him as chancellor, with the purse. The first chief justice wearing the collar is Sir James Dyer, Ch.C.P. in the reign of Elizabeth. The only difference between it and Sir Thomas More's is, that the rose is placed between the portcullises. I have another, in a later period of the same reign, of Sir Christopher Wray, Ch.K.B., in which the Esses are alternated with ornamental knots. I am not aware of any portrait of a chief baron before Sir Thomas Bury, in the first year of George I.; so that I am uncertain whether the collar was previously worn by that functionary.
It is curious that during the Commonwealth the Collar of Esses was worn by John Glynne, the Chief Justice of the Upper Bench, with a difference; that difference being a quatrefoil, instead of the knot, between each S; and a large jewel, surrounded by smaller ones, being substituted for the portcullises and rose.
These facts may, I hope, be of some use to MR. J.G. NICHOLS in the volume I am glad to see that he contemplates. I hope he will not forget to answer the other Query of φ., "Under what circumstances, and at what dates, was the privilege of wearing these collars reduced to its present limitation?"
The Story of the three Men and their Bag of Money (Vol. ii., p. 132.).—In Tales, and quicke Answers, very mery, and pleasant to rede, is the following, with the title "Howe Demosthenes defended a Mayde:"—
"There were two men on a time, the whiche lefte a great somme of money in kepyng with a maiden, on this condition, that she shulde nat delyuer hit agayne, except they came bothe to gether for hit. Nat lang {172} after one of them cam to hir mornyngly arrayde, and sayde that his felowe was deed, and so required the money, and she delyuered it to hem. Shortly came the tother man, and required to have the moneye that was lefte with her in kepyng. The maiden was than so sorrowfull, both for lacke of the money, and for one to defend her cause, that she thought to hange her selfe. But Demosthenes, that excellent oratour, spake for her and sayd: 'Sir, this mayden is redy to quite her fidelitie, and to deliuer agayne the money that was lefte with her in kepyng, so that thou wylt brynge thy felowe with thee to receyue it.' But that he coude not do."
This is the 69th tale in the collection. I cite from the reprint which appeared in 1831, under the title of The Hundred Merry Tales: or Shakspeare's Jest Book.
Cambridge, July 29. 1850.
The story of the three men and their bag of money (Vol. ii., p. 132.) is here stated to be "in the Notes to Rogers's Italy": but it is in the body of the work, as a distinct story, headed, "The Bag of Gold."
Will. Robertson of Murton (Vol. ii., p. 155.) is stated by Douglas in his Baronage, p. 413., to be descended in the fourth decree from Alexander Robertson, fifth baron of Strowan. The pedigree of Robertson of Strowan is given in the same vol.
Long Meg of Westminster.—I am not quite of DR. RIMBAULT'S opinion, that Long Meg of Westminster is a fictitious personage. I believe her to have been as much a real wonton as Moll Cutpurse was a century later.
If the large stone shown as Long Meg's grave had been anywhere else within the walls of Westminster Abbey than where it is, I should have had great dockets about the Westminster tradition. But Long Meg, there is reason to believe from the numerous allusions to her in the Elizabethan dramatists, was a heroine after the Reformation, and her burial, therefore, in the cloisters, where few people of wealth or good reputation were buried between 1538 and 1638, seems to me a common occurrence. Had Islip or Esteney buried her among the abbots in the cloister, I could then have joined in DR. RIMBAULT'S surprise. I have altered the passage, however, to "marking, the grave, it is said." This will meet, I trust, DR. RIMBAULT'S objection, though I have Gifford to support me in the passage as it at present stands:
"There is a penny story-book of this tremendous virago [Westminster Meg], who performed many wonderful exploits about the time that Jack the Giant Killer flourished. She was buried, as all the world knows, in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, where a huge stone is still pointed out to the Whitsuntide visitors as her gravestone."
—Gifford's Ben Jonson, viii. 78.
Let me add, that I am much obliged to DR. RIMBAULT, as well as to other correspondents, for corrections and still more valuable additions to my book, printed in "NOTES AND QUERIES."
The Churchwardens' Accounts of St. Antholin's (Vol. i., pp. 180, 260.).—In my additions to Mr. Cunningham's Handbook for London, I noticed two folio volumes of churchwardens' accounts, belonging to the parish of St. Antholin's, that had accidentally got away from the custody of their proper guardians. This notice roused from his slunbers one of the said guardians, the present overseer of the parish, W.C., Junior, who stated in your journal of February 23. that
"The churchwardens' accounts are in good preservation, and present (in an unbroken series) the parish expenditure for nearly three centuries."
The worthy overseer also wishes to impress your readers with a belief that I had been misled by Thorpe's Catalogue, and that the books to which I referred were merely extracts. In justice to myself, I therefore give the entries in Thorpe's Catalogue verbatim as they occur. Your readers will then be better able to judge which is the "true" Dromio:—
"The Churchwardens' Accounts from 1615 to 1752 of the Parish of St. Antholin's, London. Folio, 3l. 3s.
"This curious and interesting volume appears to have been kept purposely for the various clergymen to write their receipts for preaching the morning lectures at the above church for nearly a century and a half. It contains the autographs of many eminent divines; among others, John Goodwin, R. Pearson, J. Berriman, J. Withers, J. Cooksey, R. Vann, T. Shepperd. W. Scott, R. Chambre, J. Todd, Lilly Butler, J. Botham, C. Evans, T. Clarke, J. Williams, J. Povey, J. Hotchkis, W. Stringfellow, W. Pott, C. Bancroft, R. Clarke, W. Gearing, and many others."
"The Chuchwarden and Overseers of the Parish of St. Antholin's in London, Accounts from 1638 to 1700 inclusive. Folio, 3l. 3s.
"An interesting record of the expenses of this parish for sixty-four years. It commences with the gifts of various sacks of coals, faggots, &c., to the poor, receipts for flesh licences, collections, interest money, the Lady Martaine's gifts, Sir W. Craven's gifts, the Merchant Tailors' Company's gifts, Mercers' ditto, the Company of Ironmongers forty fagots, the Company of Mercers a load of charcoal, the gift of the late King James seven loads of Newcastle coals,—this royal bequest appears to have been annual gift for ever. Query, if now in payment? ANNUAL gifts of Lady Coventry for putting out two poor children born in this parish. Lady Martin's, and many others, are annual gifts, which ought to be forthcoming to the parish at this time."
This last note contains some Queries which I should be glad to see answered.
The Plant "Haemony" (Vol. ii. p. 88. and p. 141.).—The mystical meaning of "Haemony" is evolved by Coleridge in a passage which occurs in his Statesman's Manual, appendix B., and which cannot fail to interest the readers of Comus.
"It is found in the study of the Old and New Testament, if only it be combined with a spiritual partaking of the Redeemer's blood, of which, mysterious as the symbol may be, the sacramental wine is no mere or arbitrary memento. This is the only certain, and this is the universal, preventive of all debasing superstitions; this is the true haemony ([Greek: haima], blood, [Greek: oinos], wine), which our Milton has beautifully allegorised in a passage strangely overlooked by all his commentators. Bear in mind, reader! the character of a militant Christian, and the results (in this life and in the next) of the redemption by the blood of Christ, and so peruse the passage."
Mildew in Books (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—Your correspondent B. suggests that "any hints as to the cause or remedy of mildew in books will be most acceptable." I venture therefore an opinion that the cause is to be found in the defective bleaching and manufacture of the rags from which the paper is made and the careless or intentional admixture of linen with cotton rags. The comparatively modern method of bleaching with oxymuriate of lime, or chlorine in substance, with the ad-libitum and unacknowledged admixture of gypsum (to give weight and firmness to the paper) are, I believe, the true causes of the defects in question, which are to be found more in modern books and prints than in those of an earlier date, and do not arise from damp, as the term "mildew" might seem to imply, although the same appearance no doubt arises from that cause alone in the older paper. But paper made and bleached by the processes I have mentioned will become covered with brown spots, however dry it may be kept.
I have a folio edition of La Armeria Real de Madrid, printed at Paris, without date, but subsequently to 1838 by the preface. The paper is very stout and fine, and was free from blemish when I purchased it three years ago, but at present it is covered with brown patches, and the beauty of the work destroyed, although it has been kept in a very dry room.
For such defects I should be equally delighted with B. to discover a remedy; but I fear that so long as our paper manufacturers study expedition and economy in preference to quality, the case is hopeless. The ashes left after the combustion of a sheet of paper clearly indicate the amount of modern sophistication, and greatly exceed those of more ancient paper. In fact, some paper may now be classed, with more propriety, among mineral than vegetable productions. Mildew, arising from damp in old books, may be arrested, if not removed, by exposure to light, air, and a dry atmosphere.
The Carpenter's Maggot (Vol. ii., p. 104.).—The ancient tune known as the Carpenter's Maggot, and until lately played at the annual dinner of the Livery of the Carpenters' Company, may be found at p. 258. of the first volume of a rare work entitled The Dancing Master, sm. obl. 1721. The same volume contains a choice assemblage of "Maggots", i.e. Barker's Maggot, Cary's Maggot, Draper's Maggot, Hill's Maggot, Huntington's Maggot, M. Coppinger's Maggot, &c.
The word Maggot, from the French Magot, means a whim, or a fancy. The bird "magpie", originally "maggoty-pie," was so called on account of its whimsical drollery. "A maggoty-pated fellow" is often used to imply a whimsical man.
I do not trace the word, as applied to a tune, earlier than the end of the seventeenth century. Before that time, tunes of a similar description were termed Fancies.
If your correspondent F.T.P. wishes to have a copy of the tune from my volume, he is quite welcome. I append my London address to this Reply, in order that he may favour me with a communication.
3. Augustus Square, Park Village East.
Martello Towers (Vol. ii., p. 9. and p. 110.).—The interesting account of Le Tellier's defence in Corsica, shows clearly what first drew the attention of our government to these forts but E.V.'s queries do not yet seem satisfactorily answered. The late Duke of Richmond, it is said, gave the plan of the first erected along the British Channel. But as to their name and origin I apprehend that (as in the case of Charles Martel, whose blows also fell so numberless and effectual on the heads of enemies, Vol. i., p. 86.) the old Frank word martel is much more likely to have originated the name than any locality, town, or tower, in either Spain or Corsica and the following extract from Dr. Robertson's Life of Charles V. (bk. c. p. 452., 8vo. ed.) should not be passed over in their history:—
"The commerce of the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted by his cruisers (viz. Haseen Aga's, about 1541), and such frequent alarms given to the coast of Spain, that there was a necessity of erecting watch towers at proper distances, and of keeping guards constantly on foot, in order to descry the approach of his squadrons, and to protect the inhabitants from his descents."
The doctor then gives marginal reference to Jovii Hist. L. 40. p. 266. for authority. I have not Jovius, nor access to him here but I would be obliged by learning whether he gives any and what more specific account of these towers, or how they were called.
Highland Kilts.—I have waited a "reasonable time" to learn a little about kilts from your correspondents; but seeing that no one has yet entered the arena, I forward an additional glove to cast before any member of the Scottish societies luxuriating in London. It is from a work written by one of themselves, hight Dr. Macculloch, who, in his Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland (vol. i. p. 176.), gives a whole chapter on northern attire, which is well worth attention. To be sure, he is rather merciless on some of Sandy's present likings, showing them to be of no standing as to time; and he declares that the kilt resembles the loricated skirts of the Roman tunica, only just as much as Macedon does Monmouth. I will not mention how he laughs at the groups of masquerading Highlanders; but will proceed to lay an extract before you, which may incite inquiry and reply:
"A few enthusiasts have amused themselves with deriving the Highland kilt from one of the dresses of the Romans, to which the resemblance is sufficiently vague. These worthy antiquaries forget the anger they feel at the bare notion that the Romans ever interfered with the Highlanders...."
"The Roman theory of the kilt is, indeed, demolished at one blow, by the fact, that this article of dress in an independent form, or the philibeg, (feala beg), is of very modern introduction, and, what is still worse, that it was the invention of an Englishman. It was first introduced at Tyndrum about a century past, (this was published in 1824), by Rawlinson, the superintendent or agent for the lead mines; who, finding his labourers encumbered with their belted plaids, taught them to separate the two into the present form."
[Greek: S]
Derivation of Penny.—Not from the Celtic Pen, but from the German Pfennig, pf being softened into p, as in pfau, peacock, and ig into y, as in hereig, hearty.
Scarf (Vol. ii, p. 126.).—The custom of the Church for many centuries, which is the authority for the wearing of the scarf, or stole, sanctions the use of it by all orders of the clergy now existing in the Church of England, but with certain distinctions in the manner of wearing it. By deacons it is worn, as in ancient times, over the left shoulder only, hanging down before and behind; by priests, over both shoulders, hanging down in front only, and was formerly crossed on the breast and passed through the girdle at the waist; bishops have always worn it over both shoulders, and not crossed. It was once considered in some sort as a mark of authority, and as peculiarly appropriate to preachers; thus the sub-deacon wore no stole, because he had no authority to preach the Gospel in public. So in the Roman Catholic Church at the present day, when a number of clergymen are assembled together, except on a few extraordinary occasions, no person wears the stole but the presiding or principal clergyman, and the person who preaches or officiates. The stole was originally a linen handkerchief used for wiping the face, but being afterwards made of embroidered silk and other rich materials, it was retained as a decoration. Previous to the Reformation, the stole was one of the vestments used in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and consequently, in preaching also, but not at vespers or the ordinary services. The authorities for these statements are Paley's Gothic Architecture, the Oxford Manual for Brasses, Popular Tracts illustrating the Prayer-book, No. 2., and An Explanation of the Construction, &c., of a Catholic Church.
Smoke-money (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—It may contribute to answering B.'s Query, to know that smoke-pennies are also yearly levied from most of the inhabitants of the New Forest, and understood by them to be an indication for their right of cutting peat in the waste of the forest.
Common, Mutual, Reciprocal.—1. What is equally related to A., B., (C., &c.), is common to them.
2. What A. and B. entertain, feel, do, &c. towards one another, is said to be mutual.
3. What A. entertains, feels, does, &c. to B. in return for the same entertained, felt, done, &c. by B. towards him, is said to be reciprocal. Thus:
1. A., B., (C., &c.), have a common friend X.
2. A. and B. entertain a mutual esteem for each other.
3. B. has a regard for A., and A. has a reciprocal regard for B.
In the passage quoted by Mr. Gatty (Vol. i., p. 440.), I think, with deference to the eminent historian whom he cites, that reciprocal should have been written instead of mutual.
Juice Cups.—Should no more satisfactory Reply to the Query of N.B. (Vol. ii., p. 89.) present itself, the following suggestions may be acceptable to him. Without pretending to professional knowledge on the point, I conceive that the use of an inverted cup in the centre of a fruit pie is two-fold. It answers the purpose of supporting the crust, which, being usually thin and light, has but little strength in itself, probably less than that of a meat pie, while, by the shrinking of the fruit in baking it is left unsupported: and it further serves, not indeed as some good ladies seem to suppose, to increase the quantity of juice, but to keep a portion of it in reserve; so that the pie may not become too dry when a few spoonfuls of its more liquid contents have been taken out. {175} This, I conceive, it effects in the following manner. It contains, when inserted, a considerable quantity of cold air. This expands as the pie is heated in the oven, until it drives out from under the cup all, or nearly all, of the fluid that has originally collected under it; and then, continuing to expand, much of the air escapes through the air-holes of the pie into the oven. As the pie cools, the portion of air remaining under the cup, and which, while heated, was sufficient to fill it, contracts; and then the pressure of the external atmosphere, entering through the air-holes of the pie, and acting upon the surface of the juice round about the cup, forces a portion of it into the cup, just on the same principle that water rises into the chamber or cylinder of a pump when a partial vacuum is formed in it. Having once risen into the cup, the same law of hydrostatic pressure keeps it there until the cup is raised sufficiently to admit air under its edge, when the juice of course escapes.
Curfew (Vol. ii., p. 103.).—Your correspondent Naboc will find the information he seeks upon this subject in a valuable communication to the Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. iv. p. 133, by Mr. Syer Cuming. To Mr. C.'s list may be added, Charter House, London; Newport, S.W.; and Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Derivation of Totnes.—From the Anglo-Saxon toten or totten, to project, to rise above, and ness or nes, nose, (French nez, German nase, Latin nasus). Tooting, Tottenham, &c.
Dogs in Monuments.—S.S.S. (Vol. i., p. 405.) is informed that a dog, at the feet of monumental effigies of females, is as common as a lion accompanying male figures. It is most probable that the dog was meant to represent affection, fidelity, &c., just as the lion signified courage, generosity, &c. There are, however, some instances (Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, Ingham, Norfolk) where the dog's name is inscribed; and then it was doubtless the intention to give a favourite pet the honour of a monument, that of itself, as well as of its mistress, should "witness live in brass."
It is long since the students of English Archæology received a more welcome or valuable addition to their libraries than the recently published Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver, and Lymne, in Kent, by Charles Roach Smith, F.S.A., illustrated by F.W. Fairholt, F.S.A. Originally intended to have been a volume confined to Richborough, of which the well-known collections of Mr. Rolfe were to form the basis, it has been wisely extended to Reculver and Lymne, and now forms, both in its literary and pictorial illustrations of those highly interesting localities, a most valuable and instructlve Memorial.
Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will sell on Wednesday, the 21st, and following Day, a rare interesting and valuable collection of Works, chiefly relating to the History of America, including an early edition of the Celebrated Letter of Columbus, some curious Books relating to the Quakers and Brownists, &c.
We have received the following Catalogue:—John Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue (Part CXIV., No. 8. for 1850) of Old and New Books.
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ACTIO IN HENRICUM GARNETUM, &c. London, 1607.
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Farmer's Magazine and Monthly Journal of Proceedings affecting the Agricultural Interest (Old Series), 8vo. The Number for April, 1838.
New England Judged not by Man's but by the Spirit of the Lord: and the Summe sealed up of New England's Persecutions, &c. by George Bishope, 8vo. From page 152 to the end.
A Thousand Notable Things of Sundrie Sorts, whereof some are wonderfull, some strang, some pleasant, &c. Printed by John Haviland, 12mo. From the beginning to page 27, and pages 281 to 285.
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De Baldoc's Query in our next.
Pray Remember the Grotto. Several Correspondents who have applied to us respecting the origin of this now popular cry, are referred to No. 1., p. 5., for a very probable explanation of it.
B.M.E.H. We believe a Life of St. Philip Neri, who founded the Order of the Oratory in 1574, has been published by Richardson of Fleet Street.
THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for AUGUST Price 2s. 6d., Contains,
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