Title: Notes and Queries, Number 36, July 6, 1850
Author: Various
Release date: September 3, 2004 [eBook #13361]
Most recently updated: December 18, 2020
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Jon Ingram, David King, the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team and The Internet Library of Early Journals,
No. 36. | SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1850 | Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. |
NOTES:— | Page |
Further Notes on Derivation of the Word "News", by Samuel Hickson | 81 |
More Borrowed Thoughts, by S. W. Singer | 82 |
Strangers in the House of Commons, by C. Ross | 83 |
Folk Lore:—High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity, by C Forbes | 84 |
The Hydro-Incubator, by H. Kersley | 84 |
Etymology of the Word "Parliament" | 85 |
"Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim," by C. Forbes and T. H. Friswell | 85 |
A Note of Admiration! | 86 |
The Earl of Norwich and his Son George Lord Goring, by CH. and Lord Braybooke | 86 |
QUERIES:— | Page |
James Carkasse's Lucida Intervalla | 87 |
Minor Queries:—Epigrams on the Universities—Lammas'Day—Mother Grey's Apples—Jewish Music—The Plant "Haemony"—Ventriloquism—Epigram on Statue of French King—Lux fiat-Hiring of Servants—Book of Homilies—Collar of SS.—Rainbow—Passage in Lucan—William of Wykeham—Richard Baxter's Descendants—Passage in St. Peter—Juicecups—Derivation of "Yote" or "Yeot"—Pedigree of Greene Family—Family of Love—Sir Gammer Vans | 87 |
REPLIES:— | Page |
Punishment of Death by Burning | 90 |
To give a Man Horns, by C. Forbes and J.E.B. Mayor | 90 |
Replies to Minor Queries:—Shipster—Three Dukes—Bishops and their Precedence—Why Moses represented with Horns—Leicester and the reputed Poisoners of his Time—New Edition of Milton—Christian Captives—Borrowed Thoughts—North Sides of Churchyards—Monastery—Churchyards—Epitaphs—Umbrellas—English Translations of Erasmus—Chantrey's Sleeping Children, & c. | 91 |
MISCELLANIES:— | Page |
Separation of the Sexes in Time of Divine Service—Error in Winstanley's Loyal Martyrology—Preaching in Nave only | 94 |
MISCELLANEOUS:— | Page |
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, Sales, & c. | 95 |
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted | 95 |
Notices to Correspondents | 95 |
Advertisements | 96 |
Without being what the Germans would call a purist, I cannot deem it an object of secondary importance to defend the principles of the law and constitution of the English language. For the adoption of words we have no rule; and we act just as our convenience or necessity dictates: but in their formation we must strictly conform to the laws we find established. Your correspondents C.B. and A.E.B. (Vol. ii., p. 23.) seem to me strangely to misconceive the real point at issue between us. To a question by the latter, why I should attempt to derive "News" indirectly from a German adjective, I answer, because in its transformation into a German noun declined as an adjective, it gives the form which I contend no English process will give. The rule your correspondents deduce from this, neither of them, it appears, can understand. As I am not certain that their deduction is a correct one, I beg to express it in my own words as follows:—There is no such process known to the English language as the formation of a noun-singular out of an adjective by the addition of "s": neither is there any process known by which a noun-plural can be formed from an adjective, without the previous formation of the singular in the same sense; except in such cases as "the rich, the poor, the noble," &c., where the singular form is used in a plural sense. C.B. instances "goods, the shallows, blacks, for mourning, greens." To the first of these I have already referred; "shallow" is unquestionably a noun-singular; and to the remaining instances the following remarks will apply.
As it should be understood that my argument applies solely to the English language, I think I might fairly take exception to a string of instances with which A.E.B. endeavours to refute me from a vocabulary of a language very expressive, no doubt, yet commonly called "slang". The words in question are not English: I never use them myself, nor do I recognise the right or necessity for any one else to do so; and I might, indeed, deem this a sufficient answer. But the fact is that the language in some degree is losing its instincts, and liberties are taken with it now that it would not have allowed in its younger days. Have we not seen participial adjectives made from nouns? I shall therefore waive my objection, and answer by saying that there is no analogy between the instances given and the case in point. They are, one and all, elliptical expressions signifying "black clothes, green vegetables, tight pantaloons, heavy dragoons, odd chances," &c. "Blacks" and "whites" are not in point, the singular of either being quite as admissible as the plural. The rule, if it be worth while to lay down a rule for the formation of such vulgarisms, appears {82} to be that characteristic adjective, in constant conjunction with a noun in common use, may be used alone, the noun being understood. Custom has limited in some measure the use of these abridged titles to classes or collective bodies, and the adjective takes the same form that the noun itself would have had; but, in point of fact, it would be just as good English to say "a heavy" as "the heavies" and they all become unintelligible when we lose sight of the noun to which they belong. If A.E.B. should assert that a glass of "cold without," because, by those accustomed to indulge in such potations, it was understood to mean "brandy and cold water, without sugar," was really a draught from some "well of purest English undefil'd," the confusion of ideas could not be more complete.
Indeed, I very much doubt whether our word "News" contains the idea of "new" at all. It is used with us to mean intelligence and the phrases, "Is there any thing new?" and "Is there any news?" present, in my opinion, two totally distinct ideas to the English mind in its ordinary mechanical action. "Intelligence" is not necessarily "new", nor indeed is "News:" in the oldest dictionary I possess, Baret's Alvearie, 1573, I find "Olde newes or stale newes." A.E.B. is very positive that "news" is plural, and he cites the "Cardinal of York" to prove it. All that I can say is, that I think the Cardinal of York was wrong: and A.E.B. thought so too, when his object was not to confound me, as may be seen by his own practice in bloc concluding paragraph of his communication:—"The newes WAS of the victory," &c. The word "means," on the other hand, is beyond all dispute plural. What says Shakspeare?
"Yet nature is made letter by no mean
But nature makes that mean."
The plural was formed by the addition of "s:" yet from the infrequent use of the word except in the plural, the singular form has become obsolete, and the same form applies now to both numbers. Those who would apply this reasoning to "News," forget that there is the slight difficulty of the absence of the noun "new" to start from.
I do not feel bound to furnish proof of so obvious a fact, that many of the most striking similarities in language are mere coincidences. Words derived from the same root, and retaining the same meaning, frequently present the most dissimilar appearance, as "evêque" and "bishop;" and the most distant roots frequently meet in the same word. When your correspondents, therefore, remind me that there is a French word, noise, I must remind them that it contains not one element of our English word. Richardson gives the French word, but evidently discards it, preferring the immediate derivation from "noy, that which noies or annoys." I confess I do not understand his argument; but it was referring to this that I said that our only known process would make a plural noun of it. I have an impression that I have met with "annoys" used by poetical license for "annoyances."
"Noise" has never been used in the sense of the French word in this country. If derived immediately from the French, it is hardly probable that it should so entirely have lost every particle of its original meaning. With us it is either a loud sound, or fame, report, rumour, being in this sense rendered in the Latin by the same two words, fama, rumor, as News. The former sense is strictly consequential to the latter, which I believe to be the original signification, as shown in its use in the following passages:—
"At the same time it was noised abroad in the realme"
Holinshed.
Cleopatra, catching but the least noise of this, dies
instantly.
Ant. and Cleo., Act i. Sc. 2.
Cre. What was his cause of anger?
Ser. The noise goes, this.
Troil. and Cres., Act. i. Sc. 2.
Whether I or your correspondents be right, will remain perhaps for ever doubtful; but the flight that can discover a relationship between this word and another pronounced1 as nearly the same as the two languages will admit of, and which gives at all events one sense, if not, as I think, the primary one, is scarcely so eccentric as that which finds the origin of a word signifying a loud sound, and fame, or rumor, in "nisus"; not even struggle, in the sense of contention, an endeavour an effort, a strain.
St. John's Wood, June 15, 1850.
Footnote 1:(return)I do not think it necessary, here, to defend my pronunciation of German; the expressions I now use being sufficient for the purpose of my argument. I passed over CH.'s observation on this subject, because it did not appear to me to touch the question.
O many are the poets that are sown
By nature men endowed with highest gifts,
The vision and the facility divine,
Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse,
Nor having e'er, as life advanced, been led
by circumstance to take the height,
The measure of themselves, &c.
This admired passage has its prototype in the following from the Lettere di Battista Guarini, who points to a thought of similar kind in Dante:—
"O quante nolili ingegni si perdono che riuscerebbe mirabili [in poesia] se dal seguir le inchinazione loro non fossero, ò dà loro appetiti ò da i Padri loro sviati."
Coleridge, in his Bibliographia Literaria, 1st ed., vol. i. p. 28., relates a story of some one who desired {83} to be introduced to him, but hesitated because he asserted that he had written an epigram on "The Ancient Mariner," which Coleridge had himself written and inserted in The Morning Post, to this effect:—
"Your poem must eternal be
Dear Sir! it cannot fail;
For 'tis incomprehensible,
And without head or tail."
This was, however, only a Gadshill robbery,—stealing stolen goods. The following epigram is said to be by Mr. Hole, in a MS. collection made by Spence (penes me), and it appeared first in print in Terræ Filius, from whence Dr. Salter copied it in his Confusion worse Confounded, p. 88:—
"Thy verses are eternal, O my friend!
For he who reads them, reads them to no end."
In The Crypt, a periodical published by the late Rev. P. Hall, vol. i. p. 30., I find the following attributed to Coleridge, but I know not on what authority, as it does not appear among his collected poems:—
JOB'S LUCK, BY S. T. COLERIDGE, ESQ.
"Sly Beelzebub took all occasions
To try Job's constancy and patience;
He took his honours, took his health,
He took his children, took his wealth,
His camels, horses, asses, cows,—
Still the sly devil did not take his spouse.
"But heav'n, that brings out good from evil,
And likes to disappoint the devil,
Had predetermined to restore
Two-fold of all Job had before,
His children, camels, asses, cows,—
Short-sighted devil, not to take his spouse."
This is merely an amplified version of the 199th epigram of the 3d Book of Owen:
"Divitias Jobo, sobolemque, ipsamque salutem
Abstulit (hoc Domino non prohibens) Satan.
Omnibus ablatis, miserò, tamen una superstes,
Quae magis afflictum redderet, uxor erat."
Of this there are several imitations in French, three of which are given in the Epigrammes Choisies d'Owen, par M. de Kerivalant, published by Labouisse at Lyons in 1819.
Mickleham, 1850.
As far as my observation extends, i.e. the last thirty-one years, no alteration has taken place in the practice of the House of Commons with respect to the admission of strangers. In 1844 the House adopted the usual sessional order regarding strangers, which I transcribe, inserting within brackets the only material words added by Mr. Christie in 1845:—
"That the Serjeant-at-Arms attending this house do, from time to time, take into his custody any stranger or strangers that he shall see or be informed of to be in the house or gallery [appropriated to the members of this house, and also any stranger who, having been admitted into any other part of the house or gallery, shall misconduct himself, or shall not withdraw when strangers are directed to withdraw] while the House or any committee of the whole House is sitting, and that no person so taken into custody be discharged out of custody without the special order of the House.
"That no member of the House do presume to bring any stranger or strangers into the house, or the gallery thereof, while the House is sitting."
This order appears to have been framed at a time when there was no separate gallery exclusively appropriated to strangers, and when they were introduced by members into the gallery of what is called the "body of the house." This state of things had passed away: and for a long series of years strangers had been admitted to a gallery in the House of Commons in the face of the sessional order, by which your correspondent CH. imagines their presence was "absolutely prohibited."
When I speak of strangers being admitted, it must not be supposed that this was done by order of the House. No, every thing relating to the admission of strangers to, and their accommodation in the House of Commons, is effected by some mysterious agency for which no one is directly responsible. Mr. Barry has built galleries for strangers in the new house; but if the matter were made a subject of inquiry, it probably would puzzle him to state under what authority he has acted.
Mr. Christie wished to make the sessional order applicable to existing circumstances; and, it may be, he desired to draw from the House a direct sanction for the admission of strangers. In the latter purpose, however, if he ever entertained it, he failed. The wording of his amendment is obscure, but necessarily so. The word "gallery," as employed by him, can only refer to the gallery appropriated to members of the House; but he intended it to apply to the strangers' gallery. The order should have run thus, "admitted into any other part of the house, or into the gallery appropriated to strangers;" but Mr. Christie well knew that the House would not adopt those words, because they contain an admission that strangers are present whilst the House is sitting, whereas it is a parliamentary fiction that they are not. If a member in debate should inadvertently allude to the possibility of his observations being heard by a stranger, the Speaker would immediately call him to order; yet at other times the right honourable gentleman will listen complacently to discussions {84} arising out of the complaints of members that strangers will not publish to the world all that they hear pass in debate. This is one of the consistencies resulting from the determination of the House not expressly to recognise the presence of strangers; but, after all, I am not aware that any practical inconvenience flows from it. The non-reporting strangers occupy a gallery at the end of the house immediately opposite the Speaker's chair; but the right hon. gentleman, proving the truth of the saying, "None so blind as he who will not see," never perceives them until just as a division is about to take place, when he invariably orders them to withdraw. When a member wishes to exclude strangers he addresses the Speaker, saying, "I think, Sir, I see a stranger or strangers in the house," whereupon the Speaker instantly directs strangers to withdraw. The Speaker issues his order in these words:—"Strangers must withdraw."
Strangers in the House of Commons.—As a rider to the notice of CH. in "NOTES AND QUERIES," it may be well to quote for correction the following remarks in a clever article in the last Edinburgh Review, on Mr. Lewis' Authority in Matters of Opinion. The Reviewer says (p. 547.):—
"This practice (viz., of publishing the debates in the House of Commons) which, &c., is not merely unprotected by law—it is positively illegal. Even the presence of auditors is a violation of the standing orders of the House."
High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity or Death:—
1. "How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry! which their keepers call
A lightning before death."
Romeo and Juliet, Act v. Sc. 3.
2. "C'était le jour de Noel [1759]. Je m'étais levé d'assez bonne heure, et avec une humeur plus gaie que de coutume. Dans les idées de vieille femme, cela présage toujours quelque chose do triste.... Pour cette fois pourtunt le hasard justifia la croyance."—Mémoires de J. Casanova, vol. iii p. 29.
3. "Upon Saturday last ... the Duke did rise up, in a well-disposed humour, out of his bed, and cut a caper or two.... Lieutenant Felton made a thrust with a common tenpenny knife, over Fryer's arm at the Duke, which lighted so fatally, that he slit his heart in two, leaving the knife sticking in the body."—Death of Duke of Buckingham; Howell. Fam. Letters, Aug. 5, 1628.
4. "On this fatal evening [Feb. 20, 1435], the revels of the court were kept up to a late hour ... the prince himself appears to have been in unusually gay and cheerful spirits. He even jested, if we may believe the cotemporary manuscript, about a prophecy which had declared that a king should that year be slain."—Death of King James I.; Tytler, Hist. Scotland, vol. iii. p. 306.
5. "'I think,' said the old gardener to one of the maids, 'the gauger's fie;' by which word the common people express those violent spirits which they think a presage of death."—Guy Mannering, chap. 9.
6. "H.W.L." said: "I believe the bodies of the four persons seen by the jury, were those of G.B., W.B., J.B., and T.B. On Friday night they were all very merry, and Mrs. B. said she feared something would happen before they went to bed, because they were so happy."—Evidence given at inquest on bodies of four persons killed by explosion of firework-manufactory in Bermondsey, Friday, Oct. 12, 1849. See Times, Oct. 17, 1849.
Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6, are evidently notices of the Belief; Nos. 3, 4, are "what you will." Many of your correspondents may be able to supply earlier and more curious illustrations.
June 19.
Most, if not all, of your readers have heard of the newly-invented machine for hatching and rearing in chickens, without the maternal aid of the hen; probably many of them have paid a visit (and a shilling) at No. 4. Leicester Square, where the incubator is to be seen in full operation. The following extract will, therefore, be acceptable, as it tends to show the truth of the inspired writer's words, "There is no new thing under the sun:"—
"Therefore ... it were well we made our remarks in some creatures, that might be continually in our power, to observe in them the course of nature, every day and hour. Sir John Heydon, the Lieutenant of his Majesties Ordnance (that generous and knowing gentleman and consummate souldier, both in theory and practice) was the first that instructed me how to do this, by means of a furnace, so made as to imitate the warmth of a sitting hen. In which you may lay several eggs to hatch and by breaking them at several ages, you may distinctly observe every hourly mutation in them, if you please. The first will be, that on one side you shall find a great resplendent clearness in the white. After a while, a little spot of red matter, like blood will appear in the midst of that clearness, fast'ned to the yolk, which will have a motion of opening and shutting, so as sometimes you will see it, and straight again it will vanish from your sight, and indeed, at first it is so little that you cannot see it, but by the motion of it; for at every pulse, as it opens you may see it, and immediately again it shuts, in such sort as it is not to be discerned. From this red speck, after a while, there will stream out a number of little (almost imperceptible) red veins. At the end of some of which, in time, there will be gathered together a knot of matter, which by little and little will take the form of a head and you will, ere long, begin to discern eyes and a beak in it. All this while the first red spot of blood grows bigger and solider, till at length it becomes {85} a fleshy substance, and, by its figure, may easily be discern'd to be the heart; which as yet hath no other inclosure but the substance of the egg. But by little and little, the rest of the body of an animal is framed out of those red veins which stream out all about from the heart. And in process of time, that body encloses the heart within it by the chest, which grows over on both sides, and in the end meets and closes itself fast together. After which this little creature soon fills the shell, by converting into several parts of itself all the substance of the egg; and then growing weary of so strait a habitation, it breaks prison and comes out a perfectly formed chicken."—Sir Kenelm Digby's Treatise of Bodies, Ch. xxiv. p. 274. ed. 1669.
Could Sir Kenelm return to the scenes of this upper world, and pay a visit to Mr. Cantelo's machine, his shade might say with truthfulness, what Horace Smith's mummy answered to his questioner,—
"—We men of yore
Were versed in all the knowledge you can mention."
The operations of the two machines appear to be precisely the same: the only difference being the Sir Kenelm's was an experimental one, made for the purpose of investigating the process of nature; while Cantelo's, in accordance with "the spirit of the iron time," is a practical one, made for the purposes of utility and profit. Sir Kenelm's Treatise appears to have been first published in the year 1644.
Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone.
It has been observed by a learned annotator on the Commentaries of Blackstone, that, "no inconsiderable pains have been bestowed in analysing the word 'Parliament;'" and after adducing several amusing instances of the attempts that have been made (and those too by men of the most recondite learning) to arrive at its true radical properties, he concludes his remarks by observing that
"'Parliament' imported originally nothing more than a council or conference, and that the termination 'ment,' in parliament, has no more signification than it has in impeachment, engagement, imprisonment, hereditament, and ten thouand others of the same nature."
He admits, however, that the civilians have, in deriving testament from testari mentem, imparted a greater significance to the termination "ment." Amidst such diversity of opinion, I am emboldened to offer a solution of the word "Parliament," which, from its novelty alone, if possessing no better qualification, may perhaps recommend itself to the consideration of your readers. In my humble judgment, all former etymologists of the word appear to have stumbled in limine, for I would suggest that its compounds are "palam" and "mens."
With the Romans there existed a law that in certain cases the verdict of the jury might be given CLAM VEL PALAM, viz., privily or openly, or in other words, by tablet or ballot, or by voices. Now as the essence of a Parliament or council of the people was its representative character, and as secrecy would be inconsistent with such a character, it was doubtless a sine quâ non that its proceedings should be conducted "palam," in an open manner. The absence of the letter "r" may possibly be objected to, but a moment's reflection will cast it into the shade, the classical pronunciation of the word palam being the same as if spelt PARlam; and the illiterate state of this country when the word Parliament was first introduced would easily account for a phonetic style of orthography. The words enumerated by Blackstone's annotator are purely of English composition, and have no correspondent in the dead languages; whilst testament, sacrament, parliament, and many others, are Latin words Anglicised by dropping the termination "um"—a great distinction as regards the relative value of words, which the learned annotator seems to have overlooked. "Mentum" is doubtless the offspring of "mens", signifying the mind, thought, deliberation, opinion; and as we find "palam populo" to mean "in the sight of the people," so, without any great stretch of imagination, may we interpret "palam mente" into "freedom of thought or of deliberation" or "an open expression of opinion:" the essential qualities of a representative system, and which our ancestors have been careful to hand down to posterity in a word, viz., Parliament.
I should be sorry to see this fine old proverb in metaphor passed over with no better notice than that which seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's Johnson.
Erasmophilos, a correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine in 1774, quotes a passage from Dr. Jortin's Life of Erasmus, vol. ii. p. 151., which supplies the following particulars, viz.:—
1. That the line was first discovered by Galeottus Martius of Narni, A.D. 1476.
2. That it is in lib. v. 301. of the "Alexandreis," a poem in ten books, by Philippe Gualtier (commonly called "de Chatillon," though in reality a native of Lille, in Flanders).
3. That the context of the passage in which it occurs is as follows:—
"— Quo tendis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis
Quem fugias: hostes incurris dum fugis hostem.
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim."
where the poet apostrophises Darius, who, while {86} flying from Alexander, fell into the lands of Bessus. (See Selections from Gent. Mag. vol. ii. p. 199. London, 1814.)
This celebrated Latin verse, which has become proverbial, has a very obscure authority, probably not known to many of your readers. It is from Gualtier de Lille, as has been remarked by Galeottus Martius and Paquier in their researches. This Gualtier flourished in the thirteenth century. The verse is extracted from a poem in ten books, called the "Alexandriad," and it is the 301st of the 5th book; it relates to the fate of Darius, who, flying from Alexander, fell into the hands of Bessus. It runs thus:—
"— Quo flectis inertem
Rex periture, fugam? Nescis, heu perdite, nescis,
Quem fugias; hostes incurris dum fugis hostem;
Incidis in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim"
As honest JOHN BUNYAN, to his only bit of Latin which he quotes, places a marginal note: "The Latin which I borrow,"—a very honest way; so I I beg to say that I never saw this "Alexandriad," and that the above is an excerpt from Menagiana, pub. 1715, edited by Bertrand de la Monnoie, wherein may also be found much curious reading and research.
Sir Walter Scott, in a letter to Miss Johanna Baillie, dated October 12, 1825, (Lockhart's Life of Sir W. S., vol. vi. p. 82.), says,—
"I well intended to have written from Ireland, but alas! as some stern old divine says, 'Hell is paved with good intentions.' There was such a whirl of laking, and boating, and wondering, and shouting, and laughing, and carousing—" [He alludes to his visiting among the Westmoreland and Cumberland lakes on his way home, especially] "so much to be seen, and so little time to see it; so much to be heard, and only two ears to listen to twenty voices, that upon the whole I grew desperate, and gave up all thoughts of doing what was right and proper on post-days, and so all my epistolary good intentions are gone to Macadamise, I suppose, 'the burning marle' of the infernal regions."
How easily a showy absurdity is substituted for a serious truth, and taken for granted to be the right sense. Without having been there, I may venture to affirm that "Hell is not paved with good intentions, such things being all lost or dropt on the way by travellers who reach that bourne;" for, where "Hope never comes," "good intentions" cannot exist any more than they can be formed, since to fulfil them were impossible. The authentic and emphatical figure in the saying is, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions;" and it was uttered by the "stern old divine," whoever he might be, as a warning not to let "good intentions" miscarry for want of being realized at the time and upon the spot. The moral, moreover, is manifestly this, that people may be going to hell with "the best intentions in the world," substituting all the while well-meaning for well-doing.
Hallamshire.
As in small matters accuracy is of vital consequence, let me correct a mistake which I made, writing in a hurry, in my last communication about the two Gorings (Vol. ii., p. 65.). The Earl of Norwich was not under sentence of death, as is there stated, on January 8, 1649. He was then a prisoner: he was not tried and sentenced till March.2
The following notice of the son's quarrels with his brother cavaliers occurs in a letter printed in Carte's bulky appendix to his bulky Life of the Duke of Ormond. As this is an unread book, you may think it worth while to print the passage, which is only confirmatory of Clarendon's account of the younger Goring's proceedings in the West of England in 1645. The letter is from Arthur Trevor to Ormond, and dated Launceston, August 18, 1645.
"Mr. Goring's army is broken and all his men in disorder. He hates the council here, and I find plainly there is no love lost; they fear he will seize on the Prince, and he, that they will take him: what will follow hereupon may be foretold, without the aid of the wise woman on the bank. Sir John Colepeper was at Court lately to remove him, to the discontent of many. In short, the war is at an end in the West; each one looks for a ship, and nothing more.
"Lord Digby and Mr. Goring are not friends; Prince Rupert yet goes with Mr. Goring, but how long that will hold, I dare not undertake, knowing both their constitutions."
It will be observed that the writer of the letter, though a cavalier, here calls him Mr. Goring, when as his father was created Earl of Norwich in the previous year, he was Lord Goring in cavalier acceptation.
He is indiscriminately called Mr. Goring and Lord Goring in passages of letters by cavaliers relating to the campaign in the West of 1645, which occur in Carte's Collection of Letters (vol. i. pp. 59, 60. 81. 86.).
A number of letters about the son, Lord Goring's proceedings in the West in 1645 are printed in the third volume of Mr. Lister's Life of Lord Clarendon.
The Earl of Norwich's second son, Charles, who afterwards succeeded as second earl, commanded a {87} brigade under his brother in the West in 1645. (Bulstrode's Memoirs, p. 142.; Carte's Letters, i. 116. 121.)
Some account of the father, Earl of Norwich's operations against the parliament in Essex in 1648, is given in a curious autobiography of Arthur Wilson, the author of the History of James I., which is printed in Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, book xi. part 5. Wilson was living at the time in Essex.
An interesting fragment of a letter from Goring the son to the Earl of Dorset, written apparently as he was on the point of retiring into France, and dated Pondesfred, January 26, 1646, is printed in Mr. Eliot Warburton's Memoirs of Prince Rupert, iii. 215.
Mr. Warburton, by the way, clearly confounds the father with the son when he speaks of the Earl of Norwich's trial and reprieve (iii. 408.). Three letters printed in Mr. W.'s second volume (pp. 172. 181, 182.), and signed "Goring", are probably letters of the father's, but given by Mr. Warburton to the son.
I perceive also that Mr. Bell, the editor of the lately published Fairfax Correspondence, has not avoided confusion between the father and son. In the first volume of the correspondence relating to the civil war (p. 281.), the editor says, under date January, 1646,—
"Lord Hopton in the meanwhile has been appointed to the command in Cornwall, superseding Goring. Also has been sent off on several negociations to France."
Goring went off to France on his own account; his father was at that time Charles I.'s ambassador at the court of France.
I should like to know the year in which a letter of Goring the son's, printed by Mr. Bell in vol. i. p. 23., was written, if it can be ascertained. As printed, it is dated "Berwick, June 22." Is Berwick right? Is there a bath there? The letter is addressed to Sir Constantine Huygens, and in it is this passage—
"I have now my lameness so much renewed that I cannot come to clear myself; as soon as the bath has restored me to my strength, I shall employ it in his Highness's service, if he please to let me return into the same place of his favour that I thought myself happy in before."
I should expect that this letter was written from France after Goring's abrupt retreat into that country. It is stated that the letter comes from Mr. Bentley's collection.
The Earl of Norwich was in Flanders in November 1569, and accompanied the Dukes of York and Gloucester from Brussels to Breda. (Carte's Letters, ii. 282.)
If the following account of the Goring family given by Banks (Dormant and Extinct Peerage, vol. iii. p. 575.) is correct, it will appear that the father and both his sons were styled at different times. "Lord Goring," and that they may very easily be distinguished.
"George Goring, of Hurstpierpont, Sussex, the son of George Goring, and Anne his wife, sister to Edward Lord Denny, afterwards Earl of Norwich, was created Baron Goring in the fourth of Charles I., and in the xxth of the same reign advanced to the earldom of Norwich, which had become extinct by the death of his maternal uncle above-mentioned, S.P.M.
"He betrayed Portsmouth, of which he was governor, to the king, and rendered him many other signal services. He married Mary, one of the daughters of Edward Nevill, vith Baron of Abergavenny, and had issue four daughters, and two sons, the eldest of whom, George, was an eminent commander for Charles I., and best known as 'General Goring,' and who, after the loss of the crown to his royal master, retired to the Continent, and served with credit as lieutenant-general to the King of Spain. He married Lettice, daughter of Richard Earl of Cork, and died abroad, S.P., in the lifetime of his father, who survived till 1662, and was succeeded by his only remaining son, Charles Lord Goring, and second Earl of Norwich, with whom, as he left no issue by his wife, daughter of —— Leman, and widow of Sir Richard Beker, all his honours became extinct in 1672. He was unquestionably the Lord Goring noticed by Pepys as returning to England in 1660, and not the old peer his father, who, if described by any title, would have been styled 'Earl of Norwich.'"
July 1, 1850.
Footnote 2:(return)Let me also correct a misprint. Banks, the author of the Dormant and Extinct Perrage, is misprinted Burke.
I met lately with a quarto volume of poems printed at London in 1679, entitled:
"Lucida Intevalla containing divers miscellaneous Poems written at Finsbury and Bethlem, by the Doctor's Patient Extraordinary."
On the title-page was written in an old hand the native of the "patient extraordinary" and author James Carkasse, and that of the "doctor" Thomas Allen. A little reading convinced me that the writer was a very fit subject for a lunatic asylum; but at page 5, I met with an allusion to the celebrated Mr. Pepys, which I will beg to quote:—
"Get thee behind me then, dumb devil, begone,
The Lord hath eppthatha said to my tongue,
Him I must praise who open'd hath my lips,
Sent me from Navy, to the Ark, by Pepys;
By Mr. Pepys, who hath my rival been
For the Duke's3 favour, more than years thirteen;
But I excluded, he high and fortunate,
This Secretary I could never mate;
{88}But Clerk of th' Acts, if I'm a parson, then
I shall prevail, the voice outdoes the pen;
Though in a gown, this challenge I may make,
And wager win, save if you can, your stake.
To th' Admiral I all submit, and vail—"
The book from which I extract is cropped, so that the last line is illegible. Can the noble editor of Pepys' Diary, or any of your readers, inform me who and what was this Mr. James Carkasse?
W.B.R.
Epigrams on the Universities.—There are two clever epigrams on the circumstance, I believe, of Charles I. sending a troop of horse to one of the universities, about the same time that he presented some books to the other.
The sting of the first, if I recollect right, is directed against the university to which the books were sent, the king—
"—right well discerning,
How much that loyal body wanted learning."
The reply which this provoked, is an attack on the other university, the innuendo being that the troops were sent there—
"Because that learned body wanted loyalty."
I quote from memory.
Can any of your readers, through the medium of your valuable paper, favour me with the correct version of the epigrams, and with the particular circumstances which gave rise to them?
Norwich.
Lammas Day.—Why was the 1st of August called "Lammas Day?" Two definitions are commonly given to the word "Lammas." 1. That it may mean Loaf-mass. 2. That it may be a word having some allusion to St. Peter, as the patron of Lambs.
O'Halloran, however, in his History of Ireland, favours us with another definition; upon the value of which I should be glad of the opinion of some of your learned contributors. Speaking of Lughaidh, he says:—
"From this prince the month of August was called Lughnas (Lunas), from which the English adopted the name Lammas, for the 1st day of August."
Mother Grey's Apples.—At the time I was a little girl,—you will not, I am sure, be ungallant enough to inquire when that was, when I tell you I am now a woman,—I remember that the nursery maid, whose duty it was to wait upon myself and sisters, invariably said, if she found us out of temper—"So, so! young ladies, you are in the sulks, eh? Well, sulk away; you'll be like 'Mother Grey's apples,' you'll be sure to come round again." We often inquired, on the return of fine weather, who Mother Grey was, and what were the peculiar circumstances of the apples coming round?—questions, however, which were always evaded. Now, as the servant was a Cambridge girl, and had a brother a gyp, or bedmaker, at one of the colleges, besides her uncle keeping the tennis court there, I have often thought there must have been some college legend or tradition in Alma Mater, of Mother Grey and her apples. Will any of your learned correspondents, should it happen to fall within their knowledge, take pity on the natural curiosity of the sex, by furnishing its details?
Jewish Music.—What was the precise character of the Jewish music, both before and after David? And what variety of musical instruments had the Jews?
The Plant "Haemony."—Can any of your readers furnish information of, or reference to the plant Haemony, mentioned in Milton's Comus, l. 638.:—
"—a small unsightly root,
But of divine effect,...
The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it,
But in another country, as he said,
Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:
—More medicinal is it than that Moly,
That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave;
He called it Haemony, and gave it me,
And bade me keep it as of sov'reign use
'Gainst all enchantments," &c. &c.
The Moly that Hermes to Ulysses gave, is the wild garlick, [Greek: molu] by some thought the wild rue. (Odyss. b. x. 1. 302.) It is the [Greek: moluza] of Hippocrates, who recommends it to be eaten as an antidote against drunkenness. But of Haemony I have been unable to find any reference among our ordinary medical authorities, Paulus Aeginata, Celsus, Galen, or Dioscorides. A short note of reference would be very instructive to many of the readers of Milton.
17. Chester Street, Belgrave Square.
Ventriloquism.—What evidence is there, that ventriloquism was made use of in the ancient oracles? Was the [Greek: pneuma puthonos] (Acts, xvi. 16.) an example of the exercise of this art? Was the Witch of Endor a ventriloquist? or what is meant by the word [Greek: eggastrimuthos] at Isai. xix. 3., in the Septuagint?
"Plutarch informs us," says Rollin (Ancient History, vol. i. p. 65.), "that the god did not compose the verses of the oracle. He inflamed the Pythia's imagination, and kindled in her soul that living light which unveiled all futurity to her. The words she uttered in the heat of her enthusiam, having neither method nor connection, and coming only by starts, to use that expression [Greek: eggastrimuthos] from the bottom of her stomach, or rather from her belly, were collected {89} with care by the prophets, who gave them afterwards to the poets to be turned into verse."
If the Pythian priestess was really a ventriloquist, to what extent was she conscious of the deception she practised?
Statue of French King, Epigram on.—Can any of your readers inform me who was the author of the following epigram, written on the occasion of an equestrian statue of a French king attended by the Virtues being erected in Paris:—
"O la belle statue! O le beau Piedestal!
Les Vertus sont à pied, le Vice est à cheval!"
Lux Fiat.—Who was the first Christian or Jewish writer by whom lux fiat was referred to the creation of the angels?
Hiring of Servants.—At Maureuil, in the environs of Abbeville, a practice has long existed of hiring servants in the market-place on festival days. I have observed the same custom in various parts of England, and particularly in the midland counties. Can any of your correspondents inform me of the origin of this?
Havre.
Book of Homilies.—Burnet, in his History of the Reformation in anno 1542, says,—
"A Book of Homilies was printed, in which the Gospels and Epistles of all the Sundays and Holidays of the year were set down with a Homily to every one of these. To these were also added Sermons upon several occasions, as for Weddings, Christenings, and Funerals."
Can any learned clerk inform me where a copy of such Homilies can be seen?
Collar of SS.—Where can we find much about the SS. collar? Is there any list extant of persons who were honoured with that badge?
Rainbow.—By what heathen poet is the rainbow spoken of as "risus plorantis Olympi?"
Passage in Lucan.—What parallel passages are there to that of Lucan:—
"Communis mundo superest rogus, ossibus astra
Misturus?"
William of Wykeham.—Is there any better Life of William of Wykeham than the very insufficient one of Bishop Lowth?
What were the circumstances of the rise of William of Wykeham, respecting which Lowth is so very scanty and unsatisfactory?
Where did William of Wykeham get the wealth with which he built and endowed New College, Oxon, and St. Mary's, Winchester; and rebuilt Winchester Cathedral?
What are the present incomes of New College, and St Mary's, Winchester?
Is there a copy of the Statutes of these colleges in the British Museum, or in any other public library?
April 22, 1850.
Richard Baxter's Descendants.—Can any of your correspondents inform me of the whereabouts of the descendants of the celebrated Richard Baxter? He was a Northamptonshire man, but I think his family removed into some county in the west.
Passage in St. Peter.—Besides the well-known passage in the Tempest, what Christian writers have used any kindred expression to 2 Pet. iii. 10.?
8. Park Place, Oxford, June 1. 1850.
Juice-cups.—Is it beneath the dignity of "NOTES AND QUERIES" to admit an inquiry respecting the philosophy and real effect of placing an inverted cup in a fruit pie? The question is not about the object, but whether that object is, or can be, effected by the means employed.
Derivation of "Yote" or "Yeot."—What is the derivation of the word "yote" or "yeot," a term used in Glocestershire and Somersetshire, for "leading in" iron work to stone?
Pedigree of Greene Family.—At Vol. i., p. 200., reference is made to "a fine Pedigree on vellum, of the Greene family, penes T. Wotton, Esq."
Can any person inform me who now possesses the said pedigree, or is there a copy of it which may be consulted?
One John Greene, of Enfield, was clerk to the New River Company: he died 1705, and was buried at Enfield. He married Elizabeth Myddelton, grand-daughter of Sir Hugh. I wish to find out the birth and parentage of the said John Greene and shall be thankful, if I may say so much, without adding too much to the length of my Query.
Family of Love.—Referring to Dr. RIMBAULT'S communication on the subject of this sect (Vol. ii., p. 49.), will you allow me to inquire whether there is any evidence that its members deserved Fuller's severe condemnation? Queen Elizabeth might consider them a "damnable sect," if they were believed to hold heterodox opinions in religion and politics; but were their lives or their writings immoral?
Sir Gammer Vans.—Can any one give any account of a comic story about one "Sir Gammer Vans," of whom, amongst other absurdities, it is said "that his aunt was a justice of peace, and his sister a captain of horse"? It is alluded to somewhere {90} in Swift's Letters or Miscellanies; and I was told by a person whose recollection, added to my own, goes back near a hundred years, that it was supposed to be a political satire, and may have been of Irish origin, as I think there is some allusion to it in one of Goldsmith's plays or essays.
Probably some of the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" will share in the surprise expressed by E.S.S.W. (Vol. ii., p. 6.), yet many persons now living must remember when spectacles such as he alludes to were by no means uncommon. An examination of the newspapers and other periodicals of the latter half of the eighteenth century would supply numerous instances in which the punishment of strangling and burning was inflicted; as well in cases of petit treason, for the murder of a husband, as more frequently in cases of coining, which, as the law then stood, was one species of high treason. I had collected a pretty long list from the Historical Chronicle in the earlier volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine, but thought it scarcely of sufficient importance to merit insertion in "NOTES AND QUERIES." Perhaps, however, the following extracts may possess some interest: one as showing the manner in which executions of this kind were latterly performed in London, and the other as apparently furnishing an instance of later date than that which Mr. Ross considers the last in which this barbarous punishment was inflicted. The first occurs in the 56th vol. of the Magazine, Part 1. P. 524., under the date of the 21st June, 1786—
"This morning, the malefactors already mentioned were all executed according to their sentence. About a quarter of an hour after the platform had dropped, Phoebe Harris, the female convict, was led by two officers to a stake about eleven feet high, fixed in the ground, near the top of which was an inverted curve made of irons, to which one end of a halter was tied. The prisoner stood on a low stool, which, after the ordinary had prayed with her a short time, was taken away, and she hung suspended by the neck, her feet being scarcely more than twelve or fourteen inches from the pavement. Soon after the signs of life had ceased, two cartloads of faggots were placed round her and set on fire; the flames soon burning the halter, she then sunk a few inches, but was supported by an iron chain passed over her chest and affixed to the stake."
The crime for which this woman suffered was coining. Probably the method of execution here related was adopted in consequence of the horrible occurrence narrated by Mr. Ross.
In vol. lix. of the same Magazine, Part 1. p. 272, under the date of the 18th of March, 1789, is an account of the executions of nine malefactors at Newgate; and amongst them,—
"Christian Murphy, alias Bowman, for coining, was brought out after the rest were turned off, and fixed to a stake, and burnt, being first strangled by the stool being taken from under her."
From the very slight difference in dates, I am inclined to think that this is the same case with that alluded to by Mr. Ross.
June 24, 1850.
Your correspondent L.C. has started a most interesting inquiry, and your readers must, I am sure, join with me in regretting that he should have been so laconic in the third division of his Query; and have failed to refer to, even if he did not quote, the passages from "late Greek," in which "horns" are mentioned as a symbol of a husband's dishonor. The earliest notice of this symbolical use of horns is, I believe, to be found in the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, who lived during the reign of Hadrian, A.D. 117-138:
[Greek: "Pepi de ippon en to peri agonon logo proeiraeiai. Elege de tis theasameno tini epi kriou kathaemenpo, kai pesonti ex autou ek ton euprosthen, mnaesteuomeno de kai mellonti en autais tais haemerais tous gamous epetelein, proeipein auto hoti hae gunae sou porneusei, kai kata to legomenon, kerata soi poiaesei kai outos apethae, k.t.l."—Artem. Oneirocritica, lib. ii, cap. 12.]
See Menage, Origines de la Langue Françoise, Paris, 1650, in verb. "Cornard." I have only seen Reiff's edition of Artemidorus, 8vo. Lipsiæ, 1805. His illustrations of the passage (far too numerous to be quoted) seem to be curious, and likely to repay the reader for the trouble of examination. His note commences with a reference to Olaus Borrichius, Antiqua Urb. Rom. facies:—
"Alexander Magnus ....successores ejus..... in nummis omnes cornuti quasi Jovii, honore utique manifesto, donee cornuum decus in ludibria uxoriorum vertit somnorum interpres Artimidorus."
On which he observes,—
"Benè. Nam ante Artimidorium nullus, quod sciam, hujus scommatis mentionem fecit. Quod enim Traug. Fred. Benedict. ad Ciceron. Epist. ad Div. 7.24. ad voc. 'Cipius' conjecit, id paullo audientus mihi videtur conjecisse."
I have not succeeded in obtaining a sight of this edition of the Epistles. And I should feel much obliged to any one who would quote the "conjecture," and so enable your readers to gauge its "audacity" for themselves. Is it not odd that Reiff should have made no remark on the utter want of connection between the "honor manifestus," and the "ludibria" of Olaus? or on the [Greek: kata to legomenon] of the author that he was illustrating? {91} Artemidorus may certainly have been the first who recorded the scomma; but the words [Greek: kata to legomenon] would almost justify us supposing that
"—The horn
Was a crest ere he was born."
Menage (referred to above) evidently lays some stress on the following epigram, as an illustration of the question:—
[Greek: "Ostis eso purous katalambanei ouk agorazon,
Keinou Amaltheias hae gunae esti keras."]
Parmenon. Anthol. lib. ii.
But I confess that I am utterly unable to see its point and therefore cannot, of course, trace its connection with the subject. Falstaff, it is true, speaks of the "horn of abundance," but then he assigns it to the husband, and makes the "lightness of the wife shine through it." (K. Henry IV. Act i. Sc. 2., on which see Warburton's note.)
Temple, April 25.
L.C. may find the following references of service to him in his inquiry into the origin of this expression:—"Solanus ad Luc. D.M. 1. 2.; Jacobs ad Lucill. Epigr. 9.; Belin. ad Lucian, t. iii. p. 326.; Huschk. Anal. p. 168.; Lambec. ad Codin. § 126.; Nodell in Diario Class. t. x. p. 157.; Bayl. Dict. in Junone, not. E." Boissonade's note in his Anecdotae, vol. iii. p. 140.
Marlborough College.
Shipster (Vol. ii., p. 30.).—If C. B. will consult Dr. Latham's English Language, 2nd ed., he will find that the termination ster is not merely a notion of Tyrwhitt's, but a fact. Sempstress has a double feminine termination. Spinster is the only word in the present English which retains the old feminine meaning of the termination ster.
Three Dukes (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—I should like a more satisfactory answer to this Query than that I given by C. (Vol. ii., p. 46.). I can give the I names of two of the Dukes (viz. Monmouth and Albermarle); but who was the third, and where can a detailed account of the transaction be found? In Wades' British History chronologically arranged, 3rd edit. p. 230, is the following paragraph under the date of Feb. 28, 1671 (that is, 1670-1):—
"The Duke of Monmouth, who had contrived the outrage on Coventry, in a drunken frolic with the young Duke of Albemarle and others, deliberately kills a ward-beadle. Charles, to save his son, pardoned all the murderers."
The date given in the State Poems is Sunday morning, Feb. 26th, 1670-71. Mr. Lister, in his Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon (vol. ii. p. 492.), alludes to the affair:—
"The King's illegitimate son Monmouth, in company with the young Duke of Albemarle and others, kills a watchman, who begs for mercy, and the King pardons all the murderers."
Cambridge, June 24, 1850.
Bishops and their Precedence (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—I believe bishops have their precedence because they are both temporal and spiritual barons. Some I years ago, I took the following note from the Gentleman's Mag. for a year between 1790 and 1800; I cannot say positively what year (for I was very young at the time, and unfortunately omitted to "note" it):—
"Every Bishop has a temporal barony annexed to his see. The Bishop of Durham is Earl of Sudbury and Baron Evenwood; and the Bishop of Norwich is Baron of Northwalsham."
Query, where may the accounts of the respective baronies of the bishoprics be found?
Why Moses represented with Horns.—Your correspondent H.W. (Vol. i, p. 420.) refers the origin of what he calls the strange practice of making Moses appear horned to a mistranslation in the Vulgate. I send you an extract from Coleridge which suggests something more profound the such an accidental cause; and explains the statement of Rosenmüller (p. 419.), that the Jews attributed horns to Moses "figuratively for power:"—
"When I was at Rome, among many other visits to the tomb of Julius II, I went thither once with a Prussian artist, a man of great genius and vivacity of feeling. As we were gazing on Michael Angelo's Moses, our conversation turned on the horns and beard of that stupendous statue of the necessity of each to support the other; of the superhuman effect of the former, and the necessity if the existence of both to give a harmony and integrity both to the image and the feeling excited by it. Conceive them removed, and the statue would become unnatural without being supernatural. We called to mind the horns of the rising sun, and I repeated the noble passage from Taylor's Holy Dying. That horns were the emblem of power and sovereignty among the Eastern nations; and are still retained as such in Abyssinia; the Achelous of the ancient Greeks; and the probable ideas and feelings that originally suggested the mixture of the human and the brute form in the figure, by which they realised the idea of their mysterious Pan, as representing intelligence blended with a darker power, deeper, mightier, and more universal than the conscious intellect of man; than intelligence—all these thoughts passed in procession before our minds."—Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, vol. ii. p. 127. edit. 1817.
[The noble passage from Taylor's Holy Dying, which Coleridge recreated, is subjoined.]
"As when the sun approaches towards the gates of the morning, he first opens a little eye of heaven, and sends away the spirits of darkness, and gives light to a cock, and calls up the lark to matins, and by and bye gilds the fringes of a cloud, and peeps over the eastern hills, thrusting out his golden horns like those which decked the brows of Moses, when he was forced to wear a veil, because himself had seen the face of God; and still, while a man tells the story, the sun gets up higher, till he shows a fair face and a full light, and then he shines one whole day, under a cloud often, and sometimes weeping great and little showers, and sets quickly; so is a man's reason and his life."
—Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying.
Leicester and the reputed Poisoners of his Time (Vol. ii., p. 9.).—"The lady who had lost her hair and her nails," an account of whom is requested by your correspondent H.C., was Lady Douglas, daughter of William Lord Howard of Effingham, and widow of John Lord Sheffield. Leicester was married to her after the death of his first wife Anne, daughter and heir of Sir John Robsart, and had by her a son, the celebrated Sir Robert Dudley, whose legitimacy, owing to his father's disowning the marriage with Lady Sheffield, in order to wed Lady Essex, was afterwards the subject of so much contention. On the publication of this latter marriage, Lady Douglas, in order, it is said, to secure herself from any future practices, had, from a dread of being made away with by Leicester, united herself to Sir Edward Stafford, then ambassador in France. Full particulars of this double marriage will be found in Dugdale's Antiquities of Warwickshire.
The extract from D'Israeli's Amenities of Literature relates to charges against Leicester, which will be found at large in Leicester's Commonwealth, written by Parsons the Jesuit,—a work, however, which must be received with great caution, from the author's well-known enmity to the Earl of Leicester, and his hatred to the Puritans, who were protected by that nobleman's powerful influence.
Havre.
New Edition of Milton (Vol. ii., p. 21.).—The Rev. J. Mitford, as I have understood, is employed upon a new edition of Milton's works, both prose and verse, to be published by Mr. Pickering. I may mention, by the way, that the sentence from Strada, "Cupido gloriae, quae etiam sapientibus novissima exuitur," which is quoted by Mr. Mitford on Lycidas, Aldine edition, v. 71. ("Fame, that last infirmity of noble minds"), is borrowed from Tacitus Hist. iv. 6. Compare Athenæus, xi. 15. § 116. p. 507. d., where Plato is represented as saying:—
"[Greek: Eschaton ton taes doxaes chitona en to thanato auto apoduometha.]"
Will you allow me to add, that the quotation from Seneca in Vol. i., p. 427. Of "NOTES AND QUERIES" is from the Nat. Quaest. Proef.
Marlborough College, June 8.
Christian Captives (Vol. i., p. 441.).—There is an unfortunate hiatus in the accounts of this parish from 1642 to 1679, which prevents my stating positively the amount of the collection here made; but in 1670, Jan 1., there occurs the following:—
"Item. To Mr. Day for Copying ouer the fower parts that was gathered in the parish for the Reliefe of Slaues in Algiears - - - - 0 2 0"
Mr. Day was curate of Ecclesfield at that time; and in another part of the book there is, in his handwriting, a subscription list, which, though only headed "Colected by hous Row for the ..." is more than probably the copy referred to. From it the totals collected appear to have been,—
s. | d. | ||
Ecclesfield | 6 | 7-1/2 | |
Greno Firth | 13 | 6 | |
Southey Soke | 10 | 7 | |
Wadsley | 4 | 6 | |
£1 | 15 | 2-1/2 |
The above are the four byerlaws, or divisions of the parish, and the four churchwardens used separately to collect in their respective byerlaws; and then a fair copy of the whole was made out by the curate or schoolmaster. An ordinary collection in church, upon a brief, averaged 7s. 6d. at this period.
Ecclesfield.
Borrowed Thoughts (Vol. i., p. 482.).—The number of "NOTES AND QUERIES" here alluded to has unluckily not reached me; but in Vol. ii., p. 30., I observe that your correspondent C., in correcting one error, has inadvertently committed another. Monsieur de la Palisse is the hero alluded to in the popular song which was written at the commencement of the eighteenth century by Bernard de la Monnoye, upon the old ballad, composed after the battle of Pavia, and commencing,—
"Hélas! La Palice est mort,
Il est mort devant Pavie;
Hélas! s'il n'estait pas mort,
Il serait encore en vie!"
Havre.
North Sides of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 55.).—A portion of many churchyards is said to have been left unconsecrated, though not to be used as playground for the youth of the parish, but for the burial of excommunicated persons. This was {93} not, however, always on the north side of the church, as is evident from the following extract from the Register of Hart, Durham:—
"Dec. 17. 1596, Ellen Thompson, Fornicatrix (and then excommunicated), was buried of Þe people in Þe chaer at the entrance unto Þe Þeate or stile of Þe churchyard, on the east thereof."
Nor is the north side of the church always the less favourite part for burial. I could name many instances where this is the only part used.
The churchyard now within two hundred yards of me contains about an acre of ground; the larger portion of which lies to the south of the church, but has been very little used for sepulture till of late years, though the churchyard is very ancient. Even now the poor have an objection to bury their friends there. I believe the prejudice is always in favour of the part next the town or village; that on the other side of the church being generally called "the backside."
I find various notices of excommunicated persons being very strangely buried, and in extraordinary places, but I have not as yet met with any act or injunction on the subject. If any of your readers can supply such a document, it would be extremely interesting and useful.
D.B.
Monastery, Arrangement of one (Vol. i., p. 452.),—A.P.H., who requests any information respecting the extent, arrangement, and uses of a monastic building, has doubtless consulted Fosbroke's British Monachism.
Havre.
Churchyards, Epitaphs (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—I beg to submit the following observations in answer to the Queries under this head.
Fairs, and also markets, were held in churchyards until put a stop to in 1285 by an enactment in the 13 Edw. I. c. 6:—
"E communde le rey e defend qe feire ne marche ne seient tenuz en cimeter pur honur de seint eglise."
Previous to the passing of this act, the king had forbidden the keeping of Northampton fair in the church or churchyard of All Saints in that town; and Bishop Grostête, following the monarch's example, had sent instructions through the whole diocese of Lincoln, prohibiting fairs to be kept in such sacred places. (See Burn's Eccl. Law, tit. "Church," ed. 1788.) Fairs and markets were usually held on Sunday, until the 27 Hen. VI. c. 5. ordered the discontinuing of this custom, with trifling exceptions. Appended to the fourth Report of the Lincolnshire Architectural Society is a paper by Mr. Bloxan on "Churchyard Monuments," from which it appears that in the churchyards of Cumberland and Cornwall, and in those of Wales, are several crosses, considered to be as early as, if not earlier than, the twelfth century: that in the churchyards of the Isle of Man are other crosses of various dates, from the eighth to the twelfth century and that in some of the churchyards in Kent, of which those of Chartham, Godmersham, and Godneston are specified, there are remaining some of the most simple headstone crosses that can be imagined, most of which the writer apprehends to be of the twelfth or thirteenth century, though he adds, "there is no sufficient reason why they should not be of later date." Several other instances between the periods particularised are also given. The Report is not published, but perhaps a copy might be obtained from the printer, W. Edwards, Corn Market, Louth. See further the Archaeological Journal, passim, and Mr. Cutt's work on Sepulchral Crosses and Slabs. The privilege of sanctuary was taken from churchyards, as well as from all other places, in 1623, by the 21 Jac. I. c. 28., which provides,
"That no sanctuary or privilege of sanctuary shall be hereafter admitted or allowed in any case" (sec. 7.).
Umbrella (Vol. i., p. 415; vol. ii., p. 25.).—Seeing that the Query respecting this useful article of domestic economy has been satisfactorily answered, may I be allowed to mention that umbrellas are described by the ancients as marks of distinction. Pausanias and Hesychius report that at Alea, a city of Arcadia, a feast called Scieria was celebrated in honour of Bacchus, in which the statue of the rosy god was carried in procession, crowned with vine leaves, and placed upon an ornamental litter, in which was seated a young girl carrying an umbrella, to indelicate the majesty of the god. On several bas-reliefs from Persepolis, the king is represented under an umbrella, which a female holds over his head.
Havre.
English Translations of Erasmus' "Encomium Moriae" (Vol. i., p. 385.).—Perhaps JARLZBERG, who seems interested in the various translations of this admirable work, might like to know of a French translation, with designs from Holbein, which I purchased some weeks ago at a sale in a provincial French town. It is entitled L'Eloge de la Folie, composé en forme de Déclaration par Erasme, et traduit par Mr. Guendeville, avec les Notes de Gerard Listre, et les belles Figures de Holbein; le tout sur l'Oiginal de l'Academie de Bâle. Amsterdam, chez François l'Honore. 1735.
Havre.
Lady Slingsby (Vol. ii., p. 71.).—She was a professional actress, who played under the name of Mrs. (probably Miss) Mary Lee, from about 1672 to 1680, after which date she is called Lady {94} Slingsby, and she played under this title for about five years, when she seems to have quitted the stage. She survived her husband, for "Dame Mary Slingsby, widow, of St. James's parish, was buried at Pancras, 1st of March, 1694."
Meaning of "Bawn" (Vol. i., p. 60.).—The poet Campbell uses the word bawn as follows:—
"And fast and far, before the star
Of day-spring, rush'd we through the glade,
And saw at dawn the lofty bawn
Of Castle-Connor fade."
O'Connor's Child.
Chantrey's Sleeping Children (Vol. ii., p. 70.)—Your correspondent PLECTRUM is anxious to know on what grounds I attribute to Stothard any part of the design of the monument in Lichfield Cathedral known as Chantrey's "Sleeping Children?" I will endeavour to satisfy him.
The design, suggested, as it were, by the very nature of the commission, was communicated by Chantrey to Stothard with a request that he would make for him two or three sketches of sleeping children, at his usual price. What Stothard did, I have heard my father say, was very like the monument as it now stands. The sketch from which Chantrey wrought was given to me by my father a few months before his death, and is now suspended on the wall of the room in which I write.
It is a pencil-sketch, shaded with Indian ink, and is very Stothard-like and beautiful. It wants, however, a certain sculptural grace, which Chantrey gave with a master feeling; and it wants the snow-drops in the hand of the younger sister,—a touch of poetic beauty suggested by my father.
The carver of the group (the person who copied it in marble) was the late Mr. F.A. Legé, to whom the merit of the whole monument has been foolishly ascribed.
I should be sorry to impress the world with the belief that I mean in any way to detract from the merit of Chantrey in making this statement. I have divulged no secret. I have only endeavoured to explain what till now has been too often misunderstood.
The following statement may perhaps give to PLECTRUM the information he requires.
Dining one day alone with Chantrey, in Jan. 1833, our conversation accidentally turned upon some of his monuments, and amongst other things he told me the circumstances connected with the monument at Lichfield to the two children of Mrs. Robinson. As I was leaving Chantrey, I asked him if I might write down what he had told me; his reply was, "Certainly; indeed I rather wish you would." Before I went to bed I wrote down what I now send you; I afterwards showed it to Chantrey, who acknowledged it to be correct. It was hastily written, but I send it as I wrote it at the time, without alteration.
Nicholson, the drawing master, taught Mrs. Robinson and her two children. Not long after the death of Mr. Robinson, the eldest child was burnt to death; and a very short time afterwards the other child sickened and died. Nicholson called on Chantrey and desired him to take a cast of the child's face, as the mother wished to have some monument of it. Chantrey immediately repaired to the house, made his cast, and had a most affecting interview with the unhappy mother. She was desirous of having a monument to be placed in Lichfield Cathedral, and wished to know whether the cast just taken would enable Chantrey to make a tolerable resemblance of her lost treasure. After reminding her how uncertain all works of art were in that respect, he assured her he hoped to be able to accomplish her wishes. She then conversed with him upon the subject of the monument, of her distressed feelings at the accumulated losses of her husband and her two children, in so short a space of time; expatiated upon their characters, and her great affection; and dwelt much upon her feelings when, before she retired to bed, she had usually contemplated them when she hung over them locked in each other's arms asleep. While she dwelt upon these recollections, it occurred to Chantrey that the representation of this scene would be the most appropriate monument; and as soon as he arrived at home he made a small model of the two children, nearly as they were afterwards executed, and as they were universally admired. As Mrs. Robinson wished to see a drawing of the design, Chantrey called upon Stothard, and employed him to make the requisite drawing from the small model: this was done; and from this circumstance originated the story, from those envious of Chantrey's rising fame, that he was indebted to Stothard for all the merit of the original design.
Separation of the Sexes in Time of Divine Service.—I note with pleasure that traces of this ancient usage still exist in parts of Sussex. In Poling Church, and also in Arundel Church, the movable Seats are marked with the letters M. and W. respectively, according as they are assigned to the men or women. On the first Sunday in the year I attended service in Arundel Church, and observed, with respect to the benches which were placed in the middle of the nave for the use of the poorer classes, that the women as they entered proceeded to those at the eastern end, which were left vacant for them, whilst the men by themselves {95} occupied those at the western end. The existence of a distinction of this kind in regard to the open seats only, affords strong proof, if proof were necessary, that it was the introduction of appropriated pews which led to the disuse of else long established, and once general, custom of the men occupying the south side of the nave, and the women the north.
Error in Winstanley's Loyal Martyrology.—Winstanley, in The Loyall Martyrology (London, printed by Thomas Mabb, 1665), p. 67., says of Master Gerard, the author of that elaborate herbal which bears his name—"This gallant gentleman, renowned for arts and arms, was likewise at the storming of that (Basing) House unfortunately slain." According to Johnson, who edited his Herbal in 1633, Gerard was born at Namptwich, in Cheshire, in the year 1545; and died about 1607. Basing House was stormed Oct. 1645: had Gerard served there, he would have been 100 years old. It appears that Winstanley has confounded Gerard with his editor Thomas Johnson above mentioned, who was killed during the siege of Basing House, anno 1644. (See Fuller's Worthies, vol. iii. p. 422. edit. 1840. London.)
Preaching in Nave only.—Prayers and Preaching distinct Services—In Ely Cathedral the old and proper custom of sermons being delivered in the nave only is still maintained. And this observance has doubtless led to the continuance of another, which is a sufficient answer to those who object to the length of our service, as it shows that formerly in practice, as still in principle, prayers and preaching were distinct services. In the morning of Sunday there is no sermon in either of the parish churches in Ely, but prayers only; and those of the respective congregations who wish to hear a sermon remove to the cathedral, where they are joined by the ecclesiastics and others who have "been to choir". Consequently, any one may "go to sermon" (I use the language of the place) without having been to prayers, or to prayers in one of the parish churches, or the choir, without necessarily hearing the sermon.
I think it would be very interesting, if your widely scattered correspondents would from time to time communicate in your columns such instances of any variation from the now usual mode of celebrating divine service as may fall under their personal observation.
It has been frequently, more frequently, perhaps than justly, objected to the Shakspeare Society, that few of its publications bear directly upon the illustration of the works of the great dramatist. That the Council would gladly publish works more immediately in connection with Shakspeare and his writings, if the materials for them could be found, is proved by the fact of their having just published the Remarks of Karl Simrock on the Plots of Shakspeare's Plays, which that gentleman, whose name is honoured by all lovers of early German poetry and romance, appended to the third volume of the Quellen der Shakspeare, a collection of Novels, Tales, &c., illustrative of Shakspeare, which Simrock collected and translated in conjunction with Echtermeyer and Henschel, and which somewhat resembles Mr. Collier's Shakspeare's Library. The translation of these remarks, made for the Society, was placed in the hands of Mr. Halliwell, and forms, with the notes and additions of that gentleman, a volume containing much new and curious information upon a very interesting point in Shakspearian literature.
Messrs. Sotheby and Co., of Wellington Street, will sell on Monday, July 8th, and six following days, a very Choice Cabinet of Coins and Medals, the property of a Nobleman; and on Monday, July 15th, and five following days, an extensive Assemblage of Historical, Theological, and Miscellaneous Books.
Messrs. Puttick and Simpson, of 191. Piccadilly, announce a Sale of Splendid Engravings by British and Foreign Artists on Monday next.
We have received the following Catalogues:—William Nield's (46. Burlington Arcade) Catalogue No. 3. of Very Cheap Books; Edward Stibbs' (331. Strand) Select Catalogue of a Collection of Books just purchased from a celebrated literary character.
DRAYTON'S POLYOLBION. (A perfect copy of any edition.)
PULEYN'S ETYMOLOGICAL COMPENDIUM.
INGLIS'S IRELAND. Vol. II.
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VOLUME THE FIRST, Complete with Index, may now be had, price 9s. 6d., bound in cloth. THE INDEX, published last week, is, we trust, sufficiently full to satisfy to the utmost the wishes of our Subscribers. We feel that, if called upon at any time to establish the utility of NOTES AND QUERIES, we may confidently point to the Index as a proof that the Literary Inquirer, be his particular branch of Study what it may, will not search in vain in our pages for valuable Notes and Illustrations of it.
Answers to several correspondents in our next.
Errata. No. 34. p. 60., for "Dolort" read "Delort," and for "Triarmum" , read "Triarnum". No. 35. p. 75. in the article on "Carucate of Land" for "acre", read "acras", and for "Boejulia", read "Bajulia". The articles "God Save the Queen," p. 71., and "Royal and Distinguished Interments", p. 79., should have been subscripted "F.K." instead of "J.H.M."
THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, No. CLXXXV., will be Published on WEDNESDAY next, July 10th.
CONTENTS:
1. QUETELET ON PROBABILITIES.
2. MERIVALE'S HISTORY OF ROME UNDER THE EMPIRE.
3. CHURCH AND STATE EDUCATION
4. MÉRIMÉE'S HISTORY OF PEDRO THE CRUEL.
5. BLACKIE'S AESCHYLUS.
6. GOETHE'S FESTIVAL.
7. GUIZOT ON THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION.
8. THE AFRICAN SQUADRON.
9. THE GORHAM CONTROVERSY.
London: LONGMAN AND CO. Edinburgh: A. AND C. BLACK.
Now ready, Octavo Edition. plain, 15s.; Quarto Edition, having the Plates of the Tesselated Pavements all coloured, 1l. 5s.
Remains of Roman art, in Cirencester, the Site of Ancient Corinium: containing Plates by De la Motte, of the magnificient Tesselated Pavements discovered in August and September, 1849, with copies of the grand Heads of Ceres, Flora, and Pamona; reduced by the Talootype from facsimile tracings of the original; together with various other plates and numerous wood engravings.
In the Quarto edition the folding of the plates necessary for the smaller volume is avoided.
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Among which will be found many of the Works of the FATHERS, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, LITURGICAL Works, COUNCILS, THEOLOGY and CANON LAW and a Selection of many very rare Spanish Books:
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Now Publishing, The Churches of the Middle Ages. By HENRY BOWMAN and JOSEPH S. CROWTHERS, Architects, Manchester. To be completed in Twenty Parts, each containing Six Plates, Imperial Folio. Issued at intervals of two months. Price per Part to Subscribers. Proofs, large paper, 10s. 6d.; Tinted, small paper, 9s.; Plain, 7s. 6d. Parts 1 to 8 are now published, and contain illustrations of Ewerby Church, Lincolnshire; Temple Balsall Chapel, Warwickshire; and Heckington Church, Lincolnshire.
"Ewerby is a magnificent specimen of a Flowing Middle-Pointed Church. It is most perfectly measured and described: one can follow the most recondite beauties of the construction, mouldings and joints, in these Plates, almost as well as in the original structure. Such a monograph as this will be of incalculable value to the architects of our Colonies or the United States, who have no means of access to ancient churches. The Plates are on stone done with remarkable skill and distinctness. Of Heckington we can only say that the perspective view from the south-east presents a very vision of beauty; we can hardly conceive anything more perfect. We heartily recommend this series to all who are able to patronize it." —Ecclesiologist Oct. 1849.
London. GEORGE BELL., 186. Fleet Street
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 the 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
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.
London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN and LONGMAN.
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 6, 1850.