diff options
Diffstat (limited to '13712-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 13712-0.txt | 2769 |
1 files changed, 2769 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/13712-0.txt b/13712-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f355eaa --- /dev/null +++ b/13712-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2769 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13712 *** + +NOTES AND QUERIES: + +A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, +GENEALOGISTS, ETC. + + * * * * * + +"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE. + + * * * * * + +No. 27.] SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. + + * * * * * {425} + + +CONTENTS + +NOTES:-- + The Mosquito Country. 425 + Notes on Bacon and Jeremy Taylor. 427 + Duke of Monmouth's Correspondence. 427 + Poem by Parnell, by Peter Cunningham. 427 + Early English and Early German Literature, by S. Hickson. 428 + Folk Lore:--Charm for the Toothache--The Evil + Eye--Charms--Roasted Mouse. 429 + The Anglo-Saxon Word "Unlæd," by S.W. Singer. 430 + Dr. Cosin's MSS.--Index to Baker's MSS., by J.E.B. + Mayor. 433 + Arabic Numerals. 433 + Roman Numerals. 434 + Error in Hallam's History of Literature. 434 + Notes from Cunningham's Handbook for London. 434 + Anecdote of Charles I. 437 + +QUERIES:-- + The Maudelyne Grace, by E.F. Rimbault, LL.D. 437 + "Esquire" and "Gentleman". 437 + Five Queries (Lines by Suckling, &c.) 439 + Queries proposed, No. I., by Belton Corney. 439 + Minor Queries:--Elizabeth and Isabel--Howard Earl + of Surrey--Bulls called "William"--Bawn--Mutual--Versicle + and Response--Yeoman--Pusan--Iklynton Collar--Lord + Karinthen--Christian Captives--Ancient Churchyard + Customs--"Rotten Row" and "Stockwell Street". 439 + +REPLIES:-- + Early Statistics. 441 + Byron's Lara. 443 + Replies to Minor Queries:--Dr. Whichcot and Lord + Shaftesbury--Black Doll--Journal of Sir W. + Beeston--Shrew--Trunk Breeches--Queen's + Messengers--Dissenting Ministers--Ballad of the + Wars in France--Monody on Death of Sir J. Moore. 444 + +Iron Rails round St. Paul's. 446 + +MISCELLANEOUS:-- + Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 446 + Books and Odd Volumes Wanted. 446 + Notices to Correspondents. 446 + Advertisements. 447 + + * * * * * + +THE MOSQUITO COUNTRY.--ORIGIN OF THE NAME.--EARLY CONNECTION OF THE +MOSQUITO INDIANS WITH THE ENGLISH. + +The subject of the Mosquito country has lately acquired a general +interest. I am anxious to insert the following "Notes and Queries" in +your useful periodical, hoping thus to elicit additional information, or +to assist other inquirers. + +1. As to the origin of the name. I believe it to be probably derived +from an native name of a tribe of Indians in that part of America. The +Spanish Central Americans speak of _Moscos_. Juarros, A Spanish Central +American author, in his _History of Guatemala_, names the Moscos among +other Indians inhabiting the north-eastern corner of that tract of +country now called _Mosquito_: and in the "Mosquito Correspondence" laid +before Parliament in 1848, the inhabitants of Mosquito are called +_Moscos_ in the Spanish state-papers. + +How and when would _Mosco_ have become _Mosquito_? Was it a Spanish +elongation of the name, or an English corruption? In the former case, it +would probably have been another name of the people: in the latter, +probably a name given to the part of the coast near which the Moscos +lived. + +The form _Mosquito_, or _Moskito_, or _Muskito_, (as the word is +variously spelt in our old books), is doubtless as old as the earliest +English intercourse with the Indians of the Mosquito coast; and that may +be as far back as about 1630: it is certainly as far back as 1650. + +If the name came from the synonymous insect, would it have been given by +the Spaniards or the English? _Mosquito_ is the Spanish diminutive name +of a fly: but what we call a mosquito, the Spaniards in Central America +call by another name, _sanchujo_. The Spaniards had very little +connexion at any time with the Mosquito Indians; and as mosquitoes are +not more abundant on their parts of the coast than on other parts, or in +the interior, where the Spaniards settled, there would have been no +reason for their giving the name on account of insects. Nor, indeed, +would the English, who went to the coast from Jamaica, or other West +India Islands, where mosquitoes are quite as abundant, have had any such +reason either. At Bluefields where the writer has resided, which was one +of the first places on the Mosquito coast frequented by English, and +which derives its name from an old English buccaneer, there are no +mosquitoes at all. At Grey Town, at the mouth of the river San Juan, +there are plenty; but not more than in Jamaica, or in the towns of the +interior state of Nicaragua. However names are not always given so as to +be argument-proof. {426} + +How did the word _mosquito_ come into our language? From the Spanish, +Portuguese, or Italian? How old is it with us? Todd adds the word +_Muskitto_, or _Musquitto_, to Johnson's _Dictionary_; and gives an +example from Purchas's _Pilgrimage_ (1617), where the word is spelt more +like the Italian form:--"They paint themselves to keep off the +muskitas." + +There is a passage in Southey's _Omniana_ (vol. i. p. 21.) giving an +account of a curious custom among the Mozcas, a tribe of New Granada: +his authority is _Hist. del Nuevo Reyno de Granada_, l. i. c. 4. These +are some way south of the other Moscos, but it is probably the same +word. + +One of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies has the name of Mosquito. + +Some "Mosquito Kays" are laid down on the chart off Cape Gracias à Dios, +on the Mosquito coast; but these probably would have been named from the +Mosquito Indians of the continent. And these Mosquito Indians appear to +have spread themselves from Cape Gracias à Dios. + +It is stated, however, in Strangeways' _Account of the Mosquito Shore_, +(not a work of authority), that these Mosquito Kays give the name to the +country:-- + + "This country, as is generally supposed, derives its name from a + clustre of small islands or banks situated near its coasts, and + called the _Mosquitos_." + +I should be glad if these Notes and Queries would bring assistance to +settle the origin of the name of the Mosquito country from some of your +correspondents who are learned in the history of Spanish conquest and +English enterprise in that part of America, or who may have attended to +the languages of the American Indians. + +2. I propose to jot down a few Notes as to the early connexion between +the English and the Mosquito Indians, and shall be thankful for +references to additional sources of information. + +I have read somewhere, that a Mosquito king, or prince, was brought to +England in Charles I.'s reign by Richard Earl of Warwick, who had +commanded a ship in the West Indies; but I forget where I read it. I +remember, however, that no authority was given for the statement. Can +any of your readers give me information about this? + +Dampier mentions a party of English who, about the year 1654, ascended +the Cape River (the mouth of which is at Cape Gracias à Dios) to +Segovia, a Spanish town in the interior; and another party of English +and French who, after the year 1684, when he was in these parts, crossed +from the Pacific to the Atlantic, descending the Cape River. (Harris's +_Collection of Voyages_, vol. i. p. 92.) Are there any accounts of these +expeditions? + +Dampier also speaks of a confederacy having been formed between a party +of English under a Captain Wright and the San Blas Indians of Darien, +which was brought about by Captain Wright's taking two San Blas boys to +be educated "in the country of the Moskitoes," and afterwards faithfully +restoring them, and which opened to the English the way by land to the +Pacific Sea. (Harris, vol. i. p. 97.) Are there any accounts of English +travellers by this way, which would be in the very part of the isthmus +of which Humboldt has lately recommended a careful survey? (See _Aspects +of Nature_, Sabine's translation.) + +Esquemeling, in his _History of the Buccaneers_, of whom he was one, +says that in 1671 many of the Indians at Cape Gracias spoke English and +French from their intercourse with the pirates. He gives a curious and +not very intelligible account of Cape Gracias, as an island of about +thirty leagues round (formed, I suppose, by rivers and the sea), +containing about 1600 or 1700 persons, who have no king; (this is quite +at variance with all other accounts of the Mosquito Indians of Cape +Gracias); and having, he proceeds to say, no correspondence with the +neighbouring islands. (I cannot explain this; there is certainly no +island ninety miles in circumference at sea near Cape Gracias.) + +A quarto volume published by Cadell in 1789, entitled _The Case of His +Majesty's Subjects having Property in and lately established upon the +Mosquito Shore_, gives the fullest account of the early connexion +between the Mosquito Indians and the English. The writer says that +Jeremy, king of the Mosquitos, in Charles II.'s reign, after formally +ceding his country to officers sent to him by the Governor of Jamaica to +receive the cession, went to Jamaica, and thence to England, where he +was generously received by Charles II., "who had him often with him in +his private parties of pleasure, admired his activity, strength, and +manly accomplishments; and not only defrayed every expense, but loaded +him with presents." Is there any notice of this visit in any of our +numerous memoirs and diaries of Charles II.'s reign? + +A curious tract, printed in the sixth volume of Churchill's _Voyages_, +"The Mosquito Indian and his Golden River, being a familiar Description +of the Mosquito Kingdom, &c., written in or about the Year 1699 by +M.W.," from which Southey drew some touches of Indian manners for his +"Madoc," speaks of another King Jeremy, son of the previous one; who, it +is said, esteemed himself a subject of the King of England, and had +visited the Duke of Albemarle in Jamaica. His father had been carried to +England, and received from the King of England a crown and commission. +The writer of this account says that the Mosquito Indians generally +esteem themselves English:-- + + "And, indeed, they are extremely courteous to all Englishmen, + esteeming themselves to be such, although some Jamaica men have + very much abused them." + +I will conclude this communication, whose length will I hope be excused +for the newness of the subject, {427} by an amusing passage of a speech +of Governor Johnstone in a debate in the House of Commons on the +Mosquito country in 1777:-- + + "I see the noble lord [Lord North] now collects his knowledge by + piecemeal from those about him. While my hon. friend [some one + was whispering Lord North] now whispers the noble lord, will he + also tell him, and the more aged gentlemen of the House, before + we yield up our right to the Mosquito shore, that it is from + thence we receive the greatest part of our delicious turtle? May + I tell the younger part, before they give their consent, that it + is from thence comes the sarsaparilla to purify our + blood?"--_Parl. Hist._ vol. xix. p. 54. + +C. + + * * * * * + +NOTES ON BACON AND JEREMY TAYLOR. + +In his essay "On Delays," Bacon quotes a "common verse" to this +effect:--"Occasion turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her +locks in front, and no hold taken." As no reference is given, some +readers may be glad to see the original, which occurs in an epigram on +[Greek: Kairos] (Brunck's _Analecta_, ii. 49.; Posidippi Epigr. 13. in +Jacob's _Anthol._ ii. 49.). + + [Greek: + Hae de komae, ti kat' opsin; hupantiasanti labesthai, + nae Dia. Taxopithen d' eis ti phalakra pelei; + Ton gar apax ptaenoisi parathrexanta me possin + outis eth' himeiron draxetai exopithen.] + +In Jermey Taylor's _Life of Christ_ (Pref. § 29. p. 23. Eden's edition), +it is said that Mela and Solinus report of the Thracians that they +believed in the resurrection of the dead. That passage of Mela referred +to is, l. ii. c. ii. § 3., where see Tzschucke. + +In the same work (Pref. § 20. p. 17.), "Ælian tells us of a nation who +had a law binding them to beat their parents to death with clubs when +they lived to a decrepit age." See Ælian, _Var. Hist._ iv. 1. p. 330. +Gronov., who, however, says nothing of clubs. + +In the next sentence, the statement, "the Persian _magi_ mingled with +their mothers and all their nearest relatives," is from Xanthus (Fragm. +28., Didot), apud Clem. Alexandr. (Strom. iii. p. 431 A.). See Jacob's +_Lect. Stob._ p. 144.; Bahr, _On Herodotus_, iii. 31. + +In the same work (Part I. sect. viii. § 5. note _n_, p. 174.) is a +quotation from Seneca, "O quam contempta res est homo, nisi super humana +se erexerit!" which is plainly the original of the lines of Daniel, so +often quoted by Coleridge ("Epistle to the Countess of Cumberland"):-- + + "Unless above himself he can + Erect himself, now mean a thing is man!" + +Perhaps some of your readers can supply the reference to the passage in +Seneca; which is wanting in Mr. Eden's edition. + +In Part III. sect. xv. § 19. p. 694. note _a_, of the _Life of Christ_, +is a quotation from Strabo, lib. xv. _Add._ p. 713., Casaub. + +As the two great writers on whom I have made these notes are now in +course of publication, any notes which your correspondents can furnish +upon them cannot fail to be welcome. Milton also, and Pope, are in the +hands of competent editors, who, doubtless, would be glad to have their +work rendered more complete through the medium of "NOTES AND QUERIES." + +J.E.B. MAYOR + +Marlborough Coll., April 8. + + * * * * * + +DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S CORRESPONDENCE. + +Thomas Vernon, author of _Vernon's Reports_, was in early life private +secretary to the Duke of Monouth, and is supposed to have had a pretty +large collection of Monmouth's correspondence. Vernon settled himself at +Hanbury Hall, in Worcestershire, where he built a fine house, and left a +large estate. In course of time this passed to an heiress, who married +Mr. Cecil (the Earl of Exeter of Alfred Tennyson), and was divorced from +him. Lord Exeter sold or carried away the fine library, family plate, +and nearly everything curious or valuable that was not an heirloom in +the Vernon family. He laid waste the extensive gardens, and sold the +elaborate iron gates, which now adorn the avenue to Mere Hall in the +immediate neighbourhood. The divorcée married a Mr. Phillips, and dying +without surviving issue, the estates passed to a distant branch of her +family. About ten years ago I made a careful search (by permission) at +Hanbury Hall for the supposed Monmouth MSS., but found none; and I +ascertained by inquiry that there were none at Enstone Hall, the seat of +Mr. Phillips's second wife and widow. The MSS. might have been carried +to Burleigh, and a friend obtained for me a promise from the Marquis of +Exeter that search should be made for them there, but I have reason to +believe that the matter was forgotten. Perhaps some of your +correspondents may have the means of ascertaining whether there are such +MSS. in Lord Exeter's library. I confess my doubt whether so cautious a +man as Thomas Vernon would have retained in his possession a mass of +correspondence that might have been fraught with danger to himself +personally; and, had it been in the Burleigh library, whether it could +have escaped notice. This, however, is to be noted. After Vernon's death +there was a dispute whether his MSS. were to pass to his heir-at-law or +to his personal representatives, and the court ordered the MSS. +(Reports) to be printed. This was done very incorrectly, and Lord Kenyon +seems to have hinted that private reasons have been assigned for that, +but these could hardly have related to the Monmouth MSS. + +SCOTUS. + + * * * * * + +PARNELL. + +The following verses by Parnell are not included in any edition of his +poems that I have seen. {428} They are printed in Steele's _Miscellany_ +(12mo. 1714), p. 63., and in the second edition of the same _Miscellany_ +(12mo. 1727), p. 51., with Parnell's name, and, what is more, on both +occasions among other poems by the same author. + +TO A YOUNG LADY + +_On her Translation of the Story of Phoebus and Daphne, from Ovid._ + + In Phoebus, Wit (as Ovid said) + Enchanting Beauty woo'd; + In Daphne beauty coily fled, + While vainly Wit pursu'd. + + But when you trace what Ovid writ, + A diff'rent turn we view; + Beauty no longer flies from Wit, + Since both are join'd in you. + + Your lines the wond'rous change impart, + From whence our laurels spring; + In numbers fram'd to please the heart, + And merit what they sing. + + Methinks thy poet's gentle shade + Its wreath presents to thee; + What Daphne owes you as a Maid, + She pays you as a Tree. + +The charming poem by the same author, beginning-- + + "My days have been so wond'rous free," + +has the additional fourth stanza,-- + + "An eager hope within my breast, + Does ev'ry doubt controul, + And charming Nancy stands confest + The fav'rite of my soul." + +Can any of your readers supply the name of the "young lady" who +translated the story of Phoebus and Daphne? + +C.P. + + * * * * * + +EARLY ENGLISH AND EARLY GERMAN LITERATURE.--"NEWS" AND "NOISE." + +I am anxious to put a question as to the communication that may have +taken place between the English and German tongues previous to the +sixteenth century. Possibly the materials for answering it may not +exist; but it appears to me that it is of great importance, in an +etymological point of view, that the extent of such communication, and +the influence it has had upon our language, should be ascertained. In +turning over the leaves of the _Shakspeare Society's Papers_, vol. i., +some time ago, my attention was attracted by a "Song in praise of his +Mistress," by John Heywood, the dramatist. I was immediately struck by +the great resemblance it presented to another poem on the same subject +by a German writer, whose real or assumed name, I do not know which, was +"Muscanblüt," and which poem is to be found in _Der Clara Hätzlerin +Liederbuch_, a collection made by a nun of Augsburg in 1471. The +following are passages for comparison:-- + + "Fyrst was her skyn, + Whith, smoth, and thyn, + And every vayne + So blewe sene playne; + Her golden heare + To see her weare, + Her werying gere, + Alas! I fere + To tell all to you + I shall undo you. + + "Her eye so rollyng, + Ech harte conterollyng; + Her nose not long, + Nor stode not wrong; + Her finger typs + So clene she clyps; + Her rosy lyps, + Her chekes gossyps," + + &c. &c. + +_S.S. Papers_, vol. i. p. 72 + + "Ir mündlin rott + Uss senender nott + Mir helffen kan, + Das mir kain man + Mit nichten kan püssen. + + O liechte kel, + Wie vein, wie gel + Ist dir dein har, + Dein äuglin clar, + Zartt fraw, lass mich an sehen. + Und tu mir kund + Uss rottem mund, &c. + + Dein ärmlin weisz + Mit gantzem fleisz + Geschnitzet sein, + Die hennde dein + Gar hofelich gezieret, + Dem leib ist ran, + Gar wolgetan + Sind dir dein prust," + &c. &c. + +_Clara Hätzlerin Liederbuch_, p. 111. + +In all this there is certainly nothing to warrant the conclusion that +the German poem was the original of Heywood's song; but, considering +that the latter was produced so near to the same age as the former, that +is, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and considering that the +older German poetical literature had already passed its culminating +point, while ours was upon the ascending scale, there is likeness +enough, both in manner and measure, to excite the suspicion of direct or +indirect communication. + +The etymology of the word "news," on which you have recently had some +notes, is a case in illustration of the importance of this point. I have +never had the least doubt that this word is derived immediately from the +German. It is, in fact, "das Neue" in the genitive case; the German +phrase "Was giebt's Neues?" giving the exact sense of our "What is the +news?" This will appear {429} even stronger if we go back to the date of +the first use of the word in England. Possibly about the same time, or +not much earlier, we find in his same collection of Clara Hätzlerin, the +word spelt "new" and rhyming to "triu." + + "Empfach mich uff das New + In deines hertzen triu." + +The genitive of this would be "newes," thus spelt and probably +pronounced the same as in England. That the word is not derived from the +English adjective "new"--that it is not of English manufacture at all--I +feel well assured: in that case the "_s_" would be the sign of the +plural: and we should have, as the Germans have, either extant or +obsolete, also "the new." The English language, however, has never dealt +in these abstractions, except in its higher poetry; though some recent +translators from the German have disregarded the difference in this +respect between the powers of the two languages. "News" is a noun +singular, and as such must have been adopted bodily into the language; +the form of the genitive case, commonly used in conversation, not being +understood, but being taken for an integral part of the word, as +formerly the Koran was called "_The Alcoran_." + +"Noise," again, is evidently of the same derivation, though from a +dialect from which the modern German pronunciation of the diphthong is +derived. Richardson, in his _English Dictionary_, assumes it to be of +the same derivation as "noxious" and "noisome;" but there is no process +known to the English language by which it could be manufactured without +making a plural noun of it. In short, the two words are identical; +"news" retaining its primitive, and "noise" adopting a consequential +meaning. + +SAMUEL HICKSON. + + * * * * * + +FOLK LORE. + +_Charm for the Toothache._--A reverend friend, very conversant in the +popular customs and superstitions of Ireland, and who has seen the charm +mentioned in pp. 293, 349, and 397, given by a Roman Catholic priest in +the north-west of Ireland, has kindly furnished me with the genuine +version, and the form in which it was written, which are as follows:-- + + "As Peter sat on a marble stone, + The Lord came to him all alone; + 'Peter, what makes thee sit there?' + 'My Lord, I am troubled with the toothache.' + 'Peter arise, and go home; + And you, and whosoever for my sake + Shall keep these words in memory, + Shall never be troubled with the toothache.'" + +T.J. + + +_Charms._--_The Evil Eye._--Going one day into a cottage in the village +of Catterick, in Yorkshire, I observed hung up behind the door a +ponderous necklace of "lucky stones," i.e. stones with a hole through +them. On hinting an inquiry as to their use, I found the good lady of +the house disposed to shuffle off any explanation; but by a little +importunity I discovered that they had the credit of being able to +preserve the house and its inhabitants from the baneful influence of the +"evil eye." "Why, Nanny," said I, "you surely don't believe in witches +now-a-days?" "No! I don't say 'at I do; but certainly i' former times +there _was_ wizzards an' buzzards, and them sort o' things." "Well," +said I, laughing, "but you surely don't think there are any now?" "No! I +don't say at ther' are; but I _do_ believe in a _yevil_ eye." After a +little time I extracted from poor Nanny more particulars on the subject, +as viz.:--how that there was a woman in the village whom she strongly +suspected of being able to look with an evil eye; how, further, a +neighbour's daughter, against whom the old lady in question had a grudge +owing to some love affair, had suddenly fallen into a sort of pining +sickness, of which the doctors could make nothing at all; and how the +poor thing fell away without any accountable cause, and finally died, +nobody knew why; but how it was her (Nanny's) strong belief that she had +pined away in consequence of a glance from the evil eye. Finally, I got +from her an account of how any one who chose could themselves obtain the +power of the evil eye, and the receipt was, as nearly as I can +recollect, as follows:-- + + "Ye gang out ov' a night--ivery night, while ye find nine + toads--an' when ye've gitten t' nine toads, ye hang 'em up ov' a + string, an' ye make a hole and buries t' toads i't hole--and as + 't toads pines away, so 't person pines away 'at you've looked + upon wiv a yevil eye, an' they pine and pine away while they + die, without ony disease at all!" + +I do not know if this is the orthodox creed respecting the mode of +gaining the power of the evil eye, but it is at all events a genuine +piece of Folk Lore. + +The above will corroborate an old story rife in Yorkshire, of an +ignorant person, who, being asked if he ever said his prayers, repeated +as follows:-- + + "From witches and wizards and long-tail'd buzzards, + And creeping things that run in hedge-bottoms, + Good lord, deliver us." + +MARGARET GATTY. + +Ecclesfield, April 24. 1850. + + +_Charms._--I beg to represent to the correspondents of the "NOTES AND +QUERIES," especially to the clergy and medical men resident in the +country, that notices of the superstitious practices still prevalent, or +recently prevalent, in different parts of the kingdom, for the cure of +diseases, are highly instructive and even valuable, on many accounts. +Independently of their archæological {430} interest as illustrations of +the mode of thinking and acting of past times, they become really +valuable to the philosophical physician, as throwing light on the +natural history of diseases. The prescribers and practisers of such +"charms," as well as the lookers-on, have all unquestionable evidence of +the _efficacy_ of the prescriptions, in a great many cases: that is to +say, the diseases for which the charms are prescribed _are cured_; and, +according to the mode of reasoning prevalent with prescribers, orthodox +and heterodox, they must be cured by them,--_post hoc ergo propter hoc_. +Unhappily for the scientific study of diseases, the universal +interference of ART _in an active form_ renders it difficult to meet +with _pure specimens_ of corporeal maladies; and, consequently, it is +often difficult to say whether it is nature or art that must be credited +for the event. This is a positive misfortune, in a scientific point of +view. Now, as there can be no question as to the non-efficiency of +_charms_ in a material or physical point of view (their action through +the imagination is a distinct and important subject of inquiry), it +follows that every disease getting well in the practice of the charmer, +is curable and cured by Nature. A faithful list of such cases could not +fail to be most useful to the scientific inquirer, and to the progress +of truth; and it is therefore that I am desirous of calling the +attention of your correspondents to the subject. As a general rule, it +will be found that the diseases in which charms have obtained most fame +as curative are those of long duration, not dangerous, yet not at all, +or very slightly, benefited by ordinary medicines. In such cases, of +course, there is not room for the display of an imaginary +agency:--"For," as Crabbe says,--and I hope your medical readers will +pardon the irreverence-- + + "For NATURE then has time to work _her_ way; + And doing nothing often has prevailed, + When ten physicians have prescribed, and failed." + +The notice in your last Number respecting the cure of hooping-cough, is +a capital example of what has just been stated; and I doubt not but many +of your correspondents could supply numerous prescriptions equally +scientific and equally effective. On a future occasion, I will myself +furnish you with some; but as I have already trespassed so far on your +space, I will conclude by naming a few diseases in which the charmers +may be expected to charm most wisely and well. They will all be found to +come within the category of the diseases characterised above:--Epilepsy, +St. Vitus's Dance (_Chorea_), Hysteria, Toothache, Warts, Ague, Mild +Skin-diseases, Tic Douloureux, Jaundice, Asthma, Bleeding from the Nose, +St. Anthony's Fire or The Rose (_Erysipelas_), King's Evil (_Scrofula_), +Mumps, Rheutmatic Pains, &c., &c. + +EMDEE. + +April 25. 1850. + + +_Roasted Mouse._--I have often heard my father say, that when he had the +measles, his nurse gave him a roasted mouse to cure him. + +SCOTUS. + + * * * * * + +THE ANGLO-SAXON WORD "UNLAED." + +A long etymological disquisition may seem a trifling matter; but what a +clear insight into historic truth, into the manners, the customs, and +the possessions of people of former ages, is sometimes obtained by the +accurate definition of even a single word. A pertinent instance will be +found in the true etymon of _Brytenwealda_, given by Mr. Kemble in his +chapter "On the Growth of the kingly Power." (_Saxons in Engl._ B. II. +c. 1.) Upon this consideration I must rest for this somewhat lengthy +investigation. + +The word UNLAED, as far as we at present know, occurs only five times in +Anglo-Saxon; three of which are in the legend of Andreas in the Vercelli +MS., which legend was first printed, under the auspices of the Record +Commission, by Mr. Thorpe; but the Report to which the poetry of the +Vercelli MS. was attached has, for reasons with which I am unacquainted, +never been made public. In 1840, James Grimm, "feeling (as Mr. Kemble +says) that this was a wrong done to the world of letters at large," +published it at Cassell, together with the Legend of Elene, or the +Finding of the Cross, with an Introduction and very copious notes. In +1844, it was printed for the Aelfric Society by Mr. Kemble, accompanied +by a translation, in which the passages are thus given.-- + + "Such was the people's + peaceless token, + the suffering of the _wretched_." + l. 57-9. + + "When they of _savage spirits_ + believed in the might," + l. 283-4. + + "Ye are _rude_, + of poor thoughts." + +The fifth instance of the occurrence of the word is in a passage cited +by Wanley, Catal. p. 134., {431} from a homily occurring in a MS. in +Corpus Christi College, s. 14.:-- + + "Men ða leoçes can hep re3þ se hal3a se[~s] Io[~hs] þaep re + Hael. eode ofen þone bupnan the Ledpoc hatte, on in[=e]n aenne + p[.y]ptun. Tha piste se unlaesde iudas se þe hune to deaþe + beleaped haefde." + +In Grimm's _Elucidations to Andreas_ he thus notices it:-- + + "Unlaed, miser, improbus, infelix. (A. 142. 744. _Judith_, 134, + 43.). A rare adjective never occurring in Beowulf, Coedmon, or + the Cod. Exon., and belonging to those which only appear in + conjunction with _un_. Thus, also, the Goth. unleds, pauper, + miser; and the O.H.G. unlât (Graff, 2. 166.); we nowhere find a + lêds, laed, lât, as an antithesis. It must have signified + _dives, felix_; and its root is wholly obscure." + +In all the Anglo-Saxon examples of unlaed, the sense appears to be +_wretched_, _miserable_; in the Gothic it is uniformly _poor_[1]: but +_poverty_ and _wretchedness_ are nearly allied. Lêd, or laed, would +evidently therefore signify _rich_, and by inference _happy_. Now we +have abundant examples of the use of the word ledes in old English; not +only for _people_, but for _riches_, _goods_, _movable property_. Lond +and lede, or ledes, or lith, frequently occur unequivocally in this +latter sense, thus:-- + + "He was the first of Inglond that gaf God his tithe + Of isshue of bestes, of londes, or of _lithe_." + + _P. Plouhm_. + + "I bed hem bothe lond and _lede_, + To have his douhter in worthlie wede, + And spouse here with my ring." + + _K. of Tars_, 124. + + "For to have lond or _lede_, + Or _other riches_, so God me spede! + Yt ys to muche for me." + + _Sir Cleges_, 409. + + "Who schall us now geve londes or _lythe_, + Hawkys, or houndes, or stedys stithe, + As he was wont to do." + + _Le B. Florence of Rome_, 841. + + "No asked he lond or _lithe_, + Bot that maiden bright." + + _Sir Tristrem_, xlviii. + +In "William and the Werwolf" the cowherd and his wife resolve to leave +William + + "Al here godis + Londes and _ludes_ as ether after her lif dawes." + + p. 4 + +In this poem, _ludes_ and _ledes_ are used indiscriminately, but most +frequently in the sense of men, people. Sir Frederick Madden has shown, +from the equivalent words in the French original of Robert of Brunne, +"that he always uses the word in the meaning of _possessions_, whether +consisting of tenements, rents, fees, &c.;" in short, _wealth_. + +If, therefore, the word has this sense in old English, we might expect +to find it in Anglo-Saxon, and I think it is quite clear that we have it +at least in one instance. In the _Ancient Laws and Institutes of +England_, vol. i. p. 184., an oath is given, in which the following +passage occurs: + + "Do spa to lane + beo þé he þinum + I leat me be minum + ne 3ypne le þines + ne laedes ne landes + ne sac ne socne + ne þu mines ne þeapst + ne mint ic þe nan þio3." + +Mr. Thorpe has not translated the word, nor is it noticed in his +Glossary; but I think there can be no doubt that it should be rendered +by _goods_, _chattels_, or _wealth_, i.e., movable property. + +This will be even more obvious from an extract given by Bishop +Nicholson, in the preface to Wilkin's _Leges Saxonicæ_ p. vii. It is +part of the oath of a Scotish baron of much later date, and the sense +here is unequivocal:-- + + "I becom zour man my liege king in land, _lith_[2], life and + lim, warldly honour, homage, fealty, and leawty, against all + that live and die." + +Numerous examples are to be found in the M.H. German, of which I will +cite a few: + + "Ir habt doch zu iuwere hant + Beidin _liute_ unde lant." + + _Tristr._ 13934. + + "Und bevelhet ir _liute_ unde lant." + + _Iwein._ 2889. {432} + + "Ich teile ir _liute_ unde lant." + + _Id._ 7714. + +And in the old translation of the _Liber Dialogorum_ of St. Gregory, +printed in the cloister of S. Ulrich at Augspurg in 1473:-- + + "In der Statt waren hoch Türen und schöne Heüser von Silber und + Gold, und aller Hand _leüt_, und die Frawen und Man naÿgten im + alle." + +Lastly, Jo. Morsheim in his _Untreuer Frawen_:-- + + "Das was mein Herr gar gerne hört, + Und ob es _Leut_ und Land bethort." + +Now, when we recollect the state of the people in those times, the +serf-like vassalage, the _Hörigkeit_ or _Leibeigenthum_, which +prevailed, we cannot be surprised that a word which signified +_possessions_ should designate also the _people_. It must still, +however, be quite uncertain which is the secondary sense. + +The root of the word, as Grimm justly remarks, is very obscure; and yet +it seems to me that he himself has indirectly pointed it out:-- + + "Goth. liudan[3] (crescere); O.H.G. liotan (sometimes unorganic, + hliotan); O.H.G. liut (populus); A.-S. lëóð; O.N. lióð: Goth. + lauths -is (homo), ju33alauths -dis (adolescens); O.H.G. sumar + -lota (virgulta palmitis, i.e. qui una æstate creverunt, _Gl. + Rhb._ 926'b, Jun. 242.); M.H.G. corrupted into sumer -late (M.S. + i. 124'b. 2. 161'a. virga herba). It is doubtful whether ludja + (facies), O.H.G. andlutti, is to be reckoned among + them."--_Deutsche Gram._ ii. 21. For this last see Diefenbach, + _Vergl. Gram. der Goth. Spr._ i. 242. + +In his _Erlauterungen zu Elene_, p. 166., Grimm further remarks:-- + + "The verb is leoðan, leað, luðon (crescere), O.S. lioðan, lôð, + luðun. Leluðon (_Cædm._ 93. 28.) is creverunt, pullulant; and + 3eloðen (ap. Hickes, p. 135. note) onustus, but rather cretus. + Elene, 1227. 3eloðen unðep leápum (cretus sub foliis)." + +It has been surmised that LEDE was connected with the O.N. +hlÿt[4]--which not only signified _sors, portio_, but _res +consistentia_--and the A.-S. hlet, hlyt, lot, portion, inheritance: +thus, in the A.-S. Psal. xxx. 18., on hanðum ðinum hlÿt mín, _my +heritage is in thy hands_. Notker's version is: Mín lôz ist in dínen +handen. I have since found that Kindlinger (_Geschichte der Deutchen +Hörigkeit_) has made an attempt to derive it from _Lied, Lit_, which in +Dutch, Flemish, and Low German, still signify a _limb_; I think, +unsuccessfully. + +Ray, in his _Gloss. Northanymbr._, has "unlead, nomen opprobrii;" but he +gives a false derivation: Grose, in his _Provincial Glossary_, "unleed +or unlead, a general name for any crawling venomous creature, as a toad, +&c. It is sometimes ascribed to a man, and then it denotes a sly wicked +fellow, that in a manner creeps to do mischief. See Mr. Nicholson's +Catalogue." + +In the 2d edition of Mr. Brockett's _Glossary_, we have: "Unletes, +displacers or destroyers of the farmer's produce." + +This provincial preservation of a word of such rare occurrence in +Anglo-Saxon, and of which no example has yet been found in old English, +is a remarkable circumstance. The word has evidently signified, like the +Gothic, in the first place _poor_; then _wretched_, _miserable_; and +hence, perhaps, its opprobrious sense of _mischievous_ or _wicked_. + + "In those rude times when wealth or movable property consisted + almost entirely of living money, in which debts were contracted + and paid, and for which land was given in mortgage or sold; it + is quite certain that the serfs were transferred with the land, + the lord considering them as so much live-stock, or part of his + _chattels_." + +A vestige of this feeling with regard to dependants remains in the use +of the word _Man_ (which formerly had the same sense as _lede_). We +still speak of "a general and his men," and use the expression "our +men." But, happily for the masses of mankind, few vestiges of serfdom +and slavery, and those in a mitigated form, now virtually exist. + +S.W. SINGER. + +April 16. 1850. + + [Footnote 1: It occurs many times in the Moeso-Gothic version of + the Gospels for [Greek: ptochos]. From the Glossaries, it + appears that iungalauths is used three times for [Greek: + neaniskos], a young man; therefore lauths or lauds would signify + simply _man_; and the plural, laudeis, would be _people_. See + this established by the analogy of vairths, or O.H.G. virahi, + also signifying people. Grimm's _Deutsche Gram._ iii. 472., + note. "Es konnte zwar _unlêds_ (pauper) aber auch _unlêths_ + heissen."--_D. Gr._ 225.] + + [Footnote 2: Sir F. Palgrave has given this extract in the + Appendix to his _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, + p. ccccvii., where, by an error of the press, or of + transcription, the word stands _lich_. It may be as well to + remark, that the corresponding word in Latin formulas of the + same kind is "catallis," _i.e. chattels_. A passage in Havelok, + v. 2515., will clearly demonstrate that _lith_ was at least one + kind of _chattel_, and equivalent to _fe_ (fee). + + "Thanne he was ded that Sathanas + Sket was seysed al that his was, + In the King's hand il del, + _Lond_ and _lith_, and other _catel_, + And the King ful sone it yaf + Ubbe in the hond with a fayr staf, + And seyde, 'Her ich sayse the + In al the _lond_ in al the _fe_.'"] + + [Footnote 3: The author of _Tripartita seu de Analogia + Linguacum_, under the words "Leute" and "Barn," says:--"Respice + Ebr. Id. Ebr. ledah, partus, proles est. Ebr. lad, led, gigno." + A remarkable coincidence at least with Grimm's derivation of + léôd from the Goth. liudan, crescere.] + + [Footnote 4: Thus, Anthon, _Teutschen Landwirthschaft_, Th. i. + p. 61.:--"Das Land eines jeden Dorfes, einer jeden Germarkung + war wirklich getheilt und, wie es sehr wahrscheinlich, alsdan + verlost worden. Daher nannte man dasjenige, was zu einem + Grunstüke an Äkern, Wiesen gehörte, ein _Los_ (Sors). Das + Burgundische Gesetz redet ausfdrücklich vom Lande das man in + _Lose_ erhalten hat (Terra _sortis_ titulo acquisita, Tit. i. § + 1.)" Schmeller, in his _Bayrishces Wort. B._ v. _Lud-aigen_, + also points to the connection of _Lud_ with hluz-hlut, sors, + portio; but he rather inclines to derive it from the Low-Latin, + ALLODIUM. It appears to me that the converse of this is most + likely to have been the case, and that this very word LEDS or + LÆDS is likely to furnish a more satisfactory etymology of + ALLODIUM than has hitherto been offered.] + + * * * * * {433} + +BP. COSIN'S MSS.--INDEX TO BAKER'S MSS. + +Your correspondent "J. SANSOM" (No. 19. p. 303.) may perhaps find some +unpublished remains of Bp. Cosin in Baker's MSS.; from the excellent +index to which (Cambridge, 1848, p. 57.) I transcribe the following +notices, premising that of the volumes of the MSS. the first +twenty-three are in the British Museum, and the remainder in the +University Library, (not, as Mr. Carlyle says in a note in, I think, the +3d vol. of his _Letters. &c. of Cromwell_ in the library of Trin. +Coll.). + + "Cosin, Bp.-- + Notes of, in his Common Prayer, edit. 1636, xx. 175. + Benefactions to See of Durham, xxx. 377-380. + Conference with Abp. of Trebisond, xx. 178. + Diary in Paris, 1651, xxxvi. 329. + Intended donation for a Senate-House, xxx. 454. + Letters to Peter Gunning, principally concerning + the authority of the Apocrypha, vi. 174-180. + 230-238. + Manual of Devotion, xxxvi. 338." + +As the editors of the Index to Baker's MSS. invite corrections from +those who use the MSS., you will perhaps be willing to print the +following additions and corrections, which may be of use in case a new +edition of the Index should be required:-- + + Preface, p. vii. _add_, in _Thoresby Correspondence_, one or two + of Baker's _Letters_ have been printed, others have appeared in + Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes_. + + Index, p. 2. Altars, suppression of, in Ely Diocese, 1550, xxx. + 213. Printed in the _British Magazine_, Oct. 1849, p. 401. + + P. 5. Babraham, Hullier, Vicar of, burnt for heresy. _Brit. + Mag._ Nov. 1849, p. 543. + + P. 13. Bucer incepts as Dr. of Divinty, 1549, xxiv. 114. See Dr. + Lamb's _Documents from MSS. C.C.C.C._ p. 153. + + Appointed to lecture by Edw. VI., 1549, xxx. 370. See Dr. Lamb, + p. 152. + + Letter of University to Edw., recommending his family to care, + x. 396. Dr. Lamb, p. 154. + + P. 14. Buckingham, Dr. Eglisham's account of his poisoning James + I., xxxii. 149-153. See _Hurl. Misc._ + + Buckmaster's Letter concerning the King's Divorce, x. 243. This + is printed in _Burnet_, vol. iii. lib. 1. collect. No. 16., from + a copy sent by Baker, but more fully in Dr. Lamb, p. 23., and in + Cooper's _Annals_. + + P. 25. Renunciation of the Pope, 1535. See Ant. Harmer, + _Specimen_, p. 163. + + P. 51. Cowel, Dr., charge against, and defence of his + Antisanderus. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. 1849, p. 184. + + Cranmer, extract from C.C.C. MS. concerning. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. + 1849, p. 169, _seq_. + + Cranmer, life of, xxxi. 1-3. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. 1849, p. 165. + + P. 57. Convocation, subscribers to the judgment of, xxxi. 9. + _British Magazine_, Sept. 1849, p. 317. + + P. 68. Ely, Altars, suppression of, 1550, xxx. 213. _Brit. Mag._ + Oct. 1849, p. 401. + + P. 77. Several of the papers relating to Bishop Fisher will be + found in Dr. Hymers' edition of _The Funeral Sermon on Lady + Margaret_. + + P. 80. Gloucester, Abbey of, &c., a Poem by Malvern, v. 285-7. + _Brit. Mag._ xxi. 377.; Caius Coll. MSS. No. 391. art 13. + + Goodman, Declaration concerning the articles in his book. + Strype's _Annals_, I. i. 184. + + P. 89. Henry VII., Letter to Lady Margaret, xix. 262. See Dr. + Hymers, as above, p. 160. + + P. 91. Henry VIII., Letter to, giving an account of the death of + Wyngfield, &c. See Sir H. Ellis, _Ser. III._ No. 134. + + P. 94. Humphrey, Bishop, Account, &c., xxxv. 1-19. Rend xxvi. + 1-19. + + Humphrey, Bishop, Images and Relics, &c., xxx. 133-4. _Brit. + Mag._ Sept. 1849, p. 300. + + P. 121-2. Lady Margaret. Several of the articles relating to + Lady Margaret have been printed by Dr. Hymers (_ut sup_.). + + P. 137. Pole Card. Oratio Johannis Stoyks, &c., v. 310-312. Dr. + Lamb, p. 177. + + P. 143. Redman, Dr., Particulars of, xxxii. 495.--_Brit. Mag._ + Oct. 1849, p. 402. + + P. 151. Spelman's Proposition concerning the Saxon Lecture, &c. + Sir H. Ellis _Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, Camd. Soc. No. + 59. + + P. 169. Noy's Will, xxxvi. 375., read 379. + +Many of the articles relating to Cambridge in the MSS. have been printed +by Mr. Cooper in his _Annals of Cambridge_: some relating to Cromwell +are to be found in Mr. Carlyle's work; and several, besides those which +I have named, are contained in Dr. Lamb's _Documents_. + +J.E.B. MAYOR. + +Marlborough Coll., March 30. + + * * * * * + +ARABIC NUMERALS AND CIPHER. + +Will you suffer me to add some further remarks on the subject of the +Arabic numerals and cipher; as neither the querists nor respondents seem +to have duly appreciated the immense importance of the step taken by +introducing the use of a cipher. I would commence with observing, that +we know of no people tolerably advanced in civilisation, whose system of +notation had made such little progress, beyond that of the mere savage, +as the Romans. The rudest savages could make upright scratches on the +face of a rock, and set them in a row, to signify units; and as the +circumstance of having ten fingers has led the people of every nation to +give a distinct name to the number ten and its multiples, the savage +would have taken but a little step when he invented such a mode of +expressing tens as crossing his scratches, thus X. His ideas, however, +enlarge, and he makes three scratches, thus [C with square sides], to +express 100. Generations of such vagabonds as founded Rome pass away, +and at length some one discovers that, by using but half the figure for +X, the number 5 may be conjectured to be meant. Another calculator +follows {434} up this discovery, and by employing [C with square sides], +half the figure used for 100, he expresses 50. At length the rude man +procured a better knife, with which he was enabled to give a more +graceful form to his [C with square sides], by rounding it into C; then +two such, turned different ways, with a distinguishing cut between them, +made CD, to express a thousand; and as, by that time, the alphabet was +introduced, they recognised the similarity of the form at which they had +thus arrived to the first letter of _Mille_, and called it M, or 1000. +The half of this DC was adopted by a ready analogy for 500. With that +discovery the invention of the Romans stopped, though they had recourse +to various awkward expedients for making these forms express somewhat +higher numbers. On the other hand, the Hebrews seem to have been +provided with an alphabet as soon as they were to constitute a nation; +and they were taught to use the successive letters of that alphabet to +express the first ten numerals. In this way b and c might denote 2 and 3 +just as well as those figures; and numbers might thus be expressed by +single letters to the end of the alphabet, but no further. They were +taught, however, and the Greeks learnt from them, to use the letters +which follow the ninth as indications of so many tens; and those which +follow the eighteenth as indicative of hundreds. This process was +exceedingly superior to the Roman; but at the end of the alphabet it +required supplementary signs. In this way bdecba might have expressed +245321 as concisely as our figures; but if 320 were to be taken from +this sum, the removal of the equivalent letters cb would leave bdea, or +apparently no more than 2451. The invention of a cipher at once +beautifully simplified the notation, and facilitated its indefinite +extension. It was then no longer necessary to have one character for +units and another for as many tens. The substitution of 00 for cb, so as +to write bdeooa, kept the d in its place, and therefore still indicating +40,000. It was thus that 27, 207, and 270 were made distinguishable at +once, without needing separate letters for tens and hundreds; and new +signs to express millions and their multiples became unnecessary. + +I have been induced to trespass on your columns with this extended +notice of the difficulty which was never solved by either the Hebrews or +Greeks, from understanding your correspondent "T.S.D." p. 367, to say +that "the mode of obviating it would suggest itself at once." As to the +original query,--whence came the invention of the cipher, which was felt +to be so valuable as to be entitled to give its name to all the process +of arithmetic?--"T.S.D." has given the querist his best clue in sending +him to Mr. Strachey's Bija Ganita, and to Sir E. Colebrooke's Algebra of +the Hindus, from the Sanscrit of Brahmegupta. Perhaps a few sentences +may sufficiently point out where the difficulty lies. In the beginning +of the sixth century, the celebrated Boethius described the present +system as an invention of the Pythagoreans, meaning, probably, to +express some indistinct notion of its coming from the east. The figures +in MS. copies of Boethius are the same as our own for 1, 8, and 9; the +same, but inverted, for 2 and 5; and are not without vestiges of +resemblance in the remaining figures. In the ninth century we come to +the Arabian Al Sephadi, and derive some information from him; but his +figures have attracted most notice, because though nearly all of them +are different from those found in Boethius, they are the same as occur +in Planudes, a Greek monk of the fourteenth century, who says of his own +units, "These nine characters are Indian," and adds, "they have a tenth +character called [Greek: tziphra], which they express by an 0, and which +denotes the absence of any number." The date of Boethius is obviously +too early for the supposition of an Arabic origin; but it is doubted +whether the figures are of his time, as the copyists of a work in MS. +were wont to use the characters of their own age in letters, and might +do so in the case of figures also. + +H.W. + + * * * * * + +ROMAN NUMERALS. + +There are several points connected with the subject of numerals that are +important in the history of practical arithmetic, to which neither +scientific men nor antiquaries have paid much attention. Yet if the +principal questions were brought in a definite form before the +contributors to the "NOTES AND QUERIES," I feel quite sure that a not +inconsiderable number of them will be able to contribute each his +portion to the solution of what may till now be considered as almost a +mystery. With your permission, I will propose a few queries relating to +the subject, + +1. When did the abacus, or the "tabel" referred to in my former letters, +cease to be used as calculating instruments? + +The last printed work in which the _abacal_ practice was given for the +purposes of tuition that I have been able to discover, is a 12mo. +edition, by Andrew Mellis, of Dee's _Robert Recorde_, 1682. + +2. When did the method of _recording results_ in Roman numerals cease to +be used in mercantile account-books? Do any ledgers or other +account-books, of ancient dates, exist in the archives of the City +Companies, or in the office of the City Chamberlain? If there do, these +would go far towards settling the question. + +3. When in the public offices of the Government? It is probable that +criteria will be found in many of them, which are inaccessible to the +public generally. + +4. When in the household-books of royalty and nobility? This is a class +of MSS. to which I have paid next to no attention; and, possibly, had +the query been in my mind through life, many fragments {435} tending +towards the solution that have passed me unnoticed would have saved me +from the necessity of troubling your correspondents. The latest that I +remember to have particularly noticed is that of Charles I. in the +Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge; but I shall not be surprised to find +that the system was continued down to George I., or later still. +Conservatism is displayed in its perfection in the tenacious adherence +of official underlings to established forms and venerable routine. + +T.S.D. + +Shooter's Hill, April 8. + + [Our correspondent will find some curious notices of early dates + of Arabic numerals, from the Rev. Edmund Venables, Rev. W. + Gunner, and Mr. Ouvry, in the March number of the _Archæological + Journal_, p. 75-76.; and the same number also contains, at p. + 85., some very interesting remarks by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, + illustrative of the subject, and instancing a warrant from Hugh + le Despenseer to Bonefez de Peruche and his partners, merchants + of a company, to pay forty pounds, dated Feb. 4, 19 Edward II., + i.e. 1325, in which the date of the year is expressed in Roman + numerals; and on the dorso, written by one of the Italian + merchants to whom the warrant was addressed, the date of the + payment, Feb. 1325. in Arabic numerals, of which Mr. Hunter + exhibited a fac-simile at a meeting of the Institute.] + + * * * * * + +_Arabic Numerals._--In the lists of works which treat of Arabic +Numerals, the following have not been noticed, although they contain a +review of what has been written on their introduction into this part of +Europe:--_Archæologia_, vols. x. xiii.; _Bibliotheca Literaria_, Nos. 8. +and 10., including Huetiana on this subject; and Morant's _Colchester_, +b. iii. p. 28. + +T.J. + + * * * * * + +ERROR IN HALLAM'S HISTORY OF LITERATURE. + +If Mr. Hallam's accuracy _in parvis_ could be fairly judged by the +following instance, and that given by your correspondent "CANTAB." (No. +4, p. 51.), I fear much could not be said for it. The following passage +is from Mr. Hallam's account of Campanella and his disciple Adami. My +reference is to the first edition of Mr. Hallam's work; but the passage +stands unaltered in the second. I believe these to be rare instances of +inaccuracy. + + "Tobias Adami, ... who dedicated to the philosophers of Germany + _his own Prodromus Philosophiæ Instauratio_, prefixed to his + _edition_ of Campanella's _Compendium de Rerum Naturæ_, + published at Frankfort in 1617. Most of the other writings of + the master seem to have preceded _this edition_, for Adami + enumerates them in _his Prodromus_."--_Hist. of Literature_, + iii. 149. + +The title is not _Prodromus Philosophiæ Instauratio_, which is not +sense; but _Prodromus Philosophiæ Instaurandæ_ (Forerunner of a +philosophy to be constructed). This _Prodromus_ is a treatise of +Campanella's, not, as Mr. Hallam says, of Adami. Adami published the +_Prodromus_ for Campanella, who was in prison; and he wrote a preface, +in which he gives a list of other writings of Campanella, which he +proposes to publish afterwards. What Mr. Hallam calls an "edition," was +the first publication. + +Mere accident enabled me to detect these errors. I am not a +bibliographer and do not know a ten-thousandth part of what Mr. Hallam +knows. I extract this note from my common-place book, and send it to +you, hoping to elicit the opinions of some of your learned +correspondents on the general accuracy in biography and bibliography of +Mr. Hallam's _History of Literature_. Has Mr. Bolton Corney, if I may +venture to name him, examined the work? His notes and opinion would be +particularly valuable. + +As a few inaccuracies such as this may occur in any work of large scope +proceeding from the most learned of men, and be accidentally detected by +an ignoramus, so a more extensive impeachment of Mr. Hallam's accuracy +would make a very trifling deduction from his great claims to respect +and well-established fame. I believe I rightly understand the spirit in +which you desire your periodical to be the medium for emending valuable +works, when I thus guard myself against the appearance of disrespect to +a great ornament of literature. + +C. + + * * * * * + +NOTES FROM CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON. + +We have already shown pretty clearly, how high is the opinion we +entertain of the value of our able contributor Mr. Peter Cunningham's +amusing _Handbook for London_, by the insertion of numerous Notes _upon_ +his first edition. We will now give our readers an opportunity of +judging how much the second edition, which is just published, has been +improved through the further researches of that gentleman, by giving +them a few Notes _from_ it, consisting entirely of new matter, and very +curious withal. When we add that the work is now enriched by a very +copious Index of Names, it will readily be seen how much the value and +utility of the book has been increased. + +_Hanover Square._--"The statue of William Pitt, by Sir Francis Chantrey, +set up in the year 1831, is of bronze, and cost 7000l. I was present at +its erection with Sir Francis Chantrey and my father, who was Chantrey's +assistant. The statue was placed on its pedestal between seven and eight +in the morning, and while the workmen were away at their breakfasts, a +rope was thrown round the neck of the figure, and a vigorous attempt +made by several sturdy Reformers to pull it down. When word of what they +were about was brought to my father, he exclaimed, with a smile {436} +upon his face, 'The cramps are leaded, and they may pull to doomsday.' +The cramps are the iron bolts fastening the statue to the pedestal. The +attempt was soon abandoned." + +_Hyde Park Corner._--"There were cottages here in 1655; and the middle +of the reign of George II. till the erection of Apsely House, the small +entrance gateway was flanked on its east site by a poor tenement known +as 'Allen's stall.' Allen, whose wife kept a moveable apple-stall at the +park entrance, was recognised by George II. as an old soldier at the +battle of Dettingen, and asked (so pleased was the King at meeting the +veteran) 'what he could do for him.' Allen, after some hesitation, asked +for a piece of ground for a permanent apple-stall at Hyde Park Corner, +and a grant was made to him of a piece of ground which his children +afterwards sold to Apsley, Lord Bathurst. Mr. Crace has a careful +drawing of the Hyde Park Corner, showing Allen's stall and the Hercules' +Pillars." + +_Pall Mall._--"Mr. Fox told Mr. Rogers, that Sydenham was sitting at his +window looking on the Mall, with his pipe in his mouth and a silver +tankard before him, when a fellow made a snatch at the tankard, and ran +off with it. Nor was he overtaken, said Fox, before he got among the +bushes in Bond Street, and there they lost him." + +_Lansdowne House._--"The iron bars at the two ends of Lansdowne Passage +(a near cut from Curzon Street to Hay Hill) were put up late in the last +century, in consequence of a mounted highwayman, who had committed a +robbery in Piccadilly, having escaped from his pursuers through this +narrow passage by riding his horse up the steps. This anecdote was told +by the late Thomas Grenville to Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis. It occurred +while George Grenville was Minister, the robber passing his residence in +Bolton Street full gallop." + +_Newcastle House._--"The old and expensive custom of 'vails-giving,' +received its death-glow at Newcastle House. Sir Timothy Waldo, on his +way from the Duke's dinner table to his carriage, put a crown into the +hand of the cook, who returned it, saying: 'Sir, I do not take silver.' +'Don't you, indeed?' said Sir Timothy, putting it in his pocket; 'then I +do not give gold.' Hanway's 'Eight Letters to the Duke of ----,' had +their origin in Sir Timothy's complaint." + +_Red Lion Square._--"The benevolent Jonas Hanway, the traveller, lived +and died (1786) in a house in Red Lion Square, the principal rooms of +which he decorated with paintings and emblematical devices, 'in a +style,' says his biographer, 'peculiar to himself.' 'I found,' he used +to say, when speaking of these ornaments, 'that my countrymen and women +were not _au fait_ in the art of conversation, and that instead of +recurring to their cards, when the discourse began to flag, the minutes +between the time of assembling and the placing the card-tables are spent +in an irksome suspense. To relieve this vacuum in social intercourse and +prevent cards from engrossing the whole of my visitors' minds, I have +presented them with objects the most attractive I could imagine--and +when that fails there are the cards.' Hanway was the first man who +ventured to walk the streets of London with an umbrella over his head. +After carrying one near thirty years, he saw them come into general +use." + +_Downing Street._--"Baron Bothmar's house was part of the forfeited +property of Lee, Lord Lichfield, who retired with James II., to whom he +was Master of the Horse. At the beginning of the present century there +was no other official residence in the street than the house which +belonged, by right of office, to the First Lord of the Treasury, but by +degrees one house was bought after another: first the Foreign Office, +increased afterwards by three other houses; then the Colonial Office; +then the house in the north corner, which was the Judge Advocate's, +since added to the Colonial Office; then a house for the Chancellor of +the Exchequer; and lastly, a whole row of lodging-houses, chiefly for +Scotch and Irish members." + +_Whitehall._--"King Charles I. was executed on a scaffold erected in +front of the Banqueting House, towards the park. The warrant directs +that he should be executed 'in the open street before Whitehall.' Lord +Leicester tells us in his Journal, that he was 'beheaded at Whitehall +Gate.' Dugdale, in his _Diary_, that he was 'beheaded at the gate of +Whitehall;' and a single sheet of the time reserved in the British +Museum, that 'the King was beheaded at Whitehall Gate.' There cannot, +therefore, be a doubt that the scaffold was erected in front of the +building facing the present Horse Guards. We now come to the next point +which has excited some discussion. It appears from Herbert's minute +account of the King's last moments, that 'the King was led all along the +galleries and Banqueting House, and there was a passage _broken through +the wall_, by which the king passed unto the scaffold.' This seems +particular enough, and leads, it is said, to a conclusion that the +scaffold was erected on the north side. Where the passage was broken +through, one thing is certain, the scaffold was erected on the west +side, or, in other words, 'in the open street,' now called Whitehall; +and that the King, as Ludlow relates in his Memoirs, 'was conducted to +the scaffold out of the window of the Banqueting House.' Ludlow, who +tells us this, was one of the regicides, and what he states, simply and +straightforwardly, is confirmed by any engraving of the execution, +published at Amsterdam in the same year, and by the following memorandum +of Vertue's on the copy of Terasson's large engraving of the Banqueting +House, preserved in the library of the Society of Antiquaries:--'It is, +according to the truest reports, said that out of this window King +Charles went upon the scaffold to be beheaded, the window-frame being +taken out purposely to make the passage on to the scaffold, which is +equal to the landing-place of the hall within side.' The window marked +by Vertue belonged to a small building abutting from the north side of +the present Banqueting House. From this window, then the King stept upon +the scaffold." + +We shall probably next week indulge in a few QUERIES which have +suggested themselves to us, and to which Mr. Cunningham will perhaps be +good enough to reply. + + * * * * * {437} + +ANECDOTE OF CHARLES I. + +I have great pleasure in forwarding to you an anecdote of the captivity +of Charles I., which I think will be considered interesting to your +readers. Of its authenticity there can be no doubt. I extract it from a +small paper book, purchased some fifty years since, at Newport, in the +Isle of Wight, which contains the history of a family named Douglas, for +some years resident in that town, written by the last representative, +Eliza Douglas, at the sale of whose effects it came into my +grandfather's hands. There are many curious particulars in it besides +the anecdote I have sent you; especially an account of the writer's +great-great-grandfather (the husband of the heroine of this tale), who +"traded abroad, and was took into Turkey as a slave," and there gained +the affections of his master's daughter, after the most approved +old-ballad fashion; though, alas! it was not to her love that he owed +his liberty, but (dreadful bathos!) to his skill in "cooking fowls, &c. +&c. in the English taste;" which, on a certain occasion, when some +English merchants came to dine with his master, "so pleased the company, +that they offered to redeem him, which was accepted; and when freed he +came home to England, and lived in London to an advanced age; so old +that they fed him with a tea-spoon." + +After his death his wife married again; and it was during this second +marriage that the interview with King Charles took place. + + "My mother's great-grandmother, when a-breeding with her + daughter, Mary Craige, which was at y'e time of _King Charles_ + being a _prisoner_ in _Carisbrook Castle_, she longed to kiss + the King's _hand_; and when he was brought to Newport to be + carried off, she being acquainted with the gentleman's + housekeeper, where the King was coming to stay, till orders for + him to leave the island, she went to the housekeeper, told her + what she wanted, and they contrived for her to come the morning + he was to go away. So up she got, and dressed herself, and set + off to call her midwife, and going along, the first and second + guard stopped her and asked her where she was going; she told + them 'to call her midwife,' which she did. They went to this + lady, and she went and acquainted his Majesty with the affair; + he desired she may come up to him, and she said, when she came + into the room, his Majesty seemed to appear as if he had been at + _prayers_. He rose up and came to her, who fell on her knees + before him; he took her up by the arm himself, and put his + _cheek_ to her, and she said she gave him a good hearty smack on + his cheek. His Majesty then said, 'Pray God bless you, and that + you go withal.' She then went down stairs to wait and see the + King take coach; she got so close that she saw a gentleman in + it; and when the King stept into the coach, he said, 'Pray, Sir, + what is your name?' he replied, 'I am Col. Pride.' 'Not + miscalled,' says the King. Then Pride says, 'Drive on, + coachman.'" + +E.V. + + * * * * * + + +QUERIES. + +THE MAUDELEYNE GRACE. + +The rector of Slimbridge, in the diocese of Gloucester, is bound to pay +ten pounds a year to Magdalen College, for "choir music on the top of +the College tower on May-day." (See Rudder's _Gloucestershire_.) Some +years ago a prospectus was issued, announcing as in preparation, "The +Maudeleyne Grace, including the Hymnus Eucharisticus, with the music by +Dr. Rogers, as sung every year on May Morning, on the Tower of Magdalene +College, Oxford, in Latin and English. With an Historical Introduction +by William Henry Black." Can any of your readers inform me whether this +interesting work ever made its appearance? I am inclined to think it did +not, and have an indistinct recollection that the _original_ MS. of the +"Grace" was lost through the carelessness of the lithographer who was +entrusted with it for the purpose of making a fac-simile. + +Whilst making some researches in the library of Christ Church, Oxford, I +accidentally met with what appears to me to be the _first draft_ of the +"Grace" in question. It commences "_Te Deum Patrem colimus_," and has +the following note:--"This Hymn is sung every day in Magdalen College +Hall, Oxon, dinner and supper throughout the year for the after grace, +by the chaplains, clarkes, and choristers there. Composed by Benjamin +Rogers, Doctor of Musique of the University of Oxon, 1685." It is +entered in a folio volume, with this note on the fly-leaf,--"Ben Rogers, +his book, Aug. 18. 1673, and presented me by Mr. John Playford, +Stationer in the Temple, London." The Latin Grace, _Te Deum Patrem +colimus_, is popularly supposed to be the _Hymnus Eucharisticus_ written +by Dr. Nathaniel Ingelo, and sung at the civic feast at Guildhall on the +5th July, 1660, while the king and the other royal personages were at +dinner; but this is a mistake, for the words of Ingelo's hymn, very +different from the Magdalen hymn, still exist, and are to be found in +Wood's collection in the Ashmolean Museum. The music, too, of the _Te +Deum_ is in a grand religious style, and not of a festal character. + +EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. + + * * * * * + +"ESQUIRE" AND "GENTLEMAN." + +The custom of addressing almost every man above the rank of an artizan +or a huckster as "Esquire," seems now to be settled as a matter of +ordinary politeness and courtesy; whilst the degradation of the +gentleman into the "Gent," has caused this term, as the title of a +social class, to have fallen into total disuse. Originally, they were +terms that had their respective meanings as much as Duke, Knight, +Yeoman, or Hind; but now they simply mean courtesy or contempt towards +{438} the person to whom they are applied,--with the exception, indeed, +of certain combinations of circumstances under which the word +"Gentleman" is applied _as a character_. + +It would be an interesting occupation to trace the mutations of meaning +which these words have undergone, and the circumstances which gave rise +to the successive applications of them. The subject has been often +touched upon more or less slightly; but I know of no work in which it is +discussed fully, though, indeed, there may be such. Of course, many of +your readers are men whose pursuits have lain in other directions than +social customs, social language, and social tastes; and, as one of them, +I may be permitted to ask either where a full discussion can be found, +or that some of your correspondents will furnish through your medium a +clear and tolerably full exposition of the question. I believe it would +be of general and public interest. + +We naturally expect, that in _official correspondence_, the public +boards, through their proper officers, would be very precise in +assigning to every person his proper title, in the address of a letter. +Yet nothing can be more negligent and capricious than the way in which +this is done. I have held an appointment in the public service, which is +generally considered to carry with it the title of "Esquire," (but +really whether it do or not, I am unable to tell), and have at different +times had a good deal of official correspondence, sometimes mere +routine, and sometimes involving topics of a critical character. From my +own experience I am led to think that no definite rule exists, and that +the temper of the moment will dictate the style of address. For +instance, in matter-of-course business, or in any correspondence that +was agreeable to official persons, I was addressed as "Esq.;" but if the +correspondence took a turn that was unpleasant, it was "Mr. ----;" and +on one occasion I received a note addressed with my name denuded of all +title whatever, even of the office I filled. The note, I hardly need +say, was "full of fire and fury;" and yet, in less than half an hour, I +received a second (the writer having discovered his mistake), opening +with "My dear Sir," and superscribed with the "Esquire" at full length. +This, I think, proves the capriciousness of men in public stations in +their assignment of titles of this kind. + +I certainly expected to find, however, in the "List of the Fellows of +the Society of Antiquaries," due attention paid to this circumstance. +The one just circulated was therefore referred to, and it would seem to +be as full of anomalies as a "Court Guide" or a "Royal Blue Book." We +have, indeed, the Knights and Baronets duly titled, and the Peers, lay +and spiritual, sufficiently distinguished both by capitals and mode of +insertion. All those who have no other title (as D.D. or F.R.S.) +recognised by the Society, are courteously designated by the affix +"Esq." In this, it will be strange indeed if _all_ be entitled to the +appellation in its legitimate sense; or, in other words, if the +principle of courtesy does not supersede, amongst the otherwise untitled +mass of Fellows, the principle of social rank. To this in itself, as the +distinction of "Gent" after a man's name has become derogatory, there +cannot be the least objection; for antiquarianism does not palliate +rudeness or offensive language. + +At the same time, the adoption of this principle should surely be +uniform, and invidious distinctions should not be made. The title +"Esq.," should not be given to one man, and left out in designating +another whose social position is precisely the same. For instance, we +find in this list "----, M.D.," and "----, Esq., M.D.," employed to +designate two different Doctors in Medicine. We find "----, F.R.S." and +"----, Esq., F.R.S." to designate two Fellows of the Society of +Antiquaries, who are also Fellows of the Royal. We see one or two D.D.'s +deprived of their titles of "Rev.," and, as if to make amends (in point +of quantity at least), we have one Fellow with titles at each end of his +name that seem incompatible with each other, viz., "Rev. ----, Esq." + +Anomalies like these can only be the result of sheer carelessness, or of +the ignorance of some clerk employed to make out the list without +adequate instructions given to him. It has, in my hearing, been held up +as a specimen of invidious distinction to gratify some petty dislike; +but this notion is simply absurd, and deserves no notice. At the same +time, it betokens a carelessness that it is desirable to avoid. + +As a mere question of _dignity_, it appears to me to savour too much of +Clapham-Common or Hampstead-Heath grandeur, to add much to our +respectability or worldly importance. It would, indeed, be more +"dignified" to drop, in the lists, all use of "Esq." under any +circumstances; or, if this be objected to, to at least treat "M.A.," +"D.D.," "F.R.S." as higher titles, in which the "Esq." may properly be +merged, and thus leave the appellation to designate the absence of any +higher literary or scientific title. + +A good deal of this is irrelevant to the primary object of my letter; +but certainly not altogether irrelevant to the dignity of the highest +English representative body of archæology, the Society of Antiquaries. I +hope, at least, that this irrelevancy will give neither pain nor offence +to any one, for nothing could be further from my wish or intention than +such an effect. I have only wished to illustrate the necessity for an +accurate description of what are really the original, subsequent, and +present significations of the words "Esquire" and "Gentleman," and to +urge that either some definite rule should be adopted as to their use in +official {439} and semi-official cases, or else that they should be +discontinued altogether. + +BROWN RAPPEE. + +April 18. + + * * * * * + +FIVE QUERIES. + +1. _Lines by Sir John Suckling._--Is Sir John Suckling, or Owen Feltham, +the real author of the poem whose first verse runs thus: + + "When, dearest, I but think on thee, + Methinks all things that lovely be + Are present, and my soul delighted; + For beauties that from worth arise, + Are like the grace of deities, + Still present with us though unsighted." + +I find it in the twelfth edition of Feltham's Works, 1709, p. 593., with +the following title: + + "This ensuing copy of the late Printer hath been pleased to + honour, by mistaking it among those of the most ingenious and + too early lost, Sir John Suckling." + +I find it also in the edition of Suckling's Works published at Dublin, +1766. As I feel interested in all that relates to Suckling, I shall be +glad to have the authorship of this short poem rightly assigned. + +2. What is the origin and exact meaning of the phrase "Sleeveless +errand"? It is mentioned as late even as the last century, by Swift, in +his poem entitled _Reasons for not building at Drapier's Hill_: + + "Who send my mind as I believe, less + Than others do on errands sleeveless." + +3. What is the origin and derivation of the word "Trianon," the name of +the two palaces, Le Grand and Le Petit, at Versailles? and why was it +applied to them? + +4. What is the correct blazon of the arms of _Godin_; with crest and +motto? I have seen an imperfect drawing of the arms, Party per fess, a +goblet transpierced with a dagger. + +5. Whose is the line, + + "With upward finger pointing to the sky." + +I have heard it generally referred to Goldsmith, but cannot find it. + +HENRY KERSLEY. + +Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone, April 15. 1850. + + * * * * * + +QUERIES PROPOSED, NO. I. + +The non-appearance of my name as a querist has been rather fortuitous, +and it shall now be made evident that I am neither so rich in materials, +nor so proud in spirit, as to decline such assistance as may be derived +from the information and courtesy of other contributors to the "Notes +and Queries." + +1. Did the following critical remarks on Shakspere, by Edward Phillips, +appear _verbatim_ in the _Thesaurus_ of J. Buchlerus, 1669? + +The Bodleian library has the London edition of 1636; and the British +Museum that of 1652. Wood cites an edition of 1669. I transcribe from +that of 1679. + + "Hoc seculo [sc. temporibus Elizabetha reginæ et Jacobi regis] + floruerunt--Gulielmus Shacsperus, qui præter opera dramatica, + duo poematia _Lucretiæ stuprum à Tarquinio_, et _Amores Veneris + in Adonidem_, lyrica carmina nonnulla composuit; videtur fuisse, + siquis alius, re verâ poeta natus. Samuel Daniel non obseurus + hujus ætatis poeta, etc.... + + Ex eis qui dramaticè scripserunt, primas sibi vendicant + Shacsperus, Jonsonus et Fletcherus, quorum hic facundâ et polita + quadam familiaritate sermonis, ille erudito judicio et usu + veterum authorum, alter nativa quadam et poetica sublimitate + ingenii excelluisse videntur. Ante hos in hoc genere poeseos + apud nos eminuit nemo. Pauci quidem antea scripserunt, at parum + foeliciter; hos autem tanquam duces itineris plurimi saltem + æmulati sunt, inter quos præter Sherleium, proximum à supra + memorato triumviratu. Suclingium, Randolphium, Davenantium et + Carturitium--enumerandi veniunt Ric. Bromeus, Tho. Heivodus," + etc. + +2. What are the contents of a work entitled, [Old German script: +Schaubune Englischer und Franßofischer Comædianten], printed before +1671? + +This work is recorded, but without a date, in the _Historia literaria_ +of Simon Paulli, which was printed at Strasbourg in 1671. A statement of +its contents would be very acceptable to myself, and to other admirers +of our early dramatic literature. + +3. Who is the fortunate possessor of the _Lives and characters of the +English dramatick poets_ with the marginal marks of Garrick? + +The copy in question was sold with the unreserved books of Garrick in +1823, No. 1269. It contained this note: + + "All the plays marked thus * in this catalogue, I bought of + Dodsley. Those marked thus O, I have added to the collection + since. D.G." + +Each of the above queries would have admitted further remarks, but I +wish to set an example of obedience to the recent editorial injunction +on brevity. + +BOLTON CORNEY. + + * * * * * + +MINOR QUERIES. + +_Elizabeth and Isabel._--"A.C." inquires whether these names are not +varied forms of the same name, and if so, what is the common origin of +the two? Camden, in his _Remains_, has-- + + "ELIZABETH, _Heb._ Peace of the Lord, or quiet rest of the Lord, + the which England has found verified in the most honoured name + of our late sovereign. Mantuan, playing with it maketh it + Eliza-bella; and of Isabel he says 'The same with Elizabeth, if + the Spaniards do not mistake, which always translate Elizabeth + into Isabel, and the French into Isabeau.'" {440} + + +_Howard, Earl of Surrey._--Dr. Percy is said, in Watt's _Bibliotheca +Britannica_, to have prepared an edition of the poems of the Earl of +Surrey, the whole impression of which was consumed in the fire which +took place in Mr. Nicholl's premises in 1808. Can any of your readers +say whether Dr. Percy had a copy of the sheets, and whether he had +prefixed thereto any life of the Earl of Surrey? or did Sir Egerton +Brydges ever print any account of Surrey amongst his numerous issues +from the Lee or other presses? + +G. + + +_Bulls called William._--In looking into the notes in my Provincial +Glossary, I find that bulls are in Somersetshire invariably called +_William_. Is this peculiar to that county? + +C.W.B. + + +_Bawn.--Mutual._--In vol. iii. p. 506. of Hallam's _Constitutional +History of England_, there occurs the following passage in reference to +the colonisation of Ulster in 1612, after Tyrone's rebellion: + + "Those who received 2000 acres were bound within four years to + build a castle and bawn, or strong court-yard; the second class + within two years to build a stone or brick house, with a bawn; + the third class a bawn only." + +What was the bawn, which was equally indispensable to the grantee of +2000, 1500, or 1000 acres? Richardson variously describes the term as +almost any kind of dwelling, or "an enclosure of walls to keep cattle +from being stolen at night;" in fact, a court-yard. This, however, +conveys a very unsatisfactory idea, unless I am justified in supposing +that a court-yard was insisted upon, even when a house could not be +built, as insuring a future residential settlement, and thereby warding +off the evils of absenteeism. + +At page 514. of the same volume, I read,-- + + "Wentworth had so balanced the protestant and recusant parties, + employed so skilfully the resources of fair promises and + intimidation, that he procured six subsidies to be granted + before a prorogation, without any _mutual_ concession from the + crown." + +Will Dr. Kennedy, or any other strict verbal critic, sanction this use +of the word "mutual?" + +ALFRED GATTY. + +April 6. 1850. + + [It is obvious, from the following lines from Swift's poem, _The + Grand Question debated whether Hamilton's Bawn should be turned + into a Barrack or Malt-house_, 1729, that a Bawn was there used + to signify a building, and not an inclosure:-- + + "This _Hamilton's bawn_, while it sticks in my hand, + I lose by the house what I get by the land; + But how to dispose of it to the best bidder, + For a barrack or malt-house, we now must consider." + + And in a foot-note on _Hamilton's bawn_, in the original + edition, it is described as "a large old house, two miles from + Sir Arthur Acheson's seat."] + + +_Versicle and Response._--What is the meaning of the following versicle +and its response, which occur in both Morning and Evening Prayer? + + "Give peace in our time, O Lord, + Because there is none other that fighteth for us + but only thou, O God!" + +Surely the "because" &c. is a _non sequitur_! + +ALFRED GATTY. + +April 6. 1850. + + [In Palmer's _Origines Liturgice_, vol. i. p. 241. (2d edit.), + we find the following note on the response, "_Quia_ non est + alius," &c.:--"Brev. Eboracens. fol. 264.; Brev. Sarisb. fol. + 85." Bishop Lloyd remarks on this verse and response as + follows:--"I do not know what Burnet means by stating that this + response was made in the year 1549, on the occasion of political + occurrences, for this answer is found in all the foreign + breviaries, in the Salisbury primer, and in the primer of Hen. + VIII. See Burnet's _Hist. Ref._ p. ii. b. 1. anno 1549."] + + +_Yeoman._--This word, the origin of which Dr. Johnson says is much +doubted, in the general acceptation of it meaning signifies a small +farmer; though several authorities quoted by Johnson tend to show it +also signifies a certain description of servants, and that it is applied +also to soldiers, as Yeoman of the Guard. It is not, however, confined +to soldiers, for we hear of Yeoman of the Chamber; Yeoman of the Robes; +Yeoman of the Pantry; Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod. + +I should be glad if any of your readers can give an explanation of the +word as used in the latter instances. + +P.R.A. + + +_Pusan.--Iklynton Collar._--Among the royal orders issued on the +occasion of the marriage of Henry VI., contained in the fifth volume of +Rymer's _Fædera_, p. 142., occurs the following:-- + + "We wol and charge you, that ye deliver unto oure trusty and + well-beloved Squier, John Merston, keeper of our Jewell, a + _Pusan_ of golde, called _Iklynton colar_, garnished with iv + Rubies, &c., &c." + +What is the meaning and derivation of this word _Pusan_, and why called +_Iklynton collar_? + +E.V. + + +_Who was Lord Karinthon, murdered 1665?_--Can any of your readers inform +me who was the English lord, murdered in France by his Flemish valet, in +March, 1665, as stated in the following passage of Gui Patin's +_Letters_, tom. iii. p. 519., ed. 1846:-- + + "Hier, ce 18 Mars, je vis sur le pont Notre Dame, mené à la + Grève, un certain méchant malheureux coquin, natif de Flandre, + qui avoit poignardé son maître dans Pontoise; c'étoit un + seigneur anglois, doint il vouloit avoir la bourse.... Ce + seigneur anglois qui fut poignardé dans son lit avoit nom de + Milord Karinthon.... Dans le testament de ce bon mais malheureux + maître il se trouve qui'il donnoit à ce pendard de valet 20,000 + livres." + +C. {441} + + +_Christian Captives._--Where can any information be obtained respecting +the Christian captives taken by the Barbary pirates--the subscriptions +raised for their relief, by briefs, &c., and what became of the funds? + +R.W.B. + + +_Ancient Churchyard Customs._--In an article in _The Ecclesiologist_ on +churchyards and churchyard crosses,--but not having the volume by me, I +am unable to give an exact reference,--it is stated, + + "In them (churchyards) prayers are not now commonly poured forth + to God nor are doles distributed to His poor; the epitsphium is + no longer delivered from the steps of the churchyard cross, nor + does the solemn lamprophoria symbolize the life of the + deceased." + +I shall be much obliged for a fuller account of these ancient customs, +more particularly of the last two, and for notes of any allusions to +them in old books. I may say the same with reference to the following +extract from the _Handbook of English Ecclesiology_, p. 190.: + + "Under this head may also be mentioned the _Funa'l_ or + _Deadlight_, which was lighted in some churchyards at night." + +STOKE. + + +_"Rotten Row" and "Stockwell" Street._--"R.R.," of Glasgow, inquires the +etymology of these names, which, occurring both in Scotland and in +England, and at a time when the countries were almost always at war, +would scarcely have been copied by the one from the other. He rejects, +as of course, the etymology of the former from its passing by the +buildings which were old and "rotten;" neither does he favour the belief +that the original word was "Routine" Row, so called from the processions +of the church passing in that direction. + + * * * * * + + +REPLIES. + +EARLY STATISTICS.--CHART, KENT. + +(No. 21. p. 329.) + +The Registrar-General, in his Eighth Report, enters at length into the +causes which have brought about the variations in the number of +marriages, and consequently, as I need scarcely say, of births. In +comparing the marriage returns since 1754, which are given in the +report, with the history of events since that period, he certainly makes +it clear, to use his own words, that "The marriage returns in England +point out periods of prosperity little less distinctly than the funds +measure the hopes and fears of the money-market." (p. 26. 8vo. edit.) + +And that + + "The great fluctuations in the marriages of England are the + results of peace after war, abundance after dearth, high wages + after want of employment, speculation after languid enterprise, + confidence after distrust, national triumphs after national + disasters." (p. 27.) + +During the civil wars, the diminishing influences indicated in the +reverse of this statement were at work with an intensity unequalled in +any other period of our modern history, so that there can be no doubt +that our then "unhappy divisions" did most materially retard the +numerical increase of the population, as well as the progress of science +and the useful arts. Such is the inevitable consequence of war: of civil +war in a tenfold degree. And our parish register books, all of which I +doubt not show similar facts, place this in the most unfavourable light; +for, through the spread of nonconformity, the unsettled state of the +times, and the substitution during the protectorate of the registration +of births which might or might not be communicated to the elected parish +register, for that of baptisms which the parish priest would both +celebrate and register, the names of very many of those born into the +world would be altogether omitted from these records. It may be +interesting to show the effects of some of these causes by the subjoined +extracts from the registers themselves, which I transcribe from the +_Chronicon Mirabile_ of the late Sir Cuthbert Sharpe.--(Vide pp. 17. 18. +22. 23. 70. 121. and 156.) + + _Staindrop, Durham._--"1644. From this time to 1646, through + want of a Minister, and carelessness of ye Cleark, during ye + wars, much of ye Register is lost, only here and there a name + registered." + + "1652. June 14. Mem. From this time till August there was noe + Minister, soe that ye children were carried to other parishes to + be baptized." + + _St. Helen's Aukland, Durham_, A.D. 1633.--"Mr. John Vaux, our + minister, was suspended.... Mr. Robert Cowper, of Durham, served + in his place, and left out divers christenings unrecorded, and + regestered others disorderly." + + _Gainford, Durham._--"Courteous Reader, this is to let thee + understand that many children were left unrecorded or + redgestered, but the reason and cause was this; some would and + some would not, being of a fickle condition, as the time was + then; this being their end and aim, to save a groate from the + poor Clarke, so they would rather have them unredgestered--but + now ... it is their design to have them redgestered." + + _Lowestoft, Suffolk_, 1644 ... "For some time following there + was in this Town neither Minister nor Clarke, but the + inhabitants were inforced to procure now one and then another to + baptize their children, by which means there was no Register + kept, only those few hereafter mentioned weare by myself + baptized in those intervalls when I enjoyed my freedom." + + _Hexham, Northumberland_, c. 1655.--"Note y't Mr. Will. Lister, + Minister of S't. John Lees in those distracted times, did both + marry and baptize all that made ther application to him, for + w'ch he was sometimes severely threatened by y'e souldiers, and + had once a cockt pistoll held to his breest, &c., so y't its no + wond'r y't y'e {442} Registers for these times are so imperfect, + and besides, they are extremely confused." + +In the Preface to the _Enumeration Abstract of the Census of_ 1841, pp. +34-37., your correspondent will find information and statistics relative +to the estimated population of England and Wales, 1570-1750, compiled +from the parish registers, and-- + + "calculated on the supposition, that the registered baptisms, + burials, and marriages, on an average of three years, in 1570, + 1600, 1630, 1670, 1700, and 1750, bore the same proportion to + the actual population as in the year 1801." + +From the Table, pp. 36, 37, it appears, that whilst the population +(estimated) in the thirty years 1600-1630 increased upwards of 16 +percent., in the forty years 1630-1670 it increased a mere trifle over 3 +per cent. only. In no fewer than twenty English counties, the +population, estimated as before, was absolutely less in 1670 than in +1630; and in Kent, the county in which Chart is situate, the decrease is +striking: population of Kent in 1630, 189,212; in 1670, 167,398; in +1700, 157,833; in 1750, 181,267; and in 1801, the enumerated population +was 307,624. + +Your correspondent might also find it useful to consult Sir William +Petty's _Political Arithmetic_, the various documents compiled at the +different censuses, and the Reports of the Registrar-General. + +ARUN. + + * * * * * + +PARISH REGISTER STATISTICS.--CHART, KENT. + +Your correspondent "E.R.J.H." (No. 21. p. 330.) inquires whether any +general statistical returns, compiled from our early parish registers, +have been published. It must be a matter of regret to all who are +acquainted with the value of these national records--which for extent +and antiquity are unequalled in any other country--that this question +cannot be answered affirmatively. By the exertions of the late Mr. +Rickman, their importance, in a statistical point of view, has been +shown, but only to a very limited extent. In 1801, being entrusted with +the duty of collecting and arranging the returns of the first actual +enumeration of the population, he obtained from the clergyman of each +parish a statement of the number of baptisms and burials recorded in the +register book in every tenth year from 1700, and of marriages in every +consecutive year from 1754, when the Marriage Act of George II. took +effect. The results were published with the census returns of 1801; but, +instead of each parish being separately shown, only the totals of the +hundreds and similar county divisions, and of a few principal towns, +were given. In subsequent "Parish Register Abstracts" down to that of +1841, the same meagre information has been afforded by an adherence to +this generalising system. + +In 1836, with a view of forming an estimate of the probable population +for England and Wales at certain periods anterior to 1801, Mr. Rickman, +acting upon the result of inquiries previously made respecting the +condition and earliest date of the register books in every parish, +applied to the clergy for returns of the number of baptisms, burials, +and marriages registered in three years at six irregular periods, viz. +A.D. 1570, 1600, 1630, 1670, 1700, and 1750. The clergy, with their +accustomed readiness to aid in any useful investigation, responded very +generally to the application, and Mr. Rickman obtained nearly 3000 +returns of the earliest date required (1570), and nearly 4000 (from not +much less than half the parishes of England) as far back as 1600; those +for the more recent periods being tolerably complete from all the +counties. The interesting details thus collected have not been +published; nor am I able to say where the original returns, if still +extant, are deposited. In pursuance of this design, however, Mr. Rickman +proceeded with these materials to calculate the probable population of +the several counties on the supposition that the registered baptisms, +&c., in 1570, 1600, and at the other assigned periods, bore the same +proportion to the actual population as in 1801. The numerical results +are embodied in a table which appears in the _Census Enumeration +Abstract_ for 1841 (Preface, pp. 36, 37.), and it is stated that there +is reason for supposing the estimate arrived at to be an approximation +to the truth. + +During the Civil Wars and the Protectorate, few parochial registers were +kept with any degree of accuracy; indeed, in many parishes they are +altogether defective at that period, owing to the temporary expulsion of +the clergy from their benefices. It is not improbable, therefore, that +the remarkable decrease of baptismal entries in the register book of +Chart next Sutton Valence may have arisen partly from imperfect +registration, as well as from the other causes suggested. But the +trifling increase observable after the Restoration undoubtedly points to +the conclusion arrived at by your corespondent--that a great diminution +had taken place in the population of the parish: and Mr. Rickman's +estimate above referred to gives a result for the entire county, which, +if it does not fully establish the supposed decrease, shows at least +that the registers of other Kentish parishes were affected in a similar +manner. The following is the estimated population of Kent, deduced from +the baptisms, burials, and marriages, by Mr. Rickman:-- + +A.D. Population +1570 136,710 +1600 161,236 +1630 189,212 +1670 167,398 +1700 157,833 +1750 181,267 + +The population enumerated in 1801 was 307,624, which had increased to +548,337 in 1841. + +Applying the average of England to the parish {443} of Chart, the 120 +baptisms in the years 1640-1659, if representing the actual births, +would indicate a population of about 200 during that period; while the +246 entries in the previous twenty years would give upwards of 400 +inhabitants. According to the several censuses, Chart contained 381 +persons in 1801, and 424, 500, 610, 604, respectively, at the subsequent +decades. + +While on the subject of parish registers, I may add, that a scheme has +been propounded by the Rev. E. Wyatt Edgell, in a paper read before the +Statistical Society, for transcribing and printing in a convenient form +the whole of the extant parish register books of England and Wales, thus +concentrating those valuable records, and preserving, before it is too +late, their contents from the effects of time and accidental injuries. +The want of funds to defray the cost of copying and printing is the one +great difficulty of the plan. + +JAMES T. HAMMACK. + +April 2. + + * * * * * + +EARLY STATISTICS.--PARISH REGISTERS. + +In reference to the observations of your correspondent "E.R.J.H.," he +will find, upon closer examination, that no comparison approaching to +accuracy can be made between the population of any place at different +periods of the seventeenth century, founded upon the entries in parish +registers of baptisms, births, or marriages. In 1653 the ecclesiastical +registers ceased to contain much of the information they had before +given. In that year was passed, "An Act how Marriages shall be +solemnised and registered, and also for a Register of Births and +Burials;" which first introduced registers of births and not of +baptisms. The Act treated marriage as a civil contract, to be solemnised +before a justice of the peace; and it directed that, for the entry of +all marriages, and "of all births of children, and burial of all sorts +of people, within every parish," the rated inhabitants should choose "an +honest and able person to be called 'The Parish Register,'" sworn before +and approved by a neighbouring magistrate. Until after the Restoration, +this Act was found practicable; and in many parishes these books +(distinct from the clergyman's register of baptisms, &c., celebrated in +the church) continue to be fairly preserved. In such parishes, and in no +others, a correct comparative estimate of the population may be formed. + +The value of the parochial registers for statistical and historical +purposes cannot be overrated; and yet their great loss in very recent +times is beyond all doubt. It was given in evidence before the committee +on registration, that out of seventy or eighty parishes for which +Bridges made collections a century since, thirteen of the old registers +have been lost, and three accidentally burnt. On a comparison of the +dates of the Sussex registers, seen by Sir W. Burrell between 1770 and +1780, and of those returned as the earliest in the population returns of +1831, the old registers, in no less than twenty-nine parishes, had in +the interval disappeared; whilst, during the same half-century, nineteen +old registers had found their way back to the proper repository. On +searching the MSS. in Skelton Castle, in Cleveland, a few years since, +the first register of that parish was discovered, and has been restored. + +These changes show how great the danger is to which the old registers +are exposed; and in many instances it saves time and trouble to search +the Bishop's transcripts before searching the original registers. + +WM. DURRANT COOPER. + +81. Guildford Street, March 25. 1850. + + * * * * * + +BYRON'S LARA. + +I cannot agree with your able corespondent "C.B." (No. 20. p. 324., and +No. 17. p. 262.), that Ezzelin in "Lara" is Seyd of the "Corsair." My +interpretation of both tales is as follows:--Lara and Ezzelin both lived +in youth where they afterwards met, viz. in a midland county of +England--time about the fourteenth century. Ezzelin was a kinsman, or, +more probably, a lover of Medora, whom Lara induced to fly with him, and +who shared his corsair life. When Lara had returned home, the midnight +scene in the gallery arose from some Frankenstein creation of his own +bad conscience; a "horrible shadow," an "unreal mockery." Kaled was +Gulnare disguised as a page; and when Lara met Ezzelin at Otho's house, +Ezzelin's indignation arose from his recollection of Medora's abduction. +Otho favours Ezzelin in this quarrel; and, when Kaled looks down upon +the "sudden strife," and becomes deeply moved, her agitation was from +seeing in Ezzelin the champion of Medora, her own rival in the +affections of Lara. Ezzelin is murdered, probably by the contrivance of +Kaled, who had before shown that she could lend a hand in such an +affair. After this, Lara collects a band, like what David gathered to +himself in the cave of Adullam, and what follows suits the mediæval +period of English history. + +I will briefly quote in support of this view. Otho shows that Lara and +Ezzelin had both sprung from one spot, when he says, + + "I pledge myself for thee, as not unknown, + Though like Count Lara now return'd alone + From other lands, almost a stranger grown." + +The 9th section of canto 1. is a description of Byron himself at +Newstead (the two poems are merely vehicles of their authors' own +feelings), with the celebrated skull, since made into a drinking cup, +beside him. The succeeding section is a picture {444} of "our own dear +lake." That Medora was a gentlewoman, and not from the slave-market, is +shown by Conrad's appreciation of her in the 12th section of the first +canto of the "Corsair;" and why not formerly beloved by Ezzelin, and +thus alluded to by him in the quarrel scene? + + "And deem'st thou me unknown too? Gaze again! + At least thy memory was not given in vain, + Oh! never canst thou cancel half _her_ debt, + Eternity forbids thee to forget." + +The accents, muttered in a foreign tongue by Lara, on recovering from +his swoon in the gallery,-- + + "And meant to meet an ear + That hears him not--alas! that cannot hear"-- + +were addressed, I think, to Medora; and I am only the more disposed to +this opinion by their effect on Kaled. (See canto 1. sec. 14.) + +I quite agree with "EMDEE" in esteeming "Lara" a magnificent poem. + +A.G. + +Ecclesfield, March 18, 1850. + + * * * * * + +REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. + +_Dr. Whichcot and Lord Shaftesbury._--Your correspondent "C." (No. 24. +p. 382.) will find in the _Alumni Etonenses_, by Harwood, printed at +Birmingham by Pearson, and by Caddell, jun., and Davies, Strand, 1797, +at p. 46. in the account of Whichcot, under the head of "Provosts of +King's College," the following passage:--"A volume of his sermons was +published in 1628, from copies taken in short-hand as they were +delivered from the pulpit, with a preface by Lord Shaftesbury." In a MS. +account of the provosts it is stated, "the first volume of his +discourses, published by Lord Shaftesbury, 1698;" and that one of his +brothers was alive in 1749, at Finchley, aged 96. + +A letter from Lord Lauderdale to Dr. Whichcot is in MS. Harl. 7045. p. +473. I take the figures from a printed, but not published, account of +some of the proceedings relating to Dr. Whichcot's deprivation of his +provostship at the Restoration, in which Lord Lauderdale says, "For I +took an opportunity, in the presence of my Lord Chamberlain, your +Chancellor, to acquaint his Majesty with those excellent endowments with +which God hath blesst you, and which render you so worthie of the place +you enjoy, (which the King heard very graciously); afterwards he spoke +with my Lord Chamberlain about your concerns, and he and I are both of +opinion there is no fear as to your concerns." Was Shaftesbury ever +Chancellor of Cambridge? or who was the Lord Chamberlain who at that +time was Chancellor of the university? I have no means of referring to +any University History as to these points. + +COLL. REGAL. SOCIUS. + + +_Black Doll at Old Store Shops._--I asked you some time since the origin +of the Black Doll at Old Store Shops; but you did not insert my Query, +which curiously enough has since been alluded to by _Punch_, as a +mystery only known to, or capable of being interpreted by, the editor of +"Notes and Queries." + +A.C. + + [We are obliged to our correspondent and also to our witty + contemporary for this testimony to our omniscience, and show our + sense of their kindness by giving them two explanations. The + first is, the story which has been told of its originating with + a person who kept a house for the sale of toys and rags in + Norton Falgate some century since, to whom an old woman brought + a large bundle of rags for sale, with a desire that it might + remain unopened until she could call again to see it weighed. + Several weeks having elapsed without her re-appearance, the + ragman opened the bundle, and finding in it a _black doll_ + neatly dressed, with a pair of gold ear-rings, hung it over his + door, for the purpose of its being owned by the woman who had + left it. The plan succeeded, and the woman, who had by means of + the black doll recovered her bundle of rags, presented it to the + dealer; and the story becoming known, the black doll was adopted + as the favourite sign of this class of shopkeepers. Such is the + romance of the black doll; the reality, we believe, will be + found in the fact, that cast-off clothes having been formerly + purchased by dealers in large quantities, for the purpose of + being resold to merchants, to be exchanged by them in traffic + with the uncivilised tribes, who, it is known, will barter any + thing for articles of finery,--a black doll, gaily dressed out, + was adopted as the sign of such dealers in old apparel.] + + +_Journal of Sir William Beeston._--In reply to the inquiry of "C." (No. +25. p. 400), I can state that a journal of Sir William Beeston is now +preserved in the British Museum (MS. Add. 12,424.), and was presented to +the national collection in 1842, by Charles Edward Long, Esq. It is a +folio volume, entirely autograph, and extends from Dec. 10, 1671, when +Beeston was in command of the Assistance frigate in the West Indies, to +July 21, 1673; then from July 6 to September 6, 1680, in a voyage from +Port Royal to London; and from December 19, 1692, to March 9, 1692-3, in +returning from Portsmouth to Jamaica; and, lastly, from April 25 to June +28, 1702, in coming home from Jamaica to England. By a note written by +Mr. Long on the fly-leaf of the volume, it appears that Sir William +Beeston was baptized in Dec. 2, 1636, at Titchfield, co. Hants, and was +the second son of William Beeston, of Posbrooke, the same parish, by +Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Bromfield. (See _Visit. C. 19. Coll. +Arm._) His elder brother, Henry, was Master of Winchester, and Warden of +New College; and his daughter and heir Jane married, first, Sir Thomas +Modyford, Bart., and, secondly, Charles Long, to whom she was a second +wife. To this may be added, that Sir William received the honour of +knighthood at Kensington, October 30, 1692, and was Governor of Jamaica +from 1693 till 1700. In the Add. MS. {445} 12,430. is contained a +narrative, by Sir William Beeston, of the descent by the French on +Jamaica, in June, 1694; as also the copy of a Journal kept by Col. +William Beeston from his first coming to Jamaica, 1655-1680. + +M. + + +_Shrew_ (No. 24. p. 381.).--I know not whether it will at all help the +inquiry of "W.R.F." to remind him that the local Dorsetshire name of the +shrew-mouse is "_shocrop_" or "_shrocrop_." The latter is the word given +in Mr. Barnes's excellent _Glossary_, but I have just applied for its +name to two labourers, and their pronunciation of it is clearly the +former. + +I should be glad to hear any conjecture as to the final syllable. The +only _folk-lore_ connected with it in this part of the country seems to +be that long ago reported by Pennant and others, viz. "Cats will kill, +but not eat it." + +C.W.B. + + +_Trunck Breeches._--"X.Y.Z." (No. 24. p. 384) will also find the +following in Dryden's _Translation of Perseus_:-- + + "There on the walls by Polynotu's hand, + The conquered Medians in _trunk_-breeches stand." + +Certainly a very free translation. See the original, Sat. 3. _Trunck_ is +from the Latin _truncus_, cut short, maimed, imperfect. In the preface +to _Johnson's Dictionary_ we have the following:-- + + "The examples are too often injudicious _truncated_." + +Vide also _Shaw, Museum Liverianum_, or rather examples given in +_Richardson's Dictionary_. Shaw, in speaking of the feathers of certain +birds, says, + + "They appear as if cut off transversely towards their ends with + scissors. This is a mode of termination which in the language of + natural history is called _truncated_." + +The word _trunck-hose_ is often met with. + +WREDJID KOOEZ. + + +_Queen's Messengers._--"J.U.G.G.," who inquires about Queen's messengers +(No. 12. p. 186.), will, I think, find some such information as he wants +in a parliamentary paper about King's messengers, printed by the House +of Commons in 1845 or 1846, on the motion of Mr. Warburton. Something, I +think, also occurs on the subject in the Report of the Commons' +Committee of 1844 on the Opening of Letters in the Post-office. I am +unable to refer to either of these documents at present. + +C. + + +_Dissenting Ministers_ (No. 24. p. 383.).--The verses representing the +distinctive characteristics of many ministers, by allegorical +resemblance to _flowers_, were written by the lady whose paternal name +is given by your correspondent. She married the Rev. Joseph Brooksbank. +I think it quite improbable that those verses were ever published. It +seems that two of the three names mentioned in your description of this +"nosegay" are erroneous. The first is indisputable, RICHARD WINTER, a +man of distinguished excellence, who died in 1799. "Hugh Washington" is +certainly a mistake for HUGH WORTHINGTON; but for "James Jouyce" I can +offer no conjecture. + +J.P.S. + + +_Ballad of "The Wars in France"_ (No. 20. p. 318.).--Your correspondent +"NEMO" will find two versions of the ballad commencing, + + "As our king lay musing on his bed," + +in appendices 20 and 21 to Sir Harris Nicolas's _History of the Battle +of Agincourt_, 2nd edit. They are not, I believe, in the first edition. +I have a copy of the ballad myself, which I took down a few years ago, +together with the quaint air to which it is sung, from the lips of an +old miner in Derbyshire. My copy does not differ very much from the +first of those given by Sir H. Nicolas. + +C.W.G. + + ["J.W." (Norwich), and "A.R." (Kenilworth), have each kindly + sent us a copy of the ballad. "F.M." informs us that it exists + as a broadside, printed and sold in Aldermary Church-yard, Bow + Lane, London, under the title of "King Henry V., his Conquest of + France, in Revenge for the Affront offered him by the French + King, in sending him (instead of the tribute due) a ton of + tennis balls." And, lastly, the "Rev. J.R. WREFORD" has called + our attention to the fact that it is printed in the collection + of _Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of + England_, edited by Mr. Dixon for the Percy Society in 1846. + + Mr. Dixon's version was taken down from the singing of an + eccentric character, known as the "Skipton Minstrel," and who + used to sing it to the tune of "_The Bold Pedlar and Robin + Hood_."] + + +_Monody on the Death of Sir John Moore_ (No. 20. p. 320.).--This Query +has brought us a number of communications from "A.G.," "J.R.W.," +"G.W.B.," "R.S.," and "The Rev. L. COOPER," who writes as follows:-- + + "The undoubted author is the late Rev. Charles Wolfe, a young + Irishman, curate of Donoughmore, diocese of Armagh, who died + 1823, in the 32nd year of his age. His _Life and Remains_ were + edited by the Archdeacon of Clogher; and a _fifth_ edition of + the vol., which is an 8vo., was published in 1832 by Hamilton, + Adams, and Co., Paternoster Row. At the 25th page of the Memoir + there is the narration of an interesting discussion between Lord + Byron, Shelley, and others, as to the most perfect ode that had + ever been produced. Shelley contended for Coleridge's on + Switzerland; others named Campbell's Hohenlinden and Lord + Byron's Invocation in Manfred. But Lord Byron left the + dinner-table before the cloth was removed, and returned with a + magazine, from which he read this monody, which just then + appeared anonymously. After he had read it, he repeated the + third stanza, and pronounced it perfect, and especially the + lines:-- {446} + + "'But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, + With his martial cloak around him.' + + "'I should have taken the whole,' said Shelley, 'for a rough + sketch of Campbell's.' + + "'No,' replied Lord Byron, 'Campbell would have claimed it, had + it been his.' + + "The Memoir contains the fullest details on the subject of the + authorship, Mr. Wolfe's claim to which was also fully + established by the Rev. Dr. Miller, late Fellow of Trinity, + Dublin, and author of _Lectures on the Philosophy of Modern + History_." + + [With regard to the French translation, professing to be a + monody on Lally Tollendal, and to be found in the Appendix to + his Memoirs, it was only a clever hoax from the ready pen of + Father Prout, and first appears in Bentley's _Miscellany_. No + greater proof of the inconvenience of facetiæ of this peculiar + nature can be required than the circumstance, that the + _fiction_, after a time, gets mistaken for a fact: and, as we + learn in the present case, the translation has been quoted in a + French newspaper as if it was really what it pretends to be.] + + * * * * * + +IRON RAILINGS ROUND ST. PAUL'S. + +As the removal of the iron railing which surrounds St. Paul's Churchyard +is now said to be in contemplation, P.C.S.S. imagines that it may not be +unacceptable to the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES," if he transcribes +the following account of it from _Hasted's Kent_, vol. ii. p. 382, which +is to be found in his description of the parish of Lamberhurst:-- + + "It was called _Gloucester Furnace_ in honour of the Duke of + Gloucester, Queen Anne's son, who, in the year 1698, visited it + from Tunbridge Wells. The _iron rails_ round St. Paul's + Churchyard, in London, were cast at this furnace. They compose + the most magnificent balustrade, perhaps, in the universe, being + of the height of five feet six inches, in which there are, at + intervals, seven iron gates of beautiful workmanship, which, + together with the rails, weigh two hundred tons and eighty-one + pounds; the whole of which cost 6d. per pound, and with other + charges, amounted to the sum of 11,202_l._ 0_s._ 6_d._" + +P.C.S.S. + + * * * * * + + +MISCELLANEOUS. + +NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC. + +If there was any ground, and we are inclined to believe there was, for +the objection urged by the judicious few against that interesting series +of illustrations of English history, Lodge's _Illustrious Portraits_, +namely, that in engraving the portraits selected, truth had often times +been sacrificed to effect; so that one had a better picture, though a +less faithful copy,--such an objection cannot be urged against a work to +which our attention has just been directed, Harding's _Historical +Portraits_. In this endeavour to bring before us the men of past time, +each "in his habit as he lived," the scrupulous accuracy with which Mr. +Harding copies an old portrait has been well seconded by the engravers, +so that this work is unrivalled for the fidelity with which it exhibits, +as by a Daguerrotype, copies in little of some very curious portraits of +old-world worthies. The collection is limited in extent; but, as it +contains plates of individuals of whom no other engraving exists, will +be a treasure to illustrators of Clarendon, Granger, &c. Among the most +interesting subjects are _Henry VIII._ and _Charles V._, from the +remarkable picture formerly at Strawberry Hill; _Sir Robert Dudley_, son +of Elizabeth's favourite; _Lord Russel of Thornhaugh_, from the picture +at Woburn; _Speaker Lenthall_; and the remarkable portrait of _Henry +Carey Viscount Falkland_, dressed in white, painted by Van Somer, which +suggested to Horace Walpole his _Castle of Otranto_. + +Messrs. Sotheby and Co. will sell on Thursday next, a small but superb +collection of drawings by modern artists; and on the following Monday +will commence a six days' sale of the third portion of the important +stock of prints of Messrs. Smith; comprising some of the works of the +most eminent engravers of the continental and English schools, including +a matchless collection of the works of the Master of Fontainebleau, +engraver's proofs of book plates, and a few fine drawings. + +We have received the following Catalogues:--J. Peteram's (94. High +Holborn) Catalogue, Part CXI., No. 5. for 1850 of Old and New Books; and +J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue No. 5. for 1850 of Books Old +and New. + + * * * * * + +BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES + +WANTED TO PURCHASE. + +(_In continuation of Lists in former Nos._) + +ARNOT'S PHYSICS.--The gentleman who has a copy of this to dispose of, is +requested to send his address. + +JOLDERVY'S COLLECTION OF ENGLISH EPITAPHS, or any other. + + * * * * * + +NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. + +_Although we have this week again enlarged_ NOTES AND QUERIES _from 16 +to 24 pages, in fulfilment of our promise to do so when the number and +extent of our communications called for it, we have been compelled to +omit many Notes, Queries, and Replies of great interest._ + +_Our attention has been called by more than one of our earliest +contributors to the inconvenience of the single initial, which they had +originally adopted, being assumed by subsequent correspondents, who +probably had no idea that the_ A., B., _or_ C., _by which they thought +to distinguish their communications, was already in use. Will our +friends avoid this in future by prefixing another letter or two to their +favourite_ A., B., _or_ C. + +_Errata._.--No. 25. p. 398. col. 2. line 44., for "L.D." read "L.R."; No +26. p. 416. col. 2. line 52., for "Beattie" read "Bentley"; and the +Latin Epigram, p. 422., should commence "Longè" instead of "Longi," and +be subscribed "T.D." instead of "W. (1)." + + * * * * * {447} + +NEW WORKS. + +I. SOUTHEY'S LIFE and CORRESPONDENCE. Edited by his Son. Vol. IV. with +Portrait of Miss Tyler, and Landscape. Post 8vo. 10s. 6d. + +II. ESSAYS SELECTED from CONTRIBUTIONS to the EDINBURGH REVIEW. By HENRY +ROGERS. 2 vols. 8vo. 24s. + +III. A HISTORY of the ROMANS under the EMPIRE. By the Rev. CHARLES +MERIVALE, B.D. Vols. I. and II. 8vo. 28s. + +IV. CRITICAL HISTORY of the LANGUAGE and LITERATURE of ANCIENT GREECE. +By Colonel WILLIAM MURE, M.P., of Caldwell. 3 vols. 8vo. 36s. + +V. Col. CHESNEY'S EXPEDITION to SURVEY the EUPHRATES and TIGRIS. With +Plates and Woodcuts. Vols. I. and II. royal 8vo. Map, 63s.--Atlas of +Charts, &c., 31s. 6d. + +VI. Mr. S. LAING'S NOTES of a TRAVELLER, 2nd Series:--On the SOCIAL and +POLITICAL STATE of the EUROPEAN PEOPLE in 1848 and 1849. 8vo. 14s. + +VII. Mr. W. C. TOWNSEND'S COLLECTION of MODERN STATE TRIALS. Revised and +illustrated with Essays and Notes. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. + +VIII. BANFIELD and WELD'S STATISTICAL COMPANION for 1850. Corrected and +extended to the Present Time. Fcp. 8vo. 5s. + +IX. PRACTICAL HORSEMANSHIP. By HARRY HIEOVER. With 2 Plates--"Going like +Workmen," and "Going like Muffs." Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +X. Mr. C. F. CLIFFE'S BOOK of NORTH WALES: a Guide for Tourists. With +large Map and Illustrations. Fcap. 8vo. 5s. + +XI. The MABINOGION. With Translations and Notes, by Lady CHARLOTTE +GUEST. 3 vols. royal 8vo. with Facsimiles and Woodcuts, 3l.; calf, 3l. +12s.; or in 7 Parts, 2l. 16s. sd. + +XII. JAMES MONTGOMERY'S POETICAL WORKS. New Edition, complete In One +Volume, with Portrait and Vignette. Square crown 8vo., 10s. 6d.; +morocco, 21s. + +XIII. ALETHEIA; or, the Doom of Mythology: with other Poems. By WILLIAM +CHARLES KENT. Fcap. 8vo. 7s. 6d. + +XIV. The EARLY CONFLICTS of CHRISTIANITY. By the Rev. Dr. W.I. KIP, M.A. +Author of "The Christmas Holydays in Rome." Fcp. 8vo. 5s. + +XV. A VOLUME OF SERMONS. By the Rev. JOSEPH SORTAIN, A.B., Minister of +North-street Chapel, Brighton. 8vo. 12s. + +XVI. LOUDON'S ENCYCLOPÆDIA of GARDENING. New Edition (1850), corrected +and improved by Mrs. LOUDON, with 1000 Woodcuts. 8vo. 50s. + +Also, part I. 5s. To be completed in 10 Monthly parts, 5s. each. + +XVII. Dr. REECES'S MEDICAL GUIDE. New Edition (1850), with Additions, +revised and corrected by the Author's Son. 8vo. 12s. + + * * * * * + +NEARLY READY. + +XVIII. Mr. A.K. JOHNSTON'S NEW DICTIONARY of DESCRIPTIVE and PHYSICAL +GEOGRAPHY, forming a complete General Gazetteer. 8vo. (In May.) + +XIX. GOD and MAN. By the Rev. ROBERT MONTGOMERY, M.A., Author of "The +Christian Life," &c. 8vo. + +XX. LETTERS on HAPPINESS. By the Authoress of "Letters to my Unknown +Friends," &c Fcap. 8vo. + +XXI. HEALTH, DISEASE, and REMEDY FAMILIARLY and PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED +in RELATION to the BLOOD. By Dr. GEORGE MOORE, Author of "The Power of +the Soul over the Body," &c. Post 8vo. + +London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN and LONGMANS. + + * * * * * + +NEW BOOKS. + +I. A HISTORY of POTTERY and PORCELAIN, in the 16th, 17th, and 18th +Centuries. By JOSEPH MARRYAT, Esq. Coloured Plates and Woodcuts. 8vo. +(Just ready.) + +II. LIFE of ROBERT PLUMER WARD, Esq. With Selections from his Political +and Literary Correspondence, Diaries, and Unpublished Remains. By the +Hon. EDMUND PHIPPS. Portrait. 2 vols. 8vo. (Next week.) + +III. HANDBOOK of LONDON, Past and Present. By PETER CUNNINGHAM, F.S.A. A +New Edition, thoroughly revised, with an INDEX OF NAMES. One Volume. +Post 8vo. 16s. + +IV. LIVES of VICE-ADMIRAL SIR C.V. PENROSE, K.C.B., and CAPT. JAMES +TREVENEN. By their Nephew, Rev. JOHN PENROSE, M.A. Portraits. 8vo. 10s. +6d. + +V. NINEVEH and its REMAINS; being a Narrative of Researches and +Discoveries amidst the Ruins of Assyria. With an Account of the Chaldeau +Christians of Kurdistan; the Yezidis, or Devil-worshippers, and an +Inquiry into the Manners and Arts of the Ancient Assyrians. By AUSTEN H. +LAYARD, D.C.L. FOURTH EDITION. With 100 Plates and Woodcuts. 2 vols. +8vo. 36s. + +VI. LIVES of the CHIEF JUSTICES of ENGLAND. From the Norman Conquest to +the Death of Lord Mansfield. By the Right Hon. LORD CHIEF JUSTICE +CAMPBELL. 2 vols. 8vo., 30s. + +VII. HORACE. A NEW EDITION, beautifully printed, and illustrated by +Engravings of Coins, Gems, Bas-reliefs, Statues, &c., taken chiefly from +the Antique. Edited, with a LIFE, BY Rev. H.H. MILMAN, Dean of St. +Paul's. With 300 Vignettes. Crown 8vo. + +"Not a page can be opened where the eye does not light upon some antique +gem. Mythology, history, art, manners, topography, have all their +fitting representatives. It is the highest praise to say, that the +designs throughout add to the pleasure with which Horace is read. Many +of them carry us back to the very portraitures from which the old poets +drew their inspirations."--_Classical Museum._ + +JOHN MURRAY: Albemarle Street. + + * * * * * + +NUMISMATICS.--Mr. C.R. TAYLOR respectfully invites the attention of +Collectors and others to his extensive Stock of ANCIENT and MODERN COINS +and MEDALS, which will be found to be generally fine in condition, at +prices unusually moderate. This collection includes a magnificent +specimen of the famous Decadrachm, or Medallion of Syracuse: the +extremely rare Fifty-shilling piece and other Coins of Cromwell; many +fine Proofs and Pattern Pieces of great rarity and interest; also, some +choice Cabinets, Numismatic works, &c. orders, however small, punctually +attended to. Articles forwarded to any part of the Country for +inspection, and every information desired promptly furnished,. Coins, +&c., bought, sold, or exchanged; and Commissions faithfully executed. +Address, 2. Tavistock Street, Covent Garden. + + * * * * * {448} + +ENGLISH HISTORICAL PORTRAITS. + +THIS SERIES OF PORTRAITS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF ENGLISH HISTORY, is engraved +from highly-finished Drawings of ORIGINAL PICTURES, existing in various +Galleries and Family Collections throughout the country, made with +scrupulous accuracy by Mr. G.P. HARDING: the greater portion never +having been previously engraved. + +M.M. HOLLOWAY, having purchased the whole of the impressions and plates, +now offers the Sets in a Folio Volume, bound in cloth, and including +Biographical Letter-press to each subject, at the greatly reduced price +of _£_2 12s. 6d., and _£_4 4s. 0d., for Proofs before Letters, of which +but 18 copies remain. + +The Collection consists of the following Portraits:-- + +KING HENRY VIII. and the EMPEROR CHARLES V., from the Original, formerly +in the Strawberry Hill Gallery. + +QUEEN KATHARINE OF ARRAGON, from a Miniature by HOLBEIN, in the +possession of the Duke of Buccleugh. + +SIR ANTHONY BROWNE, K.G., from the Original in the possession of Thomas +Baylis, Esq., F.S.A. + +ANTHONY BROWNE, VISCOUNT MONTAGUE, K.G., from the Collection of the +Marquess of Exeter. + +EDWARD VERE, EARL OF OXFORD, from the Original Picture in the Collection +of the Duke of Portland. + +SIR WILLIAM RUSSELL, BARON THORNHAUGH, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND, from the +Original Picture in the Collection of the Duke of Bedford. + +WILLIAM CAMDEN, CLARENCEUX KING OF ARMS, from the Picture in the +possession of the Earl of Clarendon. + +SIR ANTHONY SHIRLEY, AMBASSADOR FROM THE COURT OF PERSIA TO JAMES I., +from the Original Miniature by Peter Oliver. + +HENRY CAREY, LORD FALKLAND, LORD DEPUTY OF IRELAND, from the Original by +VANSOMER, formerly in the Strawberry Hill Collection. + +SIR ROBERT DUDLEY, SON OF THE EARL OF LEICESTER, from the Original +Miniature by N. HILLIARD, in the possession of Lord De l'Isle and +Dudley. + +THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM LENTHALL, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, from a +Miniature by J. COOPER, in the possession of R.S. Holford, Esq. + +MARGARET CAVENDISH, DUCHESS OF NEWCASTLE, from the Original Picture in +the Collection of F. Vernon Wentworth, Esq. + +SIR THOMAS BROWNE, M.D., of NORWICH, from an Original Picture in the +College of Physicians, London. + +SIR CHARLES SCARBOROUGH, M.D., PHYSICIAN TO CHARLES II., JAMES II., and +WILLIAM III., from the Original Picture in the Barber-Surgeons' Hall. + +FLORA MACDONALD, from the Original by A. RAMSAY, 1749, in the Picture +Gallery, Oxford. + +M.M. HOLLOWAY, 25. BEDFORD STREET, COVENT GARDEN. + + * * * * * + +Originally published at 6l. 6s., now re-issued by WASHBOURNE, New Bridge +Street, in 12 vols. 8vo., at 3l. 3s. + +THE COMPLETE WORKS OF VENERABLE BEDE, + +Collected and edited by the Rev. Dr. GILES, comprising the COMMENTARY ON +HOLY SCRIPTURE, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, HOMILIES, TRACTS, LETTERS, +POEMS, LIFE, &c. &c., in Latin and English.--Also, + +THE MISCELLANEOUS WORKS AND LIFE OF BEDE, + +Published at 3l. 3s., may, for a short period, be had at 1l. 11s. 6d., +in 6 vols. 8vo., cloth, lettered Contents. + +It is intended to raise the price of these immediately on the disposal +of a moiety of the small Stock now on hand. + +"A new edition of Bede's Works is now published by Dr. Giles, who has +made a discovery amongst the MS. treasures which can scarcely fail of +presenting the venerable Anglo-Saxon's Homilies in a far more +trustworthy form than the press has hitherto produced them."--_Soames's +Edition of Mosheim's Note_, vol. ii. p 142. + + * * * * * + +PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION, + +With the Sanction of the Society of Arts, and the Committee of the +Ancient and Mediæval Exhibition, + +A Description of the Works of Ancient and Mediæval Art + +COLLECTED AT THE SOCIETY OF ARTS IN 1850; WITH HISTORICAL INTRODUCTIONS +ON THE VARIOUS ARTS, AND NOTICES OF THE ARTISTS. + +By AUGUSTUS W. FRANKS, Honorary Secretary. + +The Work will be handsomely printed in super-royal 8vo., and will be +amply illustrated with Wood Engravings by P.H. DE LA MOTTE. + +A LARGE PAPER EDITION will be printed if a sufficient number of +Subscribers be obtained beforehand. + +GEORGE BELL, 186. FLEET STREET. + + * * * * * + +Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New +Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and +published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. +Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet +Street aforesaid.--Saturday, May 4. 1850. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes & Queries, No. 27. Saturday, May +4, 1850, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13712 *** |