Vol. 3—No. 87. NOTES & QUERIES: A way to communicate FOR Writers, artists, historians, genealogists, etc.

VOL. III.—No. 87.

SATURDAY, JUNE 28. 1851.

Price Threepence.   Stamped Edition 4d.

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

The following letters, which we have received since we last brought the proposed scheme for preserving a record of existing monuments under the notice of our readers, afford a striking proof how widely the interest in the subject is extending.

We print them now, partly because the Number of "NOTES AND QUERIES" now in the reader's hands completes the present volume, and it is desirable that the various communications upon this point should, as far as possible, be found together; and partly because the time is at hand when many of our readers may have the opportunity, during their summer excursions, of following out the plan described by our valued correspondent YORK HERALD in the following letter:—

References to this subject having appeared in your valuable miscellany, I am unwilling to lose an opportunity it affords me of throwing in my mite of contribution towards the means of preserving monumental inscriptions. It may be better perhaps, to state the humble method I adopt in attempting to rescue from oblivion those memorials of the dead, than to suggest any. I avail myself of occasions, whenever I visit the country, to take notes of monumental inscriptions in churches and other places of sepulture; generally of all within the walls of the sacred edifice, and those of the principal tombs in the surrounding graveyard. Time very often will not allow me to take verbatim copies of inscriptions; so I merely transcribe faithfully every date, genealogical note, and prominent event recorded upon monuments; omitting all circumlocution and mere eulogistical epitaphs. By this means, much time and labour are saved, and much useful and valuable information is secured. I should prefer taking exact copies, or even drawings of the most remarkable monuments; but this would occupy much time, and narrow the means of collecting; and by which I should have lost much that is valuable and interesting; copies, howsoever much they would have been desirable, would not possess the character of legal evidence. Thus, upon mere incidental occasions, I have collected sepulchral memorials from many churches in various parts of the country; and, in some instances, all contained in the village church, and the adjacent burying-ground. I have frequently found also that preserving an account of the relative positions of gravestones is important; especially when groups of family memorials occur in the same locality. I need scarcely add that I preserve memoranda of all armorial insignia found upon tombs and hatchments, forming a collection of arms borne by various families; and whether they stand the test of authority or not, at all events such information is useful. [514]

What store of information might be obtained, by persons having leisure and inclination to pursue such an object, by the simple means of an ordinary pocket-memorandum-book!

THOMAS WILLIAM KING.

Our next communication, from the REV. CANON RAINES, is valuable, as showing that unless some limit is placed to the antiquarian ardour of those who would "collect and record every existing monumental inscription," the historical and genealogical inquirer will be embarrassed by a mass of materials in which, like Gratiano's reasons, the two grains of wheat will be hid in two bushels of chaff—a mass, indeed, which, from its extent, would require to be deposited with the Registrar-General, and arranged by the practised hands of his official staff.

MR. DUNKIN'S proposed record of existing monuments will be, if carried into effect, a very useful contribution to genealogists. Many years since I transcribed all the inscriptions inside the parish church of Rochdale, in Lancashire; but I never contemplated the possibility of any antiquary having the ardour to undertake a similar task outside. There are many thousands of gravestones, covering some acres; and I have understood that when one side of a grave-stone has been covered with inscriptions, the stone has been turned upside down, and the sculptor has again commenced his endless work on the smooth surface. In a great majority of these frail records nothing would be obtained which the parish register could not supply.

F. R. RAINES.

Milnrow Parsonage, Rochdale, June 4.

Our correspondent from Bruges furnishes, like YORK HERALD, valuable evidence as to what individual exertion may accomplish; and we are sure, that if he will take the trouble of securing, while he has the opportunity, a copy of the inscriptions in the cemetery allotted to the English at Bruges, confining himself merely to the names, dates, and genealogical information contained in them, and will then deposit his collections either in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, or the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, he will not only be setting a good example to all antiquaries who may reside in any of the cities of the Continent, but earn for himself hereafter the thanks of many an anxious inquirer after genealogical truth.

The communications made in your interesting "NOTES AND QUERIES " have occasioned me much gratification, and if it be in my power to contribute but a mite to this rich treasury of information, I should consider it a privilege to be allowed to do so. To show that I am actuated by a kindred spirit, permit me to inform you, that a few years ago I undertook the formation of a desultory collection of "memorials of the ancient dead," and with that view corresponded with several hundred clergymen, inviting their local assistance; and I need scarcely add that a prompt and courteous attention to my wishes, encouraged my labours, and accomplished (so far as time and opportunity permitted) my object. It will be obvious that I had no intention of aiming at specimens in the higher department of monumental art, which have been so ably executed by Gough, Stothard, Neale, and others, but to content myself with those humbler efforts of skill which lay neglected and sometimes buried in holes and corners in many a rural church in remote districts.

The result has put me in possession of a collection of about three hundred illustrations, consisting of pen-and-ink outlines, pencil sketches, Indian ink drawings, and some more highly finished paintings in water colour; and in addition to these, upwards of two hundred autograph letters from clergymen, many of which contain not only inscriptions, but interesting parochial and topographical information.

The illustrations I have arranged (as well as I am able) in centuries, commencing with the plain cope lid of the eleventh century, according to the plan adopted by M. H. Bloxam, Esq., in his admirable treatise modestly intitled A Glimpse at the Monumental Architecture and Sculpture of Great Britain. The volume made for their reception is an atlas-folio, guarded; on one leaf is inserted the drawing, on the other the letter (if any) which accompanied it, to which are added a few brief memoranda of my own: it is still, however, in an unfinished state.

The book is a very cumbrous one, so that its transmission would be no very easy task; if, however, it should be thought desirable, and the practicability explained, I shall have much pleasure in placing its contents at the disposal of any one engaged in following out the plan proposed.

Allow me to add that, about a mile distant from the quaint and interesting city from whence this "note" is dated (and in which I have resided for some time), we come to the cemetery, a portion of which is allotted to the interment of those English residents, or visitors, who may have terminated their earthly career at this place. Should a copy of the inscriptions in this receptacle (which are numerous) be acceptable, I will endeavour to procure one; but in this case I should be glad to know whether these extracts should be confined to names, dates, and genealogical information only, or include the various tributes of affection or of friendship, by which they are generally accompanied.

M. W. B.

Bruges. [515]

As a conclusion to my investigation of this subject, I wish to place upon record the astronomical results on which I have relied in the course of my observations; in order that their correctness may be open to challenge, and that each reader may compare the actual phenomena, rigidly ascertained with all the helps that modern science affords, with the several approximations arrived at by Chaucer. And when it is recollected that some at least of the facts recorded by him must have been theoretical—incapable of the test of actual observation—it must be admitted that his near approach to truth is remarkable: not the less so that his ideas on some points were certainly erroneous; as, for example, his adoption, in the Treatise on the Astrolabe, of Ptolemy's determination of the obliquity of the ecliptic in preference to the more correct value assigned to it by the Arabians of the middle ages.

Assuming that the true date intended by Chaucer was Saturday the 18th of April, 1388, the following particulars of that day are those which have reference to his description:—

It will be seen that, if the place here assigned to the moon be correct, Chaucer could not have described it more appropriately than by the phrase "In méné Libra:" providing (of which there can be little doubt) that he used those words as synonymous with "in hedde of Libra." "Hedde of Libra," "hedde of Aries," are expressions constantly used by him to describe the equinoctial points; and the analogy that exists between "head," in the sense head-land or promontory, as, for example, "Orme's Head," "Holyhead," "Lizard Head," and the like; and "menez" in the same sense, need not be further insisted upon. Evidence fully sufficient to justify a much less obvious inference has been already produced, and I am enabled to strengthen it still further by the following reference, for which I am indebted to a private communication from H. B. C.

"MENEZ, s. m. Grande masse de terre, ou de roche, fort élevée au-dessus du sol de la terre.

"MEAN, ou MAEN, s. m. Pierre, corps dur et solide qui se forme dans la terre.

"(En Treguier et Cornouailes), MÉNÉ."

(Gonidec, Dictionnaire Celto-Breton. Angoulême, 1821.)

This last reference is doubly valuable, in referring the word méné to the very neighbourhood of the scene of Chaucer's "Frankleine's Tale," and in dispensing with the terminal letter z, thereby giving us the verbum ipsissimum used by Chaucer.

I must not be understood as entertaining the opinion that Chaucer's knowledge of astronomy—although undoubtedly great, considering the age in which he lived and the nature of his pursuits—would have enabled him to determine the moon's true place, with such correctness, wholly from theory; on the contrary, I look upon it as more probably the result of real observation at the time named, and, as such, adding another link to the chain of presumptive evidence that renders it more probable that Chaucer wrote the prologues to his Canterbury Tales more as a narration (with some embellishments) of events that really took place, than that they were altogether the work of his imagination.

A. E. B.

Leeds, June, 1851.

Looking carefully over a curious copy of the Flagellum, or the Life and Death, Birth and Buriall of O. Cromwell, the late Usurper, printed for Randal Taylor, 1672, I found on the back of the title the following epigrams, written in a handwriting and ink corresponding to the date of the book (which, by the way, is a late edition of the "little brown lying book," by Heath, which Carlyle notices): as they are curious and worth preserving, and I believe not to be met with elsewhere, I presume they may be of some interest to your readers. The book is also full of MS. marginal notes and remarks, evidently by some red-hot royalist, which are also curious in themselves, and with a selection of which I may some day trouble you should you wish it. [516]

In regard to the little controversy which I started regarding Bunyan's claim to be author of the Visions of Heaven and Hell, I hope soon to decide it, as I am on the scent of a copy of, I believe, a first edition, which does not claim him for author.

JAMES FRISWELL.

12. Brooke Street, Holborn.

—That a man must never "go a courting" on a Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on that day, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c., unless he can rid himself of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.

That hooping-cough will never be taken by any child which has ridden upon a bear. While bear baiting was in fashion, great part of the owner's profits arose from the money given by parents whose children had had a ride. The writer knows of cases in which the charm is said certainly to have been effectual.

That hooping-cough may be cured by tying a hairy caterpillar in a small bag round the child's neck, and as the caterpillar dies the cough goes.

That Good Friday is the best day of all the year to begin weaning children, which ought if possible to be put off till that day; and a strong hope is sometimes entertained that a very cross child will "be better" after it has been christened.

That May cats are unlucky, and will suck the breath of children.

That crickets are lucky about a house, and will do no harm to those who use them well; but that they eat holes in the worsted stockings of such members of the family as kill them. I was assured of this on the experience of a respectable farmer's family.

The belief in ghosts, or bogards, as they are termed, is universal.

In my neighbourhood I hardly know a dell where a running stream crosses a road by a small bridge or stone plat, where there is not frectnin (frightening) to be expected. Wells, ponds, gates, &c., have often this bad repute. I have heard of a calf with eyes like a saucer, a woman without a head, a white greyhound, a column of white foam like a large sugar-loaf in the midst of a pond, a group of little cats, &c., &c., as the shape of the bogard, and sometimes a lady who jumped behind hapless passengers on horseback. It is supposed that a Romish priest can lay them, and that it is best to cheat them to consent to being laid while hollies are green. Hollies being evergreens, the ghosts can reappear no more.

P. P.

—Most of, if not all the instances mentioned under this head by MR. WILKINSON are, as might be expected, current also in the adjacent district of the West Riding of Yorkshire; and, by his leave, I will add a few more, which are familiar to me:

1. If a cock near the door crows with his face towards it, it is a sure prediction of the arrival of a stranger.

2. If the cat frisks about the house in an unusually lively manner, windy or stormy weather is approaching.

3. If a dog howls under a window at night, a death will shortly happen in that house.

4. If a female be the first to enter a house on Christmas or New Year's day, she brings ill luck to that house for the coming year.

5. For hooping-cough, pass the child nine times over the back and under the belly of an ass. (This ceremony I once witnessed, but cannot vouch for its having had the desired effect.)

6. For warts, rub them with a cinder, and this tied up in paper and dropped where four roads meet, will transfer the warts to whoever opens the packet.

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

—The curfew is continued in many of the villages, and until the last ten or fifteen years it was usual at a Roman Catholic funeral to ring a merry peal on the bells as soon as the interment was over. The Roman Catholics seem now to have discontinued this practice.

Carol singing and hand-bell ringing prevail at Christmas, and troops of men and children calling [517] themselves pace eggers, go about in Passion Week, and especially Good Friday, as mummers in the south of England do at Christmas. Large tallow candles may often be seen decorated with evergreens, hanging up in the houses of the poor at Christmas time.

P. P.

—One of the experiments by which the existence of this agency is tested, consists in attaching a horsehair to the first joint of the forefinger, and suspending to it a smooth gold ring. When the elbow is rested on the table, and the finger held in a horizontal position, the ring begins to oscillate in the plane of the direction of the finger; but if a female takes hold of the left hand of the person thus experimenting, the ring begins forthwith to oscillate in a plane at right angles to that of its former direction. I have never tried the experiment, for the simple reason that I have not been able to prevail upon any married lady of my acquaintance to lend me her wedding-ring for the purpose; and even if I had found it come true, I should still doubt whether the motion were not owing to the pulsations of the finger veins; but whatever be the cause, the fact is not new. My father recently told me, that in his boyhood he had often seen it tried as a charm. For this purpose it is essential, as may be supposed, that the ring be a wedding-ring, and of course the lady towards whom it oscillates is set down as the future spouse of the gentleman experimenting.

R. D. H.

—The popular belief, that a person cannot die with his head resting on a pillow containing pigeons' feathers, is well known; but the following will probably be as new to many of your readers as it was to myself. On applying the other day to a highly respectable farmer's wife to know if she had any pigeons ready to eat, as a sick person had expressed a longing for one, she said, "Ah! poor fellow! is he so far gone? A pigeon is generally almost the last thing they want; I have supplied many a one for the like purpose."

J. EASTWOOD.

—Perhaps you may think it worth while to preserve a note written by the late Rev. Dr. Scott on the 498th page of the second volume of Harrison's Life of Lord Nelson, in contradiction of a bombastic description therein given of the admiral's dress and appearance at the battle of Trafalgar.

"This is wrong, he wore the same coat he did the day before; nor was there the smallest alteration in his dress whatsoever from other days. In this action he had not his sword with him on deck, which in other actions he had always carried.—A. J. Scott."

Dr. Scott was the chaplain and friend in whose arms Lord Nelson died.

When the late Sir N. Harris Nicolas was engaged in a controversy in The Times, respecting the sale of Lord Nelson's sword, I sent him a copy of the above note, and told him I had heard Dr. Scott say that "the sword was left hanging in the admiral's cabin." It was not found necessary to make use of this testimony, as the dispute had subsided.

ALFRED GATTY.

—The crucifix that belonged to this unfortunate queen, and which she is said to have held in her hands on the scaffold, is still preserved with great care by its present owners (a titled family in the neighbourhood of Winchester), and at whose seat I have frequently seen it. If I mistake not, the figure of our Saviour is of ivory, and the cross of ebony.

THE WHITE ROSE.

—In No. 76., p. 275., MR. GALLATLY calls attention to the popular error in misquoting the expression from Genesis: "In the sweat of thy face," &c. There is another popular error which may not be known to some of your correspondents: it is generally supposed that Jonah is recorded in the book bearing his name as having been swallowed by a whale,—this is quite an error. The expressions is "a great fish," and no such word as whale occurs in the entire "Book of Jonah."

E. J. K.

—I send you a further addition to the "Anachronisms of Painters," mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 369., and, like them, not in D'Israeli's list.

My father (R. Robinson, of the Heath House, Wombourne) has in his collection a picture by Steenwyk, of the "Woman taken in Adultery," in which our Lord is made to write in Dutch! The scene also takes place in a church of the architecture of the thirteenth century!

G. T. R.

Wombourne, near Wolverhampton.

—"We make the best rifles, and you follow us," said the exhibitor of Colt's revolvers, in my hearing, with a most satisfied assurance, in a way "particularly communicative and easy," as The Times of the 9th of June says of his general manner. I am always desirous of information, but desire the highest authority and evidence before I believe. I would therefore ask the opinion of all experienced sportsmen, such as Mr. Gordon Cumming, or of travelled officers of our Rifle Brigade. I may say, that if the above unqualified remark came from the mouth of an English maker, I should be equally incredulous. Is there any use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English one? [518]

A. C.

—Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls, near Romsey, Hants? There are the remains of a palace of the Saxon kings still there, many parts of which are in good preservation, the chapel being now used as the kitchen of Stanbridge House?

I have also read that one of the kings was buried in this chapel, and afterwards removed to Winchester; but, having no note of the book, should be glad to be referred to it.

COLLY WOBBLES.

—Can any of your correspondents inform us what has become of the Norman line of Montchesni, or Muncey, a family which, like those of Maldebauge and De Loges, held baronial rank in England for several generations after the Conquest, though it is now forgotten?

P.

—The late Sir F. Jeffrey, in a review of the correspondence of Baron de Grimm, quotes an epitaph on Voltaire, which he states to have been made by a lady of Lausanne:

Has the name of this lady been ascertained?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

—In Specimens of Coleridge's Table Talk (p. 165., Murray, 1851) appears the following:—

"So little did the early bishops and preachers think their Christian faith wrapped up in, and solely to be learned from, the New Testament, that I remember a letter from ——[1] to a friend of his, a bishop in the East, in which he most evidently speaks of the Christian scriptures as of works of which the bishop knew little or nothing."

[1] "I have lost the name which Mr. Coleridge mentioned."—Editor's Note.

My object is to know how this blank is to be filled up—probably by the name of some well-known father of the Church.

GEORGE LEWES.

Oxford, May 28.

—These words are given in Young's Night Thoughts as a quotation. Can any of your correspondents inform me whence they are taken?

E. J. K.

—In a work entitled Description routière et géographique de l'Empire Français, by R. V., Paris, 1813, the following notice of Bicêtre occurs in vol. i. p. 84.:—

"On voit bientôt, à peu de distance à droite, d'abord dans un bas-fond, arrosé par la petite rivière de Bièvre ou des Gobelins, le village de Gentilly, qui se vante de quelqu'ancienneté, et d'un Concile tenu en 767; ensuite, sur une éminence, au bout d'une jolie avenue en berceau, l'hôpital de Bicêtre, qui, fondé en 1290 par un Evêque de Paris, appartint depuis, dit-on, à un Evêque de Wincester ou Wincestre, d'où par corruption on a fait Bicêtre.

"C'est une chose assez piquante que cette étymologie anglaise. Les auteurs qui nous l'apprennent eussent bien dû nous en apprendre aussi les circonstances. J'ai consulté à cet égard tout ce qui était à consulter, sans faire d'autre découverte que quelques contradictions dans les dates, et sans pouvoir offrir aucun éclaircissement historique à mes lecteurs, aussi curieux que moi, sans doute, de savoir comment un prélat anglais est venu donner le nom de son évêché à un château de France."

Is there any warrant in English history for this derivation of Bicêtre; and if so, who was the Bishop of Winchester that gave the name of his diocese to that celebrated hospital?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

—M. Barbier, in his Dictionnaire des Ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, says that Michael Scott is a pseudonyme for Theobald Anguilbert, and ascribes the Mensa philosophica to the latter as the real author. Can any one tell me who is Theobald Anguilbert, for I can find no account of him anywhere? and if there ever was such a person, whether all the writings bearing the name of Michael Scott, who, by all accounts, appears to have been a real person, are to be assigned to the said Anguilbert?

TYRO.

Dublin.

—Can any of your readers tell me where the following passage is to be found?

"Suum cuique tribuere, ea demum summa justitia est."

All persons of whom I have inquired, tell me it is from Cicero, but no one can inform me where it is to be found.

M. D.

—In the parish register of Buxted, in Sussex, allusion is made to the time when the organs were put up in the church, but which had been taken down. This entry was made in the year 1558. Any information as to the earliest period when organs were placed in our churches will much oblige.

R. W. B.

[Our correspondent will find some interesting matter on the early use of organs in churches in the Rev. F. D. Wackerbath's Music and the Anglo-Saxons, pp. 6-24. London. 8vo. 1837.]

—Perhaps some of your correspondents can enlighten me on the following points.

1. Who was the author of this play? The Latin is sufficiently ultra-canine for his pedantic majesty himself. [519]

2. Do the words "coram Regia Maiestate Jacobi, Regis Angliæ," &c., mean that the play was acted in the presence of the king? I am inclined to give them that interpretation from some allusions at the end of the last act, as well as from its being written in Latin.

3. Are any of the race-courses therein mentioned still used as such?

"In Stadio Roystoniensi, Brackliensi, Gatterliensi, Coddington."

This is the earliest mention of fixed English race-courses that I have met with, and not being much versed in the secrets of the modern "cespite vivo," I am obliged to inquire of those who are better informed on that subject.

F. J.

[The author of Ignoramus was George Ruggles, A. M., of Clare Hall, Cambridge. This comedy, as well as that of Albumazar, were both acted before King James I. and the Prince of Wales, during a visit to Cambridge in March, 1614-15. The edition of Ignoramus, edited by J. S. Hawkins, 8vo., 1787, contains a Life of Ruggles, and a valuable Glossary to his "ultra-canine Latin" legal terms. There is also a translation of this comedy, with the following title: "Ignoramus: a Comedy as it was several times acted with extraordinary applause before the Majesty of King James. With a Supplement, which (out of respect to the Students of the Common Law) was hitherto wanting. Written in Latine by R. Ruggles, sometime Master of Arts in Clare Hall, in Cambridge, and translated into English by R. C. [Robert Codrington, A. M.] of Magdalen Colledge, in Oxford. London. 4to. 1662."]

—Will any of your learned readers inform me, for what reason and by what authority Drake's Historia Anglo-Scotica, published in 1703, was ordered to be burned by the hangman? And where I can meet with a report of the proceedings relating to it?

FRA. MEWBURN.

Darlington.

[Dr. Drake was not the author, but merely the editor of Historia Anglo-Scotica. In the dedication he says, "Upon a diligent revisal, in order, if possible, to discover the name of the author, and the age of his writing, he found that it was written in, or at least not finished till, the time of Charles I." It is singular, however, that he does not give the least intimation by what mysterious influence the manuscript came to be wafted into his library. It was ordered by the parliament of Scotland, on the 30th of June, 1703, to be burned by the common hangman.]

The fact of the passage of a funeral procession over land, from being an act of user of a very public character, must always have had some influence on the trial of the question whether the owner of the land had dedicated the same to the public; and it is not improbable that in early times very great weight was attached to evidence of this kind: so that the passage of a corpse across land came to be considered in the popular mind as conclusive and incontrovertible evidence of a public right of way over that land. With the reverence for the dead which is so pleasing a characteristic of modern refinement, it is probable that acts of user of this description would now have little weight, inasmuch as no man of right feeling would be disposed to interrupt parties assembled on so mournful and solemn an occasion. I recollect, however, having read a trial in modern times for a riot, arising out of a forcible attempt to carry a corpse over a field against the will of the landowner; the object of the parties in care of the corpse was believed to be the establishment of a public right of way over the field in question, the owner of which, with a body of partisans, forcibly resisted the attempt, on the apparent belief that the act of carrying a corpse across the field would certainly have established the right claimed. I regret I did not "make a Note" of the case, so as to be able to specify the time, place, and circumstances with certainty.

That the notion in question is of great antiquity may I think be inferred from the following passage in Prynne's Records, iii. 213., referring to Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, 1258-1280 (and as the authority for which, Prynne cites Holinshed's Chronicle, 1303, 1304; and Godwin's Catalogue of Bishops, 326.):—

"He did by a Policy purchase the Lordship and House of Clift Sachfeld, and enlarged the Barton thereof by gaining of Cornish Wood from the Dean and Chapter fraudulently; building then a very fair and sumptuous house there; he called it Bishop's Clift, and left the same to his successors. Likewise he got the Patronage of Clift Fomesone, now called Sowton, and annexed the same to his new Lordship, which (as it was said) he procured by this means. He had a Frier to be his Chaplain and Confessor, which died in his said House of Clift, and should have been buried at the Parish Church of Faringdon, because the said House was and is in that Parish; but because the Parish Church was somewhat farre off, the wayes foul, and the weather rainy, or for some other causes, the Bishop commanded the corps to be carryed to the parish church of Sowton, then called Clift Fomeson, which is very near, and bordereth upon the Bishop's Lordship; the two Parishes being then divided by a little Lake called Clift. At this time one Fomeson, a Gentleman, was Lord and Patron of Clift Fomeson; and he, being advertised of such a Burial towards in his Parish, and a leech way to be made over to his Land, without his leave or consent required therein; calleth his Tenants together, goeth to the Bridge over the lake between the Bishop's Land and his; there meeteth the Bishop's men, bringing the said Corps, and forbiddeth them to come over the [520] water. The men nothing regarding the Prohibition, do press forwards to come over the water, and the others do withstand, so long, that in the end, my Lord's Fryer is fallen into the Water. The Bishop taketh this matter in such grief, that a holy Fryer, a Religious man, his own Chaplain and Confessor, should be so unreverently cast into the Water, that he falleth out with the Gentleman, and upon what occasion I know not, he sueth him in the Law (in his own Ecclesiastical Court, where he was both party and Judge), and so vexeth and tormenteth him, that in the end he was fain to yeeld himself to the Bishop's devotion, and seeketh all the wayes he could to carry the Bishop's good will, which he could not obtain, until for redemption he had given up and surrendered his patronage of Sowton, with a piece of land; all which the said Bishop annexed to his new Lordship."

In "An Exhortation, to be spoken to such Parishes where they use their Perambulation in Rogation Week; for the Oversight of the Bounds and Limits of their Town," is a curious passage, which I subjoin:

"It is a shame to behold the insatiableness of some covetous persons in their doings; that where their ancestors left of their land a broad and sufficient bier-balk, to carry the corpse to the Christian sepulture, how men pinch at such bier-balks, which by long use and custom ought to be inviolably kept for that purpose; and now they quite eat them up, and turn the dead body to be borne farther about in the high streets; or else, if they leave any such meer, it is too straight for two to walk on."—Homilies, ed. Corrie, p. 499.

It may perhaps be considered not quite irrelevant here to state that there seems once to have been an opinion, that the passage of the sovereign across land had the effect of making a highway thereon. The only allusion, however, to this opinion which I can call to mind, occurs in Peck's Antiquarian Annals of Stanford, lib. xi. s. xii.; an extract from which follows:—

"From Stanford King Edward, as I conceive, went to Huntingdon; for in a letter of one of our kings dated at that town the 12th of July (without any year or king's name to ascertain the time and person it belongs to), the King writes to the aldermen and bailiffs of Stanford, acquainting them, that, when he came to Stanford, he went through Pilsgate field (coming then I suppose from Peterborough), and, it being usual it seems that whatever way the King rides to any place (though the same was no public way before) for everybody else to claim the same liberty afterwards, and thenceforth to call any such new passage the King's highway; being followed to Huntingdon by divers of his own tenants, inhabitants of Pilsgate, who then and there represented the damage they should sustain by such a practice, the King by his letters immediately commanded that his passing that way should not be made a precedent for other people's so doing, but did utterly forbid and discharge them therefrom. His letter, directed 'to our dearly beloved the alderman, bailiffs, and good people of our Town of Stanford,' upon this occasion, is thus worded:—'Dear and well-beloved friends, by the grievous complaint of our beloved lieges and tenents of the town of Pillesyate near our town of Staunford, we have understood, that, in as much as, on Tuesday last, we passed through the middle of a meadow and a certain pasture there called Pillesyate meadow appertaining to the said town of Pillesyate, you, and others of the country circumjacent, claim to have and use an high way royal to pass through the middle of the said meadow and pasture, to the great damage and disseisin of our said lieges and tenents, whereupon they have supplicated for a remedy; so we will, if it be so, and we command and charge firmly, that you neither make nor use, nor suffer to be made nor used by others of our said town of Staunford, nor others whatsoever, no high road through the middle of the said meadow and pasture; but that you forbear from it entirely, and that you cause it to be openly proclaimed in our said town, that all others of our said town and the country round it, do likewise; to the end that our said tenents may have and peaceably enjoy the said meadow and pasture, so, and in the manner, as they have done before these times, without disturbance or impeachment of you or others, of what estate or condition soever they be, notwithstanding that we passed that way in manner as is said. And this in no manner fail ye. Given under our signet at Huntyngdon the 12th day of July.'"

I am unable to say whether the opinion it was the object of the above royal letter to refute was general, or was peculiar to the "good people" of Stanford, "and others of the country circumjacent."

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, June 18. 1851.

From the following extracts from two of the "Bury Wills" recently published by the Camden Society, it would appear that a dozen of bread always consisted of twelve loaves; and that the term "Baker's dozen" arose from the practice of giving, in addition to the twelve loaves, a further quantity as "inbread," in the same manner as it is (or until recently was) the custom to give an extra bushel of coals as "ingrain" upon the sale of a large quantity; a chaldron, I believe.

Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., by will, dated April 26, 1639, gave to feoffees certain property upon trust (inter alia) out of the rents, upon the last Friday in every month in the year, to provide one twopenny loaf for each of forty poor people in Bury, to be distributed by the clerk, sexton, and beadle of St. Mary's parish, who were to have the "inbread of the said bread." And the testator also bequeathed certain other property to feoffees upon trust to employ the rents as follows (that is to say):—

"The yerely sūme of ffiue pounds p'cell of the said yerely rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to be made into penny loaves, and upon eu'y Lord's day, [521] called Sonday, throughout eu'y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts], fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, wth the inbread allowed by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread, to be timely brought and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp' end of the chancell of the said p'ish church of St. Marie, and ... the same twoe dosens of bread to be giuen and distributed ... to and amongst fowre and twentie poore people ... the p'ish clarke and sexton of the said church, and the beadle of the said p'ish of St. Marie for the time then being, shall alwaies be three wch from time to time shall haue their shares and parts in the said bread. And they, the said clarke, sexton, and bedell, shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread from time to time——"

And William Fiske, of Pakenham, Gent., by will, dated March 20, 1648, provided twelvepence a week to pay weekly for one dozen of bread which his mind was, should "be weekly given vnto twelue or thirteene" persons therein referred to.

J. B. COLMAN.

Eye, June 16. 1851.

Among the various kinds of picturesque representation, practised by the Greeks and Romans, and transmitted by them to after times, is that of Mosaic, a mode of execution which, in its durability of form, and permanency of colour, possesses distinguished advantages, being unaffected by heat or cold, drought or moisture, and perishing only with the building to which it has been originally attached. This art has been known in Rome since the days of the Republic. The severer rulers of that period forbade the introduction of foreign marbles, and the republican mosaics are all in black and white. Under the Empire the art was greatly improved, and not merely by the introduction of marbles of various colours, but by the invention of artificial stones, termed by the Italians Smalti, which can be made of every variety of tint. This art was never entirely lost. On the introduction of pictures into Christian temples, they were first made of mosaic: remaining specimens of them are rude, but profoundly interesting in an historical point of view. When art was restored in Italy, mosaic also was improved; but it attained its greatest perfection in the last and present century. Roman mosaic, as now practised, may be described as being the production of pictures by connecting together numerous minute pieces of coloured marble or artificial stones. These are attached to a ground of copper, by means of a strong cement of gum mastic, and other materials, and are afterwards ground and polished, as a stone would be, to a perfectly level surface. By this art not only are ornaments made on a small scale, but pictures of the largest size are copied. The most remarkable modern works are the copies which have been executed of some of the most important works of the great masters, for the altars in St. Peter's. These are, in every respect, perfect imitations of the originals; and when the originals, in spite of every care, must change and perish, these mosaics will still convey to distant ages a perfect idea of the triumphs of art achieved in the fifteenth century. Twenty years were employed in making one of the copies I have mentioned. The pieces of mosaic vary in size from an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch, and eleven men were employed for that time on each picture. A great improvement was introduced into the art in 1775, by Signor Raffaeli, who thought of preparing the smalti in what may be termed fine threads. The pastes or smalti are manufactured at Venice, in the shape of crayons, or like sticks of sealing-wax, and are afterwards drawn out by the workman, by a blowpipe, into the thickness he requires, often almost to an hair, and are seldom thicker than the finest grass stalk. For tables, and large articles, of course, the pieces are thicker; but the beauty of the workmanship, the soft gradation of the tints, and the cost, depend upon the minuteness of the pieces, and the skill displayed by the artist. A ruin, a group of flowers or figures, will employ a good artist about two months, when only two inches square; and a specimen of such a description costs from 5l. to 20l., according to the execution: a landscape, six inches by four, would require eighteen months, and would cost from 40l. to 50l. For a picture of Pæstum, eight feet long by twenty inches broad, on which four men were occupied for three years, 1000l. sterling was asked. The mosaic work of Florence differs entirely from Roman mosaic, being composed of stones inserted in comparatively large masses. It is called work in pietra dura; the stones used are all of a more or less precious nature. In old specimens, the most beautiful works are those in which the designs are of an arabesque character. The most remarkable specimen of this description of pietra dura, is an octagonal table, in the Gubinetto di Baroccio, in the Florence Gallery. It is valued at 20,000l. sterling, and was commenced in 1623 by Jacopo Detelli, from designs by Ligozzi. Twenty-two artists worked upon it without interruption till it was terminated, in the year 1649.

One principal distinction between the ancient and modern mosaic is, I believe, that the former was arranged in patterns, the latter coloured in shades. I shall not take up your columns by dwelling on the ancient mosaic, which, as all know was in use among the Orientals, especially the Persians and Assyrians; and from the Easterns the Greeks received the art. In the Book of Esther, i. 6., we have an allusion to a mosaic pavement; and Schleusner understands the Λιθόστρωτον of St. John, xix. 13., to mean a sort of elevated [522] mosaic pavement. Andrea Tafi, towards the close of the thirteenth century, is said to have revived this art in Italy, having learned it from a Greek named Apollonius, who worked at the church of St. Mark at Venice, and to have been the founder of the modern mosaic.

Now for the derivation. The Lithostrata, or tesselated pavements of the Romans, being worked in a regular and mechanical manner, were called opus musivum, opera qua ad amussim facta sunt. Hence the Italian musaico, from whence is derived our appellation of mosaic; but, like most of our arts, through the channel of the French mosaïque. (Vide Pitisci Lexicon, ii. 242.; Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici; Winkelman; Pompeiana, by Gell; Smith's Greek and Roman Antiq.; Beckman's Inventions; and Récherches sur la Peinture en Mosaïque chez les Anciens, &c., annexed to his Description d'un Pavé en Mosaïque, &c.: Paris, 1802.)

GERONIMO.

—Several words have been suggested to take the place of the unintelligible "prenzie" in Measure for Measure; but none of them appear to me to satisfy all the four conditions justly required by LEGES.

I would suggest phrensied or phrenzied, a word extremely like prenzie both in sound and appearance, and of the proper metre, thus perfectly satisfying two of the conditions.

With respect to the propriety of using this word in the two instances where prenzie occurs, Claudio, in the first place, when informed by his sister of the villany of Angelo, may well exclaim in astonishment—

i.e. "What, is he mad?" or, with a note of admiration, "Why, Angelo must be mad!" Then, I think, naturally follows Isabella's reply:—

that is, in the disguise or under the cloak of madness.

Johnson defines Frenzy to be

"Madness; distraction of mind; alienation of understanding; any violent passion approaching to madness."

and surely Angelo's violent passion for Isabella, and his determination to gratify it at all risks, may, properly be said to approach to madness.

W. G. M.

There is a Scotch word so nearly resembling this, and at the same time so exactly answering to the sense which the passage in Measure for Measure requires, that it may be worth while calling the attention of the Shakspearian commentators to it. In Allan Cunningham's Glossary to Burns, I find Primsie, which he defines to mean demure, precise. An old Scotch proverb is quoted, in which the word is used:

The term is evidently connected with, or formed from, the English prim, which has the same sense. It seems this was formerly sometimes written prin. Halliwell cites from Fletcher's poems the lines—

Now if from prim be formed the secondary adjective primsie, so from prin we get prinsie or prinzie. But without resorting to the supposition of the existence of this latter word, it is evident that in primzie, which does or did exist, we have a word answering all the conditions laid down by LEGES for determining the true reading, more nearly than any other that has been suggested.

CEBES.

[Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, defines PRIMSIE, demure, precise, S. from E. prim.

—Were the beautiful lines entitled "Lady Flora's Bequest" in reality written by that lamented lady? They are not to be found in the volume of her Poems published after her death by her sister, the Marchioness of Bute; and they did appear in The Christian Lady's Magazine for September, 1839, with the signature of Miss M. A. S. Barber appended to them.

In the preceding Number of the same magazine there is a very touching account of Lady Flora, from the pen of its talented editress, who mentions the fact of Lady Flora having with her dying hand "delivered to her fond brother a little Bible, the gift of her mother, requesting him to restore it to that beloved parent with the assurance that from the age of seven years, when she received it from her, it had been her best treasure; and, she added, her sole support under all her recent afflictions."

If your correspondent ERZA has never seen that obituary notice (Seeleys, publishers) I think she will be glad to meet with it.

L. H. K.

—This term is in common use among sailors, meaning the Mediterranean Archipelago, and they may very often be heard saying—"When I was up the Arches."

E. N. W.

Southwark, June 16. 1851.

—I beg to add to the lists of H. G. T., and E. B. PRICE.

Some years ago I purchased one in Bradford, [523] [~523] Wilts, and several at Bedwyn Magna in the same county. The Bradford one bears an heraldic nondescript animal with horns on its head and nose, and a coronet round its neck, surrounded by—

One of the Bedwyn ones bears a lion passant holding a scimitar, with the motto:

The last figure of the date is obliterated. Another has a shield bearing three tuns, surrounded by—

One in the possession of a farmer in the parish of Barton Turf, Norfolk, bears an eagle with a human head at its feet, surrounded by—

W. C. LUKIS.

Great Bedwyn, June, 1851.

—St. Pancras was a native of the province of Phrygia, the son of a nobleman of the name of Cledonius; who, when at the point of death, strongly recommended this his only son, together with his fortune, which was very great, to the care of his brother Dionysius, he being the only near relative in being, the mother having previously deceased.

This trust Dionysius faithfully fulfilled, bringing up and loving his nephew as he would have done his own son; and when, three years after the death of Cledonius, he quitted his native country and proceeded to Rome, the youthful Pancras accompanied him. Upon reaching the imperial city, the uncle and nephew took up their residence in the same suburb where the Pope Marcellinus had fled for concealment from the persecution which had been raised against the Christians by the Emperors Diocletian and Maximianus. Here they had not been long resident before the fame of the great sanctity and virtue of Marcellinus reached their ears, and caused an ardent desire in both to see and converse with one so highly spoken of. A convenient opportunity was soon found, and in a short time both the uncle and nephew, renouncing their idolatry, became converted to the Christian faith.

So strong was the effect produced upon them by this change, that the chief desire of both was to die for their religion; and, without waiting for the arrival of the officers who were continually searching for the hidden Christians, they voluntarily surrendered themselves to the ministers of justice.

A few days after this event, however, Dionysius was called hence by a natural death.

Diocletian, who is said to have been a friend of Cledonius, and moved perhaps by the youth and graceful appearance of Pancras, strove by flattery and caresses to induce him to do sacrifice to the heathen gods; to this proposition Pancras absolutely refused to consent, and reproached the Emperor for his weakness in believing to be gods, men, who, while on earth, had been remarkable for their vices. Diocletian, stung by these reproaches, commanded that the youth should be instantly beheaded, which sentence was immediately carried into execution. His death is said to have taken place on 12th May, 303; the martyr being then but fourteen years of age.

The gate in Rome, rendered so remarkable lately as having been the chief point attacked by the French troops, was formerly called Porta Aurelia; but was subsequently named Porta Pancrazio, after this youthful sufferer.

R. R. M.

—Ferrante Pallavicino was descended from a noble family, seated in Placenza. He entered the monastery of Augustine Friars at Milan, where he became a regular canon of the Lateran congregation. He was a man of fine genius, and possessed great wit, but having employed it in writing several satirical pieces against Urban VIII. during the war between the Barberini and the Duke of Parma and Placenza, he became so detested at the court of Rome, that a price was set on his head. One Charles Morfu, a French villain, was bribed to ensnare him, and pretending to pass for his friend and pity his misfortunes, persuaded him to go to France, which he said would be much to his advantage. Pallavicino gave himself up entirely to the direction of this false friend, who conducted him over the bridge at Sorgues into the territory of Venaissin, where he was arrested by people suborned for that purpose, was carried to Avignon, thrown into a dungeon, from which he tried to make his escape, and in the year 1644, after a fourteen months' imprisonment, was beheaded in the flower of his age. He was the author of a number of small pieces, all of which are marked by the lively genius of the author. They were collected and published at Venice in 1655, and amongst them I found one entitled "La disgracia del Conte d'Olivarez," which, perhaps, may be the work MR. SOULEY has in MS.

For a more lengthy account of this unhappy and extraordinary man, I would refer MR. SOULEY to the life prefixed to his collected works, and to that prefixed to a French translation of his Divortio celeste, printed at Amsterdam in 1696; and also to the preface to the English translation of that same very curious work, printed at London in 1718.

WILLIAM BROWN, Jun.

—When I proposed this Query, I mentioned that I had heard one derivation of the phrase. As it is different from either of those [524] which have been sent, it may, perhaps, be worth insertion. I was told by a printer that the phrase had originated among those of his craft, since young compositors experience great difficulty in discriminating between the types of the two letters.

R. D. H.

[A correspondent has kindly suggested a new version of this saying, and suggests that for the future our readers should be reminded to mind, not their P's and Q's, but their N's and Q's.]

—In No. 81. R. C. H. H. asks if John Banks the philosopher was descended from Sir John Banks, Lord Chief Justice in Charles I.'s reign. As a grandson of the former, I take great interest in this, but am sorry to say that I can give no information at present on that branch of the subject. The philosopher's family were settled for some generations at Grange, near Keswick. I should be obliged if R. C. H. H. would communicate the name and publisher of the book on the Lakes which he quotes from, as I am exceedingly anxious to trace the genealogy.

BAY.

Liverpool, June 19. 1851.

—The following extract from La Cronica di Giovanni Villani, lib. xii. c. 35., appears to have some reference to the Query made by F. E. M.:

"E nel detto mese di Febbraio, 1344, per lo comune si fece ordine, che qualunque cittadino dovesse avere dal comune per le prestanze fatte al tempo de' venti della balia, come addieto facemmo menzione, che si trovarono fiorini cinquecento-settantamila d'oro, sanza il debito di Messer Mastino della Scala, ch' erano presso a centomila fiorini d'oro, che si mettessono in uno registro ordinatemente; e dare il comune ogni anno di provvisione e usufrutto cinque per centinaio, dando ogni mese la paga per rata; e diputossi a fornire il detto guiderdone parte alla gabella delle parti, e parte ad altre gabelle, che montava l'anno da fiorini venticinque mila d'oro, dov' erano assegnate le paghe di Messer Mastino; e pagato lui, fossone assignati alla detta satisfazione; il quale Messer Mastino fu pagato del mese di Dicembre per lo modo che diremo innanzi. E cominciossi la paga della detta provvisione del mese d'Ottobre 1345."

R. R. M.

—In reply to your correspondent W. B. H., requesting to be informed of the connexion between a "Pietà" and a "Monte di Pietà," it may be observed that there does not appear to be any necessary connexion between the two expressions. The term "a Pietà" is generally used to denote the figure of the dead Saviour attended by His Blessed Mother: for example, the celebrated one in St. Peter's at Rome. The word "Monte," besides its signification of "montagna," expresses also "luogo publico ove si danno oi si pigliano denari ad interesse;" also "luogo publico altresì dove col pegno si prestano denari con piccolo interesse."

"Pietà," in addition to its signification of "devozione," or "virtù per cui si ama ed onora Dia," &c., which would apply to the figure of the dead Saviour, expresses "compassione amorevole verso il suo simile."

Monte di Pietà would therefore be a place where money was lent at interest, on such terms as were in unison with a kind and compassionate feeling towards our neighbour. This species of establishment was first commenced in Italy towards the end of the fifteenth century, by Il Beato Bernardino da Feltri, who carried his opposition to the Jews so far as to preach a crusade against them. The earliest Monte of which any record appears to exist was founded in the city of Padua in 1491; the effect of which was to cause the closing of twelve loan banks belonging to the Jews.

From Italy they were shortly afterwards introduced into France.

The first legal sanction given to these establishments was granted by Pope Leo X. in 1551.

R. R. M.

—From the replies to my Query on this subject that have been published, it is plain that in all parts of England Dissenters have wished to procure the registry of their children's births or baptisms in their parish churches. In some instances they have been registered as dissenting baptisms; and then the fact appears from the Registry itself. In other instances, and probably far the more numerous (though this would be difficult to prove), they were registered among the canonical baptisms; and the fact of their being performed by Dissenting Ministers is only discoverable by reference to the Dissenting Register, when it happens to have been preserved. So in the instances referred to in p. 370., the baptisms are registered without distinction from others in the Registry of St. Peter's Church, Chester; but a duplicate registry as on the same day was made at Cross Lane Meeting House, which is, I believe, not in St. Peter's parish; though, I presume, the residence of the parents was in it.

D. X.

—I am not aware that the following passage has been quoted by any of the disputants in the late "Eisell" controversy. It occurs in Jewel's Controversy with Harding, pp. 651-2. of vol. ii. of the Parker Society's edition of Jewel's works.

"A Christian man removeth his household, and, having there an image of Christ, equal unto him in length, and breadth, and all proportion, by forgetfulness leaveth it there in a secret place behind him. A Jew after him inhabiteth the same house a long while, and seeth it not; another strange Jew, sitting there at dinner, immediately espieth it standing open against a [525] wall.... Afterward the priests and rulers of the Jews come together, and abuse it with all villany. They crown it with a thorn, make it drink esel and gall, and stick it to the heart with a spear. Out issueth blood in great quantity, the powers of Heaven are shaken; the sun is darkened; the moon loseth her light."

CUDYN GWYN.

—A beautiful specimen of this measure, far superior in rhythm to the attempt of Dr. Watts, appeared in the Youth's Magazine twenty-five years ago. It consisted of the Psalm "By the Waters of Babylon." I remember the last verse only.

H. E. H.

—I beg to inform COWGILL that the operation of the Mint of the Great Recoinage of 1696-7 was performed in a room at St. Andrew's Hall, in this city; but the amount there coined, or at any of the other places mentioned, I am not able to inform him. The total amount said to be recoined was 6,882,908l. 19s. 7d.

The following are the names of persons employed in the Mint at Norwich:—

Francis Gardener, Esq., Treasurer.

Thomas Moore, Gent., Warder; Thomas Allen, his clerk.

Anthony Redhead, Gent., Master Worker; Mr. Beaser, his clerk.

William Lamb, Comptroller; Mr. Samuel Oliver, his clerk.

Heneage Price, Gent., King's clerk.

Mr. Rapier, Weigher and Teller.

Henry Yaxley, Surveyor of the Meltings.

Mr. John Young, Deputy Graver.

John Seabrook, Provost, and Master of the Moneyers.

Mr. Hartstongue, Assay Master, and his servant.—His brother, Edger, and Lotterer of the Half-Crowns, Shillings, and Sixpences. It is said crowns were not struck here, and I have never seen one of this Mint.

The whole of the work was finished here, September 29, 1698.

In pulling up the floor of an old house, in Tombland, in 1847, a quantity of the silver coin minted here was discovered, which, from the appearance of the coins, were never in circulation: they were sold to Mr. Cooper, silversmith, in London Street, for about 20l. No doubt the coins were abstracted from the Mint during the process of coining.

In the Register of Burials at St. Gregory's is the following entry, A. D. 1717:

"Joseph Nobbs, Parish Clerk of St. Gregory's, aged 89, was buried Novr. 4, 1717, being the year following the last entry in his Chronology. He was then 89 years of age, and, what is somewhat remarkable, that is the age of the present Clerk of St Gregory's."

G. H. I.

P. S. Some other matters relative to this Mint are among my memoranda.

Norwich, June 16. 1851.

—Your correspondent V. is informed, that the following particulars on the subject of his Query are given in a note to the article "Voltaire," in Quérard's France Littéraire, vol. x. p. 276.:—

"Voltaire est le nom d'un petit bien de famille, qui appartenait à la mère de l'auteur de la 'Henriade,'—Marie Catherine Daumart, d'une famille noble du Poitou."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

—I must say I can see no difficulty at all about pilcher. If the r at the end makes it so strange a word, leave that out, and then you will have a word, as it seems, quite well established—pylche, toga pellice: Lye. Skinner thinks pilchard may be derived from it.

"Pilch, an outer garment generally worn in cold weather, and made of skins of fur. 'Pelicium, a pylche.' (Nominale MS.) The term is still retained in connected senses in our dialects. 'A piece of flannel, or other woollen, put under a child next the clout is, in Kent, called a pilch; a coarse shagged piece of rug laid over a saddle, for ease of a rider, is, in our midland parts, called a pilch.' (MS. Lansd. 1033.) 'Warme pilche and warme shon.' (MS. Digby, 86.) 'In our old dramatists the term is applied to a buff or leather jerkin; and Shakspeare has pilcher for the sheath of a sword." (Halliwell's Dictionary.)

"Pilche, or pilcher, a scabbard, from pylche, a skin coat, Saxon. A pilche, or leather coat, seems to have been the common dress for a carman. Coles has 'a pilch for a saddle, instratum,' which explains that it was an external covering, and probably of leather. Kersey also calls it a covering for a saddle; but he likewise gives it the sense of 'a piece of flannel to be wrapt about a young child.' It seems, therefore, to have been used for any covering." (Nares' Glossary.)

C. B.

—The following is a copy of the title-page of the work referred to by [526] Βορεας:—A Catalogue of the Coins of Canute, King of Denmark and England; with Specimens. London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols. 4to. 1777. It consists of twenty-four pages, and was compiled by Richard Gough, Esq.

J. Y.

—An interesting notice of this work occurs in the Retrospective Review, vol. xiii., pp. 181-213.; but neither in that article nor in any bibliographical or biographical dictionary is the name of the translator given.

J. Y.

—I have often heard my father say, that the first panorama exhibited was painted by Thomas Girtin, and was a semicircular view of London, from the top of the Albion Mills, near Blackfriars Bridge. It was exhibited in St. Martin's Lane, where, not many years back, I saw it, it having been found rolled up in a loft over a carpenter's shop. It was painted about 1793 or 1794, and my father has some of the original sketches.

E. N. W.

Southwark, June 2.

—If M. C. L. asks, when and why written sermons took the place of extemporaneous discourses, I believe it may be said that written sermons were first in vogue. Certainly, the inability of most men to preach "without book," would be sufficient to ensure their early introduction. According to Bingham (see Ant. of the Christian Church, book xiv. chap. 4.), Origen was the first who preached extemporaneously, and not until after he was sixty years old. The great divines of the time of the English Reformation preached both written and oral sermons: many of these, especially of the former, are included in their printed works. The same remark also applies to the early Fathers of the Church. The use of the homilies, which were drawn up for the ignorant clergy at the Reformation, at once gave a sanction to the practice of writing sermons. The story of the preacher turning over his hour-glass at Paul's Cross, and starting afresh, must of course refer to an unwritten discourse. Sermons, being explications of scripture, used to follow the reading of the psalms and lessons: now, for the same reason, they come after the epistle and gospel. In olden time, the bishop was the only preacher, going from church to church, as now-a-days[2], with the same sermon or charge; and he addressed the people from the altar steps: afterwards the priest, as his deputy, preached in the pulpit, but the deacons were not allowed to preach at all.

[2] One of the highest dignitaries in our Church recently declined to print a sermon, as requested; because, he frankly said, he should want to preach it again.

ALFRED GATTY.

—The little work, so justly popular in England, under the title of Bogatsky's Golden Treasury, is by no means a literal translation of the original; but was almost entirely re-written by Venn, the author of the Complete Duty of Man. This I state on good authority, as I believe; but I have never seen the original.

R. D. H.

Under the title of a Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy: First Course—Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound, Optics, Dr. Lardner has just issued a small closely printed volume with the object of supplying that "information relating to physical and mechanical science, which is required by the medical and law student, the engineer and artisan, by those who are preparing for the universities, and, in short, by those who, having already entered upon the active pursuits of business, are still desirous to sustain and improve their knowledge of the general truths of physics, and of those laws by which the order and stability of the material world are maintained." The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four hundred woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the object in question; and will, we have no doubt, obtain, as it deserves, a very extensive circulation among the various classes of readers for whose use it has been composed; and, in short, among all readers who desire to obtain a knowledge of the elements of physics without pursuing them through their mathematical consequences and details. The illustrations are generally of a popular character, and therefore the better calculated to impress upon the mind of the student the principles they are intended to explain.

The new volume of Mr. Bohn's Standard Library consists of the third of Mr. Torrey's translation of Dr. Neander's General History of the Christian Religion and Church. The period included in the present division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical history extends from the end of the Diocletian persecution to the time of Gregory the Great, or from the year 312 to 590. A translation of The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid, with copious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last addition made by Mr. Bohn to his Classical Library. Though these translations furnish very imperfect pictures of the manner and style of the original writers, they supply the mere English reader with a good general notion of their matter, especially when they are as copiously annotated as the work before us.

We are informed that, in consequence of the great care and delicacy which is found to be required in the presswork of the Lansdowne Shakspeare, a beautiful volume, unique as a specimen of the art of typography, the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a few weeks.

Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will commence, on Wednesday next, a seven days' sale of the valuable Library of the date Rev. Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illustrated [527] with engravings.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—Illustrations of Mediæval Costume in England, &c., by C. A. Day and J. H. Dines: Part IV., illustrating what the editors call the "mediæval foppery" of Richard II. and his court.—The Traveller's Library, No. IV., Sir Roger de Coverley, by "The Spectator," with Notes and Illustrations, by W. Henry Wills. A delightful shilling's worth, well calculated to make the traveller a wiser and better man.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

We this week conclude our Third Volume, and regret that want of space has compelled us to omit from the present Number the Rev. Dr. Todd's Letter on the Edition of Ussher's Works; C. on "The Lord Mayor of London not a Privy Councillor;" and many other communications of great interest; and we have to trust to the kindness of our Correspondents for omitting our usual acknowledgment of REPLIES RECEIVED.

THE INDEX TO VOLUME THE THIRD is ready for Press. It will be issued on Saturday the 12th, if not ready by next Saturday.

The commencement of a New Volume on Saturday next affords a favourable opportunity to gentlemen resident in the country to commence the work. The Subscription for the Stamped Edition of "NOTES AND QUERIES " is ten shillings for six months, which may be paid by Post-Office Order, drawn in favour of our Publisher, MR. GEORGE BELL, No. 186. Fleet Street.

CIRCULATION OF OUR PROSPECTUSES BY CORRESPONDENTS. The suggestion of T. E. H., that by way of hastening the period when we shall be justified in permanently enlarging our Paper to 24 pages, we should forward copies of our Prospectus to correspondents who would kindly enclose them to such friends as they think likely, from their love of literature, to become subscribers to "NOTES AND QUERIES ," has already been acted upon by several friendly correspondents, to whom we are greatly indebted. We shall be most happy to forward Prospectuses for this purpose to any other of our friends able and willing thus to assist towards increasing our circulation.

VOLS. I. and II., each with very copious Index, may still be had, price 9s. 6d. each.

NOTES AND QUERIES may be procured, by order, of all Booksellers and Newsvenders. It is published at noon on Friday, so that our country subscribers ought not to experience any difficulty in procuring it regularly. Many of the country Booksellers, &c., are, probably, not yet aware of this arrangement, which will enable them to receive NOTES AND QUERIES in their Saturday parcels.

All communications for the Editor of NOTES AND QUERIES should be addressed to the care of MR. BELL, No. 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, June 28, 1851.