Vol. 4—No. 91. NOTES AND QUESTIONS: A way to communicate FOR Writers, artists, historians, genealogists, etc.

VOL. IV.—No. 91.

SATURDAY, JULY 26. 1851.

Price Sixpence. Stamped Edition, 7d.

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

If the following "Notes" do not demand too much of your valuable space, they may possibly interest the philological reader, and elicit a number of learned illustrations. They are drawn from a MS. belonging to this University (Dd. I. 1.), of which the main part is a course of metrical sermons upon the Gospels throughout the year. The author of most, if not all, of the pieces, was the famous solitary, Richard Rolle, of Hampole, near Doncaster, who died in 1348.

1. The first sample I shall give is a curious illustration of the way in which the preachers of that age were wont to represent the harshness of the great in their dealings with the poor:

2. The word keling (cod-fish) occurs again in the following passage, where the subject of the preacher is the Incarnation of our Lord:

[50] 3. At p. 352. a rebuke is administered to the gourmet in the following terms:

4. The following passage is curious in more respects than one:

5. At p. 372. we have an interesting picture of a nun persecuted by the rest of the sisterhood on account of her stricter living:

6. I will add, in conclusion, a sample from one of the prose treatises contained in the same volume (p. 464.):

"Oþere spices þer ben of pride whiche men & women ben founden inne, & it encresiþ fro day to day, of dyuers atire about þe bodi: as ofte streyte clothes & schorte daggid hodis, chaunsemlees (i.e. shoes) disgised & teyde op strayt in v. or vi. stedis: women with schorte clothis unneþe to þe hipes, booses & lokettes about þe heed, & vile stynkend hornes longe & brode, & oþer dyuers atire, þt I can nought witen ne discryen of surche þinges. Eueri man & woman be his owne juge & loke weel if it be nought þus."

C. H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

The commencement of a new volume appears to be the signal for new suggestions. May I fire one off as well as others?

In p. 282. of the Third, and in p. 19 of your present volume, you have printed two MSS. relating to Cromwell, which I sent you. No doubt there are many MSS. equally, or indeed more curious and interesting, scattered throughout the country, which would be worthy of preservation in type in your valuable columns, and which may possibly be so preserved. But what shall become of the originals? Would not the possessors of twos or threes of such documents be glad to place them in a safe and useful repository, where they might be preserved and be made available to all who take an interest in our history, whether social or political? And how could this be better effected than by opening a book for their reception and safe custody at your office; such book to be open to the inspection of all applicants, under proper regulations; and, when full, to be deposited in the British Museum as Vol. I. of the "NOTES AND QUERIES MSS.?"

With regard to the two which you have thought worth printing, I would by far prefer such a mode of disposing of them, to consigning them, as trifles, to what might prove the bottomless pit of the Museum, or to returning them to the snug dormitory in which I found them, between the leaves of Bishop Kennett's History of England.

Should this hint find favour in the eyes of yourself and your learned correspondents, not only are these at your service, but I might find another or two to add to them. I think, however, that none should be admitted into the collection but such as were considered worthy of being also preserved in print in "NOTES AND QUERIES."

S. H. H.

St. John's Wood.

[51][It can scarcely be necessary for us to add that we shall be very glad to do our part towards carrying out the very sensible and practical suggestion of our Correspondent. We shall indeed be glad to show the sense we entertain of the obligations which we, in common with all lovers of literature in this country, owe to the British Museum, by aiding in this or any other well connected scheme for enriching that storehouse of learning, and increasing, if possible, its present usefulness.]

I have before me a sheet of vellum, part of old tale or tales in verse, which has been used as the cover of a manuscript book. I conceive it to be about the time of Henry VI. Can any of your correspondents, from the following extracts, give me any information as to the author, or the work of which it is a part? There would appear to be parts of two tales, at least.

G. H. D.

[1] Proverb.

[The first of these fragments is obviously a portion of a religious tale (similar to the French Contes Dévots, from one of which it is probably borrowed).

The second is a portion of the Legend of St. Eustace, otherwise named Placidas, which occurs in an earlier metrical English form among the Collections of Lives of Saints in MS. Laud. 108. art. 59.; MS. Digby 86.; MS. Bodl. 779. art. 64.; MS. Vernon, fol. 170; MS. Ashm. 43. art. 73.; and MS. Cott. Cal. A. II. It occurs as prose in the Golden Legend.]

—Seeing some Queries and Replies on this subject, I am induced to send you a few extracts from an old book in my possession (marked "very scarce"), published in 1661. Its title is Panzoologicomineralogia, or a Compleat History of Animals and Minerals. By Richard Lovell, St. C. C. Oxon. It treats chiefly of the medicinal uses of the various objects. I am tempted to tell you the use of a "unicorne," but confine myself to the mouse.

"The flesh eaten causeth oblivion, and corrupteth the meat; yet those of Chalecut eat them; it is hot, soft, and fattish, and expelleth melancholy.... A mouse dissected and applied, draweth out reeds, darts, and other things that stick in the flesh.... Mice bruised, and reduced to the consistence of an acopon (what's that?), with old wine, cause hair on the eyebrows.... Being eaten by children when rosted, they dry up the spittle. The magicians eat them twice a month against the paines of the teeth. The water in which they have been boiled helps against the quinsey. Being boiled and eaten, they help children's pissing in bed. The fresh blood kills warts. The ashes of the skinne, applied with vinegar, help the paines of the head. The head worn in a cloth, helps the headach and epilepsy. The braine being steeped in wine, and applied to the forehead, helpeth the headach. Used with water, it cureth the phrensy. The heart, taken out of a mouse WHEN ALIVE, worne about the arme of a woman, causeth no conception. The fillet of the liver, drunk with austere wine, helpeth quartans. The liver, rosted in the new of the moon, trieth the epilepsy. The [53] dung, is corrosive. Given in any liquor, it helpeth the collicke. It looseneth the body; therefore some nurses use it for children in suppositories(?). It helpeth hollow teeth, being put therein."

There is more of the sort, to the extent of 2-¾ closely printed pages. It should be added that the author quotes authorities, old and new, for the several facts he adduces. Pliny is a great authority with him, and Galen is often cited.

J. K.

—In the parish of Hinton-Blewett, North Somersetshire, or immediately adjoining it, in the direction of West Harptree, there is a wooded gorge in the hill-side, through which runs a small stream, and which is called "Haydon's Gully." I have lately heard the following tradition respecting it; viz. that a gentleman named Colonel Haydon, who was accused of high treason, used to spend his nights under his brother's roof, somewhere in the neighbourhood, and every morning came and backed his horse into a hole in the bank, where he spent the day in order to evade his pursuers. You will perhaps agree with me, that this story, which, if it has any truth in it, probably refers to Monmouth's days, is worth inquiring into.

ARTHUR WRIGHT.

—The following charms are repeated by children throughout Yorkshire and Lancashire, and, I doubt not, in other parts of the kingdom also. They may be classed with the "Snail Charms" (Vol. iii., pp. 132. 179.):

I remember, as a child, sitting out of doors on an evening of a warm summer or autumn day, and repeating the crow charm to flights of rooks, as they winked home to their rookery. The charm was chaunted so long as a crow remained in sight, the final disappearance of them being to my mind proof "strong as Holy Writ" of the efficacy of the charm.

The lady-bird charm is repeated to the insect (the Coccinella septempunctata of Linnæus)—the common seven-spotted lady-bird—to be found in every field and garden during summer.

The lady-bird is placed upon the child's open hand, and the charm is repeated until the insect takes to flight. The warmth and moisture of the hand no doubt facilitate this, although the child believes fully in the moving power of the charm.

N.B. The lady-bird is also known as lady-cow, cow-lady, and is sometimes addressed as cusha-cow-lady.

ROBERT RAWLINSON.

—Several appear to exist in schools from generation to generation: do they exist anywhere else? and whence their origin? For instance "a boy who could not span his own wrist was a bastard;" "if you said the Lords Prayer backwards, the devil would come up," &c.

A. C.

—I recently observed a large stone, having a natural hole through it, suspended inside a Suffolk farmer's cow-house. Upon inquiry of a labourer, I was informed this was intended as a preventive of nightmare in the cattle. My informant (who evidently placed great faith in its efficacy) added that a similar stone suspended in a bed-room, or a knife or steel laid under the foot of the bed, was of equal service to the sleeper, and that he had himself frequently made use of this charm.

Is this practice common, and in what does it originate?

J. B. C.

1. Cure for Fits.—A similar superstition on this subject to the one mentioned by D. (Vol. i, p. 11.) is prevalent in this vicinity. Nine or eleven young men or maidens (an odd number is indispensable) contribute each a silver coin for the manufacture of the ring. A friend of the sufferer gives out that he is making a collection for the purpose, and calls on the parties expected to contribute, and the coins must be given unasked, to ensure its efficacy. A watchmaker in my parish tells me that he has made ten or a dozen such rings within as many years, and that he has full faith in their curative properties.

2. Cure for Ague.—Being afflicted two years since with a severe tertian ague, I was solicited, after the usual medical treatment had failed, by a lady to take as much of the snuff of a candle as would lie on a sixpence, made into an electuary with honey. I complied and, strange to say, a complete cure was effected. Whether the nausea consequent on such an unpleasant remedy had any effect on the spasmodic nature of the malady, I cannot say; but the fact is certain, and it is esteemed a sovereign specific by the Norfolk rustics.

E. S. TAYLOR.

Martham, Norfolk.

—In a large village in Dorsetshire, not far from the county town, an intelligent man went recently into the house of a somewhat respectable woman who keeps a general shop in the village, and who is the mother of a numerous family and seeing her with a large family Bible open before her, and several of her children collected around, while she was cutting and paring their finger nails, and so holding their hands as that their cuttings might drop on the leaves of the Bible, he asked her why [54] she did this. Suspecting, by her manner, that she had some object in view, judge of his surprise, when she replied—"I always, when I cut the nails of my children, let the cuttings fall on the open Bible, that they may grow up to be honest. They will never steal, if the nails are cut over the Bible!!" Do we not yet require the educator to be abroad?

T. WE.

—I cannot help following DR. KENNEDY'S example, and calling attention to another word in our language which is now-a-days, on many occasions, used very erroneously; I allude to the word repudiation, or rather the verb repudiate.

How frequently does one hear at public meetings such phrases as these: "I utterly repudiate the idea," "I repudiate the sentiment," "I repudiate the insinuation." A page might be filled with phrases of this description occurring in reported speeches of recent date. The word, in fact, is made by public speakers of "unadorned eloquence" and newspaper writers, to do duty for such words as to refuse, repel, reject, abandon, disown, cast off.

Now, Sir, I humbly conceive that repudiation means simply a dissolving of the marriage contract, hence of any contract or obligation and I believe I may say with safety, that in no standard classical author, ancient or modern, is the term repudiation, or the verb, repudiate, used, except in connexion with some obligation expressed, or in figurative allusion to such obligation. The term, when applied to the "drab-coloured men of Pennsylvania," is undoubtedly proper; they have indeed repudiated their debt, and perhaps brought the word and the thing into vogue; but to use such a phrase as "I repudiate the notion," is, I submit, surely to talk nonsense.

H. C. K.

—— Rectory, Hereford.

—E. N. W. must have made some mistake in his recollection. Girton was a painter, and may have worked at the Panorama of London; but the "first Panorama" was by Mr. Robert Barker. The sketches were made by his son, Henry Aston Barker, when only a lad aged fifteen. They were taken from the top of the Albion Mills: they were also etched by H. A. Barker at the same age, and aqua-tinted by Birnie, and published in six sheets, 22 by 17, a set of which I possess, with a note of their history, as herein communicated, written in dorso, long ago, from Mr. B.'s own lips.

H. T. E.

E. N. W. is correct in saying, that a semicircular view of London from the top of the Albion Mills, near Blackfriar's bridge, preceded Barker's panoramas. It must have been painted about the year 1793. I saw it at the end of that year, or at the very beginning of 1794. But it was not exhibited in St. Martin's Lane, but in Castle Street, in a rough building—not, I believe, erected for the purpose—at the back of a small house on the eastern side of that street. Perhaps some other of your octogenarian readers may recollect its being there, as well as myself. The scene on the Thames was the water-procession on Lord Mayor's day.

W. D.

—MR. THOMS suggests a very interesting parallel between a line in Chaucer, and Gray's "Even in our ashes", &c. Gray himself refers to Petrarch as his original, and the thought occurs in Shakspeare:

And Malone, in a note on the passage (Supplement to Shakspeare, 1780, vol. i. p. 640), adduces the passage in Chaucer quoted by MR. THOMS as an illustration. Steevens has mentioned the following passage in Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia "In ashes of despair, though burnt, shall make thee live." Compare, also, Antony and Cleopatra, Act V. Sc. 2.

J. O. H.

To the verse,

Gray has himself appended a note, indicating that it was suggested by Petrarch, sonnet 169.; and "I will take the poet's word for a thousand pounds." It was originally written—

which has but little to do with Chaucer.

VARRO.

—There is a strange inclination to attribute similarity of sentiment to plagiarism; as if it were almost impossible for two men of genius to hit upon the same notions, independently of each other. In Propertius (II. i. 3, 4.) we find—

In Burns we read—

Had Burns been much of a Latin scholar, he would probably have been accused of stealing from Propertius.

VARRO.

—The writings of Shakspeare would appear from the following fact to be read with as much avidity and delight in Sweden as in his native country. A translation of his plays by Hagberg, Professor of Greek in the [55]

University of Lund, is now in course of publication. Of this, twelve volumes have appeared; and although the first edition consisted of no less than two thousand copies, the whole have been sold off, and a second edition is in preparation. Professor Hagberg's translation is most favourably spoken of by those who are qualified to judge of its merits.

W. J. T.

Through the medium of "NOTES AND QUERIES" I would be permitted to invite attention to a peculiar pronunciation that has extensively prevailed, though unnoticed I believe in print, of many words wherein the letter v occurs between two vowels.

While resident in the country, when a boy, I was struck with the singular manner in which the names of certain places, having a v so circumstanced, were pronounced, for the v was wholly silent, and occasionally the latter vowel also; but as this was chiefly among uneducated people, I was led to regard it as a provincialism. However, as I became further acquainted with the names of places, I did not fail to observe, that it was by no means limited to any particular part of England. Thus, for example, the provincial pronunciation of Cavendish (Suffolk) is Ca'endish; of Daventry, Da'entry; of Staverton and Coverley (Warwickshire), Sta'erton and Co'erly; of Evesham, E'esham; of Davenham (Cheshire), Da'enham; of Lavington (Lincolnshire), La'enton or Lenton; of Avebury (Wilts), Abury; of Lavenham and Cavenham (Suffolk), Lanham and Canham; of Overton (Leicestershire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland), Orton; and the Principality gives us Aberga'enny for Abergavenny. Ivilchester has become Ilchester, and Tovecester (now written Towcester) is pronounced To'ecester; while Hoveden (Yorkshire) is called Ho'eden, or Howden, as it is now commonly spelt. Similar examples might be multiplied. Sometimes a succeeding consonant has undergone a change, as Pe'emsey for Pevensey, and Rochester for Rovecester or Rofecester. Numerous as the instances are, there has been some apparent caprice in the matter, not easily explained. For though, as we have seen, Staverton and Coverley in Warwickshire, and Daventry on the borders of that county, undergo this change, yet, as far as I can learn, Coventry was ever free from it; and in the like manner Twiverton in Devonshire is called Twerton, yet I believe Tiverton was never Terton. There may have been something in the original forms or meanings of Coventry, Tiverton, and the like, that occasioned the v to be retained.

Many examples of the omission of this letter might be adduced from surnames, did space permit; indeed, several of those given above are surnames, as well as names of places; and some readers may recollect the change noticed in Selden's Titles of Honour, of Roger Wendover into Roger of Windsor, the first step having been to write Roger of Windore.

Nor is the practice confined to names. All are familiar with such contractions as e'er, ne'er, o'er, e'en, and se'nnight. We have also ill for evil, and the Scotch have de'il for devil, and e'ening for evening. In like manner have we derived lord from the old English loverd or louerd; lark from laverock (Anglo-Saxon lauerc); hawk from the Anglo-Saxon hafoc or hauoc; and head from the Anglo-Saxon heafod or heauod; for the f or u in Anglo-Saxon, when representing our v, became subject to this elision. Time was, too, when shovel was pronounced sho'el, and rhymed with owl; as is exemplified in the nursery lay of the death and burial of poor Cock Robin.

Without now attempting to account for this usage of speech, which seems to imply the prevalence of a former pronunciation of v very different from the present, I will briefly notice that the like elision is of frequent occurrence in Latin, chiefly in the perfect tenses and their derivatives, as amârunt for amaverunt, and audîsset for audivisset; occasionally, too, in nouns, as labrum for lavabrum; and also in the compounds of versus, as retro'rsum. It is found, I may add, in a few French words derived from the Latin, as oncle from avunculus, and cité from civitas. In the several languages above mentioned the v between two vowels is also found passing into w or u, especially after a or o, the second vowel being in such cases dropped, thus indicating the connexion that existed between v and u, which letters we know were in times past written indifferently for each other. The discussion, however, of this connexion is beside my present purpose.

The Latin contractions that I have adverted to are well known, and often noticed; and it is remarkable that the manner in which this treatment of the v has affected the pronunciation and orthography of our own language, should have almost escaped observation. An acquaintance with it has been found of service when consulting ancient writings and the published records; for those who would use such sources of information with advantage, should be prepared not only to recognise, but also to anticipate, the various changes which names of persons and places have undergone.

W. S. W*****D.

A few weeks since some manuscripts were placed in my hands belonging to the Hon. E. M. L. Mostyn, M. P. (removed from the library at [56] Mostyn Hall in Flintshire), in order that I might ascertain the contents; and on looking at them, I discovered a play in the autograph of Anthony Mundy, with his signature at the end, and the date (supplied by another hand) of December, 1595. This play, entitled "A Booke of John a Kent and John a Cumber," seems to have been hitherto unknown to all the writers on the history of the stage; and its plot and dialogue appearing to me sufficiently curious to deserve publication, I lost no time in communicating my discovery to Mr. J. Payne Collier, under whose able editorship I am happy to learn that the work (by permission of Mr. Mostyn) will shortly be printed by the Shakspeare Club. The object I now have in view in making these remarks, is to point out an error relative to MUNDY (as he spells his own name) which, if not corrected, may acquire greater circulation than it possesses even at present. In Warton's History of English Poetry, 4to. vol. iii. p. 292. n. (printed in 1781), at the close of his biographical account of Mundy, he makes the following statement: "He [Mundy] collected the arms of the county of Middlesex, lately transferred from Sir Simeon Stuart's library to the British Museum;" and this paragraph is copied word for word by Chalmers (writing in 1812), and inserted in his Biographical Dictionary under the article MUNDAY (ANTONY). As no record exists in my department of any such transfer, I was desirous to trace the truth of this assertion, which the date of Chalmers could hardly have enabled me to do, had I not fortunately consulted Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. viii. p. 645., where I found a letter from the Rev. Michael Tyson to Gough, dated June 10, 1777, in which he mentions the manuscripts then recently sold at the seat of Sir Simeon Stuart, in Hampshire, and adds—

"A bookseller opposite the Exchange bought an heraldical lot of eighteen volumes, big and little, for which he asks twenty guineas: among them is Hawes's [read Harvey's] original Suffolk Church Notes, and a beautiful Visitation of Cambridge."

With this clue I had little difficulty in ascertaining that the eighteen volumes alluded to were preserved among the Additional Manuscripts in the British Museum, Nos. 4960-4977., and were probably purchased of the bookseller named above. I can trace no copy of the sale catalogue of Sir Simeon Stuart's library; but this library must have belonged to the third baronet of that name, of Hartley-Maudit, co. Hants, who succeeded to the title in 1761. The manuscripts in question all belonged in the reign of Charles II. to Samuel Waker, painter-stainer, in whose handwriting many of them are, among which is No. 4964, thus entitled: "Collections of Descents and Armes of the Gentry of Middlesex, whereof was noe visitation generall of the same County, before that made by Sir Henry St. George, Richmond Herald [in 1634], except 7 descents of these are entered in the old visitation of Hertfordshire made in ao 1572; all the rest are the collections of mee, RICH. MUNDY." It is evident that this is the volume referred to by Warton and Chalmers; and no less certain, that, by a careless blunder, the playwright Anthony Mundy has been confounded with his namesake Richard Mundy, the painter-stainer, whose voluminous heraldic labours are recorded in the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS., Nos. 1529-1534., 1536-1566., 1570. 1571. and 1577. The Add. MS. 4964. is, in reality, only an incomplete copy by Waker of Mundy's original manuscript, preserved in MS. Harl. 1551.

I beg leave to annex the three following Queries.

1. Did any relationship exist between Anthony and Richard Mundy?

2. What is the name of the bookseller who lived "opposite the Exchange" in 1777?

3. Can any copy of the sale catalogue of Sir Simeon Stuart's library be referred to in existence?

F. MADDEN.

—In "Marcel de Serres' Journey in Bavaria and the Tyrol" (printed in Arliss's Pocket Mag. 1825), in describing the statues ranged round the mausoleum of the Emperor Mathias in the Franciscan churn at Innspruck, he says:

"Amidst the Princesses, Margaret Maultasch may easily be discovered by the hideous conformation of her mouth, and her eyes which glow with sensual desires. The singular arms which may be seen over the gates of Halle, but too plainly betoken the shameful and licentious character of this insatiable female."

Where can I read the life of this "hideous" personage? And what are the arms alluded to? She was Duchess of Tyrol, and her portrait is in the Chateau d'Eu; but I have never seen an engraving.

G. CREED.

—What is the test of the strength of a bow?

Does the distance the bow throws the arrow increase in ratio to its strength?

What was the length of the bows used in the good old times? Were the bows then made of more than one piece? Is there any advantage in having bow of more than two pieces?

What wood were the arrows made of?

TOXOPHILUS.

—I have a copper coin in my cabinet (halfpenny size) which I shall be glad to have explained.

The obverse has a bust laureate in profile to the left, with the letter "P." close to the nose. The bust appears to be of some popular Irish leader in 1760, as it is not like either to George II.'s or [57] George III.'s busts; and the legend "Voce Populi."

Reverse: The figure of Hibernia seated, with an olive branch in her right hand, and a spear in her left; also a harp at her side. Legend: "Hibernia." Exergue, "1760."

J. N. C.

—May I beg sufficient space in your journal to inquire for the exact etymology of the terms "Whig" and "Tory?" We all know the exact time when these first came into use. We all understand precisely the meaning of the terms "Conservative," "Liberal," "Radical," "Peelite," "Protectionist," all of which, with the exception of Peelite, are equally applicable to things not political; but Whig and Tory can only be used in this one sense. From whence then their derivation?

A CLERK OF THE HOUSE.

—In the church of Notre Dame de Brou, near the town of Bourg, in the department de l'Ain, the following inscription is engraved on the tomb of Marguerite d'Autriche, the wife of Philibert le Beau, Prince of Savoy:—

In this epitaph, the first two words are intelligible enough, and allude to certain reverses of fortune which had chequered the life of the princess; but the expression fort une reads somewhat enigmatical, and I shall be obliged to any of your readers who can give the meaning of it.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

—Antiquaries and topographers generally (Stukeley and Sir R.C. Hoare included) have been hitherto content to consider this word as a compound of stan and henge, Anglo-Saxon;—that is, "hanging stone." Now this etymology of the word has always appeared to me very unsatisfactory. The cross stones do not hang; they lie on the uprights, and are kept in their places by mortice holes. An ingenious friend of mine has, by what I consider a happy train of reasoning, arrived at another and a better conclusion. Every one knows that our German ancestors used the word horse adjectively. And we still have it so in use to designate many things as the largest of their kind; as horse-chestnut, horse-daisey, horse-mushroom, horse-emmet, &c. &c. Horsa and hengst or hengist, are convertible terms or if any difference, the latter word is used for stallion. If so, then, is it not reasonable to suppose that the stones of this Druid temple would provoke the largest idea of magnitude, and thence be called Stone-Hengst, or more euphoniously, Stone-henge,—stallion stones?

P. P.

—I should feel obliged to any of your correspondents who would supply me with an example from early Church history of a bishop or priest marrying after ordination.

Deacons were expressly allowed to marry by the Council of Ancyra; but I should wish an example of either of the others.

Marriage after priestly ordination is now forbidden by the Greek church, and since the Council of Trullo bishops must be celibate or continent.

Second Query—What evidence is there that bishops in early times, if already married, were obliged to put away their wives? It is said that St. Gregory Nazianzen's father had children after he was raised to the episcopate. Can this be proved, and are there other instances?

From the silence of early Church writers as to any difference between the clergy and laity on this point, I am much inclined to believe that the Roman requirement of celibacy was then confined to the bishopric of Rome itself, and the immediately adjoining country.

St. Paul, in 1 Cor. ix.5., says:

"Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as the other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?"

implying that he had power to marry even then; and our Saviour speaks of continence as a gift given only to certain persons. (St. Matthew, chap. xix. ver. 11, 12.)

A. B. C.

Edinburgh, July 10. 1851.

—What is the meaning, and whence the origin of the sectional sign ¶, so much used in the Bible, and also at the head of the rubrical instructions in the Book of Common Prayer?

P. P.

—I should like to know if the following name is that of a well-known publisher; and whether the book, from which I take the name, is known? also, whether it is very rare, and of literary value? "Gedruckt zu Frankfurt am Main durch David Zöpffeln zum Eisern Huth, 1559."

I find this at the end of a curious German translation of Virgil into verse—short and easy flowing.

There is a summary in verse, and a quaint engraving to every book. Bound in wood and leather. It has many odd peculiarities too long to mention.

In the Preface, this is said to be the second edition, that the first was published "many years ago, by a learned man." It must have been published about the same time as Bishop Gawain (or Gawin) Douglas's, and is something like it.

R. S. T.

—In Diplock's New Guide to Hastings, St. Leonard, and the Neighbourhood, which, unfortunately, like most other works of this class, is worse than useless to the architectural visitor, it is stated that the old church at [58] Fairlight, which was taken down not very long since, "was a small but ancient structure, apparently of the early part of the thirteenth century: it consisted of a chancel, nave, and square tower, and was built of brick."

Can any of your readers inform a visitor here whether this is a correct description?

ARUN.

St. Leonard's on Sea.

—I shall be extremely obliged by any account as to the succession of the disputed Leman Baronetcy or estates. Sir William Leman, of Northaw (or Northall), Herts, was, I believe, the last of that designation, and up to the present time doubts exist as to the heir male or other descendants, although great property and possessions are in abeyance or at stake.

H. M.

—Can any of your correspondents inform me to what family the following arms belonged: Sa. a lion ramp. or, betw. three fleur-de-lys ermine. Crest, a sea-horse. Motto, "Fortior vi virtus."

The above arms are painted on the portrait of a gentleman wearing a ruff, temp. James I., in the possession of my family, and I am anxious to ascertain who it represents.

F. J. B.

Winchester.

—In the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1840, I find the following notice:

"Thomas Stephens Davies, Esq., Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, Professor of Mathematics in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and Author of the History of Magnetical Discovery, &c. &c."

Being interested in all that concerns the late Mr. Davies, I shall feel much obliged to any one who will state where I can find the History here alluded to. I may add that I am acquainted with his papers on "Terrestrial Magnetism," published in the London Philosophical Transactions for 1835-6; but since they do not much partake of the character of "History," they can scarcely be the papers intended.

T. T. W.

Burley, Lancashire.

—Can any of your correspondents inform me what became of the MSS. of the late Mr. George Chalmers?

On the titles of many of the older poets and dramatists of Scotland I have met with his notes referring evidently to some MS. list of the lives of such writers in his possession. My inquiry has reference, therefore, more particularly to the MS. in question, which has not, I think, been published.

J. O.

"Some," says Meric Casaubon, "have been deceived in the hour [of an eclipse], as in the eclipse that happened April 3, 1605; about which some very able artists are noted to have mistaken; and the reason is given by astronomers how such a mistake might happen."

Such is my "Note;" but I cannot just now give the reference. I will answer for its accuracy. Can any one give some account of that eclipse, and state the reasons alleged why "such a mistake might happen?"

VARRO.

—In visiting Chantrey's studio some years since, in company with a sculptor still living, we received from Mr. Allan Cunningham a similar account to that which MR. PETER CUNNINGHAM has given, that is to say, that the design was Stodhart's, of which, indeed, it bore too certain evidence.

Chantrey was engaged at that time upon a colossal equestrian figure of Sir Thomas Picton, destined, I believe, for India. On that visit I was singularly impressed with the gracefulness and beauty of the statue of a female figure with three children; one was at her breast, and in the curled head of another at her feet was the mother's hand enfolded. On the pedestal of the statue was this inscription:

I learnt from Mr. Cunningham that this was the statue of Mrs. Jordan, and was executed for William IV., and that there was some difficulty respecting its place of reception. What is become of this noble work of art? The little boy amongst whose curls the mother's hand played, was the late Earl of Munster.

JAMES CORNISH.

Falmouth.

—Can any of your readers refer me to the following passage?—

D. Q.

—I am desirous of obtaining information respecting Sir Edmund Ployden or Plowden, who (according to a tract published at Middleburg in Holland, in 1648, by a writer signing himself "Beauchamp Plantagenet") received a grant of land from the crown of England, covering portions of the present states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York. Of this province, which was called New Albion, the grantee was "Lord Proprietor," "Earl Palatine," "Governor," and "Captain General." Your assistance I venture to ask, as this is a matter of historical interest here.

A TRANSATLANTIC READER.

Philadelphia, July, 1851.

—As you have, I hope, very largely increased the number of readers and contributors [59] since I asked the question above referred to, and as it has as yet received no answer, I hope you will allow me to repeat it, in the hope that some of your new correspondents may be able to tell me what satirical "Imitation of Horace" can have been, so early as 1716, attributed to Pope?

I would also, on the same grounds, beg leave to repeat another question, formerly proposed by P. C. S. S. and by myself (Vol. i, pp. 201. 246.): What is the precise meaning of the last couplet of these lines of Pope:

That Pope had a precise meaning cannot be doubted; but I have never heard a reasonable guess at what it might be.

C.

—Among the Parker MSS. in Corpus Library at Cambridge is a patent of Queen Elizabeth to John Bodeleigh to print the English Bible for seven years.

In the list of translators of the Bible in 1611, as given in the Introduction to Jameson's Glossary of the Holy Scriptures, appears the name "Burleigh, M.A.," but without any biographical notice, as in the other instances.

In Burn's Livre des Anglois à Génève, it is stated that John Bodleigh, the father of the celebrated Sir Thomas Bodley, was one of the translators of the Bible.

Can any of your readers throw light on the history of either of these men, or kindly point to any sources of information respecting them?

S. S. S.

—Can your readers give me any particulars of Dr. Thomas Johnson, the editor of Gerarde's Herbal? I do not require such information as I can obtain concerning him in Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, or Pulteney's Sketches of Botany; but I especially wish for some information relative to his place of burial, and whether there is any monumental or other record of its whereabout. He died from a wound he received during a sortie from Basing House on the 14th of September, 1644.

GAMMA.

—Can you inform me in what collection of glees I shall find an old one, the burden or chorus of which is—

I think the first line is—

AN M. D.

—Can any of your correspondents tell me why the termination aster is used in a depreciatory sense in Latin, as poetaster, a bad poet; oleaster, the wild olive; pinaster, the wild pine? With regard to this latter substantive, I have seen the mistake made in a descriptive catalogue of the pine species, of calling this the star pine; but I have no doubt that it was named pinaster, as inferior to the stone pine, or Pinus pinea, which embellishes the Italian gardens, while the pinaster flourishes on the mountains and the sea-coast.

Probably other examples may be found where the terminal aster is used in a similar sense.

A BORDERER.

—Can any of your correspondents or readers inform me where any undoubted original portrait of John Dryden is to be found? Malone, Dryden's biographer, enumerates seven or eight portraits, and he states where they were in 1800. I am aware that two are in the Bodleian Gallery at Oxford, the one stated by Malone "painter unknown;" and the other alleged to be by Kneller; but I do not consider the latter to be an original. I wish more particularly to know who has a half-length original portrait. Dryden was painted by Kneller, Closterman, and Riley.

BEVILLE.

—On the retreat of the Highland army from England in 1746, Prince Charles Edward and his staff passed through Dumfries, and slept in a house now known as the Commercial Inn.

After their departure there was found a light claymore, apparently the property of an officer; and as it was never claimed, it remained in the house for some years, and ultimately came into my possession. It is formed of the finest tempered steel, and bears the following very curious inscription on one side,

and on the other,

Some of your learned correspondents will oblige by giving a translation, and a reason for such an inscription on a Scottish sword.

T. M. W.

Liverpool.

At page 371. of Vol. iii. I addressed a Query as to the best mode of reaching Iceland. I have since ascertained that the principal communication with Iceland is from Copenhagen; whence during the season sail a monthly packet, sundry trading-vessels, and sometimes a Danish frigate. Danish vessels also call at Hull and Liverpool to load with salt for Iceland. The Norwegian trade thither has ceased since 1814, and it has now scarcely any intercourse except with Denmark. [60] A few dirty smacks of fifty or sixty tons, from the Thames and another place or two, resort there to fish, they do not go into port. There is no further mode of reaching that interesting and remarkable island, except per yacht, or by one of the steam-excursions which are occasionally advertised in The Times. The Danish steamers mentioned in Murray's Guide-book have discontinued running.

Murray gives but little respecting, Iceland, but that little is good. The best book on it that I have met with is, An Historical and Descriptive Account of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faröe Islands, with Illustrations of their Natural History, by James Nicol: Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 1844. It embodies the substance of all the best information in small space. The last published English visit to Iceland seems to be that of Barrow in 1835 but a much more recent account has been published in German by that enterprising lady Ida Pfeiffer, of a voyage she made there. An interesting statement of the diseases and sanatory condition of Iceland is found in the British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review for 1850, vol v., being a notice of a work entitled, Island undersögt fra lægevidenskabeligt Synspunct, by Dr. Schleisner, Fellow of the Royal Medical Society of Copenhagen, who went to Iceland purposely to examine into its medical condition.

Of works on Norway, Murray's Hand-book is the best, and contains a list of books on Scandinavia published up to 1848. Besides these, there are the following:—

1. Scandinavian Sketches; or, a Tour in Norway. By Lieutenant Breton, R.N.

2. Wittich's Visit to the Western Coast of Norway: London, 1848. Contains accurate physical descriptions of the country.

3. Forester's Norway in 1848 and 1849: London, 1850. Conveys to the mind an excellent and very complete picture of Norwegian scenery, travelling, manners and customs, &c., and gives much valuable information. The plates are very truthful and characteristic.

4. Ross's Yacht Voyage to Norway is not worth much; and

5. Jones's Angler's Guide to Norway is worth less.

6. Barrow's Visit to Iceland by way of Trondhjem in 1834 contains much about some parts of Norway.

Written in Norwegian, and published in Christiania, is a fine work entitled, Norge Fremstillet i Tegninger, 1848. The "Tegninger" are lithographs, eighty-two in number, and well executed and the descriptions are highly interesting. There is also now publishing a series of coloured plates of the Norwegian costumes, denominated Norske Nationaldragter tegnede efter Naturen af forskjellige Norske kunstnere, og ledsagede med en oplysende Text: Christiania, 1850. The plates are highly coloured, and the letter-press is in Norsk, German, and English. Mr. Schirmer of Christiania is also publishing a series of magnificent architectural drawings of the old cathedrals of Norway. There are several excellent maps of Norway, of which Munch's is the best but the only geological map is a very large and complicated one in many sheets, I think by Professor Keilhau. On the botany of Norway there are, Hartmann, Handbok i Skandinaviens Flora: Stockholm, 1843, and Lund, Haandbog i Christianias phanerogame Flora: Christiania, 1846. The Danish pharmacopœia is still employed by the Norwegian apothecaries. On the dreadful disease found in the Bergen-Stift, called Elephantiasis Græcorum, or Spedalskhed, Doctors Danielssen and Boeck have put forth a work in French and Norwegian, embodying an immense deal of research and information, accompanied with an Atlas of twenty-four coloured plates. They consider this disease to be identical with the leprosy of Scripture. Their book was published in 1847; and contains references to every known account of the disease up to that date, in a bibliographical list of great length. An article upon it, comprehending a short but complete account of the disease, may be found in the British and Foreign Med. Chir. Review for 1850, vol. v.

Of Norwegian national songs and music, there are, besides Lindeman's Norske Field-Melodier, the following publications:—

1. Folke Sange og Melodier, Fædrelandske og Fremmelse, udsalte for Pianoforte, 1844.

2. Sangsamling for Norske Selskabskredse: udgiven af det Norske Studenter-samfund: Christiania, 1839. The students of the Christiania University have much taste for music, and are very fond of singing in parts and choruses.

3. Scandinaviske Folkesange udsalte for Pianoforte af Niels W. Gade.

4. Norske Viser og Stev i Folkesproget. Anden Udgave: Christiania, 1848. This contains forty-three national ballads, mostly in provincial dialects, and consequently very difficult to translate but, in many respects, extremely curious, referring to the manners, customs, and superstitions of the peasantry. The new edition is edited by P. A. Munch, Professor of History in the University of Christiania. The notes of some national airs are added at the end.

Professor Munch also published in 1850, Symbolæ ad Historiam Antiquiorem Rerum Norvegicarum. I. Breve Chronicon Norvegiæ. II. Genealogia Comitum Orcadensium. III. Catalogus Regum Norvegiæ. E. Codice quoad magnam partem hactenus inedito, et in orcadibus, ut videtur, medio sæculo XVto conscripto. Appended to it is the following curious genealogy:— [61]

[62] Further elucidating the ancient history of Scandinavia are the following works:—

Fagskrinna. Kortfaltet Norsk Konge-Saga fra slutningen af det 12te eller begyndelsen af det 13de aarhundrede. Udgivet af P. A. Munch, Professor i Historie, og C. R. Unger, Stipendiat i Nordisk Sprogvidenskab: Christiania, 1847. In Icelandic, with Norwegian introduction and notes. C. M. Falsen, Geografisk Beskrivelse over Kongeriget Norge og Udsigt over dets ældre Historie, som Indledning til Norges udförlige Historie, 1821; and Norges Historie under Kong Harald Haarfager og hans mandlige Descendenter, 1824, by the same author.

The various works and sources of information above mentioned will be found to lead on to many others, so that it will not be difficult for those who wish it, and can afford the time, to enter fully into the highly interesting and curious history of the North—a subject which once entered upon is not easy to quit. The literature of Scandinavia is considerable: although that of Denmark and of Norway is less known, distinctively, in this country, than the Swedish portion; partly, no doubt, because the semi-barbarous Gothic character is still much used instead of the clearer Roman type. English literature is much liked in Norway, and they have translations of Scott, Bulwer, Laing, Washington Irving, and some others.

I am very anxious to obtain information on the unanswered points referred to at page 370.

WILLIAM E.C. NOURSE.

Postscriptum.—In enumerating recent works on Iceland and the North, I omitted to mention Dillon's Winter in Iceland and Lapland, 2 volumes, London, 1840 an excellent work not sufficiently known.

The trading vessels to Iceland are exceedingly rough and dirty. The Dart, Madeira packet, a fine brig of 350 tons, will probably go thither this summer with passengers.

W. E. C. N.

MR. BOLTON CORNEY having favoured your readers with "a notice of some of the statements" contained in my article above-named, I deem it a duty incumbent upon myself to make a few remarks upon these "notices," which I shall do in the briefest manner possible.

The object of my paper was to call attention to a forgotten poet, and to endeavour to obtain some information regarding the locality of his manuscripts. Had I been writing the life of Hugh Holland, I should, of course, have investigated the dates of his biography and works more fully than it was necessary to do for a trifling article like that in question. But, as it is, the facts and dates which I have given are all derived from creditable and well-known sources and all the facts and dates in question are the facts and dates of older writers than myself, as will appear by the following.

1. "He was born at Denbigh in 1558." He was born at Denbigh, but not in 1558. In 1625 he thus expressed himself:

Answer. Where are these lines taken from, and what do they mean? What is the proof that they relate to Hugh Holland? "Hugh Holland, an esquire's son of Denbighshire," was matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford, anno 1582, aged twenty-four. My authority is Wood's Athenæ, edit. Bliss, vol. ii. p. 560.

2. He did not quit Westminster school till 1589. If ever he pursued his studies at Baliol College, it was some ten years afterwards.

Answer. Who says he did not quit Westminster school till 1589?—Joseph Welch, or MR. BOLTON CORNEY? Allowing it to be the former, are all Welch's dates correct? I have Wood's authority that Hugh Holland matriculated at Baliol in 1582.

3. "About 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge." In 1589 he was elected from Westminster to a scholarship in Trinity College, Cambridge—not to a fellowship. At a later period of life he may have succeeded to a fellowship.

Answer. My words are, "about 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship." MR. CORNEY adds, "In 1589" he was elected to a scholarship. I must again refer to honest old Wood, who expressly says that he was a fellow of Trinity College.

4. "Holland published two works: 1. Monumenta Sepulchralia Sancti Pauli, Lond. 1613, 4to. 2. A Cypress Garland, &c., Lond. 1625, 4to." Hugh Holland was not the compiler of the first-named work: the initials H. H. admit of another interpretation.

Answer. Why does not MR. CORNEY give your readers his interpretation of the mysterious "H. H.?" One Henry Holland was the author of A Booke of Kings, being the true Effigies of our English Kings, &c.: Lond. 1618, 4to. Is this the interpretation? If so, I ask for the proof.

5. The dates assigned to the Monumenta Sancti Pauli are "1613, 1616, 1618, and 1633." Here are three errors in as many lines. The first edition is dated in 1614. The edition of 1633, which is entitled Ecclesia Sancti Pauli illustrata, is the second. No other editions exist.

Answer. The edition of 1614 was certainly the first, and that of 1633 certainly the second. In the preface to the latter the author says, "My first collection of these Monumentall Epitaphs I published [63] anno 1614, full nineteen yeeres sithence." My authority, however, for the "three errors in as many lines" is Cole's Collections for an Athenæ Cantabrigenses. (See Brydges Restituta, vol. iii p. 215.)

6. "Holland also printed a copy of Latin verses before Alexander's Roxana, 1632." No such work exists. He may have printed verses before the Roxana of W. Alabaster, who was his brother-collegian.

Answer. My authority again is Cole's Collections in Restituta, vol. iii. p. 215, where, under the head of "Hugh Holland, fellow of Trinity College," is this line: "Has a copy of Latin verses before Dr. Alexander's Roxana, 1632." I shall therefore leave the shade of Cole and MR. BOLTON CORNEY to settle the question as to whether any such work exists.

I have now disposed of the six statements, and have only to add, that the authorities which I have consulted are those which I have named.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

The suggestion of primzie is too ingenious, and too apparently happy, to be passed over without adducing some reason for refusing to give it the preference to Tieck's reading of precise.

The terminal adjuncts zie, sie, some, generally imply some playful diminutive variation of the original word, certainly they never add force or gravity to it: prim, in itself, is a diminutive of primitive, and applies more to external appearance than to internal character. I do not think, therefore that even prim would be a word sufficiently dignified for the situation and context; much less is its diminutive primsie.

It seems to me that the character of Angelo is generally mistaken; he is too often looked upon as a mere hypocrite, whereas Shakspeare depicts him, before his fall, as a rigid but sincere ascetic. This view of his character accounts for his final condemnation of Claudio: he has no mercy for the crime, even while committing it himself; and he was just the man who, had he escaped detection, would probably have passed the remainder of his life in the exercise of self-inflicted penance.

Viewing Angelo, therefore, as a man proverbial for rigidly virtuous conduct; who stood "at a guard with envy;" who challenged scrutiny; and who was above the tongue of slander; I do not think that primsie can be looked upon as an appropriate designation in the mouth of Claudio. He would use some word in the greatest possible contrast to the infamous conduct Isabella was imputing to Angelo: primsie would be weak and almost unmeaning, and, as such, I will not receive it as Shakespeare's, so long as the choice of a better remains.

Does not Shakspeare, by his frequent repetition of precise, in this play, seem purposely to stamp it with that peculiar signification necessary to his meaning, that is, rigidly virtuous? Another example of it, not, I believe, before noticed, is where Elbow describes his "two notorious benefactors" as "precise villains," "void of all profanation that good Christians ought to have."

The humour of this is in the contrast afforded by Elbow's association of incongruous and inconsistent terms, causing Escalus to exclaim, "Do you hear how he misplaces?" Precise therefore in this place also requires a meaning as opposite as possible to villany, something more than formal, in order that the humour may be fully appreciated.

With respect to Halliwell's quotation from Fletcher's poems, it certainly confers upon prin a very different meaning from any that prim is capable of receiving: the context requires prin to have some signification akin to fleshless; like "bodyes at the resurrection, just rarifying into ayre." Prin, in this sense, would seem to have some relation to pine, since pin and prin were synonymous.

A. E. B.

Leeds, July, 1851

The earliest divisions of the Decalogue are those of Josephus (Ant. Jud., lib. iii. c. v. s. 5.), the Chaldee Paraphrase of Jonathan, and Philo-Judæus de Decem Oraculis. According to the two former, the 3rd verse of Exod. xx., "Thou shalt have no other gods but me," contains the first commandment, the 4th, 5th, and 6th, the second. Philo makes the Preface or Introduction to be a distinct commandment, as do also St. Jerome and Hesychius. The two latter make what we call the first and second to be the second only; but Philo does not recite the words "Thou shalt have no other gods but me;" and whether he understood them in the first or the second, does not hence appear. The same uncertainty is found in Athanasius in Synopsi S. Scripturæ.

It may however be inferred, from these two writers giving the commencement only of the other commandments, that they made the prohibition, "Thou shalt not make," &c., in the same manner the commencement of the second; and therefore joined the other, "Thou shalt have," &c., to the words "I am the Lord thy God."

Those which we call the first and second were united by St. Augustine.

The distinction made by Josephus and the Chaldee Paraphrast, separating the two prohibitions, was adopted by the following early writers: Origen (Hom. viii. in Exod.); Greg. Nazianzen [64] (Carmina, Mosis Decalogus) Irenæus (lib. ii. c. xlii.); Ambrose (in Ep. ad Ephes. c. vi.).

The Jews divide the Decalogue thus:

But in the field of speculation, the Jews have followed a variety of systems for dissecting the Decalogue, as may be seen in Abarvanel in the Pericope "Jethro," and in Voisin's Proœmium ad Martini Pugionem Fidei.

The following authors may be consulted on the arguments which have been adduced to support their respective divisions by the Church of Rome and the Lutherans on the one side, and the Reformers or Calvinists and the Church of England on the other.

1. Church of Rome.—Gother's Papist Misrepresented; Godden's Catholics No Idolaters; Gotti Vera Ecclesia Christi.

2. Lutherans.—Salmuthi Theses; Winckelmanni Dissertatio, &c.; Crameri de distinguendo decalogo, &c.; Franzii Disputatio; Weimari Demonstratio; Opitii Dissertatio de usu accentuationis geminæ in genuina divisione decalogi; Dasdorfii Dissertatio de decalogo, ex fundamento accentuum examinato; Hackspanii Notæ Philologicæ in varia loca S. Scripturæ; Pfeifferi Opera (cent. 1.).

3. Reformers.—Sam. Bohlii vera divisio decalogi ex infallibili principio accentuationis.

In reference to this argument, which is used by both parties, I have been favoured with the following remarks by a learned professor of languages, of the Jewish faith:

"On the subject of your inquiry, the accents do not appear to me to offer any decision. They show which words are to be connected with each other to make up one proposition; but not how many propositions shall go to make up one commandment."

4. The Church of England.—Ussher's Answer to a Jesuit (Images), and his Sermon preached before the Commons House of Parliament, 1620; Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium (where, in connexion with the Romish controversy, this subject is exhausted); Stillingfleet's Replies to Gother and Godden; and Forbesii Theologia Christiana.

T. J.

Though your correspondent MR. SYDNEY SMIRKE has brought to our notice the existence of the republic of San Marino, and informed us of many facts in connexion therewith, and though F. C. B. has enlightened us on several points of interest in the history of this state, still I do not find in either of these communications the following particulars of its foundation, which are in Addison's Remarks on Italy, pp. 62, 63. (ed. Talboys, 1830), and which may interest some of your readers.

"San Marino was its founder, a Dalmatian by birth and by trade a mason. He was employed above thirteen hundred years ago in the reparation of Rimini, and after he had finished his work, retired to this solitary mountain as finding it very proper for the life of a hermit, which he led in the greatest rigours and austerities of religion. He had not been long here before he wrought a reputed miracle, which, joined with his extraordinary sanctity, gained him so great an esteem that the princess of the country made him a present of the mountain, to dispose of at his own discretion. His reputation quickly peopled it, and gave rise to the republic which calls itself after his name.... The best of their churches is dedicated to the saint, and holds his ashes. His statue stands over the high altar, with the figure of a mountain in its hands crowned with three castles, which is likewise the arms of the commonwealth. They attribute to his protection the long duration of their state, and look on him as the greatest saint next the blessed Virgin. I saw in their statute book a law against such as speak disrespectfully of him, who are to be punished in the same manner as those who are convicted of blasphemy."

WALTER MONTAGU.

After so much has "been said on both sides," in the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES," on the signification of eisill or esil in Hamlet, it appears to me that the evidence requires to be carefully summed up. This task I would willingly leave to other hands; but since no correspondent attempts it, I will venture, if I may be allowed, to take it on myself, and will strive to perform it to the best of my ability.

The question is, whether by the word under discussion we are to understand vinegar (or some such liquid) or a river. It will be proper, in taking a view of the matter, to "begin from the beginning," and to see, in the first place, what the earlier commentators have said.

1. What the critics before Theobald thought of the word, is not quite certain; but Theobald states that it had, "through all the editions, been distinguished by Italic characters, as if it were the proper name of a river; and so," he adds, "I dare say all the editors have from time to time understood it to be." But not being able to satisfy himself what river could be meant, he preferred to understand it of vinegar, and interprets the passage, "Wilt thou swallow down large draughts of vinegar?"

2. Sir Thomas Hanmer, on the contrary, was so convinced that a river was signified, that he actually altered the passage, arbitrio suo, to

3. Johnson was silent, and left the explanation of the word to Steevens, who, observing that Hamlet meant to rant (as he says he will), supposed him to defy Laertes "to drink up a river, or try his teeth on an animal whose scales are supposed to be impenetrable." The word, he thinks, may be irrecoverably corrupted, but he finds plenty of rivers in Denmark of a somewhat similar sound, any one of which should "serve Hamlet's turn."

4. Malone, in his first edition, deeming that Hamlet was not speaking of "impossibilities," but merely of "difficult or painful exertions," decided on adhering to Theobald and his vinegar. But in his second edition he repented, and expressed his conviction that "Mr. Steevens's interpretation is the true one," remarking that "this kind of hyperbole is common among our ancient poets."

5. Steevens, before he published his second edition, read the observations in favour of vinegar given in Malone's first edition but, though he allowed them to be "acute," was not moved by anything advanced in them to depart from his opinion that a river was intended.

6. Boswell followed Malone's second thoughts.

7. Mr. Singer, in his edition printed in 1826, had so little notion that vinegar could be signified, that he does not even advert to a single argument in behalf of that opinion, attending only to the consideration "what river, lake, or firth, Shakspeare meant."

8. Mr. Collier makes no decision, observing only that eyesel is certainly the old word for vinegar, but that there is considerable doubt whether that be meant here and that "some of the commentators suppose Hamlet to challenge Laertes to drink up the river Yssell or Eisell."

9. Mr. Knight favoured the river, remarking that "there is little doubt that Shakspeare referred to the river Yssell, Issell, or Izel, the most northern branch of the Rhine, and that which is nearest to Denmark."

Thus we have, on the side of vinegar, Theobald, and Malone's first edition, on the side of the river, Sir T. Hanmer, Steevens, Malone's second edition, Boswell, Mr. Singer in 1826, and Mr. Knight; six against two. I say nothing of Johnson, whom, however, we may consider to have been favourable to Steevens; or of the earlier editors, who, according to Theobald, printed the word in Italics as a proper name.

So the matter remained; most readers, as well as critics, being, I believe, of opinion that a river was intended, until MR. SINGER, in the 46th No. of "NOTES AND QUERIES," revived the notion that some kind of drink was signified.

10. Let us now consider what testimonies are advanced by the various critics on behalf of each of these opinions. That eysell (the 4to., 1604, reads esil, and the folio esile) was used as synonymous with one kind of drink, viz. vinegar, is apparent from the following authorities. Malone observes that it occurs in Chaucer and Skelton, and also in Sir Thomas More, Works, p. 21., edit. 1557

He also remarks that it is found in Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617, and in Coles's Latin Dictionary, 1679.

Shakspeare himself, as Farmer was the first to point out, has, in his 111th Sonnet,

From Chaucer, Richardson's Dictionary supplies,

and another passage thus:

Todd, also, in his edition of Johnson, says that the old English aysel for vinegar is used by Wicliffe.

11. Next comes the consideration whether, if vinegar were intended, the expression drink up could properly have been used in reference to it. On this point Theobald says nothing, except intimating that "drink up" is equivalent to "swallow down." Steevens denies that if Shakspeare had meant Hamlet to say, "Wilt thou drink vinegar?" he would have used "the term drink up," which means "totally to exhaust." Malone, in his first edition, remarks on the subject as follows:

"On the phrase drink up no stress can be laid, for our poet has employed the same expression in his 114th Sonnet, without any idea of entirely exhausting, and merely as synonymous to drink:

"Again, in the same Sonnet:

"Again, in Timon of Athens:

"In Shakspeare's time, as at present, to drink up often meant no more than simply to drink. So in Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: 'Sorbire, to sip or sup up any drink.' In like manner we sometimes say, 'When you have swallowed down this potion,' though we mean no more than, 'When you have swallowed this potion.'"

In his second edition, however, Malone abandoned his first interpretation, and his remarks on drink up then went for nothing. [66]

Discussion on this point has occupied some paragraphs in "NOTES AND QUERIES." MR. SINGER, in his first paper (Vol. ii., p. 241.), asserts that "to drink up was commonly used for simply to drink." MR. HICKSON, too (No. 51.), affirms that "drink up is synonymous with drink off, drink to the dregs," and observes that "a child taking medicine is urged to drink it up. But H. K. S. C., or Mr. H. K. S. CAUSTON, as he afterwards signs himself, denies that drink up can be used of eysell, or any other liquid, unless a definite quantity of it be signified; that is, you may say to any one, if you please, in allusion to a definite quantity of vinegar, "Drink it up;" but if you allude to vinegar in general, without limitation of quantity, you will say merely, "Drink vinegar." So if you would ask your friend whether he drinks wine or water, you would say, "Do you drink wine or water?" not "Do you drink up wine or water?" which would be to ask him whether he drinks up all the wine or water in the world, or at least all the definite quantities of either that come within his reach. MR. SINGER professes not to understand this doctrine, and refers MR. CAUSTON to the nursery rhyme:

"which," he says, "may perhaps afford him further apt illustration;" but which supplies, MR. CAUSTON rejoins, only another example that drink up is applied to definite quantity; a quantity which, in this case, is "neither more nor less than the identical glass of wine which Jenny had standing before her." The line in Shakspeare's 114th Sonnet is, MR. CAUSTON adds, "a parallel passage." To drink up, therefore, he concludes, must be used of "a noun implying absolute entirety, which might be a river, but could not be grammatically applied to any unexpressed quantity." In these remarks there seems to be great justness of reasoning. MR. CAUSTON might also have instanced the lines:

that is, "couldst thou go on sipping till thou hast sipped up, or entirely exhausted, the whole definite quantity in the cup."

12. But MR. SINGER in 1850, differing so much from Mr. Singer in 1826 (who thought that a river was signified), supposes that though a sort of drink is intended, it is not vinegar, but wormwood-wine. To this purpose he cites the lines of Shakspeare's 111th Sonnet, which we have already transcribed:

"Here we see," he observes, "that it was a bitter potion which it was a penance to drink." This does not seem to be clearly apparent from the passage for it is not absolutely certain that the bitterness in the third line refers to the eysell in the second. But he adds another quotation from the Troy Boke of Lydgate:

After which he subjoins:

"Numerous passages in our old dramatic writers show that it was a fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in honour of their mistresses; and among others, the swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent: but vinegar would hardly have been considered in this light; wormwood might. In Thomas's Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have 'Assentio, Eysell;' and Florio renders that word [Assentio] by Wormwood. What is meant, however is absinthites, or wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use; and this being evidently the bitter potion of eysell in the poet's sonnet, was certainly the nauseous draught proposed to be taken by Hamlet, among the other extravagant feats as tokens of love."

The reader will judge with what justice the words "evidently" and "certainly" are used. MR. SINGER then cites Junius, but to little purpose; Hutton's Dictionary, to prove that absinthites meant "wormwood-wine;" and Stuckius's Antiquitates Convivales to show that absinthites was a propoma; but Stuckius, be it observed, mentions this propoma only as a stomachic, quod vim habet stomachum corroborandi et extenuandi.

It is not surprising, therefore, that LORD BRAYBROOKE (Vol. ii., p. 286.) should quote against MR. SINGER'S theory the following paragraph:

"If, as MR. SINGER supposes, 'Eisell was absinthites, or wormwood-wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much in use,' Pepys's friends must have had a very singular taste, for he records on the 24th of November, 1660:

'Creed, and Shepley, and I, to the Rhenish wine-house, and there I did give them two quarts of wormwood wine.'

"Perhaps the beverage was doctored for the English market, and rendered more palatable than it had been in the days of Stuckius."

Two other correspondents of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" also, C. H. (Vol. iii., p. 508.) and GOMER (ibid.), assert that eysell, if it means any potion at all, must mean vinegar; C. H. referring to a MS. at Cambridge (Dd. i. fol. 7.), date about 1350, in which occurs,—

and GOMER relying on the support of the Welsh word Aesell, which implies verjuice or vinegar. D. ROCK, too, adduces the 'Festival' in the sermon for St. Michael's day:

"And other angellis with hī (St. Michael) shall bring all the Instrumētis of our lordis passyon; the crosse; the crowne; spere; nayles; hamer; sponge; eyseel; gall, &c." [67]

There is therefore, it appears, ample testimony to show that eysell was used for vinegar; but to prove that it meant wormwood-wine, MR. SINGER'S instances seem insufficient.

13. Before we proceed further, let us, supposing that no bitter or sour potion, but a river, is meant, advert to the consideration what river may be intended? Theobald observed that there was no river of that name in Denmark, nor any resembling it in name but "Yssel, from which the province of Overyssel derives its name in the German Flanders." Steevens, however, is well content to take this Yssel as that which Hamlet had in his thoughts. "But," he adds, "in an old Latin account of Denmark, and the neighbouring provinces, I find the names of several rivers little differing from Esil or Eisill in spelling or pronunciation. Such are the Essa, the Oesil, and some others.... The poet," he further remarks, "might have written the Weisel; a considerable river, which falls into the Baltic Ocean, and could not be unknown to any prince in Denmark." MR. SINGER of 1826 suggests that the Issel is perhaps meant, but that the firth of Iyze is nearest to the scene of action. MR. KNIGHT has little doubt that the Yssell, Issell, or Izel, the most northern branch of the Rhine, and that which is nearest to Denmark, is signified.

MR. HICKSON, indeed, who favours MR. SINGER'S wormwood-wine, says (Vol. iii., p. 119.), that the word cannot mean a river, because the definite article is omitted before it. But this is an assertion of very little weight. H. K. S. C. (Vol. iii., p. 68.) very justly observes, that we may as correctly say,—"Woul't drink up Thames?" without the article, as "Woul't drink up Eisell?" without the article. Let MR. HICKSON call to mind Milton's lines on English rivers:

ending with—

and ask himself whether the names of rivers are not with perfect propriety used without the article. Pope has—

And is not Sir Thomas Hammer quite correct in expression, when he alters the hemistich into "Wilt drink up Nile?" But to multiply examples on such a point would be idle.

14. It is now to be considered whether, supposing that the word might mean a potion (whether of vinegar or wormwood) or a river, the potion or the river is the more applicable to the passage in which it occurs. It cannot be denied that the whole passage is full of rant and extravagance. Laertes begins to rant, and Hamlet answers him in a similar strain:

This is surely extravagant enough. Hamlet retorts, in correspondent tone,—

Then comes the struggles in which they are parted by the attendants after which Hamlet cries out with like "emphasis:"

On which the king exclaims, with much reason,

Hamlet continues, as if to make his madness indisputable:

The queen justly observes:

Hamlet goes off, but maintains his extravagance of language to the last:

If, then, a literary jury be required to decide this question, the point on which they have to give a verdict is, whether to drink vinegar (or wormwood-wine) or to drink up a river is more in consonance with the tenor of Hamlet's speech. Theobald indeed says, that "Hamlet is not proposing any impossibilities to Laertes, such as drinking up a river would be, but rather seems to mean, Wilt thou resolve to do things the most shocking and distasteful to human nature?" But on what ground does this assertion rest? Laertes himself commences with what we may surely call an impossibility:

And Hamlet speaks of more impossibilities, when he talks of throwing up "millions of acres," to [68] "make Ossa like a wart." The drinking up a river is certainly more in unison with these extravagant proposals than a defiance "to swallow down (as Theobald has it) large draughts of vinegar;" or, as Malone gives it, "to drink a potion of vinegar." Such a proposition, Theobald admits, "is not very grand;" "a challenge to hazard a fit of the heartburn or the colic, is," says Steevens, "not very magnificent." But it is not only far from "grand" and "magnificent," but, what is worse, it is utterly tame and spiritless, in a place where anything but tameness is wanted, and where it is, quite out of keeping with the rest of the speech. MR. HICKSON, it is true, says (Vol. ii, p. 329.), that "the notion of drinking up a river would be quite unmeaning and out of place;" but this assertion is as groundless as Theobald's, and is somewhat surprising from a gentleman who exhorts those who would be critics "to master the grammatical construction of a passage, deducing therefrom its general sense," and, we may presume, its general drift, "before they attempt to fix the meaning of a doubtful word." Had MR. HICKSON looked to the general drift of this passage, before he attempted to fix the meaning of eisell, or to concur with MR. SINGER of 1850 in his attempt to fix it, he would, we may suppose, have been less ready to pronounce the notion of drinking up a river out of place. It would have been better for him to have adhered to the judgment of Archdeacon Nares, as cited by MR. SINGER (Vol. ii., p. 241.):—"The challenge to drink vinegar, in such a rant," says the Archdeacon, "is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, that we must decide for the river, whether its name be exactly found or not. To drink up a river, and eat a crocodile with his impenetrable scales, are two things equally impossible. There is no kind of comparison between the others."

15. Though examples of similar rant are quite unnecessary to support this opinion, let us nevertheless conclude by noticing those which the critics have adduced on this passage:

"This sort of hyperbole," says Malone, in his second edition, "was common among our ancient poets. So, in Eastward Hoe, 1609:

"So also in Greene's Orlando Furioso, 1599:

"Again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta:

To which Boswell adds:

"Our author has a similar exaggeration in Troilus and Cressida, Act III. Scene 2.:

"In Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, we find the following lines:

Steevens notices King Richard II., Act II Scene 2.:

But enough. The majority of readers, like the majority of critics, will surely be for the river, in the proportion of at least six to two. Verbum non amplius addam.

J. S. W.

Stockwell.

Eisell—Wormwood—Scurvy Ale.—Such of your readers who have not yet made up their minds whether "eisell" and "wormwood" are identical, will not object to be reminded that Taylor, the Water Poet, in his Pennyless Pilgrimage, describing his hospitable reception at Manchester, when speaking of the liquid cheer supplied to him, says:—

It would seem that in most of these drinks, the chief object was to impart an exciting but not disagreeable bitterness to the beverage, groping as it were, by instinct, after that enduring and gratifying bitter now universally derived from the hop. Wormwood, hyssop, rosemary, sage, bettony, each furnished its peculiar temptation to the Manchester drinkers, who some two centuries ago wanted an "excuse for the glass." Can any of your correspondents state what were the components of the scurvy ale spoken of by Taylor? This was, perhaps, a really medicated drink.

It may not be generally known, that even at this day, In some of the gin shops and taverns of London, gin, in which the herb rue is infused, is a constant article of sale; and many, who assume a most respectable blueness of physiognomy at the bare mention of "old Tom" in his undisguised state, scruple not to indulge in copious libations of the same popular spirit, provided it be poured from a bottle in which a few sprigs of rue are floating. But what was scurvy ale?

HENRY CAMPKIN. [69]

In the following passage (extracted from the Quarterly Review, No. CLXXV., Dec. 1850, p. 143.) it is declared that the nation did "pay" for this "munificent present." The writer is understood to be Mr. R. Ford; and if his statement is not refuted, the business will henceforth take its place as a sale which the nation was duped into regarding as a gift:—

"The secret history," says the reviewer, "was this: King George IV., having some pressing call for money, did not decline a proposition for selling the library to the Emperor of Russia. Mr. Heber, having ascertained that the books were actually booked for the Baltic, went to Lord Sidmouth, then Home Secretary, and stated the case; observing what a shame it would be that such a collection should go out of the country: to which Lord Sidmouth replied: 'Mr. Heber, it shall not!'—and it did not. On the remonstrance of Lord Sidmouth, of whose manly and straightforward character George IV. was very properly in awe, the last of the grands monarques presented the books to the British Museum, on the condition that the value of the rubles they were to have fetched should be somehow or other made good to him by ministers in pounds sterling. This was done out of the surplus of certain funds furnished by France for the compensation of losses by the Revolution. But his ministers, on a hint from the House of Commons that it was necessary to refund those monies, had recourse, we are told, to the droits of the Admiralty."

So that the books were not given, but paid for, out of public monies: which ministers could not have made the object of a bargain, had they been the king's, and not the nation's. And the inscription in the Museum—like many others—"lifts its head and lies," i. e. unless the Quarterly Review has been inventing a story, instead of telling a true bit of secret history, decidedly worth noting if true.

V.

[We believe the Quarterly Reviewer has been misinformed as to the facts connected with the transfer of the Royal Library to the British Museum. We have reason to know that George IV., being unwilling to continue the expense of maintaining the Library, which he claimed to treat, not as a heirloom of the crown, but as his own private inheritance, entertained a proposal for its purchase from the Russian Government. This having come to the knowledge of Lord Liverpool (through Dibdin, from Lady Spencer, to whom it had been mentioned by the Princess Lieven), the projected sale was, on the remonstrance of the Minister, abandoned, and the Library presented to the nation. The King thus got rid of the annual expenses; and although we do not believe that any bargain was made upon the subject, it is not unlikely that the Ministry felt that this surrender of the Library to the country gave the King some claim to assistance towards the liquidation of his debts, and that such assistance was accordingly furnished. Even if this were so, though the result might be the same, the transaction is a very different one from the direct bargain and sale described in the Quarterly Review.]

In justice to Kind George IV., the letter which he addressed to the late Earl of Liverpool, on presenting the books to his own subjects, should be printed in your columns. I saw the autograph letter soon after it was written, and a copy of it would be very easily met with.

Would it not have been both desirable and very advantageous, to have converted the banqueting room at Whitehall into a receptacle for this magnificent collection, which would doubtless have been augmented from time to time?

Instead of concentrating such vast literary treasures at the Museum, might it not have been expedient to diffuse them partially over this immense metropolis?

To Peers and M. P.'s, especially, a fine library at Whitehall would be a great boon. The present chapel was never consecrated, and its beautiful ceiling is little suited to a house of prayer.

J. H. M.

For the information of your correspondent MR. BOLTON CORNEY, I beg to inform him that there was an intermediate meeting of the subscribers to the Caxton Memorial at the house of the Society of Arts between the first meeting to which he alludes, and the last, held at the same place the other day. Over that meeting I had the honour of presiding, and it was determined to persevere in the object of erecting a statue in Westminster to the memory of the first English printer; but the report of the last meeting shows that the funds have not been so largely contributed as might have been expected, and are now far short of the sum, 500l., required for the erection of an iron statue of the illustrious typographer. True it is that no authentic portrait of Caxton is known, but the truthful picture by Maclise might very well supply the deficiency; and I see the engraving to be made from that painting rather ostentatiously advertised as "the Caxton Memorial." The original design of the Dean of St. Paul's, for "a fountain by day, and a light by night," was abandoned as more poetical than practical; my chief apprehension being either that the gas would spoil the water, or that the water would put out the light. The statue was therefore resolved upon as less costly and more appropriate than the fountain.

The statue of Gutenberg at Mentz is a good example of what might be erected in Westminster; yet I very much doubt whether any likeness of the [70] great printer has been preserved. The expense necessarily attendant upon MR. CORNEY'S Literary Memorial appears to me to be fatal to its success; for, however dear to the bibliographer, I fear but little public interest is now felt in the writings of Caxton. The Typographical Antiquities contain copious extracts from his works; and the biographies of Lewis and Knight appear to have satisfied public curiosity as to his life. Besides, a memorial of this nature would be hidden in a bookcase, not seen in a highway. I may add that the present state of the Caxton Memorial is this: the venerable Dean of St. Paul's is anxious to be relieved from the charge of the funds already subscribed, and to place them in the hands of the Society of Arts, if that body will receive them, and undertake to promote the object of the original subscribers by all the means at its command.

BERIAH BOTFIELD.

Medically, the word nervous has the following meanings:—

1. Of or belonging to the anatomical substance called nerve, e. g. the "nervous system," "nervous sheaths," "nervous particles," &c.

2. A predomination of the nervous system, when it is unusually active or highly developed, which is what we mean in speaking of a "nervous temperament," "a nervous person," &c.

3. Certain functional disorders of the nervous system are so termed, and in this sense we speak of "nervous people," "nervous complaints," and so forth.

4. Nervous is also used, more poetically than correctly, to signify muscular, and as synonymous with brawny, sinewy, &c., thus conveying an idea of strength and vigour. But nerve is not muscle, therefore this inaccurate use of the word, though sanctioned by some good old writers, must cease.

5. Nervous, in speaking of a part of the body, signifies a part in which there are many nerves, or much nervous matter, or which is endowed with extra sensibility.

These are the various ideas commonly attached to the word nervous. They are too many for the word to be a closely accurate one, but we must take them, not make them. We can, however, avoid the future inaccurate use of the term alluded to in explanation 4., and all the metaphorical derivations thereof, such as a "nervous style of writing," &c., and adhere to those two significations which are physiologically and pathologically correct, and which are obviously derivable from the several meanings and explanations above enumerated, viz.—

1. Of or belonging to the natural structure or functions of nerve; and

2. The quality of functional disorder or weakness of the nervous system in certain respects.

WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE.

Every one knows that instances of catachresis occur in all languages; but I think this case may be more satisfactorily explained by considering that the nerves consist of two very distinct and independent classes of organs—nerves of sensation, which conduct impressions to the sensorium; and nerves of volition, which convey the mental impulse to the muscles. From this it necessarily follows that when the former class are over-active (and redundancy is decidedly the adjectival idea in the word nervous), a morbid excitability of temper, with a perturbable anxious state of mind are produced (making the "bad" sense of the word); while from a similar state of the nerves of volition results a powerful and vigorous system of muscular action and mental energy (making the "good" sense of the word).

EDWIN J. JONES.

I am anxious to acknowledge that SIR F. MADDEN has established, beyond all doubt, the facts that several manuscript books were found on the Duke of Monmouth when he was captured, and that the volume rescued from oblivion by Dr. Anster, and now placed in the British Museum, is one of these, and also in Monmouth's handwriting. I take this opportunity of saying, that I, unfortunately, have not seen Dr. Anster's reply to my communication; and it is to be regretted that it was not copied from the Dublin University Magazine into "NOTES AND QUERIES," so that we (the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES") might have had the whole subject before us. This is a course which I think our kind Editor may usefully adopt on similar occasions.

Referring unsuccessfully to Lowndes' Manual for an answer to SIR F. MADDEN'S question as to the date of the first edition of Welwood's Memoirs, I was pleased, however, to find that my edition (the sixth, published in 1718) possesses a value which does not attach to previous editions, inasmuch as it contains "A short introduction, giving an account how these memoirs came at first to be writ." From this it appears that there are spurious editions of the work, for Welwood writes:

"I have given my bookseller leave to make a sixth impression of the following memoirs; and the [rather] that some time ago one Baker printed more than one edition of them without my knowledge, very incorrect, and on bad paper."

We may fairly assume, that the first edition was published at the beginning of 1699, for [the] "epistle dedicatory" to King William is dated [71] February of that year. If this be so, it must be taken as a proof of extraordinary popularity that the work should have reached a third edition as early as 1700, as stated by SIR F. MADDEN. The "account how these memoirs came at first to be writ" possesses some interest. It appears that Queen Mary used to hold frequent converse with the Doctor on the subject of her great-grandfather's and grandfather's history, and—

"At last she fell to regret the insuperable difficulties she lay under (for I well remember that was her mind) of knowing truly the history of her grandfather's reign; saying that most of the accounts she had read of it were either panegyrick or satire, not history. Then with an inimitable grace she told me, 'If I would in a few sheets give her a short sketch of the affairs of that reign, and of the causes that produced such dreadful effects, she would take it well of me.' Such commands were too sacred not to be obeyed; and when I was retiring from her presence, she stopt me to tell me she expected I would do what she had desired of me in such a manner, and with that freedom, as if I designed it for the information of a friend, and not one of the blood of King Charles I., promising to show it to none living without my consent."

Welwood further states, that after Mary's death, King William—

"Sent me, by the late Earl of Portland, the manuscript I had given his Queen, found in her cabinet; where, upon the back of it, she had writ with her own hand the promise she had made me of showing it to nobody without my consent."

In addition to the extract from Monmouth's Diary given in my former communication, Welwood publishes a letter of the Duke's to the brave and true Argyle, which is perhaps more creditable to Monmouth than any other memorial he has left. The letter, as Welwood suggests, appears to have been written shortly after the death of Charles II. I copy it; but if you think this paper too long, omit it:—

"I received both yours together this morning, and cannot delay you my answer longer than this post though I am afraid it will not please you so much as I heartily wish it may. I have weighed all your reasons, and everything that you and my other friends have writ me upon that subject; and have done it with the greatest inclination to follow your advice, and without prejudice. You may well believe I have had time enough to reflect sufficiently upon our present state, especially since I came hither. But whatever way I turn my thoughts, I find insuperable difficulties. Pray do not think it an effect of melancholy, for that was never my greatest fault, when I tell you that in these three weeks' retirement in this place I have not only looked back, but forward; and the more I consider our present circumstances, I think them still the more desperate, unless some unforeseen accident fall out which I cannot divine nor hope for. [Here follow sixteen lines all in cyphers.] Judge then what we are to expect, in case we should venture upon any such attempt at this time. It's to me a vain argument that our enemies are scarce yet well settled, when you consider that fear in some, and ambition in others, have brought them to comply; and that the Parliament, being made up, for the most part, of members that formerly run our enemy down, they will be ready to make their peace as soon as they can, rather than hazard themselves upon an uncertain bottom. I give you but hints of what, if I had time, I would write you at more length. But that I may not seem obstinate in my own judgment, or neglect the advice of my friends, I will meet you at the time and place appointed. But for God sake think in the mean time of the improbabilities that lie naturally in our way, and let us not by struggling with our chains make them straighter and heavier. For my part, I'll run the hazard of being thought anything rather than a rash inconsiderate man. And to tell you my thoughts without disguise, I am now so much in love with a retired life, that I am never like to be fond of making a bustle in the world again. I have much more to say, but the post cannot stay; and I refer the rest till meeting, being entirely

"Yours."

Monmouth's ill-concerted and ill-conducted expedition following, at no distant period, the prudent resolutions expressed in the above letter places the instability of his character in a strong light.

C. ROSS.

Pope's "honest Factor" (Vol. iv., p. 7.).-The

to whom Pope alludes, was Thomas Pitt, Esq., (ancestor of the Earl of Chatham), who was by Queen Anne appointed Governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies, and purchased there for the sum of 20,400l., or 48,000 pagodas, a diamond weighing 127 carats, which he sold to the King of France about 1717, and is now known as the Pitt diamond. I suppose it is at present in the possession of the Republic of France.

DE H.

Temple, July 5. 1851.

—I am obliged by your inserting my note on this subject. I can inform L.H. that the present owner of the lead mines in Keswick is related, though distantly, to John Banks the philosopher, who was born at Grange in Borrowdale. Can any of your correspondents give any reason why the crest of this branch of the family should be exactly similar in every respect to that of the Earl of Lonsdale?

BAY.

— Although some time has elapsed since the Query on this hymn appeared, yet as no very definite reply has been given, I send the following.

This hymn is one of the four "proses" or verses [72] without measure, made use of in the services of the Roman Catholic Church. The invention of these proses is attributed to Nolker, a monk of the Convent of St. Gall, who wrote about the year 880; and who says in his work that he had seen them in a book belonging to the Convent of St. Jumièges, which was destroyed by the Normans in 841. Of the many proses which were composed, the Roman Catholic Church has retained but four, of which the above is one. Who the author really was, is very uncertain; the majority of writers on the subject appear to concur in the opinion that Cardinal Frangipani, a Dominican, otherwise called Malabrancia, a Doctor of Paris, and who died at Pérouse in 1294, was the composer but it has also been assigned to St. Gregory and St. Bernard. Bzovius, an. 1294, states the author to have been either Cardinal Orsino or Cardinal Frangipani, and other writers maintain it to have been the production of Agostino Biella, who died 1491; or of Humbertus, General of the Dominicans. The original consists of fifty-six lines, and may be found in almost every book of Catholic devotion.

R.R.M.

In No. 84, for June 9th, the Roman Catholic hymn "Dies Iræ" is referred to, and works cited as to its author. To these may be added the 39th No. of the Dublin Review, where it will be found that Latino Frangipani, nephew of Pope Nicholas III., and known under the name of the Cardinal Malabrancia, was more generally considered the writer. The account there given of it is not uninteresting, and is preceded by a cursory advertence to the other hymns of the Middle Ages, including a Greek version of some of the stanzas of Thomas Aquinas, the "Angelic Doctor's," impressive "Lauda Sion."

J.R.

—I should inform Fm. that there is an equestrian statue of the Earl of Hopetown in front of the Royal Bank, St. Andrew's Square, Edinburgh. The earl, however, is not mounted; he stands beside the horse.

S. WMSON.

—I have seen no answer to Reader's inquiry. I have always understood that the kneeling figures were the children who died in the lifetime of their parents (sometimes they are even represented in the swaddling-bands of Chrysom children), while those represented standing survived them. This of course is only when some are represented kneeling and others standing, as in some instances all are kneeling. I believe my supposition is grounded on some better authority than my own fancy, but I cannot refer to any at present.

H.N.E.

Bilton, July 3. 1851.

—R. W. B. will find some information on the subject of organs in Staveley's History of Churches in England, pp. 203. 207., a work replete with much interesting matter connected with churches.

E. C. HARINGTON.

Exeter, July 1. 1851.

—Does not the passage—

simply mean, "Dare we dream of" the God who made us as of a finite creature, who requires "practice" ere His work can be perfect, and whose skill shall be progressive? In short, "dare we" think of Him as such an one as ourselves?

SELEUCUS.

Information on this subject will be found in Hawkins's History of Music, vol. i. p. 398. et seq.; Burney's History of Music, vol. ii. p. 131. Busby's Dictionary of Music; John Gregory's Works ("Discourse declaring what Time the Nicene Creed began to be Sung in the Church"), and in Staveley's History of Churches in England.

T. J.

The above has been inquired for: of the author I know nothing.

S. H.

St. Johns Wood.

—It is very difficult to strike out the verse in Homer's Odyssey (Υ, 302.). To suppose that in him the word is derived from Sardinia, is exceedingly improbable, if not, as Payne Knight says, quite absurd because, not only is Sardinia not mentioned in Homer, but his geography, even where half-fabulous, and with other names than the modern ones, does not extend so far west. Payne Knight says the word is derived from σαρδαίνω, but where such a word is found I cannot learn. There is σαρδάζω in Suidas, "to laugh bitterly," but unluckily the very same words are given as the interpretation of σαρκάζω, and σαρκάζω is a perfectly established word. Sarcasm, sarcastic, are derived from it; and its own derivation from σάρξ "flesh," seems certain. This makes it highly probable that the first word in Suidas is a mistake for the other. All Greek writers borrowed so much from Homer that the occurrence of the word in them, where obviously [73] meaning Sardinian, seems to prove nothing but that they thought it had that meaning in him.

C. B.

—The question is asked, "Has the name of the lady of Lausanne, who wrote the epitaph on Voltaire,

been ascertained?" It has; and the lady was Madame la Baronne de Montolieu, who wrote a great variety of novels, of which by far the best, and indeed one of the most interesting in the French language, is her Caroline de Lichtfield, first published at Lausanne in 1786, two volumes 8vo. Her family name was de Bottens (Pauline-Isabelle), born at Lausanne in 1751, and there died in December, 1832. Her first husband was Benjamin de Crouzas, son to one of Montesquieu's adversaries, after whose death she married the Baron de Montolieu. It was Gibbon's most intimate friend and literary collaborateur, Deyverdun, who published, and indeed corrected, her then anonymous Caroline de Lichtfield.

Voltaire's friend and mistress, the learned Madame du Châtelet, had prepared an inscription for his portrait, which may be considered an anticipated epitaph:

but one of a very different tenor was written by J. J. Rousseau, we are told by Lord Brougham:

J. R.

—The inquiry, "Where is Voltaire situated?" was answered in a late number, and reference made to the Essays of an Octogenarian, a privately-printed work, and therefore not generally accessible; but the subject will be equally found elucidated in the Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1846, p. 25. No such place ever existed, as there made clear; for it is the simple anagram of his patronymic, Arouet l j (le jeune), framed by himself though by Condorcet and other biographers, ignorant of the fact, supposed to be a landed property. Voltaire loved not his paternal name, as will be there found, and gladly changed it. The article embraces various particulars of Voltaire's life, in refutation of Lord Brougham's errors; some of them strange enough, and not inconsiderable in number, so as to excite surprise in so accomplished a person.

J. R.

—See Quarterly Review, No. xxix. vol. xv. p. 187., where Southey quotes Hakewill's Apology as authority for an epitaph in Dunstable Church to a woman who had, at three several times, three children at a birth; and five at a birth two other times.

A. C.

"May 1.—I was looking out of the parlour window this morning, and receiving the honours which Margery, the milkmaid to our lane, was doing me, by dancing before my door with the plate of half her customers on her head."—Tatler for May 2, 1710.

R. J. R.

is the end of an inscription at the Leasowes "to Miss Dolman, a beautiful and amiable relation of Mr. Shenstone's, who died of the small-pox, about twenty-one years of age," in the following words. On one side:

On the other side:

C. B.

This quotation is Shenstone's "Epitaph on his Sister."

J. O. B., however, has given it incorrectly: it should be—

Moore has done something towards giving the force of this strikingly concentrated sentence, thus:—

H. E. H.

—I think there can be little doubt that the "Robert Passellew" of Waltham Abbey, and "John Paslew," the last abbot of Whalley, belong to the same family. A reference to Burke's General Armory proves the armorial bearings to be the same, and also that the family was connected with the county of Durham. The following extract from the Historical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Account of Kirkstall Abbey (Longmans, 1827), will show that a century later the Paslews had obtained a footing in Yorkshire, and had become benefactors of Kirkstall:

"Robert Passelowe, with King Richard II.'s licence, gave one toft, five acres of land, and an annual rent of 2s. 6d. in Bramley, with the reversion of nine messuages, seven oxgangs, and six acres and a half of land, [74] after the decease of the tenants, ..., all which premises were valued at £4 2s. 6d. per annum."—P. 208.

T. T. W.

Burnley, Lancashire.

—"A E I O U." Do not these letters stand for "αει ου"—non semper? alluding to the resurrection from the tomb.

J. H. L.

May not the five vowels at the end of the Latin epitaph of Lady Petre's monument mean,

F. A.

Hampstead.

—Touching this subject I can state that I am well acquainted with an admirable portrait of the poet, bearing date 1593, in which he is represented as a man of not more than middle age; so that, whether he died in 1596 or 1598, he may be said to have died prematurely—immaturâ morte obiisse, as the monument testifies.

VARRO.

—The priest of the Greek church, in blessing with the hand, anciently held it with the thumb crossing the third finger, the first finger being held straight, the second and fourth curved, so as to represent altogether the Greek letters I C X C, the first and last letters of "Jesus Christ." The same letters are impressed on the bread used in their eucharist, the bread being marked with the Greek cross, similar to our cross-buns, with the letters I C and X C in the upper angles of the cross, and the letters N and K in the two lower angles. The N K is the abbreviation of νίκᾳ, and the whole phrase is "Jesus Christ conquers." This church derived the expression from the standard (labarum) of Constantine, ἐν τούτῳ νίκᾳ = in hoc signo vinces. In Goar's notes on the Greek rituals, especially that of Chrysostom's, much information may be obtained on the symbolisms of Christianity.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

—This oratorio doubtless received its name from the special occasion when it was composed, viz. the suppression of the rebellion in 1745. It was published by Tonson in Feb. 1746, at the price of 1s., together with various poems, &c. relating to the same important event. The Oratorio is divided into three parts: with the exception of the overture, four of the airs, and two of the choruses, it contains little that can be popular at the present day.

J. H. M.

—Francis Moore was not a real personage, but a pseudonyme adopted by the author, Mr. Henry Andrews, who was born at Frieston, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, February 4, 1744, and died at Royston, Herts, January 26, 1820. Andrews was astronomical calculator to the Board of Longitude, and for years corresponded with Maskelyne and other eminent men. A portrait of Andrews is extant; one is in my possession: they are now extremely scarce.

As to the date of the almanack's first appearance I can afford no information; but it can be obtained of Mr. W. H. Andrews, only son of the astronomer, who still resides at Royston, and is in possession of his MSS., consisting of astronomical and astrological calculations, notes of various phenomena, materials for a history of Royston, memoir of his own life, his correspondence, &c.

FRANCIS.

—This saying occurs in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals:

This quotation may not be of much service as a clue to the discovery of the origin of the saying; but it may be interesting to MR. BREEN as a proof that the saying itself must be considerably more than two hundred years old, the second part of the Pastorals having been first published in 1616.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

"BOMERIE, S. F. [terme de mer, prêt à la grosse aventure] bottomry or bottomree."—Boyer's Fr. and Engl. Dict., ed. London, 1767.

The leading idea in the term Bomerie, and its English equivalent, when applied to borrowing money "on a ship's keel," is the hazarding all on a single venture: hence it is not difficult to see its application to other transactions, especially those connected with sea; such as wholesale purchases of fish, in which a large risk is run, with an uncertain prospect of return.

The meaning of the word, if it be really the same, when adopted by confectioners, would probably be assignable either to the shape of the pans, or the use to which they were applied.

I know not whether this is to be classed among the "unsatisfactory" derivations already submitted to your correspondent, but should be glad to hear his opinion on its soundness.

E. A. D.

—Had O. O. consulted the "Life of Sheridan" which precedes Bohn's Collection of the Dramatic Works of Sheridan (which, having the volume in his hand, [75] he ought to have done), he would have seen that it is expressly mentioned (p. 51.) that Sheridan, having become part proprietor of Drury Lane Theatre—

"His first commencement as a manager was not of that brilliant kind to give any promise of great improvement in the conduct of the theatre. An alteration of Vanbrugh's play the Relapse was the first production, under the name of a Trip to Scarborough. It was brought out on February 24, 1777. This was an unfortunate commencement: neither the public nor the actors were satisfied."

Further, it is printed at the end of Sheridan's Dramatic Works, followed by Pizarro, printed in smaller type, so as to make them appear like an appendix; and hence it could hardly be expected that any one would think of attributing the Trip to Scarborough, altered from Vanbrugh's Relapse, to Sheridan, any more than it could be considered as intended to call him the author of Pizarro, because he altered Kotzebue's Spaniards in Peru, and adapted it to, and had it represented on, the stage.

A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.

—This line of Plautus is followed by parallel quotations from other writers. To these I may add the French version:

J. R.

—Fuller, in his Worthies of England, edit. London, 1662, "Staffordshire," p. 41., uses this expression, writing, of Cardinal Pole. It is as follows:

"Yet afterwards he (Pole) became 'Alterius Orbis Papa,' when made Archbishop of Canterbury by Queen Mary."

J. N. B.

West Bromwich, June 28. 1851.

—In Fynes Moryson's Itinerary, "printed by John Beale, 1617, part iii. booke i. chap. ii. p. 21.," is the following passage:

"In hot regions, to auoide the beames of the sunne, in some places (as in Italy) they carry Vmbrels, or things like a little canopy, over their heads; but a learned Physician told me, that the use of them was dangerous, because they gather the heate into a pyramidall point, and thence cast it down perpendicularly upon the head, except they know how to carry them for auoyding that danger."

C. DE D.

—Quitard, a French writer on Proverbs, says,—

"On a regardé le cœur comme le siége de la Mémoire. De là les mots recorder, se recorder, récordance, récordation, en Latin recordari, recordatio; de là aussi l'expression apprendre par cœur. Rivarol dit que cette expression, si ordinaire et si énergique, vient du plaisir que nous prenons à ce qui nous touche et nous flatte. La mémoire, en effet, est toujours aux ordres du cœur."

J. M.

Oxford.

—I beg to refer your correspondent M. D. to Cicero's De Claris Oratoribus, which is the nearest parallel passage I can find: viz.

"Erat omnius tum mos, ut in reliquis rebus melior, sic in hoc ipso humanior: ut faciles essent in suum cuique tribuendo."

In a note, an allusion to Justice is made: but my Cicero is a very old edition, and is divided into four tomes. The above is from tome i. p. 305, letter F.

The only other parallel passage is from Liber II., "Ad Herennium," thus:

"Justitia est habitus animi, communi utilitate conservata, suam cuique tribuens dignitatem."

J. N. C.

King's Lynn, June 28. 1851.

—I must take leave to doubt the fact, mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 490., of the introduction of frogs into Ireland first in the year 1696. They are much too plentiful in the country districts, leaving out their abundance in the county Dublin, to warrant any such supposition. In the Queen's County, particularly, I have seen them in myriads. With regard to those gentlemen who are pleased to import snakes into Ireland, I can only wish them some worthier occupation.

There are two birds, the occurrence of which about Dublin I do not find noticed by naturalists. One is the common skylark, the other is the Royston crow, which, strange to say, is not a migratory visitor, but is found there the whole year round.

Concerning Round Towers, mentioned at pages 353. and 428., I beg to refer W. R. M. to the works of Wilkinson, Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, and Moore's History of Ireland, in addition to Petrie, Keating, &c. When in Galway, in January, 1850, I noticed some remarkable instances of resemblance to Spaniards amongst the peasant women and girls. It was, however, by no means general; but only observable here and there, in a few particular instances. Between Galway and Oughterard I passed a girl walking barefooted along the dirty road, whose features were strikingly beautiful, set off with long raven tresses and large dark eyes, signs apparently of her Spanish origin. The town of Galway is full of interesting memorials of its connexion with Spain, and well repays a visit. Its ancient prosperity will now be probably revived [76] again, and, with its singularly advantageous position, and its future intercourse with America, it cannot fail to rise once more from its ruins and its dirt, unless prevented by the prevalence of political agitation.

WILLIAM E. C. NOURSE.

—J. S. will find these lines in print, in the "Poetry" of the Annual Register for 1764, vol. vii. p. 247. They are said to have been stuck on the Temple gate.

J. K.

—A more correct description will be found in Lysons' Cornwall: see "Town Seal of Falmouth."

S. H. (2)

—In Poulson's Beverlac; or History of the Antiquities of Beverley in Yorkshire, pp. 263, 264. et seq., is an account of the expenses of the "Twelve Governors of Beverley on a visit to the Earl of Northumberland at Leconfield Castle." Among the presents made to the Earl (Henry Algernon Percy, fifth earl, born Jan. 1477-8, died 1527) for so distinguished an honour are four heronsewes, heronseu, hornsue, or hernshaw, for it is written in all these ways. Was a young heron formerly esteemed a choice delicacy? Chaucer, describing the feast of Cambisscan, says:

But even the full-grown bird was not too powerful for the digestive organs in those days: it was termed viand royal, and heronries were maintained for the purpose of food, as well as diversion. In the Northumberland Household Book, these birds, with many others, are named as then served up at table, but which are now discarded as little better than carrion.

From hernshaw, still further corrupted, arose the proverbial expression introduced by Shakspeare into Hamlet,—

"I am but mad north-north-west, when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand-saw."

G. P.

—Do the following passages from the "Version of the Psalms" in the Book of Common Prayer throw any light upon the subject?

"And the foundations of the round world were discovered."—Ps. xviii. 15.

"The compass of the world, and they that dwell therein."—Ps. xxiv. 1.

"Thou hast laid the foundation of the round world, and all that therein is."—Ps. lxxxix. 12.

"He hath made the round world so sure."—Ps. xciii. 2.

"And that it is he who hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved."—Ps. xcvi. 10.

"The round world, and they that dwell therein."—Ps. xcviii. 8.

R. H.

—Coke is by lawyers generally pronounced like the article which feeds our steam-engines; but the late Earl of Leicester was generally, in Norfolk and elsewhere, called Cook. The presumption is, that Cook was the ancient sound given to the word Coke. Cowper is a similar instance: I believe it has always been called Cooper. In an old electioneering squib by the late Lord John Townshend, Cowper is made to rhyme to Trooper. The passage alludes to an old county scandal, and I do not therefore quote it.

J. H. L.

There can be no doubt (as it seems to me) that the poet's name ought to be pronounced according to the spelling. I am enabled to state decidedly that he himself pronounced his name Cowper, and not Cooper. I venture to think that the same might also be said with respect to Lord Coke's name; i. e. that the pronunciation Cook is only a "modern affectation."

R. VINCENT.

—All English chaplains on the Continent are licensed to their respective chaplaincies by the Bishop of London, and are within his ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This may have given rise to the notion of which your correspondent speaks.

R. VINCENT.

—In reply to the question of your correspondent W. P., I beg to inform him that the custom originated from that period of our history when the Dutch admiral, Van Tromp, with his fleet appeared on our coasts in hostility against England. The broom was hoisted as indicative of his intention to sweep the ships of England from the sea. To repel this insolence the English admiral hoisted a horse-whip, equally indicative of his intention to chastise the Dutchman. The pennant which the horse-whip symbolised has ever since been the distinguishing mark of English ships of war.

JAMES CORNISH.

—Your correspondents N. and C. H. may find some interesting passages of Godwin's life in his Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin: Johnson, St. Paul's Church Yard, 1798.

JAMES CORNISH.

—Bold may find some information which will assist him in a pedigree and account of this family, showing the descent of the manor of South and North Kyme in Lincolnshire, in Creasy's History of Sleaford and the surrounding Neighbourhood, p. 274. The barony of Kyme appears to have passed into the [77] female line by the death of William de Kyme without issue in 12 Edward III.

J. P. JUN.

"The belted plaid was the original dress. It is precisely that of a savage, who, finding a web of cloth he had not skill to frame into a garment, wrapt one end round his middle, and threw the rest about his shoulders.... And it is little to the honour of Highland ingenuity, that although the chiefs wore long pantaloons called trews, the common gael never fell upon any substitute for the belted plaid, till an English officer, for the benefit of the labourers who worked under his direction on the military roads, invented the fileah beg, philabeg, or little petticoat, detached from the plaid, and fastened by a buckle round the waist."

Although the above extract from the Quarterly Review, vol. i. p. 186., is not exactly a reply to the Query of A JUROR (Vol. iv., p. 7.), still it may be of some use to him.

I would like also to learn how much of the reviewer's story is founded upon fact, as I confess I am very much inclined to doubt the truth of it in toto.

A LOWLANDER.

—The story referred to by MR. CAMPKIN does not appear to be so apocryphal as he supposes. Southey, who was an eye-witness of the illuminations, gives it as an indisputed fact. His words are:

"We entered the avenue immediately opposite to M. Otto's, and raising ourselves by the help of a garden wall, overlooked the crowd, and thus obtained a full and uninterrupted sight of what thousands and tens of thousands were vainly struggling to see. To describe it, splendid as it was, is impossible; the whole building presented a front of light. The inscription was 'Peace and Amity:' it had been 'Peace and Concord,' but a party of soldiers in the morning, whose honest patriotism did not regard trifling differences of orthography, insisted upon it that they were not conquered, and that no Frenchman should say so; and so the word Amity, which can hardly be regarded as English, was substituted in its stead."[2]

[2] Letters from England, by Don Manuel Alvarez Espriella, translated from the Spanish (3 vols. 12mo. London, 1807), vol. i. lett. 8. p. 93.

DOUGLAS ALLPORT.

—I can perhaps give D. X. some information respecting the ancient family of Basnet, being related to them through my mother.

From papers in our possession, we have always considered ourselves descended from Edward Basnet, the first married Dean of St. Patrick's; and I drew up a pedigree of the family, which is in Berry's Berkshire. But the proofs only go as far as Thomas Basnet, of Coventry, born in 1590. Lawrance Basset, otherwise Bassnet, of Bainton, in the fee of the hundred of Hatton, in the parish of Budworth, in the palatine of Chester, living in the 27th of Henry VIII., anno 1536, was descended of a younger house of Sir Philip Basset, knight, &c. of St. Hillane, in the county of Glamorgan. He had Piers Basnet, of Bainton aforesaid, lived in the time of Henry VIII., anno 1547, purchased land in Bainton of Edward Starkie, of Simondston in Lancashire, married Ann, dau. of Robert Eaton, of Over Whitley, first wife, by whom he had two sons, Thomas and Henry. The second wife was dau. of —— Stretch, of Leigh, had one son Robert, of the city of Chester.

The second son of Lawrance Basset, or Bassnet, was Hugh, of Leigh, living temp. Henry VIII., anno 1543.

The third son was Thomas, temp. Henry VIII., 1539, whose son (we suppose) was Edward Basnet, Dean of St. Patrick's whose grandson was an ensign in General Monk's own regiment, the Coldstream Guards, 1660. He left the regiment in 1665.

In the Egerton Papers, Camden Soc., vol. xii., is this account:

"Amongst those appointed for the Privy Council for the better government of Ireland, in the year July 1550, was Edward Basnet, clerk, late Dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin."

The arms of the present family are Argent, a cheveron gules, between three helmets, close ppr. Crest: an arm, embowed, in armour, holding a cutlas, all proper.

By applying to Charles Basnett, Esq., No. 3. Brock Street, Bath, D. X. may have a full account of this family.

JULIA R. BOCKETT.

Southcote Lodge, July 17. 1851.

As we last week called attention to the Three Treatises by John Wickliffe just published by Dr. Todd of Dublin, we may very properly record the sale by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson on Tuesday the 8th of this month of a MS. volume containing twelve treatises (which are all said to be unpublished) written by John Wickliffe and Richard Hampole. The volume, a small 8vo., was of the fourteenth century, with a few leaves supplied by a hand of the sixteenth, and contained "A Tretis on the Ten Heestis (i.e. Commandments), A Prologue of the Paternoster, 'Here suen dyverse chapitris excitynge men to hevenli desijr,' the Councell of Christ, Off vertuous pacience, Wickliffe's Chartre of Hevene, The Hors or Armour off Hevene, the Name off Jhesu, The Love of Jhesu, Off verri Mekenes, Off the Effect off Mannes Will, Of Actif Liif and Contemplatif Lyf, The Mirrour of Chastitee." It was purchased by Bumstead of Holborn for 11l. The next lot in the same sale was the original manuscript Diary, extending from October, 1675, to September, 1684, of Annesley Earl of Anglesey, Lord Privy Seal in the reign of Charles II., which was purchased by Boone, it is believed on [78] commission for the British Museum, for the sum of 12l. 10s.

The Athenæum of Saturday last publishes some inquiries from Mr. Payne Collier connected with the manuscript play by Anthony Mundy, which forms the subject of SIR F. MADDEN'S interesting, communication in our present number. Mr. Collier is about to edit the drama in question for the Shakspeare Society; and the object of his paper, which well deserves the attention of our readers, is to obtain information respecting two wizards or magicians who figure in it, the one named John a Kent, and the other John a Cumber, who must formerly have been popular heroes, and been recorded in ballads and chapbooks which have now entirely disappeared. We call attention to these inquiries with the view of giving additional publicity to them, and in the hope of procuring from Mr. Collier some Notes respecting these old world heroes, of one of whom, John a Kent, some particulars are to be found, we believe, in Coxe's Monmouthshire.

The obituary of the past week contains the name of one of the most distinguished historical writers of the present day, the Rev. Dr. Lingard. An able and zealous champion of the Church of which he was so eminent a member, his tolerant spirit and independent principles show that of Dr. Lingard may be said, what was applied with admirable propriety to his co-religionist, the late learned librarian at Stowe, by Sir James Macintosh, that he was

The sale of M. Donnadieu's valuable collection of Autographs will commence on Tuesday next, and occupy five days. The Catalogue, which has been prepared by Messrs. Puttick and Simpson with their usual care, is itself a very interesting document. Our limits will not of course admit of our specifying a tithe of the curious and valuable articles which are now to be brought to the hammer: but as specimens of the richness of the collection, we will point out a few which are of importance, as illustrative of English history. Lot 165, for instance, is Charles I.'s Marriage Contract with the Infanta of Spain, a document of the highest value, but which has not, we believe, as yet been printed either accurately or entirely. Lot 184 is a most interesting letter from Charles II. to his Sister the Duchess of Orleans, written from Canterbury the day after he landed at Dover; while Lot 661 is a most pathetic Letter from the Duke of Monmouth to the Earl of Rochester, entreating his intercession with James, and written five days before his execution. Lot 254 is The Original Warrant to the Lord Mayor of London, directing him to proclaim Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Dominions thereto belonging; and Lot 500, a Warrant of the Privy Council of Lady Jane Gray, is a document of the highest importance, as proving (what has been doubted) that the Council of Lady Jane Grey did actually perform official acts as a Council. These of course are among the gems of the collection; but in the whole thousand lots there is not one but is of interest.

CATALOGUES RECEIVED.—J. Sage's (4. Newman's Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields) Miscellaneous List for July, 1851, of Valuable and Interesting Books; T. Kerslake's (3. Park Street, Bristol) Catalogue of Books lately bought.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street. [79]

LADY FLORA HASTINGS' BEQUEST. The communications we have received reiterating Miss Barber's claim to the authorship of this Poem shall appear in our next number.

JARLTZBERG. Will this correspondent say how we may address a communication to him?

The necessity of making up our Paper earlier than usual in consequence of issuing a DOUBLE NUMBER has compelled us to omit two or three Queries, to which, at the special request of the writers, we should otherwise have given immediate insertion. They shall appear next week.

A. G. W. will find the proverbial saying:

very fully illustrated in "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., pp. 347. 351. 421. 476.

ÆGROTUS is thanked. His communication has only been laid aside until we have time to separate the different articles. Our correspondents would greatly oblige us if they would, when writing on several subjects, keep them separate and distinct. Are we at liberty to publish any of the anecdotes contained in Ægrotus' last letter?

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Kiss the Hare's Foot—Family of Kyme-Registry of British Subjects Abroad—Coke and Cowper—Dr. Elrington's Edition of Ussher—Dunmore Castle—Bummaree—Notation by Coal-whippers—William Hone—Baronets of Ireland—Dryden and Oldham—Bellarmin's Monstrous Paradox—Book Plates—Thread the Needle—Miss or Mistress—Planets of the Month—Theobald Anguilbert—Heu quanto minus—Peace Illumination—Salting the Dead—Lady Flora Hastings' Bequest—P's and Q's—Nervous—Scandal against Elizabeth—Mosaic—"Rack" in the Tempest—Jonah and the Whale—Gooseberry Fool—Spencer Perceval—Sardonic Smiles.

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.

The commencement of a New Volume with our 88th Number 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 and twopence for six months, which may be paid by Post-Office Order, drawn in favour of our Publisher, MR. GEORGE BELL, No. 186. Fleet Street.

VOL. III., neatly bound in cloth, and with very copious Index, is now ready, price 9s. 6d. VOLS. I. and II. 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.

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