Vol. 4—No. 97. NOTES & QUERIES: A way to communicate FOR Writers, artists, historians, genealogists, etc.

VOL. IV.—No. 97.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4d.

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

This learned friend of Spenser and Sir Philip Sydney (though better known from his quarrel with Tom Nashe) was in the habit of writing copious memoranda in his books, several of which were in the library of Mr. Lloyd, of Wygfair. Among them some miscellaneous volumes, which I believe afterwards passed into the collection of Mr. Heber, contained remarkable specimens of his calligraphic skill. His name was written four or five times: "Gabriel Harveins, 1579," and with variation, "Gabrielis Harveij" and "di Gabriello Haveio." The volumes contained the Medea and Giocasta of Lodovico Dolce, in Italian; the Hecuba and Iphigenia of Euripides in Latin, by Erasmus, the Comedies of Terence, &c.; and the first Italian and English Grammar, by Henry Grantham, 1575. On the blank pages and spaces what follows was inscribed:—

"La Giocasta d' Euripide, Dolce, et Gascoigno. Senecæ et Statii Thebais. Item Senecæ Œdipus. Quasi Synopsis Tragœdiarum omnium.—NON GIOCO, MA GIOCASTA."

"Omne genus scripti, gravitate Tragœdia vincit."

"Hæ quatuor Tragœdiæ, instar omnium Tragœdiarum pro tempore: præsertim cum reliquarum non suppetit copia. Duæ Euripidis placent in primis, et propter auctoris prudentissimam veram, et propter interpretis singularem delectum. Eadem in Sophoclis Antigonem affectio, ab Episcopo Vatsono tralatam: cum propter interpretis accuratum judicium. Qui tanti fecit optimo Tragicos, ut eosdem soleret cum Checo et Aschamo, omnibus aliis poetis anteferre; etiam Homero et Virgilio."

"Questa Medea di Dolce non è Medea di Seneca. Ma Thieste di Dolce è Thieste medesimo di Seneca. Solo coro nel fin è soperchievole."

"Gascoigni Jocasta, magnifice acta solemne ritu, et vere tragico apparatu. Ut etiam Vatsoni Antigone; cuive pompæ seriæ, et exquisita. Usque adeo quidem utraque ut nihil in hoc tragico genere vel illustrius vel accuratius."

"Jam floruerant prudentissimi Attici, Pericles, Thucydides, Sophocles; jam florent Plato, Xenophon, Demosthenes, cum Euripides pangit Tragœdias. Nec excellentissimorum Atticorum, ullus vel prudentior Euripides, vel argutior, vel etiam elegantior. Nihil in eo nugarum, nihil affectationis, et tamen singula ubique cultissima."

"Erasmus talis Euripidis interpres, qualis Pindari Melancthon. Fœlix utriusque ad interpretandum dexteritas et fluens elocutionis facilitas. Plus in Erasmo diligentiæ; in Melancthone perspicuitas. Quam persequebatur, Camerarius, nec tamen assequebatur."

"Erasmi ferè jadicium acre, et serium nec dubium est, quin delectum adhibucrit in sapientissimis Tragœdiis eligendis exquisitum."

"Ut ferè fœminas; sic Comœdias et Tragœdias; qui unam omnimodo novit, omnes novit quodam modo. Saltem ex ungue, Leonem; ex clave, Herculem."

[170] "Quattro Comedie del divino Pietro Aretino. Cioè Il Marescalco ò Pedante.—La Cortigiana.—La Talanta.—Lo Hippocrito.

"Habeo et legi: sed nondum comprare potui Il Filosofo: quæ tamen ipsius, Comœdia dicitur etiam exstare.

"Memorantur etiam duæ illius Tragœdiæ, L'Hortensia.—Tragœdia di Christo.

"Comedie, Dialoghi capricciosi, Le Lettere, e Capitoli dell' Unico: Historie del suo tempo. La quinta essenza del suo unico ingegno; e lo specchio di tutte l'arti Cortegiane.

"Due Comedie argutissime et facetissime di Macchiavelli Politico: La Mandragola.—La Clitia."

"IL LEGGERE NUTRISCA LO INGEGNO."

"Suppositi d'Ariosto: Comœdiam singulariter laudate à P. Jovio in Elogiis; cum Plautinis facilè contendens Inventionis, atque successus amenitate; si utriusque sæculi mores non inepte comparentur. Syncrisis ætatum necessaria, ad Comœdiarum, Historiarum, aliorumque Scriptorum excellentia in examinandam, atque judicandam solerti censura."

"Arciprologo quasi di tutte le Comedie, il primo dell' Aretino; et il terzo e quarto dello' stesso."

"Ut Comœdias, sic Tragœdias; qui tres aut quatuor intimè novit, novit ferè omnes. Tanti valet hic aureus libellus. Meo tandem judicio, Poetarum sapientissimus, Euripides: vel ipse Sophocle magis Attice nervosus et profundus, ut Seneca Latine."

"Ecce reliquiæ et fragmenta Menandri, Epicharmi, Alexidis, reliquiorumque Græcorum Comicorum. Cum toto Aristophane. Et fortasse senties nova veteribus non esse potiora. Nec usquam prudentiores Gnomas invenies, ne apud Theognidem quidem aut Isocratem.

"Placent etiam Comœdiæ quæ non sunt Comœdiæ; et Tragœdiæ quæ non sunt Tragœdiæ: Ut utriusque generis multæ egregiæ apud Homerum, et Virgilium in Heroicis; Frontinum et Polyænum in Strategematis; Stephanum in Apologia Herodoti: Rabelesium in Heroicis Gargantuæ: Sidneium in novissima Arcadiæ: Domenichum in Facetiis. Quomodo antiquorum unus Græcorum dixit:—Delicatissimos esse Pisces quæ non sunt Pisces, et carnes lautissimas quæ non sunt carnes. Da mihi Fabulas non Fabulas, Apologos non Apologos. Et sensi optima Apophthegmata quæ non sunt Apophthegmata: Optima Adagia quæ non Adagia.

"Inutiliter Tragœdias legit qui nescit philosophicas sententias a Tyrannicis distinguere. Alia scholarum doctrina, alia regnorum disciplina. Politico opus est judicio ad distinguendum prudentissimas sententias à reliquis. Nec semper Tyrannus barbarus: nec semper poeta, aut philosophus sapiens: solertis judiciis fuerit, non quis dicat, set quia dicatur respicere, et undique optima seligere."

"Euripidis Jocastæ apud Gascoignum summa ferè Tragœdiarum omnium."

"No finer or pithier Examples than in ye excellent Comedies and Tragedies following, full of sweet and wise discourse. A notable Dictionarie for the Grammer."

"Ut de hac Terentii tralatione sentirem honorificentius; fecit Aldus exquisita editio."

I thought these notes worth transcribing, not only as showing the attention paid by the learned students of this time to the drama, as well ancient as modern, but more especially for the mention made of the Jocasta of George Gascoigne, and the Antigone of Sophocles, translated, as he says, by Watson, Bishop of Worcester, and not by Thomas Watson, as Warton supposed. It may be doubted whether this translation was into English; but Harvey seems to imply that it was acted, as well as the Jocasta. Bishop Watson was celebrated for his dramatic skill, in his Latin tragedy of Absalon, by Roger Ascham, who says,—

"When M. Watson, in St. John's College at Cambridge, wrote his excellent Tragedie of Absalon, M. Cheke, he, and I, had many pleasant talkes togither, in comparing the preceptes of Aristotle and Horace with the examples of Euripides, Sophocles, and Seneca.... M. Watson had another maner of care of perfection, with a feare and reverence of the judgement of the best learned: who to this day would neuer suffer yet his Absalon to go abroad, and that onelie bicause (in locis paribus) Anapæstus is twise or thrise used instead of Iambus."

In a volume in the Bodleian Library marked Z. 3., Art. "Selden," is "The Life of Howleglas," printed by Copland: at the bottom of the last page is the following MS. note:

"This Howleglasse, with Scoggin, Skelton, and (L——zario——?) given me at London of M. Spenser, xx Decembris, 1578, on condition yt I shoold bestowe ye readinge on them, on or before ye first day of January immediately ensuinge: otherwise to forfeit unto him my Lucian in fower volumes. Whereupon I was ye rather induced to trifle away so many howers as were idely overpassed in running through ye aforesaid foolish bookes; wherein methought yt not all fower together seemed comparable for fine and crafty feates with Jon Miller, whose witty shiftes and practises are reported among Skelton's Tales."

Mr. Malone, from whose memoranda I copy this, says, "I suspect it is Gabriel Harvey's handwriting."

I have a copy of the Organon of Aristotle in Greek, which bears marks of Gabriel Harvey's diligent scholarship. It is copiously annotated and analysed by him when a student at Cambridge, and he has registered the periods at which he completed the study of each part.

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham, Aug. 15. 1851.

This has been the subject of many discussions, and has recently found a place in the columns of "NOTES AND QUERIES." I do not propose to take any part in the present discussion, but it may be of some service to historical students for me to [171] introduce to public notice a much older authority than any that has yet been cited.

It is known to but few antiquaries out of the principality, that the ancient poetry of Wales throws more light on the immediate post-Roman history of Britain than any documents in existence. These poems vividly pourtray the social condition of the period, and contain almost the only records of the great contest between the natives and the Saxon invaders; they prove beyond a doubt that the Romans had left the province in an advanced stage of civilisation, and they supply us with the means of affirming decisively, that the vine was cultivated here to a very considerable extent.

The antiquity of these poems admits of no reasonable doubt; on that point the Vindication of Turner enables the antiquaries of Wales to make this assertion with confidence: and having recently translated most of our old poems, with a view to future publication, I feel myself warranted in assuming them to belong to the sixth and seventh centuries of our era. One of these bards, Aneurin by name, belonged to the British tribe, described by the Romans as Ottadini, and by themselves as the people of Gododin. This people were situated at the junction of England and Scotland, and the poems of this bard chiefly refer to that district; but as the bards were a rambling class, and as the bulk of the people from Chester to Dumbarton were the same race as the people of the principality, we are not surprised when we find this bard sometimes among "the banks and braes of bonny Doon," and sometimes in North and South Wales. In one of his verses he thus describes the kilt of a British chief:—

These lines may be found in the Myvyrian Archæology, vol. i. p. 13. col. 1.; and a most unwarrantable translation of dinogat may be found in Davies' Mythology of the Druids; but the literal rendering would be this:

Peis or pais is the word now used for the article of female attire known as a petti-coat, which in form bears a sufficiently close resemblance to the male kilt to justify me in using that word here. It also occurs in pais-arfau, a coat of arms, and pais-ddur, a coat of mail. The words vreith vreith have been translated word for word; in the Kymric language it is a very common form of emphatic expression to repeat the word on which the emphasis falls, as yn dda da for very good; but a more idiomatic translation would have been, very stripy. Vraith with us also stands for plaid, and in the Welsh Bible Joseph's "coat of many colours" is named siacced vraith.

Now I will not attempt to determine what relation this kilt stands in to the kilts of the Highlands, whether the Gael borrowed it from the Briton, or the Briton from the Gael, or whether the dress was common to both at the time in which Dinogad lived; but thus much appears to be clear, that we here have a kilt, and that that kilt was striped, if not a plaid; and it only remains for us to determine the period at which Dinogad lived. Most persons are acquainted with the name of Brochmael, Prince of Powys, the British commander at the battle of Bangor in 613, on the occasion of the dispute between Augustine and the primitive British church; Dinogad stood to him in the following relation:

Of Dinogad himself there is but one fact on record, and that took place in 577. His brother Selyf fell at the battle of Bangor or Chester in 613. If we take these facts together, we may form a pretty accurate idea respecting the period at which he lived.

Viewing this matter from a Cambrian standpoint, I feel myself warranted in hazarding the following remarks. In the lines of Aneurin, the thing selected for special notice is the excess of stripe; and therefore, whether it was the invention of Dinogad, or whether he borrowed the idea from the Scots or Picts when he was at Dumbarton in 577, it is quite clear, from the repetition of the word vreith, that his kilt had the attribute of stripyness to a greater extent than was usually the case; while it is also equally clear, that amongst the Britons of that period, kilts of a stripy character were so common as to excite no surprise. We may therefore affirm,

1. That in the beginning of the seventh century the British chiefs were in the habit of wearing skin kilts.

2. That striped kilts were common.

3. That a chief named Dinogad was distinguished by an excess of this kind of ornament. And

4. That as the Kymry of North Britain were on intimate terms with their neighbours, it is highly probable that the Scottish kilt is much older than 1597.

T. STEPHENS.

Merthyr Tydfil.

In approaching a subject set at rest so long since, I feel some apology due to you; and that apology I will make by giving you the results of my recent investigation of the question of Vineta [172] v. Julin alias Wollin, made in Pomerania, and noted from personal testimony and Pomeranian chronicles.

But, first, to correct an erreur de plume of DR. BELL'S. He says, in stating the position of Vineta (Vol. ii., p. 283.), "opposite the small town of Demmin, in Pomerania." DR. BELL has mis-written the name: there is no such place on the Baltic. The real name is Damerow, on the Isle of Usedom. A little lower he remarks, speaking of Wollin, "No rudera, no vestiges of ancient grandeur, now mark the spot; not even a tradition of former greatness." In this I think DR. BELL will find (and, I am sure, will readily allow, in the same spirit of good faith in which I make my observations) that he is in error, from the following narrative.

The gentleman who has kindly given me, by word of mouth, the following particulars, is a native of Wollin, and of one of the most ancient and noble families in that island, a relative of that Baron Kaiserling who was the Cicero of Frederick the Great, but of an elder branch of that family, the Counts of Kaiserling. M. de Kaiserling states that, when a young man, in his native town, he took a delight in reading the records of its bygone glory, and in tracing out the ruins in the neighbourhood of the town, extending to the distance of about one English mile from its outskirts. The foundations of houses and tracks of streets[1] are still exposed in the operations of agriculture, and any informant has in his possession several Byzantine and Wendish coins which he at that time picked up. He has likewise seen a Persian coin, which was found in the same neighbourhood by a friend. Having been led by circumstances to examine the evidence pro and con. in this question, he has come to the conclusion that Wollin and Julin or Jumne are identical. He treats the story of Vineta as a nursery tale and a myth.

[1] Particularly the Salmarks (Wendish for Fishmarkets), as they were called.

From the recently-published work on Wollin (Die Insel Wollin und das Seebad Misdroy. Historische Skizze von Georg Wilhelm von Raumer: Berlin, 1851) I extract the following account of Wollin in 1070, as I think it important to have all the best evidence attainable:[2] —

"Adam of Bremen, a contemporaneous historian, has left us a curious description of Wollin as it appeared at the time of its merchant greatness; yet he was himself, most probably, never there, but compiled his account from the narratives of sailors, from whose mouth he, as he says, heard almost incredibilities about the splendour of the town. He describes the famous city as the chief staple place of the trade of the surrounding Slavonians and Russians: also as the largest of all towns at this end of Europe, and inhabited by Slavonians, Russians, and various pagan nations. Also many Germans from Lower Saxony had come to the town, yet it was not permitted them to appear openly as Christians; though the political interests of a trading place, then as now, caused all nations to be allowed the liberty of incolation (Niederlassungsrecht) and toleration. The peculiar inhabitants of the place, particularly those who held the government, were mostly pagans, but of great hospitality, of liberal and humane customs, and great justice. The town had become very rich, by means of the trade of Northern Europe, of which they had almost the monopoly: every comfort and rarity of distant regions was to be found there. The most remarkable thing in Wollin was a pot of Vulcan, which the inhabitants called Greek fire.[3] Probably we should understand by this, a great beacon fire, which the Wolliners sustained by night on account of navigation, and of which a report was among the sailors that it was Greek fire; but it is also possible that in the trade with the Orient, which the discovered Arabic coins prove, real Greek fire was brought to Wollin in pots. A tricaputed idol of a sea-god, or Neptune, stood in Wollin, to denote that the island Wollin was surrounded by three different seas: that is to say, a green one, the Ostsee; a white one, under which we should probably understand the Dievenow; and one which was retained in raging motion by continual storms, the Haff. The navigation from Wollin to Demmin, a trading place of the Peene, is short; also from Wollin to Samland, in Prussia, eight days only were necessary to go by land from Hamburgh to Wollin, or by sea, across Schleswig; and forty-three days was the time of sailing from Wollin to Ostragard in Russia. These notices point to the chief trade of Wollin by sea, that is, with Demmin, Hamburgh, Schleswig, and Holstein, Prussia, and Russia.

"So magnificent was ancient Wollin, according to the narrative of the seamen; yet it must not be considered exactly a northern Venice, but a wide-circuited place, chiefly, however, of wooden houses, and surrounded by walls and palisades, in which (in comparison with the then rudeness and poverty of the countries on the Ostsee) riches and merchandise were heaped up.

"And now it is time to mention the fable of the drowned city Vineta. While an old chronicler, Helmold, follows Adam of Bremen in the description of the city Wollin, he puts, through an error of transcription,[4] in place of Julinum or Jumne, which name Adam of Bremen has, Vineta; such a place could not be found, and it was concluded, therefore, that the sea had engulfed it. The celebrated Buggenhagen[5] first discovered, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, a great rock formation in the sea, at the foot of the Streckelberg, on the island of Usedom,[6] and then the [173] city Vineta was soon transplanted thither; and it was absurdly considered that a rock reef (which has lately been used for the harbour of Swinemünde, and has disappeared) was the ruins of a city destroyed by the waves a thousand years ago: indeed, people are not wanting at the present day, who hold fast to this fable, caused by the error of a transcriber. In the mean time it has become a folk tale, and as such retains its value. A Wolliner booth-keeper recounted me the interesting story, which may be read in Barthold's History of Pomerania (vol. i. p. 419.),—a rough sterling Pomeranian (ächt-pommerschis) fantastical picture of the overbearing of the trade-enriched inhabitants of Vineta, which God had so punished by sending the waves of the ocean over the city. The town of Wollin, to which alone this legend was applicable, is certainly not destroyed by the sea, nor wholly desert: but if they deserved punishment for their pride in their greatness, they had received it in that they had quite fallen from their former glory."—Pp. 22-25.

[2] Likewise, repetition must be excused, as it is here scarcely avoidable.

[3] "Olla Vulcani quæ incolæ Græcam vocant ignem de quo etiam meminit Solinus," adds Adam of Bremen. Solinus speaks of oil, or rather naphtha, from Mœsia; and it is not improbable that the Wolliners imported it for their beacons in pots.

[4] The oldest MSS. are said not to have this error.

[5] A native of Wollin, by the bye.

[6] Close by Damerow.

As I wish thoroughly to dispose of the question, I shall divide my communication on Julin into two parts, of which the above is the first. I reserve my own remarks till all the evidence has been heard.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

—During one of the circuits, Curran was dining with a brother advocate at a small inn kept by a respectable woman, who, to the well ordering of her establishment, added a reputation for that species of apt and keen reply, which sometimes supplies the place of wit. The dinner had been well served, the wine was pronounced excellent, and it was proposed that the hostess should be summoned to receive their compliments on her good fare. The Christian name of this purveyor was Honoria, a name of common occurrence in Ireland, but which is generally abbreviated to that of Honor. Her attendance was prompt, and Curran, after a brief eulogium on the dinner, but especially the wine, filled a bumper, and, handing it, proposed as a toast, "Honor and Honesty." His auditor took the glass, and with a peculiarly arch smile, said, "Our absent friends," and having drank off her amended toast, she curtseyed and withdrew.

M. W. B.

—The institution founded in Gower Street under the name of the University of London, lived for ten years under that name, and, since, for fifteen years, under the name of University College, a new institution receiving the name of the University of London. A few years after the change of name, a donor left reversionary property to the London University in Gower Street, which made it necessary to obtain the assistance of the Court of Chancery in securing the reversion to its intended owners. A professor of the College in Gower Street received a letter, dated from Somerset House (where the University is), written by the Vice-Chancellor of the University himself, and addressed, not to the University College, but to the University of London. And in a public decision, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Visitor of Dulwich College, which appears in The Times of July 21, it is directed that certain scholars are to proceed for instruction to some such place as "King's College or the London University." This is all worthy of note, because we often appeal to old changes of name in the settlement of dates. When this decision becomes very old, it may happen that its date will be brought into doubt by appeal to the fact that the place of instruction (what is now the University giving no instruction but only granting degrees, and to students of King's College among others) ceased to have the title of University in 1837. What so natural as to argue that the Archbishop, himself a visitor of King's College, cannot have failed to remember this. A reflected doubt may be thrown upon some arguments relating to dates in former times.

M.

—The Note on his mother, in Vol. iii., p. 492., reminds me of making the following one on himself, which may be worth a place in your columns. When lately passing through the village of Harold's Cross, near Dublin, a friend pointed out to me a high antiquated-looking house in the village, which he said had been occupied by Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and in which he had planned many of his designs. The house appears to be in good preservation, and is still occupied.

R. H.

—It might perhaps throw some light on this fanciful subject, were we to view it in connexion with the operation of the phenomenon termed the "odylic light," emitted from magnetic substances. The Baron von Riechenbach, in his Researches on Magnetism, &c., explains the cause of somewhat similar extraordinary appearances in the following manner:—

"High on the Brocken there are rocky summits which are strongly magnetic, and cause the needle to deviate: these rocks contain disseminated magnetic iron ore; ... the necessary consequence is that they send up odylic flames.... Who could blame persons imbued with the superstitious feelings of their age, if they saw, under these circumstances, the devil dancing with his whole train of ghosts, demons, and witches? The revels of the Walpurgisnacht must now, alas! vanish, and give place to the sobrieties of science—science, which with her touch dissipates one by one all the beautiful but dim forms evoked by phantasy."

Should such a thing as the odylic light satisfactorily explain the phenomenon of ghosts, fairies, &c., we should happily be relieved from the awkward necessity of continuing to treat their [174] existence as "old wives' fables," or the production of a disordered imagination.

J. H. KERSHAW.

—It may be said, at first sight, "Why, every body knows all about him." I answer, Perhaps about as much as modern painters and artists know about Bacchus, whom they always represent as a gross, vulgar, fat person: all the ancient poets, however (and surely they ought to know best), depict him an exquisitely beautiful youth. A similar vulgar error exists with regard to Æsop, who in the Encyclopædia Britannica is pronounced a strikingly deformed personage. The exact opposite seems to have been the truth. Philostratus has left a description of a picture of Æsop, who was represented with a chorus of animals about him: he was painted smiling, and looking thoughtfully on the ground, but not a word is said of any deformity. Again, the Athenians erected a statue to his honour, "and," says Bentley, "a statue of him, if he were deformed, would only have been a monument of his ugliness: it would have been an indignity, rather than an honour to his memory, to have perpetuated his deformity."

And, lastly, he was sold into Samos by a slave-dealer, and it is a well-known fact that these people bought up the handsomest youths they could procure.

A. C. W.

Brompton.

—Besides the loss of bullion from one of the epaulettes of Lord Nelson's coat occasioned by the circumstance related by ÆGROTUS, there was a similar defacement caused by the fatal bullet itself, which might render the identification suggested by ÆGROTUS a little difficult. Sir W. Beatty says, in his Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson, p. 70.:

"The ball struck the fore part of his lordship's epaulette, and entered the left shoulder.... On removing the ball, a portion of the gold lace and pad of the epaulette, together with a small piece of his lordship's coat, was found firmly attached to it."

The ball, with the adhering gold lace, &c., was set in a crystal locket, and worn by Sir W. Beatty. It is now, I believe, in the possession of Prince Albert.

The intention of my note (Vol. iii., p. 517.) was to refute a common impression, probably derived from Harrison's work, that Lord Nelson had rashly adorned his admiral's uniform with extra insignia on the day of the battle, and thereby rendered himself a conspicuous object for the French riflemen.

ALFRED GATTY.

In completing the proposed series of Knox's writings, I should feel greatly indebted to DR. MAITLAND or any of your readers for answering the following Queries:—

1. In the Catalogue of writers on the Old and New Testament, p. 107.: London, 1663, a sermon on Ezechiel ix. 4., attributed to Knox, is said to have been printed anno 1580. Where is there a copy of this sermon preserved?

2. Bale, and Melchior Adam, copying Verheiden, include in the list of Knox's writings, In Genesim Conciones. Is such a book known to exist?

3. Bishop Tanner also ascribes to him Exposition on Daniel: Malburg, 1529. This date is unquestionably erroneous, and probably the book also.

4. Knox's elaborate treatise Against the Adversaries of God's Predestination was first published at Geneva, 1560, by John Crespin. Toby Cooke, in 1580, had a license to print Knoxes Answere to the Cauillations of ane Anabaptist. (Herbert's Ames, p. 1263.) Is there any evidence that the work was reprinted earlier than 1591?

5. The work itself professes to be in answer to a book entitled The Confutation of the Errors of the Careles by Necessitie; "which book," it is added, "written in the English tongue, doeth contain as well the lies and blasphemies imagined by Sebastian Castalio, ... as also the vane reasons of Pighius, Sadoletus, and Georgius Siculus, pestilent Papistes, and expressed enemies of God's free mercies." When was this Confutation printed, and where is there a copy to be seen?

DAVID LAING.

Edinburgh.

—Will any of your readers who may be metrical scholars, inform me whether there is any classical example of such an accent and cæsura as in this verse of Vida?

C. B.

—The Cornish arms are a field sable with fifteen bezants, not balls as they are commonly called, 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. in pale or. These arms were borne by Condurus, the last Earl of Cornwall of British blood, in the time of William I., and were so borne until Richard, Earl of Cornwall, on being created Earl of Poictou, took the arms of such. According to the custom of the French, these were a rampant lion gules crowned or, in a field argent; but to show forth Cornwall, he threw the fifteen bezants into a bordour sable, round the bearing of the Earl of Poictou; but the Cornish arms, those of Condurus, are unaltered, though the coins are often mistaken for balls, and painted on a field coloured to the painter's fancy. Can you tell me when the Cornish motto "one and all" was adopted, and why? [175]

S. H. (2)

—In Sir Kenelm Digby's Treatise of Bodies, ch. xxviii. sec. 4., is this passage:

"The trampling of men and horses in a quiet night, will be heard some miles off.... Most of all if one set a drum smooth upon the ground, and lay one's ear to the upper edge of it," &c.

On which the copy in my possession (ed. 1669) has the following marginal note in a cotemporary hand:

"Thus Gloucester was saved from the King's mines by ye drum of a drunken dru̅mer."

To what event does this refer, and where shall I find an account of it? It evidently happened during the civil wars, but Clarendon has no mention of it.

T. H. KERSLEY, A.B.

—What is the origin of the term Milesian as applied to certain races among the Irish?

W. FRASER.

—Can any of your numerous correspondents kindly inform me what is the best scientific work on Horology? I do not want one containing mere mathematical work, but entering into all the details of the various movements, escapements, &c. &c. of astronomical clocks, chronometers, pocket watches, with the latest improvements down to the present time.

H. C. K.

—Can any of your readers mention a library which contains a copy of the Historia Septentrionalis, or History of Poland, of Laurentius Müller, published about 1580?

A. TR.

—Can you tell me where I can find the antecedents of the following couplets? They are a portion of some exquisite poetical "Lines on a Bed:"

I once thought they were Prior's, but I cannot find them. Can you assist me?

R. W. B.

—A custom, I believe, still exists in Russia for the mistress of a family to distribute on certain occasions bread or cake to her guests. Some particulars of this custom appeared either in the Globe or the Standard newspaper in 1837 or 1838, during the months of October, November, or December. Having lost the reference to the precise date, and only recollecting that the custom is known by the name of Pirog, I shall feel much obliged to any correspondent of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" if he can supply me with further information on the subject.

R. M. W.

—In a biography that appeared of Dr. P. Brown in the Anthologia Hibernica for Jan. 7, 1793, we are informed that he prepared for the press a "Fasciculus Plantarum Hibernicarum," enumerating chiefly those growing in the counties of Mayo and Galway, written in Latin, with the English and Irish names of each plant. See also Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, i.—xxx. Where is this MS.?

Can any of your readers refer me to similar lists of plants indigenous to either England or Ireland, in which the provincial names are preserved, with any notes on their use in medicine, or their connexion with the superstitions of the district to which the list refers? Any information on this subject, however slight, will particularly oblige

S. P. H. T.

P.S. I should not be much surprised if the MS. of Dr. P. Brown existed in some of the collectanea in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dub.

—How should prints be cleaned, so as not to injure the paper?

A. G.

—What was the first work by an Italian writer on any element of political economy? and in what year did Carli, the celebrated economist, die?

ALPHA.

—Where is the earliest notice of the fable of the nightingale and the thorn? that she sings because she has a thorn in her breast? For obvious reasons, the fiction cannot be classical.

It is noticed by Byron:

But an earlier mention is found in Browne's poem on the death of Mr. Thomas Manwood:—

He seems to interpret the fable to the same effect as Homer makes Achilles' women lament Patroclus—Πατρόκλου πρόφασιν, σφῶν δ' αὐτῶν κήδε' ἑκάστη. It has been suggested that it rather implies that the spirit of music, like that of poetry and prophecy, visits chiefly the afflicted,—a comfortable doctrine to prosaic and unmusical people.

A. W. H.

—At pp. 300, 301, of this writer's Table Talk (3rd edition) there is the following paragraph:—

"I exceedingly regret the loss of those essays on beauty, which I wrote in a Bristol newspaper. I would give much to recover them."

Can any of your readers afford information on this point? The publication of the essays in question (supposing that they have not yet been [176] published) would be a most welcome addition to the works of so eminent and original an author as S. T. Coleridge.

J. H. KERSHAW.

—MR. SINGER (Vol. iii., p. 297.) refers to Sir Francis Kinaston's Latin version of Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseid, and of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid. The first two books of the former are well known as having been printed at Oxford, 1635, 4to.; and the entire version was announced for publication by F. G. Waldron, in a pamphlet printed as a specimen, in 1796. Query, Who is now the possessor of Kinaston's manuscript, which MR. SINGER recommends as worthy of the attention of the Camden Society?

In the original table of contents of a manuscript collection, written about the year 1515, one article in that portion of the volume now lost is "Mr. Robert Henderson's dreme, On fut by Forth." Can any of your readers point out where a copy of this, or any other unpublished poems by Henryson, are preserved?

D. L.

Edinburgh.

—In "A Catalogue of the Libraries of the late William Oldys, Esq., Norroy King at Arms (author of the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh), the Reverend Mr. Emms, of Yarmouth, and Mr. William Rush, which will begin to be sold on Monday, April 12, by Thomas Davies;" published without date, but supposed to be in 1764, I find amongst Mr. Oldys's manuscripts, lot 3613.: "Of London Libraries: with Anecdotes of Collectors of Books, Remarks on Booksellers, and on the first Publishers of Catalogues." Can any of your readers inform me if the same is still in existence, and in whose possession it is?

WILLIAM BROWN, Jun.

Old Street.

—I find in an account-book of a public company an entry dated Oct. 1720, directing the disposal of "A Sword-blade Note for One hundred ninety-two pounds ten shillings seven pence." Can any of your numerous readers, especially those cognisant of monetary transactions, favour me with an explanation of the nature of this note, and the origin of its peculiar appellation?

R. J.

Threadneedle Street, Aug. 28. 1851.

—The word ABACOT, now inserted in foreign as well as English dictionaries, was adopted by Spelman in his Glossary: the authority which he gives seems to be the passage (stating that King Henry VI.'s "high cap of estate, called Abacot, garnished with two rich crowns," was presented to King Edward IV. after the battle of Hexham) which is in Holinshed, (the third volume of Chronicles, fol. Lond. 1577, p. 666. col. 2. line 28.): but this appears to be copied from Grafton (A Chronicle, &c., fol. Lond. 1569), where the word stands Abococket. If this author took it from Hall (The Union, &c., fol. Lond. 1549) I think it there stands the same: but in Fabyan's Chronicle, as edited by Ellis, it is printed Bycoket; and in one black-letter copy in the British Museum, it may be seen Bicoket, corrected in the margin by a hand of the sixteenth century, Brioket.

Can any reader point out the right word, and give its derivation?

J. W. P.

—C. C. R. has clearly shown what is Hume's authority for the passage quoted by Mr. Christian in his edition of Blackstone, and referred to by me in my former communication, Vol. iii., p. 477. Can he point out where the passage in Hume is found? Mr. Christian refers to Hume, iv. p. 113.; but I have not been able to find it at the place referred to in any edition of Hume which I have had the opportunity of consulting.

G.

—What is the origin of a Kelso convoy,—a Scotch phrase, used to express going a little way with a person?

B.

[Jamieson, in his Dictionary of the Scottish Language, Johnstone's Abridgment, thus explains the phrase:—

"KELSO CONVOY, an escort scarcely deserving the name south of Scotland. 'A step and a half ower the door stane.' (Antiquary.) This is rather farther than a Scotch Convoy, which, according to some, is only to the door. It is, however, explained by others as signifying that one goes as far as the friend whom he accompanies has to go, although to his own door."]

—In the life of Wolsey in the Penny Cyclopædia is the following:

"It is said that while he lived at Lymington, he got drunk at a neighbouring fair. For some such cause it is certain that Sir Amias Paulett put him into the stocks,—a punishment for which we find that he subsequently revenged himself."

I have been unable to find what was his revenge.

B.

[Collins, in his Peerage of England, vol. iv. p. 3., says, "that in the reign of Henry VII., when Cardinal Wolsey was only a schoolmaster at Lymington, in Somersetshire, Sir Amias Paulett, for some misdemeanor committed by him, clapped him in the stocks; which the Cardinal, when he grew into favour with Henry VIII., so far resented, that he sought all manner of ways to give him trouble, and obliged him (as Godwin in his Annals, p. 28., observes) to dance attendance at London for some years, and by all manner of obsequiousness to curry favour with him. During the time of his attendance, being commanded by the Cardinal not to depart London without licence, he took up his lodging in the great gate of the Temple towards Fleet Street."] [177]

—Why was the beer called Brunswick Mum so named? When I was young it used to be drunk in this country, and was, I am told, extensively exported to India, &c. Is it still manufactured?

G. CREED.

[Skinner calls Mum a strong kind of beer, introduced by us from Brunswick, and derived either from German mummeln, to mumble, or from mum (silentii index), i.e. either drink that will (ut nos dicimus) make a cat speak, or drink that will take away the power of speech.

Brunswick Mum is now advertised for sale by many publicans in the metropolis.]

—What is the derivation of the word rasher, "a rasher of bacon?"

J. H. C.

Adelaide, South Australia.

[Surely from the French raser, to shave—a shaving of bacon. Our correspondent will probably recollect that vessels that have been cut down are commonly known as razees.]

I beg to send you a few remarks on the note of A. E. B., concerning the "Pendulum Demonstration of the Earth's Rotation."

Your correspondent appears to consider that the only fact asserted by the propounders of the theory, is a variation in the plane of oscillation, caused by "the difference of rotation due to the excess of velocity with which one extremity of the line of oscillation may be affected more than the other;" the probable existence of which he proves by imagining a pendulum suspended over a point half-way between London and Edinburgh, and set in motion by being drawn towards and retained over London, and thence dismissed on its course. It is clear that in such a case the pendulum would at starting be impressed with the same velocity of motion in an eastern direction which the retaining power in London had, and that its path would be the result of this force compounded with that given by gravity in its line of suspension, i.e. towards the north, and its course would therefore be one subject to easy calculation. I should imagine that this disturbing force arising from the excess of eastern velocity possessed by the starting point over that of suspension, would be inappreciable after a few oscillations; but at all events it is evident that it might readily be avoided by setting the pendulum in motion by an impulse given beneath the point of suspension, by giving to it a direction east and west as suggested by A. E. B., or by several other expedients which must occur to a mathematician.

Your correspondent proceeds by requiring that there should be shown "reasonable ground to induce the belief that the ball is really free from the attraction of each successive point of the earth's surface," and is not as "effectually a partaker in the rotation of any given point" as if it were fixed there; or that "the duration of residence" necessary to cause such effect should be stated. Now I certainly am aware of no force by which a body unconnected with the earth would have any tendency to rotate with it; gravity can only act in a direct line from the body affected to the centre of the attracting body, and the motion in the direction of the earth's rotation can only be gained by contact or connexion, however momentary, with it. The onus of proving the existence of such a force as A. E. B. alludes to, must surely rest with him, not that of disproving it with me. What the propounders of this theory claim to show is, I humbly conceive, this,—that the direction in which a pendulum oscillates is constant, and not affected by the rotation of the earth beneath it: that as when suspended above the pole (where the point of suspension would remain fixed) the plane of each oscillation would make a different angle with any given meridian of longitude, returning to its original angle when the diurnal rotation of the earth was completed; and as when suspended above the equator, where the point of suspension would be moved in a right line, or, to define more accurately, where the plane made by the motion of a line joining the point of suspension and the point directly under it (over which the ball would remain if at rest) would be a flat or right plane, the angle made by each successive oscillation with any one meridian would be the same, so, at all the intermediate stations between the pole and the equator, where the point of suspension would move in a line, commencing near the pole with an infinitely small curve, and ending near the equator with one infinitely large (i.e. where the plane as described above would be thus curved), the angle of the plane of oscillation with a given meridian would, at each station, vary in a ratio diminishing from the variation at the pole until it became extinct at the equator, which variation they believe to be capable both of mathematical proof and of ocular demonstration.

I do not profess to be one of the propounders of this theory, and it is very probable that you may have received from some other source a more lucid, and perhaps a more correct, explanation of it; but in case you have not done so, I send you the foregoing rough "Note" of what are my opinions of it. [178]

E. H. Y.

Your correspondent MR. GATTY, in a late number, has quoted a passage of the historian Hume, which treats a certain Anglo-Saxon document as a statute of Athelstan. As your correspondent cites his author without a comment, he would appear to give his own sanction to the date which Hume has imposed upon that document. In point of fact, it bears no express date, and therefore presents a good subject for a Query, whether that or any other era is by construction applicable to it. It is an extremely interesting Anglo-Saxon remain; and as it bears for title, "be leodgethincthum and lage," it purports to give legal information upon the secular dignities and ranks of the Anglo-Saxon period. This promises well to the archæologist, but unfortunately, on a nearer inspection, the document loses much of its worth; for, independently of its lacking a date, its jurisprudence partakes more of theory than that dry law which we might imagine would proceed from the Anglo-Saxon bench. Notwithstanding this, however, its archæological interest is great. The language is pure and incorrupt West Saxon.

It has been published by all its editors (except Professor Leo) as prose, when it is clearly not only rythmical but alliterative—an obvious characteristic of Anglo-Saxon poetry. And it is this mistake which has involved the further consequence of giving to the document a legal and historical value which it would never have had if its real garb had been seen through. This has led the critics into a belief of its veracity, when a knowledge of its real character would have inspired doubts. I believe that its accidental position in the first printed edition at the end of the "Judicia" (whether it be so placed in the MS. I know not) has assisted in the delusion, and has supplied a date to the minds of those who prefer faith to disquisition. The internal evidence of the document also shows that it is not jurisprudence, but only a vision spun from the writer's own brains, of what he dreamed to be constitutional and legal characteristics of an anterior age, when there were greater liberty of action and expansion of mind. The opening words of themselves contain the character of the document:—"Hit wæs hwilum." It is not a narrative of the present, but a record of the past.

The legal poet then breaks freely into the darling ornament of Anglo-Saxon song, alliteration: "On Engla lagum thæt leod and lagum," and so on to the end. As its contents are so well known and accessible, I will not quote them, but will merely give a running comment upon parts. "Gif ceorl getheah," &c. It may be doubted whether, even in occasional instances, the ceorl at any time possessed under the Anglo-Saxon system the power of equalising himself by means of the acquisition of property, with the class of theguas or gentils-hommes. But in the broad way in which the poet states it, it may be absolutely denied, inasmuch as the acquisition of wealth is made of itself to transform the ceorl into a thegn: a singular coincidence of idea with the vulgar modern theory, but incompatible with fact in an age when a dominant caste of gentlemen obtained.

It is not until the reign of Edward III. that any man, not born a gentleman, can be distinctly traced in possession of the honours and dignities of the country; an air of improbability is thus given which is increased by a verbal scrutiny. In the words "gif thegen getheah thæt be wearth to eorle," &c., the use of the word eorl is most suspicious. This is not the eorl of antiquity—the Teutonic nobilis; it is the official eorl of the Danish and quasi-Danish periods. This anachronism betrays the real date of the production, and carries us to the times succeeding the reign of Ethelred II., when the disordered and transitional state of the country may have excited in the mind of the disquieted writer a fond aspiration which he clothed in the fanciful garb of his own wishes, rather than that of the gloomy reality which he saw before him.

The use of the cræft, for a vessel, like the modern, is to be found in the Andreas (v. 500.), a composition probably of the eleventh century.

The conclusion points to troubled and late times of the Anglo-Saxon rule, when the church missed the reverence which had been paid to it in periods of peace and prosperity.

I have said enough to show that this document cannot rank in accuracy or truthful value with the Rectitudines or the LL. of Hen. I.

One word more. What is the meaning of burh-geat? Burh I can understand; authorities abound for its use as expressing the manoir of the Anglo-Saxon thegn. The "geneates riht" (Rectitudines) is "bytlian and burh hegegian." The ceorls of Dyddanham were bound to dyke the hedge of their lords' burh ("Consuetudines in Dyddanhamme," Kemb, vol. iii. App. p. 450.): "And dicie gyrde burh heges."

H. C. C.

Eichhorn (Einleitung in das Alte Testament, iii. 249.) in a note refers to a passage of Müller's translations of Linnæus, narrating the following remarkable accident:—

"In the year 1758, a seaman, in consequence of stormy weather, unluckily fell overboard from a frigate into the Mediterranean. A seal (Seehund, not Hai, a shark) immediately took the man, swimming and crying for help, into it wide jaws. Other seamen sprang into a boat to help their swimming comrade; and their captain, noticing the accident, had the presence [179] of mind to direct a gun to be fired from the deck at the fish, whereby he was fortunately so far struck (so getroffen wurde) that he spit out directly the seaman previously seized in his jaws, who was taken into the boat alive, and apparently little hurt.

"The seal was taken by harpoons and ropes, and hauled into the frigate, and hung to dry in the cross-trees (quære). The captain gave the fish to the seaman who, by God's providence, had been so wonderfully preserved; and he made the circuit of Europe with it as an exhibition, and from France it came to Erlangen, Nuremburg, and other places, where it was openly shown. The fish was twenty feet long, with fins nine feet broad, and weighed 3,924 lbs., and is illustrated in tab. 9. fig. 5.; from all which it is very probably concluded, that this kind was the true Jonas-fish."

Bochart concurs in this opinion.

Herman de Hardt (Programma de rebus Jonæ, Helmst. 1719) considers that Jonah stopt at a tavern bearing the sign of the whale.

Lesz (Vermischte Schriften, Th. i. S. 16.) thinks that a ship with a figure-head (Zeichen) of a whale took Jonah on board, and in three days put him ashore; from which it was reported that the ship-whale had vomited (discharged) him.

Eichhorn has noticed the above in his Introduction to the Old Testament (iii. 250.).

An anonymous writer says that dag means a fish-boat; and that the word which is translated whale, should have been preserver; a criticism inconsistent with itself, and void of authority.

The above four instances are the only hypotheses at variance with the received text and interpretation worthy of notice: if indeed the case of the shark can be deemed at all at variance, as the term κῆτος was used to designate many different fishes.

Jebb (Sacred Literature, p. 178.) says that the whale's stomach is not a safe and practicable asylum; but—

"The throat is large, and provided with a bag or intestine so considerable in size that whales frequently take into it two of their young, when weak, especially during a tempest. In this vessel there are two vents, which serve for inspiration and expiration; there, in all probability, Jonas was preserved."

John Hunter compares the whale's tongue to a feather bed; and says that the baleen (whalebone) and tongue together fill up the whole space of the jaws.

Josephus describes the fish of Jonah as a κῆτος, and fixes on the Euxine for the locality as an on dit (ὁ λόγος). The same word in reference to the same event is used by Epiphanius, Cedrenus, Zanarus, and Nicephorus.

The Arabic version has the word حُوْتا (choono), translated in Walton's Polyglott cetus; but the word, according to Castell, means "a tavern," or "merchants' office." This may have led to Herman de Hardt's whim.

The Targum of Jonathan, and the Syriac of Jonah, have both the identical word which was most probably used by our Lord, Noono, fish, the root signifying to be prolific, for which fishes are eminently remarkable. Dag, the Hebrew word, has the same original signification.

The word used by our Lord, in adverting to His descent to Hades, was most probably that of the Syriac version,

[Syriac](noono), which means fish in Chaldee and Arabic, as well as in Syriac; and corresponds to the Hebrew word דַג, (dag), fish, in Jonah i. 17., ii. 1., 10. The Greek of Matthew xii. 40., instead of ἰχθὺς, has κῆτος, a whale. The Septuagint has the same word κῆτος for (1) dag in Jonah, as well as for (2) leviathan in Job iii. 8., and for (3) tanninim in Genesis i. 21. The error appears to be in the Septuagint of Jonah, where the particular fish, the whale, is mentioned instead of the general term fish. Possibly the disciples of Christ knew that the fish was a κῆτος, and the habits of such of them as were fishermen might have familiarised them with its description or form. It is certain that the κῆτος of Aristotle, and cetus of Pliny, was one of the genus Cetacea, without gills, but with blow-holes communicating with the lungs. The disciples may also have heard the mythological story of Hercules being three days in the belly of the κῆτος, the word used by Æneas Gazæus, although Lycophron describes the animal as a shark, κάρχαρος κύων.

The remarkable event recorded of Jonah occurred just about 300 years before Lycophron wrote; who, having doubtless heard the true story, thought it right to attribute it to Hercules, to whom all other marvellous feats of power, strength, and dexterity were appropriated by the mythologists.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

Your "NOTES AND QUERIES" form the best specimen of a Conversations-Lexicon that I have yet met with; and I regret that it was not in existence some years ago, having long felt the want of some such special and ready medium of communication.

In the old enclosures to the west of the town of Barton we had a spring of clear water called St. Trunnian's Spring; and in our open field we had an old thorn tree called St. Trunnian's Tree,—names that imply a familiar acquaintance with St. Trunnian here; but I have no indication to [180] show who St. Trunnian was. I am happy, however, to find that your indefatigable correspondent DR. RIMBAULT, like myself, has had his attention called to the same unsatisfied Query.

Paulinus, the first Bishop of York, was the first who preached Christianity in Lindsey; yet St. Chad was the patron saint of Barton and its immediate neighbourhood, and at times I have fancied that St. Trunnian might have been one of his coadjutors; at other times I have thought he may have been some sainted person, posted here with the allied force under Anlaff, previous to the great battle of Brunannburg, which was fought in the adjoining parish in the time of Athelstan: but I never could meet with any conclusive notice, of St. Trunnian, or any particular account of him. Some years ago I was dining with a clerical friend in London, and then made known my anxiety, when he at once referred to the quotation made by DR. RIMBAULT from Appius and Virginia, as in Vol. iii., p. 187.; and my friend has since referred me to Heywoods's play of The Four P's (Collier's edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. i. p. 55.), where the Palmer is introduced narrating his pilgrimage:

inferring a locality for St. Tronion as well as St. Botulph, in Lincolnshire: and subsequently my friend notes that—

"Mr. Stephens, in a letter to the printer of the St. James's Chronicle, points out the following mention of St. Tronion in Geoffrey Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 4to., 1567, fol. 114. b.:—'He (referring to some one in his narrative not named) returned in Haste to his Lodgynge, where he attended the approche of his Hower of appointment wyth no lesse Devocyon than the papystes in France perform their ydolatrous Pilgrimage to the ydol Saynt Tronyon upon the Mount Avyon besides Roan.'"

Should these minutes lead to further information, it will give me great pleasure, as I am anxious to elucidate, as far as I can, the antiquities of my native place.

Mr. Jaques lives at a place called St. Trinnians, near to Richmond in Yorkshire; but I have not the History of Richmondshire to refer to, so as to see whether any notice of our saint is there taken under this evident variation of the same appellation.

WM. S. HESLEDEN.

Barton-upon-Humber, Aug. 29. 1851.

—L. M. says that the precedent of Mr. Harley being sworn of the Privy Council does not prove the argument advanced by C., and "for this simple reason, that the individual who held the office is not Right Honorable, but the officer is." What he means by the office (of privy councillor) is not clear; but surely he does not mean to say that it is not the rank of privy councillor which gives the courtesy style of Right Honorable? If so, can a man be a member of the Council till he is sworn at the board?

Is the Lord Mayor a member of the Board, not having been sworn? Is he ever summoned to any Council? When he attends a meeting on the occasion of the accession, is he summoned? and if so, by whom, and in what manner? The Lord Mayor is certainly not a privy councillor by reason of his courtesy style of Lord, any more than the Lord Mayor of York.

The question is, whether the style of Right Honorable was given to the Lord Mayor from the supposition that he was a privy councillor, or from the fact that formerly the Lord Mayor was considered as holding the rank of a Baron; for if he died during his mayoralty, he was buried with the rank, state, and degree of Baron.

When does it appear that the style of Right Honorable was first given to the Lord Mayor of London?

E.

—In the Life of the Rev. Isaac Kimber, prefixed to his Sermons, London, 1756, 8vo., it is stated that—

"One of the first productions he gave to the world was the Life of Oliver Cromwell in 8vo., printed for Messrs. Brotherton and Cox. This piece met with a very good reception from the public, and has passed through several editions, universally esteemed for its style and its impartiality; and as the author's name was not made public, though it was always known to his friends, it was at first very confidently ascribed to Dr. Gibson, Bishop of London."—P. 10.

The Life of Kimber appears to have been written by Edward Kimber, his son, and therefore the claim of Bishop Gibson to this work may very fairly be set aside.

The Short Critical Review of the life of Oliver Cromwell, by a Gentleman of the Middle Temple, has always been attributed to John Bankes, an account of whom will be found in Chalmers's Biog. Dict., vol. iii. p. 422., where it is confidently stated to be his. It was first published in 1739, 8vo. I have two copies of a third edition, Lond. 1747. 12mo. "Carefully revised and greatly enlarged in every chapter by the author." In one of the copies the title-page states it to be "by a gentleman of the Middle Temple;" and in the other "by Mr. Bankes." Bishop Gibson did not die till 1748, and there seems little probability that, if he were the author, another man's name would be put to it during his lifetime.

I conclude therefore that neither of these two works are by Bishop Gibson. [181]

JAS. CROSSLEY.

—In the Gentleman's Mag. (Suppl. for 1768, p. 621.), the reviewer of a work entitled "Cobleriana, or the Cobler's Miscellany, being a choice collection of the miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse, serious and comic, by Jobson the Cobler, of Drury Lane, 2 vols.," gives the following extract; but does not state whether it belongs to the "new" pieces, or to those which had been previously "published in the newspapers," the volume being avowedly composed of both sorts:—

The Italics, which I have copied, were, I suppose, put in by the reviewer, who adds, "Q. Whether the Lamb and Horse are mounted upon Chancery Lane, or two virtues, or happy men?" Poor man! I am afraid his Query has never been answered; for that age was not adorned and illustrated by any work like one in which we rejoice,—a work of which, lest a more unguarded expression of our feelings should be indelicate, and subject us to the suspicion of flattery, we will be content to say boldly, that, though less in size and cost, it is cotemporaneous with the Great Exhibition.

A TEMPLAR.

These lines are printed (probably for the first time) in the sixth number of The Foundling Hospital for Wit, 8vo.: Printed for W. Webb, near St. Paul's, 1749 (p. 73.). The learned author of Heraldic Anomalies (2nd edit. vol. i. p. 310.) says they were chalked upon one of the public gates of the Temple; but from the following note, preceding the lines in question, in The Foundling Hospital for Wit, this statement is probably erroneous:

"The Inner Temple Gate, London, being lately repaired, and curiously decorated, the following inscription, in honour of both the Temples, is intended to be put over it."

A MS. note, in a cotemporary hand, in my copy of The Foundling Hospital for Wit, states the author of the original lines to have been the "Rev. William Dunkin, D.D." The answer which follows it, is said to be by "Sir Charles Hanbury Williams."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

—E. B. PRICE styles "Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, a now forgotten critic." He might have added, "but who deserved to be remembered, as one whose Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry, with Remarks, &c., in 2 vols., 1787, contributed something towards the revival of a taste for that species of literature which Percy's Reliques exalted into a fashion, if not a passion, never to be discountenanced again." The work of course is become scarce, and not the less valuable, though that recommendation constitutes its least value.

J. M. G.

Hallamshire.

—Without reflecting much on the matter, I have always supposed the "cycle" in Tennyson's line—

to be the Platonic cycle, or great year, the space of time in which all the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect of the equinoxes; which space of time is calculated by Tycho Brahe at 25,816 years, and by Riccioli at 25,920: and I understood the passage (whether rightly or wrongly I shall be glad to be informed) to mean, that fifty years of life in Europe were better than any amount of existence, however extended, in the Celestial Empire.

W. FRASER.

—Without wishing to detract from the merits of an invention, which probably is superior in its effects to old modes of testing sword blades, I object to the term efficient being applied to machine-proved swords.

Because, after such proof, they frequently break by ordinary cutting; even those which have been made doubly strong and heavy—and hence unfit and useless for actual engagement—have so failed. And because machine-tried swords are liable to, and do, break in the handle.

For many reasons I should condemn the machine in question as inapplicable to its purposes. By analogous reasoning, it would not be wrong to call a candle a good thrusting instrument, because a machine may be made to force it through a deal plank.

The subject of testing sword blades is a very important one, although it has not received that degree of attention from those whom it more nearly concerns which it seems to demand.

The writer's experience has been only en amateur; but it has satisfied him how much yet remains to be effected before swords proved by a machine are to be relied upon.

E. M. M.

Thornhill Square, August 16. 1851.

—Is it too much to suppose that the learned "Secretary for Forreigne Tongues" was acquainted with the Paraphrasis poetica Genesios ac præcipuarum sacræ Paginæ Historiarum, abhinc Annos MLXX. Anglo-Saxonicè conscripta, et nunc primum edita a Francisco Junius, published at Amsterdam in 1655, at least two years before he [182] commenced his immortal poem? Hear Mr. Turner on the subject:

"Milton could not be wholly unacquainted with Junius; and if he conversed with him, Junius was very likely to have made Cædmon the topic of his discourse, and may have read enough in English to Milton, to have fastened upon his imagination, without his being a Saxon scholar."—Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii., p. 316.

Both Mr. Turner and Mr. Todd, however, appear to lean to the opinion that Milton was not unskilled in Saxon literature, and mention, as an argument in its favour, the frequent quotations from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which occur in the History. It is also worthy of note that Alexander Gill, his schoolmaster, and whose friendship Milton possessed in no small degree, had pursued his researches somewhat deep into the "well of English undefiled," as appears from that extremely curious, though little known work, the Logonomia Anglica.

SAXONICUS.

—I admired the verses quoted by H. E. H. (Vol. iii., p. 525.) so much that I have had them printed, but unfortunately have no copy by me to send you. I quote them from memory:

O. T. DOBBIN.

Hull College.

—It is to be hoped that the discovery by C. C. R. of Dr. Ducarel's note may yet lead to the obtaining further information concerning the elder Tradescant. It may go for something to prove beyond doubt that he was nearly connected with the county of Kent, which has not been proved yet. Parkinson says that "he sometimes belonged to ... Salisbury.... And then unto the Right Honorable the Lord Wotton at Canterbury in Kent." See Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, p. 152. (This must be the same with DR. RIMBAULT'S Lord Weston, p. 353., which should have been "Wotton.") We may therefore, in the words of Dr. Ducarel's note, "consult (with certainty of finding information concerning the Tradescants) the registers of ——apham, Kent." I should give the preference to any place near Canterbury approaching that name.

It is worth noticing that the deed of gift of John Tradescant (2) to Elias Ashmole was dated in true astrological form, being "December 16, 1657, 5 hor. 30 minutes post merid." See Ashmole's Diary, p. 36.

BLOWEN.

—I have a Note on this very epitaph, made several years since, from whence extracted I know not; but there is an English version attached, which may prove interesting to some readers, as it exactly imitates the style of the Latin:

E. S. TAYLOR.

—Will the following passage, from Murray's Handbook to Southern Germany, throw any light on the meaning of the initials at the foot of Lady Petre's monument, as alluded to in your Number of July 12, 1851?

"At the extremity of the right-hand aisle of the cathedral of St. Stephen, is the marble monument of the Emperor Frederick III., ornamented with 240 figures and 40 coats of arms, carved by a sculptor of Strasburg, Nicholas Lerch. On a scroll twisted around the sceptre in the hand of the effigy, is seen Frederick's device or motto, the letters A. E. I. O. U., supposed to be the initials of the words Alles Erdreich Ist Oesterreich Unterthan; or, in Latin, Austriæ Est Imperare Orbis Universi."—Murray's Handbook to Southern Germany, pp. 135, 136.

C. M. G.

Messrs. Longman have this month given a judicious and agreeable variety to The Traveller's Library by substituting for one of Mr. Macaulay's brilliant political biographies a volume of travels; and in selecting Mr. Laing's Journal of a Residence in Norway during the Years 1834, 1835, and 1836 (which is completed in Two Parts), they have shown excellent discretion. For, as Mr. Laing well observes, "few readers of the historical events of the middle ages rise from the perusal without a wish to visit the country from which issued in the tenth century the men who conquered the fairest portion of Europe." But as, even in these locomotive times, all cannot travel, but many are destined to be not only home-keeping youths but "house-keeping men" also, all such have reason to be grateful to pleasant intelligent travellers like Mr. Laing for giving   [183] them the results of their travels in so pleasant a form; and especially grateful to Messrs. Longman for giving it to them at a price which places it within the reach of every one.

The Literature of the Rail; republished, by permission, from The Times of Saturday, August 9th, 1851, with a Preface, has just been issued by Mr. Murray, in the shape of a sixpenny pamphlet. This will be a gratifying announcement to those who read and wished to preserve this startling article on a subject which must come home to every thinking mind,—to every one who has witnessed, as we have done, the worse than worthless, the positively mischievous trash in the shape of literature too often to be found on the bookstalls of railway stations. But there is hope. The success which has attended the wholesome change effected on the North-Western line is sure to lead to an extension of the better system; and we are glad to see that the endeavours making by Messrs. Longman to supply, by means of The Traveller's Library, the growing want for good and cheap books, are to be seconded by Mr. Murray, who announces a Series under the title of Literature for the Rail, and the opening number of which is to be A Popular Account of Mr. Layard's Discoveries at Nineveh, abridged by himself from the larger Work, and illustrated by numerous Woodcuts.

We are glad to see that the Trustees of the British Museum have printed a List of the Autograph Letters, Original Charters, Great Seals, and Manuscripts, exhibited to the Public in the Department of Manuscripts. The selection does great credit to the intelligent Keeper of the Manuscripts; and the exhibition of these treasures will, we trust, do something more than merely gratify the curiosity of the thousands of the people who have visited them, namely, encourage their representatives in Parliament to a more liberal vote for this important department of the Museum. Valuable manuscripts are not always in the market; when they are, the country should never lose them through a mistaken parsimony.

Mr. Lumley, of Chancery Lane, has purchased from the Society of Antiquaries the remaining stock of the Vetusta Monumenta, and proposes to dispose of the various plates and papers separately, in the same manner as he did those of the Archæologia. This arrangement is one well calculated to answer the purpose of collectors, and therefore we desire to draw their attention to it.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson (191. Piccadilly) will sell, on Tuesday and Wednesday next, some very interesting Autograph Letters of the late John Davies of Manchester, and of another Collector, comprising many Royal Autographs; a series of interesting letters addressed to Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia; and some rare historical letters from the Southwell and Blathwayte Papers.

CATALOGUES RECEIVED.—J. Miller's (43. Chandos Street) Catalogue Number 27. of Books Old and New; J. Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street) Catalogue Part VI. for 1851 of Choice, Useful, and Curious Books; W. Heath's (497. New Oxford Street) Catalogue No. 5. for 1851 of Valuable Second-Hand Books; J. Petheram's (94. High Holborn) Catalogue Part 126. No. 7. for 1851 of Old and New Books; W. S. Lincoln's (Cheltenham House, Westminster Road) Catalogue No. 72. of English and Foreign Second-hand Books.

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

QUÆSTOR, who writes respecting Campbell's famous line:

is referred to our 1st Vol. p. 102. for some illustrations of it.

J. B. (Lichfield). His wishes shall be attended to. The notice did not refer to his communications.

AN OLD BENGAL CIVILIAN. The Query sent shall have insertion as soon as we can possibly find room for it.

P. T. Will this correspondent kindly favour us with a sight of his proposed paper on Prince Madoc? Our only fear is as to its extent.

AN OLD CORRESPONDENT is thanked. The articles he refers to would be very acceptable.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.—The Correspondents who wanted Herbert's Social Statics and Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. I., are requested to send their names to the publisher.

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Yet Forty Days—Erroneous Scripture Quotations—Glass in Windows—Log Book—The Termination "-ship"—Borough-English—Day of the Month—Passage in Virgil—Suicides buried in Cross Roads—Ring Finger—Wray or Ray—Bellman and his Songs—Three Estates of the Realm—Siege of Londonderry—Broad Halfpenny Down—Ancient Egypt—John Bodleigh—Horner Family, and many others which are in type.

Copies of our Prospectus, according to the suggestion of T. E. H., will be forwarded to any correspondent willing to assist us by circulating them.

VOLS. I., II., and III., with very copious Indices, may still be had, price 9s. 6d. each, neatly bound in cloth.

NOTES AND QUERIES is published at noon on Friday, so that our country Subscribers may receive it on Saturday. The subscription for the Stamped Edition is 10s. 2d. for Six Months, which may be paid by Post-office Order drawn in favour of our Publisher, MR. GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street; to whose care all communications for the Editor should be addressed.

Printed by THOMAS CLARK SHAW, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride in the City of London; and published by GEORGE BELL, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.—Saturday, September 6. 1851.