{217}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of." —CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

CONTENTS.

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRESERVING A RECORD OF EXISTING MONUMENTS.

When, in the opening Number of the present Volume (p. 14), we called the attention of our readers to the Monumentarium of Exeter Cathedral , we expressed a hope that the good services which Mr. Hewett had thereby rendered to all genealogical, antiquarian, and historical inquirers would be so obvious as to lead a number of labourers into the same useful field. That hope bids fair to be fully realised. In Vol. iii., p. 116., we printed a letter from Mr. Peacock , announcing his intention of copying the inscriptions in the churches and churchyards of the Hundred of Manley; and we this week present our readers with three fresh communications upon the subject.

We give precedence to Miss Bockett's , inasmuch as it involves no general proposal upon the subject, but is merely expressive of that lady's willingness, in which we have no doubt she will be followed by many of her countrywomen to help forward the good work.

In your Number for Feb. 15th, I find Mr. Edward Peacock , Jun., of Bottesford Moors, Messingham, Kirton Lindsey, wishes to collect church memorials for work he intends to publish. If he would like the accounts of monuments in the immediate neighbourhood of Reading, as far as I am able it would give me pleasure to send some to him.

Julia R. Bockett .

Southcote Lodge, near Reading.

The second makes us acquainted with a plan for the publication of a Monumenta Anglicana by Mr. Dunkin ,—a plan which would have our hearty concurrence and recommendation, if it were at all practicable; but which, it will be seen at a glance, must fail from its very vastness. If the Monumentarium of Exeter contains the material for half a moderate-sized octavo volume, in what number of volumes does Mr. Dunkin propose to complete his collection—even if a want of purchasers of the early volumes did not nip in the bud his praiseworthy and well-intentioned scheme?

Your correspondent Mr. Edw. Peacock , Jun, may be interested in knowing that a work has some time been projected by my friend Mr. Alfred John Dunkin of Dartford (whose industry and antiquarian learning render him well fitted for the task), under the title of Monumenta Anglicana , and which is intended to be a medium for preserving the inscriptions in every church in the kingdom. There can be no doubt of the high value and utility of such a work, especially if accompanied by a well-arranged index of names; and I have no doubt Mr. Peacock , and indeed many others of your valued correspondents, will be induced to {218} assist in the good cause, by sending memoranda of inscriptions to Mr. Dunkin.

L. J.

Plymouth.

The following letter from the Rev. E. S. Taylor proposes a Society for the purpose:—

I for one shall be happy to co-operate with Mr. Peacock in this useful work; and I trust that, through the valuable medium of " Notes And Queries ," many will be induced to offer their assistance. Could not a Society be formed for the purpose, so that mutual correspondence might take place?

E. S. Taylor.

Martham, Norfolk.

We doubt the necessity, and indeed the advisability, of the formation of any such Society.

Mr. Peacock ( antè ., p. 117.) has already wisely suggested, that "in time a copy of every inscription in every church in England might be ready for reference in our National Library," and we have as little doubt that the MS. department of the British Museum is the proper place of deposit for such records, as that the trustees would willingly accept the charge of them on the recommendation of their present able and active Keeper of the Manuscripts. What he, and what the trustees would require, would be some security that the documents were what they professed to be; and this might very properly be accomplished through the agency of such a Society as Mr. Taylor proposes, if there did not already exist a Society upon whom such a duty might very safely be devolved:—and have we not, in the greater energy which that Society has lately displayed, evidence that it would undertake a duty for which it seems pre-eminently fitted? We allude to the Society of Antiquaries. The anxiety of Lord Mahon, its president, to promote the efficiency of that Society, has recently been made evident in many ways; and we cannot doubt that he would sanction the formation of a sub-committee for the purpose of assisting in collecting and preserving a record of all existing monuments, or that he would find a lack of able men to serve on such a committee, when he numbers among the official or active Fellows of the Society gentlemen so peculiarly fitted to carry out this important national object, as Mr. Hunter, Sir Charles Young, Mr. J. Payne Collier, and Mr. Bruce.

Notes.

ON THE WORD "RACK" IN SHAKSPEARE'S TEMPEST.

As another illustration of the careless or superficial manner in which the meaning of Shakspeare has been sought, allow me to call attention to the celebrated passage in the Tempest in which the word "rack" occurs. The passage really presents no difficulty; and the meaning of the word, as it appears to me, might as well be settled at once and for ever. I make this assertion, not dogmatically, but with the view of testing the correctness of my opinion, that this is not at all a question of etymology, but entirely one of construction. The passage reads as follows:—

As I have expressed my opinion that this is not at all a question of etymology, I shall not say more in reference to this view of the case than that "rack," spelt as in Shakspeare, is a word in popular and every-day use in the phrase "rack and ruin;" that we have it in the term "rack off," as applied to wine, meaning to take from the rack , or, in other words, "to leave a rack" or refuse "behind," racked wine being wine drawn from the lees; and that it is, I believe, still in use in parts of England, meaning remains or refuse , as, in the low German, "der Wraek" means the same thing. Misled, however, by an unusual mode of spelling, and unacquainted with the literature of Shakspeare's age, certain of the commentators suggested the readings of track and trace ; whereupon Horne Tooke remarks:—

"The ignorance and presumption of his commentators have shamefully disfigured Shakspeare's text. The first folio, notwithstanding some few palpable misprints, requires none of their alterations. Had they understood English as well as he did, they would not have quarrelled with his language."— Diversions of Purley , p. 595.

He proceeds to show that rack "is merely the past tense, and therefore past participle, or , of the Anglo-Saxon verb Recan, exhalare , to reek ;" and although the advocates of its being a particular description of light cloud refer to him as an authority for their reading, he treats it throughout generally as "a vapour, a steam, or an exhalation." But Horne Tooke, in his zeal as an etymologist, forgot altogether to attend to the construction of the passage. What is it that shall "leave not a rack behind?" A rack of what? Not of the baseless fabric of this vision, like which the "cloud-capp'd towers shall dissolve,"—not of this insubstantial pageant, like which they shall have faded,—but of "the cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself." There is in fact a double comparison; but the construction and the meaning are perfectly clear, and no word will suit the passage but one that shall express a result common {219} to the different objects enumerated. A cloud may be a fit object for comparison, but it is utterly inconsequential; while the sense required can only be expressed by a general term, such as remains , a vestige , or a trace .

I beg now to transcribe a note Of Mr. Collier's on this passage:—

"'Rack' is vapour, from reck , as Horne Tooke showed; and the light clouds on the face of heaven are the 'rack,' or vapour from the earth. The word 'rack' was often used in this way."—Coll. Shaksp. , vol. i. p. 70.

Mr. Knight appears to incline to the same view; and regarding these as the two latest authorities, and finding in neither of them any reference to the question of construction, I naturally concluded that the point had been overlooked by the commentators. On reference, however, I found to my surprise, that Malone, for the very same reasons, had come to the same conclusion. Had Malone's argument been briefly stated by the "two latest and best editors," I should, of course, have had no occasion to trouble you with this note: and this instance, it appears to me, furnishes additional reasons for enforcing the principle for which I am contending; the neglect of it affecting, in however slight a degree, the sense or correctness of so important and frequently quoted a passage. For my own part, I should have thought that the commonest faith in Shakspeare would have protected any editor, whose avowed object it was to restore the text, from preferring in this instance, to the plain common sense of Malone, the more showy authority of Horne Tooke.

In my last paper I wrote,—"So far as quantity is concerned, to eat a crocodile would be no more than to eat an ox." You have omitted the negative.

Samuel Hickson .

ANCIENT INEDITED POEMS, NO. III.

In my last communication on this subject, I forgot to remark on the strange title given to the monody on Mr. Browne. May I ask if the name of "Chorus" was thus indiscriminately applied at the time when the poem was composed?

The next poem that I shall give is copied from Harleian MSS. , 367., art. 60., fol. 158. It is entitled—

The poem has no subscription, nor, from the appearance of the paper, should I say there had been one. The comparatively modern phraseology points to a late era. The poem is bound up with a quantity of John Stowe's papers, and I think is in his handwriting, upon comparing it with other papers known to be his in the same book. As it is my chief object (next to contributing to the preservation and publication of these ancient ballads) to obtain data regarding the anonymous productions of the earlier days of England's literature, any remarks, allow me to say, that other contributors will favour our {220} medium of intercommunication with, will be much appreciated by

Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie .

FOLK LORE.

Moths called Souls. —While I am upon this subject, I may as well mention that in Yorkshire the country-people used in my youth, and perhaps do still, call night-flying white moths, especially the Hepialus humuli , which feeds, while in the grub state, on the roots of docks and other coarse plants, "souls." Have we not in all this a remnant of "Psyche?"

F. S.

Holy Water for the Hooping Cough (vol. iii., p. 179.).—In one of the principal towns of Yorkshire, half a century ago, it was the practice for persons in a respectable class of life to take their children, when afflicted with the hooping cough, to a neighbouring convent, where the priest allowed them to drink a small quantity of holy water out of a silver chalice, which the little sufferers were strictly forbidden to touch. By Protestant, as well as Roman Catholic parents, this was regarded as a remedy. Is not the superstition analogous to that noticed by Mr. Way ?

Eboracomb .

Daffy Down Dilly. —At this season, when the early spring flowers are showing themselves, we hear the village children repeating these lines:—

Does not this nursery rhyme throw light upon the character of the royal visitor alluded to in the snail charm recorded by F. J. H. (p. 179.)?

Eboracomb .

DR. MAITLAND'S ILLUSTRATIONS AND ENQUIRIES RELATING TO MESMERISM.

I know more than one person who would second the request that I am about to make through " Notes and Queries " to Dr. Maitland , that he would publish the remaining parts of his Illustrations and Enquiries relating to Mesmerism : he would do so, I know, at once, if he thought that anybody would benefit by them; and I can bear witness to Part I. as having been already of some use. It is high time that Christians should be decided as to whether or no they may meddle with the fearful power whose existence is is impossible to ridicule any longer. Dr. Maitland has suggested the true course of thought upon the subject, and promised to lead us along it; but it is impossible at present to use anything that he has said, on account of its incompleteness. In tracing the subject through history, Dr. Maitland would no doubt mention the " Ομφαλόψυχοι , or Umbilicani," of the fourteenth century, whose practices make a page (609.) of Waddington's History of the Church read like a sketch of Middle-age Mesmerism, contemptuously given. Also, in Washington Irving's Life of Mahomet , a belief somewhat similar to theirs is stated to have been preached in the seventh century ( Bohn's Reprint in Shilling Series , p. 191.) by a certain Moseïlma, a false prophet.

I may add that Miss Martineau's new book, Letters of the Development of Man's Nature, by Atkinson and Martineau , which cannot be called sceptical, for its unbelief is unhesitating, is the immediate cause of my writing to-day.

A. L. R.

Minor Notes.

Original Warrant. —The following warrant from the original in the Surrenden collection may interest some of your correspondents, as bearing upon more than one Query that has appeared in your columns:—

"Forasmuch as S ^r John Payton, Knight, Lieutenant of the Tower, hath heretofore receaved a warrant from the Lls. of the counsell, by her Ma ^ts commandment, for the removinge of Wright the Preist out of the Tower, to Framingham Castle, and for that, since then, it is thought more convenient, that he be removed to the Clincke—Theise therefore shalbe to require now (sic) to enlarge him of his imprisonment in the Tower, and to deliver him prisoner into the hands of the L. Bishop of London, to be committed by his Lp. to the Clincke, because it is for her M ^ts speciall service,—for doinge whereof, this shalbe your warrant.

"From the court at

"Oatlands this 29

"of September, 1602.

" Ro. Cecyll .

"To Mr. Anthony Deeringe,

"Deputy Lieutenant of the Tower of London."

"2. October, 1602.

"I have receyed Mr. Wryght from Mr. Derynge, Deputy Lieutenant, and have comitted him to the Clincke according the direction from Mr. Secretary above expressed.

" Ric. London ."

L. B. L.

Gloves.—Prince Rupert. —In your First Vol., pp. 72. 405., and in other places in Vol. ii., there are notices with respect to the presentation of gloves . If what is contained in the following {221} paper be not generally known, it may claim an interest with some of your readers:—

"At the Court of Whitehall, the 23rd of October, 1678. Present

The Kings most excellent Majesty,

His Highness Prince Rupert ,

Lord Archbp. of Canterbury,"

[with twelve others, who are named.]

"Whereas formerly it hath been a custom upon the Consecra[~c]on of all [~B]ps for them to make presents of Gloves to all Persons that came to the Consecra[~c]on Dinners, and others, w ^ch amounted to a great Su[~m] of Money, and was an unnecessary burden to them, His Ma ^tie this day, taking the same into his considera[~c]on, was thereupon pleas'd to order in Council, that for the future there shall be no such distribu[~c]on of Gloves; but that in lieu thereof each Lord B[~p] before his Consecra[~c]on shall hereafter pay the Su[~m] of 50 l. to be employ'd towards the Rebuilding of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. And it was further ordered, that his Grace the Lord Archb[~p] of Canterbury do not proceed to consecrate any B[~p] before he hath paid the s[~d] Su[~m] of 50 l. for the use aforesaid, and produced a Receipt for the same from the Treasurer of the Money for Rebuilding the said Church for the time being, w ^ch as it is a pious work, so will it be some ease to the respective B[~p]s, in regard the Expense of Gloves did usually farr exceed that Sum.

" Phi. Lloyd ."

Tanner's MSS. vol. 282. 112. al. 74.

One of your correspondents, I think, some time back asked for notices of Prince Rupert posterior to the Restoration. Besides the mention made of him in this paper, Echard speaks of his having the command of one squadron of the English fleet in the Dutch war.

J. Sansom .

Inscription on a Gun (Vol. iii., p. 181.).—Your notes on "the Potter's and Shepherd's Keepsakes" remind me of an old gun, often handled by me in my youth, on the stock of which the following tetrastick was en-nailed :—

Whether this testamentary disposition ever passed through Doctors' Commons, I know not.

C. W. B.

Richard III. (Vol. iii., pp. 206-7.).—The statement by Mr. Harrison , that Richard was not a "hunchback," is curiously "backed" by an ingenious conjecture of that very remarkable man, Doctor John Wallis of Oxford, in his Grammatica Linguæ Anglicanæ , first published in 1653. The passage occurs in the 2d section of chapter 14, "De Etymologia." Wallis is treating of the words crook , crouch , cross , &c., and says:

"Hinc item croisado de militibus dicebatur ad bellum (quod vocant) sanctum conscriptis (pro recuperanda terra sancta) qui à tergo gestabant formam Crucis; et Richardus olim Rex Angliæ dicebatur crouch-backed , non quod dorso fucrit incurvato, sed quod à tergo gestare gestiebat formam Crucis."

G. F. G.

Edinburgh.

Lines by Pope. —On the back of a letter in my possession, written by the poet Gray, are the following lines in the handwriting of his friend Mason:—

" By Mr. Pope.

"Tom Wood of Chiswick, deep divine,

To Painter Kent gave all this coin.

'Tis the first coin, I'm bold to say,

That ever Churchman gave to Lay."

"Wrote in Evelyn's book of coins given by Mr. Wood to Kent: he had objected against the word pio in Mr. Pope's father's epitaph."

If these lines are not already in print, perhaps you will insert them amongst your " Notes " as a contribution from

Robert Hotchkin .

Thimbleby Rectory, March 13. 1851.

Origin of St. Andrew's Cross in connexion with Scotland. —John Lesley, bishop of Ross, reports, that in the night before the battle between Athelstan, king of England, and Hungus, king of the Picts, a bright cross, like that whereon St. Andrew suffered, appeared to Hungus, who, having obtained the victory, ever after bore that figure. This happened in 819. Vide Gent. Mag. for Nov. 1732.

E. S. T.

Snail-eating (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—Your correspondent C. W. B. does not seem to be aware that "a ragout of boror (snails)" is a regular dish with English gypsies . Vide Borrow's Zincali , part i. c. v.

He has clearly not read Mr. Borrow's remarks on the subject:

"Know then, O Gentile, whether thou be from the land of Gorgios (England), or the Busné (Spain), that the very gypsies, who consider a ragout of snails a delicious dish, will not touch an eel because it bears a resemblance to a snake; and that those who will feast on a roasted hedgehog could be induced by no money to taste a squirrel!"

Having tasted of roasted hotchiwitchu (hedgehog) myself among the "gentle Rommanys," I can bear witness to its delicate fatness; and though a ragout of snails was never offered for my acceptance, I do not think that those who consider (as most "Gorgios" do) stewed eels a delicacy ought to be too sever on "Limacotrophists!"

Hermes .

Snail-eating. —Perhaps you will permit me to remark, in reference to the communication of C. W. B., that snails are taken medicinally occasionally, and are supposed to be extremely strengthening. I have known them eagerly sought after for the meal of a consumptive patient. As a matter of taste, too, they are by {222} some considered quite epicurean. A gentleman whom I used to know, was in the constant habit as he passed through the fields, of picking up the white slugs that lay in his way, and swallowing them with more relish than he would have done had they been oysters.

That snails make a no inconsiderable item in the bill of fare of gypsies, and other wanderers, I proved while at Oxford, some time ago; for passing up Shotover Hill, in the parish of Headington, I unexpectedly came upon a camp of gypsies who were seated round a wood fire enjoying their Sunday's dinner: this consisted of a considerable number of large snails roasted on the embers, and potatoes similarly cooked. On inquiry, I was told by those who were enjoying their repast, that they were extremely good, and were much liked by people of their class, who made a constant practice of eating them. I need hardly say that I received a most hospitable invitation to join in the feast, which I certainly declined.

L. J.

Queries.

HENRY SMITH.

In Marsden's History of the Early Puritans (a work recently published, which will well repay perusal) there occurs (pp. 178, 179.) the following notice of Henry Smith:—

"Henry Smith was a person of good family, and well connected; but having some scruples, he declined preferment, and aspired to nothing higher than the weekly Lectureship of St. Clement Danes. On a complaint made by Bishop Aylmer, Whitgift suspended him, and silenced for a while probably the most eloquent preacher in Europe. His contemporaries named him the Chrysostom of England. His church was crowded to excess; and amongst his hearers, persons of the highest rank, and those of the most cultivated and fastidious judgment, were content to stand in the throng of citizens. His sermons and treatises were soon to be found in the hands of every person of taste and piety: they passed through numberless editions. Some of them were carried abroad, and translated into Latin. They were still admired and read at the close of nearly a century, when Fuller collected and republished them. Probably the prose writing of this, the richest period of genuine English literature, contains nothing finer than some of his sermons. They are free, to an astonishing degree, from the besetting vices of his age—vulgarity, and quaintness, and affected learning; and he was one of the first English preachers who, without submitting to the trammels of a pedantic logic, conveyed in language nervous, pure, and beautiful, the most convincing arguments in the most lucid order, and made them the ground-work of fervent and impassioned addresses to the conscience."

Would it not be desirable, as well in a literary as a theological point of view, that any extant sermons of so renowned a divine should be made accessible to general readers? At present they are too rare and expensive to be largely useful. A brief Narrative of the Life and Death of Mr. Henry Smith (as it is for substance related by Mr. Thomas Fuller in his Church History ), which is prefixed to an old edition (1643) of his sermons in my possession, concludes in these words:—

"The wonder of this excellent man's worth is increased by the consideration of his tender age, he dying very young (of a consumption as it is conceived) above fifty years since, about Anno 1600."

Thos. M ^c Calmont.

Highfield, Southampton.

Minor Queries.

Owen Glendower. —Some of your Cambrian correspondents might, through your columns, supply a curious and interesting desideratum in historical genealogy, by contributing a pedigree, authenticated as far as practicable by dates and authorities, and including collaterals, of Owen Glendower , from his ancestor Griffith Maelor, Lord of Bromfield, son of Madoc, last Prince of Powys, to the extinction of Owen's male line.

All Cambrian authorities are, I believe, agreed in attributing to Owen the lineal male representation of the sovereigns of Powys; but I am not aware that there is any printed pedigree establishing in detail, on authentic date, his descent, and that of the collaterals of his line; while uncertainty would seem to exist as to one of the links in the chain of deduction, as to the fate of his sons and their descendants, if any, as well as to the marriages and representatives of more than one of his daughters.

I have in vain looked for the particulars I have indicated in Yorke's Royal Tribes of Wales ; in the Welsh Heraldic Visitation Pedigrees , lately published by the Welsh MSS. Society, under the learned editorship of the late Sir Samuel Meyrick; and in the valuable contributions to the genealogy of the Principality to be found in the Landed Gentry and the Peerage and Baronetage of Mr. Burke,—a pedigree, in other respects admirable, in the Landed Gentry of a branch of the dynasty of Powys, omitting the intermediate descents in question.

S. M.

Meaning of Gig-Hill. —Can any of your readers favour me with an explanation of the following matter in local topography? There are two places in the neighbourhood of Kingston-on-Thames distinguished by the name of Gig-Hill ^[3] , although there is no indication of anything in the land to warrant the name.

{223}

Are there any instances to be met with where the place of punishment by the stocks or pillory in olden times, was known by that name?

There was a king of Brittany who resigned his crown, and obtained the honours of canonisation as Saint Giguel, in the seventh century. St. Giles, who died about the sixth century, might, perhaps, have had some connexion with those who are traditionally believed to have been punished on the spot; that is, if we judge by his clients, who locate themselves under the sanctity of his name as a "Guild" or fraternity in London.

There is, however, a curious use by Shakspeare of the word gig. It occurs in Love's Labour's Lost , Act V. Sc. I.:

Holofernes says,

"What is the figure?"

Moth. Horns.

Holofernes. Thou disputest like an infant. Go, whip thy gig."

I submit this matter, as local names have often their origin in religious associations or in proverbial philosophy.

It has been suggested that giggle , as a mark of the derision to which the culprit was exposed, might so become corrupted.

If the term be connected with the punishment, it would be, doubtless, one of general application. The smallest contribution will be thankfully received.

K.

Sir John Vaughan. —In the patent under which the barony of Hamilton of Hackallen, in the county of Meath, was granted on the 20th of October, in the second year of the reign of George I., to Gustavus Hamilton, he is described as son of Sir Frederick Hamilton, Knt., by Sidney, daughter and heiress of Sir John Vaughan, Knt.; and that the said Dame Sidney Hamilton was descended from an honourable line of ancestors, one of whom, Sir Will Sidney, was Chamberlain to Henry II., another of the same name Comptroller of the Household to Henry VIII., &c., &c.

Can any of your genealogical friends inform me who the above-named Sir John Vaughan married, and in what way she was connected with the Sidneys of Penshurst, as the pedigree given by Collins contains no mention of any such marriage?

The arms of Sir John Vaughan, which appear quartered with those of Hamilton and Arran in the margin of the grant, are,—Argent, a chevron sable between three infants' heads coupled at the shoulders, each entwined round the neck with a snake, all proper, thereby intimating his descent from the Vaughans of Porthaml Trêtower, &c., in the county of Brecon.

J. P. O.

Quebecca and his Epitaph. —

"Here lies the body of John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King. When his spirit shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, the Almighty will say to the Angelic Choir, 'Silence, ye calves! and let me hear John Quebecca, precentor to my Lord the King.'"

Can any of your correspondents inform me who John Quebecca was, and where the epitaph may be found?

E. Hailsture.

A Monumental Inscription. —Near the chancel door of the parish-church of Wath-upon-Dearne, in Yorkshire, is an upright slab inscribed to the memory of William Burroughs. After stating that he was of Masbro', gentleman, and that he died in the year 1722, the monument contains the two following hexameters:—

The meaning of all which is obvious, except of the words "Orthodoxus Itermus:" and I should be glad to have this unscanning doggrel translated. It has been conjectured that Itermus must be derived from iter , and hence that Burroughs may have been a traveller , or possibly an orthodox itinerant preacher : surely there can be no punning reference to a journeyman ! The lines have been submitted, in vain, to some high literati in Oxford.

A. G.

Ecclesfield.

Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs of Charles I. (Vol. iii., p. 157.).—My friend, who is in possession of the original MS. of this work, is desirous of ascertaining whether the volume published in 1702 be a complete and exact copy of it. I will transcribe the commencing and concluding passages of the MS., and shall be obliged if Mr. Bolton Corney will compare them with the book in his possession, and tell me the result.

"S ^r ,

"By your's of the 22d of August last, I find you have receaved my former letters of the first and thirteenth of May, 1678; and seeing 'tis your further desire," &c.

"This briefe narrative shall conclude with the king's owne excellent expression: Crowns and kingdoms are not so valuable as my honour and reputation—those must have a period with my life; but these survive to a glorious kind of immortality when I am dead and gone: a good name being the embalming of princes, and a sweet consecrating of them to an eternity of love and gratitude amongst posterity. "

The present owner of the MS. has an idea that an incorrect copy was fraudulently obtained and published about 1813. Is there any foundation for this supposition?

Alfred Gatty.

Ecclesfield.

Comets. —Where may a correct list of the several comets and eclipses, visible in France or England, which appeared, or took place, between the years 1066 and 1600, be obtained?

S. P. O. R.

{224}

Natural Daughter of James II. —James II., in Souverains du Monde (4 vols. 1722), is stated to have had a natural daughter, who in 1706 was married to the Duke of Buckingham.

Can any of your readers inform me the name of this daughter, and of her mother? Also the dates of her birth and death, and the name of her husband, and of any children?

F. B. Relton.

Going the Whole Hog. —What is the origin of the expression "going the whole hog?" Did it take its rise from Cowper's fable, the Love of the World reproved , in which it is shown how "Mahometans eat up the hog?"

Σ .

Innocent Convicts. —Can any of your readers furnish a tolerably complete list of persons convicted and executed in England, for crimes of which it afterwards appeared they were innocent?

Σ .

The San Grail. —Can any one learned in ecclesiastical story say what are the authorities for the story that King Arthur sent his knights through many lands in quest of the sacred vessel used by our Blessed Lord at His "Last Supper," and explain why this chalice was called the "Holy Grail" or "Grayle?" Tennyson has a short poem on the knightly search after it, called "Sir Galahad." And in Spenser's Faerie Queene , book ii. cant. x. 53., allusion is made to the legend that "Joseph of Arimathy brought it to Britain."

W. M. K.

Meaning of "Slums." —In Dr. Wiseman's Appeal to the Reason and Good Feeling of the English People , we find the word "slums" made use of with respect to the purlieus of Westminster Abbey. Warren, in a note of his letter on "The Queen or the Pope?" asks "What are 'slums?' And where is the word to be found explained? Is it Roman or Spanish? There is none such in our language, at least used by gentlemen."

I would ask, may not the word be derived from asylum , seeing that the precincts of abbeys, &c. used to be an asylum or place of refuge in ancient times for robbers and murderers?

W. M. W.

Stokesley.

Bartolus' "Learned Man Defended and Reformed." —Can any one inform the applicant in what modern author this excellent (and he believes rare) book in his possession, translated from the Italian of Daniel Bartolus, G. J., by (Sir) Thomas Salusbury, 1660, is spoken of in terms of high approval? The passage passed before him not long ago, but having made no note , he is unable to recover it.—Query, Is it in Mr. Hallam's Literary History , which he has not at hand?

U. Q.

Odour from the Rainbow. —What English poet is it that embodies the idea contained in the following passage of Bacon's Sylva ? I had noted it on a loose scrap of paper which I left in my copy of the Sylva , but have lost it:—

"It hath been observed by the Ancients, that when a Raine Bow seemeth to hang over or to touch, there breaketh forth a sweet smell. The cause is, for that this happenth but in certain matters which have in themselves some sweetnesse, which the Gentle Dew of the Raine Bow doth draw forth. And the like doe soft showers; for they also make the ground sweet. But none are so delicate as the Dew of the Raine Bow, where it falleth. It may be also that the water itself hath some sweetnesse: for the Raine Bow consisteth of a glomeration of small drops which cannot possibly fall but from the Aire that is very low. And therefore may hold giving sweetnesse of the herbs and flowers, as a distilled water," &c.—Bacon's Sylva , by Rawley, 6th ed. 1651, p. 176.

Jarltzberg .

Tradesmen's Signs. —A Citizen wishes to be informed in what year or reign the signs that used to hang over the tradesmen's shop-doors were abolished, and whether it was accomplished by "act of parliament," or only "by the authority of the Lord Mayor." Also, whether there is any law now in existence that prevents the tradesmen putting the signs up again, if they were so disposed.

Minor Queries Answered.

Supporters borne by Commoners. —Can any of your readers state why some commoners bear supporters, and whether the representatives of Bannerets are entitled to do so? I find in Burke's Dictionary of Landed Gentry , that several gentlemen in England, Scotland, and Ireland continue to use them. See Fulford, p. 452.; Wyse, p. 1661.; Hay-Newton, p. 552., &c. &c.

The late Mr. Portman, father of Lord Portman, used supporters, as do Sir W. Carew, Bart., and some other baronets.

Guinegate.

Answer to Fisher's Relation. —I have a work published at London by Adam Islip, an. 1620, the title-page of which bears—

"An Answere to Mr. Fisher's Relation of a Third {225} Conference betweene a certaine B. (as he stiles him) and himselfe. The conference was very private till Mr. Fisher spread certaine papers of it, which in many respects deserved an Answere. Which is here given by R. B., Chapleine to the B. that was employed in the conference."

Pray, who was the chaplain? I have heard he was the after-famous Archbishop Laud.

I pray your assistance in the resolution of this Query.

J. M.

Liverpool.

Drink up Eisell (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—Here is a passage in Troilus and Cressida , in which drink up occurs (Act IV. Sc. 1.):

The meaning is plainly here avaler , not boire .

Here is another, which does not perhaps illustrate the passage in Hamlet , but resembles it (Act III. Sc. 2.):

"When we vow to weep seas, live in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers, thinking it harder for our mistress to devise imposition enough, than for us to undergo any difficulty imposed."

C. B.

Saxon Coin struck at Derby. —In the reign of Athelstan there was a royal mint at Derby, and a coinage was struck, having on the obverse merely the name of the town, Deoraby, and on the other side the legend " HEGENREDES MO . ON . DEORABY ." What is the meaning of this inscription?

R. C. P.

Derby, Feb. 26. 1851.

Replies.

SCANDAL AGAINST QUEEN ELIZABETH.

(Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 11. 151. 197.)

The Marquis of Ormonde having been informed that certain statements, little complimentary to the reputation of Queen Elizabeth, and equally discreditable to the name of his ancestor, Thomas, Earl of Ormonde, have appeared in " Notes and Queries ," wherein it is stated "that the Ormonde family possess documents which afford proof of this," begs to assure the editor of the journal in question, that the Ormonde collection of papers, &c. contains nothing that bears the slightest reference to the very calumnious attack on the character of good Queen Bess.

Hampton Court, March 17. 1851.

{226}

J. Bs. says papers are "said to exist in the family which prove the statement." As it is one of scandal against a female, and that female a great sovereign, should he not ascertain the fact of the existence of any such paper, before supporting the scandal, and not leave a tradition to be supported by another tradition, when a little trouble might show whether any papers exist, and when found what their value may be.

Q. G.

THE MISTLETOE ON THE OAK.

(Vol. ii., pp. 163. 214.; Vol. iii., p. 192.)

From having been a diligent searcher for the mistletoe on the oak, I may be allowed to make a few remarks upon the question. Is it ever found now on other trees? Now, it not only occurs abundantly on other trees, but it is exceedingly rare on the oak. This may be gathered from the following list, in which numbers have been used to express comparative frequency, as near as my observations enable me to form a judgment:—

From this it would appear that notwithstanding the British Oak grows everywhere, it is at present only favoured by the companionship of the mistletoe in equal ratio with two comparatively recently introduced trees. Indeed such objection does this parasite manifest to the brave old tree, even in his teens, that, notwithstanding a newly-planted line of mixed trees will become speedily attacked by it, the oak is certain to be left in his pride alone.

I have, however, seen the mistletoe on the oak in two instances during my much wandering about amid country scenes, especially of Gloucester and Worcester, two great mistletoe counties. One was pointed out to me by my friend, Mr. Lees, from whom we may expect much valuable information on this subject, in his forthcoming edition of the Botanical Looker-out —it was on a young tree, perhaps of fifty years, in Eastnor Park, on the Malvern chain. The other example is at Frampton-on-Severn, to which the President of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, T. B. L. Baker, Esq., and myself, were taken by Mr. Clifford, of Frampton. The tree is full a century old, and the branch, on which was a goodly bunch of the parasite, numbered somewhere about forty years. That the plant is propagated by seeds there can, I think, be but little doubt, as the seeds are so admirably adapted for the peculiar circumstances under which alone they can propagate; and the want of attention to the facts connected therewith, is probably the cause why the propagation of the mistletoe by artificial means is usually a failure.

I should be inclined to think that the mistletoe never was abundant on the oak; so that it may be that additional sanctity was conferred on the Viscum guerneum on account of its great rarity.

James Buckman.

Cirencester.

Mistletoe upon Oak (Vol. ii., p. 214.).—Besides the mistletoe-bearing oak mentioned by your correspondent, there is one in Lord Somers' park, near Malvern. It is a very fine plant, though it has been injured by sight-seeing marauders.

H. A. B.

Trinity College, Cambridge.

Mistletoe (Vol. ii., pp. 163., 214.).—Do I understand your correspondent to ask whether mistletoe is found now except on oaks? The answer is, as at St. Paul's, "Circumspice." Just go into the country a little. The difficulty is generally supposed to be to find it on the oak.

C. B.

UNIVERSALITY OF THE MAXIM, "LAVORA COME SE TU," ETC.

(Vol. iii., p. 188.)

I have not been able to trace this sentence to its source, but it would most probably be found in that admirable book, Monosinii Floris Italicæ Linguæ , 4to, Venet., 1604; or in Torriano's Dictionary of Italian Proverbs and Phrases , folio, Lond., 1666, a book of which Duplessis doubts the existence! Most of Jeremy Taylor's citations from the Italian are proverbial phrases. Your correspondent has probably copied the phrase as it stands in Bohn's edition of the Holy Living and Dying , but there is a trifling variation as it stands in the first edition of Holy Living , 1650:—

The universality of this maxim, in ages and countries remote from each other, is remarkable. Thus we find it in the Hitopadésa :

"A wise man should think upon knowledge and wealth as if he were undecaying and immortal. He should practise duty as if he were seized by the hair of his head by Death."—Johnson's Translation , Intr. S.

So Democratis of Abdera, more sententiously:

" Οὕτος πειρῶ ζῆν, ὡς καὶ ὀλίγον καὶ πολὺν χρόνον βιωσόμενος ."

Then descending to the fifteenth century, we {227} have it thus in the racy old Saxon Laine Doctrinal :

Where the author of the Voyage autour de ma Chambre , Jean Xavier Maitre, stumbled upon it, or whether it was a spontaneous thought, does not appear; but in his pleasing little book, Lettres sur la Vieillesse , we have it thus verbatim:

"Il faut vivre comme si l'on avoit à mourir demain, mais s'arranger en même temps sa vie, autant que cet arrangement peut dépendre de notre prévoyance, comme si l'on avoit devant soi quelques siècles, et même une éternité d'existence."

Some of your correspondents may possibly be able to indicate other repetitions of this truly "golden sentence," which cannot be too often repeated, for we all know that

S. W. Singer .

Replies to Minor Queries.

Tennyson's In Memoriam (Vol. iii., p. 142.).—

means "before the planet Venus had sunk into the sea."

In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology , under the word Aphrodite or Venus, we find that—

"Some traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam ( ἀφρός ) of the sea which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos, after he had unmanned his father."—Hesiod. Theog. 190.

The allusion in the first stanza of In Memoriam is, I think, to Shelley. The doctrine referred to is common to him and many other poets; but he perhaps inculcates it more frequently than any other. (See Queen Mab sub finem. Revolt of Islam , canto xii. st. 17. Adonais , stanzas 39. 41. et passim.) Besides this, the phrase "clear harp" seems peculiarly applicable to Shelley, who is remarkable for the simplicity of his language.

X. Z.

Tennyson's In Memoriam. —The word star applies in poetry to all the heavenly bodies; and therefore, to the crescent moon , which is often near enough to the sun to be within or to be encircled by, the crimson colour of the sky about sunset; and the sun may, figuratively, be called father of the moon, because he dispenses to her all the light with which she shines; and, moreover, because new , or waxing moons, must set nearly in the same point of the horizon as the sun; and because that point of the horizon in which a heavenly body sets, may, figuratively, be called its grave ; therefore, I believe the last two lines of the stanza of the poem numbered lxxxvii., or 87, in Tennyson's In Memoriam , quoted by W. B. H., to mean simply—

We returned home between the hour of sunset and the setting of the moon, then not so much as a week old.

Robert Snow.

Bishop Hooper's Godly Confession, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 169.).—The Rev. Charles Nevinson may be informed that there are two copies of the edition of the above work for which he inquires, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Tyro .

Dublin.

Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland (Vol. iii., p. 118.).—In reply to the inquiry of Edward F. Rimbault , that gentleman may learn the extent to which the Machell MS. collections of the Rev. Thomas Machell, who was chaplain to King Charles II. , have been examined, and published, by referring, to Burn and Nicholson's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland , edit. 1778. A great part of the MS. is taken up with an account of the antiquary's own family, the "Mali Catuli," or Machell's Lords of Crakenthorpe in Westmoreland. the papers in the library of Carlisle contain only copies and references to the original papers, which are carefully preserved by the present representatives of the family. There are above one thousand deeds, charters, and other documents which I have carefully translated and collated with a view to their being printed privately for the use of the family, and I shall feel pleasure in replying to any inquiry on the subject. Address:

G.P. at the Post Office, Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire.

Two impressions of the seal of the Abbey of Shapp (anciently Hepp), said not to be attainable by the editors of the late splendid edition of the Monasticon , are preserved in the Machell MSS.

Oration against Demosthenes (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—For the information of your correspondent Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie , I transcribe the title of the oration against Demosthenes, for which he makes inquiry, which was not "privately printed" as he supposes, but published last year by Mr. J. W. Parker.

"The Oration of Hyperides against Demosthenes, respecting the Treasure of Harpalus. The Fragments of the Greek Text, now first edited from the Fac-simile of the MS. discovered at Egyptian Thebes in 1847; together with other Fragments of the same Oration cited in Ancient Writers. With a Preliminary Dissertation and Notes, and a Fac-simile of a Portion of the MS. By Churchill Babington, M.A. London: J. W. Parker, 1850."

The discovery of the MS. was made by Mr. {228} A. C. Harris of Alexandria, who placed a fac-simile in the hand of Mr. Churchill Babington, who edited it as above described.

My information is derived from an article on the work in the Christian Remembrancer for October, 1850, to which I refer Mr. Mackenzie for further particulars.

Tyro.

Dublin

Mr. Sharpe has also published "Fragments of Orations in Accusation and Defence of Demosthenes, respecting the money of Harpalus, arranged and translated," in the Journal of the Philological Society , vol. iv.; and the German scholars Boeckh (in the Hallische Litteratur-Zeitung for 1848) and Sauppe have also written critical notices on the fragments; but whether their notices include the old and new fragments, I am unable to say, having only met with a scanty reference to their learned labours.

J. M.

Oxford.

Borrow's Danish Ballads (Vol. iii., p. 168).—The following is the title of Mr. Borrow's book, referred to by Bruno :—

"Targum; or, Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. By George Borrow. 'The Raven ascended to the Nest of the Nightingale.'—Persian Poem. St. Petersburgh. Printed by Schulz and Beneze. 1835."

R. W. F.

Borrow's Danish Ballads. —The title of the work is—

"Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces; by George Borrow. 8vo. Printed by S. Wilkin, Norwich; and published at London by John Taylor, 1826."

In the preface it is stated that the ballads are translated from Oehlenslöger, and from the Kiæmpé Viser , the old Norse book referred to in Lavengro .

μ .

Head of the Saviour (Vol. iii., p. 168.).—The correspondent who inquires about the "true likeness" of the Saviour exposed in some of the London print-shops, is not perhaps aware that there is preserved in the church of St. Peter's at Rome a much more precious and genuine portrait than the one to which he alludes—a likeness described by its possessors as "far more sublime and venerable than any other, since it was neither painted by the hands of men nor angels, but by the divinity himself who makes both men and angels." It is not delineated upon wood or canvass, ivory, glass, or stucco, but upon "a pocket handkerchief lent him by a holy woman named Veronica, to wipe his face upon at the crucifixion" (Aringhi, Roma Subterran. , vol. ii. p. 543.). When the handkerchief was returned it had this genuine portrait imprinted on its surface. It is now one of the holiest of relics preserved in the Vatican basilica, where there is likewise a magnificent altar constructed by Urban VIII., with an inscription commemorating the fact, a mosaic above, illustrative of the event, and a statue of the holy female who received the gift, and who is very properly inscribed in the Roman catalogue of saints under the title of St. Veronica . All this is supported by "pious tradition," and attested by authorities of equal value to those which establish the identity of St. Peter's chair. The only difficulty in the matter lies in this, that the woman Veronica never had any corporeal existence, being no other than the name by which the picture itself was once designated, viz., the Vera Icon , or "True Image" (Mabillon, Iter. Ital. , p. 88.). This narrative will probably relieve your correspondent from the trouble of further inquiries by enabling him to judge for himself whether "there is any truth" about the other true image.

A. R., Jun.

In your 70th Number I perceived that some correspondent asked, "What is the truth respecting a legend attached to the head of our Saviour for some time past in the print-shops?" I ask the same question. True or false, I found in a work entitled The Antiquarian Repertory , by Grose, Astle, and others, vol. iii., an effigy of our Saviour, much inferior in all respects to the above, with the following attached:—

"This present figure is the similitude of our Lord IHV , oure Saviour imprinted in amirvld by the predecessors of the greate turke, and sent to the Pope Innosent the 8. at the cost of the greate turke for a token for this cawse, to redeme his brother that was taken presonor."

This was painted on board. The Rev. Thomas Thurlow, of Baynard's Park, Guildford, has another painted on board with a like inscription, to the best of my recollection: his has a date on it, I think.

Pope Innocent VIII. was created Pope in 1484, and died in 1492.

The variation in the three effigies is an argument against the truth of the story, or the two on board must have been ill-executed. That in the shops is very beautiful.

The same gentleman possesses a Bible, printed by Robert Barker, and by the assignees of John Bill, 1633; and on a slip of paper is, "Holy Bible curiously bound in tapestry by the nuns of Little Gidding, 12mo., Barker."

In a former Number a person replies that a Bible, bound by the nuns of Gidding for Charles I., now belongs to the Marquis of Salisbury. Query the size of that ?

E. H.

Norwich, March 9.

{229}

Lady Bingham (Vol. iii., p. 61.).—If C. W. B. will refer to the supplementary volume of Burke's Landed Gentry , p. 159, he will see that Sarah, daughter of John Heigham, of Giffords Hall, co. Suffolk (son of William Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Clement Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Thomas Heigham, of Heigham, co. Suffolk) married, first, Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of Melcombe Bingham, co. Dorset, governor of Connaught in 1585, &c.; and secondly, Edward Waldegrave, of Lawford, co. Essex. This, I presume, is the lady whose maiden name he enquires for.

C. R. M.

Shakepeare's Use of Captious (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—In All's Well that Ends Well , Act I. Sc. 3.:

has not Mr. Singer , and all the other commentators upon this passage, overlooked a most apparent and satisfactory solution? Is it not evident that the printer simply omitted the vowel "a," and that the word, as written by Shakespeare, was "cap a tious," the "t," according to the orthography of the time, being put for the "c" used by modern writers?

With great deference to former critics, I think this emendation is the most probable, as it accords with the sentiment of Helena, who means to depict her vast but unretentive sieve, into which she poured the waters of her love.

W. F. S.

P.S.—I hope Mr. Singer and J. S. W. will tell us what they think of this proposed alteration.

Bognor, Feb, 22. 1851.

Tanthony (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—I would suggest that the "tanthony" at Kimbolton is a corruption or mis-pronunciation of "tintany," tintinnabulum . I have failed to discover any legend of St. Anthony, confirmatory of Arun's suggestion.

A.

Newark, Notts., Feb. 12.

By the bye (Vol. iii., p 73.).—Is your correspondent S. S. not aware that the phrase "Good bye" is a contraction of our ancestors' more devotional one of "God be wi' ye!"

D. P. W.

Rotherhithe, Jan. 21. 1851.

Lama Beads (Vol. iii., p. 115.).—It is a pretty bold assertion that Lama beads are derived from the Lamas of Asia. Lamma , according to Jamieson, is simply the Scotch for amber . He says Lamertyn steen means the same in Teutonic. I do not find it in Wachter's Lexicon .

Your correspondent's note is a curious instance of the inconvenience of half quotation. He says the Lamas are an order of priests among the Western Tartars. I was surprised at this, since their chief strength, as everybody knows, is in Thibet. On referring to Rees's Cyclopædia , I found that the words are taken from thence; but they are not wrong there, since, by the context they have reference to China.

C. B.

Language given to Men, &c. (Vol. i., p. 83.).—The saying that language was given to men to conceal their thoughts is generally fathered upon Talleyrand at present. I did not know it was in Goldsmith; but the real author of it was Fontenelle.

C. B.

Daresbury, the White Chapel of England (Vol. iii., p. 60.).—This jeu-d'esprit was an after-dinner joke of a learned civilian, not less celebrated for his wit than his book-lore. Some stupid blockhead inserted it in the newspapers, and it is now unfortunately chronicled in your valuable work. It is not at all to be wondered at that "the people in the neighbourhood know nothing on the subject."

Echo.

Holland Land (Vol. ii., pp. 267. 345.; Vol. iii., pp. 30. 70.).—Were not the Lincolnshire estates of Count Bentinck, a Dutch nobleman who came over with William III., and the ancestor of the late Lord George Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn Regis, denominated Little Holland , which he increased by reclaiming large portions in the Dutch manner from the Wash?

E. S. Taylor.

Passage in the Tempest (Vol. ii., p. 259, &c.).—I do not profess to offer an opinion as to the right reading; but with reference to the suggestion of A. E. B. (p. 338.) that it means—

or—

allow me to refer you to the splendid passage in the De Officiis , lib. iii. cap. i., where Cicero expresses the same idea:—

"Pub. Scipionem,... eum, qui primus Africanus appellatus sit, dicere solitum scripsit Cato,... Nunquam se minus otiosum esse, quam cum otiosus ; nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset. Magnifica vero vox, et magno viro, ac sapiente digna; quæ declarat, illum et in otio de negotiis cogitare, et in solitudine secum loqui solitum: ut neque cessaret unquam, et interdum colloquio alterius non egeret."

Ache.

Damasked Linen (Vol. iii., p. 13.).—I believe it has always been customary to damask the linen used by our royal family with appropriate devices. I have seen a cloth of Queen Anne's, with the "A. R." in double cypher, surrounded by buds and flowers; and have myself a cloth with a view of London, and inscribed "Der Konig Georg II.," which was purchased at Brentford, no doubt having come from Kew adjoining.

H. W. D.

Straw Necklaces (Vol. ii., p. 511.).—Having only lately read the " Notes and Queries " (in fact, this being the first number subscribed for), I do not know the previous allusion. It makes me mention a curious custom at Carlisle, of the {230} servants who wish to be hired going into the marketplace of Carlisle, or as they call it "Carel," with a straw in their mouths. It is fast passing away, and now , instead of keeping the straw constantly in the mouth, they merely put it in a few seconds if they see any one looking at them. Anderson, in his Cumberland Ballads , alludes to the custom:—

H. W. D.

Library of the Church of Westminster (Vol. iii., p. 152.).—The statement here quoted from the Délices de la Grande Bretagne is scarcely likely to be correct. We all know how prone foreigners are to misapprehension, and therefore, how unsafe it is to trust to their observations. In this case, may not the description of the Bibliothèque Publique , which was open night and morning, during the sittings of the courts of justice, have originated merely from the rows of booksellers' stalls in Westminster-hall?

J. G. N.

The Ten Commandments (Vol. iii., p. 166.).—Waterland (vol. vi. p. 242., 2nd edition, Oxford, 1843) gives a copy of the Decalogue taken from an old MS. In this the first two commandments are embodied in one. Leighton, in his Exposition of the Ten Commandments , when speaking on the point of the manner of dividing them, refers in a vague manner to Josephus and Philo.

R. V.

Sitting crosslegged to avert Evil (Vol. ii.,p. 407.).—Browne says:—

"To set crosselegg'd, or with our fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will perswade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the ancients, as is observable from Pliny: 'Poplites alternis genibus imponere nefas olim;' and also from Athenæus, that it was an old veneficious practice."— Vulg. Err. , lib. v. cap. xxi. § 9.

Ache.

George Steevens (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—A. Z. wishes to know whether a memoir of George Steevens, the Shakspearian commentator, was ever published, and what has become of the manuscripts.

I believe the late Sir James Allen Park wrote his life, but whether for public or private circulation I cannot tell.

The late George Steevens had a relative, a Mrs. Collinson, and daughters who lived with him at Hampstead, and with him when he died, in Jan. 1800. Miss Collinson married a Mr. Pyecroft, whose death, I think, is in the Gentleman's Magazine for this month: perhaps the Pyecroft family may give information respecting the manuscripts.

"The house he lived in at Hampstead, called the Upper Flask, was formerly a place of public entertainment near the summit of Hampstead Hill. Here Richardson sends his Clarissa in one of her escapes from Lovelace. Here, too, the celebrated Kit-Cat Club used to meet in the summer months; and here, after it became a private abode, the no less celebrated George Steevens lived and died."—Vide Park's Hampstead , pp. 250. 352.

I just recollect Mr. Steevens, who was very kind to us, as children. My mother, who is an octogenarian, remembers him well, and says he always took a nosegay, tied to the top of his cane, every day to Sir Joseph Banks.

Julia R. Bockett.

Southcote Lodge, near Reading.

The Waistcoat bursted, &c. (Vol. ii., p. 505.).—The general effect of melancholy: digestion is imperfectly performed, and melancholy patients generally complain of being "blown up." Bodvar's "blowing up," on the contrary, is the mere effect of the generation of gases in a dead body, well illustrated by a floating dead dog on the river side, or the bursting of a leaden coffin.

H. W. D.

Love's Labour's Lost (Vol. iii., p. 163.).—Your correspondent has very neatly and ably made out how the names of the ladies ought to have been placed; but the error is the poet's, not the printer's. It is impossible to conceive how, in printing or transcribing, such a mistake should arise; the names are quite unlike, and several lines distant from one another. Such forgetfulness is not very uncommon in poets, especially those of the quickest and liveliest spirit. It is the old mistake of Bentley and other commentators, to think that whatever is wrong must be spurious. These, too, we must recollect, are fictitious characters.

C. W. B.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Agreeing with Mr. Lower, that they who desire to know the truth as to the earlier periods of our national history, will do wisely to search for it among the mists and shadows of antiquity, and rather collect it for themselves out of the monkish chronicles than accept the statements of popular historiographers, we receive with great satisfaction the addition to our present list of translations of such chronicles, which Mr. Lower has given us in The Chronicle of Battel Abbey from 1066 to 1176, now first translated, with Notes, and an Abstract of the subsequent History of the Establishment . The original Chronicle, which is preserved among the Cottonian MSS., though known to antiquaries and historians, was never committed to the press until the year 1846, when it was printed by the Anglia Christiana Society from a transcript made by the late Mr. Petrie. Mr. Lower's translation has been made from that edition; and though undertaken by him as an illustration of local history, will be found well deserving the perusal of the general reader, not only from the light it throws upon the Norman invasion and upon the {231} history of the abbey founded by the Conqueror in fulfilment of his vow, but also for the pictures it exhibits of the state of society during the period which it embraces.

Books Received. — The Embarrassment of the Clergy in the Matter of Church Discipline. Two ably written letters by Presbyter Anglicanus, reprinted, by request, from the Morning Post ;— Ann Ash, or the Foundling , by the Author of 'Charlie Burton' and 'The Broken Arm.' If not quite equal to Charlie Burton , and there are few children's stories which are so, it is a tale well calculated to sustain the writer's well-deserved reputation;— Burns and his Biographers, being a Caveat to Cavillers, or an Earnest Endeavour to clear the Cant and Calumnies which, for half a Century, have clung, like Cobwebs, round the Tomb of Robert Burns.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, of 93. Wellington Street, Strand, will sell on Monday next, and five following days, the valuable Library of the late Mr. Andrews of Bristol, containing, besides a large collection of works of high character and repute, some valuable Historical, Antiquarian, and Heraldic Manuscripts.

Catalogues Received. —John Gray Bell's (17. Bedford Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue of Autograph Letters and other Documents; John Alex. Wilson's (20. Upper Kirkgate, Aberdeen) Catalogue of Cheap Books, many Rare and Curious; E. Stibbs' (331. Strand) Catalogue Part III. of Books in all Languages.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

Madame D'aulnoy's Fairy Tales , a small old folio. At the end of the Edition sought for, there are some Spanish Romances: it is in one vol.

Rural Walks—Rambles Farther , by Charlotte Smith. A Child's Book in 4 Vols. (of the last Century).

[ However ragged and worn the above may be, it does not signify. ]

Any Rare or Valuable Works relating in any way to Free Masonry .

Baronii Annales Eccles. cum cent. O. Raynaldi et Lauterbachii. 25 Volumes.

L'Abbé Annales de Saint Pierre, Projet de Paix Perpetuelle , 3 Vols. 12mo. Utrecht, 1713.

Chevalier Ramsay, Essai de Politique , où l'on traite de la Nécessité, de l'Origine, des Droits, des Bornes, et des Différentes Formes de la Souveraineté, selon les Principes de l'Auteur de "Télémaque." 2 Vols. 12mo. La Haye, without date, but printed in 1719.

The same, Second Edition, under the title of Essai Philosophique sur le Gouvernement Civil, selon les Princeps de Fénelon. 12mo. Londres, 1721.

Biblia Hebraica , cum locc. pavall. et adnott. J. H Michaelis. Halæ Magd. 1720. Quarto preferred.

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Notices to Correspondents.

We are this week compelled by want of room to postpone many interesting papers, among which we may mention one by Lord Braybrooke on Portraits of Distinguished Englishmen, and one by Sir F. Madden on the Collection of Pictures of Bart. del Nave purchased by Charles I. Our next Number will be enlarged to 24 pages, so as to include these and many other valuable communications, which are now waiting for insertion.

Lucius Questorius. It is obvious that we have no means of explaining the discrepancy to which our correspondent refers. If we rightly understand his question, it is one which the publisher alone can answer.

Enquirer (Milford). The copy of Hudibras described is worth from fifteen to twenty shillings.

W. H. G. A coin of Aphrodisia in Caria. Has our correspondent consulted Mr. Akerman's Numismatic Manual?

J. N. G. G. Anania, Azaria, and Mizael, occurring in the Benedicite, are the Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. See Daniel, i. 7.

Laudator Temporis Acti. Will our correspondent who wrote to us under this signature enable us to address a communication to him?

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