Produced by Charlene Taylor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
by The Internet Library of Early Journals.)

[Transcriber's note: Original spelling variations have not been
standardized. Underscores have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts.
Ὁρῶσσι could be a typo for Ὁρῶσι. A list of volumes and pages
in "Notes and Queries" has been added at the end.]

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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

VOL. V.--No. 122. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28. 1852.

Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition, 5_d._

CONTENTS.

                                                                Page

      NOTES:--

      Ben Jonson's Verses on the Marriage of the Earl of
      Somerset                                                   193

      Junius and the Quarterly Review                            194

      Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, by W.
      Sparrow Simpson, B.A.                                      194

      Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer, by Wm. Durrant
      Cooper                                                     195

      Folk Lore:--Suffolk Legend--Theodoric, Legend of           195

      Names of Places; Provincial Dialects                       196

      Minor Notes:--The Banking Company in Aberdeen, and the
      Bank of England--Which are the Shadows?--Antiquity
      of County Boundaries--Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of
      Busby--The Poet Gay and his Relatives                      196

      QUERIES:--

      Thomas Bastard, and Song against Sheep-farming             197

      Inundations and their Phenomena, by Sydney Smirke          198

      A Bibliographical Query                                    198

      New Arrangement of the Old Testament                       199

      Minor Queries:--Pasquinades--Sir John Fenner's Bequest
      of Bibles--Friday at Sea--Meaning of "Knarres"--Sir
      John Cheke--Arms of Yarmouth--"Litera Scripta Manet"--Bull
      the Barrel--Nuremberg Token--Weber on the Material Media
      of Musical Art--Clement's Inn--Was Queen Elizabeth dark
      or fair--The "Black Book of Paisley"--"The Trial of the
      Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline"--Frith the
      Martyr, and Dean Comber--Béocherie, alias Parva Hibernia;
      Béocera Gent                                               200

      MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Augmentation Office--"Smectymnus" 201

      REPLIES:--

      Liber Conformitatum                                        202

      Traditions of Remote Periods; George III.'s Garter         203

      Many Children at a Birth; Large Families                   204

      Pedigree of Richard Earl of Chepstow                       204

      Isabel, Queen of the Isle of Man, by John Gough Nichols    205

      Replies to Minor Queries:--Bastides--Brunéhaut--Job--Parish
      Registers--Ornamental Hermits--Collars of SS--Herschel
      Anticipated--Monastic Establishments in Scotland--Kissing
      under the Mistletoe--The Ring Finger--Sanctus Bell--Slang
      Dictionaries--Modern Greek Names of Places--Baskerville
      the Printer--Story of Genevra--Gospel Oaks--"Asters with
      Trains of Fire," &c.--Wiggan, or Utiggan, an Oxford
      Student--Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds--"The bright lamp
      that _shone_ in Kildare's holy fane"--Hyrne--Stops, when
      first introduced--Heraldical MSS. of Sir H. St. George
      Garter--Kingswei, Kings-way, or Kinsey--Fouché's
      Memoirs--The Pelican as a Symbol of our Saviour--Bow-bell
      --Cou-bache--White-livered--"Experto crede Roberto"--"Oh!
      Leoline," &c.--The Word "Blaen"--Stoke--A Baron's
      Hearse--The Bed of Ware--Symbolism of Death--General
      Wolfe--Proverb                                             206

      MISCELLANEOUS:--

      Notes on Books, &c.                                        213

      Books and Odd Volumes wanted                               214

      Notices to Correspondents                                  214

      Advertisements                                             215

Notes.

BEN JONSON'S VERSES ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET.

The British Museum purchased for 14_l._ the copy of the 1640 edition of
Ben Jonson's _Works_, which was sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson,
in the library of the Honorable Archibald Fraser of Lovat. The volume,
which had on its exterior covers the arms of Carr, Earl of Somerset,
contains on one of them the following inscription:--"These verses were
made by the author of this booke, and were delivered to the Earl of
Somerset upon his Lordship's wedding-day." Then follow the verses in the
poet's own handwriting.

      "_To the Most Noble and above his Titles Robert
        Earle of Somerset._

      "They are not those, are present w'th theyr face,
        And clothes, and guifts, that only do thee grace
      At these thy nuptials; but, whose heart, and thought
        Do wayte upon thee: and theyr Loue not bought.
      Such weare true Wedding robes, and are true Freindes,
        That bid, God giue thee ioy and haue no endes
      W'h I do, early, vertuous Somerset,
        And pray, thy ioyes as lasting bee, as great.
      Not only this, but euery day of thine,
        W'th the same looke, or w'th a better, shine.
      May she, whom thou for spouse, to-day, dost take
        Out-bee y't Wife, in worth, thy friend did make:
      And thou to her, that Husband, may exalt
        Hymens amends, to make it worth his fault.
      So, be there neuer discontent, or sorrow,
        To rise w'th eyther of you, on the morrow.
      So, be yo'r Concord, still, as deepe, as mute;
        And euery ioy, in mariage, turne a fruite;
      So, may those Mariage-Pledges, comforts proue:
        And eu'ry birth encrease the heate of Loue.
      So, in theyr number, may you neuer see
        Mortality, till you immortall bee.
      And when your yeares rise more, then would be told
        Yet neyther of you seeme to th' other old.
      That all, y't view you then, and late; may say,
        Sure, this glad payre were maried, but this day.

      "BEN JONSON."

We need scarcely point out the allusions in the eleventh and twelfth
lines to Sir T. Overbury's _Character of a Good Wife_; but we cannot
help calling attention to the curious fact that these lines, written in
1613, must have been carefully preserved by the unhappy man to whom they
were addressed, through all his trials and difficulties; and then, on
the publication of the 1640 edition of Rare Ben's _Works_,--twenty-seven
years after his disgraceful marriage, five years before his death,--been
pasted by him in the cover of the volume which is now very properly
deposited in the National Library.

JUNIUS AND THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Speculations about Junius are once again the fashion. I would recommend
the editor of "N. & Q." not to enter on the general question; but there
are ways, within his legitimate province, by which he might do good
service. For example, there have been many obscure persons alluded to in
these discussions, about whom we should all be glad to receive
information. Thus, Mr. Combe, the author of _Dr. Syntax's Tour_, figures
prominently in the last number of the _Quarterly Review_. Now, of Mr.
Combe very little is known: his name never, I believe, appeared in a
title-page, although he lived, or rather starved, by literature, for
half a century. From a correspondent of _The Athenæum_ I learn that a
list of Combe's works, in his own handwriting, is in the possession of
Mr. Robert Cole; and as Mr. Cole is said to be a very liberal man, I
have no doubt he would allow you to print that list. What a waste of
speculation, not on one subject, but many subjects, might thus be saved
to another generation of editors and contributors!

There are also numberless facts, or assumed facts, made to do duty in
these discussions, which might with great propriety be subjected to the
searching test of "N. & Q." I submit one as a specimen. The writer of
the above-mentioned article in the _Quarterly_ says: "It is universally
admitted that Junius must have been indefatigable in acquiring
information, and that he was pre-eminently distinguished by the variety
and extent of his knowledge;" and he then quotes from the _Parliamentary
History_ the reported opinion of Burke on this point: "Were he [Junius]
a member of this House, what might not be expected from his
knowledge?... Nothing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad
ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity, nor could promises or
threats induce him to conceal anything from the public." On this I
desire to observe, that the "variety and extent" of the knowledge of
Junius is not universally admitted--has indeed been publicly denied; and
that what Burke said, as above quoted, had no reference to Junius
whatever, but to the author of _Another Letter to Mr. Almon in Matter of
Libel_, then just published, and believed to have been written by the
author of the still more celebrated pamphlet, published in 1763 or 1764,
called _A Letter concerning Libels and Warrants_, &c. It is quite true
that the passage has been quoted, and so applied, twenty times, and been
forced to do double duty, that is, been adduced in proof of directly
opposite opinions. This was allowable up to 1842, but inexcusable since
the _Cavendish Debates_ have been published. (See _Cav. Deb._, vol. ii.
pp. 106, 107.)

    J. Q. R.

SIMON OF SUDBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

In a niche in the vestry of St. Gregory's Church, Sudbury, Suffolk, is
preserved the skull of the murdered archbishop: beneath the niche is
placed the following inscription, which appears to me worthy of a place
in your pages:--

  "The head of Simon Theobald, who was born at Sudbury, and thence
  called Simon of Sudbury; he was sent when but a youth into foreign
  parts to study the civil law, whereof he was made doctor: he
  visited most of the universities of France, was made chaplain to
  Pope Innocent, and auditor rotæ, or judge of the Roman court. By
  the interest of this Pope he was made Chancellor of Salisbury. In
  the year 1361, he was consecrated Bishop of London; and in the
  year 1375 was translated to the see of Canterbury, and made
  Chancellor of England. While he was Bishop of London he built the
  upper part of St. Gregory's in Sudbury; and where his father's
  house stood he erected a college of secular priests, and endowed
  it with the yearly revenue of one hundred and twenty-two pounds
  eighteen shillings, and was at length barbarously beheaded upon
  Tower Hill, in London, by the rabble in Wat Tyler's Rebellion, in
  the reign of Richard II. 1382."

This inscription is written in an old hand on a piece of parchment. On
turning to Stow's _Annales_ for an account of these transactions, I find
a very interesting relation of the circumstances above mentioned. I
trust to be excused if I add a few brief extracts. King Richard had
ordered the Tower gates to be opened to the rebels, though--

  "There was the same time in the Tower 600 warlike men, furnished
  with armour and weapon, expert men in armes, and 600 archers, all
  which did quaile in stomacke."

  Stow's _Annales_ (edit. 1601, 4to.), p. 457.

The rebels having entered, conducted themselves with unbridled license,
and "with terrible noyse and fury" laid hands on the archbishop, "drew
him out of the chappell," and proceeded at once to put him to death:

  "He, kneeling downe, offered his necke to him that should strike
  it off; being stricken in the necke, but not deadly, he putting
  his hande to his necke, said thus, _a ha_, it is the hand of God:
  he had not removed his hand from the place where the payne was,
  but that being sodainly stricken, his fingers ends being cut off,
  and part of the arteries, he fell downe; but yet he died not, till
  being mangled with eight strokes in the necke, and in the heade,
  he fulfilled most worthy martyrdome."

  Stow's _Annales_, p. 458.

Thus "barbarously" was the prelate murdered; the rebels then took his
head, fastened it "on a pole, and set it on London bridge, in place
where-before stood the head of Sir _John_ Minstarworth." (_Ibid._) Stow
proceeds to relate some more particulars relative to the archbishop's
history, stating that "he builded the upper end," that is, I conceive,
the chancel "of _St. Gregorie's_ Church at Sudbury;" and concludes his
account by saying:

  "He was slaine as ye haue heard, and afterwards buried in the
  Cathedral Church of Canterbury."

  _Ibid._

Now Godwin, in his valuable work _De Presulibus_, states, that his body
was buried under the high altar of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. But in
Winkle's _Cathedrals_ (London, 1836), vol. i. p. 38., we find Stow's
account corroborated; for--

  "The monument of Archbishop Sudbury, who was beheaded in 1381
  [1382], is in the northern aisle, nearly parallel with the altar;
  it bears no effigy, but is surmounted by a sumptuous canopy of
  very elegant architectural design, but now much mutilated."

Of course, the fact that his monument is in the cathedral, does not
_prove_ that his body was buried there. I shall be glad to learn from
any of your correspondents, what evidence there is for Godwin's
assertion. Gostling, in his _Walk in and about the City of Canterbury_
(5th edit. Cant. 1804), though he mentions the prelate's benefactions to
the cathedral (pp. 12. 79.), and his tomb (p. 220.), does not state his
place of sepulture. At p. 60., however (note [++]), in a brief notice of
St. Dunstan's Church, he says:

  "In a vault under the family chancel of Roper _here_ is kept a
  skull, said to be that of the great Sir Thomas More; it is in a
  niche of the wall, secured with an iron grate, though some say his
  favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, who lies here, desired to be
  buried with it in her arms. The vault being full, was closed up
  not many years since."

This curious coincidence is at least worth noting.

I trust that the interest necessarily attaching to any remains of so
celebrated an historical personage, will prove a sufficient apology to
your readers for the length of this note.

    W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.

The following paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer may be worth printing with
the Query, who was its author? I take it from the book of Mr. Walter
Everenden, among Mr. Frewen's MSS., where it is ascribed to James I.,
whilst I believe that in a MS. book of ballads belonging to MR. J. PAYNE
COLLIER it is ascribed to Bishop Andrews.

      "By the Kings Majestie.

      "Yf any be distrest and fayne
        woulde gather
      some comfort, let him hast
        unto

                        Our Father

      "for we of hope and healpe
        are quite bereaven
      except thou suckcour us

                        w'ch art in heaven

      "Thou shewest mercy, therefor
        for the same
      we praysse thee, singeing

                        hallowed be Thy name

      "of all our misseries cast up
        the sum;
      Shew us thy ioyes, and lett

                        Thy kingdom come

      "Wee mortall are, and alter
        from our birth;
      Thou constant arte

                        Thy will be done on earth

      "Thou madest the earth as
        well as planetts Seaven:
      Thy name be blessed heere

                        as 'tis in heaven

      "Nothing wee have to use, or
        debts to paye,
      except thou give it us

                        give us this day

      "Wherewith to clothe us,
        wherewith to be fedd,
      for without Thee we wante

                        our daily breade

      "Wee want, but want no faults,
        for no day passes
      But wee doe sinn

                        forgive us our trespasses

      "Noe man from sining ever
        free did live
      forgive us Lorde our sinns

                        as we forgive

      "Yf we repent our faults Thou
        ne're disdainest us
      We pardon them

                        y't trespasses agaynst us

      "forgive us that is past, a new
        path treade us
      Direct us alwaies in thy fayth

                        and leade us

      "Wee thine owne people and
        Thy chosen nation
      into all truth, but

                        not into temtation

      "Thou that of all good graces
        art the giver
      Suffer us not to wander

                        but deliver

      "Us from the fierce assaults
        of worlde and divell
      and flesh, so shalt thou free
        us

                        from all evil

      "To these petitions let boath
        church and laymen
      w'th one concent of hart and
        voyce say

                        Amen."

    WM. DURRANT COOPER.

FOLK LORE.

_Suffolk Legend._--In the little village of Acton, Suffolk, a legend was
current not many years ago, that on certain occasions, which, by the
way, were never accurately defined, the park gates were wont to fly
open at midnight "withouten hands," and a carriage drawn by four
spectral horses, and accompanied by headless grooms and outriders,
proceeded with great rapidity from the park to a spot called "the
nursery corner." What became of the ghostly _cortège_ at this spot, I
have never been able to learn; but though the sight has not been seen by
any of the present inhabitants, yet some of them have heard the noise of
the head-long race. The "Corner," tradition says, is the spot where a
very bloody engagement took place in olden time, when the Romans were
governors of England. A few coins have I believe been found, but nothing
else confirmatory of the tale. Does history in any way support the story
of the battle? Whilst writing on this subject, I may as well note, that
near this haunted corner is a pool called Wimbell Pond, in which
tradition says an iron chest of money is concealed: if any daring person
ventures to approach the pond, and throw a stone into the water, it will
ring against the chest and a small white figure has been heard to cry in
accents of distress, "That's mine!"

I send you these legends as I have heard them from the lips of my nurse,
a native of the village.

    W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

_Theodoric, Legend of._--May we not consider the Saxon legend quoted by
Mr. Kemble in his _Saxons in England_, foot-note on page 423., vol. i.,
as something like a parallel to "Old Booty" and Mr. Gresham, mentioned
in Vol. iii., p. 93. of "N. & Q.?" or is it possible to have been the
origin of both?

The legend is, that an anchoret in Lipari told some sailors that at a
particular time he had seen King Theodoric ungirt, barefoot and bound,
led between St. John, pope and martyr, and St. Finian, and by them
hurled into the burning crater of the neighbouring island volcano. That
on the sailors' return to Italy they discovered, by comparison of dates,
that Theodoric died on the day on which the anchoret noticed his
punishment by the hands of his victims.

    THOMAS LAWRENCE.

  Ashby de la Zouch.

NAMES OF PLACES--PROVINCIAL DIALECTS.

Every reader of "N. & Q." must be acquainted with places throughout the
country pronounced very differently to their spelling. It has occurred
to me that a collection of them would be interesting, both as a
topographical curiosity, and as an illustration of our provincial
dialects. No paper is fitter for such a collection than the "N. & Q.;"
its correspondents would doubtless communicate any within their notice,
and you, Mr. Editor, would from time to time give up a little space to
them.

The following are what I remember just now:--

          _Spelling._                _Pronunciation._

      Wednesbury (near Birmingham)    Wedgbury
      Smethwick (near Birmingham)     Smerrick
      Cirencester                     Cisiter
      Bothal (Northumberland)         Botal
      Merstham (Surrey)               Maestrum
      Carshalton (Surrey)             Casehorton
      Shepton (Somersetshire)         Shepun
      Ratlinghope (Salop)             Ratchup
      Chantlingbury (Sussex)          Shankbury
      Hove (Sussex)                   Hoove
      Wavertree (near Liverpool)      Wartree
      St. Neots                       St. Nouts
      Beauchamp                       Beechem
      Belvoir                         Beever
      Saubridgeworth                  Sapsworth or Sapsey

Some of your correspondents may send Scotch, Irish, and Welsh specimens;
I would suggest such be kept separate from the English. My own
experience bids me carefully abstain from sending Welsh ones. When on a
walking tour in Wales three years ago, I asked a peasant "if that road
led to _Aberga'ny_" (with conscious pride in my pronunciation); "Nay,
nay, sir, _that_ road takes to Abergavenny."

    P. M. M.

Minor Notes.

_The Banking Company in Aberdeen, and the Bank of England._--The Banking
Company in Aberdeen was established in the year 1767; and the following
Note respecting it may be new to many of the readers of "N. & Q." This
Company adopted the plan of using paper bearing in watermark a waved
line, and the amount of the note expressed in words, along with the
designation of the Company; but about the year 1805 a gentleman
connected with Aberdeenshire brought this paper under the notice of the
Bank of England, in consequence of which they adopted it, and procured
an act of parliament to be passed prohibiting the use of paper so marked
by any provincial bank.

    PETRAPROMONTORIENSIS.

_Which are the Shadows?_--In the notes to the beautiful poem _Italy_, by
Samuel Rogers, published (I think) in 1830, the following occurs:--

  "'You admire that picture,' said an old Dominican to me at Padua,
  as I stood contemplating a Last Supper in the refectory of his
  convent, the figures as large as life. 'I have sat at my meals
  before it for seven-and-forty years and such are the changes that
  have taken place among us; so many have come and gone in the time,
  that when I look upon the company there--upon those who are
  sitting at the table silent as they--I am sometimes inclined to
  think that we, and not they, are the shadows.'"

In the sixth volume of Lord Mahon's _History of England_, chap. lx. p.
498., we find this passage:

  "Once as Sir David Wilkie (Mr. Washington Irving and myself being
  then his fellow-travellers in Spain) was gazing on one of Titian's
  master-pieces--the famous picture of the Last Supper in the
  refectory of the Escurial--an old monk of the order of St. Jerome
  came up, and said to him, 'I have sat daily in sight of that
  picture for now nearly three score years. During that time my
  companions have dropped off, one after another--all who were my
  seniors, all who were of mine own age, and many or most of those
  who were younger than myself; nothing has been unchanged around me
  except those figures, large as life, in yonder painting; and I
  look at them till I sometimes think that they are the realities,
  and we the shadows.'"

The great resemblance between these two passages is very striking; the
latter only amplifies the former by very few words.

    D. F. M'L.

  Cork.

_Antiquity of County Boundaries._--In the loop of Devonshire, on the
western side of the Tamar, formed by the parishes of Werrington and
North Petherwyn, none of the names of places are Cornish, but end in the
Saxon termination of _cot_, whilst in all other parts the Cornish names
are used up to the banks of the river. Modern Cornwall is a province so
well defined by the language of its place-names, that it could be marked
off without difficulty, if its artificial boundary-lines were omitted on
a map. How does this limited extent of the language consist with some
accounts of the former extent of the kingdom?

    S. R. P.

  Launceston.

_Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of Busby._--The birth[1] of Zachary
(afterwards Bishop) Pearce was prior to the death[2] of the famous
Master of Westminster, which took place at the _short_ interval of five
years: consequently, it was impossible that the relation of teacher and
pupil should exist between them.

  [Footnote 1: 1690.]

  [Footnote 2: 1695.]

In the Memoir of this prelate, which goes before his _Commentary on the
Gospels_, it is expressly stated that he was removed to Westminster
School in Feb. 1704. At the same time, his biographer speaks of his
being elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, after he had spent six
years at Westminster, and "endured the constraint of a grammar school to
the twentieth year of his age." Then follows the sentence, "Why his
removal was so long delayed, no other reason can be given, than that Dr.
Busby used to detain those boys longest under his discipline of whose
future eminence he had most expectation; considering the fundamental
knowledge which grammar schools inculcate, as that which is least likely
to be supplied by future diligence, if the student be sent deficient to
the university."

Bishop Pearce's biographer was the Rev. John Derby, his chaplain, who
could not well be mistaken as to a plain and palpable matter of fact. It
is perfectly conceivable, however, that the future prelate was long
detained at Westminster School in consequence of a regulation _first_
laid down by Busby, and regularly acted upon by that eminent man. This
circumstance will sufficiently explain the apparent incongruity.

If I am right in this conjecture, Bishop Pearce must have entered under
Knipe.[3]

  [Footnote 3: Noble's Continuation of _Granger_, Vol. iii. p. 119, &c.]

    N.

_The Poet Gay and his Relatives._--In a letter from the late Bishop
Copleston to the Rev. E. Tyler, in Jan. 1839, on the death of his mother
at the age of ninety-two (published in his _Memoirs_), he says, "Her
father and poet Gay were brothers' sons."

    H. T. E.

Queries.

THOMAS BASTARD, AND SONG AGAINST SHEEP-FARMING.

The twentieth epigram in the fourth book of _Chrestoleros_, by T. B.
(poor Thomas Bastard), printed 1598, is to the following effect:

      "Sheepe have eate up our medows and our downes,
      Our corne, our wood, whole villages and townes.
      Yea, they have eate up many wealthy men,
      Besides widowes, and orphane childeren:
      Besides our statutes and our iron lawes,
      Which they have swallowed down into their maws.
      Till now I thought the proverbe did but jest,
      Which said a blacke sheepe was a biting beast."

Here the allusion is of course to the miseries entailed by the system of
sheep-farming; a system which had been introduced and carried to excess
by the monastic bodies. Some years ago I met with an old satirical song
on this subject, of which the above "proverbe" formed a kind of burden,
but where, or in what collection I met with it, I cannot for the life of
me remember. Now, seeing that your periodical exemplifies very
accurately the definition once given by a Surrey peasant of a highly
accomplished man--"Sir! he knows everything, and what he don't know he
axes,"--perhaps you will allow me to ask whether some one of your many
able correspondents may not have the power and the will to give me this
information. A worthless memory seems to suggest that the song was a
Cambridge production, and interspersed with Latin phrases.

Now, one word about the author of the epigram above quoted. It is not, I
hope, an abuse of the freedom of speech which ought to prevail in the
republic of letters, if I express a strong opinion that your learned
contributor, MR. PAYNE COLLIER, has rendered very scant justice to the
memory of Bastard. The epigrams selected by that gentleman as favourable
samples, are among the very worst of the author's efforts.

Probably not twenty copies of the _Chrestoleros_ are in existence; but
as, by the kindness of my esteemed friend E. V. Utterson, I possess one
of the sixteen struck off at his own private press, I beg to supply a
specimen or two, that will not only gratify your readers in general, but
elicit an approving verdict from MR. COLLIER himself.

For example, is not the finished cadence, as well as the nervous force,
of the following lines to Sir Ph. Sidney, greatly to be admired?

      "When Nature wrought upon her mould so well,
        That Nature wondred her own work to see,
      When Arte so labourde Nature to excel,
        And both had spent their excellence in thee;
      Willing they gave thee into Fortune's hand,
      Fearing they could not end what they beganne!"

In my poor judgment, those are truly noble lines. And what say you to
the following, Mr. Editor, which form a sonnet rather than an epigram?

      "The world's great peers and mighty conquerours,
        Whose sword hath purchased them eternal fame,
      If they survived in this age of ours
        Might add more glory to their lasting name.
      For him which Carthage sack'd and overthrewe,
        We have found out another Africa;
      Newe Gauls and Germaines Cæsar might subdue,
        And Pompey Great another Asia.
      But you, O Christian princes, do not so;
        Seeke not to conquer nations by the sworde,
      Whom you may better quell and overthrowe
        By winning them to Christ and to his worde.
      Give Him the new worlde for old Asia's losse,
      And set not up your standard, but His crosse!"

I not only challenge MR. P. COLLIER'S hearty approval of those
magnificent lines, but I would venture the expression of a doubt whether
anything finer can be produced of the same date and character.

Now take a spice of Bastard's quality as a humorist; not failing to mark
again the solemn flow and well-balanced cadence of the lines:

      "You who have sorrow's hidden bottom sounded,
        And felt the ground of teares and bitter moane,
      You may conceive how Gilloes heart is wounded,
        And judge of his deep feeling by your owne.
      His toothlesse wife, when she was left for dead,
      When grave and all was made--_Recovered!_"

I have other evidence as strongly favourable, but I shall not adduce it,
lest after all it be wasted on unwilling ears. But if it be the verdict
of your readers that Thomas Bastard has been unjustly forgotten, he
shall live again in your pages.

    R. C. C.

INUNDATIONS AND THEIR PHENOMENA.

The remarkable inundations that have recently taken place (I do not, of
course, allude to the accident at Holmesfirth) in various parts of the
country, without any such very long-continued and violent storms of rain
as one would naturally look to as their cause, have called to my
recollection some remarks in the "Notices Scientifiques" of M. Arago,
attached to the _Annuaire pour l'An 1838_, published by the Bureau des
Longitudes at Paris. I beg to transcribe them:

  "Des historiens, les météorologistes citent des inondations
  locales dont les effets ont semblé bien supérieures à ce que
  pouvoit faire craindre la médiocre quantité de pluie provenante
  des nuages et tombée dans un certain rayon. Il est rarement arrivé
  qu'alors _on n'ait pas vu_, pendant un temps plus ou moins long,
  d'immense masses d'eau surgir des entrailles de la terre par des
  ouvertures jusque là inconnues, et aussi, _qu'un violent orage
  n'ait pas été la précurseur du phénomène et probablement sa cause
  première_. Telles furent, du point en point, par example, en juin,
  1686, les circonstances de l'inondation qui détruisit presque en
  totalité les deux villages de _Ketlevell_ et de _Starbottom_, dans
  le comté d'York. Pendant l'orage une immense crevasse se forma
  dans la montagne voisine, et, au dire des témoins oculaires, la
  masse fluide qui s'en échappa avec impétuosité contribua au moins
  tout autant que la pluie, aux malheurs qu'on eut à déplores."

  P. 361.

1. Is there any reason to suppose that a subterranean outburst of this
nature accompanied any of the recent inundations?

2. Does the "immense crevice" alluded to by M. Arago still exist? and
does water continue to proceed from it?

    SYDNEY SMIRKE.

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERY.

In the year 1704 was published anonymously:

  "_An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholic Communion_; wherein
  above sixty of the principal controverted points, which have
  hitherto divided Christendom, being called over, 'tis examined how
  many of them may, and ought to be laid aside, and how few remain
  to be accommodated, for the effecting a general Peace. By a
  Minister of the Church of England. Sold by John Nutt, near
  Stationers' Hall, 1704."

This _Essay_ has passed through several editions in London and Dublin:
to that of 1801 is prefixed a

  "Dedication to the Right Hon. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
  and to the Hon. the House of Commons ... and the perusal of it
  earnestly recommended by a Lover of Christian Peace and Union and
  a Loyal United Briton."

It has now been in circulation for nearly a century and a half; and for
want of a medium of inter-communication in olden times like "N. & Q.,"
its authorship has frequently been a topic of keen discussion. Mr.
Oakeley, in his work, _The Subject of Tract XC. historically examined_,
states that

  "Its publication attracted at the time the notice of the
  Government. A warrant appears to have been issued from the
  Secretary of State's office for the seizure of the author's
  papers, and the arrest of his person, under a suspicion apparently
  that he was in league with the Pretender."

It is to be regretted that Mr. Oakeley has not given his authority for
this statement. Mr. Goode, in his pamphlet entitled _Tract XC.
historically refuted_, attributes it, on the authority of Dodd, to
Thomas Dean, a Roman Catholic Fellow of University College, Oxford;
whereas the author of _The Sure Hope of Reconciliation_, p. 61., thinks
Mr. Goode's supposition open to exception; and as the writer styles
himself "A Minister of the Church of England," he is inclined to admit
his claim to the title, till stronger evidence be adduced to the
contrary.

The following curious colloquy between two priests of the Roman and
Anglican Churches, in the Town Hall at Guildford, in 1838, respecting
the authorship of this _Essay_, is also worthy a Note:

  "_Rev. Joseph Sidden._ The author of _A Proposal for a Catholic
  Communion_ says----

  "_Rev. M. Hobart Seymour._ Name! name.

  "_Rev. J. Sidden._ I do not know his name; he appears to have been
  an archdeacon of the Church of England in the reign of Queen Anne.
  His work is on sale at Booker's.

  "_The Chairman._ Can you name the place of which he was
  archdeacon?

  "_Rev. J. Sidden._ No; but I give these as the words of a
  Protestant clergyman.

  "_Rev. M. H. Seymour._ You do not know that he was a Protestant at
  all.

  "_Rev. J. Sidden._ I have put the work into the hands of a
  Protestant clergyman, who agrees with it; and it agrees with
  Archbishop Bramhall. I have often tried to discover who was the
  author.

  "_Rev. M. H. Seymour._ It was written perhaps by a Roman Catholic
  Priest.

  "_Rev. J. Sidden._ I think not, because the Hon. and Rev. Arthur
  Perceval, rector of East Horsley, borrowed the book of me, and he
  wrote to me, that he so much approved of it, that he meant to
  procure a copy of it. I do not know who wrote it."

  _Proceedings at a Meeting of the Guildford Protestant
  Association_, 1838, p. 20.

Now, without discussing the theological points at issue between the two
parties, it is desirable that the authorship of this work, as a literary
production, should be finally settled, which I am inclined to think will
be the case when it is brought before the numerous readers of "N. & Q."
On its first appearance it was attacked by three Nonjuring clergymen,
viz. Grascome, Stephens, and Spinckes. Grascome, it appears, knew the
author; but his work, _Concordia Discors_, I have not been able to
procure. (See _Life of Kettlewell_, p. 328.) It is not to be found in
the catalogues of the Bodleian, British Museum, or Sion College. The
replies by Edward Stephens and Nathanael Spinckes are both in the
Bodleian. The first edition of the original _Essay_, 1704, is in the
British Museum, and on the title-page is written in pencil, "By Thomas
Dean, a papist," and underneath, in ink, "By Nathanael Spinckes, not a
Roman Catholic." The latter entry is clearly a mistake.

After some investigation, it appears to me that the authorship rests
between Thomas Dean and Joshua Bassett. It is attributed to the former
by Dodd (_alias_ Tootle) in his _Certamen utriusqe Ecclesiæ_; but Wood,
who has given some account of Dean in his _Athenæ Oxon._, vol. iv. p.
450. (Bliss), does not include this _Essay_ among his other works. In
the Bodleian Catalogue its authorship is attributed to Joshua Bassett,
Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, of whom our biographical
dictionaries are perfectly silent. Fortunately, Cole has preserved some
notices of him in his MSS., vol. xx. p. 117. It appears that he was a
Roman Catholic, and had mass publicly said in his college; but upon King
James revoking the mandamuses in 1688, he left Cambridge and settled in
London, where, says Cole, "he lived to be a very old man, and died in no
very affluent circumstances, as we may well imagine." Cole notices a
work by Bassett published anonymously, viz. _Reason and Authority; or
the Motives of a late Protestant's Reconciliation to the Catholic
Church_. London: 1687, 4to. With this clue, probably, some of your
readers can finally settle the question.

    J. Y.

  Hoxton.

NEW ARRANGEMENT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

I am engaged in preparing the Old Testament on the same plan, but with
some alterations and additions, as the _Chronological New Testament_
described in Vol. iv., p. 357.

I write to ask if any of your correspondents can aid me in my
undertaking in the following points:

I. To inform me where I can procure, by purchase, or by loan for a few
weeks, Torshell's tract or book, in which he proposed to Charles I. to
undertake such a work.

II. To make a re-division, according to the subject-matter, of Job,
Ecclesiastes, and the greater and the minor prophets.

III. To draw up a brief analysis of this subject-matter, similar to what
is attempted in the New Testament for the Epistles.

IV. To extract from the Mishneh, &c., the _really_ valuable comments of
the rabbis.

V. To make up the chronology into the following four great unequal
divisions, assigning the particular years to each transaction falling
under these divisions; viz., (a) Adam to Abraham, (b) Abraham to David;
(c) David to the transportation of Judah to Babylon; (d) Transportation
to Babylon to Christ.

VI. To collate all these _important_ variations of the Septuagint and of
the Samaritan Pentateuch.

VII. Critically to examine the introductions, marginal quotations, and
the analyses, as given in the _Chronological New Testament_.

I shall with pleasure present any gentleman who will help me in any one
of these particulars with a copy of the New Testament at once, if he
will signify his wish for one, in a line addressed to me, care of the
Publisher, Mr. Blackader, 13. Paternoster Row.

    THE EDITOR OF THE "CHRONOLOGICAL NEW TESTAMENT."

  Trinity Square, Southwark.

Minor Queries.

_Pasquinades._--Can any correspondent tell me under whose reign the
following pasquinade was published?

The reigning Pope had erected a new order of knighthood, and the crosses
were very lavishly distributed; upon which Pasquin said--

      "In tempi men' leggiadri e più feroci
      S'appiccavan' i ladri in sulle croci,
      Ma in tempi men' feroci e più leggiadri
      S'appiccano croci in sopra ladri."

    L. H. J. T.

_Sir John Fenner's Bequest of Bibles._--Sir John Fenner, by will dated
1633, desired his executors to employ monies in purchasing lands (which
has since produced 620_l._ per annum, but now less than that amount),
the rent to be laid out every Easter in buying Bibles and distributing
money for and amongst the poor of ten parishes in the metropolis. I
shall feel thankful for any information relating to that benevolent
gentleman communicated either through your columns, or to me at 35.
Gifford Street, Kingsland Road, London.

    HENRY EDWARDS,

  (a Subscriber from the beginning).

_Friday at Sea._--I have heard a story respecting the superstition in
which sailors hold Friday as a day of departure. To disabuse them of
this superstition, a ship--so runs the tale--was laid down on Friday;
launched on a Friday; commanded by a captain named Friday; sailed on a
Friday; and--so runs the story--was never heard of afterwards!

Is there--I believe not--any truth in this tradition; and where may the
earliest allusion to it be found.

    [?]

_Meaning of "Knarres."_--In a minister's account of the time of Edward
II., relating to Caernarvonshire, is an entry for rent received "de
terra morosa et knarres:" the word is sometimes written _gnarres_. What
does it mean? I believe in Norfolk and in other counties a description
of scrubby woodland is known by the name of _carrs_ (Query spelling). We
find _Knares_-borough in Yorkshire, and _Knares_-dale in Northumberland,
_Nar_-borough in Leicester, _Nar_-burgh and _Nar_-ford in Norfolk.
Taking the _n_ to be the expressive letter, we have perhaps specimens of
its softened sound in the names of _Snare_-hill, _Snar_-gate,
_Snares_-brook, &c., in various counties. Some of your etymological
readers may be able to explain the derivation of these names, should
they be considered to come from a common source, and with that the
sentence quoted above.

    J. BT.

_Sir John Cheke._--May I hope for a reply to my Queries--in what court
poor Sir John Cheke was forced to sit beside Bishop Bonner, at the
trials of the martyrs? and at whose trials he was present? His sad
recantation took place in the year 1556, and his death, from a broken
heart, in the year following; so that his being compelled to sit on the
bench beside Bonner, must have been at the trials which took place
between those two dates. I have Foxe, Fuller, and Strype's memoirs of
Sir John Cheke; but I shall be grateful for any information about him
from any other old volumes, or from private sources.

    C. B. T.

_Arms of Yarmouth._--What authority has Gwillim, in his _Display of
Heraldrie_, p. 258., for asserting--

  "He beareth argent a chevron between three seals, feet erected,
  sable erased. These armes doe pertaine to the towne of Yarmouth in
  Norfolk."

    C. I. P.

  Gt. Yarmouth.

"_Litera Scripta Manet._"--This is a favourite expression both with
speakers and with writers. Is it a quotation? If so, I should be glad to
learn whence it comes. It can scarcely be part of a verse, inasmuch as
it contains a violation of a well-known metrical canon: final _a_ short
before _sc_.

    W. S.

  Linwood.

_Bull the Barrel._--What is the origin and exact meaning of the word
_bull_ in this phrase? I made a note of the passage in which I found it,
thinking that it might possibly be connected in some way with Milton's
"bullish." (See vol. iii., p. 241; vol. iv., p. 394.)

  "On the third day after my departure from Zashiversk, my liquor
  was at an end from the effects of a very common sort of leak--it
  had been tapped too often. I could do nothing but _bull_ the
  barrel, that is, put a little water into it, and so preserve at
  least the appearance of vodkey."

  Cochrane's _Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and
  Siberian Tartary, during the years 1820-23_. [Murray, 1824, one
  vol. 8vo.] p. 225.

    C. FORBES.

  Temple.

_Nuremberg Token._--What is the meaning of the following legend, which I
find on an old brass or copper coin of extreme thinness, and of the size
of a shilling:--

      "HANNS . KRAVWINCKEL . IN . NVR ."

encircling three crowns disposed in a circle with fleur de lis
intervening.

      "GOTS . REICH . BLIBT . EWICK . E ."

encircling an emblem of Trinity, in the interior of which is a ball and
cross.

There are no figures to indicate a date, but I conclude it belongs to
the time of the Hanseatic league.

    H. C. K.

_Weber on the Material Media of Musical Art._--Can any of your musical
readers inform me whether the treatise on the material media of the
musical art, promised by Weber in his _Theory of Musical Composition_,
and which he therein frequently refers to, has ever yet made its
appearance; and if so, whether any English translation has been
published?

    T. L. L.

_Clement's Inn._--I am an attorney; one of my predecessors in business
was steward of Clement's Inn. He died, and his partner removed from the
Inn to the City. I was articled to the partner, and I recollect that up
to the time of his death, which occurred in 1837, he used to receive an
annual visit from the minor officials of the inn, beadle, porter, &c.,
who presented four oranges, and received in return half a guinea. I used
generally to suck the oranges, but it never entered my head to inquire
what was the origin of the custom. You have probably a correspondent or
reader amongst the "ancients" of the venerable society I have mentioned,
who may be able to trace the origin of the custom which gave me the
privilege of sucking the oranges in question.

    Q. D.

_Was Queen Elizabeth dark or fair?_--In Vol. iii., p. 432. of "N. & Q."
there is a quotation from the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1791, in which
Queen Elizabeth is mentioned as of a "_swarthy_ complexion." I had
always thought of her as fair. Miss Strickland speaks of her "_fair_
complexion," and cites De Maurier, who writes of her "_white_ hands:" in
addition to which, does not her "light auburn hair" betoken a light
complexion? In one of your late numbers a madrigal is given wherein she
is sung as "_fair_ Oriana." This, however, may be no allusion to colour
of complexion, but merely the poetic use of the word as synonymous with
beautiful. How does the fact stand?

    W. T. M.

  Victoria, Hong Kong, Dec. 27, 1851.

_The "Black Book of Paisley."_--I should be glad if any of your
correspondents could favour me with any information relative to the
"Black Book of Paisley," so often quoted by Scottish historical writers
as the Chronicon Clugniense, being a chronicle of the public affairs and
remarkable events kept by the monks of that monastery, and if the same
or any part thereof has been reprinted by any of our societies or clubs.
It was said to have been recovered at Rome by Sir Robert Spottiswoode,
along with other records and MSS. of the Roman Catholic Church, which
had been carried abroad from the Scottish monasteries at the
Reformation.

    ABERDONIENSIS.

"_The Trial of the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline._"--This
book, Mr. Whitbread stated in his place in the House of Commons in 1812,
was published, and afterwards suppressed, and bought up at an immense
expense, some holders receiving 500_l._, and some as high as 2000_l._
for their copies. Is this correct?

    ELGINENSIS.

_Frith the Martyr, and Dean Comber._--Frith the Martyr, and Dean Comber,
were born in Westerham. Can any antiquary of the district point out the
exact spot? I have often asked, but ever unsuccessfully; and I now
regret that I did not inquire of Mr. Streatfeild, who resided in the
parish, and whom I knew.

    H. G. D.

_Béocherie, alias Parva Hibernia--Béocera Gent._--These words occur in
Kemble's _Ang.-Sax. Charters_, Nos. 567. and 652. The first was an islet
in Somersetshire; the latter were in Hants. Were the _Béocera Gent_
Irish, and if so, whence the name?

    B. WILLIAMS.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Augmentation Office._--I should esteem it a favour if any of your
correspondents could inform me whether the original grants made in Hen.
VIII. and Edw. VI. reigns, of the property of dissolved religious
establishments, are to be met with in the Augmentation Office, and if
not, where? as it would greatly assist in tracing titles to property
formerly belonging to those establishments, and which passed from the
hands of the crown to different individuals at those periods.

    J. N. CHADWICK.

  [All grants from the crown pass under letters patent, which are
  enrolled on the patent rolls. Those for the time of Hen. VIII. and
  Edw. VI. are in the Rolls Chapel, Chancery Lane, and can be
  readily searched if the name of grantee and date is known. In the
  Augmentation Office, a branch of the Carlton Ride Record Office,
  are the "particulars" for those grants, which give considerable
  information. See 8th Report of the Deputy-keeper of the Public
  Records.]

"_Smectymnus._"--Who were the five divines who united their powers in
writing against episcopacy under the above title, which is said to be
composed of the initial letters of their names?

    O. P. Q.

  [They were _S_tephen _M_arshall, _E_dmund _C_alamy, _T_homas
  _Y_oung, _M_atthew _N_ewcomen, and _W_illiam _S_purstow: their
  followers were called _Smectymnuans_. See Butler's _Hudibras_,
  with Grey's notes, Part I, canto iii. line 1166.]

Replies.

LIBER CONFORMITATUM.

(Vol. iii., p. 321.)

Bartholomæo degli Albizzi, or Bartholomew of Pisa, who wrote the famous
BOOK OF CONFORMITIES, was born at Rivano in Tuscany, and died in 1401.
Mr. Rose's admirable _Biographical Dict._ (12 vols. 8vo. 1850) contains
the following passage relative to this work, under the name Albizzi:--

  "The LIBER CONFORMITATUM _was first printed at Venice, folio,
  without date or printer's name_; 2nd edition, folio, black letter,
  Milan, 1510; 3rd, Milan, 1513. In 1590, Father Bucchi (a
  Franciscan) published another edition at _Bologna_, but with
  considerable curtailment; and as it did not sell, it was
  republished in 1620 _with the first two leaves changed_, in order
  to disguise it.

  "The approbation of the Chapter of the Order is found in this
  edition, bearing date Aug. 2, 1399. Tiraboschi (i. 181.), who is
  very angry with MARCHAND for occupying SIXTEEN COLUMNS OF THE
  DICT. HIST. WITH AN ENUMERATION OF THE EDITIONS OF THIS WORK AND
  ANSWERS TO IT, should have remembered that after such an
  approbation, it is no longer the mere work of an individual.

  "In 1632, it was published at _Cologne_ with a new title; and in
  1658 at _Liege_, but very much altered. Wading (_Bibl. Ord. Min._)
  has given a catalogue of Albizzi's other works, which has been
  copied by Casimir, Oudin, and Fabricius."

A Venice edition, then, it would appear according to this writer, is the
_original edition_; and that of Milan, 1510, is but the _second_. Will
any one give me some accurate information on this point? Brunet and the
publishers of the various editions of "L'Alcoran," seem quite ignorant
of the existence of any edition previous to that of Milan, 1510.

DR. ERASMUS ALBER, the compiler of the _Alcoranus Franciscorum_, was "a
warm friend and violent partizan of Luther; his chief characteristic is
severe, but broad, coarse satire."

The Amsterdam edition of 1734 commences the 1st vol. with a preface in
French, by Conrad Badius, which is succeeded by one from Luther in
Latin: at the end of the same vol. occurs another and longer _Præfatio
Martini Lutheri, Germanico libello præfixa utcumque translata_; then
follow _Typographus Lectori_, and _Ex Epistola Erasmi Alberi, qui hunc
libellum ex detestando illo Conformitatum volumine contexuit_.

To any one who is acquainted with the _Book of Conformities_, which has
been justly denominated THESAURUS BLASPHEMIÆ, the propriety and aptness
of the title of THE FRANCISCAN KORAN is very obvious. Luther (and there
seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of these prefaces), after
commenting on the expressions used in this book with reference to our
Blessed Lord, and the great exemplar of the "minors" and "minims,"
observes:

  "_Hinc sequitur quod Christus veluti figura Francisci, nihil fit
  amplius: id_ QUOD TURCI SENTIUNT. _At figuratus ille Franciscus,
  omnia est in omnibus. Ex quo jam altera hæresis manat, quod
  Franciscum, ut verum Messiam, Mediatorem, Advocatum ac Patronum
  invocunt, et vitam æternam ab ipso petunt._"

ALBER, after quoting some of the _Conformities_, adds--

  "_Et, ut paucis dicam, Christus nihil fecit quod non item
  Franciscus fecerit, et longe plura etiam. Itaque et in Alcorano
  Franciscanorum sæpe reperitur, Franciscum Christo esse_ SIMILEM.
  _Nam quod sit_ SUPRA CHRISTUM, _perquam vellent quidem dicere, sed
  diabolis metuit ne nimium se prodat et agnosci possit._"

The mere facts of this monstrous book having been _written_, _approved_
by the highest authority, and for a _century and a half_ receiving
universal applause (with the exception perhaps of a few jealous
Dominicans), nay, the mere _toleration_ of such a book, would have been
amply sufficient to show the corruption of the Western Church, and call
loudly for reformation. This--

  "_Abominationem_ [says Luther] _quam non ipsi solum exercuerunt ac
  in summo pretio habuerunt, sed ipse etiam Sanctissimus eam
  confirmavit, commendavit, privilegiis ornavit, ac omnibus Christe
  fidelibus pro focis et aris defendendam mandavit._"

Southey says:

  "I believe the Franciscans designed to follow the example of the
  Moslem, and supersede Jesus Christ. At one time they attempted to
  leave off the vulgar æra, and actually dated from the infliction
  of the Five Wounds."

In the Romish calendar, the 17th of September is dedicated to "Impressio
Stigm. S. Francis." Of the Geneva editions of the Cordelier Alcoran,
Brunet (last edition) mentions 1556, 1560, and 1578. In Leslie's
Catalogue for 1852, under the heading "_Luther_," the Geneva edition of
1556 occurs; the title is worth giving:

  "L'Alcoran des Cordeliers, tant en Latin qu'en François; c'est à
  dire, la mer des blasphèmes et mensonges de cest idole stigmatizé
  qu'on appelle S. François, recueilli par le Docteur M. Luther, du
  livre des Conformitez de ce beau S. François, imprimé à Milan l'an
  1510, et nouvellement traduit, 12mo. Geneve, 1556."

The same Catalogue advertises a fine copy of Father Bucchi's _Liber
Aureus_, 1590.

Brunet refers to the following work in reference to the _Alcoranus_:

  "La Guerre Séraphique, ou histoire des périls qu'a courus la barbe
  des Capucins contre les violentes attaques des Cordeliers. La
  Haye, 1740, in 12.--_Ce volume se joint à l'Alcoran des
  Cordeliers._"

He also speaks of a work by a certain Spaniard, named Father PIERRE DE
ALVA, which, for the vast number of points of _conformity_ between our
Lord and St. Francis adduced, and the amazing fecundity of invention and
fertility of imagination displayed, completely throws BARTHOLOMEW OF
PISA into the shade; it is entitled--

  "Naturæ prodigium et gratiæ portentum hoc est Seraphici P.
  Francisci vitæ acta ad Christi Domini vitam et mortem regulata et
  coaptata a P. Petro de Alva et Astorga. Matriti, 1651, folio."

To conclude with a Query: Is the book called "FIORETTI" an Italian
translation of the "BOOK OF CONFORMITIES?" The title would lead one to
suppose it.

  "FIORETTI. Opera gentilissima et utilissima a tutti li fideli
  Christiani laqual se chiama LI FIORETTI de Misser Santo Francesco
  asemiliativa a la vita et alla passion de JESU CHRISTO e tutte le
  soe sancti vertige. Lunardo Longo rector de la giesia de Sancto
  Paulo de Vincenza, curendo lano. M.CCCCLXXVI. in 4."

The second edition bears date, Venexia in caxa di Nicolo Girardengo
M.CCCCLXXX. 4to.; the third, Perouse, 1481, 4to.

    MARICONDA.

  Feb. 11. 1852.

TRADITIONS OF REMOTE PERIODS.--GEORGE III.'S GARTER.

(Vol. v., pp. 77. 135.)

There is clearly some inaccuracy in the details of my statement, which I
am obliged to LORD BRAYBROOKE and to G. for pointing out, and which,
perhaps, they may help to clear up. The main fact is admitted: that
"_two_ Knights of the Garter covered the period from 1684 to 1820;" and
George IV.'s assertion, that "he had given away a Garter that had been
given but once since the reign of Charles II.," I myself heard, though I
unluckily did not make a "Note" of it. This could apply to nothing but
the cases of the Duke of Somerset and George III. Whether George IV. was
misinformed as to the details on which he founded his assertion, I know
not; but it is unlikely: and that after a lapse of about thirty years I
may have confounded the _Regency_ with the _Accession_, and _Lord Moira_
with the _Duke of Buckingham_, I will not deny; for it seems that I have
done one or the other, though without any effect on the main point. As
to G.'s objection, that of several Garters disposed of on the same day
in 1745. The Duke of Somerset's did not fall to Prince George. I have
not Beltz to refer to; but it strikes me as possible this may admit of
explanation: because, although Prince George was _nominated_ first in
the batch, it happened that he was _invested_ the last; indeed not till
the day _after_ all the others: so that he might have received the
_badge_ of the Duke of Somerset. Your readers are aware that the
_badges_ are not the private property of the knights, but are always
_returned_ into the hands of the _sovereign_, and that the same badge is
delivered to successive knights; so that it is probable that George
III., on becoming sovereign, kept in his own possession the badge he had
originally received, and that this identical badge George IV. disposed
of as he stated, whether to the Duke of Buckingham, or, as the
impression on my memory still is, Lord Moira.

    C.

_Traditions from Remote Periods._--From time to time notices have
appeared in "N. & Q." of "remote events brought down to our own times
through few links:" to these, if you should think it merits insertion, I
beg to contribute the following Note from Chambers's _Life and Works of
Burns_, vol. iii. p. 205. In the address to Mr. Maxwell, of Terraughty,
on his birthday (p. 204.), Burns says, 7th line:

      "This day[4] thou metes threescore eleven,"

and Mr. Chambers remarks:

  "The person addressed in these verses, John Maxwell, Esq., of
  Terraughty and Munches, was a leading public man in the county of
  Dumfries. He was on several accounts very remarkable, but
  particularly for his birth, and the proximity into which his
  family history brings us with events comparatively remote; for Mr.
  Maxwell was grandson's grandson, and no more, to the gallant and
  faithful Lord Herries, who on bended knees entreated Queen Mary to
  prosecute Bothwell as the murderer of her husband, and who
  subsequently fought for her at Langside. One cannot learn without
  a pleasing kind of surprise, that a relation in the fifth degree
  of one who was _Warden of the West Marches in 1545_, should have
  lived to the close of the French Revolution wars, which was the
  case of Mr. Maxwell, for he died in _January 1814_."

  [Footnote 4: Middle of December, 1791.]

    C. D. LAMONT.

  Greenock.

There is now living in the village of Headley, Hants, a man whose father
was born in the time (though not in the reign) of James II.; viz. 1697.
As a curious instance of the space of time included in the lives of a
father and son (although there is nothing wonderful in the number of
years attained by either separately), I have thought it worth recording
in "N. & Q." I may add that the age of the man now living at Headley is
eighty-three, and he was born when his father was seventy-two years old.

    L. G.

TWENTY-SEVEN CHILDREN, AND MORE, OF ONE MOTHER.

(Vol. v., p. 126.)

Happening to have made notes from time to time of several such
instances, I beg to present them to the readers of "N. & Q.":--

_Sixty-two Children_:--

  "A weaver in Scotland had by one woman 62 children, all living
  till they were baptized, of w'ch ther wer but fower daughters
  onely who lived till they were women, and 46 sonns, all attaining
  to man's estate. During the time of this fruitfullnes in the
  woman, the husband, at her importunity, absented himself from her
  for the space of 5 years together, serving as a soldier under the
  command of Captaine Selby in the Low Countries. After his return
  home his wife was againe delivered of three children at a birth,
  and so in due time continued in such births till, through bearing,
  she became impotent. The certainty of this relation I had from
  John Delavall of Northumb', Esq., who, ann. 1630, rid about 30
  miles beyond Edenburrough to see this fruitfull couple, who were
  both then living. Ther statures and features he described to me
  then more fully. Ther was not any of the children then abiding
  with ther parents. Sir John Bowes & 3 other men of qualitie have
  taken at severall times ten of ther children apeece from them, and
  brought them up. The rest wer disposed of by the other English &
  Scottish gents, amongst w'ch 3 or 4 out of them are now alive &
  abiding at Newcastle, 1630."

  _Collectanea Topog. et Geneal._ vol. iv. p. 53. from MS. Harl.
  980. f. 74.

_Thirty-nine Children_:--

  "In the year 1698, when Thomas Greenhill, surgeon to Henry Duke of
  Norfolk (son of William Greenhill of Greenhill in Middx. by
  Elizabeth, daughter of John Jones of London) petitioned the Earl
  Marshal as follows: 'That in consideration of your petitioner
  being the 7th son & 39th child of one father & mother, your Grace
  would be pleased to signalise it by some particular remark or
  augmentation in his coat of Arms, to transmit to posterity so
  uncommon a thing.' The confirmation of the arms contains no
  reference to the fact."

  _Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica_, vol. iv. p. 53.

_Thirty-five Children_:--

  "A woman in Vere Street of the 35th child by one
  husband."

  _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1736, p. 683.

_Thirty Children._--In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for Feb. 1743, is
recorded the death of Mrs. Agnes Milbourne, who was aged 106, and had
thirty children.

_Twenty-nine Children._--In that for 1738:--

  "Nov. 15. Mr. Thomas Rogers, a 'Change-Broker, who had by his wife
  29 children, born and christen'd."

_Twenty-seven Children._--Mr. Richetts, father of the present Earl St.
Vincent, was the twenty-third of twenty-seven children by the same
mother.

    J. G. N.

In the _London Medical Journal_, vol. x. for the year 1789, art. vi., "A
remarkable case of numerous births, with observations by Maxwell
Garthmore, M.D., F.R.S. & S.A.: in a Letter to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart.,
P.R.S.," Dr. G. mentions an account given formerly in the _Journal des
Sçavans_, by M. Seignette, physician at Rochelle, of a woman of
Saintonge who was at one birth delivered of nine well-formed children so
far advanced that their sexes could be discovered.

In the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lii. p. 376., is a curious legend of
a woman giving birth to 365 children at once: all the males were
baptised and named John, and all the females Elizabeth. The mother and
365 children died the same day.

In the _Morning Advertiser_ for Dec. 1, 1851, is an account of a woman
at Ballygunge, near Calcutta, being delivered of twenty-one children at
once, all boys.

Nov. 14th, 1736. A woman in Vere Street, of her thirty-fifth child, by
one husband. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. vi. p. 683.)

July 31st, 1781. At Kirton-le-Moor, in Cumberland, a man and his wife,
and thirty children, the youngest of whom was between two and three
years old, lately walked to church to the christening of the
thirty-first child. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. li. p. 388.)

Died at Grantham, Mrs. Lelly, a widow lady of that town. She was twice
mother of twenty-two children. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lii. p.
309.)

Eighty-seven children by two wives: sixty-nine by first, eighteen by
second. (_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. liii. p. 753.)

Seventy-two children by two wives, and a mother of thirty-two children.
(_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lix. pp. 733-4.) To which is appended the
following note by the editor:

  "The following epitaph, commemorating an instance of remarkable
  fecundity, is inserted by Mr. Pennant in his _Journey to Snowdon_:
  'Here lyeth the body of Nicholas Hookes, of Conway, Gent., who was
  the forty-first child of his father, William Hookes, Esq., by
  Alice his wife, and the father of twenty-seven children, who died
  the 20th day of March, 1637.'"

    PANTAGRUEL.

PEDIGREE OF RICHARD EARL OF CHEPSTOW.

(Vol. v., p. 126.)

It seems there can be no doubt that Richard de Clare, second Earl of
Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, was eldest son of Gilbert de Clare, first
Earl of Pembroke: which last was second son of Gilbert de Tonebrugge.
That Strongbow's father's name was Gilbert is proved from a charter in
which he (the father) made a grant of the church of Everton to the
priory of St. Neot, commencing "Gilbertus, filius G. Comes de Penbroc,"
&c. (See _Dugdale_.) And I find this confirmed by a valuable old
pedigree in the possession of a member of my family (date _cir._ 1620),
which was admitted as principal evidence, and examined, in a successful
suit in the Court of Chancery, in the latter half of the last century;
in which pedigree the De Clares are introduced among the "præclarissimæ
affinitates." An extract would be needless, and occupy your valuable
space to no purpose.

To account for the singularity mentioned by your correspondent in the
charter of Strongbow, I can make but these two suggestions: either the
reading is correct,--in which case the true name of the first Earl of
Pembroke was _Richard Gilbert_, which, I need hardly say, is possible,
notwithstanding the existence of his elder brother Richard; or, the
reading is incorrect, in which case the mistake probably arose from the
writer, notwithstanding he had written "Comes Ric'" previously, by a
natural oversight inserting it again after "fil," intending to write,
"Comes Ric' fil Gisleb'ti."

It may be an admission of ignorance on my part, but I am unable to find
in any of the authorities I have at hand, that Strongbow, Earl of
Pembroke, was, as your correspondent states him to have been, also _Earl
of Chepstow_. Will he be kind enough to give me a reference?

In the above-mentioned pedigree the arms of the De Clares are given down
to Strongbow--_or, three chevrons gules_; while the bearing of the
latter is _or, five chevrons gules_. Burke, in his _Extinct Peerage_,
gives the arms of both the De Clares, Earls of Pembroke, _or three
chevrons gules, a lable of five points az._; while in another authority,
Berry's _Encycl._, I find for the two De Clares, Earls of Pembroke, two
widely different coats, viz. _ar. on a chief az. three crosses pattée
fitchée of the field_; and _or, three chevrons gules, a crescent az._
Can any of your heraldic correspondents account for these various
bearings?

    H. C. K.

  ---- Rectory, Hereford.

ISABEL, QUEEN OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

(Vol. v., p. 132.)

Mr. WM. SIDNEY GIBSON has correctly referred to the authority for this
designation; but it may be well, before pursuing the inquiry, to place
before the reader the very words of the register of the Grey Friars of
London:

  "Versus quasi medium chori jacet dominus Willelmus Fitzwarryn
  Baro, et Isabella uxor sua quondam Regina Man."

  _Collectanea Top. et Geneal._ v. 278.

MR. GIBSON has also correctly added, that in my note to this entry I
have not afforded any information about the lady Isabel. It is true that
I searched for such information in vain; and the information I gave in
lieu was the date of the death of William Lord Fitz-Warine, viz., the 35
Edw. III. (1361), and the name of the lady he is known from record (Ex.
22 Edw. III. no. 39.), to have married, namely, _Amicia_, daughter and
heir of Sir Henry de Haddon. As there is not the slightest ground for
imagining that this Amicia was ever "Queen of Man," it must therefore be
concluded, supposing that the register of the Grey Friars gives a
faithful reflection of the epitaph, that the Lord Fitz-Warine had a
second wife. I am not inclined to adopt MR. GIBSON'S suggestion that
this lady was _Sibilla_, daughter of William de Montacute, first Earl of
Salisbury, because the lordship of Man descended to the second earl, and
he possessed it until the 16 Ric. II. (1393). It seems therefore that
the only "Queen of Man" that could be the wife of William Lord
Fitz-Warine, must have been the widow of the first Earl of Salisbury,
who died in 1343. The wife of that earl and the mother of his heir was
_Katharine_, daughter of William Lord Granson, as Mr. Beltz gives that
name, correcting the more prevalent form of Grandison. The question
therefore to be decided is--Did this lady survive him, or did he marry a
second wife named _Isabella_? In either case, I think it is clear that
the lady buried at the Grey Friars was the Dowager Countess of
Salisbury. Mr. Beltz has given a memoir of Sir William Fitz-Warine in
his _Memorials of the Garter_, but he was not aware of the baron's
connexion with "the Queen of Man." Dying of the plague on the 28th Oct.
1361, it was probably in haste that his body was interred in the church
of the Grey Friars, and the queen may have fallen a victim to the same
pestilence. There is an effigy in the church at Wantage which is
ascribed to this Lord Fitz-Warine; and it is accompanied by one of a
lady, probably Amicia Haddon, on whose death, some time before his own,
that monument may have been erected. These effigies are engraved in the
series by Hollis. There is a peculiarity attending the barony of this
William Fitz-Warine. He was first summoned by writ in 1342 [qu. if 1343,
and thus after his marriage with the Dowager Countess of Salisbury?];
and though he left a son and heir, Sir Ivo Fitz-Warine, that son was
never summoned to parliament. A similar course has been observed in
other cases where the title to a barony was _jure uxoris_, in which
condition may be included the state of the second husband of a countess,
there being instances of men in that position being summoned to
parliament _as barons_, whilst the countesses their wives were living,
and no longer. Thus it is possible that Fitz-Warine was summoned,
because he had married the countess and "queen;" and his son Ivo was not
summoned, because he was the son of Amicia Haddon.

With regard to the titles of King or Queen of Man, they do not appear to
be recognised by records, but merely by the chroniclers. Dugdale has
quoted from the history of Thomas de la Marc, that William, Earl Of
Salisbury, having in 16 Edw. III. (1342) conquered the Isle of Man (from
the Scots), the king gave him the inheritance, and _crowned him king
thereof_; and Walsingham and Otterbourne (p. 153.) relate that the
Vice-Chamberlaine, Sir William Scrope, in 16 Ric. II. (1393) purchased
the sovereignty of the Isle of Man _cum corona_. But the word _dominus_,
not _rex_, is employed in Latin records, and _seigneur_ in French. On
the seal of the first Earl of Salisbury he is styled _dominus de dynbi
et mannie_, and on his counterseal _dominus de man et de dynbi_; and on
a counter or privy seal of the second earl he is styled _dominus mannie
et de dynbi_ (_i.e._ Denbigh, not "Derby," as misprinted in p. 132.
_antea_). These seals have been recently engraved in the Salisbury
volume of the Archæological Institute. The second earl in his will, made
the 20th April, 1397, styles himself "Earl of Salisbury and Lord of the
Isles of Man and Wiht," although he had then sold the lordship of Man
some years before. In the Harleian charters is a bond from the purchaser
to the famous Sir Richard Whityngton, citizen and mercer of London,
dated 29th Aug. 1393, in which he is described as "William le Scrope,
Seigneur de Man et des Isles;" and in the truce with France on the 10th
March, 1394, "Monsieur Gwilliam le Scrope" is recorded to have assented
to the proceedings "pour le seigneury de Man," as one of the _allies_ of
the King of England. (_Foedera_, iii. part iv. p. 95.) It is not easy to
determine when or where these potent subjects really assumed the rank or
title of "king" and "queen;" and it must be recollected that the King of
England himself was at the same period content to call himself only
"Lord of Ireland," as the Earl of Salisbury was "Lord of Man."

It may stimulate MR. GIBSON, as a north countryman, to further
researches in this matter to remind him that it is to Katharine,
Countess of Salisbury, at the Castle of Wark in Northumberland, that Mr.
Beltz has traced the anecdote related by Froissart of the especial
admiration which King Edward III. conceived for a Countess of Salisbury;
connected with which are some of the legendary stories of the origin of
the Order of the Garter (see _Memorials of the Garter_, pp. 63. et
seq.). It would be a remarkable fact to ascertain that the object of the
king's gallantry became afterwards even a nominal queen.

    JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Bastides_ (Vol. v., p. 150.).--The town of Kingston-upon-Hull was
founded by King Edward I., when he returned from Scotland, through
Yorkshire, in 1299, and it may be seen in Hollar's map of the town, _as
it was in 1640_, that the ground plan coincides exactly with MR.
PARKER'S description of the "Villes Anglaises" in France.

    F. HH.

_Brunéhaut_ (Vol. iv., p. 86.).--Pasquier is the great author originally
in her favour. Hallam refers also to Vellay, _Hist. de France_, tom. i.
on one side, and a dissertation by Gaillard in the _Memoirs of the
Academy of Inscriptions_, tom. xxx. on the other. Hallam himself was
against her. In his _Supplement_, p. 19., he is rather undecided.

Michelet and Sismondi do not seem to defend her; nor, I believe, Guizot,
who considers there was a constant struggle between the Frank and Roman
inhabitants, and that Fredegonde and Brunéhaut were the heads and types
respectively of the two races, and their respective principles of
government.

    C. B.

_Job_ (Vol. v., pp. 26. 140.).--The criticisms of your correspondent
RECHABITE are of so singular a character, that I must beg him to excuse
my passing over, _unnoticed_, the first paragraph.

The second appears calculated to traduce the character of a man
celebrated for his integrity, judgment, accurateness, preciseness, and
skill in his sketches, &c. The _Inscriptio Persepolitana_, p. 333., is
his own sketch: "Verum, unius descriptio tam longam mihi facessebat
operam (ob loci altitudinem et solares radios permolestam) ut parum
abesset, quin à ceteris abstinere coactus fuerim." (P. 332.) There were
three others: "Inscriptionis quadruplex quasi tabula spectatur." Perhaps
it may be one of the latter ones that RECHABITE has seen in Niebuhr and
Porter. I have not seen those works.

Next, why does RECHABITE not say what are the _two letters_ which I have
translated as two words containing _eight letters_?

And now for my _theory_, and Major Rawlinson's improved translation of
the inscription, all together. Let the reader of "N. & Q." turn to
Kæmpfer, p. 341., and he will see the procession that is described in p.
333. Does he think that Ormazd, Xerxes, Darius, or Achæmenes is there? I
assure him that they are not mentioned. In fact, the engravings were
made long before the date 694 B.C., when Achæmenes began his reign. But
it appears that an Egyptian reed is thought sufficient to prop up a
structure raised in the sand.

Finally, my great desire is, that some spirited person would take up the
matter, and let the old and new system be tried by proper tests; and let
the conquered have a decent burial.

    T. R. BROWN.

  Southwick, near Oundle.

_Parish Registers_ (Vol. iv., p. 473.; Vol. v., pp. 36.
141.).--Notwithstanding the high legal tone which pervades the replies
you have received on Parish Registers, I cannot acquiesce in the
conclusion that "the genealogical or archæological inquirer has in
general no right to inspect," much less to copy, the Register Books.
What object could there be in enforcing the _keeping_ and preservation
of registers by the officiating ministers, even under the pain of
transportation for fourteen years of any person wilfully injuring them,
and the cost to parishes for providing iron chests, except it be "for
the inspection of persons desirous to make search therein, and obtain
copies from and out of the same." (52 Geo. III. cap. 146.) And by the
act just quoted, the minister and the public are bound with regard to
fees due on searching, and for copies. He is entitled "to all due legal
and _accustomed_ fees on such occasions, and all powers and remedies for
recovery thereof." And by the 49th section of a more recent Registration
Act (6 & 7 Wm. IV.), registers of baptisms and burials may still be
kept, and, by inference, the fees are included; because by the 35th
section the fees for the examination of the registers created by this
last act are defined; but then they apply only to those registers, the
power of that act being only prospective, not retrospective.

The following note, made many years ago, from Phillip's _Law of
Evidence_ (which, from the number of editions it has passed through,
must be supposed to be a work of considerable weight), will probably set
the question at rest, as he refers to adjudged cases:

  "Parish registers are public books, and persons interested in them
  have a right to inspect and take copies of such parts as relate to
  their interest.

  Geery _v._ Hopkins, 2 _Lord Raym._ 850.; Warriner _v._ Giles, 2
  _Stra._ 954.; Mayor of Lond. _v._ Swinhead, 1 _Barnardist._ 454."

The reply, therefore, to the Query of D. (Vol. iv., p. 474.) seems to
be, that any person has a right to consult the parish registers, not
_gratuitously_, but on payment of the _accustomed_ fee.

    H. T. ELLACOMBE.

  Clyst St. George.

It may be of use to D. (Rotherfield), to be referred to the _Justice of
the Peace_ for 31st January, 1852, wherein, at p. 76., he will find an
opinion given, that, for the search the clergyman has a right to charge
1_s._ and no more, whatever may be the number of names, unless the
search extended over a period of more than one year, when he would be
entitled to 6_d._ extra for every additional year.

    REGEDONUM.

_Ornamental Hermits_ (Vol. v., p. 123.).--Some fancy of this kind at Mr.
Weld's of Lulworth Castle, in Dorsetshire, exaggerated or highly
coloured by O'Keefe, was supposed to afford the title and principal
incident of his extravagant but laughable comedy of _The London Hermit;
or, Rambles in Dorsetshire_, first played in 1793, with great success,
and revived (cut down to a two-act farce) in 1822. I, too, have heard
the story as told of Mr. Hamilton and Payne's Hill; but I a little doubt
it, because in the elaborate and somewhat pompous description of Payne's
Hill there is no mention of the _Hermitage_; and when I saw it as a show
place a great many years ago, I saw no building of that description;
but, after all, this may have been the original story which O'Keefe
transported into Dorsetshire.

    C.

_Collars of SS._ (Vol. v., pp. 81. 183.).--Allow me to correct one or
two errors into which your correspondent H. L. has fallen.

In the first place, my letter was not intended (nor, I conceive, was
that of your correspondent LLEWELLYN) either to support a favourite
theory, or to combat a long-established prejudice; but simply to furnish
a contribution to MR. FOSS'S list of monumental effigies decorated with
this "much-vext" ornament.

As to the mistakes (if mistakes they be) which H. L. assumes, they are
not mine, but those of persons whose authority on these subjects H. L.
(like the celebrated reviewer who criticised Pindar's Greek without
knowing it) might find it awkward to impugn.

I may as well inform him, by the way, that the _corf de mailles_, which
originally covered the whole head, as a sort of cowl, was diminished in
size until it became little more than a gorget of mail; and appears at
last to have formed a portion of the hauberk. The name also changed its
orthography: passing, as has been suggested, through the intervening
stage of _cap-mail_, until it was corrupted into _camail_. There is,
therefore, no ground for "assuming" the ignorance of persons who use the
_original_, instead of the _corrupted_ form of a word.

Perhaps H. L. has never heard of a helmet being worn over a bascinet. I
can furnish him with a _few_ instances of monumental effigies where both
appear. He should study the monument in question before he pronounces
the use of the word "helmet" to be a mistake.

I would suggest to H. L. that the next time he appears in your pages he
had better append his name in full, that those whom he assails may be
better able to judge of the value of his criticism.

I will only add that it is hardly fair to "assume" that a man has never
studied a subject which has been his hobby for thirty years; and who
might be able to prove, by ocular demonstration, that he has "studied"
more monumental effigies than H. L. probably ever dreamt of.

    LEWIS EVANS.

_Herschel Anticipated_ (Vol. iv., p. 233., &c.).--It was not Herschel's
discoveries relative to the sun's motion, but his theory relative to its
physical constitutions, which was anticipated by a person, who was
declared to be mad for holding such opinions. Sir David Brewster, in a
note to his edition of Ferguson's _Astronomy_, vol. ii. p. 144., says:

  "It is a curious fact that the opinions of Dr. Herschel,
  respecting the nature of the sun, were maintained by a Dr. Elliot,
  who was tried at the Old Bailey for shooting Miss Boydell. The
  friends of the Doctor maintained that he was insane, and called
  several witnesses to establish this point. Among these was Dr.
  Simmons, who declared that Dr. Elliot had, for some months before,
  shown a fondness for the most extravagant opinions; and that in
  particular, he had sent to him a letter on the light of the
  celestial bodies, to be communicated to the Royal Society. This
  letter confirmed Dr. Simmons in the belief that this unhappy man
  was under the influence of this mental derangement; and, as a
  proof of the correctness of this opinion, he directed the
  attention of the court to a passage of the letter, in which Dr.
  Elliot states, 'that the light of the sun proceeds from a dense
  and universal aurora, which may afford ample light to the
  inhabitants of the surface (of the sun) beneath, and yet be at
  such a distance aloft as not to annoy them.' No objection, says
  he, ariseth to that great luminary being inhabited; vegetation may
  obtain there, as well as with us. There may be water and dry land,
  hills and dales, rain and fair weather; and as the light, so the
  season, must be eternal; consequently it may easily be conceived
  to be by far the most blissful habitation of the whole system."
  (See the _Gentleman's Magazine_, 1787, p. 636.)

    W. G.

_Monastic Establishments in Scotland_ (Vol. v., p. 104.).--In reply to
CEYREP I would recommend to his notice the following publications; they
may assist him materially in his inquiries, viz.:

  1. "Moore's List of the Principal Monasteries and Castles in Great
  Britain. Revised by John Caley, Keeper of the Records of the Abbey
  lands in the Exchequer. 8vo. 1798."

  2. "Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica: Memoir of what has been already
  done, and what Materials exist, towards the Formation of a
  Scottish Monasticon: to which are appended, Sundry New Instances
  of Goodly Matter, by a Delver in Antiquity (W. B. Turnbull). 8vo.
  1842."

In the Advocates' Library here, there are, I understand, a few MSS.
relative to these religious establishments, such as _Rentales_; also
Father Richard Hay's MS. entitled _Scotia Sacra_, being an account of
the most renowned monasteries in Scotland, with a series of the several
bishops, priors, and other governors, &c., written in 1700, folio.

    T. G. S.

  Edinburgh.

_Kissing under the Mistletoe_ (Vol. v., p. 13.).--The editorial reply to
An M.D. seems to me very unsatisfactory. Would it not be more reasonable
to refer the custom to the Scandinavian mythology, wherein the mistletoe
is dedicated to Friga, the Venus of the Scandinavians; especially when
we remember that previous to the introduction of Christianity, the feast
of Thor was celebrated by the Northmen at nearly the same period? a fact
which also accounts for the Bacchanalian character of the Christian
feast. Students of the Edda will remember the importance of the
mistletoe in the Scandinavian legends; the story of Loke's attack on
Balder hinging upon the parasite character of the plant. It is worth a
note in passing, that the holly owes its importance in the Christmas
festivities to paganism. The Romans dedicated the holly to Saturn, whose
festival was held in December; and the early Christians, to screen
themselves from persecution, decked their houses with its branches
during their own celebration of the Nativity.

    SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

_The Ring Finger_ (Vol. v., p. 114.).--I allow all that has been said,
though the Rubric in our Prayer Book directs the ring to be placed _on_
the fourth finger, and held there, &c. Still I have read of the earliest
custom being, after repeating the words "With this ring I thee wed,"
&c., on coming to "In the name of the Father," to place the ring on the
top of the thumb; "and of the Son," to place it on the top of the
forefinger; "and of the Holy Ghost," to place it on the top of the third
finger; _and_, on repeating the word "amen," to put the ring _down_ over
the fourth finger; thereby "ratifying, and confirming the same." This
seems the most _serious_ conclusion of the matter.

    R. F. M.

_Sanctus Bell_ (Vol. v., p. 104.).--The _Glossary of Architecture_ is
right in its description, but not in its conclusion. There are many
instances where the _Sanctus Bell_, or its remains, still exist in the
tower or bell chamber. As _e.g._ at Addington, Bucks, the "Parson's
Bell," as it is now called there, is to be seen in a small aperture in
the wall of the bell-chamber, exposed to the outside, on the west. A
similar aperture, size, and position, but _minus_ the bell, can also be
seen in the tower of Merriott, Somerset. The recess in the wall of the
tower of Trumpington Church was clearly for the sacristan (perhaps) to
stand in to ring the bell. In the ringing chamber in the tower of
Halstock, Dorset, is a _wedge-like_ aperture in the wall next the nave;
it is about three feet square, and _splays_ from a narrow slit in the
church over the tower arch. This was evidently for the sacristan to
observe the proper times for ringing the bell. The top of the tower,
bell-chamber, &c., had been rebuilt about a hundred years since, which
may account for no loop-hole now to be seen. No doubt there are many
others.

    R. F. M.

_Slang Dictionaries._--The following titles of books of this nature are
taken from _A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue_. The second
edition, corrected and enlarged. 8vo. London, 1788.

  1. "A Caveat for Common Cursetors, vulgarly called Vagabones; set
  forth by Thomas Harman, Esquier, for the Utilitie and Proffyt of
  hys Naturall Countrye. Newly Augmented and Imprinted, Anno Domini
  M.D.LXVII."

  2. "The Bellman of London, bringing to light the most notorious
  villanies that are now practised in the Kingdom. Profitable for
  gentlemen, lawyers, merchants, citizens, farmers, masters of
  households, and all sorts of servants, to marke and delightfull
  for men to reade. Lege, Perlege, Relege. 1608."

  3. "English Villanies, seven severall times prest to death by the
  printers; but (still reviving againe) are now the eighth time (as
  the first) discovered by lanthorne and candle light. Et cet....
  London, 1638."

  4. "The Canting Academy; or Villanies discovered: Wherein are
  shown the Mysterious and Villanous Practices of that Wicked Crew,
  commonly known by the Names of Hectors, Trapanners, Gilts, et
  cet., with several new Catches and Songs; also a Compleat Canting
  Dictionary both of Old Words and such as are now most in Use: a
  Book very useful and necessary (to be known but not practised) for
  all People. The Second Edition: London. N. B.--The dedication is
  signed R. Head."

  5. "Hell upon Earth; or the most pleasant and delectable History
  of Whittington's Colledge, otherwise (vulgarly) called Newgate.
  Giving an Account of the Humours of those Collegians who are
  strictly examined at the Old Bailey, and take their Highest
  Degrees near Hyde Park Corner.... London, 1703."

  6. "The Scoundrel's Dictionary, 1754."

    CRANMORE.

_Modern Greek Names of Places_ (Vol. iv., pp. 470.; Vol. v., p.
14.).--With the utmost deference to so high an authority, on such a
subject, as SIR EMERSON TENNENT, I must deny that Cos, Athens, or
Constantinople have been called by the Greeks, Stanco, Satines, or
Stamboul.

These corruptions have been made by Turks, Venetians, and Englishmen;
and in speaking to barbarians the Greek uses barbarous terms to make
himself intelligible; but in speaking to another Greek, and in writing,
Athens is Athens, Cos is Cos, and Constantinople is ἡ πόλις.

Very few corruptions of names of places have taken place amongst the
Greeks; while every island, peak, and every headland in the Ægean cries
out against Venetian barbarism.

Patræ is Patras in the mouths of Englishmen, and Patrasso with Italians:
the Greeks call it Πατραι, and generally write it Παλαιαι Πατραι.

Corcyra has lost her name, but has received a correct Greek name,
Οἱ Κόρυφοι--the peaks--whether of the citadel or of Mount San
Salvador. This has become Corfu. Ithaca has lost her name and is now
Theaki.

A Greek does not know what place you mean.

I should be obliged if any correspondent can tell me whether Paxo is
mentioned by any classical author. It has a plural termination:
Οι Παξοι εις τοὺς Παξους.

    L. H. J. T.

_Baskerville the Printer_ (Vol. iv., pp. 40. 123. 211.).--For several
years past I have had by me a little memorandum in the handwriting of a
friend. It states that Baskerville was once foreman to a stonemason,
during which time he had cut some lines upon the tombstone of a poor
idiot, who was buried in Edgbaston churchyard. The lines are these:

      "If th' Innocent are favourites of Heaven,
      And little is required where little's given,
      My great Creator has for me in store
      Eternal Bliss; what wise man would have more?"

A few days since (Jan. 26), being at Birmingham, I visited Edgbaston
churchyard, and on making inquiry for the above-mentioned tombstone, was
grieved to learn (from one who resembled the sexton) that nothing had
been heard of it since the year 1816. It seems that, with many other
tombstones, it had been maliciously broken and destroyed in the said
year, and that though a reward had been offered for the detection of the
criminals, they had never been discovered. Is all this true? or have I
given the epitaph correctly? If not, it is more my misfortune than my
fault, for I am as accurate on the matter as I have the power of being
at present.

    RT.

  Warmington.

_Story of Ginevra_ (Vol. v., p. 129.).--Your correspondent --> F. is
informed that Marwell Old Hall, formerly the residence of the Seymour,
and afterwards of the Dacre family, situate between Winchester and
Bishops Waltham, is connected by tradition with the story of Ginevra;
and the compiler of the _Post Office Directory of Hampshire_ (1848)
states, that "_the chest, said to be the identical one, is now the
property of the Rev. J. Haygarth, Rector of Upham_," a village in the
immediate locality, "_and may be seen in his entrance hall_."

    H. EDWARDS.

_Gospel Oaks_ (Vol. ii., p. 407.; Vol. v., p. 157.).--BURIENSIS
complains that "the inquiry of STEPHEN has not elicited one answer, nor
one additional note of other trees designated as _Gospel Oaks_." I
conjecture that the cause of this silence is, that the oaks so called
have long since perished. In this neighbourhood there are two iron-works
situated near the boundary of the parishes of Tipton and Wednesbury,
which are called respectively _Gospel Oak_ Works and Wednesbury _Oak_
Works. The tradition respecting the name of _Gospel Oak_ is, that it was
so called in consequence of it having been the practice in ancient times
to read under a tree which grew there, a portion of the Gospels on the
annual perambulation of the bounds of the parish on Ascension Day. That
_Gospel Oak_ and Wednesbury _Oak_ marked the boundary line of the
parishes of Tipton and Wednesbury is highly probable.

    FABER.

  West Bromwich.

Your correspondent BURIENSIS (Vol. v. p. 157.) has supplied a quotation
from Mr. Hollingsworth to the effect, that these ancient trees were
probably Druidical, under whose "leafy tabernacles" the first Christian
missionaries preached. This view of their origin is borne out by the
ordinary practice of Christian missionaries to the Heathen of the
present day, who are frequently driven to the shelter of some umbrageous
giant of the forest, to deliver the Word of Life. In some cases I
imagine that it may be found that such trees have been rendered sacred
by the superstition of the native inhabitants; and it is scarcely
venturing too much in supposing, that as the moral wilderness becomes
cultivated, that similar traditions with our own may be handed down to
future generations, and especially if we look so far forward as to the
time when the sable inhabitants of the centre of Africa may in their
progress be occupied by curious questions of a bygone age in _their_ "N.
& Q."

    EXON.

I quite agree with your correspondent BURIENSIS as to the origin of the
title given to various old oak trees in different parts of the country.
These trees were no doubt selected on account of either their position,
age, or size, as places of assembly for the early Christians, and from
them the "Gospel" was, probably, first preached in their respective
neighbourhoods.

That these trees were connected with religious observances is evident
from the following lines in the 502nd poem of Herrick's _Hesperides_.
The poem is addressed "To Anthea:"--

                    ----"Dearest, bury me
      Under that holy oak, or _Gospel Tree_;
      Where, though thou see'st not, thou may'st think upon
      Me, when thou yearly go'st procession."

    P. T.

  Stoke Newington.

_"Asters with Trains of Fire," &c._ (Vol. v., p. 154.).--MR. HICKSON's
objections to this reading are twofold--matter of opinion, and matter of
fact: of course, it is only with the latter that I may presume to
interfere.

I beg to refer him to the precepts of Polonius to his son, no further
than the third scene of the same play, amongst which he will find this
line:

      "Costly thy habit, as thy purse can buy."

Although it does not prove that "the English language admits of the
formation of a perfect sentence without a verb," yet it does show that
the verb need not always be expressed; but may be left to the hearer, or
reader, to supply, according to the requirements of the context.

The line just quoted is found amongst a number of imperative
precepts--the verb to be supplied is therefore the imperative of "to
be"--

      "Costly (_let_) thy habit (_be_)," &c.

Similarly, the line to which MR. HICKSON takes exception is found
amongst a number of described appearances--the verb, therefore, must be
in accordance:

      "Asters with trains of fire (_appeared_)," &c.

Many better examples _of this most common license_ might doubtless be
adduced; but I always like to take the nearest at hand.

    A. E. B.

  Leeds.

  P.S.--MR. HICKSON will find it difficult to confine the portents
  of Cæsar's death to _the night time_. All authorities mention the
  obscuration of the sun--necessarily from _spots_, if the moon were
  eclipsed since sun and moon could not both be _eclipsed_ about the
  same time.

_Wiggan, or Utiggan, an Oxford Student_ (Vol. v., p. 78.).--

      "Wigan (John) Chr. Ch., M.A., March 22 1720.
      ---- B. and D.M., July 7, 1727."

appears in _A Catalogue of All Graduates_, &c., created in the
University of Oxford, printed at the Clarendon press in the year
M.DCCLXXIJ.

W. DN. will also find the following in the same catalogue:--

      "Wigan (Geo.) Chr. Ch., M.A., March 28, 1718.
      ---- DD., Dipl. by, Jan. 19, 1749.
      "Wigan (Tho.) Trin. Coll., M.A. Oct. 23, 1767.
      "Wigan (Will.) Chr. Ch., M.A., Nov. 23, 1764."

    FABER FERRARIUS.

  Dublin.

_Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds_ (Vol. v., p. 49.).--I have a cutting from a
newspaper of 1849 confirmative of the truth of this practice:--

  "MENDICANT FREEMASONRY.--Persons indiscreet enough to open their
  purses to the relief of the beggar tribe would do well to take a
  readily-learned lesson as to the folly of that misguided
  benevolence which encourages and perpetuates vagabondism. Every
  door or passage is pregnant with instruction as to the error
  committed by the patron of beggars, as the beggar-marks show that
  a system of free-masonry is followed, by which a beggar knows
  whether it will be worth his while to call into a passage or knock
  at a door. Let any one examine the entrances to the passages in
  any town, and there he will find chalk marks, unintelligible to
  him, but significant enough to beggars. If a thousand towns are
  examined, the same marks will be found at every passage entrance.
  The passage mark is a cypher with a twisted tail: in some cases
  the tail projects into the passage, in others outwardly; thus
  seeming to indicate whether the houses down the passage are worth
  calling at or not. Almost every door has its marks: these are
  varied. In some cases there is a cross on the brick-work, others,
  a cypher: the figures 1, 2, 3 are also used. Every person may for
  himself test the accuracy of these statements by the examination
  of the brickwork near his own doorway ... thus demonstrating that
  mendicity is a regular trade, carried out upon a system calculated
  to save time and realise the largest profits!"

    A. A. D.

"_The bright lamp that_ shone[5] _in Kildare's holy fane_" (Vol. v., p.
87.).--Moore has given a reference himself as to where the story of the
"inextinguishable fire of St. Bridget," alluded to in his melody, may be
found: viz. Giraldus Camb. _de Mirab. Hibern._ dist. ii. c. 34.

  [Footnote 5: Not "lay."]

    A. A. D.

_Hyrne_ (Vol. v., p. 152.).--MR. CHADWICK inquires the meaning of this
word. In Bosworth's _Anglo-Saxon Dictionary_ I find, "_Hyrne_, a horn,
corner;" "_Hirne_, an angle, a corner;" and in Halliwell's _Dictionary
of Archaic and Provincial Words_ I find "_Hirne_, a corner." In many
villages in the fen districts of Lincolnshire are found places called
the _Hirne_, the _Hurne_, or the _Horn's-end_ all being portions of the
respective villages situated in an angle or corner at the extreme end of
the parish.

  "Horncastle in Lincolnshire, the Banovallum of the Roman
  geographer Ravennas, derives its name from its situation in an
  angle formed by the junction of two small rivers, the Bane and the
  Waring. Horncastle is a corruption of _Hyrncastre_, a
  fortification in an angle or corner."

  See Weir's _Horncastle_.

    P. T.

  Stoke Newington.

_Stops, when first introduced_ (Vol. v., p. 1.).--In the _Alvearie, or
Quadruple Dictionarie_, by Baret, published in 1580, may be found the
comma, colon, semicolon, and period. The semicolon appears, as far as my
observation has gone, to have been _there_ used, not as a stop, but as a
note of contraction. The point of interrogation is plentifully scattered
throughout the same work; as also, the index -->.

    FRANCISCUS.

_Heraldical MSS. of Sir H. St. George Garter_ (Vol. v., p. 59.).--Your
correspondent as to MSS. formerly at Enmore may learn their fate on
applying to Mr. Woodgate, of Lincoln's Inn. I think the MSS. were sent
to the then Lord Perceval. Mr. N. B. Acworth, of the English bar, would
also probably know.

    J. R. P.

_Kingswei, Kings-way, or Kinsey_ (Vol. iv., p. 231.).--In addition to
the instances in Oxon and Wilts, already mentioned, the town of Kinsey
occurs on the high road leading from Prince's Risborough to Thame. Is
_Kinsey_, in this case, a contraction for _Kings-way_, as in Oxon; and
is this a continuation of King Athelstan's road?

    B. WILLIAMS.

_Fouché's Memoirs._--At Vol. iv., p. 455., on the subject of the Duc
d'Enghien's murder, Fouché's _Memoirs_ are quoted in proof that the
saying, "C'était pire qu'un crime, c'était une faute," was claimed as
his own by that famous police minister. Indeed, I have little doubt of
the fact, which, however, can derive no confirmation or authority from
the quoted work; for this nominal autobiography has been pronounced, on
a regular trial before the French tribunals, an utter cheat and
imposition; though referred to by Mr. Alison, in his _History of
Europe_, volume the fifth, p. 482. (original edition), as genuine, as
well as by Lord Brougham in the third volume of his _Statesmen_; yet
with less decided assertion than by the Scotch historian. Fouché's
family at once denounced the fabrication, and obtained heavy damages
from the printer; who equally succeeded against the writer, Alphons de
Beaumont, and was awarded large damages for the imposition. (See
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for November, 1842.) It is at present perfectly
understood that the sharp and apt antithesis, however immoral, was
Fouché's.

Talleyrand's reputation for ready wit fixed on him the paternity of
numerous _bons mots_, which have proved to be of alien birth. Voltaire,
Piron, Mirabeau, in France; and Chesterfield, Selwyn, Wilkes, &c. in
England; with Curran in Ireland, and many others, have similarly
obtained credit for pointed expressions not of their utterance, as to
the rich are generally given by rumour more than they possess. "On ne
prête qu'aux riches," is an apposite proverb, long since indeed stated
by the sententious Euripides: "Ὁρῶσσι δὲ οἱ διδόντες εἰς τὰ
χρήματα" (_In Fragmentis_). Cicero tells us, in his letter to
Volumnius (_Epistol. Famil._ lib. vii. ep. 32.), that the sayings of
others had been thus similarly fathered on him: "Ais omnia omnium dicta
in me conferri;" and complains, half-humorously and half-seriously, that
his supremacy of wit was not sufficiently protected from usurpers or
intruders: "Quod parum diligenter possessio _salinarum mearum_, ate
procuratore, defenditur," &c.

    J. R. (Cork.)

_The Pelican as a Symbol of our Saviour_ (Vol. v., pp. 59.
165.).--Shakspeare, in _Hamlet_, alludes to the popular notion
respecting this bird:

      "To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms,
      And like the _kind, life-rendering pelican_,
      Repast them with my blood."

The best representation I have ever seen of the pelican feeding her
young occurs in the works of a Roman printer, in the early part of the
eighteenth century, Rocco Bernabo, who has taken for his device a
pelican feeding her five young ones, a crown of thorns encircling them.

The pelican has a long bag or pouch, reaching the entire length of the
bill to the neck. In feeding its young, the bird squeezes the food
deposited in the bag into their mouths, by strongly compressing it upon
its breast with the bill. (See Calmet and Shaw.) Hence the popular idea.

    MARICONDA.

  Feb. 10. 1852.

_Bow-bell_ (Vol. v., pp. 28. 140.).--Your correspondent W. S. S. is, I
think, right in supposing _Bow-bell_ to be almost synonymous with
_Cockney_. I quote a passage from the _London Prodigall_, which had once
the honour of being attributed to Shakspeare.

      "_Enter Sir Lancelot Weathercock Young Flowerdale, &c._ (Sir
      Arthur Green-hood, Oliver, &c., had been on the stage before.)

      "_Lan._ Sir Arthur, welcome to Lewsome, welcome, by my troth.

      What's the matter, man? why are you vext?

      _Oli._ Why man, he would press me.

      _Lan._ O fie, Sir Arthur, press him? He is a man of reckoning.

      _Wea._ I that he is, Sir Arthur, he hath the nobles.
      The golden ruddocks he.

      _Ar._ The fitter for the warrs: and were he not in favour
      With your worships, he should see,
      That I have power to press as good as he.

      _Oli._ Chill stand to the trial, so chill.

      _Flow._ I marry shall he, presse cloth and karsie,
      White pot and drowsen broth: tut, tut, he cannot.

      _Oli._ Well, Sir, though you see vlouten cloth and karsie, chee a
      zeen zutch a karsie coat wear out the town sick a zilken jacket,
      as thick a one as you wear.

      _Flow._ Well sed, vlitan vlattan.

      _Oli._ A and well sed _cocknell_, and _boe-bell_ too. What doest
      think cham aveard of thy zilken coat, no fer vere thee."

      Page iv.

    RT.

  Warmington.

_Cou-bache_ (Vol. v., p. 131.).--In MR. SINGER'S note on the word
_cou-bache_, in the enumeration of the cognate words which would appear
to contradict the usual interpretation, he would seem to have forgotten
the Greek Βήσσα, which confirms it, and has precisely the
meaning of a shaded mountain valley, and certainly belongs to the same
tribe of the Indo-Germanic languages as the pure Saxon bæccha.

    RICHARD F. LITTLEDALE.

_White-livered_ (Vol. v., p. 127.).--The expression _white-livered_ had
its origin in the auspices taken by the Greeks and Romans before battle,
in which the examination of the liver and entrails of the victim formed
an essential part. If the liver were the usual shape, and a blood-red
colour, the omen was favourable; if pale or livid, it was an augury of
defeat. The transition from the victim to the inquirer was easy, and a
dastard leader, likely to sustain disgrace, was called "a man of a white
liver."

    RICHARD F. LITTLEDALE.

  Dublin.

"_Experto crede Roberto_" (Vol. v., p. 104.).--Your correspondent W. L.
may perhaps find the origin of the above phrase in the following epitaph
copied from the floor of Exeter College Chapel, Oxford:

      "Quam subito, quam certo, experto crede Roberto
      Pride AUX, Fratri Matthiæ minori
            Qui veneno infæliciter com[-]
            [-]Esto intra decem horas
                Misere expiravit.
                          Sept. 14, 1627."

What is the meaning of the capitals? Close by is the following:

      "Hic jacet in pannis patris op[-]
      [-]tima gemma Johannes
                Prideaux
      Mathiæ gemellus qui im[-]
      [-]mature sequutus est fratres
          August 1'o A.D. 1636."

    H. H. G.

  Frognal.

"_Oh! Leoline_," _&c._ (Vol. v., pp. 78. 138.).--

      "Oh! Leolyn, be obstinately just;
      Indulge no passion, and deceive no trust:
      Let never man be bold enough to say,
      Thus, and no farther, shall my passion stray:
      The first crime, past, compels us into more,
      And guilt grows _fate_, that was but choice, before."

      _Athelwold_, a Tragedy, by Aaron Hill.
      Act V. Scene: The Garden.

These lines were first quoted by Madan, in his translation of Juvenal,
as a note on the words--

      "Nemo repente fuit turpissimus."--Juv. _Sat._ ii. 83.

He prefaced the lines by confessing that he could not recollect where he
had met with them; but Gifford, in his translation of Juvenal (3rd
edition, 1817), assigns them to "_Athelwold_, a forgotten tragedy by
Aaron Hill." I have referred to the play, for the sake of obtaining a
correct copy of the quotation, and a reference to Act and Scene.

    C. FORBES.

  Temple.

The Word "_Blaen_" (Vol. v., p. 128.).--The British word _Blaen_, a
frequent prefix, means top point, or fore part: hence _Blaenffrwyth_,
first fruit; _Blaenafon_, source of a river, &c.

    E. ALLEN.

_Stoke_ (Vol. v., pp. 106. 161.).--At Erbistock, near this place (it is
called "Saint Erbyn's stoke" in the Valor Ecclesiasticus made temp.
Henry VIII.), there is a stone weir across the river Dee, which there
washes the base of the rock on which the Parish church is built. The use
of this weir is now only to divert a part of the stream to a corn mill;
but a weir may have been erected here in ancient times for the purpose
of catching salmon, as it is the first weir above Chester on the river
Dee. The name of Saint Erbyn is not to be found in the Calendar of Welsh
Saints; but I apprehend that the authority of the commissioners of Henry
VIII. may be deemed sufficient for placing his name in the next edition
of the Calendar that shall be published.

    -->

  Wrexham Regis.

The quotation from _Bosworth_ is doubtless correct. Blomfield, in his
_History of Norfolk_, when describing _Stoke-ferry_, says:

  "This town stands on the river Wissey, and in the Book of Domesday
  it is wrote '_Stoches_;' not taking its name from _stoch_, (i.e.)
  some wood, but from _stow_, a dwelling or habitation, and _ches_,
  or _kes_, by the water."

There are two villages of the name of _Stoke_ in Norfolk, and both are
situate on small streams.

    J. F. F.

  West Newton.

_A Baron's Hearse_ (Vol. v., p. 128.).--The editorial reply in this page
has referred to the Note on Funerals which I prefixed to _Machyn's
Diary_; and from that book may certainly be gathered the best possible
notion of the style and character of the hearse, and other paraphernalia
attendant upon funerals in England during the sixteenth century. But in
a book which I edited for another Society, namely, _The Unton
Inventories_, 1841, will be found the authority for Lloyd's statement
relative to the funeral of Sir Henry Unton: it is the certificate in the
College of Arms, which states that he was buried at Faringdon "with a
baron's hearse, and in the degree of a baron, because he died ambassador
leidger for France." A Lord Mayor of London, dying in office, was in
like manner interred with the observances due to a baron. It appears
from Sir Henry Unton's papers that he was usually addressed as "My Lord"
whilst in France as ambassador. May I inquire whether that practice is
still kept up towards ambassadors who are not peers? or, if not, when
did it cease?

    JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.

_The Bed of Ware_ (Vol. v., p. 128.).--There is an engraving of the Bed
of Ware in Clutterbuck's _History of Hertfordshire_, and another in
Shaw's _Ancient Furniture_.

    J. G. N.

  [We are also reminded by Mr. C. H. COOPER that it is engraved in
  Knight's _Pictorial Shakspeare_.]

_Symbolism of Death_ (Vol. iii., pp. 450. 501.).--Will you permit a Note
to say, that Herder, after Lessing, and in continuation of his essay,
wrote on the subject of "Death, as symbolically represented by the
Ancients." Lessing's treatise was lately mentioned by one of your
correspondents, without any notice of Herder's.

    J. M.

_General Wolfe_ (Vol. iv., p. 438.).--I send the following "Notes from
Newspapers," thinking they may be of service to [Gh.].:--

  "His Majesty has been pleased to appoint the Hon. Col. Wolfe to be
  Inspector of all the marines."

  _London and County Journal_, May 13, 1742.

      "To Rome from Pontus thus great Julius wrote,
      I came, I saw, and conquer'd, ere I fought.
      In Canada, brave Wolfe, more nobly tried,
      Came, saw, and conquer'd,--but in battle died.
      More glorious far than Cæsar's was his doom,
      Who lived to die for Tyranny in Rome."

      _London Chronicle_, August 18. 1774.

These lines are headed "An Epitaph intended for General Wolfe." They are
signed by E. D.

In the _Illustrated London News_ of Jan. 24 is the popular air known as
"General Wolfe's Song," which, according to Sir H. Bishop's "note," is
said to have been composed by him the night previous to the battle on
the Plains of Abraham.

    H. G. D.

_Proverb_ (Vol. iv., p. 239.).--Fuller defines a proverb "much matter
decocted into few words."--_Worthies_, ch. ii.

    R. W. C.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

When we remember the ill-drawn and gaudily coloured prints with which,
until these few years, it was the fashion to illustrate all books
intended for the use and amusement of young people, we cannot but be
forcibly struck with the improvement which has taken place in this
respect. These remarks have been suggested to us by a couple of
children's books just issued by Messrs. Addey, in the illustration of
which those tasteful publishers have employed the able pencil of Hablot
Browne. The first, _Home and its Pleasures, Simple Stories for Young
People_, by Mrs. Harriet Myrtle, contains eight admirable designs; while
_Aunt Effie's Rhymes for Little Children_--and Aunt Effie is a most
capital writer of Rhymes for Babyland--is enriched with no less than
twenty-four illustrations, some of which are rich in the peculiar humour
of this artist. To the same house we are also indebted for a work of
still higher interest, namely, a new and complete edition of _The Danish
Fairy Legends and Tales_, by Hans Christian Andersen, containing
(besides a Memoir of the Author) no less than forty-five tales,
translated direct from the original language, and not through any German
version. This will be good news to all who know and admire the playful
humour and deep imaginings of the great Danish Story Teller.

_Child's Play, Seventeen Drawings by E. V. B._, demands notice, not as a
work of literature, but of Art, and Art of a very high order. For fancy,
grace, and simplicity, these exquisite illustrations of some of our old
Nursery Rhymes may challenge comparison with any works of a similar
character with which we are acquainted. Produced by the Anastatic
process, they show how available that process may be made to the
requirements of the amateur: for, admirable as are these designs, they
owe their existence to the taste and artistic skill of a lady; for we
believe "E. V. B." designates the Hon. Mrs. Boyle. Little wonder, as
poor Theodore Hook would have said, to find one of the _Cork_ family
distinguished for _drawing_.

BOOKS RECEIVED.--_The Relations between the Holy Scriptures and some
parts of Geological Science_, the fifth edition of a well-known and much
esteemed work by the late Dr. Pye Smith, forms the new issue of Bohn's
_Scientific Library_. His _Antiquarian Library_ has been enriched by the
publication of the second volume of _The Works of Sir Thomas Browne_,
containing the last three books of the _Vulgar Errors_, his _Religio
Medici_, and _The Garden of Cyrus_. The fifth volume of _The Works of
Plato_, containing the _Laws_, translated by George Burges, has been
added to the _Classical Library_. _Home Truths for Home Peace_, or,
_"Muddle" Defeated; a Practical Inquiry into what chiefly mars or makes
the Comfort of Domestic Life, chiefly addressed to Young Housewives_, is
an attempt at the exposure and destruction of their most insidious and
deadly enemy, and deserves to be well known for the good sense, right
feeling, and quaint humour, with which its praiseworthy object is
inculcated. Lebahn's _Henry von Eichenfels_, _Wonderful History of Peter
Schlemihl_, _Egmont by Goethe_, _Wilhelm Tell by Schiller_. Although
there is no royal road to learning, it is unquestionable that the
journey may be shortened, and the path rendered less wearisome by the
company of judicious guides. The four books edited by M. Falck Lebahn,
whose titles we have just enumerated, consisting of well-known
masterpieces of his country's literature, each accompanied by a
vocabulary, complete, both as regards the words and the difficult
phrases in the several works to which they are attached, belong to this
class, and will greatly facilitate the self instructor in his
acquirement of a language which is not only one of the richest in Europe
in indigenous works, but far richer than any other in its translations
from all other languages.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

EDWIN AND EMMA. Taylor, 1776.

ANNUAL REGISTER, from 1816 inclusive to the present time.

MEDICO CHIRURGICAL TRANSACTIONS. From Part II. of Vol. XI. March, 1819;
and also from Vol. XXX.

THE CODE MATRIMONIAL. Paris, 1770.

PRO MATRIMONIO PRINCIPIS CUM DEFUNCTÆ UXORIS SORORE CONTRACTO RESPONSUM
JURIS, COLLEGH JURISCONSULTORUM IN ACADEMIÂ RINTELENSI. Published about
1655.

GREGORY'S (DR.) SECOND MEMORIAL TO THE MANAGERS OF THE ROYAL INFIRMARY,
EDINBURGH.

HERON'S (SIR ROBERT) NOTES. First Edition. Privately printed.

COBBETT'S STATE TRIALS. 8vo. Vol. VIII. 1810.

ARNOTT'S PHYSICS. 2 Vols.

ISR. CLAUDERI DISPUTATIO DE SALE SUB PRÆSIDIO SAGITTARII. Jenæ, 1650.

CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. Vol I. Third Edition.

MACKINNON'S HISTORY OF CIVILISATION. Vol. II. 1846.

LITE'S DODOENS' HERBAL. First Edition. (An imperfect copy to complete
another.)

TURNER'S A BOOKE OF THE NATURES OF THE BATHES IN ENGLAND. 1568. (An
imperfect copy to complete another.)

A MOST EXCELLENT AND PERFECTE CORNISH APOTHECARY. 1561. (An imperfect
copy to complete another.)

  [Star symbol] Letters, stating particulars and lowest price,
  _carriage free_, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND
  QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

NOTES AND QUERIES IN CHINA. _It will be seen by a communication in the
present Number that_ "N. & Q." _at length entered the Celestial Empire.
We are gratified by the fact, and cannot resist therefore laying before
our readers the following extract from the private note which
accompanied several communications from an old contributor who has
removed to that remote quarter of the world:--"I perceive that you have
reached India in an Eastern direction; and trust that you will allow one
who was a slight contributor at home, to avail himself of your
publication in a still more distant oriental land. The_ "N. & Q." _since
my introduction of them, have excited here (Victoria, Hong Kong) a
remarkable interest in many."_

_The letter to_ MR. HAMPSON _has been forwarded; as has also the one
addressed to our Querist respecting the "Ruthvens."_

ÆGROTUS. _We have thought we should better serve the cause which our
correspondent has at heart, by not calling attention to the subject of
his query._

C. B. T. _shall receive a note from us._

L. I. N. _Many thanks. We have forwarded her communication and specimen
of bachelor's buttons to our correspondent._

THE TRADESCANTS. _We take this opportunity of calling the attention of
our readers to the attempt which is making to raise funds for the
restoration of the Tomb of the Tradescants, &c., and of which
particulars will be found in our advertising columns. We have reason to
believe that we shall, in the course of a short time, be enabled to lay
before our readers some new and valuable illustration of their history._

E. N. _will find in some modern German books, that capital letters are
not even used at the commencement of sentences._

DIABOLUS GANDER. _The enigma_--

            "'Twas whispered in heaven," &c.

_was, we believe, written by Lord Byron._

JUVENIS _is in type, although, like many other articles, unavoidably
omitted this week for want of room._

H. B. _The_ "Macaronie Poem" _has already appeared in_ "N. & Q." _No.
119. p. 123._

A. A. D. _The Queries shall have early insertion. The suggestion is a
good one, and we will see how far we can adopt it._

ROBERT DE WELLE. _Has_ H. W. _(the querist) on_ G. H. D. (_the
respondent_) _any objection to our communicating his name to the other?_

AMBROSE FLORENCE _will find his Query on_ "White Livers" _in_ No. 119.
p. 127., _and the subject of the mistletoe is still under discussion in
our columns._

_Our correspondence has increased so much, during the last few weeks,
that we are compelled to solicit the indulgence of our friends for the
postponement of many of their communications._

REPLIES RECEIVED.--_Princes of Wales--Extraordinary Number
of Children--Long Meg of Westminster--Moonlight--Frozen
Sounds--Martinique--Bachelor's Buttons--Old Books and New
Titles--Old Scots March--Miniature of Cromwell--Meaning
of Hyrne--Mull--Stickle--Equestrian Statue of Elizabeth--Donkey--L'Homme
de 1400 Ans.--Greek Translation of Ovid--Dulcarnon--Olivarius
Eale--Mother Damnable--News--Covines, &c._ (_from_ P. T.)--_Dictionary
of Provincial Words--Sterne in Paris, &c._ (_from_ COWGILL)--_Praed's
Charades--Byron's Hymn to Ocean--Did St. Paul quote Aristotle--Junius
Rumours, &c._ (_from_ J. C.)--_Dr. Johnson's House--Quid est
Episcopus--Family Likenesses--Etymology of Church--Papermaking in
England--Muggleton--Archaic Words--Enigmatical Epitaphs--Moravian
Hymns--Hernshaw._

_Full price will be given for clean copies of_ No. 19. _upon application
to our Publisher._

_Neat Cases for loading the Numbers of_ "N. & Q." _until the completion
of each Volume are now ready, price_ 1_s._ 6_d., and may be had_ by
order _of all booksellers and newsmen._

_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._

VOLUME THE FOURTH OF NOTES AND QUERIES, _with very copious_ INDEX, _is
now ready, price_ 9_s._ 6_d. cloth boards._

"NOTES AND QUERIES" _is published at noon on Friday, so that the Country
Booksellers may receive Copies in that night's parcels, and deliver them
to their Subscribers on the Saturday._

LEBAHN'S WORKS.

  Fourth Stereotype Edition, price 8_s._; with Key, 10_s._ 6_d._

  GERMAN in ONE VOLUME. Containing a Grammar; Exercises; Undine, a
  Tale by Fouqué, with Notes; and a Vocabulary of 4,500 Words
  synonymous in German and English.

  Price 6_s._

  PRACTICE IN GERMAN. Adapted for Self-Instruction; containing the
  First Three Chapters of Undine, with a literal Interlinear
  Translation, and copious Notes.

  Price 6_s._ 6_d._

  THE SELF-INSTRUCTOR in GERMAN. Containing--I. "Der Muthwillige"
  (the Wag), a Comedy, in Five Acts, by KOTZEBUE. II. "Der Nette als
  Onkel," a Comedy, in Three Acts, by SCHILLER. With a Vocabulary
  and Notes.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  A FIRST GERMAN READING-BOOK. Containing--"Das Täubchen" (the
  Dove), a Tale for the Young, by CH. SCHMID. With an Introductory
  Grammar, and Vocabulary, containing every Word occurring in the
  Text.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  EICHENFELS, AND DIALOGUES; In What Manner Henry came to the
  Knowledge of God; a Tale, by CH. SCHMID. With a complete
  Vocabulary, and Dialogues, containing the ordinary Conversational
  Phrases.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  PETER SCHLEMIHL; or, the SHADOWLESS MAN. By CHAMISSO. With a
  Vocabulary and Copious Notes.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  EGMONT: a Tragedy, in Five Acts, by GOETHE. With a complete
  Vocabulary.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  UNDINE: a Tale, by FOUQUÉ. With Notes.

  Price 3_s._ 6_d._

  WILHELM TELL: a Drama, in Five Acts, by SCHILLER. With a complete
  Vocabulary.

  About 250 commendatory Notices on the above Works have appeared.

  Sold by all Booksellers; and at Mr. LEBAHN'S Class Rooms, 1.
  Annett's Crescent, Lower Road, Islington.

  MR. FALCK-LEBAHN receives Classes and Private Pupils at 1.
  Annett's Crescent, Islington; 12. Norland Square, Notting Hill;
  and attends Students at their own Residences.

Just published,

  A SELECT LIST OF AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, MISSALS, and RARE BOOKS. Apply
  to W. H. ELKINS, Bookseller, 47. Lombard Street, City. On the
  receipt of two postage stamps it will be forwarded immediately.

TO BOOK COLLECTORS, ANTIQUARIANS, AND HISTORIANS.

  Now ready (in 8vo., pp. 124.), price 1_s._, or forwarded per post,
  1_s._ 6_d._

  BIBLIOTHECA SELECTA, CURIOSA ET RARISSIMA.

  CATALOGUE of an Interesting Collection of Miscellaneous English
  and Foreign Books, chiefly in fine condition, now on sale for
  ready money, by THOMAS GEORGE STEVENSON, Antiquarian and
  Historical Bookseller, 87. Prince's Street, Edinburgh. (Second
  door west of the New Club.)

    "Whose shop is well-known, or ought to be so, by all the true
    lovers of curious little old smoke-dried volumes."--Chambers'
    _Illustrations of the Author of Waverly_.

    "This shop is now, I believe, the only existing 'cask' in this
    city which preserves the true ancient Wynkyn de Worde
    'odour.'"--Dr. Dibdin's _Tour through Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 503.

BOOK PLATES--Heraldic Queries answered; Family Arms found, and every
information afforded. Drawing of Arms, 2_s._ 6_d._; Painting ditto,
5_s._; Book Plate Crest, 5_s._; Arms, &c. from 20_s._; Crest on Card
Plate, and One Hundred Cards, 8_s._; Queries answered for 1_s._ Saxon,
Mediæval, and Modern Style Book Plates. The best Authorities and MS.
Books of thirty-five years' practice consulted. Heraldic Stamps for
Linen or Books, with reversed Cyphers and Crests. Apply, if by letter,
enclosing stamps or post office order, to JAMES FRISWELL (Son-in-law to
J. Rumley, publisher of "The Crest Book," "Heraldic Illustrations"),
Heraldic Engraver, 12. Brooke Street, Holborn.

MILLER'S LONDON LIBRARIAN AND BOOK-BUYER'S GAZETTE: a Monthly List of
Valuable SECOND-HAND BOOKS, in all Departments of Ancient and Modern
Literature, offered at very low prices for ready money. No. 2. for 1852,
ready this day, gratis to Book-buyers.

  The Advertiser begs to call attention to his List as the best, the
  cheapest, and the most expeditious method of obtaining useful and
  uncommon Works in the various departments of Literature. One
  Thousand different books are by this means submitted Monthly to
  the inspection and selection of Librarians, Book Committees, Heads
  of Literary Institutions, and Book-buyers generally.--Part I. of
  the Present Number contains History, Biography, Poetry, and the
  Drama, with Illustrated Books. Part II., an extensive collection
  relative to Agriculture, Botany, Gardening, Geology, Mineralogy,
  Conchology, and Fossils, with Natural History generally.

  JOHN MILLER, 43. Chandos Street, Trafalgar-square.

WESTERN LIFE ASSURANCE AND ANNUITY SOCIETY,

  3. PARLIAMENT STREET, LONDON.

  Founded A.D. 1842.

  _Directors._

      H. Edgeworth Bicknell, Esq.
      William Cabell, Esq.
      T. Somers Cocks, Jun. Esq. M.P.
      G. Henry Drew, Esq.
      William Evans, Esq.
      William Freeman, Esq.
      F. Fuller, Esq.
      J. Henry Goodhart, Esq.
      T. Grissell, Esq.
      James Hunt, Esq.
      J. Arscott Lethbridge, Esq.
      E. Lucas, Esq.
      James Lys Seager, Esq.
      J. Basley White, Esq.
      Joseph Carter Wood, Esq.

  _Trustees._

      W. Whateley, Esq., Q.C.
      L. C. Humfrey, Esq., Q.C.
      George Drew, Esq.

  _Consulting Counsel._--Sir Wm. P. Wood, M.P. Solicitor-General.

  _Physician._--William Rich. Basham, M.D.

  _Bankers._--Messrs. Cocks, Biddulph, and Co., Charing Cross.

  VALUABLE PRIVILEGE.

  POLICIES effected in this Office do not become void through
  temporary difficulty in paying a Premium, as permission is given
  upon application to suspend the payment at interest, according to
  the conditions detailed in the Prospectus.

  Specimens of Rates of Premium for Assuring 100_l._, with a Share
  in three-fourths of the Profits:--

      Age     £ _s._  _d._
       17     1  14    4
       22     1  18    8
       27     2   4    5
       32     2  10    8
       37     2  18    6
       42     3   8    2

  ARTHUR SCRATCHLEY, M.A., F.R.A.S., Actuary.

  Now ready, price 10_s._ 6_d._, Second Edition, with material
  additions, INDUSTRIAL INVESTMENT and EMIGRATION; being a TREATISE
  on BENEFIT BUILDING SOCIETIES, and on the General Principles of
  Land Investment, exemplified in the Cases of Freehold Land
  Societies, Building Companies, &c. With a Mathematical Appendix on
  Compound Interest and Life Assurance. By ARTHUR SCRATCHLEY, M.A.,
  Actuary to the Western Life Assurance Society, 3. Parliament
  Street, London.

TOMB OF THE TRADESCANTS.

  In Lambeth Churchyard is a Monument, once handsome and elaborately
  carved, which was erected in 1662 by the widow of JOHN TRADESCANT
  the younger, to the memory of her father-in-law, her husband, and
  her son, who were inhabitants of that parish.

  The Monument of the TRADESCANTS, which was repaired by public
  subscription in 1773, has now again fallen into decay. The
  inscription also on the stone that covers ASHMOLE's grave, who was
  himself buried in Lambeth Church, is now very nearly effaced. The
  restoration of that Church, now nearly finished, seems a fit
  occasion for repairing both these Monuments. It is therefore
  proposed to raise a fund for the perfect restoration of the Tomb