{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_13736/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_13736","id":"gutenberg_13736","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13736","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Journals","Category: Language & Communication","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Notes and Queries","Questions and answers -- Periodicals"],"text":"NOTES AND QUERIES:\n\nA MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,\nGENEALOGISTS, ETC.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"When found, make a note of.\"--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNo. 39.] SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       * {129}\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\nNOTES:--\n  Etymology of \"Whitsuntide\" and \"Mass.\" 129\n  Folk Lore:--Sympathetic Cures--Cure for Ague--Eating\n    Snakes a Charm for growing young. 130\n  Long Meg of Westminster, by E.F. Rimbault. 131\n  A Note on Spelling,--\"Sanatory,\" \"Connection.\" 131\n  Minor Notes:--Pasquinade on Leo XII.--Shakspeare\n    a Brass-rubber--California--Mayor of Misrule and\n    Masters of the Pastimes--Roland and Oliver. 131\n\nQUERIES:--\n  The Story of the Three Men and their Bag of Money. 132\n  The Geometrical Foot, by A. De Morgan. 133\n  Minor Queries:--Plurima Gemma--Emmote de Hastings--Boozy\n    Grass--Gradely--Hats worn by Females--Queries\n    respecting Feltham's Works--Eikon\n    Basilice--\"Welcome the coming, speed the parting\n    Guest\"--Carpets and Room-paper--Cotton of Finchley--Wood\n    Carving in Snow Hill--Walrond Family--Translations--Bonny\n    Dundee--Graham of Claverhouse--Franz von Sickingen--Blackguard--Meaning\n    of \"Pension\"--Stars and Stripes of the American\n    Arms--Passages from Shakspeare--Nursery Rhyme--\"George\"\n    worn by Charles I.--Family of Manning\n    of Norfolk--Salingen a Sword Cutler--Billingsgate--\"Speak\n    the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke\"--Genealogical\n    Queries--Parson, the Staffordshire Giant--Unicorn\n    in the Royal Arms--The Frog and the Crow of\n    Ennow--\"She ne'er with treacherous Kiss,\" &c. 133\n\nREPLIES:--\n  A treatise on Equivocation. 136\n  Further Notes on the Derivation of the Word \"News.\" 137\n  \"News,\" \"Noise,\" and \"Parliament.\" 138\n  Shakpeare's Use of the Word \"Delighted\" by Rev. Dr.\n    Kennedy and J.O. Halliwell. 139\n  Replies to Minor Queries:--Execution of Charles I.--Sir\n    T. Herbert's Memoir of Charles I.--Simon of\n    Ghent--Chevalier de Cailly--Collar of Esses--Hell\n    paved with good Intentions--The Plant \"H\u00e6mony\"--Practice\n    of Scalping among the Scythians--Scandinavian\n    Mythology--Cromwell's Estates--Magor--\"Incidis\n    in Scyllam\"--Dies Ir\u00e6--Fabulous Account\n    of the Lion--Caxton's Printing-Office. 140\n\nMISCELLANEOUS:--\n  Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, Sales, &c. 142\n  Books and Odd Volumes Wanted. 143\n  Answers to Correspondents. 143\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nNOTES.\n\nETYMOLOGY OF \"WHITSUNTIDE\" AND \"MASS\".\n\nPerhaps the following Note and Query on the much-disputed origin of the\nword _Whitsunday_, as used in our Liturgy, may find a place in your\nJournal. None of the etymologies of this word at present in vogue is at\nall satisfactory. They are--\n\nI. _White Sunday_: and this, either--\n\n1. From the garments of _white linen_, in which those who were at that\nseason admitted to the rite of holy baptism were clothed; (as typical of\nthe spiritual purity therein obtained:) or,--\n\n2. From the glorious light of heaven, sent down from the father of\nLights on the day of Pentecost: and \"those vast diffusions of light and\nknowledge, which were then shed upon the Apostles, in order to the\nenlightening of the world.\" (Wheatley.) Or,--\n\n3. From the custom of the rich bestowing on this day all the milk of\ntheir kine, then called _white meat_, on the poor. (Wheatley, from\nGerard Langbain.)\n\nII. _Huict Sunday_: from the French, _huit_, eight; i.e. the eighth\nSunday from Easter. (L'Estrange, _Alliance Div. Off._)\n\nIII. There are others who see that neither of these explanations can\nstand; because the ancient mode of spelling the word was not\n_Whit_-sunday, but _Wit_-sonday (as in Wickliff), or _Wite_-sonday\n(which is as old as _Robert of Gloucester_, c. A.D. 1270). Hence,--\n\n1. Versteran's explanation:--That it is _Wied_ Sunday, _i.e. Sacred_\nSunday (from Saxon, _wied_, or _wihed_, a word I do not find in\nBosworth's _A.-S. Dict._; but so written in Brady's _Clovis Calendaria_,\nas below). But why should this day be distinguished as sacred beyond all\nother Sundays in the year?\n\n2. In _Clavis Calendaria_, by John Brady (2 vols. 8vo. 1815), I find,\nvol. i. p. 378., \"Other authorities contend,\" he does not say who those\nauthorities are, \"that the original name of this season of the year was\n_Wittentide_; or the time of choosing the _wits_, or wise men, to the\n_Wittenagemote_.\"\n\nNow this last, though evidently an etymology inadequate to the\nimportance of the festival, appears to me to furnish the right clue. The\nday of Pentecost was the day of the outpouring of the Divine Wisdom and\nKnowledge on the Apostles; the day on which was given to them that HOLY\nSPIRIT, by which was \"revealed\" to them \"_The wisdom of God_ ... even\nthe _hidden wisdom_, which GOD ordained before the world.\" 1 Cor. ii.\n7.[1] It was the day on which was fulfilled the promise {139} made to\nthem by CHRIST that \"The Comforter, which is the HOLY GHOST, whom the\nFather will send in my name, he shall _teach you all things_, and bring\nall things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.\" John,\nxiv. 26. When \"He, the Spirit of Truth, came, who should _guide_ them\n_into all truth_.\" John xvi. 13. And the consequence of this \"unction\nfrom the Holy One\" was, that they \"knew all things,\" and \"needed not\nthat any man should teach them.\" 1 John, ii. 20. 27.\n\n_Whit-sonday_ was, therefore, the day on which the Apostles were endued\nby God with _wisdom_ and knowledge: and my Query is, whether the root of\nthe word may not be found in the Anglo-Saxon verb,--\n\n_Witan_, to know, understand (whence our _wit_, in its old meaning of\ngood sense, or cleverness and the expression \"having one's _wits_ about\none,\" &c.); or else, perhaps, from--\n\n_Wisian_, to instruct, show, inform; (Ger. _weisen_). Not being an\nAnglo-Saxon scholar, I am unable of myself to trace the formation of the\nword _witson_ from either of these roots: and I should feel greatly\nobliged to any of your correspondents who might be able and willing to\ninform me, whether that form is deduceable from either of the above\nverbs; and if so, what sense it would bear in our present language. I am\nconvinced, that _wisdom day_, or _teaching day_, would afford a very far\nbetter reason for the name now applied to Pentecost, than any of the\nreasons commonly given. I should observe, that I think it incorrect to\nsay Whit-Sunday. It should be Whitsun (Witesone) Day. If it is Whit\nSunday, why do we say Easter Day, and not Easter Sunday? Why do we say\nWhitsun-Tide? Why does our Prayer Book say Monday and Tuesday in\nWhitsun-week (just as before, Monday and Tuesday in Easter-week)? And\nwhy do the lower classes, whose \"vulgarisms\" are, in nine cases out of\nten, more correct than our refinements, still talk about Whitsun Monday\nand Whitsun Tuesday, where the more polite say, Whit Monday and Tuesday?\n\nQuery II. As I am upon etymologies, let me ask, may not the word _Mass_,\nused for the Lord's Supper--which Baronius derives from the Hebrew\n_missach_, an oblation, and which is commonly derived from the \"missa\nmissorum\"--be nothing more nor less than _mess_ (_mes_, old French), the\nmeal, the repast, the supper? We have it still lingering in the phrase,\n\"an officers' mess;\" i.e. a meal taken in common at the same table; and\nso, \"to mess together,\" \"messmate,\" and so on. Compare the Moeso-Gothic\n_mats_, food: and _maz_, which Bosworth says (_A.-S. Dic._ sub voc.\n_Mete_) is used for bread, food, in Otfrid's poetical paraphrase of the\nGospels, in Alemannic or High German, published by Graff, Konigsberg,\n1831.\n\nH.T.G.\n\nClapton.\n\n    [Footnote 1: The places in the New Testament, where Divine\n    Wisdom and Knowledge are referred to the outpouring of God's\n    Spirit, are numberless. Cf. Acts, vi. 3., 1 Cor. xii. 8., Eph.\n    i. 8, 9., Col. i. 9., &c. &c.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFOLK LORE.\n\n_Sympathetic Cures._--Possibly the following excerpt may enable some of\nyour readers and Folklore collectors to testify to the yet lingering\nexistence, in localities still unvisited by the \"iron horse,\" of a\nsuperstition similar to the one referred to below. I transcribe it from\na curious, though not very rare volume in duodecimo, entitled _Choice\nand Experimental Receipts in Physick and Chirurgery, as also Cordial and\nDistilled Waters and Spirits, Perfumes, and other Curiosities_.\nCollected by the Honourable and truly learned Sir Kenelm Digby, Kt.,\nChancellour to Her Majesty the Queen Mother. London: Printed for H.\nBrome, at the Star in Little Britain, 1668.\n\n    \"_A Sympathetic Cure for the Tooth-ach._--With an iron nail\n    raise and cut the gum from about the teeth till it bleed, and\n    that some of the blood stick upon the nail, then drive it into a\n    wooden beam up to the head; after this is done you never shall\n    have the toothach in all your life.\" The author naively adds\n    \"But whether the man used any spell, or said any words while he\n    drove the nail, I know not; only I saw done all that is said\n    above. This is used by severall certain persons.\"\n\nAmongst other \"choice and experimental receipts\" and \"curiosities\" which\nin this little tome are recommended for the cure of some of the \"ills\nwhich flesh is heir to,\" one directs the patient to\n\n    \"Take two parts of the moss growing on the skull of a dead man\n    (pulled as small as you can with the fingers).\"\n\nAnother enlarges on the virtue of\n\n    \"A little bag containing some powder of toads calcined, so that\n    the bag lay always upon the pit of the stomach next the skin,\n    and presently it took away all pain as long as it hung there but\n    if you left off the bag the pain returned. A bag continueth in\n    force but a month after so long time you must wear a fresh one.\"\n\nThis, he says, a \"person of credit\" told him.\n\nHENRY CAMPKIN.\n\nReform Club, June 21. 1850.\n\n\n_Cure for Ague._--One of my parishioners, suffering from ague, was\nadvised to catch a large spider and shut him up in a box. As he pines\naway, the disease is supposed to wear itself out.\n\nB.\n\nL---- Rectory, Somerset, July 8. 1850.\n\n\n_Eating Snakes a Charm for growing young._--I send you the following\nillustrations of this curious receipt for growing young. Perhaps some of\nyour correspondents will furnish me with some others, and some\nadditional light on the subject. Fuller says,--\n\n    \"A gentlewoman told an ancient batchelour, who looked _very\n    young_, that she thought _he had eaten a snake_: 'No, mistris,'\n    (said he), 'it is because I never {131} meddled with any snakes\n    which maketh me look so young.'\"--_Holy State_, 1642, p. 36.\n\n      He hath left off o' late to _feed on snakes_;\n      His beard's turned white again.\n\n    _Massinger, Old Law_, Act v. Sc. 1.\n\n      \"He is your loving brother, sir, and will tell nobody\n      But all he meets, that you have eat a _snake_,\n      And are grown young, gamesome, and rampant.\"\n\n    _Ibid, Elder Brother_, Act iv. Sc. 4.\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLONG MEG OF WESTMINSTER.\n\nMr. Cunningham, in his _Handbook of London_ (2nd edition, p. 540.), has\nthe following passage, under the head of \"Westminster Abbey:\"\n\n    \"_Observe._--Effigies in south cloister of several of the early\n    abbots; large blue stone, uninscribed, (south cloister), marking\n    the grave of Long Meg of Westminster, a noted virago of the\n    reign of Henry VIII.\"\n\nThis amazon is often alluded to by our old writers. Her life was printed\nin 1582; and she was the heroine of a play noticed in Henslowe's\n_Diary_, under the date February 14, 1594. She also figured in a ballad\nentered on the Stationers' books in that year. In _Holland's Leaguer_,\n1632, mention is made of a house kept by Long Meg in Southwark:--\n\n    \"It was out of the citie, yet in the view of the citie, only\n    divided by a delicate river: there was many handsome buildings,\n    and many hearty neighbours, yet at the first foundation it was\n    renowned for nothing so much as for the memory of that famous\n    amazon _Longa Margarita_, who had there for many yeeres kept a\n    famous _infamous_ house of open hospitality.\"\n\nAccording to Vaughan's _Golden Grove_, 1608,--\n\n    \"Long Meg of Westminster kept alwaies twenty courtizans in her\n    house, whom, by their pictures, she sold to all commers.\"\n\nFrom these extracts the occupation of Long Meg may be readily guessed\nat. Is it then likely that such a detestable character would have been\nburied amongst \"goodly friars\" and \"holy abbots\" in the cloisters of our\nvenerable abbey? I think not: but I leave considerable doubts as to\nwhether Meg was a real personage.--Query. Is she not akin to Tom Thumb,\nJack the Giant-killer, Doctor Rat, and a host of others of the same\ntype?\n\nThe stone in question is, I know, on account of its great size, jokingly\ncalled \"Long Meg, of Westminster\" by the vulgar; but no one, surely,\nbefore Mr. Cunningham, ever _seriously_ supposed it to be her\nburying-place. Henry Keefe, in his _Monumenta Westmonasteriensa_, 1682,\ngives the following account of this monument:--\n\n    \"That large and stately plain black marble stone (which is\n    vulgarly known by the name of _Long Meg of Westminster_) on the\n    north side of _Laurentius_ the abbot, was placed there for\n    _Gervasius de Blois_, another abbot of this monastery, who was\n    base son to King Stephen, and by him placed as a monk here, and\n    afterwards made abbot, who died _anno_ 1160, and was buried\n    under this stone, having this distich formerly thereon:\n\n      \"_De regnum genere pater hic Gervasius ecce\n      Monstrat defunctus, mors rapit omne genus_.\"\n\nFelix Summerly, in his _Handbook for Westminster Abbey_, p. 29.,\nnoticing the cloisters and the effigies of the abbots, says,--\n\n    \"Towards this end there lies a large slab of blue marble, which\n    is called 'Long Meg' of Westminster. Though it is inscribed to\n    Gervasius de Blois, abbot, 1160 natural son of King Stephen, he\n    is said to have been buried under a small stone, and tradition\n    assigns 'Long Meg' as the gravestone of twenty-six monks, who\n    were carried off by the plague in 1349, and buried together in\n    one grave.\"\n\nThe tradition here recorded may be correct. At any rate, it carries with\nit more plausibility than that recorded by Mr. Cunningham.\n\nEDWARD F. RIMIBAULT.\n\n    [Some additional and curious allusions to this probably mythic\n    virago are recorded in Mr. Halliwell's _Descriptive Notices of\n    Popular English Histories_, printed for the Percy Society.]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA NOTE ON SPELLING.--\"SANATORY,\" \"CONNECTION.\"\n\nI trust that \"NOTES AND QUERIES\" may, among many other benefits, improve\nspelling by example as well as precept. Let me make a note on two words\nthat I find in No. 37.: _sanatory_, p. 99., and _connection_, p. 98.\n\nWhy \"_sanatory_ laws?\" _Sanare_ is _to cure_, and a curing-place is, if\nyou like, properly called _sanatorium_. But the Latin for _health_ is\n_sanitas_, and the laws which relate to health should be called\n_sanitary_.\n\nAnalogy leads us to _connexion_, not _connection_; _plecto_, _plexus_,\n_complexion_; _flecto_, _flexus_, _inflexion_; _necto_, _nexus_,\n_connexion_, &c.; while the termination _ction_ belongs to words derived\nfrom Latin verbs whose passive participles end in _ctus_ as _lego_,\n_lectus_, _collection_; _injecio_, _injectus_, _injection_; _seco_,\n_sectus_, _section_, &c.\n\nCH.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMinor Notes.\n\n_Pasquinade on Leo XII._--The Query put to a Pope (Vol. ii., p. 104.),\nwhich it is difficult to believe could be put orally, reminds me of Pope\nLeo XII., who was reported, whether truly or not, to have been the\nreverse of scrupulous in the earlier part of his life, but was\nremarkably strict after he became Pope, and was much disliked at Rome,\nperhaps because, by his maintenance of strict discipline, he abridged\nthe amusements and questionable indulgences of the people. On account of\nhis death, {132} which took place just before the time of the carnival\nin 1829, the usual festivities were omitted, which gave occasion to the\nfollowing pasquinade, which was much, though privately, circulated--\n\n  \"Tre cose mat fecesti, O Padre santo:\n          Accettar il papato,\n          Viver tanto,\n          Morir di Carnivale\n          Per destar pianto.\"\n\nJ. Mn.\n\n\n_Shakspeare a Brass-rubber._--I am desirous to notice, if no commentator\nhas forestalled me, that Shakspeare, among his many accomplishments, was\nsufficiently beyond his age to be a brass-rubber:\n\n                             \"What's on this tomb\n  I cannot read; the character I'll take with _wax_.\"\n\n_Timon of Athens_, v. 4.\n\nFrom the \"soft impression,\" however, alluded to in the next scene, his\n\"wax\" appears rather to have been the forerunner of _gutta percha_ than\nof _heel-ball_.\n\nT.S. LAWRENCE.\n\n\n_California._--In the _Voyage round the World_, by Captain George\nShelvocke, begun Feb. 1719, he says of California (_Harris's\nCollection_, vol. i. p. 233.):--\n\n    \"The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very likely in most of the\n    valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as you turn it fresh up\n    to the sun, appears as if intermingled with gold dust; some of\n    which we endeavoured to purify and wash from the dirt; but\n    though we were a little prejudiced against the thoughts that it\n    could be possible that this metal should be so promiscuously and\n    universally mingled with common earth, yet we endeavoured to\n    cleanse and wash the earth from some of it; and the more we did\n    the more it appeared like gold. In order to be further satisfied\n    I brought away some of it, which we lost in our confusion in\n    China.\"\n\nHow an accident prevented the discovery, more than a century back, of\nthe golden harvest now gathering in California!\n\nE.N.W.\n\nSouthwark.\n\n\n_Mayor of Misrule and Masters of the Pastimes._--the word _Maior_ of\nMisrule appears in the Harl. MSS. 2129. as having been on glass in the\nyear 1591, in Denbigh Church.\n\n    \"5 Edw. VI., a gentleman (Geo. Ferrars), lawyer, poet, and\n    historian, appointed by the Council, and being of better calling\n    than commonly his predecessors, received his commission by the\n    name of 'Master of the King's Pastimes.'\"--_Strutt's Sports and\n    Pastimes_, 340.\n\n    \"1578. Edward Baygine, cursitor, clerk for writing and passing\n    the Queen's leases, 'Comptroller of the Queen's pastimes and\n    revels,' clerk comptroller of her tents and pavilions,\n    commissioner of sewers, burgess in Parliament.\"--Gwillim,\n    _Heraldry_, 1724 edit.\n\nA.C.\n\n\n_Roland and Oliver_.--Canciani says there is a figure in the church\nporch at Verona which, from being in the same place with _Roland_, and\nmanifestly of the same age, he supposes may be _Oliver_, armed with a\nspiked ball fastened by a chain to a staff of about three feet in\nlength. _Who are Roland and Oliver_? There is the following derivation\nof the saying \"a Roland for your Oliver,\" without any reference or\nauthority attached, in my note-book:--\n\n    \"--Charlemagne, in his expedition against the Saracens, was\n    accompanied by two '_steeds_,' some writers say 'pages,' named\n    Roland and Oliver, who were so excellent and so equally matched,\n    that the equality became proverbial--'I'll give you a Roland for\n    your Oliver' being, the same as the vulgar saying, 'I'll give\n    you tit for tat,' i.e. 'I'll give you the same (whether in a\n    good or bad sense) as you give me.'\"\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nQUERIES\n\nTHE STORY OF THE THREE MEN AND THEIR BAG OF MONEY.\n\nLord Campbell, in his _Lives of the Chancellors_, relates, in connection\nwith Queen Elizabeth's Lord Keeper Ellesmere, a very common story, of\nwhich I am surprised he did not at once discern the falsehood. It is\nthat of a widow, who having a sum of money entrusted to her by three\nmen, which she was on no account to return except to the joint demand of\nthe three, is afterwards artfully persuaded by one of them to give it up\nto him. Being afterwards sued by the other two, she is successfully\ndefended by a young lawyer, who puts in the plea that she is not bound\nto give up the money at the demand of _only_ two of the parties. In this\ncase this ingenious gentleman is the future chancellor. The story is\ntold of the Attorney-General Noy, and of an Italian advocate, in the\nnotes to Rogers' _Italy_. It is likewise the subject of one of the\nsmaller tales in Lane's _Arabian Nights_; but here I must remark, that\nthe Eastern version is decidedly more ingenious than the later ones,\ninasmuch as it exculpates the keeper of the deposit from the \"laches\" of\nwhich in the other cases she was decidedly guilty. Three men enter a\nbath, and entrust their bag of money to the keeper with the usual\nconditions. While bathing, one feigns to go to ask for a comb (if I\nremember right), but in reality demands the money. The keeper properly\nrefuses, when he calls out to his companions within, \"He won't give it\nme.\" They unwittingly respond, \"Give it him,\" and he accordingly walks\noff with the money. I think your readers will agree with me that the\ntale has suffered considerably in its progress westward.\n\nMy object in troubling you with this, is to ask {133} whether any of\nyour subscribers can furnish me with any other versions of this popular\nstory, either Oriental or otherwise.\n\nBRACKLEY.\n\nPutney, July 17.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE GEOMETRICAL FOOT.\n\nIn several different places I have discussed the existence and length of\nwhat the mathematicians of the sixteenth century _used_, and those of\nthe seventeenth _talked about_, under the name of the _geometrical\nfoot_, of four palms and sixteen digits. (See the _Philosophical\nMagazine_ from December 1841 to May 1842; the _Penny Cyclop\u00e6dia_,\n\"Weights and Measures,\" pp. 197, 198; and _Arthmetical Books_, &c, pp.\n5-9.) Various works give a figured length of this foot, whole, or in\nhalves, according as the page will permit; usually making it (before the\nshrinking of the paper is allowed for) a very little less than 9-3/4\ninches English. The works in which I have as yet found it are Reisch,\n_Margarita Philosophica_, 1508; St\u00f6ffler's _Elucidatio Astrolabii_,\n1524; Fernel's _Monolosph\u00e6rium_, 1526; K\u00f6bel, _Astrolabii Declaratio_,\n1552; Ramus, _Geometric\u00e6_, 1621. Query. In what other works of the\nsixteenth, or early in the seventeenth century is this foot of palms and\ndigits to be found, figured in length? What are their titles? What the\nseveral lengths of the foot, half foot, or palm, within the twentieth of\nan inch? Are the divisions into palms or digits given; and, if so, are\nthey accurate subdivisions? Of the six names above mentioned, the three\nwho are by far the best known are St\u00f6ffler, Fernel, and Ramus; and it so\nhappens that their subdivisions are _much_ more correct than those of\nthe other three, and their whole lengths more accordant.\n\nA. DE. MORGAN.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMinor Queries\n\n_Plurima Gemma._--Who is the author of the couplet which seems to be a\nversion of Gray's\n\n  \"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,\" &c.?\n\n  \"Plurima gemma latet c\u00e6ca tellure sepulta,\n   Plurima neglecto fragrat odore rosa.\"\n\nS.W.S.\n\n\n_Emmote de Hastings._--\n\n\"EMMOTE DE HASTINGS GIST ICI\" &C.\n\nA very early slab with the above inscription was found in 1826 on the\nsite of a demolished transept of Bitton Church, Gloucester. By its side\nwas laid an incised slab of ---- De Bitton. Both are noticed in the\n_Arch\u00e6ologia_, vols. xxii. and xxxi.\n\nHitherto, after diligent search, no notice whatever has been discovered\nof the said person. The supposition is that she was either a Miss De\nBitton married to a Hastings, or the widow of a Hastings married\nsecondly to a De Bitton, and therefore buried with that family, in the\ntwelfth or thirteenth century. If any antiquarian digger should discover\nany mention of the lady, a communication to that effect will be\nthankfully received by\n\nH.T. ELLACOMBE.\n\nBitton.\n\n\n_Boozy Grass._--What is the derivation of \"boozy grass,\" which an\noutgoing tenant claims for his cattle? Johnson has, \"Boose, a stall for\na cow or ox (Saxon).\"\n\nA.C.\n\n\n_Gradely._--What is the meaning, origin, and usage of this word? I\nremember once hearing it used in Yorkshire by a man, who, speaking of a\nneighbour recently dead, said in a tone which implied esteem: \"Aye, he\nwas a very _gradely_ fellow.\"\n\nA.W.H.\n\n\n_Hats worn by Females._--Were not the hats worn by the _females_, as\nrepresented on the Myddelton Brass, peculiar to Wales? An engraving is\ngiven in Pennant's _Tour_, 2 vols., where also may be seen the hat worn\nby Sir John Wynne, about 1500, apparently similar to that on the Bacon\nMonument, and to that worn by Bankes. A MS. copy of a similar one (made\nin 1635, and then called \"very auntient\") may be seen in the Harleian\nMS. No. 1971. (_Rosindale Pedigree_), though apparently not older than\nElizabeth's time. With a coat of arms it was \"wrought in backside\nwork\"--the meaning of which is doubtful. What is that of the motto,\n\"Oderpi du pariver?\"\n\nA.C.\n\n\n_Feltham's Works, Queries respecting._--\n\n    \"He that is courtly or gentle, is among them _like_ a merlin\n    after Michaelmas in the field with crows.\"--_A Brief Character\n    of the Low Countries_, by Owen Feltham. Folio, London, 1661.\n\nWhat is the meaning of this proverb?\n\nAs a confirmation of the opinion of some of your correspondents, that\nmonosyllables give force and nature to language, the same author says,\npage 59., of the Dutch tongue,--\n\n    \"Stevin of Bruges reckons up 2170 monosillables, which being\n    compounded, how richly do they grace a tongue.\"\n\nWill any of your correspondents kindly inform me of the titles of Owen\nFeltham's works. I have his _Resolves_, and a thin folio volume, 1661,\nprinted for Anne Seile, 102 pages, containing _Lusoria, or Occasional\nPieces; A Brief Character of the Low Countries_; and some _Letters_. Are\nthese all he wrote? The poem mentioned by Mr. Kersley, beginning--\n\n  \"When, dearest, I but think of thee,\"\n\nis printed among those in the volume I have, with the same remark, that\nit had been printed as Sir John Suckling's.\n\nE.N.W. {134}\n\n\n_Eikon Basilice._--\n\n\"[Greek: EIKON BASILIKAE], or, _The True Pourtraiture of His Sacred\nMajest\u00e6 Charles the II_. In Three Books. Beginning from his Birth, 1630,\nunto this present year, 1660: wherein is interwoven a compleat History\nof the High-born Dukes of _York_ and _Glocester_. By R.F., Esq., an\neye-witness.\n\n  \"Quo nihil majus meliusve terris\n   Fata donavere, borique divi\n   Nee dabunt, quamvis redeant in aurum\n   Tempora priscum.\"\n\n  _Horat_.\n\n  \"[Greek: Otan tin' Euraes Eupathounta ton kakon\n   ginske touton to telei taeroumenon].\"\n\n  _G. Naz Carm_.\n\n  \"----more than conqueror.\"\n\n\"London, printed for H. Brome and H. March, at the Gun, in Ivy Lane, and\nat the Princes' Arms, in Chancery Lane, neer Fleet Street, 1660.\"\n\nThe cover has \"C.R.\" under a crown. What is the history of this volume.\nIs it scarce, or worth nothing?\n\nA.C.\n\n\n  \"_Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest?_\"\n\n--Whence comes the sentence--\n\n  \"Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest?\"\n\nE.N.W.\n\n\n_Carpets and Room-paper._--Carpets were in Edward III.'s reign used in\nthe palace. What is the exact date of their introduction? When did they\ncome into general use, and when were rushes, &c., last used? Room-paper,\nwhen was it introduced?\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Cotton of Finchley._--Can some one of your readers give me any\nparticulars concerning the family of Cotton, which was settled at\nFinchley, Middlesex, about the middle of the sixteenth century?\n\nC.F.\n\n\n_Wood Carving in Snow Hill._--Can any one explain the wood carving over\nthe door of a house at the corner of Snow Hill and Skinner Street. It is\nworth rescuing from the ruin impending it.\n\nA.C.\n\n\n_Walrond Family._--Can any of your readers inform me what was the maiden\nname of _Grace_, the wife of Col. Humphry Walrond, of Sea, in the county\nof Somerset, a distinguished loyalist, some time Lieutenant-Governor of\nBridgewater, and Governor of the island of Barbadoes in 1660. She was\nliving in 1635 and 1668. Also the names of his _ten_ children, or, at\nall events, his three youngest. I have reason to believe the seven elder\nwere George, Humphry, Henry, John, Thomas, Bridget, and Grace.\n\nW. DOWNING BRUCE.\n\n\n_Translations._--What English translations have appeared of the famous\n_Epistol\u00e6 Obscurorum Virorum_?\n\nHas _La Chiave del Gabinetto del Signor Borri_ (by Joseph Francis Borri,\nthe Rosicrucian) ever been translated into English? I make the same\nQuery as to _Le Compte de Gabalis_, which the Abb\u00e9 de Rillan founded on\nBorri's work?\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Bonny Dundee--Graham of Claverhouse._--Can any of your correspondents\ntell me the origin of the term \"Bonny Dundee?\" Does it refer to the fair\nand flourishing town at the mouth of the Tay, or to the remarkable John\nGraham of Claverhouse, who was created Viscount of Dundee, after the\nlanding of the Prince of Orange in England, and whose person is admitted\nto have been eminently beautiful, whatever disputes may exist as to his\ncharacter and conduct?\n\n2. Can reference be made to the date of his birth, or, in other words,\nto his age when he was killed at Killycrankie, on the 27th of July,\n1689. All the biographies which I have seem are silent upon the point.\n\nW.L.M.\n\n\n_Franz von Sickingen._--Perusing a few of your back numbers, in a reply\nof S.W.S. to R.G. (Vol. i., p. 336.), I read:\n\n    \"I had long sought for a representation of Sickingen, and at\n    length found a medal represented in the _Sylloge Numismatum\n    Elegantiorum of Luckius_,\" &c.\n\nI now hope that in S.W.S. I have found the man who is to solve an\nobstinate doubt that has long possessed my mind: Is the figure of the\nknight in Durer's well-known print of \"The Knight, Death, and the\nDevil,\" a portrait? If it be a portrait, is it a portrait of Franz von\nSickingen, as Kugler supposes? The print is said to bear the date 1513.\nI have it, but have failed to discover any date at all.\n\nH.J.H.\n\nSheffield.\n\n\n_Blackguard._--When did this word Come into use, and from what?\n\nBeaumont and Fletcher, in the _Elder Brother_, use it thus:--\n\n                       \"It is a Faith\n  That we will die in, since from the _blackguard_\n  To the grim sir in office, there are few\n  Hold other tenets.\"\n\nThomas Hobbes, in his _Microcosmus_, says,--\n\n    \"Since my lady's decay I am degraded from a cook and I fear the\n    devil himself will entertain me but for one of his _blackguard_,\n    and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt.\"\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Meaning of \"Pension.\"_--The following announcement appeared lately in\nthe London newspapers:--\n\n    \"GRAY'S INN.--At a _Pension_ of the Hon. Society of Gray's Inn,\n    holden this day, Henry Wm. Vincent, Esq., her Majesty's\n    Remembrancer in the Court of Exchequer, was called to the degree\n    of Barrister at Law.\" {135}\n\nI have inquired of one of the oldest benchers of Gray's Inn, now\nresident in the city from which I write, for an explanation of the\norigin or meaning of the phrase \"pension,\" neither of which was he\nacquainted with; informing me at the same time that the Query had often\nbeen a subject discussed among the learned on the dais, but that no\ndefinite solution had been elicited.\n\nHad the celebrated etymologist and antiquary, Mr. Ritson, formerly a\nmember of the Society, been living, he might have solved the difficulty.\nBut I have little doubt that there are many of the erudite, and, I am\ndelighted to find, willing readers of your valuable publication who will\nbe able to furnish a solution.\n\nJ.M.G.\n\nWorcester.\n\n\n_Stars and Stripes of the American Arms._--What is the origin of the\nAmerican arms, viz. stars and stripes?\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Passages from Shakspeare._--May I beg for an interpretation of the two\nfollowing passages from Shakspeare:--\n\n  \"_Isab._ Else let my brother die,\n  If not a feodary, but only he,\n  Owe, and succeed thy weakness.\"\n\n  _Measure for Measure,_ Act ii. Sc. 4.\n\n  \"_Imogen._ Some jay of Italy,\n  Whose mother was her painting, hath betrayed him.\"\n\n  _Cymbeline_, Act iii. Sc. 4.\n\nTREBOR.\n\nKing's College, London.\n\n\n_Nursery Rhyme._--What is the date of the nursery rhyme:--\n\n  \"Come when you're called,\n    Do what you're bid,\n  Shut the door after you,\n    Never be chid?\"--Ed. 1754.\n\nIn Howell's _Letters_ (book i. sect. v. letter 18. p. 211. ed. 1754) I\nfind--\n\n    He will come when you call him, go when you bid him, and shut\n    the door after him.\n\nJ.E.B. MAYOR.\n\n\n_\"George\" worn by Charles I._--I should be glad if any of your\ncorrespondents could give me information as to who is the present\npossessor of the \"George\" worn by Charles I. It was, I believe, in the\npossession of the late Marquis Wellesley, but since his death it has\nbeen lost sight of. Such a relic must be interesting to either\nantiquaries or royalists.\n\nSPERANS.\n\n\n_Family of Manning of Norfolk._--Can any of your readers supply me with\nan extract from, or the name of a work on heraldry or genealogy,\ncontaining an account of the family of _Manning_ of _Norfolk_. Such a\nwork was seen by a relative of mine about fifty years since. It related\nthat a Count Manning, of Manning in Saxony, having been banished from\nthence, became king in Friesland, and that his descendants came over to\nEngland, and settled in Kent and _Norfolk_. Pedigrees of the Kentish\nbranch exist: but that of Norfolk was distinct. Guillim refers to some\nof the name in Friesland.\n\nT.S. LAWRENCE.\n\n\n_Salingen a Sword Cutler._--A sword in my possession, with inlaid basket\nguard, perhaps of the early part of the seventeenth century, is\ninscribed on the blade \"Salingen me fecit.\" If this is the name of a\nsword cutler, who was he, and when and where did he live?\n\nT.S. LAWRENCE.\n\n\n_Billingsgate._--May I again solicit a reference to any _early_ drawing\nof Belins gate? That of 1543 kindly referred by C.S. was already in my\npossession. I am also obliged to Vox for his Note.\n\nW.W.\n\n\n_\"Speak the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke.\"_--Can you inform me of the\nauthor's name who says,--\n\n  \"They speak the tongue that Shakspeare spoke,\n  The faith and morals hold that Milton held,\" &c.?\n\nand was it applied to the early settlers of New England?\n\nX.\n\n\n_Genealogical Queries._--Can any of your genealogical readers oblige me\nwith replies to the following Queries?\n\n1. To what family do the following arms belong? They are given in\nBlomfield's _Norfolk_ (ix. 413.) as impaled with the coat of William\nDonne, Esq., of Letheringsett, Norfolk, on his tomb in the church there.\nHe died in 1684.\n\n    On a chevron engrailed, two lioncels rampant, between as many\n    crescents.\n\nNot having seen the stone, I cannot say whether Blomfield has blazoned\nit correctly; but it seems possible he may have _meant_ to say,--\n\n    On a chevron engrailed, between two crescents, as many lioncels\n    rampant.\n\n2. _Which_ Sir Philip Courtenay, of Powderham, was the father of\nMargaret Courtenay, who, in the fifteenth century, married Sir Robert\nCarey, Knt.? and who was her mother?\n\n3. Where can I find a pedigree of the family of Robertson of _Muirtown_,\nsaid to be descended from _John_, second son of Alexander Robertson, of\n_Strowan_, by his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of John,\nEarl of Athol, brother of King James II.? which John is omitted in the\npedigree of the Strowan family, in Burke's _Landed Gentry_.\n\nC.R.M.\n\n\n_Parson, the Staffordshire Giant._--Harwood, in a note to his edition of\nErdeswick's _Staffordshire_, p. 289., says,--\n\n    \"This place [Westbromwich] gave birth to _William_ Parsons,\n    [query Walter,] the gigantic porter of King {136} James I.,\n    _whose picture was at Whitehall_; and a bas-relief of him, with\n    Jeffry Hudson the dwarf, was fixed in the front of a house near\n    the end of a bagnio court, Newgate-street, probably as a sign.\"\n\nPlot, in his _Natural History of Staffordshire_, gives some instances of\nthe great strength of Parsons.\n\nI shall feel much obliged if you or your readers will inform me, 1.\nWhether there is any mention of Parsons in contemporary, or other works?\n2. Whether the portrait is in existence? if so, where? Has it been\nengraved?\n\nC.H.B.\n\nWestbromwich.\n\n\n_Unicorn in the Royal Arms._--When and why was the fabulous animal\ncalled the unicorn first used as a supporter for the royal arms of\nEngland?\n\nE.C.\n\n\n_The Frog and the Crow of Ennow._--I should be glad to get an answer to\nthe following Query from some one of your readers:--I remember some few\nold lines of a song I used to hear sung many years ago, and wish to\nlearn anything as regards its date, authorship,--indeed, any\nparticulars, and where I shall be likely to find it at length. What I\nremember is,--\n\n  \"There was a little frog, lived in the river swim-o,\n  And there was an old crow lived in the wood of Ennow,\n  Come on shore, come on shore, said the crow to the frog again-o;\n  Thank you, sir, thank you, sir, said the frog to the crow of Ennow,\n\n  ...\n\n  But there is sweet music under yonder green willow,\n  And there are the dancers, the dancers, in yellow.\"\n\nM.\n\n\n\"_She ne'er with treacherous Kiss_.\"--Can any of your readers inform me\nwhere the following lines are to be found?\n\n  \"She ne'er with treacherous kiss her Saviour stung,\n  Nor e'er denied Him with unholy tongue;\n  She, when Apostles shrank, could danger brave--\n  Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave!\"\n\nC.A.H.\n\n\n\"_Incidit in Scyllam_\" (Vol. ii., p. 85.).--\n\n  \"Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdim;\n  Sie morbum fugiens, incidit in medicos.\"\n\nHas any of your readers met with, or heard of the second short line,\nappendant and appurtenant to the first? I think it was Lord Grenville\nwho quoted them as found somewhere together.\n\nFORTUNATUS DWARRIS.\n\n\n_Nicholas Brigham's Works._--Nicholas Brigham, who erected the costly\ntomb in Poets' Corner to the memory of Geoffrey Chaucer (which it is now\nproposed to repair by a subscription of five shillings from the admirers\nof the poet), is said to have written, besides certain miscellaneous\npoems, _Memoirs by way of Diary_, in twelve Books; and a treatise _De\nVenationibus Rerum Memorabilium_. Can any of the readers of \"NOTES AND\nQUERIES\" state whether any of these, the titles of which are certainly\ncalculated to excite our curiosity, are known to be in existence, and,\nif so, where? It is presumed that they have never been printed.\n\nPHILO-CHAUCER.\n\n\n_Ciric-Sceat, or Church-scot._--Can any of your readers explain the\nfollowing passage from Canute's Letter to the Archbishops, &c. of\nEngland, A.D. 1031. (_Wilkins Conc._ t. i. p. 298):--\n\n    \"Et in festivitate Sancti Martini primit\u00e6 seminum ad ecclesiam,\n    sub cujus parochia quisque degit, qu\u00e6 Anglice _Cure scet_\n    nominatur.\"\n\nJ.B.\n\n    [If our correspondent refers to the glossary in the second vol.\n    of Mr. Thorpe's admirable edition of the _Anglo-Saxon Laws_,\n    which he edited for the Record Commission under the title of\n    _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, he will find s.v.\n    \"_Ciric-Sceat--Primiti\u00e6 Seminum_ church-scot or shot, an\n    ecclesiastical due payable on the day of St. Martin, consisting\n    chiefly of corn;\" a satisfactory answer to his Query, and a\n    reference to this very passage from Canute.]\n\n\n_Welsh Language._--Perhaps some of your correspondents would favour me\nwith a list of the best books treating on the Welsh literature and\nlanguage; specifying the best grammar and dictionary.\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Armenian Language._--This copious and widely-circulated language is\nknown to but few in this country. If this meets the eye of one who is\nacquainted with it, will he kindly direct me whither I may find notices\nof it and its literature? Father Aucher's _Grammar, Armenian and\nEnglish_ (Venice, 1819), is rather meagre in its details. I have heard\nit stated, I know not on what authority, that Lord Byron composed the\nEnglish part of this grammar. This grammar contains the two Apocryphal\nEpistles found in the Armenian Bible, of the Corinthians to St. Paul,\nand St. Paul to the Corinthians. Like the Greek and German, \"the\ndifferent modes of producing compound epithets and words are the\ntreasure and ornament of the Armenian language; a thousand varieties of\ncompounded words may be made in this tongue,\" p. 10. I believe we have\nno other grammar of this language in English.\n\nJARLTZBERG\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nREPLIES\n\nA TREATISE ON EQUIVOCATION.\n\nMy attention has recently been drawn to the inquiry of J.M. (Vol. i., p.\n260.) respecting the work bearing this name. He inquires, \"Was the book\never extant in MS. or print? What is its size, date, and extent?\" These\nquestions may in part be answered by the following extracts from\nParsons's _Treatise tending to Mitigation_, 1607, to {137} which J.M.\nrefers as containing, \"perhaps, all the substance of the Roman\nequivocation,\" &c. It appears from these extracts that the treatise was\ncirculated in MS.; that it consisted of ten chapters, and was on eight\nor nine sheets of paper. If Parsons' statements are true, he, who was\nthen at Douay, or elsewhere out of England, had not seen it till three\nyears after it was referred to publicly by Sir E. Coke, in 1604. Should\nthe description aid in discovering the tract in any library, it may in\nanswering J.M.'s second Query, \"Is it now extant, and where?\"\n\n(Cap. i. \u00a7 iii. p. 440.):--\n\n    \"To hasten then to the matter, I am first to admonish the\n    reader, that whereas this minister doth take upon him to confute\n    a certain Catholicke manuscript Treatise, made in defence of\n    Equivocation, and intercepted (as it seemeth) by them, I could\n    never yet come to the sight therof, and therfore must admit,\"\n    &c.\n\nAnd (p 44):--\n\n    \"This Catholicke Treatise, which I have hope to see ere it be\n    long, and if it come in time, I may chance by some appendix, to\n    give you more notice of the particulars.\"\n\nIn the conclusion (cap. xiii. \u00a7ix. p. 553.):--\n\n    \"And now at this very instant having written hitherto, cometh to\n    my handes the Catholicke Treatise itselfe of _Equivocation_\n    before meneyoned,\" &c.... \"Albeit the whole Treatise itselfe be\n    not large, nor conteyneth above 8 or 9 sheetes of written\n    paper.\"\n\nAnd (\u00a7 xi. p. 554.):--\n\n    \"Of ten chapters he omitteth three without mention.\"\n\nI.B.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFURTHER NOTES ON THE DERIVATION OF THE WORD \"NEWS.\"\n\nI have too much respect for the readers of \"NOTES AND QUERIES\" to\nconsider it necessary to point out _seriatim_ the false conclusions\narrived at by MR. HICKSON, at page 81.\n\nThe origin of \"news\" may now be safely left to itself, one thing at\nleast being certain--that the original purpose of introducing the\nsubject, that of disproving its alleged derivation from the points of\nthe compass, is fully attained. No person has come forward to defend\n_that_ derivation, and therefore I hope that the credit of expunging\nsuch a fallacy from books of reference will hereafter be due to \"NOTES\nAND QUERIES\".\n\nI cannot avoid, however, calling Mr. Hickson's attention to one or two\nof the most glaring of his _non-sequiturs_.\n\nI quoted the Cardinal of York to show that in his day the word \"newes\"\nwas considered plural. MR. HICKSON quotes _me_ to show that in the\npresent day it is used in the singular; therefore, he thinks that the\nCardinal of York was wrong: but he must pardon me if I still consider\nthe Cardinal an unexceptional authority as to the usage of his own time.\n\nMR. HICKSON asserts that \"odds\" is not an English word; he classifies it\nas belonging to a language known by the term \"slang,\" of which he\ndeclares his utter disuse. And he thinks that when used at all, the word\nis but an ellipsis for \"_odd chances_.\" This was not the opinion of the\ngreat English lexicographer, who describes the word as--\n\n    \"Odds; a noun substantive, from the adjective odd.\"\n\nand he defines its meaning as \"inequality,\" or incommensurateness. He\ncites many examples of its use in its various significations, with any\nof which MR. HICKSON's substitution would play strange pranks; here is\none from Milton:--\n\n  \"I chiefly who enjoy\n  So far the happier lot, enjoying thee\n  Pre-eminent by so much odds.\"\n\nThen with respect to \"noise,\" MR. HICKSON scouts the idea of its being\nthe same word with the French \"noise.\" Here again he is at odds with\nDoctor Johnson, although I doubt very much that he has the odds of him.\nMR. HICKSON rejects altogether the _quasi_ mode of derivation, nor will\nhe allow that the same word may (even in different languages) deviate\nfrom its original meaning. But, most unfortunately for MR. HICKSON, the\nobsolete French signification of \"noise\" was precisely the present\nEnglish one! A French writer thus refers to it:--\n\n    \"A une \u00e9poque plus recul\u00e9e ce mot avait un sens diff\u00e9rent: il\n    signifiait _bruit, cries de joie_, &c. Joinville dit dans son\n    _Histoire de Louis IX_.,--'La noise que ils (les Sarrazins)\n    menoient de leurs cors sarrazinnoiz estoit espouvantable \u00e0\n    escouter.' Les Anglais nous ont emprunt\u00e9 cette expression et\n    l'emploient _dans sa premi\u00e8re acception_.\"\n\nMR. HICKSON also lays great stress upon the absence, in English, of \"the\nnew\" as a singular of \"the news.\" In the French, however, \"_la\nnouvelle_\" is common enough in the exact sense of news. Will he allow\nnothing for the caprice of idiom?\n\nA.E.B.\n\nLeeds, July 8. 1850.\n\n\n_News, Noise_ (Vol. ii., p. 82.).--I think it will be found that MR.\nHICKSON is misinformed as to the fact of the employment of the Norman\nFrench word _noise_, in the French sense, in England.\n\n_Noyse_, _noixe_, _noas_, or _noase_, (for I have met with each form),\nmeant then quarrel, dispute, or, as a school-boy would say, a row. It\nwas derived from _noxia_. Several authorities agree in these points. In\nthe _Histoire de Foulques Fitz-warin_, Fouque asks \"Quei fust _la noyse_\nqe fust devaunt le roi en la sale?\" which with regard to the context can\nonly be fairly translated by \"What is going on in {138} the King's\nhall?\" For his respondent recounts to him the history of a quarrel,\nconcerning which messengers had just arrived with a challenge.\n\nWhether the Norman word _noas_ acquired in time a wider range of\nsignification, and became the English _news_, I cannot say but stranger\nchanges have occurred. Under our Norman kings _bacons_ signified dried\nwood, and _hosebaunde_ a husbandman, then a term of contempt.\n\nB.W.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\"NEWS,\" \"NOISE,\" AND \"PARLIAMENT.\"\n\n1. _News._--I regret that MR. HICKSON perseveres in his extravagant\nnotion about _news_, and that the learning and ingenuity which your\ncorrespondent P.C.S.S., I have no doubt justly, gives him credit for,\nshould be so unworthily employed.\n\nDoes MR. HICKSON really \"very much doubt whether our word _news_\ncontains the idea of _new_ at all?\" What then has it got to do with\n_neues_?\n\nDoes MR. HICKSON'S mind, \"in its ordinary mechanical action,\" really\nthink that the entry of \"old newes, or stale newes\" in an old dictionary\nis any proof of _news_ having nothing to do with _new_? Does he then\nseparate _health_ from _heal_ and _hale_, because we speak of \"bad\nhealth\" and \"ill health\"?\n\nWill MR. HICKSON explain why _news_ may not be treated as an elliptical\nexpression for _new things_, as well as _greens_ for _green vegetables_,\nand _odds_ for _odd chances_?\n\nWhen MR. HICKSON says _dogmatic\u00e8_, \"For the adoption of words we have no\nrule, and we act just as our convenience or necessity dictates; but in\ntheir formation we _must strictly_ conform to the laws we find\nestablished,\"--does he deliberately mean to say that there are no\nexceptions and anomalies in the formation of language, except\nimportations of foreign words? If he means this, I should like to hear\nsome reasons for this wonderful simplification of grammar.\n\nWhy may not \"convenience or necessity\" sometimes lead us to swerve from\nthe ordinary rules of the formulation of language, as well as to import\nwords bodily, and, according to MR. HICKSON'S views of the origin of\n_news_, without reference to context, meaning, part of speech, or\nanything else?\n\nWhy may we not have the liberty of forming a plural noun _news_ from the\nadjective _new_, though we have never used the singular _new_ as a noun,\nwhen the French have indulged themselves with the plural noun of\nadjective formation, _les nouvelles_, without feeling themselves\ncompelled to make _une nouvelle_ a part of their language?\n\nWhy may we not form a plural noun _news_ from _new_, to express the same\nidea which in Latin is expressed by _nova_, and in French by _les\nnouvelles_?\n\nWhy may not goods be a plural noun formed from the adjective _good_,\nexactly as the Romans formed _bona_ and the Germans have formed _G\u00fcter_?\n\nWhy does MR. HICKSON compel us to treat goods as singular, and make us\ngo back to the Gothic? Does he say that _die G\u00fcter_, the German for\n_goods_ or _possessions_, is singular? Why too must riches be singular,\nand be the French word _richesse_ imported into our language? Why may we\nnot have a plural noun _riches_, as the Romans had _divit\u00e6_, and the\nGermans have _die Reichthumer_? and what if _riches_ be irregularly\nformed from the adjective _rich_? Are there, MR. HICKSON, no\nirregularities in the formation of a language? Is this really so?\n\nIf \"from convenience or necessity\" words are and may be imported from\nforeign languages bodily into our own, why might not our forefathers,\nfeeling the convenience or necessity of having words corresponding to\n_bona_, _nova_, _diviti\u00e6_, have formed _goods_, _news_, _riches_, from\n_good_, _new_, _rich_?\n\n_News_ must be singular, says MR. HICKSON; but _means_ \"is beyond all\ndispute plural,\" for Shakspeare talks of \"a mean:\" with _news_, however,\nthere is the slight difficulty of the absence of the noun _new_ to start\nfrom. Why is the absence of the singular an insuperable difficulty in\nthe way of the formation of a plural noun from an adjective, any more\nthan of plural nouns otherwise formed, which have no singulars, as\n_clothes_, _measles_, _alms_, &c. What says MR. HICKSON of these words?\nAre they all singular nouns and imported from other languages? for he\nadmits no other irregularity in the formation of a language.\n\n2. _Noise._--I agree with MR. HICKSON that the old derivations of\n_noise_ are unsatisfactory, but I continue to think his monstrous. I\nfear we cannot decide in your columns which of us has the right German\npronunciation of _neues_; and I am sorry to find that you, Mr. Editor,\nare with MR. HICKSON in giving to the German _eu_ the exact sound of\n_oi_ in _noise_. I remain unconvinced, and shall continue to pronounce\nthe _eu_ with less fullness than _oi_ in _noise_. However, this is a\nsmall matter, and I am quite content with MR. HICKSON to waive it. The\nderivation appears to me nonsensical, and I cannot but think would\nappear so to any one who was not bitten by a fancy.\n\nI do not profess, as I said before, to give the root of _noise_. But it\nis probably the same as of _noisome_, _annoy,_ the French _nuire_, Latin\n_nocere_, which brings us again to _noxa_; and the French word _noise_\nhas probably the same root, though its specific meaning is different\nfrom that of our word _noise_. Without venturing to assert it\ndogmatically, I should expect the now usual meaning of _noise_ to be its\nprimary meaning, viz. \"a loud sound\" or \"disturbance;\" and this accords\nwith my notion of its alliances. The French word _bruit_ has both the\nmeanings of our word _noise_; and _to bruit_ and _to noise_ are with us\ninterchangeable terms. The French _bruit_ also has the sense of _a\ndisturbance_ more definitely than our word _noise_. \"Il y a du bruit\"\nmeans \"There is a row.\" {139} I mention _bruit_ and its meanings merely\nas a parallel case to _noise_, if it be, as I think, that \"a loud sound\"\nis its primary, and \"a rumour\" its secondary meaning.\n\nI have no doubt there are many instances, and old ones, among our poets,\nand prose writers too, of the use of the noun _annoy_. I only remember\nat present Mr. Wordsworth's--\n\n  \"There, at Blencatharn's rugged feet,\n  Sir Lancelot gave a safe retreat\n  To noble Clifford; from annoy\n  Concealed the persecuted boy.\"\n\n3. _Parliament._--FRANCISCUS's etymology of Parliament (Vol. ii., p.\n85.) is, I think, fit companion for MR. HICKSON's derivations of _news_\nand _noise_. I take FRANCISCUS for a wag: but lest others of your\nreaders may think him serious, and be seduced into a foolish explanation\nof the word _Parliament_ by his joke, I hope you will allow me to\nmention that _palam mente_, literally translated, means _before the\nmind_, and that, if FRANCISCUS or any one else tries to get \"freedom of\nthought or deliberation\" out of this, or to get Parliament out of it, or\neven to get sense out of it, he will only follow the fortune which\nFRANCISCUS says has befallen all his predecessors, and stumble _in\nlimine_. The presence of _r_, and the turning of _mens_ into _mentum_,\nare minor difficulties. If FRANCISCUS be not a wag, he is perhaps an\nanti-ballot man, bent on finding an argument against the ballot in the\netymology of _Parliament_: but whatever he be, I trust your readers\ngenerally will remain content with the old though humble explanation of\n_parliament_, that it is a modern Latinisation of the French word\n_parlement_, and that it literally means a talk-shop, and has nothing to\ndo with open or secret voting, though it be doubtless true that Roman\njudges voted _clam vel palam_, and that _palam_ and _mens_ are two Latin\nwords.\n\nC.H.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD \"DELIGHTED.\"\n\n\"_Delighted_\" (Vol. ii., p. 113.).--I incline to think that the word\n_delighted_ in Shakspeare represents the Latin participle _delectus_\n(from _deligere_), \"select, choice, exquisite, refined.\" This sense will\nsuit all the passages cited by MR. HICKSON, and particularly the last.\nIf this be so, the suggested derivations from the adjective _light_, and\nfrom the substantive _light_, fall to the ground: but MR. HICKSON will\nhave been right in distinguishing Shakspeare's _delighted_ from the\nparticiple of the usual verb _to delight, delectare_=gratify. The roots\nof the two are distinct: that of the former being _leg-ere_ \"to choose;\"\nof the latter, _lac-ere_ \"to tice.\"\n\nB.H. KENNEDY.\n\n\n_Meaning of the Word \"Delighted.\"_--I am not the only one of your\nreaders who have read with deep interest the important contributions of\nMR. HICKSON, and who hope for further remarks on Shakspearian\ndifficulties from the same pen. His papers on the _Taming of the Shrew_\nwere of special value; and although I do not quite agree with all he has\nsaid on the subject, there can be no doubt of the great utility of\npermitting the discussion of questions of the kind in such able hands.\n\nPerhaps you would kindly allow me to say thus much; for the remembrance\nof the papers just alluded to renders a necessary protest against that\ngentleman's observations on the meaning of the word _delighted_ somewhat\ngentler. I happen to be one of the unfortunates (a circumstance unknown\nto MR. HICKSON, for the work in which my remarks on the passage are\ncontained is not yet published) who have indulged in what he terms the\n\"cool impertinence\" of explaining _delighted_, in the celebrated passage\nin _Measure for Measure_, by \"delightful, sweet, pleasant;\" and the\nexplanation appears to me to be so obviously correct, that I am\nsurprised beyond measure at the terms he applies to those who have\nadopted it.\n\nBut MR. HICKSON says,--\n\n    \"I pass by the nonsense that the greatest master of the English\n    language did not heed the distinction between the past and the\n    present participles, as not worth second thought.\"\n\nI trust I am not trespassing on courtesy when I express a fear that a\nsentence like this exhibits the writer's entire want of acquaintance\nwith the grammatical system employed by the great poet and the writers\nof his age. We must not judge Shakspeare's grammar by Cobbett or Murray,\nbut by the vernacular language of his own times. It is perfectly well\nknown that Shakspeare constantly uses the passive for the active\nparticiple, in the same manner that he uses the present tense for the\npassive participle, and commits numerous other offences against correct\ngrammar, judging by the modern standard. If MR. HICKSON will read the\nfirst folio, he will find that the \"greatest master of the English\nlanguage\" uses plural nouns for singular, the plural substantive with\nthe singular verb, and the singular substantive with the plural verb. In\nfact, so numerous are these instances, modern editors have been\ncontinually compelled to alter the original merely in deference to the\nears of modern readers. They have not altered _delighted_ to\n_delightful_; but the meaning is beyond a doubt. \"Example is better than\nprecept,\" and perhaps, if MR. HICKSON will have the kindness to consult\nthe following passages with attention, he may be inclined to arrive at\nthe conclusion, it is not so very dark an offence to assert that\nShakspeare did use the passive participle for the active; not in\nignorance, but because it was an ordinary practice in the literary\ncompositions of his age.\n\n  \"To your _professed_ bosoms I commit him.\"\n\n  _King Lear_, Act i. Sc. 1. {140}\n\n  \"I met the youthful lord at Laurence' cell,\n  And gave him what _becomed_ love I might.\n  Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty.\"\n\n  _Romeo and Juliet_, Act iv. Sc. 3.\n\n  \"Thus ornament is but the _guiled_ shore\n  To a most dangerous sea.\"\n\n  _Merchant of Venice_, Act iii. Sc. 2.\n\n  \"Then, in despite of _brooded_ watchful day,\n  I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts.\"\n\n  _King John_, Act iii. Sc. 3.\n\n  \"And careful hours, with time's _deformed_ hand,\n  Have written strange defeatures in my face.\"\n\n  _Comedy of Errors_, Act v. Sc. 1.\n\nIn all these passages, as well as in that in _Measure for Measure_, the\nsimple remark, that the poet employed a common grammatical variation, is\nall that is required for a complete explanation.\n\nJ.O. HALLIWELL.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nREPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.\n\n_Execution of Charles I.--Sir T. Herbert's \"Memoir of Charles I_.\" (Vol.\nii. pp., 72. 110.).--Is P.S.W.E. aware that Mr. Hunter gives a\ntradition, in his _History of Hallamshire_, that a certain William\nWalker, who died in 1700, and to whose memory there was an inscribed\nbrass plate in the parish church of Sheffield, was the executioner of\nCharles I.? The man obtained this reputation from having retired from\npolitical life at the Restoration, to his native village, Darnall, near\nSheffield, where he is said to have made death-bed disclosures, avowing\nthat he beheaded the King. The tradition has been supported, perhaps\nsuggested, by the name of Walker having occurred during the trials of\nsome of the regicides, as that of the real executioner.\n\nCan any one tell me whether a narrative of the last days of Charles I.,\nand of his conduct on the scaffold, by Sir Thomas Herbert, has ever been\npublished in full? It is often quoted and referred to (see \"NOTES AND\nQUERIES,\" Vol. i., p. 436.), but the owner of the MS., with whom I am\nwell acquainted, informs me that it has never been submitted to\npublication, but that some extracts have been secretly obtained. In what\nbook are these printed? The same house which contains Herbert's MS. (a\nformer owner of it married Herbert's widow), holds also the stool on\nwhich King Charles knelt at his execution, the shirt in which he slept\nthe night before, and other precious relics of the same unfortunate\npersonage.\n\nALFRED GATTY.\n\nEcclesfield, July 11. 1850.\n\n\n_Execution of Charles I._ (Vol. ii., p 72.).--In Ellis's _Letters\nillustrative of English History_ Second Series, vol. iii. p. 340-41.,\nP.S.W.E. will find the answer to his inquiry. Absolute certainty is\nperhaps unattainable on the subject; but no mention occurs of the Earl\nof Stair, nor is it probable that any one of patrician rank would be\nretained as the operator on such an occasion. We need hardly question\nthat Richard Brandon was the executioner. Will P.S.W.E. give his\nauthority for the \"report\" to which he refers?\n\nMATFELONENSIS.\n\n\n_Simon of Ghent_ (Vol. ii., p. 56.).--\"Simon Gandavensis, patria\nLondinensis, sed patre Flandro Gandavensi natus, a. 1297. Episcopus\nSarisburiensis.\"--Fabric. _Bibl. Med. et Infint. Latin._, lib. xviii. p.\n532.\n\n_Chevalier de Cailly_ (Vol. ii., p. 101.)--Mr. De St. Croix will find an\naccount of the Chevalier Jacque de Cailly, who died in 1673, in the\n_Biographie Universelle_; or a more complete one in Goujet\n(_Biblioth\u00e8que Fran\u00e7oise_, t. xvii. p. 320.).\n\nS.W.S.\n\n\n_Collar of Esses_ (Vol. ii., pp. 89. 110.).--The question of B. has been\nalready partly answered in an obliging manner by [Greek: ph]., who has\nreferred to my papers on the Collar of Esses and other Collars of\nLivery, published a few years ago in the _Gentleman's Magazine_. Permit\nme to add that I have such large additional collections on the same\nsubject that the whole will be sufficient to form a small volume, and I\nintend to arrange them in that shape. As a direct answer to B.'s\nquestion--\"Is there any list extant of persons who were honoured with\nthat badge?\" I may reply, No. Persons were not, in fact, \"honoured with\nthe badge,\" in the sense that persons are now decorated with stars,\ncrosses, or medals; but the livery collar was _assumed_ by parties\nholding a certain position. So far as can be ascertained, these were\neither knights attached to the royal household or service, who wore gold\nor gilt collars, or esquires in the like position, who wore silver\ncollars. I have made collections for a list of such pictures, effigies,\nand sepulchral brasses as exhibit livery collars, and shall be thankful\nfor further communications. To [Greek: ph].'s question--\"Who are the\npersons _now_ privileged to wear these collars?\" I believe the reply\nmust be confined to--the judges, the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord\nMayor of Dublin, the kings, and heralds of arms. If any other officers\nof the royal household still wear the collar of Esses, I shall be glad\nto be informed.\n\nJOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.\n\n    [To the list of persons now privileged to wear such collars\n    given by Mr. Nichols, must be added the Serjeants of Arms, of\n    whose creation by investiture with the Collar of Esses, Pegge\n    has preserved so curious an account in the Fifth Part of his\n    _Curialia_.]\n\n\n_Hell paved with good Intentions_ (Vol. ii., p. 86.).--The history of\nthe phrase which Sir Walter Scott attributed \"to a stern old divine,\"\nand which J.M.G. moralises upon, and asserts to be a misquotation for\n\"the _road_ to hell,\" &c., is this:--Boswell, {141} in his _Life of\nJohnson_ (_sub_ 15th April, 1775), says that Johnson, in allusion to the\nunhappy failure of pious resolves, said to an acquaintance, \"Sir, hell\nis paved with good intentions.\" Upon which Malone adds a note:\n\n    \"This is a proverbial saying. 'Hell,' says Herbert, 'is full of\n    good meanings and wishings.'--_Jacula Prudentum_, p. 11. ed.\n    1631.\"\n\nbut he does not say where else the proverbial saying is to be found. The\nlast editor, Croker, adds,--\n\n    \"Johnson's phrase has become so proverbial, that it may seem\n    rather late to ask what it means--why '_paved_?' perhaps as\n    making the _road_ easy, _facilis descensus Averni_.\"\n\nC.\n\n\n_The Plant \"H\u00e6mony\"_ (Vol. ii., p. 88.).--I think MR. BASHAM, who asks\nfor a reference to the plant \"h\u00e6mony\", referred to by Milton in his\n_Comus_, will find the information which he seeks in the following\nextract from Henry Lyte's translation of Rembert Dodoen's _Herbal_, at\npage 107, of the edition of 1578. The plant is certainly not called by\nthe name of \"h\u00e6mony,\" nor is it described as having prickles on its\nleaves; but they are plentifully shown in the engraving which\naccompanies the description.\n\n    \"_Allysson._--The stem of this herbe is right and straight,\n    parting itself at the top into three or foure small branches.\n    The leaves be first round, and after long whitish and _rough_,\n    or somewhat woolly in handling. It bringeth foorth at the top of\n    the branches little _yellow_ floures, and afterward small rough\n    whitish and flat huskes, and almost round fashioned like\n    bucklers, wherein is contained a flat seede almost like to the\n    seed of castell or stocke gilloflers, but greater.\n\n    \"Alysson, as Dioscorides writeth, groweth upon rough mountaynes,\n    and is not found in this countrey but in the gardens of some\n    herboristes.\n\n    \"The same hanged in the house, or at the gate or entry, keepeth\n    man and beast from _enchantments and witching_.\"\n\nK.P.D.E.\n\n\nAs a \"Note\" to DR. BASHAM'S \"Query\", I would quote Ovid's _Metamorph._,\nlib vii. l. 264-5.:\n\n  \"Illic H\u00e6moni\u00e1 radices valle resectas.\n  Seminaque, et flores, et succos incoquit acres.\"\n\nT.A.\n\n\n_Practice of Scalping amongst the Scythians--Scandinavian\nMythology._--In Vol. ii., p. 12., I desired to be informed whether this\npractice has prevailed amongst any people besides the American Indians.\nAs you have established no rule against an inquirer's replying to his\nown Query, (though, unfortunately for other inquirers, self-imposed by\nsome of your correspondents) I shall avail myself of your permission,\nand refer those who are interested in the subject to Herodotus,\n_Melpomene 64_, where they will find that the practice of scalping\nprevailed amongst the Scythians. This coincidence of manners serves\ngreatly to corroborate the hypothesis that America was peopled\noriginally from the northern parts of the old continent. He has recorded\nalso their horrid custom of drinking the blood of their enemies, and\nmaking drinking vessels of their skulls, reminding us of the war-song of\nthe savage of Louisiana:--\n\n    \"I shall devour their (my enemies') hearts, dry their flesh,\n    drink their blood; I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups\n    of their skulls.\" (Bossu's _Travels_.) \"Those,\" says this\n    traveller through Louisiana, \"who think the Tartars have chiefly\n    furnished America with inhabitants, seem to have hit the true\n    opinion; you cannot believe how great the resemblance of the\n    Indian manners is to those of the ancient Scythians; it is found\n    in their religious ceremonies, their customs, and in their food.\n    Hornius is full of characteristics that may satisfy your\n    curiosity in this respect, and I desire you to read him.\"--Vol.\n    i. p. 400.\n\nBut the subject of the \"Origines American\u00e6\" is not what I now beg to\npropose for consideration; it is the tradition-falsifying assertion of\nMr. Grenville Pigott, in his _Manual of Scandinavian Mythology_ (as\nquoted by D'Israeli in the _Amenities of English Literature_, vol. i. p.\n51, 52.), that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long\nreproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other\nfoundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius, who, translating a passage\nin the death-song of Regner Lodbrog,--\n\n    \"Soon shall we drink out of the curved trees of the head,\"\n\nturned the trees of the head into a skull, and the skull into a hollow\ncup; whilst the Scald merely alluded to the branching horns, growing as\ntrees from the heads of aninals, that is, the curved horns which formed\ntheir drinking cups.\n\nT.J.\n\n\n_Cromwell's Estates.--Magor_ (Vol. ii., p. 126.).--I have at length\nprocured the following information respecting _Magor_. It is a parish in\nthe lower division of the hundred of Caldicot, Monmouthshire. Its\nchurch, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is in the patronage of the Duke\nof Beaufort.\n\nSELEUCUS.\n\n_\"Incidis in Scyllam,\" &c._ (Vol. ii., p. 85.).--MR. C. FORBES says he\n\"should be sorry this fine old proverb should be passed over with no\nbetter notice than seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's\n_Johnson_,\" and then he quotes some account of it from the _Gentleman's\nMagazine_. I beg leave to apprise MR. FORBES that there is no notice\nwhatsoever of it in Boswell's _Johnson_, though it is introduced (_inter\nalia_) in a note of _Mr. Malone's_ in the later editions of Boswell; but\nthat note contains in substance all that MR. FORBES'S communication\nrepeats. See the later {142} editions of Boswell, under the date of 30th\nMarch, 1783.\n\nC.\n\n\n_Dies Ir\u00e6_ (Vol. ii., p. 72. 105.).--Will you allow me to enter my\nprotest against the terms \"extremely beautiful and magnificent,\" applied\nby your respectable correspondents to the _Dies Ir\u00e6_, which, I confess,\nI think not deserving any such praise either for its poetry or its\npiety. The first triplet is the best, though I am not sure that even the\nmerit of that be not its _jingle_, in which King David and the Sybil are\nstrangely enough brought together to testify of the day of judgment.\nSome of the triplets appear to me very poor, and hardly above macaronic\nLatin.\n\nC.\n\n\n_Fabulous Account of the Lion._--Many thanks to J. EASTWOOD (Vol. i., p.\n472.) for his pertinent reply to my Query. The anecdote he refers to is\nmentioned in the _Arch\u00e6ological Journal_, vol. i. 1845, p. 174., in a\nreview of the French work _Vitraux Peints de S. Etienne de Bourges_, &c.\nNo reference is given there; but I should fancy Philippe de Thaun gives\nthe fable.\n\nJARLTZBERG.\n\n\n_Caxton's Printing-office_ (Vol. ii., p. 122.).--The abbot of\nWestminster who allowed William Caxton to set up his press in the\nalmonry within the abbey of Westminster, was probably John Esteney, who\nbecame abbot in the year 1475, and died in 1498. If the date mentioned\nby Stow for the introduction of printing into England by Caxton, viz.\n1471, could be shown to be that in which he commenced his printing at\nWestminster, Abbot Milling (who resigned the abbacy for the bishopric of\nHereford in 1475) would claim the honour of having been his first\npatron: but the earliest ascertained date for his printing at\nWestminster is 1477. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for April, 1846, I\nmade this remark:\n\n    \"There can, we think, be no doubt that the device used by\n    Caxton, and afterwards by Wynkyn de Worde, (W. 4.7 C.) was\n    intended for the figures 74, (though Dibdin, p. cxxvii, seems\n    incredulous in the matter), and that its allusion was to the\n    year 1474 which may very probably have been that in which his\n    press was set up in Westminster.\"\n\nWill the Editor of \"NOTES AND QUERIES\" now allow me to modify this\nsuggestion? The figures \"4\" and \"7\" are interlaced, it is true, but the\n\"4\" decidedly precedes the other figure, and is followed by a point (.).\nI thinly it not improbable that this cypher, therefore, is so far\nenigmatic, that the figure \"4\" may stand for _fourteen hundred_ (the\ncentury), and that the \"7\" is intended to read doubled, as\n_seventy-seven_. In that case, the device, and such historical evidence\nas we possess, combine in assigning the year 1477 for the time of the\nerection of Caxton's press at Westminster, in the time of Abbot Esteney.\nIf _The Game and Play of the Chesse_ was printed at Westminster, it\nwould still be 1474. In the paragraph quoted by ARUN (Vol. ii., p. 122.)\nfrom Mr. C. Knight's _Life of Caxton_, Stow is surely incorrectly\ncharged with naming Abbot Islip in this matter. Islip's name has been\nintroduced by the error of some subsequent writer; and this is perhaps\nattributable to the extraordinary inadvertence of Dart, the historian of\nthe abbey, who in his _Lives of the Abbots of Westminster_ has\naltogether omitted Esteney,--a circumstance which may have misled any\none hastily consulting his book.\n\nJOHN GOUGH NICHOLS\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nMISCELLANEOUS\n\nNOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.\n\n_The Fawkes's of York in the Sixteenth Century, including Notices of the\nEarly History of Guye Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot Conspirator_, is the\ntitle of a small volume written, it is understood, by a well-known and\naccomplished antiquary resident in that city. The author has brought\ntogether his facts in an agreeable manner, and deserves the rare credit\nof being content to produce a work commensurate with the extent and\ninterest of his subject.\n\nWe learn from our able and well-informed contemporary, _The Athen\u00e6um_\nthat \"one curious fact has already arisen out of the proposal for the\nrestoration of Chaucer's Monument,--which invests with a deeper interest\nthe present undertaking. One of the objections formerly urged against\ntaking steps to restore the perishing memorial of the Father of English\nPoetry in Poets' Corner was, that it was not really his tomb, but a\nmonument erected to do honour to his memory a century and a half after\nhis death. An examination, however, of the tomb itself by competent\nauthorities has proved this objection to be unfounded:--inasmuch as\nthere can exist no doubt, we hear, from the difference of workmanship,\nmaterial, &c., that the altar tomb is the original tomb of Geoffrey\nChaucer,--and that instead of Nicholas Brigham having erected an\nentirely new monument, he only added to that which then existed the\noverhanging canopy, &c. So that the sympathy of Chaucer's admirers is\nnow invited to the restoration of what till now was really not known to\nexist--_the original tomb_ of the Poet,--as well as to the additions\nmade to it by the affectionate remembrance of Nicholas Brigham.\"\n\nMessrs. Ward and Co., of Belfast, announce the publication, to\nsubscribers only, of a new work in Chromo-Lithography, containing five\nelaborately tinted plates printed in gold, silver, and colours, being\nexact fac-similes of an _Ancient Irish Ecclesiastical Bell_, which is\nsupposed to have belonged to Saint Patrick and the four sides of the\njewelled shrine in which it is preserved, accompanied by a historical\nand descriptive Essay by the Rev. William Reeves, D.D., M.R.I.A. By an\nIrish inscription on the back of the case or shrine of the bell, which\nDoctor Reeves has translated, he clearly proves that the case or shrine\nwas made in the end of the eleventh century, and that the bell itself is\nseveral hundred years older; and also that it has {143} been in the\nhands of the Mulhollands since the time the case or shrine was made;\nthat they bore the same name, and are frequently mentioned as custodians\nof this bell in the \"_Annals of the Four Masters_.\"\n\nWe have received the following Catalogues:--William Heath's, 29. Lincoln\nInn Fields, Select Catalogue, No. 4., of Second-Hand Books, perfect, and\nin good condition. Thomas Cole's, 15. Great Turnstile, Catalogue of a\nStrange Collection from the Library of a Curious Collector. John\nPetheram's, 94. High Holborn, Catalogue of a Collection of British\n(engraved) Portraits. Cornish's (Brothers), 37. New Street, Birmingham,\nList No. IX. for 1850 of English and Foreign Books.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES\n\nWANTED TO PURCHASE.\n\n(In continuation of Lists in former Nos.)\n\nOdd Volumes.\n\nBLOOMFIELD'S RECENSIO SYNOPTICA, Vols. III. and IX.\n\nLetters, stating particulars and lowest price, _carriage free_, to be\nsent to Mr. BELL, Publisher of \"NOTES AND QUERIES,\" 186. Fleet Street.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS\n\nVOLUME THE FIRST OF NOTES AND QUERIES, _with Title-page and very copious\nIndex, is now ready, price 9s. 6d., bound in cloth, and may be had, by\norder, of all Booksellers and Newsmen._\n\n_Erratum_.--No. 38. p. 113. col. 2. l. 37., for \"participle\" read\n\"particle.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMR. A.K. JOHNSTON'S NEW GENERAL GAZETTEER.\n\nIn One Large Volume 8vo. of 1,440 pages, comprising nearly 50,000 Names\nof Places, price 36s. cloth; or half-russia, 41s.\n\nA NEW DICTIONARY of GEOGRAPHY, Descriptive, Physical, Statistical, and\nHistorical; forming a complete General Gazetteer of the World. By\nALEXANDER KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.S.E., F.R.G.S., F.G.S., Geographer at\nEdinburgh in Ordinary to Her Majesty.\n\n\"He appears to have executed in a very laudable manner the task which he\nhas undertaken, and to have taken every precaution possible to secure\naccuracy and precision of statement.\"--_Times._\n\nLondon: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nROCHEFOUCAULD'S MAXIMS, WITH NOTES.\n\nJust published, in fcp. 8vo. price 4s. 6d. cloth,\n\nMORAL REFLECTIONS, SENTENCES, AND MAXIMS of FRANCIS DUC DE LA\nROCHEFOUCAULD.\n\nNewly translated from the French. With an Introduction and Notes.\n\nLondon: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, and LONGMANS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIn Post 8vo., price 2s. 6d.\n\nTHE FAWKES'S OF YORK IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY; Including Notices of the\nEarly History of GUYE FAWKES, the Gunpowder Plot Conspirator. By ROBERT\nDAVIES, Esq., F.S.A.\n\nPublished by J.B. NICHOLS and J.G. NICHOLS, 25. Parliament-street,\nWestminster.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPARKER'S EDUCATIONAL CATALOGUE, including the Books produced under the\nSanction of the Committee of Council on Education, and the Publications\nof the Committee of General Literature and Education appointed by the\nSociety for Promoting Christian Knowledge, will be sent free of Postage,\non application to the Publisher, 445. West Strand, London.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCAMBRIDGE BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED.\n\nI.\n\nA TREATISE ON MORAL EVIDENCE. Illustrated by numerous Examples both of\nGeneral Principles and of Specific Actions. By EDWARD ARTHUR SMEDLEY,\nM.A., late Chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge. 8vo. 7s. 6d.\n\n\"The very grave and important questions opened by Mr. Smedley ... he\ntreats them with considerable ability, and in a tone and temper\nbefitting their great interest and solemn character.\"--_Guardian._\n\n\"Lucid in style, and forcible in argument, this treatise is\ndistinguished by great felicity of illustration ... a masterly specimen\nof reasoning ... a most valuable contribution of the theological\nliterature of this country.\"--_Morning Post._\n\nII.\n\nFOUR SERMONS preached before the University of Cambridge, in November,\n1849. By the Rev. J.J. BLUNT, B.D., Margaret Professor of Divinity.\n\n1. The CHURCH OF ENGLAND--the COMMUNION OF SAINTS\n2. The CHURCH OF ENGLAND--its TITLE AND DESCENT.\n3. The CHURCH OF ENGLAND--its TEXT--the BIBLE.\n4. The CHURCH OF ENGLAND--its COMMENTARY--the PRAYER-BOOK.\n\nPrice 5s.\n\nIII.\n\nBy the same Author.\n\nFIVE SERMONS preached before the University of Cambridge. The First Four\nin November, 1845. The Fifth on the General Fast Day, Wednesday, March\n24, 1847. 8vo. 5s. 6d.\n\nIV.\n\nSecond Edition.\n\nTHE APOLOGY OF TERTULLIAN, with English Notes and a Preface. Intended as\nan Introduction to the Study of Patristical and Ecclesiastical Latinity.\nBy H.A. WOODHAM, LL.D., late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. 8vo.,\n8s. 6d.\n\nV.\n\nAN ANALYSIS of PALMER'S ORIGINES LITURGIC\u00c6; or, Antiquities of the\nEnglish Ritual; and of his DISSERTATION on PRIMITIVE LITURGIES: for the\nUse of Students at the Universities, and Candidates for Holy Orders, who\nhave read the original Work. By W. BEAL, LL.D., F.S.A., Vicar of Brooke,\nNorfolk. 12mo., price 3s. 6d.\n\nVI.\n\nFULWOOD'S ROMA RUIT: Wherein all the Several Pleas of the Pope's\nAuthority in England are revised and answered. By FRANCIS FULWOOD, D.D.,\nArchdeacon of Totnes, in Devon. Edited, with additional matter, by\nCHARLES HARDWICK, M.A., Fellow of St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge. 8vo.,\n10s. 6d.\n\nThis Work will serve the purpose of a Text-Book on the subject of the\nPapal Jurisdiction, reproducing, in a short and well digested form,\nnearly all the arguments of our best Divines.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPREPARING FOR PUBLICATION.\n\nTHOUGHTS ON THE STUDIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. By ADAM\nSEDGWICK, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Trinity College, and Woodwardian\nProfessor, Cambridge. The Fifth Edition, with a Copious Preliminary\nDissertation. Nearly ready.\n\nLITURGI\u00c6 BRITANNIC\u00c6; or the several EDITIONS of the BOOK of COMMON\nPRAYER of the CHURCH of ENGLAND, from its Compilation to the last\nRevision; together with the Liturgy set forth for the Use of the Church\nof Scotland: arranged to show their respective variations. By W.\nKEELING, B.D., Fellow of St. John's College. Second Edition.\n\nJOHN DEIGHTON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       * {144}\n\nNEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS.\n\nYOUNG ITALY. By A. BAILLIE COCHRANE, M.P. Post 8vo., 10s. 6d.\n\nJOURNAL OF SUMMER TIME IN THE COUNTRY. By R.A. WILLMOTT, Incumbent of\nSt. Catherine's, Bearwood. 5s.\n\nGAZPACHO, OR SUMMER MONTHS IN SPAIN. By W.G. CLARK, M.A., Fellow of\nTrinity College, Cambridge. 7s. 6d.\n\nAUVERGNE, PIEDMONT, AND SAVOY. A Summer Ramble. By C.R. WELD, Author of\n\"History of the Royal Society.\" 8s. 6d.\n\nWANDERINGS IN THE WESTERN REPUBLICS OF AMERICA. By G. BYAM, Author of\n\"Wild Life in the Interior of Central America.\" With Illustrations, 7s.\n6d.\n\nHESPEROS: or, Travels in the West. By MRS. HOUSTOUN, Author of \"Texas\nand the Gulf of Mexico.\" Two Volumes. Post 8vo., 14s.\n\nDR. WHEWELL ON CAMBRIDGE EDUCATION. Part I. Principles and Recent\nHistory. Second Edition. 4s. 6d. Part II. Discussions and Changes,\n1840-50. 3s. 6d. Also, the Two Parts bound together in cloth. 7s. 6d.\n\nON THE INFLUENCE OF AUTHORITY IN MATTERS OF OPINION. By G. CORNEWALL\nLEWIS, M.P. 8vo., 10s. 6d.\n\nLECTURES ON ASTRONOMY. Delivered at King's College, London. By HENRY\nMOSELEY, M.A., F.R.S. one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools. Third\nEdition, revised 5s. 6d.\n\nLUNACY AND LUNATIC LIFE. With Hints on the Personal Care and Management\nof those afflicted with Derangement. By the late MEDICAL SUPERINTENDANT\nof an Asylum for the Insane. 3s. 6d.\n\nTHE NEW CRATYLUS. Contributions towards a more Accurate Knowledge of the\nGreek Language. By J. W. DONALDSON, D.D., Head Master of King Edward's\nSchool, Bury St. Edmund's. Second Edition, enlarged. 8vo., 18s.\n\n\u00c6SCHYLUS: translated into English Verse. With Notes, a Life of \u00c6schylus,\nand a Discourse on Greek Tragedy. By J.S. BLACKIE, Professor of Latin\nLanguage in Marischal College, Aberdeen. Two Vols. Post 8vo., 16s.\n\nAGAMEMNON OF \u00c6SCHYLUS, the Greek Text. With a Translation into English\nVerse, and Notes. By JOHN CONINGTON, M.A., Fellow of the University\nCollege, Oxford. 7s. 6d.\n\nANTIGONE OF SOPHOCLES, in Greek and English, with Notes. By J.W.\nDONALDSON, D.D. 8vo., 9s.\n\nPH\u00c6DRUS, LYSIS, AND PROTAGORAS OF PLATO. A New and Literal Translation.\nBy J. WRIGHT, B.A., Head Master of Sutton Coldfield School. 4s. 6d.\n\nARISTOPHANIS COMOEDI\u00c6 UNDECIM. Textum usibus Scholarum accommodabat H.A.\nHOLDEN, A.M. Coll. SS. Trin. Cant. Socius, 8vo., 15s.\n\nC. CORNELII TACITI OPERA, ad Codices Antiquissimos exacta et emendata,\nCommentario Critico et exegetico illustrata. Edidit FRANCISCUS RITTER,\nProfessor Bonnensis. Complete in Four Volumes. 8vo., 28s.\n\nTHE FABLES OF BABRIUS. Edited, with Notes, by G.C. LEWIS, M.P. 5s. 6d.\n\nNEANDER'S JULIAN THE APOSTATE, AND HIS GENERATION: an Historical\nPicture. Translated by G.V. COX, M.A. 3s. 6d.\n\nHOMERIC BALLADS. The Greek Text, with a Metrical Translation, and Notes.\nBy the late Dr. MAGINN. 6s.\n\nTHE CAMBRIDGE GREEK and ENGLISH TESTAMENT. Printed in Parallel Columns\non the same Page Edited for the Syndics of the University Press, by\nProfessor SCHOLEFIELD, M.A. Third Edition, improved, 7s. 6d.\n\nLONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPrinted by Thomas Clark Shaw, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New\nStreet Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and\npublished by George Bell. of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St.\nDunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet\nStreet aforesaid.--Saturday, July 27. 1850.","title":"Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":13631}