{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_15216/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_15216","id":"gutenberg_15216","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15216","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - British","Category: Journals","Category: Literature - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Notes and Queries","Questions and answers -- Periodicals"],"text":"Produced by The Internet Library of Early Journals; Jon Ingram, Keith\nEdkins and the Online PG Distributed Proofreading Team.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n{401} 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\n\nNo. 55.]\nSATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16. 1850.\n[Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n  NOTES:--\n    Authorship of \"Henry VIII.\" by Samuel Hickson           401\n    On Authors and Books, No. IX., by Bolton Corney         403\n    Notes on the Second Edition of Mr. Cunningham's\n      Handbook of London, by E.F. Rimbault                  404\n    Folk-lore:--Laying a Ghost--A Test of Witchcraft        404\n    Minor Notes:--Quin's incoherent Story--Touchstone's\n      Dial--America and Tartary--A Deck of Cards--Time\n      when Herodotus wrote--\"Dat veniuam corvis.\"\n      &c.                                                   405\n\n  QUERIES:--\n    Dryden's \"Absalom and Achitophel\"                       406\n    Minor Queries:--The Widow of the Wood--Edward\n      the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain--Cardinal\n      Erskine--Thomas Regiolapidensis--\"Her Brow was\n      fair\"--Hoods worn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen--Irish\n      Brigade--Doctrine of immaculate Conception--Gospel\n      Oak Tree at Kentish Town--Arminian\n      Nunnery in Huntingdonshire--Ruding's\n      annotated Langbaine--Mrs. Tempest--Sitting\n      cross-legged--Twickenham:\n      Did Elizabeth visit Bacon\n      there?--Burial towards the West--Medal struck by\n      Charles XII.--National Debt--Midwives licensed        406\n\n  REPLIES:--\n    The Black Rood of Scotland                              409\n    Replies to Minor Queries:--Haemony--Byron's Birthplace--Modena\n      Family--Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks--Gaudentio\n      di Lucca--Weights for weighing\n      Coins--Mrs. Partington--The East-Anglican Word\n      \"Mauther\"--Cheshire Cat--\"Thompson of Esholt\"--Minar's\n      Book of Antiquities--Croziers and Pastoral\n      Staves--Socinian Boast--MSS. of Locke--Sir Wm.\n      Grant--Tristan d'Acunha--Arabic Numerals--Luther's\n      Hymns--Bolton's Ace--Hopkins the\n      Witchfinder--Sir Richard Steel--Ale-draper--George\n      Herbert--Notaries Public--Tobacconists--Vineyards     410\n\n  MISCELLANEOUS:--\n    Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c.                  414\n    Books and Odd Volumes Wanted                            415\n    Notices to Correspondents                               415\n    Advertisements                                          415\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nNOTES.\n\nAUTHORSHIP OF \"HENRY VIII.\"\n\nIn returning to the question of the authorship of _Henry VIII._, I am\nanxious to remove a misconception under which MR. SPEDDING appears to\nlabour relative to the purport of a remark I made in my last communication\nto you (Vol. ii., p. 198.) on this subject. As we appear to be perfectly\nagreed as to the reasons for assigning a considerable portion of this play\nto Fletcher, and as upon this basis we have each worked out a result that\nso exactly coincides with the other, I conclude that MR. SPEDDING, as well\nas myself, has rested his theory solely on positive grounds; that is, that\nhe imagines there is strong internal evidence in favour of all that he\nascribes to this writer. It follows, therefore that the \"third hand\" which\nhe thought he detected must be sought rather in what remained to\nShakspeare, than in that which had been already taken from him. I never for\nan instant doubted that this was MR. SPEDDING's view; but the inequality\nwhich I supposed he had observed and accounted for in this way, I was\ndisposed to refer to a mode of composition that must needs have been\ntroublesome to Shakspeare. The fact is, that, with one or two exceptions,\nthe scenes contributed by the latter are more _tamely_ written than any but\nthe earliest among his works; and these, different as they are, they\nrecalled to my mind. But I have no doubt whatever that these scenes were\nall written about the same time; my feeling being, that after the opening\nShakspeare ceased to feel any great interest in the work. Fletcher, on the\nother hand, would appear to have made a very great effort; and though some\nportions of the work I ascribe to him are tedious and overlaboured, no\ncensure would weigh very strongly against the fact, that for more than two\ncenturies they have been _applauded_ as the work of Shakspeare.\n\nAs to the circumstances under which _Henry VIII._ was composed, it is an\nexceedingly difficult question; and if I venture, on the present occasion,\nto give the impression upon my mind, I do so, reserving to myself the full\nright to change my opinion whenever I shall have acquired more knowledge of\nthe subject, or, from any other motive, shall see fit to do it. I consider\nthis case, then, as one of joint authorship; in point of time not much\nlater than the _Two Noble Kinsmen_, and in other respects similar to that\nplay. If the conclusions of the article in the _Westminster Review_, to\nwhich MR. SPEDDING alludes, be accepted, the writer of the introductory\nnotice to _Henry VIII._ in the _Illustrated Shakspeare_, published by Tyas,\nwill recognise the \"reverent disciple\" whom he hints at, but does not name.\nIn short, I think that {402} Fletcher was the pupil of Shakspeare; and this\nview, it appears to me, demands the serious attention of the biographer who\nnext may study or speculate upon the great poet's life.\n\nI don't know that I can add anything to MR. SPEDDING'S able analysis of\n_Henry VIII._ There are certain _tricks_ of expression he, no doubt, has\nobserved that characterise Fletcher's style, and which abound in the play.\nIt might be useful to make notes of these; and, at some future time, I may\nsend you a selection. I now beg to send you the following extracts, made\nsome time ago, showing the doubts entertained by previous writers on the\nsubject:--\n\n    \"Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine\n    or spurious, yet I cannot restrain myself from expressing my suspicion\n    that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of\n    Shakspeare. It appears to me very likely that they were supplied by the\n    friendship or officiousness of Jonson, whose manner they will be\n    _perhaps found exactly_ to resemble.\"--_Johnson._\n\n    \"Play revived in 1613.\" \"Prologue and epilogue added by Jonson or some\n    other person.\"--_Malone._\n\n    \"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson, that Ben Jonson wrote the prologue\n    and epilogue to this play. Shakspeare had a little before assisted him\n    in his _Sejanus_.... I think I now and then perceive his hand in the\n    dialogue.\"--_Farmer._\n\n    \"That Jonson was the author of the prologue and epilogue to this play\n    has been controverted by Mr. Gifford. That they were not the\n    composition of Shakspeare himself is, I think, clear from internal\n    evidence.\"--_Boswell._\n\n    \"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson with respect to the time when these\n    additional lines were inserted.... I suspect they were added in 1613,\n    after Shakspeare had quitted the stage, by that hand which tampered\n    with the other parts of the play so much as to have rendered the\n    versification of it of a different colour from all the other plays of\n    Shakspeare.\"--_Malone._\n\n    \"If the reviver of this play (or tamperer with it, as he is called by\n    Mr. Malone) had so much influence over its numbers as to have entirely\n    changed their texture, he must be supposed to have new-woven the\n    substance of the whole piece; a fact almost incredible.\"--_Steevens._\n\n    The double character of Wolsey drawn by Queen Katherine and her\n    attendant, is a piece of vigorous writing of which any other author but\n    Shakspeare might have been proud; and the celebrated farewell of the\n    Cardinal, with his exhortation to Cromwell, only wants that quickening,\n    that vital something which the poet could have breathed into it, to be\n    truly and almost incomparably great.\n\n    \"Our own conviction is that Shakspeare wrote a portion only of this\n    play.\n\n    \"It cannot for a moment be supposed that any alteration of Shakspeare's\n    text would be necessary, or would be allowed; as little is it to be\n    supposed that Shakspeare would commence a play in his old-accustomed,\n    various, and unequalled verse, and finish it in the easy, but somewhat\n    lax and familiar, though not inharmonious numbers of a reverent\n    disciple.\"--_Tyas's Shakspeare_, vol. iii. p. 441.\n\nAt the same time I made the following notes from Coleridge:--\n\n          \"Classification, 1802.\n  3rd Epoch.  Henry VIII. Gelegenheitsgedicht.\n\n          Classification, 1819.\n  3rd Epoch.  Henry VIII., a sort of historical masque, or show-play.\"\n\n    \"It (the historical drama) must likewise be poetical; that only, I\n    mean, must be taken which is the permanent in our nature, which is\n    common, and therefore deeply interesting to all ages.\"--_Lit. Rem._,\n    vol. ii. p.160.\n\nWhat is said in this last extract might be applied (as Coleridge, I feel no\ndoubt, had he gone one step farther into the subject, would have applied\nit) to the Shakspearian drama generally; and tried by this test _Henry\nVIII._ must certainly be found wanting.\n\nBefore I conclude I am anxious to make an observation with regard to the\nextract from Mr. Emerson's _Representative Men_ (vol. ii. p. 307.). The\nessay from which this is taken, I presume to be the same, in a printed\nform, as a lecture which I heard that gentleman deliver. With abundant\npowers to form a judgment for himself, I should say that his mind had never\nbeen directed to questions of this nature. Accident, perhaps, had drawn his\nattention to the style of _Henry VIII._; but, with reference to the general\nsubject, he had received implicitly and unquestioned the conclusions of\nauthorities who have represented Shakspeare as the greatest borrower,\nplagiarist, and imitator that all time has brought forth. This, however,\ndid not shake his faith in the poet's greatness; and to reconcile what to\nsome would appear contradictory positions, he proposes the fact, I might\nsay the truism, that the greatest man is not the most original, but the\n\"most indebted\" man. This, in the sense in which it is true, is saying no\nmore than that the educated man is better than the savage; but, in the\napologetic sense intended, it is equivalent to affirming that the greatest\nthief is the most respectable man. Confident in this morality, he assumes a\nprevious play to Shakspeare's; but it appears to me that he relies too much\nupon the \"cadence\" of the lines: otherwise I could not account for his\n_selecting_ as an \"autograph\" a scene that, to my mind, bears\n\"unmistakeable traits\" of Fletcher's hand, and that, by whomsoever written,\nis about the weakest in the whole play.\n\nIt is a branch of the subject which I have not yet fully considered; but\nMR. SPEDDING will observe that the view I take does not interfere with the\nsupposition that Fletcher revised the play, {403} with additions for its\nrevival in 1613; a task for the performance of which he would probably have\nthe consent of his early master.\n\nSAMUEL HICKSON.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. IX.\n\n_Eustache Deschamps._ Except in the two centuries next after the conquest,\ncontemporaneous French notices of early English writers seem to be of\nrather infrequent occurrence.\n\nOn this account, and on other accounts, the ballad addressed to Geoffrey\nChaucer by Eustache Deschamps deserves repetition. Its text requires to be\nestablished, in order that we may be aware of its real obscurities--for no\nfuture memoir of Chaucer can be considered as complete, without some\nreference to it.\n\nThe best authorities on Eustache Deschamps are MM. Crapelet, Raynouard, and\nPaulin Paris. To M. Crapelet we are indebted for the publication of\n_Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps_; to M. Raynouard, for\nan able review of the volume in the _Journal des Savants_; and to M. Paulin\nParis, for an account of the manuscript in which the numerous productions\nof the author are preserved. Of the author himself, the learned M. Paris\nthus writes:--\n\n    \"On pourroit surnommer Eustache Deschamps le Rutebeuf du XIVe\n    siecle.--Ses oeuvres comprennent des epitres, des discours en prose,\n    des jeux dramatiques, des ouvrages latins, des apologues, un grand\n    poeme moral, et un infinite de ballades et rondeaux pieux, bouffons,\n    satiriques,\" &c.\n\nTwo impressions of the ballad in question are before me; one, in the _Life\nof Geoffrey Chaucer by sir Harris Nicholas_, dated 1843--and the other in a\nvolume entitled _Geoffrey Chaucer, poete anglais du XIVe siecle. Analyses\net Fragments par H. Gomont_, Paris, 1847.--I transcribe the ballad from the\nlatter volume, as less accessible to English students:--\n\n  \"BALLADE INEDITE ADRESSEE A GEOFFREY\n    CHAUCER PAR EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS.\n\n  O Socrates, plains de philosophie,\n  Seneque en meurs et _Anglais_ en pratique,\n  _Oui des grans_ en ta poeterie,\n  Bries en parler, saiges en rethorique,\n  _Virgiles_ tres haulz qui, par ta theorique,\n  Enlumines le regne d'Eneas,\n  Lisle aux geans, ceuls du Bruth, et qui as\n  Seme les fleurs et plante le rosier,\n  Aux ignorants, de la langue pandras\n  Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.\n\n  Tu es d'amours mondains Dieux en Albie,\n  Et de la rose en la terre angelique,\n  Qui _d'Angela_ Saxonne et (est) puis flourie\n  Angleterre (d'elle ce nom s'applique).\n\n  Le derrenier en l'ethimologique\n  En bon angles le livre translatas;\n  Et un Vergier, ou du plant demandas\n  De ceuls qui _sont_ pour eulx auctorisier,\n  _A ja_ long teams que tu edifias,\n  Grant tranlslateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.\n\n  A toy, pour ce, de la fontaine Helye\n  Requier avoir un _buvraige_ autentique\n  Dont la doys est du tout en ta baillie,\n  Pour _rafrener_ d'elle ma _soif_ ethique\n  _Qui men_ gaule seray paralitique\n  Jusques a ce que tu m'abuveras.\n  Eustaces sui qui de mon plant aras;\n  Mais pran en gre les euvres d'escolier\n  Que par Clifford de moy Bavoir pourras,\n  Grant translateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.\n\n              L'ENVOY.\n\n    Poete hauls loenge destynie\n    _En_ ton jardin ne seroie qu'ortie\n    Considere ce que j'ai dit premier\n    Ton noble plant, ta douce melodie\n    Mais pour savoir de rescripre te prie,\n    Grant translateur noble Geoffroy Chaucier.\"\n\nThe new readings are in Italics, and I shall now repeat them with the\ncorresponding words as printed by sir Harris Nicolas:--\n\n    \"Anglais=angles; Oui des grans=Ovides grans; Virgiles=Aigles;\n    d'Angela=dangels; sont=font; A ja=N'a pas; buvraige=ouvrage;\n    rafrener=rafrecir; soif=soix; Qui men=Qu'en ma; En=Et.\"\n\nAfter such an exhibition of various readings, arising out of only two\ncopies of the same manuscript, it is evident that a re-collation of it is\nvery desirable, and I am sure the result would be thankfully received by\nthe numerous admirers of Chaucer.\n\nBOLTON CORNEY.\n\n_Eustache Deschamps_ (Vol. ii., p. 376.).--J.M.B. is desirous of learning\nsome particulars of this French poet, contemporaneous with Chaucer. He will\nfind a brief notice of him in the _Recueil de Chants Historiques Francais,\ndepuis le XIIeme jusqu'au XVIIIeme Siecle_, by Le Roux de Lincy (2 vols.\nParis, 1841, Libraire de Charles Espelin). He is there described as,\n\n    \"Ecuyer et huissier d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., qui\n    resta toujours fidele a la maison de France;\"\n\nAnd the editor adds:\n\n    \"Les oeuvres d'Eustache Deschamps contiennent pour l'histoire du XIVeme\n    siecle des renseignemens precieux; on peut y recueillir des faits\n    politiques qui ne sont pas sans importance, mais on y trouve en plus\n    grand nombre des details precieux sur les moeurs, les usages, et les\n    coutumes de cette epoque.\"\n\nHis poems were published for the first time in one vol. 8vo., in 1832, by\nM. Crapelet, with this title: {404}\n\n    \"Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps, ecuyer, huissier\n    d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., chatelain de Fismes et\n    bailli de Senlis.\"\n\nAs regards the \"_genuineness_\" of the poem cited, I am inclined, with\nJ.M.B., to think that it admits of question, the orthography savouring more\nof the end of the fifteenth than of the close of the fourteenth century. I\nam sorry not to be able to explain the meaning of \"_la langue Pandras_.\"\n\nD.C.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNOTES ON THE SECOND EDITION OF MR. CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON.\n\n21. _New Tunbridge Wells, at Islington._--This fashionable morning lounge\nof the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century,\nis omitted by Mr. Cunningham. There is a capital view of it in Bickham's\n_Musical Entertainer_, 1737:\n\n    \"These once beautiful tea-gardens (we remember them as such) were\n    formerly in high repute. In 1733 their Royal Highnesses the Princesses\n    Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time for the purpose\n    of drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets,\n    poems, plays, songs, and medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman\n    the older, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but\n    the original chalybeate spring, which is still preserved in an obscure\n    nook, amidst a poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and\n    vice.\"--George Daniel's _Merrie England in the Olden Time_, vol. i. p.\n    31.\n\n22. _London Spa_ (from which Spa Fields derives its name) dates as far back\nas 1206. In the eighteenth century, it was a celebrated place of amusement.\nThere is a curious view of \"London Spaw\" in a rare pamphlet entitled\n_May-Day, or, The Original of Garlands_. Printed for J. Roberts, 1720, 8vo.\n\n23. _Spring Gardens._--Cox's Museum is described in the printed catalogue\nof 1774, as being in \"Spring Gardens.\" In the same year a small volume was\npublished containing _A Collection of various Extracts in Prose and Verse\nrelative to Cox's Museum_.\n\n24. _The Pantheon in Spa Fields._--This place of amusement was opened in\n1770 for the sale of tea, coffee, wine, punch, &c. It had an organ, and a\nspacious promenade and galleries. In 1780 it was converted into a\nlay-chapel by the Countess of Huntingdon, and is now known as _Northampton_\nor _Spa Fields Chapel_. Mr. Cunningham speaks of the burying-ground\n(originally the garden), but singularly enough omits to notice the chapel.\n\n25. _Baldwin's Gardens_, running between Leather Lane and Gray's Inn Lane,\nwere, according to a stone which till lately was to have been seen against\na corner house, bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, named after _Richard\nBaldwin_, one of the royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589.\n\n26. _Rathbone Place._--In an old print (now before me) dated 1722, this\nstreet is called \"_Rawbone Place_.\" The Percy coffee-house is still in\nexistence.\n\n27. _Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road._--This building was originally\nerected, and for some years appropriated to the _Leverian Museum_. This\nmagnificent museum of natural history was founded by Sir Ashton Lever, who\ndied in 1788. It was afterwards disposed of by way of lottery, and won by\nMr. James Parkinson, who transferred it from Leicester Place to the Surrey\nside of Blackfriars bridge.\n\n28. _Schomberg House, Pall Mall_, (now, I believe, about to be pulled\ndown), was once the residence of that celebrated \"quack\" Dr. Graham. Here,\nin 1783, he erected his _Temple of Health_. He afterwards removed to Panton\nStreet, Haymarket, where he first exhibited his _Earth Bath_. I do not find\nany mention of Graham in Mr. Cunningham's book.\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFOLK LORE.\n\n_Laying a Ghost._--Frequent mention is made of the laying of ghosts, and in\nmany localities the tradition of such an event is extant. At Cumnor, Lady\nDudley (Amy Robsart's) ghost is said to have been laid by nine Oxford\nparsons, and the tradition is still preserved by the villagers; but nowhere\nhave I been able to ascertain what was the ceremony on such an occasion.\n\nIs anything known on the subject?\n\nA.D.B.\n\nAbingdon, Nov. 1850.\n\n_A Test of Witchcraft._--Among the many tests applied for the discovery of\nwitchcraft was the following. It is, I believe, a singular instance, and\nbut little known to the public. It was resorted to as recently as 1759, and\nmay be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of that year.\n\n    \"One _Susannah Hannokes_, an elderly woman of Wingrove, near\n    Ayleshbury, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her\n    spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to\n    make oath of it before a majistrate; on which the husband, to justify\n    his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the Church Bible, and that\n    the accuser should be present: accordingly she was conducted to the\n    parish church, where she was stript of all her cloathes to her shift\n    and undercoat, and weighed against the Bible; when, to the no small\n    mortification of her accuser, she outweighed it, and was honorably\n    acquitted of the charge.\"\n\nA.D.N.\n\nAbingdon, Nov. 1850.\n\n       *       *       *       *       * {405}\n\nMINOR NOTES.\n\n_Quin's incoherent Story._--The comic story of Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii.,\np. 280.) reminds me of an anecdote related of Quin, who is said to have\nbetted Foote a wager that he would speak some nonsense which Foote could\nnot repeat off-hand after him. Quin then produced the following string of\nincoherences:--\n\n    \"So she went into the garden to pick a cabbage leaf, to make an\n    apple-pie of; and a she-bear, coming up the street, put her head into\n    the shop, and said 'Do you sell any soap?' So she died, and he very\n    imprudently married the barber; and the powder fell out of the\n    counsellor's wig, and poor Mrs. Mackay's puddings were quite entirely\n    spoilt; and there were present the Garnelies, and the Goblilies, and\n    the Picninnies, and the Great Pangendrum himself, with the little round\n    button at top, and they played at the ancient game of 'Catch who catch\n    can,' till the gunpowder ran out of the heels of their boots.\"\n\nL.\n\n_Touchstone's Dial._--Mr. Knight, in a note on _As You Like It_, gives us\nthe description of a dial presented to him by a friend who had picked it\n\"out of a deal of old iron,\" and which he supposes to be such a one as the\n\"fool i' the forest\" drew from his poke, and looked on with lacklustre eye.\nIt is very probable that this species of chronometer is still in common use\nin the sister kingdom; for my brother mentions to me that, when at school\nin Ireland some fifteen or sixteen years since, he had seen one of those\n\"_ring-dials_\" in the possession of one of his schoolfellows: and Mr.\nCarleton, in his amusing _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, thus\ndescribes them:--\n\n    \"The ring-dial was the hedge-schoolmaster's next best substitute for a\n    watch. As it is possible that a great number of our readers may never\n    have heard of--much less seen one, we shall in a word or two describe\n    it--nothing indeed could be more simple. It was a bright brass ring,\n    about three quarters of an inch broad, and two inches and a half in\n    diameter. There was a small hole in it, which, when held opposite the\n    sun, admitted the light against the inside of the ring behind. On this\n    were marked the hours and the quarters, and the time was known by\n    observing the hour or the quarter on which the slender ray, that came\n    in from the hole in front, fell.\"\n\nJ.M.B.\n\n_America and Tartary._--\n\n    \"Un jesuite rencontra en Tartarie une femme huronne qu'il avoit connue\n    au Canada: il conclut de cette etrange aventure, que le continent de\n    l'Amerique se rapproche au nord-ouest du continent de l'Asie, et il\n    devina ainsi l'existence du detroit qui, longtemps apres, a fait la\n    gloire de Bering et de Cook.\"--Chateaubriand, _Genie du Christianisme_,\n    Partie 4., Livre 4., Chap. 1.\n\nYet, with all deference to the edifying letters of this missionary jesuit,\nit is difficult to make such distant ends meet. It almost requires a copula\nlike that of the fool, who, to reconcile his lord's assertion that he had\nwith a single bullet shot a deer in the ear and the hind foot, explained\nthat the deer was scratching his ear at the time with his foot.\n\nSubjoined is one more _proof_ of the communication which once existed\nbetween America and the Old World:\n\n    Colomb disoit meme avoir vu les restes des fourneaux de Salomon dans\n    les mines de Cibao.\"--Chateaubriand, _Genie, Notes, &c_.\n\nMANLEIUS.\n\n_Deck of Cards._--\n\n  \"The king was slily finger'd from the _deck_.\"\n              _Henry VI._, pt. iii. Act v. Sc. 1.\n\nIt is well known, and properly noted, that a pack of cards was formerly\ncalled a _deck_; but it should be added that the term is still commonly\nused in Ireland, and from being made use of in the famed song of \"De Night\nbefore Larry was stretched,\"\n\n  \"De deck being called for dey play'd,\n  Till Larry found one of dem cheated,\"\n\nit seems likely to be preserved. I may add, that many words and many forms\nof expression which have gone out of vogue in England, or have become\nprovincial, are still in daily use in Ireland.\n\nJ.M.B.\n\n_Time when Herodotus wrote._--The following passage appears to me to afford\nstrong evidence, not only that Herodotus did not complete his history till\nan advanced age, but that he did not _begin_ it. For in lib. i. 5. he\nwrites: \"[Greek: ta de ep' emou en megala, proteron en smikra],\" \"those\ncities, which in my time _were_ great, were of old small.\" This is\ncertainly such an expression as none but a man advanced in years could have\nused. It is perhaps worth observing, that this passage occurring in the\nIntroduction does not diminish its weight, as the events recorded in it,\nleading naturally into the history, could not well have been written\nafterwards. As I have never seen this passage noticed with this view. I\nshall be glad to see whether the argument which I have deduced from it\nappears a reasonable one to your classical readers.\n\nA.W.H.\n\n\"_Dat veniam corvis,\" &c._--There were two headmasters of the school of\nMerchant Taylors, of the respective names of Du Guard and Stevens: the\nformer having printed Salmasius' _Defensio Regia_, was ejected by Lord\nPresident Bradshaw; and the latter held the vacant post in the interim,\nfrom February to September, 1650. He wrote during his tenure of office in\nthe School Probation Book.\"-- {406}\n\n    \"Res DEUS nostras celeri citatas\n      Turbine versat.\"\n  \"_Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas_,\n    Pejus merenti melior, et pejor bono.\"\n\nOn his restoration Du Gard pleasantly retorted,--\n\n  \"Du Gardum sequitur Stephanus, Stephanumque vicissim,\n  Du Gardus: sortes versat utrinque DEUS.\"\n\nM.W.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nQUERIES.\n\nDRYDEN'S \"ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL.\"\n\nIn my small library I have neither Malone's _Life of Dryden_, nor that of\nmore recent date by Sir Walter Scott; and, possibly, either of those works\nwould render my present Query needless. It relates to a copy of _Absalom\nand Achitophel_ now lying before me, which is a mere chap-book, printed on\nbad paper, in the most economical manner, and obviously intended to be sold\nat a very reasonable rate: indeed, at the bottom of the title-page, which\nis dated \"1708,\" we are told that it was \"Printed and sold by H. Hills, in\nBlack-fryars, near the Water-side, _for the Benefit of the Poor_.\" It\nconsists of twenty-four pages, small 8vo., and, in order that the poem\nshould not occupy too much space, one of the pages (p. 22.) is in a smaller\ntype, and in double columns. At the end is the following singular\n\n    \"ADVERTISEMENT.\n\n    \"To prevent the publicks being impos'd on, this is to give notice that\n    the book lately published in 4to. is very imperfect and uncorrect, in\n    so much that above thirty lines are omitted in several places, and many\n    gross errors committed, which pervert the sense.\"\n\nThe above is in Italic type, and the body of the tract consists of only the\nfirst part of _Absalom and Achitophel_, as ordinarily printed: allowing for\nmisprints (which are tolerably numerous), the poem stands very much the\nsame as in several common editions I have at hand. My Query is, Is the work\nknown to have been so published \"for the benefit of the poor,\" and in order\nto give it greater circulation, and what is the explanation of the\n\"Advertisement?\"\n\nTHE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.\n\nN.B. A short \"Key\" follows the usual address \"To the Reader.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMINOR QUERIES.\n\n_Edward the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain._--In 1688 Ch. Taylour\npublished _A Narrative of the Finding St. Edward the King and Confessor's\nCrucifix and Gold Chain in the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster_.\nAre the circumstances attending this discovery well known? And where now is\nthe crucifix and chain?\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\n_The Widow of the Wood._--Benjamin Victor published in 1755 a \"narrative\"\nentitled _The Widow of the Wood_. It is said to be very rare, having been\n\"bought up\" by the Wolseleys of Staffordshire. What is the history of the\npublication?\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\n_Cardinal Erskine._--I am anxious to obtain some information respecting\nCardinal Erskine, a Scotchman, as his name would impart, but called\nCardinal of England? I suppose he was elevated to the sacred college\nbetween Cardinal Howard, the last mentioned by Dodd in his _Church\nHistory_, and the Cardinal of York, the last scion of the house of Stuart.\n\nAnd is the following a correct list of English Cardinals since Wolsey, who\ndied in 1530?\n\n                                           Elevated in\nJohn Fisher, Bishop of Rochester                  1535\nReginald Pole, Archbishop of Canterbury           1536\nWilliam Peyto, Bishop of Salisbury                1557\nWilliam Allen                                     1587\nPhilip Howard                                     1675\n---- Erskine                                      ----\nHenry Stuart of York                              1747\nThomas Weld                                       1830\nCharles Acton                             1839 or 1842\nNicolas Wiseman, who is the 53rd                  1850\n on the list of English Cardinals\n\nBoth the latter were born abroad, the former at Naples, the latter at\nSeville; but they were born of British subjects, and were brought to\nEngland at an early age to be educated. The Cardinal of York was born in\nRome; but being of the royal family of England, was always styled the\nCardinal of England.\n\nG.W.\n\nOctober 26. 1850.\n\n_Thomas Regiolapidensis._--Where can I find any information as to the saint\nwho figures in the following curious story? _Regiolapidensis_ may probably\nmean _of Koenigstein_, in Saxony; but Albon Butler takes no notice of this\nThomas.\n\n    \"Incipit narratiuncula e libro vingto, cui titular _Vita atq. Gesta B.\n    Thomae Regiolapidensis, ex ordine FF. Praedicatorum_, excerpta.\n\n    \"Quum vero praedicator indefensus, missionum ecclesiasticarum causa, in\n    borealibus versaretur partibus, miraculum ibi stupendum sane patravit.\n    Conspexit enim taurum ingentem, vaccarum (sicut poeta quidam ex\n    ethnicis ait) 'magna comitante caterva,' in prato quodam graminoso\n    ferocientem, maceria tantum bassa inter se et belluam istam horrendam\n    interposita. Constitit Thomas, constitit et bos, horribiliter rugiens,\n    cauda erecta, cornibus immaniter saeviens, ore spumam, naribus vaporem,\n    oculis fulgur emittens, maceriam transsilire, in virum sanctum irruere,\n    corpusque ejus venerabile in aera jactitare, visibiliter nimis paratus.\n    {407} Thomas autem, eapta occasione, oculos in monstrum obfirmat,\n    signumque crucis magneticum in modum indesinenter ducere aggreditur, En\n    portentum inauditum! geminis belluae luminibus illico palpebrae\n    obducuntur, titubat taurus, cadit, ac, signo magnetico sopitus, primo\n    raucum stertens, mox infantiliter placidum trahens halitum, humi pronus\n    recumbit. Nec moratus donec hostis iste cornutus somnum excuteret, viv\n    sanctus ad hospitium se propinquum laetus inde incolumisque recepit.\"\n\nRUSTICUS.\n\n\"_Her Brow was fair._\"--Can any of your many readers inform me of the\nauthor of the following lines, which I copy as I found them quoted in Dr.\nArmstrong's _Lectures_:\n\n  \"Her brow was fair, but very pale,\n  And looked like stainless marble; a touch methought would soil\n  Its whiteness. On her temple, one blue vein\n  Ran like a tendril; one through her shadowy hand\n  Branched like the fibre of a leaf away.\"\n\nJ.M.B.\n\n_Hoods warn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen._--Will you allow me to\ninquire, through the pages of your publication, of what _colour_ and\n_material_ the _exterior_ and _lining_ of hoods were composed which Doctors\nin Divinity, who had graduated at Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's,\nprior to the Reformation, were accustomed to wear? I imagine, the same as\nthose worn by Doctors who had graduated at Paris: but what hoods they wore\nI know not. I trust that some of your correspondents will enlighten me upon\nthis subject.\n\nLL.D.\n\n_Irish Brigade._--Where can I find any account of the institution and\nhistory of the Irish brigade, a part of the army of France under the\nBourbons?\n\nJ.D.\n\nBath.\n\n_Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception._--In the charge delivered by the\nBishop of London to his clergy, on the 2nd instant, the following passage\noccurs:\n\n    \"It is not easy to say what the members of that Church [the Church of\n    Rome] are required to believe now; it is impossible for men to foresee\n    what they may be called upon to admit as an article of faith next year,\n    or in any future year: for instance, till of late it was open to a\n    Roman Catholic to believe or not, as he might see reason, the fanciful\n    notion of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin; but the\n    present Bishop of Rome has seen fit to make it an article of their\n    faith; and no member of his church can henceforth question it without\n    denying the infallibility of his spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding,\n    as it is asserted, his own salvation.\"\n\nCan any of your correspondents inform me where the papal decision on this\npoint is to be found?\n\nL.\n\n_Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town._--Can you inform me why an ancient oak\ntree, in a field at Kentish Town, is called the \"Gospel Oak Tree.\" It is\nsituated and grows in the field called the \"Gospel Oak Field,\" Kentish\nTown, St. Pancras, Middlesex. Tradition says Saint Augustine, or one of the\nancient Fathers of the Church, preached under its branches.\n\nSTEPHEN.\n\n_Arminian Nunnery in Huntingdonshire._--Where can I find an account of a\nreligious academy called the _Arminian Nunnery_, founded by the family of\nthe FERRARS, at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire? I have seen some MS.\ncollections of Francis Peck on the subject, but they are formed in a bad\nspirit. Has not Thomas Hearne left us something about this institution?\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\n_Ruding's Annotated Langbaine._--Can any of your readers inform me who\npossesses the copy of Langbaine's _Account of the English Dramatic Poets_\nwith MS. additions, and copious continuations, by the REV. ROGERS RUDING?\nIn one of his notes, speaking of the Garrick collection of old plays, that\nindustrious antiquary observes:\n\n    \"This noble collection has lately (1784) been mutilated by tearing out\n    such single plays as were duplicates to others in the Sloane Library.\n    The folio editions of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jonson,\n    have likewise been taken from it for the same reason.\"\n\nThis is a sad complaint against the Museum authorities of former times.\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\n_Mrs. Tempest._--Can any of your correspondents give me any account of Mrs.\n(or, in our present style, Miss) Tempest, a young lady who died the day of\nthe great storm in Nov., 1703, in honour of whom Pope's early friend Walshe\nwrote an elegiac pastoral, and invited Pope to give his \"winter\" pastoral\n\"a turn to her memory.\" In the note on Pope's pastoral it is said that \"she\nwas of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and admired by Walshe.\" I have\nelsewhere read of her as \"the celebrated Mrs. Tempest;\" but I know of no\nother celebrity than that conferred by Walshe's pastoral; for Pope's has no\nspecial allusion to her.\n\nC.\n\n_Sitting cross-legged._--In an alliterative poem on Fortune (_Reliquiae\nAntiquae_, ii. p. 9.), written early in the fifteenth century, are the\nfollowing lines:--\n\n  \"Sitte, I say, and sethe on a semeli sete,\n  Rygth on the rounde, on the rennyng ryng;\n  _Caste kne over kne, as a kynge kete_,\n  Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng.\"\n\nThe third line seems to illustrate those early illuminations in which kings\nand great personages are represented as sitting cross-legged. There are\nnumerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it {408} merely assumption of\ndignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which\nmight affect the king whilst sitting, in his state? That this was a\nconsideration of weight we learn from the passage in Bede, in which\nEthelbert is described as receiving Augustine in the open air:\n\n    \"Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo jussit\n    Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem adveire colloquium; caverat enim\n    ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne\n    superventu suo, si quid maleficae artis habuissent, eum superando\n    deciperent.\"--_Hist. Eccles._, l. i. c. 25.\n\nIt was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting before the floor of Alemena\nwhen she was deceived by Galanthes. In Devonshire there is still a saying\nwhich recommends \"sitting cross-legged to help persons on a journey;\" and\nit is employed as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punishment.\n(Ellis's _Brand_, iii. 258.) Were not the cross-legged effigies, formerly\nconsidered to be those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of the\nmysterious virtue of the position?\n\nRICHARD J. KING.\n\n_Twickenham--Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there?_--I believe all the authors\nwho within the last sixty years have written on the history of Twickenham,\nMiddlesex (and among the most known of these I may mention Lysons,\nIronside, and John Norris Brewer), have, when mentioning Twickenham Park,\nformerly the seat of Lord Bacon, stated that he there entertained Queen\nElizabeth. Of this circumstance I find no account in the works of the\nsixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His lordship entertained her at\nGorhambury in one of her progresses; and I would ask if it be possible that\nTwickenham may have been mistaken for his other seat of Gorhambury? It is\nwell known Queen Elizabeth passed much of the latter part of her life at\nRichmond, and ended her days there; and in Mr. Nares' _Memoirs of Lord\nBurghley_ there is an account of her visit to Barn-Elms; and there is also\na curious description of her visit to Kew (in that neighbourhood) in the\n_Sydney Papers_, published by Arthur Collins, in two vols. folio, vol. i.\np. 376., in a letter from Rowland Whyte, Esq. Had Lord Bacon received her\nmajesty, it must most probably have been in 1595. But perhaps some of your\nreaders may be able to supply me with information on this subject.\n\nD.N.\n\n_Burial towards the West._--The usual posture of the dead is with the feet\neastward, and the head towards the west: the fitting attitude of men who\nlook for their Lord, \"whose name is The East,\" and who will come to\njudgement in the regions of the dawn suddenly. But it was the ancient usage\nof the Church that the martyr, the bishop, the saint, and even the priest,\nshould occupy in their sepulture a position the reverse of the secular\ndead, and lie down with their feet westward, and their heads to the rising\nsun. The position of the crozier and the cross on ancient sepulchres of the\nclergy record and reveal this fact. The doctrine suggested by such a burial\nwas, that these mighty men which were of old would be honoured with a first\nresurrection, and as their Master came on from the east, they were to arise\nand to follow the Lamb as He went; insomuch that they, with Him, would\nadvance to the Judgement of the general multitudes,--the ancients and the\nsaints which were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my purpose in this\nstatement is to elicit, if I may, from your learned readers illustrations\nof this distinctive interment.\n\nR.S. HAWKER.\n\nMorwenstow.\n\n_Medal struck by Charles II._--Voltaire, in his _Histoire de Charles XII._,\nliv. 4., states that a medal was struck in commemoration of a victory which\nCharles XII. gained over the Russians, at a place named Hollosin, near the\nBoresthenes, in the year 1708. He adds that on one side of this medal was\nthe epigraph, \"Sylvae, paludes, aggeres, hostes victi;\" on the other the\nverse of Lucan:--\n\n  \"Victrices _copias_ alium laturus in orbem.\"\n\nThe verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. l.238.:\n\n  \"Victrices _aquilas_ alium laturus in orbem.\"\n\nQuery, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire known to exist? and if so, is\nthe substitution of the unmetrical and prosaic word _copias_ due to the\nauthor of the medal, or to Voltaire himself?\n\nL.\n\n_National Debt._--What volumes, pamphlets, or paragraphs can be pointed out\nto the writer, in poetry or prose, alluding to the bribery, corruption, and\nabuses connected with the formation of the National Debt from 1698 to 1815?\n\nF.H.B.\n\n_Midwives licensed._--In the articles to be inquired into in the province\nof Canterbury, anno 1571 (_Grindal Rem._, Park. Soc. 174-58), inquiry to be\nmade\n\n    \"Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or invocations, in Latin\n    or otherwise, and _namely, midwives in the time of women's travail of\n    child_.\"\n\nIn the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being licensed by the Archbishop\nto be a midwife a similar clause occurs; the words, \"Also, I will not use\nany kind of sorcery or incantations in the time of the travail of any\nwoman.\" Can any of your readers inform me what charms or prayers are here\nreferred to, and at what period midwives ceased to be licensed by the\nArchbishop, or if any traces of such license are still found in Roman\nCatholic countries?\n\nS.P.H.T.\n\n       *       *       *       *       * {409}\n\n\nREPLIES.\n\nTHE BLACK ROOD OF SCOTLAND.\n\n(Vol. ii., p. 308.)\n\nI am not aware of any record in which mention of this relique occurs before\nthe time of St. Margaret. It seems very probable that the venerated\ncrucifix which was so termed was one of the treasures which descended with\nthe crown of the Anglo-Saxon kings. When the princess Margaret, with her\nbrother Edgar, the lawful heir to the throne of St. Edward the Confessor,\nfled into Scotland, after the victory of William, she carried this cross\nwith her amongst her other treasures. Aelred of Rievaulx (ap. Twysd. 350.)\ngives a reason why it was so highly valued, and some description of the\nrood itself:\n\n    \"Est autem crux illa longitudinem habens palmae de auro purissimo\n    mirabili opere fabricats, quae in modum techae clauditur et aperitur.\n    Cernitur in ea quaedarn Dominicae crucis portio, (sicut saepe multorum\n    miraculorum argumento probatum est). Salvatoris nostri ymaginem habens\n    de ebore densissime sculptam et aureis distinctionibus mirabiliter\n    decoratam.\"\n\nSt. Margaret appears to have destined it for the abbey which she and her\nroyal husband, Malcolm III., founded at Dunfermline in honour of the Holy\nTrinity: and this cross seems to have engaged her last thoughts for her\nconfessor relates that, when dying, she caused it to be brought to her, and\nthat she embraced, and gazed steadfastly upon it, until her soul passed\nfrom time to eternity. Upon her death (16th Nov., 1093), the Black Rood was\ndeposited upon the altar of Dunfermline Abbey, where St. Margaret was\ninterred.\n\nThe next mention of it that I have been enabled to make note of, occurs in\n1292, in the Catalogue of Scottish Muniments which were received within the\nCastle of Edinburgh, in the presence of the Abbots of Dunfermline and Holy\nRood, and the Commissioners of Edward I., on the 23rd August in that year,\nand were conveyed to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Under the head\n\n    \"Omnia ista inventa fuerunt in quadam cista in Dormitorio S. Crucis, et\n    ibidem reposita praedictos Abbates et altos, sub ecrum sigillis.\"\n\nwe find\n\n    \"Unum scrinium argenteum deauratum, in quo reponitur crux quo vocatur\n    _la blake rode_.\"--Robertson's _Index_, Introd. xiii.\n\nIt does not appear that any such fatality was ascribed to this relique as\nthat which the Scots attributed to the possession of the famous stone on\nwhich their kings were crowned, or it might be conjectured that when Edward\nI. brought \"the fatal seat\" from Scone to Westminster, he brought the Black\nRood of Scotland too. That amiable and pleasing historian, Miss Strickland,\nhas stated that the English viewed the possession of this relique by the\nScottish kings with jealousy; that it was seized upon by Edward I., but\nrestored on the treaty of peace in 1327. This statement is erroneous; the\nrood having been mistaken for the stone, which, by the way, as your readers\nknow, was never restored.\n\nWe next find it in the possession of King David Bruce, who lost this\ntreasured relique, with his own liberty, at the battle of Durham (18th\nOct., 1346), and from that time the monks of Durham became its possessors.\nIn the _Description of the Ancient Monuments, Rites, and Customs of the\nAbbey Church of Durham_, as they existed at the dissolution, which was\nwritten in 1593, and was published by Davies in 1672, and subsequently by\nthe Surtees Society, we find it described as\n\n    \"A most faire roode or picture of our Saviour, in silver, called the\n    Black Roode of Scotland, brought out of Holy Rood House, by King David\n    Bruce ... with the picture of Our Lady on the one side of our Saviour,\n    and St. John's on the other side, very richly wrought in silver, all\n    three having crownes of pure beaten gold of goldsmith's work, with a\n    device or rest to take them off or on.\"\n\nThe writer then describes the \"fine wainscote work\" to which this costly\n\"rood and pictures\" were fastened on a pillar at the east end of the\nsouthern aisle of the quire. And in a subsequent chapter (p. 21. of Surtees\nSoc. volume) we have an account of the cross miraculously received by David\nI. (whom the writer confounds with the King David Bruce captured at the\nbattle of Durham, notwithstanding that his _Auntient Memorial_ professes to\nbe \"collected forthe of the best antiquaries\"), and in honour of which he\nfounded Holy Rood Abbey in 1128 from which account it clearly appears that\nthis cross was distinct from the Black Rood of Scotland. For the writer,\nafter stating that this miraculous cross had been brought from Holy Rood\nHouse by the king, as a \"most fortunate relique,\" says:\n\n    \"He lost _the said crosse_, which was taiken upon him, and many other\n    most wourthie and excellent jewells ... which all weare offred up at\n    the shryne of Saint Cuthbert, _together with the Blacke Rude of\n    Scotland_ (so termed), with Mary and John, maid of silver, being, as yt\n    were, smoked all over, which was placed and sett up most exactlie in\n    the pillar next St. Cuthbert's shrine,\" &c.\n\nIn the description written in 1593, as printed, the size of the Black Rood\nis not mentioned; but in Sanderson's _Antiquities of Durham_, in which he\nfollows that description, but with many variations and omissions, he says\n(p. 22.), in mentioning the Black Rood of Scotland, with the images, as\nabove described,--\n\n    \"Which rood and pictures were all three very richly wrought in silver,\n    and were all smoked blacke over, {410} being large pictures of a yard\n    or five quarters long, and on every one of their leads a crown of pure\n    beaten gold,\" &c.\n\nI have one more (too brief) notice of this famous rood. It occurs in the\nlist of reliques preserved in the Feretory of St. Cuthhert, under the care\nof the shrine-keeper, which was drawn up in 1383 by Richard de Sedbrok, and\nis as follows:\n\n    \"A black crosse, called the _Black Rode of Scotland_.\"--MS. Dunelm., B.\n    ii. 35.\n\nStrange to say, Mr. Raine, in his _St. Cuthbert_, p. 108., appears to\nconfound the cross brought from Holy Rood House, and in honour of which it\nwas founded, with the Black Rood of Scotland. He was misled, no doubt, by\nthe statement in the passage above extracted from the _Ancient Monuments_,\nthat this cross was brought out of Holy Rood House.\n\nI fear that the fact that it was formed of silver and gold, gives little\nreason to hope that this historical relique escaped destruction when it\ncame into the hands of King Henry's church robbers. Its sanctity may,\nindeed, have induced the monks to send it with some other reliques to a\nplace of refuge on the Continent, until the tyranny should be overpast; but\nthere is not any tradition at Durham, that I am aware of, to throw light on\nthe concluding Query of your correspondent P.A.F., as to \"what became of\nthe 'Holy Cross,' or 'Black Rood,' at the dissolution of Durham Priory?\"\n\nThat the Black Rood of Scotland, and the Cross of Holy Rood House were\ndistinct, there can, I think, be no doubt. The cross mentioned by Aelred is\nnot mentioned as the \"Black Rood:\" probably it acquired this designation\nafter his time. But Fordoun, in the _Scoti-Chronicon_, Lord Hailes in his\n_Annals_, and other historians, have taken Aelred's account as referring to\nthe Black Rood of Scotland. Whether it had been brought from Dunfermline to\nEdinburgh before Edward's campaign, and remained thenceforth deposited in\nHoly Rood Abbey, does not appear: but it is probable that a relique to\nwhich the sovereigns of Scotland attached so much veneration was kept at\nthe latter place.\n\nW.S.G.\n\nNewcastle-upon-Tyne, Nov. 2. 1850.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nREPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.\n\n_Haemony_ (Vol. ii., p. 88.).--MR. BASHAM will find some account of this\nplant under the slightly different type of \"Hemionion\" in Pliny, xxv. 20.,\nxvi. 25., xxvii. 17.:\n\n    \"Invenit et Teucer eadem aetate Teucrion, quam quidam 'Hemionion'\n    vocant, spargentem juncos tenues, folia parva, asperis locis nascentem,\n    austero sapore, nunquam florentem: neque semen gignit. Medetur lienibus\n    ... Narrantque sues qui radicem ejus ederint sine splene inveniri.\n\n    \"Singultus hemionium sedat.\n\n    \"'Asplenon' sunt qui _hemionion_ vocant foliis trientalibus multis,\n    radice limosa, cavernosa, sicut filicis, candida, hirsuta: nec caulem,\n    nec florem, nec semen habet. Nascitur in petris parietibusque opacis,\n    humidis.\"\n\nAccording to Hardouin's note, p. 3777., it is the _Ceterach_ of the shops,\nor rather _Citrach_; a great favourite of the mules, [Greek: hemionoi],\nwitness Theophrastus, _Hist._, ix. 19.\n\nRay found it \"on the walls about Bristol, and the stones at St. Vincent's\nrock.\" He calls it \"Spleenwort\" and \"Miltwaste.\" _Catalog. Plant._ p. 31.\nLond. 1677.\n\nI have a copy of Henri du Puy's \"original\" _Comus_, but do not recollect\nhis noticing the plant.\n\nG.M.\n\nGuernsey.\n\n_Byron's Birthplace._--Can any of your correspondents give any information\nrelative to the house in which Lord Byron was born? His biographers state\nthat it was in Holles Street, but do not mention the number.\n\nC.B.W.\n\nEdgbaston.\n\n    [Our correspondent will find, on referring to Mr. Cunningham's\n    _Handbook of London_, that \"Byron was born at No. 24. Holles Street,\n    and christened in the small parish church of St. Marylebone.\"]\n\n_Ancient Tiles_ (Vol. i., p. 173.).--The device of two birds perched back\nto back on the twigs of a branch that rises between them, is found, not on\ntiles only, but in wood carving; as at Exeter Cathedral, on two of the\nMisereres in the choir, and on the gates which separate the choir from the\naisles, and these again from the nave.\n\nJ.W.H.\n\n_Modena Family_ (Vol. ii., p. 266.).--Victor Amadeus III., King of\nSardinia, died in October, 1796. Mary Beatrice, Duchess of Modena, mother\nof the present Duke of Modena, was the daughter of Victor Emmanuel V., King\nof Sardinia, who abdicated his throne in 1821, and died 10th January, 1824.\nThe present Duke of Modena is the direct heir of the house of Stuart in the\nfollowing line:--\n\nAll the legitimate issue of Charles II. and James II. being extinct, we\nfall back upon Henrietta Maria, youngest child of Charles I. She married\nher cousin Philip, Duke of Orleans, brother of Louis XIV., and by him had\nthree children. Two died without issue: the youngest, Anna Maria, b. Aug.\n1669, mar. Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy, and had by him three\nchildren, one son and two daughters.\n\nThe son, Charles Emmanuel III., Duke of {411} Savoy, married and had Victor\nAmadeus III., who married Maria Antoinette of Spain, and had:--1. Charles\nEmmanuel IV., who died without issue, and 2. Victor Emmanuel V., who\nmarried an Austrian Archduchess; his eldest daughter married Francis IV.\nDuke of Modena. She died between A.D. 1841-1846, I believe, and left four\nchildren:--1. Francis V., Duke of Modena. 2. The wife of Henri, Comte de\nChambord. 3. Ferdinand. 4. Marie, wife of Don Juan, brother of the present\nde jure King of Spain, Carlos VI.\n\nJ.K.\n\n_Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks_ (Vol. ii., p. 375.).--In reply to the\nsecond Bibliographical Query of J. MT., Edinburgh, respecting Nicholas\nBreton's _Fantasticks_, I beg to inform him that my copy is perfect, and\ncontains twenty-two leaves. The title is _Fantasticks: seruing for a\nperpetuall Prognostication_, with the subjects of the twenty-four\n_Descants_, as they are called, in prose, contained in the volume. 4to. bl.\nlett. London: Printed for Francis Williams, 1626. After this is a\ndedication \"To the worshipfull and worthy knight Sir Marke Ive, of Rivers\nHall, in Essex;\" and a short address \"To the Reader,\" one leaf. It is an\nentertaining work, and contains some curious and useful remarks on our\nancient manners, customs, and habits. My copy had successively belonged to\nGarrick, Fillingham, and Heber; the latter of whom has written in it, \"Who\nhas ever seen another copy?\"\n\nT.C.\n\nStrand.\n\n_Gaudentio di Lucca_ (Vol. ii., pp. 247. 298. 327.).--The Rev. Simon\nBerington, the author of _The Memoirs of Gaudentio di Lucca_, \"of whom\" MR.\nCROSSLEY (Vol. ii., p. 328.) \"regrets that so little is known,\" was the\nfourth son of John Berington, of Winesley, co. Hereford, Esquire, by\nElizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Wolrich, of Dudmaston, co. Salop, Bart.\nHe was born 1679. He studied and took holy orders at Douay College.\n\nW.L.\n\nNov. 3. 1850.\n\n_Weights for weighing Coins_(Vol. ii., p. 326.).--I am able to supply H.E.\nwith a reference to this subject of an earlier date than those he quotes.\nIn the MS. _Compotus_ or _Accounts of Sibton Abbey, in Suffolk_, in my\npossession, occurs the following item, under the year 1363-4:\n\n    \"Et de ix d. pro ij paribus Balaunces pro aure ponderand'.\"\n\nThe following extract, although of later date than H.E. requires, may yet\nbe not without its use to him in illustration of the subject. It occurs in\nthe _Compotus_ of a collegiate establishment at Mettingam, Suffolk, from an\nearlier volume of which some extracts were furnished to the _Archaeological\nJournal_ (vol. vi. p. 62.). It is as follows, under the year 1464:--\n\n    \"Item in ponderibus pro novo aura ponderant' s' nobili _xs._ di. nobyl\n    et quadrant' ejusdem cunagii et pro nobili de _vj_s. _viij_d. di. nobil\n    et quadrant' et minoribus ponderibus utriusque cunagii cum le Scolys et\n    Cophino pro eisdem. _ij_s. _j_d.\"\n\nThe new gold is of course the reduced coinage of Edward IV. I conclude that\nthe nobles of 6s. 8d. were the same as the angels.\n\nC.R.M.\n\n_Mrs. Partington_ (Vol. ii., p. 377.).--IGNORANS no doubt refers to the\noft-repeated allusion to \"Dame Partington and her mop;\" and taking it for\ngranted that he does so, I will enlighten him a little on the subject. The\n\"original Mrs. Partington\" was a respectable old lady, living, at Sidmouth\nin Devonshire; her cottage was on the beach, and during an awful storm\n(that, I think, of Nov. 1824, when some fifty or sixty ships were wrecked\nat Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as every now and then to invade\nthe old lady's place of domicile: in fact, almost every wave dashed in at\nthe door. Mrs. Partington, with such help as she could command, with mops\nand brooms, as fast as the water entered the house, mopped it out again;\nuntil at length the waves had the mastery, and the dame was compelled to\nretire to an upper story of the house. I well recollect reading in the\nDevonshire newspapers of the time an account similar to the above: but the\nfirst allusion to the circumstance was, I think, made by Lord Brougham in\nhis celebrated speech in the house of Commons on the Reform Bill, in which\nhe compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the\nopposition of \"Dame Partington and her mop, who endeavoured to mop out the\nwaves of the Atlantic.\"\n\nROBERT COLE.\n\n_Mrs. Partington._--Mr. Greene, the witty editor of the _Boston (N.E.)\nPost_, is believed to be the original of Mrs. Partington: at least he\nfathers all her sayings. He began to print them about twelve or fifteen\nyears ago.\n\nG.M.B.\n\n    [G.M.B. has also kindly forwarded to us some of \"_Mrs. Partington's\n    Queries_ from a recent number of the _Boston Post_, from which we\n    select a couple of specimens, viz.,--\n\n    \"Whether the Emperor of China is a _porcelain_ statue or a mere\n    fiction?\"\n\n    \"Is the _Great Seal_ alive, or only stuffed?\"]\n\n_The East Anglian Word \"Mauther\"_ (Vol. ii., pp. 217. 365.).--Skinner's\nnote on this word is\n\n    \"Mawther, vox Norfolciensi agro peculiaris: _Spelman_ ipse eodem agro\n    ortus a Dan. _Moer_, Virgo, Puella, deflectit. Possit tamen et\n    declinari a Belg. _Maegd_, Teut. _Magd_, idem signante, addita term.\n    _er_ vel _der_, ut in proximo agro Lincolniensi in vocibus _Heeder_ et\n    _Sheeder_ quae Marem et Feminam notant. Author Dict. Angl. scribit\n    _Modder_, et cum Kiliano deducit a Belg. _Modde_, _Moddeken_, Pupa,\n    Puella, Virgincula.\"--_Etymol._ sub voce.\n\nWebster merely gives (with strange neglect, having Skinner before him):\n{412}\n\n    \"Mauther, a foolish young girl(not used).\"--_Ben Jonson._\n\nSkinner is, I believe, wrong in assigning the _r_ termination to the Danish\nword. Such a termination of the word _maid_ is not to be found in any of\nthe Teutonic dialects. The diphthong sound and the _th_ appear frequently;\nas,\n\n  1. Moeso-Gothic: _Magath_ or _Magaths_; _Mawi_,\n      dim. _Mawilo_.\n  2. Anglo-Saxon: _Maeth_, _Maegth_, dim. _Meowla_.\n  3. Old-German: _Maget_.\n  4. Swedish: _Moe_.\n  5. Norse: _Moei_.\n\nI therefore suppose the _r_ termination in _mauther_ to be a mere\ncorruption, like that pointed out by Skinner in the Lincoln Folk-speech: or\nis it possible that it may have arisen from a contusion of the words _maid_\nand _mother_ in Roman Catholic times? In Holland the Virgin Mary was called\n_Moeder Maagd_,--a phrase which may possibly have crossed over to the East\nAnglian coast, and occasioned the subsequent confusion.\n\nB.H.K.\n\nP.S. Do the words _modde_, _moddeken,_ quoted by Skinner, exist? and, if\nso, are they Dutch or Flemish? I have no means of verifying them at hand.\n\n    [On referring to Kilian's _Dictionarium Teutonico-Latin-Gallicum_ (ed.\n    1642), we find, \"MODDE, MODDEKEN, Pupa, Poupee.\"]\n\n_Cheshire Cat_ (Vol. ii., p. 377.).--A correspondent, T.E.L.P.B.T., asks\nthe explanations of the phrase, \"grinning like a Cheshire cat.\" Some years\nsince Cheshire cheeses were sold in this town moulded into the shape of a\ncat, bristles being inserted to represent the whiskers. This may possibly\nhave originated the saying.\n\nT.D.\n\nBath.\n\n\"_Thompson of Esholt_\" (Vol. ii., p. 268.).--In an old pedigree of the\nCalverley family, I find it stated that _Henry Thompson of Esholt_ (whose\nonly daughter _Frances_ William Calverley of Calverley married, and by her\nacquired that property) was great-grandson to Henry Thompson,\n\n    \"One of the king's gentlemen-at-arms at the siege of Boulogne (temp. H.\n    7.), where he notably signalised himself, and for his service was\n    rewarded with the _Maison Dieu at Dover_, by gift of the king;\n    afterwards, in the reign of Edward VI., exchanged it for the manor and\n    rectory of _Bromfield_ in Cumberland, and the site of the late\n    dissolved nunnery of Esholt.\"\n\nFurther particulars regarding the above grant of _Bromefield_, and a\n_pedigree_ of the Thompsons, are published in _Archaeologia Oeliana_, vol.\nii. (1832), p. 171.\n\nW.C. TREVELYAN.\n\nWallington.\n\n_Minar's Book of Antiquities_ (Vol. i., p. 277.; ii. p. 344.).--I am much\nobliged to T.J. for his endeavours to help me to Minar's _Book of\nAntiquities_. But there still remains a chasm too wide for me to jump;\ninasmuch as Christopher Meiners published his treatise _De Vero Deo_ in\n1780, and Cardinal Cusa, who refers to Minar, died in 1464, being more than\n300 years before.\n\nA.N.\n\n_Croziers and Pastoral Staves_ (Vol. ii., pp. 248, 313.).--The opinion\nexpressed by the REV. MR. WALCOT (in your No. 50.), that by the word\n_crozier_ is to be understood the crossed staff belonging only to\narchbishops and legates, while the staff with a crook at its end is to be\ncalled the pastoral staff, cannot, I think, be considered satisfactory, for\nthe following, among other reasons.\n\nCrozier is generally (I should formerly have said universally) understood\nto mean the staff with a crook, the so well-known \"ensign of bishops.\"\n\nIn the instances mentioned by MR. WALCOT, _croziers_ are repeatedly spoken\nof as having been borne at the funerals of _bishops_, while the crosses\nborne before Wolsey are called crosses, and not croziers.\n\nThe word _crozier_ seems to be derived from the mediaeval Latin word\n_crocia_. This is explained by Ducange: \"Pedum, baculus pastoralis,\nepiscopalis.\" Crocia seems to be derived from, or closely connected with,\n\"crocha, uncinus, lamus,\" and \"crochum, uncus quo arcubalistae tenduntur\"\n(Ducange). Hence it appears that _crozier_ does not refer to a cross but to\na crook.\n\nIn such ancient authorities as I have had the opportunity of referring to\nat the moment, as brasses, incised slabs, &c., bishops and archbishops are\nalike represented with the crooked staff; a cross is of more rare\noccurrence, and at the moment only two instances occur to me, one in the\nfine brass of Frederic, son of Casimir, king of Poland, and a cardinal,\nwhich is in the cathedral of Cracow, and in which he is represented holding\na crozier, while crosses are figured on the sides under the cardinal's hat.\nThe other is in the curious brass of Lambert, bishop of Bamberg, in the\ncathedral of that city: in this the bishop holds a cross in his right and a\ncrozier in his left hand.\n\nThe statement that the crook of the bishop's staff was bent outwards, and\nthat of the abbot's inward, is one which is often made in books; I should,\nhowever, be very glad to learn whether any difference has been observed to\nexist either in mediaeval representations of croziers on seals,\naccompanying, effigies, or in paintings, or in the existing examples. So\nfar as I have seen, the crook, in all except a few early instances, is bent\nin the same manner, _i.e._ inwards.\n\nN.\n\n_Socinian Boast_ (Vol. ii., p. 375.).--The following lines \"De Ruina\nBabylonis\" occur in the works of a Socinian writer, one Samuelis\nPrzipcovius, who died in 1670, and evidently have reference to those quoted\nby Dr. Pusey:-- {413}\n\n  \"Quid per Luterum, Calvinum, perque Socinum,\n    Funditus eversam jam Babylona putas?\n  Perstat adhuc _Babylon_, et toto regnat in orbe\n    Sub vario primum nomine robur habens.\n  Ostentat _muros_, jactat sublimia _tecta_\n    De _fundamento_ quis metus esse potest?\n  Ni Deus hanc igitur molem disjecerit ipse\n    Humano nunquam Marte vel arte ruet.\"\n\nPrzipcovius was a Polish knight, and cotempory the author of _Hudibras_. In\na tract entitled _Religio Vindicata a Calumniis Atheismi_, he thus alludes\nto the spiritual Quixotism which induced Butler to \"crack the satiric\nthong:\"\n\n    \"Saepe audivi quod in _Anglia_ (quae regio sicut in multis aliis rebus,\n    sic praecipue in religionibus totius mundi compendium est) de ejusmodi\n    fanaticis perhibetur, quod ita sui suarumque irrationabilium opinionum\n    sint amantes, ut audeant propter eas divinam Providentiam angustis\n    Ecclesiarum suarum (quae ex angustis cujuslibet Penatibus constant)\n    terminis circumscribere.... Et quemadmodum omnes isti miseri aperte\n    delirant, praecipue ii quos zeli aestus eousque deducit, ut tanquam\n    bacchantes aut cerriti per plateas, domos, templa, absque ullo ordine\n    et respectu cursitantes concionentur, et interdum _anseres, equos, vel\n    oves_ (cujus rei ibi satis frequentia exempla occurrunt) dum eis\n    homines aures praebere nolunt, ad suas opiniones convertere tentent.\"\n\nR. PRICE.\n\nCheam.\n\n_MSS. of Locke_ (Vol. i., pp. 401. 462.).--In reply to a question in \"NOTES\nAND QUERIES,\" I may state, that the address of the son of the late Dr.\nHancock, is George H., Park Grove, Birkenhead; and he will furnish\ninformation relative to the MSS. of Locke.\n\nAN INTENDED READER.\n\n_Sir William Grant_ (Vol. ii., p. 397.).--Your correspondent R. says that\n\"_Sir William Grant_\" was one of the few Scotchmen who had freed himself\nfrom the peculiarities of the speech of his country. Frank Horner is\nanother.\" If R. means to include the _Scottish accent_, he is mistaken as\nto Sir William Grant, who retained a strong Scottish _burr_. If he means\nonly correctness of diction, then I should say the number was not _few_.\nMackintosh's and Jeffery's English was, I think, quite as pure as Horner's;\nand Lord Brougham, with much idiosyncrasy, had no _Scotch peculiarities_,\nat least--_me judice_--infinitely less than Sir William Grant. I could name\ntwenty members of the present houses of parliament in whom I have never\ndetected any \"Scotch peculiarity.\"\n\nC.\n\n_Tristan d'Acunha_ (Vol. ii., p. 358.).--The island is noticed, but\nbriefly, in p. 54. of the first volume of Perouse's _Voyage round the\nWorld_, Lond. 1799. It is there stated that a tolerably minute account of\nit is contained in _Le Neptune Oriental_, by D'Apres (or Apres de\nManvilette). This work was published in Paris, 1775, in two volumes, large\nfolio.\n\nC.I.R.\n\n_Arabic Numerals_ (Vol.ii., pp. 27. 61. 339.).-- In a work in Arabic, by\nAhmad ben Abubekr bin Wahshih, on Ancient Alphabets, published in the\noriginal, and accompanied with an English translation, by Von Hammer, your\ncorrespondent on the subject of Arabic numerals will find that these\nnumerals were not invented as arbitrary signs, and borrowed for various\nalphabets; but that they are actually taken from an Indian alphabet of nine\ncharacters, the remaining letters being made up at each decimal by\nrepeating the nine characters, with one or two dots. The English Preface\nstates that this alphabet is still in use in India, not merely as a\nrepresentative of numbers, but of letters of native language. The book is a\nneat quarto, printed in London in 1806; and the alphabet occurs in page 7.\nof the Arabic original.\n\nE.C.H.\n\nAthenaeum.\n\n_Luther's Hymns_ (Vol. ii., p. 327.).--If F.Q. will turn to Mr. Palmer's\n_Origines Liturgicae_, vol. ii. p. 238. 4th edit., he will find that the\nsentence in the Burial Service, \"In the midst of life we are in death,\"\n&c., is taken from the _Salisbury Breviary Psalter_. The Salisbury Use was\ndrawn up by Bishop Osmund in the eleventh century.\n\nN.E.R. (a Subscriber.)\n\n_Bolton's Ace._--What is the meaning of \"_Bolton's Ace_,\" in the following\npassage in the address to the reader prefixed to Henry Hutton's _Follies\nAnatomie_, 8vo. Lond. 1618? It is passed over by DR. RIMBAULT in his\nreprint of the work for the Percy Society in 1842:\n\n  \"Could ye attacke this felon in's disgrace,\n  I would not bate an inch (not _Bolton's ace_)\n  To baite, deride, nay, ride this silly asse.\"\n\nJ. CT.\n\n    [\"_Bate me an ace quoth Bolton_\" is an old proverb of unknown origin.\n    Ray tells us that a _Collection of Proverbs_ having been presented to\n    Queen Elizabeth, with an assurance that it contained all the proverbs\n    in the English language. \"Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton,\" said the\n    queen, implying that the assertion was too strong; and, in fact, that\n    every proverb was not in the collection. See Nares' _Glossary_, who\n    quotes the following epigram by H.P., to show the collection referred\n    to\n\n        \"_Secundae Cogitutiones meliores._\n\n  \"A pamphlet was of proverbs penned by Polton,\n    Wherein he thought all sorts included were;\n  Untill one told him _Bate m' an ace quoth Bolton_,\n    'Indeed,' said he, 'that proverb is not there.'\"]\n\n_Hopkins the Witchfinder_ (Vol. ii., p. 392.).--If the inquiry of CLERICUS\nrelates to Mathew Hopkins the witchfinder general, my friend W.S. Fitch of\nIpswich has some manuscript account of his residence in that town, as a\nlawyer of but little {414} note, and his removal to Manningtree, in Essex;\nbut whether it gives any further particulars of him I am unable to state,\nas I have not seen the manuscript.\n\nJ. CLARKE.\n\n_Sir Richard Steel_ (Vol. ii., p.375.).--The death and burial-place of Sir\nRichard Steel is thus noticed in Cibber's _Lives of the Poets_, vol. iv.\np.120.:--\n\n    \"Some years before his death he grew paralytic, and retired to his seat\n    at Langunnor, near Caermarthen, in Wales, where he died, September 1st,\n    1729, and was privately interred, according to his own desire, in the\n    church of Caermarthen.\"\n\nJ.V.R.W.\n\n_Ale-draper_ (Vol. ii., p.310.).--A common designation for an ale-house\nkeeper in the sixteenth century. Henry Chettle, in his very curious little\npublication, _Kind-Harts Dreame_, 1592 (edited for the Percy Society by\nyour humble servant), has the following passage:\n\n    \"I came up to London, and fall to be some tapster, hostler, or\n    chamberlaine in an inn. Well, I get mee a wife; with her a little\n    money; when we are married, seeke a house we must; no other occupation\n    have I but to be an _ale-draper_.\" (P. 37. of reprint.)\n\nAgain, in the same tract, the author speaks of \"two milch maydens that had\nset up a shoppe of \"_ale-drapery_.\"\n\nIn the _Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste_, 1597, is another notice of\nthe same occupation:\n\n    \"So that now hee hath left brokery, and is become a draper. A draper,\n    quoth Freeman, what draper--of woollin or linnen? No, qd. he, an\n    _ale-draper_, wherein he hath more skil then in the other.\"\n\nProbably these instances of the use of the term may be sufficient for your\ncorrespondent.\n\nEDWARD F. RIMBAULT.\n\nP.S. The above was written before J.S.W.'s note appeared (Vol. ii., p.\n360.), which does not carry the use of this term further back than Bailey's\n_Dictionary_.\n\n_George Herbert_ (Vol. ii., p. 103.) was buried under the communion table\nat Bemerton, but there is no monument to his memory. The adornment of his\nlittle church would be one of the most fitting offerings to his memory. It\nis painful to contrast the whitewash and unpainted deal of the house of God\nwith the rich furniture and hangings of the adjoining rectory. In the\ngarden of the latter is preserved a medlar-tree, planted by \"the sweet\nsinger of the temple.\"\n\nJ.W.H.\n\n_Notaries Public_ (Vol. ii., p. 393.).--Why does your correspondent\nMANLEIUS think this form of expression \"putting the cart before the horse?\"\n_Public notary_ (though that phrase is sometimes erroneously used) is not\nso exact as \"notary public;\" for a notary is not, as the first form would\nimply, a public officer appointed by the public to perform public services,\nbut an individual agent through whose ministry private acts or instruments\nbecome _publici juris_. The same form, and for analogous reasons, prevails\nin several other legal and technical titles or phrases, as\nAttorney-General, Solicitor-General, Accountant-General, Receiver-General,\nSurveyor-General; Advocate Fiscal; Theatre Royal, Chapel Royal; Gazette\nExtraordinary; and many other phrases in which it is evident that the\nadjective has a special and restricted meaning.\n\nC.\n\n_Tobacconists_ (Vol. ii, p. 393.).--There was, in the old house of commons,\na room called the _smoking-room_, where members tired of the debate used to\nretire to smoke, and in later years to drink tea or write letters. These,\nno doubt, were meant by the _Tobacconists_, members within call, though not\nactually within the house.\n\nC.\n\n_Vineyards_ (Vol. ii., p. 392.).--In answer to CLERICUS, I beg to say that\nthere is a piece of land called the Vineyards situated in the warm and\nsheltered valley of Claverton, about two miles from Bath: it formerly\nbelonged to the Abbey of Bath.\n\nThere is also in the suburbs, on the north side of the city of Bath, a\n_street_ called the Vineyards; but I do not know that this ever belonged to\nthe Abbey.\n\nG. FALKNER.\n\nDevizes.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nMISCELLANEOUS.\n\nNOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.\n\nThose who know Mr. Craik's happy tact for seizing on the more striking\npoints of a character or an incident, his acquaintance with our national\nhistory and biography, his love of research, and perseverance in following\nup a clue, were prepared to expect both instruction and amusement from his\n_Romance of the Peerage_. Nor were they doomed to disappointment. Each\nsucceeding volume has added to the interest of the work and there can be\nlittle doubt, that the favour with which the first three volumes have been\nreceived by the reading world, will be extended to the one now published,\nand which concludes the first series, or main division of Mr. Craik's\nprojected work.\n\nOur space will permit us to do little more than specify its principal\ncontents; but when we state that in the present volume Mr. Craik treats of\nthe _great_ Earl of Cork and the Boyles; of the founders of the Fermor,\nBouverie, Osborne, and Bamfylde families; that he gives us with great\ncompleteness the history of Anne Clifford, the most remarkable woman of her\ntime; that he furnishes pleasant gossipping pictures of the rise of the\nfamilies of Fox, Phips, and Petty; the history of the celebrated claim of\nthe Trunkmaker to the honours of the Percies,--of the story of the heiress\nof the Percies who married Tom Thynn of Longleat Hall; and lastly, that of\nAnn of Buccleugh, {415} the widow of the unfortunate Monmouth, we shall\nhave done more than enough to make our readers wish to share the pleasure\nwe have derived from turning over Mr. Craik's amusing pages.\n\nMessrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson will sell on Monday next, and two following\ndays, a valuable collection of books, chiefly the property of a gentleman\ndeceased, among which we may specify _la Vie Saint Germain L'Auxerrois_\n(lettres gotheques), printed on vellum, and quite unique; no other copy\neven on paper being known.\n\nWe have received the following Catalogues:-- Williams and Norgate's (14.\nHenrietta Street, Covent Garden) German Book Circular, a Quarterly List of\nNew Publications, No. 26.; John Russell Smith's (4. Old Compton Street,\nSoho) Catalogue No. 1. for 1851 of an extensive Collection of Choice,\nUseful, and Curious Books in most Classes of Literature, English and\nForeign.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.\n\nBACON'S ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, interpreted by WATS,   Oxford, 1621, 1640,\nfolio.\n\nSTUART'S ATHENS. First Edition. Vols. IV. and V.\n\nSUPPLEMENT TO BERRY'S HERALDRY.\n\nSPECIMEN HISTORIAE ARABUM, by POCOCK.\n\nLA ROQUE, VOYAGE DANS LA PALESTINE.\n\nABULFARAQ HIST. DYNAST.\n\n*** Letters, 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\nG.W._'s Query was in type before we received his unbecoming letter,--the\nterms of which both forbid our asking the name of the writer, or giving him\nthat satisfactory explanation which we could furnish as to the delay in the\ninsertion of his communication. As the first letter of the kind we have\never received, we should certainly have printed it, but for our regard for\npersonal friends who belong to the same body as G.W., and whose names he\ncan have no difficulty in discovering in the list of our distinguished\ncontributors._\n\n_We are compelled by want of space to omit many_ NOTES, QUERIES, REPLIES,\n_and articles of_ FOLK-LORE.\n\n_Volume the First of_ \"NOTES AND QUERIES,\" _with very copious Index, price_\n9s. 6d. _bound in cloth, may still be had by order of all Booksellers._\n\n_The Monthly Part for October, being the Fifth of_ Vol. II., _is also now\nready, price_ 1s. 3d.\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES _may be procured by the Trade at noon on Friday; so that\nour country Subscribers ought to experience no difficulty in receiving it\nregularly. Many of the country Booksellers are probably not yet aware of\nthis arrangement, which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday\nparcels._\n\n    _Errata_--P. 391. col. 1. line 46, for \"v_e_riis circum_d_ant\" read\n    \"v_a_riis circum_st_ant;\" l. 47., for \"ante_s_olat\" read \"ante_v_olat;\"\n    and l. 48., for \"ne_c_\" read \"ne.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nJOURNAL FRANCAIS, publie a Londres.--Le COURRIER de l'EUROPE, fonde en\n1840, paraissant le Samedi, donne dans chaque numero les nouvelles de la\nsemaine, les meilleurs articles de tous les journaux de Paris, la Semaine\nDramanque par Th. Gautier ou J. Jauin, la Revue de Paris par Pierre Durand,\net reprodrit en entier les romans, nouvelles, etc,. en vogue par les\npremiers ecrivains de France. Prix 6d.\n\nLondon: JOSEPH THOMAS, 1. Finch Lane.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPIETAS METRICA: or, Nature Suggestive of God and Godliness. By the Brothers\nTheophilus and Theophylact. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. Price 3s. 6d.\n\n\"They possess great sweetness combined with deep devotional\nfeeling.\"--_John Bull._\n\nLondon: J. MASTERS, Aldersgate and New Bond Streets.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJust published, Part X., price 9s. plain; 10s. 6d. tinted; proofs, large\npaper, 12s.\n\nTHE CHURCHES of the MIDDLE AGES: or, Select Specimens of Early and Middle\nPointed Structures, with a few of the purest Late Pointed Examples;\nIllustrated by Geometric and Perspective Drawings. By HENRY BOUMAN and\nJOSEPH S. CROWTHER, Architects, Manchester.\n\nTo be completed in Twenty Parts, each containing Six Plates, Imperial\nfolio. Issued at intervals of Two Months.\n\n\"We can hardly conceive anything more perfect. We heartily recommend this\nseries to all who are able to patronise it.\" --_Ecclesiologist._\n\nLondon: GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJust published, New Edition, Two Vols. fcp. 8vo., price 10s. clothe; or Two\nVols. in One, 17s. morocco. 14s. calf antique.\n\nTHE CHRISTIAN TAUGHT BY THE CHURCH'S SERVICES.\n\nEdited by WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D., Vicar of Leeds.\n\nLeeds: RICHARD SLOCOMBE. London: GEORGE BELL, 186. Fleet Street\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKNIGHT'S PICTORIAL SHAKSPERE, NATIONAL EDITION.\n\nPublished in Fortnightly Parts, price 1s. each, And Monthly Sections, price\n2s. 6d. each.\n\nPart III., containing \"Love's Labour's Lost,\" is published this day,\nSaturday.\n\nThe Monthly Section is published on the 1st of every Month.\n\nLONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT, 90. FLEET STREET.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKNIGHT'S CYCLOPAEDIA OF THE INDUSTRY OF ALL NATIONS.\n\nNumber III., price Twopence, is published this day, Saturday. The Monthly\nPart, Ninepence, on the 1st of the Month.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nKNIGHT'S CYCLOPAEDIA OF LONDON.\n\nNumber III., price Twopence, is published this day, Saturday. The Monthly\nPart, Ninepence, on the 1st of the Month\n\nLONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT, 90. FLEET STREET.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE BRITISH ALMANAC AND COMPANION.\n\nFor 1851, November 21st instant.\n\nLONDON: CHARLES KNIGHT, 90. FLEET STREET.\n\nAnd sold by all Booksellers in Town and Country; on application to whom may\nbe obtained Descriptive Catalogue of the Publications issued by CHARLES\nKNIGHT. {416}\n\nMR. PARKER _has recently published:_--\n\nA GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN GRECIAN, ROMAN, ITALIAN, AND GOTHIC\nARCHITECTURE. Exemplified by upwards of Eighteen Hundred Illustrations,\ndrawn from the best examples. Fifth Edition, 3 vols. 8vo. cloth, gilt tops,\n2l. 8s.\n\n    \"Since the year 1836, in which this work first appeared, no fewer than\n    four large editions have been exhausted. The fifth edition is now\n    before us, and we have no doubt will meet, as it deserves, the same\n    extended patronage and success. The text has been considerably\n    augmented by the enlargement of many of the old articles, as well as by\n    the addition of many new ones among which Professor Willis has embodied\n    great part of his Architectural Nomenclature of the Middle Ages the\n    number of woodcuts has been increased from 1100 to above 1700 and the\n    work its present form is, we believe, unequalled in the architectural\n    literature of Europe for the amount of accurate information it\n    furnishes, and the beauty of its illustrations.\"--_Notes and Queries._\n\nAN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. BY JOHN HENRY PARKER,\nF.S.A. 16mo. with numerous Illustrations. Price 4s. 6d.\n\nTHE PRIMEVAL ANTIQUITIES OF ENGLAND AND DENMARK COMPARED. BY J. J. A.\nWORSAAE, Member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Copenhagen, and by\nWILLIAM J. THOMS, F.S.A., Secretary of the Camden Society. With numerous\nIllustrations. 8vo. 10s.\n\nRICKMAN'S GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. An Attempt to discriminate the different\nStyles of Architecture in England, By the late THOMAS RICKMAN, F.S.A. With\n30 Engravings on Steel by Le Keux, &c., and 465 on Wood, of the best\nexamples, from Original Drawings by F. Mackenzie, O. Jewitt, and P. H.\nDelamotte. Fifth Edition. 8vo. 21s.\n\nTHE ECCLESIASTICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL TOPOGRAPHY OF ENGLAND. Vol. I. DIOCESE\nOF OXFORD. 8vo. cloth, 7s. 6d.\n\nAN INQUIRY INTO THE DIFFERENCE OF STYLE OBSERVABLE IN ANCIENT PAINTED\nGLASS, With Hints on Glass Painting, Illustrated by numerous coloured\nPlates from Ancient Examples. By an Amateur. 2 vols. 8vo. 1l. 10s.\n\nA BOOK OF ORNAMENTAL GLAZING QUARRIES, Collected and arranged from Ancient\nExamples, BY AUGUSTUS WOLLASTON FRANKS, B.A. With 112 Coloured Examples.\n8vo. 16s.\n\nA MANUAL FOR THE STUDY OF MONUMENTAL BRASSES, With a Descriptive Catalogue\nof 450 \"RUBBINGS,\" in the possession of the Oxford Architectural Society,\nTopographical and Heraldic Indices, &c. With numerous Illustrations, 8vo.\n10s. 6d.\n\nA MANUAL FOR THE STUDY OF SEPULCHRAL SLABS AND CROSSES OF THE MIDDLE AGES.\nBy the Rev. EDWARD L. CUTTS, B.A. 8vo., illustrated by upwards of 300\nengravings, 12s.\n\nTHE CROSS AND THE SERPENT. Being a brief History of the Triumph of the\nCross, through a long series of ages, in Prophecy, Types, and Fulfilment.\nBy the Rev. WILLIAM HASLAM, Perpetual Curate of St. Michael's Baldiu,\nCornwall. 12mo., with numerous woodcuts, 5s.\n\nSOME OF THE FIVE HUNDRED POINTS OF GOOD HUSBANDRY, As well for the Champion\nor open Country, as also for the Woodland or several, mixed in every month\nwith Huswifery, over and above the Book of Huswifery, with many lessons\nboth profitable and not unpleasant to the reader, once set forth by THOMAS\nTUSSER, Gentleman, now newly corrected and edited, and heartily commended\nto all true lovers of country life and honest thrift. 18mo. 2s. 6d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nJOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.\n\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.--Saturdays, November 16. 1850.","title":"Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":13448}