Replies to Minor Queries.

Family of Bullen (Vol. v., p. 127.).—There is a physician of that name, who is, I believe, one of the professors in the Queen's College, Cork, and who may probably be able to afford your correspondent E. A. G. the information he wishes for. I have been informed that Dr. Bullen's father asserted that his family was descended from the Boleyn family.

J. E.

Wallington's Journal (Vol. v., p.489.).—This volume is in my possession. It contains much curious and interesting matter.

J. Godwin.

28. Upper Gower Street.

The Amber Witch (Vol. v., p. 510.).—In answer to a Query of A. N., this book is a pure fiction. Some German biblical critics pretending to decide that whole chapters, or whole books, of the Bible are spurious, from internal evidence, Meinhold wrote the Amber Witch to show how little able they were to judge of internal evidence in a much simpler case. Several of them fell into his trap, and then the author avowed the work to be his own.

Twyford (Vol. v., p. 467.).—There is yet, I am informed, a double ford at Alnmouth, a little above the town. The ancient church, called Woden's Church, stood at the mouth of the Alne. Here was found the cross with the imperfect inscription in Anglo-Saxon runes, now preserved at Alnwick Castle. I am not aware that any local tradition now connects the name of Twyford with Alnmouth.

Edward Charlton.

The Ring Finger (Vol. v., p. 492.).—I have met with the following passage in Adam's Antiquities (8vo. ed., p. 429.), which seems to assign another origin to this custom than the one lately proposed in "N. & Q.":

"On this occasion" (i. e. the signing of the marriage contract) "there was commonly a feast: and the man gave the woman a ring (annulus pronubus) by way of pledge, Juvenal, vi. 27., which she put on her left hand, on the finger next the least; because it was believed a nerve reached from thence to the heart: Macrob. Sat. vii. 15."

Eryx.

Brass of Lady Gore (Vol. v., p. 412.).—This brass still exists, and commemorates Maria Gore, Priorissa, 1436, attired simply as a widow. Owing to its actual existence having been but recently known to collectors of rubbings, no mention was made of it in the Oxford Manual. For the same reason there is no notice of a very interesting brass of a bishop or abbot, date end of fourteenth century, at Adderley, Salop. The editor of the above work would take this opportunity of thanking Mr. W. S. Simpson for his corrections ("N. & Q.," Vol. v., p. 369.). The rubbing, or rather smudging, from which the inscription was copied being nearly wholly illegible, accounts for the mistakes. Any further corrections will oblige

The Editor of the "Oxford Manual of Brasses."

Gloucester.

Gospel Trees.—Several Numbers of "N. & Q." have contained interesting notices of trees which are traditionally reported to indicate the standing-places of out-door preachers. To me, there is something very pleasing and picturesque—if nothing better—in these narrations; and I shall therefore be glad to find them recurring in your pages, whether their claims are of ancient or later date. Every reader of the vigorous poetry of Ebenezer Elliott, a true member of the genus irritabile, will recollect Miles Gordon "the Ranter" preacher, and how, in the poet's lines,—

"——The great unpaid! the prophet, lo!

Sublime he stands beneath the Gospel tree,

And Edmund stands on Shirecliffe at his side."

The context, too long to quote here, is a passage descriptive of the scenery in the vicinity of Sheffield in one direction, unsurpassed for graphic scope, freshness, and fidelity in the whole range of English rhyme. But the tree? Hundreds of summer visitors climb the hill, and ask that question; and they are pointed to an ash, which stands in a situation conspicuous enough, but which neither the rest of "the trees of the wood," if they could speak, nor the quarryman, who remembers it when a sappling can allow to be the veritable "Gospel tree" of the poet, though, but for this memorandum in "N. & Q.," it might arrive at that distinction in the course of another century. A neighbouring tree, an oak, which those matter-of-fact judges, the trigonometrical surveyors, have marked with a lofty pole, competes with the aforesaid ash for the reverence of pilgrims but its claim is equally apocryphal. If, however, when on the spot, "it is difficult," according to the old adage, "to find the tree for the wood," as I experienced a few days since, it will ever stand conspicuous enough, in the poet's page, and may even serve to divert or recall attention to "Gospel trees," which have more than poetical claim to that appellation.

"Who from the dark and doubtful love to run" (Vol. v., p. 512.).—I presume the lines imperfectly quoted by H. M. are to be found in the "Introduction" to the Parish Register by Crabbe, and which, as the book is before me, I will transcribe:

"Oh! rather give me commentators plain,

Who with no deep researches vex the brain,

Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,

And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun."

S. S. S.

Son of the Conqueror; Walker Tyrrel (Vol. v., p. 512.).—No other son of William the Conqueror, except William Rufus, was slain by an arrow in the New Forest. A grandson, however, of the Conqueror, Richard, son of Robert Duke of Normandy, met with the same fate as Rufus, as stated by the cotemporary chronicler, Florentius Wigornensis. (Edition of the Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 45.) Immediately after describing the death of William Rufus, he says:

"Nam et antea ejusdem Willelmi junioris germanus, Ricardus, in eadem foresta multo ante perierat, et paulo ante suus fratruelis, Ricardus, comitis scilicet Normannorum Rotberti filius, dum et ipse in venatu fuisset, a suo milite sagitta percussus, interiit."

Probably Sir N. Wraxhall or his authority had read this statement hastily, and had construed fratruelis brother instead of nephew, which is the correct sense of the word.

Your correspondent asks further for the authority for the death of William Rufus. Every historian of that day—Florentius Wigornensis and the Saxon chronicler among others—gives the received account of his death, except Suger, a Norman abbot, who says that Sir W. Tyrrel took a solemn oath to him that he was not the slayer of the king, but that the arrow came from an unknown hand.

There can, I think, be little doubt but that Sir W. Tyrrel's was the hand that drew the bow; whether, however, he intended to kill the king or not, is a point which it is probable, after the time that has elapsed, will never be satisfactorily determined.

R. C. C.

Oxon.

Sir Gilbert Gerrard (Vol. v., p. 511.).—I beg to refer Mr. Spedding to Erdeswick's Staffordshire, by Harwood (1820), p. 83., who states that Sir Gilbert Gerrard died in 1592, and that he was buried in Ashley churchyard in that county, under a handsome monument. Probably the inscription on it will give the precise date, and some of your readers may be able to refer to it, and send the communication to "N. & Q." His death must have occurred between January 8, 1592, 34 Elizabeth, the date of his will as given in Dugdale's Baronage, vol. ii. p. 417., and the following April; if Dugdale is right in saying that it was then proved. But on referring to the Baga de Secretis, the contents of which are so excellently calendared by Sir Francis Palgrave in the Appendices to his third, fourth, and fifth reports as deputy-keeper of the Public Records, it appears that Sir Gilbert was named in a commission of Oyer and Terminer, on March 22; that he signed a precept under it for the return of the grand jury, on April 11; and that he signed another precept to the lieutenant of the Tower for bringing up Sir John Perrott before the justices, on June 12, all in 34 Elizabeth, 1592. (Fourth Report, Appendix II. pp. 282, 283.) It would seem, therefore, that Dugdale has erred in the date he assigns to the probate of Sir Gilbert's will. A search, however, at Doctors' Commons will solve the difficulty.

Edward Foss.

Fides Carbonarii (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 283.; Vol. v., p. 523.).—The Collier's Confession of Faith did not originate with Dr. Milner, but is at least three hundred years old. Cardinal Hosius commends it highly (De auctor. sacræ Script.: Opp. fol. 263.: Antverp. 1556), and so does Staphylus likewise (Apologia, fol. 83.: Colon. 1562). Bellarmin gives another version of the narrative, which he has taken from Petrus Barocius (De arte bene moriendi, lib. ii. cap. ix. pp. 200-203.: Antverp. 1620). Your correspondents should not have forgotten the concluding question and answer in what Crakenthorp has styled "The Colliar's Catechisme" (Vigilius Dormitans, p. 187.: Lond. 1631). The entire of the conversation may be represented thus:

"What do you believe?"

"I believe what the Church believes."

"And what does the Church believe?"

"The Church believes what I believe."

"And what do you both believe?"

"The same thing."

R. G.

Line on Franklin (Vol. iv., p. 443.; Vol. v., pp. 17. 549.).—

"Eripuit Jovi fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."

I do not exactly see the object of Mr. Warden's inquiry (if it indeed be one), as your correspondent R. D. H. had already traced it from Cardinal Polignac to Manilius; but, as perhaps Mr. Warden means to inquire where he may have read it, I beg leave to inform him that line was first published as anonymous in the Correspondence de Grimm et de Diderto, April, 1778, and was lately reproduced in the Quarterly Review for June, 1850, with the addition that it was from the pen of Turgot, as the authority, I presume, of the Life, art. Turgot, in the Biographie Universelle.

Meaning of Royd as an Addition to Yorkshire Names (Vol. v., p. 489.).—The glossary to Hulton's Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey at once gives it thus:

"Roda, an assart, or clearing. Rode land is used in this sense in modern German, in which the verb roden means to clear. The combination of the syllable rod, rode, or royd, with some other term, or with the name of an original settler, has, no doubt, given to particular localities such designations as Huntroyd, Ormerod, &c., &c."

See also Lower On Surnames (3rd edit. i. 85.), and an elaborate note in Dr. Whitaker's Whalley, referred to in his account of Ormerod (3rd edit. p. 364.).

In the sense which Dr. W. gives to Rode, or Royd, as "a participial substantive of the provincial verb rid, to clear or grub up," that word will be found singly, or in combination, near forests and chases from the Lancashire Pendle to the Devonshire Dartmoor. It occurs also in Rodmore, Rodleys, &c., in the forest district of Gloucestershire over Severn; and Murray's Handbook may be referred to for Wernigerode, Elbingerode, &c., in the Hartz forest of Germany.

In Lancashire and Yorkshire the adjunct sometimes refers to the early proprietor, as in Monkroyd, Martinrode, &c.; sometimes to the trees ridded, as in Oakenrode, Acroyd, Hollinrode, Holroyd, &c.; sometimes to other characteristics. Instances of all kinds will be found in the Whalley Coucher Book, printed by the Chetham Society.

Lancastriensis.

Binnacle (Vol. v., p. 499.).—This word, which signifies the case or covering of the compass, was until the last thirty years spelled and pronounced "bittacle," and is derived, I should imagine, from the French word habitacle, a little habitation, a hut, a covering. It is almost the only one of our nautical terms which can be traced to a French origin.

C. K.

Plague Stones (Vol. v., p. 500.).—I have not observed that any of your correspondents have noticed the stones near the romantic village of Eyam, about four and a half miles E. N. E. of Tideswell in Derbyshire.

It is well known that this village suffered most severely from the plague; and the inhabitants still revere the memory of their pastor Mr. Nompesson, who nobly refused to desert his flock in the hour of danger, and fell a sacrifice to his devotion. I became acquainted with these stones some years

ago, when on tour through Derbyshire, and, if I remember rightly, they are about two and a half feet high, one foot and a half in diameter, with a hollow place on the top like a dish, in which we were told the money of the "plague village" people was placed for the food, &c. that was brought to this boundary line by the people of the neighbourhood. The cavity in the stone was of course full of water.

J. G. C.

Ramasshed (Vol. iii., p. 347.).—The Fr. ramas (as also ramon) is "boughs formed into a besom or broom," Fr. rameau, from the Lat. ramus. To ramass or ramash is "to put or sweep together, as with a broom." Thus, Hackluyt, in his Preface to the Reader, speaks of volumes "most untruly and unprofitablie ramassed or hurled to." To ramassh is also "to use a ramas or a construction of ramasses" (in the case of Syr R. Guyldford) as a vehicle for conveyance. The sleds first used for carrying travellers safely down steep hills were probably composed of bough-hurdles, afterwards transformed into barrows and other more convenient carriages.

Yankee Doodle (Vol. iv., pp. 344. 392.).—The citizens of the United States do not recognise this, but "Hail, Columbia," as their national air.

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

"Chords that vibrate," &c. (Vol. v., p. 539.).—

"Chords that vibrate sweetest pleasure,

Thrill the deepest notes of woe."

"On Sensibility. To Mrs. Dunlop, of Dunlop."

Burns's Poems, ed. 1800, vol. iv. p. 404.

Edw. Hawkins.

Derivation of Martinique (Vol. v., pp. 11. 165.).—Mr. Philip S. King's statement, that Martinique was discovered on St. Martin's day, is at variance with the account given by the historian of that island, who says that it was discovered on the 15th June, 1502, during Columbus's fourth voyage. The derivation of Martinique from Martin suggests itself so obviously, that, if the discovery had been made on the day (November 11) consecrated to that saint, it is not likely that the local historian would have gone out of his way to fix upon a Caribbean expression, Martinina, as the origin of the name.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

Anthony Babington (Vol. v., p. 344.).—W. Kempe, the author of the Dutiful Invective, must not be confounded (as is frequently the case) with William Kempe the celebrated actor, and the reputed author of Kemp's Nine Daies Wonder. The first-named Kempe was probably a schoolmaster at Plymouth. See the Rev. A. Dyce's Introduction to his reprint of the Nine Daies Wonder (Camden Society, No. 11.).

The Censure of a Loyall Subject, which your correspondent (following Herbert) attributes to Kempe, is well known to have been the production of George Whetstone, whose initials are at the end of the Dedication. A copy may be seen in the Library of Lambeth Palace.

The execution of the "fourteen most wicked traitors" (Ballard, Babbington, Tichbourne, &c.) formed the subject of many ballads and tracts, a few of which I am enabled to enumerate:

1. A Proper New Ballad to the Tune of 'Weep, Weep,' by Thomas Deloney, beginning:

"Rejoice in hart, good people all,

Sing praise to God on hye,

Which hath preserved us by his power,

From traitors tyranny."

Reprinted in Mr. Collier's Old Ballads (Percy Society, No. 1.).

2. "A Ballad of Rejoycinge for the Revealinge of the Quenes Enemyes. Licensed to Edward Alde, August 24, 1586-7."

3. "A Joyfull Songe made by a Citizen of London in the Behalfe of all her Majesties Subjects, touching the Joye for the taking of the Traitors. Licensed to R. Jones, August 27, 1586-7."

4. "A Short Discourse, expressing the Substance of all the late intended Treasons against the Queenes Majestie and Estates of this Realme by Sundrie Traytors, &c. Printed by G. Robinson for Edward White."

This tract contains an interesting ballad by T. Nelson, whom Mr. Collier calls "the ballad-writing bookseller." See Extracts from the Stationers' Registers, vol. ii. p. 214. A copy is preserved in the library of Lambeth Palace.

Edward F. Rimbault.

Seventh Son (Vol. iii. pp. 148. 149.; Vol. v., p. 412.).—Through the information of a friend I awn able to add a curious "modern instance" to my communication printed in the Number of "N. & Q." for May 1. In Saltash Street, Plymouth, my friend copied, on the 10th Dec. 1851, the following inscription on a board, indicating the profession and claims of the inhabitant:—

"A. SHEPHERD,

THE THIRD SEVENTH DAUGHTER,

DOCTRESS."

H. G. T.

Weston-super-Mare.

"Venit ad Euphratem" (Vol. v., p. 512.).—The epigram referred to by your correspondent H. M. runs thus:

"Venit ad Euphratem; rapidis perterritus undis,

Ut cito transivit, corripuit medium."

S. Q.

Sneezing (Vol. v., pp. 364. 500.).—I have often seen, but where I cannot now recollect, that the custom of saying "God bless you!" when any one

sneezed, arose from the fact that in the great plague of Athens sneezing was an unfailing proof of returning convalescence. Your classical readers will remember the anecdote told in the Anabasis of Xenophon (c. ii. sect. i.-v.). I copy from Mitford, who has besides a note to the purpose:

"At daybreak the troops were assembled, and Chirosophus, Cleanor, and Xenophon successively addressed them. An accident, in itself even ridiculous, assisted not a little, through the importance attributed to it by Grecian superstition, to infuse encouragement. Xenophon was speaking of that favour from the gods which a righteous cause entitled them to hope for against a perjured enemy, when somebody sneezed. Immediately the general voice addressed ejaculations to protecting Jupiter, whose omen it was supposed to be. A sacrifice to the god was then proposed; a universal shout declared approbation; and the whole army, in one chorus, sang the Pæan."—History of Greece, vol. v. p. 185. cap. xxiii. sect. iv.: Lond. 1835, 8vo.

We must not, however, forget that when Elisha restored the Shunamite's son to life—

"The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes."—2 Kings, iv. 35.

Rt.

Rents of Assize (Vol. v., p. 188.).—Has not J. G. misquoted? Is not the line—

"Regis ad exemplar, totus componitur orbis."

J. E.

Rochester.

Fire unknown (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 283. 331.).—In An Account of the Native Africans of Sierra Leone, by T. M. Winterbottom: Lond. 1803, 2 vols., occurs the following note to vol. i. p. 75.:—

"It is said that the inhabitants of the Marian or Ladrone islands were ignorant of the use of fire before they were visited by the Spaniards; but even then they were acquainted with the mode of producing intoxication by means of the wine of the cocoa-nut tree."

Zeus.

Newtonian System (Vol. v., p. 490.).—The author of the pamphlet entitled The Theology and Philosophy of Cicero's Somnium Scipionis explained, London, 1751, 8vo., was Bishop Horne. He wrote it before he had attained majority, and many attacks were made upon it. It is not included in the edition of his collected works in 6 vols. 8vo. 1809. Bishop Warburton, who cordially disliked the Hutchinsonians, or, as he styled them, the English Cocceians, mentions this tract in his Letters to Bishop Hurd:

"There is one book, and that no large one, which I would recommend to your perusal; it is called The Theology and Philosophy of Cicero's Somn. Scip. examined. It is indeed the ne plus ultra of Hutchinsonianism. In this twelve-penny pamphlet Newton is proved an atheist and a blockhead. And what would you more?"—Warburton's Letters to Hurd, edit. 1808, 4to. p. 63.

The anecdote as to Newton, Locke, and Lord Pembroke, p. 27., was first told by Whiston, whose character for accuracy does not stand high, particularly when Sir I. Newton, against whom he bore a grudge, is concerned.

Jas. Crossley.

Newton, Cicero, and Gravitation (Vol. v., p. 344.).—Newton is celebrated for having proved that all bodies attract one another with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance. What resemblance has this to a statement, that all bodies gravitate to the centre of the world, or, as explained by Cicero, the earth? which at most only implies its rotundity. Perhaps S. E. B. was joking, like Hegel, when he said that Newton called 5/A² gravitation, and inferred that gravitation varied as 1/A². Otherwise modern philosophers, as e.g. Kepler, would have supplied much nearer approximations to Newton's law.

Altron.

Rhymes on the Names of Places (Vol. v., p. 404.).—I remember hearing the following verse in the neighbourhood of Nottingham:

"Eaton and Taton, and Bramcote o' th' hill,

Beggarly Beeston, and lousy Chilwell;

Waterside Wilford, hey little Lenton!

Ho fine Nottingham! Colwick and Snenton."

The villages whose names occur are all within a few miles of Nottingham.

The following rhyme I have also heard:

"Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred,

Strong i' th' arm and weak i' the head."

R. C. C.

Oxon.

Saint Wilfrid's Needle (Vol. v., p. 510.), where, according to Burton, "they used to try maids whether they were honest," is not, as B. B. supposes, a stone, but a narrow passage in the crypt beneath the central tower of Ripon Minster. This crypt is of Saxon workmanship, and is probably either a part of the original church built by Saint Wilfrid, or "the new work," which, according to Leland—

"Odo, Archebishop of Cantewarbyri ... causid to be edified, wher the Minstre now is."

This passage is said to have been used as a place of ordeal through which maidens of suspected honesty were caused to pass,—a feat which none but a virgin could accomplish.

K. P. D. E.

"Measure for Measure," Act I. Sc. 1. (Vol. v., p. 535.).—I should be sorry to cast a cloud over the satisfactory elucidation which A. E. B. flatters himself he has made of a passage in Measure for Measure, for, if not convincing, it is unquestionably ingenious. I am afraid, however, there is one fatal objection, of which, when pointed out, I

doubt not your correspondent will see the force. He says, "the demonstrative pronoun that, refers to the commission which the Duke holds in his hand;" but is this the language we in England use? Until the Duke presented the commission,—the act indicated by the words "there is our commission,"—there cannot indeed be much doubt that he held it in his hand; and while he did so, he would as certainly have said this, as I speak of this pen with which I write.

Your correspondent challenges comment in assuming that his explanation was satisfactory enough to preclude all correction. At the same time I must confess I am altogether sceptical with regard to Mr. Halliwell's verb. As, however, he has excited our curiosity, he will doubtless not object to satisfy it. Mr. Singer's suggestion seems to me worthy of consideration; but, after all, I feel that there is a degree of incoherency in the passage, and so unsatisfactory a connexion between the words "and let them work" and that which precedes, that I cannot help recurring to the idea that a line has been lost,—an accident of not very uncommon occurrence.

Samuel Hickson.

St. John's Wood.

"Stunt with false care," &c. (Vol. v., p. 538.).—The lines alluded to, though the first of them is incorrectly quoted, are from George Cox's brilliant satire, Black Gowns and Red Coats; or, Oxford in 1834, respecting which some information was recently furnished by your correspondents S. F. C. (Vol. v., p. 297.) and C. W. B. (Vol. v., p. 332.) in reply. The work is perhaps sufficiently scarce to warrant the citation of the whole passage, which occurs at the commencement of Part V.:

"When Philip's son, in all a monarch's pride,

With tempting boons approach'd the barrel's side,

Full in the sun his glitt'ring trains display'd,

And sought to cumber with officious aid,

The Cynic sneer'd, and only begg'd in spite

The free enjoyment of the beams of light.

Such were the humble prayer, the meek request

That Oxford's sons might ask their tyrants best;

The full out-pouring on their blinded youth

Of Nature's sunbeams, and the light of truth,

Rest from the burking systems of the sect,

Who kill with care more fatal than neglect,

Who twist with force unnatural aside

The straight young branches in their heaven-ward pride,

With culture spoil what else would flourish wild,

And rock the cradle till they bruise the child."

The poem in question, which is equal in talent to anything that has appeared since the days of Pope, was published by Ridgway in 1834, but is now rarely to be met with, though I never heard of its being suppressed.

G. T. D.

The Lines on Chaucer (Vol. v., p. 536.).—The lines about which Eliza inquires are not quoted by her quite correctly. They are by Mr. W. J. Fox, and may be found in the little volume entitled Hymns and Anthems (published by Chas. Fox, 1845), used at the Unitarian Chapel in South Place, Finsbury. No. CXXIII. begins thus:

"Britain's first poet,

Famous old Chaucer,

Swan-like in dying,

Sang his last song,

When at his heart-strings

Death's hand was strong," &c.

Jaydee.

Will O' the Wisp (Vol. v., p. 511.).—Will O' the Wisp still lives by the banks of Trent; but alas! his reign is almost over. Fifty years ago he might be seen nightly dancing over bog and brake; but since the process of warping has been discovered, which has made valuable property of what was before a morass, nearly the whole of the commons between Gainsborough and the Humber have been brought into cultivation, and the drainage consequent thereon has nearly banished poor Will.

Any person wishing to make his acquaintance would probably succeed, if he were to pass a night next November on Brumby or Scotton common.

K. P. D. E.