Replies to Minor Queries.
The two Gilberts de Clare (Vol. v., p. 439.).—In reference to No. 2. of "Irish Queries", as to the relationship which existed between the two Gilberts de Clare, Earls of Gloucester, I beg to send you the information required by your correspondent Mac an Bhaird.
| Gilbertus Co. Gloucest. & Hertf.: obiit 14 Henr. 3. | = | Isabella, tertia natu filiarium & cohær. Will. Mareschalli Co. Pembr. | ||
| Ricardus, Co. Gloucest. & Hertf.: obiit 46 Henr. 3. | = | Matilda, filia Joh. de Laci Comit. Lincoln ux. 2. | ||
| Gilbertus, Comes Glouc. & Hertf. cogn. Rufus, ob. 24 Ed. 1. | = | Joanna de Acres, filia Regis Ed. 1. | ||
| /|\ | ||||
See also Miller's Catalogue of Honor, pp. 369-373.; Vincent's Errours of Brooke, pp. 122, 123.; Yorke's Union of Honour, pp. 109, 110.
Farnham.
Farnham, Cavan.
Baxter's Shove, &c. (Vol. v., p. 416.).—I fear it may savour somewhat of presumption in me to offer the following remarks to one who confesses himself to be a collector of Baxter's works; but if they afford no information to your correspondent Mr. Clark, they may probably prove acceptable to other less sedulous inquirers after the writings of this truly pious man.
Baxter, in his enthusiastic zeal in the cause of religion, did not hesitate to append to some of his popular tracts, titles more calculated to excite the curiosity of the vulgar than engage the attention of the refined reader; as the age became more enlightened, this breach of propriety was discontinued, and these records of genius and piety have been since reprinted under more appropriate appellations. If I am not misinformed, the title of Baxter's Shove has undergone this transformation, and now appears under that of The Call to the Unconverted.
The two following works are doubtless familiar to your correspondent, viz.: Crumbs of Grace for &c., and Hooks and Eyes to &c. I think the former is the original title to The Saint's Rest; but as to the latter, I am not able to say whether it has been issued under any new name or not.
M. W. B.
Frebord (Vol. v., pp. 440. 548.).—In some, if not in all, of the manors in this vicinity in which this right exists, the quantity of ground claimed as frebord is thirty feet in width from the set of the hedge.
Leicestriensis.
Devil (Vol. v., p. 508.).—If Διάβολος was used as an equivalent for Adversarius, I should say that "the rendering would be accurate" in no slight degree; especially when understood in the juridical sense. But the "adversarius in judicio" is the character of the Hebrew Satan in Job, c. i. and ii., and Zechariah, c. iii.; and the same appears clearly in Revelations, c. 12:
"The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."
The term διάβολος adds, to that of κατήγορος, the idea of falsehood and injustice, essential to the accuser of the Saints, but not expressed in the latter word. Why the word should mean "a supernatural agent of evil," I cannot form the slightest idea. The name of a thing does not express all which that thing is! Physician does not mean a natural agent of good. As little can I understand how the correctness of a derivation can form "a case of ecclesiastical usage."
With what words, manifestly and analogically Greek, but yet clearly derived in reality from the vague sources termed Oriental, nay even from Hebrew, are "the Septuagint and Greek Testament replete?" I say "clearly," because one paradoxical conjecture cannot obtain support from others.
I am surprised that Mr. Littledale should be struck by the "similarity" of the gipsy word Debel, "God," "and our word devil," after himself admitting that our word is diabolos, and confining his attack to that "first link in the chain."
I will add a very few words on the other point, though not relevant. What is holy at one time, becomes the direct contrary in subsequent times and circumstances. Homer's Minerva ascended to heaven μετὰ δαίμονας ἄλλους, among the other dæmons. But that word in modern Europe means a devil of hell. Deva and Devi are (I believe) god and goddess in Sanskrit. Div, in Persian (Mr. L. says), is a wizard or dæmon. I have no Zend Avesta at hand: but we require to know whether Div had a decidedly evil and Ahrimanian sense, in the language of the dualistic Pagan ages; or only in Ferdoosi and the like. If afriti is "blessed" in Zend, and "a devil" in Arabic, I again ask whether the allusion be to the literary remains of Arabic polytheism, or to Islam? I suspect the latter; and so, it would come to nothing.
A. N.
I think Mr. Littledale's difficulty about the same Hebrew word's representing both Διάβολος and Adversarius is, on the contrary, rather a confirmation of the old derivation. Had he forgotten that "the Adversary" is often technically used for the Devil? Surely there can be no more doubt that Devil comes from Diavolo, and that from Διάβολος, than that journal comes from giorno, and that from diurnus.
C.
Mummy Wheat (Vol. v., p. 538.).—Having a few grains of mummy wheat in my possession, I send you the following information concerning it, with a portion thereof as sample. About three years ago, when in New York, I purchased, at a sale of the Hon. Judge Furman's effects, a small parcel which was stated in his own writing to be "Egyptian wheat such as is mentioned in Scripture, and taken out of a mummy case."
I planted a few of the grains in a flower-pot, and they came up in an apparently very healthy and flourishing manner, with an appearance similar to that represented in Scriptural illustrations as Egyptian corn. But after attaining a height of about two inches, I noticed that it began to grow sickly, and in a short time afterwards died away. Upon examining the mould I found some of the grains still there; but they looked as though some very minute insect had eaten away the entire heart, leaving the shell only. It seemed to me that such insect must have been within, and not entered the grain from without.
Lately I have again tried in my garden a few of the grains I had reserved from the original stock. These, however, have not come up at all; and I find, on uprooting them, that the same sort of decay had taken place as occurred in New York. I am not able to forward you any of the husks, for they are now rotted: but I thought that some of your readers and your last correspondent might feel interested in knowing other attempts had also been made to rear mummy wheat.
S.
Meadow Cottage, Ealing.
[We have placed the grains forwarded by our Correspondent in the hands of a skilful horticulturist; and will publish the result.—Ed.]
Nacar (Vol. v., p. 536.).—This word is not, I believe, a name appropriated to any one particular shell, but is the term used for the pearl-like substance which, in greater or smaller quantities, forms the lining of many shells. This substance, frequently called mother-of-pearl, exhibits in some species a beautiful play of colours, said to be due to a particular arrangement of the particles. The words naker and nacreous—with nacar Spanish, nacchera Italian, and nacre French—are given
in Webster's Dictionary, 2 vols. 4to., London 1832. The beard, or byssus, found in a few genera only, as Avicula, Mytilus, Pinna, and some others, is strong and silky, formed of numerous fibres produced from a gland near the foot of the soft animal, and employed by it to form an attachment to rocks or other objects. In Sicily this is sometimes made into gloves or stockings, more for curiosity than use. A byssus now before me measures six inches in length, is delicately soft and glossy, varying in colour from a rich dark brown to golden yellow, and is nearly as fine as the production of the silk-worm. Byssine is an old name for fine silk.
Wm. Yarrell.
Mistletoe (Vol. v., p. 534.).—Mr. Jesse, in his agreeable and instructive Scenes and Tales of Country Life, has devoted a chapter of eight pages to the mistletoe, giving a list of more than forty different species of trees and shrubs upon which this parasitic plant has been found, with many localities. In this list the white, gray, black, and Lombardy poplars are included. The mistletoe is there stated to have been found growing on the oak near Godalming, Surrey; at Penporthleuny, parish of Goitre, Monmouthshire; also on one near Usk, and another at St. Dials near Monmouth.
Wm. Yarrell.
The Number Seven (Vol. v., p. 532.).—The reply to the Query of Mr. Edwards is, that sheva, "seven," is used indefinitely for much or frequently in Ruth iv. 15., 1 Sam. ii. 5., Is. iv. 1., Jer. xv. 9., and Ezech. xxxix. 9. 12.; also in Prov. xxiv. 16., where, however, it may refer to seven witnesses or pledges, as in Gen. xxi. 28-30. Compare Herodotus, l. 3. c. 8. on the seven stones of the Arabs, with Homer's Iliad, l. 19. v. 243. on the seven tripods of Agamemnon. In Arabic and Hebrew the word seva means finished, completed, satiated, as in Ezech. xvi. 28, 29. and Hos. iv. 10. Seven, as an astronomical period, is known to most nations, and has been from times prior to history. Clemens Alex. (Stromat. lib. vi. p. 685., Paris, 1629) says the moon's phases are changed every seven days. Seleucus, the mathematician, he also says distinguished seven phases of that luminary. He notices the seven planets, seven angels, seven stars in the Pleiades and in the Great Bear, seven tones in music, seventh days in diseases, and gives an elegant elegy of Solon on the changes of every seven years in man's life. Clemens (lib. v. p. 600., Paris, 1629) has accumulated a variety of passages from ancient poets on the sacredness of the seventh day. Cicero, in the Somnium Scipionis, speaks of seven as "numerus rerum fere omnium nodus est." The following have treated on this mystic number: Fabii Paulini Hebdomades, sive septem de septenario libri; Omeisius de Numero septenario; Philo, de Mundi opificio; Macrobius, in Somnio Scipionis, l. 50. c. 6.; Gellius, Noct. Attic. l. 3. 10.; Censorinus de die Natali, c. 7.; and Eusebius, de Praep. Evang. l. 13. c. 12. The Hebrews commemorated their seventh day, a seventh week (Pentecost), the seventh month (commencing their civil year), the seventh year (for fallowing the land), and the seven times seventh year, or jubilee.
T. J. Buckton.
Bristol Road, Birmingham.
Gabriel Hounds (Vol. v., p. 534.).—The term occurs in Mr. Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, &c., vol. i. p. 388., with the following, explanation:—
"At Wednesbury, in Staffordshire, the colliers going to their pits early in the morning hear the noise of a pack of hounds in the air, to which they give the name of Gabriel's Hounds, though the more sober and judicious take them only to be wild geese making this noise in their flight.—Kennett, MS. Lansd. 1033."
The species here alluded to is the Bean Goose Anser segetum, of authors. A few of them breed in Scotland and its islands, but by far the larger portion breed still farther north, in Scandinavia. Of the various birds which resort to this country to pass the winter season the Bean Goose is one of the first. I have seen very large flocks in Norfolk early in September, where they feed on the stubbles. I have good authority for their appearance in Gloucestershire, in the vicinity of the Severn, by the last week in August. This is in accordance with the habits of this goose in some parts of the Continent; Sonnerat and M. de Selis Longchamps calling it L'oie des moissons, or Harvest Goose. They are frequently very noisy when on the wing during the night, and the sound has been compared to that of a pack of hounds in full cry.
Wm. Yarrell.
Burial (Vol. v., p. 509.).—To the names already given of those interred in ground not consecrated, may be added that of the eccentric Samuel Johnson, formerly a dancing-master, but through his talent, wit, and gentlemanly manners, became the guest and table companion of the principal families of Cheshire.
He is not mentioned in Chalmers's Biog. Dict., and but very meagrely in that of Rose. The best notice of him is in the Biographia Dram., ed. 1812, as the author of Hurlothrumbo: or the Supernatural, and five other dramatic pieces, the first of which took an amazing run, owing to the whimsical madness and extravagance which pervade through the whole piece. Besides these, he is the writer of another strange mystical work, which, as I do not find it anywhere mentioned, I will give the title of, from my copy now before me:
"A Vision of Heaven, which is introduc'd with Essays upon Happiness, a Description of the Court, the Characters of the Quality: Politics, Manners, Satyr, Wit, Humour, Pastoral, Sublimity, Extasy, Love, Fire, Fancy and Taste Universal. Written by Mr. Samuel Johnson. Lond., for E. Withers, &c., where may be had Hurlothrumbo, 1738." 8vo., two neat engravings, and six pages of music.
The compilers of the Biog. Dram. state that they had not discovered the date of his death; but we learn from Hanshall's Hist. of the County Palatine of Chester: 1817, 4to. p. 515., that he died in 1773, aged eighty-two, and was buried in the plantation forming part of the pleasure-grounds of the Old Hall at Gawsworth, near Macclesfield, in Cheshire. Over his remains is a stone (now there) with an inscription, stating that he was so buried at his own desire.
F. R. A.
Marvell's Life and Works (Vol. v., pp. 439. 513.).—I thought the question proposed by J. G. F. had been answered to the satisfaction of all unprejudiced minds by the remarks on this subject published long ago. (See Gentleman's Magazine, vols. xlvi. & xlvii.; Retrospective Review, vol. xi., &c.) I say all unprejudiced minds; for I confess that, although I am strongly prejudiced in favour of Marvell, yet the internal evidence of the poems in question is so strongly against Marvell, that I am compelled to resign them to their rightful owner. Any careful reader of poetry must acknowledge that every feature in the style is Addison's. Captain Thompson's having found them in MSS. in Marvell's own hand, is no proof of parentage, as in the same MSS. is one which undoubtedly belongs to Mallet, and another which has been proved to be from the pen of Dr. Watts.
My chief reason, however, for intruding on your space is for the purpose of correcting a mistake into which all the biographers of Marvell have fallen, as to the time and place of his birth. It is again and again stated, without any correction, that he was born at Hull, on the 15th November, 1620. That he was not born at Hull I am at length reluctantly compelled to believe; and that the date of his birth is "March 2, 1621," I can prove from authorised documents in my own possession, copied from MS. in his father's hand-writing.
With reference to Mr. Crossley's hope that a new edition of his works might soon be published, I may say that a new biography of Marvell, with a selection from his works by a townsman, is already in the press.
Jos. A. Kidd.
Hull.
The Death-Watch (Vol. v., p. 537.).—A good account of this small insect will be found in the second volume of the Introduction to Entomology by Messrs. Kirby and Spence. A chapter is devoted to the "Noises produced by Insects."
"In old houses, where these insects abound, they may be heard in warm weather during the whole day. The noise is produced by raising the head, and striking the hard mandibles against wood.
"Thus sings the muse of the witty Dean of St. Patrick on the subject:
——————————'a wood worm[[3]]
That lies in the old wood, like a hare in her form:
With teeth or with claws it will bite or will scratch,
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:
Because like a watch it always cries click;
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick!
For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost,
If the maggot cries click, when it scratches the post;
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected,
Infallibly cures the timber affected:
The omen thus broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover.'"
The kettle of scalding hot water is also very useful in houses infested with ants or black-beetles.
Wm. Yarrell.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
A small beetle, the Anobium tesselatum of Fabricius.
The Query of M. W. B. reminds me of a family bereavement that followed the visit of this insect to my father's homestead. The ticking was heard in a closet, which opened out of the drawing-room. I first discovered it; and was struck with the fact that it occasionally altered the interval which formed the standard of the beats, though with one standard the beats remained punctually uniform. On examination, I found a very tiny insect, in shape like an elongated spider, whose "hind leg" kept beat with the sound; so I suppose that member to have been the instrument by which the ticking was effected. The family bereavement that ensued was the total extinction of the last dying embers of our faith in this world-famed omen; for unhappily, in this instance, no death ensued in our domestic circle.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
The Rabbit as a Symbol (Vol. v., p. 487.).—It will be remembered that Richard of the Lion Heart, on his way to the Holy Land, proceeded to Sicily, where he played all manner of rough fantastic tricks, to the infinite disgust of the king and people of the island. On pretence of certain assumed claims, but the rather pour passer le temps, our Achilles and his myrmidons fixed a quarrel upon the reigning sovereign, Tancred the Bastard, whose immediate predecessor, William the Good, had married Joanna[[4]], Richard's sister; took forcible possession of an important fortress; turned the monks out of a monastery whose situation was convenient for the purposes of his commissariat; and at last, by an act of most unjustifiable aggression, laid siege to the city and castle of Messina,
on whose walls was soon triumphantly planted the royal banner of the Plantagenets. Now the hare and rabbit frequently occur upon the coins of Spain and Sicily, of which countries they were, indeed, the particular and well-recognised symbols. (Fosb. Ency. Antiq., pp. 722. 728.); and I would suggest that the device in question has reference to Richard's proceedings in the latter kingdom, which, in an age whose acknowledged principle was that "Might makes Right," would be looked upon as redounding vastly to his credit and renown, and most worthy, therefore, of commemoration amongst the other emblematic representations which give so remarkable a character to the monumental effigies at Rouen. Regarding it in this point of view, there appears to be much inventive significancy in this device, and the exercise of a little ingenuity would soon, I think, render manifest the peculiar applicability of its "singular details" to the circumstances of Richard's transactions with Tancred, as they are presented to us by our own chroniclers.
The appearance of this symbol or device of a rabbit, upon old examples of playing cards, as referred to by Symbol, is easily accounted for. These "devil's books" came to us originally from Spain; and in ancient cards of that country, columbines were Spades, rabbits[[5]] Clubs, pinks Diamonds, and roses Hearts.—Fosb. ut sup., p. 602.
Cowgill.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
This lady afterwards married Raymond, Count de St. Gilles, son of the Count of Toulouse. Eleanora, another of Richard's sisters, married Alphonso, third king of Castile.
The Clubs, in Spanish cards, are not, as with us, trefoils, but cudgels, i. e. bastos: the Spades are swords, i. e. espadas.—Fosb. ut sup.; see the plate of "Sports, Amusements," &c.
Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Irish Coast (Vol. v., p. 491.).—A fair account of this eventful visitation may be expected from the Annals of the Four Masters, a work compiled within forty years of the occurrence, and not near so many miles removed from the waters over which most of its fatalities were felt:
"A large fleet (says this work) consisting of eight sure ships, came on the sea from the King of Spain this year (1588), and some say it was their intention to take harbour and land on the coasts of England should they obtain an opportunity; but in that they did not succeed, for the Queen's fleet encountered them at sea, and took four of their ships, and the rest of the fleet was scattered and dispersed along the coasts of the neighbouring countries, viz., on the eastern side of England, on the north-eastern shores of Scotland, and on the north-western coast of Ireland. A great number of the Spaniards were drowned in those quarters, their ships having been completely wrecked; and the smaller proportion of them returned to Spain, and some assert that 9,000 of them were lost on that occasion."
This narrative is utterly innocent of the wholesale, or of any execution of the unfortunate invaders; and, in truth, our Lord Deputies have too much to answer for, without throwing the barbarism of such a massacre upon one of them. Some colouring is, however, given to the charge by the writings of Smith, History of Kerry; Cox, Hibernia Anglicana; and even Leland, History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 322. The deviation of these Spaniards northwards can be, I think, accounted for by the discomfitures they sustained from the English and Dutch fleets, who so kept the seas east and south of England, as to make a circuit round the Orkney Islands, with a descent to the westward of Ireland, the most advisable, though as it proved, not the less dangerous line of return.
John D'Alton.
48. Summer Hill, Dublin.
Second Exhumation of King Arthur's Remains (Vol. v., p. 490.).—The details of the circumstances attending the first (I am not aware of any second) exhumation of these remains at Glastonbury in 1189, have been transmitted to us by Giraldus Cambrensis, who saw both the bones and the inscription, by the Monk of Glastonbury, and, briefly, by William of Malmesbury, all cotemporaries with the event. Sharon Turner, in his History of the Anglo-Saxons, 8vo. edit., 1823, vol. i. pp. 279-282., gives a full account, from these and other authorities, of this remarkable discovery.
Cowgill.
Etymology of Mushroom (Vol. iii., p. 166.).—Dr. Rimbault states that the earliest example with which he is acquainted of this word, being spelt mushrump, occurs in the following passage in Robert Southwell's Spirituall Poems, 1595:
"He that high growth on cedars did bestow,
Gave also lowly mushrumps leave to growe."
I suppose that this word has been derived from Maesrhin, one of the names of the mushroom in Welsh. As the meanings of the word rhin are "a channel," "a virtue," "a secret," "a charm," none of which are applicable to a mushroom, I conjecture that it is a corruption of the word rhum (also spelt rhump), but I am unable to mention an instance of the word being spelt by any Welsh writer of ancient times. The etymology which I suggest is maesrhum; from maes, "a field," and rhum, "a thing which bulges out." This meaning very nearly resembles that of the French name of one kind of mushroom, champignon.
S. S. S. (2.)
The Grave of Cromwell (Vol. v., p. 477.).—Mr. Oliver Pemberton has referred your correspondent A. B. to Lockinge's Naseby for an account of the Protector's funeral and probable burial on the field of Naseby. As the volume may not be very generally known, would A. B. like a summary of Mr. Lockinge's ten 12mo. pages? or could you, Mr. Editor, spare room for the whole? Mastin, in his History of Naseby, alludes to the doubts that have been expressed
"relative to the funeral-place of the Protector Cromwell", and quotes a passage from Banks's Life of Cromwell, but gives no opinion thereon.
Este.
Edmund Bohun (Vol. v., p. 539.).—Of Edmund Bohun's Historical Collections, in eight vols. folio, I became the purchaser at Mr. Bright's sale. They consist of a most curious and interesting collection of the newspapers, ballads, tracts, broadsides of the period (1675-92) in regular series, bound up with original MS. documents, and with a manuscript correspondence with Bohun from Hickes, Roger, Coke, Charlotte, and others, relating to the politics and news of the day. If your correspondent Mr. Rix, from whom I am glad to find we are to expect the private Diary of Bohun, wishes for a more particular description of the volumes, I shall be happy to furnish it.
Jas. Crossley.
Sneezing (Vol. v., pp. 369. 500.).—D'Israeli, in the first series of the Curiosities, in a paper on the custom of saluting persons after sneezing, says:
"A memoir of the French Academy notices the practice in the New World, on the first discovery of America."
A relation of mine tells me, that when young, he once fell down in a fit after a violent sneeze; the "Cryst helpe" may therefore not be totally superfluous!
A. A. D.
Braem's Memoires (Vol. v., pp. 126. 543.).—Permit me to inform Mr. J. F. L. Coenen that the MS. volume containing Braem's Memoires Touchant le Commerce, &c., is at Oxford, in the library of Sir Robert Taylor's Institution, where it may be seen and consulted, but cannot be disposed of. Mr. Coenen is thanked for his obliging information.
J. M.
Portrait of Mesmer (Vol. v., p. 418.).—I beg to inform Sigma there is a very good engraved profile (bust) of Mesmer in a German work by him, entitled Mesmerismus, oder System der Wechselwirkungen, &c., published at Berlin in 1814, in 1 vol. 8vo., a copy of which is now before me.
J. M.