Replies to Minor Queries.
Royal Assent, &c. (Vol. vi., p. 556.).—
1. No such forms as those referred to by Clarendon are usual now.
2. The last time the prerogative of rejecting a bill, after passing both Houses of Parliament, was exercised, was in 1692, when William III. refused his assent to the bill for Triennial Parliaments. Two years after, however, he was induced to allow the bill to become the law of the land.
J. R. W.
Bristol.
Can Bishops vacate their Sees? (Vol. v., p. 156.).—R. C. C., in his reply to this Query of K. S., writes, that he has never heard of any but Dr. Pearce who wished so to do.
There is another instance in the case of Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, who, having failed in his attempt to exchange his bishopric for some canonry or headship at Oxford, applied to the Secretary of State for his majesty's permission to resign his bishopric.
So extraordinary a petition excited his majesty's curiosity, and caused his inquiry from whence it came; when, learning that the person was his old acquaintance, Dr. Berkeley, he declared that he should die a bishop in spite of himself, but gave him full power to choose his own place of residence. This was in 1753.
The above is taken from Bp. Mant's History of the Church of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 534.
Rubi.
"Genealogies of the Mordaunt Family," by the Earl of Peterborough (Vol. vi., p. 553.).—Bridges, in his History of Northamptonshire, vol. ii. p. 252., states that twenty-four copies of the work were printed. There is a large paper copy of the work, in the library at Drayton House, the former seat of the Mordaunts, now the property of W.B. Stopford, Esq.
J. B.
Niágara, or Niagára? (Vol. vi., p. 555.).—An enthusiastic person, of the name of Pemberton (who had spent much time at the Falls, and was so enthusiastic in his admiration of them that he protested he could not keep away from them, and went back and died there), informed me that the proper name was Ni-ágara or aghera,—two Indian words signifying "Hark to the thunder."
J. G.
Maudlin (Vol. vi., p. 552.).—Your Massachusetts correspondent comes a long way for information which he might surely have obtained on his own side of the Atlantic. Dr. Johnson says, "Maudlin is the corrupt appellation of Magdalen, who is drawn by painters with swollen eyes and disordered look." And do we not know that Magdalene College is always called Maudlin, and that Madeleine is the French orthography? very closely resembling our vernacular pronunciation?
J. G.
Spiritual Persons employed in Lay Offices (Vol. vi., pp. 376. 567.).—Your correspondents W. and E. H. A. seem to have overlooked the modern instances of this practice, which the London Gazette has recently recorded, in
announcing the appointment of several clergymen as deputy-lieutenants. This is an office which is so far of a military character, that it is supposed to place the holder in the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and certainly entitles him to wear a military uniform. If these members of the "church militant" should be presented at Her Majesty's Court in their new appointment, will they appear in their clerical or military habit?
Ω. Φ.
Passage in Burke (Vol. vi., p. 556.).—The reply to Quando Tandem's Query is given, I imagine, by Burke himself, in a passage which occurs only a few lines after that which has been quoted:
"Little did I dream that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom."
This means, I suppose, that Marie Antoinette carried a dagger, with which, more Romano, she would have committed suicide, had her brutal persecutors assaulted her.
Alfred Gatty.
Ensake and Cradock Arms (Vol. vi., p. 533.).—In a pedigree of the family of Barnwell, of Cransley in Northamptonshire, now before me, I find emblazoned the arms of Ensake: Paly of six azure and or, on a bend sable three mullets pierced. Cradock: Argent, three boars' heads couped sable armed or.
G. A. C.
Sich House (Vol. vi., pp. 363. 568.).—Sike or syke, a word in common use in the south of Scotland, and on the Border, meaning a small water run. In Jamieson's Dictionary it is spelt "Sike, syik, syk, a rill or rivulet; one that is usually dry in summer; a small stream or rill; a marshy bottom with a small stream in it."
J. S.s.
Americanisms so called (Vol. vi., p. 554.).—The word bottom, signifying a piece of low ground, whether upon a stream of water or not, is English. I recollect two places at this moment (both dry), in the county of Surrey, to which the word is applied, viz. Smitham Bottom, to the north of Reigate, through which the railway runs; and Boxhill Bottom, a few miles to the westward, in the same range of chalk hills.
Sparse and sparsely, it is said by Uneda of Philadelphia, are Americanisms. This, however, is not so. There is a Query on the word sparse in Vol. i., p. 215. by C. Forbes: and on p. 251. of the same volume J. T. Stanley supposes it to be an Americanism, on the authority of the Penny Cyclopædia.
I have a strong conviction that I then wrote to "N. & Q." to claim the word sparse as aboriginal to the British Isles, for I find memoranda I had made at the time on the margin of my Jamieson's Dictionary on the subject; but I do not find that what I then wrote had been printed in "N. & Q."
In the Supplement to Jamieson's Dictionary is the following: "Spars, Sparse, adj. widely spread; as, 'sparse writing' is wide open writing, occupying a large space." The word is in common use throughout the south of Scotland.
I have come to be of opinion that there are few, if any, words that are real Americanisms, but that (except where the substance or the subject is quite modern) almost every word and expression now in use among the Anglo-Americans may be traced to some one of the old provincial dialects of the British Isles.
J. S.s.
The Folger Family (Vol. vi., p. 583.).—I do not know whether there are any of that name in Wales, but there was a family of that name near Tregony in Cornwall some years ago, and may be now. I am not quite certain whether they spell it Folger or Fulger, but rather think the latter was the mode of spelling it.
S. Jennings-G.
Wake Family (Vol. vi., p. 290.).—The Rev. Robert Wake was vicar of Ogbourne, St. Andrew, Wilts, from 1703 to 1715, N.S., during which time he had these children:—Thomas, born the 17th of July, 1706, and baptized on the 28th of the same month; Elizabeth and Anne, both baptized on the 16th of July, 1711.
Arthur R. Carter.
Camden Town.
Shakspeare's "Twelfth Night" (Vol. vi., p. 584.).—Agreeing with Mr. Singer in his doubts regarding the propriety of changing the word case into face, in the line,—
"When time hath sow'd a grizzle on thy case"—
I would instance a passage in Measure for Measure, where Angelo says—
"O place! O form!
How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
Wrench awe from fools," &c.
W. C.
Electrical Phenomena (Vol. vi., p. 555.).—The case recorded by Adsum is not at all an infrequent one, and the phenomena alluded to have been noticed for a very long period, and are of very common occurrence in dry states of the atmosphere. The following, from Daniel's Introduction to Chemical Philosophy (a most useful work for general readers), will probably explain all that Adsum is desirous of knowing:
"It was first observed by Otto de Guericke and Hawsbee, that the friction of glass and resinous substances not only produced the phenomena which we have just described (those of vitreous and resinous electricity), but, under favourable circumstances, was accompanied by a rustling or crackling noise; and, when the experiment was made in a dark room, by flashes and sparks of light upon their surfaces. When once the attention has been directed to the observation, most persons will find that such phenomena of electrical light are familiar occurrences, and often present themselves in suddenly drawing off from the person a silk stocking, or a flannel waistcoat, or in the friction of long hair by combing. How small a degree of friction is sufficient to excite electricity in the human body, is shown in a striking way by placing a person upon an insulating stool (with glass legs). If in such a position he place his finger upon a gold-leaf electrometer, and another person flip him lightly with a silk handkerchief, the leaves will immediately repel each other" (resinous electricity has been excited).—Page 205. par. 307.
S. Jennings-G.
Daubuz Family (Vol. vi., p. 527.).—Where are the descendants of this worthy family (Daubuz)? It may possibly give Mr. Corser a clue to the information he desires, if I tell him that there is a very respectable family of that name in Cornwall. One lives in the neighbourhood of Truro, and a brother is vicar of Creed, near Grampound, Cornwall. The father of these gentlemen was the first of the family, I believe, who resided in Cornwall, where he amassed a large fortune from his connexion with mining speculations.
S. Jennings-G.
Lord Nelson (Vol. vi., p. 576.).—I am obliged to Mr. Kersley for giving me an opportunity of reconciling my statement respecting Dr. Scott (Vol. vi., p. 438.) with the inscription on Mr. Burke's monument. Both, I believe, are true. I quote from the Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson, by William Beatty, M.D. &c. The copy of this work which is before me has the following in Sir W. Beatty's own handwriting: "To the Rev. Doctor Scott, with every sentiment of regard, by his friend and messmate, the author." In this "narrative," Dr. Scott and Mr. Burke are generally described as personally attending on Lord Nelson from the time of his being brought down into the cockpit. And at p. 50. it is said: "Doctor Scott and Mr. Burke, who had all along sustained the bed under his shoulders," &c.: and again at p. 51. "His lordship breathed his last at thirty minutes past four o'clock: at which period Dr. Scott was in the act of rubbing his lordship's breast, and Mr. Burke supporting the bed under his shoulders." All this is represented in West's beautiful picture, which hangs, in a bad light, in the hall of Greenwich Hospital.
There is another claimant for the honour of having been Nelson's last nurse, whose name I forget. His pretensions are recorded on a tablet to his memory in the chapel of Greenwich Hospital. Dr. Scott's daughter, who was with me there one day, remonstrated on the subject with old blue jacket who lionised us. And I put in the lady's right to speak with some authority. But "what is writ is writ," was enough for our guide: we could make nothing of him, for he fought our arguments as if they had been so many guns of the enemy.
Alfred Gatty.
Robes and Fees in the Days of Robin Hood (Vol. vi., p. 479.).—In translating the ordinances and statutes against maintainers and conspirators, Mr. Lewellyn Curtis more than once translates "gentz de pais," by "persons of peace." This is a material error: it should be "of the country;" "pays," not "paix." For the subject referred to, Mr. Foss's Judges of England, vol. iii., should be consulted.
J. Bt.
Wray (Vol. iv., p. 164.).—In one of the Wray pedigrees in Burke's Landed Gentry, it is stated that the Yorkshire family of that name originally resided in Coverdale in Richmondshire.
In Clarkson's History of Richmond is a pedigree of the "Wrays," which commences (if I rightly recollect) with an ancestor (six or eight years before him) of Sir Christopher Wray, of whose fore-elders, some lived at St. Nicholas, near to Richmond.
I have traced a family of the name of Wray or Wraye for three centuries back, in Wensleydale, and at Coverham in Coverdale (both in Richmondshire), but am unable to connect it by direct evidence with either of the pedigrees above referred to; and should be much obliged for any information touching any part of the family in Richmondshire, particularly such as might aid in showing the relation of the several branches to one another.
With reference to the origin of the name, I may mention, that there is a valley called Raydale, between Wensleydale and Craven, adjacent to Coverdale and also a village in Westmoreland, near to the western extremity of Wensleydale, called Wray or Ray.
The arms of the Wensleydale Wrays are: azure, a chevron ermine between three helmets proper on a chief or, three martlets gules; crest a martlet, and motto "Servabo fidem."
I am informed that there is to be found, in the Heralds' College, an entry of a Wray pedigree with these arms; and I should be glad to have particulars of such entry.
The motto of the St. Nicholas family is, to the best of my recollection, "Et juste et vraye:" a canting motto, as is that of
Pak-Rae.
Calcutta.
Irish Rhymes (Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.).—For the benefit of Irishmen, I beg to adduce Shakspeare as a writer of Irish Rhymes. In that exquisite little song called for by Queen Catharine, "to soothe her soul grown sad with troubles," we have:
"Everything that heard him play,
Even the billows of the sea."
W. C.