Replies to Minor Queries.
Mary Queen of Scots' Gold Cross (Vol. vi., p. 486.).—
"Would it not facilitate the identification of the Gold Cross of Mary Queen of Scotts, in the possession of Mr. Price of Glasgow, if a representation of it was sent to The Illustrated London News, as the publication of it by that Journal would lead antiquaries to the identification of a valuable historical relic?"
I hope you will insert the above in "N. & Q." in the hope it may meet the eye of Mr. Price, and lead to a satisfactory result.
W. H. C.
Jennings Family (Vol. vi., p. 362.).—This family is supposed to have continued from some time in Cornwall, after the Visitation of 1620; but the name is not now found there in any great respectability. William Jennings of Saltash was sheriff of Cornwall, 1678; but his arms differ from those of the Visitation: argent, a chevron gules between three mariners, plumets sable.
Francis Jennnings, who recorded the pedigree of 1620, married the daughter of Spoure of Trebartha; and in a MS. book of that family, compiled about the latter part of the seventeenth century, the same arms, strange to say, are stated to be his, and not the lion rampant of the Jennings of Shropshire. This seems to support the hypothesis that William Jennings, the sheriff, was the same family. The Spoure MSS. also mention "Ursula, sister of Sir William Walrond of Bradfield, Devon, who married first, William Jennings of Plymouth (query, the sheriff?), and afterwards the Rev. William Croker, Rector of Wolfrey (Wolfardisworthy?) Devon."
Percuriosus.
Adamson's "England's Defence" (Vol. vi., p. 580.) is well worth attention at the present time; as is also its synopsis before publication, annexed to Stratisticos, by John Digges, Muster Master, &c., 4to., 1590, and filling pp. 369. to 380. of that curious work, showing the wisdom of our ancestors on the subject of invasion by foreigners.
E. D.
Chief Justice Thomas Wood (Vol. vii., p. 14.).—In Berry's Hampshire Visitation (p. 71.), Thomas Wood is mentioned as having married a daughter of Sir Thomas de la More, and as having had a daughter named Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Stewkley of Aston, Devon, knight.
I am as anxious as N. C. L. to know something about Thomas Wood's lineage; and shall be obliged by his telling me where it is said that he built Hall O'Wood.
Edward Foss.
Aldiborontiphoscophornio (Vol. vii., p. 40.).—This euphonious and formidable name will be found in The Most Tragical Tragedy that ever was Tragidized by any Company of Tragedians, viz., Chrononhotonthologos, written by "Honest merry Harry Carey," who wrote also The Dragon of Wantley, a burlesque opera (founded on the old ballad of that name), The Dragoness (a sequel to The Dragon), &c. &c. While the public were applauding his dramatic drolleries and beautiful ballads (of which the most beautiful is "Sally in our Alley"), their unhappy author, in a fit of despondency, destroyed himself at his lodgings in Warner Street, Clerkenwell. There is an engraving by Faber, in 1729, of Harry Carey, from a painting by Worsdale (the celebrated Jemmy!); which is rare.
George Daniel.
[We are indebted to several other correspondents for replies to the Query of F. R. S.]
Statue of St Peter at Rome (Vol. vi., p. 604.).—This well-known bronze statue is falsely stated to be a Jupiter converted. It is very far from being true, though popularly it passes as truth, that the statue in question is the ancient statue of Jupiter Capitolinus, with certain alterations.
Another commonly-received opinion regarding this statue is, that it was cast for a St. Peter, but of the metal of the statue of Jupiter Capitolinus. But this can scarcely be true, for Martial informs us that in his own time the statue of the Capitoline Jupiter was not of bronze but of gold.
"Scriptus et æterno nunc primum Jupiter auro."
Lib. xi. Ep. iv.
Undoubtedly the statue was cast for a St. Peter. It was cast in the time of St. Leo the Great (440-461), and belonged to the ancient church of St. Peter's. St. Peter has the nimbus on his head; the first two fingers of the right hand are raised in the act of benediction; the left hand holds the keys, and the right foot projects from the pedestal. The statue is seated on a pontifical chair of white marble.
Ceyrep.
Old Silver Ornament (Vol. vi., p. 602.).—This ornament is very probably what your correspondent infers it is,—a portion of some military accoutrement: if so, it may have appertained to some Scotch regiment. It represents precisely the badge worn by the baronets of Nova Scotia, the device upon which was the saltier of St. Andrew, with the royal arms of Scotland on an escutcheon in the centre; the whole surrounded by the motto, and ensigned with the royal crown. The insignia of the British orders of knighthood are frequently represented in the ornaments upon the military accoutrements of the present day.
Ebor.
"Plurima, pauca, nihil," (Vol. vi., p. 511.).—A correspondent asks for the first part of an epigram which ends with the words "plurima, pauca, nihil." He is referred to an epigram of Martial, which I cannot find. But I chance to remember two epigrams which were affixed to the statue of Pasquin at Rome, in the year 1820, upon two Cardinals who were candidates for the Popedom. They run as follows, and are smart enough to be worth preserving:
"PASQUINALIA.
"Sit bonus, et fortasse pius—sed semper ineptus—
Vult, meditatur, agit, plurima, pauca, nihil."
"IN ALTERUM.
"Promittit, promissa negat, ploratque negata,
Hæc tria si junges, quis neget esse Petrum."
A. Borderer.
"Pork-pisee" and "Wheale" (Vol. vi., p. 579.).—Has not Mr. Warde, in his second quotation, copied the word wrongly—"pork-pisee" for pork-pesse? A porpoise is the creature alluded to; or porpesse, as some modern naturalists spell it. "Wheale" evidently means whey: the former expression is probably a provincialism.
Jaydee.
Did the Carians use Heraldic Devices? (Vol. vi., p. 556.).—Perhaps the following, from an heraldic work of Dr. Bernd, professor at the University of Bonn, may serve to answer the Queries of Mr. Booker.
Herodotus ascribes the first use, or, as he expresses it, the invention of signs on shields, which we call arms, and of the supporter or handle of the shield, which till then had been suspended by straps from the neck, as well as of the tuft of feathers or horse-hair on the helmet, to the Carians; in which Strabo agrees with him, and, as far as regards the supporters and crest, Ælian also:
"Herodot schrieb den ersten Gebrauch, oder wie er sich ausdrückt, die Erfindung der Zeichen auf Schilden, die wir Wappen nennen, wie auch der Halter oder Handhaben an den Schilden, die bis dahin nur an Riemen um den Nacken getragen wurden, und die Büsche von Federn oder Rosshaaren auf den Helmen, den Cariern zu, worin ihm Strabo (Geogr. 14. I. § 27.), und was die Handhaben und Helmbüsche betrifft, auch Ælian (Hist. Animal. 12. 30.), beistimmen."—Bernd's Wappenwissen der Griechen und Römer, p. 4. Bonn, 1841.
On Thucydides i. 8., where mention is made of Carians disinterred by the Athenians in the island of Delos, the scholiast, evidently referring to the passage cited by Mr. Booker, says:
"Κᾶρες πρῶτοι εὗρον τοὺς ὀμφαλοὺς τῶν ἀσπίδων, καὶ τοὺς λόφους. τοῖς οὖν ἀποθνήσκουσι συνέθαπτον ἀσπιδισκιον μικρὸν καὶ λόφον, σημεῖον τῆς ἑυρέσεως."
From Plutarch's Artaxerxes (10.) may be inferred, that the Carian standard was a cock; for the king presented the Carian who slew Cyrus with a golden one, to be thenceforth carried at the head of the troop.
For full information on the heraldry of the ancients, your correspondent can scarcely do better than consult the above-quoted work of Dr. Bernd.
John Scott.
Norwich.
Herbert Family (Vol. vi., p. 473.).—The celebrated picture of Lord Herbert of Cherbury by Isaac Oliver, at Penshurst, represents him with a small swarthy countenance, dark eyes, very dark black hair, and mustachios. All the Herberts whom I have seen are dark-complexioned and black-haired. This is the family badge, quite as much as the unmistakeable nose in the descendants of John of Gaunt.
E. D.
Children crying at Baptism (Vol. vi., p. 601.).—I am inclined to suspect that the idea of its being lucky for a child to cry at baptism arose
from the custom of exorcism, which was retained in the Anglican Church in the First Prayer-Book of King Edward VI., and is still commonly observed in the baptismal services of the Church of Rome. When the devil was going out of the possessed person, he was supposed to do so with reluctance: "The spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead." (St. Mark, ix. 26.) The tears and struggles of the infant would therefore be a convincing proof that the Evil One had departed. In Ireland (as every clergyman knows) nurses will decide the matter by pinching the baby, rather than allow him to remain silent and unlachrymose.
Rt.
Warmington.
Americanisms (Vol. vi., p. 554.).—The word bottom, applied as your correspondent Uneda remarks, is decidedly an English provincialism, of constant use now in the clothing districts of Gloucestershire, which are called "The Bottoms," whether mills are situated there or not.
E. D.
Dutch Allegorical Picture (Vol. vi., p. 457.).—In the account I gave you of this picture I omitted one of the inscriptions, which I but just discovered; and as the picture appears to have excited some interest in Holland (my account of it having been translated into Dutch[[6]], in the Navorscher), I send you this further supplemental notice.
I described a table standing under the window, on the left-hand side of the room, containing on the end nearest to the spectator, not two pewter flagons, as I at first thought, but one glass and one pewter flagon. On the end of this table, which is presented to the spectator, is an inscription, which, as I have said, had hitherto escaped my notice, having been partially concealed by the frame—a modern one, not originally intended for this picture, and partly obscured by dirt which had accumulated in the corner. I can now make out very distinctly the following words, with the date, which fixes beyond a question the age of the picture:
"Hier moet men gissen
Glasen te wasser
Daer in te pissen
En soú niet passen.
1659."
I may also mention, that the floor of the chamber represented in the picture is formed of large red and blue square tiles; and that the folio book standing on end, with another lying horizontally on the top of it, which I said in my former description to be standing on the end of the table, under the window, is, I now see, standing not on the table, but on the floor, next to the chair of the grave and studious figure who sits in the left-hand corner of the room.
These corrections of my first description have been in a great measure the result of a little soap and water applied with a sponge to the picture.
James H. Todd, D.D.
Trin. Coll., Dublin.
Footnote 6:[(return)]
With some corrections in the reading of the inscriptions.
Myles Coverdale (Vol. vi., p. 552.).—I have a print before me which is intended to represent the exhumation of Coverdale's body. The following is engraved beneath:
"The Remains of Myles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter, as they appeared in the Chancel of the Church of St. Bartholomew, near the Exchange. Buried Feb. 1569. Exhumed 23d Sept. 1840.
Chabot, Zinco., Skinner Street."
If I am not mistaken, his remains were carried to the church of St. Magnus, near London Bridge, and re-interred.
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.