Replies to Minor Queries.
Essay for a New Translation of the Bible (Vol. vii., p. 40.).—This work was written by Charles Le Cene, a French Protestant minister, who, on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, sought refuge in England, and died at London in 1703. The translation was made by Hugh Ross, a Scotchman and sea-chaplain, but who was not sufficiently ingenuous to tell his readers that it was a translation. Orme says: "The essay contains a good deal of valuable information; points out many erroneous renderings of passages of Scripture; and suggests better meanings, and the means of correcting the modern translations generally."—Bibliothecha Biblica, p. 94. A short account of Le Cene will be found in Chalmers's Biog. Dict. See also Lewis's Translations of the Bible, 8vo. 1818, p. 338.
John I. Dredge.
I have a copy of the Essay for a New Translation of the Bible, second edition, 1727 (not 1717), which your correspondent W. W. T. inquires about (Vol. vii., p. 40.). It is the translation of a work of the Huguenot refugee, Charles Le Cene, Projet d'une nouvelle version françoise de la Bible. H. R., who signs the dedication, was Hugh Ross, according to a note in my copy, which my father made on the authority of one of the clergy of Norwich about twenty years ago, I believe of Dr. Charles Sutton. I have been unable to ascertain anything about him, his name not appearing in any biographical dictionary I have seen, and the book not being in the Museum library. The Biog. Universelle charges Le Cene with a tendency to Pelagian or Socinian errors, both in his Projet, and in the Version he actually made, and which was printed at Amsterdam. This was a great curiosity in its way, the ancient Oriental titles, &c. being rendered in their corresponding modern analogues.
B. B. Woodward.
Touchstone (Vol. vii., p. 82.).—I think your correspondent Alphage is mistaken in alleging that the word touchstone is so called because it "gives a musical sound when touched with a stick."
The touchstone is the dark-coloured flinty slate or schistus (the Lapis Lydius of the ancients), which has been used from the remotest ages, down even to our own days, for testing gold. By touching the black stone with the metal, it leaves behind a clear mark, the colour of which indicates the distinction between the pure and alloyed. Pliny describes it (lib. xxxiii. cap. 43.):
"Auri argentique mentionem comitatur lapis quem coticulam appellant, quondam non solitus inveniri, nisi in flumine Tmolo, ut auctor est Theophrastus: nunc vero passim; quem alii Heraclium, alii Lydium vocant. His coticulis periti, cum e vena ut lima rapuerint experimentum, protinus dicunt quantum auri sit in ea, quantum argenti vel æris, scripulari differentia, mirabili ratione, non fallente."
This is the substance referred to in the apothegms of Lord Bacon, that "gold is tried by the touchstone, and men by gold."
The French, from the same practice, know the same substance by the name of Pierre de touche. The use of the touchstone, at the present day, is thus described by Ure in his Dictionary of Arts and Mines, under the head of "Assay:"
"In such small work as cannot be assayed, by scraping off a part and cupelling it, the assayers endeavor to ascertain its fineness or quality by the touch. This is a method of comparing the colour and other properties of a minute portion of the metal, with those of small bars, the composition of which is known. These bars are called touch needles, and they are rubbed upon a smooth piece of black basaltes, or pottery, which for this reason is called the touchstone."
W. W. E. T.
66. Warwick Square, Belgravia.
Early Edition of Solinus (Vol. vi., p. 435.).—"Solinus de Situ et Memor. Orbis, editio princeps, folio, Venet. 1473." My copy was described as above in the catalogue of the bookseller of whom I purchased it. It contains a very fine illuminated initial letter, red, blue, and gold. It has no pagination. At the end, in capitals:
"IVLII SOLINI DE SITV ORBIS ET MEMORABILIBVS QVAE MVNDI AMBITU CONTINENTVR LIBER IMPRESSVS VENETIIS PER NICOLAVM IENSON GALLICVM. M.CCCC.LXXIII."
Should any gentleman wish to see it, I shall be happy to oblige him. Mine is marked "6s.," and below this price, "sold 10s."
A. Dunkin.
Dartford.
Straw Bail (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—Part of this Query may be answered by the following extract:
"For the bribery and perjury so painfully frequent in Attic testimony, the editor contents himself with quoting from an article in the Quarterly Review (vol. xxxiii. p. 344.), in which the Greek courts of justice are treated of.—'We have all heard of a race of men who used, in former days, to ply about our own courts of law, and who, from their manner of making known their occupation, were recognized by the name of Straw-shoes. An advocate, or lawyer, who wanted a convenient witness, knew by these signs where to find one, and the colloquy between the parties was brief. 'Don't you remember?' said the advocate—(the party looked at the fee and gave no sign; but the fee increased, and the powers of memory increased with it). 'To be sure I do.' 'Then come into the court and swear it.' And Straw-shoes went into the court and swore it. Athens abounded in Straw-shoes."
See Mitchell's Wasps of Aristophanes, note on line 945.
C. Forbes.
Temple.
Doctor Young (Vol. vii., p. 14.).—J. H. will find an account of Mrs. Hallows, the lady meant as Young's housekeeper, in Boswell's Johnson, p. 351., ed. 1848; and I can add to Anderson's note, that in the Duchess of Portland's correspondence with Young, of which I have seen the originals, Mrs. Hallows is always mentioned by her Grace with civility and kindness.
C.
Scarfs worn by Clergymen (Vol. vii., p. 108.).—Your correspondent will find the subject of his Query fully discussed in the Quarterly Review for June, 1851 (vol. lxxxix. p. 222.), the result being that the use of the scarf, except by chaplains of peers, dignitaries, &c., is a wholly unauthorised usurpation of very recent date.
C.
Cibber's Lives of the Poets (Vol. v., p. 161.; Vol. vii., p. 113.).—Mr. W. L. Nichols has transmitted to "N. & Q." what he calls a "curious letter which appears to have escaped the notice of Mr. Croker, though it corroborates his statement," relative to Dr. Johnson's mistake as to the authorship of those Lives. Mr. Nichols is informed that he will find this "curious letter" in extenso in Mr. Croker's last edition of Boswell, p. 504., with the date of 1846; the letter itself having been published in 1843. It is again referred to in p. 818. as decisive of the question.
C.
"Letters on Prejudice" (Vol. vii., p. 40.).—I have always understood from private and family sources, that Letters on Prejudice, inquired after by W. W. T., were written by a Miss Mary Kenny, an Irishwoman of great worth and ability. If I am right in this assertion, her brother, who was some time a fellow of the Irish University, and, if not lately dead, rector of one of the London churches, should be able to confirm it.
A. B. R.
Belmont.
Statue of St. Peter (Vol. vi., p. 604.; Vol. vii., p. 96.).—On what authority does Ceyrep rest the confident statement, that this statue was undoubtedly cast for a St. Peter "in the time of St. Leo the Great?" I have always understood that it was an ancient statue which had been found in the Tiber; but here is a distinct assertion as to the period of its origin, for which some good authority would be very acceptable.
B. H. C.
Lord Goring (Vol. ii., pp. 22. 65.).—I see him mentioned (in the Herstelde Leeuw, fol. 122.) as having been present at the baptism of William III. in 1651. He escorted Madam van Dhona, by whom the young prince was carried to church.—From the Navorscher.
W. D. V.
Revolutionary Calendar (Vol. vi., pp. 199. 305.).—The lines to which C. refers may be seen in Brady's Clavis Calendaria, vol. i. p. 38. He gives them as the lines of an English wit, thus:
"Autumn, wheezy, sneezy, freezy,
Winter, slippy, drippy, nippy;
Spring showery, flowery, bowery;
Summer hoppy, croppy, poppy."
Thomas Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Scanderbags' Sword (Vol. vii., p. 35.).—This alludes to a proverb given by Fuller, "Scanderbags' sword must have Scanderbags' arm."
Zeus.
Rhymes upon Places (Vol. vii., p. 24.).—Lincolnshire:
"Gosberton church is very high,
Surfleet church is all awry;
Pinchbeck church is in a hole,
And Spalding church is big with foal."
Zeus.
Nicknames (Vol. vi., p. 198.).—If your correspondent will look at Mr. Bellenden Ker's Archæology of Popular Phrases, vol. i. p. 184., he will find an attempt to show the origin of nickname; but, whether we agree or not with Mr. Ker, the whole paragraph is worth reading for its comparative philology: it may, perhaps, bear out that the "nic" in "pic-nic" is also allied.
Thomas Lawrence.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Nugget (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.).—E. N. W. inquires the meaning of the word nugget; and W. S. replies that in Persian nuqud signifies "ready money." This may have satisfied E. N. W., but it reminds me of Jonathan Oldbuck and
A. D. L. L. I should have thought that any one who had the slightest skill in etymology would have seen at once that a nugget is nothing more than a Yankee (?) corruption of an ingot. As many may be in the case of E. N. W., you may as well, perhaps, give this a place in "N. & Q."
T. K.
Lawyers' Bags (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—I think the statement that "prior to the trial of Queen Caroline, the colour of the bags carried by barristers was green," will surprise some legal readers. I had been a barrister several years when that trial took place, and cannot think that I had ever seen (indeed that I have yet seen) a barrister or a barrister's clerk carrying a green bag. I suspect it is a mere blunder arising out of the talk about the "green bag" which was said to contain the charges against the Queen. That, however, I apprehend was not a lawyer's bag, whatever some lawyers might have to do with it.
A Templar.
J. St. J. Y. may assure himself that Colonel Landman is mistaken. I have been an attendant upon the Courts for fifty years, and therefore long before the terrible green bag containing the charges against Queen Caroline was brought into the House of Commons; and I can confidently assert that I never saw a green bag borne by a barrister or solicitor during that time. The only colours that were ever paraded in my experience by those legal functionaries, were purple and crimson; and they have so continued till the present time—I will not say without interruption, because I have been grieved to see that tailors and small London pedlars have invaded the privilege.
Causidicus.
Catherine Barton (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.).—My attention has been drawn to some questions in your early Numbers respecting this lady. She was the daughter of Robert Barton of Brigstock, Northamptonshire, and Hannah Smith, half-sister of Sir Isaac Newton. The Colonel Barton of whom she is said to be the widow, was her cousin, Colonel Noel Barton, who served with distinction under Marlborough, and died at the age of forty. He was son of Thomas, eldest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.
The Lieutenant Matthew Barton mentioned by De Camera was the son of Jeffery Barton, Rector of Rashden, Northamptonshire, afterwards Admiral Barton. Jeffery was the youngest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.
O. O. O.
Bells and Storms (Vol. iv., p. 508.).—Wynkin de Worde, one of the earliest of the English printers, in The Golden Legend, observes:
"It is said, the evil spirytes that ben in the region of th' ayre, doubte moche when they here the belles ringen whan it thondreth, and when grete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of tempeste."
We have, in Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland, an account given of a bell belonging to the old chapel of St. Fillan, in the parish of Killin, Perthshire, which usually lay on a gravestone in the churchyard. Mad people were brought hither to be dipped in the saint's pool; the maniac was then confined all night in the chapel, bound with ropes, and in the morning the bell was set on his head with great solemnity. This was the Highland cure for mania. It was the popular superstition of the district, that this bell would, if stolen, extricate itself out of the thief's hands, and return to its original place, ringing all the way.
Russell Gole.
Latin Poem (Vol. vii., pp. 6, 7.).—Lord Braybrooke does not appear to be so correct as usual in his belief, that neither of the two Latin poems, which he quotes, have been previously in print. Crowe's beautiful monody will be found at p. 234. of his collected poems, published by Murray, 1827. The printed copy, however, which is headed
"Inscriptio in horto Auctoris apud Alton in Com.
Wilt.
——
M. S.
Gulielmi Crowe,
Signif. Leg. iv.
Qui cecidit in acie,
8 die Jan. A.D. 1815. Æt. s. 21."
has the following differences: line 7., "respexit" for "ascripsit;" l. 9., "solvo" for "pono." L. 10. and the following lines stand thus:
"Quinetiam assidue hic veniam, lentæque senectæ,
De Te, dulce Caput, meditando, tempora ducam:
Sæpe Tuam recolens formam, moresque decentes,
Dictaque, tum sancto, et sapienti corde profecta,
Tum festiva quidem, et vario condita lepore.
Id mihi nunc solamen erit, dum vita manebit.
Tu verò, quicunque olim successoris Hæres,
Sedibus his oro, mœsti reverere parentis,"
and so on to the end, with one or two alterations; except in the penultimate line, "sit" for "stet;" and, in the last, "jucundi" for "dilecti."
C. W. Bingham
[Lord Braybrooke was certainly not aware that Crowe's monody had been published with his Poems. Lord Braybrooke's version was copied, about thirty years ago, verbatim et literatim, from a manuscript in the handwriting of the late Lord Glastonbury, who died in 1825.]
Daubuz (Vol. vi., p. 527.).—An interesting notice of the Rev. Charles Daubuz occurs in Hunter's Hallamshire, p. 175. It is unnecessary to quote the whole, and I shall content myself with merely observing that if the dates in the
Hallamshire are to be depended upon, and I have almost invariably found them correct, there is a slight inaccuracy in the note copied from the commentary. Mr. Hunter writes—
"He (Daubuz) was a native of Guienne, but at twelve years of age was driven from his native country, with his only surviving parent Julia Daubuz, by the religious persecution of 1686. In 1689 he was admitted of Queen's College, Cambridge, and remained in college till 1696, when he accepted the situation of head master of the (Grammar) School of Sheffield. He left Sheffield in 1699 on being presented to the Vicarage of Brotherton near Ferry-Bridge, where he was much loved and respected. He died there on the 14th of June, 1717," &c.
W. S. (Sheffield.)
When the Levant Company surrendered their charter to the crown in the year 1826, Mr. J. T. Daubuz was treasurer to the Company. He was a highly respected merchant in the city of London, and had purchased the estate of Offington, near Worthing in Sussex, an estate formerly belonging to the Lords De la Warr. Mr. Daubuz still resides at Offington.
J. B.
The Bride's Seat in Church (Vol. vi., p. 424.).—One of the sermons mentioned in Surtees' note, and inquired after by J. R. M., M.A., was written by William Whately, the learned and celebrated Puritan, who was vicar of Banbury in Oxfordshire. It is entitled
"A Bride Bush, or a Wedding Sermon, compendiously describing the duties of married persons. By performing whereof, marriage shall be to them a great helpe, which now find it a little hell. London, 1617. 4to. On Eph. v. 23."
I believe a copy of the sermon may be found in the Bodleian Library. Two propositions contained in this sermon led to Whately's being convened before the High Commission, when he acknowledged that he was unable to justify them, and recanted May 4, 1621. (See Wood's Ath. Oxon. by Bliss, vol. ii. col. 638.)
John. I. Dredge.
Louis Napoleon, President of France (Vol. vi., p. 435.).—Modern history furnishes more than one instance of the anomaly adverted to by Mr. Relton. After the murder of Louis XVI., his son, though he never ascended the throne, was recognized by the legitimists of the day as Louis XVII.; and on the restoration of the family in 1815, the Comte d'Artois assumed the title of Louis XVIII. In this way the revolutionary chasm was, as it were, bridged over, and the dynasty of the elder Bourbons exhibited on an uninterrupted line.
So it is as regards the Napoleon dynasty. The Duke de Reichstadt, Napoleon's son, was in the same predicament as the son of Louis XVI. He received from the Bonapartists the title of Napoleon II.; and Louis Napoleon therefore becomes Napoleon III.
A similar case might have occurred to the House of Stuart, if the Pretender's son, who began by taking the title of Henry IX., had not extinguished the hopes and pretensions of his ill-fated race, by exchanging his "crown" for a cardinal's hat. And to-morrow (though that is perhaps a little too soon) the same thing may happen again to the elder branch of the Bourbons, should the Comte de Chambord (Henry V.) leave a son of that name to ascend the throne as Henry VI.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
Chapel Plaster (Vol. vii., p. 37.).—For an explanation of the word plaster, on which your correspondent has offered so elaborate a commentary, I would beg to refer him to White's Selborne (vol. i. p. 5; vol. ii. p. 340., 4to. edit.):
"In the centre of the village, and near the church, is a square piece of ground surrounded by houses, and vulgarly called The Plestor. In the midst of this spot stood, in old times, a vast oak.... This venerable tree, surrounded with stone steps, and seats above them, was the delight of old and young, and a place of much resort in summer evenings; where the former sat in grave debate, while the latter frolicked and danced before them.
"This Pleystow (Saxon, Plegstow), locus ludorum, or play-place, continues still, as in old times, to be the scene of recreation for the youths and children of the neighbourhood."
Chapel Plaster is, I believe, an outlying hamlet belonging to the parish of Box; and the name imports merely what in Scotland would be called "the Kirk on the Green"—the chapel built on, or near to, the playground of the villagers.
The fascinating volumes above named will afford a reply to an unanswered Query in your second volume (Vol. ii., p. 266.), the meaning of the local word Hanger:
"The high part to the S.W. consists of a vast hill of chalk, rising 300 feet above the village; and is divided into a sheep down, the high wood, and a long hanging wood, called The Hanger."—Vol. i. p. 1.
W. L. Nichols.
Lansdown Place, Bath.
Passage in Thomson (Vol. vii., p. 67.).—Steaming is clearly the true reading, and means that the exhalations which steam from the waters are sent down again in the showers of spring. This will appear still clearer by reference to a similar passage in Milton's Morning Hymn, which Thomson was evidently copying:
"Ye mists and exhalations that now rise
From hill or steaming lake, dusky or grey," &c.
C.
Passage in Locksley Hall (Vol. vii., p. 25.).—If Tennyson really meant his readers to gather from the lines in question, that the curlew's call gleams about the moorland, he used a very bold figure of speech, yet one not uncommon in the vivid language of Greece. For example:
"Παιὰν δὲ λάμπει στόνοεσσά τε νῆρυς ὅμαυλος."
And again,
"Ἔλαμψε ... ἀρτίως φανεῖσα φάμα." (Sophocles.)
So also,
"Βοὰ πρέπει." (Pindar and Æschylus.)
May it not, however, be just possible that Tennyson did not mean anything?
A. A. D.