Replies to Minor Queries.
Lady Nevell's Music-book (Vol. vii., p. 59.).—To transpose the six-line staves of old music into the five-line staves of modern notation, it is only necessary to treat the lowest line of the treble, and the highest line of the bass, as ledger lines. The five remaining will correspond with the five now in use.
I should feel greatly obliged to your correspondent L. B. L. for a sight of his Virginal Book, as it appears to be an exact transcript of the one in Dr. Rimbault's possession.
Wm. Chappell.
201. Regent Street.
Tuch (Vol. vii., p. 82.).—Alphage suggests that the "touchstone" had its name because "a musical sound may be produced by touching it
sharply with a stick." I think this is an error, and that it owes its name to its use in the assay of gold and silver. We find this application of it described in a work (now scarce) published in 1677, under the title of A Touchstone for Gold and Silver Wares. The author, after describing the qualities of a good touchstone, observes (p. 36.):
"The way to make a true touch on the touch-stone is thus: When your touch-stone is very clean ... your silver being filed ... rub it steadily, and very hard, on the stone ... until the place of the stone whereon you rub be like the metal itself ... wet all the toucht places with your tongue, and it will show itself in its own countenance."
And that the touchstone was used in this connexion at a much earlier period is obvious from the language of the ancient statutes. The 28 Edward I., stat. 3. cap. 20., requires all gold and silver wares to be "of good and true allay, that is to say, gold of a certain touch." And the word occurs in the same sense in other statutes.
A. R.
Birmingham.
The error of Coleridge, alluded to by your correspondent Alphage, is certainly not a little singular, especially as the word, in the sense of stone or marble, occurs in Ben Jonson, Drayton, and Sir John Harrington, and there is a good article on the word in Nares's Glossary. I must, however, altogether dissent from your correspondent's statement that the reason for the name of Touchstone is, that a musical sound may be produced by touching it sharply with a stick, and agree with Nares that it obtained its name from being used as a test for gold. See a very interesting article on Assay Marks by Mr. Octavius Morgan (Archæological Journal, ix. 127.), from which it appears that, for the trial of gold, touch-needles were applied to the touchstone.
Thompson Cooper.
Cambridge.
Eva, Princess of Leinster (Vol. vi., p. 388.).—O'Haloran, in his History of Ireland, says:
In 1168, Dermot Mac Murchad, King of Leinster, having carried away Dearbhorgie, wife of O'Ruark, prince of Breffin, was driven from his kingdom by the husband, assisted by the lady's father, the King of Meath.
"He arrived at Bristol, having obtained letters patent of Henry II. for any of the king's subjects to assist him against his enemies: but no one in Bristol was found able or willing to undertake such expedition, when Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, who resided at Chepstow Castle, offered his assistance (Seyer's Memoirs of Bristol); and, in 1169, entered Ireland with two hundred knights and others, to the number of 1000. The object being effected, Strongbow was united to Eva, the daughter of Dermot; and, at that prince's death, became seised of Leinster."
By this it appears, that Dermot eloped with the lady in 1168; and, as Strongbow was united to Eva the following year, Eva consequently could not have been the offspring of that connexion. Who her mother was, I am unable to find out.
C. H.
Whipping Post (Vol. vi., p. 388.).—These mementos of the salutary mode of punishment practised by our forefathers, are of frequent occurrence. I have met with them in country villages in all parts of England with which I am acquainted. They generally accompany that place of "durance vile," the stocks; and occasionally have accommodation for two persons, I suppose to suit the various sizes of offenders.
T. H. Kersley, B.A.
Audlem, Cheshire.
The Dodo (Vol. vii., p. 32.).—The progress of the interesting inquiry in "N. & Q." regarding the Dodo, induces me to communicate the fact, that amongst the architectural decorations of the palace of the ancient Kings of Kandy, in Ceylon (now inhabited by the governor, Reginald C. Buller, Esq.), there occur frequent and numerous representations of a bird, which in every particular of shape is identical with the extinct fowl of Mauritius. What is more curious is, that the natives were familiar with the figure as that of "the sacred bird," which is common on the Buddhist monuments throughout the island; but Ceylon possesses no existing species at all resembling the Dodo. I have a drawing copied from the figures in the Kandy palace; but as your publication does not admit of engraved illustration, I do not send it.
J. Emerson Tennent.
Some weeks ago, on looking over a box of old Kentish deeds and papers, P. C. S. S. found a lease, signed by his ancestor Sir John Fineux, on the 6th of October, 1522, to which is affixed a seal in perfect preservation, bearing what P. C. S. S. has hitherto erroneously supposed to be the crest of the Fineux family, viz. an eagle displayed. He is now, however, indebted to your correspondent (Vol. vi., p. 83.) for the conviction that it must be a Dodo, and that it can represent nothing else. For it is of "unwieldy form," has "disproportionate wings," and is altogether of a "clumsy figure." P. C. S. S. has till now believed that the uncouth appearance of the bird was owing to the want of skill in the artist. But it is now clear that it must undoubtedly be a Dodo; and P. C. S. S. will henceforward live, sibi carior, in the certainty that the chief justice of England temp. Henry VIII., from whom he has the honour to descend, bore a "veritable Dodo" as his crest.
P. C. S. S. takes this occasion of adverting to some Queries which appeared a few months ago, respecting serjeants' rings. He has in his
possession one of those given by Sir John Fineux on his assumption of the coif. The motto is, "Suæ quisque fortunæ faber."
P. C. S. S.
"Then comes the reckoning," &c. (Vol. v., p. 585.).—These two lines are to be found in Act II. Sc. 9. of the tragi-comi-pastoral, The What D'ye Call It, by John Gay, author of the Beggar's Opera, Fables, &c. The correct quotation is:
"So comes a reck'ning when the banquet's o'er,
The dreadful reck'ning, and men smile no more."
S. Wmson.
Sir J. Covert, not Govett (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—Quæro may be perfectly assured that there never was a baronet of the name of Govett, nor a member of parliament so called. P. C. S. S. is confident that the individual to whom Quæro refers, as having sat in the second parliament of Charles II., must have been Sir John Covert, Baronet, who was member for Horsham. The misnomer would not be surprising in a list which contains such names as Nosrooth for Noseworthy, Cowshop for Courthope, Meestry for Masters, and Grubbaminton and Zerve for Heaven knows what!
P. C. S. S.
Chatterton (Vol. vii., pp. 14. 138.).—I feel very much obliged to J. M. G. for his answer to my question. May I ask if he has any other documents or information which would throw light on the origin and history of the Rowley poems? The inquiry has interested me for more than forty years, and I have long been about as fully convinced that Chatterton did not write the poems, as that I did not write them myself. For any help towards finding out who did write them, I should be very thankful.
N. B.
Tennyson (Vol. vii., p. 84.).—The following brief Note from Democritus in London; with the Mad Pranks and Comical Conceits of Motley and Robin Good-Fellow, is a reply to the first Query of H. J. J.:
"Ye may no see, for peeping flowers, the grasse."
George Peele.
"You scarce could see the grass for flowers."
Alfred Tennyson.
A Subscriber.
Query 2. Is not the Latin song Catullus XLV. (edit. Doering), where we find (v. 8.):
"Amor, sinistram ut ante,
Dextram sternuit approbationem?"
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.
Llandudno on the Great Orme's Head (Vol. v., pp. 175. 235. 305.).—I am surprised that the twice-repeated Query of your correspondent L. G. T. of Lichfield yet remains unanswered. "The cavern" he refers to is that called Llech, and concerning which he has fallen into several errors. The cavern, so far from having been lately discovered, has been known for generations past, and is yearly visited by hundreds of strangers. If the entrance has been made as private and inaccessible as possible, there is nobody to blame but nature and time; for the ancient approach was from the summit of the cliff by means of a flight of stone and grass steps, of which traces still remain connected with an old stone wall. The cave is easily descried from the sea-shore below, whence it can be reached by the aid of a common ladder. The shape is not heptagonal, as stated by L. G. T.; but is semi-octagonal, terminated in front by two square columns of freestone. The front and seats are in perfect preservation; but of the stone table, which many years ago occupied the centre, the pedestal only remains. The font, or rather stone basin, is supplied by a spring of most delicious water, which, at certain seasons, flows in copious quantities into an artificial bath excavated in the rock below. It is said that the cave was fitted up as a grotto, or pleasure-house, by some ancestors of the Mostyn family; and this is all that is known about it. I have measured the principal dimensions, and find the quantities given by L. G. T. sufficiently accurate.
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
Oldham, Bishop of Exeter (Vol. vii., p. 14.).—No pedigree of this prelate's family is known to have been referred to by any of the Devonshire historians. The arms used by the bishop, and still remaining in several churches of the diocese, were: Sable, a chevron or, between three owls proper; on a chief of the second as many roses gules.
Burke, in the Encyclopedia of Heraldry, gives a different coat as borne by Oldham of Hatherleigh in the co. of Devon.
J. D.
Arms at Bristol (Vol. vii., p. 67.).—It may afford a clue to E. D. to be informed that coats of arms bearing a chevron charged with three bucks' heads caboshed were used by the families of Cervington or Servington, and Parry.
J. D.
The Cross and the Crucifix (Vol. v., pp. 39. 85.).—Under this title I find two articles; and, as it is an interesting subject, I should like to send a quotation which I copied some time since from the Octavius of Minucius Felix, A.D. 210 (Adam. Clarke):
"Cruces etiam nec colimus nec optamus. Vos plane qui ligneos deos consecratis, cruces ligneas, ut deorum vestrorum partes, forsitan adoratis. Nam et signa ipsa, et cantabra, et vexilla castrorum, quid aliud quam inauratæ cruces sunt et ornatæ? Tropæa vestra victricia non tantum simplicis crucis faciem, verum et affixi hominis imitantur. Signum sane crucis naturaliter visimus in navi, cum velis tumentibus vehitur, cum expansis palmulis labitur," &c.
Similar sentiments, in almost the same words, are expressed by Tertullian, Apologet., sect. 16.; and Ad Nationes, sect. 12. See also Justin Martyr, Apol. lib. i. sect. 72. The quotation from M. Felix is from the Leipsic edit., 1847, pp. 41, 42.
B. H. C.
Sir Kenelm Digby (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—I am not at all convinced of the accuracy of the statement made by your correspondent Vandyke, "that Sir Kenelm Digby is (Vandyke believes always) represented with a sunflower by his side." There are various prints of Sir Kenelm Digby at the British Museum, which I have very recently examined, and I can find but one which bears the device alluded to and which is placed, not "by the side of Sir Kenelm Digby," but with other allegorical symbols, at the bottom of the print. Nor do the Private Memoirs (first published in 1827 by the late Sir Harris Nicolas) contain anything to throw light on the supposed adoption of this emblem by Sir Kenelm Digby.
P. C. S. S.
A correspondent signing himself Vandyke asks, "Why is Sir Kenelm Digby represented, I believe always, with a sunflower by his side?" The very first portrait of Digby I turned to, in Lodge's Collection, engraved, too, after Vandyke, is without any flower at all.
Jaydee.
Martin Drunk (Vol. v., p. 587.).—I cannot find that this phrase has been satisfactorily elucidated. Perhaps the following will throw some additional light on the subject.
In an Analysis of the Gospels for the Lord's Days, by Conrad Dieteric, edit. 1631, p. 465., I read:
"Tritum est illud veterum veriverbium:
'Festa Martini iterata,
Absumunt anseres et prata.'
Id quod Germanicus hunc in modum effert:
'Wer all tag will S. Martin prassen,
Der muss endlich S. Nicias fasten.'"
It would seem from this, that not the English alone were wont to enjoy themselves on St. Martin's Day. Baxter, in his Saint's Rest (p. 116. 1st edit.), seems to use the word Martin as synonymous with a noisy tippler:
"The language of Martin is there a stranger, and the sound of his echo is not heard."
Internal evidence clearly refers all these sayings to the unrestrained mirth and jollity with which the feast of St. Martin was anciently celebrated.
B. H. C.
The Church Catechism (Vol. vii., p. 64.).—It might interest your correspondent to know that the Catechismus brevis et Catholicus of Jacobus Schoepper (published at Antwerp, 1555), contains a remarkable series of passages closely similar to the last twelve questions and answers of the Church Catechism. If desired, I would send these "parallel passages," as I expect the book is very scarce.
B. H. C.
Sham Epitaphs and Quotations (Vol. vi., p 340.).—Your correspondent A. A. D. asks, in reference to a certain epitaph, "has it really a local habitation, and where?" This is a Query full of grave suggestions. Are there not hundreds of epitaphs in print which have no existence except as printer's paragraphs, and which serve the same purpose as the immortal calf with six legs, and the numberless gigantic gooseberries and plethoric turnips. I have collected epitaphs for years past, and it is surprising how many—and those some of the best in a literary sense—defy every attempt to trace them to sepulchral sources. Besides epitaphs, I believe many sham quotations are used by writers, such as couplets and queer phrases of their own coining; but which are inclosed between inverted commas, either to rid their authors of the responsibility of the sentiments they convey, or to add weight to the argument they are introduced to illustrate. A short time since, I contributed a tale to a journal; at the head of each chapter stood a couplet of my own composing, which the printer and editor both mistook for a series of quotations, and kindly affixed inverted commas to them; and, as in that instance I did not receive proof slips to correct, the tale was published, adorned with these sham quotations—the reader being bamboozled without intention, and I robbed of the credit of my original couplets. This is an important matter: for it is no pleasant affair to spend a month or two in the endeavour to trace a quotation, and then to become convinced that you have been hunting for a mare's nest.
Shirley Hibberd.
Door-head Inscription (Vol. vii., p. 23.).—In accordance with the suggestion of A. B. R., I have by means of a friend obtained an accurate transcript of the door-head inscription at Wymondham. It runs thus:
"Nec mihi glis servus, nec hospes hirudo."
The doubts I felt, when I stated that I quoted from memory, related to the first word or two; and it has proved that I was in error there. The hirudo, however, must stand; although it is a question not easy to decide, "whether a greedy or a gossiping guest would be the worst household infliction."
B. B. Woodward.
St. John's Wood.
Potguns (vol. vi., p. 612.).—Dr. Rimbault, in reply to J. R. R., explains potguns by "small guns."
They are, in fact, short cylinders set perpendicularly in a frame, "flat-candlestick"-wise, four or six in a row; and were fired by a train of powder running from touch-hole to touch-hole, as a part of the entertainment (a feu-de-joie, I suppose) at the public grounds at Norwich some twenty years ago, as I remember.
B. B. Woodward.
St. John's Wood.
"Pompey the Little."—You mentioned lately the author of Pompey the Little (Vol. vi., pp. 433. 472.). There is a curious note respecting him attached to the entry of another anonymous publication of his, "Philemon and Hydaspes, relating to a Conversation with Hortensius upon the subject of false Religion, 2nd edit., 8vo., 1738," in Bibliotheca Parriana, p. 85., which I transcribe:
"Mem. These tracts are supposed to be wrote by H. C., Esq., of Mag. Coll., Cambridge.—J. Hetherington. Mr. Coventry wrote Pompey the Little. He took orders, and became vicar of Edgware, Middlesex; and he often preached from a folio volume of Tillotson's Sermons, which lay in the pulpit from week to week. He died of the small-pox. When living at Stanmore I heard much of his pleasantry, his politeness, and his integrity. I first read this book at the Rev. Dr. Davy's house in Norfolk, in August, 1816. This copy was most obligingly sent to me by Mr. Holmes, keeper of an academy at Stratford-upon-Avon, Thursday, Feb. 13, 1817.—S. P[arr]."
Balliolensis.
Eagles supporting Lecterns (Vol. vi., pp. 415. 543.).—Are not many, or most of the so-called eagles on lecterns in churches, pelicans? The symbolical significance of the pelican "vulning its breast," as the heralds have it, is well known. Some of these, which I remember well, have the beak bent down upon the breast and beneath it, instead of the indications of plumage elsewhere visible, a strip cross-hatched; in sign, as I have supposed, of the flowing blood.
B. B. Woodward.
St. John's Wood.
Lady Day in Harvest (Vol. vi., p. 589.).—The Gotha Almanac gives Aug. 15 for Maria Himmelfahrt, or the Assumption; and Sept. 8 for Maria Geburt, or the Nativity. I happened to be going up the Rigi last year on the 5th August, and found that to be the day of pilgrimage to Mary zum Schnee, or Notre Dame des Neiges, who has a chapel which is passed in the ascent.
J. P. O.
Inscriptions in Churches (Vol. vii., p. 25.).—Norris Deck's extract, assigning these inscriptions to the reign of Edward VI., is valuable; but he need not have dissented from your account of the colloquy between Elizabeth and Dean Nowell, as you clearly hinted that "similar inscriptions had been previously adopted" (Vol. vi., p. 511.). The colloquy occurred in the fourth year of Elizabeth's reign; but, from the following extract, her Majesty's proclamation was observed in Ireland two years previously:
"In 1559, orders were sent to Thomas Lockwood, Dean of Christ Church, Dublin, to remove out of this church all relics and images, and to paint and whiten it anew; putting sentences of Scripture on the walls instead of pictures, which orders were observed, and men set to work accordingly on the 25th May of the same year, which was the second of Queen Elizabeth's reign."—Lynch's Life of St. Patrick, p. 208., edit. 1828.
J. Y.
Hoxton.
Macaulay's Young Levite (Vol. i., pp. 26. 167. 222. 374., &c.).—I find another, and an apt illustration of more recent date, to be added to those already given from Burnet, Bishop Earle, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Betty Hint, the "waiting wench" in Macklin's Man of the World, entertains matrimonial designs on Sidney, the chaplain:
"I wish she was out of the family once; if she was, I might then stand a chance of being my lady's favourite myself; ay, and perhaps of getting one of my young masters for a sweetheart, or at least the chaplain: but as for him, there would be no such great catch, if I should get him. I will try for him, however," &c.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Passage in Wordsworth (Vol. vii., p. 85.).—I can refer your Edinburgh correspondent, who asks for "an older original for Wordsworth's graceful conceit," to the following lines by Henry Constable, an Elizabethan poet, who published, in 1594, a volume of sonnets entitled Diana; and whose "ambrosiac muse" is lauded by Ben Jonson in his Underwoods (Gifford, vol. viii. p. 390.):
"The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe,
Made of a quill pluckt from an Angell's winge."
These lines, which I find in the notes to Todd's Milton (vol. v. p. 454., edit. 1826), being addressed "To the King of Scots whom as yet he had not seen," must have been written before 1603, and were first printed on a MS. volume by Todd in his first edition, 1801; where Wordsworth, who was no reader of scarce old tracts like "Diana Primrose's Chain of Pearl," may very probably have seen them.
W. L. N.
Bath.
Smock Marriages (Vol. vi., p. 561.).—In reference to your remark on this article, I remember that a Scotchman once told me that in the Scotch law of marriage there is a clause providing that "all under the apron string" at the time of marriage shall be considered legitimate; and that instances have been known where children born out
of wedlock have been legitimatised, on the marriage of their parents, by being placed beneath the mother's apron, and having the string tied over them, during the ceremony.
Perhaps some of your correspondents can give information as to whether such a provision does, or did, exist in the Scotch marriage law.
F. H. Brett.
Wirksworth.
"Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love," (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 72.).—These lines will be found in Act I. Sc. 1. of J. P. Kemble's comedy of The Panel, which is an alteration from Bickerstaff's comedy of 'Tis Well It's No Worse. Not having access to the original comedy, I am unable to say to which of the two authors the lines should be given; but I presume them to be Kemble's.
W. T. M.
Hong Kong.
Burial-place of Spinosa (Vol. vi., p. 510.).—Spinosa died at the Hague on Sunday, 23rd February, 1677, and was on the following Tuesday interred in the new church there. See his life by Colerus:
"Le corps fut porté en terre le 25 Fevrier, accompagné de plusieurs personnes illustres, et suivi de six carosses. Au retour de l'enterrement, qui se fit dans la nouvelle église sur le Spuy, les amis particuliers ou voisins furent régalés de quelques bouteilles de vin, selon la coutume du pays, dans la maison de l'Hôte du défunt" (den schilder H. van der Spÿck op de paviljoengracht).—From the Navorscher.
B.
St. Adulph (Vol. vii., p. 84.).—Trajectensem certainly applies to either Utrecht or Maestricht. One was Trajectum ad Rhenum, the other Trajectum ad Mosam. I incline to the opinion that the latter place is intended: Utrecht being, I believe, generally expressed by Ultrajectum.
C. W. G.
Samuel Daniel (Vol. vi., p. 603.).—The writer will be happy to communicate with I. M. on the subject of the life, &c. of this poet and historian; for which purpose his address is left with the Editor.
E. D.
La Bruyère (Vol. vii., pp. 38. 114.).—There lies before me an elaborate MS. history of the family of Brewer, with a pedigree. The former, which commences with Ralph de Bruera (temp. William I.), has been compiled from papers in the Heralds' Office, Brompton, Dugdale, and the more modern historians, general and local. The last individual mentioned therein is a physician, who bore the name and ancient arms of Brewer, and died in 1618. The pedigree embraces about sixty names, including the alliances, but reaches no further downwards than the sons of Roger Mortimer in the reign of Henry III. These documents do not contribute in any way to answer the inquiry of one of your correspondents as to La Bruyère; and it may be satisfactory to the other to know that there is nothing in them to show any connexion with the name of De la Bruere.
J. D. S.
Murray, titular Earl of Dunbar (Vol. vi., p. 11.).—In correcting Lord Albemarle's mistake respecting "James Murray, titular Earl of Dunbar," your correspondent C. (2.), Portsmouth, seems to have fallen into a similar error, which I hope he will pardon me for pointing out.
The Christian name of Murray of Broughton was not James, but John; and the ancient Border family to which he belonged was so distinctly connected with that of Stormont (a branch of Tullibardine), that even genealogical tradition was silent. His activity as an agent recommended him to Prince Charles, who employed him as his secretary during the campaign of 1745, to the misfortunes of which he added by fomenting the Prince's distrust of Lord George Murray: and his final treachery to his master and his cause has condemned him to an immortality of infamy. He had nothing in common with "James Earl of Dunbar," save the name which he disgraced and the cause which he betrayed.
James Murray, second son of Lord Stormont, and elder brother of the famous Lord Mansfield, escaped to the court of the exiled Stuarts after 1715. He became governor to the prince; and under the title of Earl of Dunbar, chief minister and secretary to his father. He never returned to Scotland, but died in 1770 at Avignon, at the age of eighty. His honorable fidelity to a ruined cause is admitted even by Junius, when, "willing to wound," he taunts Mansfield with this Jacobite connexion; while the intensity of loathing with which Scotland viewed his infamous namesake is illustrated by the anecdote of old Walter Scott throwing the cup out of the window, lest "lip of him, or his, should come after John Murray of Broughton."
D. B.
Balfour.
Loggerheads (Vol. v., p. 338.).—As I do not find that any correspondent of "N. & Q." on the subject of the sign of "We Three" has mentioned the existence of a similar sign in a small village in Denbighshire, on the border of Flintshire, to which a curious tradition is attached, I am induced to forward the account of it. The last years of Wilson, the landscape painter (who died in 1782), were passed at a house called Clomendu, the dove-cote, situated on a property to which he had succeeded in the little village of Llanoerris, through which the high road from Mold, his burial-place, to Ruthin passes. Wilson was fond of ale, and is
traditionally said to have frequented a small inn close by the roadside (on the right hand as you pass through the village from Mold towards the vale of Clwyd), and to have spent many an hour upon the bench under a tree which was lately, and is perhaps still standing opposite. His friend the landlord, wanting a new sign, or more probably a restoration of the old established one, Wilson painted for him the heads of two very merry red-faced men, who are looking hard, with a broad grin, towards the spectator. Long exposure to the wind and weather had, when I saw them, nearly obliterated the original colouring of the heads, and I have heard that some Dick Tinto has of late years restored the rubicund hue to their cheeks: but the words "We Three Loggerheads Be" were quite legible ten years ago. The innkeeper, who sets a very high value on this sign, is, I believe, a son of the man for whom Wilson painted it. It is not attached to a pole, but fastened against the front of the inn: and a few years ago, an idea prevailing that "The Loggerheads" had been painted on the back of an unfinished landscape, an artist offered the innkeeper a sum of money to be allowed to take it down, and ascertain the fact. But it was indignantly refused, with a protest that the sign which Wilson had painted should never be removed from its place, as long as he lived.
Cambrensis.
Lord Nelson and Walter Burke (Vol. vi., p. 576.).—An obituary memoir of Mr. Burke appears in the Examiner for October 1, 1815.
H. G. D.
Parochial Libraries (Vol. vi., pp. 432. 559.).—An ancient parochial library existed some seven or eight and twenty years ago at Gillingham in Dorsetshire. I was for a short period at that time the locum tenens of the then rector of Gillingham; but at this distance of time remember scarcely more than that the books were kept in a small room devoted to the purpose in the rectory house, and were probably above two hundred in number.
Cokely.
St. Botulph (Vol. vii., p. 84.).—The life of St. Botulph, contained in the Harleian MS. No. 3097., is by Fulcard, a monk of Thorney, as appears by the dedication. It is the same as that printed by Capgrave, who omits the dedication. Fulcard wrote the lives of certain other saints buried at Thorney (Torhtred and Tancred). The dedication does not belong exclusively to the life of Botulph, but forms the introduction to all three lives. It was for this reason, I suppose, that Capgrave (or rather John of Tynemouth, from whom he borrowed) omitted it.
C. W. G.
Turner's Picture of Eltham Palace (Vol. vii., p. 90.).—J. H. A. mentions a picture of "King John's Palace at Eltham, by the late Mr. Turner." Could he inform me what has now become of that picture, and also whether it was rated among that celebrated artist's best works or not?
A. W. S.
"Mémoires d'un Homme d'Etat" (Vol. vi., pp. 412. 588.).—There seems to be sufficient reason for believing in the disavowal of Prince Hardenberg being the author, made by his friend and agent Privy-Counsellor Schoell, to whom the prince, at his death, had confided his genuine Mémoires. M. Schoell thought the best care would be taken of them by placing them under the official safeguard of the Prussian minister; and his decision was, that they were not to be published till after the lapse of fifty years from the prince's death, which took place in 1822. Copies, however, of the original Mémoires had been surreptitiously taken before their seclusion from the public eye; and from these copies, important and extensive extracts are said to have been undoubtedly made, and form part of the printed Mémoires. In editing them, several well-known literary men were employed; among whom are enumerated, Alphonse de Beauchamp, A. Schubart, and Count A. F. D'Allonville. A Mons. Montveran (the author, I believe, of a work on English jurisprudence) announced, some years ago, a publication, in which he promised to disclose the original sources of the Mémoires and the compilers' names; but, so far as I can discover, M. Montveran has never redeemed his promise.
J. M.
Oxford.
Indian Chess Problem (Vol. vi., p. 464.).—This most beautiful of chess problems was sent from India, in a letter addressed to the editor of the Chess Player's Chronicle, signed "Shagird" (native Indian chess player).
It was published in the Chronicle in 1846, vol. vi. p. 54., without the solution, which is as follows:
| WHITE. | BLACK. |
| B. from R. 6th to B. 1st. | Pawn advances. |
| K. to Kts. 2nd. | Pawn advances. |
| R. to Qns. 2nd. | K. to B. 4th. |
| R. to Qns. 4th. Mate. |
T. B. O.
"God tempers the Wind" (Vol. i., pp. 211. 325.).—Mr. Gutch will find the French proverb "in print" in Ward's National Proverbs, p. 38., and assimilated as follows in four European languages:
"A brebis tondue, Dieu mesure le vent."
"Dio manda il freddo secondo i panni."
"Dios dá la ropa conforme al frio."
"Gott giebt die Schultern nach der Bürde."
W. W.
Malta.
Age of Trees (Vol. v., passim).—In the Saturday Magazine of Dec. 29, 1832, mention is made
of Owen Glendower's Oak, at Shelton, near Shrewsbury,—a tree famed from the tradition attached to it, which states that the celebrated chieftain whose name it bears overlooked, from its branches, the desperate battle which took place between Henry IV. and Sir Henry Percy, on the 20th July, 1403.
"There is no difficulty, in believing," says E. B., "from the present appearance of the tree, that it is old enough to have been of a considerable size in the year 1403. Oaks are known to live to a much greater age than this; and there are documents which prove that the Shelton Oak was a fine large tree some centuries ago. It is perfectly alive, and bears some hundreds of acorns every year, though it has great marks of age, and is so hollow in the inside, that it seems to stand on little more than a circle of bark. At least six or eight persons might stand within it.
"The girth at the bottom, close to the ground, is 44 feet 3 inches; at five feet from the ground, 25 feet 1 inch; at eight feet from the ground, 27 feet 4 inches. Height of the tree, 41 feet 6 inches."
What is known of this old oak at the present time? If it has passed away, perhaps its memory may claim a place in your columns: if not, will some of your correspondents give me some information respecting it?
W. W.
Malta.
Mummies in Germany (Vol. vi., passim).—In a large hall under the Capuchin convent at Florian, and only ten minutes' walk from Valetta, there is a collection of "baked friars," as so termed in common parlance at this island.
The niches in the walls are all filled, and when one of the order now dies, that mummy which has been the longest exposed, or most decayed, is removed to make way for the remains of him who is lately deceased.
What with the appearance of these mummies, and the smell which comes from them, one visit will satisfy the most curious in such matters.
Your correspondent Cheverells will find a well-written description, in Willis's Pencillings by the Way, of a visit which he made to the Capuchin convent near Palermo.
W. W.
Malta.