Replies to Minor Queries.
The Countess of Pembroke's Letter (Vol. i., pp. 28. 119. 154.; Vol. vii., p. 154.).—None of your correspondents seem to be aware that the paper in the World (No. XIV. April 5, 1753), in which this questioned letter first appeared, was written by Horace Walpole, and was afterwards reproduced by him in his Royal and Noble Authors. These facts may help to guide inquirers,
but they seem to me not to testify much for the authenticity of the piece. This, among many publications in the World, would certainly prove nothing; but Walpole's venturing to reproduce it in an acknowledged work to which he attached considerable importance, is no doubt of some weight.
C.
Ethnology of England (Vol. vii., p. 135.).—In reference to that portion of the Query by Ethnologicus which asks "Whether it is yet clearly settled that there are types of the heads of Ancient Britons, Saxons, Danes, and other races, to be referred to as standards or examples of the respective crania of those people?" I beg to say that beneath the chancel of the church of St. Leonard, Hythe, there is a crypt containing a vast number of skulls and other human bones, which, according to Jeake, the historian of the Cinque Ports, are—
"Supposed by some to be gathered at the shore after a great sea-fight and slaughter of the French and English on that coast; whose carcases, or their bones, after the consumption of the flesh, might be cast up there, and so gathered and reserved for memorandum."
Speaking of these relics, Walker, in his Physiology, says:
"These skulls at Hythe are not of one race, either Saxon or British, but of several; two forms of skull, very distinct from each other, predominate: one, a long narrow skull, greatly resembling the Celtic of the present day; the other, a short broad skull, greatly resembling the Gothic.... Another kind of skulls, fewer in number, are evidently Roman skulls."
Robert Wright.
Drake the Artist (Vol. vi., p. 555.).—Searching a series of catalogues of the Society of Artists of Great Britain, from 1760 to 1780, I find that Mr. Drake at York, F.S.A. (Fellow of that Society), in 1773 exhibited at their New Room, near Exeter Change in the Strand,—
No. 89. "A Family IN LITTLE."
Is this to be interpreted by Hamlet's sarcasm upon the sycophants of his uncle's court, who paid "Forty, fifty, nay, one hundred ducats, for his portrait in little?" Small full-lengths were in vogue at the period, but our Yorkist has a delicate diminutive of his own. Again, in 1775, we have three works of Drake—
72. "View of a Gentleman's Seat in Yorkshire, with two Gentlemen going out a-hawking."
73. "Sacarissa with Amoret and Musidora." From Thomson's Seasons, 4to. edition, 1730.
74. "A Winter Piece."
And in 1776:
23. "A Madonna and Child." Mr Drake, F.S.A., York.
There is no trace of him at the Royal Academy. Thus we have him in portraiture, in landscape, in sacred history, and in the poetical imaginative. This is beyond what G. reckons upon; and now, having contributed thus much, I hope some of your readers may assist in carrying the inquiry further.
J. H. A.
Sparse (Vol. vi., p. 554.; Vol. vii., p. 51.), said to be an Americanism.—I have in my possession an edition, printed in 1611, of the Whole Book of Psalms, collected into English Metre, by Thomas Sternhold, John Hopkins, and others. In the paraphrase of Psalm xliv. v. 10. is the following:
"Thou madest us fly before our foes,
And so were overtrod.
Our enemies rob'd and spoyl'd our goods
When we were sparst abroad."
The word here used in 1611 was evidently no American one; and yet it is singular that neither Bailey (1740), Johnson (1755), or Barclay (1800), have the word in their dictionaries; but Knowles (1835) and Blackie's Imperial (1850) both mentioned it; and have sparse, sparsed, sparsedly, and sparsing, all meaning "dispersed" or "scattered."
John Algor.
Eldon Street, Sheffield.
Genoveva of Brabant (Vol. vii., p. 212.).—There is a ballad on her legend in an obscure volume of verses published by Masters, 1846, fantastically entitled Echoes from Old Cornwall.
Coriolanus.
N.B. These Echoes do not appear to have resounded far or wide.
God's Marks (Vol. vii., p. 134.).—In the register-book of St. Margaret's, Westminster, occurs this entry, under the year 1556:
"Junii vijo die. Item, Elizabeth Helhe, of the ague with Godd's marks."
Shakspeare adopts the saying,
"They have the plague ...
For the Lord's tokens on you do I see."
Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 2.
quoted in Memorials of Westminster, ch. iv. p. 152. They were the first spots which showed that the infection had been caught.
M. W.
Segantiorum Portus (Vol. vii., p. 180.).—I know not what Prestoniensis means by Ptolemy's History of Britain, but there can be little doubt as to the whereabouts of what is called, in the Palatine MS., Segantiorum Portus, or Setantiorum Portus in Berthius's great edition of Ptolemy's Geography, ch. iii., tit. Albion, tab. 1.
It is curious that the place immediately preceding in Ptolemy's Catalogue that inquired about, affords, in the vast multitude enumerated in that work, the closest approach to identity between the ancient and modern names, viz. Μορικαμβη Ἐισχύσις,
Morecambe Æstuarium, still called, totidem literis and idem sonans, Morecambe Bay, in which Ulverston is the chief town, so that of this point there can be no doubt. Then comes Setantiorum Portus, of which Montanus, Bertius, and subsequent geographers give Winandermere as the modern name, meaning of course the mouth of the river through which Lake Windermere discharges itself into Morecambe Bay. But I doubt this, for there is no town of Windermere, nor indeed any other, that Ptolemy could have called a harbour (portus), till we come to Lancaster, which I therefore incline to believe was the Portus Setantiorum. After this portus comes Belisama Æstuarium, by which all interpreters understand the mouth of the Ribble, which is probably the point that interests Prestoniensis, as Preston stands on that river. The conjecture that Lancaster was the Portus Setantiorum is corroborated by the latitudes and longitudes given by Ptolemy, which, though not to be absolutely relied on, are not to be disregarded, and which give to the three places, Morecambe Æstuarium, Setantiorum Portus, and Belisama Æstuarium, nearly the relative positions in which we find Ulverston, Lancaster, and the Ribble.
C.
Rubrical Query (Vol. vi., p. 509.).—Quæstor inquires the meaning of the words "if occasion lie" in the Rubric immediately before the Offertory in the Communion Service. I am under the impression that "if occasion lie" here simply means, in case there is necessity to do so; and for the origin of this parenthetical clause I would refer to the Rubric of 1549 (Keeling, Lit. Br., edit. of 1842, p. 178.), which provides:
"That in cathedral churches, or places where there is daily communion, it shall be sufficient to read this exhortation once in a month, and in parish churches on the week days it may be left unsaid."
Showing clearly the mode in which the exhortation was intended to be used. The real difficulty, however, is not noticed by your querist, which is, as to when "Public warning of the Communion" is to be given. One Rubric says that this notice is to be given "immediately after the Nicene Creed;" another prescribes that when this warning is to be given, it shall be done "immediately after sermon." On this point see Sharpe on Rubrics, p. 62.; and Wheatly on Common Prayer, chap. vi. sect. viii. § 3.
Enivri.
Rosa Mystica (Vol. vii., p. 182.).—I do not remember to have ever heard of such an institution; but Rosa Mystica is one of the many appellatives of the Virgin Mary in the Roman Catholic "Litanies of the Virgin."
C.
Portrait of Charles I. (Vol. vii., p. 185.).—It may be confidently asserted that Vandyke never painted in enamel; the enamels referred to were at best only "after Vandyke." Nothing more frequent, in both earlier and present times, than the copying large oil portraits in enamel.
C.
"Time and I" (Vol. vii., p. 182.).—I cannot answer Mr. Blackiston's Query fully, but he will find, I think, in the miscellaneous correspondence usually printed in Pope's and Swift's works, the following anecdote, that some one having quoted to Robert, Lord Oxford, the adage,
"Time and I 'gainst any two,"
his Lordship replied, impromptu,
"Chance and I 'gainst Time and you."
C.
The Word "Party" (Vol. vii., p. 177.).—I can furnish a more ancient example of the use of this word than the one given by your correspondent.
In an old MS. "Booke of Recepts," in my possession, of the year 1681-2, there occurs the following singular prescription:
"The Powder of Buggs.—Take the buggs and wash them well in white wine, and putt them in a new earthen pott, and set them in an oven till they be dry enough for powder; then beat them, and sift them, and give ye party as much as will lye upon a groate every morning in honey."
Can any one inform me for what disease this nauseous remedy was prescribed, and whether it be now excluded from the pharmacopœia? Perhaps this oleaginous insect was formerly exhibited in those cases for which cod liver oil is now so extensively used.
G.
Your correspondent E. D. might have gone much farther back for an example of the use of the word party for a particular person. In the Tempest, Act III. Sc. 2., we have:
"Cal. I say by sorcery he got this isle.
From me he got it. If thy greatness will
Revenge it on him—for, I know, thou dar'st;
But this thing dare not.
Ste. That's most certain.
Cal. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll serve thee.
Ste. How now shall this be compass'd? Canst thou bring me to the party."
Erica.
Warwick.
"Mater ait natæ," &c. (Vol. vii., p. 155.).—In reply to your correspondent who asks where the following lines "Mater ait natæ," &c. are to be found, I refer him to the following note in Greswell's Account of Runcorn, p. 34.:
"Leland, in his Itinerary, mentions an old woman, a native of Over in Cheshire, who lived in the family of Downes of Shrigley, and died at the age of 140 years. Zuingerus reports of a noble lady of Worms, in the archbishopric of Mentz, who lived to see the sixth generation, that she might thus address her daughter:
'(1) Mater (2) natæ die (3) natæ filia (4) natam
Ut moneat (5) natæ plangere (6) filiolam.'
That is, 'The mother says to her daughter: Daughter, bid thy daughter, to tell her daughter, that her daughter's daughter is crying.'"
Anon.
Warrington.
I have in my possession a scrap-book, compiled by one Edward King in the year 1743, which consists of extracts from newspapers of that date; and while perusing your last Number, meeting with W. W.'s (Malta) Query, I immediately recollected having noticed the quotation some short time ago. Turning to the volume I find the following extract:
"Sarum, April 30.—We hear from Limington in Hants that one Mrs. Mitchel was lately brought to bed there of a daughter, whose great-great-grandmother is still living, and has already seen her fifth generation, and all daughters. So that she may say the same that the distich doth, made on one of the Dalburgh's family of Basil:
1
'Materait 2
natædie 3
natæfilia 4
natam
Ut moneat 5
natæplangere 6
filiolam.'
1
'Riseup, 2
daughter,and go to thy 3
daughter,
For her 4
daughter's5
daughterhath a 6
daughter.'She is about 92 years of age, is in perfect health, has all her senses clear, and hopes to see five generations more."
|
Tye.
Norwood, Surrey.
Gospel Place (Vol. vii., p. 133.).—In my parish there are two such places, both on the border of the parish: one is called "The Gospel Oak," the other "The Gospel Bush." The traditional explanation of these names is this:—that at no very ancient date, when the custom of perambulating the parish was annually observed, portions of the Gospel were read at these and other places,—stations, as they were anciently called.
John Jebb.
Peterstow Rectory, Ross.
Passage in Thomson (Vol. vii., p. 87.).—Steaming, as your intelligent correspondent C. says, is clearly the true reading. The word is so printed in the 4to. edition of the Seasons, 1730 (was not this the first collected edition of that poem?), and in every other to which I have referred. It does not, however, occur in the 4to. copy in the twenty-eighth, but in the thirty-first line. The four lines, fifteenth to eighteenth, originally given in the "Hymn," but afterwards wisely omitted by the poet, follow the words "In Autumn unconfined:"—
"Thrown from thy lap
Profuse o'er Nature falls the lucid shower
Of beamy fruits, and in a radiant stream
Into the stores of sterile winter pours."
The steaming property of the earth is well described by Dr. Carpenter, in his Vegetable Physiology, p. 168.:
"If a glass vessel be placed with its mouth downwards, on the surface of a meadow or grass plot, during a sunny afternoon in summer, it will speedily be rendered dim in the interior by the watery vapour which will rise into it; and this will soon accumulate to such a degree as to run down in drops. Any person walking in a meadow on which the sun is shining powerfully, where the grass has not long previously been refreshed by rain, may observe a tremulous motion in distant objects, occasioned by the rising of the watery vapour; exactly resembling that which takes place along the sea-shore, when the sun shines strongly on pebbles that have been left in a moistened state by the retiring tide."—Dr. Carpenter's Vegetable Physiology, p. 168. sect. 253.
"The atmosphere is made up of several steams, or minute particles of several sorts rising from the earth and the waters."—Locke's Elements of Natural Philosophy.
J. H. M.
"Words are given to man to conceal his thoughts" (Vol. vii., p. 165.).—The hexameter line, ὅς χ' ἕτερον, &c., is one put by Homer into the mouth of Achilles (Iliad, ix. 313.), when he is expressing his indignant hatred of liars.
Rt.
Warmington.
Folger Family (Vol. vi., p. 583.; Vol. vii., p. 51.).—Will it assist the inquiry to say that there was a family of Foulgers at Norwich? The only son was a curate at Leiston, in Suffolk, in 1832.
B. B. Woodward.