Replies to Minor Queries.

Verney Note decyphered (Vol. vii., p. 568.).—I am extremely obliged to Mr. Thompson Cooper for his decyphered rendering of Sir Ralph Verney's note of a speech or proceeding in parliament. The note itself is not now in my possession, but I have requested the owner to be good enough to re-collate it with the original, and if any mistakes should appear in the copy, or the printing (which is very likely), I will give you notice of the fact, that the doubtful words in Mr. Cooper's version may, if possible, be set right.

Students in the art of decyphering may be pleased to have the key to the cypher recorded in

your pages. I therefore give it you as discovered by Mr. Cooper, and beg, in the strongest way, to reiterate my thanks to that gentleman.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 27, 28.
f, r, k, t, b, h, s, w, c, g, p, d, a, e, i, o, u, l, x, m, n.

The cyphers (if any) for j, q, y, z have not been discovered, and the numbers 1, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 remain unappropriated.

John Bruce.

Emblems by John Bunyan (Vol. vii., p. 470.).—This work which Mr. Corser has not met with, is in the folio edition of his works, forming pp. 849. to 868. of vol. ii. (1768). The plates are small woodcuts of very indifferent execution.

E. D.

Mr. Cobb's Diary (Vol. vii., p. 477.).—This volume was printed solely for private distribution by the family, who also presented their relatives and friends (amongst whom the writer was reckoned) with another volume compiled on the decease of Francis Cobb, Esq., the husband of Mrs. Cobb, and entitled, Memoir of the late Francis Cobb, Esq., of Margate, compiled from his Journals and Letters: Maidstone, printed by J. V. Hall and Son, Journal Office, 1835. Both of these are at the service for perusal of your inquiring correspondent, John Martin.

E. D.

"Sat cito si sat bene" (Vol. vii., p. 594.).—I have not Twiss at hand; but I think F. W. J. is mistaken in calling it a "favourite maxim" of Lord Eldon. I remember to have heard Lord Eldon tell the story, which was, that the Newcastle Fly, in which he came up to town, in I forget how many days, had on its panel the motto, "Sat cito si sat bene:" he applied it jocularly in defence of his own habits in Chancery.

C.

Mythe versus Myth (Vol. vii., pp. 326. 575.).—It gives me much pleasure to have afforded Mr. Thiriold an opportunity for displaying so much learning and sagacity; but I hope he does not imagine that he has confuted me. As I only spoke of words which, like μῦθος, had a single consonant between two vowels, such words as plinth, labyrinth, &c. have nothing to do with the question. If mythe, differing from the other examples which are to be found, happens to have the for its termination, and thus resembles words of Anglo-Saxon origin, I cannot help it, but it was formed secundum artem. As to Mr. Theriold's mȳth, unless so written and printed, it will always be pronounced mўth, like the French mythe.

As to the hybrid adjectives, I only wished to avoid increasing the number of them. The French, I believe, have only one, musical; for though, like ourselves, they have made substantives of the Greek μουσική (sc. τέχνη), φυσική, &c., in all other cases they retain the Greek form of the adjective, as in physique, substantive and adjective, while we generally have pairs of adjectives, as philosophic, philosophical; extatic, extatical; &c. Some may think this an advantage; I do not.

Thos. Keightley.

The Gilbert Family (Vol. vii., p. 259).—If your correspondent seeking genealogical information in reference to my ancestors, calls on me, I will show him a presentation copy of A Genealogical Memoir of the Gilbert Family in Old and New England, by J. W. Thornton, LL.B., Boston, U. S., 1850, 8vo. pp. 24, only fifty printed.

James Gilbert.

Alexander Clark (Vol. vii., p. 580.).—I should feel obliged if J. O. could find leisure to communicate to "N. & Q." some particulars relative to Clark. He is supposed to have been the author of a curious poem: The Institution and Progress of the Buttery College of Slains, in the Parish of Cruden, Aberdeenshire; with a Catalogue of the Books and MSS. in the Library of that University: Aberdeen, 1700. Mr. Peter Buchan thus mentions him in his Gleanings of Scarce Old Ballads:

"Clark, a drunken dominie at Slains, author of a poetical dialogue between the gardeners and tailors on the origin of their crafts, and a most curious Latin and English poem called the 'Buttery College of Slains,' which resembled much in language and style Drummond of Hawthornden's 'Polemo Middino.'"

This poem is printed in Watson's Collection of Scottish Poems, Edin. 1711; and also noticed in the Edinburgh Topographical and Antiquarian Magazine, 1848, last page. I am anxious to ascertain if the emblem writer, and the burlesque poet, be one and the same person. The dates, I confess, are somewhat against this conclusion; but there may have been a previous edition of the Emblematical Representation (1779). The University Clark is supposed to have been an Aberdeenshire man. Possibly J. O. may be able to throw some light on the subject.

Perthensis.

Christ's Cross (Vol. iii., pp. 330. 465.).—In Morley's Introduction to Practical Music, originally printed in 1597, and which I quote from a reprint by William Randall, in 4to., in 1771, eighteen mortal pages (42-59), which, in my musical ignorance, I humbly confess to be wholly out of my line, are occupied with the "Cantus," "Tenor," and "Bassus," to the following words:

"Christes Crosse be my speed in all vertue to proceede, A, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, & t, double w, v, x, with y, ezod, & per se, con per se, tittle tittle est Amen, When you haue done begin again, begin again."

J. F. M.

The Rebellious Prayer (Vol. vii., p. 286.).—J. A. may find the poem, of which he quotes the opening lines, in the Churchman's Monthly Penny Magazine, October, 1851, with the signature L. E. P. The magazine is published by Wertheim & Macintosh, 24. Paternoster Row.

M. E.

"To the Lords of Convention" (Vol. vii., p. 596.).—L. Evans will find the whole of the ballad of "Bonnie Dundee," the first line of which he quotes, in Sir Walter Scott's Doom of Devorgoil, where it is introduced as a song. Singularly enough, his best ballad is thus found in his worst play.

Ficulnus.

Wooden Tombs and Effigies (Vol. vii., pp. 528. 607.).—In a chapel adjoining the church of Heveningham in Suffolk, are (or rather were in 1832) the remains of a good altar tomb, with recumbent effigies carved in chesnut, of a knight and his lady: it appeared to be, from the armour and architecture, of the early part of the fifteenth century; and from the arms, Quarterly or and gules within a border engrailed sable, charged with escallops argent, no doubt belonged to the ancient family of Heveningham of that place; probably Sir John Heveningham, knight of the shire for the county of Suffolk in the 1st of Henry IV.

When I visited this tomb in 1832, it was in a most dilapidated condition: the slab on which the effigy of the knight once rested was broken in; within the head of the lady, which was separated from the body, a thrush had built its nest: notwithstanding, however, the neglect and damp to which the chapel was exposed, these chesnut effigies remained wonderfully sound and perfect.

Spes.

The monument to Sir Walter Traylli and his lady, in Woodford Church in Northamptonshire, is of wood.

There is a wooden effigy in Gayton Church, Northamptonshire, of a knight templar, recumbent, in a cross-legged position, his feet resting on an animal: over the armour is a surcoat; the helmet is close fitted to the head, his right hand is on the hilt of his sword, a shield is on the left arm.

There is also a fine wooden effigy of Sir Hugh Bardolph in Burnham Church in Norfolk.

J. B.

In Fersfield Church, in Norfolk, there is a wooden figure to the memory of Sir Robert Du Bois, Kt., ob. 1311. See Bloomfield's Norfolk, vol. i. p. 68.

J. B.

Lord Clarendon and the Tubwoman (Vol. vii., pp. 133. 211. 634.).—Upon reference to the story of the "tubwoman" in p. 133., it will be seen that Mr. Hyde is distinctly stated to have himself married the brewer's widow, and to have married her for her money. It is farther said that Ann Hyde, the mother of Queen Mary and Queen Ann, was the only issue of this marriage; whereas Ann Hyde had four brothers and a sister. No allusion is made in this account to Sir Thomas Ailesbury. Your correspondent Mr. Warden says, that "the story has usually been told of the wife of Sir Thomas Ailesbury," and that it may be true of her. Will he have the kindness to furnish a reference to the version of the story in which Sir Thomas Ailesbury is said to have married the tubwoman?

L.

House-marks (Vol. vii., p. 594.).—I do not know whether α. recollects the frequent occurrence of marks upon sheep in this country. Although I have often seen them, I cannot just now describe one accurately. Some sheep passed my house yesterday which were marked with a cross within a circle.

Riding with a friend, a miller, in Essex, about thirteen years ago, he jumped out of the gig and over a gate, to seize a sack which was lying in a field. Seeing no initials upon it, I asked how he knew that it was his; when he pointed out to me a fish marked upon it, which he told me had been his own and his father's mark for many years. He also said that most of the millers in the neighbourhood had a peculiar mark (not their names or initials), each a different one for his own sacks.

A. J. N.

Birmingham.

"Amentium haud amantium" (Vol. vii., p. 595.).—Your correspondent's Query sent me at once to a queer old Terence in English, together with the text, "operâ ac industriâ R. B., in Axholmensi insulâ, Lincolnsherii Epwortheatis. [London, Printed by John Legatt, and are to be sold by Andrew Crooke, at the sign of the Green-Dragon, in Paul's Church Yard. 1641.] 6th Edition."

Here, as I expected, I found an alliterative translation of the phase in question "For they are fare as they were lunaticke, and not love-sicke."

The translation, I may add, is in prose.

Oxoniensis.

Walthamstow.

The Megatherium in the British Museum (Vol. vii., p. 590.).—It is much to be regretted that A Foreign Surgeon should not have examined the contents of the room which contains the cast of the skeleton of this animal with a little more attention, before he penned the above article. Had he done so, he would have found many of the original bones, from casts of which the restored skeleton has been constructed, in Wall Cases 9 and 10, and would not have fallen into the error of supposing that it is a fac-simile of the original skeleton at Madrid. That specimen was exhumed near Buenos Ayres in 1789; whilst our restoration

has been made from bones of another individual, many of which are, as I have stated, to be found in the British Museum itself, and others in that of the Royal College of Surgeons. I are not about to defend the propriety of putting the trunk of a palm-tree into the claws of the Megatherium, though I do not suppose that the restorer ever expected, when he did so, that any one would entertain the idea that this gigantic beast was in the habit of climbing trees; but I would fain ask your correspondent on what grounds he makes the dogmatic assertion that "Palms there were none, at that period of telluric formation." I will simply remind him of the vast numbers of fossil fruits, and other remains of palms, in the London clay of the Isle of Sheppey.

W. J. Bernhard Smith.

Temple.

Pictorial Proverbs (Vol. v., p. 559.).—Perhaps the book here mentioned is one of the old German Narrenbuchs, or Book of Fools, which were generally illustrated with pictures, of which I have a curious set in my possession.

Can any of your correspondents give some account of the nature and merits of these books? Are any of them worth translating at the present day? The one from which my pictures were taken has the title Mala Gallina, malum Ovum, and was published at Vienna and Nuremburg. It seems to have been a satire on the female sex; but the text, I am sorry to say, is not in my possession.

H. T. Riley.

"Hurrah," and other War-cries (Vol. vii., p. 596.).—The following passage (which I find in my notes with the reference Ménagiana, vol. ii. p. 328.) may partially assist your correspondent Cape:

"Le cri des anciens Comtes d'Anjou étoit Rallie. En voici l'origine. Eude II., Comte de Blois, marchant avec une armée considérable contre Foulke Nerra, Comte d'Anjou, ces deux princes se rencontrèrent à Pontlevoi sur le Cher, où ils se livrèrent bataille le 6 Juillet, 1016. Foulke eut d'abord quelque désavantage; mais Herbert, Comte du Maine (dit Eveillechien), étant venu à son secours, il rallia ses troupes, and défit absolument, &c. Depuis ce temps-là le cri des anciens Comtes d'Anjou étoit Rallie. Et à ce propos je vous rapporterai ce qu'en dit Maître Vace, surnommé le Clerc de Caen, dans son Roman de Normandie:

'François crie Montjoye, et Normans Dex-aye:

Flamands crie Aras, et Angevin Rallie:

Et li cuens Thiebaut Chartre et Passavant crie.'"

This last cry is not unlike the Irish "Faugh-a-Ballagh" in signification.

J. H. Leresche.

Manchester.

The following extracts from Sir Francis Palgrave's History of Normandy and England, vol. i. p. 696., explain the origin of the word "Hurrah," respecting which one of your correspondents inquires:

"It was a 'wise custom' in Normandy, established by Rollo's decree, that whoever sustained, or feared to sustain, any damage of goods or chattels, life or limb, was entitled to raise the country by the cry of haro, or haron, upon which cry all the lieges were bound to join in pursuit of the offender,—Haron! Ha Raoul! justice invoked in Duke Rollo's name. Whoever failed to aid, made fine to the sovereign; whilst a heavier mulct was consistently inflicted upon the mocker who raised the clameur de haro without due and sufficient cause, a disturber of the commonwealth's tranquillity.

"The clameur de haro is the English system of 'hue and cry.' The old English exclamation Harrow! our national vernacular Hurrah! being only a variation thereof, is identical with the supposed invocation of the Norman chieftain; and the usage, suggested by common sense, prevailed under various modifications throughout the greater part of the Pays Coutumier of France."

A. M. S.