Replies to Minor Queries.

Donnybrook Fair (Vol. vii., p. 549.).—Abhba will find his answer in D'Alton's History of the County of Dublin, p. 804.:

"About the year 1174, Earl 'Strongbow' gave Donnybrock (Devonalbroc), amongst other lands, to Walter de Riddlesford; and in 1204, King John granted to the corporation of Dublin license for an annual eight-day fair here, commencing on the day of the finding of the Holy Cross (May 3rd), with similar stallages and tolls, as established in Waterford and Limerick."

This scene of an Irishman's glory has been daguerreotyped in lines that may be left in your pages, as being probably quite as little known to your readers as is the work above cited:

"Instead of weapons, either band

Seized on such arms as came to hand.

And as famed Ovid paints th' adventures

Of wrangling Lapithæ and Centaurs,

Who at their feast, by Bacchus led,

Threw bottles at each others' head;

And these arms failing in their scuffles,

Attack'd with andirons, tonges, and shovels:

So clubs and billets, staves and stones,

Met fierce, encountering every sconce,

And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains,

Each void receptacle for brains."

J. D.

Abigail (Vol. iv., p. 424.; Vol. v., pp. 38. 94. 450., Vol. viii., p. 42.).—Not having my "N. & Q." at hand, I cannot say what may have been already told on this subject, but I think I can answer the Queries of your last correspondent, H. T. Ryley. There can be, I think, no doubt that the familiar use of the name Abigail, for the genus "lady's maid," is derived from one whom I may call Abigail the Great; who, before she ascended King David's bed and throne, introduced herself under the oft-reiterated description of a "hand-maid." (See 1 Sam. xxv. 24, 25, 27, 28, 31.) I have no Concordance at hand, but I suspect there is no passage in Scripture where the word hand-maid is more prominent; and so the idea became associated with the name Abigail. An Abigail for a hand-maid is therefore merely analogous to a Goliath for a giant; a Job for a patient man; a Samson for a strong one; a Jezebel for a shrew, &c. I need hardly add, that H. T. Ryley's conjecture, that this use of the term Abigail had any relation to the Lady Masham, is, therefore, quite supererogative—but I may go farther. The old Duchess of Marlborough's Apology, which first told the world that Lady Masham's Christian name was Abigail, and that she was a poor cousin of her own, was not published till 1742, when all feeling about "Abigail Hill and her brother Jack" was extinct. In fine, it will be found that the use of the term Abigail for a lady's maid was much more frequent before the change of Queen Anne's Whig ministry than after.

Honorary Degrees (Vol. viii, p. 8.).—Honorary degrees give no corporate rights. Johnson never himself assumed the title of Doctor; conferred on him first by the University of Dublin in 1765, and afterwards in 1775 by that of Oxford. See Croker's Boswell, p. 168. n. 5., for the probable motives of Johnson's never having called himself Doctor.

Red Hair (Vol. vii., p. 616.).—The Danes are said to have been (and to be even now) a red-haired race.

They were long the scourge of England, and to this possibly may be attributed in some degree the prejudice against people having hair of that colour.

In Denmark, it is said, red-hair is esteemed a beauty.

That red-haired people are fiery and passionate is undoubtedly true; at least I vouch for it as far as my experience goes; but that they emit a disagreeable odour when inattentive to personal cleanliness, is probably a vulgar prejudice arising from the colour of their hair, resembling that of the fox—unde the term "foxy."

A. C. M.

Exeter.

Historical Engraving (Vol. vii., p. 619).—I am glad I happen to be able to inform E. S. Taylor that his engraving, about the restoration of Charles II., is to be found in a book entitled—

"Verhael in forme van Journal, van de Reys ende 't Vertoeven van den seer Doorluchtige ende Machtige Prins Carel de II." &c. "In 's Graven-hage, by Adrian Vlack, M.DC.LX." &c.

Folio. The names at the corner of the engraving are apparently "F. T. vliet, jn. P. Phillipe, sculp."

J. M. G.

Proverbs quoted by Suetonius (Vol. vii., p. 594).—A full explanation of the proverb σπεῦδε βραδέως

will be found in the Adagia of Erasmus, under the head "Festina lente," p. 588., edit. 1599. That it was a favourite proverb of the Emperor Augustus is also stated by Gellius, Noct. Att. x. 11., and Macrob., Saturn. vi. 8. The verse,—

"ἀσφαλὴς γάρ ἐστ' ἀμείνων ἢ θρασὺς στρατηλάτης,"

is from the Phœnissæ of Euripides, v. 599.

"Sat cito, si sat bene" (Vol. v., p. 594; Vol. viii., p. 18.).—Your correspondent C. thinks that F. W. J. is mistaken in calling it a favourite maxim of Lord Eldon. Few persons are more apt to make mistakes than F. W. J. He therefore sends the following extract from Twiss's Life of Lord C. Eldon, vol. i. p. 49. They are Lord Eldon's own words, after having narrated the anecdote to which C. refers:

"In short, in all that I have had to do in future life, professional and judicial, I have always felt the effect of this early admonition on the pannels of the vehicle which conveyed me from school, 'Sat cito, si sat bene.' It was the impression of this which made me that deliberative judge—as some have said, too deliberative; and reflection on all that is past will not authorise me to deny, that whilst I have been thinking 'Sat cito, si sat bene,' I may not sufficiently have recollected whether 'Sat bene, si sat cito' has had its influence."

The anecdote, and this observation upon it, are taken by Twiss from a book of anecdotes in Lord Eldon's own handwriting.

F. W. J.

Council of Laodicea, Canon 35. (Vol. viii., p. 7.).—Clericus (D.) will find Angelos in the text, without Angulos in the margin, in any volume which contains the version by Dionysius Exiguus, or that by Gentianus Hervetus; the former printed Mogunt. 1525; Paris, 1609, 1661, and 1687: the latter, Paris, 1561 and 1618; and sufficiently supplied by Beverege and Howell. Both translations are given by Crabbe, Surius, Binius, and others.

The corrupt reading Angulos, derived from Isidorus Mercator, appears in the text, and without a marginal correction, in James Merlin's edition of the Councils, Colon. 1530; in Carranza's Summa, Salmant. 1551, Lugd. 1601, Lovan. 1668 (in which last impression, the twelfth, the true heading of the Canon, according to Dionysius and Crisconius, viz. "De his qui Angelos colunt," is restored); and in the Sanctiones Ecclesiasticæ of Joverius, Paris, 1555.

For Angelos in the text, with a courageous "fortè legendum" Angulos in the margin, in Pope Adrian's Epitome Canonum, we are deeply indebted to Canisius (Thesaur. Monum., ii. 271. ed. Basnage); and this is the method adopted by Longus à Coriolano and Bail.

R. G.

Anna Lightfoot (Vol. vii., p. 595.).—I have heard my mother speak of Anna Lightfoot: her family belonged to the religious community called Friends or Quakers. My mother was born 1751, and died in the year 1836. The aunt of Anna Eleanor Lightfoot was next-door-neighbour to my grandfather, who lived in Sir Wm. Warren's Square, Wapping. The family were from Yorkshire, and the father of Anna was a shoemaker, and kept a shop near Execution Dock, in the same district. He had a brother who was a linendraper, living in the neighbourhood of St. James's, at the west end of the town; and Anna was frequently his visitor, and here it was that she became acquainted with the great man of the day. She was missing, and advertised for by her friends; and, after some time had elapsed, they obtained some information as to her retreat, stating that she was well provided for; and her condition became known to them. She had a son who was a corn-merchant, but, from some circumstance, became deranged in his intellects, and it is said committed suicide. But whether she had a daughter, I never heard. A retreat was provided for Anna in one of those large houses surrounded with a high wall and garden, in the district of Cat-and-Mutton Fields, on the east side of Hackney Road, leading from Mile End Road; where she lived, and it is said died, but in what year I cannot say. All this I have heard my mother tell when I was a young lad; furthermore your deponent knoweth not.

J. M. C.

Jack and Gill (Vol. vii., p. 572.).—A somewhat earlier instance of the occurrence of the expression "Jack and Gill" is to be found (with a slight difference) in John Heywood's Dialogue of Wit and Folly, page 11. of the Percy Society's reprint:

"No more hathe he in mynde, ether payne or care,

Than hathe other Cock my hors, or Gyll my mare!"

This is probably not more than twenty years earlier than your correspondent's quotation from Tusser.

H. C. K.

Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic Needle (Vol. vi. passim; Vol. vii., p. 508.).—Southey, in his Omniana (vol. i. p. 210.), cites a passage from the Partidas, in which the magnetic needle is used in illustration. It is as follows:

"E bien assí como los marineros se guian en la noche escura por el aguja, que les es medianera entre la piedra é la estrella, é les muestra por de vayan, tambien en los malos tiempos, como en los buenos; otrosí los que han de consejar al Rey, se deven siempre guiar por la justicia; que es medianera entre Dios é el mundo, en todo tiempo, para dar guardalon á los buenos, é pena á los malos, á cada uno segund su merescimiento."—2 Partida, tit. ix. ley 28.

This passage is especially worthy of attention, as having been written half a century before the supposed invention of the mariner's compass by Flavius Gioias at Amalfi; and, as Southey

remarks, "it must have been well known and in general use before it would thus be referred to as a familiar illustration."

I do not think that any of your correspondents have quoted the halting lines with which Byron mars the pathos of the Rousseau-like letter of Donna Julia (Don Juan, canto I. stanza cxcvi.):

"My heart is feminine, nor can forget—

To all, except one image, madly blind;

So shakes the needle, and so stands the pole,

As vibrates my fond heart to my fix'd soul."

William Bates.

Birmingham.

Gibbon's Library (Vol. vii., pp. 407. 455. 535.).—The following quotation from Cyrus Redding's "Recollections of the Author of Vathek" (New Monthly Magazine, vol. lxxi. p. 308.) may interest J. H. M. and your other correspondents under this head:

"'I bought it (says Beckford) to have something to read when I passed through Lausanne. I have not been there since. I shut myself up for six weeks, from early in the morning until night, only now and then taking a ride. The people thought me mad. I read myself nearly blind.'

"I inquired if the books were rare or curious. He replied in the negative. There were excellent editions of the principal historical writers, and an extensive collection of travels. The most valuable work was an edition of Eustathius; there was also a MS. or two. All the books were in excellent condition; in number, considerably above six thousand, near seven perhaps. He should have read himself mad if there had been novelty enough, and he had stayed much longer.

"'I broke away, and dashed among the mountains. There is excellent reading there, too, equally to my taste. Did you ever travel alone among mountains?'

"I replied that I had, and been fully sensible of their mighty impressions. 'Do you retain Gibbon's library?'

"'It is now dispersed, I believe. I made it a present to my excellent physician, Dr. Schall or Scholl (I am not certain of the name). I never saw it after turning hermit there.'"

William Bates.

Birmingham.

St. Paul's Epistles to Seneca (Vol. vii., pp. 500. 583.).—The affirmation so frequently made and alluded to by J. M. S. of Hull, that Seneca became, in the last year of his life, a convert to Christianity, is an old tradition, which has just been revived by a French author, M. Amédée Fleury, and is discussed and attempted to be established by him at great length in two octavo volumes. I have not read the book, but a learned reviewer of it, M. S. De Sacy, shows, with the greatest appearance of reason and authority, that the tradition, instead of being strengthened, is weakened by all that M. Fleury has said about it. M. De Sacy's review is contained in the Journal des Débats of June 30, in which excellent paper he is a frequent and delightful writer on literary subjects. In the hope that it may interest and gratify J. M. S. to be informed of M. Fleury's new work, I send this scrap of information to the "N. & Q."

John Macray.

Oxford.

"Hip, Hip, Hurrah!" (Vol. vii., pp. 595. 633).—The reply suggested by your correspondent R. S. F., that the above exclamation originated in the Crusades, and is a corruption of the initial letters of "Hierosolyma est perdita," never appeared to me to be very apposite.

In A Collection of National English Ballads, edited and published by W. Chapple, 1838, in a description of the song "Old Simon, the King," the favourite of Squire Western in Tom Jones, the following lines are quoted:

"'Hang up all the poor hep drinkers,'

Cries old Sim, the king of skinkers."[^[4]]

A note to the above states, in reference to the word "hep," that it was a term of derision, applied to those who drank a weak infusion of the "hep" (hip) berry, or sloe. "Hence," says the writer, "the exclamation of 'Hip, hip, hurrah,' corrupted from 'Hip, hip, away.'" The couplet quoted above was written up in the Apollo Room at the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar, where Ben Jonson's club, the "Apollo Club," used to meet. Many a drinker of modern Port has equally good reason to exclaim with his brethren of old, "Hip, hip, away!"

J. Brent.

Footnote 4:[(return)]

A skinker is one who serves drink.

Emblemata (Vol. vii., p. 614.).—I have a small edition of the Emblemata Horatiana, with the following title-page:

"Othonis VænI Emblemata Horatiana Imaginibus in æs incisis atque Latino, Germanico, Gallico et Belgico carmine Illustrata: Amstelædami, apud Henricum Wetstenium, M. DC. LXXXIV."

The engravings, of which there are 103, measure about four inches by three; the book contains 207 pages, exclusive of the index. "Amicitiæ Trutina," mentioned by Mr. Weld Taylor, is the sixty-sixth plate on page 133.

There is another volume of Emblems by Otho Venius, of which I have a copy:

"Amorum Emblemata Figuris Æneis Incisa, studio Othonis VænI: Batavo Lugdunensis Antverpiæe Venalia apud Auctorem prostant apud Hieronymum Verdussen, MDCIIX."

The engravings, of which (besides an allegorical frontispiece representing the power of Venus) there are 124, are oval, measuring five inches in length by three and a half inches in height. The designs appear to me to be very good. On the

first plate is the name of the engraver, "C. Boel fecit." Each engraving has a motto, with verses in Latin, Italian, and French. Recommendatory verses, by Hugo Grotius, Daniel Heinsius, Max. Vrientius, Ph. Rubentius, and Petro Benedetti, are prefixed. It appears from Rose's Biographical Dictionary (article "Van Veen"), that Venius published another illustrated work, The Seven Twin Sons of Lara. Is this work known?

Horace Walpole did not appreciate Venius. He says:

"The perplexed and silly emblems of Venius are well known."—Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii. p. 167.

The Emblems of Gabriele Rollenhagius (of which I have also a copy) consist of two centuries. The engravings are circular, with a motto round each, and Latin verses at foot. My edition was published at Utrecht, MDCXIII.

I write rather in the hope of eliciting information, than of attempting to give any, on a subject which appears to me to deserve farther inquiry.

Q. D.

Campvere, Privileges of (Vol. vii., pp. 262. 440.).—Will your contributors J. D. S. and J. L. oblige me with references to the works in which these privileges are mentioned?

They will find them noticed also at pages 67. and 68. of the second volume of L. Guicciardini's Belgium (ed. 1646): "Jus Gruis liberæ." This is mentioned as one of the privileges of Campvere. Can any of your legal friends tell me what this is, and where I may find it treated of?

Slang Expressions: "Just the Cheese" (Vol. vii., p. 617.).—This phrase is only some ten or twelve years old. Its origin was this:—Some desperate witty fellows, by way of giving a comic turn to the phrase "C'est une autre chose," used to translate it, "That is another cheese;" and after awhile these words became "household words," and when anything positive or specific was intended to be pointed out, "That's the cheese" became adopted, which is nearly synonymous with "Just the cheese."

Astolpho.

The Honorable Miss E. St. Leger (Vol. vii., p. 598.).—Perhaps your correspondent Mr. Breen may like to be informed that the late General the Honorable Arthur St. Leger related to me the account of his relative having been made a master mason, and that she had secreted herself in an old clock-case in Doneraile House, on purpose to learn the secrets of the lodge, but was discovered from having coughed. The Rev. Richard Arthur St. Leger, of Starcross, Devon, has an engraving of the lady, who is represented arrayed in all the costume of a master mason, with the apron, ring, and jewel of the order.

W. Collyns.

Harbow.

Queries from the Navorscher (Vol. vii., p. 595.)—"The Choice of Hercules," in the Tatler, was written by Addison; Swift did not contribute more than one article to that publication, a treatise on "Improprieties of Language." The allegory of "Religion being the Foundation of Contentment" in the Adventurer, was the work of Hawkesworth, to whose pen most of those papers are attributable.

"Amentium haud amantium."—The alliteration of this passage in the Andria of Terence is somewhat difficult to preserve in English; perhaps to render it

"An act of frenzy rather than friendship,"

would keep up the pun, though a weak translation, bringing to mind the words of the song:

"O call it by some other name,

For friendship is too cold."

In French the expression might be turned "follement plutôt que folâtrement," although this is a fault on the other side, and a stronger word than the original.

T. O. M.

"Pity is akin to love" (Vol. i., p. 248.).—Though a long time has elapsed since the birthplace of these words was queried, no answer has, I think, appeared in your columns. Will you then allow me to refer H. to Southern's Oroonoko, Act II. Sc. 1.?

"Blandford. Alas! I pity you.

Oroonoko. Do pity me;

Pity's akin to love, and every thought

Of that soft kind is welcome to my soul.

I would be pity'd here."

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.