Replies to Minor Queries.
Burke's Marriage.—I am obliged to Mr. Gantillon (Vol. viii., p. 134.), but the authority referred to does not answer my questions (Vol. vii., p. 382.): When and where was Burke married? There is no doubt as to who he married. But some biographers say the ceremony took place in 1766, others in 1767. Some leave it to be inferred that he was married at Bath, others in London.
B. E. B.
Stars and Flowers (Vol. iv., p. 22.; Vol. vii., pp. 151. 341. 513.).—To the passages quoted from Cowley, Longfellow, Hood, Moir, and Darwin, may be added the following ingenious application of this metaphorical language:—
"Alas for life!—but we will on with those
Who have an age beyond their being's day.
Mount with our Newton where Light ever flows;
See him unveil its marvels—and display
The hidden richness of a single ray!
Unfold its latent hues like blossoms shed,
Or flowers of air, outshining flowers of May!
A luminous wreath in rainbow beauty spread,
The noblest Fame could leave round starry Newton's head."
The Mind, and other Poems, by Charles Swain, p. 64.
Bibliothecar. Chetham.
Odour from the Rainbow (Vol. iii. pp. 224. 310.).—This idea has been traced to Bacon's Sylva, Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, Snow's Miscellaneous Poems, and to a Greek writer referred to by Coleridge. Georgius de Rhodes, in his Peripatetic Philosophy, mentions the same effect of the rainbow, and quotes Pliny:
"Dico sexto, iridis effectus duos præcipue numerari. Primus est, quod plantas, arbores, frutices, quibus incubuerit, efficit odorationes. Tradunt, inquit Plinius lib. xii. c. 24., in quocunque frutice incurvetur cœlestis arcus, eandem quæ sit aspalato suavitatem odoris existere; aspalato autem inenarrabilem quandam. Terra etiam ipsa suavius halare dicitur."
In the annotations on Pliny, in loco, Aristotle is referred to in Problem. Quæst. xii.
Bibliothecar. Chetham.
Judges styled Reverend (Vol. iv., pp. 151. 198).—The following is an extract from the title of a small octavo volume, printed for the assignees of John More, Esq., London, 1635, which lately came into my hands:—La novel Natura Brevium du Juge Tresreverend Monsieur Anthony Fitzherbert; with a new table by William Rastall. The preface is headed as follows:—"La Preface sur cest lieuz compose per le Reverend Justice Anthony Fitzherbert."
Anthony Fitzherbert was appointed Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1523, and died in 30 Hen. VIII. William Rastall was appointed Serjeant-at-law in 1554, and one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in 1558: it would seem, therefore, that as Rastall is not styled "Serjeant-at-law" in the title-page of the book when he made a new table to its contents, that the complimentary style of Reverend, as applicable to the judges, was used at least as late as the middle of the sixteenth century.
Thomas W. King, York Herald.
College of Arms.
Jacob Bobart (Vol. viii., p. 37.).—I beg to supply the following additional particulars relating to the Bobart family. In the Correspondence of Dr. Richardson, edited by Mr. Dawson Turner, will be found a letter from Bobart junior to the Doctor, with a reference to two other letters. In pages 9, 10, and 11, a copious note respecting the Bobart family, by the editor, is given. A short notice of Bobart jun. also appears in the Memoirs of John Martyn, Professor of Botany at Cambridge. The following epitaph on Bobart jun. is in Amherst's Terræ Filius, 1726:
"Here lies Jacob Bobart,
Nail'd up in a cupboard."
In the preface to Mr. Nichols' work on Autographs, among other albums noticed by him as being in the British Museum, is that of David Krieg, with Jacob Bobart's autograph, and the following verses:
"VIRTUS SUA GLORIA.
Think that day lost whose descending sun,
Views from thy hand no noble action done.
Your success and happyness
Is sincerely wished by
Ja. Bobart, Oxford."
Mr. Richardson's engraved portrait of Bobart the Elder is only a copy of Burghers' engraving, so highly spoken of by Granger, and cannot, therefore, be nearly so valuable as the latter.
Garlichithe.
"Putting your foot into it" (Vol. viii., p. 77.).—W. W. is certainly "Will o' the Wisp" himself. We must not allow him to lead us into Asia, hunting for the origin of a saying which is nothing more than a coarse allusion to an accident that happens day after day to every heedless or benighted pedestrian in England; but if a foreign origin must be found for this saying, let us travel to Greece rather than to Hindostan, and we shall see in the writings of Æschylus:
"Ἐλαφρὸν, ὅστις πημάτων ἔξω πόδα
Ἔχει, παραινεῖν νουθετεῖν τε τὸν κακῶς
Πράσσοντ'." κ.τ.λ.—Prom. Vinc. 271.
C. Forbes.
Temple.
Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic Needle (Vol. vi., pp. 127. 207. 280. 368. 566.; Vol. vii., p. 508.).—We have all overlooked the following use of this simile in Thomas Hood's poem, addressed to Rae Wilson:
"Spontaneously to God should tend the soul,
Like the magnetic needle to the Pole;
But what were that intrinsic virtue worth,
Suppose some fellow, with more zeal than knowledge,
Fresh from St. Andrew's College,
Should nail the conscious needle to the north?"
C. Mansfield Ingleby.
Birmingham.
The Tragedy of Polidus (Vol. vii., p. 499.).—This tragedy, printed at London 1723, 12mo., has a farce appended to it called All Bedevil'd, or the House in a Hurry. Browne was patronised by Hervey, the author of the Meditations. The scene of the drama is in Cyprus. The lover of Polidus, "the banished general," and Rosetta, daughter to Orlont, chief favourite to the king, form the groundwork of the plot. My copy was formerly in the collection of plays which belonged to Stephen Jones, author of the Biographia Dramatica.
J. Mt.
Robert Fairlie (Vol. vii., p. 581.).—In answer to the Query as to Robert Fairley, or more properly Fairlie, I may mention that there is in my possession a presentation by the Faculty of Advocates, dated July 27, 1622, to "Robert Fairlie, son lawfull to Umquhill Robert Fairlie, goldsmith, Burgh of Edinburgh, to the said bursar place and haill immunities quhill he pass his course of Philosophie," in the College of Edinburgh. This undoubtedly was the author of the two very rare little poetical volumes referred to; and it proves, from the use of the word "Umquhill," that his father was then dead.
There is an error in stating that the Kalendarium is dedicated to the Earl of Ancrum. In the copy before me it is inscribed "Illustrissimo et Nobilissimo Domino, Domino Roberto Karo Comiti a Summerset," &c. The other work is the one dedicated to Lord Ancrum. I have both works, and they certainly were costly, as I gave five guineas for them. They had originally been priced at ten guineas.
A Bursary, according to Jamieson, is "the endowment given to a student in a university, an exhibition." It is believed that Fairlie was of the Ayrshire family of that name.
J. Mt.
"Mater ait natæ," &c. (Vol. vii., pp. 247, 248.).—When calling attention to these lines in "N. & Q." (Vol. vii., p. 155.), I at the same time asked if such a relationship as that mentioned in them was ever known to exist? This Query was very kindly and satisfactorily answered by your correspondents Anon and Tye. But, remarkable as were the instances mentioned by them of the two old ladies in Cheshire and Limington, who could speak to their descendants in a female line to the fifth generation, still that I am now to record of an old man in Montenegro is much more singular, as he could converse with his lineal descendants in an uninterrupted male line one generation farther from him, (i. e.) to the sixth. The case is too well authenticated to admit of a doubt, and until some one of your correspondents shall favour me with another equally to be credited, it will remain in the columns of "N. & Q." as the only one known to its readers:—
"Colonel Vialla de Sommières, a Frenchman, who was for a long time governor of the province of Catano, mentions a family he saw in a village of Montenegro, which reckoned six generations. The venerable head of the family was 117 years old, his son 100, his grandson 82, great-grandson 60, and the son of this last, who was 43, had a son aged 21, whose child was 2 years old!"
W. W.
Malta.
Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., p. 65.).—Anon. points at Chester as the probable birthplace of the above knight, named in Mr. Hughes's Query. Now, Mr. Davenport, in his Biog. Dict., p. 546. (wherein is a wood-engraved portrait of Sir John), states that he was born in London, about 1672; but, supposing his place of nativity was, as your correspondent suggests, Chester, it might very easily be ascertained by searching the parochial register of that city in or about the above year.
Garlichithe.
Fête des Chaudrons (Vol. viii., p. 57.).—Some account of this fête will probably be found in Ducange's Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis. I have not a copy of the work at hand for reference.
John Macray.
Oxford.
Murder of Monaldeschi (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—The following account of this event is taken from the Biographie Universelle, article "Christine, reine de Suède:"
"Cet Italien avait joui de toute la confiance de la reine, qui lui avait révélé ses pensées les plus secrètes. Arrivée à Fontainebleau, elle l'accusa de trahison, et résolut de le faire mourir. Un religieux de l'ordre de la Trinité, le P. Lebel, fut appelé pour le préparer à la mort. Monaldeschi se jeta aux pieds de la reine et fondit en larmes. Le religieux, qui a publié lui-même un récit de l'événement, fit à Christine les plus fortes représentations sur cet acte de vengeance qu'elle voulait exercer arbitrairement dans une terre étrangère et dans le palais d'un grand souverain; mais elle resta inflexible, et ordonna à Sentinelli, capitaine de ses gardes, de faire exécuter l'arrêt qu'elle avait prononcé. Monaldeschi, soupçonnant le danger qu'il courait, s'était cuirassé: il fallut le frapper de plusieurs coups avant qu'il expirât, et la galerie des Cerfs, où se passa cette scène révoltante, fut teinte de son sang. Pendant ce temps, Christine, au rapport de plusieurs historiens, était dans une pièce attenante, s'entretenant avec beaucoup de calme de choses indifférentes; selon d'autres rapports, elle fut présente à l'exécution, accabla Monaldeschi de reproches amers, et contempla ensuite son cadavre sanglant avec une satisfaction qu'elle ne chercha point à dissimuler. Que ces détails soient fondés ou non, la mort de Monaldeschi est une tache ineffaçable à la mémoire de Christine, et c'est à regret qu'on voit sur la liste de ses apologistes le nom du fameux Leibnitz."
In the answer which Queen Christina sent to the objections made in Poland to her election as their sovereign, occurs the following passage:
"Le Père dira en témoignage de la vérité, que cet homme me força de le faire mourir par la trahison la plus noire qu'un serviteur puisse faire à son maître; que je n'ordonnai sa mort, qu'après l'avoir convaincu de son crime par les lettres en original écrites de sa propre main, et après de lui avoir fait avouer à lui-même, en présence de trois témoins, et du Père prieur de Fontainebleau: qu'ils savent qu'il dit lui-même: 'Je suis digne de mille morts,' et que je lui fis donner les sacremens dont il était capable avant que de le faire mourir."—Mémoires concernant Christine, Amst. et Leipzig, 1759, tom. iii. pp. 386-7.
Ἁλιέυς.
Dublin.
Your correspondent will find an account of this affair in the Appendix to Ranke's History of the Popes.
T. K. H.
Land of Green Ginger (Vol. viii., p. 34.).—It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times. As far as I can recollect, none of the local histories gives any derivation of the name; those of Gent and Frost certainly do not, and this is the one generally received by the inhabitants. Salthouse Lane and Blanket Row are other streets, which may be referred to as having obtained their names in a similar way.
R. W. Elliot.
Clifton.
An inhabitant of Hull has informed me that this street was so named by a house-proprietor whose fortune had been made in the West Indies, and I think by the sweetmeat trade.
T. K. H.
Unneath (Vol. vii., p. 631.).—It strikes me that your correspondents Mr. C. H. Cooper and E. G. R., in reply to Mr. Wright's inquiry respecting the use of the word "unneath," used in Parnell's Fairy Tale, have fallen into a slight mistake in supposing that the seemingly old words used in this poem are really so. I make no doubt that Mr. Halliwell is correct in noting the word "unneath" as signifying "beneath," in the patois of Somerset; but I gravely suspect that Parnell had picked up the word out of our older poets, and used it in the passage quoted without consideration.
The true meaning of "unneath" (which is of Saxon origin, and variously written "unnethe, unnethes") is scarcely, not easily.
Thus Chaucer says:
"The miller that for-dronken was all pale,
So that unnethes upon his hors he sat."
The Millers Prologue, v. 3123. [Tyrwhitt.]
And again:
"Yeve me than of thy gold to make our cloistre,
Quod he, for many a muscle and many an oistre,
When other men han ben ful wel at ese
Hath been our food, our cloistre for to rese:
And yet, God wot, unneth the fundament
Parfourmed is, ne of our pauement
N'is not a tile," &c.
The Sompnours Tale, v. 7685.
"Unneath," signifying difficult, scarcely, with difficulty, occurs so frequently in Spenser, that it is unnecessary to burden your pages with references. It may be remarked, however, that this latter author occasionally employs this word in the sense of almost.
T. H. de H.
Snail Gardens (Vol. viii., p. 33.).—In very many places on the Continent snails are regularly bred for the table: this is the case at Ulm, Wirtemberg, and various other places. A very lively description of the sale of snails in the Roman market is given by Sir Francis Head. I have collected much interesting information on this point, and shall feel grateful for any farther "Notes" on the subject.
Seleucus.
Parvise (Vol. vii., p. 624.).—Perhaps the following quotation may throw light on your correspondent D. P.'s inquiry respecting this word, in French Parvis. It is taken from a Dictionnaire Universel, contenant généralement tous les mots françois, tant vieux que modernes, &c., par feu Messire Antoine Furetière, Abbé de Chalivoi, three vols. folio, La Haye et la Rotterdam, 1701:
"Parvis, s. m.—Place publique qui est ordinairement devant la principale face des grandes Eglises. Le parvis de Nôtre Dame, de Saint Généviève. On le disoit autrefois de toutes les places qui étoient devant les palais, et grandes maisons. Les auteurs Chrétiens appellent le Parvis des Gentiles, ce que les Juifs appelloient le premier Temple. Il y avoit deux Parvis dans le Temple de Jérusalem; l'un intérieur, qui étoit celui des Prêtres; et l'autre extérieur, qu'on appelloit aussi le Parvis d'Israël, ou le Grand Parvis.—Le Cl.
"Quelques-uns disent que ce mot vient de Paradisus; d'autres de parvisium, qui est un lieu au bas de la nef où l'on tenoit autrefois les petites Ecoles, à docendo parvis pueris. Voyez Menage, qui rapporte plusieurs titres curieux en faveur de l'une et de l'autre opinion. D'autres le dérivent de pervius, disant qu'on appelloit autrefois pervis, une place publique devant un batiment."
T. H. de H.
Humbug (Vol. vii., p. 631.).—Allow me to add the following to the list of explanations as to the origin of this word. There appeared in the Berwick Advertiser the following origin of the word humbug, and it assuredly is a very feasible one. It may be proper to premise, that the name of bogue is commonly pronounced bug in that district of Scotland formerly called the "Mearns."
"It is not generally known that this word, presently so much in vogue, is of Scottish origin. There was in olden time a race called Bogue, or Boag of that ilk, in Berwickshire. A daughter of the family married a son of Hume of Hume. In process of time, by default of male issue, the Bogue estate devolved on one Geordie Hume, who was called popularly 'Hume o' the Bogue,' or rather 'Aum o' the Bug.' This worthy was inclined to the marvellous, and had a vast inclination to exalt himself, his wife, family, brother, and all his ancestors on both sides. His tales however did not pass current; and at last, when any one made an extraordinary statement in the Mearns, the hearer would shrug up his shoulders, and style it just 'a hum o' the bug.' This was shortened into hum-bug, and the word soon spread like wildfire over the whole kingdom."
How far this is, or is not true, cannot be known; but it is certain that the Lands of Bogue, commonly called by country folk "Bug," passed by marriage into the Hume family; and that the male representatives of this ancient family are still in existence. This much may be fairly asserted, that the Berwickshire legend has more apparent probability about it than any of the other ones.
J. Mt.
P. S.—"That ilk," in old Scotch, means "the same:" in other words, Hume of that ilk is just Hume of Hume; and Brodie of that ilk, Brodie of Brodie.
Table-moving (Vol. vii., p. 596.).—I imagine that the great object in table-moving is to produce the desired effect without pressure. During experiments I have often heard the would-be "table-movers" cry "Don't press: it must be done without any pressure."
J. A. T.
Scotch Newspapers (Vol. viii., p. 57.).—In Ruddiman's Life, by G. Chalmers (8vo. Lond. 1794), it is stated that Cromwell was the first who communicated the benefit of a newspaper to Scotland. In 1652, Christopher Higgins, a printer, whom Cromwell had conveyed with his army to Leith, reprinted there what had been already published at London, A Diurnal of some passages and affairs for the information of the English Soldiers. A newspaper of Scottish manufacture appeared at Edinburgh, the same authority relates, on the 31st of December, 1660, under the title of Mercurius Caledonius; comprising the affairs in agitation in Scotland, with a survey of foreign intelligence. It was published once a week, in a small 4to. form of eight pages. Chalmers adds, that—
"It was a son of the Bishop of Orkney, Thomas Lydserfe, who now thought he had the wit to amuse, the knowledge to instruct, and the address to captivate the lovers of news in Scotland. But he was only able, with all his powers, to extend his publication to ten numbers, which were very loyal, very illiterate, and very affected."
John Macray.
Oxford.
Door-head Inscriptions (Vol. vii., pp. 23. 190. 588.; Vol. viii., p. 38.).—Over the door of the house at Salvington, Sussex, in which Selden was born, is this inscription:
"Gratvs, honeste, mihi; non clavdar, inito sedeq'
Fvr, abeas; non sv' facta solvta tibi."
It has been thus paraphrased:
1. By the late William Hamper, Esq., Gent. Mag., 1824, vol. ii. p. 601.:
"Thou'rt welcome, honest friend; walk in, make free:
Thief, get thee gone; my doors are clos'd to thee."
2. By Dr. Evans:
"An honest man is always welcome here;
To rogues I grant no hospitable cheer."
3. In Evans's Picture of Worthing, p. 129.:
"Dear to my heart, the honest here shall find
The gate wide open, and the welcome kind;
Hence, thieves, away! on you my door shall close,
Within these walls the wicked ne'er repose."
4. In Shearsmith's Worthing, p. 71.:
"The honest man shall find a welcome here,
My gate wide open, and my heart sincere;
Within these walls, for him I spend my store.
But thieves, away! on you I close my door."
Anon.
Honorary Degrees (Vol. viii., pp. 8. 86.).—The short note of C. does not elucidate—if, indeed, it touches upon—the matter propounded. It was stated, whether correctly I know not, that honorary doctors created by diploma (reference being made to the Duke of Cambridge, and one or two other royal personages) would have the distinctive privilege of voting in Convocation. It then occurred to me that Johnson—whose Oxford dignity was conferred in 1776, by special requisition of the Chancellor, Lord North (his M.A. degree had been, I judge, likewise by diploma)—is not mentioned by Boswell or Croker, as having on any occasion exercised the right referred to. Did he possess that right? and, if so, was it ever exercised? The frequency of his visits to Oxford, and the alleged rigid adherence to academical costume, make the question one of some interest: besides, in regard to a person so entirely sui generis, and upon whose character and career so much minuteness of biographical detail has been bestowed, it is not a little remarkable how many points are almost barren of illustration.
M. A.
"Never ending, still beginning" (Vol. viii., p. 103.).—See Dryden's Alexander's Feast, l. 101.
F. B—w.