Replies to Minor Queries.

Alterius Orbis Papa (Vol. iii., p. 497.)—It was Pope Urban II. who, at the Council of Bari, in Apulia, gave this title to St. Anselm, the cotemporary Archbishop of Canterbury, who was present, and, in a learned and eloquent discourse, confuted the Greeks. See Laud's Works (Ang.-Cath. Lib.), vol. ii. p. 190.: note where the authorities William of Malmesbury and John Capgrave are cited.

E. H. A.

"All my eye" (Vol. vii., p. 525.).—An earlier use of this "cant phrase" than that given by Mr. Daniel may be found in Archbishop Bramhall's Answer to the Epistle of M. de la Milletière, which answer was first published in 1653:—

"Fifthly, suppose (all this notwithstanding) such a conference should hold, what reason leave you to promise to yourself such success, as to obtain so easy a victory? You have had conferences and conferences again at Poissy and other places, and gained by them just as much as you might put in your eye and see never the worse."—Bramhall's Works, vol. i. pp. 68-9., edit. Ox. 1842.

The Archbishop elsewhere makes use of the same expression. Of its origin I can say nothing nor of "over the left."

R. Blakiston.

"Clamour your tongues," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 169.).—Surely, surely, the "clame water," in H. C. K.'s extract from The Castel of Helthe, and which is set in an antithetical opposition to "a rough water," is only calme water; by that common metathesis which gives us briddes for birds, brunt for burnt, &c.

H. T. Griffith.

Spiked Maces represented in the Windows of the Abbey Church, Great Malvern.—There is an instrument of this nature described by some of the martyrologists under the name of "Scorpio," and figured by Hieronymus Magius (Jerome Maggi) in his treatise De Equuleo. It is there represented as a thick stick, set with iron points, and was used, together with rods, and the plumbetæ or loaded chain scourges, to torment the confessors.

I am inclined to think, however, that the weapons represented in the windows at Great Malvern are intended for morning stars, which were much employed in arming the watch in the cities of northern Europe in the Middle Ages, and at a later period as well. This weapon (a variety of which was called holy-water sprinkle, from the brush-like arrangement of its spikes) had a long shaft like a halbert, and is often introduced in paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as borne by the Jewish guard who appear in the various scenes of Our Lord's Passion.

Of course the artists represented their characters as wearing the dress and provided with arms of their own period; as we see the Roman soldiers at the foot of the cross in some German and Dutch pictures, mere portraits of the sworders and swashbucklers of the seventeenth century.

I may mention that a weapon of this coarse description is generally put into the hands of a ruffian, or at least of some very inferior character. In La Mort D'Artur, Sir Lancelot encounters on a bridge "a passing foul churl," who disputes his passage, and "lashes at him with a great club, full of iron pins."

I remember seeing a barbarous weapon taken from a piratical vessel, which consisted of a massive wooden club, heavily loaded with lead, furnished with a spike at the smaller end, and thickly studded with iron nails, tenter hooks, and the hammers of gun locks. This was something like the old Danish club.

W. J. Bernhard Smith.

Oxford.

Ampers and (

) (Vol. viii., p. 173.).—"N. & Q." has exhibited a forgetfulness, of which he is very seldom guilty. If he and his correspondent Mr. Mansfield Ingleby will refer to Vol. ii., p. 230., they will find the same question asked by Mr. M. A. Lower and if they will turn over the leaves to p. 284., they will find an answer by Φ., which he now begs to repeat. The word designated is and-per-se-and. Curiously enough, the first of the above printed symbols seeing to have been formed from Φ.'s explanation, that it was nothing more than a flourishing "et."

Φ.

Its (Vol. viii., p. 12.).—In compliance with the request of your correspondent B. H. C., I have the pleasure to inform him that in Richard Burnfields Poems (reprinted by James Boswell for the Roxburgh Club), "The Complaint of Poetrie for the death of Liberalitie," 1598, is one of the pieces, and on the first page of signature C. the word its occurs, but as a contraction of it is:

"The maimed souldier comming from the warre;

The woefull wight, whose house was lately burnd;

The sillie soule; the woful traueylar;

And all, whom Fortune at her feet hath spurnd;

Lament the losse of Liberalitie;

Its ease to haue in griefe some companie."

While on the opposite page we have "it soule" for "its soule," thus:

"But as a woefull mother doeth lament,

Her tender babe, with cruel death opprest;

Whose life was spotlesse, pure and innocent,

(And therefore sure it soule is gone to rest):

So Bountie, which herselfe did upright keepe,

Yet for her losse, loue cannot chuse but weepe."

May not this lead to the conclusion that it was to avoid confusion with the ellipsis of it is, that the possessive case was thus written it?

S. W. Singer.

"Hip, hip, hurrah!" (Vol. viii., pp. 20. 185.).—No one, I think, who heard the cheering of the ships' companies at the late naval review can doubt that Cheverell's explanation of "hip, hip," is the true one. They are not words, but interjectional sounds; with no other meaning than to prepare for and time the coming "hurrah!" When the men are ready to cheer, the boatswain's mate gives the signal "hip, hip," and then follows the general "hurrah!" This practice is adopted in public assemblies for the same reason—to ensure concert and unity in the final cheer. "Hurrah!" also I take (pace Sir F. Palgrave) to be a mere sound: a natural exclamation of pleasure, with no more instrinsic meaning than "Oh!" or "Ah!" for pain, or "Bah!" for contempt. It surely can have no connexion with the phrase of old Norman law—"clameurs de haro:" for "haro" is an exclamation of dissent and opposition. "Crier haro sur quelqu'un," is to excite mischief and scandal against him—the very reverse of hurrah!

Derivation of "Wellesley" (Vol. viii., p. 173.).—In reply to J. M., I think the following particulars I may not be uninteresting to him. There is good reason to believe that the name of Wellesley was derived from an ancient manor about one mile south of Wells, called Wellesleigh, which once, belonged to the Bishops of Bath and Wells. It is certain that a family called "De Wellsleigh" lived, and held considerable lands in this manor at a very remote period. In 1253, a Philip de Wellsleigh, and in 1349 another of the same name, are recorded as holding part of the manor of the Bishops of Bath and Wells. These lands, with the serjeanty and office of bailiff and "cryer of the hundred," passed into the family of the Hills of Spaxton, A.D. 1435. In 7 Henry VII., John Stourton held half a knight's fee in this manor: "formerly held by William de Wellsleigh." I have an original deed in my possession dated 26th Edward I., being a feoffment or grant of lands in Dinder (an adjoining parish) by William Le Fleming, "Dn̄s de Dynder," in which "Thomas de Welesleȝe" and "Robert de Welesleȝe" (so the name is spelt) are, among others, named as witnesses. This manor was held by the Bishops of Bath and Wells until the time of Ralph de Salopia (succeeded A.D. 1329, died A.D. 1363), who gave it to the vicars choral of the cathedral, by who it has been held down to the last year (1852), when they sold the fee of it to Robert Charles Tudway, Esq., M.P. for Wells.

Ina.

Wells.

Penny-come-quick (Vol. viii., pp. 8. 113. 184.).—Your correspondents on the subject of this name do not appear to be aware that there is a place also so called in Ireland: a small public-house, and one or two others, on the high road between Wicklow and Arklow, near the sea-shore, three miles north of the latter town. In Taylor and Skinners Road Maps of Ireland (1776), it is spelled "Penny-con-quick." I have been there, and do not think that the site countenances H. C. K.'s ingenious etymology.

Eugene Aram's Comparative Lexicon (Vol. vii., p. 597.).—Mr. E. S. Taylor will perhaps be glad to know that specimens of the above Lexicon were printed at the end of a small work published about twenty-five years since by Mr. Bell of Richmond (Yorkshire), entitled The Trial and Life of Eugene Aram.

Norris Deck.

Cambridge.

Wooden Tombs and Effigies (Vol. vii., pp. 528. 607., &c.).—At Sparsholt, Berks, in the south transept are two female effigies of wood, under sepulchral arches, richly carved in stone: one of them is engraved in Hollis's Monuments. At Burghfield and Barkham, in the same county, are also wooden effigies of the fourteenth century.

At Hildersham Church, Cambridgeshire, within the altar rails, on the north side, is a wooden monument of a knight and his lady: the knight cross-legged, and drawing his sword. They are said to be the effigies of Sir Thomas Busteler and lady, temp. Edward II.

Norris Deck.

Cambridge.

Queen Anne's Motto (Vol. viii., p. 174.).—By an order of the queen in council, 17th of April, 1707, consequent upon the union of Scotland with England, it was declared in what manner the ensigns armorial of the United Kingdom (called Great Britain) should thenceforth be borne; when it was also declared that her majesty's motto, "Semper eadem," should be continued.

Longevity (Vol. vii., p. 368. &c.).—Several of the upland parishes bordering on the river Yare have had remarkable instances of longevity. One of the best authenticated was a man named Pottle, who resided on the Reedham estate of the late J. F. Leathes, Esq., of Herringfleet. When Pottle was 104 years old, the tenantry on the estate subscribed to have his portrait painted, which they presented to their landlord, each retaining a lithograph copy of it. Many of these copies I have seen. Two years after this I conversed with the old man, who was then keeping cows on a common. There was nothing remarkable about him except his voice, which was very loud and powerful. He has now been dead some time, but I do not know his exact age at death.

In the register of burials for the parish of Runham, Norfolk, is this entry:

"August 12, 1788. William Russels, aged One hundred and one years."

The clergyman has entered the age in round text-hand, evidently that the entry might not escape notice.

E. G. R.

Irish Bishops as English Suffragans (Vol. vii., p. 569.).—The following instances of Irish bishops acting as bishops in England will be additional illustrations of the facts adduced by An Oxford B. C. L.

"Requisitus idem Simon de suis Ordinibus dicit, quod apud Oxoniam recepit Ordinem subdiaconi a quodam Episcopo Yberniæ, Albino nomine, tunc vicario Episcopi Lincolniensis. Item ab eodem recepit Ordinem diaconi.... ¶ Capellanus de Sandhurst Johannes De Siveburn dicit, quod ordinatus fuit sudiaconum apud Cicestriam, Diaconum apud Winton., ab Episcopo Godfrido, in Ybernia."—Maskell's Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England, p. 181., note.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Green Pots used for drinking from by Members of the Temple (Vol. viii., p. 171.).—The green pots mentioned in Sir Julius Cæsar's letter had been introduced into the Inner Temple about thirty years before its date. This appears from the following passage in Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales (1680), p. 148., where he refers to the register of that Society, fol. 127 a.:

"Untill the second year of Q. Eliz. reign, this Society did use to drink in Cups of Ashen-Wood (such as are still used in the King's Court), but then those were laid aside, and green earthen pots introduced, which have ever since continued."

When were these green pots discontinued? Paper Buildings were erected nearly fifty years before Dugdale's time. The new part built in 1849 was on the south of these, which may, perhaps, have been the site of the dust-hole of the Society, and thus become the depositary of the broken pots mentioned by B.

Edward Foss.

Shape of Coffins (Vol. viii., p. 104.).—As bearing somewhat upon Mr. Ellacombe's Query, allow me to remark that when travelling a few years since in the United States, having about an hour's delay in the city of Rochester, N. Y., I entered one of the churches during a funeral service. When the ceremony (at which a considerable number of persons attended) was concluded, the congregation left their seats and walked in very orderly procession towards the reading-desk, in front of which was placed the coffin, without any pall or covering. They then slowly walked round it, in order, as I afterwards found, to take their last look at the departed. This they were enabled to do without the removal of the lid, by raising the upper or head portion of it, which was hinged a square of glass beneath allowing the face to be seen. This strange custom, which, for my own part, I think would be "more honoured by the breach than the observance," as the recollection of the living face to me is far preferable to that of death, I do not remember to have seen noticed by any of our many travellers in America, though I afterwards found it to be general. The coffins, which are somewhat differently shaped to ours, sloping towards the feet, are rarely covered with cloth; but are generally made of some hard wood such as walnut, highly polished.

Robert Wright.

Old Fogies (Vol. viii., p. 154.).—There may be too much of even a good thing, and I wish some of the writers in "N. & Q." would study compression a little. A short paragraph which I wrote, more in jest than earnest, on the above phrase, has drawn down on me no less than two columns from J. L. But this comes of meddling with Scotland.

One might fancy that J. L. was the Irish, not the Scottish advocate, for he proves the prior claim of Scotland by showing that the word which I had stated to have been in use in Dublin in the first half of the last century, was known in Edinburgh in the last half of it. He must also excuse my saying that he does not seem ever to have studied etymology, one of the rules of which is, that if a probable origin of a word can be found in the language to which it belongs, we should not seek elsewhere. Now fogie (i.e. folkie, the Dutch volkje) comes as surely from folk, as lassie from lass, or any other diminutive from its primitive. I now have done with the subject.

Thos. Keightley.

Swan-marks (Vol. viii., p 62.).—W. Collyn's remark on swan-marks may mislead; therefore it is worth noting that "the swan with two necks" is not "a corruption of the private mark of the owner of the swans, viz. two nicks made by cutting the neck feathers close in two places." The nicks were made in the beak; and the privilege of having swan-marks was by grant from the crown.

The Vintners' Company's mark for their swans on the Thames was two nicks; hence a two-nicked swan was a very appropriate sign for a tavern. The royal swans are marked with five nicks, two lengthwise, and three across the bill (See Hone's Every-day Book, 1827, p. 963; Yarrell's British Birds; Jardine's Nat. Lib.; Penny Cyclop., art. "Swan.") It is to be noted, however, that Hone is in error in saying the two nicks are the royal swan-mark.

Eden Warwick.

Birmingham.

Limerick, Dublin, and Cork (Vol. viii., p. 102.).—I should think the author of this doggrel couplet, if we are to consider it as a fair specimen of his poetic genius, may safely be permitted to remain in obscurity. Be that as it may, the lines are by no means new, nor are they confined to the sister isle alone. In the Prophecies of Nixon, the Cheshire Merlin, who lived nobody knows when, except that it was certainly a "long time ago," we are given to understand that:

"London streets shall run with blood,

And at last shall sink

So that it shall be fulfilled,

That Lincoln was, London is, and York shall be

The finest city of the three."

As I have just stated, the original date of these Prophecies is somewhat involved in mystery; but I myself possess copies of three different editions published during the last century, the first of the three, purporting to be the sixth edition, bearing date London, 1719. A Life of Nixon, affixed to this edition, states him to have lived and prophesied in the reign of King James I.; at whose court, we are farther told, he was, in conformity with his own prediction, starved to death. His Prophecies are, by the learned, held to be apocryphal; the country folk of Cheshire, on the contrary, have as much faith in them and their author as they have in the fact of their own existence.

T. Hughes.

Chester.

"Could we with ink," &c. (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 180.).—I am surprised that none of your correspondents has referred to Smart, the translator of Horace, who has been frequently stated to be the writer of these lines, and I believe with truth.

E. H. D. D.

Character of the Song of the Nightingale (Vol. vii., p. 397.; Vol. viii., p. 112.).—Although Milton seems to have generally used the epithet solemn in its classical sense (as cleverly pointed out by Mr. Sydney Gedge), and meant to represent the nightingale as the customary attendant of night, yet there is at least one passage where the epithet appears to me not to have this meaning; but to express that the song of the nightingale caused "a holy joy," and was heard not only in the day-time, but all through the night. For although Milton calls the nightingale "the night-warbling bird," and so makes it "the customary attendant of the night," yet he also elsewhere as truly speaks of it as a day singer. The passage I referred to is in Paradise Lost, book vii., and seems to me to bear the meaning above spoken of; though Mr. Gedge may perhaps make "solemn" refer back to the last noun "even." And I confess that the meaning seems dubious:

"From branch to branch, the smaller birds with song

Solac'd the woods, and spread their painted wings

Till even; nor then the solemn nightingale

Ceas'd warbling, but all night tun'd her soft lays."

I can add one other epithet to the one hundred and nine which I have already given of the nightingale's song:

Wond'ring. Dryden ("Palamon and Arcite").

I may add, that Otway and Grainger (erroneously printed Graingle) appear to have used "solemn" in the ordinary meaning of the word.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

Adamson's "Lusitania Illustrata" (Vol. viii., p. 104.).—Your correspondent W. M. M. may consult the following works with great advantage:

"Résumé de l'Histoire Littéraire du Portugal, suivi du Résumé de l'Histoire Littéraire du Brésil, 12mo.: Paris, 1826."

"Parnaso Lusitano, ou Poesias selectas dos auctores Portuguezos antigos e modernos, illustrados cum notas, percedido de una Historia abreviada da lingua e poesia Portugueza, tom. v., 18mo. Paris, 1826."

The destruction by fire of Mr. Adamson's library, which was so rich in Portuguese literature, has, with other circumstances, hitherto prevented the continuation of the Lusitania Illustrata; but the appearance of future parts, in furtherance of the original plan, is by no means abandoned.

E. H. A.

Adamsoniana (Vol. vii., p. 500.; Vol. viii., p. 135.).—I was aware of the way in which the famous naturalist spelt his name, but supposed that Michel Adanson and Michael Adamson were the same, the former being merely the French mode of writing according to their pronunciation. I was also aware of the leading events in the naturalist's own career, but was desirous if possible of identifying his father: "the gentleman who, after firmly attaching himself to the Stuarts, left Scotland, and entered the service of the Archbishop of Aix."

Perhaps I may be more fortunate in obtaining some information respecting another Scot of the same name: James Adamson, for thirty-one years rector of Tigh, in Rutlandshire, who is described in the inscription upon his tombstone as "natu Scotus, Anglus vita, moribus antiquis, cum rege suo in prosperis et adversis." I believe he was the father of John Adamson, M.A., Rector Of Burton Coggles, in Lincolnshire: the author of two sermons; one published in 1698, and entitled The Duty of Daily frequenting the Public Service of the Church; another in 1707, being the Funeral Sermon for Sir E. Turnor of Stoke Rochford[^[6]] (whose chaplain he was), a great promoter of pious and charitable undertakings. Can these sermons be now procured? Is anything further known respecting the author or his family?

E. H. A.

Footnote 6:[(return)]

This sermon is in the British Museum.—Ed.

Crassus' Saying (Vol. vii., p. 498.).—Mr. Ewart will not easily extract his English from the Latin, which is simply, "Fit salad for such lips."

S. Z. Z. S.

Stanzas in "Childe Harold" (Vol. iv. passim).—This stanza has already occupied too many of your pages; will you, however, allow me to put a ryder on it, by referring your correspondents to Lord Byron's own ignorance of the meaning of an expression in this stanza, expressed in a letter to Murray, published in Moore's Life, Letter 323, dated Venice, 24th September, 1818, when, after pointing out an error in the same canto, he says:

"What does 'thy waters wasted them' mean? That is not me. Consult the MS. always."

And in a note by Moore on this letter, he says, "This passage retains also uncorrected."

At the end of this letter Byron writes, "I saw the canto by accident." Query: If Byron only saw his cantos by "accident," would not a new edition of his works collated with his MSS. be "a consummation devoutly to be wished."

S. Wmson.

Glasgow.

"Well's a fret" (Vol. viii., p. 197.).—This is one of a class which will be lost if not recorded. Forty years ago, in the West of England, and perhaps elsewhere, a servant, when teased by a child to know where such a person was, would answer—

"In his skin

When he jumps out, you may jump in."

The answer to Eh? was always Straw. I dare say more of these things will be produced. What ought they to be called?

Tenet or Tenent (Vol. vii., p. 205.).—We speak of the tenets of a sect. Somewhat less than a century ago the formula would have been their tenents; and was not this the more correct?

Balliolensis.

Mrs. Catherine Barton (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.).—When I answered the Query, I was not aware of what Baily states in the Supplement to Flamstead, p. 750. Rigaud ascertained for Baily that Mrs. C. B. (the title Mistress being given at that period to marriageable young ladies) was not the wife, but the sister of Colonel Barton. Both were the children of Hannah Smith, Newton's half-sister, and Robert Barton. Mrs. C. B. was born about 1680.