Replies to Minor Queries.
Baskerville the Printer (Vol. viii., p. 203.).—In reply to Mr. Elliott's inquiry, I beg to say that Baskerville the printer was merely named as one who had directed his interment in unconsecrated ground. The exact place of his burial was not deemed a point of importance, but it having been questioned, I am able to state that the spot was correctly described by me. Nichols, in his Literary Anecdotes (vol. viii. p. 456.), tells us that "Baskerville was buried in a tomb of masonry, in the shape of a cone, under a windmill in his garden; on the top of this windmill, after it fell into disuse, he had erected an urn, and had prepared an inscription," of which Mr. Elliott has given a portion.
In his will, dated January 6, 1773, he directs his body "to be buried in a conical building heretofore used as a mill, which I have lately raised higher, and painted and prepared for it." It seems somewhat surprising that one, who shocked even John Wilkes as "a terrible infidel," should have printed a most beautiful folio Bible, at an expense of 2000l., and three or more editions of the Book of Common Prayer. Still more, in 1762, he tells Walpole that he had a grant from the University of Cambridge to print their 8vo. and 12mo. Common Prayer Books, and that for this privilege he laboured under heavy liabilities to the University. Baskerville doubtless regarded these books with a tradesman's eye, indifferent to the subjects of the works issued from his press, provided they sold. It would, however, be very unjust to this admirable printer to name him without praise for the distinguished beauty of his typography: it was clear and elegant, and he
was most curious in the choice both of his paper and ink.
J. H. M.
Lines on Woman (Vol. viii., p. 204.).—The four beautiful lines which W. V. cites are the conclusion of a poem entitled "Woman," written by Eton Barrett. About the close of the last century, Eton Barrett and his younger brother Richard Barrett were at a private school on Wandsworth Common. My brothers and I were their schoolfellows. The Barretts were Irish boys; I think (but I speak very doubtfully) from Cork. Eton Barrett was a boy of more than ordinary talent. He was a genius among the lesser lights around him. I remember his writing a play with prologue and epilogue, which was performed before the master and his family, &c., with so much success, that the master prohibited any future dramatic performances, fearing, that he might incur blame for encouraging too much taste for the theatre. Our master gave up his school before the year 1800. Eton Barrett, a great many years ago, published a little volume of poems, of which "Woman" was one. I do not remember that I ever met him since our school-days. I have heard that he adopted Tory politics in Ireland, and that his brother attached himself to O'Connell, and conducted some newspaper; but this is mere report. Allow me to take this opportunity for observing, that many of the communications to "N. & Q.," such as those in which matters of fact are stated, ought, it may justly be urged, to be authenticated by the signature of the contributor. I feel the truth of this so strongly, that, though I do not sign my name, yet I have thought it right to make myself known to you, so that you know the person who contributes under the signature
F. W. J.
Haulf-naked (Vol. viii., p. 205.).—The manor house of Halnaker, adjoining Walberton and Goodwood, is thus spoken of by Dallaway in his Hist. of Sussex, "Rape of Chichester," p. 131.:—"Halnaker, called in Domesday 'Halneche,' and in writings of very ancient date Halnac, Halnaked, and Halfnaked." Then follows a short description of the old manor-house.
It has been lately visited by the Archæological Association, under the direction of Lord Talbot de Malahide; and it is probable that the industrious antiquaries of Sussex will soon give us a more detailed account of it in their next volume of Transactions.
M. (2.)
Cambridge and Ireland (Vol. viii., p. 270.).—The story of Irish merchants landing at Cambridge is "very like a whale," "touched upon the deserts of Bohemia." I think, however, that I can trace the source of this glaring and oft-repeated error, as there really exists a documentary connexion between Irish cloth and the town of Cambridge.
Referring to a collection of notes on the ancient commerce and manufactures of Ireland, which I have lately made, I find—cited as an instance of the general use of Irish cloth in England at an early period—that Henry IV., in 1410, gave a royal grant of tolls, for the purpose of paving the town of Cambridge; in which, among other articles, Irish cloth is taxed at the rate of twopence per hundred. The grant, "De villa Cantabrigiæ paveanda," will be found in Rymer's Fœdera.
W. Pinkerton.
Ham.
Autobiographical Sketch (Vol. vii., p. 477.).—The fragments found by Cheverells are parts of The Library of Useless Knowledge, by Athanasius Gasker, Esq., F.R.S., &c.: London, W. Pickering, 1837.
H. J.
Archbishop Chichely (Vol. viii., p. 198).—The Statute Book of All Souls College; Robert Hoveden's Life of Chichely; and the respective Lives by Arthur Duck and O. L. Spencer, have all been examined for the date of Henry Chichely's birth, but without success.
The most probable conjecture is, that he was born in 1362; since in 1442 (see his "Letter to Pope Eugenius," printed in the Appendix to Spencer's Life) he describes himself as having either completed or entered upon his eightieth year.
Edward F. Rimbault.
"Discovery of the Inquisition" (Vol. viii., p. 137.).—It is a mistake to suppose that all John Day's publications are rare. Montanus's Discovery and playne Declaration of sundry subtill Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne, newly translated, 4to., 1568, is not uncommon. Herbert and Heber possessed copies; and a copy sold at Saunders's in 1818 for five shillings. My own copy (a remarkably fine one) cost sixteen shillings at Evans's in 1840. The edition of 1569, containing some additions, is of greater rarity.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Divining Rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—In the first edition of his Mathematical Recreations, Hutton laughed at the divining rod. In the interval between that and the second edition, a lady made him change his note, by using one before him at Woolwich. Hutton had the courage to publish the account of the experiment in the second edition (vol. iv. pp. 216-231.), after the account he had previously given. By a letter from Hutton to Bruce, printed in the memoir of the former which the latter wrote, it appears that the lady was Lady Milbanke.
M.
"Pinece with a stink" (Vol. viii, p. 270.).—Archbishop Bramhall's editor should have spelled the first word pinnace, and then your correspondent Mr. Blakiston could easily have understood the
allusion. In speaking of the offensive composition, well known to sailors, the word revenge, and not defend, was used by Bramhall.
R. G.
Longevity (Vol. viii., p. 113.).—I do not think any of your correspondents has noticed the case of John Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Albans, who wrote a Chronicle of the period between 1441 and 1461: "He was ordained a priest in 1382, and died in 1464, when he had been eighty-two years in priest's orders, and was above one hundred years old." Surely this is a case sufficiently authenticated for your more sceptical readers. (Henry's History of Great Britain, 2nd ed., Lond. 1788, vol. x. p. 132.)
Tewars.
Chronograms (Vol. viii., pp. 42. 280.).—The following additional specimen of this once popular form of numerical puzzle is not, I think, unworthy a corner in "N. & Q."
On the upper border of a sun-dial, affixed to the west end of Nantwich Church, Cheshire, there appeared, previous to its removal about 1800, the undermentioned inscription:
"Honor DoMIno pro paCe popVLo sVo parta."
Now, seeing that Nantwich was, during the civil dissensions which culminated in the murder of Charles I., a rampant hot-bed of anarchy and rebellion, we should hardly be prepared for such a complete repudiation of those principles as is conveyed in the line before us, did we not know that the same anxiety to get rid of the "Bare-bones" incubus universally prevailed. The numerals, it will be seen, make up the number 1661, which was the year of the coronation of King Charles II.; and, no doubt, also the year in which the dial in question was erected.
T. Hughes.
Chester.
Heraldic Notes (Vol. viii., p. 265.).—The bearing of the arms of Clare Hall by Dr. Blythe is not strictly correct, because, with the exception of the three principal Kings of Arms, the Earl Marshal, the Master of Ordnance, and a few others especially, arms of office do not exist in England. The general mode of bearing them is by impalement, giving the preference (dexter) to the arms of dignity. In the example under notice, the arms of dignity or office are borne upon a pile, which has somewhat the appearance of an inverted chevron. It is not at all a common mode of bearing additions; but I remember one case, viz. the grant by King Henry VIII. to the Seymours, after his marriage to Lady Jane, of the lions of England on a pile.
Broctuna.
Bury, Lancashire.
Christian Names (Vol. vii. passim).—May I be permitted to correct one or two errors in Mr. Bates's Note on this subject, Vol. vii. p. 627.?
The person described as a "certain M. L-P. Saint-Florentin" was no less a person than the Duke de la Vrillière, who filled several important offices during the reign of Louis XV. The allusion in the epigram to his "trois noms" has no reference to his names, whether Christian or patronymic, in the sense in which the question has been discussed in "N. & Q.," but to the three titles which he successively bore as a public man. He commenced his career as M. de Phélippeaux; was afterwards created Comte de Saint-Florentin, and sometime before his death was raised to the dignity of Duke de la Vrillière.
My authority for this statement is the cotemporary work, Les Mémoires secrets de Bachaumont, where, under date of December, 1770, the epigram is thus introduced, with a variation in the first line:
"Un autre plaisant a fait d'avance l'épitaphe de M. le duc de la Vrillière. Elle roule sur ses trois noms différents de Phélippeaux, Saint-Florentin, et la Vrillière:
'Ci-git, malgré son rang, un homme fort commun,
Ayant porté trois noms, et n'en laissant aucun.'"
The sense being, that his titles had been his only distinction, and that even they had not been sufficient to rescue his character from obscurity and contempt.
However "applicable" this epigram may be to the bearers or borrowers of three names, it will be some comfort to them to know that its point was not directed against them, but against a class of men of much higher pretensions, of one of whom it has been said:
"He left the name, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale."
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
"I put a spoke in his wheel" (Vol. viii., p. 269.).—If G.K., being wronged, should cherish the unchristian spirit of revenge, let him playfully insert a spoke in the wheel of his friend's tandem, as it bowls along behind a pair of thorough-bred tits, with twelve months' hard condition upon old oats in them.
By simply putting a spoke in the wheel of the waggon employed in the removal of the Manchester College to London, one trustee opposed a decided "impediment to the movement" of that institution.
W. C.
P. S.—Allow me to point out a misprint at Vol. viii., p. 279, "Manners of the Irish:" for chuse read cheese.
Judges styled Reverend (Vol. viii., pp. 158. 276.).—With respect to the error into which I was led in making Anthony Fitzherbert Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, I beg to express my thanks for our good friend's correction. My statement
was founded on the authority of the Visitation-Book of the county of Derby, A.D. 1634, in which Anthony Fitzherbert is "Chief Justice of ——;" and, as the question of his rank as a judge was not one at the moment of communicating my Note, I made no farther inquiry. I find, however, upon reference to Vincent's Collections for Derbyshire, that Anthony Fitzherbert is styled, in a very good pedigree of his family, "Unus Justiciariorum de Coī Banco." Had I turned to Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, the error might have been avoided.
Thos. W. King (York Herald).
Palace at Enfield (Vol. viii., p. 271.).—Queen Elizabeth, in the early part of her reign, frequently kept her court at Enfield. Her palace was the manor-house, near the church, of which little now remains. In Lysons' time (1793) it had been in a great measure rebuilt, and divided into tenements. He adds, "the part which contains the old room is in the occupation of Mrs. Perry."
When I saw this room, about twenty years ago, it was in its original state, with oak panels and a richly ornamented ceiling. The chimney-piece was supported by columns of the Ionic and Corinthian order, and decorated with the cognizances of the rose and portcullis, and the arms of France and England quartered, with the garter and the royal supporters. Underneath was this motto, "Sola salus servire Deo, sunt cætera fraudes."
In the garden was a magnificent tree, a cedar of Libanus, which was pointed out to me as having been planted by Queen Elizabeth. But upon this point tradition was at fault. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1779, p. 138., may be seen an account of this remarkable cedar, which was planted by Dr. Robert Uvedale, the botanist, a tenant of the manor-house in 1670.
The church at Enfield does not date farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. The devices of a rose and ring, which occur over the arches of the nave, seen also upon the tower of Hadley Church, with the date 1444, "supposing it to have been, as is very probable," says Lysons, "a punning cognizance adopted by one of the priors of Walden, to which monastery both churches belonged, will fix the building of the present structure at Enfield to the early part of the fifteenth century."
Edward F. Rimbault.
Sir John Vanbrugh (Vol. viii., pp. 65. 160. 232.).—Are not your correspondents on the wrong scent as regards the birthplace of Sir John Vanbrugh? In the memoir prefixed to the collection of his Plays, 2 vols. 12mo., 1759, it is said:
"Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramatic writer, son of Mr. Giles Vanbrugh of London, merchant, was born in the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, in 1666. The family of Vanbrugh were for many years merchants of great credit and reputation at Antwerp, and came into England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, on account of the persecution for religion."
Mr. Cunningham (Handbook of London, p. 282.) speaks of William Vanderbergh, the supposed father of Sir John, as residing in Lawrence-Poultney Lane in 1677. He refers to Strype's map of Walbrook and Dowgate wards, and A Collection of the Names of the Merchants living in and about the City of London, 12mo. 1677.
The writer of the notice of Sir John Vanbrugh in Chambers' Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. p. 597., says:
"Vanbrugh was the son of a successful sugar-baker, who rose to be an esquire, and comptroller of the treasury chamber, besides marrying the daughter of Sir Dudley Carlton. It is doubtful whether the dramatist was born in the French Bastile, or the parish of St. Stephen's, Walbrook. The time of his birth was about the year 1666, when Louis XIV. declared war against England. It is certain he was in France at the age of nineteen, and remained there some years."
The family vault of the Vanbrughs is certainly in St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook, where Sir John was buried on the 30th of March, 1726.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Greek Inscription on a Font (Vol. viii., p. 198.).—-This Query has already been answered and illustrated in Vol. vii., pp. 178. 366. 417.; but the following passage may be of interest, as affording instances of the same inscription in France, and pointing out the probable source of its usage, viz. from the ancient Greek metropolitan church at Constantinople:
"St. Mémin est une abbaye célèbre sous l'ancien nom de Micy, sur la rivière de Loire, proche d'Orléans. Il y a dans l'église de ce monastère un benétier de forme ronde, avec cette inscription grecque gravée sur le bord du bassin, ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑ ΜΗΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ. La même chose est à Paris, au benétier de St. Etienne d'Egrès, et aussi autrefois à celui de Sainte Sophie à Constantinople."—Voyages liturgiques de France, par le Sieur Moleon, p. 219., 8vo. 1718.
It may be added (on Cole's authority, vol. XXXV. f. 19b.) that the same inscription is inscribed round a large silver basin used formerly at the master's table on festival days, in Trinity College Hall, Cambridge; and I have also seen it on a sliver-gilt rose-water basin, introduced at the banquets given by the master of Magdalene College in the same university.
μ.
"Fierce" (Vol. viii., p. 280.).—In this part of the country the words pert, pronounced "peart," and pure, bear the same meaning, of well in health and spirits.
Francis John Scott.
Tewkesbury.
Giving Quarter (Vol. viii., p. 246.).—It must be observed that the older form of the expression is "keeping quarter:"
"That every one should kill the man he caught,
To keep no quarter."—Drayton in Richardson.
Now very obvious application of the word quarter, instanced by Todd, is to signify the proper station or appointed place of any one.
"They do best who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs."—Bacon's Essays.
To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, within the limits or bounds appointed by some paramount consideration; and hence, as in the following passage from Shakspeare (where it is clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the word is used as synonymous with terms or conditions:
"Friends all but now,
In quarter and in terms like bride and groom
Divesting them for bed, and then but now
Swords out and tilting one at other's breast."
In the same sense Clarendon speaks of "offering them quarter for their lives if they would give up the castle," i. e. offering them conditions for their lives on their performing their part of the bargain.
Again, in a passage of Swift, cited by Todd: "Mr. Wharton, who detected some hundred of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his Lordship," i. e. meets with very ill conditions of treatment from him. Finally, to give quarter in the military sense is to give conditions absolutely, as opposed to the unmitigated exercise of the victor's power, and, as the most important of all conditions, to spare life.
H. W.
Sheriffs of Glamorganshire (Vol. iii., p. 186.).—The list of the Glamorganshire sheriffs here inquired for was not printed by Mr. Traherne, but by the Rev. H. H. Knight, M.A., of Neath, and of Nottage Court, in Glamorganshire: it is a little pamphlet in a paper cover.
Tewars.
"When the maggot bites" (Vol. viii., p. 244.).—A correspondent asks why a thing done on the spur of the moment is said to be done "when the maggot bites." It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French, "Avoir des rats dans la tête;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation.
H. W.
Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages (Vol. viii., p. 174.).—Your correspondent M. will find much valuable information on this subject in a work entitled Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael, by James Grant, Esq., Advocate: Edinburgh, Constable & Co., 1814.
Francis John Scott.
Tewkesbury.
Bacon's Essays (Vol. viii., p. 143.).—Bacon's Essay VII.: "Optimum elige," &c. Pythagoras, in Plutarch de Exilio.—Essay XV.: "Dolendi modus," &c. Plin., lib. viii. ep. 17. fin.
C. P. E.
"Exiguum est." &c. (Vol. viii., p. 197.).—"Exiguum est ad legem bonum esse." Vide Senec. de Ira, ii. 27.
C. P. E.
Muffs worn by Military Men on a March (Vol. viii., p. 281.).—In the year 1592 the Duke of Nevers was despatched by Henry IV. with all speed to a place called Bully, in order to cut off the retreat of the Duke of Guise, lately defeated near Bures. Sully speaks of him thus:
"The Duke of Nevers, the slowest of men, began by sending to make choice of the most favourable roads, and marched with a slow pace towards Bully, with his hands and his nose in his muff, and his whole person well packed up in his coach."—Memoirs of Sully, vol. i. p. 235., English edit., Edinburgh, 1773.
Francis John Scott.
Tewkesbury.
"Earth says to Earth" (Vol. vii., pp. 498. 576.).—A fac-simile of these lines, discovered in the chapel of the Guild of the Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon (with many other curious plates), may be seen in Fisher's Illustrations of the Paintings, &c., edited by J. G. Nichols, Esq., and published in 1802, and afterwards continued.
Erica speaks of "Weaver's" Account. Unless this is a misprint for "Wheler's" (Account of Stratford-on-Avon), perhaps he will oblige me with the full title of Weaver's work.
Este.
Poetical Tavern Signs (Vol. viii., p. 242.).—I would add the following sign-inscription to those noted by R. C. Warde. It was on the walls of a tavern half-way up Richmond Hill, three miles south of Douglas, Isle of Man, kept by a man of the name of Abraham Lowe:
"I'm Abraham Lowe, and half-way up the hill,
If I were higher up, what's funnier still,
I should be belowe. Come in and take your fill
Of porter, ale, wine, spirits, what you will.
Step in, my friend, I pray no farther go;
My prices, like myself, are always low."
J. G. C.
Unkid (Vol. viii., p. 221.).—Is not the word hunks, so common in people's mouths,—An old hunks, an old miser or miserable wretch, to be referred to the same derivation as unkid, hunkid?
F. B—w.
Camera Lucida (Vol. viii., p. 271.).—Caret will find Dr. Wollaston's description of his invention, the "Camera Lucida," in the 17th volume of Nicholson's Journal.
M. C. M.