REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.
Anecdote of the Civil Wars.—In looking through your "Notes and Queries," to which I heartily wish continued success, I find, in No. 6. p. 93, a question which appears to be as yet unanswered.
The story to which your questioner alludes as an "anecdote of the Civil Wars," is a very beautiful one, and deserves authentication.
I have a note of it from Dr. Thomas's additions to Dugdale's Warwickshire, which dates the occurrence as having taken place Oct. 22, 1642, the day previous to the battle of Edgehill, and identifies the merry sportsman as Richard Schuckburgh, of Upper Shuckburgh; who, however, on his presentation to the king, "immediately went home, aroused his tenants, and the next day attended the army to the field, where he was knighted, and was present at the battle." Being out of the reach of books, I am unable further to verify the story; but it is to such unhappy rustics that your publication is most acceptable.
C.W.B.
[Thanks to the kindness of our correspondent "C.W.B.," we have referred to Dugdale's Warwickshire (ed. Thomas, 1730). vol. i. p. 309., and extract from it the following proof that Walpole had authority for his story. Who knows, after this, but we may in the same way trace from whence he procured the celebrated letter of the Countess of Pembroke, respecting which there is a query from Mr. Peter Cunningham, in No. 2. p. 28.
"As king Charles the First marched to Edgcot, near Banbury, on 22nd Oct., 1642, he saw him hunting in the fields not far from Shuckborough, with a very good pack of hounds, upon which it is reported, that he fetched a deep sigh and asked who that gentleman was that hunted so merrily that morning, when he was going to fight for his crown and dignity. And being told that it was this Richard Shuckburgh, he was ordered to be called to him, and was by him very graciously received. Upon which he went immediately home, armed all his tenants, and the next day attended on him in the field, where he was knighted, and was present at the battle of Edghill.">[
Mousetrap Dante (No. 10. pp. 154, 155.).—I beg to refer your correspondent to the Visconte Colomb de Batines' Bibliographia Dantesea (Prato, 1845-48. 8vo.), tom. ii. pp. 264, 265., where he will find a list (correct so far as it goes) of the fifteen MSS. of the Comedia, purchased for the Bodleian Library about the year 1822, from the Abbate Matteo Canonici, of Venice.
I have reason for believing, that the only MSS. which exist in that collection, in addition to those enumerated in the list, are: 1. Canon Ital. 100. "Compendium Cujusdam Commentarii" (4to paper); and 2. "Codices Canonici Miscellanei 449." fol., vellum (it cannot therefore be this), which contains the complete commentary of Jacopo dalla Lana.
F.C.B.
Cromwell's Estates (No. 18. p. 277.).—The seignory of Gower is the peninsula which runs out between the bays of Swansea and Carmarthen; and which terminates at Swansea on the S.E. side, and at Longhor on the N.W., and comprises the district which, in common with a part of Scotland, anciently bore the name of Rheged. It is a locality rich in all that can attract the antiquary and the naturalist.
Mr. Dillwyn's Contributions towards a History of Swansea contains the following references to the Gower property of Cromwell:—"We are informed by the Minute-book of the Common Hall" (at Swansea), "that on May 19, 1648, there came to this towne the truly Honourable Oliver Cromwell, Esq.... Lord of this towne, the Seignory of Gower, and Manor of Killay, with the members thereof," &c. "On May 5. 1647, Parliament settled the estates of the Marquis of Worcester, in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, on Cromwell; and, by a subsequent order, the estate in Glamorganshire was added to this grant. The conveyance from Parliament to Cromwell is made, not only in the name of his Majesty, but has a portrait of Charles the First at its head."
SELEUCUS.
Genealogy of European Sovereigns (No. 6. p. 92.)—The best and most comprehensive work on this subject bears the following title:—Johann Hübner's genealogische Tabellen, 4 vols. folio, oblong, Leipzig, 1737 et seq. (Of the 3rd vol. a new and much improved edition, by G.F. Krebel, appeared in 1766.) Supplement: Tafeln zu J. Hübner's genealogischen Tabellen, by Sophia Queen of Denmark, 6 parts, folio, oblong, Copenhagen, 1822-24.
A. Asher.
Berlin.
Shipster (No. 14. p. 216.).—Are not Baxter and Tupster the feminines of Baker and Tapper?—and may not Shipster signify a female ship-owner?
F.C.B.
Kentish Ballad (No. 16. p. 247.).—The song beginning "When Harold was invaded" has long been a favourite in this county. It is entitled "The Man of Kent," and was composed by Tom Durfey, in the time of Charles the Second. It may be found, with the music, in Chappell's Collection of English Airs. He cites it as being in Pills to purge Melancholy, with Music, 1719, and states that in the Essex Champion, or famous History of Sir Billy of Billericay and his Squire Ricardo, 1690, the song of "The Man of Kent" is mentioned. I have none of these works at hand for immediate reference, but the above note contains all that I have been able to collect on the subject of our popular ballad.
There is another song, much to the same purport, beginning—
"When as the Duke of Normandy,
With glistening spear and shield,"
in Evans's Songs, vol. ii. p. 33, printed by him from The Garland of Delight, by Delone, in the Pepys collection at Cambridge—a black-letter volume; and probably the song was by himself.
Your correspondent "F.B." asks for the remainder of the song. In pity to yourself and your readers, I forbear sending you the countless stanzas—numerous enough in the original song, but now, by the additions of successive generations, swelled to a volume. He will find in Chappell's collection all that is worth having, with the assurance, repeated oft enough for the most enthusiastic of our modest countrymen, that
"In Britain's race if one surpass,
A man of Kent is he."
LAMBERT LARKING.
Ryarsh Vicarage.
Bess of Hardwick (No. 18. p. 276.).—The armorial bearings of John Hardwick, of Hardwick, co. Derby, father of Bess, were: Argent, a saltier engrailed, and on a chief blue three roses of the field.
M. COMES.
Oxford, March 9. 1850.
Trophee (No. 19. p. 303.).—"Trophe," in the Prologue of Lydgate's Translation of Boccaccio's Fall of Princes, is a misprint: corrige—
"In youth he made a translation
Of a boke, which called is Troyle,
In Lumbardes tonge, as men may rede and se,
And in our vulgar, long or that he deyde,
Gave it the name of Troylous and Cres-eyde."
The book called Troyle is Boccaccio's Troilo, or Filostrato.
M.C.
Oxford, March 11. 1850.
Emerald (No. 14. p. 217.).—Before we puzzle ourselves with the meaning of a thing, it is well to consider whether the authority may not be very loose and inaccurate. This emerald cross, even if it was made of emeralds, might have been in several pieces. But we are told generally, in Phillips's Mineralogy, that "the large emeralds spoken of by various writers, such as that in the Abbey of Richenau, of the weight of 28 lbs., and which formerly belonged to Charlemagne, are believed to be either green fluor, or prase. The most magnificent specimen of genuine emeralds was presented to the Church of Loretto by one of the Spanish kings. It consists of a mass of white quartz, thickly implanted with emeralds, more than an inch in diameter."
The note to the above exemplifies what I have just said. It is called emerald, he says, because it is green, from the Greek. I might make a query of this; but it is clearly a mistake of some half-learned or ill-understood informant. The name has nothing to do with green. Emerald, in Italian smeraldo, is, I dare say, from the Greek smaragdus. It is derived, according to the Oxford Lexicon, from μαιρω, to shine, whence μαρμαρυγη. In looking for this, I find another Greek word, smirix, which is the origin of emery, having the same meaning. It is derived from σμαω, to rub, or make bright. I cannot help suspecting that the two radical verbs are connected.
C.B.
Ancient Motto—Barnacles.—In reference to your querist in No. 6., respecting the motto which "some Pope or Emperor caused to be engraven in the centre of his table," and the correspondent in No. 7. who replies to him by a quotation from Horace, I beg to observe that honest Thomas Fuller, in The Holy State, 275. ed. Lond. 1648, tells us, that St. Augustine "had this distich written on his table:—
"Quisquis amat dictis absentem rodere famam,
Hanc mensam indignam noverit esse sibi.
He that doth love on absent friends to jeere,
May hence depart, no room is for him here."
With respect to the Barnacle fowl, it may be an addendum, not uninteresting to your correspondent "W.B. MacCabe," to add to his extract from Giraldus another from Hector Boece, History of Scotland, "imprentit be Thomas Davidson, prenter to the Kyngis nobyll grace [James VI.]." He observes, that the opinion of some, that the "Claik geis growis on treis be the nebbis, is vane," and says he "maid na lytyll lauboure and deligence to serche the treuthe and virite yairof," having "salit throw the seis quhare thir Clakis ar bred," and assures us, that although they were produced in "mony syndry wayis, thay ar bred ay allanerly be nature of the seis." These fowls, he continues, are formed from worms which are found in wood that has been long immersed in salt water, and he avers that their transformation was "notably provyn in the zier of God 1480 besyde the castell of Petslego, in the sycht of mony pepyll," by a tree which was cast ashore, in which the creatures were seen, partly formed, and some with head, feet, and wings; "bot thay had na faderis." Some years afterwards, a tree was thrown on the beach near Dundee, with the same appearances, and a ship broken up at Leith exhibited the same marvel; but he clinches the argument by a "notable example schawin afore our eyne. Maister Alexander Galloway Person, of Kynkèll, was with us in thir Illis (the Hebridæ), and be adventure liftet up ane see tangle, hyng and full of mussil schellis," one of which he opened, "bot than he was mair astonist than afore, for he saw na fische in it bot ane perfit schapin foule. This clerk, knawin us richt desirous of sic uncouth thingis, came haistely, and opinit it iwith all circumstance afore rehersit." So far the venerable "Chanon of Aberdene." The West Highlanders still believe in the barnacle origin of this species of fowl.
JAMES LOGAN
Tureen (No. 16. p. 246.; No. 19. p. 307.).—I have seen old-fashioned silver tureens which turned on a pivot attached to the handles, and always concluded that it was to this form that Goldsmith alluded in the line quoted by "G.W."
SELEUCUS.
Hudibrastic Couplet (No. 14. p. 211.).—These lines do not occur in the reprint of the Musarum Deliciæ (Lond. 1817, 8vo. 2 vols.). Lowndes (Bibliogr. Manual) states that they are to be found in the 2nd ed. of the work (London, 1656. 12mo.).
F.C.B.
Topography of Foreign Printing Presses (No. 18. p. 277.)—About twelve years ago, Valpy published a vol. of Supplements to Lemprière's Dictionary, by E.H. Barker. One of these contained a complete list of all the foreign towns in which books had been printed, with the Latin names given to them in alphabetical order.
W. and N.
Your correspondent "P.H.F." will find in Cotton's Typographical Gazetteer (8vo. Clarendon Press, 1831), every information he will ordinarily require.
J.M.S.
Islington, March 7. 1850
Dr. Hugh Todd's MSS. (No. 18. p. 282.).—The only MS. in the library of University College, Oxford, is that mentioned by "F.M."; and it is described in the Catalogue, compiled by the Rev. H.O. Coxe, of the MSS. belonging to the College, p. 47. No. clxx. There is a note stating it was "ex dono Hugonis Todd, Socii, A.D. 1690."
C.I.R.