Replies to Minor Queries.
Lord Cecil's "Memorials" (Vol. viii., p. 442.).—Cecil's "First Memorial" is printed in Lord Somers's Tracts. It appears that Primate Ussher, and, subsequently, Sir James Ware and his son Robert, had the benefit of extracts from Lord Burleigh's papers. Mr. Bruce may find the "Examination" of the celebrated Faithfull Comine, and "Lord Cecyl's Letters," together with other interesting documents, entered among the Clarendon MSS. in Pars altera of the second volume of Catal. Lib. Manuscr. Angl. et Hib., Oxon. 1697.
R. G.
Foreign Medical Education (Vol. viii., pp. 341. 398.).—In addition to the previous communications on this subject, I beg to refer your correspondent Medicus to Mr. Wilde's Austria; its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions, with Notes on the State of Science, and a Guide to the Hospitals and Sanitary Institutions of Vienna, Dublin: Curry and Co., 1842.
J. D. McK.
Encyclopædias (Vol. viii., p. 385.).—Surely there must be many persons who sympathise with Encyclopædicus in wishing to have a work not encumbered and swollen by the heavy and bulky articles to which he refers: perhaps there may be as many as would make it worth the while of some publisher to furnish one. Of course copyright, and all sorts of rights, must be respected but that being done, there would be little else to do than to cut out and wheel away the heavy articles from a copy of any encyclopædia, and put the rest into the hands of a printer. The residuum (which is what we want) would probably be to a considerable extent the same. When necessary additions had been made, the work would still be of moderate size and price.
N. B.
Pepys's Grammar (Vol. viii., p. 466.).—I am unable to answer Mr. Keightley's Query, not having the slightest knowledge of short-hand; but I always understood that the original spelling of every word in the Diary was carefully preserved by the gentleman who decyphered it.
No estimate, however, of Pepys's powers of writing can be formed from the hasty entries recorded in his short-hand journal, and, as I conceive, they derive additional interest from the quaint terms in which they are expressed.
Braybrooke.
"Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi" (Vols. ii. and iii. passim).—The following instances of this thought occur in two writers of the seventeenth century:
"Those times which we term vulgarly they Old World, were indeed the youth or adolescence of it ... if you go to the age of the world in general, and to the true length and longevity of things, we are properly the older cosmopolites. In this respect the cadet may be termed more ancient than his elder brother, because the world was older when he entered into it. Nov. 2, 1647."—Howell's Letters, 11th edit.: London, 1754, p.426.
Butler, in his character of "An Antiquary," observes:
"He values things wrongfully upon their antiquity, forgetting that the most modern are really the most ancient of all things in the world; like those that reckon their pounds before their shillings and pence, of which they are made up."—Thyer's edit., vol.ii. p. 97.
Jarltzberg.
Napoleon's Spelling (Vol. viii., p. 386).—The fact inquired after by Henry H. Breen is proved by the following extract from the Mémoires of Bourrienne, Napoleon's private secretary for many years:
"Je préviens une fois pour toutes que dans les copies que je donnerai des écrits de Bonaparte, je rétablirai l'orthographe, qui est en général si extraordinairement estropiée qu'il serait ridicule de les copier exactement."—Mém. i. 73.
C.
Black as a mourning Colour (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—Mourning habits are said first to appear in England in the time of Edward III. Chaucer and Froissart are the first who mention them. The former, in Troylus and Creseyde, says:
"Creseyde was in widowe's habit black."
Again:
"My clothes everichone
Shall blacke ben, in tolequyn, herte swete,
That I am as out of this world gone."
Again, in the Knights Tale, Palamon appeared at a funeral
"In clothes black dropped all with tears."
Froissart says, the Earl of Foix clothed himself and household in black on the death of his son. At the funeral of the Earl of Flanders black gowns were worn. On the death of King John of France, the King of Cyprus wore black. The very mention of these facts would suggest that black was not then universally worn, but being gradually adopted for mourning.
B. H. C.
Chanting of Jurors (Vol. vi., p. 315.).—No answer has yet been given to J. F. F.'s Query on this, yet the expression "to chant" was not an unusual one, if we may believe Lord Stratford:
"They collected a grand jury in each county, and proceeded to claim a ratification of the rights of the crown. The gentlemen on being empanelled informed that the case before them was irresistible, and that no doubts could exist in the minds of reasonable men upon it. His majesty was, in fact, indifferent whether they found for him or no. 'And there I left them,' says Strafford, 'to chant together, as they call it, over their evidence.' The counties of Roscommon, Sligo, and Mayo instantly found a title for the king."
This extract is from a very eloquent article on Lord Strafford in the British Critic, No. LXVI. p. 485.
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
Aldress (Vol. v., p. 582.).—Your correspondent Cowgill gives an instance of the use of this obsolete word in an epitaph in St. Stephen's, Norwich, and asks where else it may be met with. I have just found it in a manuscript diary, under date 1561, and also as used in the same city:
"A Speech made after Mr. Mayor Mingay's Dinner.
"Master Mayor of Norwich; an it please your worship you have feasted us like a kinge. God bless the Queen's grace. We have fed plentifully, and now whilom I can speak plain English, I heartily thank you Master Mayor, and so do we all. Answer, boys, answer! Your beere is pleasant and potent, and soon catches us by the caput and stops our manners, and so Huzza for the Queen's Majesty's Grace, and all her bonny brow'd dames of honour! Huzza for Master Mayor and our good dame Mayoress, the Alderman and his faire Aldress; there they are, God save them and all this jolly company. To all our friends round country who have a penny in their purse, and an English heart in their bodies, to keep out Spanish Dons and Papists with their faggots to burn our whiskers. Shove it about. Twirl your cup-cases, handle your jugs, and huzza for Master Mayor and his good dame!"
How long is it since the ladies of our civic dignitaries relinquished the distinction here given to one of their order? What was the cup-case?
Charles Reid.
Paternoster Row.
Huggins and Muggins (Vol. viii., p. 341.).—In the edition of Mallet's Northern Antiquities, edited by J. A. Blackwell, Esq., and published by Bohn (Antiquarian Library, 1847), the following conjectural etymology of the words Huggins and Muggins is given by the editor in a note on the word Muninn, in the glossary to the Prose Edda:
"We cannot refrain for once from noticing the curious coincidence between the names of Odin's ravens, Hugin and Munin—Mind and Memory—and those of two personages who figure so often in our comic literature as Messrs. Huggins and Muggins. Huggins, like Hugh, appears to have the same root as Hugin, viz. hugr, mind, spirit; and as Mr. Muggins is as invariably associated with Mr. Huggins, as one of Odin's ravens was with the other (as mind is with memory), the name may originally have been written Munnins, and nn changed into gg for the sake of euphony. Should this conjecture, for it is nothing else, be well founded, one of the most poetical ideas in the whole range of mythology would, in this plodding, practical, spilling-jenny age of ours, have thus undergone a most singular metamorphosis."
Jno. N. Radcliffe.
Dewsbury.
Camera Lucida (Vol. viii., p. 271.).—With my camera lucida I received a printed sheet of instructions, from which the following extract is made, in answer to Caret:
"Those who cannot sketch comfortably, without perfect distinctness of both the pencil and object, must observe, that the stem should be drawn out to the mark D, for all distant objects, and to the numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, &c. for objects that are at the distances of only 2, 3, 4, or 5 feet respectively, the stem being duly inclined according to a mark placed at the bottom; but, after a little practice, such exactness is wholly unnecessary. The farther the prism is removed from the paper, that is, the longer the stem is drawn out, the larger the objects will be represented in the drawing, and accordingly the less extensive the view.
"The nearer the prism is to the paper, the smaller will be the objects, and the more extensive the view comprised on the same piece of paper.
"If the drawing be two feet from the prism, and the paper only one foot, the copy will be half the size of the original. If the drawing be at one foot, and the paper three feet distant, the copy will be three times as large as the original: and so for all other distances."
T. B. Johnston.
Edinburgh.
"When Orpheus went down" (Vol. viii., pp. 196. 281.).—This seems to be rightly attributed to Dr. Lisle. See Dodsley's Collection of Poems, vol. vi. p. 166. (1758), where it is stated to have been imitated from the Spanish, and set to music by Dr. Hayes. It is not quite correctly given in "N. & Q."
J. Kelway.
The Arms of De Sissone (Vol. viii., p. 243.).—I beg to refer J. L. S. to Histoire Généalogique et Chronologique de la Maison Royale de France, &c., tom. viii. p. 537., Paris, 1733; and also to Livre d'Or de la Noblesse, p. 429., Paris, 1847.
Clericus (D).
Oaths of Pregnant Women (Vol. v., p. 393.).—Women of the humbler classes in the British Islands appear to have an objection, when pregnant, to take an oath. I have not observed any attempt to explain or account for this prejudice. The same objection exists among the Burmese. Indeed, pregnant women there are, by long-observed custom, absolved from taking an oath, and affirm to their depositions, "remembering their pregnant condition." The reason of this is as follows. The system of Budhism, as it prevails in the Indo-Chinese countries, consists essentially in the negation of a Divine Providence. The oath of Budhists is an imprecation of evil on the swearer,
addressed to the innate rewarding powers of nature, animate and inanimate, if the truth be not spoken. This evil may be instantaneous, as sudden death from a fit, or from a flash of lightning; the first food taken may choke the false swearer; or on his way home, a tiger by land, or an alligator by water, may seize and devour him. I have known an instance of this occur, which was spoken of by hundreds as a testimony to the truth of the system. Now it is supposed by Budhists that even an unconscious departure from truth may rouse jealous nature to award punishment. In the case of pregnant women this would involve the unborn offspring in the calamity. Hence women in that condition do not take an oath in Burmah.
Ph.
Rangoon.
Lepel's Regiment (Vol. vii., p. 501.).—J. K. may rest assured that no trace can now be discovered of a regiment thus named, which existed in the year 1707. I have searched the lists of cavalry and infantry regiments at the battle of Almanza, fought April 25th of that year, and do not find this regiment mentioned. May I substitute for "Lepel's" regiment, "Pepper's" regiment? The colonelcy of that corps, now the 8th Royal Irish Hussars, became vacant by the fall of Brigadier-General Robert Killigrew at Almanza, and it was immediately conferred on the lieutenant-colonel of the corps, John Pepper, who held it until March 23, 1719.
G. L. S.
Editions of the Prayer Book prior to 1662 (Vol. vi., pp. 435. 564; Vol. vii. passim).—I have recently met with the following editions, which have not, I think, been yet recorded in your pages:
1630. folio, London.
1639. 4to. Barker and Bill.
1661. 8vo. London, Duporti, Latin.
The first and third are in Mr. Darling's Encyc. Bibl., see columns 366, 367; the second I saw at Mr. Straker's, Adelaide Street, Strand.
Will some of your readers kindly tell me in what edition of the Prayer Book the "Prayers at the Healing" are last met with? I have them in a Latin Prayer Book, 12mo. London, 1727.[[7]]
W. Sparrow Simpson.
Footnote 7:[(return)]
It appears from a note in Pepys's Diary, June 23, 1660, that the library of the Duke of Sussex contained four several editions of the Book of Common Prayer, all printed after the accession of the House of Hanover, and all containing, as an integral part of the service, "The Office for the Healing."—Ed.
Creole (Vol. vii., p. 381. Vol. viii., p. 138.).—I have never met with any satisfactory explanation of the origin of this word; its meaning has undergone various modifications. At first it was limited in its application to the descendants of Europeans born in the colonies. By degrees it came to be extended to all classes of the population of colonial descent and now it is indiscriminately employed to express things as well as persons, of local origin or growth. We say a creole Negro, as contra-distinguished from a negro born in Africa or elsewhere; a creole horse, as contra-distinguished from an English or an American horse; and we speak "Creole" when we address the uneducated classes in their native jargon.
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia.
Daughter pronounced "Dafter" (Vol. viii., p. 292.).—This pronunciation is universal in North Cornwall and North-west Devonshire.
J. R. P.
Richard Geering (Vol. viii., p. 340.).—If Y. S. M. will favour me with the parentage of "Richard Geering, one of the six clerks in chancery in Ireland," I shall be better able to judge whether he was of the family of Geering, Gearing, or Geary, of South Denchworth in the co. of Berks, of which family I have a pedigree. I can also supply their coat of arms and crest. Any information of the Geerings, ancestors of the said Richard, the chancery clerk, will be acceptable to your occasional correspondent
H. C. C.
If this Richard Geering is related to the Geerings of South Denchworth, in Berkshire, I refer Y. S. M. to Clare's Hundred of Wanting, Parker, Oxford, 1824.
The Geerings bought the manor of Viscount Cullen. It was formerly in the possession of the Hydes: several of the Geering monuments are in the church. Their arms, Or, on two bars gules six mascles of the field, on a canton sable a leopard's face of the first. The Geerings were long tenants of a part of the estate which they purchased; they are extinct in the male line. A grandson, John Bockett, Esq. (by the female line), of the last heir, possessed a small farm in the parish which was sold by him some years ago. The manor now belongs to Worcester College, Oxford, who purchased it of Gregory Geering, gent., in 1758. The name is spelt Gearing and Geary in the early registers.
The books in the small study (mentioned in "N. & Q." some time ago) were given by Gregory Geering, Esq., Mr. Ralph Kedden, vicar of Denchworth, and Mr. Edward Brewster, stationer, of London, most of which are attached by long chains to the cases.
Julia R. Bockett.
Southcote Lodge.
Island (Vol. viii., p. 279.).—H. C. K. is quite right in saying that the s has been inserted in this word: not, however, as he thinks, "to assimilate
the Saxon and French terms," but from a fancied French or Latin derivation, just as rime is spelt rhyme, because it was fancied that it came from ῥυθμὸς; and as critics and editors will print cœlum instead of cælum, contrary to all authority, because they have taken it into their heads that it comes from κοῖλον. We have also spright, impregnable, and other misspelt words, for which it is difficult to assign a reason. But I think H. C. K. is altogether mistaken in connecting the A.-S. ig (pr. ee), an island, with eye. It is evidently one of the original underived nouns of the Teutonic family, being ig A.-S., ey Icel., whence ö Swed., ö or öe Dan., and which also appears in the German and Dutch eiland; while in the words for eye the g is radical, as eage A.-S., auga Icel., auge Germ., oog Dutch.
T. K.