Minor Queries.
Jews and Egyptians.—Has any writer ever started the idea that the early colonisers of some of the Grecian states, who are commonly stated to have been Egyptians, may have been, in fact, Jews? It seems to me that a good deal might be said in favour of this hypothesis, for the following reasons, amongst others:
1. The Egyptian tradition preserved by Hecatæus, and quoted from him by Diodorus, that Danaus and Cadmus were leaders of minor branches of the great emigration, of which the main body departed under the guidance of Moses.
2. The near coincidence in point of time, as far as can be traced, of the appearance of Danaus, Cadmus, and Cecrops, in Greece, with the Jewish exodus.
3. The letter, preserved by Josephus, of Areus, king of Sparta, to the high-priest of the Jews, claiming a common descent with the latter from Abraham, and proposing an alliance. It is difficult to explain this claim on any other supposition than that Areus had heard of the tradition mentioned by Diodorus, and, as he and his people traced their descent from Danaus through Hercules, they consequently regarded themselves as sprung from a common stock with the Hebrews.
I throw out this theory for the consideration of others, having myself neither leisure nor opportunity for pushing the subject any farther; but still I think that a distinguished statesman and novelist, who amused the world some years ago by endeavouring to trace most of the eminent men of modern times to a Jewish origin, might, with at least as much reason, claim most of the glories of ancient Greece for his favourite people.
J. S. Warden.
Skin-flint.—Is the word skin-flint, a miserly or niggardly person, of English or foreign derivation? and where is the earliest instance of the term to be met with?
J. W.
Garlic Sunday.—The last Sunday of summer has been heretofore a day of great importance with the Irish, as upon it they first tried the new potato, and formed an opinion as to the prospects of future harvest. The day was always called, in the west in particular, "Garlic Sunday," perhaps a corruption of Garland Sunday. Can any one give the origin of this term, and say when first it was introduced?
U. U.
Dublin.
Custom of the Corporation of London.—In the evidence of Mr. Bennoch, given before the Royal Commissioners for inquiring into the corporation of the city of London, he stated that there is, amongst other payments, one of 133l. "for cloth to the great ministers of state," the city being bound by an old charter to give a certain amount of cloth annually to them. He subsequently states that this custom is supposed to be connected with the encouragement of the wool manufacture in its early history; and that four and a half yards of the finest black cloth that the country can produce are annually sent to the First Secretary of State, the Second Secretary of State, the Lord Chancellor, the Chamberlain of the Household, the Vice-Chancellor of the Household, the Treasurer of the Household, the Lord Steward, the Controller, the Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, the Master of the Rolls, the Recorder of London, the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, and the Common Sergeant.
Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." give a more particular account of this custom?
Cervus.
General Stokes.—Can any of your readers give me any information respecting the parentage of General Stokes? In the historical table of remarkable events in the Jamaica Almanack for 1847 it says: "General Stokes, with 1600 men from Nevis, arrived and settled near Port Morant, anno Domini 1655." And in Bryan Edwards' work on Jamaica and the West Indies, mention is made of General Stokes in the following words:
"In the month of December, 1655, General Stokes, with 1600 men from Nevis, arrived in Jamaica, and settled near Port Morant. The family of the Morants of Vere (in Jamaica) are the lineal descendants of General Stokes, who took the name of Morant from the port at which he landed. General Stokes was governor of Nevis; and on his arrival in Jamaica was appointed one of the high commissioners for the Island."
H. H. M.
Rev. Philip Morant.—I shall be obliged by any information respecting the lineage of the Rev. Philip Morant, who wrote a History of the County of Essex; and whether he was an ancestor of the Morants of Brockenhurst Park, Hants. He was born at St. Saviour's, in the Isle of Jersey, Oct. 6, 1700; entered, 1717, Pembroke College, Oxford. He was presented to
the following benefices in the county of Essex, viz. Shallow, Bowells, Bromfield, Chicknal, Imeley, St. Mary's, Colchester, Wickham Bishops, and to Oldham in 1745. He died Nov. 25, 1770; and his only daughter married Thomas Astle, Esq., F.R.S. and F.A.S. He was son of Stephen Morant. If any of the sons or daughters of that eminent antiquary Thomas Astle will give me any information relative to the pedigree of Philip Morant, M.A., they will greatly oblige me.
H. H. M.
Malta.
The Position of Suffragan Bishops in Convocation.—In Chamberlayne's Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia, or The Present State of Great Britain, 1729, p. 73., it is said:
"All suffragan bishops and deans, archdeacons, prebendaries, rectors, and vicars, have privileges, some by themselves, others by proxy or by representatives, to sit and vote in the lower house of convocation."
Is there authority for this statement as regards suffragan bishops? There is no writ or mandate that I have seen for their appearance.
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.
Cambridge Mathematical Questions.—Can any of your readers inform me whether the University of Cambridge puts forth, by authority, a collection of all the questions proposed to candidates for the B.A. degree?
If not, how can one obtain access to the questions which have been asked during the last forty or fifty years?
Iota.
Crabbe MSS.—In some second-hand book catalogue the following is inserted, viz.,—
"1353. Crabbe (Rev. Geo., Poet), Poems, Prayers, Essays, Sermons, portions of Plays, &c., 5 vols. entirely autograph, together with a Catalogue of Plants, and Extracts from the second Volume of the Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1795 (this volume only contains a few Autograph Verses in pencil at the end). An Autograph letter of 4 pages to the Dean of Lincoln, dated Trowbridge, March 31, 1815. A curious Anonymous letter from 'Priscian' to Mr. Murray, dated Dec. 8th, 1833, on the Orthography of the name of the Birthplace of the Poet, and which the writer observed in the View of the Town of Aldeburgh in the frontispiece to the Prospectus Mr. M. has just issued, &c., interspersed with some portraits and scraps, in 6 vols. 4to. and 8vo., dated from 1779 to 1823, 8l. 8s."
This is a note underneath:
"The following portion of a Prayer, evidently alluding to his troubles, occurs in one of the volumes bearing date Dec. 31, 1779: 'A thousand years, most adored Creator, are in thy Sight as one Day. So contract in my Sight my Calamities! The Year of Sorrow and Care, of Poverty and Disgrace, of Disappointment and wrong, is now passing on to join the Eternal. Now, O Lord! let, I beseech thee, my Afflictions and Prayers be remembered; my Faults and Follies be forgotten.' 'O! Thou who art the Fountain of Happiness, give me better Submission to thy Decrees, better Disposition to correct my flattering Hopes, better Courage to bear up under my State of Oppression,'" &c.
Can any of the reader of "N. & Q." tell me who possesses this? I should very much like to know.
H. T. Bobart.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Tilly, an Officer of the Courts at Westminster.—What office did one Tilly hold in one of the Courts at Westminster, circa 8 William III.? Was he Warden of the Fleet? What were his connexions by birth and by marriage? Was he dispossessed? and if so, why?
J. K.
Mr. Gye.—Who was Mr. Guye, or Gye, who had chambers in the Temple circa 8 Wm. III.?
J. K.
Three Fleurs-de-Lys.—Some of your heraldic contributors may perhaps be able to say whether there is any instance of an English coat of arms with three fleurs-de-lys in a line (horizontal), in the upper part of the shield? Such are said to occur in coats of arms of French origin, as in that of the celebrated Du Guesclin, and perhaps in English coats in the form of a triangle. But query whether, in any instance, in a horizontal line?
Devoniensis.
The Commons of Ireland previous to the Union in 1801.—I have understood there was a work which contained either the memoirs or sketches of the political characters of all the members of the last "Commons of Ireland;" and I have heard it was written by a Rev. Dr. Scott of, I believe, Trinity College, Dublin. Can any reader of "N. & Q." inform me if there be such a work? and if there be a biographical account of the author to be met with?
C. H. D.
"All Holyday at Peckham."—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of the phrase "All holyday at Peckham?"[[3]]
R. W. B.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
[Probably some of our correspondents may know the origin of this phrase; and as many of them, perhaps, are not acquainted with its meaning among the slang literati, we may as well enlighten them with a quotation from the Lexicon Balatronicum et Macaronicum of Master Jon Bee: "Peckham, going to dinner. 'All holiday at Peckham,' no appetite. Peckish, hungry."—Ed.]
Arthur de Vere.—What was the after history of Arthur (Philipson) de Vere, son of John, Earl of Oxford, and hero of Sir Walter Scott's novel
Anne of Geierstein? Was Sir Walter Scott justified in saying, "the manners and beauty of Anne of Geierstein attracted as much admiration at the English Court as formerly in the Swiss Chalet?"
Σ.
Master of the Nails.—It appears from the Historical Register, January, 1717, "Mr. Hill was appointed Master of all the Nails at Chatham Dock." Can any of your readers favour me by stating the nature of the above office?
W. D. H.
Nattochiis and Calchanti.—few days since an ancient charter was laid before me containing a grant of lands in the county of Norfolk, of the date 1333 (temp. Edw. II.), in which the following words are made use of:
"Cu' omnib; g'nis t natthocouks adjacentib;" &c.
In a later portion of the grant this word is spelt natthociis. Probably some of your learned readers can throw some light on what is meant by the words granis et nattochiis as being appurtenant to marsh lands.
In a grant I have also now before me of Queen Elizabeth—
"Decimas, calchanti, liquor, mineral, metal," &c.
are given to the grantee for a term of twenty-one years: probably your readers can also enlighten my ignorance of the term calchanti; the other words are obvious. If any authorities are to be met with, probably in the answers to these queries your correspondents will have the goodness to cite them.
F. S. A.
"Ned o' the Todding."—May I beg, through the medium of your excellent publication, to ask if any of your correspondents can inform me in which of our English authors I may find some lines headed "Ned o' the Todding?"
W. T.