Replies to Minor Queries.
"Firm was their faith," &c. (Vol. viii., p. 564.; Vol. ix., p. 17.).—I am utterly unable to account for the reserve shown by Saxa in withholding the name of Robert Stephen Hawker, Vicar of Morwenstow, author of the beautiful volume of poems entitled Echoes from Old Cornwall: especially as the author's name appears on the title-page, and Saxa appears so desirous that his merits should be better known to the world.
Ἁλιεύς.
Dublin.
Attainment of Majority (Vol. ix., p. 18.).—I cannot, in courtesy, omit to notice Mr. Russell Gole's obliging efforts to assist the investigation of this subject. I must, however, refer him to the first paragraph of my last communication (Vol. viii., p. 541.), on the reperusal of which he will find
that what he states to be "the question" has not been at any time questioned. He has apparently mistaken my meaning, and imagines that "about the beginning of the seventeenth century" means 1704 (that being the date of the case cited by him).
I beg to assure him that I intended the expression, "beginning of the seventeenth century," to be understood in the ordinary acceptation.
A. E. B.
Leeds.
Three Fleurs-de-Lis (Vol. ix., p. 35.).—I have by me a MS. Biographical History of the English Episcopate, complete from the foundation of every See, with the armorial bearings of the several bishops: the whole I have collected from the best sources. I find among these, in the arms of Trilleck of Hereford, three fleurs-de-lis in chief; Stillingfleet of Worcester, Coverdale of Exeter, North of Winchester, three fleurs-de-lis, two in chief and one in base; Stretton of Lichfield, three fleurs-de-lis in bend.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
Sir John Egles, who was knighted by King James II. in the last year of his reign, and was Lord Mayor of London in 1688, bore: Argent, a fess engrailed, and in chief three fleurs-de-lis sable.
The family of France, now represented by James France, Esq., of Bostock Hall, co. Cheshire, bear: Argent, on a mount in base a hurst proper, a chief wavy azure, charged with the three fleurs-de-lis or. (The last are probably armes parlantes.)
Halford of Wistow bears: Argent, a greyhound passant sable, on a chief azure, three fleurs-de-lis or.
Lewis Evans.
Devoniensis is informed, that the family of Saunders bear the following coat of arms: viz. Argent, three fleurs-de-lis sable, on a chief of the second three fleurs-de-lis of the first. Also, that the families of Chesterfield, Warwyke, Kempton, &c., bear: Three fleurs-de-lis in a line (horizontal) in the upper part of the shield. See Glovers' Ordinary, augmented and improved in Berry's Encyclopædia Heraldica, vol. i.
H. C. C.
Newspaper Folk Lore (Vol. ix., p. 29.).—Although (apparently unknown to Londoner) the correspondent of The Times, under "Naval Intelligence," in December last, with his usual accuracy, glanced at the "snake lore" merely to laugh at the fable, I have written to a gallant cousin of mine, now serving as a naval officer at Portsmouth, and subjoin his reply to my letter; it will, I think, amply suffice to disabuse a Londoner's, or his friend's, mind of any impression of credence to be attached to it, as regards the snake:
"H.M.S. Excellent.—Jonathan Smith, gunner's mate of the Hastings, joined this ship from the Hastings in July; went on two months' leave, but came back in August very ill, and was immediately sent to the hospital for general dropsy, of which he shortly after died, and he was buried in Kingston churchyard, being followed to the grave by a part of the ship's company of the Excellent.
"Shortly before his death a worm, not a snake, came from him. It was nine inches in length; but though of such formidable dimensions, such things are common enough in the East Indies, where this man must have swallowed it, when very small, in water. They seldom are the cause of death, and, in the present instance, had nothing whatever to do with it. The story of the snake got into some of the papers, but was afterwards contradicted in several."
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
Nattochiis and Calchanti (Vol. ix., p. 36.).—Your correspondent F.S.A. asks what "cum ganis et nattochiis" means, in a charter of the date of Edward II. At that time nattes signified reeds, and possibly withies: and the words quoted I believe to mean, "with all grass and reeds (or reed-beds)." He also inquires what is meant, in a deed of grant of the time of Queen Elizabeth, by a grant of "decimas calchanti," &c.? It signifies "tithes ways," &c. The original law Latin for the modern phrase "all ways," &c., was calceata, signifying "raised ways."
This word has (at different periods) been written, calceata, calcata, calcea, calchia, chaucée, and chaussé; all of them, however, meaning the same thing.
John Thrupp.
11. York Gate.
Marriage Ceremony in the Fourteenth Century (Vol. ix., p. 33.).—If R. C. will refer to Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ (Rivington, 1845, vol. ii. p. 214.), he will find that the first part of the matrimonial office was "anciently termed the espousals, which took place some time before the actual celebration of marriage." Palmer explains:
"The espousals consisted in a mutual promise of marriage, which was made by the man and woman before the bishop or presbyter, and several witnesses. After which, the articles of agreement of marriage (called tabulæ matrimoniales), which are mentioned by Augustin, were signed by both persons. After this, the man delivered to the woman the ring and other gifts; an action which was termed subarrhation. In the latter ages the espousals have always been performed at the same time as the office of matrimony, both in the western and eastern churches; and it has long been customary for the ring to be delivered to the woman after the contract has been made, which has always been in the actual office of matrimony."
Wheatly also speaks of the ring as a "token of spousage." He tell us that—
"In the old manual for the use of Salisbury, before the minister proceeds to the marriage, he is directed to ask the woman's dowry, viz. the tokens of spousage: and by these tokens of spousage are to be understood rings, or money, or some other things to be given to the woman by the man; which said giving is called subarration (i. e. wedding or covenanting), especially when it is done by the giving of a ring."—A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, &c. (Tegg, 1845), p. 408.
Perhaps the word subarration may suggest to R. C. a clue, by which he can mend his extract?
J. Sansom.
Clarence (Vol. viii., p. 565.).—I made no note of it at the time, but I remember to have read, I think in some newspaper biography of William IV., that the title of Clarence belonged to the Plantagenets in right of some of their foreign alliances, and that it was derived from the town of Chiarenza, or Clarence, in the Morea. As many of the crusaders acquired titles of honour from places in the Byzantine empire, this account may be correct. Lionel Plantagenet's acquisition of the honour of Clare by his marriage with Elizabeth de Burgh, may have induced his father Edward III. to revive the dormant title of Clarence in his favour.
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
"The spire whose silent finger," &c. (Vo1. ix., p. 9.).—
"And O! ye swelling hills and spacious plains!
Besprent from shore to shore with steeple-tow'rs,
And spires whose silent finger points to heav'n."
Wordsworth, Excursion, vi. 17.
Coleridge uses the same idea in his Friend, No. xiv. p. 223.:
"An instinctive taste teaches men to build their churches in flat countries with spire-steeples; which, as they cannot be referred to any other object, point as with silent finger to the sky and stars; and sometimes, when they reflect the brazen light of a rich though rainy sunset, appear like a pyramid of flame burning heavenward."
F. R. M., M.A.
The following lines conclude a pretty little poem of Rogers's, entitled A Wish. They furnish at any rate a parallel passage to, if not the correct version of, the above:
"The village church, among the trees,
Where first our marriage vows were given,
With merry peals shall shell the breeze,
And point with taper spire to heaven."
C. W. B.
Henry Earl of Wotton (Vol. viii., pp. 173. 281. 563.).—In reply to the editors of the Navorscher I have to state—
1. That neither of the Lords Stanhope mentioned died childless, the letters s. p. being a misprint for v. p. (vitâ patris); Henry having died during the lifetime of his father: and it was "in regard that he did not live to enjoy his father's honours" that his widow was afterwards advanced to the dignity of Countess of Chesterfield.
2. It was Charles Stanhope's nephew (of the half-blood), Charles Henry van der Kerckhove, who took the name of Wotton. The insertion of the word "thereupon" between "who" and "took," on p. 281., would have made the sentence less obscure.
3. Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, had, besides Henry Lord Stanhope, two daughters and ten sons. These were—John, who died a student at Oxford; Ferdinando, M.P. for Tamworth, 1640, killed at Bridgeford, Notts, 1643; Philip, killed in defence of his father's house, which was a garrison for the king, 1645; Arthur, youngest son, M.P. for Nottingham in the parliament of Charles II., from whom descended the fifth earl; Charles, died s. p. 1645; Edward, William, Thomas, Michael, George, died young.
The earldom descended in a right line for three generations to the issue of Henry, Lord Stanhope, viz. Philip, his son, second earl; Philip, third earl, his grandson; and Philip, fourth earl, his great-grandson.
The Alexander Stanhope mentioned by the editors of the Navorscher was the only son of Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, by his second marriage. His mother was Anne, daughter of Sir John Pakington, of Westwood, co. Worcester, ancestor of the present baronet, late Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Broctuna.
Bury, Lancashire.
Tenth (or the Prince of Wales's Own) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Vol. viii., p. 538.; Vol. ix., p. 19.).—The monarch of this realm reviewing a regiment, of which the heir apparent was not only Colonel, but took the command, and directed all the military evolutions on the occasion, was such a particular event as to merit being commemorated by the splendid picture at Hampton Court Palace. Your correspondent Φ., who desires to be informed on what particular day that review took place, will find that it was on Thursday, Aug. 15, 1799. In the daily paper, The True Briton, of Aug. 16, 1799, he will find some details, of which the following is an abridgment:
"The Prince of Wales's regiment (the 10th Light Dragoons) was yesterday reviewed by his Majesty on Winkfield Plain. The troops practised their manœuvres through Cranbourne Woods, &c. His Royal Highness gave the word of command to his regiment, and wore in his military helmet 'an oak bough.' The Prince of Wales gave an entertainment afterwards to the officers at the Bush Inn, at Staines."
The general officers in attendance upon his Majesty, and represented in the picture, were the Commander-in-Chief, Field-Marshal H. R. H. the
Duke of York, K.G. and K.B., Colonel 2nd Foot Guards; Lieut.-Gen. and Adjutant-Gen. Sir Wm. Fawcett, K.B., 3rd Dragoon Guards; Lieut.-Gen. David Dundas, Quarter-master-General, 7th Light Dragoons; Major-Gen. Goldsworthy, First Equerry, 1st Royal Dragoons.
Narro.
Lewis and Sewell Families (Vol. viii., pp. 388. 521.).—C. H. F. will find M. G. Lewis's ancestors, his family mausoleum, the tomb of his maternal grandfather, &c., incidentally mentioned in "M. G. Lewis's Negro Life in the West Indies," No. 16. of Murray's Home and Colonial Library, 1845. The pedigrees of the Shedden and Lushington family would probably afford him some information upon the subject of his Query.
The Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell's second wife was a Miss Sibthorp, daughter of Coningsby Sibthorp of Canwick, Lincolnshire. By her he had one child, which died young. The Rev. George Sewell, William Luther Sewell, Robert Sewell, Attorney-General of Jamaica, and Lieut.-Col. Thomas Bailey Heath Sewell, were sons of the Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell by his first wife. Thomas Bermingham Daly Henry Sewell, son of the above Lieut.-Col. Thomas Bailey Heath Sewell, died March 20, 1852, æt. seventy-eight; and was buried in Harold's Cross Cemetery, near Dublin. Two daughters, the Duchess de Melfort, and Mrs. Richards, wife of the Rev. Solomon Richards, still survive him. (See Burke's Commoners, Supplement, name Cole of Marazion; and Burke's Dic. of Peerage and Baronetage, 1845, title Westmeath.)
W. R. D. S.
Blue Bell and Blue Anchor (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Your correspondent
. inquires the origin of the sign-boards of the "Blue Bell" and the "Blue Anchor?" I have always understood that the sign of the Bell, painted blue, was intended as a substitute for the little Scotch flower bearing the name of the blue-bell. I believe it is either the blue flower of the flax, or that of the wild blue hyacinth, which in shape much resembles a bell. It was probably much easier to draw the metallic figure than the flower, and hence its use by the primitive village artists. As to the "Blue Anchor," the anchor is the well-known symbol of Hope, and blue her emblematic colour. Hence this adaptation is less a solecism than that of the bell for the hyacinth.
W. W. E. T.
66. Warwick Square, Belgravia.
Sir Anthony Wingfield: Ashmans (Vol. viii., pp. 299. 376.).—The portrait of Sir Anthony Wingfield, "with the hand on the girdle," was, a few years ago, in the collection of Dawson Turner, Esq., at Yarmouth. A private etching of it was made by Mrs. Turner. The original was rescued from among the Letheringham pictures at Ashmans, where they appear to have been sadly neglected.
The late Robert Rede, Esq., whose father, Thomas Rede, purchased of Sir Edwin Rich, Bart., in 1805, the manor of Rose Hall and Ashmans, erected upon that estate the mansion called Ashmans. The place is not styled Ashmans Park, nor does its extent warrant such a designation.
This property, on the death of Mr. Robert Rede in 1822, passed to the late Rev. Robert Rede Cooper, who assumed the surname of Rede; and on his death, without male issue, the estate devolved upon his four daughters, Louisa Charlotte, wife of Francis Fowke, Esq.; Anne Cooper, wife of Robert Orford Buckley, Esq.; Mary Anne Sarah Bransby, wife of Charles Henry Tottenham, Esq.; and Miss Madeline Naunton Leman Rede. The property has not been sold. Its most interesting antiquarian feature is the old house called Rose (or more properly Roos) Hall, which belonged successively to the Colly, Suckling, Rich, and finally the Rede, families.
The pictures which remained at Ashmans were removed from thence within the last year; but whether any of those from the Letheringham gallery were among them, I know not.
S. W. Rex.
Beccles.
Derivation of the Word "Celt" (Vol. viii., pp. 344. 651.).—Job xix. 24. In the Cologne (Ely) edition of the Vulgate, 1679, the word is Celt. In Mareschal's Bible (Ludg. 1525), the word in the text is Celte, but the marginal note is "als Certe." In the Louvain (or Widen's) Bible (Antw., apud Viduam et Hæredes Joannis Stelsii, 1572, cum priv.), the word in the text is Certé. This latter being an authorised edition of the Vulgate, it seems probable that Celté, or Celt, must have been an error.
R. I. R.
The Religion of the Russians (Vol. viii., p. 582.).—Your correspondent J. S. A. has mentioned under the above head the worship of "gods," as he calls their pictures or images, by the Russians. I am sure he will find no such name or meaning given to them by the Russians in their writings; for an account of what they really believe and teach I would refer him to Mouravieff's History of the Russian Church; The Catechism of the Russian Church Translated; Harmony of their Doctrine with that of the English Church; all translated by Mr. Blackmore, late Chaplain to the Russian Company.
G. W.
French Translation of the "London Gazette" (Vol. vi., p. 223.).—A correspondent describes a French edition of the London Gazette, which he had met with of the date of May 6, 1703; and considering it as a curiosity, he wishes some reader would give an account of it. It has occurred to me to meet with a similar publication, which
appeared twenty years antecedent to the time above specified. It is entitled La Gazette de Londres, publiée avec Privilège, depuis le Jeudi 11, jusqu'au Lundi 15, Mai, 1682 (vieux style), No. 1621. It gives a very circumstantial detail of the loss of the "Gloucester" frigate, near the mouth of the Humber, in the night of Friday, May 5, 1682, when she was conveying the Duke of York (postquam James II.) to Scotland. Sir John Berry, who commanded the vessel, managed to remove the duke to another ship; but the Earl of Roxburgh, Lord O'Brien, the Laird of Hopetoun, Sir Joseph Douglas, Mr. Hyde (Lord Clarendon's brother), several of the duke's servants, and about 130 seamen, were lost in the "Gloucester." The pilot was either deficient in skill, or obstinate, and was to be brought to trial.[[1]]
With regard to the reason of publishing a French version of the Gazette, might it not be judged expedient (as the French was then spoken in every Court in Europe, and the English language almost unknown out of the British dominions) to publish this translation in French for foreign circulation? It is to be remarked that the copy I have met with is styled privileged?
D. N.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
[It will be remembered that Pepys accompanied the Duke of York on this excursion to Scotland, and was fortunately on board his own yacht when the "Gloucester" was wrecked. His graphic account of the disaster will be found in the Correspondence at the end of his Diary.—Ed.]
"Poscimus in vitâ," &c. (Vol. ix., p. 19.).—Allow me to correct a double error in this line into which Mr. Potter has fallen, though he has improved upon the line of Balliolensis. The true reading of it is—
"Poscimus in vitam pauca, nec ista diu."
In vitam (for life) is better Latin than "in vitâ;" and ista is more appropriate than "illa," in reference to things spoken unfavourably of.
C. DelaPryme.
Pickard Family (Vol. ix., p. 10.).—The Pickard family are not from Normandy, but from Piccardy. Doubtless, many a Le Norman, Le Gascoign, and Le Piccard settled in this Country during the Plantagenet connexion with those provinces.
P. P.
"Man proposes, but God disposes" (Vol. viii., pp. 411. 552.).—Piers Ploughman's Vision, quoted by your correspondent Mr. Thomas, proves that the above saying was used prior to the time of Thomas à Kempis; but in adding that it did not originate with the author of the De Imitatione, your correspondent overlooked the view which attributes that wonderful work to John Gerson, a Benedictine Monk, between the years 1220 and 1240; and afterwards Abbat of the monastery of St. Stephen. (Vide De Imit. curâ Joh. Hrabiéta, 1847, Præfat., viii. et seq.)
Can any of your correspondents give other early quotations from the De Imitatione? The search after any such seems to have been much overlooked in determining the date of that work.
H. P.
Lincoln's Inn.
General Whitelocke (Vol. viii., p. 621.).—In reply to G. L. S., I well remember this unfortunate officer residing at Clifton, near Bristol, up to about the year 1826; but as I then removed to a distant part of the kingdom, I cannot say where the rest of his life was spent. Although I was then but young, the lapse of years has not effaced from my memory the melancholy gloom of his countenance. If the information G. L. S. is seeking should be of importance, I cannot but think he may obtain it on the traces which have been given him. To which I may add, that up to a late period a son of the General, who was brought up to the church, held a living near Malton, Yorkshire; indeed, I believe he still holds it.
D. N.'s information, that General Whitelocke fixed his residence in Somersetshire, may probably be correct; but it has occurred to me as just possible that Clifton was the place pointed to, inasmuch as it is a vulgar error, almost universal, that Bristol (of which Clifton may now be said to be merely the west end) is in Somersetshire; whereas the fact is, that the greater part of that city, and the whole of Clifton, are on the Gloucestershire side of the Avon, there the boundary between the two counties.
I may mention, that in a late number of Tait's Magazine, there was a tale, half fiction and half fact, but evidently meant to appear the latter, in which the narrator states that he was in the ranks in General Whitelocke's army; and in that fatal affair, in which he was engaged, the soldiers found that the flints had been removed from all the muskets, so as to prevent their returning the enemy's fire! And this by order of their General. Is not this a fresh invention? If so, it is a cruel one!
M. H. R.
Non-jurors' Motto (Vol. viii., p. 621.).—"Cetera quis nescit" is from Ovid, Amorum, lib. i., Elegia v. v. 25.
W. J. Bernhard Smith.
Temple.
"The Red Cow" Sign, near Marlborough (Vol. viii., p. 569.).—Being informed that Cromwell's old carriages, with the "Red Cow" on them, were some years ago to be seen as curiosities at Manton near Marlborough; Cromwell being a descendant of a Williams from Glamorgan, and the cow being the coat of arms of Cowbridge; and the signs of inns in that county being frequently
named "The Red Cow;"—will any of your readers oblige with some account of the origin of "The Red Cow" as a sign; and what family has now a claim to such as the family arms?
Glywysydd.
Emblematic Meanings of Precious Stones (Vol. viii., p. 539.; Vol. ix. p. 37.).—To the list of works on the mystical and occult properties of precious stones given by Mr. W. Pinkerton, allow me to add the following, in which the means of judging of their commercial value, and their medicinal properties, are chiefly treated of:
"Le Parfaict Ioaillier, ov Histoire des Pierreries: ov sont amplement descrites, leur naissance, juste prix, moyen de les cognoistre, et se garder des contrefaites, Facultez medicinales, et proprietez curieuses. Composé par Anselme Bocce de Boot, &c.: Lyon, 1644, 12mo., pp. 788."
William Bates.
Birmingham.
Calves'-head Club (Vol. viii., p. 480.; Vol. ix., p. 15.).—A correspondent of the Cambridge Chronicle of Dec. 31 says, that in the churchyard of Soham, Cambridgeshire, there is "a monster-tomb surrounded by a lofty iron railing," with the following inscription in letters of a large size:
"Robert D'aye, Esquire, died April, 1770. Also Mary, Wife of Robert D'Aye, Esquire, Daughter of William Russell, Esquire, of Fordham Abbey, and Elizabeth his Wife, who was the only surviving Daughter of
Henry Cromwell,
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Son of
Oliver Cromwell,
Protector; died November 5, 1765, aged 73 years."
After stating that in the same tomb lie the bodies of the daughter of D'Aye, and his wife (ob. 1779), their grandson (1803), and great-grandson (1792), the writer adds that there is a tradition in Soham that, during the lifetime of Mrs. D'Aye, out of respect to the doings of Oliver Cromwell, on the anniversary of King Charles's martyrdom, a calf's head besmeared with blood was hoisted on a pole in front of the cot of the husband.
P. J. F. Gantillon.
Burial in an erect Posture (Vol. viii., pp. 5. 59. 233. 630.); Eulenspiegel (Vol. vii., p. 357., &c.).—The German rogue Eulenspiegel (or Howleglass, as Coplande renders it), of whose adventures "N. & Q." has had several notices, is another example of upright burial, as the following passage, translated by Roscoe, shows:
"Howleglass was buried in the year 1350, and his latter end was almost as odd and as eccentric as his life. For, as they were lowering him again into the grave, one of the ropes supporting the feet gave way, and left the coffin in an upright position, so that Howleglass was still upon his legs. Those who were present then said: 'Come, let us leave him as he is, for as he was like nobody else when he was alive, he is resolved to be as queer now he is dead.'"
Accordingly, they left Howleglass bolt upright, as he had fallen; and placing a stone over his head, on which was cut the figure of an owl with a looking-glass under his claws, the device of his name, they inscribed round it the following lines:
HOWLEGLASS'S EPITAPH.
"Here lies Howleglass, buried low,
His body is in the ground;
We warn the passenger that so
He move not this stone's bound.
In the year of Our Lord MCCCL."
His tomb, which was remaining thirty years ago, and may be now, is under a large lime-tree at Möllen, near Lubeck.
In Roscoe's German Novelists, vol. i. p. 141. et seq., there are references to several editions in various languages of the adventures of Thyll Eulenspiegel.
J. R. M., A.M.
Biting the Thumb (Vol. vi. pp. 149. 281. 616.).—The lower orders in Normandy and Britanny, and probably in other parts of France, when wishing to express the utmost contempt for a person, place the front teeth of the upper jaw between the nail and flesh of the thumb, the nail being turned inwards: and then, disengaging the thumb with a sudden jerk, exclaim, "I don't care that for you," or words of similar import. Is not this the action alluded to by Shakspeare and other writers, as "biting the thumb?"
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
Table-turning and Table-talking in Ancient Times (Vol. ix., p. 39.).—I have received from a correspondent in Berlin the subjoined translation of an article which was published in the Neue Preussische Zeitung of January 10:
"We have been informed that Professor Ranke has found out a passage in Ammianus Marcellinus by which it is unquestionably proved that table-turning was known in the east of the Roman Empire.
"The table-turners of those days were summoned as sorcerers before the Council, and the passage referred to appears to have been transcribed from the Protocol. The whole ceremony (modus movendi hic fuit) is very precisely described, and is similar to what we have so often witnessed within the last month; only that the table-turners, instead of sitting round the table, danced round it. The table-oracle likewise answered in verse, and showed a decided preference for hexameters. Being asked 'Who should be the next emperor?' the table answered 'Theod.' In consequence of this reply, the government caused a certain Theodorus to be put to death. Theodosius, however, became emperor.
"The table oracle, in common with other oracles, had a dangerous equivocal tendency."
I learn from my correspondent, that the passage in Ammianus Marcellinus, though brought into notice by Professor Ranke, was discovered by Professor August at this place (Cheltenham). I am unable to verify the following reference: see Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum, lib. xxix. (p. 177., Bipont. edit.), and Ib. lib. xxxi. (p. 285.)
John T. Graves.
Cheltenham.
The Bell Savage (Vol. vii., p. 523.).—Mr. James Edmeston is correct in rejecting the modern acceptation of the sign of the well-known inn on Ludgate Hill, as being La Belle Sauvage. Its proper name is "The Bell Savage," the bell being its sign, and Savage the name of its proprietor. But he is wrong in supposing that "Bell" in this case was the abbreviation of the name Isabella, and that the inn "was originally kept by one Isabella Savage." In a deed enrolled on the Close Roll of 1453, it is described as "Savage's Ynne, alias Le Belle on the Hope." The bell, as in many other ancient signs, was placed within a hoop. (See the Gentleman's Magazine for November last, p. 487.)
N.
Door-head Inscriptions (Vol. viii., p. 652.).—About the year 1825, I remember an old house known by the whimsical name of "Wise-in-Time," at Stoke-Bishop, near Bristol; over the front door of which there was the following inscription, carved on a stone tablet:
"Ut corpus animo,
Sic Domus corpori."
The house had the reputation of being haunted. I cannot say whether it is still in existence.
M. H. R.
Over the door of a house in Alnwick, in the street called Bondgate:
"That which your father
of old hath purchased and left
you to possess, do you dearly
hold to show his worthiness.
M. W. 1714."
Ceyrep.
Funeral Customs in the Middle Ages (Vol. vi., p. 433.).—In answer to your correspondent Mr. Peacock, as to whether a monument was usually erected over the burial-place of the heart, &c.? it is mentioned in Miss Strickland's Life of Queen Mary Stuart, that—
"An elegant marble pillar was erected by Mary as a tribute of her affection, to mark the spot where the heart of Francis II. was deposited in Orleans Cathedral."
L. B. M.
Greek Epigram (Vol. viii., p. 622.).—The epigram, or rather epigrams, desired by your correspondent G. E. Frere are most probably those which stand as the twelfth and thirteenth in the ninth division of the Anthologia Palatina (vol. ii. p. 61., ed. Tauchnitz). Their subjects are identical with that quoted by you, which stands as the eleventh in the same collection. The two best lines of Epigram XIII. are—
"Ἀνέρα τις λιπόγυιον ὑπὲρ νώτοιο λιπαυγὴς
Ἦγε, πὸδας χρήσας, ὄμματα χρησάμενος."
P. J. F. Gantillon.
Mackey's "Theory of the Earth" (Vol. viii. pp. 468. 565.).—
"Died, on Saturday se'night, at Doughty's Hospital in this city, Samson Arnold Mackey, aged seventy-eight years. The deceased was born at Haddiscoe, and was a natural son of Captain Samson Arnold of Lowestoft. He has been long known to many of the scientific persons of Norwich, and was remarkable for the originality of his views upon the very abstruse subject of mythological astronomy, in which he exhibited great sagacity, and maintained his opinions with extraordinary pertinacity. He received but a moderate education; was put apprentice to a shoemaker at the age of eleven, served his time, and for many years afterwards was in the militia. He did not again settle in Norwich until 1811, when he hired the attic storey of a small house in St. Paul's, where he followed his business and pursued his favourite studies. About 1822 he published his first part of Mythological Astronomy, and gave lectures to a select few upon the science in general. In 1825 he published his Theory of the Earth, and several pamphlets upon the antiquity of the Hindoos. His room, in which he worked, took his meals, slept, and gave his lectures, was a strange exhibition of leather, shoes, wax, victuals, sketches of sphinxes, zodiacs, planispheres; together with orreries of his own making, geological maps and drawings, illustrative of the Egyptian and Hindoo Mythologies. He traced all the geological changes to the different inclinations of the earth's axis to the plane of its orbit, and was fully persuaded that about 420,000 years ago, according to his theory, when the poles of the earth were last in that position, the geological phenomena now witnessed were produced. From his singular habits, he was of course looked upon with wonder by his poor neighbours, and those better informed were inclined to annoy him as to his religious opinions. He had a hard struggle of late years to obtain subsistence, and his kind friend and patron the late Mr. Moneyment procured for him the asylum in which he died. He held opinions widely different to most men; but it must not be forgotten that, humble as he was, his scientific acquirements gained him private interviews with the late Duke of Sussex, the Duke of Somerset, and many learned men in the metropolis."
The above is taken from the Norwich Mercury of August 12, 1843.
Trivet Allcock.
Norwich.
"Homo Unius Libri" (Vol. viii., p. 569.).—D'Israeli devotes a chapter, in the second series of his
Curiosities of Literature, to "The Man of One Book." He says:
"A predilection for some great author, among the vast number which must transiently occupy our attention, seems to be the happiest preservative for our taste ... He who has long been intimate with one great author will always be found a formidable antagonist.... The old Latin proverb reminds us of this fact, Cave ab homine unius libri, Be cautious of the man of one book."
and he proceeds to remark, that "every great writer appears to have a predilection for some favourite author," and illustrates it by examples.
Eirionnach.
Muffs worn by Gentlemen (Vol. viii., p. 353.).—In the amusing quarrel between Goldsmith's old friend and his cousin in St. James's Park, "Cousin Jeffrey," says Miss, "I knew we should have the eyes of the Park upon us, with your great wig so frizzled and yet so beggarly." "I could," adds Mr. Jeffrey, "have patiently borne a criticism on all the rest of my equipage; but I had always a peculiar veneration for my muff." (Essays, p. 263., edit. 1819.)
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.