Minor Queries with Answers.
Branks, or Gossips' Bridles.—Walton Church contains one of those strange instruments with which our ancestors used to punish those dames who were too free with the use of their tongues. They were called hanks [branks], or gossips' bridles, and were intended to inclose the head, being fastened behind by a padlock, and having attached to it a small piece of iron which literally "held the tongue." Thus accoutred, the unhappy culprit was marched through the village till she gave unequivocal signs of repentance and humiliation. Can any one give some account of this curious instrument?
George Hodges.
Oxford.
[Fosbroke says that "the brank is a sugar-loaf cap made of iron hooping, with a cross at top, and a flat piece projecting inwards to lie upon the tongue. It was put upon the head of scolds, padlocked behind, and a string annexed, by which a man led them through the towns." (See also Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 108., Bohn's edition.) Engravings of them will be found in Plot's History of Staffordshire, p. 389., and in Brands History of Newcastle, vol. ii. p. 192. In the Historical Description of the Tower of London, p. 54., edit. 1774, occurs the following libellous squib on the fair sex: "Among the curiosities of the Tower is a collar of torment, which, say your conductors, used formerly to be put about the women's neck that cuckolded their husbands, or scolded them when they came home late; but that custom is left off now-a-days, to prevent quarrelling for collars, there not being smiths enough to make them, as most married men are sure to want them at one time or another." Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man, p. 80., thus notices this instrument of punishment: "I know nothing in the Manx statutes or punishments in particular but this, which is, that if any person be convicted of uttering a scandalous report, and cannot make good the assertion, instead of being fined or imprisoned, they are sentenced to stand in the market-place, on a sort of scaffold erected for that purpose, with their tongue in a noose made of leather, which they call a bridle, and having been exposed to the view of the people for some time, on the taking off this machine, they are obliged to say three times, 'Tongue, thou hast lyed.'">[
Not caring a Fig for anything.—What is the origin of this expression?
J. H. Chateau.
Philadelphia.
[Nares informs us that the real origin of this expression may be found in Stevens and Pineda's Dictionaries under Higa; and, in fact, the same phrase and allusion pervaded all modern Europe: as, Far le fiche, Ital.; Faire la figue, Fr.; Die Feigen weisen, Germ., De vÿghe setten, Dutch. (See Du Cange, in Ficha.) Johnson says, "To fig, in Spanish, higas dar, is to insult by putting the thumb between the fore and middle finger. From this Spanish custom we yet say in contempt, A fig for you." To this explanation Mr. Douce has added the following note: "Dr. Johnson has properly explained this phrase; but it should be added, that it is of Italian origin. When the Milanese revolted against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, they placed the Empress his wife upon a mule with her head towards the tail, and ignominiously expelled her their city. Frederick afterwards besieged and took the place, and compelled every one of his prisoners, on pain of death, to take with his teeth a fig from the posteriors of a mule. The party was at the same time obliged to repeat to the executioner the words Ecco la fica. From this circumstance far la fica became a term of derision, and was adopted by other nations. The French say likewise, faire la figue.">[
B. C. Y.—Can you give me any information respecting the famous B. C. Y. row, as it was called, which occurred about fifty years ago? A newspaper was started expressly to explain the meaning of the letters, which said it was "Beware of the Catholic Yoke;" but it was wrong.
H. Y.
[These "No-Popery" hieroglyphics first appeared in the reign of Charles II. during the debates on the Exclusion Bill, and were chalked over all parts of Whitehall and the Houses of Parliament. O B. C. Y. was then the inscription, which meant, "O Beware of Catholic York." On their re-appearance in 1809 the Y. was much taller than the B. C.; but the use and meaning at this time of these initials still remains a query.]
Earl Nugent's Poems.—I would be much obliged for any information relating to the poems written by Robert, afterwards Earl Nugent, between the years 1720 and 1780. It is supposed that they were first published in some periodical, and afterwards appeared in a collected form.
James F. Ferguson.
Dublin.
[A volume of his poems was published anonymously by Dodsley, and entitled Odes and Epistles; containing an Ode on his own Conversion from Popery: London, 1739, 8vo., 2nd edit. There are also other pieces by him in Dodsley's Collection, and the New Foundling Hospital for Wit. He also published Faith, a Poem; a strange attempt to overturn the Epicurean doctrine by that of the Trinity; and Verses to the Queen; with a New Year's Gift of Irish Manufacture, 1775, 4to.]
Huntbach MSS.—Can you tell me where the Huntbach MSS. now lie? Shaw, in his History of Staffordshire, drew largely from them.
Ursus.
[Dr. Wilkes's Collections, with those of Fielde, Huntbach, Loxdale, and Shaw, as also the engraved plates and drawings, published and unpublished, relative to the History of Staffordshire, were, in the year 1820, in the possession of William Hamper, F.S.A., Deritend House, Birmingham.]
Holy Loaf Money.—In Dr. Whitaker's Whalley, p. 149., mention is made of holy loaf money. What is meant by this?
T. I. W.
[This seems to be some ecclesiastical due payable on Hlaf-mass, or Loaf-mass, commonly called Lammas-Day (August 1st). See Somner and Junius. It was called Loaf or Bread-mass, because it was a day of oblation of grain, or of bread made of new wheat; and was also the holiday of St. Peter ad Vincula, when Peter-pence were paid. Du Cange likewise mentions the Panis benedictus, and that money was given by the recipients of it on the following occasion:—"Since the catechumens," says he, "before baptism could neither partake of the Divine Mysteries, nor consequently of the Eucharist, a loaf was consecrated and given to them by the priest, whereby they were prepared for receiving the body of Christ.">[
St. Philip's, Bristol.—Can you inform me when the Church of St. Philip, Bristol, was made parochial, and in what year the Priory of Benedictines, mentioned by William de Worcester in connexion with this church, was dissolved, and when founded?
E. W. Godwin.
[Neither Dugdale nor Tanner could discover any notices of this priory, except the traditionary account preserved in William of Worcester, p. 20.: "—— juxta Cimiterium et Ecclesiam Sancti Philippi, ubi quondam ecclesia religiosorum et Prioratus scituatur." It was probably a cell to the Tewkesbury monastery; and the historians of Bristol state, that the exact time when it became parochial is not known; but it was very early, being mentioned in Gaunt's deeds before the year 1200; and, like St. James's, became a parish church through the accession of inhabitants.]
Foreign Universities.—Is there any history of the University of Bologna? or where can be found any account of the foundation and constitution of the foreign universities in general?
J. C. H. R.
[Our correspondent will find some account of the foreign universities, especially of Bologna, in the valuable article "Universities," Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. xxi., with numerous references to other works containing notices of them. Consult also "A Discovrse not altogether vnprofitable nor vnpleasant for such as are desirous to know the Situation and Customes of Forraine Cities without trauelling to see them: containing a Discovrse of all those Citties which doe flourish at this Day priuiledged Vniuersities. By Samuel Lewkenor. London, 1594, 4to.">[