Minor Queries.
Original Words of old Scotch Airs.—Can any one tell me where the original words of many fine old Scotch airs are to be found? The wretched verses of Allan Ramsay, and others of the same school, are adapted to the "Yellow-haired Laddie," "Ettrick Banks," "The Bush aboon Traquair," "Mary Scott," and hundreds of others. There must exist old words to many of these airs, which at least will possess some local characteristics, and be a blessed change from the "nymphs" and "swains," the "Stephens" and "Lythias," which now pollute and degrade them. Any information on this subject will be received most thankfully. I particularly wish to recover some old words to the air of "Mary Scott." The only verse I remember is this,—
"Mary's black, and Mary's white,
Mary is the king's delight;
The king's delight, and the prince's marrow,
Mary Scott, the Flower of Yarrow."
L. M. M. R.
Royal Salutes.—When the Queen arrives at any time in Edinburgh after sunset, it has been
remarked that the Castle guns are never fired in salute, in consequence, it is said, of the existence of a general order which forbids the firing of salutes after sunset. Is there such an order in existence? I would farther ask why twenty-one was the number fixed for a royal salute?
S.
"The Negro's Complaint."—Who was the author of this short poem, to be found in all the earlier collection of poetry for the use of schools? It begins thus:
"Wide o'er the tremulous sea,
The moon spread her mantle of light;
And the gale gently dying away,
Breath'd soft on the bosom of night."
Henry Stephens.
"The Cow Doctor."—Who is the author of the following piece?—The Cow Doctor, a Comedy in Three Acts, 1810. Dedicated to the Rev. Thomas Pennington, Rector of Thorley, Herts, and Kingsdown, Kent; author of Continental Excursions, &c.
This satire is addressed to the Friends of Vaccination.[[1]]
S. N.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
On the title-page of a copy of this comedy now before us is written, "With the author's compliments to Dr. Lettsom;" and on the fly-leaf occurs the following riddle in MS.:
"Who is that learned man, who the secret disclos'd
Of a book that was printed before 'twas composed?
Answer.
He is harder than iron, and as soft as a snail,
Has the head of a viper, and a file in his tail."—Ed.
Soomarokoff's "Demetrius."—Who translated the following drama from the Russian?
Demetrius, a Tragedy, 8vo., 1806, translated by Eustaphiere. This piece, which is a translation from a tragedy of Soomarokoff, one of the most eminent dramatic authors of Russia, is said to be the first (and I think it is still the only) Russian drama of which there is an English translation.
S. N.
Polygamy.—1. Do the Jews at present, in any country, practise polygamy? 2. If not, when and why was that practice discontinued among them? 3. Is there any religious sect which forbids polygamy, besides the Christians (and the Jews, if the Jews do forbid it)? 4. Was Polygamy permitted among the early Christians? Paul's direction to Timothy, that a bishop should be "the husband of one wife," seems to show that it was; though I am aware that the phrase has been interpreted otherwise. 5. On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture.
Stylites.
Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English Letters.—I would be glad to know the earliest date in which the Irish language has been discovered inscribed on stone or in manuscript; also the earliest date in which the Anglo-Saxon, Longobardic, and Old English letter has been known in England and Ireland.
E. F.
Youghal.
Description of Battles.—Judging from my own experience, historical details of battles are comparatively unintelligible to non-military readers. Now that, unhappily, we shall probably be compelled to "hear of battles," would not some of our enterprising publishers do well to furnish to the readers of history and of the bulletins, a popular "Guide to the Battle Field," drawn up some talented military officer? It must contain demonstratively clear diagrams, and such explanations of all that needs to be known, as an officer would give, on the spot, to his nonprofessional friend. The effects of eminences, rivers, roads, woods, marshes, &c., should be made plain; in short, nothing should be omitted which is necessary to render an account of a battle intelligible to ordinary readers, instead of being, as is too often the case, a mere chaotic assemblage of words.
Thinks I to Myself.
Do Martyrs always feel Pain?—Is it not possible that an exalted state of feeling—approaching perhaps to the mesmeric state—may be attained, which will render the religious or political martyr insensible to pain? It would be agreeable to think that the pangs of martyrdom were ever thus alleviated. It is certainly possible, by a strong mental effort, to keep pain in subjection during a dental operation. A firmly fixed tooth, under a bungling operator, may be wrenched from the jaw without pain to the patient, if he will only determine not to feel. At least, I know of one such case, and that the effort was very exhausting. In the excitement of battle, wounds are often not felt. One would be glad to hope that Joan of Arc was insensible to the flames which consumed her: and that the recovered nerve which enabled Cranmer to submit his right hand to the fire, raised him above suffering.
Alfred Gatty.
Carronade.—What is the derivation of the term carronade, applied to pieces of ordnance shorter and thicker in the chamber than usual? Here the idea is that they took their name from the Carron foundries, where they were cast. In the early years of the old war-time, there were carron pieces or carron guns, and only some considerable time thereafter carronades. How does this stand? and is there any likelihood of the folk story being true?
C. D. Landry.
Greenock.
Darcy, of Platten, co. Meath.—It is on record that, in the year 1486, the citizens of Dublin, encouraged by the Earl of Kildare and the Archbishop, received Lambert Simnel, and actually crowned him King of England and Ireland in Christ's Church; and that to make the solemnity more imposing, they not only borrowed a crown for the occasion from the head of the image of the Virgin that stood in the church dedicated to her service at Dame's Gate, but carried the young impostor on the shoulders of "a monstrous man, one Darcy, of Platten, in the county of Meath."
Did this "monstrous man" leave any descendants? And if so, is there any representative, and where, at the present day? Platten has long since passed into other hands.
Abhba.
Dorset.—In Byrom's MS. Journal, about to be printed for the Chetham Society, I find the following entry:
"May 18, 1725. I found the effect of last night drinking that foolish Dorset, which was pleasant enough, but did not at all agree with me, for it made me very stupid all day."
Query, What is Dorset?
R. P.
"Vanitatem observare."—Can any of your readers explain the following extract from the Council of Ancyra, A.D. 314? I quote from a Latin translation:
"Mulieribus quoque Christianis non liceat in suis lanificiis vanitatem observare: sed Deum invocent adjutorem, qui eis sapientiam texendi donavit."
What is meant by "vanitatem observare?"
R. H. G.
King's Prerogative.—A writer in the Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxiv. p. 77., asserts, on the authority of Blackstone (but he does not refer to the volume and page of the Commentaries, and I have in vain sought for the passages), that it is to this day a branch of the king's prerogative, at the death of every bishop, to have his kennel of hounds, or a compensation in lieu of it. Does the writer mean, and is it the fact, that if a bishop die without having a kennel of hounds, his executors are to pay the king a compensation in lieu thereof? And if it is, what is the amount of that compensation? Is it merely nominal? I can understand the king claiming a bishop's kennel of hounds or compensation in feudal times, when bishops were hunters (vide Raine's Auckland Castle, a work of great merit, and abounding with much curious information); but to say, to this day it is a branch of the king's prerogative, is an insult alike to our bishops and to religious practices in the nineteenth century. Of hunting bishops in feudal times, I beg to refer your readers, in addition to Mr. Raine's work, to an article in the fifty-eighth volume of the Quarterly Review, p. 433., for an extract from a letter of Peter of Blois to Walter, Bishop of Rochester, who at the age of eighty was a great hunter. Peter was shocked at his lordship's indulgence in so unclerical a sport. It is obvious neither Peter nor the Pope could have heard of the hunting Bishops of Durham.
Fra. Mewburn.
Quotations in Cowper.—Can any of your correspondents indicate the sources of the following quotations, which occur in Cowper's Letters (Hayley's Life and Letters of Cowper, 4 vols., 1812)? In vol. iii. p. 278. the following verses, referring to the Atonement, are cited:
"Τοῦ δὲ καθ' ἁῖμα ῥέεν καὶ σοὶ καὶ ἐμοὶ καὶ ἀδελφοῖς
Ἡμετέροις, αὐτοῦ σωζομένοις θανάτῳ."
In vol. iv. p. 240. it is stated that Twining applied to Pope's translation of Homer the Latin verse—
"Perfida, sed quamvis perfida, cara tamen."
L.
Cawley the Regicide.—Mr. Waylen, in his History of Marlborough, just published, shows that Cawley of Chichester, the regicide, has in Burke's Commoners been confounded with Cawley of Burderop, in Wiltshire; and he adds, "the fact that a son of the real regicide (the Rev. John Cawley) became a rector of the neighbouring parish of Didcot," &c. has helped to confound the families. May I ask what is the authority for stating that the Rev. J. Cawley was a son of the regicide?
C. T. R.