Replies to Minor Queries.
Books on Bells (Vol. ix., p. 240.).—Add to Mr. Ellacombe's curious list of books on bells the following:
"Duo Vota consultiva, unum de Campanis, alterum de Cœmeteriis. In quibus de utriusque antiquitate, consecratione, usu et effectibus plenè agitur, pluraque scitu dignissima ad propositi casus, aliorumque in praxi, hac de re occurrentium decisionem, non injucunde adducuntur. Auctore D. Augustino Barbosa, Protonotario Apostolico, Eminentissimorum DD. Cardinalium Sacræ Congregationis Indicis Consultore, Abbate de Mentrestido, ac insignis Ecclesiæ Vimarensis Thesaurario majore." [4to., no place nor date.]
I have here given the full title of a pamphlet of 112 pages, exclusive of title, which I purchased about twenty years since of Rodd, the honourable and intelligent bookseller of Great Newport Street. It came from the library of Professor J. F. Vandevelde of Louvaine. Some former possessor has written before the title, "Quamvis tantum libellus tamen rarissimus," and it is, perhaps, the only copy in this country. It is not in the Bodleian catalogue, nor was it in Mr. Douce's library.
P. B.
Medal in Honour of Chevalier St. George (Vol. ix., p. 105).—A. S. inquires about a medal supposed to have been struck in honour of Prince James (Chevalier St. George); but his account of it is so vague, that I am unable to answer his question. If he will describe the medal, or state the grounds upon which he supposes such a medal to have existed, I will endeavour to solve his doubts.
H.
Dean Swift's Suspension (Vol. ix., p. 244).—I am surprised that Abhba should express a belief that the circumstances of Swift's college punishment have not been noticed by any of his biographers, when every syllable of his communication is detailed (with original documentary proofs) in Dr. Barrett's Early Life of Swift, and is in substance repeated in Sir Walter Scott's Life, prefixed to Swift's works.
C.
"Vanitatem observare" (Vol. ix., p. 247).—I am sorry to have given your correspondent F. C. H. a wrong reference, and I am not quite sure about the right one; but I think it is to a Latin translation of the Council of Laodicea, A.D. 366, c. 36.
R. H. G.
Ballina Castle, Mayo (Vol. viii., p. 411.).—I have no idea to what place O. L. R. G. can allude as Ballina Castle; there is no place, ancient or modern, about that town, that has that name; and the only place with the title of castle in the neighborhood, is a gentleman's modern residence of no great pretensions either as to size or beauty. He perhaps alludes to Belleck Abbey, which is a fine building; but, notwithstanding its title, is of still more modern date than the so-called castle. I am not aware of any recent historical or descriptive work on the county generally. Cæsar Otway, Maxwell, and the Saxon in Ireland, have confined their descriptions to the "Wild West;" and the crowd of tourists appear to follow in their track, leaving the far finer central and eastern districts untouched. The first-named tourist appears to have projected another work on the county, but never published it.
J. S. Warden.
Dorset (Vol. ix., p. 247.).—Nares gives various spellings, as douset, dowset, doulcet, but in all equally derived from dulcet, "sweet;" and Halliwell has "doucet drinkes;" so that the great Manchester philosopher had probably been indulging in a too copious libation of some sweet wine, which he styles "foolish Dorset."
F. R. R.
Dorchester beer had acquired a very great name, and was sent about England. Out of the shire it was called "Dorset Beer," or "Dorset." That town has lost its fame for brewing beer.
G. R. L.
Judicial Rank hereditary (Vol. viii., p. 384.).—Such a list as your correspondent gives is not easily paralleled, it is true, in the judicial annals of England or Ireland; but in Scotland he might have found cases in considerable number to equal or surpass those which he mentions: for instance, in the family of Dundas of Arniston, respecting which I find the following note in the Quarterly Review, vol. lvii. p. 462.:
"The series is so remarkable, that we subjoin the details:—Sir James Dundas, judge of the Court of Session, 1662; Robert Dundas, son of Sir James, judge of the Court of Session from 1689 to 1727; Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, M.P. for the county of Edinburgh, judge of the Court of Session 1737, Lord President 1748, died in 1753 (father of Henry, Viscount Melville); Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, and member for the county, Lord President from 1760 to 1787; Robert Dundas, son of the last, successively Solicitor-General and Lord Advocate, Lord Chief Baron from 1801 to 1819; all these judges, except the Chief Baron, had been known in Scotland by the title of Lord Arniston. They were, we need hardly add, all men of talents, but the two Lords President Arniston were of superior eminence in legal and constitutional learning."
The Hope family, and some other Scottish ones, present as numerous a display of legal dignitaries as the above; but the hereditary succession from father to son is perhaps not equalled, certainly not excelled, in any age or country. In fact, let the opponents of hereditary honours say what they will, there is no description of talent except the poetical that has not frequently remained in the same family for several generations unabated.
J. S. Warden.
Tolling the Bell on leaving Church (Vol. ix., p. 125.).—In reply to J. H. M.'s Query, I beg to state that the chief reason for tolling the bell while the congregation is leaving church, is to
inform the parishioners who have not been able to attend in the morning, divine service will be celebrated in the afternoon. In scattered villages, or where a single clergyman had to perform the duties of more than one church, this was formerly quite requisite. At a neighbouring village of Tytherly, the custom is still observed, though no longer necessary.
W. S.
There is little doubt that priests in olden times were fond of hot dinners, and the bell at the conclusion of the service must have been intended as a warning to their cooks (and many others) to make ready the repast. This is merely a supposition; but I shall cherish the idea in the want of a better explanation. The custom has been, until very lately, observed in our little country church. There are other customs which are still kept up, namely, that of tolling the church bell at eight o'clock on Sunday morning, and again at nine, as well as that of ringing a small bell when the clergyman enters the reading-desk.
E. W. J.
Crawley, Winchester.
I believe that the custom of tolling the bell when the congregation is leaving the church, is to notify that there will be another service in the day. This is certainly the reason in this parish (in Leicestershire); for after the second service the bell is not tolled, nor if, on any account, there is no afternoon service.
S. S. S.
When I was Lecturer of St. Andrew's, Enfield, the bells rang out a short peculiar peal immediately after Sunday Morning Prayer. I always thought it was probably designed to give notice to approaching funeral processions that the church service was over, as in the country burials—usually there always on Sundays—immediately follow the celebration of morning service.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
I beg to inform your correspondent J. H. M. that this is often done at Bray, near Maidenhead.
Newburiensis.
The custom observed at Olney Church after the morning service, I have heard, is to apprize the congregation of a vesper service to follow.
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.
Archpriest in the Diocese of Exeter (Vol. ix., p. 185.).—Besides the archpriest of Haccombe, there were others in the same diocese; but, to quote the words of Dr. Oliver, in his Monasticon, Dioc. Exon., p. 287.,
"He would claim no peculiar exemption from the jurisdiction of his ordinary, nor of his archdeacon; he was precisely on the same footing as the superiors of the archpresbyteries at Penkivell, Beerferris, and Whitchurch, which were instituted in this diocese in the early part of the fourteenth century. The foundation deed of the last was the model in founding that of Haccombe."
In the same work copies of the foundation deeds of the archipresbytery of Haccombe and Beer are printed.
One would suppose that wherever there was a collegiate body of clergymen established for the purposes of the daily and nightly offices of the church, as chantry priests, that one of them would be considered the superior, or archipresbyter.
Godolphin, in Rep. Can., 56., says that by the canon law, he that is archipresbyter is also called dean. Query, Would he then be other than "Primus inter pares?"
Prince, in his Worthies, calls the Rector of Haccombe "a kind of chorepiscopus;" and in a note refers to Dr. Field Of the Church, lib. v. c. 37.
With regard to the Vicar of Bibury (quoted by Mr. Sansom, "N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 185.), he founded his exemption from spiritual jurisdiction, I believe, upon his holding a Peculiar, and not as an archpriest.
H. T. Ellacombe.
Clyst St. George.
Dogs in Monumental Brasses (Vol. ix., p. 126.).—I have always understood (but I cannot say on any authority) that the dogs at the feet of monumental effigies of knights were symbolical of fidelity. That signification would certainly be very appropriate in monuments of crusaders, where, I believe, they are generally found. And I would suggest to Mr. Alford, that the idea might not have been confined to fidelity in keeping the vow of the Cross, but might have been extended to other religious vows: in which case the ladies undoubtedly might sometimes claim the canine appendage to their effigies. The lion might perhaps symbolise courage, in which ladies are not commonly supposed to excel.
M. H. R.
The Last of the Palæologi (Vol. v., pp. 173. 280. 357.).—The following scrap of information may be useful to L. L. L. and others, if too long a time has not gone by since the subject was under discussion. In The List of the Army raised under the Command of his Excellency Robert Earle of Essex, &c.: London, printed for John Partridge, 1642, of which I have seen a manuscript copy, the name of Theo. Palioligus occurs as Lieutenant in "The Lord Saint John's Regiment."
Edward Peacock.
Bottesford Moors, Kirton in Lindsey.
Long Names (Vol. viii., pp. 539. 651.).—Allow me to add the following polysyllabic names to those supplied by your correspondents:—Llanvairpwllgwyngyll, a living in the diocese of Bangor, became vacant in March, 1850, by the death of its incumbent, the Rev. Richard Prichard, æt.
ninety-three. The labour of writing the name of his benefice does not seem to have shortened his days.
The following are the names of two employés in the finance department at Madrid:—Don Epifanio Mirurzururdundua y Zengotita; Don Juan Nepomuceno de Burionagonatotorecagogeazcoecha.
There was, until 1851, a major in the British army named Teyoninhokarawen (one single name).
G. L. S.
Elizabeth Seymour (Vol. ix., p. 174.).—According to Collins,—
"Sir E. Seymour, first baronet, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Arthur Champeirion, of Dartington, co. Devon, by whom he had, besides other issue, a daughter Elizabeth, who married George Cary, of Cockington, co. Devon. Sir Edward Seymour, third baronet, married Anne, daughter of Sir William Portman, and left, besides sons, a daughter, also named Elizabeth, who married Sir Joseph Tredenham, of Tregony in Cornwall, Knight."
These two ladies, whose similarity of name probably caused the confusion, must have lived at least half a century apart.
A. B.