Replies to Minor Queries.
Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy" (Vol. ix., p. 191.).—Dr. Rimbault may perhaps be interested in hearing that some years ago I urged upon two London publishers the desirableness of bringing out a new edition of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, but they both declined to undertake the work. I then resolved to publish myself the latter part of the work (on Religious Melancholy), and made known my intention in. "N. & Q.," in the hope of obtaining some casual notes and observations; but in this also I was disappointed. As, however, my intention is only suspended for the present, not abandoned, I shall be obliged by any assistance that Dr. Rimbault, or any of your readers, can afford me. Can any one correct the following list of editions of the Anatomy of Melancholy?
| 1621. 4to. Oxford. 1624. fol. Oxford. 1628. fol. Oxford. 1632. fol. Oxford. 1638. fol. 1651-2. fol. 1660. fol. London. 1676. fol. 1728. fol. |
1738. fol. 1800. fol. 2 vols. 1804. 8vo. 2 vols. 1806. 8vo. 2 vols. 1827. 8vo. 2 vols. 1829. 8vo. 2 vols. 1837. 8vo. 2 vols. 1839. 8vo. 1845. 8vo. |
If Watt's Biblioth. be correct, the last folio edition was not that of 1676 (see "N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 121.); but on this and other similar points I shall be glad to hear Dr. Rimbault's opinion.
M. D.
Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta (Vol. viii., p. 99.).—When making out the list of English Royal Letters, which has already appeared in "N. & Q.," we were not aware that any others besides those which we recorded at the time were to be found in the Record Office. Since then Dr. Vella has examined other manuscript volumes, and, fortunately, brought to light nine more autograph letters, to which, according to their dates, we hope to call your attention hereafter. They are as follows:
| Writer. | Date. | In what Language written. | To whom addressed. |
| Charles II. | 28th November, 1670. | Latin. | Nicholas Cotoner. |
| Ditto | 12th February, 1674. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| Ditto | 19th May, 1675. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| Ditto | 28th October, 1676. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| Ditto | 2nd November, 1678. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| James II.* | 24th August, 1685. | Ditto. | Gregory Caraffa. |
| Ditto | 10th day of Jan. 1686-7. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| Ditto | 9th April, 1687. | Ditto. | Ditto. |
| George I. | 5th May, 1715. | Ditto. | Raymond Perellos. |
* The letters of James II. are countersigned "Comes de Sunderland,"[[7]] and that of George I. "I. Stanhope."
In our previous list an error occurred, which we would wish to correct. The last letter of Henry VIII. was addressed to the Grand Master Pierre Du Pont, and not to Nicholas Cotoner, who ascended the Maltese throne in 1663. The translation of H. M.'s congratulatory letter to Du Pont, on his election, we trust you have already received. We referred in our former Note to a letter of Charles II., under date of "the last day of November, 1674," and since that came to our observation we have seen an exact copy bearing the autograph of the king. This circumstance leads us to inquire at what period, and with what English monarch, the custom of sending duplicate letters originated? In the time of James II. it would appear to have been followed, as one of H. M.'s letters is thus marked in his own handwriting.
We would state, before closing this Note, that the letters of James II. are the earliest in date of any English royal letters filed away at this island which are countersigned, or bear the address of the Grand Master at the foot of the first page, on the left-hand side, as is customary in writing official letters to government officers at the present time.
Will any of your correspondents kindly inform us with what English monarch the custom
originated of having his letters countersigned by a minister, and of placing the address within the letter, as is the case in those of James II. to which we have just referred?
William Winthrop.
La Valetta, Malta.
Footnote 7:[(return)]
Robert Spencer, second Earl of Sunderland, K.G., was principal Secretary of State during the latter years of Charles II. and the whole reign of James II., and as such, when countersigning a royal letter, he placed at the end of his signature the letter P.
Prince Charles' Attendants in Spain (Vol. ix., p. 272.).—In a small 4to. MS. in my possession, entitled "A Narrative of Count Gondomar's Proceedings in England," is the following list of "The Prince's Servants" who accompanied him in his Journey into Spain:
| "Master of the Horse, Lord Andover. | |||
| Master of the Ward, Lord Compton. | |||
| Chamberlain, Lord Carey. | |||
| Comptroller, Lord Vaughan. | |||
| Secretary, Sir Francis Cottington. | |||
| Gentleman of the Bed-chamber, Sir Robert Carr. | |||
| |||
| Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber, Sir John North. | |||
| |||
| Grooms of the Bed-chamber, five. | |||
| Pages, three. | |||
| Chaplains, two." |
Edward F. Rimbault.
Churchill's Grave (Vol. ix., p. 122.).—The fact that Churchill's grave is at Dover, is not an obscure one. It was visited by Byron, who wrote a poem on the subject, which will be found in his Works. This poem is remarkable, among other things, from the circumstance that it is written in avowed and serious imitation of the style of Wordsworth.
M. T. W.
"Cissle" (Vol. ix., p. 148.).—If A. refers to Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia, he will find:
"Sizzle, v. To dry and shrivel up with hissing, by the action of fire or some greasy or juicy substance."
C. R. M.
Contributors to Knight's "Quarterly Magazine" (Vol. ix., p. 103.).—I can answer one of E. H.'s inquiries. Gerard Montgomery was the assumed name of the Rev. J. Moultrie. It was originally adopted by him in that most brilliant of all school periodicals, The Etonian, and the mask was thrown off in the list of contributors given at the end of the third volume. In The Etonian it was attached to "Godiva," the poem which attracted the warm admiration of Gifford of the Quarterly Review, a man not prodigal of praise, and the "Godiva" of Moultrie may still fearlessly unveil its charms beside the "Godiva" of Tennyson. His longest poem in Knight's Quarterly was "La Belle Tryamour," which has since been republished in a volume of collected poems with his name to them, many of which are strikingly unlike it in character. The gay Etonian is now the vicar of Rugby; and the story of his experiences has been told by himself with a singular charm in his "Dream of a Life."
Strange it is that the contributions of Macaulay to Knight's Quarterly Magazine should not, ere now, have been reprinted. Some few of them have been so, and are become familiar as household words on both sides of the Atlantic. The others are as obscure as if still in manuscript. What does the public at large know of the "Fragments of a Roman Tale," or the "Scenes from Athenian Revels;" in which the future historian tried his powers as a romancer and a dramatist—in the one case bringing before us Cæsar and Catiline, in the other Alcibiades and his comrades. There are essays too by Macaulay in Knight's Quarterly Magazine of a lighter character than those in the Edinburgh Review, but not less brilliant than any in that splendid series which now takes rank as one of the most valuable contributions of the present age to the standard literature of England. It would not be one of the least weighty arguments against the extended law of copyright, which Macaulay succeeded in passing, that the public is now deprived of the enjoyment of such treasures as these by the too nice fastidiousness of their author. As on two former occasions, we suppose that they are likely to be first collected in Boston or New York, and that London will afterwards profit by the rebound.
M. T. W.
"La Langue Pandras" (Vol. ii., pp. 376. 403.).—It is merely a conjecture, but may not the word Pandras be the second person singular in the future tense of a verb derived from the Latin pando, "to open?" I am not aware of the existence of such a word as pander in old French; but I believe that it was by no means an unusual practice among the writers of Chaucer's time to adapt Latin words to their own idiom.
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.
Cranmer Bibles (Vol. ix., p. 119.).—S. R. M. will be gratified to learn, that the death of Mr. Lea Wilson has not, as he conjectures, led to the dispersion of the curious collection of Cranmer Bibles, which he had been at so much pains in forming, but to its being rendered more accessible. They were all purchased for the British Museum.
M. T. W.
Voisonier (Vol. ix., p. 224.).—A corruption of vowsoner, i. e. the owner of the vowson; this last
word being anciently used for advowson, as may by seen by the glossary to Robert of Gloucester's Works.
C. H.
I submit that this word means advowsoner, that is, "owner of the advowson."
Q. D.
Word-minting (Vol. ix., p. 151.).—To Mr. Melville's list of new words, you may add: talented (Yankee), adumbrate (pedantic), service. The latter word is of very late importation from the French, within three years, as applied to the lines of steamers, or traffic of railways. It is an age of word-minting; and bids fair to corrupt the purity of the English language by the coinage of the slovenly writer, and adoption of foreign or learned words which possess an actual synonym in our own tongue. Mr. Melville deserves our thanks for his timely notice of such "contraband" wares.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
Your correspondent Mr. Melville will be surprised to learn that the words deranged, derangement, now so generally used in reference to a disordered intellect, or madness, are not to be found in any dictionary that I have seen.
J. A. H.
Fair Rosamond (Vol. ix., p. 163.).—The lines which your correspondent C. C. inquires for are from Warner's Albion's England, which first appeared in thirteen books in 1586:
"Fair Rosamond, surprised thus ere thus she did expect,
Fell on her humble knees, and did her fearful hands erect:
She blushed out beauty, whilst the tears did wash her pleasing face,
And begged pardon, meriting no less of common grace.
'So far, forsooth, as in me lay, I did,' quoth she, 'withstand;
But what may not so great a king by means or force command?'
'And dar'st thou, minion,' quoth the queen, 'thus article to me?'
. . . . . . . . . .
With that she dashed her on the lips, so dyed double red:
Hard was the heart that gave the blow, soft were those lips that bled."
J. M. B.
Death-warnings in ancient Families (Vol. ix., pp. 55. 114. 150.).—
"As a Peaksman, and a long resident in the Isle of Man, Peveril was well acquainted with many a superstitious legend; and particularly with a belief, which attached to the powerful family of the Stanleys, for their peculiar demon, a Ban-shie, or female spirit, who was wont to shriek, 'Foreboding evil times;' and who was generally seen weeping and bemoaning herself before the death of any person of distinction belonging to the family."—Peveril of the Peak, vol. ii. p. 174.
J. M.
Oxford.
Poets Laureate (Vol. ii., p. 20.).—Your correspondent S. H. will find "an account of the origin, office, emoluments, and privileges of poet laureate" in a recent work entitled The Lives of the Poets Laureate, with an Introductory Essay on the Title and Office, by W. S. Austin, Jun., and J. Ralph (Richard Bentley, 1853).
From The Memoirs of William Wordsworth, vol. ii. p. 403., it would appear that there is a "very interesting literary essay on the laureates of England by Mr. Quillinan."
In the year 1803, it would appear that Lord Hardwicke, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, "offered to create a laureateship in Ireland, with the same emoluments as the English one," if Mr. Moore would accept it. (Memoirs of Tom Moore, vol. i. p. 228.)
From Mr. Moore's Letter to his Mother, dated May 20, 1803, we learn that—
"The manner in which Mr. Wickham communicated the circumstance to me would disgust any man with the least spirit of independence about him. I accordingly, yesterday, after the receipt of my father's letter, enclosed the ode on the birth-day, at the same time resigning the situation."—Memoirs of Tom Moore, vol. i. pp. 126—128.
Leonard L. Hartley.
York.
Brissot de Warville (Vol. ix., p. 209.).—Since my last communication on the above subject, I have obtained The Life of J. P. Brissot, &c., written by himself, an 8vo. volume of pp. 92, published by Debrett, London, 1794. It is a translation, the original of which I have never seen. And if you do not think the subject exhausted, perhaps you will spare a few lines for his own account of his name.
"The office of an attorney was my gymnasium; I laboured in it for the space of five years, as well in the country as in Paris.... To relieve my weariness and disgust, I applied myself to literature and to the sciences. The study of the languages was, above all others, my favourite pursuit. Chance threw in my way two Englishmen, on a visit to my own country: I learned their language, and this circumstance decided my fate. It was at the commencement of my passion for that language that I made the metamorphosis of a diphthong in my name, which has been imputed to me as so great a crime; and, since I must render an account of every particular point, lest even the slightest hold against me should be afforded to malignity, I will declare the cause of the change in question. Born the thirteenth child of my family, and the second of my brothers in it, I bore, for the purpose of being distinguished from them, according to the custom of Beance, the name of a village in which my father possessed some landed property. This village was called Ouarville, and Ouarville became the name by which I was known in my own country. A fancy struck me that I would cast an English air over my name, and therefore I substituted, in the place of the French diphthong ou, the w of the English, which has the same sound. Since this nominal alteration, having put it as a signature to my published works and to different deeds, I judged it right to preserve it. If this be a crime, I participate in the guilt of the French literati, who, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, made no scruple whatsoever of grecising or (if we may use the expressions) latinising their appellations. Arouet, to escape from a reproachful pun upon his name, changed it into that of Voltaire. The Anglomania (if such it may be called) has occasioned me to alter mine; not, as it has been pretended, to draw in dupes, or to avoid passing for the son of my father, since I have perpetually borne, signed, and printed the name of my father after that second name which was given to me according to the custom of my country."
There are many other interesting particulars, but the above is all that bears upon his adoption of the name Warville, and will, perhaps, be considered pretty conclusive.
N. J. A.
"Branks," (Vol. ix., p. 149.).—In Wodrow's Biographical Collections, vol. ii. p. 72., under the date June 15, 1596, will be found the following:
"The Session (of Glasgow) appoint jorgs and branks to be made for punishing flyters."
I cannot at this moment refer particularly, but I know that the word is to be found in Burns' Poems in the sense of a rustic bit or bridle. The term is still in use in the west of Scotland; and country horses, within the memory of many, were tormented with the clumsy contrivance across their noses. With all its clumsiness it was very powerful, as it pressed on the nostrils of the animal: its action was somewhat like that of a pair of scissors.
L. N. R.
Theobald le Botiller. (Vol. viii., p. 367.).—If Mr. Devereux refers to Lynch on Feudal Dignities, p. 81., he will find that Theobald le Botiller, called the second hereditary Butler of Ireland, was of age in 1220, and died, not in 1230, but in 1248; that he married Roesia de Verdon; that his eldest son and heir was Theobald, third Butler (grandfather of Edmund, sixth Butler, who was created Earl of Carrick), and that by the same marriage he was also the ancestor of the Verdons of England and of Ireland. Now, in Lodge's Peerage by Archdall, 1789, vol. iv. p. 5., it is said that the wife of Theobald, second Butler, was Joane, eldest sister and co-heir of John de Marisco, a great baron in Ireland; and thirdly, Sir Bernard Burke, in his Extinct Peerage, makes his wife to be Maud, sister of Thomas à Becket. Which of these three accounts am I to believe?
Y. S. M.
Lord Harington (not Harrington) (Vol. viii., p. 366.).—In Collins' Peerage, by Sir Egerton Brydges, ed. 1812, I find that Hugh Courtenay, second Earl of Devon, born in 1303, had a daughter Catherine who married first, Lord Harington, and secondly, Sir Thomas Engain. This evidently must have been John, second Lord Harington, who died in 1363, and not William, fifth lord, as given in Burke: the fifth lord was not born till after 1384, and died in 1457.
Y. S. M.
Amontillado (Vol. ix., p. 222.).—This wine was first imported into England about the year 1811, and the supply was so small, that the entire quantity was only sufficient for the table of three consumers, who speedily became attached to it, and thenceforward drank no other sherry. One of these was His Royal Highness the late Duke of Kent; and another, an old friend of one who now ventures from a distant recollection to give an account of its origin.
The winegrowers at Xeres de la Frontera had been obliged, in consequence of the increasing demand for sherry, to extend their vineyards up the sides of the mountains, beyond the natural soil of the sherry grape. The produce thus obtained was mixed with the fruit of the more genial soil below, and a very good sherry for common use was the result.
When the French devastated the neighbourhood of Xeres in 1809, they destroyed many of the vineyards, and for a time put the winegrowers to great shifts. One house in particular was obliged to have recourse chiefly to the mountain grape for the support of its trade, and for the first time manufactured it without admixture into wine. Very few butts of this produce would stand, and by far the greater portion was treated with brandy to make it saleable.
The small quantity that resisted the acetous fermentation, turned out to be very different in flavour to the ordinary sherry wine, and it was sent over to this country under the name of Amontillado sherry, from the circumstance of the grape having been grown on the mountains.
The genuine wine is very delicate, with a peculiar flavour, slightly aromatic rather than nutty; and answers admirably to the improved taste of the present age.
Patonce.
"Mairdil" (Vol. ix., p. 233.).—I have heard the word "maddle" often used in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in exactly the same sense as the word mairdil, as mentioned by Mr. Stephens. And in this part the work-people would use the word "muddle" in a similar sense.
J. L. Sisson.
Separation of the Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.).—In many churches in Lower Brittany I observed that the women occupied the nave exclusively, the men placing themselves in the aisles.
I speak, of course, of Roman Catholic churches; but I believe that in the Protestant congregations in France, the rule of the separation of the sexes has always been observed.
In the island of Guernsey it has been usual, although the custom is now beginning to be broken through, for the men to communicate before the women. As the Presbyterian discipline was introduced into that island from France and Geneva, and prevailed there from the time of the Reformation until the Restoration of Charles II., it is probable that this usage is a remnant of the rule by which the sexes were separated during divine service.
Edgar Macculloch.
Guernsey.
Costume of the Clergy not Enarean (Vol. ix., p.101.).—A. C. M. has no other authority for calling the cassock and girdle of the clergy "effeminate," or "a relique of the ancient priestly predilection for female attire," than the contrast to the close-fitting skin-tight fashion adopted by modern European tailors; the same might be said of any flowing kind of robe, such as the Eastern costume, or that of the English judges, which as nearly approaches to the cassock and cincture as possible. In a late number of the Illustrated London News will be found drawings from the new statues of the kings of England lately erected in the new Houses of Parliament: of, I think, twelve there represented, eight have a "petticoat-like cassock," or frock, and of course for convenience a girdle.
Can any of your correspondents inform us when the cassock was introduced as an ecclesiastical dress, whether it was then worn by persons of other vocations, and what was the ecclesiastical costume (if any) which it superseded?
H. P.
Inedited Letter of Lord Nelson (Vol. ix., p. 241.).—On behalf of the precious pages of "N. & Q.," I beg leave to protest against printing as inedited what a very slight degree of research would have found to have been long since published. The letter in question will be found in Clarke and M‘Arthur's Life of Nelson, vol. ii. p. 431., and in Nicolas's Nelson Despatches, vol. vii. p. 75.
I am induced to notice this especially, in the hope that Mr. Jacob, who promises us future communications of the same class, may previously satisfy himself that they are inedited.
C.
Views in London by Canaletto (Vol. ix., p. 106.).—In reply to the inquiry of your correspondent Gondola, with respect to views of London painted by Canaletto, whose announcement of them he quotes, I beg to inform him that I have in my collection one of these views, "The Thames from the Temple Gardens," in which it is curious to trace, in Thames wherries, grave Templars, and London atmosphere, the hand that was usually employed on gondolas, maskers, and Italian skies. I believe that others of his London views are in the collections of the Dukes of Northumberland and Buccleuch.
Edmund Phipps.
Park Lane.
Richard Geering (Vol. viii., p. 504.).—I thank Julia R. Bockett for her Reply, and if H. C. C. will send me a copy of the Geering pedigree and arms, I shall feel much obliged, and should I succeed in discovering any particulars of Richard's ancestry, I shall willingly communicate the result to him. I have already sent you my name and address, but not for publication; and I added a stamped envelope, in case any person wished to communicate directly with me. I can have no objection to your giving my address privately to any one, but being "unknown to fame," I prefer retaining in your pages the incognito I have assumed. I quite agree with the remarks of H. B. C. and Mr. King, Vol. viii., pp. 112. 182.
Y. S. M.
Grafts and the Parent Tree (Vol. vii., pp. 365. 436. 486. 536.).—I was equally surprised with H. C. K. at the dictum of Mr. Ingleby, that "grafts after some fifteen years wear themselves out," but the ground for such a belief is fairly suggested by J. G. (p. 536.), otherwise I am afraid the almost universal experience of orchardists would contradict Mr. Ingleby's theory. The "Ross Nonpareil," a well-known and valuable fruit, was, like the Ribston Pippin, singular to say, raised from Normandy seed. The fact has been often told to me by a gentleman who died several years since, at a very advanced age, in the town of New Ross, co. Wexford. He perfectly remembered the original tree standing in the garden attached to the endowed school in that town, where it had been originally planted by Sir John Ivory, the son or grandson of a Cromwellian settler, who raised it from seed, at the commencement of the eighteenth century; and who left his own dwelling-house in New Ross to be a school, and endowed it out of his estates. The tree has long since decayed, but its innumerable grafted successors are in the most flourishing condition. The flavour of this apple lies chiefly in its rind.
Y. S. M.
Golden Tooth (Vol. viii., p. 382.).—I recollect very well, when a boy, trying to keep my tongue out of the cavity from whence a tooth had been extracted, in the hope of acquiring the golden tooth promised to me by my old nurse, and after several attempts having succeeded in refraining for four-and-twenty hours (the period required to elapse), and no gold tooth appearing, I well remember my disgust and disappointment. This
folk lore (query lure) was, and I believe still is, in full force in the south of Ireland, and probably elsewhere.
Y. S. M.
Cambridge Mathematical Questions (Vol. ix., p. 35.).—These are so far put forth "by authority" as the publication in the Cambridge Calendar, and the two local newspapers goes; a collection of the Senate House Papers for "Honours" from 1838 to 1849, has also been published, arranged according to subjects, by Rev. A. H. Frost, M.A., of St. John's College.
P. J. F. Gantillon.
Lichfield Bower or Wappenschau (Vol. ix., p. 242.).—In answer to Mr. Lamont's question, I have to inform him that in this city a similar wappenschau, or exhibition of arms, has been annually maintained, with a short intermission, from time immemorial. The Court of Array held on Whit Monday was anciently commenced, according to Pitt, by the high constables of this city, attended by ten men with firelocks, and adorned with ribbons, preceded by eight morris-dancers, and a clown fantastically dressed, escorting the sheriff, town clerk, and bailiffs from the Guildhall to the Bower at Greenhill, temporarily erected for their reception, where the names of all the householders and others of the twenty-one wards of the city were called to do suit and service to "the court of review of men and arms." The dozener, or petty constable of each ward, was summoned to attend, who with a flag joined the procession through his ward, when a volley was fired over every house in it, and the procession was regaled by the inhabitants with refreshments. Those inhabitants who, on such summons, proceeded to the Bower, were regaled with a cold collation. Those who did not attend (for the names of each ward were called over) were fined one penny each. The twenty-one wards require a long day for this purpose, and it is concluded by a procession to the market-place, where the town clerk informs them that the firm allegiance of their ancestors had obtained grants to their city of valuable charters and immunities, and advises them to continue in the same course. The dozeners then deposit their flags under the belfry in the adjacent church of St. Mary's. This ceremony still continues, with the exception of the armed men and the firing.
T. J. Buckton.
Lichfield.
Anecdote of George IV. (Vol. ix., p. 244.).—In the letter supposed to be written by the late Prince of Wales when a child, I observe these words: "which have stolen from the old woman (the queen)." I think it more probable that the writer refers to Mrs. Schwellenberg, an old German lady, who came over with the late queen as a confidential domestic, and who would have such articles under her keeping. (See Diary of Madame D'Arblay.) The transaction is a notable instance of the prince's forethought and liberality at an early age.
W. H.
Pedigree to the Time of Alfred (Vol. viii., p. 586.; Vol. ix., p. 283.).—I beg to inform your correspondent S. D. that she will find a very interesting notice of the Wapshot family in Chertsey and its Neighbourhood, by Mrs. S. C. Hall, 1853.
Geo. Bish Webb.
Tortoiseshell Tom-cat (Vol. v., p. 465.; Vol. vii., p. 271.).—I have certainly heard of tortoiseshell tom-cats; but never having seen one, I cannot affirm that any such exist. The fact of their rarity is undoubted; but I should like to be informed by W. R., or any other person who has paid particular attention to the natural history of this useful and much calumniated domestic animal, whether yellow female cats are not quite as uncommon as tortoiseshell males?
Honoré de Mareville.
Guernsey.