Replies to Minor Queries.
Table-turning (Vol. ix., p. 39.).—The following conclusions, from an exposé of the laws of nature relating to this subject, have been submitted to the world, at the end of a series of articles in the Revue des Deux Mondes, by M. Babinet, of the French Institute:
"1o. Que tout ce qui est raisonnablement admissible dans les curieuses expériences qui ont été faites sur le mouvement des tables où l'on impose les mains, est parfaitement explicable par l'énergie bien connue des mouvemens naissans de nos organes, pris à leur origine, surtout quand une influence nerveuse vient s'y joindre et au moment où, toutes les impulsions étant conspirantes, l'effet produit représente l'effet total des actions individuelles.
"2o. Que dans l'étude consciencieuse de ces phénomènes mécanico-physiologiques, il faudra écarter toute intervention de force mystérieuse en contradiction avec les lois physiques bien établies par l'observation et l'expérience.
"3o. Qu'il faudra aviser à populariser, non pas dans la peuple, mais bien dans la classe éclairée de la société, les principes des sciences. Cette classe si importante, dont l'autorité devrait faire loi pour toute la nation, s'est déjà montrée plusieurs fois au-dessous de cette noble mission. La remarque n'est pas de moi, mais au besoin je l'adopte et la défends:
'Si les raisons manquaient, je suis sûr qu'en tout cas,
Les exemples fameux ne me manqueraient pas!'
Comme le dit Molière. Il est à constater que l'initiative des réclamations en faveur du bon sens contre les prestiges des tables et des chapeaux a été prise par les membres éclairés du clergé de France.
"4o. Enfin, les faiseurs des miracles sont instamment suppliés de vouloir bien, s'ils ne peuvent s'empêcher d'en faire, au moins ne pas les faire absurdes. Imposer la croyance à un miracle, c'est déjà beaucoup dans ce siècle; mais vouloir nous convaincre de la réalité d'un miracle ridicule, c'est vraiment être trop exigeant!"—Revue des Deux Mondes, Janvier 15, 1854.
J. M.
Oxford.
Female Dress (Vol. ix., p. 271.).—I have dresses from 1768 to the present time, two or three years only missing, from pocket-books, which I have carefully arranged and had bound in a volume. On referring to it I find that hoops ceased after 1786, excepting for court days. The ladies at that time wore large hats, the same shape young people and children have at the present day. Powder went out at the time of the scarcity, patches before hoops, and high-heeled shoes when short waists came in fashion.
I have a small engraving of their Majesties, attended by the lord chamberlain, &c., together with the Princess Royal, Prince Edward, and the Princess Elizabeth, in their boxes at the opera in the year 1782. The queen in a very large hoop, each with their hair full powdered; and the celebrated Mademoiselle Theodore, in the favourite comic ballad called "Les Petits Reins," the same year, with a large hoop, hair well powdered, a little hat at the back of her head with long strings, very short petticoats, and shoes with buckles.
Julia R. Bockett.
Southcote Lodge.
Office of Sexton held by one Family (Vol. ix., p. 171.).—A search into parish registers would, I think, show that the office of clerk was often a hereditary one. In Worcestershire, for example, the family of Rose at Bromsgrove, and the family of Osborne at Belbroughton, have supplied hereditary clerks to those parishes through many generations. In the latter case, also, the trade of a tailor has also been hereditary to an Osborne, in conjunction with his duties as clerk. The Mr. Tristram, who was the patron of the living of Belbroughton (afterwards sold to St. John's College, Oxford), states, in a letter to the bishop (Lyttelton), that the Osbornes were tailors in Belbroughton in the reign of Henry VIII. They are tailors, as well as clerks, to this day, but they can trace their descent to a period of more than
three centuries before Henry VIII. The office of parish clerk and sexton has also been hereditary in the parishes of Hope and King's Norton, Worcestershire.
Cuthbert Bede, B. A.
Lyra's Commentary (Vol. ix., p. 323.).—The human figure described by Edward Peacock as impressed on one cover of his curious old copy of the Textus biblie, &c., has no glory round the head, or over it, by his account. This would warrant the conclusion that it was not intended for any saint, or it might almost pass for a St. Christopher. But I believe it is meant as emblematic of a Christian generally, in his passage through this life. I suspect that what Mr. Peacock speaks of as a "fence composed of interlaced branches of trees," is intended to represent waves of water by undulating lines. The figure appears to be wading through the waters of the tribulations of this life, by the help of his staff, just as St. Christopher is represented. This may account for the loose appearance of his nether habiliments, which are tucked up, so as to leave the knees bare. The wallet is a very fit accompaniment for the pilgrim's staff. The wicker basket holds his more precious goods; but, to show the insecurity of their tenure, the pilgrim has a sword ready for their defence.
It is not so easy to account for the animals on the other cover. My conjecture is, that at least the four lower ones are meant for the emblematic figures of the four evangelists. The bird may be the eagle, the monkey the man; the dog may, on closer scrutiny, be found to look something like the ox or calf; and the lion speaks for itself. But I can attempt no explanation of the upper figures, which Mr. Peacock says "may be horses." I should much like to see drawings of the whole, both human and animal, having a great predilection for studying such puzzles. But if the above hints prove of any service, it will gratify
F. C. Husenbeth, D.D.,
Compiler of the Emblems of Saints.
Blackguard (Vol. vii., p. 77. Vol. viii., p. 414.).—Many contributions towards the history of this word have appeared in the pages of "N. & Q." May I forward another instance of its being in early use, although not altogether in its modern acceptation?
A copy of a medical work in my possession (a 12mo., printed in 1622, and in the original binding) has fly-leaves from some printed book, as is often the case in volumes of that date. These fly-leaves seem to be part of some descriptive sketches of different classes of society, published towards the early part of the seventeenth century; and some of your readers may be able to identify the work from my description of these of sheets. No. 14. is headed "An unworthy Judge;" 16. "An unworthy Knight and Souldier;" 17. "A worthy Gentleman;" 18. "An unworthy Gentleman," &c. At p 13., No. 27., occurs "A Bawde of the Blacke Guard," with her description in about sixteen lines. She is said to be "well verst in the black art, to accommodate them of the black guard: a weesel-look't gossip she is in all places, where herr mirth is a bawdy tale," and so on.
Judging from these fly-leaves, the work from which they have been taken appears to have been an octavo or small quarto. "Finis" stands on the reverse of the leaf whence my extract is copied.
Jaydee.
Another instance of the use of the word black-guard, in the sense given to it in "N. & Q." (Vol. ii., pp. 170. 285.), is to be found in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, part i. sect. 2., "A Digression of the Nature of Spirits, bad Angels, or Devils, &c.," in a passage, part of which is given as a quotation. "Generally they far excel men in worth, as a man the meanest worme;" though some of then are "inferior to those of their own rank in worth, as the black-guard of a prince's court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures are excelled of brute beasts." The edition of Burton I quote from is 1652.
C. de D.
"Augustus Cæsar on a time, as he was passing through Rome, and saw certain strange women lulling apes and whelps in their arms: 'What!' said he; 'have the women of these countries none other children?' So may I say unto you [Dr. Cole], that make so much of Gerson, Driedo, Royard, and Tapper: Have the learned men of your side none other doctors? For, alas! these that ye allege are scarcely worthy to be allowed amongst the black guard."—Bp. Jewel's Works (P. S. ed.), vol. i. p. 72.
This is, I think, an earlier example than any that has yet been given in "N. & Q."
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.
"Atonement" (Vol. ix., p. 271.).—The word καταλλαγη, used by Æschylus and Demosthenes, occurs 2 Cor. v. 19., Rom. xi. 15. v. 11. The word atonement bears two senses: the first, reconciliation, as used by Sir Thomas More, Shakspeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Bishops Hall and Taylor; the second, expiation, as employed by Milton, Swift, and Cowper. In the latter meaning, we find it in Numbers, and other books of the Old Testament, as the translation of ἱλασμα.
Waterland speaks of "the doctrine of expiation, atonement, or satisfaction, made by Christ in His blood" (Disc. of Fundamentals, vol. v. p. 82.). Barrow, Secker, and Beveridge use the word atone or atonement in this combined sense of the term. R. Gloucester, Chaucer, and Dryden expressly speak "at one," in a similar way; and,
not to multiply passages, we may merely cite Tyndal:
"There is but one mediator, Christ, as saith St. Paul, 1 Tim. ii., and by that word understand an atone-maker, a peace-maker, and bringer into grace and favour, having full power so to do."—Expos. of Tracy's Testament, p. 275., Camb. 1850.
Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.
As a contribution towards the solution of J. H. B.'s Query, I send you the following extracts from Richardson's Dictionary:
"And like as he made the Jewes and the Gentiles at one between themselves, even so he made them both at one with God, that there should be nothing to break the atonement; but that the thynges in heaven and the thynges in earth shoulde be ioyned together as it were into one body."—Udal, Ephesians, c. ii.
"Paul sayth, 1 Tim. ij., 'One God, one Mediatour (that is to say, aduocate, intercessor, or an atonemaker) betwene God and man: the man Christ Jesus, which gaue himself a raunsom for all men."—Tyndal, Workes, p. 158.
I am unacquainted with the work referred to in the first extract. The second is from The Whole Works of W. Tindal, John Frith, and Dr. Barnes [edited by Foxe], Lond. 1573. The title of the work which contains the passage is, The Obedience of a Christian Man, set forth by William Tindal, 1528, Oct. 2.
Ἁλιεύς.
Dublin.
Bible of 1527 (Vol. ix., p. 352.).—In reference to the monogram inquired after in this Query, I think I have seen it, or one very similar, among the "mason marks" on Strasburg Tower, which would seem a place of Freemason pilgrimage: for the soft stone is deeply carved in various places within the tower with such marks as this, together with initials and dates of visit. I have also marks very similar from the stones of the tower of the pretty little cathedral of Freiburg, Briesgau. I should incline to think it a Masonic mark, and not that of an engraver on wood, or of a printer.
A. B. R.
Belmont.
Shrove Tuesday (Vol. ix., p. 324.).—The bell described as rung on Shrove Tuesday at Newbury, was no doubt the old summons which used to call our ancestors to the priest to be shrived, or confessed, on that day. It is commonly called the "Pancake Bell," because it was also the signal for the cook to put the pancake on the fire. This savoury couplet occurs in Poor Robin for 1684:
"But hark, I hear the pancake bell,
And fritters make a gallant smell."
The custom of ringing this bell has been retained in many parishes. It is orthodoxly rung at Ecclesfield from eleven to twelve a.m. Plenty of information on this subject may be found in Brand's Popular Antiquities.
Alfred Gatty.
Milton's Correspondence (Vol. viii., p. 640.).—A translation of Milton's Latin familiar correspondence, made by John Hall, Esq., of the Philadelphia bar, now a Presbyterian clergyman at Trenton, N.J., was published about eighteen or twenty years ago in this city.
Uneda.
Philadelphia
"Verbatim et literatim" (Vol. ix., p. 348.).—Your correspondent L. H. J. Tonna, in proposing for the latter part of the above phrase the form ad literam, might as well have extended his amendment, and suggested ad verbum et literam; for I should imagine there is quite as little authority for the word verbatim being used in the Latin language, as for that of literatim. Vossius is an authority for the latter; but can any of your correspondents oblige me by citing one for the former, notwithstanding its frequent adoption in English conversation and writings? Neither verbatim nor literatim will be found in Riddle.
N. L. J.
Epigrams (Vol. vii., p. 175.).—The epigram, "How D.D. swaggers, M.D. rolls," &c., was written by Horace Smith, and may be found in the New Monthly Magazine for 1823, in the article called "Grimm's Ghost. Letter XII."
Uneda.
Philadelphia.