Replies to Minor Queries.
Shakspeare Portrait (Vol. viii., p. 438.).—J. S. Smith, in his Nollekins and his Times (vol. i. p. 26.), has a passage referring to the portrait mentioned by your correspondent:
"Clarkson, the portrait painter, was originally a coach-panel and sign painter; and he executed that most elaborate one of Shakspeare, which formerly hung across the street at the north-east corner of Little Russell Street, in Drury Lane. The late Mr. Thomas Grignon informed me, that he had often heard his father say, that this sign cost five hundred pounds! In my boyish days it was for many years exposed for sale for a very trifling sum, at a broker's shop in Lower Brook Street, Grosvenor Square. The late Mr. Crace, of Great Queen Street, assured me that it was in his early days a thing that country people would stand and gaze at, and that that corner of the street was hardly passable."
Edwards, in his Anecdotes of Painters (p. 117.), assigns the portrait to a different painter, Samuel Wale, R.A. His account, however, being more minute than Smith's, is worth transcribing:
"Mr. Wale painted some signs; the principal one was a whole-length of Shakspeare, about five feet high, which was executed for, and displayed before the door of a public-house, the north-west corner of Little Russell Street, in Drury Lane. It was enclosed in a most sumptuous carved gilt frame, and suspended by rich iron work; but this splendid object of attraction did not hang long before it was taken down, in consequence of the act of parliament which passed for paving, and also for removing the signs and other obstructions in the streets of London. Such was the total change of fashion, and the consequent disuse of signs, that the above representation of our great dramatic poet was sold for a trifle to Mason the broker, in Lower Grosvenor Street; where it stood at his door for several years, until it was totally destroyed by the weather and other accidents."
Edward F. Rimbault.
"Aches" (Vol. ix., pp. 351. 409.).—Aches, as a dissyllable, may be heard any day in Shropshire: "My yead eaches" (my head aches) is no uncommon complaint in reply to an inquiry about health.
Wm. Fraser, B.C.L.
"Waestart" (Vol. ix., p. 349.).—The querist, I humbly presume, is not a Yorkshireman himself; or, probably, he would have at once resolved waestart into the ungrammatical but natural inquiry, "Where ist' 'art"—ist' meaning are you, thou being vulgarly used for you; the h is elided in hurt, the u in 'urt being pronounced as a, changing the vowel, as is very common among the illiterate. For instance, church is often called charch by those who live a little to the north-west; and person, where the e is almost equivalent to the soft u in sound, is made into parson!
L. J.
Willow Bark in Ague (Vol. ix., p. 452.).—In the Philosophical Transactions (1835?) is a memoir by the Rev. E. Stone, of Chipping Norton, of the salutary effects of the bark of the Duck Willow in agues and intermittent fevers. The author states, that being dried in an oven, and pounded, and administered in doses of one drachm every four hours in the intervals of the paroxysms, it soon reduces the distemper; and, except in very severe cases, removes it entirely. With the addition of one fifth part of Peruvian bark, it
becomes a specific against these disorders, and never fails to remove them. One advantage it possesses of influencing the patient beneficially immediately it is adopted, without the necessity of preparation previously. It is a safe medicine, and may be taken in water or tea.
I copy the above from an entry in an old notebook. I imagine the Duck Willow to be the Common White Willow (Salix albæ vulgaris) of Ray.
Shirley Hibberd.
See Pereira's Materia Medica: Salix. He refers to a paper by the Rev. Mr. Stone in the Phil. Trans. vol. liii. p. 195., on the efficacy of the bark of the Salix alba as a remedy for agues. See also A. T. Thomson's London Dispensatory, in which is given an account of Mr. Stone's mode of administration.
H. J.
Lord Fairfax (Vol. ix., p. 380.).—I apprehend that there is nothing in the reply of A Fairfax Kinsman at all calculated to shake the opinion which I expressed touching the barony of Fairfax of Cameron. The case of the earldom of Newburgh, which your correspondent does not even mention, is, I submit, of greater weight than all the "Peerages," and even than the Roll of Scottish Peers. As to the Irish case—that of the Earl of Athlone—I can but repeat my Query. Whether right or wrong, it is not binding on the British House of Lords. The cases of the King of Hanover, the Duke of Wellington, and Earl Nelson, are not in point. His Hanoverian Majesty is not an alien; and though some British subjects may be recognised as peers by foreign states, it does not follow that a foreigner can be a peer of Britain.
H. G.
The Young Pretender (Vol. ix., pp. 177. 231.)—The wife of the Young Pretender was Louisa Maximiliene, the daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, Prince of Scholberg, who was born in 1752, and married in 1772. As a widow, she lived in Paris as the Countess of Albany, but in her drawing-room called herself Queen of Great Britain. She was alive at the time of the death of the Princess Charlotte (Nov. 1817). See Fisher's Companion and Key to History of England, p. 333.
O. S.
Dobney's Bowling-green; Wildman; Sampson, (Vol. ix., p. 375.).—Dobney's, or, more correctly, D'Aubigney's Bowling-green, ceased to be a place of public amusement about the year 1810. It is now occupied by a group of houses called Dobney's Place, near the bottom of Penton Street. The late Mr. Upcott had a drawing of Prospect House (as the building was called), taken about 1780. A hand-bill of the year 1772 (in a volume formerly belonging to Lysons) thus describes the nature of Wildman's performance:
"The Bees on Horseback.—Daniel Wildman rides, standing upright, one foot on the saddle, and the other on the horse's neck, with a curious mask of bees on his face. He also rides standing upright on the saddle, with the bridle in his mouth, and, by firing a pistol, makes one part of the bees march over a table, and the other part swarm in the air, and return to their proper places again."
Sampson, Price, Johnson, and Coningham were celebrated equestrian performers towards the close of the last century. Astley was the pupil of Sampson, and his successor in agility. Bromley, in his Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, mentions a folio engraving of Sampson, without date or engraver's name. It is hardly likely that any life of him was published.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Palæologus (Vol. ix., p. 312.).—Your readers will find, in Oldmixon's West Indies, a later notice of the strange descent and fortunes of this once illustrious family. From Cornwall they appear to have settled in Barbadoes, where it is very possible that with mutilated name the family may yet be found among the "poor whites" (many among them of ancient lineage) of that island.
B.
Children by one Mother.—In Vol. ix., p. 186., I. R. R., in reply to a Query in Vol. v., p. 126.—"If there be any well-authenticated instance of a woman having had more than twenty-five children?"—sends an account of a case, which he "firmly believes" to be authenticated, of a farmer's wife who had thirty. I now send you a much better authenticated case of polyprogenitiveness, which utterly throws the farmer's wife into the shade.
In Palazzo Frescobaldi, in this city, the ancient residence of the old Florentine family of that name, there is, among many other family portraits, one full-length picture of a tall and good-looking lady with this inscription beneath it: "Dianora Salviati, moglie di Bartolomeo Frescobaldi, fece cinquantadue figli, mai meno che tre per parto" (Dianora Salviati, wife of Bartolomeo Frescobaldi, gave birth to fifty-two sons, and never had less than three at a birth). The case is referred to by Gio. Schenchio, in his work Del Parto, at p. 144.
The Essex lady, as well as I should suppose all other ladies whatsoever, must hide their diminished heads in presence of this noble dame of Florence.
T. A. T.
Florence.
Robert Brown the Separatist (Vol. ix., p. 494.).—Mr. Corner will probably find an answer to his question in the History of Stamford, by W. Harrod (1785), and in Blore's History of the County of Rutland, 1813, fol.; Bawden's Survey, 1809, 4to.; Wright's History of Rutlandshire, 1687 and 1714. The last descendant of Robert Brown died on Sept. 17, 1839, æt. sixty-nine, widow of George, third Earl of Pomfret; and as she had no issue, her house and estate at Toltrop
(i. e. Tolthorp), in Rutlandshire, about two miles from Stamford in Lincolnshire, probably passed to his heir and brother Thomas William, the fourth earl.
At the time of her marriage, her servants (as was believed by orders from their mistress) persevered in chiming the only two bells of the parish church, to the hazard and annoyance of the vicar's wife, just confined of her first child in a room hardly a stone's throw from it. His pupils were so indignant, that they drove away the offenders and took the clappers out of the bells: and the son of a near neighbour, then a member of St. John's College, Cambridge (Thos. Foster, A.B., 1792), made it the subject of a mock-heroic poem of some merit, called the Brunoniad (London, 1790, printed by Kearsley). So few copies were printed, that the queen and princesses could not procure one; and a lady employed at Court requested a young friend of hers, resident at Stamford, to make a transcript of it for their use. This your present note-writer can aver, as the transcriber was a sister of
Anat.
Hero of the "Spanish Lady's Love" (Vol. ix., p. 305.).—Concerning the origin of this interesting old ballad, the following communication appeared in The Times of May 1, 1846. It is dated from Coldrey, Hants, and signed Charles Lee:
"The hero of this beautiful ballad was my ancestor, Sir John Bolle of Thorpe Hall, Lincolnshire, of most ancient and loyal family, and father of that Colonel Bolle who fell in Alton Church, whilst fighting against the rebels in December, 1643. Of the truth of this I am prepared to give the curious in these matters the most abundant evidence, but the space which the subject would occupy would necessarily exclude it from your columns.
"The writer of the paper in the Edinburgh says:—'Had the necklace been still extant, the preference would have been due to Littlecot.' The necklace is still extant, in the possession of a member of my family, and in the house whence I write. In Illingworth's Topographical Account of Scampton, with Anecdotes of the Family of Bolles, it is stated: 'The portrait of Sir John, drawn in 1596, at the age of thirty-six years, having on the gold chain given him by the Spanish Lady, &c., is still in the possession of his descendant, Capt. Birch.'
"That portrait is now in the possession of Capt. Birch's successor, Thomas Bosvile Bosvile, Esq., of Ravensfield Park, Yorkshire, my brother, and may be seen by any one. I will only add another extract from Illingworth's Scampton:—'On Sir John Bolle's departure from Cadiz, the Spanish Lady sent as presents to his wife, a profusion of jewels and other valuables, amongst which was her portrait drawn in green; plate, money, and other treasure. Some articles are still in possession of the family; though her picture was unfortunately, and by accident, disposed of about half a century since. This portrait being drawn in green, gave occasion to her being called, in the neighbourhood of Thorpe Hall, the Green Lady; where, to this day, there is a traditionary superstition among the vulgar, that Thorpe Hall was haunted by the Green Lady, who used nightly to take her seat in a particular tree near the mansion.' In Illingworth there is a long and full account of the Spanish Lady, and the ballad is given at length."
Edward F. Rimbault.
Niagara (Vol. vii., pp. 50. 137.).—Let me add one other authority of comparatively recent date on Goldsmith's side of the vexata quæstio, about the pronunciation of this name:
"And we'd take verses out to Demerara,
To New South Wales, and up to Niagara."
Proëme to The Monks and the Giants, by
William and Robert Whistlecraft, i. e.
John Hookham Frere.
Balliolensis.
Hymn attributed to Handel (Vol. ix., p. 303.).—I do not understand whether Mr. Storer's Query refers to the words or music of this hymn. If to the former, it is most assuredly not Handel's. It is strange that the church does not possess one genuine psalm or hymn tune of this mighty master, although he certainly composed several. The popular melody called Hanover, usually attributed to Handel, was printed in the Supplement to the New Version of Psalms (a collection of tunes) in 1703. Handel did not arrive in England till 1710. It is improbable, from many circumstances, that he composed this grand melody. It was probably the work of Dr. Croft.
D'Almaine, the eminent music-seller of Soho Square, published some years back—
"Three Hymns, the Words by the late Rev. Charles Wesley, A.M., of Christ Church College, Oxon; and set to music by George Frederick Handel, faithfully transcribed from his autography in the Library of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, by Samuel Wesley, and now very respectfully presented to the Wesleyan Society at large."
Among my musical autographs is one which, as it relates to the foregoing publication, I transcribe:
"The late comedian Rich, who was the most celebrated harlequin of his time, was also the proprietor of Covent Garden Theatre, during the period that Handel conducted his oratorios at that house. He married a person who became a serious character, after having formerly been a very contrary one; and who requested Handel to set to music the Three Hymns which I transcribed in the Fitzwilliam Library from the autography, and published them in consequence.
S. Wesley.
Monday, March 30, 1829."
The first lines of the hymns are as follows: 1. Sinners, obey the Gospel Word. 2. O Love divine, how sweet thou art! 3. Rejoice! the Lord is King.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Marquis of Granby (Vol. ix., pp. 127. 360.).—In a critique which appeared in the Quarterly Review for January or April, 1838, on Dickens's earlier works, it is stated that Sumpter, a discharged soldier of the royal regiment of Horse Guards, opened a public-house at Hounslow, having as its sign "The Marquis of Granby," which was the first occasion of the marquis's name appearing on the sign-board of a public-house. This note appeared in reference to the public-house kept at Dorking by Mrs. Weller, the "second wentur" of Tony Weller, father of the immortal Samivel, of that ilk.
John, Marquis of Granby, was colonel of the royal regiment of Horse Guards from May 13, 1758, to his decease, which occurred Oct. 19, 1770, and was justly considered the soldier's friend. (See Captain Packer's History of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, p. 95.) Mr. Dickens, in his description of the sign-board at Dorking, has arrayed the marquis in the uniform, not of the regiment, but of a general officer: he states,—
"On the opposite side of the road was a sign-board representing the head and shoulders of a gentleman with an apoplectic countenance, in a red coat, with deep blue facings, and a touch of the same over his three-cornered hat for a sky. Over that, again, were a pair of flags, and beneath the last button of his coat were a couple of cannon; and the whole formed an expressive and undoubted likeness of the Marquis of Granby of glorious memory."
Witty, I admit, but that "touch of the same" (blue facings?) for a sky is ambiguous. Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.
The uniform of the royal regiment of Horse Guards, from 1758 to 1770, consisted of a dark blue coatee, with red facings, red breeches, jacked boots, and three-cornered hats bound with gold lace.
G. L. S.
Convocation and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (Vol. viii., p. 100.).—The Archdeacon of Stafford, in his last visitation charge, at Stafford, May 23, 1854, said of Convocation:
"He was not aware that the two venerable societies, The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, owed their existence to it."
Atterbury, writing to Bishop Trelawny, March 15, 1700-1, says:
"We appointed another committee, for considering the methods of Propagating the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts, who sat the first time this afternoon in the Chapter House of St. Paul's"—Atterbury's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 88.
Though the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts does not owe, strictly speaking, its existence to Convocation, yet it certainly is indebted to it, both for the general outline of its operations, and also for its name.
Wm. Fraser, B.C.L.
Cassie (Vol. ix., p. 396.).—With regard to W. T. M. about cassie, he will find an approximation to that word as used for causeway, in the old editions of Ludlow's Memoirs, and others, where causeway is always spelt causey.
A. (1)
"Three cats sat," &c. (Vol. ix., p.173.).—I am delighted to say that a long course of laborious research among the antiquities of nurserydom have enabled me to supply Julia R. Bockett (I dare not venture on any prefix to the name, for fear of doing grievous wrong in my ignorance of the lady's civil status) with the missing canto the poem her ancient friend is so desirous of completing. It will be seen to convey a charming lesson of amiable sociality—admirably adapted d'ailleurs to the pages of a work which seeks to encourage "intercommunications." It runs thus:
"Said one little cat,
To the other little cat,
If you don't speak, I must;
I must.
If you don't speak, I must."
Julia R. Bockett will doubtless feel with me, that though the antithesis requires that the "I" should be strongly emphasised in the first case, the sentiment expressed imperatively demands an intense force to be given to the "must" in the second repetition.
T. A. T.
Florence.
P. S.—By-the-bye, talking of cats, there is a story current, that a certain archbishop, who sits neither at Canterbury nor York, having once, in unbending mood, demanded of one of his clergy if he could decline "cat," corrected the reverend catechumen, when, having arrived at the vocative case, he gave it, "Vocative, O cat!" and declared such declension to be wrong, and that the vocative of "cat" was "puss." Of course, it will be henceforth considered so in the diocese presided over by the prelate in question, as the gender of "carrosse" was changed throughout la belle France, by a blunder of the grand monarque. But surely the archbishop was as palpably wrong as the king was. At least, if he was not, we have only the alternative of considering Shakspeare to have blundered. For, have we not Stefano's address to poor Caliban:
"Open your mouth; here is that which will give language to you, cat."
And again, does not Lysander, somewhat ungallantly, thus apostrophise Hermia:
"Hang off, thou cat, thou burr!"
Moreover, will not the pages of our nursery literature furnish on the other hand abundance of
instances passim of puss used in every one of the oblique cases, as well as in the nominative?
Tailless Cats (Vol. ix., pp. 10. 111.).—It may be interesting to your correspondent Shirley Hibberd to know, that the Burmese breed of cats is, like that of the Isle of Man, tailless; or, if not exactly without tails, the tails they have are so short as to be called so merely by the extremest courtesy. This is the only respect, however, in which they differ from other cats.
S. B.
Lucknow.
Francklyn Household Book (Vol. ix., p. 422.).—
Bay-salt to stop the barrels.—Before heading down a cask of salted meat, the vacant spaces are filled up with salt.
Giggs and scourge-sticks.—Whip-tops, and whips for spinning them.
Jumballs.—A kind of gingerbread.
John P. Stilwell.
Dorking.
"Violet-crowned" Athens (Vol. ix., p. 496.).—I have always understood that the adoption of the violet as the heraldic flower of old Athens involved, as heraldry so often does, a pun. As you well know, the Greek for violet is Ιον, and thence its adoption as the symbolical flower of the chief city in Europe of the Ionian race.
Cantab.
Smith of Nevis and St. Kitt's (Vol. ix., p. 222.).—I find by some curious letters from an old lady, by birth a Miss Williams of Antigua, and widow of the son of the Lieut.-Governor of Nevis, now in the possession of a friend of mine connected with the West Indies, that the arms of that family were—Gules, on a chevron between three bezants or, three cross crosslets sable. And the crest, from a ducal coronet or, an Indian goat's head argent.
This may facilitate the search of your correspondent for the affiliation of that family to the United Kingdom.
B.
Hydropathy (Vol. ix., p. 395.).—"John Smith, C.M." (i. e. clock-maker), of the parish of St. Augustin, London, was the author of several pamphlets. He published in the year 1723 a treatise in recommendation of the medicinal use of water as "a universal remedy," as well by drinking as by applying it externally to the body. In the British Museum there is a French translation of it, which appeared in Paris, A.D. 1725. This is a proof of the notoriety which the treatise obtained. The tenth edition, dated "Edinburgh, 1740," contains additions communicated by Mr. Ralph Thoresby, F.R.S., and others. In the year 1695 he published a short treatise entitled A designed End to the Socinian Controversy; or, a rational and plain Discourse to prove, that no other Person but the Father of Christ is God Most High. This attracted the notice of the civil power, and by order of parliament it was burnt, and the author prosecuted. (See Wallace's Anti-Trinitarian Biography, vol. iii. p. 398., London, 1850.)
N. W. S.
Leslie and Dr. Middleton (Vol. ix., p. 324.).—
"Middleton was one of the men who sought for twenty years some historical facts that might conform to Leslie's four conditions, and yet evade Leslie's logic."—Blackwood's Magazine, July, 1842, p. 5.
J. O. B.
Lord Brougham and Horne Tooke (Vol. ix., p. 398.).—I have not Lord Brougham's book before me, but I have no doubt but that Q. has missed the meaning of his lordship. The reference would probably be to Horne Tooke's anticipation of the strange immoral reveries of Emerson and others, that truth is entirely subjective; because the word bears etymological relation to "to trow," to think, or believe: and so truth has no objective existence, but is merely what a man troweth. If that be an argument, Lord Brougham would say then the law of libel would be unjust, merely because "libel" means primarily a little book; he might have added that, according to Horne Tooke and Mr. Emerson, if a man had been killed by falling against a post at Charing Cross, a jury might deny the fact of the violent death, because "post" means a place for depositing letters, and he had not been near St. Martin's-le-grand. The remark of Lord Brougham is not as to a fact, but is a reductio ad absurdum.
W. Denton.
It is suggested to Q. (Bloomsbury), that Lord Brougham meant not to say that Horne Tooke had ever held or maintained this strange doctrine, "that the law of libel was unjust and absurd, because libel means a little book," but that he would have done so, or might have done so consistently with his etymological theory, namely, that the present sense of words is to be sought in their primitive signification: e.g., in the Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. p. 403., Horne Tooke says,—
"True, as we now write it, or trew, as it was formerly written, means simply and merely that which is trowed; and, instead of its being a rare commodity upon earth, except only in words, there is nothing but truth in the world."
If we ought now to use the word truth only in this sense, then, pari ratione, we ought to mean only a little book when we use the word libel.
J. O. B.
Thorpe.
Irish Rhymes (Vol. viii., p. 250.).—A. B. C. asks, "Will any one say it was through ignorance
that he (Swift) did not sound the g in dressing?" Now I cannot tell whether or not I shall raise a nest of hornets about my ears, but my private impression is that in doing so Swift meant to be "more English and less nice." I think it invariably strikes an Irishman as one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the English people, the almost constant omission of that letter from every word ending (I should have said, if I was an Englishman, "endin'") with it. The fair sex, I fear I must add, are, of the two, rather more decided in clippin' (g) the Queen's English.
Y. S. M.
Cabbages (Vol. ix., p. 424.).—I was aware of the passage in Evelyn's Acetaria, and am anxious to know whether there is any confirmation of that statement. Is there any other information extant as to the first introduction of cabbages into England?
C. H.
Sir William "Usher," not "Upton" (Vol. viii., p. 328.), was appointed Clerk of the Council in Ireland, March 22, 1593. He was knighted by Sir George Carey, Law Deputy, on St. James' Day, 1603; and died in 16—, having married Isabella Loftus, eldest daughter of Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin. Of what family was he?
Y. S. M.
"Buckle" (Vol. viii., pp. 127. 304. 526.).—An awkward person, working incautiously with a saw, will probably, to use a carpenter's phrase, buckle it; that is, give it a bend or twist which will injure its working.
Y. S. M.
Cornwall Family (Vol. ix., p. 304.).—John Cornwall, Esq., a director of the Bank of England, 1769, bore the arms and crest of the ancient family of that name of Burford, in Shropshire, of which he was a member. A full account of this distinguished family is now preparing under their sanction.
E. D.
John of Gaunt (Vol. ix., p. 432.).—Perhaps the best method of explaining to Y. S. M. the unmistakeable nose of the descendants of John of Gaunt, will be to refer him to the complete series of portraits at Badminton, concluding with the late Duke of Beaufort. He will then comprehend what is difficult to describe in the physiognomy of
"That mighty line, whose sires of old
Sprang from Britain's royal blood;
All its sons were wise and bold,
All its daughters fair and good!"
E. D.
"Wellesley" or "Wesley" (Vol. viii., pp. 173. 255.).—Your readers will find, in Lynch's Feudal Dignities, the name spelt Wellesley in Ireland, so long ago as the year 1230, and continued so for several centuries at least subsequent to that date. The Public Records also bear evidence of the high position and great influence of the Wellesleys, not Wesleys, for a lengthened period in Irish history.
Y. S. M.
Mantel-piece (Vol. ix., pp. 302. 385.).—In old farm-houses, where the broad, open fireplace and hearth still exist, a small curtain, or rather valance, is often suspended from below the mantle-shelf, the object apparently being the exclusion of draughts and smoke. May not the use of this sort of mantel have caused the part of the fireplace from which it hangs to be called the mantel-piece?
Edgar MacCulloch.
Guernsey.
"Mantel, n. s. (mantel, old French, or rather the German word mantel, 'Germanis mantel non pallium modo significat, sed etiam id omne quod aliud circumdat: hinc murus arcis, atque structura quæ focum invertit, mantel ipsis dicitur.' V. Ducange in v. Mantum). Work raised before a chimney to conceal it, whence the name, which originally signifies a cloak."—Todd's Johnson.
Richardson gives the two following quotations from Wotton:
From them (Italians) we may better learn, both how to raise fair mantles within the rooms, and how to disguise gracefully the shafts of chimneys abroad (as they use) in sundry forms."—Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 37.
"The Italians apply it (plastick) to the mantling of chimneys with great figures, a cheap piece of magnificence."—Id. p. 63.
Zeus.
"Perturbabantur," &c. (Vol. ix., p. 452.).—When I first learned to scan verses, somewhere about thirty years ago, the lines produced by your correspondent P. were in every child's mouth, with this story attached to them. It was said that Oxford had received from Cambridge the first line of the distich, with a challenge to produce a corresponding line consisting of two words only. To this challenge Oxford replied by sending back the second line, pointing out, at the same time, the false quantity in the word "Constantinŏpolitani."
J. Sansom.
The story connected with these lines current at Cambridge in my time was, that the University of Oxford challenged the sister university to match the first line; to which challenge the second line was promptly returned from Cambridge by way of reply. At Oxford, I believe, the story is reversed, as neither university is willing to own to the false quantity in "Constantinŏpolitani."
J. Eastwood, M.A.
The classic legend attached to these two lines (and there are only two in the legend) is that the Oxonians sent a challenge to the Cantabs to make
a binomial pentameter corresponding to "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani." The Cantabs immediately returned the challenge by sending "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus." Perhaps it is worthy of remark, though not evident except to a Greek scholar, that the first line contains at least one false quantity, for "Constantinopolĭtani" must have the antepenultima long, as being derived from πολίτης. The lengthening of the fourth syllable may perhaps have been considered as a compensation, though rather a præ-posterous one.
Charles De la Pryme.
I remember to have heard that the history of these two lines is as follows:—The head of one of our public schools having a talent for composing extraordinary verses, sent the first line, "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani," to a friend of his, who was at the time the captain of another public school, asking him at the same time whether he could compose anything like it. The answer returned was the second line, "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus,"—a line, in my opinion, much superior to the former, as well for other reasons as that it is free from any false quantity; while, as any Greek scholar will at once find out, the antepenultimate syllable of "Constantinopolitani" must be long, being derived from the Greek word πολίτης.
I never heard of any more lines of the same description.
P. A. H.
I have always understood that once upon a time the Eton boys, or those of some other public school, sent the hexameter verse, "Perturbabantur Constantinopolitani," to the Winchester boys, challenging them to produce a pentameter verse consisting of only two words, and making sense. The Winchester boys added, "Innumerabilibus sollicitudinibus."
Wiccamicus.
Edition of "Othello" (Vol. ix., p. 375.).—The work inquired for, with the astrological (the editor would have called them hieroglyphic) notes, forms part of the third volume of the lunatic production of Mr. Robert Deverell, which I described in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., p. 61., entitled Discoveries in Hieroglyphics and other Antiquities, 6 vols. 8vo., Lond. 1813.
J. F. M.
In case it would be of any use to M. A., Mr. Cole, the late lessee of the Theatre Royal, Dublin, is now reader of plays (I think) to Mr. Kean at the Princesses Theatre; at all events he is connected with that establishment.
L. M. N.
Dublin.
Perspective (Vol. ix., pp. 300. 378.).—I shall be glad of a reference to any work on Perspective which treats satisfactorily of that part of the subject on which I made my Note. I think if Mr. Ferrey will draw a lofty building on either side of a landscape, he will not be satisfied with its appearance, if he makes that side of it which is in the plane of the picture perfectly rectangular. I often meet with instances in which it is so drawn, and they produce the effect on me of a note out of time. Mr. Stilwell's observation is only partially correct. There is one position of the eye, at a fixed distance from the picture, at which all the lines subtend equal angles at the eye with the corresponding lines of the original landscape. But a picture is not to be looked at from one point, and that at, probably, an inconvenient proximity to the eye. I have before me a print (in the Ill. Lond. News) of the interior of St. Paul's, of which the dome gives about as good an idea of proportion to the building, as the north part of Mercator's projection of the World. The whole building is depressed and top-heavy, simply because the perspective of lines in the plane of the picture is rectangular throughout. I have another interior (of Winchester Cathedral, by Owen Carter), which, being drawn on the same plan, gives the idea of a squat tunnel, unless looked at from one point of view, about eight inches from the picture. I feel that drawing these interiors so as not to offend the eye by either the excess or deficiency of perspective, is a great difficulty. But I think something may be done in the way of "humouring" the perspective, and approximating in our drawing to that which we know we see. The camera has thrown light upon the subject. We ought not to despise altogether the hints it gives us by its perhaps exaggerated perspective, in the case of parallel lines in the plane of the picture. I hope I may at least be able to draw out some more remarks upon a subject which I cannot help thinking, with Mr. Ingleby, is in an unsatisfactory and defective state.
G. T. Hoare.
Tandridge.
"Go to Bath" (Vol. ix., p. 421.).—I have little doubt but that this phrase is connected with the fact of Bath's being proverbially the resort of beggars; and what more natural, to one acquainted with this fact, than to bid an importunate applicant betake himself thither to join his fellows? See also Fuller's Worthies (co. Somerset).
I transcribe the passage for the benefit of those who have not the book at hand:
"Beggars of Bath.—Many in that place; some natives there, others repairing thither from all parts of the land; the poor for alms, the pained for ease. Whither should fowl flock in a hard frost, but to the barn-door? Here, all the two seasons, being the general confluence of gentry. Indeed laws are daily made to restrain beggars, and daily broken by the connivance of those who make them; it being impossible when the hungry belly barks, and bowels sound, to keep the tongue silent. And although oil of whip be the proper plaister for the cramp of laziness, yet some pity is due to impotent persons. In a word, seeing there is the Lazar's-bath in this city, I doubt not but many a good Lazarus, the true object of charity, may beg therein."
J. Eastwood, M.A.
R. R. inquires the origin of the above saying, but has forgotten the context, viz. "and get your head shaved." I have often heard it explained as an allusion to the fact, that, in former days, persons who showed symptoms of insanity were sent to Bath to drink the medicinal waters; the process of shaving the head being previously resorted to. The saying is applied to those who either relate "crack-brained" stories, or propose undertakings that raise a doubt as to their sanity.
N. L. T.
Ridings and Chaffings (Vol. ix., p. 370.).—Though unable to give Mr. Thomas Russell Potter any information respecting the "Ridings and Chaffings" of Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire, I send the following note of a somewhat similar custom prevalent in Oxfordshire (I never heard of it elsewhere), thinking it may perhaps interest him and others of your correspondents.
I remember once, about three years ago, I was walking in Blenheim Park, with a friend then resident at Woodstock, when suddenly the stillness of a summer evening was broken by strange and inharmonious sounds, coming to us across the water from the old town. The sounds grew louder and louder, and in great surprise I appealed to my friend for an explanation; when I learned that it was a custom in that part of the country, whenever it was discovered that a man had been beating his wife, for the neighbours to provide themselves with all sorts of instruments, fire-irons, kettles, and pots, in fine, anything capable of making a noise, and proceed en masse to the house of the offender, before whose door they performed in concert, till their indignation subsided or their arms grew weary; and that the noise we then heard was the distant sound of such music.
I do not know if my friend gave any name to this practice; if he did, I have since forgotten it. Doubtless, some of your Oxford readers can assist me.
R. V. T.
Mincing Lane.
At Marchington, in Staffordshire, the custom exists of having what is called a "Rantipole Riding" for every man who beats his wife. The ceremony is performed with great care and solemnity. A committee is formed to examine into the case. Then the village poet is employed to give a history of the occurrence in verse. The procession goes round in the evening with a cart, which serves as a stage on which the scene is acted and from which the verses are recited. The custom has been there observed, with so much judgment and discretion, that it has been productive of much good, and has now almost entirely put a stop to this disgraceful practice. I can remember several "ridings" in my younger days.
H. B.
Mr. Potter will find, upon referring to Vol. i., p. 245., that this custom prevails in Gloucestershire, with the substitution of straw for chaff. I have seen the Gloucestershire version both in Kent and Sussex, and have received an explanation of it similar to Mr. Potter's own supposition.
G. William Skyring.
Somerset House.
Faithful Commin (Vol. ix., p. 155.).—Your correspondent W. H. Gunner will find a detailed account of Faithful Commin in Foxes and Firebrands, a tract of which mention has been made in various Numbers of "N. & Q." It is there said to be extracted from the Memorials of Cecil Lord Burleigh, from whose papers it was transmitted to Archbishop Ussher. "The papers of the Lord Primate coming to the hands of Sir James Ware, his son, Robert Ware, Esq., has obliged the public by the communication of them."
Ἁλιεύς.
Dublin.
Heraldic Anomaly (Vol. ix., p. 430.).—Tee Bee's description of the arms on St. John's Gate is somewhat defective. They are engraved, and more completely described, in Cromwell's History of Clerkenwell [1828], p. 128.
W. P. Storer.
Olney, Bucks.
Odd Fellows (Vol. ix., p. 327.).—C. F. A. W. will find some of the Odd Fellows' secrets disclosed in a small volume entitled A Ritual and Illustrations of Free Masonry, &c., by a Traveller in the United States (third thousand): published by James Gilbert, 49. Paternoster Row, 1844. The Odd Fellows date from Adam, who was the odd and solitary representative of the human race before the creation of Eve.
Kennedy M‘Nab.
"Branks" (Vol. ix., p. 336.).—The word branks does occur in Burns, and signifies "wooden curb," but it is not in that sense it is used by Wodrow. The branks of the Covenanters was an iron collar and chain firmly fixed to a tree, or post, or pillar, about three feet from the ground. This was locked round the neck of the luckless offender, who was thus obliged to remain in a most inconvenient and painful crouching posture, being neither able to stand nor lie. Many of these are still to be seen in the neighbourhood of the residences of old Highland families who, ere Lord Hardwicke's Jurisdiction Act, exercised the powers of pit and gallows. There is one at the entrance to Culloden House, near Inverness.
Kennedy M‘Nab.