MINOR QUERIES.
Trogus Pompeius.—In Hannay and Dietrichsen's Almanuck for the Year 1849, I find the following statement under the head of "Remarkable Occurrences of the Year 1847:"—
"July 21. A portion of the history of Trogus Pompeius (the author abridged by Justin) is discovered in the library of Ossolinski at Berlin."
Not having noticed any contemporary account of this occurrence, I should be glad of any information respecting the nature and extent of the discovery.
E.L.N.
Mortuary Stanzas.—Could any of your readers supply me with information respecting the practice of appending mortuary stanzas to the yearly bills of mortality, published in many parishes; whether there are any extant specimens of such stanzas besides those memorable poems of Cowper written for the parish clerk of Northampton; and whether, also, the practice is still kept up in any parts of the country?
[Greek: Philopatris].
Laird of Grant.—In the north of England, I have repeatedly heard the auld wife remark, on observing any unwonted act of extravagance, such as burning more than the ordinary number of candles, &c. &c.,—"Who is to be Laird of Grant next year?" As this saying appears to be used only in the north, I have no other medium at present than to seek a reply through the aid of your valuable little work.
SENEX.
[A similar "saw" was formerly current in the metropolis,—"What, three candles burning! we shall be Lord Mayor next year.">[
Bastille, MS. Records of.—Are there amongst the MSS. of the British Museum any documents relating to spies, or political agents, employed by the French and English governments from 1643 to 1715, who were incarcerated in the Bastille?
M.V.
Orkney under the Norwegians.—Torfæus (Orcades), under the transactions of the year 1430 (p. 182-3.), has an incidental mention of the Orkneys as among the forbidden islands, "vetitæ insulas," of which the commerce was forbidden to strangers, and confined to the mother country, as to this day it is with Denmark and her possessions of the Faroe Islands and Iceland, both mentioned in the paragraph of the historian among the islands whose commerce was restricted. It would be very desirable to know of the social state of Orkney under the government of Norway and its native Jarls of the Norwegian race, and or its connexion with Norway and Denmark; and some of your correspondents may take the trouble to point out sources of information on the subject of this Query.
W.H.F.
Kirkwall
Swift's Works.—In Wilde's Closing Years of Dean Swift's Life (2d edit. p. 78.) is mentioned an autograph letter from Sir Walter Scott to C.G. Gavelin, Esq., of Dublin, in the MS. library. T.C.D., in which he states he had nothing whatever to do with the publication or revision of the second edition of the Works of Jonathan Swift. This does not agree with the statement given in Mr. Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, 2d edit. vol. vii. p. 215. Who was the editor, and in what does the second edition differ from the first?
W.H.F.
"Pride of the Morning."—Why is the small rain which falls in the morning, at some seasons of the year, called "the pride of the morning?"
P.H.F.
Bishop Durdent and the Staffordshire Historians.—It is stated by Sampson Erdeswich, Esq., in his Survey of Staffordshire, p. 164, 12mo. 1717, that—
"Not far from Tame, Roger Durdent held Fisherwicke of the bishop, 24 Ed. I. And 4 Ed. II. Nicholas Durdent was lord of it, which I suppose was procured to some of his ancestors of the same name by their kinsman Walter Durdent, Bishop of Litchfield, in Henry II.'s time."
but no authority is given for this statement.
In Shaw's History of Staffordshire, p. 365., fol., 1798, it is further recorded that—
"Walter Durdent, in the beginning of Henry II., appears to have granted it (Fisherwicke) to some of his relations, for we find William Durdent of Fisherwicke temp. Henry II.; and in the 40th of Hen. III. Roger Durdent occurs, who held Fisherwicke of the bishop, 24 Ed. I. In the 4 Ed. II. Nicholas Durdent was lord of it."
Shaw refers to Erdeswick, and to the Annals of Burton Abbey, p. 364.
In Dr. Harwood's edition of Erdeswick, 8vo., 1844, the same statements are repeated, but no authority is adduced. Could any of your correspondents obligingly furnish me with the original sources of information to which Erdeswick had access, and also with any biographical notices of Bishop Durdent besides those which are recorded in Godwin and Shaw? The bishop had the privilege of coining money. (See Shaw's Staffordshire, pp. 233. 265.) Are any of his coins known to numismatists?
F.R.R.
Pope and Bishop Burgess.—To what passage in Pope's writings does the conclusion of the following extract refer?[1]
"Digammaticæ doctrinæ idem accidit. In his Popius eam in ludibrium vertit, &c. Sed eximius Poeta neque in veteribus suæ ipsius linguæ, nedum Græcæ monumentis versatus, tantum scilicet de antiqua illa litera vidit, quantum de Shakespearii SAGITTARIO."
W.W.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
3d ed. of Dawes's Mis. Critic, p. xviii, note x.
Daniel's Irish New Testament.—F.G.X. will be much obliged for information on the following points:—
1. Which is the most correct edition, as to printing and orthography, of Daniel's Irish New Testament?
2. Does the edition now on sale by the Bible Society bear the character for incorrectness as to these points, which, judged by itself, it appears to deserve, or is it really, though "bad, the best?"
3. F.G.X. is far advanced with an Irish Testament Concordance. Can any one possessed of the requisite information give him hope of the acceptableness of such a publication? He should expect it to be chiefly useful to clerical Irish students in acquiring a knowledge of words and construction; but the lists of Irish Bibles disposed of of late years would lead to the supposition of its being desirable also as pointing out the place of passages to the native reader.
4. Does the Cambridge University Library contain a copy of the first edition of Daniel's translation?
Ale Draper—Eugene Aram.—In Hargrove's well-known history of Eugene Aram, the hero of Bulwer's still better known novel, one of the guilty associates of the Knaresborough murderer is designated as an "Ale Draper." As this epithet never presented itself in my reading, and as I am not aware that draper properly admits of any other definition than that given by Johnson, "one who deals in cloth," may I ask whether the word was ever in "good use" in the above sense?
My main purpose in writing, is to propound the foregoing Query; but while I have the pen in hand permit me to ask,—
1. Whether it be possible to read the celebrated "defence," so called, which was delivered by Aram on his trial at York, without concurring with the jury in their verdict, and with the judge in his sentence? In short, without a strong feeling that the prisoner would not have been hanged, but for that over-ingenious, and obviously evasive, address, in which the plain averment of "not guilty" does not occur.
2. Has not the literary character, especially the philological attainments, of this noted malefactor been vastly over-rated? And
3. Ought not the "memoirs" of "this great man" by Mr. Scatcherd to be ranked among the most remarkable attempts ever made, and surely made
"—in vain,
To wash the murderer from blood-guilty stain?"
D.
Rotherfield
Latin Epigram.—Can any of your correspondents inform me who was the author of the following epigram:—
IN MEMORIAM G.B.M.D.
"Te tandem tuus Oreus habet, quo civibus Orei
Gratius haud unquam misit Apollo caput;
Quippe tuo jussu terras liquere, putantque
Tartara se jussu linquere posse tuo."
The person alluded to was Sir W. Browne, M.D., the founder of the Browne medals in the University of Cambridge. Some old fellow of King's College may be able to inform me.
The medals were first given about the year 1780, and in the first year, I presume, out of respect to the memory of the donor, no subject was given for Epigrams. It has occurred to me, that perhaps some wag on that occasion sent the lines as a quiz.
W.S.
Richmond, Surrey
Couplet in De Foe—
"Restraint from ill is freedom to the wise,
And good men wicked liberties despise."
This couplet is at the end of the second letter in De Foe's Great Law of Subordination, p. 42. Is it his own? If not, where did he get it?
N.B.
Books wanted to refer to.—
"Hollard's Travels (1715), by a French Protestant Minister, afterwards suppressed by the author."
"Thomas Bonnell, Mayor of Norwich, Life of."
"Canterbury, Letters and Memoirs on the Excommunication of two Heretics, 1698."
"The Book of Seventy-seven French Protestant Ministers, presented to Will'm III."
If any of your readers can refer me to the above works I shall be glad. They may be in the British Museum, although I have searched there in vain for them.
J.S.B.
Water-marks in Writing-paper.—Can any of your correspondents indicate any guide to the dating of paper by the water-mark. I think I have read of some work on that subject, but have no precise recollection about it. I have now before me several undated MSS. written on paper of which it would be very desirable to fix the exact date. They evidently belonged to Pope, Swift, and Lady M.W. Montague, as they contain their autographs. They are all of that size called Pro Patria, and two of them have as water-mark a figure of Britannia with a lion brandishing a sword within a paling, and the motto Pro Patria over the sword. Of one of these the opposite page has the initials GR, and the other has IX; but the paper has been cut off in the middle of the water-mark and only exhibits half the figure IV. Another sheet has the royal arms (1. England and Scotland impaled, 2. France, 3. Ireland, 4. the white horse of Hanover,) within the garter, and surmounted by the crown, and on the opposite page GR. within a crowned wreath. There is no doubt that they were all manufactured between 1715 and 1740; but is there any means of arriving at a more precise date?
C.
Puzzling Epitaph.—The following curious epitaph was found in a foreign cathedral:—
EPITAPHIUM.
"O quid tuæ
be est biæ;
ra ra ra
es et in
ram ram ram
ii."
The following is plainly the solution of the last four lines:—
ra, ra, ra, is thrice ra, i.e. ter-ra=terra.
ram, ram, ram, is thrice ram, i.e. ter-ram=terram.
ii is i twice, i.e. i-bis=ibis.
Thus the last four lines are,—
"Terra es et in terram ibis."
Can any one furnish a solution of the two first lines?
J. BDN.
[We would suggest that the first two lines are to be read "O super be, quid super est, tuæ super biæ," and the epitaph will then be—
"O superbe quid superest tuæ superbiæ
Terra es, et in terram ibis."—ED.]
MSS. of Cornish Language.—Are there any ancient MSS. of the Cornish language, or are there any works remaining in that language, besides the Calvary and Christmas Carol published by the late Davies Gilbert?
J.A. GILES.
Bilderdijk the Poet.—Banished from his native country, disowned by his own countrymen, the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk pitched his tent for a while on the hospitable soil of Old England. Prince William V. residing in 1795 at Hampton Court, he resolved to stay there; but, possessing no income at all, and, like the sage of antiquity, having saved nothing from the shipwreck but his genius, he shifted his dwelling-place to London, where he gave lessons in drawing, languages, and various, even medical, sciences. He was married in England to Katharine Wilhelmina Schweickhardt, on the 18th of May, 1797. His residence in the birthplace of "NOTES AND QUERIES" makes me ask, if there be still persons living, who remember him as teacher, friend, or poet? A presentation-copy of Mrs. Bilderdijk's translation of Rodrick, the Last of the Goths, was offered to Southey, accompanied by a Latin letter from her spouse. The poet-laureate visiting Leyden in the summer of 1825, Bilderdijk would not suffer him to remain lodged in the inn, where an injury to his leg urged him to favour the landlord with a protracted stay. Southey was transported accordingly to the Dutch poet's house; and did not leave it before he was cured, several weeks having elapsed in the meanwhile. Mention of this fact is made in a poem the British bard addresses to Cuninghame. I do not know whether it is alluded to in Southey's Life.
Bilderdijk's foot was crushed accidentally, in the sixth year of his age, by one of his play-fellows; and thus he, who, by his natural disposition seemed to be destined to a military career, was obliged to enlist in the militia togata. He fought the good fight in verse. It is remarkable that Byron and Sir Walter Scott, his cotemporaries, were also lame or limping.
JANUS DOUSA.
Egyptian MSS.—What is the age of the oldest MS. found in Egypt? Are there any earlier than the age of Alexander?
J.A. GILES.
Scandinavian Priesthood.—Will one of your correspondents do me the favour to let me know the best authority I can refer to for information as to the priesthood of the Scandinavians; the mode of their election, the rank from which they were generally chosen, whether they were allowed to marry, &c.?
MAX BRANDESON.
Thomas Volusemus (or Wilson?).—Is anything known of Thomas Volusemus (Wilson?) who edited the works of his father-in-law, Patrick Adamson, titular Archbishop of St. Andrew's, which were published in London A.D. 1619?
H.A.E.