Replies To Minor Queries.
Master John Shorne.—As neither Mr. Thoms' Notes (Vol. ii., p. 387.) nor Mr. Way's (p. 450.) mention where this reputed saint lived, or speak of him as connected with Buckinghamshire, I will offer an extract from Lysons in the hope of casting some little light on the subject.
"North Marston.—The church is a handsome Gothic structure; there is a tradition that the chancel was built with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, a very devout man, of great veneration with the people, who was rector of North Marston about the year 1290, and it is said that the place became populous and flourishing in consequence of the great resort of persons to a well which he had blessed. This story stands upon a better foundation than most vulgar traditions; the great tithes of North Marston are still appropriated to the dean and canons of Windsor, who, before the Reformation, might without difficulty have rebuilt the chancel, as it is very probable they did, with the offerings at the shrine of Sir John Shorne, for we are told that they were so productive, that on an average they amounted to 500l. per annum.[[1]] Sir John Shorne, therefore, although his name is not to be found, appears to have been a saint of no small reputation. The common people in the neighbourhood still keep up his memory by many traditional stories. Browne Willis, says, that in his time there were people who remembered a direction-post standing, which pointed the way to Sir John Shorne's shrine."[[2]]
North Marston, formerly Merston, is about four miles from Winslow. I visited it about a year ago, and drank of the well, or spring, which is about a quarter of a mile from the village; but I know nothing of the traditions alluded to by Lysons. The chancel of the church is a fine specimen of perpendicular style, with a vestry of the same date, and of two stories, with a fireplace in each. I do not find North Marston, in Bucks, mentioned in Leland, Camden, or Defoe, nor can I meet with any account of Sir John Shorne in any books of English saints within my reach. A copy of Browne Willis's MSS. may be seen in the British Museum.
W.H.K.
History of Windsor, p. 111.
B. Willis's MSS., Bodleian Library.
For the information of those who may not have the Norfolk Archæology to refer to, let me add that John Shorne appears to have been rector of North Marston, in Buckinghamshire, about the year 1290, "and was held in great veneration for his virtues, which his benediction had imparted to a holy well in his parish, and for his miracles, one of which, the feat of conjuring the devil into a boot, was considered so remarkable that it was represented in the east window of his church."
E.S.T.
Antiquity of Smoking.—The passage is in Herodian. In the time of Commodus there was a pestilence in Italy. The emperor went to Laurentum for the benefit of the smell of the laurel trees.
"In ipsa quoque urbe de medicorum sententia plerique unguentis suavissimus nares atque aures opplebant, suffituque[[3]] et odoramentis assidua utebantur, quod meatus sensuum (ut quidem dicunt) odoribus illis occupati, neque admittant aëra tabificum: et si maxime admiserint, tamen eum majore quasi vi longe superari."
This has nothing to do with the practice of smoking, nor is it clear that they smoked these things with a pipe into the mouth at all. The medical use of fumigation, as Sir William Temple observes, was greatly esteemed among the ancients. But it is very probable that, being sometimes practised by means of pipes, it was what led to the practice of smoking constantly, either for general medical protection, or merely for luxury, in countries and times too, when these epidemics from bad air were very common. The great love of smoking among the Turks may be originally owing to the plague.
C.B.
"Θυμιάμασί τε καὶ ἀρώμασι συνεχῶς ἐχρῶντο."
Antiquity of Smoking (Vol. ii., pp. 41. 216. 465.).—Mr. Lane, in his edition of the Arabian Nights, infers the very late date of that book from there being no mention of tobacco or coffee in it.
As two of the ancient authorities have broken down, it occurred to me that others might.
The reference to Strabo, vii. 296. leads me only to this; that the Mysians were called καπνοβάται (some correct to καπνοπάται) because they did not eat animals, but milk, cheese, and honey; but of religion, living quietly.
One cannot imagine that this can be meant. I referred to Almaloveen's edition, the old paging.
In the next page he repeats the epithet, coupling it, as before, with the word religious, and arguing from both as having the same meaning.
It occurred to me that somebody might have read καπνοπόται, "fumum bibentes," which might have given occasion to the reference to this passage: and I find in the English Passow that καπνοβόται, "smoke-eaters," has been proposed.
Καπνοπάται, is there derived from πάομαι.
But if these are the readings, they can have nothing to do with smoking, but with religion. From the context they would mean as we say, "living on air;" like Democritus, who subsisted three days upon the steam of new loaves.
Καπνοβάται meant, as I believe, to describe their religiousness more directly; treading on the clouds, living in the air: like Socrates in Aristophanes, Νεφ. 225.:
"Ἀεροβατῶ καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἤλιον,"
And in v. 330. καπνὸς is used of the clouds:
Μὰ Δῖ᾿ ἀλλ᾽ ὁμίχλην καὶ δρόσον αὐτὰς ἡγούμην καὶ καπνὸν εἶναι."
There is nothing in Solinus, cap. 15.; and Mela, lib. ii., is too wide a reference.
C.B.
Meaning of the Word "Thwaites"(Vol. ii., p. 441.).—The word "Thwayte" occurred in the ancient form of the Bidding Prayer: "Ye shalle byddee for tham, that this cherche honour with book, with bell, with vestiments, with Thwayte," &c. This form is said to be above four hundred years old; and Palmer says (Orig. Lit., iii. p. 60.) that we have memorials of these prayers used in England in the fourteenth century. Hearne remarks that the explication of this word warranted by Sir E. Coke is "a wood grubbed up and turned to arable." This land being given to any church, the donors were thus commended by the prayers of the congregation.
In Yorkshire the word is so understood: Thwaite, or "stubbed ground, ground that has been essarted or cleaned."
J.H.M.
Meaning of "Thwaites" (Vol. ii., p. 441.).—Hearne took the word "Thwayte" to signify "a wood grubbed up and turned into arable." His explanation, with other suggestions as to the meaning, of this word, may be found in a letter from Hearne to Mr. Francis Cherry, printed in vol. i. p. 194. of Letters written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, published by Longman and Co. in 1813.
J.P. Jr.
December 5. 1850.
Thomas Rogers of Horninger (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—Your correspondent S.G. will find a brief notice of this person in Rose's Biographical Dictionary, London, 1848. It appears he was rector of Horninger, and a friend of Camden; who prefixed some commendatory verses to a work of his, entitled The Anatomy of the Mind. I would suggest to S.G. that further information may probably be collected respecting him from these verses, and from the prefaces, &c. of his other works, of which a long list is given in Rose's Dictionary.
T.H. Kersley, A.B.
King William's Col., Isle of Man.
Thomas Rogers of Horninger (Vol. ii., p 424.).—If S.G. will apply to the Rev. J. Perowne, of his own college, who is understood to be preparing an edition of Rogers's work for the Parker Society, he will doubtless obtain the fullest information.
A.H.
Earl of Roscommon (Vol. ii., p. 468.).—A pretended copy of the inscription at Kilkenny West, mentioned by your correspondent An Hibernian, was produced in evidence, on the claim of Stephen Francis Dillon to the earldom of Roscommon, before the House of Lords. As there was reason to doubt the evidence of the person who produced that copy, or the genuineness of the inscription itself, the House decided against that claim; and by admitting that of the late earl (descended from the youngest son of the first earl) assumed the extinction of all the issue of the six elder sons. The evidence adduced altogether negatived the presumption of any such issue. Your correspondents Francis and An Hibernian will find a very clear and succinct account of the late earl's claim, and Stephen Francis Dillon's counter-claim, in The Roscommon Claim of Peerage, by J. Sidney Tayler, Lond. 1829.
W.H.C.
Parse (Vol. ii., p. 430.).—Your correspondent J.W.H. is far from correct in supposing that this word was not known in 1611, for he will find it used by Roger Ascham, in a passage quoted by Richardson in his Dictionary sub voce.
In Brinsley's curious Ludus Literarius, 1612, reprinted 1627, 4to., the word is frequently used. At page 69. he recommends the "continual practice of parsing." At p. 319., enumerating the contents of chap. vi., we have "The Questions of the Accidence, called the Poasing of the English Parts;" and chap. ix. is "Of Parsing and the kinds thereof, &c."
At the end of a kind of introduction there is an "Advertisement by the Printer," intimating that the author's book, "The Poasing of the Accidence," is likely to come forth. From all this, it seems as if the two words were used indifferently.
F.R.A.
The Meaning of "Version" (Vol. ii., p. 466.).—T. appears to apply a peculiar meaning of his own to the word "version," which it would have been quite as well if he had explained in a glossarial note.
He thinks A.E.B. was mistaken in using that phrase in reference to Lord Bacon's translation into Latin of his own English original work, and he proceeds to compare (to what end does not very clearly appear) a sentence from Lord Bacon's English text, with the same sentence as re-translated back again from Lord Bacon's Latin by Wats. Finally, T. concludes with this very singular remark: "Wats' version is the more exact of the two!"
Does T. mean to call Lord Bacon's English text a version of his Latin, by anticipation of eighteen years?
The only other authority for such meaning of the word would seem to be the facetious Dr. Prout, who accused Tom Moore of a similar version of his celebrated papers.
A.E.B.
First Paper-mill in England (Vol. ii., p. 473).—The birthplace of the "High Germaine Spilman" (Spielmann), celebrated by Churchyard, your English readers may not easily discover by his description as quoted by Dr. Rimbault.
"Lyndoam Bodenze" is Lindau am Boden-see, on the Lake of Constance (in German, Bodensee), once a free imperial city, called, from its site on three islets in the lake, "the Swabian Venice," now a pretty little town belonging to the kingdom of Bavaria.
V.
"Torn by Horses" (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—This cruel death was suffered by Ravaillac, who accomplished what Jean Châtel failed in doing.
The execution took place on the 27th of May, 1610, with the most atrocious severities of torture, of which the drawing by horses was but the last out of a scene that continued for many hours. The day before he had been racked to the very extremity of human suffering. The horses dragged at the wretch's body for an hour in vain; at length a nobleman present sent one of his own, which was stronger; but this even would not suffice. The executioner had to sever the mangled body with his knife, before the limbs would give way. I could add more of these details, but the subject is intolerable.
The execution of Ravaillac was followed with the utmost exactness, but with more cruelty, if possible, in the case of Damiens (sentenced for the attempt on Louis le Bien-Aimé), who suffered on the Place de Grève, March 28. 1757. The frightful business lasted from morning till dusk! Here again the knife was used before the body gave way, the horses having dragged at it for more than an hour first; the poor wretch living, it is said, all the while!
I believe this was the last instance of the punishment in France, if not in Europe.
A concise summary of the trials of these men, and all the hideous details of their tortures and execution, will be found, by those who have a taste for such things, in the third volume of the new series of the Neuer Pitaval, edited by Hitzig and Haring (Leipzig, Brockhaus),—a collection of causes célèbres which has been in course of publication at intervals since 1842. The volume in question appeared in the present year (1850).
V.
Belgravia.
Vineyards (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—At Ingatestone Hall, in Essex, one of the seats of Lord Petre, a part of the ground on the south side of the house still goes by the name of "the Vineyard." And this autumn grapes came to great perfection on the south wall.
J.A.D.
Cardinal (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—The expression referred to by O.P.Q. was in some degree illustrated at the coronation of Edward II., 1308, when the Pope, wishing the ceremony to be performed by a cardinal, whom he offered to send for the purpose, was strenuously opposed by the king, and compelled to withdraw his pretensions. (See Curtis's History of England, vol. ii. p. 309.)
C.H.
St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.
Weights for weighing Coins (Vol. ii., p. 326.).—If the question of your correspondent, who wishes to know at what period weights were introduced for weighing coins, is intended to have a general reference, he will find many passages alluding to the practice amongst the ancient Romans, who manufactured balances of various kinds for that purpose: one for gold (statera auraria, Varro Ap. Non., p. 455., ed. Mercer.; Cic. Or. ii. 38.); another for silver (Varro De Vit. P.R. lib. ii.); and another for small pieces of money (trutina momentana pro parva modicaque pecunia. Isidor. Orig., xvi. 25. 4.). The mint is represented on the reverse of numerous imperial coins and medals by three female figures, each of whom holds a pair of scales, one for each of the three metals; and in Rich's Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary, under the word Libra, there is exhibited a balance of very peculiar construction, from an original in the cabinet of the Grand Duke at Florence, which has a scale at one end of the beam, and a fixed weight at the opposite extremity, "to test the just weight of a given quantity, and supposed to have been employed at the mint for estimating the proper weight of coinage."
Moneta.
Umbrellas (Vol. i., p. 414. etc.).—To the extensive exhibition of umbrellas formed through the exertions of the right worthy editor of the "Notes AND Queries" and his very numerous friends, I am happy to have it in my power to make an addition of considerable curiosity, it being of much earlier date than any specimen at present in the collection:—
"Of doues I haue a dainty paire
Which, when you please to take the aier,
About your head shall gently houer,
Your cleere browe from the sunne to couer,
And with their nimble wings shall fan you
That neither cold nor heate shall tan you,
And, like vmbrellas, with their feathers
Sheeld you in all sorts of weathers."
Michael Drayton, 1630.
Had not the exhibition been limited to umbrellas used in England, I could have produced oriental specimens, very like those now in fashion here, of the latter part of the sixteenth century.
Bolton Corney.
Croziers and Pastoral Staves (Vol. ii., p. 412.).—The staff with the cross appears on the monument of Abp. Warham, in Canterbury Cathedral; on the brass of Abp. Waldeby (1397), in Westminster Abbey and on that of Abp. Cranley (1417), in New College Chapel, Oxford.
The crook is bent outwards in the brasses to the following bishops:—Bp. Trellick (1360), Hereford Cathedral; Bp. Stanley (1515), Manchester Cathedral; Bp. Goodrich (1554), Ely Cathedral; and Bp. Pursglove (1579), Tideswell Church, Derbyshire.
J.I.D.