Replies to Minor Queries.
Forged Papal Bulls (Vol. ii., p. 491.).—In your Number, 20th Dec., J. E. inquires where is the instrument for counterfeiting the seal of the Pope's Bulls, which was dredged up from the ruins of old London Bridge. It is in my possession, and your correspondent will find an account of it, with woodcuts of the instrument itself and the seal, in the Proceedings of the Archæological Association, 11th Feb. 1846.
Geo. R. Corner.
Eltham.
Obeism.—As your correspondent T. H. (Vol. iii., p. 59.) desires "any information" on the subject of Obeism, in the absence of more and better, I offer my mite: that in the early part of this century it was very common among the slave-population in the West Indies, especially on the remoter estates—of course of African origin—not as either a "religion" or a "rite," but rather as a superstition; a power claimed by its professors, and assented to by the patients, of causing good or evil to, or averting it from them; which was of course always for a "consideration" of some sort, to the profit, whether honorary, pecuniary, or other, of the dispenser. It is by the pretended influence of certain spells, charms, ceremonies, amulets worn, or other such incantations, as practised with more or less diversity by the adepts, the magicians and conjurers, the "false prophets" of all ages and countries.
On this matter, a curious phenomenon to investigate would be, the process by which the untonsured neophyte is converted into the bonneted doctor; the progress and stages of his mind in the different phases of the practice; how he begins by deceiving himself, to end in deceiving others; the first uninquiring ignorance; the gradual admission of ideas, what he is taught or left to imagine; the faith, of what is fancied to be so, the mechanical belief; then the confusion of thought from the intrusion of doubt and uncertainty; the adoption of some undefined notions; and, finally, actual unbelief; followed by designed and systematic injustice in the practice of what first was taken up in sincerity, though even this now perhaps is not unmixed with some fancy of its reality. For this must be the gradation more or less gone through in all such things, whether Obeism, Fetichism, the Evil Eye, or any sort of sorcery or witchcraft, in whatever variousness of form practised; cheats on the one hand, and dupes on the other the primum mobile in every case being, some shape or other of gain to the practitioner.
It seems, however, hardly likely that Obeism should now be "rapidly gaining ground again" there, from the greater spread of Christianity and diffusion of enlightenment and information in general since the slave-emancipation; as also from the absence of its feeding that formerly accompanied every fresh importation from the coast: as, like mists before the mounting sun, all such impostures must fade away before common sense, truth, and facts, whenever these are allowed their free influence.
The conclusion, then, would rather be, that Obeism is on the decline only more apparent, when now seen, than formerly, from its attracting greater notice.
M.
Obeahism.—In answer to T. H.'s Query regarding Obeahism, though I cannot answer his question fully, as to its origin, &c., yet I have thought that what I can communicate may serve to piece out the more valuable information of your better informed correspondents. I was for a short time in the island of Jamaica, and from what I could learn there of Obeahism, the power seemed to be obtained by the Obeah-man or woman, by working upon the fears of their fellow-negroes, who are notoriously superstitious. The principal charm seemed to be, a collection of feathers, coffin furniture, and one or two other things which I have forgotten. A small bundle of this, hung over the victim's door, or placed in his path, is supposed to have the power of bringing ill luck to the unfortunate individual. And if any accident, or loss, or sickness should happen to him about the time, it is immediately imputed to the dreaded influence of Obeah! But I have heard of cases where the unfortunate victim has gradually wasted away, and died under this powerful spell, which, I have been informed by old residents in the island, is to be attributed to a more natural cause, namely, the influence of poison. The Obeah-man causes a quantity of ground glass to be mixed with the food of the person who has incurred his displeasure; and the result is said to be a slow but sure and wasting death! Perhaps some of your medical readers can say whether an infusion of powdered glass would have this effect. I merely relate what I have been told by others.
While speaking of the superstition of the negroes, I may mention a very curious one, very generally received and universally believed among them, called the rolling calf, which, if you wish, I will give you an account of in my next.
D. P. W.
Pillgarlick (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 42. 74.).—It seems to me that the passage quoted from Skelton by F. S. Q. completely elucidates the meaning of this word. Let us premise that, according to all principles of English etymology, pill-garlick is as likely to mean "the pillar of garlick" as to be a syncopated form of "pill'd garlick." Now we see from Skelton's verse that in his time the peeling of garlick was proverbially a degraded employment—one which was probably thrust off upon the lowest inmate of the servants' hall, in an age when garlick entered largely into the composition of all made dishes. The disagreeable nature of the occupation is sufficient to account for this. Accordingly we may well suppose that the epithet "a poor pill-garlick" would be applied to any person, in miserable circumstances, who might be ready to undertake mean employment for a trifling gratuity.
This, I think, satisfactorily answers the original question, "Whence comes the expression?" The verse quoted by F. S. Q. satisfactorily establishes the orthography, viz., pill garlick. A Query of some interest still remains—In what author do we first find the compound word?
R. D. H.
Pillgarlick (Vol. iii., p. 74.).—That to pill is merely another form of the word to peel, appears from the book of Genesis, c. xxx., v. 37, 38: "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree: and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks," &c.
On first seeing your correspondent's Query, it occurred to me that perhaps "poor Pillgarlick" was in some way akin to "Pillicock," of whom Edgar, in King Lear, records that "Pillicock sat on Pillicock's hill;" but the connexion between these two worthies, if any, I confess myself quite unable to trace.
I conceive that Pillgarlick means "peeler of garlick," i.e. scullion; or, to borrow a phrase from a witness in a late case at the Middlesex sessions,
which has attracted some attention, "a person in a low way of life."
The passage from Skelton, cited by your correspondent F. S. Q., may, I think, be explained thus: the will is so powerful in man's moral constitution, that the reason must content itself with an inferior place (as that of a scullion compared with that of the master of the house); or if it attempts to assert its proper place, it will find it a hopeless endeavour—as hopeless as that of "rosting a stone."
X. Z.
Hornbooks (Vol. ii., pp. 167. 236.).—In answer to Mr. Timbs, I send you the following particulars of a Hornbook in the British Museum, which I have this morning examined.
It is marked in the new catalogue (Press Mark 828, a. 55.). It contains on one side the "Old English Alphabet"—the capitals in two lines, the small letters in one. The fourth line contains the vowels twice repeated (perhaps to doubly impress upon the pupil the necessity of learning them). Next follow, in two columns, our ancient companions, "ab, eb, ib," &c., and "ba, be, bi," &c. After the formula of exorcism comes the "Lord's Prayer" (which is given somewhat differently to our present version), winding up with "i. ii. iii. iiii. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x." On the other side is the following whimsical piece of composition:—
"What more could be wished for, even by a literary gourmand under the Tudors, than to be able to Read and Spell; To repeat that holy charm before which fled all unholy Ghosts, Goblins, or even the old Gentleman himself to the very bottom of the Red Sea, and to say that immortal prayer, which secures heaven to all who ex animo use it, and those mathematical powers, by knowing units, from which spring countless myriads."
Now for my "Query." Can any of your correspondents oblige me with the probable date of this literally literary treasure, or refer me to any source of information on the subject?
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
Bacon (Vol. iii., p. 41.).—The explanation given in a former number from old Verstegan, of the original meaning of the family name of Bacon, and the application of the word to the unclean beast, with the corroboration from the pages of Collins's Baronetage, is very interesting. The word, as applied to the salted flesh of the dead animal, is another instance of the introduction of a foreign term for a dead animal, in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon name of the living animal. It was used in this sense in France at a very early period; and Ampère, in his Histoire Littéraire de la France avant le 12ième Siècle, iii. 482., mentions the word among other instances of Gallicisms in the Latin of the Carolingian diplomas and capitularies, and quotes the capitularies of Charles the Fat. Bacco, porc salé, from the vulgar word bacon, jambon. The word was in use as late as the seventeenth century in Dauphiné, and the bordering cantons of Switzerland, and is cited in the Moyen de Parvenir, ch. 38. The passage is curious, as it would seem to intimate that Lord Bacon was one of the personages introduced in that very extraordinary production of the Rabelaisian school.
I have frequently heard the word employed by the country people in the markets of Geneva.
J. B. D.
Lachrymatories (Vol. ii., pp. 326. 448.).—In illustration of the question as to the probable use of those small vases so commonly found in sepulchral monuments, I extract the following from Wayfaring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks. 2d edit. Introduction, pp. 6, 7. London: Chapman, 1849.
"The poorest of the sepulchres is certain to contain (in Greece) at least a few of these beautiful vases, the lachrymatories, &c.
* * * * *
When found in the graves of females, their form would generally seem to indicate that they had been used for containing scents, and other requisites of the toilet; in one that was found not long since, there was a preparation evidently (?) of rouge or some such paint for the face, &c., the mark left by the pressure of two fingers of a small hand was distinctly visible (?)."
To me, ignorant as I am of antiquarian matters, this sounds very curious; and I send it you in case you may find it worthy of insertion, as provocative of discussion, and with the utilitarian idea that I may gain some information on the subject.
C. D. Hamont.
Greenock, Jan. 16. 1851.
Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. iii., p. 11.).—An intercepted letter, apparently from a popish priest, preserved among the Venetian correspondence in the State Paper Office, gives the following account of the death-bed of the Queen; which, as illustrative of the observations of your correspondent Cudyn Gywn, may not be uninteresting:—
"London, 9 Martii, 1603.
"About 10 dayes synce dyed the Countess of Notingham. The Queene loved the Countess very much, and hath seemed to take her death very heavelye, remayning euer synce in a deepe melancholye, wth conceipte of her own death, and complayneth of many infirmyties, sodainlye to haue ouertaken her, as impostūmecoñ in her head, aches in her bones, and continuall cold in her legges, besides notable decay in iudgemt and memory, insomuch as she cannot attend to any discourses of governmt and state, but delighteth to heare some of the 100 merry tales, and such like, and to such is uery attentiue; at other tymes uery impatient, and testye, so as none of the Counsayle, but the secretary, dare come in her presence."
May we not class this story of her majesty's
predilection for the hundred merry tales among the "black relations of the Jesuits?"
Spes.
Meaning of Cefn.—What is the meaning of the Welsh word "Cefn" used as prefix?
Josephus.
1. The first meaning of the word "Cefn" is, "the back;" e.g. "Cefn dyn," "the back of a man."
2. It also signifies "the upper part of the ridge of some elevated and exposed land." As a prefix, its meaning depends upon the fact whether the word attached to it be an adjective or a substantive. If an adjective be attached, it has the second signification; i.e. it is the upper part of some exposed land, having the particular quality involved in the adjective, such as, "Cefndu," "Cefngwyn," "Cefncoch," the black, white, or red headland.
When a substantive is attached, it has the first signification; i.e. it is the back of the thing signified by the substantive; such as, "Cefnllys," the back of the court.
E. L.
Portrait of Archbishop Williams (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—There is a portrait of this prelate in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, in the Cloisters. The greater part of the archbishop's library was given to this library, but only one volume of it seems to have been preserved. It is of this library the remark is made in J. Beeverell, Délices de la Grande Bretagne, p. 847., 12mo., 1707:
"Il se trouve dans le cloistre une bibliothèque publique, qui s'ouvre soir et matin pendant les séances des Cours de Justice dans Westminstre."
μ.
Sir Alexander Cumming (Vol. iii., p. 39.).—In answer to an inquiry relative to Sir Alexander Cumming, of Culter, I may refer to the Scottish Journal (Menzies, Edin. 1848) of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions, &c., vol. ii. p. 254., where an extract from a MS. autobiography of the baronet is given. The work in which this occurs is little known; but, as a repertory of much curious and interesting information, deserved a more extensive circulation than it obtained. It stopped with the second volume, and is now somewhat scarce, as the unsold copies were disposed of for waste paper.
Pater-noster Tackling (Vol. iii., p. 89.).—Pater-noster fishing-tackle, so called in the shops, is used to catch fish (perch, for instance) which take the bait at various distances between the surface and the bottom of the water. Accordingly, hooks are attached to a line at given intervals throughout its length, with leaden shots, likewise regularly distributed, in order to sink it, and keep it extended perpendicularly in the water.
This regularity of arrangement, and the resemblance of the shots to beads, seems to have caused the contrivance to have been, somewhat fancifully, likened to a chaplet or rosary. In a rosary there is a bead longer than the rest, for distinction's sake called the Pater-noster; from whence that name applies to a rosary; and, therefore, to anything likened to it; and, therefore, to the article of fishing-tackle in question.
The word pater-noster, i.e. pater-noster-wise, is an heraldic term (vide Ash's Dictionary), applied to beads disposed in the form of a cross.
Robert Snow.
Welsh Words for Water (Vol. iii., p. 30.).—
"It is quite surprising," says Sharon Turner (Trans. of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. i. pt. i. p. 97.), "to observe that, in all the four quarters of the world, many nations signify this liquid by a vocable of one or more syllables, from the letter M."
He mentions the Hebrew word for it, mim; in Africa he finds twenty-eight examples, in Asia sixteen, in South America five, in North America three, in Europe three; and elsewhere, in Canary Islands one, in New Zealand one. He adds—
"We trace the same radical in the Welsh more, the sea, and in the Latin mare, humor, humidus.[[27]]
"All these people cannot be supposed to have derived their sound from each other. It must have descended to them from some primitive source, common to all."
From the expression used by J. W. H., "the connexion of the Welsh dwr with the Greek ὕδωρ is remarkable," he appears not to have known that Vezron found so many resemblances in the Doric or Laconic dialect, and the Celtic, that he thereupon raised the theory that the Lacedæmonians and the Celts were of the same—the Titanic—stock.
T. J.
Footnote 27:[(return)]
He may have added the Armoric or Breton mor, mar; and the Irish muir, mara.
Early Culture of the Imagination (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—The germ of the thought alluded to by Mr. Gatty is as ancient as the time of Plato, and may be found in the Republic, book ii. c. 17. If this will aid Mr. Gatty in his research, it is gladly placed at his disposal by
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
January 20. 1851.
Venville (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—R. E. G. inquires respecting the origin of this word, as applied to certain tenants round Dartmoor Forest. The name is peculiar to that district, and is applied chiefly to certain vills or villages (for the most part also parishes), and to certain tenements within them, which pay fines to the Lord of Lidford and Dartmoor, viz. the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The fines are supposed to be due in respect either of rights of common on the forest, or of trespasses committed by cattle on it; for the point is a vexata quæstio between the lord and tenants of Dartmoor and the tenants of the Venville lands, which lie along the boundaries of it.
In the accounts rendered to the lord of these fines, there was a distinct title, headed "Fines Villarum" when these accounts were in Latin; and I think it cannot be doubted that the lands and tenures under this title came to be currently called Finevill lands from this circumstance. Hence Fenvill, Fengfield, or Venvill; the last being now the usual spelling and pronunciation. R. E. G. may see a specimen of these accounts, and further observations on them, in Mr. Rowe's very instructive Perambulation of Dartmoor, published a year or two ago at Plymouth.
E. S.
Cum Grano Salis (Vol. iii., p. 88.) simply means, with a grain of allowance; spoken of propositions which require qualification. The Cambridge man's explanation, therefore, does not suit the meaning. I have always supposed that salis was added to denote a small grain. I find in Forcellini that the Romans called a small flaw in crystals sal.
C. B.
Hoops (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—The examples given in Johnson's article Farthingale will sufficiently answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned in Latimer with much indignant eloquence:
"I trow Mary had never a verdingale."
If the question had been, not whether they were in use as early as 1651, but whether they were in use in 1651, perhaps there would have been more difficulty, for they do not appear in Hollar's dresses, 1640.
C. B.
Cranmer's Descendants (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—It may be of some interest to C. D. F. to be informed, that the newspapers of the time recorded the death of Mr. Bishop Cranmer of Wivelescombe, co. Somerset, on the 8th April, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. He is said to have been a direct descendant of the martyred archbishop, to whose portraits he bore a strong personal resemblance.
J. D. S.
Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Captious" (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—Why may not the word have the same meaning as it has now? A captious person is not primarily a deceitful person, but either one who catches at any argument to uphold his own cause, or, more generally, one who catches or cavils at arguments or expressions used by another, and fastens a frivolous objection on them; one who takes exception to a point on paltry and insufficient grounds:
"Yet in this captious and intenible sieve
I still pour in the waters of my love."
i.e. yet into this sieve, which catches at, and yet never holds them, I still pour the waters of my love.
There seems to me a double meaning of the word captious, indicating an under-current of thought in the author; first, the literal sense, then the inferential: "this sieve catches at and seems as if it would intercept the waters of my love, but takes me in, and disappoints me, because it will not uphold them." The objection to explaining captious by simply fallacious, is that the word means this by inference or consequence, rather than primarily. Because one who is eager to controvert, i.e. who is captious, generally, but not always, acts for a sophistical purpose and means to deceive. Cicero, I believe, uses fallax and captiosus as distinct, not as synonymous, terms.
E. A. D.
Boiling to Death (Vol. ii., p. 519.).—
"Impoysonments, so ordinary in Italy, are so abominable among English, as 21 Hen. 8. it was made high treason, though since repealed; after which the punishment for it was to be put alive in a caldron of water, and there boiled to death: at present it is felony without benefit of clergy."—Chamberlayne's State of England,—an old copy, without a title-page.
Judging from the list of bishops and maids of honour, I believe the date to be 1669.
Wedsecnarf.
Dozen of Bread (Vol. ii., p. 49.).—The Duchess of Newcastle says of her Nature's Picture:
"In this volume there are several feigned stories, &c. Also there are some morals and some dialogues; but they are as the advantage loaf of bread to the baker's dozen." 1656.
Wedsecnarf.
Friday Weather (Vol. iii., p. 7.).—A very old friend of mine, a Shropshire lady, tells me that her mother (who was born before 1760) used to say that Friday was always the fairest, or the foulest, day of the week.
Wedsecnarf.
Saint Paul's Clock (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—In reply to Mr. Campkin's Query, I send you the following extract from Easton's Human Longevity (London, 1799):
"James Hatfield died in 1770, aged 105. Was formerly a soldier: when on duty as a centinel at Windsor, one night, at the expiration of his guard, he heard St. Paul's clock, London, strike thirteen strokes instead of twelve, and not being relieved as he expected he fell asleep; in which situation he was found by the succeeding guard, who soon after came to relieve him; for such neglect he was tried by a court-martial, but pleading that he was on duty his legal time, and asserting, as a proof, the singular circumstance of hearing St. Paul's clock strike thirteen strokes, which, upon inquiry, proved true—he was in consequence acquitted."
J. B. Colman.
Lunardi (Vol. ii., p. 469.).—I remember seeing Lunardi's balloon pass over the town of Ware, previous to its fall at Standon. I have seen the moonstone described by your correspondent C. J. F., but all that I can remember of an old song on the occasion is. "They thought it had been the man in the moon," alluding to the men in the fields, who ran away frightened. But a servant girl had
the courage to take the rope thrown out by Lunardi, and was well rewarded. It caused a great sensation, and many of the principal inhabitants of Ware and Wadesmill assembled with Lunardi at the Feathers Inn, at the latter place.
J. Taylor.
Newick, Sussex.
Outline in Painting.—J. O. W. H. (Vol. i., p. 318.) and H. C. K. (Vol. iii., p. 63.) are earnestly referred, for resolution of their doubts, to the work by Mr. Ruskin, in 2 vols. large 8vo., entitled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford, published by Smith and Elder, 1846.
Robert Snow.
Handbell before a Corpse (vol. iii., p. 68.).—Your correspondent
ב
. has too inconsiderately dismissed the Query which he has undertaken to answer touching the custom of ringing a handbell in advance of a funeral procession. He says, "I have never considered it as anything but a cast of the bell-man's office, to add more solemnity to the occasion."
The custom is invariably observed throughout Italy, and is common in France and Spain. I have witnessed at least some hundreds of funerals in various cities and villages of Piedmont, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Roman States, Naples, Elba, and Sicily; and in Malta; yet never knew I one without the handbell.
Its object, as first explained to me in Florence, is to clear the way for the procession; to remind passengers and loiterers to take off their hats; and to call the pious to their doors and windows to gaze upon the emblems of mortality, and to say a prayer for the repose of the departed soul.
Nocab.
Brandon the Juggler (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—Your correspondent T. Cr. is referred to Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 308. (edit. 1584) for a notice of this person and his pigeon.
Jas. Crossley.
"Words are Men's Daughters" (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—This line is taken from Dr. Madden's Boulter's Monument (Dublin, 1745, 8vo.), a poem which was revised by Dr. Johnson, but to which little attention has been paid by his biographers. Mr. Croker observes (edit. of Boswell, 1848, p. 107. note)—
"Dr. Madden wrote very bad verses. The few lines in Boulter's monument which rise above mediocrity may be attributed to Johnson."
Those who take the trouble to refer to the poem itself, will, notwithstanding Mr. Croker's hasty criticism, find a great many fine and vigorous passages, in which the hand of Johnson is clearly distinguishable, and which ought not to be allowed to remain unnoticed. Perhaps on a future occasion I may, in support of this opinion, give some specimens from the poem. The line as to which T. J. inquires,—
"Words are men's daughters, but God's Sons are things,"—
and which is in allusion to Genesis vi. 2. 4., is, I entertain no doubt, one of Dr. Johnson's insertions.
Jas. Crossley.
"Fine by degrees, and beautifully less" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—This line is from Prior's "Henry and Emma," a poem, upon the model of the "Nut-brown Maid." I copy part of the passage in which it occurs, for the sake of any of your readers who may be lovers of context, and may not have the poem at hand to refer to.
"Henry [addressing Emma].
"Vainly thou tell'st me what the woman's care
420
Shall in the wildness of the woods prepare;
Thou, ere thou goest, unhappiest of thy kind,
Must leave the habit and the sex behind.
No longer shall thy comely tresses break
In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck;
Or sit behind thy head, an ample round,
In graceful braids with various ribbon bound:
No longer shall the bodice aptly lac'd
From thy full bosom to thy slender waist,
That air and harmony of shape express,
430
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less:
Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait,
From thy fair side dependent to thy feet,
Arm their chaste beauties with a modest pride,
And double every charm they seek to hide."
C. Forbes.
Temple, Feb. 10.
[We are also indebted for replies to this Query to Robert Snow, Fras. Crossley, A. M., J. J. M., A. H., S. T., E. S. T. T., V., W. K., R. B., and other correspondents. C. H. P. remarks:
"Pope, who died in 1744, twenty-three years after Prior, evidently had this line in view when he wrote as follows:—
"'Ladies, like variegated tulips, show;
'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe;
Fine by defect, and delicately weak,
Their happy spots the nice admirer take.'"
And J. H. M. tells us, "The late Lord Ellenborough applied the line somewhat ignobly, when speaking of bristles, in a dispute between two brushmakers.">[
"The Soul's dark Cottage" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—The couplet "Effaress" inquires for, is to be found in Waller's poems. It is a production of his later years, and occurs in the epilogue to his "Poems of Divine Love," and "Of the Fear of God," &c., thus:—
"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made,
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become,
As they draw nigh to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new."
There is another couplet worth citing—
"The seas are quiet, when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we, when passions are no more."
How different were the effusions of Waller's earlier muse! In the year 1645, Humphrey Mosley published "Poems, &c., written by Mr. Ed. Waller, of Beaconsfield, Esquire, lately a Member of the Honourable House of Commons." The title-page also states that—
"All the Lyrick Poems in this Booke were set by Mr. Henry Lawes of the King's Chappell, and one of his Majesties Private Musick."
It is not a little remarkable that the same publisher, in the same year, should have also given to the world the first edition of that precious volume—Milton's Minor Poems; and, in the advertisement prefixed, he thus adverts to the circumstance:—
"That incouragement I have already received from the most ingenious men, in their clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Waller's late choice Peeces, hath onece more made me adventure into the world, presenting it with these ever-green and not to be blasted laurels."
Had Humphrey Mosley any presentiment of the deathless fame of Milton?
S. W. Singer.
"The Soul's dark Cottage," &c. (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—This admired couplet can never escape recollection. It was written by Waller. From the tenor of some preceding lines, and the place which the verses occupy in the edition of 1693, they must be among the latest of his compositions.
Bolton Corney.
[A. H. H., R. B., C. J. R., H. G. T., and other friends have replied to this Query.
The Rev. J. Sansom points out a kindred passage in his poem of Divine Love, canto vi. p. 249.:
"The soul contending to that light to fly
From her dark cell," &c.
H. G. sends a beautiful parallel passage from Fuller (Holy State Life of Monica): "Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven, and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body." And J. H. M. informs us that amongst Duke's Poems is a most flattering one addressed to Waller, evidently allusive to the lines in question.]
"Beauty Retire" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—The lines beginning "Beauty Retire," which Pepys set to music, taken from the second part of the Siege of Rhodes, act iv. scene 2., are printed in the 5th volume of the Memoirs, p. 250., 3rd edition.
I believe the music exists in the Pepysian Library, but any of the Fellows of Magdalene College could ascertain the fact.
Braybrooke.
Mythology of the Stars (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—I would here add to my recommendation of Captain Smyth's Celestial Cycle (antè, p. 70.), that soon after it appeared it obtained for its author the annual gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society; and that it is a book adapted to the exigencies of astronomers of all degrees, from the experienced astronomer, furnished with every modern refinement of appliances and means of observation, to the humbler, but perhaps no less zealous beginner, furnished only with a good pair of natural eyes, aided, on occasion, by the common opera-glass. Such an observer, if he goes the right way to work, will make sure of a high degree of entertainment and instruction, and may reasonably hope to light on a discovery or two, worthy, even in the present day, of being recorded.
Robert Snow.
Simon Bache (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—Thesaurarius Hospitii.—The office of "Thesaurarius Hospitii," about which A. W. H. inquires, means, I believe, "Treasurer of the Household." In Chauncy's Hertfordshire, vol. ii. p. 102., the inscription on Simon Bache is given in the same terms as by your correspondent. The learned author then gives, at p. 103., the epitaph on another monument also in Knebworth Church, erected to the memory of John Hotoft, in which occur these two lines:
"Hospitii regis qui Thesaurarius olim
Henrici sexti merito pollebat honore."
At p. 93. of the same volume, Sir Henry Chauncy speaks of the same John Hotoft as an eminent man, and sheriff of the county, and adds:
"He was also Treasurer of the King's Household afterwards; he dyed and was buried in the chancel of this church, where his monument remains at this day."
Who Simon Bache was, or how he came to be buried at Knebworth, I cannot tell. The name of "Bach" occurs in Chauncy several times, as that of mayors and assistants, at Hertford, between 1672 and 1689.
J. H. L.
Winifreda (Vol. iii., p. 108.).—It may perhaps interest Lord Braybrooke and J. H. M. to know, that I have in my possession the copy of Dodsley's Minor Poems, which belonged to John Gilbert Cooper, and which was bought at the sale of his grandson, the late Colonel John Gilbert-Cooper-Gardiner. The song of "Winifreda" is at page 282. of the 4th volume; and a manuscript note, in the handwriting of the son of the author of Letters concerning Taste, states it to have been written "by John Gilbert Cooper." The praise bestowed by Cooper on the poem, and which J. H. M. conceives to militate against his claim to the composition, is obviously intended to apply to the original, and not to Cooper's elegant translation.
A.
Newark.
Queries on Costume (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—Addison's paper in the Spectator, No. 127., seems to be
conclusive that hooped petticoats were not in use so early as the year 1651. The anecdote in connection with the subject related in Wilson's Life of De Foe, has always appeared to me very questionable, not only on that consideration, but because Charles was at the time a fine tall young man of more than twenty-one years of age, and at the only period that he could have been in the neighbourhood referred to, he was on horseback and attended by at least two persons, who were also mounted. Neither can the circumstances related be at all reconciled with the particulars given by Clarendon and subsequent writers, who have professed to correct the statements of that historian by authority.
J. D. S.
Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi (Vol. ii., p. 218.; Vol. iii., p. 125.).—Permit me again to express my opinion, with due deference to the eminent authorities cited in your pages, that the comprehensive words of Lord Bacon, "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi," were not borrowed from any author, ancient or modern. But it would be a compliment which that great genius would have been the first to ridicule, were we to affirm that no anterior writer had adopted analogous language in expressing the benefits of "the philosophy of time." On the contrary, he would have called our attention to the expressions of the Egyptian priest addressed to Solon, (see a few pages beyond the one referred to in his Advancement of Learning):
"Ye Grecians are ever children, ye have no knowledge of antiquity nor antiquity of knowledge."
The words of Bacon to me appear to be a condensation of the well-known dialogue in Plato's Timæus, above quoted, as will, I hope, appear in the following paraphrase:
"Apud vos propter inundationes ineunte modò sæculo nihil scientiarum est augmentationis. Quoad nos juventus mundi ac terræ Aegyptiacæ, quâ nulla hominum exitia fuerunt, progrediente tempore, antiquitas fit sæculi, et antiquissimarum rerum apud nos momumenta servantur."
T. J.
Lady Bingham (Vol. iii., p. 61.).—Lady Bingham, whose daughter, afterwards Lady Crewe, was unsuccessfully courted by Sir Symonds D'Ewes (for which see his autobiography), was Sarah, the daughter of John Heigham, Esq., of Gifford's Hall in Urekham Brook, Suffolk, of the same family with Sir Clement Heigham, Knt., of Barrow, Suffolk, Speaker of the House of Commons. She was married by banns at St. Olave's, Hart Street, Jan. 11, 1588, to Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of co. Dorset. She married, secondly, Edward Waldegrave, Esq., of Lawford, Essex, to whom she was second wife, and by him had Jemima, afterwards Lady Crewe. Edward Waldegrave, married to his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Bartholomew Averell, of Southminster, Essex, had by her an only daughter, Anne, who married Drew, afterwards Sir Drew Drury, Bart., of Riddlesworth, Norfolk. He, Edward Waldegrave, was descended from a younger branch of the family of Waldegrave, of Smallbridge, in the parish of Bures, Suffolk, from whence descends the present Earl Waldegrave.
Lady Bingham lies buried in the chancel of Lawford church, where a stone in the floor states her age to have been sixty-nine, and that she was buried Sept. 9. 1634. There is also another stone in the floor for Edward Waldegrave, Esq., who married Dame Sarah Bingham, by whom he had one daughter, Jemima, who was married to John Stearne (a mistake evidently for Stene, the seat of James Lord Crewe). Edward Waldegrave was buried Feb. 13, 1621, aged about sixty-eight.
The large monument in Lawford church is for the father of this Edward Waldegrave, who died in 1584.
D. A. Y.
Proclamation of Langholme Fair (Vol. iii., p. 56.).—Monkbarns wishes the meaning of the choice expressions in the proclamation. They may be explained as follows:—Hustrin, hustling, or riotously inclined, being so consonanted to make it alliterate with custrin, spelt by Jamieson, custroun, and signifying a pitiful fellow. Chaucer has the word truston in this sense.
Land-louper, one who runs over the country, a vagabond.
Dukes-couper I take to be a petty dealer in ducks or poultry, and to be used in a reproachful sense, as we find "pedlar," "jockey," &c.
Gang-y-gate swinger, a fighting man, who goes swaggering in the road (or gate); a roisterer who takes the wall of every one. Swing is an old word for a stroke or blow.
Durdam is an old word meaning an uproar, and akin to the Welsh word dowrd. Urdam may be a corruption of whoredom, but is more probably prefixed to the genuine word as a co-sounding expletive.
Brabblement seems to be a derivative from the Scotch verb "bra," to make a loud and disagreeable noise (see Jamieson); and squabblement explains itself.
Lugs, ears; tacked, nailed; trone, an old word, properly signifying the public weighing-machine, and sometimes used for the pillory.
A nail o' twal-a-penny is, of course, a nail of that size and sort of which twelve are bought for a penny.
Until he down of his hobshanks, and up with his muckle doubs, evidently means, until he goes down on his knees and raises his hands. Hobshanks is, I think, still in common use. Of doubs I can give no explanation.
W. T. M.
Edinburgh, Jan. 29th.
Burying in Church Walls (Vol. iii., p. 37.).—To
the examples mentioned by N. of tombs in church walls, may be added the remarkable ones at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. There are several of these in the south aisle, with arches internally and externally: the wall between resting on the coffin lid. They are, of course, coeval with the church, which is fine early Decorated. They are considered, I believe, to be memorials of the priors of Anglesey, a neighbouring religious house. They will, no doubt, be fully elucidated in the memoir of Bottisham and Anglesey, which is understood to be in preparation by members of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. At Trumpington, in the same county, is a recessed tomb of Decorated date, in the south wall of the chancel, externally.
C. R. M.
Defender of the Faith (Vol. ii., pp. 442. 481.; Vol. iii., pp. 9. 94.).—Should not King Edward the Confessor's claim to defend the church as God's Vicar be added to the several valuable notices in relation to the title Defender of the Faith, with which some of your learned contributors have favoured us through your pages?
According to Hoveden, one of the laws adopted from the Anglo-Saxons by William was:
"Rex autem atque vicarius Ejus ad hoc est constitutus, ut regnum terrenum, populum Dei, et super omnia sanctam ecclesiam, revereatur et ab injuriatoribus defendat," &c.
Which duty of princes was further enforced by the words—
"Illos decet vocari reges, qui vigilant, defendunt, et regunt Ecclesiam Dei et populum Ejus, imitantes regem psalmographum," &c.—Vid. Rogeri de Hoveden Annal., par. post., §. Regis Officium; ap. Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, ed. Francof. 1601, p. 604. Conf. Prynne's Chronol. Records, ed. Lond. 1666, tom i. p. 310.
This law appears always to have been received as of authority after the Conquest; and it may, perhaps, be considered as the first seed of that constitutional church supremacy vested in our sovereigns, which several of our kings before the Reformation had occasion to vindicate against Papal claims, and which Henry VIII. strove to carry in the other direction, to an unconstitutional excess.
J. Sansom.
Sauenap, Meaning of (Vol. ii., p. 479.).—The word probably means a napkin or pinafore; the two often, in old times, the same thing. The Cornish name for pinafore is save-all. (See Halliwell's Arch. Dict.) I need not add that nap, napery, was a common word for linen.
George Stephens.
Stockholm.
Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs (Vol. ii., p. 476.).—The memoirs of Charles I. by Sir Thomas Herbert were published in 1702. I transcribe the title from a copy in my possession:—
"Memoirs of the two last years of the reign of that unparall'd prince, of ever blessed memory, king Charles I. By sir Tho. Herbert, major Huntingdon, col. Edw. Coke, and Mr. Hen. Firebrace, etc. London, Rob. Clavell, 1702, 8vo."
The volume, for a publication of that period, is of uncommon occurrence. It was printed, as far as above described, "from a manuscript of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Ely, lately deceased." The remainder of the volume consists of reprinted articles.
Bolton Corney.
Robert Burton (Vol. iii., p. 106.).—The supposition that the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy was born at Fald, Staffordshire, instead of Lindley, Leicestershire, seems probable from the fact, that in an edition of the History of Leicestershire, by his brother William, I find that the latter dates his preface "From Falde, neere Tutbury, Staff., Oct. 30. 1622." In this work, also, under the head "Lindley," is given the pedigree of his family, commencing with "James de Burton, Squier of the body to King Richard the First;" down to "Rafe Burton, of Lindley, borne 1547; died 17 March, 1619;" leaving "Robert Burton, bachelor of divinity and student of Christ Church, Oxon; author of the Anatomy of Melancholy; borne 8 of Febr. 1578;" and "William Burton, author of this work (History of Leicestershire), borne 24 of Aug. 1575, now dwelling at Falde, ann. 1622."
T. T.
Leicester.
Drachmarus (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—If your correspondents (Nos. 66 and 67.) who have inquired for a book called Jartuare, and for a writer named "Drachmarus," would add a little to the length of their questions, so as not by extra-briefness to deaden the dexterity of conjecturers, perhaps they might be nearer to the reception of replies. Many stranger things have happened than that Drachmarus should be renovated by the context into Christian Druthmar.
Averia (Vol. iii., p. 42.).—I have long desired to know the exact meaning of averia, but I have not met with a good explanation until lately. It is clear, however, from the following legal expression, "Nullus distringatur per averia carucæ." Caruca is the French charrue, and therefore averia must mean either cart-horses or oxen which draw the plough.
P.
Dragons (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—I think the Draco of the Crusaders' times must have been the Boa constrictor. If you will look into St. Jerome's Vitas Patrum, you will find that he mentions the trail of a "draco" seen in the sand in the Desert, which appeared as if a great beam had been dragged along. I think it not likely that a crocodile would have
ventured so far from the banks of the Nile as to be seen in the Desert.
P.