Replies to Minor Queries.
Defoe's Anticipations (Vol. iii., p. 287.).—Defoe had probably seen the English translation, or rather abridgment, of Father Dos Santos's Ethiopia Oriental, in Purchas's Pilgrimes (vol. ii. 1544, fol. ed.), in which some hints are given of the great lake (nyassi, i. e. sea) Maravi, which lies nearly parallel with the eastern coast, and was known to D'Anville, in whose map Massi is misengraved for Niassi. A very careful examination of the Portuguese expeditions across the continent of Africa has been given by Mr. Cooley, in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (vol. xv. p. 185.; xvi. p. 138.), and he has ascertained, approximately, the extent and position of that great lake, which, from distrust of D'Anville, one of the most exact geographers, had been expunged from all modern maps. It is considerably to the N. and E. of the Nyami lately determined, and of much greater extent.
Anatol.
Epitaph in Hall's Discovery (Vol. iii., p. 242.).—The work entitled Discovery of a New World, or a Description of the South Indies, hitherto unknown, by an English Mercury, imprinted by E. Blount, no date, 12mo., is not, as our correspondent supposes, very rare, nor is it by Bishop Hall. It is a free translation, or rather paraphrase, and an excellent one in its way, by John Healey, of Bishop Hall's very entertaining Mundus Alter et Idem, first published in 12mo., Francof., without date, afterwards reprinted with Campanella's Civitas Solis and Bacon's Atlantis at Utrecht, 1643, 24mo., and subsequently included in the edition of Bishop Hall's works by Pratt, 10 vols., Lond., 1808, 8vo. The epitaph quoted is not a satire upon any statesman of the time. The writer is describing the Land of Changeableness, or, as it is called in the Latin original, "Variana vel Moronia Mobilis," and gives in the course of his description this epitaph on Andreas Vortunius (a vertendo), or, as he is styled in the English
translation, "Andrew Turncoate." The epitaph occurs in p. 132. of the Latin edition of 1643, and is evidently, as indicated by the marginal notes, an imitation or parody of the famous one on Æelia Lælia Crispis, which has exercised the ingenuity of so many writers, and of which our own countryman, Richard White, of Basingstoke, the historian, has given three different interpretations. See his Ælia Lælia Crispis, Epitaphium Antiquum quod in Agro Bononiensi adhuc videtur, a diversis interpretatum varie, novissime autem a Richardo Vito explicatum, Padua, 1568, 4to. An article on this epitaph and its various interpreters, of whom I have collected about forty, might be made a very interesting one.
James Crossley.
[We wish Mr. Crossley—than whom no one is more competent—would favour us with such an article. The following communication from Mr. Forbes is only one of several we have received, showing that the interest in this enigma is not abated.]
Epitaph in Hall's Discovery (Vol. iii., p. 242.).—When this epitaph is assigned to its right owner, it may perhaps throw some light on its twin-brother—the epitaph on "Ælia Lælia Crispis"—"about which many of the learned have puzzled their heads." (See Encyc. Brit., article "Ænigma.") I enclose a copy of this epitaph, which you can use or not, as you please. If you think that it might help to "unearth" Mister Andrew Turnecoate, you may perhaps like to lay it before your readers; if, on the other hand, that it would but increase the difficulty of the operation by distracting attention needlessly, you can hand it over to "the Editor's best friend"—the fire.
"D. M.
Ælia Lælia Crispis,
Nec vir, nec mulier,
Nec androgyna
Nec puella, nec juvenis,
Nec anus;
Nec casta, nec meretrix,
Nec pudica;
Sed omnia;
Sublata
Neque fame, neque ferro,
Neque veneno;
Sed omnibus:
Nec cœlo, nec terris,
Nec aquis,
Sed ubique jacet.
Lucius Agatho Priscius,
Nec maritus, nec amator,
Nec necessarius;
Neque mœrens, neque gaudens,
Neque flens;
Hanc,
Nec molem, nec pyramidem,
Nec sepulchrum,
Sed omnia,
Scit et nescit, cui posuerit."
C. Forbes.
Saint Thomas of Lancaster.—The following passage in Fuller's Worthies (of Yorkshire) does not seem to have been noticed by either of your correspondents who replied to Mr. R. M. Milnes' Query in Vol. i., p. 181.:
"Thomas Plantagenet. Before I proceed, I must confess myself formerly at a great loss to understand a passage in an honourable author, speaking of the counterfeit reliques detected and destroyed at the Reformation: 'The Bell of Saint Guthlac, and the Felt of Saint Thomas of Lancaster, both remedies for the headache.' (Vice Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII., p. 431.) But I could recover no Saint Thomas (saving him of Canterbury) in any English Martyrology, till since, on enquiry, I find him to be this Thomas Plantagenet. He was Earl of Derby, Lancaster, Leicester, and (in the right of Alice his wife) of Lincoln. A popular person, and great enemy to the two Spencers, minions to King Edward II, who being hated as devils for their pride, no wonder if this Thomas was honored as a Saint and Martyr by the common sort.[[6]] Indeed he must be a very good chymist who can extract martyr out of malefactor; and our chronicles generally behold him put to death for treason against King Edward II. But let him pass for a saint in this shire, though never solemnly canonised, it being true of such local saints, what Servius Honoratus observeth of topical gods, 'ad alias regiones nunquam transibant,' they travelled not so far as to be honored in other countries. His beheading, alias his martyrdom, happened at Pomfret A.D. 1322."
It would appear from the foregoing extract that Thomas of Lancaster was never admitted into the Romish calendar of saints; though his memory was locally revered, especially for his opposition to the two Spencers, or Despensers, as they are called by Hume. This historian had no respect for "the turbulent Lancaster;" but the quaint old Fuller seems to have thought well of him.
As a bell-man I am more interested in the virtues of the bell of Saint Guthlac, than in the hat of Saint Thomas, and I take this opportunity of asking assistance from the readers of "Notes and Queries" towards a collection of curious anecdotes and information about bells, which I am endeavouring to make. Any contributions will be thankfully received by me.
Alfred Gatty.
Ecclesfield.
Footnote 6:[(return)]
"In sanctorum numerum retulit vulgus.—Camden's Brit. in Yorkshire. Amongst other profits received by the abbey of Leicester, in 1348, from oblations at the church of St. Martin in that town, occurs, pes Thomæ Lancastriæ respondebat, 6l. 10s."—History of Leicestershire, vol. i. p. 591.
Francis Moore (Vol. iii., p. 263.).—That such a personage really did exist there can be little doubt. Bromley (in Engraved Portraits, &c.) gives 1657 as the date of his birth, and says that there was a portrait of him by Drapentier ad vivum. Lysons mentions him as one of the
remarkable men who, at different periods, resided at Lambeth, and says that his house was in Calcott's Alley, High Street, then called Back Lane, where he seems to have enlightened his generation in the threefold capacity of astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster.
J. C. B.
Lambeth.
"Tickhill, God help me" (Vol. i., p. 247.; Vol. ii., p. 452.).—Although I am full late with my pendent, I am tempted to add the instance of "Kyme God Knows," well known to all explorers of the Fens. The adjunct, "God knows," is supposed to be part of the following verse:
"It's Kyme, God knows,
Where no corn grows,
And very little hay;
And if there come a wet time,
It weshes all away."
If I misquote, perhaps some Fen man will set me right.
As to the "Lincoln-heath where should 'un?" instanced by your correspondent H. C. St. Croix, in the No. for April 27, 1850, it is quite unknown in this neighbourhood, and I believe must belong to some other locale.
B.
Lincoln.
Meaning of Tye (Vol. iii., p. 263.).—On or contiguous to the South Downs, in Sussex, there are several portions of land bearing this designation, as Berwick Tye, Alfriston Tye, Telscombe Tye, &c. They are all contiguous to the villages from which they derive their names. These lands were formerly held in common by the tenants of the respective manors, and I think the origin of the expression may be traced to the tethering or tying-up of cows, horses, &c., for the double purpose of preventing their straying, and of preserving the fences of the neighbouring tenements. I offer this conjecture with some diffidence, because the word is very often found in composition with proper names of places, as Lavortye, Brambletye, Holtye, Puxtye, Ollantigh. The vulgar notion, that it means a space which originally measured ten acres, is, I think, untenable.
M. A. Lower.
Lewes.
Dutch Church in Norwich (Vol. iii., p. 209.).—Some interesting details connected with the establishment of the Dutch Church in Norwich, as well as the first settlement of the Walloons in that city, will be found in Blomefield's History of Norfolk, vol. iii. p. 282. et seq., edit. 1806.
J. Y.
The Dutch Church, Norwich.—Some account of this church may be seen in Burn's History of the Foreign Refugees, 1846. It is to be regretted, however, that the registers and acts of vestry are missing. The seal of the church has lately been discovered.
J. S. B.
Lost Manuscripts (Vol. iii., pp. 161. 261.)—In pursuance of Mr. Mackenzie's suggestions respecting the search for lost manuscripts, permit me to ask, if all hope must be considered as given up of decyphering any more of those discovered at Herculaneum, or of resuming the excavations there, that have been so long discontinued? Perhaps the improved chemical processes of recent days might be found more successful in facilitating the unrolling of the MSS., than the means resorted to so long ago by Sir H. Davy. Can any of your correspondents state whether anything has been done lately with the Herculaneum MSS.?
Eustace says that—
"As a very small part of Herculaneum has hitherto been explored, it is highly probable that if a general excavation were made, ten times the number of MSS. above mentioned (1800) might be discovered, and among them, perhaps, or very probably, some of the first works of antiquity, the loss of which has been so long lamented."—Classical Tour, vol. i. 4to., p.585.
J. M.
Oxford.
The Circulation of the Blood (Vol. iii., p.252.).—In a paraphrase on Ecclesiastes xii. 1-6., entitled, King Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age, by John Smith, M.D., London, 1676, 8vo., 1752, 12mo., the author attributes the discovery of the circulation of the blood to King Solomon. Mede also finds the same anticipation of science in "the pitcher broken at the fountain." Who was the first to suggest the transfusion of blood?
T. J.
Alliteration (Vol. iii., p. 165.)—Your correspondent H. A. B., in quoting the seventh stanza from Phineas Fletcher's Purple Island, observes, that the second line,
"A life that lives by love, and loves by light,"
is "noticeable" for its alliteration. But the best specimen that I have met with in English—after having read much verse, and published a volume, which my partial friends call poetry—will be found in Quarles' Divine Emblems, book ii. emblem ii. Beyond all question, Quarles was a poet that needed not "apt alliteration's artful aid" to add to the vigour of his verse, or lend liquidity to his lines. Quarles is often queer, quaint, and querulous, but never prolix, prosey, or puling.
"We sack, we ransack to the utmost sands
Of native kingdoms, and of foreign lands:
We travel sea and soil; we pry, we prowl,
We progress, and we prog from pole to pole."
Verily, old Francis must have had a prophetic peep at the effects of free trade, and the growing greatness of Great Britain, in the gathering of the Nations under a huge Glass Case in Hyde Park, in the present year 1851!
C. G.
Edinburgh.
Vineyards in England (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—The Lincoln "Vine Closes" may as well be added to the rest. They were given to the church here by Henry I. See the charter, entitled Carta Hen. I. de Vinea sua Linc., in Dugdale (Caley's) vol. vi. p. 1272. Their site is a rather steep slope, facing the south, and immediately east of the city. The southern aspect of our hill was celebrated long ago by some poet, as quoted by H. Huntingdon:
"Urbs in colle sita est, et collis vergit ad austrum".
N.B. One of the Abbey fields at Bullington, a few miles east of Lincoln, is known as the Hopyard. The plant has never been cultivated in these parts within memory, or the range of the faintest tradition, but the character of the soil is clayey, and perhaps not unsuitable. Were hopyards often attached to monasteries? The house at Bullington was of the order of Sempringham.
B.
Lincoln.
Countess of Desmond (Vol. iii., p. 250.).—If your correspondents on this subject should be wandering to the south-east of London, they may be interested in knowing that there are two very striking portraits of this lady in Kent, one at Knowle, near Seven Oaks; the other, which is the more remarkable picture of the two, at Bedgebury, near Cranbrook, the seat of Viscount Beresford.
E. H. Y.
St. John's Bridge Fair (Vol. iii., pp. 88. 287.).—I cannot agree with the conjecture that this was Peterborough Bridge Fair. On the confines of Gloucestershire and Berkshire, at the distance of about 77 miles from London, near Lechlade, and on the road to Farringdon, is a St. John's Bridge, near which was a priory or hospital. It is at this place that the Thames first becomes navigable. (Leland's Itinerary, vol. ii. fo. 21, 22, 23; vol. iv. fo. 48; Bowles's Post Chaise Companion, 1782, pl. 28; Lysons' Berkshire, vol. i. p. 193., and map of county prefixed; Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. i. p. 320.; Parliamentary Gazetteer, art. "Lechlade.") Whether there is or ever was a fair at this place is more than I can state; but perhaps some of your correspondents dwelling in those parts can give information on this point.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge, April 14. 1851.
Paring the Nails unlucky on Sundays (Vol. ii., p. 511.; Vol. iii, p. 55.).—Compare Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, lib. v. cap. xxi. § x.
Ache.
Errata in Braithwait's Latin Drinking-song (Vol. iii., p. 297.).—It is well for us that honest Barnaby is not alive to visit upon us the scandalous "negligences and ignorances" with which our transcript of his song abounds; and it is no excuse perhaps to say, that the errors almost all of them exist in the MS. from whence the transcript was made. Sensitive as he has shown himself "upon the errata's," he would not have accepted the apology from us which he makes for himself. "Good reader, if this impression have errors in it, excuse it. The copy was obscure; neither was the editor, by reason of his distance, and employments of higher consequence, made acquainted with the publishing of it."
"His Patavinus erravit prelis,
Authorem suis lacerando telis."
The following corrections, which are necessary to the sense, have been pointed out, and have no doubt been already silently made by many of our readers.
| Sic in MS. | forsan. | |
| Stanza 3. | hoc te amœnum | hoc amœnum |
| reparare | reperire | |
| Stanza 4. | memento | momento |
| gustabit | gustabis | |
| Stanza 5. | solvet | solvit |
| potis | potus | |
| Stanza 6. | frigestis | frigescis |
| Stanza 8. | succedant | succedunt |
| Omit the comma between Domum and feram, and disregard the erroneous punctuation generally. | ||
There may be other errors; for, as it stands at present, the song is inferior to the other known productions of the pleasant author of the Itinerarium. We can only hope that its publication, in even this imperfect form, may lead to the discovery of a better text; and we must be content if the lines of the author are applied to our blunders:
"Delirans iste Sapiens Gottam,
Reddit Coetum propter Cotem."
———
"Quid si breves fiant longi?
Si vocales sint dipthongi?
Quid si graves sint acuti?
Si accentus fiant muti?
Quid si placidè, plenè, planè,
Fregi frontem Prisciani?
Quid si sedem muto sede?
Quid si carmen claudo pede?
Quid si noctem sensi diem?
Quid si veprem esse viam?
Sat est, Verbum declinavi,
Titubo—titubas—titubavi."
In the last line of the extract from "Phyllis and Flora," hinc is printed for huic; inpares, in the preceding line, is the correct reading for impares. "Impar richtiger Inpar" (Scheller).
S. W. S.