MINOR QUERIES.
William ap Jevan's Descendants.—In Burke's Landed Gentry, p. 1465., mention is made of William ap Jevan, "an attendant upon Jasper Duke of Bedford, and afterwards upon Hen. VII.;" and of a son, Morgan Williams, ancestor of the Cromwells. Will some correspondent oblige by giving a reference to where any account may be met with of any other son, or children, to such William ap Jevan, and his or their descendants?
W. P. A.
"Geographers on Afric Downs."—Can any of your correspondents tell me where these lines are to be found?—
"So geographers on Afric downs,
Plant elephants instead of towns."
They sound Hudibrastic, but I cannot find them in Hudibras.
A. S.
Irish Brigade.—Can any of your correspondents furnish any account of what were called "The Capitulations of the Irish Brigades?" These Capitulations (to prevent mistakes) were simply the agreements under which foreign regiments entered the French service. The Swiss regiments had their special "capitulations" until 1830, when they ceased to be employed in France. They appear to have differed in almost every regiment of the Irish brigade; the privileges of some being greater than those of others. One was common to all, namely, the right of trial by their officers or comrades solely, and according to the laws of their own country.
Also, is there any history of the brigades published? I have heard that a Colonel Dromgoole published one. Can any information be afforded on that head?
K.
Passage in Oldham.—The following lines, on the virtues of "impudence," occur in that exquisite satirist, Oldham, described by Dryden as "too little and too lately known:"
"Get that great gift and talent, impudence,
Accomplish'd mankind's highest excellence:
'Tis that alone prefers, alone makes great,
Confers alone wealth, titles, and estate;
Gains place at court, can make a fool a peer;
An ass a bishop; can vil'st blockhead rear
To wear red hats, and sit in porph'ry chair:
'Tis learning, parts, and skill, and wit, and sense,
Worth, merit, honour, virtue, innocence."
I quote this passage chiefly with reference to the "porphyry chair," and with the view of ascertaining whether the allusion has been explained in any edition of Oldham's Poems. Does the expression refer to any established use of such chairs by the wearers of "red hats?" or is it intended merely to convey a general idea of the sumptuousness and splendour of their style of living?
Henry H. Breen.
St. Lucia, March, 1851.
Mont-de-Piété.-Can any of your readers furnish information as to the connexion between these words and the thing which they are used to denote? Mrs. Jameson says, in her Legends of the Monastic Orders, p. 307.:
"Another attribute of St. Bernardin's of Siena, is the Monte-di-Pietà, a little green hill composed of three mounds, and on the top either a cross or a standard, on which is the figure of the dead Saviour, usually called in Italy a Pietà. St. B. is said to have been the founder of the charitable institutions still called in France Monts-de-Piété, originally for the purpose of lending to the poor small sums on trifling pledges—what we should now call a loan society,—and which, in their commencement, were purely disinterested and beneficial. In every city which he visited as a preacher, he founded a Monte-di-Pietà; and before his death, these institutions had spread all over Italy and through a great part of France."
It is added in a note:
"Although the figures holding the M. di P. are, in Italian prints and pictures, styled 'San Bernardino da Siena,' there is reason to presume that the honour is at least shared by another worthy of the same order, 'Il Beato Bernardino da Feltri,' a celebrated preacher at the end of the fifteenth century. Mention is made of his preaching against the Jews and usurers, on the miseries of the poor, and on the necessity of having a Monte-di-Pietà at Florence, in a sermon delivered in the church of Santa Croce in the year 1488."
On p. 308. is a representation of the Monte-di-Pietà, borne in the saint's hand. I need not specify the points on which the foregoing extract still leaves information to be desired.
W. B. H.
Manchester.
Poem upon the Grave.—A. D. would be obliged by being informed where to find a poem upon The Grave. Two voices speak in it, and, it commences—
"How peaceful the grave; its quiet how deep!
Its zephyrs breathe calmly, and soft is its sleep,
And flowerets perfume it with ether."
The second voice replies—
"How lonesome the grave; how deserted and drear," &c. &c.
Clocks: when self-striking Clocks first invented.—In Bolingbroke's Letters on the Study of History
(Letter IV.), I read the following passage in relation to a certain person:
"His reason had not the merit of common mechanism. When you press a watch or pull a clock, they answer your question with precision; for they repeat exactly the hour of the day, and tell you neither more nor less than you desire to know."
I believe this work was written about 1711. Can you tell me when the self-striking clock was invented, and by whom?
Jingo.
Clarkson's "Richmond."—Can any of your readers inform me who is in possession of the papers of the late Mr. Clarkson, the historian of Richmond, in Yorkshire? I wish to know what were the ancient documents, or other sources, from which the learned author ascertained some facts stated in his valuable work. To whom should I apply on the subject?
D. Q.
"Felix quem faciunt," &c.—I wish you could tell me where I can find this line:
"Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum."
Effigies.
Whitehall.
Sir Francis Windebank's elder Son.—Sir Francis Windebank, "of treacherous memory," it is well known, died at Paris in September, 1646. He had two sons; what became of Thomas, the elder? Francis, the second, was a colonel in the royal army: he was tried for cowardice in surrendering Blechingdon House, in Oxfordshire, to Oliver Cromwell without a blow; and being found guilty, was shot at Broken Hayes, near Oxford, in April, 1645. I am anxious to make out the fate of his elder brother.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Incised Slab.—I have a large incised slab in my church, with the figures of a man (Richard Grenewey) and his wife upon it, with the date 1473. Following the date, and filling up the remainder of the line of the inscription, is the figure of a cock in a fighting attitude. Can any of your readers enlighten me on the subject?
H. C. K.
Etymology of Balsall.—Will you allow me to ask some of your readers to give me the etymology of Balsall? It occurs frequently about here, as Balsall Temple, B. Street, B. Grange, B. Common, and near Birmingham is Balsall Heath. It is not to be confounded with Beausall Common, which also is near this place.
F. R.
Kenilworth.
St. Olave's Churches.—In the Calendar of the Anglican Church, Parker, Oxford, 1851, at pp. 267. and 313., it is stated that Saint Olave helped King Ethelred to dislodge the Danes from London and Southwark, by destroying London Bridge; and that, in gratitude for this service, the churches at each end of the bridge are dedicated to him;—on the Southwark side, St. Olave's, Tooley Street, is; but was there ever a church on the London side, bearing the same name?—The nearest one to the bridge is St. Olave's, Hart Street; but that is surely too distant to be called "at the end of the bridge."
E. N. W.
Southwark, April 21. 1851.
Sabbatical and Jubilee Years of the Jews.—As the solution of many interesting topics in connexion with Jewish history is yet dependent on the period of the institution of the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, the following observations will not perhaps be deemed unworthy of a "nook" in your columns. A spark may blaze! I therefore throw it out to be fanned into a more brilliant light by those of your readers whose studies peculiarly fit them to inquire more searchingly into the subject. The Jews, it has been remarked by various writers, were ignorant of astronomy. Both, however, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years have been, as I conceive and will endeavour to show, founded on astronomical observation, commemorative of no particular event in Jewish history, but simply that of the moon's revolutions; for instance, with reference to the Sabbatical year, allowing for a difference of four days and a half, which occurs annually in the time of the moon's position on the equator, it would require, in order to realise a number corresponding to the days (29) employed by the moon in her synodical revolution round the earth, a period to elapse of little less than six years and a half: thus exhibiting the Jews' seventh or Sabbatical year, or year of rest. This result, besides being instructive and commemorative of the moon's menstrual course, is at the same time indicative, as each Sabbatical year rolls past, of the approach of the "finisher of the Seven Sabbaths of years," or year of Jubilee, so designated from its being to the chosen people of God, under the Jewish dispensation, a year of "freedom and redemption," in commemoration of the moon's complete revolution, viz., her return to a certain position at the precise time at which she set out therefrom, an event which takes place but once in fifty years: in other words, if the moon be on the equator, say, on the first day of February, and calculating twenty-nine days to the month, or twelve lunations to the year, a cycle of fifty years, or "seven Sabbaths of years," must elapse ere she will again be in that position on the same day.
Hipparchus.
Limehouse, March 31. 1851.
Arms of Isle of Man.—The arms of the Isle of Man are gules, three legs conjoined in the fess point, &c. &c. or. These arms were stamped on the old halfpence of the island, and we may well call them the current coin.
In an old edition of the Mythology of Natalis
Comus, Patavii, 1637, small 4to., at page 278., I find an Icon of Triptolemus sent by Ceres in a chariot drawn by serpents, hovering in the clouds over what I suppose to be Sicily, or Trinacria; and on a representation of a city below the chariot occurs the very same form of coin, the three legs conjoined, with the addition of three ears of corn.
This seems to me to be a curious coincidence.
Merviniensis.
Doctrine of the Resurrection.—Can any of your readers inform me of any traces of the doctrine of the Resurrection to be found in authors anterior to the Christian era? The following passage from Diogenes Laertius is quoted in St. John's Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, vol. i. p. 355.:
"Καὶ ἀναβιώσεσθαι, κατὰ τοὺς Μάγους, φησὶ (θεοπομπος), τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, καὶ ἔσεσθαι ἀθανάτους."
How far does the statement in this passage involve the idea of a bodily resurrection? I fancy the doctrine is not countenanced by any of the apparitions in the poetical Hades of Virgil, or of other poets.
Zeteticus.
National Debts.—Is there any published work descriptive of the origin of the foundation of a "National Debt" in Florence so early as the year 1344, when the state, owing a sum of money, created a "Mount or Bank," the shares in which were transferable, like our stocks? It is not mentioned in Niccolo Machiavelli's History of Florence; but I have a note of the fact, without a reference to the authority. Is there any precedent prior to the foundation of our National Debt?
F. E. M.
Leicester's Commonwealth.—Are the real authors of Leicester's Commonwealth, and the poetical tract generally found with it, Leicester's Ghost, known? According to Dodd's Church History, the first is erroneously attributed to Robert Parsons the Jesuit.
Edward F. Rimbault.