Replies to Minor Queries
Robert Burton, his Birth-place (Vol. iii., pp. 106. 157.).—A friend who has just been reading the Anatomy of Melancholy, has referred me to the following passage, which seems to give conclusive testimony respecting the birth-place of Burton:—
"Such high places are infinite ... and two amongst the rest, which I may not omit for vicinities sake, Oldbury in the confines of Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with great delight, at the foot of which hill I was born; and Hanbury in Staffordshire, contiguous to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and an ancient patrimony belonging to our family, now in the possession of mine elder brother, William Burton, Esquire." [Note on words "I was born." At Lindley in Lecestershire, the possession and dwelling place of Ralph Burton, Esquire, my late deceased father.]—Anatomy of Melancholy, Part ii. Sec 2. Mem. 3. ad fin.
I knew of the following, but as it merely mentions Lindley as the residence of the family, it would not have answered Dr. Rimbault's Query.
"Being in the country in the vacation time, not many years since, at Lindly in Lecestershire, my father's house," &c.—Ibid. Part ii. Sec. 5. Mem. 1. subs. 5.
C. Forbes.
Barlaam and Josaphat (Vol. iii., pp. 135. 278.).—I do not know of any English translation of this work. If any Middle Age version exists, it should be published immediately. A new and excellent German one (by Felix Liebrecht, Münster, 1847) has lately appeared, written, however, for Romish purposes, as much as from admiration of the work itself. It would be well if some member of our own pure branch of the Church Catholic would turn his attention to this noble work, and give us a faithful but fresh and easy translation, with a literary introduction descriptive of all the known versions, &c.; and a chapter on the meaning and limits of the asceticism preached in the original. In this case, and if published cheap, as it ought to be, it would be a golden present for our youth, and would soon become once more a folk-book. The beautiful free Old Norwegian version (written by King Hákon Sverresson, about A.D. 1200) mentioned in my last has now been published in Christiania, edited by the well-known scholars R. Keyser and C. R. Unger, and illustrated by an introduction, notes, glossary, fac-simile, &c. (Barlaams ok Josaphats Saga. 8vo. Christiania, 1851.) The editors re-adopt the formerly received opinion, that the Greek original (now printed in Boissonade's Anecdota Græca, vol. iv.) is not older than the eighth century, and was composed by Johannes Damascenus. But this must be decided by future criticism.
George Stephens.
Stockholm.
Witte van Haemstede (Vol. iii., p. 209).—It may be of use to the editors of the "Navorscher" to know that Adrianus Hamstedius became pastor of the Dutch church in Austin Friars, London, in the year 1559. He succeeded Walterus Delaenus, and resigned his office, one year after his appointment, in favour of Petrus Delaenus, probably a son of the before-named Walterus.
I cannot answer the question as to whether there still exist any descendants of Witte van Haemstede; but as late as 1740, Hendrik van Haemstede was appointed pastor to the Dutch congregation in London. He held the office until the year 1751, when Henricus Putman succeeded him.
Edward F. Rimbault.
The Dutch Church in Norwich (Vol. iii., p. 209.).—The editors of the "Navorscher" will find the early history of this church in Strype's Annals of the Reformation; Blomefield's History of Norwich; and in Burn's History of the Foreign Refugees. Dr. Hendrik Gehle, the pastor of the Dutch church in Austin Friars, who is also the occasional minister of the Dutch church at Norwich, would be the most likely person to furnish information as to its present state.
Edward F. Rimbault.
Fest Sittings (Vol. iii., p. 328.).—Festing is, I presume, without doubt, a Saxon word. A "Festing-man," among the Saxons, was a person who stood as a surety or pledge for another. "Festing-penny" was the money given as an earnest or token to servants when hired.
In the word sittings there might be some reference to the statute-sessions, which were courts or tribunals designed for the settlement of disputes between masters and servants.
R. Vincent.
Quakers' Attempt to convert the Pope (Vol. iii., p. 302.).—I beg to refer B. S. S. to the Correspondance inédite de Mabíllon et de Montfaucon avec l'Italie ... edited by M. Valéry, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 112. In a letter from the Benedictine Claude Estiennot to Dom. Bulteau, dated Rome, September 30, 1687, he will read:
"Ce qu'on a dit ici des quakers d'Angleterre n'est ni tout-à-fait vrai ni tout-à-fait faux. Il est certain qu'il en est venu un qui a fort pressé pour avoir une audience de Sa Sainteté et se promettait de le pouvoir convertir à sa religion; ou l'a voulu mettre an Passarelli; monseigneur le Cardinal Howard l'a fait enfermer au couvent de saint-Jean et Paul et le fera sauver sans bruit pour l'honneur de la nation."
C. P. Ph****.
The Anti-Jacobin (Vol. iii., p. 348.).—As you have so many articles in the Anti-Jacobin owned, I may mention that No. 14, was written by Mr. Bragge, afterwards Bathurst.
When I was at Oxford, 1807 or 1808, it was supposed that the simile in New Morality, "So thine own Oak," was written by Mr. Pitt.
C. B.
Mistletoe (Vol. iii., p. 192.).—
"In a paper of Tho. Willisel's he names these following trees on which he found misseltoe growing, viz. oak, ash, lime-tree, elm, hazel, willow, white beam, purging thorn, quicken-tree, apple-tree, crab-tree, white-thorn." Vide p. 351. Philosophical Letters between the late learned Mr. Ray and several of his Ingenious Correspondents, &c.: Lond. 1718, 8vo.
R. Wilbraham Falconer, M.D.
Bath.
Verbum Græcum.—The lines in Vol. i., p. 415., where this word occurs, are in a doggrel journal of his American travels, written by Moore, and published in his Epistles, Odes, and other Poems. They are introduced apropos to the cacophony of the names of the places which he visited.
D. X.
"Après moi le Déluge" (Vol. iii, p. 299.).—This sentiment is to be found in verse of a Greek tragedian, cited in Sueton. Nero, c. 38.:
"Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί."
Suetonius says that some one, at a convivial party, having quoted this line, Nero outdid him by adding, Immo ἐμοῦ ζῶντος. Nero was not contented that the conflagration of the world should occur after his death; he wished that it should take place during his lifetime.
Dio Cassius (lviii. 23.) attributes this verse, not to Nero, but to Tiberius, who, he says, used frequently to repeat it. See Prov. (app. ii. 56.), where other allusions to this verse are cited in the note of Leutsch.
L.
[We are indebted for a similar reply to C. B., who quotes the line from Euripides, Fragm. Inc. B. xxvii.]
"Après moi," or "après nous le Déluge" sounds like a modernisation of the ancient verse,—
"Ἐμοῦ θανόντος γαῖα μιχθήτω πυρί,"
the use of which has been imputed to the emperor Nero. The spirit of Madame de Pompadour's saying breathes the same selfish levity; and it amounts to the same thing. But it merits remark that the words of Metternich were of an entirely distinct signification. They did not imply that he cared only for himself and the affairs of his own life; but that he anticipated the inability of future ministers to avert revolution, and foreboded the worst. Two persons may use the same words, and yet their sayings be as different as the first line of Homer from the first of Virgil. The omission of the French verb disguises the fact, that the one was said in the optative, and the other in the future indicative.
A. N.
Eisell, the meaning of which has been much discussed in the pages of "Notes and Queries," is a word which seems to have been once the common term for vinegar. The Festival in the sermon for St. Michael's day employs this term thus:
"And other angellis with hī (St. Michael) shall brynge al the Instrumētis of our lordis passyon, the crosse; the crowne; spere; nayles; hamer; sponge; eyseel; gall, scourges t all other thynges yt wē atte cristis passyon."—Rouen, A.D. 1499, fo. cl. b.
D. Rock.
"To-day we purpose" (Vol. iii., p. 302).—The verse for which your correspondent G. N. inquires, is taken from Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, an exquisitely beautiful poem by Keats, founded on one of Boccaccio's tales.
E. J. M.
Modern Paper (Vol. iii., p. 181.).—Cordially do I agree with every word of your correspondent Laudator Temporis Acti, and especially as to the prayer-books for churches and chapels, printed by the Universities. Experto crede, no solicitude can preserve their "flimsy, brittle, and cottony" leaves, as he justly entitles them, from rapid destruction. Might not the delegates of the University presses be persuaded to give us an edition with the morning and evening services printed on vellum, instead of the miserable fabric they now afford us?
C. W. B.
St. Pancras (Vol. iii., p. 285.).—In Breviar. Rom. sub die XII Maii, is the following brief notice of this youthful saint, whose martyrdom was also commemorated (Sir H. Nicolas' Chron. of Hist.) on April 3 and July 21:
"Pancratius, in Phrygia nobili genere natus, puer quatordecim annorum Roman venit Diocletiano et Maximiano Imperatoribus: ubi à Pontifice Romano baptizatus, et in fide christiana eruditus, ob eamdem paulò post comprehensus, cùm diis sacrificare constanter renuisset, virili fortitudine datis cervicibus, illustrem martyrii coronam consecutus est; cujus corpus Octavilla matrona noctu sustulit, et unguentis delibutum via Aurelia sepelivit."
Amongst the reliques in the church of St. John of Laterane, in the "the glorious mother-city of Rome," Onuphrius (de VII. Urbis Ecclesiis) and Serranus (de Ecclesiis Urbis Rom.), as quoted by Wm. Crashaw (temp. James I.), enumerate:
"Item. caput Zachariæ Prophetæ, et caput Sancti Pancratii de quo sanguis emanavit ad tres dies quum Ecclesia Lateranensis combusta fuit."
Cowgill.
Joseph Nicolson's Family (Vol. iii., p. 243.).—A. N. C. is justly corrected as to the insertion of the letter h in Dr. Wm. Nicolson's name, though it has been adopted by some of his family since. The mother of Dr. Wm. and Joseph Nicolson was Mary Brisco, of Crofton; not Mary Miser.
I find from Nichols' Correspondence of Dr. Wm. Nicolson, that his brother Joseph was master of the Apothecaries' Company in London. He died in May, 1724. He lived in Salisbury Court, where it would appear the Bishop resided at least on one occasion that he was in London.
Monkstown.
Demosthenes and New Testament (Vol. iii., p. 350.).—The quotations from Demosthenes, and many others more or less pointed, are to be found, as might be expected, in the well-known, very learned, and standard edition of the new Testament by Wetstein.
C. B.
Crossing Rivers on Skins (Vol. iii., p. 3.).—To the Latin authors cited by Janus Dousa illustrating this practice, allow me to add the following from the Greek. Xenophon, in his Anabasis, lib. iii. cap. v., so clearly exhibits the modus operandi, that I shall give a translation of the passage:
"And while they were at a loss what to do, a certain Rhodian came up and said, 'I am ready to ferry you over, O men! by 4000 heavy armed men at a time, if you furnish me with what I want, and will give me a talent as a reward.' And being asked of what he stood in need:—'I shall want,' said he, '2000 leathern bags; and I see here many sheep, and goats, and oxen, and asses; which, being flayed, and (their skins) inflated, would readily furnish a means of transport. And I shall require also the girths, which you use for the beasts of burden. And on these,' said he, 'having bound the leathern bags, and fastened them one to another, and affixing stones, and letting them down like anchors, and binding them on either side, I will lay on wood, and put earth over them. And that you will not then sink, you shall presently very clearly perceive; for each leathern bag will support two men from sinking, and the wood and earth will keep them from slipping."
Skins, or tent coverings, stuffed with hay, appear also to have been very generally used for this purpose (Vid. Id., lib. i. cap. v.). Arrian relates (lib. v. Exped. cap. 12.) that Alexander used this contrivance for crossing the Hydaspes:
"Αὐτὸς δὲ (Ἀλέξανδρος)—ἄγων ἐπὶ τὴν νῆσον καὶ τὴν ἄκραν, ἔνθεν διαβαίνειν ἦν ἐγνωσμένον. Καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἐπληροῦντο τῆς νυκτὸς αἱ διφθέραι τῆς κάρφης ἐκ πολλοῦ ἤδη παρενηνεγμέναι, καὶ κατεῤῥάπτοντο ἐς ἀκρίβειαν."
E. S. Taylor.
Martham, Norfolk.
Curious Facts in Natural History (Vol. iii., p. 166.).—There is a parallel to the curious fact contributed by your Brazilian correspondent in the "vegetable caterpillar" of New Zealand. This natural rarity is described in Angas's Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vol. i. p. 291.:—
"Amongst the damp moss at the root of the rata trees, in the shady forests not far from Auckland, and also in various parts of the northern island, are found those extraordinary productions called vegetable caterpillars, the hotete of the natives. In appearance, the caterpillar differs but little from that of the common privet sphinx-moth, after it has descended to the ground, previously to its undergoing the change into the chrysalis state. But the most remarkable characteristic of the vegetable caterpillar is, that every one has a very curious plant, belonging to the fungi tribe, growing from the anus; this fungus varies from three to six inches in length, and bears at its extremity a blossom-like appendage, somewhat resembling a miniature bulrush, and evidently derives its nourishment from the body of the insect. This caterpillar when recently found, is of the substance of cork; and it is discovered by the natives seeing the tips of the fungi, which grow upwards. They account for this phenomenon, by asserting that the caterpillar, when feeding upon the rata tree overhead, swallows the seeds of the fungus, which take root in the body of the insect, and germinate as soon as it retreats to the damp mould beneath, to undergo its transformation into the pupa state. Specimens of these vegetable caterpillars have been transmitted to naturalists in England, by whom they have been named Sphæria Robertii."—Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, by G. F. Angas: London, 1847, vol. i. p. 291.
I recently had several specimens of the insect, with its remarkable appendage, which had been brought from the colony by a relative.
R. W. C.
Prideaux (Vol. iii., p. 268.).—The Prideaux, who took part in the Monmouth rebellion, was a son of Sir Edmund Prideaux, the purchaser of Ford Abbey. (See Birch's Life of Tillotson.) Tillotson appears to have been a chaplain to Sir E. Prideaux at Ford Abbey, and a tutor to the young Prideaux.
K. Th.