HUGH HOLLAND AND HIS WORKS.

An accidental circumstance having led me to re-peruse the article entitled Hugh Holland and his works ([Vol. ii., p. 265.]), I feel myself called on, as a lover of facts, to notice some of the statements which it contains.

1. "He was born at Denbigh in 1558." He was born at Denbigh, but not in 1558. In 1625 he thus expressed himself:

"Why was the fatall spinster so vnthrifty?

To draw my third four yeares to tell and fifty!"

2. "In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford." He did not quit Westminster School till 1589. If he ever pursued his studies at Baliol College, it was some ten years afterwards.

3. "About 1590 he succeeded to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge." In 1589 he was elected from Westminster to a scholarship in Trinity College, Cambridge—not to a fellowship. At a later period of life, he may have succeeded to a fellowship.

4. "Holland published two works: 1. Monumenta sepulchralia Sancti Pauli, London, 1613, 4to. 2. A cypress garland etc., London, 1625, 4to." Hugh Holland was not the compiler of the first-named work: the initials H. H admit of another interpretation. This, however, is a very pardonable oversight. I could give about twenty authorities for ascribing the work to Hugh Holland.

5. The dates assigned to the Monumenta Sancti Pauli are "1613, 1616, 1618, and 1633." Here are three errors in as many lines. The first edition is dated in 1614. The edition of 1633, which is entitled Ecclesia Sancti Pavli illvstrata, is the second. No other editions exist.

6. "Holland also printed a copy of Latin verses before Alexander's Roxana, 1632." No such work exists. He may have printed verses before the Roxana of W. Alabaster, who was his brother-collegian.

The authorities which I have consulted are Fuller, Anthony à Wood, Henry Holland, son of the celebrated Philemon Holland, Hugh Holland, and Joseph Welch; and in submitting the result of my researches to critical examination, I must commend the writer of the article in question for his continued efforts to produce new facts, and to explode current errors.

Insensible as modern critics may be to the poetical merits of Hugh Holland, we find him described by Camden as one of the most pregnant wits of those times; and he certainly gave a notable proof of his wit—for fame is that which all hunt after—in contributing some lines to Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies.

On that account, if on no other, the particulars of his life should be inquired into and recorded. His Cypress garland, a copy of which I possess, is rich in autobiographical anecdote; and I have collected some of his fugitive verses, a specimen of which may amuse. As one of the shortest, I transcribe the lines which he addressed to Giles Farnaby, a musical composer of some eminence, on the publication of his Canzonets to fowre voyces, A. D. 1598.

"M. Hu. Holland to the author.

I would both sing thy praise, and praise thy singing,

That in the winter nowe are both a-springing;

But my muse must be stronger,

And the daies must be longer.

When the sunne's in his hight with ye bright Barnaby,

Then should we sing thy praises, gentle Farnaby."

BOLTON CORNEY.

THE MILESIANS.

([Vol. iii., p. 353.])

In reply to W. R. M., who asks for information respecting the round towers of Ireland, I beg to refer him to Dr. Petrie's essay on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, in which he will find a full discussion of the origin, uses, and history of the round towers.

In reference to the Milesians and other early colonists of Ireland, he will find the most authentic ancient traditions in the Irish version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius, lately published by the Irish Archæological Society of Dublin, with a translation and notes, by the Rev. J. H. Todd, D.D. The same volume contains also some very curious and valuable notes by the Hon. A. Herbert.

What W. R. M. says about the pronunciation of certain names of towns in Ireland, as confirming the tradition of a Milesian colony from Spain, is a complete mistake. The pronunciation of gh to which he alludes, exists only amongst the English (or Anglicised natives) who are unable to pronounce the guttural ch or gh of the Celtic Irish, and have substituted for it the sound of h, or the sound of the Spanish j, to which W. R. M. refers. Besides this, every philologist knows that the present language of Spain had no existence at the period to which the Milesian invasion of Ireland must be referred. It is true that on the west coast of Ireland some families among the peasantry retain many of the characteristic features of modern Spaniards; but this circumstance is due to an intercourse with Spain of a much more recent date than the Milesian invasion, and is therefore no evidence of that event. It is well known that considerable trade with Spain was carried on at Galway and other ports of western Connaught, two centuries ago, and that many Spanish families settled in Ireland, or intermarried with the natives during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

To remove W. R. M.'s mistaken impression that Drogheda, Aghada, &c., are names of Spanish origin, it may be well to inform him, first, that the gh in such names is not sounded like the Spanish j, except, as I have said, by—(I was on the point of writing foreigners), but I mean by those who are unable to pronounce our Celtic guttural aspirates. Secondly, that Drogheda, Aghada, &c., are names significant in the Irish language and perfectly well understood, and that as now written they are not seen in their correct orthography, but in an Anglicised spelling intended to represent to English ears the native pronunciation. In the last century Drogheda was usually written Tredagh in English; but the word in its proper spelling is Droichet-atha, the bridge of the ford, trajectum vadi. There are many places in Ireland named from this word Droichet, which is no doubt the Latin trajectum, the same which forms a part of the name of Utrecht (Ultrajectum), and other towns on the continent.

The word Agha, properly Achadh, signifies a field, and enters into the composition of hundreds of topographical names in Ireland. But in every case the gh (or ch, as it properly is) is pronounced gutturally by the peasantry; the h or Spanish j sound is a modern Anglicised corruption.

On the subject of Irish proper names of places and persons a vast body of curious and valuable information will be found in the publications of the Irish Archæological Society, and also in O'Donovan's splendid edition of the Annals of the Four Masters.

HIBERNICUS.

We mere Irish assume to be descended from a Phœnician colony; the word Milesian is not Irish, the families so designated being known in the Irish language only as "Clonna Gäel" (I spare the English reader the mute consonants, which would rather bother him to get his tongue round).

Our tradition is, that the leader of the said colony saw Ireland from a tower, still said to exist near Corunna; he bore the style of Mileadle Spaniogle, for which no better translation is offered than "the soldier of Spain." His brothers and sons, the chief himself having deceased, are said to have conducted the expedition to Ireland; and if your correspondent wishes for a full account of their adventures, he should consult Keating's History of Ireland, which will, at all events, afford him some amusement.

As to the round towers, Mr. Petrie's book on The Ecclesiastical Antiquities or Architecture of Ireland has set that question at rest. He has shown that they are undoubtedly Christian buildings intended as Bell-houses, which their name in Irish signifies; and further, probably, for the safe keeping of the sacred vessels, &c., in time of war or tumult. It is unfortunately too certain that agitation was always rife in Ireland. On all points connected with Irish antiquities, the safest and best reference is to the Secretary of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. If this answer attract any of your correspondents to visit the museum of that establishment, I venture to prophecy that they will account themselves well repaid for their trouble, even though they should miss visiting the Great Exhibition thereby.

KERRIENSIS.

THE TANTHONY.

([Vol. iii., pp. 105.] [229.] [308.])

I remember hearing a worthy citizen of Norwich remark, that it was very odd there should be three churches in the city called after saints whose names began with the letter T. Having been myself resident in that city many years, without being aware of this fact, I took the liberty of inquiring to which three he alluded; when I was unhesitatingly told, "Why, Sain Tandrew's, Sain Taustin's, and Sain Tedmund's, to be sure!" Let me then be allowed to repeat ARUN'S question, and to ask, "Why not Tanthony for Saint Anthony?"

The same worthy citizen was once sheriff of Norwich, and, as is, or haply was, the custom,—for I know not how these matters are managed now-a-days,—went forth in civic state to meet the judges of assize. When their lordships were seated in the sheriff's carriage, one of them charitably observed, "Yours, I believe, is a very ancient city, Mr. Sheriff!" to which the latter, a little flurried, no doubt, at being thus so pointedly addressed, but in decided accents, replied, "It was ONCE, my Lord!" And without stopping to consider what was passing in his mind when he gave utterance to these somewhat ambiguous words, may we not take them up, and ask whether it be not even so, not only as regards Norwich, but most of her venerable sister towns as well? Where are their quondam glories—their arts and rare inventions—their "thoughts in antique words conveyed"—their "boast of heraldry"—their pageantries and shows? Where their high-peaked gables—their curiously wrought eaves and overhanging galleries—their quaint doorways, so elaborately carved, and all their other cunning devices?—"Modern Taste," with finger pointed to the newest creation of her plaster genius, triumphantly echoes the monosyllable, and answers, "Where?" Well, we are perforce content; only with this proviso:—if, fatigued with the tinselled superficialities and glossy refinements of the present, we are fain to "cast one longing lingering look behind," and chance to light upon some worthy illustrative memorial of the literature, the manners, or domestic life of the past,—that the spirit of Captain Cuttle's sage advice be made our own, and that we forthwith transfer our prize for the critical examination of "diving antiquaries" to the conservative pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES".

COWGILL.

The Tanthony.—Will your correspondent ARUN permit one to refer him to an authority for the use of the word "Tanton" for St. Anthony? An hospital in York, dedicated to St. Anthony, after the dissolution came into the possession of a gild or fraternity of a master and eight keepers, who were commonly called "Tanton Pigs." Vide Drake's Eboracum, p. 315.

Δ.

Tanthony Bell at Kimbolton.—"Tanthony" is from St. Anthony. In Hampshire the small pig of the litter (in Essex called "the cad") is, or once was, called "the Tanthony pig." Pigs were especially under this saint's care. The ensign of the order of St. Anthony of Hainault was a collar of gold made like a hermit's girdle; at the centre thereof hung a crutch and a small bell of gold. St. Anthony is styled, among his numerous titles, "Membrorum restitutor," and "Dæmonis fugator:" hence the bell.

"The Egyptians have none but wooden bells, except one brought by the Franks into the monastery of St. Anthony."—Rees' Cyclopædia, art. Bell.

I hope ARUN will be satisfied with this connexion of St. Anthony with the pig, the crutch, and the bell.

"The staff" in the figure of the saint at Merthyr is, I should think, a crutch.

"The custom of making particular saints tutelars and protectors of one or another species of cattle is still kept up in Spain and other places. They pray to the tutelar when the beast is sick. Thus St. Anthony is for hogs, and we call a poor starved creature a Tantony pig."—Salmon's History of Hertfordshire, 1728.

A. HOLT WHITE.

May I venture to observe, in confirmation of ARUN'S suggestion as to the origin of this term, that the bell appears to have been a constant attribute of St. Anthony, although I have tried in vain to discover any allusion to it in his legend?

Frederick von Schlegel, in describing a famous picture by Bramante d'Urbino (Æsthetic and Miscellaneous Works, p. 78.), mentions St. Anthony as "carrying the hermit's little bell;" and Lord Lindsay, in the Introduction to his Letters on Christian Art (vol. i. p. 192.), says that St. Anthony is known by "the bell and staff, denoting mendicancy." If this be the case, the bell at Kimbolton was doubtless intended originally to announce the presence of some wayfarer or mendicant. Tanthony is a common contraction for St. Anthony, as in the term "a Tanthony pig;" and a similar system of contraction was in use amongst the troubadours, who put Na for Donna; as Nalombarda for Donna Lombarda.

The bell carried by St. Anthony is sometimes thought to have reference to his Temptations; bells being, in the words of Durandus, "the trumpets of the eternal king," on hearing which the devils "flee away, as through fear." I think, however, that these words apply rather to church bells.

E. J. M.

PILGRIMS' ROAD TO CANTERBURY.

([Vol. ii., pp. 199.] [237.] [269.] [316.])

I think those of your readers who are interested in this Query will feel that the replies it has received are not quite satisfactory, and I therefore trust you will find some room for the following remarks.

I would beg to ask, can there be any doubt that from Southwark to Dartford, and from Rochester to their destination, Chaucer and his fellow pilgrims journeyed along the old Roman way, then for many centuries the great thoroughfare from London to the south-eastern coast, and which for these portions of the route is nearly identical with the present turnpike-road? The Tales themselves make it certain that the pilgrims started on this ancient way; for when the Host interrupts the sermonising of the Reeve, he mentions Deptford and Greenwich as being in their route:

"Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time,

Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime;

Lo Greenewich, there many a shrew is in,

It were all time thy tale to begin."

Shortly after leaving Dartford the turnpike-road bends to the left, reaching Rochester by Gravesend and Gadshill; whilst the Roman way, parts of which are still used, was carried to that city by Southfleet, and through Cobham Park; and it seems to me that the only question we have to solve is, whether Chaucer followed the Roman way throughout, or whether between Dartford and Rochester he took the course of what is now the turnpike-road. For I cannot but think it very unlikely that, with a celebrated road leading almost straight as a line to Canterbury, the pilgrims should either go many miles out of their way to seek another, as they must have done, or run the risk of losing themselves in a "horse-track."

In attempting to determine this point, your readers will remember the injunction of Poins:

"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at Gadshill; there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses."—Henry IV., Pt. I. Act I. Sc. 2.

And Gadshill the robber tells his fellows:

"There's money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the king's exchequer."—Act II. Sc. 2.

Here we learn, not only that in Shakspeare's time the road between London and Canterbury was by Gadshill, but also that the tradition was that the pilgrims had been accustomed to travel that road. We cannot, I think, be far out of the way in concluding this to have been the road that Chaucer selected, and thus have the satisfaction of connecting with it in an immediate and especial manner the two greatest names in our literature; for, if he meant the only other road that seems at all likely, he would, near Cobham, pass within two miles of this famed hill. Nor can there be much doubt that so loyal a company, following a pious custom, would tarry at Rochester, to make their offerings on the shrine of St. William; if so, among the many thousands who have trodden the steps, now well-nigh worn away, leading to its site, is there one individual whose presence here we can recall with more pleasure than that of the father of English poetry?

It is evident that the road mentioned by S. H. ([Vol. ii., p. 237.]) is not Chaucer's road; but I can well understand why it should be called the "Pilgrims' Road;" nor should I be surprised to learn that other roads in Kent are known by the same name, for Chaucer tells us in the "Prologue" to the Tales that

"From every shire's end

Of Engle-land to Canterbury they wend:"

and I need scarcely say that these widely scattered pilgrims would not all traverse the country by one and the same road, but that they would select various routes, according to the different localities from which they came. Hence, several roads might be called "Pilgrims' Roads."

From a paper which appeared in the Athenæum in 1842, and has since been reprinted in a separate form, the writer of which I take to be identical with the reviewer of Buckler's work referred to by MR. JACKSON, I think we may gather that what he speaks of as the "Old Pilgrims' Road" is the Otford Road noticed by S. H. and M. (2.) Messrs. Buckler's tract mentions no wayside chapels in Kent.

It may not be uninteresting to add, that the author of Cabinet Pictures of English Life—Chaucer has expressed his firm belief, the grounds for which must be sought in his work, that the "Pilgrims' Room" of the Tabard, now the Talbot, in Southwark, whence these memorable pilgrims set forth, must be at least as old as Chaucer, and that the very gallery exists along which Chaucer and the pilgrims walked.

ARUN.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Shakspeare's Use of "Captious" ([Vol. ii., p. 354.]; [Vol. iii., p. 229.]).—As W. F. S. does me the favour to ask my opinion of his notion respecting the passage in All's Well that Ends Well, I beg to say that I am very glad to find he agrees with me in regard to the signification of the word "captious;" but that I cannot suppose, with him, that Shakspeare wrote capatious in a passage in which the metre is regular; for what sort of verse would be—

"Yet in this capatious and intenible sieve?"

Surely W. F. S. has too good an ear to allow him to fix such a line in Shakspeare's text.

J. S. W.
Stockwell, April 3. 1851.

Inscription on a Clock ([Vol. iii., p. 329.]).—The words written under the curious clock in Exeter Cathedral, about which your correspondent M. J. W. HEWETT inquires, and which are, or were, also to be found under the clock over the Terrace in the Inner Temple, London, are, in truth, a quotation from Martial; and it is singular that a sentiment so truly Christian should have escaped from the pen of a Pagan writer:

"They" (that is, the moments as they pass) "slip by us unheeded, but are noted in the account against us."

What could Chrysostom or Augustine have said stronger or better? The whole epigram is so good that I venture to transcribe it.

"AD MARTIALEM DE AGENDA VITA BEATA.

"Si tecum mihi, care Martialis,

Securis liceat frui diebus,

Si disponere tempus otiosum,

Et veræ pariter vacare vitæ,

Nec nos atria, nec domos potentum,

Nec lites tetricas, forumque triste

Nôssemus, nec imagines superbas:

Sed gestatio, fabulæ, libelli,

Campus, porticus, umbra, virgo, thermæ;

Hæc essent loca semper, hi labores.

Nunc vivit sibi neuter, heu! bonosque

Soles effugere atque abire sentit;

Qui nobis PEREUNT, ET IMPUTANTUR.

Quisquam vivere cum sciat, moratur?"

Lib. v. ep. 20.

W.[2]

[2] We are indebted to several other correspondents for similar replies to this Query; and one, A. C. W., remarks that the epigram from which these lines are quoted, is thus translated by Cowley:

"Now to himself, alas! does neither live,

But sees good suns, of which we are to give

A strict account, set and march thick away:

Knows a man how to live, and does he stay?"

Authors of the Anti-Jacobin Poetry ([Vol. iii., p. 348.]).—I knew all the writers, some of them intimately; and I have no doubt of the general accuracy of MR. HAWKIN'S communication. The items marked B are the least to be relied on. I do not think Mr. Hammond, then Canning's colleague as Under-Secretary of State, wrote a line, certainly not of verse, though he no doubt assisted his friend in compiling, and perhaps correcting; good offices, which obtained him an honourable niche in the counter-satire issued from Brooke's, and preserved from oblivion by having been reprinted in the Anti-Jacobin to give more poignancy to Canning's reply, "Bard of the borrowed lyre," &c.

The Latin verses "Ipsa mali Hortatrix" were the sole production of Lord Wellesley, and he reprinted them a year or two before his death; Mr. Frere had no share in them: but, on the other hand, Mr. Frere may have been, and I think was, the author of the translation, "Parent of countless crimes." Lord Wellesley certainly was not; for it was made after he had sailed for India.

With regard to Mr. Wright's appropriation of particular passages of the longer poems to different authors, it is obviously impossible that it should be more than a vague conjecture. I know that both Canning and Gifford professed not to be able to make any such distribution; but both left on my mind the impression that Canning's share of the "New Morality" was so very much the largest as to entitle him to be considered its author. Ought not Canning's verses to be collected?

"Felix, quem faciunt," &c. ([Vol. iii., p. 373.]).—Though I cannot refer EFFIGIES to the original author of this passage, the following parallels may not be unacceptable to him:

"Felix, quem faciunt aliorum cornua cautum,

Sæpe suo, cœlebs dixit Acerra, patri."

Joannis Audoeni, Epigr. 147. Lib. i. (nat. circa 1600.)

Again:

"Felix, quicunque dolore

Alterius disces posse carere tuo."

Tibul. lib. iii. 6. 43.

It is remarkable that the annotator on this passage in the Delphin ed., Paris, 1685, p. 327., quotes the line in question thus: "Consonat illud: Felix quem faciunt," &c., without giving the authority.

Again:

"Periculum ex aliis facere, tibi quod ex usu siet."—

Ter. Heaut. i. 2. 36. (Not 25., as in the Delphin Index.)

Again:

"Feliciter is sapit, qui periculo alieno sapit."

This passage is assigned to Plautus in the Sylloge of Petrus Lagnerius, Francf. 1610, p. 312., but I cannot find it in this author.

C. H. P.
Brighton, May 12. 1851.

Perhaps it is hardly an answer to EFFIGIES to tell him that the earliest occurrence of this line, with which I am acquainted, is in a rebus beneath the device of the Parisian printer, Felix Balligault, about the year 1496. Thus:

"Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum.

Felici monumenta die felicia felix

Pressit: et hæc vicii dant retinentve nihil."

The device is a fruit-tree, from which a shield is suspended inscribed felix. Two apes are seated at the foot of the tree. The thought is, however, common to the wise and the witty of every age. Menander has it thus:—

"Βλέπων πεπαίδευμ᾽ εἰς τὰ τῶν ἄλλων κακά."

And Plautus:

"Feliciter sapit qui alieno periculum sapit."

Compare Terence, Heaut. i. 2. 36.:

"Periculum et aliis facere, tibi quod ex usu siet."

And Diodorus Siculus, i. ab init.:

"Καλὸν γὰρ τὸ δύνασθαι τοῖς τῶν ἄλλων ἀγνοήμασι πρὸς διόρθωσιν χρῆσθαι παραδείγμασι."

And Tibullus, lib. iii. eleg. vi.:

"Felix, quicunque dolore

Alterius disces posse carere tuo."

These indications may perhaps put your correspondent in the way of a more satisfactory answer to his question.

S.W. SINGER.

Church Bells ([Vol. iii., p. 339.]).—Should the following extract from Mr. Fletcher's Notes on Nineveh have escaped the notice of MR. GATTY, it may probably interest him:—

"During the following (12th) century Dionysius Bar Salibi occupied the (Jacobite) patriarchal throne, a man noted for piety and learning. He composed several works on theological subjects, among which we find a curious disquisition on bells, the invention of which he ascribes to Noah. He mentions that several histories record a command given to that patriarch to strike on the bell with a piece of wood three times a day, in order to summon the workmen to their labour while he was building the ark. And this he seems to consider the origin of church bells, an opinion which, indeed, is common to other Oriental writers."—Vol. ii. p. 212.

E. H. A.

Chiming, Tolling, and Pealing ([Vol. iii., p. 339.]).—Though the following has not, I fear, canonical authority, nor is it of remote antiquity, still, as they are not lines of yesterday, they may serve as one Reply to MR. GATTY'S late Query on Chiming, tolling, and pealing:—

"To call the folk to church in time

We chime,

When joy and mirth are on the wing

We ring,

When we mourn a departed soul

We toll."

I think it probable (though I have no direct proof of it) that the great bell, or tenor, was always RUNG when a sermon was to be preached, which was not the case when there was to be only prayers. I believe it is so at this day at St. Mary's, Oxford; it is very certain that the great bell, being so rung, is in some places called the Sermon Bell, though I remember two legends on tenor bells, which seem to imply that they were intended to call to prayers, viz.:—

"Come when I call,

To serve God all."

"For Christ, his flock, I aloud do call,

To confess their sins, and be pardoned all."

The difference between ringing the tenor (or any bell for prayers), and ringing it as a knell, is, that in the latter case the bell is set at every pull or stroke, which causes a solemnity in the sound very different from that produced by the very reverse mode of ringing it. Oh! what language there is in bells. In ringing, the bell is swung round; in tolling, it is swung merely sufficiently for the clapper to strike the side. Chiming is when more bells than one are tolled in harmony; if this be correct, to toll can be applied only when one bell is sounded, and Horne Tooke's definition of the word, from tollere, to raise up, must be wrong (humiliter loquor).

With regard to the present use of the old Sanctus Bell, which is called at Ecclesfield Tom Tinkler, the same is often called the Ting Tang.

H. T. ELLACOMBE.
Clyd St. George.

Extraordinary North Briton ([Vol. iii., p. 409.]).—In answer to the inquiries of the reviewer in the Athenæum of May 17, and your correspondent, the writer of the Extraordinary North Briton appears to have been an individual of the name of William Moore, not, as apparently supposed, the poet William Mason. I have, amongst a complete series of the London newspapers of the day, a set of the Extraordinary North Briton, beginning Tuesday (May 10, 1768) and terminating with the 91st No. (Saturday, January 27, 1770). Whether it was continued further I do not know. The early numbers are published by Staples Steare, 93. Fleet Street, and the subsequent ones by T. Peat, 22. Fleet Street, and by William Moore, 55., opposite Hatton Garden, Holborn. The second and subsequent numbers are entitled, The Extraordinary North Briton, by W—— M——. In the last three numbers the W—— M—— is altered to William Moore, and at the end of each is "London, printed and sold by the author, W. Moore, No. 22., near St. Dunstan's Church, Fleet Street." In the 90th number is the following advertisement:

"Mr. Moore thinks it highly incumbent on him to acquaint the public, that Thomas Brayne (who was his shopman all last winter) is now publishing a spurious paper under the same title in Holborn; that they may not be deceived, Mr. Moore's name will be in front of every paper he writes. He begs leave further to add, that Brayne sold several papers last week in his name, and told those who purchased them, that they were wrote by Mr. Moore, and that he published for him. In order that the public may not be deceived by such low artifice, an affidavit of Brayne's proceedings in this respect, will appear in the public papers some time next week."

I have also the papers published by Brayne, which are advertised at the end to be "Printed and Published by T. Brayne, No. 55., opposite Hatton Garden, Holborn."

I have referred to No. 4, for Friday, June 3, 1768, addressed to Lord Mansfield, noticed in the Athenæum; but, with all due respect to the opinion of the reviewer, I cannot see the slightest similitude to the style of Junius. It appears to me to be a very feeble performance, and by a very inferior person. Indeed, the entire series of the Extraordinary North Briton seems poor and flat when compared with its predecessor, the original and famous North Briton.

The attempt to show Mason to be Junius is amusing and ingenious; but the reviewer has evidently failed in persuading himself, and therefore, amidst the many startling improbabilities by which such an attempt is encompassed, is scarcely likely to gain many converts to such a theory.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

Fitzpatrick's Lines on Fox.—MR. MARKLAND, in your [78th Number (p. 334.]), asks the true reading of the third line.—The word should be "mind," not "course."

The lines are under the engraved bust of Fox, prefixed to the edition, in elephant folio, of his History of the early Part of the Reign of James II., and the word there given is "course." In my copy of that work is inserted a letter from Miller, the publisher, to a deceased friend of mine, who was an original subscriber at "Five Guineas, boards!"

That letter, so far as is material, is as follows:—

"The error in the engraving of the writing was certainly a very bad one, and not to be remedied, but it is a satisfaction to me that it was Lord Holland's mistake and not mine. I have his lordship's original writing of the four lines to clear myself. W. Miller, Albemarle Street, June 6, 1808."

Q. D.

Ejusdem Farinæ ([Vol. iii., p. 278.].).—This phrase was used in a disparaging sense long before the time of the "scholastic doctors and casuists of the middle ages," as may appear from Persius, v. 115-117., where he is showing that an elevation in rank does not necessarily produce a more elevated tone of mind; and says to an imaginary upstart:

"Sin tu, cum fueris nostræ paulò antè farinæ,

Pelliculam veterem retines, et fronte politus

Astutam vapido servas sub pectore vulpem," &c.

It is needless to add that the metaphor is taken from loaves made from the "same batch" of flour, where, if one be bad, all the others must be equally so.

J. EASTWOOD.
Ecclesfield Hall.

Stephens, in his Thesaurus, under the head of "Farinæ," states—

"Proverbiales locutiones sunt, Ejusdem Farinæ, Nostræ farinæ,"

but makes no allusion to its being a term expressive of baseness and disparagement. Nor does it seem to be so used by Persius in v. 115. of his 5th Satire:

"Si tu, cum fueris nostræ paulò antè farinæ."

We employ a somewhat similar expression, when we say, "both of the same kidney."

C. I. R.

This expression may be traced beyond "the scholastic doctors and casuists of the middle ages." Erasmus, in his Adagia, says,—

"Ejusdem farinæ dicuntur, inter quos est indiscreta similitudo. Quod enim aqua ad aquam collata, idem ad farinam farinæ. Persius in 5 Satyr.

"'Nostræ paulò antè farinæ,

Pelliculam veterem retines.'"

And again, on the proverb "Omnia idem pulvis," he says,—

"Quin nobis omnia idem, quod aiunt, pulvis: alludens ad defunctorum cineres, inter quos nibil apparet discriminis. Confine illi quod alio demonstravimus proverbio, ejusdem farinæ. Siquidem antiqui farinam pollinem vocabant."

Is. Casaubon, in a note on the above passage of Persius, says,—

"Proverbium Latinum ad notandum similitudinem, 'est ejusdem farinæ,' proprie locum habet in panibus."

Though the expression is generally, if not always, used disparagingly, as the corresponding expressions "birds of a feather" and "of the same kidney," yet I should doubt whether the term "farinæ" is itself expressive of baseness, any more than "feather" or "kidney." By the way, what is the origin of the latter of the above expressions?

E. S. T. T.

The Sempecta ([Vol. iii., pp. 328.] [357.].)—I have to return many thanks to DR. MAITLAND for his kindness in so promptly answering my Query. The reference to Martene has enabled me to find the poem in question. It is in Martene and Durand's Thesaurus novus Anecdotorum, Paris, 1717; and will be found in vol. iii. col. 1333. The poem forms caput iii. of the second book of the Historia Monasterii Villariensis in Brabantiâ, ordinis Cisterciensis (a title which shows the monastery to which the old soldier-monk belonged instead of Croyland), and is headed "Incipit vita beati Franconis." I think there are few of your readers who will not thank me for calling their attention to it, if they will take the trouble to refer to Martene's work.

H. R. LUARD.
Trin. Coll. May 5.

"Nulli fraus tuta latebris" ([Vol. iii., p. 323.]) will be found in Camerar. Emblem., cent. ii. 40.

Q. Q.

Voltaire—where situated ([Vol. iii., p. 329.]).—If the Querist will look to the Critical Essays of an Octogenarian, by J. R. (the learned, venerable, and respected James Roche, Esq., of Cork), he will find, at p. 11. vol. i., that there is no such place, the word "Voltaire" being merely a transposition of the name of the party assuming it as a designation. Thus, he was called Arouet Le Jeune. Transpose the letters of Arouet L. J., and allowing j, u and i, v to be used for each other, you have Voltaire.

By the Bye ([Vol. ii., p. 424.]; [ Vol. iii., p. 109.]).—In further illustration of this phrase, I would advert to the practice of declaring by the bye, which prevailed in the superior courts of common law, before the Uniformity of Process Act (2 Will. IV., c. 39.). The following extract from Burton's Exchequer Practice, 1791, vol. i. p. 149., will sufficiently explain this happily obsolete matter:—

"By the old rules it is ordered, 'That upon every defendant's appearance, the plaintiff may put in as many declarations as he will against every such defendant, provided they all be put in at one and the same time.' If there be more than one declaration delivered at the same time against the same defendant, every additional declaration so delivered is called delivering the declaration by the bye."

In the King's Bench, in certain cases, any other plaintiff could declare by the bye against the defendant, and that even before the original plaintiffs had declared. See Crompton's Practice Common-placed, 2nd ed., 1783, vol. i. p. 100.

The Doctor (in chap. cx.) says—

"By the bye, which is the same thing, in common parlance, as by the way, though critically there may seem to be a difference; for by the bye might seem to denote a collateral remark, and by the way a direct one."

By the bye, what a pity it is there is no Index to The Doctor.

C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, March 24, 1851.

Bigod de Loges ([Vol. iii., p. 306.]).—There is an error, perhaps a clerical one, in M. J. T.'s statement, that "Bigod, whose name was attached to the charter of foundation of St. Werburgh's Abbey, is elsewhere, according to Ormerod, called Robert."

The remark is by Leycester, not Ormerod, and the purport is exactly the converse. To the words "Signum Roberti de Loges" is added, "alii Bigot de Loges hic legunt." Vide Monasticon, pars I., pp. 200. 202.

This passage will be found in Leycester's Antiquities, p. 111., reprinted in Hist. Chesh., vol. i. p. 13. But Leycester's Prolegomena is the heading, and the initials "P. L." are appended to the note.

LANCASTRIENSIS.

Knebsend or Nebsend, co. York ([Vol. iii., p. 263.]).—A part of Sheffield is called Neepsend, which is probably the place inquired after by J. N. C., especially as the ordinary pronunciation of it is Nepsend.

J. EASTWOOD.

Mrs. Catherine Barton ([Vol. iii., p. 328.]).—Your correspondent will find all that is known in Sir David Brewster's Life of Newton, and will see (p. 323.) that her maiden name must have been either Smith, Pilkington, or Barton itself.

Peter Sterry ([Vol. iii., p. 38.]).—In the title-page to his sermon, preached before the Parliament, Nov. 1, 1649 (Lond. 1650, 4to.), Sterry is called "sometime Fellow of Emanuel College, Cambridge; now a Preacher of the Gospel in London." Some account of him may be seen in Burnet's History of his own Time; and in the Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow. Wood says that Peter Sterry was notorious "for keeping on that side which had proved trump" (Athenæ, iii. 197., edit. Bliss).

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Wife of James Torre ([Vol. iii., p. 329.]).—In reply to MR. PEACOCK'S Query I beg to inform him that the lady's name was Elizabeth, youngest of the four daughters and co-heiresses of William Lincolne, D.D., of Bottesford, and by her Mr. Torre had several children, all of whom died young except Jane, who married, in 1701, the Rev. Thomas Hassel. This is taken from Burke's Dictionary of Landed Gentry, vol. ii, M to Z, published by Colburn, London, 1847, where the Torre pedigree can be seen, but no other mention of the Lincolne family is there made. There are seven different coats of arms and crests under the name Lincolne in Burke's Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, published by Churton in 1843. This is all I can find at present.

J. N. C.

Ramasse ([Vol. iii., p. 347.]).—One word to complete MR. WAY'S explanation. This style of sliding down the slopes of the Alps is called a ramasse, because the guides are ready below to ramasser, that is, to pick up, the travellers who are thus sent down.

This word is by no means obsolete in France, in the acceptation of "a sledge." In addition to the instances given from Barré and Roquefort by MR. ALBERT WAY, in his instructive note on the "Pilgrymage of Syr R. Guylforde, Knyght," I find in Napoléon Landais' Dictionnaire général et grammatical des Dictionnaires Français," the following explanation:—

"RAMASSE, chaise à porteurs, traîneau pour descendre des montagnes où il y a de la neige: descendre une montagne dans une ramasse."

He also says, in defining the meaning of the verb "ramasser:"

"Traîner dans une ramasse: on le ramassa pendant deux heures; quand il fut sur la montagne, il se fit ramasser."

The late Mr. Tarver, in his Dictionnaire Phraséologique Royal, has also the following:

"RAMASSE, s. f. (t. de voyageur), sledge.

"On le ramassa, they conveyed him in a sledge.

"RAMASSEUR, a man who drives a sledge."

D. C.
St. John's Wood, May 4. 1851.

Four Want Way ([Vol. iii., p. 168.]).—Halliwell describes the word "want" as meaning in Essex a cross-road. It is still used here as denoting a place where four roads meet, and called "a four want way." I always fancied it meant a wont way, via solita; but I have no authority for the etymology.

BRAYBROOKE.
Audley End.

["Went" is used in Chaucer in the sense of "way," "passage," "turning," or road: thus, in Troilus and Creseide, iii. 788., he speaks of a "a privie went," and v. 605., "And up and doun there made he many a went;" and in the House of Fame:

"And in a forrest as they went,

At the tourning of a went.">[

Dr. Owen's Works ([Vol. i., p. 276.]).—The editor of the Works of John Owen is informed, that in the valuable library of George Offor, Esq., of Hackney, will be found a thick volume in manuscript of unpublished Sermons on the Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, in the Doctor's own hand-writing, and apparently prepared for publication. The same library also contains two scarce pieces by Dr. Owen, which it is thought have never been reprinted: 1. The Stedfastness of Promises, and the Sinfulness of Staggering, opened in a sermon preached at Margaret's, in Westminster, before the Parliament, Feb. 28, 1649, being a Day set apart for Solemn Humiliation throughout the Nation. By John Owen, Minister of the Gospel. London, 1650. 4to. pp. 54.—2. God's Work in Founding Zion, and his People's Duty thereupon. A Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster, at the opening of the Parliament, Sept. 17, 1656. By John Owen, a Servant of Jesus Christ in the Work of the Gospel. Oxford, 1656. 4to. pp. 48.

J. Y.
Hoxton.

Bactrian Coins ([Vol. iii., p. 353.]).—Has your correspondent read the book by Masson On the Coins, &c. of Afghanistan, published by Professor H. H. Wilson? There are also references to authorities in Humphreys On Ancient Coins and Medals.

C. B.

Bactria.—BLOWEN will find some trustworthy information respecting Bactria in Professor Lassen's Indische Alterthumskunde, Zweiter Band, pp. 277. et seq. Bonn, 1849; and a list of authorities on the Græco-Bactrian coins in the same work, pp. 282. 283. (notes).

C. H.

Baldrocks ([Vol. iii., p. 328.]).—On looking over a vestry book belonging to South Lynn in this town, commencing at 1605, and ending in 1677, I find some Churchwardens' Accounts, and amongst them the two following entries, which may, I trust, assist "A CHURCHWARDEN," and lead to an elucidation of this word:—

"1610.
"Janua. 17. ffor a balledrick to ye great Bell, xxid.
"1618.
"Novemb. 22. Item. for mendine of ye baldericke for ye foore bell, vjd."

From these entries it seems that the "baldrock" was something attached to the great bell.

In most of the recent English Dictionaries the word is applied to furniture, and to a belt or girdle. But in a Latin Dictionary published at Cambridge in 1693, I find in the Anglo-Latin part the following:—

English. A bawdrick of a bell clapper.
Latin. Ropali corrigia.

And the English of "Ropali Corrigia" seems (notwithstanding the English version given with it) to be "pieces of leather," or "thongs of leather" to the bell clapper, but for what purpose used I do not know.

JOHN NURSE CHADWICK.

P.S. The word "corrigia" is taken from the word "corium," a skin of leather.

[Were not these leather coverings?—that for the rope, to prevent its cutting the ringer's hands (as we constantly see), and also to prevent his hand slipping; and that for the clapper, to muffle it—straps of leather girded round them.]

Tu Autem ([Vol. iii., pp. 265.] [308.]).—The "Tu Autem," still remembered at Oxford and Cambridge, and yet lingering at the public dinners of the canons of Durham, is the last fragment of what was once a daily, or at least an almost daily, religious form or service at those ancient places; and it is rather strange that such a fragment should have remained so long in the collegiate and cathedral refectory without having preserved any remembrance of its real origin and meaning. If Bishop Hendren or Father Holdfast would forego their favourite pursuits for a few minutes, and look into your interesting and improving miscellany, they might inform you that in the Romish Breviary—which, no doubt, has preserved many ancient religious services—there is a form entitled Benedictio mensæ. As the generality of your readers may not have the Breviary at hand, I send you so much of the service as may suffice for the present purpose.

"BENEDICTIO MENSÆ.

"Ante prandium Sacerdos benedicturus mensam, incipit, Benedicite, et alii repetunt, Benedicite. Deinde dicit Oculi omnium, et alii prosequuntur. In te sperant, Domine, et tu das escam illorum in tempore opportuno" &c. &c. Then "Gloria Patri" &c., and "Pater noster" &c. &c.

"Posteà Sacerdos dicit:

"Oremus.

"Benedic Domine nos, et hæc tua dona, quæ de tua largitate sumus sumpturi. Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.

"Deinde Lector. Jube Domine benedicere. Benedictio. Mensæ cœlestis participes faciat nos Rex æternæ gloriæ. Amen.

"Post prandium aguntur gratiæ hoc modo. Dicto à Lectore, Tu autem Domine miserere nobis. Deo gratias, omnes surgunt.

"Sacerdos incipit. Confiteantur tibi Domine omnia opera tua. Et Sancti tui benedicant tibi. Gloria Patri, &c.

"Posteà Sacerdos absolutè dicat: Agimus tibi gratias, omnipotens Deus, pro universis beneficiis tuis, &c.

"Deinde alternatim dicitur Psalmus. Miserere mei Deus.

"Vel Psalmus 116." (in our version, 117.), &c. &c. &c.

The service then proceeds with very much repetition. The performance of the whole would probably occupy twenty minutes.

I must note that there are variations in the service depending upon the season, &c. &c.

I have indicated the rubric of the Breviary by Italics.

J. YALC.
Preston, Lanc.

Commoner marrying a Peeress ([Vol. ii., p. 230.]).—Your correspondent L. R. N. inquires whether there is any decision subsequent to that in the reign of Henry VIII. on the claim to the Taylboys barony, respecting the right of a Commoner marrying a peeress to assume her title and dignity, he having issue male by her. In reply I beg to inform him that there appears to have been one on the claim of Richard Bertie, in 1580, to the Barony of Willoughby, in right of his wife Catherine Duchess of Suffolk, as tenant by the curtesy, which was rejected, and Peregrine Bertie her son was admitted in the lifetime of his father. It seems, however, from the want of modern instances, as also by the elevation of ladies to the rank of peeresses, with remainders to their children, thus enabling the issue to sit in the lifetime of the father, that the prevailing notion is against curtesy in titles of honour. This subject will be found treated at some length in Cruise's Digest, vol. iii. pp. 187, 188. 198. ed. 1818.

O. S.

Ancient Wood Engraving ([Vol. iii., p. 277.]).—The subject of THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT'S question is an engraving of the "Pinax" of Cebes, a Theban philosopher who wrote circa A. M. 3600, and who, in his allegorical work of that name, described human life under the guise of a picture.

This information is for the HERMIT'S especial benefit, as I suppose it will be old news to most of your correspondents.

I have an old Dutch edition of the "Pinax" (Gerard de Jager, 1683), bound in vellum, with the Enchiridion and other works of Epictetus; the frontispiece of which is the fellow to the Hermit's engraving.

F. I.
Bradford.

Vegetating Insects ([Vol. iii., p. 166.]).—As the Query of MR. MANLEY in No. 70. has not been answered, I beg to say that Vegetating Insects are not uncommon both in New South Wales and New Zealand. The insect is the caterpillar of a large brown moth, and in New South Wales is sometimes found six inches long, buried in the ground, and the plant above ground about the same length: the top, expanded like a flower, has a brown velvety texture. In New Zealand the plant is different, being a single stem from six to ten inches high: its apex, when in a state of fructification, resembles the club-headed bulrush in miniature. When newly dug up, and divided longitudinally, the intestinal canal is distinctly visible, and frequently the hairs, legs, and mandibles. Vegetation invariably proceeds from the nape of the neck; from which it may be inferred, that the insect, in crawling to the place where it inhumes itself, prior to its metamorphosis, while burrowing in the light vegetable soil, gets some of the minute seeds of the fungus between the scales of its neck, from which in its sickening state it is unable to free itself, and which consequently, being nourished by the warmth and moisture of the insect's body then lying motionless, vegetates, and not only impedes the process of change in the chrysalis, but likewise occasions the death of the insect. The New South Wales specimen is called "Sphæria Innominata," that of New Zealand "Sphæria Robertsii;" both named, I believe, by Sir W. J. Hooker. In some specimens of the New Zealand kind now before me, the bodies of the insects are in their normal state, but the legs, &c., are gone.

Both specimens are figured and described in the Tasmanian Journal, vol. i. No. 4.

VIATOR.
Chatham.

Prayer at the Healing ([Vol. iii., p. 352.]).—N. E. R. inquires whether this prayer found a place in the prayer-books printed at Oxford or Cambridge.

I have it before me in the folio Book of Common Prayer, "Oxford, printed by John Baskett, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, and to the University, MDCCXV." It is placed between the form of prayer for Aug. 1. (the King's Accession) and the King's Declaration preceding the Articles.

This form differs from that given by Sparrow, in his Collection, edit. 1684, p. 165., as follows:—

Sparrow gives two Gospels: Mark, xvi. 14., St. John, i. 1., the imposition of the King's hands taking place at the words "they shall lay," &c. in the reading of the first, and the gold being placed at reading the words "that light" in the second.

In Baskett's form, the first Gospel only is used, with the collect "Prevent us, O Lord," before it.

In Baskett's form, the supplicatory versicles and Lord's Prayer, which agree in their own order with the earlier form, follow this first Gospel, and precede the imposition and the suspension of the gold, during which (it is directed) the chaplain that officiates, turning himself to his Majesty, shall say these words following:

"God give a blessing to this work, and grant that these sick persons, on whom the king lays his hands, may recover through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This does not appear in Sparrow's form of 1684, neither does the following address, at the close, by the "chaplain, standing with his face towards them that come to be healed."

"The Almighty God, who is a most strong tower to all them that put their trust in Him, to whom all things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth do bow and obey, be now and evermore your defence, and make you know and feel that there is none other Name under heaven given to man, in whom, and through whom, you may receive health and salvation, but only the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen."

Objectionable as the ceremony was, there can be no doubt that a much more Protestant character was given to it by these alterations.

LANCASTRIENSIS.

M. or N. ([Vol. i., p. 415.]; [Vol. ii., p. 61.]; [Vol. iii., p. 323.]).—With reference to the initials or letters M. and N. found in the Catechism and the Marriage Service of our Common Prayer Book, it has struck me that a fancy of mine may satisfy some of those who wish to find more than a mere caprice in the selection of them.

It is remarkable that in the Catechism we read N. or M., while in the service for Matrimony M. is for the man, N. for the woman.

I have imagined long ago that "N. or M." may mean "nomen viri; aut mulieris:" that M. may stand for "maritus" in the other place, and N. for "nupta."

TYRO ETYMOLOGICUS.

N. stands (as it constantly did in MS.) for "nomen" or name; M. for N. N., "nomina" or names. You will observe that in black letter the forms of N and M are so very similar that by an easy contraction double N would pass into M, and thus the contracted form N. N. for "nomina" might have come into M. Corroborating this is the fact that the answer to What is your name? stands thus: Answer N. or M., and not M. or N.

J. F. T.

P.S. Throughout the Matrimonial Service I observe M. attached to the man's name, but N. to the woman's.

Dancing Trenchmore ([Vol. iii., p. 89.]).—Your correspondent S. G. asks the meaning of this phrase? Trenchmore was a very popular dance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The earliest mention I find of it occurs in 1564, and the latest in 1728. The figure and the musical notes may be seen in the fifth and later editions of The Dancing Master. See also Chappell's National English Airs, vol. ii. p. 181., where some amusing quotations concerning its popularity are given. Trenchmore (the meaning of which we have to seek) was, however, more particularly the name of the dance than the tune. The dance, in fact, was performed to various tunes. In proof of this I give the following quotation from Taylor the water-poet's Navy of Land Ships, 1627:

"Nimble-heel'd mariners (like so many dancers) capring in the pompes and vanities of this sinful world, sometimes a Morisco, or Trenchmore of forty miles long, to the tune of Dusty my deare, Dirty come thou to me, Dun out of the mire, or I waile in woe and plunge in paine: all these dances have no other musicke."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Demosthenes and New Testament ([Vol. iii., p. 350.]).—If your correspondent C. H. P. had referred to the Critici Sacri, he would have found his questions answered. With regard to the quotation from Acts xvii. 21., I beg to inform him that Drusius makes the same reference, but generally only, as Pricæus; while Grotius gives the passages with particular references, in the same manner as Lagnerius. As to the passage from St. Matthew xiii. 14., he would have found, had he consulted the Critici Sacri, that Grotius quotes the same passage from Demosthenes as Pricæus; but, as far as I can see, they are the only commentators in that work who observed the parallel passages. However, the fact of its being "employed as an established proverb by Demosthenes having been generally overlooked," as C. H. P. supposes, is not quite correct, as it is mentioned in the brief notes in Dr. Burton's Greek Testament, Oxon., 1831.

H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford, May 3. 1851.

Roman Catholic Church ([Vol. iii., pp. 168.] [409.].).—E. H. A. will find the information which he requires in the Notizie per l'anno 1851. It is a very small annual published at Rome by authority. Its price cannot exceed 4s. or 5s.

Yankee, Derivation of ([Vol. iii., p. 260.]).—In Webster's American Dictionary, and in the Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological, and Scientific, J. M. will see the etymology of Yankee, which M. Philarète Charles supposes not to be given in any work American or English.

NORTHMAN.

English French ([Vol. iii., p. 346.]).—I take the liberty to inform C. W. B., for the justification of my countrymen, as well as of his own, that the Guide to Amsterdam was probably written by a British subject born between the tropics, and will point out, not by way of reprisals, but as a curiosity of the same sort, an example of French-English to be found in a book just published by Whittaker and Co., entitled What's What in 1851? Let any one who understands French try to read the article, p. 69., headed "Qu'êst que, qu'êst que la veritable luxure en se promenant," and if he can guess at the meaning of the writer, no foreign-English I ever met with will ever give him trouble.

G. L. KEPPER.
Amsterdam, May 10. 1851.

Deans, when styled Very Reverend ([Vol. iii., p. 352.]).—I cannot answer this question, but I can supply a trace, if not a clue. I find in a long series of old almanacks that the list of deans is invariably given as the Reverend the dean down to 1803 inclusive. I unluckily have not those for the three next years, but in that for 1807 I find "the very Reverend the dean."

Duchess of Buckingham ([Vol. iii., p. 281.]).—There is one circumstance omitted by P. C. S. S., in his remarks upon the Duchess of Buckingham, which explains why a Phipps, on being called to the peerage, chose the titles of Mulgrave and Normanby.

By her second husband—the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby—she had one son, who succeeded to the title and estates; but, dying unmarried during his mother's lifetime, bequeathed to her all the Mulgrave and Normanby property. Her daughter (by her first marriage with James Annesley, third Earl of Anglesey) was then the wife of Mr. W. Phipps, son of Sir Constantine Phipps, Lord Chancellor of Ireland: to their issue, Constantine Phipps, first Lord Mulgrave, the Duchess left by will these estates; thus founding her grandson's fortune, although she did not live to see him created the first Baron Mulgrave.

The Sheffield Buckingham family, although extinct in the male line, is represented in the female branch by the Sheffield Dicksons; Mrs. Dickson, the widow of Major Dickson, of the Life-Guards, being in direct descent from the Lady Catherine Darnley's husband, by another wife.

A. B.
Redland, April 13.

Swearing by the Peacock ([Vol. iii., p. 70.]).—Swearing in the presence of a peacock, referred to by T. J., from Dr. Lingard's History of England, time of Edward I., is, with the ceremony observed at the Feast of the Peacock, in the thirteenth century, related at full by Mr. Knight in his Old England, pp. 311. and 312.; and the representation of the Feast from the Bran of Robert Braunche, in the choir of St. Margaret's Church at Lynn (a mayor of Lynn), who died October 15, 1364, is given fig. 1088.

BLOWEN.

Howe Family ([Vol. iii., p. 353.]).—Your correspondent who asks what was the connexion of the Howes with the royal family, will find in Walpole's Reminiscences (ch. ii.) that Charlotte Viscountess Howe, the mother of Captain Howe, afterwards the celebrated admiral, and of General Sir William Howe, was the daughter of George I. by Madame Kelmansegge, Countess of Platen, created in England Countess of Darlington.