Minor Queries.
207. Colonies in England.
—Can any of your correspondents give me any information about a colony of Spaniards said to exist at Brighton; of Flemings in Pembrokeshire; of Frisians in Lancashire; of Moors in (I think) Staffordshire; and of some Scandinavian race, with dark eyes and dark hair, at Yarmouth in Norfolk. I should feel thankful for the mention of other colonies besides these, if any more exist, as I believe many do, in other parts of England.
THEOPHYLACT.
208. Buxtorf's Translation of the "Treatise on Hebrew Accents," by Elias Levita.
—John Buxtorf the elder, in his Bibliotheca Rabbinica (printed along with his useful book De Abbreviaturis Hebraicis: Basil, 1630), p. 345., speaking of the curious and valuable work on the Hebrew Accents, by R. Elias Levita, called ספר טוב טעם, says, "Habemus cum Latine a nobis translatum."
Can any of your readers inform me whether this translation was ever printed; and, if not, whether the MS. of it is known to exist?
JAMES H. TODD.
Trin. Coll. Dublin.
209. The Name "Robert."
—Can any of your readers offer any suggestions as to how the name "Robert," and its various diminutives, became connected with so much diablerie?
Besides the host of hob-goblins, hob-thrush, hob-with-the-lantern, and the Yorkshire Dobbies, we have those two mysterious wights Robin Hood and Robin Goodfellow, and "superstitious favourite" the Robin Redbreast. It is a term also frequently applied to idiotcy (invariably among our lower orders linked with the idea of super-naturalism). Hobbil in the northern and Dobbin in the midland districts of England are terms used to denote a heavy, torpid fellow. The French Robin was formerly used in the same sense.
SAXONICUS.
210. Meaning of "Art'rizde."
—In Halliwell's Archaic Dictionary, p. 821. col. 2., there is a quotation from Middleton's Epigrams and Satyres, 1608. Will you, or any of your readers, be kind enough to inform me what is the meaning of the word "Art'rizde which occurs in the quotation, and also give some information as to the book from which it is quoted? Dyce professes to publish all of Middleton's known works, but in his edition (1840) there are no epigrams to be found.
QUÆSO.
211. Sir William Griffith of North Wales.
—Elizabeth, daughter of William Fiennes, Constable of Dover Castle, who was slain at the battle of Barnet, 10 Edw. IV., married, according to the pedigrees of Fiennes, "Sir William Griffith, of North Wales, Knt." It appears there were several persons of this name, and one styled Chamberlain of North Wales, but no such wife is given to him. Can any of your Welsh genealogists identify the Sir William Griffith by reference to any evidence or authorities, manuscript or otherwise, which state the marriage, and show whether Elizabeth Fiennes had any issue?
212. The Residence of William Penn.
—I have been informed that Chatham House, opposite the barracks at Knightsbridge, was the residence of Penn. This house was built in 1688; it had formerly large garden grounds attached both in front and behind. Another account informed me that a house, now known as the "Rising Sun," was the honoured spot. This house has only of late years been turned into a public-house; it is of neat appearance, and the date of 1611 is, or was till lately, to be seen at the two extremes of the copings. Query, Can either of these houses be pointed out with certainty as having been the residence of the great Quaker, and, if so, which? Why was the first-mentioned house called Chatham House?
H. G. D.
213. Martial's Distribution of Hours.—
"Prima salutantes atque altera continet hora;
Exercet raucos tertia causidicos.
In quintam varios extendit Roma labores,
Sexta quies lassis ——"
Martial, iv. 8.
These lines are the forenoon portion of Martial's well-known distribution of hours and occupation.
Taking these hours then, for the sake of simplification, at the equinox, when they assimilate in length to our modern hours and assuming it as granted that "quies lassis" refers to the noon-tide siesta, and therefore that "sexta" cannot signify any time previous to our twelve o'clock, or noon, I wish to ask the classical readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES"—
1st. How far into the day are we carried by the expression "in quintam?"
2nd. If no farther than to a point equivalent to our eleven o'clock, A.M., in what way is the vacant hour between that point and sexta, or noon, accounted for by Martial?
A. E. B.
Leeds.
214. Moonlight.
—A sermon of Dr. Pusey's contains the following beautiful illustrations of the danger of much knowledge and little practice:
"The pale cold light of the moon, which enlightens but warms not, putrifies what it falls upon."
Will any one inform me whether this is a physical truth, or only an allowable use of a popular opinion?
PHILIP HEDGELAND.
215. Ash-sap given to new-born Children.
—Lightfoot, in his Flora Scotia, vol. ii. p. 642., says—
"That in many parts of Scotland (the Highlands), at the birth of a child the nurse or midwife puts one end of a great stick of the ash-tree into the fire, and while it is burning receives into a spoon the sap or juice which oozes out at the other end, and administers this as the first spoonfuls of liquor to the new-born babe."—Phillip's Sylva Flora.
Why?
G. CREED.
216. Cockney.
—In John Minshieu's Ductor in Linguas, published in 1617, the origin of this word is thus explained:—
"That a citizen's son riding with his father out of London into the country, and being a novice and merely ignorant how corn and cattle increased, asked, when he heard a horse neigh, what the horse did? His father answered, the horse doth neigh. Riding further he heard a cock crow, and said, doth the cock neigh too?"
I should not have troubled you with this story had I not been anxious to ascertain the real origin of the word "Cockney," about which Johnson seems to have been nearly as much in the dark as I am. For any other and more rational explanation I shall be much obliged, as well as by being informed from what source Minshieu derived this story of a cock and a horse, which I am confident I have met with elsewhere, and which is probably familiar to many of your readers.
H. C.
Workington.
217. Full Orders.
—This term is well understood to mean those orders conferred in the church which elevate a deacon to the rank of a priest, capable of a full and entire performance of the duties of the Christian ministry. An interesting point has recently been stirred afresh, touching the validity of any ministerial commission which does not draw its authority from the imposition of episcopal hands. I am not proposing to start a controversial question, unsuited to the quiet and pleasant pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" but there branches out from this question a Query solely relating to the Church of England, and involving no dispute; and therefore I beg to ask, whether our church holds that a bishop can confer the full orders of the priesthood without any concomitant laying on of the hands of the presbytery? The rubric in the office for the Ordering of Priests, says, "The Bishop with the Priests present shall lay their hands severally upon the head of every one that receiveth the order of Priesthood:" and the Bishop then says, "Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands," &c. Is, then, the aid of the priests essential to the due performance of the rite? Does the expression "our hands" mean both bishop's and priests' hands, as the joint instruments of conveying authority to do the work and office of a priest? Is there any instance of an Anglican bishop ordaining a priest without assistance? I am aware that Beveridge considers that the bishop's hands alone are sufficient; that it has never been the practice in the Greek or the Eastern churches for priests to take a part in the ceremony of conferring "full orders;" and that the custom of their doing so is referred to a decree of the Council of Carthage, A.D. 398, which says, "When a priest is ordained, the bishop blessing him and laying the hand upon his head, let all the priests also, that are present, hold their hands upon his head, by the hands of the bishop." Without the slightest reference to which is really the orthodox method, I would merely ask, whether the Church of England could legally forego the intervention of the priests, just as the Church of Scotland dispenses with the aid of bishops in the act of conferring "full orders?"
ALFRED GATTY.
218. Earwig.
—Can any correspondent furnish a derivation of ear-wig superior to the ones in vogue?
ΑΞΩΝ.
219. The Soul's Errand.
—I will thank any one to tell me on what grounds the stanzas called the Soul's Errand are reported to have been written by Sir Walter Raleigh the night before his execution. The first stanza is (memoriter)—
"Go, soul, the body's guest,
Upon a thankless errant!
Fear not to touch the best,
The truth shall be thy warrant.
Go, since I needs must die,
And give the world the lie."
It will be satisfactory to hear at the same time in what work they are to be found. A nobleman of high rank is said to have them engraved on a silver table of the period.
ÆGROTUS.