Replies to Minor Queries.
Robert Douglas (Vol. iv., p. 23.).
—There is no truth in the report that this person was a grandson of Mary Queen of Scots. His diary during the march of the Scots troops to England, 1644, is printed in a work entitled Historical Fragments relative to Scotish Affairs from 1635 to 1664, Edin., 1833, 8vo., published by Stevenson of Edinburgh, and edited by James Maidment, Esq., of that city, who has enriched the volume with many notes and illustrations, and has given in addition a pretty copious account of Douglas. His letters and papers fell into the hands of Wodrow. (See Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 326.) Allow me to correct an error. The Bannatyne Club did not print Wodrow's Analecta. This very amusing collection was a munificent present from the late Earl of Glasgow to the members of the Maitland Club, of which his lordship was president; it is in four thick 4to. volumes, and full of all sorts of out-of-the-way information. It seems very little known at present south the Tweed. I question whether Mr. Macaulay has gone through it, although he is no doubt familiar with Wodrow's one-sided work on the Sufferings of the Scotish Presbyterian clergy.
J. MT.
The Leman Baronetcy (Vol. iv., pp. 58. 111.).
—The attempt in Scotland to give a right to an English title of honour is exposed fully in Mr. Turnbull's Anglo-Scotia Baronets, Edin. 1846, P. XXXII. iii. The "certified court proceedings" are worth nothing, and would not be sustained in a court of law. The party called Sir Edward Godfrey Leman may or may not be the next heir of the Lord Mayor, but he must prove his right in England by such evidence as may be required there, and not by reference to what would not even be looked at in the Scotish law courts.
J. MT.
Cachecope Bell (Vol. iii., p. 407.).
—Is it possible that this word may be a corruption of the low Latin "Catascopus" (Gr. κατάσκοπος), and that it was applied to a bell which a watchman tolled to give an alarm of fire, &c.? I have seen a bell set apart for this duty, in churches on the continent.
C. P. PH***.
May not this have been a bell specially rung at funerals, and deriving its name (as has been suggested to me) from cache corps, "cover the body" (in the ground)? And why not, since we have got "curfew" out of couvre feu, "cover the fire?"
A. G.
Ecclesfield.
[E. V. has suggested a similar explanation of this term.]
"Dieu et mon Droit" (Vol. iii., p. 407.).
—In Bishop Nicolson's English Historical Library, part iii. chap. i., under the section treating of Charters appears the following paragraph:
"The same king (Edward III.), as founder of the most noble order of Knights of the Garter, had his arms sometimes encircled with their motto of 'Honi soit,' &c., that of 'Dieu et mon Droit' having formerly been assumed by Richard the First, intimating that the Kings of England hold their empire from God alone. But neither of those ever appeared on the Broad Seal, before the days of Henry the Eighth."
FRANCISCUS.
Defoe's House at Stoke Newington (Vol. iv., p. 256.).
—This house is the one which was occupied by the late William Frend, M.A., of the Rock Life Office, and which now belongs to his widow. It is on the south side of Church Street, a little to the east of Lordship Lane or Road, and has about four acres of ground attached, bounded on the west by a narrow footway, once (if not still) called Cutthroat Lane. Or it may be identified thus: take the map of Stoke Newington in Robinson's history of that place, London, 1820, 8vo., and look directly below the first "e" in "Church Street." Among the papers by which the house is held is the copy of the enrolment of a surrender to the lord of manor, dated February 26, 1740, in which the house is described as "heretofore in the tenure or occupation of Daniel Defoe." The history just mentioned stated that he was living at Newington in 1709. There appears no reason to suppose that he built the house. Dr. Price lived for some years in it, as the domestic chaplain of a subsequent owner.
M.
Study of Geometry in Lancashire (Vol. ii., p. 57.).
—Your correspondent Mr. T. T. WILKINSON, in his interesting article on this subject, attributes the first rise of the study of geometry in Lancashire to the Oldham Mathematical Society. But he is not perhaps aware, that half a century before a Mathematical Society existed at Manchester. I have a thin 8vo., entitled—
"Mathematical Lectures; being the first and second that were read to the Mathematical Society at Manchester. By the late ingenious Mathematician John Jackson. 'Who can number the Sands of the Sea, the Drops of Rain, and the Days of Eternity?' Ecclus. i. 2. 'He that telleth the Number of the Stars, and calleth them all by their Names.' Psalm cxlvii. 4. Manchester, printed by Roger Adams, in the Parsonage, and sold by William Clayton, Bookseller, at the Conduit. 1719."
The book is dedicated to the "Virtuous and Religious Lady Bland." The Preface states that
"There having been lately set up in Manchester a Mathematical Society, which was encouraged by many (and some Honorable) subscribers, and the composing of the Lectures being undertaken by the late ingenious Mathematician Mr. John Jackson, and he having discharged himself well becoming his parts and character in the reading of several extraordinary ones in Geometry, we thought it would be great pity, as well as ingratitude, to let such worthy performances expire with him."
Then follow the two Lectures, which terminate at p. 41. The first was read Aug. 12, 1718; the second, Aug. 19, 1718. The Manchester Mathematical Society would be one of the earliest in the kingdom. Perhaps the Oldham Society might be a branch of the Manchester.
JAMES CROSSLEY.
Coke, how pronounced (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 74. 93. 138. 244.).
—I think that the pronunciation of Cook for Coke is not a "modern affectation," as in a MS. journal of the proceedings in parliament of the session of 1621, now in my possession, there is, amongst other amusing things, an account of a quarrel between Mr. Clement Coke, son of Sir Edward, and Sir Charles Moryson, in which Mr. Coke's name is frequently spelt Cooke. I should judge that the pronunciation was by no means settled at that time; for, as the journal was evidently written whilst the debates were going on, it appears to me that the pronunciation of each speaker was followed, and the name is spelt differently in speeches that succeed each other. I send you an exact copy of one example of this:
"Mr Whittbye.—That Mr Coke will submitt and satisfy in acknowg his wrong don, if Sr Chars will say he ment it not a disgrace.
"Sr Ro. Philps.—I would any way mitigate ye censure: I should need no other inducet but to remembr he is ye soun of such a father. But I must say, I thinke Sr Chars hath not given ye least occasn to Mr Cooke," &c. &c.
C. DE D.
Quistourne (Vol. iv., p. 116.).
—Here is a word so very like the Devonshire one which has puzzled a correspondent, that it may be the same one in sense as well in sound. In one of the Low-Norman insular dialects, it denotes a slap with the back of the hand; in French-British,[3] KIS DOÛRN, revers de main.
[3] I was asked by a great and true scholar, now no more, What do you mean by British? My answer was, "The nation that you have nicknamed Welsh or Strangers, which they are not. With me the English are still English, the Scotch Scots, the Britons in France the British there."
G. M.
Seneca's Medea (Vol. i., p. 107.; Vol. iii., p. 464.).
—I cannot feel much doubt that the prophecy ascribed to Medea was a mere allusion to events actually past. It was a compliment to Claudius upon the recent reduction of Britannia under the Roman arms, with nothing future, unless it were an encouragement to bring Caledonia, Ireland, and the small islands, into similar subjection. The Oceanus was supposed to extend indefinitely westward, beyond the world, into the regions of Night and Chaos, and was not only dreaded for its stormy navigation, but from feelings of religious awe. The expedition to Britain was peculiar from being ultra-mundane, and an invasion of the ocean, so that
"Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet et ingens
Pateat tellus."
For that reason only they called the Britons "penitus toto divisos orbe." "Britain (said the pseudo-Hegesippus) lying out of the world, was by the power of the Roman empire reduced into the world," cit. Camden. And the same is implied in another place of Seneca himself—
"Ille Britannos
Ultra noti
Littora ponti, etc.
Dare Romuleis
Colla catenis
But the "Poemata Pithæana," reprinted in Camden, form the most lively commentary on the chorus of the Medea. They are likewise of the Claudian age, they relate to the conquest of Britain, and they are nothing but an expansion of that one idea, the trans-oceanic voyage and ultra-mundane conquest—
"Oceanus.... Qui finis mundo, non erit imperio. Oceanus mêdium venit imperium. At nunc Oceanus geminos interluit orbes, Pars est imperii, terminus ante fuit. Et jam Romano cingimur Oceano. Oceanus jam terga dedit, etc. Conjunctum est, quod adhuc (i.e. nunc) orbis, et orbis erat," &c.
The Chorus of Seneca has no more of prophecy, or sagacious conjecture, or other anticipation of the future, than Gray's "Bard," or the prophecy of Medea in Pindar's "Pythians," both of them fulfilled before the poet's time. Whatever may seem of a larger import, in Seneca's language, than events had fully justified, belongs to the obscure and lofty strain of remote vaticinations, or to the exaggerations of flattery.
A. N.
The Editor of Jewel's Works in Folio (Vol. iv., p. 225.).
—Colet speaks of the editions of Jewel published in 1609 and 1611 as "edited by Fuller." On meeting with the statement elsewhere, I supposed it to be a mistake, as Fuller was born in 1608; but when I found it apparently countenanced by the notice of Jewel in Fuller's Abel Redivivus (Camb. 1651, p. 313.), I was much puzzled, until, on turning to the Introduction, § 11., I discovered that the writer of that notice, and editor of the folios, was not Fuller, but Featley.
J. C. R.
Poetaster (Vol. iv., p. 59.).
—In reply to A BORDERER, I do not think poetaster to be a genuine Latin word, though where first used I do not know. The French equivalent is poëtereau; the Italian poëterio; both formed according to the analogies of the respective languages. Poetaster seems to me to be formed upon the model of oleaster, pinaster, &c., as though to indicate that the person to whom the name is applied is as unlike a true poet as the wild olive to the true olive, or the wild pine to the true pine. What then is the derivation of aster as a termination? Some punster will say, respecting oleaster, that it is olea sterilis. Is it not ἄγριος? or is it rather a form cognate to the Greek termination -αζω, which generally means the performance of some energy, or the exhibiting of some state, implied in the substantive; as though the wild olive affected the characteristics and condition of the genuine olive? I am fully aware of many difficulties in the admission of these derivations. I would suggest another. Does aster signify that which affects or approaches the characteristics of the substantive to which it is added, as the terminations -estis or -estris, whereby adjectives are formed; as agrestis, sylvestris, campestris, at the same time that the forms are allied, -aster, -estris, -estis?
THEOPHYLACT.
Post Pascha (Vol. iv., p. 151.).
—A parallel to the "hypertautology" noticed by M. may be found in the determination of the University of Orleans on the question of Henry VIII.'s divorce, which is dated "die quinto mensis Aprilis, ante pascha," from which it has been argued, that that document must have been drawn up in 1530, not (as stated in the printed copies) in 1529, when Easter fell on March 28.
J. C. R.
Linteamina and Surplices (Vol. iv., p. 192.).
—It seems probable that the surplice became an ecclesiastical vestment at an early date, though the exact period of its introduction into the Christian church it is difficult to ascertain; it may not unlikely have been taken from the white linen ephod of the Jewish priests. Wheatly (c. ii. § 4.) quotes a passage from Jerome to the following effect: "What offence can it be to God for a bishop or priest to proceed to communion in a white garment;" and he considers it not improbable that it was in use in Cyprian's days. Bingham (French Churches' Apology, book iii. chap. vii.) cites a letter of Peter Martyr to Bishop Hooper on the vestment controversy, in which he states that a distinction of habits may be proved by many passages of Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. By the twelfth canon of the Council of Narbonne, A.D. 589, the clergy were forbidden to take the albe off until after mass was ended. In ancient times, as Mr. Palmer observes (Orig. Lit. ii. 409.), the surplice probably differed not from the albe; it differs now only in having wider sleeves.
N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)
Climate (Vol. iv., p. 231.).
—A climate was a zone contained between two parallels of latitude. The climates were made to contain various arcs of latitude, in different systems. See Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary at Climate, or any work which efficiently explains old astronomical terms. Thus a climate originally meant a certain range of latitude; and as we now speak of warm and cold latitudes, so it became customary to speak of climates, until the last word became wholly meteorological.
M.
"Climate or Clime in geography is a part of the surface of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the equator, and of such a breadth as that the longest day in the parallel nearer the pole exceeds the longest day in that next the equator by some certain spaces, viz. half an hour.
"The ancients, who confined the climates to what they imagined the habitable parts of the earth, only allowed of seven. The first they made to pass through Meroë; the second, through Sienna; the third, through Alexandria; the fourth, through Rhodes; the fifth, through Rome; the sixth, through Pontus; and the seventh, through the mouth the Borysthenes."—Encyclopædia Britannica, art. "CLIMATE."
S. C. C.
Corfe Castle.
Ancient Language of Egypt (Vol. iv., pp. 152. 240.).
—The only works on the language of ancient Egypt preserved in the hieroglyphical inscriptions that possess any authority are the Grammaire Egyptienne of Champollion,[4] and the appendix to the first volume of the Chevalier Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History. Much, however, is known to individuals who have studied the language, which has not been published, or perhaps digested into a system; and the works mentioned are by no means to be depended on as to matters of detail, especially as respects the verbs and pronouns, though the general principles of interpretation may be considered as settled. There was another language used by the ancient Egyptians, and expressed in what is called the demotic or enchorial character. Brugsch of Berlin is the highest authority as to this; his work, De natura et indole linguæ popularis Ægyptiorum, is, I believe, incomplete, but he has published others in Latin and German.
[4] This contains the latest views of the author, whose most important discoveries were made near the close of his life. The Précis contains much that Champollion afterwards rejected as erroneous. The Dictionnaire is a compilation, made after his death from what he wrote at different periods of his life. It is inconsistent with itself, and abounds in errors, so as to be worse than useless to the student.
The work on Egyptian chronology, from which most seems to be expected, is that of Lepsius; but he has yet published only the first volume, which consists of preliminary matter. Le Sueur's treatise, though crowned by the French Académie, is a failure. Bunsen's less palpably erroneous, but a great part of the second and third volumes, which were published in German in 1844, would require to be re-written. Those who wish to study the chronology, as systematised by the Egyptians themselves, should consult the Turin Book Of Kings, of which an accurate fac-simile, with explanatory text, has been lithographed, and is about to be published by subscription, under the superintendence of a committee, of which Sir Gardner Wilkinson is the most prominent member.
E. H. D. D.
Welwood's Memoirs (Vol. iv., p. 70.).
—The edition referred to by MR. ROSS I have not seen, but there is one in my library printed at London in 1702, and which bears to be "the fourth edition," with the dedication to the king, and an address "to the reader" commencing as follows:—
"These sheets were writ some years ago, by the encouragement of one whose memory will be ever sacred to posterity. It's needless to mention the occasion; and they had not been published now, if a surreptitious copy of a part of the manuscript had not crept abroad."
The volume, which is very well got up in 8vo., is printed for "Tim. Goodwin, and sold by James Round at the Seneca's Head in Exchange Alley."
It may be fairly inferred that this edition came out under the superintendence of Welwood, and it would be interesting to ascertain whether there are any alterations in the sixth edition. Welwood was a Scotchman, and a letter from him to James Anderson, the eminent Scotish antiquary, will be found amongst the Anderson Papers in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. It has been printed in the appendix to the Catalogues of Scotish Writers, Edinburgh, 1833.
J. MT.