Minor Queries Answered.
Effigy of a Pilgrim.
—There is in the parish church of Ashby-de-la-Zouch an effigy, which is very interesting from its extreme rarity; it is placed under a depressed arch in the north wall of the interior of the edifice, and consists of a recumbent figure of a pilgrim habited in a cloak and short boots, which lace in front with six holes just above the instep: his legs are bare, and so is his head, but his cockle hat lies under his right shoulder; his scrip, hanging from his right shoulder to his left side, is tolerably perfect; but his row of beads, suspended from his left shoulder to his right side, is mutilated, as is also his staff; the hands, which were probably raised in prayer, are gone; a collar of SS. hangs from his neck (will this be of any use to MR. E. FOSS, Vol. iv., p. 147.?); the feet of the pilgrim rest against a curious looking animal, which is said to be a dog.
Nothing is known as to whom the effigy represents, and I have not Nichols's Leicestershire by me, to see if he hazards an opinion on the subject. I shall feel much obliged by any of your numerous readers kindly informing me where other effigies of pilgrims are to be found, because if anything is known of them it may possibly help to elucidate this present case of obscurity.
THOS. LAURENCE.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
[Nichols, in his Leicestershire, vol. iii. p 623., has given some account of this effigy from Carter and Burton, together with two sketches of the monument. Carter says, "There is no tradition to determine whom this figure represents; but Mr. Gough thinks that it was some person of authority, perhaps a keeper of the castle, or a bailiff of the town." This monument had been noticed by Mr. Burton, subsequent to the publication of his History; for in the margin of his volume is this MS. note, and a slight sketch of the tomb, when the scrip and staff were more perfect than they are at present:—"On the north side of the church, near to the great north door, lieth in the wall an ancient monument of a Palmer in alabaster, which I guess to be of some of the family of Zouch; which, for the expressing of the manner of the habit, I caused to be cut and inserted." This sketch is also engraved in plate lxxvi. of Nichols's Leicestershire.]
"Modern Universal History."
—At the conclusion of the preface of this History, in vol. xvi. of the first edition, it is stated, "this work is illustrated by the most complete set of maps that modern geography furnishes." My copy is a very fine one, but I do not find any maps whatever in it. Can any of your readers inform me whether such maps exist; and if so, in what volumes, and at what pages, they ought to be? Are they to be obtained separately?
S. QUARTO.
[The maps and charts, thirty-seven in number, to the Modern part of the Universal History, were published separately, in folio, 1766: the volume and page where they are to be inserted are given on each plate.]
Origin of Evil.
—Where shall I find this problem fully discussed?
A. A. D.
[In Abp. King's Essay on the Origin of Evil, translated by Bishop Law, which has passed through several editions.]
Nolo Episcopari.
—Why is this phrase applied to a feigned reluctance in accepting an offer?
A. A. D.
[From a note in Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. i. p. 380., edit. Christian, we learn that "it is a prevailing vulgar error, that every bishop, before he accepts the bishoprick which is offered him, affects a maiden coyness, and answers Nolo episcopari. The origin of these words and the notion I have not been able to discover; the bishops certainly give no such refusal at present, and I am inclined to think they never did at any time in this country.">[
Authors of the Homilies.
—Presuming that the authors of the Church Homilies are well known, their writings having been adopted by our church, and set forth and enjoined by authority to be read in all churches, I fear I am only showing great ignorance by asking where I can meet with a list of the writers of those discourses, distinguishing which of the Homilies were written by each author; and if the writers of some of them be unknown, then I should be glad to have the names of such as are known, and the particular Homilies which were written by them.
G. R. C.
[Carwithen, in his History of the Church of England, vol. i. p. 221. note g, speaking of the first book of Homilies, says, "These Homilies were the work of Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hopkins, and Becon, one of Cranmer's chaplains. There is little but internal evidence by which the author of any particular Homily can be ascertained. The Homily 'Of the Salvation of Mankind,' being the third as they are now placed, was ascribed by Gardiner to Cranmer; and Cranmer never denied that it was his. The eleventh, in three parts, is by Becon; and it is printed among his works published by himself in three volumes folio. It is in the second volume." Consult also Le Bas' Life of Cranmer, vol. i. p. 284., and Soames' Hist. of the Reformation, vol. iii. p. 56.]
Family of Hotham of Yorkshire.
—The family of Hotham, or Hothum, of Boudeby in Yorkshire, acquired large possessions in Kilkenny at an early period, apparently in consequence of an intermarriage with the Le Despencers, lords of a third of the liberty of Kilkenny. Can any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" supply me with a pedigree of that family, especially as connecting therewith Sir John Hotham, Bishop of Ossory, 1779-1782? Any particulars respecting the life of that prelate will also be thankfully acknowledged: he is said to have been a member of an old Yorkshire family. (Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, vol. ii. p. 288.)
JAMES GRAVES.
Kilkenny, Oct. 11. 1851.
[There are several references to the Hotham family in Sims' Index to all the Pedigrees and Arms in the Heralds' Visitations and other Genealogical MSS. in the British Museum, under Yorkshire. Granger (Biographical Hist., vol. ii. p. 217.) has given a short account of Sir John Hotham, Governor of Hull temp. Charles I. See also Gentleman's Mag., vol. lxiv. p. 182., for a notice of Sir Charles; and vol. lxviii. p. 633. for an account of the death of Lady Dorothy Hotham.]
Vogelweide.
—What authority has Longfellow for his legend of Walter of the Bird Meadow? I find this epitaph given as his in Hone:
"Pascua qui volucrum vivus, Walthere, fuisti,
Qui flos eloquii, qui Palladis os, obiisti!
Ergo quod aureolam probitas tua possit habere,
Qui legit, hic dicat—'Deus istius miserere!'"
Has Julius Mosen's Legend of the Crossbill, translated by Longfellow, any more ancient foundation?
MORTIMER COLLINS.
[The epitaph, and a very interesting sketch of the life of Walter Vogelweide, with some ably translated specimens of his poetical compositions, will be found in the late Edgar Taylor's Lays of the Minnisingers, 8vo. London, 1825.]
Meaning of Skeatta.
—What is a silver Skeatta? See Gent. Mag., May, 1851, p. 537.
J. R. RELTON.
[Mr. Akerman, in his very useful Numismatic Manual, p. 227., says, "The word sceatta is by some derived from sceat, a part or portion. Professor White, in a paper read to the Ashmolean Society, remarks, that it is of Mœso-Gothic origin, scatt signifying in the Gospels of Uphilas a pound, a penny, and, indeed, money in general." Ruding observes that, "Whatever might have been the precise value of the sceatta, it was undoubtedly the smallest coin known among the Saxons at the latter end of the seventh century, as appears from its forming part of a proverb: Ne sceat ne scilling, From the least to the greatest.">[