Replies to Minor Queries.
Arbor Lowe—Stanton Moor—Ayre Family (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—In Rhodes's Peak Scenery, p. 228, it is said:
"Near Middleton, by Youlgrave, we found the celebrated Druidical monument of Arbor Low, one of the most striking remains of antiquity in any part of Derbyshire. This circle includes an area of from forty to fifty yards diameter, formed by a series of large unhewn stones, not standing upright, but all laid on the ground, with an inclination towards the centre; round these the remains of a ditch, circumscribed by a high embankment, may be traced. Near the south entrance into this circle there is a mound, or burial-place, in which some fragments of an urn, some half-burnt bones, and the horns of a stag, were found."
In the same work, at pages 236, 237., is an account of the Druidical remains at Stanton Moor. And at page 224. are the following remarks:—
"The Eyres is one of the oldest families in Derbyshire, where they have continued to reside through the long lapse of more than seven hundred years, as appears from the following curious extract from an old pedigree which is preserved at Hassop. 'The first of the Eyres came in with King William the Conqueror, and his name was Truelove; but in the battle of Hastings (14 Oct. 1066) this Truelove, seeing the king unhorsed, and his helmet beat so close that he could not breathe, pulled off his helmet and horsed him again. The king said, Thou shalt hereafter from Truelove be called Air or Eyre, because thou hast given me the air I breathe. After the battle the king called for him, and being found with his thigh cut off, he ordered him to be taken care of; and being recovered, he gave him lands in the county of Derby, in reward for his services, and the seat he lived at he called Hope, because he had hope in the greatest extremity; and the king gave the leg and thigh cut off in armour for his crest, and which is still the crest of all the Eyres in England.'"
A descendant of this person is the present Earl of Newburgh, of Hassop Hall.
At page 240. is an account of the village of Birchover, and also of the Rowter Rocks, but no mention is made of the family of the Ayres, or of the ruins of any house formerly belonging to them.
JOHN ALGOR.
Sheffield.
The Duke of Monmouth's Pocket-books (Vol. iv., p. 3.).
—The paragraph quoted by SIR F. MADDEN out of Prayers after the confession of sins, and the sense of pardon obtained, and well called by him "striking," is a verbatim copy of a passage in "A Guide for the Penitent," published at the end of Jeremy Taylor's Golden Grove.
The short preface, by a nameless hand, which precedes this division of the Golden Grove, would lead one to suppose that "A Guide for the Penitent" was a posthumous work of Jeremy Taylor; but this is not exactly stated. The prayers, however, have the same spirit and grandeur of piety which characterise those which are the acknowledged compositions of Bishop Taylor. Monmouth was beheaded eighteen years after Taylor died. It would be interesting to identify the author of "A Guide for the Penitent" (should there be any doubt on the subject): also, to ascertain how far Monmouth quoted, in his "prayers," from Taylor or any other divine.
MARGARET GATTY.
Ecclesfield.
Buxtorf's Translation of Elias Levita's "Tov Taam."
—Your correspondent T. T., in reply to my Query respecting this work, says (Vol. iv., p. 328.) that it "was printed in Venice, 1538, in 4to." This is impossible: for the elder Buxtorf was born in 1564; and it would be singular if he had translated R. Elias' work, and printed it at Venice, twenty-six years before he was born.
T. T. seems not to have observed that my inquiry related to Buxtorf's translation, not to the original work of Elias Levita, which, although now rare, is sufficiently well known to Rabbinical scholars. I must therefore renew my inquiry (Vol. iv., p. 272.): has Buxtorf's translation ever been printed, or does it now exist in MS.?
JAMES H. TODD.
Trin. Coll. Dub.
Burke's "Mighty Boar of the Forest" (Vol. iii., p. 493.).
—Idomeneus awaiting the attack of Æneas could hardly be compared with Junius attacking every body in his way. Burke more probably borrowed his boar from even a greater poet than Homer. See Psalm lxxx. verses 8 to 13 (Common Prayer Version), and the context before and following, which contains perhaps the most picturesque and beautiful, as well as practical, allegory in the compass even of sacred literature. "The wild boar out of the wood doth root it up, and the wild beasts of the field devour it."
J. M. G.
Hallamshire.
"Son of the Morning" (Vol. iv., pp. 209. 330.).
—I have always understood Byron's apostrophe "Son of the morning, rise! approach you here!" to be merely an appeal to one of the Orientals who then ruled in that region. And this appears to me to be confirmed by the suggestion which follows that the creed of Mahomet shall pass away as that of Jove has done. The words "Come—but molest not yon defenceless urn," did not appear to me to have any reference to the iconoclastic propensities of the person addressed. But this notice of your correspondent is ingenious.
W. W.
Cambridge.
"Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love" (Vol. iv., p. 72.).
—This quotation, the author of which was inquired for,—
"When first I attempted your pity to move," &c.
is from a comedy in three acts called the Panel, altered from Bickerstaff's comedy 'Tis well it's no worse.
M. W. B.
Burges, Sept. 26. 1851.
Anecdote of Curran (Vol. iv., p. 173.).
—This anecdote, I beg to observe, is incorrectly represented; and surely presents to the reader no adequate provocation for the sharp retort on him attributed to the hostess, on his offering her a glass of wine. But the fact is, that the circumstance occurred, not at a small country inn, but in the city of Galway; nor solely in company with a brother advocate, as stated by M.W.B., but at the general bar-mess. The Connaught circuit was not Curran's, who had been called there specially, and who, having heard of the barmaid's ready wit, was determined to test it. Her name, I well recollect, was Honor Slaven; and her quick repartee to the not very delicate jokes constantly practised on her by the gentlemen (?) of the bar, had spread her fame beyond the province. Curran, however, was far superior to those whom she had foiled in these too often unseemly combats, and was expected to prove that superiority in this contest. Among the customary toasts of that time was a succession of three alliterative ones, of which the last was of flagrant indecency; and this Curran resolved should fall to Honor's turn to give in due rotation. Making her take a seat, with one interposed between them, he began with the first:—"Honor (directing himself to her) and Honesty," followed by "Love and Loyalty" from his next neighbour; when, ordering a bumper, he said, "Come Honor, you know the next toast; be not squeamish, and let us have it." "No, Sir," replied she, with an arch smile, "but I will pledge you in your own toast—'Honor and Honesty, or, your absent friends.'" These last words were uttered with special emphasis, and, in their provoked application, well sustained the barmaid's reported character; as, indeed, promptly acknowledged by Curran himself. I have more than once heard similar retorts from her when thus assailed.
J. R.
Cork.
Sibi (Vol. iv., p. 327.).
—The erroneous use of the reflective pronoun, of which MR. FORBES gives an example in a quotation from the Legenda Aurea, is common in monkish writings. I have an instance before me, in a charter of Cnut (Kemble's Codex Dipl. Anglo-Sax., vol. iv. p. 28.):
"Eius (i.e. Christi) quippe largiflua bonitate regia dignitate subtronizatus, ego Knu[d] rex Angligenæ nationis, pro nauciscendo eius immensitatis misericordiæ dono, concedo sibi de suo proprio quæ mihi gratuito concessit, villam," &c.
C. W. G.
Cassek Gwenwyn (Vol. iv., p. 269.).
—I learn from the dictionaries of Walters and Owen, that casec gwanwyn, mare of spring, means a woodpecker. And the more curious part of the name is confirmed by Llwyd, who calls a woodpecker casec drychin, mare of storms. But here I read that casec gwenwyn, mare of poison, means a screech-owl. Of this I have not elsewhere found anything. Therefore I ask for more information; to save me from the heresy of thinking that that woman was turned into a woodpecker. In what country and language does mara mean a screech-owl?
A. N.
The Monumental Inscriptions of the Bourchier Family (Vol. iv., p. 233.).
—Your inquirer L. M. M. will most probably meet with the information he desires in the county of Essex, of which portion of the kingdom they were Earls, and held immense possessions from the early part of the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. Their principal estates were in the parishes of Moreton, Tollesbury, Chingford, Little Laver, Greensted, Ramsden, South Church, Wakering, Maldon, North Farnbridge, Lachingdon, Mayland, Langford, Great Totham, Bentley, Wickes, Tendring, Great Holland, Beaumont, Ramsey, Bromfield, Rivenhall, Halsted, Hanningfield, Chicknall, Ulting, Messing, Hedingham Sibil, Ballington, Foxearth, Belchamp, Toppesfield, Braintree, Little Easton, Chickney; Broxted, Roding Aythorp, Little Hallingbury, Walden, and Farnham. In all these parishes they held manors, with the advowsons of several of the churches. Many of the manors are called after the family, Bourchier's Hall; some members of the family were buried in Bilegh Abbey, which stood in the west part of the town of Maldon. In Halsted they founded a chantry for a master and eight priests; and adjoining Little Easton church still remains a fine chapel, known as Bourchier's chapel, where there are tombs to some of the family in fine preservation. By a visit to the churches of the parishes above enumerated, much information may probably be obtained, for there can be little doubt but so powerful a family were great benefactors to the churches of the several parishes where their estates and mansions were situated; and most probably many members of the family were interred in them, and had tombs to their memory.
J. R. J.
Test of the Strength of a Bow (Vol. iv., p. 56.).
—TOXOPHILUS will find all his Queries well answered in Hansard's Book of Archery. The modern method of proving a bow is very different from that quoted by PHILOSOPHUS from Ascham, p. 211. A bow is now, I believe, tested by placing the bow across a piece of stout timber made for the purpose, and hanging weights to the string till it reaches about twenty-seven or twenty-eight inches. The weight necessary to do this determines the power of the bow.
H. N. E.
Bitton Vicarage, Oct. 1851.
Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—Is it worth while, in reference to SIGMA'S inquiry as to the name of the author of one of the Bishop of Worcester's works, to tell you a droll mistake on that point, which I have before my eyes? I have the work in a fine old binding, which in the gilt lettering on the back, states it to be by Ed. Wigorn. This reminds me of another similar naïveté. When the late Bishop Prettyman, then Bishop of Winchester, wrote to propose to Mr. Murray to publish his life of Pitt, Mr. Murray, following the signature too literally, addressed his answer to George Winton, Esq.
C.
Yankee Doodle (Vol. iv., p. 344.).
—During the attacks upon the French outposts in 1755 in America, Governor Shirley and General Jackson led the force directed against the enemy lying at Niagara and Frontenac. In the early part of June, whilst these troops were stationed on the banks of the Hudson, near Albany, the descendants of the "Pilgrim fathers" flocked in from the eastern provinces; never was seen such a motley regiment as took up its position on the left wing of the British army. The band played music some two centuries of age, officers and privates had adopted regimentals each man after his own fashion; one wore a flowing wig, while his neighbour rejoiced in hair cropped closely to the head; this one had a coat with wonderful long skirts, his fellow marched without his upper garment; various as the colours of the rainbow were the clothes worn by the gallant band. It so happened that there was a certain Dr. Shuckburgh, wit, musician, and surgeon, and one evening after mess he produced a tune, which he earnestly commended as a well-known piece of military music, to the officers of the militia. The joke succeeded, and Yankee Doodle was hailed by acclamation "their own march." During the unhappy war between the American colonies and the mother country, that quaint merry tune animated the soldiers of Washington; it is now the national air of the United States.
MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.
General Wolfe (Vol. iv., pp. 271. 323.).
—Some of the inquiries made at p. 271. respecting General Wolfe have been subsequently answered, I find, in p. 323., but no mention appears of his family beyond his father and mother; a deficiency which I can in some degree supply by ascending to his great-grandfather, Captain George Woulfe (sic), of whom we are told by Ferrar, in his History of Limerick, there printed by A. Watson, in 1787,—
"That on the capitulation of the city of Limerick in October, 1651, to the Parliamentarian general Ireton, twenty of the most distinguished of its defenders were excepted from pardon, and reserved for execution. Amongst them were two brothers, George and Francis Woulfe: the former, a military officer; the latter, a friar, who was hanged,—but the captain made his escape. He fled," says Ferrar (p. 350.), "to the north of England, where he settled; and his grandson, General Edward Woulfe, was appointed colonel of the 8th regiment of foot in the year 1745. He transmitted his virtues with additional lustre to his son Major-General James Woulfe, whose memory will be for ever dear to his country, and whose name will be immortalised in history."
Captain Woulfe married, and changed his religion; to which his brother the friar fell a martyr, exhibiting on the scaffold, it is related, far more intrepidity than many of his fellow sufferers of military rank. Ireton, however, finally pardoned several of those originally excepted from the capitulation. Woulfe's family was at that period one of the most eminent in the county of Clare, where it still retains a respectable rank; and one of its members was the late Chief Baron, Stephen Woulfe, a gentleman equally beloved in society as respected on the bench. Another was a chemist of some eminence in London, at the close of the past century. They retained the u in the name, which most others, like the captain's descendants, laid aside; as Bonaparte did during his triumphant campaign in Italy, in order to un-Italianise and Frenchify his patronymic Buonaparte. The Chief Justice Wolfe, who was so barbarously murdered in Dublin at the outbreak of young Emmet's rebellion in 1803, was of a different branch. Edward, the general's father, had distinguished himself under Marlborough, as did the son in 1747, at the battle of Lawfelst on the continent. My own family, I may add, has been brought into close connexion with that of the subsisting Irish branch of the general's stock by intermarriage.
J. R. (Cork.)
The Violin (Vol. iv., p. 101.).
—This article reminds me of a distich said to have been inscribed on the violin of Palestrina, the "Musicæ Princeps" of the sixteenth century:—
"Viva fui in sylvis; sum dura occisa securi;
Dum vixi tacui; mortua dulce sona."
Thus translated into French:
"La hache m'arracha mourant du ford des bois;
Vivant, j'étais muet; mort, on vante ma voix."
Palestrina's violin was made by a great musical instrument maker at Bologna, who had the same lines graven on his lutes, bass-viols, &c.
J. R. (Cork.)
Earwig (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—The allusion to the word "Earwig" induces me to repeat a charade on it, not without merit, though the last lines appear more responsive to the rhyme than to the fact:—
"My first, if lost, is a disgrace,
Unless misfortunes bear the blame;
My second, though it can't efface,
The dreadful loss, yet hides the shame.
"My whole has life, and breathes the air,
Delights in softness and repose;
Oft, when unseen, attends the fair,
And lives on honey, and the rose."
J. R. (Cork.)
Prophecies of Nostradamus (Vol. iv., pp. 86. 140. 258. 329.).
—In answer to MR. DE ST. CROIX'S fair inquiry of the source whence I derived my assertion of the existence of the first edition of Nostradamus (at p. 329.), I have to say, that it was from the very intelligent bibliographer, A. A. Renouard. I had known him in Paris at his dwelling in the Rue de Tournon (where my friend, the celebrated Arthur O'Connor, with his wife, the daughter of Condorcat, had apartments), and I afterwards had some interviews with him in London at my own house; when, on observing in his Catalogue d'un Amateur the Elzevir edition of 1668, we entered into some conversation on the subject; and, in reference to the original edition, not much valued indeed as very imperfect, he said, that though now rare, because long, as not worth preserving, neglected, it still may, and must be, in the Royal Library; "il doit nécessairement s'y trouver, et non-seulement là, mais ailleurs." I too certainly thought that the great national repository must contain it, but I made no inquiry; and as MR. DE ST. CROIX so diligently pursued the search without discovering it, I conclude, of course, that it is not there; but if he authorises M. Renouard's son, who resides in the Rue Garancière, or any respectable bookseller, to provide the little volume for him, I feel confident of his success. Nor do I apprehend that the price will correspond with its rarity, like the works of so many other writers; such even as the prophecies of Merlin, as stated in the article referred to by MR. DE ST. CROIX, without recurring to our Shakspeare's early editions, or to those of Ariosto, Cervantes, Boccacio, Molière, Froissart, Le Roman de la Rose, Amadis de Gaule, the Romances of Chivalry in various languages, and the editiones principes of the classics, &c. &c., a comparison of the value of which two centuries or less ago, as we find them in old catalogues, with their present cost, so strikes the reader. Numerous books, on the other hand, have experienced a proportionally equal depreciation:
"Sic volvenda ætas commutat tempora rerum;
Quod fuit in pretio, fit nullo denique honore," &c.
Lucretius, lib. v. 1276.
J. R. (Cork.)
Expressions in Milton (Vol. iii., p. 241.).
—If this Query has already met with an answer, my apology for troubling you with this must be, that it has escaped my notice.
R. is undoubtedly right in supposing that a "toothed sleck stone" means a toothed or jagged whetstone; the word sleck preserving a greater resemblance to its Danish cousin slecht than the modern slick.
For "bullish," Milton shall be his own interpreter. "I affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence of that which it calls itself."
The phrase "bid you the base" is apparently taken from the old game of Prisoner's Base, for which, if necessary, reference may be made to the Boy's Own Book. I am inclined to think that the very phrase was, in my school days, used in the game; but if wrong in any remembrance, I may still be right in my conjecture, and then the phrase would be equivalent to, "I challenge you to follow me," as one boy follows another in Prisoner's Base; and we should then have a curious illustration of the antiquity of the game.
PHILIP HEDGELAND.
The Termination "-ship" (Vol. iv., p. 153.).
—A. W. H. is referred to Dr. Latham's English Language, § 294. p. 372., ed. 2. The Dutch termination -schap, e.g. vriendschap, may be added.
CHARLES THIRIOLD.
"A little Bird told me" (Vol. iv. p. 232.).
—The following are merely a few rough notes made from time to time on this saying. I have tried to put them into some kind of order but they are too trivial, and too easily verified by reference, to deserve more space in print than they have hitherto had in writing:—
1. Last lines of King Henry IV. Part II., and Steevens's note.
2. The "pious lie" of Mahomet's pigeon. See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 1. Marg. lemma—"His character," the note beginning—"The Christians, rashly enough," &c. And—"Life of Mahomet" [Library of Useful Knowledge] note on p. 19. For line from—Dunciad— 3. From the Greek? See Potter's Gr. Antiquities, book ii. chap. xv.—or Robinson's Antiq. Greece, book iii. chap. xv. ad init. as both refer to Aristoph. Aves. [600. 601. Bekker.] 4. Ecclesiastes, chap. x. 20. To these I may add the origin assigned to the saying by Mr. Bellenden Ker, in his Essay on the Archæology of our Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes, 1837, vol. i. p. 63., viz.:— "A LITTLE BIRD. "A good humoured way of replying to, who told you this story? And imparting you don't mean to inform him, that you have a good reason for not letting him know. Er lij t'el baerd; q. e. by so doing [telling] I should betray [do wrong to] another," &c. C. FORBES. —May not this originate in the Hebrew Keri, used for the same purpose, and of nearly the same shape? F. J. Bradford. For the purpose of expounding the law in the Jewish assemblies, the Pentateuch was divided into fifty-four sections (on account of the intercalary year), that the whole might be read over once annually. The sections were distinguished, as they still continue to be, in the Hebrew copies, by the letter Pe, or Phe, the initial of Pharasha, which signifies separation or division. This probably was the original reason for adopting the inverted black P [¶] which is retained in our translation of the Bible to mark paragraphs or transitions. The division of the Old and New Testament into chapters is a modern practice, and the subdivision of chapters into verses still more modern. See Shepherd on the Morning and Evening Prayer. J. Y. —The document inserted at this place is quoted with some variations, and the omission of the part referring to periwigs by the late Mr. Grimshawe, in his Life of the Rev. Leigh Richmond, p. 157. 4th edit. There is added the date, "Oct. 8, 1674;" and the following foot-note is appended, "See Statute Book of the University of Cambridge, p. 301." Car. II., Rex. Mr. Grimshawe's version is printed without any break or asterisks, as if entire. W. S. T. —CLERICUS quotes some paragraphs from the letters of Horace Walpole, dated 1764, wherein Walpole threatens vengeance for the dismissal of Conway; and CLERICUS concludes by asking, "If these extracts do not prove Horace Walpole to be Junius, &c., &c., what can he allude to?" Why, to the pamphlet which he was then writing, and which he immediately published, entitled A Counter Address to the Public, on the late Dismission of a General Officer. W. J. —I suspect H. E. has not read his seal quite correctly. I surmise it is Fermelioduni. However, no doubt Dunferline is meant; and the literal translation of the legend is, "Seal of the city of Dunferline." This place was a royal burgh, with a palace; and the word civitas was not then confined to towns which were Bishop's sees. W. S. W. Middle Temple. —In Littlecote Hall, the fine old seat of the Pophams, in Wiltshire, one of these machines was preserved, and I doubt not but that it is still to be seen there. It is of oak, and stands upon a pillar and base like those of a small round table. I always understood that it was employed as an instrument of domestic punishment. W. J. BERNHARD SMITH. Temple. —The story of the device of a toad having been introduced into the armorial bearings of the Hungerfords, in memory of the degradation of some member of the family, is, in every way, nonsensical. "Argent, three toads sable" is certainly one of their old quarterings; as may be seen upon one of the monuments in the chapel at Farleigh Castle near Bath. But it was borne by the Hungerfords for a very different reason. Robert, the second Lord, who died A.D. 1459, had married the wealthy heiress of the Cornish family of Botreaux: and this has one of the shields used by her family, being in fact nothing more than an allusion, not uncommon in heraldry, to the name. This was spelled variously, Botreaux or Boterelles: and the device was probably assumed from the similarity of the name of the old French word Botterol, a toad: (see Cotgrave) or the old Latin word Botterella. The marriage with the Botreaux heiress and the assumption of her arms, having taken place many years before any member of the Hungerford family was attainted or executed (as some of them afterwards were), Defoe's story falls to the ground. I take this opportunity of adding, that, having been for many years a collector of materials for a more methodical and accurate account of the Hungerford family and their property, than has hitherto appeared, and having completed the arrangement of what I have been able to collect, if any of your readers or correspondents should have it in his power to refer me to any sources of illustration, or to inform me of the existence of anything that might throw light on the subject—such as old deeds, seals, wills, entries in parish registers, family portraits, or the like—they would be rendering a kind service. J. E. JACKSON. Rectory, Leigh-Delamere, Chippenham.Mark of Reference in Bible (Vol. iv., p. 57.).
King Charles II. and Written Sermons (Vol. iv., p. 9.).
Walpole and Junius (Vol. iv., p. 161.).
Fermilodum (Vol. iv., p. 345).
Finger Stocks (Vol. iv., p. 315.).
Lord Hungerford (Vol. iv., p. 345.).