Replies to Minor Queries.
Bunting's Irish Melodies.
—On p. 167. of the third volume of "NOTES AND QUERIES," MR. STEPHENS, of Stockholm asks a question concerning the Irish Airs of this distinguished musician. As a member of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm, I feel more than ordinary pleasure in answering the Query of your esteemed correspondent.
Edward Bunting was born at Armagh in 1773. He claimed descent from Patrick Gruama O'Quin, who as killed in arms in July, 1642; and it was to this origin that Bunting attributed his musical talents, as well as certain strong Irish predilections, for which he was through life remarkable. His first collection of Irish Airs was published in 1796; his second in 1809; and his third, and last, in 1840. The first work contains sixty-six native Irish airs never before published. The second added seventy-five tunes to the original stock. This volume, like the first, afforded a copious fund of new melodies, of which the song-writers of the day eagerly and largely availed themselves. The third and final collection consists of upwards of 150 melodies; "Of these," the editor remarks in his Preface, "considerably more than 120 are now for the first time published, the remainder being sets much superior to those already known." Bunting did not live to carry out his plan of republishing his first two collections uniform with the third. He died December 21, 1843, aged seventy. A copious memoir of him, accompanied with a portrait, may be found in the Dublin University Magazine, No. XLI., January, 1847.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Colonies in England (Vol. iv., pp. 272. 370.).
—In Vol. iv., p. 207. inquiry is made about the existence of colonies of Moors and others in different parts of England: I was not aware of there being any such as those he mentions, but as your correspondent wishes to know of any others which may still exist, I can inform him that colonies of Spaniards are known of in Mount's Bay and Torbay. The latter, from having intermingled with the surrounding population, have not now, I believe, much more than a traditionary Spanish descent; whilst the former, on the contrary, have kept aloof, and are easily distinguished from their marked Spanish features. This colony is planted at Mousehole; and, according to their account, they have been settled there upwards of three centuries. Another account declares the original settlers to have formed part of the Spanish Armada; and that after its defeat, they made a descent on this part of the Cornish coast, drove out or killed the former inhabitants and have ever since remained unmolested, and in great measure distinct from the surrounding inhabitants. The nature of the country in which they settled has, no doubt, proved favourable to them in this respect, as the soil is barren and rocky, with thinly scattered villages inhabited by a hardy race of fishermen.
H. L.
The settlement of a colony of Flemings in the lower part of Pembrokeshire, called Rhos and Castle Martin, in the time of Henry I., was one of the subjects discussed at the meeting of the Cambrian Archæological Association at Tenby in August last, where the subject was fully debated, and the fact seemed established. A full report of this discussion is contained in the October number of the Cambrian Archæological Association, published by Pickering, London.
T. O. M.
"History of Anglesey," &c. (Vol. iv, p. 317.).
—This publication is attributed to the Rev. J. Thomas in a note to page 230. of the Cambrian Plutarch, by the late J. Humphreys Parry.
T. O. M.
The Lowey of Tunbridge (Vol. iv., p. 294.).
—There still is, I believe, a district known by this name. In order to save the valuable space in "NOTES AND QUERIES," I will merely refer E. N. W. for information respecting it to the following works:
"A Perambulation of Kent; written in the yeere 1570 by William Lambarde of Lincolnes Inn, Gent. Imprinted at London by Edm. Bollisant, 1596."—Page 425.
This first I believe to be a somewhat scarce book.
"A Topographie or Survey of the County of Kent. By Richard Kilburne, London, 1659."—Pp. 276, 277.
"Tunbridge Wells and its Neighbourhood. By Paul Amsinck, Esq., London, 1810."—Pp. 97-99.
There are incidental notices of Tunbridge Lowey in Hasteds History of Kent. From the Parliamentary Gazetteer I extract the following (to which my attention has been directed by a friend):—
"Tunbridge Lowey, a division in the Lathe of Aylesford, County of Kent. Area, 20,660 acres; houses, 2,072; population in 1831, 12,233."
In 1841 the census returns for that district gave a population of 14,638.
There is also, I believe, another "Lowey," viz. that of Pevensey.
R. VINCENT.
Praed's Works (Vol. iv., p. 256.).
—About five years since I saw in the travelling library of an American lady a very good edition of Praed's Poems, small 8vo. clear type, published (I believe) in the States. The owner promised to send me a fac-simile of the work, on her return to New York; but family bereavements and various painful circumstances have arisen to banish the recollection of such a promise. I have asked for the book in vain in London; but if your correspondent K. S. is very anxious to procure a copy, I would suggest an order for it, given through Chapman in the Strand, to whom Wiley and Putnam appear to have transferred the American literary agency. I should think the price would not exceed six or seven shillings.
YUNAF.
[This collection was published by Griswold of New York in 1844. We saw a copy at Tupling's, No. 320. Strand, a few days since.]
John à Cumber (Vol. iv., p. 83.).
—Some months ago MR. J. P. COLLIER made some inquiries respecting John à Kent, the Princess Sidanen, and John à Cumber. Respecting the two latter I was enabled to furnish some information; and since that I have fallen upon the traces of John à Cumber. My inquiries have recently been directed to the scene of the Battle of Cattraeth or Siggeston (Kirby Sigston); and I have endeavoured, hitherto ineffectually, to find some good description of the scenery of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and of the great plain of Mowbray, which was probably the scene of the conflict described by Aneurin, and which, I believe, includes both Catterick and Sigston. It was in that country that I found John à Cumber, who is most probably the person described in the following extract:—
"Thirsk.—In the reign of Henry VII. an insurrection broke out here, in consequence of an obnoxious tax. This was a subsidy granted by the parliament to the king, to enable him to carry on the war in Brittany against the French. The Earl of Northumberland had signified at an assembly, that the king would not remit any part of the tax, though the northern people had besought it; when they, taking the earl to be the cause of the answer, fell upon, and slew him, together with several of his servants, at the instigation of one John à Chamber. They then placed themselves under a leader, Sir John Egremond, who, on being defeated by the Earl of Surrey, fled into Burgundy. John à Chamber and some others were taken, and executed at York."—A Picturesque Tour in Yorkshire and Derbyshire, by the late Edward Dayes, London, 1825, pp. 147-8.
Dayes gives no authorities;[2] but this may afford a clue to further discoveries.
T. STEPHENS.
Merthyr, Nov. 21. 1851.
[2] [Dayes' account of the above insurrection will be found in Kennett's History of England, vol. i. p. 595.—ED.]
Punishment of Prince Edward of Carnarvon (Vol. iv., pp. 338. 409.).
—MR. W. S. GIBSON will find further particulars of the offence and punishment of this prince in a paper by Mr. Blaauw on the recently discovered letters of Prince Edward, which is published in the second volume of the Sussex Archæological Collections. The offence appears to have been committed in May or June, 1305, and the minister was, as has been stated, Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, the king's Treasurer, but in the letters called Bishop of Chester; a seeming discrepancy arising from the fact that the Bishops of Lichfield and Coventry were not unfrequently called Bishops of Chester at that period, which was two centuries before the present see of Chester was created.
W. S. W.
Middle Temple.
It may be as well to add a note to your two communications from MR. JOSEPH BURTT and R. S. V. P., that the Bishop of Chester, named by the former, is one and the same person with the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, named by the latter, as suggested by MR. FOSS; the two bishoprics being identical, and almost as often called by one title as by the other.
P. P. C.
Joceline's Legacy (Vol. iv., pp. 367. 410.).
—The first edition I believe to have been "The Mother's Legacie to her Vnborne Childe, by Elizabeth Iocelin, London. Printed by Iohn Hauiland, for William Barret, 1624." pp. 114. + title, approbation and epistle dedicatorie (40).
Henry Jocelyn, a younger son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn, who died 4 Eliz., married Anne, daughter and heir of Humphry Torrell, Esq., of Torrell's Hall, Essex, by whom he had Sir Thomas Jocelyn, Knt., and other sons; one of whom I suspect to have been the Tourell Jocelin, husband to Eliz. Jocelin, the authoress of this excellent little tract.
P. B.
Bristol Tables (Vol. iv., p. 406.).
—The four remarkable bronze tables, respecting which E. N. W. inquires, formerly stood under the piazza of the "Tolzey," or "Counter," in Bristol; the place where the merchants transacted business. On the opening of the Exchange in 1743, they were removed, and fixed in front of that building, where they now stand. It appears that they were presented to the city at different times, and by different persons. On a garter, beneath the surface of one of them, is the following inscription:—
"Thomas Hobson of Bristol made me, anno 1625. Nicholas Crisp of London gave me to this honourable city in remembrance of God's mercy in anno domini 1625. N. C."
On a ring round the surface is this inscription:
"Praise the Lord, O my soul! and forget not all his benefits. He saved my life from destruction, and ... to his mercy and loving-kindness. Praise...."
On a ring round the surface of the second is the following:
"A.D. 1631. This is the gift of Mr. White of Bristoll, Merchant, brother unto Dr. Thomas White, a famous benefactor to this citie."
On the garter round the exterior is this inscription:
"The church of the Living God is the pillar and ground of the truth. So was the work of the pillars finished."
The third table has the following words round the surface:
"This Post is the gift of Master Robert Kitchen, Merchant, some time Maior and Alderman of this city, who deceased Sep. 1. 1594."
On the ring below the surface:
"His Executors were fower of his servants. John Barker, Mathew Howil, and Abell Kitchin, Aldermen of this city, and John Rowborow, Sherif. 1630."
Six lines in verse, and a shield with armorial bearings, formerly appeared as the centre of this table; but they are now obliterated.
The fourth table, which is supposed to be the oldest, has no inscription.
These curious round tables, on which the merchants of this ancient city formerly made their payments, and wrote their letters, &c., are now used by the newsmen, who here sell the daily journals, &c. In times of popular excitement, they have been sometimes used as pedestals, whence mob-orators, and candidates for parliamentary honours, have harangued the populace.
J. R. W.
Grimsdyke or Grimesditch (Vol. iv., pp. 192. 330.).
—There is a hundred in Norfolk called Grimeshoe or Grimeshow, of which Blomefield, in his History, vol. ii. p. 148., says:
"It most probably derives its name from Grime and hoo, a hilly champaign country. This Grime was (as I take it) some considerable leader or general, probably of the Danes, in this quarter; and if he was not the præsitus comitatus, or vicecomes, that is, the shire reeve or sheriff, he was undoubtedly the Centuriæ præpositus, that is, the hundred-greeve; and, as such, gave the name to it, which it retains to this day."
Near this is a curious Danish encampment, with a number of pits and tumuli, called Grime's Graves, from the aforementioned Grime. These are about two miles east of the village of Weeting, on a rising ground. On the west side of the village is a bank and ditch, extending several miles, called the Fen-dyke or Foss. The encampment contains about two acres, and is of a semicircular form. There are numerous deep pits dug within it in the quincunx form, and capable of concealing a large army. There are also several tumuli, one in particular of a long shape. The usual opinion respecting these remains is, that it was the seat of great military operations between the Saxons and Danes.
E. S. TAYLOR.
Derivation of "Æra" (Vol. iv., p. 383.).
—With regard to the derivation of Æra (or Era). I have always been accustomed to explain the derivation of Æra or Era thus:—that it is a term transferred from the [brazen] tablets, on which the records of events were noted, to the events themselves, and thence to the computum, or fixed chronological point from which the reckoning proceeds.
My difficulty here has been to find sufficient instances of the use of brass in ancient times for these purposes. Brass was the material on which laws, &c. were commonly registered: but the fasti at present discovered, as far as I can learn, are engraven on marble; as, for instance, the Fasti Capitolini, discovered in the Roman Forum in 1547, and the fragments afterwards brought to light in 1817, 1818.
Isidore of Hispola, in the eighth century, in his Origines, gives this derivation:
"Æra singulorum annorum constituta est a Cæsare Augusto, quando primum censum exegit. Dicta autem Æra ex eo, quod omnis orbis æs reddere professus est reipublicæ."
I quote on the authority of Facciolati, who adds that others derive the word from the letters A.ER.A., "annus erat Augusti." These are not at all satisfactory; and I shall be glad if you will allow me to throw in my derivation as "being worth what it will fetch."
THEOPHYLACT.
Koch says, in note 5 to the Introduction of his Revolution of Europe, that "æra" is derived from the initials of the phrase "Anno erat regnante Augusto;" and was first used among the Spaniards, who dated from the renewal of the second triumvirate even down to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries.
HD.
Scent of the Blood-hound (Vol. iv., p. 368.).
—C. H. asks whether it be true that hound loses his scent—
"If he fele swetness of þe flouris."
A few years ago a master of fox-hounds in the New Forest excused some bad sport in March thus "The hounds can't hunt for those d—d stinking violets!" rather to the amusement of some of his field.
G. N.
Monk and Cromwell Families (Vol. iv., p. 381.).
—A SUBSCRIBER seems to imply that the Monk and Cromwell families intermarried. In Chauncy's Hertfordshire, vol. i. p. 582. of the new edition, but which was originally printed in 1700, it is stated, that the well-known manor of Theobalds was granted by Charles II. to the great Monk in tail male; on the death of his son, Duke Christopher, it reverted to the crown; and that King William, by letters patent of the 4th of April, 1689, gave it to William Bentinck, who was created Earl of Portland. It must have come therefore, to the Cromwells by intermarriage either with Bentinck, which, I believe, was not the case, or with some subsequent purchasers of the manor. Theobalds originally belonged to Sir Robert Cecil, of whom James I. obtained it in exchange for Hatfield. It was given as reward for restoring the Stuarts to Monk, and to Bentinck for assisting again to expel them.
J. H. L.
"Truth is that which a man troweth" (Vol. iv., p. 382.).
—For the information of your correspondent Γ. I send the following, which I believe to be the original authority for the above saying. It is taken from the celebrated work of Horne Tooke's, entitled Diversions of Purley, which, though highly interesting as a treasury of philological information, contains this among other absurd attempts to base moral conclusions on the foundation of etymology:—
"Truth is the third person singular of the indicative trow. It was formerly written troweth, trowth, trouth, and troth. And it means (aliquid, anything, something) that which one troweth, i.e. thinketh, or firmly believeth."
Dugald Stewart, in his Philosophical Essays, justly observes regarding the principle involved in such speculations, that "if it were admitted as sound, it would completely undermine the foundations both of logic and of ethics."
TYRO.
Dublin.
"Worse than a Crime" (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—In reply to a question you attribute the famous saying concerning the murder of the Duc D'Enghien to Talleyrand.
If you will refer to p. 266. vol. i. of Fouché's Memoirs, 2nd edition, 1825, C. Knight, you will find that he claims the saying to himself:
"I was not the person who hesitated to express himself with the least restraint respecting the violence against the rights of nations and of humanity. 'It is more than a crime, it is a political fault.' I said words which I record, because they have been repeated and attributed to others."
J. W.
Walsall.
In matters of rumour different people hear different things. I never heard the words "c'estoit pire qu'un crime, c'estoit une faute," ascribed to any one but Fouché of Nantes. I have understood that the late Prince of Condé would not hold any intercourse with the Prince de Talleyrand, or with the Court when he was present officiating as Grand Chamberlain of France, owing to his full conviction of that minister's privity to the murder of his son. But how is that consistent with Talleyrand's more than condemning, and even ridiculing the action?
A. N.
Verses in Classical Prose (Vol. iv., p. 382.).
—Merely as matter of information, permit me to refer your correspondent A. A. D. to the notes of Glareanus and Drakenborch on the first lines of Livy's preface, and to the "variorum" commentators on the first line of Tacitus' Annals ("Urbem Romanam ad principio reges habuere"), for a collection of examples of the occurrence of verse in prose compositions.
THEODORE ALOIS BUCKLEY.
Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (Vol. iv., p. 257.).
—Probably the melodramatic spectacle mentioned by MR. HASKINS was derived from a Spanish book, of which I possess an English translation, bearing the following title:—
"A Relation of the First Voyages and Discoveries made by the Spaniards in America, with an Account of their unparalleled Cruelties on the Indians, in the destruction of above Forty Millions of People. Together with the Propositions offered to the King of Spain, to prevent the further ruin of the West Indies. By Don Bartholomew de las Casas, Bishop of Chiapa, who was an Eye-witness of their Cruelties. Illustrated with Cuts. London, printed for Daniel Brown at the Black Swan and Bible without Temple Bar, and Andrew Bell at the Cross Keys and Bible in Cornhill, near Stocks Market, 1699." 8vo. pp. 248.
The "cuts" are twenty-two in number, on two fly-sheets, and represent torturing death in the most horrible variety.
A MS. note on a fly-leaf, in the handwriting of Mr. Bowdler of Bath, says, "This book is taken out of the fourth part of Purchas's Pilgrims, fol. 1569."
E. WARING.
Hotwells, Clifton.
Nolo Episcopari (Vol. iv., p. 346.).
—Bishop Jeremy Taylor seems to ascribe the above oft-quoted words to the Roman Pontifical:—
"It is lawful to desire a Bishoprick; neither can the unwillingness to accept it be, in a prudent account, adjudged the aptest disposition to receive it (especially if done in ceremony—(in Pontifical. Rom.)—just in the instant of their entertainment of it, and possibly after a long ambition.)"—Life of Christ, Ad Sect. IX. Part I. 2.; Considerations upon the Baptism of Jesus, p. 96. Lond. 1702. Fol.
On more occasions than one I have hunted Roman Pontificals in vain, but I may have been unfortunate in the editions to which I had access.
It cannot at all events have descended from remote antiquity, for "episcopari" is a comparatively modern word.
St. Bernard uses it in his 272nd Epistle; but the Benedictine editors speak of it as an "exotic."
RT.
Warmington.
Hougoumont (Vol. iv., p. 313.).
—The assertion of your correspondent A. B. R. I have met with before, but forget where: viz. that the proper designation of the château in question is Goumont, and that Hougoumont is only a corruption of Château Goumont.
This may be the case; but the Duke must not be charged with the corruption, for I have now before me a map of the Département de la Dyle, published "l'An 8 de la République Française, à Bruxelles, &c., par Ph. J. Maillart et Sœur," &c., in which the place is distinctly called Hougoumont.
A. C. M.
Exeter.
Call a Spade, a Spade (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—I have found two early, but unauthenticated, instances of the use of this saying, in a note by J. Scaliger on the Priapeia, sive Diversorum Poetarum in Priapum Lusus:—
"Simplicius multo est, ——, latinè Dicere, quid faciam? crassa Minervæ mea est."
Carmen, ii. 9, 10.
"Ἄγροικός εἰμι· τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγω;" Aristophanes.—"Unde jocus maximi Principis, Philippi Macedonis. Quum ii, qui prodiderant Olynthum Philippo, conquestum et expostulatum ad ipsum venissent, quod injuriosè nimis vocarentur proditores ab aliis Macedonibus: οἱ Μακεδόνες, inquit, ἀμαθεῖς καὶ ἄγροικοί εἰσι· τὴν σκάφην σκάφην λέγουσι."—J. Scaliger.
For which note see the "Priapeia," &c., at the end of an edition of Petronius Arbiter, entitled, Titi Petronii Arbitri Equitis Romani Satyricon. Concinnante Michaele Hadrianide. Amstelodami. Typis Ioannis Blaeu. M.DC.LXIX.
As I cannot at this moment refer to any good verbal index to Aristophanes, I cannot ascertain in what part of his works Scaliger's quotation is to be found. Burton, in his preface to the Anatomy of Melancholy ("Democritus Junior to the Reader"), repeats the saying twice, i.e. in Latin and English, and presents it, moreover, in an entirely new form:
"I am aquæ potor, drink no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits; a loose, plain, rude writer, ficum voco ficum, et ligonem ligonem, and as free as loose; idem calamo quod in mente: I call a spade a spade; animis hæc scribo, non auribus, I respect matter, not words," &c.—Democritus Jr. to the Reader, Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Blake, MDCCCXXXVI. one vol. 8vo. p. 11.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
"Tace is Latin for a Candle" (Vol. i., p. 385.; Vol. ii., p. 45.).
—Your correspondent H. B. C. states that the earliest use he has met with of this phrase is in Dean Swift's Polite Conversation, written, as appears by the preface, about 1731; but he will find, in Dampier's Voyages, the same phrase in use in 1686, or perhaps earlier: not having the work itself at hand, I cannot refer him to the passage, but he will find it quoted in the United Service Journal for 1837, Part III. p. 11.
J. S. WARDEN.
Balica, Oct. 1851.
Collars of SS. (Vol. iv., pp. 147. 236.).
—With reference to the different notices that have appeared in your pages respecting effigies bearing the collar of SS, and especially in compliance with the desire expressed by MR. E. FOSS, that information should be sent to you of any effigy that might be met with having this distinction, I beg to state that in the church of St. Mary, Ruabon, Denbighshire, there is a finely executed high tomb of alabaster, bearing the effigies of "John ap Ellis Eyton" and of his lady "Elizabeth Chalfrey Ellis Eyton;" the former deceased A.D. 1524, and the latter A.D. 1527. The knight wears the collar of SS, to which is suspended a rose-shaped ornament, and is stated to have been at the battle of Bosworth, and, for his services on that day, to have been granted by Henry VII. what lands he chose. The knight's gauntlets lie together on his right side, and his feet rest against a lion.
G. J. R. G.
Pen-y-lau, Ruabon.
Locusts of the New Testament (Vol. iv., pp. 255. 351.).
—In reference to the word ἀκρὶς, which has given rise to so much discussion in your very valuable periodical, may I be permitted to observe that the pâtois spoken in this town (Nice = Nizza = Nicæa, founded by the Phocæans, expelled their Asian abode by Harpagus; Strabo, l. 4. p. 184.; Herod. i. 163.) bears many traces of its Greek origin. The tree which answers to the "locust" is called by the peasantry acroòb; and in order that you, or any of your correspondents, may observe its similarity in every point to the Eastern tree, I have transmitted a packet of its fruit to your office. I do not know whether Grimm's law would authorise the antithesis of a d for a p sound, but every student of Romaic will allow the tendency that i and o sounds have for interchanging. This would give acreed, ακρίδ, the root of ἀκρὶς.
NICÆENSIS.
Theodolite (Vol. iv., p. 383.).
—If your correspondent J. S. WOOD will refer to Todd's Johnson's Dictionary, he will find the derivation of the word thus—
"THEODOLITE (Fr. from θεῶ, Gr., contracted of θεάω, or θεάομαι, to observe; and δολιχὸς, long. See Morin, Fr. and Gr. Etym. Dict.), a mathematical instrument for taking heights and distances."
HENRY WILKINSON.
Brompton, Nov. 15. 1851.
"A Posie of other Men's Flowers" (Vol. iv., p. 211.).
—Your correspondent MR. C. FORBES appears anxious to know where Montaigne speaks of "a posie of other men's flowers." I believe that there is an error in confining Montaigne's idea thus exclusively to poetry, for I presume the passage sought for is what I shall now quote; but if so, it applies generally to any borrowed thought from an author embellished by another:
"La vérité et la raison sont communes à un chascun, et ne sont plus à celui qui les adictes premièrement, qu'à qui les dict aprez: ce n'est non plus selon Platon que selon moy, puisque luy et moy l'entendons, et veoyons de mesme. Les abeilles pillotent deça delà les fleurs; mais elles en font aprez le miel, qui est tout leur; ce n'est plus thym, ny mariolaine; ainsi les pièces empruntées d'aultruy, il les transformera et confondra pour en faire un ouvrage tout sien, à scavoir son jugement," &c.—Essays, livre i. chap. 25.
I hope that this will satisfactorily answer your correspondent's inquiry.
J. R.
Voltaire (Vol. iii. p. 433.).
—On the subject of anagrams, lately adverted to by your correspondents, I not long since referred to that which showed that the name of Voltaire, as adduced by me in the Gentleman's Magazine a few years back, instead of being, as asserted by Lord Brougham and others, that of an estate, was in fact the anagram of his family patronymic, with the adjunct of l. j., or junior (le jeune), to distinguish him from his elder brother. We see similarly the President of the French National Assembly uniformly called "Dupin l'aîné"; and his brother Charles, until created a Baron, always "Dupin le jeune." Observing, therefore, that Voltaire was in reality Arouet le jeune, or, as he signed it, Arouet l. j., and that the two letters u and j were, until distinguished by the Elzevir, indiscriminately written v and i, the anagram will thus be clearly proved: every letter, though transposed, being equally in both:—
A R O V E T L J
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
V O L T A I R E
4 3 7 6 1 8 2 5
Although, as above mentioned, this unquestionable fact has already appeared in another publication, and, indeed, likewise in the Dublin Review for June 1845 (both from me), yet the old mis-statement of this celebrated personage's biographers still continued to be asserted, as it has been in your own pages. This is my motive for now addressing you on the matter. Voltaire, I may add, was a little partial to his paternal name. To the Abbé Moussinot, his Parisian agent, he thus wrote on the 17th of May, 1741:
"Je vous ai envoyé ma signature, dans laquelle j'ai oublié le nom d'Arouet, que j'oublie assez volontiers."
And, on another occasion:
"Je vous renvoie d'autres parchemins, où se trouve ce nom, malgré le peu de cas que j'en fais."
Mixing with the higher classes of society, he wished, like them, to be known by a territorial possession, and framed the name now resounding through the world, prefixing to it the nobiliary particle, De. His elder brother was named Armond, whose death preceded that of the younger by thirty-seven years, 1741-1778; both were unmarried. Numerous, and curious too, are the anagrams which my memory could furnish me.
Sinaïtic Inscriptions (Vol. iv., p. 382.).
—The decipherer of these inscriptions was the late Professor Beer of Berlin. T. D. will find his alphabet, together with that of the Himyaritic inscriptions, and others which resemble them, in Dr. (John) Wilson's Lands of the Bible.
E. H. D. D.
Le Greene at Wrexham (Vol. iv., p. 371.).
—A survey of the lordships of Bromfield and Yale (within the former of which this town is situated), made by Norden about the year 1620 for Charles I., then Prince of Wales, has been preserved in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum. The descriptive part is in Latin; but before the names of the places and streets in this town the French article le is used, as Le highe street, Le hope street, Le church street, Le beast market, Le greene. The larger part of this Le greene (now called "The Green") has still grass growing upon it; and there is no tradition that either a granary or corn-mill was ever situated there.
☞
Wrexham.
Cross-legged Effigies (Vol. iv., p. 382.).
—In the parish church of Limington, Somerset, is a figure of a cross-legged knight, with his hand on the hilt of his sword, as if about to draw it. The date of the foundation of the chantry in which he lies is said to be 1329, and the mouldings and windows appear to testify its correctness.
ב.
The Word Ἀδελφὸς (Vol. iv., p. 339.).
—Your correspondent, the Rev. T. R. BROWN, is right in acquiescing in the ordinary derivation of ἀδελφὸς from ἀ and δέλφυς, but wrong, as I think, in endeavouring to find cognate forms in the Indo-Germanic languages. The fact is, that the word is solely and peculiarly Greek. The Sanscrit word for brother is, as every body knows, bhratri (Latin, frater, &c.); and that this form was not entirely unknown to the Hellenic races, is evidenced by their use of φράτρα, or φράτρη, in various senses, all of which may easily be reduced to the one common idea of brotherhood. How it happened that the word φρατὴρ was lost in Greek, and ἀδελφὸς substituted, we think we can satisfactorily explain, and, if so, the elucidation will make clearer an interesting point in Greek manners. It appears that they, in common with some Eastern nations, looked upon the relationship between brothers of the same mother as much closer in blood than that in which the brothers were related through the father alone; and hence the well-known law forbidding ἀδελφοὶ ὁμομητρίοι alone to marry. In the same manner we find Abraham (Gen. xx. 12.) using a similar excuse for marrying Sarah:
"And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife."
It is not difficult, therefore, to understand how this notion prevailing among the Greeks, might lead them to frame a new word from ἀ and δέλφυς, to express the uterine relation of brothers, which would soon in common use supplant the older Indo-German term φρατὴρ. For further reasons which may have influenced the dropping of the word φρατὴρ, I would refer to a learned article on "Comparative Philology" in the last number of the Edinburgh Review, by Dr. Max Müller.
With regard to the derivations suggested by MR. BROWN from the Hebrew, Arabic, &c., I think I am justified in laying down as a rule that no apparent similarity between words in the Semitic and Asian families can be used to establish a real identity, the two classes of language being radically and fundamentally distinct.
J. B.
Finger Pillories (Vol. iv., p. 315.).
—Meeting recently with a person who, although illiterate, is somewhat rich in oral tradition and local folk lore, I inquired if he had ever seen such a thing as that described by MR. LAWRENCE. He replied that he had not, but that he had frequently heard of these "stocks," as he called them, and that he believed they were used in "earlier days" for the purpose of inflicting penance upon those parishioners who absented themselves from mass for any lengthened period. My informant illustrated his explanation with a "traditionary" anecdote (too fabulous to trouble you with), which had been the means of imparting the above to him. Whether correct or not, however, I must leave others to determine.
J. B. COLMAN.
[Will our correspondent favour us with the tradition to which he refers?]
Blackloana Heresis (Vol. iv., p. 239.).
—The accounts given of Blacklow and his religious heresy merely excite curiosity. Will no one furnish some brief particulars of him and his proceedings? For what was Peter Talbot famous, and where may his history be read?
E. A. M.
Quaker Expurgated Bible.
—A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (Vol. iv., p. 412.) has answered my Query respecting this Bible in a manner not very satisfactory. He says "no committee was ever appointed by the Society of Friends" to publish such a Bible, and that the Society adopt the English authorised version only. The authority from which I quoted did not say that the committee had been appointed by the Society of Friends, or that the object of the proposed publication was to supersede the version authorised by the Church, which (as is well known) is adopted, as your correspondent states, by the Society. What she states is this:—That about four years ago a Committee of Friends intended to publish such an edition of the Bible, for daily perusal in Friends' families; and that a prospectus was printed, in which it was promised that every passage of the Bible would be carefully expunged which was unfit for reading aloud, and also those which might be called dangerous, which the unlearned and unstable might wrest to their own destruction.
My Query was, whether such a Bible was ever published, and whether any of your correspondents could furnish a copy of the prospectus alluded to? It is no answer to this to say, that the committee who proposed to publish this Bible were not appointed by the Society of Friends, and that the Friends applied to by your correspondent knew nothing of the project. The authoress of the work I quoted has since been publicly named, and if this query should meet her eye, perhaps she may be able to give me the information I require. It is the more incumbent upon her to do so, as the tone of your correspondent is evidently intended to throw a doubt upon her veracity.
T.
"Acu tinali merida" (Vol. iv., p. 406.).
—An ingenious friend has suggested to me the following explanation of this passage: Ἄκουε τὴν ἄλλην μερίδα. It is rendered almost certain by the words that come immediately after, in the line quoted by C. W. G., i.e. "audi alteram partem." I am unable, however, to point out the source from which the Greek motto was derived. Perhaps some of your readers will solve this ulterior question.
C. H.