Replies to Minor Queries.
Legend of the Robin Redbreast (Vol. ii., p. 164.).
—The following beautiful legend of the Robin Redbreast, which I have just met with, was quite new to me. If you think it likely to be so to T. Y. or any other of your readers, you will perhaps find a place for it.
"Eusebia.—Like that sweet superstition current in Brittany, which would explain the cause why the robin redbreast has always been a favourite and protégé of man. While our Saviour was bearing HIS cross, one of these birds, they say, took one thorn from HIS crown, which dyed its breast; and ever since that time robin redbreasts have been the friends of man."—Communications with the Unseen World, p. 26.
W. FRASER.
Monk and Cromwell (Vol. iv., p. 381.).
—Will your correspondent state by what intermarriage the estate granted to the Duke of Albemarle, vested in Oliver Cromwell, who died in 1821; and how, if he knows, it departed from Monk? If acquired by purchase from the successors of Monk, the interest ceases.
G.
Souling (Vol. iv., p. 381.).
—The custom of "souling", described by MR. W. FRASER, is carried on with great zeal and energy in this neighbourhood on All Souls' Day. The song which the children sing is exactly the same as MR. FRASER gives, with the exception of the second verse. In the evening, grown persons go round singing and collecting contributions from house to house. It is universally believed in this neighbourhood to be a remnant of the old custom of begging money, to be applied to the purpose of procuring masses for the souls of the dead.
LEWIS EVANS.
Sandbach, Cheshire.
Clekit House (Vol. iv., p. 473.).
—With reference to this Query, I beg to suggest the following explanation. In Scotland, a cleek signifies a hook; and to cleek, is to hook or join together: thus, a lady and gentleman walking arm-in-arm are said to be cleekit together. The word is in full use at present, and has been so for centuries; and I think it not improbable that at the time the will referred to was written, the word might be common to both countries. On this supposition the meaning would be, that the "two tenements" communicated with each other in some way—probably by a bridge thrown across—so as to form one house, which obtained its name from their being thus joined or cleekit together.
J. S. B.
Peter Talbot (Vol. iv., pp. 239. 458.).
—The biography of this individual, who was the titular prelate presiding over the see of Dublin from 1669 to 1680, is given very fully in D'Alton's Memoirs of the Archbishops of Dublin.
R.
Races in which Children, &c. (Vol. iv., p. 442.).
—When consulting my Lexicon this morning, I met under "Ἀπὸ" with the following, καλέουσι ἀπὸ τῶν μητέρων ἑωϋτοὺς, they name themselves after, or from their mothers, Herodot. i. 173. Not having the work, I am unable to pursue the search; but perhaps the reference may assist THEOPHYLACT in his inquiry.
J. V. S.
Sydenham.
For the information of THEOPHYLACT, I transcribe the following passage from Johnson's Selections from the Mahabharat, p. 67. The note is from the pen of Professor Wilson:—
"Among the Bhotias a family of brothers has a wife in common; and we can scarcely question the object of the arrangement, when the unproductive region which these people occupy is considered.... What led to its adoption by the Nair tribe in Malabar is not so easy to conjecture. At present its object seems to be to preserve the purity of descent, which it is thought is more secure on the female than on the male side; and accordingly, the child claims property, or even the Raj, not through his father, but his mother."
RECHABITE.
Bacon a Poet (Vol. iv., p. 474.).
—Whether Lord Bacon was, or was not, the author of the well-known lines noted and queried by R. CS., I will leave the intended editor of Hackneyed Quotations to decide, hoping that he will soon make his appearance as public umpire in all such cases.
Whether Lord Bacon was, or was not, really a poet, I will leave to the decision of those who are conversant with the glorious works of his mind and imagination.
But I have something to say to the note with which R. CS. follows up his query:—"Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Bacon, and Bacon the Sculptor, are the only conspicuous men of the name, and none of them, that I know, wrote verses."
This must not go unchallenged in the truthful pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES." "Pray, Sir," said a lady to me once, with a very complimentary air, "though no great Latin scholar, may I not judge by your name that you are a descendant of THE GREAT FRIAR BACON?" To which I could only reply, "Madam, I have never yet discovered the bend sinister on our escutcheon." From that proud moment I have been penetrated with the profoundest respect for the name of Roger; and I cannot patiently see the biggest pig of our sty namelessly consigned to oblivion in the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES". Pray assure R. CS. that the three Bacons of whom he makes mention are not "the only conspicuous men of the name." And as to the rest, "none of them that I know wrote verses," I beg to refer him to Lord Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms, vol. iv. p. 489. of his Works, ed. 1740.
PORCULUS.
Was not the poet Bacon, quoted by Boswell, the Rev. Phannel Bacon, D.D., Rector of Balden in Oxfordshire, and Vicar of Bramber in Sussex, who died January 2, 1783? He was not only an admirable poet, but was a famous punster, and is described as possessing an admirable fund of humour.
MYFANWY.
Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor (Vol. iv., p. 326.).
—Unless the Legenda Aurea be prior in date to the twelfth century, I can refer your correspondent to a still earlier authority for the tale in question—Wace (Life of St. Nicholas), in whose pages it appears more at length, but substantially the same.
According to (I presume) the earlier historian, the case was brought within the jurisdiction of St. Nicholas by the "ieueu" receiving an image of the saint in pledge, and the debtor taking his expurgatory oath thereon.
The story is told of a saint who lived in the fourth century, and we may, at all events, consider it as being much older than Wace himself.
F. I.
Share of Presbyters in Ordination (Vol. iv., p. 273.).
—As a contribution towards answering MR. GATTY'S question, I send the following extract from Hooker:
"Here it will perhaps be objected, that the power of ordination itself was not everywhere peculiar and proper unto bishops, as may be seen by a council of Carthage, which showeth their church's order to have been, that presbyters should, together with the bishop, lay hands upon the ordained. But doth it therefore follow that the power of ordination was not principally and originally in the bishop?... With us, even at this day, presbyters are licensed to do as much as that council speaketh of, if any be present."—Eccl. Pol. b. vii, c. vi. 5. vol. iii. pp. 207-8. ed. Keble, 1836.
J. C. R.
Weever's Funeral Monument (Vol. iv., p. 474.).
—Weever was buried in the old church of St. James, Clerkenwell, which was formerly part of the Priory called Ecclesia Beatæ Mariæ de Fonte Clericorum, for nuns of the order of St. Benedict. The inscription, on a plate shaped to a pillar near the chancel, has been preserved by Stow, in his Survey of London, p. 900., 1633; and by Strype, in his edition of the Survey of London, book iv. p. 65. Fuller, in his Church History, vol. ii p. 208., edit. 1840, informs us that—
"Weever died in London in the fifty-sixth year of his age, and was buried in St. James, Clerkenwell, where he appointed this epitaph for himself:
'Lancashire gave me breath
And Cambridge education,
Middlesex gave me death
And this church my humation.
And Christ to me hath given
A place with him in heaven.'
"The certain date of his death I cannot attain; but, by proportion, I collect it to be about the year of our Lord 1634."
The date supplied by Storer, in his History of Clerkenwell, p. 186., is "Anno Domini 1632." The epitaph given by Fuller, Strype has appended to the original inscription. Mr. Storer adds:
"When the church was taken down, the Society of Antiquaries gave orders for a diligent search to be made after this tablet, but without success; which is accounted for by a correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine [see vol. lviii. part 2. p. 600.], that it had been stolen a few years previously, but was perfectly remembered by an inhabitant to have occupied the situation which has been described."
J. Y.
Hoxton.
Dial Motto at Karlsbad (Vol. iv., p. 471.).
—I doubt not the accuracy of Sir Nicholas Tindal's copy of the inscription, but I suspect that the painter of the red capitals made a mistake, and that the d in the word cedit should have been the red letter instead of the e; if so, the chronogram would be as follows M.DCCVVVVIIIIIIIII, i.e. 1729.
H. F.
The red letters undoubtedly compose a chronogram; E in such compositions represents 250. The date is therefore A.D. 1480.
E. H. D. D.
Cabal (Vol. iv., p. 443.).
—The word "cabal" occurs in two different senses in Hudibras; but I have only before me the Edinburgh edition of 1779, and so cannot tell whether Butler used it at a date previous to that assigned to its coinage by Burnet. Hudibras was written before the Restoration, at all events; but I have no opportunity of consulting the first edition, which was well known for ten years before the Cabal of 1672.
"For mystic learning, wondrous able,
In magic talisman and cabal."
Hudibras, Part I. Canto I. 529.
Upon which I find this learned note:—
"Raymund Lully interprets cabal out of the Arabic, to signify Scientia superabundans, which his commentator, Cornelius Agrippa, by over-magnifying, has rendered 'a very superfluous foppery.' Vid. J. Pici, Mirandulæ de Magia et Cabala, Apol. tome i. pp. 110. 111.; Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, part i, book i. p. 67., edit. 1614; Purchas' Pilgrims, part ii. lib. vi. pp. 796, 797, 798.; Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, cap. xi.; Dee's Book of Spirits, with Dr. Meric Casaubon's Preface; Churchill's Voyages, &c., vol. ii. p. 528., second edition; Bailey's Dictionary, folio edition, under the word 'cabala;' Jacob's Law Dictionary, under the word 'cabal;' and British Librarian, No. 6. for June, 1737, p. 340."
The other instance I am adducing gives us "cabal" in its common acceptation:—
"Set up committees of cabals
To pack designs without the walls."
Part III. Canto II. 945.
I again copy a note from Dr. Grey:—
"A sneer probably upon Clifford, Ashley, Burlington, Arlington, Lauderdale, who were called the CABAL in King Charles II.'s time, from the initial letters of their names.—See Echard, vol. iii. p. 251."
Your correspondent E. H. D. D. may be glad of these two quotations, and I quite agree with him in ascribing an earlier date than that mentioned by Burnet to the word "cabal" in the sense of "a secret council." The transition from its original sense was easy and natural, and the application to King Charles's confidential advisers ingenious.
RT.
Warmington.
Rectitudines Singularum Personarum (Vol. iv., p. 442.).
—In reply to the inquiries of H. C. C., let me refer him to pp. xi. and xxv. of the preface and list of MSS. in vol. i. of the Ancient Laws, &c. of England, edited by Mr. Thorpe, under the direction of the late Record Commission. He will there find that the real MS. site of that document is stated to be in the library of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, and to be of the date of the tenth century. It is not stated upon what ground so early a date is assigned to it; but as so competent a judge as the editor seems to give that date without any expression of doubt, we may presume that there is satisfactory proof of the fact. I do not observe the document mentioned in Wanley's catalogue, and Nasmith's more recent one is not at hand to refer to. The matter contained in it does not (at least in my judgment) necessarily indicate so early a date, inasmuch as parallel, and even identical, rights and customs, connected with the status of persons and tenure of land, were in active existence at a much later period of our history. It would certainly be more satisfactory to know the precise grounds, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, on which the date has been fixed.
With regard to the old Latin version, I will not undertake to vindicate it except against one of the criticisms of H. C. C. He objects that læden is translated minare. The word "minare" is used in the translation twice, once for driving, and once for leading; and I question whether the translator could have found a more appropriate word to serve this double purpose than the authentic verb menare or minare, from which the French mener has been derived.
I cannot so easily justify him for translating "bôc-riht" by "rectitudo testamenti;" yet as the power of testamentary disposition was one of the most signal attributes of bôc-riht, I cannot say that he has much misrepresented the import of the original word.
The document, which is evidently a private compilation, seems to be a custumal, or coustumier, of a district, or some considerable portion of the country. The German lawyers would call the collection a landrecht in one sense of that term, or, as the translator has called it, a "landirectum." The heading is by no means an appropriate one. Whether the writer intended to compile a code of the customs and obligations of land tenure, free and unfree, coextensive with the Saxon name, or merely to represent those of a certain district with which he happened to be acquainted, is a matter open to question.
H. C. C. is perhaps not aware that the document has been examined, corrected, translated into German, and made the subject of a very masterly dissertation, by Dr. Heinrich Leo, of Halle. It is frequently referred to by Lappenberg in his Anglo-Saxon History, and became known (at least in the translation) to Sir H. Ellis in time to make copious extracts from it in the second volume of his Introduction to Domesday.
E. S.
Stanzas in Childe Harold (Vol. iv, pp. 223. 285. 323.).
—In reply to T. W. I will merely refer him and your other correspondents upon this subject to page 391. of Moore's Life of Byron, 1 vol. edition, 1844, where will be found this passage, in Letter 323, addressed to Mr. Murray:—
"What does 'thy waters wasted them' mean (in the Canto)? That is not me. Consult the MS. always."
I am fully aware this will not interpret the meaning of the passage, but it will go far to satisfy your correspondents that their emendations and suggestions do not completely answer Lord Byron's query in the letter referred to by
LEON.
London.
The Island and Temple of Ægina (Vol. iv., pp. 255. 412.).
—Having been, some time since, greatly pleased by a fine engraving of the ruined Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in Ægina (but unaccompanied by any description), and having had a well executed water-colour drawing made therefrom, my interest was aroused on the subject, and I searched among books within reach for particulars on the subject of what there seems every reason to regard as the oldest temple in Greece, with the single exception of that of Corinth. After a patient search I found Fosbroke's Foreign Topography (4to. edition, 1828, pp. 3, 4, 5.) to contain the best account of those interesting ruins. The work is not a scarce one in good libraries: I shall therefore be concise in the extracts from it. The article entitled "Ægina (Greece)" states that the remains of the Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius (which are engraved in the Ionian Antiquities) prove it to have been of the Doric order; that it had six columns in front, but only twelve on the side, in opposition to the usual custom among Greek architects of adding one column more than double the number of those in front. The architecture is said closely to approach that of the hexastyle hypæthral Temple of Pæstum. Williams, in his Travels, expresses the opinion that this Temple of Jupiter is older than that of Theseus or the Parthenon. In Dodwell's Greece, too, there is an ample description of it. He represents it to have been part of the ruins of an ancient city, perhaps of Oië. Twenty-five columns were left entire in his day; together with the greater part of the epistylion, or architrave. The cornice, however, with the metopæ and triglyphs, have all fallen. The view of this gloriously positioned temple must have been magnificent from the sea; while the details of the building must have been equally delighting to the near spectator. The temple was built of soft porous stone, coated with a thin stucco, which must have given it a marble appearance. The epistylia were painted, and the cornice elegantly ornamented in a similar manner. The pavement was also covered with a thick stucco, painted vermilion. Chandler (Greece, 12-15.) describes traces of the peribolus of this temple; and Clarke styles it at once the most ancient and remarkable in Greece. I may add that the Æginetans were celebrated for their works in bronze, for fine medals (the art of coining money indeed being first introduced by the inhabitants of this island), for their terra cotta vases, &c. Fosbroke's excellent Cyclopædia of Antiquities may be with advantage consulted in respect to the Eginetic school of art.
J. J. S.
The Cloisters, Temple.
Herschel Anticipated (Vol. iv., p. 233.).
—I cannot inform ÆGROTUS who was declared to be mad for believing the sun's motion, but Herschel was anticipated by Lalande (Mémoires, 1776), who inferred it from the sun's rotation; also by Professor Wilson, of Glasgow (Thoughts on Universal Gravitation, 1777), and, earlier than these, by the Rev. Mr. Michell, in Philosophical Transactions, 1767. Mayer (De Motu Fixarum, 1760) mentions the hypothesis, and rejects it.
ALTRON.
Wyle Cop (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 243.).
—Cop is not a hill or head, as Mr. Lawrence supposes, and as the word certainly signifies in some parts of England, but a bank. The artificial banks which confine the Dee at and below Chester were called fifty years ago, and I dare say are still called, Cops, with distinctive names. By SALOPIAN'S account, Wyle Cop is such a bank. I cannot explain Wyle, but think it probable that it was the name of some former proprietor of the ground. It however no more needs explanation than if it were joined to Street or Lane, instead of to Cop.
E. H. D. D.
Macfarlane Manuscripts (Vol. iv., p. 406.).
—In reply to your correspondent ANTIQUARIENSIS, I have to inform you that the "Macfarlane Collections" preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, are chiefly of an "ecclesiastic nature." In Turnbull's Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica, published by Stevenson of Edinburgh, 1842, I find it stated that—
"Mr. Walter Macfarlan of Macfarlan (Scoticè, of that Ilk) was an eminent antiquary, who devoted his attentions strictly to the historical monuments of his own country, especially the ecclesiastic remains. He caused to be made, at his own expense, by his clerk, one Tait, copies of most of the chartularies accessible in his time. These are distinguished for their fidelity and neatness. Mr. Macfarlan died 5th June, 1767, and his MSS. were purchased by the Faculty of Advocates."
Of these valuable and highly important chartularies there has been printed, 1. Aberdeen; 2. Arbroath; 3. Balmerino; 4. Dryburgh; 5. Dunfermline; 6. Kelso; 7. Lindores; 8. Melros; 9. Moray; 10. St. Andrews; and 11. Scone.
According to Douglas, in his Baronage of Scotland, folio, 1798—
"Mr. Macfarlane was a man of parts, learning, and knowledge, a most ingenious antiquary, and by far the best genealogist of his time. He was possessed of the most valuable collection of materials for a work of this kind of any man in the kingdom, which he collected with great judgment, and at a considerable expense, and to which we always had, and still have, free access. This sufficiently appears by the many quotations from Macfarlane's collections, both in the Peerage and Baronage of Scotland. In short, he was a man of great benevolence, an agreeable companion, and a sincere friend.
"He married Lady Elizabeth Erskine, daughter of Alexander, sixth earl of Kelly, and died without issue in June, 1767."
In the year 1846 there was engraved at the expense of W. B. C. C. Turnbull, Esq., advocate, a fine portrait of Macfarlane, from the original painting in the Library of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries. Of this plate it is believed that only a few "proofs upon India paper" were thrown off for presents.
T. G. S.
Edinburgh.