Minor Queries.
The Star in the East (St. Matt. ii. 2.).
—I have been told that in the year of the Nativity three of the planets were in conjunction. Some one of your astronomical correspondents may probably be able to furnish information on this subject: it is full of sacred interest and wonder.
J. W. H.
Meaning of Sinage: Distord: Slander.
—In a translation of Luther's Revelation of Antichrist by the Protestant martyr Frith, the word sinage occurs in a list of ecclesiastical payments, which the popish prelates were wont to exact from the parochial clergy.
If any of your correspondents can say what sinage means, he may oblige me still further by explaining the word distord, in the same page; where it is said "they stir princes and officers to distord against them," viz., against such as resist the claims of churchmen.
Is there any authority for supposing that sclawnder, ordinarily slander, may sometimes mean injury, without reference to character? It is certain that the parallel term calumnia was so used in monkish Latin.
H. W.
Miss.
—It is generally, I believe, understood that, prior to the time of Charles II., married women were called Mistress, and unmarried had Mistress prefixed to their Christian name; and that the equivocal position of many in that reign, gave rise to the peculiar designation of Miss or "Mis." Can any of your readers show an earlier use of the term than the following, from Epigrams of all Sorts, by Richard Flecknoe, published 1669?
"To Mis. Davis on her excellent Dancing.
Dear Mis., delight of all the nobler sort,
Pride of the stage and darling of the court."
Again, was the term, when used with especial reference to these ladies, always spelt with one s, as Mis?
M. S.
Jacques Mabiotte.
—I read, that certain members of the continental masonic lodges interpret the Hiram, whose death the freemasons affect to deplore, as meaning Molai, Grand Master of the Templars; but that others understand the said Hiram to mean Jacques Mabiotte. Now, I should think the person whom secret associations can be even imagined, ever so falsely, to keep in continual remembrance, and who is thus placed in competition with the Grand Master of the Temple, should at least enjoy that moderate share of celebrity that will enable some of your correspondents to inform me who he was, and what were the circumstances of his death. I have not myself been able to find him.
A. N.
Registry of British Subjects abroad.
—There is a notion that all British subjects born in foreign parts are considered as born within the diocese of London. What is the origin of this notion? I have heard it said that it is founded on some order made by King George I., on the occasion of his journeys to Hanover. But it must be of older date.
Can any of your readers throw any light upon this? and greatly oblige,
J. B.
[A notice was published in the London Gazette in March, 1816, stating that the Bishop of London's registrar would register all marriages of British subjects solemnised in foreign countries; and also the births and deaths of British subjects which occurred abroad. Has that notice any reference to the notion?]
Shawls.
—When were shawls first introduced into this country from the East? and whence has the name arisen? for I see no trace of it in our English dictionaries. Is it from its Persian name, "do-shâllâ?" I should also much wish to know when plaids and tartans were first mentioned as part of the national dress of Scotland.
A JUROR.
"Racked by pain, by shame confounded."
—From whence are the following lines taken?
"Racked by pain, by shame confounded;
Goaded to the desperate deed."
Y. G. F.
Oxford, June 17. 1850.
Figures of Saints.
—During some slight repairs in my parish church, vestiges of mural paintings were discovered above and on each side of the chancel arch. I caused the plaster and whitewash to be removed, and discovered two colossal angelic figures, but in a very imperfect state. Each have nimbi of a blue colour, surmounted by crosses, with globular extremities.
The S. figure holds an enormous spear. The N. one is so much defaced that nothing could be traced but the outline of the figure, and what appears a gigantic serpent, or perhaps a scroll of a blue colour behind it. The clerk reports that traces of an anchor could be seen ten years ago; but on his statement I cannot place much reliance. I should be obliged for any information respecting the subject. Above the centre of the arch I could only see a profusion of fragments of wings surrounded by a glory.
E. S. TAYLOR.
Martham, Norfolk, June 7.
Conceyted Letters, who wrote?—
"Conceyted Letters, newly laid open: or a most excellent bundle of new wit, wherein is knit up together all the perfection or art of episteling, by which the most ignorant may with much modestie talke and argue with the best learned." London: B. Alsop, 1618.
Who is the author of this little work? Lowndes gives it as an anonymous production, but it is sometimes ascribed to Nicolas Breton. The initials I. M. affixed to the preface, would rather denote Jervase Markham as the author.
Δ.
Acta Sanctorum.
—Is any endeavour being made for the completion of that vast work, the Acta Sanctorum, the last volume of which I believe was published at Brussels in 1845?
P. S. E.
Pope's "honest Factor."
—I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me who was the "honest factor" referred to in Pope's "Sir Balaam" in the lines:
"Asleep and naked, as an Indian lay,
An honest factor stole a gem away:
He pledg'd it to the knight," &c.
I have seen it noticed in the biography of an individual who held some official post in India, but have forgotten the name.
J. SWANN.
Norwich, May, 1851.
Meaning of "Nervous."
—Will any of your correspondents kindly oblige me, by stating what is the actual meaning of the word nervous? On reference to Johnson, I find it expressed as follows:—
"Nervy, sinewy, vigorous; also having diseased or weak nerves."
Now, by this definition, I am led to believe that the word has two meanings, directly opposed to each other. Is this so?
K. BANNEL.
Liverpool.
Doomsday Book of Scotland.
—In vol. xx. of Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, 1798, the following extract of a letter appears from John Pinkerton, Esq., the antiquarian writer, dated the 23rd February, 1794:
"In looking over the Survey of Scotland accomplished by your exertions, it occurred to me that I could furnish an article, worthy to appear in an Appendix to one of the volumes of the Statistical Account. I need not inform you, that in the third volume of Prynne's Records there is a large but undigested list of all those in Scotland who paid homage to Edward I. in 1291 and 1296, forming a kind of Doomsday Book of the country at that period. Four years ago, I, with some labour, reduced the numerous names and designations into alphabetical order, and the list being now adapted to general use, and containing the names and designations of the chief landholders, citizens, and clergy of the time, it may be regarded as of no small importance to our ancient statistics, topography, and genealogy. If your opinion coincides, I shall with pleasure present it to you for the purpose, and correct the press."
Now the article so kindly proffered by Mr. Pinkerton did not appear in the Statistical Account of Scotland, or in any of Mr. Pinkerton's subsequent publications, that I am aware of. I should feel obliged if any correspondent could inform me if it was ever published.
ABERDONIENSIS.