Minor Queries.
80. Southampton Brasses.
—French Church, otherwise God's House, Southampton. About eight or nine years ago, two monumental brasses were discovered, in making some alterations in this church. I should feel greatly obliged to any correspondent who could give me a description of them, and inform me if they are still to be found there.
W. W. KING.
81. Borough-English.
—Which are the towns or districts in England in which Borough-English prevails or has prevailed; and are there any instances on record of its being carried into effect in modern times?
W. FRASER.
82. Passage in St. Bernard.
—Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part II. 1.:
"CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.
"Here man more purely lives, less oft doth fall,
More promptly rises, walks with nicer heed,
More safely rests, dies happier, is freed
Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal
A brighter crown."
Note.—"Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius."—Bernard.
"This sentence," says Dr. Whitaker, "is usually inscribed in some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses." I cannot find in St. Bernard's works the passage to which Wordsworth's sonnet alludes, though I often see it referred to: e. g. Whitehead's College Life, p. 44., 1845; and Mrs. Jameson's Legends of the Monastic Orders, Preface. Can any of your correspondents direct me to it?
RT.
83. Spenser's Faerie Queene (b. ii. c. ix. st. 22.).—
"The frame thereof seemed partly circulare,
And part triangulare," &c.
Warton (Observations on the Fairy Queen, vol. i. p. 121.) says that the philosophy of this abstruse stanza describing the Castle of Alma is explained in a learned epistle of Sir Kenelm Digby addressed to Sir Edward Stradling. In a foot-note he states that this epistle was—
"First printed in a single pamphlet, viz., Observations on XXII Stanza, &c., Lond. 1644, 8vo. It is also published in Scrinia Sacra, 4to. pag. 244. London, 1654."
Could any of your readers, acquainted with Sir Kenelm Digby's works, give his explanation of this stanza? There is no note on it in the one-volume edition of Spenser lately published by Moxon. The best explanation of it that I have seen is in the Athenæum, August 12, 1848.
E. M. B.
84. Broad Halfpenny Down.
—There is a beautiful chalk down in the parish of Hambledon, Hants, which goes by the above name, pronounced, of course, ha'penny, like the coin. Can any of your antiquarian readers give me the origin of this name? I have no doubt that the present appellation is a corruption of some British or Saxon word, having, when spoken, a sound somewhat analogous to the modern word into which it has been converted. The "Broad Down" had a name of its own, I doubt not, before the existence of either a penny or halfpenny.
EFFARESS.
85. Roll Pedigree of Howard, of Great Howard, Co. Lancaster.
—In 1826 an elaborate pedigree on vellum of the family of Howard, of Great Howard, in Rochdale, deduced, authenticated, and subscribed by Sir William Dugdale, about the year 1667, was in the possession of a gentleman in Rochdale, lately deceased. He is supposed to have lent it to some antiquarian friend, and its present locale is unknown. As no record of this singular document exists in the College of Arms, the writer of this note would feel obliged by being permitted to have a copy of the original for his Lancashire M.S. Collections.
F. R. R.
86. Rev. John Paget, of Amsterdam.
—Of what family was John Paget, pastor of the Reformed English church at Amsterdam for thirty years? He died there 1639, and his works were published 1641, being edited by Thomas Paget, who was, according to his own account, "called to the work of ministry many years ago in Chester diocese," and R. Paget, who writes a Preface "from Dort, 1641." Perhaps the editors of the "NAVORSCHER" may be able to give some information on the subject.
CRANMORE.
87. Visiting Cards.
—When did these social conveniencies first come into use?
OUTIS.
88. Duke de Berwick and Alva.
—A sword amongst the Spanish jewels in the Great Exhibition is said to be ordered by "S. E. Jacques Stuart, Duc de Berwick and Alva." Is this a descendant of James II.'s illegitimate son, the Duke of Berwick? and if so, can any of your correspondents give me any information as to his descent, &c.?
L.
89. The Earl of Derwentwater.
—The first earl, Francis, had several sons—Francis his successor, Edward died unmarried, Thomas a military officer, Arthur, &c. Can any of your readers inform me in which army this Thomas was an officer, whom he married, and where he died? The family name was Radcliffe.
BROCTUNA.
Bury, Lancashire.
90. "But very few have seen the Devil."
—Can any of your readers inform me where some lines are to be found which run somewhat thus?—I cannot remember the intermediate lines:—
". . . .
But very few have seen the Devil,
Except old Noll, as Echard tells us:
. . . .
But then old Noll was one in ten,
And sought him more than other men."
W. FRASER.
Hordley, near Ellesmere, Aug. 4. 1851.
91. Aulus Gellius' Description of a Dimple.
—The poet Gray, writing to his friend Mr. West, asks him to guess where the following description of a dimple is found:
"Sigilla in mento inpressa Amoris digitulo
Vestigio demonstrant mollitudinem."
Lett. viii. sect. iii. vol. i. p. 261. Mason's edition. London, 1807.
Mr. West replies in the following letter:
"Your fragment is Aulus Gellius; and both it and your Greek delicious."
I have never met with it in Aulus Gellius, and should be glad to find it.
RT.
92. Forgotten Authors of the Seventeenth Century.
—Can any of your correspondents point out any biographical particulars relative to the following authors of the seventeenth century?
1. WILLIAM PARKES, Gentleman, and sometimes student in Barnard's Inne, author of The Curtaine-drawer of the World, 1612.
2. PETER WOODHOUSE, author of The Flea; sic parva componere magnis, 1605.
3. ROWLAND WATKINS, a native of Herefordshire; author of Flamma sine Fumo, or Poems without Fictions, 1662.
4. RICHARD WEST, author of The Court of Conscience, or Dick Whipper's Sessions, 1607.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.