Minor Queries.
116. "Fœda ministeria, atque minis absistite acerbis" (Vol. iii., p. 494.).
—Will any of your readers who may be metrical scholars, inform me whether there is any classical example of such an accent and cæsura as in this verse of Vida?
C. B.
117. Cornish Arms and Cornish Motto.
—The Cornish arms are a field sable with fifteen bezants, not balls as they are commonly called, 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. in pale or. These arms were borne by Condurus, the last Earl of Cornwall of British blood, in the time of William I., and were so borne until Richard, Earl of Cornwall, on being created Earl of Poictou, took the arms of such. According to the custom of the French, these were a rampant lion gules crowned or, in a field argent; but to show forth Cornwall, he threw the fifteen bezants into a bordour sable, round the bearing of the Earl of Poictou; but the Cornish arms, those of Condurus, are unaltered, though the coins are often mistaken for balls, and painted on a field coloured to the painter's fancy. Can you tell me when the Cornish motto "one and all" was adopted, and why?
S. H. (2)
118. Gloucester saved from the King's Mines.
—In Sir Kenelm Digby's Treatise of Bodies, ch. xxviii. sec. 4., is this passage:
"The trampling of men and horses in a quiet night, will be heard some miles off.... Most of all if one set a drum smooth upon the ground, and lay one's ear to the upper edge of it," &c.
On which the copy in my possession (ed. 1669) has the following marginal note in a cotemporary hand:
"Thus Gloucester was saved from the King's mines by ye drum of a drunken dru̅mer."
To what event does this refer, and where shall I find an account of it? It evidently happened during the civil wars, but Clarendon has no mention of it.
T. H. KERSLEY, A.B.
119. Milesian.
—What is the origin of the term Milesian as applied to certain races among the Irish?
W. FRASER.
120. Horology.
—Can any of your numerous correspondents kindly inform me what is the best scientific work on Horology? I do not want one containing mere mathematical work, but entering into all the details of the various movements, escapements, &c. &c. of astronomical clocks, chronometers, pocket watches, with the latest improvements down to the present time.
H. C. K.
121. Laurentius Müller.
—Can any of your readers mention a library which contains a copy of the Historia Septentrionalis, or History of Poland, of Laurentius Müller, published about 1580?
A. TR.
122. Lines on a Bed.
—Can you tell me where I can find the antecedents of the following couplets? They are a portion of some exquisite poetical "Lines on a Bed:"
"To-day thy bosom may contain
Exulting pleasure's fleeting train,
Desponding grief to-morrow!"
I once thought they were Prior's, but I cannot find them. Can you assist me?
R. W. B.
123. Pirog.
—A custom, I believe, still exists in Russia for the mistress of a family to distribute on certain occasions bread or cake to her guests. Some particulars of this custom appeared either in the Globe or the Standard newspaper in 1837 or 1838, during the months of October, November, or December. Having lost the reference to the precise date, and only recollecting that the custom is known by the name of Pirog, I shall feel much obliged to any correspondent of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" if he can supply me with further information on the subject.
R. M. W.
124. Lists of Plants with their Provincial Names.
—In a biography that appeared of Dr. P. Brown in the Anthologia Hibernica for Jan. 7, 1793, we are informed that he prepared for the press a "Fasciculus Plantarum Hibernicarum," enumerating chiefly those growing in the counties of Mayo and Galway, written in Latin, with the English and Irish names of each plant. See also Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science, i.—xxx. Where is this MS.?
Can any of your readers refer me to similar lists of plants indigenous to either England or Ireland, in which the provincial names are preserved, with any notes on their use in medicine, or their connexion with the superstitions of the district to which the list refers? Any information on this subject, however slight, will particularly oblige
S. P. H. T.
P.S. I should not be much surprised if the MS. of Dr. P. Brown existed in some of the collectanea in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dub.
125. Print cleaning.
—How should prints be cleaned, so as not to injure the paper?
A. G.
126. Italian Writer on Political Economy—Carli the Economist.
—What was the first work by an Italian writer on any element of political economy? and in what year did Carli, the celebrated economist, die?
ALPHA.
127. Nightingale and Thorn.
—Where is the earliest notice of the fable of the nightingale and the thorn? that she sings because she has a thorn in her breast? For obvious reasons, the fiction cannot be classical.
It is noticed by Byron:
"The nightingale that sings with the deep thorn,
That fable places in her breast of wail,
Is lighter far of heart and voice than those
Whose headlong passions form their proper woes."
But an earlier mention is found in Browne's poem on the death of Mr. Thomas Manwood:—
"Not for thee these briny tears are spent,
But as the nightingale against the breere,
'Tis for myself I moan and do lament,
Not that thou left'st the world, but left'st me here."
He seems to interpret the fable to the same effect as Homer makes Achilles' women lament Patroclus—Πατρόκλου πρόφασιν, σφῶν δ' αὐτῶν κήδε' ἑκάστη. It has been suggested that it rather implies that the spirit of music, like that of poetry and prophecy, visits chiefly the afflicted,—a comfortable doctrine to prosaic and unmusical people.
A. W. H.
128. Coleridge's Essays on Beauty.
—At pp. 300, 301, of this writer's Table Talk (3rd edition) there is the following paragraph:—
"I exceedingly regret the loss of those essays on beauty, which I wrote in a Bristol newspaper. I would give much to recover them."
Can any of your readers afford information on this point? The publication of the essays in question (supposing that they have not yet been published) would be a most welcome addition to the works of so eminent and original an author as S. T. Coleridge.
J. H. KERSHAW.
129. Henryson and Kinaston.
—MR. SINGER (Vol. iii., p. 297.) refers to Sir Francis Kinaston's Latin version of Chaucer's Troilus and Cresseid, and of Henryson's Testament of Cresseid. The first two books of the former are well known as having been printed at Oxford, 1635, 4to.; and the entire version was announced for publication by F. G. Waldron, in a pamphlet printed as a specimen, in 1796. Query, Who is now the possessor of Kinaston's manuscript, which MR. SINGER recommends as worthy of the attention of the Camden Society?
In the original table of contents of a manuscript collection, written about the year 1515, one article in that portion of the volume now lost is "Mr. Robert Henderson's dreme, On fut by Forth." Can any of your readers point out where a copy of this, or any other unpublished poems by Henryson, are preserved?
D. L.
Edinburgh.
130. Oldys' Account of London Libraries.
—In "A Catalogue of the Libraries of the late William Oldys, Esq., Norroy King at Arms (author of the Life of Sir Walter Raleigh), the Reverend Mr. Emms, of Yarmouth, and Mr. William Rush, which will begin to be sold on Monday, April 12, by Thomas Davies;" published without date, but supposed to be in 1764, I find amongst Mr. Oldys's manuscripts, lot 3613.: "Of London Libraries: with Anecdotes of Collectors of Books, Remarks on Booksellers, and on the first Publishers of Catalogues." Can any of your readers inform me if the same is still in existence, and in whose possession it is?
WILLIAM BROWN, Jun.
Old Street.
131. A Sword-blade Note.
—I find in an account-book of a public company an entry dated Oct. 1720, directing the disposal of "A Sword-blade Note for One hundred ninety-two pounds ten shillings seven pence." Can any of your numerous readers, especially those cognisant of monetary transactions, favour me with an explanation of the nature of this note, and the origin of its peculiar appellation?
R. J.
Threadneedle Street, Aug. 28. 1851.
132. Abacot.
—The word ABACOT, now inserted in foreign as well as English dictionaries, was adopted by Spelman in his Glossary: the authority which he gives seems to be the passage (stating that King Henry VI.'s "high cap of estate, called Abacot, garnished with two rich crowns," was presented to King Edward IV. after the battle of Hexham) which is in Holinshed, (the third volume of Chronicles, fol. Lond. 1577, p. 666. col. 2. line 28.): but this appears to be copied from Grafton (A Chronicle, &c., fol. Lond. 1569), where the word stands Abococket. If this author took it from Hall (The Union, &c., fol. Lond. 1549) I think it there stands the same: but in Fabyan's Chronicle, as edited by Ellis, it is printed Bycoket; and in one black-letter copy in the British Museum, it may be seen Bicoket, corrected in the margin by a hand of the sixteenth century, Brioket.
Can any reader point out the right word, and give its derivation?
J. W. P.
133. Princesses of Wales (Vol. iv., p. 24.).
—C. C. R. has clearly shown what is Hume's authority for the passage quoted by Mr. Christian in his edition of Blackstone, and referred to by me in my former communication, Vol. iii., p. 477. Can he point out where the passage in Hume is found? Mr. Christian refers to Hume, iv. p. 113.; but I have not been able to find it at the place referred to in any edition of Hume which I have had the opportunity of consulting.
G.