Replies to Minor Queries.
Proverbs (Vol. iv., p. 239.).
—A proverb has been well defined (it is said by Lord John Russell) to be "the wisdom of many, and the wit of one."
ESTE.
Infantry Firing (Vol. iv., p. 407.).
—The following short paragraph on this subject may be acceptable to your correspondent H. Y. W. N. I found it among a small collection of newspaper cuttings; but I cannot give either the name or date of the paper from which it was taken.
"MUSKET BALLS.—Marshal Saxe computed that, in a battle, only one ball of eighty-five takes effect. Others, that only one in forty strikes, and no more than one in four hundred is fatal. At the battle of Tournay, in Flanders, fought on the 22nd of May, 1794, it is calculated that two hundred and thirty-six musket-shot were expended in disabling each soldier who suffered."
C. FORBES.
Temple.
Joceline's Legacy (Vol. iv., pp. 367. 410. 454.).
—Having at length obtained a copy of the edition of this excellent manual, which your correspondent J.S. (Vol. iv., p. 410.), in reply to my Query, informed me had passed through the press of Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, "with a preface or dissertation containing many particulars relating to the authoress and her relatives," my object in mentioning the subject in "N. & Q." has been satisfactorily answered. I am also obliged to J.S. (the editor, I apprehend, of this new edition) for having corrected the errors into which I had unintentionally fallen; nor will my neighbour, the Rev. C.H. Crauford, I am sure, feel less obliged.
It now appears that this new reprint is copied verbatim et literatim from the third impression printed at London, by John Haviland for Hanna Barres, 1625. My Query also has been the means of ascertaining from another correspondent, P. B. (the initials, I believe, of one of the most correct of bibliographers in names and dates), a notice of what he believes to be the first edition printed by John Haviland for William Barret, 1624. But, as Blackwood's edition is dated 1625, and is called the third edition, is it not very probable that an earlier one appeared than even that of 1624?
Should the notice I have attracted to Mrs. Joceline's Mother's Legacie, and the letter accompanying it, addressed, "in the immediate prospect of death, to her truly loving and most dearly beloved husband," be the means of extending the sale and the perusal of this beautiful little pocket volume, "replete with practical wisdom and hallowed principles, that no human being who is not past feeling can read without deep emotion," I shall be truly gratified: and it will be another instance of the utility and value of "N. & Q." being the medium of bringing such books before the public eye.
J. M. G.
Worcester.
Winifreda; Stevens' "Rural Felicity" (Vol. iv., p. 277.).
—For a repetition of the sentiment by Stevens, vide also his "Parent:"
"A fond father's bliss is to number his race,
And exult on the bloom that just buds on their face,
With their prattle he'll dearly himself entertain,
And read in their smiles their loved mother again;
Men of pleasure be mute, this is life's lovely view,
When we look on our young ones our youth we renew."
Stevens' Songs, Tolly's ed. 1823. p. 223.
J. B. COLMAN.
Eye, Nov. 17. 1851.
"Posie of other Men's Flowers" (Vol. iv., p. 58.).
—A literary friend of mine has found the passage in Montaigne, book iii., chapter 12., about three-fourths of the way through it:
"We invest ourselves with the faculties of others, and let our own lie idle: as some one may say to me that I have here only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together."
ESTE.
Abigail (Vol. iv., p. 424.).
—I have always supposed that the term "Abigail" had reference to the handmaid, who is described in sacred history as coming before David, and appeasing his wrath. I am far from wishing, as I am certain all your readers are, together with yourself, to tamper with holy things. With this understanding, let me therefore suggest, that other names recorded in the Bible have been used much in the same way as marking distinctive character. Witness Joseph, Solomon, Jehu, Job.
C. I. R.
Legend of St. Molaisse (Vol. ii., p. 79.; Vol. iii., p. 478.).
—This manuscript was purchased for the British Museum, and is MS. Add. 18,205. Instead of being of the eleventh, it is probably of the fourteenth or fifteenth century.
μ.
Collars of SS. (Vol. iv., pp. 147. 236.).
—In compliance with the wish of MR. E. FOSS, that all information bearing on this subject might be sent to you, I beg to state that I have carefully examined two monuments in this neighbourhood on which this ornament appears.
The first is in Macclesfield church. In the north aisle is an altar-tomb, with the effigies of a knight in plate armour, with a collar of SS. At his feet is a ball; and under his head, which is uncovered, a helmet with crest and lambrequin. The crest is too much defaced to be made out, but in a sketch made in 1584 is figured as a stag's head. Tradition assigns this tomb to one of the family of Downes; but it is surrounded by the monumental effigies of the Savages (one being that of the hero of Bosworth), and bears the arms of Archbishop Savage, who is said to have repaired it.
The other, which is an exceedingly beautiful monument, and in excellent preservation, is in the chancel of Barthomley church. It is an embattled altar-tomb: on the sides are figures, somewhat mutilated, of knights and ladies, sculptured in bas-relief, under richly crocketted gothic canopies. The knight is in plate armour, with a coif de mailles and pointed helmet (exactly of the same character as the effigy of Edward the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral), and wears a collar of SS. most elaborately carved. It is known as the tomb of Sir Robert Fulleshurst, one of the four esquires of the gallant James Lord Audley at the battle of Poictiers, who died in 13 Rich. II. (In Bunbury church, there is an alabaster altar-tomb to Sir Hugh Calveley, the famous Captain of "Companions" at the battle of Najara, who died 1394. It is so exactly similar in every respect, with the exception of the collar of SS., to that of Sir Robert Fulleshurst, that of the sketches I have made of both you could not distinguish one from the other.)
There are also said to be effigies bearing the collar of SS. in the churches of Cheadle, Mottram, Over Peover, and Malpas, of which I will send you some notice as soon as I have seen them.
LEWIS EVANS.
Sandbach, Cheshire.
Pronunciation of Coke (Vol. iv., p. 244.).
—In confirmation of the opinion that his name was pronounced Cook, I beg to send you an extract from the Life of Sir Edward Coke, by C. W. Johnson, 1845, vol. i., p. 336.:—
"When Coke was sent to the Tower they punned against him in English. An unpublished letter of the day has this curious anecdote. The room in which he lodged in the Tower had formerly been a kitchen; on his entrance the Lord Chief Justice read upon the door, 'This room wants a Cook.'"
E. N. W.
Southwark.
Use of Misereres (Vol. iv., p. 307.).
—The following facts may serve towards deciding the use of "miserere" chairs in old churches. In the Greek church, near London Wall, every seat is on the miserere construction. During those parts of the service (and they are very frequent) where the rubric requires a standing posture, the worshipper raises the stall to support the person, which it does in a very sufficient manner.
In the parish church of Mere, in Wiltshire, the "misereres" are furnished with hooks, to prevent their falling down again when once elevated.
RECHABITE.
Inscription on a Pair of Spectacles (Vol. iv., p. 407.).
—The words are evidently all proper names except the third and fourth, Seel. Erb. I imagine the words to be German. Seel. a contraction for the genitive (sing. or plur.) of Selig, a German euphemism for late (lit. blessed, happy), and the other word a contraction for Erbe or Erben, heir or heirs. I interpret it, "Peter Conrad Wiegel, heir of the late John May."
SC.
Carmarthen.
John Lord Frescheville (Vol. iv., p. 441.).
—In answer to D.'s enquiry whether there is any proof of this cavalier having been engaged in Kineton fight, he may be referred to the patent of his peerage, which refers to his having been present at the first erection of the king's standard at Nottingham, and to his "many eminent services against the rebels, as well in the first happy defeate given to the best of their cavalrye in the fight near Worcester, as at Kineton, Braynford, Marleborough, Newbery, and at many other places, where he hath received severall wounds." D. is probably not aware of the very copious memoirs of this family communicated by Sir Frederick Madden (from Wolley's Derbyshire Collections), and by the Rev. Joseph Hunter to the Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica, vol. iv. 1837.
N.
Nightingale and Thorn (Vol. iv., pp. 175.242.).—
"Edw. Lorrain, behold the sharpness of this steel:
[Drawing his sword.]
Fervent desire, that sits against my heart,
Is far more thorny-pricking than this blade;
That, like the nightingale, I shall be scar'd,
As oft as I dispose myself to rest,
Until my colours be disploy'd in France:
This is my final answer, so be gone."
Edward III., a Play, thought to be writ by Shakspeare, Act I. Sc. 1.
Of the two editions of The Raigne of King Edward the Third, consulted by Capell before publishing the play in his Prolusions, the first was printed in 1596, the second in 1599.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
Godfrey Higgins's Works (Vol. iv., p. 152.).
—Perhaps it may not be uninteresting to OUTIS to know that one of the works of Mr. Higgins called forth one, whose title I send:
"Animadversions on a Work entitled 'An Apology for the Life and Character of the celebrated Prophet of Arabia called Mohamed or the Illustrious, by Godfrey Higgins, Esq.;' with Annotations, by the Rev. P. Inchbald, LL.D., formerly of University College, Oxford.
"Ταύτα μὲν οὖν πρὸς τὰς βλασφημίας.
"Published at Doncaster, 1830."
H. J.
Ancient Egypt (Vol. iv., p. 152.).
—This Query, although partially answered in Vol. iv., pp. 240. 302., has hitherto received no reply on the subject of the "Ritual of the Dead." Brugsch has just published the Sai an Sinsin, sive Liber Metempsychosis, &c., from a papyrus in the Museum at Berlin, with an interlinear Latin translation, and a transcript of the original in modern characters, in conformity with the plan which he adopted in his interpretation of the hieroglyphic portion of the Rosetta Inscription, published in the early part of the present year. S. P. H. T. will find some of the information he requires in the former, if not in both of these volumes.
P. Z.
Crosses and Crucifixes (Vol. iv., pp. 422. 485.).
—Your correspondent SIR J. E. TENNENT, in extracting from his volume on Modern Greece (vol. ii. p. 266.), has given fresh currency to a singular error. The Council of Trullo was cited by him in 1830, and is again quoted as ordering "that thenceforth fiction and allegory should cease, and the real figure of the Saviour be depicted on the tree;" and we are referred to Can. 82. Act. Concil. Paris, 1714, v. iii., col. 1691, 1692. But should your readers turn to the canons of that council they would be disappointed at finding nothing about the cross, and one is curious to know how an historian could have been led into so singular a mistake. Johnson (see Clergyman's Vade Mecum, Part II., p. 283. third edit.) thus gives the substance of the canon:—
"82. Whereas, among the venerable pictures, the Lamb is represented as pointed at by the finger of his forerunner [John the Baptist], which is only a symbol or shadow; we, having due regard to the type, but preferring the anti-type, determine that he be for the future described more perfectly, and that the portraicture of a man be made instead of the old Lamb: that by this we may be reminded of His incarnation, life, and death."
And though I have not the precise edition at hand to which SIR J. E. TENNENT refers, yet on turning to Labbé, I find that Johnson has correctly epitomized the canon in question.
"In nonnullis venerabilium imaginum picturis, agnus qui digito præcursoris monstratur, depingitur, qui ad gratiæ figuram assumptus est, verum nobis agnum per legem Christum Deum nostrum præmonstrans. Antiquas ergo figuras et umbras, ut veritatis signa et characteres ecclesiæ traditos, amplectentes, gratiam et veritatem præponimus, eum ut legis implementum suscipientes. Ut ergo quod perfectum est, vel colorum expressionibus omnium oculis subjiciatur, ejus qui tollit peccata mundi, Christi Dei nostri humana forma characterem etiam in imaginibus deinceps pro veteri agno erigi ac depingi jubemus: ut per ipsum Dei verbi humiliationis celsitudinem mente comprehendentes, ad memoriam quoque ejus in carne conversationis, ejus passionis et salutaris mortis deducamur, ejusque quæ ex eo facta est mundo redemptionis."—Labbé, Sacros. Concil. t. vi., p. 1177. Paris, 1671.
W. DN.
Rotten Row (Vol. i., p. 441.; Vol. ii., p. 235.).
—May I be allowed to re-open the question as to the origin of this name, by suggesting that it may arise from the woollen stuff called rateen? A "Rateenrowe" occurs in 1437 in Bury St. Edmund's, which was the great cloth mart of the north-eastern parts of the kingdom; and where, at the same time, were a number of rows named after trades, as "Lyndraper Row," "Mercer's Row," "Skynner Rowe," "Spycer's Rowe," &c. What is the earliest known instance of the word?
BURIENSIS.
Borough-English (Vol. iv., pp. 133. 214. 235. 259.).
—Watkins' Copyholds furnishes in its appendix a list of the customs of different manors, and therein specifies those which are subject to the custom of Borough-English. With regard to there being any instance on record of its being carried into effect in modern times, there must not be a mistake between the custom which now exists, and that which some authors assert was the origin of it. The custom is, that the youngest son inherits in exclusion of his eldest brothers; this is exercised, or it could not exist. But the custom to which reference has been made, as having been stated by some authors to be the origin of the existing custom of Borough-English, is not mentioned by Littleton as such. He gives a different reason, namely:
"Because the younger son, by reason of his tender age, is not so capable as the rest of his brethren to provide for himself."
And Blackstone adduces a third from the practice of the Tartars, among whom, on the authority of Father Duhalde, he states that this custom of descent to the youngest son also prevails, and gives it in these words:—
"That nation is composed totally of shepherds and herdsmen; and the elder sons, as soon as they are capable of leading a pastoral life, migrate from their father with a certain allotment of cattle, and go to seek a new habitation. The youngest son, therefore, who continues latest with the father, is naturally the heir of his house, the rest being already provided for. And thus we find that among many other northern nations, it was the custom for all the sons but one to migrate from the father, which one became his heir. So that possibly this custom, wherever it prevails, may be the remnant of that pastoral state of our British and German ancestors, which Cæsar and Tacitus describe."
T. COPEMAN.
Aylsham, Norfolk.
Tonge of Tonge (Vol. iv., p. 384.).
—This very ancient family did not become extinct, as conjectured by your correspondent J. B. (Manchester). Jonathan Tonge of Tonge, gent., by will, dated Sept. 7, 1725, devised his estate "to be sold to the best purchaser," and appointed his brother Thomas Tonge, gent., who had a family, one of his executors. In the year following, the whole estate was purchased for 4350l. by Mr. John Starky of Rochdale, a successful attorney, in whose representative it is now vested. The Tonges deduced their descent from Thomas de Tonge, probably a natural son of Alice de Wolveley (herself the heiress of the family of Prestwich of Prestwich), living 7 Edw. II. 1314, as appears by an elaborate pedigree of the family (sustained by original evidences), in my possession, and at the service of J. B.
F. R. R.
Milnrow Parsonage.
Queen Brunéhaut (Vol. iv., p. 193.).
—"That monster queen Brunéhaut!" For these two centuries there have been writers, beginning with Pasquier, and apparently gathering weight and influence, who are by no means disposed to bestow that epithet upon Brunéhaut, whose executioners were monsters certainly at any rate.
C. B.
"Essex Broad Oak" (Vol. v., p. 10.).
—In "the Forest," two or three miles from Bishop Stortford, is the ruin of an old oak, from which the parish no doubt takes its name of Hatfield Broad Oak. There is a print of this tree in Arthur Young's Survey of Essex.
If the rural readers of "N. & Q." will observe whether the finest specimens of oaks have their acorns growing, on long or short stalks (quercus sessiliflora or pedunculata), they might throw much light on the questions, Have we two distinct English oaks? and, if so, Which makes the largest and best timber? The timber used inside old buildings, and erroneously often called chesnut, is supposed to be the sessiliflora variety of oak, placed inside because it is not so durable as the quercus pedunculata. But I have been lately informed this variety is in Sussex selected, as the best, for Portsmouth Dockyard!
In the year 1783 my grandfather first drew attention to the two varieties of English oaks, in the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 653. He was brother of Gilbert White of Selborne, and an equally acute observer of Nature. Loudon, in his Arboretum, has collected much information, but has left the question pretty much where it was seventy years since. Surely it is time we knew precisely what is the tree of which our wooden walls are made.
A. HOLT WHITE.
Brighton.
Frozen Sounds and Sir John Mandeville (Vol. iii., pp. 25. 71.).
—Your correspondent M. A. LOWER says with truth, that the passage about frozen voices was not to be found in the knight's published work; but neither he nor any other of your contributors seems to have found the original of it. In the Tatler, No. 254., the illustrious Isaac Bickerstaff informs us that some manuscripts of Mandeville's and of Ferdinand Mendis Pinto's, not hitherto included in their published works, had come into his hands, from which he purposed making extracts from time to time; and then proceeds to give us the identical story which your correspondent J. M. G. appears to have taken for a real bit of Mandeville, in ignorance or forgetfulness of its origin: for I cannot suppose any one so dull as to take the passage in the Tatler in sober earnest. Steele no doubt took the story from Rabelais or Plutarch, and fathered it upon one whose name (much better known than his works) had become proverbial as that of a liar.
J. S. WARDEN.
Balica.
Separation of Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.).
—In Christ Church, Birmingham, the males are (or were) separated from the females, which gave rise to the following lines, which I quote from Allen's Guide to Birmingham:
"The churches and chapels we generally find,
Are the places where men unto women are join'd;
But at Christ Church, it seems, they are more cruel-hearted,
For men and their wives are brought there to be parted."
ESTE.
Deep Wells (Vol. iv., p. 492.).
—Besides streams and sunk wells, there is of course another source of water arising from natural springs; and there are some on both sides of the Banstead Down, which are very considerable. The chief, probably, is the source of the River Wandle, at Carshalton, pronounced (with the same omission of the r which P. M. M. notices) as if it was spelt Case-, or Cays-horton.
But there is a very strong one at Merstham. These are both at the foot of the Chalk hills. P. M. M. does not mention the geological causes on which the relations between wells or springs depend. About thirty-five years ago the spring at Merstham, which feeds a considerable spring, failed, and there was a great dispute whether it was owing to excavations in the neighbourhood. An action was brought, which decided that it was not attributable to them; upon which I believe Mr. Webster and Mr. Phillips, eminent geological authorities, were examined, and which led, perhaps, to their respective accounts, in the Geological Transactions, of the structure of that valley. The story was, that, after having gained the cause, the proprietor of the quarries said, "I think we may let them have their water back again." Certain it is that after some time the water did return.
The Galt clay almost everywhere underlies chalk: this at Merstham is 200 feet thick, and upon the pitch and situation of it many apparently strange phenomena of wells would depend, as is noticed with regard to another clay stratum at Norton St. Philips, near Bath, in Conybeare and Phillips' Geology.
There are very deep wells throughout the London clay, and other beds below it, perhaps, at Wimbledon and at Richmond Park. The deep well at Carisbrook Castle is well known. That is in the chalk; and where, the chalk being thrown into a vertical position, it may be still farther to the bottom of it.
C. B.
Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations (Vol. iv., p. 405.).
—I am glad to find, from the communication by H. A. B., that a book of the above description is likely to appear. The want of such a book has long been felt, and its appearance will fill up a gap in literature: how it could so long have escaped the notice of publishers is a mystery. "Though lost to sight, to memory dear," the author of which H. A. B. inquires for, is, I think, not likely to be found in any author. My impression is, that it cannot be traced up to any definite source: I remember it only as a motto on a seal which was in my possession nearly thirty years ago.
MANCUNIUM.
Manchester.
Macaulay's Ballad of Naseby (Vol. iv., p. 485.).
—It was reprinted by Charles Knight in the last (or octavo) series of the Penny Magazine, vol. ii., p. 223. With it is the companion called "The Cavalier's March to London." It will not be very easy for authors to shake off their juvenile productions, while "N. & Q." is in existence; nor need Mr. Macaulay be ashamed of these ballads. They are spirited, and pleasant to read.
M.
Ducks and Drakes (Vol. iv., p. 502.).
—An extract from Mr. Bellenden Ker's account of the origin and meaning of these words, will answer M. W. B.'s question in the affirmative.
DUCKS AND DRAKES.
"As the boys play by skimming a flat stone along the surface of the water; so as to cause it to make as many bounds or ricochets as the skimmer's strength and dexterity can enforce. The superiority, in the play, is decided by the greatest number of times the stone touches and bounds upon the surface, in consequence of the way it is slung from the hand of the performer. D'hach's aen der reyckes q.e. the hazard [event] is upon the touches; the issue of the game depends upon the number of bounds [separate touchings] made on the surface of the water. When we say, he has made ducks and drakes of his money, it is merely in the sense of, he has thrown it away childishly and hopelessly; and the stone is the boy's throw for a childish purpose, and sinks at the end of its career, to be lost in the water."—Essay on the Archæology of our Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes, vol. ii., p. 140.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
John Holywood, the Mathematician (Vol. iii., p. 389.).
—I do not observe that any one has replied to the Query of DR. RIMBAULT, as to the birth-place of John Holywood, the Mathematician. I presume he means Johannes a Sacrobosco, who died in Paris A.D. 1244, and was the author of the treatise De Sphærâ and other works. In Harris's History of the County of Down: Dublin, 1744., p. 260., a claim to the honour of his birth is made on behalf of the town of Holywood, about four miles from Belfast, where he is said to have been a brother of the order of the Franciscans, who had a friary there. Some of the sculptured stones of the building may still be seen in the walls of the ruined church which stands upon its site; and its lands form part of the estate of Lord Dufferin and Clandeboy.
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
London.
Objective and Subjective (Vol. v., p. 11.).
—From the tone of X.'s inquiry into the meaning of this antithesis, it is tolerably plain that no answer will make him confess that it is intelligible; yet it was familiar in the best times of our philosophical literature, and the words, according to this, their philosophical opposition, occur in Johnson's Dictionary. I think it is desirable to avoid this phraseology, but the meaning of it may be made clear enough to any one who wishes to understand it. The object on which man employs his senses or his thoughts, are distinct enough from the man himself, the subject in which the senses and the thoughts exist. Several years ago an Edinburgh Reviewer complained that Germans, and Germanized Englishmen, were beginning to use objective and subjective for external and internal. This is a sort of rough approximation to the meaning of the terms. But perhaps the distinction is better illustrated by examples. We call Homer an objective, Lucan a subjective, poet, because the former tells his story about external objects and wants, interposing little which belongs to himself. Lucan, on the other hand, is perpetually introducing reflections arising from the internal character of his own mind. Objective truth is language which agrees with the facts, correctness. Subjective truth is language which agrees with the convictions of the speaker, veracity.
Perhaps X. will allow me to ask in turn, what is "a physical ignoramus," the character in which he begs some of your intelligent readers to enlighten him.
I have said above that I think this mode of expressing the antithesis better avoided; I will state why. It puts the man who thinks, and the objects about which he thinks, side by side, as if they were alike and co-ordinate. It implies the view of some one who can look at both of them; whereas, the thing to be implied is the opposition between being looked at and looking. Hence subjective is a bad word; a man is not, in ordinary language, the subject of his own senses or of his own thoughts, merely because they are in him. The antithesis would be better expressed in many cases, by the words objective and mental, or objective and cogitative. But different words would be eligible in different cases.
W. W.
Plant in Texas (Vol. iv., pp. 208. 332.).
—In turning over some papers I found the following paragraph:
"Major Alvord has discovered a singular plant of the Western Prairies, said to possess the peculiarity of pointing north and south, and to which he has given the name of Silphium Laciniatum. No trace of iron has been discovered in the plant; but, as it is full of resinous matter, Major Alvord suggests that its polarity may be due to electric currents."
JOHN C. WHISTAIR.
Lord Say and Printing (Vol. iv., p. 344.).
—In Milman's edition of Gibbon's Autobiography, there occurs a passage respecting his ancestor, Lord Treasurer Say, from which it appears that the great historian doubted the accuracy of Shakspeare's allusion (which he quotes). I have not the book with me, or I would refer MR. FRAZER to the page. I think Gibbon would not have rested content with a mere assertion of his opinion, if a fact so creditable to his ancestor's understanding were capable of proof.
Age of Trees (Vol. iv., pp. 401. 448.).
—Since the note on the age of trees appeared, my attention has been called to a discussion of the subject in an article on Decandolle's Vegetable Physiology, written I believe by Prof. Henslow, in the Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xi. p. 368-71. With respect to the yew near Fountains Abbey, he remarks as follows:
"In the first of these examples, we have the testimony of history for knowing that this tree was in existence, and must have been of considerable size, in the year 1133, it being recorded that the monks took shelter under it whilst they were rebuilding Fountains Abbey."—p. 369.
Query: Where is this historical testimony to be found? Nothing is said on the subject in the account of Fountains Abbey in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. v., p. 286. ed. 1825.
With respect to the Shelton Oak (Vol. iv., p. 402.) the movements of Owen Glendower, at the time of the battle of Shrewsbury, are accurately detailed in the life of him inserted in Pennant's Tours in Wales, vol. iii., p. 355. (ed. 1810); and the account there given is inconsistent with the story of his having ascended a tree in order to count Percy's troops. It appears that at the time of the battle he was at Oswestry, at the head of 12,000 men.
Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chief Justices, describes the suicide of Sir William Hankford, Chief Justice in the reigns of Henry V. and VI., who is said to have contrived to get himself shot at night by his own keeper. Lord Campbell quotes Prince, the author of the Worthies of Devon, p. 362. as stating that—
"This story is authenticated by several writers, and the constant traditions of the neighbourhood; and I, myself, have been shown the rotten stump of an old oak under which he is said to have fallen, and it is called Hankford's Oak to this day."—See Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. i., c. 4. p. 140.
L.
Grimes-dyke (Vol. iv., p. 454.)
—Your correspondents appear to have overlooked Offandíc, Wodnesdíc (so often mentioned in the Saxon charters), and Esendike—doubtless so named in memory of Esa, the progenitor of the kings of Bernicia—and Gugedíke, which I suspect is an old British form for Gog's dike (Fr. Yagiouge), as well as Grimanleáh (Wood of Horrors), and Grimanhyl. It is true we find the Grimsetane-gemáero in Worcestershire (Cod. Dipl., No. 561.); but we also find Wódnesbeorg (Id. No. 1035.). Allow me to give you the substance of a remark of Professor H. Léo of Halle on this subject. (Ang. Säch. Ortsnamen, p. 5.)
"Wild, dismal places are coupled with the names of grim, fabulous creatures: thus, in Charter 957, King Eadwig presented to Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, a territorial property at 'Hel-ig' (on the Islet of Helas). A morass is cited which is called, after the ancient mythological hero, Grindles-mère; a pit, Grindles-pytt; a small islet surrounded with water—which was to an Anglo-Saxon a "locus terribilis"—was called Thorn-ei (the thorn tree being of ill omen). And thus, in order to express the ordinary associations connected with neighbourhood, recourse was had rather to mythic personages, than to abstract expressions."
I would here observe that the Ortsnamen has been for some time in course of translation, with the Professor's sanction and assistance, with a view to its publication in England.
B. WILLIAMS.
Hillingdon.
Petition respecting the Duke of Wellington (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 477.).
—E. N. W. is assured that the petition for the recall of the Duke of Wellington was presented. Being too ill to travel several miles to a public library, I can only refer to works in which a reference to it will be found. In No. XIX. of the late British and Foreign Quarterly, published by Messrs. Taylor, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, is an extract from the admirable letter of his Grace to Lord Liverpool on the subject; and in Colonel Gurwood's edition of the Wellington Dispatches, on which the article alluded to is written, and which contains much interesting matter relating to his Grace not to be found any where else, is the whole dispatch. I asked for information relative to the petition, because I had heard that it had been destroyed, and it was too droll a document to be allowed to be lost.
ÆGROTUS.
Countess of Desmond (Vol. iv., pp. 305. 426.).
—Tour in Scotland, fourth edition of Pennant's works. Mine was Dr. Latham's copy.
Description of print of Catherine, Countess of Desmond, quite correct as to face, hair, and cloak. There is no button, but over the breast it is laced. In the inside of the black hood is a damask pattern waved with flowers.
C. J. W.
Woman torn to pieces by Wild Cats as a Punishment for Infanticide (Vol. iii., p. 91.).
—In the Wonders of the Universe, or Curiosities of Nature and Art, vol. ii., p. 555., will be found the account of this affair. The culprit was named Louise Mabrée, a midwife in Paris; the corpses of no less than sixty-two infants were found in and about her house: she was sentenced to be shut up in an iron cage with sixteen wild cats, and suspended over a slow fire. When the cats became infuriated with heat and pain, they turned their rage upon her; and after thirty-five minutes of the most horrible sufferings, put an end to her existence,—the whole of the cats dying at the same time, or within two minutes after. This occurred in 1673.
J. S. WARDEN.
"Racked by pain, by shame confounded" (Vol. iv., p. 7.).
—These are the commencing lines of a short original poem called "The Negro's Triumph." It is to be found in the Parent's Poetical Anthology, edited by Mrs. Mant, p. 231. 5th edition, 1849.
T. H. KERSLEY, B.A.
Blessing by Hand (Vol. iii., pp. 477. 509.).
—Some drawings and descriptions of the modes of blessing by the hand are to be found, in the "Dictionary of Terms of Art," published in one of the early numbers of the Art Journal for this year.
ESTE.
Verses in Latin Prose (Vol. iv., p. 382.).
—A. A. D. will surely thank me, if his Note on the subject do not contain it, for the rationale, which Sir Thomas Brown gives, Religio Medici, Part ii. p. 9., of the occurrence of verses in Latin prose:
"I will not say with Plato, the soul is an harmony, but harmonical, and hath its nearest sympathy unto music: thus some, whose temper of body agrees, and humours the constitution of their souls, are born poets, though indeed all are naturally inclined unto rhythm. This made Tacitus, in the very first lines of his story, fall upon a verse (Urbem Romam in principio regis habuere); and Cicero, the worst of poets, but declaiming for a poet, falls, in the very first sentence, upon a perfect hexameter: In quā me non inficior mediocriter esse."
C. W. B.
Blakloanæ Hæresis (Vol. iv., pp. 193. 239. 240.).
—As I was the querist concerning this work and its author, and wanted the information, I was very thankful for the satisfactory answers given. The books referred to by R. G. are not inaccessible: whether then it be needful to occupy your columns with the "particulars" required by E. A. M. (Vol. iv., p. 458.) may be a query too. The first word of the title is as above (not Blackloanæ, as your correspondents have it). E. A. M. will find that Blacklow, or Blakloe, is a soubriquet, as well as Lominus.
P. S.—On examining the book, however, I am not convinced that Peter Talbot was its "real author," though extensive use is made of what he had written; or that "Lominus" is an "imaginary divine," even if the name be a feigned one. On what ground do these assertions rest?
S. W. RIX.
Beccles.
Quaker Bible (Vol. iv., pp. 87. 412.).
—A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, who writes on the subject of a Quaker Expurgated Bible, appears to be unaware of the existence of a work once (I believe) well known in that body. This was an epitome or compendium of the Bible by John Kendall; it contained the greater portion of the Word of God, such parts being excluded as the editor did not consider profitable. It is probably to this book that the authoress of Quakerism refers; I have, however, never seen her work. This mutilated Bible of John Kendall was frequently to be met with formerly in the houses of members of the Society of Friends; as I have not seen it for more than twenty years, I cannot tell what its exact date may be; it was, however, published in the days when all religious publications of the Society of Friends were subject to the approval of a committee. In 1830, George Witley published a list of those chapters in the Bible which were "suitable" for reading in "Friends'" families; amongst other portions he excluded (I believe) the 16th of Leviticus and Psalm xxii. In private he thought the whole might be read; but he says that he prepared this index because of having heard very unsuitable matter read aloud! This information may be new to your correspondent.
SIMONIDES.
Wyle Cop (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 243. 509.).
—E. H. D. D. is in error; the Wyle Cop at Shrewsbury is not an artificial bank, but a natural eminence overlooking the Severn; and I cannot agree with him in the immateriality of the meaning attached to Wyle. The associations connected with names are frequently of great topographical and historical value. There are many singular names of streets, &c., in Shrewsbury, which I should be glad if any of your correspondents can interpret, such as "Mardol," "Shop latch," "Bispestanes," and "Dogpole;" also the derivation of "Shut" in the sense of passage or entry, a synonym with the Liverpool "Wient," which seems equally uncertain.
Βολις.