Minor Queries.
Madrigal, Meaning of.
—What is the derivation of the word madrigal?
NEMO.
"Experto crede Roberto."
—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of the expression so frequently quoted, "Experto crede Roberto?"
W. L.
Chronological Institute.
—I understand a Chronological Institute has been formed in London. Can you inform me where a prospectus can be obtained?
F. B. RELTON.
Buzz.
—What is the derivation of the word buzz, i.e. empty the bottle; and how came it to have that extraordinary meaning?
W.
The Old Scots March.
—Can any of your correspondents throw light on the measure of the "Old Scots March," which appears to have been beat with triumphant success as to many of the onslaughts, infalls, and other martial progresses of Gustavus's valiant brigades?
Grose has given what he styles "The English March," as ordered to be beat by Prince Henry. And as a pendant, the recovery of "The Scots March" would be very desirable.
J. M.
Hans Holbein.
—Is the place of this eminent artist's sepulture now known? His death (by the plague) in 1554 was probably a release from neglect and poverty. When he was compelled to give up his painting-rooms at the palace, after Henry's decease, he is conjectured to have resided in Bishopsgate street.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Ivory Medallion of Lord Byron.
—In the catalogue which Mr. Cole, of Scarborough, printed in 1829, of books in his private collection, he mentions a copy of Lord Byron's Marino Faliero, 1821, bound in a unique style, and having, inserted in a recess, on the front cover, a finely finished head of the noble poet, on ivory, in high relief, of beautiful Italian carving. Can any of your correspondents tell me who is now the possessor of this work of art?
W. S. G.
Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Trumpington Church.
—On the north side of the tower of Trumpington Church, Cambridgeshire, there is a curious recess in the basement story, which I have not met with anywhere else, or seen fully accounted for. It is sufficiently capacious for a man to stand in, having an arched entrance six feet in height, with a turning to the westward of about two feet, and is formed completely within the thickness of the wall. The village tradition, that it was formerly used as a confessional, founded on the existence of an opening into the interior part of the tower, now blocked up, has long been disesteemed. In the volume by the Cambridge Camden Society, on the Churches in Cambridgeshire, it is said to have been made for an ecclesiastic to stand in, to ring the Sanctus bell. A round hole, lined with wood, in the roof of the niche, evidently intended for a bell-rope, and chafings upon the upper part of the little aperture, such as the friction of one would produce, are very convincive of its having been used for some such purpose. But when we consider that the Sanctus bell, except when a hand one, was "suspended on the outside of the church, in a small turret over the archway leading from the nave into the chancel,"[5] the probability that it was made for the purpose above-mentioned seems very much weakened. I shall feel obliged for a reference to any other instance, or a more satisfactory explanation.
[5] Glossary of Architecture.
R. W. ELLIOT.
"Carmen Perpetuum," &c.
—Upon the title-page of a Bible which I have had some years in my possession, I have just discovered, in my own handwriting, the following very beautiful and apposite quotation:—
"Carmen perpetuum primaque ab origine mundi ad tempora nostra."
I have lost all remembrance of the source from which I borrowed this happy thought, so happily expressed; and shall feel much obliged to any one whose better memory can direct me to the mine from which I formerly dug the gem.
HAM.
"The Retired Christian."
—Who was the author of The Retired Christian, so generally, but I believe erroneously, attributed to Bishop Ken?
S. FY.
The Garrote.
—The West India newspapers are filled with the details of General Lopez's second attempt on Cuba, and his subsequent capture and execution. The latter event took place at Havannah on the 1st September, in presence of 8000 troops, and the manner of it is said to have been the Garrote, which is thus described in a Jamaica Journal:—
"The prisoner is made to sit in a kind of chair with a high back, to which his head is fastened by means of an iron clasp, which encloses his neck, and is attached to the back by a screw. When the signal is given, the screw is turned several times, which strangles the victim, and breaks his neck."
The word Garrote being Spanish (derived probably from the French "garrotter"), and the punishment having been inflicted in a Spanish colony, it is to be presumed that we are indebted to the latter nation for the invention of it. Can any of your readers give any information as to the origin and use of this mode of punishment?
HENRY H. BREEN.
Monastic Establishments in Scotland.
—Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to furnish me with a list of the ancient monastic establishments of Scotland? Having communicated with many learned antiquaries, both in England and Scotland, and having failed in obtaining what I desired, I conclude that no complete list exists. Spottiswoode's list, now appended to Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, is very imperfect. But there are great facilities now for compiling a perfect list from such works as the publications of the Roxburgh, Bannatyne, and Maitland Clubs, Innes's Origines Parochiales, &c. I would like the list to be classed either according to the different counties, or by the respective orders of the religious houses, with a separate list of the mitred houses that had seats in parliament. The list is wanted for publication. Perhaps the writer of "Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals" in the Quarterly may have compiled such a list.
CEYREP.
Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook.
—Can you inform me where I can find the pedigree of the Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook, in the county of Gloucester?
†
Eliza Fenning.
—Pray, what has become of the collection of documents relating to Eliza Fenning, which was formerly in the possession of Mr. Upcott?
Is it true that some years after the execution of Eliza Fenning a person confessed that he had committed the offence of which she was found guilty?
ONETWOTHREE.
"Character of a True Churchman."
—In 1711 a valuable essay was published anonymously, entitled The Character of a True Churchman, in a letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend in the country: London, printed for John Baker, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row, 1711. Who is the writer of it?
J. Y.
"A Roaring Meg."
—What is the origin of calling any huge piece of ordnance "a roaring Meg?"
Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, says:
"Musica est mentis medecina mæstæ, a roaring meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul."
The earliest edition of the Anatomy of Melancholy is, I believe, the Oxford one of 1624.[6]
[6] The first edition was published in 1621, 4to.—ED.
The large old-fashioned piece of artillery, called Mons Meg, in the castle of Edinburgh, which is so great a favourite with the Scottish common people, is said by Sir Walter Scott to have been "fabricated at Mons in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland;" that is, between A.D. 1508 and 1514 (note to Rob Roy, vol. ii. ch. 10.).
This accounts for the Mons; but whence comes the Meg? The tradition of the Edinburgh people is different from that of Sir Walter: and Black, in his Tourist of Scotland, pp. 51. 341., says, it was forged at Threave Castle, a stronghold of the Black Douglases; was used by James II. in 1455; and that it was called Mons Meg after "the man who cast it and his wife." The date in the above must be a mistake, as I believe James II. was killed in A.D. 1437.
There is another cannon of similar caliber, and bearing the name of Roaring Meg, presented by the Fishmongers' Company of London to the city of Londonderry in 1642 (Simpson's Annals of Derry, chap. vii. p. 41.).
Can any of your readers explain the origin of the name, and say whether the phrase "A roaring Meg" occurs in any English author earlier than Burton?
W. W. E. T.
Warwick Square, Belgravia.
Cardinal Pole.
—In 1513 Sir Richard Pole, a Welsh knight, married Margaret, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in the butt of Malmsey. Can any of your readers assist me in tracing his pedigree? If of Welsh extraction, the name was probably Powell, that is, ap Howel. Or can a connexion be shown with the old family of Pole, Poole, or Pull, of Cheshire?
I. J. H. H.
Theoloneum.
—In an agreement made A.D. 1103, before Henry I., between the Abbott of Fécamp, in Normandy, and Philip de Braiosâ, the Lord of Bramber, mention is made of a "theoloneum, quod injustè recipiebant homines Philippi, de hominibus de Staningis." What is a theoloneum?
M. T.
Sterne in Paris.
—I should feel extremely obliged to any of your correspondents who would refer me to any contemporary notices of Sterne's residence at Paris in 1762. The author of Tristram Shandy must have been somewhat lionized by the Parisian circles, and allusions to his wit probably occur among the many memoirs of the period.
T. STERNBERG.
King Robert Bruce's Watch.
—In Dalyell's Fragments of Scottish History, I find the following:—
"The oldest known English watch was made, it is said, in the sixteenth century. There exists a watch, which, antiquarians allow, belonged to King Robert Bruce."—Preface, p. 3.
Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." give information regarding such an interesting relic of antiquity?
R. S. F.