Minor Queries.
Silver Royal Font.
—I remember having read of a very ancient silver font, long preserved among the treasures of the British crown, in which the infants of our royal families were commonly baptized. Is this relic still in existence? where may it be seen? what is its history? have any cuts or engravings of it been published? where may any particulars respecting it be found?
NOCAB.
L'Homme de 1400 Ans.
—In that very extraordinary part of a very extraordinary transaction, the statement of Cagliostro, in the matter of the Collier (Paris, 1786, pp. 20. 36.), mention is twice made of an imaginary personage called l'homme de 1400 ans. Cagliostro complains that he was said to be that personage, or the Wandering Jew, or Antichrist. He is not, therefore, the same as the Wandering Jew. I should be very curious to learn where this notion is derived from.
C. B.
Llandudno, on the Great Orme's Head.
—Having occasion to visit the above interesting place last summer, among other objects of curiosity, I was induced to visit a "cavern," which the inhabitants said had been lately discovered, and which they said had been used by the "Romans" (Roman Catholics) as a place of worship. A party of five hired a boat for the purpose of visiting the place, which is about two miles from the little bay of Llandudno; for it is quite inaccessible by land. We arrived in about an hour; and were quite surprised at the appearance of the "cavern," which seems to have been made as private as possible, and as inaccessible, by large stones being piled carelessly upon each other, so as to hide the entrance, and which we could not have found without the assistance of the sailors. The "cavern" is about ten feet high, lined with smooth and well-jointed stone work, with a plain but nicely executed cornice at the height of seven or eight feet. The shape is heptagonal, and the fronts on each side are faced with smooth stone; the space from front to back, and from side to side, is equal, about six feet six inches. On the right, close to the entrance, is a font, sixteen inches across inside, twenty-two outside, and eight or nine inches deep. There is a seat round, except at the entrance; and there has been a stone table or altar in the centre, but a small portion of it and the pillar only remain. The floor has been flagged, but it is in a very dilapidated state. That it was used for worship, there is little doubt; but how and when it was fitted up, seems marvellous. It is not mentioned by Pennant, or any Welsh tourist.
Will any of your correspondents oblige me and the public with the history of this "cavern," as it is called, at Llandudno?
L. G. T.
Johnson's House, Bolt Court.
—Can any of your readers inform me whether the house in which Dr. Johnson resided, and in which he died, situate in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, is yet in existence? You are probably aware that an engraving of it appeared in the Graphic Illustrations edited by Mr. Croker, and prefixed to this engraving was an announcement that it was destroyed by fire.
There is reason, however, to believe that this is a mistake, and that the house so destroyed by fire belonged not to Johnson, but to Johnson's friend, Allen the printer.
You are probably aware that the house which stands opposite the Johnson's Head Tavern, is shown as the residence of the great moralist; and on comparing another engraving by Smith of the Doctor's study with the room now claimed to have been occupied by Johnson, the likeness is exact. Cobbett, too, who afterwards lived here, boasted in one of his publications that he was writing in the same room where Johnson compiled his Dictionary. At any rate it is an interesting question, and probably can be set at rest by some of your literary friends, especially as I have reason to believe that there is one gentleman still living who visited the Doctor in Bolt Court. Madame D'Arblay, I think, once said, that the author of the Pleasures of Memory arrived at the door at the same moment with herself during Johnson's last illness.
EDWIN LECHLADE.
Bishop Mossom.
—Robert Mossom, D.D., was prebendary of Knaresboro' in Yorkshire, 1662, and Bishop of Derry, 1666. In dedicating his Zion's Prospect (1651) to Henry (Pierrepont) Marquess of Dorchester and Earl of Kingston, towards the end he says, "Besides this, mine relation to your late deceased uncle;" then referring to the margin he has "Ds. T. G., Eques felicis memoriæ."
Zion's Prospect (a copy of which, with several of his other works, is in the library of the British Museum) has on the title-page, "By R. M., quondam è collo S. P. C."
His grandson, Robert Mossom, D.D. (son of Robert Mossom, LL.D., Master in the French Court of Chancery), was Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and subsequently Dean of Ossory from 1701 to 1747; he married Rebecca, daughter and coheir of Robert Mason of Dublin, and granddaughter, I believe, of Jonathan Alaud of Waterford. Dean Mossom was one of the oldest friends of Dean Swift; Sir Walter Scott has but one letter to him in Swift's Correspondence (2nd ed. Edin. 1824, vol. XIX. p. 275.). Are there any other letters that passed between them in existence?
Can any of your readers refer me to a pedigree of the Masons of Dublin, and also any pedigree that connects the Mossom with the Elaud family of Yorkshire?
What college was that of S. P. C.? and who was Sir T. G——, Knt.; and how was he related to Bishop Mossom?
T. C. M. M.
Inner Temple.
Orlando Gibbons.
—Hawkins, in his History of Music, gives "a head" of this musician. Is there any other engraved portrait?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Portraits.
—What is the most correct catalogue of all the engraved portraits which are known to exist?
S. S.
Barnard's Church Music.
—Can any of your readers point out where John Barnard's first book of selected church music, folio, ten parts, 1641, is to be found? The writer knows of the imperfect set at Hereford Cathedral, a tenor part at Canterbury, and a bass part in private hands. Dr. Burney makes mention, in his History of Music, of having sought diligently throughout the kingdom, but could not find an entire copy. Perhaps some of your correspondents may kindly favour the writer with a list of its contents.
AMANUENSIS.
The Nelson Family.
—In Burke's Commoners, under the head of "Nelson of Chuddleworth," it appears that William Nelson of Chuddleworth, born in 1611, had by his second wife, the daughter of John Pococke, gentleman, of Woolley, among other children, a son named William; but of whom no further mention is made.
Can any of your Norfolk or Berkshire friends state whether this son William ever settled at Dunham Parva, in Norfolk?—as, by so doing, an obligation will be conferred on your occasional correspondent
FRANCISCUS.
Letters to the Clergy.
—In the Diary of Walter Yonge (published by the Camden Society), p. 24., is the following:
"16 Dec. 1614. This day the Ministers of this Diocese (Exon) were called before the Bishop of Exon, who read letters from the Archbishop, the effects of which were, that every minister should exhort his parishioners to continue together the Sabbath Day, and not to wander to other preachers who have better gifts than their own pastors, but should content themselves with the Word of God read and Homilies. 2. That all should kneel at the receiving of the Sacrament. 3. To declare unto their parishioners that it is not necessary to have the Word preached at the Sacraments.—Dictu Magistri Knowles, Vicarii de Axminster, at that time present."
Query, Can any of your readers say to what letter, and on what occasion such orders were issued by the archbishop, and also whether they have been published in any volume on ecclesiastical matters?
H. T. E.
Margaret Burr.
—It is related in Allan Cunningham's Life of Gainsborough, that he married a young lady named Margaret Burr, of Scottish extraction; and that
"On an occasion of household festivity, when her husband was high in fame, she vindicated some little ostentation in her dress by whispering to her niece, now Mrs. Lane, 'I have some right to this, for you know, my love, I am a prince's daughter.'"
The biographer of the British Painters prefaces this by saying,
"Nor must I omit to tell that rumour conferred other attractions (besides an annuity) upon her; she was said to be the natural daughter of one of our exiled princes, nor was she, when a wife and a mother, desirous of having this circumstance forgotten."
As I just now read in Vol. iv., p. 244., some account of Berwick, and other natural children of James II., I was put in mind of the above anecdote, and should be glad of any information respecting the Miss Burr's parentage in question. Myself a collateral descendant of her husband, I know from other sources that the tradition is worthy of credit; and to the genealogist and antiquary it may be a historically interesting enquiry.
H. W. G. R.
Northern Ballads.
—Is any gentleman in possession of any old printed copies of Danish or Swedish popular ballads, or of any manuscript collection of similar remains? Are any such known to exist in any public library in Great Britain? By printed, of course I mean old fly-sheets, from the sixteenth century downward; they are generally of four, sometimes of eight, leaves small octavo. Any information, either personally, or through "N. & Q.," will much oblige
GEORGE STEPHENS.
Copenhagen.
"Blamed be the man," &c.
—Where is the following couplet to be found?
"Blamed be the man that first invented ink,
And made it easier for to write than think."
N. O. K.
"Quid est Episcopus."
—Can any correspondent furnish me with the reference to a passage supposed to exist in one of the early fathers (I think Irenæus):—
"Quid est episcopus, nisi primus presbyter?"
X. G. X.
Henry Isaac.
—I shall feel obliged to any person who can give any account (for genealogical purposes) of Henry Isaac, who lived at Roehampton about the middle of last century. He was a diamond merchant from Holland. He had a collection of pictures, one of which was the Lord of the Vineyard paying his Labourers, by Rembrandt.
H. T. E.
German Poet quoted by Camden.
—Britannia, sive regnorum Angliæ, Scotiæ, et Hiberniæ chorographica descriptio: Gulielmo Camdeno: Lond. 1607, folio, p. 302., Middlesex.
"Nec magno hinc intervallo Tamisim duplici ostiolo Colus postquam insulas sparserit, illabitur. Ad quem ut nostræ ætatis Poeta Germanus lusit:
"'Tot campos, sylvas, tot regia tecta, tot hortos
Artifici dextrâ excultos, tot vidimus arces,
Aut nunc Ausonio, Tamisis cum Tybride certet.'"
Camden, speaking of the Colne falling with a double mouth into the Thames, quotes a German poet of his day; and I should be much obliged by any reader of the "N. & Q." favouring me with the name, and reference to the author from whence the preceding quotation is taken.
☞ F.
American Degrees.
—Several members of the Brougham Institute here, and constant readers of "N. & Q.," would feel obliged if some of your learned correspondents would give them some information about the obtaining of American degrees, as recently a large cargo of diplomas had arrived in this quarter, such as D.D. and LL.D., and conferred on men of third-rate talent. What we want is, to be informed how such degrees are obtained; if it is the president, or president and professors, of the American academies who confer them. This subject is so frequently agitated here, that you would greatly oblige many inquirers by making a question of it in "N. & Q.," so that we may obtain full reply explanatory of how these degrees are obtained, and of the bestowers of them.
J. W.
Liverpool.
Derivation of News.
—It is just two years since the word News was stated to be derived from the initial letters of the cardinal points of the compass, as prefixed to early newspapers. I well remember the impression which the statement made on me: if written seriously, as a mark of credulity; if sportively, as rather out of place. Moreover, it was both stated as a fact, and as an ingenious etymology—a manifest inconsistency.
In the fierce and tiresome discussion which arose out of that announcement, the main points in support of the asserted derivation were never once introduced. Do such early newspapers exist? Is the derivation itself of early date? As to the first question, I must declare that no such newspapers ever came under my observation; but as to the second, it must be admitted that the derivation has been in print, with all the weight of evidence which belongs to it, above two centuries.
I shall assume, if not better informed, that it has no other authority than the subjoined epigram in Wits recreations, first published in 1640, and said to contain the finest fancies of the muses of those times. In default of the original edition of that rare work, I transcribe from the re-publication of it in 1817.
"News.
"When news doth come, if any would discusse
The letter of the word, resolve it thus:
News is convey'd by letter, word, or mouth,
And comes to us from North, East, West, and South."
BOLTON CORNEY.
Passage in Troilus and Cressida.
—Would MR. J. PAYNE COLLIER, whose name I have often seen among your contributors, have the kindness to inform me whether any light is thrown, in the emendations inserted in his folio edition of Shakspeare, 1628, on a line which has always puzzled me in Ulysses' speech in council, in Scene 3. of Act I. of Troilus and Cressida? The passage runs thus:
"How could communities,
Degrees in schools, and brotherhood in cities,
Peaceful commérce from dividable shores,
The primogenitive and due of birth,
Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
But by degree, stand in authentic place?"
It will be seen that the third line, according to the usual pronunciation of the last word, is defective in scanning; that, if derived from divido, the vowel in the penultimate syllable would be i and not a; and that, even if intended to express the word divided, as suggested by one of our commentators, would be too vague and inexpressive.
Might I suggest that the derivation is not from the word divido, but rather from a compound of the words divitiæ and do; the expression "riches-giving shores" not only completing the sense of the passage, but forming a compound not uncommon with our immortal bard.
W. S. D.
Bachelor's Buttons.
—That should be their name if they exist; but, if so, where are they to be got? I never heard of them. I should think a clever fellow might make a fortune by inventing some kind of substitute which a man without the time, skill, or materials necessary for sewing on a button, might put in the place of a deserter. If you do not insert this Query, may your brace buttons fly off next time you are dressing in a hurry to dine with the grandest people you know!
YOUR WELLWISHER.
Princes of Wales and Earls of Chester, eldest Sons of the Kings of England.
—In the New Memoirs of Literature, vol. iv., July, 1726, it was announced that Mr. Bush, one of the Clerks of the Record Office in the Tower, and late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, designed to print a Collection of Charters, Letters Patent, and other instruments concerning the creation and investiture of the eldest sons of the Kings of England as Princes of Wales, Dukes of Cornwall, Earls of Chester and Flint, &c. &c., from the time of Edward, the first Prince of Wales (afterwards King Edward II.), to the time of Edward IV.
Can any of your correspondents inform me whether such a work ever was published? and who was the editor of the monthly review entitled New Memoirs of Literature, which extended to six volumes 8vo.? It contains notices of many old and now rare works, and stopped in December, 1727.
G.
Authenticated Instances of Longevity.
—Your correspondent A. B. R. (antè, p. 145.) and others argue their question of the old Countess of Desmond very ably;—will any one of them be pleased to argue my question? Is there one word of truth in the story, or any other story that rests, as a preliminary condition, on the assumption that people have lived to one hundred and fifty years of age? Of course the proof is to rest on dates and facts, parish registers—on clear legal evidence. It is admitted by actuaries and others, learned in such matters, that the average duration of life is greater now than it was; so, we might fairly assume, would be the exceptional life. Can these gentlemen refer us to a single instance of an insured person who lived to one hundred and fifty? to one hundred and forty, thirty, twenty, ten? aye, to one hundred and ten? There is a nonsensical inscription to this effect on the portrait of a man of the name of Gibson, hung up in Greenwich Hospital, but its untruth has been proved. I also remember another case made out to the entire satisfaction of some benevolent ladies, by, as afterwards appeared, the baptismal register of John the father being made to do duty as the register of John the son. I mention these things as a warning; I protest, too, at starting against flooding "N. & Q." with evidence brought from Russia or America, or any of the back settlements of the world, and against all evidence of people with impossible memories. What I want is good legal evidence; the greatest age of the oldest members of the Equitable, Amicable, and other Insurance offices—lives certainly beyond the average; the greatest age of a member of the House of Peers coming within the eye of proof. When these preliminary questions, and reasonable inferences, shall have been determined, it will, I think, be quite time enough to raise questions about the old Countess, old Parr, old Jenkins, and other like ante-register longevities.
O. C. D.