Replies to Minor Queries.
Old Scots March (Vol. v., p. 104.).
—The following quotation from a "Dissertation on Scottish Music," by Mr. Tytler, of Woodhouselee (the grandfather of the historian), contained in the Transactions of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, vol. i. p. 486., although not an answer to his Query, may perhaps prove interesting to J.M.:—
"To the wandering harpers we are certainly indebted for that species of music which is now scarcely known, I mean the Port. Almost every great family had a Port that went by the name of the family. Of the few that are still preserved are, Port Lennox, Port Gordon, Port Seton, and Port Athole, which are all of them excellent in their kind. The Port is not of the martial strain of the march, as some have conjectured; those above named being all in the plaintive strain, and modulated for the harp.
"The pibroch, the march or battle-tune of the Highland clans, with the different strains introduced of the coronich, &c., is fitted for the bagpipe only: its measure, in the pas grave of the Highland piper, equipped with his flag and military ensigns, when marching up to battle, is stately and animating, rising often to a degree of fury."
Although anxious to do so, I have never yet been able to meet with any of the ports here referred to.
E. N.
Elizabeth, Equestrian Figure of (Vol. iv., p. 231.).
—The "unnatural gait" which MR. LAWRENCE inquires about, is known in Spain as the "paso Castiliano;" and supplies the place of the more familiar trot, which the Spanish horses are rarely broken into.
I did not see the piece of plate alluded to, but probably the horse was a Spanish (Andalusian) jennet, which would account for the peculiarity of the pace. I cannot explain how this step is taught, but Spanish horses fall into it at once on being touched with the spur, and simultaneously curbed; and they perform long journeys thus, at the rate of five miles an hour, with little fatigue to themselves or their riders. Does not the dromedary also pace in the same way?
G. W. T.
Meaning of Stickle (Vol. iv., p. 209.).
—MR. RELTON'S supposition that the word stickle is used for a pool, is at variance with the common usage of the word in Devonshire, where only I have met with it. It is there used to describe the shallow swift running water immediately below a pool. It is thus equivalent to the word rapids. It is by no means obsolete, or a mere technical term of the "patient anglers." The opposition in the line quoted, "Near to some stickle or deep bay," would alone have been a good reason to doubt whether it could be the same as pool.
G. W. T.
Latin Names of Towns (Vol. i., pp. 287. 402. 474.).
—There is a class of persons who ought to be contributors to (⁕ ?) (I like the idea of a recent correspondent better than "N. & Q." with its marks of quotation) to a much larger extent than is the case. I mean those who having asked questions, and profited by the answer, find additional answer, or better answer, by their subsequent researches. As one of these, in reference to my Query about Latin names of towns in Vol. i., I mention the list given in Riccioli's Geographia et Hydrographiæ Reformatæ, of which the first edition was licensed in 1658 (I don't know where it was printed), and the record is of Venice, folio, 1672. This work contains, from more than 250 authors whose names are given, more than 8500 Latin names rendered into vernacular, and a much larger number reversely given.
M.
Llandudno, on the Great Orme's Head (Vol. v., p. 175.).
—L. G. T. will find, in Wanderings in North Wales, by William Cathrall, published by W.S. Orr and Co., the following answer to his Query:—
"There are several copper mines conducted here with great success. In October, 1849, the miners in the course of their labours, broke into an immense cavern, the roof of which, being one mass of stalactite, reflected back their lights with dazzling splendour. On examination the work turned out to be an ancient work, probably Roman, the benches, stone hammers, &c. used by that ancient people, having been found entire, together with many bones of mutton. The bones were to all appearance as fresh, though impregnated with copper, as they were when denuded of their fleshy covering, after remaining, as they must have done, nearly 2000 years in the bowels of the earth. The cavern is about forty yards long."
The date of the cavern is, therefore, long anterior to the Catholic times.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.
Brozier (Vol. ii., p. 44.).
—An Essex clergyman, who agrees with MR. GATTY in deriving the word from the Greek verb Βρωσκω, to devour, or eat like a beast, observes, that we still describe that act when we speak of "the browsing cattle." He also mentions that when he was at Westminster, the word was there used in the same sense as at Eton, and he well recollects one of his schoolfellows broziered to such an extent that his life was despaired of.
BRAYBROOKE.
Passage in Troilus and Cressida (Vol. v., p. 178.).
—In reply to your correspondent W. S. D. I have only to say, that my folio of 1632, with early manuscript emendations, does not contain any alteration of the line in Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Sc. 3.:
"Peaceful commerce from dividable shores;"
which seems to me quite intelligible without any change. In the next line it reads "primogeniture" for "primogenitive", and as I apprehend rightly, the concluding syllable tive having been caught by the compositor from "prerogative," the first word in the line immediately below it.
I may take this opportunity of saying that no play in my volume is more patiently corrected than Troilus and Cressida; and that in a preceding speech by Nestor it confirms a correction by Theobald in the first line—godlike for "godly;" and by Sir Thomas Hanmer in the last line—replies for "retires." Malone printed returns after Pope, which answers the sense very well, but is hardly so probable a misprint. I am sorry to say that I thought otherwise when I published my Shakspeare; and I never can sufficiently regret that this corrected copy of the second folio did not fall into my hands until some years after I had completed that undertaking.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
Nelson Family (Vol. v., p. 176.).
—If FRANCISCUS will refer to the pedigree of the Nelson family, in Hoare's History of Modern Wiltshire (Downton Hundred), he will find that William Nelson, who settled at Dunham parva in Norfolk, and who was the great-grandfather of the naval hero, was the son of Edmund Nelson of Scarning, in the same county, and grandson of Thomas of the same place, which Thomas, according to the same pedigree, was the son of another William, who is stated to have been a Nelson of Mandesley, the same family from which the Chuddleworth Nelsons are derived in Burke's account. I have tested the general accuracy of this pedigree, which was, I believe, compiled by Mr. Matcham from the parochial registers, but I much doubt the assumed descent from the Mandesley family, as I find Nelsons inhabiting the neighbourhood of Scarning at a period prior to the supposed migration.
G. A. C.
Maps of Africa (Vol. v., p. 174.).
—I have been intending for some time to write to you on the same subject as Paterfamiliæ, but the Christian grace of laziness has been too strong for me. Paterfamiliæ, however, has aroused me. My case is this: five years ago I commenced a map, for my own use, of the shores of the Mediterranean, and such countries as received Christianity up to the period of the Council of Nice; and I had a hope of eventually being able to carry out the plan suggested by DR. MAITLAND, in his work on the Dark Ages, and an intention of making mysterious marks to indicate the scene of any great persecution, remarkable synod, or other notable event. Well! I got on very well, by the help of Kiepert and Cramer, through Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy. Indeed, I managed to be content with all my sources, as far as Europe was concerned; but when I had advanced as far as North Africa, I came to a dead stop. There really was absolutely no map that I could find that I could trust for the site of Carthage or Alexandria. There were no "N. & Q." when I found myself at a stand-still; but I asked all the friends about me, and I verily believe that to the majority of those I spoke to it appeared an unreasonable thing for any man to expect a map of the regions I wanted described. There seemed a kind of feeling that when a man had got a map of Caffraria and Egypt, and perhaps knew where Algiers might be, he knew quite as much about Africa as he ought. Can any of your correspondents now help me? Is there no authentic French map of at least some portion of the coast; or is there any map in existence among ourselves that is not palpably a "fancy portrait?"
AJAX.
Muggleton (Vol. v., p. 80.).
—The Muggletonian sect probably still exists. I was surprised at finding a shop for the sale of its publications immediately within St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, about five years ago. Perhaps R.S. may think it worth while to look whether the same trade be still carried on there.
J. C. R.
Passage in Hamlet (Vol. v., p. 169.).
—I have just read A. E. B.'s Notes on Shakspeare, No. II. His long criticism, ending in his own suggestion of a new reading of the passage in Hamlet, does not convince me that he has found the true reading yet. I suggest the following:
"The dram of base
Doth all the noble substance often dull,
To his own scandal."
This reading of mine only makes it necessary to substitute the letters n and ll, for a and o, in the quarto of 1605.
Dull is a favourite word of Shakspeare's; and surely it makes at least as good sense as any of the other readings. It is questionable whether the lines are Shakspeare's; for the whole passage, from "This heavy-headed revel," to "To his own scandal," is omitted in the first and second folios, and also in the first known quarto of "1603."
To prove how easy it is for printers, or copiers from original manuscripts of authors, to make mistakes, I will call your attention to a serious blunder in the first edition of Ben Jonson's verses addressed to the Earl of Somerset, which are in the Athenæum of Feb. 21st. The twenty-first and twenty-second lines are thus printed:
"So in theyr number may you neuer see
Mortality, till you a mortall be."
Ben wrote "immortall."
H. F.
Theoloneum (Vol. v., p. 105.).
—Theoloneum is a toll, i.e. the payment made in markets and fairs for goods bought and sold. It was the property of the lord to whom the fair or market belonged by patent from the crown.
Henry III., by letters patent, dated at Windsor 15th May, in the thirty-first year of his reign, grants to the abbot, &c. of Fecamp, the manors at Cheltenham and Slaughter, &c. &c. &c. in exchange for the villes of Winchelsea and Rye, which had been granted to the said abbot, &c. by Edward the Confessor; to hold them—
"adeo libera et quieta sicut antea tenuerunt Winchelsee et la Rye ratione donationis eis facte a felicis memorie sancto Adwardo, et concessionum ac confirmationum postmodum abitarum a Willelmo et Henrico Regibus Anglie de terra de Staniges cum omnibus apendiciis suis. Inter que reputabantur Winchelsee et la Rye. In cujus regis Willelmi carta continebantur hujusmodi libertates; videlicet, quod predicti abbas et monachi Phiscanenses habeant terram de Staniges, cum omnibus omnino apendiciis suis et cum omnibus legibus, libertatibus, liberis consuetudinibus quietanciis placitis, querelis, et causis que sunt vel fore possunt, absque ulla inquietudine et diminutione cujuslibet secularis vel judiciaria potestatis sicut res ad Phiscum dominicum pertinentes et quod predicta terra cum omnibus apendiciis suis libera sit et quieta ab omni consuetudine terrene servitutis et ab omni dominacione et subjeccione Baronum et principum et omnium aliorum. Et quod prefati abbas et Monachi Phiscanenses et eorum ministri habeant omnem regiam libertatem et consuetudinem et omnem justiciam suam de omnibus rebus et negociis que in terra sua evenient vel poterunt evenire, nec aliquis nisi per eos se inde intromittat. Quia hoc totum regale beneficium est et ab omni servitute quietum. Et quod si aliquis quicquam contra hujusmodi concessionem presumat, ad phiscum dominicum coactus auri libras centum persolvat."
I have ventured to subjoin this recital from the charter of William, thinking that it may be acceptable to your querist, as fully explanatory of the transaction to which his question refers.
LAMBERT A. LARKING.
Donkey (Vol. v., pp. 78. 165.).
—In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, v. 16954., we have—
"Ther gan our hoste to jape and to play,
And sayde: sires what? Dun is in the mire."
There is also an old proverbial simile:
"As dull as Dun in the mire."
It is supposed that Dun was a nickname applied to the ass from his colour, in the same way as Burnell, in the Chester Whitsun Playes, MS. Harl. 2013., and Russell applied to the fox, Canterbury Tales, v. 15340.
As to the termination key, it is probably (as in monkey, jockey, which are the only words of similar formation which I can call to mind at present) the same as kin, which has the force of a diminutive in words like lambkin, mannikin, &c.
JUVENIS.
Sir Samuel Garth (Vol. v., p. 151.).
—I believe it will be found difficult to find the place of this celebrated physician's birth. In the fourth volume of Mr. Surtees' History of the County of Durham, pp. 26, 27., there is an interesting account of him, to which is added a pedigree of his family. Surtees, in a note, says:
"There is no trace of his having ever revisited the north, and I have in vain endeavoured to glean anything of correspondence, or of traditional anecdote."
FRA. MEWBURN.
Darlington.
Princes of Wales and Earls of Chester, &c.: Mr. Bush's Collection (Vol. v., p. 178.).
—I suspect Mr. Bush's proposed collection was never published. In an old MS. account of the Fellows of King's, I find the following extract. I copy it as it stands:
"1718.
"Cha. Bush, of Harmondsworth, Middx. Res on being denied his Degree of A. B. in College from Party.... A Clk. of the Record Off. in the Tower, 1725. April 27, 1726, he published proposals for printing by Subsr. A lott of Charters and Letters Patent, and other Instruments concerning the Creation and Investiture of the eldest sons of the Ks of Engl. as Princes of Wales, D. of Cornwall & E. of Chester & Flint, together with several Extracts out of the Parl. Rolls relating to the Honor, Dignity, & Estate of the P. of Wales, from the time of Edward first, P. of Wales (afterwards K. E. 2) to the time of E. 4. inclusive, faithfully collated from the Records of the Tower by C. B. one of the Clks. of the Record Off. in the T. & late Fell. of K. C. C.
"He was taken into the Ordnance Office to assist in methodising the Papers belonging to it, and was after Sec. to the Board of Ordnance."
It would seem Mr. Bush's proposals did not meet with a favourable reception, or perhaps his removal to an important government office prevented his fulfilling his intentions. It is to be hoped he returned his subscriptions (if any).
J. H. L.
Litera scripta manet (Vol. v., p. 200.).
—The following extract, if not complete answer to the query on Litera scripta manet, is a curious instance of the early use of that maxim, and I transcribe it with pleasure as a specimen of one of the best informed and most interesting of our medieval prose writers. I rely, as to orthography and punctuation, on Joseph Ames:
"Considering that wordes ben perisshyng, wayne, and forgateful, and wrytynes duelle and abide permanent, as I rede, Vox audita perit, litera scripta manet. Thise thinges have caused that the faites and deeds of auncient men ben sette by declaracion in fair and aourned volumes, to thende that science and artes, lerned and founden, of thinges passed might be had in perpetuel memorye and remembraunce," &c.
William Caxton.
Westmestre by London, 1481.
BOLTON CORNEY.