Replies to Minor Queries.
Collar of Esses.
—As an original subscriber, and the first Querist who opened the vexata questio of Collar of Esses, I shall perhaps be doing you a kind service, Mr. Editor, if I may be allowed to step forward once more as moderator between the disputants, as I did (Vol. ii., p. 394.) between ARMIGER and a much respected correspondent.
There may be some excuse for H. B. as he confesses (Vol. v., p. 182.) himself to be freshman in the pages of "N. & Q.;" and therefore he is a stranger to the tone of courtesy and good humour which are so essential to the prosperity, maintenance, and extension of your very useful periodical. A little more experience in his readings, and less of self-opiniatedness, would have spared him the severe but merited remarks of MR. L. EVANS (Vol. v., p. 207.).
As of old all writers were wont to consider their readers most courteous, so let those who write for your pages reverse this rule—and then there will be nothing contrary to such a tone, to the injury of "N. & Q."
S. S.
Quid est Episcopus (Vol. v., p. 177.).
—This passage does not, as X. G. X. thinks, come from Irenæus, but from St. Austin. I find the reference to it in Bingham's Antiquities (vol. i. p. 72. ed. 1843), where the whole passage is thus quoted at the foot of the page:
"Quid est episcopus, nisi primus presbyter, id est, summus sacerdos?"—Aug. Quæst. Vet. et N. Test. c. ci.
F. A.
Paper-making in England (Vol. v., p. 83.).
—I do not pretend to know anything of the history of paper-making; but it may be well to send you a passage from Fuller's Worthies (Vol. i. p. 224., ed. Nuttall), which lately fell in my way:
"Paper is entered as a manufacture of this county [Cambridgeshire], because there are mills nigh Sturbridge fair, where paper was made in the memory of our fathers. Pity the making thereof is disused: considering the vast sums yearly expended in our land for paper out of Italy, France, and Germany, which might be lessened, were it made in our nation."
J. C. R.
"Mother Damnable" (Vol. v., p. 151.).
—The real name of this shrew does not appear to have reached posterity, but she gave rise to the sign of Mother Red-cap on the Hampstead Road, A.D. 1676, and was probably the person represented on that sign; to her portrait, which may be found in a book published by "Arnett, Westminster, 1819," entitled Portraits and Lives of Remarkable and Eccentric Characters, are annexed the following lines:
"You've often seen (from Oxford tipling house)
Th' effigies of Shipton fac'd Mother Louse,
Whose pretty pranks (tho' some they might excel)
With this old trot's ne'er gallop'd parallel—
'Tis Mother Damnable! that monstrous thing,
Unmatch'd by Macbeth's wayward women's ring,
For cursing, scolding, fuming, flinging fire
I' th' face of madam, lord, knight, gent, cit, squire;
Who (when but ruffled into the least pet)
With cellar door-key into pocket get—
Then no more ale; and now the fray begins!
'Ware heads, wigs, hoods, scarfs, shoulders, sides, and shins!
While these dry'd bones, in a Westphalian bag,
(Through the wrinkled weasan of her shapeless crag)
Send forth such dismal shrieks and uncouth noise,
As fills the town with din, the streets with boys;
Which makes some think, this fierce she-dragon fell
Can scarce be match'd by any this side hell.
So fam'd both far and near, is the renown
Of Mother Damnable of Kentish Town.
Wherefore this symbol of the cat's we'll give her,
Because, so curst, a dog, would not dwell with her."
JAMES CORNISH.
Miniature of Cromwell (Vol. v., p. 189.).
—At the last meeting of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, a curious jewel, belonging to the Earl of Leven, and entailed in his lordship's family, was exhibited by the Hon. Leslie Melville. It is believed to have been transmitted by the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Earl of Leven on the occasion of the surrender of Charles I., when the earl was in command of the army at Newark. The jewel encloses a beautiful little miniature of Oliver Cromwell.
E. N.
Etymology of Church (Vol. v., p. 79.).
—Gieseler, in his Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, vol. i., p. 1. ed. 4., says that the word kirche (and consequently church) is most probably derived from τὸ κυριακόν. In support of this opinion, he quotes Walafrid Strabo, who wrote about A.D. 840:
"Si autem quæritur qua occasione ad vos vestigia hæc Græcitatis advenerint, dicendum—præcipue a Gothis, cum eo tempore quo ad fidem Christianam, licet non recto itinere [i.e. by means of Arianism], perducti sunt, in Græcorum provinciis commorantes, nostrum, i.e. theotiscum, sermonem habuerint."
He adds that Ulphilas is evidence for the general adoption of Greek ecclesiastical terms by the Goths; and he confirms the idea of a Greek derivation by the remark that derivatives of κυριακόν occur, not only in the Teutonic languages, but in those of the Sclavonic nations, whose conversion proceeded from Greece. Thus, the Bohemian word is cyrkew, the Russian zerkow, the Polish cerkiew. The use of derivatives of ecclesia (which I would remind MR. STEPHENS is also originally Greek) in the Roman languages, no doubt arises from the circumstance that that word had been adopted into Latin, whereas the other had not.
J. C. R.
The Königsmarks (Vol. v., pp. 78. 115. 183.).
—It is certain from the State Trials, ix. 31., that Count Charles John Königsmark, the murderer of Mr. Thynn, was the elder of the two brothers; for it appeared on the trial that the younger, Philip Christopher (a dozen years later the gallant of the young Princess of Hanover), was at that time a youth still under the care of a travelling tutor, who was examined on the trial. This is stated in the Quarterly Review, art. "Lexington Papers," to which inquirers had been already referred (Vol. v., p. 115.). I am a little at a loss to account for J. R. J.'s distribution of his epithets; he calls the case of the elder brother "mysterious," and that of the second "well-known," when in truth the former case is, and has been well-known these hundred and fifty years. Whereas the second case was so long a mystery that it was nowhere told but in a corner of Horace Walpole's Reminiscences, and he was mistaken as to the identity of the victim,—a mistake but recently cleared up. I believe, too, that until the discovery of the Lexington Papers, no one altogether believed the story; and the minuter details of the case, such as by whose order, and how, and when and where the deed was done, and how and where the body was disposed of, are still so far mysterious that Walpole's Reminiscences and the Princess's own notes differ essentially on all those points.
C.
L'Homme de 1400 Ans (Vol. v., p 175.).
—I have not immediate means of access to the French work referred to in No. 121. of "N. & Q.," and therefore do not know how far the personage there alluded to is described as "imaginary;" but it appears to me that Cagliostro may have intended reference to his great friend and predecessor in Rosicrucian philosophy, the Count de St. Germain. This arch-impostor, who attained no small celebrity at the court of Louis XV., pretended to be possessed of the elixir of life, by means of which he had prolonged his existence from a period which he varied according to the supposed credulity of his audience; at one time carrying back the date of his birth to the commencement of the Christian Era, at others being content to assume an antiquity of a few centuries, being assisted in his imposture by a most accurate memory of the history of the times, the events of which he related, and also by an able accomplice who attended him as a servant. On one occasion, when describing at a dinner table a circumstance which had occurred at the court of "his friend Richard I. of England," he appealed to his attendant valet for the confirmation of his story, who, with the greatest coolness replied: "You forget, Sir, I have only been 500 years in your service." "True," said his master, "it was a little before your time." The origin of this able charlatan, of whom many other amusing stories are related, is not known. He was sometimes thought, from the Jewish cast of his features, to be the "wandering Jew;" while others reported that he was the son of an Arabian princess, and that his father was a Salamander.
E. H. Y.
Close of the Wady Mokatteb Question (Vol. iv., p. 481.; Vol. v., pp. 31. 87. 159., &c.).
—I should not have said another word on the above question, had not DR. TODD seen fit to give a somewhat different turn to the criticism on Num. xi. 26. As it is, I must beg space to say, that it is the learned whose attention I solicit to examine the value of our respective criticisms, and not that of the unlearned, as DR. TODD intimates. I do not think that there are many regular readers of the "N. & Q." who can be classed amongst the unlearned. To the judgment of the learned, therefore, I now resign this protracted disquisition.
MOSES MARGOLIOUTH.
Was Queen Elizabeth dark or fair? (Vol. v., p. 201.).
—Paul Hentzner, who was presented to Queen Elizabeth at the palace of Greenwich, describes her majesty, who was then in her sixty-fifth year, as "very majestic; her face oblong, fair, but wrinkled; her eyes small, yet black and pleasant. She wore false hair, and that red." Delaroche, however, in his well-known picture at the Luxembourg, has given her a very swarthy complexion.
Query: What was the celebrated Lunebourg table, of some of the gold of which, according to Hentzner, a small crown which she wore was reported to be made?
H. C.
Workington.
Meaning of Knarres (Vol. v., p. 200.).
—A knare is a knot or lump, "knarry, stubby, knotty" (Coles's Dictionary, 1717). It was, no doubt, as J. BR. says, sometimes written gnare; and in that form is the root of Shakspeare's "gnarled (or knotty) oak." In Norfolk and Suffolk, small plantations—not "scrubby woods"—are called carrs, as J. BR. states, but certainly not from knare, but, as I rather think, from their square shape, carré. Those that I am acquainted with in those counties are generally of that form, and look like plantations made on purpose for game. When you hear a carr mentioned in those counties, you always think of a pheasants' preserve. I know not whether the same word and meaning extend inland. Nor do I think that knare has any affinity with snare.
C.
In reply to your correspondent's Query, I beg to submit the following, which may prove of utility in tracing out the meaning of the word, viz.:—Forby's Glossary by Turner, vol. i. p. 56., thus has it:
"CAR, s. a wood or grove on a moist soil, generally of alders."
We have them in this country; also the term "osier-cars."
In Kersey's English Dictionary, 1708, we have thus:
"GNAR or GNUR, a hard knot in wood."
In Bailey's Dictionary, 1753, we have it thus:
"GNARR [Knorre, Teutonic], a hard knot in a tree.—Chaucer."
May it not thus mean a knot or clump of trees?
It is also allied to quarry, from the French carré, which signifies a bed, not only for digging stones for building purposes, but also as they are sometimes called, osier-beds, alder-beds.
The towns "Narborough" and "Narford" in Norfolk are so called from their being situated on the river "Nar;" the one a city or town on the river; and the other being, by means of a ford, originally over it. Both were originally written Nere as the prefix.
J. N. C.
Cheap Maps (Vol. v., p. 174.).
—PATERFAMILIÆ is informed that a good and not expensive map of Borneo has been recently published by Augustus Petermann; and a section of the Isthmus of Panama, showing the railway from Chargres to Panama, may be had of the Admiralty agent for a few pence.
NORTHMAN.
English Free Towns (Vol. v., pp. 150. 206.).
—A short ride from Oxford will take your correspondent J. H. PARKER to one or two market towns in Berks, answering to the description given of the French Villes Anglaises. Wokingham will afford an illustration somewhat resembling Winchelsea; the town is of triangular form, the streets meeting in a central area, which contains a quaint old market-house: it is within the prescribed limits of Windsor Forest, and the Forest Courts were formerly held there—the charter of incorporation has existed from time immemorial.
KT.
Sir Alexander Cumming and the Cherokees.
—There is a Query by S. S. (Vol. iii., p. 39.) about Sir Alexander Cumming and the Cherokees, which I do not think has yet had any reply. Vol. iii., p. 152., a replyist refers to a work in which is an autobiography of the baronet. I have not had an opportunity to refer to that, but I suspect it would not meet the question, as Sir Alexander Cumming of Coulter, who was created a Nova Scotia baronet 1695, and Alexander Cumming, the King of the Cherokees, were diverse persons. The last died in 1775, and according to Lysons was buried at East Barnet. At vol. iv. p. 20., under Barnet, Lysons gives the following account bearing on the Cherokees:
"In 1729 he (Cumming) was induced, by a dream of Lady Cumming's, to undertake a voyage to America, for the purpose of visiting the Cherokee nations. He left England on the 13th of September, and arrived at Charlestown on the 5th of December. On the 11th of March following he set out for the Indians' country; on the 3rd of April, 1730, he was crowned commander and chief ruler of the Cherokee nations, in a general meeting of chiefs at Nequisee among the mountains; he returned to Charlestown the 13th of April with six Indian chiefs, and on the 5th of June arrived at Dover; on the 18th he presented the chiefs to George II. at Windsor, where he laid his crown at his Majesty's feet; the chiefs also did homage, laying four scalps at the king's feet, to show that they were an overmatch for their enemies, and five eagles' tails as emblems of victory. These circumstances are confirmed by the newspapers of that time, which are full of the proceedings of the Cherokees whilst in England, and speak of them as brought over by Sir Alexander Cumming. Their portraits were engraved on a single sheet. In 1766 Archbishop Secker appointed him one of the pensioners in the Charter-House, where he died at a very advanced age."
His son, who succeeded him in the title, became deranged in his intellects, and died about three years ago, in a state of indigence, in the neighbourhood of Red Lion Street, Whitechapel. He had been a captain in the army: the title became extinct at his death.
C. G.
Junius (Vol. iii., p. 411.; Vol. v., p. 159.).
—As in No. 120. J. R. assumes the acrimonious bearing of M. J. in No. 82., I am induced to refer to the stale, flat, and unprofitable question of the authenticity of the Letters of Junius. If those gentlemen will refer to No. 82., p. 412., fifth line from the bottom, and read "who once" for "and once," they will find any acrimony unnecessary; and that the use of the word "and" was an accidental error. This useless riddle has occupied too much of the time of able and of idle men, on what is, moreover, a worthless subject. Dr. Johnson, in his paper on the "Falkland Islands," has given a severe but just criticism on Junius, and truly says, that most readers mistake the "venom of the shaft for the vigour of the bow." Junius has laid down no great principle, illustrated no political truth, nor given any clear and irrefutable proof of contemporaneous history. To attribute reprehensible motives always shows lowness and vulgarity of mind. Junius gives one the idea of a democratic ruff mounted on stilts going, from natural predilection, through the mud and dirt, and splashing it wantonly, so as to bespatter and annoy a few, and to excite the attention and surprise of many; but never to produce a conviction of being just and true on any one.—Requiescat in pace.
Hell-Rake (Vol. v., p. 162.).
—The explanation given by J. SANSOM of the Devonian use of the term helling or heleing, signifying the roof or covering of a church, corresponds to the Midland meaning of the word hilling, s. bed-clothes or coverlet: "She has got no hilling at all." Ger. Hüllen, to wrap one's self up; Saxon, hilan. In Warwickshire used for the covers of a book: "It is the hilling which makes it so expensive." Hilled, p. hilled up, i.e. covered with bed-clothes. Leicestershire is particularly rich in quaint phrases and proverbs.
In Leicestershire it is common for the wives of farmers to style their husbands "the Master," and husbands to call their wives "Mamy;" and a labourer will often distinguish his wife by the title of "the O'man." There are people now living who remember the time when Goody and Dame, "Gaffer" and "Gammer," were in vogue among the peasantry.
KT.
Ambassadors addressed as Peers (Vol. v., p. 213.).
—I must leave you to judge whether a reference to Howell's Familiar Letters is likely to be new to your correspondent MR. J. G. NICHOLS, or of any service to him in his inquiry on this subject. His note reminded me that Howell had respectfully used the words "My Lord," and "Your Lordship," apparently in the modern sense of "Your Excellency," in his letters to the Right Hon. Sir Peter Wichts, and to the Right Hon. Sir Sackvill Crow, ambassadors at Constantinople. See Howell's Familiar Letters, Part I. Letters 115. 130.; Part II. Letters 18. 27.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
Red Book of the Irish Exchequer (Vol. iii., p. 6.).
—J. F. F. may find some information in Mr. Mason's description of the sketch in the 13th vol. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy.
R. H.
Yankee, Derivation of (Vol. iii., pp. 260. 437. 461.).
—I send you a Note on the etymology of this word, which I do not see noticed by any of your correspondents:
"When the New England Colonies were first settled, the inhabitants were obliged to fight their way against many nations of Indians. They found but little difficulty in subduing them all except one tribe, who were known by the name of Yankoos, which signifies invincible. After the waste of much blood and treasure, the Yankoos were at last subdued by the New Englandmen. The remains of this nation (agreeable to the Indian custom) transferred their name to their conquerors. For a while they were called Yankoos; but from a corruption, common to names in all languages, they got through time the name of Yankee."—New York Gazetteer, June 1, 1775.
R. H.
Indian Jugglers; Ballad of Ashwell Thorp (Vol. iv., p. 472.).
—The correspondent who inquires about the Indian jugglers' trick of "growing a mango," is referred to Blomfield's History of Norfork, vol. v. p. 155. (8vo edition), where he will find a curious song, called the "Ballad of Ashwell Thorp," (said to be made in Sir Thomas Knevet's time, who was Sheriff of Norfolk in 1579, and died about 1616), showing that a similar trick was known in England at that time. An account is here given of an acorn being sown in the middle of a hall, growing up in a few minutes to a prodigious tree, bearing acorns, which ripened and fell; and how, after the tree had been with much difficulty cut down by two woodcutters, the trunk and fragments were finally carried away by two goslings. The feat is said to have been performed by a Londoner. The ballad-monger has perhaps improved a little upon the simple facts of the case. He concludes by saying:
"This story is very true
Which I have told to you,
'Tis a wonder you didn't heare it.
I'll lay a pint of wine,
If Parker and old Hinde
Were alive, that they would swear it."
C. W. G.
Meaning of Crabis (Vol. v., p. 165.).
—In quoting the note to Lord Lindsay's Christian Art, extracted from MS. Collectanea of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, and illustrating a story of the Pelican, your correspondent F. W. I. wishes for a translation of the word crabis, which Sir David makes use of in describing the undutiful behaviour of the young pelicans towards their paternal parent.
The old Scotch verb, crab, signified to tease, vex, annoy. As an active verb it is now obsolete, but it is still in use, at least its participles are in a passive sense. I have frequently heard crabbing used to describe the state of mind of one out of humour or sulking. Crabbed has long been an English word, and as such has its place in Johnson's Dictionary. It is not in such common use to the south as it is to the north of the Tweed; but from the Land's End to John-o'-Groat's, it is used to designate a chronic form of the same failing, which, in its temporary form, is described above as "crabbing." It is, moreover, applied to man's works as well as to his temper. A crabbed hand and a crabbed style of writing are expressions of every-day use in Scotland, and are eminently descriptive of the effect of such writing upon the temper of the reader.
W. A. C.
Ormsary.
"'Twas whisper'd in Heaven" (Vol. v., p. 214.).
—In Number 122. you answer an inquiry of DIABOLUS GANDER, by stating your belief that the enigma, "'Twas whisper'd in Heaven," &c., is by Lord Byron.
Although it was for some time attributed to this author, it became subsequently well known to be the work of Miss Catherine Fanshawe, in whose handwriting I have seen it, together with another unpublished enigma of hers, in the album of a lady of my acquaintance.
E. H. Y.
"Troilus and Cressida," Act I. Sc. 3. (Vol. v., pp. 178. 235.).
—The meaning which your correspondent wishes to give the word dividable seems exactly the one wanted in this passage; but need we go so far from its apparent derivation as to derive it from divitias, dare?—One of the meanings of divido is to distribute,—why then should not dividable mean distributive, distributing their riches, &c.?
C. T. A.
Lyndon Rectory, Uppingham.
Stone-pillar Worship (Vol. v., p. 121.).
—The article "Hermae," in Smith's Antiquities, throws some light on this subject. The pillar set up as a witness (see Genesis there quoted, and the Classics passim)[5] is of course closely connected with the idea of sanctity attached to it. The Laplanders in selecting the unhewn stone "in the form in which it was shaped by the hand of the Creator Himself," seem, to a certain extent, unwittingly to have obeyed a command of the Creator: see Exodus, xx. 25.
[5] Is it not as the witness and keeper of Holy Writ that St. Paul calls the church Στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας?
A. A. D.
John of Padua (Vol. v., pp. 79. 161.).
—I am afraid we are not likely to obtain much additional information about John of Padua. The only account of him which I have ever met with is contained in the Earl of Orford's Works (vol. iii. p. 100. et seqq., edit. 1798). The warrant, dated 1544, is there copied from Rymer's Fœdera?; and from an expression which it contains, the inference is drawn that "John of Padua was not only an architect, but musician." I am not aware whether or no there is any other authority for such inference, but, if there is not, I submit that the evidence is far from conclusive. The words in the warrant run thus: A fee of two shillings per diem is granted to John, "in consideratione boni et fidelis servitii quod dilectus serviens noster Johannes de Padua nobis in architecture, ac aliis in re musica inventis impendit ac impendere intendit."
Now, Sir, I submit that res musica, in this passage, is used in the same sense as the Greek ἡ μουσικὴ for "the fine arts;" and that the passage can have no reference to the art of the musician.
If John of Padua had been a musician, we should most probably meet with his name in some of the accounts of plays and pageants during this reign; and the silence of your correspondents seems to imply that no information concerning him is to be obtained from those sources.
In the absence of further proof, then, I have no hesitation in proposing to the critical readers of "N. & Q.," a resolution that, It is the opinion of this council that there is no sufficient evidence that John of Padua was a musician.
ERICA.
Modern Greek Names of Places (Vol. iv., p. 470.; Vol. v., pp. 14. 209.).
—Your correspondent L. H. J. T. says, at p. 209.:—
"That with the utmost deference to SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT, he must deny that Cos, Athens, or Constantinople have been called by the Greeks Stanco, Satines, or Stamboul. These corruptions have been made by Turks, Venetians, and Englishmen."
This mode of expression would imply that the opinion which he corrects was held by me, whereas I have stated (Vol. v., p. 14.), even more explicitly than he, that—
"The barbarism in question is to be charged less upon the modern Greeks themselves, than upon the European nations, Sclavonians, Normans, and Venetians, and, later still, the Turks; who seized upon their country on the dismemberment of the Roman empire. The Greeks themselves, no doubt, continued to spell their proper names correctly; but their invaders, ignorant of their orthography, and even of their letters, were forced to write the names of places in characters of their own, guided solely by the sound."
J. EMERSON TENNENT.
Beocherie, alias Parva Hibernia (Vol. v., p. 201.).
—Beocera-ig, i.e. the bee-keeper's island, was one of the small islets adjacent to the larger one, Avallon, whereon the Abbey of Glastonbury stood. Glastonbury was early resorted to by Irish devotees; St. Patrick and St. Bridget necessarily resided there. Concerning Beocherie or Bekery, we are told that there "olim sancta Brigida perhendinavit" (MS. Ashmol. 790, quoted in the Monasticon, vol. i. p. 22.). This accounts for the name Parva Hibernia. Beocera-gent, in charter 652, is the name of some landmark or boundary. There can be little doubt that we should read beocera-geat, i.e. bee-keeper's gate, as suggested by Mr. Kemble in the preface to the third vol. of Codex Dipl. p. xxvi. The duties and rights of the beocere, beo-ceorl, or bocherus, are described in the "Rectitudines singularum personarum," Thorpe's Anc. Laws, vol. i. p. 434.
C. W. G.
Ruffles, when worn (Vol. v., pp. 12. 139.).
—Planché, in his History of British Costume, says that during the reign of Henry VIII., "the sleeves were ruffed, or ruffled at the hand, as we perceive in the portrait of Henry. They were not added to the shirt till the next century."
R. S. F.
Perth.
Long Meg of Westminster (Vol. ii., pp. 131. 172.; Vol. v., p. 133.).
—As an instance of this title being applied (as Fuller has it) "to persons very tall," I subjoin the following notice of a death, which appeared in a newspaper of September, 1769:
"At London, Peter Branan, aged 104. He was six feet six inches high, and was commonly called Long Meg of Westminster. He had been a soldier from eighteen years of age."
This notice is extracted in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Magazine, but without mentioning the quarter from which it was taken.
R. S. F.
Perth.
Family Likenesses (Vol. v., p. 7.).
—To trace a family likeness for a century is not at all uncommon. Any one who knows the face of the present Duke of Manchester will see a strong likeness to his great ancestor, through six generations, the Earl of Manchester of the Commonwealth, as engraved in Lodge's Portraits. The following instance is more remarkable. Elizabeth Hervey was Abbess of Elstow in 1501. From her brother Thomas is descended, in a direct line, the present Marquis of Bristol. If any one will lay the portrait of Lord Bristol, in Mr. Gage Rokewode's Thingoe Hundred, by the side of the sepulchral brass of the Abbess of Elstow, figured in Fisher's Bedfordshire Antiquities, they cannot but be struck by the strong likeness between the two faces.
This is valuable evidence on the disputed point, whether portraits were attempted in sepulchral brasses.
VOKAROS.
"A Roaring Meg" (Vol. v., p. 105.).
—In Ghent, in Flanders, there is still to be seen a wrought-iron gun, a sister of Mons Meg, the famous piece of artillery in Edinburgh Castle. She is named Dulle Griete, Mad Margery, or Margaret, and may possible be the elder sister after whom the rest of the family have been named.
NORTHMAN.
Lyte Family (Vol. v., p. 78).
—A painted window representing the arms of the Lytes, and the families with whom they intermarried for many generations, is in the little church of Angersleigh, near Taunton.
E. M.
Nuremberg Token (Vol. v., p. 201).
—The legend of H. C. K.'s medal seems to me to be the following:—
"Hans Kravwinkle in Nuremberg"
(the name of the issuer of the token).
"Gottes Reich bleibt ewig [und understood] ewig?"
"The kingdom of God endures for ever and ever."
Possibly a tradesman's token.
G. H. K.
The Old Countess of Desmond (Vol. iv., passim.).
—Your several correspondents whose able remarks have excited much interest with regard to this very extraordinary individual, appear to have overlooked the fact that a cabinet portrait by Rembrandt is to be seen in the collection of the Marquess of Exeter at Burleigh; the age, costume, &c., corresponding exactly with the description given by Pennant, as quoted by A. B. R.
KT.
Pimlico (Vol. i., pp. 388. 474; Vol. ii., p. 13.)
—I find the two following mentions of Pimlico as a public place of entertainment:
1. In A Joviall Crew, or the Merry Beggars, by R. Brome: first acted, 1641, at Drury Lane, edit. 1708:
"To Pimblicoe we'll go,
Where merry we shall be,
With every man a can in 's hand
And a wench upon his knee.
And a begging," &c.
2. Massinger's City Madam:
"Or exchange wenches,
Coming from eating pudding pies on a Sunday
At Pimlico or Islington."
G. H. K.
"Wise above that which is written" (Vol. v., p. 228.).
—This phrase is evidently a quotation of 1 Cor. iv. 6., though not according to the authorised translation, the words in the original being μὴ ὑπὲρ ὃ γέγραπται φρονεῖν. Here, however, the verb cannot mean "to be wise," which is the meaning given to it in the phrase in question; for the context requires it to be taken (as in our version) in the sense of "elation of mind, to the despising of others."
The Query of R. C. C. reminds me of another phrase, which in a somewhat similar way one hears continually quoted in sermons, &c., as a text: viz. "that he that runs may read." I should like to know whether this strange perversion of Hab. ii. 2., which seems to be the source whence it is derived, can be accounted for in any way.
F. A.
Sir John Cheke (Vol. v., p. 200.).
—C. B. T. will find an account of Sir John Cheke in Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, under the head of "Provosts of King's College." I send also from an old MS. the following account; not being responsible for its accuracy, nor for the correctness of the references:
"Sir John Cheke put into the Provostship by Edward VI., April 1, 1548, though not qualified, as not of the Society, nor in orders. See his Life by Strype; Fuller, Hist. Camb., 119.; Burnet, ii. 115., who says that in consequence of the controversy with Gardiner about the Gr. Pronuntiation he was either put from the chair, or willingly left it. This was not the case. He did not quit it till sent for by the King, as appears from the Life of his successor, Nic. Carr, p. 59.; see, too, Wood Hist. and Antiq., lib. i. p. 26. His mother stood godmother to the child of a poor woman in Cambridge Gaol on suspicion of murder. (See Latimer's First Serm. p. 125., edit. 1635; Burnet, ii. 213.; Wood, Hist. and Antiq., I. ii. 251.; Burnet, ii. 51., and App. 150.; Fuller, 29. 127.; and Fox, Mart.; Burnet, ii. 155.; Burnet, ii. 8. 203.; Benefices conferred on Laymen, Walker's Attempt, ii. 68.; Wood, Athen., i. 111.) Burnet and Fuller's account of his retiring on the King's death do not agree. For his works see Bale, and his Life, by Dr. Gerard Langbaine, before a work of Cheke's, The True Subject to the Rebel, or the Hurt of Sedition: Oxon, 1641, 4to. Haddon wrote his epitaph. See Ascham's Letters: Oxon, 1703, p. 436., about his recantation. See Leland's Cygnea Cantio, 1558, p. 21.; and Preface to Hickes's Thesaurus, 1. 2."
J. H. L.
Richard Earl of Chepstow (Vol. v., p. 204.).
—H. C. K. will find in the Conquest of Ireland, by Giraldus Cambrensis, my authority for styling Richard Strongbow Earl of Chepstow: e.g. Dermod MacMurrough addresses a letter to him as follows: "Dermon MacMorogh, prince of Leinster, to Richard earle of Chepstoue, and son of Gilbert the Earle, greeting," &c. I quote from Hooker's translation, ed. 1587, p. 11. Hooker, in a note, p. 4., says that Chepstow in times past was named Strigulia, "whereof Richard Strangbow being earle, he took his name, being called Comes Strigulensis."
H. C. K.'s second conjecture, as to the parentage given to Earl Richard in the Ormonde charter, seems to be the correct one. I cannot call to mind an instance of a second Christian name used at so early a date.
The first coat given to the De Clares, in Berry's Encycl., viz. ar. on a chief az. three crosses pattée fichée of the field, occurs on the shield of the effigy in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, popularly said to be that of Richard Earl of Pembroke. Query, does Berry's statement rest on the authority of that tradition? if so, it has a very sandy foundation. I have very little doubt that the bearing visible on the shield, as represented on the earl's seal attached to the charter in possession of the Earl of Ormonde, is intended to represent three chevrons.
H. C. K. has my best thanks for his communication. I shall be still more obliged by an extract from the pedigree in his possession.
JAMES GRAVES.
Kilkenny.
Maps of Africa (Vol. v., p. 236.).
—If your correspondent, who inquires about maps of Africa, will consult the twenty-first map in Spruner's Atlas Antiquus, published at Gotha in 1850, I think he will find what he desires.
E. C. H.
Lady Diana Beauclerk.
—I have to thank you for inserting my memorandum respecting my miniature of Oliver Cromwell. I must further trespass on your kindness to correct an error (and a very inexcusable one) in my last statement, to which the kindness of a friend has called my attention.
Lady Diana Beauclerk was not, as I stated, a daughter of the Duke of St. Alban's, but of the Duke of Marlborough (Charles, second duke), and married the Hon. Topham Beauclerk, who was the friend of Dr. Johnson, and a well-known personage in his day.
The miniature therefore may have been "long" either in her own family, or in that of her husband; but I presume she meant in her own. The Churchills were as much connected with the "Stuarts" as afterwards with their successors. I regret this inattention on my part.
C. FOX.
"Litera scripta manet" (Vol. v., pp. 200. 237.).
—I was intimate some time since with a gentleman who had been a student in Maynooth College, and who frequently used to quote the words "Litera scripta manet," with the addition, "Verbum imbelle perit." This may give a clue to the source of the phrase, which may be found probably in some ecclesiastical or theological work of days gone by.
A. L.
"Qui vult plene," &c. (Vol. v., p. 228.).
—The first passage respecting which W. DN. inquires ("Qui vult plenè," &c.) will be found in the first chapter of the first book of Thomas à Kempis, De Imitatione Christi.
L. M. M.
Engraved Portraits (Vol. v., p. 176.).
—In reply to S. S., the best Catalogue of Engraved Portraits is one published by the late Mr. Edward Evans, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, many years since; and although the last number is 11,756, yet, as two and three portraits are mentioned under the same figures, the total number noticed greatly exceeds the above.
I believe a new edition is, or shortly will be, in the press.
J. B. WHITBORNE.