Minor Queries.
Old China.
—It was gratifying to see some inquiries respecting Dutch china, which it is to be hoped will lead to a further pursuit of such subjects. Some connoisseur would confer a benefit upon the community if he would be kind enough to give a concise description of the various styles and to point out the distinguishing marks of old china generally, by which its beauties might be appreciated and its value estimated: there is great difficulty in acquiring such information.
C. T.
Pagoda, Joss House, Fetiche.
—No such word as Pagoda is known in the native languages: Dewal, according to Mr. Forbes (Orient. Mem. vol. i. p. 25.), is the proper name. I have read somewhere or another that Pagoda is a name invented by the Portuguese from the Persian "Pentgheda," meaning a temple of idols. Joss, applied to the Chinese temples, seems to be the Spanish Diós (Deus), as diurnal becomes journal.
"The Fetiche of the African (says Mr. Milman) is the Manitou of the American Indian. The word Fetiche was first, I believe, brought into general use in the curious volume of the President de Brosses' Du Culte des Dieux Fétiches. The word was formed by the traders to Africa from the Portuguese Fetisso, chose fée, enchantée, divinée, ou rendant des Oracles." De B. p. 18.
History of Christianity (3 vols. 1840), vol. i. p. 11.
Query, Is this word the same as a common word in Ireland (upon which Banim founded a tale), ycleped fetch, which answers to the Scotch wraith?
EIRIONNACH.
"And Eva stood and wept alone."
—A good many years ago I deciphered on the marbled paper cover of one of my school-books the lines of which the following are what I yet retain in memory:
"And Eva stood, and wept alone,
Awhile she paused, then woke a strain
Of intermingled joy and pain.
Yes, O my mother! thou art fled.
And who on this lone heart will shed
The healing dew of sympathy,
That stills the bosom's deepest sigh?
Yes! thou art fled, but if 'tis given
To spirits in the courts of heaven
To watch o'er those they love (for this
Must heighten even angels' bliss),
If blessing so refined and pure
Our mortal frailty can endure,
Oh! may my mother's spirit mild
Watch over and protect her child."
I have never since, through a tolerably extensive course of reading, met with the poem to which these lines belong, and have inquired of others, without more success. Can any of your correspondents inform me of the name of the poem, and of its author?
S. S. WARDEN.
Hearne's Confirmation.—Baxter's Heavy Shove.—Old Ballad.
—In Narratives of Sorcery and Magic, by Thomas Wright, Esq. (1851), vol. ii. p. 163., mention is made of a work by the associate of the notorious Hopkins, the "Witch-finder General," one John Hearne, entitled, A Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft (1648). I should esteem it a great favour if any of the numerous readers of your valuable journal can inform me where a copy of Hearne's work is to be found, as it appears to be wanting in the British Museum, and several other of the public libraries. I already happen to possess a copy of Matthew Hopkins's Discovery of Witches, 4to. (1647), an extraordinary little work, which Sir Walter Scott acknowledges he was acquainted with but by name.
There is a tract, too, by the celebrated author of the Saints' Rest, which I never yet could put eyes on, though I have for some years "collected" rather largely; I allude to Baxter's Heavy Shove, mentioned at page 99. of Lackington's "Life," and in one or two other works; but among a very large collection of old editions of Baxter's works possessed by me, it is not to be discovered. If any of your correspondents can enlighten me upon the subject I shall be much gratified.
Though I have collected rather extensively among the ballad lore of this country, I am sorry to say I never could find out from what particular ballad the annexed stanza is derived. It is to be found, as an epigraph, in Poetical Memoirs, by the late James Bird, 8vo. (1823):
"Brunette and fayre, my heart did share,
As last a wyfe I tooke:
Then all the wayes of my younge dayes,
I noted in a booke!"
Old English Ballad.
CHARLES CLARK.
Great Totham Hall, Essex.
Gunpowder Mills.
—When and where were the first gunpowder mills erected in this country? This Query was made in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1791, and does not appear to have been answered. I think I have waited long enough for a reply, and almost fear the Query must have been forgotten.
W.
Macfarlane of that Ilk.
—Who is the present heir-male of this family? The latest account of it that I have been able to discover is contained in Douglas's Baronage of Scotland (1798).
E. N.
Armorial Bearings.
—In the Court Manual of Dignity and Precedence it is stated, that in the year 1798, when the subject of armorial bearings was before Parliament, 9458 families in England, and 4000 in Scotland, were proved entitled to arms. Are any of the relative parliamentary papers still in existence, and where are they to be found? I have been unable to discover them in Hansard.
E. N.
Scologlandis and Scologi.
—In the Collections of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, published by the Spalding Club, and under the heading "Ellon," p. 310., there is given an
"Inquisicio facta super terris Ecclesie de Ellon.
A.D. 1387,"
in which occur several times the two words Scologlandis and Scologi. Neither of these words are found in Ducange; the nearest approach to either being Scolanda, which is considered to be equivalent to Scrut landa, namely, lands the revenue of which is to be applied to the providing of church vestments. I should be much obliged by any of your correspondents favouring me with their opinion as to the meaning of Scologlandis and Scologi, which are used in the "Inquisicio" as follows:
"... Qui jurati deposuerunt quod terre Ecclesiastice de Ellon que dicuntur le Scologlandis....
"... Item quod heres cujuslibet Scologi defuncti intrare consuevit hereditatem suam."
G. J. R. G.
Ednowain ap Bradwen.
—Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." give me information respecting this person, or the family descended from him, which is supposed to have lived in North Wales during the reign of Henry VII.? His armorial badge is figured in p. 250. of Enderbie's Cambria Triumphans, and is described as Gules, three snakes braced, Arg. There is an ancient font in our church, which, when restored to it in the year 1841, after having been put to vile uses for many years, did bear this badge, but it does not bear it now. The gentleman who undertook the direction of the repair of the sculpture on the font, not having been inspired by the Professor of History at Oxford with a due reverence for antiquities, ordered Samuel Davies, a stone-mason (who is still living in this town), to make the three snakes as much like one dragon as he could. This he attempted to do by chiselling away the head of one snake, inlaying in its place the head of a dragon; and making the other heads and tails into legs with claws. The result of these operations has been a dragon of a very singular appearance. There is a portcullis with chains sculptured on one of the eight sides of the font; and it has been conjectured that the motive to the conversion of the three snakes, braced, into a dragon, was to make it appear probable that the font had been presented to the church by Henry VII.
AP JOHN.
Wrexham.
Mummy Wheat.
—As you have afforded space for a Query on "Wild Oats," you will not, I hope, deny me a corner for one on Mummy Wheat.
In the year 1840, a letter appeared in The Times, signed "Martin Farquhar Tupper," which detailed minutely the sowing, growing, and gathering of some mummy wheat. Mr. Tupper, it seems, had received the grains of wheat from Mr. Pettigrew, who had them from Sir Gardner Wilkinson, by whom they were found on opening an ancient tomb in the Thebaid. Mr. Tupper took great pains to secure the identity of the seed, and had no doubt that he had gathered the product of a grain preserved since the time of the Pharaohs. The long vitality of seeds has been a popular belief; I was therefore surprised to find that that interesting fact is now pronounced to be no fact at all. It appears, in The Year-Book of Facts for 1852, that Prof. Henslowe stated to the British Association, that "the instances of plants growing from seeds found in mummies were all erroneous." Can any one tell me how this has been proved?
H. W. G.
Elgin.
The Trusty Servant at Winchester.
—The singular emblematic picture of a "Trusty Servant," in the vestibule of the kitchen of Winchester College, is too well known to require a description. I remember once hearing a gentleman refer to some author as giving a description of a similar figure, and speaking of such representations as of great antiquity. Unfortunately I took no note of it at the time, and I now hope to recover the reference by a query; and shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who may be able to furnish me with an answer: "Who was the author referred to?"
M. Y. R. W.
Anecdote.
—Can you tell me the names of the clergyman and noble lord referred to in the following anecdote?
"A noble lord distinguished for a total neglect of religion, and who, boasting the superior excellence of some water works which he had invented and constructed, added, that after having been so useful to mankind, he expected to be very comfortable in the next world, notwithstanding his ridicule and disbelief of religion. 'Ah,' replied the clergyman, 'if you mean to be comfortable there, you must take your waterworks along with you.'"
Daniel's Sports, Supplement, p. 305.
H. N. E.
St. Augustine.
—What is the best edition of his Confessions. Dupin mentions his six Treatises on Man. Do these exist, and do they appear in any edition of St. Augustine's works?
E. A. H. L.
Ghost—Evidence of one not received.
—In Ackerman's Repository, Nov. 1820, is a short account of a remarkable instance of a person being tried on the pretended evidence of a ghost. A farmer on his return from the market at Southam, co. Warwick, was murdered. The next morning a man called upon the farmer's wife, and related how on the previous night, as he lay in bed, quite awake, her husband's ghost had appeared to him, and after showing him several stabs on his body, had told him that he was murdered by a certain person, and his corpse thrown into a certain marl-pit. A search was instituted, the body found in the pit, and the wounds on the body of the deceased were exactly in the parts described by the pretended dreamer; the person who was mentioned was committed for trial on violent suspicion of murder, and the trial came on at Warwick before Lord Chief Justice Raymond. The jury would have convicted the prisoner as rashly as the magistrate had committed him, but for the interposition of the judge, who told them that he did not put any credit in the pretended ghost story, since the prisoner was a man of unblemished reputation, and no ill feeling had ever existed between himself and the deceased. He said that he knew of no law which admitted of the evidence of a ghost; and if any did, the ghost had not appeared. The crier was then ordered to summon the ghost, which he did three times, and the judge then acquitted the prisoner, and caused the accuser to be detained, which was accordingly done, and his house searched, when such strong proofs of guilt were discovered, that the man confessed the crime, and was executed for murder at the following assizes.
Could any of your readers inform me when this remarkable trial took place, and where I could meet with a more detailed account?
SOUTHAMIENSIS.
Roman and Saxon Cambridge.
—Dr. W. Warren, formerly Vice-Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, wrote some papers to prove that the situation of the Grantacæster of Bede was at the Castle end of Cambridge, not at Granchester, and "demonstrated the thing as amply as a matter of that sort is capable of." Brydges states (Restituta, iv. 388.) that his brother, Dr. R. Warren, intended to publish this tract, which came into his hands after the death of the vice-master, which happened in, or shortly after, the year 1735. He left some MSS. to the college, but this is not amongst them; and Dr. R. Warren did not, as far as I can learn, ever carry his intention of publishing it into execution. What I want to learn is, where this tract now is, if it still exists; or, if it has been printed, where a printed copy is to be found.
C. C. B.
Queries on the Mistletoe (Vol. iv., p. 110.).
—Will your correspondent who some Numbers back stated, in a communication on the mistletoe, that it was not uncommon upon the oak in Somersetshire, kindly give two or three localities on his own knowledge? I fear some mistake has arisen, for, as far as my experience goes, an arch-Druid might hunt long enough in the present day for the "heaven-descended plant" among a grove of oaks, ere he fortuitously alighted upon it. Some years ago a friend assured me that he was credibly informed by a timber merchant often in the Sussex forests, that mistletoe was not uncommon upon oaks there; but on a personal inspection it turned out that ivy, not mistletoe, was intended. I suspect a similar mistake in Somersetshire, unless two or three certain localities can be named as seen by a competent observer.
I should also like to know from your Carolinian correspondent H. H. B., whether the mistletoe he mentions is our genuine "wintry mistletoe"—the Viscum album of Linnæus, or another species. The "varieties of the oak" he speaks of as having mistletoe upon them, are, I presume, all American species, and not the European Quercus robur.
A. F.
Worcester.
Portrait of Mesmer.
—I should be glad if you, or any of your readers in England or in France, could inform me whether there is anywhere to be found a portrait—drawing, painting, or engraving—of Mesmer?
SIGMA.