Minor Queries.
The Azores.
—In a note in Our Village (vol. v.), Miss Mitford says that this name was given to these islands collectively, on account of the number of hawks and falcons found on them. Is the name Spanish; and does the Natural History of the islands at the present time confirm the assertion?
J. O'G.
Johnny Crapaud.
—In one of Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe books is the following entry of a trinket, devised at the period of the Duke of Alençon's courting her Majesty:
"Item, one little Flower of gold, with a Frog thereon; and therein mounseer his physnomie, and a little Pearl pendant."
"'Query,' says Miss Strickland (Queens, vol. vi. p. 471., 1st edit.), 'was this whimsical conceit a love-token, from the Duke of Alençon to his royal belle amie, and the frog designed, not as a ridiculous, but a sentimental allusion to his country?'"
To which Query I would add another: When was the term of Johnny Crapaud first applied to the French people, and on what occasion? I am aware of the notion of its being on account of their said partiality for eating frogs; which, by the bye, having tasted, I can pronounce to be very good: mais chacun à son goût. Is the frog introduced in the arms of Anjou or Alençon?
PHILIP S. KING.
Poems in the "Spectator."
—The fine moral poems which first appeared in the Spectator, e.g. that commencing "When all thy mercies, O my God;" the version of the Twenty-third Psalm, "The Lord my pasture shall prepare;" "The spacious firmament on high," &c., are, as most of our readers are aware, commonly ascribed to Addison. In a recent collection of poetical pieces, however, I have seen them attributed to Andrew Marvell. Can any of your readers certify either of these contradictory assertions?
J. G. F.
Old John Harries, "Bishop of Wales."
—I have "An Elegy to the Memory of the late worthy and pious Mr. John Harries of Amleston, in Pembrokeshire, Preacher of the Gospel;" from which it appears that, after devoting himself to preaching for forty-six years, through both North and South Wales, and more particularly in "Roose, Castlemartin, Pembroke, Haverfordwest, Narberth, Woodstockslop, and Amleston," he died at Newport on the 7th of March, 1788. Will you allow me to ask your numerous correspondents whether any of them can assist me in tracing his pedigree? One of his sons, a minor canon of Bristol, bore the arms of Owen Gwynedd, viz. "vert, three eagles displayed on a fesse, or," on his book-plate. He was often called the "Bishop of Wales," from the large district through which he overlooked the progress of the Gospel.
I. J. H. H.
St. Asaph.
University Hood.
—What is the origin of wearing hoods to indicate a man's University degree; and how old is the practice?
J. G. F.
Black Rood in Scotland—Cross Neytz.
—Observing that in Vol. ii. of "N. & Q." pp. 308. 409., and in Vol. iii., p. 104., there is a discussion about the "Black Rood of Scotland," which does not seem to be very satisfactorily concluded, I am tempted to send you a passage from Madox's Baronia Anglica, p. 268., &c., which seems to bear upon the point in question, but I am not competent to say how far it may serve to throw any light upon the obscurities of the case.
It there appears that 13th Oct. 1306, James Steward of Scotland swore fealty to King Edw. I.:
"By his corporal oath, taken upon the consecrated body of Christ; and upon the two holy crosses, to wit, the cross Neytz, and the Blakerode Descoce, and other holy reliques."
"In the priory of Lanrecost, in the diocese of Carlisle, before W. Bp. of Lichfield and Coventry, the King's Chancellor; and in the presence of Adomar de Valence."
I perceive in one of your communications, there is mention of the English Cross, the Cross Nigth, which in Madox is called "the Cross Neytz." Perhaps some of your antiquarian correspondents will favour us with some explanation of this cross.
I should wish moreover to elicit some further particulars of Thomas Madox, the Historiographer Royal, who has so well deserved of all lovers of ancient English history by the four books in folio which he has left us: especially his Formulare Anglicanum, and that work of prodigious industry and research, his History of the Exchequer. There is some account in Nichols' Lit. Anecdotes, but I should wish to see some more particulars of his life and studies, and a more exact critique upon his several works.
J. T. A.
Crown Jewels once kept at Holt Castle.
—I remember reading many years since (I have forgotten both the title and the subject of the work) that the crown jewels were once deposited in Holt Castle, about five miles from Worcester, for greater safety. Can any of your kind correspondents inform me when and upon what turbulent occasion it was thought necessary to forward them to the above stronghold on the banks of the Severn, and who resided there at the time?
J. B. WHITBORNE.
"Cane Decane," &c.
—I should like to know, if you can inform me, where the following couplet is to be found, upon an ecclesiastic singing a hunting song:
"Cane Decane canis; sed ne cane, cane Decane,
De cane, de canis, cane Decane, cane."
Which may be thus freely translated:
"Hoary Deacon, sing; but then,
Not of dogs, but hoary men."
W. W. E. T.
Warwick Square, Belgravia.
Rev. John Meekins, D.D.
—Are there any letters of the Rev. Jno. Meekins, D.D., Oxon., chaplain to George, Prince of Denmark, the royal consort of Queen Anne, extant? and in what year did he die?
MICŒNIS.
Finsbury Manor.
—Will some of your correspondents kindly inform me where I can meet with an authority to prove the Lord Mayor of London is styled mayor by virtue of crown charters, and lord as lord of the manor of Finsbury? I have seen such a statement, but cannot bring to mind the work in which it occurred.
AMANUENSIS.
Frebord.
—I want information on this matter, and consider "N. & Q." peculiarly the place wherein to seek it, because it is a matter mainly dependent on local custom. All the notice of Frebord that I have been able to discover in books is derived from Dugdale. For instance, in Jacob's Law Dictionary, ed. 1807, I read—
"Frebord, Franchordus, ground claimed in some places more or less, beyond, or without the fence. It is said to contain two foot and a half."
Mon. Ang., tom. ii. p. 141.
I heard, the other day, of a Warwickshire gentleman who claimed ten or twelve feet; but the immediate reason for my Query is a claim at present under the notice of a friend of mine is for sixty-six feet freebord! Is not such a claim preposterous?
P. M. M.
The Stature of Queen Elizabeth.
—In a book entitled Physico-Theology, being the substance of sixteen sermons preached in St. Mary-le-Bone Church, London, at the Honourable Mr. Boyle's lectures in 1711 and 1712, with notes, &c., by the Rev. W. Derham (a second edition, with additions, published in 1714), the authors, in treating of the stature and size of man's body, says there is great reason to think the size of man was always the same from the Creation; and in a note at page 330., after quoting Dr. Hakewill's Apolog. and other authorities, concludes with these words:—
"Nay, besides all this probable, we have some more certain evidence. Augustus was five foot nine inches high, which was the just measure of our famous Queen Elizabeth, who exceeded his height two inches, if proper allowance be made for the difference between the Roman and our foot."
Vide Hakewill, Apolog., p. 215.
Probably some of your learned correspondents may give additional information on this interesting subject.
J. F. ALLEN.
Macclesfield.
Portrait of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough.
—Can any of your readers inform me if there exists an original picture of Charles Mordaunt, the famous Earl of Peterborough, and where such can be seen?
A TRAVELLER.
Inscription by Luther.
—In looking at some of the old books in the library of the British Museum, I observed, on the fly-leaf of an old Bible, an inscription by Martin Luther, the meaning of which was the following:—
"Elijah the prophet said, the world had existed 2000 years before the law (from Adam to Moses); would exist 2000 years under the Mosaic dispensation (from Moses to Christ), and 2000 years under the Christian dispensation; and then the world would be burnt."
The manuscript was in German and very much effaced, so that I am not able to remember the words, though I very well remember the meaning.
Could any reader inform me in what part of the Bible this prophecy of Elijah's is to be found? for I have searched for it in vain.
C. H. M.
"O Juvenis frustra," &c.
—I should be glad to be informed, through your publication, where I may find this line,—
"O Juvenis frustra est tua Doctrina Plebs amat Remedia."
J. W. V.
All-fours.
—In Macaulay's essay on Southey's edition of The Pilgrim's Progress (Longman & Co., p. 184.) occurs a curious use of this expression:
"The types are often inconsistent with each other; and sometimes the allegorical disguise is altogether thrown off.... It is not easy to make a simile go on all-fours. But we believe that no human ingenuity could produce such a centipede as a long allegory in which the correspondence between the outward sign and the thing signified should be exactly preserved. Certainly no writer ancient or modern has achieved the adventure."
This meaning I cannot find in Bailey's Dictionary, and it has escaped the curious vigilance of Blakie's compilers. The saying, however, is a very old one. Sir Edward Coke employs it (Coke upon Littleton, lib. i. c. 1. sect. 1. p. 3. a.):
"But no simile holds in everything; according to the ancient saying, Nullum simile quatuor pedibus currit."
There is a marginal reference here to 1 Hen. VII. 16.
Perhaps some of your philological correspondents can throw some light on the origin of the phrase, or at least give me some other examples of its use. Is the expression "To be on all-fours with" good English?
C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.
Richard, second Son of the Conqueror,
is said by Hume, and by some minor writers after him, to have been killed by a stag in the New Forest; but William of Malmesbury and Roger of Wendover both say that he died of fever, consequent on malaria, which struck him while hunting there. This is well known to be of frequent occurrence in the neighbourhood of desolated human dwellings; and thus seems to involve even a more striking instance of retributive justice than the fate which Hume assigns to him. The fatality attending most of this name in our history is singular. Of nine princes (three of them kings) who have borne the name of Richard, seven, or, if Hume is right, eight, have died violent deaths, including four successive generations of the House of York.
J. S. WARDEN.
Francis Walkinghame.
—Your correspondent's mention of my Arithmetical Books (Vol. v., p. 392.) reminds me of a Query which I made in it, and which has never obtained the slightest answer—Who was Francis Walkinghame, and when was his work on arithmetic first published? The earliest edition I know of is the twenty-third, in 1787; but I am told, on good authority, that Mr. Douce had the sixteenth edition of 1779.
A. DE MORGAN.
Optical Phenomenon.
—I shall be much obliged to anybody who will explain a phenomenon which I have observed.
Suppose 1. A street from twenty to thirty feet broad.
2. At the open window of a house on one side stands a man looking at the corresponding window of the house on the opposite side; that is, he looks at what was a window, but is now filled up with a large board that is covered with an inscription of short lines, black on white; in short, just such a board as one sees at a turnpike gate.
3. From shortness, or defect, of sight (I cannot say which), the man is unable to read the inscription as he stands at his window.
4. He sits down on a low seat, so as to bring his eye almost close to, and just on a level with, the sill of his own window. He then slowly raises and depresses his head. As he does this, it of course appears to him as if his own window-sill travelled up and down the board opposite.
5. In doing so it comes successively under each line of the inscription.
6. As it does so, that one line becomes perfectly legible.
N. B.