Replies to Minor Queries.
Dayesman (Vol. i., p. 189.).
—Bishop Jewell writes:
"M. Harding would have had us put God's word to daying (i.e. to trial), and none otherwise to be obedient to Christ's commandment, than if a few bishops gathered at Trident shall allow it."—Replie to Harding, Works, vol. ii. p. 424. (Dr. Jelf's edit.)
"The Ger. TAGEN, to appoint a day.
The D. DAGHEN, to cite or summon on a day appointed."—(Wachter and Kilian.)
And Dayesman is he, the man, "who fixes the day, who is present, or sits as judge, arbiter, or umpire on the day fixed or appointed."
It is evident that Richardson made much use of Jewell; but this word "daying" has escaped him: his explanation of dayesman accords well with it.
Q.
Bull; Dun (Vol. ii., p. 143.).
—We certainly do not want the aid of Obadiah Bull and Joe Dun to account for these words. Milton writes, "I affirm it to be a bull, taking away the essence of that, which it calls itself." And a bull is, "that which expresses something in opposition to what is intended, wished, or felt;" and so named "from the contrast of humble profession with despotic commands of Papal bulls."
"A dun is one who has dinned another for money or anything."—See Tooke, vol. ii. p. 305.
Q.
Algernon Sidney (Vol. v., p. 447.).
—I do not intend to enter the lists in defence of this "illustrious patriot." The pages of "N. & Q." are not a fit battle ground. But I request you to insert the whole quotation, that your readers may judge with what amount of fairness C. has made his note from Macaulay's History.
"Communications were opened between Barillon, the ambassador of Lewis, and those English politicians who had always professed, and who indeed sincerely felt, the greatest dread and dislike of the French ascendancy. The most upright member of the country party, William Lord Russell, son of the Earl of Bedford, did not scruple to concert with a foreign mission schemes for embarrassing his own sovereign. This was the whole extent of Russell's offence. His principles and his fortune alike raised him above all temptations of a sordid kind: but there is too much reason to believe that some of his associates were less scrupulous. It would be unjust to impute to them the extreme wickedness of taking bribes to injure their country. On the contrary, they meant to serve her: but it is impossible to deny that they were mean and indelicate enough to let a foreign prince pay them for serving her. Among those who cannot be acquitted of this degrading charge was one man who is popularly considered as the personification of public spirit, and who, in spite of some great moral and intellectual faults, has a just claim to be called a hero, a philosopher, and a patriot. It is impossible to see without pain such a name in the list of the pensioners of France. Yet it is some consolation to reflect that in our own time a public man would be thought lost to all sense of duty and shame who should not spurn from him a temptation which conquered the virtue and the pride of Algernon Sidney."
History of England, vol. i. p. 228.
ALGERNON HOLT WHITE.
Brighton.
Age of Trees (Vol. iv., pp. 401. 488.).
—At Neustadt, in Wirtemberg, there is a prodigious lime-tree, which gives its name to the town, which is called Neustadt an der Linden. The age of this tree is said to be 1000 years. According to a German writer, it required the support of sixty pillars in the year 1392, and attained its present size in 1541. It now rests, says the same authority, on above one hundred props, and spreads out so far that a market can be held under its shade. It is of this tree that Evelyn says it was—
"Set about with divers columns and monuments of stone (eighty-two in number, and formerly above one hundred more), which several princes and nobles have adorned, and which as so many pillars serve likewise to support the umbrageous and venerable boughs; and that even the tree had been much ampler the ruins and distances of the columns declare, which the rude soldiers have greatly impaired."
There is another colossal specimen of the same species in the churchyard of the village of Cadiz, near Dresden. The circumference of the trunk is forty feet. Singularly, though it is completely hollow through age, its inner surface is coated with a fresh and healthy bark.
UNICORN.
Emaciated Monumental Effigies (Vol. v., p. 427.).
—In reference to your correspondents' observations on skeleton monuments, I may mention that there is one inserted in the wall of the yard of St. Peter's Church, Drogheda. It is in high relief, cut in a dark stone and the skeleton figure half shrouded by grave clothes is a sufficiently appalling object. Beside it stands another figure still "in the flesh." It is many years since I saw the monument, and whether there be any inscription legible upon it, or whether it be generally known to whom it belongs, I cannot inform you.
URSULA.
There is a very good instance of an "altar tomb," bearing on it an ordinary effigy, and containing within it a skeleton figure, visible through pierced panel work, in Fyfield Church, Berks. It is the monument of Sir John Golafre, temp. Hen. V. Another fine instance I remember to have seen (I believe) in the parish church of Ewelme, Oxon.
HENRY G. TOMKINS.
Weston-super-Mare.
Bee Park (Vol. v., p. 322.).
—In this neighbourhood is an ancient farm-house called Bee Hall, where I doubt not that bees were kept in great quantities in bygone ages; and am the more led to believe this because they always flourish best upon thyme, which grows here as freely and luxuriantly as I ever elsewhere observed it. About four miles from said Bee Hall, the other day, I was looking over a genteel residence, and noticing a shady enclosure, asked the gardener what it was for. He told me, to protect the bees from the sun: it was upon a much larger scale than we generally now see, indicating that the soil, &c. suit apiaries. Looking to the frequent mention of honey, and its vast consumption formerly, as you instance in royal inventories, to which may be added documents in cathedral archives, &c., is it not remarkable that we should witness so few memorials of the ancient management of this interesting insect? I certainly remember one well-built "bee-house," at the edge of Lord Portsmouth's park, Hurstbourne, Hants, large enough for a good cottage, now deserted. While on the subject I will solicit information on a custom well known to those resident in the country, viz. of making a great noise with a house key, or other small knocker, against a metal dish or kettle while bees are swarming? Of course farmers' wives, peasants, &c., who do not reason, adopt this because their fathers before them did so. It is urged by intelligent naturalists that it is utterly useless, as bees have no sense of hearing. What does the clamour mean,—whence derived?
B. B.
Pembroke.
Sally Lunn (Vol. v., p. 371.).
—In reply to the Query, "Is anything known of Sally Lunn? is she a personage or a myth?" I refer your inquirer to Hone's Every-day Book, vol. ii. p. 1561.:
"The bun so fashionable, called the Sally Lunn, originated with a young woman of that name at Bath, about thirty years ago." [This was written in 1826.] "She first cried them in a basket, with a white cloth over it, morning and evening. Dalmer, a respectable baker and musician, noticed her, bought her business, and made a song and set it to music in behalf of Sally Lunn. This composition became the street favourite, barrows were made to distribute the nice cakes, Dalmer profited thereby and retired, and to this day the Sally Lunn Cake claims pre-eminence in all the cities of England."
J. R. W.
Bristol.
Baxter's Pulpit (Vol. v., p. 363.).
—An engraving of Baxter's pulpit will be found in a work entitled Footsteps of our Forefathers: what they suffered and what they sought. By James G. Miall, 1851, p. 232.
J. R. W.
Bristol.
Lothian's Scottish Historical Maps (Vol. v., p. 371.).
—Although this work is now out of print, and thereby scarce, your correspondent ELGINENSIS will, I have no doubt, on application to Stevenson, the "well-known" antiquarian and historical bookseller in Edinburgh, be put in possession of a copy for 12s.
T. G. P.
Edinburgh.
British Ambassadors (Vol. iv., pp. 442. 477.).
—Some time ago a correspondent asked where he could obtain a list or lists of the ambassadors sent from this court. I do not recollect that an answer has appeared in your columns, nor do I know how far the following may suit his purpose:
"12. An Alphabetical Index of the Names and Dates of Employment of English Ambassadors and Diplomatic Agents resident in Foreign Courts, from the Reign of King Henry VIII. to that of Queen Anne inclusive. One volume, folio."
This is extracted from the letter of the Right Hon. H. Hobhouse, keeper of His Majesty's State Papers, in reply to the Secretary of the Commissioners of Public Records, dated "State Paper Office, Sept. 19, 1832." (See the Appendix to the Commissioners' Report, 1837, p. 78.)
TEE BEE.
Knollys Family (Vol. v., p. 397.).
—Lt.-General William Knollys, eighth Earl of Banbury, married Charlotte Martha, second daughter of the Ebenezer Blackwell, Esq., banker, of Lombard Street, and Lewisham, Kent.
The present Col. Knollys, of the Fusileer Guards, is his representative.
A. Blackwell, sister or daughter of John Blackwell, the father of Ebenezer, married an Etheridge.
W. BLACKWELL,
Curate of Mells.
'Prentice Pillars—'Prentice Windows (Vol. v., p. 395.).
—I am reminded of a similar story connected with the two rose windows in the transept of the beautiful cathedral of Rouen. They were described to me by the old Swiss in charge, as the work of two artists, master and pupil; and he also pointed out the spot where the master killed the pupil, from jealousy of the splendid production of the north window by the latter: and, as the Guide Book truly says, "La rose du nord est plus belle que celle du midi"—the master's work.
BENBOW.
Birmingham.
St. Bartholomew (Vol. v., p. 129.).
—Thanking you for the information given, may I further inquire if any of your correspondents are aware of the existence of any copy or print from the picture in the Church of Notre Dame, at Paris, of St. Bartholomew healing the Princess of Armenia (see Jameson's Sacred and Legendary Art); and where such may be seen?
REGEDONUM.
Sun-dial Inscription (Vol. v., p. 79.).
—The following inscription is painted in huge letters over the sun-dial in front of an old farm-house near Farnworth in Lancashire:
"Horas non numero nisi serenas."
Where are these words to be found?
Y.
History of Faction (Vol. v., p. 225.).
—In my copy of this work, published in 1705, 8vo., formerly Isaac Reed's, he attributes it to Colonel Sackville Tufton. I observe also that Wilson (Life of De Foe, vol. ii. p. 335.) states, that in his copy it is ascribed, in an old handwriting, to the same author.
JAS. CROSSLEY.
Barnacles (Vol. v., p. 13.).
—May not the use of this word in the sense of spectacles be a corruption of binoculis; and has not binnacle (part of a ship) a similar origin?
J. S. WARDEN.
Family Likenesses (Vol. v., p. 7.).
—Any one who mixed in the society of the Scottish metropolis a few years ago must have met with two very handsome and accomplished brothers, who generally wore the Highland dress, and were known by the name of "The Princes." I do not mean to enter into the question as to whether or not they were the true representatives of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," which most persons consider to have been conclusively settled in the negative by an article which appeared in the Quarterly Review: but most assuredly a very strong point of evidence in favour of their having the royal blood of Scotland in their veins, was the remarkable resemblance which they bore—especially the younger brother—to various portraits of the Stuart family, and, among the rest, to those of the "Merry Monarch," as well as of his father Charles I.
E. N.
Merchant Adventurers to Spain (Vol. v., p. 276.).
—C.J.P. may possibly be assisted in his inquiries by referring to De Castros' Jews in Spain, translated by Kirwan, pp. 190-196. This interesting work was published by G. Bell, 186. Fleet Street, London, 1851.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
Exeter Controversy (Vol. v., p. 126.).
—This controversy was one of the many discussions relating to the Trinity which have engaged the theological activity of England during the last two hundred years. It arose in consequence of the imputed Arianism of some Presbyterian ministers of Exeter, the most conspicuous of whom were James Peirce and Joseph Hallet. It began in 1717, and terminated in 1719, when these two ministers were ejected from their pulpits. Your correspondent who put the question will find some account of this controversy in Murch's History of the Presbyterian Churches in the West of England,—a work well worth the attention of those who take interest in the antiquities of Non-conformity.
T. H. GILL.
Corrupted Names of Places (Vol. v., p. 375.).
—When my father was at one time engaged in collecting the numbers drawn for the Sussex militia, he began by calling out for those men who belonged to the hundred of Mayfield; and though he three times repeated his call, not a single man came forward. A person standing by suggested that he should say "the hundred of Mearvel," and give it as broad a twang as possible. He did so; when nineteen out of twenty-three present answered to the summons. Hurstmonceaux is commonly pronounced Harsmouncy; and I have heard Sompting called Summut.
G. BLINK.
Poison (Vol. v., p. 394.).
—Junius, Bailey, and Johnson seem all to agree that our word poison comes from the French poison. I am inclined to think, with the two first-mentioned lexicographers, that the etymon is πόσις, or potio. Junius adds, that "Ita Belgis venenum dicitur gift, donum;" and it is curious that in Icelandic eitr means both poison and gift. In the Antiquitates Celto-Scandicæ (p. 13.), I find the following expressions:—"Sva er sagt, at Froda væri gefinn banadryckr." "Mixta portioni veneno sublatum e vivis tradunt Frotonem." Should it not be potioni, inasmuch as "bana," in Icelandic, signifies to kill, if I do not err, and "dryckr" is drink? Certainly, in Anglo-Saxon, "bana" (whence our bane) and "drycian" have similar significations.
C. I. R.
Is there any possible doubt that poison is potion? Menage quotes Suetonius, that Caligula was potionatus by his wife. It is a French word undoubtedly.
C. B.
Vikingr Skotar (Vol. v., p. 394.).
—In the Antiquitates Celto-Scandicæ it is stated (p. 5.), that after the death of Guthormr, and subsequently to the departure of Harald (Harfagr) from the Hebrides, "Sidan settug i löndin vikingar margir Danir oc Nordmenn. Posthac sedes ibi occupant piratæ plurimi, Dani æqua ac Normanni." The word vikingar, the true Icelandic word for pirate, often occurs in the same saga, but not combined with skotar, though this latter term is repeated, signifying "the Scotch," and also in composition with konungr, &c.
Rhymes on Places (Vol. v., pp. 293. 374.).
—A complete collection of local rhymes would certainly be both curious and interesting. Those cited by Chambers in his amusing work are exclusively Scotch; for a collection relating to English towns, I would refer your Querist MR. FRASER to Grose's Provincial Glossary, where, interspersed among the "Local Proverbs," he will find an extensive gathering of characteristic rhymes. I conclude with appending a few not to be found in either of these works:
"RICHMOND.
"Nomen habes mundi, nec erit sine jure, secundi,
Namque situs titulum comprobat ipse tuum.
From thy rich mound thy appellation came,
And thy rich seat proves it a proper name."
Drunken Barnaby's Journal.
"Anglia, mons, fons, pons, ecclesia, fœmina, lana.
England amongst all nations is most full,
Of hills, wells, bridges, churches, women, wool."
Ibid.
"Cornwall swab-pie, and Devon white-pot brings,
And Leicester beans, and bacon fit for kings."
Dr. King's Art of Cookery. See Spectator.
In Belgium I am perhaps beyond bounds, but may cite in conclusion:
"Nobilibus Bruxella viris, Antverpia nummis,
Gandavum laqueis, formosis Burga puellis,
Lovanium doctis, gaudet Mechlinia stultis."
WILLIAM BATES.
You may perhaps think the accompanying, "Rhymes on Places" worthy of insertion, on the districts of the county of Ayr, viz.:
"Carrick for a man,
Kyle for a cou,
Cunninghame for butter and cheese,
And Galloway for woo."
F. J. H.
"We three" (Vol. v., p. 338.).
—It may interest your correspondent to learn that a public-house exists in London with the sign he mentions. It is situate in Virginia Row, Bethnal Green, is styled "The Three Loggerheads," and has a signboard ornamented with a couple of busts: one of somewhat Cæsarian aspect, laureated; the other a formidable-looking personage with something on his head, probably intended for the dog-skin helmet of the ancient Greeks,—but as the style of art strongly reminds one of that adopted for the figure-heads of ships, I confess my doubts on the subject. Under each bust appears the distich:
"WE THREE
LOGGERHEADS BE."
The sign appears a "notability" in the neighbourhood, as I have more than once in passing seen some apparent new comer set to guess its meaning; and when he confessed his inability, informed, in language more forcible than elegant, that he made the third Loggerhead.
W. E. F.
Burning Fern brings Rain (Vol. v., p. 242.).
—In some parts of America, but more particularly in the New England States, there was a popular belief, in former times, that immediately after a large fire in a town, or of wood in a forest, there would be a "fall of rain." Whether this opinion exists among the people at present, or whether it was entertained by John Winthrop, the first governor of the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the Pilgrim Fathers, on their landing at Plymouth, as they most unfortunately did, their superstitious belief in witchcraft, and some other "strange notions," may be a subject of future inquiry.
W. W.
La Valetta, Malta.
Plague Stones (Vol. v., pp. 226. 374.).
—I have often seen the stone which G. J. R. G. mentions as "to be seen close to Gresford, in Denbighshire, about a quarter of a mile from the town, on the road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space, where three roads meet." It is, I conjecture, the base of a cross. This stone may be the remnant of the last of a succession of crosses, the first of which may have given its Welsh name, Croes ffordd, the way of the cross, to the village. There is no tradition of any visitation of the plague at Gresford; but there is reason to suppose that it once prevailed at Wrexham, which is about three miles distant. Near that town, and on the side of a hill near the footpath leading from Wrexham vechan to Marchwiel Hall, there is a field called Bryn y cabanau, the brow of the cabins; the tradition respecting which is, that, during the prevalence of the plague in Wrexham, the inhabitants constructed wooden huts in this place for their temporary residences.
A QUONDAM GRESFORDITE.
I do not think the "Plague Stone" a mile or two out of Hereford has been mentioned in the Notes on that subject. If my memory is correct, there is a good deal of ornament, and it is surrounded by a short flight of stone steps.
F. J. H.
Sneezing (Vol. v., p. 364.).
—Having occasion to look at the first edition of the Golden Legend, printed by Caxton, I met with the following passage, which may perhaps prove interesting to your correspondent, as showing that the custom of blessing persons when they sneeze "endured" in the fifteenth century. The institution of the "Litany the more and the lasse," we are told, was justified,—
"For a right grete and grevous maladye: for as the Romayns had in the lenton lyued sobrely and in contynence, and after at Ester had receyud theyr Sauyour; after they disordered them in etyng, in drynkyng, in playes, and in lecherye. And therfore our Lord was meuyed ayenst them and sente them a grete pestelence, which was called the Botche of impedymye, and that was cruell and sodayne, and caused peple to dye in goyng by the waye, in pleying, in leeyng atte table, and in spekyng one with another sodeynly they deyed. In this manere somtyme snesyng they deyed; so that whan any persone was herd snesyng, anone they that were by said to hym, God helpe you, or Cryst helpe, and yet endureth the custome. And also when he sneseth or gapeth he maketh to fore his face the signe of the crosse and blessith hym. And yet endureth this custome."
Golden Legende, edit. 1483, fo. xxi. b.
F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.
Kentish Town.
Abbot of Croyland's Motto (Vol. v., p. 395.).
—MR. FORBES is quite correct with regard to the motto of Abbot Wells, which should be "Benedicite Fontes Domino." The sentence, "Bless the Wells, O Lord!" which is placed in so awkward a juxtaposition with it, is really a distinct motto for the name of Wells, and, so far from being a translation of the abbot's, is almost an inversion of it; and this should, as MR. FORBES justly remarks, have had "some editorial notice" from me.
M. A. LOWER.
Derivation of the Word "Azores" (Vol. v., p. 439.).
—The group of islands called the Azores, first discovered in 1439, by Joshua Vanderburg, a merchant of Bruges, and taken possession of by the Portuguese in 1448, were so named by Martin Behem, from the Portuguese word Açor, a hawk; Behem observing a great number of hawks there. The three species most frequently seen now are the Kestril, called Francelho; the Sparrowhawk, Furobardo; and the Buzzard, Manta; but whether very numerous or not, I am unable to state. From the geographical position of these islands, correct lists of the birds and fishes would be of great interest, and, as far as I am aware, are yet wanting.
Martin Behem found one of these islands covered with beech-trees, and called it therefore Fayal, from the Portuguese word Faya, a beech-tree. Another island, abounding in sweet flowers, he called Flores, from the Portuguese, Flor, a flower. Terceira, one of the nine islands forming the group, is said to have been so called, because, in the order of succession, it was the third island discovered (from Ter and ceira, a bank). Graciosa, as a name, was conferred upon one of peculiar beauty, a sort of paradise. Pico derived its name from its sugar-loaf form. The raven found at Madeira and the Canary Islands is probably also a native of the Azores, and might have suggested the Portuguese name of Corvo for one of the nine. St. Mary, St. Michael, and St. George complete the names of the group, of which St. Michael is the largest and Corvo the smallest.
WM. YARRELL.
Rider Street.
Scologlandis and Scologi (Vol. v., p. 416.).
—As these names occur in a Celtic country, we are justified in seeking their explanation in the Celtic language. I therefore write to inform G. J. R. G. that the word scolog is a living word in the Irish language, and that it signifies a farmer or husbandman. It is the word used in the Irish Bible at Matt. xxi. 33., "he let it out to husbandmen"—tug se do scologaibh ar chios i.
I may also mention that the name Mac Scoloige is very common in the co. Fermanagh in Ireland, where it is very generally anglicised Farmer, according to a usual practice of the Irish. Thus it is not uncommon even now to find a man known by the name of John or Thomas Farmer, whose father or grandfather is John or Thomas Mac Scoloige, the name Mac Scoloige signifying "son of a farmer."
The Scologlandis, in the documents quoted by G. J. R. G., must therefore have taken their name from the scologs or farmers, by whom they were cultivated, unless we suppose that they were anciently the patrimony of some branch of the family of Mac Scoloige, whose remains are now settled in Fermanagh.
In Scotland the word is now usually written sgalag, and is explained by Armstrong in his Gaelic Dictionary "a farm servant." And the word does certainly seem to have been used in ancient Irish to denote a servant or menial attendant, although the notion of a farm servant seems to have grown out of its other significations. Thus in a very ancient historical romance (probably as old as the ninth or tenth century), which is preserved in the curious volume called Leabhar breac, or Speckled Book, in the library of the Royal Irish Academy, the word scolog is used to designate the servant of the Abbot of St. Finbar's, Cork.
J. H. T.