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NOTES and QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."— Captain Cuttle.

CONTENTS.

Notes.

JACK.

I wish to note, and to suggest to students in ethnology, the Query, how it comes to pass that John Bull has a peculiar propensity to call things by his own name, his familiar appellative of Jack?

Of all the long list of abbreviations and familiar names with which times past and present have supplied us, that which honest Falstaff found most pleasing to his ears, "Jack with my familiars!" is the household word with which ours are most conversant. Were not Jack the Giant-killer, Jack and the Bean-stalk, and Little Jack, the intimates of our earliest days? when we were lulled to sleep by ditties that told of Jack Sprat and his accommodating wife (an instance of the harmony in which those of opposite tastes may live in the bonds of wedlock); of Jack, the bachelor who lived harmoniously with his fiddle, and had a soul above the advice of his utilitarian friend; of Jack who, like Caliban, was to have a new master; of Jack[^[1]] the brother of Gill; and of the Jack who was only remarkable for having a brother, whose name, as a younger son, is not thought worthy of mention. And were not our waking hours solaced by songs, celebrating the good Jack[^[2]], little Jack Horner, and holding up to obloquy the bad Jack, naughty Jacky Green, and his treachery to the innocent cat? Who does not remember the time when he played at jack-straws, fished for jack-sharps, and delighted in a skip-jack, or jack-a-jumper, when jack-in-a-box came back from the fair (where we had listened not unmoved to the temptations of that eloquent vagabond cheap-Jack) and popped up his nose before we could say Jack Robinson; and when Jack-in-the-green ushered in May-day? While a halo of charmed recollections encircles the memory of Jack-pudding, dear to the Englishman as Jack Pottage and Jack Sausage (Jean Potage and Hans Wurst) are to Frenchman and German.

Our childhood past, Jack still haunts us at every turn and phase of our existence. The smoke-jack and bottle-jack, those revolutionary instruments that threw the turnspit out of employment (and have well-nigh banished him from the face of the earth), cook the Jack hare, which we bring in in the pocket of our shooting-jacket. We wear jack-boots, and draw them off with boot-jacks; prop up our houses with jack-screws; wipe our hands on jack-towels; drink out of black-jacks, and wear them on our backs too, at least our ancestors did; while flap-jacks[^[3]] gave a relish to their Lenten diet, jack-of-the-clock[^[4]] told them the hour; Jack priests held rule over them; and gentle exercise at the jack, at bowls, helped them to digest their dinners. We ride upon jack-asses; jacks flourish in our fish-ponds; jack-a-lanterns and jack-snipes flit over our bogs, the one scarcely less difficult to capture than the other; jack-daws multiply in our steeples, and jack-herons still linger about our baronial halls.

The four jack knaves, jack-a-lents, jack-a-dandies, jack-a-nasties, and jacks-in-office (jack-an-apeses every man jack of them), with that name fraught with mysterious terror, Jack Ketch, are the scape-graces of this numerous family; and, at every Jack who would be the gentleman, at a saucy Jack who attempts to play the jack with us, our indignation rises, like that of Juliet's nurse. But, on the whole, Jack is an honest fellow, who does his work in this life, though he has been reproached with Tom's helping him to do nothing; but let the house that Jack built vindicate him from this calumny. Jack, we repeat, is an honest fellow, and is so more especially, when as Jack-tar (Heaven protect him from Jack-sharks both on sea and shore!) he has old Ocean beneath, and the union-jack above him. Of black and yellow jack, who are foreigners, we make no mention; neither of Jack-Spaniards, nor of Jacko the monkey, whom we detest; but, go where we will, Jack meets us, and is master of all trades, for that we hold to be the right, though, we are aware, not the usual version of the saying. In short, with Merry Andrews, Jerry Sneaks, Tom Noddies, and Silly Simons, we may all have a casual acquaintance; but Jack, sweet Jack, kind Jack, honest Jack, Jack still is our familiar.

John Jackson.

Footnote 1: [(return)]

Jack and Gill were measures. "Wherefore," says Grumio, "be the Jacks fair within and the Gills fair without," meaning the leathern jacks clean within, and the metal gills polished without.

Footnote 2: [(return)]

His character has suffered by antiquarian research, which tells us that the song was made on a Colonel Horner, intrusted by the last Abbot of Wells with a pie, containing the title-deeds of the abbey, which he was to deliver to Henry VIII., and that he abstracted one for his own purposes, whereupon the abbot was hanged.

Footnote 3: [(return)]

The old name for pancakes. Slap-jacks is their present name in America.

Footnote 4: [(return)]

The figure which struck the hour, as on the old clocks of St. Dunstan's, and of Carfax in Oxford.

MYTHE VERSUS MYTH.

When I first began to write on Mythology, I followed the Germans in using mythus for the Greek μῦθος. I afterwards thought it would be better to Anglicise it, and, strange to say, I actually found that there was a rule in the English language without an exception. It was this: Words formed from Greek disyllables in ος, whether the penultimate vowel be long or short, are monosyllables made long by e final. Thus, not only does βῶλος make bole, but πόλος pole, πόρος pore, σκόπος scope, τόνος tone, &c.; so also γῦρος, gyre; θύμος, thyme; στῦλος, style; κύβος, cube, &c.: I therefore, without hesitation, made an English word mȳthe. Mr. Grote, in his History of Greece, has done the very same thing, and probably on the same principles, quite independently of me; for, as I am informed, he has never condescended to read my Mythology of Greece and Italy, perhaps because it was not written in German. We have had no followers, as far as I am aware, but Miss Lynn, in her classical novels, and Mr. J. E. Taylor, in his translation of the Pentamerone, &c.

Meantime the English language had got another form of μῦθος, namely, my̆th, which I believe made its first appearance in Mr. Cooley's Maritime and Inland Discovery, and so has the claim of priority, if not of correctness. This form has been so generally adopted, that it seems likely ere long to become a mere slang term. It is used for every kind of fiction whatever; indeed, I have seen it employed where the proper word would be hoax. Nay, to make matters worse, it is actually used of persons. Mrs. Harris, for instance, has been termed a myth, as also was Robin Hood, not long since, even in "N. & Q."! I wonder how Apolodorus would have looked, if he had heard Orion or Polyphemus called a μῦθος!

Do I then expect the people of England to surrender their glorious privilege of going wrong without let or hindrance, in matters of grammar and etymology? Far from me be such folly and presumption. All I venture to expect is, that men of learning and good sense will, when they are speaking or writing about those venerable fictions which once commanded the assent of polished nations, use the more dignified term mȳthe, and the adjective mythic, instead of the hybrid mythical, leaving the poor unhappy little my̆th to be bandied about at the popular will and pleasure.

Thos. Keightley.

WITCHCRAFT IN 1638.

I inclose you an extract from an old document in my possession, which appears to be the examination of two witnesses against one Mary Shepherd for witchcraft. The nature of the offence is not specified. Perhaps it may be interesting to some of your readers.

The Exam̅ of Jone Coward of Wareham, taken upon Oath the 28 March, 1638.

Who sayth, yt about Midsomer last past one Mary Sheapheard of Wareham did pull of one of this Exm̅t̅'s stockings, and within 2 howers after this Exn̅t̅ was taken in all her limbs that she could not stur hand or foot, where upon this Exn̅t̅ considered that the forsd Mary Sheapheard had done her that hurt, and forth wth cryed out upon the sayd Mary Shep. (though the sayd M. Shep. was not present), where upon this Exm̅t̅'s mother went unto the house of M. Shep. to perswaed her to come downe to this Exn̅t̅; but the sayd M. Shep. would not. Whereupon this Exn̅t̅'s mother went unto the Mayor of the Town, who com̅anded the sd M. Shep. to goe to this Exan̅t̅. At length the sd Ma. Shep. accordingly did (and being coe̅), she did wring this Exn̅t̅ by the hande, and pesently this Exn̅t̅ recouered. Ffurther, the Exn̅t̅ sayth, yt about ye 24 of July next followinge, this Exn̅t̅ was taken in ye like manner ye second time, wth her hands and feet wrested about, and so sent for the sd M. Shep., who instantly pulled the Exn̅t̅ by the hands, and pesently the Exn̅t̅ recovered again.

Jone Coward.

Joane Coward de Warha̅, spinster £xx,

To appear and give evidence at the next assizes agn̅t̅ Ma. Sheapheard.

The Exam̅ of Ann Trew, single woman, of Wareham, taken upon Oath as aforsd.

Who sayth, yt on ye 16th of March last past she saw Mary Shep. come into ye house of Joh. Gillingame, and likewise saw Ed. Gillingame come down bare-footed very well, without any lamnesse or sickness at all, and pesently after ye sayd Mary Shep. had pulled on the legginge upon the legge of ye sd Ed. Gill., he fell instantly both lame and sick. Further, the Exn̅t̅ asked the sd Ed. Gill. (in the time of his sickness) what Ma. Shep. did unto him, who answered, she did put her hand upon his thigh.

Ann Trew.

Anne Trew de Warha̅, spinster £xx,

To appear and give evidence at next assizes agn̅t̅ M. Shepheard.

I should like to know if the effect of her supposed sorcery could be attributed to mesmerism. The document in my possession appears to be original, as Jone Coward's signature is in a different hand to that of the examination.

J. C. M.

Spetisbury.

ST. AUGUSTIN AND BAXTER.

I am not aware that any author has pointed out a remarkable coincidence in the Confessions of St. Augustin and of Baxter:

"Divers sins I was addicted to, and oft committed against my conscience, which, for the warning of others, I will here confess to my shame. I was much addicted to the excessive and gluttonous eating of apples and pears, which, I think, laid the foundation of the imbecility and flatulency of my stomach.... To this end, and to concur with naughty boys that gloried in evil, I have oft gone into other men's orchards and stolen the fruit, when I had enough at home.... These were my sins in my childhood, as to which conscience troubled me for a great while before they were overcome."

Sir W. Scott cites the above passages in his Life of Dryden, with sharp comments on the rigid scruples of the Puritans:

"How is it possible," he says, "to forgive Baxter for the affectation with which he records the enormities of his childhood?... Can any one read this confession without thinking of Tartuffe, who subjected himself to penance for killing a flea with too much anger?..."

It probably did not occur to the biographer, that no less illustrious a saint than Augustin, to whom Puritanism can hardly be imputed, had made a parallel confession of like early depravity many centuries before. Enlarging on his own puerile delinquencies, and indeed on the wickedness of children in general, he confesses that, in company with other "naughty boys" ("nequissimi adolescentuli"), he not only stole apples, but stole them for the mere pleasure of the thing, and when he "had enough at home":

"Id furatus sum quod mihi abundabat, et multo melius. Nec eâ re volebam frui quam furto appetebam; sed ipso furto et peccato. Arbor erat pirus in viciniâ vineæ nostræ pomis onusta, nec formâ nec sapore illecebrosis. Ad hanc excutiendam atque asportandam, nequissimi adolescentuli perreximus nocte intempestâ; et abstulimus inde onera ingentia, non ad nostras epulas, sed vel projicienda porcis, etiamsi aliquid inde comedimus.... Ecce cor meum, Deus meus, ecce cor meum, quod miseratus es in imo abyssi!"—Confessionum, lib. ii. cap. iv.

In comparing the two cases, the balance of juvenile depravity is very much against the great Doctor of Grace. He does not seem to have had even a fondness for fruit to plead in extenuation of his larceny. He robbed orchards by wholesale of apples, which, by his own admission, had no attractions either of form or flavour to tempt him. Yet the two anecdotes are so much alike, that one would be inclined to suspect one story of being a mere recoction of the other if it were possible to doubt the veracity of Richard Baxter.

The incident, however, is one too familiar in schoolboy life to make the repetition of the story a matter of surprise. The property in an apple growing within the reach of a boy's hand has from time immemorial been in peril, and the law itself has not always regarded it as an object of scrupulous protection. The old laws of the Rheingau, and (if I mistake not) of some other states, warranted a wayfaring man in picking apples from any tree, provided he did not exceed the number of three.

E. Smirke.

FOLK LORE.

Subterranean Bells (Vol. vii., pp. 128. 200.).—In answer to J. J. S.'s inquiry, I beg to state, that at Crosmere, near Ellesmere, Shropshire, where there is one of a number of pretty lakes scattered throughout that district, there is a tradition of a chapel having formerly stood on the banks of the lake. And it is said that the belief once was, that whenever the waters were ruffled by wind, the chapel bells might be heard as singing beneath the surface. This, though bearing on the subject of "submarine" or "subaqueous," rather than "subterranean" bells, illustrates, I think, the tradition to which J. J. S. refers.

J. W. M.

Hordley, Ellesmere.

Welsh Legend of the Redbreast.—According to my old nurse (a Carmarthenshire woman), the redbreast, like Prometheus, is the victim φιλανθρώπου τρόπου . Not only the babes in the wood, but mankind at large, are indebted to these deserving favourites. How could any child help regarding with grateful veneration the little bird with bosom red, when assured—

"That far, far, far away is a land of woe, darkness, spirits of evil, and fire. Day by day does the little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to quench the flame. So near to the burning stream does he fly, that his dear little feathers are scorched: and hence he is named Bron-rhuddyn.[^[5]] To serve little children, the robin dares approach the Infernal Pit. No good child will hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The robin returns from the land of fire, and therefore he feels the cold of winter far more than his brother birds. He shivers in the brumal blast; hungry, he chirps before your door. Oh! my child, then, in gratitude throw a few crumbs to poor red-breast."

Why, a Pythagorean would have eaten a peacock sooner than one of us would have injured a robin.

R. P.

Footnote 5: [(return)]

Bron-rhuddyn = "breast-burnt," or "breast-scorched."

JOHNSONIANA.

I inclose you a transcript of a letter of Boswell's which I think worthy of being permanently recorded, and am not aware of its having been before in print.

Edinburgh, 11th April, 1774.

Dear Sir,

When Mr. Johnson and I arrived at Inveraray after our expedition to the Hebrides, and there for the first time after many days renewed our enjoyment of the luxuries of civilised life, one of the most elegant that I could wish to find was lying for me, a letter from Mr. Garrick. It was a pineapple of the finest flavour, which had a high zest indeed amongst the heath-covered mountains of Scotia. That I have not thanked you for it long ere now is one of those strange facts for which it is so difficult to account, that I shall not attempt it. The Idler has strongly expressed many of the wonderful effects of the vis inertiæ of the human mind. But it is hardly credible that a man should have the warmest regard for his friend, a constant desire to show it, and a keen ambition for a frequent epistolary intercourse with him, and yet should let months roll on without having resolution, or activity, or power, or whatever it be, to write a few lines. A man in such a situation is somewhat like Tantalus reversed. He recedes, he knows not how, from what he loves, which is full as provoking as when what he loves recedes from him. That my complaint is not a peculiar fancy, but deep in human nature, I appeal to the authority of St. Paul, who though he had not been exalted to the dignity of an apostle, would have stood high in fame as a philosopher and orator, "What I would that do I not." You need be under no concern as to your debt to me for the book which I purchased for you. It was long ago discharged; for believe me, I intended the book as a present. Or if you rather chuse that it should be held as an exchange with the epitaphs which you sent me, I have no objection. Dr. Goldsmith's death would affect all the club much. I have not been so much affected with any event that has happened of a long time. I wish you would give me, who am at a distance, and who cannot get to London this spring, some particulars with regards to his last appearances. Dr. Young has a fine thought to this purpose, that every friend who goes before us to the other side of the river of death, makes the passage to us the easier. Were our club all removed to a future world but one or two, they, one should think, would incline to follow. By all means let me be on your list of subscribers to Mr. Morrell's Prometheus. You have enlivened the town, I see, with a musical piece. The prologue is admirably fancied arripere populum tributim; though, to be sure, Foote's remark applies to it, that your prologues have a culinary turn, and that therefore the motto to your collection of them should be, Animus jamdudum in Patinis. A player upon words might answer him, "Any Patinis rather than your Piety in Pattens." I wonder the wags have not been quoting upon you, "Whose erudition is a Christmas tale." But Mr. Johnson is ready to bruise any one who calls in question your classical knowledge and your happy application of it. I hope Mr. Johnson has given you an entertaining account of his Northern Tour. He is certainly to favour the world with some of his remarks. Pray do not fail to quicken him by word as I do by letter. Posterity will be the more obliged to his friends the more that they can prevail with him to write. With best compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and hoping that you will not punish me by being long silent, I remain faithfully yours,

James Boswell.

To David Garrick, Esq.,
Adelphi, London.

W. P.

Minor Notes.

White Roses.—In an old newspaper, The Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer, of Saturday, June 15, 1723, I find the following paragraph:

"Monday being the anniversary of the White Roses, some persons who had a mind to boast that they had bid defiance to the government, put them on early in the morning; but the mob not liking such doings, gathered about them, and demolished the wearers; which so terrified the crew, that not one of them afterwards would touch a white rose."

Can you, or any of your correspondents, explain this curious allusion? Is it to the emblem of the House of York, or the badge of the Pretender?

E. G. B.

Fifeshire Pronunciation.—I have observed, in various parts of Fifeshire, a singular peculiarity in the pronunciation of certain words, of which the following are specimens:

This strange mode is not altogether confined to the most illiterate portion of the people. My query is, Does this peculiarity obtain in any other portion of Scotland?

A. R. X.

Paisley.

Original Letter.—The following letter, written by the French general at Guadaloupe, when it was taken in 1810, to his conqueror, is an exquisite specimen of something more than that national politeness which does not desert a Frenchman even in misfortune. I possess the original:

Au quartier général du Parc,
le 6 Février, 1810.

A son Excellence

Le Général Beckwith, Commandant en chef les forces de sa Majesté Britannique aux isles du Vent.

Monsieur le Général,

J'ai été prévenu que Votre Excellence se proposait de venir au Parc demain dans la matinée. J'ose espérer qu'elle voudra bien me faire l'honneur d'accepter le diner que lui offre un Général malheureux et vaincu, mais qu'il présente de tout cœur.

Daignez, Monsieur le Général, agréer l'assurance de la haute considération avec laquelle

J'ai l'honneur d'être,
de votre Excellence,
Le très-obéissant serviteur,
Emouf.

Edward Foss.

Erroneous Forms of Speech.—Since you allow your correspondents to correct such words as teetotal, I hope you will allow me to call the attention of your agricultural readers to the corruption in the word mangold, as they now write it. The word is in German mangel wurzel, root of scarcity. It is wrong to use even such a name as this, in my opinion, while we have the English name beet, which has the additional advantage of being derived from the botanical name Beta. But if a new name must be used, let it, at any rate, be the pure German mangel, and not the mongrel mangold. Indeed, those who spell the word in the latter way, ought in common consistency to write reddishes, sparrowgrass, and cowcumbers for radishes, asparagus, and cucumbers.

E. G. R.

QUERIES.

EUSTACHE DE SAINT PIERRE.

(Vol. vii., p. 10.)

Mr. King's inquiry reminds me of two Queries on the same subject which I sent you as far back as the end of 1851, or beginning of 1852. Those Queries have not appeared in "N. & Q.," and I was led to suppose, either that you had laid them aside for some future occasion, or had found something objectionable in the form in which they were presented. The following is a literal copy.

"There are two circumstances connected with this event (the surrender of Calais), respecting which I am desirous of obtaining information. The first has reference to the individuals who offered themselves as victims to appease the exasperation of Edward III., after the obstinate siege of that town in 1347. They are represented as six of the principal citizens; Eustache de Saint Pierre was at their head, and the names of three others have come down to us, as Jean d'Aire, Jacques de Wissant, and Pierre de Wissant. Who were the other two?

"The second point relates to the character of that occurrence. Some historians are of opinion that the devotedness of Saint Pierre and his associates was prompted by the most exalted sentiments of patriotism; while others assert that it was all a 'sham,' that Saint-Pierre was secretly attached to the cause of the English monarch, and that he was subsequently employed by him in some confidential negociations. To which of these opinions should the historical inquirer give his assent?"

I may add, in reply to Mr. King, that "the light thrown on the subject, through M. de Bréquigny's labours," has been noticed in the Biographie Universelle, sub voce Saint-Pierre (Eustache de); and it was the remarks in that work that first drew my attention to it. The circumstances disclosed by Bréquigny are also commented upon by Lévesque in his La France sous les Valois.

Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia.

PASSAGE IN COLERIDGE.

De Quincy, in his "Suspiria de Profundis," Blackwood's Magazine, June, 1845, p. 748., speaking of the spectre of the Brocken, and of the conditions under which that striking phenomenon is manifested, observes that

"Coleridge ascended the Brocken on the Whitsunday of 1799 with a party of English students from Goettingen, but failed to see the phantom; afterwards in England (and under the same three conditions) he saw a much rarer phenomenon, which he described in the following eight lines. I give them from a corrected copy. The apostrophe in the beginning must be understood as addressed to an ideal conception:

"'And art thou nothing? Such thou art as when

The woodman winding westward up the glen

At wintry dawn, when o'er the sheep-track's maze

The viewless snow-mist weaves a glist'ning haze,

Sees full before him, gliding without tread,

An image with a glory round its head:

This shade he worships for its golden hues,

And makes (not knowing) that which he pursues.'"

These lines are from "Constancy to an ideal Object;" but in the usual editions of Coleridge's Poems, the last two lines are printed thus:

"The enamour'd rustic worships its fair hues,

Nor knows he makes the shadow he pursues."

Coleridge's Poetical Works, vol. ii. p. 91., 1840.

Query: Which reading is the correct one? Coleridge refers to the Manchester Philosophical Transactions for a description of this phenomenon; but, as the earlier volumes of these are scarce, perhaps some of your correspondents would copy the description from the volume which contains it, or furnish one from some authentic source.

J. M. B.

Minor Queries.

Cann Family.—Can any of your correspondents enlighten me as to the origin of this family name; and if of foreign extraction, as I suspect, in what county of England they first settled? There is a village in Dorsetshire called Cann St. Rumbold. Possibly this may afford some clue. Burke informs us that William Cann, Esq., was Mayor of Bristol in 1648, and that his son, Sir Robert Cann, also Mayor, and afterwards M.P. for that city, was knighted by Charles II. in 1662, and created a Baronet, September 13th in the same year. The title became extinct in 1765, by the death of Sir Robert Cann, the sixth Baronet. The first Baronet had several brothers, some of whom most probably left issue, as I find a respectable family of that name now, and for many years past, located in Devonshire; but I am not aware if they are descended from the same stock.

Domini-Cann.

Canada.

Landholders in Lonsdale South of the Sands.—In his History of Lancashire, Baines states (vol. i. chap. iv.) that a return of the principal landholders in Lonsdale South of the Sands, in the time of James I., has been kept; but he does not state where the return is registered, nor whether it was in a private or public form. In fact, it is impossible to make any reference to the return, from the brief mention made of it by Baines.

Perhaps some one of your Lancashire correspondents may be acquainted with the sources of the learned historian's information. If so, it would much oblige your correspondent to be directed to them, as also to any of the Lancashire genealogical authorities referring to the district of Lonsdale South of the Sands.

Observer.

Rotation of the Earth.—Has the experiment which about two years ago was much talked of, for demonstrating the rotation of the earth by means of a pendulum, been satisfactorily carried out and proved? And if so, where is the best place for finding an account of it? The diagram by Mr. Little in the Illustrated London News does not seem to explain the matter very fully.

[?]

Nelson and Wellington.—The following statement has been going the round of the American newspapers since the death of the Duke of Wellington. Is it true?—"Lord Nelson was the eighteenth in descent from King Edward I., and the Duke of Wellington was descended from the same monarch."

Uneda.

Are White Cats deaf?—White cats are reputed to be "hard of hearing." I have known many instances, and in all stupidity seemed to accompany the deafness. Can any instances be given of white cats possessing the function of hearing in anything like perfection?

Shirley Hibberd.

Arms in Dugdale's "Warwickshire," &c.—In Dugdale's Warwickshire (1656), p. 733. fig. 21., is a coat of arms from the Prior's Lodgings at Maxstoke, viz. Or, fretty of ten pieces sa. with a canton gu. And in Shaw's Hist. of Staffordshire, vol. i. p. *210., is the notice of a similar coat from Armitage Church, near Rugeley, extracted out of Church Notes, by Wyrley the herald, taken about 1597: viz. "Rugeley as before, impaling O. fretty of ... S. with a canton G. Query if ..."

Dugdale gives another coat, p. 111. fig. 12., from the windows of Trinity Church, Coventry; viz. Arg. on a chev. sa. three stars of the first. There is a mitre over this coat.

Can any of the correspondents of "N. & Q." assign the family names to these arms? Does the mitre necessarily imply a bishop or mitred abbot; and, if not, does it belong to John de Ruggeley, who was Abbot of Merevale (not far from Coventry) temp. Hen. VI., one branch of whose family bore—Arg. on a chev. sa. three mullets of the first. I may observe that this John was perhaps otherwise connected with Coventry; for Edith, widow of Nicholas de Ruggeley, his brother, left a legacy, says Dugd., p. 129., to an anchorite mured up at Stivichall Church, a member of St. Michael's Church, Coventry.

The same coat (i. e. with the mullets) is assigned by Dugd., p. 661. fig. 12., to the name of Knell.

J. W. S. R.

Tombstone in Churchyard.—Does any one know of a legible inscription older than 1601?

A. C.

Argot and Slang.—I shall be much obliged by learning from any correspondent the etymons of argot (French) and slang, as applied to language; and when did the latter term first come into use?

Thos. Lawrence.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Priests' Surplices.—Will some of the readers of "N. & Q." favour me with a decision or authority on the following point? Does a priest's surplice differ from that worn by a lay vicar, or vicar choral? I have been an old choir-boy; and some few years since, as a boy, used to remark that the priests' surplices worn at St. Paul's, the Chapel Royal, and Westminster Abbey, were, as a sempstress would term it, gaged, or stitched down in rows over the shoulders some seven or eight times at the distance of about half an inch from each other. In the cathedral churches of Durham, York, Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and Oxford, I have remarked their almost universal adoption; but, to the best of my belief, I have never seen such a description of vestment in use among parochial clergymen, above half-a-dozen times, and I am desirous of knowing if the gaged surplice is peculiar to cathedrals and collegiate churches (I have even seen canons residentiary in them, habited in the lay vicar's surplice), or is the surplice used by choristers, undergraduates, and vicars choral, which, according to my early experience, is one without needlework, the correct officiating garment; the latter is almost universally used at funerals, where the officiating priest seldom wears either his scarf or hood, and presents anything but a dignified appearance when he crowns this négligée with one of our grotesque chimney-pot hats, to the exclusion of the more appropriate college cap.

Amanuensis.

John, Brother German to David II.—Can any of your readers solve the problem in Scotch history, who was John, brother german to King David II., son of Robert Bruce? David II., in a charter to the Priory of Rostinoth, uses these words: "Pro salute animæ nostræ, etc., ac ob benevolentiam et affectionem specialem quam erga dictum prioratum devote gerimus eo quod ossa celebris memoriæ Johannis fratris nostri germani ibidem (the Priory) humata quiescunt dedimus, etc., viginti marcas sterlingorum, etc." Dated at Scone, "in pleno parliamento nostro tento ibidem decimo die Junii anno regni sexto decimo."

The expression "celebris memoriæ" might almost be held to indicate that John had lived to manhood, but is perhaps only a style of royalty; nevertheless, the passage altogether seems to lead to the inference, that the person had at least survived the age of infancy. King Robert's bastard son, Sir Robert Bruce, had a grant of the lands of Finhaven, in the neighbourhood of Rostinoth.[^[6]]

De Camera.

Scott, Nelson's Secretary.—Can any of your readers give me information as to the pedigree and family of John Scott, Esq., public secretary to Lord Nelson? He was killed at Trafalgar on board the Victory; and dying while his sons were yet very young, his descendants possess little knowledge on the subject to which I have alluded. He was, I think, born at Fochabers, near Gordon Castle, where his mother is known to have died.

A Subscriber.

The Axe which beheaded Anne Boleyn.—A friend of mine has excited my curiosity by stating, that in his school-boy readings of the history of England, he learned that the axe which deprived Henry VIII.'s second wife (Anne Boleyn) of her head was preserved as a relic in the Northgate Street of Kent's ancient citie, Canterbury. I have written to friends living in that locality for a confirmation of such a strange fact; but they plead ignorance. Can any of your numerous readers throw any light relative to this subject upon the benighted mind of

Philip West.

Roger Outlawe.—A friend of mine in Germany has met with some ancient rolls, said to have been from the Irish Court of Common Pleas, chiefly of the time of Edward III., and headed thus:

"Communia placita apud Dublin coram fratre Rogero Outlawe priore hospitii sancti Johannis de Jerusalem in hibernia tenens locum Johannis Darcy le Cosyn Justiciarii hiberniæ apud Dublin die pasche in viiij mense anno B. Etii post ultimum conquestum hiberniæ quarto."

Can any person state who this Roger Outlawe was? And is it not singular that a prior of a religious and military establishment should be qualified to sit as locum tenens of a judge in a law court?

H. T. Ellacombe.

Clyst St. George.

"Berte au Grand Pied."—I should be glad to know what is the history or legend of the goose-footed queen, whose figure Mr. Laing, in his Norway, p. 70. 8vo. edition, says is on the portals of four French cathedrals.

Thos. Lawrence.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Lying by the Walls.—What is the origin of the phrase "Lying by the walls," an euphemism for dead? It was very commonly used in this county some years ago. Instead of saying "Poor M. or N. is dead," they always said "Poor M. or N. lies by the walls."

R. P.

St. Ives, Hunts.

Constables of France (Vol. vi., pp. 128. 254.).—Has no person been appointed to fill that high office since the death of the Duc de Luynes, in 1621?

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

St. John's Church, Shoreditch.—The church of St. John, within the priory of Holywell, Shoreditch, and the chapel adjoining it, built by Sir Thomas Lovel, treasurer of the household to King Henry VII., knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, &c.

Is there any better or other account of this priory, church, and chapel than that given in the Monasticon? Judging by the statement copied by Mr. Lysons from the original entry in the books of the College of Arms, the chapel must have been a splendid building. Sir Thomas Lovel was buried there on the 8th June, 1525, "in a tombe of whyte marbell which both hit and the chappell were founded by hym, and it stondeth on the southe syde of the quyre of the saide churche." At his funeral there were present the Bishop of London, Lord St. John, Sir Richard Wyngfield, and many others, nobles and gentlemen. The Abbot of Waltham, the Prior of St. Mary Spital, four orders of friars, the Mayor and all the aldermen of London, the gentlemen of the Inns of Court, the Lord Steward, and all the clerks of London, &c., also attended. What a contrast to the present condition of the place, now a scavenger's yard, once the apparently last resting-place of the councillor of a mighty sovereign! "They that did feed delicately, that were brought up in scarlet, embrace dunghills. The holy house where our fathers worshipped is laid waste."

Warden S. Hendry.

P. S.—Part of the chapel is now to be found under the floor of the "Old King John," Holywell Lane. The stone doorway into the porter's lodge of the priory still exists; but, from the accumulation of earth, the crown of the arch is six feet below the ground. I took a sketch of it, and some other remains of the priory, also under ground, about ten years ago.

W. S. H.

Footnote 6: [(return)]

Dr. Jamieson has a note on King David II., brother, in his edition, of Barbour's Bruce; but does not quote the words of the charter so fully as they are here given.—The Bruce and Wallace, 4to., Edin. 1820, vol. i. p. 485.

Minor Queries with Answers.

Sir John Thompson.—What are the crest, arms, motto, and supporters of Sir John Thompson, Bart., created Baron Haversham, of Haversham and Newport Pagnel, about the eighth year of William III.?

R. P. D.

[Or, on a fesse indented az. three etoiles ar.; on a canton of the second, a sun in his glory, ppr.—Crest, an arm, erect, vested gu. cuff ar. holding in the hand ppr. five ears of wheat or. Motto, "In lumine luce."—Robson's British Herald, vol. ii. s. v.; and for the plate, vol. iii. pl. 50.]

Ring, the Marriage.—When and how did the use of the ring, in the marriage ceremony, originate? Is it of Christian origin; or is it derived from the Jews, or from the Greeks or Romans?

Jonathan Pim.

[Brand quotes Vallancey and Leo Modena for the use of the marriage ring among the Jews (Popular Antiq., vol. ii. p. 103. edit. 1849). Wheatly, however, has given the most detailed account of its origin:—"The reason," he says, "why a ring was pitched upon for the pledge rather than anything else was, because anciently the ring was a seal, by which all orders were signed, and things of value secured (Gen. xxxviii. 18., Esther iii. 10. 12., 1 Maccab. vi. 15.); and therefore the delivery of it was a sign that the person to whom it was given was admitted into the highest friendship and trust (Gen. xli. 42.). For which reason it was adopted as a ceremony in marriage to denote that the wife, in consideration of her being espoused to the man, was admitted as a sharer in her husband's counsels, and a joint-partner in his honour and estate: and therefore we find that not only the ring, but the keys also were in former times delivered to her at the marriage. That the ring was in use among the old Romans, we have several undoubted testimonies (Juvenal, Sat. vi. ver. 26, 27.; Plin. Hist. Nat., lib. iii. c. i.; Tertull. Apol., c. vi. p. 7. A.). Pliny, indeed, tells us, that in his time the Romans used an iron ring without any jewel; but Tertullian hints, that in the former ages it was a ring of gold."—Rational Illustration of the Common Prayer, p. 390. edit. 1759.]

Amusive.—Is this word peculiar to Thomson, or is it made use of by other poets? Its meaning does not appear to be very definite. In the Spring it is applied to the rooks, with their "ceaseless caws amusive;" in the Summer to the thistledown, which "amusive floats;" and in the Autumn, the theory of the supposed cause of mountain springs is called an "amusive dream." Thomson seems to have been partial to these kind of adjectives, "effusive," "diffusive," "prelusive," &c.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

[A reference to Richardson's Dictionary will show that, however fond Thomson may have been of this word, it is not one peculiar to him. Whitehead says:

"To me 'twas given to wake th' amusive reed,"

and Chandler, in his Travels in Greece, speaks of the wind "murmuring amusively among the pines.">[

Belfry Towers separate from the Body of the Church.—At Mylor, near Falmouth, there is an old tower for the bells (where they are rung every Sunday), separate from the church itself, which has a very low tower. Are there many other instances of this? I do not remember to have seen any.

J. S. A.

[If our correspondent will refer to the last edition of the Glossary of Architecture, s. v. Campanile, he will learn that though bell towers are generally attached to the church, they are sometimes unconnected with it, as at Chichester cathedral, and are sometimes united merely by a covered passage, as at Lapworth, Warwickshire. There are several examples of detached bell-towers still remaining, as at Evesham, Worcestershire; Berkeley, Gloucestershire; Walton, Norfolk; Ledbury, Herefordshire; and a very curious one entirely of timber, with the frame for the bells springing from the ground, at Pembridge, Herefordshire. At Salisbury a fine early English detached campanile, 200 feet in height, surmounted by a timber turret and spire, stood near the north-west corner of the cathedral, but was destroyed by Wyatt.]

An Easter-day Sun.—In that verse of Sir John Suckling's famous Ballad upon a Wedding, wherein occurs the simile of the "little mice," what is the meaning of the allusion to the Easter-day sun?—

"But oh! she dances such a way,

No sun upon an Easter-day

Is half so fine a sight!"

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

[It was formerly a common belief that the sun danced on Easter-day: see Brand's Popular Antiquities, vol. i. p. 161. et seq. So general was it, that Sir Thomas Browne treats on it in his Vulgar Errors, vol. ii. p. 87. ed. Bohn.]

Replies.

HAMILTON QUERIES.

(Vol. vii., p. 285.)

On reference to the Peerages of Sir Harris Nicolas and Wood, I feel no doubt that the father of Lord Spencer Hamilton, as Tee Bee remarks, was the fifth Duke of Hamilton, and not the third, as Collins (edition Brydges) states, who misled me. Perhaps the perplexity, if any, arose from Anne Duchess of Hamilton, the inheritress of the ducal honours by virtue of the patent of 1643, after the deaths of her father and uncle s. p. m., having obtained a life dukedom for her husband, William Earl of Selkirk, and, subsequently to his decease, having surrendered all her titles in favour of their eldest son, James Earl of Arran, who was in 1698 made Duke of Hamilton, with the same precedency of the original creation of 1643, as if he had succeeded thereto.

Sir William Hamilton, the ambassador, married first, Jan. 25, 1752, the only child of Hugh Barlow, Esq., of Lawrenny in Pembrokeshire, with whom he got a large estate: she died at Naples, Aug. 25, 1782, and was buried in Wales. His second lady was Emma Harte, a native of Hawarden in Flintshire; where her brother, then a bricklayer working for the late Sir Stephen Glynne, was pointed out to me forty years ago. In Wood's Peerage it is stated that Sir W. Hamilton's second marriage took place at London, Sept. 6, 1794: he died in April, 1803, and was buried in Slebech Church.

I well remember Single-speech Hamilton, who was a fried of the family, dining with my father when I was a little boy; and I still retain the impression of his having been a tall and thin old gentleman, very much out of health. He left a treatise called Parliamentary Logick, published in 1808. The brief memoir of the author prefixed to the work, makes no mention of him as a member of the House of Hamilton; but it is said that he derived his name of Gerard from his god-mother Elizabeth, daughter of Digby, Lord Gerard of Bromley, widow of James, fourth Duke of Hamilton, who fell in the duel with Lord Mohun, which looks as if some affinity was recognised. The same authority tells us that William Gerard Hamilton was the only child of a Scotch advocate, William Hamilton, by Hannah Hay, one of the sisters of David Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller; and that he removed to London, and practised with some reputation at the English bar. Mr. W. G. Hamilton died, unmarried, in July, 1796, æt. sixty-eight.

Braybrooke.

Tee Bee has, by his Queries about Sir W. Hamilton, recalled some most painful reminiscences connected with our great naval hero. According to the statement in the New General Biographical Dictionary, Sir William Hamilton was married to his first wife in the year 1755; but although it is asserted that she brought her husband 5000l. a-year, her name is not given. She died in 1782, and in 1791 "he married Emma Harte, the fascinating, mischievous, and worthless Lady Hamilton." Pettigrew, in his Memoirs of Nelson, says, that this marriage took place at St. George's, Hanover Square, on the 6th of September, 1791. Tee Bee will find a full account of Lady H. in the above-mentioned work of Pettigrew.

F. S. B.

THE WOOD OF THE CROSS.

(Vol. vii., p. 177.)

I never heard of our Lord's cross having been made of elder wood. The common idea, legend, or tradition, that prevailed formerly was, that the upright beam of the cross was made of cedar, the cross-beam of cypress, the piece on which the inscription was written of olive, and the piece for the feet of palm.

The legend concerning the wood of the cross is very curious, and may be analysed as follows:—When Adam fell sick, he sent his son Seth to the gate of the garden of Eden to beg of the angel some drops of the oil of mercy that distilled from the tree of life. The angel replied that none could receive this favour till five thousand years had passed away. He gave him, however, a cutting from the tree, and it was planted upon Adam's grave. It grew into a tree with three branches. The rod of Moses was afterwards cut from this tree. Solomon had it cut down to make of it a pillar for his palace. The Queen of Sheba, when she went to visit Solomon, would not pass by it, as she said it would one day cause the destruction of the Jews. Solomon then ordered it to be removed and buried. The spot where it was buried was afterwards dug for the pool of Bethsaida, and the mysterious tree communicated the power of healing to the waters. As the time of the Passion of Christ approached, the wood floated on the surface of the water, and was taken for the upright beam of the cross. See this curious legend at greater length in the Gospel of Nicodemus; the Legenda Aurea at the feasts of the Discovery and Exaltation of the Cross; Curzon's Monasteries of the Levant, p. 163.; and Didron's Iconography, p. 367., Bohn's edition.

I think, however, that I can explain the origin of the question put to Rubi by his poor parishioner as to the cross having been made of elder wood. His question may have sprung from a corruption of an old tradition or legend regarding not our Saviour, but Judas his betrayer. Judas is said to have hanged himself on an elder tree. Sir John Maundeville, in his description of Jerusalem, after speaking of the Pool of Siloe, adds,

"And fast by is still the elder tree on which Judas hanged himself for despair, when he sold and betrayed our Lord."—P. 175., Bohn's edit.

To return to the wood of the cross. In Sir John Maundeville's time a spot was pointed out at Jerusalem as the spot where the tree grew:

"To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of the cross grew."—P. 175.

and he speaks of the wood of this tree as having once been used as a bridge over the brook Cedron (p. 176.). Henry Maundrell describes a Greek convent that he visited, about half an hour's distance from Jerusalem:

"That which most deserves to be noted in it, is the reason of its name and foundation. It is because there is the earth that nourished the root, that bore the tree, that yielded the timber, that made the cross. Under the high altar you are shown a hole in the ground where the stump of the tree stood."—P. 462.

These are some of the legendary traditions regarding the history and site of the wood of the cross, up to the time of the Passion of Christ.

Ceyrep.

EDMUND CHALONER.

(Vol. vi., p. 292.)

I have been waiting for several months in expectation of seeing some satisfactory reply to Ursula's Query. It seems, however, that, in common with myself, your numerous correspondents are quite at a nonplus. Wood, in his Athenæ Oxoniensis, vol. ii. p. 163., mentions this Edmund Chaloner as being about nineteen (Ursula says twenty-one) years old at the death of his father, James Chaloner, in 1660. Wood, Granger, as also Burke in his Extinct Baronetage, represent James as being the fourth son of Sir Thomas Chaloner of Gisborough, in the county of York, and this appears to be the general impression as to his parentage. In a History of Cheshire, however, written, I believe, by Cowdray, and published in 1791, the author claims him as a native of that county, and makes him to be of much humbler birth and descent than any of his other biographers. Hear him in his own words:

"Our succeeding (Cheshire) collectors form a family harmonic trio, a father, son, and grandson, of the surname of Chaloner, and of the several Christian names, Thomas, Jacob, and James. Thomas was an arms-painter in Chester about 1594; he knew the value of learning sufficiently to give his son a better education than he received himself. And this son followed the same occupation in Chester, and made collections, about the year 1620. But it was James, the grandson, who reflected the greatest credit upon his family, by a very concise, accurate, and sensible account of the Isle of Man, printed at the end of King's Vale Royal, in 1656. He laid the foundation of a learned education in our much honoured college (Brazennoze); and when the parliament invested Lord Fairfax with the Seignory of Man, he was one of his lordship's three commissioners for settling the affairs of that island. The antiquarian collections of all the three Chaloners are valuable."

Without specially binding myself to either one of these conflicting testimonies, I may be allowed to suggest that, apart from any proof to the contrary, the inference that he was a native of Chester is a perfectly fair and legitimate one. His Short Treatise of the Isle of Man, which was the only work he ever sent to press, was printed at the end of that famous Cheshire work, the Vale Royal of England, in 1656, and was illustrated with engravings by Daniel King, the editor of that work, himself a Cheshire man. Independent of this, his biographer Wood informs us that he was "a singular lover of antiquities," and that he "made collections of arms, monuments, &c., in Staffordshire, Salop, and Chester," the which collections are now, I believe, in the British Museum. He made no collections for Yorkshire, nor yet for London, where he is stated by Wood to have been born. One thing is certain, James Chaloner of Chester was living at the time this treatise was written, and was, moreover, a famous antiquary, and a collector for this, his native county; but whether he was, de facto, the regicide, or merely his cotemporary, I leave it to older and wiser heads to determine.

T. Hughes.

Chester.

*[In the Harleian Collection, No. 1927., will be found "A paper Book in 8vo., wherein are contained, Poems, Impreses, and other Collections in Prose and Verse; written by Thomas Chaloner and Randle Holme, senior, both Armes-Painters in Chester, with other Notes of less value."—Ed.]

"ANYWHEN" AND "SELDOM-WHEN:" UNOBSERVED INSTANCES OF SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE LATTER.

(Vol. vii., p. 38.)

Mr. Fraser's remark about the word anywhen has brought to my mind two passages in Shakspeare which have been always hitherto rendered obscure by wrong printing and wrong pointing. The first occurs in Measure for Measure, Act IV. Sc. 2., where the Duke says:

"This is a gentle provost: seldom-when

The steeled gaoler is the friend of men."

Here the compound word, signifying rarely, not often, has been always printed as two words; and Mr. Collier, following others, has even placed a comma between seldom and when.

The other passage occurs in the Second Part of King Henry IV., Act IV. Sc. 4.; where Worcester endeavours to persuade the king that Prince Henry will leave his wild courses. King Henry replies:

"'Tis seldom-when the bee doth leave her comb

In the dead carrion."

Here also the editors have always printed it as two words; and, as before, Mr. Collier here repeats the comma.

That the word was current with our ancestors, is certain; and I have no doubt that other instances of it may be found. We have a similar compound in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, v. 7958.:

"I me rejoyced of my lyberté,

That selden-tyme is founde in mariage."

Palsgrave, too, in his Eclaircissement de la Langue Françoise, 1530, has—

"Seldom-what, Gueres souvent."

Seldom-when, as far as my experience goes, seems to have passed out of use where archaisms still linger; but anywhen may be heard any day and every day in Surrey and Sussex. Those who would learn the rationale of these words will do well to consult Dr. Richardson's most excellent Dictionary, under the words An, Any, When, and Seldom.

This is at least a step towards Mr. Fraser's wish of seeing anywhen legitimatised; for what superior claim had seldom-when to be enshrined and immortalised in the pages of the poet of the world?

S. W. Singer.

Manor Place, South Lambeth.

CHICHESTER: LAVANT.

(Vol. vii., p. 269.)

Your correspondent C. affirms, as a mark of the Roman origin of Chichester, that "the little stream that runs through it is called the Lavant, evidently from lavando!" Now nobody, as old Camden says, "has doubted the Romanity of Chichester;" but I am quite sure that the members of the Archæological Institute (who meet next summer upon the banks of this same Lavant) would decidedly demur to so singular a proof of it.

C. is informed that, in the fourth volume of the Archæologia, p. 27., there is a paper by the Hon. Daines Barrington, on the term Lavant, which, it appears, is commonly applied in Sussex to all brooks which are dry at some seasons, as is the case with the Chichester river.

"From the same circumstance," it is added, "the sands between Conway and Beaumaris in Anglesey, are called the Lavant sands, because they are dry when the tide ebbs; as are also the sands which are passed at low water between Cartmell and Lancaster, for the same reason."

To trace the origin of the term Lavant, we must, I conceive, go back to a period more remote than the Roman occupation; for that remarkable people, who conquered the inhabitants of Britain, and partially succeeded in imposing Roman appellations upon the greater towns and cities, never could change the aboriginal names of the rivers and mountains of the country. "Our hills, forests, and rivers," says Bishop Percy, "have generally retained their old Celtic names." I venture, therefore, to suggest, that the British word for river, Av, or Avon, which seems to form the root of the word Lavant, may possibly be modified in some way by the prefix, or postfix, so as to give, to the compound word, the signification of an intermittent stream.

The fact that, amidst all the changes which have passed over the face of our country, the primitive names of the grander features of nature still remain unaltered, is beautifully expressed by a great poet recently lost to us:

"Mark! how all things swerve

From their known course, or vanish like a dream;

Another language spreads from coast to coast;

Only, perchance, some melancholy stream,

And some indignant hills old names preserve,

When laws, and creeds, and people all are lost!"

Wordsworth's Eccles. Sonnets, xii.

W. L. Nichols.

Bath.

SCARFS WORN BY CLERGYMEN.

(Vol. vii., p. 269.)

The mention of the distinction between the broad and narrow scarf, alluded to by me (Vol. vii., p. 215.), was made above thirty years ago, and in Ireland. I have a distinct recollection of the statement as to what had been the practice, then going out of use. I am sorry that I cannot, in answer to C.'s inquiry, recollect who the person was who made it. Nor am I able to specify instances of the partial observance of the distinction, as I had not till long after learned the wisdom of "making a note:" but I had occasion to remark that dignitaries, &c. frequently wore wider scarfs than other clergymen (not however that the narrower one was ever that slender strip so improperly and servilely adopted of late from the corrupt custom of Rome, which has curtailed all ecclesiastical vestments); so that when the discussion upon this subject was revived by others some years ago, it was one to which my mind had been long familiar, independently of any ritual authority.

I hope C. will understand my real object in interfering in this subject. It is solely that I may do a little (what others, I hope, can do more effectually) towards correcting the very injurious, and, I repeat, inadequate statement of the Quart. Review for June, 1851, p. 222. However trifling the matter may be in itself, it is no trifling matter to involve a considerable portion of the clergy, and among them many who are most desirous to uphold both the letter and the spirit of the Church of England, and to resist all real innovation, in a charge of lawlessness. Before the episcopal authority, there so confidently invoked, be interposed, let it be proved that this is not a badge of the clerical order, common to all the churches of Christendom, and actually recognised by the rules, in every respect so truly Catholic, of our own Church. The matter does not, I apprehend, admit of demonstration one way or the other, at least till we have fresh evidence. But to me, as to many others, analogies seem all in favour of the scarf being such a badge; and not only this, but the very regulation of our royal ecclesiastical authorities. The injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, in 1564, seem to mark the tippet as a distinction between clergymen and laymen, who otherwise, in colleges and choirs at least, would have none. I also am strongly of opinion that the tippets mentioned in the 58th and 74th English canons are the two scarfs referred to: the silken tippet (or broad scarf) being for such priests or deacons as hold certain offices, or are M.A., LL.B., or of superior degree; the plain tippet (or narrow scarf) being for all ministers who are non-graduates (Bachelors of Arts were not anciently considered as graduates, but rather as candidates for a degree, as they are still styled in many places abroad); so that all in orders may have tippets. This notion is confirmed by the fact, that the scarf was frequently called a tippet in Ireland within memory. And in a letter, discussing this very subject, in the Gentleman's Mag. (for 1818, part ii. p. 218.[^[7]]), the testimony of one is given who had for upwards of fifty years considered the two words as identical, and had heard them in his youth used indiscriminately by aged clergymen. It is notorious that in Ireland, time out of mind, tippets have been more generally worn than hoods in parish churches there. I am not sure (though I lay no stress on the conjecture) whether this may not have been in consequence of the option apparently given by the Canons of wearing either hood or tippet.

It is not correct to restrict the customary use of the scarf to doctors, prebendaries, and chaplains. In some cathedrals the immemorial custom has been to assign it to minor canons and clerical vicars also. At Canterbury, indeed, the minor canons, except otherwise qualified, do not wear it. (But is not this an exception? Was it always so? And, by the way, can any cathedral member of old standing testify as to the customary distinction in his church between the two scarfs, either as to size or materials?) The very general use of it in towns cannot be denied.

I may add, that Bishop Jebb used to disapprove of its disuse by country clergymen. In his Charge he requests that "all beneficed clergymen" of his diocese "who are Masters of Arts, or of any superior degree, and who by chaplaincies or otherwise are entitled to the distinction, may with their surplices wear scarfs or tippets." This apparently was his construction of the Canons.

John Jebb.

Footnote 7: [(return)]

See also p. 315.; and 1819, part i. p. 593.

The narrow scarf, called the stole or orarium, is one of the most ancient vestments used by the Christian clergy, representing in its mystical signification the yoke of Christ. Though it may be true that its use is not enjoined by any modern rubric or canon, custom, I think, fully warrants the clergy in wearing it. What other sanction than custom is there for the use of bands?

E. H. A.

A great deal of very interesting matter bearing upon this question, both in an ecclesiastical and antiquarian point of view, though no definite conclusion is arrived at, will be found in a pamphlet by G. A. French, entitled The Tippets of the Canons Ecclesiastical.

An Oxford B.C.L.

INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS.

(Vol. vii., p. 127.)

The following were lines much used when I was at school, and I believe are still so now:

"This book is mine

By right divine;

And if it go astray,

I'll call you kind

My desk to find

And put it safe away."

Another inscription of a menacing kind was,—

"This book is one thing,

My fist is another;

Touch this one thing,

You'll sure feel the other."

A friend was telling me of one of these morsels, which, considering the circumstances, might be said to have been "insult added to injury;" for happening one day in church to have a book alight on his head from the gallery above, on opening it to discover its owner, he found the following positive sentence:

"This book doant blong to you,

So puttem doon."

Russell Gole.

The following salutary advice to book-borrowers might suitably take its position in the collection already alluded to in "N. & Q.":

"Neither blemish this book, or the leaves double down,

Nor lend it to each idle friend in the town;

Return it when read; or if lost, please supply

Another as good, to the mind and the eye.

With right and with reason you need but be friends,

And each book in my study your pleasure attends."

O. P.

Birmingham.

Is not this curious warning worthy of preservation in your columns? It is copied from a black-letter label pasted to the inside of an old book cover:

"Steal not this booke, my honest friende,

For fear ye gallows be ye ende;

For if you doe, the Lord will say,

'Where is that booke you stole away?'"

J. C.

To the collection of inscriptions in books commenced by Balliolensis, allow me to add the following:

"Hic liber est meus,

Testis et est Deus;

Si quis me quærit,

Hic nomen erit."