Vol. IV.—No. 101. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
VOL. IV.—No. 101.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4. 1851.
Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4d.
CONTENTS.
NOTES:—
The Battle of Brunanburgh, by Dr. Thurnam [249]
The Caxton Coffer, by Bolton Corney [250]
Accuracy Of Printing [250]
Folk Lore:—Discovering the Bodies of the Drowned—Tom Chipperfeild—East Norfolk Folk Lore [251]
Sermon of Bishop Jeremy Taylor, by James Crossley [251]
Cowley and Gray, No. 11. [252]
Minor Notes:—Remains of Sir Hugh Montgomery—Westminster Hall—Meaning of "Log-ship"—Locusts of the New Testament [254]
QUERIES:—
Coinage of Vabalathus, Prince of Palmyra, by the Rev. E. S. Taylor [255]
Minor Queries:—Chaucer, how pronounced—The Island of Ægina—Statute of Limitations Abroad—Tapestry Story of Justinian—Praed's Works—Folietani—Berlin Mean Time—Defoe's House at Stoke Newington—Oxford Fellowships—Leonard Fell and Judge Fell—"Cleanliness is next to Godliness"—Davies Queries [255]
MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:—Poet referred to by Bacon—The Violin—Sir Thomas Malory, Knt.—Archbishop of Spalatro—Play of "The Spaniards in Peru"—Selion [257]
REPLIES:—
Prophecies of Nostradamus [258]
Borough-English [259]
Passage in Virgil [260]
Replies to Minor Queries:—Ell-rake—Freedom from Serpents—Nao, for Naw, for Ship—De Grammont—The Termination "-ship"—The Five Fingers—Marriages within ruined Churches—Death of Cervantes—Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor—Gray's Obligations to Jeremy Taylor—Blessing by the Hand—Sacre Cheveux—Pope and Flatman—Linteamina and Surplices [260]
MISCELLANEOUS:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. [263]
Books and Odd Volumes wanted [263]
Notices to Correspondents [263]
Advertisements [264]
[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
BATTLE OF BRUNANBURGH.
It is remarkable that the site of this great battle, the effects of which were so important to the Anglo-Saxon power, remains to this day undetermined.
The several chroniclers who describe it give various names to the locality, though modern authors generally adopt the name of Brunanburgh or "Town of the Fountains." Not however to insist on such variations in the name as Brunandune, Bruneberik, Bruneford, and Brumby, Simeon of Durham describes the battle as occurring at a place named Wendune, otherwise Weondune, to which moreover he assigns the further name of Ethrunnanwerch. The locality has been sought for in most improbable places,—in Northumberland and Cheshire. There can, however, be little or no doubt that this Waterloo of the Anglo-Saxons, as it has been called, is really to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Humber; though, whether on the northern or southern bank of that river seems quite uncertain: so far at least as the evidence hitherto adduced affords us the means of judging. In the Winchester volume of the British Archæological Association, MR. HESLEDEN states his belief that he has traced the site of this battle on the south of the Humber, near Barton in Lincolnshire; but the evidence on which he grounds this opinion, whilst demanding for this locality further consideration, seems to me far from conclusive. MR. HESLEDEN describes some curious earth-works in this situation, and thinks he has discovered the site of Anlaff's camp at Barrow, and that of Athelstan at Burnham (formerly, as he informs us, written "Brunnum"), where is an eminence called "Black Hold," which he thinks was the actual seat of the battle. At Barrow are places called "Barrow Bogs" and "Blow Wells." Does MR. HESLEDEN think we have here any reference to the "fountains" giving their name to Brunanburgh?
It is very desirable, in a topographical and historical point of view, that the site of this remarkable contest between the Anglo-Saxons and the allied Scandinavians and British reguli under Anlaff, should be determined on satisfactory data; and the allusion to it by MR. HESLEDEN, in a recent communication to "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. iv., p. 180.), induces me to call the attention of your readers, and of that gentleman in particular, to some mention of this battle, topographically not unimportant, which is to be found in Egil's Saga; the hero of which was himself a combatant at Brunanburgh, under the standard of Athelstan, and which appears to have escaped the observation of those who have discussed the probable site of this deadly encounter. The circumstantial account to be found in the Saga, chap. lii. and liii., has not been overlooked by Sharon Turner, who however does not quote the passages having a special topographical interest. It is remarkable that the name of Wendune, for which among Anglo-Saxon writers there appears the single authority of Simeon of Durham, is confirmed by the testimony of the Saga: at least there can be little doubt, that the Vinheida of the Saga is but a Norse form for the Wendun or Weondune of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler. The natural and other features of the locality are not neglected by the author of the Saga, who describes it as a wild and uncultivated spot, surrounded by woods, having the town of Vinheida not far distant on the north. These particulars I take from the Latin of the Saga; but the reader of the Icelandic would possibly find more minute characteristics, which may have been lost in the process of translation. As, by his residence in the neighbourhood, MR. HESLEDEN is favourably situated for the further prosecution of this inquiry, I should be glad to find whether his conclusion as to the site of the battle received confirmation, or otherwise, from the passages of the Saga to which I have now ventured to direct attention.
I may here observe, that if we consider the situation of Jorvik, or York, the capital of the then Norse kingdom of Northumbria, we shall perhaps conclude that it was on the Yorkshire rather than on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, that—
"Athelstan, king,
of earls the Lord,
of heroes the bracelet-giver,
And his brother eke,
Edmund etheling,
life-long-glory
in battle won
with edges of swords
near Brumby."
This conclusion is to some extent confirmed, when we connect with the above the tradition or historical fact, whichever we regard it, that it was after this battle that Athelstan, in redemption of a previous vow, made various costly offerings on the altar of St. John of Beverley, and endowed that church with great privileges, the memory of which exists to the present day. It must however be admitted, that such a presumption is anything but conclusive in regard to a topographical question of this description. In conclusion, I would suggest that the Domesday Book for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire should be carefully examined, in order to ascertain whether the place in question, under any of the names assigned to it, is there to be found.
JOHN THURNAM, M.D.
Devizes.
THE CAXTON COFFER.
"Sans titres on fait des romans; pour écrire l'histoire il faut des preuves authentiques, des monumens certains."—J. J. Oberlin, Annales de la vie de Jean Gutenberg.
Gratified by the approbation with which my suggestion of a Caxton memorial has been received, both publicly and privately, and acquiring fresh confidence in its success, it is my intention to make a second appeal to the lovers of literature when the excitement of the present year shall have passed away, and home-subjects shall re-assume their wonted powers of attraction.
In the mean time, I recommend an assemblage of notes on the life and works of Caxton, designed to correct current errors; to expose baseless conjectures; to indicate probable sources of information, or to furnish such novel information as research may produce; and to assist in establishing the principles on which such a memorial as that suggested should be prepared and edited.
In justification of this advice, I must express my belief that there have been few men of celebrity on whose life and labours so many erroneous statements, and inadmissible conjectures, have been published in works of general repute.
Requesting the favour of contributions to The Caxton coffer from such persons as may take an interest in the success of the enterprise, I now proceed to set an example:—
"I have a great number of books printed by Caxton, and in very good condition, except a very few. I think the number is forty-two. Have you any notes relating to that good honest man? I think he deserves those titles, and if I may add industrious too."—Edward, earl of Oxford, to Thomas Hearne, 1731.
"In Osborne's shop-catalogue for 1749, No. 5954, occurs the 'Catalogue of the late E. of Oxford's library, as it was purchased, (being the original) inlaid with royal paper, in 16 vols. 4to. with the prices prefixed to each book—pr. 10. 10. 0.—N.B. There never was any other copy of this catalogue with the prices added to it.'—The same article, at the same price, is repeated in his cat. for 1750, No. 6583, and for 1751, No. 6347—after which, being discontinued in his subsequent cats. it was probably sold. Quy. to whom and where is it now?"—Richard Heber, c. 1811.
The first of the above notes is copied from Letters written by eminent persons, London [Oxford], 1813. 8o. The second note, which concludes with a query, forms part of some manuscript memoranda, now in my possession, on the matchless library to which it refers.
BOLTON CORNEY.
ACCURACY OF PRINTING.
Much of the copy forwarded by the contributors to "NOTES AND QUERIES" contains quotations from old books; which I presume are accurately given, without alteration of spelling or punctuation. The difficulty is this; that the printer, or perhaps even the editor, may sometimes alter what he supposes to be a contributor's error of copying. Thus, in Query 93. (Vol. iv., p. 151.), there is medulla grammaticæ, where I wrote grammatice, as in my authority: but the vile punctuation of the subsequent extract (which is also that of the original) is duly preserved. It would be desirable to have some symbol by which to call attention to the fact that some glaring error is real quotation, and is to be preserved in printing. For example, an indented line (~~~~) drawn under the words in question, or at the side, would warn the printer that he is not to correct any error, however gross. If you would suggest this, or any other method, and request your contributors generally to adopt it, an increased degree of confidence in the quotations would result.
"Nec [sic] intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus
Inciderit."
M.
[We are quite alive to the importance of our correspondent's suggestion. The excuse for such corrections by compositors and readers is, that copy frequently comes into their hands in such a state, that if they did not exercise a power somewhat beyond the strict limit of their duty, they would commit greater sins, and give more of offence both to writers and readers. It may be feared that some compositors would not know what was meant by an indented line, and would (especially if it was not carefully made) take it as a direction for Italics. The object may, however, probably be attained by the writer's placing in the margin, or in the line, or between the lines, so as to be either above or below the particular word or phrase to which it is meant to refer, the word "sic," with a line completely round it. All persons concerned in the practical part of printing understand, that "matter" which is thus circumscribed or circumlineated, is not to be printed, but is a private communication for the benefit of such readers of the written copy as it may concern. If there are many lines which require this caution, it will generally be enough to mark one or two of the first instances, for that will suffice to show that the writer knows that he is doing, and means to do, what looks as if it wanted correction.
We are inclined to add one suggestion, for which this seems to be a good opportunity, because it is peculiarly inapplicable to the correspondent who has drawn from us these remarks. It is this, that as those who know that they are telling a story which is likely to excite doubt, take more than usual care to put on a grave and honest countenance, so those who know that they are writing what is bad or questionable in grammar, spelling, &c., should use the precaution of being peculiarly legible.]
FOLK LORE.
Discovering the bodies of the Drowned (Vol. iv., p. 148.).
—It is curious that a similar practice to that of discovering the bodies of the drowned by loading a loaf with mercury, and putting it afloat on the stream, extracted from the Gent. Mag., seems to exist among the North American Indians. Sir James Alexander, in his account of Canada (L'Acadie, 2 vols., 1849), says, p. 26.:—
"The Indians imagine that in the case of a drowned body, its place may be discovered by floating a chip of cedar wood, which will stop and turn round over the exact spot: an instance occurred within my own knowledge, in the case of Mr. Lavery of Kingston Mill, whose boat overset, and the person was drowned near Cedar Island; nor could the body be discovered until this experiment was resorted to."
S.W.
Liverpool, Sept. 1851.
Tom Chipperfeild, &c.
—In Herrick's Works (W. and C. Tait, Edinburgh, 1823), p. 216., are the following lines:
"To his Booke.
"The dancing frier, tatter'd in the bush,
Those monstrous lies of little Robin Rush;
Tom Chipperfeild, and pritty lisping Ned,
That doted on a maide of gingerbread.
The flying pilcher, and the frisking dace,
With all the rabble of Tim Trundell's race,
Bred from the dunghils and adulterous rhimes,
Shall live, and thou not superlast all times?"
Can any of your correspondents versed in the folk lore of the West of England give me any explanation of Tom Chipperfeild and Co.?
E.N.W.
Southwark.
East Norfolk Folk Lore (Vol. iv., p. 53.).
—Cure for Ague. The cure mentioned by MR. E.S. TAYLOR above, I have just learnt has been practised with much success by some lady friends of mine for some years past amongst the poor of the parishes in which they have lived. From the number of cures effected by them, I have sent the same application (with the exception of using ginger instead of honey) to a relative of mine in India, who has been suffering from ague acutely, and am anxiously waiting to hear the result. It would be satisfactory to have the medical nature of the remedy, as well as its effects, accounted for; but I fear this would be considered as out of your province.
W.H.P.
SERMON OF BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR.
I have a 12mo. volume entitled—
"Christ's Yoke an easy Yoke, and yet the Gate to Heaven a straight Gate: in two excellent Sermons, well worthy the serious Perusal of the strictest Professors. By a Learned and Reverend Divine. Heb. xi. 4.: Who being dead yet speaketh. London, printed for F. Smith, at the Elephant and Castle, near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill, 1675."
Pp. 92., Exclusive of Preface.
Facing the title-page is a portrait of Bishop Taylor, engraved by Van Hove. The Preface, without mentioning the author's name, informs the reader that the two sermons following, "by means of a person of Honour yet living, are now come into the press for public use and benefit." The first sermon is on Matt. xi. 30.: "For my Yoke is easy, and my Burthen is light;" and is contained in Taylor's Life of Christ (Eden's edit. of his Works, vol. ii. pp. 515-528.). The second sermon is on Luke xiii. 23, 24., and begins "The life of a Christian is a perpetual contention for mastery;" and ends, "If we strive according to his holy Injunctions, we shall certainly enter, according to his holy promises, but else upon condition." This sermon does not appear, as far as I have been able to discover, in any collection of Taylor's Works, nor amongst his Sermons in the new edition; nor do I find the volume itself noticed by any of his biographers. It would be extraordinary if, when so much has been printed as part of his works which did not belong to him, a sermon indisputably his should have been omitted by all his various editors; a sermon, too, which every reader will allow to be a fine one. Perhaps the rev. editor of the new edition of Taylor's Works can explain the reason of this omission. I shall be glad to be corrected if I have overlooked the sermon in any part of the Bishop's collected Works.
JAMES CROSSLEY.
COWLEY AND GRAY, NO. II.
Gray, when alluding to Shakspeare, in his Pindaric ode on "The Progress of Poesy," had probably Cowley in memory:
"Far from the sun and summer gale,
In thy green lap was Nature's Darling laid,
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd.
To him the mighty mother did unveil
Her awful face: the dauntless child
Stretch'd forth his little arms and smil'd."
Wakefield, in one of his notes, remarks on this—
"An allusion perhaps, to that verse of Virgil,
'Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.'"
Instead of Virgil, I suspect that Gray was thinking of the first Nemean Ode of Pindar, wherein the infant Hercules is described as strangling the snakes sent to destroy him by Juno:
"ὁ δ' ὀρθὸν
μὲν ἄντεινεν κάρα,
πειρᾶτο δὲ πρῶτον μάχας,
δισσαῖσι δοιοὺς αὐχένων
μάρψας ἀφύκτοις χερσὶν ἑαῖς ὄφιας."
Let me give a portion of Cowley's translation:
"The big-limb'd babe in his huge cradle lay,
Too weighty to be rock'd by nurse's hands,
Wrapt in purple swaddling bands;
When, lo! by jealous Juno's fierce commands,
Two dreadful serpents come.
"All naked from her bed the passionate mother lept
To save, or perish with her child,
She trembled, and she cry'd; the mighty infant smiled:
The mighty infant seem'd well pleased
At his gay gilded foes,
And as their spotted necks up to the cradle rose,
With his young warlike hands on both he seiz'd."
The stretching forth of the child's hands he found in Pindar and Cowley; his "smiling" in Cowley alone, for there is no trace of it in the original. While speaking of Gray, one scarcely likes alluding to that great whetstone, Dr. Johnson; for certainly the darkest shade on his well-merited literary reputation arises from his unjust, ill-natured, and unscholarlike criticisms upon a poet whose sole transgression was to have been his cotemporary. But Johnson eulogises Shakspeare, as did Gray, and I cannot help thinking that he, as well as Gray, was indebted to Cowley: e.g. Johnson writes:
"When Learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First rear'd the stage, immortal Shakspeare rose;
Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toil'd after him in vain."
Prologue spoken by Mr. Garrick at the opening of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1747.
"He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find;
He found them not so large as was his mind,
But, like the large Pellaean youth, did mone
Because that art had no more worlds than one.
And when he saw that he through all had past,
He dy'd, lest he should idle grow at last."
Cowley, On the Death of Sir Henry Wooton, page 6.: Lond. 1668, fol.
And with Dr. Johnson's sixth line—
"Panting Time toil'd after him in vain,"
we may, I think, compare Cowley's description of King David's earlier years:
"Bless me! how swift and growing was his wit!
The wings of Time flag'd dully after it."
Davideis, lib. iii. p. 92.
But to return to Gray, Ode VI. "The Bard:"
"With haggard eyes the poet stood,
Loose his beard, and hoary hair
Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air."
Wakefield quotes Paradise Lost, lib. i. 535.:
"The imperial ensign, which full high advanc'd,
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind."
Campbell, in The Pleasures of Hope, Part I., does borrow from Milton in the above passage:
"Where Andes, giant of the western star,
With meteor standard to the winds unfurl'd;"
but Gray is alluding to hair, and not to a standard; to the original derivation of the word comet (κόμη), and possibly to a different passage in Milton, viz. Par. Lost, ii. 706.:
"on the other side,
Incens'd with indignation, Satan stood
Unterrified: and like a comet burned,
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge,
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
Shakes pestilence and war."
Or as Virgil before him, Æneid, lib. x. 270.:
"Ardet apex capiti, cristisque a vertici flamma
Funditur, et vastos umbo vomit aureus ignes:
Non secus, ac liquida si quando nocti cometæ
Sanguinei lugubre rubent, aut Sirius ardor," &c.
One of the meanings of κόμη is "the luminous tail of a comet;" and Suidas mentions from the LXX, καὶ ἕσπερον τὸν ἀστέρα ἐπὶ κόμης αὐτοῦ ἄξεις αὐτον (Job xxxviii. 32.). See Scott and Liddell's Lexicon at the words Κόμη, and Πώγων and Πωγωνίας, which latter words are used in reference to the beard of a comet.
Gray must now speak for himself. He says in a note:
"The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the Vision of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed originals, one at Florence, the other at Paris."
And Mr. Mason adds, in a note to his edition of Gray, vol. i. p. 75. Lond. 1807:
"Moses breaking the Tables of the Law, by Parmegiano, was a figure which Mr. Gray used to say came still nearer to his meaning than the picture of Raphael."
I cannot help thinking that Cowley too was not forgotten. Speaking of the angel Gabriel, he says:
"An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care."
Indeed, I must give the entire passage, however fantastic or unconnected with my purpose; for the last four lines, which describe the angel's wings, appear beyond measure dreamy and beautiful:
"When Gabriel (no blest spirit more kind or fair)
Bodies and cloathes himself with thicken'd air,
All like a comely youth in life's fresh bloom;
Rare workmanship, and wrought by heavenly loom!
He took for skin a cloud most soft and bright,
That ere the mid day sun pierc'd through with light:
Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread,
Wash't from the morning's beauties deepest red.
An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.
He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies,
Where the most sprightly azure pleas'd the eyes.
This he with starry vapours spangles all,
Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall.
Of a new rainbow ere it fret or fade,
The choicest piece took out, a scarf is made.
Small streaming clouds he does for wings display,
Not virtuous lovers' sighs more soft than they.
These he gilds o'er with the sun's richest rays,
Caught gliding o'er pure streams on which he plays."
Davideis, lib. ii. ad finem.
Again, in a verse which was inserted in the Elegy as it originally stood (and the subsequent rejection of which we must ever grieve over, as it almost surpasses any verse of the entire poem; and besides would have saved it from the imputation of having been written as a heathen poet would have written it), the words "sacred calm" occur, which are not unfrequent in Cowley:
"Hark how the sacred calm that breathes around
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease;
In still small accents whispering from the ground,
A grateful earnest of eternal peace."—
Gray.
"They came, but a new spirit their hearts possest,
Scattering a sacred calm through every breast."
Davideis, lib. i. ad finem.
"All earth-bred fears and sorrows take their flight;
In rushes joy divine, and hope, and rest;
A sacred calm shines through his peaceful breast."
Davideis, lib. ii. ad finem.
Again, does not Mr. Gray's Ode to Spring—
"Methinks I hear," &c.
remind one a little of Cowley's "Anacreontic to the Grasshopper?"
"To thee of all things upon earth,
Life is no longer than thy mirth.
Happy insect, happy thou,
Dost neither age nor winter know.
But when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung
Thy fill, the flowery leaves among
(Voluptuous and wise withal, Epicurean animal!)
Sated with thy summer feast
Thou retir'st to endless rest."
or the following lines
"Their raptures now that wildly flow,
No yesterday nor morrow know;
Tis man alone that joy descries
With forward, and reverted eyes."
Gray's Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude.
In his notes to "Spring," Wakefield gets quite pathetic at the words—
"Poor moralist, and what art thou?
A solitary fly," &c.
I have always believed that Gray was imitating Bishop Jeremy Taylor:
"Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. Celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity."—Sermon XVII. The Marriage Ring, Part I.
If these random notes be interesting to any of your readers, they are only a portion out of many I could send; and any one who doubts Gray's partiality for Cowley may compare his second verse of the "Ode to Spring" with Cowley's lines on "Solitude," found amongst his Essays, especially verses 4. and 5.:
"Here let me careless and unthoughtful lying
Hear the soft winds above me flying,
With all their wanton boughs dispute,
And the more tuneful birds to both replying,
Nor be my self too mute.
"A silver stream shall roll his waters near;
Gilt with the sunbeams here and there,
On whose enamel'd bank I'll walk,
And see how prettily they smile, and hear
How prettily they talk."
And—
"Soft-footed winds with tuneful voices there
Dance through the perfumed air,
There silver rivers through enamel'd meadows glide,
And golden trees enrich their side."
Translation of Pindar's Second Olympic Ode.
Or let him compare Gray's Latin and English verses upon the death of his friend Mr. West with Cowley's upon the death of Mr. William Harvey and Mr. Crashaw:
"Hail, Bard Triumphant! and some care bestow
On us the Poets Militant below," &c.
Cowley on Mr. Crashaw.
"At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctus," &c.
Gray.
To these lines on Crashaw Pope is indebted for a sentiment which in his hands assumes a very infidel form:
"For modes of faith let senseless bigots fight;
His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."
Crashaw had become a Roman Catholic, and was a canon of Loretto when he died; but Cowley's Protestant feelings could not blind him to his worth, and he says:
"His Faith perhaps in some nice tenets might
Be wrong; his Life, his soul were in the Right."
How much the two last-mentioned poems of Gray's owe to Milton's "Lines to Mansus" and his "Epitaphium Damonis," any one acquainted with them may remember. I have only been alluding to Gray's reproductions of Cowley.
RT.
Warmington.
Minor Notes.
Remains of Sir Hugh Montgomery (Vol. iv., p. 206.).
—Allusion has been made to the following stanza from "Chevy Chase:"—
"Against Sir Hugh Montgomery,
So right his shaft he set,
The grey goose wing that was thereon
In his heart's blood was wet."
Having lately visited the sea-bathing town of Largs, my attention was attracted to a building in the churchyard forming the present burying ground. In this building, bearing date of erection 1636 by Sir Robert Montgomery (ancestor of the present Earl of Eglinton), there is an elaborately carved tomb of mason work, beneath which is a strongly arched stone vault, where, besides the founder and others, tradition has placed the remains of the brave Sir Hugh Montgomery. It is difficult to reconcile this with the long prior date of the battle of Chevy Chase, unless the vault, which has certainly a very ancient look, can be substantiated to have existed before the above building. Taking matters as they go, the remains of the warrior now appear in the most humiliating condition—reduced to a hard, dry bony skeleton deprived of legs and thighs, with the singular appearance of the skull having been cloven (most likely) by a battle-axe, the skull being held together by some plate or substance and rude stitching. The body is said to have been originally embalmed, and enclosed in a lead coffin, which was barbarously torn off some forty years ago, as sinks for fishing nets. The building, tomb, and vault, taken altogether, present perhaps one of the finest specimens of this species of architecture in Scotland, and are additionally curious from the cone roof of the building being highly ornamented with descriptive paintings in a tolerable state of preservation. It is understood that some historical notices of the whole have been privately printed by a Scotch antiquarian, of which some of your learned readers may be aware, and may furnish more ample details than the foregoing.
G.
Glasgow, Sept. 23, 1851.
Westminster Hall.
—The following extract from the Issue Roll of Michaelmas Term, 9 Hen. VII. 1493, may be interesting to some of your readers, and will perhaps lead to a speculation on the nature of "the disguisyings" alluded to:—
"To Richard Daland, for providing certain spectacles, or theatres, commonly called scaffolds, in the great hall at Westminster, for performance of 'the disguisyings,' exhibited to the people on the night of the Epiphany, as appears by a book of particulars; paid to his own hands, £28, 3s. 5-3/4d."—Devon's Issue Roll, 516.
Possibly the next entry, which is in Michaelmas in the following year, of a payment of five marks yearly "to John Englissh, Edward Maye, Richard Gibson, and John Hamond, 'lusoribus Regis' otherwise called in English the players of the king's interludes, for their fees,"—has some connexion with "the disguisyings."
DESSAWDORF.
Meaning of "Log-ship."
—If you have a spare corner, can you grant it to me for the origin of a word which describes an article used in every sailing and steam vessel in the world, and yet perhaps not one sailor in a thousand knows whence it is derived. I allude to the word "log-ship," the name of the little wooden float (quadrant-shaped) by which, with a line attached, the vessel's speed is ascertained. Before the invention of the line with "knots" on it, a "chip," or floating-scrap, was thrown overboard forward, and the "master," or whoever it might be, walked aft at the rate which the vessel passed the "chip," judging of his pace from experience. Hence the term "log-ship," or "chip," which is its true name.
A. L.
West Indies, Aug. 11. 1851.
The Locusts of the New Testament.
—While in Greece last year, I was talking one day with a highly intelligent person on the English translation of the New Testament. In the course of our conversation he said, that in the third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel we had got an entirely wrong meaning for the verse in which we are told the food of St. John the Baptist, viz. "locusts and wild honey." I have not at this moment a Testament in ancient Greek by me but in the Romaic the paragraph alluded to runs thus:
Verse 4. ... "Καὶ ἡ τροφὴ του ἦτον ἀκρίδες, καὶ μέλι ἄγριον."
He said that the word ἀκρίδες, which we have translated "locusts," means rather the "young and tender parts of plants." Since that time I have looked into various Lexicons and Dictionaries both of the ancient and modern Greek, but have been unable to find anything to assist me in fixing this meaning. In that of Hedericus, it is thus given: "Ἀκρὶς, ίδος, ἡ, Locusta." There is also, however, "Ἄκρις, ιος, ἡ, Summitas, cacumen montis. Ab ἄκρος, summus." Whether there may be any confusion between these two words I know not; and here, possibly, I may be assisted by some obliging reader. I have consulted, along with a clergyman who is well skilled in Greek literature, and who is perfectly acquainted with Romaic, many commentaries; but in every one we found this passage either entirely passed over, or very unsatisfactorily noticed.
Βορέας.
Queries.
COINAGE OF VABALATHUS, PRINCE OF PALMYRA.
A great boon would be conferred on numismatists if some of your correspondents would endeavour to elucidate the puzzling legend sometimes found on coins of this prince.
Vabalathus, or Vhabalathus, Athenodorus (which Mionnet and Akerman make to be the Greek translation of Vabalathus), was the son of the celebrated Zenobia, by an Arab prince, and was raised to the imperial dignity by his mother. His sway extended over some parts of Syria and Egypt, A.D. 266-273.
Aurelian gave to Vabalathus a petty province of Armenia, of which he made him king, though perhaps this arose from the mistake of Occo and Salmasius (in Vopisc. p. 380.) in reading ΑΡΜΕΝΙΑϹ for ΑΥΓ . ΕΡΜΙΑϹ on his Egyptian coins (Vide infra).
His portrait appears on the reverse of coins of Aurelian, with the legend VABALATHVS . VCRIMDR. Frölich and Corsini have unsuccessfully attempted the interpretation of this word. Père Hardouin, considering, VCRIMOR as the correct reading, divides it V. C. R. IM. OR., i.e. Vice Cæsaris Rector Imperii Orientis; but, as Banduri rightly observes, the existence of this legend is extremely doubtful, VCRIMDR being the authorised one, and is undoubtedly so in a specimen in my cabinet; and though the worthy Jesuit remarks, "Barbaram vocem aliquam arbitrari sub hisce Notis Latinis latere, frigidum genus exceptionis est, ac desperantium," I am inclined to think that the true interpretation is to be sought in the Syriac, or some of the Oriental languages.
I have two others in my collection, of the rude third brass of the Egyptian mint: Obv. AURELIAN, &c.
Rev. ΟΥΑΒΑΛΛΑΘΟϹ . ΑΘΗΝΟΥ . ΑΥΓ . ΕΡΜΙΑϹ Ι . ΑΥ . ΟΥΑΒΑΛΛΑΘΟϹ . ΑΘΗΝΥ . Α . ΕΡ
The first and three final letters of this last legend are very indistinct, and I should much like a correct reading of it, as it is, I believe, inedited. Other legends are given by Banduri: VABALATHVS . alii REX. VCRIM. P.P.—VABALATVS. VCRIMOR.—VABALATHVS . ITER. IMP. R.—IM. C. VHABALATHVS. AVG.—Α . ΕΡΜΙΑϹ . ΟΥΑΒΑΛΛΑΘΟϹ . ΑΘΗΝΥ .—ΑΥ . Κ . ΕΡΜΙΑϹ . ΟΥΑΒΑΛΛΑΘΟϹ . ΑΘΗΝΟΥ . ΟΥΑΒΑΛΑΘΟϹ . ΑΘΗΝΟΥ . ΑΥΓ . ΕΡΜΙΑϹ.
E. S. TAYLOR.
Minor Queries.
195. Chaucer, how pronounced.
—What is, or was, the original pronunciation of the name of the poet Chaucer? Was, or was not, the ch in his day a guttural? And was not the name Hawker or Howker?
JAMES LAURIE.
196. The Island of Ægina.
—Having occasion to make some inquiry about the island of Ægina, in Greece, I have been sadly perplexed by the discrepancies of the modern authorities I have had an opportunity of consulting. The principal of these relates to the site of the temple of Jupiter, or Zeus Panhellenios, which Dr. Smith's Classical Dictionary, and M'Culloch's and Fullerton's Gazetteers, place in the N.E. part of the island; Fullerton, however, saying also that Mount St. Elias lies in the south part, though he does not say that the temple is built on that mount. But Blaikie's Gazetteer says that the temple stands on Mount St. Elias, which, according to Fullerton, is in the south. With this agrees the map in the Topographisch-historisch Atlas von Hellas, &c. von H. Kiepert, Berlin, 1846, which distinctly places the "Tempel von Zeus Panhellenios" in the south part of the island while the temple in the north-east is called "Tempel von Athena." The Atlas to Anacharsis' Travels places it also in the south. Which of these authorities is right? or, can any of your readers tell me, from personal knowledge, in what part of the island the said Temple of Zeus Panhellenios really stands?