Vol. V.—No. 122. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

VOL. V.—No. 122.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28. 1852.

Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition, 5d.

CONTENTS.

NOTES:—

Ben Jonson's Verses on the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset [193]

Junius and the Quarterly Review [194]

Simon of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, by W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A. [194]

Paraphrase on the Lord's Prayer, by Wm. Durrant Cooper [195]

Folk Lore:—Suffolk Legend—Theodoric, Legend of [195]

Names of Places; Provincial Dialects [196]

Minor Notes:—The Banking Company in Aberdeen, and the Bank of England—Which are the Shadows?—Antiquity of County Boundaries—Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of Busby—The Poet Gay and his Relatives [196]

QUERIES:—

Thomas Bastard, and Song against Sheep-farming [197]

Inundations and their Phenomena, by Sydney Smirke [198]

A Bibliographical Query [198]

New Arrangement of the Old Testament [199]

Minor Queries:—Pasquinades—Sir John Fenner's Bequest of Bibles—Friday at Sea—Meaning of "Knarres"—Sir John Cheke—Arms of Yarmouth—"Litera Scripta Manet"—Bull the Barrel—Nuremberg Token—Weber on the Material Media of Musical Art—Clement's Inn—Was Queen Elizabeth dark or fair—The "Black Book of Paisley"—"The Trial of the Princess of Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline"—Frith the Martyr, and Dean Comber—Béocherie, alias Parva Hibernia; Béocera Gent [200]

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:—Augmentation Office—"Smectymnus" [201]

REPLIES:—

Liber Conformitatum [202]

Traditions of Remote Periods; George III.'s Garter [203]

Many Children at a Birth; Large Families [204]

Pedigree of Richard Earl of Chepstow [204]

Isabel, Queen of the Isle of Man, by John Gough Nichols [205]

Replies to Minor Queries:—Bastides—Brunéhaut—Job—Parish Registers—Ornamental Hermits—Collars of SS—Herschel Anticipated—Monastic Establishments in Scotland—Kissing under the Mistletoe—The Ring Finger—Sanctus Bell—Slang Dictionaries—Modern Greek Names of Places—Baskerville the Printer—Story of Genevra—Gospel Oaks—"Asters with Trains of Fire," &c.—Wiggan, or Utiggan, an Oxford Student—Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds—"The bright lamp that shone in Kildare's holy fane"—Hyrne—Stops, when first introduced—Heraldical MSS. of Sir H. St. George Garter—Kingswei, Kings-way, or Kinsey—Fouché's Memoirs—The Pelican as a Symbol of our Saviour—Bow-bell—Cou-bache—White-livered—"Experto crede Roberto"—"Oh! Leoline," &c.—The Word "Blaen"—Stoke—A Baron's Hearse—The Bed of Ware—Symbolism of Death—General Wolfe—Proverb [206]

MISCELLANEOUS:—

Notes on Books, &c. [213]

Books and Odd Volumes wanted [214]

Notices to Correspondents [214]

Advertisements [215]

[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]

Notes.

BEN JONSON'S VERSES ON THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET.

The British Museum purchased for 14l. the copy of the 1640 edition of Ben Jonson's Works, which was sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, in the library of the Honorable Archibald Fraser of Lovat. The volume, which had on its exterior covers the arms of Carr, Earl of Somerset, contains on one of them the following inscription:—"These verses were made by the author of this booke, and were delivered to the Earl of Somerset upon his Lordship's wedding-day." Then follow the verses in the poet's own handwriting.

"To the Most Noble and above his Titles Robert Earle of Somerset.

"They are not those, are present wth theyr face,

And clothes, and guifts, that only do thee grace

At these thy nuptials; but, whose heart, and thought

Do wayte upon thee: and theyr Loue not bought.

Such weare true Wedding robes, and are true Freindes,

That bid, God giue thee ioy and haue no endes

W'h I do, early, vertuous Somerset,

And pray, thy ioyes as lasting bee, as great.

Not only this, but euery day of thine,

W'th the same looke, or w'th a better, shine.

May she, whom thou for spouse, to-day, dost take

Out-bee yt Wife, in worth, thy friend did make:

And thou to her, that Husband, may exalt

Hymens amends, to make it worth his fault.

So, be there neuer discontent, or sorrow,

To rise wth eyther of you, on the morrow.

So, be yo'r Concord, still, as deepe, as mute;

And euery ioy, in mariage, turne a fruite;

So, may those Mariage-Pledges, comforts proue:

And eu'ry birth encrease the heate of Loue.

So, in theyr number, may you neuer see

Mortality, till you immortall bee.

And when your yeares rise more, then would be told

Yet neyther of you seeme to th' other old.

That all, yt view you then, and late; may say,

Sure, this glad payre were maried, but this day.

"BEN JONSON."

We need scarcely point out the allusions in the eleventh and twelfth lines to Sir T. Overbury's Character of a Good Wife; but we cannot help calling attention to the curious fact that these lines, written in 1613, must have been carefully preserved by the unhappy man to whom they were addressed, through all his trials and difficulties; and then, on the publication of the 1640 edition of Rare Ben's Works,—twenty-seven years after his disgraceful marriage, five years before his death,—been pasted by him in the cover of the volume which is now very properly deposited in the National Library.

JUNIUS AND THE QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Speculations about Junius are once again the fashion. I would recommend the editor of "N. & Q." not to enter on the general question; but there are ways, within his legitimate province, by which he might do good service. For example, there have been many obscure persons alluded to in these discussions, about whom we should all be glad to receive information. Thus, Mr. Combe, the author of Dr. Syntax's Tour, figures prominently in the last number of the Quarterly Review. Now, of Mr. Combe very little is known: his name never, I believe, appeared in a title-page, although he lived, or rather starved, by literature, for half a century. From a correspondent of The Athenæum I learn that a list of Combe's works, in his own handwriting, is in the possession of Mr. Robert Cole; and as Mr. Cole is said to be a very liberal man, I have no doubt he would allow you to print that list. What a waste of speculation, not on one subject, but many subjects, might thus be saved to another generation of editors and contributors!

There are also numberless facts, or assumed facts, made to do duty in these discussions, which might with great propriety be subjected to the searching test of "N. & Q." I submit one as a specimen. The writer of the above-mentioned article in the Quarterly says: "It is universally admitted that Junius must have been indefatigable in acquiring information, and that he was pre-eminently distinguished by the variety and extent of his knowledge;" and he then quotes from the Parliamentary History the reported opinion of Burke on this point: "Were he [Junius] a member of this House, what might not be expected from his knowledge?... Nothing would escape his vigilance and activity. Bad ministers could conceal nothing from his sagacity, nor could promises or threats induce him to conceal anything from the public." On this I desire to observe, that the "variety and extent" of the knowledge of Junius is not universally admitted—has indeed been publicly denied; and that what Burke said, as above quoted, had no reference to Junius whatever, but to the author of Another Letter to Mr. Almon in Matter of Libel, then just published, and believed to have been written by the author of the still more celebrated pamphlet, published in 1763 or 1764, called A Letter concerning Libels and Warrants, &c. It is quite true that the passage has been quoted, and so applied, twenty times, and been forced to do double duty, that is, been adduced in proof of directly opposite opinions. This was allowable up to 1842, but inexcusable since the Cavendish Debates have been published. (See Cav. Deb., vol. ii. pp. 106, 107.)

J. Q. R.

SIMON OF SUDBURY, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.

In a niche in the vestry of St. Gregory's Church, Sudbury, Suffolk, is preserved the skull of the murdered archbishop: beneath the niche is placed the following inscription, which appears to me worthy of a place in your pages:—

"The head of Simon Theobald, who was born at Sudbury, and thence called Simon of Sudbury; he was sent when but a youth into foreign parts to study the civil law, whereof he was made doctor: he visited most of the universities of France, was made chaplain to Pope Innocent, and auditor rotæ, or judge of the Roman court. By the interest of this Pope he was made Chancellor of Salisbury. In the year 1361, he was consecrated Bishop of London; and in the year 1375 was translated to the see of Canterbury, and made Chancellor of England. While he was Bishop of London he built the upper part of St. Gregory's in Sudbury; and where his father's house stood he erected a college of secular priests, and endowed it with the yearly revenue of one hundred and twenty-two pounds eighteen shillings, and was at length barbarously beheaded upon Tower Hill, in London, by the rabble in Wat Tyler's Rebellion, in the reign of Richard II. 1382."

This inscription is written in an old hand on a piece of parchment. On turning to Stow's Annales for an account of these transactions, I find a very interesting relation of the circumstances above mentioned. I trust to be excused if I add a few brief extracts. King Richard had ordered the Tower gates to be opened to the rebels, though—

"There was the same time in the Tower 600 warlike men, furnished with armour and weapon, expert men in armes, and 600 archers, all which did quaile in stomacke."

Stow's Annales (edit. 1601, 4to.), p. 457.

The rebels having entered, conducted themselves with unbridled license, and "with terrible noyse and fury" laid hands on the archbishop, "drew him out of the chappell," and proceeded at once to put him to death:

"He, kneeling downe, offered his necke to him that should strike it off; being stricken in the necke, but not deadly, he putting his hande to his necke, said thus, a ha, it is the hand of God: he had not removed his hand from the place where the payne was, but that being sodainly stricken, his fingers ends being cut off, and part of the arteries, he fell downe; but yet he died not, till being mangled with eight strokes in the necke, and in the heade, he fulfilled most worthy martyrdome."

Stow's Annales, p. 458.

Thus "barbarously" was the prelate murdered; the rebels then took his head, fastened it "on a pole, and set it on London bridge, in place where-before stood the head of Sir John Minstarworth." (Ibid.) Stow proceeds to relate some more particulars relative to the archbishop's history, stating that "he builded the upper end," that is, I conceive, the chancel "of St. Gregorie's Church at Sudbury;" and concludes his account by saying:

"He was slaine as ye haue heard, and afterwards buried in the Cathedral Church of Canterbury."

Ibid.

Now Godwin, in his valuable work De Presulibus, states, that his body was buried under the high altar of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. But in Winkle's Cathedrals (London, 1836), vol. i. p. 38., we find Stow's account corroborated; for—

"The monument of Archbishop Sudbury, who was beheaded in 1381 [1382], is in the northern aisle, nearly parallel with the altar; it bears no effigy, but is surmounted by a sumptuous canopy of very elegant architectural design, but now much mutilated."

Of course, the fact that his monument is in the cathedral, does not prove that his body was buried there. I shall be glad to learn from any of your correspondents, what evidence there is for Godwin's assertion. Gostling, in his Walk in and about the City of Canterbury (5th edit. Cant. 1804), though he mentions the prelate's benefactions to the cathedral (pp. 12. 79.), and his tomb (p. 220.), does not state his place of sepulture. At p. 60., however (note ‡), in a brief notice of St. Dunstan's Church, he says:

"In a vault under the family chancel of Roper here is kept a skull, said to be that of the great Sir Thomas More; it is in a niche of the wall, secured with an iron grate, though some say his favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, who lies here, desired to be buried with it in her arms. The vault being full, was closed up not many years since."

This curious coincidence is at least worth noting.

I trust that the interest necessarily attaching to any remains of so celebrated an historical personage, will prove a sufficient apology to your readers for the length of this note.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

PARAPHRASE ON THE LORD'S PRAYER.

The following paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer may be worth printing with the Query, who was its author? I take it from the book of Mr. Walter Everenden, among Mr. Frewen's MSS., where it is ascribed to James I., whilst I believe that in a MS. book of ballads belonging to MR. J. PAYNE COLLIER it is ascribed to Bishop Andrews.

"By the Kings Majestie.

Yf any be distrest and fayne

woulde gather

some comfort, let him hast

unto

Our Father

for we of hope and healpe

are quite bereaven

except thou suckcour us

wch art in heaven

Thou shewest mercy, therefor

for the same

we praysse thee, singeing

hallowed be Thy name

of all our misseries cast up

the sum;

Shew us thy ioyes, and lett

Thy kingdom come

Wee mortall are, and alter

from our birth;

Thou constant arte

Thy will be done on earth

Thou madest the earth as

well as planetts Seaven:

Thy name be blessed heere

as 'tis in heaven

Nothing wee have to use, or

debts to paye,

except thou give it us

give us this day

Wherewith to clothe us,

wherewith to be fedd,

for without Thee we wante

our daily breade

Wee want, but want no faults,

for no day passes

But wee doe sinn

forgive us our trespasses

Noe man from sining ever

free did live

forgive us Lorde our sinns

as we forgive

Yf we repent our faults Thou

ne're disdainest us

We pardon them

yt trespasses agaynst us

forgive us that is past, a new

path treade us

Direct us alwaies in thy fayth and leade us

Wee thine owne people and

Thy chosen nation

into all truth, but

not into temtation

Thou that of all good graces

art the giver

Suffer us not to wander

but deliver

Us from the fierce assaults

of worlde and divell

and flesh, so shalt thou free

us

from all evil

To these petitions let boath

church and laymen

wth one concent of hart and

voyce say

Amen."

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

FOLK LORE.

Suffolk Legend.

—In the little village of Acton, Suffolk, a legend was current not many years ago, that on certain occasions, which, by the way, were never accurately defined, the park gates were wont to fly open at midnight "withouten hands," and a carriage drawn by four spectral horses, and accompanied by headless grooms and outriders, proceeded with great rapidity from the park to a spot called "the nursery corner." What became of the ghostly cortège at this spot, I have never been able to learn; but though the sight has not been seen by any of the present inhabitants, yet some of them have heard the noise of the head-long race. The "Corner," tradition says, is the spot where a very bloody engagement took place in olden time, when the Romans were governors of England. A few coins have I believe been found, but nothing else confirmatory of the tale. Does history in any way support the story of the battle? Whilst writing on this subject, I may as well note, that near this haunted corner is a pool called Wimbell Pond, in which tradition says an iron chest of money is concealed: if any daring person ventures to approach the pond, and throw a stone into the water, it will ring against the chest and a small white figure has been heard to cry in accents of distress, "That's mine!"

I send you these legends as I have heard them from the lips of my nurse, a native of the village.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

Theodoric, Legend of.

—May we not consider the Saxon legend quoted by Mr. Kemble in his Saxons in England, foot-note on page 423., vol. i., as something like a parallel to "Old Booty" and Mr. Gresham, mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 93. of "N. & Q.?" or is it possible to have been the origin of both?

The legend is, that an anchoret in Lipari told some sailors that at a particular time he had seen King Theodoric ungirt, barefoot and bound, led between St. John, pope and martyr, and St. Finian, and by them hurled into the burning crater of the neighbouring island volcano. That on the sailors' return to Italy they discovered, by comparison of dates, that Theodoric died on the day on which the anchoret noticed his punishment by the hands of his victims.

THOMAS LAWRENCE.

Ashby de la Zouch.

NAMES OF PLACES—PROVINCIAL DIALECTS.

Every reader of "N. & Q." must be acquainted with places throughout the country pronounced very differently to their spelling. It has occurred to me that a collection of them would be interesting, both as a topographical curiosity, and as an illustration of our provincial dialects. No paper is fitter for such a collection than the "N. & Q.;" its correspondents would doubtless communicate any within their notice, and you, Mr. Editor, would from time to time give up a little space to them.

The following are what I remember just now:—

Some of your correspondents may send Scotch, Irish, and Welsh specimens; I would suggest such be kept separate from the English. My own experience bids me carefully abstain from sending Welsh ones. When on a walking tour in Wales three years ago, I asked a peasant "if that road led to Aberga'ny" (with conscious pride in my pronunciation); "Nay, nay, sir, that road takes to Abergavenny."

P. M. M.

Minor Notes.

The Banking Company in Aberdeen, and the Bank of England.

—The Banking Company in Aberdeen was established in the year 1767; and the following Note respecting it may be new to many of the readers of "N. & Q." This Company adopted the plan of using paper bearing in watermark a waved line, and the amount of the note expressed in words, along with the designation of the Company; but about the year 1805 a gentleman connected with Aberdeenshire brought this paper under the notice of the Bank of England, in consequence of which they adopted it, and procured an act of parliament to be passed prohibiting the use of paper so marked by any provincial bank.

PETRAPROMONTORIENSIS.

Which are the Shadows?

—In the notes to the beautiful poem Italy, by Samuel Rogers, published (I think) in 1830, the following occurs:—

"'You admire that picture,' said an old Dominican to me at Padua, as I stood contemplating a Last Supper in the refectory of his convent, the figures as large as life. 'I have sat at my meals before it for seven-and-forty years and such are the changes that have taken place among us; so many have come and gone in the time, that when I look upon the company there—upon those who are sitting at the table silent as they—I am sometimes inclined to think that we, and not they, are the shadows.'"

In the sixth volume of Lord Mahon's History of England, chap. lx. p. 498., we find this passage:

"Once as Sir David Wilkie (Mr. Washington Irving and myself being then his fellow-travellers in Spain) was gazing on one of Titian's master-pieces—the famous picture of the Last Supper in the refectory of the Escurial—an old monk of the order of St. Jerome came up, and said to him, 'I have sat daily in sight of that picture for now nearly three score years. During that time my companions have dropped off, one after another—all who were my seniors, all who were of mine own age, and many or most of those who were younger than myself; nothing has been unchanged around me except those figures, large as life, in yonder painting; and I look at them till I sometimes think that they are the realities, and we the shadows.'"

The great resemblance between these two passages is very striking; the latter only amplifies the former by very few words.

D. F. M'L.

Cork.

Antiquity of County Boundaries.

—In the loop of Devonshire, on the western side of the Tamar, formed by the parishes of Werrington and North Petherwyn, none of the names of places are Cornish, but end in the Saxon termination of cot, whilst in all other parts the Cornish names are used up to the banks of the river. Modern Cornwall is a province so well defined by the language of its place-names, that it could be marked off without difficulty, if its artificial boundary-lines were omitted on a map. How does this limited extent of the language consist with some accounts of the former extent of the kingdom?

S. R. P.

Launceston.

Zachary Pearce not a Pupil of Busby.

—The birth[1] of Zachary (afterwards Bishop) Pearce was prior to the death[2] of the famous Master of Westminster, which took place at the short interval of five years: consequently, it was impossible that the relation of teacher and pupil should exist between them.

[1] 1690.

[2] 1695.

In the Memoir of this prelate, which goes before his Commentary on the Gospels, it is expressly stated that he was removed to Westminster School in Feb. 1704. At the same time, his biographer speaks of his being elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, after he had spent six years at Westminster, and "endured the constraint of a grammar school to the twentieth year of his age." Then follows the sentence, "Why his removal was so long delayed, no other reason can be given, than that Dr. Busby used to detain those boys longest under his discipline of whose future eminence he had most expectation; considering the fundamental knowledge which grammar schools inculcate, as that which is least likely to be supplied by future diligence, if the student be sent deficient to the university."

Bishop Pearce's biographer was the Rev. John Derby, his chaplain, who could not well be mistaken as to a plain and palpable matter of fact. It is perfectly conceivable, however, that the future prelate was long detained at Westminster School in consequence of a regulation first laid down by Busby, and regularly acted upon by that eminent man. This circumstance will sufficiently explain the apparent incongruity.

If I am right in this conjecture, Bishop Pearce must have entered under Knipe.[3]

[3] Noble's Continuation of Granger, Vol. iii. p. 119, &c.

N.

The Poet Gay and his Relatives.

—In a letter from the late Bishop Copleston to the Rev. E. Tyler, in Jan. 1839, on the death of his mother at the age of ninety-two (published in his Memoirs), he says, "Her father and poet Gay were brothers' sons."

H. T. E.

Queries.

THOMAS BASTARD, AND SONG AGAINST SHEEP-FARMING.

The twentieth epigram in the fourth book of Chrestoleros, by T. B. (poor Thomas Bastard), printed 1598, is to the following effect:

"Sheepe have eate up our medows and our downes,

Our corne, our wood, whole villages and townes.

Yea, they have eate up many wealthy men,

Besides widowes, and orphane childeren:

Besides our statutes and our iron lawes,

Which they have swallowed down into their maws.

Till now I thought the proverbe did but jest,

Which said a blacke sheepe was a biting beast."

Here the allusion is of course to the miseries entailed by the system of sheep-farming; a system which had been introduced and carried to excess by the monastic bodies. Some years ago I met with an old satirical song on this subject, of which the above "proverbe" formed a kind of burden, but where, or in what collection I met with it, I cannot for the life of me remember. Now, seeing that your periodical exemplifies very accurately the definition once given by a Surrey peasant of a highly accomplished man—"Sir! he knows everything, and what he don't know he axes,"—perhaps you will allow me to ask whether some one of your many able correspondents may not have the power and the will to give me this information. A worthless memory seems to suggest that the song was a Cambridge production, and interspersed with Latin phrases.

Now, one word about the author of the epigram above quoted. It is not, I hope, an abuse of the freedom of speech which ought to prevail in the republic of letters, if I express a strong opinion that your learned contributor, MR. PAYNE COLLIER, has rendered very scant justice to the memory of Bastard. The epigrams selected by that gentleman as favourable samples, are among the very worst of the author's efforts.

Probably not twenty copies of the Chrestoleros are in existence; but as, by the kindness of my esteemed friend E. V. Utterson, I possess one of the sixteen struck off at his own private press, I beg to supply a specimen or two, that will not only gratify your readers in general, but elicit an approving verdict from MR. COLLIER himself.

For example, is not the finished cadence, as well as the nervous force, of the following lines to Sir Ph. Sidney, greatly to be admired?

"When Nature wrought upon her mould so well,

That Nature wondred her own work to see,

When Arte so labourde Nature to excel,

And both had spent their excellence in thee;

Willing they gave thee into Fortune's hand,

Fearing they could not end what they beganne!"

In my poor judgment, those are truly noble lines. And what say you to the following, Mr. Editor, which form a sonnet rather than an epigram?

"The world's great peers and mighty conquerours,

Whose sword hath purchased them eternal fame,

If they survived in this age of ours

Might add more glory to their lasting name.

For him which Carthage sack'd and overthrewe,

We have found out another Africa;

Newe Gauls and Germaines Cæsar might subdue,

And Pompey Great another Asia.

But you, O Christian princes, do not so;

Seeke not to conquer nations by the sworde,

Whom you may better quell and overthrowe

By winning them to Christ and to his worde.

Give Him the new worlde for old Asia's losse,

And set not up your standard, but His crosse!"

I not only challenge MR. P. COLLIER'S hearty approval of those magnificent lines, but I would venture the expression of a doubt whether anything finer can be produced of the same date and character.

Now take a spice of Bastard's quality as a humorist; not failing to mark again the solemn flow and well-balanced cadence of the lines:

"You who have sorrow's hidden bottom sounded,

And felt the ground of teares and bitter moane,

You may conceive how Gilloes heart is wounded,

And judge of his deep feeling by your owne.

His toothlesse wife, when she was left for dead,

When grave and all was made—Recovered!"

I have other evidence as strongly favourable, but I shall not adduce it, lest after all it be wasted on unwilling ears. But if it be the verdict of your readers that Thomas Bastard has been unjustly forgotten, he shall live again in your pages.

R. C. C.

INUNDATIONS AND THEIR PHENOMENA.

The remarkable inundations that have recently taken place (I do not, of course, allude to the accident at Holmesfirth) in various parts of the country, without any such very long-continued and violent storms of rain as one would naturally look to as their cause, have called to my recollection some remarks in the "Notices Scientifiques" of M. Arago, attached to the Annuaire pour l'An 1838, published by the Bureau des Longitudes at Paris. I beg to transcribe them:

"Des historiens, les météorologistes citent des inondations locales dont les effets ont semblé bien supérieures à ce que pouvoit faire craindre la médiocre quantité de pluie provenante des nuages et tombée dans un certain rayon. Il est rarement arrivé qu'alors on n'ait pas vu, pendant un temps plus ou moins long, d'immense masses d'eau surgir des entrailles de la terre par des ouvertures jusque là inconnues, et aussi, qu'un violent orage n'ait pas été la précurseur du phénomène et probablement sa cause première. Telles furent, du point en point, par example, en juin, 1686, les circonstances de l'inondation qui détruisit presque en totalité les deux villages de Ketlevell et de Starbottom, dans le comté d'York. Pendant l'orage une immense crevasse se forma dans la montagne voisine, et, au dire des témoins oculaires, la masse fluide qui s'en échappa avec impétuosité contribua au moins tout autant que la pluie, aux malheurs qu'on eut à déplores."—P. 361.

1. Is there any reason to suppose that a subterranean outburst of this nature accompanied any of the recent inundations?

2. Does the "immense crevice" alluded to by M. Arago still exist? and does water continue to proceed from it?

SYDNEY SMIRKE.

A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERY.

In the year 1704 was published anonymously:

"An Essay towards a Proposal for Catholic Communion; wherein above sixty of the principal controverted points, which have hitherto divided Christendom, being called over, 'tis examined how many of them may, and ought to be laid aside, and how few remain to be accommodated, for the effecting a general Peace. By a Minister of the Church of England. Sold by John Nutt, near Stationers' Hall, 1704."

This Essay has passed through several editions in London and Dublin: to that of 1801 is prefixed a

"Dedication to the Right Hon. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and to the Hon. the House of Commons ... and the perusal of it earnestly recommended by a Lover of Christian Peace and Union and a Loyal United Briton."

It has now been in circulation for nearly a century and a half; and for want of a medium of inter-communication in olden times like "N. & Q.," its authorship has frequently been a topic of keen discussion. Mr. Oakeley, in his work, The Subject of Tract XC. historically examined, states that

"Its publication attracted at the time the notice of the Government. A warrant appears to have been issued from the Secretary of State's office for the seizure of the author's papers, and the arrest of his person, under a suspicion apparently that he was in league with the Pretender."

It is to be regretted that Mr. Oakeley has not given his authority for this statement. Mr. Goode, in his pamphlet entitled Tract XC. historically refuted, attributes it, on the authority of Dodd, to Thomas Dean, a Roman Catholic Fellow of University College, Oxford; whereas the author of The Sure Hope of Reconciliation, p. 61., thinks Mr. Goode's supposition open to exception; and as the writer styles himself "A Minister of the Church of England," he is inclined to admit his claim to the title, till stronger evidence be adduced to the contrary.

The following curious colloquy between two priests of the Roman and Anglican Churches, in the Town Hall at Guildford, in 1838, respecting the authorship of this Essay, is also worthy a Note:

"Rev. Joseph Sidden. The author of A Proposal for a Catholic Communion says——

"Rev. M. Hobart Seymour. Name! name.

"Rev. J. Sidden. I do not know his name; he appears to have been an archdeacon of the Church of England in the reign of Queen Anne. His work is on sale at Booker's.

"The Chairman. Can you name the place of which he was archdeacon?

"Rev. J. Sidden. No; but I give these as the words of a Protestant clergyman.

"Rev. M. H. Seymour. You do not know that he was a Protestant at all.

"Rev. J. Sidden. I have put the work into the hands of a Protestant clergyman, who agrees with it; and it agrees with Archbishop Bramhall. I have often tried to discover who was the author.

"Rev. M. H. Seymour. It was written perhaps by a Roman Catholic Priest.

"Rev. J. Sidden. I think not, because the Hon. and Rev. Arthur Perceval, rector of East Horsley, borrowed the book of me, and he wrote to me, that he so much approved of it, that he meant to procure a copy of it. I do not know who wrote it."—Proceedings at a Meeting of the Guildford Protestant Association, 1838, p. 20.

Now, without discussing the theological points at issue between the two parties, it is desirable that the authorship of this work, as a literary production, should be finally settled, which I am inclined to think will be the case when it is brought before the numerous readers of "N. & Q." On its first appearance it was attacked by three Nonjuring clergymen, viz. Grascome, Stephens, and Spinckes. Grascome, it appears, knew the author; but his work, Concordia Discors, I have not been able to procure. (See Life of Kettlewell, p. 328.) It is not to be found in the catalogues of the Bodleian, British Museum, or Sion College. The replies by Edward Stephens and Nathanael Spinckes are both in the Bodleian. The first edition of the original Essay, 1704, is in the British Museum, and on the title-page is written in pencil, "By Thomas Dean, a papist," and underneath, in ink, "By Nathanael Spinckes, not a Roman Catholic." The latter entry is clearly a mistake.

After some investigation, it appears to me that the authorship rests between Thomas Dean and Joshua Bassett. It is attributed to the former by Dodd (alias Tootle) in his Certamen utriusqe Ecclesiæ; but Wood, who has given some account of Dean in his Athenæ Oxon., vol. iv. p. 450. (Bliss), does not include this Essay among his other works. In the Bodleian Catalogue its authorship is attributed to Joshua Bassett, Master of Sidney College, Cambridge, of whom our biographical dictionaries are perfectly silent. Fortunately, Cole has preserved some notices of him in his MSS., vol. xx. p. 117. It appears that he was a Roman Catholic, and had mass publicly said in his college; but upon King James revoking the mandamuses in 1688, he left Cambridge and settled in London, where, says Cole, "he lived to be a very old man, and died in no very affluent circumstances, as we may well imagine." Cole notices a work by Bassett published anonymously, viz. Reason and Authority; or the Motives of a late Protestant's Reconciliation to the Catholic Church. London: 1687, 4to. With this clue, probably, some of your readers can finally settle the question.

J. Y.

Hoxton.

NEW ARRANGEMENT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

I am engaged in preparing the Old Testament on the same plan, but with some alterations and additions, as the Chronological New Testament described in Vol. iv., p. 357.

I write to ask if any of your correspondents can aid me in my undertaking in the following points:

I. To inform me where I can procure, by purchase, or by loan for a few weeks, Torshell's tract or book, in which he proposed to Charles I. to undertake such a work.

II. To make a re-division, according to the subject-matter, of Job, Ecclesiastes, and the greater and the minor prophets.

III. To draw up a brief analysis of this subject-matter, similar to what is attempted in the New Testament for the Epistles.

IV. To extract from the Mishneh, &c., the really valuable comments of the rabbis.

V. To make up the chronology into the following four great unequal divisions, assigning the particular years to each transaction falling under these divisions; viz., (a) Adam to Abraham, (b) Abraham to David; (c) David to the transportation of Judah to Babylon; (d) Transportation to Babylon to Christ.

VI. To collate all these important variations of the Septuagint and of the Samaritan Pentateuch.

VII. Critically to examine the introductions, marginal quotations, and the analyses, as given in the Chronological New Testament.

I shall with pleasure present any gentleman who will help me in any one of these particulars with a copy of the New Testament at once, if he will signify his wish for one, in a line addressed to me, care of the Publisher, Mr. Blackader, 13. Paternoster Row.

THE EDITOR OF THE "CHRONOLOGICAL NEW TESTAMENT."

Trinity Square, Southwark.

Minor Queries.

Pasquinades.

—Can any correspondent tell me under whose reign the following pasquinade was published?

The reigning Pope had erected a new order of knighthood, and the crosses were very lavishly distributed; upon which Pasquin said—

"In tempi men' leggiadri e più feroci

S'appiccavan' i ladri in sulle croci,

Ma in tempi men' feroci e più leggiadri

S'appiccano croci in sopra ladri."

L. H. J. T.

Sir John Fenner's Bequest of Bibles.