Vol. V.—No. 127. 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. 127.
SATURDAY, APRIL 3. 1852.
Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition, 5d.
CONTENTS.
NOTES:—
Bonaparte and Lord Whitworth, by Lord Braybrooke [313]
Notes on Prynne's Breviate, by Archbishop Laud [314]
Epitaph on Voltaire [316]
The Miller's Melody, Fragment of an Old Ballad [316]
Minor Notes:—Dr. Johnson, a Prophet—Coleridge and Plato—Epitaph in St. Giles' Church, Norwich—Hair in Seals—To "eliminate" [317]
QUERIES:—
Algernon Sidney, by Hepworth Dixon [318]
Old Irish Tales [318]
Political Pamphlets [319]
Minor Queries:—The Book of Nicholas Leigh—Gabriel Harvey's Notes on Chaucer—The Cholera and the Electrometer—Terre Isaac—Daundelyon—Mallet's Death and Burial—Classical Quotations in Grotius—The Authorised Version—Rector's Chancel—Duchess of Lancaster—Cheke's Clock—Ruthven Family—"The Man in the Almanack"—Arkwright—Burial, Law respecting—Mr. Borrow's Muggletonians—Puritan Antipathy to Custard—"Corruptio Optimi," &c.—Miss Fanshawe's Enigma—Mary Ambree [319]
MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:—Sir W. Stanley—Mires —Somerlayes—Wyned—Cromwell Family—Beholden—Men of Kent and Kentish Men—Bee-park—A great Man who could not spell—Glass-making in England—Eustace—Mas—John Le Neve—Meaning of Crow [321]
REPLIES:—
Presbyterian Oath [323]
The Old Countess of Desmond, by the Knight of Kerry [323]
Shakspeare's Sickle or Shekel [324]
A few more Words about "Dulcarnon," by S. W. Singer [325]
English Surnames, by Mark Antony Lower [326]
Rev. John Paget [327]
Letter to a Brigadier-General [328]
Maps of Africa [329]
Replies to Minor Queries:—James Wilson, M.D.—History of Commerce—Ecclesiastical Geography—Butts Family—Friday at Sea—A Pinch of Snuff from Dean Swift's Box—English Translation of the Canons—Few Descents through a long Period—Tandem D. O. M.—Land Holland—Arc de Arbouin—Derivation of "Martinique"—Bigot—Davies Queries—Fawsley, Heraldic Atchievement—Old Scots March—Periwinkle—Erasmus' Paraphrase—"Black Gowns and Red Coats"—Arms of Manchester—Sir Thomas Frowyk—John Goldesborough—Corrupted Names of Places—Story of Ginevra—Ornamental Hermits—Dr. Fell—List of Prothonotaries—The Vellum-bound Junius—Plague Stones—George Trehern—St. Christopher—White Livers—Torshel's Design to harmonise the Bible [329]
MISCELLANEOUS:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. [334]
Books and Odd Volumes wanted [334]
Notices to Correspondents [334]
Advertisements [335]
[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
BONAPARTE AND LORD WHITWORTH.
The Rev. J. Sanford has authorised me to place the following letter in your hands, in order that you may print it in "N. & Q." should it appear to be of sufficient interest.
BRAYBROOKE.
"I send you an account of the very memorable scene which occurred at Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room on the 13th of March, 1803. I believe I am the only living witness, as those who were near the person of Lord Whitworth were members of the corps diplomatique, Cobenzel, Marcoff, Lucchesini, all dead. Many years after I became intimately acquainted with the Marchese Lucchesini at Florence, when I had an opportunity of referring to that remarkable conversation.
"It was announced that Madame Bonaparte was to receive on the following Sunday, and it was reported that she was to have maids of honour for the first time; a little curiosity was excited on this score. The apartment of Madame B. was on the opposite side of the Tuilleries in which Bonaparte held his levees. I was acquainted with Lord Whitworth, who told me to place myself near to him, in order to afford facility for presentation, as Madame B. would occupy an arm-chair to which he pointed, and on each side of which were two tabourets. As all foreigners had been presented to General B. at his levee, his presence was not expected. The rooms, two in number, were not very large; the ladies were seated round the rooms in arm-chairs: a passage was left, I suppose, for Madame B. to pass without obstacle. When the door of the adjoining room was opened, instead of Madame B. the First Consul entered; and as Lord Whitworth was the first ambassador he encountered, he addressed him by enquiring about the Duchess of Dorset's health, she being absent from a cold. He then observed that we had had fifteen years' war; Lord W. smiled very courteously, and said it was fifteen years too much. We shall probably, replied General B., have fifteen years more: and if so, England will have to answer for it to all Europe, and to God and man. He then enquired where the armaments in Holland were going on, for he knew of none. Then for a moment he quitted Lord W. and passed all the ladies' addressing Mrs. Greathead only, though the Duchess of Gordon and her daughter, Lady Georgina, were present. After speaking to several officers in the centre of the room, which was crowded, he returned to Lord W. and asked why Malta was not given up. Lord W. then looked more serious, and said he had no doubt that Malta would be given up when the other articles of the treaty were complied with. General B. then left the room, and Madame B. immediately entered. As soon as the drawing-room was over, I observed to Lord W. that it was the first cabinet council I had ever witnessed; he laughingly answered, by far the most numerously attended. Lord W. then addressed the American Minister, who was very deaf, and repeated what had passed, and I perceived that he was very much offended at what had occurred. In justice to the First Consul, I must say that the impropriety consisted in the unfitness of the place for such a subject; the tone of his voice was not raised, as was said at the time. He spoke in the same tone as when he enquired for the Duchess of Dorset."
NOTES ON PRYNNE'S BREVIATE, BY ARCHBISHOP LAUD.
I have two Queries to propose; but before I can do so effectually, it is necessary to enter into an explanation and statement of facts, which may be considered as Notes conveying information which will, I anticipate, prove new and interesting to many readers of "N. & Q."
On the 2nd of September, 1644, Archbishop Laud, then a man of more than threescore years and ten, but still with intellect vigorous, active, and unimpaired by age or trouble, appeared at the bar of the House of Lords, to recapitulate in one address the various points of his defence, which had been made at intervals during the six months previous, as the trial had gone on, from time to time, since the 12th of the preceding March. On coming to the bar, he was for the moment staggered by seeing, in the hands of each of his judges, a blue book, containing, as he had just learnt, great part of his own most secret memoranda and most private thoughts, extracted by the bitterest of his opponents out of his Diary and MS. book of devotions. This was Prynne's Breviate of the Life of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; extracted (for the most part) verbatim out of his own Diary, and other writings, under his own hand.
"So soon as I came to the bar," (this is his own account,) "I saw every Lord present with a new thin book in folio, in a blue coat. I heard that morning that Mr. Pryn had printed my Diary, and published it to the world, to disgrace me. Some notes of his own are made upon it. The first and the last are two desperate untruths, beside some others. This was the book then in the Lords' hands, and I assure myself, that time picked for it, that the sight of it might damp me, and disinable me to speak. I confess I was a little troubled at it. But after I had gathered up myself, and looked up to God, I went on to the business of the day, and thus I spake."
History of Troubles and Trial, c. xlii. pp. 411, 412.
In his defence he turned this circumstance, and the use previously made of his Diary and Devotions during the course of his trial, very happily to account. After speaking of the means which had been used to frame the charges against him, how he had been "sifted to the very bran," he says:
"My very pockets searched; and my Diary, nay, my very Prayer Book taken from me, and after used against me; and that, in some cases, not to prove, but to make a charge. Yet I am thus far glad, even for this sad accident. For by my Diary your Lordships have seen the passages of my life; and by my Prayer Book, the greatest secrets between God and my soul: so that you may be sure you have me at the very bottom. Yet, blessed be God, no disloyalty is found in the one; no Popery in the other."
Ibid. c. xliii. p. 413.
The recapitulation over, the Archbishop was remanded to the Tower, and prosecuted the work on which he had been long engaged, The History of his Troubles and Tryal: intending, when that was finished, to publish a reply to this Breviate. His words are:
"For this Breviate of his, if God lend me life and strength to end this (the History) first, I shall discover to the world the base and malitious slanders with which it is fraught."
Ibid. c. xx. p. 254.
His life was not spared to do more than carry on that History to the day preceding the passing of the bill of attainder by the Lords, three months after the publication of the Breviate. Thus it ends:
"And thus far had I proceeded in this sad history by Jan. 3, 1644-45. The rest shall follow as it comes to my knowledge."
Ibid. c. xlvi. p. 443.
Wharton adds this note:
"Next day the Archbishop, receiving the news that the bill of attainder had passed the House of Lords, broke off his history, and prepared himself for death."
He was beheaded the 10th day of the same month, January 1645.
The information I have to communicate, after this long preface, is, that a copy of this book of Prynne's, with marginal notes by the Archbishop, made apparently in preparation for the answer which he contemplated, is still extant; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who can give any further information on the subject.
In this copy the notes are only a transcript from those made by the Archbishop; and partly, perhaps, owing to the narrow margin of Prynne's book, we have to regret that they are not more ] copious; but, such they are, they are of value, as throwing new light on some points of history; and they appear not to have been known to any of the biographers of Laud, or to those who, as Archbishop Sancroft and Wharton, sought most carefully after his literary remains.
The volume of which I speak is the property of an Institution at Warrington, "The Warrington Museum and Library," to which it was presented by Mr. Crosfield, of Fir Grove, Latchford, at the time of the library being established, in 1848, having been bought by his father at a book-stall in Manchester some years previously.
A transcript of the notes is now before me; which the Committee of the Museum have, with great liberality, allowed to be made for the edition of the Archbishop's works now publishing in The Anglo-Catholic Library. The readiness which they have shown to impart the benefit of their collection, and the kindness with which the Hon. Secretary, Mr. Marsh, has given a full and accurate account of the MS. information, and himself transcribed the notes, deserve the most public acknowledgment.
That the notes in this volume are not written by the Archbishop is proved decisively, not only by the handwriting, but by the following note on Prynne's translation of the Diary, at p. 9. last line,—"I, whiles others were absent, held the cup to him," on which the following is the note:—
"In yt Breviate in which ye Archbp. has made [his notes], 'tis printed city, and in this place he has [written] 'In my diary 'tis calicem. Note that....'"
Owing to the edge of the paper being worn, some parts of the note are lost; they have been conjecturally filled up by the words in brackets.
On the title-page is written, in a hand cotemporary with the transcript:
"Memorand. Mr. Prynn presented this worke of his to the Lds. Sep. 2nd, 1644, ye same day that ye poor Archbp. was to make his recapitulation, divers Lords holding it in their hands all the while, &c."
And beneath this, apparently in the same hand, is written:
"This I suppose was written by Mr. Dell, secretary to Archbp."
It is inferred that this memorandum had been made by Mr. Dell on the Archbishop's copy, and transcribed together with the notes.
Now the Queries I have to make are these three:
1. Whether any copies of Prynne's Breviate are extant, having, in the last line of the ninth page cited above, the misprint city for cup?[1]
2. Whether any information can be given which may lead to the discovery of the copy containing the original notes of the Archbishop, of which the Warrington copy is a transcript?
3. Whether any allusion to the fact of the Archbishop having made such notes is made by any cotemporary writer? Antony Wood, Wharton, and Heylin do not mention it.
In respect to the second Query, I presume to ask every one who has access to a copy of Prynne's Breviate to look into it, and see whether it contains MS. marginal notes. I do so, because in so many cases copies of works stand in their places in libraries unopened, and with contents unknown; the knowledge of their special value having perhaps been possessed by some curious collector or librarian, but not being noted down, having died with him: and the owner of the volume, should it be found, will receive his reward in the consciousness of possessing a treasure, such as it is, which before he knew not of—some of the last writing of a great man, imprisoned and anticipating death, who was engaged in vindicating himself from misrepresentation and calumnies, part of which had adhered to his memory till these notes came to light.
For the identification of that volume, should it be found, and for the information of your readers, I will transcribe the first paragraph of the Breviate, with the Archbishop's marginalia:
"Hee was borne at Redding in Barkshire, October 7, 1573, of poore (a) and obscure (b) parents, in a cottage (c), just over against the (d) Cage: which Cage since his comming to the Archbishoprick of Canterbury, upon complaint of Master Elveston (that it was a dishonour the Cage should be suffered to stand so neare the house, where so great a royall Favourite and Prelate had his birth) was removed to some other place; and the cottage (e) pulled downe, and new-built by the Bishop."
(a) "All this, if true, is no fault of mine."
(b) "My father had born all offices in ye town save ye mayoralty."
(c) "The howsing whch my father dwelt in is rented at this day at thirty-three pounds a year."
(d) "The Cage stood two streets off from my father's house all his life time, and divers years after, as many yet living know. By whom it was remov'd into yt street, and why out again, I know not."
(e) "No one stick of ye cottage was pulled down by me."
The passage which concludes the notes on p. 35. is unfortunately maimed by the wearing away of the edges of the leaves; it is as follows:—
... "And as I hope for comfort in my Saviour this is true ... uncharitable conclusion, my life is in ye hands of God ... blessed be His name. But let not Mr. Pryn call for Blood...."
It should be added that the volume has been formerly in the hands of some one who took an interest in the Archbishop's history, as a few notes in a handwriting of the last century are inserted on slips in various parts of the volume, chiefly passages from the Diary "maliciously omitted by Prynne."
The writer of this notice has not the means of identifying the hand by which these more recent notes, or the transcript of those of the Archbishop, were written; but will take this occasion of suggesting what has often appeared to him a great desideratum in literature—that is, a collection of fac-similes of the autographs of distinguished people, whether literary or public characters; not merely their signatures, which are found in existing collections of autography, but passages sufficiently long to aid in identifying their ordinary writing, and, if possible, taken from writing made at different periods of their lives. With the improvements of mechanical skill which we enjoy, such works might be afforded at a much cheaper rate than formerly, and would, it is conceived, command a remunerating sale.
It remains only to add, that information on the points about which inquiry is made may be communicated through the medium of the "N. & Q.," or by letter to the Rev. James Bliss, Ogborne St. Andrew, near Marlborough, who is engaged in editing the works of Archbishop Laud; and who would be glad to receive any information with respect to unpublished letters or papers of the Archbishop.
C. R. O.
[1] [It is clear there have been two editions of Prynne's Breviate, both printed in the year 1644. The copy in the King's Library, at the British Museum, contains the misprinted word city, but is corrected in the Errata, at the bottom of p. 35.; whereas the copy in the Grenville Library has it correctly printed cup, and the list of Errata is omitted.—ED.]
EPITAPH ON VOLTAIRE.
I send you two versions of the epitaph on Voltaire given in Vol. iv., p. 73., not for their intrinsic merit, but as illustrations of a curious physiological trait, as to the nature and power, or powerlessness, of memory:
"Plus bel esprit que grand génie,
Sans loi, sans mœurs, et sans vertu,
Il est mort, comme il a vécu,
Couvert de gloire et d'infamie."
Version No. 1.:
"With far less intellect than wit,
Lawless, immoral, and debased;
His life and death each other fit,
At once applauded and disgraced."
Version No. 2.:
"Much more a wit, than man of mind;
Alike to law, truth, morals blind!
Consistent as he lived he died,
His age's scandal, and its pride."
These are not offered as competing in excellence, for they are both the productions of the same mind, but for the purpose of recording the following remarkable fact respecting their composition. No. 2. was written down immediately on reading your Number in July last (1851); having composed it, I took from my library shelf Lord Brougham's Life of Voltaire, in which I knew the lines were, for the purpose of pencilling in my rendering of them. You may conceive my surprise at finding already there the version No. 1. with the date 1848, which I had made in that year, but of which I had so totally lost all remembrance, that not a single turn of thought or expression in one resembles the other. I perfectly remember the mental process of hammering out No. 2., and can confidently affirm that, during the time, no recollection whatever of No. 1., or anything about it, ever crossed my thought. I fear such a total obliteration is a token of failure in a faculty once powerful and accurate, but, perhaps, unduly tasked; yet I offer it to be recorded as a singular fact connected with this wonderful function of mind.
A. B. R.
Belmont.
THE MILLER'S MELODY, FRAGMENT OF AN OLD BALLAD.
When I was a good little boy, I was a favourite visitor to an old maiden lady, whose memory retained such a store of old ballads and folk-lore as would be a treasure to many a reader of "N. & Q." were she still living and able to communicate. One ballad, parts of which, as well as the tune, still haunt my memory, I have tried to recover in its integrity but in vain; and of all the little wearers of frocks and pinafores, who had the privilege of occasionally assembling round the dear old lady's tea-table, and for whose amusement she was wont to sing it, I fear I am the sole survivor. The associations connected with this song may perhaps have invested it with an undue degree of interest to me, but I think it sufficiently curious to desire to insert as much as I can remember of it in "N. & Q." in the hope that some of your correspondents may be able to supply the deficiencies. I wish I could at the same time convey an idea of the air. It began in a slow quaint strain, with these words:—
"Oh! was it eke a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant hen,
Or was it the bodye of a faire ladye
Come swimming down the stream?
Oh! it was not a pheasant cock,
Nor eke a pheasant hen,
But it was the bodye of a faire ladye,
Came swimming down the stream."
For the next two verses I am at fault, but their purport was that the body "stopped hard by a miller's mill," and that this "miller chanced to come by," and took it out of the water "to make a melodye."
My venerable friend's tune here became a more lively one, and the time quicker; but I can only recollect a few of the couplets, and those not correctly, nor in order of sequence, in which the transformation of the lady into a viol is described:
"And what did he do with her fair bodye?
Fal the lal the lal laral lody.
He made it a case for his melodye,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her legs so strong?
Fal, &c.
He made them a stand for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her hair so fine?
Fal, &c.
He made of it strings for his violine,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her arms so long?
Fal, &c.
He made them bows for his violon,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her nose so thin?
Fal, &c.
He made it a bridge for his violin,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her eyes so bright?
Fal, &c.
He made them spectacles to put to his sight,
Fal, &c.
And what did he do with her petty toes?
Fal, &c.
He made them a nosegay to put to his nose,
Fal, &c.
G. A. C.
Minor Notes.
Doctor Johnson a Prophet.
—Can any of your readers inform me where the following anecdote is recorded? It bears the mark of authenticity, and if so adds, to the extraordinary gifts of the great moralist, that of prophecy; be it observed, however, that the prognostication is founded on a deduction of science. As the Doctor was one evening leaning out of the window of his house in Bolt Court, Fleet Street, he observed the parish lamplighter nimbly ascend a ladder for the purpose of lighting one of the old glimmering oil lamps which only served to make "darkness visible." The man had scarcely descended the ladder half way, when he discovered that the flame had expired; quickly returning he lifted the cover partially, and thrusting the end of his torch beneath it, the flame was instantly communicated to the wick by the thick vapour which issued from it.
"Ah!" exclaimed the Doctor, after a pause, and giving utterance to his thoughts, "Ah! one of these days the streets of London will be lighted by smoke!" It is needless to add that in the succeeding century the prediction was verified.
M. W. B.
Coleridge and Plato.
—Without becoming "a piddler in minute plagiarisms" (as Gifford called Warton), I think the following coincidence worth noting. S. T. Coleridge, in his "Lines on an Autumnal Evening," has these lines:
"On seraph wing I'd float a dream by night,
To soothe my love with shadows of delight;
Or soar aloft to be the spangled skies.
And gaze upon her with a thousand eyes."
Plato had written ("To Stella," in Anthol. Palat.):
Ἀστέρας εἰσαθρεῖς Ἀστὴρ ἐμός· εἴθε γενοίμην
Οὐρανὸς ὡς μυρίοις ὄμμασιν εἴς σε βλέπω.
I cannot withhold Shelley's exquisite version:
"Fair star of life and love, my soul's delight!
Why lookest thou on the crystalline skies?
O that my spirit were yon heaven of night,
Which gazes on thee with its thousand eyes!"
Revolt of Islam, c. ix. st. 36.
Dr. Wellesley's Anthologia Polyglotta contains several versions of Plato's lines. There is also one by Swynfen Jervis, in Lewis's Biographical History of Philosophy, s. v. Plato.
C. P. PH***.
Epitaph in St. Giles' Church, Norwich.—
"ELIZABETHA BEDINGFIELD,
Sorori Francisce Sve
S. R. Q. P.
"My name speaks what I was, and am, and have,
A Bedding field, a piece of earth, a grave,
Where I expect, untill my soule shall bring
Unto the field an everlasting spring;
For rayse and rayse out of the earth and slime,
God did the first, and will the second time.
Obiit Die 10 Maii 1637."
The above epitaph is curious; but what is the meaning of the letters "S. R. Q. P.?"
NEDLAM.
Hair in Seals.
—Stillingfleet, referring to a MS. author, who wrote a chronicle of St. Augustine's, says:
"He observes one particular custom of the Normans, that they were wont to put some of the hair of their heads or beards into the wax of their seals: I suppose rather to be kept as monuments than as adding any strength or weight to their charters. So he observes, that some of the hair of William, Earl of Warren, was in his time kept in the Priory of Lewis."
Orig. Brit., chap. I., Works, Lond. 1710, tom. iii. p. 13.
J. SANSOM.
To "eliminate."
—The meaning of this word, according both to its etymology and its usage in the Latin authors, is quite clear; it is to "turn out of doors." Figuratively, it has been used by mathematicians to denote the process by which all incidental matters are gradually thrown out of an equation to be solved, &c., so that only its essential conditions at last remain. Of late, however, I have observed it used not of the act of elimination, but of the result; a sense quite foreign to its true meaning, and producing great ambiguity. Thus, in a recent Discourse, the object of biblical exegesis is declared to be "the elimination of the statements of the Bible respecting doctrine;" the author evidently meaning, not what his words imply,—to get rid of the statements of the Bible,—though that has been sometimes the problem of exegesis, but to present the doctrinal result in a clear form, and detached from everything else.
A PRECISIAN.
Queries.
ALGERNON SYDNEY.
In no way, perhaps, has "N. & Q." been so useful to the literary public as in making itself the ready means of concentrating on any given point the various readings of many persons; unless, indeed, it should be considered more useful to have proved how courteous, how willing to oblige—even at some personal sacrifices—men of reading are in this day and generation. The information recently sent from so many quarters in relation to General Wolfe is a good example of what may be done in other cases; that about Sterne in Paris is another. The latter instance suggests to me a way in which some of your correspondents, whose private communications I have had to acknowledge in reference to other inquiries, might do me a real service at no great inconvenience perhaps to themselves.
I am collecting materials for a volume on Algernon Sydney. A great part of this illustrious patriot's life was spent abroad; in many parts of the continent, France, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Germany, &c. This part of his history has been so far veiled in considerable obscurity, and incidents of it misrepresented. Some better knowledge of it than we now possess, must be, I think, recoverable. A man of Sydney's birth, active temperament, and distinguished abilities, must have been spoken of in many letters and memoirs of that time. No doubt anecdotes and traits of character may be found in cotemporary French, Italian, German, and Scandinavian literature.
But with a library so vast to examine, no single man could ever feel sure that nothing was overlooked. Other explorers, working for themselves, may have hit upon statements or anecdotes of the greatest value to me. May I ask any such to oblige me by references to any works in which the information that I seek is to be found; sent either to "N. & Q.," or to my address as under?
HEPWORTH DIXON.
84. St. John's Wood Terrace.
OLD IRISH TALES.
A black-letter duodecimo, printed in London in 1584, under the anomalous title of Beware the Cat, was advertised for sale in one of Thorpe's Catalogues a few years back, at a price of seven guineas. The copy was believed to be unique; it had been in the libraries of several book collectors, and among others of Mr. Heber, who considered it the most curious volume illustrative of the times, in all his vast collection. It appears, by the short abstract of contents, that the book contains some curious notices of Ireland and Irishmen; an "account" is given "of the civil wars in Ireland, by Mackmorro, and all the rest of the wild Irish lords." This hero was probably Art Kavanagh, "the Mac-Morrogh" (the hereditary title of the chief of the Leinster septs) whose rebellions were, on two occasions, the cause of Richard II.'s two great expeditions to Ireland. Then follows the tale of "Fitz-Harris and the Prior of Tintern Abbey." Fitz-Harris, or Fitz-Henry, was an Anglo-Irish baron, who resided in the south of the county of Wexford, in the neighbourhood of a convent, which having been founded by Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, and supplied with monks from Tintern in Monmouthshire, was named after the parent monastery. The Fitz-Harris's are said to have descended from Meyler Fitz-Henry, the "indomitor totius gentis Hiberniæ," but they became, to quote Spenser's adage current of the Anglo-Irish of his day,
"As Irish as O'Hanlan's breech;"
they "matched with the Kavanaghs of Carlow, and held with them," and thus became involved in the interminable feuds of the native tribes, and, like them, they left their estates to their bastards.
"The fashion of the Irish wars at that time" is there described, but probably not more graphically than in Derrick's quaint doggrel verses. "The Irish Churle's Tale" is next told; the churl was the husbandman, the "Protectionist" of the day, who doubtless could tell many piteous tales of oppression, rapine, and ravishment, whose only hope of protection lay in acting as a sort of sponge to some "wild lord" (who would guard him from being plundered by others, that he might himself devour his substance), and whose "tenant-right" cry of that day was "spend me, but defend me."
The volume affirms that "the wild Irishmen were better than we in reverencing their religion:" the verb is used in the preterimperfect tense. "The old Irish diet was to dine at night;" this is even a stranger assertion. Higden, in his Polychronicon, declares of the Irish clergy,
"They ben chaste, and sayen many prayers, and done great abstinence a-day, and drinketh all night."
That glorious chanson à boire, commencing
"I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;
But I do think that I can drink
With him that wears a hood!"
must have been composed in Ireland. If the old black-letter book had said that the Irish got their dinner at night, it would have been nearer the truth, for the larders of the Milesian chiefs in the neighbourhood of the English pale were often supplied by the nocturnal marauds of their cattle-lifters. However, I see that Stanihurst writes that the Irish dined in winter before day, and in summer about the seventh hour.
Can any of your readers say in whose possession this book is now? I was informed that it was purchased by a dignitary of Cambridge University.
H. F. H.
Wexford.
POLITICAL PAMPHLETS.
The loan of the following works is much desired by a gentleman who has in vain tried to find them in the British Museum, or to purchase them. They belong to a class of books which being of little money-value are generally wasted by booksellers, rarely or never inserted in their catalogues:—
A Collection of Letters on Government, Liberty and the Constitution, which appeared from the time Lord Bute was appointed First Lord of the Treasury to the Death of Lord Egremont. 3 vols. [possibly 4], published in 1774 by Almon.
A Collection of esteemed Political Tracts, which appeared 1764, 5, and 6. 3 or 4 vols. published 1766 or 7, by Almon.
A Collection of most Interesting Political Letters which appeared in the Public Papers from 1763 to 1765. 3 or 4 vols. Almon, 1766.
The Briton (a Periodical). 1763.
The Auditor (a Periodical). 1763.
A Collection of all Remarkable and Personal Passages in the Briton, North Briton, and Auditor. Almon, 1765.
The Expostulation, a Poem. Bingley, 1768.
Vox Senatus. 1771.
Two Remarkable Letters of Junius and The Freeholder. 1770.
Junius's Letters. Wheble, 1771 (not 1772 or 1775).
Wilkes's Speeches. 3 vols.
The Editor of "N. & Q." has undertaken to take charge of them, and when done with to return them safely to their respective owners.
Q. N.
Minor Queries.
The Book of Nicholas Leigh.
—Some twenty or thirty years since a gentleman named Abraham Roth resided in London, having in his possession a manuscript of the early part of the seventeenth century bearing the above title, and relating to the history and internal polity of the town of Kilkenny. It is frequently quoted by Dr. Ledwich in his Antiquities of Kilkenny and Irishtown. Mr. Roth subsequently deceased in London, and it is believed his books and other effects were sold there.
Qy. Is The Book of Nicholas Leigh known to any of the correspondents or readers of "N. & Q.?"
JAMES GRAVES.
Kilkenny.
Gabriel Harvey's Notes on Chaucer.
—It appears by a note of Park's in Warton's Poetry, vol. iii. p. 86. (ed. 1840), that Bishop Percy had in his possession a copy of Speght's Chaucer, in which was a note by Gabriel Harvey to the effect that some of Heywood's Epigrams were supposed to be "conceits and devices of pleasant Sir Thomas More." Is the copy of Speght in existence, and where? If it contain many notes by Harvey, they would probably prove to be worth recording.
PHILO CHAUCER.
The Cholera and the Electrometer.
—During the late visitation of cholera, observations were made tending to establish a relation between the state of the Electrometer and the quotidian fluctuations of the disease.
Where can any authentic account of these observations be found, and what is the name of the observer?
T. J.
Terre Isaac.
—Can I be referred to any source of information respecting Isaac, mentioned in Domesday Book as holding lands in Norfolk of the gift of the Conqueror, and whether he had any descendants?
G. A. C.
Daundelyon.
—One of the earliest Queries kindly inserted in Vol. i., p. 92., requesting information regarding the legend and tradition of the tenor bell at Margate, being still unanswered, be pleased to append as a note the following lines from a descriptive poem called The Margate Guide, 1797, by the late Mr. Zechariah Cozens, an esteemed local antiquary, now buried within its sound:
"But on the north John Daundelyon lies,
Whose wondrous deeds our children yet surprise;
Still at his feet his faithful dog remains,
Who with his master equal notice claims;
For by their joint exertions legends tell,
They brought from far the ponderous tenor bell."
"Note.—Concerning this bell the inhabitants repeat this traditionary rhyme:
"John de Daundelyon with his great dog,
Brought over this bell upon a mill cog."
Page 31.
E. D.
Mallet's Death and Burial.
—Where did Mallet the poet die, and where was he buried?
F.
Classical Quotations in Grotius.
—I have been told that Grotius quoted from memory alone when writing his Commentary; is this possible, considering the number and variety of the quotations? One thing is certainly very remarkable, and goes some way towards favouring this notion, viz., in many of the quotations there are mistakes,—words are inserted, or rather substituted for others, but without destroying the sense. This I have frequently observed myself; but the observation applies only, as far as I know, to the poetical quotations;—may he not have quoted the poetry from memory, and, for the prose, had recourse to the original?
L. G.
The Authorised Version.
—You have allowed some discussion in your pages on what I consider the certainly incorrect translation of Heb. xiii. 4. in our authorised version. I do not think it at all desirable to encourage a captious spirit of fault-finding towards that admirable translation, but fair criticism is assuredly allowable. Can any of your correspondents account for the rendering in Heb. x. 23. of τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος by "the profession of our faith?"
I have never seen any reply to a former Query of mine (Vol. ii., p. 217.) about the omission of the word "holy" in the article on the Church in the Nicene Creed in all our Prayer-books. It is not omitted in the original Greek and Latin.
J. M. W.
Rector's Chancel.
—Would you, or one of your correspondents, kindly inform me how the following case has been settled; it is one which in all probability has often arisen, but I have not yet been able to learn anything about it that is satisfactory.
In old times when a church became too small for the parish, the ordinary custom was to build an additional part to it in such a way that the old church, after the alteration, formed an aisle to the new part, which henceforth because the nave. Until the Reformation the altar in the old chancel would probably remain after the new chancel was built, and be used as an inferior altar, while the new altar would be used for high mass; under these circumstances the rector's right in the chancel would probably remain untouched, and his obligation to keep it in repair undisputed. But when, at the Reformation, all but high altars were taken away, which chancel was accounted the rector's, the new, or the old, or both? This question has just arisen in an adjoining county.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Duchess of Lancaster.
—Can any of your correspondents inform us whether the Queen is really Duchess of Lancaster? The Lancastrians have always rather prided themselves on that circumstance, but some wise person has lately made the discovery that William III. never created himself Duke of Lancaster, nor any of the Hanoverian dynasty, and that consequently the title remains with the Stuarts, although the duchy privileges belong to the Crown. Is this really the truth?
A LANCASTRIAN.
Cheke's Clock.
—Strype, in his Life of Sir John Cheke, mentions that among other presents bestowed on him by the king, was his own clock, which after his death came into the possession of Dr. Edwin Sandys, Bishop of Worcester, who, about 1563, gave it as a new year's gift to Cecil the Secretary. Can any of your readers give a description of this clock, or what became of it after coming into Cecil's possession?
C. B. T.
Ruthven Family.
—In a pedigree by Vincent in the College of Arms, two sons of Patrick Ruthven are to be found, the first called Cames de Gowrie, the second Robert Ruthven; they were alive in 1660. Can any of your correspondents tell me what became of them?
S. C.
"The Man in the Almanack."
—Will some kind correspondent favour me with an elucidation of the phrase "Man in the Almanack," which occurs in the following quotation from the epilogue to Nat. Lee's Gloriana, or the Court of Augustus Cæsar?
"The ladies, too, neglecting every grace,
Mob'd up in night cloaths, came with lace to face,
The Towre upon the forehead all turn'd back,
And stuck with pins like th' Man i' th' Almanack."
Has this any reference to the practice of "pricking for fortunes?"
HENRY CAMPKIN.
Arkwright.
—What is the origin of this name? It might have been the family name of the patriarch Noah, but I suppose it hardly goes so far back.
M.
Burial, Law respecting.
—Is there in existence any law rendering burial in consecrated ground compulsory? Most people have a strong desire to receive such interment; but some few might prefer to have their mortal remains deposited in some loved spot, far away from other graves,—in a scene where many happy hours had been passed. It would be a very unusual thing; but supposing such a desire to exist, could its execution be prevented? It is recorded that Manasseh, King of Judah, "slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the gardens of Uzza."—2 Kings xxi. 18.
SAMPSON ANRAMENII.
Mr. Borrow's Muggletonians.
—If this gentleman correctly states (in his Lavengro) that a minister of the Antinomians, with whom he was formerly acquainted, was otherwise called a Muggletonian, the inconceivable fact of that wretched maniac of the seventeenth century (whose portrait indicates the most hopeless fatuity) still having believers, must be a fact. But I marvel how Antinomianism should arise out of the teaching of an Unitarian, as Muggleton was. Can Mr. B. have confounded Muggleton with Huntington?
A. N.