The Project Gutenberg eBook of Notes and Queries Vol. V., No. 118, Saturday, January 31, 1852.

The Poet Collins 102

Portraits of Henry Purcell, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 103

Query on the Controversy about Fluxions, by Professor De Morgan 103

Minor Queries:—Madrigal, Meaning of—"Experto crede Roberto"—Chronological Institute—Buzz—The Old Scots March—Hans Holbein—Ivory Medallion of Lord Byron—Trumpington Church—"Carmen Perpetuum," &c.—"The Retired Christian"—The Garrote—Monastic Establishments in Scotland—Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook—Eliza Fenning—"Character of a True Churchman"—"A Roaring Meg"—Cardinal Pole—Theoloneum—Sterne in Paris—King Robert Bruce's Watch 104

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:—Hornchurch; Wrestling for the Boar's Head—Spectacles—Stoke—Author of Psalm Tune "Doncaster"—Dr. Henry Sacheverell 106

CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.

In "N. & Q." of the 17th of this month a correspondent, under the signature of A SMALL AUTHOR, pointed out, with much humour, and good humour, the manner in which he had been applied to and induced to part with certain "theological tomes" to some mysterious but most "influential" critic. Since that article appeared we have received information, which shows that the practice complained of is one which is being carried on to a considerable extent; and we therefore think we shall be doing some service, both to authors and publishers, by reprinting in our columns the following correspondence between Messrs. Butterworth and Sir J. E. Eardley Wilmot on the subject.

Dear Sir,—Authors with whom we have transactions, as well as ourselves, have recently been frequently applied to for publications "for the purpose of review in the daily, and other journals," by a person signing himself "JOHN B. EARDLEY WILMOT;" and as we happen to know, in an instance that has just occurred, we have been directed by one of our authors to send his works to the individual making application for the same under the impression that you were the party who did so, we write therefore in the first instance, as we have our doubts on the subject, to inquire if we are correct in presuming it is yourself who proffer the services of a reviewer, as in such case we shall be happy in sending the publications applied for, to be noticed accordingly. In the event of the letter alluded to (and which we send for your inspection) not having emanated from you, we beg you will further oblige us by stating if you know anything of the party who signs his name in a manner so similar to yourself.

Dear Sirs,—I have the honour of acknowledging your letter of the 2nd inst., which has been forwarded to me here.

I have already on more than one occasion been applied to, to know if I am the individual who signs himself "J. B. EARDLEY WILMOT," and who it seems is in the habit of writing to publishers, to ask for copies of new works, for the alleged purpose of getting them reviewed. Not three weeks ago I found on my table at my chambers in the Temple three very expensive books, which had been sent to me by Messrs. Longman & Co., supposing that I had offered to review them. I am very glad of the opportunity your letter affords me of stating that the individual who thus [98] signs himself and I myself are totally different persons; I have no connection or influence whatever with any literary journal, nor have I ever been a writer in any, and I need scarcely assure you I have never asked any publisher in my life for a copy of any new work in the manner adopted by the individual to whom you allude.

I may as well add, that there is no member of my family whose initials are J. B. Eardley Wilmot, nor is there, to the best of my knowledge, any family in England, except my own, which combines the two surnames of Eardley Wilmot. I must therefore presume that the signature of J. B. Eardley Wilmot is entirely a fictitious one, and adopted for sinister purposes.

I beg to express my acknowledgments to you, for enabling me to set myself right with the literary world, more especially as I have lately brought out a little work of my own on a subject entirely professional.

We will but add one small fact. An author who had been applied to by another influential reviewer, the Rev. A. B. Clerk, directed his publisher to forward a copy of his book by post to the place specified. The publisher sent it by rail. The consequence was that the reverend reviewer complained that the book had not reached him: while the railway people returned it because no such person could be found in the place at which he professed to reside.

Notes.

PORTRAITS OF WOLFE.

As the readers of "N. & Q." seem to take an interest in everything connected with the celebrated and heroic Wolfe, I may mention that my family possess two small paintings of that distinguished general, but by whom painted is unknown, though they are supposed to have been executed by some officer present with him at the taking of Quebec. A description of them may not be unacceptable to your readers. One represents Wolfe in the act of tying a handkerchief round his wrist, after he had been wounded at the commencement of the battle on the Heights of Abraham; and, from its unfinished appearance, seems to have been but a première pensée of the artist,—Wolfe's figure being the only one finished. The other represents him leaning on a soldier, just after receiving the fatal ball which deprived him of life, and his country of one of her greatest heroes. The family tradition connected with both these paintings is that they were painted immediately after his death by one of his aide-de-camps, or by an officer in the forces under his command. On the panels of the latter painting is the following inscription, some of the words being partially effaced:

"This painting represents the death of my [here the words are effaced, but, as far as I can make them out, they are] friend General Wolfe, who fell on the Heights of Abraham on [nearly effaced][the 13th day of September] 1759, before he could rejoice in the victory gained that day over the French."

"H. C." or "G." are the initials attached to this inscription, and under it are written, in old-fashioned style, and in old paper, pasted to the panels, the following lines, which I transcribe, as I have never seen them elsewhere:

"In the thick of the Fight, Wolfe's plume was display'd,

And his [effaced] coat was dusty and gory,

As flash'd on high his sabre's blade

{ fell }

O'er that Field where he { or } with such glory.

{ died }

"On Abraham's Heights he fought that day

With his soldiers side by side,

{ mov'd }

And he { or } along thro' that dreadful fray

{ led them }

As Old England's Hope and Pride.

"But short was the Hero's immortal career,

For as the battle was nearly o'er

He fell by a ball from a French musketeer,

Which bath'd his breast with gore.

"When wounded he leant on a soldier nigh,

And the victory just was won,—

For he heard aloud the cheering cry,

'They run! they run! they run!'—

"He faintly ask'd from whence that sound,

And being answer'd, 'The Enemy fly,'

He exclaim'd, as he slowly sunk to the ground,

'Oh God! in peace I die.'

"And there stretch'd he lay on the blood-stain'd green,

Which a warrior's death-bed should be,

And as in Life victorious Wolfe had been,

So in Death triumphant was he."

There appear to have been initials affixed to these lines, but they are effaced, as well as many words and letters which I have rather guessed at than read. These paintings belonged to a great-uncle of mine, Malborough Parsons Stirling, Colonel of the 36th Foot, who died Governor of the Island of Pondicherry, and who, it is believed, received them from his friend, Sir Samuel Auchmuty; but nothing positive is known of their history, farther than that they are believed to have been the work of some personal friend or aide-de-camp of Wolfe's, present with him at the battle of Quebec. A portion of the sash said to have been worn by him at the time of his death, and saturated with his blood, also accompanied these paintings. This description may enable some of your readers to discover by whom these paintings were executed; [99] to whom they originally belonged; and if there are duplicates of them in existence, where they may be seen.

NOTES ON HOMER, NO. I.

There has been a very great difficulty in the world of literature, which it were almost vain to think of removing. This difficulty is that usually known as "the Homeric question." After the folios and quartos of the grand old scholars of antiquity; after the octavos of Wolf, Heyne, and Knight; after the able chapters of Grote, and the eloquent volumes of Mure; after the Alexandrian Chorizontes; and after the incidental reflections on the subject scattered through thousands of volumes, it seems almost hazardous, and indeed useless, to offer any more conjectures on "the bard of ages," and (to use the phrase of the novelists) "his birth, education, and adventures." On a consideration of the question, however, it will be seen that (strange fact!) the subject is not yet exhausted; I shall therefore, with your kind assistance, submit a retrospective view of the matter to the readers of "N. & Q.," and afterwards attempt to show what results may be drawn from the united labour of so many minds. I shall then give a résumé, first, of the ancient history bearing on Homer, and, continuing the sketch to the late volumes of Mure, draw my own conclusions, which, after much patient consideration, I must say, appear to be nearer an approximation to the truth, than any theory which has yet been promulgated.

Let us cast our eyes on antiquity. This very much misunderstood period of the earth's progress offers to us the proofs of an appreciation of Homer to which literary history affords but one parallel. The magnificent flights of thought, which the Hellenes could so well accompany, the tone of colouring at once so subdued and so glorious, gained for the unknown poet a reputation everlasting and world and age-wide. But as time fled by, there arose a race of men who wrote poetry as schoolboys do Latin, by judiciously arranging (or vice versâ) appropriate lines from the earlier poets, called Cyclic poets, or cento-makers. The men who wrote thus were, probably, persons either engaged in itinerant vocal pursuits, or regular verse makers, who wrote "on a subject," as our own street writers on the present day. Indeed, I may say, that the state of the rhapsodists of Greece resembles much that of our own "itinerant violinists," as an eminent counsel once apostrophized the class which the excellent judge on the bench named, according to general custom, "blin' fiddlers." The probable reason for the introduction of passages into the original Homeric compositions was the necessity of a novelty. The Cyclic poems are to Homer what the letters of Poplicola, Anti-Sejanus, Correggio, Moderator, and the rest, were to Junius. However, they prove in a remarkable manner how great the excitement regarding "the poet," as Aristoteles calls him, ever continued to be in Hellas.

These gentlemen, whose object was not to disgrace Homer by their puling compositions, but only to practically observe the maxims subsequently instilled by Iago into Roderigo's mind (viz., to "put money in their purse"), were the precursors of another race of writers. In ancient times, we are informed by Tatian,[1] there were many writers on Homer, whose works, it is to be lamented, have perished with the nominal exception of a few fragments,—though, perhaps, scholars will once learn to use those as a clue, and find, as Burges did in the case of Thucydides,[2] that many valuable passages are lying hid in the pages of the lexicographers, who spared themselves the trouble of writing fresh matter, by merely slightly changing the expressions of their sources, and not "bothering" their lexicographical brains by attempting original composition. It is thus, that even the weaknesses of the human mind benefit after ages!

[2] Journ. of the Royal Soc. of Literature, vol, ii., New Series, and afterwards in a pamphlet in 1845.

The names furnished us by Tatian are these:—Theagenes of Rhegium (the earliest writer of whom we are cognizant, contemporary with Cambyses); Stesimbrotos of Thasos (contemporary with Pericles);[3] Antimachos of Claros; Herodotos, Dionysios of Olynthos, Ephoros of Cyme; Philochoros of Athens, Metacleides, Chamæleon of Heracleia;[4] Zenodotos of Ephesus, (B.C. 280); Aristophanes of Byzantium (B.C. 264); Callimachus, whose poetry, by the way, is dryer and more vapid than his prose, if the little we have left of him allows us to form an opinion; Crates of Malfus (B.C. 157); Eratosthenes of Cyrene; Aristarchos of Samothrace, and Apollodoros of Athens. The minds or pens of these men in Hellas alone, were occupied with this grand subject; and in Rome, that city of translations and "crib," we find the pens of the scribes were at work, and prolific in prolixity. Besides these authors, there are others whose attempts at illustrating the text of the writers of antiquity have been met in a most [100] illiberal manner; I mean the Scholiasts, who have been treated most unjustly. A goodly host of scribblers looks forth from the grave of antiquity. And here, before proceeding to speak of the theories of later times, it may be permitted me to suggest that casual allusions by writers who write not expressly on the subject, and who are sufficiently accurate on those points to which they have directed their attention, are often more valuable than the folios of writers who go on the principle of book-making.

[3] Plato, Ion, p. 550. c.; Xenoph. Mem. iv. 2. § 10.; Sympos. iii. 5.; Plutarch, Themist. 2. 24.; Cim. 4. 14. 16.; Per. 8. 10. 13. 26. 36.; Strabo, x. p. 472.; Athen. xiii. p. 598. e.

[4] Quoted by Athenæus (ix. p. 374. a.) under the title of Περὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμωδίας, which, however, is also the name of a work by Eumelus.

To enumerate the modern works of Homeric controversy, would be an endless and tedious task, nay, even useless, when so able and full an account exists in Engelmann's Bibliotheca Classica. The chief works, however, are Wolf's Prolegomena; Wood's Essay on the Original Genius of Homer; Creuzer, Symbolik und Mythologie; Hermann, Briefwechsel mit Creuzer über Homer und Hesiod; Welcker, Der Epische Cyclus; Lange, Ueber die Kyklischen Dichter und den sogenannten Epischen Kyklus der Griechen; Lachmann, Fernere Betrachtungen über die Ilias (Abhandl. Berlin. Acad. 1841); Voss, Nitzsch, O. Müller, Thirlwall (Hist. of Greece, vol. i. appendix 1. p. 500. foll.), Quarterly Review, No. lxxxvii., Grote (Hist. of Greece, pt. i. chapter xxi. vol. ii.), Mure's Critical History of the Language and Literature of Antient Greece, the article in Smith's Dictionary, vol. ii. p. 500., and Giovanni Battista Vico (Principi di Scienza nuova).

The foregoing writers are the principal who have occupied themselves with the subject. I will, in my next paper, pass on to a review of the question itself.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FORETOLD.

It seems strange to find in Dr. Jackson's Works a prophecy which, if then thought applicable to the French nation, is much more so now. I have no opportunity of verifying his reference, but will extract all verbatim, giving the Italics as I find them:—

"And without prejudice to many noble patriots and worthy members of Christ this day living in that famous kingdom of France, I should interpret that dream of Bassina (see Aimoinus, aliter Annonius) de Gestis Francorum, lib. i. c. 7. & 8. in the Corpus Franciæ Histor., Printed in folio, 1613, Hanoviæ, Queen unto Childerick the First, of the present state of France: in which the last part of that threefold vision is more truly verified than it was even in the lineal succession of Childerick and Bassina, or any of the Merovingian or Carlovingian families. The vision was of three sorts of beasts: the first, lions and leopards; the second, bears and wolves; the third, of dogs, or lesser creatures, biting and devouring one another.

"The interpretation which Bassina made of it was registered certain hundred years ago. That these troups of vermin or lesser creatures did signifie a people without fear or reverence of their princes, so pliable and devoutly obsequious to follow the peers or potentates of that nation in their factious quarrels, that they should involve themselves in inextricable tumults to their own destruction. Had this vision been painted only with this general notification, that it was to be emblematically understood of some state in Europe: who is he that can discern a picture by the known party whom it represents, but could have known as easily that this was a map of those miseries that lately have befallen France, whose bowels were almost rent and torn with civil and domestic broyls? God grant her closed wounds fall not to bleed afresh again. And that her people be not so eagerly set to bite and tear one another (like dogs or other testie creatures) until all become a prey to wolves and bears, or other great ravenous beasts, which seek not so much to tear or rent in heat of revenge, as lie in wait continually to devour and swallow with insatiate greediness the whole bodies of mighty kingdoms, and to die her robes, that rides as queen of monsters upon that many headed beast, with streams of bloud that issue from the bodies squeezed and crushed between their violent teeth; yea, even with the royal bloud of kings and princes."
Works, book i. cap. xiii. lib. i. pp. 46-7.: Lond. 1673, fol.

IDEES NAPOLEONIENNES.

We hear a vast deal in these ages of what are called "Idées Napoléoniennes," the wisdom of Napoleon, and so forth. Some of this is invented by the writers, and ascribed to Napoleon; some of it is no wisdom at all; and some is what may be called second-hand wisdom, an old familiar face with a new dress. Of the latter sort is the famous saying:

For this remark Napoleon has obtained considerable notice: but the truth is, he borrowed it from Tom Paine; Tom Paine borrowed it from Hugh Blair, and Hugh Blair from Longinus. Napoleon's words are:—

The passage in Tom Paine, whose writings were translated into French as early as 1791, stands thus:—

"The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately; one step above the sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous makes the sublime again."

"It is indeed extremely difficult to hit the precise point where true wit ends and buffoonery begins."

But the passage in Blair, from which Tom Paine adopted his notion of the sublime and the ridiculous, is that in which Blair, commenting on Lucan's style, remarks:— [101]

"It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is perfectly bombast."

Lastly, this saying was borrowed by Blair from his brother rhetorician, Longinus, who, in his Treatise on the Sublime, has the following sentence at the beginning of section iii.:—

"Τεθόλωται γὰρ τῇ φράσει, καὶ τεθορύβηται ταῖς φαντασίαις μᾶλλον, ἢ δεδείνωται, κἂν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν πρὸς αὐγὰς ἀνασκοπῇς, ἐκ τοῦ φοβεροῦ κατ' ὀλίγον ὑπονοστεῖ πρὸς τὸ εὐκαταφρόνητον."

This is referred to by Warton in his comments on Pope's translation of the Thebais of Statius; and Dr. Croly, apparently unacquainted with the passages in Paine and Blair, describes it, in his edition of Pope, as the anticipation of Napoleon's celebrated remark. It will be seen that the original saying, in its various peregrinations, has undergone a slight modification, Longinus making the translation a gradual one, "κατ' ὀλίγον," while Blair, Paine, and Napoleon make it but "a step." Yet, notwithstanding this disguise, the marks of its paternity are sufficiently traceable.

So much for this celebrated "mot." And, after all, there is very little wit or wisdom in it, that is not expressed or suggested by La Rochefoucauld's Maxims:—

I might adduce other instances, but these are sufficient to show that the sentiment owes nothing to Napoleon but the sanction of his great name, and the pithy sentence in which he has embodied it.

DR. JOHNSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BARETTI'S INTRODUCTION.

Boswell notices Dr. Johnson having in 1775 written the preface to Baretti's Easy Lessons in Italian and English; but neither he nor his editors appear to have been aware of the preface which Dr. Johnson contributed to an earlier work by Baretti, his Introduction to the Italian Language, London, 1775, 8vo. It is accompanied by an Italian translation, and is written with all his usual vigour, and commences:

"Unjust objections commonly proceed from unreasonable expectation; writers are often censured for omitting what they never intended to perform."

"Though the design of these notes is rather to teach grammar than morality, yet, as I think nothing a deviation that can serve the cause of virtue," &c.,

and the excellent remarks, p. 198., on Machiavel's Life of Castruccio Castracani, have every internal evidence of Johnson's style, and were no doubt dictated by him to Baretti, for whom Johnson in the same year, 1755, endeavours to obtain the loan of Crescimbeni from Thomas Warton (Croker's Boswell, edit. 1848, p. 91.).

Nothing is more wanted than a good and complete edition of Johnson's Works, in which omissions similar to the above, of which I have a long list when required, may be supplied. His prefaces and dedications to the works of other writers are all models in their way, and not one of them ought to be lost.

Minor Notes.

Bishop Bedell.

—This divine, to remind him of the need he had of being cleansed and purified in heart by the Spirit, chose an ingenious device, [102] consisting of a flaming crucible, with a Hebrew motto, signifying, "Take from me all my tin," in allusion to Isaiah i. 25. The reason for selecting these particular words was, that the Hebrew word for tin is bedil.

Foreign Guide-books.

—The samples of foreign English preserved in your pages are nearly equalled in ludicrous effect by the novel information often found in guide-books and manuals published on the continent for the use of strangers in England. Our metropolis is an inexhaustible subject of blunders on the part of the compilers of these works, of whom not a few deserve to rank with the Frenchman who, having heard something of a coal duty in connexion with St. Paul's, gravely told his readers that the cathedral was built on sea-coal.

The following extract is from a work entitled Londres et ses Environs, Paris, 2 vols. with plates: the compiler states that, having resided fifteen years in London, "il est, plus que tout autre, en état d'en parler avec certitude."

"Ce gouffre majestueux a englouti la ville de Westminster, le bourg de Southwark, et quarante-cinq villages, dont les noms, conservés dans les différens quartiers qu'ils occupaient, sont—

Mora

Islington

Falgate

Mile End New Town

Ratcliffe

The Hermitage

The Strand

Shoreditch

White Chapel

Stepney

Wapping

The Minories

S. James

Bloomsbury

Soho

Saffron Hill

Lambeth math

The Grange

Finsbury

Hoxton

The Spital

Poplar

Shadwell

S. Catherine's

Charing Cross

S. Giles in the Fields

Holborn

Kennington

Horsley Down

Wenlaxbarn

Wauxhall

Newington Butts

Rotherhite

Clerkenwell

Norton

Mile End Old Town

Limehouse

East Smith Field

S. Clement Danes

Knightsbridge

Portpool

Lambeth

Bermondsey

Paddington, et

Mary-le-Bone."

Vol. i. pp. 39, 40.

We have here a strange admixture of the names of parishes, streets, and prebends; amongst the last are Portpool, Mora, and Wenlake's Barn, the precise locality of which many old Londoners would be puzzled to state.

I think the following specimen of foreigners' English, which appeared as the address of a huge package received at the Exhibition, is worth adding to your collection:—

Wearing Gloves in Presence of Royalty (Vol. i., p. 366.; Vol. ii., pp.165. 467.).

—Hull, in his History of the Glove Trade, says that Charles IV., King of Spain, was so much under the influence of any lady who wore white kid gloves, that the use of them at Court was strictly prohibited. He refers the reader to the Mémoires de la Duchesse d'Abrantès, tome viii. p. 35.

Errors of Poets.

—In Vol. iv., p. 150., amongst the "Errors of Painters" a picture is noticed, in which "the five wise and five foolish virgins have increased into two sevens." A similar mistake is made by Longfellow in his last poem, The Golden Legend, p. 219., where one of the characters says:

Queries.

THE POET COLLINS.

The deeply interesting additions lately made in your pages to our knowledge of General Wolfe, induces me to hope, if not quite to expect, that something, however small, may be done in the same joint-stock manner for the memory of the poet Collins. Sir Egerton Brydges asserts that "new facts regarding Collins are not to be had," and I am deeply sensible of the value of Mr. Dyce's labours, as well as of those of the editor of Mr. Pickering's Aldine edition of his works. No pains, trouble, or expense, have been spared in collecting and arranging the "dulces exuviæ" of the highly gifted poet; and the memoir prefixed to Pickering's edition reflects no small credit upon the good taste and feeling of the editor.

Still may I not ask, through the medium of the "N. & Q.," whether some further discoveries may not possibly be made? Cannot any one connected with the town of Chichester, where Collins was born and died—any one brought up at Winchester College, where he was educated, lend a helping hand? Are there no additional traces of him as directly or indirectly associated with the Wartons, Johnson, Quin, Garrick, Foote, and Thomson? Cannot some of his letters be discovered? Some fragments of his poetry, however disjointed? Some portions of his prose? There seems a mystery about Collins himself, as strange as that about his own weird compositions. Though beloved and admired by all, no one ever picked up accurate information respecting him. He has been blamed for waywardness and want of perseverance, as if these were not symptoms of the [103] fearful visitation that wrecked his noble mind; or as if perseverance and concentration of energies in any pursuit were not natural gifts as much as acquired, and gifts of a high and most valuable kind too. Collins did not want perseverance whilst at school: he came off first on the roll of which Joseph Warton was second; and his Oriental Eclogues, written before his eighteenth year, are not unworthy of the boyhood of any of our greatest poets. Besides, he was a highly accomplished classical scholar, an accurate linguist, was well read in early English poetry and black-letter books, was passionately fond of music; and some of his poems, if nothing else, prove him to have viewed nature with a painter's eye. In his own line of poetry, the personification of abstract qualities, Collins stands unrivalled. Let us but compare him with all or any of his numerous imitators, and we ever find him in the calm dignity of genius,

Amidst such a number of book-learned correspondents as you have, surely I may "lay the flattering unction to my soul" that some interesting discoveries could be made.

Collins is well worthy of all that can be done for his memory, for if his Ode on the Passions and his Ode to Evening be not true poetry, I fear that the English language has not much poetry to produce.

PORTRAITS OF HENRY PURCELL.

Being employed upon an entirely new biography of Henry Purcell, I am most anxious to procure all the information in my power relative to the various portraits extant of this "famous musician." Granger's list is very imperfect, but having by my own researches considerably extended it, I submit it to your readers for perusal, in the hope that those who are versed in the lore of "print" or "picture collecting" may correct errors, or point out omissions.

1. Head of Purcell, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Lately in the possession of E. Bates, Esq., of Somerset House.

2. Half-length, said (but evidently erroneously) to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Now in the meeting-room of the Royal Society of Musicians, Lisle Street, Soho.

3. Half-length, originally used as a sign at the tavern known by the name of "The Purcell's Head," in Wych Street, Strand. Query, where is it at present?

4. Portrait of Purcell when a very young man, formerly among Cartwright's pictures in Dulwich College. Query, what has become of it?

5. An original portrait by Closterman. In his hand is a miniature of Queen Mary. Formerly in the collection of Charles Burney, Mus. Doc., at whose sale it was sold, in 1814, for 18l. 18s. I cannot trace this picture.

6. Crayon drawing, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, from the first-mentioned painting. Formerly in Mr. Bartleman's collection.

1. An engraving by T. Cross, prefixed as frontispiece to his Twelve Sonatas, 1683.

2. Ditto, by R. White, from a painting by Closterman. Frontispiece to the Orpheus Britannicus.

3. Ditto, engraved by W. N. Gardiner, from a drawing by S. Harding, taken from the original picture in Dulwich College, 1794.

5. An etching inscribed "Henry Purcell," but without the name of painter or engraver.

7. An engraving by W. Humphries, after Sir Godfrey Kneller. Frontispiece to Novello's edit. of Purcell's Sacred Music.

QUERY ON THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT FLUXIONS.

In the report made by the Committee of the Royal Society, it is stated that the Committee had "consulted the Letters and Letter-books in the custody of the Royal Society, and those found among the Papers of Mr. John Collins....;" thus leaving it doubtful whether Collins's papers then belonged to the Society, or, it may be, meaning to distinguish them as not so belonging.

In the preface to the Analysis per Quantitatum Series ... by William Jones (father of his more celebrated namesake), London, 1711, 4to., which contains some of the matter published in 1712 in the Commercium Epistolicum, occurs the following passage:—

"Etenim secundus jam agitur annus ex quo Scrinia D. Collinsii (qui, uti notum est, amplissimum cum sui sæculi Mathematicis commercium habuit) meas in manus inciderint; et in illis plurima reperi à cunctis fere totius Europæ eruditis ipsi communicata; et inter ea non pauca, quæ a Viro Cl. D. Newtono scripta fuerint."

This is hardly language which could be used with reference to papers lodged in the custody of the Society: it would seem as if Jones, in 1709 or 1710, became the owner or borrower of papers, till then in private hands exclusively. Can any evidence be brought forward as to the manner in which Jones and the Royal Society, or either, obtained these papers? I believe the Royal Society itself can give no information.

Minor Queries.

Madrigal, Meaning of.

"Experto crede Roberto."

—Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of the expression so frequently quoted, "Experto crede Roberto?"

Chronological Institute.

—I understand a Chronological Institute has been formed in London. Can you inform me where a prospectus can be obtained?

Buzz.

—What is the derivation of the word buzz, i.e. empty the bottle; and how came it to have that extraordinary meaning?

The Old Scots March.

—Can any of your correspondents throw light on the measure of the "Old Scots March," which appears to have been beat with triumphant success as to many of the onslaughts, infalls, and other martial progresses of Gustavus's valiant brigades?

Grose has given what he styles "The English March," as ordered to be beat by Prince Henry. And as a pendant, the recovery of "The Scots March" would be very desirable.

Hans Holbein.

—Is the place of this eminent artist's sepulture now known? His death (by the plague) in 1554 was probably a release from neglect and poverty. When he was compelled to give up his painting-rooms at the palace, after Henry's decease, he is conjectured to have resided in Bishopsgate street.

Ivory Medallion of Lord Byron.

—In the catalogue which Mr. Cole, of Scarborough, printed in 1829, of books in his private collection, he mentions a copy of Lord Byron's Marino Faliero, 1821, bound in a unique style, and having, inserted in a recess, on the front cover, a finely finished head of the noble poet, on ivory, in high relief, of beautiful Italian carving. Can any of your correspondents tell me who is now the possessor of this work of art?

Trumpington Church.

—On the north side of the tower of Trumpington Church, Cambridgeshire, there is a curious recess in the basement story, which I have not met with anywhere else, or seen fully accounted for. It is sufficiently capacious for a man to stand in, having an arched entrance six feet in height, with a turning to the westward of about two feet, and is formed completely within the thickness of the wall. The village tradition, that it was formerly used as a confessional, founded on the existence of an opening into the interior part of the tower, now blocked up, has long been disesteemed. In the volume by the Cambridge Camden Society, on the Churches in Cambridgeshire, it is said to have been made for an ecclesiastic to stand in, to ring the Sanctus bell. A round hole, lined with wood, in the roof of the niche, evidently intended for a bell-rope, and chafings upon the upper part of the little aperture, such as the friction of one would produce, are very convincive of its having been used for some such purpose. But when we consider that the Sanctus bell, except when a hand one, was "suspended on the outside of the church, in a small turret over the archway leading from the nave into the chancel,"[5] the probability that it was made for the purpose above-mentioned seems very much weakened. I shall feel obliged for a reference to any other instance, or a more satisfactory explanation.

"Carmen Perpetuum," &c.

—Upon the title-page of a Bible which I have had some years in my possession, I have just discovered, in my own handwriting, the following very beautiful and apposite quotation:—

I have lost all remembrance of the source from which I borrowed this happy thought, so happily expressed; and shall feel much obliged to any one whose better memory can direct me to the mine from which I formerly dug the gem.

"The Retired Christian."

—Who was the author of The Retired Christian, so generally, but I believe erroneously, attributed to Bishop Ken?

The Garrote.

—The West India newspapers are filled with the details of General Lopez's second attempt on Cuba, and his subsequent capture and execution. The latter event took place at Havannah on the 1st September, in presence of 8000 troops, and the manner of it is said to have been the Garrote, which is thus described in a Jamaica Journal:—

"The prisoner is made to sit in a kind of chair with a high back, to which his head is fastened by means of an iron clasp, which encloses his neck, and is attached to the back by a screw. When the signal is given, the screw is turned several times, which strangles the victim, and breaks his neck."

The word Garrote being Spanish (derived probably from the French "garrotter"), and the punishment having been inflicted in a Spanish colony, it is to be presumed that we are indebted to the latter nation for the invention of it. Can any of your readers give any information as to the origin and use of this mode of punishment?

Monastic Establishments in Scotland.

—Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to furnish [105] me with a list of the ancient monastic establishments of Scotland? Having communicated with many learned antiquaries, both in England and Scotland, and having failed in obtaining what I desired, I conclude that no complete list exists. Spottiswoode's list, now appended to Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, is very imperfect. But there are great facilities now for compiling a perfect list from such works as the publications of the Roxburgh, Bannatyne, and Maitland Clubs, Innes's Origines Parochiales, &c. I would like the list to be classed either according to the different counties, or by the respective orders of the religious houses, with a separate list of the mitred houses that had seats in parliament. The list is wanted for publication. Perhaps the writer of "Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals" in the Quarterly may have compiled such a list.

Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook.

—Can you inform me where I can find the pedigree of the Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook, in the county of Gloucester?

Eliza Fenning.

—Pray, what has become of the collection of documents relating to Eliza Fenning, which was formerly in the possession of Mr. Upcott?

Is it true that some years after the execution of Eliza Fenning a person confessed that he had committed the offence of which she was found guilty?

"Character of a True Churchman."

—In 1711 a valuable essay was published anonymously, entitled The Character of a True Churchman, in a letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend in the country: London, printed for John Baker, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row, 1711. Who is the writer of it?

"A Roaring Meg."

"Musica est mentis medecina mæstæ, a roaring meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul."

The earliest edition of the Anatomy of Melancholy is, I believe, the Oxford one of 1624.[6]

The large old-fashioned piece of artillery, called Mons Meg, in the castle of Edinburgh, which is so great a favourite with the Scottish common people, is said by Sir Walter Scott to have been "fabricated at Mons in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland;" that is, between A.D. 1508 and 1514 (note to Rob Roy, vol. ii. ch. 10.).

This accounts for the Mons; but whence comes the Meg? The tradition of the Edinburgh people is different from that of Sir Walter: and Black, in his Tourist of Scotland, pp. 51. 341., says, it was forged at Threave Castle, a stronghold of the Black Douglases; was used by James II. in 1455; and that it was called Mons Meg after "the man who cast it and his wife." The date in the above must be a mistake, as I believe James II. was killed in A.D. 1437.

There is another cannon of similar caliber, and bearing the name of Roaring Meg, presented by the Fishmongers' Company of London to the city of Londonderry in 1642 (Simpson's Annals of Derry, chap. vii. p. 41.).

Can any of your readers explain the origin of the name, and say whether the phrase "A roaring Meg" occurs in any English author earlier than Burton?

Cardinal Pole.

—In 1513 Sir Richard Pole, a Welsh knight, married Margaret, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in the butt of Malmsey. Can any of your readers assist me in tracing his pedigree? If of Welsh extraction, the name was probably Powell, that is, ap Howel. Or can a connexion be shown with the old family of Pole, Poole, or Pull, of Cheshire?

Theoloneum.

—In an agreement made A.D. 1103, before Henry I., between the Abbott of Fécamp, in Normandy, and Philip de Braiosâ, the Lord of Bramber, mention is made of a "theoloneum, quod injustè recipiebant homines Philippi, de hominibus de Staningis." What is a theoloneum?

Sterne in Paris.

—I should feel extremely obliged to any of your correspondents who would refer me to any contemporary notices of Sterne's residence at Paris in 1762. The author of Tristram Shandy must have been somewhat lionized by the Parisian circles, and allusions to his wit probably occur among the many memoirs of the period.

King Robert Bruce's Watch.

"The oldest known English watch was made, it is said, in the sixteenth century. There exists a watch, which, antiquarians allow, belonged to King Robert Bruce."—Preface, p. 3.

Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." give information regarding such an interesting relic of antiquity?

Minor Queries Answered.

Hornchurch; Wrestling for the Boar's Head.

—I have extracted from the Daily News of the 5th instant, the following paragraph, which appears to have been quoted from the Chelmsford Chronicle, relative to this custom:—

"By ancient charter or usage in Hornchurch, a boar's head is wrestled for in a field adjoining the church; a boar, the property of the parish, having been slaughtered for the purpose. The boar's head, elevated on a pole, and decorated with ribbons, was brought into the ring, where the competitors entered and the prize awarded."

The paragraph goes on further to observe that if the prize be taken by a champion out of the parish, the charter is lost. And I shall be glad to know the origin of the custom, and of the notion of the charter or usage, as it is called, being lost if the prize be taken away as before alluded to. I observe that it is noticed in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1828, p. 305.

[It may be as well to state, as a clue to the discovery of this ancient custom, that the tithes of Hornchurch belong to New College, Oxford; the warden and fellows of which society are ordinaries of the place, and appoint a commissary, who holds an annual visitation. The lessee of the tithes supplies the boar's head, dressed and garnished with bay leaves, &c. Several curious notices are given by Hone in his works of the custom observed at Christmas at Queen's College, Oxford, of serving up at the first course at dinner, "a fair and large boreshead upon a silver platter with minstralsye;" but he has omitted to furnish the origin of the custom at Hornchurch. Perhaps some Oxonian connected with New College will favour us with a reply.]

Spectacles.

—In recent numbers of "N. & Q." there have been several allusions to spectacles, and as I am not aware of any clear and satisfactory data relative to the origin or antiquity of this most important auxiliary to the extension and usefulness of that sense upon which the enjoyment and value of life so much depends, I beg to submit the Query, What is the earliest form in which evidence of the existence of this invaluable optical aid to the human eye presents itself?

[Dr. Johnson expressed his surprise that the inventor of spectacles was regarded with indifference, and has found no biographer to celebrate his deeds. Most authorities give the latter part of the thirteenth century as the period of their invention, and popular opinion has pronounced in favour of Alexander de Spina, a native of Pisa, who died in the year 1313. In the Italian Dictionary, Della Crusca, under the head of "Occhiale," or Spectacles, it is stated that Friar Jordan de Rivalto tells his audience, in a sermon published in 1305, that "it is not twenty years since the art of making spectacles was found out, and is indeed one of the best and most necessary inventions in the world." This would place the invention in the year 1285. On the other hand, Dominic Maria Manni, an eminent Italian writer, attributes the invention to Salvino Armati, who flourished about 1345. (See his Treatise, Degli Occhiali da Naso, inventati da Salvino Armati, 4to. 1738.) On the authority of various passages in the writings of Friar Bacon, Mr. Molyneux is of opinion that he was acquainted with the use of spectacles; and when Bacon (Opus Majus) says, that "this instrument (a plano-convex glass, or large segment of a sphere) is useful to old men, and to those who have weak eyes; for they may see the smallest letters sufficiently magnified," we may conclude that the particular way of assisting decayed sight was known to him. It is quite certain that they were known and used about the time of his death, A.D. 1292.]

Stoke.

—What is the meaning of the word stoke, with regard to the names of places, as Bishopstoke, Ulverstoke, Stoke-on-Trent, &c.?

[Bosworth (Anglo-Saxon Dict.) derives it from "stoc, a place; hence stoke, a termination of the names of places; locus:—Wude stoc sylvarum locus, Sim. Dunelm. anno 1123."]

Author of Psalm Tune "Doncaster."

—Our organist is about to add another selection of psalm tunes to the large number already existing. He has been able to assign all the tunes which it comprises to their proper composers, with one exception—the tune called "Doncaster," the author of which he has failed to discover. Will any of your correspondents kindly supply this desideratum?

[The well-known tune called "Doncaster" was composed by Dr. Edward Miller, for fifty-one years organist of Doncaster Church, but better known as the author of The History and Antiquities of Doncaster. See his Collection of Psalm Tunes for the Use of Parish Churches, 4to. 1790, pp. 32. 46. 106.]

Dr. Henry Sacheverell.

—Can any of your correspondents refer me to a copy of the Assize Sermon preached at Derby by Dr. Sacheverell, and which formed part of the charge against him?

[We can favour L. J. with the loan of a copy of this sermon for a week or two. It shall be left for him at our publisher's.]

Replies.

MEANING AND ORIGIN OF ERA.
(Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.)

It would greatly assist the elucidation of this word, if the earliest instances extant of its use, in a chronological sense, could be ascertained.

The dictionary of Facciolatus goes no further [107] back than Isidorus the younger, at the end of the sixth century; who perhaps was the first who gave to era the meaning of a cursus of years: before his time, as well as afterwards, it is certain that era was a synonyme of annus.

In recording dates, the Spanish account made no use of annus either expressed or understood—era was an independent word, having numerals in concord with itself: thus it was prima era, secunda era, tertia era, &c. Spelman therefore had sufficient reason to contend that the origin of era might be Gothic and not Roman, and that it is but a variation of our own word year. He says that Isidorus, when dating from the Roman epoch, used the Roman word, but that when dating from the Gothic epoch, he conformed to the idiom of the Goths, "apud quos," he adds, "eram annum significasse ex eo liqueat, quod prisci Saxones (quibus magna Gothis sermonis affinitas) annum 'Ȝear' dicebant—Angli hodie 'year'—Belgi 'iaer.'"

The absence of the diphthong in era is attributed by Facciolatus to the barbarism of the age; but it is at least equally probable that the diphthong never did really belong to era, but that its claim to it originated in the fanciful derivation from æs, as imagined by Isidorus—or rather from es, as he would spell it, the real corruption being in the latter word: thus, when the diphthong was restored to æs, it would, as a matter of course, be also applied to its supposed affinitive.

The Spaniards, who have the best right to the word, have never adopted the diphthong. With them it is still era, and Scaliger asserts that there is not in all Spain a single inscription in which the diphthong is recognised. Alluding to Sepulveda, he says,—

"Mirum mihi visum hominem doctissimum ac præterea Hispanum, cum tot monimenta extent in Hispania in quibus hujus rei memoria sculpta est, ne unum vidisse—In illis, ut diximus, nunquam æra, semper era, scriptum est."

The practical institution of the Spanish, or era account, was probably, like the Dionysian, long subsequent to its nominal commencement; so that an enquiry into its earliest known record would possess the additional interest of determining whether such were the case or not.

Censorinus, in his comparative enumeration of the various accounts of years—the Julian—the Augustan—the Olympiad—and the Palilian, makes no mention of the Era, which he would scarcely have omitted, had it been then in existence and of imperial institution. Between his time, therefore, which was towards the middle of the third century, and that of Isidorus, the practice of computation by eras most probably arose.

As for its institution by Cæsar Augustus, which rests on the authority of Isidorus; that suggestion, even if free from anachronism, had probably no better foundation than an accidental similitude in sound, and a wish to compliment the bishop of CÆSARAUGUSTA, to whom the epistle containing it was addressed by him of Hispalis. The latter appears to have dealt largely in conjecture in framing his Origines—as, for example, in hora,—

"Hora enim finis est temporis sic et oræ, sunt fines maris, fluminorum, et vestimentorum"—

an analogy which reminds one of the cockney—hedge from edge, because it edges the field.

With respect to the initial-letter method of derivation, of which, in the case of era, there are three or four different versions, something has been already said upon that subject, with reference to the alleged derivation of N. E. W. S. in the first volume of "N. & Q." Scaliger called such suggestions puerile and ridiculous, and doubtless they are little better; his castigation of Sepulveda's version was so complete that it may well serve for its modern imitations.

The original meaning of era has been, like our own word day, expanded into a period of indefinite duration; in that sense it is particularly useful as a general denomination for a running account of years. It is an elegant and convenient expression, and its service to chronological and historical language could be ill dispensed with—it has, moreover, the prescription of long usage in its favour.

But a modern and far more indefensible attempt has been made in the opposite extreme, to deprive era of all duration, and to restrict its meaning to that of a mere initial point—such a meaning, already well supplied by the word epoch, is, in the case of era, opposed alike to reason, analogy, usefulness, and usage.

SINGING OF SWANS.
(Vol. ii., p. 475.)

Amongst the Egyptians, the SWAN was an emblem of music and musicians: Cygnus with the Latins was a common synonym for poeta, and we sometimes use the expression ourselves; thus, Shakspeare is called "the swan of Avon."

This bird was sacred to Apollo, as being endued with DIVINATION, "because, foreseeing his happiness in death, he dies with singing and pleasure:"

"Cygoni non sine causa Apolini dicati sint, quod ab eo divinationem habere videantur, qua providentes quid in morte boni sit, cum cantu et voluptate moriantur."—Tull. Quæst. Tusc. 1. c. 30.

[7] I am not sure whether this gentleman be the American Bishop of New Jersey, or a namesake only.

Tennyson, with all that luxury of dreariness, sadness, and weariness, which characterises his masterpieces, has also sung of "The Dying Swan." I subjoin an extract, wishing your limits would admit of the entire:

So much for the melody of the dying swan. That of the living swan also requires consideration. Mr. Nicol, in his valuable Iceland, Greenland, &c., thus describes the Cygnus musicus which frequents the lakes and rivers of Iceland:

"The largest and noblest of this class [the natatorial] is undoubtedly THE WILD OR WHISTLING SWAN, with pure white plumage, slightly tinged on the head with orange-yellow. This majestic bird is five feet long, and, with extended wings, eight broad. It is rarely seen in Greenland, and appears merely to rest in Faroe, on its journeys to and from Iceland in the spring and autumn. Some of them, however, remain all the winter in the latter, AND DURING THE LONG DARK NIGHTS THEIR WILD SONG IS OFTEN HEARD as they are passing in troops from one place to another. It appears to be a kind of signal or watchword to prevent the dispersion of the party, and is described as remarkably pleasant, RESEMBLING THE TONES OF A VIOLIN, THOUGH SOMEWHAT HIGHER, each note occurring after a distinct interval. THIS MUSIC IS SAID TO PRESAGE A THAW, and hence the Icelanders are well pleased when, in long-continued frosts, it breaks their repose."

He adds in a note, "The account of the MIDNIGHT SONG OF THE SWAN is from Olafsen, who says it 'das allerangenehmste zu hören ist,' is very delightful to hear."

Henderson says of the river Nordura in Iceland, near its confluence with the Hrita:

"The bleakness of the surrounding rocks was greatly enlivened by the number of SWANS that were swimming and SINGING MELODIOUSLY in the river."—Iceland, 2nd ed. p. 277.

In the Edda we find Njörd, god of the winds and waves, when he came back to the mountains to please his wife, thus singing:

"How do I hate the abode of the mountains! There one hears nothing but the howling of wolves, instead of the SWEET SINGING OF THE SWANS who dwell on the sea-shores."

Waterton gives an account of the last moments of a favourite swan which he watched, in hopes of catching "some plaintive sound or other, some soft inflection of the voice," but was "disappointed."

QUEEN BRUNEHILDA.
(Vol. v., p. 40.)

I am glad that C. B. has questioned the propriety of the epithet "female monster," which some of your correspondents have applied to Queen Brunehilda. Knowing how the passion and prejudice that characterise party spirit have under our own observation been able to distort facts and blacken characters, we should receive with the greater caution the statements of those who, if they were free, which is hardly possible, from a strong bias, lived in an age when exact information was hardly possible to obtain, and when the most odious calumnies could defy refutation. From the success with which Brunehilda maintained the sovereignty of her husband's kingdom through a long life, I should conclude that she was a woman of great abilities as well as energy; and the terms in which Gregory the Great addresses her, tend to confirm this opinion. And in reference to this it seems somewhat surprising that it should not have struck those who first raised this question, that the evidence of the "wise and virtuous pontiff" was at least as good as that of the historian who might be neither wise nor virtuous. Gregory is surely as powerful to raise Brunehilda, as Brunehilda to pull down Gregory. But the plain fact is, that there is a [109] tendency to be hyperbolical in our estimation of crowned heads; in all probability, if one was no monster the other was no saint.

The circumstances in favour of the more favourable view of Brunehilda's character, are sufficiently well attested. That she was the superior in every respect to Fredegunda probably she felt herself, and as probably the latter was made to feel. Gregory of Tours was not merely struck by the beauty of her person and her engaging manner, but he has also remarked upon her good sense and her agreeable conversation. Sisterly affection appears in the first instance to have precipitated her into a conflict that ended but with her life. Her sister's murder was followed by those of Sigebert and Merowig; and it is not a little remarkable that though it is not doubted who was the instigator of these crimes, the name of "monster" is never applied to Fredegunda, but reserved for the familiar appellation of her victim. When we consider how generally vague are the charges against Brunehilda, and, regarding what is otherwise known of her, how improbable, I think some suspicion of an undue leaning on the part of the Frankish historians will not be altogether misplaced. My own opinion is that she was one of those remarkable women who from time to time astonish the world; one, whom for her superior knowledge and acquirements, the rumour of a rude age gifted with supernatural powers. And I am farther inclined to think that in the course of time the characters reported of her from opposite sources became finally so antagonistic, that they came to be considered as those of two distinct persons; and with a reference to the eternal enmity between Fredegunda and herself, she became more world-wide famous than has been hitherto supposed, as both the Criemhilda and Brunehilda of the Nibelungen Noth. Many circumstances may be brought forward to support this latter view.

[8] Why do your correspondents adopt the barbarous French corrupted form of this name, "Brunéhaut?"

COVERDALE'S BIBLE.
(Vol. v., p. 59.)

The answer of our friend MR. OFFOR to the inquiry of your correspondent H. H. H. V., Vol. v., p. 59., would have required no remarks but for the paragraph which follows his description of the copies of Coverdale's Bible in his valuable collection. That paragraph was as follows:—

"The introduction of the words from the Douche and Latyn has never been accounted for; they probably were inserted by the German printer to make the volume more popular, so as to interest reformers by the German of Luther, and Romanists by the Vulgate Latin. The translation is certainly from the Hebrew and Greek, compared with Luther's and the Vulgate."

If MR. OFFOR will look at "the Prologue to the Translation of the Bible—Myles Coverdale unto the Christian Reader," in that copy of his, which he describes with the delight of an amateur of rare editions as having "several uncut leaves," he may read in its first page, how Coverdale confesses, with that humility which especially adorned his character, that "his insufficiency in the tongues" made him loath to undertake the task. He then touchingly alludes to Tyndale's adversity, suppressing his name, while he speaks of his "ripe knowledge," and laments the hindrances to his completing the translation of the Scriptures. But "to help me herein," he proceeds, "I have had sundry translations, not only in Latin, but also of the Dutch [i.e. German] interpreters, whom because of their singular gifts and special diligence in the Bible, I have been the more glad to follow for the most part, according as I was required." And again he says, "Lowly and faithfully have I followed mine interpreters."

My attention was drawn to this subject nearly thirty years ago by the strange inaccuracies in Bishop Marsh's account of the sources of our authorised version; in which he had assumed that Tyndale could not translate from the Hebrew, which there is the clearest evidence that he knew well; and that he therefore translated from the German, of which language it is almost equally certain that he was ignorant.

I saw, on the other hand, that Coverdale honestly confessed that his own translation was a secondary one, from the German and the Vulgate. He named the language, but not the translator, Luther, for the same reason that in two references to Tyndale's ability he desisted from naming him, viz., that his translation was to be dedicated to Henry VIII., who hated both their names.

To test the different sources from which Tyndale and Coverdale formed their respective translations, nothing more is necessary than to open any chapter in the Hebrew and German Bibles; and whilst the translators from either will of course be found to agree in the broad meaning of any verse, there will be delicate distinctions in rendering idiomatic forms of speech, which will be decisive of the question. Having preserved my collation of some verses in Genesis xli., I find the following:

Ver. 1. First word, וַיְהִי , literally, And it was. An introductory expression fairly represented by the Greek Εγενετο δε. Tyndale, And it fortuned. Luther and the Vulgate have omitted it, and therefore so has Coverdale.

על-היאר, LXX, Επι του ποταμου; Tyndale, By a river's side; Luther, Am Wasser; Coverdale, By a water side. Here the Greek preserves the emphatic article ה, which pointed to the Nile; the Latin necessarily [110] lose it, Tyndale neglects it, Coverdale copies Luther's vague expression. Our authorised version has correctly, By the river.

Ver. 2. מן-היאר עלת, literally, Out of the river ascending; LXX, Εκ του ποταμου ανεβαινον; Vulg., De quo ascendebant; Luther, Aus dem Wasser steigen; Coverdale, Out of the water there came; Tyndale, There came out of the river.

Ver. 3. וַתַּעֲמֹדְנָה , Tyndale, And stode, which is quite literal; Vulg., Et pascebantur; Luther, Und traten; Coverdale, And went.

Ver. 7. וְהִנֵּה חֲלוֹם , lit. And behold a dream; Vulg., Post quietem; Tyndale, And see, here is his dream; Luther, Und merckte daß es ein Traum war; Coverdale, And saw that it was a dream.

Such instances might be multiplied to any extent. Their effect upon my mind was to convince me that Coverdale did not even know the Hebrew letters when he published his version of the Bible. In fact, the Jews being then expelled from England, and the only Hebrew Lexicon, that of Xantes Pagninus, having probably not arrived here, it was scarcely possible for an Englishman to master the Hebrew tongue, without going abroad to obtain access to learned Jews, as Tyndale did, and as Coverdale himself did after the appearance of his Bible; and then, as I think Mr. Pearson has afforded some evidence, he may have become acquainted with Hebrew.

If H. H. H. V. desires to know more of Coverdale, he can find all that late researches have been able to discover in the first volume of Mr C. Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, and in the biographical notice of Coverdale prefixed to the Parker Society's edition of his Remains, by the Rev. G. Pearson. But when that gentleman describes Coverdale's portion of Matthew's Bible, and says that the book of Jonah is of Tyndale's version, he has made a mistake. Perhaps I may be allowed to say, that the question, whether Tyndale put forth any version of Jonah, is adhuc sub judice. At any rate, I can say, from collation, that the Jonah in Matthew's Bible is identical with that which Coverdale put forth in his own version.

The account of our early versions in Macknight's Introduction to the Epistles is very erroneous; and that prefixed to D'Oyley and Mant's Bible, published by the Christian Knowledge Society, is far from being correct.

SERJEANTS' RINGS AND MOTTOES.
(Vol. v., pp. 59. 92.)

For much curious information upon these subjects, I would refer your correspondents to a rather scarce and privately printed tract or volume, entitled Observations touching the Antiquity and Dignity of Serjeant-at-Law, 1765. I am not sure that it was not subsequently reprinted and published. The author was Mr. Serjeant Wynne. He says:

"The first introduction of rings themselves on this occasion (of making serjeants) is as doubtful as that of mottoes. They are taken notice of by Fortescue in the time of Hen. VI., and in the several regulations for general calls in Hen. VIII. and Queen Elizabeth's time. The antiquity of them, therefore, though not to be strictly ascertained, yet being thus far indisputable, makes Sir H. Spelman's account rather extraordinary (see Gloss. tit. Serv. ad Legem); but whatever is the antiquity of these rings, that of mottoes seems to fall short of them at least a century. That in the 19 & 20 Eliz. (1576-77) may perhaps be the first; because, till that time, they are nowhere mentioned.

"When Dugdale speaks (p. 136.) of the posies 'that were usual,' he must be understood to speak of the usage of his own time."

The motto which Serj. Wynne notices as of the earliest occurrence in 19 & 20 Eliz., was Lex regis præsidium. The earliest of subsequent date appear to be as follow:

2 Jac. II. Deus, rex, lex, (at the call of Christopher Milton, the poet's brother, John Powell, and others).

Serjeant Wynne brings his list of the Serjeants called down to the year 1765, and gives in most cases the mottoes, which were not confined, it would seem, to individuals, but adopted by the whole call. He remarks, that in late years they have been strictly classical in their phrase and often elegant in their application,—whether in expressing the just idea of regal liberty—in a wish for the preservation of the family—or in a happy allusion to some public event, and, at the same time, a kind of prophetic declaration of its success. At p. 117. will be found an account of the expense and weight of the rings, which, upon the occasion referred to, were 1,409 in number, and the expense 773l. I will not occupy further space, but refer your correspondents to the work of Serjeant Wynne.

The custom of Serjeants-at-law presenting rings on their creation was used in (and probably before) the reign of Henry VI. (See Fortescue De Laudibus Legum Angliæ, cap. 50,; and see instances and particulars in the reigns at Henry VIII., Edward VI., Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth in Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales, 2nd [111] edit., pp. 116. 118. 122. 123. 124. 130.) Mottoes were used as early as 1606, but I am not prepared to say they originated at that period, though I do not observe any mention of them in Dugdale's accounts of the ceremonies at the creation of Serjeants of an earlier date. The following mottoes may interest some of your readers:

On Serjeant Cockell's call, "in consequence of a late regulation no rings were given to the judges, the bar, or to the attornies."

Some of the older, and most of the modern, law reporters, mention the mottoes on the rings given by the serjeants.

T. P. is informed that the custom of Serjeants-at-law presenting rings with mottoes prevailed long before A.D. 1670. In the Journal of the Arch. Institute, vol. vii. p. 196., he will find mention of a mediæval ring of the kind, described as "A Serjeant-at-law's gold ring, the hoop 3/8 of an inch in width, and of equal thickness, inscribed Lex regis præsidium."

On June 8, 1705, fifteen Serjeants-at-law took the customary oaths at the Chancery Bar, and delivered to the Lord Keeper a ring for the Queen, and another for his H.R.H. Prince George of Denmark, each ring being worth 6l. 13s. 4d. The Lord Keeper, Lord Treasurer, Lord Steward, Lord Privy Seal, Lord High Chamberlain, Master of the Household, Lord Chamberlain, and the two Chief Justices, received each a ring of the value of 18s.; the Lord Chief Baron, Master of the Rolls, the Justices of either Bench and two Chief Secretaries each one worth 16s.; the Chief Steward and Comptroller each a ring valued at 1l.; the Marshal, Warden of the Fleet, every Serjeant-at-Law, the Attorney-General, and Solicitor-General, each a ring worth 12s.; the three Barons of Exchequer a ring worth 10s.; the two Clerks of the Crown, the three Prothonotaries, the Clerks of the Warrants, the Prothonotary of Queen's Bench, and the Chirographer, each a ring worth 5s.; each Filazer and Exigenter, the Clerk of the Council, and the Custos Brevium, each a ring that cost 2s. 6d. The motto on the rings was this, "Moribus, armis, legibus."

EXTERMINATION OF EARLY CHRISTIANS IN ORKNEY.
(Vol. iv., p. 439.)

It is capable of demonstration that Christianity was introduced into the Orkney Islands, or at least that missionaries were sent there, long previous to the invasion of Harold Harfagre. Your correspondent W. H. F. mentions that Depping, in the Histoire des Expéditions Maritimes des Normands, states that Sigurd, the second nominally, though really the first earl, expelled the Christians from Orkney, and he requests to know Depping's authority; as the circumstance is not alluded to by Torfæus, the Orkneyinga-Saga or Snorro Sturleson, and has been "either overlooked by Barry, or unknown to him."

The well-known "Diploma or Genealogical Deduction of the Earls of Orkney," written by the bishop of that diocese in the year 1406, and printed in Wallace's Account of Orkney, and in the appendices to Barry's History, and the Orkneyinga-Saga, is generally looked upon, from the circumstances under which it was drawn up, as an authentic document of considerable historical value. It is there mentioned, that the Norsemen found the islands inhabited by the Peti and the Papé, whom they exterminated. But I transcribe the words of the Diploma:

"Hæc terra sive insularum patria Orcadie fuit inhabitata et culta, duabus nacionibus scilicet Peti et Pape, que due genera naciones fuerant destructe radicitus, ac penitus per Norwegenses de stirpe sive de tribu strenuissimi principis Rognaldi, qui sic sunt ipsias naciones aggressi, quod posteritas ipsarum nacionum Peti et Pape non remansit."

Though Chalmers (Caledonia, vol. i. p. 261.) is rather inclined to discredit the above account, it seems probable that those Papé were missionaries or priests, who were also found, under precisely the same name, in Iceland when that island was colonised by the Norsemen (Pinkerton's Enquiry, vol. ii. p. 297.). I have not my copy of Depping at present by me, and therefore am unable to say whether he explains his use of the word Christians in his mention of their expulsion. It may be that, without going into detail, he accepted, as proved, the identity of the Papé and the priests, and believed himself warranted in making the assertion. But perhaps he might have had some other [112] authority of which I am ignorant, as he attributes the expulsion (according to W. H. F.) to Sigurd, whereas the words of the Diploma are, "per Norwegenses de stirpe sive de tribu strenuissimi principis Rognaldi," by no means limiting the deed to his (Rognald's) immediate successor, though inferentially accusing Sigurd of participation. A careful consideration of the entire passage in Depping, and of his general style, may tend to show whether he relied merely on the Diploma, or whether he had some more definite authority.

I may mention, that though it has escaped W. H. F.'s observation, he will find, by referring to pp. 87. 116. 133., Headrick's edition, that Barry did not overlook the early Christianising of the Orkneys, and the extirpation of the Papé; although, seeing that the former is matter of history, and the latter was not a mere tradition in 1406, but derived from a more trustworthy source ("sicut cronice nostre clare demonstrant"), he is scarcely distinct enough, or decided in his inferences. It would be interesting to know what were those "cronice" appealed to by the bishop.

THE CRIME OF POISONING PUNISHED BY BOILING.
(Vol. v., p. 32.)

MR. J. B. COLMAN has directed attention to the special act of attainder passed in 22 Hen. VIII. in order to punish Richard Roose for poisoning the family of the Bishop of Rochester; but I have reason to believe that he is wrong in his assertion that, prior to that statute, "there was no peculiarity in the mode of punishment" for the crime in question. In the Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London, which I am now engaged in editing for the Camden Society, I find an instance of the like punishment being inflicted for the same crime in the 13th Hen. VIII.:

"And this yere was a man soddyne in a cautherne (sc. a cauldron) in Smythfelde, and lett up and downe dyvers tymes tyll he was dede, for because he wold a poyssynd dyvers persons."

I would therefore beg to inquire whether MR. COLMAN has taken a correct view of the statute of 22 Hen. VIII. as prescribing a new punishment, retrospective to the case of Richard Roose; and whether the act was not, so far as he was concerned, simply one of attainder, to deprive the culprit of the "advantage of his clargie," whereby he might otherwise have escaped the legal punishment already provided for the crime. Having declared Roose attainted of high treason, the statute proceeds to enact that all future poisoners shall also be debarred of the benefit of clergy, and immediately committed to death by boiling. Roose's own case is recorded in the Grey Friars' Chronicle with the same horrible circumstances as those related in the former instance, of his life being gradually destroyed:

"He was lockyd in a chayne and pullyd up and downe with a gybbyt at dyvers tymes tyll he was dede."

"The x day of March was a mayde boyllyd in Smythfelde for poysynyng of dyvers persons."

This last is the same case which is cited by L. H. K. in your Vol. ii., p. 519. If my view of the statute of 22 Hen. VIII. be the right one, it still remains to be ascertained when this barbarous punishment was first adopted; and is it certain that it ceased with the reign of Hen. VIII.?

There appears to have occurred in Scotland one instance at least of this barbarous mode of executing justice. In his Notes to Leyden's Ballad of Lord Soulis (in the Minstrelsy of the Border), Sir Walter Scott says:—

"The tradition regarding the death of Lord Soulis, however singular, is not without a parallel in the real history of Scotland. The same extraordinary mode of cookery was actually practised (horresco referens) upon the body of a Sheriff of the Mearns. This person, whose name was Melville of Glenbervie, bore his faculties so harshly, that he became detested by the Barons of the country. Reiterated complaints of his conduct having been made to James I. (or, as others say, to the Duke of Albany), the monarch answered, in a moment of unguarded impatience, 'Sorrow gin the Sheriff were sodden, and supped in broo!' The complainers retired, perfectly satisfied. Shortly after, the Lairds of Arbuthnot, Mather, Laureston, and Pattaraw, decoyed Melville to the top of the hill of Garvock, above Lawrencekirk, under pretence of a grand hunting party. Upon this place (still called the Sheriff's Pot), the Barons had prepared a fire and a boiling cauldron, into which they plunged the unlucky Sheriff. After he was sodden (as the king termed it) for a sufficient time, the savages, that they might literally observe the royal mandate, concluded the scene of abomination by actually partaking of the hell-broth.

"The three Lairds were outlawed for this offence; and Barclay, one of their number, to screen himself from justice, erected the kaim (i.e. the camp, or fortress) of Mathers, which stands upon a rocky and almost inaccessible peninsula, overhanging the German Ocean. The Laird of Arbuthnot is said to have eluded the royal vengeance, by claiming the benefit of the law of clan Macduff. A pardon, or perhaps a deed of replegiation, founded upon that law, is said to be still extant upon the records of the Viscount of Arbuthnot.

"The punishment of boiling," adds Sir Walter, "seems to have been in use among the English at a very late period, as appears from the following passage in Stowe's Chronicle:—'The 17th March (1524) Margaret Davy, a maid, was boiled at Smithfield for poisoning of three households that she had dwelled in.'" [113]

According to tradition, however, the boiling, or broiling rather, of the Wizard-Earl Soulis, was still more frightful:—

Replies to Minor Queries.

List of English Sovereigns (Vol. v., p. 28.).

—The principal reason why the names of the Empress Matilda, King Henry junior, and Queen Jane (Grey or Dudley), are not inserted in the lists of English sovereigns, as J. J. S. suggests they should be, arises from the fact of the periods of their supposed reigns being concurrent with those of other monarchs, and our constitution recognising one only at a time. The name of Queen Jane has, however, found a place in some recent lists; following that given in Sir Harris Nicolas's Chronology of History (edit. 1833, p. 330.), where he states that her nominal reign extended from the 6th to the 17th July, 1553. Appended to The Chronicle of Queen Jane and Queen Mary (printed for the Camden Society), I have given a list of all the public documents or state papers known to be extant which bear date in the reign of Queen Jane, and the last is a letter of the Privy Council to Lord Rich, dated the 19th July; this extends the period two days longer than in the Chronology of History, and was certainly the last public document that recognised Jane's authority. Only one private document so dated has been discovered. It is a deed relating to the parish of St. Dunstan's in Kent (dated 15th July), which was communicated by Mr. Hunter to the Retrospective Review, N. S. vol. i. p. 505. But an act of parliament of the 1st March, 1553-4, legalised all documents that might be so dated from the 6th of July to the last day of the same month (Nicolas, p. 316.). Among our historians, Heylin, in his History of the Reformation, has apportioned a distinct division of his narrative to "The Reign of Queen Jane."

Moravian Hymns (Vol. v., p. 30.).

—I cannot tell H. B. C. what is the editio princeps of these hymns; but as he appears to know of no edition anterior to 1749, I beg to observe that an edition of Psalms and Hymns for the use of the Moravians was published by the Rev. John Gambold, one of their bishops, at London, in 1738. It is in 12mo. without the name of any printer. There is a copy of this book in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth. But as it is five-and-twenty years, or more, since I saw it, I have no recollection of the particulars of its contents.

In 1801 a Moravian Hymn-book was issued, which, being out of print, was reprinted in 1809. I should suppose the book a great improvement upon the old Moravian hymn-books. I have a copy of the edition of 1809: about half the hymns are translations from the German, and the rest selected from Watts, Wesley, Steel, Robinson, and others. The hymn "To you, ye Jesus' wounds" is not in it. The book contains also their simple and beautiful liturgy, offices for baptism, burial, ordination of bishops, priests, and deacons, &c.

The following is the title of a book, printed in 1749, for James Hutton, Fetter Lane:—Hymns composed for the Use of the Brethren by the Right Rev. and most Illustrious C. Z. (Count Zinzendorf?) I transcribe some specimens.

Age of Trees—"Essex Broad Oak" (Vol. v., pp. 10. 40.).

—Was not the "Essex Broad Oak" identical with the "Fairlop Oak?" The Fairlop Oak is thus described in Excursions through Essex (Longman, 1818, vol. ii. p. 56.):

"In Hainault Forest, about one mile from Barkingside, stands an oak which has been known through many centuries by the name of Fairlop. For an account of this celebrated tree (which seems to have escaped the attention of the laborious Camden, and his indefatigable continuator, Mr. Gough) we are indebted [114] to the Rev. Mr. Gilpin. 'The tradition of this tree,' says this ingenious writer in his Remarks on Forest Scenery and other Woodland Views, 'traces it half way up the Christian æra. It is still a noble tree, though it has suffered greatly from the depredations of time. About a yard from the ground, where its rough fluted stem is 36 feet in circumference, it divides into eleven vast arms; yet not in the horizontal manner of an oak, but rather in that of a beach. Beneath its shade, which overspreads an area of 300 feet in circuit, an annual fair has long been held on the first Friday in July.' This celebrated tree was for some time fenced round with a close paling about five feet high. Almost all the extremities of its branches have been sawed off, and Mr. Forsyth's composition applied to them, to preserve then from decay; and the injury which the trunk of the tree had sustained from the lighting of fires have been repaired, as much as possible, with the same composition. On one of the branches a board was fixed, with this inscription, 'All good foresters are requested not to hurt this old tree, a plaister having been lately applied to its wounds.'"

If my recollection serves me correctly, a drawing and description of this old tree is contained in one of Hone's publications,—I think his Table Book.[9]

[9] [The drawing and description of this venerable oak is given in the Mirror, vol. ii. p. 81., where it is stated that Mr. Forsyth's precautions were insufficient to protect it from an injurious custom practised by many of its thoughtless visitors, of making a fire within the cavities to cook their provisions; for, in the month of June, 1805, it was set on fire, and continued burning until the following day, by which the trunk was considerably injured. The high winds of February, 1820, at last stretched its massy trunk and limbs on that turf which it had for so many ages overshadowed with its verdant foliage. The wood of which the pulpit and reading-desk of St. Pancras new church are composed was a portion of the Fairlop Oak; and are looked upon as matters of greater curiosity perhaps, on that account, than even the beautiful grained and highly polished material and the splendid carvings.—ED.]

Another large tree is mentioned in the same volume (p. 87.) as being called "Doodle [Query, dole or boundary] Oke."

To conclude (if I have not already trespassed too much upon your space), Is the Fairlop Oak still standing; and, if so, what is its present condition?

Cypress trees on the continent of America grow to immense ages. By counting the concentric rings observed in the wood, on sawing a trunk across, it appears that 400 years is a common age. There is a gigantic trunk near Santa Maria del Tula, in the province of Oaxaca, in Mexico, whose circumference at the dilated base is no less than 200 feet. Of this, taking 1·6 line as the average growth of a year, the age would be 3512 years. (Lyell's Second Visit to United States, vol. ii. pp. 254, 255. Prescott's Peru, vol. ii. p. 315. 4th edition.) Adanson, the celebrated botanist, calculated the age of one of the famous Baobab trees of Senegal to be 5150 years. (Marquis of Ormonde's Sicily, p. 76.) A tamarind tree in the Mahometan burial-ground at Putelam, in Ceylon, is 39 feet in diameter, or upwards of 117 feet in circumference, from which the age may be calculated on the above scale. (Sirr's Ceylon, vol. i. p. 85.)

Arrangement of Books (Vol. v., p. 49.).

—Your correspondent L.'s letter is very valuable. May I add a few contributions?

There is a mode of printing used in Cuvier's Règne Animal, which is exceedingly useful for books of classification, that is, to print those sentences which relate to the primary divisions in a larger type, and full up to the side; the subdivisions to be printed short, as sums are entered in an account book, and in a smaller type. I believe I had the fortune to introduce a slight improvement in indexes. For instance, in your index the subordinate items are arranged according to time, but that gives a great deal of trouble. Under MR. BREEN'S name there are fifteen items; they should be arranged alphabetically, like the principal items, as is done in the same index in the case of notices of books, unavoidably. But such subordinate items had better, in general, have the word on which the alphabetical arrangement turns printed in Italics to catch the eye, rather than invert the order of the words, as must be done in the principal items.

In what books the old spelling should be retained is a matter of individual question, upon which no rules can be laid down. Walpole complained that the Paston Letters were printed with the old spelling, and that, though a version is on the opposite page; but few persons will agree with him in that. In such books we have a right to see the old spelling in order to judge whether the version is right, as well as for general information.

The Ring-finger (Vol. iv., pp. 150. 198. 261.).

—The two questions mooted concerning the ring-finger, i.e. why the third finger is the ring-finger, and why the wedding-ring is worn on the third finger of the left hand? have not yet been satisfactorily answered.

The third finger is the only recognised ring-finger. Hence all who wear rings ex officio, wear them on that finger. Cardinals, bishops, doctors, abbots, &c., wear their ring on the third finger. The reason is that it is the first vacant finger. The thumb and the first two fingers have always been reserved as symbols of the three persons of the Blessed Trinity. When a bishop gives his blessing, [115] he blesses with the thumb and first two fingers. Our brasses and sepulchral slabs bear witness to this fact. And at the marriage ceremony, the ring is put on to the thumb and the first two fingers, whilst the names of "The Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost" are pronounced. Thus the third is the first vacant finger, and the ring-finger. The wedding-ring is worn on the left hand to signify the subjection of the wife to her husband. The right hand signifies power, independence, authority; according to the words:

The left hand signifies dependence or subjection. Married women, then, wear the wedding-ring on the third finger of the left hand, because they are subject to their husbands.

Bishops, because they have ecclesiastical authority, and doctors, because they have authority to teach, wear the ring on the ring-finger of the right hand.

Count Königsmark (Vol. v., p. 78.).

—The Queries put by MR. MARKLAND will be found solved in that excellent book, The English Causes Célèbres, edited by Mr. Craik, and published in 1840. It is a great pity that Mr. Craik's undertaking was not prosecuted beyond vol. i.

Walpole was wrong, and Sir Egerton Brydges right. Charles John Count Königsmark was the instigator of the assassination of Mr. Thynne. Philip Christopher von Königsmark, the younger brother of Charles John, was the presumed lover of Sophia of Zell.

Charles John von Königsmark was mortally wounded at the battle of Argos, on the 29th August, 1686.

The presumed "foul play" in the Königsmark case consisted, I suppose, in Chief Justice Pemberton summing up strongly, in accordance with the known wish of the king, that the Count should be acquitted.

MR. MARKLAND will find his inquiries as to the two Königsmarks answered in a late number of the Quarterly Review (I think that for October, 1851), in an article on the Lexington Papers.

Petition respecting the Duke of Wellington (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 477.; Vol. v., p. 43.).

—I thank ÆGROTUS for the clue he has afforded me, as to the date of the document he inquired for, and can now give him some further particulars. At a Court of Common Council held Feb. 23, 1810, in consequence of a proposition in the House of Commons to settle upon Lord Wellington 2000l. per ann. for three lives, a motion was made, and carried by sixty-five to fifty-eight, to petition the House against it. The petition is very long, but it is to the following tenor: it commences by objecting to the grant on the ground of economy, and that his services have not deserved it; "that his gallant efforts in Portugal have lead only to the disgraceful and scandalous Convention of Cintra, signed by his own hand;" that the result of the battle of Talavera was a retreat, with the abandonment of sick and wounded; that as yet they have seen no inquiry into either of these campaigns; that he and his family have held lucrative appointments in the East Indies; that no provision has been made for the family of the highly deserving Sir John Moore. It then goes on to say, "that it appears a high aggravation of the misconduct of his Majesty's incapable and unprincipled advisers;" that they advised his Majesty to refuse to receive from the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs, either at a levee, or personal audience, a petition from the livery praying an inquiry into the conduct of the commanders of the late campaign. This is the substance of the petition which I should think might be readily seen in extenso by a reference to a file of newspapers of the date.

P.S.—The petition from the Livery, doubtless agreed to in Common Hall, which the king refused to receive, and which is referred to above, is most probably the one which ÆGROTUS inquires about, and of which the Duke complains in his dispatch of Jan. 1810. I have not been able to see it; but if I can find it, will send you notes of it; the mem. I have sent establishes the fact of its having been carried.

Reichenbach's Ghosts (Vol. iv., p. 5.; Vol. v., p. 89.).

—If A. N. will do me the favour to refer to my question, he will see that his remarks do not furnish a reply. Reichenbach says, that "thousands of ghost stories will now receive a natural explanation," from his discovery that the decomposition of animal matter is accompanied by light, or luminous vapour, which is visible to certain sensitive persons. As I originally stated, "my Query is, where to find the 'thousands of ghost stories' which are explained by it." I now repeat that Query in unaffected ignorance. I have read a good many ghost stories, British and foreign; but I know that some of the writers in "N. & Q." are much better acquainted with German literature and superstitions than I am; and I ask them if they can tell me where to find such stories,—that is, ghost stories explained by Reichenbach's discovery? I do not ask for "thousands," nor even hundreds—a score or two will be quite enough; or even a dozen, if they are good ones.

The Broad Arrow.

—I can only offer the following note on the above subject as a conjecture, [116] probably most of your readers will think a very wild one.

It has sometimes occurred to me that the origin of the symbol now generally known as the "broad arrow" might be traced back to the mysteries of Mithras. At all events, it is known that the same figure occurs on coins, gems, &c. as the symbol of Mithras as the Sun. Now, so widely was the worship of Mithras spread throughout the Roman empire, that I believe no one would feel any surprise at the adoption of a Mithraic symbol even in the remotest parts of the empire; and indeed the fact that Carausius, during his usurpation of the imperial authority in Britain, issued coins with the inscription Ἡλίῳ Μίθρᾳ ἀνικήτῳ, brings the worship of Mithras, as it were, home to our own doors. Whether the symbol of the sun was ever employed for any such purpose as our modern broad arrow, is a question on which I hope some of your readers may be able to throw some light. Meanwhile, being quite ignorant as to the antiquity of our Ordnance mark, the above is merely thrown out as a conjecture. It is perhaps, to some extent, confirmed by a statement of Grimm's (Deutsche Mythologie), that the symbol of the Moon was used by the ancient Germans precisely as our broad arrow, viz. on boundary stones, &c.

I think there is more probability in another conjecture of mine, that the same symbol occurs elsewhere, and for a very different purpose, viz. in our churches, and as symbolical of the Sun of Righteousness. Our painted windows and our altar-cloths contain the symbol ↑, which I believe generally goes by the name of the "three sacred nails,"—an explanation which I always thought ridiculous, even at a time when I could give no other. Is it not far more in accordance with the principles of symbolism, and the practice of the early Christians, to believe it to be the adoption of a heathen symbol, and its application to Christian purposes?

Quarter Waggoner (Vol. v., p. 11.).

—I have met with a gentleman in the navy who informs me that these words should be "Quarter Wagner," and was so called from the publisher's name, "Wagner," who published the charts in four parts answering to the four quarters of the globe. These charts so called have been disused for near thirty years; and it was commonly observed that they who did not make alteration by improvement in the charts, or who knew not of anything beyond what was then known in maritime affairs, did not know anything beyond what was noted on the then existing charts by Wagner. Hence the phrase.

In connexion with the notes of BOLTON CORNEY, I would mention that I have a ponderous folio volume, with thick oak backs, covered with canvas, on which is the name of the book, The Dutch Waggoner: the printed title is—

"The Lightning Columne or Sea-Mirrour, containing the Sea-Coasts of the Northern, Eastern, and Western Navigation; Setting forth in divers necessarie Sea-Cards, all the Ports, Rivers, Bayes, Roads, Depths and Sands, very curiously placed on its due Polus heigt furnished, With the discoveries of the chief Countries, and on what cours and distance they lay one from another. Never theretofore so clearly laid open, and here and there very diligently bettered and augmented for the use of all Seamen. As also the Situation of the Northernly Countries, as Islands, the Strate Davids, the Isle of Jan Mayen, Bear's Island, Old Greenland, Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla: Adorned with many Sea-Cards and Discoveries, gathered out of the Experience and Practice of divers Pilots and Lovers of the famous Art of Navigation. Whereunto is added a brief Instruction of the Art of Navigation, together with New Tables of the Sun's Declination, wit an New Almanach. At Amsterdam. Printed by Casparus Loots-man, Bookseller upon the Water in the Loots-man, 1689. With previledge for fiftheen Iears."

The "priviledge" is signed "Arent Baron van Waggenaer. By the appointment of the States, Symon van Beaumont." The book is full of very curious charts, sections, and headlands, and other engravings, and is very rare; but I merely mention it to show that books of charts, &c. were known as waggoners.

MR. BOLTON CORNEY has traced the "Waggoner" to Wagenaer's work satisfactorily; but surely the Quarter is merely Quarto. I believe the term is not now used in the navy, and apparently was never officially recognised: at least it does not occur in the Admiralty Instructions for the Navy of 1747, 1790, or 1808. I may add a reference to Falconer's Marine Dictionary, where "Waggoner" is explained to be a "book of charts, describing the coasts, rocks, &c.," and to Dalrymple's Charts and Memoirs (1772), where a work called The English Waggoner is mentioned.

Log-book is so called because the rate of sailing of the ship, as ascertained by heaving the log, is one of the most frequent and important entries.

Cibber's Lives of the Poets (Vol. v., p. 25.).

—I have not Croker's last edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson to refer to, to see what is there said respecting Cibber's title to the authorship of this book; but I find the following MS. note on the fly-leaf of the first volume of my copy of the Lives of the Poets:—

"Steevens says that not the smallest part of the work called 'Cibber's Lives of the Poets' was the compilation of Cibber; being entirely written by Mr. Shiells, amanuensis to Dr. Johnson, when his Dictionary was preparing for the press. T. Cibber was in the King's Bench, and accepted of ten guineas from the booksellers [117] for leave to prefix his name to the work, and it was purposely so prefixed as to leave the reader in doubt whether he or his father was the person designed."

The American edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon, at vol. iii. p. 190. makes the same statement, but without giving any authority. The name of Robert Shiells, a Scotchman, is here given as the author of the Lives of the Poets.

Shakspere and the English Press (Vol. iv., p. 344.).

—The Second part of Henry the Sixt, ascribed to Shakspere by Heminge and Condell, is founded on a play entitled The first part of the contention betwixt the two famous houses of Yorke and Lancaster, which was first printed anonymously in 1594. It was reprinted anonymously in 1600; and, as the work of Shakspere, about 1619. The amended play first appeared in the folio of 1623. The passage in which Jack Cade reproaches lord Say with having promoted education, stands thus in the editions of 1594 and 1623:

"Thou hast most traitorously erected a grammer schoole, to infect the youth of the realme, and against the kings crowne and dignitie, thou hast built vp a paper-mill."—1594. (J. O. H.)

"Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school: and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill."—1623. (J. P. C.)

Fabian gives no information on the charges made against lord Say; nor do the subsequent chroniclers. The received text contains two undoubted anachronisms—to what extent, it would require a volume to decide. On comparing the extracts, it appears that we must ascribe the anachronism on paper-making to the earlier dramatist, and that on printing to William Shakspere—who also borrowed the allusion to the score and the tally from a former speech in the work of his unknown precursor.

Malone, when he edited The plays and poems of William Shakspere, undertook to distinguish by inverted commas the lines of this play which the poet "retouched and greatly improved," and by asterisks, those which were "his own original production." The design was commendable, but in the execution of it he committed numerous oversights.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The Book of Familiar Quotations; being a Collection of Popular Extracts and Aphorisms selected from the Works of the best Authors, is a little volume of such extracts from Shakspeare, Pope, and others of our greatest poets as most frequently fall on the ear in conversation, or meet the eye in the columns of the press and periodicals of the country. The present selection is a very good one, as far as it goes, and has the advantage over its predecessors of not only giving us the name of the author of each passage quoted, but also its precise place in his works.

Shall we Register our Deeds? answered by Sir Edward Sugden. This clever pamphlet proposes an important Query, and replies to it thus: "Let us therefore to the question proposed, Shall we register our deeds? answer with one voice, No!"

If the study of Natural History be one which may with advantage be introduced into the family circle (and who can doubt it?) we know no better medium than the clever and well-conducted little weekly paper which has just been commenced under the title of Kidd's London Journal, of which the first five numbers are before us.

Mr. Tymms, the active and zealous Secretary of the Bury and West Suffolk Archæological Institute, and Editor of the volume of Bury Wills, printed by the Camden Society, is about to publish a Handbook of Bury, on the plan of Cunningham's Handbook of London, and would be glad to receive any notes upon the subject: more especially with respect to its remarkable inhabitants.

We have to call the attention of our readers interested in the history of our Constitution and Constitutional Law to a preliminary Essay on the History of the Law of Habeas Corpus recently published by Dr. Marquardsen, under the title Ueber Haft und Bürgschaft bei den Angelsachsen. It is but a small pamphlet, but will repay the time spent in its perusal. This mention of the Anglo-Saxon polity reminds us, that the Second Part of The Jubilee Edition of the Complete Works of King Alfred has been issued, and, in addition to a continuation of the Harmony of the Chronicles, contains a Sketch of the Anglo-Saxon Mint, and a Description of all the Coins of King Alfred now remaining.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA. Vol. I. Third edition, published in 1794, Edinburgh, for A. Bell.

THE BARBERS (a poem), by W. Hutton. 8vo. 1793. (Original edition, not the fac-simile.)

THE DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE OF THE CHURCH OF ROME TRULY REPRESENTED, by Edw. Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, edited by William Cunningham, Min. Edinburgh.

A CATECHISM TRULY REPRESENTING THE DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF THE CHURCH OF ROME, with an Answer to them, by John Williams, M.A.

DODD'S CERTAMEN UTRIUSQUE ECCLESIÆ; or a List of all the Eminent Writers, Catholics and Protestants, since the Reformation. 1724. [118]

FÜSSLEIN, JOH. CONRAD, BEYTRÄGE ZUR ERLÄUTERUNG DER KIRCHEN-REFORMATIONS-GESCHICHTE DES SCHWEITZERLANDES. 5 Vols. Zürich, 1741.

VERUS CHRISTIANUS, OR DIRECTIONS FOR PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, &c., with Appendix, by David Stokes. Oxford, 1668.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

EXECUTIONER OF CHARLES I. The passage from Lilly sent us by R. S. F. has already appeared in "N. & Q.;" see Vol. II., p. 268. The story of Lord Stair being the executioner, forwarded by R. F. M. and C., is obviously a fiction. It was printed by Hone in his Cecil's Sixty Curious and Authentic Narratives, where it is given as a quotation from The Recreations of a Man of Feeling.

R. GLENN will find a list of Englishman who have been Cardinals in our 2nd Vol., p. 406.

T. B. H. Does not our division of REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES answer the purpose suggested?

H. G. D. is thanked for his private note. The ballad is intended for insertion. We will make inquiries respecting the old tablets. Many of our early Numbers are out of print again.

J. J. D. shall receive a note from us shortly, not only with reference to the specimen enclosed, but to his former communication, which has not been lost sight of.

REPLIES RECEIVED.—Moravian Hymns—Clerical M.P.'s—Serjeants' Rings—Salting Children—Bishop Bridgeman—Hieroglyphics of Vagrants—Slang Dictionaries—Gospel Oaks—Readings on Shakspeare—London—Dutch Chronicle—Church, meaning of—Ring-finger—Oh! Leoline—Petition of Common Council—Ducks and Drakes—Meaning of Groom—Count Königsmark—Sir W. Raleigh's Snuff-box—Anagrams—Poets beware—Souling—Cross-legged Effigies—Donkey—Hellrake; and many others which we are obliged to omit the acknowledgments of, from the early period at which we are compelled this week to go to press. From the same cause we have omitted several Replies to Correspondents and Notes on Books.

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The Number for February, No. 94 Old Series, No. 30 New Series, is this day published, price 6s.

CONTENTS.

I. Reform of the Representation by County Constituencies.

II. Treaties and Conventions between Great Britain and Foreign Powers.

III. The Scotch County Courts—Salaries, Jurisdiction, and Duties of the Judges.

IV. The historical and actual Relation between Counsel, Attorney and Client.

V. Is Partnership en Commandite recognized and permitted by the present Law of England?

VI. Forms of Indictments under Lord Campbell's Act, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 100.

VII. The Scotch Bar and the Legal Competence of the House of Lords.

VIII. Fusion of Law and Equity—Proposed Equity County Courts.

IX. Memoir of Mr. Justice Patteson.

Notes of Leading Cases—Notes of New Law Books—Events of the Quarter—List of New Publications—Digest of Cases, &c.

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September, 1851.

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Printed by Thomas Clark Shaw, of No. 8. New Street Square, at No. 5. New Street Square, in the Parish of St. Bride, in the City of London; and published by George Bell, of No. 186. Fleet Street, in the Parish of St. Dunstan in the West, in the City of London, Publisher, at No. 186. Fleet Street aforesaid.—Saturday, January 31. 1852.

Vol. V.—No. 118. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

CONTENTS.

CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.

Notes.

PORTRAITS OF WOLFE.

NOTES ON HOMER, NO. I.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FORETOLD.

IDEES NAPOLEONIENNES.

DR. JOHNSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BARETTI'S INTRODUCTION.

Minor Notes.

Bishop Bedell.

Foreign Guide-books.

Wearing Gloves in Presence of Royalty (Vol. i., p. 366.; Vol. ii., pp.165. 467.).

Errors of Poets.

Queries.

THE POET COLLINS.

PORTRAITS OF HENRY PURCELL.

QUERY ON THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT FLUXIONS.

Minor Queries.

Madrigal, Meaning of.

"Experto crede Roberto."

Chronological Institute.

Buzz.

The Old Scots March.

Hans Holbein.

Ivory Medallion of Lord Byron.

Trumpington Church.

"Carmen Perpetuum," &c.

"The Retired Christian."

The Garrote.

Monastic Establishments in Scotland.

Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook.

Eliza Fenning.

"Character of a True Churchman."

"A Roaring Meg."

Cardinal Pole.

Theoloneum.

Sterne in Paris.

King Robert Bruce's Watch.

Minor Queries Answered.

Hornchurch; Wrestling for the Boar's Head.

Spectacles.

Stoke.

Author of Psalm Tune "Doncaster."

Dr. Henry Sacheverell.

Replies.

MEANING AND ORIGIN OF ERA. (Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.)

SINGING OF SWANS. (Vol. ii., p. 475.)

QUEEN BRUNEHILDA. (Vol. v., p. 40.)

COVERDALE'S BIBLE. (Vol. v., p. 59.)

SERJEANTS' RINGS AND MOTTOES. (Vol. v., pp. 59. 92.)

EXTERMINATION OF EARLY CHRISTIANS IN ORKNEY. (Vol. iv., p. 439.)

THE CRIME OF POISONING PUNISHED BY BOILING. (Vol. v., p. 32.)

Replies to Minor Queries.

List of English Sovereigns (Vol. v., p. 28.).

Moravian Hymns (Vol. v., p. 30.).

Age of Trees—"Essex Broad Oak" (Vol. v., pp. 10. 40.).

Arrangement of Books (Vol. v., p. 49.).

The Ring-finger (Vol. iv., pp. 150. 198. 261.).

Count Königsmark (Vol. v., p. 78.).

Petition respecting the Duke of Wellington (Vol. iv., pp. 233. 477.; Vol. v., p. 43.).

Reichenbach's Ghosts (Vol. iv., p. 5.; Vol. v., p. 89.).

The Broad Arrow.

Quarter Waggoner (Vol. v., p. 11.).

Cibber's Lives of the Poets (Vol. v., p. 25.).

Shakspere and the English Press (Vol. iv., p. 344.).

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE.

Notices to Correspondents.

MEANING AND ORIGIN OF ERA.
(Vol. iv., pp. 383. 454.)

SINGING OF SWANS.
(Vol. ii., p. 475.)

QUEEN BRUNEHILDA.
(Vol. v., p. 40.)

COVERDALE'S BIBLE.
(Vol. v., p. 59.)

SERJEANTS' RINGS AND MOTTOES.
(Vol. v., pp. 59. 92.)

EXTERMINATION OF EARLY CHRISTIANS IN ORKNEY.
(Vol. iv., p. 439.)

THE CRIME OF POISONING PUNISHED BY BOILING.
(Vol. v., p. 32.)

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.