NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS,
ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

“When found, make a note of.”—CAPTAIN
CUTTLE.

CONTENTS.

PERIPLUS OF HANNO THE CARTHAGINIAN.

I am not sufficiently Quixotic to attempt a defence of the
Carthaginians on the western coast of Africa, or any where
else, but I submit that the accusation brought against them by
Mr. S. Bannister, formerly Attorney-General of New South Wales,
is not sustained by the only record we possess of Hanno’s
colonising expedition. That gentleman, in his learned
Records of British Enterprise beyond Sea, just
published, says, in a note, p. xlvii.:—

“The first nomade tribe they reached was friendly, and
furnished Hanno with interpreters. At length they
discovered a nation whose language was unknown to the
interpreters. These strangers they attempted to seize; and,
upon their resistance, they took three of the women, whom they
put to death, and carried their skins to Carthage” (Geogr.
Græci Minores, Paris, 1826, p. 115.).

Hanno obtained interpreters from a people who dwelt on the
banks of a large river, called the Lixus, and supposed to be
the modern St. Cyprian. Having sailed thence for several days,
and touched at different places, planting a colony in one of
them, he came to a mountainous country inhabited by savages,
who wore skins of wild beasts,
δερματα
θηρεια
ενημμενων. At a
distance of twelve days’ sail he came to some Ethiopians, who
could not endure the Carthaginians, and who spoke
unintelligibly even to the Lixite interpreters. These are the
people whose women, Mr. Bannister says, they killed. Hanno
sailed from this inhospitable coast fifteen days, and came to a
gulf which he calls Νοτου
Κερα, or South Horn.

“Here,” says the Dr. Hawkesworth, of Carthage, “in the
gulf, was an island, like the former, containing a lake,
and in this another island, full of wild men; but the women
were much more numerous, with hairy bodies
(δασειαι
τοισ
σωμασιν), whom the
interpreters called
γοριλλασ.
We pursued the men, who, flying to precipices, defended
themselves with stones, and could not be taken. Three
women, who bit and scratched their leaders, would not
follow them. Having killed them, we brought their skins to
Carthage.”

He does not so much as intimate that the creatures who so
defended themselves with stones, or those whose bodies were
covered with hair, spoke any language. Nothing but the words
ανθρωποι
αγριοι and
γυναικεσ can
lead us to believe that they were human beings at all; while
the description of the behaviour of the men, and the bodies of
the women, is not repugnant to the supposition that they were
large apes, baboons, or orang-outangs, common to this part of
Africa. At all events, the voyagers do not say that they flayed
a people having the faculty of speech.

It is not, however, improbable that the Carthaginians were
severe taskmasters of the people whom they subdued. Such I
understand those to have been who opened the British tin mines,
and who, according to Diodorus Siculus, excessively overworked
the wretches who toiled for them, “wasting their bodies
underground, and dying, {362} many a one, through extremity
of suffering, while others perished under the lashes of the
overseer.” (Bibl. Hist. l. v. c. 38.)

R.T. Hampson.

POPE VINDICATED.

“P.C.S.S.” is too great an admirer of Pope not to seek to
vindicate him from one, at least, of the blunders attributed to
him by Mr. D. Stevens, at p. 331. of the “Notes and
Queries.”

Now, if Mr. S. will refer to Homer, he will find that the
original fully justifies the use of “brows” and “lids” in the
plural. It runs thus (Od. ix. v. 389.):

“P.C.S.S.” wishes that he could equally remove from Pope the
charge of inaccuracy respecting the three cannibal meals
of Polyphemus. He fears that nothing can be alleged to impugn
Mr. Stevens’s perfectly just criticism.

While on the subject of Pope, “P.C.S.S.” would wish to
advert to a communication (No. 16. p. 246.) in which it is
insinuated that Pope was probably indebted to Petronius Arbiter
for the well-known passage—

With all respect for the ingenious author of that
communication, “P.C.S.S.” confesses that he is unable to
discover such a similitude of expression as might warrant the
notion that Pope had been a borrower from Petronius. He cannot
suppose that Mr. F. could have been led away by any supposed
analogy between corium and coricillum. The
latter, Mr. F. must know, is nothing more than a diminutive of
a diminutive (coricillum, not corcillum, from corculum);
and the word is coined by Petronius to ridicule one of the
affectations of Trimalchio (Nero), who was wont to indulge, to
an absurd extent, in the use of such diminutives (vide
Burmann, in loco). “P.C.S.S.” will now subjoin such
translations of the passage in question as he has hitherto had
opportunities of referring to. The first is from The Works
of Petronius Arbiter, translated by several hands, Lond.
8vo. 4th edit. 1714. At the beginning of the translation itself
there is this heading—”Made English by Mr. Wilson, of the
Middle Temple, and several others.” The passage in question is
thus rendered:—

“Come, my friends, let us see how merry you can be! for
in my time, I have been no better than yourselves; but, by
my own industry, I am what I am. ‘Tis the heart makes
the man; all the rest is but stuff!”

In another translation, which, with Grub-Street audacity,
the publisher, in his title-passage, presumes to attribute to
Addison! and which appeared in 1736 (Lond. 8vo.), the passage
is as follows:—

“I was once as you are: but now, thanks to my industry,
I am what I am. It is the heart that makes the man;
all the rest is but stuff!”

Be the translator who he may, this version, so impudently
ascribed to the moral Addison, is written with much spirit and
power, and with a remarkable comprehension of the author’s
meaning. Some of the poetical fragments at the end are, indeed,
singularly well done.

Of the two French versions which “P.C.S.S.” has examined,
the one by Levaur (Paris, 8vo. 1726) thus translates the
passage:

“Je vous prie, mes amis … C’est le coeur qui fait
les hommes; je compte le reste pour un
fétu.”

In that of Boispreaux (Lond. 1742), it is simply
rendered—

“Mon sçavoir faire m’a tiré du pair.
C’est le coeur qui fait l’homme …”

No attempt is made to translate the quisquilia.

P.C.S.S.

“THE SUPPER OF THE LORDE.”

I shall be glad to find that your correspondent “C.H.” (No.
21. p. 333.) receives a satisfactory answer to his inquiry, as
such a reply would also satisfy my earlier query, No. 7. p.
109. I perceive, however, from his letter, that I can give him
some information on other points noticed in it, though the
absence of papers now passing through the press with the Parker
Society’s reprint of a third volume of Tyndale, will prevent my
replying with such precision as I could wish. That ancient
tract on “The Supper of the Lorde, after the true meanyng of
the sixte of John,” &c., of which “C.H.” says he possesses
a copy, was reprinted at different intervals with the same
date, viz., MCCCCCXXXIII, Apryll v., on its title-page. The
original edition has a final colophon, stating that it was
“imprinted at Nornberg, by Nielas Twonson,” and is so rare,
that I have not been able to discover the existence of any
copy, but one recently deposited in the Bodleian. That “C.H.’s”
copy is not a specimen of that first edition, is apparent from
two circumstances. The first is, that he has given you a
quotation from his copy as follows:—”And as for M. More,
whom the verity most offendeth, and doth but mocke it,” whereas
the original edition has, “And as for M. Mocke,” &c., and
Sir Thomas More notices this mockage of his name in his reply.
The next is, that his copy contains “Crowley’s Epistle to the
Reader,” which does not appear in any edition of an earlier
date than 1551. When first attached to this treatise, the
epistle was anonymous, as may be seen in the Lambeth copy; but
Crowley eventually {363} affixed his name to the
epistle, as it appears in “C.H.’s” and in other copies.
Robert Crowley was a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford;
vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate; a printer and publisher;
but to his singular combination of titles, we cannot add
that of author of the treatise in question. “C.H.” has seen
that he did not enter Oxford till 1534; and in his Prefatory
Epistle, Crowley speaks of the author of the treatise as a
person distinct from himself.

I do not wish, however, to be considered as positively
affirming the treatise to be Tyndale’s. Foxe, the
martyrologist, edited Tyndale’s works for Day, and he has only
said that this treatise was “compiled, as some do gather, by M.
Wm. Tyndale, because the method and phrase agree with his, and
the time of writing are [sic] concurrent.” On the other hand,
the authorship is unhesitatingly assigned to Tyndale by Mr. C.
Anderson (Annals of the English Bible, §ix. ad
finem), and by Mr. Geo. Offer (Mem. of Tyndale, p.
30.), the two most pains-taking and best informants as to his
works. But still there are objections of such force, that I
must confess myself rather inclined to attribute the treatise
to Joy’s pen, if I could but be satisfied that he was capable
of writing so correctly, and of keeping so clear of vulgarity
in a controversy with a popish persecutor.

H.W.

FOLK LORE.

Palm Sunday Wind.—It is a common idea among
many of the farmers and labourers of this immediate
neighbourhood, that, from whatever quarter the wind blows for
the most part on Palm Sunday, it will continue to blow from the
same quarter for the most part during the ensuing summer.

Is this notion prevalent in other parts of the country, as a
piece of “Folk-Lore?”

R.V.

Winchester, March 26.

Curious Symbolical Custom.—On Saturday last I
married a couple in the parish church. An old woman, an aunt of
the bridegroom, displeased at the marriage, stood at the church
gate and pronounced an anathema on the married pair. She then
bought a new broom, went home, swept her house, and hung the
broom over the door. By this she intimated her rejection of her
nephew, and forbade him to enter her house. Is this a known
custom? What is its origin?

H. Morland Austen.

St. Peter’s, Thanet, March 25. 1850.

The Wild Huntsman.—The interesting
contributions of your correspondent “Seleucus,” on “Folk Lore,”
brought to my recollection the “Wild Huntsman” of the German
poet, Tieck; of whose verses on that superstitious belief,
still current among the imaginative peasantry of Germany, I
send you a translation, done into English many years
ago. The Welsh dogs of Annwn, or “couriers of the
air”—the spirit-hounds who hunt the souls of the
dead—are part of that popular belief existing among all
nations, which delivers up the noon of night to ungracious
influences, that “fade on the crowing of the cock.”

“THE WILD HUNTSMAN.

J.M.

Oxford, March 13.

ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. VI.

In the union of scholarship, polished manners, and
amiability of character, we have had few men to surpass the
reverend Joseph Spence. His career was suitable to his deserts.
He was fortunate in his connections, fortunate in his
appointments, and fortunate in his share of fame.

His fame, however, is somewhat diminished. His Essay on
the Odyssey, which procured him the friendship of Pope, has
ceased to be in request; his Polymetis, once the
ornament of every choice library, has been superseded by the
publications of Millin and Smith; his poems are only to be met
with in the collections of Dodsley and Nichols. If we now dwell
with pleasure on his name, it is chiefly as a recorder of the
sayings of others—it is on account of his assiduity in
making notes! I allude to the volume entitled
Anecdotes, observations, and characters of books and
men, which was edited by my friend Mr. Singer, with his
wonted care and ability in 1820.

The Essay on the Odyssey was first published
anonymously in 1726-7. It was reprinted in 1737 and 1747. A
copy of the latter edition, now in my possession, contains this
curious note:—

“It is remarkable that of twelve passages objected to in
this critique on the English Odyssey, two only are
found in those books which were translated by Pope.

“From Mr. Langton, who had his information from Mr.
Spence.

“When Spence carried his preface to Gorboduc in
{364} 1736 to Pope, he asked him
his opinion. Pope said ‘It would do very well; there was
nothing pert or low in it.’ Spence was
satisfied with this praise, which however, was in
implied censure on all his other writings.—He is
very fond of the familiar vulgarisms of common talk, and
is the very reverse of Dr. Johnson.

“E.M.” [Edmond Malone.]

The note is not signed at length, but there can be no doubt
as to its authorship, as I purchased the volume which contains
it at the sale of the unreserved books of Mr. Malone in
1818.

Bolton Corney.

QUERIES.

NICHOLAS BRETON’S “CROSSING OF PROVERBS.”

Although my query respecting William Basse and his poem,
“Great Britain’s Sun’s Set,” (No. 13. p. 200), produced no
positive information touching that production, it gave an
opportunity to some of your correspondents to communicate
valuable intelligence relating to the author and to other works
by him, for which I, for one, was very much obliged. If I did
not obtain exactly what I wanted, I obtained something that
hereafter may be extremely useful; and that I could not,
perhaps, have obtained in any other way than through the medium
of your pleasant and welcome periodical.

I am now, therefore, about to put a question regarding
another writer of more celebrity and ability. Among our early
pamphleteers, there was certainly none more voluminous than
Nicholas Breton, who began writing in 1575, and did not lay
down his pen until late in the reign of James I. A list of his
pieces (by no means complete, but the fullest that has been
compiled) may be seen in Lowndes’s Bibl. Manual; it
includes several not by Breton, among them Sir Philip Sidney’s
Ourania, 1606, which in fact is by a person of the name
Backster; and it omits the one to which my present
communication refers, and regarding which I am at some
loss.

In the late Mr. Heber’s Catalogue, part iv. p. 10., I
read as follows, under the name of Nicholas Breton:—

“Crossing of Proverbs. The Second Part, with certaine
briefe Questions and Answeres, by N.B., Gent. Extremely
rare and very curious, but imperfect. It appears to
contain a portion of the first part, and also of the
second; but it appears to be unknown.”

Into whose hands this fragment devolved I know not; and that
is one point I am anxious to ascertain, because I have another
fragment, which consists of what is evidently the first sheet
of the first part of the tract in question, with the following
title-page, which I quote totidem literis:—

“Crossing of Proverbs. Crosse-Answeres. And
Crosse-Humours. By B.N., Gent. At London, Printed for John
Wright, and are to be solde at his Shop without Newgate, at
the signe of the Bible, 1616.”

It is in 8vo., as Heber’s fragment appears to have been; but
then the initials of the author are given as N.B., whereas in
my fragment they stand B.N., a usual inversion with Nicholas
Breton; the brief address “To the Reader” is also subscribed
B.N.; and then begins the body of the work, thus headed:
“Crosse and Pile, or, Crossing of Proverbs.” It opens as
follows:

And so it proceeds, not without humour and point, here and
there borrowing from known sources, as in the
following:—

However, my object is not to give specimens of the
production further than are necessary for its identification.
My queries are, 1st, Who bought Mr. Heber’s fragment, and where
is it now to be found? 2nd, Are any of your correspondents
aware of the existence of a perfect copy of the work?

I naturally take a peculiar interest about Nicholas Breton,
because I have in my possession an unknown collection of
amatory and pastoral poems by him, printed in quarto in 1604,
in matter and measure obvious imitations of productions in “The
Passionate Pilgrim,” 1599, imputed to Shakespeare, and some of
which are unquestionably by Richard Barnfield.

Any new information regarding Breton and his works will be
most acceptable to me. I am already in possession of undoubted
proof that he was the Nicholas Breton whose epitaph is on the
chancel-wall of the church of Norton, in Northamptonshire, a
point Ritson seems to have questioned.

J. Payne Collier.

March 30. 1850.

THE SWORD CALLED CURTANA.

In the wardrobe account for the year 1483, are “iij swerdes,
whereof oon with a flat poynte,
{365} called curtana, and ij
other swords, all iij swords covered in a yerde di of
crymysym tisshue cloth of gold.”

The name of curtana for many ages continued to be
given to the first royal sword in England. It existed as long
ago as the reign of Henry III., at whose coronation (A.D. 1236)
it was carried by the Earl of Chester. We find it at the
coronations of Edward II. and Richard II.; also in the time of
Henry IV., Richard III., and Henry VII.; and among the royal
arms of Edward VI. we read of “a swerde called
curtana.”

Can any of your readers explain the origin of the name
curtana, a sword so famous that it carries us back to
the days of ancient chivalry, when it was wielded by the Dane
Uggiero, or by the still more famed Orlando.

Edward F. Rimbault.

IS THE DOMBEC THE DOMESDAY OF ALFRED?

I beg to propose the following “Query”:—Is the
Dombec, a work referred to in the Laws of Edward the
Elder, the same as what has been called the Domesday or
Winchester Book of Alfred the Great? I incline to think that it
is not, and shall be much obliged to any of your
correspondents, learned in the Anglo-Saxon period of our
history, who will give himself the trouble of resolving my
doubts.

Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary voce Dombec, calls
it the Liber Judicialis of the Anglo-Saxons; and says it
is mentioned in the first chapter of the laws of Edward the
Elder, where the king directs his judges to conduct themselves
in their judicial proceedings as on [Old English: thaere dom
bec stand], that is, as is enjoined in their Dome
Book.—”Quod,” he continues, “an de præcedentium
Regum legibus quæ hodie extant, intelligendum sit: an de
alio quopiam libro hactenus non prodeunte, incertum est.”

But this uncertainty does not seem to have attached itself
to the mind of Sir William Blackstone; for in the third section
of the Introduction prefixed to his Commentaries on the Laws
of England, he informs us that our antiquaries “tell us
that in the time of Alfred, the local customs of the several
provinces of the kingdom were grown so various, that he found
it expedient to compile his Dome Book, or Liber
Judicialis, for the general use of the whole kingdom.” This
book is said to have been extant so late as the reign of King
Edward IV., but is now unfortunately lost. It contained, we may
probably suppose, the principal maxims of the common law, the
penalties for misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial
proceedings. Thus much may be at least collected from that
injunction to observe it, which we find in the Laws of King
Edward the Elder, the son of Alfred.—”Omnibus qui
reipublicæ præsunt etiam atque etiam mando, ut
omnibus æquos se præbeant judices, perinde ac in
judiciali libro (Saxonice, [Old English: dom bec])
scriptum habetur: nec quidquid formident quin jus
commune (Saxonice, [Old English: folcrihte]) audactes
libereque dicant.“

But notwithstanding this, it appears to me by no means
conclusive, that the Dombec referred to in the Laws of
Edward the Elder and the Liber Judicialis of Alfred are
the same; on the contrary, Alfred’s Liber Judicialis
seems to have been known not under the name of Dombec,
but under that of the Winchester Roll, from the
circumstance of its having been principally kept at Winchester:
and Sir Henry Spelman says, the Domesday Book of William the
Conqueror was sometimes called Rotulus Wintoniæ, a
similitudine antiquoris, from its resemblance to an older
document preserved at Winchester. And he quotes Ingulphus Abbot
of Croyland, who says, “Iste rotulus (i.e. the Domesday
Book of William) vocatus est Rotulus Wintoniæ, et ab
Anglicis pro sua generalitate, omnia tenementa totius
terræ integre continente Domesday cognominatur.”
And the he proceeds, “Talem rotulum et multum similem; ediderat
quondam Rex Alfredus, in quo totam terram Angliæ per
comitatus, centurias, et decurias descripserat, sicut
prænotatur. Qui quidem Rotulus Wintoniæ vocatus
est, quia deponebatur apud Wintoniam conservandus,” &c.

Here is nothing said of this work being called [Old English:
dom bec]: neither does Spelman, in his enumeration of the works
of Alfred, give the least intimation that any one of his
collections of laws was called [Old English: dom bec].

We know, indeed, that Alfred compiled a code of laws for his
subjects; but whether any part of them has been preserved, or
how much of them is embodied in subsequent codes, cannot now be
determined. Asser mentions that he frequently reprimanded the
judges for wrong judgments; and Spelman, that he wrote “a book
against unjust magistrates,” but any complete body of laws, if
such was ever framed by Alfred, is now lost; and that
attributed to him in Wilkin’s Leges Anglo-Saxon, is held
in suspicion by most writers.

For these reasons, and considering that Sir William
Blackstone’s knowledge of English history was rather
superficial, I incline to the belief, that the [Old English:
dom bec] referred to in the laws of Edward the Elder, was some
collection of laws made prior to the time of Alfred:
this might clearly be the case, as Sharon Turner informs us
that the Saxon laws were committed to writing as early as the
commencement of the 7th century.

The opinions of your learned correspondents on this disputed
point may be of much interest to many of your readers, and to
none more than to

George Munford.

East Winch.

MINOR QUERIES.

MSS. of the Wycliffite Translations of the
Scriptures.—The Add. MS. 15,521., in the British
Museum, contains a copy of Lewis’s edition of the Wycliffite
New Testament, printed in 1731, with manuscript notes by
Ames and Lewis, and the former has transcribed into it some
additional prologues, prefixed to each book of the New
Testament, which had not been printed by Lewis, and were taken
by Ames from a MS. of the New Testament, written in 1424, and
in 1731 in the possession of Thomas Granger. It would be very
desirable to learn what became of this MS. subsequently.
Granger died in the following year, but the MS. does not appear
in the sale catalogue of his library, nor is it found in the
catalogue of Ames’s own library, dispersed in 1760. Any
information relative to this remarkable copy of the New
Testament, would be very acceptable to the Editors of the
Wycliffite Versions of the Scriptures, who are now,
after a literary labour of more than twenty years, about to
bring the work to a conclusion. They would also feel much
obliged by the communication of any notices of MSS. of the
Wycliffite versions, existing in private hands,
exclusive of those copies of which they already possess
descriptions, existing in the libraries of the following
individuals:—Mrs. Allanson of Farn, Flintshire, the Earl
of Ashburnham, Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., Sir Peregrine
Ackland, Bart., Sir David Dundas, H.M. Judge Advocate, Dr.
Cardwell, Principal of St. Alban’s Hall, Oxford, and Thomas
Bannister, Esq.

F. Madden.

British Museum, March 28.

Why are Gloves not worn before Royalty?—Can any
of your readers inform me what is the origin of the custom
observed at Court, of persons in the royal presence not wearing
gloves? Is it a matter of pure etiquette, or does the
observance of it derive its origins from barbarous times, when
chivalry was little else than barbarism in armour?

F.E.

Law Courts at St. Albans.—Can any of your
correspondents give me the reference to a communication in the
Gentleman’s Magazine (between, I think, the years 1815
and 1836), in which a passage in Massinger, which alludes to
lawyers going to St. Albans, is illustrated by an inscription
in the nave of St. Alban’s Abbey Church, which records that the
courts were held there on account of the sweating-sickness in
the reign of Elizabeth?

Σ.

Richard Haley, or Hales.—Milton
Pedigree.—I should feel obliged by any particulars
respecting Richard Haley, or Hales, of Idlestreete, otherwise
Ilstreyd, in com. Hertford, yeoman; my object being to
ascertain the nature of some transaction he had with Milton, in
July 1674, referred to in a bond which the former executed,
dated the 27th of that month, for performance of the covenants
contained in an indenture of even date.

Is any thing known of Richard Milton, who signs his name as
the attesting witness to the releases given by two of the
poet’s daughters for their share of his estate? Is there any
pedigree of the family of Sir Christopher Milton, the poet’s
brother, drawn up with sufficient apparent accuracy to exclude
the probability of Richard Milton being his son? I have
referred to the pedigree in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 5802.
fo. 19b.), which makes no mention of the letter; but it is
evidently so imperfect a notice, as to be of little authority
one way or other.

J.F.M.

Sapcote Motto.—Over the old gatehouse of Elton,
co. Hunts., built by the family of Sapcote, is their coat of
arms, namely, “three dove-cotes;” and upon a scroll,
surrounding the lower part of the shield, is carved a motto,
evidently French, and as evidently cut by a person ignorant of
that language. So far as I can decypher it, the letters appear
to be

Possibly the first and last letters s are only
flourishes. I shall be glad of any suggestion as to its
meaning.

I have not been able to find the Sapcote motto on record;
and I believe the Carysfoot family, the possessors of Elton,
and the Duke of Bedford, the heir in blood, to be ignorant of
what this scroll is intended to represent.

Erminois.

Athenæum Club.

Scala Coeli.—In a will, dated 12 Hen. VIII.,
the testator directs that there shall be four trentals of Saint
Gregory said for his soul at London at “Scala Coeli.” Can any
of your readers explain what place is meant by “Scala
Coeli?”

A Subscriber.

Illustrations of Gresset’s “Vert Vert,” painted on
Enamel, &c.—In a Paris edition of Gresset’s Works
(Janet et Cotelle, 1823), in the preface is the following
passage.—

“Vert-vert fut bientôt dans toutes les mains. Le
suffrage de la multitude se joignit à celui des
connoisseurs; la mode, qui est aussi en possession de
donner son suffrage, s’empressa de parer les ajustemens
d’invention récente, du nom de l’illustre perroquet;
les vases d’ornement, les vases usuels qui sortoient
des fabriques françoises, retraçoient presque
tous quelques épisodes du petit poëme. Un
artist dont le nom est venu jusqu’à nous, Raux, en
peignit sur émail les sujets les plus
marquants; et tandis qu’on faisoit passer dans une
version latine les vers élégants du
poëte jésuite, M. Bertin, ministre
d’état, le gratifioit d’un magnifique cabaret
de Sèvres, dont toutes les pièces
reproduisoient les aventures de son héros, ce qui
fit dire à Gresset, qu’on le traduisoit aussi en
porcelaine de Sèvres.”

The Query I wish to make is, Have any of these
illustrations or designs from Gresset’s poem of Vert-vert,
painted on enamel china, or earthenware of any sort, of French
or any other manufacture, come to light of late years? or more
lately still, among the articles that have been dispersed among
various buyers of almost all nations, in the sales within these
few weeks effected at Paris?

Robert Snow.

Urbanus Regius.—A friend of mine, a delightful
old lady, fresh, genial, and inquisitive, has in her possession
an old volume, a family heir-loom, which is not the less dear
to her for being somewhat dingy and dilapidated, and touching
which she would gladly receive such information as your
correspondents can supply.

It is made up of three apparently distinct treatises; the
first (of which several leaves are wanting) on the twelve
articles of the Apostles’ Creed. The second is “The ryght
foundation, and pryncypall common places of the hole godly
Scripture,” &c., by Doctor Urbanus Regius. Prefixed is an
epistle to Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury (evidently
Cranmer), to whom “Hys dayly oratoure, Gwalter Lynne (the
writer of the epistle), wyssheth lyfe euerlastynge.” Between
this second treatise and the third, and apparently belonging to
the latter, is a title-page with the following inscription:

“Imprinted for Gwalter Lynne, dwelling upon Somers Kaye,
by Byllinges gate. In the yeare of oure Lorde. MDXLVIII.
And they by [sic] to be solde at Poules church yarde
at the north doore, In the signe of the By-bell, By Richard
Jugge.”

This last treatise is in smaller type than the others, and
has no general designation: it contains chapters on various
subjects, e.g. “The Signification of Baptism,”
&c.

Query 1. Is this volume well known? 2. Who were Urbanus
Regius and Walter Lynne?

G.P.

March 16. 1850.

REPLIES.

THE ARABIC NUMERALS AND CIPHER.

I might, with a little more consideration, have referred
“E.V.” to several other authorities which he will do well to
consult.

9. Wallis’s Algebra, p. 9. and p. 153. of the
additions.

10. Phil. Trans., Nos. 439. and 475.

11. Montucla, Histoire des Mathématiques, tom.
i. chap. 2.

12. Baillie, Histoire de l’Astronomie.

13. Delambre¹,
Hist. de l’Astr. du moyen age.

14. Hutton’s Tracts (8vo. ed. 1812.), vol. ii.
(subject “History of Algebra”)

15. Huet, Demonstratio Evangelica.

16. Dr. John Taylor’s Translation of the Lilawati.
(Bombay, 1816.)

17. Strachey’s Translation of the Bija
Ganita².

18. Colebrooke’s Algebra of the Hindus.

Would it not be worth while to give a facsimile of
the “Tabel for all manere of merchauntes,” in the “Notes and
Queries”? It is not only a curiosity, but an important element
(and unique as far as is known) in the philosophic history of
our arithmetic. It was, no doubt, an actual instrument in
constant use in the merchant’s office, as much so as an
almanac, interest-tables, a “cambist” and a copying-press, are
now.

As regards the cipher, the difficulty only commenced with
writing numbers in the new symbology. With persons
accustomed to the use of this instrument, there is no doubt
that the mode of obviating the difficulty of “keeping the
place,” would suggest itself at once. In this instrument an
empty hole (without its peg) signified “none of this
denomination.” What then more simple than to make the outline
of the empty hole which occupied the “local position” of any
denomination, when none of that precise denomination occurred
in the number itself? Under this view the process at least
becomes simple and natural; and as the early merchants
contributed so largely to the improvement of our arithmetical
processes, such a conclusion is wholly divested of
improbability on any other ground. The circle would then
naturally become, as it certainly has practically become, the
most appropriate symbol of nothingness.

As regards the term cipher or zero (which are
so obviously the same as to need no remark), it is admitted on
all hands to be derived from one or other of the Semitic
languages, the Hebrew or the Arabic. It is customery with the
mathematical historians to refer it to the Arabic, they being
in general more conversant with it than with the Hebrew. The
Arabic being a smaller hand than the Hebrew, a dot was used
instead of the circle for marking the “place” at which the
hiatus of any “denomination” occurred. If we obtained our
cipher from this, it would be made hollow (a mere
ceinture, girdle, or ring) to save the trouble of making
a dot sufficiently large to correspond in magnitude with our
other numerals as we write them. Either is alike
possible—probability must be sought, for either over the
other, from a slightly different source.

The root-words in Hebrew and in Arabic are precisely the
same (ts-ph-r), though in the two
{368} languages, and at different
ages of the same language, they might have been vowelised
differently. In some shape or other, this name is used in
all countries that have derived their arithmetic from
mediæval Italy, or from the Saracens. It is with some
cipher, with others chiffre, and with all
zero. The word is certainly no more Italian than it
is French or English. Be it remembered, too, that
ezor (quoted at p. 268.), as a girdle, is
radically the same word, somewhat mutilated. The cardinal
meaning of the word (denuded of the conventional accretions
of signification, which peculiar applications of it adds to
the cardinal meaning) appears to be emptiness,
hollowness, nothingness. It may be further
remarked, that in the fine Chartres MS. of Boetius,
described by Chasles, the 0 is called
sipos:—the same name, he remarks, that Graves
found in use in the East. The modern Turks call the 0,
tsifra.

It is curious enough that in all languages, the term
ciphering is popularly used to denote all arithmetical
operations whatever. Our schoolboys do their “ciphering,” and
write carefully in their “ciphering-books.” This all seems to
point to the art of dispensing with the use of the abacus or
counting table.

T.S.D.

Shooter’s Hill, March 5.

Arabic Numerals.—I had replied to “E.V.” (No.
15. p. 230.), when I saw by your “Notice to Correspondents,”
that the question was answered. I therefore waited the
publication of the replies, which I find do not embrace any one
of the points to which I would call the attention of
“E.V.”—Diophantus of Alexandria, who flourished about 150
years after Christ, and who wrote thirteen books of algebra or
arithmetic in the Greek language, is generally supposed to be
the oldest writer on the subject that has come down to our
time; but it was not from him that we received the knowledge of
algebra in Europe. It appears certain that the first knowledge
of this science in England was from Italy or Spain, after the
Moors settled in the latter country; and the Arabians and
Persians appear to have derived their arithmetical method of
computing by ten characters from the Indians: who, in their
turn, have most probably borrowed from the Chinese, and
improved on their method by the adoption of a zero, which was
one of the most important improvements effected by the Hindoos.
In China, the words ancient and modern are almost synonymous;
their usages and customs being so unchangeable, as appears by
their instrument of computation, the swanpan, which is
still used in all their calculations. The Oriental scholar will
find much curious and interesting information connected with
this subject in the Sanscrit Vija Ganita and
Lilivati of Bhaskara Acharya: the former was translated
into Persian at Agra, or Delhi, in 1634, and the latter by
Fyzee in 1587; but there are also English translations, all of
which are in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society. The
Khalasah-ul-Hisah is another work of repute in India.
Mr. Strachey wrote and printed in India, for the Asiatic
Researches, a valuable paper, which contains most
conclusive evidence of the Indian (if not Chinese) origin of
our numerals. See also Astronomie Indienne, of M.
Bailly; 2d vol. Asiatic Researches, “On the Astronomical
Computations of the Hindoos,” by Saml. Davis; “Two
Dissertations on Indian Astronomy and Trigonometry,” by
Professor Playfair, in the 2d and 4th vols. of the Edinburgh
Philosophical Transactions. And many others might be
referred to; but all tending to prove that our numbers came
originally from China and India, through Persia, Arabia,
Africa, Spain, and Italy, by gradual and successive changes in
form, several of them still retaining a close resemblance to
the ancient and modern Sanscrit, Chinese, Arabic, Persian, and
Hindoo numerals.

Henry Wilkinson.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

I send you a few Notes on Queries scattered through some of
the later numbers of your very valuable publication:

Anonymous Ravennas.—In the library of the Royal
Geographical Society, I believe there is a copy of an 8vo.
edition of that cosmography.

Selago.—This plant, I should think it probable,
is the Lycopodium clavatum of modern botanists; the
seeds of which, when ripe, and when the plant is struck, rise
like smoke (“fumum” of Pliny), and may have been supposed, from
their remarkable inflammability when dashed into a flame,
igniting with a sudden flash, to have possessed wonderful
virtues. The species known as Lycopodium selago is rare
in comparison to the other.

Portugal.—In the library of the Geographical
Society are some of the more recent works published in Lisbon
on the topography of that country, but they are generally very
meagre and unsatisfactory. In a periodical published in Lisbon
in numbers, on the plan of the Penny Magazine, there is
a good deal of information, with engravings, regarding many
places of interest in Portugal. I think it is called The
Album, but I am sorry I have not at present the power of
sending you more correct particulars concerning it. It is in
4to.

Portugal is a country that is so little travelled in either
by natives or foreigners, that information regarding places in
the interior is not easily obtained; and facilities for
travelling, as well as accommodation for travellers, is of a
very limited description.

Sir Roger de Coverley.—In one of your early
numbers was a query on this subject, which I do not think has
been yet answered. I have a MS.
{369} account of the family of
Calverley, of Calverley, in Yorkshire, an autograph of Ralph
Thoresby in the year 1717, in which occurs the following
passage:—

“Roger, so named from the Archbishop” (of York),
“was a person of renowned hospitality, since, at this day,
the obsolete known tune of Roger a Calverley is
referred to him, who, according to the custom of those
times, kept his minstrells, from that their office
named harpers, which became a family and possessed
lands till late years in and about Calverley, called
to this day Harpersroids and Harper’s
Spring…. He was a knight, and lived in the time of K.
Richard 1st. His seal, appended to one of his charters, is
large, with a chevalier on horseback.”

W. CALVERLEY TREVELYAN.

DERIVATIONS OF “NEWS.”

It is not declared with what motive “Mr. GUTCH” (No. 17. p.
270.) has laid before the readers of “NOTES AND QUERIES” the
alleged derivation of N.E.W.S.

It must therefore be supposed, that his object was to have
its justness and probability commented upon; and it is quite
time that they should be so, since the derivation in question
has of late become quite a favourite authoritative dictum with
etymology compilers. Thus it may be found, in the very words
and form adopted by your correspondent, in Haydn’s
Dictionary of Dates, and in other authorities of equal
weight.

This sort of initial-letter derivation was probably brought
into fashion in England by the alleged origin of “Cabal,” or,
perhaps, by the many guesses at the much disputed word
“Æra.” I shall take the liberty of quoting a few
sentences with reference to such etymologies, as a
class, which I find in an unpublished manuscript upon a
kindred subject.

“Besides, such a splitting up of a word of significant
and perfect meaning in itself is always a bad and
suspicious mode of derivation.

“It is generally an after-thought, suggested by some
fortuitous or fancied coincidence, that appropriateness of
which is by no means a sufficient proof of probability.

“Of this there can scarcely be a better example than the
English word ‘news,’ which, notwithstanding the felicity of
its supposed derivation from the four cardinal points,
must, nevertheless, so long as the corresponding words
‘nova,’ ‘nouvelles,’ &c. exist, be consigned to its
more sober and common-place origin in the adjective
‘new.'”

To this it must be added that the ancient orthography of the
word newes, completely upsets the derivation Mr. Gutch
has brought before your readers. Hone quotes from “one Burton,
printed in 1614: ‘if any one read now-a-days, it is a
play-book, or a pamphlet of newes.”

I had been in two minds whether or not to send this
communication, when the scale is completely turned by the
apropos occurrence of a corroboration of this latter objection
in “NOTES AND QUERIES” of this day. Mr. Rimbault mentions (at
p. 277.), “a rare black letter volume entitled Newes from
Scotland, 1591.”

Here is one more proof of the usefulness of your
publication, that I am thus enabled to strengthen the
illustration of a totally different subject by the incidental
authority of a fellow correspondent.

A.E.B.

Leeds, March, 1850.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

Swot is, as the querist supposes, a military cant
term, and a sufficiently vulgar one too. It originated at the
great slang-manufactory for the army, the Royal Military
College, Sandhurst. You may depend upon the following account
of it, which I had many years ago from the late Thomas
Leybourne, F.R.S., Senior Professor of Mathematics in that
college.

One of the Professors, Dr. William Wallace, in addition to
his being a Scotchman, had a bald head, and an exceedingly
“broad Scotch” accent, besides a not very delicate
discrimination in the choice of his English terms relating to
social life. It happened on one hot summer’s day, nearly half a
century ago, that he had been teaching a class, and had worked
himself into a considerable effusion from the skin. He took out
his handkerchief, rubbed his head and forehead violently, and
exclaimed in his Perthshire dialect,—”It maks one
swot.” This was a God-send to the “gentlemen cadets,”
wishing to achieve a notoriety as wits and slangsters; and
mathematics generally ever after became swot, and
mathematicians swots. I have often heard it
said:—”I never could do swot well, Sir;” and
“these dull fellows, the swots, can talk of nothing but
triangles and equations.”

I should have thought that the sheer disgustingness
of the idea would have shut the word out of the vocabularies of
English gentlemen. It remains nevertheless a standard
term in the vocabulary of an English soldier. It is well, at
all events, that future ages should know its etymology.

T.S.D.

Pokership, (antè, pp. 185. 218. 269.
282. 323, 324.)—I am sorry to see that no progress has
yet been made towards a satisfactory explanation of this
office. I was in hopes that something better than mere
conjecture would have been supplied from the peculiar
facilities of “T.R.F.” “W.H.C.” (p. 323.) has done little more
than refer to the same instruments as had been already adverted
to by me in p. 269., with the new reading
{370} of poulterer for poker!
With repect to “T.R.F.’s” conjecture, I should be more ready
to accept it if he could produce a single example of the
word pawker, in the sense of a hog-warden. The
quotation from the Pipe-roll of John is founded on a
mistake. The entry occurs in other previous rolls, and is
there clearly explained to refer to the porter of
Hereford Castle. Thus, in Pipe 2 Hen. II. and 3 Hen. II.
we have, under Hereford,

In Pipe 1 Ric. I. we have,

Again, in Pipe 3 Joh.

A similar entry is to be found in other rolls, as well
printed as inedited. I could indulge some other criticisms on
the communication of your correspondent in Spring Gardens, but
I prefer encouraging him to make further inquiries, and to
produce from the records in his custody some more satisfactory
solution of the difficulty. In the meantime, let me refer to a
Survey of Wrigmore Castle in the Lansdowne Collection, No. 40.
fo. 82. The surveyor there reports, that the paling, rails,
&c. of the park are much decayed in many and sundry places,
and he estimates the repairs, with allowance of timber from the
wood there, “by good surveye and oversight of the poker
and other officers of the said parke,” at 4l. The date
of the survey is 13 May, 1584.

Comparing this notice of the office with the receiver’s
accounts tempore Hen. VII. and Hen. VIII. (antè,
p. 269.), in which the officer is called “pocarius omnium
boscorum,” I cannot doubt that his duty, or at least one of his
duties, was that of woodward, and that, as such, he assigned
timber for repair of the premises. How he came by his local
title and style of poker is a mystery on which we have all
hitherto failed to throw any light.

E.S.

Vox Populi Vox Dei,—about the origin of which
saying “QUÆSITOR” asks (No. 21. p. 321.),—were the
words chosen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, as
his text for the sermon which he preached when Edward III. was
called to the throne, from which the nation had pulled down his
father, Edward II. This we learn from Walsingham, who says:

“Archiepiscopus verò Cantuariæ
præsenti consensit electioni, ut omnes prælati
et archiepiscopus quidem assumpto themate, Vox populi
Vox Dei, sermonem fecit populo, exhortans omnes ut apud
regem regum intercederent pro electo.”—Tho.
Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ed. Camden, p. 126.

DANIEL ROCK.

A living Dog better than a dead Lion.—I no not
know whether your correspondent (No. 22. p. 352.) ever goes to
church; but if he is not prevented by rain next St. Swithin’s
day, he will learn who was the author of this proverb. It will
be a good thing, if your work should sometimes lead your
readers to search the Scriptures, and give them credit for
wisdom that has flowed from them so long, and far, and wide,
that its source is forgotten; but this is not the place for a
sermon, and I now only add, “here endeth the first lesson”
from

ECCLESIASTES.

[“J.E.,” “D.D.,” and other correspondents, have
also replied to this Query by references to Eccl. ix. 4.]

Curious Monumental Brass (No. 16. p. 247.)—If
“RAHERE” will turn to Mr. Boutell’s Monumental Brasses and
Slabs, p. 148., he will there find a description as well as
an engraving of what, from his account, I doubt not he will
discover to be the identical fragment to which he refers. A
foot legend, and what remains of a border inscription, is added
to it. In the above work, pp. 147 to 155, and in the Oxford
Architectural Society’s Manual for the Study of Brasses,
p. 15., “RAHERE” will find an account and references to
numerous examples of palimpsest brasses, to which class the one
in question belongs.

I presume that “RAHERE” is a young brass-rubber, or the fact
of a plate being engraved on both sides would have presented no
difficulty to him.

ARUN.

[We have received several other replies to this
Query, referring to Mr. Boutell’s Monumental Brasses:
one from “W.”; another from “A CORNISHMAN,” who
says,—

“The brass in question, when I saw it last, had
been removed from the Rectory and placed in the tomb of Abbot
Wheathampstead, in company with the famous one of Thomas
Delamere, another Abbot of St. Albans.”

Another from “E.V.,” who states,—

“Other examples are found at St. Margaret’s,
Rochester (where the cause of the second engraving is found to
be an error in costume in the first), St. Martins at Plain,
Norwich, Hedgerly Church, Bucks, and Burwell Church,
Cambridgeshire. Of this last, an engraving and description, by
Mr. A.W. Franks, is given in the fourteenth part of the
Publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.”

One from “WILLIAM SPARROW SIMPSON,” who
says,—

“It is also described in the Oxford
Architectural Society’s Manual of Mon. Brasses, No. 6.
pp. 6, 7. other examples of which occur at Rochester, Kent, and
at Cobham, Surrey. A small plate of brass, in the possession of
a friend, has on one side a group of children, and on the
reverse the uplifted hands of an earlier figure.”

And lastly, one from “A.P.H.” (to which we
cannot do ample justice, as we do not keep an engraver), from
which we extract the following passages:—

“A friend of mine has a shield in his
possession, taken from a slab, and which has been enamelled. It
is of late date and rudely executed. On the back is
{371} seen the hands and breast of a
small female figure, very nearly a century earlier in date.
I can also remember an inscription in Cuxton Church, Kent,
which was loose, and had another inscription on the back in
the same manner.

“I am very much impressed with the idea that
the destroyed brasses never had been used at all; but had been
engraved, and then, from circumstances that of course we cannot
hope to fathom, thrown on one side till the metal might be used
for some other purpose. This, I think, is a more probable, as
well as a more charitable explanation than the one usually
given of the so-called palimpsest brasses.”]

Chapels (No. 20. p. 333.).—As to the origin of
the name, will you allow me to refer Mr. Gatty to Ducange’s
Glossary, where he will find much that is to his
purpose.

As to its being “a legal description,” I will not undertake
to give an opinion without a fee; but I will mention a fact
which may assist him in forming one. I believe that fifty years
ago the word Chapel was very seldom used among those who
formed what was termed the “Dissenting Interest;” that is, the
three “denominations” of Independents, Baptists, and
Presbyterians. But I well recollect hearing, from good
authority, nearly, or quite, forty years ago, that an eminent
barrister (whom I might now describe as a late learned judge),
who was much looked up to by the dissenters as one of their
body, had particularly advised that in all trust-deeds relating
to places of dissenting worship, they should be called
“Chapels.” I do not know that he assigned any reason, but I
know that the opinion was given, or communicated, to those who
had influence; and, from my own observation, I believe that
from about that time we must date the adoption of the term,
which has now been long in general use.

I do not imagine that there was any idea of either
assistance or opposition to the Church of England, in the mind
of him who recommended, or those who adopted, the alteration,
or that either of them expected or sought any thing by this
measure but to obtain a greater security for property, or,
rather, to avoid some real or imagined insecurity, found or
supposed to attach to the form of description previously in
use.

A BARRISTER.

Forlot, Forthlot (No. 20. p. 320.).—A measure
of grain used throughout Scotland at present—query
fourthlot. See Jamieson’s Etymological Dictionary of
the Scottish Language.

“Firlot; Fyrlot; Furlet.—A corn measure in
S., the fourth part of a boll.

“Thay ordainit the boll to mat victual with, to be
devidit in foure partis, videlicet, foure
fyrlottis to contene a boll; and that fyrlot
not to be maid efter the first mesoure, na efter the
mesoure now usit, bot in middill mesoure betwixt the
twa.”—Acts Jac. l. 1526. c. 80. edit.
1566.

Skinner derives it from A.-S. feower, quatuor; and
lot, hlot, portio (the fourth part); Teut.
“viertel.”

J.S.

Loscop (No. 20. p. 319).—To be “Louecope-free”
is one of the immunities granted to the Cinque Ports in their
charters of Liberties.

Jeakes explains the term thus:—

“The Saxon word Cope (in Low Dutch still Kope or Koope),
for trade or merchandising, makes this as much as to trade
freely for love. So that by no kind of monopoly patent, or
company or society of traders or merchants, the portsmen be
hindered from merchandising; but freely and for love, be
permitted to trade and traffick, even by such company of
merchants, whenever it shall happen their concerns lie
together.”

In my MSS., and in the print of Jeakes, it is “Louecope,”
with which “Lofcope” may be readily identified; and f
may easily be misread for s, especially if the roll be
obscured.

If Jeakes’s etymology of the word be correct, the inference
would rather be that “Lovecope” was a tax for the goodwill of
the port at which a merchant vessel might arrive; a “port duty”
in fact, independent of “lastage” &c., chargeable upon
every trader that entered the port, whatever her cargo might
be. And the immunities granted to the portsmen were that they
should be “port duty free.”

I do not venture to offer this as any thing more than a mere
guess. Among your contributors there are many more learned than
myself in this branch of antiquarian lore, who will probably be
able to give a more correct interpretation, and we shall feel
obliged for any assistance that they can give us in elucidating
the question.

“Lovecope” might perhaps be the designation of the
association of merchants itself, to which Jeakes alludes; and
the liberty of forming such association, with powers of
imposing port duties, may have been dependent on special grant
to any port by royal charter, such as that which forms the
subject of your correspondent’s communication.

After all, perhaps, “Lovecope” was the word for an
association of merchants; and “Louecope-free” is to be freed
from privileged taxation by this body.

L.B.L.

Smelling of the Lamp (No. 21. p. 335.).—”X.”
will find the expression
Ιλλυχνιων
οζειν attributed to Pytheas by
Plutarch (Vit. Demosth., c. 8.).

J.E.B. MAYOR.

Anglo-Saxon MS. of Orosius (No. 20. p.
313.).—It may gratify Mr. Singer to be informed that the
Lauderdale MS., formerly in the library at Ham House, is now
preserved, with several other
{372} valuable manuscripts and
books, in the library at Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, the seat
of the Tollemache family.

M.

Golden Frog.—Ingenious as is the suggestion of
“R.R.” (No. 18. p. 282.), that Sir John Poley stuck a golden
frog in his ear from his affection for tadpoles, I think
“R.R.’s” “Rowley Poley” may be dismissed with the
“gammon and spinach” of the amorous frog to which he
alludes.

Conceiving that the origin of so singular a badge could
hardly fail to be commemorated by some tradition in the family,
I have made inquiry of one of Sir John Poley’s descendants, and
I regret to hear from him that “they have no authentic
tradition respecting it, but that they have always believed
that it had some connection with the service Sir John rendered
in the Low Countries, where he distinguished himself much by
his military achievements.” To the Low Countries, then, the
land of frogs, we must turn for the solution of the enigma.

Gastras.

Cambridge, March 9.

Sword of Charles I.—Mr. Planché inquires
(No. 12. p. 183.), “When did the real sword of Charles the
First’s time, which, but a few years back, hung at the side of
that monarch’s equestrian figure at Charing Cross,
disappear?”—It disappeared about the time of the
coronation of Her present Majesty, when some scaffolding was
erected about the statue, which afforded great facilities for
removing the rapier (for such it was); and I always understood
it found its way, by some means or other, to the Museum, so
called, of the notoriously frolicsome Captain D——,
where, in company with the wand of the Great Wizard of the
North, and other well-known articles, it was carefully labelled
and numbered, and a little account appended of the
circumstances of its acquisition and removal.

John Street.

[Surely then Burke was right, and the “Age of
Chivalry is past!”—Otherwise the idea of disarming a
statue would never have entered the head of any Man of
Arms, even in his most frolicsome of moods.]

John Bull.—Vertue MSS.—I always
fancied that the familiar name for our countrymen, about the
origin of which “R.F.H.” inquires (No. 21. p. 336.), was
adopted from Swift’s History of John Bull, first printed
in 1712; but I have no authority for saying so.

If the Vertue MSS. alluded to (No. 20. p. 319.) were ever
returned by Mr. Steevens to Dr. Rawlinson, they may be in the
Bodleian Library, to which the Doctor left all his collections,
including a large mass of papers purchased by him long after
Pepys’ death, as he described it, “Thus et odores
vendentibus.”

These “Pepys papers,” as far as I can recollect, were
very voluminous, and relating to all sorts of subjects; but I
saw them in 1824, and had only then time to examine and extract
for publication portions of the correspondence.

Braybrooke.

Audley End, March 25.

Vertue’s Manuscripts.—The MS. quoted under this
title by Malone is printed entire, or rather all of it which
refers to plays, by Mr. Peter Cunningham, in the Papers of
the Shakspeare Society, vol. ii. p. 123., from an
interleaved copy of Langbaine. Since the publication of that
paper, the entries relating to Shakspeare’s plays have been
given from the original MS. in the Bodleian Library, in
Halliwell’s Life of Shakspeare, p. 272.

S.L.

Vertue’s MSS. (No. 20. p. 319.) were in Horace
Walpole’s possession, bought by him, I think, of Vertue’s
widow; and his Anecdotes of Painting were chiefly
composed from them, as he states, with great modesty, in his
dedication and his preface. I do not see in the Strawberry-Hill
Catalogue any notice of “Vertue’s MSS.,” though some vols. of
his collection of engravings were sold.

C.

Lines attributed to Tom Brown.—In a book
entitled Liber Facetiarum, being a Collection of curious and
interesting Anecdotes, published at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, by
D. Akenhead & Sons, 1809, the passage attributed to Tom
Brown by your correspondent “J.T.” is given to Zacharias
Boyd.

The only reference given as authority for the account is the
initials H.B.

“Zacharias Boyd, whose bust is to be seen over the
entrance to the Royal College in Glasgow, while Professor
in that university, translated the Old and New Testament
into Scotch Metre; and, from a laudable zeal to disseminate
religious knowledge among the lower classes of the
community, is said to have left a very considerable sum to
defray the expense of the said work, which, however, his
executors never printed.”

After a few specimens, the account goes on

“But the highest flight of his Muse appears in the
following beautiful Alexandrine:

Speaking of Zachariah Boyd, Granger says, (vol. ii. p.
379.):

“His translation of the Scripture in such uncouth verse
as to amount to burlesque, has been often quoted, and the
just fame of a benefactor to learning has been obscured by
that cloud of miserable rhymes. Candour will smile at the
foible, but applaud the man.

“Macure, in his account of Glasgow, p. 223., informs us
he lived in the reign of Charles I.”

H.I.

Sheffield, March 9.
1850.

Passage in Frith’s Works (No. 20. p. 319).—This
passage should be read, as I suppose, “Ab inferiori ad suum
superius confuse distribui.”

It means that there would be confusion, if what is said
distributively or universally of the lower, should be applied
distributively or universally to the higher; or, in other
words, if what is said universally of a species, should be
applied universally to the genus that contains that and other
species: e.g., properties that are universally found in
the human species will not be found universally in the genus
Mammalis, and universal properties of Mammalia wil not be
universal over the animal kingdom.

T.J.

Martins, the Louvain Printer.—Your
correspondent “W.” (No. 12. p. 185.) is informed, that in
Falkenstein’s Geschichte der Buchdrucherkunst (Leipzig,
1840, p. 257.), Theoderich Martens, printer in Louvain and
Antwerp, is twice mentioned. I have no doubt but this is the
correct German form of the name. Mertens, by which he was also
known, may very possibly be the Flemish form. His Christian
name was also written Dierik, a short form of Dietrich, which,
in its turn, is the same as Theodorich.

NORTHMAN.

Master of the Revels.—”DR. RIMBAULT” states
(No. 14. p. 219.), that Solomon Dayrolle was appointed Master
of the Revels in 1744, but does not know the date of his
decease. It may be unknown to Dr. Rimbault, that Solomon
Dayrolles was an intimate friend and correspondent of
the great Lord Chesterfield: the correspondence continues from
1748 to 1755 in the selection of Chesterfield’s letters to
which I am referring.

Dayrolles, during all that period, held a diplomatic
appointment from this country at the Hague. See Lord
Chesterfield’s letter to him of the 22d Feb. 1748, where Lord
C. suggests that by being cautious he (Dayrolles) may be put
en train d’être Monsieur l’Envoye.

In several of the letters Chesterfield warmly and familiarly
commends his hopeful son, Mr. Stanhope, to the care and
attention of Dayrolles.

I have not been able to ascertain when Dayrolles died, but
the above may lead to the discovery.

W.H. LAMMIN.

French Maxim.—The French saying quoted by
“R.V.” is the 223rd of Les Réflexions morales du Duc
de la Rochefoucauld (Pougin, Paris, 1839). I feel great
pleasure in being able to answer your correspondent’s query, as
I hope that my reply may be the means of introducing to his
notice one of the most delightful authors that has ever yet
written: one who deserves far more attention than he appears to
receive from general readers in this degenerate age, and from
whom many of his literary successors have borrowed some of
their brightest thoughts. I need not go far for an
illustration:

is merely a condensation of,

“Louer les princes des vertus qu’ils n’ont pas, c’est
leur dire impunément des injures.”—La
Rochefoucauld, Max. 327.

I believe that Pope marks it as a translation—a
borrowed thought—not as a quotation. He has just
before used the words “your Majesty;” and I think the word
“scandal” is employed “consulto,” and alludes to
the offence known in English law as “scandalum magnatum.” Your
correspondent will, of course, read the work in the original;
in fact, he must do so per force. A good
translation of Les Maximes is still a desideratum in
English literature. I have not yet seen one that could lay
claim even to the meagre title of mediocrity; although I have
spared neither time nor pains in the search. Should any of your
readers have been more fortunate, I shall feel obliged by their
referring me to it.

MELANION.

Endeavour.—I have just found the following
instance of “endeavour” used as an active verb, in Dryden’s
translation of Maimbourg’s History of the League,
1684.

“On the one side the majestique House of Bourbon,… and
on the other side, that of two eminent families which
endeavour’d their own advancement by its destruction; the
one is already debas’d to the lowest degree, and the other
almost reduc’d to nothing.” —p. 3.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

MISCELLANIES.

Epigram by La Monnoye.—It has been ingeniously
said, that “Life is an epigram, of which death is the point.”
Alas for human nature! good points are rare; and no wonder,
according to this wicked, but witty,

S.W.S.

Mickleham, Dec. 10. 1849.

Spur Money.—Two or three years since, a party
of sappers and miners was stationed at Peterborough, engaged in
the trigonometrical survey, when the officer entered the
cathedral with his spurs on, and was immediately beset by the
choristers, who demanded money of him for treading the sacred
floor with armed heels. Does any one know the origin of this
singular custom? I inquired of some of the dignitaries of the
Cathedral, but they were not aware even of its existence. The
boys, however, have more tenacious memories, at least where
their interest is concerned; but we must not look to them for
the origin of a {374} custom which appears to have
long existed. In the Memorials of John Ray, published
by the Ray Society, p. 131., there is the following entry in
his second Itinerary:—

“July the 26th, 1661, we began our journey northwards
from Cambridge, and that day, passing through Huntingdon
and Stilton, we rode as far as Peterborough twenty-five
miles. There I first heard the Cathedral service. The
choristers made us pay money for coming into the choir with
our spurs on.”

East Winch.

[The following note from The Book of the
Court will serve to illustrate the curious custom referred
to by our correspondent:

“In The Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry
VIII. edited by Sir Harris Nicolas, there occur several
entries of payments made to the choristers of Windsor ‘in
rewarde for the king’s spurs’; which the editor supposes to
mean ‘money paid to redeem the king’s spurs, which had become
the fee of the choristers at Windsor, perhaps at installations,
or at the annual celebration of St. George’s feast.’ No notice
of the subject occurs in Ashmole’s or Anstis’s History of
the Order of the Garter. Mr. Markland, quoting a note to
Gifford’s edition of Ben Jonson, vol. ii. p. 49., says, ‘In the
time of Ben Jonson, in consequence of the interruptions to
Divine Service occasioned by the ringing of the spurs worn by
persons walking and transacting business in cathedrals, and
especially in St. Paul’s, a small fine was imposed on them,
called “spur-money,” the exaction of which was committed to the
beadles and singing-boys.’ This practice, and to which,
probably, the items in Henry’s household-book bear reference,
still obtains, or, at least, did till very lately, in the
Chapel Royal and other choirs. Our informant himself claimed
the penalty, in Westminster Abbey, from Dr. Fisher, Bishop of
Rochester, and received from him an eighteenpenny bank token as
the fine. He likewise claimed the penalty from the King of
Hanover (then Duke of Cumberland), for entering the choir of
the Abbey in his spurs. But His Royal Highness, who had been
installed there, excused himself with great readiness, pleading
‘his right to wear his spurs in that church, inasmuch as it was
the place where they were first put on him!’—See further,
European Mag., vol. iii. p. 16.”]

MINIMUM DE MALIS.

(From the Latin of Buchanan.)

Rufus.

Epigram on Louis XIV.—I find the following
epigram among some old papers. The emperor would be Leopold I.,
the king Louis XIV.

Epigram by the Emperor, 1666, and the King of
France.

J.H.L.

Macaulay’s Young Levite.—I met, the other day
with a rather curious confirmation of a passage in Macaulay’s
History of England, which has been more assailed perhaps
than any other.

In his character of the clergy, Macaulay says, they
frequently married domestics and retainers of great
houses—a statement which has grievously excited the wrath
of Mr. Babington and other champions. In a little book, once
very popular, first published in 1628, with the title
Microcosmographie, or a Piece of the World discovered,
and which is known to have been written by John Earle, after
the Restoration Bishop of Worcester and then of Salisbury, is
the following passage. It occurs in what the author calls a
character of “a young raw preacher.”

“You shall know him by his narrow velvet cape and serge
facing, and his ruffe, next his hire, the shortest thing
about him…. His friends, and much painefulnesse, may
preferre him to thirtie pounds a yeere, and this meanes, to
a chamber-maide: with whom we leave him now in the bonds of
wedlocke. Next Sunday you shall have him againe.”

The same little book contains many very curious and valuable
illustrations of contemporary manners, especially in the
universities.

That the usage Macaulay refers to was not uncommon, we find
from a passage in the Woman-Hater, by Beaumont and
Fletcher (1607), Act III. Sc. 3.

Lazarillo says,

I.T.

Trin. Coll. Camb., March 16.
1850.

St. Martin’s Lane.—The first building leases of
St. Martin’s Lane and the adjacent courts accidentally came
under my notice lately. They are dated in 1635 and 1636, and
were granted by the then Earl of Bedford.

Arun.

CHARLES DEERING, M.D.

“Author of the Catalogue of Plants in the neighbourhood of
Nottingham. ‘Catalogus Stirpium, &c., or a Catalogue of
Plants naturally growing and commonly cultivated in divers
parts of England, and especially about Nottingham,’ 8vo.
Nottingh. 1738.

“He was in the suite of the English ambassador to Russia,
returned and practised physic in London married unfortunately,
buried his wife, and then went to Nottingham, where he lived
several years. During his abode there he wrote a small
Treatise on the Small Pocks, this Catalogue of
Plants, and the History of Nottingham, the materials
for which John Plumtre, Esq. of Nottingham, was so obliging as
to assist him with. He also was paid 40l. by a London
bookseller for adding 20,000 words to an English dictionary. He
was master of seven languages, and in 1746 he was favoured with
a commission in the Nottinghamshire Foot, raised at that time.
Soon after died, and was buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard.

“William Ayscough, father of the printer of this
Catalogus Stirpium (G. Ayscough), in 1710, first
introduced the art of printing at Nottingham.

“Mr. White was the same year the first printer at
Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and Mr. Dicey at
Northampton.”—MS. Note in the Copy of the Cat.
Stirpium, in the Library of the British Museum.

MISCELLANEOUS.

NOTES ON BOOKS, CATALOGUES, SALES, ETC.

Our advertising columns already show some of the good
results of the Exhibition of the Works of Ancient and
Mediæval Art. Mr. Williams announced last week his
Historic Reliques, to be etched by himself. Mr. Cundall
has issued proposals for Choice Examples of Art
Workmanship; and, lastly, we hear that an Illustrated
Catalogue of the Exhibition, prepared by Mr. Franks, the
zealous Honorary Secretary of the Committee, and so arranged as
to form a History of Art, may be expected. We mention
these for the purpose of inviting our friends to contribute to
the several editors such information as they may think likely
to increase the value of the respective works.

The second edition of our able correspondent, Mr. Peter
Cunningham’s Handbook of London, is on the eve of
publication.

There are few of our readers but will be glad to learn from
the announcement in a previous column, that the edition of the
Wickliffite Versions of the Scriptures, upon which Sir
Frederick Madden and his fellow labourers have been engaged for
a period of twenty years, is just completed. It forms, we
believe, three quarto volumes.

Messrs. Puttick and Simpson lately disposed of a most select
and interesting collection of autograph letters. We
unfortunately did not receive the catalogue in time to notice
it, which we the more regret, because, like all their
catalogues of autographs, it was drawn up with amateur-like
intelligence and care; so as to make it worth preserving as a
valuable record of materials for our history and biography.

We have received the following Catalogues of
Books:—No. XXV. of Thomas Cole’s (15. Great Turnstile):
No. 2. for 1850, of William Heath’s (29½ Lincoln’s Inn
Fields); and No. 15. of Bernard Quarritch’s (16. Castle Street,
Leicester Square) Catalogue of Oriental and Foreign Books.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE

(In continuation of Lists in former Nos.)

Mills, Rev. Isaac, of Highcleer—Account of the Life
and Conversation of, with a Sermon, 8vo., 1721.

Mykur Hazem, by Marcus, London, 1846.

Poems by a Bornnatural, 1849.

Odd Volumes.

Proceedings of the Philological Society. Vol. I.

Richardson’s Correspondence, Vol. I. of the Six-Volume
Ed.

Todd’s Johnson’s Dictionary, 4to., 1819. (Part X. containing
Title, Preface, &c.)

Partington’s British Cyclopædia—That portion of
Natural History which follows Vol. I.

*** 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.

Burning for Treason.—Can the Correspondent who
furnished us with a curious Note upon this subject favour us
with a copy of it, the original having been accidentally
mislaid?

We are again compelled, from want of space, to omit many
curious and interesting articles; and, after this statement,
must beg our kind friends at Leeds, Brompton, &c., who
complain of delay in the insertion of their communications, to
do us the favour to refer to the notice on this very subject
which appeared in our early numbers.

Notes and Queries may be procured by the Trade at noon on
Friday: so that our country Subscribers ought to experience no
difficulty in receiving it regularly. Many of the country
Booksellers are probably not yet aware of this arrangement,
which enables them to receive Copies in their Saturday parcels.
Part V. is now ready.

MILLER’S CATALOGUE OF ANCIENT AND MODERN BOOKS.—NUMBER
FOUR is ready this day, and can be had Gratis, and sent, if
required, Postage Free. Address, John Miller, 43, Chandos
Street, Trafalgar Square. This List embraces numerous valuable
and interesting Books on English Poetry, the Drama, History,
Biography, Voyages and Travels, &c., with the works of a
few of the best Continental writers, a selection of Pictorial
Books of Scenery, Costume, Topography, and Drawing-room Table
Books.

Also, on forwarding Four Postage Stamps, JOHN MILLER’S
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS FOR THE PAST QUARTER may be had stitched in
a wrapper, with a Table of Contents, showing at one glance the
range of subjects embraced, amongst which may be enumerated the
following, viz., America, Angling, Banking and Currency, Coins,
Dictionaries, Drawing-books, Games, Sports, &c., Heraldry,
Genealogy and Family History, Ireland, its History and
Literature, Kent, its History and Topography, Law, Music, its
History and Theory, Painting and the Fine Arts, Shakspeariana,
and a variety of other branches of Literature comprised in
upwards of 1500 articles.

THE ANGLO-SAXON, for April, Price 2s. 6d. or
3s. post-free, contains England and her Colonies: County
Colonisation, with Maps—English Church
Music—Christian Architecture—London: a Poem, Essay
II.—The Alfred Medals: Three Sonnets, by Martin F.
Tupper—Anglo-Saxon Literature: the Jubilee Edition of
King Alfred’s Works, with Specimens and
Translations—Wives and Mothers—Anglo-Saxon
Colonies: Victoria, Cooksland, Port Essington,
(Papua—Timor)—Original Ballads.

The ANGLO-SAXON for 1849 forms a handsome volume, price One
Guinea.

Published every Saturday, price 3d., or stamped,
4d., also in Monthly Parts. Part V. (for March), price
1s. 3d., now ready.

NOTES AND QUERIES: a Medium of Inter-communication for
Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, &c.

The attention of Publishers and Booksellers is particularly
requested to this Periodical as a medium for advertising. It
contains communications from the most eminent Literary Men, and
is circulated largely amongst the best class of
book-buyers.

In addition to the valuable matter which will be found in
its columns, it contains notices of Book Sales, Booksellers’
Catalogues, and Lists of Books wanted to
purchase,—features which it is believed will be found
valuable to Dealers in Old Books, as well as useful to
Purchasers.

***Advertisements must be sent by the Wednesday previous to
the Saturday on which they are intended to appear; Notes and
Queries being issued to the Trade on Friday afternoon.

“As good a first number as we remember to have seen. The
Editor exhibits a phalanx of eminent assistants. * * There
can be no doubt of the value of a Literary Medium of this
peculiar kind.”—Athenæum.

“We like the plan much. * * We wish success to a
publication which promises to be agreeable, intelligent,
and useful.”—Literary Gazette.

“We feel great pleasure in welcoming into the literary
world this publication, which promises to fill up a void
that has constantly been lamented by every person engaged
in any particular branch of study that required experience
and research. * * It is a publication in which all literary
persons must feel a deep interest, and that has our
heartiest wishes for its success.”—Morning
Herald.

“This is a new periodical, with a new idea, and one that
deserves and will be sure to receive encouragement amongst
scholars and readers really deserving that appellation. * *
It is a capital idea; and every one who makes Notes or has
Queries should buy it and contribute to
it.”—Weekly News.

“That valuable publication The Notes and Queries, so
auspiciously commenced.”—New Bell’s
Messenger.

“With whomsoever the idea of publishing this useful and
interesting periodical first originated, that person is
entitled to the thanks of every author, antiquary, and
scholar, in the United Kingdom. * * We recommend, in all
sincerity, The Notes and Queries to the attention of lovers
of literature in general.”—Morning Post.

RELIQUES OF ANCIENT ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE, from Drawings by
John Johnson, Architect, F.S.A., Lithographed by Alfred
Newman.

Contents, Part 13:—Hawton Church; Notts.—St.
Mary’s, Stamford—Aldwinkle, All Saints,
Northamptonshire-Wellingborough Church, Northamptonshire.

Part 14—Skelton Church, from the South-East and
South-West—Rye House, Herts.—Holbeach Church,
Lincolnshire.

This Work is intended to embrace a series of examples of
Ecclesiastical, Collegiate, and Domestic Architecture. It will
be completed in Twenty Monthly Parts, price 3s. each,
tinted 4s.

THE FOLK-LORE OF ENGLAND. By William J. Thoms, F.S.A.,
Secretary of the Camden Society, Editor of “Early Prose
Romances,” “Lays and Legends of all Nations,” &c. One
object of the present work is to furnish new contributions to
the History of our National Folk-Lore; and especially some of
the more striking illustrations of the subject to be found in
the Writings of Jacob Grimm and other Continental
Antiquaries.

Communications of inedited Legends, Notices of remarkable
Customs and Popular Observances, Rhyming Charms, &c. are
earnestly solicited, and will be thankfully acknowledged by the
Editor. They may be addressed to the care of Mr. Bell, Office
of “Notes and Queries,” 186. Fleet Street.

Footnote
1:(return)

The best account, because the most consistent and
intelligible, of the Greek arithmetic, is that by Delambre,
affixed to Peyraud’s edition of Archimedes.

Footnote
2:(return)

At a period of leisure I may be tempted to send you a
few extracts, somewhat curious, from some of the papers of
Mr. Strachey in my possession.

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, April 6, 1850.