Vol. III.—No. 87.
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION
FOR
LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

VOL. III.—No. 87.

SATURDAY, JUNE 28. 1851.

Price Threepence.   Stamped Edition 4d.

CONTENTS.

NOTES:—

QUERIES:—

REPLIES:—

MISCELLANEOUS:—

ON THE PROPOSED SCHEME FOR PRESERVING A RECORD OF EXISTING MONUMENTS.

The following letters, which we have received since we last
brought the proposed scheme for preserving a record of existing
monuments under the notice of our readers, afford a striking
proof how widely the interest in the subject is extending.

We print them now, partly because the Number of “NOTES
AND QUERIES” now in the reader’s hands completes the present volume,
and it is desirable that the various communications upon this
point should, as far as possible, be found together; and partly
because the time is at hand when many of our readers may have the
opportunity, during their summer excursions, of following out the
plan described by our valued
correspondent YORK HERALD in the
following letter:—

References to this subject having appeared in your valuable miscellany,
I am unwilling to lose an opportunity it affords me of throwing in my
mite of contribution towards the means of preserving monumental
inscriptions. It may be better perhaps, to state the humble method I
adopt in attempting to rescue from oblivion those memorials of the dead,
than to suggest any. I avail myself of occasions, whenever I visit the
country, to take notes of monumental inscriptions in churches and other
places of sepulture; generally of all within the walls of the sacred
edifice, and those of the principal tombs in the surrounding graveyard.
Time very often will not allow me to take verbatim copies of
inscriptions; so I merely transcribe faithfully every date, genealogical
note, and prominent event recorded upon monuments; omitting all
circumlocution and mere eulogistical epitaphs. By this means, much time
and labour are saved, and much useful and valuable information is
secured. I should prefer taking exact copies, or even drawings of the
most remarkable monuments; but this would occupy much time, and narrow
the means of collecting; and by which I should have lost much that is
valuable and interesting; copies, howsoever much they would have been
desirable, would not possess the character of legal evidence. Thus, upon
mere incidental occasions, I have collected sepulchral memorials from
many churches in various parts of the country; and, in some instances,
all contained in the village church, and the adjacent burying-ground. I
have frequently found also that preserving an account of the relative
positions of gravestones is important; especially when groups of family
memorials occur in the same locality. I need scarcely add that I
preserve memoranda of all armorial insignia found upon tombs and
hatchments, forming a collection of arms borne by various families; and
whether they stand the test of authority or not, at all events such
information is useful.
[514]

What store of information might be obtained, by persons having leisure
and inclination to pursue such an object, by the simple means of an
ordinary pocket-memorandum-book!

THOMAS WILLIAM KING.

Our next communication, from the REV. CANON RAINES, is valuable,
as showing that unless some limit is placed to the antiquarian
ardour of those who would “collect and record every existing
monumental inscription,” the historical and genealogical inquirer
will be embarrassed by a mass of materials in which, like
Gratiano’s reasons, the two grains of wheat will be hid in two
bushels of chaff—a mass, indeed, which, from its extent, would
require to be deposited with the Registrar-General, and arranged
by the practised hands of his official staff.

MR. DUNKIN’S proposed record of existing monuments will be, if carried
into effect, a very useful contribution to genealogists. Many years
since I transcribed all the inscriptions inside the parish church of
Rochdale, in Lancashire; but I never contemplated the possibility of any
antiquary having the ardour to undertake a similar task outside. There
are many thousands of gravestones, covering some acres; and I have
understood that when one side of a grave-stone has been covered with
inscriptions, the stone has been turned upside down, and the sculptor
has again commenced his endless work on the smooth surface. In a great
majority of these frail records nothing would be obtained which the
parish register could not supply.

F. R. RAINES.

Milnrow Parsonage, Rochdale, June 4.

Our correspondent from Bruges furnishes, like
YORK HERALD,
valuable evidence as to what individual exertion may accomplish;
and we are sure, that if he will take the trouble of securing,
while he has the opportunity, a copy of the inscriptions in the
cemetery allotted to the English at Bruges, confining himself
merely to the names, dates, and genealogical information
contained in them, and will then deposit his collections either
in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, or the Manuscript
Department of the British Museum, he will not only be setting a
good example to all antiquaries who may reside in any of the
cities of the Continent, but earn for himself hereafter the
thanks of many an anxious inquirer after genealogical truth.

The communications made in your interesting “NOTES AND QUERIES ” have
occasioned me much gratification, and if it be in my power to contribute
but a mite to this rich treasury of information, I should consider it a
privilege to be allowed to do so. To show that I am actuated by a
kindred spirit, permit me to inform you, that a few years ago I
undertook the formation of a desultory collection of “memorials of the
ancient dead,” and with that view corresponded with several hundred
clergymen, inviting their local assistance; and I need scarcely add that
a prompt and courteous attention to my wishes, encouraged my labours,
and accomplished (so far as time and opportunity permitted) my object.
It will be obvious that I had no intention of aiming at specimens in the
higher department of monumental art, which have been so ably executed by
Gough, Stothard, Neale, and others, but to content myself with those
humbler efforts of skill which lay neglected and sometimes buried in
holes and corners in many a rural church in remote districts.

The result has put me in possession of a collection of about three
hundred illustrations, consisting of pen-and-ink outlines, pencil
sketches, Indian ink drawings, and some more highly finished paintings
in water colour; and in addition to these, upwards of two hundred
autograph letters from clergymen, many of which contain not only
inscriptions, but interesting parochial and topographical information.

The illustrations I have arranged (as well as I am able) in centuries,
commencing with the plain cope lid of the eleventh century, according to
the plan adopted by M. H. Bloxam, Esq., in his admirable treatise
modestly intitled A Glimpse at the Monumental Architecture and
Sculpture of Great Britain. The volume made for their reception is an
atlas-folio, guarded; on one leaf is inserted the drawing, on the other
the letter (if any) which accompanied it, to which are added a few brief
memoranda of my own: it is still, however, in an unfinished state.

The book is a very cumbrous one, so that its transmission would be no
very easy task; if, however, it should be thought desirable, and the
practicability explained, I shall have much pleasure in placing its
contents at the disposal of any one engaged in following out the plan
proposed.

Allow me to add that, about a mile distant from the quaint and
interesting city from whence this “note” is dated (and in which I have
resided for some time), we come to the cemetery, a portion of which is
allotted to the interment of those English residents, or visitors, who
may have terminated their earthly career at this place. Should a copy of
the inscriptions in this receptacle (which are numerous) be acceptable,
I will endeavour to procure one; but in this case I should be glad to
know whether these extracts should be confined to names, dates, and
genealogical information only, or include the various tributes of
affection or of friendship, by which they are generally accompanied.

M. W. B.

Bruges.
[515]

Notes.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. IX.
The Astronomical Evidence of the True Date of the Canterbury
Pilgrimage.

As a conclusion to my investigation of this subject, I wish to place
upon record the astronomical results on which I have relied in the
course of my observations; in order that their correctness may be open
to challenge, and that each reader may compare the actual phenomena,
rigidly ascertained with all the helps that modern science affords, with
the several approximations arrived at by Chaucer. And when it is
recollected that some at least of the facts recorded by him must have
been theoretical—incapable of the test of actual observation—it must
be admitted that his near approach to truth is remarkable: not the less
so that his ideas on some points were certainly erroneous; as, for
example, his adoption, in the Treatise on the Astrolabe, of Ptolemy’s
determination of the obliquity of the ecliptic in preference to the more
correct value assigned to it by the Arabians of the middle ages.

Assuming that the true date intended by Chaucer was Saturday the 18th of
April, 1388, the following particulars of that day are those which have
reference to his description:—

It will be seen that, if the place here assigned to the moon be correct,
Chaucer could not have described it more appropriately than by the
phrase “In méné Libra:” providing (of which there can be little doubt)
that he used those words as synonymous with “in hedde of Libra.” “Hedde
of Libra,” “hedde of Aries,” are expressions constantly used by him to
describe the equinoctial points; and the analogy that exists between
“head,” in the sense head-land or promontory, as, for example, “Orme’s
Head,” “Holyhead,” “Lizard Head,” and the like; and “menez” in the same
sense, need not be further insisted upon. Evidence fully sufficient to
justify a much less obvious inference has been already produced, and I
am enabled to strengthen it still further by the following reference,
for which I am indebted to a private communication from H. B. C.

“MENEZ, s. m. Grande masse de terre, ou de roche, fort élevée
au-dessus du sol de la terre.

“MEAN, ou MAEN, s. m. Pierre, corps dur et solide qui se forme
dans la terre.

“(En Treguier et Cornouailes), MÉNÉ.”

(Gonidec, Dictionnaire Celto-Breton. Angoulême, 1821.)

This last reference is doubly valuable, in referring the word méné to
the very neighbourhood of the scene of Chaucer’s “Frankleine’s Tale,”
and in dispensing with the terminal letter z, thereby giving us the
verbum ipsissimum used by Chaucer.

I must not be understood as entertaining the opinion that Chaucer’s
knowledge of astronomy—although undoubtedly great, considering the age
in which he lived and the nature of his pursuits—would have enabled him
to determine the moon’s true place, with such correctness, wholly from
theory; on the contrary, I look upon it as more probably the result of
real observation at the time named, and, as such, adding another link to
the chain of presumptive evidence that renders it more probable that
Chaucer wrote the prologues to his Canterbury Tales more as a
narration (with some embellishments) of events that really took place,
than that they were altogether the work of his imagination.

A. E. B.

Leeds, June, 1851.

CURIOUS EPIGRAMS ON OLIVER CROMWELL.

Looking carefully over a curious copy of the Flagellum, or the Life and
Death, Birth and Buriall of O. Cromwell, the late Usurper, printed for
Randal Taylor, 1672, I found on the back of the title the following
epigrams, written in a handwriting and ink corresponding to the date of
the book (which, by the way, is a late edition of the “little brown
lying book,” by Heath, which Carlyle notices): as they are curious and
worth preserving, and I believe not to be met with elsewhere, I presume
they may be of some interest to your readers. The book is also full of
MS. marginal notes and remarks, evidently by some red-hot royalist,
which are also curious in themselves, and with a selection of which I
may some day trouble you should you wish it.
[516]

In regard to the little controversy which I started regarding Bunyan’s
claim to be author of the Visions of Heaven and Hell, I hope soon to
decide it, as I am on the scent of a copy of, I believe, a first
edition, which does not claim him for author.

JAMES FRISWELL.

12. Brooke Street, Holborn.

FOLK LORE.

Popular Superstitions in Lancashire.

—That a man must never “go a
courting” on a Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love
on that day, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on
pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c., unless he can rid himself of his
tormentors by giving them money to drink with.

That hooping-cough will never be taken by any child which has ridden
upon a bear. While bear baiting was in fashion, great part of the
owner’s profits arose from the money given by parents whose children had
had a ride. The writer knows of cases in which the charm is said
certainly to have been effectual.

That hooping-cough may be cured by tying a hairy caterpillar in a small
bag round the child’s neck, and as the caterpillar dies the cough goes.

That Good Friday is the best day of all the year to begin weaning
children, which ought if possible to be put off till that day; and a
strong hope is sometimes entertained that a very cross child will “be
better” after it has been christened.

That May cats are unlucky, and will suck the breath of children.

That crickets are lucky about a house, and will do no harm to those who
use them well; but that they eat holes in the worsted stockings of such
members of the family as kill them. I was assured of this on the
experience of a respectable farmer’s family.

The belief in ghosts, or bogards, as they are termed, is universal.

In my neighbourhood I hardly know a dell where a running stream crosses
a road by a small bridge or stone plat, where there is not frectnin
(frightening) to be expected. Wells, ponds, gates, &c., have often this
bad repute. I have heard of a calf with eyes like a saucer, a woman
without a head, a white greyhound, a column of white foam like a large
sugar-loaf in the midst of a pond, a group of little cats, &c., &c., as
the shape of the bogard, and sometimes a lady who jumped behind hapless
passengers on horseback. It is supposed that a Romish priest can lay
them, and that it is best to cheat them to consent to being laid while
hollies are green. Hollies being evergreens, the ghosts can reappear no
more.

P. P.

Folk lore in Lancashire
(Vol. iii., p. 55.).

—Most of, if not all the
instances mentioned under this head by
MR. WILKINSON are, as might be
expected, current also in the adjacent district of the West Riding of
Yorkshire; and, by his leave, I will add a few more, which are familiar
to me:

1. If a cock near the door crows with his face towards it, it is a sure
prediction of the arrival of a stranger.

2. If the cat frisks about the house in an unusually lively manner,
windy or stormy weather is approaching.

3. If a dog howls under a window at night, a death will shortly happen
in that house.

4. If a female be the first to enter a house on Christmas or New
Year’s day, she brings ill luck to that house for the coming year.

5. For hooping-cough, pass the child nine times over the back and under
the belly of an ass. (This ceremony I once witnessed, but cannot vouch
for its having had the desired effect.)

6. For warts, rub them with a cinder, and this tied up in paper and
dropped where four roads meet, will transfer the warts to whoever opens
the packet.

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

Lancashire Customs.

—The curfew is continued in many of the villages,
and until the last ten or fifteen years it was usual at a Roman Catholic
funeral to ring a merry peal on the bells as soon as the interment was
over. The Roman Catholics seem now to have discontinued this practice.

Carol singing and hand-bell ringing prevail at Christmas, and troops of
men and children calling
[517]
themselves pace eggers, go about in
Passion Week, and especially Good Friday, as mummers in the south of
England do at Christmas. Large tallow candles may often be seen
decorated with evergreens, hanging up in the houses of the poor at
Christmas time.

P. P.

Od.

—One of the experiments by which the existence of this agency is
tested, consists in attaching a horsehair to the first joint of the
forefinger, and suspending to it a smooth gold ring. When the elbow is
rested on the table, and the finger held in a horizontal position, the
ring begins to oscillate in the plane of the direction of the finger;
but if a female takes hold of the left hand of the person thus
experimenting, the ring begins forthwith to oscillate in a plane at
right angles to that of its former direction. I have never tried the
experiment, for the simple reason that I have not been able to prevail
upon any married lady of my acquaintance to lend me her wedding-ring for
the purpose; and even if I had found it come true, I should still doubt
whether the motion were not owing to the pulsations of the finger veins;
but whatever be the cause, the fact is not new. My father recently told
me, that in his boyhood he had often seen it tried as a charm. For this
purpose it is essential, as may be supposed, that the ring be a
wedding-ring, and of course the lady towards whom it oscillates is set
down as the future spouse of the gentleman experimenting.

R. D. H.

Pigeons.

—The popular belief, that a person cannot die with his head
resting on a pillow containing pigeons’ feathers, is well known; but the
following will probably be as new to many of your readers as it was to
myself. On applying the other day to a highly respectable farmer’s wife
to know if she had any pigeons ready to eat, as a sick person had
expressed a longing for one, she said, “Ah! poor fellow! is he so far
gone? A pigeon is generally almost the last thing they want; I have
supplied many a one for the like purpose.”

J. EASTWOOD.

Minor Notes.

Lord Nelson’s Dress and Sword at Trafalgar.

—Perhaps you may think it
worth while to preserve a note written by the late Rev. Dr. Scott on the
498th page of the second volume of Harrison’s Life of Lord Nelson, in
contradiction of a bombastic description therein given of the admiral’s
dress and appearance at the battle of Trafalgar.

“This is wrong, he wore the same coat he did the day before; nor
was there the smallest alteration in his dress whatsoever from
other days. In this action he had not his sword with him on deck,
which in other actions he had always carried.—A. J. Scott.“

Dr. Scott was the chaplain and friend in whose arms Lord Nelson died.

When the late Sir N. Harris Nicolas was engaged in a controversy in The
Times, respecting the sale of Lord Nelson’s sword, I sent him a copy of
the above note, and told him I had heard Dr. Scott say that “the sword
was left hanging in the admiral’s cabin.” It was not found necessary to
make use of this testimony, as the dispute had subsided.

ALFRED GATTY.

Crucifix of Mary Queen of Scots.

—The crucifix that belonged to this
unfortunate queen, and which she is said to have held in her hands on
the scaffold, is still preserved with great care by its present owners
(a titled family in the neighbourhood of Winchester), and at whose seat
I have frequently seen it. If I mistake not, the figure of our Saviour
is of ivory, and the cross of ebony.

THE WHITE ROSE.

Jonah and the Whale.

—In No. 76., p. 275., MR. GALLATLY calls
attention to the popular error in misquoting the expression from
Genesis: “In the sweat of thy face,” &c. There is another popular error
which may not be known to some of your correspondents: it is generally
supposed that Jonah is recorded in the book bearing his name as having
been swallowed by a whale,—this is quite an error. The expressions is
“a great fish,” and no such word as whale occurs in the entire “Book
of Jonah.”

E. J. K.

Anachronisms of Painters.

—I send you a further addition to the
“Anachronisms of Painters,” mentioned in Vol. iii., p. 369., and, like
them, not in D’Israeli’s list.

My father (R. Robinson, of the Heath House, Wombourne) has in his
collection a picture by Steenwyk, of the “Woman taken in Adultery,” in
which our Lord is made to write in Dutch! The scene also takes place
in a church of the architecture of the thirteenth century!

G. T. R.

Wombourne, near Wolverhampton.

Queries.

Minor Queries.

Rifles.

—”We make the best rifles, and you follow us,” said the
exhibitor of Colt’s revolvers, in my hearing, with a most satisfied
assurance, in a way “particularly communicative and easy,” as The
Times of the 9th of June says of his general manner. I am always
desirous of information, but desire the highest authority and evidence
before I believe. I would therefore ask the opinion of all experienced
sportsmen, such as Mr. Gordon Cumming, or of travelled officers of our
Rifle Brigade. I may say, that if the above unqualified remark came from
the mouth of an English maker, I should be equally incredulous. Is there
any use for which an American rifle is to be preferred to an English
one?
[518]

A. C.

Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls.

—Can any of your correspondents
give me any information respecting Stanbridge or Standbridge Earls, near
Romsey, Hants? There are the remains of a palace of the Saxon kings
still there, many parts of which are in good preservation, the chapel
being now used as the kitchen of Stanbridge House?

I have also read that one of the kings was buried in this chapel, and
afterwards removed to Winchester; but, having no note of the book,
should be glad to be referred to it.

COLLY WOBBLES.

Montchesni, or Muncey Family.

—Can any of your correspondents inform
us what has become of the Norman line of Montchesni, or Muncey, a family
which, like those of Maldebauge and De Loges, held baronial rank in
England for several generations after the Conquest, though it is now
forgotten?

P.

Epitaph on Voltaire.

—The late Sir F. Jeffrey, in a review of the
correspondence of Baron de Grimm, quotes an epitaph on Voltaire, which
he states to have been made by a lady of Lausanne:

Has the name of this lady been ascertained?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

Passage in Coleridge’s Table Talk.

—In Specimens of Coleridge’s Table
Talk (p. 165., Murray, 1851) appears the following:—

“So little did the early bishops and preachers think their
Christian faith wrapped up in, and solely to be learned from, the
New Testament, that I remember a letter from ——[1] to a friend
of his, a bishop in the East, in which he most evidently speaks
of the Christian scriptures as of works of which the bishop
knew little or nothing.”

[1] “I have lost the name which Mr. Coleridge
mentioned.”—Editor’s Note.

My object is to know how this blank is to be filled up—probably by the
name of some well-known father of the Church.

GEORGE LEWES.

Oxford, May 28.

“Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die.“

—These words are
given in Young’s Night Thoughts as a quotation. Can any of your
correspondents inform me whence they are taken?

E. J. K.

Etymology of Bicêtre.

—In a work entitled Description routière et
géographique de l’Empire Français, by R. V., Paris, 1813, the following
notice of Bicêtre occurs in vol. i. p. 84.:—

“On voit bientôt, à peu de distance à droite, d’abord dans un
bas-fond, arrosé par la petite rivière de Bièvre ou des Gobelins,
le village de Gentilly, qui se vante de quelqu’ancienneté, et
d’un Concile tenu en 767; ensuite, sur une éminence, au bout
d’une jolie avenue en berceau, l’hôpital de Bicêtre, qui, fondé
en 1290 par un Evêque de Paris, appartint depuis, dit-on, à un
Evêque de Wincester ou Wincestre, d’où par corruption on a fait
Bicêtre.

“C’est une chose assez piquante que cette étymologie anglaise.
Les auteurs qui nous l’apprennent eussent bien dû nous en
apprendre aussi les circonstances. J’ai consulté à cet égard tout
ce qui était à consulter, sans faire d’autre découverte que
quelques contradictions dans les dates, et sans pouvoir offrir
aucun éclaircissement historique à mes lecteurs, aussi curieux
que moi, sans doute, de savoir comment un prélat anglais est venu
donner le nom de son évêché à un château de France.”

Is there any warrant in English history for this derivation of Bicêtre;
and if so, who was the Bishop of Winchester that gave the name of his
diocese to that celebrated hospital?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, June, 1851.

Theobald Anguilbert and Michael Scott.

—M. Barbier, in his
Dictionnaire des Ouvrages anonymes et pseudonymes, says that Michael
Scott is a pseudonyme for Theobald Anguilbert, and ascribes the Mensa
philosophica to the latter as the real author. Can any one tell me who
is Theobald Anguilbert, for I can find no account of him anywhere? and
if there ever was such a person, whether all the writings bearing the
name of Michael Scott, who, by all accounts, appears to have been a real
person, are to be assigned to the said Anguilbert?

TYRO.

Dublin.

“Suum cuique tribuere,” &c.

—Can any of your readers tell me where the
following passage is to be found?

“Suum cuique tribuere, ea demum summa justitia est.”

All persons of whom I have inquired, tell me it is from Cicero, but no
one can inform me where it is to be found.

M. D.

Minor Queries Answered.

Organs first put up in Churches.

—In the parish register of Buxted, in
Sussex, allusion is made to the time when the organs were put up in the
church, but which had been taken down. This entry was made in the year
1558. Any information as to the earliest period when organs were placed
in our churches will much oblige.

R. W. B.

[Our correspondent will find some interesting matter on the early
use of organs in churches in the Rev. F. D. Wackerbath’s Music
and the Anglo-Saxons, pp. 6-24. London. 8vo. 1837.]

Ignoramus, Comœdia, &c.

—Perhaps some of your correspondents can
enlighten me on the following points.

1. Who was the author of this play? The Latin is sufficiently
ultra-canine for his pedantic majesty himself.
[519]

2. Do the words “coram Regia Maiestate Jacobi, Regis Angliæ,” &c.,
mean that the play was acted in the presence of the king? I am inclined
to give them that interpretation from some allusions at the end of the
last act, as well as from its being written in Latin.

3. Are any of the race-courses therein mentioned still used as such?

“In Stadio Roystoniensi, Brackliensi, Gatterliensi, Coddington.”

This is the earliest mention of fixed English race-courses that I have
met with, and not being much versed in the secrets of the modern
“cespite vivo,” I am obliged to inquire of those who are better informed
on that subject.

F. J.

[The author of Ignoramus was George Ruggles, A. M., of Clare
Hall, Cambridge. This comedy, as well as that of Albumazar,
were both acted before King James I. and the Prince of Wales,
during a visit to Cambridge in March, 1614-15. The edition of
Ignoramus, edited by J. S. Hawkins, 8vo., 1787, contains a Life
of Ruggles, and a valuable Glossary to his “ultra-canine Latin”
legal terms. There is also a translation of this comedy, with the
following title: “Ignoramus: a Comedy as it was several times
acted with extraordinary applause before the Majesty of King
James. With a Supplement, which (out of respect to the Students
of the Common Law) was hitherto wanting. Written in Latine by R.
Ruggles, sometime Master of Arts in Clare Hall, in Cambridge, and
translated into English by R. C. [Robert Codrington, A. M.] of
Magdalen Colledge, in Oxford. London. 4to. 1662.”]

Drake’s Historia Anglo-Scotica.

—Will any of your learned readers
inform me, for what reason and by what authority Drake’s Historia
Anglo-Scotica, published in 1703, was ordered to be burned by the
hangman? And where I can meet with a report of the proceedings relating
to it?

FRA. MEWBURN.

Darlington.

[Dr. Drake was not the author, but merely the editor of Historia
Anglo-Scotica. In the dedication he says, “Upon a diligent
revisal, in order, if possible, to discover the name of the
author, and the age of his writing, he found that it was written
in, or at least not finished till, the time of Charles I.” It is
singular, however, that he does not give the least intimation by
what mysterious influence the manuscript came to be wafted into
his library. It was ordered by the parliament of Scotland, on the
30th of June, 1703, to be burned by the common hangman.]

Replies.

CORPSE PASSING MAKES A RIGHT WAY.
(Vol. iii., p. 477.)

The fact of the passage of a funeral procession over land, from being an
act of user of a very public character, must always have had some
influence on the trial of the question whether the owner of the land had
dedicated the same to the public; and it is not improbable that in early
times very great weight was attached to evidence of this kind: so that
the passage of a corpse across land came to be considered in the popular
mind as conclusive and incontrovertible evidence of a public right of
way over that land. With the reverence for the dead which is so pleasing
a characteristic of modern refinement, it is probable that acts of user
of this description would now have little weight, inasmuch as no man of
right feeling would be disposed to interrupt parties assembled on so
mournful and solemn an occasion. I recollect, however, having read a
trial in modern times for a riot, arising out of a forcible attempt to
carry a corpse over a field against the will of the landowner; the
object of the parties in care of the corpse was believed to be the
establishment of a public right of way over the field in question, the
owner of which, with a body of partisans, forcibly resisted the attempt,
on the apparent belief that the act of carrying a corpse across the
field would certainly have established the right claimed. I regret I did
not “make a Note” of the case, so as to be able to specify the time,
place, and circumstances with certainty.

That the notion in question is of great antiquity may I think be
inferred from the following passage in Prynne’s Records, iii. 213.,
referring to Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, 1258-1280 (and as the
authority for which, Prynne cites Holinshed’s Chronicle, 1303, 1304;
and Godwin’s Catalogue of Bishops, 326.):—

“He did by a Policy purchase the Lordship and House of Clift
Sachfeld, and enlarged the Barton thereof by gaining of Cornish
Wood from the Dean and Chapter fraudulently; building then a very
fair and sumptuous house there; he called it Bishop’s Clift, and
left the same to his successors. Likewise he got the Patronage of
Clift Fomesone, now called Sowton, and annexed the same to his
new Lordship, which (as it was said) he procured by this means.
He had a Frier to be his Chaplain and Confessor, which died in
his said House of Clift, and should have been buried at the
Parish Church of Faringdon, because the said House was and is in
that Parish; but because the Parish Church was somewhat farre
off, the wayes foul, and the weather rainy, or for some other
causes, the Bishop commanded the corps to be carryed to the
parish church of Sowton, then called Clift Fomeson, which is very
near, and bordereth upon the Bishop’s Lordship; the two Parishes
being then divided by a little Lake called Clift. At this time
one Fomeson, a Gentleman, was Lord and Patron of Clift Fomeson;
and he, being advertised of such a Burial towards in his Parish,
and a leech way to be made over to his Land, without his leave or
consent required therein; calleth his Tenants together, goeth to
the Bridge over the lake between the Bishop’s Land and his; there
meeteth the Bishop’s men, bringing the said Corps, and forbiddeth
them to come over the
[520]
water. The men nothing regarding the
Prohibition, do press forwards to come over the water, and the
others do withstand, so long, that in the end, my Lord’s Fryer is
fallen into the Water. The Bishop taketh this matter in such
grief, that a holy Fryer, a Religious man, his own Chaplain and
Confessor, should be so unreverently cast into the Water, that he
falleth out with the Gentleman, and upon what occasion I know
not, he sueth him in the Law (in his own Ecclesiastical Court,
where he was both party and Judge), and so vexeth and tormenteth
him, that in the end he was fain to yeeld himself to the Bishop’s
devotion, and seeketh all the wayes he could to carry the
Bishop’s good will, which he could not obtain, until for
redemption he had given up and surrendered his patronage of
Sowton, with a piece of land; all which the said Bishop annexed
to his new Lordship.”

In “An Exhortation, to be spoken to such Parishes where they use their
Perambulation in Rogation Week; for the Oversight of the Bounds and
Limits of their Town,” is a curious passage, which I subjoin:

“It is a shame to behold the insatiableness of some covetous
persons in their doings; that where their ancestors left of their
land a broad and sufficient bier-balk, to carry the corpse to the
Christian sepulture, how men pinch at such bier-balks, which by
long use and custom ought to be inviolably kept for that purpose;
and now they quite eat them up, and turn the dead body to be
borne farther about in the high streets; or else, if they leave
any such meer, it is too straight for two to walk
on.”—Homilies, ed. Corrie, p. 499.

It may perhaps be considered not quite irrelevant here to state that
there seems once to have been an opinion, that the passage of the
sovereign across land had the effect of making a highway thereon. The
only allusion, however, to this opinion which I can call to mind, occurs
in Peck’s Antiquarian Annals of Stanford, lib. xi. s. xii.; an extract
from which follows:—

“From Stanford King Edward, as I conceive, went to Huntingdon;
for in a letter of one of our kings dated at that town the 12th
of July (without any year or king’s name to ascertain the time
and person it belongs to), the King writes to the aldermen and
bailiffs of Stanford, acquainting them, that, when he came to
Stanford, he went through Pilsgate field (coming then I suppose
from Peterborough), and, it being usual it seems that whatever
way the King rides to any place (though the same was no public
way before) for everybody else to claim the same liberty
afterwards, and thenceforth to call any such new passage the
King’s highway; being followed to Huntingdon by divers of his own
tenants, inhabitants of Pilsgate, who then and there represented
the damage they should sustain by such a practice, the King by
his letters immediately commanded that his passing that way
should not be made a precedent for other people’s so doing, but
did utterly forbid and discharge them therefrom. His letter,
directed ‘to our dearly beloved the alderman, bailiffs, and good
people of our Town of Stanford,’ upon this occasion, is thus
worded:—’Dear and well-beloved friends, by the grievous
complaint of our beloved lieges and tenents of the town of
Pillesyate near our town of Staunford, we have understood, that,
in as much as, on Tuesday last, we passed through the middle of a
meadow and a certain pasture there called Pillesyate meadow
appertaining to the said town of Pillesyate, you, and others of
the country circumjacent, claim to have and use an high way royal
to pass through the middle of the said meadow and pasture, to the
great damage and disseisin of our said lieges and tenents,
whereupon they have supplicated for a remedy; so we will, if it
be so, and we command and charge firmly, that you neither make
nor use, nor suffer to be made nor used by others of our said
town of Staunford, nor others whatsoever, no high road through
the middle of the said meadow and pasture; but that you forbear
from it entirely, and that you cause it to be openly proclaimed
in our said town, that all others of our said town and the
country round it, do likewise; to the end that our said tenents
may have and peaceably enjoy the said meadow and pasture, so, and
in the manner, as they have done before these times, without
disturbance or impeachment of you or others, of what estate or
condition soever they be, notwithstanding that we passed that way
in manner as is said. And this in no manner fail ye. Given under
our signet at Huntyngdon the 12th day of July.'”

I am unable to say whether the opinion it was the object of the above
royal letter to refute was general, or was peculiar to the “good people”
of Stanford, “and others of the country circumjacent.”

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, June 18. 1851.

DOZEN OF BREAD; BAKER’S DOZEN
(Vol. ii., p. 298.; Vol iii., p. 153.).

From the following extracts from two of the “Bury Wills” recently
published by the Camden Society, it would appear that a dozen of bread
always consisted of twelve loaves; and that the term “Baker’s dozen”
arose from the practice of giving, in addition to the twelve loaves, a
further quantity as “inbread,” in the same manner as it is (or until
recently was) the custom to give an extra bushel of coals as “ingrain”
upon the sale of a large quantity; a chaldron, I believe.

Francis Pynner, of Bury, Gent., by will, dated April 26, 1639, gave to
feoffees certain property upon trust (inter alia) out of the rents,
upon the last Friday in every month in the year, to provide one twopenny
loaf for each of forty poor people in Bury, to be distributed by the
clerk, sexton, and beadle of St. Mary’s parish, who were to have the
“inbread of the said bread.” And the testator also bequeathed certain
other property to feoffees upon trust to employ the rents as follows
(that is to say):—

“The yerely sūme of ffiue pounds p’cell of the said yerely
rents to be bestowed in wheaten bread, to be made into penny
loaves, and upon eu’y Lord’s day,
[521]
called Sonday,
throughout eu’y yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts],
fowre and twenty loaves of the said bread, wth the
inbread allowed by the baker for those twoe dosens of bread,
to be timely brought and sett vpon a forme towards the vpp’ end
of the chancell of the said p’ish church of St. Marie, and …
the same twoe dosens of bread to be giuen and distributed …
to and amongst fowre and twentie poore people … the p’ish
clarke and sexton of the said church, and the beadle of the said
p’ish of St. Marie for the time then being, shall alwaies be
three wch from time to time shall haue their shares and parts
in the said bread. And they, the said clarke, sexton, and bedell,
shall alwaies haue the inbread of all the bread aforesaid
ovr and besides their shares in the said twoe dosens of bread
from time to time——”

And William Fiske, of Pakenham, Gent., by will, dated March 20, 1648,
provided twelvepence a week to pay weekly for one dozen of bread which
his mind was, should “be weekly given vnto twelue or thirteene”
persons therein referred to.

J. B. COLMAN.

Eye, June 16. 1851.

MOSAIC.
(Vol. iii., p. 389.)

Among the various kinds of picturesque representation, practised by the
Greeks and Romans, and transmitted by them to after times, is that of
Mosaic, a mode of execution which, in its durability of form, and
permanency of colour, possesses distinguished advantages, being
unaffected by heat or cold, drought or moisture, and perishing only with
the building to which it has been originally attached. This art has been
known in Rome since the days of the Republic. The severer rulers of that
period forbade the introduction of foreign marbles, and the republican
mosaics are all in black and white. Under the Empire the art was greatly
improved, and not merely by the introduction of marbles of various
colours, but by the invention of artificial stones, termed by the
Italians Smalti, which can be made of every variety of tint. This art
was never entirely lost. On the introduction of pictures into Christian
temples, they were first made of mosaic: remaining specimens of them
are rude, but profoundly interesting in an historical point of view.
When art was restored in Italy, mosaic also was improved; but it
attained its greatest perfection in the last and present century. Roman
mosaic, as now practised, may be described as being the production of
pictures by connecting together numerous minute pieces of coloured
marble or artificial stones. These are attached to a ground of copper,
by means of a strong cement of gum mastic, and other materials, and are
afterwards ground and polished, as a stone would be, to a perfectly
level surface. By this art not only are ornaments made on a small
scale, but pictures of the largest size are copied. The most remarkable
modern works are the copies which have been executed of some of the most
important works of the great masters, for the altars in St. Peter’s.
These are, in every respect, perfect imitations of the originals; and
when the originals, in spite of every care, must change and perish,
these mosaics will still convey to distant ages a perfect idea of the
triumphs of art achieved in the fifteenth century. Twenty years were
employed in making one of the copies I have mentioned. The pieces of
mosaic vary in size from an eighth to a sixteenth of an inch, and eleven
men were employed for that time on each picture. A great improvement was
introduced into the art in 1775, by Signor Raffaeli, who thought of
preparing the smalti in what may be termed fine threads. The pastes
or smalti are manufactured at Venice, in the shape of crayons, or like
sticks of sealing-wax, and are afterwards drawn out by the workman, by a
blowpipe, into the thickness he requires, often almost to an hair, and
are seldom thicker than the finest grass stalk. For tables, and large
articles, of course, the pieces are thicker; but the beauty of the
workmanship, the soft gradation of the tints, and the cost, depend upon
the minuteness of the pieces, and the skill displayed by the artist. A
ruin, a group of flowers or figures, will employ a good artist about two
months, when only two inches square; and a specimen of such a
description costs from 5l. to 20l., according to the execution: a
landscape, six inches by four, would require eighteen months, and would
cost from 40l. to 50l. For a picture of Pæstum, eight feet long by
twenty inches broad, on which four men were occupied for three years,
1000l. sterling was asked. The mosaic work of Florence differs
entirely from Roman mosaic, being composed of stones inserted in
comparatively large masses. It is called work in pietra dura; the
stones used are all of a more or less precious nature. In old specimens,
the most beautiful works are those in which the designs are of an
arabesque character. The most remarkable specimen of this description of
pietra dura, is an octagonal table, in the Gubinetto di Baroccio, in
the Florence Gallery. It is valued at 20,000l. sterling, and was
commenced in 1623 by Jacopo Detelli, from designs by Ligozzi. Twenty-two
artists worked upon it without interruption till it was terminated, in
the year 1649.

One principal distinction between the ancient and modern mosaic is, I
believe, that the former was arranged in patterns, the latter
coloured in shades. I shall not take up your columns by dwelling on
the ancient mosaic, which, as all know was in use among the Orientals,
especially the Persians and Assyrians; and from the Easterns the Greeks
received the art. In the Book of Esther, i. 6., we have an allusion to a
mosaic pavement; and Schleusner understands the
Λιθόστρωτον of
St. John, xix. 13., to mean a sort of elevated
[522]
mosaic pavement.
Andrea Tafi, towards the close of the thirteenth century, is said to
have revived this art in Italy, having learned it from a Greek named
Apollonius, who worked at the church of St. Mark at Venice, and to have
been the founder of the modern mosaic.

Now for the derivation. The Lithostrata, or tesselated pavements of the
Romans, being worked in a regular and mechanical manner, were called
opus musivum, opera qua ad amussim facta sunt. Hence the Italian
musaico, from whence is derived our appellation of mosaic; but, like
most of our arts, through the channel of the French mosaïque. (Vide
Pitisci Lexicon, ii. 242.; Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo de Medici;
Winkelman; Pompeiana, by Gell; Smith’s Greek and Roman Antiq.;
Beckman’s Inventions; and Récherches sur la Peinture en Mosaïque chez
les Anciens, &c., annexed to his Description d’un Pavé en Mosaïque,
&c.: Paris, 1802.)

GERONIMO.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Prenzie (Vol. iii., p. 401.).

—Several words have been suggested to
take the place of the unintelligible “prenzie” in Measure for
Measure; but none of them appear to me to satisfy all the four
conditions justly required by LEGES.

I would suggest phrensied or phrenzied, a word extremely like
prenzie both in sound and appearance, and of the proper metre, thus
perfectly satisfying two of the conditions.

With respect to the propriety of using this word in the two instances
where prenzie occurs, Claudio, in the first place, when informed by
his sister of the villany of Angelo, may well exclaim in astonishment—

i.e. “What, is he mad?” or, with a note of admiration, “Why, Angelo
must be mad!” Then, I think, naturally follows Isabella’s reply:—

that is, in the disguise or under the cloak of madness.

Johnson defines Frenzy to be

“Madness; distraction of mind; alienation of understanding; any
violent passion approaching to madness.”

and surely Angelo’s violent passion for Isabella, and his
determination to gratify it at all risks, may, properly be said to
approach to madness.

W. G. M.

There is a Scotch word so nearly resembling this, and at the same time
so exactly answering to the sense which the passage in Measure for
Measure requires, that it may be worth while calling the attention of
the Shakspearian commentators to it. In Allan Cunningham’s Glossary to
Burns, I find Primsie, which he defines to mean demure, precise.
An old Scotch proverb is quoted, in which the word is used:

The term is evidently connected with, or formed from, the English
prim, which has the same sense. It seems this was formerly sometimes
written prin. Halliwell cites from Fletcher’s poems the lines—

Now if from prim be formed the secondary adjective primsie, so from
prin we get prinsie or prinzie. But without resorting to the
supposition of the existence of this latter word, it is evident that in
primzie, which does or did exist, we have a word answering all the
conditions laid down by LEGES for determining the true reading, more
nearly than any other that has been suggested.

CEBES.

[Dr. Jamieson, in his Scottish Dictionary, defines PRIMSIE,
demure, precise, S. from E. prim.

Lady Flora Hastings’ Bequest (Vol. iii., p. 443.).

—Were the beautiful
lines entitled “Lady Flora’s Bequest” in reality written by that
lamented lady? They are not to be found in the volume of her Poems
published after her death by her sister, the Marchioness of Bute; and
they did appear in The Christian Lady’s Magazine for September, 1839,
with the signature of Miss M. A. S. Barber appended to them.

In the preceding Number of the same magazine there is a very touching
account of Lady Flora, from the pen of its talented editress, who
mentions the fact of Lady Flora having with her dying hand “delivered
to her fond brother a little Bible, the gift of her mother, requesting
him to restore it to that beloved parent with the assurance that from
the age of seven years, when she received it from her, it had been her
best treasure; and, she added, her sole support under all her recent
afflictions.”

If your correspondent ERZA has never seen that obituary notice (Seeleys,
publishers) I think she will be glad to meet with it.

L. H. K.

Arches of Pelaga (Vol. iii., p. 478.)

—This term is in common use
among sailors, meaning the Mediterranean Archipelago, and they may very
often be heard saying—”When I was up the Arches.”

E. N. W.

Southwark, June 16. 1851.

Engraved Warming-Pans (Vol. iii., pp. 84. 115.).

—I beg to add to the
lists of H. G. T., and E. B. PRICE.

Some years ago I purchased one in Bradford,
[523]
[~523] Wilts, and several at
Bedwyn Magna in the same county. The Bradford one bears an heraldic
nondescript animal with horns on its head and nose, and a coronet round
its neck, surrounded by—

One of the Bedwyn ones bears a lion passant holding a scimitar, with the
motto:

The last figure of the date is obliterated. Another has a shield bearing
three tuns, surrounded by—

One in the possession of a farmer in the parish of Barton Turf, Norfolk,
bears an eagle with a human head at its feet, surrounded by—

W. C. LUKIS.

Great Bedwyn, June, 1851.

St. Pancras (Vol. iii., pp. 285. 397.).

—St. Pancras was a native of
the province of Phrygia, the son of a nobleman of the name of Cledonius;
who, when at the point of death, strongly recommended this his only son,
together with his fortune, which was very great, to the care of his
brother Dionysius, he being the only near relative in being, the mother
having previously deceased.

This trust Dionysius faithfully fulfilled, bringing up and loving his
nephew as he would have done his own son; and when, three years after
the death of Cledonius, he quitted his native country and proceeded to
Rome, the youthful Pancras accompanied him. Upon reaching the imperial
city, the uncle and nephew took up their residence in the same suburb
where the Pope Marcellinus had fled for concealment from the persecution
which had been raised against the Christians by the Emperors Diocletian
and Maximianus. Here they had not been long resident before the fame of
the great sanctity and virtue of Marcellinus reached their ears, and
caused an ardent desire in both to see and converse with one so highly
spoken of. A convenient opportunity was soon found, and in a short time
both the uncle and nephew, renouncing their idolatry, became converted
to the Christian faith.

So strong was the effect produced upon them by this change, that the
chief desire of both was to die for their religion; and, without waiting
for the arrival of the officers who were continually searching for the
hidden Christians, they voluntarily surrendered themselves to the
ministers of justice.

A few days after this event, however, Dionysius was called hence by a
natural death.

Diocletian, who is said to have been a friend of Cledonius, and moved
perhaps by the youth and graceful appearance of Pancras, strove by
flattery and caresses to induce him to do sacrifice to the heathen gods;
to this proposition Pancras absolutely refused to consent, and
reproached the Emperor for his weakness in believing to be gods, men,
who, while on earth, had been remarkable for their vices. Diocletian,
stung by these reproaches, commanded that the youth should be instantly
beheaded, which sentence was immediately carried into execution. His
death is said to have taken place on 12th May, 303; the martyr being
then but fourteen years of age.

The gate in Rome, rendered so remarkable lately as having been the chief
point attacked by the French troops, was formerly called Porta Aurelia;
but was subsequently named Porta Pancrazio, after this youthful
sufferer.

R. R. M.

Pallavicino and Count d’Olivarez (Vol. iii., p. 478.)

—Ferrante
Pallavicino was descended from a noble family, seated in Placenza. He
entered the monastery of Augustine Friars at Milan, where he became a
regular canon of the Lateran congregation. He was a man of fine genius,
and possessed great wit, but having employed it in writing several
satirical pieces against Urban VIII. during the war between the
Barberini and the Duke of Parma and Placenza, he became so detested at
the court of Rome, that a price was set on his head. One Charles Morfu,
a French villain, was bribed to ensnare him, and pretending to pass for
his friend and pity his misfortunes, persuaded him to go to France,
which he said would be much to his advantage. Pallavicino gave himself
up entirely to the direction of this false friend, who conducted him
over the bridge at Sorgues into the territory of Venaissin, where he was
arrested by people suborned for that purpose, was carried to Avignon,
thrown into a dungeon, from which he tried to make his escape, and in
the year 1644, after a fourteen months’ imprisonment, was beheaded in
the flower of his age. He was the author of a number of small pieces,
all of which are marked by the lively genius of the author. They were
collected and published at Venice in 1655, and amongst them I found one
entitled “La disgracia del Conte d’Olivarez,” which, perhaps, may be the
work
MR. SOULEY has in MS.

For a more lengthy account of this unhappy and extraordinary man, I
would refer
MR. SOULEY to the life prefixed to his collected works, and
to that prefixed to a French translation of his Divortio celeste,
printed at Amsterdam in 1696; and also to the preface to the English
translation of that same very curious work, printed at London in 1718.

WILLIAM BROWN, Jun.

Mind your P’s and Q’s (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 357. 463.).

—When I
proposed this Query, I mentioned that I had heard one derivation of the
phrase. As it is different from either of those
[524]
which have been
sent, it may, perhaps, be worth insertion. I was told by a printer that
the phrase had originated among those of his craft, since young
compositors experience great difficulty in discriminating between the
types of the two letters.

R. D. H.

[A correspondent has kindly suggested a new version of this saying, and
suggests that for the future our readers should be reminded to mind, not
their P’s and Q’s, but their N’s and Q’s.]

Banks, Family of (Vol. iii., pp. 390. 458.).

—In No. 81. R. C. H. H.
asks if John Banks the philosopher was descended from Sir John Banks,
Lord Chief Justice in Charles I.’s reign.

As a grandson of the former, I take great interest in this, but am sorry
to say that I can give no information at present on that branch of the
subject. The philosopher’s family were settled for some generations at
Grange, near Keswick. I should be obliged if R. C. H. H. would
communicate the name and publisher of the book on the Lakes which he
quotes from, as I am exceedingly anxious to trace the genealogy.

BAY.

Liverpool, June 19. 1851.

National Debts (Vol. iii., p. 374.).

—The following extract from La
Cronica di Giovanni Villani, lib. xii. c. 35., appears to have some
reference to the Query made by F. E. M.:

“E nel detto mese di Febbraio, 1344, per lo comune si fece ordine,
che qualunque cittadino dovesse avere dal comune per le prestanze
fatte al tempo de’ venti della balia, come addieto facemmo
menzione, che si trovarono fiorini cinquecento-settantamila
d’oro, sanza il debito di Messer Mastino della Scala, ch’ erano
presso a centomila fiorini d’oro, che si mettessono in uno
registro ordinatemente; e dare il comune ogni anno di provvisione
e usufrutto cinque per centinaio, dando ogni mese la paga per
rata; e diputossi a fornire il detto guiderdone parte alla
gabella delle parti, e parte ad altre gabelle, che montava l’anno
da fiorini venticinque mila d’oro, dov’ erano assegnate le paghe
di Messer Mastino; e pagato lui, fossone assignati alla detta
satisfazione; il quale Messer Mastino fu pagato del mese di
Dicembre per lo modo che diremo innanzi. E cominciossi la paga
della detta provvisione del mese d’Ottobre 1345.”

R. R. M.

Monte di Pietà (Vol. iii., p. 372.)

—In reply to your correspondent W.
B. H., requesting to be informed of the connexion between a “Pietà” and
a “Monte di Pietà,” it may be observed that there does not appear to be
any necessary connexion between the two expressions. The term “a Pietà”
is generally used to denote the figure of the dead Saviour attended by
His Blessed Mother: for example, the celebrated one in St. Peter’s at
Rome. The word “Monte,” besides its signification of “montagna,”
expresses also “luogo publico ove si danno oi si pigliano denari ad
interesse;” also “luogo publico altresì dove col pegno si prestano
denari con piccolo interesse.”

“Pietà,” in addition to its signification of “devozione,” or “virtù per
cui si ama ed onora Dia,” &c., which would apply to the figure of the
dead Saviour, expresses “compassione amorevole verso il suo simile.”

Monte di Pietà would therefore be a place where money was lent at
interest, on such terms as were in unison with a kind and compassionate
feeling towards our neighbour. This species of establishment was first
commenced in Italy towards the end of the fifteenth century, by Il Beato
Bernardino da Feltri, who carried his opposition to the Jews so far as
to preach a crusade against them. The earliest Monte of which any record
appears to exist was founded in the city of Padua in 1491; the effect of
which was to cause the closing of twelve loan banks belonging to the
Jews.

From Italy they were shortly afterwards introduced into France.

The first legal sanction given to these establishments was granted by
Pope Leo X. in 1551.

R. R. M.

Registry of Dissenting Baptisms (Vol. iii., pp. 370. 460.).

—From the
replies to my Query on this subject that have been published, it is
plain that in all parts of England Dissenters have wished to procure the
registry of their children’s births or baptisms in their parish
churches. In some instances they have been registered as dissenting
baptisms; and then the fact appears from the Registry itself. In other
instances, and probably far the more numerous (though this would be
difficult to prove), they were registered among the canonical
baptisms; and the fact of their being performed by Dissenting Ministers
is only discoverable by reference to the Dissenting Register, when it
happens to have been preserved. So in the instances referred to in p.
370., the baptisms are registered without distinction from others in the
Registry of St. Peter’s Church, Chester; but a duplicate registry as on
the same day was made at Cross Lane Meeting House, which is, I believe,
not in St. Peter’s parish; though, I presume, the residence of the
parents was in it.

D. X.

Eisell (Vol. iii., pp. 66. 397.).

—I am not aware that the following
passage has been quoted by any of the disputants in the late “Eisell”
controversy. It occurs in Jewel’s Controversy with Harding, pp. 651-2.
of vol. ii. of the Parker Society’s edition of Jewel’s works.

“A Christian man removeth his household, and, having there an
image of Christ, equal unto him in length, and breadth, and all
proportion, by forgetfulness leaveth it there in a secret place
behind him. A Jew after him inhabiteth the same house a long
while, and seeth it not; another strange Jew, sitting there at
dinner, immediately espieth it standing open against a
[525]
wall…. Afterward the priests and rulers of the Jews come
together, and abuse it with all villany. They crown it with a
thorn, make it drink esel and gall, and stick it to the heart
with a spear. Out issueth blood in great quantity, the powers of
Heaven are shaken; the sun is darkened; the moon loseth her
light.”

CUDYN GWYN.

English Sapphics (Vol. iii., p. 494.).

—A beautiful specimen of this
measure, far superior in rhythm to the attempt of Dr. Watts, appeared in
the Youth’s Magazine twenty-five years ago. It consisted of the Psalm
“By the Waters of Babylon.” I remember the last verse only.

H. E. H.

Mints at Norwich—Joseph Nobbs (Vol. iii., p. 447.).

—I beg to inform
COWGILL that the operation of the Mint of the Great Recoinage of 1696-7
was performed in a room at St. Andrew’s Hall, in this city; but the
amount there coined, or at any of the other places mentioned, I am not
able to inform him. The total amount said to be recoined was
6,882,908l. 19s. 7d.

The following are the names of persons employed in the Mint at
Norwich:—

Francis Gardener, Esq., Treasurer.

Thomas Moore, Gent., Warder; Thomas Allen, his clerk.

Anthony Redhead, Gent., Master Worker; Mr. Beaser, his clerk.

William Lamb, Comptroller; Mr. Samuel Oliver, his clerk.

Heneage Price, Gent., King’s clerk.

Mr. Rapier, Weigher and Teller.

Henry Yaxley, Surveyor of the Meltings.

Mr. John Young, Deputy Graver.

John Seabrook, Provost, and Master of the Moneyers.

Mr. Hartstongue, Assay Master, and his servant.—His brother, Edger, and
Lotterer of the Half-Crowns, Shillings, and Sixpences. It is said crowns
were not struck here, and I have never seen one of this Mint.

The whole of the work was finished here, September 29, 1698.

In pulling up the floor of an old house, in Tombland, in 1847, a
quantity of the silver coin minted here was discovered, which, from the
appearance of the coins, were never in circulation: they were sold to
Mr. Cooper, silversmith, in London Street, for about 20l. No doubt the
coins were abstracted from the Mint during the process of coining.

In the Register of Burials at St. Gregory’s is the following entry, A. D. 1717:

“Joseph Nobbs, Parish Clerk of St. Gregory’s, aged 89, was
buried Novr. 4, 1717, being the year following the last entry
in his Chronology. He was then 89 years of age, and, what is
somewhat remarkable, that is the age of the present Clerk of
St Gregory’s.”

G. H. I.

P. S. Some other matters relative to this Mint are among my memoranda.

Norwich, June 16. 1851.

Voltaire, where situated (Vol. iii., p. 329.).

—Your correspondent V.
is informed, that the following particulars on the subject of his Query
are given in a note to the article “Voltaire,” in Quérard’s France
Littéraire, vol. x. p. 276.:—

“Voltaire est le nom d’un petit bien de famille, qui appartenait
à la mère de l’auteur de la ‘Henriade,’—Marie Catherine
Daumart, d’une famille noble du Poitou.”

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

Meaning of Pilcher (Vol. iii., p. 476).

—I must say I can see no
difficulty at all about pilcher. If the r at the end makes it so
strange a word, leave that out, and then you will have a word, as it
seems, quite well established—pylche, toga pellice: Lye. Skinner
thinks pilchard may be derived from it.

“Pilch, an outer garment generally worn in cold weather, and made of
skins of fur. ‘Pelicium, a pylche.’ (Nominale MS.) The term is still
retained in connected senses in our dialects. ‘A piece of flannel, or
other woollen, put under a child next the clout is, in Kent, called a
pilch; a coarse shagged piece of rug laid over a saddle, for ease of a
rider, is, in our midland parts, called a pilch.’ (MS. Lansd. 1033.)
‘Warme pilche and warme shon.’ (MS. Digby, 86.) ‘In our old dramatists
the term is applied to a buff or leather jerkin; and Shakspeare has
pilcher for the sheath of a sword.” (Halliwell’s Dictionary.)

“Pilche, or pilcher, a scabbard, from pylche, a skin coat, Saxon.
A pilche, or leather coat, seems to have been the common dress for a
carman. Coles has ‘a pilch for a saddle, instratum,’ which explains that
it was an external covering, and probably of leather. Kersey also calls
it a covering for a saddle; but he likewise gives it the sense of ‘a
piece of flannel to be wrapt about a young child.’ It seems, therefore,
to have been used for any covering.” (Nares’ Glossary.)

C. B.

Catalogues of Coins of Canute (Vol. iii., p. 326.).

—The following is
a copy of the title-page of the work referred to by
[526]
Βορεας:—A Catalogue of the Coins of Canute, King of Denmark and
England; with Specimens. London: Printed by W. Bowyer and J. Nichols.
4to. 1777. It consists of twenty-four pages, and was compiled by Richard
Gough, Esq.

J. Y.

Pontoppidan’s Natural History of Norway (Vol. iii., p. 326.).

—An
interesting notice of this work occurs in the Retrospective Review,
vol. xiii., pp. 181-213.; but neither in that article nor in any
bibliographical or biographical dictionary is the name of the translator
given.

J. Y.

The First Panorama (Vol. iii., p. 406.).

—I have often heard my father
say, that the first panorama exhibited was painted by Thomas Girtin, and
was a semicircular view of London, from the top of the Albion Mills,
near Blackfriars Bridge. It was exhibited in St. Martin’s Lane, where,
not many years back, I saw it, it having been found rolled up in a loft
over a carpenter’s shop. It was painted about 1793 or 1794, and my
father has some of the original sketches.

E. N. W.

Southwark, June 2.

Written Sermons (Vol. iii., p. 478.).

—If M. C. L. asks, when and why
written sermons took the place of extemporaneous discourses, I believe
it may be said that written sermons were first in vogue. Certainly, the
inability of most men to preach “without book,” would be sufficient to
ensure their early introduction. According to Bingham (see Ant. of the
Christian Church, book xiv. chap. 4.), Origen was the first who
preached extemporaneously, and not until after he was sixty years old.
The great divines of the time of the English Reformation preached both
written and oral sermons: many of these, especially of the former, are
included in their printed works. The same remark also applies to the
early Fathers of the Church. The use of the homilies, which were drawn
up for the ignorant clergy at the Reformation, at once gave a sanction
to the practice of writing sermons. The story of the preacher turning
over his hour-glass at Paul’s Cross, and starting afresh, must of course
refer to an unwritten discourse. Sermons, being explications of
scripture, used to follow the reading of the psalms and lessons: now,
for the same reason, they come after the epistle and gospel. In olden
time, the bishop was the only preacher, going from church to church, as
now-a-days[2], with the same sermon or charge; and he addressed the
people from the altar steps: afterwards the priest, as his deputy,
preached in the pulpit, but the deacons were not allowed to preach at
all.

[2] One of the highest dignitaries in our Church recently
declined to print a sermon, as requested; because, he frankly said, he
should want to preach it again.

ALFRED GATTY.

Bogatsky (Vol. iii., p. 478.).

—The little work, so justly popular in
England, under the title of Bogatsky’s Golden Treasury, is by no means
a literal translation of the original; but was almost entirely
re-written by Venn, the author of the Complete Duty of Man. This I
state on good authority, as I believe; but I have never seen the
original.

R. D. H.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC.

Under the title of a Hand-Book of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy:
First Course—Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sound,
Optics, Dr. Lardner has just issued a small closely printed volume with
the object of supplying that “information relating to physical and
mechanical science, which is required by the medical and law student,
the engineer and artisan, by those who are preparing for the
universities, and, in short, by those who, having already entered upon
the active pursuits of business, are still desirous to sustain and
improve their knowledge of the general truths of physics, and of those
laws by which the order and stability of the material world are
maintained.” The work, which is illustrated with upwards of four hundred
woodcuts, is extremely well adapted for the object in question; and
will, we have no doubt, obtain, as it deserves, a very extensive
circulation among the various classes of readers for whose use it has
been composed; and, in short, among all readers who desire to obtain a
knowledge of the elements of physics without pursuing them through their
mathematical consequences and details. The illustrations are generally
of a popular character, and therefore the better calculated to impress
upon the mind of the student the principles they are intended to
explain.

The new volume of Mr. Bohn’s Standard Library consists of the third of
Mr. Torrey’s translation of Dr. Neander’s General History of the
Christian Religion and Church. The period included in the present
division of this important contribution to ecclesiastical history
extends from the end of the Diocletian persecution to the time of
Gregory the Great, or from the year 312 to 590. A translation of The
Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis and Halieuticon of Ovid, with
copious notes by Henry T. Riley, B.A., is the last addition made by Mr.
Bohn to his Classical Library. Though these translations furnish very
imperfect pictures of the manner and style of the original writers, they
supply the mere English reader with a good general notion of their
matter, especially when they are as copiously annotated as the work
before us.

We are informed that, in consequence of the great care and delicacy
which is found to be required in the presswork of the Lansdowne
Shakspeare, a beautiful volume, unique as a specimen of the art of
typography, the publication will be unavoidably postponed for a few
weeks.

Messrs. Sotheby and Co. (3. Wellington Street, Strand) will commence, on
Wednesday next, a seven days’ sale of the valuable Library of the date
Rev. Dr. Penrose, which is particularly rich in books illustrated
[527]

with engravings.

BOOKS RECEIVED.—Illustrations of Mediæval Costume in England, &c.,
by C. A. Day and J. H. Dines: Part IV., illustrating what the editors
call the “mediæval foppery” of Richard II. and his court.—The
Traveller’s Library, No. IV., Sir Roger de Coverley, by “The
Spectator,” with Notes and Illustrations, by W. Henry Wills. A
delightful shilling’s worth, well calculated to make the traveller a
wiser and better man.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES
WANTED TO PURCHASE.

• WAAGEN’S TOUR IN ENGLAND.
• ARTHUR YOUNG’S TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
• ARTHUR YOUNG’S TRAVELS IN ITALY.
• BORLAND’S HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF DARIAN.
• ALBERT LUNEL, a Novel in 3 Vols.
• DR. ADAMS’ SERMON ON THE OBLIGATION OF VIRTUE. Any edition.
• ENGRAVED PORTRAITS OF BISHOP BUTLER.
• RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW. Vol. IV.
• DENS’ THEOLOGIA MORALIS ET DOGMATICA. 8 Vols. 12mo. Dublin, 1832.
• MARLBOROUGH DISPATCHES. Volumes IV. and V.
• ART JOURNAL, 1839 to 1844 inclusive. Also 1849.
• BULWER’S NOVELS. 12mo. Published at 6s. per Vol. Pilgrims of the Rhine, Alice, and Zanoni.
• STEPHANI THESAURUS. Valpy. Parts I., II. X. XI. and XXIX.
• KIRBY’S BRIDGEWATER TREATISE. 2 Vols.
• The Second Vol. of CHAMBERS’ CYCLOPÆDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE.
• MITFORD’S HISTORY OF GREECE, continued by Davenport. 12mo. 8 Vols. Published by Tegg and Son, 1835. Volume Eight wanted.
• L’ABBÉ DE SAINT PIERRE, PROJET DE PAIX PERPETUELLE. 3 Vols. 12mo. Utrecht, 1713.
• AIKIN’S SELECT WORKS OF THE BRITISH POETS. 10 Vols. 24mo. Published by Longmans and Co. 1821. Vols. I. V. and VIII. wanted.
• CAXTON’S REYNARD THE FOX (Percy Society Edition). Sm. 8vo. 1844.
• CRESPET, PERE. Deux Livres de la Haine de Satan et des Malins Esprits contre l’Homme. 8vo. Francfort, 1581.
• CHEVALIER RAMSAY, ESSAI DE POLITIQUE, où l’on traite de la Nécessité, de l’Origine, des Droits, des Bornes et des différentes Formes de la Souveraineté, selon les Principes de l’Auteur de Télémaque. 2 Vols. 12mo. La Haye, without date, but printed in 1719.
• The same. Second Edition, under the title “Essai Philosophique sur le Gouvernement Civil, selon les Principes de Fénélon,” 12mo. Londres, 1721.
• THE CRY OF THE OPPRESSED, being a True and Tragical Account of the unparalleled Sufferings of Multitudes of Poor Imprisoned Debtors, &c. London, 1691. 12mo.
• MARKHAM’S HISTORY OF FRANCE. Vol. II. 1830.
• MARKHAM’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. Vol. II. 1836. Sixth Edition.
• JAMES’S NAVAL HISTORY. (6 Vols. 8vo.) 1822-4. Vol. VI.
• HUME’S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. (8 Vols. 1818.) Vol. IV.
• RUSSELL’S EUROPE, FROM THE PEACE OF UTRECHT. 4to. 1824. Vol. II.
• CLARE’S RURAL MUSE.
• WATT’S BIBLIOTHECA BRITANNICA, Part V. 4to.
• STRUTT’S MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. Vol. II. 4to.
• OLD BAYLEY SESSIONS PAPERS, 1744 To 1774, or any portion thereof. 4to.
• COLDEN’S HISTORY OF THE FIVE INDIAN NATIONS OF CANADA. Vol. I. 12mo. Lond. 1755.
• HEARNE (T.) LELAND’S ITINERARY. Vols. I. II. III. and VII.
• HORACE-ORELLIUS. 2 Vols.
• D’ARBLAY’S DIARY. Vol. III.
• WAAGEN’S WORKS OF ART AND ARTISTS IN ENGLAND. 3 Vols. 8vo. 1838.
• SMYTH’S (PROF. W.) LECTURES ON MODERN HISTORY. 3rd Edit. 2 Vols. 8vo. 1811.

*** Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage
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Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

We this week conclude our Third Volume, and regret that want of space
has compelled us to omit from the present Number the Rev. Dr. Todd’s
Letter on the Edition of Ussher’s Works; C. on “The Lord Mayor of
London not a Privy Councillor;” and many other communications of great
interest; and we have to trust to the kindness of our Correspondents for
omitting our usual acknowledgment of REPLIES
RECEIVED.

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