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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Notes and Queries, Vol. III, Number 87,
June 28, 1851, by Various
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Notes and Queries, Vol. III, Number 87, June 28, 1851
A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists,
Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Author: Various
Editor: George Bell
Release Date: September 23, 2011 [EBook #37516]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES AND QUERIES, JUNE 28, 1851 ***
Produced by Charlene Taylor, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Transcriber's note: Characters with macrons have been marked in
brackets with an equal sign, as [=e] for a letter e with a macron on
top. Underscores have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts. Original
spelling varieties have not been standardized. A list of volumes and
pages in "Notes and Queries" has been added at the end.]
NOTES and QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION
FOR
LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
VOL. III.--No. 87. SATURDAY, JUNE 28. 1851.
Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4_d._
CONTENTS.
On the proposed Scheme for preserving a Record of Existing
Monuments 513
NOTES:--
Illustrations of Chaucer, No. IX.: Astronomical Evidence
of True Date of Canterbury Pilgrimage 515
Curious Epigrams on Oliver Cromwell, by J. Friswell 515
Folk Lore:--Popular Superstitions in Lancashire--Folk Lore
in Lancashire--Lancashire Customs--Od--Pigeons 516
Minor Notes:--Lord Nelson's Dress and Sword at
Trafalgar--Crucifix of Mary Queen of Scots--Jonah
and the Whale--Anachronisms of Painters 517
QUERIES:--
Minor Queries:--Rifles--Stanbridge Earls--Montchesni
or Muncey Family--Epitaph on Voltaire--Passage in
Coleridge's Table Talk--"Men may live Fools, but Fools
they cannot die"--Etymology of Bicetre--Theobald
Anguilbert and Michael Scott--"Suum cuique tribuere," &c. 518
MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Organs first put up in
Churches--Ignoramus, Comoedia, &c.--Drake's Historia
Anglo-Scotica 518
REPLIES:--
Corpse passing makes a Right of Way, by C. H. Cooper 519
Dozen of Bread; Baker's Dozen, by J. B. Colman 520
Mosaic 521
Replies to Minor Queries:--Prenzie--Lady Flora Hastings'
Bequest--Arches of Pelaga--Engraved Warming-pans--St.
Pancras--Pallavicino and Count d'Olivarez--Mind your
P's and Q's--Banks Family--National Debts--Monte di
Pieta--Registry of Dissenting Baptisms--Eisell--English
Sapphics--Mints at Norwich--Joseph Nobbs--Voltaire,
where situated--Meaning of Pilcher--Catalogues of Coins
of Canute--Pontoppidan's Natural History of Norway--The
First Panorama--Written Sermons--Bogatsky 522
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 526
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 527
Notices to Correspondents 527
Advertisements 527
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.
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.
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:--
H. M.
Right { Of the Sun at noon - 2 . 17.2
Ascension { Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 12 . 5.7
{ Of the star ([Greek: delta] Virginis) 12 . 25
deg. '
North { Of the Sun at noon - 13 . 47.5
Declination { Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 4 . 49.8
{ Of the star ([Greek: delta] Virginis) 6 . 43.3
deg. '
{ Of the Sun at 10 a. m. 45 . 15
Altitude { Of the Sun at 4 p. m. 29 . 15
{ Of the Moon at 4 p. m. 4 . 53
{ Of the star at 4 p. m. 4 . 20
Azimuth - Of the Sun at rising - 112 . 30
H. M.
{ Of the Sun at half Azimuth 9 . 17 a. m.
{ Of the Sun at altitude 45 deg. 9 . 58 a. m.
Apparent { Of the Sun at altitude 29 deg. 4 . 2 p. m.
Time { Of apparent entrance
{ of Moon's centre into Libra 3 . 45 p. m.
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 mene 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 elevee
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), MENE."
(Gonidec, _Dictionnaire Celto-Breton_.
Angouleme, 1821.)
This last reference is doubly valuable, in referring the word _mene_ 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.
_Under Gen. Cromwell's Picture, hung up in the Royal Exchange,
these Lines were written._
"Ascend ye Throne Greate Captaine and Divine
By th' will of God, oh Lyon, for they'r thine;
Come priest of God, bring oyle, bring Robes, bring Golde,
Bring crowns, bring scepters, 'tis high time t' unfold
Yor cloyster'd Buggs, yor State cheates, Lifte ye Rod
Of Steele, of Iron, of the King of God,--
Pay all in wrath with interest. Kneeling pray
To Olivr Torch of Syon, Starr of Day.
Shoute then you Townds and Cyties, loudly Sing,
And all bare-headed cry, God save ye King!"
_The Repartee, unto this Blasphemie._
"Descende thou great Usurper from ye throne,
Thou, throughe thy pride, tooke what was not thine owne;
A Rope did better fitte thee than a Crowne,
Come Carnifex, and put ye Traytor downe,
For crownes and sceptres, and such sacred things
Doe not belong to Traytors, but to Kings;
Let therefoe all true Loyall subjects sing,
Vive le Roy! Long Live! God bless ye King!"
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 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?
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:
"Ci git l'enfant gate du monde qu'il gata."
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."
[Footnote 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 Bicetre._--In a work entitled _Description routiere et
geographique de l'Empire Francais_, by R. V., Paris, 1813, the following
notice of Bicetre occurs in vol. i. p. 84.:--
"On voit bientot, a peu de distance a droite, d'abord dans un
bas-fond, arrose par la petite riviere de Bievre ou des Gobelins,
le village de Gentilly, qui se vante de quelqu'anciennete, et d'un
Concile tenu en 767; ensuite, sur une eminence, au bout d'une
jolie avenue en berceau, l'hopital de Bicetre, qui, fonde en 1290
par un Eveque de Paris, appartint depuis, dit-on, a un Eveque de
Wincester ou Wincestre, d'ou par corruption on a fait Bicetre.
"C'est une chose assez piquante que cette etymologie anglaise. Les
auteurs qui nous l'apprennent eussent bien du nous en apprendre
aussi les circonstances. J'ai consulte a cet egard tout ce qui
etait a consulter, sans faire d'autre decouverte que quelques
contradictions dans les dates, et sans pouvoir offrir aucun
eclaircissement historique a mes lecteurs, aussi curieux que moi,
sans doute, de savoir comment un prelat anglais est venu donner le
nom de son eveche a un chateau de France."
Is there any warrant in English history for this derivation of Bicetre;
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, Comoedia, &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.
2. Do the words "coram Regia Maiestate _Jacobi, Regis Angliae_," &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
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 s[=u]me 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, called Sonday, throughout eu'y
yere of the said terme [40 years or thereabouts], _fowre_ and
_twenty_ loaves of the said bread, with 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 which 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