Chapter C: Forbes

_The word "Peruse."_--I find the word _Peruse_ employed as a substantive, and apparently as equivalent to _Examination_, in the following part of a sentence in the martyr Fryth's works, Russell's ed., p. 407.:--"He would have been full sore ashamed so to have overseen himself at Oxford, at a peruse."

Can any of your correspondents cite a corresponding instance of its use, or say whether it is still retained at Oxford as the name of any academic exercise?

H.W.

_French Maxim._--Who is the author of the following French saying?--

"L'hypocrisie est un hommage que le vice rend à la vertu."

R.V.

_Ave Trici and Gheeze Ysenoudi._--If "S.W. SINGER" can give information as to what convent, English or foreign, the sisters _Ave Trici_ and _Gheeze Ysenoudi_, mentioned in his note on Otloh, state themselves (or are assumed) to have belonged, he will much oblige, by doing so,

H.L.B.

_A Latin Verse._--Everybody has seen the following quotation--

"Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis,"

and everybody thinks he knows from whence it is taken. Which of your readers can verify it?

E.V.

_Table-Book._--Can any of your readers refer me to a museum containing a specimen of an ancient _table-book_? Douce had one, which was in Mr. Rodd's catalogue, but now sold; and Hone also possessed one. These two, and another in the hands of a friend of mine, are the only specimens I have heard of; but they are not quite as old or as genuine as one could wish.

J.O. HALLIWELL.

_Origin of the name "Polly."_--Will you allow me to ask how persons of my name came to be called _Polly_?

MARY.

_Tomlinson, of Southwingfield, Derbyshire._--The parochial register of the parish of Southwingfield, in the county of Derby, contains, among its earliest entries (A.D. 1586), the name Tomlinson, as then resident therein. The family, to the present time, continues to reside within the parish, as respectable yeomen, and has thence extended itself to many of the neighbouring parishes, as well as to more distinct localities. Blore's _History of Southwingfield_ makes no mention of such a family connected with the parish, as tenants or otherwise; nor does it appear that there is at present any family of Tomlinson bearing arms that can have been derived from any of the ancient lords of Wingfield. The wills at Lichfield, to whose registry Southwingfield belongs, are in a very dilapidated and unsatisfactory state, at the time immediately preceding the commencement of the Southwingfield parochial register. Probably some genealogist will be enabled to offer a suggestion as to the means which are available for tracing the genealogy of this fanily prior to the year 1586.

_The Phrase "To have a Button in the Room," and "Sally."_--I have again been reading that most amusing book, _The Lives of the Norths_. At p. 88 of vol. i. (edit. 1826) there is a passage which has always puzzled me. Speaking of some law proceedings in which the Lady Dacres was concerned, Roger North says:--

"And herein she served herself another way, for her adversary
defamed her for swearing and unswearing, and it was not amiss to
_have a button in the room_."

At p. 92. (_post_) there is another strange expression:-- {216}

"The horse, when he found himself clear of pursuers, stopped his
course by degrees, and went with his rider (fast asleep upon his
back) into a pond to drink, and there sat his lordship upon the
'_sally_.' (Qy. _saddle_?)"

P.C.S.S.

_St. Philip and St. James._--"And near it was the house of the apostles Philip and James the son of Alpheus."--_Early Travels in Palestine (Mandeville)_, p. 175.; Bohn's _Antiquarian Library_. This is the only place, except in the Church service, where I have seen the above-named apostles coupled together, and have often wondered whether there was any old legend or tradition to account for the Church joining them together in one commemorative festival.

A.H.E.

_Sir William Hamilton._--On a tombstone in the burial-ground at St. Hilda's, South Shields, in the county of Durham, is the following inscription:--

"Here lieth interr'd ye body of Sir W. Hamilton Knt and Baronet
sonne to ye Earle of Abercorne and late servant to Queen
Henrietta Maria ye late Queene mother of our Soveraigne Lord
King Charles that now is over England &c. who departed to ye
mercy of God June 24th anno Domni 1681."

There is in the possession of an old lady living at Durham, in 1836, an original note in the handwriting of King Charles the Second, of which the following is a copy:--

"Whereas a debte of foure thousande one hundred and fifty pounds
sterlinge apeares to be remayning dew by the king my father to
Sir W. Hamilton brother to the Earle of Abercorne for the
service done to the Queene my mother, I do hereby promis to pay
ye sayde debte of 4150£. to ye sayde Sir William Hamilton his
heires and assigns or to satisfie him or them to the valew
thereof when it shall please God to restore me to the possession
of my dominions.

"Given at Brussells 28 Mar. 1630.

"CHARLES REX."

Is any thing known of Sir William Hamilton, or of the services he rendered to Queen Henrietta Maria?

A.H.E.

_The Koran by Sterne._--Can you or any of your readers inform me if the work entitled _The Koran_, printed in some editions of Sterne's writings, is a genuine composition of his, or not? If not, who was its author, and what is its literary history? My reason for asking is, that I have heard it asserted that it is not by Sterne.

E.L.N.

_Devices on Standards of the Anglo-Saxons._--Can any of your readers inform me what devices were borne on the standards of the several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms during the so-called Heptarchy? The _white horse_ is by many supposed to have been the standard of Wessex, and to have been borne by Alfred; but was not this really the ensign of the Jutish kingdom of Kent, the county of Kent to this day displaying the white horse in its armorial bearings? The standard of Wessex is by others said to have been the _white dragon_; but Thierry supposes that this, like the contrasted _red dragon_ of Cymbri, was merely a poetical designation, and seems to infer that the flags of these two contending people were without any device. Again, it has been thought that a _lion_ was the ensign of Northumbria; in which case we may, perhaps, conclude that the lions which now grace the shield of the city of York have descended from Anglo-Saxon times. The memory of the Danish standard of the _Raven_, described by Asser and other Anglo-Saxon chroniclers, still remains; but whether, when Northumbria and East Anglia fell under Danish power, this device supplanted previous Anglo-Saxon devices, is a curious question for antiquarian research. The famous Norwegian standard--the Landeyda, or ravager of the world--under which Harold Hardrada triumphed at Fulford, near York, but to fall a few days later at Stanford Bridge, is well known; but who can inform us as to the device which it bore? These early traces of heraldic usage appear to deserve more notice than I believe they have received.

O.

_Burning the Dead._--Can any of your readers, who may have attended particularly to the funeral customs of different peoples, inform me whether the practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people excepting inhabitants of Europe and Asia? I incline to the opinion that this practice has been limited to people of Indo-Germanic or Japetic race, and I shall be obliged by any references in favour of or opposed to this view.

T.

_Meaning of "Shipster."_--Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the business or calling or profession of a Shipster? The term occurs in a grant of an annuity of Oct. 19. 2 Henry VIII., 1510, and made between "H.U., Gentilman, and Marie Fraunceys de Suthwerk, in com Surr _Shipster_."

JOHN R. FOX.

55. Welbeck Street, Jan. 22. 1850.

_Why did Dr. Dee quit Manchester?_--In the _Penny Cyclopædia_, art. DEE, JOHN, I find the following statement:--

"In 1595 the queen appointed Dee warden of Manchester College,
he being then sixty-eight years of age. He resided there nine
years; _but from some cause not exactly known, he left it in
1604_, and returned to his house at Mortlake, where he spent the
remainder of his days."

Can any of your correspondents assign the _probable_ causes which led to Dr. Dee's resignation?

T.T.W.

Burnley, Lancashire, Jan. 21. 1850. {217}

_Meaning of "Emerod," "Caredon."_--In the Lansd. MS., British Museum, No. 70., there is a letter from Mr. Richard Champernowne to Sir Robert Cecil, dated in 1592, referring to the discovery of some articles pillaged from the Spanish carrack, which had then recently been captured and taken into Dartmouth harbour. Amongst these articles is one thus described:--"An Emerod, made in the form of a cross, three inches in length at the least, and of great breadth."

In the same volume of MSS. (art. 61.) there is the description of a dagger "with a hefte of white Caredon."

From the size of the cross described, "Emerod" can scarcely be read "Emerald," as applied by us to one of the precious stones.

Is "white Caredon" white cornelian?

Can any of your numerous correspondents give me a note in answer to the above queries?