Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are indicated by footnotes to the relevant item.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

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

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 169.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 22. 1853 [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page

Blackguard, by Sir J. Emerson Tennent 77

Predictions of the Fire and Plague of London, No. I.,
by T. Sternberg 79

Notes and Queries on Bacon's Essays, No. II., by,
P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A. 80

FOLK LORE:--Irish Superstitious Customs--Charm for,
Warts--The Devil--"Winter Thunder," &c. 81

Malta the Burial-place of Hannibal 81

MINOR NOTES:--Waterloo--"Tuch"--The Dodo--Francis I. 82

QUERIES:--

Dr. Anthony Marshall 83

Lindis, Meaning of 83

MINOR QUERIES:--Smock Marriage in New York--The broken
Astragalus--Penardo and Laissa--St. Adulph--St. Botulph--
Tennyson--"Ma Ninette," &c.--Astronomical Query--Chaplains
to Noblemen--"More" Queries--Heraldic Query--"By Prudence
guided," &c.--Lawyers' Bags--Master Family--Passage in
Wordsworth--Govett Family--Sir Kenelm Digby--Riddles--
Straw Bail--Wages in the West in 1642--Literary Frauds
of Modern Times 84

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--"Very like a Whale"--Wednesday
a Litany Day--"Thy Spirit, Independence," &c.--"Hob and
nob," Meaning of 86

REPLIES:--

Wellesley Pedigree, by John D'Alton 87

Consecrated Rings for Epilepsy 88

Turner's View of Lambeth Palace, by J. Walter, &c. 89

Etymological Traces of the social Position of our Ancestors,
by C. Forbes, &c. 90

Goldsmiths' Year-marks, by W. Chaffers, Jun., and H. T.
Ellacombe 90

Editions of the Prayer-Book prior to 1662, by W. Sparrow
Simpson, B.A. 91

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES:--Originator of the Collodion
Process--Mr. Weld Taylor's Process--Dr. Diamond's Services
to Photography--Simplification of the Wax-paper Process 92

The Burial Service said by Heart, by Mackenzie Wallcott,
M.A., &c. 94

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Mary Queen of Scots' Gold
Cross--Jennings Family--Adamson's "England's Defence"--
Chief Justice Thomas Wood--Aldiborontiphoscophornio--
Statue of St. Peter at Rome--Old Silver Ornament--
"Plurima, pauca, nihil"--"Pork-pisee" and "Wheale"--Did
the Carians use Heraldic Devices?--Herbert Family--
Children crying at Baptism, &c. 95

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, &c. 97

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 98

Notices to Correspondents 98

Advertisements 99

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Notes.

BLACKGUARD.

In some of the earlier numbers of "N. & Q.," there occur disquisitions as to the origin of the term _blackguard_, and the time at which it came into use in England in its present sense. But the communications of your correspondents have not been satisfactory upon either point--they have not shown the period at which the word came to be accepted _in its present sense_; and their quotations all apply to its use in a much more simple meaning, and one totally different from that which we now attach to it.

One class of these quotations (Vol. ii., pp. 171. 285.), such as the passages from BUTLER and FULLER, refer obviously to a popular superstition, during an age when the belief in witchcraft and hobgoblins was universal; and when such creatures of fancy were assigned as _Black Guards_ to his Satanic majesty. "Who can conceive," says FULLER in the paragraph extracted, "but that such a Prince-principal of Darkness must be proportionally attended by a Black Guard of monstrous opinions?" (_Church History_, b. ix. c. xvi.) And in the verses of BUTLER referred to, Hudibras, when deceived by Ralpho counterfeiting a ghost in the dark,--

"Believed it was some drolling sprite
That _staid upon the guard_ at night:"

and thereupon in his trepidation discourses with the Squire as follows:

"Thought he, How does the _Devil_ know
What 'twas that I design'd to do?
His office of intelligence,
His oracles, are ceas'd long since;
And he knows nothing of the Saints,
But what some treach'rous spy acquaints.
This is some petty-fogging _fiend_,
Some under door-keeper's friend's friend,
That undertakes to understand,
And juggles at the second hand:
And now would pass for spirit Po,
And all men's dark concerns foreknow.
I think I need not fear him for't;
These rallying _devils_ do not hurt.
{78}
With that he roused his drooping heart,
And hastily cry'd out, What art?--
A wretch, quoth he, whom want of grace
Has brought to this unhappy place.
I do believe thee, quoth the knight;
Thus far I'm sure thou'rt in the right,
And know what 'tis that troubles thee,
Better than thou hast guess'd of me.
Thou art some paltry, _blackguard sprite_,
Condemn'd to drudg'ry in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in th' house,
_Nor half-penny to drop in shoes_;
Without the raising of which sum
You dare not be so troublesome;
To pinch the slatterns black and blue,
For leaving you their work to do.
This is your business, good Pug Robin,
And your diversion, dull dry bobbing."
_Hudibras_, Part III. Canto 1. line 1385, &c.

It will be seen that BUTLER, like FULLER, uses the term in the simple sense as a _guard_ of the Prince of Darkness. But the concluding lines of Hudibras's address to Ralpho explain the process by which, at a late period, this term of the _Black Guard_ came to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in great establishments.

The Black Guard of Satan was supposed to perform the domestic drudgery of the kitchen and servants' hall, in the infernal household. The extract from HOBBES (Vol. ii., p. 134.) refers to this:--

"Since my Lady's decay, I am degraded from a cook; and I fear the Devil
himself will entertain me but for one of his _black guard_, and he
shall be sure to have his roast burnt."

Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their visits to the upper world, confined themselves to the servants' apartments of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and which at night they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their elfin assistants; but _slipping money into the shoes_ of the more tidy and industrious servants, whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the goblins the task of performing their share of the drudgery. Hudibras apostrophises the ghost as--

"... some paltry _blackguard_ sprite
Condemn'd to drudgery in the night;
Thou hast no work to do in th' house
Nor half-penny to drop in shoes;"

and therefore, as the knight concluded--"this devil full of malice" had found sufficient leisure to taunt and rally him in the dark upon his recent disasters.

This belief in the visits of domestic spirits, who busy themselves at night in sweeping and arranging the lower apartments, has prevailed in the North of Ireland and in Scotland from time immemorial: and it is explained in SIR WALTER SCOTT'S notes to the _Lay of the Last Minstrel_, as his justification for introducing the goblin page Gilpin Horner amongst the domestics of Branksome Hall. Perhaps, from the association of these elves with the lower household duties, but more probably from a more obvious cause, came at a later period the practice described by GIFFORD in his note on BEN JONSON, as quoted by your correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 170.), by which--

"in all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there
were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend
the wool-yard, sculleries, &c. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem
to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To
this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the
carts with the pots and kettles, the people, in derision, gave the name
of the _black guards_."

This is no doubt correct; and hence the expression of BEAUMONT and FLETCHER, quoted from the _Elder Brother_, that--

"... from the _black guard_
To the grim Sir in office, there are few
Hold other tenets:"

meaning from the lowest domestic to the highest functionary of a household. This too explains the force of the allusion, in Jardine's _Criminal Trials_, to the apartments of Euston House being "far unmeet for her Highness, but fitter for the Black Guard"--that is, for the scullions and lowest servants of an establishment. SWIFT employs the word in this sense when he says, in the extract quoted by Dr. Johnson in his _Dictionary_ in illustration of the meaning of _blackguard_,--

"Let a black-guard boy be always about the house to send on your
errands, and go to market for you on rainy days."

It will thus be seen, that of the six authors quoted in "N. & Q." no one makes use of the term _black guard_ in an opprobrious sense such as attaches to the more modern word "blackguard;" and that they all wrote within the first fifty years of the seventeenth century. It must therefore be subsequent not only to that date, but to the reign of Queen Anne, that we are to look for its general acceptance in its present contumelious sense. And I believe that its introduction may be traced to a recent period, and to a much more simple derivation than that investigated by your correspondents.

I apprehend that the present term, "a blackguard," is of French origin; and that its importation into our language was subsequent to the Restoration of Charles II., A.D. 1660. There is a corresponding term in French, _blague_, which, like our English adaptation, is not admissible in good society. It is defined by Bescherelles, in his great _Dictionnaire National_, to mean "fanfaronnade, hâblerie, mensonge; bourde, gasconade:" and to {79} be "un mot populaire et bas, dont les personnes bien élevées évitent de se servir." From _blague_ comes the verb _blaguer_, which the same authority says means "dire des blagues; mentir pour le plaisir de mentir." And from _blaguer_ comes the substantive _blagueur_, which is, I apprehend, the original of our English word _blackguard_. It is described by Bescherelles as a "diseur de sornettes et de faussetées; hâbleur, fanfaron. Un _blagueur_ est un menteur, mais un menteur qui a moins pour but de tromper que de se faire valoir."

The English term has, it will be observed, a somewhat wider and more offensive import than the French: and the latter being rarely to be found amongst educated persons, or in dictionaries, it may have escaped the etymologists who were in search of a congener for its English derivative. Its pedigree is, however, to be sought in philological rather than archæological records. Within the last two centuries, a number of words of honest origin have passed into an opprobrious sense; for example, the oppressed tenants of Ireland are spoken of by SPENSER and SIR JOHN DAVIES as "_villains_." In our version of the Scriptures, "_cunning_" implies merely skill in music and in art. SHAKSPEARE employs the word "_vagabond_" as often to express pity as reproach; and I think it will be found, that as a _knave_, prior to the reign of Elizabeth, meant merely a serving man, so a _blackguard_ was the name for a pot-boy or scullion in the reign of Queen Anne. The transition into its more modern meaning took place at a later period, on the importation of a foreign word, to which, being already interchangeable in sound, it speedily became assimilated in sense.

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

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PREDICTIONS OF THE FIRE AND PLAGUE OF LONDON, NO. I.

"It was a trim worke indeede, and a gay world no doubt for some idle
cloister-man, mad merry friers, and lusty abbey-lubbers; when
themselves were well whittled, and their paunches pretily stuffed, to
fall a prophesieing of the woefull dearths, famines, plagues, wars, &c.
of the dangerous days imminent."--Harvey's _Discoursive Probleme_,
Lond. 1588.

Among the sly hits at our nation, which abound in the lively pages of the Sieur d'Argenton, is one to the effect that an Englishman always has an old prophecy in his possession. The worthy Sieur is describing the meeting of Louis X. and our Henry II. near Picquini, where the Chancellor of England commenced his harangue by alluding to an ancient prophecy which predicted that the Plain of Picquini should be the scene of a memorable and lasting peace between the two nations. "The Bishop," says Commines, "commença par une prophétie, dont," adds he, _en parenthèse_, "les Anglois ne sont jamais despourveus."[1] Even at this early period, we had thus acquired a reputation for prophecies, and it must be confessed that our chronicles abound in passages which illustrate the justice of the Sieur's sarcasm. From the days of York and Lancaster, when, according to Lord Northampton "bookes of beasts and babyes were exceeding ryfe, and current in every quarter and corner of the realme,"[2] up to the time of Napoleon's projected invasion, when the presses of the Seven Dials were unusually prolific in visions and predictions, pandering to the popular fears of the country--our national character for vaticination has been amply sustained by a goodly array of prophets, real or pretended, whose lucubrations have not even yet entirely lost their influence upon the popular mind. To this day, the ravings of Nixon are "household words" in Cheshire; and I am told that a bundle of "Dame Shipton's Sayings" still forms a very saleable addition to the pack of a Yorkshire pedlar. Recent discoveries in biological science have given to the subject of popular prophecies a philosophical importance beyond the mere curiosity or strangeness of the details. Whether or not the human mind, under certain conditions, becomes endowed with the prescient faculty, is a question I do not wish to discuss in your pages: I merely wish to direct attention to a neglected and not uninteresting chapter in the curiosities of literature.

In delving among what may be termed the popular religious literature of the latter years of the Commonwealth, and early part of the reign of Charles, we become aware of the existence of a kind of nightmare which the public of that age were evidently labouring under--a strong and vivid impression that some terrible calamity was impending over the metropolis. Puritanic tolerance was sorely tried by the licence of the new Court; and the pulpits were soon filled with enthusiasts of all sects, who railed in no measured terms against the monster city--the city Babylon--the bloody city! as they loved to term her: proclaiming with all the fervour of fanaticism that the measure of her iniquities was well nigh full, and the day of her extinction at hand. The press echoed the cry; and for some years before and after the Restoration, it teemed with "warnings" and "visions," in which the approaching destruction is often plainly predicted. One of the earliest of these prefigurations occurs in that Leviathan of Sermons, _God's Plea for Nineveh, or London's Precedent for Mercy_, by Thomas Reeve: London, 1657. Speaking of London, he says:

It was Troy-novant, it is Troy le grand, and it will be Troy
l'extinct."--P. 217.

{80} And again:

"Methinks I see you bringing pick-axes to dig downe your owne walls,
and kindling sparks that will act all in a flame from one end of the
city to the other."--P. 214.

And afterwards, in a strain of rough eloquence:

"This goodly city of yours all in shreds, ye may seek for a threshold
of your antient dwellings, for a pillar of your pleasant habitations,
and not find them; all your spacious mansions and sumptuous monuments
are then gone.... Wo unto us, our sins have pulled down our houses,
shaken down our city; we are the most harbourlesse featlesse people in
the world.... Foxes have holes, and the fowls of the air nests, but we
have neither; our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert. What
inventions shall ye then be put to, to secure yourselves, when your
sins shall have shut up all the conduits of the city, and suffer only
the Liver conduit to run[3]; when they allow you no showers of rain,
but showers of blood; when ye shall see no men of your incorporation,
but the mangl'd citizen; nor hear no noise in your streets but the
crys, the shrieks, the yells and pangs of gasping, dying men; when,
amongst the throngs of associates, not a man will own you or come near
you," &c.--Pp. 221. _et seq._

After alluding to the epidemics of former ages, he thus alludes to the coming plague:

"It will chase men out of their houses, as if there was some fierce
enemy pursuing them, and shut up shop doors, as if execution after
judgment was served upon the merchants; there will then be no other
music to be heard but doleful knells, nor no other wares to be born up
and down but dead corpses; it will change mansion houses into
pest-houses, and gather congregations rather into churchyards than
churches.... The markets will be so empty, that scarce necessaries will
be brought in, a new kind of brewers will set up, even apothecaries to
prepare diet drinks."--P. 255.

The early Quakers, like most other religious enthusiasts, claimed the gift of prophecy: and we are indebted to members of the sect for many contributions to this branch of literature. Humphrey Smith was one of the most celebrated of the vaticinating Quakers. Little is known of his life and career. He appears to have joined the Quakers about 1654; and after enduring a long series of persecutions and imprisonments for the sake of his adopted creed, finally ended his days in Winchester gaol in 1662. The following passage, from a _Vision which he saw concerning London_ (London, 1660). is startling[4]:

"And as for the city, herself and her suburbs, and all that belonged to
her, a fire was kindled therin; but she knew not how, even in all her
goodly places, and the kindling of it was in the foundation of all her
buildings, and there was none could quench it.... And the burning
thereof was exceeding great, and it burned inward in a hidden manner
which cannot be described.... All the tall buildings fell, and it
consumed all the lofty things therein, and the fire searched out all
the hidden places, and burned most in the secret places. And as I
passed through her streets I beheld her state to be very miserable, and
very few were those who were left in her, who were but here and there
one: and they feared not the fire, neither did the burning hurt them,
but they walked as dejected mournful people.... And the fire continued,
for, though all the lofty part was brought down, yet there was much old
stuffe, and parts of broken-down desolate walls, which the fire
continued burning against.... And the vision thereof remained in me as
a thing that was showed me of the Lord."

Daniel Baker, Will Lilly, and Nostradamus, I shall reserve for another paper.

T. STERNBERG.

[Footnote 1: _Mémoires_, p. 155.: Paris, 1649.]

[Footnote 2: _Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies_, p. 116.]

[Footnote 3: "It was a great contributing to this misfortune that the Thames Water House was out of order, so that the conduits and pipes were almost all dry."--_Observations on the burning of London_: Lond. 1667, p. 34.]

[Footnote 4: For a sight of this extremely scarce tract, I am indebted to the courtesy of the gentleman who has the care of the Friends' Library in Devonshire House, Bishopsgate.]

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NOTES AND QUERIES ON BACON'S ESSAYS, NO. II.

(Vol. vii., p. 6.)

Essay I. p. 2. "One of the fathers." Who, and where?

Ditto, ditto. The poet. Lucretus, ii., init. "Suave mari magno," &c.

Ditto, p. 3. (note i). Plutarch. Does Montaigne allude to Plutarch, _De Liberis educandis_, vol. ii. (ed. Xyland.) 11 C.: "[Greek: to gar pseudesthai douloprepes k.t.l.]"?

Essay II. p. 4. "You shall read in _some_ of the friars' books," &c. Where?

Ditto, ditto. "Pompa magis," &c. Does Bacon quote this from memory, referring to "Tolle istam pompam, sub quâ lates, et stultos territas"? (Ep. XXIV. vol. ii. p. 92.: ed. Elzev. 1672.)

Ditto, p. 5. "We read," &c. Tac. _Hist._, ii. 49. "Quidam milites juxta rogum interfecere se, non noxâ neque ob metum, sed æmulatione decoris et caritate principis." Cf. Sueton. _Vit. Oth._, 12.

Ditto, ditto. "Cogita quamdiu," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "Augustus Cæsar died," &c. Suet. _Vit. Octav._, 99.

Ditto, ditto. "Tiberius in dissimulation." Tac. _Ann._, vi. 50.

Ditto, ditto. "Vespasian." Suet. _Vit. Vespas._, 23.

Ditto, ditto. "Galba." Tac. _Hist._, i. 41.

Ditto, ditto. "Septimus Severus." Whence is this?

Ditto, p. 6. (note _m_). "In the tenth Satire of Juvenal." V. 357., _seq._

Ditto, ditto. "Extinctus amabitur idem." Hor. _Epist._ ii. l. 14.

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Essay III. p. 8. "A master of scoffing." Rabelais, _Pantagruel_, book ii. cap. viii. (p. 339. vol. i. ed. Bohn, 1849.)

Ditto, p. 9. "As it is noted by one of the fathers." By whom, and where?

Ditto, p. 10. "Lucretius." I. 102.

Ditto, p. 11. "It was a notable observation of a wise father." Of whom, and where?

Essay IV. p. 13. "For the death of Pertinax." See _Hist. Aug. Script._, vol. i. p. 578. (Lugd. Bat. 1671.)

Ditto, ditto, (note _f_). "The poet." Ovid, _Ar. Am._, i. 655.

Essay V. ditto. "Bona rerum secundarum," &c. Does Bacon allude to Seneca (Ep. lxvi. p. 238., _ut sup._), where, after stating that "In æquo est moderatè gaudere, et moderatè dolere;" he adds, "Illa bona optabilia sunt, hæc mirabilia"?

Ditto, ditto. "Vere magnum habere," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "The strange fiction of the ancient poets." In note (_a_) we find "Stesichorus, Apollodorus, _and others_" named. Whereabouts?

Ditto, p. 11. (note _c_). "This fine passage has been quoted by Macaulay." _Ut sup._, p. 407.

Essay VI. p. 15. "Tacitus saith." _Ann._, v. 1.

Ditto, ditto. "And again, when Mucianus," &c. Ditto, _Hist._, ii. 76.

Ditto, ditto. "Which indeed are arts, &c., as Tacitus well calleth them." Where?

Ditto, p. 17. "It is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard." What is the proverb?

Essay VII. p. 19. "The precept, 'Optimum elige,' &c." Whence? though I am ashamed to ask.

Essay VIII. p. 20. "The generals." See Æsch. _Persæ_, 404. (Dindf.), and Blomfield _in loc._ (v. 411. ed. suæ).

Ditto, ditto. "It was said of Ulysses," &c. By whom? Compare _Od._, v. 218.

Ditto, p. 21. "He was reputed," &c. Who?

(_To be continued._)

P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.

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FOLK LORE.

_Irish Superstitious Customs._--The following strange practices of the Irish are described in a MS. of the sixteenth century, and seem to have a Pagan origin:

"Upon Maie Eve they will drive their cattell upon their neighbour's
corne, to eate the same up; they were wont to begin from the rast, and
this principally upon the English churl. Onlesse they do so upon Maie
daie, the witch hath power upon their cattell all the yere following."

The next paragraph observes that "they spitt in the face; Sir R. Shee spat in Ladie ---- face."

Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, and I have experienced the ceremony myself.

H.

_Charm for Warts._--I remember in Leicestershire seeing the following charm employed for removal of a number of warts on my brother, then a child about five years old. In the month of April or May he was taken to an ash-tree by a lady, who carried also a paper of fresh pins; one of these was first struck through the bark, and then pressed through the wart until it produced pain: it was then taken out and stuck into the tree. Each wart was thus treated, a separate pin being used for each. The warts certainly disappeared in about six weeks. I saw the same tree a year or two again, when it was very thickly studded over with old pins, each the index of a cured wart.

T. J.

Liverpool.

_The Devil._--

"According to the superstition of the west countries if you meet the
devil, you may either cut him in half with a straw, or force him to
disappear by spitting over his horns."--_Essays on his own Times_, by
S. T. Coleridge, vol. iii. p. 967.

J. M. B.

If you sing before breakfast you will cry before supper.

If you wish to have luck, never shave on a Monday.

J. M. B.

_"Winter Thunder," &c._--I was conversing the other day with a very old farmer on the disastrous rains and storms of the present season, when he told me that he thought we had not yet seen the worst; and gave as a reason the following proverb:

"Winter thunder and summer flood
Bode England no good."

H. T.

Ingatestone Hall, Essex.

* * * * *

MALTA THE BURIAL-PLACE OF HANNIBAL.

Malta affords a fine field for antiquarian research; and in no part more so than in the neighbourhood of Citta Vecchia, where for some distance the ground is dotted with tombs which have already been opened.

Here, in ancient times, was the site of a burial-place, but for what people, or at what age, is now unknown; and here it is that archæologists should commence their labours, that in the result they may not be disappointed. In some of the tombs which have been recently entered in this vicinity, fragments of linen cloth have been seen, in which bodies were enveloped at the time of their burial; in others glass, and earthen candlesticks, and jars, hollow throughout and of a curious shape; while in a few were earrings and finger-rings made of the purest gold, but they are rarely found. {82}

There cannot be a doubt that many valuable antiquities will yet be discovered, and in support of this presumption I would only refer to those now known to exist; the Giant's Tower at Gozo, the huge tombs in the Bengemma Hills, and those extensive and remarkable ruins at Krendi, which were excavated by order of the late Sir Henry Bouverie, and remain as a lasting and honourable memento of his rule, being among the number.

An antiquary, being at Malta, cannot pass a portion of an idle day more agreeably than in visiting some singular sepulchral chambers not far from Notabile, which are built in a rocky eminence, and with entrances several feet from the ground. These are very possibly the tombs of the earliest Christians, who tried in their erection "to imitate that of our Saviour, by building them in the form of caves, and closing their portals with marble or stone." When looking at these tombs from a terrace near the Cathedral, we were strongly reminded of those which were seen by our lately deceased friend Mr. John L. Stephens, and so well described by him in his _Incidents of Travel_ in eastern lands. Had we time or space, we should more particularly refer to several other interesting remains now scattered over the island, and, among them, to that curious sepulchre not a long time ago discovered in a garden at Rabato. We might write of the inscription on its walls, "In pace posita sunt," and of the figures of a dove and hare which were near it, to show that the ashes of those whom they buried there were left in peace. We might also make mention, more at length, of a tomb which was found at the point Beni Isa in 1761, having on its face a Phoenician inscription, which Sir William Drummond thus translates:

"The interior room of the tomb of Ænnibal, illustrious in the
consummation of calamity. He was beloved. The people, when they are
drawn up in order of battle, weep for Ænnibal the son of Bar Malek."

Sir Grenville Temple remarks, that the great Carthaginian general is supposed, by the Maltese, to have been a native of their island, and one of the Barchina family, once known to have been established in Malta; while some writers have stated that his remains were brought from Bithynia to this island, to be placed in the tomb of his ancestors; and this supposition, from what we have read, may be easily credited.

Might I ask if there is any writer, ancient or modern, who has recorded that Malta was not the burial-place of Hannibal?

W. W.

Malta.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Waterloo._--I do not know whether, in any of the numerous lives of the late Duke of Wellington, the following fact has been noticed. In Strada's History of the Belgian war (a work which deserves to be better known and appreciated than it is at present), there occurs a passage which shows that, about three hundred years since, Waterloo was the scene of a severe engagement; so that the late sanguinary struggle was not the first this battle-ground has to boast of. The passage occurs in _Famianæ Stradæ de Bello Belgico, Decas prima_, lib. vi. p. 256., edit. Romæ, 1653; where, after describing a scheme on the part of the insurgents for surprising Lille, and its discovery by the Royalists, he goes on:

"Et Rassinghemius de Armerteriensi milite inaudierat: nihilqve moratvs
selectis centvmqvinqvaginta peditibvs et equitibus sclopetariis fermè
qvinqveginta prope _Waterlocvm_ pagvm pvgnam committit."

What makes this more curious is, that, like the later battle, neither of the contending parties on this occasion were natives of the country in which the battle was fought, they being the French Calvinists on one side and the Spaniards on the other.

PHILOBIBLION.

"_Tuch._"--In "The Synagogue," attached to Herbert's _Poems_, but written by Chr. Harvie, M.A., is a piece entitled "The Communion Table," one verse of which is as follows:

"And for the matter whereof it is made,
The matter is not much,
Although it be of _tuch_,
Or wood, or mettal, what will last, or fade;
So vanitie
And superstition avoided be."

S. T. Coleridge, in a note on this passage, printed in Mr. Pickering's edition of Herbert, 1850 (fcap. 8vo.), says:

"_Tuch_ rhyming to _much_, from the German _tuch_, cloth: I never met
with it before as an English word. So I find _platt_, for foliage, in
Stanley's _Hist. of Philosophy_, p. 22."

Whether Coleridge rightly appreciated Stanley's use of the word _platt_, I shall not determine; but with regard to _touch_, it is evident that he went (it was the tendency of his mind) to Germany for error, when truth might have been discovered nearer home. The context shows that _cloth_ could not have been intended, for who ever heard of a table or altar made of cloth? The truth is that the poet meant _touchstone_, which the author of the _Glossary of Architecture_ (3rd edit., text and appendix) rightly explains to be "the dark-coloured stone or marble, anciently used for tombstones. A musical sound" (it is added) "may be produced by touching it sharply with a stick." And this is in fact the reason for its name. The author of the _Glossary of Architecture_ cites _Ben Jonson_ by Gifford, viii. 251., and _Archæol._, xvi. 84.

ALPHAGE.

Lincoln's Inn.

{83}

_The Dodo._--Among the seals, or rather sulphur casts, in the British Museum, is one of Nicholas Saumares, anno 1400. It represents an esquire's helmet, from which depends obliquely a shield with the arms--supporters--dexter a unicorn, sinister a greyhound; crest, a bird, which from its unwieldy body and disproportionate wings I take to be a Dodo: and the more probability attaches itself to this conjecture, since _Dodo_ seems to have been the surname of the Counts de Somery, or Somerie (query Saumarez), as mentioned in p. 2. of Add. MSS. 17,455. in the British Museum, and alluded to in a former No. of "N. & Q." This seal, like many others, is not in such a state of preservation as to warrant the assertion that we have found a veritable Dodo. I only offer it as a hint to MR. STRICKLAND and others, that have written so learnedly on this head. Burke gives a falcon for the crest of Saumarez; but the clumsy form and figure of this bird does not in any way assimilate with any of the falcon tribe.

Dodo seems also to have been used as a Christian name, as in the same volume of MSS. quoted above we find Dodo de Cisuris, &c.

CLARENCE HOPPER.

_Francis I._--Mention has been made in "N. & Q." of Francis I.'s celebrated "Tout est perdu hormis l'honneur!" but the beauty of that phrase is lost in its real position,--a long letter to Louisa of Savoy, his mother. The letter is given at full length in Sismondi's _Histoire des Français_.

M--A L.

* * * * *

Queries.

DR. ANTHONY MARSHALL.

In 1662 Anthony Marshall, D.D., was Rector of Bottesford, in Leicestershire. Nichols adds a _query_ after his name; whether he were of the Bishop of Exeter's family? and a _note_, that Anthony Marshall was created D.D. at Cambridge in 1661 by royal mandate (_Hist. Leic._, vol ii. p. 77.); and again, Dr. Anthony Marshall preached a Visitation Sermon at Melton in 1667, Aug. 11. I do not find that any Bishop of Exeter bore the name of Marshall except Henry Marshall in 1191, of course too far back to suppose that the Query could refer to him; but I have not introduced this Note to quarrel with Mr. Nichols, but to ask if this is all that is known of a man who must, in his day, have attained to considerable eminence. I more than suspect that this Dr. Marshall was a native of Staveley in Derbyshire. Sir Peter Frescheville, in his will, dated in 1632, gives to St. John's College, Cambridge, 50l. "for the buying of bookes to furnish some one of the desks in the new library lately built and erected in the said college; and expresses his desire that the said money shall be layed forth, and the bookes bought, provided, and placed in the said library by the paines, care, and discression of his two loveing friends, Mr. Robert Hitch, late Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge; and Mr. Robert Marshall, Fellow of St. John's College[5]; or the survivor of them,"--which last Robert, I suspect, should be Anthony.

In 1677 Anthony Marshall, D.D., Rector of Bottesford, was a subscriber of 10l. towards a fund then raised for yearly distribution; and there is only one name precedes his, or subscribes a larger amount, and that is Dr. Hitch before named.

Mr. Bagshaw, in his _Spiritualibus Pecci_, 1701, p. 61., referring to Thomas Stanley, one of the ejected ministers, says:

"Mr. Stanley was born at Dackmonton, three miles from Chesterfield,
where he had part of his education, as he had another part of it at
Staley, not far from it. His noted schoolmaster was one Mr. Marshall,
whose brother made a speech to King James I."

Is there any means of corroborating this incident? In 1682 I observe the name of Dr. Marshall amongst the King's Chaplains in Ordinary, and a Dr. Marshall (perhaps the same individual) Dean of Gloucester; but whether identified in the Doctor about whom I inquire, remains a Query.

U. J. S.

Sheffield.

[Footnote 5: [There is a Latin epigram, by R. Marshall of St. John's College, Cambridge, prefixed to John Hall's _Poems_, published in 1646.--ED.]]

* * * * *

LINDIS, MEANING OF.

We are told by Bede that _Lindisfarne_, now Holy Island, derives the first part of its name from the small brook Lindis, which at high water is quite invisible, being covered by the tide, but at low water is seen running briskly into the sea. Now I should be glad to know the precise meaning of _Lindis_. We are informed by etymologists, that _Lyn_ or _Lin_, in names of places, signifies water in any shape, as lake, marsh, or stream: but what does the adjunct _dis_ mean? Some writers assert that _Lindis_ signifies the linden-tree; thus making the sound an echo to the meaning: and hence they assume that Lindesey in Lincolnshire must signify an Isle of Linden-trees. But it is very doubtful that such a tree ever existed in Lincolnshire anterior to the Conquest. The _linden_ is rather a rare tree in England; and the two principal species, the _Tilia Europea_ and the _Tilia grandifolia_, are said by botanists not to be indigenous to this country, but to have been introduced into our island at an early period to adorn the parks of the nobles, and certainly not till after the Conquest.

Dr. Henry, in his _History of Britain_, vol. iv., gives the meaning of "Marsh Isle" to Lindsey, and of "Lake Colony" to Lincolnia. This I consider the most probable signification to a district {84} that abounded in marshes at that early period, when the rude Briton or the Saxon applied names to places the most consonant to the aspects they afforded them: nor is it likely they would give the name of Lindentree to a small brook, where such a tree never could have grown.

As to the antiquity of the name of Lindes or Lindesey, I should say Lindentree must be of comparatively modern nomenclature. I should, however, be glad to have the opinion of some of your better-informed etymologists on the meaning of the word, as it may decide a point of some importance in genealogy.

J. L.

Berwick.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Smock Marriage in New York._--In a curious old book, entitled _The interesting Narrative of the Life of Oulandah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by himself_, and published in London, by subscription, in 1789, I find the following passage:

"While we lay here (New York, A.D. 1784) a circumstance happened which
I thought extremely singular. One day a malefactor was to be executed
on a gallows, but with a condition that if any woman, having nothing on
but her shift, married the man under the gallows, his life was to be
saved. This extraordinary privilege was claimed; a woman presented
herself, and the marriage ceremony was performed."--Vol. ii. p. 224.

Perhaps some of your New York correspondents can say whether the annals of that city furnish evidence of so extraordinary an occurrence.

R. WRIGHT.

_The broken Astragalus._--Where was the broken astragalus, given by the host to his guest, first used as the symbol of hospitality?