Chapter C: Forbes

Temple.

_Doctor Young_ (Vol. vii., p. 14.).--J. H. will find an account of Mrs. Hallows, the lady meant as Young's housekeeper, in Boswell's _Johnson_, p. 351., ed. 1848; and I can add to Anderson's note, that in the Duchess of Portland's correspondence with Young, of which I have seen the originals, Mrs. Hallows is always mentioned by her Grace with civility and kindness.

C.

_Scarfs worn by Clergymen_ (Vol. vii., p. 108.).--Your correspondent will find the subject of his Query fully discussed in the _Quarterly Review_ for June, 1851 (vol. lxxxix. p. 222.), the result being that the use of the scarf, except by chaplains of peers, dignitaries, &c., is a wholly unauthorised usurpation of very recent date.

C.

_Cibber's Lives of the Poets_ (Vol. v., p. 161.; Vol. vii., p. 113.).--MR. W. L. NICHOLS has transmitted to "N. & Q." what he calls a "curious letter which appears to have escaped the notice of MR. CROKER, though it corroborates his statement," relative to Dr. Johnson's mistake as to the authorship of those _Lives_. MR. NICHOLS is informed that he will find this "curious letter" _in extenso_ in Mr. Croker's last edition of _Boswell_, p. 504., with the date of 1846; the letter itself having been published in 1843. It is again referred to in p. 818. as decisive of the question.

C.

"_Letters on Prejudice_" (Vol. vii., p. 40.).--I have always understood from private and family sources, that _Letters on Prejudice_, inquired after by W. W. T., were written by a Miss Mary Kenny, an Irishwoman of great worth and ability. If I am right in this assertion, her brother, who was some time a fellow of the Irish University, and, if not lately dead, rector of one of the London churches, should be able to confirm it.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

_Statue of St. Peter_ (Vol. vi., p. 604.; Vol. vii., p. 96.).--On what authority does CEYREP rest the confident statement, that this statue was undoubtedly cast for a St. Peter "in the time of St. Leo the Great?" I have always understood that it was an ancient statue which had been found in the Tiber; but here is a distinct assertion as to the period of its origin, for which some good authority would be very acceptable.

B. H. C.

_Lord Goring_ (Vol. ii., pp. 22. 65.).--I see him mentioned (in the _Herstelde Leeuw_, fol. 122.) as having been present at the baptism of William III. in 1651. He escorted Madam van Dhona, by whom the young prince was carried to church.--_From the Navorscher_.

W. D. V.

_Revolutionary Calendar_ (Vol. vi., pp. 199. 305.).--The lines to which C. refers may be seen in Brady's _Clavis Calendaria_, vol. i. p. 38. He gives them as the lines of an English wit, thus:

"Autumn, wheezy, sneezy, freezy,
Winter, slippy, drippy, nippy;
Spring showery, flowery, bowery;
Summer hoppy, croppy, poppy."

THOMAS LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_Scanderbags' Sword_ (Vol. vii., p. 35.).--This alludes to a proverb given by Fuller, "Scanderbags' sword must have Scanderbags' arm."

ZEUS.

_Rhymes upon Places_ (Vol. vii., p. 24.).--Lincolnshire:

"Gosberton church is very high,
Surfleet church is all awry;
Pinchbeck church is in a hole,
And Spalding church is big with foal."

ZEUS.

_Nicknames_ (Vol. vi., p. 198.).--If your correspondent will look at Mr. Bellenden Ker's _Archæology of Popular Phrases_, vol. i. p. 184., he will find an attempt to show the origin of nickname; but, whether we agree or not with Mr. Ker, the whole paragraph is worth reading for its comparative philology: it may, perhaps, bear out that the "nic" in "pic-nic" is also allied.

THOMAS LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_Nugget_ (Vol. vi., pp. 171. 281.).--E. N. W. inquires the meaning of the word _nugget_; and W. S. replies that in Persian _nuqud_ signifies "ready money." This may have satisfied E. N. W., but it reminds me of Jonathan Oldbuck and {144} A. D. L. L. I should have thought that any one who had the slightest skill in etymology would have seen at once that _a nugget_ is nothing more than a Yankee (?) corruption of _an ingot_. As many may be in the case of E. N. W., you may as well, perhaps, give this a place in "N. & Q."

T. K.

_Lawyers' Bags_ (Vol. vii., p. 85.).--I think the statement that "prior to the trial of Queen Caroline, the colour of the bags carried by barristers was _green_," will surprise some legal readers. I had been a barrister several years when that trial took place, and cannot think that I had ever seen (indeed that I have yet seen) a barrister or a barrister's clerk carrying a green bag. I suspect it is a mere blunder arising out of the talk about the "green bag" which was said to contain the charges against the Queen. That, however, I apprehend was not a lawyer's bag, whatever some lawyers might have to do with it.

A TEMPLAR.

J. ST. J. Y. may assure himself that Colonel Landman is mistaken. I have been an attendant upon the Courts for fifty years, and therefore long before the terrible green bag containing the charges against Queen Caroline was brought into the House of Commons; and I can confidently assert that I never saw a green bag borne by a barrister or solicitor during that time. The only colours that were ever paraded in my experience by those legal functionaries, were purple and crimson; and they have so continued till the present time--I will not say without interruption, because I have been grieved to see that tailors and small London pedlars have invaded the privilege.

CAUSIDICUS.

_Catherine Barton_ (Vol. iii., pp. 328. 434.).--My attention has been drawn to some questions in your early Numbers respecting this lady. She was the daughter of Robert Barton of Brigstock, Northamptonshire, and Hannah Smith, half-sister of Sir Isaac Newton. The Colonel Barton of whom she is said to be the widow, was her cousin, Colonel Noel Barton, who served with distinction under Marlborough, and died at the age of forty. He was son of Thomas, eldest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.

The Lieutenant Matthew Barton mentioned by DE CAMERA was the son of Jeffery Barton, Rector of Rashden, Northamptonshire, afterwards Admiral Barton. Jeffery was the youngest son of Thomas Barton of Brigstock.

O. O. O.

_Bells and Storms_ (Vol. iv., p. 508.).--Wynkin de Worde, one of the earliest of the English printers, in _The Golden Legend_, observes:

"It is said, the evil spirytes that ben in the region of th' ayre,
doubte moche when they here the belles ringen whan it thondreth, and
when grete tempeste and rages of wether happen, to the ende that the
feinds and wycked spirytes should ben abashed and flee, and cease of
the movynge of tempeste."

We have, in Sir John Sinclair's statistical account of Scotland, an account given of a bell belonging to the old chapel of St. Fillan, in the parish of Killin, Perthshire, which usually lay on a gravestone in the churchyard. Mad people were brought hither to be dipped in the saint's pool; the maniac was then confined all night in the chapel, bound with ropes, and in the morning the bell was set on his head with great solemnity. This was the Highland cure for mania. It was the popular superstition of the district, that this bell would, if stolen, extricate itself out of the thief's hands, and return to its original place, ringing all the way.

RUSSELL GOLE.

_Latin Poem_ (Vol. vii., pp. 6, 7.).--LORD BRAYBROOKE does not appear to be so correct as usual in his belief, that neither of the two Latin poems, which he quotes, have been previously in print. Crowe's beautiful monody will be found at p. 234. of his collected poems, published by Murray, 1827. The printed copy, however, which is headed

"Inscriptio in horto Auctoris apud Alton in Com.
Wilt.
----
M. S.
Gulielmi Crowe,
Signif. Leg. iv.
Qui cecidit in acie,
8 die Jan. A.D. 1815. Æt. s. 21."

has the following differences: line 7., "respexit" for "ascripsit;" l. 9., "solvo" for "pono." L. 10. and the following lines stand thus:

"Quinetiam assidue hic veniam, lentæque senectæ,
De Te, dulce Caput, meditando, tempora ducam:
Sæpe Tuam recolens formam, moresque decentes,
Dictaque, tum sancto, et sapienti corde profecta,
Tum festiva quidem, et vario condita lepore.
Id mihi nunc solamen erit, dum vita manebit.
Tu verò, quicunque olim successoris Hæres,
Sedibus his oro, moesti reverere parentis,"

and so on to the end, with one or two alterations; except in the penultimate line, "sit" for "stet;" and, in the last, "jucundi" for "dilecti."