Chapter C: Mansfield Ingleby

Birmingham.

_Oldham, Bishop of Exeter_ (Vol. vii., p. 14.).--No pedigree of this prelate's family is known to have been referred to by any of the Devonshire historians. The arms used by the bishop, and still remaining in several churches of the diocese, were: Sable, a chevron or, between three owls proper; on a chief of the second as many roses gules.

Burke, in the _Encyclopedia of Heraldry_, gives a different coat as borne by Oldham of Hatherleigh in the co. of Devon.

J. D.

_Arms at Bristol_ (Vol. vii., p. 67.).--It may afford a clue to E. D. to be informed that coats of arms bearing a chevron charged with three bucks' heads caboshed were used by the families of Cervington or Servington, and Parry.

J. D.

_The Cross and the Crucifix_ (Vol. v., pp. 39. 85.).--Under this title I find two articles; and, as it is an interesting subject, I should like to send a quotation which I copied some time since from the _Octavius_ of Minucius Felix, A.D. 210 (Adam. Clarke):

"Cruces etiam nec colimus nec optamus. Vos plane qui ligneos deos
consecratis, cruces ligneas, ut deorum vestrorum partes, forsitan
adoratis. Nam et signa ipsa, et cantabra, et vexilla castrorum, quid
aliud quam inauratæ cruces sunt et ornatæ? Tropæa vestra victricia non
tantum simplicis crucis faciem, verum et affixi hominis imitantur.
Signum sane crucis naturaliter visimus in {190} navi, cum velis
tumentibus vehitur, cum expansis palmulis labitur," &c.

Similar sentiments, in almost the same words, are expressed by Tertullian, _Apologet._, sect. 16.; and _Ad Nationes_, sect. 12. See also Justin Martyr, _Apol._ lib. i. sect. 72. The quotation from M. Felix is from the Leipsic edit., 1847, pp. 41, 42.

B. H. C.

_Sir Kenelm Digby_ (Vol. vii., p. 85.).--I am not at all convinced of the accuracy of the statement made by your correspondent VANDYKE, "that Sir Kenelm Digby is (VANDYKE believes _always_) represented with a sunflower by his side." There are various prints of Sir Kenelm Digby at the British Museum, which I have very recently examined, and I can find but one which bears the device alluded to and which is placed, not "by the side of Sir Kenelm Digby," but with other allegorical symbols, at the bottom of the print. Nor do the _Private Memoirs_ (first published in 1827 by the late Sir Harris Nicolas) contain anything to throw light on the supposed adoption of this emblem by Sir Kenelm Digby.

P. C. S. S.

A correspondent signing himself VANDYKE asks, "Why is Sir Kenelm Digby represented, I believe always, with a sunflower by his side?" The very first portrait of Digby I turned to, in Lodge's _Collection_, engraved, too, after Vandyke, is without any flower at all.

JAYDEE.

_Martin Drunk_ (Vol. v., p. 587.).--I cannot find that this phrase has been satisfactorily elucidated. Perhaps the following will throw some additional light on the subject.

In an _Analysis of the Gospels for the Lord's Days_, by Conrad Dieteric, edit. 1631, p. 465., I read:

"Tritum est illud veterum veriverbium:

'Festa _Martini_ iterata,
Absumunt anseres et prata.'

Id quod Germanicus hunc in modum effert:

'Wer all tag will S. Martin prassen,
Der muss endlich S. Nicias fasten.'"

It would seem from this, that not the English alone were wont to enjoy themselves on St. Martin's Day. Baxter, in his _Saint's Rest_ (p. 116. 1st edit.), seems to use the word _Martin_ as synonymous with a noisy tippler:

"The language of Martin is there a stranger, and the sound of his echo
is not heard."

Internal evidence clearly refers all these sayings to the unrestrained mirth and jollity with which the feast of St. Martin was anciently celebrated.

B. H. C.

_The Church Catechism_ (Vol. vii., p. 64.).--It might interest your correspondent to know that the _Catechismus brevis et Catholicus_ of Jacobus Schoepper (published at Antwerp, 1555), contains a remarkable series of passages closely similar to the last twelve questions and answers of the Church Catechism. If desired, I would send these "parallel passages," as I expect the book is very scarce.

B. H. C.

_Sham Epitaphs and Quotations_ (Vol. vi., p 340.).--Your correspondent A. A. D. asks, in reference to a certain epitaph, "has it really a local habitation, and where?" This is a Query full of grave suggestions. Are there not hundreds of epitaphs in print which have no existence except as printer's paragraphs, and which serve the same purpose as the immortal calf with six legs, and the numberless gigantic gooseberries and plethoric turnips. I have collected epitaphs for years past, and it is surprising how many--and those some of the best in a literary sense--defy every attempt to trace them to sepulchral sources. Besides epitaphs, I believe many sham quotations are used by writers, such as couplets and queer phrases of their own coining; but which are inclosed between inverted commas, either to rid their authors of the responsibility of the sentiments they convey, or to add weight to the argument they are introduced to illustrate. A short time since, I contributed a tale to a journal; at the head of each chapter stood a couplet of my own composing, which the printer and editor both mistook for a series of quotations, and kindly affixed inverted commas to them; and, as in that instance I did not receive proof slips to correct, the tale was published, adorned with these sham quotations--the reader being bamboozled without intention, and I robbed of the credit of my original couplets. This is an important matter: for it is no pleasant affair to spend a month or two in the endeavour to trace a quotation, and then to become convinced that you have been hunting for a mare's nest.

SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

_Door-head Inscription_ (Vol. vii., p. 23.).--In accordance with the suggestion of A. B. R., I have by means of a friend obtained an accurate transcript of the door-head inscription at Wymondham. It runs thus:

"Nec mihi glis servus, nec hospes hirudo."

The doubts I felt, when I stated that I quoted from memory, related to the first word or two; and it has proved that I was in error there. The _hirudo_, however, must stand; although it is a question not easy to decide, "whether a greedy or a gossiping guest would be the worst household infliction."

B. B. WOODWARD.

St. John's Wood.

_Potguns_ (vol. vi., p. 612.).--DR. RIMBAULT, in reply to J. R. R., explains _potguns_ by "small guns." {191} They are, in fact, short cylinders set perpendicularly in a frame, "flat-candlestick"-wise, four or six in a row; and were fired by a train of powder running from touch-hole to touch-hole, as a part of the entertainment (a _feu-de-joie_, I suppose) at the public grounds at Norwich some twenty years ago, as I remember.

B. B. WOODWARD.

St. John's Wood.

"_Pompey the Little._"--You mentioned lately the author of _Pompey the Little_ (Vol. vi., pp. 433. 472.). There is a curious note respecting him attached to the entry of another anonymous publication of his, "Philemon and Hydaspes, relating to a Conversation with Hortensius upon the subject of false Religion, 2nd edit., 8vo., 1738," in _Bibliotheca Parriana_, p. 85., which I transcribe:

"_Mem._ These tracts are supposed to be wrote by H. C., Esq., of Mag.
Coll., Cambridge.--J. Hetherington. Mr. Coventry wrote _Pompey the
Little_. He took orders, and became vicar of Edgware, Middlesex; and he
often preached from a folio volume of Tillotson's Sermons, which lay in
the pulpit from week to week. He died of the small-pox. When living at
Stanmore I heard much of his pleasantry, his politeness, and his
integrity. I first read this book at the Rev. Dr. Davy's house in
Norfolk, in August, 1816. This copy was most obligingly sent to me by
Mr. Holmes, keeper of an academy at Stratford-upon-Avon, Thursday, Feb.
13, 1817.--S. P[arr]."

BALLIOLENSIS.

_Eagles supporting Lecterns_ (Vol. vi., pp. 415. 543.).--Are not many, or most of the so-called _eagles_ on lecterns in churches, _pelicans_? The symbolical significance of the pelican "vulning its breast," as the heralds have it, is well known. Some of these, which I remember well, have the beak bent down upon the breast and beneath it, instead of the indications of plumage elsewhere visible, a strip cross-hatched; in sign, as I have supposed, of the flowing blood.

B. B. WOODWARD.

St. John's Wood.

_Lady Day in Harvest_ (Vol. vi., p. 589.).--The _Gotha Almanac_ gives Aug. 15 for Maria Himmelfahrt, or the Assumption; and Sept. 8 for Maria Geburt, or the Nativity. I happened to be going up the Rigi last year on the 5th August, and found that to be the day of pilgrimage to Mary zum Schnee, or Notre Dame des Neiges, who has a chapel which is passed in the ascent.

J. P. O.

_Inscriptions in Churches_ (Vol. vii., p. 25.).--NORRIS DECK'S extract, assigning these inscriptions to the reign of Edward VI., is valuable; but he need not have dissented from your account of the colloquy between Elizabeth and Dean Nowell, as you clearly hinted that "similar inscriptions had been _previously_ adopted" (Vol. vi., p. 511.). The colloquy occurred in the fourth year of Elizabeth's reign; but, from the following extract, her Majesty's proclamation was observed in Ireland two years previously:

"In 1559, orders were sent to Thomas Lockwood, Dean of Christ Church,
Dublin, to remove out of this church all relics and images, and to
paint and whiten it anew; putting sentences of Scripture on the walls
instead of pictures, which orders were observed, and men set to work
accordingly on the 25th May of the same year, which was the second of
Queen Elizabeth's reign."--Lynch's _Life of St. Patrick_, p. 208.,
edit. 1828.

J. Y.

Hoxton.

_Macaulay's Young Levite_ (Vol. i., pp. 26. 167. 222. 374., &c.).--I find another, and an apt illustration of more recent date, to be added to those already given from Burnet, Bishop Earle, and Beaumont and Fletcher. Betty Hint, the "waiting wench" in Macklin's _Man of the World_, entertains matrimonial designs on Sidney, the chaplain:

"I wish she was out of the family once; if she was, I might then stand
a chance of being my lady's favourite myself; ay, and perhaps of
getting one of my young masters for a sweetheart, _or at least the
chaplain: but as for him, there would be no such great catch, if I
should get him_. I will try for him, however," &c.

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

_Passage in Wordsworth_ (Vol. vii., p. 85.).--I can refer your Edinburgh correspondent, who asks for "an _older_ original for Wordsworth's graceful conceit," to the following lines by Henry Constable, an Elizabethan poet, who published, in 1594, a volume of sonnets entitled _Diana_; and whose "ambrosiac muse" is lauded by Ben Jonson in his _Underwoods_ (Gifford, vol. viii. p. 390.):

"The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe,
Made of a quill pluckt from an Angell's winge."

These lines, which I find in the notes to Todd's _Milton_ (vol. v. p. 454., edit. 1826), being addressed "To the King of Scots whom as yet he had not seen," must have been written before 1603, and were first printed on a MS. volume by Todd in his first edition, 1801; where Wordsworth, who was no reader of scarce old tracts like "Diana Primrose's Chain of Pearl," may very probably have seen them.

W. L. N.

Bath.

_Smock Marriages_ (Vol. vi., p. 561.).--In reference to your remark on this article, I remember that a Scotchman once told me that in the Scotch law of marriage there is a clause providing that "all under the apron string" at the time of marriage shall be considered legitimate; and that instances have been known where children born out {192} of wedlock have been legitimatised, on the marriage of their parents, by being placed beneath the mother's apron, and having the string tied over them, during the ceremony.

Perhaps some of your correspondents can give information as to whether such a provision does, or did, exist in the Scotch marriage law.

F. H. BRETT.

Wirksworth.

"_Perhaps it was right to dissemble your love_," (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 72.).--These lines will be found in Act I. Sc. 1. of J. P. Kemble's comedy of _The Panel_, which is an alteration from Bickerstaff's comedy of _'Tis Well It's No Worse_. Not having access to the original comedy, I am unable to say to which of the two authors the lines should be given; but I presume them to be Kemble's.

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

_Burial-place of Spinosa_ (Vol. vi., p. 510.).--Spinosa died at the Hague on Sunday, 23rd February, 1677, and was on the following Tuesday interred in the new church there. See his life by Colerus:

"Le corps fut porté en terre le 25 Fevrier, accompagné de plusieurs
personnes illustres, et suivi de six carosses. Au retour de
l'enterrement, qui se fit dans la nouvelle église sur le Spuy, les amis
particuliers ou voisins furent régalés de quelques bouteilles de vin,
selon la coutume du pays, dans la maison de l'Hôte du défunt" (den
schilder H. van der Spÿck op de paviljoengracht).--_From the
Navorscher._

B.

_St. Adulph_ (Vol. vii., p. 84.).--_Trajectensem_ certainly applies to either Utrecht or Maestricht. One was Trajectum ad Rhenum, the other Trajectum ad Mosam. I incline to the opinion that the latter place is intended: Utrecht being, I believe, generally expressed by Ultrajectum.