Chapter V: A L E N T I N E S

sold by George Howard. Indeed so complete was his success in this line,
that Cupid has again commissioned him as the 'Great High Priest' of
Love, Courtship, and Marriage, and has supplied George with the most
complete and perfect assortment of 'Love's Armor' ever before offered
to the citizens of Wayne County. During the past year the 'Blind God'
has centred his thoughts on producing something in the line far
surpassing anything he has heretofore issued. And it is with 'feelinks'
of the greatest joy that he is able to announce that he has succeeded.

'HOWARD HAS GOT THEM.

"To those susceptible persons whose hearts were captured during the
past year, George refers, and advises others to call on them, and find
them on their way rejoicing, shouting praises to the name of Howard.
The 'blessings' descend unto even the third and fourth generations, and
it is probable that the business will go on increasing year upon year,
until Howard's Valentines will be a 'household word' throughout the
land. The children on the house-top will call to the passers-by,
shouting

HOWARD'S VALENTINES!

while the cry is echoed from the ground, and swelling over hill and
vale reverberates the country through.

{282} "Remember that the only regularly authorised dispenser of Cupid's
goods is

GEORGE HOWARD,

"Two doors East of the American House, Wooster, O.

"[Pointing hand] Orders by mail promptly attended to. Prices range from
six cents to five dollars."

* * * * *

"VALENTINES!!

"A large and splendid assortment of Valentines, together with all the
necessary fixings, for sale wholesale and retail, at the New Column
Building.

"J. H. BAUMGARDNER & CO.

"Wooster, Feb. 3, 1853."

* * * * *

"VALENTINES.--Behold St. Valentine's day is coming, and all are seeking
for messages to be dispatched under cover of this Saint, to friend or
foe. They are provided, of all kinds, styles, and varieties, ready for
use. The turtle dove kind, with its coo! coo! the sensibly sentimental,
the cutting, and severe, and in short everything that can be required.
Just call on George Howard or J. H. Baumgardner & Co., and you can be
suited to a T."

S. R. P.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_His Excellency David Hartley._--In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of January last (which I have only lately seen), there is inserted at page 8. a letter signed by "Benjamin Franklin and John Jay," and addressed to His Excellency David Hartley, announcing the arrival in Europe of the ratification, by the Congress of the United States, of the definitive treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States, and stating that they were ready to exchange the ratification with Mr. Hartley.

In a note prefixed to this letter, the editor of the review states that Mr. Hartley "then held some other diplomatic appointment from the United States."

Now this is a mistake. Mr. Hartley was the British plenipotentiary who signed that treaty at Paris in September, 1783, with the American plenipotentiaries, and held no diplomatic appointment from the United States. He was therefore the proper person to exchange the ratifications with the American plenipotentiaries.

The treaty is printed at full length in Chalmers' _Collection of Treaties_, together with Mr. Hartley's _full power_ as the British plenipotentiary.

J. B.

_The Life and Correspondence of S. T. Coleridge._--It is much to be regretted that no proper life of the "noticeable man" has yet appeared. There is no lack of "reminiscences," and "recollections," and "conversations," conveying, distorted views of his life and character, and exaggerated statements of his faults and failings; but his life has yet to be written. And now would be the time, whilst some of his friends and cotemporaries are still living, to do justice to his memory. Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, have had their lives copiously illustrated, and even little Tommy Moore is (_cosa stupenda_) to have _ten volumes_ devoted to his life, whilst Coleridge, the myriad-minded, still waits for a biographer. And who would be so suitable as Derwent Coleridge to perform the office!

J. M. B.

_An old Riddle._--I lately found the following mysterious verse upon a scrap of paper. It is of the time of Henry VIII.:

"Vj is come, v is goone, wyth thris tene beware al men
Vij wyth vij shall mete wyth viij^th and viij^th manye
A thousande shall wepe Ad parabulam hanc
If I shulde seye what it is I shuld have no thanke
For he that ne rekketh where that he steppeth
He may lightly wade to depe."

J. BT.

_The Word "rather."_--The word _rather_ is, as far as I know (if I am wrong, perhaps some of your correspondents will correct me) a solitary instance in our language of a comparative regularly formed from a positive which is now obsolete. In the _Cant. Tales_, v. 13029., we find the positive form:

"What aileth you so _rathe_ for to arise;"

where _rathe_ means "early, soon."

The earliest use of the comparative degree which I can find, is in a piece of Anglo-Norman poetry preserved in Hickes's _Thesaurus_, and given in Ellis's _Specimens_, vol. i. p. 73.:

"The chrystal turneth into glass
In state that it _rather_ was."

Here we have the adverbial form; but in Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_, iii. 1342., we find the adjectival form:

"But now to purpose of my _rather_ speech,"

where, according to the principle laid down by Dr. Latham, in his _English Language_, p. 262., 2nd edit., we should, I suppose, pronounce it _rayther_.

This word has sustained various modifications of meaning, but they are in general easily deducible from the original signification: _e.g._ the phrase "I had _rather_" is easily explained, as far as the word _rather_ is concerned; for that which we do more quickly, we do preferably. But in such expressions as "I am _rather_ tired," equivalent to "I am a little tired," the explanation is not so obvious. In this case _rather_ seems to mean "In greater degree than otherwise." Now, in such sentences as "I am glad you are come, _the rather_ that I have work for you to do," _rather_ seems to require the signification "in a greater degree;" and may we not therefore explain the case in question as an elliptical expression for "rather than not?" If {283} so, is it not a solitary instance of such a construction in our language? Perhaps some of your correspondents can inform me, at what period this use of the word was introduced; for it is doubtless a modern innovation.

ERICA.

Warwick.

_In Jesum Cruci affixum._--

"Affixus ligno, _Salvator_, crimina mundi
Abstersit, patiens jussa cruenta necis;
Aspicite ut languore decus, turpescere membra,
Intimus ut sese prodat in ore dolor;
Auditus saxis, intellectusque ferarum
Sensibus, inventos Spiritus æger abit.
Splendida per tenebras, subito simulacra coruscant,
Ardentesque micant per freta longa faces;
Pro servis dominus moritur, pro sontibus insons,
Pro ægroto medicus, pro grege pastor obit,
Pro populo nex mactatur, pro milite ductor,
Proque opere ipse opifex, proque homine ipse Deus:
Quid servus, sons, ægrotus, quid grex, populusque,
Quid miles, quid opus, quidve homo solvat? _Amet_."

The present holy season has brought to my recollection the above beautiful lines, which were shown up some fifty years ago, for long copy, by a schoolfellow at Blundell's school, Tiverton, and copied into my scrap-book. I think they are from the _Poemata_ of Joannes Audoenus, but am not sure of it; of this, however, I am sure, they cannot be better made known to the world than by your excellent publication.

WILLIAM COLLYNS.

Harlow.

* * * * *

Queries.

CORBET PEERAGE.

Sarah, widow of Sir Vincent Corbet, Bart., was created (23rd October, 1679) Viscountess Corbet, of Linchlade, co. Bucks, for her natural life; and in the patent the preamble runs,--that his Majesty Charles II.,

"Having taken into his royal consideration the great worth and merits
of the trusty and well-beloved Sarah Lady Corbet, together with the
faithful services of the late Sir Vincent Corbet, grants," &c.

This evidently explains but little of the real reason both of the grant and its limitation. Lady Corbet had, besides four daughters, two sons then living: both in turns succeeded to the baronetcy. If the peerage were a reward for the services of the late Sir Vincent (those services, indeed, consisting in his having been completely routed by Sir Will Brereton at Nantwich, and afterwards with six troops of horse taken by surprise at Drayton, followed eventually by fine and sequestration),--if, I say, for these services, nineteen years after the Restoration, and certainly three after Sir Vincent's own death, the peerage were bestowed on his widow, then why was it limited for her life? Why was the unusual course taken of actually excluding the succession of the issue, who naturally should have been the recipients of the honour? We may conclude, therefore, the motive was personal favour, "the great worth and merits" of Lady Corbet in fact, as the patent first asserts; but then the Query arises what these were. Tradition says Lady Corbet was a beauty and a _favourite_ (the term may be understood) at a profligate court, and the peerage was the reward; but I cannot discover that this is more than tradition, and have never found any corroborative authority even among the many scandalous histories of the time, and I am most desirous to know if any such evidence can be given.

It may be as well to add that in 1679 Lady Corbet was _sixty-six_ years of age; but we may presume she still had attractions (unless these were only her rank) from the fact that two months later she remarried Sir Charles Lee of Billesley.

MONSON.

Gatton Park.

* * * * *

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON A MARÉCHAL DE FRANCE.

The _Revue Britannique_, in its Number for November, 1852, under the head of "Nouvelles des Sciences," gives an account of the Duke of Wellington's funeral, and enumerates the titles of the illustrious deceased, as proclaimed on the occasion by Garter King-at-Arms. The writer marks in Italics those of _Duc de Brunoy en France_, _Maréchal de France_, and _Chevalier du Saint-Esprit_, and then appends these remarks:

"Que le titre de Duc de Brunoy ait été donné réellement par Louis
XVIII. à Lord Wellington, c'est croyable. Le roi pouvait créer ce duché
en sa faveur, sans blesser aucune susceptibilité militaire. Mais que ce
prince politique ait pu nommer Maréchal de France un général étranger,
auquel il préférait donner le cordon du Saint-Esprit, plutôt que la
simple croix de la Légion-d'Honneur, qu'on cherche en vain dans la
liste des Ordres dont Lord Wellington fut décoré, c'est plus difficile
à croire, à moins que cette nomination n'ait eu lieu avec des reserves
et des conditions de secret, qui auraient fort peu satisfait celui
qu'on supposait, sans doute, ambitieux d'un pareil honneur, puisque on
le lui offrait. Le nombre des Maréchaux fut limité et non augmenté sous
la Restoration. Louis XVIII. crea une Maréchale, il est vrai;--Si Lord
Wellington fut nommé Maréchal, ce titre, restreint à une qualification
honorifique, comme celle de la veuve de Moreau, ne put jamais lui
conférer aucun rang dans l'armée Française. Je somme ici le roi d'armes
Jarretière de vouloir bien produire le diplôme du noble duc."

No man ever stood less in need of foreign orders than the Duke of Wellington; and no man ever {284} had so many of them conferred upon him. As he was the last to assume a title that did not belong to him, so he would have been the first to repudiate any such pretension, if put forward by others on his behalf. Allow me therefore to ask, Would it be inconsistent with what is due to the memory of the great Duke, or with our sense of national honour, to undertake the task of clearing up the doubts thus thrown out respecting his claim to the title of Maréchal de France? I believe these doubts have been repeated in other French journals, and that no reply has yet been made to them by the English press.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Prophecy in Hoveden._--I should be extremely obliged if any one of your numerous readers would give me the following information. In the account given by Hoveden (p. 678. of the Frankfort edition of Sir H. Savile's _Scriptores post Bedam_) of the proceedings during the stay of Richard I. at Messina, that author says:

"Then was fulfilled the prophecy which was found written in ancient
characters on tablets of stone, near a vill of the King of England,
which is called 'Here,' and which King Henry gave to William
Fitz-Stephen. Here the said William built a new house on a pinnacle, on
which he placed the figure of a stag, which is supposed to have been
done that the said prophecy might be fulfilled, which was to the
following effect:

'Whan thu seches in Here hert yreret.
Than sulen Engles in three be ydeled.
That han sal into Yrland altolate waie,
That other into Puille mid prude bi seue,
The thridde into Airhahen herd alle wreken drechegen.'"

This is evidently full of typographical errors, and may be more correctly set forth in the English edition of 1596, which I have not at hand. I therefore wish for information on these points:

1. What is the correct version of this prophecy, and where may it be found?

2. What place is meant by "Here?"

I need hardly say that I have no difficulty as to the first two lines: "When you see a hart reared (erected) in Here, then shall England be divided into three parts."

J. H. V.

_A Skating Problem._--The motto of your paper is, "When found, make a note of it." Here then is one for you.

In several of my skating excursions I have observed, and noted it to others, that ice of just sufficient strength to bear any one in skates standing upon it, will instantly break if tried by the same person without having skates on. I don't know if any of your readers have made the same discovery: if so, can they explain the cause? If, on the contrary, any are incredulous enough to doubt the fact, I would recommend them to test the truth of my statement by a personal trial, before they pass a hasty judgment of the subject.

A SKATER.

"_Rap and rend for._"--In Dryden's Prologue to _The Disappointment, or the Mother in Fashion_, we find these lines:

"Our women batten well on their good nature
All they can rap and rend for the dear creature."

"All they can rap and run for" is the more frequent colloquial version of this quaint phrase.

In Chaucer's "Chanones Yeman's Tale" it stands thus:

"But wasten all that ye may rape and renne."

And to this last word Tyrwhit, in his Glossary, gives "rend?" with a mark of interrogation, as doubtful of the meaning.

Johnson gives it "rap and rend," and quotes a line of Hudibras:

"All they could rap and rend and pilfer:"

and adds, "more properly, _rap and ran_; [ræpan] Sax., to bind, and _rana_, Icelandic, to plunder."

The question is, are we to accept this phrase in the sense it is commonly used, _to seize and plunder_; or have later and better philologists mended the version?

The context in Chaucer does not seem to warrant the interpretation given by Tyrwhit. The narrator is warning his hearers against the rogueries of alchemy:

"If that your eyen cannot seen aright,
Loketh that youre mind lacke not his sight.
For tho' ye loke never so brode and stare,
Ye shul not win a mite on that chaffare,
But wasten all that ye may rape and renne.
Withdraw the fire, lest it to faste brenne;
Medleth no more with that art, I mene;
For if ye don, your thrift is gon ful clene."

M.

"_The wee brown Hen._"--Can any of your correspondents oblige me with a copy of the old Jacobin song, the "Wee brown Hen?" It begins thus:

"I had a wee brown hen,
And she had a wee brown tap,
And she gaed out in the mornin'
For to fill her crap.
The violets were her coverin',
And everything was her care,
And every day she laid twa eggs,
And Sundays she laid mair.
Och! they micht hae letten her be,
For every day she laid twa eggs,
And Sundays she laid three."

The words are very old, and conveyed a certain religious and political allusion. I know the tune {285} of it, and I shall take it as a favour to be furnished with a correct version of the songs.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

_Deprived Bishops of Scotland, 1638._--Neither Bishop Keith, with all his industry (in his _Hist. Catal. of the Scottish Bishops_), nor subsequent ecclesiastical writers on the same subject, appear to have been able to mention the period of the deaths of nearly all those prelates deprived of their sees in 1638. The researches of late years may, perhaps, have been more successful, and in that hope I now venture to inquire when and where the lives of the following Scottish bishops came to a close--1. David Lindsay, Bishop of Edinburgh. 2. Alex. Lindsay, Bishop of Dunkeld. 3. Adam Ballenden, Bishop of Aberdeen. 4. John Guthrie, Bishop of Moray. 5. James Fairly, Bishop of Argyle. 6. Neil Campbell, Bishop of the Isles. 7. John Abernethy, Bishop of Caithness. 8. Geo. Graham, Bishop of Orkney; and 9. Robert Baron, Bishop elect of Orkney, 1638. The Archbishops of St. Andrew and Glasgow, and Bishops of Brechin, Dunblane, Ross, and Galloway, are slightly noticed, though even in these few there are discrepancies, both as to year and place of demise, which might be corrected. The later ecclesiastical records of Scotland are also exceedingly scanty; for Mr. Perceval, with all his acumen and research (in his _Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession_, 2nd edit., Appendix, pp. 250-3.), acknowledges with regret his inability to give more particulars of the consecrations in Scotland between 1662 and 1688, for the column with names of consecrators is without dates of consecrations during that period, and is, with very few exceptions, a blank. In continuation of this topic, may I inquire when and where the two following bishops, deprived in 1690, died?--1. John Hamilton, Bishop of Dunkeld and 2. Archibald Graham, Bishop of the Isles. The notices given by Bishop Keith, of the other deprived Scottish bishops, are also exceedingly brief and meagre; nor has Mr. Lawson (_Hist. Scot. Epis. Ch._) added much.

A. S. A.

Wuzzeerabad.

_Passage in Carlyle._--Carlyle (_French Revolution_, vol. i.), in his description of the horrors attendant on the death-bed of Louis XV., mentions the ghosts of the men "who sank shamefully on so many battle-fields from Rossbach to Quebec, that thy harlot might take revenge for an epigram." Who was the harlot, and what the epigram?

FICULNUS.

_Madagascar Poetry._--Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." throw any light upon the origin of the following lines? I found them among family papers, written about the year 1805, where they are described as the "Invocation of Madagascrian Spirit;" by which, I imagine, we are to infer that they are a translation of some native lay from the island of Madagascar:

"Spirit that art flown away,
Listen to our artless lay.
Teach us, Spirit, to do well;
Teach us, Spirit, to excel.
Stoop, O Spirit! and be kind,
Teaching those you left behind:
Listen to our artless lay,
Spirit that art flown away."

C. S.

_Ink._--From the following lines by Whitehead, which I find in my note-book, I am induced to ask who was the inventor of ink?

"Hard, that his name it should not save,
Who first pour'd forth the sable flood."

PHILIP S. KING.

_Hamilton Queries_ (Vol. vi., p. 429.).--LORD BRAYBOOOKE says, in writing of Lord Spencer Hamilton, that he "was a younger son of James, third Duke of Hamilton." I find, on referring to a Peerage, date about 1720 (I cannot quote it more particularly, as it has no title-page), that the third inheritor of the dukedom of Hamilton was Anne, daughter of the first and niece of the second Duke of Hamilton; and that she married William, Earl of Selkirk, eldest son of the Marquis of Douglas. The date would better accord with Lord Spencer's being a son of James, _fifth_ Duke of Hamilton. Was it not so?

_Sir William Hamilton._--Who was the first wife of Sir W. Hamilton, the celebrated ambassador, and when did he marry her? Who was the second, who has attained such notoriety in connexion with Nelson's name; and when and where were they married?

Was Single-speech Hamilton a member of the ducal family of Hamilton? If so, his lineage from that house?

TEE BEE.

_Derivation of Windfall._--Arvine, in his _Cyclopædia_, gives the following plausible reason for the origin of this term, now in such common use. Query, Is he correct?

"Some of the nobility of England, by the tenure of their estates, were
forbidden felling any trees in the forests upon them, the timber being
reserved for the use of the royal navy. Such trees as fell without
cutting, were the property of the occupant. A tornado was therefore a
perfect god-send, in every sense of the word, to those who had
occupancy of extensive forests; and the _windfall_ was sometimes of
very great value."

W. W.

Malta.

_Do the Sun's Rays put out the Fire?_--There is a current and notorious idea, that the admission of the sun-light into a room puts the fire out; and, {286} after making every deduction for an apparent effect in this matter, I confess I am disposed to think that the notion is not an erroneous one. Can any of your correspondents account for it on philosophical principles, or disprove it experimentally?