Chapter II: Part 2

[It was Dr. John Hartcliffe, of Merchant Taylors', that wished to
become Provost of King's College: but the mandate was obtained from
King William, not from James II. Hartcliffe's _Discourse against
Purgatory_, 1685, which Anthony à Wood thinks was publicly burnt in
France, was not likely to recommend him to the favour of the latter
king. The affair of the Provostship is thus stated by Cole (_Hist. of
King's College_, vol. iv. Addit. MSS. 5817.)--"On the death of Dr.
Copleston, Hartcliffe made a great stir, in order to become Provost,
and actually obtained a mandate of King William to the society to
choose him; but he was far from being agreeable to the Fellows of the
college, who, when they heard he was in town, and upon what errand he
came, directly shut up the college gates, and proceeded to an election,
when Dr. Roderick was chosen, with the odds of ten votes to one. This
being transacted in the infancy of King William's reign, he chose not
to stir much in it; but after having shown the Fellows, by the very
petition they made to him, which was presented by Mr. Newborough and
Mr. Fleetwood, that he had a right to present, he dismissed them." A
biographical notice of Dr. Hartcliffe is given in Nichols's _Literary
Anecdotes_, vol. i. pp. 63, 64., and in Wood's _Athenæ_ (Bliss), vol.
iv. p. 790.

No one appears to have continued Ward's _Lives of the Gresham
Professors_. Maitland, in his _History of London_, has brought the
history of the institution down to 1755. Dr. Ward himself had prepared
a new edition, containing considerable additions, which was presented
to the British Museum by his residuary legatee. Among the Additional
MSS. also will be found a large mass of papers and correspondence
relating to the _Lives_. From one document, entitled "Minutes relating
to the Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, being Additions to
the printed Work," we extract the following notice of "William Cokayne,
who was the son of George Cokayne, of Dovebridge in Devonshire, clerk.
He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, in London, and from thence
elected probationer Fellow of St. John's College, where he was
matriculated 9th July, 1736. He commenced A.M. 9th July, 1744; made
Junior Proctor 1750; and B.D. 4th July, 1751." The date of his
appointment as Astronomy Professor is not given; but his resignation,
in 1795, will be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxv. p. 711.
He appears to have died in 1798 (see _Ib._, vol. lxviii. p. 641.), when
the Rev. Joseph Monkhouse succeeded him as Rector of Kilkhampton, co.
Cornwall.

{432}

The MS. "Minutes" also contain a notice of William Roman, the
thirteenth Geometry Professor, "who was educated at Merchant Taylors'
School, London, and from thence elected to St. John's College, Oxford,
in 1740, being matriculated as the son of Richard Roman, of London,
Gent., ætat. 17. He commenced B.C.L., May 5th, 1747; Deacon at Christ
Church, 21st Sept., 1746; Priest at Christ Church, 20th Sept., 1747."
No date of his appointment, but he was Professor in 1755, when Maitland
wrote his account of the college. Dr. Samuel Kettilby succeeded the
Rev. Samuel Birch as Geometry Lecturer, and died June 25, 1808.--See
_Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. lxxviii. p. 657.]

"_Haulf Naked._"--In poring over an old deed the other night, I stumbled upon the above name, which I take to be that of a manor in the county of Sussex. Is it so? and, if so, by what name is the property now known?

CHARLES REED.

[In Dallaway's _Western Sussex_, art. WASHINGTON, vol. ii. pt. ii. p.
133., is the following entry:--"In 1310, Henry Balduyne sold to Walter
de Halfenaked one messuage, two acres of arable, and two acres of
meadow, in Washington and Sullington. Ped. fin. 3 Edw. II."]

* * * * *

Replies.

THE LEGEND OF LAMECH--HEBREW ETYMOLOGY.

(Vol. vii., p. 363.)

Etymologists are a race who frequently need to be drawn up with a somewhat tight rein. Our Celtic fellow-subjects will not, perhaps, be much gratified by MR. CROSSLEY's tracing the first indications of their paternal tongue to the family of Cain; and as every branch of that family was destroyed by the deluge, they may marvel what account he can give of its reconstruction amongst their forefathers. But as his manner of expressing himself may lead some of your readers to imagine that he is explaining Cain, Lamech, Adah, Zillah, from acknowledged Hebrew meanings of any parts of those words, it may be as well to warn them that the Hebrew gives no support to any one of his interpretations. If fancy be ductile enough to agree with him in seeing a representation of a human arm holding a sling with a stone in it in the Hebrew letter called _lamed_, there would still be a broad hiatus between such a concession, and the conclusion he seems to wish the reader to draw from it, viz. that the word _lamed_ must have something to do with slinging, and that consequently _lamed_ must be a slinger. The Hebrew scholar knows that _lamed_ indisputably signifies to _teach_; and though perhaps he may not feel sure that the Hebrew consonant _l_ obtained its name from any connexion with that primary meaning of the root _lamed_, he will not think it improbable that as the letter _l_, when prefixed to a noun or verb, _teaches_ the reader the construction of the sentence, that may have been the reason for its being so named.

As to a legend not traceable to within some thousand years of the facts with which it claims to be connected, those may take an interest in it who like so to do. But as far as we may regard Lamech's address to his wives in the light of a philological curiosity, it is interesting to observe how naturally the language of passion runs into poetry; and that this, the most ancient poetry in existence, is in strict unison with the peculiar character of subsequent Hebrew poetry; that peculiarity consisting of the repetition of clauses, containing either the same proposition in a slightly different form, or its antithesis; a rhyme of thoughts, if we may so say, instead of a rhyme of sounds, and consequently capable of being preserved by a literal translation.

And Lamech said unto his wives,--

"Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
Ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech,
For I have slain a man to my wounding,
And a young man, to my hurt.
If Cain shall be avenged seventy-fold,
Truly Lamech, seventy and seven-fold."

The construction is more favourable to the belief that the _man_ of line third is the same as the _young man_ of the parallel clause, than that he had slain two; the word rendered _hurt_ is properly a _wheal_, the effect of a severe strife or wound.

As to the etymologies of the names mentioned by MR. CROSSLEY, we gather from God's words that she called her first son Cain, an acquisition (the Latin _peculium_ expresses it more exactly than any English word), because she had gotten (literally _acquired_, or obtained possession of) a man. As for Lamech, or more properly L[)e]m[)e]ch, its etymology must be confessed to be uncertain; but there is a curious and interesting explanation of the whole series of names of the patriarchs, Noah's forefathers, in which the name of the other Lemech, son of Methusaleh, is regarded as made up of _L[)e]_, the prefixed preposition, and of _mech_, taken for the participle Hophal of the verb to smite or bruise. Adah, [Hebrew: 'DH], is _ornament_; Zillah, [Hebrew: TSLH] may mean the _shade_ under which a person reposes; or if the doubling of the _l_ is an indication that its root is [Hebrew: TSLL], it may mean a dancer.

H. WALTER.

Allow me, in reference to MR. CROSSLEY's remarks, to say, that from the accidental resemblance of the Hebrew and Celtic words _Lamech_ and _Lamaich_, no philological argument can be drawn of identical meaning, any more than from the fact that the words Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazar, or Belteshassar[2], are significant in Russian {433} and Sclavonian, as well as in Chaldee. _Lamache_ in Arabic means (see Freytag) "_levi intuitu et furtim adspicere_ aliquem;" also to _shine_, as lightning, or a star. _Lamech_, therefore, is an appropriate designation for a man known to prowl about for plunder and murder, and whose eye, whether taking aim or not, would give a sudden and furtive glance.

The word _lamed_ signifies, in Hebrew, _teaching_; the word _Talmud_ is from the same root. It is the same in Syriac and Chaldee. The _original_ significant of these three languages is to be found in the Arabic _Lamada_: "_Se submisit_ alicui; _humiliter se gessit_ erga aliquem." (Freytag.) No argument can be drawn from the shape of the letter [Hebrew: L] (_lamed_), because, although popularly so called, it is _not_ a Hebrew letter, but a Chaldee one. The recent discoveries, published in Layard's last work, demonstrate this fact; Mr. Layard falls into the mistake of calling the basin inscriptions Hebrew, although Mr. Ellis, who had translated them, says expressly that the language is Chaldee (_Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 510.), one of them only being Syriac (p. 521.). Chaldee and Syriac, indeed, differ from each other as little as Chaucer's and Shakspeare's English, although the written characters are wholly distinct.

Davis, in his _Celtic Researches_, has done all that was possible, taking a very limited view, however, in fixing upon certain linguistic resemblances in some ancient tongues to the Celtic; but a clear apprehension of the proper place which the Celtic language and its congeners hold in comparative philology, can only be learnt from such works as Adelung's _Mithridates_, and Adrien Balbi's _Atlas Ethnographique du Globe_.

T. J. BUCKTON.

[Footnote 2: The accidental resemblances are curious. Thus, _Nebucadnetzar_ is in Russian _nebê kazenniy Tzar_, "A Lord or Prince appointed by heaven;" or, _nebu godnoi_ _Tzar_, "A Prince fit for heaven." _Belshatzar_ is also in Russian _bolszoi Tzar_, "A great Prince;" and _Belteshtzar_, Daniel's Chaldean pagan name, is _byl têsh Tzar_, "he was also a Prince," _i. e._ "of the royal family."]

The interpretation of Hessius (_Geschichte der Patriarchen_, i. 83.) is preferred by Rosenmüller:

"Ex hujus Doctissimi Viri sententia Lamechus _sese jactat_ propter
filios suos, qui artium adeo utilium essent inventores: Cainum
progenitorem suum propter cædem non esse punitum, multo minus se posse
puniri, si vel simile scelus commisisset. Verba enim non significant,
cædam ab eo revera esse paratam, sed sunt verba hominis admodum
insolentis et profani. Ceterum facile apparet, hæc verba a Mose ex
quodam carmine antiquo inserta esse: tota enim oratio poeticam quandam
sublimitatem spirat."

The sense of these two verses (Gen. iv. 23, 24.) is, according to Dathe:

"_Si propter viri aut juvenis cædem vulnera et plagæ mihi intendantur,
cum de Caino poena septuplex statuta fuerit, in Lamecho id fiet
septuagies septies._"

Herder, in his _Geist der ebräischen Poesie_ (i. 344.) says:

"Carmen hoc Lamechi laudes canere gladii a filio inventi, cujus usum et
præstantiam contra hostiles aliorum insultus his verbis prædicet:
_Lamechi mulieres audite sermonem meum, percipite dicta mea: Occido jam
virum, qui me vulneravit, juvenem, qui plagam mihi infligit. Si Cainus
septies ulciscendus, in Lamecho id fiet septuagies septies._"

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

The legend of the shooting of Cain by Lamech is detailed in _The Creation of the World, with Noah's Flood_, a Cornish mystery, translated into English by John Keigwin, and edited by Davies Gilbert, Esq. The legend and translation, in parallel columns, are given also at pp. 15, 16. of Mr. Gilbert's "Collections and Translations respecting St. Neot," prefixed to descriptive account (in 4to., with sixteen coloured plates) of the windows of St. Neot's Church in Cornwall, by Mr. Hedgeland, who restored them, 1805-1829, at the expense of the Rev. Richard Gerveys Grylls, patron, and formerly incumbent of the living.

JOSEPH RIX.

St. Neot's, Huntingdonshire.

* * * * *

LORD COKE'S CHARGE TO THE JURY.

(Vol. vii., p. 376.)

_Saltpetre-man._--An explanation of this title may be found in a proclamation of King Charles I. (1625):

"For the Maintaining and Increasing of the Saltpetre Mines of England,
for the Necessary and Important Manufacture of Gunpowder."

This proclamation states:

"That our realm naturally yields sufficient mines of saltpetre without
depending on foreign parts; wherefore, for the future, no dovehouse
shall be paved with stones, bricks, nor boards, lime, sand, nor gravel,
nor any other thing whereby the growth and increase of the mine and
saltpetre may be hindered or impaired; but the proprietors shall suffer
the ground or floors thereof, as also all stables where horses stand,
to lie open with good and mellow earth, apt to breed increase of the
said mine. And that none deny or hinder any _saltpetre-man_, lawfully
deputed thereto, from digging, taking, or working any ground which by
commission may be taken and wrought for saltpetre. Neither shall any
constable, or other officer, neglect to furnish any such
_saltpetre-man_ with convenient carriages, that the King's service
suffer not. _None shall bribe any saltpetre-man_ for the sparing or
forbearing of any ground fit to be wrought for saltpetre," &c.

It would appear that the _saltpetre-man_ abused his authority, and that the people suffered a good deal of annoyance from the manner in which this {434} absurd system was carried out; for two years afterwards we find that another proclamation was published by the King, notifying, "that the practice of making saltpetre in England by digging up the floors of dwelling-houses, &c. &c., tended too much to the grievance of his loving subjects ... that notwithstanding all the trouble, not one third part of the saltpetre required could be furnished." It proceeds to state that Sir John Brooke and Thomas Russell, Esq., had proposed a new method of manufacturing the article, and that an exclusive patent had been granted to them. The King then _commands_ his subjects in London and Westminster, that after notice given, they "carefully keep in proper vessels all human urine throughout the year, and as much of that of beasts as can be saved." This appeared to fail; for at the end of the same year, the "stable" monarch proclaimed a return to the old method, giving a commission to the Duke of Buckingham, and some others, to "... break open ... and work for saltpetre," as might be found requisite; and in 1634, a further proclamation was issued renewing the old ones, but excepting the houses, stables, &c. of _persons of quality_.

During the Commonwealth the nuisance was finally got rid of; for an act was passed in 1656, directing that "none shall dig within the houses, &c. of any person _without their leave first obtained_."

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

J. O. treats _The Lord Coke, his Speech and Charge, with a Discoverie of the Abuses and Corruptions of Officers_, 8vo. London: N. Butter, 1607, as a genuine document; but it is not so; and, lest the error should gain ground, the following account of the book, from the Preface, by Lord Coke, to the seventh part of his _Reports_, is subjoined:

"And little do I esteem an uncharitable and malicious practice in
publishing of an erroneous and ill-spelled pamphlet under the name
Pricket, and dedicating it to my singular good lord and father-in-law,
the Earl of Exeter, as a charge given at the assizes holden at the city
of Norwich, 4th August, 1606, which I protest was not only published
without my privity, but (beside the omission of divers principal
matters) that there is no one period therein expressed in that sort and
sense that I delivered: wherein it is worthy of observation, how their
expectation (of scandalizing me) was wholly deceived; for behold the
catastrophe! Such of the readers as were learned in the laws, finding
not only gross errors and absurdities on law, but palpable mistakings
in the very words of art, and the whole context of that rude and ragged
style wholly dissonant (the subject being legal) from a lawyer's
dialect, concluded that _inimicus et iniquus homo superseminavit
zizania in medio tritici_, the other discreet and indifferent readers,
out of sense and reason, found out the same conclusion, both in respect
of the vanity of the phrase, and for that I, publishing about the same
time one of my commentaries, would, if I had intended the publication
of any such matter, have done it myself, and not to have suffered any
of my works pass under the name of Pricket; and so _unâ voce
conclamaverunt omnes_, that it was a shameful and shameless practice,
and the author thereof to be a wicked and malicious falsary."

J. G.

Exon.

* * * * *

WHITE ROSES.

(Vol. vii., p. 329.)

The allusion is to the well-known Jacobite badge of the white rose, which was regularly worn on June 10, the anniversary of the Old Pretender's birthday, by his adherents. Fielding refers to the custom in his _Amelia_:

"On the lovely 10th of June, under a serene sky, the amorous Jacobite,
kissing the odoriferous Zephyr's breath, gathers a nosegay of white
roses to deck the whiter breast of Celia."--_Amelia_, edit. 1752, vol.
i. p. 48.

The following lines are extracted from a collection of considerable merit, now become uncommon, the authors of the different papers in which were Dr. Deacon and Dr. Byrom, and which is entitled _Manchester Vindicated_ (Chester, 1749, 12mo.). The occasion was on a soldier snatching a white rose from the bosom of a young lady on June 10, 1747:

I.

"Phillis to deck her snowy breast
The rival-flowers around display'd,
Thraso, to grace his war-like crest
Of orange-knots a huge cockade,
That reds and whites, and nothing else,
Should set the beaux against the belles!

II.

"Yet so it was; for yesterday
Thraso met Phillis with her posies,
And thus began th' ungentle fray,
'Miss, I must _execute_ those roses.'
Then made, but fruitless made, a snatch,
Repuls'd with pertinacious scratch.

III.

"Surpriz'd at such a sharp rebuke,
He cast about his cautious eyes,
Invoking _Vict'ry_ and _the Duke_,
And once again attack'd the prize;
Again is taught to apprehend,
How guardian thorns the rose defend.

IV.

"Force being twice in vain apply'd,
He condescended then to reason;
'Ye _Jacobitish_ ----,' he cry'd
'In open street, the love of treason
With your white roses to proclaim!
Go home, ye rebel slut, for shame!'
{435}

V.

"'Go you abroad to Flanders yonder,
And show your valour there, Sir Knight;
What bus'ness have you here, I wonder,
With people's roses, red or white?
Go you abroad, for shame,' says Phillis,
'And from the Frenchmen pluck their lilies.'

VI.

"'Lilies!' says Thraso, 'lilies too!
The wench, I find, would be a wit,
Had she command of words eno',
And on the right one chanced to hit:
For pity, once, I'll set her clear:
The laurels, you would say, my dear.'

VII.

"'No, but I would not, Sir; you know
What laurels are no more than I,
Upon your head they'll never grow,
My word for that, friend, and good-bye:
_He that of roses robs a wench,_
_Will ne'er pluck laurels from the French._'"

JAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

BURIAL OF UNCLAIMED CORPSE.

(Vol. vii., pp. 262. 340.)

A tradition of similar character with that mentioned by E. G. R., and noticed by J. H. L., is reported to have occurred between the parishes of Shipdham and Saham Tony in Norfolk, of a corpse being found on the common pasture of Shipdham, which parish refused to bury it, and the parish of Saham Tony, therefore, was at the expense thereof, and claimed a considerable piece of the common pasture from Shipdham, in consequence of the neglect of the latter parish.

A fine continues to be paid by Shipdham to Saham to this time; and although many entries are made of such payments in the early parish accounts, beginning A.D. 1511, yet in no instance is it said the reason or cause of these payments being annually made. The said payments are not always of the same amount; they are sometimes paid in money and sometimes in kind, as the following instances show.

The first entry I meet with is in 1511:

Payd the halffe mark at Saham.
1512. Delyvyrd to same ij buschells of otts, viij^d; in sylv^r, ij^d.
1513. The same payment as in 1512.
1514. No entry of any payment.
1515. Payd for _woots_ to Saham, vj^d, and ij^d of mony.
1516. Payd to y^e hallemarke, j^d (not said if to Saham or not).
This entry "to y^e hallemark" may be an error of the scribe for
"y^e halffe mark," as in the first entry under 1511.
1517. Payd to y^e halffe mark, j^d (no doubt to Saham).
1518. No entry of payment to Saham.
1519. Payd to same for ij barssels of owte, vj^d;
to same, ij^d viij^d
1520. Payd for ij busschellys of otte to same,
viij^d; and a henne, ij^d x^d
1521. Payd to same for ij buschells of ots, xj^d,
and ij^d in sylver xiij^d
1522. Payd for y^e half marke, j^d; payd for
oots to same, vij^d viij^d
1523. Payd for y^e halff mark (no doubt to Saham) j^d
1524. Payd for otts to sam and wodlod viij^d
1525. Similar entry to the last.
1526. Payd for otts to same, viij^d; payd for
wod led to same, j^d ix^d
1527. Payd the halffe mark, j^d; paid to the
_Comon_, to (two) bussells otts, ix^d, and
a j^d in lieu of a henne xj^d
1539. Payd to same for the task x^d[3]
1541. Payd to Thomas Lubard, for ij bs. of
otts to Saham viij^d
Payd to y^e seyd Thomas for j heyn
(hen) to Saham ij^d

On looking through the town accounts of Shipdham, I find entries of--

Payd to the half mark to Saham j^d
Ij bushells oates, and in lieu of a hen ij^d

The only entry in which I find anything at all apparently relative to the common is that under 1527. Whether the court books of Saham would throw any light on the subject, I know not. Should an opportunity offer for my searching them, I will do so.

G. H. I.

P.S.--Although I have given several entries of the customary payments to Saham, they are merely given to show the different modes of making those entries, and not in expectation of your giving all of them, unless you think any further light can be given on the subject. As before, perhaps the court books of the manor of Saham would assist.

It was an annual custom for Shipdham people to "Drive the common" (as it was called) once a year, in a night of an uncertain time, when all the cattle, &c. found within the limits or boundary of Shipdham were impounded in a farm-yard adjoining. Upon the common, all those belonging to owners residing in Shipdham and claimed were set at liberty, while those belonging to Saham had to be replevied by a small payment, which custom continued up to the period of the commons being inclosed. Perhaps this custom was by way of retaliation, by which means the charge of payment of oats and a hen was recovered by the money paid for replevying their cattle, &c. so impounded.

[Footnote 3: No payment entered in the accounts between 1527 and 1539. The average tenpence annually.]

* * * * *

PSALMANAZAR.

(Vol. vii., p. 206.)

Your correspondent inquires as to the real name of this most penitent of impostors. I fear that {436} there is now no likelihood of its being discovered. His most intimate friends appear to have been kept in the dark on this subject. With respect to his country, the most probable conclusion seems to be, that he was born in the south of Europe, in a city of Languedoc. A very near approximation seems to be made to the exact locality by a careful collation of the circumstances mentioned in his autobiography, in the excellent summary of his life in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vols. xxxiv. and xxxv., which is much better worth consulting than the articles in Aikin or Chalmers; which are poor and superficial, and neither of which gives any list of his works, or notices the _Essay on Miracles, by a Layman_ (London, 1753, 8vo.), which is one of them, though published anonymously. There is a very amusing account of conversations with him at Oxford, in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, vol. xxxv. p. 78., in which, before a large company of ladies and gentlemen who were curious as to the customs of Formosa, he gravely defended the practice which he said existed in that country, of cutting off the heads of their wives and eating them, in case of misconduct. "I think it is no sin," continued he, "to eat human flesh, but I must own it is a little unmannerly." He admitted that he once ate part of a black; but they being always kept to hard work, their flesh was tough and unsavoury. His grandfather, he said, lived to 117, and was as vigorous as a young man, in consequence of sucking the blood of a viper warm every morning; but they had been forced to kill him, he being attacked with a violent fit of the colic, and desiring them to stab him, which, in obedience to another "custom of the country," they had done. _Splendidè mendax!_ was certainly, in his younger days, this much venerated friend of our great moralist. I should, however, feel inclined to forgive much of his extraordinary romancing for the admirable manner in which he settled that chattering twaddler, Bishop Burnet:

"He was one day with Dr. Burnet, Bishop of Sarum, who, after his warm
manner, cried, 'Ay, you say so; but what proof can you give that you
are not of China, Japan, or any other country?' 'The manner of my
flight,' replied he, 'did not allow me to bring credentials: but
suppose your lordship were in Formosa, and should say you are an
Englishman, might not the Formosan as justly reply, You say you are an
Englishman; but what proof can you give that you are not of any other
country? for you look as like a Dutchman as any that ever traded to
Formosa.' This silenced his lordship."

JAMES CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

GRAFTS AND THE PARENT TREE.

(Vol. vii., p. 365.)

I was surprised to find it stated as "a fact" by MR. INGLEBY, "that grafts, after some fifteen years, wear themselves out." A visit to one of the great orchard counties would assure him of the existence of tens of thousands of grafted apple and pear trees, still in a healthy state, and from forty to fifty years old, and more. There are grafted trees of various kinds in this country, which to my own knowledge are upwards of sixty years old; and I have little doubt but that there are some a good deal older.

The ancient Ribstone pippin, which stood in Ribstone Park, till it died in 1835, was believed to have been grafted. Such was the opinion of one of the gardeners there; and a writer in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_, 1845, p. 21., states that in 1830 he fell in with the Ribstone pippin in great abundance in Switzerland, in the valley of Sarnen; and he remarks that it is more probable this apple was introduced into England from that country, than the reverse. The question has not been conclusively settled.

Notwithstanding "the belief that the graft perishes when the parent tree decays" is pronounced by MR. INGLEBY to be a fond superstition, yet there are certain facts, well known to orchard growers, which give some warrant for it. Without committing myself altogether to this doctrine, I will state a few of them.

It is well known that no cider or perry fruit is so good, on first being introduced, as it is after fifteen or twenty years of cultivation. A certain period seems to be required to mature the new sort, and bring it to its full vigour (long after it is in full bearing) before it is at its best. The tree, with all its grafted progeny, will last, perhaps fifty, perhaps more than one hundred years, in a flourishing state, and then they will begin everywhere to decay; nor has any device yet been successful in arresting that general decay.

Witness the rise, progress, and fall of the _Forest Stire_ of Gloucestershire, the _Foxwhelp_ and _Redstreak_ of Herefordshire, the _Golden Pippin_, and, more lately, the _Ribstone Pippin_, of which there is an increasing complaint, not to mention many others in the same condition. The first-named apple is very nearly extinct, and the small quantity of the fruit that is still to be had fetches enormous prices.

Whether this decay be owing to _grafting_, is a question which can be decided only by the future behaviour of the suckers from the original tree, several of which from the tree at Ribstone Park are now growing at Chiswick and elsewhere.

I am aware that Dr. Lindley combats very eagerly the doctrine that varieties of the apple and pear, or indeed of any tree, die naturally of old age; but the only incontrovertible fact which he adduces in support of his argument, is the existence of the French _White Beurré_ pear, which has flourished from time immemorial. His denial of the decay of the _Golden Pippin_, the _Golden {437} Harvey_, and the _Nonpareil_, will not, I think, be allowed to be just by the experience of your readers; the existence of the last-named apple for three centuries, supposing it to be true, has not secured it exemption from the general fate.

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Glass Baths._--Several of your correspondents finding a difficulty in making glass baths, I beg to communicate the way in which they may be very easily manufactured. Having obtained two pieces of patent plate glass, grind the edges, which may readily be done by a scythe sand-stone, where other contrivances are not handy. Cut for the bottom of the bath a slip of the same glass three-quarters of an inch in breadth; and for the sides, from ordinary window-glass, four wedges, being about three-fifths of an inch at one end, tapering down to the thickness of the piece of plate glass at the bottom. If several pieces are cut off promiscuously, four may be selected which have exactly the same angle, so as to form an even support to the sides. The glass being perfectly clean, dry, and as warm as can be conveniently held by the hand, fix the bottom and then the sides by means of the _very best_ sealing-wax, which will perfectly adhere to the glass. If the commoner sorts of wax are used, some marine glue must be added to it to temper it. The side slips should be fixed a quarter of an inch apart, so as to form a cavity, which must be entirely filled up with wax. The wax may be used as in sealing a letter in the first instance; but, in order to give the whole bath solidity, and expel every particle of air from between the glass, I use a heated pointed iron, as a plumber does in the act of soldering. This, passed over the external parts of the wax, also gives it a hardness and smooth finish.

These details may appeal trifling, and others may have more ingenious modes of accomplishing the object; but having used baths so constructed upwards of twelve months without leakage, I believe they will be found to be most economical, and far more to be relied on than gutta percha. A good bath so made should require about six ounces of solution of nitrate of silver to take a picture eight inches square. Your observations in a former Number, respecting the uncertainty of gutta percha, I have found to be perfectly true. Samples of gutta percha constantly vary; and one may contain impurities acted upon by the chemicals, which another does not. A small rim formed by sealing-wax dissolved in spirits of wine, and applied twice or thrice along the upper edge of the bath, is sufficient to protect the prepared glass from adhering to the front of the bath when in use.

H. W. D.

_Securing Calotype Negatives._--Will any of your correspondents be good enough to say what they consider the best method of securing a calotype paper negative for a few days or a week, in cases where it may be difficult, from lack of conveniences during that time, to use hyposulph., with its consequent washings, &c.? Some, I believe, recommend bromide of potassium; some, the iodide; others, common salt: but I should like to know which is considered the _best_; what strength, and how applied. Also, whether any subsequent treatment is necessary previous to the final application of the hypo.

W. T.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Wood of the Cross_ (Vol. vii., pp. 177. 334.).--I find, in your 179th Number, p. 334., a communication on "The Wood of the Cross." Mention is made of the several kinds of wood of which the cross is said to have been made--elder, olive, &c. It is a somewhat curious coincidence, that yesterday I was with a farmer in his garden, and observing on several apple-trees some luxuriant mistletoe, I remarked that it was principally found on that tree, sometimes on the oak, but rarely on other trees. The farmer, after inquiring whether it could be propagated by cuttings, &c., asked if I had ever understood that our Saviour's cross was made of mistletoe? On replying in the negative, and remarking that it was altogether unsuitable for such a purpose, he rejoined, that, previously to that event, it was a large strong tree, but subsequently had been doomed to have only a parasitical (not that he used the term) existence.

As CEYREP said "I never heard of our Lord's cross having been made of elder wood," so I would also add, I never heard before of its being made of mistletoe. Did any one else ever hear of this tradition?

S. S. S.

_Bishops' Lawn Sleeves_ (Vol. vi., p. 271.).--J. G. T. has inquired concerning the date and origin of the present robes of Anglican bishops. Mr. Trevor thus describes the bishop's dress in Convocation, which is the proper dress of the episcopate:

"The chimere is the Convocation habit of a doctor of divinity in
Oxford, made of silk instead of cloth, as the rochet is an alb of lawn
in place of linen, _honoris causâ_: the detaching the sleeves from the
rochet, and sewing them to the upper garment instead, is obviously a
contrivance of the robe-makers. Dr. Hody says that the scarlet robe
worn by the bishops in the House of Lords is the doctor's gown at
Cambridge; the first archbishops after the Reformation being of that
university. (_Hody_, 140.) At Parker's consecration he appeared first
in a scarlet gown and hood; then at the Holy Communion he and two of
the consecrating bishops {438} wore white surplices, while the senior
had a cope: and after his consecration he and the two diocesan bishops
endued themselves in the now customary dress of a bishop, the
archbishop having about his neck a collar of sables (_Cardw. Doc.
Ann._, i. 243.). Before the Reformation, it was remarked as peculiar to
the English bishops, that they always wore their white rochets, 'except
when hunting.' (_Hody_, 141.)"--_The Two Convocations, Note on_, p.
195.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Inscriptions in Books_ (Vol. vii., pp. 127. 337.).--The two accompanying inscriptions in books were given to me the other day. The second is, I believe, much in vogue at Rugby.

"Si quis errantem
Videat libellum
Reddat, aut collo
Dabitur capistrum
Carnufex ejus
Tunicas habebit
Terra cadaver."

"Small is the wren,
Black is the rook,
Great is the sinner
That steals this book."

W. W.

As your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS inquires regarding inscriptions in books, perhaps the following may add to his proposed collection, being an old ditty much in use among schoolboys, &c.:

"Hic liber est meus,
And that I will show;
Si aliquis capit,
I'll give him a blow."

N. N.

_Lines quoted by Charles Lamb_ (Vol. vii., p. 286.).--The author of the lines quoted--

"Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines;
Curl me about, ye gadding vines," &c.--

is Andrew Marvell. They are taken from his fine poem on Nun-Appleton, Lord Fairfax's seat in Yorkshire; and will be found in vol. iii. p. 198. of Marvell's _Works_, edit. 1776, 4to.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Parochial Libraries_ (Vol. vi., p. 432.; Vol. vii., pp. 193. 369.).--Upon visiting Cartmel in Lancashire ten years ago, I found a library in the vestry, and in my diary made the following entry:

"There is a small library in the vestry, of a very miscellaneous
description, left by a former incumbent, two hundred years ago, to the
vicar for the time being, to be kept in the vestry. There is a fine
copy, in small quarto, of Spenser's _Faery Queene_ in the collection,
of the date 1560."

How I ascertained the date of the gift, or whether there were any other particulars worth recording, I do not remember. Since taking "N. & Q." I have learnt the benefit, I might say the necessity, of being more particular.

BRICK.

To your list of parochial libraries may be added one in Swaffham Church, Norfolk, bequeathed to the parish by one of the Spelman family. It contains several hundred volumes, and among them some of the Elzevir classics. About seven years ago I visited Swaffham, and found this collection of books in a most disgraceful state, covered with dust and the dung of mice and bats, and many of the books torn from their bindings. It would afford me great pleasure to hear that more care is taken of such a valuable collection of books. There is also a smaller library, in somewhat better preservation, in the vestry of St. Peter's, Mancroft Church, in the city of Norwich.

E. G. R.

There are parochial libraries at Milden, Brent Eleigh, and at All Saints, Sudbury, Suffolk. See Rev. C. Badham's _Hist. and Antiq. of All Saints, Sudbury_, 8vo. London, 1852, pp. 105-109.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

_Huet's Navigations of Solomon_ (Vol. vii., p. 381.).--In reply to EDINA'S Query, Huet's treatise _De Navigationibus Salomonis_ was published in 1698, 12mo., at Amsterdam, and before his work on the Commerce of the Ancients was printed. EDINA will find a short extract of its contents in vol. ii. p. 479. of Dr. Aikin's _Translation of Huet's Autobiography_, published in 1810 in two volumes 8vo. The subject is a curious and interesting one; but, from my perusal of the tract, I should scarcely say that Huet has treated it very successfully, or that the book is at all worthy of his learning or acuteness.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Derby Municipal Seal_ (Vol. vii., p. 357.).--The "buck in the park," on the town seal of Derby, is probably a punning allusion to the name of that place, anciently _Deora-by_ or _Deor-by_, i. e. the abode of the deer.

C. W. G.

_Annueller_ (Vol. vii., pp. 358. 391.).--Bishop Ergham founded St. Anne's College in Wells, for the maintenance of Societas (xiv.) Presbyterorum annuellarum Novæ Aulæ Wellensis. The _annuellar_ was a secular conduct, receiving a yearly stipend. These priests, probably, served his chantry at Wells.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

_Reverend Richard Midgley, Vicar of Rochdale_ (Vol. vii., p. 380).--The collection of the lives of pious persons to which Dr. Whitaker refers, as containing a very interesting account of Midgley, will undoubtedly be Samuel Clarke's _Lives of Thirty-two English Divines_. The passage, which will scarcely be new to your correspondent, is at p. 68. of the life of "Master Richard Rothwell" (Clarkes's _Lives_, edit. 1677, fol.), and a very pleasing passage it is, and one that I might almost {439} be justified in extracting. Dr. Whitaker and Brook (_Lives of the Puritans_, vol. ii. p. 163.) seem to be at variance with regard to the Midgleys, the former mentioning only one, and the latter two, vicars of the family.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

_Nose of Wax_ (Vol. vii., p. 158.).--Allow me to refer to a passage in "Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks," by Lodowick Barry (which is reprinted in the fifth volume of Dodsley's _Old Plays_), illustrative of this term. In Act I. Sc. 1., _Dash_ describes the law as

"The kingdom's eye, by which she sees
The acts and thoughts of men."

Whereupon _Throate_ observes:

"The kingdom's eye!
I tell thee, fool, it is the kingdom's nose,
By which she smells out all these rich transgressors;
Nor is't of flesh, but merely made of _wax_,
And 'tis within the power of us lawyers,
To wrest this _nose of wax_ which way we please."

This illustration was overlooked by Nares, to whose _Glossary_ you refer.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

_Canongate Marriages_ (Vol. v., p. 320.; Vol. vii., p. 67.).--The correspondent who expressed his surprise some time ago at his Query on this subject not having called forth any remark from your Scotch friends, will perhaps find the explanation of this result in the fact, that in Scotland we are guided by the civil or Roman law on the subject of marriage; and consequently, with us marriage is altogether a civil contract; and we need the intervention neither of clergyman, Gretna blacksmith, or the equally disreputable Canongate coupler. The services of the last two individuals are only sought for by you deluded southerns. All we require here is the agreement or consent of the parties ("_consensus non_ concubitus facit matrimonium"); and the legal questions which arise have reference chiefly to the evidence of this consent. The agreement may be made verbally, or in writing, before witnesses or not, as the parties choose. Or a marriage may be constituted and proved merely by habit and repute, _i. e._ by the parties living together as man and wife, and the man allowing the woman to be addressed as his wife. A promise of marriage, followed by _copula_, also constitutes a marriage. But it would be out of place here to enter into all the arcana of the Scotch law of marriage: suffice it to say, that it prevails equally at John o' Groat's House and Aberdeen, as in the Canongate or at Gretna Green. A _regular_ marriage requires certain formalities, such as the publication of banns, &c. An _irregular_ one is equally good in law, and may be contracted in various ways, as above explained.

This law, though _at first sight_ likely to lead to great abuses, really works well in practice; and prevents the occurrence of those distressing cases, which not unfrequently happen in England, of seduction under promise of marriage, and subsequent desertion.

SCOTUS.

_Smock Marriages_ (Vol. vii., p. 191.).--According to Scotch law, the marriage of the father and mother legitimises all children _previously_ born, however old they may be. This is called legitimisation _per subsequens matrimonium_, and is not unfrequently taken advantage of by elderly gentlemen, who, after having passed the heyday of youth, wish to give their children a position, and a legal right to inherit their property. Like the rule as to marriage above explained, it is derived from the Roman or civil law. There are very few, I should rather say _no_, legal fictions in the Scotch law of the nature alluded to by your correspondent.

SCOTUS.

_Sculptured Emaciated Figures_ (Vol. v., p 497.; Vol. vi. _passim_).--In Dickinson's _Antiquities of Nottinghamshire_, vol. i. p. 171., is a notice with an engraving of a tomb in Holme Church, near Southwell, bearing a sculptured emaciated figure of a youth evidently in the last stage of consumption, round which is this inscription: "Miseremini mei, miseremini mei, saltem vos amici mei, quia manus Domini tetigit me."

J. P., JUN.

_Do the Sun's Rays put out the Fire_ (Vol. vii., p. 285.).--It is known that solar light contains three distinct kinds of rays, which, when decomposed by a prism, form as many spectra, varying in properties as well as in position, viz. luminous, heating or calorific, and chemical or actinic rays.

The greater part of the rays of heat are even less refrangible than the least refrangible rays of light, while the chemical rays are more refrangible than either. The latter are so called from their power of inducing many chemical changes, such as the decomposition of water by chlorine, and the reactions upon which photographic processes depend.

The relative quantities of these several kinds of rays in sun-light varies with the time of day, the season, and the latitude of any spot. In general, where the luminous and heating rays are most abundant, the proportion of chemical rays is least; and, in fact, the two seem antagonistic to each other. Thus, near the equator, the luminous and calorific rays being most powerful, the chemical are feeble, as is shown by the length of time required for the production of photographic pictures. Hence, also, June and July are the worst months for the practice of photography, and better results are obtained before noon than after.

It is precisely for a similar reason that the combustion of an ordinary fire, being strictly a chemical change, is retarded whenever the sun's heating and luminous rays are most powerful, as during bright {440} sunshine, and that observe our fires to burn more briskly in summer than winter; in fact, that apparently "the sun's rays put out the fire."

A. W. W.

Univ. Coll., London.

_Spontaneous Combustion_ (Vol. vii., p. 286.).--A most interesting discussion of this question is to be found in Liebig's _Familiar Letters upon Chemistry_.

That chemist proves conclusively:--1. That of the cases adduced none is well authenticated, while in most it is admitted that the victims were drunkards, and that generally a candle or lamp was in the room, and after the alleged combustion was found turned over. 2. That spontaneous combustion is absolutely impossible, the human frame containing 75 or 80 per cent. of water; and since flesh, when saturated with alcohol, is not consumed upon the application of a light, the alcohol burning off first, the causes assigned to account for the spontaneous ignition are _à priori_ extremely improbable.

A. W. WILLS.

Univ. Coll., London.

_Ecclesia Anglicana_ (Vol. vii., p. 12.).--This has always been the appellation of the Church of England, just as much before the Reformation as after. I copy for G. R. M. one rather forcible sentence from the articles of a provincial synod, holden A.D. 1257:

"Et super istis articulis prænotatis fecit Bonifacius, Cant. Arch.
suorum suffraganeorum sibi subditorum universorum, prælatorum pariter
et cleri procuratorum, convocationem isto anno apud Londonias semel et
secundo, propter gravamina et oppressiones, de die in diem per summum
pontificem et D. Henricum Regem _Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ_
irrogatas."--Wilkin's _Concilia Mag. Brit. et Hib._, vol. i. p. 726.

For other examples of the ante-reformational use of _Ecclesia Anglicana_, I can give him so large a reference as to Wilkins' book, _passim_; to the Writs for Parliament and Mandates for Convocation contained in the Appendix to Wake's _State of the Church and Clergy_; and to the extracts from _The Annals of Waverley_, and other old chronicles, quoted in Hody's _History of English Councils and Convocations_.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Wyle Cop_ (Vol. iv., pp. 116. 243. 509.; Vol. v., p. 44.; Vol. vi., p. 65.).--The summit of a steep hill in the town of Shrewsbury bears the name of _The Wyle Cop_. I think that these are two Welsh words, _Gwyl Cop_, meaning watch mound, slightly altered. _Gop_, near Newmarket in Flintshire, has a longer Welsh name, which is written by English people _Coperleni_. This, when correctly written, means, the mound of the light or fire-beacon. _Mole Cop_, the name of a lofty hill near Congleton, appears to be a slight corruption of the Welsh words _Moel y Cop_, the mountain of the mound. There is another lofty hill in Staffordshire called _Stiles Cop_. It seems probable that on both of these hills mounds may have been made in ancient times for the erection of fire-beacons. It would appear that Dr. Plot did not understand the Welsh language, as he has stated that he thought, in these instances, the word _Cop_ meant a mountain.

N. W. S. (2.)

_Chaucer_ (Vol. vii., p. 356).--No foreign original has ever been found for Chaucer's "House of Fame." Warton fancied that it had been translated or paraphrased from the Provençal, but could adduce no proof that it had. Old Geoffrey may have found the groundwork somewhere, in the course of his multifarious reading; but the main portion of the structure is evidently the work of his own hands, as the number of personal details and circumstances would tend to indicate. The forty lines comprising the "Lai of Marie," which Chaucer has worked up into the "Nonnes Preestes Tale" of some seven hundred lines, are printed in Tyrwhitt's Introductory Discourse to the _Canterbury Tales_, and will be sufficient to show what use he made of the raw material at his disposal. We may fairly presume that Emerson never took the trouble to investigate the matter, but contented himself with snatching up his materials from the nearest quarry, and then tumbling them out to the public.

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

_Campvere, Privileges of_ (Vol. vii., p. 262.).--J. D. S. asks, "What were these privileges, and whence was the term Campvere derived?"

In Scotland there exists an ancient institution called "The Convention of Royal Burghs," which still meets annually in Edinburgh, under the fixed presidency of the Lord Provost of that city. It is a representative body, consisting of delegates elected by the town councils of the royal burghs (not _boroughs_) of Scotland; and their business is to attend to such public measures as may affect the general interests of their constituents. In former times, however their powers and duties were of far more importance than they are now. The Convention seems to have exercised a general superintendence of the foreign trade of the kingdom. With a view to the promotion of that trade, they used to enter into commercial treaties, or _staple contracts_ as they were called, with the commercial cities of the Continent; and I have now before me one of these staple contracts, made with the city of Antwerp in 1540; and another with the city of Middleburg, in Zeeland, in 1541; but latterly they seem to have confined themselves to the town of _Campvere_, in Zeeland (island of Walcheren). In all these contracts it was stipulated {441} that the Scottish traders should enjoy certain privileges, which were considered of such importance that the crown appointed a _conservator_ of them. The last of these staple contracts was made with Campvere in the year 1747; but soon afterwards the increasing prosperity of Scotland, and the participation of its burgesses in the foreign trade of England, rendered such partial arrangements useless, and the contracts and the privileges have long since been reckoned among the things that were. The office of conservator degenerated into a sinecure. It was held for some time by the _Rev._ John Home, author of the tragedy of _Douglas_, who died in 1808; and afterwards by a Sir Alex. Lenier, whose name is found in the _Edinburgh Almanack_ as "Conservator at Campvere" till 1847, when the office and the officer seem to have expired together.

J. L.

_Sir Gilbert Gerard_ (Vol. v., pp. 511. 571.).--In addition to the information I formerly sent you in answer to MR. SPEDDING'S inquiry, I am now enabled to state two facts, which greatly reduce the period within which the date of Sir Gilbert Gerard's death may be fixed. Among the records in Carlton Ride, is an enrolment of his account as _Custos Domûs Conversorum_ from January 29, 34 Eliz. (1592) to January 29, 35 Eliz. (1593). And a search in Doctors' Commons has resulted in the discovery, that Sir Gilbert's will was proved, not, as Dugdale states, in April, 1592, but on April 6, 1593. He died therefore between January 29 and April 6, 1593.

Dugdale mentions that there is no epitaph on his monument.

EDWARD FOSS.

_Mistletoe_ (Vol. vii., p. 270.).--I wish to mention that the mistletoe has been tried at the Botanic Gardens belonging to Trinity College, Dublin; and, after flourishing for some years, it died away. Indeed, I think it has been repeatedly tried there, but without eventual success.

Y. S. M.

Dublin.

_Wild Plants and their Names_ (Vol. vii., p. 233.).--_Cowslip_, "Palsy Wort." Culpepper says:

"Because they strengthen the brain and nerves, and remedy palsies, the
Greeks gave them the name _paralysis_." "The flowers preserved, or
conserved, and the quantity of a nutmeg taken every morning, is a
sufficient dose for inward disorders."

For the ointment he gives the following receipt:

"Bruise the _flowers_; and to two handfuls of these, add a pound of
hog's grease dried. Put it in a stone pot, covered with paper, and set
it in the sun or a warm place three or four days to melt. Take it out
and boil it a little; strain it out when hot; pressing it out very hard
in a press. To this grease add as many herbs as before, and repeat the
whole process, if you wish the ointment strong.--Yet this I tell you,
the fuller of juice the herbs are, the sooner will your ointment be
strong; the last time you boil it, boil it so long till your herbs be
crisp, and the juice consumed; then strain it, pressing it hard in a
press; and to every pound of ointment, add two ounces of turpentine,
and as much wax."

CERIDWEN.