Chapter C: Mansfield Ingleby

Birmingham.

_Dogberry's Losses_ (Vol. vii., p. 377.).--I do not know whether it has ever been suggested, but I feel inclined to read "lawsuits." He has just boasted of himself as "one that knows the _law_;" and it seems natural enough that he should go on to brag of being a rich fellow enough, "and a fellow that hath had _lawsuits_" of his own, and actually figured as plaintiff or defendant. Suppose the words taken down from the mouth of an actor, and the mistake would be easy.

JOHN DOE.

* * * * *

THE COENACULUM OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

I have in my possession a manuscript critique on the celebrated picture of The Last Supper by Lionardo da Vinci, written many years ago by a deceased academician; in which the writer has called in question the _point of time_ usually supposed to have been selected by the celebrated Italian painter. The criticisms are chiefly founded on the copy by Marco Oggioni, now in the possession of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Uniform tradition has assumed that the moment of action is that in which the Saviour announces the treachery of one of his disciples "Dico vobis quia unus vestrum me traditurus est." Matth. xxvi. 21., Joan. xiii. 21., Vulgate edit.; and most of the admirers of this great work have not failed to find in it decisive proofs of the intention of the painter to represent that exact point of time. {525}

The author of the manuscript enters into a very detailed examination of the several groups of figures which compose the picture, and of the expression of the heads; and he confesses his inability to find in them anything decisively indicating the period supposed to be chosen. He remarks that nine at least of the persons, including the principal one, are evidently engaged in animated conversation; that instead of that concentrated attention which the announcement might be supposed to generate, there appears to be great variety of expressions and of action; and that neither surprise nor indignation are so generally prominent, as might have been expected. He inclines to think that the studied diversity of expression, and the varied attitudes and gestures of the assembled party, are to be regarded as proofs of the artist's efforts to produce a powerful and harmonious composition, rather than a natural and truthful representation of any particular moment of the transaction depicted by him.

The work in question is now so generally accessible through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter, and decide for himself whether the criticism be well founded.

It must be borne in mind that the subject had long been a familiar decoration of conventual refectories before the time when Lionardo brought his profound knowledge of external human nature, and his unsurpassed powers of executive art, to bear on a subject which had before been treated in the dry, conventional, inanimate manner of the Middle Ages. The leading features of the traditional picture are retained: the long table, the linen cloth, the one-sided arrangement of the figures, the classic drapery, and the general form and design of the apartment, are all to be found in the earlier works; and must have been considered, by observers in general, far more essential to the correct delineation of the scene than any adherence to the exact description of it in any one of the Evangelists. But as the subject was usually introduced into refectories for the edification of the brethren assembled with their superior at their own meals, it does not seem likely that the treachery of Judas should have been intended to be the prominent action of the picture. It was a memorial of the institution of the Eucharist, although the Christ was not represented as dispensing either bread or wine. In such a case, if any particular point of time was ever contemplated by the artist, he might judiciously and appropriately select the moment when the Saviour was announcing, in mysterious words, the close of his mission--as in St. Matthew and St. Mark; or was teaching them a lesson of humility when the spirit of rivalry and strife had disclosed itself among them--as we find in St. Luke and St. John.

It is not perhaps generally known that the statutes of Queen's College, Oxford, prescribe the order of sitting at the common table in manner which evidently refers to the _coenaculum_ of the old church painters.

E. SMIRKE.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Scotter Register (County Lincoln)._--The following extracts from the register of the parish of Scotter, in the county of Lincoln, are perhaps sufficiently interesting to be worth printing in "N. & Q.":

1. "Eccelesia parochialis de Scotter comitatu Lincolniæ dedicata est
Beatis Apostolis Sancto Petro et Sancto Paulo ut apparet in Antiquo
Scripto viduæ Loddington de Scotter, viz. in testamento vltimo Thomæ
Dalyson, Gen. de Scotter, qui obiit Junii 19^o, anno Domini 1495.

"GUL. CARRINGTON,
"Rector ecl[=i]a ibid."

2. "_Memorandum_, That on Septuagesima Sunday, being the 19^{th} day of
January, 1667, one Francis Drury, an excommunicate person, came into
the church in time of divine service in y^e morning, and being
admonisht by mee to begon, hee obstinately refused, whereuppon y^e
whole congregation departed; and after the same manner in the
afternoon, the same day, he came again, and refusing againe to go out,
the whole congregation againe went home, soe y^t little or no service
pformed. They prevented his further coming in y^t manner, as hee
threatned, by order from the Justice, uppon the statute of Queene
Elizabeth concerning the molestation and disturbance of publiq
preachers.

WM. CARRINGTON, Rec."

"O tempora, O mores."

3. "Michæl Skinner Senex centum et trium annorum sepultus fuit die
sancti Johannis, viz. Dec. 27, 1673."

EDWARD PEACOCK, Jun.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.

"_All my Eye._"--"_Over the Left._"

"What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and fortunes spent
in defence of the Protestant religion, he may put in his eye: and what
the Protestant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the service
of a Popish successor, will be over the left shoulder."--Preface to
_Julian the Apostate_: London, printed for Langley Curtis, on Ludgate
Hill. 1682.

Is this passage the origin of the above cant phrases?

GEORGE DANIEL.

Canonbury.

_Curious Marriages._--In _Harl. MSS._ 1550, p. 180., is the pedigree of Irby, where Anthony Irby has two daughters: Margaret, who married Henry Death, and Dorothy, who married John Domesday.

E. G. BALLARD. {526}

_Child-mother._--Four months ago, on board the Brazil packet, the royal mail steam-vessel Severn, there was an instance of a "child-wife," which might be worthy of a place among your curiosities of that description.

She was the wedded wife of a Brazilian travelling from the Brazils to Lisbon, and her husband applied for permission to pay the "reduced passage money" for her as being "under twelve years of age!"

As the regulation on that head speaks of "_children_ under twelve years of age," this _conscientious_ Brazilian's demand could not be countenanced.

His wife's age was under eleven years and a half, and (_credat Judæus_) _she was a mother_!

A. L.

* * * * *

Queries.

FURTHER QUERIES RESPECTING BISHOP KEN.

(_Continued from_ Vol. vii., p. 380.)

In a _Collection of Poems_, in six volumes, by several Hands (Dodsley, 5th edition, 1758), and in vol. iii. p. 75., is found "An Epistle from Florence to T. A., Esq., Tutor to the Earl of P----. Written in the year 1740. By the Honourable ----." Can any one explain an allusion contained in these three lines of the epistle?

"Or with wise Ken judiciously define,
When Pius marks the honorary coin
Of Caracalla, or of Antonine."

It is hardly to be supposed that the Ken here named could mean the bishop, who died so far back as 1711. Was there a coin-collector of that name living about 1740?

We learn (from Ken's _Prose Works_, ed. Round, pp. 93, 94.) that the Bishop's sister, "my poor sister Ken," most probably then a widow, lost her only son, who died at Cyprus, in 1707. Was this Mrs. Ken the Rose Vernon, sister of Sir Thomas Vernon, of Coleman Street, London, and the wife of Jon Ken, the bishop's eldest brother, and treasurer of the East India Company? This Jon and Rose Ken are represented, in Mr. Markland's Pedigree of the Ken family, as still living in 1683. Is there no monumental memorial of this Treasurer Ken, or his family, in any of the London churches?

In Mr. Macaulay's _History of England_, 5th ed., vol. ii. p. 365., he states that "it was well known that one of the most opulent dissenters of the City had begged that he might have the honour of giving security for Ken," when the seven bishops were bailed, previous to their trial. On what authority (for none is cited) does this statement rest?

Can any one give a clue to this passage from a letter written to Mr. Harbin, Lord Weymouth's chaplain, by Bishop Ken, and dated "Winton, Jan 22." [1701]:

"I came to Winchester yesterday, where I stay one post more, and then
go either to Sir R. U. or L. Newton, where you shall hear from
me."--Ken's _Prose Works_, by Round, p. 53.

Can "Sir R. U." (the _U_ perhaps being a mistake for _W._) designate Sir Robert Worsley, Bart., of Chilton, in the county of Southampton, married to Lord Weymouth's daughter? and can "L. Newton" be a mistake for Long Sutton, in Hants? or may it be Long Newton, in the hundred of Malmesbury?

J. J. J.

Temple.

* * * * *

THE REV. JOHN LAWSON AND HIS MATHEMATICAL MANUSCRIPTS.

In the year 1774 the Rev. John Lawson, B.D., Rector of Swanscombe in Kent, published _A Dissertation on the Geometrical Analysis of the Antients, with a Collection of Theorems and Problems without solutions for the Exercise of young Students_. This work was printed anonymously at Canterbury, but the merits of the essay did not permit the author to remain long in obscurity; the real writer was immediately known to most of the geometers of the day, and the elegant character of many of the theorems and problems, led to a general desire that their solutions should be published in a separate work. In accordance with this intention, it was announced on a fly-sheet attached to some copies of the work, that--

"The author of this publication being a man of leisure, and living in a
retired situation, remote from any opportunity of conversation with
mathematicians, would be extremely glad of a correspondence with any
such, who are willing to be at the expense of the same; or if this be
thought too much, will pay the postage of his answers to their letters.
But no letters, except post-paid, can be received by him; otherwise a
door would be opened for frolic, imposition, and impertinence. Any new
geometrical propositions, either theorems or problems, would be
received with gratitude, and if sent without solutions, he would use
his best endeavours to return such as might be satisfactory. Any new
solutions of propositions already in print, _especially of those
included in the present collection_, would also be very agreeable. If a
variety of such demonstrations essentially different from those of the
original authors should be communicated, he proposes at some future
time to publish them all, with a fresh collection for further exercise;
and then each author's name shall be affixt to his own solution, or any
other signature which he shall please to direct. Any person who shall
favor the publisher with his correspondence shall have speedily
conveyed to him the solutions of any propositions contained in this
collection, which he may be desirous of seeing. Letters (post-paid)
directed for P. Q., to be left at Mr. Nourse's, Bookseller, in the
{527} Strand, London, will be carefully transmitted on the first day of
each month, and all correspondents may expect answers during the course
of that month."

In consequence of this appeal, Mr. Lawson was speedily in correspondence with several of the most able geometers then living, and amongst the rest, Messrs. Ainsworth, Clarke, Merrit, Power, &c., appear to have furnished him with original solutions to his collection of theorems and problems. The manuscript containing these solutions must have been of considerable size, since a portion of it was sent down to Manchester about July, 1777, for the purpose of obtaining Mr. Ainsworth's remarks and corrections; and Mr. Lawson is requested, in a letter bearing date "August 22, 1777," to "send the next portion when convenient." Whether Mr. Lawson did so or not, I have not yet been able to ascertain; but this much is certain, the manuscript was never printed, and would most probably either be disposed of at the death of its compiler, or previously transferred to the possession of some geometer of Mr. Lawson's acquaintance. Several of the _original_ letters which passed between the respective parties relating to this manuscript are at present in the hands of two or three of the Lancashire geometers, but no one seems to know anything of the manuscript itself. May I then request that the fortunate holder of this yet valuable collection will make himself known through the medium of the widely circulated pages of "N. & Q."

T. T. WILKINSON.

Burnley, Lancashire.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_"Wanderings of Memory."_--In Brayley's _Graphic and Historical Illustrator_, p. 293., is a quotation from the _Wanderings of Memory_, as a motto to an account of the ancient castle of the Peverils at Castleton, in Derbyshire: can any of your readers tell me who was the author of the poem in question?

W. R.

Camden Town.

_"Wandering Willie's Tale."_--Has the scene that presented itself to the view of Piper Steenie Steenson, when he was ushered by the phantom of his old friend Dougal M^cCallum into the presence of the ghastly revellers carousing in the auld oak parlour of the visionary Redgauntlet Castle, ever been painted? (See _Redgauntlet_, Letter xi.) If it has, is there any engraving of the picture extant or on sale?