Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.

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{1}

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 192.] SATURDAY, JULY 2. 1853.. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
Oblation of a white Bull 1
Newstead Abbey, by W. S. Hasleden 2
On a celebrated Passage in "Romeo and Juliet,"
Act III. Sc. 2., by S. W. Singer 3
On the Passage from "King Lear" 4
Manners of the Irish, by H. T. Ellacombe, &c. 4

MINOR NOTES:--Burial in an Erect Posture--The
Archbishop of Armagh's Cure for the Gout, 1571--The
last known Survivor of General Wolfe's Army in
Canada--National Methods of applauding--Curious
Posthumous Occurrence 5

QUERIES:--
Did Captain Cook first discover the Sandwich Islands?
by J. S. Warden 6
Superstition of the Cornish Miners 7

MINOR QUERIES:--Clerical Duel--Pistol--Council
of Laodicea, Canon 35.--Pennycomequick, adjoining
Plymouth--Park the Antiquary--Honorary D.C.L.'s--
Battle of Villers en Couche--Dr. Misaubin--Kemble,
Willet, and Forbes--Piccalyly--Post-Office about
1770--"Carefully examined and well-authenticated"--
Sir Heister Ryley--Effigies with folded Hands 7

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Passage in
Bishop Horsley--"Marry come up!"--Dover Court--
Porter--Dr. Whitaker's ingenious Earl--Dissimulate 9

REPLIES:--
Bishop Ken, by the Rev. J. H. Markland 10
Bohn's Edition of Hoveden, by James Graves 11
Coleridge's Christabel, by J. S. Warden 11
Its 12
Family of Milton's Widow, by T. Hughes 12
Books of Emblems--Jacob Behmen, by C. Mansfield
Ingleby 13
Raffaelle's Sposalizio 14
Windfall 14
Mr. Justice Newton, by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe and
F. Kyffin Lenthall 15

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Mr. Lyte's
Treatment of Positives--Stereoscopic Angles--Query
respecting Mr. Pollock's Process--Gallo-nitrate of
Silver 15

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Verney Note
decyphered--Emblems by John Bunyan--Mr. Cobb's
Diary--"Sat cito si sat bene"--Mythe versus Myth--The
Gilbert Family--Alexander Clark--Christ's Cross--The
Rebellious Prayer--"To the Lords of Convention"--
Wooden Tombs and Effigies--Lord Clarendon and the
Tubwoman--House-marks--"Amentium haud amantium"--
The Megatherium in the British Museum--Pictorial
Proverbs--"Hurrah," and other War-cries 17

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 20
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 21
Notices to Correspondents 21
Advertisements 21

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Notes.

OBLATION OF A WHITE BULL.

By lease dated 28th April, 1533, the Abbat of St. Edmund's Bury demised to John Wright, glazier, and John Anable, pewterer, of Bury, the manor of Haberdon appurtenant to the office of Sacrist in that monastery, with four acres in the Vynefeld, for twenty years, at the rent of 5l. 4s. to the Sacrist; the tenants also to find a white bull every year of their term, as often as it should happen that any gentlewoman, or any other woman, should, out of devotion, visit the shrine of the glorious king and martyr of St. Edmund, and wish to make the oblation of a white bull. (Dodsw. Coll. in _Bibl. Bodl._, vol. lxxi. f. 72.)

If we are to understand a white bull of the ancient race of wild white cattle, it may be inferred, I suppose, that in some forest in the vicinity of Bury St. Edmund's they had not disappeared in the first half of the sixteenth century. The wild cattle, probably indigenous to the great Caledonian forest, seem to have become extinct in a wild state before the time of Leland, excepting where preserved in certain ancient parks, as Chillingham Park, Northumberland, Gisburne Park in Craven, &c., where they were, and in the former at all events still are, maintained in their original purity of breed. They were preserved on the lands of some abbeys; for instance, by the Abbats of Whalley, Lancashire.

Whitaker (_History of Craven_, p. 34.) mentions Gisburne Park as chiefly remarkable for a herd of wild cattle, descendants of that indigenous race which once roamed in the great forests of Lancashire, and they are said by some other writer to have been originally brought to Gisburne from Whalley after the dissolution. One of the descendants of Robert de Brus, the founder of Gainsborough Priory, is stated by Matthew Paris to have conciliated King John with a present of white cattle. The woods of Chillingham Castle are celebrated at this day for the breed of this remarkable race, by which they are inhabited; and I believe there are three or four other places in which they are preserved.

In the form and direction of the horns, these famous wild white oxen seem to be living {2} representatives of the race whose bones are found in a fossil state in England and some parts of the Continent in the "diluvium" bone-caves, mixed with the bones of bears, hyenas, and other wild animals, now the cotemporaries of the Bos Gour, or Asiatic Ox, upon mountainous slopes of Western India. I have read that white cattle resembling the wild cattle of Chillingham exist in Italy, and that it has been doubted whether our British wild cattle are descendants of an aboriginal race, or were imported by ecclesiastics from Italy. But this seems unlikely, because they were not so easily brought over as the Pope's _bulls_ (the pun is quite unavoidable), and were undoubtedly inhabitants of our ancient forests at a very early period.

However, my present object is only to inquire for any other instances of the custom of offering a white bull in honour of a Christian saint. Perhaps some of your correspondents would elucidate this singular oblation.

I am not able to refer to Col. Hamilton Smith's work on the mythology and ancient history of the ox, which may possibly notice this kind of offering.

W. S. G.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

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NEWSTEAD ABBEY.

The descent of property, like the family pedigree, occasionally exhibits the most extraordinary disruptions; and to those who may be ignorant of the cause, the effect may appear as romance. I have been particularly struck with the two interesting papers contained in the April number of the _Archaeological Journal_, having reference to the Newstead Abbey estate, formerly the property of Lord Byron's family, which, amongst other matters, contain some severe remarks on the conduct of one of its proprietors, the great uncle and predecessor of our great poet, and having reference to dilapidation. Mr. Pettigrew, in his paper, states that--

"Family differences, particularly during the time of the fifth Lord
Byron, _of eccentric and unsocial manners_, suffered and even aided the
dilapidations of time. The castellated stables and offices are,
however, yet to be seen."

And Mr. Ashpitel adds that--

"The state of Newstead at the time the poet succeeded to the estate is
not generally known: '_the wicked lord_' had felled all the noble oaks,
destroyed the finest herds of deer, and, in short, had denuded the
estate of everything he could. The hirelings of the attorney did the
rest: they stripped away all the furniture, and everything the law
would permit them to remove. The buildings on the east side were
unroofed; the old Xenodochium, and the grand refectory, were full of
hay; and the entrance-hall and monks' parlour were stable for cattle.
In the only habitable part of the building, a place then used as a sort
of scullery, under the only roof that kept out wet of all this vast
pile, the fifth Lord Byron breathed his last; and to this inheritance
the poet succeeded."

It is not necessary for me to refer to the lofty expression of the poet's feelings on such his inheritance, nor to the necessity of his parting from the estate, which appears now to be happily restored to its former splendour; but possessing some knowledge of a lamentable fact, that neither Mr. Pettigrew nor Mr. Ashpitel appears to be aware of, I feel inclined to soften the asperity of the reflections quoted; and palliate, although I may not justify, the apparently reckless proceedings of the eccentric fifth Lord, as he is called. In the years 1796 and 1797, after finishing my clerkship, I had a seat in the chambers of the late Jas. Hanson, Esq., an eminent conveyancer of Lincoln's Inn; and while with him, amongst other peers of the realm who came to consult Mr. Hanson regarding their property, we had this _eccentric_ fifth Lord Byron, who apparently came up to town for the purpose, and under the most painful and pitiable load of distress,--and I must confess that I felt for him exceedingly; but his case was past remedy, and, after some daily attendance, pouring forth his lamentations, he appears to have returned home to subside into the reckless operations reported of him. His case was this:--Upon the marriage of his son, he, as any other father would do, granted a settlement of his property, including the Newstead Abbey estate; but by some unaccountable inadvertence or negligence of the lawyers employed, the ultimate reversion of the fee-simple of the property, instead of being left, as it ought to have been, in the father as the owner of the estates, was limited to the heirs of the son. And upon his death, and failure of the issue of the marriage, the unfortunate father, _this eccentric lord_, found himself robbed of the fee-simple of his own inheritance, and left merely the naked tenant for life, without any legal power of raising money upon it, or even of cutting down a tree. It is so many years ago, that I now do not remember the detail of what passed on these consultations, but it would appear, that if the lawyers were aware of the effect of the final limitation, neither father nor son appear to have been informed of it, or the result might have been corrected, and his lordship would probably have kept up the estate in its proper order. Whether this case was at all a promoting cause of the alteration of the law, I do not know; but, as the law now stands, the estate would revert back to the father as heir of this son. This case made a lasting impression on me, and I once had to correct a similar erroneous proposition in a large intended settlement; and I quoted this unfortunate accident as an authority. Now, although this relation may not fully justify the reckless waste that appears to have been committed, it certainly is a palliative. I do not recollect whether {3} our fifth lord had any surviving daughter to provide for; but if he had, his situation would be a still more aggravated position.

W. S. HASLEDEN.

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ON A CELEBRATED PASSAGE IN "ROMEO AND JULIET," ACT III. SC. 2.

Few passages in Shakspeare have so often and so ineffectually been "winnowed" as the opening of the beautiful and passionate soliloquy of Juliet, when ardently and impatiently invoking night's return, which was to bring her newly betrothed lover to her arms. It stands thus in the first folio, from which the best quarto differs only in a few unimportant points of orthography:

"Gallop apace, you fiery footed steedes,
Towards Phoebus' lodging, such a wagoner
As Phaeton should whip you to the wish,
And bring in cloudie night immediately.
Spred thy close curtaine, Loue-performing night,
That run-awayes eyes may wincke, and Romeo
Leape to these armes, untalkt of and unseene", &c.

The older commentators do not attempt to change the word _run-awayes_, but seek to explain it. Warburton says Phoebus is the runaway. Steevens has a long argument to prove that Night is the runaway. Douce thought Juliet herself was the runaway; and at a later period the Rev. Mr. Halpin, in a very elegant and ingenious essay, attempts to prove that by the runaway we must understand Cupid.

MR. KNIGHT and MR. COLLIER have both of them adopted Jackson's conjecture of _unawares_, and have admitted it to the honour of a place in the text, but MR. DYCE has pronounced it to be "villainous;" and it must be confessed that it has nothing but a slight similarity to the old word to recommend it. MR. DYCE himself has favoured us with three suggestions; the first two in his _Remarks on Collier and Knight's Shakspeare_, in 1844, where he says--

"That _ways_ (the last syllable of _run-aways_) ought to be _days_, I
feel next to certain; but what word originally preceded it I do not
pretend to determine:

'Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night!
That rude/soon (?) Day's eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen,' &c."

The correctors of MR. COLLIER's folio having substituted--

"That _enemies_ eyes may wink,"

MR. DYCE, in his recent _Few Notes_, properly rejects that reading, and submits another conjecture of his own, founded on the supposition that the word _roving_ having been written illegibly, _roavinge_ was mistaken for _run-awayes_, and proposes to read--

"That _roving_ eyes may wink."

Every suggestion of MR. DYCE, certainly the most competent of living commentators on Shakspeare, merits attention; but I cannot say that I think he has succeeded in either of his proposed readings.

Monck Mason seems to have had the clearest notion of the requirements of the passage. He saw that "the word, whatever the meaning of it might be, was intended as a proper name;" but he was not happy in suggesting _renomy_, a French word with an English termination.

In the course of his note he mentions that Heath, "the author of the _Revisal_, reads '_Rumour's_ eyes may wink;' which agrees in sense with the rest of the passage, but differs widely from _run-aways_ in the trace of the letters."

I was not conscious of having seen this suggestion of Heath's, when, in consequence of a question put to me by a gentleman of distinguished taste and learning, I turned my thoughts to the passage, and at length came to the conclusion that the word must have been _rumourers_, and that from its unfrequent occurrence (the only other example of it at present known to me being one afforded by the poet) the printer mistook it for _runawayes_; which, when written indistinctly, it may have strongly resembled. I therefore think that we may read with some confidence:

"Spread thy close curtains, love-performing Night,
That _rumourers'_ eyes may wink, and Romeo
Leap to these arms, _untalk'd of_ and _unseen_."

It fulfils the requirements of both metre and sense, and the words _untalk'd of_ and _unseen_ make it nearly indisputable. I had at first thought it might be "_rumorous_ eyes;" but the personification would then be wanting. Shakspeare has personified _Rumour_ in the Introduction to the Second Part of _King Henry IV._; and in _Coriolanus_, Act IV. Sc. 6., we have--

"Go see this _rumourer_ whipp'd."

I am gratified by seeing that I have anticipated your able correspondent, the REV. MR. ARROWSMITH, in his elucidation of "_clamour_ your tongues," by citing the same passage from Udall's _Apophthegmes_, in my _Vindication of the Text of Shakspeare_, p. 79. It is a pleasure which must console me for having subjected myself to his just animadversion on another occasion. If those who so egregiously blunder are to be spared the castigation justly merited, we see by late occurrences to what it may lead; and your correspondent, in my judgment, is conferring a favour on all true lovers of our great poet by exposing pretension and error, from whatever quarter it may come,--a duty which has been sadly neglected in some late partial reviews of MR. COLLIER's "clever" corrector. MR. ARROWSMITH's communications have been so truly _ad rem_, that I think I shall be expressing the sentiments of all your readers interested in such {4} matters, in expressing an earnest desire for their continuance.

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham.

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ON THE PASSAGE FROM "KING LEAR."

(Vol. vii., p. 592.)

Will you allow me to suggest to your ingenious Leeds correspondent (whose communications would be read with only the more pleasure if they evinced a little more respect for the opinions of others) that before he asserts the existence of a certain error which he points out in a passage in _King Lear_ to be "undeniable," it would be desirable that he should support this improved reading by other passages from Shakspeare, or from cotemporary writers, in which the word he proposes occurs? For my own part, I think A. E. B.'s suggestion well worthy of consideration, but I cannot admit that it "demonstrates itself," or "that any attempt to support it by argument would be absurd," for it would unquestionably strengthen his case to show that the verb "recuse" was not entirely obsolete in Shakspeare's time. Neither can I admit that there is an "obvious opposition between _means_ and _defects_," the two words having no relation to each other. The question is, which of two words must be altered; and at present I must own I am inclined to put more faith in the authority of "the old corrector" than in A. E. B.

Having taken up my pen on this subject, allow me to remark upon the manner in which MR. COLLIER's folio is referred to by your correspondent. I have carefully considered many of the emendations proposed, and feel in my own mind satisfied that _so great a number_ that, in the words of your correspondent, _demonstrate themselves_, could not have been otherwise than adopted from some authority. Even in the instance of the passage from Henry V., "on a table of green friese," which A. E. B. selects, I presume, as being especially absurd, I think "the old corrector" right; although I had frequently cited Theobald's correction as particularly happy, and therefore the new version was at first to me very distasteful. But, whatever opinion may be held as to the value of the book, it is surely unbecoming to the discussion of a literary question to indulge in the unsparing insinuations that have been thrown out on all sides respecting it. I leave out of question the circumstance, that the long and great services of MR. COLLIER ought to protect him at least from such unworthy treatment.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

P.S.--Since writing the above, I have seen MR. KEIGHTLEY's letter. I hope he will not deprive the readers of "N. & Q." of the benefit of his valuable communications for the offences of one or two. He might consider, first, that his own dignity would suffer least by letting them pass by him "as the idle wind;" and, secondly, that some allowance should be made for gentlemen who engage in controversy on a subject which, strangely enough, next to religion, seems to be most productive of discord.

S. H.

"I have no way, and therefore want no eyes;
I stumbled when I saw. Full oft 'tis seen
Our means _secure_ us; and our mere defects
Prove our commodities."

Does not Shakspeare here use _secure_ as a verb, in the sense "to make careless?" If so, the passage would mean, "Our means," that is, our power, our strength, make us wanting in care and vigilance, and too self-confident. Gloucester says, "I stumbled when I saw;" meaning, When I had eyes I walked carelessly; when I had the "means" of seeing and avoiding stumbling-blocks, I stumbled and fell, because I walked without care and watchfulness. Then he adds, "And our mere defects prove our commodities." Our deficiencies, our weaknesses (the sense of them), make us use such care and exertions as to prove advantages to us. Thus the antithesis is preserved.

How scriptural is the first part of the passage!

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall."--1 Cor. x.
12.

"He hath said in his heart, Tush, I shall never be cast down; there
shall no harm happen unto me."--Ps. x. 6.

The second part is also scriptural:

"My strength is made perfect in weakness."--2 Cor. xii. 9.

"When I am weak then am I strong."--2 Cor. xii. 10.

In _Timon of Athens_ we find _secure_ used as verb "_Secure_ thy heart."--Act II. Sc. 2.

Again, in _Othello_:

"I do not so _secure_ me in the error."--Act I. Sc. 3.

In Du Cange's _Gloss._ is the verb "_Securare_ nude pro securum reddere." In the "Alter Index sive Glossarium" of Ainsworth's _Dictionary_ is the verb "_Securo_, as ... to live carelessly." In the "Verba partim Graeca Latine scripta, partim barbara," &c., is "_Securo_, as securum reddo."

The _means_ of the hare in the fable for the race (that is, her swiftness) _secured_ her; the defects of the tortoise (her slowness) proved her _commodity_.

F. W. J.

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MANNERS OF THE IRISH.

The following are extracts from a MS. volume of the sixteenth century, containing, _inter alia_, notes of the Manners and Superstitions of the {5} Celtic Irish. Some of our readers may be able to elucidate the obscure references:

"The Irish men they have a farme,
They kepp the bread,
And make _boyranne_.
They make butter and eatt _molchan_.
And when they haue donne
They have noe shamm.
They burne the strawe and make _loisbran_.
They eatt the flesh and drinke the broth,
And when they have done they say
_Deo gracias is smar in Doieagh_."

The next appears to be a scrap of a woman's song:

"Birch and keyre 'tis wal veyre a spyunyng deye a towme.
I am the geyest mayed of all that brought the somer houme.
Justice Deyruse in my lopp, and senscal in my roame," &c.

John Devereux was Justiciary of the Palatinate Liberty of Wexford in the early part of Henry VIII.'s reign. That Palatinate was then governed by a seneschal or "senscal." The justice would seem to have been a gallant and _sensual_ man, and the song may have been a little satirical. Among the notes of the "Manners" of the Irish, it is declared that--

"Sett them a farme--the grandfather, father, son, and they clayme it as
their own: if not, they goe to rebellion."

Will any antiquary versed in Celtic customs explain whether this claim of possession grew out of any Celtic usage of tenancy? And also point out authorities bearing upon the customs of Celtic agricultural tenancy?

The next extract bears upon the communication at Vol. vii., p. 332.:

"An _Ultagh_ hath three purses. He runneth behind dore to draw his
money: one cutteth the throte of another."

Now, was an _Ultagh_ an Irish usurer or money-lender? Your correspondent at page 332. requests information respecting Roger Outlaw. Sir William Betham, in a note to the "Proceedings against Dame Alice Ugteler," the famous pseudo-Kilkenny witch, remarks that "the family of Utlagh were seated in Dublin, and filled several situations in the corporation." Utlagh and Outlaw are the same surnames. The named Utlagh also occurs in the Calendar of Printed Irish Patent Rolls. William Utlagh, or Outlaw, was a _banker_ and _money-lender_ in Kilkenny, in the days of Edward I. He was the first husband of the witch, and brother of Friar Roger Outlaw. In favour of the latter, who was Prior of Kilmainham, near Dublin, a mandamus, dated 10 Edw. II., was issued for arrears due to him since he was "justice and chancellor, and even lieutenant of the justiciary, as well in the late king's time as of the present king's." He was appointed Lord Justice, or deputy to the Lord Lieutenant, by patent dated Mar. 15, 9 Edw. III.

Many of the Irish records having been lost, your correspondent will do an obliging service in pointing out the repository of the discovered roll. Perhaps steps might be taken for its restoration.

H.

[The following communication from our valued correspondent, the REV.
H. T. ELLACOMBE, affords at once a satisfactory reply to H's Query, and
a proof of the utility of "N. & Q."]

_Roger Outlawe_ (Vol. vii., p. 559.).--Thanks to ANON. and others for their information.

As for "in viiij mense," I cannot understand it: I copied it as it was sent to me. B. Etii was an error of the press for R. Etii, but I purposely avoided noticing it, because my very first communication on the subject to "N. & Q.," under my own name and address, opened a very pleasing correspondence, which has since led to the restoration of these Irish documents to their congeners among the public records in Dublin; a gentleman having set out most chivalrously from that city at his own cost to recover them, and I am happy to say he has succeeded; and in the _English Quarterly Magazine_ there will soon appear, I believe, an account of the documents in question. It would not, therefore, become me to give in this place the explanation which has been kindly communicated to me as to the meaning of the last conquest of Ireland; but I have no doubt it will be explained in the _English Quarterly_.

H. T. ELLACOMBE.

Rectory, Clyst St. George.

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Minor Notes.

_Burial in an erect Posture._--In the north transept of Stanton Harcourt Church, Oxon, the burial-place of the Harcourt family, is a circular slab of blue marble in the pavement, in which is inlaid a shield of brass bearing the arms of Harcourt,--two bars, dimidiated with those of Beke; the latter, when entire, forming a cros ancree. The brass is not engraved, but forms the outline of the shield and arms. It is supposed to be the monument of Sir John, son of Sir Richard Harcourt and Margaret Beke, who died 1330. (See extracts from Lord Harcourt's "Account," in the _Oxford Architectural Guide_, p. 178.) Tradition relates, if my memory does not mislead me, that the knight was buried beneath this stone in an erect posture, but assigns no reason for this peculiarity. Is the probability of this being the case supported by any, and what instances? Or does the legend merely owe its existence to the circular form of the stone? {6} I think that its diameter is about two feet. If MR. FRASER has not met with the information already, he may be interested, with reference to his Query on "Dimidiation" (Vol. vii., p. 548.), in learning that the above mentioned Margaret was daughter and coheiress of John Lord Beke of Eresby, who by his will, made the 29th of Edw. I., devised the remainder of his arms to be divided between Sir Robert de Willoughby and Sir John de Harcourt. And this may lead to the farther Query, whether dimidiation was originally or universally resorted to in the case of coheiresses?

CHEVERELLS.

_The Archbishop of Armagh's Cure for the Gout_, 1571.--Extracted from a letter from Thomas Lancaster, Archbishop of Armagh, to Lord Burghley, dated from Dublin, March 25, 1571:--

"I am sorofull for that yo^r honor is greved w^{th} the goute, from the
w^{ch} I beseche Almighty God deliver you, and send you health; and yf
(it) shall please y^r honor to prove a medicen for the same w^{ch} I
brought owt of Duchland, and have eased many w^{th} it, I trust in God
it shall also do you good, and this it is. Take ij spaniel whelpes of
ij dayes olde, scald them, and cause the entrells betaken out, but wash
them not. Take 4 ounces brymstone, 4 ounces torpentyn, 1 ounce
parmacete, a handfull nettells, and a quantyte of oyle of balme, and
putt all the aforesayd in them stamped, and sowe them up and rost them,
and take the dropes and anoynt you wheare your grefe is, and by God's
grace yo^r honor shall fynd helpe."--_From the Original in the State
Paper Office._

SPES.

_The last known Survivor of General Wolfe's Army in Canada._--In a recent number of the _Montreal Herald_, mention is made of more than twenty persons whose ages exceed one hundred years. The editor remarks that--

"The most venerable patriarch now in Canada is Abraham Miller, who
resides in the township of Grey, and is 115 years old. In 1758 he
scaled the cliffs of Quebec with General Wolfe, so that his residence
in Canada is coincident with British rule in the province. He is
attached to the Indians, and lives in all respects like them."

W. W.

Malta.

_National Methods of Applauding._--Clapping with the hands is going out of use in the United States, and stamping with the feet is taking its place. When Mr. Combe was lecturing on phrenology at the Museum building in Philadelphia twelve or thirteen years ago, he and his auditors were much annoyed by the _pedal_ applause of a company in the room above, who were listening to the concerts of a negro band. Complaint was made to the authorities of the Museum Society; but the answer was, that nothing could be done, as stamping of the feet was "the national method of applauding."

The crying of "hear him! hear him!" during the delivery of a speech, is not in use in the United States, as an English gentleman discovered who settled here a few years ago. He attended a meeting of the members of the church to which he had attached himself, and hearing something said that pleased him, he cried out "hear him! hear him!" Upon which the sexton came over to him, and told him that, unless he kept himself quiet, he would be under the necessity of turning him out of church.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

_Curious Posthumous Occurrence._--If the following be true, though in ever so limited a manner, it deserves investigation. Notwithstanding his twenty-three years' experience, the worthy grave-digger must have been mistaken, unless there is something peculiar in the bodies of Bath people! But if the face turns down in any instance, as asserted, it would be right to ascertain the cause, and why this change is not general. It is now above twenty years since the paragraph appeared in the London papers:--

"A correspondent in the _Bath Herald_ states the following singular
circumstance:--'Having occasion last week to inspect a grave in one of
the parishes of this city, in which two or three members of a family
had been buried some years since, and which lay in very wet ground, I
observed that the upper part of the coffin was rotted away, and had
left the head and bones of the skull exposed to view. On inquiring of
the grave-digger how it came to pass that I did not observe the usual
sockets of the eyes in the skull, he replied that what I saw was the
hind part of the head (termed the _occiput_, I believe, by anatomists),
and that the face was turned, as usual, to the earth!!--Not exactly
understanding his phrase 'as usual,' I inquired if the body had been
buried with the face upwards, as in the ordinary way; to which he
replied to my astonishment, in the affirmative, adding, that in the
course of decomposition the face of every individual turns to the
earth!! and that, in the experience of three-and-twenty years in his
situation, he had never known more than one instance to the contrary.'"

A. B. C.

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Queries.

DID CAPTAIN COOK FIRST DISCOVER THE SANDWICH ISLANDS?

In a French atlas, dated 1762, in my possession, amongst the numerous non-existing islands laid down in the map of the Pacific, and the still more numerous cases of omission inevitable at so early a period of Polynesian discovery, there is inserted an island styled "I. St. Francois," or "I. S. Francisco," which lies in {7} about 20deg N. and 224deg E. from the meridian of Ferro, and, of course, almost exactly in the situation of Owhyhee. That this large and lofty group may have been seen by some other voyager long before, is far from improbable; but, beyond a question, Cooke was the first to visit, describe, and lay them down correctly in our maps. Professor Meyen, however, as quoted in Johnston's _Physical Atlas_, mentions these islands in terms which would almost lead one to suppose that he, the Professor, considered them to have been known to the Spaniards in Anson's time or earlier, and that they had been regular calling places for the galleons in those days! It is difficult to conceive such a man capable of such a mistake; but if he did not suppose them to have been discovered before Cook's voyage in 1778, his words are singularly calculated to deceive the reader on that point.

J. S. WARDEN.

* * * * *

SUPERSTITION OF THE CORNISH MINERS.

MR. KINGSLEY records a superstition of the Cornish miners, which I have not seen noted elsewhere. In reply to the question, "What are the _Knockers_?" Tregarva answers:

"They are _the ghosts_, the miners hold, _of the Old Jews that
crucified our Lord, and were sent for slaves by the Roman emperors to
work the mines_: and we find their old smelting-houses, which we call
_Jews' houses_, and their blocks of the bottom of the great bogs, which
we call _Jews' tin_: and then, a town among us, too, which we call
_Market Jew_, but the old name was _Marazion_, that means the
Bitterness of Zion, they tell me; and bitter work it was for them no
doubt, poor souls! We used to break into the old shafts and adits which
they had made, and find old stags-horn pickaxes, that crumbled to
pieces when we brought them to grass. And they say that if a man will
listen of a still night about those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts
of them at working, knocking, and picking, as clear as if there was a
man at work in the next level."--_Yeast; a Problem_: Lond. 1851, p.
255.

Miners, as a class, are peculiarly susceptible of impressions of the unseen world, and the superstitions entertained by them in different parts of the world would form a curious volume. Is there any work on Cornish folk lore which alludes to this superstition respecting the Jews? It would be useless, I dare say, to consult Carew, or Borlase; besides, I have not them by me.

Apropos to Cornish matters, a dictionary with a very tempting title was advertised for publication two or three years ago:

"Geslevar Cernewac, a Dictionary of the Cornish Dialect of the Cymraeg
or ancient British Language, in which the words are elucidated by
numerous examples from the Cornish works now remaining, with
translations in English: and the synonyms in Welsh, Armoric, Irish,
Gaelic, and Manx, so as to form a Celtic Lexicon. By the Rev. Robert
Williams, M.A., Oxon., to be published in one vol. 4to. price 31s. 6d."

When shall we see this desirable lexicon? I was reminded of it the other day by hearing of the subscriptions on foot for the publication of the great Irish dictionary, which the eminent Irish scholars Messrs. O'Donovan and Curry have had in hand for many years.

EIRIONNACH.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Clerical Duel._--I shall be obliged to any correspondent who will supply the name of the courtier referred to in the following anecdote, which is to be found in Burckhardt's _Kirchen-Geschichte der Deutschen Gemeinden in London_, Tub. 1798, p. 77.

Anton Wilhelm Boehme, who came over as chaplain with Prince George of Denmark, officiated at the German Chapel, St. James's, from the year 1705 to 1722. He was a favourite of Queen Anne, and a friend of Isaac Watts. On one occasion he preached against adultery in a way which gave great offence to one of the courtiers present, who conceived that a personal attack on himself was intended. He accordingly sent a challenge to the preacher, which was without hesitation accepted; and at the time and place appointed the chaplain made his appearance in full canonicals, with his Bible in his hand, and gave the challenger a lecture which led to their reconciliation and friendship.

I should like also to know whether there is any other authority for the story than that which I leave quoted.

S. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester

_Pistol._--What is the date of the original introduction of this word into our vocabulary in either of the senses in which it is equivocally used by Falstaff in 1 _Henry IV._, Act. V. Sc. 3.? In the sense of fire-arms, pistols seem to have been unknown by that name as late as the year 1541; for the stat. 33 Hen. VIII. c. 6., after reciting the murders, &c. committed "with cross-bows, little short hand-guns, and little hagbuts," prohibits the possession of "any hand-gun other than such as shall be in the stock and gun of the length of one whole yard, or any hagbut or demihake other than such as shall be in the stock and gun of the length of three quarters of one yard." But throughout the act there is no mention of the word "pistol."

J. F. M.

_Council of Laodicca, Canon 35._--Can any of your readers inform me whether, in any early work on the Councils, the word _angelos_ is in the text, without having _angulos_ in the margin? If so, oblige me by stating the editions.

CLERICUS (D).

{8}

_Pennycomequick, adjoining Plymouth._--The Bath and West of England Agricultural Society held their recent annual meeting here. Will any of your correspondents oblige me with the derivation of this remarkable word?

R. H. B.

_Park the Antiquary._--In a note to the third volume (p. lxxiii.) of the _Grenville Correspondence_ the following passage: "Barker has printed a second note, which Junius is supposed to have written to Garrick, upon the authority of Park the antiquary, _who states_ that he found it in a _cotemporary newspaper_," &c. This is not strictly correct. Barker says (p. 190.), "The letter was found in a copy of Junius belonging to [Query, which _had_ belonged to?] T. Park, &c. He had [Query, it is presumed?] cut it out of a newspaper; but unfortunately has omitted to furnish the date of the newspaper." [Query, How then known to be cotemporary?] The difference is important; but where is the copy containing this letter? By whom has it been seen? By whom and when first discovered? Where did Barker find the story recorded? When and where first printed?

P. T. A.

_Honorary D.C.L.'s._--It was mentioned in a report of proceedings at the late Installation, that the two _royal personages_ honoured with degrees, having been doctored by diploma, would be entitled to vote in Convocation,--a privilege not possessed by the common tribe of honorary D.C.L.'s.

Can you inform me whether Dr. Johnson had, or ever exercised, the right referred to in virtue of his M.A. degree (conferred on the publication of the _Dictionary_), or of the higher academical dignity to which his name has given such a world-wide celebrity?

CANTABRIGIENSIS.

_Battle of Villers en Couche._--Some of your correspondents, better versed than myself in military matters, will doubtless render me assistance by replying to this Query. Where can I find a copious and accurate account of the battle, or perhaps I should rather say skirmish, of Villers en Couche? If I am rightly informed, it must be one of the most remarkable actions on record, when the comparative numbers of the troops engaged are taken into consideration. We have, as an heirloom in our family, a medal won by an officer on that occasion: it is suspended from a red and white ribbon, and is inscribed thus:

"FORTITUDINE
VILLERS EN COUCHE.
24th APRIL,
1794."

I do not remember to have read any account of the battle; but, as I have heard from the lips of one who gained his information from the officer before alluded to, the particulars were these:--General Mansell, with a force consisting of two squadrons of the 15th Hussars, and one squadron of the German Legion, _two hundred and seventy-two_ in all, charged a body of the French army, _ten thousand_ strong. The French were formed in a hollow square: but five times, as I am informed, did our gallant troops charge into and out of the square, till the French, struck with a sudden panic, retreated with a loss of twelve hundred men. I am desirous of authenticating this almost incredible account, and shall be thankful for such information as may guide me to an authoritative record of the action in question.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

_Dr. Misaubin._--Will any of your numerous correspondents give me any information, or refer me to any work where I can find it, respecting Dr. Misaubin, who appears to have practised in London during the first half of the last century? What was the peculiarity of his practice?

GRIFFIN.

_Kemble, Willet, and Forbes._--What are the two concluding lines of an epigram published ten or twelve years ago, beginning,--

"The case of Kemble, Willet, and Forbes,
Much of the Chancellor's time absorbs;
If I were the Chancellor I should tremble
At the mention of Willet, Forbes, and Kemble"?

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

_Piccalyly._--The ornament, somewhat between a hood, a scarf, and an armlet, worn hanging over the right shoulder of judges and serjeants at law, is called a _piccalyly_. What is the origin of this peculiarity of judicial costume, what are the earliest examples of it, and what its etymology?

NO JUDGE.

_Post-Office about 1770._--Mr. Smith, in the notes prefixed to the _Grenville Correspondence_, says several of Junius's letters appear to have been sent from the same post-office "as the post-mark is '_peny_ post payd,'"--a peculiarity of spelling not likely to occur often. Have any of your correspondents letters of that date with a like post-mark? and, if so, can they tell us _where_ posted?

P. A. O.

"_Carefully examined and well-authenticated._"--I agree with MR. CRAMP (Vol. vii., p. 569.) that "the undecided question of the authorship of Junius requires that every statement should be carefully examined, and (as far as possible) only well-authenticated facts be admitted as evidence." I take leave, therefore, to remind him that my question (Vol. iii., p. 262.) remains unanswered; that I am anxious that he should authenticate his statement (p. 63.), and name some of the "many" {9} persons in whose libraries vellum-bound copies of Junius have been found.

V. B.

_Sir Heister Ryley._--Who was the author of the _Visions of Sir Heister Ryley_, and whence did it derive its name? It was published in 1710, and consists of papers periodically published on serious subjects. It was one of the many short-lived periodicals that sprung up in imitation of the _Tatler_, and appears to have died a natural death at the end of the so-called first volume.

H. T. RILEY.

_Effigies with folded Hands._--On the south side of Llangathen Church, Carmarthenshire, is a huge monument (of the style well designated as bedstead) for Dr. Anthony Rudd, Bishop of St. David's, and Anne Dalton, his wife, 1616, with their recumbent effigies, and those of four sons kneeling at their head and feet. From all these figures the iconoclasts had smitten the hands upraised in prayer, and they have been replaced by plaister hands folded on the bosom. The effect is singular. Is there any other instance of such restoration?

E. D.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Passage in Bishop Horsley._--In the Introduction to _Utrum Horum_, a rather curious work by Henry Care, being a comparison of the Thirty-nine Articles with the doctrines of Presbyterians on the one hand, and the tenets of the Church of Rome on the other, is an extract from Dr. Hakewill's _Answer_ (1616) _to Dr. Carier_, "an apostate to Popery." In it occurs the following passage: "And so, through Calvin's sides, you strike at the throat and heart of our religion." Will you allow me to ask if a similar expression is not used by Bishop Horsley in some one of his Charges?

S. S. S.

[The following passage occurs in the bishop's Charge to the clergy of
St. Asaph in 1806, p. 26. "Take especial care, before you aim your
shafts at Calvinism, that you know what is Calvinism, and what is not:
that in that mass of doctrine, which it is of late become the fashion
to abuse under the name of Calvinism, you can distinguish with
certainty that part of it which is nothing better than Calvinism, and
that which belongs to our common Christianity, and the general faith of
the Reformed Churches; _lest, when you mean only to fall foul of
Calvinism, you should unwarily attack something more sacred and of
higher origin_."]

"_Marry come up!_"--What is the origin of this expression, found in the old novelists? It perhaps originates in an adjuration of the Virgin Mary. If so, how did it gain its present form?

H. T. RILEY.

[Halliwell explains it as an interjection equivalent to indeed! _Marry
on us, marry come up, Marry come out_, interjections given by Brockett.
_Marry and shall_, that I will! _Marry come up, my dirty cousin_, a
saying addressed to any one who affects excessive delicacy.]

_Dover Court._--What is the origin of the expression of a "_Dover Court_, where all are talkers and none are hearers?" There is a place called by this name in the vicinity of Harwich?

H. T. RILEY.

[There is a legend, that Dover-Court Church in Essex once possessed a
miraculous cross which spoke, thus noticed in the _Collier of Croydon_:

"And how the rood of _Dovercot_ did speak,
Confirming his opinions to be true."

So that it is possible, as Nares suggests, that this church was the
scene of confusion alluded to in the proverb: "Dover Court, all
speakers and no hearers." Fox, in his _Martyrology_, vol. ii. p. 302.,
states, that "a rumour was spread that no man could shut the door,
which therefore stood open night and day; and that the resort of people
to it was much and very great."]

_Porter._--In what book is the word _porter_, meaning the malt liquor so called, first found? I have an impression that the earliest use of it that I have seen is in Nicholas Amherst's _Terrae Filius_, about 1726.

H. T. RILEY.

[We doubt whether an earlier use of this word, as descriptive of a malt
liquor, will be found than the one noticed by our correspondent; for it
was only about 1722 that Harwood, a London brewer, commenced brewing
this liquor, which he called "entire," or "entire butt," implying that
it was drawn from one cask or butt. It subsequently obtained the name
of _porter_, from its consumption by porters and labourers.]

_Dr. Whitaker's Ingenious Earl._--

"To our equal surprise and vexation at times, we find the ancients
possessed of degrees of physical knowledge with which we were mostly or
entirely unacquainted ourselves. I need not appeal in proof of this to
that extraordinary operation of chemistry, by which Moses reduced the
golden calf to powder, and then give it mingled with water as a drink
to the Israelites; an operation the most difficult in all the processes
of chemistry, and concerning which it is a sufficient honour for the
moderns to say, that they have once or twice practised it. I need not
appeal to the mummies of Egypt, in which the art of embalming bodies is
so eminently displayed, that all attempts at imitation have only showed
the infinite superiority of the original to the copy. I need not appeal
to the gilding upon those mummies so fresh in its lustre; to the
stained silk of them, so vivid in its colours after a lapse of 3000
years; to the ductility and malleability of glass, discovered by an
artist of Rome in the days of Tiberius, but instantly lost by the
immediate murder of the man under the orders of the emperor, and just
now boasted vainly to be re-discovered by the wildly eccentric, yet
vividly vigorous, genius of that earl who professes to teach law to my
lord chancellor, and divinity to my lords the {10} bishops, who
proposes to send ship, by the force of steam, with all the velocity of
a ball from the mouth of a cannon, and who pretends by the power of his
steam-impelled oars to beat the waters of the ocean into the hardness
of adamant; or to the burning-glasses of Archimedes, recorded in their
effects by credible writers, actually imitated by Proclus at the siege
of Constantinople with Archimedes' own success, yet boldly pronounced
by some of our best judges, demonstrably impracticable in themselves,
and lately demonstrated by some faint experiments to be very
practicable, the skill of the moderns only going so far as to render
credible the practices of the ancients."--_The Course of Hannibal___,
by John Whitaker, B.D., 1794, vol. ii. p. 142.

Who was the earl whose universality of genius is described above by this "laudator temporis acti?"

H. J.

[Charles Earl Stanhope, whose versatility of talent succeeded in
abolishing the old wooden printing-press, with its double pulls, and
substituting in its place the beautiful iron one, called after him the
"Stanhope Press." His lordship's inventive genius, however, failed in
the composing-room; for his transmogrified letter-cases, with his eight
logotypes, once attempted at _The Times'_ office, were soon abandoned,
and the old process of single letters preferred.]

_Dissimulate._--Where is the earliest use of this word to be found? It is to be met with in Bernard Mandeville's _Fable of the Bees_, 1723; but is not to be found, I think, in any dictionary. I was once heavily censured at school for using it in my theme; but I have more than once of late seen it used in a leading article of _The Times_.

H. T. RILEY.

[_Dissimulate_ occurs in Richardson's Dictionary, with the two
following examples:

"Under smiling she was _dissimulate_,
Prouocatiue with blinkes amorous."
Chaucer, _The Testament of Creseide_.

"We commaunde as kynges, and pray as men, that al thyng be forgiuen to
theim that be olde and broken, and to theim that be yonge and lusty, to
_dissimulate_ for a time, and nothyng to be forgiuen to very yong
children."--_Golden Boke_, c. ix.

* * * * *

Replies.

BISHOP KEN.

(Vol. vii., p. 526.)

By converting a noun into a surname, Dodsley has led J. J. J. into a natural, but somewhat amusing mistake. The lines quoted are in Horace Walpole's well-known epistle, from Florence, addressed to his college friend T[homas] A[shton,] tutor of the Earl of P[lymouth].

In Walpole's _Fugitive Pieces_, printed at Strawberry Hill, 1758 (the copy of which, now before me, was given by Walpole to Cole in 1762, and contains several notes by the latter), the passage stands correctly thus:

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

Your correspondent refers to an edition of the _Collection of Poems_ of 1758. In a much later edition of that work, viz. 1782, the line is again printed--

"Or with wise KEN," &c.

It is strange that the mistake was not corrected, at the instance of Walpole himself, during this long interval.

Turning to Bishop Ken, I would observe that in his excellent Life of this prelate, Mr. Anderdon has given the three well-known hymns "word for word," as first penned. These, Mr. A. tells us, are found, for the first time, in a copy of the _Manual of Prayers For the Use of the Winchester Scholars_, printed in 1700. The bishop's versions vary so very materially from those to which we have been accustomed from childhood, that these original copies are very interesting. Indeed, within five years after their first appearance, and during the author's life, material changes were made, several of which are retained to the present hour. It must be admitted that some of the stanzas, as they first came from the bishop's pen, are singularly rugged and inharmonious, almost justifying the request made by the lady to Byrom (as I have stated elsewhere[1]), "to revise and polish the bishop's poems." How came these hymns, so far the most popular of his poetical works, to be omitted by Hawkins in the collected edition of the poems, printed in 4 vols., 1721?

My present object is, to call your attention to a "Midnight Hymn," by Sir Thomas Browne, which will be found in his works (vol. ii. p. 113., edit. Wilkin). Can there be question that to it Ken is indebted for some of the thoughts and expressions in two of his own hymns?

The good bishop's fame will not be lessened by his adopting what was good in the works of the learned physician. He doubtless thought far more of the benefit which he could render to the youthful Wykehamists, than of either the originality or smoothness of his own verses.

_Sir Thomas Browne._
"While I do rest, my soul advance;
Make my sleep a holy trance:
That I may, my rest being wrought,
Awake into some holy thought,
And with as active vigour run
My course as doth the nimble sun.

"Sleep is a death: O make me try,
By sleeping, what it is to die!
{11}
And as gently lay my head
On my grave, as now my bed.

"These are my drowsy days; in vain
I do now wake to sleep again.
O come that hour when I shall never
Sleep again, but wake for ever!

"Guard me 'gainst those watchful foes,
Whose eyes are open while mine close;
Let no dreams my head infest,
But such as Jacob's temples blest."

_Bishop Ken._
"Awake, my soul, and with the sun
Thy daily stage of duty run.

"Teach me to live that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.

"O when shall I in endless day
For ever chase dark sleep away,
And endless praise with th' Heavenly choir,
Incessant sing and never tire.

"You, my blest Guardian, whilst I sleep,
Close to my bed your vigils keep;
Divine love into me instil,
Stop all the avenues of ill.

"Thought to thought, with my soul converse
Celestial joys to me rehearse;
And in my stead, all the night long,
Sing to my God a grateful song."