Chapter C: H. Cooper

Cambridge.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Archbishop Parker's Correspondence._--I am now engaged in carrying out a design which has been long entertained by the Parker Society, that of publishing the Correspondence of the distinguished prelate whose name that Society bears. If any of your readers can favour me with references to any letters of the archbishop, either unpublished, or published in works but little known, I shall feel extremely obliged. I add my own address, in order that I may not encumber your pages with mere references. Any information beyond a reference will probably be as interesting to your readers generally as to myself.

JOHN BRUCE.

5. Upper Gloucester Street, Dorset Square.

_Amor Nummi._--Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the authorship of the following verses?

_Amor Nummi._

"'The love of money is the root of evil,
Sending the folks in cart-loads to the devil.'
So says an ancient proverb, as we're told,
And spoke the truth, we [no?] doubt, in days of old.
But now, thanks to our good friend, BILLY PITT,
This wholesome golden adage will not sit [fit?];
On English ground the vice dissolves in vapour,
Being at best only a love--of paper."

It must have appeared in an English ministerial paper about the year 1805.--From the _Navorscher_.

DIONYSIOS.

_The Number Nine._--Can any of your mathematical correspondents inform me of the law and reason of the following singular property of the numbers? If from any number above nine the same number be subtracted written backwards, the addition of the figures of the remainder will always be a multiple of nine; for instance--

972619
916279
------
56340 the sum of which is 18, or 9 × 2.
======

925012
210529
------
714483 the sum of which is 27, or 9 × 3.
======

83
38
--
45 the sum of which is 9.
==

JOHN LAMMENS.

_Position of Font._--The usual and very significant position of the font is near the church door. But there is one objection to this, viz. that the benches being best arranged facing the chancel, the people cannot without much confusion see the baptisms. This being so, perhaps a better place {150} for the font is at the entrance of the chancel. The holy rite, so edifying to the congregation, as well as profitable to the recipient, can then be duly seen; and the position is tolerably symbolical, expressing as it were "the way that is opened for us into the holiest of all." I am curious to know if there are any ancient examples of this position, and how far the canon sanctions it, which directs that the font be set up in "the ancient usual _places_" [plural]? While on the subject let me put another Query. The Rubric directs that the font be "then," _i. e._ just before the baptism, filled with pure water. In what vessel is the water brought, and who fills the font? What are the precedents in this matter? Rules, I think, there are none.

A. A. D.

_Aix Ruochim or Romans Ioner._--On the verge of the cliff at Kingsgate, near the North Foreland, is a small castle or fort of chalk and flint, known by the above name. Can any of your readers give any information regarding the date of the erection of this curious edifice? Some of the local guidebooks attribute it to the time of Vortigern, or about 448; but this seems an almost fabulous antiquity.

A. O. H.

Blackheath.

_"Lessons for Lent," &c._--_Lessons for Lent, or Instructions on the Two Sacraments of Penance and the B. Eucharist_, printed in the year 1718. Who was the author?

H.

_"La Branche des réaus Lignages."_--Have any of your correspondents met with a romance, of which I have a MS. copy, entitled "La Branche des réaus Lignages?" The MS. I possess is evidently a modern copy, and begins thus:

"Et tens de celi mandement
Duquel j'ai fait ramembrement
Et qu'aucun homme d'avis oit
Jehan, qui Henaut justisoit
Guerréoit et grevoit yglises
En la garde le roi commises
Ne ... li vouloit faire hommage."

The poem is divided by numbers, probably referring to the pages of the original: beginning with 1292, and ending with 1307. It is also evident, from the first verses themselves, that I have only a fragment before me.--From the _Navorscher_.

GANSKE.

_Marriage Service._--Are there any parishes in which the custom of presenting the fee, together with the ring, in the marriage service, as ordered by the rubric, is observed?

E. W.

_"Czar" or "Tsar."_--Whence the derivation of the title _Czar_ or _Tsar_? I know that some suppose it to be derived from Cæsar, while others trace it from the terminal _-sar_ or _-zar_ in the names of the kings of Babylon and Assyria: as Phalas-_sar_, Nebuchadnez-_zar_, &c. In Persian, _sar_ means the supreme power. I have heard much argument about its origin, and would be much obliged if any reader of "N. & Q." could state the correct derivation of the word.

By which Emperor of Russia was the title first assumed?

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

_Little Silver._--There are several places in Devonshire so called, villages or hamlets. It is said, they are alway situated in the immediate neighbourhood of a Roman, or some other ancient camp. Hence, some people suppose the name is given to these localities from the number of silver coins frequently found there.

Will any of your correspondents throw light on this subject?

As every one knows, there is also a Silverton in Devonshire--Silver-town _par excellence_. Is it in any way connected with the "Little Silvers?"

A. C. M.

Exeter.

_On Æsop's (?) Fable of washing the Blackamoor._--Is it possible the well-known fable was a real occurrence? The following extract would seem to allude to an analogous fact:

"Counting the labour as endlesse as the maids in the Strand,
which endeavoured by washing the Black-a-more to make him
white."--_Case of Sir Ignoramus of Cambridge_, 1648, p. 23.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_Wedding Proverb._--Is the following distich known in any part of England?--

"To change the name, but not the letter,
Is to marry for worse, and not for better."

I met with it in an American book, but it was probably an importation.

SPINSTER.

_German Phrase._--What is the origin of a sarcastic German phrase often used?

"Er erwartet dass der Himmel voll Bassgeigen längt."