Chapter C: Mansfield Ingleby

Birmingham.

"_Pætus and Arria_."--Can you inform me who is the author of _Pætus and Arria, a Tragedy_, 8vo., 1809?

In Genest's _Account of the English Stage_, this play is said to be written by a gentleman of the University of Cambridge. Can you tell me whether this is likely to be W. Smyth, the late Professor of Modern History in that university, who died in June, 1849?

GW.

_Heraldic Query_.--A. was killed in open rebellion. His son B. lived in retirement under a fictitious name. The grandson C. retained the assumed name, and obtained new arms. Query, {220} Can the descendants of C. resume the arms of A.? If so, must they substitute them for the arms of C., or bear them quarterly, and in which quarters?

FRANCIS P.

_Lord Chancellor Steele._--Is any pedigree of William Steele, Esq., Lord Chancellor of Ireland temp. Commonwealth, extant; and do any of his descendants exist?

It is believed he was nearly related to Captain Steel, governor of Beeston Castle, who suffered death by military execution in 1643 on a charge of cowardice.

STATFOLD.

_"A Tub to the Whale."_--What is the origin of this phrase?

PIMLICO.

_Legitimation_ (_Scotland_).--Perhaps some of your Scotch readers "learned in the law" would obligingly answer the subjoined Queries, referring to some decisions.

1. Will entail property go to a _bastard_, _legitimated before the Union_ under the great seal (by the law of Scotland)?

2. Will titles and dignities descend?

3. Will armorial bearings?

M. M.

Inner Temple.

_"Vaut mieux," &c._--The proverb "Vaut mieux avoir affaire à Dieu qu'à ses saints" has a Latin origin. What is it?

M.

_Shakspeare First Folio._--Is there any _obtainable_ edition of Shakspeare which follows, or fully contains, the first folio?

M.

_The Staffordshire Knot._--Can any of your readers give the history of the Staffordshire knot, traced on the carriages and trucks of the North Staffordshire Railway Company?

T. P.

_Sir Thomas Elyot._--I shall be extremely obliged by a reference to any sources of information respecting Sir Thomas Elyot, Knight, living in the time of Henry VIII., son of Sir Richard Elyot, Knight, of Suffolk.

I shall be glad also to know whether a short work (among others of his in my possession) entitled _The Defence of good Women_, printed in London by Thomas Berthelet, 1545, is at all a rare book?

H. C. K.

_"Celsior exsurgens pluviis," &c._--

"Celsior exsurgens pluviis, nimbosque cadentes,
Sub pedibus cernens, et cæca tonitrua calcans."

Can you oblige me by stating where the above lines are to be found? They appear to me to form an appropriate motto for a balloon.

J. P. A.

_The Bargain Cup._--Can the old English custom of drinking together upon the completion of a bargain, be traced back farther than the Norman era? Did a similar custom exist in the earlier ages? Danl. Dyke, in his _Mysteries_ (London, 1634), says:

"The Jews being forbidden to make couenants with the Gentiles, they
also abstained from drinking with them; because that was a ceremonie
vsed in striking of couenants."

This is the only notice I can find among old writers touching this custom, which is certainly one of considerable antiquity: though I should like confirmation of Dyke's words, before I can recognise an ancestry so remote.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

_School-Libraries._--I am desirous of ascertaining whether any of our public schools possess any libraries for the general reading of the scholars, in which I do not include mere school-books of Latin, Greek, &c., which, I presume, they all possess, but such as travels, biographies, &c.

Boys fresh from these schools appear generally to know nothing of general reading, and from the slight information I have, I fear there is nothing in the way of a library in any of them. If not, it is, I should think, a very melancholy fact, and one that deserves a little attention: but if any of your obliging correspondents can tell me what public school possesses such a thing, and the facilities allowed for reading in the school, I shall take it as a favour.

WELD TAYLOR.

Bayswater.

_Queen Elizabeth and her "true" Looking-glass._--An anecdote is current of Queen Elizabeth having in her later days, if not during her last illness, called for a _true_ looking-glass, having for a long time previously made use of one that was in some manner purposely falsified.

What is the original source of the story? or at least what is the authority to which its circulation is mainly due? An answer from some of your correspondents to one or other of these questions would greatly oblige

VERONICA.

_Bishop Thomas Wilson._--In Thoresby's Diary, A.D. 1720, April 17 (vol. ii. p. 289.), is the following entry:

"Easter Sunday ... after evening prayers supped at cousin Wilson's with
the Bishop of Man's son."

Was there any relationship, and what, between this "cousin Wilson," and the bishop's son, Dr. Thomas Wilson? I should be glad of any information bearing on any or on all these subjects.

WILLIAM DENTON.

_Bishop Wilson's Works._--The REV. JOHN KEBLE, Hursley, near Winchester, being engaged in writing the life and editing the works of Bishop Wilson (Sodor and Man), would feel obliged by {221} the communication of any letters, sermons, or other writings of the bishop, or by reference to any incidents not to be found in printed accounts of his life.

_Hobbes, Portrait of_.--In the _Memoirs_ of T. Hobbes, it is stated that a portrait of him was painted in 1669 for Cosmo de Medici.

I have a fine half-length portrait of him, on the back of which is the following inscription:

"Thomas Hobbes, æt. 81. 1669.
J^{os}. Wick Wrilps, Londiensis, Pictor Caroli 2^{di}. R.
pinx^t."

Is this painter the same as John Wycke, who died in 1702, but who is not, I think, known as a portrait painter?

Can any of your readers inform me whether a portrait of Hobbes is now in the galleries at Florence, and, if so, by whom it was painted? It is possible that mine is a duplicate of the picture which was painted for the Grand Duke.

W. C. TREVELYAN.

Wallington.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Brasenose, Oxford_.--I am anxious to learn the origin and meaning of the word _Brasenose_. I have somewhere heard or read (though I cannot recall where) that it was a Saxon word, _brasen haus_ or "brewing-house;" and that the college was called by this name, because it was built on the site of the brewing-house of King Alfred. All that Ingram says on the subject is this:

"This curious appellation, which, whatever was the origin of it, has
been perpetuated by the symbol of a brazen nose here and at Stamford,
occurs with the modern orthography, but in one undivided word, so early
as 1278, in an Inquisition, now printed in the _Hundred Rolls_, though
quoted by Wood from the manuscript record."--See his _Memorials of
Oxford_.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Our correspondent will find the notice of King Alfred's brew-house in
the review of Ingram's _Memorials_ in the _British Critic_, vol. xxiv.
p. 139. The writer says, "There is a spot in the centre of the city
where Alfred is said to have lived, and which may be called the native
place or river-head of three separate societies still existing,
University, Oriel, and Brasenose. Brasenose claims his palace, Oriel
his church, and University his school or academy. Of these Brasenose
College is still called, in its formal style, 'the King's Hall,' which
is the name by which Alfred himself, in his laws, calls his palace; and
it has its present singular name from a corruption of _brasinium_, or
_brasin-huse_, as having been originally located in that part of the
royal mansion which was devoted to the then important accommodation of
a brew-house." Churton, in his _Life of Bishop Smyth_, p. 277., thus
accounts for the origin of the word:--"Brasen Nose Hall, as the Oxford
antiquary has shown, may be traced as far back as the time of Henry
III., about the middle of the thirteenth century; and early in the
succeeding reign, 6th Edward I., 1278, it was known by the name of
Brasen Nose Hall, which peculiar name was undoubtedly owing, as the
same author observes, to the circumstance of a nose of brass affixed to
the gate. It is presumed, however, this conspicuous appendage of the
portal was not formed of the mixed metal, which the word now denotes,
but the genuine produce of the mine; as is the nose, or rather face, of
a lion or leopard still remaining at Stamford, which also gave name to
the edifice it adorned. And hence, when Henry VIII. debased the coin,
by an alloy of _copper_, it was a common remark or proverb, that
'Testons were gone to Oxford, to study in _Brasen_ Nose.'"]

_G. Downing_.--Can any one point out to me a biography of G. Downing, or at least indicate a work where the dates of the birth and death of this celebrated statesman may be found? He was English ambassador in the Hague previous to and in the year 1664, and to him Downing Street in London owes its name. A very speedy answer would be most welcome.--From the _Navorscher_.

A. T. C.

[In Pepys's _Diary_, vol. i. p. 2. edit. 1848, occurs the following
notice of Sir George Downing:--"Wood has misled us in stating that Sir
George Downing was a son of Dr. Calibut Downing, the rector of Hackney.
He was beyond doubt the son of Emmanuel Downing, a London merchant, who
went to New England. It is not improbable that Emmanuel was a near
kinsman of Calibut; how related has not yet been discovered. Governor
Hutchinson, in his _History of Massachusetts_, gives the true account
of Downing's affiliation, which has been farther confirmed by Mr.
Savage, of Boston, from the public records of New England. Wood calls
Downing a sider with all times and changes; skilled in the common cant,
and a preacher occasionally. He was sent by Cromwell to Holland, as
resident there. About the Restoration, he espoused the King's cause,
and was knighted and elected M. P. for Morpeth, in 1661. Afterwards,
becoming Secretary to the Treasury and Commissioner of the Customs, he
was in 1663 created a Baronet of East Hatley, in Cambridgeshire, and
was again sent ambassador to Holland. His grandson of the same name,
who died in 1749, was the founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The
title became extinct in 1764, upon the decease of Sir John Gerrard
Downing, the last heir male of the family." According to Hutchinson,
Sir George died in 1684.]

_Unkid_.--Can any of your readers inform me as to the derivation of this word, or give any instance of its recent use? I have frequently heard it in my childhood (the early part of the present century) among the rural population of Oxon and Berks. It was generally applied to circumstances of a melancholy or distressing character, but sometimes used to express a peculiar state of feeling, being apparently intended to convey nearly the same meaning as the _ennui_ of the French. I {222} recollect an allusion to the phrase somewhere in Miss Mitford's writings, who speaks of it as peculiar to Berks; but as I was then ignorant of Captain Cuttle's maxim, I did not "make a note of it," so that I am unable to lay my hand on the passage.

G. T.

Reading.

[Mr. Sternberg also found this word in Northamptonshire: for in his
valuable work on _The Dialect and Folk Lore_ of that county occurs the
following derivation of it:--"UNKED, HUNKID, _s_. lonely, dull,
miserable. 'I was so _unked_ when ye war away.' 'A _unked_ house,' &c.
Mr. Bosworth gives, as the derivative, the A.-S. _uncyd_, solitary,
without speech. In Batchelor's _List of Bedfordshire Words_, it is
spelt _ungkid_."]

_Pilgrim's Progress_.--The common editions contain a _third_ part, setting forth the life of _Tender-conscience_: this third part is thought not to have been written by Bunyan, and is omitted from some, at least, of the modern editions. Can any of your readers explain by whom this addition was made, and all about it? The subject of the _Pilgrim's Progress_ generally--the stories of a similar kind which are said to have preceded--especially in Catholic times--the history of its editions and annotations, would give some interesting columns.

M.

[Mr. George Offor, in his Introduction to _The Pilgrim's Progress_,
published by the Hanserd Knollys Society in 1847, notices the third
part as a forgery:--"In a very few years after Bunyan's death, this
third part made its appearance; and although the title does not
directly say that it was written by Bunyan, yet it was at first
generally received as such. In 1695, it reached a second edition; and a
sixth in 1705. In 1708, it was denounced in the title to the ninth
edition of the second part, by a 'Note, _the third part, suggested to
be J. Bunyan's, is an imposture_.' The author of this forgery is as yet
unknown." Mr. Offor has also devoted fifty pages of his Introduction to
the conjectured prototypes of Bunyan's _Pilgrim's Progress_. He says,
"Every assertion or suggestion that came to my knowledge has been
investigated, and the works referred to have been analysed. And beyond
this, every allegorical work that could be found, previous to the
eighteenth century, has been examined in all the European languages,
and the result is a perfect demonstration of the complete originality
of Bunyan."]

_John Frewen_.--What is known of this divine? He was minister at Northiam in Sussex in 1611; and published, the following year, a small volume of _Sermons_, bearing reference to some quarrel between himself and parishioners. Are these _Sermons_ rare? Any particulars would be acceptable.

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

[Accepted Frewen, Archbishop of York, was the eldest son of John
Frewen, "the puritanical Rector of Northiam," as Wood calls him, and
indeed his name carries a symbol of his father's sanctity. Wood has
given a few particulars of John, who, he says, "was a learned divine,
and frequent preacher of the time, and wrote, 1. _Fruitful Instructions
and Necessary Doctrine, to edify in the Fear of God, &c_., 1587. 2.
_Fruitful Instructions for the General Cause of Reformation, against
the Slanders of the Pope and League, &c_., 1589. 3. _Certain Choice
Grounds and Principles of our Christian Religion, with their several
Expositions, by Way of Questions and Answers, &c_., 1621, and other
things. He died in 1627 (about the latter end), and was buried in
Northiam Church, leaving then behind these sons, viz. Accepted,
Thankful, Stephen, Joseph, Benjamin, Thomas, Samuel, John, &c., which
John seems to have succeeded his father in the Rectory of Northiam; but
whether the said father was educated at Oxford, I cannot tell."]

_Histories of Literature_.--Can any correspondent inform me of the best, or one or two principal Histories of Literature, published in the English language, with the names of the author and publisher; as well as, if possible, the size and price?

ILMONASTERIENSIS.

[Our correspondent cannot do better than procure Hallam's _Introduction
to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and
Seventeenth Centuries_, 3 vols. 8vo. (36s.). He may also consult with
advantage Dr. Maitland's _Dark Ages_, which illustrates the state of
religion and literature from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, 8vo.,
12s. and Berrington's _Literary History of the Middle Ages_, 3s. 6d.]

"_Mrs. Shaw's Tombstone_."--In Leigh's _Observations_ (London, 1660) are several quotations from a work entitled _Mrs. Shaw's Tombstone_. Where may a copy of this be seen?

R. C. WARDE.

Kidderminster.

[Mrs. Dorothy Shaw's _Tombstone, or the Saint's Remains_, 1658, may be
seen in the British Museum, Press-mark, 1418. i. 41.]

* * * * *

Replies.

CRANMER AND CALVIN.

(Vol. viii., p. 182.)

A correspondent who seems to delight in sibilants, signing, himself S. Z. Z. S., invites me to "_preserve_, in your columns, the letter of Calvin to Cranmer, of which Dean Jenkyns has only given extracts," as noticed by me in your Vol. vii., p. 621.

I would not shrink from the trouble of transcribing the whole letter, if a complete copy were only to be found in the short-lived columns of a newspaper, as inserted in the _Record_ of May 15, 1843, by Merle d'Aubigné; but the Dean has given a reference to the volume in which both the letters he cites are preserved and accessible, viz. _Calvin Epistles_, pp. 134, 135., Genev. 1616. {223}

S. Z. Z. S. justly observes that there are two points to be distinguished: first, Cranmer's wish that Calvin should assist in a general union of the churches protesting against Romish errors; second, Calvin's offer to assist in settling the Church of England. He adds, "The latter was declined; and the reason is demonstrated in Archbishop Laurence's _Bampton Lectures_." I neither possess those lectures, nor the volume of Calvin's epistles; but all I have seen of the correspondence between him and Cranmer, in the Parker Society's editions of Cranmer, and of original letters between 1537-58, and in Jenkyns' _Remains of Cranmer_, indisposes me to believe that Calvin made any "offer to assist in settling the Church of England." It appears from Dean Jenkyns' note, vol. i. p. 346., that Archbishop Laurence made a mistake in the order of the correspondence, calculated to mislead himself; and as to Heylyn's assertion, _Eccles. Restaur._, p. 65., that Calvin made such an offer and "that the Archbishop (Cranmer) _knew_ the man and refused his offer," the Dean says:

"He gives no authority for the later part of his statement, and it can
hardly be reconciled with Cranmer's letter to Calvin of March 20,
1552."

The contemptuous expression, he "knew the man and refused his offer," is, in fact, utterly irreconcilable with Cranmer's language in all his three letters to Melancthon, to Bullinger, and to Calvin (Nos. 296, 297, 298. of Parker Society's edition of _Cranmer's Remains_, and Nos. 283, 284, 285. of Jenkyns' edition), where he tells each of the other two that he had written to Calvin from his desire--

"Ut in Anglia, aut alibi, doctissimorum et _optimorum_ virorum synodus
convocaretur, in qua de puritate ecclesiasticæ doctrinæ, et præcipue de
consensu controversiæ sacramentariæ tractaretur."

Or, as he said to Calvin himself:

"Ut docti et pii viri, qui alios antecellunt eruditione et judicio,
convenirent."

Your correspondent seems to have used the word "demonstrated" rather in a surgical than in its mathematical sense.

Having taken up my pen to supply you with an answer to this historical inquiry, I may as well notice some other articles in your No. 199. For example, in p. 167., L. need not have referred your readers to Halliwell's _Researches in Archaic Language_ for an explanation of Bacon's word "bullaces." The word may be seen in Johnson's _Dictionary_, with the citation from Bacon, and instead of vaguely calling it "a small black and tartish plum," your botanical readers know it as the _Prunus insititia_.

Again, p. 173., J. M. may like to know farther, that the Duke of Wellington's clerical brother was entered on the boards of St. John's College, Cambridge, as Wesley, where the spelling must have been dictated either by himself, or by the person authorised to desire his admission. It continued to be spelt Wesley in the Cambridge annual calendars as late as 1808, but was altered in that of 1809 to Wellesley. The alteration was probably made by the desire of the family, and without communicating such desire to the registrary of the university. For it appears in the edition of _Graduati Cantabrigienses_, printed in 1823, as follows:

"Wesley, Gerard Valerian, Coll. Joh. A. M. 1792. Comitis de Mornington,
Fil. nat. 4^{tus}."

In p. 173., C. M. INGLEBY may like to know, as a clue to the origin of his _apussee and_, that I was taught at school, sixty years ago, to call & _And per se_, whilst some would call it _And-per-se-and_.

In the same page, the inquirer B. H. C. respecting the word _mammon_, may like to know that the history of that word has been given at some length in p. 1. to p. 68. of the Parker Society's edition of Tyndale's _Parable of the wicked Mammon_, where I have stated that it occurs in a form identical with the English in the Chaldee Targum of Onkelos on Exod. viii. 21., and in that of Jonathan on Judges, v. 9., as equivalent to riches; and that in the Syriac translation it occurs in a form identical with [Greek: Mamôna], in Exod. xxi. 30., as a rendering for [Hebrew: K\holam\P\segol\R], the price of satisfaction. In B. H. C.'s citation from Barnes, _even_ seems a misprint for _ever_. The Jews did not again fall into actual idolatry after the Babylonish captivity; but we are told that in the sight of God covetousness is idolatry.

HENRY WALTER.

Hasilbury Bryan.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 124.)

A Querist quoting from Porta's _Natural Magic_ the vulgar error that "not only in Scotland, but in the river Thames, there is a kind of shell-fish which get out of their shells and grow to be ducks, or such like birds," asks, what could give rise to such an absurd belief? Your correspondent quotes from the English translation of the _Magia Naturalis_, A.D. 1658; but the tradition is very ancient, Porta the author having died in 1515 A.D. You still find an allusion in _Hudibras_ to those--

"Who from the most refin'd of saints,
As naturally grow miscreants,
As _barnacles_ turn Soland geese,
In th' islands of the Orcades."

The story has its origin in the peculiar formation of the little mollusc which inhabits the multivalve shell, the _Pentalasmis anatifera_, which by a fleshy peduncle attaches itself by one end to the bottoms of ships or floating timber, whilst from the other {224} there protrudes a bunch of curling and fringe-like cirrhi, by the agitation of which it attracts and collects its food. These cirrhi so much resemble feathers, as to have suggested the leading idea of a bird's tail: and hence the construction of the remainder of the fable, which is thus given with grave minuteness in _The Herbal, or General Historie of Plants_, gathered by John Gerarde, Master in Chirurgerie: London, 1597:

"What our eyes have seen, and our hands have touched, we shall declare.
There is a small island in Lancashire called the Pile of Foulders,
wherein are found the broken pieces of old and bruised ships, some
whereof have been cast thither by shipwreck; and also the trunks or
bodies, with the branches of old and rotten trees, cast up there
likewise, whereon is found a certain spume or froth, that in time
breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those of a mussel, but
sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is contained a thing
in form like a lace of silk finely woven as it were together, of a
whitish colour; one end whereof is fastened unto the inside of the
shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are; the other end is
made fast unto the belly of a rude mass or lump, which in time cometh
to the shape and form of a bird. When it is perfectly formed, the shell
gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the foresaid lace or
string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out and as it groweth
greater, it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it is all come
forth, and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it cometh to
full maturity, and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth feathers,
and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard, and lesser than a goose;
having black legs, and a bill or beak, and feathers black and white,
spotted in such manner as our magpie, called in some places a
Pie-Annet, which the people of Lancashire call by no other name than a
tree-goose; which place aforesaid, and all those parts adjacent, do so
much abound therewith, that one of the best may be bought for
threepence. For the truth hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to
repair unto me, and I shall satisfy them by the testimony of credible
witnesses."--Page 1391.

Gerarde, who is doubtless Butler's authority, says elsewhere, that "in the north parts of Scotland, and the islands called Orcades," there are certain trees whereon these tree-geese and barnacles abound.

The conversion of the fish into a bird, however fabulous, would be scarcely more astonishing than the metamorphosis which it actually undergoes--the young of the little animal having no feature to identify it with its final development. In its early stage (I quote from Carpenter's _Physiology_, vol. i. p. 52.) it has a form not unlike that of the crab, "possessing eyes and powers of free motion; but afterwards, becoming fixed to one spot for the remainder of its life, it loses its eyes and forms a shell, which, though composed of various pieces, has nothing in common with the jointed shell of the crab."

Though Porta wrote at Naples, the story has reference to Scotland; and the tradition is evidently northern, and local. As to SPERIEND's Query, What could give rise to so absurd a story? it doubtless took its origin in the similarity of the tentacles of the fish to feathers of a bird. But I would add the farther Query, whether the ready acceptance and general credence given to so obvious a fable, may not have been derived from giving too literal a construction to the text of the passage in the first chapter of Genesis:

"And God said, Let the _waters bring forth abundantly_ the moving
creature that hath life, and _the fowl_ that may fly in the open
firmament of heaven?"

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

Drayton (1613) in his _Poly-olbion_, iii., in connexion with the river Dee, speaks of--

"Th' anatomised fish, and fowls from planchers sprung,"

to which a note is appended in Southey's edition, p. 609., that such fowls were "_barnacles_, a bird breeding upon old ships." In the _Entertaining Library_, "Habits of Birds," pp. 363-379., the whole story of this extraordinary instance of ignorance in natural history is amply developed. The barnacle shells which I once saw in a sea-port, attached to a vessel just arrived from the Mediterranean, had the brilliant appearance, at a distance, of flowers in bloom[1]; the foot of the _Lepas anatifera_ (Linnæus) appearing to me like the stalk of a plant growing from the ship's side: the shell had the semblance of a calyx, and the flower consisted of the fingers (_tentacula_) of the shell-fish, "of which twelve project in an elegant curve, and are used by it for making prey of small fish." The very ancient error was to mistake the foot of the shell-fish for the neck of a goose, the shell for its head, and the _tentacula_ for a tuft of feathers. As to the body, _non est inventus_. The Barnacle Goose is a well-known bird: and these shell-fish, bearing, as seen out of the water, resemblance to the goose's neck, were ignorantly, and without investigation, confounded with geese themselves, an error into which Albertus Magnus (d. 1280) did not fall, and in which Pope Pius II. proved himself infallible. Nevertheless, in France, the Barnacle Goose may be eaten on fast-days by virtue of this old belief in its marine origin.

T. J. BUCKTON

[Footnote 1: See _Penny Cycl_., art. CIRRIPEDA, vii. 208., reversing the woodcut.]

* * * * *

DIAL INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. iv., p. 507. Vol. v., p. 155., &c.)

In the churchyard of Areley-Kings, Worcestershire (where is the singular memorial to Sir Harry Coningsby, which I mentioned at Vol. vi., {225} p. 406.), is a curious dial, the pillar supporting which has its four sides carved with figures of Time and Death, &c., and the following inscriptions.

On the south side, where is the figure of Time:

Consider

"Aspice--ut aspicias."

"Time's glass and scythe
Thy life and death declare,
Spend well thy time, and
For thy end prepare."

"O man, now or never
While there is time, turn unto the Lord,
And put not off from day to day."

On the north side, where is the figure of Death standing upon a dead body, with his dart, hour-glass, and spade:

"Three things there be in very deede,
Which make my heart in grief to bleede:
The first doth vex my very heart,
In that from hence I must departe;
The second grieves me now and then,
That I must die, but know not when;
The third with tears bedews my face,
That I must die, nor know the place.

I. W.
_fecit_, Anno D[=m]i.
1687."

"Behold my killing dart and delving spade;
Prepare for death before thy grave be made;
for
After death there's no hope."

"If a man die he shall live again.
All the days of my appointed time
Will I wait till my days come."--_Job_ xiv. 14.

"The death of saints is precious,
And miserable is the death of sinners."

The east side of the pillar has the following:

"Si vis ingredi in vitam,
Serve mandata."

"Judgments are prepared for sinners."--_Prov_. xiv. 9.

And on the west:

"Sol non occidat
Super iracundiam vestram."

"Whatsoever ye would that men
Should do unto you,
Do ye even so unto them."

I subjoin a few other dial inscriptions, copied from churches in Worcestershire.

Kidderminster (parish church):

"None but a villain will deface me."

Himbleton (over the porch):

"Via Vitæ."

Bromsgrove:

"We shall ----" (_i.e._ we shall die-all).

Shrawley:

"Ab hoc nomento pendet æternitas."

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

* * * * *

THE "SALTPETER MAKER."

(Vol. vii., pp. 377. 433. 460. 530.)

The following humble petition will give an idea of the arbitrary power exercised by the "Saltpeter maker" in the days of Good Queen Bess; and of the useful monopoly that functionary contrived to make of his employment, in defiance of county government:

"Righte honorable, our humble dewties to yo^r good Lordshippe premised,
maye it please the same to be advertised, that at the Quarter sessions
holden at Newarke within this countie of Nottingham, There was a
generall Complaynte made unto us by the Whole Countrie, that one John
Ffoxe, saltpeter maker, had charged the Whole Countrie by his precepts
for the Caryinge of Cole from Selsonn, in the Countie of Nottingham,
unto the towne of Newarke w^{th}in the same countie; beinge sixteene
myles distante for the makeinge of saltpeter, some townes w^{th} five
Cariages and some w^{th} lesse, or els to geve him foure shillinges for
everie Loade, whereof he hath Recyved a great parte. Uppon w^{ch}
Complaynte we called the same Ffoxe before some of us at Newarke at the
Sessions, there to answere the premisses, and also to make us a
propc[=i]on what Loades of Coales would serve to make a thowsand of
saltpeter, To thend we might have sett some order for the preparing of
the same: But the said Ffoxe will not sett downe anie rate what would
serve for the makeinge of a Thowsande. Therefore we have thoughte good
to advertise your good Lordshippe of the premisses, and have appoynted
the clarke of the peace of this countie of Nottingham to attend yo^r
good Lordshippe to know yo^r Lordshippes pleasure about the same, who
can further informe yo^r good Lordshippe of the particularities
thereof, if it shall please yo^r good Lordshippe to geve him hearings,
And so most humblie take our Leaves, Newarke, the viij^{th} of Octob^r,
1589.

"Your L^{pp} most humblie to Comaunde,

RO. MARKHAM,
WILLIAM SUTTON,
R[=AU]F BARTON, 1589,
N[=IH]S ROOS,
BRIAN LASSELS,
JOHN THORNHAGH."

The document is addressed on the back "To the Right Honorable our verie good Lord the Lord Burghley, Lord Heighe Threasoro^r of England, yeve theis;" and is numbered LXI. 72. among the Lansdowne MSS., B. M.

The proposal quoted below has no date attached, but probably belongs to the former part of the seventeenth century:

"THE SERVICE.

"1. To make 500 Tunne of refined Saltpetre within his Ma^{ties}
dominions yearely, and continually, and cheaper.

2. _Without digging of homes or charging of carts, or any other charge
to the subject whatsoever._ {226}

3. To performe the whole service at our owne cost.

4. Not to hinder any man in his owne way of makeing saltpetre, nor
importation from forreine parts."

The following memorandum is underwritten:

"Mr. Speaker hath our Bill; Be pleased to-morrow to call for it."

The original draft of the above disinterested offer may be seen Harl. CLVIII. fol. 272.

FURVUS.

St. James's.

* * * * *

TSAR.

(Vol. viii., p. 150.)

The difficulty in investigating the origin of this word is that the letter _c_, "the most wonderful of all letters," says Eichhoff (_Vergleichung der Sprachen_, p. 55.), sounds like _k_ before the vowels _a_, _o_, _u_, but before _e_, _i_, in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch, as _s_, in Italian as _tsh_, in German as _ts_. It is always _ts_ in Polish and Bohemian. In Russian it is represented by a special letter [Cyrillic: ts], _tsi_; but in Celtic it is always _k_. Conformably with this principle, the Russians, like the Germans, Poles, and Bohemians, pronounce the Latin _c_ as _ts_. So Cicero in these languages is pronounced _Tsitsero_, very differently from the Greeks, who called him _Kikero_. The letter _tsi_ is a supplementary one in Russian, having no corresponding letter in the Greek alphabet, from which the Russian was formed in the ninth century by St. Cyril. The word to be sought then amongst cognate languages as the counterpart of _tsar_ (or as the Germans write it _czar_) is _car_, as pronounced in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch. The most probable etymological connection that I can discover is with the Sanscrit [Sanskrit: car] _car_, to move, to advance; the root of the Greek [Greek: karrhon], in English _car_, Latin _curro_, French _cours_. So Sanscrit _caras_, _carat_, movable, nimble; Greek [Greek: chraôn], Latin _currens_. And Sanscrit _câras_, motion, Greek [Greek: choros], Latin _currus_, _cursus_, French _char_, English _car_, _cart_, &c. The early Russians were doubtless wanderers, an off-shoot of the people known to the Greeks as Scythians, and to the Hebrews and Arabians as Gog and Magog, who travelled in _cars_, occupying first one territory with their flocks, but not cultivating the land, then leaving it to nature and taking up another resting-place. It is certain that the Russians have many Asiatic words in their vocabulary, which must necessarily have occurred from their being for more than two centuries sometimes under Tatar, and sometimes under Mongol domination; and the origin of this word _tsar_ or _car_ may leave to be sought on the plateaus of North-east Asia. In the Shemitic tongues (Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, &c.) no connexion of sound or meaning, so probable as the above Indo-European one, is to be found. The popular derivations of Nabupolassar, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, &c., are not to be trusted. It is remarkable, however, that these names are significant in Russian. (See "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 432, 433, _note_.) The cuneatic inscriptions may yet throw light on these Assyrian names. In Russian the kingdom is _Tsarstvo_, the king _Tsar_, his queen _Tsarina_, his son is _Tsarevitch_, and his daughter _Tsarevna_. The word is probably pure Russian or Slavic. The Russian tsar used about two hundred years ago to be styled duke by foreign courts, but he has advanced in the nomenclature of royalty to be an emperor. The Russians use the word _imperatore_ for emperor, _Kesar_ for Cæsar, and _samodershetse_ for sovereign.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

In Voltaire's _History of the Russian Empire_, it is stated that the title of Czar may possibly be derived front the _Tzars_ or _Tchars_ of the kingdom of Casan. When John, or Ivan Basilides, Grand Prince of Russia, had completed the reduction of this kingdom, he assumed this title, and it has since continued to his successors. Before the reign of John Basilides, the sovereigns of Russia bore the name of _Velike Knez_, that is, great prince, great lord, great chief, which in Christian countries was afterwards rendered by that of great duke. The Czar Michael Federovitz, on occasion of the Holstein embassy, assumed the titles of Great Knez and Great Lord, Conservator of all the Russias, Prince of Wolodimir, Moscow, Novogorod, &c., Tzar of Casan, Tzar of Astracan, Tzar of Siberia. The name of _Tzar_ was therefore the title of those Oriental princes, and therefore it is more probable for it to have been derived from the _Tshas_ of Persia than from the Roman Cæsars, whose name very likely never reached the ears of the Siberian Tzars on the banks of the Oby. In another part of Voltaire's _History_, when giving an account of the celebrated battle of Narva, where Charles XII., with nine thousand men and ten pieces of cannon, defeated "the Russian army with eighty thousand fighting men, supported by one hundred and forty-five pieces of cannon," he says, "Among the captives was the son of a King of Georgia, whom Charles sent to Stockholm; his name was _Mittelesky Czarowitz_, or Czar's Son, which is farther proof that the title of Czar or Tzar was not originally derived from the Roman Cæsars." To the above slightly abbreviated description may not be uninterestingly added the language of Voltaire, which immediately follows the first reference:

"No title, how great soever, is of any signification, unless they who
bear it are great and powerful of themselves. The word _emperor_, which
denoted only the _general of an army_, became the title of the {227}
sovereigns of Rome and it is now conferred on the supreme governor of
all the Russias."

A HERMIT AT HAMPSTEAD.

I beg to inform J. S. A. that the right word is _Tsar_, and that it is the Russian word answering to our king or lord, the Latin _Rex_, the Persian _Shah_, &c. There may be terms in other languages that have an affinity with it, but I believe we should seek in vain for a derivation.

T. K.

* * * * *

"LAND OF GREEN GINGER."

(Vol. viii., p. 160.)

I wish that R. W. ELLIOT of Clifton, whom I recognise as a former inhabitant of Hull, had given the authority on which he states, that "It is so called from the sale of ginger having been chiefly carried on there in early times." The name of this street has much puzzled the local antiquaries; and having been for several years engaged on a work relative to the derivations, &c., of the names of the streets of Hull, I have spared no pains to ascertain the history and derivation of the singular name of this street.

I offer then a conjecture as to its derivation as follows:--The ground on which this street stands was originally the property of De la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, on which he had built his stately manor-house. On the attainder of the family it was seized by the king; and Henry VIII. several times held his court here, on one of his visits having presented his sword to the corporation. It was then, 1538, called Old Beverley Street, as seen in the survey made of the estates of Sir William Sydney, Kt. In a romance called _Piraute el Blanco_, it is stated "The morning collation at the English Court was _green ginger_ with good Malmsey, which was their custom, because of the coldness of the land." And in the _Foedera_, vii. 233., it is stated that, among other things, the cargo of a Genoese ship, which was driven ashore at Dunster, in Somersetshire, in 1380, consisted of green ginger (ginger cured with lemon-juice). In Hollar's Map of Hull, 1640, the street is there laid out as built upon, but without any name attached to it. No other plans of Hull are at present known to exist from the time of Hollar, 1640, to Gent, 1735. In Gent's plan of Hull, it is there called "The Land of Green Ginger;" so that probably, between the years 1640 and 1735, it received its peculiar name.

I therefore conjecture that, as Henry VIII. kept his Court here with his usual regal magnificence, green ginger would be one of the luxuries of his table; that this portion of his royal property being laid out as a garden, was peculiarly suitable for the growth of ginger--the same as Pontefract was for the growth of the liquorice plant; and that, upon the property being built upon, the remembrance of this spot being so suitable for the growth of ginger for the Court, would eventually give the peculiar name, in the same way that the adjoining street of Bowl-Alley-Lane received its title from the bowling-green near to it.

JOHN RICHARDSON.

13. Savile Street, Hull.

This has long been a puzzle to the Hull antiquaries. I have often inquired of old persons likely to know the origin of such names of places at that sea-port as "The Land of Green Ginger," "Pig Alley," "Mucky-south-end," and "Rotten Herring Staith;" and I have come to the conclusion, that "The Land of Green Ginger" was a very dirty place where horses were kept: a mews, in short, which none of the Muses, not even with Homer as an exponent, could exalt ([Greek: Epea pteroenta en athanatoisi theoisi]) into the regions of poesy.

Ginger has been cultivated in this country as a _stove_ exotic for about two hundred and fifty years. In one of the histories of Hull, ginger is supposed to have grown in this street, where, to a recent period, the stables of the George Inn, and those of a person named Foster opposite, occupied the principal portion of the short lane called "Land of Green Ginger." It is hardly possible that the true zingiber can have grown here, even in the manure heaps; but a plant of the same order (_Zingiberaceæ_) may have been mistaken for it. Some of the old women or marine school-boys of the Trinity House, in the adjoining lane named from that guild, or some druggist, may have dropped, either accidentally or experimentally, a root, if not of the ginger, yet of some kindred plant. The magnificent _Fuchsia_ was first noticed in the possession of a seaman's wife by Fuchs in 1501, a century prior to the introduction of the ginger plant into England.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Stereoscopic Angles_.--The discussion in "N. & Q." relative to the best angle for stereoscopic pictures has gone far towards a satisfactory conclusion: there are, however, still a few points which may be beneficially considered.

In the first place, the kind of stereoscope to be used must tend to modify the mental impression; and secondly, the _amount_ of reduction from the size of the original has a considerable influence on the final result.

If in viewing a stereoscopic pair of photographs, they are placed _at the same distance_ from the eyes as the _length of the focus of the lens used in producing them_, then without doubt the distance between the eyes, viz. about two and a quarter {228} inches, is the best difference between the two points of view to produce a perfectly natural result; and if the points of operation be more distant from one another, as I have before intimated, an effect is produced similar to what would be the case if the pictures were taken from a _model_ of the object instead of the object itself.

When it is intended that the pictures taken are to be viewed by an instrument that requires their distance from the eyes to be _less_ than the focal length of the lens used in their formation, what is the result? Why, that they subtend an angle larger than in nature, and are consequently apparently _increased_ in bulk; and the obvious remedy is to _increase_ the angle between the points of generation in the exact ratio as that by which the visual distance is to be lessened. There is one other consideration to which I would advert, viz. that as we judge of _distance_, &c. mainly by the degree of _convergence_ of the optic axes of our two eyes, it cannot be so good to arrange the camera with its two positions quite parallel, especially for objects at a short or medium distance, as to let its centre radiate from the principal object to be delineated; and to accomplish this desideratum in the readiest way (for portraits especially), the ingenious contrivance of Mr. Latimer Clark, described in the _Journal_ of the Photographic Society, appears to me the best adapted. It consists of a modification of the old parallel ruler arrangement on which the camera is placed; but one of the sides has an adjustment, so that within certain limits any degree of convergence is attainable. Now in the case of the pictures alluded to by MR. H. WILKINSON in Vol. viii., p. 181., it is probable they were taken by a camera placed in two positions parallel to one another, and it is quite clear that only a _portion_ of the two pictures could have been really stereoscopic. It is perfectly true that two indifferent negatives will often combine and form one good stereoscopic positive, but this is in consequence of one possessing that in which the other is deficient; and at any rate two _good_ pictures will have a _better_ effect; consequently, it is better that the two views should contain exactly the same _range_ of vision.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Protonitrate of Iron_.--"Being in the habit of using protonitrate of iron for developing collodion pictures, the following method of preparing that solution suggested itself to me, which appears to possess great advantages:--

Water 1 oz.
Protosulphate of iron 14 grs.
Nitrate of potash 10 grs.
Acetic acid ½ drm.
Nitric acid 2 drops.

In this mixture nitrate of potash is employed to convert the sulphate of iron into nitrate in place of nitrate of baryta in Dr. Diamond's formula, or nitrate of lead as recommended by Mr. Sisson; the advantage being that no filtering is required, as the sulphate of potash (produced by the double decomposition) is soluble in water, and does not interfere with the developing qualities of the solution.

"The above gives the bright deposit of silver so much admired in Dr. Diamond's pictures, and will be found to answer equally well either for positives or negatives. If the nitric acid be omitted, we obtain the effects of protonitrate of iron prepared in the usual way.--JOHN SPILLER."

(From the _Photographic Journal_.)

_Photographs in natural Colours_.--As "N. & Q." numbers among its correspondents many residents in the United States, I hope you will permit me to inquire through its columns whether there is really any foundation for the very startling announcement, in Professor Hunt's _Photography_, of Mr. Hill of New York having "obtained more than fifty pictures from nature in all the beauty of native coloration," or whether the statement is, as I conclude Professor Hunt is inclined to believe, one of those hoaxes in which many of our transatlantic friends take so much delight.

MATTER-OF-FACT.

_Photographs by artificial Lights_.--May I ask for references to any manuals of photography, or papers in scientific journals, in which are recorded any experiments that have been made with the view of obtaining photographs by means of artificial lights? This is, I have no doubt, a subject of interest to many who, like myself, are busily occupied during the day, and have only their evenings for scientific pursuits: while it is obvious, that if such a process can be successfully practised, there are many objects--such as _prints_, _coins_, _seals_, _objects of natural history and antiquity_--which might well be copied by it, even though artificial light should prove far slower in its action than solar light.

A CLERK.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Vandyke in America_ (Vol. viii., p. 182.).--I would take the liberty of asking MR. BALCH of Philadelphia whom he means by Col. Hill and Col. Byrd, "worthies famous in English history, and whose portraits by Vandyke are now on the James River?" I know of no Col. Hill or Byrd whom Vandyke could possibly have painted. I should also like to know what proof there is that the pictures, whomsoever they represent, are by _Vandyke_. MR. BALCH says that he favours us with this information "_in answer to the query_" (Vol. vii., p. 38.); but I beg leave to observe that it is by no means "in answer to the query," which was about an _engraved_ portrait and not _picture_, and {229} his thus bringing in the Vandykes _à propos de bottes_ makes me a little curious about their authenticity.

C.

_Title wanted--Choirochorographia_ (Vol. viii., p. 151.).--The full title of the book inquired after is as follows:

"[Greek: Choirochôrographia]: sive, Hoglandiæ Descriptio.--Plaudite
_Porcelli Porcorum pigra Propago_ (Eleg. Poet.): Londini, Anno Domini
1709. Pretium 2^d," 8vo.

The printer, as appears from the advertisement at the end of the volume, was Henry Hills. The middle of the title-page is occupied by a coarsely executed woodcut, representing a boar with barbed instrument in his snout, and similar instrument on a larger scale under the head, surmounted with some rude characters, which I read

"TURX TRVYE BEVIS O HAMTVN."

The dedication is headed, "Augusto admodum & undiquaq; Spectabili Heroi Domini H---- S---- Maredydius Caduganus Pymlymmonensis, S.P.D." The entire work appears to be written in ridicule of Hampshire, and to be intended as a retaliation for work written by Edward Holdsworth, of Magd. Coll. Oxford, entitled _Muscipula, sive_ [Greek: kambro-muo-machia], published by the same printer in the same year, and translated by Dr. Hoadly in the fifth volume of Dodsley's _Miscellany_, p. 277., edit. 1782.

Query, Who was the author? and had Holdsworth any farther connexion with Hampshire than that of having been educated at Winchester School?

J. F. M.

_Second Growth of Grass_ (Vol. viii., p. 102.).--R. W. F. of Bath inquires for other names than "fog," &c. In Sussex we leave "rowens," or "rewens" (the latter, I believe, a corruption), used for the second growth of grass.

Halliwell, in his _Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words_, has "_Rowens_, after-grass," as a Suffolk word. Bailey gives the word, with a somewhat different signification; but he has "_Rowen hay_, latter hay," as a country word.

WILLIAM FIGG.

Lewes.

In Norfolk this is called "aftermath eddish," and "rowans" or "rawins."

The first term is evidently from the A.-S. _mæth_, mowing or math: Bosworth's _Dictionary_. Eddish is likewise from the A.-S. _edisc_, signifying the second growth; it is used by Tusser, _October's Husbandry_, stanza 4.:

"Where wheat upon _eddish_ ye mind to bestow,
Let that be the first of the wheat ye do sow."

_Rawings_ also occurs in Tusser, and in the _Promptorium Parvulorum_, _rawynhey_ is mentioned. In Bailey's _Dictionary_ it is spelt _rowen_ and _roughings_: this last form gives the etymology, for _rowe_, as may be seen in Halliwell, is an old form for _rough_.

E. G. R.

I have always heard it called in Northumberland, _fog_; in Norfolk, _after-math_; in Oxfordshire, I am told, it is _latter-math_. This term is pure A.-Saxon, _mæth_, the mowing; the former word _fog_, and _eddish_ also, are to be found in dictionaries, but their derivation is not satisfactory.