Chapter II: Part 2

And, after mentioning others, he adds:

"Quid de Valerio Chimentellio, homine omni literatura perpolita, dicam?
Quid de Joanne Pricaeo? qui ingens civitati vestrae ornamentum ex ultima
nuper accessit Britannia."

One feels some decree of disappointment at not meeting here with the name of Milton.

Of the distinguished men mentioned by Milton, some interesting notices occur in that curious little volume, the _Bibliotheca Aprosiana_. Benedetto Buommattei and Carlo Dati are well known from their important labours; and of the others there are scattered notices in _Rilli Notizie degli Uomini Illustre Fiorentine_, and in _Salvini Fasti Consolari dell' Accademia Fiorentina_. I have an interesting little volume of Latin verses by Jacopo Gaddi, with the following title _Poetica Jacobi Gaddii Corona e Selectis Poematiis, Notis Allegoriis contexta_, Bononiae, 1637, 4to.

There is a good deal of ingenious and pleasing burlesque poetry extant by Antonio Malatesti. I have before mentioned his _Sphinx_: of this I have a dateless edition, apparently printed about the middle of the last century at Florence: the title is _La Sfinge Enimmi del Signor Antonio Malatesti_. Commendatory verses are prefixed by Chimentelli, Coltellini, and Galileo Galilei. The last, from the celebrity of the writer, may deserve the small space it will occupy in your pages. It is itself an enigma:

"DEL SIGNOR GALILEO GALILEI
SONETTO.
Mostro son' io piu strano, e piu difforme,
Che l'Arpia, la Sirena, o la Chimera;
Ne in terra, in aria, in acqua e alcuna fiera,
Ch' abbia di membra cosi varie forme.
Parte a parte non ho che sia conforme,
Piu che s' una sia bianca, e l' altra nera;
Spesso di Cacciator dietro ho una schiera,
Che de' miei pie van ritracciando l' orme.
Nelle tenebre oscure e il mio soggiorno;
Che se dall' ombre al chiaro lume passo,
Tosto l' alma da me sen fugge, come
Sen fugge il sogno all' apparir del giorno,
E le mie membra disunito lasso,
E l' esser perdo con la vita, e l nome."

{296}

Three more sonnets by this illustrious man are printed by Salvini in his _Fasti_, of which he says:

"I quali esendo parto di si gran mente, mi concedera la gloria il
benigno lettore, che io, ad honore della Toscana Poesia, gli esponga il
primo alla publica luce."

Dr. Fellowes was not singular in confounding Dati and Deodati; it has been done by Fenton and others: but that Dr. Symmons, in his _Life of Milton_ (p. 133.), should transform _La Tina_ into a _wine-press_, is ludicrously amusing. _La Tina_ is the rustic mistress to whom the sonnets are supposed to be addressed; and every one knows that _rusticale_ and _contadinesca_ is that naive and pleasing rustic style in which the Florentine poets delighted, from the expressive nature of the patois of the Tuscan peasantry; and it might have been said of Malatesti's sonnets, as of another rustic poet:

"Ipsa Venus laetos jam nunc migravit in agros
Verbaque Aratoris Rustica discit Amor."

I may just remark that the _Clementillo_ of Milton should not be rendered _Clementini_, but _Chimentelli_. As Rolli tells us,--

"Clementillus fu quel Dottore _Valerio Chimentelli_ di cui leggesi una
vaghissima Cicalata nel sesto volume delle Prose Fiorentine."

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham.

* * * * *

ATTAINMENT OF MAJORITY.

(Vol. viii., pp. 198. 250.)

I greatly regret that there should be anything in the matter or manner of my Query on this subject to induce MR. DE MORGAN to reply to it more as if repelling an offence, than assisting in the investigation of an interesting question on a subject with which he is supposed to be especially conversant. I can assure him that I had no other object in writing _ninth_ numerically instead of literally, or in omitting the words he has restored in brackets, or in italicising two words to which I wished my question more particularly to refer, than that of economising space and avoiding needless repetition; and in the use of the word "usage" rather than "law," of which he also complains, I was perhaps unduly influenced by the title of his own treatise, from which I was quoting. But however I may have erred from exact quotation, it is manifest I did not misunderstand the sense of the passage, since MR. DE MORGAN now repeats its substance in these words,--

"I cannot make out that the law ever recognised a day of twenty-four
hours, beginning at any hour except midnight."

This is clearly at direct issue with Ben Jonson, whose introduced phrases, "pleaded nonage," "wardship," "pupillage," &c., seem to smack too much of legal technology to countenance the supposition of poetic license.

But had I not accidentally met with an interesting confirmation of Ben Jonson's law of usage, or usage of law, I should not have put forth my Query at all, nor presumed to address it to PROFESSOR DE MORGAN; my principal reason for so doing being that the interest attaching to discovered evidence of a forgotten usage in legal reckoning, must of course be increased tenfold if it should appear to have been unknown to a gentleman of such deep and acknowledged research into that and kindred subjects.

In a black-letter octavo entitled _A Concordancie of Yeares_, published in and for the year 1615, and therefore about the very time when Ben Jonson was writing, I find the following in chap. xiii.:

"The day is of two sorts, natural and artificiall: the natural day is
the space of 24 hours, in which time the sunne is carried by the first
Mover, from the east into the west, and so round about the world into
the east againe."

"The artificiall day continues from sunne-rising to sunne-setting: and
the artificiall night is from the sunne's setting to his rising. And
you must note that this natural day, according to divers, hath divers
beginnings: As the Romanes count it from mid-night to mid-night,
because at that time our Lorde was borne, being Sunday; and so do we
account it for fasting dayes. The Arabians begin their day at noone,
and end at noone the next day; for because they say the sunne was made
in the meridian; and so do all astronomers account the day, because it
alwayes falleth at one certaine time. The Umbrians, the Tuscans, the
Jewes, the Athenians, Italians, and Egyptians, do begin their day at
sunne-set, and so do we celebrate festivall dayes. The Babylonians,
Persians, and Bohemians begin their day at sunne-rising, holding till
sunne-setting; _and so do our lawyers count it in England_."

Here, at least, there can be no supposition of dramatic fiction; the book from which I have made this extract was written by Arthur Hopton, a distinguished mathematician, a scholar of Oxford, a student in the Temple; and the volume itself is dedicated to "The Right Honourable Sir Edward Coke, Knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of England," &c.

A. E. B.

Leeds, Sept. 10.

* * * * *

JOHN FREWEN.

(Vol. viii., p. 222.)

He is supposed to have been the son of Richard Frewen, of Earl's Court in Worcestershire, and was born either at that place or in its immediate vicinity in the early part of the year 1558. Richard Frewen purchased the presentation to Northiam rectory, in Sussex, of Viscount Montague, and presented John Frewen to it in Nov. 1583; and {297} he continued to hold that living till his death, which took place at the end of April, 1628. He was buried in the chancel of his own church, May 2nd; and a plain stone on the floor, with an inscription, marks the place of his interment. He was a learned and pious Puritan divine, and wrote:

1. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions and necessary Doctrine meete to
edify in the feare of God." 1587, 18mo.

2. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions for the generall Cause of
Reformation against the Slanders of the Pope and League, &c." 1589,
small 4to.

3. He edited and wrote the preface to--

"A Courteous Conference with the English Catholickes Romane, about the
Six Articles administered unto the Seminarie Priestes, wherein it is
apparently proved by theire own divinitie, and the principles of their
owne religion, that the Pope cannot depose her Majestie, or release her
subjects of their alleageance unto her, &c.; written by John Bishop, a
recusant Papist." 1598. Small 4to.

4. "Certaine Sermons on the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 verses of the
Eleventh chapter of S. Paule his Epistle to the Romanes." 1612, 12mo.

5. "Certaine choise Grounds and Principles of our Christian Religion."
1621, 12mo.

6. A large unpublished work in MS. entitled "Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion," left unfinished (probably age and infirmity prevented him from completing it): it consisted of seven books, of which two only (the fourth and fifth, of 95 and 98 folio pages respectively) have been preserved.

John Frewen had three wives, and by each of the first two several children, of whom the following lived to grow up, viz. by Eleanor his first wife, (1.) Accepted Frewen, Archbp. of York; (2.) Thankful F., Purse Bearer and Secretary of Petitions to Lord Keeper Coventry; (3.) John F., Rector of Northiam; (4.) Stephen F., Alderman of the Vintry Ward, London; (5.) Mary, wife of John Bigg of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; (6.) Joseph F. By his second wife, Helen, daughter of ---- Hunt, J. F. had (7.) Benjamin, Citizen of London; (8.) Thomas F.; (9.) Samuel, Joseph, Thomas, and Samuel joined Cromwell's army for invading Ireland; and one of them (Captain Frewen) fell at the storming of Kilkenny; another of them died at Limerick of the plague, which carried off General Freton; the other (Thomas) founded a family at Castle Connel, near Limerick.

John Frewen's _Sermons_ in 1612 are in some respects rare; but the following copies are extant, viz. one in the Bodleian at Oxford; one in the University Library at Cambridge; one in possession of Mr. Frewen at Brickwall, Northiam; and one sold by Kerslake of Bristol, for 7s. 6d., to the Rev. John Frewen Moor, of Bradfield, Berks.

If R. C. WARDE, of Kidderminster, has a copy which he would dispose of, he may communicate with T. F., Post-office, Northiam, who would be glad to purchase it.

J. F.

* * * * *

"VOIDING KNIFE," "VOIDER," AND "ALMS-BASKET."

(Vol. vi., pp. 150. 280.; Vol. viii., p. 232.)

In later times (the sixteenth century) the good old custom of placing an _alms-dish_ on the table was discontinued, and with less charitable intentions came the less refined custom of removing the broken victuals after a meal by means of a _voiding-knife_ and _voider_: the latter was a basket into which were swept by a large wand, usually of wood, or _voiding-knife_, as it was termed, all the bones and scraps left upon the trenchers or scattered about the table. Thus, in the old plays, _Lingua_, Act V. Sc. 13.: "Enter Gustus with a _voiding-knife_;" and in _A Woman killed with Kindness_, "Enter three or four serving men, one with a _voider_ and _wooden knife_ to take away."

The voider was still sometimes called the _alms-basket_, and had its charitable uses in great and rich men's houses: one of which was to supply those confined in gaols for debt, and such prisoners as had no means to purchase any food.

In Green's _Tu Quoque_, a spendthrift is cast into prison; the jailer says to him:

"If you have no money, you had best remove into some cheaper ward; to
the twopenny ward, it is likeliest to hold out with your means; or, if
you will, you may go into the _hole_, and there you may feed for
nothing."

To which he replies:

"Ay, out of the _alms-basket_, where charity appears in likeness of a
piece of stinking fish."

Even this poor allowance to the distressed prisoners passed through several ordeals before it came to them; and the best and most wholesome portions were filched from the _alms-basket_, and sold by the jailers at a low price to people out of the prison. In the same play it is related of a miser, that--

"He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these four-and-twenty
years, but always cozened the poor prisoners, for he brought his
victuals out of the _alms-basket_."

In the ordinances of Charles II. (_Ord. and Reg. Soc. Ant._ 367.), it is commanded--

"That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away my meat or wine from the
table, or out of the chamber, upon any pretence whatsoever; and that
the gentlemen-ushers take particular care herein, that all the meate
that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates be put into a basket
for the poore, and not undecently eaten by any servant in the roome;
and if any person shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited
{298} immediately to remaine in the chamber, or to come there again,
until further order."

The _alms-basket_ was also called a _maund_, and those who partook of its contents _maunders_.

W. CHAFFERS.

Old Bond Street.

* * * * *

THE LETTER "H" IN HUMBLE.

(Vol. viii., p. 229.)

The recent attempt to introduce a mispronunciation of the word _humble_ should be resisted by every one who has learned the plain and simple rule of grammar, that "_a_ becomes _an_ before a vowel or a silent _h_." That the rule obtained a considerable time ago, we have only to look into the Book of Common Prayer to prove, where the congregation are exhorted to come "with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart," and I believe it will be admitted that the compilers of that work fully understood the right pronunciation.

It may assist to settle the question by giving the etymology of the word _humble_. It is derived from the Celtic _uim_, the ground, Latin _humus_. _Umal_ in Celtic is humble, lowly, obedient; and the word signifies the bending of the mind or disposition, just as a man would kneel or become prostrate before a superior.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

In the course of a somewhat long life I have resided in the North of England, in the West, and in London, upwards of twenty years each, and my experience is directly the reverse of that of MR. DAWSON. I have very rarely heard the _h_ omitted in _humble_, and when I have heard it, always considered a vulgarity. The _u_ at the beginning of a word is always aspirated. I believe the only words in which the initial _h_ is not pronounced are derived from the Latin. If that were the general rule, which, however, it is not, as in _habit_, _herb_, &c., still, where _h_ precedes _u_, it would be pronounced according to the universal rule for the aspiration of _u_.

E. H.

_The letter "h" to be passed unsounded in those words which are of Latin origin._--Try it:

"Ha! 'tis a horrible hallucination
To grudge our hymns their halcyon harmonies,
When in just homage our rapt voices rise
To celebrate our heroes in meet fashion;
Whose hosts each heritage and habitation,
Within these realms of hospitable joy,
Protect securely 'gainst humiliation,
When hostile foes, like harpies, would annoy.
Habituated to the sound of _h_
In history and histrionic art,
We deem the man a homicide of speech,
Maiming humanity in a vital part,
Whose humorous hilarity would treat us,
In lieu of _h_, with a supposed hiatus."

* *.

* * * * *

SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

(Vol. viii., p. 220.)

I have great pleasure in removing from the mind of your correspondent an erroneous impression which must materially affect his good opinion of a school to which I am sincerely attached. He asks if in any of the public schools there are libraries of books giving general information accessible to the scholars. Now my information only refers to one, that of Eton. There is a library at Eton consisting of some thousand volumes, filled with books of all kinds, ancient and modern, valuable and valueless. It is open to the 150 first in the school on payment of eighteen shillings per annum, and on their refusal the option of becoming subscribers descends to the next in gradation. The list, however, is never full. The money collected goes to the support of a librarian, and to buy pens, ink, and paper, and the surplus (necessarily small) to the purchase of books. The basis of the library is the set of Delphin classics, presented by George I. The late head master (now provost) has been a most munificent contributor; Prince Albert has also presented several valuable volumes. Whenever the Prince has come to Eton he has always visited the library, and taken great interest in its welfare; and on his last visit said to the provost that he should be quite ready and willing to obey the call whenever he was asked to lay the first stone of a museum in connexion with the library.

ETONENSIS.

The free grammar school at Macclesfield, Cheshire, has always had a library. It _did_ contain some rare volumes of the olden time; it was at various times more or less supported by a small payment from the scholars. Some years since Mr. Osborn, the then head master, solicited subscriptions from former pupils, and with some success. Of the present state of the school library I know nothing.

EDWARD HAWKINS.

At Winchester there are libraries for the commoners and scholars containing books for general reading: they are under the several charge of the commoner-prefects and the prefect of library, who lend them on application to the juniors.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Christ's Hospital has a library such as inquired after by MR. WELD TAYLOR. The late Mr. Thackeray, of the Priory, Lewisham (who died about two years ago), bequeathed to this school his valuable library of books on general literature for the use of the boys. Previously to this bequest the collection of books was small.

N.

* * * * *

{299}

DR. JOHN TAYLOR.

(Vol. i., p. 466.)

My attention has been caught by some remarks in the early volumes of your work upon my learned ancestor Dr. John Taylor, minister at Norwich, and subsequently divinity tutor at Warrington. Whatever opinion may have been attributed to Dr. Parr concerning Dr. Taylor, this I know, that on revisiting Norwich he desired my father (the Dr.'s grandson) to show him the house inhabited by him while he was the minister of the Octagon Chapel.

Dr. Parr looked serious and solemn, and in his usual energetic manner pronounced, "He was a _great_ scholar."

Dr. John Taylor was buried at Kirkstead[4], Lancashire, where his tomb is distinguished by the following simple inscription:

"Near to this place lies interr'd
what was mortal of
IOHN TAYLOR, D.D.

Reader,
Expect no eulogium from this Stone.
Enquire amongst the friends of
LEARNING, LIBERTY, AND TRUTH;
These will do him justice.
Whilst taking his natural rest, he fell
asleep in JESUS, the 5th of March, 1761,
Aged 66."

The following inscription, in Latin, was composed by Dr. Parr for a monumental stone erected by grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich:

"Joanni Taylor, S.T.P.
Langovici nato
Albi ostii in agro Cumbriensi
bonis disciplinis instituto
Norvici
Ad exequendum munus pastoris delecto A.D. 1733.
Rigoduni quo in oppido
Senex quotidie aliquid addiscens
Theologiam et philosophiam moralem docuit
Mortuo
Tert. non. Mart.
Anno Domini MDCCLXI.
AEtat. LXVI.
Viro integro innocenti pio
Scriptori Graecis et Hebraicis litteris
probe erudito
Verbi divini gravissimo interpreti
Religionis simplicis et incorruptae
Acerrimo propugnatori
Nepotes ejus et pronepotes
In hac Capella
Cujus ille fundamenta olim jecerat
Monumentum hocce honorarium
Poni curaverunt."

S. R.

[Footnote 4: His first appointment, as minister of the Gospel, was at Kirkstead Chapel.]

* * * * *

PORTRAIT OF SIR ANTHONY WINGFIELD.

(Vol. viii., p. 245.)

It is most likely that Q., who inquired relative to a picture of Sir Anthony Wingfield, may occasionally meet with an engraving of this worthy, though the depository of the original portrait is unknown. The tale told Horace Walpole by the housekeeper at the house of the Nauntons at Letheringham, Suffolk, is not correct. Sir Anthony was a favourite of the monarch, and was knighted by him for his brave conduct at Terouenne and Tournay. A private plate of Sir Anthony exists, the original portrait from which it was taken being at Letheringham at the time the engraving was made. The position of the hand in the girdle only indicates the fashion of portraiture at the time, and is akin to the frequent custom of placing one arm a-kimbo in modern paintings.

The Query of your correspondent opens a tale of despoliation perhaps unparalleled even in the days of iconoclastic fury, and but very imperfectly known.

The estate of Letheringham devolved, about the middle of the last century, upon William Leman, Esq., who, being obliged to maintain his right against claimants stating they descended from a branch of the Naunton family who had migrated into Normandy at the end of the preceding century, was placed in a position of considerable difficulty to defend his occupation of the house and lands. I will not say by whom, but in 1770 down came the residence in which the author of the well-known _Fragmenta Regalia_ had resided, and, what is far worse, the Priory Church, which, after the Dissolution, was made parochial, and which was filled with tombs, effigies, and brasses to members of the family--Bovilles, Wingfields, and Nauntons--was also levelled with the ground. It was stated at the time that the sacred edifice had only become dilapidated from age, and that the parishioners were therefore obliged to do something. What _was done_, however, was no re-edification of the fabric, but its entire destruction, and the erection of a new church. Fortunately, Horace Walpole saw the edifice before the contractor for the new building had cast his "desiring eyes" upon it, and has recorded his impressions in one of his letters. More fortunate still, the late Mr. Gough and Mr. Nichols visited it, and the former employed the well-known topographical draughtsman, the late James Johnson of Woodbridge, Suffolk, to copy some of the effigies, which were afterwards engraved and inserted in the second volume of the _Sepulchral Monuments_. The zeal of Johnson, however, led him to preserve, by his minute delineation, not only _every_ monument (only two, I think, are given by Gough), but also the interior and exterior of the church, with the {300} position of the tombs. The interior view may be seen among Craven Ord's drawings in the library of the British Museum; and I am happy to say I possess Johnson's original sketches of all the monuments, and of the exterior of the building. A fair idea of the extent of the destruction may be gained by the mention of the fact, that six hundred-weight of alabaster effigies were beaten into powder, and sold to line water-cisterns. Some of the figures were rescued by the late Dr. W. Clubbe, and erected into a pyramid in his garden at Brandeston Vicarage, with this inscription:

"_Fuimus._ Indignant Reader, these monumental remains are not (as thou
mayest suppose) the ruins of Time, but were destroyed in an irruption
of the Goths so late in the Christian era as the year 1789. _Credite
posteri._"

JOHN WODDERSPOON.

Norwich.

William Naunton, son and heir of Thomas Naunton (temp. Hen. VII.), and Margery, daughter and heiress of Richard Busiarde, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Anthony Wingfield. Their only child, Henry Naunton, was the father of two sons, viz. Robert the _secretary_ (temp. James I.), whose son died unmarried, and daughter, married to Paul Viscount Bayning, died without issue; and William Naunton (fil. 2^s). His son and heir, who married a Coke, had one daughter, Theophila, married to William Leman (ancestor of the family whose great estates are in search of an owner): their only issue, Theophila, married Thomas Rede, who thereby became possessed of Letheringham in Suffolk, and the whole of the Naunton property. His estates went to his son Robert, who, dying without issue in 1822, left them much diminished to his nephew, the Rev. Robert Rede Cooper, second son of the Rev. Samuel Lovick Cooper and Sarah Leman, youngest daughter, and eventually heiress, of the above Thomas Rede. The Rev. Robert Rede Rede (for he assumed that name) died a few years ago possessed of Ashmans Park, Suff., which was independent of the Naunton property, and of certain heir-looms, the sole remains of the great estates of the "Nauntons of Letheringham," which continue in the possession of the descendants of that family. It is at _Ashmans_ that the portrait inquired for by your correspondent Q. will probably be found. Whether that estate has already been sold by the daughters of the late possessor (four co-heiresses) I am unable to say.

H. C. K.

* * * * *

BARNACLES.

(Vol. viii., p. 223.)

In reference to the article on the barnacle bird in "N. & Q." as above, I send you a paper which I lately put in our local journal (_The Tralee Chronicle_), containing a collection of notices of the curious errors and _gradual_ correction of them, on the subject of the barnacle. I fear it may be long for your columns, but don't know how to shorten it; nor can I well omit another amusing notice of the subject, to which, since I published it, an intelligent friend called my attention; it is from the _Memoirs of Lady Fanshaw_:--

"When we came to Calais, we met the Earl of Strafford and Sir Kenelm
Digby, with some others of our countrymen; we were all feasted at the
Governor's of the castle, and much excellent discourse passed; but, as
was reason, most share was Sir Kenelm Digby's, who had enlarged
somewhat more in extraordinary stories than might be averred, and all
of them passed with great applause and wonder of the French then at
table; but the concluding one was--that barnacles, a bird in Jersey,
was first a shell-fish to appearance, and from that sticking upon old
wood, became in time a bird. After some consideration, they unanimously
burst out into laughter, believing it altogether false, and, to say the
truth, it was the only thing true he had discoursed with them!--that
was his infirmity, tho' otherwise a person of most excellent parts, and
a very free bred gentleman."--Lady Fanshaw's _Memoirs_, pp. 72-3.

A. B. R.

Belmont.

As a tail-piece to the curious information communicated respecting these strange creatures in Vol. i., pp. 117. 169. 254. 340., Vol. viii., pp. 124. 223., may be added an advertisement, extracted from the monthly compendium annexed to _La Belle Assemblee_, or Bell's _Court and Fashionable Magazine_, for June, 1807, in the following terms:

"Wonderful natural curiosity, called the Goose Tree, Barnacle Tree, or
Tree bearing Geese, taken up at sea, on the 12th of January, 1807, by
Captain Bytheway, and was more than twenty men could raise out of the
water, which may be seen at the Exhibition Rooms, Spring Gardens, from
ten o'clock in the morning till ten at night, every day. Admission, one
shilling; children half-price.

"The Barnacles which form the present Exhibition, possess a neck
upwards of two feet in length, resembling the windpipe of a chicken;
each shell contains five pieces, and notwithstanding the many thousands
which hang to eight inches of the tree, part of the fowl may be seen
from each shell. Sir Robert Moxay, in the Wonders of Nature and Art,
speaking of this singularly curious production, says, in every shell he
opened he found a perfect sea-fowl, with a bill like that of a goose,
feet like those of water-fowl, and the feathers all plainly formed.

"The above wonderful and almost indescribable curiosity, is the only
exhibition of the kind in the world."

[mu].

* * * * *

{301}

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Precision in Photographic Processes._--I have for a long period observed, and been much annoyed at the circumstance, that many of your photographic correspondents are very remiss when they favour you with recipes for certain processes, in not stating the specific gravity of the articles used; also, in giving the quantities, in not stating if it is by weight or measure.

To illustrate my meaning more fully, I will refer to Vol. viii., p. 252., where a correspondent, in his albumen process, adds "chloride of barium, 7-1/4 dr." Now, as this article is prepared and sold both in crystals and in a liquid state, it would be desirable to know which of the two is meant before his disciples run the risk of spoiling their paper and losing their time.

How easy would it be to prefix the letter _f_ where fluid oz., dr., or other quantity is meant.

Trusting that this hint may in future induce your correspondents to be as explicit as possible on all points, believe me to be an

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER.

_Tent for Collodion._--As I have frequently benefited from the hints of your correspondents, I in my turn hasten to communicate a very simple plan I have contrived for a portable tent for the collodion process, in the hope it may be found to answer with others as well as it has done with me: it is as follows.

Round the legs of my camera stand (a tripod one) I have made a covering for two of the sides, of a double lining of glazed yellow calico, with a few loops at the foot to stake to the ground; the third side is made of thick dark cloth, much wider and larger than to cover the side, which is fastened at one leg of the stand to the calico. The other side is provided with loops to fasten to corresponding buttons on the other leg, and by bending on my knees I can easily pull the dark cloth over my head and back, fasten the loops to the buttons, and then I can perfectly perform any manipulation required, without the risk of any ray of white light entering; and certainly nothing can be more _portable_.

The simplicity of the thing makes any farther description of it unnecessary, to say nothing of your valuable space.

JAN.

_Mr. Sisson's Developing Solution._--The REV. MR. SISSON, in a letter I received from him a few days ago, stated that he had been trying, at the recommendation of a gentleman who had written to him upon the subject, a stronger developing solution than that the formula for which he published some time back in your pages, and that it gave splendid positive pictures with very short exposure in the camera.

Since I received his letter I have been able to corroborate his testimony in favour of the stronger solution, and have much pleasure in sending you the formula for the benefit of your readers. It is this: 1-1/2 drachms of protosulphate of iron in five ounces of water, 1 drachm of nitrate of lead, letting it settle for some hours; pour off the clear liquid, and then add to it 2 drachms of acetic acid.

J. LEACHMAN.

20. Compton Terrace, Islington.

_Mr. Stewart's Pantograph._--Will some of your photographic readers, who may know the proper size of MR. STEWART'S pantograph, give a detailed description of it? We should have focal length of lens, size of box, and the length of the sliding, parts of it. Cannot the lens be made fast in the middle of the box, provided the frames can be adjusted for different-sized pictures?

R. ELLIOTT.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_George Browne of Shefford_ (Vol. viii., p. 243.).--I observe that in your interesting publication you have inserted the Query which I sent you long since. A somewhat similar Query of mine has already appeared, and been answered by your correspondents H. C. C. and T. HUGHES; the latter stating that my particulars are not strictly correct, inasmuch as the individual styled by me as "Sir George Browne, _Bart._," was in reality simple "George Browne, _Esq._" I admit this error; but if I was wrong, MR. HUGHES was so too, for George Browne's wife was Eleanor, and _not_ Elizabeth, Blount, as appears by his affidavit in the State Paper Office, wherein he deposes that he "had by _Ellinor_, his late wife, deceased daughter of Sir Richard Blount, eight sons, namely, George, Richard, Anthony, John, William, Henry, Francis, and Robert, and seven daughters."

The sons are thus disposed of:

1. George, created K. B. at the coronation of Charles II.; married Elizabeth Englefield; had issue two daughters; died 1678.

2. Richard, a captain in the king's army, 1649, and was dead in 1650.

3. Anthony, who was "preferred to the trade of a M_a_rchant," 1650.

4. John, a page to Prince Thomas, uncle to the Duke of Savoy; created Bart. 1665; married Mrs. Bradley; had issue.

5. William, had a "reversion of a copyhold in Shefford."

6. Henry, died unmarried, 1668; buried at Shefford.

7. Francis, nine years old in 1651; and

8. Robert, four years old in 1651.

In that year (1651) Henry, Francis, and Robert were living with their guardian, Mr. {302} Libb, of Hardwick, Oxon; and soon afterwards we find them placed under the care of a clergyman at Appleshaw. But here we seem to lose sight of them altogether.

MR. HUGHES says that the only sons who married were George, the heir, and John, the younger brother; but we have no evidence of this; and as it is probable that some of the others, namely, Richard, Anthony, William, Francis, and Robert, married, I wish to procure proof either that they did or did not. If any of these married, I wish to know which of them, to whom, and when and where.

Perhaps some of your correspondents can tell me where Richard, Anthony, and William resided, and what became of Francis and Robert after they had left their tutor, the minister of Appleshaw.

NEWBURIENSIS.

_Wheale_ (Vol. vi., p. 579.; Vol. vii., p. 96.).--Since this word is once more brought forward in "N. & Q." (Vol. viii., p. 208.), I will answer the Query respecting it. I was prepared to do so shortly after it first appeared, but I had reason to expect a reply from one more conversant with such archaisms. If the Querist, or either respondent, had examined the context, he could not have failed to discover a clue to the meaning, as the words "gall of dragons" instead of "wine," and "wheale" instead of "milk," are evidently translations of sound expressions in the preface of Pope Sixtus (or Xystus) V., to his edition of the Vulgate. The words there are "fel draconum pro vino, pro lacte sanies obtruderetur." Wheale more commonly signified, in later times, a pustule or boil; but it is from the Ang.-Sax. _hwele_, putrefaction. The bad taste of such language is too manifest to require farther comment.

If I were disposed to conclude with a Query, I might ask where Q. found that _wheale_ ever meant _whey_?

W. S. W.

Middle Temple.

_Sir Arthur Aston_ (Vol. viii., p. 126.).--He was appointed Governor of Reading, November 29, 1642; that his relative, Geo. Tattershall, Esq., was of Stapleford, Wilts, and only purchased the estate, West Court in Finchampstead, which went, on the marriage of his daughter, to the Hon. Chas. Howard, fourth son of the Earl of Arundel, and was sold by him.

A READER.

_"A Mockery," &c._ (Vol. viii., p. 244).--Thomas Lord Denman is the author of the phrase in question. That noble lord, in giving his judgment in the case of O'Connell and others against the Queen, in the House of Lords, September 4, 1844, thus alluded to the judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench in Ireland, overruling the challenge by the traversers to the array, on account of the fraudulent omission of fifty-nine names from the list of jurors of the county of the city of Dublin:

"If it is possible that such a practice as that which has taken place
in the present instance should be allowed to pass without a remedy (and
no other remedy has been suggested), trial by jury itself, instead of
being a security to persons who are accused, will be _a delusion, a
mockery, and a snare_."

See Clark and Finnelly's _Reports of Cases in the House of Lords_, vol. xi. p. 351.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

_Norman of Winster_ (Vol. viii., p. 126).--I do not know if W. is aware that there was a family of Norman who was possessed of a share of the manor of Beeley, in the parish of Ashford, Derbyshire, which came from the Savilles, the said manor having been purchased by Wm. Saville, Esq., 1687.

A READER.

_Arms of the See of York_ (Vol. viii., pp. 34. 111. 233.).--Thoroton has a curious note on this subject in his _History of Nottinghamshire_ (South Muskham, in the east window of the chancel), from which it would appear that neither Thoroton himself, nor his after-editor Thoresby, could be aware of the change that had taken place. The note, however, may help to complete the _catena_ of those incumbents of the see of York who (prior to Cardinal Wolsey) bore the same arms as the see of Canterbury:

"There are the arms of the see of _Canterbury_, impaling _Arg. three
boars' heads erased and erected sable_, Booth, I doubt mistaken for the
arms of _York_, as they are with Archbishop Lee's again in the same
window; and in the hall window at _Newstede_ the see of _Canterbury_
impales _Savage_, who was Archbishop of _York_ also, but not of
_Canterbury_ that I know of."--Vol. iii. p. 152., ed. Notts, 1796.

Can any of your antiquarian contributors say why the sees of Canterbury and York bore originally the same arms? Had it any relation to the struggle for precedence carried on for so many years between the two sees?

J. SANSOM.

Mr. Waller, in his volume on _Monumental Brasses_, in describing that of William de Grenfeld, Archbishop of York, says:

"The arms of the two archiepiscopal sees were formerly the same, and
continued to be so till the Reformation, when the pall surmounting a
crozier was retained by Canterbury, and the cross keys and tiara
(emblematic of St. Peter, to whom the minster is dedicated), which
until then had been used only for the church of York, were adopted as
the armorial bearings of the see."

To the word "tiara" he appends a note:

"Or rather at this period a regal crown, the tiara having been
superseded in the reign of Henry VIII."

{303}

He gives no authority for the statement, but the note appears contradictory, and implies two changes in the first to the cross-keys and tiara, which may corroborate the notion of its having been adopted by Cardinal Wolsey; secondly, the substitution of the crown for the tiara. Can this be proved?

F. H.

_Roger Wilbraham, Esq.'s, Cheshire Collection_ (Vol. viii., p. 270.).--It is probable these MSS. are still at the family seat of the Wilbrahams, Delamere Lodge, Northwitch. When Ormerod published his _History of Cheshire_, in 1819, they were in the custody of the family. He says (vol. iii. p. 232.):

"In the possession of the family is a curious series of journals
commenced by Richard Wilbraham of Nantwich, who died in 1612, and
continued regularly to the time of his great-great-grandson, who died
in 1732. As a genealogical document, such a memorial is invaluable; and
it contains many curious incidental notices of passing events, and of
minute particulars relating to the town of Nantwich, of whose rights
the Wilbrahams of Townsend were the never-failing and active
guardians."

J. YEOWELL.

_Pierrepont_ (Vol. vii., p. 606.).--A descendant thanks C. J. The information wanted is parentage and descent of John Pierrepont of Wadworth, who in a family mem. by his great-great-granddaughter is called "Uncle to Evelyn, Earl of P." Any information respecting John Pierrepont or his descendants through Margaret Stevens will much oblige.

A. F. B.

Diss.

_Passage in Bacon_ (Vol. viii., p. 141.).--In the Notes on Bacon's Essay II. "On Death," there appears the following:

"In the passage of Juvenal, the words are 'Qui spatium vitae,' and not
'Qui finem vitae,' as quoted by Lord Bacon. Length of days is meant."

His lordship's memory and _ear_ too certainly misled him with respect to the _wording_, but he has correctly given us the _sense_. Juvenal has been arguing (l. iv. Sat. x.) on the vanity of earthly blessings, so called, in quite a philosophic way; it is hardly possible to suppose him closing his sermon with--

"Fortem posce animum, mortis terrore carentem,
Qui spatium vitae extremum inter munera ponat
Naturae, qui ferre queat quoscumque labores,
Nesciat irasci, cupiat nihil, et potiores
Herculis aerumnas credat, saevosque labores,
Et Venere, et coenis, et plume Sardanapali."

if by _spatium_ he meant "length;" but how apt and beautiful in Lord Bacon's sense! A note on the passage in the Var. Ed. of 1684 has "Qui sciat _mortem_ munus aliquod naturae esse."

EMMANUEL CANTAB.

_Monumental Inscription in Peterborough Cathedral_ (Vol. viii., p. 215.).--In consequence of the very curious Notes communicated by H. THOS. WAKE, I would beg to draw that gentleman's attention to the very important MS. collections of Bp. White Kennet on the subject of this cathedral in the Lansd. MSS., British Museum, to which I shall be happy to give him the references in a private letter, if he will favour me with his address.

E. G. BALLARD.

_Lord North_ (Vol. vii., p. 207).--I feel much obliged to your correspondent C. for his courtesy in replying to my inquiry concerning this nobleman. His remembrance of the personal appearance of George III., and his remarks on the subject, are in my opinion conclusive; but the appearance of the statement in the _Life of Goldsmith_ was such as to provoke inquiry. May I ask our correspondent C. (who appears to be acquainted with the North genealogy) whether a sister of the premier North, by the some mother, was not alive some years after the year 1734? Collins records the birth of an infant daughter, but the fact is overlooked in modern peerages.

OBSERVER.

_Land of Green Ginger_ (Vol. viii., pp. 34. 160. 227.).--Mr. Frost, in his _History_, p. 71., &c., has shown many instances of alteration in the names of streets in Hull from the names of persons, as from Aldegate to Scale Lane, from Schayl, a Dutchman; and MR. RICHARDSON has made it most probable that the designation "Land of Green Ginger" took place betwixt 1640 and 1735. It has occurred to me, that a family of the Dutch name of Lindegreen (green lime-trees) resided at Hull within the last fifty years or more. Now the "junior" of this name would be called in Dutch "Lindegroen jonger," which may have originated the corruption "Land o' green ginger." This conjecture would amount to solution of the question, if the Lindegreens had about 150 years ago any property or occupation in this lane. The Dutch had necessarily much intercourse with Hull: one of their imports was the lamprey, chiefly as bait for turbot, cod, &c. obtained in the Ouse near the mouth of the Derwent; which fish was conveyed in boats in Ouse Water, and was kept alive and lively by means of poles made to revolve in these floating fish-ponds, as I was informed by an alderman prior to the reform of that ancient borough. But lamprey has now either migrated, or been exterminated by clearing the Ouse of stones[5], or by the excessive cupidity of the fisherman or gastronomer.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

[Footnote 5: The Petromyzon by attaching itself to a stone forms a drill, by which it furrows the shoal for the deposit of its spawn.]

{304}

_Sheer, and Shear Hulk_ (Vol. vii., p. 126.)--A _sheer_ hulk is a mere hulk, simply the hull of a vessel unfurnished with masts and rigging. A _shear_ hulk, on the contrary, is the hull of a vessel fitted with _shears_ (so termed from their resemblance to the blades of a pair of shears when opened), for the purpose of masting and dismasting other vessels.

The use of the word _buckle_, in the signification of bend, is exceedingly common both among seamen and builders. For its use among the former I can vouch; and among the latter, see the evidence at the coroner's inquest on the late melancholy and mysterious accident at the Crystal Palace.

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Serpent with a Human Head_ (Vol. iv., p. 191.).--The following passage from Gervasius Tilberiensis (_Otia Imperialia_, lib. i sect. 15.) shows that the idea of the serpent which tempted Eve, having a woman's head, was current in the time of Bede. I having not had an opportunity of finding whereabouts in Bede's writings the passage quoted by Gervasius occurs:

"Nec erit omittendum, quod ait Beda, loquens de serpente qui Evam
seduxit: 'Elegit enim diabolus quoddam genus serpentis foemineum vultum
habentis, quia similes similibus applaudunt, et movit ad loquendum
linguam ejus."

C. W. G.

_"When the maggot bites"_ (Vol. viii., p 244.).--An ANON correspondent asks for a note to explain the origin of the saying that thing done on the spur of the moment is done "when the maggot bites." Perhaps the best explanation is that afforded in the following passage from Swift's _Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit_:

"It is the opinion of choice _virtuosi_ that the brain is only a crowd
of little animals with teeth and claws extremely sharp, and which cling
together in the contexture we behold, like the picture of Hobbes's
Leviathan; or like bees in perpendicular swarm on a tree; or like a
carrion corrupted into vermin, still preserving the shape and figure of
the mother animal: that all invention is formed by the morsure of two
or more of these animals upon certain capillary nerves which proceed
from thence, whereof three branches spring into the tongue and two into
the right hand. They hold also that these animals are of a constitution
extremely cold: that their food is the air we attract, their excrement
phlegm. And that what we vulgarly call rheums, and colds, and
distillations, is nothing else but an epidemical looseness to which
that little commonwealth is very subject from the climate it lies
under. Farther, that nothing less than a violent heat can disentangle
these creatures from their hamated station in life; or give them vigour
and humour, to imprint the marks of their little teeth. That if the
morsure be hexagonal, it produces poetry; the circular gives eloquence.
If the bite hath been conical, the person whose nerve is so affected
shall be disposed to write upon politics; and so of the rest."

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

_Definition of a Proverb_ (Vol. viii., p. 242.).--The proverb, "Wit of one man, the wisdom of many," has been attributed to Lord John Russell: I think in a recent number of the _Quarterly Review_. The foundation was laid most probably by Bacon:

"The genius, wit, and spirit of a nation are discovered by their
proverbs."

It may not be perhaps generally known to your readers, that in a small volume, called _Origines de la Lengua Espanola, &c., por Don Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, Bibliothecario del Rei nuestro Senor_, en Madrid, Ano 1737, will be found a numerous collection of Spanish proverbs. A MS. note in my copy has a note, stating that the MS. made for Mayans, from the original, in the national library at Madrid, is now in the British Museum, Additional MSS., No. 9939.

The work is divided into dialogues; and in the copy in question are some remarks by a Spanish gentleman, I fear too long for your pages: but I send you an English version by a friend, of one of the couplets in the dialogues, "Diez marcos tengo de oro:"

"Ten marks of gold for the telling,
And of silver I have nine score,
Good houses are mine to dwell in,
And I have a rent-roll more:
My line and lineage please me:
Ten squires to come at my call,
And no lord who flatters or fees me,
Which pleases me most of them all."

JOHN MARTIN.

Woburn Abbey.

_Gilbert White of Selborne_ (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--Oriel College, of which Gilbert White was for more than fifty years a Fellow, some years since offered to have a portrait of him painted for their hall. An inquiry was then made of all the members of his family; but no portrait of any description could be found. I have heard my father say that Gilbert White was much pressed by his brother Thomas (my grandfather) to have his portrait painted, and that he talked of it; but it was never done.

A. HOLT WHITE.

_"A Tub to the Whale"_ (Vol. viii., p. 220.).--In the Appendix B. to Sir James Macintosh's _Life of Sir Thomas More_ is the following passage:

"The learned Mr. Douce has informed a friend of mine, that in Sebastian
Munster's _Cosmography_ there is a cut of a ship, to which a whale was
coming too close for her safety; and of the sailors throwing a tub
{305} to the whale, evidently to play with. The practice of throwing a
tub or barrel to a large fish, to divert the animal from gambols
dangerous to a vessel, is also mentioned in an old prose translation of
the _Ship of Fools_. These passages satisfactorily explain the common
phrase of throwing a tub to a whale."

Sir James Macintosh conjectures that the phrase "the tale of a tub" (which was familiarly known in Sir Thomas More's time) had reference to the tub thrown to the whale.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

_The Number Nine_ (Vol. viii., p. 149.).--The property of numbers enunciated and illustrated by MR. LAMMENS resolves itself into two.

1. If from any number above nine be subtracted the number expressed by writing the same digits backwards, the remainder is divisible by nine.

2. If the number nine measure a given number, it measures the sum of its digits.

As the latter is proved in most elementary books on Algebra, I confine my proof to the former.

Let the number in question be--

_a__0 + _a__1 . 10 + _a__2 . 10^2 + ... + _a__{_n_-1} . 10^{_n_-1} +
_a__{_n_} . 10^{_n_}

Then

_a__{_n_} + _a__{_n_-1} . 10 + _a__{_n_-2} . 10^2 + ... + _a__1 .
10^{_n_-1} + _a__0 . 10^{_n_}

is "the same number written backwards." The difference is--

(_a__{_n_} - _a__0)(10^{_n_} - 1) + (_a__{_n_-1} - _a__1)(10^{_n_-2} - 1)
. 10 + ...
+ (_a__{_n_/2+1} - _a__{_n_/2-1})(10^2-1) . 10^{_n_/2-1} if _n_ be
even, but
+ (_a__{(_n_+1)/2} - _a__{(_n_-1)/2})(10-1) . 10^{(n-1)/2} if _n_ be
odd.

And every term of this difference, as involving a factor of the form (1 - 10^{_n_}), is divisible by 9; and therefore the difference is divisible by 9.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_The Willingham Boy._--ABREDONENSIS will find full information on all the points he appears from your Notices to Correspondents (Vol. viii., p. 66.) to have inquired after in--

"Prodigium Willinghamense, or Authentic Memoirs of the Life of a Boy
born at Willingham, near Cambridge, with some Reflections on his
Understanding, Strength, Temper, Memory, Genius, and Knowledge, by
Thos. Dawkes, Surgeon."

W. P.

_Unlucky Days_ (Vol. vii., p. 232.).--The Latin verses contained in the old Spanish breviary, adverted to by W. PINKERTON, bear a close resemblance to those which are to be found in the Red Book of the Irish Exchequer. The latter form part of a calendar which is supposed to have been written either during the reign of John or Henry III. A similar calendar, with like verses, has been printed by the Archaeological Society, Dublin. As the lines in the Red Book vary in some respects from those which have appeared in "N. & Q.," I have taken the liberty of inclosing a transcript of them.

"_January._ Prima dies mensis, et septima truncat ut ensis.
_February._ Quarta subit mortem, prosternit tertia fortem.
_March._ Primus mandantem, dirumpit quarta bibentem.
_April._ Denus et undenus, est mortis vulnere plenus.
_May._ Tertius occidit, et septimus hora relidit.
_June._ Denus pallescit, quindenus federa nescit.
_July._ Terdecimus mactat, Julii denus labefactat.
_August._ Prima necat fortem, perditque secunda choortem.
_September._ Tertia Septembris, et denus fert mala membris.
_October._ Tertia cum dena, clamat sit integra vena.
_November._ Scorpius est quintus, et tertius est nece cinctus.
_December._ Septimus exanguis, virosus denus ut anguis."

JAMES F. FERGUSON.

Dublin.

_Rhymes on Places_ (Vol. vii. _passim_.).--Midlothian:

"Musselboro' was a boro',
Whan Edinboro' was nane;
An Musselboro' 'll be a boro',
Whan Edinboro's gane."

W. T. M.

Hong Kong.

Cambridgeshire folks say,--

"Hungry Hardwick,
Greedy Toft,
Hang-up Kingston,
Caldecott[6] naught."

P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.

[Footnote 6: Pronounced _Cawcote_.]

_Quotation Wanted_ (Vol. vi., p. 421.).--See Byron's _Dream_, stanza ii. v. 30.:

"She was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts."

P. J. F. GANTILLON, B.A.

_Lamech_ (Vol. vii., p. 432.).--For "Lamech," see Mr. Browne's excellent _Ordo Saeclorum_, ch. vii. Sec. 302., 1844--a book deserving to be much more widely known.

S. Z. Z. S.

_Muggers_ (Vol. viii., p. 34.).--The names _muggers_ and _potters_, betokening dealers in mugs and pots, are, in the north of England, applied indiscriminately to hawkers of earthenware, whether of gipsy blood or not. Indeed, the majority are evidently not gipsies.

T. D. RIDLEY.

* * * * *

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Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.