Chapter M: A. W. C

* * * * *

PRAYING TO THE WEST.

(Vol. viii., p. 208.)

Although going over old ground, yet, if it be permitted, I would note a curious coincidence connected with this far-spread veneration for the West.

As mentioned by G. W., the Puranas point to the "Sacred Isles of the West" as the elysium of the ancient Hindus, "The White Islands of the West." The Celtae of the European continent believed that their souls were transported to England, or some islands adjacent. (See _Encyclopedie Methodique_, art. "Antiquites," vol. i. p. 704.) The Celtic elysium, "Flath-Innis," a remote island of the West, is mentioned by Logan in his _Celtic Gael_, vol. ii. p. 342., who no doubt drew his information from the same source as Professor Rafinesque, whose observations on this subject I transcribe, viz.:

"It is strange but true, that, throughout the earth, the place of
departed souls, the land of spirits, was supposed to be in the West, or
at the setting sun. This happens everywhere, and in the most opposite
religions, from China to Lybia, and also from Alaska to Chili in
America. The instances of an eastern paradise were few, and referred to
the eastern celestial abode of yore, rather than the future abode of
souls. The Ashinists, or Essenians, the best sect of Jews, placed
Paradise in the Western Ocean; and the Id. Alishe, or Elisha of the
Prophets, the happy land. Jezkal (our Ezekiel) mentions that island;
the Phoenicians called it Alizut, and some deem Madeira was meant, but
it had neither men nor spirits! From this the Greeks made their Elysium
and Tartarus placed near together, at first in Epirus, then Italy, next
Spain, lastly in the ocean, as the settlers travelled west. The sacred
and blessed islands of the Hindus and Lybians were in this ocean;
Wilford thought they meant the British Islands. Pushcara, the farthest
off, he says, was Iceland, but may have meant North America.

"The Lybians called their blessed islands 'Aimones;' they were the
Canaries, it is said, but likely the Atlantides, since the Atlantes
dwelt in the Aimones," &c.

And farther he says, the Gauls had their Cocagne, the Saxons their Cockaign, Cocana of the Lusitanians,--

"A land of delight and plenty, _which is proverbial to this day_! By
the Celts it was called 'Dunna feadhuigh,' a fairy land, &c. But all
these notions have earlier foundations, since the English Druids put
their paradise in a remote island in the west, called {344}
'Flath-Innis,' the flat island", &c.--_American Nations_, vol. ii. p.
245. _et infra_.

The coincidence then is this. The same veneration for the West prevails among many of our Indian tribes, who place their Paradise in an island beyond the Great Lake (Pacific), and far toward the setting sun. There, good Indians enjoy a fine country abounding in game, are always clad in new skins, and live in warm new lodges. Thither they are wafted by prosperous gales; but the bad Indians are driven back by adverse storms, wrecked on the coast, where the remains of their canoes are to be seen covering the strand in all directions.

I cannot refrain from adding here another coincidence connected with futurity. The above idea of sailing to the Indian Paradise, though prevalent, is not general; for instance, the Minnetarees and Mandans believed that to reach Paradise the souls of the departed had to pass over an extremely narrow bridge, which was done safely by the good Indians, but the bad ones slipped off and were buried in oblivion. (See Long's _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_, vol. i. p. 259.)

The Chepewa crosses a river on a bridge formed by the body of a large snake (see Long's _Expedition to St. Peter's River_, vol. i. p. 154.); and in the same volume it is stated that the Dacota, or Sioux, believe they must pass over a rock with a sharp edge like a knife. Those who fall off go to the region of evil spirits, where they are worked, tormented, and frequently flogged unmercifully.

Now, this bridge for gaining Paradise is just the Alsirat of the Mahomedans; I think it will be found in the _Bibliotheque Orientale_ of D'Herbelot; at all events it is mentioned in the preliminary discourse to Sale's _Koran_. Sale thinks Mahomet borrowed the idea from the Magians, who teach, that on the last day all mankind must pass over the "Pul Chinavad" or "Chinavar," _i.e._ "The Straight Bridge." Farther, the Jews speak of the "Bridge of Hell," which is no broader than a thread. According to M. Hommaire de Hell, the Kalmuck Alsirat is a bridge of iron (or causeway) traversing a sea of filth, urine, &c. When the wicked attempt to pass along this, it narrows beneath them to a hair's breadth, snaps asunder, and thus convicted they are plunged into hell. (_Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, &c._, p. 252.)

Having already trespassed most unconscionably, I forbear farther remark on these coincidences, except that such ideas of futurity being found amongst nations so widely separated, cannot but induce the belief of a common origin, or at least of intimate communication at a former period, and that so remote as to have allowed time for diverging dialects to have become, as it were, distinct languages.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

* * * * *

JACOB BOBART.

(Vol. viii., p. 37.)

The completion of a laborious literary work has taken my attention away from the "N. & Q." for some weeks past, otherwise I should sooner have given MR. BOBART the following information.

The engraving of old Jacob Bobart by W. Richardson is _not_ of any value, being a copy from an older print. Query if it is not a copy of the very rare engraving by Loggan and Burghers?

The original print of the "founder of the physick garden," "D. Loggan del., M. Burghers sculp., 1675," which Mr. Bobart wishes to procure, may be purchased of A. E. Evans, 403. Strand, for 2l. 12s. 6d. I also learn from Mr. Evans' invaluable _Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits_ (an octavo of 431 pages, lately published), that there exists a portrait of Bobart, "the classical alma mater coachman of Oxford," whole length, by Dighton, 1808. The same catalogue also contains other portraits of the Bobarts.

Since my last communication on the present subject, I find the following memorandums in one of my note-books, which possibly may be unknown to your correspondent; they relate to MSS. in the British Museum.

Add. MS. 5290. contains 227 folio drawings of various rare plants, the names of which are added in the autograph of Jacob Bobart the elder.

Sloane MS. 4038. contains some letters from Jacob Bobart to Sir Hans Sloane, 1685-1716; also one from Anne Bobart, dated 1701.

Sloane MS. 3343. contains a catalogue of plants and seeds saved at Oxford, by Mr. Bobart, 1695-6.

Sloane MS. 3321., consisting of scientific letters addressed to Mr. Petiver, contains one from Jacob Bobart, and another from Tilleman Bobart. The latter has a letter dated "Blenheim, Feb. 5, 1711-12," to some person unknown, in Sloane MS. 4253.

_Tilleman_ Bobart appears to have been employed in laying out the park and gardens at the Duke of Marlborough's magnificent seat at Blenheim. A member of his original papers and receipts were lately disposed of by auction at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's. (See the sale catalogue of July 22, 1853, lot 1529.)

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

EARLY USE OF TIN.--DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF BRITAIN.

(Vol. viii., p. 290.)

Many questions are proposed by G.W., to which it is extremely improbable that any but a conjectural answer can ever be given. That tin was in common use 2800 years ago, is certain. Probably evidence may be obtained, if it have not been so {345} already, of its use at a still earlier period; but it is unlikely that we shall ever know who first brought it from Cornwall to Asia, and used it to harden copper. It is, however, a matter of interest to trace the mention of this metal in the ancient inscriptions, Egyptian and Assyrian, which have of late years been so successfully interpreted. Mistakes have been made from time to time, which subsequent researches have rectified. It was thought for a long time that a substance, mentioned in the hieroglyphical inscriptions very frequently, and in one instance said to have been procured from Babylon, was _tin_. This has now been ascertained to be a mistake. Mr. Birch has proved that it was _Lapis lazuli_, and that what was brought from Babylon was an artificial blue-stone in imitation of the genuine one. I am not aware whether the true hieroglyphic term for _tin_ has been discovered. Mention was again supposed to have been made of _tin_ in the annals of Sargon. A tribute paid to him in his seventh year by Pirhu (Pharaoh, as Col. Rawlinson rightly identifies the name; not Pihor, Boccharis, as I at one time supposed), king of Egypt, Tsamtsi, queen of Arabia, and Idhu, ruler of the Isabeans, was supposed to have contained tin as well as gold, horses, and camels. This, however, was in itself an improbable supposition. It is much more likely that incense or spices should have been yielded by the countries named than tin. At any rate, I have recently identified a totally different word with the name of tin. It reads _anna_; and I supposed it, till very lately, to mean "rings." I find, however, that it signifies a metal, and that a different word has the signification "rings." When Assur-yuchura-bal, the founder of the north-western palace at Nimrud, conquered the people who lived on the banks of the Orontes from the confines of Hamath to the sea, he obtained from them twenty talents of silver, half a talent of gold, one hundred talents of _anna_ (tin), one hundred talents of iron, &c. His successor received from the same people all these metals, and also copper.

It is already highly probable, and farther discoveries may soon convert this probability to certainty, that the people just referred to (whom I incline strongly to identify with the _Shirutana_ of the Egyptian inscriptions) were the merchants of the world before Tyre was called into existence; their port being what the Greeks called Seleucia, when they attempted to revive its ancient greatness. It is probably to them that the discovery of Britain is to be attributed; and it was probably from them that it received its name.

In G. W.'s communication, a derivation of the name from _barat-anac_, "the land of tin," is suggested. He does not say by whom, but he seems to disclaim it as his own. I do not recollect to have met with it before; but it appears to me, even as it stands, a far more plausible one than _bruit-tan_, "the land of tin:" the former term being supposed to be Celtic for _tin_, and the latter a termination with the sense of _land_: or than _brit-daoine_, "the painted (or separated) people."

I am, however, disposed to think that the name is not of Phoenician origin, but was given by their northern neighbours, whom I have mentioned as their predecessors in commerce. These were evidently of kindred origin, and spoke a language of the same class; and I think it all but certain, that in the Assyrian name for tin (_anna_) we have the name given to it by this people, from whom the Assyrians obtained it. "The land of tin" would be in their language _barat_ (or probably _barit_) _anna_, from which the transition to Britannia presents no difficulty. I assume here that _b-r-t_, without expressed vowels, is a Phoenician term for "land of." I assume it on the authority of the person, whoever he may be, that first gave the derivation that G. W. quotes. I have no Phoenician authority within reach: but I can readily believe the statement, knowing that _banit_ would be the Assyrian word used in such a compound, and that _n_, _r_, and _b_ are perpetually interchanged in the Semitic languages, and notoriously so in this very root. _Ummi banitiya_, "of the mother who produced me," is pure Assyrian; and so would _banit-anna_, "the producer of tin," be; all names of lands being feminine in Assyrian.

It would be curious if the true derivation of the world-renowned name of Britain should be ascertained for the first time through an Assyrian medium.

EDW. HINCKS.

Killyleagh, Down.

* * * * *

As there are several Queries in the Note of G. W. which the Celtic language is capable of elucidating, I beg to offer a few derivations from that language.

Britain is derived from _briot_, painted, and _tan_, a country--_i. e._ "the country of the painted people." It is a matter of history, that the people of Britain dyed their bodies with various colours.

_Tin_ is from the Celtic _tin_, to melt readily, to dissolve. It is also called _stan_: Latin, _stannum_.

Hercules is from the Phoenician or Celtic, _Earr-aclaide_, pronounced _Er-aclaie,_ i. e. the noble leader or hero.

Melkarthus is derived from _Mal-catair_, pronounced _Mal-cahir_, i. e. the champion or king of the city (of Tyre).

Moloch cannot be identical with the Tyrian Hercules, as Moloch was the god of fire: probably a name for the sun, from the Celtic _molc_, i. e. fire.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

* * * * *

{346}

YEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS.

(Vol. viii., p. 244.)

Whilst offering a solution to the Query of R. C. WARDE, as to the placing yew-trees in churchyards, I am obliged to differ from him _toto coelo_, by considering the derivation of the name of the plant itself, though I must candidly confess that the solution of the Query and the derivation of the word are my own.

_Yew_ is ancient British, and signifies _existent_ and enduring, having the same root as _Jehovah_; and _yew_ is Welsh for _it is_, being one of the forms of the third person present indicative of the auxiliary verb _bod_, to be. Hence the yew-tree was planted in churchyards, not to indicate _death_, despair, but _life_, hope and assurance. It is one of our few evergreens, and is the most enduring of all, and clearly points out the Christian's hope in the immortality of the soul: _Resurgam_.

Whilst on the word _yew_, I may perhaps observe that I am hardly inclined now (though I once was so) to derive from it, as the author of the _Etymological Compendium_ does, the name _yeoman_: I think that yeoman is not _yew_-man, "a man using the yew-bow," but _yoke_-man, a man owning as much land as a _yoke_ of oxen could plough in a certain time.

J. G. CUMMINGS.

The following extract frown the _Handbook of English Ecclesiology_, p. 190., may be of some assistance to your correspondent:

"YEW. These were planted generally to the south of the church, to
supply green for the decoration of churches at the great festivals;
this tree being an emblem of immortality. It is a heathen prejudice
which regards it as mournful. It is not probable yews were used as
palms; the traditional name given to the withy showing that this was
used in the procession on that festival."

WILLIAM W. KING.

Instead of troubling you with a particular answer to MR. WARDE'S inquiry, let me refer him to the _Forest Trees of Britain_, by the Rev. C. A. Johns, p 297. _et seq._, where, among many other curious and interesting facts, he will find the various reasons assigned by different authors, ancient and modern, for the plantation of yew-trees in churchyards. I do not find, however, that the origin ingeniously assigned by MR. WARDE is among the number.

[Phi].

I have always supposed, but I know not upon what authority, that the custom of planting yew-trees in churchyards originated in the idea of supplying the yeomen of the parish with bows, in the good old archery days.

IGNORAMUS.

* * * * *

STARS ARE THE FLOWERS OF HEAVEN.

(Vol. vii. _passim._)

I sent a Note to "N. & Q" some time ago, expressing my conviction that the original _locale_ of this beautiful idea was in St. Chrysostom. but, as I could not then give a reference to the passage which contained it, my suggestion was of course not definite enough to call for attention. I am now able to vindicate to the "golden-mouthed" preacher of Antioch this expression of poetic fancy, the origination of which has excited, and deservedly, so much inquiry among the readers of "N. & Q." It occurs in Homily X., "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch. I transcribe the passage from the translation in _The Library of the Fathers_:

"Follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the flowering
tribes; all sorts of herbs and their uses, their odours, forms,
disposition; yea, but their very names; the trees which are fruitful
and the barren; the nature of metals; that of animals, in the sea or on
the land; of those that swim and those that traverse the air; the
mountains, the forests, the groves; _the meadow below and the meadow
above_; _for there is a meadow on the earth_, _and a meadow too in the
sky_, THE VARIOUS FLOWERS OF THE STARS; the rose below, and the rainbow
above!... Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been
preserved so long without being dimmed, and remains as bright and clear
as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover the power of the
earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so
long a time!" &c. Homily X., "On the Statues," pp. 178-9.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

P.S.--Are the following lines, which contain this idea, and were copied long ago from the poet's corner of a provincial paper, with the title of "The Language of the Stars, a fragment," worth preserving?

"The stars bear tidings, voiceless though they are:
'Mid the calm loveliness of the evening air,
As one by one they open clear and high,
And win the wondering gaze of infancy,
They speak,--yet utter not. Fair heavenly flowers
Strewn on the floor-way of the angels' bowers!
'Twas HIS own hand that twined your chaplets bright,
And thoughts of love are in your wreaths of light,
Unread, unreadable by us;--there lie
High meanings in your mystic tracery;
Silent rebukings of day's garish dreams,
And warnings solemn as your own fair beams."

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

(Vol. viii., p. 272.)

Your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS should remember that at the time Dr. Drake published his {347} _Historia Anglo-Scotica_, 1703, there were no bounds to the angry passions and jealousies evoked by the discussion of the projected union; consequently, what may appear to as in the present day an insufficient reason for the treatment the book met with in the northern metropolis, wore a very different aspect to the Scots, who, under the popular belief that they were to _be sold_ to their enemies, saw every movement with distrust, and tortured everything said or written on this side the Tweed, upon the impending question, to discover an attack upon their national independence, their church, and their valour.

Looking at Dr. Drake's book, then, for the data upon which it was condemned, we find that it opens with a prefatory dedication to Sir E. Seymour, one of Queen Anne's Commissioners for the Union, and a high churchman, wherein the author distinctly ventures a blow at Presbytery when he says to his patron:

"The languishing oppressed Church of Scotland is not without hopes of
finding in you hereafter the same successful champion and restorer that
her sister of England has already experienced."

He farther calculated upon Sir Edward inspiring the neighbouring nation "with as great a respect for the generosity of the English as they have heretofore had to dread their valour." Now the Scots neither acknowledged the Episcopacy which Seymour is here urged to press upon them, nor had they any such slavish fear of the vaunted English prowess with which Dr. Drake would have them intimidated; without going farther, therefore, into the book, it appears to me that the Scots parliament had a right to consider it written in a bad spirit, and to pacify the people by condemning it.

Defoe, in his _History of the Union_ (G. Chalmers' edition, London, 1786), says:

"One Dr. Drake writes a preface to an abridgment of the _Scots
History_, wherein, speaking something reflecting upon the freedom and
independence of Scotland, the Scots parliament caused it to be burned
by the hangman in Edinburgh."

In his _Northern Memoirs_, 1715, Oldmixon observes:

"They (the Jacobites) therefore put Dr. Drake, author of the _High
Church Memorials_, upon publishing an antiquated Scotch history, on
purpose to vilify the whole nation in the preface, and create more ill
blood. This had the desired effect. The Scots parliament highly
resented the affront, and ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman
at Edinburgh."

D'Israeli, in his _Calamities of Authors_, has the following interesting notice of Drake:

"I must add one more striking example of a political author in the case
of Dr. James Drake, a man of genius and an excellent writer. He
resigned an honorable profession, that of medicine, to adopt a very
contrary one, that of becoming an author by profession for a party. As
a Tory writer he dared every extremity of the law, while he evaded it
by every subtlety of artifice; he sent a masked lady with his MSS. to
the printer, who was never discovered; and was once saved by a flaw in
the indictment, from the simple change of an _r_ for a _t_, or _nor_
for _not_, one of those shameful evasions by which the law, to its
perpetual disgrace, so often protects the criminal from punishment. Dr.
Drake had the honor of hearing himself censured from the throne, of
being imprisoned, of seeing his _Memorials of the Church of England_
burned at (the Royal Exchange) London, and his _Hist. Angl. Scot._ at
Edinburgh. Having enlisted himself in the pay of the booksellers, among
other works, I suspect, he condescended to practise some literary
impositions; for he has reprinted Father Parsons famous libel against
the Earl of Leicester, under the title of _Secret Memoirs of Robert
Dudley, E. of L._, 1706, with a preface pretending it was printed from
an old MS."

The same instructive writer adds:

"Drake was a lover of literature; he left behind him a version of
Herodotus, and a system of anatomy, once the most popular and curious
of its kind. After all this turmoil of his literary life, neither his
masked lady nor the flaws in his indictments availed him; government
brought a writ of error, severely prosecuted him; and abandoned, as
usual, by those for whom he had annihilated a genius which deserved a
better fate, his perturbed spirit broke out into a fever, and he died
raving against cruel persecutors, and patrons not much more humane."

Another book before me, and one which shared the fate of Drake's in Edinburgh, is _The Superiority and Direct Dominion of the Imperial Crown of England over the Crown and Kingdom of Scotland, the true Foundation of a compleat Union reasserted_; 4to. London, 1705. This had appeared the year before, but was reproduced to answer the objections to it from the other side. It was written by William Attwood, Esq. If it required a nice discrimination to discover the offence of Drake, there was no such dubiety about this book, which goes the whole length of Scottish vassalage; and Mr. Attwood would lead us to believe that he knocks over the arguments of Hodges and Anderson[6] for Scottish independence with as much ease as he would ninepins.

{348}

Unfortunately these subjects are again forced upon us, and a reference to some of the books I have cited will enable gentlemen who are curious upon the point to judge for themselves in the matter of the present agitation of "Justice to Scotland."

J. O.

[Footnote 6: Jas. Hodges, a Scotch gentleman, who supported the Independency in a work entitled _War betwixt the Two Kingdoms considered_, for which, says Attwood, "he had 4800 Scots Punds given him for nothing but begging the question, and bullying England with the terror of her arms."

"An Historical Essay, showing that the Crown of Scotland is Independent; wherein the gross Errors of a late book, entitled 'The Superiority and Direct Dominion,' &c., and some other books for that purpose, are exposed by Jas. Anderson, A.M., Writer to His Majesty's Signet," Edin. 1705. For this work Anderson received the thanks of the Scottish parliament, as well as some pecuniary reward. (Chalmers' _Life of Ruddiman_.) The authors of these books having made out a case which was adopted as the national one, it is nowise surprising that they should hand over Drake and Attwood to the hangman for attempting to demolish it.]

On May 5, 1686, M. Claude's account of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew was burnt in the Old Exchange, "so mighty a power and ascendant here had the French ambassador." (Evelyn's _Memoirs_.)

JOHN S. BURN.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Stereoscopic Angles._--As I presume that MR. T. L. MERRITT is, like myself, only desirous of arriving at truth, I beg to offer the following reply to his last communication (Vol. viii., pp. 275-6.), in which he misinterprets some observations of mine upon the subject in question.

With regard to the distance quoted by me of 2-1/4 inches, I look upon it as the same thing as intended by MR. MERRITT--that is, the _average_ distance between the centres of the eyes; and it amounts simply to a difference of _opinion_ between us; but, so far as that point is concerned, I am quite ready to adopt 2-1/2 inches as a standard, although I believe that the former is nearer the truth: however, I require more than a mere _assertion_ that "the _only_ correct space for the cameras to be apart is 2-1/2 inches, and this under every circumstance, and that _any_ departure from this _must_ produce error." I quote verbatim, having merely Italicised three words to point my meaning more clearly. An object being 5 feet distant, and another at 10 feet from the observer, a line between the eyes will subtend a very _much larger_ angle in the former than in the latter instance: hence the inclination of the axes of the eyes is the chief criterion by which people with the usual complement of those useful organs judge of proximity: but if half a dozen houses are made to appear as if 10 or 12 feet distant (by means of the increase of the angle between the points of formation of the pictures), while the angle which each picture subtends is relatively small; it is clear that both eyes will see in relief at a short distance half a dozen houses in a space not large enough for a single brick of one of them, and, _consequently_, _the view will appear as if taken from a model_. MR. MERRITT will object that an erroneous effect is produced; if he will refer to my statement (Vol. viii., p. 228.), he will find that it is precisely what I admitted; and he appears to have overlooked the _proviso_ attached to my next observation (judging by his comment thereon), so I shall make no farther remark upon that point, beyond inquiring why the defect he is content to put up with is called a _trifling exaggeration_, while that which is less offensive to me is designated as _absolute deformity_ and error? Persons with one eye are _not good judges_ of distance, and this may be easily tested thus:--Close one eye, and endeavour to dip a pen in an inkstand at some little distance not previously ascertained by experiment, with both eyes open; it will be found far less easy than would be imagined. One-eyed people, from habit, contrive to judge of distance mainly by _relative position_, and by moving the head _laterally_ cause a change therein: to them, all pictures are, to an extent, stereoscopic.

I am really amazed that my advocacy of the radial, instead of the parallel, position of the cameras should have been so misunderstood. Surely, it cannot be seriously asserted that the former will produce _two_ vanishing points, and the latter only one? And as to the supposition connected with the boy, the ass, and the drum, a camera that would produce the effect of showing both sides of the ass, both legs of the boy, and both heads of the drum, _with a movement of only 2-1/2 inches_, whether radially or parallel, would indeed be a curiosity. But if the motion of the camera extended over a space sufficiently large to exhibit the phenomena alluded to, then it would confirm what I have before advanced, viz. present the idea of a _small model_ of the objects, which could be so placed as to show naturally these very effects.

That the axes of the eyes are inclined when viewing objects, is readily proved thus:--Let a person look across the road at any object--say a shop-window; but stand so that a _lamp-post near him_ shall intervene, and be in a _direct line_ between the observer's nose and the object viewed. If he be requested to observe the post instead of the distant object, the pupils of his eyes will be seen to approach one another; and on again looking to the distant object, will instantly recede. The _range_ of vision is another point that appears to be misunderstood, as we are differing about words instead of facts. The column is an illustration that will _exactly_ suit my views; for I call the _range_ of vision the same if taken from side to side of the column, although it is perfectly true that the tangents to the two eyes differ by the angle they subtend: but certainly MR. WILKINSON'S case (Vol. viii., p. 181.) of seven houses and five bathing-machines in one picture, and five houses and eight machines in the other, illustrates an instance where the range of vision is not the same; but I contend that the stereoscopic effect is then _confined_ to five {349} houses and five machines, otherwise MR. WILKINSON'S supposititious case (_ibid._), of all machines in one, and all houses in the other, might be considered as stereoscopic.

In concluding this very lengthened and, I fear, tedious reply, I beg to assert that I am most willing to recant any proposition I may have put forth, if _proved_ to be erroneous; but I must have proof, not mere assertion. And farther, my willing thanks are always tendered to any one kind enough to correct an error.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Mr. Pumphrey's Process for securing black Tints in Positives._--The importance that appears to be attached by some of thy correspondents to the stereoscopic appearance of photographs, induces me to call the attention of those who may not have noticed it to the fact that, as all camera pictures are monocular, they are best seen by closing one eye, and then they truly represent nature; and the effect of distance (which so often appears wanting in photographs) is given with marvellous effect, so well indeed as to render the use of a stereoscope unnecessary. Like other photographers, I have been long seeking for a method, easy, cheap, and certain, for obtaining the black tints that are so highly prized by many in the French positives; and having at last attained the object of my search, I lose no time in laying it before my fellow-operators.

I obtain these results with a twenty-grain solution of nitrate of silver, a fact that will, I think, commend the plan to most operators. Thou wilt be able to judge of the result from the inclosed specimen.[7] I use Canson's paper, either albumenized or plain (but the former is far preferable). If albumen is used, I dilute it with an equal measure of water, and add half a grain of common salt (chloride of sodium) to each ounce of the mixture. This is applied to the paper with a soft flat brush, and all bubbles removed, by allowing a slender stream of the mixture to flow over its surface: it is then hung up to dry, and afterwards the albumen is coagulated with a hot iron. If the paper is used plain, a solution of common salt (half a grain to one ounce of water) is placed in a shallow tray, and the paper floated on its surface for a minute, and then hung up to dry. Excite, in either case, with an ammonio-nitrate of silver solution (twenty grains to one ounce of water), by floating the paper, prepared side downwards, for one minute, and hang up to dry.

Print tolerably strongly, and the proof will be of a reddish-brown. Fix in tolerably strong solution of hypo. sodae (I never weigh my hypo., so cannot give the proportion), that either has been in use some time, or else, if new, has been nearly saturated with darkened chloride of silver. When fixed, remove the proofs into another vessel of the same solution of hypo., to which has been added chloride of gold and acetic acid. The way I do this is to dissolve one drachm of chloride of gold in two and a half ounces (1200 minims) of water. Of this I take twenty minims (which will contain one grain Au Cl_3) and forty minims of acetic acid (Beaufoy's) for every dozen proofs (of the size of 7 x 9 in.), that I mean to operate on, and having mixed the gold and acetic acid with the solution of hypo., place the proofs in it till they attain the desired colour: they are then to be washed and dried in the usual way.

Knowing that so cheap and easy a process for obtaining these tints would have been a great boon to me a short time since, I lose no time in communicating this to the readers of "N. & Q." I shall feel a pleasure in explaining the plan more in detail to any photographer who may feel disposed to drop me a line.

WILLIAM PUMPHREY.

Osbaldwick, near York.

[Footnote 7: The specimens forwarded by MR. PUMPHREY are most satisfactory.--ED.]

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Baskerville the Printer_ (Vol. viii., p. 203.).--In reply to MR. ELLIOTT'S inquiry, I beg to say that Baskerville the printer was merely named as one who had directed his interment in unconsecrated ground. The exact place of his burial was not deemed a point of importance, but it having been questioned, I am able to state that the spot was correctly described by me. Nichols, in his _Literary Anecdotes_ (vol. viii. p. 456.), tells us that "Baskerville was buried in a tomb of masonry, in the shape of a cone, _under a windmill_ in his garden; on the top of this windmill, after it fell into disuse, he had erected an urn, and had prepared an inscription," of which MR. ELLIOTT has given a portion.

In his will, dated January 6, 1773, he directs his body "to be buried in a conical building heretofore used as a _mill_, which I have lately raised higher, and painted and prepared for it." It seems somewhat surprising that one, who shocked even John Wilkes as "a terrible infidel," should have printed a most beautiful folio Bible, at an expense of 2000l., and three or more editions of the Book of Common Prayer. Still more, in 1762, he tells Walpole that he had a grant from the University of Cambridge to print their 8vo. and 12mo. Common Prayer Books, and that for this privilege he laboured under heavy liabilities to the University. Baskerville doubtless regarded these books with a tradesman's eye, indifferent to the subjects of the works issued from his press, provided they sold. It would, however, be very unjust to this admirable printer to name him without praise for the distinguished beauty of his typography: it was clear and elegant, and he {350} was most curious in the choice both of his paper and ink.

J. H. M.

_Lines on Woman_ (Vol. viii., p. 204.).--The four beautiful lines which W. V. cites are the conclusion of a poem entitled "Woman," written by Eton Barrett. About the close of the last century, Eton Barrett and his younger brother Richard Barrett were at a private school on Wandsworth Common. My brothers and I were their schoolfellows. The Barretts were Irish boys; I think (but I speak very doubtfully) from Cork. Eton Barrett was a boy of more than ordinary talent. He was a genius among the lesser lights around him. I remember his writing a play with prologue and epilogue, which was performed before the master and his family, &c., with so much success, that the master prohibited any future dramatic performances, fearing, that he might incur blame for encouraging too much taste for the theatre. Our master gave up his school before the year 1800. Eton Barrett, a great many years ago, published a little volume of poems, of which "Woman" was one. I do not remember that I ever met him since our school-days. I have heard that he adopted Tory politics in Ireland, and that his brother attached himself to O'Connell, and conducted some newspaper; but this is mere report. Allow me to take this opportunity for observing, that many of the communications to "N. & Q.," such as those in which matters of fact are stated, ought, it may justly be urged, to be authenticated by the signature of the contributor. I feel the truth of this so strongly, that, though I do not sign my name, yet I have thought it right to make myself known to you, so that you know the person who contributes under the signature

F. W. J.

_Haulf-naked_ (Vol. viii., p. 205.).--The manor house of Halnaker, adjoining Walberton and Goodwood, is thus spoken of by Dallaway in his _Hist. of Sussex_, "Rape of Chichester," p. 131.:--"Halnaker, called in _Domesday_ 'Halneche,' and in writings of very ancient date Halnac, Halnaked, and Halfnaked." Then follows a short description of the old manor-house.

It has been lately visited by the Archaeological Association, under the direction of Lord Talbot de Malahide; and it is probable that the industrious antiquaries of Sussex will soon give us a more detailed account of it in their next volume of _Transactions_.

M. (2.)

_Cambridge and Ireland_ (Vol. viii., p. 270.).--The story of Irish merchants _landing_ at Cambridge is "very like a whale," "touched upon the deserts of Bohemia." I think, however, that I can trace the source of this glaring and oft-repeated error, as there really exists a documentary connexion between Irish cloth and the town of Cambridge.

Referring to a collection of notes on the ancient commerce and manufactures of Ireland, which I have lately made, I find--cited as an instance of the general use of Irish cloth in England at an early period--that Henry IV., in 1410, gave a royal grant of tolls, for the purpose of paving the town of Cambridge; in which, among other articles, Irish cloth is taxed at the rate of twopence per hundred. The grant, "De villa Cantabrigiae paveanda," will be found in Rymer's _Foedera_.

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_Autobiographical Sketch_ (Vol. vii., p. 477.).--The fragments found by CHEVERELLS are parts of _The Library of Useless Knowledge_, by Athanasius Gasker, Esq., F.R.S., &c.: London, W. Pickering, 1837.

H. J.

_Archbishop Chichely_ (Vol. viii., p. 198).--The Statute Book of All Souls College; Robert Hoveden's _Life of Chichely_; and the respective Lives by Arthur Duck and O. L. Spencer, have all been examined for the date of Henry Chichely's birth, but without success.

The most probable conjecture is, that he was born in 1362; since in 1442 (see his "Letter to Pope Eugenius," printed in the Appendix to Spencer's _Life_) he describes himself as having either completed or entered upon his eightieth year.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

"_Discovery of the Inquisition_" (Vol. viii., p. 137.).--It is a mistake to suppose that all John Day's publications are rare. Montanus's _Discovery and playne Declaration of sundry subtill Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne, newly translated_, 4to., 1568, is not uncommon. Herbert and Heber possessed copies; and a copy sold at Saunders's in 1818 for five shillings. My own copy (a remarkably fine one) cost sixteen shillings at Evans's in 1840. The edition of 1569, containing some additions, is of greater rarity.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Divining Rod_ (Vol. viii., p. 293.).--In the first edition of his _Mathematical Recreations_, Hutton laughed at the divining rod. In the interval between that and the second edition, a lady made him change his note, by using one before him at Woolwich. Hutton had the courage to publish the account of the experiment in the second edition (vol. iv. pp. 216-231.), after the account he had previously given. By a letter from Hutton to Bruce, printed in the memoir of the former which the latter wrote, it appears that the lady was Lady Milbanke.

M.

"_Pinece with a stink_" (Vol. viii, p. 270.).--Archbishop Bramhall's editor should have spelled the first word _pinnace_, and then your correspondent MR. BLAKISTON could easily have understood the {351} allusion. In speaking of the offensive composition, well known to sailors, the word _revenge_, and not _defend_, was used by Bramhall.

R. G.

_Longevity_ (Vol. viii., p. 113.).--I do not think any of your correspondents has noticed the case of John Whethamstede, Abbot of St. Albans, who wrote a Chronicle of the period between 1441 and 1461: "He was ordained a priest in 1382, and died in 1464, when he had been eighty-two years in priest's orders, and was above one hundred years old." Surely this is a case sufficiently authenticated for your more sceptical readers. (Henry's _History of Great Britain_, 2nd ed., Lond. 1788, vol. x. p. 132.)

TEWARS.

_Chronograms_ (Vol. viii., pp. 42. 280.).--The following additional specimen of this once popular form of numerical puzzle is not, I think, unworthy a corner in "N. & Q."

On the upper border of a sun-dial, affixed to the west end of Nantwich Church, Cheshire, there appeared, previous to its removal about 1800, the undermentioned inscription:

"Honor DoMIno pro paCe popVLo sVo parta."

Now, seeing that Nantwich was, during the civil dissensions which culminated in the murder of Charles I., a rampant hot-bed of anarchy and rebellion, we should hardly be prepared for such a complete repudiation of those principles as is conveyed in the line before us, did we not know that the same anxiety to get rid of the "Bare-bones" incubus universally prevailed. The numerals, it will be seen, make up the number 1661, which was the year of the coronation of King Charles II.; and, no doubt, also the year in which the dial in question was erected.

T. HUGHES.

Chester.

_Heraldic Notes_ (Vol. viii., p. 265.).--The bearing of the arms of Clare Hall by Dr. Blythe is not strictly correct, because, with the exception of the three principal Kings of Arms, the Earl Marshal, the Master of Ordnance, and a few others especially, arms of office do not exist in England. The general mode of bearing them is by impalement, giving the preference (dexter) to the arms of dignity. In the example under notice, the arms of dignity or office are borne upon a _pile_, which has somewhat the appearance of an inverted chevron. It is not at all a common mode of bearing additions; but I remember one case, viz. the grant by King Henry VIII. to the Seymours, after his marriage to Lady Jane, of the lions of England on a pile.

BROCTUNA.

Bury, Lancashire.

_Christian Names_ (Vol. vii. _passim_).--May I be permitted to correct one or two errors in MR. BATES'S Note on this subject, Vol. vii. p. 627.?

The person described as a "certain M. L-P. Saint-Florentin" was no less a person than the Duke de la Vrilliere, who filled several important offices during the reign of Louis XV. The allusion in the epigram to his "trois noms" has no reference to his _names_, whether Christian or patronymic, in the sense in which the question has been discussed in "N. & Q.," but to the three _titles_ which he successively bore as a public man. He commenced his career as M. de Phelippeaux; was afterwards created Comte de Saint-Florentin, and sometime before his death was raised to the dignity of Duke de la Vrilliere.

My authority for this statement is the cotemporary work, _Les Memoires secrets de Bachaumont_, where, under date of December, 1770, the epigram is thus introduced, with a variation in the first line:

"Un autre plaisant a fait d'avance l'epitaphe de M. le duc de la
Vrilliere. Elle roule sur ses trois noms differents de Phelippeaux,
Saint-Florentin, et la Vrilliere:

'Ci-git, malgre son rang, un homme fort commun,
Ayant porte trois noms, et n'en laissant aucun.'"

The sense being, that his titles had been his only distinction, and that even they had not been sufficient to rescue his character from obscurity and contempt.

However "applicable" this epigram may be to the bearers or borrowers of three names, it will be some comfort to them to know that its point was not directed against them, but against a class of men of much higher pretensions, of one of whom it has been said:

"_He left the name_, at which the world grew pale,
To point a moral, or adorn a tale."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

"_I put a spoke in his wheel_" (Vol. viii., p. 269.).--If G.K., being wronged, should cherish the unchristian spirit of revenge, let him playfully insert a spoke in the wheel of his friend's tandem, as it bowls along behind a pair of thorough-bred tits, with twelve months' hard condition upon old oats in them.

By simply putting a spoke in the wheel of the waggon employed in the removal of the Manchester College to London, one trustee opposed a decided "impediment to the movement" of that institution.

W. C.

P. S.--Allow me to point out a misprint at Vol. viii., p. 279, "Manners of the Irish:" for _chuse_ read _cheese_.

_Judges styled Reverend_ (Vol. viii., pp. 158. 276.).--With respect to the error into which I was led in making Anthony Fitzherbert _Chief_ Justice of the Common Pleas, I beg to express my thanks for our good friend's correction. My statement {352} was founded on the authority of the Visitation-Book of the county of Derby, A.D. 1634, in which Anthony Fitzherbert is "Chief Justice of ----;" and, as the question of his rank as a judge was not one at the moment of communicating my Note, I made no farther inquiry. I find, however, upon reference to Vincent's _Collections for Derbyshire_, that Anthony Fitzherbert is styled, in a very good pedigree of his family, "Unus Justiciariorum de Co[=i] Banco." Had I turned to Dugdale's _Origines Juridiciales_, the error might have been avoided.

THOS. W. KING (York Herald).

_Palace at Enfield_ (Vol. viii., p. 271.).--Queen Elizabeth, in the early part of her reign, frequently kept her court at Enfield. Her palace was the manor-house, near the church, of which little now remains. In Lysons' time (1793) it had been in a great measure rebuilt, and divided into tenements. He adds, "the part which contains the _old room_ is in the occupation of Mrs. Perry."

When I saw this room, about twenty years ago, it was in its original state, with oak panels and a richly ornamented ceiling. The chimney-piece was supported by columns of the Ionic and Corinthian order, and decorated with the cognizances of the rose and portcullis, and the arms of France and England quartered, with the garter and the royal supporters. Underneath was this motto, "Sola salus servire Deo, sunt caetera fraudes."

In the garden was a magnificent tree, a cedar of Libanus, which was pointed out to me as having been planted by Queen Elizabeth. But upon this point tradition was at fault. In the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for 1779, p. 138., may be seen an account of this remarkable cedar, which was planted by Dr. Robert Uvedale, the botanist, a tenant of the manor-house in 1670.

The church at Enfield does not date farther back than the middle of the fifteenth century. The devices of a rose and ring, which occur over the arches of the nave, seen also upon the tower of Hadley Church, with the date 1444, "supposing it to have been, as is very probable," says Lysons, "a punning cognizance adopted by one of the priors of Walden, to which monastery both churches belonged, will fix the building of the present structure at Enfield to the early part of the fifteenth century."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Sir John Vanbrugh_ (Vol. viii., pp. 65. 160. 232.).--Are not your correspondents on the wrong scent as regards the birthplace of Sir John Vanbrugh? In the memoir prefixed to the collection of his _Plays_, 2 vols. 12mo., 1759, it is said:

"Sir John Vanbrugh, an eminent dramatic writer, son of Mr. Giles
Vanbrugh of London, merchant, was born in the parish of St. Stephen's,
Walbrook, in 1666. The family of Vanbrugh were for many years merchants
of great credit and reputation at Antwerp, and came into England in the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, on account of the persecution for religion."

Mr. Cunningham (_Handbook of London_, p. 282.) speaks of _William_ Vanderbergh, the supposed father of Sir John, as residing in Lawrence-Poultney Lane in 1677. He refers to Strype's map of Walbrook and Dowgate wards, and _A Collection of the Names of the Merchants living in and about the City of London_, 12mo. 1677.

The writer of the notice of Sir John Vanbrugh in Chambers' _Cyclopaedia of English Literature_, vol. i. p. 597., says:

"Vanbrugh was the son of a successful sugar-baker, who rose to be an
esquire, and comptroller of the treasury chamber, besides marrying the
daughter of Sir Dudley Carlton. It is doubtful whether the dramatist
was born in the French Bastile, or the parish of St. Stephen's,
Walbrook. The time of his birth was about the year 1666, when Louis
XIV. declared war against England. It is certain he was in France at
the age of nineteen, and remained there some years."

The family vault of the Vanbrughs is certainly in St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook, where Sir John was buried on the 30th of March, 1726.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Greek Inscription on a Font_ (Vol. viii., p. 198.).---This Query has already been answered and illustrated in Vol. vii., pp. 178. 366. 417.; but the following passage may be of interest, as affording instances of the same inscription in France, and pointing out the probable source of its usage, viz. from the ancient Greek metropolitan church at Constantinople:

"St. Memin est une abbaye celebre sous l'ancien nom de Micy, sur la
riviere de Loire, proche d'Orleans. Il y a dans l'eglise de ce
monastere un benetier de forme ronde, avec cette inscription grecque
gravee sur le bord du bassin, [GREEK: NIPSON ANOMEMA MEMONAN OPSIN]. La
meme chose est a Paris, au benetier de St. Etienne d'Egres, et aussi
autrefois a celui de Sainte Sophie a Constantinople."--_Voyages
liturgiques de France, par le Sieur Moleon_, p. 219., 8vo. 1718.

It may be added (on Cole's authority, vol. XXXV. f. 19b.) that the same inscription is inscribed round a large silver basin used formerly at the master's table on festival days, in Trinity College Hall, Cambridge; and I have also seen it on a sliver-gilt rose-water basin, introduced at the banquets given by the master of Magdalene College in the same university.

[mu].

"_Fierce_" (Vol. viii., p. 280.).--In this part of the country the words _pert_, pronounced "peart," and _pure_, bear the same meaning, of well in health and spirits.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

{353}

_Giving Quarter_ (Vol. viii., p. 246.).--It must be observed that the older form of the expression is "keeping quarter:"

"That every one should kill the man he caught,
To _keep no quarter_."--_Drayton in Richardson._

Now very obvious application of the word _quarter_, instanced by Todd, is to signify the proper station or appointed place of any one.

"They do best who, if they cannot but admit love, yet make it _keep
quarter_, and sever it wholly from their serious affairs."--Bacon's
_Essays_.

To keep quarter, then, is to keep within measure, within the limits or bounds appointed by some paramount consideration; and hence, as in the following passage from Shakspeare (where it is clumsily interpreted amity or companionship), the word is used as synonymous with terms or conditions:

"Friends all but now,
In quarter and in terms like bride and groom
Divesting them for bed, and then but now
Swords out and tilting one at other's breast."

In the same sense Clarendon speaks of "offering them _quarter_ for their lives if they would give up the castle," _i. e._ offering them conditions for their lives on their performing their part of the bargain.

Again, in a passage of Swift, cited by Todd: "Mr. Wharton, who detected some hundred of the bishop's mistakes, meets with very ill quarter from his Lordship," _i. e._ meets with very ill conditions of treatment from him. Finally, _to give quarter_ in the military sense is to give conditions absolutely, as opposed to the unmitigated exercise of the victor's power, and, as the most important of all conditions, to spare life.

H. W.

_Sheriffs of Glamorganshire_ (Vol. iii., p. 186.).--The list of the Glamorganshire sheriffs here inquired for was not printed by Mr. Traherne, but by the Rev. H. H. Knight, M.A., of Neath, and of Nottage Court, in Glamorganshire: it is a little pamphlet in a paper cover.

TEWARS.

"_When the maggot bites_" (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--A correspondent asks why a thing done on the spur of the moment is said to be done "when the maggot bites." It signifies rather doing a thing when the fancy takes one. When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have a maggot in his head, to have a bee in his bonnet or, in French, "Avoir des rats dans la tete;" in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation.

H. W.

_Connexion between the Celtic and Latin Languages_ (Vol. viii., p. 174.).--Your correspondent M. will find much valuable information on this subject in a work entitled _Thoughts on the Origin and Descent of the Gael_, by James Grant, Esq., Advocate: Edinburgh, Constable & Co., 1814.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

_Bacon's Essays_ (Vol. viii., p. 143.).--Bacon's Essay VII.: "Optimum elige," &c. Pythagoras, in _Plutarch de Exilio_.--Essay XV.: "Dolendi modus," &c. Plin., lib. viii. ep. 17. fin.

C. P. E.

"_Exiguum est._" _&c._ (Vol. viii., p. 197.).--"Exiguum est ad legem bonum esse." Vide _Senec. de Ira_, ii. 27.