Chapter C: E. F

[Our Correspondent has forwarded five specimens, four of which are
certainly very satisfactory, the fifth is the one prepared by
brushing.]

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_The Groaning Elm-plank in Dublin_ (Vol. viii., p. 309.).--DR. RIMBAULT has given an account of the groaning-board, one of the popular delusions of two centuries ago: the following notice of it, extracted from my memoir of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Bart., M.D., and published in the _Dublin University_ for September, 1841, may interest your readers:

"In one of William Molyneux's communications he mentions the exhibition
of 'the groaning elm-plank' in Dublin, a curiosity that attracted much
attention and many learned speculations about the years 1682 and 1683.
He was, however, too much of a philosopher to be gulled with the rest
of the people who witnessed this so-called 'sensible elm-plank,' which
is said to have groaned and trembled on the application of a hot iron
to one end of it. After explaining the probable cause of the noise and
tremulousness by its form and condition, and by the sap being made to
pass up through the pores or tubuli of the plank which was in some
particular condition, he says: 'But, Tom, the generality of mankind is
lazy and unthoughtful, and will not trouble themselves to think of the
reason of a thing: when they have a brief way of explaining anything
that is strange by saying, "The devil's in it," what need they trouble
their heads about pores, and matters, and motion, figure, and
disposition, when the devil and a witch shall solve the phenomena of
nature.'"

W. R. WILDE.

_Passage in Whiston_ (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--J. T. complains of not being able to find a passage in Whiston, which he says is referred to in p. 94. of _Taylor on Original Sin_, Lond. 1746. I do not know what Taylor he refers to. Jeremy Taylor wrote a treatise on original sin; but he lived before Whiston. I have looked into two editions of the _Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin_, by John Taylor, one of Lond. 1741, and another of Lond. 1750; but in neither of these can I find any mention of Mr. Whiston.

[Greek: Halieus].

Dublin.

"_When Orpheus went down_" (Vol. viii., pp. 196. 281.).--In addition to the information given upon this old song by MR. OLDENSHAW, I beg to add the following. It was written for and sung {398} by Mr. Beard, in a pantomimic entertainment entitled _Orpheus and Euridice_, acted at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1740. The author of the entertainment was Mr. Henry Sommer, but the song in question was "translated from the Spanish" by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Lisle, who died Rector of Burclere, Hants, 1767. It was long very popular, and is found in almost all the song-books of the latter half of the last century. Mr. Park, the editor of the last edition of Ritson's _English Songs_ (vol. ii. p. 153.), has the following note upon this song:

"An answer to this has been written in the way of echo, and in defence
of the fair sex, whom the Spanish author treated with such libellous
sarcasm."

As this "echo song" is not given by Ritson or his editor, I have transcribed it from a broadside in my collection. It is said to have been written by a lady.

"When Orpheus went down to the regions below,
To bring back the wife that he lov'd,
Old Pluto, confounded, as histories show,
To find that his music so mov'd:
That a woman so good, so virtuous, and fair,
Should be by a man thus trepann'd,
To give up her freedom for sorrow and care,
He own'd she deserv'd to be damn'd.

"For punishment he never study'd a whit,
The torments of hell had not pain
Sufficient to curse her; so Pluto thought fit
Her husband should have her again.
But soon he compassion'd the woman's hard fate,
And, knowing of mankind so well,
He recall'd her again, before 'twas too late,
And said, she'd be happier in hell."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Foreign Medical Education_ (Vol. viii., p. 341.).--Your correspondent MEDICUS will find some information respecting _some_ of the foreign universities in the _Lancet_ for 1849, and the _Medical Times and Gazette_ for 1852. For France he will find all he wants in Dr. Roubaud's _Annuaire Médical et Pharmaceutique de la France_, published by Baillière, 219. Regent Street.

M. D.

"_Short red, good red_" (Vol. viii., p. 182.).--Sir Walter has probably borrowed this saying from the story of Bishop Walchere, when he related the murder of Adam, Bishop of Caithness. This tragical event is told in the _Chronicle of Mailros_, under the year 1222; also in _Forduni Scotichronicon_, and in Wyntoun's _Chronicle_, book vii. c. ix.; but the words "short red, good red," do not appear in these accounts of the transaction.

J. MN.

_Collar of SS._ (Vols. iv.-vii. _passim_).--At the risk of frightening you and your correspondents, I venture to resume this subject, in consequence of a circumstance to which my attention has just been directed.

In the parish church of Swarkestone in Derbyshire there is a monument to Richard Harpur, one of the judges of the Court of Common Pleas in the reign of Elizabeth; on which he is represented in full judicial costume, with the collar of SS., which I am told by the minister of the parish is "distinctly delineated." It may be seen in Fairholt's _Costumes of England_, p. 278.

As far as I am aware, this is the only instance, either on monuments or in portraits, of a _puisne_ judge being ornamented with this decoration. Can any of your correspondents produce another example? or can they account, from any other cause, for Richard Harpur receiving such a distinction? or may I not rather attribute it to the blunder of the sculptor?

EDWARD FOSS.

_Who first thought of Table-turning_ (Vol. viii., p. 57.).--It is impossible to say who discovered the table-turning experiment, but it undoubtedly had its origin in the United States. It was practised here three years ago, and, although sometimes associated with spirit-rappings, has more frequently served for amusement. On this connexion it may be proper to say that Professor Faraday's theory of unconscious muscular force meets with no concurrence among those who know anything about the subject in this country. It is notorious that large tables have been moved frequently by five or six persons, whose fingers merely touched them, although upon each was seated a stout man, weighing a hundred and fifty or sixty pounds: neither involuntary nor voluntary muscular force could have effected _that_ physical movement, when there was no other _purchase_ on the table than that which could be gained by a pressure of the tips of the fingers.

[Old English W].

Philadelphia.

_Passage of Thucydides on the Greek Factions_ (Vol. vii., p. 594.; Vol. viii., pp. 44. 137.).--My attempt to find the passage attributed by Sir A. Alison to Thucydides in the real Thucydides was unsuccessful for the best of reasons, viz. that it does not exist there. He has probably borrowed it from some modern author, who, as it appears to me, has given a loose paraphrase of the words which I cited from _Thucyd._ III. 82., and has expanded the thought in a manner not uncommon with some writers, by adding the expression about the "sword and poniard." Some other misquotations of Sir A. Alison from the classical writers may be seen in the _Edinburgh Review_ for April last, No. CXCVIII. p. 275.

L.

_Origin of "Clipper" as applied to Vessels_ (Vol. viii., p. 100.).--For many years the fleetest sailing vessels built in the United States were {399} constructed at Baltimore. They were very sharp, long, low; and their masts were inclined at a much greater angle than usual with those in other vessels. Fast sailing pilot boats and schooners were thus rigged; and in the last war with England, privateers of the Baltimore build were universally famed for their swiftness and superior sailing qualities. "A Baltimore clipper" became the expression among shipbuilders for a vessel of peculiar make; in the construction of which, fleetness was considered of more importance than a carrying capacity. When the attention of naval architects was directed to the construction of swift sailing ships, they were compelled to adopt the clipper shape. Hence the title "Clipper Ship," which has now extended from America to England.

[Old English W].

Philadelphia.

_Passage in Tennyson_ (Vol. viii., p. 244.).--In the third edition of _In Memoriam_, LXXXIX., 1850, the last line mentioned by W. T. M. is "Flits by the sea-blue bird of March," instead of "blue sea-bird." This reading appears to be a better one. I would suggest that the bird meant by Tennyson was the Tom-tit, who, from his restlessness, may be said to flit among the bushes.

F. M. MIDDLETON.

_Huet's Navigations of Solomon_ (Vol. vii., p. 381.).--This work of the learned Bishop of Avranches was written in Latin, and translated into French by J. B. Desrockes de Parthenay. It forms part of the second volume of a collection of treatises edited by Bruzen de la Martinière, under the title of _Traités Géographiques et Historiques pour faciliter l'intelligence de l'Ecriture Sainte, par divers auteurs célèbres_, 1730, 2 vols. 12mo.

I am unable to reply to EDINA's second Query, as to the result of Huet's assertions.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

_Sincere_ (Vol. viii., pp. 195. 328.).--The derivation of this word from _sine cerâ_ appears very fanciful. If this were the correct derivation, we should expect to find _sinecere_, for the _e_ would scarcely be dropped; just as we have the English word _sinecure_, which is the only compound of the preposition _sine_ I know; and is itself _not a Latin word_, but of a later coinage. Some give as the derivation _semel_ and [Greek: keraô]--that is, once mixed, without adulteration; the [Greek: e] being lengthened, as the Greek [Greek: akêratos]. The proper spelling would then be _simcerus_, and euphonically _sincerus_: thus we have _sim-plex_, which does not mean without a fold, but (_semel plico_, [Greek: plekô]) once folded. So also _singulus_, semel and termination. The proper meaning may be from tablets, _ceratæ tabellæ_, which were "once smeared with wax" and then written upon; they were then _sinceræ_, without forgery or deception. If they were in certain places covered with wax again, for the purpose of adding something secretly and deceptively, they cease to be _sinceræ_.

J. T. JEFFCOCK.

[Pi]. [Beta]. asks me for some authority for the alleged practice of Roman potters (or crock-vendors) to rub wax into the flaws of their unsound vessels. This was the very burden of my Query! I am no proficient in the Latin classics: yet I think I know enough to predicate that [Pi]. [Beta]. is wrong in his version of the line--

"Sincerum est nisi vas, quodcunque infundis acescit."

I understand this line as referring to the notorious fact, that some liquors turn sour if the air gets to them from without. "Sincerum vas" is a sound or air-tight vessel. In another place (_Sat._, lib. i. 3.), Horace employs the same figure, where he says that we "call evil good, and good evil," figuring the sentiment thus:

"At nos virtutes ipsas invertimus, atque
Sincerum cupimus vas _incrustare_"--

meaning, of course, that we bring the vessel into suspicion, by treating it as if it were flawed. Dryden, no doubt, knew the radical meaning of _sincere_ when he wrote the lines cited by Johnson:

"He try'd a tough well-chosen spear;
Th' inviolable body stood sincere."