Chapter V: T. Sternberg

_Jewish Custom._--In a recently published music-novel of some merit, called _Charles Auchester_, occurs the following:

"'I shall treat him as my son, because he will indeed be my
music-child, and no more indebted to me than I am to music, or than we
all are to Jehovah.' _'Sir, you are certainly a Jew, if you say
Jehovah_; I was quite sure of it before, and I am so pleased.'"

There is a great error as to custom here, for the Jews never attempt to pronounce the "four-lettered" Name, and in reading and speaking always use instead Adonai or Elohim. And even converted Jews retain for the most part the same habit. The writer of _Charles Auchester_ can only defend himself by the example of the writer of {619} _Ivanhoe_, who has made the same oversight; and a still more glaring one besides in making Isaac the Jew wish his daughter had been called Benoni, _i.e._ the _son_ of sorrow. The vowel letters of Jehovah are merely those of Adonai, inserted by the Massorites; but this is another subject.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

_Lachlan Macleane._--This individual, whose claim to the authorship of Junius has been lately revived, was in Philadelphia ninety-five years ago, and his name figures there in the accounts of the overseers of the poor, under date of November 9, 1758:

"By cash received of James Coultass, late sheriff, being a fine paid by
Laughlane McClain for kissing of Osborn's wife (after his commissions
and writing bond were deducted)

£24 : 5 : 0"

This was in Pennsylvania currency; but it was an expensive kiss even in that, being (besides the commissions and sheriff's charge for writing the bond) equivalent to sixty-four dollars and fifty cents of our present currency.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

_German Tree._--The following extract concerning this accessory to Christmas, which is now so popular, may perhaps be interesting at the present season. It is taken from the _Loseley Manuscripts_, edited by A. J. Kempe, F.S.A., 1836, p. 75. note.

"We remember a German of the household of the late Queen Caroline,
making what he termed a _Christmas tree_ for a juvenile party at that
festive season. The tree was a branch of some evergreen fastened on a
board. Its boughs bent under the weight of gilt oranges, almonds, &c.;
and under it was a neat model of a farm-house, surrounded by figures of
animals, &c., and all due accompaniments. The forming Christmas trees
is, we believe, a common custom in Germany: evidently a remain of the
pageants constructed at that season in ancient days."

Is this the first notice of a German tree in England? The adjunct of the farm-house seems now to be dispensed with in this country.

ZEUS.

_The late Duke._--The following curious coincidence, which lately appeared in the _Meath Herald_, deserves transplanting to the literary museum of "N. & Q.":

"From the fact of the Mornington family having been so connected by
property, &c. with the parish of Trim, in which town the late Duke
spent so many of his early days, and commenced his career in life by
being elected, when scarcely twenty-one years of age, to represent the
old borough of Trim, the following coincidence is worth relating. On
the news of the death of the Duke reaching Trim, the Very Rev. Dean
Butler caused the chime of bells to be rung in respect to his memory;
and the large bell, which was considered one of the finest and sweetest
in Ireland, hardly had tolled a second time for the occasion when it
suddenly broke, became mute, and ceased to send forth its notes.
Whether this was to be attributed to neglect of the ringer, or regret
for the great man of the age, it is hard to say; but, very odd as it
may appear to be, on examining the bell, it was found to be cast by
Edmund Blood, 1769, the very year the Duke was born. Thus this fine
bell commenced its career with the birth of the Duke, and ceased to
sound at his death. The parish of Trim is now getting the bell recast,
and the old metal is to be seen at Mr. Hodges, Abbey Street, Dublin."

J. YEOWELL.

* * * * *

Queries.

THE STORY OF CRISPIN AND CRISPIANUS.

_A Recitation for the 25th of October, and other Convivial Meetings of Shoemakers._

"The CRISPIN trade! What better trade can be?
Ancient and famous, independent, free!
No other trade a brighter claim can find;
No other trade display more share of mind!
No other calling prouder names can boast,--
In arms, in arts,--themselves a perfect host!
All honour, zeal, and patriotic pride;
To dare heroic, and in suffering tried!
But first and chief--and as such claims inspire--
Our Patron Brothers, who doth not admire?
CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS! they who sought
Safety with us, and at the calling wrought:
Martyrs to Truth, who in old times were cast
Lorn outcasts forth to labour at the _last_!
Mould the stout sole, sew with the woven thread,
Make the _good fit_, and win their daily bread.
This was their strait and doing--this their doom;
They sought our shelter, and they found a home!
Helpless and hapless, wandering to and fro,
Weary they came and hid them from the foe;
Two high-born youths, to holy things impell'd,
Hunted from place to place, though still they held
Their sacred faith, and died for it, and threw
The glory of that death on all who made the Shoe!

"Such is the story--so behaved our trade;
And then the Church its zealous homage paid,
And made their death-day holy, as we see
Still in the Calendar, and still to be!
And long the Shoemaker has felt the claim,
And proved him joyful at such lofty fame;
For theirs it was by more than blood allied,
Alike they worshipp'd, and alike they died!
Nor minded how the Pagan nipp'd their youth--
They are not dead who suffer for the Truth!
The skies receive them, and the earth's warm heart
In grateful duty ever plays its part,
Embalms their memory to all future time,
And thus, in love, still punishes the crime;
Sees, though the corse be trampled to the dust,
The murder'd dead have retribution just!

{620}
"Where are they now who wrought this fiendish wrong?
We hate the actors, and have hated long.
And where are they, the victims? Always here;
We feel their glory, and we hold it dear!
Oh yes, 'tis ours! that glory still is ours,
And, lo! how breaks it on these festive hours;
Each heart is warm, each eye lit up with pride,
'Tis sanction'd in our loves and sanctified!
Far o'er the earth--the Christianised--where'er
The Saviour's name is hymn'd in daily prayer,
The winds of heaven their memories tender waft,
Commix'd with all the sorceries of the _craft_.
The little leather artizan--the boy
To whom the shoe is yet but as a toy,
A thing to smile and look at, ere the day
Severer task will make it one of _pay_
(A constant duty and a livelihood),--
He, the young Crispin, emulous and good,
Is told of the Prince Martyrs--sometimes Royal!
(The trade, in its devotion, being so loyal,
It fain would stretch the fact or trifle still,
Eager, as 'twere, to get on highest hill.)
Through the fair France, through Germany, and Spain,
The blue-skied Italy, the Russias twain,
And farther still, across the Western Main.
There is the story known, engraft, 'tis true,
With things, as often is, of weight undue;
Yet still's enough, when sifted to the most,
To make the trade rejoice, and as a toast,
Now, as is wont, and ever to be given,
Hail to the memory of our friends in heaven!
CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS--they, the two,
Who, like ourselves, have made the Boot and Shoe!"

The story as told in these verses is not exactly the same as the one current among the makers of the boot and shoe in our own island, an account in an old book called _The History of the Gentle Craft_ (the production, no doubt, of the well-known Thomas Delony) being the basis of the tradition as received now by the British shoemaker. In the _Golden Legende_, one of the earliest of our printed books, and in Alban Butler's _Lives of the Saints_, as compiled from the Roman Martyrologies, as also in the inscriptions of some pieces of ancient tapestry formerly belonging to the shoemakers' chapel in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, but, when I saw them, in one of the galleries of the Louvre, is the like version as the one here given. The authority, too, of the Church Calendar of England, even as it still remains after the loppings of the Reformation, is another corroboration that CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS, brothers, were early martyrs to the Christian faith, and through that chiefly honoured, and not because the one became a redoubted general and the other a successful suitor to the daughter of some all-potent emperor. In the Delony version--itself, in every probability, a borrowing from the popular mind of the Elizabethan period,--these things are put forth; while in trade paintings and songs the Prince CRISPIN is assumed to have a wife or sister, one can hardly tell which, in the person of a princess, the Princess CRISPIANUS, and who figures as the patron of the women's branch of the shoemakers' art; CRISPIN himself presiding over the coarser labour for the rougher sex. This artifice, if not purely historical, is at least very excusable, because so natural, seeing that the duplex principle has such an extensive range; that even the feet themselves come into the world in pairs, and so shoes must be produced after the same fashion--paired, as the shoemakers have done by their adored CRISPIN and CRISPIANUS.

It has now but to be stated that the writer of the foregoing lines (a long time now the common property of his fellow-workmen) and this present paragraph, has for many years contemplated the production of something, which might assume even the size of a book, in connexion with the various curious particulars which may be affiliated with this Crispin story, and therefore would be glad to find some of the numerous erudite renders of "N. & Q." helping his inquiries either through the medium of future Numbers, or as might be addressed privately to himself, care of Mr. Clements, bookseller, 22. Little Pulteney Street, Regent Street.

J. DAVIES DEVLIN.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Barrels Regiment._--I suppose that to this regiment a song refers which has for its burden,--

"And ten times a day whip the barrels,
And ten times a day whip the barrels,
Brave boys."

I shall be very much obliged to any one who will tell me where I can find this song, or the circumstances or persons to which it refers. It was probably written about the year 1747.

E. H.

_Okey the Regicide._--I should be much obliged for any information relative to the descendants of Colonel John Okey, the regicide, executed April 19, 1662, O.S.

E. P. H.

Clapham.

_Lady Mason's Third Husband_.--Secretary Davison, in a letter dated London, 23rd December, 1581, and addressed to Lady Mason, requests this lady "to join with his honour her husband" in standing sponsor with Sir Christopher Hatton, or Sir Thomas Skirley, to his son, born a few days before. Sir John Mason, second husband to Lady Mason, died in 1566. Who then was "this honour," her third?

G. S. S.

_Creation of Knights._--When were the following knights made?--Sir William Fleming, Sir George Barker, Sir George Hamilton, Sir Edward {621} de Carteret, Sir William Armourer:--the first by Charles I.; the four following by Charles II.

G. S. S.

_Martyn the Regicide._--Was Martyn the regicide married or not? If married, is it known whether he had children? and if any of his children settled in Ireland, and became possessed of property in that country?

E. A. G.

_History of the Nonjurors._--What are the best authorities for the history of the Nonjurors and their sufferings? Of course, Lathbury, Hickes's _Life of Kettlewell_, &c. are well known. Whence came their adopted motto: "Cætera quis nescit?" Any reader who would communicate any information on these points to C. R. would confer a favour.

C. R.

_Florin and the Royal Arms._--What is the authority for placing the national arms (which are by royal proclamations ordered to be borne _quarterly_ in ratification of the respective unions, and to be borne under one imperial crown) in separate shields? They surely cannot with any heraldic propriety be so arranged. The absurdity was remarked in the reign of the Georges, for by the separation of the coats the arms of the German Dominions of George I. obtained the second place, viz. the dexter side, with France on the sinister, and Ireland at the bottom or fourth place.

MAT O' THE MINT.

_A Mistletoe Query._--Why has mistletoe the privilege of allowing the fair sex to be kissed under its branches, on condition that a berry is plucked off at the time? And also, when was this first allowed?[2]

J. W. ASTON (late of Trin. Col.)

[Footnote 2: This Query has been incidentally noticed in "N. & Q.," Vol. v., pp. 13. 208.--ED.]

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Sewell Family_ (Vol. viii., p. 521.).--Your correspondent D. N. states, that "nothing farther is known of the family of Lieut.-Col. Sewell, who died in 1803, than that he had a son Thos. Bailey Heath Sewell, Cornet in 32nd Light Dragoons, and Lieutenant 4th Dragoon Guards." Had he referred to Lodge's _Peerage_, he would have found that the Honorable Harriet Beresford, fourth daughter of the Most Rev. Wm. Beresford, Lord Archbishop of Tuam, and first Baron Decies, married Jan. 25, 1796, Thos. Henry Bermingham (not Bailey) Daly Sewell, Esq.; and died June 11, 1834, having had three children, viz.:

1. Thomas, formerly Page of Honour to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, _circa_ 1829, afterwards a pensioner of Trin. Coll. Dublin, and subsequently Lieutenant 13th Light Infantry; who died at Landour, Bengal, Aug. 1, 1836.

2. Isabella, who married her cousin Major Marcus Beresford, in October, 1828; and died in 1836.

3. Louisa, married to the Hon. Sir W. E. Leeson, and died in 1849 or 1850.

Will D. N. favour me with the dates of the birth and death of the late unfortunate, and, as I believe, ill-used Lieut.-General John Whitelocke, whom he mentions, with the localities where the birth and death occurred?

G. L. S.

[We have submitted our correspondent's communication to D. N., who has
kindly forwarded the following reply:

"My communication (Vol. viii., p. 521.) I was aware was far from a
perfect pedigree of the Sewell family, and my object was to give such
notices as might form an outline to be filled up by some one more
competently informed. Your correspondent G. L. S. has very well
supplied the _cætera desunt_, where my information terminated with the
appointment of Cornet Sewell to a Lieutenancy in the 4th (Royal Irish)
Dragoon Guards. In the London Gazette 13789, June 23, 1795, he is
inserted as 'Mr. Bermingham Daly Henry Sewell' to be a cornet in the
32nd Light Dragoons; and as in filling up commissions much accuracy is
always considered very essential, I am disposed to regard those
Christian names as correct.

"There was a Rev. George Sewell, Rector of Byfleet, Surrey, Was he a
brother of Lieut.-Col. Sewell of the Surrey Light Dragoons?

"Did the Right Hon. Sir Thomas Sewell marry a second wife? For I find,
in _The Globe_ of October 9, 1820: 'Died, Saturday, Sept. 16, at
Twyford Lodge, Maresfield, Sussex, in her seventy-eighth year, Lady
Sewell, widow of the late Right Hon. Sir Thomas Sewell, Master of the
Rolls and Privy Councillor, &c.' Now, in Manning's _Surrey_, vol. iii.
p. 201., it is stated that Lieut.-Col. Sewell died in 1803, in his
fifty-eighth year, which would render it impossible for him to be the
son of the above-named Lady Sewell. In Horsfield's _Sussex_, 4to.,
1835, vol. i. p. 375., I find a William Luther Sewell, Esq., who most
probably was connected by the second marriage, residing at the above
Twyford Lodge.

"I regret that I cannot reply distinctly to the inquiries of G. L. S.
respecting the late Lieut.-General Whitelocke. I have ineffectually
searched all the various biographical dictionaries to that of the Rev.
H. J. Rose in twelve volumes, 1848, inclusive, without having found one
that has taken the least notice of him. I had casually heard, some
years since, that he had fixed his residence in Somersetshire, and that
he had died there; which I find confirmed by a paragraph in the _Annual
Register_, vol. lxxvi. for 1834 (_Chronicle_), p. 218., which states
that he died 'near Bath,' in February, 1834. With such scanty
information on the required points, I would still refer G. L. S. to a
work entitled _The Georgian Æra_, in 4 vols., London, 1832; where he
will find, in vol. ii. p 475., a short _military_ memoir of
Lieut.-General Whitelocke, which is dispassionately and candidly
written, and which accounts very reasonably for the inauspicious result
of his military operations. There is one slight error in the account of
_The Georgian Æra_, viz. in the date of the {622} _first_ appointment
of Mr. Whitelocke to a commission in the army, which appears in the
_London Gazette_, No. 11938. of December 26, 1778, and runs thus: '14th
Foot, John Whitelocke, Gent., to be Ensign _vice_ Day."--I trust some
reader of "N. & Q." will furnish us with the dates of the birth and
death of Lieut.-General Whitelocke, specifying when they took place, as
desired by G. L. S., with an abridgment of deficient particulars in his
history. D. N."]

_Greek Epigram._--In the _Bath Chronicle_ of the 10th of November last, I find the following advertisement:

"The Clergyman of a Town Parish, in which are several crippled persons,
at present unable to attend divine worship, will feel very grateful to
any gentleman or lady who will give him an old Bath chair for the use
of these poor people; two blind men having offered, in this case,
charitably to convey their crippled neighbours regularly to the house
of God."

Surely this arrangement is not a new idea, and there is, if I mistake not, a Greek epigram that records its success in practice several hundred years ago. Can any of your readers, whose Greek is less faded than mine, refer me to the epigram?

GEO. E. FRERE.

[Probably the following epigram is the one floating in the faded memory
of our correspondent:

[Greek: PHILIPPOU, hoi de ISIDÔROU.]
[Greek: Pêros ho men guiois, ho d' ar' ommasin; amphoteroi de]
[Greek: Eis hautous to tuchês endees êranisan,]
[Greek: Tuphlos gar lipoguion epômadion baros airôn,]
[Greek: Tais keinou phônais atrapon ôrthobatei,]
[Greek: Panta de taut' edidaxe pikrê pantolmos anankê,]
[Greek: Allêlois merisai toullipes eis eleon.]
_Anthologia, in usum Scholæ Westmonast._:
Oxon. 1724, p. 58.]

_Translations from Æschylus._--Whose translation of the tragedies of Æschylus is that which accompanies Flaxman's compositions from the same? I ought to state that there is merely a line or two under each plate, to explain the subject of each composition, and that my copy is the unreduced size.

H.

Kingston-on-Thames.

[The lines are taken from N. Potter's translation of the Tragedies of
Æschylus, 4to., 1777.]

_Prince Memnon's Sister._--Who was Prince Memnon's sister, alluded to by Milton in _Il Penseroso_?

J. W. T.

Dewsbury.

[Dunster has the following note on this line:--"Prince Memnon's sister;
that is, an Ethiopian princess, or sable beauty. Memnon, king of
Ethiopia, being an auxiliary of the Trojans, was slain by Achilles.
(See Virg. _Æn._ I. 489., '_Nigri_ Memnonis arma.') It does not,
however, appear that Memnon had any sister. Tithonus, according to
Hesiod, had by Aurora only two sons, Memnon and Emathion, _Theog._ 984.
This lady is a creation of the poet."]

_"Oh! for a blast," &c._--Who was the author of the couplet--

"Oh! for a blast of that dread horn,
On Fontarabian echoes borne?"

A. J. DUNKIN.

[The lines--

"O for the voice of that wild horn,
On Fontarabia's echoes borne,
The dying hero's call,"--

are by Sir Walter Scott, and form part of those which excited the
horror of the father of Frank Osbaldiston, when he examined his
waste-book in search of _Reports outward and inward_--Corn Debentures,
&c. See _Rob Roy_, chap. ii. p. 24. ed. 1829.]

_Robin Hood's Festival._--Can any of your correspondents refer me to a good account of the festival of Robin Hood, which was so popular with our ancestors, that Bishop Latimer could get no one to come to hear him preach on that day?

In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Helens, Abingdon, published in the first volume of the _Archæologia_, there is an entry in 1566 of the sum of 18d. paid for "setting up Robin Hood's Bower."

R. W. B.

[The best account of Robin Hood's festival on the first and succeeding
days of May is given in _Robin Hood: a Collection of all the Ancient
Poems, Songs, and Ballads, relative to that celebrated Outlaw_; [by
Joseph Ritson], among the notes and illustrations in vol. i. pp.
xcvii--cx. Consult also _A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode_, by John Matthew
Gutch, vol. i. pp. 60--64.; and George Soane's _New Curiosities of
Literature_, vol. i. pp. 231--236.]

_Church in Suffolk._--In restoring a church in Suffolk, apparently of the date of Henry VII., except two Norman doors, the walls were found full of Norman mouldings of about 1100, or not much after. Will you kindly give me a list of the works where I may be likely to find an account of this original church? Davy and Jermyn's _Suffolk_, in the British Museum, says nothing about it. The two Norman doors are universally admired, and the church is now Norman still throughout. In the reconstruction of about 1100, the two doors do not seem to have been in any way restored or meddled with.

G. L.

[Our correspondent may probably find some account of this church either
in Suckling's _Antiquities of Suffolk_, 4to., 2 vols., Gage's _History
of Suffolk_ (Thingoe Hundred), 4to., or in H. Jermyn's Collections for
a General History of Suffolk, in the British Museum, Add. MSS.
8168--8196.]

* * * * *

{623}

Replies.

CHILDREN CALLED IMPS.

(Vol. viii., p. 443.)

"Heere resteth the bodye of the noble Impe, Robert of Duddeley, Baron of Denbigh, sonne of Robert, Earle of Leicester, nephew and heire unto Ambrose, Earle of Warwick, brethren, both sonnes of the mighty Prince John, late Duke of Northumberland, that was cosin and heire to Sir John Grey, Vicount L'Isle, nephew and heire unto the Lady Margaret, Countesse of Shrewsbury, the eldest daughter and coheire of the noble Earle of Warr: Sir Richard Beauchampe here interred; a childe of great parentage, but of farr greater hope and towardnesse, taken from this transitory unto everlasting life in his tender age, at Wanstead in Essex, on Sunday, 19th of July, in the yeare of our Lord God 1584, being the 26th yeare of the happy raine of the most virtuous and godly Princesse, Queene Elizabeth, and in this place layd up among his noble auncestors, in assured hope of the generall resurrection."--_Lady's Chapel, St. Mary's Church, Warwick._

H. B.

Warwick.

An inscription on a tomb at Besford, near Pershore, Worcestershire, of the same period as that at Aylesbury (mentioned by MR. BROOKS), contains also the word _imp_. The tomb at Besford is a most singular one, consisting of two large folding doors fixed against the wall, their panels and the interior being painted over with figures and inscriptions. From the latter, which are of some length, the following extracts will be sufficient to illustrate the subject:

"An _impe_ entombed heere doth lie."

"... elder ... from Christ to straie,
When such an _impe_ foreshewes the waie."

The old poetical word _sugared_, "Noe sugred word," occurs in the inscription.

The "impe" is supposed to be Richard Harewell, who died in 1576, aged 15 years, to whom a second monument, of alabaster (close by the former), was also erected; a rare circumstance, I should suppose. The Harewells appear to have been a family at the time of the Conquest; the two following lines are a part of one of the inscriptions:

"Of Harewell's blodde ere Conquest made,
Knowne to descende of gentle race."

Nash, in his _History of Worcestershire_, makes mention of this singular monument, but is anything but correct in giving its inscriptions.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A.

T. W. D. BROOKS will find this word used by some modern authors to denote a child. In _Moral and Sacred Poetry_, selected and arranged by the Rev. T. Willcocks and the Rev. T. Horton (Devonport, W. Byers, 1834), there is at p. 254. a piece by Baillie, addressed "To a Child," the first line of which runs thus:

"Whose _imp_ art thou, with dimpled cheek?"

And in a poem by Rogers, on the following page, the children of a gipsy are called _imps_.

J. W. N. KEYS.

Plymouth.

* * * * *

THE DIVINING ROD.

(Vol. viii., pp. 293. 479.)

The inclosed extract from a letter which I have just received from a friend on the subject of the divining rod, will probably interest your readers as an answer to a Query which appeared some weeks ago in your excellent work. You may entirely rely on the accuracy of the facts stated.

J. A. H.

"However the pretended effect of the divining rod may be attributed to knavery and credulity by philosophers who will not take the trouble of witnessing and investigating the operation, any one who will pay a visit to the Mendip Hills in Somersetshire, and the country round their base, may have abundant proof of the efficacy of it. Its success has been very strikingly proved along the range of the Pennard Hills also, to the South of the Mendip. The faculty of discovering water by means of the divining rod is not possessed by every one; for indeed there are but few who possess it in any considerable degree, or in whose hands the motion of the rod, when passing over an underground stream, is very decided; and they who have it are quite unconscious of their capability until they are made aware of it by experiment.

"I saw the operation of the rod, or rather of a fork, formed of the shoots of the last year, held in the hands of the experimentor by the extremities, with the angle projecting before him. When he came over the spot beneath which the water flowed, the rod, which had before been perfectly still, writhed about with considerable force, so that the holder could not keep it in its former position; and he appealed to the bystanders to notice that he had made no motion to produce this effect, and used every effort to prevent it. The operation was several times repeated with the same result, and each time under the close inspection of shrewd and doubting, if not incredulous, observers. Forks of any kind of green wood served equally well, but those of dead wood had no effect. The experimentor had discovered water, in several instances, in the same parish (Pennard), but was perfectly unaware of his capability till he was requested by his landlord to try. The operator had the reputation of a perfectly honest man, whose word might be safely {624} trusted, and who was incapable of attempting to deceive any one--as indeed appeared by his open and ingenuous manner and conversation on this occasion. He was a farmer, and respected by all his neighbours. So general is the conviction of the efficacy of the divining rod in discovering both water and the ores of calamine or zinc all over the Mendip, that the people are quite astonished when any doubt is expressed about it. The late Dr. Hutton wrote against the pretension, as one of many instances of deception founded upon gross ignorance and credulity; when a lady of quality, who herself possessed the faculty, called upon him, and gave him experimental proof, in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, that water was discoverable by that means. This Dr. Hutton afterwards publicly acknowledged.

"The above I suppose will suffice for your present purpose; I could, however, say a great deal more, for I wrote a very long account many years ago to our friend ----, of what I have now only briefly stated. That letter was treated by certain scientific friends of his with contempt; but when I afterwards saw poor Dr. Turner, he said he would go down to Somerset to see it himself; but alas! he did not live to carry his intention into effect."

* * * * *

CHANGE OF MEANING IN PROVERBIAL EXPRESSIONS, ETC.

(Vol. viii., pp. 464, 465.)

Very hesitatingly I venture to express dissent from MR. KEIGHTLEY'S ingenious suggestion of a change of meaning in the proverb "Tread on a worm and it will turn." I support my dissent, however, by the following lines from Shakspeare:

"Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's mortal sting?
Not he that sets his foot upon her back.
The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on;
And doves will peck in safe-guard of their brood."
Third Part of _King Henry VI._, Act II. Sc. 2.

King Henry says, Withhold revenge, dear God!

Clifford replies, The lion, the bear, the serpent, the smallest worm, and doves, if injured, will make an effort at revenge or defence. It is clear that Shakspeare uses the word _worm_ as meaning, not a venomous serpent, but the most defenceless of reptiles.

Again, I do not think that MR. KEIGHTLEY'S quotation from Schiller's _Wallenstein's Tod_ supports his view. I am not a German scholar, but I find that the translator of _Wallenstein's Tod_ (I believe Lord Ellesmere) has translated or paraphrased the lines quoted by MR. KEIGHTLEY as follows:

"But nature gave the very worm a sting,
When trampled on by man, to turn again."

The sense of the passage (spoken by Butler) requires that "wurm" should be understood to mean a harmless despised reptile, not a venomous serpent.

It seems that Schiller had Shakspeare in his mind when he wrote the lines in question; indeed, they are almost a copy of Shakspeare's line. I consider them as parallel passages.

It may not be irrelevant to observe that _worm_ in some places still means a serpent; but I believe it has usually a prefix, as "hag-worm" in Westmoreland and the West Riding of Yorkshire; so also in the latter "slow-worm" means a species of small snake or viper found on some of the moors. (For "slow-worm," see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., pp. 33. and 479.) I have been told that "blind-worm" in Surrey means a viper. I conclude with a Query, Does _Wurm_ in modern German ever mean a serpent?

F. W. J.

"To put a spoke in one's wheel," is not singular in its _double entendre_ (Vol. viii., pp. 262. 351. 464.). "There is no love lost between them" is in a similar predicament. We now speak of no love being lost between A. and B., when we would intimate that the warmth of their mutual affection may be accurately represented by 32° Fahrenheit. That this has not always been the meaning of the phrase, the following verse from the old ballad of _The Children in the Wood_ will testify:

"Sore sick he was, and like to die,
No help that he could have;
His wife by him as sick did lie,
And both possess'd one grave.
_No love between these two was lost_,
Each was to other kind;
In love they lived, in love they died,
And left two babes behind."

R. PRICE.

St. Ives.

* * * * *

SNEEZING.

(Vol. viii., p. 366.)

A collection of "facts, theories, and popular ideas" upon this subject would fill a volume. I send, however, a few extracts, &c., which may interest your correspondent MEDICUS:

"Et n'esternuay point regardant le soleil."

"And did not sneeze as he looked upon the sun."
Ronsard, tom. v. p. 158., quoted in Southey's
_Common Place Book_, 3rd series, p. 303.

Here, not to sneeze appears to be looked on as an ill omen.

Ammianus has an epigram upon one whose nose was so long that he never heard it sneeze, and therefore never said [Greek: Zeu sôson], God bless.--_Notes on the Variorum Plautus_ (ed. Gronov., Lugd. Bat.), p. 720. {625}

Athenæus, says Potter in his _Archæologia Græca_, proves that the head was esteemed holy, because it was customary to swear by it, and adore as holy the sneezes that proceeded from it. And Aristotle tells us in express terms that sneezing was accounted a deity: "[Greek: Ton Ptarmon theon hêgoumetha]"--_Archæol. Græc._ (5th ed.), p. 338.

"Oscitatio in nixu letalis est, sicut
Sternuisse a coitu abortivum."
Quoted from Pliny by Aulus Gellius,
_Noct. Att._ III. xvi. 24.

Erasmus, in his _Colloquies_, bids one say to him who sneezes, "Sit faustum ac felix," or "Servet te Deus," or "Sit salutiferum" or "Bene vertat Deus."

"Quare homines sternutant?

"Respondetur, ut virtus expulsiva et visiva, per hoc purgetur, et
cerebrum a sua superfluitate purgetur, etc. Etiam qui sternutat
frequenter, dicitur habere forte cerebrum."--_Aristotelis Problemata_:
Amstelodami, anno 1690.

Query whether from some such idea of the beneficial effect of sneezing, arose the practice of calling for the divine blessing on the sneezer?

When Themistocles was offering sacrifice, it happened that three beautiful captives were brought him, and at the same time the fire burnt clear and bright, and a sneeze happened on the right hand. Hereupon Euphrantides the soothsayer, embracing him, predicted the memorable victory which was afterwards obtained by him, &c.

There is also mention of this custom (the observation of sneezing) in Homer, who has introduced Penelope rejoicing at a sneeze of her son Telemachus:

"[Greek: Ouch horaas ho moi huios epeptaren]"

Sneezing was not always a lucky omen, but varied according to the alteration of circumstances--"[Greek: Tôn ptarmôn hoi men eisin ôphelimoi, hoi de blaberoi]," "Some sneezes are profitable, others prejudicial"--according to the scholiast upon the following passage of Theocritus, wherein he makes the sneezing of the Cupids to have been an unfortunate omen to a certain lover:

"[Greek: Simichida men erôtes epeptaron.]"

If any person sneezed between midnight and the following noontide it was fortunate, but from noontide till midnight it was unfortunate.

If a man sneezed at the table while they were taking away, or if another happened to sneeze upon his left hand, it was unlucky; if on the right hand, fortunate.

If, in the undertaking any business, two or four sneezes happened, it was a lucky omen, and gave encouragement to proceed; if more than four, the omen was neither good nor bad; if one or three, it was unlucky, and dehorted them from proceeding in what they had designed. If two men were deliberating about any business, and both of them chanced to sneeze together, it was a prosperous omen.--_Archæol. Græc._ (5th ed.), pp. 339, 340.

FRANCIS JOHN SCOTT.

Tewkesbury.

The custom your correspondent MEDICUS alludes to, of wishing a person "good health," after sneezing, is also very common in Russia. The phrases the Russians use on these occasions are--"To your good health!" or "How do you do?"

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

* * * * *

BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN.

(Vol. viii., pp. 272. 346.)

To the list of these literary _auto da fé's_ we may well add the burning of Bishop Burnet's famous _Pastoral Letter_, which was censured by the House of Commons, January, 1692, and was burned by the common hangman. The offence contained in it was the ascribing the title of William III. to the crown of England to a right of conquest. A recollection of this gives additional point to the irony of Atterbury in attacking Wake:

"William the Conqueror is another of the pious patterns he recommends,
'who would suffer nothing,' he says, 'to be determined in any
ecclesiastical causes without leave and authority first had from
him.'... His present majesty is not William the Conqueror; and can no
more by our constitution rule absolutely either in Church or State than
he would if he could: his will and pleasure is indeed a law to all his
subjects; not in a conquering sense, but because his will and pleasure
is only that the laws of our country should be obeyed, which he came
over on purpose to rescue, and counts it his great prerogative to
maintain; and contemns therefore, I doubt not, such sordid flattery as
would measure the extent of his supremacy from the Conqueror's
claim."--Atterbury's _Rights, Powers, and Privileges of Convocation_,
pp. 158--160.

Atterbury never misses a hit at Burnet when he can conveniently administer one, and the Bishop endeavours to smile even while he winces:

"He writes with just and due respect of the king and the present
constitution. This has come so seldom from that corner that it ought to
be the more considered. I will not give that scope to jealousy as to
suspect that this was an artifice; but accept it sincerely," &c.--The
Bishop of Sarum's _Reflections on the Rights, Powers, &c._. p. 4.

W. FRASER.

Tor-Mohun.

The following, may come under the list wanted by BALLIOLENSIS:

"The covenant itself, together with the act for erecting the high court
of justice, that for subscribing the engagement, and that for declaring
England a {626} Commonwealth, were ordered to be burned by the hands of
the hangman. The people assisted with great alacrity on this
occasion."--From Hume, Reign of Charles II., edit. London, 1828, p.
762.

On a copy of _La Défense de la Réformation, &c_., par I. Claude, à La Haye, 1683, I noted the following about thirty years ago as a striking passage, but cannot now recollect from whence I took it. This book was condemned by the Pope to be burned, on which circumstance the editor of an old edition of it very appositely observes:

"Books have souls as well as men, which survive their martyrdom, and
are not burnt, but crowned by the flames that encircle them. The Church
of Rome has quickly felt there was nothing combustible but the paper.
The truth flew upward like the angel from Manoah's sacrifice, untouched
by the fire, and unsullied by the smoke, and found a safe refuge at the
footstool of the God of Truth."

G. N.

* * * * *

JEWS IN CHINA.

(Vol. viii., p. 515.)

The only people known as descendants of any of the ten tribes are the Spomerim, or Samaritans; whose chief peculiarity is, that they acknowledge as sacred only the five books of Moses: for, although other books held sacred by the Jews are known to them, such books are not written in the same ancient alphabetic character as those of the Samaritan Pentateuch. The ten tribes were then taken captive B.C. 721 (2 Kings xvii. 24--41.). The inference is, therefore, that all the books, from Joshua to Malachi inclusive, had not been composed or admitted into the holy canon till after that date. The criterion then for ascertaining whether the Chinese Jews are descended from the ten tribes, appears to be their adherence to the Pentateuch _alone_ as sacred. I. The Chinese Jews have not the ancient Hebrew character, but the comparatively modern square Chaldee one, as in our printed Bibles. II. Gozani states that the Jews of Kaafung Foo, in Honan, had some traditions from the Talmud. The Mishnah, constituting the text of the Talmud, is manifestly a compilation _subsequent_ to the closing of the Jewish canon; the quotations from the books following those of Moses being constantly in use therein. III. On Gozani mentioning Jesus the Messiah, the Chinese Jew said they had a knowledge of Jesus the son of Sirach. As, however, the book of the last-named writer is unknown in Hebrew, Gozani, who was ignorant of that language, may have mistaken him for Jesus (=Joshua) the son of Nun, with which book the Chinese Jew was acquainted.[3] In either case, _more_ books than the Pentateuch were undoubtedly held sacred by these Chinese Jews; therefore the connexion with the ten tribes (house of Israel), as distinct from the house of Judah (the Jews properly so called), cannot be inferred. The authorities for the Samaritans are Scaliger, Ludolf, Prideaux, Jahn, Huntington, Winer, Schnurrer, and Kitto. For the eastern Jews: Josephus, Peritsol, Manasseh, Basnage, Büsching; Fathers Ricci, Aleni, Gozani, and other Jesuits, in the _Lettres édifiantes et curieuses_, vol. xviii.; and the _Chinese Repository_, vol. i. pp. 8. 44., vol. iii. p. 175.

Circumcision is too general a practice in the hotter regions of the south and east, to permit such practice to be deemed proof of Jewish descent, unless corroborated by other customs peculiar to the Jews. Besides the physiological characteristics of the native Australians preclude us from deducing their natural descent from either the _Jews_ or the ten tribes.

T.J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

[Footnote 3: The opprobrious name of Christ amongst the Jews is Jesus son of Sadta, which Gozani may have mistaken for Sirach; indeed,--the Chinese pronunciation of Hebrew is quite peculiar, as they cannot pronounce, for instance, the letters _b_, _r_, _th_, naming them respectively _p_, _l_, _z_.]

* * * * *

POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS.

(Vol. viii., pp. 242. 452.)

I made a note of the following specimen of poetical tavern sign, in one of Mr. Mark Lemon's Supplements to _The Illustrated London News_ (Dec. 27, 1851). I here transcribe it to add to MR. WARDE'S collection:

"The following is a literal copy of a sign conspicuously displayed in
front of a small public-house in the village of Folkesworth,[4] near
Stilton, Hunts. It contains as much poetry as, perhaps, the rustic
Folkesworth folks are worth; and doubtless they think it to be (in the
Stilton vernacular) 'quite the cheese:'

[A rude figure of a Fox.]

'I . HAM . A . CUNEN . FOX
YOU . SEE . THER . HIS
NO . HARME . ATCHED
TO . ME . IT . IS . MY . MRS.
WISH . TO . PLACE . ME
HERE . TO . LET . YOU . NO
HE . SELS . GOOD . BEERE.'

"The Captain Rawlinson of the district has deciphered this inscription,
and conjectures its meaning to be as follows:

'I am a cunning fox, you see;
There is no harm attach'd to me;
It is my master's wish to place me here,
To let you know he sells good beer.'"

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Footnote 4: It was in the lane between Folkesworth and the Norman Cross Barracks, that Borrow was first induced to try the gipsy life. (Vide _Lavengro_.)]

{627}

Bradford:

"Who lives here? who do you think?
Major Lister: give him a drink.
Give him a drink--for why?
Because, when he's sweeping,
He's always dry."

"John Thompson doth live here,
He sweeps your chimney not too dear.
And if your chimney should get on fire,
He puts it out at your desire.
Sweep that chimney clean,
And then come down and drink."

The public-houses to which the above are appended are kept by sweeps.

"Call here, my boy, if you are dry.
The fault's in you, and not in I.
If Robin Hood from home is gone,
Step in and drink with Little John."

The name of the public-house is "The Robin Hood."

Over another tavern door I noticed the following very pithy and brief sentence:

"Tobacco given away to-morrow."

CHARLES WILLISON.

Bradford, Yorkshire.

A sign at Newhouse, a small public-house on Dartmoor, hard by a rabbit-warren, on the roadside leading from Moreton to Tavistock, six miles from the former town. John Roberts was the worthy landlord some considerable time since. It ran thus:

"John Roberts lives here,
Sells brandy and beer,
Your spirits to cheer;
And should you want meat,
To make up the treat,
There be rabbits to eat."
(A verbatim copy.)

A swinging sign on the front of a public-house on the borders of Dartmoor could once boast of like following quaint invitations.

The side presented to view, prior to entering the wild waste, underneath a rude painting of a weary traveller in a storm, had the following rude couplet:

"Before the wild moor you venture to pass,
Pray step within and take a glass."

The attempt at poetry on the reverse side, below a highly-coloured daub representing a Christmas fire on the hearth, surrounded by a goodly band of jolly fellows, read thus:

"Now that the bleak moor you've safely got over,
Do stop a while, your spirits to recover."

Over the door of a spirit and beer shop at the lower end of Market or High Street, Plymouth, may be seen the following very salutary aid disinterested piece of advice. It is printed in the triangle formed by the spread of a gigantic pair of compasses, which gives name to the house:

"Keep within compass,
And then you'll be sure,
To avoid many troubles,
That others endure."

The house is located near the quay; and it is devoutly to be wished that the jolly tars of the neighbourhood, who make it a constant place of resort, would profit by its wise counsel.

H. H. H.

There is (or was some two or three years since) at Coopersale, in Essex, a sign-board in front of the "Queen Victoria" (only a beer-house by the way), with these lines:

"The Queen some day,
May pass this way,
And see our Tom and Jerry;
Perhaps she'll stop,
And stand a drop,
To make her subjects merry."

On the other side are some different lines, which I forget.

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

* * * * *

1. At Overseal, Leicestershire:

"Robin Hood is
Dead and gone:
Pray call, and drink
With Little John."

2. The sign of "The Bee Hive," in Birmingham and other places:

"Within this Hive, we're all alive,
Good liquor makes us funny:
If you are dry, step in and try,
The flavour of our honey."

3. The sign of "The Gate" (of frequent occurrence):

"The Gate hangs well,
And hinders none;
Refresh and pay,
And travel on."

T. H. KERSLEY, B.A.

Audlem, Nantwich.

In King Street, Norwich, at the sign of "The Waterman," kept by a man who is a barber, and over whose door is the pole, are these lines:

"Roam not from pole to pole,
But step in here;
Where nought exceeds the shaving,
But the beer."

J. L. S.

There used to be at a small roadside inn, between Wetherby and Borobridge (Yorkshire), at a place called Ninivy, the following inscription; {628} whether or not it is still in existence I cannot say:

"At Nineveh, where dwelt Old Toby,
Pray stop and drink before you go by."