Chapter M: L. Mansell, A.b. M.d

Guernsey, Jan. 30, 1854.

[Footnote 4: [Having lately prepared this solution according to the formula given by _Dr. Diamond_ (Vol. viii., p. 597.), in which it required 650 grains to dissolve the 60-grain precipitate, we were inclined to think our correspondent had formed a wrong calculation, as the difference appeared so little for a solution more than one-third stronger. We found upon _accurately_ following DR. MANSELL'S instructions, that it required 734 grains of iodide of potassium to effect a solution, whilst we have at the same time dissolved the quantity recommended by DR. DIAMOND with 598 grains. This little experiment is a useful lesson to our correspondents, exhibiting as it does the constantly varying strength of supposed pure chemicals.--ED. "N. & Q."]]

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Replies to Minor Queries.

_Ned o' the Todding_ (Vol. ix., p. 36.).--In answer to the inquiry of W. T., I beg to say that he will find the thrilling narrative of poor Ned of the Toddin in Southey's _Espriella's Letters from England_, vol. ii. p. 42.; but I am not aware of any lines with the above heading, by which I presume W. T. to be in search of some poetical rendering of the tale.

F. C. H.

_Hour-glasses and Inscriptions on old Pulpits_ (Vol. ix., pp. 31. 64.).--In St. Edmund's Church, South Burlingham, stands an elegant pulpit of the fifteenth century, painted red and blue, and relieved with gilding. On it there still remains an old hour-glass, though such appendages were not introduced till some centuries probably after the erection of this pulpit. The following legend goes round the upper part of this pulpit, in the old English character:

"Inter natos mulierum non surrexit major Johanne Baptista."

F. C. H.

_Table-turning_ (Vol. ix., pp. 39. 88.).--I have not Ammianus Marcellinus within reach, but, if I am not mistaken, after the table had been got into motion, the oracle was actually given by means of a ring. This being held over, suspended by a thread, oscillated or leaped from one to another of the letters of the alphabet which were engraved on the edge of the table, or that which covered it. The passage would not occupy many lines, and I think that many readers of "N. & Q." would be interested if some one of its learned correspondents would furnish a copy of it, with a close English translation.

N. B.

"_Firm was their faith_" (Vol. ix., p. 17.).--Grateful as I am to all who think well enough of my verses to discuss them in "N. & Q.," yet I cannot permit them to be incorrectly quoted or wrongly revised. If, as F. R. R. alleges, I had written in the third line of the stanza quoted--"with _firm_ and trusting hands"--then I should have repeated the same epithet (_firm_) twice in three lines. Whereas I wrote, as a reference to _Echoes from Old Cornwall_, p. 58., will establish, _stern_.

R. S. HAWKER.

_The Wilbraham Cheshire MS._ (Vol. viii., pp. 270. 303.).--With regard to this highly curious MS., I am enabled to state that it is still preserved at Delamere House, the seat of George Fortescue Wilbraham, Esq., by whom it has been continued down to the present time. Mr. Wilbraham has answered this Query himself, but from some accident his reply did not appear in the pages of "N. & Q." I therefore, having recently seen the MS., take this opportunity of assuring your querist of its existence.

W. J. BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

_Mousehunt_ (Vol. viii., pp. 516. 606.; Vol. ix., p. 65.).--This animal is well known by this name in Norfolk, where the marten is very rare, if not entirely unknown. The Norfolk mousehunt, or mousehunter, is the _Mustela vulgaris_. (Vide Forby's _Vocab. of East Anglia_, vol. ii. p. 222., who errs, however, in calling it the stoat, but says that it is the "smallest animal of the weasel tribe, and pursues the smallest prey.") It would be of much use, both to naturalists and others, if our zoological works would give the popular provincial names of animals and birds; collectors might then more easily procure specimens from labourers, &c. I have formed a list of Norfolk names for birds, {136} which shall appear in "N. & Q." if desired. The Norfolk _Mustelidæ_ in order of size are the "_poll_cat," or weasel; the stoat, or cane; the mousehunt, mousehunter, or lobster. A popular notion of gamekeepers is, that pollcats add a new lobe to their livers every year of their lives; but the disgusting smell of the animal prevents examining this point by dissection.

E. G. R.

If Fennell's _Natural History of Quadrupeds_ be correctly quoted, as it is stated to be "a very excellent and learned work," Mr. Fennell must have been a better naturalist than geographer, for he says of the beech marten:

"In Selkirkshire it has been observed to descend to the shore at night
time to feed upon mollusks, particularly upon the large basket mussel
(_Mytilus modiolus_)."

Selkirkshire, as you well know, is an inland county, nowhere approaching the sea by many miles: I would fain hope, for Mr. Fennell's sake, that Selkirkshire is either a misprint or a misquotation.

J. SS.

_Begging the Question_ (Vol. viii., p. 640.).--This is a common logical fallacy, _petitio principii_; and the first known use of the phrase is to be found in Aristotle, [Greek: to en archê aiteisthai] (Topics, b. VIII. ch. xiii., Bohn's edition), where the five ways of "begging the question," as also the contraries thereof, are set forth. In the _Prior Analytics_ (b. II. ch. xvi.) he gives one instance from mathematicians--

"who fancy that they describe parallel lines, for they deceive
themselves by assuming such things as they cannot demonstrate unless
they are parallel. Hence it occurs to those who thus syllogise to say
that each thing is, if it is; and thus everything will be known through
itself, which is impossible."

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

_Termination "-by"_ (Vol. viii., p. 105.).--On going over an alphabetical list of places from A to G, I obtained these results:

Lincoln 65
Leicester 21
York 24
Northampton 9
Cumberland 7
Norfolk 6
Westmoreland 3
Lancashire 2
Derby 2
Nottingham 2
Sussex 1
---
Total 142
===

Results of a similar character were obtained in reference to _-thorp_, _-trop_, _-thrup_, or _-drop_; Lincoln again heading the list, but closely followed by Norfolk, then Leicester, Notts, &c.

B. H. C.

_German Tree_ (Vol. viii., p. 619.; Vol. ix., p. 65.).--ERYX has mistaken my Query owing to its vagueness. When I said, "Is this the first notice of a German tree in England?" I meant, "Is this the first notice of a German-tree-in-England?" and not "Is this the first notice-in-England of a German-tree?" as _Eryx_ understood it.

ZEUS.

_Celtic Etymology_ (Vol. ix., p. 40.).--If the _h_ must be "exhasperated" (as Matthews used to say) in words adopted into the English language, how does it happen that we never hear it in _hour_, _honour_, _heir_, _honest_, and _humour_? Will E. C. H. be so kind as to inform me on this point? With regard to the word _humble_, in support of the _h_ being silent, I have seen it stated in a dictionary, but by whom I cannot call to mind, in a list of words nearly spelled alike, and whose sound is the same:

"HUMBLE, low, submissive." "UMBLES, the entrails of a deer."

Hence the point of the sarcasm "He will be made to eat _humble_ pie;" and it serves in this instance to show that the _h_ is silent when the word is properly pronounced.

The two words _isiol_ and _irisiol_, properly _uirisiol_, which E. C. H. has stated to be the original Celtic words signifying _humble_, have quite a different meaning: for _isiol_ is quietly, silently, without noise; and _uirisiol_ means, sneaking, cringing, crawling, terms which could not be applied without injustice to a really humble honest person. The Iberno-Phoenician _umal_ bears in itself evidence that it is not borrowed from any other language, for the two syllables are intelligible apart from each other; and the word can be at once reduced to its root _um_, to which the Sanscrit word _kshama_, as given by E. C. H., bears no resemblance whatever.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

_Recent Curiosities of Literature_ (Vol. ix., p. 31.).--Your correspondent MR. CUTHBERT BEDE has done well in directing Mr. Thackeray's attention to the error of substituting "candle" for "candlestick," at p. 47. of _The Newcomes_; but it appears that the author discovered the error, and made a clumsy effort to rectify it; for he elsewhere gives us to understand, that she died of a wound in her temple, occasioned by coming into contact with the stone stairs. See H. Newcome's letter.

The following curiosity of literature lately appeared in the London papers, in a biographical notice of the late Viscount Beresford, which is inserted in the _Naval and Military Gazette_ of January 14, 1854:

"Of honorary badges he had, first, A cross dependent from seven clasps:
this indicated his having been present in eleven battles during the
Peninsular War. His name was unaccountably omitted in the {137} return
of those present at Ciudad Rodrigo. When Her Majesty gracefully
extended the honorary distinctions to all the survivors of the great
war, Lord Beresford received the _Peninsular_ medal, with two clasps,
for _Egypt_ and Ciudad Rodrigo."

The expression should have been "the silver medal," not "Peninsular;" as, among the names of battles engraved on the clasps attached to the silver war-medals, granted in 1849, will be found the words "Martinique," "Fort Détroit," "Chateauguay," "Chrystler's Farm," and "Egypt."

JUVERNA.

_D. O. M._ (Vol. iii, p. 173.).--I am surprised that there should be the least doubt that the above are the initials of "_Datur omnibus mori_."

R. W. D.

_Dr. John Taylor_ (Vol. viii., p. 299.).--There are several errors in the communication of S. R. He states that "Dr. John Taylor was buried at Kirkstead, Lancashire, where his tomb is distinguished by the following simple inscription."

1. Kirkstead is in Lincolnshire.

2. Dr. John Taylor lies interred in the burial-ground attached to the Presbyterian Chapel at Chowbent, near Bolton, in Lancashire.

3. The inscription on the tombstone is as follows:

"Here is interred the Rev. John Taylor, D.D., of Warrington, formerly
of Norwich, who died March 5, 1761, aged 66."

4. The inscription given by S. R. is on a slab in the chapel at Chowbent. I may add that this inscription was drawn up by Dr. Enfield.

THOMAS BAKER.

Manchester.

_Lines attributed to Hudibras_ (Vol. i., p. 211.).--

"For he that fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day."

In so far as I can understand from the various articles in "N. & Q." regarding the above quotation, it _is_ to be found in the _Musarum Deliciæ_, 12mo., 1656. There is a copy of this volume now lying before me, the title-page of which runs thus:

"Musarum Deliciæ, or the Muses' Recreation; containing severall pieces
of Poetique Wit. The second edition, by S^r J. M. and Ja. S. London:
Printed by J. G. for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his Shop,
at the Signe of the Anchor in the New Exchange, 1656."

This copy seems to have at one time belonged to Longmans, as it is described in the _Bib. An. Poetica_, having the signatures of "Orator Henly," "Ritson," and "J. Park." I have read this volume over carefully twice, and I must confess my inability to find any such two lines as the above noted, there. As I do not think Mr. Cunningham, in his _Handbook of London_, or DR. RIMBAULT, would mislead any one, I am afraid my copy, being a second edition, may be incomplete; and as I certainly did not get the volume for _nothing_, will either of these gentlemen, or any other of the readers of "N. & Q.," who have seen other editions, let me know this?

There is a question asked by MELANION regarding the _entire_ quotation, which I have not yet seen answered, which is,--

"For he that fights and runs away,
May live to fight another day;
But he that is in battle slain,
Can never hope to fight again."

Are these last two lines in the _Musarum Deliciæ_? or are these four lines to be found anywhere in conjunction? If this could be found, it would in my opinion settle the question.

S. WMSON.

_"Corporations have no Souls," &c._ (Vol. viii., p. 587.).--In Poynder's _Literary Extracts_, under the title "Corporations," there occurs the following passage:

"Lord Chancellor Thurlow said that corporations have neither bodies to
be punished, nor souls to be condemned; they therefore do as they
like."

There are also two long extracts, one from Cowper's _Task_, book IV., and the other from the _Life of Wilberforce_, vol. ii., Appendix, bearing on the same subject.

ARCH. WEIR.

_Lord Mayor of London a Privy Councillor_ (Vol. iv. _passim_).--Mr. Serjeant Merewether, Town Clerk to the Corporation of London, in his examination before the City Corporation Commission, said that it had been the practice from time immemorial, to summon the Lord Mayor of London to the _first_ Privy Council held after the demise of the crown. (The _Standard_, Jan. 13, 1854, p. i. col. 5.)