Notes and Queries, Number 232, April 8, 1854

Chapter III: Part III: , price 6d (2)

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[Official notices from public departments are frequently incorrect in
reference to the styles of persons. The style of a Marquis is only
_Most Honorable_, that of Duke _Most Noble_.]

_Precedence._--Supposing an earl's daughter marries a commoner, do her children by him take precedence as the earl's grandchildren?

SNOB.

[The children take only the precedence derived from their _paternal_
status.]

* * * * *

Replies.

MARMORTINTO, OR SAND-PAINTING.

(Vol. ix., p. 217.)

Mr. Haas, a native of Bibrach, in Germany, was accustomed to lay claim to the invention of sand-painting; and would often with a little pride repeat to his friends the way in which it was first suggested to his mind. Simply this:--Once, while he was engaged ornamenting a plateau with an elaborate and rich design, King George III. entered the apartment; and after having regarded the design and _modum operandi_ for some considerable time in silence, exclaimed, in an impatient manner, as if vexed that so much beauty should be so short-lived: "Haas! Haas! you ought to fasten it." From that moment, the artist turned his ingenuity to the subject: and how successfully, his pictures show.

The remarks of F. C. H. as to the mode of painting are quite correct. The fixing of the {328} sand was the last operation, inasmuch as I have heard of the artist's wrath visiting a poor pussy because she had shaken a picture, and thereby disturbed the sand not yet fixed. The secret died with him and a friend, a contemporaneous artist, to whom I believe he had communicated the secret; this friend's name I do not know. Mr. Haas painted landscapes, the friend painted cattle pieces. I have in my possession some of Mr. Haas' work. It is beautifully soft and quiet. The foliage is fine in the extreme, withal a rich depth of colouring. The Welsh scenery he felt most at home in, he threw into it a spirit of repose: while it was bold, there was nothing harsh or offensive to the eye. I have tried many experiments with one of this pictures: amongst other things, I find the least moisture will remove the sand. Mr. Haas had a gallery in London for some time (I believe in Regent Street), where there were portraits done in sand. A portrait of himself was considered the gem of the pictures: such a vitality and delicacy of colouring did it possess. I mention this merely to show that sand could be applied to other branches of art besides landscapes. The history of the pictures at Windsor Castle is to be seen in one of the old _Windsor Guides_. Mr. Hans died at Bibrach, where doubtless many of his pictures are.

Sand-paintings cannot last long; they have in themselves the element of their own destruction, "their rough surface," which very soon collects and retains the dust. I never heard of their being cleaned.

JOHN MUMMERY.

Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hants.

* * * * *

O'BRIEN OF THOSMOND.

(Vol. ix., p. 125.)

In corroboration of my former suggestion, that Nicholas Thosmound of Somersetshire was an O'Brien of Thomond, I beg to add some farther facts. Cotemporary with him was William Toutmound, who obtained in the sixth year of Henry IV. a grant of the office (in England) of chief carpenter of the king for his life. This singular office, "Capitalis Carpentarius Regis," must, I suppose, be called Lord High Carpenter of England, in analogy with the offices of steward, butler, &c. It is mentioned in the _Calendar of Patent Rolls of England_ at the 6 Henry IV.; and in the same repository is mention of a grant long before by Henry III. of the land of Tosmond in Ireland, to A. R. Tosmond (R standing, I presume, for "Regi," for the Irish Toparchs were then thus designated by the English government). In this case then we have the letter _s_ used for _t_, as in the _Inq. P. M._ of Alicia, wife of the before-mentioned Nicholas Thosmound. In the _Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium of England_, in 15 Edw. II., is the expression "Regalitatem de Totamon," applied to the district of Thomond in Ireland. It seems not unlikely that the two cotemporary individuals mentioned above were sons or grandsons of Turloch, or Tirrelagh, O'Brien, sovereign of Thomond from 1367 to 1370, when he was supplanted by his nephew Brien O'Brien, ancestor of the Marquis of Thomond. For this Turloch was in some favour with the government, by whom his distress was sometimes relieved. Thus it appears from the printed calendar of Irish Chancery Rolls, that a writ of _liberate_ issued in the 4th Rich. II. for the payment to him of forty marks; and again, 5 Rich. II., of twenty marks, "ei concord. [p=] recompens. labor." He was much befriended by the Earl of Desmond, whose successor being high in favour with the kings Henry V. and VI., obtained a large grant of land in the county of Waterford, which he immediately conferred on the sons of Turloch. Yet some of those sons may, through his interest, have been established in England. It becomes, therefore, a matter of considerable interest to ascertain whether the _Inq. P. M._ 2 Henry IV. contains any proof that Nicholas Thosmound was an O'Brien.

While on this subject, may I inquire the reason why the O'Briens quarter with their own arms the bearing of three piles meeting in a point? These latter were the arms of the English baronial family of Bryan, not at all connected with the Irish family. I suspect the Irish were late in their assumption of arms, and borrowed in many cases the arms of English families of nearly similar names.

A. B.

* * * * *

CORONATION STONE.

(Vol. ix., p. 123.)

Possibly the following authorities may tend to throw light upon the question started by your correspondent.

In _Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. xvii. p. 287., 4to. ed., London, 1747, it is said:

"St. Austin tells us that some of the Carthaginian divinities had the
name of Abaddires, and their priests that of Eucaddires. This class, in
all probability, was derived from the stone which Jacob anointed with
oil, after it had served him for a pillow the night he had his vision;
for in the morning he called the place where he lay Bethel. Now it is
no wonder this should have been esteemed as sacred, since God himself
says, he was the GOD OF BETHEL, the place where Jacob anointed the
pillar. From Bethel came the baetylus of Damascius, which we find
called Abaddir by Priscian. This Abaddir is the Phoenician Aban-dir,
that is, the spherical stone, exactly answering to the description of
the baetylus given us by Damascius and others. The case seems to have
been this; the Canaanites of the neighbourhood first worshipped the
individual stone itself, upon which Jacob had poured {329} oil;
afterwards they consecrated others of that form, and worshipped them;
which false worship was perpetuated even to the time of St.
Austin."--See note (N), _Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. i. p. 310.

Now if such stones were an object of worship among the Phoenicians, nothing is more probable than that they should take such a stone along with them in their migrations to new settlements; and it may therefore well be that the Phoenicians, who first settled in Ireland, did bring such a stone with them; and hence possibly the tradition in question may have originated.

There is abundant evidence that the Phoenicians fled from Palestine in very early times (_Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. iii. p. 479.), and probably some of the Jews also about the time when Samaria was taken; and there can be no doubt that some Phoenicians, if not some Jews, settled in these islands at a very remote period; and it is a very remarkable fact that the Welsh spoken in North Wales is said to be nearer to the old Hebrew than any other existing language, and varying no more from it than the great length of time which has passed would lead any one to expect. (_Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. vi. p. 31. note.)

It should seem that some at least of the baetyli were round, and of such a size that they might be carried about by their votaries either by hanging at the neck or in some other way (_Ant. Univ. Hist._, vol. xvii. p. 287. _x._). But probably they were originally in the shape of a pillow. In Gen. xxviii. 18., it is said that Jacob "took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it;" from which it is plain that the stone was not a sphere, but oblong and flat at the top and bottom; and probably not with square edges, as that would be most uncomfortable to lay the head upon.[4]

S. G. C.

[Footnote 4: Query whether from these baetyli our ancestors derived the word _beetle_, which denotes a wooden maul or hammer for driving wedges. Its head is about a foot long, flat at each end, and the rest round; so that it nearly resembles a pillow in shape, and the head, together with its handle, would well resemble a stone of similar shape suspended by a cord in the middle. Bailey derives the word in this sense, and as denoting the insect, from Sax. [Bytel]. If a handle was ever put in a baetylus, which was of the form I have suggested, it would form an excellent instrument for driving wedges or the like.]

Thirty years ago, the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey stood under a very old chair; and was a bluish irregular block of stone, similar both in colour and shape to stepping-stones in the shallow rivers of the north of England. It is _now_ a very nice hewn block, nicely fitted into the frame under the seat of a renovated chair. It does not look at all like the old stone of former days. Is the geological formation of the present block very difficult to ascertain?

H. R. NEE F.

* * * * *

POLYGAMY.

(Vol. ix., p. 246.)

In answer to the various Queries of _Stylites_ I have to observe:

1. That the Jews do not at present, in any country, practise polygamy, it being contrary, not to the letter, but to the spirit of the law of Moses, which nevertheless provides for cases where a man has two wives at the same time; the inconvenience of which practice is several times pointed out, and which was also inconsistent with the Levirate law. (See Jahn, s. 151.; and the Mishna, [Hebrew: SDR NSHYM], which designates more wives than one [Hebrew: TSRWT], _trouble, adversaries_.)

2. The practice was, however, allowed expressly to the Jewish kings only, perhaps to the extent of _four_ wives, which is the Rabbinic exposition, and coincides with the Koran.

3. Marriage being a civil contract in most heathen countries, as also amongst the Jews and early Christians, polygamy is not forbidden or allowed on religious grounds. Marriage was included under the general head of covenants, [Hebrew: KTWBWT], in the Mishna. Barbarous nations generally practised polygamy, according to Tacitus (_Germ._ 18.); excepting the Germans, who, like the Greeks and Romans, "were content with a single wife," although some exceptions were found in this respect, _non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem_.

4. Polygamy was not practised amongst the early Christians, who followed the Jews in this matter.

5. Clement of Alexandria (_Stromata_, lib. iii. p. 461., edit. 1629) says:

"[Greek: All' ho autos aner kai Kurios, palaia kainizon, ou polugamian
eti sunchorei; tote gar apetei ho Theos, hote auxanesthai kai
plethunein echren; monogamian de eisagei, dia paidopoiian, kai ten tou
oikou kedemonian, eis en boethos edothe he gune]."

Whence it appears that to have progeny and a helpmate at home were the objects proposed in matrimony, for which polygamy was unfavorable. He then remarks on the privilege conceded to some to form a second marriage, after the death of the first wife, which St. Paul forbids to a bishop, who was to be, in the _modern_ sense of the word, a monogamist. Two wives at the same time were wholly repugnant to Jewish, as well as Greek and Roman, sentiment. Ignatius (_ad Polyc. 5._) says it is _proper_ ([Greek: prepei]) for married persons to unite under the bishop's advice, so that the marriage may be [Greek: kata Theon] and not [Greek: kat' epithumian]; whence it is inferred that a marriage was {330} valid in his time, although no religious sanction was obtained.

It appears from Our Lord's remarks, Matt. xix. 8., Mark x. 5., that the consuetudinary law of marriage was not wholly abrogated, but was accommodated to the Jews by the Mosaic code. To understand this subject, therefore, the ancient usages and existing practices must be weighed, as well from ancient authors as from modern travellers. Whence it appears that the contract of marriage, whereby a man received a wife in consideration of a certain sum of money paid to her father, contemplated progeny as its special object.[5] In default of an heir the Jew took a second wife, it being assumed that the physical defect was on the wife's part. If the second had no child he took a third, and in like default a fourth, which was the limit as understood by the rabbins, and is now the limit assigned by the Mahometan doctors. But the Mosaic law proceeded even beyond this, and allowed, on the husband's death, the right of _Iboom_, usually called the Levirate law, so that in case of there being _no_ child, some _one_ of the deceased's brothers had a right to take some _one_ of the deceased's wives: and their progeny was deemed by the Mosaic code to be his deceased brother's, whose property indeed devolved in the line of such progeniture. It would appear that it was usual for the eldest brothers to marry, the younger brothers remaining single. This was a remnant, as modified by Moses, of the custom of polyandry, several brothers taking one wife,--a sort of necessary result of polygamy, since the number of males and females born is equal in all countries, within certain limits of variation. The best authorities on this subject are the Mishna, Selden, Du Halde, Niebuhr, Suesmilch, and Michaelis, the last in Dr. Smith's translation, at the beginning of the 2nd volume.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

[Footnote 5: In the recent ceremony of the French emperor's marriage, money was presented to the bride.]

STYLITES says, "On what ground has polygamy become forbidden among Christians? I am not aware that it is directly forbidden by Scripture." In reply to this I venture to say, that the Divine will on this matter was sufficiently indicated at the creation, when one woman was appointed for one man, as expressed in Gen. ii. 24., and quoted by Our Lord, with the significant addition of the word _twain_: "They twain shall be one flesh" (Matt. xix. 5.). _Twain_, i.e. two; not twenty, nor any indefinite number. Moreover, the law of nature speaks, in the nearly equal numbers of men and women that are born, or, as in this parish, by making the men the more numerous.

But STYLITES starts a most interesting question in a practical point of view. It is admitted that the Gospel is not very explicit respecting polygamy; and why so? Possibly the Gospel was purposely kept silent; and the Church allowed some latitude in judgment upon a very difficult point, because it was foreseen that the custom of polygamy would prove one of the greatest obstacles to a reception of pure Christianity. This difficulty is of constant occurrence in heathen lands at the present day. The Christian missionary insists upon the convert abandoning all his wives, except the one whom he first married. This woman was probably childless; and because she was so, he formed other and _legal_ connexions. But before he can be received as a Christian, he must dissolve all these later ties, and bastardise children who were innocently born in lawful wedlock. The conditions are very awful. An act of cruelty and injustice has to be performed by one who is on the point of entering the threshold of Christianity!

Perhaps these considerations may serve to account for the comparative silence of the Gospel upon a subject which seemed to require the expression of a direct command, whilst they will in no way obscure its universally-admitted meaning.

ALFRED GATTY.

Ecclesfield.

* * * * *

POETICAL TAVERN SIGNS.

(Vol. ix., p. 58.)

The subjoined lines address themselves to the traveller, as he looks on the sign of "The Rodney's Pillar" inn at Criggirn, a hamlet on the borders of Montgomeryshire and this county:

"Under these trees, in sunny weather,
Just try a cup of ale, however;
And if in tempest or in storm,
A couple then to make you warm;
But when the day is very cold,
Then taste a mug a twelvemonth old."

_Reverse side._

"Rest, and regale yourself: 'tis pleasant.
Enough is all the prudent need.
That's the due of the hardy peasant,
Who toils all sorts of men to feed.

"Then 'muzzle not the ox when he treads out corn,'
Nor grudge honest labour its pipe and its horn."

G. H. BILLINGTON.

The following, although not a _tavern_ sign, may be worth preserving. I saw it under a painting of an ox, which adorned a butcher's shop at Ischl, in Upper Austria, A.D. 1835:

"Der Ochs besteht aus Fleisch und Bein zum laufen,
Darum kann ich das Fleisch nicht ohne Bein verkaufen."

J. C. R.

{331}

In the parlour of the "Three Pigeons," Brentford, is an old painting, dated 1704, representing a landlord attending to his guests seated at a table in the open air, with these lines above:

"Wee are new beginners,
And thrive wee would faine;
I am Honest Ralf of Reading,
My wife Susand to name."

Wright, in his _Historia Histronica_, 1699, tells us that--

"Lowin (one of the original actors in Shakspeare's plays), in his
latter days, kept an inn, the 'Three Pigeons,' at Brentford, where he
died very old."

At the "Old Parr's Head," Aldersgate Street, was, in 1825, a sign of an ancient gentleman, with these lines under:

"Your head cool,
Your feet warm;
But a glass of good gin
Would do you no harm."

The author of _Tavern Anecdotes_, 12mo., 1825, records the following:

_"Rhyming Host at Stratford._

At the Swan Tavern, kept by Lound,
The best accommodation's found--
Wine, spirits, porter, bottled beer,
You'll find in high perfection here.
If, in the garden with your lass,
You feel inclin'd to take a glass,
There tea and coffee, of the best,
Provided is for every guest;
And, females not to drive from hence,
His charge is only fifteen pence.
Or, if dispos'd a pipe to smoke,
To sing a song, or crack a joke,
You may repair across the green,
Where nought is heard, tho' much is seen:
There laugh, and drink, and smoke away,
And but a mod'rate reck'ning pay,--
Which is a most important object,
To every loyal British subject.

In short,
The best accommodation's found,
By those who deign to visit Lound."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

1. At a public-house near Cambridge, known to the natives of Cambridgeshire as "Tew-Pot House," formerly kept by one Cooper, there used to be, I cannot say decidedly is, as I have not passed the place for ten years and more, the following:

"Rest, traveller, rest; lo! Cooper's hand
Obedient brings two pots at thy command.
Rest, traveller, rest, and banish thoughts of care.
Drink to thy friends, and recommend them here."

2. The Robin Hood inscription is found, with a very little variation, in front of a public-house at Cherryhinton, at the corner of the road to Fulbourn, in this county.

3. Who can forget the suggestion by Walter Scott, of

"Drink, weary traveller, drink and _pay_,"

as a motto for the public-house at Flodden? (See Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, cap. xxv.)

I remember seeing the following in the parlour of a house at Rancton, I believe in Norfolk:

"More beer score clerk
For my my his
Do trust pay sent
I I must have
Shall if I brewer
What and and my."[6]

P. J. F. GANTILLON.

[Footnote 6: Begin with the bottom word of the right-hand column and read upwards, treating the other columns in a similar way.]

In Deansgate, Manchester, under an artistic representation of Llangollen Castle, is the following:

"Near the above place, in a vault,
There is such liquor fixed,
You'll say that water, hops, and malt
Were never better mixed."

As a parallel to the case cited by NEWBURIENSIS, I may mention the sign of the "BROWN COW," near the village of Glodwick, Oldham:

"This cow gives such liquor,
'Twould puzzle a viccar" [_sic_].

JOHN SCRIBE.

The following verse from the sign-board of the Bull Inn at Buckland near Dover, may not be an uninteresting addition to your list of poetical tavern signs.

"The bull is tame, so fear him not,
All the while you pay your shot;
When money's gone, and credit's bad,
It's that which makes the bull run mad!"

FRAS. BRENT.

Sandgate.

At the Red Lion, Stretton, near Warmington:

"The Lion is strong, the Cat is vicous[_sic_],
My ale is good, and so is my liquors."

E. P. PALING.

February 20, 1854.

At Swainsthorpe, a village five miles from Norwich, on the road to Ipswich, is a public-house known as the "Dun Cow." Under the portrait of the cow, in former days, stood the following couplet:

"Walk in, gentlemen; I trust you'll find
The dun cow's milk is to your mind."

{332} Whether it still remains I know not, as many years have gone by since I passed that way.

T. B. B. H.

* * * * *

"BEHEMOTH."

(Vol. ix., p. 77.)

Hobbes's _Behemoth_ forms the eighth tract in the collection relating to the civil wars by the Baron Maseres (1815), and occupies nearly 200 pages. The Baron, in his Preface (pp. lxxviii., lxxix.) gives the following character of the work:

"It is written in a very clear and lively style, and contains a great
deal of curious historical matter concerning the rise and gradual
increase of the Pope's power over temporal princes: the prohibition of
marriage in secular priests; the doctrine of transubstantiation; the
institution of auricular confession to a priest; the institution of
Orders of preaching friars; and the institution of Universities and
Schools of Disputation; (all which institutions, he observes, had a
tendency to increase the power of the Pope, and were made for that
purpose,) which is set forth in pp. 467, 468., &c., to p. 472. And much
other interesting matter, concerning the sentiments of the Presbyterian
ministers, the Papists, the Independents, and other sectaries. The
pretensions made by them to Spiritual Power, and the nature of heresies
and the history of them, is clearly and justly described in another
part of it; over and above the narration of the several events of the
civil war itself, which I believe to be faithful and exact in point of
fact, though with a different judgment of Mr. Hobbes as to the moral
merit of the persons concerned in producing them, from that which, I
presume, will be formed by many of the readers of this history at this
day; which difference of judgment between Mr. Hobbes and the present
readers of this work, will be a necessary consequence, from Mr.
Hobbes's having entertained two very important opinions concerning the
nature of civil government in general, and of the monarchical
government of England in particular, which in the present age are
thought, by almost every Englishman who has paid any attention to the
subject, to be exceedingly erroneous."

Subjoined to his reprint of this tract, the Baron has appended remarks on some particular passages therein, which appeared to him to contain erroneous opinions.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE.

_Photographic Slides for the Magic Lantern._--Might not the collodion process be applied very usefully in the preparation of slides for the magic lantern?

Good slides are always expensive, owing, in great measure, to the accuracy required, where every defect will be magnified some hundred times.

I would suggest that a photographic picture should be taken on the glass plate, and then varnished. The painter should then apply his colours to the _opposite_ side of the glass, using the photographic image as his outline. The colours would then be burnt in, and the varnish and collodion film cleared off.

This plan would be especially useful when the photographic picture had been taken by the microscope.

THOS. SCOTT, B.A.

Brighton.

_Albumenized Paper._--If MR. HELE will follow the directions contained in a paper of mine which you published in Vol. ix., p. 206., for albumenizing paper, I think he will have no reason to complain of waves, or streaks, or blotches, and will be saved the trouble of the damping process which he uses and recommends to others. ("N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 254.) I have done a considerable quantity of paper of Canson, both positive and negative, and also of other makers, Whatman, Turner, Sandford, and Nash, and in all I have succeeded perfectly in obtaining an even coating of albumen. I am convinced from my own experience that the cause of waviness, &c., is due to raising the paper from the albumen _too slowly_. If the paper be snatched hastily from the solution, air bubbles no doubt will be formed; but if the paper be raised with a steady even motion, _not too slow_, the albumen will flow evenly from the paper, and it will dry with a perfectly even surface.

MR. SHADBOLT is certainly mistaken in saying that positives printed from negatives will not stand a saturated solution of hypo. soda, unless they be printed so intensely dark that all traces of a picture by reflected light are obliterated. I have used nothing but a saturated solution for fixing my positives for a considerable time, and my experience agrees with that of other of your correspondents, that the picture is not as much reduced by a saturated solution as by a weaker one. By adding about one grain of sel d'or to every eight ounces of saturated solution, very rich black tones will be obtained.

I inclose a specimen of what I have got in this way.

C. E. F.

[The specimen sent is most satisfactory; we wish that the locality of
the view had been stated.--ED.]

_Mounting Positives on Cardboard._--In the absence of any other reply to J. L. S. (Vol. ix., p. 282.), the following, as the method I always adopt, may serve his purpose.

Having cut the positive to the size required, and trimmed the edges, place it upon the cardboard to which it is intended to be attached, and carefully centre it; then with a pencil make a slight dot at each of the angles. Remove the proof, and lay it _face downwards_ upon a piece of clean paper or a cloth, and with any convenient brush smear it evenly over with a paste made of arrowroot, taking care not to have more than just enough to cover it without leaving any patches. Place it gently on the cardboard, holding it for the purpose by two _opposite_ angles, and with a silk handkerchief dab it gently, beginning in the middle, and work any little superfluity of the paste towards the edges, when it will be gradually pressed out. The whole may be placed in a press, or under a pile of books to dry. {333}

My object in using arrowroot is simply that of having a _pure starch_ without colour, and it serves as a size to the paper, which has lost that originally in it by the repeated washings, &c.

The paste is made very thin, thus:--Put a teaspoonful of arrowroot (not _heaped_) into a teacup with about two spoonfuls of cold water, and mix into a paste: then add _boiling_ water enough to fill the cup, and stir. Many photographers merely attach the _edges_ of their pictures, but I prefer them to adhere all over. Gum is fatal to the beauty of a photograph, unless it is previously re-sized.

GEO. SHADBOLT.

_Mr. Lyte's Collodion_ (Vol. ix., p. 225.).--Our readers may remember that in "N. & Q.," Feb. 18, MR. F. MAXWELL LYTE furnished our readers with a detailed plan of his mode of preparing collodion. In that article, written from Pau, that gentleman was so good as to promise us that when he had an opportunity he would send us a couple of specimens of his workmanship. He has more than fulfilled his promise, for we have received from him this week four photographs, which, for general beauty and minuteness of detail, cannot be surpassed. The subjects are, I. Study of Trees, No. 2.; II. Study of Trees, No. 5. Old Pollard Oak; III. Study of Trees, Peasants collecting Leaves; IV. Old Church Porch, Morlaas, Monogram of the Eleventh Century. MR. LYTE, who is a first-rate chemist, has shown himself by these specimens to be also a first-rate practical photographer. From him, therefore, the art may look for much future progress.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy"_ (Vol. ix., p. 191.).--DR. RIMBAULT may perhaps be interested in hearing that some years ago I urged upon two London publishers the desirableness of bringing out a new edition of Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, but they both declined to undertake the work. I then resolved to publish myself the _latter_ part of the work (on _Religious Melancholy_), and made known my intention in. "N. & Q.," in the hope of obtaining some casual notes and observations; but in this also I was disappointed. As, however, my intention is only suspended for the present, not abandoned, I shall be obliged by any assistance that DR. RIMBAULT, or any of your readers, can afford me. Can any one correct the following list of editions of the _Anatomy of Melancholy_?

1621. 4to. Oxford.
1624. fol. Oxford.
1628. fol. Oxford.
1632. fol. Oxford.
1638. fol.
1651-2. fol.
1660. fol. London.
1676. fol.
1728. fol.
1738. fol.
1800. fol. 2 vols.
1804. 8vo. 2 vols.
1806. 8vo. 2 vols.
1827. 8vo. 2 vols.
1829. 8vo. 2 vols.
1837. 8vo. 2 vols.
1839. 8vo.
1845. 8vo.

If Watt's _Biblioth._ be correct, the _last_ folio edition was _not_ that of 1676 (see "N. & Q.," Vol. ix., p. 121.); but on this and other similar points I shall be glad to hear DR. RIMBAULT'S opinion.

M. D.

_Original Royal Letters to the Grand Masters of Malta_ (Vol. viii., p. 99.).--When making out the list of English Royal Letters, which has already appeared in "N. & Q.," we were not aware that any others besides those which we recorded at the time were to be found in the Record Office. Since then Dr. Vella has examined other manuscript volumes, and, fortunately, brought to light nine more autograph letters, to which, according to their dates, we hope to call your attention hereafter. They are as follows:

* The letters of James II. are countersigned "Comes de Sunderland,"[7] and that of George I. "I. Stanhope."

In our previous list an error occurred, which we would wish to correct. The last letter of Henry VIII. was addressed to the Grand Master Pierre Du Pont, and not to Nicholas Cotoner, who ascended the Maltese throne in 1663. The translation of H. M.'s congratulatory letter to Du Pont, on his election, we trust you have already received. We referred in our former Note to a letter of Charles II., under date of "the last day of November, 1674," and since that came to our observation we have seen an _exact copy_ bearing the autograph of the king. This circumstance leads us to inquire at what period, and with what English monarch, the custom of sending duplicate letters originated? In the time of James II. it would appear to have been followed, as one of H. M.'s letters is thus marked in his own handwriting.

We would state, before closing this Note, that the letters of James II. are the earliest in date of any English royal letters filed away at this island which are _countersigned, or bear the address_ of the Grand Master at the foot of the first page, on the left-hand side, as is customary in writing official letters to government officers at the present time.

Will any of your correspondents kindly inform us with what English monarch the custom {334} originated of having his letters countersigned by a minister, and of placing the address within the letter, as is the case in those of James II. to which we have just referred?

WILLIAM WINTHROP.

La Valetta, Malta.

[Footnote 7: Robert Spencer, second Earl of Sunderland, K.G., was principal Secretary of State during the latter years of Charles II. and the whole reign of James II., and as such, when countersigning a royal letter, he placed at the end of his signature the letter P.]

_Prince Charles' Attendants in Spain_ (Vol. ix., p. 272.).--In a small 4to. MS. in my possession, entitled "A Narrative of Count Gondomar's Proceedings in England," is the following list of "The Prince's Servants" who accompanied him in his Journey into Spain:

"_Master of the Horse_, Lord Andover.
_Master of the Ward_, Lord Compton.
_Chamberlain_, Lord Carey.
_Comptroller_, Lord Vaughan.
_Secretary_, Sir Francis Cottington.
_Gentleman of the Bed-chamber_, Sir Robert Carr.

{Sir William Howard,
{Sir Edmund Verney,
{Sir William Crofts,
_Gentlemen of the Privy_ {Sir Richard Wynne,
_Chamber_ {Mr. Ralph Clare,
{Mr. John Sandilaus,
{Mr. Charles Glemham.
{Mr. Francis Carew.

_Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber_, Sir John North.

{Mr. Newton,
_Gentlemen Ushers of the Presence_ {Mr. Young,
{Mr. Tyrwhitt.
_Grooms of the Bed-chamber_, five.
_Pages_, three.
_Chaplains_, two."

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Churchill's Grave_ (Vol. ix., p. 122.).--The fact that Churchill's grave is at Dover, is not an obscure one. It was visited by Byron, who wrote a poem on the subject, which will be found in his _Works_. This poem is remarkable, among other things, from the circumstance that it is written in avowed and serious imitation of the style of Wordsworth.

M. T. W.

"_Cissle_" (Vol. ix., p. 148.).--If A. refers to Forby's _Vocabulary of East Anglia_, he will find:

"SIZZLE, _v._ To dry and shrivel up with hissing, by the action of fire
or some greasy or juicy substance."

C. R. M.

_Contributors to Knight's "Quarterly Magazine"_ (Vol. ix., p. 103.).--I can answer one of E. H.'s inquiries. Gerard Montgomery was the assumed name of the Rev. J. Moultrie. It was originally adopted by him in that most brilliant of all school periodicals, _The Etonian_, and the mask was thrown off in the list of contributors given at the end of the third volume. In _The Etonian_ it was attached to "Godiva," the poem which attracted the warm admiration of Gifford of the _Quarterly Review_, a man not prodigal of praise, and the "Godiva" of Moultrie may still fearlessly unveil its charms beside the "Godiva" of Tennyson. His longest poem in Knight's _Quarterly_ was "La Belle Tryamour," which has since been republished in a volume of collected poems with his name to them, many of which are strikingly unlike it in character. The gay _Etonian_ is now the vicar of Rugby; and the story of his experiences has been told by himself with a singular charm in his "Dream of a Life."

Strange it is that the contributions of Macaulay to Knight's _Quarterly Magazine_ should not, ere now, have been reprinted. Some few of them have been so, and are become familiar as household words on both sides of the Atlantic. The others are as obscure as if still in manuscript. What does the public at large know of the "Fragments of a Roman Tale," or the "Scenes from Athenian Revels;" in which the future historian tried his powers as a romancer and a dramatist--in the one case bringing before us Caesar and Catiline, in the other Alcibiades and his comrades. There are essays too by Macaulay in Knight's _Quarterly Magazine_ of a lighter character than those in the _Edinburgh Review_, but not less brilliant than any in that splendid series which now takes rank as one of the most valuable contributions of the present age to the standard literature of England. It would not be one of the least weighty arguments against the extended law of copyright, which Macaulay succeeded in passing, that the public is now deprived of the enjoyment of such treasures as these by the too nice fastidiousness of their author. As on two former occasions, we suppose that they are likely to be first collected in Boston or New York, and that London will afterwards profit by the rebound.

M. T. W.

"_La Langue Pandras_" (Vol. ii., pp. 376. 403.).--It is merely a conjecture, but may not the word _Pandras_ be the second person singular in the future tense of a verb derived from the Latin _pando_, "to open?" I am not aware of the existence of such a word as _pander_ in old French; but I believe that it was by no means an unusual practice among the writers of Chaucer's time to adapt Latin words to their own idiom.

HONORE DE MAREVILLE.

Guernsey.

_Cranmer Bibles_ (Vol. ix., p. 119.).--S. R. M. will be gratified to learn, that the death of Mr. Lea Wilson has not, as he conjectures, led to the dispersion of the curious collection of Cranmer Bibles, which he had been at so much pains in forming, but to its being rendered more accessible. They were all purchased for the British Museum.

M. T. W.

_Voisonier_ (Vol. ix., p. 224.).--A corruption of _vowsoner_, _i. e._ the owner of the _vowson_; this last {335} word being anciently used for _advowson_, as may by seen by the glossary to Robert of Gloucester's _Works_.

C. H.

I submit that this word means _advowsoner_, that is, "owner of the advowson."

Q. D.

_Word-minting_ (Vol. ix., p. 151.).--To MR. MELVILLE'S list of new words, you may add: _talented_ (Yankee), _adumbrate_ (pedantic), _service_. The latter word is of very late importation from the French, within three years, as applied to the lines of steamers, or traffic of railways. It is an age of word-minting; and bids fair to corrupt the purity of the English language by the coinage of the slovenly writer, and adoption of foreign or learned words which possess an actual synonym in our own tongue. MR. MELVILLE deserves our thanks for his timely notice of such "contraband" wares.

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

Your correspondent MR. MELVILLE will be surprised to learn that the words _deranged_, _derangement_, now so generally used in reference to a disordered intellect, or madness, are not to be found in any dictionary that I have seen.

J. A. H.

_Fair Rosamond_ (Vol. ix., p. 163.).--The lines which your correspondent C. C. inquires for are from Warner's _Albion's England_, which first appeared in thirteen books in 1586:

"Fair Rosamond, surprised thus ere thus she did expect,
Fell on her humble knees, and did her fearful hands erect:
She blushed out beauty, whilst the tears did wash her pleasing face,
And begged pardon, meriting no less of common grace.
'So far, forsooth, as in me lay, I did,' quoth she, 'withstand;
But what may not so great a king by means or force command?'
'And dar'st thou, minion,' quoth the queen, 'thus article to me?'
. . . . . . . . . .
With that she dashed her on the lips, so dyed double red:
Hard was the heart that gave the blow, soft were those lips that bled."

J. M. B.

_Death-warnings in ancient Families_ (Vol. ix., pp. 55. 114. 150.).--

"As a Peaksman, and a long resident in the Isle of Man, Peveril was
well acquainted with many a superstitious legend; and particularly with
a belief, which attached to the powerful family of the Stanleys, for
their peculiar demon, a Ban-shie, or female spirit, who was wont to
shriek, 'Foreboding evil times;' and who was generally seen weeping and
bemoaning herself before the death of any person of distinction
belonging to the family."--_Peveril of the Peak_, vol. ii. p. 174.

J. M.

Oxford.

_Poets Laureate_ (Vol. ii., p. 20.).--Your correspondent S. H. will find "an account of the origin, office, emoluments, and privileges of poet laureate" in a recent work entitled _The Lives of the Poets Laureate, with an Introductory Essay on the Title and Office_, by W. S. Austin, Jun., and J. Ralph (Richard Bentley, 1853).

From _The Memoirs of William Wordsworth_, vol. ii. p. 403., it would appear that there is a "very interesting literary essay on the laureates of England by Mr. Quillinan."

In the year 1803, it would appear that Lord Hardwicke, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, "offered to create a laureateship in Ireland, with the same emoluments as the English one," if Mr. Moore would accept it. (_Memoirs of Tom Moore_, vol. i. p. 228.)

From Mr. Moore's Letter to his Mother, dated May 20, 1803, we learn that--

"The manner in which Mr. Wickham communicated the circumstance to me
would disgust any man with the least spirit of independence about him.
I accordingly, yesterday, after the receipt of my father's letter,
enclosed the ode on the birth-day, at the same time resigning the
situation."--_Memoirs of Tom Moore_, vol. i. pp. 126--128.

LEONARD L. HARTLEY.

York.

_Brissot de Warville_ (Vol. ix., p. 209.).--Since my last communication on the above subject, I have obtained _The Life of J. P. Brissot, &c., written by himself_, an 8vo. volume of pp. 92, published by Debrett, London, 1794. It is a translation, the original of which I have never seen. And if you do not think the subject exhausted, perhaps you will spare a few lines for his own account of his name.

"The office of an attorney was my gymnasium; I laboured in it for the
space of five years, as well in the country as in Paris.... To relieve
my weariness and disgust, I applied myself to literature and to the
sciences. The study of the languages was, above all others, my
favourite pursuit. Chance threw in my way two Englishmen, on a visit to
my own country: I learned their language, and this circumstance decided
my fate. It was at the commencement of my passion for that language
that I made the metamorphosis of a diphthong in my name, which has been
imputed to me as so great a crime; and, since I must render an account
of every particular point, lest even the slightest hold against me
should be afforded to malignity, I will declare the cause of the change
in question. Born the thirteenth child of my family, and the second of
my brothers in it, I bore, for the purpose of being distinguished from
them, according to the custom of Beance, the name of a village in which
my father {336} possessed some landed property. This village was called
Ouarville, and Ouarville became the name by which I was known in my own
country. A fancy struck me that I would cast an English air over my
name, and therefore I substituted, in the place of the French diphthong
_ou_, the _w_ of the English, which has the same sound. Since this
nominal alteration, having put it as a signature to my published works
and to different deeds, I judged it right to preserve it. If this be a
crime, I participate in the guilt of the French _literati_, who, in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, made no scruple whatsoever of
_grecising_ or (if we may use the expressions) _latinising_ their
appellations. _Arouet_, to escape from a reproachful pun upon his name,
changed it into that of _Voltaire_. The _Anglomania_ (if such it may be
called) has occasioned me to alter mine; not, as it has been pretended,
to draw in dupes, or to avoid passing for the son of my father, since I
have perpetually borne, signed, and printed the name of my father after
that second name which was given to me according to the custom of my
country."

There are many other interesting particulars, but the above is all that bears upon his adoption of the name Warville, and will, perhaps, be considered pretty conclusive.

N. J. A.

"_Branks_," (Vol. ix., p. 149.).--In Wodrow's _Biographical Collections_, vol. ii. p. 72., under the date June 15, 1596, will be found the following:

"The Session (of Glasgow) appoint jorgs and _branks_ to be made for
punishing flyters."

I cannot at this moment refer particularly, but I know that the word is to be found in Burns' _Poems_ in the sense of a rustic bit or bridle. The term is still in use in the west of Scotland; and country horses, within the memory of many, were tormented with the clumsy contrivance across their noses. With all its clumsiness it was very powerful, as it pressed on the nostrils of the animal: its action was somewhat like that of a pair of scissors.

L. N. R.

_Theobald le Botiller._ (Vol. viii., p. 367.).--If MR. DEVEREUX refers to Lynch on _Feudal Dignities_, p. 81., he will find that Theobald le Botiller, called the second hereditary Butler of Ireland, was of age in 1220, and died, not in 1230, but in 1248; that he married Roesia de Verdon; that his eldest son and heir was Theobald, third Butler (grandfather of Edmund, sixth Butler, who was created Earl of Carrick), and that by the same marriage he was also the ancestor of the Verdons of England and of Ireland. Now, in Lodge's _Peerage_ by Archdall, 1789, vol. iv. p. 5., it is said that the wife of Theobald, second Butler, was Joane, eldest sister and co-heir of John de Marisco, a great baron in Ireland; and thirdly, Sir Bernard Burke, in his _Extinct Peerage_, makes his wife to be Maud, sister of Thomas a Becket. Which of these three accounts am I to believe?

Y. S. M.

_Lord Harington (not Harrington)_ (Vol. viii., p. 366.).--In Collins' _Peerage_, by Sir Egerton Brydges, ed. 1812, I find that Hugh Courtenay, second Earl of Devon, born in 1303, had a daughter Catherine who married first, Lord Harington, and secondly, Sir Thomas Engain. This evidently must have been John, second Lord Harington, who died in 1363, and not William, fifth lord, as given in Burke: the fifth lord was not born till after 1384, and died in 1457.

Y. S. M.

_Amontillado_ (Vol. ix., p. 222.).--This wine was first imported into England about the year 1811, and the supply was so small, that the entire quantity was only sufficient for the table of three consumers, who speedily became attached to it, and thenceforward drank no other sherry. One of these was His Royal Highness the late Duke of Kent; and another, an old friend of one who now ventures from a distant recollection to give an account of its origin.

The winegrowers at Xeres de la Frontera had been obliged, in consequence of the increasing demand for sherry, to extend their vineyards up the sides of the mountains, beyond the natural soil of the sherry grape. The produce thus obtained was mixed with the fruit of the more genial soil below, and a very good sherry for common use was the result.

When the French devastated the neighbourhood of Xeres in 1809, they destroyed many of the vineyards, and for a time put the winegrowers to great shifts. One house in particular was obliged to have recourse chiefly to the mountain grape for the support of its trade, and for the first time manufactured it without admixture into wine. Very few butts of this produce would stand, and by far the greater portion was treated with brandy to make it saleable.

The small quantity that resisted the acetous fermentation, turned out to be very different in flavour to the ordinary sherry wine, and it was sent over to this country under the name of Amontillado sherry, from the circumstance of the grape having been grown on the mountains.

The genuine wine is very delicate, with a peculiar flavour, slightly aromatic rather than nutty; and answers admirably to the improved taste of the present age.

PATONCE.

"_Mairdil_" (Vol. ix., p. 233.).--I have heard the word "maddle" often used in the West Riding of Yorkshire, in exactly the same sense as the word _mairdil_, as mentioned by MR. STEPHENS. And in this part the work-people would use the word "muddle" in a similar sense.

J. L. SISSON.

_Separation of the Sexes in Church_ (Vol. ii., p. 94.).--In many churches in Lower Brittany I observed that the women occupied the nave exclusively, the men placing themselves in the aisles. {337} I speak, of course, of Roman Catholic churches; but I believe that in the Protestant congregations in France, the rule of the separation of the sexes has always been observed.

In the island of Guernsey it has been usual, although the custom is now beginning to be broken through, for the men to communicate before the women. As the Presbyterian discipline was introduced into that island from France and Geneva, and prevailed there from the time of the Reformation until the Restoration of Charles II., it is probable that this usage is a remnant of the rule by which the sexes were separated during divine service.

EDGAR MACCULLOCH.

Guernsey.

_Costume of the Clergy not Enarean_ (Vol. ix., p.101.).--A. C. M. has no other authority for calling the cassock and girdle of the clergy "effeminate," or "a relique of the ancient priestly predilection for female attire," than the contrast to the close-fitting skin-tight fashion adopted by modern European tailors; the same might be said of any flowing kind of robe, such as the Eastern costume, or that of the English judges, which as nearly approaches to the cassock and cincture as possible. In a late number of the _Illustrated London News_ will be found drawings from the new statues of the kings of England lately erected in the new Houses of Parliament: of, I think, twelve there represented, eight have a "petticoat-like cassock," or frock, and of course for convenience a girdle.

Can any of your correspondents inform us when the cassock was introduced as an ecclesiastical dress, whether it was then worn by persons of other vocations, and what was the ecclesiastical costume (if any) which it superseded?

H. P.

_Inedited Letter of Lord Nelson_ (Vol. ix., p. 241.).--On behalf of the precious pages of "N. & Q.," I beg leave to protest against printing as _inedited_ what a very slight degree of research would have found to have been long since published. The letter in question will be found in Clarke and McArthur's _Life of Nelson_, vol. ii. p. 431., and in Nicolas's _Nelson Despatches_, vol. vii. p. 75.

I am induced to notice this especially, in the hope that MR. JACOB, who promises us future communications of the same class, may previously satisfy himself that they are _inedited_.

_Views in London by Canaletto_ (Vol. ix., p. 106.).--In reply to the inquiry of your correspondent GONDOLA, with respect to views of London painted by Canaletto, whose announcement of them he quotes, I beg to inform him that I have in my collection one of these views, "The Thames from the Temple Gardens," in which it is curious to trace, in Thames wherries, grave Templars, and London atmosphere, the hand that was usually employed on gondolas, maskers, and Italian skies. I believe that others of his London views are in the collections of the Dukes of Northumberland and Buccleuch.

EDMUND PHIPPS.

Park Lane.

_Richard Geering_ (Vol. viii., p. 504.).--I thank JULIA R. BOCKETT for her Reply, and if H. C. C. will send me a copy of the Geering pedigree and arms, I shall feel much obliged, and should I succeed in discovering any particulars of _Richard's_ ancestry, I shall willingly communicate the result to him. I have already sent you my name and address, but not for publication; and I added a stamped envelope, in case any person wished to communicate directly with me. I can have no objection to your giving my address privately to any one, but being "unknown to fame," I prefer retaining in your pages the _incognito_ I have assumed. I quite agree with the remarks of H. B. C. and MR. KING, Vol. viii., pp. 112. 182.

Y. S. M.

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