Chapter II: Part 2

It is evidently not autograph, being in the hand which mainly pervades the book. Had Sir C.H. Williams been a baronet at the time, his title would doubtless have been attached to his name. I wish to know, first, at what date Sir C.H. Williams was born, became a baronet, and died? Secondly, is there any internal evidence of style that the ballad is by his hand? Thirdly, is there any clue as to who the fair and cruel Lucy may have been? And lastly, whether any of your correspondents have seen the thing in print before?

G.H. BARKER.

Whitwell, Yorkshire.

I.

"Lips like cherries crimson-juicy,
Cheeks like peach's downy shades,
Has my Lucy--lovely Lucy!
Loveliest of lady's maids!!!

II.

"Eyes like violet's dew-bespangled,
Softly fringed deep liquid eyes!
Pools where Cupid might have angled
And expected fish to rise.

III.

"Cupid angling?--what the deuce! he
Must not fish in Lucy's eye!
Cupid leave alone my Lucy--
You have other fish to fry!!!

IV.

"But with patience unavailing--
Angling dangling late and soon--
Weeping, still I go a _wail_ing,
And _harp on_ without harpoon.

V.

"Kerchief, towel, duster, rubber,
Cannot wipe my weeping dry--
_Whal_ing still I lose _my blubber_,
Catching _wails_ from Lucy's eye.

VI.

"Blubber--wax and spermaceti--
Swealing taper--trickling tear!
Writing of a mournful ditty
To my lovely Lucy dear.

VII.

"Pouring tears from eyelids sluicy,
While the waning flamelet fades,
All for Lucy--lovely Lucy,
Loveliest of lady's maids.

"C.H. WILLIAMS."

[The foregoing ballad does not appear in the edition of the works of
Sir C. Hanbury Williams (3 vols. 8vo. 1822), from the preface to which
it appears that he was born in 1709, installed a Knight of the Bath in
1746, and died on the 2nd November, 1759.]

* * * * *

MINOR QUERIES.

_Book called Tartuare.--William Wallace in London._--1. Is there any one of your correspondents, learned or unlearned, who can oblige me with any account of a printed book called _Tartuare?_ Its date would be early in the sixteenth century, if not before this.

2. After William Wallace had been surprised and taken, he was brought to London, and lodged, it is said, in a part of what is now known as Fenchurch Street. There is a reader and correspondent of yours, who, I am assured, can point out the site of this house, or whatever it was. Will he kindly assist archæological inquirers, by informing us whereabouts it stood?

W.(I.)

_Obeism._--Can any of your readers give me some information about _obeism_? I am anxious to know whether it is in itself a religion, or merely a rite practised in some religion in Africa, and imported thence to the West Indies (where, I am told, it is rapidly gaining ground again); and whether the _obeist_ obtains the immense power he is said to possess over his brother negroes by any acquired art, or simply by working upon the more superstitious {60} minds of his companions. Any information, however, on the subject will be acceptable.

T.H.

Mincing Lane, Jan. 10. 1851.

_Aged Monks._--Ingulphus (_apud Wharton, Anglia Sacra_, 613.) speaks of five monks of Croyland Abbey, who lived in the tenth century, the oldest of whom, he says, attained the age of one hundred and sixty-eight years: his name was Clarembaldus. The youngest, named Thurgar, died at the premature age of one hundred and fifteen. Can any of your correspondents inform me of any similar instance of longevity being recorded in monkish chronicles? I remember reading of some old English monks who died at a greater age than brother Thurgar, but omitted to "make a note of it" at the time, and should now be glad to find it.

F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.

Gloucester Place, Kentish Town.

_Lady Alice Carmichael, daughter of John first Earl of Hyndford._--John second Lord Carmichael succeeded his grandfather in 1672. He was born 28th February, 1638, and married, 9th October, 1669, Beatrice Drummond, second daughter of David third Lord Maderty, by whom he had seven sons and _four_ daughters. He was created Earl of Hyndford in 1701, and died in 1710.

I wish to be informed (if any of the obliging readers of your valuable publication can refer me to the authority) what became of Alice, who is named among the daughters of this earl in one of the early Scottish Peerages (anterior probably to that of Crawfurd, in 1716), but which the writer of this is unable to indicate. Archibald, the youngest son, was born 15th April, 1693. The Lady Beatrice, the eldest daughter, married, in 1700, _Cockburn_; Mary married _Montgomery_; and Anne married _Maxwell_. It is traditionally reported that the Lady Alice, in consequence of her marriage with one of her father's tenants, named Biset or Bisset, gave offence to the family, who upon that contrived to have her name omitted in all subsequent peerages. The late Alexander Cassy, of Pentonville, who bequeathed by will several thousand pounds to found a charity at Banff, was son of Alexander Cassy of that place, and ---- Biset, one of the daughters, sprung from the above-named marriage.

SCOTUS.

"_A Verse may find Him._"--In the first stanza of Herbert's poem entitled the _Church Porch_, in the _Temple_, the following lines occur:--

"A verse may find him, whom a sermon flies,
And turn delight into a sacrifice."

Which contain, evidently, the same idea as the one enunciated in the subsequent ones quoted by Wordsworth (I believe) as a motto prefixed to his ecclesiastical sonnets, without an author assigned:--

"A verse may catch a wandering soul that flies
More powerful tracts: and by a blest surprise
Convert delight into a sacrifice."

Query, Who was the author of them?

R.W.E.

Hull.

_Daresbury, the White Chapel of England._--Sometime ago I copied the following from a local print:--

"'_Nixon's Prophecy._--When a fox without cubs shall sit in the White
Chapel of England, then men shall travel to Paris without horses, and
kings shall run away and leave their crowns.'

"The present incumbent of Daresbury, Cheshire (the White Chapel of
England), is the Rev. Mr. Fawkes, who (1849) is unmarried. The striking
accomplishment--railway travelling and the revolutions of the present
year--must be obvious to every one."

My Query to the above is this: Why is the church of Daresbury called the White Chapel of England, and how did the name originate? The people in the neighbourhood, I understand, know nothing on the subject.

An answer to the above from one of your learned correspondents would greatly oblige.

J.G.

_Ulm Manuscript._--Can you inform me where the Ulm manuscript is, which was in the possession of Archdeacon Butler, at Shrewsbury, in the year 1832. It is a document of great interest, and some critical value, and ought to be, if it is not already, in public keeping. It is a Latin MS. of the Acts and Epistles, probably of the ninth century, and contains the Pseudo-Hieronymian Prologue to the "Canonical" Epistles.

It renders the classical passage, 1 John v. 7, 8., in this wise:--

"Quia tres sunt qui testimonium dant, spiritus, et aqua, et sanguis, et
tres unum sunt. Sicut in coelo tres sunt, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus,
et tres unum sunt."

You will remember that it is quoted by Porson in his _Letters to Travis_, p. 148., and again referred to by him, pp. 394. 400.

Was it sold on the death of the Bishop of Lichfield, or bequeathed to any public institution? or did it find its way into the possession of the Duke of Sussex, who was curious in biblical matters, and was a correspondent of Dr. Butler? Some of your learned readers will perhaps enable you to trace it.

O.T. DOBBIN, LL.D. T.C.D.

Hull, Yorkshire, Jan. 1851.

_Merrick and Tattersall._--Will any of your correspondents be so obliging as to give the years of _birth_ of Merrick, the poet and versifier of the Psalms, and of his biographer, Tattersall. The years of their _deaths_ are given respectively 1769 {61} and 1829: but I can nowhere find when they were born.

M.

[Merrick was born in 1720, and Tattersall in 1752.]

_Dr. Trusler's Memoirs._--I have the First Part of the _Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Dr. Trusler, with his Opinions and Remarks through a Long Life on Men and Manners, written by himself._ Bath. Printed and published by John Browne, George Street, 1806. This Part is a 4to. of 200 pages, and is full of curious anecdotes of the time. It was intended to form three or more Parts. Was it ever completed: and if so, where to be procured? In all my searches after books, I never met but with this copy.

At the end of the First Part there is a prospectus of a work Trusler intended to publish in the form of a Dictionary (and of which he gives a specimen sheet), entitled _Sententiæ Variorum_. Can any of your Bath friends say if the manuscript is still in existence, as he states that it is ready for the press; or that he would treat with any party disposed to buy the copyright?

T.

_Life of Bishop Frampton._--I have in my possession a manuscript life of Bishop Frampton, who was ejected for not taking the oaths to William and Mary. It is of sufficient detail and interest to deserve publication. But before I give it to the world, that I may do what justice I can to the memory of so excellent a man, I should be happy to receive the contributions of any of your readers who may happen to possess any thing of interest relating to him. I have reason to believe that several of his sermons, the texts of which are given in his life, are still in existence. Will you be kind enough to allow your periodical to be the vehicle of this invitation?

T. SIMPSON EVANS.

Shoreditch.

_Probabilism._--Will any one inform me by whom the doctrine of Probabilism was first propounded as a system? And whether, when fairly stated, it is any thing more than the enunciation of a deep moral principle?

R.P.

_Sir Henry Chauncy's Observations on Wilfred Entwysel._--After recording the inscription on the brass plate in St. Peter's Church, St. Alban's, to the memory of Sir Bertin Entwysel, Knt., Viscount and Baron of Brykbeke in Normandy, who fell at the first battle of St. Alban's, in 1455, Chauncy proceeds to state:--

"These Entwysels were gentlemen of good account in Lancashire, whose
mansion-house retains the name of Entwysel, and the last heir of that
house was one Wilfred Entwysel, who sold his estate, and served as a
lance at Musselborrow Field, Anno 2 Edw. VI. After that he served the
Guyes in defence of Meth, and he was one of the four captains of the
fort of Newhaven, who being infected with the plague and shipped for
England, landed at Portsmouth, and uncertain of any house, in
September, 1549, died under a hedge."--_Historical Antiq. of
Hertfordshire, by Sir Henry Chauncy, Knt., Serj. at Law_, p. 472. fol.
1700.

On what authority is this latter statement made, and if it was traditional when Chauncy wrote, was the foundation of the tradition good? Did Sir Bertin Entwysel leave issue male, and is the precise link ascertained which connects him with the family of Entwisle of Entwisle, in the parish of Bolton-en-le-Moors, in Lancashire? Wilfred Entwysel was not "the last heir of that house," as the _post mortem inq._ of Edmund Entwisle, of Entwisle, Esq., was taken 14 Sept. 1544, and his son and heir was George Entwisle, then aged twenty-two years and upwards. Amongst his large estates was "the manor of Entwissell."

F.R.R.

_Theological Tracts._--Can any of your correspondents inform me where the following tracts are to be found?--

"_Pattern of the Present Temple_,"
"_Garnish of the Soul_,"
"_Soldier of Battle_,"
"_Hunt of the Fox_,"
"_Fardle of Fashions_,"
"_Gamer's Arraign_,"
and a work entitled "_Vaux's Catechism_."

I am sorry not to be able to give a more minute description of them; they were all published, I think, before the middle of the seventeenth century.

The Bodleian and our own University Libraries have been searched, but to no purpose.

S.G.

_Lady Bingham._--In _Blackwood's Magazine_, vol. lxviii. p. 141. there is a paper, bearing every mark of authenticity, which details the unsuccessful courtship of Sir Symonds D'Ewes with Jemima, afterwards Baroness Crewe, and daughter of Edward Waldgrave, Esq., of Lawford House in Essex, and Sarah his wife. It is stated that the latter bore the name of Lady Bingham, as being the widow of a knight, and that his monument may still be seen in Lawford church. On referring to the Suckling Papers, published by Weale, I find no account of this monument, though an inscription of that of Edward Waldgrave, Esq., apparently his father-in-law, is given. Can any of your readers give me any information as to this lady? I should, if possible, be glad to have her maiden name and origin, as well as that of her first husband. She might have been the widow of Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connaught, &c., whose MS. account of the Irish wars is now publishing by the Celtic Society, and who died A.D. 1598. In that case, I leave a conjecture before me, that she was a Kingsmill of Sidmanton, in Hampshire. I mention this to aid enquiry, if any one will be so good as to make it. If there is such a monument in existence, his arms may be quartered on it, for which I should be also thankful.

C.W.B. {62}

_Gregory the Great._--Lady Morgan, in her letter to Cardinal Wiseman, speaks of "the pious and magnificent Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, the ally of Gregory _the Great_, and the foundress of his power through her wealth and munificence." By Gregory the Great it is evident that Lady Morgan means Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. May ask, through the medium of your pages, whether any authority can be found for terming Gregory VII. _the Great_, an epithet which I had previously considered to be confined to Gregory I.?

EGENHART.

_John Hill's Penny Post, in_ 1659.--I noted a few years back, from a bookseller's catalogue, the title of a work--

"Hill (John), a Penny-Post; or a vindication of the liberty of every
Englishman in carrying Merchants' and other Men's letters against any
restraints of farmers of such employments. 4to. 1659."

Can any of your correspondents give an account of this work?

E.M.B.

_Andrea Ferrara._--Will any kind friend inform me where any history is to be found of "Andrea Ferrara," the sword cutler?

V.E.L.

_Imputed Letters of Sallustius._--Can any of your correspondents inform me whether a MS. of the _Epistles of Sallustius to Cæsar on Statesmanship_ is deposited in any one of our public libraries?

KENNETH R.H. MACKENZIE.

January 18. 1851.

_Thomas Rogers of Horninger_ (Vol. ii., pp. 424. 521.).--I am obliged to Mr. Kersley for his reference to Rose's Biographical Dictionary; but he might have supposed that all such ordinary sources of information would naturally be consulted before your valuable journal be troubled with a query. Having reason to believe that Rogers took an active part in the stirring events of his time, I shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents who will refer me to any _incidental_ notices of him in cotemporary or other writers: to diffuse which kind of information your paper seems to me to have been instituted.

S.G.

_Tandem D.O.M._--In an ancient mansion, which stands secluded in the distant recesses of Cornwall, there reposes a library nearly as ancient as the edifice itself, in the long gallery of which it has been almost the sole furniture for a space of full two centuries. What is still remarkable, the collection remains sole and entire in all its pristine originality, as well as simple but substantial bindings, uncontaminated by any additions of more modern literature, dressed up in gayer suits of calfskin or morocco. It is even said that few of the pages of these venerable volumes have even seen the light since the day they were deposited there by their first most careful owner, till the present proprietor took the liberty of giving them a dusting. How far he has advanced in examining their contents is uncertain; but, as he seldom can summon courage to withdraw himself from their company, even for his parliamentary duties, these literary treasures stand a chance, at last, not only of being dusted externally, but of being thoroughly sifted and explored internally. A note of the existence of such a collection of books is at least worth recording as unique of its kind. I have now a query to put in relations to it.

The collector seems to have been one Hannibal Gamon, whose name appears written in fine bold characters,--as beseems so distinguished an appellation,--on the title-page of each volume; but, besides, there is frequently appended this addition--"_tandem D.O.M._" The writer has his own solution on the meaning of this bit of Latin, but would be glad to know what interpretation any of your readers would be inclined to put thereon.

FABER MARINUS.

_The Episcopal Mitre._--When first was the episcopal mitre used? And what was the origin of its peculiar form?

AN ENQUIRER.

* * * * *

REPLIES.

THE PASSAGE IN TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.

(Vol. ii., p. 386.)

The oldest edition of this play is the quarto of 1609, in which the passage referred to stands thus:--

"_Hect._ Begon, I say, the gods have heard me sweare.

"_Cas._ The gods are deafe to hotte and peevish vowes,
They are polluted offrings more abhord,
Then spotted livers in the sacrifice.

"_And._ O be perswaded, do not count it holy,
It is the purpose that makes strong the vow,
But vowes to every purpose must not hold:
Unarme, sweet Hector."

This reading, by stopping the sense at "holy," renders less likely to be correct the emendation of Tyrwhitt, adopted by Malone:--

"O be persuaded: do not count it holy
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful,
For we would give much to use violent thefts,
And rob in the behalf of charity."

Dr. Johnson observes, "This is so oddly confused in the folio, that I transcribe it as a specimen of incorrectness:--

'----do not count it holy
To hurt by being just: it is as lawful
For we would count give much to as violent thefts,' &c."

With reference to these particulars, I should be glad if you would allow me to propose a reading which has not yet been suggested:--

{63}

"O be persuaded; do not count it holy:
To hurt, by being just, count it unlawful:
For we would give, as much, to violent thefts,
And rob, in the behalf of charity."

The meaning being, it is as unlawful to do hurt by being just, as it would be to _give_ to a robbery, or to _rob_ for a charity; to assist a bad cause by a good deed, or a good cause by a bad deed.

The word "count," in its second occurrence, was inserted by the printer in the wrong line; when it is restored to its proper place, the passage presents but little difficulty.

JOHN TAYLOR.

* * * * *

BLACK IMAGES OF THE VIRGIN.

(Vol. ii., p. 510.)

Your correspondent, MR. HOLT WHITE, throws cut a suggestion relative to the origin of the black doll as a sign at old store shops, which is ingenious, but not very probable. The images of black virgins are confined, I believe, to the south of Europe, with the exception of the celebrated shrine of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. The origin of the colour appears to be oriental, as MR. W. surmises. I send the following extract, in answer to his query on the subject. It is a quotation from Grimm, in M. Michelet's _Introduction to Universal History_; and, as your readers must be all familiar with the language of the gifted historian, I will not make the attempt to convey his brilliant style into another tongue.

"Une des idées qui reviennent le plus dans nos meistersinger, dit
Grimm, c'est la comparaison de l'incarnation de Jésus Christ avec
_l'aurore d'un nouveau soleil_. Toute religion avait eu son
soleil-dieu, et dès le quatrième siècle l'église occidentale célèbre la
naissance du Christ au jour où le soleil remonte, au 25 Décembre,
c'est-à-dire, au jour où l'on célébrait la naissance du _soleil
invincible_. C'est un rapport évident avec le soleil-dieu Mithra. On
lit encore, dans nos poètes, que Jésus à sa naissance reposait sur le
sein de Marie, comme un oiseau, qui, le soir, se réfugie dans une fleur
de _nuit_ éclose au milieu de la mer. Quel rapport rémarquable avec le
mythe de la naissance de Brama, enfermé dans le lis des eaux, le lotus,
jusqu'au jour où la fleur fut ouverte par les rayons du soleil,
c'est-à-dire, par Vischnou lui-même, qui avait produit cette fleur. Le
Christ, le Nouveau-jour, est né de la nuit, c'est-à-dire de Marie la
_Noire_, dont les pied reposent sur la lune, et dont la tête est
couronnée de planètes comme d'un brillant diadême. (Voyez les tableaux
d'Albert Dürer.) Ainsi reparaît, comme dans l'ancien culte, cette
grande divinité, appelée tour-à-tour Maïa, Bhawani, Isis, Cérès,
Proserpine, Perséphone. Reine du ciel, elle est la nuit d'où sort la
vie, et où toute vie se replonge; mystérieuse réunion de la vie et de
la mort. Elle s'appelle aussi la rosée, et dans les mythes allemands,
la rosée est considérée comme le principe qui reproduit et redonne la
vie. Elle n'est pas seulement la nuit, mais comme mère du soleil, elle
est aussi l'aurore devant qui les planètes brillent et s'empressent,
comme pour Perséphone. Lorsqu'elle signifie la terre, comme Cérès, elle
est représentée avec la gerbe de blé; elle est Perséphone, la graine de
semence; comme cette déesse, elle a sa faucille: c'est la demi-lune qui
repose sous ses pieds. Enfin, comme la déesse d'Ephèse, la triste Cérès
et Proserpine, elle est belle et brillante, et cependant sombre et
noire, selon l'expression du Cantique des Cantiques: 'Je suis noir,
mais pleine de charmes, le soleil m'a brûlée' (le Christ). Encore
aujourd'hui, l'image de la mère de Dieu est noire à Naples, comme à
Einsiedeln en Suisse. Elle unit ainsi le jour et la nuit, la joie avec
la tristesse, le soleil et la lune (chaleur, humidité), le terrestre et
le céleste."

This fragment is, perhaps, rather too long; but I think your readers will consider it too beautiful to abridge. The late G. Higgins, in his _Anacalepsis_ (ii. 100.), has some observations to the same purport, and points out the resemblance of some of the old Italian paintings of the Virgin and Child to Egyptian representations of Isis and the infant Horus.

Many of these ideas have been taken up by the free-masons, and are typified and symbolised in their initiatory ceremonies.

J.B. DITCHFIELD.

* * * * *

OUTLINE IN PAINTING.

A correspondent (J.O.W.H.) at p. 318. of Vol. i. asks a question on the subject of outline in painting; instancing the works of Albert Durer and Raffaelle as examples of defined, and those of Titian, Murillo, &c., of indefined outline. He wishes to know whether there is "a right and a wrong in the matter, apart from anything which men call taste?"

The subject generally is a curious one, and has interested me for some time; as experiments exhibit several singular phenomena resulting from the interference and diffraction of rays of light in passing by the outline of a material body. As a matter of fact, I believe I may say, that there is no such thing in nature as a perfectly defined outline; since the diffraction of the rays, in passing it, causes them to be projected upon it more or less, according to the nature of the particular body, and the intensity of the light. And I may remark, by the way, that I believe this circumstance of the projection of a star upon the moon's disc at the time of an occultation, is to be accounted for on this principle (though with all due deference to higher authority); a phenomenon which is to this day unexplained.

Of course every outline is rendered less defined by any motion of the eye of the observer, however slight. Hence, perhaps, the comparative indistinctness of outline commonly seen in pictures, compared with those in nature; as the artist {64} would be apt to take advantage of this circumstance, and give to his painting the same kind of effect the reality would have to an eye wandering over it; thereby taking away the attention from individual parts, and, as it were, forcing it to judge of the general effect, which general effect is, perhaps, the main object in painting.

Hence it follows that wherever, in any design, separate portions are intended to arrest attention, the outline should be more defined and, accordingly, we may remark that Albert Durer, and others like him, who were very careful of minutiæ, are also distinct and hard in their outlines, which is also the case, for the most part, in the Dutch school, and in architectural paintings, fruit-pieces, &c.; and we find that in proportion as the artist discards the comparatively unworthy minute accompaniments of his subject, and aims at unity of effect, so does he neglect sharpness of outline. Which is the _correct_ practice--distinctness, or indistinctness of outline--will be differently judged by those who hold different opinions on painting in general. While one person will maintain that a picture, to be perfect, must be an exact copy of nature, in short an artistic daguerreotype; another will hold almost the contrary; so that the subject of outline must be matter of opinion still. However, the lover of general effect has this rational ground of argument on his side, viz., there is no such thing as a strictly defined outline in nature, even to an eye at rest; while to one in motion, which is perhaps the normal state, that outline is rendered still more indistinct.

H.C.K.

---- Rectory, Hereford, Dec. 28. 1850.

* * * * *

TEN CHILDREN AT A BIRTH.

(Vol. ii., p. 459.)

The curiosity excited by the perusal of my previous communication under the foregoing head, and the interesting editorial note appended in "NOTES AND QUERIES," induce me to continue the attempt to verify one of the most remarkable instances of abnormal fecundity in an individual of the human species recorded in modern times. The reader must judge of the following "circumstantial evidence:"--

1. I have just seen widow Platts (formerly Sarah Birch), a poor, fat, decent woman, who keeps a small greengrocer's shop, in West Bar, Sheffield. She says she was born in Spring Street in the same town, on the 29th Sept. 1781; well remembers wondering why she was so much looked at when a girl: and her surprise, when afterwards told by her mother, that she was one of ten children born at the same time. Had often been told that she was so small at birth, that she was readily put into a quart measure; and for some time, lay in a basket before the fire "wrapped in a flannel like a newly hatched chicken."

2. The improbability of finding any living gossip who was present at the birth, must be obvious: but I have conversed with old women who had heard their mothers describe the occurrence from personal knowledge.

3. One ancient dame had no more doubt of the fact than the cause of it. Having apparently heard and believed a monstrous tradition of a multitudinous gestation extant in common "folklore." "It was," said she, with all gravity, "the effect of a wish," intended to spite the father; who, having had two children by his wife, and an interval of _nine years_ elapsing before the portentous pregnancy in question, did not desire, it seems, any further increase to his family.

4. The parents died, the daughter married, and the "story of her birth" was forgotten: until the publication of White's _Sheffield Directory_ in 1833, when, among other local memorabilia, the strange announcement of "ten children at birth," was reproduced on the contemporary authority of the _Leeds Mercury_. From that time Mrs. Platts has been more or less an object of curiosity.

5. The _Directory_ paragraph is as follows:--

"An instance of _extraordinary fecundity_ is recorded in the _Leeds
Mercury_ of 1781, which says that _Ann_ [Sarah] _Birch_, of Sheffield,
was, in that year, _delivered of ten children!!!_ We, in our time, have
heard of Sheffield ladies having three children at birth; but we know
no other case, but that of the aforesaid Mrs. Birch, which countenances
the fructiferous fame which they have obtained in some circles."

I have been unsuccessful in an effort to collate the foregoing with the original newspaper paragraph: but Mr. White, while he personally assured me of the veracity of the transcript, also pointed out to me an earlier version of the same fact from the same source in the _Annals of the Clothing Districts_, published about thirty years since.

6. In conformity with the suggestion (NOTES AND QUERIES, Vol. ii., p. 459), I have examined the Parish Register of Baptisms, but the entry is as curt and formal as possible, viz.:--

"Sarah, Dr. of Thos. and Sarah Birch, Cutler,"

under the date, Dec. 12.1781.

Taking all the foregoing circumstances into account, there seems to me little ground for the erection of any strong objection to the alleged fact--extraordinary as it is--of ten children having been brought forth at one time; or, to the hardly less interesting coincidence, that one of them is still living. I cannot but add, that if the contemporary notice of this extraordinary birth in the _Leeds Mercury_ of 1781 should not be admitted as good evidence for the fact, it does, at least, negative the presumptive value of any objection {65} derived from the silence of the writer in the _Philosophical Transactions_ six years afterwards; strange as such silence assuredly appears. After all, the question occurs: What has become of the bodies said to have been preserved? As all parties concur in naming "old Mr. Staniforth" as the accoucheur in attendance on Mrs. Birch; and as that gentleman has been dead many years, I called upon his eldest surviving pupil, Mr. Nicholson, surgeon, to ask him whether, in conversation, or among the preparations in the surgery of his worthy master, he had ever met with any illustration of the parturition in question? He replied that he had not. It may not, perhaps, be out of place here to mention that the above-named Mr. Nicholson, surgeon, himself delivered a poor woman of five children, on the 10th of February, 1829, at Handsworth Woodhouse, near Sheffield. This case was even more remarkable than that which gave occasion to the paper which was read before the Royal Society in 1787, inasmuch as not only were four of the children born alive, but three of them lived to be baptized.

N.D.

Sheffield, Jan. 13. 1851.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF "CAPTIOUS."

(Vol. ii., p. 354.)

In _All's Well that Ends Well_, Act I. Sc. 3., Helena says to the Countess, speaking of her love for Bertram,--

"I know I love in vain; strive against hope;
Yet, in this captious and intenible sieve,
I still pour in the waters of my love,
And lack not to lose still."

It is not without hesitation that I venture to oppose MR. SINGER on a point on which he is so well entitled to give an opinion. But I cannot help thinking that MR. SINGER'S explanation, besides being somewhat too refined and recondite, is less applicable to the general sense and drift of the passage than that of Steevens, which Malone and Mr. Collier have adopted.

What I think wanting to Steevens' interpretation, is an increase, if I may so express myself, of intensity. He takes the word, I conceive, in its right bearing, but does not give it all the requisite force. I should suggest that it means not merely "_recipient_, capable of receiving," but, to coin a word, _captatious_, eager or greedy to receive, absorbing; as we say _avidum mare_, or a _greedy gulf_. The Latin analogous to it in this sense would be, not _capax_, or MR. SINGER'S _captiosus_, but _captax_, or _captabundus_; neither of which words, however, occurs.

The sense of the word, like that of many others in the same author, must be determined by the scope and object of the passage in which it is used. The object of Helena, in declaring her love to the Countess, is to show the all-absorbing nature of it; to prove that she is _tota in illo_; and that, however she may strive to stop the cravings of it, her endeavours are of no more use than the attempt to fill up a bottomless abyss.

The reader may, if he pleases, compare her case with that of other heroines in like predicaments. Thus Medæa, in _Apollonius Rhodius_:

[Greek: "Pantê moi phrenes eisin amêchanoi, oude tis alkê Pêmatos."]

And the same lady in _Ovid_:

"---- Luctata diu, postquam ratione furorem,
Vincere non poterat. Frustra, Medea, repugnas.
----
Excute virgineo conceptas pectore flammas,
Si potes, infelix. Si possem sanior essem:
Sed trahit invitam nova vis."

Or Dido, in _Virgil_ or _Ovid_:

"Ille quidem malè gratus, et ad munera surdus;
Et quo si non sim stulta carere velim:
Non tamen Æneam, quamvis male cogitat, odi;
Sed queror infidum, questaque pejus amo."

Or Phædra, in _Seneca_:

----"Furor cogit sequi
Pejora: vadit animus in præceps sciens,
Remeatque, frustra sana consilia appetens.
Sic cum gravatam navita adversâ ratem
Propellit undâ, cedit in vanum labor,
Et victa prono puppis aufertur vado."

The complaints of all are alike; they lament that they make attempts to resist their passion, but find it not to be resisted; that they are obliged at last to yield themselves entirely to it, and to feel their whole thoughts, as it were, swallowed up by it.

Such being the way in which Shakspeare represents Helena, and such the sentiments which he puts into her mouth, it seems evident that the interpretation of _captious_ in the sense of _absorbent_ is better adapted to the passage than the explanation of it in the sense of _fallacious_.

"I know I love in vain, and strive against hope; yet into this
_insatiable_ and _unretaining_ sieve I still pour in the waters of my
love, and fail not to lose still."

I said that the sense of _fallacious_ seemed to be too refined and recondite. To believe that Shakspeare borrowed his _captious_ in this sense, from the Latin _captiosus_, we must suppose that he was well acquainted with the exact sense of the Latin word; a supposition which, in regard to a man who had _small Latin_, we can scarcely be justified in entertaining. This interpretation is, therefore, too recondite: and to imagine Helena as applying the word to Bertram as being "_incapable of receiving_ her love," and "truly _captious_" (or deceitful and ensnaring) "in that respect," is surely to indulge in too much refinement of exposition.

That Shakspeare had in his mind, as MR. SINGER {66} suggests, the punishment of the Danaides, is extremely probable; but this only makes the explanation of _captious_ in the sense of _absorbent_ more applicable to the passage, with which that of Seneca, quoted above, may be aptly compared.

I am sorry that Johnson was so unfortunate as to propose _carious_ as an emendation; but even in doing this, he had, according to my notion of the lines, the right sense in view, viz., that of _letting through_ or _swallowing up_, like a rotten tub or a quicksand.

I hope that MR. SINGER will take these remarks in good part, as being offered, not from a wish to oppose his opinion, but from a conviction that the interpretation now given is right, and from a desire that to every word in Shakspeare should be assigned its true signification.

J.S.W.

Stockwell.

* * * * *

SWORD OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

(Vol. iii., p. 24.)

There can be little doubt that the sword respecting which P. inquires is in the armoury at Goodrich Court. It was presented by Lord Viscount Gage to the late Sir Samuel Meyrick, and exhibited by Dr. Meyrick to the Society of Antiquaries, Nov. 23. 1826. The Doctor's letter is to be found in the Appendix to the _Archæologia_ of that date, with an engraving of the sword. He states that the arms on the pommel are those of Battle Abbey, that its date is about A.D. 1430, and that it was the symbol of the criminal jurisdiction of the abbot. At the dissolution of the abbey it fell into the hands of Sir John Gage, who was one of the commissioners for taking the surrender of religious houses.

Its entire length is 3 feet 5 inches, and the breadth of the blade at the guard 2 inches. The Doctor considers it to be "the oldest perfect sword in England." The arms are a cross, with a crown in the first and last quarters, and a sword in the second and third. There are also the letters T.L., the initials of the Abbot, Thomas de Lodelow, who held that office from 1417 to 1437. This fixes its date in the reign of Henry V., though the fact of the first William having been the founder of Battle Abbey has given colour to the tradition of its having been his property.

W.J. BERNHARD SMITH.

Temple.

I much doubt the fact of the Conqueror's sword ever having been in the possession of the monks of Battle. Nor am I aware of any writer contemporary with the dissolution of that famous abbey who asserts it. William's royal robe, adorned with precious gems, and a feretory in the form of an altar, inclosing 300 relics of the saints, were bequeathed by him to the monastery; and Rufus transmitted them to Battle, where they were duly received on the 8th of the calends of November, 1088. This information is furnished by the _Chronicle of Battel Abbey_, which I have just translated for the press; but not one word is said of the sword.

Though I have always lived within a few miles of Firle Place, the seat of the Gages, and though I am tolerably well acquainted with the history and traditions of that noble family, I never heard of the sword mentioned by P. Had that relic really been preserved at Battle till the time of Henry VIII., it is not improbable that it might have come into Sir John Gage's hands with the manor of Aleiston, of which he was grantee, while his son-in-law, Sir Anthony Browne, became possessor of the abbey itself.

Will P. have the goodness to mention the source from which he obtained his statement?

MARK ANTONY LOWER.

Lewes.

In reply to the Query respecting the sword of William the Conqueror (Vol. iii., p. 24.), I am enabled to inform you that the sword, and also the coronation robes, of William the Conqueror, were, together with the original "Roll of Battel," kept in the church or chapel of Battel Abbey until it was dismantled at the Reformation; when they were transferred to the part of the abbey which remained, and which became the possession and habitation of Sir Anthony Browne, Master of the Horse to Henry VIII. These precious relics continued in the possession of his descendants, who were created Lords Mountacute; and when Battel Abbey was sold by them to the ancestor of the present owner, they conveyed them to Cowdray Park, Sussex, where they remained until they were destroyed in the lamentable fire which burned down that mansion; and which, by a singular coincidence, took place on the same day that its owner, the last male representative of the Brownes Lords Mountacute, was drowned in a rash attempt to descend the falls of Schaffhausen in a boat.

E.H.Y.

* * * * *

MEANING OF EISELL.

(Vol. ii., pp. 241. 286. 315. 329)

After all that has been written on this subject in "NOTES AND QUERIES," from MR. SINGER'S proposition of wormwood in No. 46., to MR. HICKSON'S approval of it in No. 51., the question remains substantially where Steevens and Malone had left it so many years agone.

It is not necessary to discuss whether vinegar, verjuice, or wormwood be the preferable translation of the Shakspearian word; for before either of them can be received, the advocate is bound to {67} accommodate his exposition to Shakspeare's sentence, and to "get over the _drink up_," which still stands in his way as it did in that of Malone.

MR. SINGER get over the difficulty by simply saying "to _drink up_ was commonly used for simply to _drink_." The example he quotes, however,--

"I will drink
Potions of eysell,"--

is not to his purpose; it is only an equivalent by the addition of the words "_potions of_" to give it the same definite character. Omit those words, and the question remains as before.

MR. HICKSON (Vol. ii., p. 329.) has laid down "a canon of criticism for the guidance of commentators in questions of this nature," so appropriate and valuable, that I cannot except to be bound by it in these remarks; and if in the sequel his own argument (and his friend's proposition to boot) shall be blown up by his own petard, it will show the instability of the cause he has espoused.

"Master the _grammatical construction_ of the passage in question (if
from a drama, in it dramatic and scenic application), deducing
therefrom the general sense, before you attempt to amend or fix the
meaning of a doubtful word."

Such is the canon; and Mr. HICKSON proceeds to observe, in language that must meet the approval of every student of the immortal bard, that--

"Of all writers, none exceed Shakspeare in _logical correctness_ and
nicety of expression. With a vigour of though and command of language
attained by no man besides, it is fair to conclude, that _he would not
be guilty of faults of construction such as would disgrace a
schoolboy's composition_."

With this canon so ably laid down, and these remarks so apposite, MR. HICKSON, taking up the weak point which Mr. SINGER had slurred over, observes--

"_Drink up_ is synonymous with _drink off_, _drink to the dregs_. A
child taking medicine is urged to 'drink it up.'"

Ay, exactly so; drink up what? _the_ medicine; again a defined quantity; dregs and all,--still a _definite_ quantity.

MR. HICKSON proceeds:

"The idea of the passage appears to be that each of the acts should go
beyond the last preceding in extravagance.

'Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't fast? woo't tear thyself?
Woo't drink up eisell?'

and then comes the climax--'eat a crocodile?' Here is a regular
succession of feats, the last but one of which is sufficiently wild,
though not unheard of, and leading to the crowning extravagance. The
notion of drinking up a river would be both unmeaning and out of
place."

From this argument two conclusions are the natural consequences: first, that from _drinking up_ wormwood,--a feat "sufficiently wild but not unheard of," to eating a crocodile, is only a "regular succession of events;" and, secondly, that the "crowning extravagance," to eat a crocodile, is, after all, neither "unmeaning" nor "out of place;" but, on the contrary, quite in keeping and in orderly succession to a "drink up" of the bitter infusion.

MR. SINGER (vol. ii., p. 241.) says:

"Numerous passages of our old dramatic writers show that it was a
fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat as
proof of their love."

I quite agree with him, if he mean to say that the early dramatists ascribe to their gallants a fashion which in reality belongs to the age of Du Gueslin and the Troubadours. But Hamlet himself, in the context of the passage in question, gives the key to his whole purport, when, after some further extravagance, he says:

"Nay, an thoul't mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou."

That being so, why are we to conclude that each feat of daring is to be a tame possibility, save only the last--the crowning extravagance? Why not also the one preceding? Why not a feat equally of mere verbiage and rant? Why not a river?

Adopting MR. HICKSON'S canon of criticism, the grammatical construction of the passage requires that a definite substantive shall be employed to explain the definite something that is to be done. Shakspeare says--

"Woul't drink up esile?"[9]

--a totality in itself, without the expression of quantity to make it definite. If we read "drink up wormwood," what does it imply? It may be the smallest possible quantity,--an ordinary dose of bitters; or a pailful, which would perhaps meet the "madness" of Hamlet's daring. Thus the little monosyllable "up" must be disposed of, or a quantity must be expressed to reconcile MR. SINGER'S proposition with Mr. HICKSON'S canon and the grammatical sense of Shakspeare's line.

If with Steevens we understand _esile_ to be a river, "the Danish river _Oesil_, which empties itself into the Baltic," the _Yssel_, _Wessel_, or any other river, real or fictitious, the sense is clear. Rather let Shakspeare have committed a geographical blunder on the information of his day, than break {68} Priscian's head by modern interpretation of his words. If we read "_drink up esile_" as one should say, "_woul't drink up Thames?_"--a task as reasonably impossible as setting it on fire (nevertheless a proverbial expression of a thirsty soul, "He'll drink the Thames dry"),--the task is quite in keeping with the whole tenor of Hamlet's extravagant rant.

H.K.S.C.

Brixton.

[Footnote 6: So the folio, according to my copy. It would be advantageous, perhaps, to note the spelling in the earliest edition of the sonnet whence MR. SINGER quotes "_potions of eysell_:" a difference, if there be any, would mark the distinction between Hamlet's river and the Saxon derivative.]

* * * * *

ALTAR LIGHTS, ETC.

(Vol. ii., p. 495. Vol. iii., p. 30.)

The following passage from the works of a deeply pious and learned Caroline Divine, which I have never before seen quoted, merits, I think, a place in "NOTES AND QUERIES:"--

"As our Lord himself, so his Gospel also, is called Light, and was
therefore anciently never read without a burning taper, '_etiam Sole
rutilante_' ('tis Saint Hierome's testimony), though it were lighted in
the sun.... The careful Church, perceiving that God was so much taken
with this outward symbol of the Light, could do no less than go on with
the ceremony. Therefore, the day of Our Lord's nativity was to be
called [Greek: epiphania], or, appearing of the Light; and so many
tapers were to be set up the night before, as might give name to the
vigil, '_Vigilia Luminum_'. And the ancients did well to send lights
one to another, whatsoever some think of the Christmas candle. The
receiving of this Light in Baptism, though called not usually so, but
[Greek: phôtismos], Illumination, which further to betoken the rites,
were to celebrate this sacrament [Greek: haptomenôn pantôn tôn kêrôn],
etc., with all the tapers lighted, etc., as the order in the
Euchologus. The Neophytus, also, or new convert, received a Taper
lighted and delivered by the Mystagogus, which for the space of seven
days after, he was to hold in his hand at Divine service, sitting in
the Baptistery.

"Who perceiveth not that by this right way the Tapers came into the
Church, mysteriously placed with the Gospel upon the altar as an emblem
of the Truer Light?...

"The Funeral Tapers (however thought of by some) are of the same
harmless import. Their meaning is, to show that the departed souls are
not quite put out, but having walked here as the Children of the Light,
are now going to walk before God in the Light of the Living. The sun
never rose to the ancients, no, not so much as a candle was lighted,
but of this signification. '_Vincamus_' was their word, whensoever the
Lights came in; [Greek: phôs gar tên Nikên], etc., for Light (saith
Phavorinus) betokeneth victory. It was to show what trust they put in
the Light, in whom we are more than conquerors. Our meaning is the same
when, at the bringing in of a candle, we use to put ourselves in mind
of the Light of Heaven: which those who list to call superstition do
but 'darken counsel by words without knowledge.' _Job_ xxxviii.
2."--Gregorie's _Works_, 4th ed. p. 110. Lond. 1684.

I believe it is a fact, that in some churches (I hope not many) lamps or candles are placed on the altar _unlighted_ during divine service. Now I would not quarrel with persons who have objections to altar lights, &c., but I have no patience with that worse than superstition which would place _unlighted_ candles on the altar,--if they symbolize any thing, it is damnation, excommunication, misery, and dark woe.

Coming out of a church one time in which unlighted candles were ostentatiously displayed, I was forcibly reminded of an hieroglyphical of Quarles--an extinguished taper,--and under it the words, "_Sine lumine inane_."

"How canst thou be useful to the sight?
What is the taper not endued with light?"

I can hardly refrain from quoting here a beautiful passage from Wordsworth:

"Our ancestors within the still domain
Of vast cathedral, or conventual gloom,
Their vigils kept: when tapers day and night
On the dim altar burn'd continually,
In token that the house was evermore
Watching to God. Religious men were they,
Nor would their reason, tutor'd to aspire
Above this transitory world, allow
That there should pass a moment of the year
When in their land the Almighty's service ceased."

Any communication of interest of the above subject will much oblige

JARLTZBERG.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Handbell before a Corpse_ (Vol. ii., p. 478.).--It is usual, at the funeral of any member of the University of Oxford, for the University marshal and bellman to attend in the character of _mutes_. As the procession moves along, the latter rings his bell at about half-minute time. I have witnessed it also when the deceased has been one of the family of a member of the University, and when he has been a matriculated person. I have never considered it as anything but _a cast of the bellman's office_, to add more solemnity to the occasion.

[Hebrew: b].

L---- Rectory. Somerset.

_Sir George Downing_ (Vol. ii., pp. 464. 497.).--It may assist your querist "ALPHA," to be informed that among the monuments to the family of Pengelly, in the church of Whitchurch near Tavistock, in the county of Devon, is one to the memory of Ann, wife of Francis Pengelly, and daughter of Sir George Downing of East Hatley in the county of Cambridge, who died the 23rd of November, 1702; with the arms of Pengelly impaling Barry of six argent and gules, over all a wyvern or--for Downing. {69}

Nicholas Downing of Exeter College, vicar of Kingsteignton, in Devon, who died in 1666, and was buried there, seems to have been of another family, as he bore a very different coat of arms.

A Lieut. Downing was buried in Charles church, Plymouth, in 1799, but the arms on his monument are not the same as either of the above.

Other than these, I know of none of the name, ancient or recent, in the county, and I shall be glad to learn on what ground Sir George Downing's family is said to be of most ancient origin in Devonshire. The name does not appear in Westcote, Pole, Prince, Risdon, or the Heralds' visitations, and the modern authorities state that the family was from Essex or Norfolk.

J.D.S.

The following memorandum I found accidentally on the margin of a MS. pedigree of Downing, but I am sorry I cannot recall the source from whence I obtained it. Possibly, however, it may assist "ALPHA" in his enquiry.

"Sir George Downing was not the son of Calibut Downing, rector of
Hackney, but of Emmanuel Downing, a London merchant, who went to New
England. Governor Hutchinson, in his _History of Massachusetts_, gives
the true account of Downing's affiliation, which has been further
confirmed by Mr. Savage, of Boston, from the public records of New
England."

J.P.C.

_Hulls, the Inventor of Steam-boats_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--Your facetious correspondent, NOCAB, may gain some information relative to his friend Jonathan Hulls, by going to the British Museum, and asking for the following book from Mr. Grenville's library.

I will give the full title and Mr. Grenville's note, as it stands in my Catalogue of the library.

GRENVILLE CATALOGUE (Vol. i. p. 351.)

"Hulls, Jonathan. A Description and Draught of a new-invented Machine
for carrying vessels or ships out of, or into any harbour, port, or
river, against wind and tide, or in a calm. For which his Majesty has
granted letters patent, for the sole benefit of the Author, for the
space of Fourteen years. London, 1737, folding plate.[10] 8vo. R.[11]

"This new invented machine is a steam-boat. It entirely puts an end to
the claims of America to the invention of steam navigation, and
establishes for this country the honour of that important discovery."

HENRY FOSS.

42. Devonshire Street, 12. Jan. 1851.

[Footnote 7: Representing, as well as I remember, a perfect steam-boat.]

[Footnote 8: Meaning Russia binding.]

[We are also indebted to [Curly-pi] for a reply to NOCAB'S query.]

"_The lucky have whole days_" (Vol. i., pp. 231. 351.).--I can inform your correspondents P.S. and H.H., that the passage in question is correctly quoted by the latter at p. 351., and that it is to be found in Dryden's _Tyrannic Love_.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, West Indies, Nov. 1850