Chapter I: H. T

_Meaning of Waste Book._--Can you or any of your readers inform me the origin of the term used in book-keeping, viz., _"Waste" book_?

I am the book-keeper and cashier in an extensive firm, and I know there is very little _wasted_ that goes into our books bearing that name.

ONE WHO OFTEN RUNS FOR THE GREAT LEDGER.

_Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland._--In the library of the dean and chapter at Carlisle, are preserved six volumes in folio, which purport to be _Collections for the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, made in the Reign of Charles II., by the Reverend Thomas Machell_. Have these collections been carefully examined, and their contents made use of in any topographical publication?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Decking Churches at Christmas._--Does the custom of dressing the churches at Christmas with holly, and other evergreens, prevail in any country besides England?

L.

_Coinage of Germany._--I should wish to be referred to the names of the principal works on the coinage of Germany; not merely the imperial, but that of sovereign prelates, abbeys, &c., that struck money.

A. N.

_Titles of Peers who are Bishops_ (Vol. iii., p. 23.).--Why is Lord Crewe always called so, and not Bishop of Durham, considering his spiritual precedency? Was not Lord Bristol (who was an Earl) always called Bishop of Derry?

Cx.

_At Sixes and Sevens._--Shakspeare uses the well-known adage--"at sixes and sevens;" Bacon, Hudibras, Arbuthnot, Swift, all use the proverb. Why should sixes and sevens be more congruous with disorder than "twos and threes?" and whence comes the saying?

D. C.

_Shaking Hands._--What is the origin of the custom of _shaking hands_ in token of friendship? And were the _clasped hands_ (now the common symbol of Benefit Clubs) ever used as a signet, prior to their adoption as such by the early Christians in their wedding rings; or, did these rings {119} bear any other motto, or posy, than "Fides annulus castus" (i. e. _simplex et sine gemma_)?

J. SANSOM.

_George Steevens._--Can any of your readers inform me whether a memoir of George Steevens, the Shakspearian commentator, ever was published? Of course I have seen the biographical sketch in the _Gentleman's Magazine_, the paragraph in Nichols' _Anecdotes_, and many like incidental notices. Steevens, who died in January, 1800, left the bulk of his property to his cousin, Miss Elizabeth Steevens, of Poplar; and as there is no reservation nor special bequest in the will, I presume she took possession of his books and manuscripts. The books were sold by auction; but what has become of the manuscripts?

A. Z.

_Extradition._--The discussion which was occasioned, some time ago, by the sudden transference of the word _extradition_ into our diplomatic phraseology, must be still in the recollection of your readers. Some were opposed to this change on the ground that _extradition_ is not English; others justified its adoption, for the very reason that we have no corresponding term for it; and one gentleman resolved the question by urging that, "si le mot n'est pas Anglais, il merite de l'etre." I believe there is no reference in "NOTES AND QUERIES" to this controversy; nor do I now refer to it with any intention of reviving discussion on a point which seems to have been set at rest by the acquiescence of public opinion. I wish merely to put one or two Queries, which have been suggested to me by the _fact_ that _extradition_ is now generally employed as an English word.

1. Is there any contingency in which the meaning of the word _extradition_ may not be sufficiently expressed by the verb _to deliver up_, or the substantive _restitution_?

2. If so, how has its place been supplied heretofore in our diplomatic correspondence?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, Dec. 1850.

_Singing of Metrical Psalms and Hymns in Churches._--1. When and how did the custom of singing metrical psalms and hymns in churches originate? 2. By what authority was it sanctioned? 3. At what parts of the service were these psalms and hymns directed to be introduced? 4. Was this custom contemplated by the compilers of the Book of Common Prayer?

ARUN.

_Ormonde Portraits._--I shall feel much obliged by information on the following points:--

1. Whether _any_ portrait of Thomas Earl of Ormonde has been published? He died in the year 1614.

2. _How many_ engraved portraits of Thomas, the famous Lord Ossory, have been issued? their dates, and the engravers' names.

3. _How many_ engraved portraits of the first and second Dukes of Ormonde, respectively, have appeared? their dates, and engravers' names.

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny, Jan. 31. 1851.

_Tradescant._--In the inscription on the tomb of the Tradescants in Lambeth churchyard, which it is proposed to restore as soon as possible, these two lines occur:

"These famous antiquarians, that had been
Both gardeners to the Rose and Lily queen."

Can any of your readers inform me _when_ the elder Tradescant came over to England, and when he was appointed royal gardener? Was it not in the reign of Elizabeth?

J. C. B.

Lambeth.

_Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craigs._--L. M. M. R. is very anxious to be informed as to the origin of the name of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Craigs, the well-known hill and rocks close to Edinburgh.

_Lincoln Missal._--Is a manuscript of the missal, according to the use of the church of Lincoln, known to exist? and, if so, where may it be seen?

EDWARD PEACOCK, JUN.

* * * * *

Replies.

MEANING OF EISELL.

(Vol. iii., p. 66.)

I must beg a very small portion of your space to reply to your correspondent H. K. S. C., who criticises so pleasantly my remarks on the meaning of "eisell." The question is: Does the meaning MR. SINGER attaches to this word require in the passage cited the expression of quantity to make it definite? I am disposed to think that a definite quantity may be sometimes understood, in a well-defined act, although it be _not_ expressed. On the other hand, your correspondent should know that English idiom requires that the name of a river should be preceded by the definite article, unless it be personified; and that whenever it is used without the article, it is represented by the personal pronoun _he_. Though a man were able "to drink _the Thames_ dry," he could no more "drink up _Thames_" than he could drink up _Neptune_, or the sea-serpent, or do any other impossible feat.

I observed before, that "the notion of drinking up a river would be both unmeaning and out of place." I said this, with the conviction that there was a purpose in everything that Shakspeare wrote; and being still of this persuasion, allow me to protest against the terms "mere verbiage" and "extravagant rant," which your correspondent applies to the passage in question. The poet does not present common things as they appear to all men. Shakspeare's art was equally great, {120} whether he spoke with the tongues of madmen or philosophers. H. K. S. C. cannot conceive why each feat of daring should be a tame possibility, save only the last; but I say that they are _all_ possible; that it was a daring to do not impossible but extravagant feats. As far as quantity is concerned, to eat a crocodile would be more than to eat an ox. Crocodile may be a very delicate meat, for anything I know to the contrary; but I must confess it appears to me to be introduced as something loathsome or repulsive, and (on the poet's part) to cap the absurdity of the preceding feat. The use made by other writers of a passage is one of the most valuable kinds of comment. In a burlesque some years ago, I recollect a passage was brought to a climax with the very words, "Wilt eat a crocodile?" The immediate and natural response was--_not_ "the thing's impossible!" but--"you nasty beast!" What a descent then from the drinking up of a river to a merely disagreeable repast. In the one case the object is clear and intelligible, and the last feat is suggested by the not so difficult but little less extravagant preceding one; in the other, each is unmeaning (in reference to the speaker), unsuggested, and, unconnected with the other; and, regarding the order an artist would observe, out of place.

SAMUEL HICKSON.

St. John's Wood, Jan. 27. 1851.

P.S. In replying to Mr. G. STEPHENS, in reference to the meaning of a passage in the _Tempest_, I expressed a wish that he would give the meaning of what he called a "common ellipsis" "stated _at full_." This stands in your columns (Vol. ii., p. 499.) "at first," in which expression I am afraid he would be puzzled to find any meaning.

* * * * *

I might safely leave H. K. S. C. to the same gentle correction bestowed upon a neighbour of his at Brixton some time since, by MR. HICKSON, but I must not allow him to support his dogmatic and flippant hypercriticism by falsehood and unfounded insinuation, and I therefore beg leave to assure him that I have no claim to the enviable distinction of being designated as the friend of MR. HICKSON, to whom I am an utter stranger, having never seen him, and knowing nothing of that gentleman but what his very valuable communications to your publication conveys.

I have further to complain of the want of truth in the very first paragraph of your correspondent's note: the question respecting the meaning of "Eisell" does _not_ "remain substantially where Steevens and Malone left it;" for I have at least shown that _Eisell_ meant _Wormwood_, and that Shakspeare has elsewhere undoubtedly used it in that sense.

Again: the remark about the fashion of extravagant feats, such as swallowing nauseous draughts in honour of a mistress, was quite uncalled for. Your correspondent would insinuate that I attribute to Shakspeare's time "what in reality belongs to the age of Du Guesclin and the Troubadours." Does he mean to infer that it did not in reality equally belong to Shakspeare's age? or that I was ignorant of its earlier prevalence?

The purport of such remarks is but too obvious; but he may rest assured that they will not tend to strengthen his argument, if argument it can be called, for I must confess I do not understand what he means by his "definite quantity." But the phrase _drink up_ is his stalking-horse; and as he is no doubt familiar with the _Nursery Rhymes_[1], a passage in them--

"Eat up your cake, Jenny,
_Drink up_ your wine."

may perhaps afford him further apt illustration.

The proverb tells us "It is dangerous playing with edge tools," and so it is with bad puns: he has shown himself an unskilful engineer in the use of MR. HICKSON's canon, with which he was to have "blown up" MR. HICKSON's argument and my proposition; with what success may be fairly left to the judgment of your readers. I will, however, give him another canon, which may be of use to him on some future occasion: "When a probable solution of a difficulty is to be found by a parallelism in the poet's pages, it is better to adopt it than to charge him with a blunder of our own creating."

The allusion to "breaking Priscian's head" reminds one of the remark of a witty friend on a similar occasion, that "there are some heads not easily broken, but the owners of them have often the fatuity to run them against stumbling-blocks of their own making."

S. W. SINGER.

[Footnote 1: _Nursery Rhymes_, edited by James Orchard Halliwell, Esq., F. R. S., &c.]

* * * * *

DESCENT OF HENRY IV.

(Vol. ii., p. 375.)

Under the head of "Descent of Edward IV.," S. A. Y. asks for information concerning "a popular, though probably groundless tradition," by which that prince sought to prove his title to the throne of England. S. A. Y., or his authority, Professor Millar, is mistaken in ascribing it to Edward IV.--it was Henry IV. who so sought to establish his claim.

"Upon Richard II.'s resignation ... Henry, Duke of Lancaster, having
then a large army in the kingdom ... it was impossible for any other
title to be asserted with safety, and he became king under the title of
Henry IV. He was, nevertheless, not admitted to the crown until he had
declared that he {121} claimed, not as a conqueror (which he was much
inclined to do), but as a successor descended by right line of the
blood royal.... And in order to this he set up a show of two titles:
the one upon the pretence of being the first of the blood royal of the
entire male line; whereas the Duke of Clarence (Lionel, elder brother
of John of Gaunt) left only one daughter, Philippa: the other, by
reviving an exploded rumour, first propagated by John of Gaunt, that
Edmond Earl of Lancaster (to whom Henry's mother was heiress) was in
reality the elder brother of King Edward I., though his parents, on
account of his personal deformity, had imposed him on the world for the
younger."--Blackstone's _Commentaries_, book i. ch. iii. p. 203. of
edit. 1787.

This Edmond, Earl of Lancaster, was succeeded by his son Thomas, who in the fifteenth year of the reign of Edward II. was attainted of high treason. In the first of Edward III. his attainder was reversed, and his son Henry inherited his titles, and subsequently was created Duke of Lancaster. Blanche, daughter of Henry, first Duke of Lancaster, subsequently became his heir, and was second wife to John of Gaunt, and mother to Henry IV.

Edward IV.'s claim to the throne was by descent from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III., his mother being Cicely, youngest daughter of Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland. Lionel married Elizabeth de Burgh, an Irish heiress, who died shortly after, leaving one daughter, Philippa. As William of Hatfield, second son of Edward III., died at an early age, without issue, according to all our ideas of hereditary succession Philippa, only child of Edward III.'s third son, ought to have inherited before the son of his fourth son; and Sir Edward Coke expressly declares, that the right of the crown was in the descent from Philippa, daughter and heir of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. Henry IV.'s right, however, was incontestable, being based on overwhelming might. Philippa married Edward Mortimer, Earl of March. Roger, their son, succeeded his father in his titles, and left one daughter, Anne, who married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund Langley, Duke of York, which Edmund, Duke of York, was the fifth son of Edward III.; and thus the line of York, though a younger branch of the royal family, took precedence, _de jure_, of the Lancaster line. From this union sprang Richard, Duke of York, who was killed under the walls of Sandal Castle, and who left his titles and pretensions to Edward, afterwards the fourth king of that name.

The above is taken from several authorities, among which are Blackstone's _Comm._, book i. ch. iii.; and Miss Strickland's _Lives of the Queens of England_, vols. ii. iii. iv.

TEE BEE.

* * * * *

FOSSIL ELK OF IRELAND.

(Vol. ii., p. 494.; Vol. iii., p. 26.)

W. R. C. states that he is anxious to collect all possible information as to this once noble animal. I would have offered the following notes and references sooner, but that I was confident that some abler contributor to the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES" would have brought out of his stores much to interest your natural history readers (whose Queries I regret are so few and far between), and at the same time elucidate some points touched upon by W. R. C., as to the period of its becoming extinct. Perhaps he would favour me with the particulars of "its being shot in 1553," and a particular reference to the plate alluded to in the _Nuremberg Chronicle_, as I have not been able to recognise in _any_ of its plates the Cervus Megaceros, and I am disposed to question the correctness of the statement, that the animal existed so lately as the period referred to.

There is in the splendid collections of the Royal Dublin Society (which, unfortunately, is not arranged as it should be, from want of proper space), a fine _skeleton_ of this animal, the _first_ perfect one possessed by any public body in Europe:

"It is perfect" [I quote the admirable memoir drawn up for the Royal
Dublin Society by that able comparative anatomist Dr. John Hart, which
will amply repay a perusal by W. R. C., or any other naturalist who may
feel an interest in the subject] "in every single bone of the framework
which contributes to form a part of the general outline, the spine, the
chest, the pelvis, and the extremities are all complete in this
respect; and when surmounted by the head and _beautifully expanded
antlers_, which extend out to a distance of nearly six feet on either
side, form a splendid display of the reliques of the former grandeur of
the animal kingdom, and carries back the imagination to the period when
whole herds of this noble animal wandered at large over the face of the
country."

Until Baron Cuvier published his account of these remains, they were generally supposed to be the same as those of the Moose deer or elk of N. America. (Vide _Ann. du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle_, tom. xii., and _Ossemens Fossiles_, tom. iv.) This error seems to have originated with Dr. Molyneux in 1697. (Vide _Phil. Trans._, vol. xix.)

The perforated rib referred to was presented to the society by Archdeacon Maunsell, and

"contains an oval opening towards its lower edge, the long diameter of
which is parallel to the length of the rib, its margin is depressed on
the outer and raised on the inner surface; round which there is an
irregular effusion of callus.... In fact, such a wound as would be
produced by the head of an arrow remaining in the wound after the shaft
had broken off."--Hart's _Memoir_, p. 29.

There are in the Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, a very complete and interesting series of {122} antlered skulls of this animal. Should W. R. C. or any other reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES," desire further information on this subject, I will gladly, if in my power, afford it.

S. P. H. T. (a M. R. D. S.)

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Coverdale Bible_ (Vol. iii., p. 54.).--Your correspondent ECHO is quite right in declaring Mr. Granville Penn's statement, that Coverdale used Tyndale's _New Test_. in his Bible of 1535, to be quite wrong. Mr. Penn very probably took his statement from the Preface to D'Oyley and Mant's Bible, as published by the Christian Knowledge Society, which contains a very erroneous account of the earliest English versions.

Tyndale's version of the New Testament was not incorporated in any version of the whole Bible till the publication of what is called Matthewe's Bible in 1537.

For more particular statements confirmed by proofs, your correspondent may consult Anderson's _Annals of the English Bible_, under the dates of the respective editions, or his appendix to vol. ii., pp. viii., ix.; or Mr. Pearson's biographical notice of Coverdale, prefixed to the Parker Soc. edit. of his _Remains_; or the biographical notice of Tyndale, prefixed to the Parker Soc. edit. of his Works, pp. lxxiv., lxxv.; or _Two Letters to Bishop Marsh on the Independence of the Authorised Version_, published for me by Hatchard in 1827 and 1828.

HENRY WALTER.

* * * * *

_Epitaph_ (Vol. iii., p. 57.).--The name of the "worthie knyght" is _Sir Thomas Gravener_, as A. B. R. might have seen in the printed Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. Who he was, is a more difficult question to answer; but there was a family of that name settled in Staffordshire, as appears from MS. Harl. 1476. fol. 250. The epitaph in question (at fol. 28 b of the old numbering, or 24 b of the new, _not_ fol. 25 b.) is inserted among several short poems written by Sir Thomas Wyatt; and the epitaph itself has a capital W affixed to it, as if it were also of his composition: but I do not find it inserted in Dr. Nott's edition of his poetical works, in 1816; nor does this MS. appear to have been consulted by Dr. Nott. And here I may take the liberty of remarking, how desirable it is that your correspondents, in sending any extracts from old English MSS. to the "NOTES AND QUERIES," should adhere strictly to the original orthography, or else modernise it altogether. A. B. R. evidently intends to retain the ancient spelling; yet, from haste or inadvertence, he has committed no less than forty-four _literal_ errors in transcribing this short epitaph, and three _verbal_ ones, namely, _itt_ for _that_ (l. 11.), _Hys_ for _The_ (l. 14.), and _or_ for _and_ (l. 17.). Another curious source of error may here be pointed out. Nearly all the MSS. contained in the British Museum collections are not only distinguished by a number, but have a _press-mark_ stamped on the back, which is denoted by _Plut._ (an abbreviation of _Pluteus_, press), with the number and shelf. Thus the Harleian MS. 78., referred to by A. B. R., stands in _press_ (_Plut._) LXIII. _shelf_ E. In consequence of the Cottonian collection having been originally designated after the names of the twelve Caesars (whose busts, together with those of Cleopatra and Faustina, stood above the presses), it appears to have been supposed that other classical names served as references to the remaining portions of the manuscript department. In A. B. R.'s communication, _Plut._ is expressed by the name of _Pluto_; in a volume of Miss Strickland's _Lives of the Queens of Scotland_, lately published, it is metamorphosed into _Plutus_; and the late Dr. Adam Clarke refers to some of Dr. Dee's MSS. in the _Sloane_ (more correctly, _Cottonian_) library, under _Plutarch_ xvi. G! (See _Catalogue_ of his MSS., 8vo., 1835, p. 62.) The same amusing error is more formally repeated by Dr. J. F. Payen, in a recent pamphlet, entitled _Nouveaux Documents inedits ou peu connus sur Montaigne_, 8vo., 1850, at p. 24. of which he refers to "Bibl. Egerton, vol. 23., _Plutarch_, f. 167.," [_Plut._ CLXVII. F.], and adds in a note:

"On sait que dans nos bibliotheques les grandes divisions sont marquees
par les lettres de l'alphabet; _au Musee Britannique c'est par des noms
de personnages celebres qu'on les designe_."

[mu].

* * * * *

_Probabilism_ (Vol. iii., p. 61.).--Probabilism, so far as it means the principle of reasoning or acting upon the opinion of eminent teachers or writers, was the principle of the Pythagoreans, whose _ipse dixit_, speaking of their master, is proverbial; and of Aristotle, in his Topics.

But probabilism, in its strict sense, I presume, means the doctrine so common among the Jesuits, 200 years ago, and so well stated by Pascal, that it is lawful to act upon an opinion expressed by a single writer of weight, though contrary to one's own opinion, and entirely overbalanced, either in weight or numbers, by the opinion of other writers.

Jeremy Taylor, in his _Ductor Dubitantium_, tells us that this doctrine, though very prevalent, was quite modern; and that the old Casuists, according to the plain suggestions of common sense, held directly the contrary, namely, that the less probable opinion must give way to the more probable.

All this may be no answer to the deeper research, perhaps, of your enquirer,--but it may possibly be interesting to general readers, as well as the following refined and ingenious sophism which was used in its support:--They said that all agreed that you could not be wrong in using the more probable, best supported, {123} opinion of the two. Now, let that in the particular case in question be A, and the less probable B. But the doctrine that you may lawfully take the less probable in general is the more probable doctrine; meaning at that time the doctrine of the greater number of authorities: therefore they said, even upon your principles it is lawful to take B.

C. B.

_Old Hewson the Cobbler_ (Vol. iii., pp. 11. 73.).--The most satisfactory account of "old Hewson" is the following, extracted from _The Loyal Martyrology, by William Winstanley_, small 8vo. 1665, (p. 123.):--

"John Hewson, who, from a cobbler, rose by degrees to be a colonel, and
though a person of no parts either in body or mind, yet made by
Cromwell one of his pageant lords. He was a fellow fit for any
mischief, and capable of nothing else; a sordid lump of ignorance and
impiety, and therefore the more fit to share in Cromwell's designs, and
to act in that horrid murther of his Majesty. Upon the turn of the
times, he ran away for fear of Squire Dun [the common hangman], and (by
report) is since dead, and buried at Amsterdam."

In the collection of songs entitled _The Rump_, 1666, may be found two ballads relative to Hewson, viz., "A Hymne to the Gentle Craft; or Hewson's Lamentation. To the tune of the Blind Beggar:"

"Listen a while to what I shall say
Of a blind cobbler that's gone astray
Out of the parliament's high way,
Good people pity the blind."

"The Cobbler's Last Will and Testament; or the Lord Hewson's translation:"

"To Christians all, I greeting send,
That they may learn their souls to amend
By viewing, of my _cobbler's end_."

Lord Hewson's "one eye" is a frequent subject of ridicule in the political songs of the period. Thus in "The Bloody Bed-roll, or Treason displayed in its Colours:"

"Make room for one-ey'd HEWSON,
A Lord of such account,
'Twas a pretty jest
That such a beast
Should to such honour mount."

The song inquired for by my friend MR. CHAPELL, beginning, "My name is old Hewson," is not contained in any of the well-known printed collections of political songs and ballads, nor is it to be found among the broadsides preserved in the King's Pamphlets. A full index to the latter is now before me, so I make this statement _positively_, and to save others the trouble of a search.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Old Hewson and Smollett's "Strap."_--Perhaps the enclosed extract from an old newspaper of April, 1809, will throw some light upon this subject:

"SMOLLETT'S CELEBRATED HUGH STRAP.

"On Sunday was interred, in the burial-ground of St.
Martin's-in-the-Fields, the remains of Hugh Hewson, who died at the age
of 85. The deceased was a man of no mean celebrity. He had passed more
than forty years in the parish of St. Martin's, and kept a
hair-dresser's shop, being no less a personage than the identical _Hugh
Strap_, whom Dr. Smollett rendered so conspicuously interesting in his
life and adventures of Roderick Random. The deceased was a very
intelligent man, and took delight in recounting the scenes of his early
life. He spoke with pleasure of the time he passed in the service of
the Doctor; and it was his pride, as well as boast, to say, that he had
been educated at the same seminary with so learned and distinguished a
character. His shop was hung round with Latin quotations, and he would
frequently point out to his acquaintance the several scenes in Roderick
Random, pertaining to himself, which had their foundation, not in the
Doctor's inventive fancy, but in truth and reality. The Doctor's
meeting with him at a barber's shop at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the
subsequent mistake at the Inn, their arrival together in London, and
the assistance they experienced from _Strap's_ friend were all of that
description. The deceased, to the last, obtained a comfortable
subsistence by his industry, and of late years had been paid a weekly
salary by the inhabitants of the Adelphi, for keeping the entrances to
Villiers-walk, and securing the promenade from the intrusion of
strangers."

JOHN FRANCIS.

_Rodolph Gualter_ (Vol. iii., p. 8.).--From letters to and from Rodolph Gualter (in _Zurich_, and _Original Letters, Parker Society_) little can be gathered; thus much have I gleaned, that though mention is oftentimes made of Scotland, yet not sufficient to identify Gualter as being a native of that country; yet it should be observed that he dedicated his Homilies on the Galatians to the King of Scotland, _Zurich Letters_ (second series) cxviii., see also, cxxix., cxxx. These remarks may tend perchance to put J. C. R. on the right track for obtaining true information.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

_Burning the Hill_ (Vol. ii., pp. 441. 498.).--The provision for _burning out_ a delinquent miner, contained in the Mendip mine laws, called Lord C. J. Choke's laws, first appeared in print in 1687; at least I can find no earlier notice of them in any _book_; but as the usages sanctioned by them are incidentally mentioned in proceedings in the Exchequer in 21 and 22 Elizabeth, they are no doubt of early date. Article 6. certainly has a very sanguinary aspect; but as the thief, whose hut and tools are to be burnt, is himself to be "_banished_ from his occupation before the miners for ever," it cannot be intended that he should be himself burnt also. If any instance of the exercise of a {124} custom or law so clearly illegal had ever occurred within recent times, we should have assuredly found some record of it in the annals of criminal justice, as the executioner would infallibly have been hanged. The regulations are probably an attempt by some private hand to embody the local customs of the district, so far as regards lead mining; and they contain the substance of the usual customs prevalent in most metallic regions, where mines have been worked _ab antiquo_. The first report of the Dean Forest Commission, 1839, f. 12., adverts to a similar practice among the coal and iron miners in that forest. It seems to be an instance of the _Droit des arsins_, or right of arson, formerly claimed and exercised to a considerable extent, and with great solemnity, in Picardy, Flanders, and other places; but I know of no instance in which this wild species of metallifodine justice has been claimed to apply to anything but the culprit's local habitation and tools of trade. I need not add that the custom, even with this limitation, would now be treated by the courts as a vulgar error, and handed over to the exclusive jurisdiction of the legal antiquaries and collectors of the Juris amoenitates.

E. SMIRKE.

"_Fronte capillata_," &c. (vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).--The couplet is much older than G. A. S. seems to think. The author is Dionysius Cato,--"Catoun," as Chaucer calls him--in his book, _Distichorum de Moribus_, lib. ii. D. xxvi.:

"Rem tibi quam nosces aptam, dimittere noli:
Fronte capillata, post est Occasio calva."
_Corp. Poet. Lat._, Frankfurt, 1832, p. 1195.

The history of this Dionysius Cato is unknown; and it has been hotly disputed whether he were a Heathen or Christian; but he is _at least_ as old as the fourth century of the Christian era, being mentioned by Vindicianus, chief physician in ordinary to the emperor, in a letter to Valentinian I., A.D. 365. In the illustrations of _The Baptistery_, Parker, Oxford, 1842, which are re-engraved from the originals in the _Via Vitae Eternae_, designed by Boetius a Bolswert, the figure of "Occasion" is always drawn with the hair hanging loose in front, according to the distich.

E. A. D.

_Time when Herodotus wrote_ (vol. ii., p. 405.; Vol. iii., p. 30.)--The passage in Herodotus (i. 5.) is certainly curious, and had escaped my notice, until pointed out by your correspondent. I am unable at present to refer to Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology_; but I doubt whether the reading of the poem or title, in Aristotle's _Rhetoric_ (II. 9. Sec. 1.), has received much attention. In my forthcoming translation of the "Pseudo-Herodotean Life of Homer" prefixed to the _Odysseia_ (Bohn's _Classical Library_), note 1., I have thus given it:--

"This is the exposition of the historical researches of Herodotus of
_Thurium_," &c.

Now Aristotle makes no remark on the passage as being unusual, and it therefore inclines me to think that, at the time of that philosopher and critic, both editions were in use.

The date of the building of Thurium is B.C. 444, and Herodotus was there at its foundation, being then about forty years of age. Most likely he had published a smaller edition of this book before that time, bearing the original date from Halicarnassus, which he revised, _enlarged_, corrected, and _partly re-wrote_ at Thurium. I think this would not be difficult to prove; and I would add that this retouching would be found more apparent at the beginning of the volume than elsewhere. This may be easily accounted for by the feeling that modern as well as ancient authors have, viz., that of laziness and inertness; revising the first 100 pages carefully, but decreasing from that point. But to return: Later editors, I conceive, erased the word Thurium used by Herodotus, who was piqued and vexed at his native city, and substituted, or restored, Halicarnassus; not, however, changing the text.

A learned friend of mine wished for the bibliographical history of the classics. I told him then, as I tell the readers of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" now, "Search for that history in the pages of the classics themselves; extend to them the critical spirit that is applied to our own Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Milton, and your trouble will not be in vain. The history of any book (that is the general history of the gradual development of its ideas) is written in its own pages." In truth, the prose classics deserve as much attention as the poems of Homer.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

January 20. 1851.

_Herstmonceux Castle_ (Vol. ii., p. 477.).--E. V. asks for an explanation of certain entries in the Fine Rolls, A.D. 1199 and 1205, which I can, in part, supply. The first is a fine for having seisin of the lands of the deceased mother of the two suitors, William de Warburton and Ingelram de Monceaux. As they claim as joint-heirs or parceners, the land must have been subject to partibility, and therefore of socage tenure. If the land was not in Kent, the entry is a proof that the exclusive right of primogeniture was not then universally established, as we know it was not in the reign of Henry II. See _Glanville_, lib. vii. cap. 3.

The next entry records the fine paid for suing out a writ _de rationabili parte_ against (_versus_) one of the above coheirs. The demandant is either the same coheir named above, viz. Ingelram, altered by a clerical error into Waleram,--such errors being of common occurrence, sometimes from oscitancy, and sometimes because the clerk had to guess at the extended form of a contracted name,--or he is a descendant and heir of Ingelram, {125} claiming the share of his ancestor. I incline to adopt the former explanation of the two here suggested. The form of writ is in the Register of Writs, and corresponds exactly with the abridged note of it in the Fine Roll. The "esnecia," mentioned in the last entry (not extracted by E. V.), is the majorat or senior heir's perquisite of the capital mansion. E. V. will pardon me for saying, that his translation of the passages is a little deficient in exactness. As to E. V.'s query 4., does he think it worth while to go further in search of a reason for calling the bedroom floor of Herstmonceux Castle by the name of _Bethlem_, when the early spelling and common and constant pronunciation of the word supply so plausible an explanation? I myself knew, in my earliest days, a house where that department was constantly so nicknamed. But there certainly _may_ be a more recondite origin of the name; and something may depend on the date at which he finds it first applied.

E. SMIRKE.

_Camden and Curwen Families_ (Vol. iii., p. 89.).--Camden's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Gyles Curwen, of Poulton Hall, in the county of Lancaster. In the "visitation" of Lancashire made in 1613, it is stated that this Gyles Curwen was "descended from Curwen of Workenton in co. Cumberland;" but the descent is not given, and I presume it rests merely on tradition.

LLEWELLYN.

_Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance_ (Vol. ii., p. 517.).--Your correspondent MAC asks for the "correct date" of the _Cushion Dance_. Searching out the history and origin of an old custom or ballad is like endeavouring to ascertain the source and flight of December's snow. I am afraid MAC will not obtain what he now wishes for.

The _earliest_ mention, that I have noticed, of this popular old dance occurs in Heywood's play, _A Woman kill'd with Kindness_, 1600. Nicholas, one of the characters, says:

"I have, ere now, deserved a cushion: call for the _Cushion Dance_."

The musical notes are preserved in _The English Dancing Master_, 1686; in _The Harmonicon_, a musical journal; in Davies Gilbert's _Christmas Carols_ (2nd edition); and in Chappell's _National English Melodies_. In the first-named work it is called "Joan Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance, an old Round Dance."

In a curious collection of old songs and tunes, _Neder-Landtsche Gedenck-clank door Adrianum Valerium_, printed at Haerlem in 1626, is preserved a tune called "Sweet Margaret," which, upon examination, proves to be the same as the _Cushion Dance_. This favourite dance was well known in Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century, and an interesting engraving of it may be seen in the _Emblems_ of John de Brunnes, printed at Amsterdam in 1624.

The last-named work (a copy of the edition of 1661 of which is now before me) is exceedingly curious to the lovers of our popular sports and pastimes. The engravings are by William Pass, C. Blon, &c., and among them are representations of Kiss in the Ring, the game of Forfeits, rolling Snow-balls, the Interior of a Barber's Shop, with citherns and lutes hanging against the wall, for the use of the customers, &c.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_North Sides of Churchyards_ (Vol. ii., p. 93.).--In an appendix to our registers I find the following entry, where I conceive the _backside_ means the northside. Though now the whole of our churchyard is so full that we have much difficulty in finding any new ground, what we do find, however, is on the north side.

"1750, Oct. 23. One Mary Davies, of Pentrobin, single woman, though
excommunicated with the _Greater Excommunication_, was on this day,
_within night_, on account of some particular circumstances alleged by
neighbours of credit in her favour (as to her resolving to come and
reconcile herself, and do penance if she recovered), indulged by being
interred on the _backside_ the church, but no service or tolling
allowed."

From this I conclude that _here_ at least there was no part of the churchyard left unconsecrated for the burial of persons excommunicate, as one of your correspondents suggests; or burial in such place would have been no indulgence, as evidently it was regarded in this case. It would be interesting to ascertain from accredited instances _how late_ this power of excommunication has been _exercised_, and thereby how long it has really been in abeyance. I expect the period would not be found so great as is generally imagined.

WALDEGRAVE BREWSTER.

_Antiquitas Saeculi Juventus Mundi_ (Vol. ii., p. 466.).--Dugald Stewart, in his Dissertation prefixed to the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, ed. 7., p. 30., points out two passages of writers anterior to Lord Bacon, in which this thought occurs. The first is in his namesake, Roger Bacon, who died in 1292:

"Quanto juniores tanto perspicaciores, quia juniores posteriores
successione temporum ingrediuntor labores priorum."--_Opus Majus_, p.
9. ed. Jebb.

The _Opus Majus_ of Roger Bacon was not, however, printed until the last century, and could not have been known to Lord Bacon unless he had read it in manuscript.

The second is from Ludovicus Vives, _De Caus. Corrupt. Art._, lib. i., of which Mr. Stewart gives the following version:--

"The similitude which many have fancied between the superiority of the
moderns to the ancients, and the elevation of a dwarf on the back of a
giant, is {126} altogether false and puerile. Neither were they giants,
nor are we dwarfs, but all of us men of the same standard; and _we_,
the taller of the two, by adding their height to our own. Provided
always that we do not yield to them in study, attention, vigilance, and
love of truth; for if these qualities be wanting, so far from mounting
on the giant's shoulders, we throw away the advantages of our own just
stature, by remaining prostrate on the ground."

Ludovicus Vives, the eminent Spanish writer, died in 1540, and therefore preceded the active period of Lord Bacon's mind by about half a century.

Mr. Stewart likewise cites the following sentences of Seneca, which, however, can hardly be said to contain the germ of this thought:--

"Veniet tempus quo ista quae nunc latent, in lucem dies extrahet, et
longioris aevi diligentia.... Veniet tempus, quo posteri nostri tam
aperta nos nescisse mirabuntur."--_Quaest. Nat._ viii. 25.

L.

_Umbrella_ (Vol. i., p. 414.; Vol. ii., pp. 25. 93. 126. 346. 491. 523.; Vol. iii., p. 37.).--Although I conceive that ample proof has been given in your columns that umbrellas were generally known at an earlier period than had been commonly supposed, yet the following additional facts may not perhaps be unacceptable to your readers.

In Bailey's _Dictionary_, vol. i. (8th edit. 1737), are these articles:--

"PARASOL, a sort of small canopy or umbrella, to keep off the rain."

"UMBELLA, _a little shadow_; an umbrella, bon-grace, skreen-fan, &c.,
which women bear in their hands to shade them."

"UMBELLIFORUS _Plants_ [among _botanists_]. Plants which have round
tufts, or small stalks standing upon greater; or have their tops
branched and spread like a lady's _umbrella_."

"UMBRELLO [_Ombrelle_, F.; _Ombrella_, Ital. of _Umbrella_, or
_Umbrecula_, L.], a sort of skreen that is held over the head for
preserving from the sun or rain; also a wooden frame covered with cloth
or stuff, to keep off the sun from a window."

In Bailey's _Dictionary_, vol. ii. (3rd edit. 1737), is the following:--

"UMBELLATED [_Umbellatus_, L.]; bossed. In _botan. writ._ is said of
flowers when many of them grow together, disposed somewhat like an
_umbrella_. The make is a sort of broad, roundish surface of the whole,
&c. &c."

Horace Walpole (_Memoirs of the Reign of George II._, vol. iii. p. 153.), narrating the punishment of Dr. Shebbeare for a libel, 5th December, 1758, says,--

"The man stood in the pillory, having a footman holding an umbrella to
keep off the rain."

In Burrow's _Reports_ (vol. ii. p. 792.), is an account of the proceedings in the Court of King's Bench against Arthur Beardmore, under-sheriff of Middlesex, for contempt of court in remitting part of the sentence on Dr. Shebbeare. The affidavits produced by the Attorney-General stated--

"That the defendant only stood _upon the_ platform of the pillory,
unconfined, and at his ease, attended by a _servant_ in _livery_ (which
servant and livery were hired for this occasion only) holding an
umbrella over his head, all the time:"

and Mr. Justice Dennison, in pronouncing sentence on Beardmore, did not omit to allude to the umbrella.