Chapter L: M. M. R

[Some references to the story alluded to by our correspondent will be
found in Dr. Leyden's valuable introduction to _The Complaynt of
Scotland_; and the story itself in Chambers's admirable collection of
Scottish Folk Lore, _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, p. 236. of the third
edition, which form vol. vii. of the _Select Writings of Robert
Chambers_.]

_Sides and Angles._--What is the most simple and least complicated method of determining the various relations of the sides and angles of the acute and obtuse-angled triangles, without the aid of trigonometry, construction, or, in fact, by any method except arithmetic?

F. G. F.

St. Andrew's.

[The relations of sides and angles cannot be obtained without
trigonometry in some shape. A very easy work has lately been published
by Mr. Hemming, in which there is as little as possible of technical
trigonometry.]

_Meaning of Ratche._--In John Frith's _Antithesis_, published in 1529, he says:

"The pope and bishops hunt the wild deer, the fox, and the hare, in
their closed parks, with great cries, and horns blowing, with hounds
and _ratches_ running."

I should be glad to have the word _ratches_ satisfactorily explained.

H. W.

[From a note by Steevens on the line in _King Lear_ (Boswell's
_Shakspeare_, vol. x. p. 155.), it appears that the late Mr. Hawkins,
in his notes to _The Return from Parnassus_, p. 237., says, "That a
_rache_ is a dog that hunts by scent wild beasts, birds, and even
fishes, and that the female of it is called a _brache_:" and in
_Magnificence_, an ancient Interlude of Morality, by Skelton, printed
by Rastell, no date, is the following line:

"Here is a leyshe of ratches to renne an hare."

In a following note, Mr. Tollet, after saying "What is here said of a _rache_, might, perhaps, be taken from Holinshed's _Description of Scotland_, p. 14.," proceeds, "The females of all dogs were once called _braches_; and Ulitius upon Gratius observes, 'Racha Saxonibus canem significabat unde Scoti hodie _Rache_ pro cane foemina habent, quod Anglis est _Brache_.'"]

_"Feast of Reason," &c._--Seeing your correspondents ask where couplets are to be found, I venture to ask whence comes the line--

"The feast of reason and the flow of soul."

I have often heard it asked, but never answered.

H. W. D.

[It will be found in Pope's _Imitations of Horace_, Book ii. Satire i.:

"There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl
The feast of reason and the flow of soul."]

_Tu Autem._--In page 25. of "Hertfordshire," in Fuller's _Worthies_, there is a story of one Alexander Nequam, who, wishing to become a monk of St. Alban's, wrote thus to the abbot thereof:

"Si vis, veniam. Sin autem, tu autem."

To which the abbot replied:

"Si bonus sis, venias. Si Nequam, nequaquam."

Can any of your readers inform me of the meaning of "tu autem" in the first line? as I have been long puzzled.

This puts me in mind of a form which there was at Ch. Ch., Oxford, on "gaudy" days. Some junior students went to the "high table" to say a Latin grace, and when they had finished it, they were dismissed by the Dean saying "Tu autem;" on which, I remember, there was invariably a smile pervading the faces of those present, even that of the Dean himself, as no one seemed to know the meaning of the phrase. I believe that it was in my time an enigma to all. Can any of your ingenious readers solve me this?

H. C. K.

----Rectory, Hereford.

[Pegge in his _Anonymiana_, Cent. iv. Sect. 32. says, "At St. John's
College, Cambridge, a scholar, in my time, read some part of a chapter
in a Latin Bible; and after he had read a short time, the President, or
{266} the Fellow that sat in his place cried, _Tu autem_. Some have
been at a loss for the meaning of this; but it is the beginning of the
suffrage, which was supposed to follow the reading of the Scripture,
which the reading scholar was to continue by saying _Miserere mei,
Domine_. But at last it came to mean no more than to be a cue to the
reader to desist or give over."]

* * * * *

Replies.

BARONS OF HUGH LUPUS.

(Vol. iii., pp. 87. 189.)

The inquiry of P., in p. 87., seems to indicate an impression that all the witnesses to the charter of Hugh Lupus to Chester Abbey were barons of the Palatinate, but only a few of them were such, the rest being of England generally.

The original barons of the Palatinate were clearly distinguishable by possession of privileges confirmed to them by a well-known charter of Earl Ranulph III.; and all the Norman founders of their baronies will be found, under Cestrescire, in Domesday, as tenants in capite, from the Earl Palatine, of lordships within the lyme of his county.

_Bigod de Loges_ (one of the subjects of P.'s inquiry) will not bear this test, unless he was identical with Bigot, Norman lord of the manors afterwards comprised in Aldford Fee, which is not known to have been the case. For this last-named Bigot, whose lands descended through the Alfords to Arderne, reference may be made to the _History of Cheshire_, I. xxix., II. 411.

_William Malbanc_, the other subject of inquiry, who has eluded M. J. T.'s searches, is easily identified. He was the Norman baron of Nantwich, the Willelmus Malbedeng of the _Domesday Survey_ (vol. i. p. 265. col. 2.), and the name is also written thus in the copy of H. Lupus's charter referred to, which was ratified under inspection by Guncelyn de Badlesmere, Justiciary of Chester in 8 Edw. I.

The charter, with Badlesmere's attestation prefixed, will be found in Leycester's _Cheshire Antiquities_, p. 109., and in Ormerod's _Hist. of Cheshire_, vol. i. p. 12. In the latter work, in vol. iii., the inquirer will also find an account of William Malbedeng or Malbanc, his estates, his descendant coheirs, and their several subdivisions, extending from p. 217. to p. 222., under the proper head of Nantwich or _Wich Malbanc_, a still existing Palatine barony.

LANCASTRIENSIS.

Your correspondent M. J. T. says it appears from--

"_The MS. Catalogue_ of the Norman nobility before the Conquest, that
Robert and Roger de Loges possessed lordships in the districts of
Coutances in Normandy."

Will he be so good as to say what _MS. Catalogue_ he refers to? He seems to speak of _the MS._ _Catalogue_ of Norman nobility as if it were some well-known public and authentic record.

Q. G.

* * * * *

EDMUND PRIDEAUX AND THE FIRST POST-OFFICE.

(Vol. iii., p. 186.)

In a recent number of "NOTES AND QUERIES" (which, by the way, I have only recently become acquainted with) I saw the Queries of your correspondent G. P. P. upon the above subject, and having some time ago had occasion to investigate it, I accumulated a mass of notes from various sources,--and these I send you, rough and unpolished as they are, in the hope that in the absence of better information, they may prove to be acceptable.

Herodotus (viii. 98.) mentions the existence of a method of communication among the Persians, by means of horsemen placed at certain distances.

In the Close and Misae Rolls (_temp. King John et post_) payments are recorded for nuncii who were charged with the carriage of letters.

In 1481, Edward IV., during his war with Scotland, established horse riders at _posts_ twenty miles apart, by which letters were conveyed two hundred miles in two days (Gale's _Hist. Croyland_); and the Scottish Parliament issued an ordinance for facilitating the expedition of couriers throughout the kingdom. Carriers of letters also existed in England about this time, for in a letter from Sir J. Paston, written in 1471, we are informed that "Courby, the carrier, hath had 40d. for the third hired horse," for a journey from Norwich to London and back. (Fenn's _Paston Letters_, 4to. vol. v. p. 73.)

In 1542, letters reached Edinburgh on the fourth day from their despatch from London. (Sadler's _Letters and Negociations_.)

In 1548, the rate to be charged for post-horse hire was fixed by statute (2 & 3 Edw. VI. cap. 3.) at one penny per mile.

In 1581 (according to Camden), Thomas Randolph was appointed the first Chief Postmaster of all England.

James I. established (date unknown) the office of Foreign Postmaster, which was first held by Mathewe le Questor.

In 1631, Charles I. appointed William Frizell and Thomas Witherings (in reversion) to the sole management of the foreign post-office. And at this date it seems a regular home post was also carried on, as appears by the following entry from the Corporation Books of Great Yarmouth:--"1631. Agreed, June 6, with the Postmaster of Ipswich to have Quarterly 20s. paid him for carrying and bringing letters to and from London to Yarmouth for the vse of the Towne."

In 1635, Charles I. issued a proclamation for the establishment of "a running post or two, to {267} run night and day between Edinburgh and Scotland and the City of London, to go thither and come back again in six days:" branch posts were also to be established with all the principal towns on the road: the rates of postage were fixed at 2d. under 80 miles; 4d. for 140 miles; 6d. beyond; and 8d. to Scotland. This is conclusive evidence that a regular post-office establishment existed nearly ten years _before Prideaux had anything to do with the post-office_.

In 1640, a proclamation was issued by the Long Parliament, by which the offices of Foreign and Inland Postmaster (then held by Witherings) were sequestrated into the hands of one Philip Burlamachy, a city merchant. Soon after this we find a Committee of the Commons, with "Master Edmund Prideaux" for chairman, inquiring into the matter.

In 1644, a resolution of the Commons declared that "Edmund Prideaux, Esq., a member of the House," was "constituted master of the posts, messengers, and couriers."

In 1649 Prideaux established a weekly conveyance to every part of the kingdom; and also appears to have introduced other judicious reforms and improvements,--indeed he seems to have been the Rowland Hill of those days; but he has not the slightest claim to be considered as the "Inventor of the Post-office." The mistake may have arisen from a misapprehension of the following statement frown Blackstone: "Prideaux first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation, _thereby saving to the public the charge of maintaining postmasters_, to the amount of 7000l. per annum."

I have not been able to obtain any particulars of Prideaux's personal history.

MERCURII.

Jememutha Magna.

_Edmund Prideaux and the First Post-office._--See the Appendix to the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons on the Detaining and Opening of Letters at the Post-Office, 1844, which contains copies of numerous documents furnished by Mr. Lechmere and Sir Francis Palgrave.

ARUN.

[We avail ourselves of this opportunity of inserting the following
extract from Mr. Rowland Hill's _Post-Office Reform; its Importance and
Practicability_, p. 86. of the third edition, published in 1837, as it
shows clearly the use which Mr. Rowland Hill made of the story in his
great work of Postage Reform; and that Miss Martineau had clearly no
authority for fathering the story in question upon that gentleman:--

"Coleridge tells a story which shows how much the Post-office is open
to fraud, in consequence of the option as to pre-payment which now
exists. The story is as follows:--

'One day, when I had not a shilling which I could spare, I was passing
by a cottage not far from Keswick, where a letter-carrier was demanding
a shilling for a letter, which the woman of the house appeared
unwilling to pay, and at last declined to take. I paid the postage, and
when the man was out of sight, she told me that the letter was from her
son, who took that means of letting her know that he was well; the
letter was _not to be paid for_. It was then opened and found to be
blank!'[1]

"This trick is so obvious a one that in all probability it is
extensively practised."]

[Footnote 1: _Letters, Conversations, and Recollections of S. T. Coleridge_, vol. ii. p. 114.]

The quotations of your correspondent G. P. P., from Polwhele's _Cornwall_, relate to the same individual, and a more general construction must, I think, be put upon the expression "our countryman," than that it inferred a native of the county. The family of Prideaux was one of great antiquity, and originated in Cornwall (their first seat being at Prideaux Castle there), and had estates there in the time of the above Edmund. His father, Sir Edmund Prideaux, of Netherton (the first baronet), studied the law in the Inner Temple, where he became very eminent for his skill and learning. He is stated to have raised a large estate in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. He married * * *; secondly, Catherine, daughter of Piers Edgecombe, of Mount Edgecombe, Esq., by whom he had two sons, Sir Peter his successor, and Edmund, the subject of your correspondent's Queries, who is thus described in Prince's _Worthies of Devon_, p. 509.:--

"This gentleman was bred to the law, and of so great a reputation, as
well for zeal to religion as skill in the law, it is not strange he was
chosen a Member of that which was called the Long Parliament, wherein
he became a very leading man; for, striking in with the prevailing
party of those times (though he never joined with them in setting upon
the life of his Sovereign), he grew up to great wealth and dignity. He
was made Commissioner of the Great Seal [1643. Rushworth, vol. iii. p.
242.], worth 1500l. a-year and by ordinance of Parliament practised
within the bar as one of the king's counsel, worth 5000l. per annum.
After that he was Attorney General, _worth what he pleased to make it_
[!!], and then _Postmaster General_ ... from all which rich employments
he acquired a great estate, and among other things purchased the _Abbey
of Ford_, lying in the Parish of Thorncombe, in Devonshire, where he
built a noble new house out of the ruins of the old," &c.

Prideaux cannot be called the inventor of the Post-office, although to him may be attributed the extension of the system. The first inland letter office, which, however, extended to some of the principal roads only, was established by Charles I. in 1635, under the direction of Thomas Witherings, who was superseded in 1640. On the breaking out of the civil war, great confusion was occasioned in the conduct of the office, and about that time Prideaux's plan seems to have been conceived. {268} He was chairman of a committee in 1642 for considering the rates upon inland letters; and afterwards (1644) appointed Postmaster, in the execution of which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the nation. Prior to this, letters were sent by special messengers, or postmasters, whose duty it was to supply relays of horses at a certain mileage. (_Blackstone_, book i. c. 8. s. 3.)

I am unable to discover when Edmund Prideaux died; but it appears that either he, or one of his descendants, took part in the rising of the Duke of Monmouth in the West of England, upon which occasion the "great estate" was found of great service in providing a bribe for Lord Jeffreys. In the Life of Lord Jeffreys, annexed to the _Western Martyrology; or, Bloody Assizes_ (5th ed. 266. London, 1705), it is said that "A western gentleman's purchase came to fifteen or sixteen hundred guineas, which my Lord Chancellor had." And Rapin, vol. ii. p. 270., upon the authority of Echard, iii. p. 775., states that in 1685 one Mr. Prideaux, of Ford Abbey, Somerset, gave Jeffreys 14000l. [probably misprint for 1400l.] "to save his life."

I think it likely that your correspondent may find further information upon the subject of this note, in the _Life of Dr. Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich_ (born 1648, died 1724), published in 1748.

J. B. COLMAN.

Eye, March 18. 1851.

Polwhele was clearly wrong in designating Edmund Prideaux, the Attorney-General, a Cornishman, as he belonged to the family long seated in Devonshire, and was fourteenth in descent from Hickedon Prideaux, of Orcharton, in that county, second son of Nicholas, lord of Prideaux, in Cornwall, who died in 1169.

The four Queries of G. P. P. may be more or less fully answered by reference to Prince's _Worthies of Devon_, ed. 1810, p. 651.; and an excellent history of the Post-office in the _Penny Magazine_ for 1834, p. 33.

Is it too much to ask of your correspondent, who writes from Putney under my initials, that he will be so good as to change his signature? I think that I have strong reasons for the request, but I will only urge that I was first in the field, under the designation which he has adopted.[2]

J. D. S.

[Footnote 2: [Would J. D. S. No 1, and J. D. S. No. 2, add the final letter of their respective names, _h n s y_, or whatever it may be, the difficulty may probably be avoided. We have now so many correspondents that coincidence of signature can scarcely be avoided.]]

* * * * *

LADY JANE OF WESTMORELAND.

(Vol. i., p. 103.; Vol. ii., p. 485.)

_Jane_, Countess of Henry Neville, _fifth_ Earl of Westmoreland, was daughter of SIR ROGER CHOLMLEY, of Kinthorpe and Roxby, co. York. (_Vis. York. Harl. MS._ 1487. _fol._ 354.) She is often confused with his other wife, Anne Manners, and also with her own sister, Margaret Gascoigne, both in the Neville and Cholmley pedigrees as _printed_. (Burke's _Extinct Baronetage_, art. _Cholmley_, and _Extinct Peerage_, art. _Neville_.) But while the Manners pedigree in Collins's _Peerage_ (by Longmate, vol. i. p. 433.), as cited by Q. D., removes the former difficulty, that of Gascoigne is disposed of by the Cholmley pedigree in Harl. MS. above quoted, as well as by that (though otherwise very incorrect) in Charlton's _Whitby_, book iii. pp. 290, 291. 313., and by the Gascoigne pedigree in Whitaker's _Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 77. Thus we possess _legal and cotemporary_ evidence who JANE, Countess of _Henry_, _fifth_ Earl of Westmoreland, really was, without any authentic obstacle or unremoveable contradiction to its reception, viz. that she was a _Cholmley_.

But I conceive your correspondent's identification is _totally_ erroneous. It is true he only puts an hypothesis on the subject; but this hypothesis has no solid foundation. In the first place, Henry, fifth Earl of Westmoreland, died in 1549; and all authorities seem to agree that his first wife was Anne Manners, and his second Cholmley's daughter. Thus, if either of his countesses were living in 1585, it must have been the _latter_, by which means all chance of appropriation is removed from Manners to Cholmley. But I shall now give reasons for contending that neither of these ladies was your correspondent's Countess of Westmoreland, by referring him (2ndly) to Longmate's _Collins's Peerage_, vol. i. p. 96., where he will find that _Jane_, daughter of Henry Howard, the talented and accomplished Earl of Surry, married Charles Neville, _sixth_ Earl of Westmoreland. He has evidently passed her over, through seeing her called _Anne_ in the Neville pedigrees: "Anne" and "Jane" being often mutually misread in old writing, from the cross upon the initial letter of the last name.

I offer it to your correspondent's consideration, whether his "Jane, Countess of Westmoreland," was not wife of the said Charles Neville, _sixth_ Earl of Westmoreland, who was attainted 18 Eliz. (1575-6). His date is evidently most favourable to this view. It is true the attainder stands in the way; but if even this affords an obstacle, the next candidate for appropriation would be Jane _Cholmley_. Assuming, however, that your correspondent allows this lady as a candidate for the appropriation, her pedigree corroborates the claim. I have found, by long and minute observation, that hereditary talent, &c. usually descends by the _mesmeric_ {269} tie of affection and favoritism, from fathers to the eldest daughter, and from mothers to the eldest son; and the pedigree of _Jane_, Countess of Charles, _sixth_ Earl of Westmoreland, stands thus:--

EDWARD STAFFORD, Duke of Buckingham; great,
good, and accomplished, and fell a victim to envy.==
|
----------------------------------
|
_1st Dau._ ELIZABETH, wife of Thomas Howard, third
Duke of Norfolk. ==
|
---
|
_1st Son._ HENRY HOWARD, Earl of Surry, the poet;
great, good, and accomplished, and fell a victim to
envy == as physical heir of his mat. grandfather.
|
-------
|
_1st Dau._ JANE, wife of Charles Neville, sixth Earl of
Westmoreland (and qu. the authoress in question?).

Besides being eldest daughter of the celebrated poet, the said Jane, Countess of Westmoreland, was sister of Henry Howard, the learned Earl of Northampton, her father's younger son--(some younger son, like eldest daughters, generally inheriting, physically, in some prominent feature, from the father).

WILLIAM D'OYLY BAYLEY.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Ulm Manuscript_ (Vol. iii., pp. 60. 191.).--In addition to the information supplied by MR. FOSS, it may be mentioned that this manuscript is so called from having been referred to by Griesbach as the _Codex Ulmensis apud Gerbert_. This takes us to the _Iter Alemannicum, Italicum et Gallicum_ of Martin Gerbert, published in 1765, at p. 192. of which work he informs us, that in the year 1760 this manuscript was preserved at Ulm in the library of the family of Krafft, which consisted of 6000 volumes, printed and manuscript. Of its history from this period till it came into Bishop Butler's hands, I am ignorant. Its reference at present in the British Museum is _MSS. Add._ 11,852.

[mu].

_Father Maximilian Hell_ (Vol. iii., p. 167.).--A querist is in conscience bound to be a respondent; I therefore hasten to tell you that Dr. Watt (_Biblioth. Britan._ iv. MAGNETISM, ANIMAL) should have written _Hell_ instead of _Hehl_. It was that eminent astronomer, Maximilian _Hell_, who supposed that magnets affected the human frame, and, at first, approved of Mesmer's views. The latter was at Vienna in 1774; and perhaps got some parts of his theory from Father Hell, of whom he was afterwards jealous, and therefore very abusive. The life of Hell in Dr. Aikin's _General Biography_ is an unsatisfactory compilation drawn up by Mr. W. Johnston, to whom we are indebted for the current barbarism _so-called_. In that account there is not one word on Hell's _Treatise on Arti__ficial Magnets_, Vienna, 1763; in which the germ of animal magnetism may probably be found.

ENGASTRIMYTHUS.

_Meaning of "strained" as used by Shakspeare_ (Vol. iii., p. 185.).--The context of the passage quoted by L. S. explains the sense in which Shakspeare used the word "strain'd:"

"_Portia._ Then _must_ the Jew be merciful.
_Shylock._ On what _compulsion_ must I? tell me that.
_Portia._ The quality of mercy is not strain'd," &c.

that is, there is nothing forced, nothing of compulsion in the quality of mercy.

Johnson gives: "To strain, to force, to constrain."

Q. D.