Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 79.] SATURDAY, MAY 3. 1851. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
Illustrations of Chaucer, No. V. 345
Foreign English--Guide to Amsterdam 346
Seven Children at a Birth three Times following 347
Ramasshed, Meaning of the Term 347
Authors of the Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin, by E. Hawkins 348
Minor Notes:--Egg and Arrow Ornament--Defoe's
Project for purifying the English Language--Great
Fire of London--Noble or Workhouse Names 349

QUERIES:--
Passages in the New Testament illustrated from Demosthenes 350
The House of Maille 351
Minor Queries:-- Meaning of "eign"--The Bonny
Crayat--What was the Day of the Accession of Richard
the Third?--Lucas Family--Watch of Richard
Whiting--Laurence Howel, the Original Pilgrim--Churchwardens'
Accounts, &c. of St. Mary-de-Castro,
Leicester--Aristotle and Pythagoras--When Deans
first styled Very Reverend--Form of Prayer at the
Healing--West Chester--The Milesians--Round
Robbin--Experto credo Roberto--Captain Howe--Bactria 351

REPLIES:--
The Family of the Tradescants, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 353
Meaning of Venville, by E. Smirke 355
Replies to Minor Queries:--Newburgh Hamilton--Pedigree
of Owen Glendower--Mind your P's and Q's--The
Sempecta at Croyland--Solid-hoofed Pigs--Porci
solide-pedes--Sir Henry Slingsby's Diary--Criston,
Somerset--Tradesmen's Signs--Emendation
of a Passage in Virgil 356

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 358
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 358
Notices to Correspondents 358
Advertisements 359

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Notes.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER NO. V.

_The Arke of Artificial Day_.

Before proceeding, to point out the indelible marks by which Chaucer has, as it were, stereotyped the true date of the journey to Canterbury, I shall clear away another stumbling-block, still more insurmountable to Tyrwhitt than his first difficulty of the "halfe cours" in Aries, viz. the seeming inconsistency in statements (1.) and (2.) in the following lines of the prologue to the Man of Lawe's tale:--

{ "Oure hoste saw wel that the bright sonne,
(1.) { The arke of his artificial day, had ironne
{ The fourthe part and halfe an houre and more,
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{ And saw wel that the shadow of every tree
{ Was as in length of the same quantitie,
{ That was the body erecte that caused it,
{ And therefore by the shadow he toke his wit
(2.) { That Phebus, which that shone so clere and bright,
{ Degrees was five and fourty clombe on hight,
{ And for that day, as in that latitude
{ It was ten of the clok, he gan conclude."

The difficulty will be best explained in Tyrwhitt's own words:--

"Unfortunately, however, this description, though seemingly intended to
be so accurate, will neither enable us to conclude with the MSS. that
it was '_ten of the clock_,' nor to fix upon any other hour; as the two
circumstances just mentioned are not found to coincide in any part of
the 28th, or of any other day of April, in this
climate."--_Introductory Discourse_, Sec. xiv.

In a foot-note, Tyrwhitt further enters into a calculation to show that, on the 28th of April, the fourth part of the day and half an hour and more (even with the liberal allowance of a quarter of an hour to the indefinite phrase '_and more_') would have been completed by nine o'clock A.M. at the latest, and therefore at least an hour too soon for coincidence with (2.).

Now one would think that Tyrwhitt, when he found his author relating facts, "_seemingly intended to be so accurate_," would have endeavoured to discover whether there might not be some hidden meaning in them, the explaining of which might make that consistent, which, at first, was apparently the reverse.

Had he investigated with such a spirit, he must have discovered that the expression "arke of the artificial day" _could not_, in this instance, receive its obvious and usual meaning, of the horary duration from sunrise to sunset--

And for this simple reason: That such a meaning would _presuppose a knowledge of the hour_--of the very thing in request--and which was about {346} to be discovered by "our hoste," who "toke his wit" from the sun's altitude for the purpose! But he knew already that the fourth part of the day IN TIME had elapsed, he must necessarily have also known what that time was, without the necessity of calculating it!

Now, Chaucer, whose choice of expression on scientific subjects is often singularly exact, says, "Our hoste _saw_ that the sonne," &c.; he must therefore have been referring to some visible situation: because, afterwards, when the time of day has been obtained from calculation, the phrase changes to "_gan conclude_" that it was ten of the clock.

It seems, therefore, certain that, even setting aside the question of consistency between (1.) and (2.), we must, _upon other grounds_, assume that Chaucer had some meaning in the expression "arke of the artificial day," different from what must be admitted to be its obvious and received signification.

To what other ark, then, could he have been alluding, if not to the _horary_ diurnal ark?

I think, to the AZIMUTHAL ARCH OF THE HORIZON included between the point of sunrise and that of sunset!

The situation of any point in that arch is called its bearing; it is estimated by reference to the points of the compass; it is therefore _visually_ ascertainable: and it requires no previous knowledge of the hour in order to determine when the sun has completed the fourth, or any other, portion of it.

Here, then, is _prima facie_ probability established in favour of this interpretation. And if, upon examination, we find that it also clears away the discrepancy between (1.) and (2.), probability becomes certainty.

Assuming, upon evidence which I shall hereafter explain, that the sun's declination, on the day of the journey, was 13 deg. 26' North, or thirteen degrees and half,--the sun's bearing at rising, in the neighbourhood of London, would be E.N.E., at setting W.N.W.; the whole included arch, 224 deg.; and the time at which the sun would complete one-fourth, or have the bearing, S.E. by E., would be about 20 minutes past nine A.M.,--thus leaving 40 minutes to represent Chaucer's "halfe an hour and more!"

A very remarkable approximation--which converts a statement apparently contradictory, into a strong confirmation of the deduction to be obtained from the other physical facts grouped together by Chaucer with such extraordinary skill!

On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that the "hoste's" subsequent admonition to the pilgrims to make the best use of their time, warning them that "the fourthe partie of this day is gon," seems again to favour the idea that it is the day's actual horary duration that is alluded to.

This can be only hypothetically accounted for by observing that in this, as in many other instances, Chaucer seems to delight in a sort of disguised phraseology; as though to veil his true meaning, and designedly to create scientific puzzles to exercise the knowledge and discernment of his readers.

A. E. B.

Leeds, April 14. 1851.

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FOREIGN ENGLISH--GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM.

I doubt not many of your readers will have been as much amused as myself with the choice specimens of Foreign English enshrined in your pages. When at Amsterdam, some years since, I purchased a _Guide_ to that city, which I regard as a considerable literary curiosity in the same line. It was published at Amsterdam, by E. Maascamp, in 1829, and contains from beginning to end a series of broken English, professing all the while to be written by an Englishman.

It commences with the following "Advertisement:"

"The city of Amsterdam--remarkable as being one of the chief metropoles
of Europe, and as being in many respects the general market of whole
the universe; justly celebrated for--its large interior canals, on both
of their sides enlivened and sheltered by ranges of large, thick, and
beautiful trees, and presenting, on large broad and neatly kept, most
regularly pav'd quays, long chains of sumptuous habitations, or rather
palaces of the principal and _weathy_ merchants; moreover remarkable by
its Museum for the objects of the fine arts, &c., its numberless public
edifices adapted either to the _cultivation_ of arts, or to the
exertions of trade, or to _establishments_ charitable purposes, or of
temples of all manners of divine worship--the city of Amsterdam, we
say," &c. It is dated "This 15^{the} of Juin, 1829."

In page 14. the author gives us an account of his habits, &c.:--

"I live in Amsterdam since some considerable time I drink no strong
liquors, nor do I smoke tobacco and with all this--I have not been
_attacked_ by those agues and fevers w^h frequently reign here from the
month of Juin to the end of the autumn: and twenty foreigners whom I
know, do follow the same system, and are still as healthy as I myself;
while I have seen a great many of natives taking their drams and
smoking their pipes _ad libitem_, and moreover _chawing_ tobacco in a
quite disgusting manner, who," &c.

An Amsterdam Sunday, p. 42.:

"On sundays and holydays the shops and warehouses, and, _intra muros_,
those of public entertainment are _close_: the devotees go to church,
and sanctify the sabbath. Others go to walk outside the towngates:
after their walk, they hasten to fine public-play-gardens, where wine,
thea, &c. is sold. Neither the mobility remains idle at _these_
entertainments. Every one invites his damsel, and joyously they enter
play-gardens of a little less brilliancy than the former. There, at the
crying sound of an instrument that _rents_ the ear, {347} accompanied
by the delightful handle-organs and the rustic triangle, their tributes
are paid to Terpsichore; every where a similitude of talents: the
dancing outdoes not the musician."

Description of the Assize Court:

"The forefront has a noble and sublime aspect, and is particularly
characteristical to what it ought to represent. It is built in a
division of three fronts in the corinthic order: each of them consists
in four raizing columns, resting upon a general basement, from the one
end of the forefront to the other, and supporting a cornish, equally
running all over the face; upon this cornish rests a balustrad, like
the other pieces altogether of Bremen-hardstone. The middle front,
serving for the chief entrance, is adorned with the provincial arms,
sculpted by Mr. Gabriel, &c.... Every where a sublime plan, and exact
execution is exhibited here, and the whole tends as much to the
architects, who are the undertakers of it, as they have earned great
praizes by building anew the burnt Lutheran church."

I will not trespass on your space by any further extracts; but these will suffice to show that my book is _sui generis_, and worth commemoration.