Notes and Queries, Number 79, May 3, 1851

Chapter C: O. S. M

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_Laurence Howel, the Original Pilgrim._--The unfortunate Laurence Howel published in 1717 (the year in which he was committed to Newgate) a little volume, entitled _Desiderius; or, the Original Pilgrim, a Divine Dialogue, showing the most compendious Way to arrive at the Love of God. Rendered into English, and explained, with Notes._ By Laurence Howel, A.M. London; printed by William Redmayne, for the Author, 1717. In the preface he tells us, that the work was originally written in Spanish; afterwards translated into Italian, French, High-Dutch and Low-Dutch, and about the year 1587 into Latin from the High-Dutch, by Laurentius Surius. There were subsequently two more Latin versions: one by Vander Meer, from the French and Dutch copies, compared with the original; and another by Antonius Boetzer in 1617. The author's name, he says, was unknown to all the editors, and the several editions had different titles; by some it was called the _Treasure of Devotion_, by others the _Compendious Way to Salvation_. The last, however (Boetzer's, I presume), bears that of _Desiderius_. As this was the author's title, Mr. Howel adopted it for his translation, adding, he says, that of the _Original Pilgrim_, to distinguish it from others of the same name, or very like it. He there informs us that Mr. Royston (the distinguished publisher in Charles II.'s and James II.'s reigns) had declared that Bishop Patrick took his _Parable of the Pilgrim_ from it, and that it had formed the ground-work of the writings of many authors in that style.

Can any of your readers give me the titles of the editions in Spanish, or any language, of this interesting little book? I should be much obliged for any information regarding it. Is Howel's little translation scarce? Has the authorship of the original ever been hinted at?

RICHARD HOOPER.

University Club, March 22. 1851.

_The Churchwardens' Accounts, &c., of St. Mary-de-Castro, Leicester._--Nichols, in his _History of Leicestershire_, has given numerous extracts from the accounts of this ancient collegiate establishment (founded in 1107), and also from a book relating to the religious guild of The Trinity connected with the church. All these documents have now, however, entirely disappeared,--how, or at what period since the publication of the work, is unknown; but I find by a newspaper-cutting in my possession (unfortunately without date or auctioneer's name), that a very large collection of ancient documents, filling several boxes, and relating to this church and others in the county, was sold by auction in London some years ago, probably between the years 1825 and 1830. I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can inform me in whose possession they now are, and if they can be consulted.

LEICESTRENSIS.

_Aristotle and Pythagoras._--What reason (if any) is there for supposing that Aristotle derived his philosophy from Pythagoras himself?

D. K.

_When Deans first styled Very Reverend._--Can any of your correspondents state at what period Deans of Cathedrals were first designated as "Very Reverend?" Forty years ago they prayed at Christ Church, Oxford, for the Reverend the Deans, the Canons, &c. The inscription on the stone covering the remains of Sir Richard Kaye, Bart., Dean of Lincoln, who died in 1809, terms him "the Reverend."

X. X.

_Form of Prayer at the Healing_ (Vol. iii., pp. 42. 93. 148.).--As my note on this subject has been misunderstood, I would prefer this Query. What is the earliest edition of the Prayer Book in which the Form for the Healing appears? Mr. Lathbury states 1709, which is I believe the generally received date; but it is found in one printed in London in 1707 immediately before the Articles. Its appearance in the Prayer Book is entirely unauthorised; and it would be curious to ascertain also, whether it found a place in the Prayer Books printed at Oxford or Cambridge.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber).

{353}

_West Chester._--In maps of Cheshire, 1670, and perhaps later, the city of Chester is thus called. Why is it so designated? It does not appear to be so called now. Passing through a village only six miles from London last week, I heard a mother saying to a child, "If you are not a good girl I will send you to West Chester." "Go to Bath" is common enough; but why should either of these places be singled out? The Cheshire threat seems to have been in use for some time, unless that city is still called West Chester.

JOHN FRANCIS X.

_The Milesians._--With respect to the origin of the Milesian race little seems to be known, even by antiquaries who have given their attention to the archaeology of Ireland, the inhabitants of which country are reputed to have been of Milesian origin. The Milesian race, also, is thought to have come over from Spain, a conjecture which is rather confirmed by the etymology of the names of some Irish towns, where the letters _gh_, as in Drogheda and Aghada, if so convertible, have the same pronunciation as the Spanish _j_ in Aranjuez and Badajoz, and also by the expression and cast of features marked in many of the peasants of the south-west of Ireland, which strikingly resemble those of the children of Spain.

There is also another subject of antiquity in Ireland, and closely connected with her early history, of the true origin of which the world seems much in ignorance, viz. her Round Towers. Possibly some of your able correspondents will kindly supply some information on one or both of these subjects.

W. R. M.

_Round Robbin._--In Dr. Heylin's controversy with Fuller on his Church History, the following quotation[1] occurs:

"That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of bread,
or a little _predie round robbin_."

In the East Riding of Yorkshire the term is designative of a petition, in which all the names are signed radiating from a centre, so as to render it impossible to discover who was the first to sign it. What is the derivation of it?

R. W. E.

Cor. Chr. Coll., Cambridge.

[Footnote 1: _Appeal of Injured Innocence_, p. 462.]

_Experto crede Roberto._--What is the origin of this saying?

N. B.

_Captain Howe._--

Captain Howe, the King's (George II.) nephew by an illegitimate
source."--_Pictorial History of England_, iv. 597.

Can you inform me how this captain was thus related to George II.?

F. B. RELTON.

_Bactria._--Can you refer me to a work worthy the name of _The History of Bactria_, or to detached information concerning Bactriana, under the Scythian kings? I also want a guide to the Graeco-Bactrian series of coins.

BLOWEN.

* * * * *

Replies.

THE FAMILY OF THE TRADESCANTS.

(Vol. ii., pp. 119. 286.)

The family of the Tradescants is involved in considerable obscurity, and the period of the arrival of the first of that name in England is not, for a certainty, known. There were, it seems, three of the Tradescants at one time in this country--grandfather, father, and son. John Tradescant (or Tradeskin, as he was generally called by his contemporaries) the elder was, according to Anthony Wood, a Fleming or a Dutchman. He probably came to England about the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, or in the beginning of that of James the First. He is reported to have been a great traveller, and to have previously visited Barbary, Greece, Egypt, and other Eastern countries. Upon his first arrival here he is said to have been successively gardener to the Lord Treasurer Salisbury, Lord Weston, the Duke of Buckingham, and other noblemen of distinction. In these situations he remained until the office of royal gardener was bestowed upon him in 1629.

To John Tradescant the elder, posterity is mainly indebted for the introduction of botany in this kingdom. "He, by great industry, made it manifest that there is scarcely any plant existing in the known world, that will not, with proper care, thrive in our climate." In a visit made by Sir W. Watson and Dr. Mitchell to Tradescant's garden in 1749, an account of which is inserted in the _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. xlvi. p. 160., it appears that it had been many years totally neglected, and the house belonging to it empty and ruined; but though the garden was quite covered with weeds, there remained among them manifest footsteps of its founder. They found there the _Borago latifolia sempervivens_ of Caspar Bauhine; _Polygonatum vulgare latifolium_, C.B.; _Aristolochia clematitis recta_, C.B.; and the _Dracontium_ of Dodoens. There were then remaining two trees of the _Arbutus_, which from their being so long used to our winters, did not suffer from the severe cold of 1739-40, when most of their kind were killed in England. In the orchard there was a tree of the _Rhamnus catharticus_, about twenty feet high, and nearly a foot in diameter. There are at present no traces of this garden remaining.

In the Ashmolean Library is preserved (No. 1461.) a folio manuscript (probably in the handwriting of the elder Tradescant) which purports to be "The Tradescants' Orchard, illustrated in sixty-five coloured drawings of fruits, exhibiting various kinds of the apple, cherry, damson, date, {354} gooseberry, peares, peaches, plums, nectarines, grape, Hasell-nutt, quince, strawberry, with the times of their ripening."

Old John Tradescant died in the year 1652, at which period he was probably far advanced in years, leaving behind him a son (also of the same name) who seems to have inherited his father's talents and enthusiasm. There is a tradition that John Tradescant the younger entered himself on board a privateer going against the Algerines, that he might have an opportunity of bringing apricot-trees from that country. He is known to have taken a voyage to Virginia, whence he returned with many new plants. The two Tradescants were the means of introducing a variety of curious species into this kingdom, several of which bore their name. Tradescants' _Spiderwort_ and _Aster_ are well known to this day, and Linnaeus has immortalised them among the botanists by making a new genus under their names of the _Spiderwort_, which had been before called _Ephemeron_.

When the elder Tradescant first settled in England, he formed a curious collection of natural history, coins, medals, and a great variety of "uncommon rarities." A catalogue of them was published in 12mo. in the year 1656, by his son, under the name of _Museum Tradescantianum_; to which are prefixed portraits, both of the father and son, by Hollar. This Museum or "Ark," as it was termed, was frequently visited by persons of rank, who became benefactors thereto; among these were Charles the First, Henrietta Maria (his queen), Archbishop Laud, George Duke of Buckingham, Robert and William Cecil, Earls of Salisbury, and many other persons of distinction: among them also appears the philosophic John Evelyn, who in his _Diary_ has the following notice:

"Sept. 17, 1657, I went to see Sir Robert Needham, at Lambeth, a
relation of mine, and thence to John Tradescant's museum."

"Thus John Tradeskin starves our wondering eyes
By boxing up his new-found rarities."

Ashmole, in his _Diary_ (first published by Charles Burman in 1717), has three significant entries relating to the subject of our notice, which I transcribe _verbatim_:

"Decem. 12, 1659. Mr. Tredescant and his wife told me they had been
long considering upon whom to bestow their closet of curiosities when
they died, and at last had resolved to give it unto me.

"April 22, 1662. Mr. John Tredescant died.

"May 30, 1662. This Easter term I preferred a bill in Chancery against
Mrs. Tredescant, for the rarities her husband had settled on me."

The success of Ashmole's suit is well known; but the whole transaction reflects anything but honour upon his name. The loss of her husband's treasures probably preyed upon the mind of Mrs. Tradescant; for in the _Diary_ before quoted, under April 4, 1678, Ashmole says:

"My wife told me that Mrs. Tradescant was found drowned in her pond.
She was drowned the day before at noon, as appears by some
circumstance."

This was the same Hesther Tradescant who erected the Tradescant monument in Lambeth churchyard. She was buried in the vault where her husband and his son John (who "died in his spring") had been formerly laid.

The table monument to the memory of the Tradescants was erected in 1662. The sculptures on the four sides are as follows, viz. on the _north_, a crocodile, shells, &c., and a view of some Egyptian buildings; on the _south_, broken columns, Corinthian capitals, &c., supposed to be ruins in Greece, or some Eastern country; on the _east_, Tradescant's arms, on a bend three fleurs-de-lys, impaling a lion passant; on the _west_, a hydra, and under it a skull; various figures of trees, &c., in relievo, adorn the four corners of the tomb; over it is placed a handsome tablet of black marble. The monument, by the contribution of some friends to their memory, was in the year 1773 repaired, and (according to Sir John Hawkins) the following lines, "_formerly_ intended for an epitaph, inserted thereon." Other authorities say that they were merely _restored_.

"Know, stranger, ere thou pass beneath this stone,
Lye John Tradescant, grandsire, father, son;
The last dy'd in his spring; the other two
Liv'd till they had travell'd Art and Nature through,
As by their choice collections may appear,
Of what is rare, in land, in sea, in air;
Whilst they (as Homer's _Iliad_ in a nut)
A world of wonders in one closet shut;
These famous antiquarians that had been
_Both Gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen_,
Transplanted now themselves, sleep here; and when
Angels shall with their trumpets waken men,
And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise,
And change this garden for a Paradise."

A number of important errors concerning this once celebrated family have been made by different writers. Sir John Hawkins, in a note to his edition of Walton's _Angler_ (edit. 1792, p. 24.), says:

"There were, it seems, three of the Tradescants, grandfather, father,
and son: the son is the person here meant: the two former were
gardeners to Queen Elizabeth, and the latter to King Charles I."

The epitaph above quoted satisfactorily proves, I think, that the Tradescants were never gardeners to the maiden Queen. "The rose and lily queen" was certainly Henrietta Maria, the queen of Charles the First. I have now before me (from the cabinet of a friend) a small silver medal struck to commemorate the marriage of Charles the First. It has on the obverse the busts of Charles and Henrietta, the sun shining from the clouds above {355} them: the inscription is CH: MAG: ET: HEN: MA: BRIT: REX: ET: REG. The reverse contains in the field, Cupid mixing _lilies with roses_; the legend being FVNDIT: AMOR: LILIA: MIXTA: ROSIS. In the exergue is the date 1625. The Tradescant mentioned by Walton in 1653 was the _second_ of that name, not the son, as stated by Sir John Hawkins.

The editor of the last edition of Evelyn's _Diary_ (vol. ii. p. 414.) says, speaking of the Tradescants:

"They were all eminent gardeners, travellers, and collectors of
curiosities. The two first came into this country in the reign of James
I., and the second and third were employed in the Royal Gardens by
Charles I."

Here is a _positive_ statement that the elder Tradescant and his son came into England in the reign of _James I._ But there is no _proof_ of this given. It is merely the writer's assertion. At the end of the same note, speaking of Tradescant's Ark, the editor observes:

"It formed the foundation of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and a
catalogue of its contents was printed by the youngest John Tradescant
in 1656, with the title of _Museum Tradescantianum_. He died in 1652."

It was not the _youngest_ John Tradescant that died in 1652, but the _oldest_, the _grandfather_--the first of that name that settled in England.

The following is a list of the portraits of the Tradescant family now in the Ashmolean Museum; both father and son are in these portraits called _Sir_ John, though it does not appear that either of them was ever knighted. Mr. Black, in his excellent catalogue of the Ashmolean Library, also calls the elder Tradescant _Sir_ John. (See p. 1266.)

1. Sir John Tradescant, sen., three-quarter size, ornamented with fruit, flowers, and garden roots.

2. The same, after his decease.

3. The same, a small three-quarter piece, in water colours.

4. A large painting of his wife, son, and daughter, quarter-length.

5. Sir John Tradescant, junior, in his garden, with a spade in his hand, half-length.

6. The same with his wife, half-length.

7. The same, with his friend Zythepsa of Lambeth, a collection of shells, &c. upon a table before them.

8. A large quarter piece inscribed Sir John Tradescant's second wife and son.

Granger says he saw a picture at a gentleman's house in Wiltshire, which was not unlike that of the deceased Tradescant, and the inscription was applicable to it:

"Mortuus haud alio quam quo pater ore quiesti,
Quam facili frueris nunc quoque nocte doces."

I may add, in conclusion, that several beautiful drawings of the Tradescant monument in Lambeth churchyard are preserved in the Pepysian library. These drawings were engraved for the _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. lxiii. p. 88.; and are printed from the same plates in the _Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica_, vol. ii.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

MEANING OF VENVILLE.

(Vol. iii., pp. 152. 310.)

I observe, in p. 310. of the present volume, that two correspondents, P. and K., have contributed conjectures as to the meaning and origin of the term _venville_, noticed and explained _ante_, p. 152. The _origin_ of the word is of course to some extent open to conjecture; but they may rest assured that the _meaning_ of it is not, nor ever has been, within the domain of mere conjecture with those who have had any opportunities of inquiry in the proper quarter. The term has not the slightest reference to the ceremony of delivering possession, which P. has evidently witnessed in the case of his father, and which lawyers call livery of seisin; nor is there on Dartmoor any such word as _ven_ signifying peat, or as _fail_, signifying turf. No doubt a fen on the moor would probably contain "black earth or peat," like most other mountain bogs; and if (as K. says) _fail_ means a "turf or flat clod" in Scotland, I think it probable that a Scotchman on Dartmoor might now and then so far forget himself as to call peat or turf by a name which would certainly not be understood by an aboriginal Devonian. The local name of the peat or other turf cut for fuel is _vaggs_, and this has perhaps been confounded in the recollection of K.'s informant with _ven_. At all events, I can assure both P. and K. (who, I presume, are not familiar with the district) that the tenants of venville lands have no functions to perform, as such, in any degree connected with either turf-cutting, or "fenging fields," and that they do not necessarily, or generally, occupy peat districts, or rejoice in

"All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats," &c.;

but, on the contrary, they are the owners of some of the most valuable, salubrious, and picturesque purlieus of the forest. With regard to the name "fengfield," although I am pretty familiar with the records of the forest extant for the last five hundred years past, I do not remember that it is ever so named or spelt in the muniments of the manor or forest. It is so written by Risdon, and in some few other documents entitled to little weight, and from which no safe inference can be drawn. Whatever be the etymological origin of the term, it should be assumed as indisputable by any one who may hereafter exercise his ingenuity or his fancy upon it, that the four most prominent {356} incidents to the tenure are--1. payment of fines; 2. situation in an ancient vill; 3. attendance on the lord's court; 4. enjoyment of certain rights of common. It may be that neither the _fine_ nor the _vill_ forms a component part of the name; but K. need have no scruple in believing that an abbreviated Latin or "legal term" (invented, of course, by the stewards or bailiffs of the lord) may have become naturalised among those of the inhabitants of the Moor whom it concerns. The tenants or retainers of a manor have no alternative but to submit to any generic name by which the steward may please to distinguish them. Thus the "priors" and "censors" of Dartmoor forest are content to be called by those names, because they were designated as "prehurdarii" and "censarii" in the court rolls some hundred years ago. The tenants of a certain lordship in Cornwall know and convey their tenements by the name of _landams_ to this day, merely because the stewards two hundred years ago, when the court rolls were in Latin, well knowing that _landa_ was the Latin for _land_, and that transitive verbs in that language require an accusative case, recorded each tenant as having taken of the lord "unam landam, vocatam Tregollup," &c. Indeed so easily does a clipt exotic take root and become acclimated among the peasantry of the Moor, whose powers of appropriation are so much disparaged by the sceptical doubts of K., that since the establishment of local courts the terms _fifa_ and _casa_ have become familiar to them as household words and the name and uses of that article of abbreviated Latinity called a '_bus_ are, as I am credibly informed, not unknown to them.

E. SMIRKE.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Newburgh Hamilton_ (Vol. iii, p. 117).--In Thomas Whincop's _List of Dramatic Authors_, &c., the following notice of Hamilton occurs:--

"Mr. Newburgh Hamilton.

A Gentleman, who I think was related to, at least lived in the family
of Duke _Hamilton_; he wrote two Plays, called

I. _The Doating Lovers_, or _The Libertine Tam'd_; a Comedy acted at
the Theatre in _Lincoln's Inn_-_Fields_, in the year 1715, with no
success: but supported to the third night, for the Author's Benefit;
when the Boxes and Pit were laid together at the unusual Price of six
Shillings each Ticket.

II. _The Petticoat Plotter_; a Comedy of two Acts, performed at the
Theatre Royal in _Drury-Lane_."

T. C. T.

_Pedigree of Owen Glendower_ (Vol. iii., p. 222.).--A contributor who is not a Cambrian, sends the following pedigree of Owen Glyndowr, with the authority from whence he has obtained it, viz. Harl. MS. 807., Robert Glover's Book of Pedigrees and Arms, drawn up in part about 1574.

H. E.

JOHANNIS SCUDAMORE, miles,
duxit filiam et haeredam
Oweni Glendoure proditoris
Regis H. 4.

{357}

_Mind your P's and Q's_ (Vol. iii., p. 328.)--This expression arose from the ancient custom of hanging a slate behind the alehouse door, on which was written P. or Q. (i. e. _Pint_ or _Quart_) against the name of each customer, according to the quantity which he had drunk, and which was not expected to be paid for till the Saturday evening, when the wages were settled.

The expression so familiar to schoolboys of "_going tick_," may perhaps be traced to this, a _tick_ or mark being put for every glass of ale.

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