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.

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

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No. 81.] SATURDAY, MAY 17. 1851.. [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page

Illustrations of Chaucer, No. VI. 385

Dutch Folk-lore 387

Minor Notes:--Verses in Pope: "Bug" or "Bee"--
Rub-a-dub--Quotations--Minnis--Brighton--Voltaire's
Henriade 387

QUERIES:--
The Blake Family, by Hepworth Dixon 389

Minor Queries:--John Holywood the Mathematician--
Essay on the Irony of Sophocles--Meaning of Mosaic
--Stanedge Pole--Names of the Ferret--Colfabias--
School of the Heart--Milton and the Calves-head
Club--David Rizzio's Signature--Lambert Simnel:
Was this his real Name?--Honor of Clare, Norfolk--
Sponge--Babington's Conspiracy--Family of Sir John
Banks--Meaning of Sewell--Abel represented with
Horns 389

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--The Fifteen O's--Meaning
of Pightle--Inscription on a Guinea of George III.
--Meaning of Crambo 391

REPLIES:--

John Tradescant probably an Englishman, and his Voyage
to Russia in 1618, by S. W. Singer 391

The Family of the Tradescants, by W. Pinkerton 393

Pope Joan 395

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Robert Burton's Birthplace
--Barlaam and Josaphat--Witte van Haemstede--The
Dutch Church in Norwich--Fest Sittings--Quaker's
Attempt to convert the Pope--The Anti-Jacobin--
Mistletoe--Verbum Græcum--"Après moi le Déluge"--
Eisell--"To-day we purpose"--Modern Paper--St. Pancras
--Joseph Nicolson's Family--Demosthenes and New
Testament--Crossing Rivers on Skins--Curious Facts
in Natural History--Prideaux 395

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 398

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 399

Notices to Correspondents 399

Advertisements 399

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Notes.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI.

Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical facts incapable of being perverted or misunderstood.

Had Chaucer done this in one instance only, we might imagine that it was but another of those occasions, so frequently seized upon by him, for the display of a little scientific knowledge; but when he repeats the very same precautionary expedient again, in the afternoon of the same day, we begin to perceive that he must have had some fixed purpose; because, as I shall presently show, it is the repetition alone that renders the record imperishable.

But whether Chaucer really devised this method for the express purpose of preserving his text, or not, it has at least had that effect,--for while there are scarcely two MSS. extant which agree in the verbal record of the day and hours, the physical circumstances remain, and afford at all times independent data for the recovery or correction of the true reading.

The day of the month may be deduced from the declination of the sun; and, to obtain the latter, all the data required are,

1. The latitude of the place.

2. Two altitudes of the sun at different sides of noon.

It is not absolutely necessary to have any previous knowledge of the hours at which these altitudes were respectively obtained, because these may be discovered by the trial method of seeking two such hours as shall most nearly agree in requiring a declination common to both at the known altitudes. Of course it will greatly simplify the process if we furthermore know that the observations must have been obtained at some determinate intervals of time, such, for example, as complete hours.

Now, in the Prologue to the "Canterbury Tales" we know that the observations could not have been recorded except at complete hours, because the construction of the metre will not admit the supposition of any parts of hours having been expressed.

We are also satisfied that there can be no mistake in the altitudes, because nothing can alter the facts, that an equality between the length of the shadow and the height of the substance can only subsist at an altitude of 45 degrees; or that an altitude of 29 degrees (more or less) is the nearest that will give the ratio of 11 to 6 between the shadow and its gnomon.

{386}

With these data we proceed to the following comparison:

_Forenoon altitude_ 45°.|| _Afternoon altitude_ 29°.
||
Hour. Declin. || Hour. Declin.
XI A.M. 8° 9' N. || II P.M. 3° 57' S.
X " 13° 27' " || III " 3° 16' N.
IX " 22° 34' " || IV " 13° 26' "
VIII " Impossible.|| V " Impossible.

Here we immediately select "X A.M." and "IV P.M." as the only two items at all approaching to similarity; while, in these the approach is so near that they differ by only a single minute of a degree!

More conclusive evidence therefore could scarcely exist that these were the hours intended to be recorded by Chaucer, and that the sun's declination, designed by him, was somewhere about thirteen degrees and a half North.

Strictly speaking, this declination would more properly apply to the 17th of April, in Chaucer's time, than to the 18th; but since he does not profess to critical exactness, and since it is always better to adhere to written authority, when it is not grossly and obviously corrupt, such MSS. as name the 18th of April ought to be respected; but Tyrwhitt's "28th," which he states not only as the result of his own conjecture but as authorised by the "the best MSS.," ought to be scouted at once.

In the latest edition of the "Canterbury Tales" (a literal reprint from one of the Harl. MSS., for the Percy Society, under the supervision of Mr. Wright), the opening of the Prologue to "The Man of Lawes Tale" does not materially differ from Tyrwhitt's text, excepting in properly assigning the day of the journey to "the eightetene day of April;" and the confirmation of the forenoon altitude is as follows:

"And sawe wel that the schade of every tree
Was in the lengthe the same quantite,
That was the body erecte that caused it."

But the afternoon observation is thus related:

"By that the Manciple had his tale endid,
The sonne fro the southe line is descendid
So lowe that it nas nought to my sight,
Degrees nyne and twenty as in hight.
_Ten_ on the clokke it was as I gesse,
For eleven foote, or litil more or lesse,
My schadow was at thilk time of the yere,
Of which feet as my lengthe parted were,
In sixe feet equal of proporcioun."

In a note to the line "Ten on the clokke" Mr. Wright observes,

"_Ten_. I have not ventured to change the reading of the Harl. MS.,
which is partly supported by that of the lands. MS., _than_."

If the sole object were to present an exact counterpart of the MS., of course even its errors were to be respected: but upon no other grounds can I understand why a reading should be preserved by which broad sunshine is attributed to ten o'clock at night! Nor can I believe that the copyist of the MS. with whom the error must have originated would have set down anything so glaringly absurd, unless he had in his own mind some means of reconciling it with probability. It may, I believe, be explained in the circumstance that "ten" and "four," in horary reckoning, were _convertible terms_. The old Roman method of naming the hours, wherein noon was the sixth, was long preserved, especially in conventual establishments: and I have no doubt that the English idiomatic phrase "o'clock" originated in the necessity for some distinguishing mark between hours "of the clock" reckoned from midnight, and hours of the day reckoned from sunrise, or more frequently from six A.M. With such an understanding, it is clear that _ten_ might be called _four_, and _four ten_, and yet the same identical hour to be referred to; nor is it in the least difficult to imagine that some monkish transcriber, ignorant perhaps of the meaning of "o'clock," might fancy he was correcting, rather that corrupting, Chaucer's text, by changing "foure" into "ten."

I have, I trust, now shown that all these circumstances related by Chaucer, so far from being hopelessly incongruous, are, on the contrary, harmoniously consistent;--that they all tend to prove that the day of the journey to Canterbury could not have been later than the 18th of April;--that the times of observation were certainly 10 A.M. and 4 P.M.;--that the "arke of his artificial day" is to be understood as the horizontal or azimuthal arch;--and that the "halfe cours in the Ram" alludes to the completion of the last twelve degrees of that sign, about the end of the second week in April.

There yet remains to be examined the signification of those three very obscure lines which immediately follow the description, already quoted, of the afternoon observation:

"Therewith the Mones exaltacioun
In mena Libra, alway gan ascende
As we were entryng at a townes end."

It is the more unfortunate that we should not be certain what it was that Chaucer really did write, inasmuch as he probably intended to present, in these lines, some means of identifying the year, similar to those he had previously given with respect to the day.

When Tyrwhitt, therefore, remarks, "In what year this happened Chaucer does not inform us"--he was not astronomer enough to know that if Chaucer had meant to leave, in these lines, a record of the moon's place on the day of the journey, he could not have chosen a more certain method of informing us in what year it occurred.

But as the present illustration has already extended far enough for the limits of a single number of "NOTES AND QUERIES," I shall defer the {387} investigation of this last and greatest difficulty to my next communication.

A. E. B.

Leeds, April 29.

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DUTCH FOLK-LORE.

1. A baby laughing in its dreams is conversing with the angels.

2. Rocking the cradle when the babe is not in it, is considered injurious to the infant, and a prognostic of its speedy death.

3. A strange dog following you is a sign of good luck.

4. A stork settling on a house is a harbinger of happiness. To kill such a bird would be sacrilege.

5. If you see a shooting star, the wish you form before its disappearance will be fulfilled.

6. A person born with a caul is considered fortunate.

7. Four-leaved clover brings luck to the person who finds it unawares.

8. An overturned salt-cellar is a ship wrecked. If a person take salt and spill it on the table, it betokens a strife between him and the person next to whom it fell. To avert the omen, he must lift up the shed grains with a knife, and throw them behind his back.

9. After eating eggs in Holland, you must break the shells, or the witches would sail over in them to England. The English don't know under what obligations they are to the Dutch for this custom. Please to tell them.

10. If you make a present of a knife or scissors, the person receiving must pay something for it; otherwise the friendship between you would be cut off.

11. A tingling ear denotes there is somebody speaking of you behind your back. If you hear the noise in the right one, he praises you; if on the left side, he is calling you a scoundrel, or something like that. But, never mind! for if, in the latter case, you bite your little finger, the evil speaker's tongue will be in the same predicament. By all means, don't spare your little finger!

12. If, at a dinner, a person yet unmarried be placed inadvertently between a married couple, be sure he or she will get a partner within the year. It's a pity it must be inadvertently.

13. If a person when rising throw down his chair, he is considered guilty of untruth.

14. A potato begged or stolen is a preservative against rheumatism. Chestnuts have the same efficacy.

15. The Nymphæa, or water-lily, whose broad leaves, and clear white or yellow cups, float upon the water, was esteemed by the old Frisians to have a magical power. "I remember, when a boy," says Dr. Halbertsma, "that we were extremely careful in plucking and handling them; for if any one fell with such a flower in his possession, he became immediately subject to fits."

16. One of my friends cut himself. A manservant being present secured the knife hastily, anointed it with oil, and putting it into the drawer, besought the patient not to touch it for some days. Whether the cure was effected by this sympathetic means, I can't affirm; but cured it was: so, don't be alarmed.

17. If you feel on a sudden a shivering sensation in your back, there is somebody walking over your future grave.

18. A person speaking by himself will die a violent death.

19. Don't go under a ladder, for if you do you will be hanged.

* a ?

Amsterdam.

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Minor Notes.

_Verses in Pope_--_"Bug" or "Bee."_--Pope, in the _Dunciad_, speaking of the purloining propensities of Bays, has the lines:

"Next o'er his books his eyes began to roll,
In pleasing memory of all he stole;
How here he sipp'd, how there he plunder'd snug,
And suck'd all o'er, like an industrious bug."

In reading these lines, some time ago, I was forcibly struck with the incongruity of the terms "sipp'd" and "industrious" as applied to "bug;" and it occurred to me that Pope may have originally written the passage with the words "free" and "bee," as the rhymes of the two last lines. My reasons for this conjecture are these: 1st. Because Pope is known to have been very fastidious on the score of coarse or vulgar expressions; and his better judgment would have recoiled from the use of so offensive a word as "bug." 2ndly. Because, as already stated, the terms "sipp'd" and "industrious" are inapplicable to a bug. Of the bug it may be said, that it "sucks" and "plunders;" but it cannot, with any propriety, be predicated of it, as of the bee, that it "sips" and is "industrious." My impression is, that when Pope found he was doing too much honour to Tibbald by comparing him to a bee, he substituted the word "bug" and its corresponding rhyme, without reflecting that some of the epithets, already applied to the one, are wholly inapplicable to the other.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, March, 1851.

_Rub-a-dub._--This word is put forward as an instance of how new words are still formed with a view to similarity of sound with the sound of what they are intended to express, by Dr. Francis Lieber, in a "Paper on the Vocal Sounds of Laura Bridgeman compared with the Elements of Phonetic Language," and its authorship is assigned {388} to Daniel Webster, who said in a speech of July 17, 1850:

"They have been beaten incessantly every month, and every day, and
every hour, by the din, and roll, and _rub-a-dub_ of the Abolition
presses."

Dr. L. adds:

"No dictionary in my possession has _rub-a-dub_; by and by the
lexicographer will admit this, as yet, half-wild word."

My note is, that though this word be not recognised by the dictionaries, yet it is by no means so new as Dr. L. supposes; for I distinctly remember that, some four-and-twenty years ago, one of those gay-coloured books so common on the shelves of nursery libraries had, amongst other equally _recherché_ couplets, the following attached to a gaudy print of a military drum:

"Not a _rub-a-dub_ will come
To sound the music of a drum:"

--no great authority certainly, but sufficient to give the word a greater antiquity than Dr. L. claims for it; and no doubt some of your readers will be able to furnish more dignified instances of its use.

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield.

[To this it may be added, that _Dub-a-dub_ is found in Halliwell's
_Arch. Gloss._ with the definition, "To beat a drum; also, the blow on
the drum. 'The dub-a-dub of honour.' Woman is a weathercock, p. 21.,
there used metaphorically." Mr. Halliwell might also have cited the
nursery rhyme:

"Sing rub-a-dub-dub,
Three men in a tub."]

_Quotations._--

1. "In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke."

Quoted in _Much Ado about Nothing_, Act I. Sc. 1.

Mr. Knight (Library Edition, ii. 379.) says this line is from Hieronymo, but gives no reference, and I have not found it. In a sonnet by Thomas Watson (A.D. 1560-91) occurs the line (see Ellis's _Specimens_)--

"In time the bull is brought to bear the yoke."

Whence did Shakspeare quote the line?

2. "_Nature's mother-wit._" This phrase is found in Dryden's "Ode to St. Cecilia," and also in Spenser, _Faerie Queene_, book iv. canto x. verse 21. Where does it first occur?

3. "The divine chit-chat of Cowper." Query, Who first designated the "Task" thus? Charles Lamb uses the phrase as a quotation. (See _Final Memorials of Charles Lamb_, i. 72.)

J. H. C.

Adelaide, South Australia.

_Minnis._--There are (or there were) in East Kent seven Commons known by the local term "Minnis," viz., 1. Ewell Minnis; 2. River do.; 3. Cocclescombe do.; 4. Swingfield do.; 5. Worth do.; 6. Stelling do.; 7. Rhode do. Hasted (_History of Kent_) says he is at a loss for the origin of the word, unless it be in the Latin "Mina," a certain quantity of land, among different nations of different sizes; and he refers to Spelman's _Glossary_, verbum "Mina."

Now the only three with which I am acquainted, River, Ewell, and Swingfield Minnis, near Dover, are all on high ground; the two former considerably elevated above their respective villages.

One would rather look for a Saxon than a Celtic derivation in East Kent; but many localities, &c. there still retain British or Celtic names, and eminently so the stream that runs through River and Ewell, the Dour or Dwr, _unde_, no doubt, Dover, where it disembogues into the sea. May we not therefore likewise seek in the same language an interpretation of this (at least as far as I know) hitherto unexplained term?

In Armorican we find "Menez" and "Mene," a mount. In the kindred dialect, Cornish, "Menhars" means a boundary-stone; "Maenan" (Brit.), stoney moor; "Mynydh" (Brit.), a mountain, &c.

As my means of research are very limited, I can only hazard a conjecture, which it will give me much pleasure to see either refuted or confirmed by those better informed.

A. C. M.

_Brighton._--It is stated in Lyell's _Principles of Geology_, that in the reign of Elizabeth the town of Brighton was situated on that tract where the Chain Pier now extends into the sea; that in 1665 twenty-two tenements still remained under the cliffs; that no traces of the town are perceptible; that the sea has resumed its ancient position, the site of the old town having been merely a beach abandoned by the ocean for ages. On referring to the "Attack of the French on Brighton in 1545," as represented in the engraving in the _Archæologia_, April 14, 1831, I find the town standing _apparently_ just where it is now, with "a felde in the middle," but with some houses on the beach opposite what is not Pool Valley, on the east side of which houses the French are landing; the beach end of the road from Lewes.

A. C.

_Voltaire's "Henriade."_--I have somewhere seen an admirable translation of this poem into English verse. Perhaps you can inform me of the author's name. The work seems to be scarce, as I recollect having seen it but once: it was published, I think, about thirty years ago. (See _antè_, p. 330.)

The house in which Voltaire was born, at Chatnaye, about ten miles from Paris, is now the property of the Comtesse de Boigne, widow of the General de Boigne, and daughter of the Marquis d'Osmond, who was ambassador here during the reign of Louis XVIII. The mother of the poet being on a visit with _the then_ proprietor (whose name I cannot recollect), was unexpectedly confined. There is a street in the village called the Rue Voltaire. The Comtesse de Boigne is my {389} authority for the fact of the poet's birth having taken place in her house.

A. J. M.

Alfred Club.

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Queries.

THE BLAKE FAMILY.

The renowned Admiral Blake, a native of Bridgewater, and possessed of property in the neighbourhood, left behind him a numerous family of brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, settled in the county of Somerset; to wit, his brothers Humphrey, William, George, Nicholas, Benjamin, and Alexander all survived him, as did also his sisters, Mrs. Bowdich, of Chard, and Mrs. Smith, of Cheapside, in London. His brother Samuel, killed in an early part of the Civil War, left two sons, Robert and Samuel, both of them honourably remembered in the will of their great uncle. Can any of your readers, acquainted with Somerset genealogies, give me any information which may enable me to make out the descent of the present families of Blake, in that county, from this stock?

There are at least two Blake houses now in existence, who are probably of the blood of the illustrious admiral; the Blakes of Bishop's Hall, near Taunton, of which William Blake, Esq., a magistrate for the county, is the head; and the Blakes of Venue House, Upton, near Wiveliscombe, the representative of which is Silas Wood Blake, son of Dr. William Blake, a bencher of the Inner Temple. These families possess many relics of the admiral--family papers, cabinets, portrait, and even estates; and that they are of his blood there are other reasons for believing; but, so far as I know, the line is not clearly traced back. In a funeral sermon spoken on the death of the grandfather of the present William Blake, Esq., of Bishop's Hall, I find it stated that--

"He was descended from pious and worthy ancestors; a collateral branch
of the family of that virtuous man, great officer, and true patriot,
Admiral Blake. His grandfather, the Rev. Malachi Blake, a Nonconformist
minister, resided at Blogden, four miles from Taunton. This gentleman,
by his pious labours, laid the foundation of the dissenting
congregation at Wellington, in the county of Somerset. After the defeat
of the Duke of Monmouth, to whose cause he had been friendly, he was
obliged to flee from home, and went to London disguised in a lay-dress,
with a tye-wig and a sword."

This minister had three sons, John, Malachi, and William; and it is from the last named that the Blakes of Bishop's Hall are descended. But who was the father of Malachi Blake himself? He was probably a son or grandson of one of the admiral's brothers--but of which?

Permit me to add to this Query another remark. I am engaged in writing a Life of Admiral Blake, and shall be extremely grateful to any of your correspondents who can and will direct me, either through the medium of your columns or by private communication, to any new sources of information respecting his character and career. A meagre pamphlet being the utmost that has yet been given to the memory of this great man, the entire story of his life has to be built up from the beginning. Fragments of papers, scraps of information, however slight, may therefore be of material value. A date or a name may contain an important clue, and will be thankfully acknowledged. Of course I do not wish to be referred to information contained in well-known collections, such as Thurloe, Rushworth, Whitelock, and the Parliamentary Histories, nor to the Deptford MSS. in the Tower, the Admiralty papers in the State Paper Office, or the Ashmole MSS. at Oxford. I am also acquainted, of course, with several papers in the national collection of MSS. at the British Museum throwing light on the subject; but while these MSS. remain in their present state, it would be very rash in any man to say what is _not_ to be found in them. Should any one, in reading for his own purposes, stumble on a fact of importance for me in these MSS., I shall be grateful for a communication; but my appeal is rather made to the possessors of old family papers. There must, I think, be many letters--though he was a brief and abrupt correspondent--of the admiral's still existing in the archives of old Puritan families. These are the materials of history of which I am most in need.

HEPWORTH DIXON.

84. St. John's Wood Terrace.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_John Holywood the Mathematician._--Is the birthplace of this distinguished scholar known? Leland, Bale, and Pits assert him to have been born at Halifax, in Yorkshire; Stanyhurst says, at Holywood, near Dublin; and according to Dempster and Mackenzie, at Nithsdale, in Scotland.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Essay on the Irony of Sophocles, &c._--Who is the author of the _Essay on the Irony of Sophocles_, which has been termed the most exquisite piece of criticism in the English language?

Is it Cicero who says,

"Malo cum Platone errare, quam cum aliis rectè sentire?"

And who embodied the somewhat contradictory maxim,--

"Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas?"

NEMO.

_Meaning of Mosaic._--What is the exact meaning and derivation of the word Mosaic as a term in art?

H. M. A.

{390}

_Stanedge Pole._--Can any one inform me in what part of Yorkshire the antiquarian remains of Stanedge Pole are situated; and where the description of them is to be found?

A. N.

_Names of the Ferret._--I should be much obliged by any one of your readers informing me what peculiar names are given to the male and female ferret? Do they occur any where in any author? as by knowing how the words are spelt, we may arrive at their etymology.

T. LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

_Colfabias._--Can any of your learned correspondents furnish the origin and meaning of this word? It was the name of the _privy_ attached to the Priory of Holy Trinity in Dublin; and still is to be seen in old leases of that religious house (now Christ Church Cathedral), spelled sometimes as above, and other times _coolfabioos_.

The present dean and chapter are quite in the dark upon the subject. I hope you will be able to give us a little light from your general stock.

A CH. CH. MAN.

Dublin.

_School of the Heart._--This work consists of short poems similar in character and merit to Quarles's _Emblems_, and adorned with cuts of the same class. I have at hand none but modern editions, and in these the production is ascribed to Quarles. But Montgomery, in his _Christian Poet_, quotes the _School of the Heart_, without explanation, as the work of Thomas Harvey, 1647. Can any of your readers throw light on this matter?

S. T. D.

_Milton and the Calves-head Club._--I quote the following from _The Secret History of the Calves-head Club: or the Republican Unmasqu'd_, 4to., 1703. The author is relating what was told him by "a certain active Whigg, who, in all other respects, was a man of probity enough."

"He further told me that Milton, and some other creatures of the
Commonwealth, had instituted this Club [the Calves-head Club], as he
was inform'd, in opposition to Bp. Juxon, Dr. Sanderson, Dr. Hammond,
and other divines of the Church of England, who met privately every
30th of January; and though it was under the Time of Usurpation, had
compil'd a private Form of Service for the Day, not much different from
what we now find in the Liturgy."

Do any of Milton's biographers mention his connexion with this club? Does the form of prayer compiled by Juxon, Sanderson, and Hammond exist?

K. P. D. E.

_David Rizzio's Signature._--Can any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" furnish the applicant with either a fac-simile or a minute description of the signature and handwriting of David Rizzio? The application is made in order to the verification of a most remarkable alleged instance of clairvoyance, recorded at large in a volume on that and its kindred subjects just published by Dr. Gregory of Edinburgh.

F. K.

_Lambert Simnel--Was this his real Name?_--It occurs to me that we are not in possession of the real name of Lambert Simnel, the famous claimant of the crown of England. We are told that he was the son of a baker; and we learn from Johnson's _Dictionary_ that the word "simnel" signified a kind of sweet-bread or cake. Now, considering the uncertainty and mutability of surnames in former times, I am led to suspect that "Simnel" may have been a nickname first applied to his father, in allusion to his trade; and I am strengthened in my suspicion by not finding any such name as "Simnel" in any index of ancient names. Could any of your correspondents throw light on this question, or tell whether Lambert left any posterity?

T.

_Honor of Clare, Norfolk._--I have seen a letter, dated about 1702, in the possession of a gentleman of this town, which alludes "_To His Majesty's Honor of Clare_;" and I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can render me any information as to whether there are any documents relative to this "_Honor_" in existence: and if so, where they are to be met with? for I much wish to be informed what fragments were made from _South Green_ (a part of this town), which was held of the above mentioned "Honor," and by whom made; and further, who is the collector of them at this period?

J. N. C.

_Sponge._--When was the sponge of commerce first known in England?

THUDT.

_Babington's Conspiracy._--Miss Strickland, in her life of Queen Elizabeth (_Lives of the Queens of England_, vol. vii. p. 33.), after describing the particulars of this plot, adds in a Note,--

"After his condemnation, Babington wrote a piteous letter of
supplication to Elizabeth, imploring her mercy for the sake of his wife
and children."--Rawlinson _MSS._, Oxford, vol. 1340. No. 55. f. 19.

A copy of a letter to which the description given by Miss Strickland would apply, has been lately found among some papers originally belonging to Lord Burleigh; and it would be very desirable to compare it with the letter said to be in the Rawlinson collection. I have, however, authority for saying that the reference above quoted is incorrect. I should be very glad indeed to find whether the letter referred to by Miss Strickland is printed in any collection, or to trace the authority for the reference given in the _Lives of the Queens_. The MS. copies in the British Museum are known.

J. BT.

_Family of Sir John Banks._--R. H. wishes to be informed how many children were left by {391} Sir John Banks, Lord Chief Justice in Charles I.'s reign: also, whether any one of these settled at Keswick: and also, whether Mr. John Banks of that place, the philosopher, as he was called, was really a lineal descendant of Sir John B., as he is stated to have been by the author of an old work on the Lakes?

R. C. H. H.

_Sewell, Meaning of._--It is usual in some deer-parks in different parts of England, but more especially, as far as my own knowledge goes, in Kent, for the keepers, when they wish to drive and collect the deer to one spot, to lay down for this purpose what they call _sewells_ (I may be wrong as to the orthography), which are simply long lines with feathers attached at intervals, somewhat after the fashion of the tails of kites. These "sewells," when stretched at length on the ground, the herd of deer will very rarely pass; but on coming up will check themselves suddenly when in full career, and wheel about. The same contrivance was in use in Virgil's time for the same purpose, under the name of _formido_ (_Geor._ iii. 372.):--"Puniceæve agitant pavidos formidine pennæ." Can any of your readers help me to the origin of the modern term _sewell_?

H. C. K.

---- Rectory, Hereford.

_Abel represented with Horns._--In one of the windows of King's College Chapel, the subject of which is the Death of Abel, the artist has given him a pair of _horns_. Can any of your readers explain this?