Chapter I: Front Matter

volumes and pages in "Notes and Queries" was added at the end.]

NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION

FOR

LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

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

VOL. III.--No. 86. SATURDAY, JUNE 21. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition, 4_d._

CONTENTS.

NOTES:--

Notes on Books, No. I.: Mackintosh on Ogilvie's Essay
on the Right of Property in Land, by S. W. Singer 489

Notes on Ireland, No. I.: Freedom from Serpents 490

Canons and Articles of 1571 491

On Two Passages in Dryden, by H. H. Breen 492

Minor Notes:--Lord Edward Fitzgerald's Mother--Chaucer
and Gray--Shakspeare Family--Epitaph on Dr. Humphrey
Tindall--Specimens of Composition--Burke's "mighty Boar
of the Forest" 492

QUERIES:--

Queries on Tennyson 493

Ancient Modes of hanging Bells, by Rev. A. Gatty 493

Minor Queries:--English Sapphics--Equestrian Statues--Plays
in Churches--"The Right Divine of Kings to govern
wrong"--Serius, where situated?--Hollander's Austerity,
&c.--Brother Jonathan--Authorship of the "Groves of
Blarney"--Carnaby--Death of Death's Painter--Book
Plates--Querelle d'Allemand--Bassenet of Eaton--Dumore
Castle, or the Petrified Fort--Charles Dodd, the
Ecclesiastical Historian--Ussher's Works, by
Dr. Elrington--Family of Etty the Artist--St. Hibbald 494

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Unde derivatur "Gooseberry
Fool?"--Biography of Bishop Hurd--Friday,
why considered unlucky--The Lord Mayor a Privy
Councillor--Alterius Orbis Papa--Mrs. Elstob--Cardinal
Bellarmin 496

REPLIES:--

Shakspeare's Use of "Captious" and "Intenible."
Shakspeare's "Small Latin" 497

Earth thrown upon the Coffin, by Rev. A. Gatty, &c. 499

On the Word "Prenzie" in "Measure for Measure," by John
Taylor 499

Zacharie Boyd 500

Replies to Minor Queries:--Death, how symbolised--A
Kemble Pipe--Flemish Work on the Order of St.
Franciscus--Meaning of Tick--Spelling of Britannia,
&c.--Fossil Elk of Ireland--"In Time the Bull,"
&c.--Baldrock--Epitaph--Prayer of Mary Queen of
Scots--Aristophanes on the Modern Stage--The White
Rose--Mark for a Dollar--Gillingham--On the Lay of
the Last Minstrel, &c.--Lines on Temple--Sewell, Meaning
of--Lambert Simnel--Tennyson's "In Memoriam"--The second
King of Nineveh who burned his Palace--Legend in Frettenham
Church--Natural Daughter of James II.--Clarkson's
Richmond--MSS. of Sir Thomas Phillipps--Meaning
of Pilcher--Antiquity of Smoking--Principle of
Association--Corpse makes a Right of Way--Chloe--Family
of Sir J. Banks--Verse Lyon--Heronsewes--Theory of the
Earth's Form--Mythology of the Stars--Topical
Memory--Eisell--Four Want Way--Meaning of Carfoix--A
regular Mull--William Hone--The Rev. Mr. Gay--Lady
Mary Cavendish--Hand giving the Blessing--The Oldenburg
Horn--Covey--Davy Jones's Locker--Umbrella--Nao,
a Ship--Birth of Spenser, &c. 501

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 510

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 510

Notices to Correspondents 511

Advertisements 511

Notes.

NOTES ON BOOKS, NO. I.

_Mackintosh on Ogilvie's Essay on the Right of Property in Land._

At the dispersion of the library of the late Sir James Mackintosh, striking evidence of his extensive reading appeared. It seems to have been his custom to always read with a pencil in his hand, to score the remarkable passages, and to make occasional notes; generally at the end of the book he indicates the place where, and date when he read it.

One remarkable and not uninteresting example occurs in the following volume in my possession:

"An Essay on the Right of Property in Land, with respect to its
foundation in the Law of Nature: its present establishment by the
municipal laws of Europe; and the regulations by which it might be
rendered more beneficial to the lower ranks of Mankind." London,
1782, 8vo.

On the inside of the cover Sir James Mackintosh has written:

"_Clapham Common_, July 18, 1828.--An ingenious and benevolent,
but injudicious book, which is a good example of the difficulty of
forming plans for the service of mankind. To the author, an
accomplished recluse, a lettered enthusiast of no vulgar talent or
character, I owe the cultivation of a sense of the beautiful in
poetry and eloquence, for which at the distance of near half a
century I feel a lively gratitude. It was written by _William
Ogilvie_, Professor of Humanity in King's College, Aberdeen. I
even now recollect passages of his Translation of the 4th Book of
the Eneid.--J. MACKINTOSH."

I have found a corroboration of the estimate above given of this person, by another of his countrymen, James Ogilvie (who appears to have been an itinerant teacher of oratory in America) in a volume of _Philosophical Essays_ published in Philadelphia in 1816. Speaking of a gifted native of Scotland of the name of McAllester, settled in the far west, near Bard's Town, and lamenting that he should choose to bury his talents in obscurity and indolence, the writer says:

"He came nearer to the character of a scientific sage than any
human being the narrator has ever known, with the exception of
_William Ogilvie_, Professor of Humanity in King's College, Old
Aberdeen, Author of a profound original 'Essay on the Right of
Property in Land.'"

The book itself is, in some respects at least, well worthy of attention, and especially at the present moment, when the subject it embraces presses itself upon all men's consideration. On _emigration_, for instance, Ogilvie has some anticipatory views: thus he observes with truth:

"To increase the prosperity and the happiness of the greater
number, is the primary object of government, and the increase of
national happiness must be the increase of national strength. Is
it not then the duty, and perhaps also the interest of every
legislature in the West of Europe to promote the emigration of its
less opulent subjects, until the condition of the lower classes of
men at home be rendered nearly as comfortable as the condition of
the same classes in the new settlements of North America?"--Pp.
50, 51.

Just now, when the Property Tax is to receive the mature consideration of the legislature, the following passage, which also anticipates the public feeling as expressed lately by an influential part of the press, deserves to be cited:

"Without regard to the original value of the soil, the gross
amount of property in land is the fittest subject of taxation; and
could it be made to support the whole expense of the public, great
advantages would arise to all orders of men. What then, may it be
said, would not, in that case, the proprietors of stock in trade,
in manufactures, and arts, escape taxation, that is, the
proprietors of one half of the national income? They would indeed
be so exempted; and very justly, and very profitably for the
state; for _it accords with the best interests of the community
through successive generations, that_ ACTIVE PROGRESSIVE INDUSTRY
SHOULD BE EXEMPTED, IF POSSIBLE, FROM EVERY PUBLIC BURTHEN, _and
that the whole weight should be laid on that quiescent stock,
which has been formerly accumulated, as the reward of an industry
which is now no longer exerted_."--P. 207.

In another work on political economy, Sir James has also recorded his opinion, and indicated some passages, which have been copied by Godwin. The work is: _Doutes Proposés aux Philosophes Economistes sur l'Ordre Naturel et Essentiel des Sociétés Politiques, par M. l'Abbé de Mably_: à la Haye, 1768, 8vo.

"This book is a greater mixture of sense and nonsense than any
other I ever read. What he says against the _Political_ jargon of
the Economists, their evidence and their _despotisme légal_, is
perfectly well reasoned. His own system of ascribing all evils to
the Institution _of Separate Property_ is too absurd for any
serious discussion."

It is pleasant to have these recorded opinions of such a man as Mackintosh on books the subjects of which he had deeply meditated. Indeed, to me there is a great charm in such private memoranda of a distinguished and able man, giving the passing impression on his mind in the course of his reading.

S. W. SINGER.

Mickleham, June 7. 1851.

NOTES ON IRELAND, NO. I.

_Notes on Ireland's Freedom from Serpents._

That Ireland was infested with venomous reptiles before St. Patrick's time, that he banished them, "_and that serpents cannot survive in Ireland_," is a well-known tradition, and one universally received amongst the native Irish. In Christian symbolism it was usual to designate sin or Paganism by a serpent or dragon, and saints who converted heathen nations, or subdued the evil promptings of their own nature, were represented with a serpent or dragon beneath their feet. Thus, St. Patrick, by preaching the doctrine of the Cross, and uprooting Paganism, may be said to have banished venomous serpents from Ireland. In his case, however, the symbol may have had a deeper meaning, if, as many (and with great probability) think, _serpent worship_ formed part of that Oriental heathenism which obtained in early times in Ireland.

Dr. Geoffry Keating, in his _History of Ireland_ (in the Irish language), which he completed about the year 1625, says: "Saoilim gurab do an _deamhnaibk_ gairmithear _naithreacha nimke_ i m-beathaidh Patraic" ("I think that by the serpents spoken of in the life of St. Patrick were meant _demons_"). _Serpents_ figure among the carvings and hieroglyphical ornaments on some of the remnants of Irish antiquity which still puzzle our antiquaries. On Cruach Padruig, in Mayo, there is a sort of tarn which still bears the name of Loch na Pheiste, or the Serpent's Lake; and one of "the Two Lakes," whence Gleandaloch derives its name, has the same appellation.

Solinus, who flourished at the close of the second century, notices, I believe, the strange fact of Ireland's having an immunity from reptiles; Isidore and Bede, in the seventh and eighth centuries, respectively repeat the assertion. Donatus, Bishop of Fesulæ, who flourished about the middle of the ninth century, says, in a Latin poem on his native country:

"Nulla venena nocent; nec Serpens serpit in herbâ;
Nec conquesta canit garrula Rana lacu
In qua Scotorum gentes habitare merentur;
Inclyta gens hominum, milite, pace, fide."

"Rana." A note on this word in Montgomery's _Poetry of Ireland_ declares:

"However fabulous this may appear, it is certain that _Frogs_ were
formerly unknown in this country: _they were first propagated here
from spawn introduced as an experiment by a Fellow of Trinity
College, Dublin, in 1696_."

Joceline of Furnes, Sir James Ware, Fynes Moryson, and several others, notice the absence of serpents in Ireland.

A Belfast correspondent to the _Dublin Penny Journal_, June, 1834, mentions some cases of _introducing reptiles_ into Ireland:

"About 1797, a gentleman is said to have imported from England
into Wexford, a number of vipers:"

they died immediately after. He continues:--

"We are sorry to record that the virtues of the good old times
have passed away, _as snakes are at this moment_ (June, 1834)
_free denizens of the County of Down, and gambolling in its
shrubberies and plantings_."

The particulars are as follows:

"In the summer of 1831, a gentleman, by way of experiment to
ascertain whether snakes would survive in Ireland, brought from
Scotland a few pair of what are usually called the common snake
(_Coluber natrix_). These he put into a plantation at Milecross,
near Newtownards, where they soon from their number gave evidence
of becoming as fruitful as if they had been placed in South
Carolina."

I have not heard how long the snakes continued at Milecross, but I believe they are not there now. The Marquis of W----d, I have heard, in a similar freak, endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to propagate snakes on his property.

The usual Irish word for _serpent_ is _nathair_; Welsh, _gnadr_; German, _natter_; Anglo-Saxon, _nædre_; Latin, _natrix_; English, _adder_. The epithet _nimhe_, poison, is often added, and a compound word made, _nathair-neimhe_.

_Peist_, a word I have before alluded to, is analogous with the Latin _best-ia_, and means a _worm_, a _beast_, as well as a _serpent_.

EIRIONNACH.

CANONS AND ARTICLES OF 1571.

Dearest Sir,

Yours of the 4th I showed to Mr. Baker, who desires me to tell you, that the Canons of 1571, with the subscriptions, are (as the Articles) in paper bound up in the same volume of the _Synodalia_, and stand there next to the "Articles of 1571" subscribed by the Archbishop and ten Bishops.

I agree with you that the MS. of 1562 was designed to be subscribed without alterations; but your reasons do not satisfy me that the alterations were posterior to the subscription, for notwithstanding the alterations it appeared very plain to the subscribers what they subscribed to, and there needed no memorandum to them that the lines of minium were designed to exclude all that was scored; and the care that was taken to alter the account of the number of lines and Articles of the several pages conformably to the alterations made by the lines of minium was wholly unnecessary, and to no purpose, except the subscriptions were to follow, in the middle of which the subscribers own the exact number of Articles and lines in every page, and therefore this care was necessary that their subscription might be true; but supposing they subscribed before the alterations, the lines of minium were sufficient to show what alterations were to be made in the new copy of the Articles, and not the least occasion for adjusting the number of Articles and lines at the end to the foregoing pages. But both these are but conjectures on your and my part, and the main point does not depend upon them, which is in my opinion, whether this MS. could be designed for the _Publick Record_, and that it was not I think the want of such a memorandum as you speak of, as well as the Archbishop leaving it to C. C. C. as his own property, is a sufficient evidence: though I must confess I am apt to think the postscript in the _Publick Record_ (which I take to be printed from the record in Renald Wolfe's edition of 1563 referred to by your adversary) refers to this MS., and the subscriptions to it of both houses.

Mr. Baker nor I had Gibson's _Synod. Anglicana_; but this morning I got a sight of it from the booksellers, and have sent it to Mr. Baker, who I hope will make a better use of it than I am able to do; the passage you refer to favours an opinion that I have had, that the subscriptions were left in the keeping of the President of the Convocation, the Archbishop or Bishop of London; but that a _Publick Record_ (different from that with the subscriptions, and left with the President) was engrossed in parchment, and preserved in its proper place, the Registry of the Convocation; and thus that which Archbishop Laud found at Lambeth might be left there.

I cannot tell exactly the number of blank pages (whether three or more) between the subscription of the Bishops and of the Lower House in 1562. Both Mr. Baker and I omitted to take so much notice of it; but we both remember that there might be room in the MS. for the clause in the beginning of the twentieth Article, partly in the space between the nineteenth and the twentieth Article, and partly in the margin; or in the margin there might be room enough for the whole clause.

Rogers' first edition was 1579, under this title: "The English Creed, wherein is contained in tables an Exposition on the Articles, which every one is to subscribe unto. Where the Article is expounded by Scriptures and Confessions of all the Reformed Churches and Heresies displayed, by Thomas Rogers. Printed for Andrew Mansell, 1579, in fol." This title I transcribe from Andrew Mansell's printed Catalogue of Books, published 1595. I mentioned to you another edition in 1585, the first part, and 1587, the second part, with a new title and pretty great additions; and I think I told you the second part began with the twentieth Article. It may seem from thence that his first edition in 1579 was not upon all the Articles; but I believe it was, and that the other edition came not out both parts together, because of the additions. I am sorry you find it not among Mr. Anstey's books, nor can I find it here. With my humble service to your good lady, I am, dearest sir, your most affectionate humble servant,

THO. BROWNE.

The letter, of which the above is a transcript, may be interesting to some of your readers; I therefore send it you for publication; the name of the person to whom it was addressed, and the date, have been torn off.

(p).

[Thomas Browne, the writer of the foregoing letter, was a fellow
of St. John's College, Cambridge; but subsequently, with his
friend Mr. Baker, became a Nonjuror. The letter appears to have
been written to the Rev. Hilkiah Bedford, a Nonjuring clergyman,
who was at this time preparing his masterly reply to Anthony
Collins' work, _Priestcraft in Perfection_, which was published in
1709. Mr. Bedford's work was published anonymously, and is
entitled, _A Vindication of the Church of England from the
Aspersions of a late Libel entituled "Priestcraft in Perfection,"
&c._ By a Priest of the Church of England: London, 1710. The
preface has been attributed to Dr. Joseph Trapp. Mr. Bedford has
availed himself of the information conveyed to him in the letter
given above, especially in pages 32. 35. 42. 78. 84. At page 101.
he says, "I shall set down what farther account concerning this
ancient MS. I have received in several letters from two persons of
great learning and integrity at Cambridge, who have consulted
these MSS. of Corpus Christi formerly, and been so obliging to
examine them again now for my satisfaction, with all the care and
exactness due to a matter of such moment." The _minium_ mentioned
by the writer of the letter is the red lead pencil commonly used
by Archbishop Parker, for noting particular passages in the
documents he perused.]

ON TWO PASSAGES IN DRYDEN.

I have met with a notion in Dryden's _Poems_, which reads very like a blunder. It occurs in the "Spanish Friar," as follows:--

"There is a pleasure sure in being mad,
Which none but madmen know."

And again in this couplet:

"And frantic men in their mad actions show
A happiness, that none but madmen know;"

There is a description of madness to which all men are more or less subject, and which Pascal alludes to in one of his "Pensées:"

"Les hommes sont si nécessairement fous, que ce serait être fou
par un autre tour de folie, que de ne pas être fou:"

or, as Boileau has it in the couplet:

"Tous les hommes sont fous, et malgré leurs soins,
Ne diffèrent, entre eux, que du plus ou du moins."

There is another sort of madness which is described by Terence as

---- "cum ratione insanire."

And there is a third species of it, which Dryden himself speaks of in the well-known line adopted from Seneca:

"Great wits are sure to madness near allied."

Now, it is obvious that, in the passages above quoted from Dryden, he does not refer to any of these three kinds of madness. As a man, he could say in regard to the first:

"Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto."

As a man of the world his whole life was an exemplification of the second; for no one knew better than he how to be mad by rule. And as one of our greatest wits he was entitled to claim a near alliance to that madness which is characteristic of men of genius. It is clear, therefore, that, in the lines quoted above, he speaks of that total deprivation of reason, which is emphatically described as stark, staring madness; and hence the blunder. In point of fact, Dryden either knew the pleasure and happiness of which he speaks, as belonging to that sort of madness, or he did not know them. If he knew them, then by his own showing he was a madman. If he did not know them, how could he affirm that none but madmen knew them?

Should my view of this matter be incorrect, I shall be thankful to any of your readers who will take the trouble to set me right.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, April 15. 1851.

Minor Notes.

_Lord Edward Fitzgerald's Mother._--A highly respectable woman, recently living in my service, and who was born and bred in the household of the late Duke of Leinster, told me that, when she was a child, she was much about the person of "the old Duchess;" and that she had often seen the bloody handkerchief that was taken off Lord Edward Fitzgerald, after he had been shot at his capture. This relic of her unfortunate son the venerable and noble lady always wore stitched inside her dress. The peerage states that she was a daughter of the Duke of Richmond, was married in 1746-7, and bore seventeen children. As the arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald was not until 1798, she must have been full seventy years old when she thus mourned; reminding one in the sternness of her grief of the "Ladye of Branksome."

A. G.

_Chaucer and Gray._--Of all the oft-quoted lines from Gray's _Elegy_, there is not one which is more frequently introduced than the well-known

"E'en, in our ashes live their wonted fires."

Now Gray was an antiquary, and there is no doubt too well read in Chaucer. Is it too much, therefore, to suggest that he owed this line to one in Chaucer's "Reves Prologue:"

"Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken."

In Chaucer the sentiment it embodies is satirical:--

"For whan we may not don, than wol we speken,
Yet in our ashen cold is fire yreken."

In Gray, on the other hand, it is the moralist who solemnly declares:

"E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries,
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires."

But the coincidence cannot surely be accidental.

WILLIAM J. THOMS.

_Shakspeare Family._--In the _Rotulorum Patentium et Clausorum Cancellariæ Hiberniæ Calendarium_, vol. i. pars i. p. 99 b. is an entry, which shows that one Thomas _Shakespere_ and Richard Portyngale were appointed Comptrollers of Customs in the port of Youghal, in Ireland, in the fifty-first year of Edward III.

J. F. F.

_Epitaph on Dr. Humphrey Tindall_ (Vol. iii., p. 422.).--The epitaph in Killyleagh churchyard is not unlike the following inscription on the tomb of Umphrey Tindall, D.D., Dean of Ely and President of Queen's College, Cambridge, who died Oct 12, 1650, in his sixty-fifth year, and is buried in the south aisle of the choir of Ely Cathedral:--

"In presence, government, good actions, and in birth,
Grave, wise, courageous, noble, was this earth;
The poor, the Church, the College say, here lies
A friend, a Dean, a Master, true, good, wise."

K. C.

Cambridge.

_Specimens of Composition._--In the current (June) number of the _Eclectic Review_ there is a critique on Gilfillan's _Bards of the Bible_, the writer of which indulges in the use of several most inelegant, extraordinary, and unpardonable expressions. He speaks of "spiritual monoptotes," &c., as if all his readers were as learned as he himself professes to be: but the climax of his sorry literary attempt is as follows:

"Over the whole literature of modern times there is a feeling of
reduced inspiration, milder possession, relaxed orgasmus,
tabescent vitality, spiritual collapse."--P. 725.

What would the author of the _Spectator_ have thought of a writer who could unblushingly parade before the literary public such words as "relaxed orgasmus," "tabescent vitality," "monoptotes," &c.?

J. H. KERSHAW.

_Burke's "mighty Boar of the Forest."_--It has been much canvassed, what induced Burke to call Junius the "mighty boar of the forest." In the thirteenth book of the _Iliad_ I found that Idomeneus, when awaiting the attack of Æneas, is compared to the "boar of the mountains." I think it therefore probable that Burke applied the comparison (quoting, from memory) to Junius. Perhaps you will not think this trifle unworthy of a place among the "Notes."

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

Queries.

QUERIES ON TENNYSON.

I should be much obliged to any of your correspondents who would explain the following passages of Tennyson:

1. _Vision of Sin_ (_Poems_, p. 361.):

"God made himself an awful rose of dawn."

2. _Vision of Sin_ (_Poems_, p. 367.):

"Behold! it was a crime
Of sense avenged by sense that wore with time."

3. _In Memoriam_, p. 127.:

"Over those ethereal eyes
The bar of Michael Angelo."

(Coleridge, _Introduction to Second Lay Sermon_, p. xxvi., says:

"Whose ample foreheads, with the weighty bar, ridge-like, above
the eye-brows, bespoke observation followed by meditative
thought:"

but why the allusion to Michael Angelo?)

[Is our correspondent aware that the "_Bar_ of Michael Angelo" has
already formed the subject of a Query from MR. SINGER. See our 2nd
Vol., p. 166.]

4. _The Princess_, p. 66.:

"Dare we dream of that, I ask'd,
Which wrought us, as the workman and his work,
That practice betters."

"Heir of all the ages." Is this traceable to the following lines of Goethe?

"Mein Vermächtniss, wie herrlich weit und breit!
Die Zeit ist mein Vermächtniss, mein Acker ist die Zeit!"

Is the poem "The Lord of Burleigh" founded on fact or not? In an old review of Tennyson in the _Westminster and Foreign Quarterly_, it is stated to refer to the "mesalliance of the Marquis of Westminster;" but any such notion is denied in the article on "Ballad Poetry" in the last number of that journal.

ERYX.

ANCIENT MODES OF HANGING BELLS.

In the Churchwardens' accounts of Ecclesfield parish, the following entries occur:--

"1527. It. paid to James Frodsam for makyng of iiij bell
collers, xiiijd.

"----. It. paid to Robert Dawyre mendyng a bell
wheyll, iijd.

"1530. It. for festnynge a gogon in ye belle
yocke, jd."

The foregoing extracts are quoted with a view to ascertaining at how early a period the framework, now employed for suspending bells in churches, was in use. It would appear that in 1527 the bell-_wheel_ was known, and the bell swung on gudgeons ("gogon"), as it does now; but it may be doubted whether it was the same full wheel which we have. In a paper on Bells, read before the Bristol and West of England Architectural Society, Dec. 10, 1849, by the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, and which has since been published in that Society's Report, I observe that two interesting plates of the bell-wheels are given: one being the old half-wheel, as still to be seen at Dunchideock in Devonshire; and the other the present whole wheel, which Mr. Ellacombe considers was a new thing in 1677.

Supposing that only the half-wheel was known in 1725, still the leverage which it afforded in raising the bell was the same as is given by its modern substitute. What then was the still earlier way of obtaining the momentum necessary to peal-ringing? A drawing of an ancient campanile turret which I have, exhibits a short piece of wood stuck at right angles into the beam to which the bell is fastened; and from the end of this, the rope depends, and would, of course, when pulled, easily swing the bell on its axle.

Observation in old belfries, or illustrations in old books, would possibly throw light upon my Query, which is, What were the modes of hanging church bells for ringing, prior to the invention of the bell-wheel?

ALFRED GATTY.

Minor Queries.

_English Sapphics._--Can any of your readers furnish a list of the best specimens of the English sapphic metre in the English language?--Every one is familiar with Canning's _Needy Knife Grinder_, in the poetry of the _Anti-Jacobin_, but I do not believe Dr. Watts's beautiful sapphic lines are as well known as they deserve. I have not a copy of them by me, but I give the first stanza from memory:

"When the fierce North Wind, with his airy forces,
Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury,
And the red lightning, with a storm of hail, comes
Rushing amain down."

FM.

_Equestrian Statues._--I have heard it remarked that, with the solitary exception of the Duke of Wellington, there is no instance of an equestrian statue being erected to a subject, in Her Majesty's dominions. Is this so?

FM.

_Plays in Churches._--In Cooke's _Leicestershire_ the following is given as an extract from the church register of Syston:

"1602, paid to Lord Morden's players because they should not play
in the church, 12d."

Who was this Lord Morden; and did the chartered players claim the right of their predecessors, the "moralitie men," to use the church for their representations? Was the 12_d._ given as a bribe to the players to induce them to forego their claim, or expended in the hire of a place more in accordance with the parish authorities' ideas of propriety?

EMUN.

"_The Right Divine of Kings to govern wrong._"--Where is this oft-quoted line to be found, and who is the author of it? It is marked as a quotation in Pope's _Dunciad_, book iv.

S. WMSON.

_Serius, where situated?_--In requesting the information upon a point in geography with which this note concludes, I shall not, I trust, incur censure for introducing it by quoting a few of the lines in which the poet Vida conveys to parents his advice upon the choice of a master for their sons:

"Interea moniti vos hic audite, parentes,
Quærendus rector de millibus, eque legendus,
Sicubi Musarum studiis insignis et arte,
Qui curas dulces, carique parentis amorem
Induat, atque velit blandum perferre laborem.
* * * * *
Ille autem, pueri cui credita cura colendi,
Artibus egregiis, in primis optet amari,
Atque odium cari super omnia vitet alumni."

I cannot pass unnoticed his counsel to masters:

"Ponite crudeles iras, et flagra, magistri,
Foeda ministeria, atque minis absistite acerbis.
Ne mihi ne, quæso, puerum quis verbera cogat
Dura pati; neque enim lacrymas, aut dulcis alumni
Ferre queunt Musæ gemitus, ægræque recedunt,
Illiusque cadunt animi," &c.

Vida exemplifies the consequences of the furious character and raging conduct of a master, in the harsh treatment of his defenceless flock (_turba invalida_), in the instance of a lovely boy, who, forgetful of fear,

"Post habuit ludo jussos ediscere versus."

The terror excited by the savage pedagogue throws the poor little fellow into a fatal illness:

"Quo subito terrore puer miserabilis acri
Corripitur morbo; parvo is post tempore vitam
Crescentem blandâ coeli sub luce reliquit.
Illum populifer Padus, illum _Serius_ imis
_Seriades_que diu Nymphæ flevere sub undis."

_Vidæ Poet._, lib, i. 216. &c.

My inquiry is after _Serius Seriades_que Nymphæ. Where is the Serius? What is the Italian name for this (I presume) tributary of the Po?

F. W. F.

_Hollander's Austerity, &c._--Will you, or some one of your readers, kindly explain the allusions in the following passage?--

"Mr. Secretary Winwood is dead, whereby you see _Death expects no
Complement_, otherwise he would certainly have _kept it at the
Staff's End_, with a kind of _Hollander's austerity_." [Sir Th.
Wentworth to Sir H. Wotton, Nov. 8. 1617, _Strafford's Letters and
Despatches_, vol. i. p. 5.]