Chapter II: Canto IV: of Childe Harold, stanza 182 (1)

"Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee--
Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, what are they?
Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant since; their shores obey
The stranger, slave, or savage; their decay
Has dried up realms to deserts:--not so thou,
Unchangeable save to thy wild waves' play--
Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow--
Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now."

I have copied out to the end of the stanza; for in fact it is not easy to stop the pen when copying such stanzas as these: but my business is with the fourth and fifth lines only. In the fourth line, as you will observe, a semicolon is inserted after the word "since." I find it there in the first edition of the fourth canto of _Childe Harold_, published in 1818; it is there in the standard edition of Lord Byron's _Works_, issued by Murray about 1832; it is there in the splendid illustrated edition of _Childe Harold_ published by Murray in 1841,--one of the finest books of the kind, if not the finest, that has yet done honour to the English press. This punctuation is found, therefore, in the earliest edition that was issued, and in those on which the most care has been bestowed. Yet what is the sense which the lines thus punctuated present?

"Thy waters wasted them [_i.e._ the empires] while
they were free,
And many a tyrant since."

They waters wasted many a tyrant? How, in the name of wonder? What sort of an occupation is this to assign to the majestic ocean? Does the poet mean to assert that anciently it wasted empires, and now it only wastes individuals. Absurd! Yet such is the only meaning, as far as I see, that can be assigned to the lines as they stand.

If the punctuation be altered, that is, if the semicolon after "since" be removed, and a comma placed at the end of the line, the whole becomes luminous:

"Thy waters wasted them while they were free,
And many a tyrant since their shores obey."

That is (I beg pardon if I am unnecessarily explanatory), "The waters wasted these empires while they were free, and since they have been enslaved,"--an apt illustration of that indifference to human affairs which the poet is attributing to the ocean. The words, "the stranger, slave, or savage," which follow in the next line, are to be taken in connexion with the phrase "many a tyrant," and as an enumeration of the different sorts of tyrants to which these unhappy empires have been subjected.

This is my view of the sense of this famous passage: if any of your correspondents can point out a better, I can only say "candidus imperti," &c.

There was a very elaborate article on Lord Byron's Address to the Ocean in _Blackwood's Magazine_ for October, 1848; but the writer, who dissects it almost line by line, has somehow, as is the wont of commentators, happened to pass over the difficulty which stands right in his way. To make up for this, however, he contrives to find new difficulties of his own. The following is a specimen:

"Recite," he says, "the stanza beginning,

'Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee;'

and when the sonorous roll has subsided, try to understand it. You
will find some difficulty, if we mistake not, in knowing who or
what is the apostrophized subject. Unquestionably the world's
ocean, and not the Mediterranean. The very last verse we were far
in the Atlantic:

'Thy shores are empires.'

"The shores of the world's ocean are empires. There are, or have
been, the British empire, the German empire, the Russian empire,
and the empire of the Great Mogul, the Chinese empire, the empire
of Morocco, the four great empires of antiquity, the French
empire, and some others. The poet does not intend names and things
in this very strict way, however," &c.

What empires the poet _did_ mean there is surely no difficulty in discovering, for those who wish to understand rather than to cavil. The very next line to that quoted is--

"_Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage,_ what are they?"

and it would require some hardihood to assert that these empires were not on the shores of the Mediterranean.

After all, the best commentators are translators: they are obliged to take the difficulties by the horns. I find, in a translation of Byron's _Works_ published at Pforzheim in 1842, the lines thus rendered by Dr. Duttenhofer:

"Du bleibst, ob Reiche schwinden an den Küsten,--
Assyrien, Hellas, Rom, Carthago--schwand,
Die _freien_ könnte Wasserfluth verwüsten
Wie die Tyrannen; es gehorcht der Strand
Dem Fremdling, Sclaven, Wilden," &c.

Duttenhofer has here taken the text as he found it, and has given it as much meaning as he could; but alas for those who are compelled to take their notion of the poetry of _Childe Harold_ from his German, instead of the original English! There is one passage in which the reader finds this reflection driven hard upon him. Who is there that does not know Byron's stanza on the Dying Gladiator, when, speaking of

"The inhuman shout which hail'd the wretch who won,"

he adds, in lines which will be read _till_ Homer and Virgil are forgotten:

"He heard it, but he heeded not--his eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away;
He reck'd not of the life he lost nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
_There_ were his young barbarians all at play,
_There_ was their Dacian mother--he, their sire,
Butcher'd to make a Roman holiday--
All this gush'd with his blood--shall he expire
And unavenged? Arise, ye Goths! and glut your ire!"

There are two phrases in this stanza which seem to me to have never been surpassed: "young barbarians," and "all this _gushed with his blood_." How inimitable is "young barbarians!" The "curiosa felicitas" of Horace never carried him farther,--or perhaps so far. Herr Duttenhofer contents himself by saying--

"fern am Donaustrand
Sind seine Kinder, freuend sich am Spiel."

"Afar on the shore of the Danube are _his children_, diverting themselves at play." Good heavens! is this translation, and German translation too, of which we have heard so much? Again:

"wie sein Blut
Hinfliesst, denkt er an dies."

"As his blood flows away, he thinks of this!" What could Herr Duttenhofer be thinking of?

To my surprise, on turning to the passage this moment in Byron's poems, I find it stands--

"All this _rush'd_ with his blood,"

instead of "_gush'd_." It is so in the original edition, in the _Works_, and in the splendid edition of 1841, all three. Can there be any doubt of the superiority of "gush'd?" To me there seems none; and, singularly enough, it so happens that twice in conversation with two of the most distinguished writers of this age--one a prosaist and the other a poet, whose names I wish I were at liberty to mention--I have had occasion to quote this passage, and they both agreed with me in ascribing the highest degree of poetical excellence to the use of this very word. I wish I could believe myself the author of such an improvement; but I have certainly somewhere seen the line printed as I have given it; very possibly in Ebenezer Elliott the Corn-law Rhymer's _Lectures on Poetry_, in which I distinctly remember that he quoted the stanza.

T. W.

"NOTES" ON THE OXFORD EDITION OF BISHOP JEWEL'S WORKS.

I send, with some explanation, a few Notes, taken from among others that I had marked in my copy of the edition of Bishop Jewel's Works, issued by the Oxford university press, 8 vols. 8vo. 1848.

Vol. ii. p. 352., l. 6., has, in Jewel's _Reply to Harding's Answer_, Article v., "Of Real Presence," seventh division, the following: "And therefore St. Paul saith, 'That I live now, I live in the flesh of the Son of God.'" To this the following is appended by the Oxford editor:

"[Galatians ii. 20 '... And the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me?' It cannot be denied that Jewel is here guilty, to
say the least, of very unjustifiable carelessness.]"

The true state of the case is, that Bishop Jewel, in the original _Reply to Harding_, published in his lifetime, 1565, had given the text with entire correctness--"That I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God:" but this, long after the Bishop's death, was misprinted in the editions of 1609 and 1611. The Oxford Jewel, moreover, of 1848 does not even profess to follow the editions of 1609 and 1611; and it is stated, vol. i. p. 130., that "this edition of the Reply in passing through the press has been collated with the original one of 1565." Still in this vital case, where the very question was, what Jewel himself had written, it is plain that the early edition of 1565 was never consulted. The roughness of the censure might surely in any case have been spared. It may be noted (vol. viii. p. 195. Oxf. edit.), that Jewel in 1568 wrote to Archbishop Parker: "I beseech your grace to give strait orders that the Latin Apology be not printed again in any case, before either your grace or some other have well perused it. _I am afraid of printers: their tyranny is intolerable._"

In vol. iv. p. 92., l. 1. _et seq._, in the _Recapitulation of Jewel's Apology_, the words of the original Latin, "quid de Spiritu sancto," marked in the following extract by Italics, are omitted in the Oxford edition "Exposuimus tibi universam rationem religionis nostræ, quid de Deo Patre, quid de ejus unico Filio Jesu Christo, _quid de Spiritu sancto_, quid de ecclesia, quid de sacramentis ... sentiamus." And in vol. vi. p. 523., l. 6., where Bishop Jewel gives that passage as rendered by Lady Bacon, namely: "We have declared at large unto you the very whole manner of our religion, what our opinion is of God the Father, and of his only Son Jesus Christ, _of the Holy Ghost_, of the church, of the sacrament," the following is appended:--

"[In the Latin Apology no words occur here relating to the Third
Person of the Blessed Trinity.]"

A similar notice is also given in vol. viii. p. 385.--The fact is, that the words "quid de Spiritu sancto" do occur in the Latin Apology, 1562, which was the first edition of that work, and, so far as I am aware, the only edition printed in Jewel's life, from which too the Oxford reprint professes to be taken, and a copy of which any one can consult in the British Museum. Those words will also be found, within six or eight pages of the end, in the various later editions, as for example those of Vautrollier, London, 1581; Forster, Amberg, 1606; Boler, London, 1637; and Dring, London, 1692 (which are in my own possession); as also in the editions of Bowier, 1584; Chard, 1591; and Hatfield, London, 1599. The editions of Jewel's works printed in 1609 and 1611, edited by Fuller, under the sanction of Archbishop Bancroft, did not contain the Latin Apology. There is not a shadow of authority for the omission. All the modern reprints too, with which I am acquainted, only excepting a small edition printed at Cambridge, 1818, p. 140., give the words in question. It would seem that the Oxford editor must have used the very inaccurate reprint of 1818, for supplying copy for the printer[6]; and reference either to that first edition of 1562, which the reprint of 1848 professes to follow, or to any early edition, even in this case, where the context clearly requires the omitted words, was neglected.

[Footnote 6: I have observed another error in the Cambridge
edition, 1818, p. 115., last line but five, "domum manere" instead
of the original and classical reading, "domi manere." That
misprint of 1818 is followed by the Oxford edition of 1848, vol.
iv. p. 77. l. 12., Apol. pars vi. cap. 8. div. 1.]

I have said that the Oxford Jewel of 1848 professes to follow the Latin Apology of 1562, as a copy of the Latin title, with the date 1562, is prefixed to the Oxford edition, vol. iv. p. 1.: but the colophon appended to that reprint, p. 95., is strangely dated 1567. Was there any Latin edition of the Apology printed in that year? And, if so, why are different dates given for the title and colophon of the Oxford reprint? One can only conclude that the date 1567 is itself an error.

The following is printed in vol. viii. p. 290., l. 11., from Lady Bacon's translation of Jewel's Apology, 1564, part ii. ch. 7. div. 5.: "As touching the Bishop of Rome, for all his parasites state and ringly sing those words in his ears, 'To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven,'" &c. This case is different from those mentioned above, in the respect that the words "state and ringly" do occur in the printed edition of 1564; but it scarcely need be observed that the words "state & ringly" are a misprint for "flatteringly," when it is added that Jewel himself, in his revised edition of Lady Bacon's translation, in the _Defence of the Apology_, 1567 and 1570, reads: "for all that his flattering parasites sing these words in his ears." The original Latin is "quamvis illi suaviter cantilentur illa verba a parasitis suis."

There are also various errors and several omissions in the Oxford Jewel, in the verification of the numerous references. Among various notes (I would however add) which are inaccurate, and several that appear to me superfluous, there are some which are most useful, as, for example, that in vol. ii. p. 195., on the Gloss in the Canon Law, "Our Lord God the Pope."

COLET.

ANAGRAMS.

You have now completed the third volume of "NOTES AND QUERIES," and, to the no small surprise of all lovers of "jeux de mots," not a single specimen of the genus Anagram has found its way into your columns. To what are we to ascribe such a circumstance? The ancients were not ashamed to indulge in this intellectual pastime, and their anagrams, says Samuel Maunder, occasionally contained some happy allusion. The moderns have given unequivocal proofs of their fecundity in the same line, and the anagrammatic labours of the French nation alone would form several volumes. Indeed, to that nation belongs the honour of having introduced the anagram; and such is the estimation in which "the art" was held by them at one time, that their kings were provided with a salaried Anagrammatist, as ours are with a pensioned Laureate. How comes it then that a species of composition, once so popular, has found no representative among the many learned correspondents of your popular periodical? Has the anagram become altogether extinct, or is it only awaiting the advent of some competent genius to restore it to its proper rank in the republic of letters?

To me it is clear that the real cause of the prevailing dearth of anagrams is the great difficulty of producing good ones. Good anagrams are, to say the least of it, quite as scarce as good epic poems; for, if it be true that the utmost efforts of the human intellect have not given birth to more than six good epic poems, it is no less true that the utmost exertion of human ingenuity has not brought forth more than half a dozen good anagrams. Some critics are of opinion that we do possess six good epic poems. Now, where shall we find six good anagrams? If they exist, let them be _exhibited_ in the pages of "NOTES AND QUERIES."

Indeed, it may be said that the anagram and the epic poem are the alpha and omega of literature. I am aware that by thus placing them in juxtaposition the contrast may have the effect of disparaging the anagram. The epic poem will naturally enough suggest the idea of the sublime, and the anagram, as naturally, that of the ridiculous: and then it will be said that between the two there is but a step. But let any gentleman make the experiment, and he will find that, instead of a step, the intermediate space will present to his astonished legs a surface co-extensive with the wide field of modern mediocrity. As for myself, I have ransacked in search of anagrams every hole and corner in ancient and modern literature, and have found very few samples worthy of the name. Reserving the ancients for future consideration, let us see what the moderns have to boast of in this respect.

And first, what says Isaac Disraeli? Anagrams being literary curiosities, one would naturally expect to meet with some respectable samples of them in that writer's _Curiosities of Literature_. Yet, what do we find? Among about a score which he quotes, there is not one that can be reckoned a tolerable anagram, while by far the greater number are no anagrams at all. An anagram is the change of a word or sentence into another word or sentences by an _exact_ transposition of the letters. Where a single letter is either omitted or added, the anagram is incomplete. Of this description are the following, cited by Disraeli:--

"Thomas Overburie,
"O! O! base murther."

"Charles James Stewart,
"Claims Arthur's Seat."

"Martha Nicholson,
"Soon calm at heart."

I next turned to Samuel Maunder and his _Scientific and Literary Treasury_, little suspecting that, in a repertory bearing so ambitious a title, I should fail to discover the object of my search. True, he quotes the anagram made by Dr. Burney after the battle of the Nile:

"Horatio Nelson,
"Honor est a Nilo."

And this, it must be confessed, is one of the best on record. The transposition is complete, and the allusion most apposite. But with that exception, what does this pretended _Treasury_ disclose? A silly attempt to anagrammatise the name of our beloved queen; thus:

"Her most gracious Majesty Alexandrina Victoria,
"Ah! my extravagant joco-serious radical Minister!"

coupled with the admission that nothing can be more ridiculous or inapplicable, and that one-half of the anagrams in existence are not a whit less absurd. And yet, for this piece of absurdity, as well as for another of the same calibre, on--

"His Grace the Duke of Wellington,
"Well fought, K--! no disgrace in thee,"

Mr. Maunder claims the merit of originality. In other words (which are no other than his own), he claims merit for being "puerile," "ridiculous," and "absurd." Alas! for the credit of anagrams! Alas! for the reputation of Galileo, Newton, and other philosophers, who could make great discoveries, and resort to anagrams to announce them to the world, but who were incapable of discovering that an anagram was an absurdity!

Finding matters at so low an ebb in our own literature, and that English anagrams are little better than Irish bulls, I directed my attention to the literary records of the French, among whom the anagrammatic bump is very prominent. From its character, and the process of its formation, the anagram is peculiarly adapted to the genius of that people. It is light and airy: so are they. It is conceited and fantastical: so are they. It seems to be what it is not: so do they. Its very essence is transposition, involution; what one might call a sort of Jump-Jim-Crow-ism: and so is theirs. Hence the partiality which they have always shown for the anagram: their Rebuses, Almanacs, Annuaires, and collections of trifles are full of them. One-half of the disguises adopted by their anonymous writers are in the shape of anagrams, formed from their names; and one of them has gone the length of composing and publishing a poem of 1200 lines, every line of which contains an anagram. The name assumed by the author (Gabriel Antoine Joseph Hécart) is L'Anagramme d'Archet; and the book bears the title of _Anagramméana, Poëme en VIII Chants, XCVe Edition, à Anagrammatopolis, l'An XIV de l'Ere anagrammatique_. But it so happens that out of the 1200 anagrams not a single one is worth quoting. Quérard describes this poem, not inaptly, as a "débauche d'esprit;" and the author himself calls it "une ineptie;" to which I may add the opinion of Richelet, that "l'anagramme est une des plus grandes inepties de l'esprit humain: il faut être sot pour s'en amuser, et pis que sot pour en faire."

With such an appreciation of the value of anagrams, is it surprising that the French should have produced so few good ones? M. de Pixérécourt mentions two which he deems so unexceptionable, that they might induce us to overlook the general worthlessness of that kind of composition. They are as follows:

"Bélître,

"Liberté."

"Benoist,

"Bien sot."

Now, the first is only true in France, where true liberty was never understood: and the second is true nowhere. _Benoist_ is merely a vulgar name, and the adoption of it does not necessarily imply that the bearer is a "sot." M. De Pixérécourt might have quoted some better samples; the famous one, for instance, on the assassin of Henri III.:--

"Frère Jacques Clement,
"C'es l'enfer qui m'a créé."

Or the following Latin anagrams on the names of two of his most distinguished countrymen:--

"De la Monnoi,
"A Delio nomen."

"Voltaire,
"O alte vir!"

I was on the point of relinquishing in despair my search for anagrams, when an accidental circumstance put me in possession of one of the best specimens I have met with. Some time ago, in an idle mood, I took up a newspaper for the purpose of glancing at its contents, and as I was about to read, I discovered that I held the paper by the wrong end. Among the remarkable headings of news there was one which I was desirous of decyphering before I restored the paper to its proper position, and this happened to be the word "[inverted: DNALERI]". Instead, however, of making out the name from letters thus inverted, I found the anagram--

"Daniel R."

My first impression, on ascertaining this result, was one of horror at the treasonable "jeu de mots" I had so unwittingly perpetrated. Remembering, however, that Daniel O'Connell is dead, and that Irish loyalty has nothing to fear from Daniel the Second, I resolved to give the public the benefit of the discovery by sending it to you for "NOTES AND QUERIES."

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, August, 1851.

FOLK LORE.

_Cure for Hooping Cough._--It is said by the inhabitants of the forest of Bere, East Hants, that new milk drank out of a cup made of the wood of the variegated holly is a cure for the hooping cough.

[Arrow symbol]

_Cure for the Toothache._--In the village of Drumcondra, about a mile and half on the northern side of Dublin, there is an old churchyard, remarkable as the burying-place of Gandon the architect, Grose the antiquary, and Thomas Furlong the translator of Carolan's Remains. On the borders of this churchyard there is a well of beautiful water, which is resorted to by the folks of the village afflicted with toothache, who, on their way across the graves pick up an old skull, which they carry with them to drink from, the doing of which they assert to be an infallible cure. Others merely resort to the place for the purpose of pulling a tooth from a skull, which they place on or over the hole or stump of the grown tooth, and they affirm that by keeping it there for a certain time the pain ceases altogether. There is a young woman at this instant in the employment of my mother, who has practised these two remedies, and who tells me she knows several others who have done the same.

C. HOEY.

Near Drumcondra, County Dublin.

_Medical Use of Pigeons._--

"Spirante columba
Suppositu pedibus, revocantur adima vapores."

"'They apply pigeons to draw the vapours from the head.'"--Dr.
Donne's "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions," _Works_, vol. iii. p.
550. Lond. 1839.

Mr. Alford appends to the above-cited passage the following note:

"After a careful search in Pliny, Burton's _Anatomy of
Melancholy_, and Sir Thomas Browne's _Vulgar Errors_, I can find
no mention of this strange remedy."

I am inclined to suspect that the application of pigeons was by no means an uncommon remedy in cases particularly of fever and delirium. To quote one passage from Evelyn:

"Neither the cupping nor the _pidgeons_, those last of remedyes,
wrought any effect."--_Life of Mr. Godolphin_, p. 148. Lond. 1847.

Some of your correspondents may possibly be able to furnish additional information respecting this custom; for I am confident of having seen it alluded to, though at the moment I cannot remember by whom.

RT.

Warmington.

_Obeism._--In the _Medical Times_ of 30th Sept. there is a case of a woman who fancied herself under its influence, in which the name (in a note) is derived from Obi, the town, district, or province in Africa where it was first practised; and there is appended to it the following description of one of the superstitions as given by a witness on a trial:

"Do you know the prisoner to be an Obeah man?--Ees, massa; shadow
catcher true.

"What do you mean by shadow catcher?--Him hab coffin [a little
coffin was here produced]; him set to catch dem shadow.

"What shadow do you mean?--When him set Obeah for somebody him
catch dem shadow, and dem go dead."

The derivation of the name from a place is very different from the supposition so cleverly argued in the Third Vol. connecting it with Ob; but I cannot find in any gazetteer to which I at present have had access, any place in Africa of the name, or a similar name. I do not remember in the various descriptions I have read of the charms practised, that one of catching the shadow mentioned.

E. N. W.

NOTES ON JULIN, NO. II.

(Vol. ii., pp. 230. 282. 379. 443.; Vol. iv., p. 171.)

I resume the chain of evidence where I left off in my last communication.

The account given by Pomerania's best and most trusty historian, Thomas Kanzow, Kantzow, Kamzow, Kansow, Kahnsow, Kantzouw, or Cantzow[7] (born 1505; died 25th September, 1542), of Stralsund, in his _Pomerania_ (ed. Meden, p. 405., 1841, W. Dietze, Anclam.), of Wollin, only previously alluded to by your correspondents, is as follows:

"_Of Wollin._--Wollin was before, as it appears from heretofore
written histories, a powerful city; and one yet finds far about
the town foundations and tokens that the city was once very great;
but it has since been destroyed, and numbers now scarcely 300 to
400 citizens.[8] It has a parish church and nunnery
(_jungfrauenkloster_), and a ducal government. It lies on a piece
of marshland, on the Dievenow, called the Werder. The citizens are
customed like the other Pomeranians, but they are considered
somewhat awkwarder (_unhandlicher_ = unhandier). It is a curious
custom of this land and city that generally more inhuman things
take place there than anywhere else; and that I may relate
something, I will tell of a dreadful occurrence that lately
happened there.[9] Of Wollyn there is nothing more to be written,
except that the revered Master Doctor Joannes Buggenhagen was born
in this city, who is no insignificant ornament both of the holy
New Testament and of his fatherland."

[Footnote 7: The publication of whose works in English I strongly
recommend.]

[Footnote 8: In later times, however, the population has become
greater.]

[Footnote 9: Not to be found.]

On Vineta he writes (_High German Chronicle_, ed. Meden, lib. ii. pp. 32-35.):--

"Not long after this Schwenotto threw off Christianity, and set
himself against his father Harald, king in Denmark, and drove him
from the kingdom. So Harald fled to Wollyn, in Pomerania. There
the Wends, notwithstanding that he was a Christian, and they still
of the ancient faith, received him kindly, and, together with the
other Wends and Pomeranians, fitted out ships and an armament, and
brought him with force back into his kingdom, and fought the whole
day with Schweno, so that it was uncertain who had or had not won
there. Then the next day they arose and made a smiting[10], and in
the fray Harald was shot by a Dane, and perhaps by his son's
command. Then brought the Wollyners him to their ships, and
carried him away to their city that there they might doctor
(_artzten_) him. But he died of the wound, and was buried there,
after he had reigned about fifty years, about the thousandth year
after the birth of Christ. So writeth Saxo. But Helmold writes,
that he came to Vineta: these holp him into his kingdom again,
and when he was shot in the skirmish, they brought him back to
their town, where he died[11] and was buried. And that I myself
believe; for though Wollyn was a mighty state at that time, still
Vineta was much mightier; and it is therefore to be concluded that
he fled to Vineta, rather than to Wollyn, and that Vineta was on
that account afterwards destroyed: and as we are come to Vineta,
we will say what Helmold writes thereof, which is this:--

[Footnote 10: I have in the translation adopted the phrase of Holy
Writ, "made a smiting."]

[Footnote 11: This shows that the MSS. of Helmold were corrupted
at a very early period. I have seen one uncorrupted. A list of
them would be a thing desirable.]

"Vineta has been a powerful city, with a good harbour for the
surrounding nations; and after so much has been told of the city
which is totally (_schyr_ = sheerly) incredible, I will relate
this much. It is said to have been as great a city as any which
Europe contained at that time, and it was promiscuously inhabited
by Greeks, Slavonians, Wends, and other nations. The Saxons, also,
upon condition of not openly practising Christianity, were
permitted to inhabit with them; for all the citizens were
idolaters down to the final destruction and fall of the city. Yet
in customs, manners, and hospitality there is not a more worthy
nation, or so worthy a one, to be found. The city was full of all
sorts of merchandise (_kaufwahr_) from all countries, and had
everything which was curious, luxurious (_lustig_ = lustful), and
necessary; and a king of Denmark destroyed them a great fleet of
war. The ruins and recollection of the town remain even to this
day, and the island on which it lay is flowed round by three
streams, of which one is of a green colour, the other greyish, and
the third dashes and rushes by reason of storm and wind. And so
far Helmold, who wrote about 400 years ago.

"And it is true that the remains exist at the present day: for
when one desires to go from Wolgast over the Pene, in the country
of Usedom, and comes by a village called Damerow, which is by
[about] two miles[12] from Wolgast, so sees one about a long
quarter way into the sea (for the ocean has encroached upon the
land so much since then), great stones and foundations. So have I
with others rowed thither, and have carefully looked at it. But no
brickwork is there now; for it is so many hundred years since the
destruction of the city, that it is impossible that it can have
remained so long in the stormy sea. Yet the great
foundation-stones are there still, and lie in a row, as they are
usually disposed under a house, one by the other; and in some
places others upon them. Among these stones are some so great, in
three or four places, that they reach ell high above the water; so
that it is conjectured that their churches or assembly-houses
stood there. But the other stones, as they still lie in the order
in which they lay under the buildings (_geben_), show also
manifestly how the streets went through the length and breadth
(_in die lenge und übers quer_) of the city. And the fishermen of
the place told us that still whole paving-stones of the streets
lay there, and were covered with moss[13] (_übermoset_), so that
they could not be seen; yet if one pricked therein with a
sharp-pointed pole or lance, they were easily to be felt. And the
stones lay somehow after that manner: and as we rowed backward and
forward over the foundations, and remarked the fashion of the
streets, saw we that the town was built lengthways from east to
west. But the sea deepens the farther we go, so that we could not
perceive the greatness of the city fully; but what we could see,
made us think that it was very probably of about the size of
Lübeck: for it was about a short quarter[14] long, and the breadth
broader than the city Lübeck. By this one may guess what was the
size of the part we could not see. And according to my way of
thinking, when this town was destroyed, Wisbu in Gottland was
restored."

[Footnote 12: German, answering to about eight English.]

[Footnote 13: I have translated _übermoset_ as above, though
nothing at the bottom could be covered with moss. I suspect the
true lection to be _übermodert_, as _moder_ exists in the present
German, answering to our word "mother."]

[Footnote 14: This expression, as well as a previous one, alludes
to the distance. "Of a mile" is, in both cases, to be understood.]

Wisby, _en passant_, may be described as a merchant town of great importance in the mediæval period, and whence we have derived our navigation laws. It has now about 4000 inhabitants, and has many ruined buildings and sculptured marble about it.

So far Kantzow in the _High German Chronicle_: in the _Low German Chronicle_ (ed. Böhmer, Greifswald, 1832), I find nothing bearing on the subject.

Indistinct and wavering is Kantzow in his account, but thus much is to be gathered from it.

1. That the _soi-disant_ Vineta lay east and west; Julin or Wollin lies north and south.

2. That the destruction of Wollin ensued on its aiding an enemy against Denmark.

3. That in the mind of Kantzow the two towns were not confounded, and that he had heard both legends, but had not sufficient critical sagacity to disentangle the mess.

The oldest MSS. of Helmold have not this error. I have myself, as previously stated, seen one uncorrupted. The closing words of Kantzow seem to make it necessary to search for the date of the rebuilding of Wisby, which I have not at present the means of doing, though I will take an early opportunity of settling this, oddly enough, contested point.

Von Raumer emphatically brands the legend of Vineta as a fable; as also my friend M. de Kaiserling. And I myself am forcibly reminded of an old Irish legend I read long ago somewhere or other, of the disappearance of a city in the Lake of Killarney, of which, my authority stated, the towers were occasionally to be perceived. Another legend, of which the scene was laid in Mexico, I recollect, was to the same effect; and in this I am confirmed by a friend, who has traveled much in that country. I must myself totally deny the existence of Vineta, except as the capital city of the Veneti, when I would place it in Rügen.

I may as well add that M. de Kaiserling dug up his coins in the north-western corner of Wollin, near the Rathhaus.

The Salmarks are in the neighbourhood of the town, the Greater one to the north, the Lesser to the south.

I will now close the paper, already too long, and hope for elucidations and remarks from abler pens.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

September 25, 1851.

Minor Notes.

_Curious Epitaph in Dalkeith Churchyard._--The following inscription is on the tombstone of one Margaret Scott, who died in the town of Dalkeith, February 9, 1738, aged 125 years:--

"Stop passenger, until my life you read:
The living may get knowledge by the dead.
Five times five years I lived a virgin's life:
Ten times five years I was a virtuous wife:
Ten times five years I lived a widow chaste;
Now, weary'd of this mortal life, I rest.
Between my cradle and my grave have been
Eight mighty kings of Scotland and a queen.
Four times five years the Commonwealth I saw;
Ten times the subjects rose against the law.
Twice did I see old Prelacy pull'd down;
And twice the cloak was humbled by the gown.
An end of Stuart's race I saw: nay, more!
My native country sold for English ore.
Such desolations in my life have been,
I have an end of all perfection seen."

I thought that the above instance of what might be termed "historical longevity" was worthy of a place in your pages, along with others proving how "traditions from remote periods may come through few hands."

BLOWEN.

_Device of SS._--However doubtful may be the derivation of our English "Collar of Esses," there is a pretty explanation given of a similar device granted to a Spanish nobleman.

It is said that Gatierre de Cardenas was the first person who announced to the young Princess Isabella of Castile the approach of her future husband, Ferdinand of Aragon (after his romantic journey to Valladolid in 1469), exclaiming, "Esse es, esse es,"--"This is he!" He obtained permission to add to his escutcheon the letters SS. to commemorate this circumstance.

O. P. Q.

_Lord Edward Fitzgerald._--Having seen in "NOTES AND QUERIES" a remark about Lord Edward Fitzgerald, I wish to add the following.

The body of Lord Edward Fitzgerald has never been removed by his relatives, but has lain in an outside vault or passage, under the parish church of St. Werburgh, Dublin, until very lately, when (I believe within the last year) Lady Campbell, widow of General Sir Guy Campbell, Bart., and daughter of Pamela, caused it to be placed in an oak coffin, the old one being greatly decayed. It is now removed into what is called the chancel vault.

L. M. M.

_The Michaelmas Goose._--Why it is that here in England--

"---- by custom (right divine)
Geese are ordained to bleed at Michael's shrine,"

is a mystery still unsolved by English antiquaries. For, even if the story that Queen Elizabeth was eating a goose on Michaelmas Day when she received the news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, rested on unquestionable authority, it would not explain the origin of the custom, since Brand has shown, by a reference to Blount's _Jocular Tenures_, that it existed as early as the tenth year of Edward IV. If we seek an illustration from the practice of our continental neighbours, we shall fail; or only learn that we have transferred to the Feast of St. Michael a practice which is observed abroad on that of St. Martin, the 11th November: indeed, St. Martin's Bird is a name by which the goose is known among many of the continental nations. In the Runic Calendar the 11th November is marked by a goose. In the old _Bauern Practica_ (ed. 1567), _Wintermonat_ or November boasts, in one of the Rhymes of the Month,--

"Fat geese unto the rich I sell."

And in the curious old Story Book of Peter Leu, reprinted by von der Hagen in his _Narrenbuch_, one of the adventures commences:

"It fell upon St. Martin's Day,
When folks are wont goose-feasts to keep."

A learned German, however, Nork (_Festkalender_, s. 567.), sees in our Michaelmas Goose the last traces of the goose offered of old to Proserpina, the infernal goddess of death (on which account it is that the figure of this bird is so frequently seen on monumental remains); and also of the offerings (among which the goose figured) formerly made to Odin at this season, a pagan festival which on the introduction of Christianity was not abolished, but transferred to St. Michael.

WILLIAM J. THOMS.

_Gravesend Boats_ (Vol. ii., p. 209.).--In a letter from Sir Thomas Heneage to Sir Christopher Hatton, dated 2nd May, 1585, given in Nicolas's _Memoir of the Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton_ (p. 426.), is this passage:

"Her Highness thinketh your house will shortly be like a Gravesend
barge, never without a knave, a priest, or a thief," &c.

"Her Highness" was Queen Elizabeth, and the purport of the letter was to convey "her Highness's pleasure" touching one Isaac Higgins, then in the custody of Sir Christopher Hatton.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Sept. 19. 1851.

_Skull-cups._--There are so very few consecutive and methodical readers left, that it is not surprising that Mr. Blackwell, the editor of Bohn's _Mallet_, should have adopted the groundless charge of one Magnusen against Olaus Wormius, who understood Ragnar's death-song much better than certain ironical dilettanti of Cockneyland. Charlemagne's secretary, Paul Warnefrid, the Lombard deacon of Aquileia, swears that, about 200 years after the event, King Ratchis had shown him _the cup made out of Cunimund's skull_, in which Queen Rosamund, his daughter, refused to drink, in the year 574.[15] (_Paul. Diac._ ii. 8.) Open the _Acta Sanctorum_ for the 1st of May, and they will tell you that the monks of Triers had enchased in silver the skull of St. Theodulf, out of which they administered fever-drink to the sick. Moreover, when, in the year 1465, Leo von Rozmital came to Neuss, he saw a costly tomb wherein lay the blessed Saint Quirinus, and he drank out of his skull-cup. St. Sebastian's skull at Ebersberg, and St. Ernhart's at Ratisbonne, had also been converted into chalices.

[Footnote 15: See Grotius's valuable Collection of Gothic and
Lombard Historians.]

I refer the reader to Jacob Grimm's _Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache_, pp. 143. 146., for further details: he shows that to drink ale out of _buigvîdum hausa_, can only mean out of "hollow skulls," literally "_vacuitas_ curva."

To prove the antiquity of the custom, Grimm alleges likewise a passage of the Vilkinasaga, in which Völundr, the smith, our Belenger[16], or Will o' the Wisp, enchases in silver the amputated skulls of Nidads' two boys.

[Footnote 16: Foeu _Bélenger_, in one of the dialects of the
Low-Norman Isles.]

GEORGE MÉTIVIER.

Queries.

Minor Queries.

168. _Elizabeth, Equestrian Figure of._--Doubtless many of your readers have seen in the Exhibition a large equestrian figure of Elizabeth; it is in the N.W. gallery, in one of the large plate cases. Now the horse is described as pacing, which the explanation states was a step taught the horses belonging to the ladies of that period. Query, where a description of pacing, or rules for teaching horses to pace, amble, &c., may be found? for what appears so extraordinary in the figure is that the fore and hind legs of the same side of the horse are extended together, or simultaneously. I have in the _Graphic Illustrator_ a picture of Elizabeth hawking (the figure in the Exhibition may have been copied from the original), where the horse is in the same attitude. I feel anxious to know if that unnatural gait is possible, or whether it is a part or the whole of the pacing step.

THOS. LAWRENCE.

Ashby de la Zouch.

169. _Indian Ants._--Is there any foundation for Pliny's account of the Indian ants, which were, according to Herodotus, "not so large as a dog, but bigger than a fox?"

A. C. W.

170. _Passage in Geo. Herbert._--What is the meaning of the following? (Herbert's _Poems_, "Charms and Knots," ver. 8.):--

"Take one from ten, and what remains?
Ten still: if sermons go for gains."

H. T. G.

171. _"The King's-way," Wilts._--Mention of this road, in the neighbourhood of Malmsbury, occurs in two charters of the Saxon kings Athelstan and Eadwig, Nos. 355. & 460. Cod. Dipl. Aevi. Sax. The road is said to be known in Wiltshire as King Athelstan's Way. Can any of your correspondents oblige me by pointing out its course, and the immediate purpose for which it was constructed? There is a King's-way Field (Cyngwey-ffeld) mentioned in the ancient terriers of Bampton, Oxon, and still known there.

B. W.

172. _Marriages within ruined Churches._--I have heard of marriages solemnized within _ruined_ churches in Ireland within the last twenty years. What is the origin of this custom; was it general, and is it still observed?

R. H.

173. _Fees for Inoculation._--In an old Account Book of a Sussex county gentleman I find the following items:--

"1780. I paid for the inoculation of William and Polly Parker, £5
15_s._ 6_d._"

and again in 1784:

"Paid towards R. Stephen's inoculation, £1 11_s._ 0_d._"

from which it would appear that the process was a very expensive one in those days. I should feel obliged to any of your correspondents to give me some information on this point.

R. W. B.

174. "_Born in the Eighth Climate._"--Can any of your readers explain the allusion contained in the following extract from Sir Thomas Browne?

"_I was born in the eighth climate_, but seem for to be framed and
constellated unto all."--_Religio Medici_, ii. 1.

Will the notions of astrology throw any light upon it?

N. H.

175. _Aubry de Montdidier's Dog._--Who was the King of France that subjected the Chevalier Macaire to the ordeal by combat with this famous dog? In some of the authorities it is said to be Charles VI., and in others "Le Roi Jean," meaning, I presume, John II.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

176. _Sanford's Descensus._--Can any of your correspondents say if Sanford's _Descensus_ has ever been published separately? It is spoken of in the 2nd vol. of Gale's _Court of the Gentiles_, and was published in the works of a bishop who survived him. A copy of that prelate's works is in the Bodleian Library, and contains the _Descensus_. What is the bishop's name?

ÆGROTUS.

177. _Parish Registers--Briefs for Collection._--What acts of parliament since the reign of George I. affect parish registers?

On what authority were collections made in churches _by brief_; in what year was that mode of collection decreed; and when did it cease?

J. B. (A Subscriber.)

178. _Early Printing Presses, Sticks, and Chases._--I am a compositor, and have read with great interest the "Notes" on Caxton and Printing in your valuable publication. May I venture to put a Query which has often crossed my mind, especially when I went to see Mr. Maclise's great painting at the Royal Academy. What kind of press did Caxton and his successors use? Also, is anything known of the shape of their "sticks" and "chases?" Mr. Maclise seems to have taken a modern pattern for all of these, especially the two last.

EM QUAD.

179. _Bootikins._--Horace Walpole speaks in many of his letters of the great benefit he had experienced from the use of _bootikins_ in his attacks of gout. In a letter to George Montagu, Esq., dated July 31, 1767, he says:

"Except one day's gout, which I cured with the _bootikins_, I have
been quite well since I saw you."

Eight years afterwards his expectations of _cure_ from them were not so high. In a letter to the Rev. Mr. Cole, dated June 5, 1775, he remarks:

"I am perfectly well, and expect to be so for a year and a half. I
desire no more of my _bootikins_ than to curtail my fits."

Dr. E. J. Seymour (_Thoughts on the Nature and Treatment of several severe Diseases of the Human Body_, i. 107.: London, 1847), says that--

"The _bootikins_ were simply a glove, with a partition for the
thumb, but no separate ones for the fingers, like an infant's
glove, made of oiled silk."

Can any of your readers shed light on this matter?

R. D.

Philadelphia.

180. _Printers' Privilege._--I have heard it confidently stated that printers have the privilege, if they are disposed to use it, to wear on all occasions a sword dangling at their sides. If it be so, whence does it arise? I have heard two explanations, one, bearing _primâ facie_ evidence of incorrectness, a special grant as a mark of favour; the other, which is the only reasonable way of accounting for such a totally unsuitable privilege, that when the act passed forbidding arms to be commonly worn, all kinds and manner of people were mentioned by the name of their trades, businesses, &c., except printers, who were accidently omitted. How much of truth might there be in all this? What is the act alluded to?

TEE BEE.

181. _Death of Pitt._--What authority is there for the accompanying statement respecting the death of Mr. Pitt?

"Among the anecdotes of statesmen few are more interesting than
that which records the death of Pitt. The hand which had so long
sustained the sceptre of this country found no hand to clasp it in
death. By friends and by servants he was alike deserted; and a
stranger wandering on from room to room of a deserted house, came
at last by chance to a chamber untended but not unquiet, in which
the great minister lay, alone and dead."--See _Edinburgh Review_
for July, 1851, p. 78., on the _Poems and Memoir of Hartley
Coleridge_.

NATHANIEL ELLISON.

182. "_A little Bird told me._"--C. W. wishes to know if any of the readers of "NOTES AND QUERIES" can tell him the origin of the proverb, "A little bird told me."

C. W. has an idea that the origin is from the _Koran_, where is an account of all the birds being summoned before Solomon. The lapwing absents himself. Upon being questioned why he did not immediately obey, he says he has been at the court of the Queen of Sheba, who has resolved upon visiting Solomon. On the hint, Solomon prepares for the queen's reception. The lapwing sets off to Ethiopia, and tells the Queen that Solomon wishes to see her. The meeting, as we know, took place.

Not having the _Koran_, C. W. cannot refer to it to see if it is right or wrong.

183. _Baroner._--At page 105. of the volume of _Bury Wills_ published by the Camden Society, is the will of William Place, priest, Master of the Hospital of St. John Evangelist without the south gate of Bury St. Edmunds, dated 21st July, 1504, whereby he willed that "Damp" William Carsey (elsewhere in the same will called Karsey), "Baroner" of the Monastery of Bury St. Edmunds, should assign two children to say _De profundis_ at his grave for his soul every day from his burying day till his thirtieth day be past, and they to have each day for their labour one penny betwixt them. Mr. Tymms's notes to the above publication are copious and valuable, but he omits to explain the term "Baroner;" and the object of this Query is to ascertain if he, or any of your numerous correspondents, can do so. I conjecture that the Baroner was the master of the children (or song school), but I am not aware of any other instance of the use of the word as denoting a monastic officer.

C. H. COOPER.

Cambridge, Sept 19. 1851.

184. _William the Third at Exeter--History of Hawick._--1. Mr. Macaulay, in describing the entrance of William of Orange into Exeter, mentions that he was preceded, amongst others, by three hundred gentlemen of English birth. Can any of your correspondents inform me whether the names of these gentlemen are known, and, if so, where the roll may be met with?

2. I remember to have read an extract from a work called the _History of Hawick_ in Teviotdale, but I have never met with any one acquainted with the work. Is the book now extant, and, if so, where can it be seen? If any of your correspondents should have seen this volume, perhaps he can inform me whether it narrates an altercation between the abbot of Melrose and a neighbouring baron, which ended in the death of the former?

H. L.

Maen-twrog, North Wales.

185. _Johannes Lychtenberger._--The "Pronosticatio," or "prophecies," which bear this name, have been often reprinted since what I believe to be the first edition was published in the year 1488. In giving an account of the copies of it in the Lambeth Library, I stated that I knew of no other copy of this edition, except one in the Douce collection in the Bodleian. Eight years have elapsed since that time, and I have not heard of any; and as circumstances have lately led to my being engaged about the book, I shall be glad if you will allow me to ask whether any of your many learned correspondents know of a _prior_ edition, or of any other copies of _this_ one of 1488?

S. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester.

186. _Lestourgeon the Horologist._--I have in my possession an apparently very old, though very elegant and very excellent, eight-day clock, with the maker's name on its face, _Thomas Lestourgeon, London_. Some years ago there was found among the apparatus of the Natural Philosophy class, in the University of Edinburgh, what is called in the inventory "an old watch, maker's name Lestourgeon, London." Can any of your readers tell me when that excellent horologist flourished? I know the history of the clock for about a century, but how much older it may be I should like to know.

JAMES LAURIE.