Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber's note: Original spelling varieties have not been standardized. Underscores have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts. A list of volumes and pages in "Notes and Queries" has been 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. IV.--No. 96. SATURDAY, AUGUST 30. 1851.

Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4_d._

CONTENTS.

Page

The Caxton Memorial and Chaucer's Monument 145

NOTES:--

Collar of SS., by Edward Foss 147

Printing 148

Folk Lore:--Bible Divination in Suffolk--Mode of
discovering Bodies of the Drowned--Somersetshire Rhyme 148

Dictionary of Hackneyed Quotations 149

Minor Notes:--Cocker's Arithmetic--The Duke of
Normandy--Anachronisms and Errors of Painters--The Ring
Finger--The Od Force--New Costume for Ladies 149

QUERIES:--

Judges styled Reverend, &c. 151

Minor Queries:--Frederick Egmont; Peter (Egmont?)--Unlucky
for Pregnant Women to take on Oath--Cockroach--Felton--Date
of a Charter--Thomas Tusser the "Husbandman"--Godfrey
Higgins' Works--Noctes Templariæ--Commissioners on Officers
of Justice in England--Marcus Ælius Antoninus--Derivation
of Pic-nic--Sir Thomas More's Knighthood--Portrait of
Mandeville--Early History of Dingle--Language of Ancient
Egypt--Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe--Names first given to
Parishes--German Testament--The Man of Law--The
Termination "Ship"--Nullus and Nemo--The noblest Object
of the Work of Art--Poulster 151

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Rev. Cæsar de Missy--F. Beaumont
and Jeremy Taylor--"Carve out Dials"--Log Book--Lord
Clydesdale--"Time is the Stuff of which Life is
made"--"Yet forty Days"--The Empress Helena 153

REPLIES:--

Royal Library 154

The "Eisell" Controversy 155

Lord Mayor not a Privy Councillor 157

"House of Yvery" 158

On "Rack" in the Tempest 158

Richard Rolle of Hampole 159

Replies to Minor Queries:--Lady Flora Hastings'
Bequest--"The Right divine of Kings to govern
wrong"--Fairlight Church--Dogmatism and Puppyism--Was
Stella Swift's Sister?--Charles Lamb's Epitaph--Meaning of
Carnaby--Scandinavian Mythology, &c. 160

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 165

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 166

Notices to Correspondents 166

Advertisements 167

THE CAXTON MEMORIAL AND CHAUCER'S MONUMENT.

The result of the appeals which have recently been made to the
sympathies of the present age for the purpose of erecting a
Memorial to our first Printer, and of restoring the crumbling tomb
of one of our earliest and greatest Poets, has gone near to prove
that the admirers of Caxton and Chaucer are disposed to yield to
the objects of their hero-worship little more than lip service. In
short, the plan for the Caxton Memorial, and that for the
restoration of Chaucer's Monument, have well nigh failed.

The projectors of the former had, indeed, in the necessity of
settling what the Caxton Memorial should be, to encounter, at the
very outset of their undertaking, one difficulty from which the
Chaucer Committee was free; and the uncertainty whether it should
assume the form of the symbolical "lamp and fountain" so
poetically suggested by the Dean of St. Paul's, or the ideal
cast-iron statue of the Coalbrook Dale Company, may have had a
sinister effect upon the Subscription List.

Between the suggestive symbol and the fancy portrait there would
seem to be little room for hesitation, since the former would
merely veil a truth, while the latter would perpetuate a
falsehood. But our readers have had before them a third, and, as
it seems to us, a far more reasonable proposal, in that made by
MR. BOLTON CORNEY for a collective impression of Caxton's original
compositions: and we cannot but think that if that gentleman will
take the trouble to enter into the necessary details as to the
extent of such compositions, and the expense of transcribing and
printing them, his scheme may yet be realised, and that too to the
satisfaction of all the subscribers to the Caxton Memorial. The
following communication indicates the favour with which MR.
CORNEY'S proposal will probably be received by the followers of
Caxton's art in this country.

I have just read with great pleasure the article on "A Caxton Memorial suggested" in your Number for the 19th of July. I was particularly pleased with the "_proposed conditions_;" and as an humble follower of the art of which Caxton stands at the head, and as an enthusiastic admirer of that great and talented, and learned printer, I should feel great pleasure in becoming a subscriber, should anything of the kind be undertaken; and have no doubt but that many,--aye, as many as might be required to complete the subscription list, might be found among the printers of this country, who would feel proud to subscribe to such a "Memorial." If anything of the kind should be undertaken, the projectors might depend upon me becoming a subscriber.

HENRY RYLETT, Printer.

Horncastle, Aug. 18. 1851.

The following letter, on the other hand, from a correspondent
whose smallest suggestion deserves, as it will be sure to receive,
the respectful attention of all who have the pleasure of knowing
his high personal character and great acquirements, although
pointing at what might be a fitting Memorial of one of the
greatest of the Worthies of Westminster, clearly indicates that if
MR. CORNEY'S scheme can be carried out it will have the benefit of
the writer's encouragement and support:

MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S letter is entitled to much attention. It is satisfactory to learn that the original design has been abandoned. The fountain and the illumination might be a very pretty idea, but it would have sorely puzzled some of our countrymen to connect that memorial in their minds with the name and services of the first English printer.

Might not the funds that were raised be advantageously employed in founding a Caxton scholarship at Westminster School; or in the building or enlarging some school bearing Caxton's name, connected with Westminster? The spiritual wants of that city are great.

If the statue be raised, which should not present a _bonâ fide_ resemblance to our celebrated printer, it would be worse than valueless--something like an imposture and it would have as little connexion with Caxton as the statue in St. Peter's bears to the great Apostle, though called by his name.

MR. CORNEY'S proposal, of giving an impression of Caxton's original compositions, would unquestionably be his most enduring and glorious monument. These reprints would be dear, not only to the bibliographer, but to the philologist and men of letters generally. But the work would be an expensive one, and the editors should be far more liberally recompensed than by merely receiving a limited number of copies. As the subscription would probably be very limited, the work should be undertaken by the nation, and not by individuals; still, the funds already raised, if not otherwise expended for educational purposes, as before suggested, would serve as the foundation for accomplishing MR. CORNEY'S excellent suggestion.

J. H. M.

Our present purpose, however, is to call attention to a hint
thrown out not only in the following Note addressed to ourselves
(which, be it observed, has been in type for several weeks), but
also in the pages of our learned and able contemporary the
GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, in an article from which we extract the most
important passage, namely, that in the event of the failure of the
projected Caxton Memorial, the funds subscribed might with
propriety and good effect be applied (the consent of the
subscribers being of course first obtained) to an object with
which Caxton himself would so surely have sympathised, namely, the
restoration of the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer:

_Chaucer and Caxton._--"Not half" of the required 100_l._ "has yet been subscribed" for the restoration of Chaucer's monument. Chaucer was an especial favourite of Caxton; and as the first English printer seems for awhile destined to remain without "light and fountain," as once upon a time suggested by Dr. Milman, treasurer of the Caxton fund, possibly the subscribers to that fund would not object to the transmission of the sum required by the old monument of the poet, from the no monument of the printer? Will the Dean of St. Paul's ask for suffrages on the matter?

Q.

After alluding to the various proposals for the Caxton Memorial,
and the correspondence between MR. BOLTON CORNEY and MR. BERIAH
BOTFIELD in "NOTES AND QUERIES," Sylvanus Urban proceeds:

"But the discussion will do good. If neither proposal can be carried out, we shall probably have a better suggestion than either. The money in hand is said to be _far short_ of the sum necessary to erect a statue or to print the works; if so, why not repair Chaucer's tomb with it? Nothing would be more agreeable to Caxton himself. He not only printed Chaucer's works, and re-imprinted them merely to get rid of errors; but, feeling that the great poet 'ought eternally to be remembered' in the place where he lies buried, he hung up an epitaph to his memory over that tomb which is now mouldering to decay.

"'Post obitum Caxton voluit te vivere, cura
Willelmi, Chaucer clare poeta, tui,
Nam tua, non solum, compressit opuscula formis,
Has quoque sed laudes jussit hic esse tuas.'

"The epitaph, touching evidence of Caxton's affection for the poet, has disappeared. In a few years the tomb itself will have submitted to inevitable fate. What better mode of keeping alive the memory of both Chaucer and Caxton, or of doing honour to the pious printer, than by showing that even after the lapse of centuries his wishes for the preservation of Chaucer's memory in that place are not forgotten? If the fund is more than sufficient for the purpose, the surplus might be invested on trust to perform the wish of Caxton, by keeping Chaucer's monument in repair for ever."--_Gentleman's Magazine_, August, p. 167.

Here we leave the matter for the present not, however, without the
hope that the present age will do honour to the memories of two
of our Illustrious Dead, and that few months will witness both a
Caxton Memorial in the shape of a collective edition of his
original writings, and the Restoration of the Monument of the
Father of English Poetry.

Notes.

COLLAR OF SS.

(Vol. ii., pp. 89. 475.)

No less than nine long months have elapsed since you adopted my suggestion of limiting your columns, on the disputed question relative to the collar of SS., to a record of the names of those persons who, either on the monumental effigies or brasses, or in their portraits or otherwise, are represented as wearing that ornament; together with a short statement of the position held by each of these individuals in the court of the then reigning monarch, seeming to warrant the assumption. How is it that the invitation has not produced more than a single response? Is it that the combatants are more fond of discussing the probabilities of a disputed point, than of seeking for facts to aid in its illustration? I hope that this is not so, in an age that prides itself in its antiquarian and historical investigations; and I trust that, now the dismissal of the parliament has relieved many from onerous duties, your pages may benefit, not only on this but on other important subjects, by the vacational leisure of your learned contributors.

That I may not myself be chargeable with a continuance of the silence of which I complain, I now offer to you no less than eleven of the earliest names, principally taken from Boutell's _Monumental Brasses_, but some suggested in your own pages, on whose monuments or otherwise the collar occurs. To most of these I have added a few particulars seeming to warrant the assumption; and I doubt not that some of your correspondents will supply you with similar hints as to those of whom I have as yet been unable to trace anything applicable to the subject of enquiry.

1. The first of these is in 1382, seventeen years before the accession of Henry IV. It appears on the brass of Sir Thomas Burton, in Little Castreton Church, in Rutlandshire. This knight, we find, received letters of protection on accompanying the Duke of Lancaster to France in 1369, when Edward III. revived his claim to that kingdom.[1] Being thus one of the retainers of the duke, the assumption of his collar of livery may be at once accounted for.

[Footnote 1: N. Foedera, iii. 870.]

2. The next that we have is on the monument of John Gower in the church of St. Saviour, Southwark. The poet died in 1402, 4 Henry IV. It is more than doubtful whether he was a knight, and the only ground that I can suggest for his being represented with the collar of SS. is, that he was in some manner, perhaps as the court poet, attached to the household of the king. Of his transferred devotion to Henry IV. we have sufficient evidence in the revision of his _Confessio Amantis_, from which he excluded all that he had previously said in praise of his patron Richard II.

3. Sir Thomas Massingberd died in 1406, and on his monument in Gunby Church in Lincolnshire, both he and his lady are represented with collars of SS. Why, I have still to seek.

4. In 1407 there is a similar instance of a knight and his lady being so ornamented. These are Sir William and Lady Bagot, whose monument is in Baginton Chruch, Warwickshire. Boutell says that he was the first who received this decoration from the king. Be this as it may, the Patent Rolls contain sufficient to account for his and his wife's assuming King Henry's livery from gratitude for the restoration of his land, which he had forfeited as an adherent to Richard II.[2]

[Footnote 2: Cal. Rot. Pat. 236. 243.]

5. Then follows Sir John Drayton, whose monument, dated in 1411, is in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire. It may be presumed that he was in the king's household; as in the beginning of the reign of Richard II. he was keeper of the royal swans; and early in that of Henry IV., was serjeant of the king's pavilions and tents. Thomas Drayton, who was made Assayer of the Mint in the year of Sir John's death[3], was probably his son.

[Footnote 3: Cal. Rot. Pat. 196. 259.; Devon's Issue Roll, 286.]

6. In the following year, 1412, we have the collar of SS. represented on the brass of Sir Thomas Swynborne in Little Horkeley Church, Essex. Two or three years before, and perhaps at the time of his death, the knight held the offices of Mayor of Bordeaux, and of the king's lieutenant in those parts.

The last five of these are in the reign of Henry IV. In the reign of Henry V., I am not aware of any examples; but in that of Henry VI., we find five other instances.

7. In Trotton Church, Sussex, is the monument of Thomas Lord Camoys, who died in 1424, and of his wife; both of whom are distinguished by the collar. He was a Knight of the Garter, and commanded the left wing of the English army at the battle of Agincourt.

8. A monument, supposed to be that of Sir John Segrave, dated in 1425, occurs in Dorchester Church, Oxfordshire: of whom I can state nothing.

9. On the brass of John Leventhorpe, Esq., in the church of Sawbridgeworth, in Hertfordshire, the collar is also to be found. He died in 1433, and was one of the executors named in the will of King Henry IV.[4]

[Footnote 4: Devon's Issue Roll, 334.]

10. The monument in Yatton Church, Somersetshire, representing a judge in his robes, is traditionally ascribed to Sir Richard Newton, who died Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1449. This is, I believe, the first example of a judge being represented with the collar of SS.

11. The silver collars of the king's livery bequeathed by the will of John Baret of Bury, may be presumed, although he did not die till after the accession of Edward IV., to be of the livery of Henry VI.; as he is not only represented on his tomb, which he had erected during Henry's reign, with the collar of SS.; but the chantry, also built by him, is profusely ornamented with the same collar, enclosing his monogram J. B. He probably received the privilege of wearing it during Henry's visit to St. Edmondsbury in 1433.[5]

[Footnote 5: Bury Wills, Camden Soc. 15-14. 233.]

I shall be glad to see a continuation of this list carried on through subsequent reigns, since it is only by the multiplication of examples that we shall be enabled to form a more correct conclusion on the various questions connected with this interesting subject.

Will one of your correspondents kindly inform me where it appears that Richard II. ever wore the collar of SS.?

EDWARD FOSS.

PRINTING.

This art cannot be assigned to any single year, but must rather be referred to a _decennium_; and the one in which we now are (1851--1860), is certainly the first decennium of the fifth century of the existence of the art. If anything were proposed in the way of celebration of this _anni_versary, probably the year 1855 would be chosen, not only as the year which touches the middle of the decennium, but as being very probably the year in which the printing of the Bible was completed. We have then a year or two to consider in what manner the spirit which anniversaries usually call up shall be turned to account. The following will probably be suggested.

_A feed._ If we could call down Fust and Gutenberg to witness that within twelve hours after dessert and commonplaces are finished, an account of the dinner, as long as three epistles of St. Paul, would be about the world in something like a hundred thousand copies, such a celebration would have a strong point of interest about it.

_A monument in sculpture._ That is to say, a lame subscription, a committee, five-and-twenty abusive paragraphs before the thing is done, one more when, ten years after, it is completed, and a short notice in the handbooks of London in all time to come.

If these two modes are abandoned, many others would be proposed. Mine would be, a subscription to defray the expense of publishing, on a large scale, a book of fac-similes of early typography, to be sold at a cheap rate, with such prefatory matter as would form an accurate popular history of printing from 1450 to 1550. The great interest with which I saw plain working men looking at the treasures now exhibited in glass cases at the British Museum, made me think of this.

Reference is frequently made upon the origin of printing, to the _fasciculus temporum_, or _Cologne Chronicle_. In one place I find a citation in support of the Gutenberg Bible having been commenced in 1450; in another citation it is only affirmed that printing was first done in that year. The only edition I have the means of consulting at this moment is that of Ratdolt, 1484. And here I find nothing about printing except that, of the year 1457 and thereabouts, it is said that

"Artifices mira celeritate subtiliores solito fiunt. Et
impressores librorum multiplicant in terra."

In the preface Ratdolt says that he had printed the _fasciculus_ three times already, of which Hain mentions two. He says, moreover, that this fourth (Venice) edition was _cura et opera diligentiori_. Did Ratdolt, after inquiry, abandon the more specific account above cited, and content himself with the above sentence, as expressing all that could be verified; or, as I have sometimes supposed, do _different books_ circulate under the title of _fasciculus temporum_? Be this as it may, Ratdolt expressly refers to the great impulse which the mechanical arts in general received just about the time when printing became common. Now we may hope the same thing of the decennium on which we are entering, the beginning of which is made conspicuous by the great forcing-house of art, which has not yet got the name it is to keep.

M.

FOLK LORE.

_Bible divination in Suffolk._--In Suffolk it is a practice on New Year's Eve to open a Bible at midnight, and the passage upon which they stick a pin will be the luck (good or bad) that attends them the following year.

R. J. S.

_Mode of Discovering the Bodies of the Drowned._--What must we think of the following, transcribed from the _Gentleman's Mag._, vol. xxxvii. p. 189.? Can such things be?

"WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 1767.

"An inquisition was taken at _Newbery_, _Berks_, on the body of a
child near two years old, who fell into the river _Kennet_, and
was drowned. The jury brought in their verdict _accidental death_.
The body was discovered by a very singular experiment, which was
as follows:--After diligent search had been made in the river for
the child, to no purpose, a two-penny loaf, with a quantity of
quicksilver put into it, was set floating from the place where the
child it was supposed had fallen in, which steered its course down
the river upwards of half a mile, before a great number of
spectators, when the body happening to lay on the contrary side of
the river, the loaf suddenly tacked about, and swam across the
river, and gradually sunk near the child, when both the child and
loaf were immediately brought up, with grabbers ready for that
purpose."

Is this experiment ever tried at the present time, and do there exist any authentic accounts of such trials and their results?

* & ?

Manpadt House.

_Somersetshire Rhyme._--In Vol. iii., p. 206., there is mention of a traditional rhyme on Lynn and Rising. At Taunton, in Somersetshire, there is a similar tradition current:

"Nertown was a market town
When Taunton was a furzy down."

This Nertown is a village adjoining Taunton, and lying on the north side of it. Its name is variously regarded as a corruption of Northtown Near-town, and Nethertown, of which the last is doubtless the right derivation.

R. D. H.

DICTIONARY OF HACKNEYED QUOTATIONS.

Allow me to suggest the publication of a small work, which might be entitled "The Book of Hackneyed Quotations." Manifold would be its usefulness. Here information would be imparted to enquirers anxious to discover the source of such passages and the labours of other oracles, as well as of the editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES," would be thus in this department diminished. Reporters would by this means be enabled to correct mistakes; for, owing either to blunders in the delivery, or errors in the short-hand notes, rarely are quotations faithfully printed. The gentleman "totally unaccustomed to public speaking," and the orator of "unadorned eloquence," might from hence cull some flowers wherewith to embellish their speeches while to the practised author and the accomplished speaker such a collection might serve as an index expurgatorius, teaching them what to avoid as common-place, and so the recurrence of old friends, "familiar in our mouths as household words," would be more "like angels' visits, few and far between."

An index referring to the rhyming or important words should be appended, and it would be advisable to subjoin translation of the few Latin and French citations.

Surely it is "devoutly to be wished" that the proposed little work may find "a local habitation and a name," and that the idea may not vanish into thin air "like the baseless fabric of a vision." No doubt several of your correspondents who do not think that "ignorance is bliss," and that it is "folly to be wise," would gladly lend their aid, and the constant "cry" would be "they come." As to the title, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet:" but "somewhat too much of this."

TT.

Minor Notes.

_Cocker's Arithmetic._--I have a copy of Cocker's _Arithmetic_, the 37th edition, 1720, with an engraved portrait of the author; respecting which there is the following manuscript note on the flyleaf:--

"Mr. Douce, of Bath, the literary antiquary and book-collector,
showed me a copy of Cocker's _Arithmetic_, with the _frontispiece
cut of the author_, which he said was very scarce.

"J. P., April, 1823."

Mr. Douce's copy (the first edition, 1678) is now in the possession of Mr. Rainy, an upholsterer in Bath, and is for sale. He asks 8_l._ 10_s._ for it.

CRANMORE.

_The Duke of Normandy._--The question relative to the late Duke of Normandy being the individual who was Dauphin of France, the son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, and who was said to have died in the Temple, has never been as publicly and satisfactorily settled as it deserves. The high station and unquestionable integrity of the individuals of the Perceval family who instituted the inquiry, and in the most open manner laid the results of that inquiry before the public, constitute an unexceptionable guarantee for its genuineness and authenticity. The acute perception and accurate memory of Madame Tussaud carry great weight with them. She was asked by the writer of this paragraph, if she thought the person calling himself the Duke of Normandy was the same individual she had modelled when a child. Madame Tussaud replied with great emphasis, "I would take my oath of it for he had a peculiar formation on the neck which still remains. Besides something transpired between us, which he referred to, which was never likely to be mentioned to any one." The late Mr. Jeremy, the active and highly intelligent magistrate who presided in the court of Greenwich, and whose long experience adds value to his judgment, was of opinion that there were no traces of the impostor discovered by him during several scrutinising examinations which were held in his office, and that the members of the old French nobility who were present treated him with profound respect. He was supported through unknown channels, was twice shot at, and refused permission by the French government, though it was applied for by legal advocates of the highest standing, to bring the question before the legal tribunals. At first the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, who knew that the Dauphin was alive, opposed the Duke of Wellington's proposal to reinstate Louis XVIII. The Empress Josephine is also said to have been aware, that the Dauphine did not die in the Temple, and is reported to have said "Ah! legitimacy is nearer than you suppose." It is an unsettled historical question worthy the attention of the historian who has time to bestow on it.

ÆGROTUS.

_Anachronisms and Errors of Painters._--Perhaps the commonest of all anachronisms of painters is that of representing St. John Baptist in a Holy Family, himself a child, adoring the infant Saviour, and carrying a slight cross or flag, with the motto "Ecce Agnus Dei." That John knew our Lord as an eminently holy man is clear frown his expostulation, "I have need to be baptized of Thee," &c.; but he himself most distinctly assures us that it was not till he saw the Spirit descending on Jesus like a dove that he knew him as the promised Messiah and Lamb of God.

I have seen an engraving from an old Master (perhaps some of your correspondents may remember the painting itself) in which the mother of Zebedee's children comes forward to beg the boon on their behalf, James and John being represented as boys of seven or eight, one on each side of her. These errors of painters are perhaps excusable when they occurred at a time when the Bible was not in everybody's hands: but what excuse can we make for artist's blunders now? The _Illustrated News_ has lately given us prints from paintings by living artists, in one of which, "Noah's Sacrifice," a couple of fat ducks figure as _clean_ fowl at the foot of the altar; and in the other, the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins have increased into two sevens; neither error being apparently noticed by the editor. It is said that no sea piece, however fine, is admitted to our exhibitions if the rigging is incorrect. Would it not be quite as advisable to exclude Scripture pieces with palpable blunders?

P. P.

_The Ring Finger._--The English Book of Common Prayer orders that the ring should be put "upon the _fourth_ finger of the woman's left hand;" and the spousal manuals of York and Salisbury assign this practical reason for the selection of the said finger:

"Quia in illo digito est quædam vena procedens usque ad
cor."--Maskell, _Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England_, 2nd
edition, Preface, page clv. note: Lond. 1846.

Aulus Gellius tells us--

"Veteres Græcos annulum habuisse in digito accepimus sinistræ
manus, qui minimo est proximus. Romanos quoque homines aiunt, sic
plerumque annulis usitatos. Causam esse hujus rei Appianus in
libris Ægyptiacis hanc dicit: quod insectis apertisque humanis
corporibus, ut mos in Ægypto fuit, quas Graeci [Greek: anatomas]
appellant, repertum est, _nervum quendam tenuissimum ab eo uno
digito, de quo diximus, ad cor hominis pergere ac pervenire_.
Propterea non inscitum visum esse, eum potissimum digitum tali
honore decorandum, qui continens et quasi connexus esse cum
principatu cordis videretur."--_Noctes Atticæ_, lib. x. cap. 10.

Other reasons are assigned by Macrobius; and the author of the _Vulgar Errors_ (book iv. ch. 4.) has entirely overthrown the anatomical fiction mentioned above. Can any one give me any further information than that contained in L'Estrange or Wheatly, or in the authors to which they refer? The fourth finger of the left hand is certainly "the least active finger of the hand least used, upon which, therefore, the ring may be always in view, and least subject to be worn out:" but this is a very unromantic and utilitarian idea.

RT.

Warmington, Aug. 9. 1851.

_The Od Force._--As considerable interest appertains to the earlier manifestations of what is now termed Mesmerism, the following Note may not be altogether unworthy of a place.

The experiment, upon which a subjective proof of the agency of the power of Od is founded, as described by Dr. Herbert Mayo in the supplementary chapter to the last edition of _Letters on the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions_, and alluded to by R. D. H. (Vol. iii., p. 517.), is another instance of there being "nothing new under the sun." In the _Bigarrures du Seigneur des Accords_, first published at Paris in 1582, in the chapter "Des faux Sorciers et de leur Impostures" occurs the following passage, which I copy _verbatim et literatim_:--

"Autres ont une ruse, qu'ils semblent d'attacher un anneau d'or ou
d'argent à un petit filet, qu'on suspend dans un verre à demy
plain d'eaue, et puis l'ayant trempé pair trois fois, disent
bellement ce verset du Psalme, autant de fois, 'Ecce enim
veritatem dilexisti, incerta et occulta sapientiæ tuæ manifestasti
mihi.' L'anneau bat contre le verre, et sonne autant d'heures
qu'il en peut estre."

W. PINKERTON.

Ham.

_New Costume for Ladies._--The following paragraph, extracted from a London paper (November, 1794) would lead to the conclusion that the agitation regarding costume now going on in America, is not entirely novel; the Turkish fashion having been introduced unsuccessfully into this metropolis in the last century:--

"The young ladies of _haut ton_, who have invented _Turkish_
fashions, will not be surprised if their _husbands_ should follow
their example, and adopt the _Turkish taste for variety_.--No man
of sense can be _long_ attached to such _absurdity_!"

G. R.

Thanet Place, Temple Bar, Aug. 20.

Queries.

JUDGES STYLED REVEREND, ETC.

I read a Query not long ago as to the time when the title "Very Reverend" was first given to Deans. I would also offer a Query, When did the Judges lose the title of "Reverend" and "Very Reverend," and obtain that of "Honorable?" In the second volume of _The Year Books_ the approbation of the twelve judges to the publication of the reports is headed, "By the approbation of the _Reverend Judges_;" and the following is copied from the title-page: "_Le Premier Part de les Reports del Cases en Ley, que furent argués en le Temps de le très Haut et Puissant Prince, Roy Edward le Tierce. Ore nouvelment Imprimés, Corrigés et Amendés, avec les Notations and References de l' très Reverend et trés Sage Juges de cest Royaulme, Brook et Fitzherbert. Printed, 1679._"

In the title-page of the sixth volume we find "_Avec les Notations de le très Reverend Juges, Brook et Fitzherbert_."

Was this title, "Reverend," derived from the address given to judges when ecclesiastics filled judicial offices, or is it simply a title of respect applied to all persons to whom, on account of their position in society, respectful address is due; of which we have an example in Othello's address to the Venetian senators:

"Most potent, grave, and reverend seniors."

When did the address, "The Honorable," now given to the judges, come into use?

How comes it that in Court the Puisne Judges are addressed by the title of "Lord," whereas the Master of the Rolls, who ranks before them, receives the title of "Your Honor?"

The use of the title "Honorable" to the House of Commons, and to members within its walls, is familiar to us all.

The worthiness and antiquity of the title is proved by its being given to one of the Persons of the Eternal Trinity in the Te Deum.

F. W. J.

Minor Queries.

93. _Frederick Egmont; Peter (Egmont?)._--They appear as booksellers merely and only, so far as I can make out, because the _promptorius puerorum_, or _medulla grammaticæ_, printed by Pynson, in 1499, is said, in the colophon, to be at their expense. Neither Ames nor Dibdin gives any further evidence. The following is therefore worth a Note. It is from the _ad lectorem_ (or rather, the _adolescentibus studiosis_) of the _Multorum Vocabulorum equivocorum interpretatio Magistri Johannes de garlandia_: Paris, 1502, 4to.

"Sed nihil tam arduum tamque difficile fuit quod labor improbus
non vicerit. Ut videlicet mei amicissimo Fredericho Egmont morem
gererem optatissimus: qui cum in vestra excellentissima anglie
patria. Et librorum sit fidelissimus mercator et amicorum suorum
amantissimus, nullum unque librum ex officina sua nisi perquam
castigatus emittet."

Query, was F. Egmont a printer as well as a bookseller? Granting that _officina_ means a shop, how can a mere bookseller sell none but correctly printed works? The writer of the above was himself a bookseller (Joh. Ant. Venetus).

Of Peter above-mentioned, or rather of his name, the following is the history:--The colophon of the _promptorius_, of which there is a copy in the Grenville Library, runs as follows "... in expensis virtuosorum virorum Frederici Egmont et Petri post pascha, anno domini MCCCC nonagessimo nono, decima v'a die mensis Maii." Hence Hain and others have entered Peter post Pascha as an English bookseller, presuming that the words _post pascha_ cannot belong to the date, because the more definite day, "May 15," follows. But surely, among the varieties of the time when every man did what seemed good in his own eyes as to titles, colophons, &c., it may easily have happened that a double description of a part of the date may have occurred, one description containing more than the other. Query, Can any other instance be produced of this hypertautology?[6] At any rate, such a thing is more likely than that a bookseller should have been called _Peter After-Easter_. At the same time such whimsical things were done in the Latinization of names, both by their owners and by others for them, that no certain conclusion can be drawn. For example, more atrocious changes have been made than would be that of Easterby into _post pascha_.

M.

[Footnote 6: [We are glad to supply our correspondent with another
instance of hypertautology, and from a work in great demand during
this part of the year. On the cover of Bradshaw's _Railway Guide_
we read, "Eighth Month (August) 1st, 1851."]]

94. _Unlucky for pregnant Women to take an Oath._--In a police case, reported in _The Times_ of the 28th of May, a woman was called as a witness who, however, upon the book being tendered to her, positively refused to be sworn, with the remark, that it must be evident to the magistrate that she could not take an oath. The usher of the court said that the woman was pregnant, and that low women who were in that situation, entertained an absurd belief that it was unlucky to take an oath. What is the origin of this superstition? Is it common amongst the uneducated classes of society?

COWGILL.

95. _Cockroach_ (Vol. i., p. 194.).--Having seen in "NOTES AND QUERIES" some interesting particulars on the subject of beetle mythology, I am induced to put a Query as to the derivation of the word "cockroach." The common appellation for this insect in the French islands is _ravet_, but the more correct one is _kakerlaque_. Does the affinity in sound between this latter term and "cockroach," slight though it be, warrant the supposition that the one may be derived from the other?

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, May, 1851.

96. _Felton._--What has become of the letter said to have been found in Felton's hat when he stabbed the Duke of Buckingham? Upcott once had it, but it did not appear in the sale catalogue of his collection.

??

97. _Date of a Charter._--Having been in the habit of making frequent consultations to the MSS. in the British Museum respecting the county of Wilts, I found a charter temp. Henry III., the date of which is given as "_Thursday next after the day whereon the King sent his daughter into Sicily_!"

It is now three years since I last saw the original, and having mislaid my transcript, I quote from memory; but I believe I am correct in my rendering from the Latin.

Can you, through the medium of your valuable publication, fix with accuracy this date, as I have not been able to do so.

J. T. HAND.

29. Threadneedle Street, Aug. 13. 1851.

98. _Thomas Tusser the "Husbandman."_--Has any new evidence been discovered to prove the correct dates of the birth and decease of this "old English worthy?" On his own authority we learn that Rivenhall, near Witham in Essex, was the place of his nativity, and his remains were interred (about 1580?) in St. Mildred's church in the Poultry. Are any particulars known of Sir Richard Southwell, one of Tusser's patrons?

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

99. _Godfrey Higgins' Works._--Have the works of Godfrey Higgins (the _Celtic Druids_ and the _Anacalypsis_) ever been reviewed, and where? if not, can any of your readers inform me what is the opinion generally entertained of these productions?

OUTIS.

100. _Noctes Templariæ._--In turning over yesterday a MS. volume in the University Library, I met with a tract of 8 pp., with the title, _Noctes Templariæ: a Briefe Chronicle of the darke Raigne of the bright Prince of burning Love_. Stradilan is the name of the principal character in this most mad composition. As to the author, I shall be glad to receive information from those better acquainted with the fugitive literature of the seventeenth century than

W. R. C.

Cambridge.

101. _Commissioners on Officers of Justice in England._--On July 27th, 1733, commissioners were appointed to survey the officers of justice in England and Wales, and to inquire into their fees. Will any of your learned readers inform me whether these commissioners made any report of the returns of fees which they received in pursuance of their commission, and where is such report or returns deposited? This inquiry may lead to some important results.

INQUIRER.

102. _Marcus Ælius Antoninus._--Can you or any of your correspondents inform me what writer is concealed under the pseudonyme of Marcus Ælius Antoninus, in the following title?

"De scripto quodam cleri secundarii et leguleorum cololiensium
planè detestabili, adversus Evangelii doctrinam et ordines Imperii
nuper edito Querela Marci Ælii Antonini Imperatoris, qui
Philosophus à bonis literis magna laude cognominatus est. 1543."

TYRO.

Dublin.

103. _Derivation of Pic-nic._--Can any of your subscribers inform me of the derivation of the word "Pic-nic?"

A. F. S.

Nottingham, Aug. 12.

104. _Sir Thomas More's Knighthood._--I should, be glad of the date when the honour of knighthood was conferred on this eminent man and also the date of his admission into the privy council. If I am rightly informed, the records of the privy council are preserved only since 1540.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT

105. _Portrait of Mandeville, author of the Fable of "The Bees."_--Could any of your numerous readers inform me whether there is in existence any authenticated portrait of Dr. Bernard de Mandeville, author of the fable of "The Bees?" I have made a fruitless search for several years past.

B. G.

106. _Dingle, early History of._--Any references to works, MS. or printed, containing notices of the early history of Dingle and its neighbourhood, in the county of Kerry, Ireland, will much oblige.

R. H.

107. _Ancient Egypt, Language of._--What are the best standard works on the study of the language of ancient Egypt, as preserved in its monuments? What are the best works on its chronology? What translations exist of its "Ritual of the Dead?" I am acquainted with Lepsius Todtenbuch. What MSS. of it, _if any_, are preserved in British museums or libraries? have they been collated? I am acquainted with that in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, formerly in possession of the late Lord Kingsborough, which, I believe, has never been even lithographed; though among the members of that university are a Hincks, a Wall, and a Butcher.

S. P. H. T.

108. _Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe._--None of the biographers of the famous Dr. Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, the controversial writer, and founder of Chelsea College, state where he was born, or where interred. Faulkner, in his _History of Chelsea_, observes that he was probably a native of Devonshire; but there appears to be some ground for considering that he was of a family settled at Mayroyd, in the parish of Halifax in Yorkshire. In a conveyance of the estate, dated 29th January, 1581, the grantor is Matthew Sutcliffe, "Doctor of Civil Law, dwelling in London." He was of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Doctor of Civil Law: he died in 1629. In his will he desires to be buried in Exeter Cathedral. Probably the inscription on his tombstone, if still existing, might settle this uncertainty. I shall feel obliged to any of your correspondents who can throw any light on the subject.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

109. _Names first given to Parishes._--Is there any means of ascertaining the time at which names were first given to parishes? and can any reason be given for the recurrence of one termination in a particular locality? Thus between Caistor and Brigg in Lincolnshire, a distance of about nine miles, there are, I understand, the several parishes or hamlets of _Clixby_, _Fonaby_, _Grassby_, _Ownby_, _Searby_, _Bigby_, _Barnetby_, _Wrawby_, and there are many others in the neighbourhood. Of course, I know the meaning of _by_, as a termination; but I wish to know why it occurs so often in one locality, when perhaps a few miles off you have as many _hams_ or _thorpes_.

Can you suggest any probable derivation of _Swinhop_?

F. B.

Leamington.

110. _German Testament._--What is the most literal German translation of the New Testament? Is the translation published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1844 to be depended on?

A. G.

111. _The Man of Law._--Who was the author of the following lines quoted by Mr. Serjeant Byles a short time since?--

"The man of law, who never saw,
The way to buy or sell,
Shall never rise, by merchandise,
Or ever speed him well."

They may not be quite correct, as I write from memory.

W. W. KING.

112. _The Termination "Ship."_--What is the origin of the termination _ship_, in such words as consul_ship_, prætor_ship_, lord_ship_, and others?

A. W. H.

113. _Nullus and Nemo._--I have two old quarto tracts, of eight pages each, printed, as seems both by the type and by an allusion contained in one of them, between 1520 and 1530, or thereabouts. They are part of a satirical controversy, the subject of which is very obscure, between _Nemo_ of Wittemberg, and _Nullus_ of Leipsic. Though printed, we must suppose, at the two places, the opponents have evidently clubbed for a woodcut to be common to the two title-pages.

In this cut an unfortunate householder stands in an attitude of despair, surrounded by what are as much in our day as in his the doings of _nobody_, as broken crockery, hardware, &c. In the distance his kitchen is visible, in which two nobodies are busy with his meat and wine. A young woman is carrying an infant to the priest to be baptized; and from the way in which the worthy man holds up his finger, we may fear she has just confessed that it is nobody's child. Can any of your readers give any information?

M.

114. _The noblest Object of the Work of Art._--Can any of your readers discover the answer to the adjoining riddles which I have met with, though I neither know its author nor answer?--

"The noblest object of the work of art,
The brightest gem that nature can impart,
The point essential in the tenant's lease,
The well-known signal in the time of peace,
The farmer's comfort when he holds the plough,
The soldier's duty and the lover's vow,
The planet seen between the earth and sun,
The prize that merit never yet hath won,
The miser's idol and the badge of Jews,
The wife's ambition and the parson's dues.
If now your noble spirit can divine,
A corresponding word for every line,
By the first letters plainly will be shown,
An ancient city of no small renown."

A. W. H.

115. _Poulster._--Can any one inform me if I am right in supposing that this word, used in the reign of George I. as an addition expressing trade, is the same as our _upholsterer_?

D. X.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Reverend Cæsar de Missy._--Can you furnish me with any particulars respecting the Rev. Cæsar de Missy? Bishop Middleton, in his work on the Greek article, quotes once or twice some MS. notes of his, now in the British Museum; and a rare edition of the Septuagint (Basil, 1545), now in my possession, contains his autograph under date Londini, 1745. I have not met with his name in any biographical work, and should therefore be obliged by any information respecting his life and works.

QUIDAM.

[Cæsar de Missy, a learned Prussian divine, was born at Berlin,
1703. Having settled in England, he was appointed in 1762 to be
one of the French chaplains to George III., and died 1773. His
valuable library, which was sold by Baker and Leigh in 1778,
consisted of many books enriched with his MS. notes, some of which
were purchased for his Majesty's library, some for the British
Museum, and some by Dr. Hunter, who also bought several of his
manuscripts. A biographical account of De Missy will be found in
Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_, under _De Missy_ and a list
of his works in Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_, art. _Missy_.]

_F. Beaumont and Jeremy Taylor_ (Vol. ii., p. 263.).--"An acre sown with royal seed," &c. Would M. W. kindly say _where_ the passage in Beaumont is to be found?