Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber's note: Original spelling variations have not been standardized. Saxon and German blackletter characters have been marked with braces {d}. _Underscores_ have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts; =equal signs= mark =bold= text. Some Hebrew words may not be shown in an adequate way in this version. 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. V.--No. 118. SATURDAY, JANUARY 31. 1852.

Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition, 5_d._

CONTENTS.

Page

Calamities of Authors 97

NOTES:--

Portraits of Wolfe, by Edw. Auchmuty Glover 98

Notes on Homer, No. I., by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie 99

French Revolutions foretold 100

Idées Napoléoniennes, by Henry H. Breen 100

Dr. Johnson's Contributions to Baretti's Introduction,
by James Crossley 101

Minor Notes:--Bishop Bedell--Foreign Guide-books--Wearing
Gloves in Presence of Royalty--Errors
of Poets 101

QUERIES:--

The Poet Collins 102

Portraits of Henry Purcell, by Dr. E. F. Rimbault 103

Query on the Controversy about Fluxions, by Professor
De Morgan 103

Minor Queries:--Madrigal, Meaning of--"Experto
crede Roberto"--Chronological Institute--Buzz--The
Old Scots March--Hans Holbein--Ivory Medallion
of Lord Byron--Trumpington Church--"Carmen
Perpetuum," &c.--"The Retired Christian"--The
Garrote--Monastic Establishments in Scotland--Bonds
of Clearwell and Redbrook--Eliza Fenning--"Character
of a True Churchman"--"A Roaring
Meg"--Cardinal Pole--Theoloneum--Sterne in
Paris--King Robert Bruce's Watch 104

Minor Queries Answered:--Hornchurch; Wrestling
for the Boar's Head--Spectacles--Stoke--Author of
Psalm Tune "Doncaster"--Dr. Henry Sacheverell 106

REPLIES:--

Meaning and Origin of Era 106

Singing of Swans 107

Queen Brunehilda, by Samuel Hickson 108

Coverdale's Bible, by the Rev. Henry Walter 109

Serjeants' Rings and Mottoes 110

Extermination of Early Christians in Orkney 111

The Crime of Poisoning punished by Boiling, by John
Gough Nichols, &c. 112

Replies to Minor Queries:--List of English
Sovereigns --Moravian Hymns--Age of Trees; "Essex Broad
Oak"--Arrangement of Books--The Ring-finger--Count
Königsmark--Petition respecting the Duke of
Wellington--Reichenbach's Ghosts--The Broad
Arrow--Quarter Waggoner, &c. 113

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, &c. 117

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 117

Notices to Correspondents 118

Advertisements 118

CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.

In "N. & Q." of the 17th of this month a correspondent, under the signature of A SMALL AUTHOR, pointed out, with much humour, and good humour, the manner in which he had been applied to and induced to part with certain "theological tomes" to some mysterious but most "influential" critic. Since that article appeared we have received information, which shows that the practice complained of is one which is being carried on to a considerable extent; and we therefore think we shall be doing some service, both to authors and publishers, by reprinting in our columns the following correspondence between Messrs. Butterworth and Sir J. E. Eardley Wilmot on the subject.

(Copies.)

Fleet Street, January 2nd, 1852.

Dear Sir,--Authors with whom we have transactions, as well as
ourselves, have recently been frequently applied to for
publications "for the purpose of review in the daily, and other
journals," by a person signing himself "JOHN B. EARDLEY WILMOT;"
and as we happen to know, in an instance that has just occurred,
we have been directed by one of our authors to send his works to
the individual making application for the same under the
impression that you were the party who did so, we write therefore
in the first instance, as we have our doubts on the subject, to
inquire if we are correct in presuming it is yourself who proffer
the services of a reviewer, as in such case we shall be happy in
sending the publications applied for, to be noticed accordingly.
In the event of the letter alluded to (and which we send for your
inspection) not having emanated from you, we beg you will further
oblige us by stating if you know anything of the party who signs
his name in a manner so similar to yourself.

Waiting your reply,

We are, dear Sir,
Yours very respectfully,
(Signed) H. BUTTERWORTH & CO.

To Sir J. E. Eardley Wilmot, Bart,
Barrister at Law, King's Bench Walk, Temple.

Sessions, Warwick, January 5th, 1852.

Dear Sirs,--I have the honour of acknowledging your letter of the
2nd inst., which has been forwarded to me here.

I have already on more than one occasion been applied to, to know
if I am the individual who signs himself "J. B. EARDLEY WILMOT,"
and who it seems is in the habit of writing to publishers, to ask
for copies of new works, for the alleged purpose of getting them
reviewed. Not three weeks ago I found on my table at my chambers
in the Temple three very expensive books, which had been sent to
me by Messrs. Longman & Co., supposing that I had offered to
review them. I am very glad of the opportunity your letter affords
me of stating that the individual who thus signs himself and I
myself are totally different persons; I have no connection or
influence whatever with any literary journal, nor have I ever been
a writer in any, and I need scarcely assure you I have never asked
any publisher in my life for a copy of any new work in the manner
adopted by the individual to whom you allude.

I may as well add, that there is no member of my family whose
initials are J. B. Eardley Wilmot, nor is there, to the best of my
knowledge, any family in England, except my own, which combines
the two surnames of Eardley Wilmot. I must therefore presume that
the signature of J. B. Eardley Wilmot is entirely a fictitious
one, and adopted for sinister purposes.

I beg to express my acknowledgments to you, for enabling me to set
myself right with the literary world, more especially as I have
lately brought out a little work of my own on a subject entirely
professional.

I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
(Signed) J. E. EARDLEY WILMOT.

To Messrs. Butterworth,
Law Booksellers and Publishers,
Fleet Street, London.

We will but add one small fact. An author who had been applied to by another influential reviewer, the Rev. A. B. Clerk, directed his publisher to forward a copy of his book _by post_ to the place specified. The publisher sent it _by rail_. The consequence was that the reverend reviewer complained that the book had not reached him: while the railway people _returned it because no such person could be found in the place at which he professed to reside_.

Notes.

PORTRAITS OF WOLFE.

As the readers of "N. & Q." seem to take an interest in everything connected with the celebrated and heroic Wolfe, I may mention that my family possess two small paintings of that distinguished general, but by whom painted is unknown, though they are supposed to have been executed by some officer present with him at the taking of Quebec. A description of them may not be unacceptable to your readers. One represents Wolfe in the act of tying a handkerchief round his wrist, after he had been wounded at the commencement of the battle on the Heights of Abraham; and, from its unfinished appearance, seems to have been but a _première pensée_ of the artist,--Wolfe's figure being the only one finished. The other represents him leaning on a soldier, just after receiving the fatal ball which deprived him of life, and his country of one of her greatest heroes. The family tradition connected with both these paintings is that they were painted immediately after his death by one of his aide-de-camps, or by an officer in the forces under his command. On the panels of the latter painting is the following inscription, some of the words being partially effaced:

"This painting represents the death of my [_here the words are
effaced, but, as far as I can make them out, they are_] friend
General Wolfe, who fell on the Heights of Abraham on [_nearly
effaced_][the 13th day of September] 1759, before he could rejoice
in the victory gained that day over the French."

"H. C." or "G." are the initials attached to this inscription, and under it are written, in old-fashioned style, and in old paper, pasted to the panels, the following lines, which I transcribe, as I have never seen them elsewhere:

"In the thick of the Fight, Wolfe's plume was display'd,
And his [_effaced_] coat was dusty and gory,
As flash'd on high his sabre's blade
O'er that Field where he [fell][_or_][died] with such glory.

"On Abraham's Heights he fought that day
With his soldiers side by side,
And he [mov'd][_or_][led them] along thro' that dreadful fray
As Old England's Hope and Pride.

"But short was the Hero's immortal career,
For as the battle was nearly o'er
He fell by a ball from a French musketeer,
Which bath'd his breast with gore.

"When wounded he leant on a soldier nigh,
And the victory just was won,--
For he heard aloud the cheering cry,
'They run! they run! they run!'--

"He faintly ask'd from whence that sound,
And being answer'd, 'The Enemy fly,'
He exclaim'd, as he slowly sunk to the ground,
'Oh God! in peace I die.'

"And there stretch'd he lay on the blood-stain'd green,
Which a warrior's death-bed should be,
And as in Life victorious Wolfe had been,
So in Death triumphant was he."

There appear to have been initials affixed to these lines, but they are effaced, as well as many words and letters which I have rather guessed at than read. These paintings belonged to a great-uncle of mine, Malborough Parsons Stirling, Colonel of the 36th Foot, who died Governor of the Island of Pondicherry, and who, it is believed, received them from his friend, Sir Samuel Auchmuty; but nothing positive is known of their history, farther than that they are believed to have been the work of some personal friend or aide-de-camp of Wolfe's, present with him at the battle of Quebec. A portion of the sash said to have been worn by him at the time of his death, and saturated with his blood, also accompanied these paintings. This description may enable some of your readers to discover by whom these paintings were executed; to whom they originally belonged; and if there are duplicates of them in existence, where they may be seen.

EDW. AUCHMUTY GLOVER.

NOTES ON HOMER, NO. I.

_Homeric Literature._

There has been a very great difficulty in the world of literature, which it were almost vain to think of removing. This difficulty is that usually known as "the Homeric question." After the folios and quartos of the grand old scholars of antiquity; after the octavos of Wolf, Heyne, and Knight; after the able chapters of Grote, and the eloquent volumes of Mure; after the Alexandrian Chorizontes; and after the incidental reflections on the subject scattered through thousands of volumes, it seems almost hazardous, and indeed useless, to offer any more conjectures on "the bard of ages," and (to use the phrase of the novelists) "his birth, education, and adventures." On a consideration of the question, however, it will be seen that (strange fact!) the subject is not yet exhausted; I shall therefore, with your kind assistance, submit a retrospective view of the matter to the readers of "N. & Q.," and afterwards attempt to show what results may be drawn from the united labour of so many minds. I shall then give a _résumé_, first, of the ancient history bearing on Homer, and, continuing the sketch to the late volumes of Mure, draw my own conclusions, which, after much patient consideration, I must say, appear to be nearer an approximation to the truth, than any theory which has yet been promulgated.

Let us cast our eyes on antiquity. This very much misunderstood period of the earth's progress offers to us the proofs of an appreciation of Homer to which literary history affords but one parallel. The magnificent flights of thought, which the Hellenes could so well accompany, the tone of colouring at once so subdued and so glorious, gained for the unknown poet a reputation everlasting and world and age-wide. But as time fled by, there arose a race of men who wrote poetry as schoolboys do Latin, by judiciously arranging (or _vice versâ_) appropriate lines from the earlier poets, called Cyclic poets, or _cento_-makers. The men who wrote thus were, probably, persons either engaged in itinerant vocal pursuits, or regular verse makers, who wrote "on a subject," as our own street writers on the present day. Indeed, I may say, that the state of the rhapsodists of Greece resembles much that of our own "itinerant violinists," as an eminent counsel once apostrophized the class which the excellent judge on the bench named, according to general custom, "blin' fiddlers." The probable reason for the introduction of passages into the original Homeric compositions was the necessity of a novelty. The Cyclic poems are to Homer what the letters of Poplicola, Anti-Sejanus, Correggio, Moderator, and the rest, were to Junius. However, they prove in a remarkable manner how great the excitement regarding "the poet," as Aristoteles calls him, ever continued to be in Hellas.

These gentlemen, whose object was not to disgrace Homer by their puling compositions, but only to practically observe the maxims subsequently instilled by Iago into Roderigo's mind (viz., to "put money in their purse"), were the precursors of another race of writers. In ancient times, we are informed by Tatian[1], there were many writers on Homer, whose works, it is to be lamented, have perished with the nominal exception of a few fragments,--though, perhaps, scholars will once learn to use those as a clue, and find, as Burges did in the case of Thucydides[2], that many valuable passages are lying hid in the pages of the lexicographers, who spared themselves the trouble of writing fresh matter, by merely slightly changing the expressions of their sources, and not "bothering" their lexicographical brains by attempting original composition. It is thus, that even the weaknesses of the human mind benefit after ages!

[Footnote 1: Fabr. _Bibl. Græc._ II. 1. iii.]

[Footnote 2: _Journ. of the Royal Soc. of Literature_, vol, ii.,
New Series, and afterwards in a pamphlet in 1845.]

The names furnished us by Tatian are these:--Theagenes of Rhegium (the earliest writer of whom we are cognizant, contemporary with Cambyses); Stesimbrotos of Thasos (contemporary with Pericles[3]); Antimachos of Claros; Herodotos, Dionysios of Olynthos, Ephoros of Cyme; Philochoros of Athens, Metacleides, Chamæleon of Heracleia[4]; Zenodotos of Ephesus, (B.C. 280); Aristophanes of Byzantium (B.C. 264); Callimachus, whose poetry, by the way, is dryer and more vapid than his prose, if the little we have left of him allows us to form an opinion; Crates of Malfus (B.C. 157); Eratosthenes of Cyrene; Aristarchos of Samothrace, and Apollodoros of Athens. The minds or pens of these men in Hellas alone, were occupied with this grand subject; and in Rome, that city of translations and "crib," we find the pens of the scribes were at work, and prolific in prolixity. Besides these authors, there are others whose attempts at illustrating the text of the writers of antiquity have been met in a most illiberal manner; I mean the Scholiasts, who have been treated most unjustly. A goodly host of scribblers looks forth from the grave of antiquity. And here, before proceeding to speak of the theories of later times, it may be permitted me to suggest that casual allusions by writers who write not expressly on the subject, and who are sufficiently accurate on those points to which they have directed their attention, are often more valuable than the folios of writers who go on the principle of book-making.

[Footnote 3: Plato, _Ion_, p. 550. c.; Xenoph. _Mem._ iv. 2. §
10.; _Sympos._ iii. 5.; Plutarch, _Themist._ 2. 24.; _Cim._ 4. 14.
16.; _Per._ 8. 10. 13. 26. 36.; Strabo, x. p. 472.; Athen. xiii.
p. 598. e.]

[Footnote 4: Quoted by Athenæus (ix. p. 374. a.) under the title
of Περὶ τῆς ἀρχαίας κωμωδίας, which, however, is also
the name of a work by Eumelus.]

To enumerate the modern works of Homeric controversy, would be an endless and tedious task, nay, even useless, when so able and full an account exists in Engelmann's _Bibliotheca Classica_. The chief works, however, are Wolf's _Prolegomena_; Wood's _Essay on the Original Genius of Homer_; Creuzer, _Symbolik und Mythologie_; Hermann, _Briefwechsel mit Creuzer über Homer und Hesiod_; Welcker, _Der Epische Cyclus_; Lange, _Ueber die Kyklischen Dichter und den sogenannten Epischen Kyklus der Griechen_; Lachmann, _Fernere Betrachtungen über die Ilias_ (_Abhandl. Berlin. Acad. 1841_); Voss, Nitzsch, O. Müller, Thirlwall (_Hist. of Greece_, vol. i. appendix 1. p. 500. foll.), _Quarterly Review_, No. lxxxvii., Grote (_Hist. of Greece_, pt. i. chapter xxi. vol. ii.), Mure's _Critical History of the Language and Literature of Antient Greece_, the article in Smith's _Dictionary_, vol. ii. p. 500., and Giovanni Battista Vico (_Principi di Scienza nuova_).

The foregoing writers are the principal who have occupied themselves with the subject. I will, in my next paper, pass on to a review of the question itself.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

January 26. 1852.

FRENCH REVOLUTIONS FORETOLD.

It seems strange to find in Dr. Jackson's _Works_ a prophecy which, if then thought applicable to the French nation, is much more so now. I have no opportunity of verifying his reference, but will extract all verbatim, giving the Italics as I find them:--

"And without prejudice to many noble patriots and worthy members
of Christ this day living in that famous kingdom of _France_, I
should interpret that dream of _Bassina (see Aimoinus, aliter
Annonius) de Gestis Francorum, lib. i. c. 7. & 8. in the Corpus
Franciæ Histor., Printed in folio, 1613, Hanoviæ_, Queen unto
_Childerick_ the First, of the present state of _France_: in which
the last part of that threefold vision is more truly verified than
it was even in the lineal succession of _Childerick_ and
_Bassina_, or any of the _Merovingian_ or _Carlovingian_ families.
The vision was of three sorts of beasts: the _first, lions and
leopards_; the _second, bears and wolves_; the _third, of dogs, or
lesser creatures_, biting and devouring one another.

"The interpretation which _Bassina_ made of it was registered
certain hundred years ago. That these troups of vermin or lesser
creatures did signifie a people without fear or reverence of their
princes, so pliable and devoutly obsequious to follow the peers or
potentates of that nation in their factious quarrels, that they
should involve themselves in inextricable tumults to their own
destruction. Had this vision been painted only with this general
notification, that it was to be _emblematically_ understood of
some state in Europe: who is he that can discern a picture by the
known party whom it represents, but could have known as easily
that this was a map of those miseries that lately have befallen
_France_, whose bowels were almost rent and torn with civil and
domestic broyls? _God grant her closed wounds fall not to bleed
afresh again. And that her people be not so eagerly set to bite
and tear one another (like dogs or other testie creatures) until
all become a prey to wolves and bears, or other great ravenous
beasts_, which seek not so much to tear or rent in heat of
revenge, as lie in wait continually to devour and swallow with
insatiate greediness the whole bodies of mighty kingdoms, and to
die her robes, that rides as queen of monsters upon that _many
headed beast_, with streams of bloud that issue from the bodies
squeezed and crushed between their violent teeth; yea, even with
the _royal bloud_ of kings and princes."--_Works_, book i. cap.
xiii. lib. i. pp. 46-7.: Lond. 1673, fol.

RT.

Warmington.

IDEES NAPOLEONIENNES.

We hear a vast deal in these ages of what are called "Idées Napoléoniennes," the wisdom of Napoleon, and so forth. Some of this is invented by the writers, and ascribed to Napoleon; some of it is no wisdom at all; and some is what may be called second-hand wisdom, an old familiar face with a new dress. Of the latter sort is the famous saying:

"From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step."

For this remark Napoleon has obtained considerable notice: but the truth is, he borrowed it from Tom Paine; Tom Paine borrowed it from Hugh Blair, and Hugh Blair from Longinus. Napoleon's words are:--

"Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas."

The passage in Tom Paine, whose writings were translated into French as early as 1791, stands thus:--

"The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that
it is difficult to class them separately; one step above the
sublime makes the ridiculous, and one step above the ridiculous
makes the sublime again."

Blair has a remark akin to this:

"It is indeed extremely difficult to hit the precise point where
true wit ends and buffoonery begins."

But the passage in Blair, from which Tom Paine adopted his notion of the sublime and the ridiculous, is that in which Blair, commenting on Lucan's style, remarks:--

"It frequently happens that where the second line is sublime, the
third, in which he meant to rise still higher, is perfectly
bombast."

Lastly, this saying was borrowed by Blair from his brother rhetorician, Longinus, who, in his _Treatise on the Sublime_, has the following sentence at the beginning of section iii.:--

"Τεθόλωται γὰρ τῇ φράσει, καὶ τεθορύβηται ταῖς φαντασίαις μᾶλλον,
ἢ δεδείνωται, κἂν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν πρὸς αὐγὰς ἀνασκοπῇς, ἐκ τοῦ
φοβεροῦ κατ' ὀλίγον ὑπονοστεῖ πρὸς τὸ εὐκαταφρόνητον."

This is referred to by Warton in his comments on Pope's translation of the _Thebais of Statius_; and Dr. Croly, apparently unacquainted with the passages in Paine and Blair, describes it, in his edition of Pope, as the anticipation of Napoleon's celebrated remark. It will be seen that the original saying, in its various peregrinations, has undergone a slight modification, Longinus making the translation a gradual one, "κατ' ὀλίγον," while Blair, Paine, and Napoleon make it but "a step." Yet, notwithstanding this disguise, the marks of its paternity are sufficiently traceable.

So much for this celebrated "mot." And, after all, there is very little wit or wisdom in it, that is not expressed or suggested by La Rochefoucauld's _Maxims_:--

"La plus subtile folie se fait de la plus subtile sagesse."

"Plus on aime une maîtresse, plus on est près de la haïr;"

or by Rousseau's remark--

"Tout état qui brille est sur son déclin;"

or by Beaumarchais' exclamation--

"Que les gens d'esprit sont bêtes!"

or by the old French proverb--

"Les extrêmes se touchent;"

or by the English adage--

"The darkest hour is nearest the dawn;"

or, lastly, by any of the following passages in our own poets:--

----"Evils that take leave,
On their departure most of all show evil."

_Shakspeare._

"Wit, like tierce claret, when't begins to pall,
Neglected lies, and's of no use at all;
But in its full perfection of decay
Turns vinegar, and comes again in play."

_Rochester._

"Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide."

_Dryden._

"There's but the twinkling of a star
Between a man of peace and war."

_Butler._

"For men as resolute appear
With too much as too little fear."

_Butler._

"Th' extremes of glory and of shame,
Like east and west become the same:
No Indian prince has to his palace
More followers, than a thief to the gallows."

_Butler._

"For as extremes are short of ill or good,
And tides at highest mark regorge the flood;
So fate, that could no more improve their joy,
Took a malicious pleasure to destroy."

_Dryden._

"Extremes in nature equal ends produce,
And oft so mix, the difference is too nice
Where ends the virtue or begins the vice."

_Pope._

I might adduce other instances, but these are sufficient to show that the sentiment owes nothing to Napoleon but the sanction of his great name, and the pithy sentence in which he has embodied it.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia, Nov. 1851.

DR. JOHNSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO BARETTI'S INTRODUCTION.

Boswell notices Dr. Johnson having in 1775 written the preface to Baretti's _Easy Lessons in Italian and English_; but neither he nor his editors appear to have been aware of the preface which Dr. Johnson contributed to an earlier work by Baretti, his _Introduction to the Italian Language_, London, 1775, 8vo. It is accompanied by an Italian translation, and is written with all his usual vigour, and commences:

"Unjust objections commonly proceed from unreasonable expectation;
writers are often censured for omitting what they never intended
to perform."

The note, p 48:

"Though the design of these notes is rather to teach grammar than
morality, yet, as I think nothing a deviation that can serve the
cause of virtue," &c.,

and the excellent remarks, p. 198., on Machiavel's _Life of Castruccio Castracani_, have every internal evidence of Johnson's style, and were no doubt dictated by him to Baretti, for whom Johnson in the same year, 1755, endeavours to obtain the loan of _Crescimbeni_ from Thomas Warton (Croker's _Boswell_, edit. 1848, p. 91.).

Nothing is more wanted than a good and complete edition of Johnson's Works, in which omissions similar to the above, of which I have a long list when required, may be supplied. His prefaces and dedications to the works of other writers are all models in their way, and not one of them ought to be lost.

JAS. CROSSLEY.

Minor Notes.

_Bishop Bedell._--This divine, to remind him of the need he had of being cleansed and purified in heart by the Spirit, chose an ingenious device, consisting of a flaming crucible, with a Hebrew motto, signifying, "Take from me all my tin," in allusion to Isaiah i. 25. The reason for selecting these particular words was, that the Hebrew word for _tin_ is _bedil_.

CLERICUS (D.)

_Foreign Guide-books._--The samples of foreign English preserved in your pages are nearly equalled in ludicrous effect by the novel information often found in guide-books and manuals published on the continent for the use of strangers in England. Our metropolis is an inexhaustible subject of blunders on the part of the compilers of these works, of whom not a few deserve to rank with the Frenchman who, having heard something of a coal duty in connexion with St. Paul's, gravely told his readers that the cathedral was built on _sea-coal_.

The following extract is from a work entitled _Londres et ses Environs_, Paris, 2 vols. with plates: the compiler states that, having resided fifteen years in London, "il est, plus que tout autre, en état d'en parler avec certitude."

"Ce gouffre majestueux a englouti la ville de Westminster, le
bourg de Southwark, et quarante-cinq villages, dont les noms,
conservés dans les différens quartiers qu'ils occupaient, sont--

Mora
Islington
Falgate
Mile End New Town
Ratcliffe
The Hermitage
The Strand
Shoreditch
White Chapel
Stepney
Wapping
The Minories
S. James
Bloomsbury
Soho
Saffron Hill
Lambeth math
The Grange
Finsbury
Hoxton
The Spital
Poplar
Shadwell
S. Catherine's
Charing Cross
S. Giles in the Fields
Holborn
Kennington
Horsley Down
Wenlaxbarn
Wauxhall
Newington Butts
Rotherhite
Clerkenwell
Norton
Mile End Old Town
Limehouse
East Smith Field
S. Clement Danes
Knightsbridge
Portpool
Lambeth
Bermondsey
Paddington, et
Mary-le-Bone."

Vol. i. pp. 39, 40.

We have here a strange admixture of the names of parishes, streets, and prebends; amongst the last are Portpool, Mora, and Wenlake's Barn, the precise locality of which many old Londoners would be puzzled to state.

I think the following specimen of foreigners' English, which appeared as the address of a huge package received at the Exhibition, is worth adding to your collection:--

"Sir Vyat and Sir Fox Henderson Esqvire
Grate Exposition
Parc of Hide
at London.

"Glace
to be posid upright."

JAMES T. HAMMACK.

_Wearing Gloves in Presence of Royalty_ (Vol. i., p. 366.; Vol. ii., pp. 165. 467.).--Hull, in his _History of the Glove Trade_, says that Charles IV., King of Spain, was so much under the influence of any lady who wore white kid gloves, that the use of them at Court was strictly prohibited. He refers the reader to the _Mémoires de la Duchesse d'Abrantès_, tome viii. p. 35.

PHILIP S. KING.

_Errors of Poets._--In Vol. iv., p. 150., amongst the "Errors of Painters" a picture is noticed, in which "the five wise and five foolish virgins have increased into two sevens." A similar mistake is made by Longfellow in his last poem, _The Golden Legend_, p. 219., where one of the characters says:

"Here we stand as the Virgins Seven,
For our celestial bridegroom yearning;
Our hearts are lamps for ever burning,
With a steady and unwavering flame,
Pointing upward for ever the same,
Steadily upward toward the Heaven."

H. C. DE ST. CROIX.

Queries.

THE POET COLLINS.

The deeply interesting additions lately made in your pages to our knowledge of General Wolfe, induces me to hope, if not quite to expect, that something, however small, may be done in the same joint-stock manner for the memory of the poet Collins. Sir Egerton Brydges asserts that "new facts regarding Collins are not to be had," and I am deeply sensible of the value of Mr. Dyce's labours, as well as of those of the editor of Mr. Pickering's Aldine edition of his works. No pains, trouble, or expense, have been spared in collecting and arranging the "dulces exuviæ" of the highly gifted poet; and the memoir prefixed to Pickering's edition reflects no small credit upon the good taste and feeling of the editor.

Still may I not ask, through the medium of the "N. & Q.," whether some further discoveries may not possibly be made? Cannot any one connected with the town of Chichester, where Collins was born and died--any one brought up at Winchester College, where he was educated, lend a helping hand? Are there no additional traces of him as directly or indirectly associated with the Wartons, Johnson, Quin, Garrick, Foote, and Thomson? Cannot some of his letters be discovered? Some fragments of his poetry, however disjointed? Some portions of his prose? There seems a mystery about Collins himself, as strange as that about his own weird compositions. Though beloved and admired by all, no one ever picked up accurate information respecting him. He has been blamed for waywardness and want of perseverance, as if these were not symptoms of the fearful visitation that wrecked his noble mind; or as if perseverance and concentration of energies in any pursuit were not natural gifts as much as acquired, and gifts of a high and most valuable kind too. Collins did not want perseverance whilst at school: he came off first on the roll of which Joseph Warton was second; and his _Oriental Eclogues_, written before his eighteenth year, are not unworthy of the boyhood of any of our greatest poets. Besides, he was a highly accomplished classical scholar, an accurate linguist, was well read in early English poetry and black-letter books, was passionately fond of music; and some of his poems, if nothing else, prove him to have viewed nature with a painter's eye. In his own line of poetry, the personification of abstract qualities, Collins stands unrivalled. Let us but compare him with all or any of his numerous imitators, and we ever find him in the calm dignity of genius,

"Sitting where they durst not soar."

Amidst such a number of book-learned correspondents as you have, surely I may "lay the flattering unction to my soul" that some interesting discoveries could be made.

Collins is well worthy of all that can be done for his memory, for if his _Ode on the Passions_ and his _Ode to Evening_ be not true poetry, I fear that the English language has not much poetry to produce.

RT.

Warmington.

PORTRAITS OF HENRY PURCELL.

Being employed upon an entirely new biography of _Henry Purcell_, I am most anxious to procure all the information in my power relative to the various portraits extant of this "famous musician." Granger's list is very imperfect, but having by my own researches considerably extended it, I submit it to your readers for perusal, in the hope that those who are versed in the lore of "print" or "picture collecting" may correct errors, or point out omissions.

_Paintings and Drawings._

1. Head of Purcell, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Lately in the
possession of E. Bates, Esq., of Somerset House.

2. Half-length, said (but evidently erroneously) to have been
painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Now in the meeting-room of the
Royal Society of Musicians, Lisle Street, Soho.

3. Half-length, originally used as a sign at the tavern known by
the name of "The Purcell's Head," in Wych Street, Strand. Query,
where is it at present?

4. Portrait of Purcell when a very young man, formerly among
Cartwright's pictures in Dulwich College. Query, what has become
of it?

5. An original portrait by Closterman. In his hand is a miniature
of Queen Mary. Formerly in the collection of Charles Burney, Mus.
Doc., at whose sale it was sold, in 1814, for 18_l._ 18_s._ I
cannot trace this picture.

6. Crayon drawing, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, from the
first-mentioned painting. Formerly in Mr. Bartleman's collection.

_Engravings._

1. An engraving by T. Cross, prefixed as frontispiece to his
_Twelve Sonatas_, 1683.

2. Ditto, by R. White, from a painting by Closterman. Frontispiece
to the _Orpheus Britannicus_.

3. Ditto, engraved by W. N. Gardiner, from a drawing by S.
Harding, taken from the original picture in Dulwich College, 1794.

4. Ditto, by T. Holloway, from the crayon drawing by Sir Godfrey
Kneller.

5. An etching inscribed "Henry Purcell," but without the name of
painter or engraver.

6. A small engraving, by Grignion, in Sir John Hawkins's _History
of Music_.

7. An engraving by W. Humphries, after Sir Godfrey Kneller.
Frontispiece to Novello's edit. of Purcell's _Sacred Music_.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

QUERY ON THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT FLUXIONS.

In the report made by the Committee of the Royal Society, it is stated that the Committee had "consulted the Letters and Letter-books in the custody of the Royal Society, and those found among the Papers of Mr. _John Collins_....;" thus leaving it doubtful whether Collins's papers _then_ belonged to the Society, or, it may be, meaning to distinguish them as not so belonging.

In the preface to the _Analysis per Quantitatum Series_ ... by William Jones (father of his more celebrated namesake), London, 1711, 4to., which contains some of the matter published in 1712 in the _Commercium Epistolicum_, occurs the following passage:--

"Etenim secundus jam agitur annus ex quo Scrinia _D. Collinsii_
(qui, uti notum est, amplissimum cum sui sæculi Mathematicis
commercium habuit) meas in manus inciderint; et in illis plurima
reperi à cunctis fere totius _Europæ_ eruditis ipsi communicata;
et inter ea non pauca, quæ a Viro Cl. D. _Newtono_ scripta
fuerint."

This is hardly language which could be used with reference to papers lodged in the custody of the Society: it would seem as if Jones, in 1709 or 1710, became the owner or borrower of papers, till then in private hands exclusively. Can any evidence be brought forward as to the manner in which Jones and the Royal Society, or either, obtained these papers? I believe the Royal Society itself can give no information.

A. DE MORGAN.

Minor Queries.

_Madrigal, Meaning of._--What is the derivation of the word _madrigal_?

NEMO.

"_Experto crede Roberto._"--Can any of your correspondents inform me what is the origin of the expression so frequently quoted, "Experto crede Roberto?"

W. L.

_Chronological Institute._--I understand a Chronological Institute has been formed in London. Can you inform me where a prospectus can be obtained?

F. B. RELTON.

_Buzz._--What is the derivation of the word _buzz_, _i.e._ empty the bottle; and how came it to have that extraordinary meaning?

W.

_The Old Scots March._--Can any of your correspondents throw light on the _measure_ of the "Old Scots March," which appears to have been beat with triumphant success as to many of the onslaughts, infalls, and other martial progresses of Gustavus's valiant brigades?

Grose has given what he styles "The English March," as ordered to be beat by Prince Henry. And as a pendant, the recovery of "The Scots March" would be very desirable.

J. M.

_Hans Holbein._--Is the place of this eminent artist's sepulture now known? His death (by the plague) in 1554 was probably a release from neglect and poverty. When he was compelled to give up his painting-rooms at the palace, after Henry's decease, he is conjectured to have resided in Bishopsgate street.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

_Ivory Medallion of Lord Byron._--In the catalogue which Mr. Cole, of Scarborough, printed in 1829, of books in his private collection, he mentions a copy of Lord Byron's _Marino Faliero_, 1821, bound in a unique style, and having, inserted in a recess, on the front cover, a finely finished head of the noble poet, on ivory, in high relief, of beautiful Italian carving. Can any of your correspondents tell me who is now the possessor of this work of art?

W. S. G.

Newcastle-on-Tyne.

_Trumpington Church._--On the north side of the tower of Trumpington Church, Cambridgeshire, there is a curious recess in the basement story, which I have not met with anywhere else, or seen fully accounted for. It is sufficiently capacious for a man to stand in, having an arched entrance six feet in height, with a turning to the westward of about two feet, and is formed completely within the thickness of the wall. The village tradition, that it was formerly used as a confessional, founded on the existence of an opening into the interior part of the tower, now blocked up, has long been disesteemed. In the volume by the Cambridge Camden Society, on the Churches in Cambridgeshire, it is said to have been made for an ecclesiastic to stand in, to ring the Sanctus bell. A round hole, lined with wood, in the roof of the niche, evidently intended for a bell-rope, and chafings upon the upper part of the little aperture, such as the friction of one would produce, are very convincive of its having been used for _some such_ purpose. But when we consider that the Sanctus bell, except when a hand one, was "suspended on the outside of the church, in a small turret over the archway leading from the nave into the chancel,"[5] the probability that it was made for the purpose above-mentioned seems very much weakened. I shall feel obliged for a reference to any other instance, or a more satisfactory explanation.

[Footnote 5: Glossary of Architecture.]

R. W. ELLIOT.

_"Carmen Perpetuum," &c._--Upon the title-page of a Bible which I have had some years in my possession, I have just discovered, in my own handwriting, the following very beautiful and apposite quotation:--

"Carmen perpetuum primaque ab origine mundi ad tempora nostra."

I have lost all remembrance of the source from which I borrowed this happy thought, so happily expressed; and shall feel much obliged to any one whose better memory can direct me to the mine from which I formerly dug the gem.

HAM.

"_The Retired Christian._"--Who was the author of _The Retired Christian_, so generally, but I believe erroneously, attributed to Bishop Ken?

S. FY.

_The Garrote._--The West India newspapers are filled with the details of General Lopez's second attempt on Cuba, and his subsequent capture and execution. The latter event took place at Havannah on the 1st September, in presence of 8000 troops, and the manner of it is said to have been the _Garrote_, which is thus described in a Jamaica Journal:--

"The prisoner is made to sit in a kind of chair with a high back,
to which his head is fastened by means of an iron clasp, which
encloses his neck, and is attached to the back by a screw. When
the signal is given, the screw is turned several times, which
strangles the victim, and breaks his neck."

The word _Garrote_ being Spanish (derived probably from the French "garrotter"), and the punishment having been inflicted in a Spanish colony, it is to be presumed that we are indebted to the latter nation for the invention of it. Can any of your readers give any information as to the origin and use of this mode of punishment?

HENRY H. BREEN.

_Monastic Establishments in Scotland._--Will any of your correspondents be kind enough to furnish me with a list of the ancient monastic establishments of Scotland? Having communicated with many learned antiquaries, both in England and Scotland, and having failed in obtaining what I desired, I conclude that no complete list exists. Spottiswoode's list, now appended to Keith's _Catalogue of Scottish Bishops_, is very imperfect. But there are great facilities now for compiling a perfect list from such works as the publications of the Roxburgh, Bannatyne, and Maitland Clubs, Innes's _Origines Parochiales_, &c. I would like the list to be classed either according to the different counties, or by the respective orders of the religious houses, with a separate list of the _mitred houses_ that had seats in parliament. The list is wanted for publication. Perhaps the writer of "Scottish Abbeys and Cathedrals" in the _Quarterly_ may have compiled such a list.

CEYREP.

_Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook._--Can you inform me where I can find the pedigree of the Bonds of Clearwell and Redbrook, in the county of Gloucester?

[+]

_Eliza Fenning._--Pray, what has become of the collection of documents relating to Eliza Fenning, which was formerly in the possession of Mr. Upcott?

Is it true that some years after the execution of Eliza Fenning a person confessed that he had committed the offence of which she was found guilty?

ONETWOTHREE.

"_Character of a True Churchman._"--In 1711 a valuable essay was published anonymously, entitled _The Character of a True Churchman_, in a letter from a gentleman in the city to his friend in the country: London, printed for John Baker, at the Black Boy, in Paternoster Row, 1711. Who is the writer of it?

J. Y.

"_A Roaring Meg._"--What is the origin of calling any huge piece of ordnance "a roaring Meg?"

Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, says:

"Musica est mentis medecina mæstæ, _a roaring meg_ against
melancholy, to rear and revive the languishing soul."

The earliest edition of the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ is, I believe, the Oxford one of 1624.[6]

[Footnote 6: The first edition was published in 1621, 4to.--ED.]

The large old-fashioned piece of artillery, called _Mons Meg_, in the castle of Edinburgh, which is so great a favourite with the Scottish common people, is said by Sir Walter Scott to have been "fabricated at Mons in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland;" that is, between A.D. 1508 and 1514 (note to _Rob Roy_, vol. ii. ch. 10.).

This accounts for the _Mons_; but whence comes the _Meg_? The tradition of the Edinburgh people is different from that of Sir Walter: and Black, in his _Tourist of Scotland_, pp. 51. 341., says, it was forged at Threave Castle, a stronghold of the Black Douglases; was used by James II. in 1455; and that it was called _Mons Meg_ after "the man who cast it and his wife." The date in the above must be a mistake, as I believe James II. was killed in A.D. 1437.

There is another cannon of similar caliber, and bearing the name of _Roaring Meg_, presented by the Fishmongers' Company of London to the city of Londonderry in 1642 (Simpson's _Annals of Derry_, chap. vii. p. 41.).

Can any of your readers explain the origin of the name, and say whether the phrase "A roaring Meg" occurs in any English author earlier than Burton?

W. W. E. T.

Warwick Square, Belgravia.

_Cardinal Pole._--In 1513 Sir Richard Pole, a Welsh knight, married Margaret, daughter of George Duke of Clarence, who was drowned in the butt of Malmsey. Can any of your readers assist me in tracing his pedigree? If of Welsh extraction, the name was probably Powell, that is, ap Howel. Or can a connexion be shown with the old family of Pole, Poole, or Pull, of Cheshire?