Chapter X: Y. Z

_Ghost Stories_ (Vol. iv., p. 5.; Vol. v., pp. 89. 136.).--I hope it will not be thought that I mean to vouch for the truth of the stories after which I am inquiring, if it should turn out that there really are any; and also that I shall not be thought captious if I am not satisfied with the substitutes which are proposed. When your correspondent says that Reichenbach's "system may be advantageously applied to the explanation of corpse-candles, illuminated churchyards, and other articles of Welsh and English superstition," I can only say that, as far as I understand the superstitions referred to, nobody ever thought of connecting _them_ with _ghosts_. There may be stories of "illuminated churchyards," with ghosts in them, of which I have not heard but no ghosts are mentioned by your correspondent. I am not laying undue stress on a word. If the word _ghost_ means anything, it means a _spirit_; and I apprehend that the enlightened Baron will not thank any friend who would sink, or explain away, that meaning. So, I presume, his translator Dr. Ashburner understood him, when he triumphantly exclaimed, "The _glorious_ Reichenbach has, in this treatise, done good service against the _vile demon of superstition_," p. 180. These words would have been too grand for the celebration of such a petty triumph as snuffing out Welsh candles, and explaining one or two small superstitions of the vulgar. I must therefore again, if you will allow me, ask whether anybody knows of such stories as would really meet what appears to be the meaning of the author and translator.

S. R. MAITLAND.

Gloucester.

_Autographs of Weever and Fuller_ (Vol. iv., pp. 474. 507.).--Upon reading the Query of A. E. C., I remembered to have seen some of Weever's handwriting a year or two since, in the copy of his _Funerall Monuments_ in the library of Queen's College, Cambridge, of which I was then librarian. I have since written to a resident member of the college, who has kindly sent me a careful tracing of the MS. note; it is as follows:

"To the learned and judicious View of
the Maister and Fellowes of
Queenes Colledge in Cambridge
John Weever
Presents these his imperfect labours."

The tracing, the accuracy of which may be relied upon, I shall be very happy to lend to A. E. C., if it will be of any service to him. Fuller's autograph has not yet been discovered in the library, but, I have reason to believe, will be found in the President's lodge.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

14. Grove Road, North Brixton, Surrey.

_Lines on the Bible_ (Vol. iv., p. 473. Vol. v., p. 66.).--It has been already shown that these lines are _not_ Byron's, but are to be found in the 12th chapter of Sir W. Scott's _Monastery_. I write now for the purpose of noting, that in a similar collection, almost exclusively of the Evangelical school, called _Sacred Poetry_, and published by Oliphant of (I think) Edinburgh, Byron's lines from _The Giaour_, beginning--

"Yes! Love indeed is light from heaven;
A spark of that immortal fire,
With angels shared, by _Allah_ given,
To lift from Earth each low desire," &c.--

are printed with the "Allah" of the third line simply changed into "Jesus!" And so a passage, applicable solely to the earthly Eros, is made to do duty as descriptive of another love of which the noble poet had, I fear, remarkably little notion. The editors have had the grace not to append Byron's name as the author. How far is this mode of "improving" a passage honest?

HARRY LEROY TEMPLE.

_Hell-rake_ (Vol. iv., pp. 192. 260.).--I cannot dispossess my mind of the impression that, like the theological word _hell_, so the agricultural term _hell-rake_ is derived front the well-known Saxon word signifying to _cover_.

Every Devonshire vestryman or mason well enough knows what is meant by the "helling," or "heleing," or "heeling," of a church, viz. the covering of the roof; and every farmer or labourer in the west will tell you, that the _second-helling_ of potatoes is the covering them with earth a second time. Query: Was not the _hell-rake_ originally an implement used in husbandry for the purposes of _covering_ the broad-cast seed, and for other kindred purposes?

J. SANSOM.

_Family Likenesses_ (Vol. v., p. 7.).--The remarkable preservation of a family likeness is the subject of one of your "Minor Notes." It has been often observed, I believe, that in the continuation of such resemblance, a generation is not unfrequently passed over, and the son is not like the father, but the grandfather. The Note recalled to my mind some powerful lines in a poem, printed more than forty years ago, for private circulation only, which I transcribe, thinking that perhaps you may consider them not unsuited to your pages. To establish the relationship of one who claims kindred with another, several proofs are offered, viz. a bracelet, a ring, a letter: but the satisfactory evidence is afforded by the family resemblance:--

"That bracelet with Elmina's hair,
That bridal ring which join'd the pair,
From Geoffrey, or from Geoffrey's son,
By craft or outrage might be won.
That letter, where I seem to view
Sir Endo's lines precise and true,
Of forger's hands the fruit may be,
Or penn'd for others, not for thee.
But the mild lustre of her eye,
Soft as the tint of noontide sky,
The grace that once her lips array'd,
Nor force nor fraud could thine have made.
The semblance of Elmina dead
Thus o'er thy every feature spread,
No finger on thy front could trace,
_'Tis God's handwriting on thy face_."

S. S. S.

_Grimsdyke_ (Vol. iv. _passim_).--Your correspondent NAUTILUS asks it there are any ancient entrenchments in England known by the name of _Grimsdyke_, besides the one he mentions in Hants. I have to inform him that one of the most remarkable of the _many Celtic and Druidical remains_ on Dartmoor, in the county of Devon, is _Grimspound_, with its dyke or ditch, a small stream running through, or just outside, its circumvallation. He will find two very good accounts of it lately published, one in _A Perambulation of the Ancient and Royal Forest of Dartmoor_: by Samuel Rowe, M.A., Vicar of Crediton (published by Hamilton, Adams & Co.); and another, in a _Guide to the Eastern Encampment of Dartmoor_, _with a Descriptive Map_ (published by Dr. Croker, of South Bovey).[2]

[Footnote 2: The _Guide_ is published by Holden, Exeter; and
Kirkman and Thackray, London.]

There is a good print of Grimspound in Mr. Rowe's book, who describes it as by far the finest and most extraordinary of all the relics of this class. Its situation is on the N.W. slope of Hamel Down, on the borders of the parishes of Manaton (Colonel Hamilton says, _Maen-y-dun_, the fort or inclosure of erect stones), North Bovey, and Widdecombe. Dr. Croker says Grimspound is about 400 feet diameter; the wall inclosing the area is formed of loose stones (granite), several of which are of immense size: when first erected it appears to have been about twelve feet in height. There are two entrances, N. and S., with evident marks of a pavement. Within are many smaller circles formed by erect stones three feet high, and in general twelve feet in diameter.

WM. COLLYNS, Surgeon.

Kenton, Devon.

_Portraits of Wolfe._--I have by me a print well known by "hearsay" to all the admirers of Hogarth (though evidently none of _his_ performance), the print of "A living dog is better than a dead lion." It shows a profile likeness of Wolfe, which certainly corresponds with every other likeness I have seen of him. I never saw any other print of it but that in my possession.

Now we are upon the subject of Wolfe's portraits, it may not be amiss to state that in the celebrated print by Woollett, every face there was engraved by the celebrated Ryland; for this I had the authority of my father, who was acquainted with him.

B. G.

_Jenings or Jennings Family_ (Vol. iv., p. 424.).--Mr. Jennings or Jennens (William), of Acton Place, Suffolk, who died at the close of the last century, was a son of Robert Jennens, who served as aide-de-camp to the great Duke of Marlborough. _His_ grandfather Humphrey was settled in Warwickshire, became an eminent iron manufacturer in Birmingham, and afterwards purchased extensively in Leicestershire. The father of Humphrey was settled for some time at Hales Owen in Shropshire; but I have reason to believe his family came from Yorkshire, as suggested by A. B. C. of Brighton. The will of Humphrey was dated Feb. 25th, 1651; and, as it was proved, may throw some light on his kindred. Various works touching on the pedigrees of Yorkshire may also give the querist information, especially Whitaker's _Ducatus Leodiensis_ and his _Leodis and Elmete_, Surtees' publications, Part I. for 1836; Cleveland's _Cleveland_; Davis's _York Records_; Hunter's _South Yorkshire_; Nichols's _Collectanea Topographica et Geneologica_, vols. iv. and viii. &c. &c. Doubtless, too, there are local histories of Craven and Ripon which might aid his object; but if it would justify expense, he should examine the diocesan and parochial registries of York in regard to those localities. Mr. Jennens died at a very advanced age, having been the godson of William III., and afterwards page of George I. He amassed an immense property in lands and stock, much of which is, I believe, unappropriated and yet unclaimed.

JOHN D'ALTON.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

_The Father of Cardinal Pole_ (Vol. v., p. 105.).--I. J. H. H. does not state by what authority Sir Richard Pole is styled "a Welsh knight:" and the surmise that this name was a corruption of Powell is clearly unfounded. The not uncommon names of De la Pole, Atte Pole, and Poole, are of English origin; belonging to the _minor_ class of local cognomina, like Brook, Gate, Wood, &c. The family from which the cardinal sprang was wholly distinct from the De la Poles, earls and dukes of Suffolk, and can only be traced for three generations: but the series of "Pedigrees of Noble Families related to the Blood Royal," made, it is believed, by Wriothesley Garter, and printed in the first volume of the _Collectanea Topogr. et Genealogica_, throws some light upon it. It appears that Sir Richard Pole and Alianor, who was married to Ralph Verney, Esq., and had issue, were the children of _Geoffrey Pole of Buckinghamshire_ by Edith, daughter of Sir Oliver St. John, and half-sister to Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of King Henry VII. Sir Harris Nicolas, who edited the pedigrees in question, remarks upon this alliance:

"It has been a subject of surprise that Sir Richard Pole, of whom,
or of whose family, little was known, should have married Margaret
Countess of Salisbury, the last descendant of the Plantagenets.
One of these pedigrees proves that Sir Richard Pole was nearly
related to the king, which accounts for the fact."

Sir Harris Nicolas further remarks, that where, in another page of the same manuscript, the arms of Sir Geoffrey Pole (for he was, it seems, a knight) ought to have been inserted, the shield is _left blank_; and that the coat which is engraved on the garter-plate of Sir Richard Pole at Windsor, being Party per pale argent and sable, a saltire engrailed counterchanged, appears as if it may have been formed upon the saltire of the Nevilles, in allusion to the great inheritance of his wife, the Lady Margaret of Clarence.

J. G. N.

_Sir Gammer Vangs_ (Vol. ii., pp. 89. 280. 396.).--I have just found some account of this absurd story in Swift's _Correspondence_, Scott's edition, vol. xvi. p. 306. It seems to have been printed in a pamphlet, a copy of which was sent to the Dean by his friend Mr. Ludlow (Sept. 10, 1718), under the name of _Sir Politic Would-be_, who gives it sportively (as I always thought it _really_ had) a political meaning, and there seems to have been some allusion in it to the Dean himself. The pamphlet may, perhaps, be found in some of the Irish libraries.