Chapter C: W. G

Minor Notes.

_A Note on Henry III._--In Vol. v., p. 28., is the Query, "Are our Lists of English Sovereigns completed?" Some further illustration of the case of the king usually styled Henry III., to which particular attention was directed, may be derived from the subjoined extract taken from a MS. (No. 146.) in the University Library at Cambridge. The MS. is a parchment roll containing a "genealogical tree" of the kings of England, with brief notices written in the fifteenth century. On one side of the medallion on which is inscribed "Henricus tercius," is a brief eulogy of the king; on the other side is the following:

"Iste Henricus dictus est tercius quia sic intitulatur in Cronicis
hystoriis scriptis et cartis non ratione numerali sed regie
denominationes (_sic_) vel dignitatis verbi gracia si numeretur.
Henricus filius conquestoris. Deinde Henricus secundus filius
Plantagenet postea filius eiusdem Henrici erit iste profecto
quartus. Prætermittitur autem in stipite regnantium Henricus
filius eius quia non regnavit, ratione igitur regnantium dicitur
iste Henricus tercius. Obiit die sancti Edmundi Regis anno regni
sui LVII'o et sepultus est apud Westmonasterium."

W. R. C.

_Old Books and New Titles_ (Vol. v., p. 125.).--Your correspondent J. H. is quite correct in his remarks on the above subject. A friend of mine lately saw advertised in a catalogue the following title of a work, _Fulfilment of Scripture Prophecies on Nations and Kingdoms, by John Hoyland_. He sent for the book and found it was exactly the same as what he already had, viz., _Epitome of the History of the World, by John Hoyland_, but with another title. Such practices are neither fair nor honorable.

JOHN ALGOR.

Sheffield.

_Bowdler's Family Shakspeare._--It has occurred to me that a cheap edition of Bowdler's _Family Shakspeare_ would be in much request, and might conveniently be published in numbers consisting of single plays at 3_d._ each. This would bring the whole to about 9_s._, bound in three handy volumes. A new edition might contain the more recent typographical corrections and the names printed at length, a very desirable amendment. Will Messrs. Longman, the publishers of Bowdler's _Shakspeare_, look favourably on this suggestion when they see it in "N. & Q."? It would be an invaluable addition to their _Traveller's Library_.

A LADY.

Torquay.

[We have reason to believe that Messrs. Longman have it in
contemplation to produce such a cheap edition as our correspondent
suggests, but not, perhaps, as a portion of their _Traveller's
Library_.]

_The French Language._--It has continually appeared to me as a great absurdity, that the terms masculine and feminine should be applied to inanimate things in the French language, when common sense is opposed to such a distinction. I think the reason for using feminine and masculine articles in conjunction with nouns said to be of those genders, is to be found in the rule which obtains in the Irish or Celtic language, namely, that of "caol re caol," _i.e._ fine with fine, and "leatair re leatair," _i.e._ broad with broad vowels or sounds. I throw out this hint to those who are better qualified to investigate the matter; as I feel sure it would be a great benefit to learners of the French language to have a clear rule to guide them, instead of the present system, which is very complicated.

FRAS. CROSSLEY.

_Curious Epitaph._--The following portion of an epitaph from the tomb of Thomas Carter, 1706, in the church of St. Gregory, Sudbury, will doubtless interest some of your readers; it is as well to premise that he was a very charitable man, as the whole inscription (which would occupy about forty lines) fully records:

"Viator mirum referam
Quo die efflavit animam Thos. Carter, prædictus,
Acûs foramen transivit Camelus Sudburiensis.
Vade, et si dives sis, tu fac similiter.
Vale."

Permit me to translate it for the benefit of your lady readers:

"Traveller, I will relate a prodigy. On the day whereon the
aforesaid Thomas Carter breathed out his soul, a Sudbury camel
passed through the eye of a needle. Go, and if thou art wealthy,
do thou likewise. Farewell."

The allusion is of course to St. Matthew xix. 24.

W. SPARROW SIMPSON, B.A.

Queries.

"HOGS NORTON, WHERE PIGS PLAY UPON THE ORGANS."

I should be much obliged by any of your correspondents favouring me with their opinions as to the origin of the above saying. Evans, in his _Leicestershire Words_, says:

"The true name of the town, according to Peck, is Hocks Norton,
but vulgarly pronounced Hogs Norton. The organist to this parish
church was named Piggs."

But in Witt's _Recreations_, of which I have a copy of 1640, the eighty-third epigram is "upon pigs devouring a bed of penny-royal, commonly called _organs_:"

"A good wife once, a bed of organs set,
The pigs came in, and eat up every whit;
The goodman said, Wife, you your garden may
Hogs Norton call, here pigs on organs play."

_Organs_ from "organy;" French, _origan_; Latin, _origanum_.

Now it is evident that in 1640 the proverb was in vogue, and well understood; but organs were not at that time common in churches, especially parish churches, and as I do not know which of the many Nortons in England is Mr. Peck's Hocks Norton, I cannot help considering his derivation somewhat in the light of an anachronism.

I do not know the date of Howell's _English Proverbs_ quoted by Mr. Halliwell in his _Archaic Dictionary_. Should there be such a place as Hog's Norton, or Hock's Norton, is the Hock = Hok = oak tree? Acorns and pigs were common associates.

The only instance that I recollect of pigs being connected with an organ, is in that curious freak recorded of the Abbé Debaigne, maître de musique to Louis XI., when he made a hog-organ by enclosing pigs of various ages and pitches of voice in a kind of chest; the older ones on the left hand for the bass, and the younger on the right for the treble: over all these was suspended a key-board, which, when played on, pressed long needles into the pigs' backs,--the result is left to the imagination.

THOS. LAWRENCE.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch.

Minor Queries.

_The Judge alluded to by South._--South, in a note in his first Sermon on Covetousness (vol. iv. p. 448., 4th edition, 1727), tells us of a lawyer, "a confident of the rebels," who recommended that the Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Charles I., should be bound "to some good trade, that so he might eat his bread honestly." He then expresses wonder that Charles II. made this lawyer a judge; a practice, he adds, and doubtless with a meaning, "not unusual in the courts of some princes, to encourage and prefer their mortal enemies, before their truest friends."

Can any of your correspondents tell us more on the subject, and the name of the judge?

The recommendation was probably given at the time when the Duke and the Princess Elizabeth were removed from Penshurst to Carisbrooke, where, according to instructions, they were not to be treated as royal children.

I may refer your readers to Lord Clarendon's _Hist._ (vii. 84.), and to a letter and interesting note in Sir H. Ellis's _Collection of Letters_, iii. 329. Evelyn describes the Duke as "a prince of extraordinary hopes."

Did South, in his reflection on princes, refer to himself? Wood, his bitter foe, tells us that "he could never be enough loaded with preferment; while others, who had been reduced to a bit of bread for his Majesty's cause, could get nothing." In 1660 he "tugged hard," adds Wood, to be Can of Ch. Ch., but failed: in ten years afterwards he succeeded.

J. H. M.

Bath.

_English Translation of the Canons._--In the 36th canon the record of the subscriptions is, _Quod liber publicæ Liturgiæ ... nihil in se contineat quod verbo Dei sit contrarium; quodque eodem_ taliter _uti liceat_. This is copied from Bishop Sparrow's collection. The English translation, to which subscription is now made, has the following rendering of the second clause--_and that the same may be lawfully used_. The word _taliter_ seems to be not rendered at all. Without wishing to provoke theological controversy, I should ask, by what authority, and at what date, was the English translation imposed upon the clergy and graduates, all of whom understand Latin? Is it affirmed that the English renders the Latin fully, or is the English translation avowedly intended to fall short? I will not ask the meaning of the word _taliter_ in the minds of those who imposed the Latin subscription, because answers might provoke the inadmissible kind of controversy.

M.

_Snuff-boxes and Tobacco-pipes._--In which book can I find the best account of the manufacture of snuff-boxes, particularly of those manufactured in Mauchline and Laurencekirk, Scotland?

Also of the manufacture of cigars in London, the number of persons engaged in the trade, and general statistics thereof?

Also of the manufacture of tobacco-pipes, and of the "Incorporated Company of Tobacco-pipe Manufacturers," and the statistics of the trade?