Chapter I: Front Matter

[Transcriber's Note: Original spelling variations have not been standardized. Characters with macrons are shown in brackets with an equal sign, e.g. [=u] for a letter u with a macron on top. Some scribal abbreviations may be tentatively expanded: e.g. read "que" for q; and "verbum" for v'b[=u]. Underscores have been used to indicate italic fonts. A list of numbers 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. 125. SATURDAY, MARCH 20. 1852.

Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition, 5_d._

CONTENTS.

Page

NOTES:--

The Caxton Coffer, by Bolton Corney 265

John Tradescant the Younger, an Englishman 266

Cowley and his Monument, by Henry Campkin 267

Count Königsmark and the Duchess of Somerset,
by D. Jardine 269

Folk Lore, by C. D. Lamont 270

London Street Characters, by Alfred Gatty 270

Minor Notes:--Dean Swift on Herbert's Travels--Joe
Miller--Hints to Book-buyers--Birmingham
Antiquities--Buchanan and Voltaire--Indignities on the
Bodies of Suicides 271

QUERIES:--

"God's Love," &c., and other Poems 272

Praying to the Devil 273

Minor Queries:--John Ap Rice's Register--Prideaux's
Doctrine of Conscience--John Adair, Geographer
for Scotland (alive in 1715)--Clergymen first
styled Reverend--Rev. Nathaniel Spinckes--Meaning
of the word "Elvan"--Wiclif--Showing the
White Feather--Gray and Locke--Horses and Sheep,
Remains of in Churches--Archæologia Cambrensis,
Vol. I., Reprint--Presbyterian Oath--"A Pinch of
Snuff from Dean Swift's Box"--Cromwell's Skull--Guy,
Thomas, Founder of Guy's Hospital, and M.P. for
the Borough for Tamworth, d. s. p. 1724--Episcopal
Mitre--John Lord Berkeley, Bishop of Ely--Palace of
Lucifer--Ecclesiastical Geography--History of
Commerce--Merchant Adventurers to Spain--King's
College Chapel Windows--The King's Standard--James
Wilson, M.D. 273

MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:--Prestwich's Respublica--Instance
of Longevity--Solidus Gallicus, &c.--Sept--Essay
towards Catholic Communion--Bigot 276

REPLIES:--

Age of Trees; Tilford Oak 277

St. Paul's Quotation of Heathen Writers; St. Paul
and Plato 278

Sir Alexander Cumming 278

General Wolfe 279

Replies to Minor Queries:--Song of "Miss Bailey"--Fern
Storms--The Last of the Paleologi--"Whipping
Graves"--Rev. John Paget--Old Scots March, &c.--Sir
R. Howard's "Conquest of China"--Mary Howe--Dutch
Chronicle of the World--Thistle of Scotland--Bull
the Barrel--Bishop Kidder's Autobiography--Which
are the Shadows?--Welsh Names "Blaen"--The Verb "to
commit"--Beócera-gent--New Zealand Legend--Twenty-seven
Children--Reeve and Muggleton--Black Book of
Paisley--Pasquinades--Elegy on Coleman--Liber
Conformitatum, &c.--Grimesdyke; Grimes Graves--Junius
and the Quarterly Review again--Ink--Maps of
Africa--Learned Men of the Name of Bacon--Paringthe
Nails--Mottoes on Dials--Mispronounced Names of
Places--"There's ne'er a villain," &c. 280

MISCELLANEOUS:--

Notes on Books, &c. 285

Books and Odd Volumes wanted 286

Notices to Correspondents 286

Advertisements 287

Notes.

THE CAXTON COFFER.

[_Proposals of Mr. Randal Minshull, c. 1742._[1]]

[Footnote 1: This document, though before printed, is as rare as a
manuscript. Dibdin had not seen it when he wrote his memoir of
Caxton, nor could he prove its existence but by a reference to the
_Bibliotheca Westiana_. It is now reprinted from a copy in the
Grenville collection in the British Museum. The specimen is a
small folio, in pica type, and on thin laid paper. As my
information on Mr. Randal Minshull is at present very scanty, I
reserve it with the hope of more fortunate gleanings.--BOLTON
CORNEY.]

"Proposals for printing an exact and ample account of all the
books printed by William Caxton, who was the first printer in
England: wherein will be set forth some select chapters from each
book, to shew the nature and diction thereof, with all his proems,
prologues, epilogues, and tables, in his own words. There will be
also interspersed several ancient and curious matters relating to
the history of England, and other curious subjects: with a
vocabulary of the old English words, and an explanation of them,
which will greatly illustrate the ancient English language, as it
was written in the reign of Edward III. and continued down to
Henry VII. kings of England, as contained in the writings of
Thomas Woodstock duke of Glocester, Anthony Woodville earl Rivers,
John Gower, Geoffry Chaucer, John Lydgate, and other famous
persons.

"By R. Minshull, library-keeper to the right honourable the earl of
Oxford deceas'd.

"'Ut sylvæ foliis pronos mutantur in annos,
Prima cadunt, ita verborum vetus interit ætas,
Et juvenum ritu, florent modo nata vigentq;
Debemur morti nos, nostraq;!'--HOR.

"It is proposed by the editor hereof, as follows: viz.

"I. This work will contain about 200 sheets of paper, printed in
the same form of letter and paper, as this specimen.

"II. There shall be no more printed than 500 books, suitable to
the proposed number of subscribers.

"III. That for the more expeditious carrying on, and effecting
thereof, every subscriber shall pay to the editor two guineas;
viz. one guinea at the time of subscribing, and the other guinea
upon the delivery of a perfect book in sheets.

"N.B. Proposals will be delivered, subscriptions taken, and proper
receipts given for the money, by the editor R. Minshull, at Mrs.
Reffers, in Maddox-street, near St. George's church,
Hanover-square.

"Received this [...] day of [...] 174[...] from [...] one guinea,
being the first payment [for] The account of the books printed by
William Caxton, according to the above proposals.

"An exact and ample account of all the books printed by William
Caxton, &c.

"The first work of William Caxton, appears to be (as he calls it)
The recuyell of the historyes of Troye, divided into three parts,
the whole containing 778 pages (as numbred by my self, they not
being figured in the printing) in a short folio, the paper being
very thick and strong: there are no initial capital letters in
this book, which shews that he had not formed any at that time. In
his preface to this book he declares that he was born in the Weeld
of Kent, where he first learned the rudiments of the English
tongue; a place wherein he doubts not, is spoke as broad and rude
English, as in any part of England: that he never was in France,
but that he continued the space of thirty years, for the most
part, in Brabant, Flanders, Holland and Zealand.

"He also says, that this history was first translated into French,
from several Latin authors, by a certain worshipful man, named the
right venerable and worthy Raoul le Feure, priest and chaplain to
Philip duke of Burgundy, in 1464; being the fourth year of the
reign of king Edward IV. In which year he was employed by that
king in conjunction with Richard Whetchill, esq.; to treat and
conclude certain actions of commerce between the said king and
Philip duke of Burgundy: their Commission, as set forth in Rymer's
_Foedera_, is as follows; [See Rymer.]

"It was from the said French translation that Mr. Caxton formed
this history, in the prologue of which he stiles himself mercer of
the city of London; and it was by the command of his royal
patroness, Margaret, sister to king Edward IV. after her marriage
with Charles, duke of Burgundy, that he undertook it and finish'd
it. A description of this noble marriage is largely set forth by
John Stow and Hollingshead, in their chronicles; the latter gives
the following character and description of this royal princess,
viz. 'She was a lady of excellent beauty,'" &c. [See Holinshed.]

JOHN TRADESCANT THE YOUNGER, AN ENGLISHMAN.

Great is the interest attached to the name of Tradescant, and we believe few articles in our journal have been perused with greater satisfaction than those by MR. SINGER and other valued correspondents, which appeared in our third volume (pp. 119. 286. 353. 391. 393.), illustrative of their history. In the same volume (p. 469.) a correspondent, C. C. R., after quoting the following mutilated MS. note, written in pencil in a copy of Dr. Ducarel's Tract on the subject, preserved among the books in the Ashmolean Museum--

"Consult (with certainty of finding information concerning the
Tradescants) the Registers of--apham, Kent,"--

suggested that Meopham was the parish referred to, and that search should be made there by some correspondent resident in that neighbourhood. The hint was not, however, taken, and the matter dropped for a time.

At the close of last year we received a communication from a learned and much valued friend, now, alas! no more[2], telling us that Meopham _was_ the place referred to, and suggesting that we should get extracts from the register for the information of our readers. Upon this hint we acted; but our endeavours, for reasons to which we need not more particularly refer, failed, and it was not until our attention was recalled to the subject by the endeavour that is making, and we trust successfully making, to procure subscriptions for restoring the Tradescant Monument at Lambeth, that we applied to another friend resident in the neighbourhood of Meopham for his assistance in the business. That assistance was (as it has ever been) rendered most cheerfully and most effectually; and we are now enabled to lay before our readers and the Committee of the Tradescant Monument Restoration Fund, the following evidence that John Tradescant the younger was a Man of Kent. It is extracted from the baptismal register of Meopham.

[Footnote 2: That excellent man and ripe scholar, the Rev.
Lancelot Sharpe, who was one of the first, on the appearance of
"N. & Q.," to convey to us his good opinion of our paper, and to
prove it by giving us his communications. For particulars of his
life and literary labours, the reader is referred to the
_Gentleman's Magazine_ for January, 1852, p. 99.]

"1608 August the iiij daye John the sonne of John Tradescant was
baptised eodem die--"

Although we are not without hopes of receiving further information from the same source, we could not refrain from bringing this new fact in the history of the Tradescants at once before our readers.

COWLEY AND HIS MONUMENT.

If Pope in his time could ask, "Who now reads Cowley?" and if Cowper, at a later period, could lament that his "splendid wit" should have been "entangled in the cobwebs of the schools," it may be in our day, when most good people who cultivate poetry, either as readers or writers, swear by Wordsworth or Tennyson, that the bare mention of Cowley's name, in some circles, would be resented as a kind of impertinence. But Pope's answer to his own question is as apposite now as when the question was first put. If Cowley--

"----pleases yet,
His _moral_ pleases, not his pointed wit;
Forgot his epic, nay pindaric art,
But still I love the language of his _heart_."

The _Davideis_ and the _Herbs and Plants_ find few readers beyond those who resort to them for special purposes; but poets of more recent times, even whilst contemning his "conceits," have (as your volumes have frequently shown) often borrowed his ideas without improving upon the phraseology in which they have been clothed. Witness, for instance, Cowper's transmutation of his noble line:

"God the first garden made--the first city, Cain,"

into his own smooth generality of--

"God made the country, and man made the town."

And Cowley's love of Nature, and his beautiful lyrics in praise of a country life, will always keep his name before us. However, to desist from this "nothing-if-not-critical" strain, let me beg of you to lay the accompanying transcript [_see the next page_] of a manuscript in my possession before your readers--that is, if you deem it of sufficient interest.

The verses themselves, evidently of a date not long subsequent to the erection of the Cowley monument in Westminster Abbey, are written on the back of a damaged copy of Faithorne's engraved portrait of him. They comprise a not very correct transcript of the Latin inscription on the monument, a translation and paraphrase of the same, and what is styled a "burlesque," in which one of the chief features of the monument itself is ludicrously associated with the profession of Sir Charles Scarborough, Cowley's friend. The "Per Carolum Scarborough, Militem, Med. Doctorem," implies, it may be presumed, that Sir Charles was the author of the Latin epitaph, of which it has always been understood, and indeed it is so stated in the later biographies of the poet, that Cowley's close friend and literary executor Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, was the author. Scarborough published an elegy to Cowley's memory, of which I am informed there is no copy in the British Museum library; and being unable to refer to it in any other collection, I have no means of ascertaining whether this elegy discloses the fact of the authorship of the epitaph. This is not an unimportant point, since it will be recollected that Dr. Johnson expends a considerable amount of indignation upon the epitaph, not on account of its Latinity, but on account of what he considers as the false sentiments of which it is made the vehicle.

The value of the manuscript depends of course upon the possibility of the chief item of its contents being unpublished. Whatever respect the writer may have entertained towards Cowley, he certainly seems inclined to be merry at the expense of Sir Charles Scarborough. The unwieldy urn which surmounts the monument, is variously designated as a "whimwham urn as broad as sawcer," and as "the surgeon's gally-pot." These are not very complimentary epithets, it is true; but if they ever met the courtly physician's eye he could afford to laugh with the laughers. Cowley's lack of success in his attempt to obtain the mastership of the Savoy is not forgotten; but the satirist speaks of the dead poet very goodhumouredly, and may be said to concur in opinion with those of his admirers who predicted for his writings an enduring immortality. But "sugar-candy Cowley," as the burlesquer terms him, is now obliged to be content with a few pages in the _Selections from British Poets_, where indeed he is entitled to a very eminent position; whilst "dull Chaucer," as he is irreverently called, with whom the writer quietly prays that Cowley may quietly "sleep in beggar's limbo," seems to live almost bodily amongst us; and his vivid pictures and naïve descriptions are so acceptable, that it may safely be predicted that an edition of the _Canterbury Tales_ will always be a more profitable venture for a publisher than a speculation in a new edition of the _Davideis_.

But, after all, Cowley's acceptance amongst those who immediately survived him, is perhaps due quite as much to the recollection of his amiable personal qualities, as to his poetic abilities; and when Charles II., "who never _said_ a foolish thing," declared, on being informed of the poet's death, that "Mr. Cowley had not left a better _man_ behind him in England," the merry monarch may have intended exactly what he said, and no more. With these rambling remarks I leave the matter, only trusting, if I shall be found to have called attention to what may possibly be an old acquaintance of some of your learned readers, that my desire to contribute an occasional mite to the pages of a periodical, from which I gather so much information, will be accepted as an apology.

The words in brackets are supplied, conjecturally, in consequence of the manuscript being faulty in those places.

HENRY CAMPKIN.

per Carolum Scarborough Militem Med. Doctorem.

ABRAHAMUS COWLEIUS.

Anglorum Pindarus, Flaccus Maro,
deliciæ, decus, desiderium, ævi sui
hic juxta situs est.

Aurea dum volitant late tua scripta per orbem,
Et fama æternum vivis, divine Poeta,
Hic placida jaceas requies custodiat urnam
Cana fides, vigilentq; perennii lampade Musæ.
Sit sacer iste locus, nec quis temerarius ausit
Sacrilegi turbare manu venerabili bustum.
Intacti maneant, maneant per secula dulcis
Cowleii cineres, serventq; immobile saxum.
Sic vovet, votumq; suum apud posteros sacratum esse voluit
Qui viro incomparabili posuit sepulchrale marmor.

GEORGIUS DUX BUCKINGHAMIÆ

Excessit e vita anno ætatis 49 magnifica pompa
elatus ex ædibus Buckinghamiis, viris illustribus
omnium ordinum; exequias celebrantibus sepultus est
die tertio Augusti anno 1667.

Englished--

ABRAHAM COWLEY;

the English Pindar, Horace, Virgil:
the delight, glory and desire of his age,
lies near this place.

Whilst that thy glorious volumes still survive
And thou (great Poet) art in Fame alive,
Here take thy full repose, free from alarmes,
In th' Churches bosome and the Muses armes.

Speak and tread softly Passengers, and none
With an unhallowed touch pollute this stone
Let sweet-strained Cowley in death's sleep ne're stir
But rest, rest ever in his sepulchre.

BURLESQ;

Here lies, reduc'd to ashes and cinder,
not S'r Paul, but S'r Abraham Pindar.
It is not fierce Horatio Vere,
but Horatio Cowley buried here.

Nor is this Polydore Virgil's room,
but Cantabrigian Virgil's tomb.
The pleasant'st child e're England bred
The bravest youth e're Cambridge fed
The dearest man e're wore a head.

Whilst that thy ballads up & down do flutter
and the town gallants of thy town muse mutter
Possesse this church, though thou couldst not y'e Savoy
and in her soft lap let Melpomene have thee.

Let no Court storm nor tough-lung'd zealot blow
thy neatly angled atomes to and fro
And sleep in beggar's Limbo, by dull Chaucer,
under the whim wham urn as broad as sawcer
Whilst y't thy name doth smell as sweet as May's
and all y'e table talk is of thy Thais
thy miscellany and thy Davideis.

Rot away here and let the vault endure thee
let the religion of the house secure thee
and let the watching muses here immure thee.

Avaunt all ye that look profane and vile
Stand off, stand off, a hundred thousand mile
Nor with your thumbs this monument defile.

Let sugar-candy Cowley sleep in's grotte
let not y'e people wake him, let them not
nor steal away the surgeons gally pot.

Whilst on wing'd Pegasus thou [Phoebus' Son]
through air and earth and sea & all do ride
Whilst by Orinda's pipe thy praise is blown
And thou in fairy land art deified;

Whilst thou dost soar aloft leave coyrs behind
to be interrd in antient monast'ry
And to the chimeing rabble safely joyn'd
[To] Draiton, Spencer and old Jeoffery.

Whilst thou above wear'st a triumphant wreath
And we the Poets militant beneath
Anthems to thy immortal honor breath

[Fill] the dark chest which for Apollo's heir
Ecclesia Anglicana doth prepare
And let the vestal nunne's watch ever here.

Let Libitina's selfe think't no disgrace
To be the Angel Guardian of this place
That no rude hand this monument deface.

Here let seraphic Cowley rest his head
Here let him rest it in this earthy bed
Till we all rise with glory lawrelled.

Whilst through y'e world thy golden verses passe
more golden than those of Pythagoras
And whilst [sweet lyri]st thy anointed name
is registred in the large rowle of Fame

Here rest secure and let this minster be
a Sanctuary in that sense to thee,
Let the nine muses bid farewell to sleep
ever to watch the grave thy corps doth keep.

New consecrated is the holy ground
no crime no guilt must here be found;
Let not the man of vices hither come
and with his breath profane this sacred tomb.

Let Cowley's dust lie quiet in its urne
till the last trump all things to ashes turn;
Let it its station keep and quiet lie
till the blest dawn of immortality.

So wisheth
And desires his wish may be
Sacred to posterity
He who erected this monument
To that incomparable person

GEORGE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM

He departed this life in the
49 year of his age
And was buried in great state out of
the Duke of Buckingham's House
Many illustrious persons of all
degrees attending his funeral.

August 3d. 1667.

COUNT KÖNIGSMARK AND THE DUCHESS OF SOMERSET.

Several notices of Count Königsmark have lately appeared in "N. & Q.," Walpole's mistake having occasioned a question by MR. MARKLAND respecting his identity. There can, however, be no doubt that the person who was tried for being accessory to the assassination of Mr. Thynne in 1681-2, and whose trial is reported at length in the 9th volume of Howell's _State Trials_, p. 1., was Charles John Count Königsmark, as stated by MR. BRUCE in Vol. v., p. 115. of "N. & Q.," and whose biography and genealogy are more fully given by J. R. J. in p. 183. of the same volume.

In the Note on this subject by J. R. J. it is stated that "the most mysterious episode in the life of this Count Königsmark was brought on by his sueing for England's richest and highest heiress, Elizabeth, daughter of Josceline, second Earl of Northumberland." This is perfectly true; but the personal history of this lady, her connexion with Königsmark, her imputed privity to the murder of Mr. Thynne, and the savage allusion to these circumstances by Swift thirty years afterwards, deserve a more particular notice.

Elizabeth, Baroness Percy, was daughter and heiress of Josceline, Earl of Northumberland, who died in 1670. According to Collins (_Peerage_, vol. iv. p. 185.) she was four years old at the time of her father's death; so that she was born in 1666. In 1679 she was married to Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, who was only son and heir of the Duke of Newcastle, and who died in 1680, before either party were of puberty to consummate the marriage. In 1681 the Lady Ogle was married to Thomas Thynne, of Longleat, in the county of Wilts, Esquire,--a gentleman of great wealth, a friend of the Duke of Monmouth, and the Issachar of Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel." Sir John Reresby, in his _Memoirs_, p. 135., says "The lady, repenting of the match, fled from her husband into Holland before they were bedded." Whether this elopement had any relation to Königsmark does not appear: but a few months afterwards, namely, in February 1681-2, Mr. Thynne was assassinated in the Haymarket by foreigners, who were devoted friends of the Count, and who apparently acted under his direction, or, at all events, with his acquiescence. The Count was at that time a mere youth, and having been in London a few months before Lady Ogle's marriage with Mr. Thynne, had then paid his addresses to her. He returned into England about ten days before the murder, and was in London at the time it was committed. In endeavouring to escape beyond sea the day afterwards, he was taken in disguise at Gravesend, brought to Westminster, and examined before King and Council. Sir John Reresby says, "I was present upon this occasion, and observed that he appeared before the king with all the assurance imaginable. He was a fine person of a man, and I think his hair was the longest I ever saw." He denied all participation in the murder, but he was committed and tried with the principals, as an accessory before the fact; and although acquitted by the jury, a perusal of the trial produces a strong persuasion that he was privy to the purpose of the assassins. A fact much pressed against him was his inquiry of the Swedish envoy, "Whether or no, if he should kill Mr. Thynne in a duel, he could, by the laws of England, afterwards marry the Lady Ogle?" a question which showed beyond all doubt that he had in some form entertained a design against Mr. Thynne's life, and also that the attainment of the lady was the motive. But whatever may have been the intention of the Count, and whatever may have been the nature of his intercourse with the Lady Ogle, it is quite clear that they were not married. On the contrary, this lady of early nuptial experience, and of romantic but somewhat suspicious adventure,--who was married three times, and twice a widow, before she was sixteen years old,--was married on the 30th of May, 1682, and within four months after the murder of Mr. Thynne, to Charles Seymour, Duke of Somerset. (Collins's _Peerage_, vol. i. p. 191.) Thus early practised in _matrimonial_ intrigue, we find her thirty years afterwards the accomplished organ of _political_ intrigue; the favourite and friend of Queen Anne, and the zealous partisan of the Whig party. In that character she became the object of Swift's pasquinade, the "Windsor Prophecy," which, though aimed at the Duchess of Somerset, and the destruction of her influence at court, recoiled upon the head of the author, prevented the queen from making him a bishop, and banished him from her favour for the remainder of her reign. The meaning of the "Prophecy," and the keenness of its sarcasm, were of course readily understood and appreciated by cotemporaries. Swift himself seems to have been highly pleased with it. He says, in one of his letters to Stella, "The Prophecy is an admirable good one, and the people are mad for it." The above recital of the early history of the Duchess of Somerset will render it fully intelligible at the present day. After mentioning some incidents and characters of the time, the "Windsor Prophecy" ends thus:

"And, dear Englond, if aught I understond,
Beware of _Carrots_[3] from Northumberlond!
Carrots, sown _Thynne_, a deep root may get,
If so be they are in _Sommer set_.
Their _conyngs mark_ thou! for I have been told,
They _assassine_ when young, and _poison_ when old.
Root out these _Carrots_, O thou, whose name[4]
Is backwards and forwards always the same!
And keep close to thee always that name[5]
Which backwards or forwards is _almost_ the same.
And, Englond, would'st thou be happy still,
Bury those _Carrots_ under a _Hill_."[6]

[Footnote 3: Alluding to the Duchess of Somerset's red hair.]

[Footnote 4: Anna Regina.]

[Footnote 5: Lady Masham.]

[Footnote 6: Lady Masham's maiden name.]