Chapter C: R. M

_Motto on Chimney-piece_ (Vol. v., p. 345.)--It does not appear to me that the mottoes sent by your inquirer C. T. are very difficult to solve. The first is Latin:

"VITATRANOVULAESTOLIM."

He says he is not certain as to one or two letters. I suspect the first O should be Q, and the V should be I. It will then read:

"Vita tranquila est olim."

"Life is henceforth tranquil."

A very proper motto for a fire-side.

The second is Italian:

"VE DAL AM DARO."

I suspect the R should be T. It will then read:

"Ve da'l amico dato."

"Given to you by the friend."

If the word is _daro_, it will be--

"I will give it to you from the friend."

JAMES EDMESTON.

Homerton.

The arms given by your correspondent C. T. are those of Cavendish (quartering Clifford), one of that family having been created Earl of Newcastle in 1610. Becoming shortly after extinct, John Holles, Earl of Clare (who had married the heiress of Cavendish), was created by King William III. in 1694 Marquis of Clare and Duke of Newcastle.

Might not the chimney-piece have adorned a mansion of the Cavendish family, who probably resided in Newcastle during the period above alluded to?

The motto underneath (which is _not_ the family motto of Cavendish) certainly at first sight looks puzzling enough; will the following solution suffice, which I merely throw out as a first thought that may lead to a better elucidation?

"Vita: tran: ovula: est: olim."

Presuming "ovula" to be the diminutive of _ovum_ (I am not sure if I am correct), and "tran" (if correctly transcribed) to be a component part of one of the numerous compounds of _trans_ (say _transitorius_), may not the passage be _freely_ translated: "(Our) transitory life (was) once (as mysterious, or hidden, or minute as) is (the germ of vitality) in an egg?"

If C. T. could give a description of the second coat, some connecting link may possibly be supplied toward unravelling the motto.

HENRY W. S. TAYLOR.

Southampton.

"_Ve dâl am daro_" (Vol. v., p. 325.).--One of the mottoes which puzzle your correspondent C. T. is Welsh, and means that _retribution will follow violence_: "he will pay (_i.e._ suffer) for striking."

Σ.

_White-livered_ (Vol. v., pp. 127. 403.).--Bishop Ridley, in his conference with Bishop Latimer, whilst they were confined in the Tower, makes use of the expression: "For surely, except the Lord assist me with His gracious aid in the time of His service, I know I shall play but the part of a _white-livered knight_."

CARL.

_Enigmatical Epitaphs_ (Vol. v., p. 179.).--The brasses of John Killyngworth, 1412, formerly in Eddlesborough Church, now in Pitson Church, Bucks; and of a priest at St. Peter's, near St. Alban's, have this inscription upon them:

"Ecce quod expendi habui, quod donavi habeo, quod negavi punior,
quod servavi perdidi."

That at St. Alban's has an English translation:

"Lo, all that ever I spent, that sometime had I;
All that I gave in good intent, that now have I;
That I never gave, nor lent, that now aby[3] I;
That I kept till I went, that lost I."

[Footnote 3: So in my authority.]

The same inscription is on a brass as late as 1584, at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London. (See _Oxford Architectural Society's Manual of Monumental Brasses_.)

UNICORN.

_Pelican in her Piety_ (Vol. v., p. 59.).--In Warner's _Glastonbury_, plate 18, fig. E., is a very _early_ representation of the pelican feeding her young with her own blood: an emblem of Christ's love for His church. The stone was dug out of the ruins of the Abbey.

In Parker's _Glossary_ the symbol is explained by a quotation from _Ortus Vocabulorum_:

"Fertur, si verum est, eam occidere natos suos, eosque per triduum
lugere, deinde seipsum vulnerare, et aspercione sui sanguinis
vivos facere filios suos."

H. F. E.

_Names of Places, Provincial Dialect_ (Vol. v., pp. 250. 375.).--In accordance with the suggestion of E. P. M., I forward you a few instances of a change between the spelling, and pronunciation:

Spelling. Pronunciation.

Chadwell Caudle.
Wymondham (Norf.) Wyndham.
---- (Leicestersh.) W[)u]mundham.
Swavesey Swaysey.
Lolworth Lolo.
Whitwick Whittick.
Scarford Scawford.
Croxton Kerrial Cr[=o]son, the _o_ long,
and Kerrial entirely
dropped.

R. J. S.

Examples of these are more numerous to the north of the Tweed than C. appears to imagine. The following list, which includes a few surnames, is the result of rather a hurried search:

Spelling. Pronunciation.

Anstruther Anster.
Athelstaneford Elstanfurd.
Bethune Beaton.
Cassilis Cassils.
Charteris Charters.
Cockburn Coburn.
Cockburnspath Coppersmith
Colquhoun Cohoon.
Crichton Cryton.
Dalziel or Dalyell Dee-ell.
Farquhar Farkar.
Halket Hacket.
Inglis Ingils.
Kemback Kemmick.
Kilconquhar Kinnenchar.
Macleod Macloud.
Marjoribanks Marchbanks.
Menzies Meengis.
Methven Meffen.
Monzie Monee.
Restalrig Lastalrik.
Rutherglen Ruglen.
Ruthven Rivven.
Sciennes Sheens.
Sanquhar Sankar.
Urquhart Urcart.
Wemyss Weems.

Arbroath is a corruption of Aberbrothok, Gretna of Gretenhow, and Meiklam of M'Ilquham: but probably one of the most remarkable transformations in Scotland is to be found in the name of a small village, a few miles to the south of Edinburgh, where _Burdiehouse_ has usurped the place of Bordeaux.

E. N.

_The Term "Milesian"_ (Vol. iv., p. 175.).--I beg to direct your attention to the accompanying extract, which furnishes a reply to MR. FRASER'S Query:--

"Whoever is acquainted with Irish history, or whoever has had
opportunities of mixing with the natives of that country, cannot
be ignorant that they claim a descent from a long race of Milesian
kings, who reigned over them for thirteen centuries before the
Christian æra. The stock from which this long line of monarchs
emanated is traced to a pretended Milesian colony, supposed to
have emigrated from Spain into Ireland under the conduct of
Heremon and Heber. The most rational inquirers, however, into the
subject consider it as nothing more than a tissue of imaginary
events, originating in the fertile fancies of their bards. A very
brief and general abstract of this contested part of Irish history
shall be given in the words of Mr. Plowden:

"'About 140 years after the Deluge, Ireland was discovered by one
Adhua, who had been sent from Asia to explore new countries by a
grandson of Belus: he plucked some of the luxuriant grass as a
specimen of the fertility of the soil, and returned to his master.
After that the island remained unoccupied for 140 years; and about
300 years after the Flood, one Partholan, originally a Scythian,
and a descendant from Japhet in the sixth generation, sailed from
Greece with his family and 1000 soldiers, and took possession of
the island. They all died off, and left the island desolate of
human beings for the space of thirty years. Afterwards different
sets of emigrant adventurers occupied and peopled the island at
different periods. About 1080 years after the Deluge, and 1300
B.C., Niul (the son of Phenius, a wise Scythian prince), who had
married a daughter of Pharaoh, inhabited with his people a
district given to him by his father-in-law on the Red Sea, when
Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. The descendants of that
Phenius (called more generally Feniusa Farsa) were afterwards
expelled by Pharaoh's successors on account of their ancestors
having favoured the escape of the Israelites through the Red Sea.
They then emigrated and settled in Spain, whence, under the
command of Milesius, a colony of them sailed from Brigantia in
Galicia to Ireland, gained the ascendancy over the inhabitants,
and gave laws and a race of monarchs to the island. The Milesian
dynasty continued to govern Ireland without interruption till
about the year 1168, when it ceased in the person of Roger
O'Connor, and the sovereignty was assumed by our Henry II. Of this
race of kings the first 110 were Pagan, the rest Christian.'"

Barlow's _Hist. of Ireland_, vol. i. pp. 22-4.

GEORGE RICHARDS, M.A.

Queen's Coll., Birmingham.

_Title of D.D._ (Vol. ii., p. 13.).--The remark of your correspondent EYE-SNUFF, "that any lay scholar of adequate attainments in theology is competent to receive this distinction, and any university to bestow it upon him," is incorrect in two ways, as far as the university of which I am a member is concerned. A reference to the Oxford University Calendar, or to the Statutes of the University, will show him that no one can take the degree of B.D., or D.D., without first exhibiting his letters of priest's orders: and the theological attainments represented by the degree D.D. are next to nothing; the exercise required for B.D. used to be a mere form, and I believe is little more now; a certain number of terms kept in the university, and payment of certain fees, being all that is necessary for proceeding D.D. The case is the same, I imagine, at Cambridge.

W. FRASER.

_Lass of Richmond Hill_ (Vol. ii., p. 103.).--I have heard it said, of course with little regard to probability, that this once popular song was written by George IV. when Prince of Wales.

W. FRASER.

_A Bull_ (Vol. ii., p. 441.).--I have heard it argued that the word _bull_, meaning an incoherent blunder, was derived from the Pope's Bulls, the tyrannical contents and imperious tone of which often made so odd a contrast with the humility of the subscription, "Servus servorum Dei," that the name _bull_ was applied to anything that seemed absurdly inconsistent or self-contradictory.

W. FRASER.

_Remains of Horses and Sheep in Churches_ (Vol. v., p. 274.).--We have good evidence that the Saxons used the places of sepulture which they found in England; and it is well known that Anglo-Saxon remains have often been discovered in the vicinity of churches, a fact which leads to the supposition that churches occupied the sites of Pagan temples. The bones of animals have often been found on and near the sites of our London churches.

J. Y. A.

_Fern Seed_ (Vol. v., pp. 172. 356.).--I am led to think there is an error in the notice of your correspondent R. S. F. on the above subject. The seed of St. John's Fearn cannot be gathered on Midsummer Eve, inasmuch as at that time it is in a merely embryotic state. The seed attains perfection late in autumn, and it remains attached to the dry brown stem until shaken off by the autumnal and winter blasts. The taking of it, therefore, is not, according to those versed in such mysteries, the easy task of a Midsummer twilight, but must be performed amid the darkness of a winter's night. On the midnight of Saint John the Evangelist, to whom the seed and plant are dedicated, must it be shaken, not pulled, from its stem. Very probably mystic virtues were imputed to the seed before the introduction of Christianity. And it were not perhaps hazarding too much to suppose that the old superstitious monks assigned it to Saint John from an idea that the potency of the seed might have influenced the wondrous revelations with which he, more than any other of the disciples, or all the disciples, was favoured.

B.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

The Camden Society, of which the fourteenth Annual Meeting on Monday last passed off most successfully, has just issued to its Members _The Chronicle of The Grey Friars of London_, edited from a MS. in the Cottonian Library in the British Museum. This very interesting document, which altogether escaped the research of the industrious and voluminous Strype, though it had passed through the hands of Stowe, who had either the possession or the loan of the original MS., was written by one of the Grey Friars, who appears to have watched narrowly, and recorded carefully, the religious changes of the times, more particularly, those which occurred within the sphere of his personal observation in the city of London, and the metropolitan church of St. Paul. As he retained possession of his register, and continued his labours after the dissolution of his house, and the dismissal of the rest of his fraternity, he has preserved to us many particulars of great historical value; and his work has this additional claim to attention, that, whereas the majority of the existing documents are records of the Reforming party, this comes from one of the Reformed, and presents us accordingly with the other side of the case. The work is edited by Mr. J. G. Nichols, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for the fidelity with which the document is printed, and the learning and care bestowed upon its illustration.

_The Publications of the Antiquarian Etching Club._--Part III., 1851, presents us with no less than thirty-three etchings by Members of the Club (of course of various degrees of merit), of objects of antiquarian interest, comprising Ecclesiastical, Military, and Domestic Edifices, Fonts, Sepulchral Monuments, Portraits, Fac-similes, copies of rare prints, and numerous other vestiges of antiquity calculated at once to instruct the archæologist, and preserve in a pictorial form a record of much which, but for the _burins_ of the members of this useful little Society, might have been lost for ever.

It is but a few weeks since we noticed the admirable second volume of the _Catalogue of the London Library_, by Mr. J. G. Cochrane. We have now to record the death of that gentleman on Tuesday last. He was a most worthy man, and a good scholar; and possessed a vast fund of bibliographical knowledge. His death therefore will be felt, not only by his own immediate friends, but also by the institution which he had served so ably and so zealously ever since its formation.

It would be treason to the Brothers Grimm, and to our own love of the literature of the people, if we did not notice and (as it deserves it) say a good word of a new and complete translation of the world-renowned _Kinder und Haus Mährchen_, which Messrs. Addey have commenced publishing under the title of Grimm's _Household Stories_. They are very faithfully translated from the last edition; and we specify this because the little _Almaine 4to._ first edition of 1819 has long been one of our household books, and finding that the translation did not agree with the versions there given, we have compared it with the edition of 1843, and so discovered, first, that the translator has used the later edition; and secondly, what we were not till now aware of, namely, that these great scholars, Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, amid their more learned labours, have not disdained to revise and enlarge their collection of nursery stories, which have been the delight of the children of all Europe. What a justification is this for the attention which is bestowed in "N. & Q." on our own English Folk Lore!

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES

WANTED TO PURCHASE.

FABRICII BIBLIOTHECA LATINA. Ed. Ernesti. Leipsig, 1773. Vol. III.

THE ANACALYPSIS. By Godfrey Higgins. 2 Vols. 4to.

CODEX DIPLOMATICUS ÆVI SAXONICI, opera J. M. Kemble. Vols. I. and II. 8vo.

ECKHEL, DOCTRINA NUMORUM. Vol. VIII.

BROUGHAM'S MEN OF LETTERS. 2nd Series, royal 8vo, boards. Original edition.

KNIGHT'S PICTORIAL SHAKSPEARE. Royal 8vo. Parts XLII. XLIII. XLIV. L. and LI.

CONDER'S ANALYTICAL VIEW OF ALL RELIGIONS. 8vo.

HALLIWELL ON THE DIALECTS OF SOMERSETSHIRE.

SCLOPETARIA, or REMARKS ON RIFLES, &c.

SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI. Vol. III.

SUPPLEMENT TO SOWERBY'S ENGLISH FUNGI.

EUROPEAN MAGAZINE. Vols. XXIII. XXIV. and XXV.

POETIC WREATH. Small 8vo. Newman.

GEMS FROM BRITISH POETS. 4 Vols. Tyas.

THE WORKS OF LORD BYRON. Vols. VI. VII. and VIII. 12mo. Murray, 1823.

MALLET'S POEMS. Bell's edition.

MALLET'S PLAY OF ELVIRA. 1763.

JOANNIS LELANDI COLLECTANEA. Vol. V. 1774.

BISHOP PATRICK'S COMMENTARY ON THE BIBLE. The Volumes containing Joshua and Judges. Small 4to.

KENT'S ANTHEMS. Vol. I. folio. Edited by Joseph Corfe.

THE MATHEMATICIAN. Vol. I. No. I. 1844.

BACK'S VOYAGE OF THE TERROR, 8vo.

L'HISTOIRE DE LA SAINCTE BIBLE, par ROYAUMONDE: à Paris, 1701.

JOHNSON'S (DR. S.) WORKS, by MURPHY. Trade Edition of 1816, in 8vo. Vol. XII. only.

[Star Symbol] Letters, stating particulars and lowest price,
_carriage free_, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND
QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

REPLIES RECEIVED.--_Prentice Pillars--Cross on Counsel's Briefs--Many Children--Merchant Adventurers--Burning Fern brings Rain--Sheriff and Lord Lieutenant--Sir E. Seaward's Narrative--Rhymes on Places--Pedigree of Roper--Pigeons' Feathers--Monumental Plate at Lewes--Portrait of Mesmer--Where was Cromwell buried--Kakous--Passage in "Measure for Measure"--De la Beche Monuments--Daniel Defoe, &c.--"Thirty Days hath September"--Buro Berto Beriora--St. Christopher--Monument to Mary Queen of Scots at Antwerp--Ednowain ap Bradwen--Sir R. Howard's Conquest of China--Corrupted Names of Places--My own Crow, &c.--Jasher--"And tye"--Taylor Family--Scologlandi and Scologi--Couch--The Martyr Rogers--Dr. Fell--Chantrey's Sleeping Children, &c. (from H. G. T.)--Ground Ice--Mr. Van Butchell--"Up Guards, and make ready!"--British Ambassadors--Cromwell's Head--Stops when first introduced--Serpent with human Head--Burials in Woollen--Knollys Family--Sterne at Sutton--"'Tis tuppence now"--Game Feathers--Age of Trees--Baxter's Pulpit--Sally Lunn--Was Queen Elizabeth dark or fair--Martinique--Duchess of Lancaster--Etymology of Poison, &c._

MR. FOSS _and_ MR. LOWER. _The communications for these gentlemen (addressed to our care) have been forwarded to them._

J. G. W. _is thanked_. _His list shall be made use of._

C. B. _We should be much obliged for the_ OLDYS _article_.

THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND. _We have several more very interesting communications on this subject, which we hope to insert very shortly._

C--S. T. P. _will be inserted_.

A. N. _We shall be obliged by the Note on_ Cagots.

H. M. _The Queries shall receive early attention._ _We are so full just now, we fear to enter on the_ JOHN BULL _question_.

C. F. A. _is referred to our_ Notices to Correspondents _in_ Nos. 129. _and_ 130. _The line is from Congreve's_ Mourning Bride.