Chapter XXXIII: The Gilds of Lincolnshire--(Continued) (2)

HAILEYBURY ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.--_May 19._ The Secretary gave a short account of the village of Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, famous chiefly as the birthplace of Admiral Nelson. Mr. C. F. Gisborne spoke of Wichnor Church, Derbyshire, as Anglo-Saxon, but with a Norman tower. He also spoke of the parish of Langley Marish, near Slough, which is a corruption of Langley Maries, the church there being dedicated to the Three Maries; he mentioned that there were some old half-timbered almshouses in the parish. W. Kennedy, Esq., gave a description of Morton Villa, near Brading, where extensive excavations have recently taken place. This villa is the largest in England. Most of the walls seem to have been built of wood filled up with rubble, and are consequently very strong. There is a great deal of very fine Roman glass in the house. The villa was probably burnt down when the Romans left England, A.D. 410. The speaker then went on to describe Carisbrook Castle, which was built by William of Osborne, in 1066 A.D., and is chiefly famous for the recollections of Charles I. The President then spoke very briefly of Tantallon Castle and the Collegiate Church of Haddington.--_June 2_, Mr. C. F. Gisborne read a short paper on Christ Church, Bournemouth, Hants, and the President gave a short account of the most interesting features of St. Albans Abbey.--On Saturday, June 14, an excursion was made to Greenwich Hospital.--_June 16_, Mr. W. Kennedy gave a short lecture on Rome, in which he spoke of the ruins of the gigantic houses built by the Emperors for themselves on the Palatine, and of the palace of Augustus, of which but few traces remain. The lecturer described the private house of the father of Tiberius, on the Palatine, and then passed on to speak of the palace of Vespasian. Mr. Kennedy also mentioned the discovery of a Pedagogium, or school for the slaves of the Imperial household; and spoke of the curious caricatures and paintings on the walls, done apparently by the students.--_July 1_, Mr. E. Walford gave a lecture on the “Watering Places of Old,” in which he treated of Brighton, Bath, Seaford, Hythe, &c. His account of Seaford may probably appear in the pages of this Magazine.

LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY.--_June 28_, about 50 members, accompanied by a few ladies, visited Lancaster. The party first inspected the castle, where they were shown the ancient dungeons, the gateway tower built by Henry V., &c., and afterwards ascended to the top of the Norman keep, or “John O’Gaunt’s chair,” whence a splendid view of the Lake Mountains was obtained. The parish church of St. Mary, a fine specimen of the Perpendicular period, was next visited, and its details described by Mr. Paley, F.R.I.B.A. After luncheon the excursion was continued to Heysham, where the rector, the Rev. C. T. Royds, showed the party over the ancient Norman church at that place. On returning to Lancaster in the evening, an adjournment was made to the Amicable Library, where several old charters of the town, the municipal regalia, and a few Roman antiquities found in the neighbourhood, were displayed.

Antiquarian News & Notes.

MR. D. BOGUE will issue shortly an etching, by Percy Thomas, of the old London street at the Health Exhibition.

MR. MURRAY announces a translation by Professor A. S. Wilkins and Mr. E. B. England of the “Principles of Greek Etymology,” by Professor Curtius.

THE Rev. R. H. Clutterbuck has discovered among the Corporation records of Andover some interesting early Guild-rolls, which will probably be published _in extenso_.

THE Berks Archæological and Architectural Society is offering prizes for historical essays on subjects having reference to Berkshire, and for architectural drawings, illustrating ancient buildings in the county.

AN antiquarian column is about to be started in the _Essex Standard and West Suffolk Gazette_, published at Colchester. It will contain notes and queries on local antiquities, and a special series of gleanings from old local newspapers.

MR. MURRAY’S latest list of recent publications contains, _inter alia_, Professor Brewer’s “Reign of Henry VIII., from his accession till the death of Wolsey;” Dr. Schliemann’s works, “Troja,” “Ilios,” and “Mycenæ and Argos;” Mr. A. S. Murray’s “History of Greek Sculpture.”

THE Schools of the Christian Brothers of France have sent to the Health Exhibition at South Kensington, a collection of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew inscriptions, with representations of the Provençal people and buildings of the fifteenth century, modelled and arranged by the pupils.

MR. CORNELIUS WALFORD, F.S.S., Barrister-at-Law, has been awarded the first “Samuel Brown Prize” of Fifty Guineas, offered by the Institute of Actuaries for the best Essay on the “History of Life Insurance.” The essay will be published.

MR. J. TAYLOR, of Northampton, has announced for sale the unique collection of historical MSS., &c., of John Cole, of Northampton, (1792-1840), embracing brief notices of his family and literary contemporaries, together with the history and antiquities of several parishes in Northamptonshire, &c.

THE following articles, more or less of an antiquarian character, appear among the contents of the magazines for July: _Cornhill_, “Embalmers;” _Cassell’s Magazine_, “Derby China;” _Blackwood_, “Venice;” _Century Magazine_, “A Greek Play at Cambridge;” _Atlantic Monthly_, “The Haunts of Galileo,” and “Peter the Great;” _Magazine of Art_, “Walks in Surrey,” and “The Austrian Museum;” _Home Chimes_, “Old Gold;” _Clergyman’s Magazine_, “Biblical Notices of Egypt, illustrated from Profane Sources.”

PLANS and drawings for the reconstruction of the west side of Westminster Hall, and the preservation of the Norman work lately laid bare by the pulling down of the Law Courts, have been prepared by Mr. Pearson, R.A., and the estimated cost of the work is about £37,000. During the restoration of the north front, some years ago, considerable portions of the ancient work of the Hall were for a short time visible, and again at a later period the whole of the Norman walls were laid bare, to be re-cased by Sir Robert Smirke. It has remained for the removal of the Law Courts to uncover permanently the earlier Norman walls, fortunately in a fairly perfect state of preservation.

CATALOGUES of rare and curious books, all of which contain the names of works of antiquarian interest, have reached us from Messrs. Farrar & Fenton, 8, John-street, Adelphi, W.C.; Messrs. Reeves & Turner, 196, Strand, W.C.; Mr. J. Hitchman, 51, Cherry-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Quaritch, 15, Piccadilly (including the major portion of the Hamilton Palace Library); Mr. W. J. Withers, Leicester; Mr. F. Edwards, 83, High-street, Marylebone; Mr. Edward Howell, 28, Church-street, Liverpool; Mr. G. P. Johnston, 33, George-street, Edinburgh; Mr. W. P. Bennett, 3, Bull-street, Birmingham; Messrs. Sutton & Son, 91, Oxford-street, Manchester; Mr. J. Coleman, Tottenham, N. (consisting entirely of royal and noble deeds and documents, and containing upwards of 500 articles, alphabetically arranged under the titles of the respective families); Mr. Albert Cohn, 53, Mohrenstrasse, Berlin; Messrs. Robson & Kerslake, 43, Cranbourne-street, W.C. (includes a fine copy of the Nuremberg Bible of 1477, and Albert Durer’s “Life of the Virgin, &c.); Mr. U. Maggs, 159, Church-street, Paddington-green, W.; Mr. H. Edwardes, 20, Drury-court, W.C.

SOME doubts having arisen as to whether authorities which act under the Public Libraries Act have powers to fulfil the conditions required for a Parliamentary grant in aid of the establishment of a school of science and art, the Lord President has brought in a Bill, which declares that where an authority accepts a grant of this kind from the Education Committee of the Privy Council, it shall have power to do so on the conditions prescribed by the Committee, and it is to be, as also are its successors, bound to fulfil them. An interpretation is also placed on the 8th section of the Public Libraries Act of 1855, which enables the Council of a borough and the Board of a district to erect buildings for the purposes of the Act. It is declared that under this and the corresponding Scotch and Irish provisions buildings may be erected in any of the three Kingdoms “for public libraries, public museums, schools for science, art galleries, and schools for art, or for any one or more of those objects.” Where one of these institutions is established under the Public Libraries Acts, any other may (it is here provided) be established at any time in connection therewith without further proceedings being taken under the Acts.--_The Times._

IN the first week of July the City of Winchester commemorated the 700th anniversary of its incorporation by a series of festivities, in which the Bishop of the Diocese, the Lord Mayor of London, and a number of provincial chief magistrates took part. The proceedings included a procession to the Cathedral, where the Dean delivered an address, in which he traced the gradual growth of freedom under municipal institutions. A public luncheon afterwards took place in the restored banqueting-hall of the Palace, and in the evening there was a torchlight procession, together with a series of _tableaux vivants_, which were witnessed by crowds of persons. The persons who appeared as actors in events affecting the fortunes of Winchester were habited in dresses designed from authentic records of the period. First came a representation of the granting of the charter of incorporation to the city by Henry II.; the second picture represented Richard II. giving the charter to William of Wykeham; the third, Henry VI. and Church dignitaries before the shrine of St. Swithin in Winchester Cathedral; the fourth, Charles I. brought a prisoner to the city on December 21, 1648; the fifth representing some Roundheads searching for Royalists, and looking in at the window of a forge, where a Royalist, disguised as a blacksmith, was talking to the owner of the forge; the sixth, Sir Christopher Wren presenting plans for a Royal Palace at Winchester to Charles II. The anniversary will be further perpetuated by the publication of a volume entitled “Memorials of the City of Winchester: a Collection of Charters and other Records Illustrating its Municipal History,” edited by Mr. F. J. Baigent, F.S.A.

AN antiquary writes to the _Athenæum_ as follows regarding the lamentable destruction of documents belonging to the see of Durham and lodged in a building within the precincts of the episcopal palace at Bishop Auckland: “In a building adjoining the gateway of the episcopal palace of the Bishop of Durham a large number of documents--how valuable it is impossible to say--were preserved until a short time ago. It seems that this building was required for the holding of clerical meetings and other purposes; and, in order to make it more convenient for these, the documents, which had hitherto found a safe repository there, were removed, and without, apparently, any proper examination having been made, were destroyed. A few of them were, happily, rescued, and judging from these some reasonable conjecture may be arrived at with regard to the nature of the mass of the documents. Among those which have been preserved are a survey of Allertonshire--an ancient possession of the Church of Durham--made in the middle of the seventeenth century; an inventory of the contents of the episcopal castle at Durham in the middle of the eighteenth century; a complete list of Roman Catholics resident within the city of Durham in the year 1700; a report to the Bishop from Sir William Williamson, Sheriff of the County of Durham, and certain justices of the peace, about proceedings against Papists in 1743; and a list of the rolls and other muniments formerly kept in the auditor’s office at Durham, but now removed and placed somewhere among the enormous mass of valuable material, locked up and practically inaccessible, within the offices of the Ecclesiastical Commission or of some of its officials. Who is the person responsible for the unwarranted destruction I do not know, but it is most desirable that the public should be made acquainted with what has taken place, and that it should be made known by whose authority these valuable records have been destroyed.”

THROUGH the courtesy of Mr. Bosworth Smith, the _Athenæum_ has been enabled to print an interesting letter by Mr. H. A. Brown, regarding some explorations which he has been making in Minorca. He has visited a remarkable cave city which has not been properly explored:--“The locality is a wild-looking inlet between high cliffs. In these cliffs are a vast number of rock-hewn caves--possibly 300. Such tradition as there is concerning this most curious spot ascribes it to the Phœnicians; but we concur in thinking that it is the work of a much earlier people.... In some of the larger ones there are evidences of considerable development; for instance, in one of the largest are three recesses in the wall, some two feet from the ground, a sort of rock divan, while several have ante-chambers communicating with the main room; but, on the other hand, the smaller are mere holes in the rock, having, however, in some cases, a sill, or threshold, distinctly raised above the level of the floor. It seems to us that this disparity may be accounted for in three ways: either the people during a long occupation advanced in the construction of their dwellings, or the smaller caves are merely the tombs of the inhabitants of the larger, or possibly the chiefs inhabited the large and the people the small caves.... The small caves are all in a more or less inaccessible position, but having entered one near the ground we commenced to dig. At about nine or twelve inches down we came upon the bones of animals and two most remarkable skulls. Being compelled by pressure of time to move on, we went round the inlet and entered a cave on the other side, higher up the cliff than the former. Immediately after removing the loose sand, we came to thick, black earth, and the first stroke of the hatchet brought up some human bones, and by the time we were obliged to leave, the best part of a skeleton was unearthed, including several pieces of the skull. The majority of the bones were of a reddish colour, but all in one corner were perfectly black, either from extreme age or the action of fire.”

THE _Temps_ gives an account of the collection of objects found by Monsieur Nicaise in the tombs of the ancient Gauls, Département de la Marne, which he laid before the Academie des Inscriptions de Paris at their meeting, April 18. The collection is of great interest, and in some respects unique. It includes a great variety of implements of warfare, jewellery, enamels, and finely wrought bronze ornaments, and some articles of toilet throwing a light on the mode of shaving 2,000 years ago. The razors found are shaped like a sickle. With them was found a vessel supposed by Monsieur Bertholot, who was present at the meeting, to have contained soap, which he states was by no means unknown to the ancient Gaul. A coral necklace, bleached by its couple of thousand years’ sepulture, is remarkable. Between the beads of coral are various amulets or charms, such as a wild boar’s tooth, a shell, and a peculiar thin circular plate or disc of bone, ascertained beyond doubt to be part of the human vertebræ. There are also numerous bronze torques finely worked, and a fragment of a jewel similar in workmanship to the finest granulated or filigree jewellery so well known at Genoa and Venice at the present day. A skeleton of a female was found adorned with necklace, bracelets, and anklets. A bracelet, from its diminutive size, must have been retained on the arm during its growth from childhood to womanhood. Not the least curious is an ornament composed of a material which gave rise to many conjectures, but which careful analysis shows to consist of some argillaceous or ceramic compound, finely pulverised, then agglutinised and compressed until it formed a solid agglomerated substance of a texture capable of receiving the highest polish. The revelations of these ancient sepultures, and the high artistic merit of the articles they contain, justify the inference that the “barbarism” with which Julius Cæsar was so impressed in Gaul, was a barbarism strongly impregnated with civilisation.

THE annual summer congress of the Royal Archæological Institute will be held this year at Newcastle-on-Tyne, during the week from Tuesday, August 5, to Wednesday, August 13 inclusive, under the Presidentship of the Duke of Northumberland. Tuesday, the 5th, will be devoted to an inspection of the castle and cathedral of Newcastle, after the public reception of the Society by the Mayor and Corporation at the inaugural meeting. On Wednesday the Archæologists will visit Warkworth and Alnwick Castle, which will be described by Mr. Clark. On Thursday they will go by train to Beal, from which place Lindisfarne and Holy Island with its church and castle will be visited. Friday will be devoted to a visit by rail to Belford and to Bamburgh Castle. On Saturday the annual meeting of the Society will be held. At its conclusion the members will proceed to Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, and, by steamer down the river, to Tynemouth. On Sunday a special service will be held in the cathedral, when it is expected that the Bishop of Newcastle, Dr. Wilberforce, will preach. Monday will be devoted to an inspection of sundry parts of the Roman wall, and to a visit to Chesters, where the Roman remains will be explained by the Rev. J. C. Bruce. On Tuesday the Archæologists will go by train to Corbridge, from which they will visit Aydon Castle, Bywell, and Prudhoe Castle. Wednesday will be occupied by a visit to Durham, where the cathedral and castle, and probably Finchall Priory, will be inspected. There will be a meeting on the evening of Tuesday, at which papers will be read, and probably, also, at least one conversazione. A temporary local museum, under Mr. R. Blair, F.S.A., will be open during the week in the Black Gate, where also the sectional meetings will be held. Among those who have sent their names as patrons of the congress are the Duke of Portland, Lords Ravensworth and Scarbrough, the Bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Newcastle, and Hexham; Sir Charles Trevelyan, Sir Joseph Pease, Sir Edward Blackett, Sir Matthew White Ridley, and Sir Walter James, &c.

“IN the early part of last winter,” writes a correspondent of _The Times_, “operations were begun in the bed of the Rhone, at Geneva, in connection with a scheme for utilising the power of the stream for mechanical purposes. During the work a part of the river bed, near the island on which stands Julius Cæsar’s Tower, and where Philibert Berthelier, the Genevan patriot, suffered death, was laid bare, and in view of the great antiquity of Geneva, and the fact that it was an Allobrogian town before it became a Roman station, sanguine expectations were entertained as to the likelihood of making important archæologic finds.” These hopes have not been disappointed; for there has been lately found, buried in gravel among a range of piles, relics of the lacustrine age, a block of white Jurassic rock, evidently dressed by the hand of man, and having in the centre a circular depression surrounded by a sort of crown. Further examination showed it to be the upper part of a Roman altar. It is in the ordinary form of a pilaster with capitals and a corresponding base terminating in a crown, in relief, cut in the stone. The height of the relic is 80 centimetres, the width 33. There is no other trace of ornamentation than the mouldings and cornices of the upper and lower parts, but on the principal face there appears an inscription, in superb letters and an admirable state of preservation. It runs thus: DEO NEPTVN C. VITALINIV VICTORINVS MILES LEGI. XXII. ACVRIS V. S. L. M. Only two letters are lacking. At the end of the second word the engraver had not room for the final O, and at the end of the fourth word an S has been effaced by time or worn away by water. The word _legionis_ has been shortened into LEGI, but the truncation of the I may be due to an accidental erasure. The inscription, which is easily read, is to the following effect:--_Deo Neptuno, C. Vitalinius Victorinus, miles legionis XXII., a curis, votum solvit libens merito._ The author, therefore, was a soldier of the twenty-second legion, Caius Vitalinius Victorinus, who, having without doubt escaped shipwreck on the lake, had vowed to raise an altar to Neptune, the god of the waves, and by a singular chance the whole stone of the Jura which testifies to the fulfilment of his vow has been preserved by falling into the very waters from which he was saved. Besides this altar stone, several other objects have lately been found in the bed of the river; among them are the upper part of a tin vase representing, in relief, Diana and Endymion, and a transparent stone cut in facets; the latter, if not false, will be highly interesting and valuable.

Antiquarian Correspondence.

Sin scire labores,
Quære, age: quærenti pagina nostra patet.

_All communications must be accompanied by the name and address of
the sender, not necessarily for publication._

HERALDIC QUERY.

SIR,--Can any of your readers kindly inform me what family bears or bore the arms “Ermine, on a bend azure three lions rampant or”?

T. J. H.

ISLE D’ECOSSE.

SIR,--In Aytoun’s “Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers,” there is a ballad entitled the “Island of the Scots,” setting forth that in 1697, France and Germany being at war, an island in the Rhine, strongly garrisoned by German troops under General Stirke, was attacked and taken in a most gallant manner by a company of Scotsmen, exiles from their own country, and in the service of the King of France; and that this island has ever since been known by the name of Isle d’Ecosse. Can you inform me where this isle is situated, and where I can see a detailed account of the above passage of arms? The isle, I may add, is not mentioned by Murray.

R. M. B.

MINING IN THE HOME COUNTIES.

SIR,--In the Lansdowne MSS. (57, fol. 146) in the British Museum, may be seen a copy of a licence granted in December, 1588, by Queen Elizabeth, to one John Nicholls, for a term of six months, to dig for “mynes or myneralls of golde, silver, tynne, or leade, hidden within the earth, in the counties of Middlesex, Hertford, Buckingham, and Kent.” What success may have attended his searches in the other counties I know not; but as I searched in vain for any notice to the effect of a renewal of the grant so far as concerns Hertfordshire, it is more than probable that Master John Nicholls did not find “myning” a very profitable occupation in that county. Can any of your readers throw light upon the subject?

FOSSOR.

THE NAME OF FOSTAL.

SIR,--Can you, or any of your readers, kindly assist me in throwing light on the derivation of Fostal, a commonplace name in Kent? I believe there are some dozen places bearing the name, but variously spelled as Fostal, Fostalls, Forstals, and Forstalls. In Herne parish, not far from Herne Bay, there is a Fostall and Fostall Farm, and in Ospringe parish, near Faversham, a place called Painter’s Forstal. Prof. Skeat, I believe, explains it as “Fore” and “Stall” (= Stead), a place in front of a farm (?). There are generally trees near at hand, and the people in this locality connect the word with forest-alling and regrating--most absurdly as I think.

H. F. WOOLRYCH.

_Oare Vicarage, Faversham_.

RICHARD, ARCHBISHOP OF MESSINA.

SIR,--Can any of your readers give me some account of the Archbishop of Messina, an Englishman, the subject of the accompanying paragraph, which I have translated from an Italian paper, the _Italia_, of May 31:--

“At the Villa Guzzi, near Messina, the interesting discovery has been made of the sarcophagus of Richard, English Archbishop of Messina, who died A.D. 1195. The sarcophagus is decorated with a bas-relief in the Byzantine style, having for its subject, the Saviour seated; on His right is shown the Virgin Mary standing, whilst on His left is the Archbishop, likewise in a standing position. There is also an inscription on each corner.”

This account is meagre as far as it goes; and I should feel interested in learning something more about this English Archbishop of Messina.

M. H. C.

_Spezia, Italy._

“THE SENTENCE OF PONTIUS PILATE.”

(See vol. v. pp. 80, 217.)

SIR,--Since writing the note at the second reference, I have ascertained that the alleged death-warrant of Jesus Christ appeared in the _National Magazine_ (published in Liverpool) for Oct. 1877. In this version only three names are appended to the sentence, and the phraseology is somewhat different.

But what I wish to point out at present is the glaring contradictions occurring in the three copies before me as to the date of the finding of this curiosity. According to the above-named magazine it was discovered “in the year 1825,” the _Catholic Fireside_ account says 1820, while your version has “A.D. 1280.” May not the latter date be a misprint for 1820? If not, were excavations in search of Roman antiquities made in Naples in the thirteenth century?

P. J. MULLIN.

HELSTON FURRY DANCE.

SIR,--As the very interesting subject of the Helston Furry Day has been opened by Canon Boger (see vol. v. p. 251), may I add a few remarks on it?

1. As to the term Floralia or Flora Day, except from a descriptive standpoint I should demur to the theory that the Helston festival of May 8 is a continuation or survival of the Roman Floralia, although some persons may favour that view. It is probably in origin purely Celtic, and is connected with the Roman Floral festival only in that it also expresses the joy of May.

2. The origin of the custom may be held to be “lost in remote antiquity” solely in the sense that we cannot actually date its institution. The local legend relates that it was instituted in the middle ages as a rejoicing for the deliverance of Helston from the plague: a not improbable solution of the Helston myth that here St. Michael overcame Satan, and forced him to drop the “Hell stone,” still seen in the “Angel yard.” The parish church is dedicated to St. Michael, and May 8 is, I believe, the feast of the apparition of St. Michael on St. Michael’s Mount. It is not improbable that the deliverance of Helston from the plague was attributed to the patron of the town, _i.e._, St. Michael, who overcame the demon of the plague.

3. The Helston furry dance is a definite institution, unlike any other dance that I know. I do not know to what “various dances” Canon Boger refers; probably to the ball in the evening, which, I believe, is conducted in the modern fashion.

4. The ceremony is somewhat this: The party assemble at the Market House, the local aristocracy at 1 p.m. In 1883 there were thirty-one couples of the gentry, this year there were thirty-two couples. The tradesmen’s dance at 4 p.m. was not quite so numerously supported as the upper class one. The volunteer band marches to the gate with three javelin men with lances crowned with flowers. At the appointed time the band strikes up the Celtic Furry tune. The dancers then proceed, two and two, pirouetting and changing partners at certain places. They go into the houses, passing out of the back doors through the gardens, and then re-enter the houses from the back. As they leave the houses in some places they ring the bells. The effect is very singular, but to anyone fond of ancient customs is full of interest as a survival from mediæval times, and such a survival as could hardly have continued except in a remote part of England. Most of the Helston May customs belong to mediæval customs of Merrie England, _e.g._, the boughs outside the houses, the procession dance (though most of our English May dances were held round the May-pole), but the going in and out of the houses and also the music of the Furry tune are distinctively Cornish.

W. S. LACH-SZYRMA.

PORTS AND CHESTERS.

(See _ante_, p. 47.)

SIR,--I should not have thought it necessary to notice “A. H.’s” singular effusion in your last number (see p. 47), but for the welcome illustration it affords of what Mr. Allen has so happily termed that “easy off-hand theory,” which “shirks all the real difficulties of the question” (_ante_, v. 286). In trying to pursue his own more searching and scholarly method of dealing with these “interesting philological fossils,” I am only too glad that those who despise this method as “word-twisting,” and prefer to leap at conclusions, should expound, as a contrast, their views.

As to “A. H.’s” first point, it is based simply on mis-statements. I never used the word “borrowed” myself. _My_ expression was: “_incorporated_ before the settlement” (_ante_, v. 286). Nor did I ever claim any of these words as “_generically_ an English word,” or as “English forms of some Teutonic roots.” On the contrary, I gave “the Latin words” (v. 285) from which they were each _etymologically_ derived. My contention was that they had become “distinctly English words” by being

“Incorporated _before_ the settlement, into the tongue of the
English pirates, who brought with them, as part of their language,
the forms which they had thus constructed for themselves.”

It is necessary to put this as strongly as possible in order to accentuate the distinction. Thus, when “A. H.” speaks of “lamentable confusion” (so well illustrated in his own letter), he is using “distinctly English words,” though they are derived from Latin originals. If I, on the other hand, should say “_Naviget Anticyram_,” I should be using distinctly Latin words. And, lastly, when “A. H.” seeks to “ramify” the “purport” of a paper (_ante_, p. 47), he is using an expression unknown, I believe, to any language, living or dead.

As to the Welsh _caer_ or _kair_, I never said, or could have supposed, that it was derived from the Latin _castrum_. I merely quoted Mr. Allen’s reminder that, on the departure of the Romans, this native form supplanted theirs in place names, before the arrival of the English. _Ergo_, the erudition of “A. H.” is obviously _nihil ad rem_.

As to _port_, what we have to account for is not, as “A. H.” crudely imagines, “the modern word Port,” but the Anglo-Saxon _port_, which can be conclusively shown to have been used _not_ in the sense of either _portus_ or _porta_, but of a market (or trading) town. Leicester and Oxford were obviously not “ports” in our modern sense of the word, but they _were_ “ports” in the Anglo-Saxon sense of it, and, as such, had a “portmanmote” for their governing body. We know, as I have shown, from Domesday, that Port Meadow, so-called from belonging to the town (or “_port_”) of Oxford, was in existence then as the town meadow. “Port Meadow at Oxford,” says Mr. Olifant (“Old and Middle English,” p. 78), “speaks of ... _port_, used by our pagan forefathers as a name for town; indeed, _port_ and _upland_ stood for _town_ and _country_.” To “Port Meadow” I may now add “Portmanseyt” (the _eyot_ of the Portmen or Burgesses), which stood near it in the river (“Calendar of Bodleian Charters,” p. 312), and also “two pieces of land and marsh-land _sometime called Portemarshe_ [cf. Portmeadow] and now being divided, called by the several names of the Easter Portemarche and the Wester Portemarche,” at Barnstaple, in 1610 (9th Rep. Hist. MSS. I. 214a).

“A. H.” defiantly inquires, how “can the prefix [in Portway] be of English origin, if it means ‘carry?’” But _I never said it did_, or indeed mentioned it at all. A far simpler explanation of the word would be the “way” that led from one “port” to another.

The solution of “A. H.’s” irritation is of course to be found in his eagerness to contend that “port” (in “port-reeve”) was “not introduced as a new English word, but preserved by Celto-Romans from Latin usage,” and that, consequently, “our Lord Mayor” can be traced through the Port-reeve to Roman times. This is the longed-for conclusion at which “A. H.” and Dr. Pring, though starting from opposite premisses, would arrive with equal confidence, the “dead certainty” on which “A. H.” so naturally dreads and so impatiently resents that discussion which it cannot stand.

J. H. ROUND.

A BIBLIOGRAPHIC CURIOSITY.

SIR,--In the _N. B. Advertiser and Ladies’ Journal_ for Jan. 12 is published a long but interesting letter from a Dundee correspondent, signing himself C. R. R., in which the writer makes known his discovery of the long-lost “lewd sang,” which was appended to an early edition of the psalm-book known as the “Guid and Godlie Ballattes.” To those of your readers south of the Tweed who take an interest in Scottish bibliography the following somewhat lengthy quotation from the letter mentioned can scarcely fail to be acceptable. I may remark further that Dr. Laing’s reprint, therein referred to, was issued in 1868:--

About thirty-five years ago the late Mr. Alexander Langlands, clerk in the Dundee Bank, purchased at the sale of the _lares et penates_ of a deceased teacher, for the sum of eightpence, a lot of literary scraps, among which the article about to be described was found, and which proved to be an imperfect copy of the “Guid and Godlie Ballattes.”

When Dr. Laing was engaged in the publication of his reprint, this was lent him, the price offered for its purchase being far below the rather extravagant value attached to it by its owner. It is evident the Doctor never examined it very carefully; he states in a biographical note attached to his reprint that he had once had a fragment of a smaller copy, but the leaves had fallen aside. The fact is, I think, pretty obvious that these leaves and the present copy were one and the same, as great difficulty was experienced by Mr. Langlands before it was returned, and it was only restored by the intervention of a personal friend of the Doctor’s after the lapse of many months; the gentleman’s name I do not feel at liberty to make public, but may say he has done good work in connection with Wedderburn’s memory, and holds a high position in a seat of learning. Mr. Langlands eventually parted with his valuable leaves to their present possessor for a sum which was considered an extremely liberal one. Mr. Langlands soon after passed from the scene, full of years, leaving many attached friends behind.

Herbert, in his edition of “Ames Typographical Antiquities,” part iii. p. 1491, states “that a ‘Psalm Buik’ was printed at Edinburgh by Thomas Bassendyne in 1568, at the end of which was printed ‘ane lewd sang,’ entitled ‘Welcum Fortoun.’” The book was ordered by the General Assembly to be called in, the title to be altered, that the “lewd sang be delete,” and the printer be subjected to penalties. No copy of the book or of the lewd song is now known to exist. (See also “Buik of the Universall Kirk.”) Dr. Laing adds his testimony to Herbert’s assertions.

The fragment referred to is printed in the black letter, the letterpress measures 4½ inches by 2½ inches. It commences on folio 4, the leaves, not the pages, being numbered, and by a printer’s error folio 112 is numbered 113. The signs run from A to O in eights, sign P having four leaves which are not numbered. The first three leaves of sign A are lost, and folio 4 commences with some short prayers. These missing leaves were doubtless occupied by the title, probably a short address to the reader, and the first portion of the above-mentioned prayers. Sign P 1 to 3 are occupied by a table, and on the obverse of P 4 is printed--“With The Haill hundredth and Fyftie Psalmis of David,” Sternhold and Hopkins’s Version. And beneath is the imprint thus--“Improntit at Edinburgh, be John Scot. Anno Do. 1567.” The reverse contains some doxologies, and, having no catch-word, has a finished appearance. Whether the above is to be considered as the title-page for the Psalms to follow, or as an advertisement for a separate book, I will not presume to decide, but at that time such advertisements were not common. On the reverse of O 8 the long-lost song, entitled “Welcum Fortoun,” is found, and is printed below. If ever the Scripture words, “Unto the pure all things are pure,” were applicable, it is in the present case, for it could only be by a far-fetched innuendo or a specious construing of words that the Assembly could have arrived at their decision and verdict. But I am rather inclined to think that the sin of the printer must have consisted more in the fact of his placing a secular song in conjunction with sacred hymns, and the more especially with the productions of the Divine Psalmist:--

WELCUM FORTOUN.

Welcum Fortoun, welcum againe,
The day and hour I may weill blis,
Thou hes exilit all my paine,
Quhilk to my hart greit plesour is.

For I may say, that few men may,
Seing of paine I am ’trest,
I haif obtenit all my pay,
The lufe of hir that I lufe best.

I knaw nane sic as scho is one
Sa trew, sa kynde, sa luiffandlie,
Quhat suld I do and scho war gone;
Allace yet had I lever die.

To me scho is baith trew and kynde,
Worthie it war scho had the praise,
For na disdane in hir I find,
I pray to God I may hir pleis.

Quhen that I heir hir name exprest,
My hart for joy dois loup thairfoir;
Abufe all uther I lufe hir best,
Unto I die, quhat wald scho moir.

This unique edition, and certainly the earliest known, although I do not by any means consider it the first, in its contents other than the above, agrees with Dr. Laing’s reprint, and I only regret that he should have been removed by the grim tyrant demanding his heriot before the discovery was made. The fortunate owner of the precious brochure is Patrick Anderson, Esq., merchant, Dundee, who, by a curious coincidence, resides in the ancient home of Alexander Wedderburn, Town Clerk of Dundee, and who entertained his sapient Majesty James VI., of tobacco-defaming notoriety, on his visit to Dundee in 1617.

_Leith, N.B._

P. J. MULLIN.

_TO CORRESPONDENTS._

THE Editor declines to pledge himself for the safety or return of MSS. voluntarily tendered to him by strangers.

Books Received.

1. Quads within Quads. Field & Tuer, Ye Leadenhalle Presse. 1884.

2. Johns Hopkins’ University Studies. Second Series, v.-vi. Baltimore. June, 1884.

3. English Etchings. Part xxxviii. D. Bogue, 3, St. Martin’s-place, W.C.

4. The Genealogist. No. 3. Bell & Sons. July, 1884.

5. Vico. By Robert Flint. Blackwood & Sons. 1884.

6. Palatine Note-book. July. Manchester: J. E. Cornish.

7. Western Antiquary. June. Plymouth: W. B. Luke.

8. Mr. William Shakespeare’s Tragedie of Hamlet. Reprint of 1623 folio. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. 1884.

9. Le Livre, No. 55. Paris, 7, Rue St. Benoit. July, 1884.

10. Archæological Journal, No. 162.

11. Old Nottinghamshire. Edited by J. P. Briscoe, F.R.H.S. Second Series. Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1884.

Books, &c., for Sale.

Works of Hogarth (set of original Engravings, elephant folio, without text), bound. Apply by letter to W. D., 56, Paragon-road, Hackney, N.E.

Original water colour portrait of Jeremy Bentham, price 2 guineas. Apply to the Editor of this Magazine.

A large collection of Franks, Peers, and Commoners. Apply to E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, N.W.

Books, &c., Wanted to purchase.

_Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer_, several copies of No. 2 (February, 1882) are wanted, in order to complete sets. Copies of the current number will be given in exchange at the office.

Dodd’s Church History, 8vo., vols. i. ii. and v.; Waagen’s Art and Artists in England, vol. i.; East Anglian, vol. i., Nos. 26 and 29. The Family Topographer, by Samuel Tymms, vols. iii. and iv.; Notes and Queries, 5th series, vols. vi., vii. (1876-7); also the third Index. Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” (Ingram and Cooke’s edition), vol. iii. A New Display of the Beauties of England, vol. i., 1774. Chambers’ Cyclopædia of English Literature, vol. i. Address, E. Walford, 2, Hyde Park Mansions, Edgeware-road, N.W.

(From “_Gloves: their Annals and Associations_.”)]

_The Antiquarian Magazine & Bibliographer._

Shakespeare’s Gloves

BY S. WILLIAM BECK, F.R.H.S.

Enough has been written of the calamities of authors, the mishaps which have befallen precious MSS., their unfortunate mistakes, their afflictions in many and various degrees of misery, but of their consolations, of their happy stumbling on the clue to some historical puzzle, the accidental discovery of some fresh information on a treasured subject, their reward in at last finding some long-sought facts--of all this we have heard little or nothing. But something of such pleasure comes to most students; not so often as could be wished, perhaps, but possibly quite as frequently as is good for study. And such good hap did I hold to have fallen to my lot, when, in the autumn of 1882, I casually came across the announcement in a newspaper that a pair of gloves, once the property of Shakespeare, were on loan to the Worcester Industrial Exhibition then open, to illustrate the oldest-established and yet the most considerable industry of the Fair City. Gloves, and their connection with ceremonials now obsolete, and customs only blindly followed, had long before been a favourite subject of mine; and as I found how it led farther and farther afield into history, and how closely it touched our national life, it became altogether fascinating, and I was even then preparing for publication a book upon it. If I held myself fortunate in chancing upon a reference to so interesting a relic, as these gloves promised to prove, still more cause did there seem for congratulation when a request to their owner for further information led to their being most courteously entrusted to my care to be photographed, and to my being furnished with the several facts relating to their identity narrated on p. 122 of my “Gloves: their Annals and Associations.” I “enthoozed” over these gloves not a little, with no small reverence and half a hope that some reflected inspiration might follow on what many people would regard as little short of sacrilege, I ventured to put them on my hands, holding myself in great measure excused by a very fair descent of them from the keeping of Garrick to their present possessor, and by the undoubted fact that they were at least attributable to the period from which they were said to date. They are, at any rate, relics of undoubted age and value, apart from any other considerations; not like those with which Mr. Black invests “Judith Shakespeare,” in the novel with that title, now appearing in _Harper’s Magazine_. Here the young lady at one time wears, correctly and properly, a fine pair of gloves, scented and embroidered, that her father had brought her from London, but when (on p. 541) one of her lovers has departed from her in dudgeon, she very prettily--for she is a charming young lady--looks “after him for a moment or two, as she fastened a glove button that had got loose.” This is very unfortunate, for people did not wear buttoned gloves then, nor for a long time after, until it was desired to make them fit closely and display, rather than merely cover, the hand, whereas it was the glove, and not the proportions of the hand, that was made most conspicuous in Shakespeare’s day.

In January of this year I received from Mr. Horace Howard Furness, of Philadelphia, the eminent Shakespearian scholar, the following letter:--

SIR,--In a review of your admirable book in the _Spectator_ for
November 24, 1883, mention is made of a pair of Shakespeare’s
gloves now in the possession of Miss Benson, which the reviewer
states you incline “to consider genuine relics.” (I quote the
review and the reviewer, because I have not yet seen your book. I
ordered it from London through my bookseller some time ago, but it
has not yet arrived.)

Am I too bold in asking you to be kind enough, sometime at your
leisure, to send me some of the grounds on which you have reached
the conclusion that these gloves are those which were presented to
Garrick in 1769? For several years past I have flattered myself
that I was the fortunate owner of these gloves.

The pedigree of mine will be found--

First, in the letter of John Ward to Garrick in 1769. (See
Garrick’s “Correspondence, &c.,” vol. i. p. 352.)

Second, Mrs. Garrick’s bequest of them to Mrs. Siddons in her will
dated 1822. See Campbell’s “Life of Mrs. Siddons,” p. 369, where is
also to be found the formal note of Mrs. Garrick’s executors to
Mrs. Siddons, requesting an interview, for the purpose of
presenting these gloves to her.

Third, Mrs. Siddons’ bequest of these gloves to her daughter
Cecilia, Mrs. Geo. Combe, of Edinboro’.

Fourth, Mrs. Combe’s bequest of them to her cousin, Mrs. Fanny
Kemble.

Lastly, the gift of these gloves in the very box in which Mrs.
Siddons kept them, with her writing on the cover, “Shakespeare’s
Gloves, left by Mrs. Garrick to Sarah Siddons,” and by my dear and
venerated friend, Mrs. Kemble, to their present possessor.

At any rate these gloves of mine were once Garrick’s, Mrs.
Siddons’, and Mrs. Kemble’s. I am almost content to rest there.

Should it interest you, I will send you a photograph of them.

Before proceeding further, let us bring in evidence the extracts adduced to establish the authenticity of these gloves.

(_Private Correspondence of David Garrick_, vol. i. p. 352.)

MR. JOHN WARD[22] _to_ MR. GARRICK.

_Leominster, May 31st, 1769._

DEAR SIR,--On reading the newspapers, I find you are preparing a
grand jubilee, to be kept at Stratford-upon-Avon, to the memory of
the immortal Shakespeare. I have sent you a pair of gloves which
have often covered his hands. They were made me a present by a
descendant of the family, when myself and company went over there
from Warwick in the year 1746, to perform the play of “Othello” as
a benefit, for repairing his monument in the great church, which we
did gratis, the whole of the receipts being expended upon that
alone.

The person who gave them to me, William Shakespeare by name,
assured me his father had often declared to him they were the
identical gloves of our great poet, and when he delivered them to
me, said, “Sir, these are the only property that remains of our
famous relation; my father possessed, and sold the estate he left
behind him, and these are all the recompense I can make you for
this night’s performance.”

The donor was a glazier by trade, very old, and, to the best of my
memory, lived in the street leading from the Townhall down to the
river. On my coming to play in Stratford about three years after,
he was dead. The father of him and our poet were brothers’
children.

The veneration I bear to the memory of our great author and player
makes me wish to have these relics preserved to his immortal
memory, and I am led to think I cannot deposit them for that
purpose in the hands of any person so proper as our modern Roscius.

I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, JOHN WARD.[23]

P.S.--I shall be glad to hear you receive them safe, by a line
directed for me in the Bargate, Leominster, Herefordshire.

(_Campbell’s Life of Mrs. Siddons_, vol. ii. pp. 369-370.)

“The widow of Garrick died in 1822, at a venerable age. She made
the following bequest to the great actress, in a codicil to her
will, dated August 15, 1822:--

“I give to Mrs. Siddons a pair of gloves which were Shakespeare’s,
and were presented by one of his family to my late dear husband
during the jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon.”

Information of the above reached Mrs. Siddons, with this note from
Mrs. Garrick’s executors:--

“_5, Adelphi Terrace, Oct. 30, 1822._

“MADAM,--We beg leave to transmit to you the above extract from a
codicil to Mrs. Garrick’s will, and to acquaint you that we will
have the honour of waiting on you, for the purpose of delivering
the relic therein mentioned, whenever you may be so good as to
inform us that it may be convenient to you to receive our visit.

“We remain, with much respect, Madam, “Your most obedient humble servants, “THOS. RACKETT, } Executors.” “G. F. BELTZ, }

It is unfortunate that we have not the knowledge which led the editor of Garrick’s “Correspondence” to underwrite Ward’s letter with such a pithy postscript, and very regrettable that he should not have been brought to book for his pains, particularly as his name is not given on the title-page. The gloves, which may reasonably be referred to, bear, so far as I can judge from the photograph with which Mr. Furness has since favoured me, every mark of belonging to Shakespeare’s day, and were at any rate of some value, worth too much intrinsically to be lightly given away by an ordinary glazier; for, quoting the description of Mr. Furness, the embroidery upon them, “as well as the fringe is all in gold thread, still untarnished, the edging is of pink silk, which is continued in the inside, an inch and a half in width. They are about fourteen inches long, and six inches wide at the base of the gauntlet.”

There is no conflict of identity between these gloves and those pictured in my pages, for the latter are declared to have been given to Garrick by the Corporation of Stratford at the time of the Jubilee, in a finely carved box of the mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare, and to have been presented by the widow of Garrick to the direct relative of Miss Benson, who now holds them. It is very tantalising that I cannot find a precise testimony to this gift in any account of the Jubilee, although a friend of mine has searched diligently in all the contemporary accounts and county histories that can be thought of. There was, however, undoubtedly such a presentation, for Foote, when Garrick produced “The Jubilee” as an attraction at Drury-lane, determined to burlesque that and his rival together. In this very practical jest, an actor intended to personate Garrick--bearing on his breast a pair of white gloves and other articles presented at the Jubilee--was to be addressed in the very words of the panegyric pronounced on Garrick at Stratford--

“A nation’s taste depends on you,
Perhaps a nation’s virtue too.”

when Garrick’s counterfeit presentment was to flap his arms as though they were wings, and crow--

“Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!”

It is pleasurable to write that this burlesque was never placed upon the stage, although Foote plainly had to be coerced into suppressing it, and was not to be hindered from writing “A Satirical Account of the Jubilee,” which may be found in the 39th vol. of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, p. 458. There is also no doubt of the freedom of Stratford having been presented to Garrick in a box made from the famous mulberry tree, for the resolution of the Common Council of the borough conferring this honour upon him particularly directs that it should be so conveyed (“Staffordshire and Warwickshire Past and Present,” vol. iii. p. 116).

The friend to whom I have already acknowledged my deep indebtedness in this quest, sends me from West’s “History of Warwickshire” trace of yet another pair of gloves associated, at least traditionally, with the Prince of Poets, and long kept on view in Anne Hathaway’s cottage at Shottery. There were several such articles there, and among them “a _chair_, termed ‘Shakespeare’s courting chair,’ a _purse_ about four inches square, wrought with white and black bugles and beads; a small inkstand, and a _pair of fringed gloves_. These articles were said to have been handed down from Shakespeare to his grand-daughter _Lady Barnard_, and from her through the Hathaway family to those of the present day. Influenced by the currency of this tradition, Mr. _Ireland_ purchased the former two articles, and Mr. _George Garrick_ the latter.” Here again, however, we find a discordant doubt expressed, for the writer continues, “but these reliques will not bear examination. It will be uniformly found, by those who make enquiries, without an effort at self-deception, _that there is not a single article of any nature extant_ that has been proved to have belonged to Shakespeare. There is at present a bedstead with massive pillars, shewn as having belonged to Anne Hathaway, but we consider it in character with the articles attributed to Shakespeare.”

This scepticism and disbelief is doubtless honest enough, but it is certainly too sweeping. These latter gloves are not now, within my knowledge, in existence; as for the other two pairs I leave your readers to judge whether these remarks apply to them, or whether one, or both, may not be fairly considered to be hallowed by the associations claimed for them.

The Dignity of a Mayor; or, Municipal Insignia of Office.

BY R. S. FERGUSON, F.S.A., MAYOR OF CARLISLE 1881-2 AND 1882-3.

_PART II._

(_Continued from p. 71._)